The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-23 00:00:00

FR ONCE.

At a mec‘ting of the Academy of Sciences yester-
day Lord Brougham real a most interesting paper
&tailing his recent experiMents on light, and setting
forth the conclusions at which he had arrived as the
results of those experiments. His Lordship repeated
the experiments before the Academy. At the con-
clusion Lord Brougham was highly complimented by
M. Arago.
The Moniteur publishes the returns of the produce
and consuryption cf domestic sugar in. France since
the commencement of the season, from which it ap-
pears that there were 288 manufactories in operation
on the lst of J.inuary last. The quantity of sugar
manufactured amotinted to 30,126,722 kilogrammes,_
or 5,912,276 more than during the corresponding
period of 1848 ; that sold for consumption to
12,713,939, and the quantity lying in the public
bonding stores to 10,091,956.

STATE OF TRADE.
(Frem the Manchester Guardian of this day.)
MANCH tSTER, TUESDAY.— The arrival of the Cam-
brie, with tiecouutS of direiniz.4-itig estimates of the
coton crop, and of an advance of one cent per lb. in
the New Yerk market, has given rise to a very large
speculative business in Liverpool, and added another
farthing per lb.. to the quotations. This movement
has led to a cor:esponding one- in our market. Natu-
rally ere ugh, the spinners have claimed another
ftrthing from the shippers, and still more, in
many instances, from the manufacturers ; while
the latter have endeavoured to save themselves by
a hke demand upon' the buyers of goods.
Reit the eastern advices show that there was a falling
off in the demand Tor yarn and cloth at Calcutta, at-
tended with some -decline in their value ; while the
position of things at Bombay Was precisely such as to
require no great weight of fresh imports to occa-
sion a giving way there also. It appears that
• scarcely anything can now be sent out without in-
currirg considerable loss. This intelligence has caused
the Indian merchants toleep aloof from business more
decidedly than they did before; and it has indirectly
affected other classes of buyers in a similar man-
ner, though not in an equal degree. Apart from
all this, however, the buyers are by no means pre-
pared to yield on the instant to an impulse which,
coming from the cotton field, they are particularly
inclined to distrust. While, therefore, we have had
an excited market, it has been one of comparatively
little business, big much perplexity and anxiety.
Both the merchants and the millowners are painfully
sensible of the ruinous consequences which must flow
- from high-priCed cotton ; they do not see their way
- with any degree of clearness, and a general convic-
tion of the necessity of proceeding with caution has
been very observable throughout the day.
RCCIIDALE,
,MoNDAr.-:-There has been a slack
market to-thy, and a very limited number of pieces
sold at former prices. The wool market remains in-
active, but the prices 'are firm, notwithstanding the
limited demand there is for the raw material.
MACCLBSFIELD, TUESDAY.—Sitnce our last we have
hackwseverril influential London buyers of manufac-
tured goods, and-some considerable business has been
tegotiated. There are evident symptoms of- goods
being scarce, and we may, therefore, infer
that Ow spring trade will open favour-
ably. If business could be done directly
with the London buyers it would be far more
de,irable,-as the system of consignments to agents
for advances is fraught with much evil; and does in-
calculable injury to the honest trader. We have
had frequent evidences of this in past years, and
reget to heve an instance to record this week of
re:kless trading in the manner just indicated.
Tne thrown silk market has rather increased in
fineness since our last; a good inquiry exists for
both home end foreign demand.. 'I his, it is to be
hoped, will 'tend to equitable prices, as com-
pared vCth the raw material. The us •d t •
in nous
are all well emplcs_ed, which is a fortunate cir-
cumstaece of this inelemeht season. The dyers are
stilt' fey oeetipie%l i;h ciders for spring colours. la
a the aw silk market t lee principal rcature has been the
o puhica sates held at Liverpoo,l on the 17th instant, at
"-' which husiness was transacted at higher rates than
• .-.lx.ei""ll3k:o*-I,ret't•--;: ix-flt China silks were bought
in, the itoporters rot evineieg a cli position to sell at
present rates. Altogether the market wears a very
firm aspect, and the overlaid mail, just arrived, con-
sheit sllpply- for the seinen, and that there
was consideiable excitement at largely increased

TBE

prices at Shanghae, will, we think, render a further
advance in prices here probable.
HUDDERSFIELD, TUESDAY.—The Cloth-hall to-day
has been cleared of every description of goods adapted
for the shipping trade. In fine woollens not much is
doing, as is usual at this period of the year. In wools
there is a decided tendency upwards in price.
HALIFAX, SATURDAY.—Owing in a great measure
to the inclemency of the weather, there were but few
persons in our Piece-hall to-day, and the worsted
trade may be quoted as in much the same state as it
has been for the last few weeks. In yarns, and also
in wools, there is no alteration since our last report.
LEEDS, TUESDAY.—The market to-day has been
rather quiet, but on Saturday last a large business
was done. Manufacturers are well employed, and a
good quantity of goods have been delivered to the
merchants. There is no change in price.

MR. HORSMAN AND THE GO-
VERNMENT.

Mr. Horsman has addressed the following letter to
the electors cf Cockermouth, through the columns of
the Carlisle Journal:—

" Gentlemen,—As a severe accident, from which I
am not yet quite recovered, prevents me paying you
the visit which was arranged for this week, I am
obliged to resort to this more formal mode of ac-
knowledging the vote of thanks upon my public
conduct, which you forwarded to me at the close of
last session. It is gratifying to me to think that,
during the fourteen years in which I have acted as
your representative, not one cause of difference has
existed between us for a moment, and that on this, as
on other occasions, instead of my having to appear
before you to offer an apology or explanation of any
portion of my conduct, you have generally antici-
pated that necessity by an expression of your own
opinion.
" I need not assure you that at the close of a very
arduous and responsible session such marks of sym-
pathy and approval are especially grateful to a repre-
sentative, and bind him to the service of his consti-
tuents more closely than ever.
" But there is one subject of peculiar interest and
importance in my eyes to which you especially re-
ferred in the resolution you sent me, and I cannot
permit myself to pass it by without some further
explanation than you have yet received. You alluded
to my exertions for ecclesiastical reform, and the suc-
cess that had attended them. That success, I am
sorry to say, has as yet been of a very imperfect cha-
, ractt:T. Success, indeed, we have had so far as that we
have succeeded in eliciting from all parties, in Par-
liament and out of it, one general acknowledgment
and condemnation of the abuses cf our ecclesiastical
system. Exposures have been made which, in these
days, and touching the character of any other body
of men, must have led to an immediate remedy. The
shameful misappropriation of our Caurch funds—the
unfevuurable light in which our Episcopal rulers
have placed themselves before the public by their pre-
ceedings at the board ( f the Ecclesiastical Com-
mittee—the postponement, in so many cases, of the
Church's wants to those of her dignitaries and rulers
—their apparent indifference to the spiritual con-
dition of the poor when it was only to be improved
by the removal of some profitabe abuse—the iejury
done to religion by the character and example of our
capitular bodies—the waste and alienation of Church
estates perpetually going on—the excessive incomes
of our bishops end dignitaries, even under their own
returns—arid the utter worthlessness of those returns
as a fair estimate of the receipts of those who make
them: all these have been proved in a manner ad-
mittieg of no dispute; and not a voice has been
raised to extenuate what no one has had the courage
to deny. •
"So far, I repeat, we have succeeded. But as for
any legislative remedy for these proved abuses, we
stand precisely where we were before the question
was ever stirred. Motions have been made, discussed,
and supported on all sides with an earnestness and
unanimity which did great credit to the Christian
feeling of the House. The Minister, commencing by
opposing, ended by acquiescing in our proposals, and,
compelled to bow before the opinion of the House,
and to save himself from defeat, he promised every-
thing and has done nothing. You are aware that the
forms and usages of Parliament offer almost endless

opportunities of delay to a Government disposed to
use them. But, notwithstanding all this, I think the
House of Commons would have compelled the Minis-
ters last session to have csrritd out some of their
pledges, }IA they not ham d it by a recourse to
weapons such as, in my experience at least, were
never used -before.

"In the session of 1848, I brought for ward a r:ries
of motions—on the mode of paying bishops—on the
union of the
.Episcopal and Common Funds—on the
state of the cathedral., and on the system of fines and
leases of Church property. The mal• administration
of the ii?,clesiastical Commissioners was also a promi-
nent subject of complaint. On every one of these
questions the Minister succumbed to the declared
opinions of the Ilowe—he admitted all that we had
contended fir, and pledged himself, on behalf of the
Government, to undertake the desired reform. On
these solemn and reiterated pledges the motions were
withdrawn; but on the last occasion, which was at
the close of the session, in once more reluctantly
withdrawing, I expressly stated that I did so on that
occasion, as I had done on previous ones, in reliance
on the Prime Minister's pledge that he himself would
"undertake the subject; and I warned him that, on
the first night of the ensuing session, I should call
OR him to redeem his pledges, and produce the
measures which might have been prepared during the
recess.

" Well, gentlemen, the vacation came and passed
away, without the smallest symptom of a more in the
Ecclesiastical camp ; and I was pretty accurately in-
formed that the new session was approaching without
one single step having been taken, or one thought be-
stowed, by the Minister, to the subjects on which he
had given such pledges to the House. But late in
the recess there was issued a commission to inquire
into the question, of Church leases ; and this, I was
privately informed, was the probable history of that
commission—that, as Parliament was approaching,
and Government had no measure on liccieniastical
affairs prepared, nor the smallest intention of legis-
lating on the subject, it was necessary they should
provide themselves with some further excuse for
delay, and that, when I rose to put my intended
question in th., House, I should he answered that
Ministers had had the matter under consideration,
and had issued a commission of inquiry, and until
that commission had reported they could do nothing
futther on the subject. Matters turned out as had
been 'anticipated. I had communicated my misgivings
to various friends, who watched for the result with
no small curiosity. It was soon gratified. Lord John
Russell's reply I have already given you—it was
uttered with a gravity suited to the occasion, and a
happy unconsciousness of the transparency of the
device, and the precision with which his language bad
been foretold.

"But the Minister had not gained his object. He
had forgotten that that commission, comprehensive
as it was intended to be, did not cover all the sub-
jects on which he was pledged to legislate. He was
reminded that the subject of the Cathedrals, of the
Episcopal and Common Funds, and the composition
of the Ecclesiastical Commission, were not touched
by his new inquiry; and on my repeating the
question as to those subjects neat day, he acknow-
ledged that he had overlooked there, and en two of
them renewed his pledge of immediate legislation.
"Delay succeeded. Scarcely a week pissed with-
out our pressing the Government, and at length the
Ecclesiastical Commission Bill was reluctantly
brought in.
The history of that Bill is curious. The composi •
tion of the Ecclesiastical Commission had been con-
demned by Lord John Russell and Sir George Grey
before they were called to office. When they came
into office, instead of improving its composition, they
appointed a commission of inquiry upon it. No one
could discover what there was to inquire about ; but
the inquiry was made to last through two sessions.
No less than five Ecclesiastical Commissioners were
members of the Committee—two of them were also
Cabinet Ministers—and this protracted inquiry at
last closed, the Committee adopted an unanimous re-
solution, condemning the management of the Episcopal
Board, and recommending the addition of three re-
sponsible'paid Commissioners for the administration of
its temporal affairs.
" Sir George Grey, as Secretary of State for the
Home Department, took a leading part in the discus-
sion of that report ; he gave strength to its unanimity,
and yet he himself, in the subsequent session, intro-
duced the Government measure, utterly at variance
with the Committee's report and his own recommen-
dation, and giving to the bishops on the commission
more power than before
" But the subsequent proceedings were still more
strange.
" Interviews were sought with the Prime Mi-
nister, and a representation made to him of the
unlocked-for character of the Bill—and its objec-
tionable clauses having been pointed out, it was
urged that it could not give satisfaction, or be ac-
cepted as a settlement of the question, unless framed
more in accordance with the recommendation of the
Committee.
" Lord J. Russell took time, to see the Arch-
bishop cf Cdnterbury, and replied to me by arrange.-
Men:. on the following Tuesday, in the itlouse. His
worth were to this effect—that having conferred
with the Archbishop, he was now ready to adopt the
alterations which had been suggested to him, and
having done so, he expcc!ed the IBM to pass without
further opposition.
" Nothing could be a more satisfactory declaration.
to us than that our suggestions bad been adopted, and
that the recommendations of the Committee would
now be carried out in the Bill. And when the Noble
Lord proceeded to say that he should invite the House
i to go into Committee on the Bill pro forma, in order