21 DECEMBER 1839, Page 5

The following extracts from different country papers describe the state

of trade, and the misery of the working classes in some of the prin- cipal towns of England.

LEEDS.—Trade in almost all its branches continues in a depressed state, and the commercial world resounds with complaints of embarrassments and. loss. This is a melancholy state of things to contemplate ; but we trust that with the new year better prospects will open upon the merchant and manufacturer, amid that the prosperity of 1640 will milt:inlay them for the losses of 1839.— Leeds Intelligencer. BOLTON.—All time mills, except five, are working short time, three to fora days a week. South of Bolton, four miles, a large spinning establishment

which gave employment to eight hundred hands, has been entirely stopped for

six months. The proprietor has one hundreti and twenty-six cottages empty, or paying no rent. Entering Bolton from Manchester there is another mill, where there are two hundred hands, but which has entirely stopped for more than twelve months. North of Bolton another spinning establishment lace been entirely standing some weeks, on which eleven hundred persons were

dependent for subsistence. The consequent misery and destitution are extreme. A few days ago five hundred persons were relieved by the Poor-law Guardians in one day, iim amounts varying from 6d. to is. 6d, per head per week. In some eases there are two or three families living in one house. In

one case seventeen persons were found in a dwelling less than five yards square. In another, eight persons, with two pair of looms and two beds, were found in a cellar, six feet under ground, anti measuring about four yards by five. The out-door relief to the poor is three times greater in amount than in the average of three years, 1836, 1S37, and UM It is impossible to convey by words

even a faint idea of the patient suffering of thousands of the labouring classes. The debts of shopkeepers and the unpaiti house-rents will amount to many thousands during the pro_.sent year, and distraints for rent are taking place daily. The distress in all the manuthetitring towns in this district is probably as deep as it is in Bsiton. Nor is it confined to Lancashire.-21funchester

PRESTON.—We very deeply lament to state that the great hulk of the operative community in this ne:ghbourhood, and, we fear, all over the country, are at the present moment, from the redum ion of wages and the high prices of provisions, suffering the most painful and extreme privations.—Preston Chro- nicle.

Patanronn.—The operatives of this once-flourishing town are at present in such a state of distress that the oldest inhabitants declare they can recollect nothing, to equal it. Woolcombers, weavers, ecc., are in a state of actual " pination." Stout healthy young men inay be seen standing in gronps in-the streets, having little or no work either for their hands or their saws; whilst others, from tear of actual starvation, are working for a paltry thirteenpence per day. The following is from undoubted authority. A woolcomber residing in this town, who has a wife and four children' had been partially employed until about three weeks ago, when he was ordered to carry tn his combs, and has had no work since. They have lived since that time on one meal per day, and that by running into debt ; but the shopkeeper has stopped, being unable to see prospect of 'insolent. Our informant states that he has actually seen, during the present week, the children of this poor man eating the potato- parings off the dunghill, which his more fortunate neighbours had thrown away. IlamrAxs.—Things grow worse and worse, fewer goods sold, and prices rather lower ; and this remark applies to every descriptions of goods. ITUDDERSFIELD.—Bus.iness on Saturday was dull in the extreme; many manutbeturers not only not satins- a single piece, but others not having been asked even the price. This state of things is now beginning to lead to short employment. NOTTINGITA3L—We are extremely concerned to be again compelled to re- port that the state of trade in this town has not improved in the slightest de- gree since our last. The Board of Guardians of the Nottingham Union, at their weekly meeting on Monday last, passed resolutions calculated to meet, as for as possible, the deplorable condition of the unemployed. They have giveu notice that men with two children and upwards shall have out-door employ- ment found them. Last week about sixty men, most of them having large families, were set to work on the new road, near to Mapperley Plains ; and though the employment is very unsuitable to men who have been accustomed to the silk and cotton manufactures, yet they thankfully accept the offer of this omit-door work, and have received bread, potatoes, and money, to the amount of nine shillings each. The number thus employed has increased during the present week.