The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-24 00:00:00

FRANCE.

.At a.meeting of the At.ademy of Sciences on Tues-
day Lo:d Brougham read a most .interesting paper
d;tailincr his recent experiments on light, and setting
f-)r,..h-th; conclusions at which he had arrived ps the
results of those experiments. his Lordship repeated
the experiments before the Academy. At the con-
clusion Lord Brougham was highly complimented by
Aragl.
The Jtfoniteur publishes the returns of the produce
and consumption of domestic sugar in France since
the commencement of the season, from which it ap-
'p7arq that there were 288 manufactories in operation
on the Ist of January last. The quantity of sugar
manufactured amounted to 30,126,722 kilogrammes,
3r 5,912,276 more than during the corresp6nding
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
(Froth the Manchester, Guardian.)
, Maric HESTER„ TUESDAY.—The arrival of the Cam-
bria, with accounts of diminishing estimates of the
. _
._ cotton crop, and of an advan6e of one ceet per lb. in
the New York market, has given rise to a very large
s;:eculative business in Liverpool, and added another
firtMeg per lb. t.) the quotations. This movement
has led to a corresponding one in our market.. Natus
rally enough, the spinners have claimed another
: farthing .. from the shippers, and still more, in
many instances, from the manufacturers ;• while
- the tatter have endeavoured to save themselves by
a like demand upon the buyers of goods.
Bat the eastern advices show that there was a falling
off in the demand for yarn and cloth at Calcutta, at-
' tended With some decline in their value ; while the
position of things at Barabay 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-
. earring considerable lois. This intelligence has caused
. the Indian merchants to keep aloof frcim 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
iniilined to-distrust. While, therefore, we have had
an exated market, it has been one of comparatively
little business, but 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.
-4- ROCHDALE, MONDAY.—There has been a slack
market to-day, 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.
MACCLESFIELD, TIIESDAY.—Simce our last we have
bad several influential London buyers of manufac-
tured goods, and some considerable business has been
negotiated. There are evident symptoms of goods
being scarce, and we' may, therefore, infer
that the spring trade will open favour-
: ably. If business could be done directly
with the London buyers it would be far more
deeirable;:as-the system cf 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
• ,- regret to have an instance to record this week of
reckless trading in the manner just indicated.
The thrown silk market has rather increased in
• firmness since our last ; a good inquiry exists for
. both home and foreign demand. This, it is to be
hoped, will tend to equitable prices, as com-
pared with the raw material. The industrious
are all Well- employed, which is a fortunate cir-
cumstaece at this inclement season. The dyers are
sfao gaily occupied with orders for spring colours. Ia
- ' the taw sill( market the principal feature has been the
,
• public sales held at Liverpool on the 17th instant, at
' which business was transacted at higher rates than
previously current; the best China silks were bought
in, the importers not evincing a disposition to sell at
present rates. Altogether the market wears a very
..1 EWS, - , and theoverland mail, just arrived, c0n-
....,,,,,.....,„,...._ 1\ eon supply
.for the season, and that there
....,e_"- ee
~,_. ._, at erahle excitement at largely increased
~,,,.?...„ e.. , ~,,,- aghae, will, we thinTe, render a further
, 4:_5tf,747, -4-:. _ 4 vices here probable. ~ :. a,...: ,
- --,' ..;c. v., cfri .
1
.q.„-i -;,t .
CP ‘-
(..
--,-_
FIELD, TLIESDA7.—The Cloth-hall to-day
"i) " ared of every description of goods adapted
a ping trade. In fine woollens not much is

K a

THE SUN,

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 of 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 reaolution 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-
racter. Success, indeed, we have had so far as that we
have succeeded in eliciting froin all parties, in Pare
Lament and out of it, one general acknowledgment
and condemnation of the abuses of 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 Cieurch funds—the
unfavourable light in which our Episcop d rulers
have placed themselves before the public by their pro-
ceedings at the board of the Ecclesiastical Com-
mittee—the pos4onement, in so many cases, of the
Church's wants to those of her dignitaries and rulers
—their apparent indirference to the spiritual con-
dition of the Poor where it was only to be improved
by the removal of some profitaVe abuse—the injury
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 and dignitaries, even under their own
returns—and 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-
mitting 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. Bat 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 proposal., and,
compelled to bow before the opinion of the louse,
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. Bat, notwithstanding all this, I think the
House of Commons would have compelled the Minis-
ters last session to have carried out some of
_their
pledges, had they not ,baffled it by a recourse to
weapons such as, in my experience at least, were
siever used before.
"In the session of 1848, I brought for ward a series
of motions—on the mode of paying bishops—on the
union of the Episcopal and Common Funds—on the
state of the cathedrals, and on the system of fines and
leases of Church property. Tne mai- rahninistration
of the Enclesiaetical Commissioners was al.so.a promi-
nent subject ef complaint. On every one of these'
questions the Minister succumbed to 'the declared
opinions of the House--:he admitted all that we had
contended fur, and pledged himseV, on behalf of the
Government, to undertake the. desired reform. "'On
these solemn and reiterated pledges the motions were
withdrawn ; but on the hot 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; andJ warned him that, on
the, first night of the ensuing session., I should call
OR. him to .redeem his pledgee, 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 move 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 thoughtbc-
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 wail
privately informed, was the probable history of that i
commission—that, as Parliament was approaching, I
and Government had no measure on Ecclesiastical;
affairs prepared, nor the smallest intention of legis-I
lating on the subject, it was necessary they shouldr
provide themselves with some further excuse fori
delay, and that, when I rose to put my intended(
question in the House, I should be 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 nothingi
further on the subject. Matters turned out as hadi
been anticipated. I had communicated my misgiving
to various friends, who watched for the result wit
no small curiosity. I. was soon gratified. Lord Job
Russell's reply I have already given you—it wa
uttered with a gravity suited to the occasion, and
happy unconsciousness of the transparency of the,
device, and the precision with which his language haq
been foretold.
"But the Minister had not gained his object. H 4
had forgotten that that commission, comprehensivi
as it was intended to be, did not cover all the subs
jests on which he was pledged to legislate. lie was
reminded that the subject of the Cathedrals, of thi
Episcopal and Common-Funds, and the compositio
of the Ecclesiastical Commission, were not touched
by his new inquiry ; and on my repeating tho
question as to those subjects next day, he acknowi-
ledged that he had overlooked them, and on two of
them renewed his pledge of immediate legislation. 1
"Delay succeeded. Scarcely a week passed with-
out our pressing the Government, and at length the
Ecclesiastical Commission Bill was reluctantlfr
brought in.
The history of that Bill is curious. The compos ..
tion of the Ecclesiastical Commission had been co
,-
demned by Lord John Russell and Sir George Gray
before they were called to office. When they Came
into office, instead of improving its composition, thei
appointed a commission of inquiry upon it. No (use
could discover what there was to inquire about ; biet
the inquiry was made to last through two sessions.
No less tban five Ecclesiastical Commissioners were
members of the Committee—two of them were alio
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!paidCommissioners 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
unlooked-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 of Canterbury, and replied to me by arrange-
ment, on the following. Tuesday, in the House. His
words 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 expected the Bill to pass without
further opposition.
" Nothing could be a more satisfactory declaration
to us than that our suggestions had 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 Hbuse
to go into Committee on the Bill pro forma, in order
to introduce those amendments, and asked for a,few
days: !delay; we realily assented. It was true the
delay was very dangerowi—it was late in the .ses-.
sion ; every day was now precious ; and during, not
that session only, but the three antecedent ones, it
had been a constant battle fur delay ou the part of