The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-19 00:00:00

THE FOREIGN EXCHANGES.

It appears to us, on a re-consideration of the circum-
stances bearing upon the rate of exchange between Eng-
land and foreign countries, that we did nut, on Saturday
list, give sufficient prominenes to the fact, that very
large amounts of English property are at all times
lying in the various commercial emporiums of the
world ; and that the tendency to an adverse rate of ex-
change may be, to some extent, counteracted by realising
a portion of this property and remitting the proceeds. In
judging of the probable consequences of excessive impor-
tations of food, or ether commodities, at any particular
period, men are rather too ready to assume that the
commerce of the country is conducted alino,t entirely upon
the plan of drawing bills at once against exports of
merchandise to other countries at the time of shipment,
and remitting these bills at once to the country on
which they are drawn. If that practice was as general
in England as in the United States, we might always
place the exports and imports of any given year against
each other, and pretty safely take for granted, that the
balance of excess on either side must be paid or received
in coin or bullion.

But English commerce is not generally conducted on
the plan to which we have alluded. Owing to the com-
parative abundance of capital in this country, the trade,
both of import and export, with many very important
markets, is carried on entirely with English funds. The
merchant bu) s manufactures, sends them abroad, and
waits until they are sold, when he invests the proceeds in
produce, and imports it into this country, without having
drawn or negotiated any bill of exchange in connexion
with them. The imports of one year, consequently, may,
and generally do, represent, aed ought to be compared
with, the exports not of that, but of some preceding
year ; -and, having been paid for in advance by this
country, their excess at any particular period cannot
ex= rcise any influence upon the rate of exchange.
From the mode in which the trade to the East Indies
and China is carried on, there will probably be at, all
times an amount of British property lying to the eastward
of the Cape of Good Hope, equal to not less than the whole
amount of British exports to those countries for eighteen
months or two years. The same remark will apply to
the West Indies, British and foreign, Brazil, and the
whole of South America, with other markets of consi-
derable extent and importance. Whatever excess in
imports from those countries may have recently arisen,
we may look upon it rather as the natural result of the
large exports of the year 1845, than as a cause of pro-
bable derangement to the foreign exchanges.
Again, if our exports have recently declined in value,
so also have the prices of some very important articles
of produce, in which returns are ordinarily received.
This is. particularly the case in India and China.
Teas, which, last year, were selling at thirty
taels a picul, could be bought at the date of the last
advices from Canton, for twenty taels ; and silk, which
had commanded 500 dollars a bale, was selling at 400.
At Calcutta, indigo—although the crop was smaller by
30,000 maunds than that of the previous year—was
selling at 135 rupees per maund, instead of 175; and
sugar at nine rupees instead of eleven. These prices
will make a considerable difference in the amount of
the purchases, on British account, in India and
China ; and although, for the reasons above men.
tioned, that fact has no direct bearing upon the
notes of exchange, it has an indirect operation upon
them of some importance. The smaller the amount
required to purchase the necessary supplies of pro-
duce for England, the larger will be the fund
applicable to purchase on account of other nations.
A very large portion of the Indian and Chinese
produce exported to the United States is now paid for
by means of English manufactures ; and it seems highly
probable, under existing circumstances, that a much
larg. r portion, not only of that, but of all the tropical
reduce consumed in the United States, will for the
future be purchased through the intervention of British
capitalists, and with funds obtained by the sale of
British manufactures.
The writer of a recent article in the Times, to
which ae adverted on Saturday, had entirely over-
looked the important facts above referred to. and
assumed that the whole of the heavy imports which
have recently arrived, and are now arriving, in this
country, must be now paid for, partly in commo-
dities, and the remainder in specie and bullion, to
the very great derangement of the monetary system
of the country. The tact, however, is, that very many
of them have been paid for long ago ; and no inconsi-
derable portion of the remainder will be paid for by
means of British funds now in foreign countries ; so
that the drain of bullion from this country, will pro..
bably be much smaller than the great increase of im-
ports, and the falling-off in exports, would, at, first sight,
appear to render necessary.—Manchester Guardian.

THE BREADALBANE BUTTON.
(From the Ayr Advertiser.)
' We hare before, in our columns, taken notice of the com-
mencement of this new species of manufacture in the village
of Alatichline, and of its rapid progress under the direction of
its indefatigable inventor, Sir. Andrew Smith, until now
within a few years, it has become the chief manufacture of
the village. Yet the erteat of the manufactory, abstractly
considered, might not merit much attention, were it not that
there are other circumstances connected with it, which we
think may justify a few additional remarks.
It is with manufactures as it is with painting and poetry,
not very ditli.tult to acquire a little local fame ; but to com-
mence the manufactory of an artic:e in a country village,
that can only obtain a remunerative consumption by being
sent an•l sold over the whole civilised worlii, when it has to
meet and compete with articles for a similar use—the pro-
duct of manufactswes Of centuries standing—to bring the
product of such a manufactory to such perfection, as to ar-
rest the attention and call forth the approbation of the most
enlightened portion of the community, and to obtain for it
the patronage of the first personage in the empire—all within
the spac.2 of three or four years, surely says something for its
real merits.
Our deservedly esteemed representative in Parliament,
Lord James Stuart, having repeatedly sent to Mr. Smith's
manufactory for some of his• buttons, which were much ad-
mired, Mr Smith had only to hint to his Lordship, that the
patronage of his Royal Highness Prince Albert would be of
for Ins Royal Highness at the small
advantage to bins, when his Lordship instantly dispatched
such an account of Mr. Smith's business to the Palace, as at
once procurA for him the favour requiredrand a set of but-
which when shown to the very first
manufacturers in Birmingham were pronounced by them
and we sincerely wish that the Royal
tvtooilnibasegewteloirfeel‘migaoutstletbuiPine beautiful articles they had ever seen in
the button line. We subjoin a copy of the Hon. G. E.
of benefit to Mr. Smith, as we are sure he will
Anson's letter acknowledging the receipt, and acceptance
distinction so much in light of a reward
stimulus to future exertions :
ith, I beg to acknowledge the re-
foot.
oafoyftcuhhoreen
nps
libainisuyeftrtbaot
esinnsas,
" Windsor Castle, December 30,1846.
who has most graciously received them,
re-
ceipt tMoriyA•onudrrleewtteSr,lnand to inform you that I have, in cm.
pliance with your request, and that of Lord James Stuart,
laid the buttons which accompanied it before his Royal High.
of your invention.
(Signed) •' G. E. ANSON."
and
ds
expressedPri uc Albert,his
approbation

CAVALRY SNOBS
What distinguished cavalry regiment is it that, quar-
tered not a hundred miles from where we write, has
within the last week presented the scene of mar, a
military freak, carried on against a young officer who
has- lately joined the ranks? We are told that the
officers of this regiment, by some conventional arrange.
ment, it would appear, entered into among themselves,
have determined that none but a scion of some aristo-
cratic house shall hold a commission in their "crack
corps;" and, because the " newly joined" happened to
be the son of a professional gentleman, every species of
mischief and petty annoyance has been practissd against
him. On one occasion, we have heard, having first in-
duced him to join them in a deep libation to the merry
god, they pulled his bed out of his quarters, and kicked
it about the Barrack-square, and when they had suffi-
ciently amused themselves with this most gentlemanly
sport, they, left it there, and walked off. But the annoyance
did not end here, for having taken it into their heads to
carry out their excellent military views, they determined
on the occasion of a champagne supper, which he was
to give them, to make him drink deep, and then cut off
his mustachios and whiskers, blacken his face, and while
in that state perform sundry aristocratic feats. Fortu-
nately for this inexperienced young gentleman, his con-
fidential servant got some intimation of the proceedings
which were in contemplation, and having very properly
placed his master on his guard, he evaded the contem-
plated annoyances by using the wine placed before him
very moderately.. This so annoyed some of the exclu-
'lives, that they immediately set to work, threw a great
quantity of his furniture out of the window, and pro-
ceeded to cut up his clothes, boots, and every article on
which they could lay their hands, in ,act, "nothing was
too hot or too heavy for them." Having destroyed his
clothing aad property before his face, which insult, from
the army regulations, he had no power to resent, they
then went into the barrack-yard, and having broken his
furniture, piled it up in a heap, after which they ran a
train of powder from the mess-room to the quarters of
the young officer, which they fired for the purpose of
filling the place with smoke. It is stated that their con-
duct was reported to the proper quarter, but the matter
was subsequently hushed up. However, it is quite time
that the system of exclusiveness, which has in some in-
stances been carried to a great extent in the army, and
which in this case we have felt it our public duty to ex
pose, should be put an end to.—Cork Reporter.

A PROLIFIC EWE.—There is at present a black.
faced Hardwick ewe in the possession of Mr. Hill, of Whin-
nerah, in Gesfortli, which has reached the patriarchal age of
twenty-five years. This extraordinary animal has annually
reared a lamb fur the last twenty-three years, and has every
year, during that long period, always
produced a full fleece
of wool. This animal is healthy and active, and will shortly
present her owner with a lamb again this season ; she has
annually produced a ginnuer lamb fur the last twelve years
as that the number of her progeny can scarcely be calculated
—Cumberland Pacquet.
BIGOTRY IN THE TYROL.—About two years ago
the celebrated German actor Esslair, who had been for twenty
years upon the stage of Munich, pied suddenly in the village
of !gulden, near Inspruck, in the Tyrol, and was interred in
the burial ground of the place. At the beginning of last
month the King of Bavaria erected a monument over the
grave of Esslair, on which were sculptured emblems of his
art, and his name engraved, but with no other inscription.
We now learn from Inspruck that towards the end of the
month the monument was destroyed by the country people
as an offence to God, in iirofaning a Christian cemetery by
urying in it an actor, and erecting over him a pagan raonu-
bento—Galegga4i..