The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-24 00:00:00

WEST INDIA MARKETS.

•. - -
JAMAICA, OCT. 23.—Since our last report the trifling
tendency to improvement whi6h we therein noticed has
subsided, and left our market, if possible, duller than
before. Indeed we think trade more slow now in King.
ston than it ever has been—a state of things which we
had every reason to expect and foresee, but which is,
nevertheless, dreadfully deplorable. On referring to
the detailed notices of the various articles of commerce
given below, it will be observed that the following sen-
tence frequently occurs:—" The stock is very light, but
there Is not any demand." This fact proves, more than
any words we could write, the position of trade in King-
stonusual.
of the island at the present moment. Formerly, if the supply
of any article were light, if even retailers were stocked,
speculators were found who would purchase for a rise—
persons who would " bull" when occasion offered—but
there is nothing of that kind now in Kingston, simply
beca
districts,usether havenotis lasted
any money.
. All
than art
have been visited by plentiful showers of rain, whioh, in
some
Unfor-
tunately, we are not in a position totake advantage of
them, many of the sugar estates
having
been either
changed to breeding pens, or entirely abandoned.
Flour—There have not been any •
last, and the stock is beco • ming reduced, but owing to
the unusually small demand the supply may still be
called considerabl©. Sales are dull
at 34s to 355. By
retail, 36s is asked for Bal • timore. As we are about
closing, we learn that
two of the late arrivals brought
flour, about 1,800 barrels. Nothi •ng has yet been done
in sales.

Butter—lrish obtains lld to I iid., but moves off very
mly, the demand being extremely dull, although the
stock is limited. A sale of 20 firkins Halifax has been
made at 9id, but the value of Nova Scotia now at mar-
ket cannot be stated at more than 8d; were the quality
better more could be obtained than the latter figure.
We have to advise shippers that butter fur this market
should be of a bright yellow colour, and must not
be too highly salted. There is very little American
at market.
Hams—Lancashire of good quality are being sold at
8d per lb. American aro worth 6d to 'lid.
Hum—Sales of an approved brand, proof 19, have been
mada at 4s per gallon, equal to 2. 6d for exportation.
The current value of the article is 3s 74 to 3s 9d; proof
21, equal to 2a Id to 2s 3d for exportation.
Sugar has receded very materially, owing to a rathar
Lag° supply. and the unfavourable news by the packet,
and cannot be quoted over 13s to 17s per cwt.
Pimento has been sold at 2d per Ib, but that rate can
hardly be obtained now.
Freights—None offering in Kingston. 31 per tea has
been given for sugar at the Northside.
Exchanges on London—Colonial Bank, 90 days, 1 per
cent. premium; 60 days, 2i percent. premium. Jamaica
Bank, 90 days, 1 per cent. premium; 60 days, I per
cent. premium.—De Cordova's ittercantilc Intelligencer.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TlMES=These are not times when the exercise of
an obnoxious influence can be pushed to an extreme.
Even where traditionary merits and ricknowli dged ser-
vices may be pleaded on its side, the popular voice will
condemn, and the popular energy will contest, the impe-
riousness which dictates a popular submission, or pre-
sumes upon the certainty of a popular election. Great
as were the services—recognized as were the labours of
Earl Fitzwilliam in the cause of civil and religious li-
berty—associated as his name was with every Parlia-
mentary struggle in behalf of .Roman Catholics, Dis-
senters, Free-trade, and Reform—we protested against
the cool assumption that that name and those services
were to be an apology for encumbering the constituents
of the West Riding with an inexperienced and an inca-
pable representative. The expression of opinion which
was recorded by us, has been re-echoed by them; and
the result is the retirement of Mr. Fitzwilliam.
We believe that this event leaves the field
open to three competitors. These according
to common report are Mr. :Beckett Denison,
Sir Culling Eardley, and Mr. Roebuck. The
claims of each, and the character of their re-
spective supporters, may be easily conjectured. Mr.
Denison is put forward by the liberal Conservatives, Mr.
Roebuck by the Radicals, Sir Culling Smith by —what
may perhaps be called—the religious malignants. On
the assumption that Mr. Denison conceives himself at
liberty to stand, and that there is no compact between
any great families of the West Riding to impede the ex-
pression of opinion, we are convinced that his claims to
the support of the electors are paramount to those of his
competitors. At any rate he can have nothing to fear
from Sir Culling Eardley. A populous, wealthy, and in-
telligent constituency can hardly bear the ignominy of
being represented in Parliament by a man whose only
pretensions are founded on sectarian bigotry and fanati-
cal acerbity. Sir Culling represents a party which we
hope will in a few years become extinct, or known only
like the sea-serpent, to be doubted, discredited, or
laughed at. The profession of this party is hatred—
their faith is negation. They retain the maxims of Pu-
ritanism only to invert and misapply them. Inherit-
ing the profession of martyrs, they distort it into
the practice of persecutors. Living in an age which has
recognized the fullest liberty of religious belief, they go
about with sour faces and up-turned eyes, as if they
were the victims of a despotism, instead of being its ex-
ponents and its executioners. Clamorous for protection
themselves, and combining with every class of noncon-
formists as long as the Established Church enjoyed the
monopoly of encouragement, they would now exclude
from the privileges which they enjoy that strong and
numerous body of religionists by whose united exertions
they were mainly won. Detesting the Protestant Esta-
blishment for its resemblance to Popery, they combined
with Papists to weaken it. Detesting Popery with the
acrimony of ultra-Protestant fanaticism, they reprobate
the policy which would raise the Popish priest of Ire-
land above the grade of a sacred mendicant or a robed
agitator. In short they measure all politics by the stan-
dard, as they expound their own in the twang
of the Conventicle. It is needless to say that a
man who represents the ' ideas of such men
can hardly represent the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Of Mr. Roebuck it is impossible to speak with
slight, though difficult to speak in terms of direct
recommendation. With such rivals as Mr. Fitzwilliam
or Sir Culling Eardley it would be an insult to compare
him; to such a candidate as Mr. Denison it would be
factious to prefer him. Mr. Roebuck has great merits:
merits of a higher though not more useful kind than
Mr. Denison. He is a man not indeed without preju-
dices, but without party. He wages a bold guerilla war
against all parties and combinations in turn. He is just
that sort of man in the House of Commons that the
public press is out of the House. He is bold, prompt,
dashing, persevering, and resolved. Friendship does
not weaken, favour cannot conciliate, power cannot deter
his attacks. He may ba often crotchetty, often hasty,
always irritable. But it is the very union of these
errors that makes him invariably vigorous and effective.
He is always in earnest because he thinks himself al-
ways in the right. He always speaks his mind; he has
no arriere pens& He gives not only his vote, bat
his reasons for his vote; and he does this, careless how
far it may damage his presumed object, or disgust
those with whom he is for the moment allied. He
would have been an admirable card for the supporters of
Sir C. E. Eardley to play; but he would not be played
with. Agreeing in his practical conclusions with many
of them, he is utterly opposed to their maxims of con-
duct and their habits of thought, and, had he been sent
by them to the House of Commons, he would doubtless
have taken the first opportunity of rebuking their into-
lerance, ridiculing their ignorance, and repudiating their
dictation. But—though Mr. Roebuck may be a very fit
man to sit in Parliament, and though it is a matter of
regret that he is not there again—it is a more doubtful
question whether he is the fittest candidate for the re-
presentation of the West Riding. Admitting the prin-
ciple that the first duties of an English M.P. are na-
tional, and not local, it must be conceded that every con-
stituency commits to its representatives interests purely
local. There are places—and Bath is one of them—
where the fewness and insignificance of these
provincial duties leave their Members more
leisure for attending to their general and impe-
rial duties. There are others, again, the indivi-
dual conditions of which require a peculiar and
personal attention from their representatives. All
Yorkshire—and particularly its western division—is in
this predicament. What with its size, its wealth, its
mines, its manufactures, its canals, it throws a heavy
weight of personal reference and superintendence upon
its member. It requires a man who shall be not only a
diligent attendant at the public business, but an assi-
duous and useful member of committees; one, whose ex-
perience and habits will be found serviceable, not only
in a political debate and division, but also in the com-
mittee-room, as a witness or an examiner. Such expe-
rience and such habits Mr. Denison possesses in an emi-
nent degree, as a resident country gentleman, as a rail-
way director, and as a chairman of Quarter Sessions.
Such qualifications (it is no disgrace to him to admit)
Mr. Roebuck does not possess. And—what is in the
present case a drawback—he is comparatively a stranger
to a constituency which is already represented by
one stranger. It would be too bad if Yorkshire
could not find a single member among its own gentry.
In the present lull of political strife, we apprehend
that a large and wealthy constituency will look to the
private and personal more narrowly than to the public,
and political qualities of its candidates. Mr. Roebuck's
politics are extreme even with men of extreme views.
Mr. Denison's, whether he call himself a Tory or a Con-
servative, are, at all events, moderate. Mr. Roebuck
may outrun the violence of his warmest friends. Mr.
Denison can hardly provoke the asperity of his bitterest
opponents. Mr. Denison is neither a sectarian nor a
fanatic; neither is he an aristocrat. He will not debate
with the raciness of Mr. Roebuck, nor will he denounce
with the pious rancour of Sir Culling Eardley. He has
neither the stinging eloquence of his present rival nor
the classic rhetoric of his predecessor in the representa-
tion. Ho is a plain country gentleman, of honest inten-
tions, moderate views, and business-like habits; above
all he is one who has already done good service to the
West Riding. For this reason, then, we hold it would
be just as ungrateful and impolitic for the West Riding
to supersede Mr. Denison by Mr. Roebuck, as it was
ungrateful and impolitic in the electors of Bath to cashier
Mr. Roebuck for Lord Ashley.
HERALD.—The Yorkshire Liberals have bad the
discretion and decency to dismiss Mr. Roebuck, and to
adopt as their candidate Sir;Culling Eardley. This was
quite the wisest and best course they could take; except,
indeed, they had a fit man of their own county to pro-
pose. Sir Culling Eardley is the same person who, as Sir
Culling Eardley Smith led the opposition to the May-
nooth Bill in ,1845. Since then, succeeding to Lord
Says and Sele's estate at Belvedere, in Kent, he ex-
changes the name of Smith for that of Eardley ; his cha-
racter and :principles, however, tut dergoing no
change. Sir Culling sat for the borough of Pontefract
about the year 1831 and 1832, and is therefore no
stranger in Yorkshire. He is a member of the Uni-
versity of Oxford, and took honours there about twenty
years since. He is a Liberal, but he is also a gentle-
man, and a man of sincerely religious character.
He is inclined to Voluntaryism, but he is not disposed
to lay violent hands on the Church or her property.
The one question, however, which directs the attention
of Yorkshire towards him, and which alone induces him
to accept tli.! invitation addressed to him—is that of re-
sistaii:e to the further advances of Popery. Mr. Beckett
Denison's name is mentioned. Under other circum-
stances we should be delighted to see Mr. Denison re-
sume his scat fur that county; but we hesitate to recom-
mend his appearance in the field at this late period.
The seat has been vacant ter more than a fortnight.
during all which time men's eyes have been directed
towards Mr. Denison. But his friends have declared it
to be his wish to remain out of Parliament, at least
for the present. So matt( rs have rested, until at
last a Protestant candidate is named. Probably Lord
Fitzwilliam, in his vexation at his son's defeat,
may urge Mr. Denison to come forward, in order to
pualah those who have repelled the proffered services of
the youthful candidate. But for Mr. Denison to be so
brought forward would not be honourable to himself, or
advantageous to the clause. At present, in having as un-
objectionable a Liberal as could well be named, and a
firm Protestant—we are tolerably well off. To get up a
contest, merely in the hope of defeating and annoying
those who have defeated Lord Fitzwilliam, would be
poor work. We must wait, however, a day or two, and
see what new features appear, and what new considera-
tions are urged. As far as we can yet see, there does
not seem sufficient ground for engaging in a contest
merely to retorts Mr. Beckett Denison, rather than Sir
C. Eardley. In South Devon a similar controversy appears
to have commenced. A vacancy arising by the appoint-
ment of Lord Courtenay to au office under the New
Poor-law—a gentleman of great personal respectability,
Mr. Kekewich, formerly a Devonshire M.P., has been
named to supply his place. But the first question put
to Mr. Kekewich is, what he will do ou the subject of
Romish endowment ? Like Mr. Fitzwilliam, Mr. Keke-
wich evidently favours some plan of the kind, but, unlike
Mr. F., he promises to oppose any encroachment on the
property of the Church. Mr. F. will not take the funds
out of the general taxation. Mr. K. will only take them
out of the general taxation. But the one question is,
Will you consent to the measure at all ? Both evidently
incline to the affirmative. One, though a Fitzwilliam, is
already rejected; and so, we anticipate, will the other
be, before another week has elapsed.

THE REGENT QUADRANT COLONNADE.—Yesterday
a further sale of the materials of the Regent-street
Quadrant took place on the vacant plot of ground in
Charlotte-street, Bloomsbury. Tne amount realised fell
short of 100/.; and from the fact of no offer having been
made for the columns of the colonnade (with the excep-
tion of fourteen sold to Messrs. Goding, the brewers, of
Belvidere-road, Lambeth), it is expected that the rate
to be levied on the inhabitants to defray the expenses of
the alteration will prove much heavier than was antici-
pated.