The Express. — London, England, 1866-05-14 00:00:00

• • • I .• MAPPIN BROTHERl3.—Established A. D. 1810. (TB of SILVER PLATE for the COLONIES. CUTLERY and SILVER PLATE for FURNISH LIG. MAPPIN BROTHERS, LONDON-BRIDGE. MAPPIN BROTHERS, 222, REGENT MM. TORN BROGDEN'S GOLD CHAINS by troy TY weight, at realisable value, aad the workmanship at wholesale manufacturers' price& The gold in the chains gua ranteed, and repurchased at the ptios charged " Here's the note, How much your chain weighs to the utmost carat, The enemas of the gold, and charge for te fashion" lAltl Manufactory, 10. Henriettaldreet, Coyest-garden. London. SING OVERCOATS, for the RACES and resent Sewn, are kept ready for rue, and other &Melee of gentlemen's dram made to order at HAMILTON and lIWTONS, 106, Strand, opposite Exeter Hall. mURTLE, TURTLE, TURTLE. Clear, Thick, and Invalid TURTLE SOUPS always ready. ST. JAM :NS-HALL, REGENTNTSENT, PICCADILLY. WY. DONALD, Proprietor. WEST-END DINERS.—The WELLING -11 TON, St James's-street, licoodilly. Ladles' Saloon Minn-room on the ant floor. The subscsiptlon rooms are now open. Terms, twelve months. E 1 11a. St; six mouths, ans.— Apply to D. Cameron, 4D. Bt. James's-street. LONDON must have a SUPPER kind MUSIC ROOM for Oentlemen.—Remember, we wait for you at " EVANfr." atter the Covent Garden Opera and the Theatres. irk, eilirtoo. TO CORRESPONDENTS. Advertisements intended for "The " London Evening Paper, must be at the Office . 10, touver Zwpreaa, teetreet, by Two o'clock on the day of public:slim HAYMMIKET. THIN Immo, THE BAEANCeiII' COMFORT. Mears 'owe, Enders, Braid, MlnAdaCevendleh.—THE FAVORITI OF FORTUNE Meson Buckstone, Chippendale, and Sothern ; lire Chippendale, ae.—And A DAUGHTIII TO MASHY. PILINCIDN'a THIS Svssnra, ♦ LUCiariiiT. —liter which TEC STAMM OF LONDON. Mesas. Vining, T. Mead, D. Murray, Shore, and Villiers ; Mrs H. Marston, and Mlles IL Barnett and IL Rodgers LI 1/LUM. MIS EVENING, simpsoN Messrs. Emery & Hors man; Mrs. Horsman.—And THE MANTER Of ILAVENSWOOD. mesas. Jordan, Herman, Vain, Emery,Wlddleemb, Yttzpataisk. &c. ; Mesdames Taman, Elsworthy, lavenu, and C. LeclerN. BSTTAI IIL THIS Evianro, THE DAUGHTER. Mom. Reynolds, Cranford, and Bigwoud ; !dim Clara fit. Ukase, lint & 'Ale, and Vire E. Yarald. —The Echaue Family.—To conclude with THE HURON CHIRI I . Mr. 'macs Anderson.. HIGH-WATER AT LONDON.BRIDGE. TRU DAY — Lioruing" -- lk 42es. TO-1101140W—Morning, lb. 3w Afternoon, Eh 2firn. LONDON, MONDAY, MA Y 14. THE past week has been the most momentous in the financial world for at least forty years. Never within living memory have events been so crowded together. Three days have sufficed for the sudden outbreak of a monetary crisis so seri ous as to throw those of 1847 and 1857 entirely into the shade, and for its equally sudden modifica tion. It would be presumptuous to consider that the whole danger has passed away, and that finan cial affairs are again placed upon their ordinary and regular footing. We must not be unprepared for mercantile disasters, failures upon perhaps a large scale, and a remnant of distrust which will naturally follow the workings of the great convul sion. Still, however, the worst is over ; the plague has been stayed, and can hardly break out again in its former intensity. For this for tunate result the nation is indebted to the courage and promptitude of the Government in resolutely dealing with the irsine diate crisis. Not only did they recognise the remedy, but they applied it instantly, avoid ing the delay which, on previous oecqeions, served only to aggravate the evil, without doing the slightestgood. The effect produced on public op in'on by the unhesitating suspension of the Bank Charter Act is almost unprecedented. At no time has so complete a transition from unreasoning alarm to prudent confidence been effected by one single rnewure. The contrast of the state of the City on Friday with that of Saturday can never be forgotten by those who witnessed it. Instead of crowds of frightened depositors gathering round the various banks, and eagerly watching if a run were taking place, there were comparatively few persons to be seen beyond those engaged in the ordinary business of the day. Doubtless some balances were with drawn, but they were of little an'ount, and could not, in any case, be productive of real inconvenience. The feverish excitement of the previous day was almost at an end, and the centres of business began to wear their ordinary appearance. Now that the calamity has become in some measure a thing of the past its causes can be ap propriately examined, and if possible means may be suggested for obviating them in the future. Ly some sort of consent the blame has been thrown upon the introduction of the modern sys tem of " financing," whether by companies originally constituted for financial operations properly so distinguished, or by others adopting these transactions to the neglect of their legitimate business. Now, in the first place, we have to consider the amount of injury that has actually been done. Of the five principal financial companies only one has succumbed, the rest appear perfectly able to maintain their position ; and one in particular—the International Financial—has its funds so well in hand that it has publicly notified its readiness to meet its engagements even before they come duo. It is evident, therefore, that financial business is not, as we have already had occasion to show, essen tially unsafe. Everything depends upon the integ rity and ability of those conducting it—a conclu sion which equally applies to banking or any other department of trade. For example, take the case of the Joint Stock Discount Company. It is in ferred that the collapse of this concern proceeded solely from its undertaking financial operations which, it may be allowed, were beyond its province. Yet the fact is overlooked that the business offered to it, and which it unluckily undertook, was so inherently hazardous, not to say bad, from the commencement, that no well-managed financial association would have looked at it for an instant. The same may be said of most of the other companies that have failed. The managers seem to have carried recklessneastosucha pitch that the capital entrusted to them must have been lost sooner or later, and therefore it was of no practical consequence in which way it went. As regards the great failure of OVEREND, GURNEY, and Co., we have already expressed an opinion as to its proximate cause. It doubtless arose from a simple overstraining of credit. For Years this establishment has been accustomed to take deposits from bankers and others at call or short notice, and to lend them out at comparatively long dates. Of course if this money were unexpectedly called in, OVEREND, GURNEY, and Co. could not possibly pay it with out loans from elsewhere. Accordingly, when this contingency arose, as it did last week, appli cation for aid was made to the Bank of England ; but the latter, acting, not for the first time, upon their famous rule of refusing to rediscount for the discount houses, declined to comply. Help Could be got nowhere else, as every one vim poly too anxious to strengthen his own position', and hence a stoppage became inevitable. mere eon be no doubt that these joint-stock failures, the last in particular, have materially contributed to cause the recent panic ; but it is not fair to attri bute their col apse to the necessarily precarious nature of financial business generally. Incredibly gross mismanagement in some cases and mis calculation in others rather deserve the blame. Another cause has been the persistent effort for a long time past to excite public alarm. Warnings have been multiplied to such an extent, although based upon no real grounds whatever, that the more ignorant portion of the public have gradually become frightened in earnest. Of course the joint-stock failures were made the groundwork for a whole succession of terrifying lectures. A fall in prices, however small, was magnified into a panic. It is easy enough to propagate mischief in this way. Timid holders were thus induced to sell their shares, and the speculative portion of the public--persons mostly unconnected with the City, but dabbling a little on the Stock Exchange—were acute enough to take advantage of the disturbance, and stimulate it by ambiguous whispers which they were accustomed to spread as much as possible from one broker's office to another. To such a class of people each successive warning was as amine of gold. Hence by this sort of conscious or uncon scious playing into one another's bands, and with the assistance of an impending European war, and con sequent depreciation in foreign securities, public confidence began to be seriously shaken. The banks were sot slow to perceive the signs of the times, and to call in their reserves to meet the coming difficulty. At last, pressed upon at all sides, Ovesszrn, Guarrav, and Co. stopped payment, and then came the inevitable crash. 01 The distinctive feature of the present crisis compared with those of 1847 and 1857, has been clearly recognised by the Government. In his speech, announcing the relaxation of the Bank Charter Act, Mr. Gnu:Hero:cc observed that " the present crisis does not arise from " any general unsoundness in the condition of our " commerce, but only from causes of a peculiar " and specific character." Whether any measures could be taken for its relief, except one, may be doubted. But, as that one has been taken, it is unnecessary to look farther. The suspension of the Bank Charter Act was the single mea sure that could be efficacious, and it has proved to be so already. An expedient, indeed, waa pro posed, much to everybody's astonishment, which involved nothing leas than a partial suspension of cash payments. An issue of Bank post bills, or, in other words, of legal tender, interest-bearing notes, inconvertible for a fixed period, was the plan suggested. This is no new idea. The same scheme was brought for ward in 1857, but then it was to be adopted by private firms, and not by the Bank. While, however, it is admitted even by the strongest sup porters of the Act, that its suspension has stopped the panic, it is equally averred that the benefit of its suspension now has been secured by its maintenance in ordinary times. A very able finan cial contemporary acknowledges that the pre sent currency system is only adapted for fair weather, which is tantamount to saying that it is a capital lifeboat in a calm sea, but good for no thing in a storm. The most singular argument, however, that is brought forward rests in the assertion that without the restraint imposed upon the Bank directors by the Act of 1844, they could never be in a position to meet the altered circum stances when a suspension of the Act is vitally necessary. Surely, if a body of the most emi nent commercial men in the kingdom can be trusted to act after their own discretion in times of panic, they are, a priori, at least equally entitled to confidence when there is nothing to disturb the even current of trade. If the Bank directors are worthy to be trusted on occasions of extreme difficulty, why should they be restrained, as incapable of sober judgment when there is absolutely nothing to fear ? The contradiction is obvious. Either the Directors of the Bank of England are fit for their post, or not. If they are fit, let their discretion have fair play ; if they are not, replace them by some body else. The present plan assumes that they are incapable when capacity is moat required, but capable when capacity is not needed. The suspension of the Lank Act having allayed the alarm, the usual assertions follow that the corrective was not needed at all. Supposing that nothing had been done, the Bank of England, it is affirmed, would have been per:ectly !safe. We do not share this view, and in our dissent we are supported by the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE QUER, who, discarding the prejudices of theory, became by the exercise of his own judgment prac tically equal to the occasion. Let us suppose that no intimation had been given in Parliament of the relaxation of the Act, and that another day of sus pense and terror had followed on Friday. The result can be easily discerned. Banking credit being, as Mr. GLADSTONE has remarked, in jeopardy, there would have been more or leas of a run upon all the establishments, joint-stock or private, metropolitan or provincial. In self-defence they must have refused discounts, and for ,he same reason must have withdrawn their own de posits from the Bank. Carried out to the end, the result of this unbending in fliction of the law would have been the suspension of payment of the Bank of England. Bankers withdrawing their deposits, others (for it would soon be known) doing the like, and mer chants applying for legitimate assistance, would be sufficient to exhaust in a few hours as much as twice or three times the remainder of the reserve. We have reason to believe that the CHANCELLOR of the Excaaorza was chiefly influenced by this consideration in advising that the Act of 1844 should be suspended at once. The wild alarm is happily over, but the end of such a convulsion is not yet. Further disasters, as we have said, must come, and confidence can only be gradually restored. The grand object at such a time should be to discard a selfish policy, and for each banker and trader to help his cus tomer or fellow-trader on a prudent basis, accord ing to his means. There is no further necessity for the craven hoarding of the last two days. The Bank of England can only lend money on a certain class of securities ; but under the suspension of the Act they can now lend upon such securities freely. Let bankers and money dealers profit by the relief accorded, borrow upon those securities they can thus employ at the Bank, and afford the faci lities they have been hitherto accustomed to grant upon those of a secondary character, under pru dent restrictions. Thus only can the radical cure come, unnecessary ruin be averted, and the coun try be saved from a serious stoppage of trade, as well as a state of financial confusion which becomes a national disgrace. gain 14 the change proposed v i ds *Ow the Wien is liberal, the tortes because ittervill 10 orted to @Kamp the tp&rit of obstinate obstroden he that of enlightened ecsmervatism and to &dovelike's selves to the Wm:tend feeling of England. The Pod Ma back again upon the memory of Lord Palmerston, and concludes an article on the Reform Bill by applying to the deceased Premier the following lines : .. " Statesman, yet friend of truth, in heart sincere, Honest in judgment, and in honour clear ; He served no purpose, gained no private end, He won all harm, and never lost a friend." It is said to be the intention of her Majesty to confer in person the new decoration, called the " Albert Medal," upon Mr. Samuel Popplestone, who gallantly saved two lives from the wreck of the Spirit of the Ocean, off the Start Poiat. t.y THU, EXPRESS, MONDAY ElT 4 i 4 4gtit, MAY 14, 1966. The Herald says the greet constitutional party in the House of Commons, including half of those who voted for ministers the other day, insist upon such a redistribution of seats as will go towards redressing the unjust balance between town voters and country voters ; they will demand an equitable boundary bill, and the provision by which the freeholders in the towns are not only allowed to retain their county votes but are to be reinforced by a horde of leaseholders must be wholly reversed. If these and • few other of the more flagrant faults of the present system are straightforwardly recti fied ; if the silly and impertinent disfranchisement of dockyard voters is given up at once ; if certain other classes of persona—professional men, certificated school masters, and persons of all kinds whose position is suffi cient evidence of their education and intelligence—be freely and liberally enfranchised, the constitutional party will not be found unwilling to aid in carrying through a Reform Bill. But persistence in the stupid notion that 71. or 61., or pounds of any sort, are the sole evidence of qualification, is a course which can only land its adherents in entire discomfiture. The government, the Telegraph says, stand ready, if need be, either to accept the decision of the people, or to fight the question through the present parliament, even if both houses should sit till Michaelmas. Should they be forced to the first alternative, public opinion. growing by indignation and impatience, will insist upon a larger and bolder measure ; but Lord Russell is willing enough, and the country is willing enough, to adopt the other course ; although in that case the whole bill must and will be kept true to its present character. The Star contends that the success or defeat of the go vernment reform scheme in its integrity depends abso lutely upon the conduct of the liberal party. By no pos sible effort can the tories alone succeed in defeating it. But it is quite possible that some effort may be made to upset the whole scheme by contriving, with the aid of the malcontent liberals, so to alter the amount of the franchise in committee as to render the further progress of the measure impossible. The present scheme, it is said, is to agree toe 71. franchise if the county franchise is raised to 201.; but to this the government would never accede, and if the liberals vote together the government will have large majority, and the bill is certain to peas this session. • GREECE. LATEST INTELLIGENCE. THE WAR 'NEWS. , We extract from the Italian and German journals the following intelligence relative to the impend ing war. The Italia publishes the following from the frontiers of Venetia : A squadron of Hula= has arrived at Taschler. Those inhabitants who are not in a position to supply them- selves with three months' provisions have been told to leave, and the provision merchants have been ordered to reserve their stores for the inhabitants of the heiress alone. The bridge which crosses the Mindo neer Peachier is said to be mined. The 8,000 Croats completely equipped have arrived at Verona. The garrison in that city is not numerous, but the surrounding localities are so many camps. The Persevere/0a of Milan says : General Cucchlari arrived here from Parma by the fore noon train, and started immediately for Cremona. General Bivel has also arrived here from Florence, and General Coreale, who commands the Breeden division, has left for his poet. Prince Umberto was delayed some hours in his arrival here by the many military trains which are now running, but on his appearanos he was loudly cheered by the people. The Prussian Gazette of May 10 says : - - Looking at the military measures taken by Austria and the States of the Confederation we arrive at the following results. The Saxon army is on the way to complete mobilisa tion. Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Hanover are making pre parations for the same purpose. In Austria the mobilisa tion of the whole army is nearly completed. Two batta lions of the regiment Nobili which were a short time ago in garrison at Vienna have entered Konig grate. The first detachments of the lancer regiments who are on the march towards Bohemia have arrived at Joeephstadt. The villages of Oswiecim and Chrranow on the Galician frontier, have received garrisons, and it is expected that a concentration of 20,000 troops between these two points will soon be effected. The Emperor of Austria has ordered the forma tion of a fifth battalion in each of the 80 regiments of the line, and of a depot detachment for each of the 32 battalions of Chasseurs. According to the Neue Freie Psesse, these two corps alone, with the additions now made, would gave an effective force of 500,000 fighting men. (azuria's TriscauxB.) PRUSSIA. BERLIN, HAT 14. Duke William of Mecklenburg has been ap pointed commander of the Royal Guards instead of Duke Augustus of Wurtemberg, who has been re lieved of his command. General von Voigt Rheetz has been appointed chief of the general staff. ATHENS, MAT 8. On account of the probability of war, the King has deferred his intended journey into the pro vinces and returned to this city yesterday evening. LADIES' UNDRESS.-A BOLD LANCE. A correspondent of the Morning Post writes: We are told that two ladies recently appeared at a ball in Paris with their charms so innocent of ambush tha. French decency was shocked, and the offenders were requested to retire. It appears that the cor sage, ebbing in obedience to fashion, has become so shallow that any real connexion with the shoulder and arm is intolerable. The ladies in question were bold enough to avow this fact and contented themselves with signifying the connexion by • couple of narrow tapes. The result must have been a flesh representation of Mr. Power's bust of Ceres, if so handsome. It is to be hoped, sir, these ladies have not fallen in vain, for they have performed areal public service. They have ascertained the limit of un dress, and at Paris. May not our countrywomen now be safely approached on the subject? Any man standing in the doorway of a London ball or party (I am bound to say, though, my rector's wife in the country affords equal privilege) must consider himself a highly favoured mortal. His eye surveys such a disclosure of person that he may imagine himself on the point of realising that artless period which Alfred de Musset so plaintively regretted in Rolla. And the custom is confined neither to age nor circum stance. There is perhaps a discernible effort arising from instinctive delicacy on the part of the youngest and loveliest, to inhibit the too-intrusive glance ; but while not only the voluptuousness of Astarte is published, but the too-generous developments of maternal Juno, and the severe figure of Diana passes, it would be invidious of the " lily maid" to attempt, if she dared, to mark her distinction, though, indeed, if the object of the custom be to establish a claim to shape, she it is who can best afford to comply. But the doorway philosopher is compelled to dismiss this view ' the marvellously un conscious manner in which the thoroughly good, and able, and puny mother of several children will move by him as if to her bath—not to mention other palpable in stances—sufficiently preclude the idea. This is the amazing and distracting feature. The ladies in Paris, whose covering was limited to a couple of tapes, may, without defamation, be supposed to have been adapting their toilette to the palate of the libertine. There was at least an explanation, if an immoral one, for their disapparel. But here the women who instinctively lift their eyes from men, who arechaate in their ideasand happyin their homes, are not less ostentatiously bare, nor less liable to the im putation of a similar motive. In vain the father may command, the brother solicit, the husband adjure, and the lover timidly protest (for a man no sooner cares for a woman than ho becomes concerned on this point), the infatuated victim moves, disrobing in her trance, to the sacrificial altar of fashion. When we consider who are the priestesses of this altar we shall cease to wonder at the character of the present rite. There is perhaps no &adder subject of re flection than that of the source from whence our mothers, wives, sisters, and our idols derive inspiration in the matter of dress. That ideas emanating from a combined condition of immorality and effrontery, from a state essentially requiring all modesty to be aban doned and every chaste influence to be expelled with mockery, should be received with reverence and followed I with superstition by women fulfilling the highest duties l o f their sex, ie as inexplicable as it is pernicious. But it is not the less an indisputable fact. The successful caprice of Mimi Taptape, or of Ilkbd )'t'en fiche, becomes the very thraldom of our Pamelas and Amebas. The Duke and Duchess of Beaufort's party at Badminton during the past week comprised—the Duke of Newcastle, the Marquis and Marchioness of Hastings, the Earl and Countess of Westmoreland, the Earl of Wilton, the Earl of Winchilsea, the Earl of Coventry, the Earl of Portsmouth, Hon. Henry Forester, Hon. Admiral Rous, Hon. Colonel Berkeley, Hon. F. Calthorpe, Hon. F. Curzon, Sir Frederick Johnstone, Colonel Raabe, Colonel O'Higgins, Captain Little, Captain H. Coventry, Mr. George Payne, Mr. W. G. Craven, Mr. Ten Broeck, Mr. Rushout, Mr. H. V. Williamson, Mr. Cecil Martyn, Mr. R. Graham, Mr. Pryor, and Mr. Baldwin. The Earl and Countess of Hardwicke entertained the Earl and Countess Vane, Viscount and Viscountess Royston, Lord Stanley, M.P., Lord John Hay, M.P., Lady Bloomfield, Sir Ivor Guest and Miss Guest, Hon. Mr. and Mrs. Barrington and Miss C. Barrington, at dinner on Saturday evening, at their residence in Portman-square. The Dorchester papers describe an affecting scene at the funeral of Lord and Lady Rivers a few days since. Among the numerous chief mourners were Earl Granville. a brother of lady Rivers, and Lady Blanche Pitt, a daughter of the deceased. Before the Coffins were lowered into the grave Earl Granville knelt beside the coffin of his sister, and Lady Blanche Pitt knelt before the coffins of her parent' in silent prayer. During this 'affecting scene the solemn funeral service was suspended. Captain Arbuthnot, the husband of a daughter of Lord and Lady Rivers, who was struck dead by lightning on her wedding tour in Switzerland a short time ago, was one of the chief mourners at the funeral. On Friday evening, at the weekly meeting of tho members of this institution, Professor Ansted delivered a lecture " On the Mud Volcanoes of the Crimea, and on the relation of these and similar phenomena to deposits of Petroleum." Iphigenia in Tauris is to be repeated to-morrow night at her Majesty's Theatre ; and on Thursday Mdlle. lima di Monica makes her first appearance for the season. To-night Madame Villa reappears at Covent Garden .a Norma, with Madame Leounens-Sherrington as Adalgiaa and Signor Maeda' MI Poilio. To-morrow Mdlle. Adelina Patti comes back to us in the character of Rosins. Mrs. Reble, widow of the late Rev. John Keble, died at Brookside, Bournemouth, the same house in which her late husband died, on Friday afternoon. THE PUBLIC HEALTH. The Times comments upon the increase of cholera cases at Liverpool, where, it says, among a death-stricken popu lation and in crowded fever: dens German emigrants are allowed to mass together without restriction. The peril is met with a reprehensible want of energy, and unless more vigorous measures are promptly taken neglect may be irremediable. Twenty-four hours' delay may render all precautions unavailing ; the cholera may at any moment have effected a lodgment among us, and the government would then be too effectually relieved from the necessity of enforcing quarantine regulations. If quarantine be any protection, as seems to be believed, let us be protected by it, and pro tected at once. It is idle to say that ships might not at once be sent round to Liverpool, in which the German emi grant. might be sheltered until they could be embarked for their destination, and either this or some similar pre caution must be adopted. Nor, while attending to one port, must the government forget that a similar danger might at any moment threaten us at another, and they will not fulfil their duty if they do not promptly arrange some effectual means for providing hospital and quarantine ac. conimodation at every large port in the kingdom. The Daily News draws the startling conclusion from the figures and facts of the official reports that in round numbers six thousand lives were sacrificed in thirteen towns, during one quarter of a year, to causes which are strictly preventible. Of the six thousand lives so un necessarily wasted, Liverpool and Manchester are alone answerable for a full moiety. The mor tality of Liverpool la chiefly attributable to defec tive drainage and the huddling together of the Irish poor ; and the excessive mortality at Manchester, apart from the dangerous nuisance of smoke, must be considered in connexion with the fact that water-channels are often turned there into open sewers, cesspools overflow, that many houses have no back-doors, and that cellar dwellings are common. In these and the other towns referred to there is urgent need for inquiry into the causes which at present render them so destructive of human life. If further local power is wanted, let the legislature be at once applied to, and it will be ungrudgingly bestowed. tTte Court. WINDSOR CASTLE, MAY 12. The Queen walked and drove in the grounds yesterday afternoon, and again this morning, accompanied by Princeu Helena. Princess Louise and Princess Beatrice also walked and drove. Prince Alfred, attended by the Hon. Eliot Yorke, weni to London. The Duchess of Cambridge and Princess Mary left the Castle for Kew yesterday afternoon, attended by Colonel Home Purvis. The Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg. Strelitz, and Prince Teck, accompanied their Royal High. messes to Richmond, and then proceeded to London attended by Lady Caroline Cost. The Duke of Cambridge, attended by Colonel the Hon. J. Macdonald, also left the Castle for London. MAY 13. The Queen, with Princess Helena, walked in the grounds yesterday afternoon. Prince Alfred, attended by the Hon. Eliot Yorke, arrived at the Castle from London. The Right Hon. K Cardwell also arrived at the Cutle, and had the honour of dining with the Queen and the royal family. The Queen, Prince Alfred, Princess Helena, and Prince Leopold, and the Ladies and Gentlemen in Waiting, attended Divine service this morning in the private chapel. The Rev. W. H. Brookfield, honorary Chaplain in ordinary to the Queen, preached the sermon. The Princess of Wales took a carriage drive on Satur. day, attended by the Hon. Mrs. A. Hardinge. In the evening the Prince and Princess of Wales went to the Royal Italian Opera, Covent-garden. The Prince and Princess of Wales, with the Hon. Mrs. A. Hardinge and Major Teesdale in waiting, attended Divine service at the Chapel Royal, St. James's, yesterday. The communion service was read by the rev. the sub dean, the Rev. J. V. l'ovah, and Rev. Daniel Moore. Anthem, " God is gone up," Croft. Sung by Masters Carmichael and Searle ; Messrs. Francis, R. Barnby, Cummings, and Lawler. Mr. Goss presided at the organ. The sermon was preached by the Rev. Daniel Moore, honorary chaplain to her Majesty, from Acts, ch. 1, v. 9. A Cabinet Council was held on Saturday, at the official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, in Downing-street. The ministers present were Earl Russell, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, the Duke of Argyll, Sir George Grey, the Earl of Clarendon, the Right Hon. Edward Cardwell, Earl de Grey, the Marquis of Hartington, the Chancel lor of the Exchequer, the Duke of Somerset, the Right Hon. T. Milner Gibson, Lord Stanley of Alderley, the Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, and the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers. e (Times) believe that her Majesty has signified her wish to occupy Cliefden, the seat of the Dowager Duchess of Sutherland, for a period which will include the anniversary of her birth and the Ascot Race week. We also believe that her Majesty has relinquished her inten tion of visiting Scotland at present. The Earl of Clarendon, Secretary of State for the Foreign Department, will entertain the whole of the foreign ambusadora and ministers plenipotentiary at a full dress banquet on the 26th instant to celebrate the Queen's birthday. The dinner will take place at the First Lord of the Treasury's official residence in Downing street. The Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exche quer will give a full dress banquet on Saturday, the 26th instant, in celebration of her Majesty's birthday. After dinner Mrs. Gladstone will have an assembly. BUR ceNrEMboRAIRIES. , (rms DAY.) • • THI nowie maarsr. The Times treats of the financial panic it a lead• ing article extending to the unusual length of three columns, and in the City Article the subject is discussed still further. The rise and formation of what are Galled finance companies are traced—those socie ties being described as compounded of all the commercial novelties which have made and unmade to many colossal fortunes, and as combining in one the Bank, the' discounter, the railway, the iron-master, the merchant, the stock-jobber, and that specious form of limited liability which induces the hope of profit. on a very large sum with the risk of a very small one. The pub lic in the meantime have been blind to such considerations as that they were quite at the mercy of persons of whom they could know very little, and they would not perceive that the art of making money is the prise 'of special talent, great industry, rare opportunity, or singular chance, and they would forget that character is as important in com mercial affairs as it is in families and households. The moat flagrant oversight, however, has been that the financiers have not drawn money from the people for the use of sovereigns and governments which posses some sort of stability, but for railways of unex ampled daring and extravagance, contractors who can seldom know whether they are millionaires or bankrupts, speculators in cotton and iron, and even in warrants that did not represent iron, and companies which had pur chased the interests of banks, some of them notoriously the shadow of a great name, a sound, and nothing more. This system is a complete inversion of the process of banking. These new companies do not propose simply to take care of the money of depositors, but to do business for them, whatever business it chooses, and give them a share of the profits. Yet for many reasons they must have more than their share of the ordinary risks of trade. The true authors, however, of this huge mischief are the public themselves, who will not be contented with a tedious 3 per cent., and who go on holding shares till the depreciated shares will no longer cover the loans, and the wreck must be abandoned to its fate. Under some convenient neutral name they want some thing which shall yield them the interest not of trade but of speculation. The Times abstains from names and particulars, but the disclosures made to the Bank of England and the Chancellor of the Exchequer on Friday simply show that even our largest banks, those in the bast repute and with the largest business, have been going on, no one can say how long, upon the supposition that there never meld be a run on them, that they might hold any amount of deposits with only • very small proportion of reserve to meet them in the time of need, and that they simply relied on the aid to be obtained from the Bank, if necessary by • suspension of the act. That measure has not been left, as many hoped, to its purely moral force. The Bank has had to draw on its resources to an extent for which we believe only one parallel can be found in its history. It now devolves on the banks and financial companies to make good their position in something like a calm after the storm. The Telegraph disputes the notion that the Bank Act bad better be abrogated altogether. As a general rule, the Bank issues ought to be restricted, so as not to exceed the quantity of gold and securities—in other words, the means of payment. But there arise every now and then emergencies when that prudent rule may be pro- perly violated, and such cues must be judged upon their own merits. It would be impossible to define beforehand by a general statute all the circumstances in which the relaxation may be expedient. Consequently, no provision is made by law for these exceptional measures, and they are left to the discretion of a competent and impartial authority—the government of the day, acting in conjunc tion with the most eminent financiers, whose counsel it can command. If all these persons concur in the belief that a crisis has arisen which just;fies a departure from the ordinary rules of administration, the public may have confidence in the accuracy of that opinion. The Star agrees with the suggestion of the Economist, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the First Lord of the Treasury should have the legal power of suspending the act of 1844. Something more is, however, wanted in the shape of a permanent addition to the money of the country, based upon the same unmistakable security as that which now exists for the unconvertible portion of the bank issue, in order to bring the amount more into keeping with the extended business of the country and the legitimate development of banking since 1644. ICROPWI COMPLICATIONS. The Post says that the negotiations for the cession of Venetia must be dismissed from the calculations of pos sible events. Austria will not surrender the province except for the Danubian Principalities, and to this Turkey, the Cxar, and the people of the Principalities themselves would alike object. The Post also says that a comparison of the line regiments of the Austrians and Italians has not impressed an English officer who has recently returned from Venetia with a favourable v iew of the chances of the latter in a conflict between the two forces. The Herald sees an increasing number of reasons for ex pecting the outbreak of war. Austria can hardly lose by unsuccess more than she must do if she allows the Prussian plan of reconstitution to be adopted, and she may hope for allies in war against the parliament, who would give her no aid if she merely fought to keep the Prussians out of Holstein or to take matiafaction for their driving her out of the Duchy. The Telegraph thinks that if Engiand,Franee, and Ruuia were at this moment to unite in deprecating the outbreak of hostilities, it cannot be doubted that their protest would, to say the least, cause the intending belligerents to weigh the matter well before rejecting the counsels so tendered. The subject-matters in dispute,both in Germany and Italy, are of a character which might easily be settled by nego tiation. The Star speculates on the probable character of a cam paign conducted by Garibaldi. In its opinion Garibaldi's predilection for maritime over strictly military pursuits renders it highly probable that his first independent effort w:11 be directed either against the Austrian positions on the Lago di Garda or towards the goal of Italian ambition and the cynosure of all Italian eyes—the long widowed Queen of the Adriatic. THE BOMBARDMENT OP VALPAR 11g0. The bombardment of Valparaiso, a purely commercial city incapable of resistance, is characterised by the Doily News as an atrocious measure. The Spanish admiral seems to have adopted it because he was bound to do something and could not get at the allied fleet.. The tone in which he describes his position and duties leaves no room to hope that the perpetrators of this barbarous act will prove accessible to the influence of that public opinion which they have defied and shocked. One kind of intervention at any rate is left to ns. It will be a disgrace to our capitalists if they lend money to enable the Spanish government to indulge its insane notions, by the destruction of great centres of trade and commerce. Our merchants have a right to expect at least this amount of consideration from their fellow-traders. The Post remarks that the bombardment of unfortified towns is now universally interdicted, and the fact that Valparaiso was bombarded in conformity with instructions given in cold blood at Madrid aggravates the enormity of the offence. On the course pursued by the English admiral the Past forbears for the present to comment. His conduct must be estimated by the instructions with which he was furnished by his government. The commander of the American squadron was willing to interpose in order to prevent the bombardment, but, not being able to secure the co-operation of Admiral Denman, he declined acting on his own responsibility. What may be the remote conse quences of this wanton act of cruelty it is impossible to say, but it is to be noticed with regret that the indignation excited in the breasts of the Chilians is not more against those who have left their town in ruins, but also against those who have quietly allowed so great a crime to be com mitted. PARLIAMENTARY REFORM. Assuming the general rumours to be well-founded, and that the conservative party have resolved to offer deter mined opposition to the Reform Bill in committee, the Daily News observes that the tory leaders must be actuated by impatience for office rather than by • prudent regard for their own permanent influence in the country ; for Mr. Disraeli cannot possibly be ignorant that the real choice lies between this Reform Bill and a much larger one at no very distant date. The motives adduced by the conservative organs, namely, that on • miserable adding up of the tory and liberal member. the tones would lose, is singularly childish and very unworthy of them, Both LAW INTELLIGENCE. (THIS DAY.) COURTS OF COMMON LAW. All the courts of common law sat at Guildhall We morning ; but nothing of general importance had stemma when our report left. In tics Court of Queues M rs * there was an action being tried for goods sold and delim n a. in the Common Pleas • ease of slander had juin opened; and in the Court of Exchequer there was an ludic* whisk wee likely to last the entire day, to recover dor m " from a pilot for Injury done to *barge by bring run brio 4 the river, near St. Katharine's Docks, by steamer read the Stork, belonging to the defendant. COURT OF ARCHES. (Before the Right Hon. Dr. Luahington.) THE BISHOP OP 1110ZWIOH T. THZ HET. THOMAS MM. This cue, which occupied the whole of Saturday au resumed this morning. It was • suit of th e odic, cd y e judge promoted by the Bishop of Norwich soma G s luy . Th omas Berney, rector of Brecon Ash, fee a iG o . a misconduct towards Mrs. Cumming, the wife of th e pr, James John Cumming, rector of East Carlton, sad sister Miss Durrant. and Dr. Tristram he the higkeP ; Dr- Twisa. c., Middleton were for the defendant. The Bev. Mr. bumming was the first witness relied tide morning. He ended that East Carlton, of which be w e rector, was the next parish to Brecon Ash, and as th ee was no residence at his parish he rented the pan t house of Brecon Ash of Mr. Berney for some years. Ifs we living in the house in May and June, 1864, when the ice , reams in question happened. Mr. Berney dined move Ch ea at his house than he wished. He was in the habit of icelk, ing from church with the ladies, and stayed so late the when dinner was announced he was obliged to ask hint, dine. He (Mr. Cumming) did not wish for emapeny Sunday. In oonsegeases of what he heard from km: c ow ming he wrote to Mr. Berney and received an amen me in court. — Er:fries objected to the letter being reed. This ws a criminal prosecution, and Mr. Berney could not bass, mined ; and on the ground that the letter was as s pleaded in the articles he submitted it was not admiwilis, Dr. Deane handed the letter to his lordship to deesi a whether it could be remind, and, after reading tha su it he saw no objection to the letter. The letter was aoscrdin4lY read, apologising foci& am duct. Mr. Cumming said in considered it was an isash and wrote another letter. On the 18th June he mats his complaint to the bishop. [The case was proceeding when the report left] COURT OF BANKRUPTCY. (Before Mr. Oommiinioner Holroyd.) IN at WY. 51ItICITY AND KATITILL BENNITI.—APPLICIVISe 701 RILICAI6. The bankrupte—father and daughter—bad wad on business for several years at Bradford is yort. shire, the father aa a grocer, the daughter • milliner. Having got into rifficulties, thy came to reside in Mile-end-road, London, where they am both arrested at the suit of Mr. John Holmes, of Bradford, for a debt of 951. 10s., money borrowed by the = 1 . : but for which the father had become surety. He his failure to this, and to lanes incurred in his ova noi nem Martha Bennett attributes her failure to badred trade, pressure by the detaining creditor, and law entr, Her debts are 3491. Hr. iiit.Trii;Copposed the application. The aim. ing creditor'. action had been brought u long ago ulfil% The bankrupts pleaded, and put the plainttff to sswy possible expense. Ultimately it was tried as an sada fended cause and verdicts were obtained. In the maw time the bankrupts had disposed of their property(' Bradford and came up to London. After hearing Mr. Billion (from the office of Mr. Nu. day) for the bankrupts, His Honour said the question of vexatious &Aft would be more properly gone into on the wlintios fig order of discharge. As there was no pro bab ility of Gs bankrupts absconding, he would make an order for this release from custody. The bankrupt was a warehouseman, in Careydna Tas debts are about 1,500 f. At a former sitting a Tualatin was passed for takin* the case out of court on payment d a composition of ls. in the pound ; and, on the applicants of Mr. Cattley, his Honour now confirmed the ans. TN BE BENJAMIN LAVEY. This was another app lication for releue. TIN wag had taken place under circumstances somewhat pseolia, The debtor, a clothier, in Wellclose-square, had awned a deed of arrangemse;t, had obtained a certificate ci tti registration, and also the protection of the court. Net. withstanding this, he had been arrested at the wait d a non-assenting creditor, Mrs. Howell, of Skater-sheet, widow. Mr. R. Griffiths, in supporting the application he release, urged that the court would, as a matter of can% takertepsto enforceiteown order. The sheriff, on swing the debtor's proteetion,had refused to arrest him, and had ally consented to do so on being indemnified by the creditor. Mr. Heed, for the detaining creditor, stated that tbs action was one of trespass, for breaking and enterinf tbs plaintiff's premises. Judgment had only been nod 15 days after the registration of the deed, widek was therefore no _protection against the judgment debt. This view had already been taken by lde Honour upon application being made for lases to issue execution. His Honour held that underthecireaa• stances no leave was necessary. After the wrest_ cation was made to Mr. Justice Shee ; but he held ths debt was clearly not covered by the deed, and refusidte interfere. The learned counsel also referred to the else ci Kimberley, which came before the Lord Chancellor, with similar result. In the case of ex parte Smith, it bad bee laid down by the Lord Chancellor that this court oefht not to entertain an application for release after apples tion had been made to, and refused by, the court, eat if which the process issued. Mr. Griffiths, in reply, contended that the mere fact ci the existence of the protection was sufficient ground foe calling on the court to vindicate its own authority, asks. something was shown to impeach the validity of the decd. The detaining creditor was rightly inserted in the schedule to the deed, for though judgment had not then been signed, the verdict had been given. and the damages Vat therefore liquidated and ascertained. His Honour said the only point wall whether Mn.s Howell was properly inserted in the deed. The debtor appeased to have acted on the anticipation that she would become a creditor, and had put her down as • creditor for 100/. Bat in point of fact she was not then a creditor at all ; she het brought an action for trespass ; the damages were ent irety dependent on the verdict which the jury might think B to give, and the judgment was not obtained until 15 dap after the deed was registered. It was therefore qnrle clear that this was not • debt which was at all affected by the deed, and that being so, the debtor did not get tht benefit of protection as regarded that debt. Application refused. THE POLICE COURTS. (THIB DAY.) BOW-STREET. CHARGER OP PETTY THEFT AGAINST A GENTLENAL Edward Hamilton Finney, jun., aged 18, described al gentleman, was placed at the bar before Mr. Vaegkae, charged with stealing • silver dessert spoon from the Albion Hotel, Russell-street, Covent-garden, end • Wed cane from Mr. Wallace's stick and umbrella shop in thf Strand. Mr. Sleigh, instructed by Messrs. Sutcliffe and Summed, appeared for the defence. John Jellyman, the head waiter, stated that about 5 o'clock on Saturday evening the prisoner and his fathom, Major Finney, dined together at the hotel. There wen three silver spoons on the table in the hot where they sit The prisoner had entered first alone, and was afterwards joined by . his father. While he was sdone the sexed waiter mused one of the spoons, and called ir11 21061 attention to its loss. Joseph Hanscombe, the anderwaiter, stated that he se the prisoner enter the room and seat himself in the lag. Before he was joined by his father, witness inland 0 15 spoon, and mentioned it to the head waiter. Police-constable Lynch, 100 F, stated that 'boat 5 o'clock on Saturday he went in private clothes to the Albion Hotel, and from information received from the waiters iM watched the prisoner. After dining the prisoner Viet with his father to the smoking-room upstairs, where thsl remained about half-an-hour. They went down Bride', streetinto the Strand. Witness followed them, accomill om _ byConstable DowdelL They went into a cigar-shop , WDI ", they remained half-an-hour. Afterwards they walke d is Drury-court, where they separated, the f a ther turn• ing up Drury-lane, and the prisoner going into the billidd.room, where he remained about 20 minetea After that he proceeded to Mr. Wallace's 44 6 Witness saw him go in but did not see him come out. The next he saw of him was in a cab with Dowdell, opposite Exeter-hall. Mr. Wallace had come out of the shop ana claimed a dick which he said the prisoner had not paid for* The prisoner had no stick when lie entered the shop bet only an umbrella. Dowdell corroborated the hist witness's evidence, said that the prisoner came out of the stick shop wir both umbrella and stick in him hand. He hailed a 114 ° , and was just getting into it, when Mr. Wallace coet out of the shop after him and charged bun dealing the stick. Witness took him into custody; At the station house the prisoner was requested to out the contents of his pockets, when he produced the following articles :—Two purses containing 2/. ls. 6d. and 2!. lls. respectively, 3a. 11. in loose cash ; diver tooth pick and case, ivory handled knife, railway k g / and case, fusee box, tobacco pouch, 19 kg" two pairs of gloves, one pomade bottle sad dot three small bottles of went, one pot of cold creams, cos pot of extract of meat, one tin case, one packet of Obs w° ' two packets of tooth powder, one packet of dye, fourtese small combs, one small ivory-hanslied knife, three new pairs of gloves, one silk hair net in box, one ivory him. men, three glove patterns. Witness, feeling his Pc'ek it, said, " Yon have got something else here," and took the silver spoon from Ms pocket. Jellyman identified the spoon as his master's ProPorti* ♦ WAI famed Chelsea, watch an Searle, a The pi hb watcl North-ra have s pa the F t of wed k sad chaff pledged I Ur. T wee a in I 1.•••••••••11.1 The p] Thep of empl Pert) . * bsPe , other ca duptiost to Mel Sr. 7 Johz Bove of Doll Tolent dicana in tam &NOW there ' W 17.! Ei. PAZ Ti; v" been of th and Kr than vast of e a , Predi bey been