The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-21 00:00:00

MONEY MARKET and CITY NE Vl'

(FRIDAY EVENING.)
TIMES.—Until within a day or two past, scarcely
any applications have been made to the Bank for loans
under the last notice for temporary accommodation,
but they are now coming in pretty extensively, and some
new pressure for money exists, though from what cause
does not appear, especially as the demand has been so
very limited for nearly three weeks. At present it pre-
vails chiefly at the Stock Exchange, the discount market
being comparatively easy.

The transactions in foreign exchanges have not been
large to-day. The supply of bills drawn in London, as
well as those from the country, which usually form an
important pa; t of the exchange business, was not consi-
derable, and on the other hand the demand was not
generally so great as has been the case for some time,
although to this Amsterdam must be considered an ex-
ception. Paris was a shade higher, and Hamburg
the same as last post.

• An explanation, which is so confused as to be evi-
dently " official," has been offered of the appearance
of the signature of'" Montek,Ple" to a commercial Ex-
chequer bill, dated four months prior to the creation of
that title. We are told that " the Public Works Act,
under which Exchequer bills are issued as loans, direct
that the Exchequer Loan Commissioners should give
a certificate, on which the Exchequer bills should be
issued ; they further enact that the Exchequer bills so
issued shall bear the date which the said certificate
shall appoint and direct. * The Auditor of the Ex-
chequer, and consequently the Controller, is bound to
sign and issue the Exchequer bills in conformity with
those directions, whatever may be the datedirected by the
certificate." After arguing en the propriety of this course,
tha writer goes on to conjecture " that in this case the
long delay has arisen from the circumstance that the bill
was issued under the West India Relief Act, in which
cases the mortgage security is signed in the West In-
dies ;" " adding that the certificate of the Commission-
ers directs, however, that the Exchequer Bills should
bear the date of the mortgage security, from which date
the borrower pass interest." He observes after-
wards, "that some difficulty having at first arisen
from the wording of the West India Relief
Act, the Exchequer Bills Commissioners, under the
powers given them, gave the proper directions for placing
those bills in the same condition as other bills of a si-
milar class." To prove that the case is not altogether
a new one, we are told that this practice has-existed ever
since 1817, and " that the same circumstance happened
in the case of Lord Auckland, who signed bills as Lord
Monteagle has done, bearing a date before he was Con-
troller of the Exchequer, or before the office existed."
All this we give as we find it, for the edification of
the Exchequer bill brokers, whose comments upon
the mysterious affair referred to were given, and not
our own, and who possibly may be enlighted by
it. That the practice of issuing ante-dated Exche-
quer bills is a common one we do not believe, and
are confirmed in it by the necessity the interpreter is
under of going back to the time of Lord Auckland
for an instance. That the practice is one liable to
great abuse cannot be doubted, and as the interest on
the loan, whatever it may be, is accruing along with
the interest of the Exchequer-bill, the fairer course
would be to date both from the actual issue, and so
form a general interest account between the parties,
The great disadvantage at which the borrowers of Go-
vernment are placed by these transactions appears
from the large sacrifice in discount submated to in
this instance. If it is professed to lend 100/., a man
ought not to receive for it a piece of paper worth only
981. 13s.

No one imagined, when the strange story referred to
got afloat in the city, but that there was some explana-
tion of it ; it is sufficient that the most experienced Ex-
chequer bill brokers were unable to account for it. The
jokes indulged in upon the occasion are to be set down
in part to their great respect for the " character" of
the gentleman implicated.

HERALD.—The transactions in the Continenta
Exchanges have by no means been extensive this after-
noon ; the quotations may, however, be called quite as
firm as they were on the last post day, and it the British
Queen had arrived it is supposed that there would have
been considerable transactions in bills upon France.
A renewed hankering for wild speculation in Railway
Shares appears at present to be making some progress,
and whether the origin is in Liverpool or Manchester it
matters not ; but it bodes no good for the weak people
who seem determined to hazard everything upon these
concerns without any apparent reason. Great Western
New Shares are 4 dis. ; Brighton are 141 dis., and
Blackwall 24 dis. ; Croydon Trunk are 9/. 13s. 6d. dis. ;
Manchester and Leeds 8 a prem. ; and York and
North Midland 9i a 10 prem. National Provincial
Bank of England Snares are 3 dis.

SUN.—Merchants were looking anxiously again to-
day for the arrival of the British Queen steamer, but
up to this hour we have no tidings of her.

The Funds closed heavily, owing to some large sales
of Stock, Consols for the opening realizing 92, and
lastly 921 ; Exchequer Bills were marked 2s. to 55.,
and India Bonds 7s. to 9s. discount.

Spanish Bonds were lower this afternoon, viz., 231,
but they rank& and dosed at 238 ; Belgian Bonds were
steady at 10 li.-and Mexican tell to 278 ; Colombian
were unaltered.

The Railway Shares were in rather brisk request to-
day, and at steady prices. The New Great Western
brought 4 discount ; the Brighton 14+ discount ; the
Manchester and Leeds 8 premium, and the York and
North Midland 10 premium.
The Colonial Markets closed firmly this afternoon,
and will remain shut all next week, in consequence of
the Christmas holidays.
The Foreign Exchanges were without any alteration
of importance. On Paris the rate was 25.571 to 624 ;
on Hamburgh, 13.9? i, and on Amsterdam, 13.3.

SINGULAR RETRIBUTION.-Our readers will
recollect the afflicting murder of the missionaries, Ly-
man and Munson, among the Battas, a year or two
since. By an extract from the annual report of the
American Board, read at their last meeting in Portland,
we learn the following fact. A missionary of the Board re-
cently made a tour in that country, and ascertained that
these devoted men would not have been killed
had their object been known. The tribe that destroyed
them was at war with another tribe, and being out upon
a warlike expedition, they discovered these two strangers.
In the excitement of their feelings, they immediately
killed them. When the news of this affair reached the
neighbouring villages and tribes, and they ascertained
from various sources that the missionaries were good men,
and came to do them good, they were filled with indigna-
tion. Assembling their forces, they marched against the
village, burned the houses, destroyed the gardens, killed
some of the inhabitants, and dispersed the rest. The
place was called Sacca, and is now no more inhabited.
A jungle is growing thickly over its ruins. How soon
did their wicked deed recoil, in destruction, upon their
own heads ! It is, indeed, a singular circumstance, that
heathen tribes should destroy one of their own villages,
in revenge for the murder of Christian Missionaries. A
mission will, probably, be established among them.—
Yion's Advocate ( American paper.)
I . _

HIGHWAY itoBBERY.-----Tbursday night, be-
tween eleven and twelve, as Mr. Bowden, a gentleman
residing at Edmonton, Middlesex, was returning home
from town, on horseback, he was attacked by two men
when within half a mile of his residence. Mr. Bowden
struggled with them for some time, but they soon over-
powered him, and forcibly took from him his pocket-book,
containing a 101. Bank of Eogland note, with which they
made good their escape. From the darkness of the night
Mr. Bowden is unable to give any further description
of the robbers than that one was a tall and the other a
short man.

GREAT MORTALITY AMONGST CHILDREN.
—lt gives us pain to state that the scarlet fever conti-
nues very prevalent in this town, and that many chil-
dren have fallen victims to its ravages. We are afraid
to state the number which has been reported to us, as
having died of this disease within a short period ; but
the case of one family, the particulars of which we have
on good authority, is so remarkable and so distressing
that we are induced to record it here. The family we
allude to is that of John Ilolden, who lives in Wrang-
ling, King-street. It consists, or rather did consist, of
himself and wife, and seven children. About three
weeks ago some of the children were taken ill, and one
of them died and was buried in St. Peter's Church-yard
on Sunday week. During the time the mourning rela-
tives of the little sufferer were engaged in consigning its
body to its kindred earth, another of the children died,
and the tidings of death met the parents at the threshold
of their house on their return from the melancholy duty
which they had been fulfilling. Thus two of their family
wree cut off from the world ; but the hand of the destroyer
was not yet stayed, for a third victim was sacrificed
on the following day, Monday. These two werein-
terred together last Wednesday ; and on Thursday a fur-
ther trouble was inflicted on this poor man, for on that
day a fourth child died, and our informant tells us that
a fifth is at this time in a very precarious condition.—
Blackburn Standard.
Yesterday morning, about half-past eleven
o'clock, as an elderly woman, named Anson, residing at
King David's-lane, Itatcliff-highway, was crossing the
road near the Law Institution, Chancery-lane, she was
knocked down by a horse and much injured about the
head. She was picked up and conveyed to Mr. Davis's
surgeon, in Chancery-lane. The fellow (quite drunk),
then set the horse galloping off as hard as he could ; he
was, however, stopped by
.one of the City police, and
after much resistance taken into custody. He
appeared'
to have been galloping very much, as the horse was in a
distressed state.
O'CONNELL IESTINIONIAL.—From all ac-
counts we can collect, we believe the National Tribute
will be even more effective than usual this year ; and
we record this conviction with the more pleasure, be.
cause we see by the organs of the enemy how high a
value they would set upon its failure, and how they pant
for the proofs it would furnish them, which they would
use eagerly—the manifestation that it would afford of
the decline of the influence of the leader, and of the
fp:rit of the Irish people.—Piltit.