The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-28 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

CITY, TWELVE O'CLOCK.
There is a firm market for discounts, and a full
average amount of business reported.
The city to-day presents the appearance of a
partial holiday owing to the closing of the Stock
Exchange, and a reduction so far as practicable of
the attendance in many other important departments
of business. The arrivals of mails from Australia,
China, India, and the Cape has, however, occupied
full attention among those particular interests.
The directors of the London and South American
Bank have just issued their report in anticipation
of the first ordinary general meeting. It states as
follows :—" Your directors avail themselves of the
opportunity afforded them by the present first mill-
nary general meeting of shareholders to *place in
their hands a balance sheet, comprehending all the
operations of the company in London, from the time
of its formation to the 16th of March ; and in
Luna, those which have occurred from the
commencement of business there on the 21st
of September to the 6th of February. Your direc-
tors will at the meeting give every information
that may be desired with reference to the actual
position of the company and its progress hitherto,
and will treat of a pending negotiation for the
union of its interests with those of the Mexican
Bank, Limited. This latter proposition will involve
the division at this time of the profit made by the
Company up to the dates already referred to, and
Bence it is proposed to recommend a dividend of 6s.
per share, being at the rate of 10 per cent. per an-
num, which it is hoped will be satisfactory.
The date for the division of profits being agreed
and fixed with the Mexican Bank for March 30, and
as the accounts from Lima extend only to Feb. 6,
it nicly be fairly assumed that the profit made in the
intermediate period, meets the question of rebate,
on bills current on Feb. 6. The shares of your
Company being each £lOO, and those of the Mexi-
can Bank £50,0n the proposed amalgamation taking
effect you will receive two shares in the amalga-
mated company for one of those you now hold, and
it is hoped that this proposed union will be con-
ducive to the strength and success of the whole
enterprise."
The advicee received this morning from the ma-
nufacturing districts report very favourably of trade
during the past week, although in one or two in-
stances a slight diminution of business has been
perceptible. The cotton market has been less buoy-
ant, owing to large arrivals of the staple. At Leeds,
Bradford, Huddersfield, and Halifax, the demand
for woollen and other goods has continued active ;
and at Sheffield several large orders have been re-
ceived from India and Australia, and prices have
accordingly continued firm. At Wolverhampton,
too, there has been an active inquiry for all descrip-
tions of iron ; but at Birmingham the fancy trade
has shown a considerable amount of slackness.

BRITISH FUNDS—CLOSING PRICES.
SATURDAY.
. GOVERNMENT FUNDS.
4 per Cent. Consols
Ditto Account, April 8
3 per Cent. Reduced
New 3 per Cent
New
2i per Cent. Jan. 1894...
.A.anumes, 30 yrs, expire &th Jan., 1880..
~ Ditto for 30 yrs, expire .sth April, 1885. 141
4zchequer Bills, £l,OOO, 21 & 3 per Cent. dis
Ditto £SOO
Ditto £lOO and £200
13ank England Stk, 41 per Ct., last hf.-yr Shut

- . - -
INDIiII GOVERNMENT SECURITIES.
India Stock, 10i per Cent., April 1874....
Ditto 5 per Cent. July, 1870
Ditto Account ...• - ******** ° °-
Ditto 4 per Cent., Oct, 1888.. 981
Do Certificates
Ditto Enfaced Paper, 4 per Cent —
Ditto 5 per Cent., Jan. 1872 ..
Ditto 5i per Cent., May, 1879 ........ 112
Ditto Debentures, 4 per Ct., April 1861
Ditto ditto Aug., 1866
Ditto Bonds 0,000 — dis
Ditto under £l,000

' -
FOREIGN FUNDS—CLOSING PRICES.
Brazilian 5 per Cent.
Ditto, 1839 and 1859.....-
Ditto 41 per Cent., 1852-58-60
Ditto 1863
Ditto Scrip, £55 paid pm
Equador New Consolidated, 1 per Cent.. 131
Egyptian 7 per Cent lOOl4 100
Ditto, Second Issue
Italian 5 per Cent.(slaremmana Railway 741
Mexican 3 per Cent
Ditto Account
Peruvian 4/ per Cent ..
Ditto 3 per Cent.
Ditto 41 per Cent., 1862
Ditto Account B6 i
Portuguese 3 per Cent., 1853
Ditto Account..
Ditto 3 per Cent., 1856, '7, '9, '6O, 62;3
Ditto Account 4Bl I
Ditto Scrip (1863) £3O paid — pm
Russian 5 per Cent., 1822, £ St —
Ditto 41 per Cent.. 1850 .. 86/
Ditto 3 per Cent 1859
Ditto 5 per Cent, 1862
Sardinian 5 per Cent
Ditto Account
Spanish 3 per Cent
54/
Ditto Account
Ditto New Deferred
Ditto Account —
Ditto Passive
Ditto Account —
Spanish Cert. of Coup not funded —
Ditto Account
Turkish 6 per Cent. 1854 —
Ditto Account
Ditto 6 per Cent. 1853
Ditto Account 7Ol
Ditto, £lOO Bonds
Ditto 6 per Cent. 1862
Ditto Account .. 711
Ditto £lOO Bonds 72
Venezuela 3 per Cent.
Ditto Account 24
Ditto 6 per Cent., 1862
Ditto Account
Dividends on the above payable in Loud .0
Italian, 5 per Cent., 1861, Ex. 26 francs..
Ditto Account 67a
Piedinontese, 6 per Cent., Ex. 25f —
Peruvian Dollar Bonds, 41 per Ct. Ex. 4s.

TWO O'CLOCK

Consols Money
Ditto April Account

A DROP OF LIQUID.—Wnen medical men pre'
scribe so many drops of any liquid to their patients
they may not be aware that they do not always prescribe
the same quality. On this subject we find an interesting
paper by T. Tate, ESq., in this month's Philosophical
_Magazine, in which he shows that the magnitude of a
drop depends upon various circumstances generally
not taken into account. First, as to the appa-
ratus used by him for his experiments, it con-
sists of a vertical tube AB receiving the liquid at
A. from a vessel C, and delivering it at B into a vessel D.
'The vehicle by means of which the liquid passes from C
:into the tube, is a strip of clean calico which acts as a syphon.
'The apparatus was so adjusted that the interval of time
between the falling of any two consecutive drops was not
less than 40 seconds. The lower end Bof the dropping-
tube was drawn to a point, and then formed to a sharp
edge, so that the tube at the part in contact with the
liquid might be regarded as indefinitely thin. From five to
ten drops were allowed to fall into D, which was then
weighed, by which means the weight of each drop was
ascertained. In order to determine the weight of the drop
,corresponding to different temperatures, the dropping-tube
was inserted in a wide brass tube passing through a
hot water bath, so that the drop of liquid, as it was being
formed, might attain the same temperature as the
'water surrounding the wide tube. From the experi-
50ents made with this apparatus it appears; 1, that,
other things being the same, the weight of a drop of liquid
is Proportional to the diameter of the tube in which it is
£rrned, but not of its orifice, provided the diameter do not
feskeeed 7-10ths of an inch, in which case the liquid falls,
but not in the form of a regular drop; 2, that the law just
'enunciated has a remarkable relation to that of capillarity,
-the weight of the drop being in proportion to the
'weight of water which would be raised in that tube by
capillary action; 3, that the augmentation of weights are
in proportion to the diameters of the surfaces on which
the drops aro formed; 4, that the weight of a drop of
liquid, other things being the same, is diminished by an
increase of temperature; and 5, that in different solutions of
neutral salts the iaeremcnt in the weight is in proportion to
the dry salt in solution.
METROPOLITAN POLICE.—The cost of the Me-
tropolitan Police in the year 1863 was £554,250., Towards
this expenditure the rates supplied £346,127, the Treasury
!Pahl £143,129 ; the Admiralty, for the service of the police
4n the dockyards, £33,015 ; the War-office, for services at
military stations, £10,000; the Government offices and
Public institutions were charged £14,337; companies and
Private individuals, £5,514 ; the theatres, £503 ; and the
Commissioners of the International Exhibition, £7,448.
The number of the force at the close of the year—superin-
tendents, inspectors, sergeants, and constables—was 7,732,
an increase of 215 in the year. Four years ago the number
was not 6,000. A charge is made f)r the funerals of 48
constables in the year. The expenditure in 1863 for the
police-courts of the metropolis was £51,896, the whole of
it payable from the public purse. The fees and penalties
levied at theta courts in the year amounted to £12,367.