The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-22 00:00:00

Balcony, la,— .....—.Hall. Bd.

THE WEATHER.—Stm OFFICE, Nov. 22, 1860.
THERMOMETER, IN TEE SHADE.
50—highest since noon yesterday.
44—lowest this morning and during the night.
ahi4B—this day at noon.
omETER-29.50 ; it rose from 29.45 this morning,
Wlr indicates that the storm has abated.
WrxD—Westerly ; light, with dull weather, and sun-
shine occasionally. The storm of rain and wind yesterday
was very heavy along the Channel.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, Bh. 54m.—Afternoon, 9h. 27m.
To-MORROW.-Morning, 9h. 59m.—Afternoon, 10h. 31m.

The Right Hon. MILNER GIBSON last night had
his say too at Ashton-Under-Lyne. Gradually
one by one as the long recess or vacation glides on
we are obtaining a glimpse of what is thought of
things in general by the chief of our political nota-
bilities. Yesterday we had to comment upon the
remarks of the member for Birmingham. To-day
reference must be made to those of the member for
Ashton-under-Lyne, who, if individually less
conspicuous as a representative man than his emi-
nent associate in the advocacy of free-trade prin-
ciples, is at any rate a man of very considerable
abilities, and one to whose words attaches the
official importance appertaining to the utterances of
a Cabinet Minister of the Crown. It is especially
in his administrative capacity as President of the
Board of Trade that Mr. GIBSON last evening
addressed himself to the consideration of the actual
position of the mercantile system of this country
in his speech to his constituency at Ashton-under-
Lyne. And at the very outset of his observations it
is peculiarly remarkable and consolatory to no'te
how full of encouragement, in every way, are the
facts, Mr. GIBSON, as President of the Board of
Trade, has to adduce in evidence of the present
state and immediate prospects of the mercantile
system of England, whether examined in detail or
-viewed comprehensively. As a Free Trader, the
right hon• gentleman may well exult to note the
still visible and appreciable increase of our enor-
mous export trade, notwithstanding the extraor-
dinary magnitude that trade has already attained.
Within the first nine months of this present year
of grace (1860,
), Mr. GIBSON reminds us that the
value of theezpo
rts of British produce has attained
within those nine months a
total of £102,000,000,
the value of those exports having been in the corn
responding i ;Lae months „
of the preceding twelve=
month (1859) four millians less,nanaely,X9B,ooo,ooo.
Analysing that grand aggregate of £102,000,000,
Mr. GIBSON notes with comprehensible satisfaction
proportion of the whole, n
is
derivableoelxecslsuasisvuemly,
in fact, than £48,000,000,
how large a
from the cotton manufacture.
Re reminds the
shipping interest again that it, too, has
cause for
self-gratulation in certain equally
prehensible signs of improvement. Comparing the
nine months of 'sixty with the nine months 0

'fifty-eight, there is found, for example, an increase
of no less than 785,522 tons in the British tonnage
cleared with cargoes, as contrasted with an increase
in the same way of 475,165 tons in the Foreign
tonnage—proof positive that the British shipping
interest even still more than simply " holds
its own" against " all-corners" in the way
of unfettered competition. " Where be your
gibes now"—O you antideluvian pre-Adamite Pro-
tectionists ? In the presence of such facts and
figures as these--" Alas, how chapfallen !" Why,

according to the predictions of the old world, cham •
Pions of Monopoly, commerce was to collapse utterly

under the evil influence of unrestricted competition
—British Bottoms" were no longer to float in our
ports—shipowners and shipbuilders were to fall
under the ruining influence of the Free Trade doc-

trines as irretrievably as the Farmers themselyos.

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THE SUN.
LONDON, THURSDAY, NOV. 22, 1860.