The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 2, 1F69.

JOINT-STOCK BANKS.

Closing Business
Share NAME. Paid. Price. done
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19 Do B lO 4 5
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100 Alliance. Limited
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20 Anglo-Egyptian, lint all 14 19 181
20 Anglo-Hungarian
20 Anglo-Italian 1566, limited 10 6 5
40 Australasian
20 Bank of British Columbia all 1 , 1:
20 Do issued at 2 pm....., 5 ...
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25 Bank of South Australia all 31 3 1
50 Bank of Victoria, Australia 25 37 32
10 Bank of :yew Zealand all 17 19
50 British North American
20 Chartered of India, Austra-
lia, nd China all 201 211
25 Chartered Mere, of India,
London, and China all 29 301
20 City
100 Colonial 25 40 4.:
10 Consolidated, lint,
50 Delhi and London, lira 25 ... ...
50 East London, lint 5 11 Os
20 English and American, lim 10 ... ...
20 English Bank of Rio de Ja-
neiro, lim lO ld pr
20 English, ;cottish, and Aus
traliau Chartered
28,i Hong Kong and Shanghai
Bank Corporation all ... ...
281 Do new 5l i 1
100 Imperial, lint
20 Imperial Ottoman lO 1 11 111 1
z 5 lonian
25 Do new....... 5 pr 1p
20 Lnd Mortgage of India, lint 4 31 31
100 Do sp. c. Debs.lB64, 30' all 76 75 74
ao London Bank of Mexico
and South America, lint. 20 6 4
No Lon ion and Brazilian, Rm. 45 32 28
20 Do new 74 64 51
100 Lend= & River Plate, lim. 40 7 9
25 Du new 10 11 11
20 London Chart. of Australia all 291 231
50 London and County 2O 491 50/
20 Do new, iss at 20 p.m, 16 pd ll ...
50 London Joint Stock 1 32 33 311
20 London and South African al 1 , 19
100 London & S.-Western, lim, 20 ... ...
50 London & Venezuela, lim.., 121
...
100 London and Westminster. 20 61 63 67 1
100 Do Scrip, ise at 10 pm. 2O 69 61
100 Merchant, lint 25 6 4
10 Metropolitan, lint all 61 74 74
100 Midland, lim. .
b National of Australia
25 National of Liverpool, lim l5 3 1 d
100 National Provinc. of Eng'd 42 ... "'
10 Do . 42 ... ••• 40
50 National. 3O 40• 48
20 New South Wales all 42 43
20 North-Western 7l
25 Oriental Bank Corporation all 41 42
60 Provinc. Bank. Corpo., lim. 10 3 41
100 Provincial of Ireland 25 88 90
10 Do new. all ... ...
100 Stand, of Brit. S. Africa, lim 25 15 11
100 Do issued at 6 pm. 10 ... ...
25 Union of Australia all 45 47
100 Union of Ireland, lint
50 Union of London

CORRESPONDENCE FROM PARIS.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

PARIS, MONDAY, February 1.

Ine interpellation respecting the right of public meeting
oomrnences to-day. Whether the debate be of real import-
ance, or whether it be strangled at its birth, like that on
the Rdunion affair, I can safely predict that the subject,
and others arising out of it, will occupy the attention of
France for some time to come. This law respecting
public meetings has revived the old Communist
theories. The law has been clearly overreached,
for the license shewn at these gatherings, the
extravagance of language, and the violence of denuncia-
tion are wholly new under the Second Empire, and were
never contemplated when the measure now producing
such ill effects was introduced. A night or two ago
one of these meetings was held at Belleville. The
rights of property were first assailed ; then the person
of the Emperor was made the subject of con-
siderable abuse, and finally the leader, warming to
his work, brought forward a singular proposition.
He urged that the two secretaries of the Commissary of
Police, wb,) were engaged in taking shorthand notes
of the speeches, should be expelled. He founded
his reasoning on the provision in the law which
declared that a place should be reserved for the adminis-
trative authority, stenographers being no representatives
of such authority. Of course the reporters stayed ; but the
speakers did not seem much embarrassed by their presence.
They continued their diatribes as if their words, instead of
being taken down, were uttered to the winds. As I have before
mentioned, the law of public meetings was a concession in
the interests of liberty which cannot be too highly valued,
but this species of meeting is decidedly a deplorable abuse
of it.

The Minister of State, during the recent memorable
contest in the Corps Ldgislatif, expressed his opinion that
an interpellation should be clear, explicit, and fully
defined. The Temps undertakes to furnish him with an
interpellation of this character. It notes that
twice in the Chamber of Deputies has Count
Bismarck announced that Europe was on the verge
of a war which was prevented only by unforeseen circum-
stances, and it wonders why no member of the Corps
Legislatif puts forward a demand of interpellation in the
following form :—" What were the circumstances which
gave rise to this danger of war last year ?" This, adds
the Temps, will be explicit enough. There is every reason
to fear that the question would be burked, as most unplea-
sant questions are ; but there can be no doubt than an answer
would be both interesting and valuable. It would shew
what is the real value of the rumours which periodically
agitate France and re-act upon Europe, and especially the
amount of identity between the report and the fact.
The French press is noticing your raid upon the inde-
cency of theatrical representations. Amongst other
things they comment upon the extreme moderation and
courtesy exhibited in the Lord Chamberlain's circular.
"What authority," exclaims one of the papers, "this dis-
cretion and moderation give to the acts of the Government!
When will our officials learn to adopt a similar style ?" The
the Parisians, however, are not a little annoyed to find that
indecency of costume now common on the English boards
is attributed by the press to the invasion of French customs
and tastes. But they do not assert that the charge
is unfounded. One London theatre, it reells, has
inserted the following as part of its programme : " The
Cancan, French National Dance." This has given infinite
displeasure to the French journals. The Tonp3 gets into
a state of enthusiastic diatribe about the ssing!itate elo-
quence of these five words. Is it likely, then, that this
national indignation will be followed by practical resu is ?
Unfortunately not. England might perhaps wake up and I
indulge in one of its periodical fits of virtue if it was
found that E glish theatrical representations we:•e taken
as a model of indecency all over the world,
but the French Government is not likely to meddle with
the morali'y of its subjects. The respectable public are
disgusted at " the French National Dance," and so may
be the Government, but it will not interfere. It has
enough to do to take charge of its subjects' politics, with-
out troubling itself about their morals. It is too glad
to permit the French to please themselves in all affairs of
life, provided that it retains for itself the control of the
political domain.
Saturday was the 259th anniversary of the day on which ,

Henry IV. commenced planting the Tuileries gardens.
Amongst the chesnut trees still existing, three or four are
believed to date from that period.
A singular accident has just occurred at Riom, in the
Puy-de-IMme department. An elderly woman went to
bed leaving a brasier alight. While she was asleep rote
coals fell on the floor and burnt it to such an extent that
the deceased fell through into the cellar, where she was
found almost completely carbonised.

THE WEATHER TAIILL'.-TIIIS DAY.

AIETEOIIOI.OU I C'A L BET Ca: TF.

OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The Times is not without hope that we may after all yet
solve the problem how to gratify the general public by
! finding more money for metropolitan improvements, and
at the same time pacify the ratepayers by falling in with
their theory as to the urgent necessity of paying less. The
difference in results between such a yearly sum as
£3,000,000 spent well and spent ill would effect this
solution. As the worst feature of the present system
is its confusion, so the best, perhaps, of the
system suggested would be its simplicity. We
assume that the seven or nine municipalities inter
which it is proposed to divide London would b.
on the whole, of uniform pattern, with similar powers,
privileges, and forms of procedure, and separated on some
simple principle, such as that suggested by one of the
deputation. It is further proposed to establish, as soon
as the various municipalities had got into good working
order, a " General Municipal Council, composed of one
representative for each of the separate municipalities,
and formed something after the pattern exhibited in
the United States." This plan, if it succeeds, will add
something of the unity and comprehensiveness belonging
to centralisation to the vastly-increased flexibility and
energy which we may hope to get from a judicious system
of localisation. If any proof were necessary of the want
of flexibility in our present cumbrous and overgrown
system, we need only consider the difficulty which the
Metropolitan Board of Works has found in giving London
a proper supply of gas, and, we may add, of water. There
has been no want of will, but the mere magnitude of the
task has made it too much for them. And as London grows
the evils we have been discussing grow with it. More
land more money is wanted, while, owing to waste and
confusion, less is forthcoming. The prospect is not a
pleasant one for Londoners, but, happily, this condition
of things does not seem likely to last much longer. The
Home Secretary has declared himself in general accord-
ance with the views put forward by the deputation, and
has promised that Government shall take them under its
! consideration without further delay.
The Standard thinks that the New Zealand colonists
would be no more anxious to have another European
army in their midst than we should be to send one. In
other ways it is possible to give them material assistance.
What the colonists may fairly ask for—what we believe
that they have a right to ask for and to expect without
any derogation from their independence, or any
injury to their sense of self-reliance—is simply one
or two. disciplined regiments to meet the present
emergency, to serve as the nucleus of a colonial
system of defence. If only to garrison the
larger centres of population, such as Auckland, Taranaki,
and Wanganui, while the colonial levies are acting in
the field against the insurgents, the presence of one regi-
ment skilled in Maori warfare—say, for instance, the old
58th, or the 14th, now distributed, for no purpose what-
ever, through the Australian capitals—would be a most
material help to the colony. It would undoubtedly tend
to save many valuable and innocent lives of those who
have settled in the island upon the faith of the gua-
rantee of the Crown, as implied in the 13ritish supre-
macy. It is idle to remind us that the English settlers
capable of bearing arms in the Northern Island are
as numerous as the Maories. Ultimately there can be no
doubt that they will be able to overpower the Han-hau
savages. In the meantime, it is certain that they are not
their " superiors in military power," and that the attempt
t) meet the insurgents in the field and at the same time
to garrison the towns will be attended with much
disaster and loss of life. For reasons which will be
obvious to all those who know what life in a colonial
settlement is, the mass of the colonists have neither the
inclination nor the capacity for bush-fighting. There
is, besides, a financial as well as a military aspect
of the case Although it is not right that the colonists
should be left entirely without military protection, and
although they have a clear right to help, even in the shape
of a regiment or two of English soldiers, it is unquestion-
ably true that the best permanent help we can give them
is in the shape of money - that is, in helping them to raise
money. While the credit of the mother country stands so
much higher than that of the colony, there is no good
reason why we should not make use, of it to relieve the
necessities of the New Zealand Government and to
relieve ourselves as well of our imperial obligation. Let
the home country guarantee a New Zealand loan, to be
raised in England, at the ordinary rate of Imperial secu-
rities. This would be, perhaps, the most effective, as well •
as the cheapest way of helping the colonists in their
present troubles; and that it is a legitimate way no one
can deey.

The Daily News supposes that very few English member
of Parliament have any traceable resemblance to Curio-
lanus, but we may presume, that most of them have at
least one sentiment in common with the noble Roman.
He had a rooted objection to canvassing, and he certain.y
made a very lame hand at it. Canvassing has always
been disagreeable, and is now becoming dangerous. But
one of the most remarkable phenomena which the
late trials have brought to light is the pure and
w•si7pecting character of the gentlemen who aspire
to seats in the House of Commons. The white robe in
which the Roman candidate solicited the most sweet voices
of his fellow-citizens is but a poor symbol of the spotless
innocency in which English politicians are clad
as with a garment. These gentlemen care very little
for their money—they give it with a profuse and unity.
(inking generosity which makes no conditions and asks
for no information ; but they are jealous of their reputations,
They are ready to cry out that he who takes their purse
takes trash ; but the man who filches from them their
good name commits a robbery at which they raise the
shout of " Stop thief." Honest lago was, if we recollect
aright, the author of the virtuous comparison to which we
have alluded. But it is strikingly suitable in the mouths
of those candidates who have spent their 27,000 or
£lO,OOO in contesting elections on purity prin-
ciples. They declared over and over again that
they would not countenance corrupt or illegal pro-
ceedings ; and what more could they do? If their
agents did not believe them, whose fault was that? They
protested that if they heard of anything unlawful they
would retire from the contest, and they did not hear of

anything unlawful until petitions were presented against
them. Since the time of King Herod there has been no
such massacre of the innocents as that which is taking
place under the ruthless eyes of Mr. Justice Blackburn,
Mr. Justice Wiles, and Mr. Baron Martin. But the
victims have one consolation, that of conscious virtue ; and
they may gain something by their disasters, namely, ex-
perience.

The Herald refers to the charges of conspiracy against
the Overend and Gurney directors, which came before the
grand jury at the Central Criminal Court on Monday,
and were commented upon by the learned Recorder of
London. The facts which his lordship sketched in outline
were of course identical with those of which the public
have heard so much already, nor was any single adverse
feature in the sad and sorrowful story withdrawn from the
consideration of the assembled jurymen. But for the first
time since the inquiry began the public have been informed,
on high judicial authority, what the charge against the ex-
directors really is, and what the substantiation of that charge
involves. The enormous business the old firm did, the high
reputation it bore, and the unlimited public confidence
which it enjoyed, were told in a few well-chosen words, as
was also its unhappy entrance upon business of a new and
dangerous character, with the consequent lock-up of four
millions and its ever-augmenting embarrassments. 'That
the introduction of new capital had become an absolute
necessity was stated without reserve or qualification, and
that to this feeling the formation of the limited company
was due is an obvious inference. Again, the jury were
told that whether it was a fraudulent act to appropriate
half a million for the goodwill of a concern involved it
such unfortunate circumstances was of itself an important
point for consideration. In short, the leading features
of the case for the prosecution were brought forward
as prominently as its conductors could have desired.
But what the learned Recorder particularly impressed
upon the grand jury was precisely that of which the
applauding crowd at Guildhall were probably unaware,
and which not a few among our contemporaries have been
but too ready to ignore. It is that the charge is one in
which intent is everything. The defendants may have
been over-sanguine ; may have believed too implicitly in
the power of a great name, and the recuperative energy of
a discount business which had no superior. But this is not
enough. The charge is not of erroneous judgment, of
carelessness, or even of recklessness. The defendants are
accussed of crime, and hence the grand jury were told that
before they could find a bill, " they must be satisfied
affirmatively that the directors had been actuated by a
fraudulent intention."

The Star makes nome remarks upon the discussion that
took place the other day at Sion College on the Irish
Church question, and declares that the speakers addressed
themselves to the subject as if it had not been submitted
to the people and determined upon by them. Any
departure from the programme with which the party went
to the country would not be moderation. It would be
rank treason and cowardice. Mr. Gladstone would never
commit it to bolster up a weak Administration, and
is not likely to be guilty of it with a great
majority at his back. 'We had a memorable
example of the effect of a policy of moderation in
1136'3, on the Reform question. Did the studied parsimony
the measure then offered abate opposition ? On the
contrary, it seemed to dissolve the House into chaos.
The interest and enthusiasm of the public were repelled
by the smallness of the benefit to be ccnferred, while
faction throve upon that could not nourish opinion
out of doors. The Conservatives, inflamed with eagerness
for office, imitated successfully the attitudes and actions of
patriots fearful of change, and the Liberal lead-eer,sbholeuosntd t
same
hesitate
control of a majority which could onlyhave ) i
been
gether the ties of principle and progress.
result would follow if the Minister were now to
for a moment at the threshold of the new policy. IfArGladstone were to deliver on the first night of the session.
such a speech on the propriety of continued endowment as
Sir Charles Trevelyan is reported to have made at Sion
College, the heart of Mr. Disraeli would rejoice. He would
at once see his opening for sowing tares among thelwheat.
With a less skilful pilot we might have felt some fears, as
the participators of unjust privileges are sleepless in their
efforts to thwart justice, while the
resume with greater people confide their
cause to their chosen champions, and
zest the work of every-day life.