The Sun.
London, England, 1858-08-23 00:00:00

THE STOCKS.

Grand Canal Company, 35; Mining Company of Ireland,
for account, 141 ; Cork, Blackrock, and Passage, 121 ;
Dublin and Beltast Junction, 42; Dublin and Drogheda
Guaranteed 5 per Cent., 26; Great Southern and Western,
103 ex div.; ditto 4 per Cent. Pref., 97 ex int.; Waterford
and Limerick, 5 per Ceat. Pref., 48.

STATE OF TRADE.

(From the Birmingham Journal of Saturday.)
The principal characteristic of the trade of the town for
the last six weeks is the alternating aspect which it has

presented; in the course of that brief period there have
been indications of a return to a more healthy state of
things than has prevailed during the year, with intermitting

stages of languor checking progress. At the present moment
business is exactly in that condition; we cannot say that
there has been any retrograde movement since we wrote

last week, but we doubt very much whether any advance
has been made, or whether the home trade has been quite

as good as it was at the commencement of a week ago. It

. - .
Is not Improbable that for some time the commerce of the

country will exhibit appearances of much of the same com-
plexion as it has done of late ; and that we have yet some
time to wait befire business assumes its natural state.
In this very exceptional state of business it is most diffi-
cult to give an exact idea of the condition of trade in the
town generally; its condition at the present time is so
thoroughly exceptional in every respect in almost all the
leading branches, and the remark applies so completely to
factors as well as merchants, that it would be a'most im-

possible to cite a special instance in which an improvement
had taken place which might not meet with a contradiction,
and for both there would be equal foundation. As regards
manufacturers, a good many have been busy during the last
fortnight or three weeks upon special orders, whilst others

in the same trades have been slack, scarcely sufficient orders
on the books to keep the workpeople employed. The factors
are in much the same condition ; in the agricultural dis-

tricts, mtwithstanding the circumstarce of the markets
being thinly attended, trade is unquestionably looking up;
the shopkeepers are evincing a disposition to make up
assortments of goods of which they are almost out of stock ;

and although they make their orders one-half or perhaps
one-third what they usually are, even for articles of the

smallest value, these are a great help as trade now is, and

are sufficient to enable the manufacturers to work on.

The factors who take the northern counties and Scotland

are not doing so well. The orders sent borne are still small,
and credit has been so greatly shaken in Glasgow that some

time will yet elapse before such progress is made towards re-
covery that any very decisive improvement can be expected.
With respect to Yorkshire and Lancashire, the evidence is
such as to encourage the hope that it will be maintained;
the population is more fully employed, and the shopkeepers
generally in those districts report that the prospects of
trade are more encouraging. Such is the tenor of the
advices received here in the course of the week, and they
are corroborated by the girder-sheets sent home, which are
undoubtedly better filled.
The foreign trade is subject to much the same inequality
as is that of this country. Such of the merchants as confine
their operations almost exclusively to a particular branch of
the export trade are doing only a very moderate amount of
business, orders being smaller than they have been for the
last few years, whilst all the foreign buyers who have been
here lately have been restricting their operations as much
as possible. The merchants who do a more general trade
are doing a better business than they have been for
several months. The accounts from South America have
not been of a very encouraging character for some time;
but lately there has been a fair sprinkling of orders in hand
for those markets, and the latest advices rather tend to show
that monetary concerns in that quarter are becoming easier.
The long credit which it is necessary to give is the only
drawback on this branch of the export trade, which has of
late years very much expanded, and has, in fact, become
one of the most important auxiliaries of our foreign trade.
The accounts from Australia report very little change in the
condition of the trade in that quarter; business appears to
have been rather more active, but it is not safe to resume
shipments at present, except of such articles as are specially
ordered ; upon abstinence in this respect very much depends
the restoration of the trade of the colony, so far as its
imports are concerned, to something like a healthy condi-

Lion. The commercial advices by the East India mail
report trade to be dull, with little prospect of a movement
at present. The accounts are pretty much the same in this
respect from Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras; at the latter
especially trade was languid, and business concerns were
not altogether in a satisfactory state.
In the continental trade tbere has been very little

change for some time past; upon the whole, it is dull, and
the symptoms of improvement are not such as to be very

encouraging. The Russian trade is still an exception to
this; again, in the course of the last few days, orders from
that quarter have been received here, and it is stated that
others to a considerable amount may be expected before the
season closes. The American trade is still only moderate ;
the orders received here are small, and are likely to be so this

year. The commercial advices from New York describe a
slight increase of activity in the demand for imported goods,
but generally business of all kinds continued to show great
dulness.

In connection with the American trade we may draw
attention to a very serious difficulty with which the mer-
chants of this town have to contend in the transmission of
goods to the States. The Cunard Steam-packet Company
(possessing one of the finest fleets of boats in the world)
now enjoys almost a monopoly in the conveyance of goods
between this country and America. Since the Collins Com-
pany gave up this line merchants have had to depend upon
the Cunard steamers in all cases where quickness of transit
was essential. Lately, however, they have been subject to
repeated disappointment in this respect, and in some instances
the delay has been attended with serious loss. Goods sent to
Liverpool for shipment by one packet are very frequently
left until the next, and in fact there is no longer a certainty
when merchandise sent to Liverpool may be despatched for
New York. The cause of this uncertainty and delay has
been thus explained to us. There Is a company in existence
performing the packet service between the port of Havre and
New York ; the Cunard Company look upon this in the
light of a rival concern, and are exerting themselves to get
the goods shipped at Havre on to their own boats; with a
view to secure them, an advantage is offered in the shape of
cheap freights. The Cunard Company are conveying goods
from Havre to New York at £1 per ton ; whilst the charge
from Liverpool to merchants here is £3 per too. The com-
pany keep a small steamer plying continually between
Havre and Liverpool ; on its arrival at the latter port the
whole of its freight destined for America is at once put on
board the packet about to sail, and only the smell space left
is appropriated to English merchandise. We are informed
that it has been an occurrence not unfrequent of late that
the freightage of goods from Havre in the Cunard boats has
been so considerable that the company has been compelled
to leave other goods consigned for New York by a particular
packet ; hence the injury sustained by merchants to which
our attention has been called. Of course the Cunard
in this
have a perfect right to act as they think fit this
matter, and as they believe to be consistent with a regard
for their own interests ; but the system is certainly working
adversely for the interests of the merchants and manufac-
turers of this country, who are to a great extent in the
hands of the Cunard Company for obtaining any redress.
The Canada trade continues dull; the shipments of goods
from this quarter this year will be comparatively trifling.
Various causes have operated to check the import trade and
to depress the internal trade of the country. There is
scarcity of money in the colony; prod ace is not selling at a
price sufficiently remunerative to stimulate trade generally ;
the panic in the United States last year has also operated
adversely for Canada, and the protectionist system adopted
by the Legislature has been sufficiently high to diminish
the customs, and of course to depress the import trade.
The new tariff adopted by the Legislature is less restrictive
than it was originally proposed; instead of raising it 25
per cent., the duties on manufactured goods, which were
previously 15, the rate has been fixed at 20 per cent., to
which point the scale has risen in a few years from 2} per
cent. The 5 per cent. ad valorem duties include iron,
whether rod, bar, or hoop, nail and spike rod, hoop or tyre
for driving wheels or locomotive?, bent or welded, boiler
plates, railroad bars, rolled plates, plate and angle, or other
iron, shaped or unshaped, when forming part cf an iron
ship imported in pieces; rivets for ditto; wire, lead in
eheeta 1000MOtiVe and engine frames, cranks, crank axles,