The Sun.
London, England, 1826-09-29 00:00:00

plan of augmenting profits is not confined to the first
class of tradesmen in the kingdom ; commencing there
it necessarily descended to the second, and naturally
at last reached the obscure chandler in an obscure
village. To what other cause are we to trace the ex-
travagance of tradesmen ? from what source is all this
immense expenditure derived if not from the augmen-
tation of profits ? Are we to suppose that retail trade
has so far increased as to enable a grocer, a tailor, the
great grandson of a grocer or a tailor, to figure in his
carriage, to associate with the first Lords of the day,
to give dinners, routs, and foreign wines, to buy
lands and houses for himself, and bijouterie and
elegant toys for his wife ; to keep his dogs, hunters,
grooms, servants, and an army of retainers? Do their
customers reflect, that the splendour of their trades-
men is paid for by them, and that this display of wealth
is obtained by increasing the prices of the commodi-
ties in whic'i they deal ? Money will procure a fa-
shionable acquaintance, for

Si Fortuna volet, fie* de Anton, consul
Si volet hare eadern, flee de consult rhetor.
And nothing more is requisite than that
Stet eurrus aheneus, alti
Quadrijuges in vestibulis, atque ipso fereei
liallatore sedens * eurvatuna hostile minntur
Eminus et status meditatur prmlia lused.

We do not mean to cast any imputation on any
dais of tradesmen in the kingdom, or to infer that
profits thus augmented were at the time unreason-
able or improper, but we own we think the profits
of the present day are out of all comparison with jus-
tice, and bear a far nearer affinity to the causes of our
evils, than the King's taxes, however weighty they
may be.

On the poorer classes of society these large profits
of tradesmen press with redoubled force, because
they, for the most part, purchase their wants loaded
with all the profits of the numberless interme-
diate hands through which the required article
had passed in its passage to those of the con-
sumer. The smallness of the dealings of the poor
consumer, and indeed the very fact, that he is obliged
to live from hand to mouth, compel him to resort to
the small shopkeeper ; and the smallness of the
shopkeeper's dealings compel hint in like man-
ner to resort to the same larger retail dealer, who
for the most part supplies the gentry inhabiting the
country in the neighbourhood of his town. Taking
it for granted, that this shopkeeper was supplied from
first hand after importation, or after the manufacturer,
a circumstance highly improbable ; it is easy to see
how the first cost of the article is augmented by the
profits of the three or four dealers through whom it
has.passed to the consumer, and judging front this, the
position with which we set out, is fully and completely
established. Now, lot us suppose that the article is
tea, supplied by a man, keeping what is generally
termed a chandler's shop in the country, and that the
tea sold was after the rate of six shillings the pound.
We will take upon ourselves to affirm, that ,all such
tea issued from the stores of the East India Company,
duty, freight, and warehouse-room, &c. paid, at 38.6 d.
the pound. So that here we have half a crown added
to the price of the article, by way of profit, a sum
very nearly double the duty paid to the King
upon it by the importers. This is the case of an
article loaded with the profits of several dealers, let us
take another case ; the case of an article coming to the
consumer from first hands, the bookseller for instance.
Every new book in boards, bought of a bookseller,
whether in town or country, may be considered as
twice paid for, because it is a rule of the trade,
to charge all customers 100 per cent. on the prime
cost ; so that if ws pay ten shillings for a work we shall
not be very far wrong if we conclude that the book-
seller, after paying his author, printer, paper dealer,
advertising, warebouseroom, &c., puts five shillings of
the ten clear profit into his pocket. If the bookseller,
of whom the work is bought, is not the publisher, the
publisher in that ease gives up 25 per cent, to the actual
trader, who is allowed that profit for his pains. It
would not be difficult to multiply these eases of exor-
bitant profits, but enough has been shewn to establish
the point with which we set out, and to prove that it is
not to the taxes alone that the prevailing distress is
altogether attributable. We have already said that it
is not our intention to impugn the character of that
great, respectable, and valuable body, British tradesmen,
but it was due to the Government, the Nation, and
more especially to truth, to make this avowal of our
sentiments as to any effect that a partial reduction of
the taxes can produce, and to point out the extrava-
gance of tradesmen, as undoubtedly being a feature,
and not a small one, in the cause of our present dis-
tresses. Let it not be supposed that we set our faces
against any reduction of taxes, or that we are at all
unconscious of their weight. Far from it, we are fully
and truly sensible of their pernicious operation on the
best interests of the country, hut such evil, in compa-
rison to the misery that must undoubtedly ensue, by
want of faith with the public creditor, is as a drop in the
ocean, and unworthy of consideration. One word
more, and we have done. Let tradesmen of all de-
grees rest assured that the agriculturist and land-
owner, will cling to their corn laws and restrictions,
so long as they, by aping the manners and customs
of their superiors, spend fortunes where their great-
grandfathers would have saved them.

Which may be construed—Holding his whip aloft, as (f
ready to strike any little squinting blackguard that dared to laqk
vox him.

In another column will be found some additional
extracts from the East India papers, detailing the
operations of the army, under Sir ARCHIBALD.
CAMPBELL. We shall, to-morrow, give some further
documents, for which we have not room to-day.