The Sun.
London, England, 1827-11-08 00:00:00

ABUSES IN TRADE.

We are happy to find that the persons to whom
Allusion was made in our last article under this
head, as having been concerned in certain frau-
clulent transactions in the baggage department of
the East India House, are no longer connected
with it, and that those who now superintend the
business of that warehouse are men of honour and
respectability. It would be indeed most lamen-
table to find any great public establishment in-
sensible to the misconduct of its officers. We may,
however, be obliged, in the discharge ofourduties,
to point out some serious blots in the character
of many Associations which have been raised
professedly for the advancement, but actually, if
we are to judge from their effect upon public
morals, for the subversion of trad.e.
The merchant, the manufacturer, the wholesale
dealer, and the retailer, are all inseparably con-
nected with, and dependent upon, each other; and
the capital of each conduces to the same end.
The merchant sells the raw material to the mann.
facturer, to whom he gives credit, and on whom
he draws-billk; the manufacturer sells to the re-
tailer, or consigns the manufactured" goods on
commission to the wholesale dealer, and draws
upon him for the amount ; the wholesale dealer
sells the goods partly to the home market, partly
for the country, and partly to the market for ex.:-
portation, and he draws upon the purchaser; the
retailers select assortments of goods—those of
respectable character purchase manufactures of
the best description, others take the refuse. All
those persons are enabled -to carry on their
several concerns by means of some capital, and
by means of credit between each other ; and any
thing that tends to break this connexion, and
divert the capital from those legitimate ob-
jects, must contribute to impair the .manufac-
tures of the country, and force men to embark
their money in more secure and profitable spe-
culations. The fraudulent system exposed in
these columns has had, by the acknowledgment
of all honest men of business, the inevitable ten-
dency to dissolve the mutual confidence by
which the trader as well as the community is be-
nefitted, and to throw into disorder the whole
of the machinery which otherwise would be per-
fect in all its operations. From this disorder
spring ruinous fluctuations, and that griping
distress which first degrades and then destroys
the labouring classes of the people, extending its
effects with equal malignity and violence to the
agricultural poor. The extent of the informa-
tion which we have received on the great subject
of abuses in trade since we have agitated it, is
almost incredible ; the instances supplied to us
of fraud and robbery in all trades are innume--
rable ; but they are only confirmatory of the
knowledge which we previously had acquired in
our examination into the many departments of
villainy with which 'tins enormous place of vice
and virtue abounds. We have had opportuni-
ties of contrasting articles of the best manufac-
tures in almost every line with thd various imi-
tations by means of which fraud ensures an Un-
worthy prosperity,. and those .wlio really think
they are getting the• value of their money are
deluded and plundered. We have seen in the
woollen. branch—the grand staple commodity' of
the country—that frauds are as numerous as in
any other of ournianufactures. Everybody con-
nected with agriculture must know, that wools are
to beptirchased at a price from 10d. to 10s. per lb.
We have seen and compared various articles-
broad-cloth, forinstance, which pass for superfine,
from 10s. to 255. a-yard. Some of the tailors of the
metropolis, who happen to bear characters for inte-
grity,and those alone deserve to be called lionestlho
supply a' good article at a moderate price,—will
boy their cloths at the latter price only, while
the cabbage-hunting knights of the thiMble em-
ploy their fingers with careless velocity over an
article not worth •more than 17s. or 18s. ; but
this they take care to have polished up and rub-
bed down with such skill and industry, that some
little time must elapse before the imposture is
detected. In some of those shops to which the
public are invited in language of such hyperboli-
cal recommendation, the article, a customer will
find, in dandy exhibition seldom reaches more
than one half of the price given by the conscien-,
tious tradesman. Let - those . who , pay . ready
money for the "got tip " material, calculate
the difference in price and the difference in credit,
to say nothing about the wear, between that and
the unexceptionable article, and they will find
that the tradesman who deals in the superior
commodity must have the smaller profit. In the
article of silks what opportunities for the com-
mission of fraud occur ! The raw material is to
be purchased at a price from 10s. to 255. a
pound. Articles can be manufactured of all the
intermediate qualities with such exquisite skill,
that it is with the: utmost difficulty the" keenest
eye that ever suspicion glanced with; can dis-
tinguish the inferiority. Time alone can expose
the deformity of the counterfeit to the ordinary
eye; and yet there are hundreds of persons who
submif tolhe daily delusion, and run from shop
to shOp in quest of " stuff" which sounds
cheap, because the price is low, in. comparison
with that at which prime goods can he purchased
in any honest establishment, We have compared
articles of the same colour, and apparently the
same quality, and. yet the original cost of
gentry
go them at the manufacturer's was a third less than
that of the other. Let any of the contemptible
bargain-hunters amongst our nobility and
go into some respectable house (and mainieyyjtuhndleay
there
are in Regent-street and Oxford-street, and else-
where), and desire to see the two sorts. They
will
llsoboentwpeez theei ve,
commodities,iti the conft.s
thionoaft. their
they
themselves have been the dupes of gangs of shop-
keeping depredators.

We have seen the mode of deception practised
in various descriptions of linens. In the article
of table linen, on account of the peculiarity of
dressing and getting up," which belongs to
that very essential branch, frauds are hourly prac-
tised, so that there is really no safety in dealing
for it at any nut houses of established repute,
Such frauds have been discovered in the sale of.
Irish and other linens, that persons who know
nothing of the deceptions in other departments
of trade have supposed that the whole ingenuity
of the accomplished trading knave of London
was confined to that single branch. Every man
who recollects the durability of the shirts he wore
twenty years ago, must every day witness the con-
trast between the wear of that day and of this.
Sill the vilest trash is vended by what are calgd

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lan.fstareattievaielsoef out
the bleifloauremear-ifizflOsilgi7h cLema°.
1.,
the agents of linen coin ' its. tet:tl
~..Tme ag
panics of this kind are for Med, and of their ge-
forinmearlPyulbited in the capacity of
7cornif
on for a length of time very ext,pnsartiveolfy,tahtel
neral plan of operations. An individual carried
‘m‘ letrrisoh-
Lp
oi
lni es
.n
li e Company"had
valet to a gentleman, from . which. condition he
was exalted gradually to that, of a `• Company:,
He failed in this latter capacity, .and in his ex-
that there was no, company, in existences-0-that he..
amination before the Commissioners he confessed
was the only person in the concern, that he
never purchased a piece of - hop-, .nor,impotte&
a yard from.lreland.innis iiib;:e.4ht he had been
set
.up . and furnished with goods by a house in .
the city, which hiiiise atct not import, but bought
from anothier,house
.ip, the c 19,,
.so that the bank-
rupt was giving, a siOnd.prolitfOrgte goo& with
which he was , .There
supplied. appeared upon
his books the names of,some of the first families
in this country, who were fcaila enough tc belies
that the name of:a company was evidence of the
high respectability, of the concern. The bank-
rupt had got, into his difficulties by maintaining
two families, one of which (that which had the .
least claim upon him) he .supported in an extra-
vagant style. But the exposure of this delusion, .
public as it was, had not the eifect.,Which was an-
ticipated. This verTeoneern was continued by
a man who had been, a journeyman shoemaker,
an oyster-shop7keeper, , and a publican ; who,
without even knowing: ny, thing at all about the
business, became sud4t4y , the ostensible con-
ductor of...alinen.warettotiae, and carries on the
trade in sli4d.wae-tialtiis moment. It izi
howeier,'.helie4ll .til with come 'reason, that a
retail drapes, who .inism--e ncedinother'linen com-
pany, purchasedthis company, and that both are
going on now under.. the same iuperiutendencc..
for the benefit of one and the same person, appa-.
rently in the most furious opposition to each
other. But such is the depraved taste of those
who have been encouraging the system, there is
every ground for supposing that if they could pro-
cure commodities both cheaper and better in the
regular way, they would not be satisfied with the
purchase, so high is the gratification of being
robbed by .a professed seller of -.bargains. like
the romantic girl, who although the door was
open, would insist upon the dangerous and ridi..
culous experiment of eloping out at the window,
they reject the straight-forward and direct course
of dealing, and adopt that which is attended with
certain hazard.7limes.

SLEEP. TALKERS.

A friend of ours, extensively engaged as a
brewer, baker, flour-dealer, iSec., visited Glasgow
some time ago, and took up his abode at the
Buck's Head Inn. While there helbTathered
with a captain of the navy, and although their
pursuits were very different, the two appeared to
draw so well together, that the waiter, after
stating that the house was very full of company,
asked them if they would sleep in a double-
bedded room. To this they had no objection
whatever, and the brewer, after discussing a
Welsh rabbit, and a modicum of Glasgow punch
to boot, rung for the chamber-maid, and retired
to rest. The captain followed, but had- scarcely
laid his head on the pillow, when his friend com-
menced talking thrOugh his sleep, about the
state of the grain and hop market—good and
had batches of bread, and brewsts of porter, ale:
and beer, interlarded with many other topics.
Again and again the Man-of-war's man begged
for God's sake lie Would either be quiet, or
leave the room ; but 'twas all in vain ; the flour-
dealer's tongue rivalled in its ceaselessnees the
eternal clacking of his own mills ; and he who
had slept through many a storm, found it totally
impossible to close his eyes, until the Glasgow
clocks had chimed, and the watchmen repeated,
the hour of four o'clock in the morning. B
this time the brewer became pet fectly quiet, and
the gallant captain, after muttering « I am glad
of it—right glad that your cursed gabble has
brought on locked jaw at last," sunk
immecli-
ately into the arms of Morpheus. But the tra-
yellers, after all, were well matched, for tha cep
tam
. is a great sleep-talker toc, and long before
the hour of five arrived, he was heard roaring at
the very top of his voice, as if Queen Mab had
accommodated him with a speaking trumpet,
for the special annoyance of the poor brewer,
who awoke in a state of great t. ecidation.
But on discovering that the noise proceeuett w-
reay from his friend's bed, he sunk quietly hack
on his own couch. It was soon evident that the
captain's fancy was actively engaged in preparing
out !—why don't
his ship to ride out a coming storm. " Pipe the
hands. up !--clew up the fore-sail---send the men
saails ;_lay
loft—intoi
)o-gallant
out,
t sails—close reef the tep
you lay out on the main top-sail yard there !
send down the top-gallant y
ai-d
s--sterboerti,
quarter-master, starboard ! steady !—what's all
that noise in the mizen -top there ?—send these
fellows down here, Master Jones, I'll teach them
to spin yarns there l—where's the midshipman
of the watch ? send him aft here to heave the
log warrant she's going ten knots."_
These, and many other interjections followed
each other with prodigious rapidity, and com-
pletely prevented our friend the brewer from eu=
joying another moment's repose. For more
than two hours he continued tumbling from side
to side, -and muttering many complaints uin •
s
turn, and at last got up, shaved and dressed,
was just about to leave the room, when
the other
awoke, and exclaimed jocosely, ,c Good mor-
ning to you--I hope yo-1
= hive had a better
night's rest than me, v—."
A good night's rest !
I tell you I got no rest at all, and I would like
to know who could, that has the misfortune
to
he thrust into the same room with you." " I"-
deed ! (said the captain), you are a pretty fel.
low to tell me so. I sometimes, I believe, talk
a little through my sleep, but time about is fair
play ; and who, I would like to know, began
the disturbance ?"—,, Began the disturbance !
You to be sure began it, and kept it up too."
" The devil's in the man," rejoined the sailor ;
" are you ignorant of your own noisy propensi-
ties ? From twelve to four o'clock your tongue
never lay a moment, and the most rhapsodical
nonsense I ever listened to, flowed as copiously
out of your mouth as the water flows into your
mill-dam. But the thing's over now, and we
need not bother ourselveS about what can't be
helped." The sleep talker afterwards break,
fasted together, and became better friends than
ever; and at parting, the captain emphatically
said--" I shall he very glad to meet with VOTI
again, and I will even lie, if we cannot
eep,
should tha
in the same room with you ; but, •
t
ever happen, I shall certainly take
.care to get
fast to bed !"—Dumfries Courie;%

AL.----The Theatrical C2lll
evening, with O'Krzys'e animated
"Comedy of Wild Oatt,, saad the Farce of The S.eoiled Child,
_Dublin Morning Post:
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