The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-03 00:00:00

The Price of Gold.

The quotation of gold at Paris is about 4 per mile pm., and
the short exchange on London is 25.30 per £1 sterling. On
comparing these rates with the English Mint price of £3
17s. lOid. per ounce for standard gold, it appe,.. s that gold is
about 1-10th per cent. dearer in London than in Paris.
1;y advices fromilamburg the price of gold is 4231 per mark
and the short exchange on London is 13.4 per ~€,l sterling.
standard gold at the English Mint price is, therefore, about
2-10ths dearer in London than in Hamburg
The course of exchange at New York on London for bills at
60 days' sight is 172 per cent., and the premium on gold is
561 per cent. At these rates there is a small profit on the
importation of gold f'rom the United States.

The clipper ship John Lidgett, 770 tons register
(owned by Messrs. John Lidgett and Sons, of Lon-
don), Commander Gamble, arrived at Spithead yes
terday morning from the Cape of Good Hope with
the following military and naval (invalids and time-
expired men) officers and men on board from Hong
Kong, the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena—
There embarked at Hong Kong—Royal Artillery,
Capt. H. Porter, (invalid) ; Assist. •Surg. Tate (in-
valid); and seven men. Royal Engineers, two men ;
44th Regiment, one man ; 67th Regiment, Lieut.
Dawson (on duty) and one man; 99th Regiment,
Brevet Major Kempson and 50 men ; Commissariat
Staff, eight men ; Army Hospital Corps, six men ;
Assist.-Surg. M'Dowell (in medical charge of
troops), wife and child, one naval assist.-surga, one
midshipman, and 51 naval invalids and time-expired
men. Three military invalids were embarked at
the Cape of Good Hope and four at St. Helena.
Five naval and eight military invalids died during
the passage home. The naval invalids and time-
expired men were transferred yesterday from
the John Lidgett to her Majesty's ship
Victory and the Royal Naval Hospital at Haslar.
The military will disembark to-day, the invalids
being forwarded to the Royal Military Hospital at
Netley, and the time-expired men sent on to the
depots of their respective regiments. The regiments
sailed from Hongkong on Sept. 16, 1863, and was
23 days out to Batavia, where she lay at anchor
five days. From Batavia to the Cape of Good Hope
she made the somewhat long passage of 44 days,
owing to the unusual circumstance of having to
beat to windward through the trade winds. At
the Cape she lay at anchor 16 days. She made the
passage thence to St. Helena in ten days, where she
anchored for two days, and thence she completed
her voyage to Spithead in 35 days—making 45
days under canvas from the Cape. The weather was
very fine throughout the whole voyage. The John
Lidgett is a novelty in naval architecture, she be-
ing the first vessel built on the newly introduced
plan of an iron framing with wooden outer plank-
ing—an iron ship with a wooden skin, She is of
large capacity and stowage, and her officers report
her to be an exceedingly fast ship under canvas,
having surpassed in speed every vessel she has
fallen in with on the outward and homeward voy-
age. On her outward voyage she had as cargo 1,100
tons of railway iron, and southward of the Cape met
with a very severe cyclone gale, in which the cargo
shifted and the ship went over on her beam ends, in
which position she lay 48 boars, with her starboard
rail under water. The poop cabins were destroyed
and everything movable on the deck was swept
away, yet such was the enormous strength of the
ship that she took in no water through a leak, nor
was there the slightest strain in any part of the hull
afterwards discovered. Had she been an ordinarily
framed wooden ship she would likely have foun-
dered. The ship's fittings throughout combine all
the most recent improvements. The anchor is
weighed and the topsails are hoisted, and all other
heavy work done by steam, for which a small engine
is provided. The same engine furnishes an ample
supply of distilled water. One hundred pounds
weight of fresh bread was baked on board and
served out to the troops per day throughout the
voyage. The accommodation on board for the
troops and the general arrangements and ventila-
tion of the troop deck appear to have been excel-
lent. After disembarking the troops to-day the
John Lidgett will sail from Spithead for the Thames'
having a quantity of Government stores on board,
and a part tea cargo from Hongkong and wool from
the Cape for London.

THE OLD COPPER COIN will ere long, it is re-
ported, be declared an illegal tender, and that the Master
of the Mint is particularly desirous to afford ample facilities
for its return to the Mint previous to the issue of an official
proclamation to the above effect,

SHAKSPERIAN REVIVAL.—Great preparations
are making at Drury-lane for the revival of Shaks-
pere's "First Part of Henry the Fourth," which is in-
tended to succeed the holiday entertainment. Mr. Phelps
will sustain the part of Falstaff—and Mr. Walter Mont-
gomery has, we hear, becn engaged to play the part of
Hotspur. The scenery, costumes, and stage accessories
are to be on a grand scale.

EARL RUSSELL, K.G., who it will be remem-
bered is the new Lord Rector of Aberdeen, is expected to
visit that northern city, for installation, in the end of
March; an arrangement, however, which must be con-
tingent on the state of public affairs.

PRUSSIAN COMMENTS UPON ENGLAND.—The
Paris journals quote, in illustration of the manner in which
England is viewed at this moment throughout Germany,
an article in the German Gazette, the official organ of the
Berlin Cabinet, where it is said :—" No one can suppose
that the two great German powers can see in the attitude of
the English Cabinet a motive for departing even a hair's
breadth from the just demands which they have made from
Danish arrogance. The moment is perhaps nearer than
England thinks in which she will reap the fruits of the
policy which has within the last 35 years so altered her posi-
tion towards the rest of Europe. There ought to be no
delusion on this head; the England whose traditions go
back to the first 20 years of this century no longer exists.
Another England has replaced the old, and if her traditions
have been sufficiently powerful to cause public opinion to
forgive the present for the sake of the past, that possibility
does not exist now. As to us, we do not deceive ourselves
about it—we no longer seek in this new England assistance
for Germany.
IRONSTONE IN LINCOLNSIIIRE.—Messrs. Dawes,
of the Milton Ironworks, near Barnsley, have taken an
extensive track of land on the Lincolnshire side of the river
Trent, opposite Keadby, and opened extensive blast furnaces
there. They are making about 500 tons of iron per week.
The immense mineral wealth of this locality, which was
only discovered about two years ago, will give employment
to large numbers of men, and when railway communication
is opened, as it shortly will be, with the Yorkshire side of
the river, the new trade will, it is expected, still further be
developed.
The Petit Journal of Paris states that Mr. Web-
ster of the Adelphi, and his " favourite interpreters
of Shakspere," have taken twelve places in the steamer
from London to Boulogne, and two special carriages—deux
wagons speciaux—in the train to Paris, and aro about to
perform there. The first performance will be the " Maid of
Lyons," and then " Othello," " Lear," " As You Like It,"
and "Hamlet." Fecht or has been offered thirty napoleons
a night to join the expedition. The critic winds up by say •
ing, " Let Mr. Webster and his twelve artistes come, and
Shakspere and Lord Byron and Sheridan Knowles, and
Garrick, and James, and all the British host I We shall
be in our stall, ready to welcome this demonstration of Eng-
lish genius, and to call out the usual expression of success,
' All right I' "—an expression of success which will rather
astonish the artists above-mentioned.