The Press. — London, England, 1857-12-12 00:00:00

THE PRE S S, DECEMBER 12, 1857. may, perhaps, be fatal to their chances of escaping perusal. "London Lyrics" (18) are written by so good natured a man that he reads even his own writings, as we learn from the present volume. This fact at once disarms criticism. Ho does as he would be done by. Peace to his pen ! " Poems of Oisin" (19 . Of this bard we can say nothing, for the best of all reasons—that we know nothing. De La Rue's Red Letter Calendar and Pocket Book for 1858. Edited by Norman Pogson, First Assistant at the Radcliffe Observatory, Oxford. WE cannot express too highly our admiration of this little bijou of business. We never knew the utile and the duke to be combined in greater perfection. For mercantile memoranda, social anecdotes, fashion. able appointments, or foolish assignations—for the "city man," "the club man," "the literary man," or the " fast man," it will prove equally serviceable. amounts to 9,440,8641., or 1,371,3751. more than the stock in the Bank of England according to the re turn of this evening. The discounts are now 20,459,0121., or 3,082,6821. less than last month ; and only 9,043/. has been paid in premiums upon the purchase of gold and silver. The note circulation is 21.292,1501. Consols have obtained a considerable rise in the course of the week. Last Friday they left off at 911 to 4 with the dividend. Yesterday they closed at 91g to f without the dividend. This is equivalent to an advance of 11 per cent. Today they closed steady at 91i to I. Foreign Securities have been dull. Turkish have further advanced about one.half per cent. The Railway Share Market has not materially changed since our last. Banking Shares have rather declined during the week. The Provincial Trade Reports are still very un favourable. 1211 in each case to have depended simply on the character of what was brought before them. Success, even in this wicked world, is very generally with those who deserve it. Captain Blakely accuses me "of making an unwar rantable attack upon him." 1 made no attack upon him, but upon the misstatements of THE PRESS, with which he has by implication identified himself; nor was there any " threat of revenge" contained in my expression of a sin cere desire to be spared the necessity of discussing the originality or merits of his investigations or patent inven tions. He has, however, obliged me partially to do so. confess with the less hesitation when I find that state ments made to him in the freedom anti confidence of after-dinner conversation of one gentleman with another (however slight their acquaintance) have been abused by publication in your pages. I have had no " friendly or other correspondence with Captain Blakely on the subject of our respective priorities." I offered by note to give him the dates which my letter in yours of the 14th instant contains, and should have done so had not your paragraphs and his obvious connection with them appeared ere I could do so. I have two notes only from him. Were Ito treat these as he has done my conversation, they would not improve his case.—l am, sir, yours obediently, ROLERT MALLET. 11, Bridge-street, Westminster, Nov. 27, 15.)7. littropolitn fftarkts. (Reportedesclusivelyfor "Ms Pages.") CORN EXCHANGE—The arrivals of English wh eat up to our market thi. week have been limited; yet the demand for all kinds has ruled heavy, and prices have given way 2s to 3s per quarter. Foreign wheat—the show of which has cantinned rather extensive—has moved off slowly, at 2s per quarter less money. Fine malting barley has sold at previous rates ; but grinding and distilling sorts have fallen is to 2s per quarter. We have no actual change to notice in the value of malt. Oats continue to arrive freely, and the oat trade has been very in active, at thl to is per quarter less money. Both beans and peas have been in moderate supply. and sluggish request, at a fall of from is to 2s per quarter. English flour has sold slowly, at previous rates; but American qualities have given wry is per barrel, although the supply is limited. Enomsit—Wheat. Kasex and Kent red. 42s to 199; white, 43s to 555; Norfolk and Lincoln red, 40s to 48s. Malting barley, 3is to 41s; grinding ditto, 23s to 28s : distilling, 29s to 321. Malt, 55s to 675. Feed oats, 10s to 225; potato, 23s to 20s. Rye, 309 to 355. Tick beans, 35s to 375: Harrow, 353 to 375; pigeon, 42s to 435. Grey peas, 396 to 41s; maple. 4 0 9 to 42 5; white boilers, 40s to 449 per quarter. Town-made flour. 45s to 475; country marks, 35s to 379; households, 36s to 39s per 2801bs. ARRIVALS THIS WEEK. Wheat. Barley. Malt. Oats. Finer. Englieh 1610 2090 .. 2740 .. 420 ... 2ao Irish .. 1200 Foreign —15210 .. 16530 18270 .. 1420 eke. 14034) brls. IMPERIAL WEEKLY AVERAGES—Wheat, 43s 3d, bar. ley, 35s ad; oats, 23s Od; rye, 32s 9.1; beans, 41s 23 ; peas, 4044. THE SIX WEEKS' AVE RAGES—Whea9, sls 3d: barley, 39s Id; oats, 24s 7d; rye, 34s 11d; beans, 43s 10d; pens, 429 Ild. ENGLISH GRAIN SOLD LAST WEEK Wheat 84,921 ; barley, 36,411; oats, 8,139; rye, 2G; beans, 4,630; peas, 2,813 quarters. BREAD—The prices of wheaten bread In the metropolis are from 7d to 8d; of household ditto, Sid to bed per 41bs loaf. TEA—For all kinds we have to report a heavy demand compared with last week, and prices have a dcwnward tendency. Congo'', 11 to 26641; Ning Yong and Oolong, is 3d to 2s; soucliong, is 3d to 28 RI; Flowery Pekoe, 2s 3d to 48 ; Caper, —; Scented Caper, Is 3d to is led; Orange Pekoe, is Id to la 4d; Scented Orange Pekoe, Is Ad to 28 441; Twankay, 941 to Is 3d ; Hyson Skin, Ad to Is 24: Hyson, Is 2 , 1 to 4s ; Young Hyson, 10d to 2s id; Imperial, Is to 2s 31; Gunpowder, 1s to 3s 6d; Assam, 4s OAI to es Od per lb. Stock of Tea in the United Kingdom. December Ist, 14156 December Ist, 1457 London 66,748,0'5) lbs 57,317,000 lbs Liverpool All other Ports estimated at 8,700.000 7,600,000 PERIODICAL LITERATURE. Tait this month is above the average. " Sketches of the Isle of Man" is a very well-written story, and has even an original incident in it. The " Legend of the Hundred Years," "Tangled Talk," and " The Greatest Social Evil," are all good, though the last mentioned falls into a far too corn • mon error, till the removal of which little good will be effected—i.e., that the women of whom the class here discussed is composed are invariably miserable. The West of Scotland Magazine has also greatly improved. It contains this mouth more than one capital paper. That upon " Glasgow," and the story called " The Two Frigates" are perhaps the best. Part 'XIV of the National Magazine contains the usual average of facts, fiction, and criticism. The principal feature is Mr. Thornbury's story of " The Little Black Box." The best papers in Titan this month are "A Speculative Medley," being a review of E. Greyson's Letters; " Phases of Lunatic Life," and the " Wad. Hole, a Story of Borrowdale." The magazine is good throughout, and apparently has able contribu tors engaged upon it. PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED-DECEMBER 3. BOOKS. The Three Clerks. By Anthony Trollope. Three Vols. Bentley. The Bentley Ballads. Edited by Pr. Doran. lteniley. The lngoldsby Legends. By Thomas Ingoldsby, Esq. Bentley. The Great Day of Atonement. Edited by Mrs. Cohn Mac kenzie. Bentley. The Sepoy Revolt. By Henry Mead. Murray. Orphans. By the Author of " Margaret Maitland," &c. Hurst and ltlackett. The White House by the Sea. By M. Betlam Edwards. Two Vols. Smith and Elder. The Gloaming of Life. By the Rey. Alexander Wallace. My Feathered Friends. By the Rev. J. G. Wood, M.A., F.L.S. Routledge.. Pastoral Poems. By William Wordsworth. Sampson Low. The Indian Crisis. By the Rev. Frederick D. Maurice ' M.A. Macmillan and Co. The Year Nine. By the Author of" Mary Powell." Virtue and Hall. Landmarks of History. Mozley. The Young Exiles. By Anne Bowman. Routledge. Corona, and other Poems. By E. J. Reed. Longman*. sporting Scenes conon#st the Kaffirs of South Africa. By Captain A. W. Drayson. Routledge. Lodge's Peerage of the British Empire for 1458. Hurst and Blaekett. uni! kttarket Lane ditg FRIDAY EVENING. Tnr: return of the Bank of England for the week ending Wednesday last, the 9th inst., shows the following changes compared with that for the week prece. I in g : Decrease in Circulation Increase in Public Deposits Increase in Other Deposits 4,538 Decrease in Government Securities 7,625 Increase in Other Securities Increase in Bullion 713,0'22 Increase in Rest Increase in Reserve 1,672,682 Bullion in both Departments Circulation, including Bank Post Bills This comparison is satisfactory. The position of the Bank is much stronger, both in respect to the Bullion and the Reserve ; while the Private Securi ties have undergone an important diminution. The Private Deposits, however, show a small increase, and now amount to nearly fourteen millions and a half. Three heavy failures were reported to day, and there was a rumour of a joint•stock bank in one of the midland counties being in difficulties. The monthly account of the Bank of France, made up to yesterday, was published in the Moniteur of this morning. It is generally favourable. The bullion has increased by no less than 1,860,8041., and it now [Advert , sement.) MONSTER GUNS. TO THE EDITOR OF " THE PRESS." Sir,—ln your impression of the 21st instant (p. 1135), I find a letter from Captain Blakely, R.A., which obliges me once more, and I trust for the last time, to intrude upon your space. First, however, let me reassert that your notices of the large mortars, in your papers of the 24th and 31st, ult., did call for all I have said of them in my letter published by you on the 14th instant. First you told the world " they were the patented invention of Captain Blakely "—then ycu correct the " great injustice" you did to Dr. Harte by stating " they were not the sole invention of Captain Blakely "—but when did you even hint at correcting the injustice you had done to me, the only person of all those named to whom a real injustice had been done, by thus putting forward two persons as the designers of that which I alone desigced, neither of whom had anything whatever to do with the matter, while the part you were pleased to assign to me was that of "obtaining my information " from another and using it to obtain 10,0001. from Government, sic., and while your own footnote (p. 1100) to my letter actually reiterates the misstatement (it appears now upon Captain Blakely's authority) "that Dr. Harte and Mr. Mallet were the designers " ? You have been led astray by erroneous information, and 1 now begin to understand why and bow. Now, sir, l repeat that Captain Blakely or his alleged discoveries, his patented or other inventions, have had no connection with my design of the three-foot mortars now at Woolwich. Until within three months, I had. never heard of that gentleman, his discoveries or his inventions. His discovery, as to the priority of which he is anxious, namely, his mathematical investigation of the strains upon cannon made in concentric rings, is a question between himselfand Dr. Harte, in which I believe the latter has the claim to priority; but I had anticipated both as to the method of construction, of which those mathematical in. vestigations are only the expression of the abstract laws, and these certainly correctly first given by Dr. Harte. - - - - Captain Blakely's inventions, I suppose, are comprised in his patent of - August, 1855, the main drift of which (omitting some subordinate and impracticable projects also specified) is to cast cannon of cast iron, and then hoop them with one or more layers of wrought-iron rings. As to the novelty of this invention, he tells you Lord Pan inure informed him it had been proposed in 1807, and I can now inform him that the whole scheme of cast-iron interior and wrought-iron hoops was proposed, and pub lished with plates. by Captain fhiery, of the French Artil lery, in 1840, in his large work, " Applications du Fer aux Constructions de l'Artilleiie." It is needless to say any thing as to the value of a patent for an invention fifteen years before the world at the very least, if not forty-eight. lam wrong, however. The patent does not embrace all Captain lilakely's inventions. He gives us another. It was to strengthen all the old Turkish kamerlicks of the Dardanelles and the 10-inch naval shell guns by lapping them round with wire or wire rope. This he says was " a practical proposal." The select committee, it appears, thought it "impracticable and dangerous," and their judg ment in this instance I can, as a practical engineer (conversant with such matters for some twenty years), most fully endorse. However, this " wire-gun" project, too, is unhappily an old invention, having been proposed and tried rather more than one hundred years ago. Now, sir, give me leave to ask Captain Blakely what earthly connection have these " mathematics" or " inven tions" of his to do with my three-foot mortars, or upon what just pretence does he hook his name into contact with them, and expatiate dolorously upon the ill-success of his erode projects as contrasted with my results accom plished, as though he was an ill-used man who had had his share in them overlooked and unrewarded? The quotations from my work (pp. 148, 152) made by Captain Blakely have no bearing upon the matter in hand. They apply to the construction of certain sizes of cannon, not to mortars; and the application made of these passages to try to contradict my statement that " the three-foot mortars had been carried to completion without alteration in any essential principle" is based upon this mistake, while the assertion that "longitudinal bars (or bolts) in the inside were certainly part of the original plan" is a gratuitous misstatement. The remainder of Captain lilakely's letter I may pass as irrelevant ; he may have made the most wonderful nine-pounder that ever astonished Woolwich with its pop, but what have I to do with it, cr it with three-foot mortars, unless the proverb be apropos " That people sometimes strive to catch at the tails of a flying kite "? Finally,l would just hint to Captain Blakely that our respective " backing up " by the authorities appears 71,9d:1,000 lirs Total, x 5.603,000 lbs SUGAR—Good and usefu. raw sugars have sold to s moderate extent, at about stationary prices. In other kinds, very little has been passing, at a decline of from Is to is tld per cwt. The refined market is tolerably firm, at previous rates. Common to tine pieces are selling at 4.!s to 495; and fine wet lumps, sls 6d to 52e ed per cwt. MOLASSES—A few parcels of West India have changol hands, at from ins to Ids Ail per cwt. COFFEE—Plantation kinds have sold slowly. and prices have given way from is to is al per cwt. Most other coffees are dull in sale, but not cheaper. COCOA—Red Trinidad is held at from Scls to 90s per cwt; but so little business is doing that the quotations are almost nominal. RlCE—Owing to the large stock in warehouse—upwards of 61,000 tons—and to the heaviness in the corn trade, rice is very dull, and lower to purchase. PROVISIONS—Fine qualities of Trish butter have mostly sold at last week's quotations; but inferior kinds may be pur chased on lower terms. Foreign butter moves off slowly, at late rates. In the value of English very little change has taken place. Bacon is fully 2s cheaper. Lard and hams may be pur chased on lower terms. COTTON—Scarcely any sales have taken place in this market, and prices are almost nominal. HEMP AND FLAX—Hemp is held at full prices, but the demand for it is limited. Flax is extremely heavy. I N 0 (GO—No sales have been reported in any kind. SILK—A considerable fall has taken place in the quotations, without inducing buyers to came forward. WOOL—About 7,000 bales of low wool have been offered at auction, this week, and partly sold at from lid to is lid per lb. Privately, the trade is heavy in the extreme, at drooping prices. SALTPETRE—Very few sales have been effected in any kind. In prices we have scarcely any change to report METALS—Scotch pig iron has moved off slowly at 52s to 52s Gd cash. A decline of 141 per ton has taken place in the value of rough, and lid per lb on manufactured copper. Tile and coke are now quoted M 1(41 10s; bust selected, 110110 a per ton; sheets and bottoms. Is; and yellow metal, lOd per lb. All other metals are very dull. SPIRITS—Rum moves off slowly at 2s per gallon for proof East India, and 2s 2d for Leewards. Brandy supporta previous rates; but raw spirit is very dull, bylo less - than 1,860,804/., and it now respective "sc mg up oy sue autnunue* uppultro rain, PUI , Inn