The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-10 00:00:00

BANK OP FRANCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAM.)

MAY,

182,500,000

1,205,641,762 05 1,261,316,288 70

93,303,708 40 87,134,696 34
CR.
Cash in hand . .
Do. branch-banks 201,589,i87 155,689,913
Commercial bills overdue 547,)57 63 605,732 64
Commercial bills discounted
not yet duo
•. .305,907,852 60 372,102,289 2
Do. branch- banks .... 271,399,672 311,223,228
Advances on deposits of
bullion
Do. branch. banks 2,929,500
Advances on French public
securities
Do, branch-banks 10,178,510
Advances on rail• shares
and debentures.....,,, 30,754,700 32 32,275,700
Do. branch-banks 20,125,341 21,309,900
Advances on Credit Fon-
cier Bonds 354.400
Do. branch-banks 417,000
Advances to the State
(Conven. June 10, 1857) 60,000,000 60,000,000
Govt. Stock Reserve 12,980,750 14 12,980,760 14
Do. disposable
Rentes immobilisees (Law
June 9, 1857) 100,000,000 100,000,000
Hotel and furniture of the
Bank
Landed property, branches 5,177,688 6,299,828
Expenses of management 1,857,268 1,464,082 81
Sundries

18,193,800
2,186,300

17,441,100
11,939,9:0

381,100
353,100

1,205,541,762 05 1,261,316,288 70
Certified by the Honorary Vice-Preeident of the Council
of State, Governor of the Bank,

AD. VUITRY.

YEAR'S WORK OF A CORONER.—T he Social
Science _Review publishes a sketch by Dr. Lankester
of his work as coroner for the central district of Middlesex
in the year ending July 3i, 1863. The population of the
district is stated at 805,975 (meaning probably at the census
of April, 1861), and he held 1,080 inquests (203 of them at
hospitals, prisons, or asylums), one for every 746 persons.
The proportion is very much higher in St. Giles's ; yet the
medical officer of that parish has to state that in 1862 45
bodies were interred without an inquiry when there ought
to have been one. "It is intolerable in a civilized country,"
he says, " that persons dying in this way should be interred
without inquiry ; in at least two cases there was prima
facie ground for suspecting poison." Dr. Lankester states
that "the registration of death and the burial of the body
without any medical certificate is of very common occur-
rence in London." Very unsatisfactory medical certificates
are also accepted by some registrars ; sometimes the niedi
cal man never saw the deceased either alive or dead, Irre-
gular certificates ought always to be referred to the coroner.
In the course of the year there were 53 deaths of new-horn
children with verdicts of wilful murder or neglect, very often
on the part of some person unknown ; there were besides 8
deaths of new- born children from "unknown causes, and 8
" accidental deaths," making 69 inquests on new-born
children. It is, says the coroner, a fearful picture of
the moral condition of the district. The crime of infan-
ticide is very much more frequent in some parts of central
Middlesex than in others, and the subject seems one that
demands investigation. The crime appears to be most fre-
quent among women in domestic service. Sixteen children
were picked up in the streets that had never breathed. The
absence of any registration of stillborn children is undoubt-
edly a source of crime. Children are often brought to the
undertaker for burial as stillborn without any guarantee for
that fact, and where women can find accomplices this pre•
Bents a very ready method of getting quit of children without
any inquiry as to the cause of their death. As many as 90
children were suffocated in bed, some of than first-born
children of young mothers ignorant of the necessity of
fresh air for the life of the offspring, others the children of
parents who had gone to bed not sober and caused their
child's death by culpable neglect. With regard to inquests
on adults, the coroner reports that 70 of the 1,080 deaths
were suicides. The largest number of the suicides was by
poison, and this is effected often by articles extensively used
in various branches of industry, and therefore easily. pro-
cured for an improper purpose. The year's inquests imply
that the tendency to commit suicide is more than twice
_as
great among men as among women, and that men pr_ a
prefer
hanging or the knife, women poisoning or drowning. In
large proportion of these cases habits of intoxication had
preceded the act of suicide.

ALLEGED LUNACY OF A LANDED PROPRIETOR.—
Oa Monday and Tuesday a Court was held by the
Sheriff of Midlothian, with a jury, to inquire into the state
of mind of Mr Alexander Christie, of Baberton, a landed
proprietor, residing in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh.
The proceeding was at the install:7s of Mr Braithwaite
Christie, his brother, for whom Mr Gordon and Mr Fraser
appeared, the Solicitor-General and Mr. Macdonald ap.
pearing for the defence, Mr Fraser stated that Mr A.
been further
p
Christie was a man of about 40 years of age, and in 1861
idmurianigredthe by lasta
coursetwelve
succeeded to the estate of Baberton, worth about £l,OOO a-
year. He was orinally a man of defective intellect, but
taken up with associates of the lowest class. He had
lived at J uniper-green for above twenty years with John
Barr, a man with whom his father had boarded him as a
measure of restraint, but his intemperate habits had gained
ofygearrosss sin his
te mind
mparahnacde, and he had
upon him, and scarcely a day passed without his going into
Edinburgh and getting drunk. The circumstance which
had led his friends to interfere was that in April hst a
butcher named M'Donald and a mason named Law had in-
duced him to sign a promise of marriage to Agnes Mossman,
an old woman and a pauper, whom he had been in the
habit of visiting. They went through a pretended form of
marriage, and presented a petition to the Sheriff-Substitute
for having it recorded, but the Sheriff wan so much struck
by Christie's appearance that he declined to grant the
petition, thinking him not in a fit state of mind to give a
valid consent. The woman's friends then gave in the names
for proclamation in order to marriage by the parish clergy.

man, but a representation being 13:tad° to the Kirk session
by Mr. Christie's relatives as to his condition proclamation
was refused. Since that time Mr. Christie had been kept

concealed, and his relatives were unable to get access to

him. The relatives now asked to have Mr. Christie cog-
nosced, and declared to be in a fatuous state, Mr. M‘Donald
asked the jury to observe that they were asked to End, not
simply that Mr, Christie was unfit to manage his affairs,
for since his father's time these had been in charge of a
curator, but that he was fatuous, or, in other words, had
no mind at all. It was quite true that Mr. Christie had
impaired his constitution by drinking, but he had been
quite neglected by hi, family until this marriage was pro-
posed, when the brother, who otherwise would be heir to
the estate, stepped forward in hie own interest to prevent it.
Mr Christie had lived with the woman Mosaman for 16
years, but his friends never thought of interfering until he
proposed to marry her. Although unable to manage his
affairs, and although 12 years ago he had voluntarily inter-
dieted himself from alienation of his property, he was not
insane or bereft of mind ; and he had not been a spend-
thrift, for since his accession to the estate he had not spent
above a fourth part of the income. A great deal et evidence
was adduoed, showing the eccentricities and tbo low and
depraved habits of Mr Christie, but it failed to come up to
a case of insanity, and on Wednesday morning the " brieve"
was withdrawn, and the jury were discharged without a
verdict,

that time of most critical importance. After the
delay occasioned by the Indian mutiny, be pro-
ceeded to his destination, and negotiated the Treaty
of Tientsin. Coming to his own country he was
occupying a public officio of great utility,
though not of great distinction, when the
refusal of the Chinese EMPEROR to ratify the treaty
recalled him to that country. Many and serious
obstacles were in his way, great and perplexing
were the difficulties with which he had to contend,
but befora he returned to England the treaty was
ratified and our Minister established at Pekin.
Subsequently his dealings with the Japanese opened
that valuable commercial channel to our commerce,
and it is remarkable that the fearless and straight-
forward Scatchman should be the one to succeed in
negotiations with these treacherous and untruthful
nations. The last link in the long chain was his
appointment as Governor-General of India, an office
for which, in the oplulcu of most public men, he
was
might have been antici-
pated,iving their cordial sup-
peculiarlyl
i d nes fitted.jned
in A s g
port to Lord PALMERSTON's proposal, Lord STAN-
LEY giving graceful expression to the unanimity of
feeling on his side of the House with regard to the
recognition due to services rendered not to a party
but to the State. No narrow system of policy, no
petty motives of self-interest, fettered Lord ELGIN'S
actions, and it is fitting that his countrymen should
render their unanimous testimony to the merits of
a statesman whose public spirit was no less conspi-
cuous than his ability.

PARIS, June 10.
The Moniteur of this morning publishes the usual
monthly debtor and credit ir account of the Bank of
France. The corrresponding figures of last month
are added :

JUNE.
DR. f. c.
Capital of the Bank ...... 182,500,000
Profits in addition toCapital
(Art. 8 law June 9 1857) 4,938,380 42 4,709,955 63
Reserve in tho Bank and
its branches .......... 12,930,730 14 12,980,750 14
New Re5erve............ 9,125,0)0 9,125,000
Reserve in landed property 4,600,000 4,000,000
Notes in circulation ...... 725,381,925 767,443,475
Bank notes to 0rder...... 5,109.609 53 4,418,131 83
Receipts payable at sight 1,519,761 '.,415,591
Treasury ace. cur. creditor 62,844,411 72 66,641,313 58
Current accounts—Paris.. 130,565,560 13 143074.283 79
Do. branch-banks 26,119,665 31,860,021
Dividends payablo ...... 556,723 75 637,918 75
Commission on deposits .. 3,200,998 96 5,038,022 45
Discounts and sundry
intere5t5............. 21,708,976 84 19,052,775 98
Re-discounts of the last
sia monala ............ 3,078,9)7 61 3,078,997 61
Sundries ................ 11,880,987 95 11,780,022 04