The Sun. — London, England, 1841-10-28 00:00:00

EVENIN G SUN the hilts charged in the indictment as signed by him ; as indeed how would it be possible for any one man to sign ten or mere millions worth of bills, each at stated and within certain limited perhids of the year. Mr. Aslett escaped upon that count therefore, but was coneietteeTand imprisoce I for two years upon a minor ceuninirf stealing to the amount of forty shillings, in the shape of the value of the paper on which the bills were drawn. That person, it is reported, is yet living in Paris. Ia his case likewise, the robbery was owing to stock speculations and the payment of gambling losses of enormous amoumts. To show the loose system of transacting business at the Exchequer 8.11-office, it may be noticed as being reported that a few years ago only a parcel of bills to the value of about 100,0001. held by a certain corporation, was discovered to be without the regular stamp of what is called the " portculiis," being part of the arms of the city of \Vestrninter with which the regular bills should be stamped. They were carried to the bill office and submitted to the clerks to ascertain if genuine. One and all, upon careful examination and collation with the books, pronounced them genuine. The omission was then pointed out to their surprise, acknowledged as such, and rectified. In the !es; 1831 or 1832 similar frauds to the pre sent were committed and detected in Paris. We re. collect the name only of one of the delinquents, a person of the name of Kessner. He also was deeply involved in stock speculations, and being irretrievably compromised in the tremendous fall of French stocks consequent on the revolution of July, abstracted or fa bricated Bows Royamr, answering to our Exchequer Bills, to the prodigious amount of seven or eight mil lions of francs before lie was detected, We do not exactly remember the particulars of his fate, but rather think that after apprehension and during imprisonment he managed to destroe himself*. From these remarkable instances of successful fraud the necessity becomes apparent and urgent of more stringent guards and checks for the safety of the public purse, and above all of the nicest circum spection in the selection of individuals for fulfilling such important trusts. C H RON IC LE.—The Chairman of the Committee of the Stock-Exchange, along with a deputation of holders of Exchequer Bills, had an interview with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to-day at the Treasury, for the purpose of ascertaining the determination of the Government regarding the spurious Exchequer Belie. The answer made by the Right Honourable Gentleman was, that he and his colleagues were anxiously en gaged investigating the subject, and so soon as they had made up their minds on it the public would be in formed. Whether the measures to be adopted in this matter are to remain over until February, like those attending the general financial embarrassment of the coettary, we not presume to foretel. The only point, hnwever, known at present is that the Cabinet is deeply engaged in the matter, and that the public will be duly informed of the result of their delibera tions. In the meantime Exchequer Bids are scarcely saleable, and the public mind is left in the greatest de gree of alarm, the holders being tot,lly in ignorance whether their securities arc to be acknowledged as ge nuine, or to be divutiel by the Crowe. • The party in custody, Mr. Beaumont Smith, of the Comptroller-General's cffice, is understood to be the cuates of the bills, but not one of the three func tionaries authorised to sign by the Act of Parliament. It is not known whetter the Government admit that the spurious a;!!‘ heir the genuine signatures of the parties authorised to Itign, or whether they are to be challengee on the ground ef forgery, but in whatever light the case mai; be viewed, the looseness of the prac tice of the Exchever 1311-office is u ndeniable. It is now thirty-aix years since the system ef authorising certain persons to sign Exchequer Bills originateth and the tee Act, we believe, merely continued the old practice, while it abolished the office of auditor, and appointed the comptroller in his place. It is therefore quite absurd to endeavour to throw the blame of the fraud upon the late adniiniAration. It has been carried on for several years, and with considerable caution and dexterity, as the principals always took care to use the spurious bills merely as a deposit in security, stipulating that the identical bills should be returned, and thus they were enabled to call in all their issues annually about a fortnight before the period of payment in March, and to issue June bills instead. There was a new act of fraud, therefore, committed every year, and it is quite &e n. that the principals must have had several confederates. The question of Government liability is much agitated to-day, and the general im pression is that the public must be kept safe (torn ltas. The point, however, is one of considerable difficulty, and on which, under our present knowledge of the facts, it is impossible to speak with confidence. There are certainly some strong grounds for maintaining the case of the holders. There is the general liability of masters for the acts of their servants ; which rule ap plies so far in this case, because the bills have all the Government stamp, and bear official mark?, which prove that they have emanated from a Government office. Supposing, therefore, that the signatures could be proved to be forgeries, the hahility of the Crown might be stiff contended for. But in that ease—that is, in the ease of a clear proof of forgery in the 6:na ture—we should apprehend that the Crown would have strong grounds tor di,putiog their liabilities, because, although masters are liable for the general acts of their servants, they ;,re not responsible for their crimes. The Crown would no more be liable to pay Exchequer Bills, forged by any clerk in a Government office, than hankers to pay notes forged by any clerks in their em ploy. But there are great doubts entertaiced whether the parties authorised to sign could be able to distin guish genuine from fictitious signatures, and the test applied to some bills sent up seems to strengthen that impression. We allude to the rejection of bills because they have not been found to suit the indenture of the check. Such a test is evidently fallacious, and not likely to have been adopted if the authorities had been able to detect false from genuine signatures. Supposing that the triplicate bills were aid before the comptroller and his deputies authorised to sign, we believe it is acknowledged on all hands that they could not tell the false set from the genuine. And it may be doubted, even if Mr. Smith himself (supposing he were to confess that he had signed the names) could select those which he had fabricated from the genuine class. There is great room to doubt whether any Jury would give a verdict for the Crown against the holders in such a trial. Besides the point of Government liability, the means of detecting the extent of the fraud, and of re moving all further doubts as to tho validity of the out standing bile have been anxiously discussed. The Government, it is maintained, ought to possess the means of asaertaining the extent of the fraud, and the books in tho Exchequer Bill-office ought to furnish them with the necessary data to do so immediately ; but if' Fee truth cannot be ascertained in that way, there the whole bills outstanding must be called in by public notice. Granting even that step to be taken, the Government have still to consider how the Crown and the public are to be protected against the co mm i ss i on of sinelir frauds in time to come. The whole question is full of difficulty, and un less speedily set at rest, threatens to produce a most serious decline in the value of ta e unfunded Securities. The B.lls have fluctunteti The quotatio ns f or considerably, having been 8 9 , and 11. premium. Toe extent of the f rau d, as far yet known, i s 200;000h, whereof 135,000/. hashee as yet and the am ount is fortunately iu v er y few hands. Sir J ames Shaw, the City Chamberlain, le n t 40,0001. part of the spurious bills, but whether the money belonged on to the Corpora known eapi tion or not we have not learned. .for 1,800/. talist sold 2,0001. Exchequer Bells towhelaili pape r is lodged in Upwards of 60,000/. of the spurious the Treasury to wait the result of the The alarm cleated by this affair prevented the public from making their usual investments in Exchequer Bills, and induced them to turn t heir attention to the funded debt; instead , w hich has created a considerable demand for Money Stock, and Consols have in consequence (and from the increased impression of a favourable ter mination of MiLeod's trial) improved to 881 to -a for the Account, and 81 to 4 for Money_ POST.--The interest taken in this part of the me tropolis in the investigation going on at the w es t en d of the town of the circumA inece connected with the Ex chequer Bill conspiracy, ter so, we believe, we arc per fectly warranted in designating that affair, has in n o degree dhninished in p oint of intenshty. The ordinary operations of trite are interfered with by the startling facts tt•at have been disclosed. Every respectable man of business is anxious, therefore, not only that the case should be probed to the core, and the authority of the law completely ,indicated, but that me ewes of the most effecti ve and stringent kind should be taken to prevent a recurrence of the evil. An equa l anxiety is expressed that the entire system pursued by the money-dealeas and Stock Exchange people should undergo a revision at the hands 01 C t h e Government, and that a salu tary restraint should at once be put upon the man - contracting fraternity, without any respec t of oar tics or of names, however high and imposing. The connexi on i s one and the same, and unless the transnc tiona a the whole be considered in relation to each ether, it will not be long before some fresh outage Upon public confidence will be perpetrated in a differ toteahshavar . The individual in the City who was said been taken into custody yesterday, has, we rath think , of h e i r s chhure been seen at l arge t o -d a y, but the report ean i ng d`Pl i , he Again very current towards the B. Smith, whose cl erk of the Comptrollers-office, Mr. E. of so wholesale a depredations would appear to have been stripped his tracter as to have completely out two, or three recollectionhundredof thousand pounds, and who was in the receipt will, no doubt, he e s a t n v f e e re y dealt with ; but it is under stoodel liberal salary of 600/. a year, that he has presently all that he knows, and, if so, we dare say it will be found that he has been little else than anAnumber instrument in th e h an d s o f more prac ti circle wised offenders the Cit . of oth ers mov i ng i n the same th y operator hinted at, have, we are in formed, the eye of thwepholree.upon them. Th ey a ff ect to treat the matter i t tion as much as possibl e erv'ty, so as to di vert atten such a policy should be reso the subj ec t ; an d t h at rted to by men i n th e i r un met enviable predicament is very natural ; but the impres sic n it, that several of them are permitted to be at liberty only upon sufferance, and under guarantees to Government to be forthcoming whenever they shall be wanted to give evidence, or for purposes more seriously affecting themselves. It was mentioned in yesterday's paper that one of the principal brokers in possession of bills lodged with him under questionable circumstances was believed to have delivered up to the Chancellor of the Exchequer 50,000/. of the property, to be dealt with as Government shall think fit. This turns out to have been the fact. The broker referred to, a gentleman of acknowledged respectability, who had acted, it seems, for parties in their speculations on the Stock Exchange, receiving in deposit, or making ad vances upon a large parcel of Exchequer Bills to cover stocks purchased for account, proceeded without hesita tion to the Treasury and delivered them up, at the same time giving every information in his power respecting , those from whom he obtained them that was calcu lated to further the ole;ects of the inquiry going on. The gentleman alluded to received a letter in the course of the present forenoon, requesting his attendance in the after part of the day on this unpleasant business, and we doubt not, if all persons innocently implicated in it, directly or indirectly, will act with the same good faith and fearlessness that he has done, the whole of the mystery in which the subject is still involved will soon he unrevelled. It seems but proper we should add that Ns gentleman is a broker of long standing in the City, and that his father enjoyed for many years before him tire same high character that he does himself in the same branch of business. He has probably been too confiding, but of his probity not the smallest suspicion is entertained. It has been his misfor tune to become identified with an exploded instance of the very objectionable traffic that is carried on at the Stock Exchange unler the modern system. An evening Paper states that a certain toll-contractor of the Jewish persuasion holds a very large amount of the unauthorised bills, intimating that he had made advances upon them at the rate of 7 per cent. interest. We are assured that this person obtained no more than from 4 to 5 per cent. Another party has been named as having re ceived 7 per cent. In his case, however, the charge was but nominally this, the transactions undertaken by him for his principal being of a mixed character, con nected with the Foreign Stock Market. During the inquiry into the circumstances of this ne farious transaction, which is still proceeding, the Con servative statesmen upon whom the painful duty of prosecuting it has devolved, have taken due care that neither from themselves nor from persons officially con nected with them shall any revelations, as to the pro gress of the investigation be elicited. This cautious and prudent reserve ie highly meritorious, springing as it does from the apprehension that premature diselo sure3 might impede the single object in view, that of doing substantial justice to the public as well as to every individual whose character or interest is in any manner involved in the transaction. But if we may judge from the article, which appeared in the Globe of last night (inserted in the last page of The Sun, under the head of "Spirit of the Public Journals"), and in which it is impossible not to perceive at least glimmerings of information which must have been derived from persona concerned in the iaquiry, it would seem that the same anxious and scrupulous re serve which Ministers have imposed on themselves and , those who are subject to their authority has not been maintained everywhere. The article seems to us an overstrained attempt to show, not only that Mr. E. B. Smith, the senion clerk in the office for issuing Exchequer Bills, is, what we are told he confesses himself to be, the only official person chargeable with moral delinquency, but that there are no grounds for the imputation to other official persons of the minor offences of negligencd or incapa city. In so far as it attempts this, we cannot disguise our opinion that it signally fails. It will at once occur to every reader to ask what can be the use of a Comptroller-General at the head of a department, with a salary of two or three thousand a year, if the power is to be left in the bands of a cl, rk of that department, with a salary of 6001. a year, to issue from it fictitious securities to the amount of two or three hundred thousand pounds ? There is no longer, unfortunately, any doubt that " the position of Mr. Smith gave him every facility for the fraud," which is precisely the circumstance of which, as it appears to us, the public have a right to complain. If it was "a part of his duty to insert the numbers and dates upon the bills," and if the fraudulent bills " are cmsequently upon the proper paper," surely it was " a part of the duty" of somebody else to see that " the proper paper" for the manufacture of millions of money was not given out to this clerk at 6001. a year without meaaure or limitation, or record, or memorandum of any kind ; and we think we are entitled to say on behalf of the public that it might not unreasonably have been ex pected of a Comptroller-General at the head of the office, with a salary of 2,5001. a 3 ear, and very little to do, to sea that this duty was not entirely neglected. Why Mr. Levy, the toll contractor, to whom we suppose one passage in the article refers, takes better care of " the proper paper" which he gives out to the mea at his dif ferent Yates to represent the twopences and three pences he is entitled to recei‘e. And we are almost compe'led by the statement of the Glube to wish that Mr. Levy instead of Lord Monteagle had been Comp troller-General of the Exchequer, as in this case pro bably the calamity that has taken place would hive ben averted. There is much of the article which we do not per fectly understand, perhaps from the circumstance, in all respects an unfortunate ene, that we are not very Ittmiliar with the form and appearance of Exche quer Bills. Does the Globe mean to intimate, when it uses the word " signature" in the singular number, that the genuineness of these important se curities is attested only by a single signature ? Of, when it speaks of forgery, does it mean to say that, there being more signatures than one, all were forged ? We really ask these questions for the sake of informa tion, although they may serve at the same time to show the extreme inconvenience of premature and imperfect disclosures upon a subject like the present. In refer ence to the word " forgery," we will only remark fur ther, that if the Globe have any sufficient warrant for having employed it, the nature of the transaction dif fers very materially from what the public have hither to supposed. The general impression, both in the City and at the west end of the town was, and is, that the offence of Mr. Smith, though not less than forgery in moral guilt, cannot be properly described by that term. The Globe speaks of the system of the office in which this offence has been perpetrated as being the same now as it has always been. This, if it be true, is a very inadequate defence of those who have had the dominion of the office for the last eleven years ; ' for, if the system be a bad one, which we do not know, the greater fault is theirs, Reformers as they were, for not having reformed it ; and, if the system be a good one, the results it has produeel in their hands show, what scarcely indeed required any such proof, that no 53 stem, however good, can sup erse d e th e necess i ty o f vigilacce and prudence on the part of those who are charged with the duty of superintending and controlling its operation. S L .- N.—According to the old adage "it is an ill wind that blows nobody good," and hence we find that as Exche quer Bills, until the extent of Mr. Smith's fraudulent issues is ascertained, are not likely to be in favour with the public, Consols and the heavy Stocks must be had recourse to, in order to invest surplus capital. This has already occasioned some improvement in the latter. Consols were quoted 83 to 881 for Money, and SBa to 88,1 for Account. Exchequer Bills fell to 9s. and 11s. premium, for the 1,0001. Bills, in which only a few bar gains were transacted. India Bor.ds were at ls. discount to 2s. premium. The New Three-and-a-Half per Cents. realised 97i to 981 ; and the Three per Cent. Annuities, 86 to 87+. India Stock was dull at 243. The Market for Foreign Securities continued very in animate. Spanish Active Bonds were depressed at 20i to I ; Portuguese New Five per Cents. were heavy at 29i to 291 ; the Old Bonds at 494 ; Mexican at 23,1 to 24i, and Colombian at 181 to 4. Brazilian rose to 57 and 58, and Dutch New Five per Cents. to 9 61 and 97. Some of the Shares rallied a little, but others were weaker. Great Western impe _"ed to 1 li t and 12 prem. Birmingham receded to 66 and 665 prem. Brighton, after touching 11-1-, fell to 13-4-discount, and South Wes rn ranged from 131 to 124 prem. North Midland Shares were 35 and Blackwall 16:1 dis. In Banking Shares no business. F4Oll Tilt MORNING PAPNRS OF THIS PAY. SP IRIT of t h e PUBLIC JOURNAL S . HE RALD OO . O -- rro O o n u e of those cases of fraud which the attention of Gey s er " involves so amount of capital as to force of loeg neglected duties s m o r s to the instant discharge the economy of their financ ial and reform in been detected, under circa en' service, has just now stances peculiarly impres sive. By a chain of discov eries n (of which we beg to prepared account, to the refer the public, for a carefully in this day's e m r m a l u d n , i and c a t i o ton of ao our art i e C I e i t , y dated co r re s p ondent f rom tho the same quarter, communication in our publication of yesterday), a ctual issue of an immense aggregate of Exchequer Bill their character; has been traced to a 11'I not genuine in the Chief Clerk for issues in the (AN: . E. B. Smith, Comp troller-General of the Exchequer. Whether the gate amount be to 100,000/., to 000,0 h 0 e 0 r I tbe ague _ to 300,000/. this gentleman declares , that even is unable to state I How long t h e w t h at i he career of misappropriation, fraud and decepti on which he has been engaged, may have continue d , neither his employes nor his friends appear to be, as yet, prepared to state for him. Nor is the distressing uncertainty which exists, as to these points, the onl 3 aggravation of the frightful mischiefs which must ensue from such iniquitous operations. It seems very doubtful whether innocent helders—private individuals—in no way cognisant of the original fraud which had tainted these securities—may not be left without any virtual relief in the shape of a claim for value, upon the Government by whom the bills purported to be issued. Mr. Smith occupied, it should seem, precisely that Position in the Comptroller-General's-office which gave him every possible facility for originating, and keeping up, undetected, the issues of Exchequer Bills over and above those actually ordered, or designed, or under stood, to be issued—by the Government authority. He was the chief clerk " for issuing and making out Exchequer Bills ;" and in that capacity the duty was coafided to him of filling in the numbers and dates of the Bills issued. These latter, as may he readily imagined, were genuine as to paper—of nhich a peculiar quality is used, exclusively, we beltsva for this service—and as to print. Whether they were also genuine as to signature seems to be at present a question of very great uncertainty, as it is most assu redly of very grave importance. An accredited organ of the late Government, in its fair and succinct account of the facts of this case, hazarded, last evening, an incidental assertion that they are not. From that very statement of facts, and on the further con siderations we shall presently submit. we are much inclined to hold—propounding this view, only, as the best opinion we can form on the evidence at present before the public—that the signatures are genuine. If they be—if in law, they be such as to gibe a holder of these bills (in the absence of any case against him of fraudulent possession), a lien on the national treasury ; behold a new legacy of em barrassment, of financial difficulty, of further deficit bequeathed to the present Government by their incom petent and improvident predecessors in administration. The counterfoils,—that marginal portion of the book which is left after the bills are cut away,--(like the docquets of a check-book) have deteced the fraud. Of course the entries on the counterfoils do not corre spond with the bills, issued in excess ; and which ex cess-bills it must bare been a part of the scheme adopted, to take up and cancel, if possible, before being brought in. They appear to have been, for the most part, deposited as securities for moneys ad vanced to gambling jobbers in foreign stock spa eulations, for the purpose of making good diffsr ences on time bargains, as wall as for conducting ex• tensive dealings in such funds ; and also with other parties who lend their money at enormous interest. Upon the facts before us, tl el, we come to these con clusions :—That there is a salaried officer of her Ma jesty's Fxchequer, called a " Comptroller-General," with 2,0001. a-year for the discharge of his duties in that post. That there is a " Chief Clerk of Issues of Exchequer Bile," under him, but over whom the sa'aried officer with 2 ; 000/. a-year exercises no sort of control at all. That this Clerk of Issues, with (as we have shown above), 1. the power of putting out i❑ dug form, and in a condition, hitherto, to pass, as unques tionable Government securities, any amount of new Exchequer Bills filiatzvcr ;-2. with the power of evading detection in his malpractices, in the (ffice itself, by the fabricated ar.d adapted docquets on the coun terfoils of the bill ; and, out of the (sloe, by being, hivs se the party to whom any doubting holder of these excess-bills (as we call them for the sake of the dis tinction), would be referred, for "information," and whose testimony would of course verify and con firm the character of such bills ;—that this Chief Clerk, with a practical power of issuing . ' which the comptroller's power could not touch, was a dis contented officer, being paid, in consideration of all this fearful responsibility to the public, six hundred pounds a year.* Tnat a practice has prevailed, in the office of the Comptroller-General, of that officer's dele gating to no I:ss than two other individuals the power of subscribing that very remarkuble signature which lie himself is paid 83 liberally for (among other things) affixing ; namely—lds own. That to this practice, ab surd in the abstract, is directly attributable the practi cal mischief of an issue of spurious, or at any rate of excessive and fraudulently-circulated Government se curities to the amount of from one hundred and fifty thousand to three hundred thousand pounds. Of the conduct of the offender himself, Mr. Smith, this is nct the place—perhaps not the season—to express our opinions. If the most forbearing judgment should pra nounce his duplicity to the Government which trust d hiM, and to the public whom be has defrauded, to have been of the blackeA character, the severest tribunal must commend him (if our own information on this point be correct), for the distinct and ingenuous confession which he has made of the principal circumstances con nected with so deep-laid and extensive a scheme of fraud. That confession his duty to the public un questionably demanded. Heartily do we hope that it may prove to have been all that we have heard it really was. It may be the means of exposing to a vigorous Government, and of enabling them to counteract some of those profligate conspiracies to plunder the re sources of the State and the wealth of private capi talists, which are daily concocted within and without the Stock Exchange by bands of unprincipled jobbers. as they are called, who swarm in every commercial capital of Europe, and rob, like hornets, the hived treasures of that useful industry, in the honest labours of which they have never contributed. The object of those unsuccessful operations which are presumed to have precipitated the catastrophe of this discovery, seems to have been Spanish Securities. To these— as to every thing connected with the present social and political system of that distracted country, in all its domestic and foreign stations ;—its characterless aristocracy, its ricketty constitution, its vain• glorious legislature, its blood-thirsty and treacherous chieftains —the same disastrous principles in all their unity and all their sharee applies ;---to wit, inconstancy and failure ; perpetual fluctuation and permanent dishonour. Lot us picture to ourselves, fbr a moment, the over whelming extent and maJnitule of the "jobbing" which (with all the advantages of a sluice-gate to the issue of exchequer, to be raised at pleasure . .without being once detected in—we know not how many years, say four or five, however, and for two or three of these unmarked, even by the well-paid vigilance of Lord Argus Monteagle)—must have been operated by the capital thus lavishly furnished to adventurers of this unprincipled stamp. What must have been the balances alternately realised and paid on "settling days" in the Foreign House, on speculations which, being abruptly interrupted, discover surreptitious appropriations of from one hundred and fifty thousand to three hundred thousand pounds ? And how little of these appropriations, in all probability, ever reached the coffers of this unhappy gen tleman, whom the necessity for raising a loan of a very few hundred pounds, in order to meet the necessities entailed upon him by his bad management of an al ready inadequate income, is stated to have first thrown into the hands of one of those pests of society, who have infested this vast metropolis in shoals ever since the repeal of the Usury-laws in respect of bill trans ac'ions under certain circumstances ; namely, your bill discounters "on liberal term,"—and to have afterwards made the reluctant but intimidated agent of the wholesale villaoy of associates, possessed of fatal secret of his past weakness ! Pity that some sense of what was due to the naive he bore, and the renown of his illustrious relative had not inspired him with some portion of that kindred courage and moral energy which would have snapped asunder the bonds that bad men had bound him down withal, while there was yet time, by a great effort, to retr:eve himself ; and before the "iron" hal yet " entered his soul 1" One word, before we have done, on the permitted subscription of the names of responsible officers of Government, by Secretaries, Deputies, or Clerks, without the addition of any symbol to indicate the substitution, or bespeak the authority of a procuration. The practice is highly reprehensible, and should be in stantly abolished: throughout all the public depart• ments. It is, in itself, an ingenious device for effectu ally extinguishing security to the public. In its exer cise, it is an admirable means of deceiving the very party whose subscription is counterfeited by another. The Globe indignantly denies that Lord Monteagle was una ble ti state whether a signature on one of the bills shown to him was or was not his own: but the effect of this denial is quite abolished by its admission at the same time, that the party authorised to sign " Moatea gle" for that paragon of comptrollers, could not tell whether or not it was his. That difficulty is all that was wanting to show the danger and folly of the cus tom. Besides, we can undertake to say, of our own know ledge, that under no former Government has the prac tice of Secretaries and confidential clerks in the depart ments, accurately imitating, in notes written in the third person, and in the signatures to the superscriptions of official letters, " the sign manual', of their principals, as it did under the last Government. It was a fashion, al most universal, among them, in the same way as the attache: to some of the foreign legations at this Court are observed to copy, with amazing accuracy, the character of the band-writing of their chiefs. It is surely unnecessary for us to add that we offer these objections to the prac tice without meaning the slightest disrespect to any of the individuals whom we allude to. The foreign gentle men who form part of the embassies to the Court of St. James's have uniformly maintained, for a long time, most honourable distinction by their general deport ment : and we believe that in no country of Europe are the " public offices" filled by functionaries, high and low, combining a greater aggregate of respectability, intelligence, and integrity, than in this. Yet with these convictions on our mind, we cannot see that the force of our objection to the practice of signatures by unacknow ledged or ?inapparent delegation is at all removed, or even invalidated. C H RON IC LE.—lt is highly cuditablo to the cha racter of the British Preis that there is•no'. one ii.fla catial or respectable journal—at least that we have * We derive this information from the following pas sage of a leading article in the Globe, already referred l to ; and quite agreeing with our Contemporary s no tions of the policy of remunerating responsibility as well as actual labour, have only to regret that he did not enforce the same doctrine on the Whig-Radical Par liament which were so prone and so proud to follow out the theories of Joseph Ifume, " on the reduction of office salaries to infinitesimal quantities." " The salary of Mr. Smith was, we believe, 6001. a year, w hi c h he had anticipated would have been ad vanced to 70 0 L; but his hopes being defeated by the economy that has be en carr i e d o f l a t e i n to all the pub lic offices, he had recourse to forgery as a temporary ex pedient ; and from a sum of 500/. has been led by those qbuyenthtley febweenhotthires of whom it is believed he has been the dupe, to the enormous amount of his forgery which we have above stated. Surely remuneration should be regulated not stuii:pflrye but b y the amount of trust andthe extent of T of rc t a iT u e ry re s tn n ir d e n d r — ti required—which ne h_as reposed, integrity required." THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1841. seen—that shrinks from condemning the conduct of the French Government in the late rebellion in Spain. Writers of all parties admit the impossibility of resist ing the conviction that the governing powers of France were instigators and abettors of the insurrection ; and by writers of all parties is this nefarious conduct unre servedly censured. We believe that in this feeling the British Government participates. Lord Aberdeen can not shut his eyes to the representations he must have received from Madrid and from Paris. Of the guilt of the French Cana he must feel as convinced as he is of his own existence, though the courtesy of di plomatic intercourse may forbid the direct avowal of such conviction. The Foreign Minister of Eogland may know that at the solicitation of the French Government the ex-Regent Christina abandoned her intention of permanently residing in Italy, and deigned to become the centre of a rebel intrigue in Paris ; the Foreign Minister of England must know that the French Go. vernment proffered the assistance of its Minister at Madrid and its Foreign -office in Paris, to establish a secret correspondence between that capital and the Queen of Spain ;- he must know that while the out break in Spain was organising in Paris, she, who was the nominal head of it, was the constant guest of the French Court ; that when the outbreak took place, the avowed organs of that Court adopted it, and boldly avowed its object of eggrandisement—personal and political. All this, even though strengthened by the conduct of the French authorities on the frontier, may. not, indeed, be a sufficient ground for Lord Aberdeen's demanding explanation from the French Government, but it must convince him of the base treachery of the Power in which, by some parties, he is told to put his con fidence. "No proof," indeed, is offered to sustain this accusation. So says the journal which still continues its noisy biddings for the small secrets of Downing street. " Proof," indeed, there may.not be, conclu sive enough to prevent a sharp attorney from pickine, a hole in an indictment at the Old Bailey ; but " proof " there is, such as must bring conviction to any mind that is free to judge the circumstances by the rules of evidence applicable to the ordinary affairs of life. Louis Philippe is neither so inexperienced nor so mal adroit as to leave himself open to detection in case of the failure of any intrigue in which be may engage. The mina may explode, but you cannot say-eethet is you cannot " prove"—that by his hand it was laid and fired, though the nature of his previous connection with the convicted conspirators, and his openly avowed interest in the 4nceess of their operations, render his guilt a matter of moral certainty. The conduct of the King of the French in this matter is of more importance to England than may at this moment be imagined. We believe that he sought to rep a y hi mse lf i n Spain for supposed diplo matic reverses in the East. And repay himself he will when and wherever he may have the opportunity. At tempts will be made to lull suspicion by hireling writers here and in Paris. Peace•—peace—give us peace, they cry, after striving in vain for ten years to goad us into war. Yes, by all means, give us peace ; but do not buy it upon ruinous terms, Year after year you kept cla mouring as an opposition for an increase of our navy, and you are not three months a Government when you threaten to reduce it. But France, you say, sets the example. Already has the French Government ordered six ships of the line into harbour preparatory to their being laid up. Will France reduce the number of her seamen ? Or does she not toll you that she will draft the crews of her first-rates into frigates ? And while these vessels, infin:tely more troublesome than line of battle-ships, are skulking about our colonies, carrying the French flag into waters in which it is seen for the first time, we are told, indeed, that the French Government takes the initiative of disarmament ! Sir Robert Peel, we know, must have money, and re• trenchmcnt is one way of getting it. He dare not take a single ship out of commission while the French If aet remains at its present complement. Will he dare to take a single ship out of commission while the number of French seamen is still unreduced? Nor should the present Government calculate too sanguinely upon the effect of even a bona fide reduction in the French fleet. That it ought,to be met by a corresponding reduction in ours no person will deny. But even this evidence of pacific intention, backed by the noisome adulation of time-servers, wAI not, we tell Lord Aberdeen, create sufficient confidence in the character of Louis Philippe to reconcile Englishmen to his being selected to sit in judgment upan any question of English interests. Courtesies and compliments if you will, or if you want them for your peace-speech of February next ; but if there be any question of vital interest at issue between Great Britain and any other nation, it is not the decis'on of an irritated and perfidious Power that should be sought, or accepted as a satisfactory settlement. Our fleet is still unreduced. TIMES.—EarI de Grey seems to have alighted upon Ireland like a bird of calm upon a tempestuous sea. Too long, indeed, has she been distracted and convulsed by every evil which the virulence of political faction and religious intolerance on either side could en gender ; but if we do not egregiously misinterpret the altered phenomena now discernible in Irish affairs, his Lordship's benign administration is already the harbin ger and the immedi a t e cause o f a b etter order of things. Our neighbours across the Channel, no matter what be their puleical or religious creed, are now - gettirg heart ily sick of the unproti•able agitations which have so long divided and distracted them. Even among the nume rous tribe of ignorant and self-willed dupes who have heretofore followed O'Connell, the symptoms of a re- I ixed fealty are, here and there, beginning to appear. The popular enthusiasm which formerly hailed him wherever he went, has of late grown wonderfully frigid. A large proportion, too, of the more judicious Clergy of the Romish Church, coinciding with the sensible views of the Rev. Mr. Bermingham, seem honestly de termined, as befits their sacred calling, to withdraw from turbulent meetings, and henceforth to lead " quiet and peaceable liver." Moreover, your callow brood of Liberal barristers, whose cravings for Whig appoint ments impelled them to court O'Connell's favour, have latterly shown a good deal of docility in selecting a more eligible path to promotion ; while, with reference to the immense majority of cultivated and independent Irishmen, professing various shades of political opinion, we have the happiness to know that there now prevails among them an almost universal wish to extricate themselves from party broils, and to exert their concurrent efforts in restoring Ireland to a condition of prospeirty and repose. Nor need we wonder that such a disposition should at length have begun to be exemplified. Experience, though some times a slow teacher, is always an able and successful one. Immediately subsequent to the passing of the Emancipation Act, which gave every reasonable pro mise of restoring tranquillity in Ireland, the Govern meat of that country passed into the hands of the Whigs, where, till very recently, it has since remained. Bat owing to the infatuated partisanship of Lord Mel bourne's Ministry, the kindly influences which Catholic emancipation was fitted and intended to diffuse have been completely frustrated by a system of partiality, whereby the exclusive pampering of one class and the virulent proscription of another only aggra vated their previous animosities, instead of ex tinguishing or abating therm. Accordingly, during the last six years, the social condition of the Irish peo ple, as regards the friendly reciprocities of life, has been incomparably worse than at any former period of their history. The good agreement which previously sub sisted between landlord and tenant has been superseded by jealousies, defiances, ejectments, mutilations, and murders. All the harmoniou s feeling between the Protestant rector and the Catholic priest, which for merly wrought so beneficially for the temporal comfort of the population, has been violently brokee up. The interchange of mutual benefits in matters of business has been supplanted by the odious system of exclusive deal ing. In large towns, and even in peaceful villages, the amicable intercourse long prevalent among many Protes tants and Roman Catholics has given place to cold es trangements, and more frequently to the repulsive scowl. Now, that such a state of things, so utterly subver sive of all the interests and enjoyments of human society, could not possibly continue, without sooner or later bringing a re-action, must be evident to every re flecting person. Social happiness, and the means of at taining it, constitute the universal pursuit of mankind. Political theories, as subservient to that end, may, for a length of time, be ardently struggled for ; nay, in the hope of eventually realizing it, temporary inconveniences may be cheerfully encountered and serious sacrifices may be made. But, after a long period of disappointed expectation, when it is found that ail the disadvantages of such a course have been prolifically reaped, without any of its anticipated benefits, a calm retrospect of what has been forfeited and what has been gained will neces sarily ensue. This, we take it, is precisely the condi tion of Ireland at the present moment. The pzople in that country are now discovering that " they Imes sown the wind, and have reaped the whirlwind." A season for reflection, occasioned by the mild and heal ing character of Earl De Grey's Government, and powerfully impressed upon them by Lord Shrewsbury, a nobleman of their own faith, has providentially oc curred. A prospect of peace and prosperity, never be. fore presented to them, is now dawning upon their wearied eyes. An anxious desire to maintain order and to reward merit, irrespective of religious predifectioes ; a steady determination to give practical efficiency to the spirit of the Emancipation Act, by knowing no man's faith, if he be a good and loyal subject ; a firm resolution to cement the severed bonds of society, to encourage trade, to repress crime, and to foster among all classes the kindly sympathies of our common hu manity—these are the great and supreme objects of Earl De Grey's Government. That our warm-hearted neighbours, to whom his Lordship appeals for assist ance, will r e f use h i m the i r pat i en t an d can did co operation, we cannot bring ourse l ves to b e li eve. Cor roborative o f t h at growing anxiety for peace which we alluded to in the outset of this article, it de lights us to see that one Roman Catholic gentle man after another is shaking himself free from the pernicious d om i nation of O 'C onne ll. Th e l etter of Mr. O'Bri en , repudiat i ng a ll f ur th er connex i on with the C orn -E xchange agitator, as published in our Irish correspondence of Tuesday, is encouraging in the extreme. Hardly a week elapses without similar desertions horn the Repeal camp. Notwith- standing the temporary triumph of the Repealers in the Dublin municipal elections, we feel perfectly con• fident that nothing is wanting but calm and unpreju diced deliberation, in order to increase such desertions ten thousand-fold. Ireland is now literally exhauited with her own misguided and debilitating violence. All •he wants, says Mr. O'Brien, is a respite from dema gogue turbulence. A long and salutary rest, we trust, is henceforth awaiting her. May she soon awaken to a virtuous and profitable employment of her resources, like a giant refreshed with sleep SECOND EDITION THE FUNDS-(CLOSING PRICES) BRITISH FUNDS. Bank Stock 164 India Stock 3 per Cent Red B7 Ditto Bonds 2pr 3 per Cent Cons BB% 'Ditto Old Annuities ... 3% per Cent Red 96i Ditto New Annuities... New 3% per Cent 9B f Ex. Bills, 1,000/....2%d 12 pm New .5 per Cent. 1 Ditto 5001........ 7 pru Long Annuities toexpire Ditto Small. ... 7pm Jan 1860 .. 14 Bank Stock for Acct... Oct 1859 l2 3-16 India Stock for Acct.... Jan. 1860. FOREIGN FUNDS. Portuguese, 5 per cent. Ditto, New Ditto 29% Prussian, 5 per cent. Russian, 5 per cent — Ditto, Metallic Spanish, 5 per cent 20% Ditto, Deferred ... 10a French, 5 per cent. ---f. —c. Exchange French, 3 per cent —f. ---c Dutch, 2% per cent. ... 51i 'Ditto, 5 per cent 99a SHARES Great Western Railway (65 paid) ..... ...... 76 Ditto New Shares (50 paid 551 Ditto Fifth (4 paid) London and Brighton (50 paid) 34% London and Blackwall Railway (25 paid)... 8 London and Birmingham (90) Ditto Thirds (32 paid) 51% London and South Western London and Croydon Railway (Trunk) ll% Manchester and Birmingham (40 paid) Midland Counties Railway (100 paid) North Midland Railway (100 paid) York and North Midland Railway (50 paid) 78% Austrian, 5 per cent Belgian, 5 per cent Brazilian 80nd5.... 57 Buenos Ayres, 6 per cent -- Chilian, 6 per cent — Colombian, 6 per cent — Ditto, 1824. Danish, 3 per cent 7Bi Greek, 18:6, 5 per cent — Mexican, 5 per cent 24i Ditto, 6 per cent, 1825 Peruvian, 1825, 6 per ct TAMAR SILVER LEAD MINING COMPANY.—(THIS DAY.) The annual meeting of the Proprietors of this Com pany was held to day at !heir room 3 in Finsbury-square. Mr. Wilkinson having taken the Chair at two o'clock, Th@ Secretary, Mr. STAINSBY read over the report for the year of the affairs of the Company. It appeared that their prospects had bean gradually improving, and a balance now remained in the hands of the Directors, after payment of all expenses, amounting to 1,5391.'65. 2d. On the motion being put that the report be adopted, Mr. HERON wished to ask the Directors whether, with such a balance, they might not declare a dividend for the shareholders. Some discussion took place upon the subject, the Directors stating that they could not at present de dare a dividend, inasmuch as the payments had been made to them in bills drawn for three months. The bad every reason, however, to hope, from the rapid im provement of their affairs, that they would be enabled to make a dividend in the course of a few months. The Directors subsequently pledged themselves that a dividend of 3e. per share should be made on the Ist of January next, provided their funds would admit of it, or unless some unforeseen disappointments occurred. Tie Report was then adopted, and a vote of thanks having been passed to the Chairman, the meeting separated. HER MAJEST All the preparations rendered necessary in conse quence of the near approach of her Majesty' accouchement are in readiness. That interesting event may now be hourly expected, or possibly not take place for a short time, as, although the Queen has been rather indisposed the last day or two, yet she has never considered it necessary to keep her room, and this morning her Majesty is quite as well as yesterday. Orders were given some days past for summonses to be issued from the Home-office to the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, the Lord Chancellor, and those Cabinet Ministers whose duty it is to be in attendance at the Palace when the birth of a Prince or Princess is expected, the mo ment aoy intelligence of her Majesty being unwell was received from the medical attendants, or officers of the household on duty ; but up to the time of our going to press no such official information had been received, neither had any summonses been issued. The different branches of the Royal Family sent to Buckingham Palace this morning, to make inquiries after her Majesty's health. Sir Robert Peci's horses have, for the last two day!, been kept harnessed day and night, in order that if any information should be received from the Palace, the Right. Hon. Bart. may not be de layed one minute._ Hcr Majesty joined the Royal party last evening at dinner ; and is, we are happy to say, to-day in the pos. session of her wonted health and sprits. THE EXCHEQUER. BILL AFFAIR. The inquiry into this mysterious affair is pursue] in a most private manner, but at the sae time with ti►e greatest vigilance in all the offices connected with the Exchequer departmeut. Last night about five o'clock a number of the most influential members of the Stock Exchange, and several gentlemen connected with the Money Market, met Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Goul burn, Sir Jatnes Graham, and Lord Monteagle, by ap pointment, at the official residence of the Right Hon. Baronet in Do.vning-street, on the subject of the late fraudulent transactions in Exchequer Bills. The meet ing did not separate until half-past eight o'clock. This morning the inquiry was again proceeded with. The meeting last night, we believe, was attended by one or more gentlemen connected with the Bank of Englind. It is:expected Mr. Lewis will be again examined. Mr. Hall, Chief Magistrate of Bow -street, and Mr. Manic, Solicitor of the Treasury, were in attendance at the Home-office this morning. SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS, FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY. STANDARD.—No one can doubt that the Repeal agitation in Ireland was much encouraged by the evi dent neutrality of the late Government with regard to it, if, indeed, its treasonable pr e t ens i ons did no t receive the direct countenance of some of the most influential of its Members. No sooner, however, are the senti ments of the new Lord Lieutenant perfectly under stood than that agitation subsides, and member after member of the party by which it professes to be sup ported abjures all sympathy or connection with Even Whig friends, who, so l ong as anything was to be gained by agitation, on whatever pretext, were his unwilling supporters, can now afford to leave Mr. O'Connell to his Corn Exchange rabble, and openly declare their repugnance to his traitorous projects. The lion. Mr. Ponsonby, the late unsuccessful Whig can didate for Carlow, has we perceive from the letter received this morning from our Dublin correspondent, added his name to those of the seceders from the Repeal faction, an example which all men who have a character to lose will no doubt imitate. As a set-off to these defections, American sympathisers continue to pour in their subscriptions, and to convey to the incen diary chief of the Repeal agitation their determination to aid the Irish in their " struggle for liberty." Tbe time may come when these patriotic philanthro pists may need the breath they have expended in such declaration to "cool their own broke.:' The cause of Repeal is absolutely in a state of syncope. No person of even average notoriety—the stipendarj agitator excepted—will venture any longer to ex hibit himself at meetings in its favour, and such is the dearth of " noticeable" visitors that Mr. O'Conneil has been forced to enlist in the cause an old Parsee, whose dignified person and Anglo-Indian costume astonished and delighted the Repeaters on Tuesday at the Corn Exchange, almost as much as he appears to have be e n astonished and delighted i n his turn. Tne figure cut by Mr. O'Connell on the occa sion was miserable enough. He is paralysed for want of something to rail about ; a few months more of Lord de Gre)'s government, and his " occupation will be gene," and with that, if he does not look very sharp, the recompense he has been accustomed to receive for his labours. The result of the municipal elections in Dublin does net surprise us ; still less can it surprise those who have been instrumental in securing it, and who pretended to believe th at t h e pass i ng of the Municipal Corporations Act for Ireland would tend to promote and consolidate the Protestant interest in that country. COURIER.—The result of the municipal election, which touk place on Monday last in Dublin, the first under the new Act, has, it will be seen, verified the very worst apprehensions which the opponents of that measure bad entertained, hendirg over the municipal government of that city, the second in the empire, entirely and exclusively to the noisy and turbulent faction that acknowledges the leadership and submits to the dictation of Mr. O'Connell. Dublin, under the Municipal Reform Act, was divided into fifteen wards, e ac h war d return i ng four Common Councilmen, the highest on the poll amongst them being entitled to the Aldermaoic gown, and of these eleven have returned Mr. O'Connell's nominees ; thus giving the arch-Repealer an overwhelming majority in the new Town Council, and placing in his hands the bauble of the mayoralty. That the first effect of the bill which broke up the exclusiveness, and put an end to the jobbing of the" old Corporation," would be to transfer municipal power from one set of exclu sive factionists and needy politicians to another—merely changing the outward and visible form of the evils which it was intended to remove—we anticipated from the very first moment the question was mooted ; knowing that the system of exclusiveness so rigidly and rigorously practised by the now defunct body, which admitted no man, however high his position in the mercantile world, or unobjectionable in his character as a citizen might have beta, into the Corporation, who was not prepared to join ind an re-echo their sentiments of stale and obnoxious intolerance, was most likely to he persevered in by their successors, although in pre cisely the opposite direction. There are few men ge nerous enough to despise retaliation when they have the power, and least of all would we look for such men amongst the frequenters of the Corn Exchange, or the aspirants to corporate honours under the new regime. Therefore, however deeply we may regret the perpetua tion of invidious distinctions amongst fellow-citizens, and the perversion of the Irish Municipal Reform Bill to the purposes of a paltry faction, or the further aggrandisement of a bloated demagogue, we cannot say that these temporary abuses of recently conferred pri- vileges have taken us by surprise. We were fully pre pared for them. GLOBE.—Our article of yesterday on the Exche quer Bill forgery has of course excited considerable attention ; and even the official organs themselves, while simplifying and e'aborating our facts, seem to be in no small degree surprised at finding the exactness of our exclusive intelligence. Without regarding the hints of the Pest, that secrets which it cannot obtain we are imprudent to divulge, we shall continue to put our resources of information at the disposal of the public, even at the risk of startling the 'offi cial pints by the u naccoun t a bl e pr i or i ty of our information on subjects of which their official cot:- nections might be supposed to render them more immediately cognizant. We shall, therefore, proceed with our disclosures as far as we consider it convenient at present to carry them. The banking world will be well aware that Exchequer Bills to a vast amount are deposited in the strong box of various firms, from the day they are received from the hands of the Paymaster of Exchequer Bills, until the cor. responding day in the following year, when they are again returned to that officer, by whom they arc renewed, according to the provis'ons of the Act of Parliament. None of the Bills so deposited are in the smallest danger of having a doubt thrown on their validity, since it is not through the connivance of any public officer that Mr. Smith is believed to have circulated his forgeries. In using the term " forgery" we are perfectly correct s in spite of the question raised by some of our Con temporaries, whether the fraud amounts to the crime we have named ; and we arc enabled positively to state that the doeurnents in question are forgeries in the strictest sense—both as to the signature of Lord Monteagle and his deputy. There has not been a surreptitious use of the genuine autographs of these officers, but they have been copied with so much skill, as we obser'.ed yesterday, as to have asto nished one of the individuals whose duty it was to sign the Bills, when the imitation of his own handwriting was shown to hire. It is believed that Mr. Smith has acted through confederates in the City ; and there are one or two names implicated, which, until direct proof is in our possession as to their share in the guilt, we shall abstain from mentioning. We, however, think our selves quite at liberty to divulge the fact that certain circumstances connected with this affair had induced the issuing of a warrant for searching the house, and an authority for apprehending the person, of an individual connected with the Foreign Stock Exchange—which in struments were placed in the hands of Forrester, the ac tive officer, to execute. Oa reaching the abode of the per son alluded to it was discovered that he had voluntarily called on the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to whom he expressed his willingness to efford every facility in the detection of the forgery. This promptitude is, 6o a certain extent, favourable to the party hinted at ; but in a day or two we shall be enabled to speak more plainly on this part of the subject. In some instances in dividuals have brought suspected Bills voluntarily to the Treasury, and in one case these documents to the amount of 60,0001., have been lodged in the hands of the official personages at that department. Tue system of Mr. Smith has been to use his forged Bills through agents in the City, by whose instrumentality they have been deposited as securities. The fact that Exchequer Bills are called in, that the interest may he paid upon them only in the months of March and June, has enabled Mr. Smith to take up the Bills of March deposited with one party, by supplies raised from another party on Bills dated in the previous June ; and thus, the year they have had to run has not ex pired until three months after the period at which he has employed them to conceal his criminality. These latter Bills were, in their turn, taken care of by the proceeds of others dated in March ; and thus he has for a series of years been enabled to carry on without detection his system of forgery. We are happy to be enabled to set at rest the appre hension of those whose little all may be invested it) Exchequer Bills of small amount ; for we believe that there are none under 1,0001. that have been made the subject of fraudulent practices. It may also be satis factory to some parties to know, that of all the nume rous B.l's brought within the last day or two to the office of tl,e Comptroller-General, for the purpose of having their validity tested by the counterfoil, not on has been condemned which is of a lower number that) 6,000, Mr. Smith having selectel the higher numbers, For reasons that will be hereafter alluded to. We have ;rest reason to hope that none of the forged documents have been purchased in the open market, but that all have heel used as securities, and lodged with parties, some of whom have not scrupled to take an enormous rate of interest. liaised it is owing to this circumstance being known that the matter began tea be canvassed, sad the susp . }eiuns were raitecT which led to liseovery. Some of the holders, al the readiest way of aseert linimr the %alidity of their bills, have paid them into the Binh of England as part of the recent fund ing ; but we bel:eve this has been done to an amount that is not considerable. The Duke of Buckingham transacted business this morning at the official residence of Sir Robert Peel, Downing -street. A depu - tation from the Short-time Committee of the West Riding of Yorkshire had an interview with Sir James Graham this morning at the Home-office. The deputation consisted of W. Beskett, Esq., M.P., Messrs. Fleming, Hobson, Leach, Crabtree, and Brooke. FALL OF CHALK ON THE BRIGHTON RAIL WAY.-A great deal of excitement was caused in thr City this morning by the statement that during the night a large fall of chalk took place at the Merstham cutting, about eighteen miles from London, which at present impedes the traffic ; but it is expected that in the. course of the day a passage will be made for the trains. Fortunately the discovery was made in sufficient time to inform the conductors of both the up and down train, and not the least accident has there fore occurred beyond the falling of the chalk. The pas sengers to and from Merstham have during the morning been conveyed in post-chaises. The engineer has left London for the purpose of inspection and giving the ne cessary directions. %.,11ATIIAM, OCT: 27:—The greatest activity prevails in the Dockyard here, preparing the ships for sea which are already in commission, and getting ready others. Nearly all the men are withdrawn from the _ slips to work in the docks, which contains, at present, the Thalia, 42 guns; the Castor, 36; the Wolverine, 16; and the Eagle, 50 ; this last, a very fine ship, is spoken of as the next for commission. The Lynx and Harle quin are ready for sailing, and only detained by the contrary wind. The Isis frigate is to sail for Liverpool, there to complete her manning ; her ultimate destina tion is said to be China, unless a declaration of war with America should render a naval armament necessary in that quarter. The Thunder, surveying ship, left on Wednesday last for the West Indies. No movements of any importance have taken place among the military during the last week. Recruits have come in - more slowly than usual. A company of sappers is expected to leave shortly fur Woolwich, previous to embarkation for India. CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT. OLD COURT.. Charles Edward Wilson, 35, Win. Cdeman, 18, Thomas Beardmore, 17, and Henry Puttich, 24, were indicted for feloniously stealing 15 sheep, the property of Daniel Alaydwell. - „Mr. Doane conducted the prosecution, and Messrs. Phillips, Chambe:•s, Payne, and Espenasse, appeared for the prisoners. It appeared from the evidence, that the prosecutor was !in extensive farmer, residing at Leatherhead, and on the Bth Sept. he had a flock of 205 sheep at one of his farms; and on the following day 15 of them were missed. It was proved that the prisoneu, Coleman, Wilson, and Beardsmoe, were seen in the possession of the 15 sheep, which they placed to graze in a field at Ilford ; and one policeman swore that he also saw Puttiek in company with the offer prisoners, awl it was proved that the prisoner Beardsmore was seen near the field in which the sheep had been placed by the prosecutor's servants, and that he was making inquiries about the manner in which the sheep were folded. It also appeared that while the prisoners were in custody at Ilford gaol, a letter came into the hands of the Governor, and the next day the prisoner Wilson told him he was very sorry that letter had been written, for that it would do him more harm than all the money he had spent would do him good. The prisoner Coleman also told him that he had cut his finger, and that he wrote the letter i❑ question with his blood. The letter was read, it was written in blood, and not addressed to any one, but commenced—" My dear father and mother and sister," and went on to request that three or four persons might be brought forward at the trial to swear that he (the writer) was at home on the night the sheep were stolen, and that this was the only thing that could be done far him to do him any good. The Learned Counsel having severally addressed the Jury on behalf of their respective clients, with the ex ception of Mr. Espinasse, against whose client the Court expressed its opinion there was not sufficient evidence to call upon him for his defence, Lord ABINGER summed up, and The Jury returned a verdict of Guilty against Wilon, Beardsmore, and Coleman, and acquitted Puttick. The Jury recommended Beardsmore and Coleman to the mercy of the Court. Lord ABINGER said that Beardsmore had been before convicted of felony, and it was necessary to pass a severe sentence. Beardsmore and Wilson were then ordered to be transported for fifteen years, and Coleman was ordered to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for 12 months. There was another indictment against the prisoner Wilson for stealing e i g h t sheep, but it was not pro ceeded with. Fanny Jackson was indicted for feloniously cutting E VENING SUN* and woundingegri grievous bodily Fan i;-------- ' ) h r i i- i- n e t 111 . do he r some •AO The - • prosecutnx stated that she lived in St ir , Terrace, Waterloo -road, and that she was an On ° ikous° tunate" woman. The prisoner lived in the son _ r, ble, with intent to with her, - and on the day mentioned in the indictraeo_ the prisoner abused her, and took a knife from a drawLe I tt o nd made a stab at her f:tce and when she raised her 41. ; protect her face, the prisoner stabbed her in th e :p r e with the knife, and she '. wa ' s taken to the Iwsital, wh ere with she remained for a mouth in consequence hoof tb a WWI she received. the , o prties lived, roved that the prisoner was telling :see' Taylor, the ly,ndlady of the house where _ a depredation that had been committed in ho f o rce sati ' lt " e to ar b b ) e - I the prosecutrix, arid the latter attempted" Itrnidsoner i ny th i c t:to pr t i l s l o e n t e -o r onL, v a e i r l a d i utilmtietusa;tealyncididtbs: r ber ' told her, ' if she struck her again, she would ma rk her and . while the prosecu trix was in the act of striking the gam, she took op a knife that was Vinci' Pl 3°ll table, and inflic:ed a wound on her arm witli4 - sorri The prisoner, in her defence, said she was very for what she had done. The Jury found the piisoner guilty of an ass.ultvid Mr. Baron GURNEY directed that th e prisoner 5.,-jof be in - unsoiled and kept t 6 bard labour fo r two 010 months. POLICE INTELLItiENCI WO R SHIP- S7'REE 7 '. rsaff Mrs. Eliza Le Coke, a well dressed elderly c ° P e . irca who wa,s stated to be a widow in independent; ryas stances, residing its Windmill-street, St. Lul'fofi,s'acieg brought before Mr. Bingham, upon a charg e assaulted Mr. Hamlin, the Relieving-officer of th, e ri, ots The complainant stated, that at about ten 0 awr e a, that morning, a young woman, called at the workhouse, and requested his inunedilpe„ terference on behalf of a married woman, named who she alleged had been treated with brutality lithe defendant, with whom she lodged. She added Iha the floor, ,ro young woman had been delivered on the bare defendant having dragged her out of bed whilst she in the pains of labour ; after which, she (defendant2oo,o wally- took away the bed to prevent her froni named Sarah (I ;is. upon it. Upon hearing the statement, witness .1": his ately proceeded to th e d e f e ndant's house ; an d 900 applying for admitt ance , th e defendant and belloow appeared at th e d oor , th e f ormer of whom tie 'es" lug the object of his visit, abused him Inge'stie clns, and endeavoured to prevent his entrance• itieo ceeded, however, in making his way into the tong of the ill-used woman, whom he found sitting, D ye chair, with her newly-born babe in her lap, 10 7,,, i - or powered with distress and anguish. ,The ro t all its ,canted a most deplorable appearance, the bed anr jef; appurtenances having been removed, and anI l ",„ 11 70 but the bare sacking. Witness afterwards h e re st'a l policeman, and on attempting to enter the 110 ;i re d assaulted by the prisoner. Ile afterwards rePA 001 the workhouse, and gave orders that a bed 11 „,h 11 " don thing necessary for the comfort and accolnoZ after the sick woman might be sent to her innedi n 7,:iodP which he returned and gave the defendant itOsi n s gi! „ Mr. BINGHAM said that he was at a loss - ona g e r of to characterise the unfeeling and inhuman c,,: coal defendant, and if the death of her lodger ansa,°74:o sequence of her ill-treatment, she would be 1, 18 0 sr tried at the Old Bailey for manslauffhter. fe;,etrieri; t w opished to find that there existed a woman:alw psb; which it appeared the defendant was, who nt - , ce l of the barbarity of dragging from her bed c n . , e lr., own sex, in her state of pain - andperil, and (11 ' her to undergo that dreadful trial of nature on he sub' floor. lie should for the present require 1 1 er ° Ji l:lie° stantial bail to keep the p eace towards tne o fficer. had eai° The defendant said that s h e no frien ds Pi r S e 1143 bail her, neither had sh e an y t o send for, " e accordingly locked up. v olf,iP" IMPORTANT AM . We are requested to state, that Mr. Colbtlrh, ttegev' t ' Marlborough-street, has this day published ! i ta l ic P a i r te6l Colonel A. M. Maxwell's work on the ITIL" - „ n d. P - i f ; in 2 vols. small Bvo., with illustrations , 215. 7, - 0 0 ,4 - Coulburn has also just published Th e --111/ A. Richard Bolo'ca stle, bo n_ 1841. By Lieut.-Col. Sir small Bvo., with m a p s , an d 15 ill ustra tions, 21*04 of * -2. Excursions in Normandy, from the , (P h tl ei;, lls 2lS Recent Traveller, -Edited b Frederic Su e t - A r ai , - 1• 2 vols. small Bvo.- Southern Spas of England, 2 vols., with Mi el e ; •bg if t ro ,' - 3. Dr. Y Granville's 31 .""; r otte lustrations, 18s. bound.-4. The Iler in F i rlio'n• Countess of Blessington, 2 vols. Bvo.-5. TH e d vat - f oamer's Diary of her Travels, 2 vols. siv e , o p - p i taih s "o 4 ° illustrations.-6. The Life and Literary )- "„411° - •fo Esq , 2 Ol e ' tire L. E. L., by Laman Blanchard, with Portrait, 21s. bound.-And 7-. Mr. Calte-p-egraP of Petrarch, 2 vols. Bvo., with Portraits - Laura g , &c. in.e P OP INTEREST AND DISOOIIINTT.---' l 7i o Ihel; form a serious amount of c h arge s on tra il _ j e c - sr aelh counts of merchants, m a n u f ac t urer s, and tilw w :hich . 133 0 these troubled monetary ti mes -the savinglo- a B l l be effected by the accurate calculation of ther,, 4 00 to a large suns annually. There are no tilt;-0 jetf calculated for general utility, on account t c " . ,. c eleh rsi ii icll of rates given, as those by Gumersall, of Bill-broker of Lombard-street, a Sixth Edit'f-,4teP,`",jr has been lately published at an extremelY. lll°ue. hq 111' :0 SIGHT AND HEARlNG.—Patron aeu shots P. 4 Majesties the King and Queen of Haneve , and t " r Prts4 ;„, •, 4c p Highnesses the late Princess Augusta, the r Fr" - e Pr' pi' the her Serene Highness the Princess EserhazY, D uch° 4, r 01d .40 , Mary and Rosa, her Grace the Dowager Cantelr i lblfla ford, and their Graces the Archbishop of Dukes of Norfolk, Devonshire, Manchester, an d „,,, 0 0 - 0 . 1.4 c l : Marquises of Hertford, Londonierr Sl' o and of Shaftesbury, Tankcrville, Harewood , Y ' 4 1 .1 0;V•s' 5 ,, A- Sc ° O c" :tf° 4 ' Verulam, Harrowby, Buckinghamshire, l‘le a , t ;" , C. Luburne. end F0rr.,.., ..r y -Ler Lincoln, Cork, Elphin, and Kildare, Lords Hill, LA ) " e i h't In addition to the above distinguished patronage tot' 11'0 Invented Spectacle Lenses and Sound Iklag'Si lbemarle-street, Piccadilly, opposite the York "'" ea""O f King William.street, City, state that their valuable il ll f 11 1,0°, e e also gained the sanction and unqualified approbation •.0., hundred of the princilial members of the medical rmiloced 50 1 diately these Newly-invented Spectacle Lenses nr. b e. „, c c extremely imperfect vision, that mist and -- ot 7 - 11. appear before the eyes is at once removed, oe'rietioroir cores clear and distinct, so that the mast aged r no due, comes bright and brilliant, and is brought to its Ca .'it OP, and original state. Their Invisible O pe rative v° ' - c epti re ola Sound Magnifiers for deaf persons, is not the It O t F e Liviltly. ll uncomfortable ; they give immediate relief to old '`lii,safe7.o cases of deafness, and the faintest whisper at Pub, - o pcotfae heard with exact distinctness.- 39, Albemarle -scree" So York Hotel, and 76, King William-street, City.-- with persons of the same name. M GOLD WATCHES, LONDOiniii,D_.ttiol T. COX SAVORY, Watchmaker, No. 47, C' r ogl: 0 10 . ; seven doors from Graceehurch-s:reet, submits '- the W•ios very large STOCK of GOLD WATCHE S ciotte ll which are carefully exami ne d by experienced o—ro premises, and each is warranted for correct perfo 0 SIZE FOR LADIES. , n el 10 Fine Vertical Watches, jewelled, in engine - " 1.- gold cases, and gold dials, warranted .............. e a v i Fine Vertical Watches, jewelled, with d ou ble- 1 ) 0 7 6 ( 1 9 engine -turned gold cases and gold dials, warralo-ur '0 Patent detached Lever Watches, jewelled in . 4o, , 14 - holes witk double-backed g o ld cases and gold (." 1* .... •• warranted .. . .......... . SIZE FOR GENTLEiIIE iI. four 0 Patent detached Lever Watches. j ewelled e'' is l $ holes, seconds, and double-back e d gold eas . .-; .. ranted Patent detached Lever W at c h es , iapped,iew e ,/ lr six holes, seconds, double - backed gold gold e as "" „, enamel dials, warranted .......................... ilea is 0 Patent detached Lever Watches, .c . a . pped, jew e- „ncl d six holes, seconds, double-backed old ca ' OW gDld dials warranted ................. ........... • • ou i jse Either of the Gentlemen's Watch ... may be had iu% N.B. Second -hand 7 3 a / t , ch 3 e s s , peaucrheheaxster dsin eohare 4 v r jetL., - 01 0 the Public that ho has jus t t o had ac t cl he u C. J. DENT begs • t his ' els"' , ~ subjoined letter from the Admiralty :-- I° 4 80 ' acquaint of r e' . i l k. 4 of (Copy.) t g t h Sep ` te, here " Admiralty " Sir—The annual trial of chronometers fo r 1 sos i t ifga Majesty's Government having now terminat,6l,..lt9t°oo._,‘F-. mended by my Lords Commissioners of the A o °' - di r sst o tto'r you that their Lordships have directed me t ° Pa t :Jae lowing chronometers at the various prices sect.. respectively, viz.:— g filo ° Dent, No. 1,571 .................. 5- ~.i ii oeas e be 30 0 e rde to : Dent, No. 1,60t5... ........... . 4 ° !,. - ,,inesi 4 ,or.iff Dent, No. 5,621 (p0cket)....... ,/ Their Lordships having been pleased, ln. , p ro? superior performance of 1,571, to assign 15 lt , increased price to that usually given. „rva ne 're hile" "I am, Sir, your most obedient 0 dr oll to " F. BEAUFOBI', Ltd- • 1 03 0 " To Mr. Dent, Chronometer Maker, 82, str o bjec,4 th e m a kerb eho ico; o i y. Out of 80 Chronometers, by various the late trial by order of their Lordships, ti goetl iS T l O t he above above three, with two selected for the Mg ° eves he 02t bi others, enabl es M r . D ep t t o affirm that he O bc' l o oee i l t eo year suppli e d t h e i r L or d s hi ps w i t h mere CV , t o .004. AV use of the Roy a l N av y th an tha t h ave been fo rt it' r 0 any other Maker. s tat e be6' It affords Mr. Dent additional pleasure to s t i l e4o , to their Lordship? high recommendation he °, w , c e , the l'!: to haring made a Gold Chronometer, present t. ' OO lO pedition by his Royal Highness Prince Alber t ' nt i li r s o te° Dent's Lectures on Chronometers, Cl" kg ' b a ut ?I li( be obtained at U, Strand, 00g°' customers gratuitously. . 40 Present price of Two-day Chrononleter-' price ens shilling, SH., ? l n i.a t r h in e d :t e : o i f ns a t. s , on at . 13 B ar I n R fie T ht I S S t . stm ford-hal' athfield, of a daughter. et e tsbir e ' • 1f d • : raorg O i.ni n :,: t f he a 26th inst., at Shanks House, s°D ' i ..,Ta O yi r o i r t , he 27th inst., at Vauxhall, the b d i 0f P. s ll o . P ' c, 11, sffr On the 27th inst., at High-street, cati o, t t o h n e , 2 0f 7t a h • da in u s g t i . , , ter a . t Berkeler Slate, Esq., f ie On the 25th inst. at Bonnytoun, d a ug re• P O ° MARRlED. Chisw ell:street, to Agnes , T enWleitshg Ao °6 late John Mitchell, Esq., distiller, GlasV vi • sl►s On daughtert e 26:h iutfiskfr.ATlr..cJoariinegsl,llooorci%:4oofds, t u ° 11 ;i00 1 C° eldest Oxon. 5111.1 VI. P • asp• • itbe' On the 9th ult., at the Is l and of St. Thorn rb 04 , Esq., 92d Highlanders, aged 18. ~e e t,l 4°, l:o 4° On the II th inst., Mr. J. Bell, Pririec's4';,,epLos On the 19th inst., in Candos-street, 're, Obv Charlotte, eldest daughter of the late W. 11 , A e f 1,6 4 On n n th th e e 2 2 3d lst ins i t n . :t. a , t a A t b l b ' e r y in_c p ela'sc-Place, ow . " Blair, of Blair, in the county of Ayr. T0110 ,0 04 ' ° Davies, aged 14. ri°' London : Printed and Published by 31V113)° l'r 0 iB4. 6°' ' No. 112, Strand, at The Sun. Office No. the county of Middlesex, Thursday, dctobe • to, I :a , r - • i OP • , 44 • . 41 • D a It% . 1 . 4 ~'Tl r