The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-17 00:00:00

FRANCE.

The Duke de Luynes has again left Jerusalem
with the scientific expedition under his direction,
to explore the country between the south of the
Dead Sea and the Gulf of Akaba. This espe•
dition, which is provided by its chief with the
best mathematical instruments and apparatus, has
already obtained results of high interest of science
and arch aplogy.
A duel which terminated fatally has just taken
place between two soldiers of the 4th Chasseurs,
at Carcassonne (Rude). One of them, a brigadier
named Millot, was run through the lower abdcmed
by his adversary's sword, and expired a few hours
later.

General Lemaire, grand officer of the Legion of
Honour, has just died at Verdun, his native place,
in consequence of en illness brought on by his
anxiety about the health of his son, now recovered.

BOURSE, May 16, The market has been
rather heavy, and the little business done has been
at a decline on the last quotations of Saturday,
Threes, for the Account, are now at 66f. 70c., and
Mobilier at 1,172 fr. 50e. Railway Market quiet,
but firm. The market closed as follows :

41 per Cents. 94 75 Italian L0an...... 69 10
Do. cud month Do. end month.... 69
3 per Cents
Do. end month.... 66 SO Do. end month....
Credit Mobilier.... 1167 50 Russian
Do. end m0nth....1167 60 Austrian -
Bank Shares 3375 Spanish Threes....
Credit Fancier 1260 [Tome Debt
Roman
RAILWAYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans ....... ~........ 885 .. 885
Northern
Lyons and l'4lediterranean 890 .. 887 60
New ditto BB5 . .
Southern 650 ~ 655
Western -
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard 633 75 .. 535
North of Spain
Saragossa 565 .. 568 75
Ditto to Barcelona

AUSTRIA.
VIENNA, May 14.
The following is the official report of the Aus-
trian commander in the recent naval engagement,
in a despatch to Count Crenneville, the First Adju•
tant-General to the Emperor :

"This morning, while on my way to Cuxhaven,
I learned that three Danish frigates had been seen
near Heligoland. I sailed in that direction, and
having come up with the vessels in question, at
once attacked them. After the battle bad lasted
two hours and a half the foremast of the frigate
Schwarzenberg took fire. As the vessel was lying
with her head to the wind I was obliged, in order
to prevent the fire spreading, to let her fall off. At
the sametime I made a signal to the•other vessels
to break off (abbrechen) the engagement. We re-
treated to Heligoland, where we cast anchor.'
A non• German, who witnessed the action off
Heligoland, says the Austrians displayed great
courage and determination, and that the foremast
of the Schwarzenberg was hit by a shell while her
crew was preparing to board one of the Danish
vessels. At first the Austrians maintained that they
were overmatched, but they now candidly acknow-
ledge that they had more and heavier guns than their
antagonists. The Schwarzenberg has a crew of 520
men, and carries four rifled 24-pounders, 40 smooth-
bored 30-pounders, and six mortars for throwing
601 b. shells. The frigate Radetzky has 390 men on
bourd, and her armament consists of three rifled 21
pounders, 24 smooth-bored 30-pounders, and four
mortars for 601 b. shells. Each of the Prussian gun-
boats—Blitz, Basilisk, and Adler—carries three

g nes. The Danish screw-frigate Niels-Duel, which
is said to have been much injured, has 42 Suns, and
the screw schooners Dagmar and Haim dal 16 001-
As a reward for his gallantry, M. von Tegetthofr
has been raised to the rank of a Rear-Admiral.
This Government has just forwarded to Berlin a
note, in which it is hinted that Austria and Prussia
will hardly be able to come to an understanding in
respect to the conditions to be imposed on Denmark
until the question relative to the German Customs
Union has been settled to the satisfaction of the Im-
perial Gibinet. It has long been known to
the Austrians that the ultra-Conservative party
in Prussia has a hankering after the Danish
Duchies, but they certainly did not expect
that such men ,as Count Arnim-Boy tzsn burg
and Prince Putbus would advise the sovereign
to lay violent hands on his neighbour's pro-
perty. The Austria❑ Government is said to disap-
prove the address which has just been sent to the
King of Prussia, but it can hardly attach import-
ance to it, as it must well know mat neither Eng-
land nor Russia will willingly allow Holstein and
Schleswig to be incorporated with Prussia.
In the evening of Wednesday you learnt from me
that only a part of the Austrian Loan had been
taken, and I am now able to give some detailed in-
formeion on the subject. At S o'clock in the even-
ing of 'Wednesday the various sealed offers were
opened in the presence of the Minister of Finances,
but the only one accepted was that made by a com-
pany composed of the Anglo-Austrian Bank,
Messrs, Baring, of London, and Barons Sina and
Wodianer, of this city. The Vienna Credit Bank
was willing to take 10,000,000f1. at 76, but M.
von Piener declared its offer to that effect to be
unacceptable. Yesterday evening the official Abend-
post informed the public that the whole loan of
70,000,00011 " was in the hands of a Syndicate."
The true meaning of the words quoted is that the
Austrian Minister of Finances has given the whole
of the loan, with the exception of the 23,500,000 of
silver florins which were subscribed, in commission
to a company, which is composed of the Anglo-
A-astrian Bank, Baring Brothers, M. Wudianer,
J. 9. Sine, the Dutch Bank, the Berlin Discount
Company, M. Karo, of Berlin, and B. G. Guld-
schnaidt, of Frankfurt. The independent Vienna
papers plainly give the Government to understand
that nothing but strict economy can keep the
finances of the Austrian empire from going to the
bad.

The Pesth Ilirnok professes to have learned from
reliable sources that the recent hard frosts have
destroyed nine-tenths of the raps and four-tenths
of the wheat sown in Hungary. The loss sustained
is estimated at 40,000,00011., but in my opinion the
accuracy of the estimate is very questionable.
One hundred and sixty sailors have gone from
Trieste to the North Sea, to fill up the gaps made
by the Danish guns in the crews of the two
Austrian frigates.