The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-08 00:00:00

P 0 ST.—The Colonial Bank had held a meeting, and
published a statement of their affairs for the year ending
Ikeernber 31, 1839. The half-year's profits arc stated
at 24.1691. I9s. 5d., from which 20,0001., or at the rate of
eight per cent. per annum, is to be deducted as a divi-
dend paid to the proprietors ; 3,169/. 19s. sd. is added
to a surplus fund of 13 325/. 14s. ld., making it
16,4951. 133. 6d., and the remaining 1,000/. is
appropriated for the liquidation of what are called
preliminary expenses. The balance of this account
is thus redueed to 14,505/. 18s. 7d. The rea-
sons for keeping such an account are best known
to the directors ; but it is a little strange that a sum
which had been expended should still be regarded
as an asset. We believe this system has been
adopted by a good many Joint stock banks, who spread
over seven or ten years many sums spent upon their com-
mencing business; but, although it has been of frequent
occurrence, we conceive it to be a practice both dangerous
and delusive. In the case before us we should deduct the
expenses from the surplus, which would make the reserve
1,980/. 14s. 11d. If this sum appears too small for con•
tingencies in such a business, the safest and surest way
of remedying the evil is to reduce the dividend. But
no bank ought, as a principle, to have any balance of
account reckoned as an asset which cannot be depended
upon when it is necessary to realise. The balancing it
with a surplus fund is an ideal rectification which may-
look well on paper, but it is a mistaken notion of which
all men of business ought to rid themselves.
The Commercial Bank of England, having declined as-
sistance upon condition of giving up business, are busy
holding meetings, and sending depntations up and down
among the shareholders for supplies of cash to resume. It
is a pity they did not accede to the views of those oche have
the mercantile interests of the country at heart, for by
doing so the depositors and note holders would have been
at once relieved from much anxiety, and, in all likelihood,
from some delay. The Directors of this Bank are no
doubt in possession of the Bank's real position, and must
be conEent in their own resources as well as of course
fully prepared to justify their measures, proceeding, as
they must be presumed to do, from superior information
and conscious strength. We, however, cannot but regret
that the prompt, though conditional, mode of settlement
at one time within their reach has been declined, as we
apprehend they will find many difficulties to contend with
in order to bring about their resumption of payments.

SUN.—The Foreign exchanges were steady this
afternoon.

The English securities continued firm up to the
close of business. Consols for the opening were marked
92k 4 ; Exchequer Bills, 32s prem. ; Bank Stock,
1734 ; India Stock, 2501, and the Reduced Three-
and a-Half per Cents., 1001 to 1005.
Notwithstanding the abundance of money, we con-
tinue to have a very dull market for the Foreign Secu-
rities. To-day the Active Bonds have been heavy at
27 to 264, and the Deferred at 12i to 121. Portu-
guese New Five per Cents. have been steady at 351,
and the Three per Cents. at 24. Colombian Bonds
continue at 27i, but Brazilian have risen to 784.
French Five per Cent. Rentes were a trifle lower, hav-
ing receded to 118 f 50c. Dutch Two-and-a-Half per
Cents. were at 53i.
The sales effected in Railway Shares were generally
on lower terms—viz , Great Western 384, New, 174 ;
Manchester and Leeds, 27 ; New North Midland, 16 ;
Manchester and Leeds New, 184; South Western, 20i,
and Blackwell, 1/1, prem. North Midland were at 8,
and Brighton at 7i, discount.
The following is an official return of the exports of
bullion from the port of London, in the week ending
Thursday last

Gold none.
Silver Coin to Hamburgb 99,000 ounces.
... ... Rotterdam 30,000 ...
... ... Mauritius 32,000 ...
... ... China 17,194 ...
... ... Gibraltar 40,000 ...

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

(FRONI THE MORNING PAPER! OP Tlll3 DAT.)
(From the Morning Chronicle.)
The debate upon the Austrian Treaty, on Monday even-
iag, will be read with much interest. It is not a little
singular that Mr. Berries, in his attempts to nibble a hole
in tue teputation ~,,,
have given occasion to discussions most trium:Thant for ifie
men and measures which he selected as the objects of his at-
tack. His cunningly devised attempt at the commence-
ment of the Session to embarrass the Chancellor of the
Exchequer served only to establish that gentleman's repu-
tation as a financier, and to place in a clearer light the
soundness and success a the financial policy which has
power.
been pursued by the Whigs since their accession to
His attack on Monday evening upon the President of the
Board of Trade, and the Austrian Treaty of 1838, recoiled
still more completely on his own head, by affording Mr.
Labouchere an opportunity of entering fully into the po-
licy of that measure, and the advantages—actual as well
as prospective—which have accrued from it to the com-
merce, the navigation, and manufactures of the country.
The ground taken by Mr. Herrics was the same as that
taken by Lord Aberdeen in the House of Lords on several
previous occasions, namely, that the treaty concluded by
the Whigs with Austria was, in fact, nothing but a conti-
nuation of Lord Aberdeen's treaty, with one or two addi-
tions, which were anything but improvements.
( From the Morning Post.)
In announcing six days ago the intention of Ministers to
bring forward a Regency Bill during the present Ses-
sion, we frankly expressed the opinion that in the actual
circumstances of monarchy such a measure is of absolute
and unquestionable necessity. And we added :—" Of the
particulars of the proposal which Ministers are about to
submit to the Legislature we are not in a condition to
speak. But nature and reason point out so clearly the
course which ought to be pursued that it would seem
scarcely possible even for the present Ministers of the
Crown to miss their way ; and we therefore hope we arc
not rash when we express our confident belief that
Ministers will not attempt to avail themselves of such
an occasion to promote the interests or consoli-
date the authority of any party in the State."
We then knew what was going on, but we thought
the time had not arrived, and hoped it might never arrive,
in which it could be necessary or expedient to lay the
particulars before the public. The circumstances, how-
ever, having become a general topic of conversation in the
higher political cit cies, there exists no longer either motive
or justification for the reserve we had imposed upon our-
selves. The introduction of the Regency Bill to Parlia-
ment is delayed, because there has been,:and still is, a ma-
terial difference of opinion in the Cabinet as to the consti-
tution of the Regency. One section of the Cabinet, its more
respectable section, comprehending Lord Melbourne,
Lord Cottenham, Lord Lansdowne, Lord Duncannon,
and we believe Lord John Russell, cleaves to that mode of
constituting the regency which " nature and reason clearly
pint out," while the more Radical and less respectable
portion of their colleagues manifest great anxiety "to
avail themselves of the occasion to promote the interests
and consolidate the authority of their own party in the
State." In other words, the former section insist that
Prince Albert should be sole Regent, and the latter, that
his Royal Highness should be saddled with a colleague in
the Regency, in the person of the Duke of Sussex. We
have reason to believe that the opinion of her Majesty is
entirely in unison with that of the more respectable section
of her constitutional advisers.
(From the Morning Herald.)
The " lucky Administration," as the Globe calls the
Melbourne-O'Connell Cabinet, was doubly "lucky" on
Monday night. It obtained a twofold triumph. The
portion of attendant glory was indeed very scanty. But
her Majesty's Ministers have long ceased to dream of glory,
being quite satisfied if they can only obtain an ignominious
escape from impending destruclon. Lord Stanley has
kindly respited the sentence of the Ministers in the House
of Commons ; and the Duke of Wellington, as on many
former occasions, has extended his shield of con-
temptuous protection over them in the House of
Lords. Truly it is a" lucky Administration." Lord
Stanley's Bill to reform the foul and fraudulent sys-
tem of Irish representation had kept the House of
Commons in a state of struggle and commotion during
the greater part of the session. We confess we did not
anticipate the voluntary abandonment of that bill by its
author as the result of all the trials of strength which it
had occasioned, and in which Ministers had been so often
and so signally defeated. But the bill is abandoned for
the present session, and a Government that lives from hand
to mouth will take its chance of the chapter of accidents
for defeating,• it in the next,—" sufficient to the day is the
evil thereof." It is certain that for another year at least,
the fraud and perjury of the Irish electioneering system
arc safe, and also the salaries of her Majesty's Ministers.
(From the Morning Advertiser.)
We were gratified last night to perceive that the Duke
of Wellington, notwithstanding the objections which ho
had previously taken to the Canada Bill, refused to sup-
port the amendment of Lord Hardwicke for the postpone-
ment of its consideration for six months. After the
marked approbation of the Bill expressed by Sir Robert
Peel and other opponents of ti e Government, we
arc astonished that any of the factionists should have
the hardihood to attempt the defeat of a measuref
so directly involving the peace and preservation
Giving the
our whole North American possessions.
Noble Duke, as we do, full credit for his integrity
of purpose, we can attribute his proposition to delay the
operation of the Bill, which he suggested as a compromi,c
of Lord Hardwicke's amendment, solely to an absence of
a due appreciation of the real position of the colonie-
The condition of the Canadas is too critical ve
temporising policy. Every day while
present unsettled state, doubo•