The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-20 00:00:00

36,321,114

And, as compared with the month ending the 11th of Jan.,
1862, the above returns show a decrease of £329,552
in the circulation of notes in England, and a decrease of
£1,038,912 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 are below their fixed
issue ............... . ......... £1,183,685
The English joint-stock . banks ..
are "below their
fixed issue ................
............... £507,432

Total below fixed issue in England•... £1,691,117
The Scotch banks are above their fixed issue • . £1,468,108
The Irish banks are below their fixed issue .... £816,565
The average stock of bullion held by the Bank of Eng-
land in both departments during the month ending the 7th
of Jan. was £14,873,607, being a decrease of £131,753 as
compared with the previous month, and a decrease of
£970,077 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 10th Jan.:--
Gold and silver held by the Scotch banks £2,428,672
Gold and silver held by the Irish banks 2,164,106

£4,682,778
Being a decrease of £82,230 as compared with the
previous return, and a decrease of £516,795 when compared
with the corresponding period of last year.
The return from the Bank of England for the week end-
ing the 18th of February gives the following results when
compared with the previous week :
Rest £3,383,678—Increase.... £15,239
Public deposits 5—Increase.... 460,467
13,769,2
Other deposits .. 76—lncrease.... 172,920

... ,
On the other side of the account :
Government securities £11,043,079 —N„hange.
Other securities
Notes unemployed
The amount of notes in circulation is £19,310,720, being
a decrease of £520,330 ; and the stock of bullion in both
departments is £14,589,222, showing an increase of £518,571
when compared with the preceding return.

BETHLEHEM HOSPITAL.—A meet•ig
of the
Governors of Bethlehem Hospital was held this
morning at Radley's Hotel, New Bridge-street, Black-
friars, and a gentleman from our office accordingly attended
to report the proceedings, but was informed, on application
for admission to the meeting, that the president of the
hospital, Alderman Copeland, had issued an order for the
excitation of reporters for the public press. We are at a
loss to conceive the reason for such an order, without there
is something which the governors of this extensive charity
wish to conceal from the public.

SHAVING THE LADIES.--We have all heard of an
operation called "shaving the ladies," yet we doubt
if any lady is aware of the very clean shave she is constantly
undergoing. If she is accustomed to frequent " cutting
shops," where the stock is periodically thrown into a state
of convulsions in its efforts to sell itself off, of course she
expects to be done : but possibly she does not know thatfor
years the trade in " small wares," as it is termed, has been
losing its conscience in the most remarkable manner. There
is in short a regular conspiracy to cheat between the manu-
facturers and the great wholesale dealers. If a lady, for
instance, buys a reel of cotton marked a hundred yards, she
imagines, possibly, that she gets that quantity. Miserable
delusion ! There are not mare than seventy. All goods,
again, that are sold in the piece, run short : " short stiok,,,
in fact, is a slang term for insufficient lengths. Some of
the wholesale middlemen will send up labels to the menu-
false lengths, and they are put on, as a
facturer indicating
matter of course, by many spinners. The Britisher is thus
cheated out of 30 Per cent• of his goodN,_ono a Frio.