The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATUR

He closed with the following: -4' Great Britain and the
United States—their Peaceful. Relations—• Honor and
Justice can maintain them." " The British Constitu-
tion—the Corner Stone of the World's Freedom."
"The Reverend Clergy, and their faitful Representative
at this festival—Dr. Wainwright."
Dr. WAINWRIGHT replied to this toast. He spoke of
the great indebtedness America was under to England
for the sacred volume.
" The Floating Bulwarks of Great Britain and the
United States." .

Captain Perry responded to this toast, and offered a
suitable toast in reply. " Our Native Land." "Woman
—The last and fairest of God's creation ; the first and
enduring object of man's affection." " The Rose—the
Thistle—the Shamrock, and the Leek—the worthy re-
presentative of the Charitable Societies, our welcome
guests."
Mr. Edwards, President of the St. George's ; Mr.
Irving, President of St. Andrew's ; Mr. Rubin, Vice-
President of St. Patrick's, and Mr. Alden, of St. David's,
responded to this toast.
Many toasts and sentiments were offered, but time
does not permit us to give them.
The dinner at the City Hotel has never been surpassed
in our city, and the proprietors of the City Hotel acquit-
ted themselves wonderfully well in all their . arrange-
ments, as did those who had the more immediate charge
in the arrangements. The decorations were under the
direction of the Messrs. Platt. The Committee of ar-
rangements performed their part of the service to
admiration.

MURDER OF PROFESSOR DAVIS, OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGIN.
(From the Boston Daily Advertiser of the Ist inst.)
As the murder of Professor Davis has been justly a
subject of much excitement, and as the dastardly wretch
who imbrued his vagabond hands in the pure blood of a
man that was an ornament to the State and country,
seems to have taken measures to cheat the hangman of
his righteous dues, I will occupy a corner of my letter
with a brief statement of the facts of that infernal trans-
action, as I have learned them on the spot; not that I dei
light in narratives.of blood more than yourself, whose
aversion to such tales, when told merely to glut a mor-
bid taste, I have had frequent occasion to observe ; but
lest you, as I did till rightly informed, should labour un-
der the error that this was one of those characteristic
transactions of the empire of King Mob, whose behests
are unscrupulously exeauted by Judge Lynch.
On the evening of the 12th of November, 1840, a dis-
turbance was heard on the lawn between the buildings
of the University, which was supposed to proceed from
some students endeavouring to kick up a row in the ee-
lebration of the anniversary of a college rebellion. The
noise continuing, Professor Davis stepped out from the
door of his house to the scene of the disturbance on the
lawn ; there he found but two persons ; he weft up to
one of them who was masked, and desirous to learn
who it was, made a movement forcibly to remove the
mask from the face of the rowdy ; who instantly drew a
pistol and shot Professor Davis. The ball entered below
the stomach, rebounded from the spine, and dreadfully
wounded him internally. The murderer instantly es-
caped. Whether Professor Davis had identified his
murderer, has never appeared. He lingered a day and
a half, but avoided saying anything that should implicate
any one in his murder.
From this circumstance and the fact that there were
no witnesses but those whose comfort inclined them to
keep dark, no clue could be got to the author of the
hellish deed for some days. The students, to whom the
Professor was justly endeared, organised themselves into
a committee of vigilance, and not thinking it pos-
sible that the deed could have any connection with
the College rebellion, but that it must have been
committed by some stranger who had intruded into
the grounds of the University, they scoured the
woods, placed sentinels upon every road and path,
made inquiries respecting every individual who had
appeared in the vicinity upon whom a shadow of
suspicion could light, and in short took, with caution
and energy, all those measures with which the
history of time in our own meridian has rendered
us familiar. Meantime the Faculty of the College,
though deeply grieved and excited by the event, re-
.edified comparatively passive, merely lending their aid
and counsel when sought by the students, and trusting
that from the spirit displayed by the students, the in-
vestigation was in good hands. So effectually did the
students arrange the net-work of their vigilance that
from their thoughts going abroad after dark revenge-
inspiring assassins, they presently reached the astound-
ing conclusion that the murderer was among them-
selves, and eventually fixed upon the individual.
Sammes was arrested and lodged in gaol; for
a time his employments there were recreation
with his friends and efforts to " correct " public sen-
timent, or rather to create a public opinion that should
take him out of the hands of justice. So far was he suc-
cessful in some quarters, that by the aid of convenient
fits of ill health, his trial uas deferred and deferred, till
a few months since he was let go on /25,000 bail. On
the 11th of the present month his trial was to come on
at Charlottesville, but lo and behold, he was not forth-
coming. I was in Charlottesville that day, and the talk
was then, that the poor inoffensive thing was in a poorly
-way, and would not live a week, and an application
would be made to the General Court to remit his bail.

We subjoin the-money article of the New York
Amerierni prepared for the sailing of the packet,
,
and which consa,ms the particulars of the Ame-
rican commercial, transactions to the end of No-
vember :----

" Since the sailing of the Great Western' money has
become more scarce, particularly among the stock ope-
rators. The loans being generally called in, large
amounts',linState stocks have been forced on the market,
and sold at much lower rates than have ever yet been
reached in this market. Illinois bonds have been down
to 26, and Indiana to 30. Prices have rallied, however,
and both descriptions are in demand at our quotations—.
viz., for Illinois 36 to 36k, and fur Indiana 3.4 to 35.
"The pressure for money does not appear to' extend
itself to the merchants generally, as little or no first
class paper is offering out of doors ; and, if exchange
deClines sufficiently to put a stop to the export of specie,
our banks will be enabled to extend all the facilities' that
are wanted.
" We do not, however, look for abundant 4 tif-trioney,
or much decline in the rates of exchange, fdt" sortie time
to come, as•the large importations prior to the Ist Ult.,
to avoid/the increased duties, and which were mostly for
foreign account, will continue to drain the country for
some months to come, while the low prices abroad of our
great staples will diminish the usual supply of bills from
the south. Besides these, the present; and the expecta-
tion of a continued scarcity of money in England,- may
induce the agents of foreign houses in good credit to
draw against specie shipments as a means of placing-Cash • •
in the hands of the principals on easier terms than dis-
counts can be obtained in the London money market, the
gain in interest on 60-day bills, usually estimated at Ito
1 per cent., now being from 11 to 2 per cent.
" Domestic exchanges have not varied much since our
last, the rates are rather lower, and the apparent disposi-
tion at the South to defer the period of resumptiOn de-
ters dealers from purchasing largely.
" The Legislature of Alabama has virtually sanc-
tioned non-resumption, and the West and South gene-
rally are so dependent on New Orleans, that they are
content to wait the movement of the banks there before
taking any steps themselves, even when the ability is
claimed and probably is possessed.
" In New Orleans the great majority of the banks are
strong, and if the managers of the sound institutions
would only summon sufficient resolution to leave the
weaker ones to their fate, a sound currency would be ob-
tained within 60 days ; hut this, it appears, we are not to
expect, and a general resumption now appears farther
distant than at this time last year.
" Our flour market has been dull, but prices are rather
higher, and as the late storm has probably put a stop to
canal navigation for the season, prices may advance still
more, though, the product being so great, the advance
will not be material.
" Advices from the West and South state the rising
of the rivers, and the products shot out by the closing of
lake and canal navigation will find their way to the sea-
board by a more circuitous route.
" The vaunted safety fund of this State is now exhi-
biting itself in the light in which practical men have
ever viewed it. They, from the beginning, distrusted
the system on two grounds—first, as inducing a degree
of confidence in the general circulation of the banks
subject to the law wholly unwarranted by the amount of
the fund ; and, secondly, by reason of the general gua-
rantee of all for each, as superseding in the conduct of
banks the caution which, if dependent for its credit and
circulatiou upon its own resources and management, each
would not fail to exercise. The fund now is for all prac-
tical purposes exhausted, and as the process of replenish-
ing is slow (an annual contribution of 1 to 1 per cent. on
the capitals of all the banks subject to the law, which is
about $30,000,000), it will be seen that it in truth offers
little security.
" The failure of some of the free banks has given rise
to sweeping denunciations of the whole system, but with-
out adequate reasons, as we apprehend. With the ex-
ception of two small banks at Buffalo, all the free banks
that have suspended had a large portion of mortgages as
part of their capital, and all men conversant with the
business of banking know that assets thus unconverti-
ble never can, and never should, be relied upon to meet
the liabilities of a bank. It was an original defect in
the law authorizing free banking that mortgages were
permitted to be received, an& was pointed out as such at
the' time in this paper and others, but the country mem-
bers would not consent to a bill without such a provision
in favour as-they claimed of land.

" The consequences areas were foreseen. It may be
confidently said, however, that free banks, to which real
money capital only was subscribed, which pledged sound
stocks only for their circulation, and which have been
managed with due discretion, enjoy and deserve at least
as much credit as any Safety Fund Bank. They have,
moreover, wider capacity for good, and can adapt them-
selves- with greater facilities to the exigencies of the
times. It would not be difficult to illustrate these
re-
marks by examples, but that might be deemed invidious.
" The Congress will re-assemble on Monday next, and
all eyes will be turned to Washington for a time. The
President, it is expected, will endeavour to present some
plan for receiving, safely keeping, and disbursing the
public revenues, which shall also incidentally aid in fur-
nishing a, uniform currency, and in equalizing the ex-
'changes ; but little confidence, however, is entertained
that any plan can now be proposed that can avail, or will
be accepted.
" Meanwhile, the Government of the United States is
pinched for means.
" The tone of public sentiment—so far as it can be
judged of by private- letters from various parts of the
Union and by the public press, since the result of the
Mississippi election has been ascertained—may be pro-
nounced very sound. Some feeble. sophists, indeed,
through some mere party Journals, have endeavoured to
show that Mississippi, because her,agents were unfaithfu',
is not bound by their acts; but the mass of honest men of