The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-13 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE.

There has been rather a larger business done this
week in the principal articles of consumption, but
stocks have been sufficiently heavy to prevent any
material advance in prices. The accounts to hand
from Bombay, China, and America, have had no
small effect on our business and the trade of the
manufacturing districts, as it is evident, from the
range of prices for goods in India, that no ship-
ments of much weight will be made should spinners
insist on advanced fates, whilst the latest letters from
the cotton-growing States of America are calculated to
enhance the prices here of the raw material, as the esti-
mate of crop has been reduced, and shipments now arriv-
ing will leave a loss that may fairly be estimated at seven
per cent. on the amount invested ; luckily, however,
the planters have been the principal shippers, and the
losses will, consequently, be of far less moment to our
merchants, whose orders have been given at rates much
below the currency of the principal cotton markets in the
States. One rather important statement is reported in
some correspondence, to the effect that the southern
banks were again assisting the planters to withhold their
crops from market, and that, whilst the stocks in the
port were accumulating, prices were also advancing,
under the influence of such assistance. Let us, however,
hope, that the severity of past losses has not so soon been
forgotten. Hete we have had a lively market, with
large sales, chiefly to speculators, at prices a shade
higher ; yesterday, especially, an enormous business was
done, roughly estimated from 18,000 to 20,000 bales.
Tho excitement in the share market has apparently
blown over, and the transactions are not so numerous.—
Liverpool Mercury.

CHARACTER OF HANNIBAL.-If the characters of
men be estimated according to the steadiness with which they
have followed the true principle of action, we cannot assign a
high place to Hannibal. But if patriotism were indeed the
greatest of virtues, and a resolute devotion to the interests of
his country were all the duty that a public man can be expected
to fulfil, he would then deserve the most lavish praise. Nothing
can be more unjust than the ridicule with which Juvenal has
treated his motives, as if ha had been actuated merely by
romantic desire of glory. On the contrary his whole conduct
displays the loftiest genius, and the boldest spirit of enterprise,
happily subdued, and directed by a cool judgment, to the fur-
therance of the honour and interests of his country ;' and his
sacrifice of selfish pride and passion, when after the battle of
Zama he urged the acceptance of peace, and lived to support
the disgrace of Carthage with the patient hope of one day re-
pairing it, aflords a strong contrast to the cowardly despair
with which some of the best of the Romans deprived their
country of their services by suicide. Of the extent of his
abilities, the history of his life is the best evidence : as a
general, his conduct remains uncharged with a single error.
His knowledge of human nature, and his ascendancy over
men's minds, are shown by the uninterrupted authority which
he exercised alike in his prosperity and adversity over an army
composed of so many various and discordant materials, and
which had no other bond than the personal character of their
leader. As a statesman, he was at once manly, disinterested,
and sensible ; a real reformer of abuses in his domestic policy,
and in his measures, with respect to foreign enemies, keeping
the just limit between weakness and blind obstinacy. He
stands reproached, however, with covetousness by the Cartha-
ginians, and with cruelty by the Romans. The first charge is
sustained by no facts that have been transmitted to us ; and it
is a curious circumstance, that the very same vice was long
imputed by party violence to the great Duke of Marlborough,
and that the imputation has been lately proved by his biogra-
pher to have been utterly calumnious. Of cruelty, according
to modern principles, he cannot be acquitted.—Arnold's Rome,
Vol. 111.

ACQUAINTANCESHIP.--There are some men with
whom, on the instant, we seem to get acquainted. An
hour's accidental association in a stage coach, a steam
packet, or a hotel, does more towards banishing reserve
and restraint then many months of daily communication
with beings less congenial. They seem to suit us—we
part from them with regret ; and long afterwards, when
their names are forgotten, we remember a pleasant fellow
and a happy hour. It is not then that friendship can be
made ; but we may learn from this the advantage of un-
pretending good humour and frank benevolence.