The Sun. — London, England, 1865-01-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 30, 1865. rEE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA. (From the Times' Correspondent.) NEW YORK, Jan. 13. There is nothing to be heard on any side but rumours of peace. Wall-street has to some extent caught the infection of credulity, and gold has gone down 9 per cent. since Saturday last. But that peace will come out of the embassies, formal or informal, which Mr. Lincoln has sent, or is willing to send, to Richmond, or to receive from the South at Wash ington, no man whose opinion is worth a straw can in his heart believe. That the Federal Government is more than usually anxious, either to gain some overwhelming victory in the field, or to coax back the reluctant South on any terms, whether in refe rence to slavery, to the assumption of the Southern debt, to the position of the Southern leaders and generals, to everything in short that would not in volve a disruption of the Union, is manifest to the most careless observer. T he impelling power which thus drives Mr. Lincoln's Government into the paths of conciliation if conquest be unattainable , without, however, driving it to the extremity of making a formal offer of peace to Mr. Davis, is the fear that after the 4th of March next the European Govern ments--led by Great Britain, France, Russia, and S pa i n —will severally or conjointly recognise Mr. Lincoln as de facto President of the States alone by the votes of which he was elected for his second term, and thus by implication, if not overtly, recog nise Mr. Jefferson as the de facto President of the Confederacy. There may possibly be no founda tion whatever for the rumours to this effect, which reach this country from Europe by every steamer ; but there undoubtedly exists in high quarters here and in Washington a dread, and in some instances a hope, that these rumours are true, and that the recognition of the Confederacy will not be delayed much if any longer than the " ninety days," which are the favourite term with Mr. Seward and the Federal press for the accomplishment of all greatly desired events, whether civil or military. Meanwhile, however, the war goes vigorously on. Gen. Sherman, having secured Savannah, has orga nised measures for a rear attack upon Charleston, with the assistance of Admiral Farragut's fleet in front. The second expedition to Wilmington has already set sail, and as the weather has been much milder and calmer than on the first occasion the re port that it has arrived off Cape Fear without loss or accident is probably correct. In other quarters there are no signs of movement, though a report, founded upon private telegrams, that Gen. Lee is so well provided at Richmond and Petersburg as to be able to spare 40,000 men from the defences of those cities for services in a new and unsuspected quarter leads well informed people to believe that the lull will be speedily broken, and that the Federals will not be left in entire possession of the aggressive. Gen. Butler's deposition has been received with sullen silence by the Republican and Abolition party, and with shouts of applause by the Democrats and by moderate conservative men of all classes. The Tribune alone among the Republican journals has had the courage to speak the sentiments of the party, and has indignantly denounced the action of the Go vernment, as not only personally unjust to General Butler but publicly injurious to the cause of the Union. If Butler were really dismissed for his re fusal to sacrifice the lives of brave men in a hope less assault upon a strong if not impregnable fort, as he seems to allege in his sharp and eloquent fare well to the Army of the James, there can be no doubt that he has been ill-used. It would appear, indeed, that Gen. Butler's failure at Fort Fisher was the pre text, and not the cause of his removal, that the diver gences if not hostilities of sentiment and opinion be tween him and Gen. Grant, as well as Mr. Stanton, were of long standing and widening growth, and that the Lieutenant-General finally assumed such a posi tion towards the Government in the matter as to force Mr. Lincoln to decide which ogthe two should remain in the Federal service. In other words, Gen. Grant threatened to resign if Gen. Butler were not removed. If this be the true explanation, Gen. Butler will not be suffered to remain permanently under a cloud. Work will be found for him to do, more pleasant in its character and safer to life and limb in its per formance than the conduct of an army amid shot and shell and the other horrors of the battlefield. The case of Mr. Chase is one in point. It was ne cessary to oust him from the Administration, but inexpedient to convert him into an irreconcilable enemy. In due time, as he was discreet as well as ambitious, he was rewarded with the Chief Justice ship of the Supreme Court. Most probably, if Gen. Butler be equally reticent, equally persevering, and equally determined not to be politically extinguished, he will receive a befitting reward, at the hands of a President who understands as thoroughly as any man living which opponents it is safe to despise and which it is safer to flatter and conciliate. The great question of slavery continues to assert its supremacy and stands before the American people in a variety of ways. The South, which alone has any power in the matter, is debating, under the hard pressure of necessity, the expediency of calling out an army, or a series of armies, of ablebodied slaves in successive levies, from 50,000 to five times 50,000 men, to be rewarded with their own freedom and that of their wives and families at the conclu sion of the war. The North, which has no power but much will to abolish slavery, is debating in the halls of Congress an amendment to the Constitu tion, for ever prohibiting slavery in any State or territory of the Union. The amendment, if not carried by the requisite majority of two-thirds of the present Congress, will, it is calculated, be car ried all but unanimously in the new Congress which will assume power on the 4th of March next. Whe ther the amendment, if embodied in the Constitu tion, will have any practical effect in giving freedom to a single slave who would not have been freed if no such legislative enactment had been made, de pends not upon Congress but upon the opposing armies of North and South. If the North con quer, the sword of the North and not the resolu tions of Congress will free the negroes. If the South conquer, the votes of the Federal Congress are idle wind, and the Northern people will act more wisely—if they love the negroes half as much as they detest slavery—in repealing the laws that convert them into social pariahs, and in some States such as the President's own State of Illinois, prohibit the entrance and sojourn of any man of black skin and woolly hair within their sacred boundaries. Three of the Border States, which know something of the question, and which, moreover, have the power of dealing with it in their own limits, have either abolished the institution by the legal votes of their LeAslatures and the affirmation of the people, or have taken measures to that end. Maryland, which produces nothing that c annot be cultivated b y the labour of free white men, and which consequently was under no paramou nt necessity of employing slaves, long since found the institution to 1)4 unpro fitable, and has already freed itself of the trouble, the responsibility, the disgrace, and the danger of maintaining it. Missouri and Kentucky have already taken the u sua l p re liminary steps, by convention of th e People and the action of the Legislature, to imi tate the exampl e of Maryland ; and as they also pro duce nothin g that free white labour cannot cultivate, and as they have oh found slavery too costly and un profitable t o be w • • making any effort to preserve, against the op position of the Northern people and the disapprobation little doubt that in a ° f of the civilised world, there is ei7weeks or months slavery will have ceased to be important commonwealths. c. burdenut is well, upon s these richhowever, andfor European philanthropists .that in abolishing slavery the philanthropic element nw 1n Maryland, as well as in Kentucky and Missouriiltakbeeasstronnogt slave,been greatly, if at all, called into action.to in the prime of life, will be able care o . f him self in some way or other, though d r i ven, York and throughout the North, t o earn a po nl o r N s e b w sistence by the lowest,:roughest, and most scanutil remunerated kinds of labour ; but th e young, the y helpless, the impotent, the disabled, an d t h e super annuated negroes, who were formerly maintained by their owners, will, it is to be feared, fare but badly at the hands of public charity, which has not yet established or even thought of establishing any legal provision for their maintenance. It would thus ap pear that the best chance for the poor negro is with the South. Mr. Lincoln can do nothing for the race but convert into soldiers such of the most stalwart as are willing to take service in his armies. He can not reach, either by his proclamations or his guns, the great bulk of the black population w io still toil for their Southern masters and mistress •s, and take no advantage of the peril or weakness i f the Con deracy to rise in insurrection, or even in mutiny and insubordination, against their employers. The South can much more effectually befriend them, and seems as if it would not hesitate much longer in placing freedom within the power of such ablebodied slaves as shall earn it by devotion to the cause of national independence, and of so regulating and modifying the slavery that will afterwards remain as to gradually prepare the way for complete eman cipation by some process that shall not convert the useful slave into a pauper, and that will provide for the subsistence of the aged and the impotent by some species of legislative enactment or form of poor law. There are not wanting persons high in social and political position to affirm that, if this were done, the Northern Abolitionists of the extreme school would recommend peace with the South and a recognition of its independence, on the plea that the war was a war against slavery, and that slavery having ceased to exist the Southern people were as much entitled to an independent Government of their own choice as the Thirteen Colonies were when they rebelled against Great Britain. These philoso phers may be at present in the minority, but it can not be denied that their voice is powerful, their in fluence great, and that it is within the limits of probability that sooner or later their sentiments, like the little leaven that leaveneth the whole lump, may take possession of the majority. There is another aspect of the negro question in which, notwithstanding all the philanthropy of Mr. Lincoln's proclamations and the debates in both Houses of the Federal Congress, the North does not show to advantage as compared with the South. The South is at all events honest, even if it be in error in its treatment of the negroes ; but the North, which claims to be so much holier than its Southern brother, permits the infliction of the most grievous wrong against ablebodied black men, - without taking so much as the petty trouble of remonstrance. It is at this moment, and has been for the last six months, positively unsafe for a young male negro to walk the streets of New York. If he be a sailor just arrived in port from the West Indies, Cuba, or Brazil, he is hunted by ruffians at all hours of the day and night, and, if captured, sold into the slavery of the military or naval service of the United States. A recent case, only one of scores that are every week brought under the notice of the consular authorities of Great Britain, France, and Spain, will show the modus operandi. Four coloured sailors, of a British ship from Jamaica, were walking through the river-side streets at the lower, or Bat tery end of New York, unconscious of danger and - unsuspicious of treachery, when they were set upon in broad daylight by half a dozen crimps, bounty brokers, or other scoundrels of the same class, and accused of being deserters from the Federal army. In vain they protested that they were sailors and British subjects. The gathering crowd took the part of their assailants, and, on the promise that they would be immediately liberated by the proper authorities if their story were found to be true, the men consented, with the exception of only one, who contrived in the confusion to make his escape, to proceed quietly to headquarters with their captors. All trace of them has since been lost. General Dix, on being appealed to by the British Consul, has promised to do his best to discover and release them, but with the compact and well organised system of robbery opposed to his efforts will find it difficult, if not impossible, to effect their libe ration. Such " prizes " are entered on the books of the naval or military depots which receive them, under names that are given to them by their cap- tains ; and each " prize" of the kind is worth from $5OO to $l,OOO, according to the state of the bounty market at the time. Not a cent. of the money ever reaches the victims of this new slave trade, but is distributed at a rate agreed upon among the captors, the examining surgeons, and the military or naval officials, who wink at the iniquity. The anti slavery journals—the whole sympathies of which are with the Southern slaves, and which are never weary of clamouring for the " vigorous prosecution of the war," have no time to attend to such cases of individual hardship as these. The Federal Govern ment wants men, and it does not become the truly loyal patriot to examine too microscopically into the means by which men are secured. This much, however, must be said. If the British Government were half as anxious to pick a quarrel with the Fe deral Government as the ruling party in America is to pick a quarrel with Great Britain, it might find a justifiable pretext every day of the week in the treatment received in New York by British emigrants and British sailors, both white and coloured. Spain and Santo Domingo. MADRID, Jan. 23. The Marquis of Habana spoke yesterday in the Senate on the question of Santo Domingo, replying to the Duke de Torre's speech advocating the pre servation of theisland to Spain. The marquis strongly urged the expediency of abandoning Santo Domingo. He said that the possession of the island gave no moral force to Spain. It did not augment Spanish prestige, and produced most serious inconveniences in political order, in finance, and even in military order. Replying to what had been urged by the Duke de Torre respecting the importance of the pos session of the Bay of Samana, the Marquis of Ha bana said—" I shall proceed to examine this ques tion from a practical point of view, and will ask if the Duke de Torre believes that commercial interests would not have sufficed to attract a numerous po pulation to that spot—what has, and what is now the Peninsula of Samana? A desert, and, unfor tunately for our troops, a vast cemetery. When the English projected establishing communications to facilitate their trade with America, they never thought of establishing themselves there, but preferred St. Thomas, though this is a bad and insignificant port. Thus, when Spain ac quired the Bay of Samana, it was completely deserted, which proves that it was not the importance to trade that has been supposed. In further proof we have the fact that the customs of Samana have barely produced the small sum of 100,000 reals. We will now consider the question from a military point of Would you wish the Bay of Samana to be converted into a military port—a Cronstadt, as de sired by the Duke de Torre, in order that it might serve us in the event of our American possessions being endangered, which would be whenever we might be at war with the United States? Would it serve to hold our ships of war ? But then for this we have the ports of Cuba and Porto Rico." The speaker then proceeded to disprove the belief ex pressed by some that, although the Bay of Samana had no importance in Spanish possession, it would immediately acquire it under the United States. He said that even if the latter Power did not obtain possession of the bay, it would not be Spain, but France and England, who would be threatened, as .the occupation of the bay by the United States would seriously interfere with their commercial na vigation and the movement of their ships of war. For this reason the Marquis of Habana thought that England and France would never permit such oc cupation. Regarding the question under a financial aspect, the marquis showed that the expectations respecting the natural wealth of the island, and all that Spain would obtain from it, were completely unfounded. The productions of the island had been so unimportant that since its reincorporation it had was been a burden upon the Sp anish treasury, and the principal cause of th e deficit Spain now experienced. " The last budget of Santo Do mingo," he continued, " reached the respectable sum of 74,000,000 reals, and this without in any way supplying the necessities of that country, s ince, after having spent so much money, not a single yard of road will have been made on the day Iv leave it. If we h a d wa i te d f or th e prosperity of the island and c onveye d to i t the mater i a l s necessary to develop its riches, it is indubitable that the budget b of Santo Dominuo, 100, 000 would have amounted to ,000 real s further pointed outrthat there was a special circum stance which rendered th annexation of the island to This Spain imp rac ti cable. consisted in the mixed population of the island. The inhabitants, although view. speaking Spanish, were in a great part of African extraction, and it might be said that nine-tenths of them were negroes and mulattoes. " These negroes and mulattoes had 20 years of independence, and were entirely equal, as regards political rights, with the whites. They became presidents of the Republic, generals, senators, in a word they were placed on equal conditions with the few whites there were in the island. And what is the position occupied by people of colour in our Antilles ? There we have slavery, and this marks the difference of races and establishes a supremacy of thewhite over the coloured race. The latter have no political rights, and although some civil rights have been accorded them they have always been in a depressed condition, and held in lower consideration than the white race. If, then, as is natural and just, we left the negroes and mulattoes of Santo Domingo the political rights which they enjoyed before incorporation with us, what would be said by the free negroes and mulat toes of the islands of Cuba and Puerto Rico ? Hence arises the agitation among the coloured classes in those islands, produced, not by the war, but by the annexation of Santo Domingo. This sole circum stance ought, in my opinion, to have sufficed for Spain never to have listened to the petition of the Do minicans for reincorporation with the mother coun try." After reviewing at great length the history of the reoccupation of Santo Domingo by Spain, and censuring the mistaken policy pursued by the Government, the marquis concluded by a defence of the Spanish army in Santo Domingo, upon which some reflection had been cast by Senor Cal deron Collantes. He quoted the official reports of the captain-general to show the frightful mor tality of the climate, and the immense losses sus tained by sickness among the troops. The question of Santo Domingo did not affect the honour of the Spanish nation, and it was a sad disgrace for the soldiers, instead of falling musket in hand as in Africa, to die in a miserable hospital. Fashions for February. (From Le Follet) The question of most interest on the subject of fashion for this month is the style in vogue for ball and evening dress. Amongst the novelties we remark robes of gauze embroidered in gold, or - silver, or silk. Nothing is prettier than such flowers on a light, vapoury material, and ladies of elegance can wear such a dress without appearing to be dressed in too simple or girlish a manner. There are some beautiful tulle dresses spotted over with butterflies, or flowers formed of feathers, or with silver arrows —very original and exceedingly elegant—but, although needing no trimming, they are expensive. Fichus, berthes, and pelerines are made in a variety of very becoming styles. From numerous models we select the following :—A berth of tulle illusion, bouillonnee lengthways, very narrow at the shoulders, and forming a point at the centre. Ruches of tulle, edged with gold, and having a white and gold blonde beneath, form the trimming at the bottom and top of the berthe. A second berthe is made in Figaro style in front, whilst the back forms braces and ends in a square postilion basque. It is very pretty when made of blonde tulle, with flowers and light ruches of pink ribbon put in festoons over a wide blonde. For more simple dress we find a fichu made high, and crossed; composed of five crossway pieces of tulle, with a bouillonne and bows of red velvet round the top, and round the bottom a wide white lace headed by a narrower black lace, both finished off with small bows of red velvet. We must not omit to mention a charming pelerine of spotted tulle with a double trimming of festoons, very pointed, and set on in deep plaints. These festoons are edged with a narrow lace, and above is placed a sky-blue ribbon run under a bouillonne. The trimming is carried up the front and round the throat. For at-home toilette, chemisettes are more than ever fashionable, for now, with the Russian veste, it is not merely a guimpe, but the sleeve also which are required. Many white bodies without vestes:are worn at small soirees or social dinner-parties, and with a light silk skirt look ex ceedingly well ; but care must be taken that the colour of the ribbon placed under the insertion, with which these bodies are usually trimmed, suits the skirt: Passementerie is still the favourite trimming, and deservedly so, for cer tainly nothing can be more elegant. The list of model dresses is so numerous this month that we must now proceed to describe them, commencing with ball and evening toilette. A sky-blue satin robe : train skirt, with a plisse of blue crape ; the plaits very large and full, a passamenterie of white silk and white beads marking each plait, and forming a chain from one to another. Over the skirt, a tunic of English lace. A berthe of tulle and crape in large plaits, edged with lace matching the tunic. Sleeves short and puffed, made of crape and tulle. A dress of pink satin. The skirt trimmed with three rows of bouillons of white tulle festooned with bouquets of roses with dewdrops. Body draped with tulle and similar bouquets. Sleeved to match. A Pompadour taffetas robe. The ground pink ; the flowers of various colours. The skirt is open in front over a petticoat of white satin trimmed with bouillonne pink tulle. The body, which is low, is also open in front, showing a white satin stomacher, embroidered in coloured flowers. Round the edge of the pink body, and at the bottom of the sleeves, is a trimming of silk cord mixed with white beads. A dress of light green crape. The skirt entirely bouil lonne, caught up with wreaths of violet camelias and green foliage reaching to the waist, the front wreath being joined by light foliage to the bouquet on the body ; at the bottom of the skirt a lace flounce about six inches wide, partly veiled by the bouillonne. A plain bo.dy, with points, trim med with drapery of crape. Sleeves composed of one bouil lonne of white, another of green, crape ; and a violet came lia on each shoulder. Headdress of similar flowers, forming a tuft on the summit of the head, and a spray behind. This toilette made in white, with pink camelias, is extremely charming. A white tarlatans dress. Three plaited flounces, about five inches wide, each headed by a thick chicoree of pink taffe tas. Plain body, with round waist. A corselet sash of taf fetas, pointed behind at the top, and finishing off in long rounded ends, reaching nearly down to the flounces, and gradually increasing in width ; the whole edged with a taffetas niche. Large rosettes of pinked taffetas hold the drapery in the front of the body and on the shoulders. The sleeves are composed of two narrow frills of tarlatane. A skirt of white tarlatane, having three flounces bordered with pink at the bottom : a second skirt, reaching to the top of the flounces, made of pink foulord, cut in large scol lops, and edged with a thick pink chicoree. A similar chicoree on each side, looping up the top skirt. The body plain ; a small point in front, and trimmed with three chicorees, forming a fan. Folds of white tarlatan are placed round the top, and bows of pink ribbon on the shoulders. A mauve satin robe : the skirt made with a train ; the front embroidered en tablier with steel beads. The body is low, with a flat berthe, also embroidered with steel beads. Round sash, wide, embroidered to match, closed in front with a steel buckle, and finished off behind with a bow and long ends. The head-dress is of mauve velvet and steel, and a white feather. A blue velvet dress. A wide band of guipure round the bottom and up the left side. Low body, and basques formed of three pattes of guipure. In the hair, between the bandeaux, is placed a beautiful bird with wings spread, and another on the centre of the body. A dress of cerise taffetas antique, covered with skirt of tulle, composed of seven narrow flounces put on in waves, alternately with flounces of white blonde, and dotted with rosettes of cerise velvet. Low body, with short sleeves, and berthe of narrow frills and blonde. Sash of cerise velvet. A robe of light green satin, opening in front over a skirt of white satin ; the whole trimmed with point d'Angleterre and white jet. The body is open, and trimmed with a fringe of jet. A dinner-dress of striped satin, white and blue : the bottom of the skirt trimmed with a plaiting of blue velvet. The body has rounded basques, trimmed with rich figured velvet, and fastened with buttons Louis XV. style. The sleeves, which are quite tight, close under cuffs of point lace. Another, of taffetas antique, lilac, embroidered round the skirt with a wreath of grapes and leaves in silk and pearl beads. The sleeves and body are trimmed to match. A robe of silver-grey satin, trimmed at thebottom of the skirt with a chicoree of black tulle. A flounce of Chan tilly, waved, and surmounted by a ruche of tulle worked with jet. Low body and short sleeves, with fichu Marie Antoinette of Chantilly. Buckle, " Princess," with band of black velvet embroidered in jet. For toilette de vile, a robe of black taffetas, opened at the bottom of each breadth, so as to show a triangle of vio let velvet, on which is placed an ornament of passementerie and hanging buttons ; the edge of the silk cut in large scal lops. The body with small barques open over a violet waistcoat. The bottom of the sleeve has a similar ornament to that on the skirt. The same ornament forms the jockey. A robe of violet satin, cut in largo scallops, edged with a wide band of black velvet. Under-skirt of violet satin, striped with black velvet, forming a long train. Vesta Russee of plain satin, and waistcoat of striped satin. There is nothing new to notice either in the form or the materials for bonnets. It seems to be universally admitted that the present style is much more becoming than the high-fronted bonnets were; yet it must be confessed that the abSurd head-dresses made by some, and called bon nets, are :quite as little becoming, and have, besides, an air of vulgarity. Our leading modistes, however, are always careful to avoid extremes, and we may safely de scribe some of their newest styles, to guide the tastesof our readers. Thus, a bonnet of light blue velvet , made in one full piece from the front to the crown, where it is fastened under a large ruche of blonde, which foemrmsalla whit© ea point over the chignon. Under the niche is placed a with a bow and long ends of narrow blue ribbon. Blue velvet in folds across the forehead, with small white fea thers between the folds. A capote of white satin, with three runnings from back to front, fastened under a double niche of white satin, spotted with rosebuds. ' Plaited satin and rosebuds inside. . _ A bonnet of mauve velvet, made in plaits from the front to the back, trimmed at the back with a cache-peigne of jot falling over a wide black lace. Torsade of mauve velvet, and jet ornaments inside. Black velvet bonnet. Plain front. Poinyd behind ; trimmed round the point with a double ruche of pink silk and sprigs of small daisies of white velvet, and bows of very narrow pink ribbon. A capote of crape bouillone and tulle malines, with straps and strings of rose-coloured velvet. The crown formed of curled•feathers and strings of small pearls, fall ing over bouillonnS of tulle. Another capote of blue tulle bouillons and white blonde. Cache-peigne of white feathers, with loops of black velvet worked with pearls. Black velvet and pearls inside the bonnet. Coiffures for evening costume are becoming more and more varied, and for this good reason, that ladies are be ginning to adopt those styles most becoming to them, rather than to wear a head-dress because it is worn by others. Perhaps the coiffure composed of bands of velvet is the most universally adopted ; and, from the fact that it may be fastened simply with silver or jet ornaments, or enriched with agraffes or pens of diamonds, it is equally applicable either for a quiet dinner-dress or for a more elaborate toilette. Those of light blue 'velvet should have pearl or silver ornaments, and those of ponceau velvet gold or pearl ornaments. Another. pretty style of head-dress is made with a pouff formed with ends of green velvet worked with dew-drops in crystal, and fastened with two long ends. A charming Ceres wreath was made of blue velvet myo sotis and silver corn-ears, fastened at the back with long bows of silver lace. Oriental fashion, calls the estrella feliz. Louis Napoleon has survived the deaths of many of his enemies. He has survived Cavaignac, a high-souled and high-principled man he has survived the ac complished and profound strategist, Bedeau ; he has survived that sturdy Republican Minister, Frangois Arago, the astronomer ; he has survived the deep thinker, the philOsophic and earnest De Tocqueville ; he has survived the democratic Prefect of Police, the Citizen Caussidiere ; he has survived the Presi dent of the National Assembly, Armand Marrast he has outlived Alexandre Thomas, one of the most earnest, conscientious, and learned of the writers of his country ; he has survived the democratic Mini ster of Finance, Goudchaux ; and he has survived a man, recently departed, who had as much energy and talent as any one of these—Colonel Charras— who died on Tuesday last at Basle, in Switzerland. From his democratic opinions it might by many be supposed that Charras was a man of humble birth and fortune, sprung from the loins of the working democracy. There could not, however, be a greater error. Charras was the son of a General of high character and principles, who was appointed to the Military Government of the Puy de Dome in the reign of Charles X. To this office he was originally named by Clermont Tounessee, Minister of War in the Ministry of Villele, and he was continued in his functions by Marshals Gerard and Soult, both Ministers of Louis Philippe, after the Revolution of 1830. Young Charras, who was born in 1808, in the same year as the now Emperor of the French, received a careful education at the hands of his father. In his sixteenth year, soon after the accession of Charles X. in September, 1824, he entered the Ecole Polytech nique, in which seminary he not only greatly distin guished himself by his talents and acquirements, but also by his open and manly character. From the Polytechnic School, having chosen the Artillery as the special branch of the profession to which he attached himself, he was despatched to the Ecole d'Application de l'Artillerie et du Genie at Metz, in Lorraine. In this great Military Academy he was no less distinguished than at the Polytechnic, and when he left it to join in the active business of his profession he was exceedingly popular, notwith standing the brusqueness of his manners and the advanced nature of his political opinions. Already, in 1829, when scarcely 21, Charras was as well known for the vehemence of his opinions in the French army as was our own William Napier 20 years earlier in the British. In the following year the French Revolution of 1830 broke out, and in the three days of July the young officer of 21 (who had months before distinguished himself in the columns of the National as a writer), distinguished himself also as a combatant in the attack on the barrack of the Rue de Babylone. Charras soon discovered that his contributions to a democratic journal were as displeasing to his commanding offi cers as were those of Carrel ten years previously, when he was a sous-lieutenant in the 29th Regiment of the line, in garrison at Mort. Though Char ras had early enough obtained the grade of Captain of Artillery, yet at that point his promotion stopped, doubtless because of his political opinions. He resolved therefore to get himself transferred from the Artillery to the Infantry, with a view to service in Africa. This was effected under the War Ministry of Soult. After three years' service in Africa Charras was made Chef de Bataillon. After the events of 1848, when Francois Arago held the portfolio of War, awaiting the arrival of General Cavaignac (who had been appointed War Minister) Charras was telegraphed for to Algiers to act as Under Secretary, a post which he at once accepted. It has been said that his conduct in this capacity was harsh and inconsiderate, and that seve ral old officers of Royalist opinions were removed from their command and mis en retraite. Some few cases of this kind wholly indefensible certainly oc curred ; the blame, however, rested not with Char ras, but with his superior, Arago, who held the portfo lio of War till Cavaignac arrived. The personal de meanour of the Under Secretary, though not highly polished' or courtly, was that of a frank and manly soldier. Arago's manner, on the contrary, was more trenchant and abrupt, and his views were more unbending. Much of the blame that ought to have fallen on the principal was transferred to the Under- Secretary by the public. But the army and his brother soldiers were well aware that the sin was not Charras's. For a few days in May, 1848, Arago had become so unpopular that Charras filled the office at War till the arrival of Cavaignac on the 15th, and during this time there was no complaint of any injustice. If there had been, it is plain that the department of the Puy de Dome would not have returned Charras to the National Assembly by more than 82,000 votes. While a member of the As sembly Charras gained the esteem of those who differed from him by his directness and straight forwardness of purpose. He avowed himself a Re publican but a moderate Republican, of the school of Cavaignac, who wished order to reign hand-in hand with liberty. Though a member of the Comite de. Guerre in the National Assembly, Charras never separated the duties of a soldier from those of a good citizen. He opposed on Parliamentary grounds the Ministry of the 20th of December, and he was still more vigorously and more energetically opposed to the policy of the Elysee. Such a man as this, though only enjoying the rank of Colonel of Artil lery, was a formidable opponent ; and on the 2d of December, 1851, Charras was arrested in his bed in the Rue Duplot. He made, like his superior officer Dedeau, a desperate resistance, and would have used his pistols had they not been seized while he was between sleep and wake. Charras felt the attack on his personal liberty a crime not to be con doned. He declined to avail himself of the am nesty issued a couple of years ago, and refused to return to a country from which, he contended, he had been unjustly and illegally expelled. He occu pied the enforced leisure of his exile in writing a history of the campaign of 1815—a work ably and, on the whole, fairly executed. The talents and attainments of Colonel Charras were considerable. He was a master. in the science of his own pro fession, as is apparent from his criticisms on the campaign of - Waterloo. He has exposed to demon stration the errors of Napoleon, and proved with remarkable clearness that the charges of treachery, diSobedience, and incompetence which the Emperor would fix on his lieutenants are without a shadow of foundation. This work, printed at Brussels, is so popular, that in 1863 it had attained a fourth edition, and a' fifth has been called for. Colonel Charras had also written a work on the campaign of 1813, which will be published by his widow. • •THE "SPECTATOR" ON" THE MALT TAX.— Liberals are apt to be a little unfair hi their argu ments for the malt tax. They will not :always reason the matter out as a question .01 national policy but treat it too frequently as one of class interests or as a cry raised only for political purposes. I generally find, said a Liberal member recently amidst the laughter of his audience, " that those who oppose the tax are Tories,". as if that had anything what ever to do with the matter in hand. We generally find that those who oppose oppressive duties are Whigs, but that is not reason sufficient to justify a Tory government in keeping those duties on. Still 'less is it an argument to assert that the repeal of the malt tax is only a farmer's question. If it were it ought to be discussed just as much as a mer chant's question or a Manufa,cturer's, but it is not. It is a question, for every voter in England outside the ranks of Mr. Lawson's clientle, and for every Liberal statesman,—for every voter, because if he is' a sensible person he prefers sound beer to bad wine and worse spirits ; for every Liberal statesman, because the thing most needed at this moment is to disabuse agriculturists of the notion that the Liberal party is at heart hostile to them. That notion,utterly false, corn-growing being just as much an industry as cotton making, and a far more extensive one, sways even so moderate a speaker as Lord John Manners. In his speech at Leicester on Saturday the member for North Leicestershire, who was try ing to be almost painfully fair, still allowed himself to assert that the only chance of repeal was to con ciliate the urban population, who thought the tax one beneficial to them. Such a belief divides the country by lines which are not political but sectional, and makes all improvement tardy by creating an irritable suspicion in the mind of every farmer and landholder that any reform proposed is secretly directed against him. Even when Liberal members repudiate such an idea, as Mr. Milner Gibson did at Ashton, they are still very apt to treat the farmer's demand with something of contempt, to offer argu ments they would never think of producing in the House, to tell people, for example, as he did his constituents, that as the malt tax was only 121 per cent. upon price and the tea duty was 33i per cent. the latter had the higher claim. The President of the Board of Trade of all men must be most certain that the amount of a tax is no test of the injury it inflicts. There are trades which a 3 per cent tax would kill, and trades, such, for instance, as in quinine or saltpetre, on which five times that rate would have scarcely a perceptible effect. A duty levied on the sea-board costs the merchant only its amonnt and the consequent loss of demand, an excise costs those and the loss from interference in manufacture besides. The first principle of all true hnance is to get rid as far as the necessities of the State will allow of every tax which seriously restricts an industry, and the true point for those who ap prove this tax is to show that it does not restrict an industry as much as some other impost To say that it is not protective, as, for instance, the Scots man does, i s very littl e to the purpose. The farmers do not allege that it is protective in the sense of protection against the foreigner, but affirm that all other excise duties having terminated—except one upon spirits which nobody wishes to abolish, which we should probably keep up even if We did not want the revenue—it is hard that their industry alone should be subject to an undue restriction. That re striction, they urge, arises in this way. They have land, in some counties a great deal of land, which will grow rather poor barley. They cannot grow it because while the duty is levied on quantity it is not worth the maltster's while to malt any but the very best sort of gfain". The duty, as they contend, operates to create a monopoly in favour of the pro ducers of the very best barley, a monopoly not se cured by the quality of their article, but by the fact that the malting constituents in good barley pack into a smaller compass, that in fact the saving of duty is a bonds granted by the State in favour of the least bulky article. It is the old question of the sugar duties. Suppose them made uniform, it would only pay the importer to purchase the very best, and colonies producing worse—i.e. more bulky sugar—would in fact have a differential duty levied against them. The malt duty is uniform, and the uniformity acts as a differential duty against poor barley. This is the first grievance, and not merely the duty, which it is alleged with truth is paid by the people who drink beer. If all barley could be malted the duty would be a some what cumbrous tax upon all people not teetotallers, but it prevents barley which ought to be malted from being so consumed. The farmers therefore urge that if the Exchequer can spare the money, or any part of the money, they ought to be relieved, and if they cannot be relieved altogether then the duty should decreased pari passu with the income-tax until it is gradually extinguished. Of course some of them say things very unlike this, and talk bom bast, as irritated men generally and Mr.. Busfield Ferrand always are apt to do, but we have endea voured to state the argument of the moderate sec tion, of the men who, like Lord John Manners, ad mit that the Treasury must be filled, and who do not believe that anybody wants to crush them, but who still think their reasonable freedom of cultiva- tion is impaired by the tax. It will be necessary to listen to them, for the single business in England except cotton which is at this moment not sharing in the general prosperity is agriculture. With wheat selling through last year at an average of 38s. per quarter, farmers whose calculations and leases are based on a minimum of 40s. are not likely to look with complacency or even fairness on any tax which interfere with their efforts to find some paying substitute. Their difficulty may be all their own fault, as the gentleman who informs the Times that he has grown seven quarters per acre evidently thinks ; or all the landlords' fault, for screwing up rents and preserving game ; or all the black beetles' fault, for anything that anybody's blame has to do with the matter. There is the scrape undeniably, that it is no use for the moment to grow wheat on poor land, and that barley upon such land is prohibited by revenue law, and the farmer is perfectly certain to make strenuous efforts to get out of it. He cannot get back protection, even if he wanted it--and we are talking of sensible men—but he can get rid of a differential duty against poor land, and Liberals may rely on it he will try. Their duty therefore as practical men is to consider not whether the complaint comes from farmers, or landlords, or labourers, or tailors, but whether the plea for reduction is as, good as any which other trades can produce. That is not quite so certain as the farmers think, but it is much more probable than some Liberal reasoners appear dis posed to allow. There are very few duties remain ing to be taken off, and among them not one except that on spirits which presses close upon the springs of an English industry. Neither tea, coffee, sugar, nor tobacco are produced in these islands, and of them only sugar can be said to be more beneficial than beer. The ridiculous shilling stillleft upon corn ought no doubt to go,but with wheat at presentprices that necessary reduction can very well wait a little. There are no indirect taxes of moment to abolish, except fire insurance, and although reductions on tea are popular it would not be quite safe to poll England on the choice between that and beer. THE " OBSERVER" ON THE METROPOLITAN OMNI BUS MONOPOLY.—It would appear that nothing short of fresh :legislation will bring the company which monopolises the omnibus traffic of the metro polis to their senses, and secure justice to the public. We stated in the Observer of last week that so fully did the directors of the London General Omnibus Company feel that the local travelling public of the metropolis were at their mercy that, even should there be a public show of any kind, or a slight change in the weather, then they made it a pretext for increasing their fares 25 and even 50 per cent. Little could it be supposed when those observations were penned that this company were likely to realise the complaint against them within so short a period as one week. It could hardly be supposed that in consequence of a slight change of weather this com pany, who have the entire traffic of the metropolis in their hands, would venture, instead of 50 per cent., to increase their fares to 100, and even, as we are credibly informed,in some instances to 150 per cent. Yet, nevertheless, it is true.'""lf the . " London Ge- neral" reduced as well as raised their fares in ac cordance with the indications of the barometer, there would not be so much ground of complaint— the public would not then be under the delusion that they were about to indulge in a threepenny ride, for which, at the:end of their journey, or dur ing their progress, they subsequently found out they had to pay sixpence, and in some instances even as much as ninepence, or in the latter instance an increose of 200 per cent. All this would be un derstood, and the public becoming alive to it,would regulate their travelling aecordingly. On most of the lines, however, yesterday morning, the omnibus company doubled their fares without giving the slightest notice to the public. On the Waterloo line of route, from the York and Albany, through Re gent-street and the Strand, the omnibuses were filled, the start made, and the vehicle had proceeded a short distance on the journey, when an intimation was made that a rise in the fares had taken place by the conductor putting his head in at the window, and exclaiming, " Fares, sixpence, ladies and gen tlemen, for any distance." Many, on hearing this, looking upon the demand as an imposition, stopped the vehicle and alighted, preferring rather to walk than submit to it. On the Hampstead-road, and Camden-town and King's-cross lines the same sys tem was adopted during the early part of the morning, but on the second journeys the conductors were provided with a sheet of paper, which was temporarily pasted inside, with the words written thereon, " Sixpence any distance ; " and it is asserted that during the first and second journeys, knowing that the mass of riders were compelled to be at business by a given time, as much as nine pence was charged for the ordinary threepenny and fourpenny journey. A great amount of indignation was manifested by the• public, and grave doubts were expressed as to the legality of this proceeding. We believe we are correct in asserting that, without due notice, painted prominently on some portion of the vehicle, such charges are not legal, and cannot be enforced. However, legal or not legal, we are quite certain in the long run that the London General Omnibus Company will find their policy in this re spect a failure. Within a brief period the northern suburbs of the metropolis will in common with others form a portion of the great Metropolitan Railway system ; and the Omnibus Company may rest assured when the advantages of competition in this respect is attained—a competition they cannot by any possibility run off the road or get rid of— their present treatment of the public will not be forgotten. The Opinion, Nationale publishes a communicated note from the Ministry of the Interior, correcting a misin terpretation of certain passages in its comments on a pre vious note. That journal had erroneously insisted that the city authorities were to be blamed for unnecessary delay in settling the indemnity to be paid to the parties expropriated to make the new Rue de Turbigo. CENTRAL ASIA.—A letter from St. Petersburg, dated 18th inst., notices as follows the sitting of the Imperial Geographical Society on the 14th December, at which very interesting news was given concerning the countries of Central Asia. Mr. Struve road an account of a voyage he had made in company with Mr. Potanine, towards the sources of the Irtisch, to the Lake Zaissane, and to the mountains of Tarbigataisk. According to the information collected by the author, it appears that the Kirghises and Tatars are inclined to form fixed settle ments, and have begun to found villages, one of which is situated at about forty kilometres to the south of the mountains of Tarbigataisk. After Mr. Struve, Rear-Ad miral Boutakoff gave an account of his exploration of the Sir Darla. He has ascertained that this river is navigable to a distance of 800 kilometres from Fort Perowsky, which gives a total length of 1,500 navigable kilometres from its mouth. It is still unknown if higher up the river has a sufficient depth to carry boats. Rear Admiral Bouta koff has met as far as Fort Djoulck traces of canals and of some towns, the existence of which dates as far back as Tamerlane. The desert lands begin higher up. All the ter ritory comprised between the Forts Perowsky and Djoulck is at present inhabited by a numerous and active popula tion, who occupy themselves with husbandry and breeding cattle. The Kirghises dig water canals, drain the bogs, construct dikes, and live on good terms with the Cossack colony established near the fort. Every day there arrive Kirghises and wandering Korakalpacks, who abandon Khiva and put themselves under our protection. The Aca demical Gazette publishes the account of a voyage of explo ration of the river Soungoura, a tributary stream of the Amoor. The steamer ascended the river as far as Guirine, a Mantchouria town of 100,000 inhabitants, which serves as a seat of residence to the governor of the country. The borders of the Soungoura, which traverses Mant chouria from south to north, are well peopled, and the in habitants gather in crowds round the Russians to admire their dress, and especially the steamer working its way against the current by means of its paddle wheels. It results from this first voyage that the Soungoura is navigable from the Amoor as far as the confluence of the Nani-Outa, but that further on there are shallows. It remains now to ascertain if the IsTani-Outa, is not likewise navigable. Vacancies, Promotions, and Appointment:. in the Civil Service. (From the Cell Service Gcizette.) has bee° COLONIAL-OFFICE.—Mr Henry Russell Heysham appointed a clerk in the convict service, Wester n Australia: INDIAN-OFFICE.—Mr. Hugh C. Briggs has been a pp ointed a temporary clerk. THE ADMIRALTY.—Mr. Frederick Powell has been sr pointed a clerk in the victualling-yard, Malta. • THE POST OFFICE.—Mr. Pellatt, postmaster of Ne w : castle-on-Tyne, has been appointed postmaster of Souar am ton. Mr. Edward Macgowran has been app ointed clerk at Dumfries. Mr. Haverty has been promoted fro" the old supplementary class to the second class of ell sorting office, Dublin. Mr. M'Clintock has been p romote from the redundant establishment of clerks to the PO I " . tionary class of clerks, sorting office, Dublin. CUSTOMS.—Mr. John R. Blackford has been appoin ted ; clerk in the examiner's office, London. Mr. Maurice SYIII- has been appointed a clerk in the examiner's office, tji Lond°ll; Mr. Alfred J. Wood has been appointed a clerk in„.po examiner's office, London. Mr. John H. Jeffery bas appointed a clerk in the searcher's office, London. , Charles de V. Wood has been appointed an extra clef,' London. Mr. Charles E. Sullivan has been apPoi n . n te ;i o clerk for general business, Liverpool. Mr. Thomas EL P/ J . has been appointed 18th clerk, Dublin. Mr. NlTill iara gr• Massy, has been appointed 10th clerk, Southampt on, James Moway has been appointed sth clerk, Aberdeen-7i: T. D. Thorpe, clerk of the second-class•in the lone ) „ - z London, has been promoted to be chief clerk in the the room. Mr. H. H. Hooper, clerk of the third-class ill t a long room, has been promoted to be a clerk of the se c k °n o t r class, long-room, London. Mr. W. H. Sharmand , Ole n a the fourth-class, long-room, has been promoters clerk of the third-class, long-room, London. Mr. 3 1 • son, clerk of the fifth-class, long-room, has been prorav to be a clerk of the fourth-class, long-room, London. wou INLAND REVENUE.—Stamp and Tax Branch.- 311 '% ar e. Lomas, committee clerk, has been appointed assista n t tary, Stamp and Taxes, vice Mr. C. Hay, retired. Joseph Prendergast has been appointed committee c"'"' vice Mr. L omas, promoted. Stsf - Excisz BRANCH.—Mr. Henry Geo. Attfield, officer , er ford division, Stafford collection, has been appointed,:li aminer. Mr. William Lindsay, officer, Glasgow , 12th 40 er sion, Glasgow collection, has been appointed exa vlill ufirg l; Mr. Wm. Tulse, officer, Edinburgh, 2d division, Eden collection, has been appointed officer of Liverpool, 6th ''oer sion, Liverpool colleetion. Mr. Wm. Long, dropPed gi3o. Glasgow, 14th division, Glasgow collection, has been pointed officer of Glasgow 7th division, Glasgow colic ~.,0 6 14-0 Mr. Peter Fisher, officer, Glasgow, 13 th division, 018704- collection, has been appointed officer of Glasgow, 1 01 - pe a sion. Glasgow collection. Mr. John P.-Sibthorpe , d r°P o3 officer, Glasgow, 14th division, Glasgow collection, been appointed officer of Glasgow, 13th division, al lt6 ce, collection. Mr. Edward Pinnix, officer, Tenter 11144 Canterbury collection, has been appointed second cie Brighton collection. • fl oint ed IRELAND.—Mr. Edward Murtagh has been arr, third class clerk, secretary's department, Boa rd of Klip. Works, vice Mr. Octavius H. Braddell, transferred t° countant's Department. SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. THE " SATURDAY REVIEW" ON THE RUSSIAN BUDGET.—The practice of publishing annual bud gets is so novel under autocratic Governments, and so commendable in itself, as almost to disarm cri ticism, but it must be confessed that the document recently issued by •the Russian Minister is more valuable as a respectful homage to the demands of public opinion than for any information to be de rived from it. Those who contemplate dealings with the Russian Government are naturally anxious to know how far it is habitually exceeding itsincome, and what is the state and progress of its debt. Nothing of this kind can be discovered from what is called the Budget of 1865. The estimated revenue and expenditure for 1864 are carefully compared with the estimates for the ensuing year, but no in formation whatever is given as to the actual expen diture which has been incurred. An existing deficit is quite as serious when caused by unforeseen, as when produced by estimated, outlay, and it would be interesting to know how far the military expenditure in Poland and Cir cassia has exceeded the levies which it has been pos sible to draw from confiscation of the property of the unfortunate inhabitants of those subjugated provinces. It is not likely that, in a country where the revenue is so little elastic as in Russia, the actual deficit has been below the calculated amount, and it is admitted that the year 1863 was com menced with estimates which provided an income of about £55,500,000 to meet an anticipated expendi ture (including extraordinary military and naval expenses) of nearly £63,000,000, leaving an esti mated deficit of more than £7,000,000. In 1865 the the Minister hopes to fare better. By some slight natural improvements, and by additional taxation upon spirits, it is expected that the revenue will ' be raised to £56,000,000, while the cessation of the drain for warlike operations will, it is hoped, bring down the expenditure to £59,500,000, thus reducing the deficit for 1865 to one-half of that calculated for the_ previous year. These figures are not very encouraging, but it is by no means certain that they tell the whole truth, and it would surprise no one to find that the real excess of expenditure in the past year was something much more considerable than the antici pated £7,000,000. The rate of progress of the national debt of any country, when it can be ac curately discovered, serves very well to test the annual budgets ; but it is not easy to ascertain with exactness what the present position of the floating debt of Russia is, and we have already said that the Budget affords no assistance to any one who is cnrious enough to enter upon such an inquiry. The following figures, however, 'are believed to be not much in error. At the beginning of 1864 the funded debt, which before the Crimean campaign stood at £64 000, 000 7 had risen to £110,000,000, while the floating debt, almost all of recent creation, reached the formidable sum of £24,000,000, making the total debt about £134,000,000. Since that time a loan of £6,000,000 has been negotiated, and Trea sury bonds have been issued "to about the same amount, and to cover the expected deficit of 1865 it is proposed to issue about £2,000,000 more. This will leave the funded debt at £116,000,000, and the floating debt at £32,000,000, showing an increase of debt, beyond the amount in curred upon to the eild - of 1863, of £14,000,000. If these figures are accurate, there must be some im portant deficiency beyond the £10,500,000 calculated for the two years by the published estimates. If we pass from the broad results to the details given in the Budget, we find very little to relieve the gloom which seems to rest on the finances of Russian. There is none of that marvellous growth of revenue which in England and France is expected almost as a matter of course. The land revenue is falling, as a consequence of the abolition of serfdom. The Customs duties are less %han they were in 1863, either from a diminution o consumption or an in crease of smuggling. Some loss, too, has been in curred by the removal of expott duties on raw cotton and other commodities. The licenses and fees which gauge the state of commerce also show a diminution, while the only items on the other side of the esti mate are about £BOO,OOO raised by additional spirit duties, and some smaller sums derived from less im portant items of revenue. It has apparently become obvious to the Russian Government that equilibrium can only be restored by a reduction of military ex penditure. Now that Poland and Circassia are crushed, it is proposed to red uce the army and navy expenditure by £4,500,000 , though even this saving leaves a deficit of £3,500,000 t o b e met in 1865, and will only be effectual as a financial measure if it is followed by still more vigorous pruning hereafter. This, however, the Minister hopes to effect, and, i n a country as poor as Russia now is, it is the only course by which the gravest embarrassments can be escaped. The enu meration of deficits, and the history of the progress of debt, are far from exhausting the troubles with which a Russian financier has to contend. As is al most always the case, the accumulation of debt has been accompanied by the issue of inconvertible notes to such an extent as seriously to derange the circu lating medium. It is argued, with some p l aus ibility, that the comparative barbarism of the Russian empire exempts it to a certain extent from the ordinary con sequences of a redundant currency. Throughout the greater part of the dreary regions which acknow ledge the supremacy ofj the Czar, the common re sources of credit are unknown. In the absence of banks,:whatever passes for currency is hoarded by ig norant peasants and scarcely less ignorant proprietors. All the ingenious contrivances by which a limited amount of circulating coin or notes is made in more civilised States to supply the wants of an almost un limited commerce are unknown in Russia, except of the great . commercial centres, and the consequence is that a very restricted trade requires a much larger amount of circulating medium than is needed by the most energetic commercial nations in the world. Nevertheless, large as is the capacity of the huge empire of Russia, the Government has long since contrived• to flood it with more irredeemable notes than it can absorb. The old device was begun by Catharine 11., by an issue of no more than £3,000,000 ; but every war has driven the Govern ment to resort to the same dangerous expedient, and after the great Continental struggle in the be ginning of the century, Russia was groaning under the burden of an issue of £100,000,000 of incon vertible notes. Confiscation, under the name of special taxation and financial arrangements was tried for many years as a means of reducing the un manageable circulation; but fresh necessities con tinually arose, and after the Crimean contest there were once more £120,000,000 of notes in circulation. Since that time a series of half-intelligible transactions with the Impe rial Bank have been adopted, in the hope of restoring the value of the paper money. Loan after loan has been contracted, ostensibly for this purpose ; and the last operation by which about £6,000,000 was raised was avowedly intended to redeem the superfluous notes. Other detnands, however, of a more urgent character swallowed up these resources, and at this moment the state of the Russian currency is worse than it has ever been before. It is said that within the last few years an intelligent Russian officer, who was asked to accept the office of Minister of Finance, replied that only a genius or a fool would undertake the responsibility, and that, being neither one nor the other, he pre ferred to decline the proffered honour. Whether the actual Minister fulfils either of these conditions remains to be proved, but as yet he had made little head against a sea of troubles, and the only thing to be said in his favour is that he does not seem to be aware that rigid economy is the sole policy by which the threatening financial embarrassment can be averted. THE " EXAMINER" ON _ THE LATE COLONEL CHARRAS.—It cannot be denied that the Emperor of the French possesses what the Spaniards, in their COUNTRY MARKETS YORK—SATURDAY. The frost continues with considerable severity, 1)t is a good covering of snow for the land ; in fact, in its to places further north the fall of snow has been so gre,fiio st render the roads impassable. There was only a •s wig, tendance of the trade at our corn market, and a it'd last of wheat, the price of which was fully equal to tha t - week. Bss New white wheat, 40s to 45s ; new red, 36$ 'Li:ss New white wheat 40s to 45s ; new red, toi . diao 36 stone. Barley, for malting, 28s to 30s per qr ; s tea e ' 26s to 27s per 30. stone. Oats, new, 20s to 22s per 2= Beans, 40s to —s per 38 stone. NO T T INGHAM—SATURDAY. There was a fair quantity of wheat on offer 11 11 1 4 growers at this corn exchange to-day, the conditi on grain being pretty tolerable. We have had a hee' v J o f t 1 1" snow during the last few days, and the appearailceorice; country is quite winterly. The snow will be verY fr s oi s t ll 4 able to the young wheat plant in protecting it " rata frost. There was a fair demand to-day, and the 1. last week were fully supported. 15; Old white wheat, 43s to 46s ; old red, 8 9 s to 4 ra; white, 41s to 45s ; new red, 37s to 41s per 36 stone. 0$ to ley, new malting, 28s to 34s per qr ; old grindill,g'ioti 27s ; new, 25s to 27s per 30 stone. Oats, old, 2 ' 5 iget o4 naw, 22s to 25s ; old foreign, 24s to 26s per st one ' old, 40s to 43s ; new, 37s to 39s per 38 stone. NORWICH—SATURDAY. to -6°l ' „The supply of wheat was short at this market as 10 and the trade may be considered about the sa ul l e v offef - 4 week for all useful qualities. There was less bar` Bl ,, f ing than of late , and in some instances an aclva nc- ° O O-e' per qr. was realised for the best samples of raalting ; j,ittlt 3 sorts ruled about the same as on this day se'nuigh t ' doing in oats, beans, or peas. 44s to 4 55 : it ill e g ° White wheat (weighing 631 b to 6411 ditto (weighing 631 b to 641 b), 36s to 88 b" "3 barley (weighing 551 b to 561 b), 30s to 3 i o ; r uns ei e , (weighing 541 b to 551 b), 28s to 30s • distilling dittO ( 11 , 0 ing 521 b to 531 b), 84s to 28s ; oats , ' 24s to 26s • b?.. 31 / 4 7i, 2 6 • 4 to 39s ; peas (maple), 36s to 38s per qr; 2 " s 9 v 4 01 6d. Average—wheat, 2,000 qrs, 33s 4d ; barley, 9, 29s 2d ; oats, 82 qrs, 26s 7d. LEICESTER—SATURDAY. . Old white wheat, 41s. to 455; old red, 38s to 0 1 ' 13tir,,' white, 40s to 43s ; new red, 37s to 40s per 36 stooe.,, e r ley, malting, 30s to 33s per qr. ; grinding, 280 to 3 0 4 r s t, stone. Oats, old, 24s to 26s ; new, 25s to 27s per Beans, old, 89s to 41s; new, 36s to 38s per 38 stone. „ . . iuc t CORK—FRIDAY. • :-'Oll The following were the quotations this mono &o,a; wheat, 7s 6d to Os Od ; white, 8s 8d to Os Od ; br A r to 613 to 7s Od ; oats, 58 ad to 6s 8d ; black oats, 6 0 bere, Os Od. DIIBLIN.—FRIDAY. 1 © trigilf Attendance thin. Supply of wheat small; bar - ats e tc.3 oats large; demand very slow. To effect sales 0 ° i t ( 1 t barley 3d per barrel reduction should be Foreign wheat, no buers. Maize in ve% Flour, no life, bakers just taking for imme 'ate sv ai ' r ed (I , ° : Currencies :—Whte wheat, 23s Od to 258 Od 21s Od to 22s 6d; grinding barley, 12s 6d to 198 V .l ing do., 14s to 15s 6d; white oats, 11 to 128 • bi t " s 7 -10s 6d to lls 3d. sluitbtrie retecsi.ii°s Foreign Mail Packet List. Australia and New Zealand, via Southampton..••tet • 11. Ditto, via Marseilles .......................... b. 5• Brazil and Cape Verds, by British pacret ......... 21. Ditto, by British packet ............ fel! Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and t. China, Penang, and Singapore, via Sou:hanapton. F y ' eD. 13 , !c • Ditto, via Marseilles Falkland Islands .............. Feb . .... Gibraltar, via Southampton . - ••••Y ev Feb. 5 , India (B mbay), via Southampton IndDiai(tiLa,,levuitatam),aarneduCieesy.lnr!, 6outhampton Fe b ' , Feb' 1 i t u r rst s he e i li mic e Ps i,.. ............ •• • • Feb. 1$ t ton m a u l3 Dri i it t ti t tu : B , : v vv i ii a aa Newfoundland ••••Fe b ' s. Portugal ••••••- Ditto, by private ship to Li5b0n......... .. • • United btates and British Is or, h America, by Bri- 1• tish packet.... Ditto, by United States packet, via Southa . in — P . .... tcn • Ditto, via Cork ..... ieb Ditto, by Canadian packet, via LondonderrY••,,, 1 (/ ' West Coast of Africa, Madeira, and Teneriffe ... ew West Indies and Pacific (exceptßaharuas, Cuba, n' gO. and Mexico •• ........ ...... .• „O Bahamas, via New York. ........................... r • 16. ................... Bermuda, ditto . Ye w 03. .. Cuba and Mexico .................................. —a u [ADVERTISEMENT].—HoIIoway's Ointment deloo Hope for all.—Whatever their ailments, none ne ed tiff' of being cured till they have tried these T - oter.',le? remedies. Whether the disease be internal 0 5 , 1 4 or spontaneous, or the result of violence ; if a cure uv „ . ;reriv o ce, Holloway's medicaments will effect it. The 8 , - 011, 16 , duration of the malady is no bar to the successfu'uoi, exerted by these twin medicines, which cleanse, P o ple o a' invigorate every solid and fluid in the body, andr ae e L o c ' f ,‘o tic t l renovate the digestion. They render every' o cretion healthy. These admirable antidotes to r es i.t„ scl immediately on the absorbent system, lunge, to ll 6 circulation, whereby they invariably give eneign vigour to all the natural functions of life. Births. eT a ° . ir • CITAPIKAN.—On the 2Gth inst., at North Lodge, ..,ce4 ton, Mrs. Frederic Chapman, of a son. , t ev :6; ll MAXWELL.—On the 26th inst., at 21, BuelcingeTi - ,lto - Edinburgh, the wife of Colonel Maxwell, (.).-P* o; Regt.), of a son. ifil e o 4 MILEs.—On the 21st inst., at Penpole House, t E 11 : 0 0P il Philip W. S. Mies, Esq., of King's Weston, °` heir. Marriages. t BERENS--SHAW-HELLIER.—On the 21st inst., a t - f V il d 0 " Knightsbridge, Alexander A. Berens, E 9 1 . 1, °- gh t e L'ik Hall, Cambridge, to Mary Ellen, the eldest utiust,9- Thomas Shaw-Hellier, Esq., of Rodbaston 1 1414 e ' shire. Cll. JOlMinst.. at • ON—ROPER.—On the 24th On don, Thomas Charles, fourth son of the late se Johnson, Esq., of Aldermanbury, to Susan 1 4 0 ' daughter of Robert Roper, Esq., of Croydon. Deaths. (" i* DUCE.—On the 27th inst., at WednesburY, StaAfet, James Duce, Esq., M.R.C.S., L.S.A., aged 2 v* or' i 're DUNDONALD.—On the 25th inst., at Boulogoie:01,1,i, Katherine Corbett, Doviager Countess of Thil' o - 0 (1 . Hot of Vice-Admiral the Earl of Dundonald, at' FULLER.—On the 25th inst., at Bear-hill, TvrYffrystl, Lieut.-Colouel Frederick Hervey Fuller 09'5 lit If giment), aged 79. FowLE.—On the 21st inst., at Chute L o 4 °7 ,IY , Rev. Henry Fowle,. M.A., aged 62. 1 4°14' Posmit.—On the 26th inst., at Yelverton Recto 80116 the Rev. Edward Postle, aged 65. , w O. IVELLs.—On the 27th inst., at Chelmsford, Esq., aged 75. ; 8° v rAl4 l3" London : Pri ted and Published by WIL , ,P g o of No. 112, Strand, ranter, at TILE 5 1114 ( r:COO t' Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, t' Middlesex.—Monday, January 30, 1865. RAI 1.4- I at •,; i em , 6d, It I: 41 htt