The Sun.
London, England, 1865-12-29 00:00:00

BANK OF FRANCE

PARIS, DEC. 28.

The following is the return of the Bank of France
for the week ending to-day, together with the cor-
responding figures of the previous account :

DEBTOR.
Dec. 28.
fr. c.
182,500,000

Dec. 21.
fr. c.
182,500,000

Capital of the Bank
Profits in addition to
capital (Art. 8, Law,
June 9, 1857)
Reserve of the Bank

7,044,776 02

7,0.11,776 02
22,105,750 14

and its branches 22,105,750 14
Reserve in landed pro-
perty 4,000,000
Notes in circulation ... 879,683,575
Banknotes to order and
receipts payable at

4,000,000 -
859,417,675 -

sight - -
Treasury account cur-

7,111,840 14
120,258,385 93
144,012,926 94
27,823,078 -

7,936,127 54
100,806,476 19
164,931,735 93
22,510,983 -

rent
creditor
Current accounts, Paris
Do. branch banks
Dividends payable
Discounts and sundry

730,161 82
14,598,628 75
2,074,992 92

.781;722 75
13,646,026 69
1,427,623 17
752,993 36
9,526,906 38

interests
Rediscounted the last
six months
Surplus of receipts not
distributed
Sundries

7,933,839 89

Total 1,419,877,955 55 1,397,388,796 17
CREDITOR.

Dec. 28.

Der. 21.

Cash ill hand and in
Branch banks
Commercial bills over-
due
Commercial bills dis-
counted, not yet due
Do. branch banks
Advances on deposit of
bullion
Do. branch banks
Do. on French Public
Securities
Do. by branch banks
Do. on railway shares
and debentures
1). branch banks
Do. on Credit Fancier
Bonds
Do. branches
Do. to the State (Con-
vention, June 10,
1857)
Government Stock re-
serve

fr. c.
443,860,475 24

fr.
448,182,963 29
2,971,450 26
307,865,628 79
315,359,500 -
11,266,000 -

333,948 71
323,791,776 52
330,978,670_-
11,308,300 -
8,202,900 -
13,314,700 -
6,836,100 -
30,665,000 -
20,434,480 -

9,506,800 -
13,259,300 -

7;289;000 -
30,276,900 -
19,886,580 -

644,100 -
456,250 -

653,300 -
450,450 -

60,000,000 -

60,000,000 -
12 980 750 14
86,449,737, 91
100,000,000 -

12,980,750 14
36,449,737 91

Do. disposable
Rentes Immobalisees
(Law, June 9, 1857)
Hotel and furniture of
the Bank and landed
property branches
Expenses of manage-
ment
Sundries

100,000,000 -

8,380,667 -

8,361,267 -

2,759,650 78
9,869,518 -

11,237,100 03

Total 1,419,877,955 55 1,397,388,796 17
Certified by the Senator-Governor of the Bank of France.

(Signed)

ROULAND.

Commemoration Festival in Westminster

Abbey,

Yesterday was Childermas Day, or the Festival
of the Holy Innocents. It was, moreover, the
eight hundredth anniversary of the dedication of the
abbey church of St. Peter's, Westminster. On that
day eight centuries ago, King Edward the Confessor,.
feeling his end to be nigh, signed the charter of the
foundation ; and eight days afterwards, on the eve
of the Festival of the Epiphany, " Twelfth Day,"
1066, he was no more. His body was laid to its
long rest in the Abbey which he had founded, and
which he lived but just long enough to see brought
to completion.
There were two full choral services yesterday, in
celebration of this festival in the history of the
church. At ten o'clock in the morning a large
congregation filled the whole of the space avail-
able for worship, and the first service commenced
with the 95th Psalm, " 0 come, let us sing unto
the Lord." The anthem after the third collect
was Purcell's, the 122 d Psalm ; and the introit
was a hymn written by the Ven. C. Wordsworth,
D.D., Canon and Archdeacon of Westminster,
and taken by his request from the " Holy Year."
It may be of interest to some of our readers
for us to mention that the tune of this hymn was
composed by a niece of the late Rev. Temple Frere,
M.A., Canon of Westminster —Mrs. J. J. B. E.
Frere. The prayers were sung by the Rev. S. F.
Jones, Incumbent of St. Matthew's, Spring-gar-
dens ; and the Communion office was taken by the
Rev. Lord John Thynne.
To say that expectation was generally visible in
the faces turned towards the pulpit when the Dean
of Westminster, the Very Rev. Arthur Penrhyu
Stanley, D.D., began his sermon, is no mere com-
pliment, such as might be carelessly paid to a
popular preacher. It was one of the most striking
incidents to an observer of the scene, bent on look-
ing as well as listening, while the solemn festival
proceeded. The Dean took for his text the 10th
chapter of St. John's Gospel, verses 22 and 23 :
" And it was at Jerusalem, the feast of the dedica-
tion, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the
temple in Solomon's porch." From this passage in
the life of the Redeemer, Dean Stanley drew a
sanction for such celebrations as the one which had
brought his hearers to that hallowed place. He
described in vivid language the dedication of the
Abbey, by the Confessor, one of the most cherished
objects of whose reign was the erection of a
Church and Abbey of St. Peter, in such a
form of architectural grandeur as had not yet
been known to England. The earliest foundation
of Westminster Abbey was, indeed, an event of far
greater antiquity than the period of Edward's ex-
istence. Far back in Saxon times, quite in the
beginning of the seventh century, when Sebert was
King of the East Saxons, must search be made for
the Abbey's true origin ; but the first foundation of
any part part of the present building, and the first
establishment of that building on the peculiar foot-
ing, both national and ecclesiastical, which it has
borne ever since, dates from the reign of the last
hereditary King of England before the Norman Con-
quest—Edward the Confessor. Dismissing anti-
quarian and architectural considerations, and taking
on this occasion the religious aspects of the event,
Dean Stanley showed, first, how the growth of the
Abbey out of the act of Edward the Confessor bore
witness to the power of simple, childlike faith.
Touching on points of character incongruous with
our modern notions, the preacher eloquently en-
larged on the one point of enduring permanent in-
terest—Edward's artless piety. There were buried
in that Abbey many who, in their lives had shown
themselves to be great, but not good. He,
the founder, was a signal instance of the contrary_;
he was good, not great. Entering upon a second
division of his theme, Dean Stanley reviewed the
condition of England at the eve of the Conquest,
of which event he considered King Edward himself
as the harbinger. There was his Norman habits ;
there, too, was the Abbey, plainly indicating, in its
Norman style and dimensions, a vast change.
Founded in the hope of future greatness, the Abbey
has, in its long and changeful history, justified that
hope ; it comprehends memorials of all characters,
parties, churches, and sects, and it is the home of
all England. Founded as a place of worship, and,
through all its danger, still continuing, it has been
by turns in the service of every branch of Christian
faith. Roman Catholic, Independent, Church of
England services have been celebrated within its
walls. On its character as a home of worship all
its other historical interests depend. The idea of
Christian worship, of its permanence and value, was
then evoked by Dean Stanley from the series of
pictures he had drawn ; and the end of his dis-
course—a homily and a brilliant historical essay in
one—Was thanksgiving and prayer ; thanksgiving
for the mercies connected wity the day, and prayer
for the fulfilment of the duties rising out of it.

PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT.--Yederday the
Lord Chancellor attended at the House of Lords, for the
purpose of proroguing Parliament. There were no peers
present, and there was not the usual official visit on the
part of the Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod to, the House
of Commons, the whole of the proceedings being con-
ducted in the House of Lords. The new Parliament will,
on Thursday, the lst of February next, assemble for the
despatch of business. In anticipation of the opening of
Parliament by her Majesty in person the House of Lords
is undergoing a thorough cleansing, and workmen. are and
will be actively engaged, not only in the great chamber
but in all the approaches to it, peers' rooms, tommittee
rooms, and the various offices. The House 'o Commons,
too, is being made as smart as it is capable of; being made
for the reception of its new occupants.

DEATH OF MRS. DILLON, THE ACTRESS.—Mrs.
Charles Dillon, wife of the well-known English actor, died
in New York on the 13th inst. Mrs. Dillon arrived with
her husband from Australka a few days prorious, and was
seeking an engagemetit.

Fight between a Terrier and a Cormorant.

An old sportsman writes as follows from Australia :

—" I was engaged, in company with a friend, in my
garden, when my attention was attracted to a little
bitch of mine, by name Topsy, who made for the brink
of a cutting some 10 or 12 feet deep. Upon looking
down I saw a cormorant in the water. My little
dog showing great anxiety I encouraged her, '
when, after finding a convenient place to descend,
she at once took the water, and made for the
bird. Upon approaching it the bird at once dived ;
Topsy vainly looking for it. At length it rose, and
the bitch again made for it, when down goes the
bird again. This was repeated some ten or a dozen
times, when at length the bird came up stem on to
the bitch, to about a foot from her head. The little
canine at once snapped at the bird, but missed, re-
ceiving in return for her attempt a very smart blow
straight between the eyes, which so astonished her
that she turned tail and made for the shore, the bird,
ad interim, having gone to the depths below. But
no sooner did Topsy catch sight of it than in she
was again, and the same diving and sinking con-
tinued as before. At length the bird rose close to
the bitch, but, as before, she failed in her kind in-
tentions. But not so the cormorant. He seized the
little animal by the side of the ear and thrust her
head under water, and dived with her, as near as I
can judge, to the depth of a foot or 18 inches. This
he repeated three times, my little Topsy appearing,
as I fancied, half drowned. I was about to rush to
the rescue, when I stayed my interference upon ob-
serving she had seized the cormorant by the pinion.
And now began the tug of war. Round and round
they went like a teetootum, now this way, now that,
the bitch trying all she knew to get the bird to the
shore, and the bird as knowingly trying to avoid it,
but unable to dive, the bitch sticking to her like Tom
Sayers did to Heenan. Now you could see the bitch
was getting the best of it ; in spite of all the bird
could do, she was gradually and nearly approaching
the shore. At length, having descended, I took the
bird by the neck, and so exhausted was it, that it
died in my hand without a struggle ; Topsy also was
much spent. The combat lasted, as nearly as I can
judge, a good half hour. The bird was weighed by
a storekeeper immediately after, and weighed four
pounds less an ounce ; Topsy weighs ten pounds and
a half. I must state, as my friend and I stood di-
rectly above the combatants, we could distinctly see
every motion. Neither bird nor dog ever let go their
hold after once taken. The breed of Topsy—dam
Skye terrier ; sire not known.
" Rocky Lead, Sept. 5."