The Sun.
London, England, 1854-09-15 00:00:00

() 7t; 14' V :NI AR K f4l

COMAIEBCIAL INT ELL IGENO B.

CITY, TV 0 o'CLOCK.

The sales of cotton at Liverpool yesterday
were estimated at 6,000 bales, including 1,500
American taken for export and on speculation.
The market was very tame, and prices were un-
changed. The sales comprised 4,500 American, 100
Pernam and Maranham at Gid. to 0
Bahia at 6gd., 800 Egyptian at sid. to 6id., and
GOO Surat at 3d. to 40. per lb. Railway Shares
were quiet.

Colonial produce this week has been taken to a
' limited extent only, and prices have varied but
little. Tallow is an article that has suffered rather
decidedly, having declined. Tea has been heavy
also, and in Cotton there has not been much done.
There have been a few transactions in Rum, and
Spices have been quiet. Sugar has been dull, and
in Coffee the dealings have been limited. A mode-
rate business has been done in Saltpetre.
The number of ships arrived in the Thames yes-
terday from foreign parts was 44 besides 45 colliers.
There are further arrivals from Australia with
bullion freights. The Indian Queen from Mel-
bourne arrived in the Mersey, brings 70,000 ounces,
or rather less according to other reports. The
Rodney from Sydney has 7,950 ounces and 6,500/.
The dates are old.

The increase in the rate of postage, as established
by the Legislative Council of Victoria, is in itself a
measure so unwise, that not even the plea of de-
ficient income will avail in palliation. A Sydney
journalist very impartially adverts to this subject,
and adduces the experience, not alone of the mother
country, but likewise of New South Wales, against
the revival of dear postage. The following is the
view he takes :

" While it is acknowledged that the Council had felt
justified in the course they had taken, in imposing in-
creased rates of postage, mainly on a view of the utter
. disproportion of the postage receipts to the expendi-
ture incurred in the conveyance of mails, and of the
necessary extension of postal communication, Mr.
La Trobe charitably trusts that these increased
rates will not offer a bar to that interchange
which is so much conducive to the advancement
of civilisation. We thought it had been clearly under-
stood by this time, throughout the whole British em-
pire, that so far as the advancement of civilisation is
dependent upon postal communication, the great art of
adapting the means to the end is to make the charge
for communication both cheap and uniform. After
an experience of some fifteen years, the mother
country has verified this truth to her full satis-
faction, and to the satisfaction, as was supposed,
of all her colonies. We have tried the experiment in
New South Wales, and au experience of more than
four years attests its wisdom, whether viewed in its
fiscal or in its social character. Nay, so deeply had
we become convinced of its importance as a help to
the cause of civilisation, that for -the last two years
our Government have been doing all they could
to induce the whole of the Australian colonies to
cooperate in placing their postal relations upon
a footing of cheapness and uniformity. To the best of
our recollection, the appeal was responded to favourably
from every one of them, even (so far at least as her Exe-
cutive was concerned) from Victoria herself. And now
the hoped for arrangement is rudely destroyed by this
legislative blunder ! The reformatory process has been
reversed, and, by the enactment of a law in direct an-
tagonism to the spirit of the age, the Legislature of Vic-
toria has made itself unenviably conspicuous amongst
her colonial sisterhood?'

The market for United States Securities has been
very dull this week.

The report which gains ground as to the proba-
bility of a new French loan, is naturally calcu-
lated to interest all parties who watch the money
market. The sum that will be required is stated
at 16,000,0001., and if this statement be correct,
it would appear that the expenditure of our
neighbours for domestic as well as warlike
purposes, more than keeps pace with our
own. Anyone visiting France, and more especially
Paris, at this moment, must be sensible of the
large outlay which the State is incurring, the pub-
lic works department alone absorbing a good sum,
but while so much is expended at home, the indus-
trious classes benefit, however the public burdens
may be augmented. It is an evil that borrowing
should have to be resorted to, but there is no al-
ternative when a war struggle is being carried on,
between immediate and onerous taxation and re-
course to loans. Here we have seen great opposi-
tion to Mr. Gladstone's plans for raising the larger
part of the war expenses by increased imposts, but
the results promise to be salutary.
There has been a heavy tone again in the Eng-
lish funds, and the quotations have not recovered
from the depression which occurred yesterday
afternoon. The statement about a new loan for
France, acting upon a dull market, is the cause.
Consols have been 95 to for transfer, and from
95 b have receded to 951 for account.
.The
New 31 per Cents. have been done at 83k, and
since at 821 for special delivery. Exchequer-bills
have been at 6s. to Os., and East India Bonds at
10s. premium.

Foreign Securities are heavy. Spanish Three-
per-Cents. have receded to 37/1, and the Deferred
to 181. Mexican Bonds have been at 247; to 25,
and Brazilian New at 96. The Turkish Scrip down
to 4- to 5 premium. There are no bargains in
Dutch or Russian Stocks. Sardinian have been
quoted 88.

The following are the nominal prices of foreign
stocks :—Grenada Deferred Bonds, 6 to G. ;
Mexican, 241 to 241 ; Peruvian, 70 to 72 ; ditto
3 per Cents., 51 to 53 ; Portuguese 4 per Cents.,
40 to 42 ; Russian 5 per Cents., 98 to 100 ; ditto,
4} per Cents., 88 to 90 ; Spanish Now Deferred,
18i to 18i ; ditto 3 per Cents., 371 to 38i ; ditto
Certificates. 5i to 51 ; ditto Passive 4 to 4k.
Railway Shares have been at rather lower rates
than yesterday, the effect of the settlement having
in some measure passed away. The decline is most
perceptible in Lancashire and Yorkshire, North-
Western and Berwick. The foreign lines are still
merely nominal.

For the Gold and other Mining Shares there is
no inquiry, the Banks are firm, though quiet, and
the Crystal Palace have not recovered.

BRITISH FUNDS THIS DAY AT ONE O'CLOCK.
(From the Official List.)

Ru-iness done.
3 per Cent. Consols Annuities 93 i i
New 2i per Cent. Annuities
India Bonds, £lOOO ..
Ditto, under £lOOO lO p
Consols for Account 17th Oct.
Exchequer Bills, lid.
11000
Small 6
Exchequer Bonds 1858, 3A per Cent. —
t Ditto 1859, „
PRICE OF FOREIGN FUNDS AT ONE O'CLOCK.
Brazilian Bonds, 5 per Cent —
Ditto New, 1852, 4... i per Cent .....
Mexican 3 per Cent.
Sardinian Bonds, 5 per Cent BB
Spanish Bonds, 3 per Cent. 37i i
Spanish New Deferred, 3 per Cent
Spanish Committee Cort. of Coup. not fun sit,
Turkish Scrip
Dividends on the above payable in London.
HALF•PAST TWO.

Consols
Ditto October Account

The Belfast News Letter gives the number of cases of
cholera that had occurred in Belfast from Tuesday morn-
ing, the sth inst., to Monday night last, as follows :
Number of cases, 108 ; died, 34 ; cured, 32 ; sent to
hospital, 21 ; remaining under treatment, 48. The fol-
lowing is the return from the commencement of the
disease up to the present' period :—Number of cases,
735 ; died, 192 ; cured, 233 ; sent to hospital, 256 ; re-
maining under treatment, 48.
STATE OF TRADE.—The continued inactivity in the
lace trade appears to be operating dishearteningly on the
spirits of our manufacturers, and they begin to indulge
the impression, that unless the long-expected improve-
ment absolutely sets in between the 20th and 30th inst.,
little hope remains of doing a successful autumn busi-
ness, and their hopes must TDe directed onwards to the
spring Meanwhile no change has occurred, and things
remain exactly where they were, the protracted character
of the existing dulness being regarded as its most unfa-
vourable symptom. The state of the American Money
Market continuing still to be so unsatisfactory restricts
hosiery business to home transactions ; no shipping trade
is doing. The manufacturers, however, are grateful that
the very multiplicity of branches into which the trade
has gradually extended renders the home demand ade-
quate to cause fair employment to be kept up. Those
unacquainted with the ramifications of the trade could
scarcely, indeed, have any conception of the extent and
variety of these additions to our hosiery manufactures,
or the vast range included, in its productions, from the
large under-clothing technically known as "pantaloons,"
to the elastic branches, comprising baby jumpers for the
home trade, and coloured belts for the Australian
market. It is to these resources that hosiery is indebted
for the maintenance of its energies in the absence of a
favourable foreign business.—Not(inghantshire Cluardian.