The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-16 00:00:00

BAD TRADE AMONGST SHOP-
litiEPERS AT MANCHESTER.
Al A NCIJESTE R, MONDAY.—A very numerously attended
preliminary meeting of the shopkeepers of Manchester has
this evening been held at the Spread Eagle Hotel, Hanging
Ditch, to take into consideration the depressed state of their
trade, and, seeing no prospect of escape from the general im-
pending ruin which threatens nearly all classes in the district,
to determine what steps should be taken in order to make
known their present alarming and distressed condition.
Mr. G. H. Winneft, wire-worker. Hanging Ditch, was then
called to the chair, and opened the business in a long speech,
composed of statements of distress, and decay of tradesmen,
which had come under his personal observation.
Mt. JAMES HA mrsow, grocer and provision dealer, then
moved the following resolution :—" That this meeting has
heard with the deepest concern the appalling statements of im-
pending ruin to the different branches of trade with which they
are connected ; that the distress has been long attaining its pre-
sent fearful aspect, and is daily increasing; that we see no
possibility of the slightest alleviation, much less improve-
ment, so long as the great mass of our population shall
remain unemployed, or but partially employed at inade-
quate wages, whilst food is at a price which places it
wholly beyond their reach, and reduces nine-tenths of those
who should be our customers to a state of pauperism, and to
the necessity of being maintained at our expense, instead of
supporting themselves in an honourable independence by their
nen energy and industry." In moving this resolution, Mr.
Hampson said he was one of those who had signed the circular
calling the meeting, and it was not a matter of choice, lits
thought, whether parties should come forward and state the
condition of things around them, but. a duty they owed to the
public. He said it was a matter of notoriety that the shop-
keepers were getting worse daily. The only thing. which kept
them from coming forward to make the confession publicly,
was the fact that it was too true, and the fear that it should be
turned to their prejudice, by bringing their creditors upon
them. They must naturally be getting worse : the people
were earning less wages, there was consequently less money
to spend among the shopkeepers, and they must of
necessity be thinned and sunk down into the class beneath
them.—( Hear, hear.) One of the evils arising from this less
spending of money by the working classes amongst them,
was the spirit of competition it gave rise to amongst the
shopkeepers for the remainder of the business left ; a man
when he did less business reduced his profits and prices, in the
hopes of doing more again, and keep up his receipts. This
could not last; some of them must give way, and be (Mr.
Hampson ) had seen shops day by day closing around him. He
pointed to the condition of the working classes, who kept
getting worse, and so long as that was the case, what could the
shopkeeper hope? 'their interests were bound up with those
of the working men, and with them they must stand or fall.
Within the last three weeks ten or a dozen men in a party had
come to his shop, anti demanded relief, his wife gladly avail
lug herself of the opportunity to put her own hand into the till
to relieve them. Contributions ma his neighbours through the
street were levied at the same time, and in the same manner.
Now, these were small beginnings; God knew where they would
end ! It was madness to think of resisting them, and he had
ms.'e up his mind he would gladly see his shop stripped, if it
would lead to the relief of the people; for the poor were dying
around him of starvation in all directions.—( Hear.)
Mr. Nraex, a broker, seconded the resolution, and followed
up the statement already made with some facts tending to prove
the wide-spread destitution of the working classes, and the con-
sequent suffering of shopkeepers. He said that in his own
trade people were bringing articles to pledge if they could but
get a penny upon them, but a great number of brokers bad ac-
tually such increased stocks, and had so far expended their
capital that they could take no mere.
Mr. GROOM E, linen.draper, said that shopkeepers he knew
had not one-fourth nor one-sixth of the business they used to
have with the working classes; and instead of good Saturday
nights' trade these nights were now often not equal to other
nights. Where he used to have six customers of the working
classes he had but one, and these, too, were of an nferior kind,
spending their money not upon new clothing, but upon rem-
nants and pieces for the purpose of repairing. The number of
persons who came in to solicit charity was past belief. There
were no less than five shops in his immediate neighbourhood
which had been obliged to close. One tradesman was at a
rent of 801., and that roan had stated to him that when he first
took the shop his receipts for twelve months averaged 1001. a
week; before he left the shop they did not amount to 20/. a
week.—( Hear. )
Mr. OWEN, a tradesman sending hawkers into the neigh-
bouring villages, gave an account of his own trade, which
had suffered to a great extent, and described the houses of
working people, with whom his hawkers had dealt for years, as
being almost stripped of furniture, though they were people of
sober and industrious habits.

Mr. JOHN GADSBV, printer and publisher, said in his own
business many articles could not be got off hand at all, and
said he was now paying one-third less wages, from his hands
being thrown out of employ.
Air. JAMES LUKE, house agent and rent collector, gave a
shocking account of distress among the working classes. He
mentioned property which he could recollect letting so well
that. they had so frequently twenty or thirty names down in
advance for the chance of becoming tenants now eight of the
hou'es on one side of the street were empty, though reducticn
of :2/. 10s. has taken place out of 151. He knew collectors who
were actually afraid to meet their principals, so little money
ha:l they been able to collect of the rents of property intrusted
to their care.

Mr. PEATE, tailor and draper, said it was no use with-
holding statements for fear Gt creditors being brought upon
them ; they would be infinitely worse off soon if such state-
ments; were not made, so that relief might be forced. He
would tell them that he was a Manchester man, bred and born,
at,d had lived in it all his life, and had always been able till
now to earn a respectable living, notwithstanding he had a
heavy rent to pay, but he did not hesitate to say that he was
now in a different position—his capital was wasting before his
eyes, and he saw no hope of employing it to advantage. Mr.
Cadsby talked of the book trade being bad ; he recollected the
time when he used to read himself, but he could assure them
the whole of his time and energies were consumed to earn food
for the bodies of his tamily.—( Hear, hear.) Instead of em-
ploying assistants, as he used to do, he had to do their work
himself, and was becoming an emaciated, worn-out man in
earning a bare living.—( Hear, hear.)
The resolution, after a number of other similar statements,
was passed unanimously.

Mr. ABEL Ilk:moon, in a clever speech, then moved—
" 1 hat under these circumstances, and with a view to the full
consideration of the subject, and the adoption of means for the
attainment of immediate relief, we deem it advisable that a
public meeting of shopkeepers be convened on Thursday even-
ing next, in the Town-hall, at seven o'clock."
111 r. BIRCH seconded the resolution in an eloquent address,
when the resolution was carried unanimously.

ittOY IT.
We extract the following from a letter received from Dr.
Lat.at, ex-surgeon of the Pacha of Egypt, and dated from Suez :
Since the measures adopted by Mehemet Ali for giving
complete security to Europeans passing through Egypt, the
Isthmus of Suez becomes more and more the high road; by
which civilisation passes into Asia and the eastern shores of
Af: ; the Red Sea formerly so inhospitable to Christians
is tow open to the commerce and industry of all nations. At
Suez, Kosseir, Gedda, Massouah, and Mocca, French and
English Consuls are found vieing with each other in lending
assistance to the travellers and commerce of the different
European nations. The English steam-boats on the Red Sea
ply as regularly as on the seas of Europe. They make the
passage from Bombay to Suez, touching at Aden in twenty
days, and that to Calcutta in a month. Both lines dis-
embark at Kosseir the travellers who are bound for Upper
Egypt, by going down the Nile from Kena to Cairo. Two
days' journey on a dromedary are sufficient to go from Kos-
seir to the river. Such passengers as continue their read to
Su.z, find in this town English and French diligences which
cross the desert to Cairo in 24 hours. Frbm this city to
Alexandria, the English have established a line of steam-
boats, by means of which travellers can go down the Nile
in a single day. When once arrived on the shores of the
Mediterranean, there is a double line of correspondence, French
and English, to Europe. A circumstance worthy of remark
is, that thanks to the abolition of the quarantine at South•
ampton, a person can arrive at London or Paris more quickly
by that route than by landing directly at Marseilles. In fact,
the English boats, which repair directly from Alexandria and
Southampton make the passage in 15 or 18 days. On their
arrival in that port, as a quarantine of only 24 hours is required,
it is evident that a traveller can reach London or Paris more
rapidly than by Marseilles, where a quarantine of 25 days is
exacted. This practice, which is founded on ancient pre-
judices, does infinite injury to Marseilles. The period ought
to be reduced to five days at most when there have been
neither deaths nor illness on board during the passage. This
excellent system of the English allows despatches from the far-
thest part of India to arrive in London in less than six weeks,
whereas it would take four times the period in making the
circuit of the Cape of Good Hope. If the plan of a similar
correspondence between the Isle of Bourbon and Suez can be
put into practice, the French will be as well off as the English
As the port of Suez is the most important intermediate point
of the line of communication with the Indian Ocean, it is de-
siruble that it may always remain in the power of a neutral
Government like that of Mehemet Ali, this being the only
means of leaving it easily aecesiible to all nations. At present
the utmost harmony reign's' hetivehnJ the, English and French
Consuls, and it is to be hoped that no, political incident will
occur to trouble this state of things so profitable to the general
came of civilization."

FACTORY FORTIFICATIONS.—We see that it is stated
in the pamphlet of William Dodd, illustrative of the Factory
System, that the factories of Messrs. Strutt, of Derby, at
Belper and Milford, form regular fortifications. " I have made
(he says) a few trips to the large cotton factories of Messrs.
Strut!, which present the most singular appearance of any
establishment 1 have met with in the whole course of my
travel This is the principal, if not the only firm carrying on
tie cotton trade in this neighbourhood ; besides their large
factories in Belper, they have one at Milford, about a mile and
a half from the town. The factories here are surrounded by
fcrtifications ; and I have beets told that the other is guarded
in a similar manner. The whole length of the works is about
one hundred yards, and they extend along both sides of the
road. Connecting the factories is a gallery across the road,
about thirteen feet wide, supported by three arches. In this
gallery are loop-holes for cannon, small arms, &c , which com-
pletely command all the approaches to the mills by the road.
One pat tof their works is made bomb-proof, with loop holes
similar to the above. The opposite building is nearly sur-
rounded by water, over which a small bridge is thrown from the
road, which, I was told, could he easily removed in ease of
' danger. The river is made to cover two sides of the works ; in
addition to which there is a high wall nearly all round, m ith
many hundred loop-holes, from which those within might fire
upon any crowds assembled outside. There are also other
means of protection, which are too numerous to mention in this
letter." We are not aware of any manufacturing establishment
either in Yorkshire or in Lancashire that has its " Fortifica-
tions ;" and we believe that those of Belper and Milfot d are in
this respect, if correctly represented, perfectly unique.—Leeds
Mercury.

linit-wicx.—A large dead whale, of the finner kind,
was lately fallen in with off the coast of Dunrossness, by a
small fishing-boat, and after considerable trouble was ulti-
mately towed on shore. It is supposed to have died from the
effects of a shot or shell fired into it by some vessel. Being
what is called a royal fish, measuring seventy-two feet in
length, it was of course claimed by the Vice-Admiral, and
sold at the high price of 471. sterling, by auction ; the salvors,
however, valued it at 1001., but it is not expected to render so
much oil as will give an adequate return for the cost and ex-
pense of flinching, cutting, boiling, &c. The carcase will
also be turned to good account in making manure, and for this
purpose is of considerable value.— Inverness Herald.
Mr. Chief Secretary Murdoch will, we understand,
nrocced from this to England with his family, to resume the
Citifies of his appointment in the Colonial-office. We are not
surprised at the preference evinced by 31r. Murdoch in the
honourable alternative placed at his disposal. We regret, in
common with every admirer of energy and talent, the departure
of this gentleman from a country where those qualities have
so usefully tested. We have, however, the satisfaction to
know, that they will continue to operate beneficially to Canada
in the Colonial Department, and must more than realise the ex-
pectations already formed of them.—Montreal Gazelle.
The following eminent members of the medical
profession bad a long interview on Tuesday with Sir .1. Graham,
at the Home Office:--Sir Henry Raiford, President of the
eyal College of Physicians ; Dr. Hawkins, Dr. Seymour, Dr.
abington, Dr. George Burrows, Dr. Copeland, and Dr.
1 rederick Farm