The Express.
London, England, 1850-01-07 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 7, 1850.

WREN DOER TAR HALF CENTURY
COMMON?

Mom t 401.110.1

- -
Can you count a hundred T. Probably you hays
'dewed tits far la the Menge et meltbmatie, end is OM
ems you ma say whetherennelned benerel beim beim ths
first lt semi * teesden, bat very
wisemeow meet to have been hirly overwhelmed by it.
The /titter of Monday lest *eke all the 31st of Daman* as
' the close of the first half of a. nineteenth sentury." If
the leadiscleareel ropey superior to slather end elno*
seem, the ajournid set addisted to verbal Issity,
had already spoken is the mem seem eseleeverey are
is 1850 the clo,ing year of the Ismer ball of Ike notary,
or the opening of the latter half ?
At last the gram and highly critical Statsdard enters the
controversy, but professes itself unable to donde. It calls to
mind how '5O yeses ago a c ustanyersy was raised se to the
proper massiteneement of the century ;" and then the day
Unction is prolounuly anslyeed—" Oa one side it was eon-
tended that the pen id commenced on the let of January,
1800 ;oa the other ,it was argued that the first dig must be
detersntaed by the tesusenesseent of notation, via.,
January, 1801. Theses apes the declaim of this question
depends the other question, whether to-morrow (Tuesday)
will open the halt century crt net, we mast leave It, as it has
lain for 60 years, still doubtful. The mown of wisdom is
modesty."
Possibly the fist that the Irish Union took effect on the
lint day of Jemmy 1800 may have led some minds to re-

snow that a question of nunserartriain-ean only be decided 1;
the laws of notation. Juvenile memory may be content to
s art from the year 1800 or 1801; bat such of as ae are
older are fain to go further bask, to that year of obsolete
fashions, "the year 1." Now, if you begin with the year 1,
avid count a hundred, you will find that the sum fs only
complete with the year 100; the second century, therefore,
did not consomme, if we remember rightly, till the year 101;
and by all the laws of sense, each corresponding century
began with its own &ft yew, and not with the year of the
previous century.
Eitabliiih the other rule, and you incur some consommes
very curious to the scientific philosopher. Fur example, in
a Nu regiment of a thousand me*, the hundredth man
would obey, not the captain if the first company, but him of
the second ; and so on through the ten hundreds : but then
to which hundred would the thousandth man t along 2—to
the first company ? or would he be an eleventh company by
himself ? Again, if a thousand pounds were to be divided
among ten men, you would count out ninety nine to the
first. tnen you would begin the second hundred, and .o on :
but what would you do with the thousacdth pound ?—give
it to the tenth man, who would then have 1011. ; or give It
to the first, to make up his 1001. 1 Extending the principle,
yea may say that the baby born at the beginning
ry of the cen-
tury is burn at the end of the last, so that he really is one
>ear old on the day of his birth.
The colloquial name of the century is evidently the mis-
leading point :we talk of the year eighteen hundred and
one," and so forth ; and then the last year of the series,
" nineteen hundred," sound* N if it belonged to the new
series ; whereas it only censuntraates the nineteenth century.
The word " eighteen " here belongs to the past, and the
current century is expressed only by the units and tens in
"'49" or" 'bo"—those are the Teen of the uncompleted
nineteenth. To thii k that the ntoeteenth century began
with the year 1800 is as much as to confound" Solomon the
sea of DAM" with David him-elf.

ATLESBURY.—A) lesbury old bank, which has for
Easy years binn carried on by Megan. Rickford and Runt,
If that town, heneefirward to be conducted under the
lernership of Mr. Z. D. Hunt, the partnenhip having ex-
pired, oy of of tine, on the 31st of December.

slowly incremie which has taken place the bailie
wieeipta, notwithstandiog the comparative depresidon
et trade daring the last two years. The number of
miles of railway over which traffic wai carried in the
kat week of 1849, was 5,161, against 4,326 at same
date in 1848, 3,449 in 1847, 2,610 in 1846, and 2,043
ia 1845. The statement of the average traffic receipts
per mile per annum ie, as might be expected, not no
favourable in character ae the figures preced . For
1842, they were 3,118; for 1843, 3, 1. ; for 1844,
3,278; for 1845, 3,4691.; for 1848, 3,3051,; for 1847,
2,8701.; for 1848, 2,556 L; and for 1849, 2,3021.
The following is oar list of the extreme prices at
which business was done in shares during the week :
10084 Lower
Prim ?Noe.

N
Abadan - 11
as
91 Mint an/ /War beo N
11
le =isatin9l9s 7l
71
* a Illorthank
IN Nati el isilead 230
IN TL11991449 IN M
mill Oft 99
N lanniirs NAN If cekuldn..
50 Leeds sod leadked..
Ili INN. oil 166117411
- 77
190 1.81/44 NININ•0501110911 Omit- 79
Ibi
ar az,„..,,,w..6„, llli
VA sallsotik Widows II3
...............-•...... 000 al • •.„ 4
f:;::::-: • ..i..=—.. - sgs
13 N _
_pma - II

lie tiirella fdli
23 Benda OINITsI
331 &oath bolos ~

II

ii

43 South Vishos lll.
43 V/llto. Sonseast, sad Weymouth. 3ll
SS York. Noweastio. sod Norval*
SO Tort sod North Ilklload
The following is a statement from official source* of
the amount of the precious metals exported from
London during the week ending the 3rd inst. :—Bil-
ver coin : To Rotterdam, 13,003 oz.; to Dunkirk,
160,000 oz.; to Belgium, 80,000 oz. Siiver bars : To
Rotterdam, 7,000 or.. Making a total export of
260,000 oz. of silver.

The following calculations show the rate per cent.
per annum yielded by the various securities cited at
the average of the prices which ruled this day.
Where the asterisk (*) is placed, it is to be understood
that the share rate of dividend is less the income tax.
It will be perceived that we adopt the rate of dividend
declared for the last half-year as the basis of our cal-
culation :
Three per Cent. Conaols (shut).
Three per
.-ated..are price 97? yteldper cent. SS I
Threaeotdr per Cents. 95 S
Sri Stock (dm 7 per cent. per anniun) 20 3 8 3
India Stock (phut).
13•331,44 r DWI (Wt. lit pile day) Ms. pa. S 4 si
1114Isra Opuntia; Sh.o(dir. b.qr oh. of
1194 meal to I per cent. per um) 7l „ 2IS 2
Greet Western. (die. at the rate of 4
post seat par mu.) _ se a 17 11

! ineaddre and Yokel:die Railway*
1100 Stock ;dividend 4 par ant)... 34 le 7 0 If
tondos and eolith Western* (dn.. at
the rate of 31 per cent per ann.)... 61! ■ li S 2
London and Brighton• (dm. 294. re-

tr $l4 4

Peg. stork for Ziii half jeer, eqtud Pee
to
L. lk. per cent. per ant.)
London and North Manteca. (dlr. at the
rate of 7 per cent per ann.) llll • (I 7 h
midland (die. Si tel rate of 3 per east
per ann.)
South Beaters. £lO ab., ( dlr. 5 per
tent.)
York and North Midland dlr. pas.

“ 6 19 4

et 7 13 10