The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-06-26 00:00:00

fleet. Hitherto it had been. the practice to take
boys from the age of six or eight years, before it
was possible to know that they-would be physically
fit for the service,but, for the future, none are to
be entered under the age of fourteen years.
• As anticipated; Baring Brothers, yesterday,
announced a Russian Loan of £8,000,000. Two
other loans have also just been presented to the
money market. A French Government loan of
£20,000,000 sterling is to be raised,. but the
period of its issue is likely to be postponed to a
later period than was originally intended. Then
Louis Napoleon, as stated yesterday, has given
his sanction to a loan in France of twenty-five
millions of francs for the Pontifical government.
The English market already feels the influence :
and yesterday there was a fresh decline of per
cent. in the funds.
The Morning Chronicle, which, according to
current rumour, is sustained as well as officially
inspired by the Tuileries, is assured that while at
Baden the Emperor Napoleon made the following
assertion to the assembled Kings and Princes :
" I sincerely desire peace with all Europe. The
French journals have ever asserted this ; I repeat
it to your Majesties and Highnesses. Those
foreign journals which at all times accuse me of
wishing to aggrandise my territories, and of
wishing to make war against my neighbours, are
in the interests of my adversaries, and are,
therefore, not worthy of serious consideration."
However this may be, the Emperor, it would.
seem, has thrown the same sop to Germany that
he did to England ; and a Berlin letter in the
Cologne Gazette says:—"lt is confirmed that the
French Government desires to conclude a treaty of
commerce with the Zollverein. The French propo-
sitions have been already sent in and are now under
examination. The attempts which France had pre-
viously made to attain this object were fruitless."
Although Austria was uninvited to the con-
ference at Baden, her interests do not appear
,to have been in any way immediately jeopardised.
On the contrary, we learn that the inter-
view of the German Sovereigns has brought about
an understanding between Austria and Prussia
as regards the reorganisation of the military con-
stitution of the Confederation.
Prince Jerome Bonaparte died on Sittlay. His
life has been a remarkable and romantic one. A
brief, but interesting, outline of his . biography
will be found elsewhere.
In the Moniteur we find the official return of
the commerce and navigation of France with her
colonies and foreign countries in 1859. The total
official value of the imports by sea and by land
amounted in round numbers to 3,552 millions,
being 134 more than in the preceding year. The
exports in 1859 amounted to 4,745 millions, or
535 millions more than in 1858. The French
vessels employed in effecting the imports in 1859
were in number 10,422, measuring together
1,628,284 tons ; and in the exports 8,778 vessels,
1,473,192 tons.
In the course of the investigation before the
Paris Council of Commerce, a circumstance which
is of grave political as well as of commercial
importance has been referred to more than once.
It is that superior qualities of French iron and
steel are infinitely better than any of the same
class made in England, and that the consequence
is, that the plates made in France for covering
ships are impervious to cannon balls, whilst the
plates made in England for that purpose cannot
resist shot. M. Petin was one of the witnesses
who made a statement to that effect :—" The
English," he said, "have just sent to Vincennes
steel plates for covering ships ; and I have learned,
with pleasure, that they were smashed into a
thousand pieces on being fired at, whilst French
plates perfectly resisted."
The fruit crop has seldom been so promising in
France as this year. Pears, apples, apricots,
plums, and indeed all kinds of fruit, will be
extremely abundant.
It is plain, says that excellent authority, the
Gardeners' Chronicle, that a very late harvest
must be looked for. The wheat is not yet generally
in ear over the southern counties, and is every-
where declared to be three weeks or a fortnight
later than it generally has been. And it is
equally certain that whatever the weather of
July may be, the harvest when it comes will not
be nearly so good as that of last year, much as
that fell below the average of the previous crop.
No wonder, then, that with unusually short
stocks in the hands of the growers, prices in the
corn market should everywhere be rising.
A return has been ordered by the House of
Commons of the number of benefices in England
and Wales under sequestration for the purpose of
discharging the debts of the incumbent. For
some reason, not stated, no return has been made
for the dioceses of Durham, Oxford, and Win-
' chester. In the other 24 dioceses the number is
140, but Chester is able to return " none."
The Volunteer Review- on Saturday is every-
where admitted to have been triumphantly suc-
cessful ; and it will be seen that her Majesty,
through a general order of the Duke of Cam-
bridge has paid a proud compliment to the col-
' lectivc. corps.