The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-12 00:00:00

ETENING EDITION.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

(SATURDAY EVENING.)
CHRONIC LE.—The necessary proceedings have
been adopted for placing the estate of the late Mr.
Hamfnersley under the Ilirection of the Court of
Chancery.
We formerly took occasion to allude to the defective
state of the law of banking, which subjected the public
to such inconvenience, and suggested a simple and
practicaVe remedy, which, we trust, will not be over-
looked in the proper quarter. In the mean time, a
point has been mooted o.Lsnueb importance to the ge-
neral Jeody of Mr. Hammersley's creditors, but
we hear that the various parties who from
time to time have been members of the firm
took care to exonerate themselves from liability by
the usual course. Little or no doubt, however, can
now subsist as to the insutfieney of the assets to
meet the claims, and it is to be expected, therefore,
that the creditors trill insist for a searching inquiry into
all points necessary to make the means available. As-
suming, then, that the estate of the deceased is ieede-
quate to pay his debts, a question naturally arises,
when the insolvency began. and if it should be found
to have been of long standing, the proving of that fact
might give rise to a change of circumstances involving
matters of the greatest importance to the interests of
the general body of creditors. The date of insolvency
being once established, the responsibility of any partners
who may have joined the house subsequently will have
to be discussed ; and we bear that some of the principal
creditors intend to take the proper steps for examining
into the origin of the embarrassments of the deceased.

TI Stilteman, the S:cretary of the East In-
dia and Chin Association, has prepared a comparative
statement of the number of British ships with their ton-
nag., entered into and cienred outwards from and to p'aces
within the limits of the E:ist India Company's charter,
from the 1-st of January to the 30th of September, 1839
and IS4O. By this statement it appears that the ton-
nage inwards for the first three-quarters of last year was
132,582, while that for the came piJiod in the present.
year is 185,594, giving an increase of 3,012 tons, and
that the ships during similar period:3 arc 474 for last
year, and 407 for the present, giving a decrease of 7
ships. In 1839 the ships entering the London port
during this period were 348 ; this year they are only
3-. A, which is a decrease of 21, while in Liverpool they
have increased from 95 to 107, and in other ports
acre has alisa been an increase. The tonnage outwards
for ties sense period is 215,809 for 1830, and 273,853
for 1140, and the number of ships is 542 for the former
and 702 for the latter, giving an increase of 58,044
tons end 160 ships. llow,.ver, with respect to the
number of tons cleared for China and the Cape of Good
Hope, it has decreased-5,020 for the former, and
1,870 for the latter. The increase is attributed to the
troops to India and emigrants to Australia.

U ERA LD.—An article which, it seems, appeared
in some IT:per in this country relative to the fabrication
of sulphurie acid from pyrites, which was treated as an
original discovery here, has given occasion to certain
cr
xnd rculasnations of the French Press. TilC
proc:..ss, it is stated, is, and hcs been, not only known
out acted upon in France for 3011 C time and to a con-
sderuble extent, in proof of which reference is made,
to the Dic;ionwthe Technologique, vol 20, so that in-
stead of boinq• of British origin, the invention i 3 claimed
us exclusively French. Not only, it is asserted, is the
pyrites of iron male use of for the extraction of sul-
phur, but the pyrites (now called sulphurs) of copper.
Ir. 1831, M. Dabost, an ingenious inhabitant of Lyons,
es:abLshed a maoufactory of sulphuric acid at Perrache
t--:0 the su!phurs of copper produced in the mines of
essy. M. Perre, his partner, but since separated
from him, did not, however, succeed, it is understood,
by his process in obtaining more than 14 per cenL re-
turn, although it was quite possible to obtain from 25 to
30 per cent. of sulphur. Toe results, in either case,
were considered profitable, but allusion is made to the
application ofa certain method for the extraction of sul-
phuric acid by means of natural products infinitely
more abundant in the yield than those procured by M.
Pcrre.

POST.—The circumstance of the revenue having 1
decreased, although the quantity of corn cleared out of
bond in the course of the quarter has been more than
a million of quarters, has occasioned some conversation
in the City, but the deficiency can be very easily ex-
plained. Al:hough a million of quarters of grain have
pessed out of the banded warehouses, it is to be ob-
served that almost the entire quantity was cleared in
the course of the week when the duty was only
2s. Bd. per quarter on foreign wheat. In this man-
ner a sum et about 100,000/. was received for the
duty paid in those few days, but no wheat had
been cleared for several preceding weeks, nor any
in the foseceeding time of the present quarterly re-
turns. Tee entire receipts may therefore .be taken
ut 100,0001., which is not one-half of the usual
overage amount received in any quarter frena,:the
duties on foreign corn, in which manner it if,that
the fiactuatiug ucale of duties is so favourable to the
speculative capitalists in the neighbourhood of Mark-
lane. A sum of nearly 200,0001. has thus been di-
verted from the Treasury ; and unfortunately not
towards the farmers or landholders, or even to the re-
gular dealers in corn, but almost exclusively to a few
wealthy capitalists who perceive the opportunity of in-
creasing their fortunes by the loss of the nation at large.
When the earn duties have Alen to the lo:vest rate it
is very seliees that the agricultural interest is possessed
of the stocks, which have long since passed into wealthier
hands. The reply of the speculators is, that their ope-
rationa arc perfectly just and consistent with the -law ;
feigned salee not being made, as the public have sometimes
supposed, and, as the Corn Acts contain penalties for
such offences, it is certainly difficult tc be perceived how
further enactments of such a description could meet
the difneulties of the present system. To all who are
engaged in the investigation of the question of the Corn-
laws a❑ apparently very strong instance of the disadvan-
tageous operation of the fluctuating scale of duties is
thus furnished by the accounts of the revenue of the re-
cent quarter of the present year.
The quarterly meeting of the Staffordshire iron mas-
ters took place on Thursday last, when the price of iron
was advanced 18s. per ton for pigs, and 20s. per ton for
b !rs, by which these gentlemen take from the public a
sum of about 400,0001. a year ; the quantity of iron
maaufactured in Staffordshire being about 600,000 tens,
and the profits already enormous when compared to al-
ntost every other department of English trade.