The Express.
London, England, 1855-05-02 00:00:00

[THREEPENCF.

MONEY MAEKET

TIMIDLY BYININII.

This being the day fixed for the striking of the
half-yearly balances at the Bank of Eogiand, the
Stock Exchange was shut, and business in stocks and
shares virtually suspended. A few irregular tran-
sactions took place on the Royal Exchange in Con-
sole at 881 to a (being i per cent. above the closing
quotation of yesterday), and in the omnium at par to
prem., bat these quotations are apart from the
regular course of the market.

At Paris to-day the French Three per Cent. Rentee
closed at a further fall of to per cent., as com-
pared with the closing quotations of yesterday. The
Vienna bourse exhibits no general alteration. At
Amsterdam the chief feature is a further tall of per
cent. in Austrian stock.
It is expected that the settling in the omniam of
the new loan will take place early next week.
The foreign exchanges this afternoon continued to
present a somewhat declining tendency, but the
actual reduction was unimportant, and the rates are
still too high to allow of the exportation of gold
to the Continent at a profit. Transactions took plans
in bills on Hamburg at 13.71 to 8, on Paris at 25.421
to 45 at three months, and on Amsterdam at 12.0*.
Bills on Vienna and Trieste met with a little (more
inquiry. On other cities little alteration occurred.
ne amount of specie brought in by the Iberia is
9,8581., chiefly from Lisbon.
In another column will be found an analysis of the
monthly Board of Trade returne, which were issued
this day. ert • • • •
The tallow market to-day declined 11. per ton.
The closing prices were as follows : St. Petersburg
Y.C. on the spot, Ms. 3d. ; June, 545. 6d. ; Oct. and
Deo., 675.
The sales of sugar to-day went off with much bride-
nom, and the Benares and native Madras kinds
realised higher prices.
Tho Admiralty have ordered her Maje -ty's steamers
Cruiser and Falcon to proceed to the chops of the
channel, to afford relief to the homeward-bound ves-
sels detained by the easterly winds.
The directors of the Great Central of France Rail-
way Company, in conformity with the resolutions
adopted at the meeting of the 23rd January, have
determined to raise a loan of 25,000,000 trance (say
one million sterling—taking 25t. to the 11.), by an
issue of 90,000 bonds to bearer, to be issued at 280 f.
each, and redeemable at 560 f. by means of consecu-
tive drawings in a period of 99 years from the let
January, 1860. These bonds are to bear an annual
interest of 15 francs, which is equivalent to a distri-
bution at the rate; of rather more than 514 7s.
per cent. per annum, exclusive of the bonus to be
paid on reimbursement. This loan will enjoy
a preferential claim to the net proceeds of
the line, and also to the guaranteed state
annual interest of 8,760,000 fr. The payments are to
be made as follows, viz. :-80fr. on subscribing,
1001 r. on tho Ist July next, 501 r. on the Ist October
next, and 50fr. on the let January next. Discount
at the rate of 4 per cent. will be allowed on pay-
ments made in advance. Shareholders are to have a
prior right to this issue, and will be entitled to one
bond for every two shares; but the public will be
admitted to subscribe at the same time, in case the
subscription is not entirely takeu by the shareholders.
The subscription list is to be open in London from
the Ist to the 10th May, at the office of Messrs. C.
Devaux and Co. The object of the loan is to exe-
cute the lines completing the company's concession,
as referred to in the imperial decree of the 7th April
last.
As illustrating the impediments interposed tojoint-
stock enterprise by the present unsatisfactory position
of the question of the partnership laws, and by the
reluctance of government to grant charters, attention
has been called in the Daily News to the case of the
Colonial Fibre Company, a projected association, the
object of which is the manufacture of a new material
for paper, &c., from the fibre of the plantain. The
Jamaica Colonial Standard of the 9th of February
contains a report of the proceedings in the
House of Assembly of that island, from which
it will be seen that every such proposal to
introduce capital into the colony is eagerly supported,
and every due encouragement held out. The report
of the committee to whom was referred the petition
of Mr. George Forsyth (the representative of the pro-
jected Colonial Fibre Company), after referring to the
general characterof the project—w hich "eon templates
a double object, namely, the preparation of the fibre
of one portion of the plant for ropes, and for textile
and other purposes, and the application of other por-
tions of it to the manufacture of paper of one or more
cluasta"—proceeds to recommend that a bill should be
passed securing exclusive rights to thu petitioner.
The report then observes as follows :
Your committee cannot refrain from expressing their
senor i of the importance to be assigned to the encourage-
ment of an enterprise so novel in its character, and so exten-
sive and costly in its details, and they can only regret that
the dimioislet resources of the treasury rendered it im-
possible for them to suggest to the executive the expediency
of tattering and sustaining this the first practical effort to
establish, on a large scale, a new and valuable article of
export by a liberal premium, as has been done in British
(Julius. They venture, however, respectfully to suggest
that the petitioner might be relieved of the duties on the
costly machinery about to be imported by him, and that the
public should also indemnify him against the expense of his
private bill. The committee, in offering tnese suggestions
to the house, would observe that it is in contemplation by
the patentees not simply to become the manufacturers of
' the material to which their machinery is edepted, but to
cultivate, on a very extensive scale, the numerous plants on
which it is intended to operate; and that they are now in
treaty for the purchase of more than one abandoned estate,
on which no taxes are now paid, and which, but for their
invention, would again have contributed to the sup-
port of the public institutions of the colony.
A committee was at once appointed to prepare and
bring in the bill, which has already passed its first
and second readings. The readiness with which the
House of Assembly consents to protect the patent
right of the company in that island contrasts
strongly with the indifference of the home govern-
ment, as manifested by the refusal of charters to
this and other projected associations.
The Master of the Rolls proposes on the 22nd of
May to make a caller 61. per share on the contriba-
tonics of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Marine Assu-
rance Company.