The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-15 00:00:00

TRADE AND FINANCE.

The past week, on the whole, has presented some not
unfavourable features. The fact of the failures of the
Turkish and Victorian loans chew that more dis-
cretion is being exercised in placing moneys on
investment, and that capitalists have come to
the conclusion that more favourable outlets for
employment of this capital will soon present themselves.
The failure of the Turkish loan is easily accounted for.
The various securities offered had, one and all, bout,
specially hypothecated for the payment of the interest anc'
sinking funds of former loans—especially referring to
the Five per Cent. Consolidated Loan of 1865 —and, in point
of fact, Turkey Las no power whatever to hypothecate
any of the reserves of the country existing prior to 1865,
the only moneys applicable to such a proceeding being
the taxes imposed since that date. To this cauie

is to be attributed the great delay in the int' ()auc-
tion of the loan, and, it is to be observed, that
no direct agent appeared in the London market, Messrs.
Devaux and Co. acting, we believe, as agents for the
Soci6t6 Gjn6rale only. The fact of the revenues offered
having been already mortgaged is not the only objection
raised to the new loan. Turkey is in discredit, and is
apparently getting more and more cash-bound, which will
eventually prove the cause of her downfall. Application had
already been made by the Danube and Black Sea Railway
Company to the committee of the London Stock Exchange,
asking them to refuse a quotation to the loan on the official
list, and, taking the treatment that the company here
received at the hands of the Ottoman Government
in respect
of the guarantees of the latter,
it is difficult to see how the committee, if
they act up to the spirit of their rules, can
refuse the application. Notwithstanding the total col-
lapse of the loan here, we understand that the amount
has been covered in France, Amsterdam, and Constanti-
nople. The Societe Generale, however, has notified that
subscribers in France will receive all the bonds they ask
for—a piece of news that the subscribers will probably not
be grateful for.
In the case of the Victorian Government Railway Loan
the failure is to be ascribed to the high estimate placed
upon this credit by the Victorian Government themselves.
The price was fixed at par (100), at which quotation few
applications were sent in, for it was scarcely right that
the Victorian Government should presume that
English capital would be placed at their dis-
posal at less than half the Victorian rate of
interest. A somewhat discreditable feature has been
noticed in connection with the loan. No deposits were
demanded with the appropriations for allotments, a course
open to great objection and one to be much deprecated.
The contractors should have seen the necessity of putting
a check to purely speculative applications, for which the issue
of any new loan presents such a favourable opportunity,
and by inviting, as they apparently have done, the co-ope-
ration of the class referred to, they shewed the little faith
that they had themselves in the success of the new loan to
which they were inviting public subscriptions.
Anxious to take advantage of the present state of the
money market, those two old borrowing States, Italy and
Spain, are about to make their appearance with a new
loan. It is most likely, however, that they will be raised
in the Paris market, as being more suited to that atmos
phere than to ours. After the collapse of the present
loan, it is probable that the large loan for Turkey—osten.
sibly for railway purposes— about which Daoud Pasha has.
been so long in Paris, will be indefinitely postponed.
Trade generally [thews few signs of amination. Cotton

has maintained the recent rise to some extent, although
there is positively nothing in the present position of the
markets, for both raw and manufactured goods, to justify
the high prices now current. On the strength,
however, of the high rates, large speculative purchases
have been made by middlemen in foreign markets, and we
notice that, notwithstanding, the arrival of unusually
heavy shipments, prices in China of cotton goods have
been on the advance. Corn has continued in the same
dull, inanimate state which has characterised it for some
time past. The accumulation of produce in Ame-
rica is enormous, and as the bulk of this is
evidently intended for the British markets, prices here
must be seriously affected when shipments commence.
The present ►nonth will probably see a heavy decline in
the value of wheat.

III?. MIALL AND THE LADIES OF

BRADFORD.

111 r. Afiall's success at Bradford is perhaps partly ex-
plained by a paragraph which appears in so:ne of the local
plpers. He had the support of the women. Between
4,000 and 0,00) of all ranks in life, it is
subscribed small
sums amounting in the aggregate to £3lO. They held a
meeting the other niet to determine what should be done
with the money. Upon this occasion, we are told, " the
meeting was crowded with females of all ages and all
ranks in life, but all neatly dressed and very respectable
in appearance, some of the married women bringing
their babies. The speeches made by the ladies
were to the point, and one of them was an excellent speci•
men of the powers of the ladies for public speaking. There
was the usual running accompaniment of hear, hear,'
'cheers,' and 'laughter,' the latter predominating, the
ladies appearing to be on excellent terms with one
another, and highly relishing the novel treat they were
enjoying. One lady recited a poem on the election, in
which it was stated that, while their opponents said how
much Mr. Ripley had done for Bradford, they forgot to
say what Bradford had done for him.".