The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 3, 1862.

T H

0 X

F 0 R D,

6, OXFORD-STREET,

Two Selections Every Evening alternately from " Ernani,"
" Lucrezia Borgia," "La Traviata," "Simon Boccanegra,"
"La Circassienne," &c., by the entire Company, Full Band
and Chores.—Conductor, Mr. F. Jonghmans. Solos by Mr.
Viotti Collins (the great English violinist). And other at-
tractive Entertainments, the Comic portion by Miss Harriet
Coveney, Messrs. Sam Collins, Wood and Son, E. Marshall,
M. P. roster, and W. Randall.
Hall, 6d. ; Stalls and Balcony, is. ; Private Boxes, Ns. 6d.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS DAY.—Morning, 4h. 40m.—Afternoon, 4h. 58m.
To-Moßßow. -Morning, sh. 14m.—Afternoon, sh. 30m.

TIIE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, FEBRUARY 2, 1862.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
52—highest since noon yesterday.
46—lowest tnis morning and during the night.
50—this day at noon.

BM:Wm-Irma-30.18.
WlND—South-Westerly ; rather fresh, with dull cloudy
weather.

FEB. 3.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHAM
51-7.ighest since noon yesterday.
46—lowest this morning and during the night.
52—this day at noon.

BARcainTnß-30.23; rising.
Wm—South-Westerly; light, with fair weather.

9e
• •
, -

T FEE SUN.

LONDON, MONDAY, FEB. 3, 1862.

After so long delay something like a breaking of
day on the Federal cause has appeared. It is far,
indeed, from anything like an unmistakeable reflec-
tion of light beneath the horizon, sure ultimately
to dawn npin us—still it looks as if midnight were
past. There seems to be evidence that MTLELLAN,
and, doubtless, the President acting with him, have I
a plan—that they have entire confidence in their
plan—and that their confidence has begun to
change the tone even of their critics. It is encou-
raging to see that M'CLELLAN'S subordinate gene-

ralg, in the country where every man is a sovereign,
begin to know their duty to their military chief.
A committee has been appointed on the conduct
of the war. One of the generals was summoned
before it. Ho was asked whether he knew
that the General Commanding-in-Chief had a plan
of operations. He replied that he knew that he had.
Having subsequently acknowledged that he had
attended councils of war in which the
plans were
discussed, end being asked to state to the commit-
tee what these plans were, the General replied, "No,
sir ; not until I am . ordered to do so by General
M'CLELLAN." Now we like that. It is as hopeful
a fact es we have seen on the Confederate side of
the Potomac for a long time. If M'CLELLAw can
only imbue his officers with the idea of implicit
military obedience, though they will still want
much training and professional skill, he will ac-
complish the first thing towards success. His sub-
ordinates have had training enough in perfect
political independence, self-will, and license—but
they have had nothing to teach them the value of
obedience in war, as of independence in peace.

But General M'CLELLAN himself has also been
before the committee, and the effect seems to have
His subordinate's reply
the committee modest, and they

been very re-assuring.

Ira°

e of the Met that they were iutermed

dling with matters which belonged not to them.

But t

Cournl;:i

n CI:

'ef was not supercilious,

and he appears to have met the committee :
per-
sonally, with ranitues, 4, and to have revealed to it,
we presume ender pledges of secrecy, his
whole scheme of operations. We have not of
course, a hint of what they are, but we read—
" Without entering into any details of his plans, he,
convinced the members of the committee that the
result which all desire—the suppression of the re-
bellion and the end of the war—will be attained

with certainty, and even more despatch than the
most sanguine were inclined to believe. General

M'CLELLAN's firm and dignified position, taken
before the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the
War, has produced a most wonderful change in his
favour. His startling narrative of the detail work
of raising, equipping, and drilling the army
showed,tim to be a man of wonderful genius and
great executive ability. The tone of public senti-
ment towards General M'CLELLAN has altogether
changed, growing out of the sudden right about
face of certain Congressmen towards him since his
appearance before the committee."
It cannot be denied that this looks more like
system, and a system of good promise,
too, than the wearying accounts we are con-
tinually receiving of purposeless skirmishes
and not very fruitful expeditions. It may also
be in accordance with the knowledge professed
by Mr. EAZLEY at Manchester, which he may
have had from authentic sources, of a compara-
tively early breaking up of the blockade, if not
termination of the war, next summer. We are
assured, at least, that in Washington itself, the
foreboding and dissatisfaction at the inactivity of
the army is rapidly disappearing before the evi-
dence of energetic preparations "for a grand
blow at the vitals of the rebellion." Preparation
is beginning to be recognised as the means of
insuring success, and confidence in the General
Commanding-in-Chief is continually increasing.
If on reasonable grounds, not from despising the
enemy, but through taking ample pains not to
let themselves be despised, the Federals begin to
have hope, we also may begin to hope for them.

The civilians are beginning also to do their
part of the work. A congressional committee is
looking into—" how the money goes"—and the
causes of its rapid disappearance are being dragged
to the light and gibbetted in terrorem. Such things
as cavalry horses sold twice over to the Govern-
ment, and colonels receiving bonuses of 1,500 and
2,000 dollars from rival railway companies, to
award to the bribing line the enormous profit of
carrying the Federal troops—are not likely to be
repeated. Americans like smartness, to be sure ;
but when the smartness results in inconvertible
paper and intolerable taxation, smartness in bleed-
ing the nation, is not unlikely to be repaid by
smartness in bleeding the unprincipled contractors
and colonels. It looks well also that Congress has
got as far as a resolution to raise £30,000,000
by annual taxation, in order to meet cur-
rent expenses, to pay the interest on the
loans, and to provide a Sinking Fund for their ex-
tinction. True, so far as we understand the accounts
of their war expenditure, and their receipts from
all sources, this seems but a " flea bite," compared
with what will be needed merely to keep the war
on foot. Nor, can we tell how Congress will suc-
ceed in levying the taxes which it is comparatively
easy to impose. Still it looks like an opening of
their eyes to the fact, that fighting and paying
must always go together, and the paying long out-
lasts the fighting. Already the effect of the finan-
cial measures on the gold and bullion of the country
is felt, and a committee was discussing how to pre-
vent hoarding, melting down, or exporting gold or
bullion. They are not yet aware that law is
powerless among the money-mongers.
Southern accounts of their own condition in the
Confederate States become worse and worse. Re-
cently we had in the Richmond Enquirer itself so
strong a picture of the demoralisation of the
Southern army on the Potomac, as to suggest the
thought that it might have been written to tempt
M'CLELLAN to a premature attack on well-prepared
entrenchments. But this time, in a review of the
whole position of both parties, the same paper
writes in a strain of censure on the Southern com-
manders, and of discussion of new plans which it is
difficult to conceive to be otherwise than what it
appears. The defensive system of the South is
shown to have serious disadvantages. It leaves " a
moral stain on an army to await repeated and end-
less attack, and the country which becomes the seat
of war is exhausted. The courage of the
Southern Volunteers, and the difficulties of the
invasion, have saved, the Enquirer says, much
loss in the war ; but then the enemy has had unin-
terrupted leisure to prepare and drill a vast army,
and arrange it at leasure against the season for the
resumption of hostilities. While Southern engi-
neers have been skilfully erecting works, which
may be of as much use as the Chinese wall in one
place, the Federals have been allowed to envelope
the Confederacy by their armies and fleets, and wiil,
when the fitting weather arrives, be able to strike
for the interior from many alternative points.
Generals BEAUREGARD and JOHNSTON, mean-
time, are held by APCLELLAN, as in a vice, on the

Potomac.
Such is the view which the ablest of the Southern
papers takes of the Confederates' and Federals' rela-
tive position. It would hardly seem as if there could
be any trickery or plot in such a description ; the
proposed plan for the South is quite a new one.
The net, it is said, is now drawn all around, and
the only resource is to cut it in one direction. The
Confederate General in Kentucky is designated as
the man ; the Federals there are to be hurled back
by a competent force, and Ohio invaded in turn.
By such transference of the war the Confederate
States may escape being overrun in the spring, and
the Federals be compelled to defend their own
ground. " Beyond the flittering possibilities of a
foreign intervention," this plan of taking the
offensive, instead of standing on the defensive only,
affords the sole rational hope of a speedy termina-
tion of the war. It is even affirmed that the
character of Federal preparations show that they
anticipate such a change of Southern policy as the
worst thing for them.
To give any opinion on such a policy may be
premature. It may never be adopted, most likely
indeed will not. Suspicion still clings to a pub-
lished plan of campaign, and there can be no
doubt that the Confederates, separated from their
own territory, and plunged into the midst of a free
state, would find themselves completely over.
matched. They cannot have the commissariat and
equipments for a hostile:movement. Congress has
already reported a bill for the confiscation of Con-
federates' property and liberation of their slaves;
and all :things look as if both No—rth and South
were becoming desperate.

As certainly as the late appalling catastrophe at
Hartley New Coal Pit will put an end at length for
once and for all to the cruelly parsimonious system
of working so many of our mines with a single
shaft instead of with two distinct shafts, as Reason
and Humanity would seem alike of themselves to dic-
tate—so also we may be perfectly confident that this
frightful occident down at lledlington will as cffic-
tually put an end in its turn to the no less cruelly
parsimonious system of unsecured or unguarded
marl inert'. The monstrous folly in each instance
has been proved now to absolute That visible in re demonstration.
the single shaft sys-
temgard to
at our mines we have already commented upon
repeatedly of late. After the dreadful destruction
of those " two hundred lives save one" down in the
pit at Hartley, one hundred and ninety-nine boys
and men all huddled together promiscuously in
the fatal yard seam, and there stifled by the deadly
stythe impregnated with poisonous gases, simply
because the accidental blocking up of the single

shaft to the mine in which they worked
had trapped them in a living tomb, shutting
them out from the reach cf all timely aid—
after a result so appalling as this, the inhu-
manity of the wretched single-shaft system will
require no further illustration. And now, quite as
conclusively demonstrative of the folly and
cruelty of the system of allowing mills and other
the like establishments to be worked with un-
guarded machinery, comes this hideous casualty
occurring on Friday afternoon, a few miles
from Morpeth, in the extensive iron-
works in Bedlington—ironworks formerly be-
longing to Messrs. LONGRIDGE, but about three
months since transferred from that firm to the pre-
sent owners, Messrs. MOUNSEY and DIXON, late of
Monkwearmouth. The Rev. SIDNEY SMITH used
to say that the most effectual means perhaps for
getting rid of the system of locking the railway
carriage doors upon a journey, would be the burning
ing of a Bishop in one of those conyeyances ! Here it
is the sudden death, under the most frightful cir-
' cumstances, of the wife of the head partner in one of
the great " Houses" in the iron trade of the North,
that proves, in a way nobody can now mis-
apprehend for an instant, the cruelty and the
folly of allowing powerful and complicated
pieces of machinery to be worked in our
manufactories, without the whirling wheels and
the whizzing straps and bands being effectually
screened from the passer by !
On Saturday we gave a brief account of the
accident, so far as the particulars had then come
to our knowledge. The more detailed description
of this horrible casualty, given elsewhere in our
impression of this evening, will show more dis-
tinctly how easily the whole accident might have
been guarded against—how by a very trifling pre-
caution it might have been rendered absolutely im-
possible. The partners, on Friday afternoon, it will
be observed, were conducting a group of ladies over
the establishment, then in full operation. Among
these ladies there was Mrs. MOUNSEY, the wife of
the head partner, and accompanying that unfor-
tunate lady, now deceased, there were three of her
children. " About ten minutes," says the
account of the reporter, " after four in
the afternoon, the party, after examining the
other portion of the works, proceeded to the new
mills to witness the process of sawing iron with the
circular saw. After doing so they proceeded to
cross a spindle connecting the saw with the engine
that drove it, and which also drove the machinery in
the rolling mill. Mr. DIXON and Mrs. MOUNSEY
were first to go over this spindle, Mr. MOUNSEY
remaining a little behind to assist over the young
people. Mrs. MOUNSEY had stepped over it, but
unfortunately her dress had not cleared one of the
bolts or nuts at a joint in the spindle. The conse-
quence was, that she was thrown over, and in the
twinkling of an eye she was dragged underneath the
spindle by the whirling of the machinery—the spindle
only stands six inches from the ground ; she was
drawn in up to her breast, and her limbs and the
lower parts of her body were literally crushed to
atoms, and life was extinct in a few seconds." The
words italicised by us in the above sufficiently hor-
rible description, point to the very folly, cruelty, and
parsimony that there has been so often before
such miserable reason to inveigh against. Here
was the " circular saw" (for the "sawing of iron")
revolving with dreadful velocity—here was the
" spindle connecting the saw with the engine that
drove it," and that also drove the machinery in
the rolling mill—and a party of ladies and children
were being conducted through the machinery in
such a direction that they were compelled, in
order to make their way, to step over the
dreadful spindle. One of the bolts or nuts
in that very spindle which the first of the
ladies (Mrs. MOUNSEY) is stepping over, has
but to catch in the skirt of her dress—and, in an
instant, in the presence of her husband and of
three of her children, and of the friends
who were accompanying her, in the twinkling of an
eye she dies a death of the most appcilling character.
In that single throb of the pendulum her body up
to the breast is crushed into a horrible spectacle.
The machinery is stopped immediately. But the
horror has already been accomplished. That the
poor lady thus destroyed was the mother of a young
family and at the moment of her death even was
enciente —these particulars can only be regarded as
enhancing the anguish caused by the catastrophe
a catastrophe in itself sufficiently appalling.
Upon first hearing the simple fact of the accident,
the general supposition will have been
that it was attributable to the prevailing
fashion, the expansive birdcage petticoats, the
steel hoops, or the crinoline. Nothing of the kind,
however, is it in the present instance—the lady
being a Quakeress, the whole family of the
MOUNSEYS, in other words, being of the Society of
Friends. It is not the crinoline, therefore, that
we have here to protest against —it is the old
story, merely, of the unguarded machinery. Poor
factory girls have often before now,while engaged in
cleaning the machinery at the cotton mills, for ex-
ample, been caught up by a strap or a spindle, and
dragger among the whirling maze of machinery and
so destroyed. But now that a lady visitor to the
ironworks at Bedlington, and that lady visitor the
wife of the head partner of the firm owning the
establishment, has been destroyed in her turn, in like
manner, wo may hope at last that the Legislature
will take measures during the approaching Session
to guard against the possible recurrence of any
similar accidents

Attention should be drawn to the prospectus put
forth by a new Railway Company, the Turin and
Savona Railway Company, with a branch to Acqui,
destined, we are satisfied, to aid very considerably
in the development of the fortunes of Italy. The
Trunk Line between Turin and Savona will tend
directly to bring France and Italy into more
complete and direct communication with
each other, both socially and commercially. The
capital set down for the construction of the main
line is thus announced—Shares, £BOO,OOO ; subven-
tions (or free gift from - Government and Com-
munes), £480,000; obligations, £760,000 ; total,
£2,040,000. The board of direction, moreover, is
very remarkable—having for its president Signor
RATAZZI, the President of the Chamber of Deputies;
for its vice-president Signor PALEOCAPA, senator,
late Minister of Public Works ; and for its Council
of Administration in Turin Signor BOMBRINI,
director of the National Bank, Turin, and
six members of the Chamber of Deputies.
As to the Board of Direction in London, the names
there upon the list will be recognised more familarly
—and afford themselves every one of them a
guarantee as to the validity of the whole enterprize.
The distance from Turin to Savona is set down at
90 miles, and the length of the branch line to Acqui
at 30 mieles, making the whole distance to be laid
down and traversed just 120 miles altogether. And
the real cost °flaying down these 120 miles of railway,
ninety from Turin to Savona, and thirty for
the branch line to Acqui, has already been calcu-
lated at the rate, every expense included, namely,
"purchase of land, stations, rolling stock, and all
incidental expenses, together with payment of in-
terest at 6 per cent. on the capital during
construction," of £2,408,000, " being at the

rate of £20,000 per mile over the entire
distance." But then, it is added, that "as
the subventions of £480,000 will come in aid
of this amount, the real cost of the railway to the
shareholders is virtually reduced to £16,000 per
mile." No such unreasonable cost after all. The
whole scheme looks propitiously for those who care
to embark in it. And most propitious are the
auguries it gives to the increasing commerce, and
the advancing civilisation of the Roman peninsula.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge,
with Colonel the Hon. James Macdonald, Captain the Hon.
J. R. Drummond, R.N., Colonel Clifton, and Colonel Tyr-
whitt, concluded the shooting season by a day's sport in
Richmond Park, on Saturday. Upwards of 40) head of
game fell to the five guns.
The Duke of Rutland is expected in town to mor-
row or Wednesday from Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire.
The Duke of Montrose is expected to arrive at
his residence in Belgrave-square to-morrow evening, from
his seat in Scotland, for the meeting of Parliament.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Ailesbury have
been entertaining a succession of visitors at Savarnake,
Marlborough, during the past week. His lordship is ex-
pected in town in a few days.
Maria Marchioness of Ailesbury has returned to
her residence in Hertford-straot from visiting the Marquis
an f Marchioness of Ailesbury at Savernake Forest, Marl-
borough.
The Earl of Clarendon will Come to town on
Wednesday from the Grove, near Watford.
The Earl and Countess of Durham have arrived
in Grosvenor-square, from their seat in Durham. Tho
noble earl and countess contemplate a visit to the Continent
at the end of the month.
The Right Hon. the Speaker of the House of
Commons and Lady Charlotte Denison will arrive at the
right hon. gentleman's official residence at the New Palace,
Westminster, to-morrow, from Ossington, Notts,
Lord and Lady Ashburton have been entertaining
a succession of visitors at The Grange, Hants.
Lord Herbert of Lea has left Florence on her
way to Nice. Her ladyship's younger sons, the Hon.
Reginal and Sidney Herbert leave Belgrave-square to-day
for Folkestone, on their way to join her ladyship.
The Countess Dowager of Jersey and Lady
Harriet Ponsonby have left Berkeley-square for Middleton
Park, Oxon.
Sir John and Lady Kirkland have left trighton
for their seat in Surrey.
Sir Frederick Johnstone has arrived in town from
his seat in Scotland.
MINES AND PRISONS.--In consequence of the
resignation of Sir John Kincaid some modifications and re-
ductions will be made in the duties of the inspectors of pri-
sons and of the inspectors of Mines. There used to be four
inspectors of prisons and fear inspectors of mines and col-
lieries. These were redact(' on death or resignation to
three. On the resignation of Mr. Leonard Horner, Sir
John Kincaid took the mining district of Scotland in addi-
tion to the prisons of that tart of the United Kingdom, at
an additional remuneration of £2OO a-year, instead of the
full salary, which was saved. The place of inspector of
mines will not be filled up, the present remaining inspec-
tors, Mr. Baku. and Mr. Rodgrave, having consented to
divide the duties between them. The inspectorship of
prisons will be modified in consequence of the large increase
of reformatories having added considerably to the duties to
be performed.—Observer.
SOUTHAMPTON, Saturday. The Hamburg-
American Company's screw steamship Teutonia, Captain
Taube, sailed hence at 10 30 a.m. to-day for New York,
after taking in 400 tons of cargo at this port. She had up-
wards of R 0 passengers from Hamburg, Havre, and South,
ampton, 18,000 f. in specie from Havre, and 1,500 tons of
cargo. The Peninsular and Oriental Company's steamship
Valetta, Captain J. C. Almond, left to-day for Marseilles,
to resume her station between that port and Alexandria,
relieving the Massilia, which will come home to refit.
THE RIVAL AMERICAN VESSELS AT SOUTH-
kikEPToN.—SOUTITAMPTON, FEB. 2.—The Federal war
steamer Tuscarora, since she left Southampton Water, has
been lying at the mouth of the Lymington River in the
Solent, for the purpose, no doubt, of being as near as pos-
sible the telegraph station at Hurst Castle, to hear tidings
of the movements of the Confederate war steamer Nashville.
On Saturday afternoon the royal mail steamer Tyne met
the Tuscarora outside the Needles, steaming to the
west-
ward. She passed close to the Tyne. A pilot reported
that she had been round the Isle of Wight. She was ex-
pected to return to Yarmouth Roads to-day. The Nash-
ville is apparently preparing to leave Southampton. She
has moved from her position near the graving docks to near
the dock entrance. Attempts have been made to put fire-
arms on board of her, by the crew taking on board ono or
two rifles at a time, but they were seized by the customs.
The captain of the Nashville has, it is said, determined to
fight the Tuscarora, and sink his ship in the attempt rather
than surrender.

A notice has been issued of the proposed Inter-
national Supplementary Exhibition Company, to be erected
in immediate proximity to the Great Exhibition building,
for the purpose of affording space for the surplus products
for which it is impossible to obtain room at the latter, and
also to furnish opportunities for the sale of the articles dis-
played at either place. The building is to be completed for
opening on the 15th of May, and it is hoped that arrange-
ments may be effected for the gratuitous admission of all
visitors from the Great Exhibition. The charge for space
will be 12s. per square foot for the floor and 6s. for the
walls, being less than one-half of the annual rental of the
London bazaars, and the period will be from the 15th May
to the end of October. The design and supervision of the
structure will be by Sir Joseph Paxton, and the trustees
are Sir Robert Carden, Alderman Finnis, and Mr. William
Jackson, M.P. The company, before taking any steps, as-
certained that the project would not be objected to by the
Royal Commissioners of the Great Exhibition, and the
spirit in which it will be conducted will be that of making
it an agreeable and useful auxiliary.

LETTS'S POST-OFFICE OFFICIAL MONTHLY
DIRECTOR FOR JANUARY, 1862, is a decided improvement
upon its predecessors, and really a great acquisition to mer-
chants, brokers, postmasters, and all who have heavy cor-
respondence passing through their hands. There is always
much convenience in obtaining this class of information on
a sheet, and henco the advantage of the above over the
Government manuals. But on the present occasion the
publishers have so reconstructed the original form as to
introduce (in addition to all the old matter) several tables
of immense value, especially to the corresponding clerk
when pressed for time, viz. of the sums to be paid on letters
at from oz. up to 81-ez., and on books, &c., from 4oz. up
to 20oz. The contents, however, will best explain the pre-
tensions of this broadside to public favour, and are as fol-
low :—Mails, daily despatch to all parts of the world, with
average return mails duo in England; period of transit;
letter postage :from 4oz. to 81oz. by quarter ounces; book
postage from 4oz. to 200 z.; fees for registered letters;
newspaper, &c., postage; packets sailed and arrived last
month; ships advertised to sail ; ships arrived last month ;
a postal almanack for the month, indicating what day va-
rious mails will be made up, what are expected, and other
general information, concluding with a complete list of all
the cities throughout the world to which our mails are de-
spatched. Price Is. per copy, or Bs. for a twelvemonth's
subscription. Letts, Son, and Co., Royal Exchangs, Lon-
don, and all booksellers.

THE DEATH-RATE OF OUR MINING POPULATION.
—Persons accustomed to believe that the greatest of the
miner's perils consist in explosions, will probably be sur-
prised to hear that in every coal-producing locality but one
this kind of catastrophe is little more than half as terrible
as the other. Notwithstanding the wholesale nature of the
slaughter which frequently attends an explosion, and the
large number of blackened corpses even a small disaster
from fire will leave within the recesses of a mine, the effects
of these violent occurrences are far less deadly in the long
run than those of the apparently unimportant, because more
subtle, agency of falls. For every death by the former
means we raise 257,000 tons, while 170,000 tons only are
got out with the same amount of mortality from falls.
No matter how large a number of victims one or two ex-
plosions—such as Lundhill or Risca—may occasionally im-
molate, this less generally known, but constantly active
destroyer soon restores the balance of mortality, only tem-
porarily disturbed by the more appalling, though, in reality,
less fearful calamity.—Once a Week.
EMBEZZLEMENT By A COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER.
—At the Police Office at Birmingham, on Friday, Thomas
Willcox, an agent for Messrs. Bateson and Co., woollen
merchants, of Leeds, was brought up on a remand, charged
with embezzling sums of money amountin to upwards of
£1,500, the property of his
employers. It appeared that
the priscner, on a recent occasion, admitted that he had
falsified his accounts for a period of five years; and that,
finding himself in arrear, he had taken to betting on horse
races with a view to extricate himself, but had by so doing
made matters much worse. Evidence was put in of ac-
counts received by the prisoner from tradesmen in Dudley
and other places which had not been entered as paid. The
result W. 113 that he was committed for trial at the assizes.
The tenders for 40,00,000 rupees in bills of ex-
change on India were opened to-dey in presence of a mem-
ber of the Council of India and the Governor and Deputy •
Governor of the Bank. The official minimum declared
was, for bills on Calcutta ls. 111 d., and on Madras and
Bombay 2s. The whole amount has been taken. All Cal-
cutta tenders above the minimum will be allotted in full,
and those at the minimum will receive about 60 per cent.
of their tender. Bombay tenders above the minimum will
be allotted in full, and those at the minimum rate will re-
ceive about 11 per cent, Madras tenders at the minimum
rate will be allotted in full.

FORTIFICATIONS AT TI Nl3Y.—The proposed ereo4
tiona at St. Catherine's-rock for the defence of Tonhy have
been retarded in consequence of the contractors whose ten-
ders had been accepted having thrown up their contracts.
The oilier contractors have in consequence been invited to
send in fresh tenders, and the works will be pushed on with
the utmost promptitude.

LATEST NEWS.

DERNE, FEB. 1.

The Federal Council has sent a reply to the last
note of the French Government in reference to
the Valley of Dappes affair, which it persists in
viewing in the same light as at first.

BERNE, FEB. 2.

The mixed commission which has been sitting
at Berne for the purpose of drawing up a final
report of the affair of Ville-la-Grand has left this
city without coming to a decision.

FLORENCE, FEB. 1.

Popular demonstrations were made to-day be-
fore the offices of the reactionary.. journals 17 Com-
mereio and Il Contemporaneo, but the interference
of the authorities prevented any disturbance
taking place.

WARSAW, FEB. 2.

The official journal publishes verbatim the decla-
ration made by Mgr. Bialobrzeski during his trial:;
according to which his sole object in ordering the
churches of Warsaw to be closed was to prevent
their being profaned by the singing of forbidden
songs.