The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-14 00:00:00

S FRIDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER l4, 186 g.

LATEST NEWS.

THE BANK OF FRANCE.

PARIS, Nov. 14.

The Aroniteur of this morning publishes the usual
monthly return of the Bank of France, which shows
the following results, as compared with the October

return :

Francs.

DECREASE.

Cash in hand ..
Treasury balance ..

.. 461 millions,
.. 7 1-9 millions

INCRE.4BE•
Bills discpunted, not yet die

86k millions.
44 millions.
11-k millions
lsi millions

ank-notes

Current accounts ..

Advances

BRUSSELS, Nov. 13.

The Government presented to the Chambers to-
day a complete programme of the measures which
it proposes to introduce during the present session.
The principal of these Us are for the revision of
the militia laws, the founding of scholarships for
poor students, a grant of 1,000,000 f. for the build-
ing of schools, another of 600,000, for works of
communal utility in the towns suffering from the
cotton crisis, and a grant of 400,000 f. in augmenta-
tion of the annual subsidy for primary instruction.
Bills will also be introduced for the repression of
electoral frauds, the War Budget, the Ways and
Means, the Budget for the Ministry of Justice for
1863, and other less important matters.

ATHENS, Nov. 9.

The Turkish Envoy has protested against the
demand made by the Pro!isional Government on
Greeks residing in all countries to Bend deputies to
the Greek Chambers.

The Porte, on the other hand, recognises the
passports signed by the Provisional Government.

FRANCE.

PARIS, Nov. 13.

BOURSE, Nov. 13.—The improvement which took
place in' the tone of the market yesterday has
vanished to-day, and business has become again
heavy. Threes, for the Account, have receded to
70fr. 60c. The Railway Share Market has been
also depressed, but without, up to the present time,
any very considerable decline. The market closed
as follows :

4t per Cents .. 98
Do. eRd month....
3 per Cents
Do. end month 7O 70
New 3 per Cents
Do. end month —
Credit Mobilier..., 1142 50
Do, end month 1147 50
BAIL

Bank Shares 3340 --
Credit Foncier 1302 50
Piedmontese Fives 72 30
Italian Loan 72 35
• Roman ....
--
• Austrian
Spanish Threes
Home Debt ••• • • • 60 75
'WAYS.

Cash. Account.
Orleans lO5O .. 1050
Northern
New ditto .. . • •
Lyons and Mediterranean 1153 75 .. 1155
Geneva 352 50 ..
Southern 853 75 .. 852 50
Western
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian 497 50 .. 500
Lowbard 597 50 .. 600
*North of Spain
Saragossa 632 50 .. 633 75
Ditto to Barcelona .. 350 .. 340

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, Nov. 11.

Yesterday the sitting of the Lower Chamber of
the Reicharath was of short duration, though the
subjects discussed were of interest. The house
voted 8,865,338f1. for the Naval Department, and
at the same time censured the Government for
having expended 400,000f1. more during the
year 1862 than had been granted. In fact, the
conduct of the Cabinet was declared to be un-
constitutional. By the report of the Com-
mittee of Finance it is to be seen that the proposed
outlay for the Foreign Department is 2,569,50011.,
which is 74,882f1. less than in 1862. The sum
demanded for the Hungarian Chancellerie is
13,109,100 E; that for the Transylvanian Chancellerie
3,451,000f1. ; and that for the Croato-Slavonian
Chancellerie 2;179,7001 The Police Department
will cost the country 2,659,800f1. ; and the Ministry
of Commerce and Agriculture 1,359,700f1. Ten
persons will form a Committee for the manage-
ment and control of the National Debt, and it is
agreed that five of them shall be chosen by the
Lower and five by the Upper House. In as far as
the Lower Chamber of the Reiehsrath is concerned,
the question relative to the Bank is settled, but it
is morally certain that some of the conditions pro-
posed will be rejected by the representatives of the
shareholders.

NEW YORK CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.

--*---

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

NEW YORE, OCT. 28.

SlR,—Your readers will no doubt have seen be-
fore this reaches London, a copy of the resolutions
or address presented by the Chamber of Commerce
of this city (not of the State of New York, as their
correspondent Mr. Bright named them) referring
to many things in general and to the stated case of
the Alabama i❑ particular.
The document is rather lengthy and discursive,
and as it gives opinions upon subjects and assumes
as facts certain things which, at the same time, are
admitted to be what are called usually " mere mat-
ters of hearsay," I make a remark in reference only
to that resolution, which mentions " the desire of
this Chamber, as it is the interest of all its mem-
bers, to cherish sentiments of amity with the
people of Great Britain, to maintain those cordial
relations which have led to profitable intercourse,
and to strengthen the ties which knit them toge-
ther in mutual courtesy and respect."
These are, it will be admitted, excellent senti-
ments, and it is only to be regretted that this
Chamber has not carried out in practice the theories
and the wishes it enunciates ; because it is a matter
of fact and of history that for the last 18 months,
whatever may be the " wishes and sentiments" of
of this body, no other organisation in America has
been more constant—to judge by the published re-
ports of the speeches of its members--in endeavours
to stir up, embitter, and originate every circum-
stance and subject which could create ill-will in the
minds of the American people against Great Britain
and the British. It is true that in some cases a
minority of this Chamber (insignificant in numbers
but not in commercial position) has endeavoured to
check or modify the anti-British course of debate
and expression—and possibly this may explain the
absence of late of these names of merchants, &c.,
of world-wide reputation, from all the proceedings
except those of mere local technical concern.
In truth and fact, the Chamber of Commerce
of New York appears to have turned into a mere
political organisation, and, as such, has advocated
high tariffs, eulogised and complimented Captain
Wilkes for his lawless outrage upon a British vessel
of commerce, and when the so-called sea fight took
place between the Monitor and Merrimac, and that
the then public opinion in this country had pro-
claimed in its wisdom that the former was a model,
and the best war-ship in "all creation." This
Chamber's first action was to request Mr. Ericsson
to furnish plans and estimates for new Monitors
that would pass up the canals, &c., to the lakes:;
and when he announced that he could build a war
steamer that might destroy all the shipping in the
River Thames and return safe again, this senti-
ment was greeted with the loudest cheers of the
members of that Chamber, which now—because a
privateer (or war-ship) of another country, or sec-
tion of a country, has carried into practice the theo-
retical right which the United States only defended
at the Congress of Paris—volunteers to lecture the
Government and people of Great Britain upon
alleged breaches of neutrality for which there ap-
pears no further foundation than its own assertion
and opinion.
I had no wish to comment upon the domestic
affairs or political organisptions of this country,
but when this Chamber of Commerce volunteered
to address my countrymen upon such matters as
those referred to, it appeared to me desirable that
they should be made acquainted with, or reminded
of, the course pursued by it as to Great Britain and
the British.—l am, &c.,
A BRITISH TRAVELLER.

7 ILE PRUSSIAN CHAMBERS.

- - - - - -

The Constitutionnel give some curious details
relative to the working of the Chambers in Prussia.

says: --

" A central committee has been formed at Berlin
:o receive subscriptions in favour of such functiona-

ries as may ba prosecuted in consequence of their
political opinions. This latter demands an expla-
nation. According to the Prussian Constitution
functionaries may be elected deputies, and have no
need, in order to take 1 heir seats in the Chamber,
to obtain any Ministerial authorisation. The elec-
tors have largely taken advantage of the latitude
accorded by the Charter, and for the last twelve
years the bureaucracy of all categories, and of
all degrees, has furnished a considerable contin-
gent to the Legislative Assemblies. Under the
absolute monarchy, that is until 1847, there were
neither tribune nor press ; with some rare excep-
tions, no one, unless obliged by his public functions,
occupied himself with politics. It is thus explained
that, at the moment when the populations were
called on to take part in the legislation, there was
not found a sufficient number of men versed in
financial, administrative, and judicial questions ; it
was necessary to choose them from among the ranks
of the public functionaries. In fact there were
counted during ore Parliament, in the Second
Chamber, 72 prefects, 30 other functionaries of the
administraive orders, 12 royal precureurs, and
more than 60 judges. The labours of the Chamber
have at many points of view profited by that state
of things, but an inconvenience of the gravest kind
has resulted from it. The absence of constitutional
guarantees under the absolute regime was in some
measure compensated for by the privileged situation
of the functionaries who, in Prussia, with the ex-
ception of some rare categories, are in a certain
measure not removable ; they can only be dismissed
by virtue of a judgment, either of the regular tri-
bunals, or by disciplinary courts established to take
cognisance of the offences committed by them in
the exercise of their duties. The action of
a Prussian Minister over his subordinates is con-
sequently of a limited character. The central
Government nominates the presidents of the 26
regencies of the monarchy, and those presidents
are removable. On the other hand, the regency is
a body composed of a certain number of immovable
councillors, voting by majority, and in which the
president has only a single vote, like the of her coun-
cillors. It may be understood that, in the absence
of all public control, such an organisation was in a
position to render immense services; it preserved
the people against any excess of power, and con-
stituted an incorruptible guardianship of the public
interests."
But the situation was not the same after the pro-
mulgation of the Charter in 1850, which invested
the Chambers with the right of financial control,
and conferred on them a portion of the legislative
power. Hence as the functionaries can be elected
to the Chamber and cannot be removed at will from
the places they hold under the Government they
can exercise a certain pressure on the Ministers.
Hence the Government is obliged at present to do
what it can to lessen the influence of the deputies
who are functionaries. The writer shows how and
explains why the subscriptions spoken of above are
necessary :
"Now that the Auerswald ministry is no longer
in power, a movement in an inverse sense appears
to be in preparation. The present ministry finds
itself in presence of an opposition, the principal
leaders of which are superior functionaries. It can-
not dismiss them for the single fact of having op-
posed the Government from the tribune, and they
are therefore immoveable. It therefore makes use
of some prerogatives which remain in its hands : it
puts on the shelf such of its opponents as have sub-
mitted to its absolute authority, and sends into
other towns such functionaries as are chiefs of the
opposition."
The writer is strongly opposed to the course thus
pursued by the Government, but, on the other hand,
he blames the Liberal party in Prussia, professing
as it does seriously to respect representative insti-
tutions, for encouraging functionaries to show
oppnstion to the Ministry :
" The Liberal party in Prussia," he says, "would
do well to examine if there is not still something
else to be done than encouraging the opposition
of functionaries; for whatever may be the party
which governs, the more it endeavours to inspire
itself with the principles of the constitutional
system, the more of unity it will be obliged to
introduce in the ministerial action• That unity
can only be established so far as the ministers
shall exercise in political matters the most abso-
lute action over their subordinates. In a word,
we believe that, under the representative system,
functionaries should as mach as possible remain
excluded from the legislative assemblies; at the
most could an exception be admitted in favour
of those whose functions are essentially political,
and who come in and go out with the different
ministers ? "