The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-13 00:00:00

THE DRAIN OF BULLION.

Owing to the Indian absortion the present drain
of bullion has been of a more extensive and pro-
tracted character than any that has bean witneaeed
since the panic of 1857. With two slight excep-
tions it has now gone on uninterruptedly for 14
weeks, until a total diminution has been sustained
of £3,022,633, which may probably be further ex-
tended by the return to be published this evening.
The last previous outflow of any consequence was
in 1860, when there was a falling off, during eight
consecutive weeks, and an aggregate reduction
almost precisely similar to that just witnessed,
which led to an advance of the rate of discount
from 4to 6 per cent. In the period which preceded,
the panic of 1857 the drain was uninterrupted for
18 weeks, or four weeks longer than has yet bean
witnessed in the present instance, and the total re -
duetion sustained was X 4,576,980, while the I ate of
discount was carried prom 51- to 10 per cant. Thera
were two important differences, however, between
those occasions and the present—namely, that the
stock of bullion held by the Bank at the date of
the commencement of each decline was much be-
low that whieh was held when the downward
movement commenced in July last, and that the
reduction in the reserve of notes coincident with
that of bullion was much more nearly equal. Since
July the falling off in the reserve has been only
L 2,040,695, against £3,022,633 in the bullion
while in the drain of 1860 the bullion and
the Reserve decline nearly together, and in 1857
the action was greater upon the Reserve even than
upon the bullion, the former showing a reduction
of £4,729,780 against L 4,576,980 in the latter.
These circimstances,which were attributable to the
more active state of the commercial demand for
discount at those dates, afford an explanation of the
Bank having at this time found it necessary to raise,
their rate only from 2 to 3 per cent. It is plain,
however, not only that there is a fair avenge ex-
tent cif business now going on throughout the united.
kingdom, but a tendency to an increase from the
steady influx of raw material. Still, as we are
abundantly supplied with grain, and even now hold
an amount of cotton which, calculated at existing
quotations, would represent a total value not very
different from the value of the stock usually held in
ordim-ry periods, there would apparently be no great
reason to expect any further or rapid upward move-
ment in the terms of the Bank if there were any
symptom of a probable pause in the remittances now
being made to the East. Reckoning the X 500,000
of bills drawn by the India Council, we seem at pre-
sent to be transmitting to India at the rate of about
three millions sterling per month, and pending the
uncertainty as to the point to which these opera-
tions will extend, all calculations regarding the
future of the money-market must be varae.
Enough, however, will be apparent to
everyob-
server to indioate a necessity for the exercise of
caution.

7flE NAVY.

The screw steam frigate Phoebe, 51, Capt. Pot,
tescue, left Plymouth sound on Tuesday afternoon
for the Mediterranean.

Letters have been received at Plymouth from the
gunvessel Lee, 5, Commander E. C. Symons, dated
Whydah, Oct. 10, when all were well on board.
It is reported at Plymouth that the crew of the
screw steam frigate Emerald, 35, Capt. A. Cum-
ming, now at Osborne, are daily expecting orders
to be paid off either at Portsmouth or Plymouth.
She was put in commission in May, 1859.
The cause of the leakage in the screw steam cor-
vette Barossa, 21, Capt. W. M‘Dowell, referred to
the The Sun of Saturday last, continues a mystery.
After being thoroughly overhauled she was taken
out of dock at Devonport on Saturday, and in all
other respects will be ready for sea to-day, but the
leakage continues. A commission of officers con-
nected with the steam reserve met on board on Tues-
day. It is now stated that while in ordinary at
Sheerness she made an inch an hour. Some of the
seamen say that when off Ushant she rolled heavily,
but the shipwrights recently employed on her have
not observed any signs of straining. Her armament
consists of 16 8 inch guns, 4 Armstrongs, and one
100 pounder pivot ditto. Her engines cause much
vibration. The defect is still attribute& to some-
thing wrong in the Kingston valves.