The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-08 00:00:00

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Prisoner was then removed to the cats, sv.%en he com-
plained to Bendall, the gaoler, of being kept in prison on
such a charge, asserting that he should not has e made the
statement unless he had been drunk.

This being the district in which the alleged murder was
committed, a concourse of persons assembled opposite the
doors of
.the court upon the news of Muller's accessory
having been apprehended, and as he Lift he was greetod
with shouts and cries of " Muller 1"

GOLD CURRENCY FOR INDIA.

(From the Mechanics' Magazine.)
We believe we are correct in stating that it is the inten-
tion of the Government to comply with the prayer of the
racmorials of the Chamber; of Commerce of Bengal, Bow-
bay, and Madras, and to allow
the introduction of the
British sovereign as current coin into the three presidencies
of India. There can be no doubt of the advisability of
this step, which seems also from a recently arrived
telegram from Calcutta, Ito have obtained the con-
currence of Sir Charles Trevelyan, the able Finance
Minister of Bengal. The inconveniences which have
so long been experienced from the exclusive use of silver
as a legal medium for the transaction of commerce
between India and Great Britain, and between India and
the Australian, have of late increased to such an extent as to
have become intolerable. The trade between those oountrie
has indeed been crippled by the restriction, to a very larl;®
extent, and this without contingent advantage in any f0r.112
whatever. The matter, therefore, becomes a home quea.
tion, and one in which English manufacturers, and English
engineers especially, are interested. The gigantic works
in the form of railways, canals, bridges, and tramways for
the transit of cotton, which are at present in progress or in
prospective in British India, render it essential that every
facility should be given to those who are engaged or likely
to be engaged in carrying out those works. As things are
managed now, this is far from being the case. Obstacles
to the execution of large undertakings in India continually
arise from the impossibility of transmitting large sums of
money in the form of silver coin, for the payment of officials
and workpeople engaged on them. The absurdity of confm-
inglegaldisbursements to the media of rupees, annas,and pice,
may be conceived by supposing a similar enactment to exist in
our own country in reference to the florin and its subordinate
silver and bronze coins. In a vast territory like India,
however, without the means which we possess of effecting:,
the rapid and safe conveyance of specie from place to place,
and without the advantages of the perfect system of bank-
ing in existence hero, it is plain that our own annoyances
arising from the absence of gold coin would be small ba-
deed as compared with those of the inhabitants of India.
It is not internally alone that the evil is felt in that coun-
try, but externally, and indirectly this latter fact is of yet
more serious consequence. Owing to the exclusion of gold
from the Indian currency, the trade with Australia, for
example, is chiefly carried on in a fashion which affects
most detrimentally the commercial interests of both colo-
nies. The gold of Australia is sent to England, where it is
employed in the purchase of silver, which silver is sent to
India burdened with the charge of the double voyage, and
with the additional interest which has accrued during
the long period occupied by it ! The cotton and other
exports of India are necessarily charged with the extra ex.
pease arising from this circuitous mode of payment. Can,
anything be imagined more absurd and injurious to trade
than such an arrangement? A yet worse feature, perhaps,
is, that this Australian gold is held firmly in the cellars, of
the Bank of England till the demand for silver is made
from India, when Europe is ransacked for the purpose of
obtaining it in sufficient quantities. Then the banks of
England and France simultaneously, or consecutively as.it
may happen, raise their rates of discount to mitigate the
drain ; and by doing so derange more or less every branch
of business in the two countries. Now, if gold were placed
en the same footing of legality as silver, it is evident that
these complications would no longer exist. Australian gold
would then find its way direct to India, and be received
unhesitatingly in payment for cotton and other products,
which, after exportation to England for manufacture would
be sent to Australia for the use and advantage of its Euro-
pean population,

This is a sample of the good which must inevitably at-
tend the legalisation of gold as an adjunct to the currency
of India, and it is easy for our readers to see that the bene-
ficial influence of such a proceeding must of necessity per—
meate through the channels of commerce and trade, and
act and re-act advantageously for all engaged in their pro-
secution.

As a further reason in favour of making gold a legal
tender throughout the Presidencies of India, it may be stated
that a positive deficiency of the supply of silver is impend-
ing. It is in the month of November that the great annual
demand for produce from the interior of India invariably
manifests itself, and unless there existed available equiva-
lents for its purchase, the economical system of Europe will
be more seriously disturbed than in previous years it has
been from a like cause. Increased means of communication
with remote provinces has had its natural effect, that of in-
creasing the exports from them, and every year this proct;:,2
is going on. How highly essential then to meet the grow-
ing supplies with enlarged facilities of purchase.
Many other arguments might Lu adduced in support e f
the proposed change, but they properly belong to the float L..
cier and the statistician. Our own purpose in introduci
ng
the subject to these columns is to demonstrate the fact t hat
to the manufacturers of this country generally it is orm of
vital consequence—much more so indeed than at the first
blush it might seem to be—and that they and we therefore
have a strong interest in it. Gold comprises much value in
little compass, whereas the converse holds good of silver,
and there is no doubt that the people of India will esteem it
in the same relation to the inferior of the two precious metals
that the people of all cther nations do. It is portable, easily
secured, and has many claims beside its intrinsic worth ti 3
superiority over silver. We shall look anxiously for tb.e
promuluation of an Order in Council which will set at rest
any doubt as to the intentions of the Government, mei
make the sovereign and half sovereign of Great Britain se
free to circulate in Bengal, Madras, and Bombay as they
are in the British islands.

ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.—At the last sitting OA
note was received from M. Guerin-Meneville, with a fey,
specimens of the cocoon of a new species of wild silkworm,
a native of the Correntine missions on the right bank of 'the
Uruguay in 31 deg. S. lat. It feeds on the leaves of the
Espinello, a plant which is supposed to be the Alimoca Far-
nesiana in a wild state. Its cocoons are all open, and such
is their immense abundance, that the trees are literally
covered with them to the height of six feet from the ground.
When recently spun, the cocoon is orange-coloured, but
exposure to the sun and rain bleaches it. Us silk is ex-
tremely pure and fine. M. 111eneville gives it the name of
BQ,nbyx Fattvetyi, from the discoverer M. Fauvety.
Guerin-Meneville further announces that a Bombyz
Atlas, the first ever hatched in France, is now visible
at the laboratory of the Imperial farm at Vincennes. This
unique specimen proceeds from one of the 16 cocoons sent
from blussoreo, a small town situated on the table-land ot
the Himayala, by Captain Hutton, A paper was received
from M. Pouchet in answer to M. Coste's last rejoinder on
the subject of animalcules. He denies that it is the kysti
sticking to the surface of plants that produces bristly ani-
malcules in vegetable macerations, M. Pouchet having ob-
tained soma from even animal matter abstracted from the
I deepest organs. He states that the museum of Rouen pos-
sesses a maceration of a tape-worm taken from a dog, and
which, after having been preserved in alcohol for more than
a year, has produced an innumerable number of large bristly
infusoria. His having mistaken enkysted microzoaria for
spontaneous eggs is not, he says, a new reproach, which he
refuted six years ago. As to infusoria passing through
filters, M. Pouchet has shown it to be mathematically im-
possible ; why, then, has not M. Costa mentioned the
species and dimensions P—M. Turnbull wrote to inform the
Academy that he had succeeded in finding the deal and
dumb subjects he proposed to treat by his new method
under the supervision of a Commission appointed by the
Academy, and bogged that a day might be appointed by the
said Commission (composed of MM.. Flourens, Milne
Edwards, and Cl. Bernard) to verify their present state.
THE COTTON TRADE AND THE DISTRESS IN
PRESTON.—Within the pabt few days a " downward
tendency" has manifested itself in the cotton trade of Pres-
ton, and it is apprehended that from the present until next
spring there will be a decrease rather than an increase in
the employment of the operatives. Two or three mills
which have been worked during the whole of the cotton
famine will in a week or two or either wholly or partially
closed, and it is , understood that others will shortly be in
the same position. Last week a largo number of operatives
were thrown off full time; and this week there has been a
similar for tho worse. The cotton trade report
issued yesterge day shows that at present 13,278 operatives of
the 27,800 in the town aro working full time ; that 1,188 aro
employed at the rate of five days per week; 689, four;
3,088, throe ; 112, two ; and that 9,069 aro entirely out of
work. Last week the figures were—Full time, 13,703;
five days, 1,0,53 , four, 601; three, 3,095 ; two, 4 ; unem-
ployed, 8,908. Twenty-one out of 87 mills in the tows
are closed.—At the meeting of the Preston Board of
Guardians, on Tuesday, it was stated that in the entire
union there are this week 2,041 cases, Comprising 4,893
persons, who have been relieved at a ccst of £274 11s.
As compared with last week, these figures show an in-
crease of 10 cases, a decrease of 28 persons, and an increase
in the expenditure of 6s lid. At present the Guar-
dians have in their service 240 able-bodied men. In the va-
rious workhouses of the union there are 919 inmates. A.
proposition was recently made that the operations of the
Relief Committee should be suspended, but the committee
considered that there was too much distress in the town to
warrant the adoption of such a step. The report of the com-
mittee, issued on Tuesday, shows that they have now on
their books 1,296 cases, comprising 4,910 persons. As
_ _ _

compared with last week, these returns show an increase of
1U cases and nearly 100 persons.

I considered it my duty to give hire im charge that the -a
police might investigate the matter.
Mr Ellison—Prisoner, at this stage o,' tl 10 Proceedings I
will not call upon you to say anything. I t, 'link the matter
of such grave importance that opportunity ter further and
searching investigation should be given. if ycr u have made
this statement simply through a drunken. freak : you cannot
complain at the position in which you are pl aced. I re-
mand you until this day week.