The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-14 00:00:00

THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 14, 1857. you had barely enough to keep life and soul together at home?' 'That's it,' said he, ' I come here out of economy. (Laughter.) It's the cheapest way I can spend my evening. At home 1 must burn fire and candle, and have something to eat and drink ter my self and friend, and at an expense of 2s. or 3s. at the least; while here I get warmed, lighted, lodged, and amused, with plenty of good company around me, and all for 3d.' There was philosophy in this, ladies and gentlemen, and I recommend it to your serious consideration." (Much laughter.) We are unavoidably compelled to postpone our Theatrical and Musical Notices to a future occasion. Mn. ARCHIBALD HAsTrE, M.P. for Paisley, died at Edinburgh on Monday last. Mr. Hustle had been much indisposed for some months ; but it was hoped, until recently, that the strength of his con stitution would enable him to recover. He was in his sixty-fifth year. Mr. Hastie was in many re spects a remarkable man. He was descended of respectable parents in the west of Scotland. He had merely the common school education of his country ; but that and his native sense fitted him to fill with credit various important situations. At an early period his brothers settled in Calcutta, where they carried on business partly as coachbuilders and partly as merchants, while he settled in London, acting partly as their agent and partly speculating on his own account. The whole family were very successful. At a later period Mr. Hastie became connected with the East India Docks, and his sagacity and ability were eminently displayed in the skill and success with which he assisted in rescuing that important concern from the depression into which its affairs had sunk after the cessation of its monopoly. A purchase which he effected of some property in Lanarkshire has also turned out to be extremely advantageous. In 1836 Mr. Hastie was elected member of Parliament for Paisley—a dis tinction on which he set a high value. And it may be said that it cost him a high price, for, owing to the severe distress with which his constituents were frequently visited, very heavy demands were made upon him, which he met with the greatest generosity and goodwill. In politics Mr. liastie was an inde pendent consistent Liberal, and voted uniformly with that party in Parliament. In private life he was in the highest degree generous, openhearted, and friendly. His hospitalities were conducted on a large and a liberal scale. He was the owner of Burns' punchbowl, and the celebrations of the poet's birthday held at his house were by far the best of such festivals. pulled to pieces, part rammed into a pistol, and the rest held in charge of one of the audience. The professor deliberately fires, when, presto, the original hat, rotund, shining, and in excellent condition, is seen sticking to the ceiling far overhead, while a huge doll is left in the lap of the holder. It is without exception the most elaborate and cleverest trick we hay ever witnessed, and should make the reputation of the professor. Altogether the enter tainment is extremely good, there is not too much, it is not tedious, and there are no long pauses. Each trick rapidly succeeds another, and the whole are well sustained and most cleverly executed. UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE. OXFORD. In a Convocation held on the 10th instant the Rey. Orhy Shipley, M.A., of Jesus College, Cambridge, was admitted ad rundent. _ _ The Rev. John Griffith, M.A., late Fellow and Tutor of Wadham College, was unanimously elected Deputy Keeper of the Archives. _ . . An examination for the purpose of electing a Sanscrit scholar on the foundation of Colonel Widen will take place in the Clarendon on Saturday, the 12th of December next, at ten o'clock. These scholarships are open to all matri culated members of colleges or halls in Oxford who shall not on the day of election have exceeded their twenty. filth year, and who shall produce a satisfactory proof of their age, and a written permission to offer themselves as candidates signed by the head or vicegerent of their re spective colleges or halls. Candidates must present their certificates to Mr. Horace Hayman Wilson, of Exeter College, the Sanscrit Professor, at his lodgings at Mr. Thompson's, High.street, on or before the 11th of De cember. CAMBRIDGE. The election of a Professor to fill the vacancy in the Univeraity Council occasioned by the resignation of Pro fessrr Sedgwick took place on the 10th instant. The Regius Professor of Greek and the Plumian Professor of Astronomy were made candidates by their respective friends, and the former was elected. The votes were—Professor Thompson, 56 ; Professor Challis, 42. MR. H. OTTLEY, who has lung been connected with the metropolitan press, delivered on Wednes day night the first of a series of lectures on Painting and Painters at the Marylebono Literary and Scien tific Institution, Edward street, Portman-square. He commenced by alluding to the impression that pre vailed regarding the humiliating state of the fine arts in this country at the period of the Great Exhi bition in iB5l, and then briefly adverted to the efforts that have since been made to remove the imputation, pointing as the result to the recent Exhibition at Manchester, which, for extent, variety, and beauty, was perhaps unequalled at any period of our history. He next gave a highly interesting sketch of the pro gress of painting and sculpture amongst the Greeks, and explained the position of Christian art during the dark ages. He described the revival of the art of painting in Italy in the thirteenth century, and traced its progress and development from the times of Giunta, Pisanc, Cimabue, and Giotto, down to the days of Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Angelo, Raphael, Titian, and Coireggio. lie gave lively sketches of some of the prominent masters, and, by reference to engravings and copies, enabled his audience to form an idea of the beauties of some of their celebrated works. He declared that it was not the object of his lecture to criticise living artists, or to institute a com parison between them and the old masters. His object was to speak of the old masters of the thir teenth and sixteenth centuries, and not of the young masters of the nineteenth century; but at the same time he suggested that it was well to consider bow far the movement of the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries was like the movement of the present day, and whether it was probable they would produce similar results. The leeture was gracefully and effectively delivered, and frequently during its pro gress, and at its close, Mr. Ottley received the ap plause of his audience. CHARLES MATHEWS made a humorous speech in Boston three weeks ago. He said :—" I am some what unlucky in timing my visits to America. In 1838, some nineteen years ago, I first crossed the Atlantic, and popped upon a pecuniary crisis in New York, and now, in 1857, I have had the luck to pop upon another. It seems as if my presence were doomed to bring a panic with it—(great laughter)— but I am happy to find at any rate that it has not had the effect of frightening you out of the theatre. (Laughter and applause.) Indeed, ladies and gen• tlemen, I think the best you can do is to come into it as often as possible, and to divert your mind for an hour or two from the cares of real life. In times of difficulty, so far from its being an expensive luxury, the theatre is about the cheapest mode you can adopt of passing your leisure moments. (Laughter.) During one of our hardest winters in London, a poor man was observed almost every night, to the surprise of the money taker, paying his 3d. to the gallery of the Surrey Theatre. At last, out of curiosity, he got into conversation with him. How is it,' said he, 'that you, who appear to be a very poor man, can afford to come and pay your money here night after night, when one would think ggoneg ggarket anb dttg gutelligenct. FRIDAY EVENING. Tins week will be memorable in commercial annals. It opened on Monday by the Bank advancing the rate of discount from nine per cent., at which it was fixed only on the preceding Thursday, to the unpre cedented amount of ten per cent. Then followed the suspension of the Liverpool Borough Bank, the Western Bank of Scotland, the City of Glasgow Bank, the great bill-brokers, Messrs. Saunderson, Sandemann, and Co., and a whole host of commercial firms more or less connected with the American trade and with the trade in produce. The Bank of France in creased its rate of discount from seven and a half per cent. to ten per cent. for three months' paper, making a discrimination between the two extremes for shorter bills. The failure of the Scotch banks caused a heavy run upon the other establishments in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Paisley, and elsewhere, which drained the Bank of nearly 2,000,0001. in sovereigns; whilst the applications for discounts and advances were so heavy as to reduce the reserve of notes to an extremely low point, and to compel the Bank to dispose of a large amount of Government Securities. The effect of this double drain may be estimated from the character of the weekly return analysed below. Things were rapidly approaching a dead lock, and a panic was imminent, when, following the well-known precedent of 1847, the interference of the Government was sought, and the result was the appearance of an official letter from the Premier and the Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday, autho rising the Bank Directors, if necessary, to increase their issue of notes, upon approved securities, without reference to the stock of bullion. The letter will be found in another column. It is a clear suspension of the vital principle of the Act of 1844, and of course involves an early meeting of Parliament in order to pass a bill of indemnity for any excess in the legal issues. A relaxing power vested in the Government would have rendered the interference of the Legis lature unnecessary. Such a power was proposed in the bill of 1844, but the clause was rejected. After the experience of 1847, and now of 1857, it is pro bable, if no other alterations are made in the law, that this provision, at least, will be adopted. 1117 The immediate effect of the Government letter yesterday was beneficial ; it arrested the demand for money, which bad previously been excessive and unreasonable, and manifestly increased confidence among the commercial community. The fall in produce was suspended, the funds advanced, shares took a decidedly upward movement, and discounts were much more freely obtained. Such was the result yesterday. To-day the result was rather less satisfactory, though still good, because most persons appeared to expect improvement to come imme diately, instead of gradually. We have before us the latest statements of the condition of the Bank of England and of the Bank of France, and these will assist in comprehending the character of the emergency, particularly so far as it has relation to the stocks of bullion. That of the Bank of England for the week ending the 11th instant, Wednesday last, which obviously determined the interposition of the Government, shows the following changes compared with that for the week preceding : Itecrease in Circulation Increase in Public Deposits Increase in other Deposits Decrease in Government Securities Increase in Other Secarities 3,485,202 Decrease in Bullion Increase in Rest Decrease in Reser►e 1,43,882 Bullion in both Departments Circulation, including Bank Post Bills 21,016,430 Never in the entire history of the Bank was such a return as this laid before the commercial world. The notes in reserve aro absolutely below one million. They were, on the evening of Wednesday last, only 957,7101. With such an insignificant amount in the till it was utterly impossible the Bank could go on, with the continuous demand made upon it for discounts and advances. There was therefore no alternative but to accept the immediate interference of the Government. That interference came not a moment too soon. The Bullion at the same time had fallen to little mote than 7,000,0001., the week's drain having absorbed no less than 1,397,0001. It is true that nearly the whole of this vast sum was withdrawn to enable the Scotch banks to meet the run upon them for coin, and that it is likely to come back sooner than if the drain had been a foreign one ; but it is also true that this great absorption, in conjunction with the loss of notes, placed the Bank in a very critical position. On the other hand, although it is admitted that the demand for accommodation was, as we have said, unreasonable and excessive, seeing that it caused the Private Securities to run up to the unprecedented amount of 26,000,0001. odd, only 1,000,0001. is ac counted for by the addition to the Private Deposits. This fact denotes that the public mind bad become thoroughly alarmed at the reduced power of the Bank to grant facilities, and that large balances of cash are now held in private bands. Under such circumstances, the power given to the Bank Directors to increase their issue of notes was a measure of simple prudence. The corresponding return of the Bank of France, which is made up to yesterday, the 12th instant, shows the following changes during the month : Decrease in Circulation Decrease in Bullion Decrease in Public Deposits 602,687 Increase in Other Deposits Decrease in Commercial Discounts 806,779 Decrease in Advances on Public Securities. 1,396 Increase in Advances on Bullion Increase in Advances on Railway Shares 166,780 Increase in Premiums on Gov. Purchases. 15,111 Circulation (Nov. 12th) 23,250,392 Bullion (Nov. 12th) For the first time in our remembrance the bullion in the Bank of England is below the stock in the Bank of France, while the commercial discounts, usually higher, are now less by nearly 3,000,0001., being only 23,541,6941. The French Emperor was, in the prevent condition of the Bank, clearly justified in resisting the importunities for giving forced circulation to the Bank's notes ; while the falling off in the Bullion also explains the increased rates of discount now required. That falling off is large, although 15,0001. was expended in premiums to maintain it. That trade in France is not active may be inferred from the large increase made to the Pri vate Deposits, and the decrease i❑ the discounts ; but, on the whole, the return is more favourable than that of the Bank of England. As may be expected from the excited state of the Money Market, there have been great changes in the value of securities during the week. In Consols there have been extreme variations between the money price and the price for account, particularly yesterday, before the Government letter was announced ; whdst shares of all descriptions up to yesterday underwert a most alarming depreciation. A considerable rally took place, however, the moment it was known that the Bank had been authorised to increase its issue of notes.