The Sun.
London, England, 1853-07-14 00:00:00

BRAZIL AND THE RIVER PLATE.

SOUTHAMPTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING.
The royal mail steam-ship Tay, Captain Revett,
has arrived with the usual Brazil and Rio La Plata
mails, and dates from Buenos Ayres June 2 ; Mon-
tevideo, 5 ; Rio de Janeiro' 14 ; Bahia, 18 ; Per-
nambuco, 21 ; St. Vincent, Cape de Verd, 29 ;
Teneriffe, July 4 ; Madeira, 6 ; and Lisbon, 9.
The Tay brings 137 passengers to Southampton,
and has landed 51 at Lisbon, and on freight four
bags cochineal, 41 serons ipecacuanha, 215 half-
chests lemons, and sundry merchandise.
From Buenos Ayres there is nothing very new.
The army of General Urquiza had neither advanced
nor retreated. Blockade by the squadron was con-
stituted, and this rendered provisions gradually
scarcer. In fact, to starve the city now seems to he
his object. Our letters contain the following :—We
continue besieged by land and blockaded by water,
altogether in a deplorable, but not by any means a
desperate state. The besiegers decidedly lose
ground, and Urquiza, with his Gauchos and the old
cut-throats of Rosas, neither dares to make an as-
sault, nor will they await a general action when
Gen. Paz is ready, as we think he will soon be, to go
out and attack them. The sally would probably
have taken place on the night of the 27th and the
morning of the 28th ult.,
,had not a heavy rain un-
fortunarely interrupted the operations, and ren-
dered the roads unfit for the purpose for several
days. The weather has - since been fine, and we
are now in expectation of a decisive movement. As
to the blockade, we refer to the published corre-
spondence, and need only add that the British
authorities are in as bad odour with the natives as
their own countrymen. We still think that the
mock blockade must be abandoned ; if so, a number
of foreigners will undoubtedly take up arms and
settle matters in a different way. There is nothing
to be known from the negotiations of mediation,
but the actual Government is firmly seated, public
confidence buoyant, the National Guards decided,
and the regular troops and foreign legions conduct
themselves bravely.
In a sally this morning one of our most distin-
guished officers was severely wounded, nothing
else particular has occurred.
At Rio business in general had been in a state of
great paralysation in consequence of a severe pres-
sure in the money market, arising from an over ex-
tension of business. First rate bilks had with diffi-
culty been done at 10 per cent. A project of the
Minister of Finance, to allow the banks to place in
circulation their paper currency against deposits of
undoubted securities, redeemable within a fixed
time, was under discussion. In coffee transactions
had been extremely limited, and prices experienced
a decline • shipments during the month 66,963
bales. Freights to the English Channel 70s. to 755.
Five per Cent. stock was quoted 83 ; Six per Cent.
100 to 103.

At Bahia the weather was very wet and cold.
Business in imports was dull ; sugar market active ;
freights declining. Fever was very prevalent, the
natives suffering as much. as foreigners. In coffee
the supply from the interior had been trifling.
Exchange was firm at 29d., discounts 9 to 12 per
cent.

At Pernambuco the supply of sugar was limited ;
owing to the continued prevalence of rain, prices
had ruled exceedingly high ; the exports showed
an excess of 18,000 tons over the last crop ; the
next crop promises well. Freights nominal. Ex-
change closed firm at 29d., discounts 8 to 10 per cent.
From Lisbon our accounts are to the 9th inst. ;
the Tay left that city at 3 p.m. on the 9th, four
hour after the departure of the Peninsular mails
for Southampton by the Iberia steamer, which
calls at Oporto and Vigo.
There were no foreign vessels of war in the
Tagus, her Majesty's ship Cruiser having sailed for
Gibraltar on the 6th.
The exchange business at Lisbon had been
limited for this mail. No alteration was noted in
the quotations, but bills on London were scarce at
54!, for three months, before the arrival of the
mail from Brazil, which was expected to supply
the takers.

There was no particular novelty in Portuguese
politics. The Deputies had voted nearly all the
items of expenditure for 1853 or 1854, and,were
discussing the marine department—the last of the
budget—when the Tay left.
The English system of prepaying letters by
stamps commenced in Portugal on the Ist of July.
Letters under three-eighths of an ounce are de-
livered in any part of Portugal and in the Azores
for 25 reis, or about lid. each, and those to or
from the ultramarine possessions at 40 reis, or 2d.
each. The stamps are neatly got up with the
Queen's effigy, and the system seemed likely to
work well, being a great improvement upon the
old one.

The Tay spoke her Majesty's screw line-of-battle
ship Duke of Wel4gtou o& ilyinouth this