The Express.
London, England, 1861-02-18 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 18, 1861.

bank in the kingdom ; secondly, as the
bankers to the State and holders of
the public balances ; and, thirdly, as the man-
agers of the currency of the country. Apart from
this the Bank minimum has, by common consent,
been fixed as the standard by which a vast uumber
of commercial and financial transactions of every-
day occurrence are regulated. The more impor-
tant is it, therefore, that the sufficiently anomalous
duties cast upon this establishment should be per-
formed with the utmost care and discretion, and
the more reasonable is it that the policy of the
Bank should be regarded as a topic of free criti-
cism both in Parliament and in the press.
According to rumours which circulate in good
quarters, the minorityat the Bank Board upon the
division respecting the propriety of advancing the
rate to 8 per cent. was larger than is usual upon
these occasions, and comprised some of the most
respected and experienced members. As to the
considerations by which the majority were guided,
it is believed that, though the demand for silver
for exportation formed a weighty element, their
decision was chiefly based upon an apprehended
resumption of the flow of gold to America.
Now, the public do not presume to set
themselves up as better judges of the affairs of
the Bank than the Bank Court—or rather, as we
may say, with regard to the present occasion, than
the majority of the Court. But neither are they
disposed, in these days of swift information and
general telegraphing, to bow to the assumption
that the Bank Court must be in the exclusive
possession of momentous knowledge. The com-
munity judge of the policy of the Bank by the
Bank accounts ; and, as this test does not
explain the sudden advance in the rate,
it is not very unreasonable for them to
think with the large minority in the Bank Court
itself that the step has been rather hastily taken.
Not that any one will be bold enough to assume
the prophetic mantle and affirm that the measure
might not become necessary. We can none of us
see into the future. But as it is open to the Bank
to raise the rate of discount upon any day
when they may think proper, it certainly
strikes us that the remedy might as well)
have been applied as soon as the evil showed
itself. fiufficieut for the day is the evil thereof.'
It is not as if money were cheap and a foreign
drain were beginning to show itself. Prompt ac-
tion by the Bank is then by far the soundest policy,
in its own interest and in that of the country.
But the "screw " is already very tight now, and
a good reason is required for each additional turn.
The accounts of the state of trade are becoming
l
more unfavourable. What with the high rate of
money, uncertainty as to the future course of the
market, the check to business with America, and
the failures in the Creek and Levant trades, com-
mercial enterprise is becoming discouraged.
The only improvement observable is in
the hosiery and hardware branches. The
cotton manufacturing interest, long excep-
tionally prosperous, is now beginning to suffer.
The suspension of work by 10,000 or 15,000
operatives at Blackburn and the neighbourhood is
a sign of the times. The latest accounts from
Manchester state that the rise in the Bank rate
seems to have caused a more than usual degree of
perplexity and embarrassment in most quarters,
and led to so complete a suspension of operations
that nothing like regular quotations are attempted.
This account applies to all classes of goods, and
the little business previously doing in yarns is also
at au end.

LORD JOHN AUSSILL ON THE APPMILI OP
mar.

The following letter baa been received by Mr.
M' Tear of CLogow, in acknowledgment of the memorial
agreed to at the meeting in the Queen's Hotel, on the 30th
ult., in favour of the principle of nonintervention in the
affain of Italy and the Continent generally :

" Foreign Mice, Feb. 14.
" Sir,—Lord John Rumen has desired me to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the lit instant, forwarding a
memorial, addressed to his lordship by certain inhabitants
of Glasgow, and agreed to at • meeting held tbere on the
3Uth ult.: and I am to rape, the satisfaction with which
he has received this testimony of the friendly sentiments of
the memorialists in regard to the lair which he has
held, and therpoliey which bee Raja* s government have
pursued, upon the affair% of Italy.-1 ve the honour to
be, Sir, your obedient servant,
(Si;;ora) "One. S. Etuoy.
" Robert M`Tear, Egg., Glasgow."

THE CHANCELLOR OP THE EXCHEQUER AND
THE HOP puma

Pursuant to the decision of an important meet-
ing of East Kent hop-planters held at Canterbury, at which
it was resolved to use every possible exertion to obtain the
further postponement of the second moiety of the 1859 duty,
because it would be impossible to collect it on the Ist of
March next without causing great distress, if not entire
ruin, to • large number of planters, Mr. Thomas White
Collard (the secretary to the Hop Planters' Association) wail
directed to write to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to ask
when it would be convenient for the right hon. gentleman
to receive a deputation from the East Kent planters, for the
purpose of presenting a memorial in favour of a further post-
poosment of the second moiety of the 1859 duty, payable
on the let of next month. In answer to that application
the following letter has been received :
" London, Feb 14,1861.
- -

" am directed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer
to acknowledge the favour of your letter of the 13th instant;
and I am to acquaint you in reply that he has alreedy felt it
hie duty to decline to receive a deputation appointed fee
the porpoise which you same. Inasmuch ea he feels that a
due regard to the intestine of the I%islature in the act of
bat year entirely precludes hie awarding to a request for a
renewed postponement of the hop duty, his agreeing to receive
a deputation would but be the means of raising a Wee ex-
peetatios.—l am, kr., C. L RYAN.
" T. W. Collard, Req."

RIPILIOINTATION OP BiILILIOSTILAD. —The proba-
bility ef Birkenhead shortly becoming an electoral
hes amused theelecten of that town to action, and onbcrilayi
lest a meshes of the conservative hargems was held, whes
it wee agesedto present a requinitice to Mr. John Laird, re-
=tie* he should allow him& to be amineted for
et paatimmedery emit On Saturday, however,
placards appeared ea the walk emmating, a. it would age
mar, from the Birkenhead Helena Ameociation, emliseas
the hbend sliders he
themselves, sad
ma stating
that alt would he bt forward to repro-
Net the liberal hierestis the sear joro.gb.
Cminalmit.--A mall but influmitial meeting
woe held ea Friday imenhg in the ildlosephissi Reams, to
beer shatemeets ham the Rev.
_Frederick Mirk& relative
tithe general objects of the Angio-Oestineetal Society, and
wipecully it. mentions iv Italy. The Rev. Harold=
Nomaian Prolesserof Divieity,oecepied the chair,
be the Rev. Lard Charles Hervey, the Rev. Z. H.
and others. Themestivig was shimmed by Mr. i
I. Hervey. itchiest Ayres, Mr. Massy, Mri.=, Mr.
E. H. Fersernia end Mr. Bcannioet, and much intereatiss
infenserien vies Oen respecting Dr. Camillen's
wish to taking knewu the pristiples of theil
relametim to the habeas so as to lad
to a Mailer whew in their owe chunk. /tie
religion melt* ef British subjects in Spain was
also masklind. Such was the Uttered excited,
that it was unanimoirely resolved to call a public
for the pnrpoee of mead/eh( the duty of the eh:IC:I6J
Leaked to the Italians at the mum* Grids.
Fox Crx s. —The wooed nasetisig of the Fox
Club toek phice m illaturdep meths at Brooke's.
Amiss he visitors present were, Lad Charles J. Fos
Rumen, Viseneat Lianover, J. B. Liras, Req., M.P.,
HOS, Frederick Cadogan Aggress
Fig, Col. the Hon. Weisman Cake, x.ra_Hort=
& RusesU, Lord fleadirs, Bight Hsu. J. W. Filepatrisk,
Him. Hs:natio H. beams, Crimp C. B. Cislioner,
Frederick Durable, Req., ILE. lard Qemeenie. Oslosel it
A. S. Adair,Colonel .X. OneVeod, Viscount Itikland,
ROYAL UO j
LLY.OII OP PiTSICIA/14 OF LOWDON.—At
the Ceilidh' Majors Extraerdimria, held en Thursday lest
14th inst., the following gestissem h min nerhignes the
eatiE
seesmary exandnatim, hid satided the dash I
prellehmey I. the seines, mil gesedise el mg
midwilsey, were doily admillei M war ghillie"
Mir ef the mama :—W. Williams. PIA" IpX . '
head ; C. R. Suffield, Harborne, Birmingham .:J
His.. Bay ; F. J. Prier, Tewkaahury ; A. Roberts, Mat-
cense-mum, Brampton ; H. Wheeler, Clifton ; mil H.
May, Liegtes, ihafferithire.

Ilk Court.

Baroness Brunnow, wife of the Rnasian Ambas-
sador, was presented to her Majedy the Queen on Saturday,
at au audience at Buckingham Palace, by Lady John
Humell

Her Majesty was attended by Lord De Tabley, Lord in
Waiting.
The Queen and Princess Alice, and the Princesses Helena
and Louise, rude on horseback iu the Riling-house of Buck-
ingham Palace on Saturday.
Her Majesty had a dinner party in the evening. The
company included the Primer Alice, the Duke and Duchess
of Roaburgbe, the Portuguese Minister Count de Lavradio,
the Brazilian Minister and Madame de Moreira, the Marquis
and Marchioness of Winchester, the Earl of Ellenborougb,
Lord and Lady John Russell, Lord and Lady Cranworth,
lady Fanny Howard, and Major-General Sir ttichardAirey.
The baud of the 2nd Life Guards played during dinner.
Yesterday the Queen, the Princess Alice, Prince Leopold,
Prince Arthur, the Princesses Helena and Louise, the ladies
and Gentlemen of this Court, and the domestic household
attended divine service in the private chapel, Buckingham
Palace. The Rev. H. Melvill preached the sermon.

A Cabinet Council was held on Saturday at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury,
in Downing-street. The ministers present were Vis-
count Pahnerston, the Lord Chancellor, Earl
Granville, Sir G. Cornwall Lewis, Lord John
Russell, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir Charles Wood,
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Duke of
Somerset, the Right Hon. T. Manor Gibson, Lord
Stanley of Alderley, Sir George Grey, the Right
Hon. C. P. Villiers, and the Right Hon. Edward
Cardwell.

A deputation from the steam ahipownen al London, con-
sisting of Mr. F. W. Russell, M.P.. Captain Nainse, Mr.
Roots, Mr. Pratt, and Mr. M (sseretary), with Mr.
lanaden, Mr. Glover, Mr. I.eathim, and Mr. Ewall, rer
presenting steam shipowners at Mull, and Mr. Gramm, re-
presen'tusc:shipowners at Glasgow, had an interview
with th• ht Hon. T. liilner Gibson, on Saturday, at the
aloe of the of Trade. The deputation was introduced
by Lord liotham, M.P., and accompanied by Colonel Sykes,
ILP., Colonel French, M.P., Mr. Somes, M.P., Mr. Bee-
croft, M.P., Mr. Baines., M.P., and Mr. Blake, M.P.
The Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1562 met at
.the
Coencil-odice on Saturday lest. Present : Earl Grassed*
ILO., Mr. Thomas Baring, M.P., Mr. C. W. bilks, and
Mr. Thomas FAirlairn.

Mr.Y. O'Brien, with despatches from her Majesty's Am-
bassador at Constantinople, had an interview with Lind
John Russell, at the Foreiga.othce, on Saturday.
The Judicial ('ommittee of the Privy Council sat en Sa-
turday. Appeals from Jersey—" .71111Vrin V. DI la Mare,"
and Hayley v. Bartlett and others," were beard. The
Lords present were Lord Kiugsdown, the Master of the
Roth, and Sir E. Ryan.
Despatches were sent on Satunlay from the Colonial-
oflice, to the Governors of Canada, Bahamas, West Indies,
and British Columbia.

Despatches from the Governors of New Zealand, the
Australian Colonies, Ceylon, Hong Kong, Imbuan, and Gib-
raltar, were received yesterday at the Colonial-office.

Hat MAJWITY'II THEATRE.--On Saturday night
his Royal Highness Prince Arthur, Colonel Grey, Sir Chan.
Phipps, and party °occupied the Queen's box, to see the
opens at Robin Hued and pantomime.

. .
His Royal Highness the General Commanding-
is-Chief will hold a levee at the Hone Guards, at one
o'clock, on Thursday next, the 21st instant.

Her Royal Highuesa the Ruches* of Cambridge
had a dinner party on Saturday evening, at her apartments
at St. James's Palace. His Royal Highness the Duke of
Cambridge, his Excellency the Austrian Ambassador and
the Countess d'Apponyi, the Earl of Malmeabstry, Count
Baden, the Right Hoe. Sir Hamilton Seymour, and the
Marchioness of Ely were among the guests. The duchess
received a select circle of friends later in the evening.

The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough and
family arrived at their mansion in St. James's. square on
Saturday, from Blenheim Palace, near Woodstock.

The Marquis rand Marchioness of Tweeddale are
shortly expected in town from Yager House, N.B.

The Marquis of Hartington, M.P., has left
Devonshire House for Melton Mowbrey.

The Earl and Countess Stanhope entertained at
dinner on Friday last the Marquis and Marchioness of
Clanricarde, the Earl and Countess Grey, Lady Charlotte
Denison, Viscount Chelsea, Lord Stanley, M.P., the Hon.
Mr. and Mrs. Francis Stator, and Sir David Dundee.

The Countess (Dowager) of Westmoreland and
Lady Roes Fans have left town, on a visit to the Countess
(Dowager) of Jersey, at Mkklleton Park, Dear Bioester.

- Lady Mary Wool and Mies Wood are passing
the man at Nice. Her ladyship will sot return to town
until Nay.

Lord and laidy Churchill have arrived at the St.
George's Hotel.

Colonel the Hon. W. P. and Lady Emma Talbot
have taken a mansion in Cromwoll•road, South Kensington,
for a term of years. _

Viscountess Palmerston held an assembly on
Saturday evening, at Cambridge Home. Previomly to the
assembly the viscount and viacountess entertained at dinner
the Countess of Gainsborough and Lady Victoria Noel,
the Earl of Shaftesbury and Lady Victoria Ashley, Vis-
count Holmesdale, Viscount Chelsea, Visoounteas Jocelyn,
Count Strzelecki, Hon. Evelyn Ashley, Hrs. Arthur Kin-
naird, M.P., Hon. Mn. William Cowper, Mr. and Mrs. B.
Moncktou Miler, Mr. Cameron, sad Mr. Oliphant.
_ .

The Right Hon. the Speaker gave hie first par-
lierareatery dinner thin session to the following members of
tie House of Commons on Saturday:—Viscount Palmerston,
ILG., Lord John Boren, Sir G. Cornwall Lewis, Sir G.
Grey, G.C.8., Sir Charles Wood, G.C.8., the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, Right Hon. E. Cardwell, Right Hon.
O. P. Villiers, Right Hon. T. Mauer Gibson, Right Hoe.
W. Hutt, Right Hoe. W. Cowper, Right Hon. R. Lowe,
the Lord Advocate, the Judge Advocate-General, the
Solicitor-General, Viscount Bury, Lord Proby, Viscouot
Osetlerome, Hon. Henry Brand, Right Hou. F. Peel, Sir
W. Dunbar, Mr. Baring, Mr. Whitbread, Mr. Massey, Mr.
C. Poetesses, Mr. Clive, Mr. Knatehbull-Hngessen, Mr.
Bagwell, Mr. Forster (Walsdl►, Mr. Gilpin, Sir E. Cole-
brook% mad Mt. Paget. The Hon. G. L. Waldegrave and
the Rev. Mary Drury had the honour of joining the party.

The testiitisa at Reutileahaui Hall, Ipavich,
Is eabbeation of the majority of Lord Reodlesham, have
fad passed off. Among the guests staying at the hall
have been the Duke and Duchess of Rozbarghe, the
Marquis of Beaumont and Lady Charlotte Laws Mar, Lord
Charles Ker, the Dachas of Si. Albans and lady Dans
Beanelerk and Lord A. Beatrierk, the Earl and Countess
ci Stradbroba, Lord sad Lady Henniker, Lord and Lady
Haatingiald, tie Marquis Camden, Lord George Pratt,
the ladies Pratt, Lard sad lady Alfred Paget, the Right
Hos. T. lillsor Gibe= sad Ni.. Waco, Sir Fitzroy Kelly,
M.P., sad lady Many, Sir R. C. Morrison, M.P., and Lady
Carolina Kerrisca, Sir Charles and Lady Rowley, Sir E. H.
L laws, M.P., sad lady Loom, Sir H. J. Steamy, LP.,
sod lady 11Breray, Mr R. Bowater and Lady Bowater, Sir
Malta Ai/afraid lady Adair, Colonel A. K Adair, Mr. H.
L Adair, ILP., Mr. J. C. Cobbold, LP., rte.

TIN Liverpool Albion of to-day says :—" We
boar ezeolhaa authority for believing that the government
may be iallessel, it inteselvely memorialised, to supply
esbnimer eaderme (scarlet sr blue) at cost price, which is
' ems-ildrd less thee any oostactor can apply, and the ma-
teriel eeperies. We trust that it the government do •••
&maks Ws slater, they will lad,' upon unitermity. No
time &bead be lost in urging the matter with the War-
aim"

On Friday night Miss Helen Faucit ooncluded a
brief nesseimeat at the Queen's Theatre, Edinburgh, and
tesh her bereft. The house wee crowded to emirs, the
amilimee esertiowier into the eweheers, and closing up all
the purges, sad large intursre were unable to gale ag.
Seirtse. The piny was As pm Lite It, in which the part
of lianitail was erisiasd by Mir Feacit.
A requisition lies for signature at the Mansion
Meuse, Dublin, requesting the Lord Mayer to eel a public
resedes, is ardor that the inhabitants of Dahlia may ex-
press their sympathy in the tabs of the late Oaptaia Boyd
end Ids brave crew, who periled in the stone of Saturday,
the Ilk MIA, la their marts to says the Ives of the crew
ef vete& eldrneeked at Alnputowa en that day, and
to Lb means far arestlas a seilshis mamesial of it.

The foundation is now being laid In Paris of new
dahlia They are la be erected oa the apse apace
h Mei of Ow bridge of Ahra The city of Peris is to bear
ersonss 41 three sew bailer ia Mums dor the grand
ea wihi the old &arise de Louvre stood. It is said that
the am imperial stables are to be finished is a style al
argailimse sapsnor is saythisi of the kind yet masa.