The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-02 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.
(From the ManchJsier Guardian.)
MANCHEST2,R, TUESDAT.—We have to report a
spiritless market, in which there has been a small
eneral bias of prices in favour of the buyers, or,
where this has not been the case, a somewhat greater
facility at least in buying on the previous terms. In
warps below 24's, and also in pin-cops, there is adecline
of fully *d. per lb. from the highest rates of last Tues-
day. Many orders for these have now run out, or
are near their termination, and fresh ones cannot be
obtained without conceding something of the late
advance, which, to a large extent, was merely
nominal. The lower counts of water, in the bundle,
end also No. 20's, have lost *d. per lb ; as have also
mu!e from 30's downward. No. 30's reeled water
twist is steady, but the buyer, not requiring imme-
diate delivery, is not quite so limited in his choice as
he has been for some time back. Much the same ob-
servation is applicable to 24's and 28's warps. In the
goods department it is found that domestics are
steady ; while! in long cloths, T cloths, printers and
shirtiogs, the seller cannot do so well in regard to
price, as he did last week, or at least experiences
greater difficulty in selling. But although the market
is as we have described it, there i 3 no apprehension of
much change for the worse in price. Great confidence
is felt in this continuance of a good home trade ; and
the present backward movement is regarded as
nothing more than what is necessary in order to a
renewed demand.

ROCHDALE, MONDAY.—We have little change to
report in th' flannel market today, either in price or
demand. This is the time of the year when the ma-
nutacturers are generally busiest; but all is very
quiet, and the country orders are very limited. The
wool market has been flat, and prices were about sta-
tionary.
MACCLESFIELD, TUESDAY.—The demand for goods
remains without alteration. Prices are steady, and pro-
duttion is going on satisfactorily, considering the ad-
vanced period of the season. In the meantime pre-
parations for the spring are beginning to occupy the
attention of our manufacturers. The thrown silk
market remains as about reported for the last month.
It may, however, be assumed that prices are more in
favour of purchasers, in consequence of the dragging
state of the demand. In raw silks but little is doing,
occasional offers are made at prices compatible with
those of thrown, but hitherto without resulting in
much business, merchants choosing rather to hold.
HALIFAX, SATURDAY.--W 8 cannot report any
noticeable variation in the aspect of the worsted
trade, which is still in a very inanimate state. There
is no sign of improvement in yarns, and the quantity
of machinery thrown out of employment continues to
increase. The sales of long wool are limited, and the
quotations remain unaltered. Short wool is firm, on
account of the shortness of the supply.
HUDDERSFIELD, TUESDAY.---The market to-day
has again been dull, no sales of importance have been
effected; indeed the attendance of buyers has been
slack. A little more business has been done in
plaids and the thicker woollens for the winter season.
There has been scarcely anything done in the wool
market.

NE W REFORM OF PARLIAMENT.
(From the Leeds Mercury.)
doubt be made that the suf-
The preposition will
• frege should be universal, or at least should be ex-
tended to all householders.
no
We heartily wish that,
by any reasonable stretchof charity, we could suppose
the lowest class of householders to be generally qualified
to use the franchise, with advantage, either to them-
selves or the community. Our principle would be to
include all of whom such a hope could be fairly en-
tertained, and we would rather admit too many then
too few, because knowledge is extending downwards,
and there would be no danger from a slight excess of
liberality. But we fear there is still a considerable
proportion of the labouring class so entirely destitute
of political knowledge, and even of any taste for
public matters, so indifferent to religion and its ob-
servances, so low in their habits, so near the verge of
pauperism, so hand-to-mouth in their living, so shift-
less yet ever shifting, that they must necessarily form
a deterioating element in an electoral body, and even
• an element of danger. Por men who are not intel-
lectually and morally qualified to use the franchise
would in all probability abuse it. Not knowing the
value of the privilege, they would be ready to sell it
for money or beer ; in many cases they would im-
plicitly do the bidding of employers or parish over-
seers ; and all such tools would just neutralize the
votes of so many independent and intelligent electors.
There is also the danger of ignorant men becoming
the dupes of political charlatans, possibly in some
serious national emergency. We are sure no society
of working men would allow their decisions to be
overruled by men swept out of the streets and ale-
houses ; and to introduce such men to the exereise of
the Parliamentary franchise would discredit the
honest and thinking operatives, corrupt our consti-
tuencies, and emperil our legislation, without doing
the slightest good to the individuals themselves. Our
desire, therefore, would be to admit the steady and
respectable part of the working classes to the fran-
chise, but to exclude the hand-to-mouth class, until
their improved habits give some reasonable assurances
to society that they would use the franchise well.
Now if " every occupier of a tenement or portion
of a tenement" were edesitted to the franchise, as is
proposed by the "National Parliamentary Reform
Association," a very large part of the hand-to-mouth
class would be included. There should, therefore, in
our judgment, be some restriction—either a certain
length of residence in the same borough, or the bowl
fide payment of rates by the occupiers themselves, or
a certain amount of rent, or some other test adapted
to sift off those who are not fit for the suffrage.
Without this, the representation of the people and our
legislation might be seriously damaged, and the elec-
toral bodies might be terribly corrupted.
The extent of the franchise is the grand point in
any change of the representative system, and we hope
it will be considered by all classes in a calm, tempe-
rate, and conciliatory spirit, so as to unite Reformers i
as far as possible, and to stimulate Ministers to a
large and good measure, without disheartening them
or throwing difficulties in their way by excessive
demands.
The " mores
equal apportionment of representatives
to populatio will be one of the most difficult and
delicate points for the consideration of the Ministry,
of Parliament, and of the public. There are on the
face of the present system very gross inequalities—
such, for example, as boroughs like Westminster, the
Tower Hamlets, Manchester, and Liverpool, with
from 200,000 to 350,000 inhabitants each, returning
only the same number of representatives as boroughs
hulike Buckingham, with less than 4,000, and Ayles-
!.y, Andover, Briciport, Dartmouth, &c., with popu-
lations below 5,000. It is very natural to wish that
such inequalities should be rectified , and we should
be glad if they 'could be, without introducing more
serious evils. But in the first place, we do not think
a mere proportion of Members to population would
so well represent all the classes and interests of the
nation, as a system which admitted a number of
smaller constituencies. Next, we ould be y
sorry to see London, with
itssh ver
population of
2,400,000, returning one-eleventh of all the Mem-
bers of the House of Commons, namely, about 60,
out of eee. Vith such a body of representatives, all
of them resident at the seat of Government, London
twhoeulnationwould
have
a trnl aureghe more. power is. for the good of
But the chief evil to be appre-
F,ended from adopting theu principle of mere numerical
proportion would be, th it, in spite of London and the
great towns, the borough p° illationwould be
swemped by the agricultural poPpulation. the
English by
has from the first given Now
much
greater number of representatives to the boroughs
materially then to the counties—a disproportion, however, very
materially counterbalanced by the influence of landed
proprietors in the smaller boroughs. At the present
time the number of county Members is only 2,3 and
of borough Members 405—giving a large superiority
to the boroughs. Now the population living in the
country and in small towns and villages, all directly
or indirectly under the influence of the proprietors of
the land, very far outnumbers the town population
eve believe, at least in the proportion of 2 to 1.
Therefore the adoption of the principles of mere
numerical proportion might, and we firmly believe
"would, completely shift the balance of the Constitu-
tionweele swamp the manufacturing a com-
mercial interest by the agricultural, and hadttr-atic by the aristocratic. This is a point of immense
ar""ftan", at'd it will require to be ver judiciously
-dealt with ; sod
can be no doubt thya.tj,. generally
epeaking, the
progr4lis re resent . 1)
relity and of sent the s int of libe
spirit of conservatism'. and the counties represent the
There are other point
tion, on which, however of the great Reform ques-
Zelcannot dwell at present.
We apprehend there
opinion in favour of the aubdolibie a pretty general
Qetalification, as a the
andt-u'a of the Property
tele choice of the electors.
duration of Par-
wrong restriction on
, .
On tlaefl
haments, ozinions would probabl
between
three and 'five years. A vast tnYajo tetuate
would advocate the Ballot, as a defencer oft Reformers
independence and honesty against intirntri electoral
bribery. All hese points will be much diastc."l and
objelet us hope iota friendly and temperate spiriut."eTlTe
ct to be kept in view is neither personal nor elate
aggrandizement, but the fairest, purest, and best re-
presentation of a great people.

TITF; bERBYSIBRE MARBLES AND SPARS
VIIE INTF,RNATIONAI,
Class The Derbyshire marble is not well represented in
1., the specimens merely consisting of a few black
pte2s unpeli,thed, but prepared for the operation of the
tar ner and his lathe. The mountain limestone of b;lshire, it is well known; contains some. beautiful
'/If.rieties chiefly of black and encrinital marbles, which
give employment to a great many persons in the neigh-
boirrhood who convert them into oruamo.otal articles.
.Atnongst the mineral manufactures in Cl ass XXVII.
are many baautiful specimens of the Derby hire marbles