The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 24, 1863.

KINAHAN'S LL WHISKY v. COGNAC
BRANDY.
This celebrated Old IRISH WHISKY rivals the finest
FRENCH BRANDY,
It i+ Pure, Mild, Mellow, Delicious, and very Wholesome.
Sold in Bottles, 3s. Bd., at the Retail Houses in London ; by
the Agents in the principal towns in England ; or wholesale
at

8, GREAT WINDMILL-STREET, W.
Observe the Red Seal, Pink Label, and Cork branded
" liinahan's LL Whisky."

AN ITALIAN PROFESSOR is desirous to
meet in a FAMILY or SCHOOL to Teach ITALIAN
and FRENCH-, and have in return Boardiog, Lodging, and
Washing, for four or six months. He knows English suffi-
cientiy for that. He can give unexceptionable references.

Address L. M., 58, Upper Stamtord,treet,Waterloo-bridge.

BANK RETURNS.

The Bankers' Magazine furnishes the returns of the cir-
culation of the Private and Joint-Stock Banks in England
and Wales for the four weeks ending Oct. 17. These
returns, combined with the circulation of the Scotch and
Irish Banks for the same period, and the average circula-
tion of the Bank of England for the four weeks ending the
14th Oct. (the nearest date furnished by their returns)
will give the following results of the circulation of notes in
the United Kingdom, when compared with the previous
month :

dept. 19, , ct. 17, ;
1863. 1863. 'lncrease. Decrease
Bank of England 20,970,780 21,514,213, 673,4331
Private Banks 3,024,000 3,331,715' 307,7151
Joint-stock Banks 2,817,377 3,013,2501 195,873
I ----
Total In England. 26,8 2,157 27,889,178 1,077,021
Scotland 4,104,276 4,338,3601 234.084
Ireland 5,039„65u. 5,660,410 6:0,760
—.—
United Kingdom. 35,956,083 37,887,9481 1,931,865 j

And, as compared with the month ending the 18th Oct.,
1862, the above returns show an increase of £241,579
in the circulation of notes in England, and an increase of
£485,752 in the circulation of the United Kingdom.
On comparing the above with the fixed issues of the seve-
ral banks the following is the state of the circulation :
The English private banks aro below their fixed
issue
The English joint-stock banks are below their
fixed issue

Total below fixed issue in England.... £1,191,535
The Scotch hulks are above their fixed issue .. £1,589,089
The Irish banks are below their fixed issue .... £694,084
The average stock of bullion held by the Bank of Eng-
land in both departments during the month ending the 14th
Oct. was £15,034,343, being a decrease of £368,321 as
compared with the previous month, and a decrease of
£1,689,231 when compared with the same period last year.
The following are the amounts of specie held by the Scotch
and Irish banks during the month ending the 17th Oct. :
Gold and silver held by the Scotch banks £2,334,771
Gold and silver held by the Irish banks 1,923,197

£1,957,968
Being an increase of £47,075 as compared with the
previous return, and a decrease of £23,628 when compared
with the corresponding period of last year.

Sheerness harbour to Chatham dockard by the Locust and
Sheerness steamtug, to be fitted and got ready by the mid-
dle of March next for service as a flagship. It is rumoured
that her station will be the coast of Brazil, and that she will
carry the flag of Rear-Mmiral the Hon. Charles G. J. B.
Elliot, C.B.

Mercury,
The
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ge ah de d
t a
detail, chiefly from the Washington Light Infantry,
was stationed in the eastern barracks of Sumter,
there to be held in readiness incase an assault should
be made. Although the fort was subjected to the
usual nightly bombardment, which, though light
compared with the bombardment of the day, has
hitherto been of a sufficiently heavy character, no
casualties occurred until a quarter past 4 on Satur-
day morning. At that hour a Parrott shell from
Morris Island struck the iron girder which sup•
ported the ceiling of the portion of the barracks
to which we have alluded, causing it to fall
in and crush thirteen men under its ruins. On
Saturday morning the enemy opened from all
his land batteries, and Parrott and mortar shells
were rained through the day upon the silent
work. Occasionally, indeed, the middle battery,
by which is meant the battery between Gregg
and Wagner, would throw a shell in the direction
of Johnson or at Sullivan Island, but for the
most part the fire was concentrated upon Sumter.
At the hour 12, two of the three monitors which
have been playing so conspicuous a part in the pre-
sent bombardment came up and proceeded to batter
the sea face from their usual prudent distance. The
shots of the island batteries were chiefly aimed at
the south-west angle. The guns in action on Sa-
turday at Morris Island were two light and two
heavy rifled guns at Gregg, three heavy rifled guns
and four 10-inch mortars at the middle battery, and
four rifled guns at Wagner. In the course of the
day, 443 rifled shots were fired at the fort, of which
51 missed. From the mortars 373 were fired, 120 of
which did not strike. The monitors fired 86 times,
and never failed once to hit their mark. The flag-
staff wafftwice shot away, and was replaced by
Sergt. Graham, Corporal Hill, and Private Swain,
of company F, 12th Georgia Battalion. At length
the staff was so cut up that it became necessary to
raise the battle flag of the battalion just named. The
mortar shells thrown by the enemy are so contrived
as to explode a few seconds after impact. Of these
33 were fired at the fort on Saturday night, 12 of
which passed over. Oa the same night 70 rifled
shells were also fired, 10 of which missed. There
were several casualties on Saturday at the fort. The
story of Sunday is but a repetition of that of Satur-
day. The enemy's land batteries were served with
the same fury, and the monitors assaulted the fort
with the same vigour which characterised their fire
on the preceding day. About 2 o'clock the firing
was very rapid, averaging four shots a minute. The
bombardment was still going on at a late hour of
the night, bat no resort had reached us at the hour
of going to press of the results of Sunday's opera-
tions. Our own batteries have been by no means
inactive during the last two days, but we have
learnt nothing of the effect of their fire."