The Sun. — 1839-06-06 (London, England)

EPORT OF THE WOOLLEN TRADE FOR THE MONTH OF MAY.  We have but small improvement, if any, to report of the woollen trade for the month just closed. A dull trade in the months of March and April is rarely followed by activity in May ; the bulk of the spring trade, so far as the wholesale business is concerned, being over in the former months. The home trade during the month has maintained the same heavy and unsatisfactory character which it has borne since October last. The foreign demand, until the last ten days, has been equally languid ; within that period there have been indations of renewed and somewhat extensive business to the States. The state of Stocks, we believe, is not materially altered since our last report, that is, there is no excess tither in the balk or the finished state. Notwithstanding this favourable feature, the rate of prices has not been remunerating either to manufacturer or merchant. Both have been guarded in their conduct, but, unfortunately for them, the contraction of purchases and preparation has not kept pace with the diminution of demand, and the buyers have, consequently, had it much their own way. As to prices, cloths are lower, rather because they do not bear a profit, than because of any corresponding fall in wool or dyeing. Wools have, indeed, been sold at a lower rate during May than at any time since October last, but they arc still higher proportionally (as they have been during the last four or five months) than cloths. The stock of wool, we believe, is not large under t2s. 3d. to 6d., but it is understood to be considerable " for the season" above those prices.  The goods in greatest demand during May, and throughout the spring have been blues, blacks, and invisible greens ; fewer common colours have been asked for than we ever recollect in the spring season, and there does not seem to be much prospect of a change in taste at present. Of goods in preparation we are disposed to think the quantity is not large of this we are certain, that wool has been very cautiously purchased for some weeks, and many manufacturers have greatly diminished their scale of operations : what effect the present re-opening of the American demand may have on their disposition we presume not to say, though we think the prospect of continued and increasing demand for that quarter should be more sure than we now take it to be, ere they resume full work. The kinds of goods in preparation, in addition to the regular supply of blues, blacks, and greens, of al :prices, are understood to be Petershams and beavers, with, we suppose, a moderate quantity of double-milled cloths. We speak rather doubtfully as to the latter kind, because we have not heard of them as we did last year, on all hands. Then, as we ventured to hint at the time, too many were made, as not a few are aware of, both in Leeds and London, who hold stocks of them. This year we think the quantity of fresh double-milled cloths required will be small, and that the manufacturers will do well to guard against over supply. Pilots and beavers, it is supposed, will have a run, and of the latter the slighter kinds will probably be most wanted.—Leeds Mercury.  THE MARQUIS OF TWEEDDALE'S DRAIN TILE MactitNE.—This machine will make 10,000 draintiles a day, one man and two boys to attend it, and twenty thousand of flat tiles for the drain-tile to lie upon, but if the tiles are broad for roofing, it will make 12,000 a-day. These draining tiles arc fifteen inches long, so that three machines would make in one season (of thirty weeks), as many tiles as would lay a drain from London to York. Now a man and two assistants will only make 1,000 draintiles in a day, and these only one foot long, which is 1,000 feet per day. While the machine with the same number of persons will make 12,500 feet per day ; so that if the drain be laid at the distance of twenty-five feet, it will make in one day sufficient tiles for six acres. The advantages are—lst. The tile is much stronger from being compressed, and less impervious to water—it is not only com. pressed but it is smoother over, which gives it a surface as though it were glazed. They are capable of being made front a much stiffer clay than usual, and in nine cases out of ten the clay may be used directly on being dug, if passed through the crushers, being much drier. Clay. unfit for bricks and tiles by the common method, is avadable by the machinery. The expense of draining will be paid in three years, but not unfrequently in one. —Farmer's _Magazine. The must noble and most salutary forms and institutions which, whether in civil or moral societies, are bequeathed from generation to generation. after the lapse of centuries, will prove defective. However exquisitely fit, they may have been when they were framed, it would be necessary that the vital power in states and churehu's should act instinctively, and evince a faculty (.f perpetually adapting itself to the occasion, as the ship Argo did when it spoke, if such a fitness is to last. As it is, however, they either continue without any outward alteration, and then are only the mote certain of becomin,' a mere lifeless shell, or they are gradually developed and transformed ; during which process their original purpose is but usually little thought of, and often totally misunderstood ; nay, the condition of the persons for whose sake the institutions were first enacted, will often undergo so great a change that there ceases to be any room for such a purpose ; and then should any one perceive that what is now oppressing and harassing us would not have existed, but for these forms and the events which fashioned them, he may unthinkingly turn his displeasure against them; may wish not that they were suitably modified, but that they had had never twen; and may extol what they did away with , without knowing what it was, without asking what and where he himself would be. but for those institutions which now in their turn have outlived themselves. —Niebuhr.  DESPERATE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE AT WATERLoo.