The Sun.
London, England, 1828-07-16 00:00:00

COAL TRADE OF IRELAND.

A deputation from the principal Manufac-
turers, Brewers, Distillers, &c. of Dublin and
Belfast has been for some time in town, and had
on Friday last an audience of the Duke of WEL-
LINGTON. The subject which it was principally
sought to urge upon his Grace was, the existing
Duties on Coal in Ireland, and the necessity for
their repeal. It is well known that both in
Dublin and Belfast the Woollen and Cotton
Manufacturers are making considerable progress.
In consequence, however, of the repeal of all pro-
tecting duties in Ireland, and the great improve-
ments in Steam Navigation, the Irish Manufac-
turers are very hardly pressed by the close and
direct competition which they have to sustain
with the Manufacturers of Leeds, Manchester,
and Glasgow. This competition the deputation
stated they were willing to encounter upon terms
of perfect equality, but that this equality did not
at present exist, inasmuch as Coal, which is now
so indispensable in every department of their re-
spective operations, is in Manchester, in Leeds,
and in Glasgow, free of duty, and in Dublin and
Belfast, subject to very considerable taxes. Al-
though in Glasgow and Leeds, Coal is worth
only ss. the ton, and in Ireland, owing to its
general scarcity, cannot be purchased, exclusive
of duty, for less than thirteen or fourteen shillings.
The Duke entered into the question at con-
siderable length, and concluded by promising the
deputation that during the approaching recess,
he would cause a minute enquiry to be made
into the whole subject, with a view to granting
the relief sought for. He further stated, that
the question of the Coal Trade of England, and
especially that of the port of London, was about
to be very fully considered by Government, as he
was personally aware that abuses existed, and
that the present system tended to enhance the
price of Coal upon the consumer, especially. in
London, in a most unreasonable degree.

Thi late Lord H-D, whose irritable 'dis-
position, eccentricities, and facetiousness, have-been so aptly
pourtrayed by the author of the Scrap Book in his story of
" The Man," bad the natural propensities called into action
on another occasion, when presiding in a Criminal Court
in the north.---A trial where life or death was .at stake
area proceeding with that solemnity which distinguishes
our Justiciary Courts over those of our neighbours, when
a wag (for there are sow characters who mug have their
joke, however solemn the occasion) entered the Court, and
set a musical snuff-box a-playing " Jack's Alive" upon one
of the benches. In the silence of conducting the inquiry,
the music struck the ears of the audience, and particularly
the venerable Judge, whose auricular organ was, to the
last, most admirably acute; and a pause to the business was
the immediate consequence. He stared fur au instant at a
demeanour exclaimed—" Macer, what, in the name of
sound so unusual in a court of justice, and with a frantic
God, is that?" The officer looked around him in vain to
answer the inquiry, when the wag exc1atmed.......,0
' Jack's Alive,' my Lord."—" Dead or alive, put him out
him, my Lord."—." If
ltilelishanisotalheenatr.t"—of ‘H‘
eNVll,electanenyaerguP yrinan assist to arraign himbefore Me, that I may commit him for this outrage and
contempt."—Every one endeavoured to discover the
author of the annoyance, but he had put the check upon
the box, when the sound for a time ceased, and the macer
informed his Lordship that the person had escaped. The
Judge was indigr.ant at this, but not being able to make a
better of it, the trial proceeded, when, in about half an hour,
sounds of music again caught the ear of the Court. "Is
he there again ?" exclaimed his Lordship. By all that's
sacred, if he shall escape me this time ;—fence, bolt, bar
the doors of the Court, and, at your peril, let a man,
living sr dead, escape. All was now bustle, uproar, and
confusion ; but the search was equally vain as before. His
Lordship, who had lived not long after the days of witchcraft,
began to imagine that the sound was something more than
earthly, and exclaimed—" This is a deceptio auris, it is
absolute delusion, necromancy, phantasmagoria," and to the
hour of his death never understood what occasioned the an-
noyance that day to the Court.—Edinburgh Eveniv
Post.