The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-02 00:00:00

THE MOVEMENT OP SILVER.

111111 BURG, Sept. 20.—The very unsatisfactory
state of our money market is beginning to excite
serious apprehensions amongst our most experi-
enced financiers, and the great fluctuations in the
price of silver and depreciation of the currency,
together with the enormous rate of discount, have
a disturbing influence on the produce market, and
prevent purchases on a large scale from being made
by our merchants, who are constrained to limit
their transactions to the execution of bona fide
orders accompanied by remittances.
In addition to the large quantities of silver bought
by the firm of Messrs. H. J. Merck and Co. and sent
by them to Austria to pay the workmen and mate-
rials of the Great Elizabeth Railroad (Vienna to
Fine, to join the Bavarian line), some considerable
parcels of the same precious metal have been bought
up here by the eminent banking-house of PaulMen-
delssoh n-Bartholdy, and sent to Berlin for coinage at
the Mint, as the want of an adequate quantity of
the circulating medium is severely felt in Prussia,
where large quantities of dollars are continually
being exported for the purpose of being melted
down. There are also at this moment no less than
six millions of dollars withdrawn from circulation
and deposited in the cellars of the Hamburg Bank.
The rate of discount, which has risen to 9 and 9i
per cent., has never been so high here before, with
the exception of the great crisis of 1826, in which
year it varied for several months between 10 and
15. per cent.

Under these circumstances it is proposed to esta-
blish a gold standard in addition to the existing
silver one. This idea appears to give general satis-
faction, and a petition to the Senate on this sub-
ject has been got up and lies for signature at the
Exchange Rooms.

A steamer arrived in the river to-day from Eng-
land brings 50,0001b5. of silver.

INCREASE IN THE RATE OF DISCOUNT.

The Bank of England, without waiting for their usual
weekly Court, resolved yesterday morning to raise their
rate of discount from 4i per cent., at which it bad stood
since the 26th of June last, to 5 per cent.
The measure has been adopted a day earlier than was
anticipated, in consequence of the extraordinary pressure
of applications from parties desirous of securing an abun-
dant supply at 4i per cent. The amount taken on Tues-
day is said to have been 1,000,0001., and but for the
announced alteration the demand yesterday would pro-
bably have been still greater.
It has given universal satisfaction, and the only regret
felt is that it was not adopted even earlier, since a large
proportion of the amount withdrawn during the previoce
two days had been not for the commercial wants of the
country, although these, in connection with the approach..
ing 4th of the month, are heavy, but simply for trans-
mission on loan to the Continent.

The rate decided upon is still one per cent. below that
of the Bank of France, and the question is whether
further rise will not immediately be found necessary.
The movement yesterday sufficed for the instant to bring
the demand within moderate limits, but with the finance
cial facilities now existing between Paris and London it
is altogether unlikely that it can prove sufficient to pre-
vent a continuous drain. A probability, therefore, exists
that another advance of a half per cent. may be made '
to-day, or any subsequent day, whenever the slightest
indications may present themselves of a renewal of the
pressure. No instance of the rate of discount being
altered on other days than Thursday has occurred since
the panic of 1847, but the principle having now been re-
cognised that it is desirable to move as the events of the
moment may render expedient, it is hoped that it will
henceforth be acted upon, and that the artificial rush to
obtain supplies before each weekly board day, when 9,
rise is considered likely, will thus be prevented for the
future.—Times' City Article.

MORE DISGRACEFUL PROCEEDINGS ON Tll3
PART OF THE OFFICERS OF THE ARMY.

BRIGHTON, OCT. 1.

An affair of a most disreputable character has re-
cently occurred at the Brighton barracks, which bids fair
to matoh in military delinquencies even the disgraceful
conduct of the officers of the 46th Regiment, the verit-
able proceedings in connection with which must be
fresh in the recollection of all. For some time the 4th
Light Dragoons have been stationed at these barracks,
and the officers have rendered themselves somewhat
notorious as being of that class of "New England"
blood, denoted in common parlance as " fast" men. It
appears that recently a gentleman has joined the regi'
meat as cornet, the son, we beleve, of a clergymaof
and who, from either having no taste for practical jok' '
ing and joining his fellow-officers in what they might
term innocent freaks of fancy, or from the circumstance ;
of not wishing to run himself into unnecessary extrava-
gance' he has been subjected to repeated annoyances, but
which he has borne with patience. A few nights since
these annoyances reached their climax, for it is reported
that a party of his comrades in arms set upon him bf
force, and we suppose from what followed incapacitated I
him by numbers from making resistance, for they der ,
nuded one side of his face of his whiskers and mustachios,
broke his furniture, damaged his clothes, and we hear '
took his bed and put it into a quantity of water, a 5
alleged, for the purpose of seeing whether it would float.
From the difficulty of ascertaining minute details, where
a considerable degree of secrecy is observed, we cannot
at present more than state the above particulars which
have come to our knowledge through several sources.
Suffice it to say, in consequence of a certain report to
the Horse Guards, on Monday last, Gen. Laurenson, the
General of Brigade, came down to Brighton, and the
following officers were ordered under close arrest, viz.. .
Lord Ernest Vane Tempest, Capt. Burt, and Cornet
Winstanley, and their swords taken from them. One of ,
two others, who either aided or countenanced the affair,
it is said have slipped themselves out of it. The whole •
matter, however, will of course undergo strict invest.'"
gation, and we hope that the parties implicated will re
ceive such measure of punishment as is their due.