The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-14 00:00:00

SUNDERLAND ELECTION.

SUNDERLAND, TUESDAY MORNING, AUG. 12.--Yesterday
the exertions of the candidates and their friends were increased,
and the town is now on " the tiptoe of expectation," and in a
stet!, of great excitement. Mr. Hudson and Mr. Cobden sr-
ri.ved during the day, and the appearance of the latter gentle-
man has given renewed animation to the contest.
In the evening, Mr. Cobden, M.P. (who arrived in he
town during the day), Colonel Thompson, and Mr. Bright,
N. P., addressed the electors in the Polytechnic Hall of the
Athene3uni. The gallery was reserved for ladies. Both parts
of the building were crowded to excess, and also the adjoining
lecture theatre, which is separated from the hall by a wooden
partition, and in which, when the inner doors are opened, the
persons assembled are enabled to hear, though not to see the
speaker. On the platform were some of the most active and
influential Liberals in the borough.
Joshua Wilson, Esq. (of the well-known firm Wilson and
Brothers, merchants and importers) presided, and at once in•-
tro4uced Richard Cobden, Esq., Member for Stockport, to the

meeting.
Mr. Cosoaw said, I received a summons from our good
friend Colonel Thompson to come here to pay my respects
to yon in person. I must confess I think it almost a work
of supererogation that 1 should come here at all ; for when
yeti have my master and teacher to teach you, I hardly
think it is necessary for one of his pupils to come. How-
ever, I now repeat what I have often said, I would wa'k
barefoot 200 miles merely to assist in promoting his 0 -
turn to Parliament. Fortunately I have visited you with
mush lee; fatigue, for I left Manchester at seven o'clock,
and here I am in the midst of you. I should have thought
Sunderland the very last place in the kingdom where
we should have had a free-trade contest against monopoly.
—(11e-tr.) It is said "experience teaches fools," and you
are net foals in Sunderland—you are " too far North for
that," end therefore I should have thought the bitter ex-
perience of the four or five years during which this town and
nriehbourhood were plunged into a state of distress from
which it is only just emering, would have prevented anybody,
lieweeer deeply sunk in the mire of political prejudice, from
any further attachment to the corn-laws. But it seems there
arr.. still persons to be found in Sunderland to raise tee
banner of monopoly against free trade, and I am told that
there are persons who own ships, and who live by carrying
goods to and from foreign countries, in favour of restriction
upon trade. I believe that twenty-five years hence, when
those among us who may then be living, tell to our chil-
dren what has happened during that time in this struggle
for free trade, the thing most difficult to make them
comprehend will be, the fact that shipowners were found
against free trade. I have sometimes speculated as to what
• eats be the ground of the hostility of shipowners to free
trade, and I believe this is the solution of it. You
have, some old men among the shipowners—there are old men
in every calling, and we are apt to look upon old men as
kr.owing mere than young ones. Old men have a hankering
after old times; under the navigation laws, large fortunes
wore made; and they think if we returned to that system, the
same would be the case again. Now, I wish to convince
them that it is impossible to do so, not upon my own authority,
but upon that of the House of Commons, Sir Robert Feel.-
Mr. Glad-tone, and every man there worth two minute.'
thought—that nothing is more wild and visionary than for
ski; owners to dream of going back to the old sy-tem of
the navigation laws. —(Hear, hear.) We must have foreign
trade carried on in foreign shipping, we cannot prevent
it ; the next best thing is, to have as much carrying trade
as we can, as much demand as we can, and for Englishmen
TO take the chance of doing all they can ; and if they have
fair play in the world's market, I do not think anybody
can beat Englishmen either by sea or land. Well, then, we
say we want more trade, for the free trade means more
trade, as I dare say you have heard fifty times before
during the contest • and if we have more trade, Englishmen
will have their ;hare of it. We say especially that we
want more trade in foreign corn ; it is a bulky article and
grown everywhere ; for there is not a latitude in which
other commodities will grow, that will not grow corn. Then
ep gets an ancient shipowner, tells me that a free trade
in cern would be carried on in foreign ships, and points
to t',.e notorious fact that in 1843, out of 100,000 quarters of
foreign corn, only 3,000 or 4,000 quarters were brought in
English ships, the rest being brought in foreign bottoms. That
is the very point I want to talk about. Why do foreigners bring
corn to this country? It is owing to the operation of the slid-
ing scale ; and I will explain that in such a manner that no
shipowner, whatever may be his politics, will fail to respond to
it. Under the present system, no min dare import corn as
a regular article of trade ' • he does not know whether the
scale will jump to 20s. or down to is , and therefore it is nut
a ode trade for a merchant in ordinary times ; but as just
news when there is a chance, owing to the probable failure of
the harvest, that the duty should be down to ss. or 69., then
there is a demand for corn all over the world. But corn is
wanted instantly. Since I have been here I have had a letter
put into my hand, addressed to a house in this town, from
-Marseilles, dated July 31st, which affords an illw-tration of
shat I was saying : --" Gentlemen, the present is to inform you
that the merchants are moving about freights to England.
Only within three days, the freights for corn have risen from ss.
to Ces. 6d. There are no English vessels, and none off the
coast." Then there is an account of the ships chartered,
'which perhaps I ought not to read. It is not certain how long
this demand may continue—it may last a month; the very neat
post that goes out to Marseilles may tell the merchants there
that the son is shining here, and that the prospect of harvest is
good, and beg them nen to send corn at all, but pay smart-
money to get off the bargain. Under such a system as this, you
cannot possibly have a regular trade carried on in English ships,
bat if the cern trade were put on the same footing as the cotton
trade, why should you not have as regular a trade in corn as in
cotton, and why should not English ships have a fair share of
*oat freight? Well, then, we are met in this town by those
wits prof's, to be the peculiar friends of the poor with the state-
ment that if we admit foreign corn the wages of labour here
will fall—that if we bring corn from Poland our people will get
the same wages as the Polish serfs ; they might just as well soy
• that if we bring gum from Africa the labourers here will be
clack and have surly hair.—(Laughter and cheers.) Have you
not had some experience in this town on that point—the expe-
rience of the last five or six years ought to have closed the
mouths of the people who talk such nonsense as this.—( Hear. )
My respected and venerated friend, I understand, has been
denounced as a Socialist and an infidel. I was reading yes-
terday the life of Wilberforce (an old friend of Col. Thomp-
Sou's), and I find that in the commencement of his career as
an agitator against that most horrible traffic in human beings,
the slave-trade. he and his friends were denounced as being the
disciples of Tom Paine, and the friends of Marat and Robes-
pierre in the French Revolution. Av, and then genteel people
—persons in broad-cloth—used to make it ii‘-eat that they did
not belong to the Wilberforce party abolititrists. there
And in less time than Wilberforce abolish 4 and the .1-7
we shall have achieved the triumph of fr that.erir nciples ?
and the very men who are now opposing us in this holy crusade
will be the first to turn round and say we were always free-
traders. Now the two candidates presented to you are cart-
didates to fill a vacancy caused by the loss which we in the
House of Commons have sustained by the retirement of your
late excellent representative, Lord Howick. I deeply regret
that loss,_ because he stood prominent among his class or order
in that House for the honest and unflinching advocacy of free-
trade principles. He did not advocate the abolition of the
corn-laws, and the abolition of the monopolies in sugar, and
coffee, and other things—he did not advocate them as a man
who acted as a mere politician. He had the franknesa to avow
:n the House of Commons, that he had, during the three years
of discussion which took place, seen reason to change his opi-
nions materially as regarded the laws which restricted the
supply of the brat necessaries of life. He said, what we
will all remember, that he did not consider it a mere ques-
tion of politics, but he thought the question of free-trade was
one, the nature and circumstances of which involved a great
moral duty in the Legislatt*e of this country. He did more,
by that earnest speech, to take the question out of the category
of party politics than was done by any speech made in the
House of Commons. He served as a connecting link between
the free-traders in that House and the Whig aristocracy who
are to be found in the House ; and I much regret that be is
not there still, so that he might cement that union, and
make us one combined body in our cause.—(Hear, hear.)
But you are called upon to nominate his successor. Now.
if there is one thing that I cannot possibly forget, more
than -I can do another, in this contest, it is the fact that
yon were previously represented by such a man as Lord
Howick. If any constituency can be considered pledged,—
I say pledged in honour, to return a man of kindred senti-
ments to the House of Commons on this question, you are;
or I cannot tell how he can face the pulic again, after hav-
ing, as I heard him in the House of Commons, stated that
he was requested by three-fourths of the constituency of this
borough to take that honest and straightforward course
whieh he did take in the advocacy of the question. I re-
peat, that you have now two candidates placed before you ;
—one, my friend here, Colonel Thompson, who has done
more than any living man to advance the principles which
Lowl Howick advocated in your name. He devoted his
time, his fortune, his labour to the cause, at a time when
there were few to sympathise with, and fewer still to aid
him, in his efforts. He printed tracts by tens of thousands
when the great difficulty was to find readers who would read
them, even though they were gratuitously distributed. But he
penevered ; and from the solitude of his chamber came forth
those lessons which taught another class of teachers—the
teachers who perambulated this land, vulgarising, if I may so
speak, the doctrines--
Mr. BRlGHT—Popularising.
Mr. CoaDEN—Or "popularising," as my more genteel
friend, Mr. Bright, suggests—the doctrines and the lessons
which they derived from Colonel Thompson's pen ; and I think
that, on this occasion, Sanderland is fortunate in having
the opportunity of endorsing those strong opinions which
they expressed through Lord Howick, by sending Colonel
Thorup.;on to reiterate those arguments in the House of
Commons.—(Applause.) But it appears that Colonel
Thompou, besides being a free-trader, entertains other
opinions on political questions. And I bold that I should be
myself but a poor advocate of free trade if I could not allow
any one who was co-operating with me in the advocacy of
tree trade to entertain his own political principles. But,
on this occasion, don't let us be mystified. Whatever other
opinions Colonel Thompson may entertain—whether he go one
point farther, or fall one point short of myself—don't be mysti-
fied. The only question at issue in this election is the question
of free trade and monopoly.—( Hear.) In England we are in
the habit of doing things one at a time • and the question we
have in hand now is that of free trade. It is the question
of the present generation; and that question will be settled
before any other question, about which your enemies at-
:erupt to terrify you, will have anything like a discussion in
the House of Commons. And, therefore, without asking
whether Colonel Thempson's political opinions. are in all re-
spects the same as mine, or yours, or not, I think you will
a!-=ree with me that, as a free-trader, you could not send a
man to the House of Commons who would strike such a
blow for free trade as you would be the means of striking
by retusn'eg my respected friend on my left.—(Loud
) I see, in one of the placards, it is stated that the
members of Co!onel Thompson's Committee are not all jus-
tices of the peace, and are not all gentlemen. In fact, it
'ell, us that there is nobody on that Committee. Why, this
reminds me of an anecdote in Goldsmith's Citizen of the
IV*rld, where he makes his fashionable fop to walk the park
with a Chinese. The park was crowded; but the fop kept
telling the Chinese gentleman—" There is nobody here—
eciboel-0 nobody at all. There is positively nobody in
town." " Then," said the clever Chinese, " if there is nobody
her!, pray who are all the people here that are laughing at
us '—( G reat laughter and applause.) Now I think I may
ask, if any of those justices of the peace and petty sessions
should be tel you that there is nooody here for Colonel
Tnetnpeoh, is not every hotly else laughing at them ? For I
declare that from one end of the kingdom to the other there
is nothing but one loud laugh at Colonol Thompson's oppo-
nent here.- -( Applause.) There never was such an exhibi-
t:en in the world. he idea of a man coming among a po-
pulation 'of nearly 60,000, and offering to bribe the whole
borough by pledging himself to make such a dock or such a
railway;—the idea itself was certainly a clumsy one, but the
way in which the thing was managed by these great justices of
the peace was so strange that certainly there never was any.
thing more ridiculous. They should not have said anything
in public if they wanted Mr. Hudson to go to Parliament and
d their jobs for them. They spoiled the whole scheme.
They should not have said a word, because they prevented
-s having a possibility of doing anything of the kind.
I negiee Mr. Hudson getting up in the House of Commons
- -thou.Ji I am aware you are not going to send him
tnere, by the way—(Laughter)—but imagine him rising
in his seat in the House of Commons, and saying he
begged to move for leave to bring in a Bill for con-
structing a dock at Sunderland. Before he had finished

the words a peal of laughter would have arisen from all parts
of the House ; and then one would shout, " Wright !
Wright !" and another, " Spoor I Spoor ?" till all was
drowned in laughter once again.—(Much cheering and
laughter.) Why, you may tell them that all the world is
laughing at them. And then, what an insulting proposition !
If somebody had gone to Seaham, strong as an Atlas,
and said he would make them a dock, or something of the
kind, if they would only make him dock-keeper, or chief
constable—l could have understood if, in a place like that,
people might put themselves under the patronage of any
man who would make them docks. But the idea of a
town like Sunderland, with fifty-six thousand inhabitants,
being asked to suffer themselves to be bribed by the
making of a dock, and the bringing to them a railway
into the bargain, is such an insulting proposal—that I
must say I did not think there was so much impudence
extant.—(Laughter.) To do Mr. Hudson justice, however,
lam quite sure he is no party to it. Has he publicly said
that he will make you docks?—(" No.") No, he is a great
deal too good a judge. Has he declared that he will make a
railway ?—(" No.") Then it is not Mr. Hudson who has said
it, but Mr. Wright and Mr. Spoor.—( Laughter.) You know
best whether their guarantee is good for the construction of
docks and railways; but you have no claim upon Mr. Hudson
at all events. But I presume the town has now come to its
senses; and shortly after the thing was first proposed, when it
became known that all the country was laughing at it, I do not
doubt that there was not one sane man who did not thorough!)
believe that it was all " fudge ;" and if Mr. Hudson's friends
kept up a face on the sul-ject, it was merely to laugh in their
sleeves when nobody cou'd see then. How can Mr. Hudson make
docks and railways. If I understand anything of his position
and his undertakings—and I should not have talked about them
if he and his friends hail not made them matter of public boast,
if I understand his position, I believe there is no man in this
country whose ways and means are more deeply engaged and
bespoken than Mr. Hudson's. —( Hear.) If all that he him-
sell tells us is true, he will want every farthing that he can get
from every source that he can command.—( Hear.) He does
net propose to find you the money. Who does? If anybody
lends money to make docks or railways, it is because he ex-
pects to get a good return. But it does not require Mr. Hud-
son to be a Member of Parliament in order to enable him to
take shares in these things, if he likes. He may do it now, if
so he will ; and I want to show you that he can do it better
out of Parliament than in it.—( Hear, and laughter.) I told
him so myself the other day. I met, him in the lobby
of the House of Commons, where he is often to be found, and
I whispered in his ear, " If you wish to have any of your pro-
jects under the attention of that House, I would advise you to
remain in the lobby till the business is done, fur you are a great
deal more powerful in this lobby than you will ever be within
those walls." " Why so? " was his answer. " Why, because
if Mr. Hudson gets up out of his place to speak in favour of a
particular railway, he will not be regarded as the most disinte-
rested advocate of that railway."—( Applause.) And men
who are disinterested will be quite as likely to vote against him,
as any will be to vote in his favour, because he advocates the
measure. If 3.ir. Hudson wants to extend his operations, and
to make other railways in addition to those which he
has now upon his hands—if he wish to pass other Bills,
let him pursue the same course in their operation—
let him stick to the lobby. You are mistaken if you suppose
that Members of Parliament can new act in the House of
Commons for the promotion of private jobs. Great improve.
ment has taken place in these things. Nothing has given me
more satisfaction than the complete change which has lately
taken place in the management of private business. Let Mr.
Hudson keep, then, in the lobby ; and if he have taken such
a violent affection for this borough—if he mourn over your
want of docks—if he kindly conceive- you want another railway,
and is himself dying with anxiety to assist you in getting
them, still I say " let him stick to the lobby," for he will be
more able to realise his wishes there than on the other side
of the door.—(Applause and laughter.) There is another rea.
son why Mr. Hudson should not wish to go into the House of
Commons. I don't think his debut in public life has at all
added to his reputation. I believe he used to be considered
at a premium in the market ; but since his introductory
speech here, in public, on the corn-laws and free trade, he no
longer occupies that position. I don't know whether any man
has more completely settled his own downward course as a
public man ; but this I knew, that if I had happened to hold
shares in Mr. Hudson's lines of railway from Bristol to Ber-
wick, and if my confidence in him was challenged because be
had been so prosperous, I would, after reading that speech,
have felt obliged to take a calm review of myself; for a man
who could talk such rubbish proves himself to be infinitely
below, in intellect, the very lowest Member of the House of
Commons at this moment—and that is saying a good deal.—
( Laughter.) Well, here are your two candidates. You have
here a man who, intellectually, has not a superior in his day.--
( Cheers ) You have a man—l wish he had not been present
while i said it—you have a man of most excellent character in
every respect. And how has he been assailed ? I don't know
what they have not called him. But I judge of men by their
fruit.--(Loud applause.) If you can show me a better man,
a better neighbour, a better citizen, a better husband, a
better father, then I'll give up the contest, and leave it to Mr.
Hudson.—( Hear, hear.) I believe if Colonel Thompson has
a fault, it is this. He has not sufficient of the quality which in
phrenology is called " self-esteem;." and he has never known
his own worth. The absence of that self-esteem—that vulgar
pride—has led Colonel Thompson always to descend from his
own station, to try and elevate those beneath him. When I
visit my friend at his house at Blackheath, and when I see the
elegant style in which he lives—when I see the manner in
which Colonel Thompson might pass his life, and ought to pass
his life, free from the cares and anxieties which he willingly takes
upon himself—when I see a man of large fortune living as he
does, where the humblest classes see him—willing to lift up the
humble man to a level with himself—l say that man ought
to be honoured as the greatest of all characters.—(Cheers. )
Flattery, I know, can be pleasant neither to Colonel Thomp-
son nor to me ; but I mean to say that he is the most amiable
of my acquaintance. I have a theory that political economists
are the most amiable of men ; and! remember Sir J. Mackintosh
says that the three great political economists—Adam Smith,
David Ricardo, and the Rev. Mr. Malthus—were the
most amiable men he had ever known. I add Colonel
Thompson to the number ; and say he is the most amiable
man of my acquaintance.—(Loud cheers.) If a man
give a bad vote, 1 am disposed to treat him just as Henry
Clay desired to be treated. He gave what was considered a
bad vote; and when he went down to Kentucky, he met an
old backwoodsman with a rifle with which he had been shoot-
ing squirrels. Clay asked him for his vote. " No, no," said
the man, " I'll never vote for you again ; you gave a bad vote
the other day." " Well," said Clay, " what sort of a rifle is
that ?" " Never was a better," was the reply, "It never
missed fire but once." " And what did you do then?" was
C!ay's next question. " Why,_ I nicked the flint, and Mini
you had better do the same—nick the flint, and try again with
me." Now I don't know that Colonel Thompson has any
bad vote recorded that can now be raked up against him ; but
if there be, why, nick the flint, and let him try again.—
(Laughter and applause,)
The CHAIRMAN then called upon John Bright, Esq., M.P.
for Durham, to address the meeting.
Mr. BRIGHT observed—This is the ninth meeting I have
attended during the progress of the contest, and I may
say, without exaggeration, that however numerous anct
enthusiastic the other meetings were, this excels them all.
We come before you, not as electors of Sunderland, nor yet
as private individuals, who, of our own minds, have left
our own business to interfere with you ; but we come here
(and I consider I do not overstep the line of strict modesty
when I say it) deputed by a hundred or more of the
towns of this kingdom, and thousands and millions of your
countrymen, to explain what is the cause of the terrible suf •
ferings which the people endure—to ask that now, when you
have the power, to strike a heavy, I trust it may be a
deadly, blow against the foulest injustice and crime which
any Government ever perpetrated against any people, you,
the electors, will indignantly scorn all those mean and
base, sordid and insulting considerations that have been
laid before you, and judge rightly for yourselves, rightly for
your country, and for those great principles of justice and
mercy, which, if not paramount in the Government, can never
tend to the prosperity of the people.—(Great cheering.) We
come with a very simple, yet forcible statement, to arraign
before the constituency of this borough a law which restricts
the supply of food, and dooms the poorest of the people perio-
dically to the suffering and misery of famine. The corn-law
is a famine law; the men who passed it, and the men who
support it, if they know its object and tendency, are
men who legislated for famine, and whose only end—if it
operate at all—must be to produce famine, scarcity, and want
amongst the poorest of the people. Can anything be more
outrageous, more frightfully unjust than such a law
as this ?—( Rear, hear.) There is not a clime under heaven
where man can live in which wheat cannot be grown ; there
is not a man under heaven to whom wheat is not a whole-
some article of food ; there is not probably another
procfacten the earth's surface which will stand so many vicissi-
tudes of climate and still come to maturity. All this shows
that this great staple article of human existence, wherever grown,
was intended for the whole human family. At this moment,
on the continent of America, there is a bountiful harvest ;
there is also a stock remaining over from last year's harvest ;
it has been there waiting twelve months, and no buyers from
this country have been found. The President of that great
Republic has stated in one of those important documents which
he is in the habit of submitting to the American Legislature,
that the greatest difficulty found in that country is, to secure
purchasers for their surplus produce. Why is this, then, that
now, when the sun does not shine, and the rain unsparingly
descends, that throughout the length and breadth of the land
there is a sensitiveness and tremour, such as one would think
no insane person would subject us to if be knew how to avoid it.

TAUNTON, AUG. 13.—1 t is with great pleasure
that we are enabled to report the improved state of the weather
since. Sunday last. The dingy and capricious aspecta of the
clouds hare at last passed away, and are now succeeded by
seasonable warmth and brightness, accompanied by very
encouraging indications of a permanent character of fine
harvest weather. The crops are not in the least degree in-
jured by the cold and dampness which have impeded their
maturity, and every description of agricultural produce,
is either in the best state of ripeness, or presents the
most promising appearance of becoming so. Potatoes
will be most abundant, and of excellent quality, and the
orchards everywhere exhibit the assurance; of an excel-
lent crop of cider. Fruit, carrots, cabbages, and all sorts
of garden products are brought to market in unusual quantities,
and of very superior growth. Potatoes are selling at sd. per
peck. Several fields of wheat have been cut around this town,
at Wellington, Milverton, and othcr parts of this neighbour-
hood, and the utmost activity now prevails throughout the
corn-lands generally. A beautiful field of wheat is now under
the sickle at Wheatleigh Cross, near this town. The average
produce of wheat in this part of the county, is generally about
twenty bushels an acre; but, in the field just mentioned, so
heavy is the ear, that at least thirty bushels pet acre is ex-
pected to be garnered. For weight, quality, and cleanly ap-
pearance, nothing ever exceeded the beauty of this corn-field.
Taunton Courier.

STATE OF TRADE.—The weather continues to
exercise an unfavourable influenc., upon the goods market,
which has been very quiet for the last few days, though without
i
soy sensible change n prices. For yarn the demand continues
exceedingly good, and spinners have no difficulty in makini,
extended contracts for future delivery, at full rates.--"
ROCHDALE FLANNEL MARKET, MONDAY, AUG. 11.—We
have had another excellent market ; all the goods were bought
up by noon, at better prices. This week there has been more
doing in the wool market, and prices, notwithstanding the new
clip, have been fully maintained.—Manchester Guardian.
A letter from Pesth, of the 28th ult., gives an ac-
count of a frightful inundation of several rivers on the
north of Hungary. The great commercial town of Miskoes,
which has a population of 20,000, was submerged, the
current being sufficiently strong to carry away several
Muses and other buildings. As the torrent came on in the
night, several persons were taken by surprise, and lost their
lives. All communication between Pesth and Kaschan was
prevented for several days. This calamity happened on the
19th of JulY, precisely the second anniversary, day for day,
of the conflagration from which Miskoez suffered so severely
in 1843.

_Booworm.— A young sailor of this town, named
Fournier, left as cabin-boy some four years back. He
was found on the quay of Liverpool with his tongue cut
out, and his arms twisted out of their sockets, and in this
condition was sent home to his family. It is said that
witnpssecl a murder on board, and was thus served in
cons(.quence. Neither being able to write nor speak, it
is difficult to extract the truth from him.— 21nnota:
Boulogne.

THE WEATHER .E.ND THE CROPS.
The weather yesterday in the metropolis was a decided im-
provement; there was scarcely a drop of rain, and the clouds
were higher, lighter, and fleecier, than for several days.
There was no sunshine, but the temperature was better, the
wind was light, and the signs are all favourable.
The progress of the corn crops towards ripeness since
our last has been much less rapid than might have been
desired, though a perceptible adfance has taken place in South
Lancashire. We trust that no very serious, and still less any
irreparable injury has been done to the crops up to the press nt
time, and that, if the weather should be tolerably fine
during the remainder of the month of August and in Sep-
tember, we may still have an average harvest, taking all
descriptions of crops into account. The hay crop which is
already secured is very large, and the after-grass is most
abundant, thus securing abundant food for cattle, without
trenching on the grain crops. All kinds of spring corn
and roots promise well, and though the wheat has been much
battered, and can scarcely prove a good sample, yet there is
still no reason to anticipate a deficiency in quantity.—Lieer-
pool Times.
WORTHING . —The want of genial weather for the approach-
ing important operations of the husbandman is the subject of
daily remark. The speculation, during and between showers,
existing among farmers having old wheat on hand, as to how
and where they may obtain the highest price f e it, forms a
conspicuous feature in their present mental and practical pur-
suits. The threatening of ill in one respect may, indeed, be
legitimately turned to profitable account in another ; yet that
the inauspiciousness of the season, which, if not suddenly and
speedily averted, will visit so many poor homes, should be a
source of gain, gratifying, as in some measure it undoubtedly
is to those who produce the crops so likely to fail, seems ano-
malous. There is no wheat cut between the rivers Arun and
Adun, and none yet ripe. The crops generally stand up well,
and are heavy. Sussex Advertiser.
HEATHFIELD.—The rain, which has fallen in torrents
during the past week, has completely spoiled the many acres of
hay that ware already very much damaged ; and at this instant
the rain is fast falling, with a boisterous wind and a sinking
barometer, insomuch that the most inauspicious forebodings are
becoming prevalent as relates to the crops, whether of hay,
corn, or hops. The partial blight of potatoes, which was first
noticed here about a fortnight ago, is now found to be spread-
ing, and similar statements are given from different parts of
East Sussex. May Providence avert the threatened catas-
trophe, and send us far different results from those of 1816 and
1817. The crops generally are abundant, but hot suns are re-
quisite to mature them.—lbid.
BIRKENHEAD.—(From a Correspondent.)—l arrived this
morning from southwards, having had my trip to Ireiand
stopped at Plymouth, by the very contrary wind and stormy
weather. The harvest in Devon, Somerset, &c., is very un-
promising; and I cannot help thinking, from all I saw and
heard on the roads from Plymouth to this place, that the crop
will be quite under an average. This will combine, with any
severe pressure on the money market, to shake the financial
stronghold of the Government. Wheat is fairly up from Bs.
to 9s. a quarter ; and as the chief stocks are now small, and
these in the bands of speculators (the farmers having been
compelled to thrash and sell early, fro l'evant of straw, which
was very light last year), the average may be expected to rise
soon, so as to let in the 450,000 quarters in bond, at a low duty
and high price.
HUNTINGDON.—The weather still continues very wet and
dull ; the most serious apprehensions are now beginning to be
felt for the growing crops; it is evident that the lodged crops
of wheat are mildewed ; the wheat, after fallow, is also mil
dewed, whether lodged or not. The very heavy crops of bar-
ley which have been lodged this month or five weeks, are root-
grown ; the yield, quality, and straw will consequently be bad.
We have noticed a great quantity of smut amongst the oats ;
the loss from this cause cannot be less than a quarter per acre
in the Fens. Turnips and cole-seed go on well. There is ?et
a considerable quantity of hay to carry in the late districts; it
;s very much injured. The price of wheat has now reached
7s. per bushel for the best samples, with a good supply,— Cam-
bridge Independent.
CHELMSFORD. —Here and there patches of wheat were cut
in this county in the course of the past week, and no doubt the
sickle would have been in more general re quisition, as in some
districts, we understand, much of the corn is riper than it
would appear from a cursory glance, had not the storms and
gloomy weather determined the' farmers to wait. The sun-
shine and drying wind of yesterday morning set many in ac-
tivity, and the cutting of wheat became rather general, though
the afternoon showers a little damped the full ardour oeharvest.
A return of settled summer weather, now so much needed for
gathering in the fruits of the earth, would set the sickle and
scythe in full operation.—Essex Herald.
The wheat harvest has commenced at several localities in
this neighbourhood, and the opinion is, as far as can be ascer-
tained, that there will be a general deficiency, compared with
last year's crop, of full 25 per cent, We have heard that a
similar deficiency is apprehended in the hundred of Tendring,
which is allowed to be a most productive district. The barley
crop is excellent, and if there should be a fine harvest, the
quality will be very good. The oat crop is particularly good,
but the bean and pea crops are defective, owing to an attack of
that deadly enemy, the louse.—Essex Mercury.
Previous to Wednesday we had three fine days, and it was
confidently hoped that at-last dry weather had set in. On the
afternoon of that day, however, there was a heavy fall of rain,
and we have had broken- and cold weather ever since—yester-
day being the worst day we had during the season. It began
to rain about eleven in the forenoon, and continued till four ;
but it was so heavy and constant while it lasted, that not only
were all the streams in the neighbourhood much swollen and
discoloured, but a large breadth of the crop had been laid down.
From the stillness of the atmosphere, and the weight of the
grain, the ears being now full, there is reason to fear that a
large portion of the crop will be permanently lodged. Many
fields of barley are now well coloured, and with a few bright
and hot days would be ready for the sickle ; but the weather is
so cold, cloudy, and rainy, and the crop generally in this dis.
trict being three weeks later than last year, no one will hazard
a prediction as to the commencement of the harvest. In any
event the harvest will be a late one, and unless there be a speedy
and favourable change of the weather, there is reason to appro.
bend that it will also be a disastrous one. This is the more to
be regretted, as the crop is probably as great as ever was pro-
duced in Scotland. Turnips and potatoes have made great
progress, and look as well as can be desired.— Caledonian
Mercury.
The weather continues, on the whole, to be but little favour-
able to the ripening of the crops—a complaint which we find
general all over the country. The atmosphere is cold and re-
pulsive, and the frequent rajas in many districts are telling
with injurious effect upon the crops. This has told seriously
on the quality of the wheat crop, which stands particularly in
want of sunshine to bring the grain to maturity, and which,
snore and more deterforited. In all -PartsTht t wen ntll'ilY6
heavy crops are considerably laid down, and nothing can save
the wheat from. being of very inferior quality, and unfit for
baking without the assistance of foreign grain, except bright
sunshine, stirring breezes, and dry weather. In this neigh-
bourhood we have neither seen nor heard of -wheat that will be
ready for the sickle in less than two weeks hence at the earliest,
and the general part of the crop, even with favourable weather,
will be at least a week later.— Glasgow Argus.
DUBLIN, AuG. 11.—The weather holds up, and the alarm
respecting the crops is lessening.
Stec°, Auer. 9.—The weather has again changed; during
the week we had little rain, but the crops are not ripening in this
locality as fast as we would wish. The general opinion
amongst farmers, and persons best acquainted with the subject,
is that the harvest will be more than an average one, but late.
However, two or three weeks of fine weather would make a
great alteration in the country.
LONGFORP, AUG UST 9.—There is a large supply ,of new
potatoes in our market daily, selling at from 3d. to 4id. per
stone, but they are generally wet, from the variable and wet
weather.
Roscommon, AUGUST 9.—The constant heavy rains with
which we have been visited has done much injury to the crops
in this county. The hay crop is very late, and feats are enter-
tained that it will be much damaged.
ATHLONE, AUGUST B.—During the last week the weather
has been very wet, and it is feared a continuation of similar
weather would do immense injury. The crops, generally
speaking, as yet seem to have suffered little. Potatoes of a
very excellent quality are selling in our market at 4id. per

stone. -
Yesterday was really a fearful day for the country. The
weather generally, this week, has been most favourable, for
the occasional fall of rain was not injurious, but the conti-
nuous, dull, heavy-rain of yesterday, without a glimpse of sun-
shine, or a slight breath of air, spread universal gloom and
despondency. Last night the rain came down in torrents, and
this morning has opened with a dreary prospect. The corn-
fields, whose standing was healthy and vigorous the day before,
are prostrated in many places. At Meelick several fields of
pasture were swamped by the mountain flood, which is this
day accumulated on the lands of Lower Meelick. Deficient
embankment is the great evil the farmer is exposed to in these
districts.
The weather, since our last, has been very wet ; however,
the crops have not sustained much damage. The hay has suf-
fered in colour; some of the heavy crops, although bent under
the pressure of the constant wet, are not in a dangerous condi-
tion ; new potatoes have been selling freely at 434 d. per stone.
Westmeath Guardian.
Never did the crops look better, with the exception of wheat,
which, in many places, has suffered from the rain much of the
grain presenting a rusted appearance ; but this blight, we trust,
is partial. The present wet and unsettled state of the weather,
however, is giving some unerviuess. This is a very critical
season of the year. Should it clear up, the harvest will be most
abundant—if not, grain of every kind will be much injured.—
Tyrone Constitution.
We perceive the speculators are at work in consequence of the
lats rain, and wheat, flower, oats, and meal have advanced con-
siderably in the London and Liverpool markets. Wheat is up
Is. per SOlb. ; flour 4s. per sack. There cannot be greater folly
—the man who can sell at present prices is wise to do so, for a
few weeks will depress them low enough. The crops have re-
ecived no injury whatever—there never was a better premise of
an abundant harvest, and if the weather keeps fine, which is
probable, prices will range lower than they have done for years
past. We are blessed here with delightful harvest weather.—
Sligo Journal.
Notwithstanding the cause of alarm that-has for some time
past existed, relative to the state of the coming harvest, we are
happy to be able to state, on the testimony of an intelligent
correspondent, who has just returned from the counties of Tip-
perary, Kilkenny, and Cork, that the appearance of the gene,
ral crops is of the most luxuriant character.- He states that
although passing by four hundred fields of wheat, he did
not witness one field but what was perfectly upright. Oats ap
peared equally abundant, with the exception of two fields, a
part of which was partially laid. The potato crop appears
more abundant than for years past. In the counties of Tippe-
rary and Kilkenny our correspondent says that the wheat crop,
although far advanced, is not so much so as in the county of
Cork. In the latter, particularly about Fermov and towards
Cork, the crops appear rapidly approaching towards maturity.
A few weeks of sunshine, which we hope to obtain, will set
everything right.— Cork Examiner.
During the last week the weather has been very wet, and it
i s feared a continuation of similar weather would do immense
injury. The crops, generally speaking, as yet seem to have
suffered little. Potatoes of a very excellent quality are selling
in our market at 41. per stone.—Athlone Sentinel.
During the last, three or four weeks the weather has been
very unsettled. On Monday the heaviest showers of rain that
have been witnessed for many years fell in this neighbourhood.
The crops as yet have not sustained much injury, and if the
weather soon takes a favourable change a most luxuriant and
abundant harvest may be expected.— Tyratoty Herald.
For some time past the weather has been in a most un-
settled state. We have had severe cold winds, with copious
and frequent showers of rain, which, we fear, must cause con-
siderable damage to the forward crops in this part of the coun-
try. Last night the rain descended in torrents, and should
there be a continuance of weather like the present, the worst
fears may be entertained for the safety of the harvest. We
hope that a kind Providence will order it otherwise.— Galway
Mercury.

GLASGOW COTTON SPINNERS.--At a full meeting
of the cotton spinners of Glasgow and vicinity, along with
the tenters of self-acting machines, held in the Institution
Hall, in Great Hamilton-street, on Wednesday last, it was
unanimously agreed that under present circumstances it is
advisable for the trade to demand from their employer?,
an increase upon their present rate of wages. It was,
left, however, dele,::n.te the.,ting: representing the
cotton-spinners of It i,;fewsl:;.e a: CI Ulasgow, to be
held in Paisley, to arrange the amount to be asked, and
the manner in which it should be demanded.—Glasgow
National.