The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-08 00:00:00

HAY MARKETS.

SMITHFIELD.—Meadow hay, 2115 s to 4/ 4s ; clover do.,
31 10s to ')/ Os; and straw, 11 4s to 11 9s per loan.
A short supply.
4111BERLAND. —Meadow hay, 2/ 15s to 41 4s ; clover
do., 31 los to 51 Os ; and straw, 11 4s to 1/ 9s per load.
Trade steady.
WHITECHAPEL.—Meadow hay, 21 12s tc 41 4s ; clover
do., 3/ 10s to 51 ss; and straw, 1/ 4s to 11 Os per load.
Trade Arm.

Mr. Joseph Brotherton, M.P. for Salford, died very
suddenly yesterday morning, about five minutes to 11
o'clock, while travelling in an omnibus from his residence
at Pendleton through Salford to keep an engagement
which he had made in Manchester that morning. Mr.
Brotberton had been suffering bow. an affection of the
heart for some time, and had consulted Dr. Hervey, but
was in his usual apparent health up to the time he en-
tered the omnibus, and had on the previous day presided
as a magistrate at the Salford Police court. In the
omnibus with him were his friends Sir John Potter and
Sir Elkanah Armitage, and they were in conversation
together for nearly a mile of the way from Pendleton,
during which Mr. Brotherton accepted an invitation
from Sir John Potter to spend an evening with him next
week, when a sudden change of countenance in the hon.
member attracted the attention of Sir John, marked by
a wild and vacant gaze at the top of the omnibus.
" Look at Mr. Brotberton," he observed, "how ill he
looks," and immediately he had uttered the words Mr.
Brotherton reclined gently backwards as though for sup-
port. The omnibus was passing the Crescent at this
time, and Sir John, becoming seriously alarmed for his
friend,desiredthatthe omnibus should at once be stopped.
With the assistance of several gentlemen present Mr.
Brotherton was carried into the house of Mr. Southern,
surgeon, in the Crescent, but the time had already gone
by when any human aid could avail, and it is believed
the hon. gentleman had ceased to exist before he was
carried out of the omnibus. He died at the advanced
age of 73 years. It is difficult to mention a man in his
own neighbourhood whose death could occasion greater
regret. Though his talents were not of a high order he had
lived a life of great usefulness, and his extremely placid
temperament and inoffensive demeanour, combined with
honourable consistency in pablic life, had won him
the esteem of more friends than most active politicians
of his class have the good fortune to possess. The
statement once made by the hon. member in the House
of Commons that he had commenced life in a factory.
has generally led to a somewhat wrong impression ; at
least he cannot be looked upon as one who commenced
his career as an unfriended factory boy. At that period
it was customary for farmers and small landowners to
send their suns to a factory, much as they now do to a
merchant's warehouse, to learn a trade and acquire busi•
ness habits ; and Mr. Brotherton was descended from a
respectable family in Derbyshire. He afterwards made
his way as a commercial man, and became a partner in
business as a cotton spinner with Mr. Alderman Hervey
at Manchester, but retired from the partnership about
30 years ago on what might be considered for most men

in his position a very moderate competence, but with
quite sufficient for a man of his economical and quiet
habits. From an early age he was a total ab,tainer
from intoxicating drinks, and was a vegetarian,
having early jt)ined a religious sect in Salford, called,

from the name of their founder, " Cowherdites.': -After
the death of the Rev. Mr. Cowherd, Mr. Brotberton
himself occupied his pulpit fur some years. As a poli-
tician he had also formed opinions early, and at the close
of the war in 1815 he was connected with an influential
party in Manchester who might be considered as the
ooaneeting link between the reformers of 1794 and thos
of a later day, but did not joi❑ the more extreme party
of Mint. In the years 181749 however, during the sus•
pension of the Ha.,eas Corpus Act, he was one of those
who stood forward to demand a fair trial for the poor
men who were thrown into gaol during that period, and
after the Peterloo riot of 1819 he aided in getting up a
subscription for the sufferers. He was what was locally
called a rational Radical, and joined heartily in the
struggle for the Reform Bill. In the first Reform Bill
the town of Salford was not included as one of the in-
tended boroughs for enfranchisement, and it was
chiefly owing to Mr. Brotherton's exertions that it
was subsequently enfranchised. The people of that
borough very properly marked their sense of these
services by making him their first member, and he held
the representation until his death, giving very general
satisfaction, though some of his earlier friends thought he
latterly leaned rather more to the Whigs than was consis-
tent with his earlier professions. He protested against the
corn laws when they were first imposed in the more offen-
sive shape in 1815, and c intinued to take every opportu-
nity of seeking their repeal down to the formation of the
Anti-Corn-Law League, of which he was an active mem-
ber, ever ready to go upon deputations and other business
along with Messrs. Cobden, Bright, and others, when he
thought his assistance could be useful. He was exoeed-
ingly a tentive to his Parliamentary duties in connection
with the two boroughs of Manchester and Salford—for he
was equally ready to aid the constituents of either, to the
last, and his ready accessibility, when in London, to de-
putations and persons seeking his aid, threw upon him an
amount of labour which few other men would have
undertaken. The most likely men, perhaps, thought of
as his successors are Sir John Potter and Mr. Alderman
Langworthv, both gentlemen having strong claims upon
the gratitude of the electors.