The Sun.
London, England, 1856-02-13 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

Spirit of the Public Journals.

fvfmtetiEsrEn., Feb. 12.—The renewed activity in the
Liverpool cottonmarket,, consequetitao some extent on
the advices -brought yesterday from the United States
by. the packet-blip America, has bad a slight reaction
upen this market, and there has been more business in
both yarn and cloth than could have been foreseen a few
days back, when everything was labouring under de-
pression caused by. the unfavourable news from India.
Buyere here were holding back, under an impression that
ha.s prevailed more br less for some time past, that the
price of cotton must come down more than it has yet
done, in consequence of a m .re plentiful supply, and
manufacturers fresh from their annual stool...taking, with
its dimclesures of
,heavy losses on the transactions of the
past year, were anxiously cautious to keep their bands
as free as possible for a favourabre change in the raw
material. The advices from the United Stites, fixing
lower estimates than had been hitherto given of the crop
of cotton, coupled with the results of recent observation
that the speculative tone of the Liverpool market WA3
encouraged by larger quantities of cotton being taken one
way or other by consumers than had been expected, have
for the present changed the course which both merchant*
and manufacturers were disposed to pursue here, and
hence a renewal of business this morning in manufactured
goods on a larger scale, though not unaccompanied with
much uneasiness and doubt as to the policy they are
driven to pursue. The advance on cotton is about 1 16d.
Tr lb., and spinners here have been in a position to ask
Ad. per lb. over the rates of last week, so that rnanufac•
turcrs have been driven to seek a corresponding advance.
In long cloths and T cloths for the Levant-there has
been a good demand, and business has been done in some
cases at a small advance, and in most instances at the
extreme ratia of lisffuesday. Shirtings, inadapollanie,
and jacconets, which vrtre depressed and scarcely sale-
able last week, have to-day found ready purchasers at
rates- which were declined last Tuesday, and in some
asee at an advance. But for a more considerable ad-
vance asked by manufacturers in anticipation of a yet
dearer raw material we should probably have had a still
larger business. In yarns, as already stated, an advance
of Ad. per lb. is asked, and with a feeling, that prices-
may yet be higher there hag been a rather active demand
from home manufacturers and also from the Germans.
The demand for other markets has been pretty general,
but on a mudh less scale.
Messrs. John Slagg and Co. report this evening
"There is a better feeling in the market, and a more
general demand to-day than we have had for the last few
weeks. Jacconets, madapolams, and shirtings, which
were so much depressed last week are now readily sale-
able at the extreme rates then asked, and in some in-
stances at a slight advance. Long cloths, T cloths, and
low printers continue in good request, at full prices.
Many producers, however, owing to the growing im-
pression that prices of cotton will at least be maintained;
are asking a considerable advance, and the business of
the day is in consequence much curtailed."
Messrs. George Fraser, Son, and Co. say :—" The
demand for goods today has been steady, with the ex-
ception of that perhaps for India fabrics, which are in
less inquiry, and in consequence of the state of the
cotton-market many sellers ask a little advance in prices.
Yarns are very firm in prices, with a tendency to some
advance." .

(From the Times of this day.)

The discussion on the right of the Crown to
create a peerage for life has now reached a point
at which we may do wisely to resutne 'the whole
question, to .see whence it arose and" whither it
tends, and to examine it frotn.the point of view of
each of the disputants who have been so fully heard
before the public.
. What, then, has been the 'cause of, this contro-
versy ?' Clearly and undeniably this--,..that the ap-
pellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords has be-
come a scandal and a reprciach to that noble body
and an intolerableoppressinn and grievance to the
'public. Of our two appellate courts the Judicial
Ponamittee .of the Privy Council has been con-
tinually rising while the .136ifse of Lords has been
as constantly falling in the opinion of. lawyers and
atigants, till its high appellate functions have be-
pomp a source of weaknese to the very body of
Which they were once considered the strength and
honour.. The neglect of all judicial propriety, the
smallness of the numbers, the diversity of the opi-
-nions, have struck with astonishment and dismay
lawyers trained up iu the more seemly and labo-
rious arena of courts, the decisions of which it is
the high privilege of the House of Lords to over-
rule. The grievance has become intolerable, and,.
irrespective of any question of prerogative, irre-
spective of the prejudices of the Peers for heredi-
tary nobility, of the anxiety of lawyers to maintain
the dignity of their craft, of the wish of the Go-
vernment to remedy without legislative action thiS
canker, which eats into the very heart of justice,.
this poison, which adulterates its sweet 'waters—at
their very fountain head, will, be and must, be re-
medied. From this point the discussion sets out,
to this it must return, and by this test must we
.assay everything that is offered, if we would really
comprehend the difficulty and really appreciate the '
possibility of a solution.
On the question of law we .cannot.doubt that
the Government has been well advised. The
authorities establish the legality of peerages for
life ; and, on the other hand, there is nothing
whatever to be urged, except a note of doubtful
authorship and not very powerful reasoning, attri-
buted, perhaps unjustly, to Mr. Hargrave, who, if
one of the most learned, .was also one of the most
pedantic of men. Theargtiment-" from desuetude"
is of the greatest force in-any -case where the
,prerogatives of the Crown are brought into contact
with popular rights ; but in the matter of the
peerage, the creature and child of the prerogative,
moulded and fashioned by the will of the Sove-
reign, which gives pre-eminence to some without
taking away from the equal rights of the rest, these
doctrines seem to have neither place nor applica-
tion. It is beyond dispute that originally a peer-
age was considered susceptible of all the limitations
incidental to. a freehold estate, and, if the policy
of one age had suggested one form, that is no rea-
son why another should be illegal, any more than
those forms of settlement which conveyancers have
thrown aside as ill-adapted to the Wants of the pre-
sent day.
If, however, we turn to the majority of the House
of Lords we find in them a surprising neglect of the
real interests of the public, and a strange misun-
derstanding of the real bearings of the question.
They cling to hereditary peerage and argue against
the law which is their safeguard, the prerogative
of which they aro the creatures, and the constitu-
tion which is their palladium, because they be-
..

LEEDS, Feb. 12.—The attendance in the cloth-halls
this morning was of about an average character, and
fair amount of.cloth changed hands. Where any dispo-
sition was shown to abate from the highelit range of
prices for good woollens, both white and dyed, there was
not much difficulty in effecting sales. Clothiers did nct
appear anxious to make reductions, the general opinion
being that wools will soon advance above their present
rates. A good attendance at the forthcoming sales in
the metropolis, which commence on Thursday next, is
anticipated.
The following is the report of the Huddersfield mar-
ket of this day
There has been a good attendance of buyers, who.
have been principally on the lookout for job lots cheap.
The demand for regular market goods is slightly im-
proved, and sales, on the whole, have been pretty brisk.
The spring patterns are in fiir request. Nu change in
the wool-market."

lieve the power of transmitting their dignities to
their sons confers lustre and importance on
their Order.' They do not seem to, observe that
hereditary dignity is neither honourable to the
peerage nor the individual; .unless it be attended
by hereditary wealth, and that nothinT so infallibly
ruins a privileged class as that any large portion
of its members 'should fall into poverty or
social disrepute. They are offered the support of,
a class of men who would adorn the debates
and maintain the intellectual position of the house,
without transmitting their position to deseendantS
less useful and less influential than theMselves,
without coming in any degreointo competition with
the territorial and hereditary nobility. From their
talents the hereditary nobles would derive -lustre,
and their merita would ' sustain the repute of a
Chamber the energies of whose hereditary otleu-.
pants wealth and ease are so continually under-
mining ; and, worse than all, while :intent on thiS
peculiarly selfish view of the subject, the peers tell
the public, who care much less for dignity than
kr justice, that they must be content with the in-
tolerable abuses of the appellate
.iurisdiction of the
House of Lords as they stand, and that theriftil
not lighten them with one of their fingers.
Still more r:arvellous is the infatuation of the
lawyers. Nothing is more melancholy in general
than the history of the succession to law peerages
—a topic susceptible of ample illustration, were we
to accept Lord Lyndhurst's challenge, and enume-
rate the melancholy instances of the degenerate,
impoverished, and disreputabledescendants of great
lawyers whose names encumber the hereditary
peerage. The family of a great lawyer is most fre-
quently ill brought up ; the father is immersed in
business, the mother seldom equal to the position

SAVE ME FROM MY FRIENDS!

( Front the Balton Daily Times.)

to which she is raised. When a great lawyer is
offered a peerage, ho has to consider whether
his eldest son is worthy to succeed him, and
whether, if ho be, he will starve his younger chil-
dren to provide him with an estate suitable to the
dignity. To such a man,one would have supposed
a peerage for life a Most welcome refuge, but
vanity carries it against prudence and modesty,
and lawyers must transmit their titles to
their posterity even while they are well assured

that that posterity will disgrace them. We ear-
nestly hope, then, that Glvermneut will not re-
cede from the position it has taken np, will not
allow the prerogative of the Crown to he cut down
and destroyed by the Chamber that is its creature
and its offspring, nor permit the Peers to apply for
the elevation and isolation of their Order those
doctrines of prescription which have hitherto only
been used as the defence of the rights and liber-
ties of the Commons. Any one who considers how
large a portion of the business of the House of
Lords is transacted by the first founders of peerages
will see the necessity of infusing more of this ele-
ment into that assembly. bile peerages may or may
not render the House of Lords au efficient court
of appeal, but they will, at any rate, give to its
debates weight and consideration which the house
can only otherwise purchase at the risk of impover-
ished descendants. As for the judicial powers of the
House of Lords, s'ne3 that house itself has so reso-
lutely declared against any attempt to palliate their
inefficiency, and since, nevertheless, some speedy
and efficient cure must be applied, we would hum-
bly suggest that, while their lordships are wrang-
ling over their dignity and privileges, a bill should
at once be introduced, transferring the appellate
jurisdiction of the House of Lords to the Judicial
Committee of the Privy Council, thus relieving the
peerage from a duty which it cannot discharge and
which it will not resign, the lawyers from the dread
of emancipation from pauper peerages, and the
suitors of our courts from a jurisdiction the scandal
and disgrace of the judicial system of the country
over which it presides.

TURNPIKE TRUSTS.—The general report made by
order of the Secretary of State was published on Satur-
day. It shows that the financial condition of the turn-
pike trusts generally continues to improve under the
regulations and arrangements made by Parliament dur-
ing the last few years, notwithstanding the gradual de-
crease of the revenue from tolls. Thus, the total receipts
in 1853 were 1,135,2811., against 3,142,592/. in 1852
and 1,138,7541. in 1851, while the expenditurelBs2
and
was
1,161,7871. in 1853 against 1,126,334/.
i n
ed . i/11,
2.
1,115,1241. in 1850. The amount f.
. o
eats
e 0t debt94:Bss
1853 w
Comparinga was 5,t6h6e3
several, 271 andt,i
temthe
of 8
withulnpsa3rdrnbnd eortho
it is observable that the toll income in 1853 was further
reduced by 6,044/., but, looking atthetota.l amount of the
toll revenue (1,068,7821.), this reduction
11s. 3d. per cent , and cannot be deemed unsatisfactory.
The reduction, moreover, is partly accounted, for. The
amountof caborrowed in 1853 was 16, 0101.,being nearly
equal to that borrowed in 1852. The total sums expended
aN:ithilt.lllre2oplr.e,cedina year-
being an in-
crease a
oi rfi n3g5,4h6e47. aadss
cionmlpBasr3e
(wi
Of the t)11 income alone 586,633/. was expended on re-
pairs, 108,381/. on salaries and law charges, and
357.0361. on payment of the debt and interest. Between
1837 and 1853 the toll income has fallen from 1,509,985/.
to 1,068,782/., or to the amouut of 441,2031., out within
the same period the annual expenditure for repairs has
been reduced by 327,355/. the expenditure on law
charges, &c., 17,4361., and the expense of the debt and
interest by 55,9511. - 41.953/. was expended for " im-
provements " in 1851 Tbe debt has been gradually re-
duced upwards of 1,000,000/., and the average rate of
interest payable on the existing debts has also been re-
duced, as well as the bonded or mortgage debt. The
total expenditure in 1853 exceeded the income by
26,5061.—an unusual circumstance, arising from the
payment of larger sums for repairs and improvements.
The result was a reduction of the balance in hand from
336,404/. to 309,898/. Steps have been taken, andwith
ranch success, to bring the affairs of turnpike trusts
generally into a more healthy and prosperous state.
The report if pigged by Mr. W. Blaney.

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iZT:Mte,
T.HE TW BUSSIAIV PL
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, 147. , , •
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'`) I Le Nord publishes the fallowing biographic'. • -
v '
\:-- notices of the •two Plenipotentiaries of Russia at 14, a S
the forthcoming Conference :
" Count Orloff, Aide-de-Camp General, General
of Cavalry, Commander of the Military Household
of the King, and Member of the Council of the
Empire, belongs to one of the most illustrious
families of his country. He is about 70 years of
age, but still brisk, active, and healthy. He took
part in almost all the wars which signalized the
commencement of our century.
" Wounded first at Austerlitz, he was also seven
different times wounded upon the field of Boro-
dino, and was afterwards made Aide-de-Camp of
the Emperor Alexander I. In 1825 ho was a •
General, and commanded in that capacity the re-
giment of Horse Guards which, in December, 1826,
first hurried to suppress the entente. Count Orloff
gave tokens that day of boundless courage and de-
votion, and from that moment dates his intimacy
with the Emperor Nicholas, of whom he was one
of the first advisers, and whose personal friend he
was. In 1828 he commanded in Turkey the divi-
sion of Horse Chasseurs. In 1829 he was named
Plenipotentiary, and signed at Adrianople, with
Marshal Diebitch and Count Frederick Pahlen,
the treaty ofAdriauople. After the peace he re-
mained some time at Constantinople as .A.rnbas-
sidor. Recalled to the companionship of the
Emperor, he accompanied his Imperial Majesty in
his various travels.
" We next find him on a mission in Holland and
at London, where the affairs of Belgium were ar-
ranged. The year 1833 found him also at the head
of the expedition which saved Constantinople from
the victorious army of Ibrahim Pasha, and he
signed the treaty of Unkiar-Skelesii. Since 1845
he has replaced Count de Benckendorff, deceased,
as chief of the third section of the Private Chan-
cellery of the Emperor, and of the gendarmerie of
the empire, the colonels of whieh, distributed over
all the governments, have less a mission of police,
properly so called, than a general inspection of all
the adminiakration of the cougery, ancl.a.lso of,:.
control over the gciVelnors as well as the governed.
This post, full of trust, gave to Count Orloff free
access at all hours of the day to the Emperor, and
the right to speak to him of all and everything.
" It has been remarked, and justly, that the two
persons who have filled these important functions
near the Emperor Nicholas—Count Benckendorff
and Count Orloff—were precisely the men re-
nowned for their loyalty, their spirit of justice,
and moderation. These functions Count Orloff
still fulfils with the Emperor Alexander 11. We
cannot give a better idea of the sentiments which
this Sovereign entertains towards him than by re-
producing the conclusion of the rescript addressed.
to hint on. the 22d'of August last, on the occasion
of the anniversary of his 50 years of service :
At his last hour, in a final and sacred interview
with me, my father enjoined me to thank you as a
friend who had always been faithful and devoted.'
"This is the personage chosen by the Emperor
Alexander to represent Russia at the Peace Con-
ferences at Paris.
"Baron Brunow (Privy Coitncillor) comes from
a noble family of Courland. He has passed nearly
40 years in a diplomatic career, in which he has
acquired au European reputation. He was with
Count Orloff at the negotiations of Adrianople.
He then accompanied him to Constantinople as
Counsellor of the Ambassador, then to Holland and
England, and to Constantino' to in 1853.
" These two statesmen have been accustomed to
work together for nearly 30 years, and, if we may
judge of the success of the negotiations about to be
held by the success of those in which they have
already taken part, we cannot but entertain most
favourable hopes of an early re-establishment of
peace. On returning from Turkey in 1830 Baron
Brunow remained attached to the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs as chief redactenr. He then ac-
companied. Count Nesselrode to several congresses
and diplomatic conferences. After remaining one
year as Minister at Stuttgart, he was sent on an
extraordinary mission to London, where he signed
the treaties of 1840 and 1841. He remained there
as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipoten-
tiary until the rupture of diplomatic relations be-
tweeu England and Russia. Since the autumn of
the past year he has been Minister to the Germanic
Confederation."

Mr. Bright, .the English "peace-at-any-priee
man, recently madn a very Jong speech before an
tugtish mechanics' institute, in which lie spoke
very highly-of the United States, though we think
• Amelicaßi would to none tiltilesa pleased if he had -
not •
not spoken so depreciatingly of his own country.
It seems as if his object had been not so much to
pea a ) us, as to make England appear little in the
comparison. He talks as if he thought we were the
most peaceably-disposed people on earth, whereas
there is as strong a fighting element, 'among us as
ever there was iu France. Ho alludes to our navy,
and gitYs that we have but tws or three frigates.
From this it should seem that he never had heard
that the last Congress voted several millions of dol-
lars to build six of the most powerful steam-frigates
in the world, are now on the eve of comple-
tion. It is proposed that the present Congress
shall add as many more steam-ships to the navy,
and make other additions to it. Mr. Bright may
rest assured that few Aihericans look upon the-com-
parative smallness of their country's navy as some.
thing to be proud of and to rejoice over. It is seen
with regret, and Government can do no more po-
pular act than to add to the navy's strength and
efficiency. Not a few of our countrymen are cf
opinion that the navy ought to be so constituted as •
to be able to command all the American seas, and
their is reason in their view of what should be our
policy. Grant that we should be able to defeat
any army that might be landed here, would it not
be a wiser thing to prevent an army from lauding?
This could best be done by our being so strong at sea
as to make it a matter of very grave doubt whether
any force could assail us with success. The best ne-
gcs iators, after all, are heavy fleets, for a maritime
nation. The very . fact that you are powerful on
the ocean may be the reason why the extent of
your power shall never be tested. Mr. Bright's ideas •
on naval matters would meet with no response in
this country out of the class of the Burrittites, or
some other equally harmless class .of madmen.
The Government here has never kept pace with
public opinion on the sutject of the navy. Had it
done five times as ninon for it, the demands of
that opinion would hardly have been complied
with—certainly not exceeded. Mr. Bright alludes
to our small army, and does so in terms compli-
mentary to us. It is true our army is small, but
then our population is warlike in its character, and
four-fifths of the men of military age are more or
less familiar with the use of arms. In some of the
States thousands of young men have a very re-
spectable knowledge of the details of military life.
From these men-would the better portion of our
armies, in the event of war be recruited. They
would afford splendid material for soldiers. Yet
even those who think highest of the valour and
military spirit of the mass of the people are of
• opinion that the smallness of •our 'army is a grave
evil, and that we could not do a better or a cheaper
thing than to treble its numbers. Had we 5,000
or 6,000 additional regular troops in 1E46 the
Mexican war would have been brought to a close
I that year, or have been far advanced. All the
5 valour in the world can't make young and inexpes
• rienced treops as effective as old ones. They suffer
r so much in health that that alone is a serious im-

smallness of our regular force.
pediment to 112::71ietaLyaveopebreactnioennsg.ageTdhiteavIenbdeiinn
iychthe
We have never been able to keep the aborigines
down, or to fight them from the . first with effect
when once they have risen. Our trained
have been frittered away in the early part of such
forces
promoted oitne dw which
contests, and then have come militia, who have
done half the work at twice the cost of
regular sol-
diers. The millions upon millions that were sunk
in the Florida war would mostly have been saved,
and the war itself have been ended in half as

many months as it lasted years, if we had had
experienced troops in numbers su,fficient to have
crushed the Indians when they first showed
symptoms of a determination to rise. The Indian
wars that we are now carrying on, and in w hick
we are losing not a few men, would never have
occurred, or would have been quickly concluded
if our standing army bore any proportion either to
our means, to the work required of it, or to the
position of the nation. The victories won in the
Mexican war were, in several instances, due to the
excellence of our artillery, and that is an arm of the
service that is not to be improvised. It can be
brought to the point of great warlike efficiency
only by long and diligent training. Buena Vista
would have been a lost day, and Taylor never
would have been President but for the admirable
practice of the American artillery. It is all well
enough to talk of the valour and daring then and
world
dh displayed
done nothing. by the volunteers ; but they alone
The greatly superior
numbers of the Mexicans could have settled the
matter with their if there had been no regular
l
artillery in the field. Such an arm ought to be
increased and strengthened, yet Government has
done nothing of the kind since the conclusion of
the war—nothing, we mean,
This may win for it the worth speaking of.
praise of ram like Mr.
Bright, but it will not Win
American people. the approval of the