The Sun.
London, England, 1853-06-03 00:00:00

MRS. HATTER.

Train of blue and white brocaded silk, trimmed with
Honiton ; petticoat of white and gold umize. tread-dress,
feathers and lace lappets ; ornaments, diamonds.
Miss COOTS.
Train of rose-coloured glace silk, trimmed with bouffauts
of tulle and bunches of pink arid white laburnum ; petti-
coat of white crape, with five flounces, striped with satin
ribbon and bunches of laburnum, to correspond with train.
Head-dress, a wreath of pink and white laburnum, feathers,
pearls, and lappets.

- MISS WILCOCKS.
(Niece of his Excellency the American Minister.)
A rich presentation dress, composed of bodice and tram,
of white moire antique, trimmed with point d'Alencon and
bouillons of tulle and ribbon ; petticoat of embroidered
tarlatan, over white satin, each flounce draped en tablier
with bouquets of roses panachees. Head-dress, a wreath
of roses panachees, ostrich feathers, and point lappets ;
ornaments, diamonds and pearls.
ss BuLLEn.
A costume de cour, Miss }3ULLEIi.
A costume de cour, composed of a train and body of the
richest sky-blue glace silk ; the train trimmed ail round
with bouquets of blush roses, silver ribbon, and blue
taffetas ribbon, with festoons of tulle; the body trimmed
with blonde, and a bouquet of blush roses and blue and
silver ; the dress of tulle, looped up with bouquets of blush
roses and blue and silver ribbon, over a skirt of the richest
white glace silk. Head-dress, a plume of feathers, blonde
lappets, bouquet of flowers and pearls.
Miss YARDE BULLER.
Train of white moire, trimmed with gold lama ; white
tulle petticoat over glace, trimmed with gold ; and tunic
of glace, festooned with gold ribbon. Head-dress, feathers
and scarf of gold-spotted tulle ; ornaments, pearls.

ADVANCE IN THE BANK RATE OF
DISCOUNT.

(From the Times.)

An advance in the Bank rate of discount is at all
,imes a portent in the mercantile world ; but, coming
now in the bright month of June, at a time of general
prosperity, with the balance of trade in an unusually
safe state, and no one branch of speculation in evident
excess, the portent comes like the flash of lightning in
a cloudless sky, or the " thunder and rain in the wheat
harvest " of Syria. During the last five years such a
flood of the precious metals has poured into this country
as was before inconceivable ; and during the last week
alone gold has been arriving at the average rate of not
less than a ton a-day. Consols are 14 per cent. higher
than they were in November, 1848, and have remained
so long above par as to flatter ns all with the hope
of being able to reduce the interest of the debt to 21 per
cent. Yet the Bank finds it can safely demand as much
as 3 per cent. from its best customers. So great a
check, in spite of favourable appearances, and after all
eliciting no other remark than a little natural remon-
strance against such sudden strokes of mercantile policy,
does really suggest more reflection than a similar oc-
currence on the eve of expected disaster. We
should be alarmists if we said that there was at
this moment any reasonable or general anticipa-
tion of difficulty and collapse. No manufacture has
been overdone, no trade pushed too far, no undertakings
pledged beyond the limits of easy performance, no mil-
lions cast on the waters in the shape of loans to insol-
vent or revolutionary States. John Bull, usually credu-
lous, easy, sanguine, and most incontinent of his cash,
has not yet ceased to ruminate over the decennial
catastrophes that have afflicted his purse. "He is a
rich man, and one that hath had losses," and his losses
are fresh enough to make him almost too cautious.
What, then, is there that should lead our great capita-
lists to tighten the reins of confidence just at this mo-
ment ? Their instinct is not to be impugned, for habit
gives them a special sense of mercantile credit. They
may not look very far, nor need they look very far, since
credit is only a question of the day, and requires but a
narrow, though a nice and exact, observation.
Perhaps the chief cause of this comparative tightness,
which has gradually come on with so little to account
for it, is the usual one—speculation ; but in the more
ordinary and uniform shape of what is called general
prosperity. If by the test of trade returns, of Customs
and of Excise, the expenditure of this country is now
greater than it has ever been, there must be a great amount
of speculation. To spend is to invest, and to invest
is to speculate, or to lay out in the hope of return.
In fact, there never was more building going on than
just at this moment ; never did land in the neighbour-
hood of the metropolis and other large cities command
so high a price ; never were so many manufactories,
warehouses, shops, public-houses built or enlarged,—
never was there so much shipbuilding, especially in the
more costly kinds, in magnificent mercantile steamers,
—never were there so many people said to be making
their fortunes,—never were artisans and even labourers
so well paid,—never was there so much spent in luxu-
ries, in dress, in amusements, in education, and in all
that fluctuates with wealth or credit. Never was there
so much spent in railway travelling; and just now it
must not be forgotten that there is a revival of railway
expenditure in the shape of new branches and improve-
ments, made with the object of securing traffic from
competition. One company alone has recently raised
more than three millions in shares for this purpose ; and
others, on the like plea of self-defence, are raising pro-
portionate sums. Now, all this is speculation, largely,
equally, and so far safely diffused. The farmer specu-
lates when he raises his wages ; the labourer when
he consumes more bacon and beer ; the parent when
he sends another son to school ; the village trades-
man when he takes a journeyman into his service,
and allows another month's credit to his customers.
A very, slight survey of the country will show an un-
exampled prevalence of speculation in its usual its
local, and its domestic forms, but constituting an aggre-
gate as great, though not as formidable, as the passing
of railway acts to the amount of a hundred millions of
money in one session, or loans of thirty millions to
Central and South American Republics.
On speculation of this universal, uniform, and regular
character, we have two remarks to make • first, that it
is one more than usually absorbent of the precious
metals ; then that it is comparatively safe. As to the
first point, we have very little doubt that there is more
money afloat in this country than there ever was before
—not only hoarded or deposited, but, so to speak, in the
pockets of the people, and " fructifying" accordingly,
The working classes find an extreme difficulty of invest-
ment in this country —hardly any alternative, indeed,
except the 24 per cent. given by the not infallible
savings banks, the certain ruin of the public-house,
the probable ruin of the shop, and the 5 per cent.
offered by the tradesman or lawyer, who may or may
not ever give back the principal. In the face of
this difficulty servants, and working people of all
classes, have no choice but to keep their money in
their boxes ; and we believe the amount so kept is
now unusually large ; so abundant is work, and so high
are wages. To this absorption of the circulating me-
dium, which we point out because it can appear in no
return, and is only a matter of conjecture upon personal
experience, must be added the immense sums retained
by the gold-producing colonies themselves, and the many
millions annually carried out to them. The drain of
the precious metals to the continent, to India, and in
coin to Australia, has been so often and so exactly
treated in its proper place, that we need not now enlarge
on it. If people ask, and we presume they will now
ask more than ever, where all the gold goes ?—how the
sixty, or even a hundred millions, lately added to the
currency above the average increase, has all disappeared ?
—we need only answer by asking, " Where should
money go ?" Where, except into the working man's
pocket, the shopkeeper's till, the strong box of the supe-
rior tradesman ? In other words, the best and most
natural result of a great influx of wealth is a general
increase of prosperity and expenditure, by which the
community is enabled to hold a much larger quantity of
money in solution, without precipitating it into the
cellars of banks.

Nor can it be doubted that such a state of things is
much safer than an excess of enterprise in one or two

wina
ne
Ind
all
lrs thato f
branches of industry. Indeed, there is nothing unsound,
nothing to excite any particular misgiving in the com-
mercial world, at this moment ; no rash incurring of
debts, no excess of trusting, no unwarranted reliance
upon new tastes and habits of expenditure. At least,
without defending all that one sees, and without lulling
proper caution, we may see that there is no such eaxbiltrayse-
vagance in progress as is likely to be followed
cbaye a
inße.
peril-
ous reaction. The dangers this time are rather from
misgovernment without thanfraonmd withinfailing the
resources cem commercial anldiw world, The
of a Burmese war, the dark future of China,glowing
table movements of Russia, the still
European revolution—all that terrifies kings,
infuriates peoples—constitute arather formidable whole,
which has its sure effect on the sensitive nature of the
capitalist. When such a state of affairs supervenes on a
general absorption of money as fast as it is added to the
circulation, no wontdoefir
nthda
t moneywe are startled in the very
atmosphere.
:o'sdpehaerr'e'.as ever, the
Three p
yfalling below par, and symptoms of a
hour of
eprro Cents,sperit
possible storm in the mercantile t
........_____

jTHE ATTEMPT AT MURDER NEAR EXETER. —The
ew pedlar, who was found in a copse near this city is
still dangerously ill, but consciousness has been restored.
Several attempts have been made to elicit from him
statement of the circumstances which led to his being
so dreadfully injured, but hitherto without effect. He
--

has conversed on other subjects, but has manifested a
desire to evade anything relating to the mysterious
affair. He has, however, stated that he had 51. 10s. on
him in silver, and was surprised when informed that he
had no money on him when found. On one occasion,
when asked about the Jew who was in his company, he
inquired if he was in Exeter. He frequently repeats
"That it came on of itself;" and on Tuesday morning,
swthiceknaqnudesatiopneerdsononsttrhe ucksui he said,
oumn "I
o tlsf I had
trikehinl
again ?" The police have hitherto been unable to find
the i
i Jew who was seen in his company the day previous
to his being found.