The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-07 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 7, 1854.

tions, whether proceeding from the Board of
Customs or of Inland Revenue, may he considered
as frivolous and vexatious, and wholly undeserv-
ing the attention of the Imperial Parliament. if
we profit by the lesson, we may have but little
cause to regret the losses we have sustained since
1849, in consequence of the legislative truckling
to the spirit of red-tapism.

MONEY MARKET

LATEST FOREIGN NEWS

AND
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

CITY, TWO O'CLOCK.
The sales of cotton at Liverpool yesterday were
estimated at from 9,000 to 10,000 bales, of which
2,000 American and 1,000 Surat were taken on
speculation. The market closed firmly, with prices
fully supported. The sales comprised 200 Pernam
and Maranham at bid. to 7hd. ; 300 Egyptian, at
at Md. to Did. ; 2,000 Surat at 2icl. to 32d. ;
_ _

50 Sea Island, at lld, to ls. Bd., and the remain-
der American. Railway Shares were firm at
higher prices.
A comparison of railway traffic for the second

half year of 1853 is satisfactory in regard to all the
principal lines. The returns of sixty-three rail-
ways are now before us, and there is not a single
instance of diminished receipts compared with the
last half of 1852 ; in many cases there has been
some increase of the mileage, but not to any mate-
rial extent. The Bristol and Exeter earned
14,0001. more, but had 19 additional miles open,
the Chester and Holyhead took 33,000 more, the
Great Western 110,0001. additional, the London
and North-Western took 90,0001. more, the
Brighton 33,000/. more, the South-Western
49,0001. more, the Midland, 50,0001. more, the
South-Eastern 38,0001. more, the South Wales
40,0001. more, the York and Berwick 81,000/.
more, and the Great Northern 106,0001. more.
The French lines also show a more important in-
crease. The Northern of France rose 103,0001., the
Paris and Rouen 36,0001., the Rouen and Havre
25,0001.
The Bankers' Circular enters upon the question
of the present state of the country, bank issues,
and the restrictions placed upon the banks, which
prevent their issuing beyond a certain amount even
if they hold specie. In many instances the limits

assigned are represented to be quite inadequate to

the extent of their business. In some cases most
violent measures have to be taken, even at a great
sacrifice, to bring down the circulation to the re-
quired amount ; and, it should be remarked, that
it arises almost without previous warning, inde-
, pendent of the wishes of the bankers' themselves.
In such cases, the head establishment, and all its
branches, have suddenly to suspend the issue of
, their notes, and to provide gold on the Bank of
England paper, and the shopkeepers and other
parties in the locality have been waited upon, and
begged of, as a favour, to return the country notes,
the penalty for over issue being exceedingly heavy.
In Scotland the banks are not under the same re-
strictions, and there certainly ought, whatever
we may think of Peel's Currency Act, to be some
concession in regard to the right of issuing upon
special occasions against gold.
The English Stock Market has experienced a re-
action, money stock having come to market upon
the declaration of Ministers that there is no longer
any hope of peace. Consols have been 914 /3-, after
having realised 91i The New 3k per Cents. have
been at 931 to a, and the 3 per Cents. at 92 to A.
Bank Stock has been firm at 2161, and India Stock
at 232. Exchequer Bills are 14s. to 17s. premium,
a rise of 2s. to 3s. There is very little speculation
in Consols, and the money price is under that for
time.

The Foreign Market participates in the general
decline. Mexican. have receded to 25 and 24g.
Russian 5 per Cents. are 2 per cent, lower, being
1031 to 105, and the 4 per Cents, are 1. per cent.
under yesterday's prices, viz., 90. Spanish New
Deferred are heavy at 19 and 19k. Swedish Bonds
are 89, and Portuguese 5 per Cents. 40. Dutch
2i per Cents. are 61, and the 4 per Cents. 911 f.
BRITISH MINES.—A slight stir for the following
shares took place this day : Alfred Consols, 25 ;
Tavy Consols, 2 f; Sortridge, par.; Bor-
ringdon, 4; Gawton, 2/ i; North Tamar, a ; East
Bosom, /I; Great Tregune, 3 i;Kilbricken, 355.;
Mollands, I, ; Kingston Downs, 12 13; Great
Baddern 1 ; Poltimores, 205., 225. 6d.
The current prices for the Jamaica Mines not
officially quoted are as follows :—Jamaica, to g
prem. ; Metcalfe, to 4 prem. ; Sue River, dis.
to par ; Port Royal, to prem.
Railway Shares have been lower this morning,
in consequence of the decline in the funds, and
there have been a good many sellers in some of the
lines at the advanced quotations. Brighton keep
up pretty well. Midland have been 10s. to 1/.

cheaper, and in Lancashire and Yorkshire, Great
Northern, Caledonian, and the other lines, there
has generally been a corresponding reduction.
French Shares have dropped about 10s. to 15s.
In the Gold Mining Market there has been an
absence of business, except as regards the Agua
Fria, which have been as high as 2 and 21 upon
favourable intelligence said to have been received.
The Joint Stock Bank shares have been at a de-
cline, and also the Land Companies.

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

Business done.
Bank Stock .... ..... ............. ......... ... ..... 216 i
I per Cent. Reduced Annuities
3 per Cent. Consols Annuitles 9lsi i ig
New 31 per Cent. Annuities 93i i A 4
Long Annuities, Expire sth Jan., 1860
India Stock 232
Consols for Account 15th Feb. 913 i
Exchequer Bills, id.
£lOOO
£5OO
Small

I 4 17
14 17
14

PRICE OF FOREIGN FUNDS AT ONE O'CLOCK,
Aexican 3 per Cent.
Portuguese Bonds, 5 per Cent 4O
Russian Bonds, 1822, 5 per Cent. £St lO5 34
Ditto 4i per Cent 9O
Spanish New Deferred, 3 per Con'
Swedish 4 per Cent. ......
Dividends on the above payable in London.
Dutch Exchange, 2i per Cent. 12 Guil 6l
Ditto 4 per Cent. Certificates ...... .
HALF-PAST TWO.
Consols. .................................. 9li i
Ditto February Account'

spected the bases of operation on which the outposts of
the Russian corps now investing the position of Kalafat
rest. The general who commands this corps, Count
Aurep, is very well acquainted with the fortifications of
this strong position, as he is also with the Turkish
means of maintaining it. Those points only have now
to be fixed on which the batteries of heavy ordnance
are to be raised. The order to close up in a narrower
semicircle had not as yet been issued to the Russian
troops, as the condition of the soil at the season of
the year is such as to offer almost insuperable ob-
stacles to active operations. The Russian corps
of investment consists of the six infantry regiments ;
and of the six chasseur regiments. To each regi-
ment of chasseurs the corresponding batteries and
some troops of Cossacks are attached, on the road
from Radovan to Baileschti, where the park of artil-
lery is now placed, waiting the storm. At present
two hussar and two dragoon regiments are stationed
there, besides some detachments of sappers and pioneers.
The reserves are stationed in those localities in which
the hospitals have been opened, but which are now filled
to repletion with the sick and invalids. Omer Pacha
has proved of late that, with the army of the Danube
spread over an extent of country fifty German miles in
length, and broken up into small columns, he cannot
undertake any operations on a grand scale ; so that it
appears, on the whole, rather more calculated to afford
relief to the commander-in-chief, than to be absolutely
essential, that the army should be divided into three in-
dependent corps of operation. The corps on the right
flank, whose head-quarters are at Karassu, on the
line of Trajan's Wall, will be commanded by Abdul
Halil Paella ; and that of the centre by Mustapha Pacha,
whose head-quarters will be at Sistowa ; whilst Sami
Pacha is at the head. of the third corps, whose
head-quarters are at Florentin, on the frontiers of Ser-
via. It may be interesting to mention that the Servian
troops are also assembling on the Danube under the
command of General Knicanin, at Semendria, and also
at Pozarevac. The Servian Prince Alexander promises,
in a proclamation to the people, to enter into some fur-
ther explanations as to the object of this assemblage of
active forces. It is worth while also to mention the
formation of a corps of Wallachian and Moldavian
volunteers, under Russian military supervision ; and
the more so as Prince Milosch Obrenowitch, that mortal
enemy of the Turks, has pledged himself to raise a simi-
lar volunteer corps of South Slavonians. It is for this
reason that Omer Pacha is now concentrating his entire
attention upon Sofia and Novipezar, whither consider-
able reinforcements are at this moment being brought
up from Schumla and Adrianople ; and people are now
beginning clearly to apprehend that the struggle will
take place and the battle be fought within that circle,
and in the very heart of European Turkey."
Letters from Constantinople of the 19th ult.
state that the former Minister of Police, Haireddin
Pasha, lately appointed Inspector-General of the
Armies in Asia, left on the 18th for that desti-
nation. The departure of the new convoy of
troops and munitions of war for Asia was to
take place on the 21st. The military rein-
forcements on board consisted of between 7,000
and 8,000 men. The English steamer Sidon,
detached from the squadron of Admiral Corry,
arrived at Constantinople on the 17th. Two
others were expected. It was also said that,
independently of the Vauban and Cacique, then
on their way to Constantinople, two other French
steam-frigates would shortly join the squadron,
the Cabinets of London and Paris having de-
oided that the number of those frigates should be
equal at least, in both squadrons, to that of our
ships of the line, in order to take the latter in tow
when circumstances required. A letter from Trebi-
zond mentions that a few days before the entrance
of the combined fleets into the Black Sea, some
Russian ships cannonaded a small fort situate on the
neighbouring coast ; but that, on being apprised
by a Greek merchantman of the presence of the
squadron at Sinope, they had hastened to weigh
anchor and disappeared. The Lieutenant-Colonel
of artillery, Beurmann, an attache of the French
Embassy, and several foreign officers lately
admitted into the Ottoman service, embarked
on the 17th for Varna, whence they were to
proceed to the head-quarters at Shumla. The
Sultan having heard that Omer Pacha had been of
late indisposed, had sent to him, with the permis-
sion of General Baraguay d'Hilliers, Dr. Fauvel,
who was at the same time to inspect the hospitals
and the medical department of the army on the
Danube, which, it appears, is anything but satis-
factory. The Sultan had not yet fixed the day for
his departure for Adrianople. The English and
French Ambassadors were to accompany his High-
ness. The relations between Turkey and Persia
had been re-established on the most friendly footing.

BULGARIA.

The following is from the special correspondent
of the Times :
" The three front rank places in the Danubian
defence of Bulgaria are Widdin, Rustchuk, and
Silistria. The operative base of the first is Sofia
and the Sumugh passes of the Balkan, now strongly
fortified. The root, or support, of the two latter
is Shumla ; while further behind is Adrianople, an
admirable point for the reserve army, now in active
formation, which, in whole or in part, may be
pushed over the Balkan to Shumla, or with equal
facility may pursue the high road to Sofia, in the
immediate rear of the upper scheme of operations,
having its nucleus at Widdin.
It therefore must be admitted that the territo-
rial arrangement of Turkey in Europe is well
adapted for defence. This, with the natural
bravery of the Turks, made the Russian conquest
of 1828 difficult. But European art and science
had then done very little for Turkey. Now the
European art of war has completely revolutionised
the military arrangements of Turkey, and at Olte-
nitza it was not the mere brave, resolute Turk of
the old stamp, but the Minie rifle and the Prus-
sian school of artillery that contributed to gain the
victory ; and the conquest of Bulgaria by Russia
is a thing as improbable of realisation as it would
be for the Turks to drive Russia out of the Prin-
cipalities without cavalry able to cope with the
more powerful horse at the disposal of the Czar.
Rustchuk has neither the systematic fortifica-
tions of Silistria, nor the freedom from territorial
disadvantages of Widdin, and still less the strong,
natural position of Shumla ; but it is impor-
tant from being the Government of the pashalic
of Silistria, the emporium of its trade, and having
a population of about 50,000 souls, with consider-
able wealth and property in more pacific times.
Rustchuk is on a dead flat, above the level of the
Danube, and overlooking the low islands in its
channel ; but immediately behind Rustchuk,
to the south, are hills which have always had a few
inartificial redoubts ; but it is clear that, whoever
holds these hills, holds Rustchuk.
But the efforts that have been made to put it in
a valid posture of defence show that, when the
Turks really are roused out of their habitual apathy
and indolence, they can perform wonders in an in-
credibly short space of time.
It may be as well to mention some of the prin-
cipal points of reform which have been carried out,
or are in progress and on the eve of completion
before the opening of the spring campaign. First,
as regards the ramparts, many embrasures were
made up of unburnt bricks, which having been first
exposed to the wet weather, then frozen in winter
and dissolved by thaw, were in course of years in a
lamentable state of decadence and obliteration, but
now all the bastions have been done up with bas-
kets and fascines. The parapets were too small
for the recoil of the guns, now larger ones with
solid beams have been set in. In the bastions
there was no refuge for the men in reserve against
shells and grenades, but now there is a shell proof
blindage or retreat in every bastion.
As regards the artillery, all the worn-out old
pieces that have stood on the walls since the days of
Kainardji and Sistow have been replaced by new
artillery, cast at the top Khaneh, in Constantinople.
Both the guns and the ammunition in the maga-
zines were of such various calibres that there was
considerable confusion in serving. Now all the
batteries have been divided and classified in calibre
according to the accidents of ground commanded
and range required, and the local magazines filled
with the corresponding ammunition. The old
Turkish block wheels have been abolished, and 200
new carriages, with spokes and iron hoops, have
been taken from the ammunition carriage store,
and the latter replaced by the extensive new
smithy and carpentry established in the town arse-
nal this autumn. The powder was overhauled by
a chemical commission ; that which was found to
have been spoiled, and not good enough for artil-
lery, was put into a reserve store as mine powder.
Not only have these alterations taken place, but
several additions have been made to the service
which had no existence previously. In each bastion
and battery there is now a magazine of extra tim-
ber, pickaxes, baskets, &c. Charcoal magazines
have also been erected from timber cut in the
forest near Rasgrad, burnt in the forest itself, and
brought into Rustchuk.
Passing from materiel to men we find an. organi-
zation for the four services of battery, alarm,
cordon, and fire, which embraces the whole male
Moslem population capable of bearing arms ; and
this utilizes the labour of the town in such a way
as to show that the studies of the young Turkish
officers in Europe and the services of the European
officers in Turkey have not been fruitless, and that
this skill, exercised on the'excellent native impasto,
presents a combination for passive resistance calcu-
lated to inspire the respect of any enemy.
At the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus is a regi-
ment of 3,000 artillerymen, carefully taught their
profession by the best European (mostly Prussian)
officers. When the first alarm of war came most of
them were dispersed over the border fortresses of
Europe and Asia, and immediately set to work im-
proving the local artillerymen. Rustchuk received
some, who have been drilling the local artillery
militia all the autumn, and at this moment there
are a great many butchers, carters, and even
cooks, tailors, and other unwarlike sounding