The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-31 00:00:00

THIS EVENING, Dec. 31,

The New Grand Equestrian Chinese Spectacle, entitled " THE
WISE ELEPHANTS OF THE EAST; or, THE MAGIC GONG—
in which Mr. W. Ceoke's wcndro Is Elephants will appear.
Followed by a series of Mr. Wm. Cooke's matchless scenes of
Equestrianism in THE CIRCLE, by the talented artistes of this
establishment.

After which, a New Grand Equestrian CHRISTMAS COMIC
PANTOMIME, written expressly for this Theatre, by Mr. NELSON
LEE, entitled BILLY BUT TON'S JOURNEY TO BRENTFOED ;
or, Harlequin and the Ladles' Favourite.

New scenery, dresses, decorations. and appointments, maernificent
Car of Industry, Sec. Harlequin, Mr. H. Hemmings; Columbine,
Mdlle- Christine; Pantaloon, Mr. Lehman and Two Clowns, Mr.
C. Adams and Mr. Croueste ; Sprites, Mastets Gee and Bradbury.
A MORNING PERFORMANCE on JAN. 2, commencing at two.
Juvenile Night on THURSO kY, JAN. 5, when the Comic Panto-
mime will commence the Performance,.

Box-otliee open trom Eleven till Foar. Stage Manager, Mr. IV
West.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tina DAY —Morning 13 niin.after 2 I Evening 40 min.art. 2

THE WEATHER.—Smt OFFTCX, Dnc. 31.
THERUOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
41—highest since noon yesterday.
29 —lowest this morning and during the night.
37—this day at noon.

BAROMETER, 29.69—rising.
WIND, W. by N.—Light breeze, and fine, frosty
weather.

~, `~~

qffit

AMA,

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1853.

New-Year's Day will, in a few hours, dawn
gradually over the European Continent. It will
extend its light successively over Russia, over
Turkey, over Austria, over Persia, over France,
over England—and everywhere will come as the
harbinger of War to Christendom. A solemn
truth which must no longer be glossed over by
the shadowy possibilities, or rather, as we should
call them, the substantial impossibilities of re-
newed and more successful negotiation. War it
must be—and war not restricted to a little out-
of-the-way corner like Molde-Wallachia, but in-
volving in the struggle the whole of the great
Powers of the Eastern Hemisphere. Eleven
months, or ten months at least, have we been in-
sisting that "to this complexion it must come at
last," unless the Cabinet of St. James's and the
Tuileries acted with decision, and despatched
their combined fleets at the outset vigorously and
promptly through the channel of the Bosphorus
as well as through that of the Dardanelles. Re-
peatedly, day after day, week after week,
month after month, we have asserted that
the difference between Russia and Turkey would
be complicated, and irritated and magnified into a
general contention—unless France and England
together acted with becoming determination—un-
less they crushed the evil at the very commence-
ment—unless they said to the arch-aggressor
boldly and explicitly, You shall not cross the
Pruth, you shall not occupy the Danubian Princi-
palities, you shall not arrogate to yourself with
impunity the right to exercise supreme authority
over several millions of the subjects of your
neighbour, you shall not perpetuate unrepelled a
great crime against the Turkish Empire—a crime
'which, if allowed to develope from a lawless dream
into a disastrous reality, must inevitably conduct
that empire sooner or later to its most perilous
dismemberment. Had this chivalrous and honour-
able policy been adopted at the outset in
Paris and London, we still believe, as we
have all along believed, that the quarrel must
have been brought in
a comparatively brief
interval to a decisive issueand a satisfactory settle-
ment. We still believe, a„
we have all along
believed, that had the two great Powers of
Western Europe acted thus resolutely, had they
at once assumed this commanding attitude—the
greatest military and the greatest maritime nation
on the globe would so have affected the Russo-
Turkish difficulty, that the Pruth would never
have been crossed, Moldo-Wallachia Would
never have been occupied by the troops of
GORTZCHAKOFF, and his diplomatic precursor,
MENSCHIKOFF would have returned on a
shameless errand to his imperial master,
without leaving behind such disastrous conse-
quences of his mission as the bloodshed on the
Danube and the massacre at Sinope. However,
the allies of Turkey did not act thus resolutely,
they did not assume this decisive attitude, but
instead of this they trusted everything to that
wretched system of wire-drawn diplomatic negotia-
tions--which, from the first, we have declared again,

and again, and again, would prove, necessarily, un-
productive ofany advantage whatsoever. Insomuch
has it proved unproductive of good that, instead
of bringing matters to a pacific arrangement, as
was expected so blindly and mistakenly through-
out by the infatuated admirers of Aberdeenism—
it has unhappily fulfilled our predictions to the
very letter, it has' fostered a local misunderstand-
ing into a cause of warfare for entire Christen-
dom.

in yield, and in quality. While we write, win-
ter is exhibiting its proper character. We may
hope it will be followed by a normal spring, sum-
mer, and autumn ; and that the immense extent
of wheat which will be sown, under the stimulus
of present prices, at home and abroad, will pro-
duce a double supply at half price. Looking
forward thus, however, we can not but be reminded
how completely the most essential condition of
our comfort and prosperity is beyond all human

control.
Amidst 'the upsetting and reconstruction of
parties and Cabinets, the year opened auspiciously
upon the country. Food was at half its present
price, employment in every branch of trade, and
commerce abundant, gold pouring in from our
colonies, people emigrating, not to escape poverty,
but to win riches. Workmen were content, and
masters accumulating capital to employ them yet
Ibetter. Workhouses were emptied and workshops
filled, and it even seemed as if the Celtic Exodus
itself would be stayed or diverted. And still,
even at the present prices of food, clothing, and
firing, trade is wonderfully brisk, and commerce
hardly able to provide itself with the means of
transit. The great blight on our prospects has
arisen amongst the workmen themselves. Unable,
like too many of their betters, to bear the rapid
access of good fortune, they took, and are still
taking, the short cut of " strikes " to get what
they deemed to be their share of the general pro-
fits. Every branch of trade has suffered, more
or less, from this cause, and well will it be if
capital be not driven to competing countries which
ought to employ English labour.
To make the matter worse the strikes became
more general in proportion as the prices of food
rose. While it was becoming apparent that we
should need large supplies from abroad ; while
our shipping was so busy in the Australian trade,
and elsewhere, that its scarcity enhanced the cost
of foreign supplies by very heavy freights ; while
the consuming powers of the community were
obviously diminishing, their means being absorbed
in the purchase of food ; and while other European
countries were all competing. with us for the first
necessary of life—under these circumstances our
operatives were seduced into an ill-advised and
bitter war with the capitalists who employ them.
Nothing in the course of the whole year, de-
pendent on the human will, do we regret more
than this. The life of our prosperity is confi-
dence, and if confidence in the reliableness of our

It is literally so acknowledged on the very last
day of this calamitous year of 1853—acknow-
ledged simultaneously by the recognised organs of
the British and French Governments. Reluc-
tantly acknowledged by them, of course—
because falsifying every one of their fair
anticipations—but still acknowledged, can-
didly, and explicitly, and unmistakeably
acknowledged. It is notorious that his Imperial
Majesty NAPOLEON 111. has all along sympathised
in heart with the cause of Turkey, that he has
all along been disposed to repel with the might
of his vast power the insidious and audacious
policy of the Russian AUTOCRAT, that he has only
consented to exhaust all the efforts of diplomacy
to bring about a reconciliation of differences be-
tween the belligerents, because he himself was
formally pledged to a pacific policy in the pre-
sence of the whole world by that glorious avowal
vEmpire c'est la paix," made by him with such
chivalrous frankness and spontaneity on the oc-
casion of his ever-memorable speech at Bordeaux.
Well, NAPOLEON 111. has fulfilled that formal and
remarkable engagement. He has employed every
effort to bring about by diplomatic negotiations
some satisfactory arrangement between the SUL-
TAN and the AUTOCRAT. Those endeavours were
in a manner incumbent upon him—they were
honourable in him—they were the fulfilment
on his part of the solemn promises made
by him, not only in the presence of the French
nation, but under the watchful gaze also of the
whole of observant Christendom. It was not
thus, however, with the British Government.
What was comprehensible and creditable on the
part of France, was incomprehensible and dis-
creditable on the part of England. The policy
which was self-vindicatory with NAPOLEON 111.,
was despicable, and suspicious, and unpatriotic
on the part of the ABERDEEN Coalition.
That Coalition, in regard to this Eastern
Question, moreover, has hung like a clog
upon the energies of France—it has clung, like
the influence of paralysis to the arm of NA-
POLEON. Whence the pacific efforts of the
Cabinet of the Tuileries hare been protracted
beyond what was in any way requisite—even
bearing in mind what has been just alluded to,
the pledge contained in the famous speech at
Bordeaux. And so—as we have all along pre-
dicted, not vaguely, but in the clearest language
possible, and with an almost painfully protracted

reiteration—these miserable negotiations have

proved one after another to be utterly abortive—so
that WAR is now, on the last day of 1853, declared

by the organ of Aberdeenism to be (mark ! these
are its own words), not an alternative, but a

decision.

New-Year's Day comes to us, therefore—thanks
;o our inestimable Coalition—laden with the

penalty of War to entire Christendom.

It is inevitable. Is it not ? What says the
Moniteur, the official journal of the French

Government ? Why, it gives out every indica

tion that the momentous struggle is actually on

the eve of its commencement. What says

the Patrie, UV) semi-official organ of the
French Cabinet 7 Why, it says, signifi-

cantly enough at this juncture, " Whatever
may happen, France has confidence in her Era-

peror." And the Times—what says the Times,
the Ministerial journal of •the English Govern-
ment ? Why, it asserts this morning, in regard to
the conduct of the CZAR, that " With whatever
reluctance, the Western Powers must accept the
challenge so insultingly flung to them." And the
Chronicle—what says the Morning Chronicle, the

semi-official organ of the Coalition ? Why, simply

and plainly it says this—" All disguise is at an
end, and nothing is now left for England

and France but to make the war which

appears inevitable as short and decisive as pos-
sible." Therefore, on the showing at last of the
official and semi-official organs both of France and
England, waris inevitable, and that war, not a war

between Russia and Turkey, but a war involving
in it the principal Powers of the European Con-

tinent, in fact—after thirty-eight years' peace—a

war of entire Christendom. Such is the New-

Year's gift to England:from the Earl of ABERDEEN'S
sagacious, energetic, chivalrous, and patriotic

Administration .

Farewell to EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-
THREE. Newspapers are forbidden to moralise,
much more to sermonise ; and very reasonably,
for many millions a-year do we pay for pulpit
instruction of that sort. It is, however, impossible
to step over the invisible mystic threshold
which separates each year from its successor with-
out some grave recollections. Possibly, if the
pulpit touched more frequently on the topics of
the newspaper, it might gain in attraction without
losing in sacredness ; and possibly, too, were con-
siderations of religion, void of all cant and bigotry,
more frequent in our newspaper arguments, we
might gain in permanent influence, without sacrific-
ing our political, commercial, and entertaining
character. We accept, however, one line, as we
find it drawn for us, thankful that every reader
of fifty years of age will acknowledge that both
the pulpit and the newspaper have improved sur-
prisingly within his recollection—that the former
has become more popular and earnest, and the latter
more sincerely respectful to religion, and, so far as
the nature of the case allows, more influenced by
its dictates.

operatives be sapped, capital and prosperity will
flee from English manufacturers ; the next step
would be an English Exodus, as miserable as the
Celtic one.
Of Parliamentary achievements, the great one
unquestionably is the Succession Duty. True, it
is in mortifying contrast with the amount of the
two Legacy Duties (one of them paid immediately),
levied on personal property, but it is the
greatest step made in our system of taxation since
the repeal of the corn laws ; and much as we have
often differed from Mr. GLADSTONE, we have no
doubt that the financial historian of England will
always record with eulogy his victory over the
reluctance of our landed aristocracy to part with
their unjust feudal immunities. We have also• to
set to the credit of our Legislature permission to
wash free of duty, a Customs' tariff, and laws
much improved, the smallest item of the taxes on
knowledge repealed, and assessed taxes simplified,
and in some cases equitably reduced or aug-
mented. Whether a seven years' income tax,
or the promised termination of it at the end
of that time, is to be regarded as a boon or
an infliction, our readers must decide for them-
selves. India, too, must rejoice or mourn accord-

ing as she remembers the little done for her by
Sir C. WOOD, or the much left undone, which,
but for sheer incapacity or obstinacy, he could so
easily have done. Jews still lament their exclu-

sion from the House of Commons, finding consola-
tion, perhaps, in Austrian loans. Canada, how-
ever, with the Clergy Reserves in its own power,
and our Australian colonists delivered from con-
victs, have cause for unmingled satisfaction. For
Cab Laws, and many minor mercies of a like kind,
w• desire to he unfeignedly thankful, and, on the
whole, to own that, at home, the Coalition which
entered office nearly with the year itself, has
not worked so badly.

We wish we could say as much for foreign
affairs. Two ill-conceived colonial wars, the Kafir
and the Burmese wars, have closed during the
year with little credit and great cost to us, and no
prospect whatever of permanent peace in either

country. It is, however, in a strictly foreign
affair, one which Lord ABHRDEEN and his col-
leagues have most jealously kept to themselves—

one on which they doggedly refused all informa-

tion to Parliament--one in which England's part
has been kept religiously to courts at home and

abroad,—it is just in this that the year has closed
with all the prospects and most of the evils of war,
combined with the certainty that manly conduct
in-June would have saved the Danubian Provinces,
the cowardly slaughter of Sinope, the exhaustion
of our ally, and the disgrace of two CAbinets
being gulled or bullied, or both, by the pet Des
pot of German Courts. We close the year out-
witted by a semi-barbarian Power, befooled by a
bankrupt one, and ashamed before Europe of the

poltroonery of our Cabinet. We have it indeed now

in our power to annihilate, for many a year, the
might of Europe's great enemy in the Black. Sea,
and to render the world the same service in the
Baltic next Spring. A little time will show

whether the New Year will dawn upon us with a
policy deserved by Russia and honourable to

England.

THE MATILDA WATTENBACH.

This clipper ship, which sailed from the Mersey with
the November mails for Australia, under the command
of Capt. Clare, on the 4th instant, was seen by the
Gannet (s.s.), from Lisbon, at anchor in the Tagus,
with fore mainmasts gone, on the 19th instant. It
will be remembered that the American paddle-wheel
steam-ship Golden Age, Porter, left Liverpool a few
days after the Matilda Wattenbach, and much interest
is attached to both voyages, many beta being laid upon
the superior sailing qualities of each vessel. It is
thought probable that the General Screw Company's
steamer Crcesus, which is to sail with another mail on
the 10th of January, will be instructed to call at Lisbon
and to take her letters.

Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg, first cousin to
Prince Albert and the Queen, who is now on his voyage to
Portugal to visit the King Regent, his near relative, will,
on his return to Lisbon, pay another visit to our Sovereign,
and then proceed on a visit to the King of the Belgians,
at Brussels, en route to Germany.

The Duke of Devonshire is passing the holidays
at his marine villa at Kemptown. His Grace's usual
Christmas bounties have been distributed at Chatsworth,
Derbyshire, Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, Hardwicke-hall,
Shropshire, and Lismore Castle, Waterford.

The Earl and Countess Delawarr and a family
circle are passing the recess at Buckhurst Park. The Hon,
and Rev. Reginald West left the noble Earl's in Upper
Grosvenor-street yesterday, to join the circle.
The Marquis and Marchioness of Breadalbane
are entertaining company at Taymouth Castle. The noble
Marquis is expected at Breadalbane House, Park-lane the
third week in the ensuing month, to be in attendance on
the Queen as Lord Chamberlain, on the meeting of Parlia-
ment on the 31st, and which it is expected will be opened
in person by the Sovereign, with the usual speech from the
Throne.

With Englishmen, when they meet, the esta-
blished order is, first our health, next the weather,
then the newspapers and politics. As to the first
the answer for the year seems to be " much as
usual." The cholera gave us, indeed, a severe
shock in one or two localities, and threatened
several, but it has made the country much
cleaner, and will make it much cleaner still, un-
less we be thoroughly infatuated. We have still
a Home Secretary who has recorded his decree
against " dirt in the wrong place," and who, we
believe, will do all he can to send it to the right
place ; and with closed intramural churchyards
and towns, well swept and washed out, we may
hope that when cholera weather returns the effect
of Lord PALMERSTON'S Edinburgh letter will be
extensively manifest. Our national doctors have
also made vaccination compulsory.
As to the weather, it has certainly for the last
two years furnished those who needed it with
ample topics for conversation. Unparalleled heat
at Midsummer lessened the produce of our crops in
'
1852 ; and floods, almost fulfilling Lord MAID-
STONE s prophecy before its time, curtailed our
autumn seed-time for this year's crops. An open
winter, utterly unlike the skating and sliding
ones of our boyhood, left the land unmellowed ;
it was followed, however, by a most cutting early
spring, and wet later one, preventing again the
spring sowing of wheat, and not permitting the
summer corn in the better lands to be got in in the
best style. Then a wet summer, and a fickle harvest,
all resulted apparently in crops deficient in extent,

The Earl and Countess of Chesterfield's seat,
Bretby Park, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, is the scene of much
gaiety during the holidays. His Royal Highness the Duke
of Cambridge is honouring the Earl with a visit.
Mr. and Mrs. Disraeli arrived at Grosvenor-
gate, Park-lane, on Thursday, from Hughenden, Bucks,
for the season.

Commodore Sir Charles, and the Honourable
Lady Hotham have arrived in town, from Paris, en route
to embark for Melbourne, South Australia, of which
colony the gallant Commodore is appointed Governor.

The Countess Dowager of Donoughmore, the
Ladies Hutchinson, and suite, have arrived at their resi-
dence, Merrion-square, Dublin, from Belmont, county
Wexford.

The Right Hon. the Lord Chancellor of Ireland
has left Dublin for London.

It is stated that Dr. Bowring will succeed Sir
George Bonham as Governor of Hong Kong and Chief
Superintendent of British Trade in China.

Rest

Sir Fitzroy Kelly is now named as the M.P.,
entrusted with the arrangement of the details of a contem-
plated Tory Reform Bill.

The Cologne Gazette, in a letter from Berlin of
the 25th, mentioning the death of General de Radowitz,
adds that before his death he had had time to finish the edi-
tion of his complete works.

The French Government, through the medium
of the Count de Lowenhielm, the Swedish minister at
Paris, has just presented the Royal Library at Stockholm
with a copy of the " Chalcographie du Musee Imperial,"
composed of 85 volumes. The Royal Library has, in its
turn, sent to the Imperial Library at Paris 100 volumes
of manuscript and rare printed works.

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 31, 1853

MONEY MARKET

AND
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE,

•ITY, TWO O'CLOCK.
The sales of cotton at Liverpool yesterday were
estimated at 5,000 bales. The market was quiet,
with very little change in prices. Railway Shares
were flat.
The situation of the Bank of England, as indi-
cated by the weekly return to the 24th inst., was
much more encouraging than for some time. The
addition to the amount of bullion was important,
notwithstanding the increase in the loans and dis-
counts, which show trade to be at least active. The
Government account also stood high, being
1,891,3821. above the highest point this year, which
was on the Ist January. The unusually large
amount is in preparation for the payment of the dis-
sentient holders of South Sea Stock, dzc. On the 23d
July the Chancellor of the Exchequer had to his
credit not much above 1,849,0001. The bullion ar-
riving this week is being taken for the Continent, and
that which is coming forward per Australian ships
advised as being off the coast, is expected to be like-
wise purchased for the same destination. Com-
pared with the previous week, the changes in the
Bank account are as follows :
Active circulation
Increase
Bullion
Increase

£20,810,155
204,530
15,819,041
375,785
3,198,455
Increase
Public Deposits 11,157,724
Increase
Other Deposits
Decrease 91,762
Seven-Day and other Bills
Decrease 4,750
Government Securities No alteration.
Other Securities 16,643,651
Increase 406,546
Notes unemployed 8,318,280
Increase
Yesterday afternoon there was an improvement
n the rates at which bills of exchange were nego-
tiated upon some of the continental cities. Paris,
90 days, was taken at 25 274 to 30 ; Hamburgh, at
13 41 to 4f ; Amsterdam, at 11 15f to 16 ; Frank-
fort, at 1181 to / ; and Trieste, at 11 38 to 42.
We gave yesterday a rapid glance at the statistics
of 1853, and the following, from a correspondent,
to whom we have been indebted on former occa-
sions, may be interesting, as showing the past in
another view :—" A year of no ordinary interest
closes with this day. We anticipated under this
head in The Sun, at the opening of 1853, that the
results of the gold fields of Australia would have
a paramount influence, not only on the welfare of
the Queen's southern possessions, but also on all
mercantile transactions in every section of the em-
pire. Time' has fully borne out that anticipation.
Land in New South Wales, and Victoria especially,
has risen beyond the records of fable, and fresh
gold deposits have been lately reported. And such
reports may be fully corroborated, surpassing the
imagination of the Eastern writers. Although, as
we also prognosticated in our remarks on the Ist
of January, gold mining by associations has not
proved to be such an unerring and remunerative in-
vestment, as the Gold Companies, without excep-
tion, had, caused the public to expect. The un-
initiated in Colonial commerce have, in many
instances it is to be feared, made losses by their ill-
assorted indents to Australia ; but the regular
traders to that market have, we have reason to
know, made very satisfactory returns. Perhaps
the late shipments may not have sent home
more than cost, freight, and insurance ;'
but if the average of the year be taken, as already
stated, the returns, we understand, are very satis-
factory. High priced corn, above averaged priced
cotton, and the expectation of an Eastern war end-
ing in an European conflagration, have been so
many barriers to what might have been a year of
unparalleled prosperity. As regards -the prospects
of 1854, up to the latest advices of the corn sowing
in this country, and the cotton planting in the
United States, all is so far favourable. Australian
accounts never read better. We have free trade with
France looming in the future,' and if it were not
the black spot on the commercial horizon--the
Russo-Turkish question—the new year would open
as full of the ingredients of prosperity as charac-
terised the beginning of the year about to
close.

Whatever may betide the old coun-
tries, it is certain that the onward pro-
gress of the people of the embryo empires in
America and the South Pacific can only be
checked, not stayed. They, therefore, must con-
tinue to be large consumers of Or fabrics. With
the intended public works in Australia, and the
reduced duties in France, the staples which enter
largely into the formation of railways appear to
have every chance of an average trade under
any eventualities in Europe. It is to be observed
that the making of railways in the gold-producing
colonies will act differently on our monetary ope-
rations now than it would have done if they had
been undertaken prior to the discovery of the
gold deposits, when the value of the increased

exports from the parent country must have be—n
- -

represented by debentures, instead of payments in
' hard bullion.'
" It is a fact at`the present time that loanable
capital is as cheap in Sydney and Melbourne as in
London. The gold will not be sent here to be
warehoused, but only in payment of debts, or to

cover purchases, and since the production is much

greater than the exportation the balance seeks
colonial produce for investment. Thus it is that it

finds an outlet in the foundation of roads and docks,
and the purchase of land, both of which cause the

volume of exportation to be expanded, since a large
portion of the material for the formation of the
former is imported,from, and many of the owners
of the latter reside in, this country.

"Taking all things into consideration, we are
by no means inclined to look unfavourably on the
mercantile prospects of 1854."

The amount of the precious metals exported from
London direct during the week to last Thursday
was 150,000 ounces in silver and 5,400 ounces in
gold, all to the Continent.

The Stock Market has given way to the extent
of per cent. within the last hour, and numerous
sales have been pressed. Consols for the opening,
ex dividend, have been quoted 93i f, and since
931 to L. The New Three-and-a-Quarter per
Cents. have been 95f, and are now 94g. The
Three per Cent. Reduced, which were 93 f, have
declined to 93g. Exchequer Bills are 55. to 86.
premium.
Foreign Stocks are very inactive, and prices are
heavy generally. Danish 5 per Cents., are lower,
being 102. Russian 5 per Cents. have declined to
112, and the 41 per Cent. to 974 and 98. Spanish
Deferred Bonds are quiet at 22. Dutch 4 per
Cents., after being done at 971, receded to 961.
In other Stocks no business has been transacted.
Railway Shares are quiet, and there is a general
depression in values, owing to the decline in Con-
sols. Caledonian have fallen fully it., Great
Northern about 156., Lancashire and Yorkshire 55.,
North-Western 1/., Midland 10s., North British
55., and South-Eastern 1/. French shares are also
weaker, but with few dealings. Paris and Lyons
are fully 10s. cheaper, and Northern of France are
similarly affected. _

Rather more has been doing in Gold Mine Shares,
and at steady prices.
In the Joint-Stock Banks the only transactions
have been in Australasia, at it. to 2/. decline.
Australian Agricultural Shares are about 2/.
lower, and the South Australian, after being 37,
have dropped to 36. Peel River are also flatter.

BRITISH FUNDS THIS DAY.
(From the Official List.)

Busineso clone.
3 per Cont. Reduced Annuities 934
New 34 per Cent. Annuities 954 4
Consols for Opening 18th Jan. 933
Exchequer Bills, 1(1.

LATEST FOREIGN NEWS

21060 . -
5 8 p
£5OO 5 8 P
Small 5 8 p
PRICE OF FOREIGN FUNDS THIS DAY.
Danish Bonds, 1825, 3 per Cent —
Ditto 5 per Cent
Equador Bonds ,
Mexican 3 per Cent.
Russian Bonds, 1822, 5 per Cent. £ 5t...,, 112
Ditto 4a per Cent 97 8
Spanish New Deferred, 3 per Cent. 22 11
Dividends on the above payable in London.
Dutch Exchange, 2i per Cent. 12 Gull 641
Ditto 4 per Cent. Certifteates. .

TWO O'CLOCK.
Consols for Opening 18th Jantzary.-..': 931 xci

About 200 women, belonging to the district called
Cassein Pacha, which is chiefly occupied by the
families of sailors, had been to the Admiralty, had
broken the windows, and had made such violent
threats against the Minister, that he had deemed
it prudent to escape in disguise. He had been
warned that he would have to appear before the
Council of • Ministers, to explain his conduct.
In the event of his being dismissed Ahmet
Pacha Kaiseli was spoken of as his successor.
The Ambassadors of England and France,
supported by the Ministers of Austria and Prus-
sia, were energetically pressing on negotiations
for peace, and it was confidently asserted not
without hope of success ; but the Sultan, though
entertaining a great horror of war, was afraid that
any project of an arrangement would cause pro-
found commotion in the Empire—the catastrophe
of Sinope having caused immense irritation. Be-
sides this, it was expected that the effect produced
on the Western Powers by the disaster of Sinope
might be such as to effect an entire change in the
situation. Details of the affair at Sinope were
eagerly listened to, and they all tended to prove
that the Turks acted with heroic bravery. Not a
single vessel, as already stated, would yield ; two
were blown up by their captains ; a small one,
bearing sixteen men and three guns, fought till
nightfall, and the Captain Edhem Bey only
quitted her with his men when she was sinking.
The captain of the Navik, Sman Oglou Ali Bey,
oue of the vessels blown up, sent all that re-
mained of his crew on land before he set fire to
his powder magazine, and perished with his ship.
Amongst thq pieces of wreck found floating in the
water was a mast with a flag nailed to it. It was
the Turks who commenced the battle. It was ne-
cessary to amputate several of the wounded who
were received on board the English and French
steamers—they uttered no cry, made no complaint,
but displayed heroic indifference. Accounts from
Asia had been received, but the details had not
been published-t-it was, however, stated that the
Turks had gained advantages over the Russians ;
that, for example, the Russians had been repulsed
in a new sortie from the fortress of Alexandropol ;
that the Turks who were besieging the citadel of
Akiska (Achalzick) had succeeded in destroying
the aqueducts ; that Salim Pacha had gained a
brilliant victory in the environs of Saffah ; and
that Daniel Bey had defeated the Russians in the
Terek. The news that Persia had broken off with
Turkey, and had resolved to second Russia, had
created great sensation. She was assembling
an army of 50,000 men to march on Bagdad.
She owed 60,000,000 piastres to Russia, but
the latter had agreed to abandon the debt. The
Turkish Ambassador at Teheran had arrived at
Bagdad on his return to Constantinople. The
English Minister at the same place was also ex-
pected at Constantinople. On the other hand,
Dost Mohammed, Sovereign of Affghanistan, who
is an implacable enemy of Russia, strongly opposed
the policy of Persia, and even threatened to invade
her territory to avenge the Turks. General Ba-
raguay d'Hilliers gave a second grand dinner on
the 14th, to which he invited the Admirals and
most of the principal officers of the two fleets ;
and Lord Stratford de Radcliffe was to give a grand
dinner on the 15th to all the Foreign Ministers,
the Admirals, and most of the Ministers of the
Porte. The weather was very bad in the Black
Sea. On the 13th the Belgian vessel Eugenia,
Captain Hegeirch, was lost at the entrance of the
Bosphorus. An English merchant ship from Tre-
bizonde had brought tidings that a Russian ship
of the line, that 'bad been towed greatly damaged
from Sinope, had gone down about 90 miles from
that place. The Divan had given orders to fortify
sixteen important points on the coast of Anatolia,
on the Black Sea.

REPLY OF THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH
AMBASSADORS TO THE APPLICATION
FOR THE ENTRANCE OF THE COMBINED
FLEETS INTO THE BLACK SEA.
A week after the date of Reschid Pacha's note to
the two Ambassadors, communicating the news
from Sinope, and asking that the fleets might enter
the Black Sea, Lord Stratford de Redcliffe and M.
Baraguay d'Hilliers met at the French Palace, at
Pera, and after a conference, which lasted some
hours, agreed upon the terms of their reply. This
note we subjoin in substance from an authentic
source :
" I have to acknowledge the receipt of your ex-
cellency's note of December 4. I learned thereby
that a division of the Russian fleet, which had
been cruising for some days in the neighbourhood
of Sinope, entered that port on the 30th ultimo,
and attacked _some Turkish ships of war anchored•
here. Since then I have been also apprised of the
result of the combat, which I deeply deplore, while,
at the same time, all my praise is due to the noble
devotion and patriotism of those who fell in an
unequal atruggle.
I am, however, in duty bound, as far as con-
cerns me to disclaim all responsibility in reference
to that disaster ; and your excellence will do me
the justice to acknowledge that whenever I was
consulted by the Porte as to the expediency of the
Ottoman fleets entering the Black Sea I invariably
expressed my doubts and apprehensions without
reserve. A defective materiel, crews under the
contingent required in time of war, the adverse
chances of the Black Sea at this season, the possi-
bility of encounter with an enemy of superior force
—all these reasons were exposed to the Government
of the Sultan, in support of an opinion in opposi-
tion to its own.
" The presence of the Anglo-French fleet in the
Bosphorus is an incontestable proof of the interest
and sentiments which animate the Emperor of the
French and her Majesty the Queen of Great Bri-
tain. Their presence has a political signification.
It is a moral support, as long as there remains a
hope of effecting a reconciliation between the ad-
verse powers.
" Should, however, Russia attempt to land a
force on the Bosphorus, or at any other point of
the Turkish coasts, the combined fleets will be then
required to act, and enter immediately the Black
Sea, if necessary, to protect the territory, as well
as the integrity of the Ottoman empire.
(Signed) " REDCLIFFE.
4 6 BARAGITAY D'HILLIERS.

" Dec. 12, 1853i'