The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-13 00:00:00

Bank of Engla..(l Returns.

An Account, lursuant to t;
cap. 32, for the week ending 1

lie Act 7th and Bth Victoria,
Wednesday, Jan. 12, 1870.
P ARTMENT.

ISSUE Ds
Notes issued £38,298,790

Governmt. Debt £11,015,100
Other Securities 8,984,900
Gold Coin and
Bullion
[ Silver Bullion

£38,298,790

£33,298,790

BANKING D.
Proprietors' Capi-
tal £14,553,000
Rest
Public Deposits
(including Ex-
chequer, Sav-
ings' Banks,
Commissioners
of National

!.PARTMENT.
Govornmt. Secu-
rities(including
Dead Weight
Annuity) C 15,911.399
Other Securities 16,511,781
Notes 9,708,910
Gold and Silver
Coin ... 893,603

ijebt,-and Div.
Accounts 6,312,206
Other Deposits.. 18,312,239
Seven Days and
other 8i115.,... 503,078

£43,025,723

£43,025,723

' RONMASTERS' QUARTERLY 111EETI1V G.

WOLVERHA3iPTON-, Wednesday Evening.

The quarterly meetings of the ironmasters of
this district commenced in this town this after-
noon. These assemblies fall as late on this occasion
as is possible, which is a favourable circumstance so
far as business is concerned. The attendance to-
day was fully as large as it has been here of
late years ; the conversation turned principally
on the prospect of the success of the experiment
tried in November of raising the price of finished
iron 20s. per ton. So far it has not been possible
to form an opinion upon that point, for al-
though some half-dozen firms have obtained the
rise, the bulk of the trade have been obliged to be
content with the best prices they could get, and, at
the late period of the year when the change was
made neither merchants nor home consumers
would buy a ton of iron that was not absolutely
indispensable. The time has now arrived when
the effect of the rise upon the demand will be
really tested. At to-day's meeting the buying
class was only moderately represented, and
the amount of business transacted was so
small that the point remains in as much uncer-
tainty as before, but producers are sanguine,
and they ground that feeling on the cir-
cumstance of the inquiries made on behalf of the
shipping firms being of a character to indicate that
there is the certainty of a great demand for iron
this spring for various foreign countries, and that
this is not dependent on any ordinary contingency.
Contracts were talked over, but scarcely any were
closed to-day ; and the course which the trade is
likely to take will be more readily ascertained at the
Birmingham meeting on Thursday, to which busi-
nees is really deferred.
Hot-blast all wine pig of South Staffordshire was
- spoken of to-day as being ss. per ton higher than
it was three months ago.

CARDIFF, 10th.—The storms of Friday and Sa-
turday interfered considerably with the shipping
trade, and the clearances of steam coal for the
foreign markets have in consequence been less than
usual. From the French and Mediterranean mar-
kets and the mail packet stations there is a fair in-
quiry, and current quotations are well maintained.
Last month the total exports reached 174,750 tons
as compared with 163,378 tons in December, 1868,
being an increase of over 11,000 tons. In the house
coal trade there is au average business doing, the
requirements of coasting and Irish buyers having
slightly increased. Tin plates are dull, and the
i 8 11Q immediate prospect of ipproitinout.

SPIRIT OF THE JOURNALS. I THE CAUSE OF THE OUTRAGE ON MISS
GARDINER.
Some circumstances have transpired in connection with
the case of Miss Gardiner, who was recently fired at in
the county of Mayo, which have been strongly commented
upon in the tenant-right journals. At the last sessions
of Ballina the lady appeared in court with her fale
bandaged to prosecute some ejectment proceedings
which are supposed to have led to the outrage. In
the course of her examination it appeared that
since she came into possession of the property, thirteen
years ago, she had been in the habit of serving notices to
quit every half-year, in order that she might have full
control over her tenants. In October, 1868, she gave up
the practice, as being "too troublesome," and then made
an agreement with them that they should hold from year
t:) year, and for one year only. She sought to eject two
tenants named Jordan, and a third named Howard.
In the latter case the defendant in the ejectment
had gone to America, leaving his brother and his mother,
' a very old woman, in possession as joint tenants. They
both produced the receipt for the last half-year's rent
made out in her name, hut this was held not to constitute
her a tenant, and a decree for possession was granted.
Tile other case was warmly contested, and James Jordan,
ie principal defendant, swore that he and his
family had teen on the land for mere than 80
years ; that they had built five houses upon it, fenced,
drained, and improved it in various waya, and that
£5OO would not compensate him for the loss of occupancy.
He and the other defendants, who are both old men, were
offered by Miss Gardiner a farm of 19 acres in another
part of the estate, but they refused, because, as they
alleged, it had no house or fence, and was only a swamp.
In this case also she obtained a decree. The publication of
the reported facts has, it is stated, greatly diminished the
public indignation and sympathy which the account of the
attempt upon her life excited.

-- -

The Times, in referring to Mr. Bright's second speech at
Birmingham, doubts whether he did not take away some-.
thing from his previous speech, so overwhelmed did he
shew himself by the difficulty of doing anything. He
had been pressed very much by several speakers on the
subject of University Tests, one of them reminding him
that every member of the Cabinet had voted for their
abolition, and that the Liberal party was as much
united upon the point as it was on the Irish Church.
But Mr. Bright began to count up the number of
nights a University Bill would consume if introduced
by the Government, and proved that a fortnight
would in all probability be spent in getting it through the
House of Commons. We miss something here of the
audacity of success. The Land Bill must, of course, be the
piece de resistance of the session, but it must be accompa-
nied with a certain number of side dishes, if only to shew
that the Government can venture on something more than
cutting down the Estimates. Nothing is gained by excess
of caution. The Ministerial nights will pass speedily enough.
and August will be upon us, if not before we are weary,
yet before we can realise it, but the amount that will have
been compressed in the meantime into the nights at the
disposal of the Government will depend very much on the
amount put forth at the beginning of the session as the
work to be got through. If we cannot with 3lirabeau
entirely renounce the word " impossible," it should be the
last and not the first to issue from the mouth of a states-
man. Mr. Bright's reply to the deputation on behalf of
the Fenians was remarkable for its admirable simplicity
and directness of speech. If we could only persuade our-
selves that his words would be permitted to reach the
peasantry of Ireland we should rest satisfied that
they must touch their consciences and abate
their malignity. He assured the deputation of
that which no Englishmen could doubt that the
reports of the indignities and sufferings imposed on the
Fenian prisoners were absolutely fictitious. But, so far
from there being any desire to treat them with harshness,
every possible mitigation in their treatment had been
conceded. It is no light matter, Mr. Bright declared,
that men should rise in insurrection against the Govern-
ment of a country where the freedom of constitutional
agitation is unrestricted. Freedom and peace must be main-
tained against all who endanger them, and it is im-
possible to liberate men who candidly avow that their
first act of liberty would be an attempt to destroy by force
the unity and life of the nation.

The Standard remarks that by his constituents of Bir-
mingham and by his many admirers, Mr. Bright's first
great speech as Minister was certain to be reckoned a
success. We can perfectly well understand what his eight
thousand auditors had come to hear, and we are not
surprised that after two or three hours' speaking they
remained content. It was inevitable that it should be so,
whatever had been the matter of Mr, Bright's speech. He is
so great a proficient in the art of talkingthat it is impossible,
after five-and-twenty years' experience, that he should fail
in a set oration. He is too great a master of his craft to make
his success doubtful. Yet we venture to say that those
who are able to compose themselves sufficiently to study
the substance of Mr. Bright's speech, after sifting it from
the extraneous rhetoric which forms so large a portion: of
Mr. Bright's eloquence--the old, old compliments to his
auditory as the most intelligent, the most incorruptible,
and the most high-minded portion of the people of
England—the ornamental platitudes about the beauty
and the virtue of Mr. Bright's own cause—the
well-worn sarcasms at all his enemies, and the
perpetual references to himself and his achievements,
will feel not a little disappointed, even as Liberals of
Mr. Bright's own connection, at this Birmingham
oration. If we comp to the substance of Mr. Bright's
speech we shall find that it reveals nothing whatever of
the intentions of the Ministry, and promises nothing of
any of those things with the advocacy of which Mr.
Bright himself has been identified. Of course, we are
prepared to find that the burden of his speech should
be a laudation of the Ministerial policy in Ireland.
But we protest against his description of the results
which have flowed from that policy. It would not be
possible for a demagogue, especially after he has become
tamed by office, to preserve his influence on a Birming-
ham platform if he debarred himself of these necessary
arts—a dexterity in the use of which, combined with a
singular power over words, and unabashed countenance,
are, as they have ever been, the chief qualities of Mr.
Bright as a speaker.

So intelligent an observer as Lord Houghton could not
says the Post, be present at the opening of the Suez Canal
without having something to say in regard to it which,
even after all that has been said and written upon this
subject, would be worth listening to; and those who
heard him give the Geographical Society the account of
his visit and the results of his observations, had every rea-
son to be satisfied. Lord Houghton was one of few men
who believed in the probable success of the Canal when
it was first undertaken, and at the recent opening M.
de Lesseps recognised hiss as having been " one of our Eng-
lish friends when friends were few." Lord Houghton
speaks hopefully of the future of the Canal. Though a
strong wind was blowing when he passed through it he did
not notice any sand or any material which was likely
to encumber it. Two millions .sterling more will be
sufficient, in the opinion of the best engineering autho-
rities, to render it effective for all present navigable
requirements. Even now it is perfectly navigable for
s►uall vessels, and is likely to be of immediate advantage
to the trade of Italy, Greece, and the Levant, though he
thinks it improbable that either England or France will
gain much by it for seine years. In a word, if the Suez
Canal realises the expectations of its promoters, it will
stimulate trade and commerce. It will give an impulse to
industry, and will create employment. If it fails to do
this, it will fail utterly,

The Pall 2/all Gazette thinks that the sudden and un-
expected death of M. Noir is one of those unhappy little
mischances which Fate provides sometimes for the preci-
pitation of long-gathering and really momentous events.
We have only to read the news from Paris to p( rceive
that the pistol-shot which disposed of M. Noir in so sum-
mary a way went further—grazing a well-filled magazine;
of explosive passions, and, for a moment, putting the peace
of the city in imminent danger. The excitement pro-
duced in France by this most untoward affiitr is
not only considerable in its area and intensity—
in these respects Traupmann's murders equalled it, per-
haps ; but the excitement is of an ugly and dangerous
kind. Besides the trial of the Prince for manslaughter (for
that is what the offence is called—he is not accused of
murder), there will be the trial of M.Rochefort for treason.
There seems to be little doubt that the Government will
insist upon his prosecution, or that the Chamber will give
the necessary authorisation. If this course is resolved upon,
then we may confidently rely upon it that neither M.
Rochefort's case nor that of the Prince Pierre Bonaparte
will be disposed of without the generation of a great
deal of unwholesome excitement in the popular mind.
It would have been well, perhaps, had the Government
allowed M. Rochefort licence for yet a few weeks more,
hard as it must be to endure his virulence, difficult as it
must be to bear his studied insults. But we suppose
there is really no help for it now. The Government
cannot well withdraw from the threatened prosecution
of D.F. Rochefort; and, therefore, between an in•
tolerable enemy and a most misguided friend, the
Emperor has reason to look forward for yet more
trouble.

The Daily Yews declares that till the name of the
Senator who proposed the resolution about annexing
British Columbia is disclosed, we need not attach special
value to it as an indication of American policy. That it
should have been referred to the Committee of the Senate
on Foreign Relations is in the natural course of events.
That we shall hear any more about it is very improbable.
A memorial, purporting to be largely signed by
the inhabitants of Victoria, and praying for the in
corporation of British Columbia with the United States,
has been presented to President Grant. The logic of the
framer of the memorial amounts to this, that Leexose some
British subjects have settled in British Columbia
therefore British Columbia ought to be annexed
to the United e,tates. We feel confident that,
if British subjects really had a share iu the movement, and
took part in preparing this memorial, they would have put
a different address en the cover. An application would
have been made to the authorities at home before they at-
tempted to stir up strife by invoking the intervention of
the United States. If the inhabitants of British Columbia
have any grievances, let them be made known in the
appointed and constitutional way. They have now
under consideration a despatch, in which Lcrd Granville
suggests that incorporation with the Dominion of Canada
is the course which the Home Government think the best
for them to adopt. In this case, at least, the bitterest foe
of Lord Granville's policy cannot affirm that it is calcu-
lated to dismember the Empire. Till the feeling of the
colonists is clearly manifested, and till a definite reply to
Earl Granville's despatch shall have been received, the
public may view with more amusement than apprehen-
sion the presentation of "bogus" memorials by pilgrims
from Vancouver's Island to the capital of the United
States.

The Telegraph observes that many a bon vivant, and many
a the fisher of interesting and picturesque DAS ociati,ns, will
experience something like a pang on hearing the news
that the glorious old Star and Garter at Richmond has
been burnt to the ground. Silver-winding Thames, which
has for generations rippled past in view of joyous
groups congregated in the garden, or holding; high revel
in the saloons of that cheerful hostelry, on "Wednesday
morning saw another sight, in the fierce flames which
its waters reflected. Unfortunately, more than mere
associations or memories have suffered by the event.
There has been a sad loss of life ; the manager, who had
but lately been appointed to the post, having perished.
If, however, one circumstance stated in the accounts from
tho scene is correct, it must be matter of congratulation
that the disaster was net tenfold worse. Engines were on
the spot, and to spare ; but, in sight of the Thames, there
was no water to be had, and a message had to be sent
M,
to Battersea before a supply could be procured. as
there no hese to be attached to the thirteen
engines standing thfre mere useless lumber for
want of the suing fluid ?''Water, water everywhere, yet
never a drop to be had short of Battersea! To cap the
climax, there wee no fire-escape; vested rights, or some
equally formidable enemy of indispensable improvements,
having prevented the acquisition of such a machine a year
or two ago. When the inquiry takes place, it will, of
course, be ascertained whether Richmond is really depen.
dent on a water inspector at Battersea for access 40 a
main, in the event of fire; and whether the district could
not find an out-of the-way corner in which to lodge a fire-
escape against the next occasion when human beings may
he seen on the second storey of a burning building, able
to lower down others, but with no means of safety for
themselves from the flames behind,.except a perilous lest
ihrwarcl,