The Sun.
London, England, 1826-01-27 00:00:00

COMM ERCIA L EM BA R RASSMENTS.

(Prom the Manche:ter Mercury.)
We do not remember a period at which there
has been so deep and general feeling a of depres-
sion amongst commercial men as is now prevalent.
It is not in one trade only but in all that a great
extent of suffering exists. In the woollen
branches we hear the most appalling accounts of
the dismissal of work people, the stoppage of
masters, and the general destruction of confidence.
In the silk trade there is a most serious degree
of stagnation and distress (this we have not
denied, however inadequate to its production we
might think the causes assigned for it) ; and in
the cotton trade the state of things is daily be.
coming more serious ; we mjty say, fast approxi-
mating to that of the worst of any of the other
staple manufactures of the country. A very
large number of hand-weavers, we hear, are dis-
missed from week to week ; the stocks of power-
loom cloth and cotton goods generally are accu-
mulating rapidly ; yarns are very heavy ; and
though the prices, both of these and of goods, are
decidedly lower than .any former period, the re-
duction hi value has not yet created any acces-
sion of demand. The fact is, there are few
foreign markets which at present afford much
temptation to shippers, whilst the home trade Is
for a time in a considerable degree extinguished.
Transactions in those parts of the country where
there have been many bank failuresare necessarily
susPended ; the old circulating medium—that of
local paper, has been taken in a degree away, and
nothing has been yet obtained to supply its place.
To what extent the disastrous consequences of
this state of things may go it is impossible to form
nu opinion ;• the convulsion has been far more
extensive and more ruinous than we had appre-
hended ; it has lasted for a longer time, and as
yet we see no symptoms of amendment. What
then is best to do? If, as we are inclined to
think, over-production is one great cause of the
present state of the cotton trade, the remedy ob-
viously is to manufacture less, until the glut has
been removed, and this course is now being very
much adopted. In addition to many of the chief
spinners in this town and its immediate vicinity,
who are already working short time, a similar
step has been taken, or resolved on, by the spin-
ners at Burnley, Blackburn, Stockport, and
Bolton, and we believe it-is in contemplation at
Hyde, and in other places. • In Liverpool, we
understand, the depression .and alarm is even
much greater than it is in this, town. The prices
of cotton are rapidly falling ; no one knows
where they will stop, and the reduced rate at
which consumption. will go on must tend to de-
press them still more. This effect, however much
it may be to be deprecated, appears inevitable;
and the consequence, we fear, will be the occur-
rence, in that port, of further insolventies.
present loss on the import of upland cottons is
little less than 50 per cent.

ROTTERDAM, baf.'lo.---" We have had a than,
since Wednesday eveni►ig, but not seas to cause
any alteration in the state of the river."

S S I A.

FROZEN MARKET AT ST. PETERSBURGH.
To strangers, unaccustomed to the various
changes produced in men and things by the in-
fluence of intense frost, nothing appears more
wonderful or note-worthy than that part of the
city dedicated to the sale of frozen provisions.—
Your astonished sight is there arrested by a vast
open square, containing the bodies of many
thousand animals, piled in pyramidical heaps on
all sides—enws, sheep, hogs, fowls, buttery eggs,
fish, all stiffened into granite. The fish are
attractively beautiful, possessing the vividness of
their living colour, with the transparent clear-
ness of wax imitations. The beasts present a
far less pleasing spectacle—most of the larger
sort being skinned, and classed according to their
species; groupes of many hundreds are seen
piled npon their hind legs against one another,
as if each were making an effort to climb over
the back of its neighbour. The motionless, yet
apparent animation of their seemingly struggling
attitudes (as if suddenly seized it, moving, and
petrified by frost), give a horrid life to this dead
scene. had an enchanter's wand been in-
stantaneously waved over this sea of animals,
during their different actions, they could tint
have been fixed more decidedly. Their hard-
ness, too, is so extreme, that the natives chop
them up for the purchasers like wood, and the
chips lof their carcases fly off in the same way
as splinters do from masses of timber and coal.—
The provisions collected here are the product of
countries many thousand wersts distant. Si-
beria, Archangel, and still remoter provinces,
furnish the merchandise, which, during the
frost's severity, is conveyed hither on sledges.
In consequence of the multitudes of these com-
modities, and the short period allowed to the ex-
istence of the market, they are cheaper than at
any other period of the year, and are, therefore,
bought in large quantities, to be laid up as a
winter stock. When deposited in cellars, they
keep for a length of time. At certain hours every
day the market, while it lasts, is a fashionable
lounge. There you meet all the beauty and
gaiety of St. Peterburgh, even from the Imperial
family down to the Russian merchant's wife.—
Incredible crowds of sledges, carriages, and. pe"
destrians, throng the place; the different groupes
of spectators, purchasers, venders, and commo-
dities, form such an extraordinary spectacle as
no other city is known to equal. During this
mart of congealed merchandise, affecting
scenes
often occur. The provisions are expersed
from the most remote provinces of this vast
empire, consequently the infinitude of sledges
necessary for their conveyance are accom-
panied by boors, It
not often the case,
that for more then one season the same person
travels with them : and this change of, con-
ductors is produced by motives more honour.
able and more powerful than interest itself.--
henever a new levy is made for the army; a
given number (according to the state's necessity),
is taken from every five hundred vassals capable
of bearing arms. Most of the villages have thus
been deprived of some of their inhabitants, and
it is with the affectionate hope of again seeing
their different relations, that many very aged
men accompany these frozen caravans. St.
Petersburgh is the extent of their views. The
knowledge of that city and of their own villa-ges,
bounds their geographic acquirements; it is hi'
!her all their wishes tend, for to that spot alone
they believe 19 fixed the object of their fond soh-
ignorant of any particular corps, and
only conscious that it is ay sesk,ender
the liveliest expressions of expectation and affec-
tion, they momentarily look for the blessing ele
embracing cc son, a brother, or some other near
and beloved kinsm4n. Act►rated by a similar
feeling, hundreds of soldiers are seen going from
group to group, searching for their own parents
among these patriarchal strangers. To the ob-
servation of a benevolent individual these scenes
are delightful. Nothing can be
than to witness their joyful meetings ; fathers
theirezuntbrcetcxipngressiots i sons,
brotherso,tisyi
leir
disappointmentmore affecting
excite more distressing sympathies, and the heart
saddens while listening to the impatient
t fbrergotulecenriV
quirtes of many, who are soon deprived of their
dearest hopes by
the information that another
country contains their offspring, world.perhaps another

MARRIED.
On Thursday last, at Great Amwell Henry Hawke Pordi.
Esq., eldest son of Richard Peard, of 'Coole-house, county °
Cork, Esq., to Elizabeth, third daughter of George Cetlizovis
Esq., of lioddesdon, Hertfordshire.
At Shorne, 11r. W. S. Young, of Parliament-street, west:
minster, solicitor, to Frances illaplesiten, third daughter of
Jarvis Noakes, Esq., of Shorne-field, Kent.

DIED.
On Friday, the 20th inst., after a very short illness, Eliza
beth, wife of Timothy Sink , Esq., of lchnoild-hous:, near
Birmingham.
On the 25th inst., at his house, Dorset-place,
suddenly', Thomas Ferniough Bristow, Esq., aged O.
On Wednes,tay, the 25th
ut his house at Lambeth,
William Howard, Esq., in the 64th year of his age.
On the 24th inst., John Norbury, of the Spaniarchir
Hampstead-heath.
On Tuesday evening, very suddenly, aged 62, Mr. Doiel
Walker of Scarborough, hair-dresser. He was taken l"
a carpe in little
about eight o'clock, and was more than arl'
hour. ClaPham.road.

At the Vicarage in Westgate-street, Newcastle-upon-T.,yne,,
M
on the 22d inst., after a long and tedious 'Mesh the Rev.
John Smith, A 1.,. Vicar, and Master of the Ilospital of St-
Mary Magdalene, in that town, in the 61st year of his age.
During a constant residence for nearly 22 years upon his Cure,-
he made many friends by his amiable and kind dispositiou—•
Genuine hospitality reigned in his house, and -his purse_strings
were always readily drawn to relieve the wants of the poor and
distressed ; beuevulence being the foundation of his good deeds,
he anxiously avoided all semblance of ostentation, perfectly
sensible of the blessings enjoyed- by all classes of Englishmen,
he was an ardent admirer, ns well as a zealous supporter of the
British Constitution in Church and State, being in fact at all
times much more anxious to advance the public welfare and
prosperity, than to proninte those interests which might be
supposed to centre in himself. In a word, he was a bright
example of true Christian charity,—for he not only " did not
seek his own," but in many instances returned what he re-
ceived, anti gave away privately to the full extent of his means,
while to all the charitable Institutions of the town, he was a
liberal benefactor, and personally exerted himself to promote
many of them by the most vigilant and Praise Worthy atte'
thin. It is scarcely necessary to add, that so much worth and
virtue will long be held in affectionate remembrance by the
inhabitants of Newcastle.

Printed and Publiabed for the I.ItOPTIFETOtt,I, t►t the Sutda
Orrtct, No. 112, Strand, by S. 8. t'aniTants.