The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-20 00:00:00

Zd-ONEY AND COMMERCIAL NEWS.

CITY, Two o'CLocK.
The sales of Cotton at Liverpool yesterday were
estimated at 8,000 bales of which 2,0D0 American
were taken on speculation. The market closed
firmly. The sales comprised 7,000 American, 250
Pernam and Maranham at 61d. to 72d., 170 Bahia
at 6d., 250 Egyptian at 61d. to Is. 3d., 400 Surat
at 30. to 44d.., and 50 Sea Island at is. Bd. to
Is. lOid. per lb. Railway Shares were dull and
inactive.

The six weeks' average price of wheat is 455.
per quarter, and the last week's sales were 111,555
quarters. _ _ _

The following is the report made this day at the
meeting of the London Joint Stock Bank pro-
prietors
" The Directors have the satisfaction of laying before
the Shareholders the annexed Accounts, showing that
the net Profits for the six months ending the 31st De-
cember last, added to 10,1321. 18s 4d, brought forward
from the previous half-year, place at their disposal the
sum of 40,006/, 2s 4d.

" This result enables the Directors to declare a divi-
dend at the usual rate of 61. per cent. per annum, with
a bonus of 7s per share, both free from income tax, and
to add 1,0061. 2s 4d to the Guarantee Fund, which now
amounts to 146,613/. 8s 2d.
" The seats in the Direction which become vacant on
this occasion are those of William Miller Christy, Esq.,
Francis Bennett Goldney, Esq., William Ormsby Gore,
Esq., M.P., Henry Grace, Esq., and Sir Richard Jen-
kins, G.C.B. ; all of whom offer themselves for re-elec-
tion.

"The dividend and bonus will be payable on and after
Friday, the 28th inst.
PROFIT AND LOSS I ACCOUNT OF THE LONDON JOINT
STOCK BANK FOR THE HALF-YEAR ENDING 31ST
DECEMBER, 1852.
Dr.

£ a. d

To current expenses, proportion of
building expenses, directors' remune-
ration, bad debts, income-tax, &c.
To amount carried to profit and loss,
new account, being rebate of interest
on bills discounted not yet due
To amount transferred to the credit of
the " guarantee fund," in addition to
the above amount of 145,607/. ss. 10d.
To dividend account for the payment of
half-a-year's dividend, at the rate of
61. per centum per annum, upon
600,000/. amount of paid-up capital
upon 60,000 shares
To ditto, for the payment of a bonus of
is. per share

20,524 6 1

7,483 12 0

1,006 2 4

18,000 0 0

21,000 0 0

£68,014 0 11
Cr. £ s. d.
By balance brought down 57,881 2 7
By undivided profit brought forward
from the last half-year ....----..

10,132 18 4

£68,014 0 11

The Bank of England, much to the relief of the
mercantile community, has this morning advanced
the minimum rate of discount to 3 per Cent., and
it is hoped this will restore public confidence, keep
out foreign borrowers, because it will serve as a
hint of what more may be done, and turn the
exchanges. The panic on the Paris Bourse will
give a salutary lesson also.
The English Funds have been fluctuating this
morning, having opened at an improvement for the
Account, Consols being 99# to Subsequently a
little reaction occurred, Money Stock being of-
fered ; and Consols, which were 99 early in the
day, have been done at 99k. The advance in the
Bank rate of discount, just made known, has
caused a decline to 994 f for Transfer, and
to 991 * for Account ; Bank Stock is firm at 226 ;
but East India Stock, after being 273, has receded
to 270 ' • the New 3 per Cents. have been 1031 to
; and the Reduced 3 per Cents. 100 to ; South
Sea Stock has been quoted 111; Exchequer Bills
are 60s. to 645. premium, a further decline.
The Spanish Certificate is again in favour, hav-
ing been done as high as si. The Three per Cent..
Stock, on the other hand has declin-ed to 451
and the Deferred to 22i, being pressed for sale on
foreign account. Mexican Bonds have been steady
at 231, and Grenada at 12. Brazilian New Five
per Cents. have been 1021. Portuguese Four per
Cents. have been firm at 40, and Venezuela heavy
at 38* to 39. Russian Bonds have been marked
118 to 119. The Turkish Loan is at par. Dutch
Two-and-a-Half per Cents, are at 66, and Russian
at 118 to 119.

The Railway Share market has been variable.
Brighton have been a shade better, and also Cale-
donian. Midland have been steady.! Not much
has been done. The quotations now are generally
flatter. The French lines have given way. The
The Northern, 2/. ; the Rouen, 1/. to 1/. 10s. ; the
Lyons, 1/. 10s. ; and others, generally in propor-
tion.

The last week's Railway receipts, ascertained up
to this day, ar© in round figures as under :

Great Western
North Western
South 'Western
Brighton
Midland
South Eastern
Caledonian
Lancashire and Yorkshire
York and North Midland
Great Northern

1853. 1852.
.... 17,938 13,906
.... 44,127 39,203
. . 9634 8,468
5,500 7:409
.... 22,191 19,910
... 13,751 10,732
... 9,145 6,949
... 16,568 15,315
... 7,383 6,623
... 12,507 9,744

The Gold Mines were rather looking up, but
have received a check since the Bank advanced its
rate.

South Australian Land have been firm, and
Agricultural about the same.

BRITISH FUNDS THIS DAY.
(Prom the Official List.)
Business done.
Bank Stock
3 per Cent. Reduced Annuities ......
3 per Cent. Consols Annuities
New 31 per Cent. Annuities lO3l
India Stock
India Bonds, £lOOO —
Ditto, underl2looo 7O
SouthOSea Stock ... ~ 111
Consols for Account 10th February 994 i B i 4 3 9
Exchequer Bills 14d. March. Juue.
£lOOO.. 6l 4 60
£5OO 6l 4 60
Small 6l 4 60 4

LAW INTELLIGENCE.-(THIS DAY.)

COURT OF CHANCERY.

Before the Lord Chancellor and the Lords Justices

BRENAN V. PRESTON-APPEAL MOTION.

The question was whether the defendants were legally
dismissed as ship's husbands, and whether a receiver
should be appointed, and whether the defendants should
be restrained by injunction from proceeding in an action
at law before the suit in this court was determined.

Their lordships adhered to the order of the Vice-
Chancellor, and dismissed the appeal with costs, the
plaintiffs undertaldng to abide by any order that this
court might make upon any judgments obtained by the
defendants in a court of law, or any order of this court.
The plaintiffs were beyond the jurisdiction of this court.
The defendants claimed 1,5001. damages.

QUEEN'S BENCH.
THE QUEEN (ON THE PROSECUTION OF DR. ACHILLI) V.

NEWMAN,

This cause celebre came before the Court to-day upon
a rule which had been obtained by Sir A. E. Cockburn
for a new trial, on the ground that the verdict was
against the bulk of evidence adduced at the trial.
It is almost unnecessary to state that the verdict
passed fora the plaintiff, Dr. Achilli, who was formerly
a Roman Catholic priest, but now a clergyman of the
Protestant Church, in respect of certain libels affecting
his moral character, which were published by the de-
fendant, Dr. Newman, also a religious convert, but from
Protestantism to Romanism.

The Judges on the bench were Lord Campbell, who
presided at the trial, Mr. Justice Coleridge, Mr. Justice
Wightman, and Mr. Justice Erle. The court was very
much crowded both by the bar and the public.
Sir Frederick Thesiger, who appeared on behalf of Dr.
Achilli, showed cause against the rule. Having re-
marked that Lord Campbell expressed no dissatisfaction
with the result of the trial when the verdict was given
by the jury, he went on to observe that Dr. Achilli was
called upon to answer charges which extended over no
less than twenty-six years, and had reference to
offences the majority of which were alleged to have
been committed at various places in Italy, yet
no facilities were given to him by the prosecution for
the purpose of ascertaining important information to
assist him in his defence. If the advantages possessed
by Dr. Newman were contrasted with the position of
Dr. Achilli, no one could doubt that the latter went to
the trial of the case under most unfavourable and dis-
advantageous circumstances. It was ostentatiously
paraded that he had large funds at command, and was
backed by influential parties ; but there was, in reality,
no foundation for the statement. The plea of Dr. New-
man contained no less than 27 or 28' different charges,
extending from 1826 to 1850, but no attempt was made
to establish the great portion of them, and it was some-
what extraordinary to apply for the present rule, not
with the view of setting aside the verdict—which, it
must be admitted, could only be found for the plaintiff—
but to enable the defendant to enter into the unproved
charges, no doubt with the intention of inducing the
Court to diminish the punishment which would have to
he inflicted. That being so, would the Court say that
the whole case should be gone into again afresh ? would
it treat the plaintiff with such cruel injustice as
to compel him to go to the enormous expense
of preparing another defence, accompanied as it
would be by great harass and annoyance to himself, and
undertaken under the most adverse circumstances ?
At the trial Dr. Achilli was placed in a very unjust and
unprecedented situation ; he was ordered to withdraw
from the court, and being thus deprived of his undoubted
right to hear the charges of his accusers, he found him-
self, when he was called upon to give evidence in an-
swer to the testimony of other witnesses, in circum-
stances of great difficulty and embarrassment. It had
been observed by Sir A. E. Cockburn that, because so
many charges had been brought against Dr. Achilli,
therefore it must be presumed that he was guilty of
some of the alleged offences. He had too much reliance
on the judgment of the court to suppose it would take
so prejudiced or vulgar a view, because it a principle of
that kind were laid down, it would only be necessary to
bring together a great number of disreputable witnesses
to prove certain offences against a man in order to ob-
tain a verdict against him. The 4th charge was, that
Dr. Achilli, in 1826, committed an offence at Viterbo,
for which he was deprived of his faculty to lecture, by
Belzie, the superior of St. Dominic, the nature of
the offence being concealed ; and the 4th charge was an alle-
gation that in 1827 he had earned the reputation of being
a scandalous friar. No attempt was made to prove these,
and under the commonest principles of justice he was
right in assuming that they were totally devoid of truth ;
in fact, it was shown that Dr. Achilli only obtained his
professorship in 1827, and kept it until the year 1833.
Ile was;,next accused of debauching Rosa Di-allessandris,
a virgin 28 years old, in the sacristy of the church of
Gradi, at Viterbo, for which he was punished by his
bishop ; and it was said likewise that he had to bribe
her father in order to silence him. To prove this serious
offence no evidence was called by the defendant.
Lord Campbell—A reason was given for the non-at-
tendance of the woman ; it was stated that she refused
to come to England.
Sir F. Thesiger readily admitted that was so, but still
the accusation had fallen to the ground. In the ninth charge
the plaintiff was stated to have been punished by the
Holy Inquisition for other grave offences of the
same kind ; but at the very time they were said to be com-
mitted, he was preaching with honour and credit at Rome.
The 6th charge was for debauching a servant named
Valenti, who lived with the family of Gentilli, at Viterbo.
The woman was called herself, and she said Achilli had
intercourse with her on four different occasions ; she
added that she told her confessor, who requested her to
say nothing about it, as he was an ecclesiastic that
Achilli gave her some sausages and a handkerchief, and
that afterwards she began to have an affection for him,
and was sorry when he left Viterbo. Now Achilli denied
the charge, and said it was impossible he could have de-
bauched the girl at the Gentilli's house, as at the time
she specified he was on an autumnal visit to a family
called Christophili. This Sir A. E. Cockburn said was
a miserable subterfuge and equivocation to destroy the
credibility of Valenti, founding his assertion on the fact
which afterwards transpired, that the Christophili's name
was originally Gentilli. Now Achilli never disputed
that, but he positively declared, when confronted with
the woman, that he had not only not deflowered her, but
never saw her before. It was also to be remarked, that
she never told her mother or any other person except her
priest how she had been treated. Then Dr. Achilli was ac-
cused of debauching Principe, a girl aged 15, in the
sacristy of the church at Naples, where she had gone to
give some alms to a religious institution. She said she
became in the family way, and that her mother stopped
Dr. Achilli while in a procession in the streets, and
taxed him with being the author of the child's guilt,
and afterwards preferred a charge against him before
the police. It transpired that, though the girl said she
had repeated intercourse with Dr. Achilli, she never
acquainted her mother with her criminality until her
pregnancy became apparent. There were two circum-
stances which tended to throw doubt around the evidence
of these witnesses. The mother gave a contradictory
account to that of her daughter, denying especially that
she gave Dr. Achilli into custody ; and the date of the
alleged intercourse, and the birth of the child, showed
a serious discrepancy. The learned counsel then
adverted to the document drawn up by a notary
at Rome, containinc, the judgment delivered against
Dr. Achilli by the Holy Inquisition, in which it was set
out that he had confessed to certain of the offences
alleged against him, and said that little weight could be
attached to it, as the persons spoken of were not men-
tioned by name. If proceedings were instituted against
him for immoralities, surely there existed in the archives
of the Inquisition some documents containing the names
of the women with whom he was alleged to have had
intercourse. The evidence of having criminal connection
at Corfu with the wife of Garramoni was also unsatis-
factory ; all that was proved being that Dr. Achilli was
seen talking to the woman at the door of her house, and,
on noticing her husband, that he ran off. The wife was,
however, called, and her explanation was, that on seeing
Dr. Achilli pass along the street she called him aside to
ask him a question, and that her husband appeared a
moment afterwards. His learned friend surely would
not contend that evidence like that would have sup-
ported an action for adultery.
•
At the suggestion of J.Jord Campbell, the Court here
adjourned for a few minutes, to enable the learned
counsel to have some refreshments.
The arguments of Sir Frederick Thesiger promised to
occupy the court until its rising.