The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-25 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1839.

MONEY AND CITY NEWS

(FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF- THIS DAY.)
TIMES.—It appears by this morning's letters that the late proceed-
ings of the Manchester and Liverpool District Bank occupy very general
attention in that part of the country. That the Directors, after their
meeting of the 16th inst., which has been already adverted to, and which
it seems was what is called a dividend meeting, should declare a dividend
or profit of 2} per cent., at the same time that they announced a loss by
bad debts of 375,0001, such loss exceeding by 145,0001., the amount of
the reserved fund of the bank, is one of those unaccountable measures
which we must assume to be peculiar to joint-stock banking; it is one,
at least, which in ordinary cases could only be treated with ridicule and
contempt. There should have been, at all events, a suspension of the di-
vidend until an inquiry had been made into the recent management of
the bank, and the origin of such extraordinary losses, which the Direc-
tors themselves should have invited. By avoiding this course they
only create the suspicion that the losses are even greater
than they declare them to be ; and a dividend paid out of capital, as
this must be, can never prevent the shares from falling to a discount,
or sustain the credit of the Bank itself. The advances on which the
above estimate of loss is founded amounted in the whole to 650,0001.,
and were made to two or three houses which have recently stopped pay-
ment, on securities which are presumed to be inadequate as well as
inconvertible, by the very amount of loss which has been adopted by
the directors, which is merely a calculation, and may be verified or not
by the event. A belief prevailed, as may be collected from the Man-
chester letters, that the Bank in question cannot legally proceed
against these parties, so as to make them bankrupt, on account of their
being shareholders ; but the short Act of the last Session removes
that difficulty, or gives, at any rate, the sante power of proceeding
against a shareholder as against any other creditor,
A remarkeble rise took place to-day in Spanish securities. The Ac-
tive stock, with the May coupons, advanced to 204- to 3, at which
quotations it closed. Various rumours were afloat to account fur this
sudden rise of 2 per cent., but the real cause must probably is the im-
pending change in the French Ministry, which it is supposed will bring
into office men who are believed to be favourable to a direct and armed
intervention in the affairs of Spain. This must be a very loose reliance,
fur generally nothing can be more fallacious than to judge of the future
conduct of public men by language loosely uttered when out of office,
and not having accession to the official information by which, when in
office, their course must be shaped. However disposed a new French
Ministry may be to interfere directly and by force in the adjustment of
Spanish affairs, there are other Powers not equally inclined to the
same views, and without whose concurrence it is little likely that,
strider any circumstances, France would venture on any decisive steps.
In the present inactive state of the money-market, however, any specu-
lation by which business may be created and fluctuations in prices pro-
duced, finds favour with the jobbers; and although the sellers of Spa-
nish were numerous, which shows the different view taken of the
matter in other quarters, yet the speculators for the advance had the
best of it.

An exposition of the affairs of the National Bank cf Austria has re.
cently been made public, from which it appears that the general move-
ment of its business for the year 1638 had amounted to the sum of
1,736,000.000 florins. The gross profits of the bank amounted to
4,536,000 florins, and the net available amount was 3,953,000 florins.
The discounts had increased so largely that a determination was come to
to limit them for the future. Such a resolution contrasts advantageously
with the different system too generally acted on elsewhere, in spite of
so many fatal warnings, of extending operations out of all measure upon
a show of an apparently large balance sheet of profit, without previous
careful examination as to the solidity of the transactions on which they
are based, or a cautious calculation cf the possibility of a reaction
where money and commercial speculations have been pushed beyond
due bounds.

From a circular addressed by the Board of Trade to the different
Chambers of Commerce in, France, it seems that by the treaty between
France and Bolivia, concluded in 1834, silks of every kind, the manu-
facture of France, are not to be valued for duty at the Bolivian custom-
liciu,es, at more than half the price of similar silk goods coming from
China. Considering that in the common course of trade extensive ship-
ments of silks are often made on British account from Canton on ven-
ture, or to order fur different markets in the Pacific or elsewhere, such
a stipulation can hardly be other than disadvantageous for those con.
cerned in the China trade, chiefly carried on through the mercantile
agency of this country. It is quite clear that with the heavy impost of
double duties the silks of China, superior and more durable of quality
as they may be, can never compete successfully with the cheaper fabrics
of France.

CHRONICLE.— A better feeling has been shown throughout the
day in the English Stock Market, and there is every appearance of a
further improvement. Consols for money closed at 921 to .1„ and 923t0 4 for the Account. Exchequer Bills are 65 to 67 premium; India
Stock, 254 f to 2551.; and Bank Stock, 2021./2 to 203.
There has been a great deal done in the Spanish Market, and a
marked TiS2 has occurred in the price of the Active Stock, the open-
ing quotations being 18f to 1, and the closing 20a to 44. a difference
of 1 per cent. Some large purchases were made on account of orders
from Paris and Madrid, under an impression, which seems very general,
that arrangements for a Man on an extensive scale, are under considera-
tion. The purchases were both for money and the account. Portu-
guese Five per Cents. have rallied to 36 to ; and 221 to 23 for Three
per Cents. ; Belgian Stock has fallen about ,3„ per cent, being last
marked at 981 to 99. Dutch Five per Cents, left off at 102 A to %;
and the Two-and-a-Half per Cents. at 541 to 55 18, being, in both cases,
a depression since yesterday. Colombian closed at 281 to 29 ; Mexican,
241 to a ; Chilian, 27 to 29 ; and Peruvian 17 to 181.
Shares are still heavy, with very little business going on. Birming-
ham (old) left off at 76 to 75 premium ; ditto new; 23 to 24 prem.;
Southampton, 42 to 43 per share; Great Western, 10 to 11 prem. ;
Brighton, 31, to 3a Blackwall, 1 !,4 tc. 1 dis. ; Leeds and Man-
chester, 19 to 21 prem.; Gosport Junction, 1 to* prem. ; and North
Midland, par to a 4 prem.

Chevalier de Figanniere, who nas been lately appointed Minister to
Rio de Janeiro, has arrived in London, we understand, from Lisbon,
having been sent expressly to confer with Mr. I. L. Goldsmid on the
subject of the settlement of the debt due by Brazil to Portugal, the ba-
lance of which, it will be remembered, is to be applied to the redemption
of the Portuguese loan of 1 536. This is considered as a strong evidence
of the determination of the Government to do justice to the foreign
creditors.

Much inconvenience has been felt by all parties connected by trade
or otherwise with our possessions in the Mediterranean from the system
in use in the various lonian Islands of making all payments in specie,
as it has necessarily had the effect of causing great scarcity of money,
and making the rate of interest on loans most usuriously high. To ob-
viate this great drawback to the expansion of trade and commerce, and
with a view of rendering assistance to the natives on equitable terms,
it is proposed to accede to the terms of the Government, and to form
a bank, tinder the denomination of " The lonian State Bank," with a
capital of 100,0001. in 4,000 shares of 51. each. It is brought forward
by many influential persons connected with Corfu, Zante, Cephalonia,
&c., and Sir Patrick Itoss, who was governor of Corfu, where the head
establishment is to be situated, is amongst the directors ; as is also Mr.
Charles Hancock, of the house of Balfe and Co., of Corfu. The Lo.
cal Legislature, in 1837, passed a law, authorising the formation of a
bank, " with a view of encouraging," as the Act declared, " the
spirit of industry and enterprise in the States by means of the circulation
of capital, and of facilitating and extending commercial operations, re-
straining usury, improving and increasing the value of landed property,"
Sic. The bank is to be one of deposit and issue. The chief establish.
ment is to be at Corfu, with branches at Zante, Cephalonia, and else-
where, as circumstances may render expedient.
The lonian Islands are certainly most advantageously situated in the
Mediterranean for spreading the operations ofthis bank over an extensive
field. The prospectus remarks, and we believe justly, that "of the suc-
cess of the proposed undertaking no reasonable doubt can be entertained.
A large trade exists between the lonian Islands and this country The
import ofcurrants from Zante and Cephalonia of itself constitutes an im.
portant branch of commerce. There is also a considerable and increasing
importation into the islands of British manufactured goods, which thence
find their way into the neighbouring continent. The trade in this re-
spect, and generally, may be greatly extended by the introduction of a
circulating capital.

HERALD.—The publication of the ordonnance of the King of the
French, prohibiting the exportation of corn from any of the western
ports of France, has created some sensation here, It proves that if
this country was, by law, to be rendered dept ndent upon foreign
States for a supply of corn, the slightest adversity of circumstances,
either as regards crops generally, or any political movements on the
Continent, must place us entirely at the mercy of the continental
corn-growers. This circumstance will, we trust, open the eyes of the
mores reasonable advocates for the abolition of the Corn-laws, since
it is quite demonstrable that the edicts of a few of the continental
powers would, in practice, quickly upset all the false theories of the
grindin millowners, the advocates of the present Poor-laws, arid all
the shallow political economists who follow in the wake of Joseph
Hume and his satellites.
One of the most important features in the market for public securi-
ties, we allude particularly to the Foreign Market, which has occupied
the attention of the thinking portion of the community here, is the fact
that lately there has been a very extraordinary, and at the same time, a
most undue degree of speculation carried on in the Spanish securities.
From the strictest inquiry we cannot ascertain that there has been the
slightest solid excuse tbr this renewed gambling in the bonds of bank-
rupt Spain. The knowing ones, that is, the parties who are working
the present rig in Spanish, would fain gull thepublic with theimpression
that they are in possession of some mighty Spanish state secret that will
shortly convert these securities,
which,
at present, are worth little more
than the hazard of a die, into a sort of Eldorado, a Golconda for all the '
gulls who will take the dirty paper at 20i per Cent. Others pin their
faith upon these securities, under the impression that the change of the
French Administration will bring the Thiers party, with Marshal Soult
at their head, into power; that a decided intervention will follow, which
will, in the end, restore the Spanish finances to a state sufficiently
healthy, that the confidence of the leading capitalists of Europe will
again be renewed, and that new loans will once more become the
mania of the day. It is fully possible that M. Thiers, if he takes office,
may succeed Imattracting dupes to his future promises for Spanish na-
tional integrity, but it is pretty evident that those who may swallow the
bait will have to rue their gullibility.

OLD GLORY.

Grisley, Wolverhampton, .lanuary 16, 1839. —To Sir
Francis Burdett, Bart., M. P., 6.c., I have the
honour to forward an address, signed on behalf of the work.
ing men of Wolverhampton by upwards of one hundred of
their number. It is respectfully requested that you will ad-
dress your reply to me; as in the event of your acceding to the
wishes of the requisitionists, I have undertaken the necessary
arrangements of providing a suitable place for the meeting,
&e.—l have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient ser-
vant, GEORGE W YNN.

To Sir Francis Burdett, Bart., M.P., 6 c.,
" WOLVERHAMPTON, JAN. 16, 1839.—Sir,—We, the un-
dersigned operative mechanics of Wolverhampton, for our-
selves, and on behalf of our fellow workmen, take the liberty
respectfully to address you, in consequence of being informed,
by advertisement in one of our borough newspapers, that
you are about to visit this place. As the occasion of your
intended visit, coupled with similar visits to other towns,
proclaims you actuated by a desire to promulgate among
the working classes of England the political senti-
ments entertained by yourself, we flatter ourselves that
this address having an object in unison with such views,
will meet your approbation. Recollecting the past services
courageously rendered by Sir Francis Burdett to the cause of
the people's liberties—participating, from bitter experience, in
Sir Francis's recent denunciation of the Whigs as disappointers
of the country, and knowing that Sir Francis was unceasingly
opposed to those Tory administrations under the effects of
whose misrule England is still groaning. the working men of
Wolverhampton respectfully desire to listen to propositions
from Sir Francis Burdett. Old associations, former sense of
gratitude, and a variety of circumstances, render them anxious
to have an opportunity of removing, if possible, those impres-
sions which the recent accusations of the press have caused
to disturb that high opinion of Sir Francis which thirty years'
experience of his political career had created. Our object
being nothing but the people's good—our care being any-
thing but for the quarter front which that good may proceed,
renders us indifferent to the mere title of the party from which
we may expect the desired benefit. We would follow that
mall, be he called Whig, Tory, or by any other name, who '
propounds the best remedies for the evils uuder which we suffer,
and evinces the most sincere desire and greatest ability for
their accomplishment. With these feelings it is that we
respectfully invite you to meet us and our working brethren,
on the opportunity afforded by your expected visit, and, by
communicating your sentiments, to give us an opportunity
of judging whether the measures which you recommend are
beet calculated to promote our interests, and consequently
render it our duty to endeavour to place and support you in
a situation for carrying them into effect. It may occur to
you, in objection to this invitation, that the opportunity we
seek would be afforded by our attendance at the particular
meeting for which you are coming hither; to prevent such an
impression, we beg to assure you that, independent of the ex-
pense which being present at the purposed dinner would
entail, and of the impossibility of accommodating all of us on
that occasion, we cannot consent to identify ourselves with an
exclusive party, as would be the case in uniting with the
Operative Conservative Association.' As we would (in the
event of a favourable reply to this communication) consult
your convenience alone in appointing the-precise day and hour
of meeting, perhaps you will have the further kindness to
inform us whether Tuesday, the 29th inst. (being the day fol-
lowing the dinner) will suit you, or to name some previous or
later day. We shall have great pleasure in exerting ourselves
to make all possible arrangements for your personal accom-
modation on the occasion. Waiting the favour of an early
reply, we have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient
servants."

[Here follow the signatures.l
We are enabled, by the kindness of Mr. Wynn, to present
to our readers a copy of Old Glory's reply to the address. It
is copied exactly from his autograph letter, with all its beauties
of punctuation, orthography, and phraseology, that the public
may see the condition of mental imbecility into which he has
fallen. After reading it who can help " pitying the sorrows
of the poor old man." Bartlett was, in the vigour of his
days, distinguished for his clear and expressive style of com-
position, and his strict accuracy; but now, alas! how wretched
and silly has he become : _

" Foremark, January 21st, 1539.
" Sir,--As I left London the morning your letter arrived,
and have been travelling and visiting in my way here, I could
not answer your letter sooner. I beg you will assure the
operatives of Wolverhampton, in whose name you write, that
I am very sensible of the obliging manner in which they con-
vey to me their sentiments, together with an invitation to din-
ner on the 29th. But for one consideration I should accept it
with pleasure. The invitation runs thus, that they may have
an opportunity of hearing from me, to whom they are, in
spite of newspaper abuse, much inclined to listen, my pro-
positions for improving the condition of the opcn&ves.'
Now, as I have no such proposition to make I do net feel
justified in putting them to great trouble and expense to no
purpose, and which could only produce dissatisfaction and dis-
appointment.

This subject is indeed one of the deepest interest, and
the highest importance, like that concerning the beginning,
and ending, of the world, it has puzzled philosophers of all
ages, all others sink into insignificance in comparison with it.
It ought to engross the chieiattention, to be the cheif object,
and end, as it is the paramount duty of all government. It is
one upon which I have bestowed all the pain, labour, and re-
flection, of which I am capable. The result witl, I fear,
prove as little satisfactory to those I am addressing as to my-
self, viz., that there are only two means of producing any
amelioration in the condition of working people, viz., either
diminishing the number of those who live by labour or aug-
menting the funds which pay the wages of labour, one or other
of these effects must be produced before any material advan-
tage imparted to the working people of the country, and their
class raised to that point in the social scale which all men
must equally and devoutly desire; and whoever shall point
out the means, and practicability, of attaining this end, this
long despaired of, I will not say neglected, end, will well de-
serve a statue of gold. Of this however lam quite certain,
that no possible good to the working men can be derived from
combinations against capitalists, their employers, from vio-
lence, and disturbance, which, from whatever cause it spring,
is their certain Lain, whether political or otherwise, justifiable
or unjustifiable, to them it works never-failing woe, mischief,
and suffering, certain, immediate, and frequently irreparable,
whether instigated by shallow pretenders, crackhrain'd enthu-
siasts, paid patriots, false prophets, or lying impostors.—l re-
main, Sir, your most obedient humble servant,

" F. George Wynn, Esq., Graisley, Wolverhampton." EURDETT.

BRUSSELS, JAN. 23.—The average prices of
Wheat being 23f. 44c., and of Rye, 14f. 19c. per Hectolitre,
the regulations respecting importation and exportation remain
as last week.
ITINERANT BOG.—Sunday night, the night of
the eventful storm, three acres of the Bog of Glounamucka-
lough, within four miles of Newmarket and eight of Kan-
turk, moved completely from its position, and after traversing
a distance of a mile, and crossing a rapid river, landed on the
opposite side. Not an atom of surface is to be seen where
the bog left, but mere yellow mould. The occurrence fortu-
natety has not done any injury to houses or cattle, but it is an
incalculable loss to the owner of the land, Mr. James Barry,
as the bog rests on the very best portion of his farm. —Li-
inerick Chronicle.
David Barclay, Esq., of Eastwich Park, Great
Bookham, in the county of Surrey, has most generously raised
the wages of the labourers, who, are constantly employed on
his estate, to 14s. a week, amounting from a hundred to a hun-
dred and fifty men. Besides numerous acts of charity this ex-
ample is one among the many which ought not to escape our
notice, and will prove to the employed who are their real
friends and benefactors.
PENNY THEATRES.—At Union Hall onWednesday
four men and three women were charged iwith having been
found performing in a penny theatre in Lambeth. Some of
them were fined, and others sentenced to imprisonment. One
man, in attempting to escape, jumped from a window 16 feet
high. and broke his leg.
On Tuesday afternoon, as Mr. Foster, a gentleman
who resided at No. 17, Burton-crescent, was walking along
Mableden-place, near his OA II house, he fell dawn in a fit of
apoplexy, and in a few moments expired. A coroner's jury
yesterday returned a vordict of " Died by the visitation of God."

(From the Manchester Times of to-morrow.)
A capital joke has heen played off at the expense of poor
old Daddy Burdett. One of those nondescript things called
a Conservative dinner having been announced to " come off,"
as the sporting men say, at Wolverhampton, on the 28th in-
stant, and Apostate Burdett, Lords Bradford, Sandon, In-
gestrie, and Mr. Bingham Baring, having been invited to
chop Tory logic for the benefit of their brother operatives,
the operatives and liberal mechanics of Wolverhampton hit
upon an excellent expedient of bringing " Old Glory" to
the test, as he had expressed bis desire of promulgating his
" political sentiments" to the working classes there. An ad
dress to the fallen Baronet was therefore prepared, and Mr
George Wynn was requested to forward it. The Staffordshire
Examiner says, " We are at a loss to form an opinion as to
the reply which ' Old Glory' may think fit to return to this
well conceived invitation. It is scarcely to be expected that
by accepting the challenge he will dare that exposure and
confusicm with which a face to face meeting with the honest
operatives is sure to overwhelm him. On the other hand,
he will scarcely dare, by refusing it, to prove at once that
though professing to seek opportunities of addressing the
working classes, he shrinks from meeting them otherwise
than in pitifully small numbers, at those operative Conser-
vative' feeds, whither some mere half score of working men
arc dragged by ten times their number of Tory masters.
Under these circumstances, the most probable effect of the re-
quisition will be to prevent the defilement of our liberal bo-
rough by a visit from Sir Francis Burdett, and consequently
cause disappointment at toe forthcoming Tory feed. Sir
Francis will stay away from the one out of dread of the other
meeting. He will probably inform the requisitionists that other
engagements must prevent his attending either the ' Operative
Conservative Dinner' or their projected meeting, and that he
had never promised to attend the former. This at least will
expose the despicable clap-traps resorted to by the Conserva-
tives in order to secure full attendance at their feeds. It will
prove that Sir Francis Burdett never was expected' to at-
tend the dinner on the 28th inst., and again it will enable us
to saddle our Tory Contemporary with the title of Convicted
Falsifier!' By the bye, we understand that a party of Radi-
cals have engaged a band to attend and play Jim Crow in
front of the Star and Garter during the dinner. This popular
air is certainly admirably adapted to greet the ears, on such an
occasion, of a party which announces a rat for its ;neat visitor,
a rat for its great President, and holds its meeting at the
house of a rat; and which moreover is principally composed of
wheel-about' individuals."