The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-13 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

A LIBEL CASE.—A trial which excites great interest °,
commercial and financial circles has been commence"
at the Central Criminal Court, before Mr. Commissioner
Kerr. The accused is Mr. Ellisen, a gentleman of good
standing and position, who, as chairman of a committal
of shareholders in the Ottoman Railway Comps i 1
addressed a letter to Lord Stanley, reflecting upon 141
directors in respect to their management of the affairs
the company, for which he is now indicted as a falges
scandalous, and malicious libel.
AN AWKWARD MISTAKE.-At the Central Criraixifei

Court, on Tuesday, Morris, who is charged with frauds'
lently attempting to obtain a large sum of money frorp
gas company upon claims arising out of the fire at Savil4
House, Leicester-square, surrendered to take his trial. It
may be remembered that on the previous day, being )0
on bail, he did not appear when called on, and his reed'
nisances were entreated; as well as a warrant issued for
apprehension. His counsel explained that his 0114
surrender arose out of a mistake as to the day, but the
Recorder said that the warrant must take its course,
he was at once handed over to the gaoler.
THE WESTMINSTER ELECTION.—An important decision
was that in the Court of Common Pleas, on Tuesday,
respect to the petition against Mr. W. H. Smith, the
sitting member for Westminster, who claimed that the
petition should be taken off the file because it did 11°
furnish the particulars required by the statute and by the
rules framed under it. It was contended that this V'Ti
very insufficient time for the defence, but the Lord Chief
Justice refused a rule, and the court adhered to the orde",
laid down.. A similar decision was given at Edinburgh °
the case of Mr. Grieve, the member for Greenock.
A STRIKING CONTRAST.—It has often been said thi4
the law has more regard for property than for persons,
two recent decisions confirm this assertion. A lette'j
sorter, charged at the Central Criminal Court with steibici
ing a letter and forging an order for £1 55., was sentence
to five years' penal servitude. At the Worship-stree-
t
Police-court, a woman crossing the road at Mile-end Oicil
knocked down by a furiously-galloping horseman f'll,,
much injured. The offender escaped ith a penal"
of 40s.

MR. BEWICKE AGAIN.—Mr. Bewicke, of Threepvl6l
Hall, Northumberland, who has already made bliss° I
conspicuous in the law courts, made two applications °II
an unusual character on Tuesday in the Court of Queello
Bench. The first was for a rule calling upon Mr. Justi-t
Keating to she w cause why a criminal information shouldn°,
be filed against him for libel. This application was refuse:
on the ground that such a motion could only be made 1/J.
counsel. Mr. Bewicke then moved for a rule to stay P
ceedings in the Divorce Court till an action which he DP:,I
brought against Sir James Wilde for malversation
justice had been tried. The judges held that they had 130
power over the Divorce Court, and this motion also vc
refused.

fuu
SUICIDE AND ATTEMPTED MURDER. —A for
tragedy has just taken place in the Rue d'Angounnie dd
Temple, Paris. A land measurer appears to have lived
on bad terms with his wife. More than once they 11%
parted. Less than a week back the wife returned to beri
husband after a fresh separation. The peace was of 013°4
duration. A few nights since two pistol shots were heal
in the apartment, and on an entry being forced
husband was found to have fired a bullet into his WPage
head, and then blown out his own brains. The vr0133
was still alive.

The business to-day was of a more active de-
scription than yesterday, although we cannot say
The market was brisk. Consols maintained their
price, and the same may be said generally of the
transactions in the foreign market ; but• banking
securities were on the decline with one or two

exceptions.
Consols are 92/ for money; ditto, for Ac-
mut, 93 21 ; Three per Cent. Reduced, 931 4 ; New
Tkree per Cents, 93 1 31 ; Bank of England Stock,
4 per Cent, 2411 3.
India Stock, 101 per Cent., April, 1874, 213 ;
ditto 5 per Cent., July, 1880, 1124.
In the foreign Market stocks are steady, with
the exception of Italian Five per Cents., which
have given way 1, to 538 531 ex div. ; Peruvian
Five Per Cents. have advanced /, to 77 771 ex
all ; Mexicans Bond /, to 151 15} ; and New
Spanish Three per Cents. remain firm, at 30/ 304
ex div. Turkish Five per Cente. are now quoted
at 38 381 ex coupon, and Greek Bonds remain at
11/ 12.
The Honduras Loan is marked 85 87 ex coupon.
Egyptian Seven per Cent. Loan of 1868 is firm
at 74 741. The Italian 'Tobacco Loan is 111
prem.. and the last Russian Railway Loan 1
discount, par.
In the railway market Metropolitan and
South Eastern are not quite so firm as yester-
day. Caledonian, Great Eastern, and North
Western have recrded 1, and Chatham and
Dover, Lancashire, and Great Northern A 1.
Metropolitan has risen 1, and South Eastern 1.
Prices are as follows :—Caledonian, 774 4 ; Great
Western, 481 I ; Great Eastern, 421 ; Great
Northern, 107 8; ditto A, 107/ 81 ; Bancashire,
129 1 ; Metropolitan, 1091 4 ; Midland, 1144.15 ;
Sheffield, 471 4 ; Brighton, 49/ 501 ; North British,
331 4 ; North Western, 1138 i; North Eastern,
1031 4l ; South Eastern, 80 1; Chatham and
Dover, 161 17.
Great Indian Peninsular Railway New Four per
Cent. Debenture Stock is 90 91 ex div.
United States Five-Twenty Bonds have improved
it, to 751 754 ; the Bonds of 1885 are 1 better, at
751 73/ ; and the Ten-Forty Bonds are firm at 72
721. Atlantic and Great Western Railway Deben-
tures are firm, at 42 421, and the Consoli-
dated Mortgage Bonds at 45 451. Eries have
given way 1, to 25/ 26, and Illinois Central stock
is 1 better, at 961 96/.
In Bank and Miscellaneous Shares prices are as
last quoted.
The report of the directors of the Union Bank of
London, presented to the shareholders at the half-
yearly meeting to-day, was adopted, and a divi-
dend at the rate of 15 per cent. per annum, free of
income tax, declared.
The sum of £15,000 in bar gold was sent into
the Bank yesterday.
The City of Baltimore, from New York, has
brought £20,000 in specie.
The amount of Australian gold known to be on
the way to England is £605,000, of which about
£215,060 will be due in the course of the next
fortnight.
At the half-yearly general meeting of the Lon-
don and Greenwich Railway Company yesterday a
dividend of 6s. BJ. per cent., or Ss. 4d. per
share was declared.
At the meeting yesterday of the North British
Australasian Company (Limited), a dividend was
declared at the rate of 5 per cent. per annum, free
of income tax.

At a meeting of the creditors of the Landon,
Bombay, and Mediterranean Bank (Limite3), held
yesterday, a committee was appointed to obtain full
information respecting the assets, the position o f
the contributories, and generally to promote a more
satisfactory and speedy liquidation.
At the meeting of the Palace and Burlington
hotels Company, a dividend at the rata of 6 per
cent. per annum, and a boaus at the rate of 4 per
cent. per annum, was declared.
The directors of the Colonial Company (Limited)
have declared an interim dividend of ten shillings
per share, being at the rate of five per cent, per
annum.

The report of the International Financial Society
to be presented on the 29th inst., shows an avail-
.

able total of £59,550, including a previous balance
of £6,851, and a dividend is reco nmended at the
rate of 5 per c,nt. per annum, whicli will absorb
£18,750.

The report of the Consolidated Bank (Limited),
to be presented on the 11-h instant, shows an
available total of £32,953, and recommerds a divi-
dend of 2s. 61 per share, or at the rate of 61 per
Ceqt• per annum.

The report of the Port Phillip and Colonial GJId
l‘lining Company, to be presented on the 21st inst.,
recommends a further distribution of ls. 6d. per
lib Are, making, with previous distribution, 22i per
cent, for the year.

A call of 53. per share fills due on Wednesday
on the shares of the Indo-European Telegraph Com-
pany, amounting to £85,000.
Portnal notice is given that a petition for con-
firming a resolution reducing the capital of the
City Discount Company (Limited and Reduced)
from £500,000 to £300,000, was presented to the
Vaster of the Rolls on the Bth inst.
It is said that the accounts of the London and
St. Katharine Docks Company, to be presented at
the meeting called for the 26th inst., will admit of
a dividend of only 11 per cent, for the half year.
The failure of Mr. W. T.Piper, trading as Messrs.
Piper and Co., of Bishopsgate-street and Pimlico,
has been announced, and the liquidation, it is be-
lieved, will be favourable. An accurate account
of the debts and liabilities has not yet been pre-
pared.

Messrs. Alexanders, Cuuliffes, and Co., have re-
duced their rate of interest on deposits at fourteen
daYs' notice of withdrawal from 21 to 24 per cent.
The latter quotation is therefore the highest now
allowed for temporary loans. The other discount
houses have not followed the same course, but re-
fuse to take fresh deposits under 2k. It is probable,
however, that the present excess of floating capital,
caused chiefly by the distribution of the dividends,
Will soon be absorbed by the repayment of advances
to the Bank and the ordinary requirements of the
trade of the country.
The establishment of more harmonious arrange.
111e/its for the interchange of traffic between the
South Eastern and London, Brighton and South
Coast Railway Companies, is indicated by the
appearance of an official notice that, from the Ist
of February next, return and season tickets be-
tween London and a number of other stations
‘`
will be available by the trains, and to and from
any of the London stations, of either company, in-
cluding Charing-cross,Victoria, Cannon-street, &c."
It was recently notified that the Spanish Provi-
sional Government had decreed that goods shipped
till, foreign vessels to the Spanish West Indies and
e Fhillippines would be charged only the same
rate of duty as if they were shipped in 'Spanish
vessels. A mercantile correspondent, however,
States that the fact has not been officially intimated
to the Spanish Consulates, and that the only infor-
luation they have is that furnished by the Gazette
of the 23 of November.
At the Open Stock Exchange, Limited, yester-
day, the shares of the Agricultural Hotel and Far-
Iners' Club Company, Limited, fully paid, sold at
7368. ; Alhambra, Company, Limited, fully paid,
3.3* 8l• per share ; Credit Foncier of England,
1,-(Aluaited fully paid, 2s. 11d. per share ; Crystal
Company, £lO ; Consolidated Seven per
"ant• Preference stock, £lO 7s. per share; Joint
Stock„• Coal Company, Limited, 15s. paid, Is. to Is.
per share ; London and Suburban Laud and
.13uildiugCompany, Limited, £5 paid, £5 per share.

BRITISH FUNDS—'I'l\'O O'CLOCK.
, (in.VERNMENT
_FUNDS.:
° Per Cent. Consols
::. Ditto for Account ........
, per Cent. Reduced
931 1
4'4" 3 per Cent 931 .3
I
INte P
w 1 per Cent. Jan. 1894
Do. 5 per Cent. o an. 1873