The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-23 00:00:00

THE FUND s.

Consols, which closed yesterday at 92i a, both for time and
money, oFened this morning at 92a I Money, and 92} I
for the Account. Eichequer Bills, 66 68; India Bonds, 63
65 2 • Bank Stock, 202 f 203 ; India Stock, 256 257.
.._ _ _

In the Foreign Market Spanish continues at the closing
prices, 181 ;I; Portuguese the same, 351 ; Three per
Cents., 221 ; Belgian, 982 994; Brazilian, 772 78 ; Co-
lombian, 284 a ; Mexican, 24fr ; Dutch Two-and-a-Half, 54i
5.5 i; Five per Cents., 1028-f,
A singular entry has been made at the Custom-house of
680,000 percussion caps, for Havre.

PRICES OF STOCKS THIS DAY AT ONE O'CLOCK.
Bank Stock ... :03 , India Stock
3 per Cent. Red. 034 I.i I Ditto Bonds 63 64 pm.
3 per Cent. Cons. 924% South Sea Stock ...1
3., per Cent ' Old Annuities —
Ditto Red. 100;6% New Ditto -.
New 34 per Cent 99N % 3 per Cent. Annuities, 1751... —.
New 5 per Cent.
Bank Long Annuities to expire Ditto 500
Jan. 5, ISM 15 14 15-16 15 Ditto Small 6B 65 pm.
Oct. 10, 1859 ... 14Ai Ditto Commercial lnn•
Jan. 5, 1860 14N 11-10 Ditto Advertised ... ...... pm.
Jan. 5, 188) — Bank Stock for Account...2o2N 3
April 5, 1880 — India Stock for Account
Jan. 5. 1870 — Consols for Account 924%
PRICES OF FOREIGN FUNDS THIS DAY AT ONE O'CLOCK.
Austrian Bonds — Peruvian Bonds —
Belgian Bonds 99 8N ' Ditto Account —.
•
Ditto Account I Portuguese Bonds.
Brazilian Bonds
Ditto'Account
......

_ ...............
Buenos Ayres Bonds
Ditto Account

Chillan Bonds
ILtto Account
Columbian Bonds
Ditto Account

Ditto, 3 per Cent. `2'2S 2
Ditto Aceoumt

Prussian Bonds
Russian Bonds, 182'1 ..... ,
Ditto Account
Ditto Metallic

Columbian Bonds, 1824
Ditto Account "SMii%
Danish Bonds
Ditto Account
Greek Bonds
Ditto Bonds, 1825
Ditto Account
Mexican Bonds, 5 per Cent —
Ditto Account
Ditto, 6 per Cent 247.;
Ditto Account
Neapolitan
PRICES OF SHARES THI:

Spanish Bonds —
Ditto Account__ ~,,,,,,,,w
Ditto Bonds, 1831 IBM%
Ditto Account, IBXiA
French, 5 per cent. f. —c.
4 per cenL ..... .... —f. —c.
3 per cent. f. —c.
Exchange. f. -e.
Dutch, 2% per cent.
Ditto Account 543 j% 5% 5
Ditto, 5 per cent —
Ditto Account 102%
DAY AT ONE O'CLOCK
Paid, Per shale.
Edinburgh and Glasgow
%3reat Western iMilway Company 65 77 636
Brighton Railway .. ..
London and Blackwall Railway 9 7%
N,rth Midland Railway Company. 55 56 5 4
rclonial Bank
Union Bank of Australia .
HALF-PAST ONE.

We are without any further arrivals to the present hour.
The general topic of conversation in the City entirely relates
to the signing of the Twenty-four Articles by the French
Ambassador respecting Holland and Belgium, which has not
caused any considerable rise in the Dutch Funds, being antici-
pated in the course of yesterday.
Consols for the Account a shade lower, 921 ; Money same,
91/. Exchequer Bills lower, 68 65. India Bonds, 63 64.
Batik Stock, 203. India Stock, 2541, lower.
i ;
In the Foreign Market, Spanish lower, 18 Portuguese
i
also, 3541- ; Three per Cents., 22 ; Belgian, 99i ; Bra-
zilian, 77i 78 ; Colombian, Cent.,
; Mexican, 24 ; Dutch Two-
and-a-Half, 541, 55; Five per Cents., 1021
In Shares scarce anything doing.
It is supposed that if the troops of the Confederation take
by force Luxemburg and Limburg from the Belgians they
will cot pay anything to the Dutch then the Dutch will shut
the Scheldt against the Belgians, which will cause another
great delay in the settlement of the affairs.
Consols for the Aeoount,

THREB O'CLOCK.

DARMSTADT, JAN. 12.—At the instance of the
Aulie Tribunal at Gressen, Mr. Hoffman, Judge of the Cri-
minal Tribunal of the Grand Duchy, went yesterday evening,
at nine o'clocl., to the House of Arrest in this city, to an-
Tkoulle';; officially to the persons confined there for political
offences the pardon which had been granted them, and to re-
lieve them from their imprisonment.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JoURN A.I.S.

The " Flag Officer," and we make bold to believe,
the Times Journal, which at humble distance has from
time to time followed in his footsteps, have dune the State
some service within the last two months. They have
brought about a pretty general overhaul of the Navy in
most of its branches. They have got Lord Minto stared
at for the impudence—Captain Berkeley laughed at for the
folly, of his boastings with regard to ships, men, and ge-
neral preparation for war. Further, they have prepared
the public mind to distrust, without full examination, the
facts and assurances of that grave authority Sir John Bar-
row, both of which have been pronounced by him with a
degree of peremptory confidence exceeded only by that of
his costly predictions on the subject of the North-West
Passage. The sneers of Sir John Barrow at all who have
ventured to impugn the wisdom and excellence of
Lord Minto's Administration are not by any means
the least unsuccessful portions of an attempt which,
as a whole, can hardly be said to have succeeded. He
qualifies Captain Craufurd as a young, presumptu-
ous, and somewhat blameworthy " commander,"
because he had trusted his own senses and personal expe-
rience in forming his opinion of the Russian Baltic fleet.
Sir John Barrow would have had Captain Craufurd " draw
the attention of the department under which he holds his
commission" (that is, the attention of Lord Minto and the
two secretaries, or one of them) " to any remarks he had to
communicate." What then? What would the gallant of-
ficer have got by it for himself, or done by it for his
country ? Why, it appears that he would have only been
taught, by virtue of some official reprimand, the vast extent
of his own " ignorance, both as to the reduced state of the
British Navy, and the increased state of the Russian." In
other words, Captain Craufurd would have had the salutary
lesson, impressed upon him by order of " my Lords," that a
naval officer must on no account presume to trust his own
eyes, or ears, or observation, or conviction, upon any one
professional fact regarding subjects to which his whole
life has been devoted, but must be satisfied to have
all the useful results of his own science and activity
cushioned for ever by the pedagogue mandate—" Silence,
you Sir, or I'll put you on the black list and stop your
promotion." So with regard to. the" Flag Officer." It is
more than once, in a tone affectedly contemptuous, doubted
whether the pamphlet which has " drawn so much atten-
tion," and thereby, with or without the concurrence of
Lord Minto, accomplished so much practical good, was
" really" written by a flag officer, or only by some imper-
tinent pretender, who knew no more of the British Navy
than (to all purposes save that of patronage) the present
First Lord himself. Now, on this point we give the
country our word that the little but valuable pamphlet in
question is actually what it proclaims itself—the work of a
British flag-officer, and that its appearance as an anonymous
production is owing to considerations in which self-interest
has no concern. But is the answer of the Secretary to the
Admiralty, able and respectable as we admit him to be,
a satisfactory refutation of some of the most important
statements brought forward by the " Flag Officer." What
do we hear of the Russian fleet from this Manifesto of
of Lord Minto ? Does he tell us that there is no fleet of
Russian men-of-war in the Baltic ? or that, being there,
they are not half-armed or half-manned, or ready for fight-
ing, or in condition for active service, or in any respect
better than so many Mintaridden English seventy-fours
would be, sent as they are to sea, just fit for troop-ships,
but ironically described as " men•of-war I" Not at all.
Sir John Barrow, even if ordered to tell falsehoods officially
under a warrant from my Lords, could never, we are sure,
prevail upon himself to " go the whole hog" in a manner so
disgraceful. He accordingly avows no small quantity of
truth touching this same Russian Navy. He tells us in-
deed—and it is extremely comfortable to be assured of it
from so high a source—that Russian ships are not so well
built, nor of such strong materials, as the British ; that they
are, on the contrary, very perishable, seldom lasting more than
7 years, so that after makinc, one successful descent upon the
British Islands, they probably would not be able to repeat

it during more than five or six consecutive summers at
most ! This is, as we have said, consoling. At the same
time, Sir John Barrow admits that there is, or was until
the frost set in, a Russian fleet in the Baltic of upwards
of twenty sail-or-the-line, with a number of heavy frigates,
completely (and more than completely) manned, formidably
armed, regularly exercised and manoeuvred, with four
months' provisions always on board. Now, we do not
think that either Captain Craufurd or the " Flag Officer"
affirmed anything beyond such facts as these, or more justly
alarming to Great Britain. Indeed, Sir John adds, with
much apparent frankness, that it is " the warlike indica-
tions" on the part of Russia, her constant preparation and
readiness for immediate action, which ought to keep
England at all times " on her guard against sur-
prise." Let us ask, then, on the showing of the Secre-
tary of the Admiralty, in what state of preparation
" against surprise" was England placed by the Minto
Board of Admiralty during the last spring, and summer,
and autumn, when so many critical and angry questions
were at issue between this country and the Autocrat ?
What number and force of teen-of-war had this country at
her disposal against a sudden attack from Russia upon any
portion of the United Kingdom, from Leith, by theThatnes,
to Portsmouth, Plymouth ! We say, deliberately, not
one single ship of the line, but three guardships. Two
demonstration-ships, viz., the Victory and San Josef, are
neither armed nor manned, nor if they had been both,
sea-worthy, for both are old and rotten, as is described by
the letter on the Navy in this day's Times, from the pen
of a highly distinguished officer. The Howe, at Sheer-
ness, has not men enough to weigh her anchor. The Bri-
tannia, at Portsmouth, the same—the Royal Adelaide, at
Plymouth, ditto. Neither Sheerness Dockyard, with the ships
in ordinary up the Medway, nor Portsmouth Dockyard
and garrison, with its invaluable works and manifold
naval establishments, nor Plymouth Dockyard and garrison,
could for the last four years have stood two hours' can-
nonade or storm by five thousand Russians. 'We say so
now, because the Baltic is frozen up ; and the Ministry,
wretched as they are, may turn the terrors with which such
a recollection ought to inspire them to account, and early
in the spring have these bulwarks of the empire in a decent
state of defence. We have now a charge of something like
misrepresentation so bring against Sir John Barrow while
enumerating the classes of our Navy. But it no doubt
proceeds from the ignorance of that highly-respectable gen-
tleman, he being what is vulgarly called a " civilian."
lie boasts of our having forty-two heavy frigates of forty-
six guns, " carrying 32-pounders." Now, every child
in Portsmouth knows that these are the old (we may
well call them obsolete) class of eight-and-thirties, after-
wards denominated forty sixes, which never carried more
than 18-pounders oc the main deck, and carronades above.
Moreover, that they were quite heavily enough accoutred,
pot to say distressed, by that inferior armament. What,
then, is the meaning of their being now promoted into
" heavy frigates" carrying 32-pounders ? Why, the Ad-
miralty has resorted to the desperate expedient of re•
boring the old 24 (and in some cases 18) pounders, widen-
ing their calibre to that of two-and-thirties, but weakening
the metal in the same proportion, whereby the gun is of
worse than questionable safety, and exposed to the immi-
nent danger of bursting if loaded with the regular 32-
pounder charge, or fired often and rapidly in a continued
action. This very class of frigates was complained of by
the " Flag Officer" as unfit for the service to be required
of them ; and here we have the Secrc tary to the Admiralty
gravely exalting them to the rank of " heavy frigates."
This sort of patchwork will not do.—Times.
We yesterday inserted a r• port of the proceedings at a
meeting of the Coffee-house-keepers' Association, held on
Monday evening. The resolutions which were unani-
mously adopted at this meeting, in favour of a repeal of
the Corn-laws, cannot fail to excite great interest at the
present moment. The example which the Coffee-house-
keepers have set as a body or society, will, we doubt not,
be followed by other bodies or sccieties, not only in the me-
tropolis, but throughout the country. And this, let us re-
mark, by the way, is the most effective course which could
be adopted in agitating for the repeal of the bread tax. It
is not enough that a certain number of petitions, nume-
rously signed, should be presented to the Legislature, pray-
ing for the extinction of the corn monopoly ; petitions must
be poured in in thousands, even though some of them
should not boast of so large a number of signatures ; for
the extent to which the feeling in favour of or against any
measure is usually measured by the number of petitions
presented on the subject, and not by the mere number of
signatures adhibited to the parchment. It is only when
petitions proceed from all parts of the country, and from
all classes of men, that our Legislators can be persuaded
that there is a general feeling in favour of or against any
particular measure. Wherever, therefore, there are Soci-
eties of individuals who feel the pressure of the Corn-laws
---and what Society of working men is there that does not
groan under their burden ?—we would earnestly beseech
such Society to follow, without delay, the excellent ex-
ample set them by the Coffee-house-keepers, in adopting
resolutions and signing petitions for the purpose of crushing
this most iniquitous monopoly. Some of the facts which were
stated to the meeting to which we have referred place the
injustice and oppression of the bread-tax in a most striking
light. A Mr. Hare, the keeper of a coffee-house, men-
tioned that even in his: small way of business the Corn-laws
were deducting from his income not less than 441. per
annum. Why, the bare fact of these laws pressing so
severely on any industrious class of the community ought
of itself to procure their repeal. But when it is considered
that the pressure of the bread-tax is so great in the case of
tile" bard-working classes throughout the country as to
compel thousands of families, at this moment, to live upon
oiM loaf a day, when they might have, and would require,
ono"and a half, the argument for the extinction of the corn
monopoly acquires a force which the Legislature, one would
think, will not and cannot resist. Mr. Forbes; the Secre-

tars to the Coffee-hon,,,a,"ert' So,ietv. very justly
, th
re-
t -I,,r;.eu at e meeting, that " TiOt to be e:.pee.r,i
that a body of hard-working tradesmen could enter into
the minutiae of the manner in which the Corn-laws
operated upon all the great interests of the country ; but,"
added Mr. Forbes, " they (the Coffee-house-keepers)
were perfectly aware that they pressed very heavily upon
them, their customers, and the community at large." Mr.
Forbes then went on to contend that to feel the pressure
of these imposts was of itself sufficient to justify the most
strenuous exertions for their total repeal. This is the
common-sense view of the question. It is by no means ne-
cessary that before a man complains of a grievance and
seeks to get rid of it he should be able to understand the
minutiae of the manner of its operation ; it is enough for
him to know that a certain effect is produced by a certain
cause, to justify his most strenuous efforts for the removal
of that cause. And it is enough for the industrious por-
tions of the community to know that the Corn-laws are
now nearly doubling the price of their bread, without
troubling themselves about the subtleties of the question,
to warrant their having recourse to every means which the
law allows to procure the immediate and total repeal of
these odious imposts.—Morning Advertiser.
In our columns to-day will be found a copy of a Memo-
rial presented yesterday to the Lords of the Treasury by
that respectable, intelligent, and influential body of pro-
fessional men, the Solicitors of London and its vicinity,
deprecating the project which the Government have had
some time in view, for so modifying the arrangements of
the Post-office, as to make them conducive to the desecra-
tion of the Sabbath in the metropolis of this Christian
empire. Our readers are aware of the early and uncom-
promising opposition which we have given to this Sab-
bath-desecration project in every shape and form. It
would be an idle affectation of humility in us to deny
that our timely efforts contributed to elicit from tl,e
Government a disclaimer of the more comprehensive plan
of Sunday traffic through the instrumentality of the Post-
office, originally contemplated. But though compelled to
abandon, for a season, at least, the grander scheme of a
Sunday delivery of letters in the metropolis, the " little
go " of a transmission of country letters through London
on that day was kept in reserve. They hoped, if they
could once but make a beginning in relaxing the Sunday
regulations of the Post-office, all the rest would follow in
time as a matter of course, the public mind being gradually
familiarised to one little additional innovation after another,
until all the wheels of Post-office machinery should have
been put in motion, and every postman, every clerk, every
merchant, every professional man—in short, every person
in the metropolis, who has to receive and answer letters of
business, might exclaim—
" Even Sunday shines no Sabbath-day to me."
The London solicitors look at the subject in this light,
when they say to the Lords of the Treasury, " Your me-
morialists deprecate even such an alteration as the trans-
mission of letters through London on that day, and they
are convinced that if such a step were to be taken, the re-
sult would be, in the first instance, the receiving and deli-
vering of letters at the head offices, for such as might
send or call for them ; and ultimately, the opening
of the Post-office on that day for every other
purpose. That any such innovation, by throwing profes-
sional responsibility on your memorialists on that day,
would be a means of rendering the due observance of that
day by them, their clerks, and dependants, most difficult, and
of depriving them of the rest to which they are entitled on
that day." Surely, if we only looked at the Sabbath in a
secular point of view, we should consider the setting apart
one day out of the seven for the purpose of rest from the
business—the responsibilities and the cares of active life, as
an institution of profound civil wisdom, and its observance a
duty both of public policy and humanity. To the indus-
trious poor what a source of refreshment is a well spent
Sabbath from the severity of weekly toil, and what a means
of repairing that bodily strength which unceasing drudgery
would prematurely exhaust, and of enjoying the domestic
comfort which on no other day can be so well enjoyed,
and by thousands not at all. Let us, then, upon every
view of the question, religious, political, and philanthropic,
join in the application of the memorialists, and say with
them " We pray that the cessation from business which has
hitherto existed in the London Post-office on the Sabbath
may continue to be observed."—Morning Herald.
The apprehensions now felt by the public foi the safety
of our Indian empire in the present complicated and hostile
state of its relations with several of the native Powers will
not be abated by a knowledge of the fact, which we confi-
dently assert, that the impending hostilities with the reigning
Prince of Caboul are regarded both by the Court of Direc-
tors and the Board of Control as impolitic and dangerous.
We aver, and challenge contradiction to our allegation,
that express instructions were sent out some time ago to
Lord Auckland to alter his course of policy with respect to
the north-western States of India. But the British Minis-
ters were too tardy in issuing their instructions, or the
Oriental Satrap too haughty and self-willed to obey them.
Morning Post.