The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-08 00:00:00

TRADE AND FINANCE.

The foreign exchanges having continued adverse to this
country, the shipments of bullion to the Continent have
been large, but, owing to the enormous amount of capital
still lying idle here, their influence has been very little felt.
Foreign bonds generally have continued buoyant,
in consequence of the postponement of the
Eastern question, although more flatness pre-
vailed on the announcement that the War Party
was again called to power in Athens. Had the
export of bullion ceased, and the exchanges proved more
favourable to us, a considerable rise in Consols would have
been the result; as it is, the quotations have remained
almost stationary.
The cotton trade continues in a most anomalous posi-
tion. Heavy speculative purchases have been made, both
on the spot and to arrive, and the quotations have been
daily on the advance. The rise in the price of Manchester
goods, however, is not nearly proportionate to that of the
raw material, and great distress is beginning to be felt in
Lancashire in consequence. There is scarcely any
demand for export, as, owing to a variety of causes,
nearly all the foreign markets show a decided loss
on all shipments from this side. The heavy exportations
to the India and China markets which took place
early in the year are now beginning to make themselves

felt in those quarters, and are having a most adverse in-
fluence on the market. Notwithstanding the rise in the
value of the raw material here, news of which had
reached China, grey shirtings had given way
in price both in Hong Kong and Shanghai, ac-
' cording to our latest advices, owing to the prospect of
heavy importations. While, however, our shipments to
the East have been more than usually extensive, those to
the Western Hemisphere exhibit a marked decline. Nor
are they likely to be resumed on their ordinary scale
until the return of peace in South America affords scope
for the legitimate operations of trade, and until the
removal of the high protective tariff in the United States
allows a more extended use of our manufa;tnres. One
great point to be considered is the fact that the direct
shipments of cotton from the United States are
becoMing more general. However unwilling we
may be to acknowledge the fact, it is very
evident that a large portion of the goods which
were formerly completed in the country are now manu-
factured by foreign spinners, who have a great advantage
over our own manufacturers in the comparative cheapness
a labour on the Continent. It appears that while the
shipments of cotton from the United States and Great
Britain shew a decline of 54,000 bales as compared with
fast 'year ; the shipments to the Continent shew an in-
nrease of 71,000 bales, and that, too, notwithstanding the
cry about the falling off in the receipts at the
outports in the United States. The total
exports from the other side, to the date of our
last advices, shew an increase of about 17,000 bales over
last year. With regard to the extension of the manufac-
ture of cotton goods on the Continent, the Dutch appear
to be making prodigious strides, and are gradually
superseding English.manufactured goods in the Dutch
colonial markets. The shipments of cotton goods
Batavia shew such a decided falling off as
can be accounted for in no other way. We notice
also that the new Commercial Bank of Vienna has under-
taken the direct importation of cotton from Bombay rid
Suez and Trieste. The bank will, by arrangement, use the
Brenner line of the Lombardo-Venetian Railway Com-
pany for conveying the cotton to Switzerland and South
Germany, which have hitherto depended on Marseilles
for their supplies. It is evident, therefore, that the Con-
tinental spinners are making great inroads upon the cotton
goods trade, which we have for so long a time been accus-
tomed to consider as peculiarly our own. Wages, however,
must rise on the Continent in accordance with the increased
demand for labour; and if our manufacturers are awake
to their own interests they will take care that the article
they produce shall be in every way superior in quality to
that of their opponents.

As we ventured to predict but a short time back, the corn
market has been very inanimate, and prices have given'
way for all descriptions of produce. The late reaction in
the market appears to have been due to a temporary
combination amongst factors for the purpose of checking
the rapidity of the downward movement. The combination,
however, has totally failed to effect its object, as the slight
improvement that was forced upon the market has since
been altogether lost. In the face of the very favourable
weather and the prospect of renewed importa-
tions, owing to the probable re-opening of the Baltic
ports, there is every prospect of a still further decline
m prices. A large number of grain-laden vessels have
arrived off the ports of call during the past fortnight, and
these heavy arrivals of produce here naturally had a most
adverse influence on the market.

Instructions have been received at Colchester,
from the Horse Guards, directing that until further orders
the standard height of all recruits for the infantry is to be
rift, Bin.

Two MEN SUFFOCATED IN A BEER VAT. —A
shocking occurrence happened at Trowbridge on Thursday
and formed the subject of an inquiry before the local
coroner on Friday. On Thursday a man named Usher,
who was employed at a public-house called the Dove, pro-
ceeded to clear out a large beer vat on the premises there,
and had placed a ladder inside for the purpose of descend-
ing into it. Although it is well known that noxious gases
arise from these vats when empty, no test was applied, the
only precaution being that Usher placed a rope round his
body, and his father held the other end.. When Usher
reached the bottom of the vat the fumes overpowered him,
and he instantly fell. His father endeavoured to save him
by means of the cord, but was unable to do so, and called
loudly for assistance. In the meantime the cord broke, and
Mr. Soley, the landlord of the Dove, ran to the brew-
house, and, without reflection, decended at once into the
vat, when he fell down on the body of Usher. This double
catastrophe debarred anyone else from making the attempt,
and it was some time before the lifeless bodies were
recovered. A surgeon was promptly on the spot, but the
poor fellows were beyond his aid. A verdict of " Acdi-
dentklly Buff9cated "ivm returripla

A. 13 USES AND REFORM

Are the Anglo-Saxon race the greatest thieves
among mankind'? If this question can be answered
by the amount stolen we would unhesitatingly say
" Yes ;" but it is evident that other people only
steal less because they have less to steal. It is all
very well to prate of honour and to enunciate high
moral sentiments, but we now know by a sad ex-
perience that this is the very guise most successfully
assumed by the thieves. If we want men to be
honest, we must leave as little temptation as possible
in their way, for it is an undeniable fact that that
temptation will breed corruption. The British Go-
vernment, by long experience, perfected a Civil
Service system by which the checks are too efficient
to admit of theft, the punishment too severe in de-
tection, and the inducements to remain honest too
considerable to fall—at least before the small
temptations only left open. Great ones have been
placed beyond their reach, and little ones are too
well fenced to be touched, so the service is thus far
at least honestly administered. But look at what
occurred in the commercial world when the chances
offered of cheating wholesale. Never before weresuch
gigantic operations in swindling carried through.
The two great trading centres of London and
Liverpool became hot-beds of villainy, and the
wrecks and ruin spread around attest how well the
work was accomplished. Never had a better instance
been furnished of the lengths to which men of posi-
tion, character, and influence will go when strongly
led by temptation, and if this epoch of English
history proves anything, it proves that there are no
class of men in England qualified to be en-
trusted with the unchecked control of vast sums ;
and if not in England, we have no hesitation in
saying there are none elsewhere. America imagines
that she can work a Governmental system much on
the same principle that English shareholders worked
the Limited Liability Act. Men are thrust into
office with the maximum amount of inducement to
cheat, and with the minimum amount of checks and
punishments. Under the circumstances the surprise
is that the nation has taken so long to reach the
unbearable point, not that it now approaches it.
Mr. -WELLS says that a fourth of the revenue is 1
stolen. Everything becomes a job; no railway bill '
is passed except by underhand meansand chicanery ;
even no territory ispurchased without some such deal-
ings as those used by Baron STCECKL, who gave
the Hon. ROBERT J. WALKER a large fee in gold
to carry through the Alaska busiufts; and forthwith
his eloquence soared into the clouds, even above the
eagle, from which elevated position he gave a fas-
cinating description of that charming region bor-
dering on the North Pole. Who could have sup-
posed that these airy flights were taken with pockets
well ballasted by one of the heaviest of metals ?
How could the innocent hearer believe the ardent
patriotism, the philanthropy and love of his species,
which induced the orator to urge with the fire of
liberty brightly burning in his bosom the extension
of the area of freedom, that the inspiration had been
derived from a little business conversation with the
Russian Baron. The writers were paid who ad-
vocated the cause and the newspapers which in-
serted their productions. But around all hung that
atmosphere of high moral ideas through which the
gaze of the uninitiated could not penetrate. If
Legislatures and courts of law are tainted, it
would be something worse than folly to expect
individual officials to be honest; and if officials,
paid to guard the public, use the trust to cheat,
can the outsider be free from the prevailina.
corruption ? The revenue system comes to the aid
of the thief, in eases, indeed, compels a man to
join a ring or be'rifined. Thus rings are fostered;
thus lobbyists grow powerful ; thus interest is pitted
against interest in the scramble of protection ;
each step gained by one inducing a desperate effort
in the others to attain the same level, and a giddy
height it is to which some of them have risen. Yet
each step carries the manufacturing industry of the
States further from the consumer, and the country
which ought to be the cheapest in the world is ra-
paidly becoming the dearest. The men who suffer
are the masses, and almost in direct proportion to
their poverty. While particular interests are fos-
tered, and monopolies created inimical to the national
welfare, the lobbyists and corrupt legislators thrive,
and the people permit inducements to be offered
to carry measures by dishonest means. If the
source whence laws emanate be impure, the
courts in which they are administered are not likely
to be pure. The system of election has lowered the
legal profession in its highest places, and a writer
in Harper's Weekly advocates the passage of the
Act, making two-thirds of the Supreme Court neces-
sary to declare an Act of Congress unconstitutional,
because the day has gone by in the United States
when the Bench of the Supreme Court can easily
be filled with eminent and incorruptible lawyers. A
writer in the Round Table attacked the Senate, de-
claring that men sent there poor returned to their
States after their term, with wealth that could not
have been hones:ly acquired. We all know how
the vote of the seven " recreant" Senacore was at
once attributed to bribery by those whose plans
that vote defeated' ethe belief not yet being wholly
exploded that bribery only could explain so erratic
a course. An English paper, alluding to New York
the other day, said—" It is seriously proposed to
establish a Vigilance Committee in that city: A
gang of murderers are at work, and the police fail
altogether in checking their crimes. But it is not
alone the failure of the police which encourages the
bringing
appeal to Judge LYNCH. The impossibility of
a culprit to justice, in consequence of the
wholesale corruption of the Judges, is the worst
evil against which the people have to contend. A
murderer is arrested, and somehow or other bribes
hfs way out of prison, or escapes with nominal
punishment. The Judges will not sentence a man
who has influential political friends at his back, the
wire pullers of the ward." On the same subject the
.Nation of the 21st January observes, " In States as
old and orderly as Ohio and Indiana (so inefficient
is the administration of criminal justice), supple-
mentary lynching and hanging of robbers and mur-
derers on a great scale has had to be resorted to
within the last year,
nomenon in Western We.:Tewh ave
York.h a d
Itnh et h
is.sa icni
teyr
al-
though the police is perhaps as good as any in the
world, their vigilance and faithfulness are rendered
wellnigh worthless by the low character of the
police justices, the abuses of the District Attorney-
office, and the maladministration of the prisons all
over the State. The facility with which escapes
are effected-from Sing Sing shows that the official
asupfaerrcveisiloanndofit prs
-be elx.tptlectedi t# of
o
e seer.
be
otherwise, when we consider that the wardens are
back politicians, changed every time a new party
comes into power, even if the reports of the Prison
Association did not tell on this subject one of the
most sorrowful and disheartening tales of the day."
In the working out of the motto, that '4 to the
victor belongs the spoils," we see the source of the
demoralization which has spread its baneful influ-
ence over the country. The victor is the loudest
and most energetic of the unscrupulous ; the spoils
are the plunder of the nation, and it is his direct
interest to make the system as corrupt as possible,
for therein lies his best chance of gain. The ex-

ample spreads through all departments, and reacts
on the public till the vice becomes unbearable,
when a sharp reaction sets in, a great reformer
arises, backed by the good sense of the people, and
hard work purifies the Augean stable. This point, we

are happy to say, has been reached as well in the
United States as among the English commercial
community. If the President Elect does not belie
appearances, his will be an Administration of Re-
form—in the Civil Service, in the Judiciary, in the

Legislature, and in the general administration of.

the law. It is a hard task that lies before the

General, but he is, perhaps, better qualified for such

work than any other man who has risen to emi-
nence in the United States, from the dogged per-
tinacity with which he fights out the battle on the
line of duty, alike regardless of the howl of indigna-
tion and the cry of suffering. Great as are the
heights to which corruption has gone, it is easy to
see how sound is the heart of the nation. Were it
otherwise GRANT'S task would be impossible, as it
is it will he comparatively easy, for although the
abuses make a great show, and really in a measure
retard the growth of the Republic, yet they are
but parasites which cling to the tree, without real
connectioh with the trunk.—Anglo-Anierican times'