The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-21 00:00:00

ONEY MARKET

AND

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

CITY, TWELVE O'CLOCK.
This position of the discount market remains un-
altered. Money is still plentiful with only a limited
demand for accommodation, and merchants are en-
abled to negotiate their first class securities at 64,
and 51 per cent.

About £23,000 in gold was taken into the Bank
on Saturday.

The Baroda, which left yesterday with the
CAlean% and Caine Mails, conveyed £175,470 in
specie,

The City Mercantile Club close their share appli
cation list on Thursday, the 2lrh inst. Since this
announcement the shares h►ve been r tptdly ap
plied for, The sales to-day were Ito 1 pram.
The Frontino and Bolivia Gold Mining Company
shares were to-day Liberally sold at 1,1, and closed
at 2 prem.

Toe Dutch Tramway Company have announced
the close of their application list to be on the 24th
inst. The sales commenced at 11 and closed at 2

preen,

The directors of the British Copper Mining
Company, in reply to some remarks in the Money
Article of a contemporary, by their chairman, A.
Alison, Esq., say :—" The insertion of the name of
Mr. N. S. Hill as being a member of the firm of
J. Hill and Son arose from an entire misconception.
Mr. Hill is a near relation of some of the mem-
bers of the firm of James Hill and Sons, and this
led to the supposition that he was in the firm itself."
The shares of this company were in brisk demand
today 1,1 and li prem.

Two O'CLOCK.
At the Paris Bourse this day, according to Mr.
Reuter's telegram, the Three per Cent. Routes
opened at 66f.

At the annual meeting to-day of the Bank of
Australasia, Sir W. Minto T. Farquhar, Bart., M.P.,
in the chair, the report of the directors stated that
the accounts for the year were till the 12th October
last. Daring that period trade its the Australian
colonies, though generally sound, had been inactive,
bat the profits hod suffered no diminution. A divi-
dend had been declared, payable en the 12th April
next, at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum, and a
bonus at the rate of 8 per cent, per annum, both
free of income tax; being together at the rate of
14 per cent, per annum, or £2163. per share for the
half-year. The first instalment of £.lO, paid in
May, 1863, on the new shares, will, is October next,
participate in dividend at the re te payable on the
old shares.

At first the market for the English funds exhi-
bited an upward tendency, and a small amount
of business was transaeted at an advance of 1-16
per cent. This improvement, however, bas not been
maintained, and Consols are now at the closing
prices of Saturday—viz., 911 a for transfer, and
911 / for the account. The New Threes and
Reduced Annuities have been dealt in at 8911; Ex-
chequer Bills, Bs. to 3a. dia. ; India 5 per Cents.,
1041
.1,-; and Elfaced 5 per Cents., 105.
General buoyancy prevails in the Foteign Market,
and business is rather animated. Mexican have
risen 1 per cent., to 451 461 ; Turkish 6 per Cents.,
1862, are 71 g ; ditto Consolides. 531 541 ; Greek,
23/ 241 ; Spanish Passive, 351 361; ditto Certifi
Cates, 131 ; Portuguese, 481 ; and the Confede-
rate Loan, 52 51.
In the Railway Share Market the operations
have been on a rather limited scale, and prices have
not varied to any important extent. Metropolitan,
however, have improved 1 ; North Stafford, I;
South Eastern I. Great Western have declined f;
and West Midland, I.
The Foreign and Colonial undertakings remain
at about former rates.
Bank and Miscellaneous Shares are in moderate re
quest at steady rates. Toe following are the latest cur-
rent quotations for some of the principal new under-
takings; City Offices, 314 prem.; 7 per Cent. Bolivian
Loan, 11 21 prem.; Queensland Sheep, par 1 prem.;
Thames Iron Shipbuilding Company, 31 41 prem.;
Imperial Financial, 41 41 prem.; Credit Mobilier,
11. 21 prem. ; Credit Foncier, 41 5 prem. ; and
National Provincial Marine, t 1-1, prem. ; Central
Argentine Railway, prem. ; London and
Liverpool Hotel, 11 11 prem.; London Gas Metre
Company, I, 73,- prem.; North Australian Company,
11 prem.

BRITISH FUNDS—CLOSING PRICES.
0 OVERNMENT FUNDS.
3 per Cent. Consols
Ditto Account, April 8
3 per Cent. Reduced
New 3 per Cent.
New 2i per Cent. Jan. 1891 —
Annuities, 30 yrs, expire sth Jan., 1880 —
Ditto for 30 yrs, expire sth April, 1885.
Exchequer Bills, £l,OOO, 2/ & 3 per Cent. B;dis
Ditto .f.,500
Ditto £lOO and £200
Bank England Stk, 41 per Ct., last hf.•yr Shut

INDILN GOVERNMENT SECURITIES.
India Stock, 10} per Cent., April 1874....
Ditto 5 per Cent. July, Ib7U
Ditto Account ..... ..... . lOll
Ditto 4 per Cent., Oct, 1888 —
Do ' 'ertificates
Ditto Enlaced Paper, 4 per Cunt :.
Ditto 6 per Cent., Jan. 1872. lO5
Ditto 5} per Cent., May, 1879 —
Ditto Debentures, 4 per Ct., April 1861
Ditto ditto Aug., 1866
Dirt„ Bonds £l,ooo —
Ditto under £1,000..

FOREIGN FUNDS—CLOSING PRICES.
Brazilian 5 per Cent
• • • . -
Ditto 41 per Cent., 1852-58-60
Ditto 1863 B9l
Ditto Scrip, £55 paid....
Buenos Ayres 6 per Cent —
Ditto A.ceount
--
Cuba, 6 per Cent.
Colombian 6 Scrip £BO pd
Ulan 6 per Cent —
Danish 3 per Cent., 1825
Equador New Consolidated, 1 per Cent —
Egyptian 7 per Cent loo} 100
Ditto, Second Issue
Greek 5 per Cent., 1824-5, ex-Coupons —
Ditto Account
...... .... 23i
Ditto Coupons —
Ditto Account
Guatemala 6 per Cent. —
Moorish Imperial 5 per Cent
Italian 5 per Cent.(Maremmana Railway
Mexican 3 per Cent
Ditto Account....
New Granada .. l4t
Ditto 2 per Cent. —
Ditto Deferred Bl
Peruvian 41 per Cent ..
Ditto 3 per Cent.
Ditto 44 per Cent., 1862
Ditto Account B6 i
Portuguese 3 per Cent., 1853
Ditto Account —

Ditto 3 per Cent., 1866, '7, '9, '6O, 62,'2
Ditto Account 4B! i i
Piedmontese, 5 per Cent., Ex. 25f —
Ditto Scrip (1863) £42 Bs. 3d. paid — pm
Russian 5 per Cent., 1822, £ St B9i
Ditto 6 per Cent, 1862
Sardinian 5 per Cent ....
Ditto Account —
Spanish 3 per Cent
Ditto Account
Ditto Passive
Ditto Account 351 61
Swedish, 4 per Cent
Ditto Account lli .....
Spanish Cert. of Coup not funded —
Ditto Account
Turkish 6 per Cent. 1864
Ditto Account
Ditto 6 per Cent. 1858
-Ditto Account 7ot
Ditto £lOO Bonds., , 74#
Ditto 6 per Cent, 1862
Ditto Account
Ditto, £lOO Bonds
Ditto 6 per Cent, 1863
Ditto Guaratteed, 4 per Cent lOO
Venezuela 3 per Cent.
Ditto Account 24 a
Ditto 6 per Cent., 1862
'Ditto Account.... t61
Dividends -
on the above payabl:d in Loud n
Dutch 2i per Cent., Ex. 12 Gull, ......
Ditto 4 per Cent. Certificates ........ Italian, 5 per Cent., 1861, Ex. 26 Ditto Account ......... ~ .....francs..
....... 67
Consols M THREE O'CLOCK.
oney • ......
Ditto April Account .............. 91a........ 911 a ....---_,---......_21

TRACKERAY'S LARES AND PRNATES.--A large
and motley crowd filled the beautiful residence of
the late Mr. Thbckeray for four days. Stately duchesses,
comical old Hebrews from Houn.lsditch, authors repre-
senting different departments of literature furniture men,
nervous ladies wearing spectacles, artiste, and bargain-
hatters, have just been jostling each other at the sale of the
household effects of the Great Novelist,
TRE POPULAR APPR, CIATION OP SIR
1-fira, should be ROWLAND
marked as well as the national one, Sup
the Pose--says the ,Spectator-.a statue were erected in front of
rogi•offige

BRITISH. POSSESSIONS.
closing
flare
it:antic &St Lawrence all 58 60
.st isom.,Baroda&Cent Ind 1034 1014
Gu. 5 per cent ..... '
20 Do. New
20 Do. E. Shares.
04 Butlalo and Latie Dump 54 6
10 Do. Preference all 74 Si
ttuffalo,l3rant,&Godricl, „00 /
p. et. bds. Aug. 1, ISe z
ou Do. do. July 1, 187:: cut
00 )o. do. June 1, 11, 100
>t t .utta.,vB.l(.:astn. (1, . 100 102 104 •
st ,;apeTown 4: Dock Sore 100 103 10:
'Lock Mikan: Bengal gu. sp. 10, 054 1065
4kek h.ast Indian. gu. sp. e. in( 1t,44 105 1044
20 Do. do. G Ext l5 P
20 Do. do. II do. 15
stock Grand l'ru:a of Canada io 19 20
100 Do. Is*„ Bonds r 73 15
100 Do, do. deterred.-- all 58 62
10o'Jo.
(00 ed Pro. Bowes— 4i. 65 67
Do. do defer, ed all 51 53
AY:, Do. 3d P ef. stock
100 Do. do. deferred....
100 Do. 4th Pref. sto k 4l, 26 28
100 Do. co. deferred 5.11 22 15
too lit.lndisPenin.gua.sp.o 4), 03/ 104) 1032 44 32
SO Do. New g-ua. p. c
1)o. January, 1862
stook Gt. South.of ludia(Lim
uaranteed 5 per cent. ti •('. 103 104
It. W. olCanada Shares all 94 11
204 Do. New .. ... lb 11 104 i
00 Do. 6 p.o. '73 with't opt. all 92 04
100 Do. 54 r.. a. do. '77.8.. . all 85 87
10 Indian Branch Limited 2 1
stock Madras guar., 6p.0. .. 100 10 fi K. 34 103 21 34 24
stocs Do. f 4 p. o. Extension WO 97 98
stock Dc..b d 0........ 100 02 94
20 Do. Fifth Extension. 2
stock Slelb.C.,orp. p. o. Bndt. 105
50 Melt, do llobson'a Bay. all 55 58
100 7 p.c. Mortg. Bds. all
SO Newlif 11Eavnok s Canda
Class A an a B. all 3 6
N. lll.C'da Bpo Ist pt bds 100 82 14
stock Scindel (100 1034 1044
stock Do. D:dhi. .. II d« 1 100 103 104
YO Do. do .... mc I 2 / fP
at Punjaub g 4 1034
I Do. Do. Mt 1100 I
s ock Do. Indus. St. Flo.) I'k 105 98 100

COLONIAL GOVERNMEI

l,a.u.tior. p.o.Ja tizJ uly
1b77-S1
Do. 6 p. c. Feb. & Aug.
Do. 6 p. c. Mar. k Sept.
Do. E p. c. Jan.&July.
Do. 6 Inscribed stock
Cape G.Hope, 6p 0,1873
Do.Ap &Oct 1880
Do. 189 t
Do. Jan. & July, 1891
Ceylon, N0v.1878, 6 p c
Mauritius 6 per cent
Natal Gov. 6 per cant
N.13.G0v. 6 p.c. J Lt.&J ul)
Do. 6p. (LA p. & Oct.
N. S.W. G ov. 6 p 18:.(
Du. 5 p. e.,lBti to 1 ;ii
Do. d0.,1888 & upwds
New Zealand 8 p cent.
!Nova Scotia Gov. 6 p. c
sterling, 1875
,Queensland Gm p. C
S. Aus G6p.c.1678.& up
Vie. Gov. 6 p.c. Ja.&July
Do. to 4 MO. AD.acOot,...

T SECURITIES.

101 103
100 102
99 101
8) 11
89 91
106 108
108 110
110 112
110 111
111 111
196 108
198 110
101 103

1011 1

111}
1076 9

99 WO
99 101
99 100
108 110

100
100
100
100
100

091
99i

1111

Extraordinary Trial,

A cause celebre is now being tried at Aix, AU
the principal journals have sent special reporters,
and MNI. Jules Fevre and Lachaud are retained for
the defence.

In July last, a man named Maurice Roux, a
coachman in the service of M. Armand, a gentle-
man of large preperty, residing at Montpellier, was
found iu the cellar of his master's house, lying on
his face, with a wound on the back of his head, a
rope tightly drawn round his neck, his hands tied
behind his back, and apparently in a dying state.
It was in the evening that he was thus found. The
man had been missing all day, and M. Armand had
several times spoken angrily of his absence from
his duties. A maid-servant in the house, who had
heard her master inquiring for Maurice Roux, told
him that she thought she heard Maurice groaning
in the cellar. M. Armand said the girl must be
dreaming, but nevertheless accompanied her down
the cellar stairs, and there found Maurice in the
position described. M. Armand at once ran to
fetch medical men, and a commissary of police.
According to the report of the medical men, Mau-
rice was nearly strangled, and in a most dangerous
condition. He could not speak a word, but was
able to understand what was said to him. The com-
missary of police produced a child's alphabet of
ivory letters and asked the man to spell the name
of the person who had attempted to murder him.
He spelt the name of " Armand"—his master. A
long examination ensued by means of the alphabet,
in the course of which the man explained that,
while he was sawing wood in the cellar his
master came behind him, and saying, " Je t'appron-
drai appeler ma maison une baraque"—(l will
teach you to call my house a barrack)—he struck
him a tremendous blow on tue head with a log 01
wood, which felled him to the ground ; then he
twisted a rope tightly round his neck arid tied his
hands behind him. This happened at 8 o'clock in
the morning. When Maurice Roux recovered he
repeated by word of mouth everything that he had
indicated by the alphabet, persisted in his story after
being warned by the Judge of Instruction of his
terrible responsibility to God and man if he made a
false accusation, and took the sacrament upon it in
the presence of thejudge. M. Armand was arrested
upon this testimony, and at the end of last year ht
was brought up at the bar of the assize court of
Montpelier to take his trial on a capital charge. But
waen judge and jury were assembled, and the Pro-
cureur Imperial ready with his speech for the pro
secution ; when M. Jules Fevre, specially brought
down from Paris, had taken his Seat in front of the
dock in which the prisoner was placed; and, when
the court was crammed to suffocation with the prin•
cipal inhabitants of the department, burning with
cariosity to hear the case, the news came that Mau-
rice Roux, on his way to the court to give evidence,
had been waylaid and beaten within an inch of his
life, so that it was impossible for him to appear.
The trial was necessarily postponed. The general
opinion in Montpelier was that M. Armand, who
is a very wealthy man, had suborned a bravo
to murder Maurice Roux in order to prevent him
from appearing against him. Maurice Roux, how
ever, revived after some days' medical treatment.
Meanwhile, M. Armand's counsel applied to the
Court of Cassation for a change of venue, on the
ground that there was so much prejudice against
the prisoner in Montpellier that he could not have
a fair trial there. The Court granted the applica-
tion, and ordered that the trial should take place at
Aix. It is a singular circumstance, and one that
gives rise to many conjectures, and when the list of
witnesses was called at the opening of the trial
Maurice Roux did not answer, and it was stated in
court that when he arrived at Aix by the railway he
was taken very ill. The pubic prosecutor said,
however, that he was expected to attend the next
day. The extraordinary defence set up is that
Maurice Roux's story is a pure invention, that he
inflicted injuries upon himself, put the rope round
his own neck, and tied his own hands behind him,
upon the calculation that by accusing his master,
who has the rerutation of being a violent man, and
is said to have struck his servants before, he should
get a large sum of money out of him. This theory
is supported by Dr. Tardieu, the most eminent pro-
fessor of medical jurisprudence in Paris, and by
Dr. Jacquet, a leading surgeon of Montpellier.
Nevertheless, the public prosecutor made a crushing
speech against the prisoner, and pressed urgently
for a conviction. Tne improbabilities on either side
are very great, and the result of the trial is awaited
with extraordinary interest.

MRS. SOMERVILLE, the eminent astronomer, is
at Genoa, on a visit. Although more than fourscore years
old, she is said to be engaged upon a work of literary im-
portance; and such is the fine tone of her constitution that
she read the smallest print and thread a needle without
spectacles.

MALTA AND ALEXANDRIA TELEGRAPH.—Mssers.
Glass, Elliott, and Co. nave received a telegram trom Alex-
andria, aated 9.30 a.m,, 19th March, informing them that
the telegraph line between Malta and Alexandria is again
open to the public for the transmission of messages. Uni-
versal satisfaction 'prevails in Egypt at the restoration of
telegraphic codamunicatton with Europe.
Tug ODIOUSNESS OF DIRECT FAXES.—As for
direct taxes, they May be wore logical, but they
',lave one drawback—the taxpayer cannot be shorn without
being :mar, of the liberties taken with his golden or
silvern fleece. An old woman might sip her tea through
life, and no more know that her little caddy helped to keep
she great state engine at work. than M. Jourdain knew
that he had always been talking prose. But ask Mrs.
Pareingt^,a for one sixpence through the agency of a
man with a big book, spectacles, and an inkhorn, and she
sill appreciate her sacrifices in Britain'■ cause. Direct
taxes are always odious. Hundreds of thousands hold the
superstitious belief, that the inventor of the window-duty
was struck blind as a punishment for his impious tamper-
ing with the light of heaven. And that the income tax is
not regarded with any particular favour, it needs but a
glance at Punch to prove.—Cliambers's Journal, New and
Improved Series.

WHO ORIGINATED THE PENNY POSTAGE ?....One
Murray first "set up" the penny rate in London for
the collection and delivery of messages and parcels. He
was an upholsterer, and commenced his private speculation
in 1681. In 1683 Murray resigned hie interest in the ven-
ture to Wm. Dockura, a merchant of Loudon; but in a
trial at the King's Bench Bar, in the reign of Charles 11.,
the right to circulate correspondence was adjudged to belong
to the Duke of York, as part of the General Post; and in
consequence it was then annexed to the Crown, and the
revenues arising therefrom were made subject to the pay-
mnent of pensfons to favourities at Court, and other "dis-
tinguished personages." Dockura was compensated for his
loss, and made general controller, but for subsequent mal-
versation of the funds he was eventually dismissed the
public service.— The grocer.
AN ODD DAY TO CHOOSE. Lord's Cricket
Ground will be opened earlier than usual this year, the
proprietor announcing Good Friday as commencing the
season, several matches having been arranged to be played
on that day. General practice will also commence.
THE WOODEN SPOON !—A list of the votes of
those members of the Government who are in the
House of Commons is produced at the Whitebait Dinner,
and he who is lowest on the list is probably regarded, by
his Cambridge friends at lea-t, as the wooden spoon. Dur-
ing the administration of Sir Robert Peel, when the Mi•
nieterial party was starting for Greenwich, one of them, in
passing through Hungerford•market, bought a child's
penny mug and a wooden, spoon. After dinner, when the
list of votes had been read out, the penny mug, on which
was painted either " James" or " For a good boy," was
presented. with all due solemnity, to Sir James Graham,
and the wooden spoon to Sir William Follett. This is pro-
bably the origin of the statement quoted by our correspon-
deat.—Notes and Queries.
ETROPOLITAN FREE HOSPITAL, DEVONSHIRE.
SQUARE, CITY.—The aggregate Lumber of patients relieved
during the week ending March 19 was—M, dical, 1,072 ;
surgical, 647; total, 1,719, of which 545 were new cases,