The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-19 00:00:00

ON, T

The court-martial for the trial of the mutineers
of her Majesty's ship Edgar is expected to assemble
on board her Majesty's ship Victory in Portsmouth
harbour on Monday next.
The screw steamship Royal Albert, 121, Captain
Henry J. Lacon, -was removed on Tuesday after-
noon from Hamoaze into the lock at Keyham steam-
yard, Plymouth. The wind was blowing very
strongly from the eastward, and an ordinary ob-
server might have doubted the prudence of making
the attempt in such weather. Commander George
Biddlecombe, additional assistant-master attendant,
took charge afl )at, and hav in g a paddlewheel steam-
ing on either side, advanced cautiously against the
wind towards Keyham shortly after two o'clock.
On nearing, a powerful warp was, under the in-
structions of Commander James Brown, master-
attendant, connected with the ship and a capstan
on the south side of the lock, and a smart gang of
blue-jackets and marines, having fitted the capstan
bars, soon got a strain on her. Other warps were
attached from the port bow to capstans on the north
side, and, guiding ropes being also fixed to both
quarters, she became, when the tugs cast off,
completely under control ashore, and the
huge mass, • handled almost like a toy,
was without the slightest grating or collision
quietly lodged in the lock, in the charge of assistant-
master shipwright, Mr. Henry Peake, who, with
his foreman, Mr. Rowe, was in attendance to re-
ceive her. After being relieved of some 300 tons of
coal, she will be placed in dock for repair, and will
be fitted with four new boilers. Nearly a month
will elapse before she can leave the yard. The flag
of Rear-Admiral of the Blue Geo. Elliott, Capt.
of the Channel fleet and second in command, con-
tinues flying at the mizen of the Royal Albert.
The screw steam frigate Melpomene, 50, Capt. J.
F. W. Ewart, was prevented on Tuesday by strong
easterly gales from leaving Plymouth Sound for
Hamoaze. She was appointed to go in yesterday,
weather permitting.
The paddlewheel steam sloop Firebrand, 6, Com-
mander J. N. Bruce, left Plymouth on Tuesday
evening with two companies of the third brigade
of Royal Artillery for the Channel Islands.
The gunboats Sheldrake and Biter are appointed
to be taken out of No. 2 dock, Keyham, Plymouth,
to-day, and the screw steamship Royal George, 102,
will be placed in dock the same tide. The Shel-
drake will be placed in No. 1 dock to-morrow.
Mr. Geo. Lumb, gunner, of the Donegal, at Ply-
mouth, was dismissed from the navy on Tuesday
by sentence of court-martial held on board the flag-
ship Impregnable.
Measures are being adopted at Devonport to test
the soundness of the timbers of the Albion, 90.
The funnel of the screw steamship Nile, 90, Capt
E. K. Barnard, in Plymouth Sound, was raised on
Tuesday, preparatory to her early departure for
Bermuda.
The sailing ship Indus, 78, Capt. Hall, C. 8.,
was removed on Tuesday from Devonport dockyard
to the sheer hulk, and had her masts and bowsprit
taken out; she was then brought again alongside
the dockyard, where her crew will be paid off, pro-
bably to-day.
The screw steam sloop Surprise, 4, Capt. Lord
E. Cecil, now stripping in the basin at the Devon-
port dockyard, and which arrived from the West
Coast of Africa on the 12th inst. at Plymouth,
sailed thence on the 4th of May, 1857, for
China, with a convoy of gunboats, with which she
arrived at Hong Kong. She was present on the
28th of December, 1857, at the bombardment of
Canton, and touching at Amoy, Ningpo, and
Shanghai, was at the Peiho on the 23d of May,
1858. On returning she called again at Ningpo
and Hongkong, and went to the Isle of Ling Ting,
where she was engaged with and captured 27 pira
tical junks. Thence she proceeded to Hongkong,
Labuan, Moarra, and Bruni, the chief town of the
island of Borneo, where the captain and officers
visited the Sultan. On the homeward route she
called at Sarawak, Singapore, and Penang, the
Mauritius, the Cape of Good Hope, St. Paul de
Loando, and Sierra Leone. Mr. Jones, previously
senior assistant, succeeded to the duty of chief en-
gineer on the death of Mr. F. R. Purchase, Oct. 8,
1858. The former master, Mr. S. C. Wayth, was
invalided at the Cape of Good Hope, and died on
his passr; ge home in the hired troopship Princess
Charlotte. Her present master is Mr. C. G. John-
ston. Capt. Cresswell, who previously commanded
the Surprise, left at the Cape of Good Hope on pro-
motion, and was succeeded by Lord E. Cecil, who
had been ordered out from England to take the
command.
The Bacchante, 51, screw, was commissioned at
Portsmouth yesterday morning by Capt. M'Kenzie
for the flag of Rear-Admiral Sir T. Maitland, C. 8.,
the future Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific sta-
tion. Mr. J. W. Ozzard, we understand, will be
secretary to the Admiral.
Mr. It. W. Drummond, acting assist.-engineer,
Royal Navy, and who was received by the steam
reserve at Portsmouth from the Siren on his dis-
missal from her Majesty's steamer Oberon by court-
martial,was yesterday dismissed from her Majesty's
Navy, by order of the Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty, as an habitual drunkard.
The boilers and machinery for the Philomel and
Cygnet, two of the new class of gunboats, have been
delivered at Portsmouth dockyard from the factory
of the Messrs. Napier, of Glasgow.
The Blazer and Decoy gunboats will be launched
from the gunboat slipway at Haslar to-morrow, and
the Fancy and Angler gunboats afterwards hauled

up.
The Bulldog, 6, paddle, fitting at Portsmouth,
will go out to Spithead to test her machinery on
the 23d inst.
The &ryalas, 31, sets*, daDt. tarieton, C. 8., is
convicting her deck and outside caulking in the
steam basin at Portsmetith: She Wilt tiloVe out in
about a Weeks time. Report sends her to Madeira,
Rid, and the dtiO:
Harbinger, and the Prothesa
were yesterday chartered by the War Department
to ship military stores from Woolwich for the Me•
diterrencal;
the ioliowing appointments were made yester-
day at the Admiralty :—Capt. D. M‘Leod Macken-
zie, to the Bacchante; conin.issioned as a flag-ship
for rordigtt Service ; Commander It. It. Wratislaw,
to the Ranger, commissioned; Lieut. J. H. Hat-
chard, to the Implacable; Lieut. 11. T. Gammell,
to the Impregnable y S. Long, Mate, to the Bac-
chante ; E. L. Green, mate, to the Royal Albert ;
P. Karney, naval dada) to the Bacchante; 11. D.
Macaulay, midshipman, to the Ariadne ; R. B.
Trollope, midshipman, to the Aboukir; R. G. Baker
and W. Le Cocq, midshipman, to the Bacchante;
.i. A. R. Spicer and J. C. Barnell, midshipmen, to
the Bacchante; W. M. Moger, midshipman, to the
Algiers; F. J. Easther, midshipman, to the Mersey;
11. C. Kane, midshipman, to the Melpomene; T. 0.
Lewis, first-Class assistant.engineer, to the Ranger;
F. Windley, second-class assistant-engineer, to the
Ranger; N. Stearn, third-class assistant-engineer,
to the Asia, for service in the Osborne ; G. Park
(b), acting third-class assistant-engineer, to the
Ranger ; and 11. Somerville, assistant-paymaster in
charge, to the Ranger.
The mounted 'loyal Engineer Train, now sta-
tioned at Brotnpton-barracks, Chatham, being under
orders to proceed to their summer quarters at Al-
dershott Camp, will, it is understood, be succeeded
at Chatham by a detachment
the same quartHe of the Royal
rsorseat
Artillery, who wil oupy
Brompterr.
A brigade field-day of' the troops at Chatham took
place yesterday Morning, when Major .General Eyln
re
had the entire force of the garrison on the lines.
addition to the Ist, 2d, and 3d battalions of infan-
tray, the battalion of Royal Marines and the corps
of Aoyo, WWI gugi4eorri won present,

whole, numbering upwards of 4,000 men. These
brigade field-days are announced to take place en
each Wednesday during the summer :Cason.

THE PRIVA PJNIC DODGE.

(From the City _Article)
The English funds showed great firmness on
Tuesday, closing at an improvement of a quarter
per cent. The opening transactions in Consols for
money were at 94 to and ultimately there were
buyers at 91q. For the account the last official
quotation was 9.1:4. After regular hours there was
increased strength. The fact of a good amount of
Australian gold having been taken to the Bank
produced a favourable enet, and about five o'clock
it transpired that the whole sum of £1,550,000
lately withdrawn by a discount house from the
Bank has been returned to that establishment.
The scheme having been exposed, and foreign
capital being in course of arrival, little concern
was felt as to the course that might • now be
pursued. It is satisfactory, however, that the sur-
render, if such it is to be deemed, which was sooner
or later inevitable, has not been longer delayed,
and a hope may be entertained that some pledge
will be.given to the public against a repetition of
the annoyance at a time perhaps when the country
may be suffering from bad harvests, war or inva
sion, and when the pro,pect of producing em-
barrassment would be proportionately more pro

raising.
To those not thoroughly versed in banking ques.
tions a few additional words on the recent distur-
bance in the discount market will be useful, al-
though with all classes in this country there is,
happily, sufficient love of open dealing to cause the
bad aspect of the affair to be comprehended at once
in its general features. It is felt that with a com-
mercial nation, unless there are at all events certain
conventional principles which, by common consent,
arc never to be outraged, business would become
practically impossible. In banking matters, above
all, the rule is held sacred, and wherever any de-
liberate attempts to produce embarrassments have
assumed a form to admit of legal cognisance little
mercy has usually been shown. The importance of
maintaining this sentiment will be universally un-
derstood. If the London and Westminster Bank,
or the London Joint-stock Bank, for example,
were to entertain a grievance against the Bank of
England, and were to adopt the idea that all
means of hostility. are fair, either of them could
produce the most disastrous results, since they each
hold deposits on private account of nearly equal
magnitude with those of that establishment. But
everyone would reject the idea of the possibility of
such a course being even dreamt of. Now, the
question with the discount houses arose simply as
follows :—These houses invite the public to deposit
money with them on the condition that it shall be
repayable at call or on a week's notice. This money
they employ in the discount of hills having various
periods to run, from a few days to six months. Of
course, they would like
to extend their transac-
tions indefinitely, but this is impossible, unless they
can contrive that in the event of difficulty some
other parties shall be compelled to come to their
assistance. Supgose one of them to hold deposits
to the extent of £4,000,000, on which they allow
4 or 41 per cent., the Bank rate of discount being,
5 per cent. They cannot keep a large reserve, be-
cause the loss from keeping a great amount unem-
ployed, for the use of which they are paying 41 per
cent., would be too heavy ; yet a large reset se is
indispensable while they are under the liability to
return more or less suddenly evet y shilling they
have taken. To avoid this necessity they wish,
therefore, to have the power of going to the Bank
of England to demand that the Bank should re-
discount the paper which they, the bill brokers,
without taking the previous precaution of making
sure that they were able to hold it, have negotiated.
Thus, in case of panic, the Bank, instead of meeting
the wants of its commercial customers, would be
liable to extraordinary calls from persons, who
solely in reliance upon their ability to get help,
had made enormous engagements they had never
had sufficient power to fulfil. Such a system must
be totally inconsistent with a healthful condition,
and so completely has this fact always been seen
that any banking firm habitually resorting to re-
discounts was certain to be held in feeble repute.
The evil, however, has a further extesnt. It will be
asked " If the bills brought in by the discount
houses, even at a time of panic, are of good cha-
racter, why should the Bank refuse them, since the
effect of their being taken would be just the same as
if similar bills were to be discounted for the public 9"
But it has been found that the discount houses at
such periods are never willing to pay those advanced
rates by which alone the crisis can be, dealt with,
and that, owing to their peculiar position and the
magnitude of the interests which, through the faci-
lities afforded them, they have contrived to get into
their grasp, they are apt to insist that they shall be
supplied at a certain rate, or, failing this, to get up
a movement to frighten the Government into a sus-
pension of the Bank Charter Act. The history of
the last affair of the kind may easily be referred
to, and no one reading it can fail to perceive that
it is an imperative duty on the Bank directors to
take care that, as far as they have the power, such
events shall never happen again. The Bank have
no wish to interfere with the discount brokers, and
the discount brokers can have no claim upon them.
Under the Act of 1844 the Bank of England is in
a position precisely similar to that of all the other
banks of the country, and we have never before
heard of ate attempt by underhand or any other
means to compel a bank to do business with persons
whom, from experience, they would rather avoid.
It would be just as reasonable to make the demand
on the London Joint-stock Banks, whose total de-
posits available for discount purposes far exceed
those of the Bank of England. These institutions
decline to hold their funds at the service of the
discount houses, and the Bank of England must
be allowed the same freedom of action. If the
business which the discount houses would force
upon them could be demonstrated to be safe and
profitable there is sufficient banking rivalry to Cause
it to be sought. Neither the Bank of England not
their colleagues, could have any object but that
which should animate all traders—enamely, to make
the largest profits that eaii pdssibly be edrapsisted
by safe and honourable means, and when the dis-
count houses find themselves unable to persuade
these establishnaents to meet their *lets they may
fall back upon the conviction that if the refusal
arises merely from infati4l,tion Hr rirejudiee such; is
the business keenness in London that other partiei;
will be disposed td copse into the field. Good bills
are the most marketable Certhiiddity in thoi world,
and the idea that it can be necessary to coerce any
singlet:stabliohnierit in,to taking; tin article for which
there is such universal competition, ge6,iii:l the most
preposterous that can be entertained. If the Bank of
Englasid is so facilish,ds not to. know its own inte-
rests, the best punishment Will be tti lea-te it to
suffer the, consequences. It employs its money*
with the freedom accorded to all persong in this
country, in such manner' 6.g B:seitill lieA to it, aqd
it leaves the discount houses to do the same. it
enjoys the Government balances, and makes what the
Govetnnient deems an adequate allowance for them.
It is open to any body, of capitalists to establish a
new bank on the principles desired by the discount
houses, and also for the Government to patronize
such new bank, if they think the Bank of England
too cautious. There can be no grievance, therefore,
on any side, and nothing to justify a resort to covert
methods of attack and annoyance such as are ordi-
narily' banished from the rules of honourabs
to em-
le com-
munities. It is just as bad to get up plot
barrass a bank or the public as to write anonymous
letters, or to perform any other meanness that con-
sists in taking people at a disadvantage. With all
their faults, Englishmen have never been prone to
vices of this kind, and, moreover, they have sufficient
shresvdness to know the inevitable results. If any
it
further illustrsation of these results were neede
no
d,
would now be found. The Bank of
what England
lhas
fits must have been largely swollen by
transpired, and, at the same time, the directors, by
their firm course, have gained an extraordinary de-
gree of public confidence and approval.. They will
doubtless continue to perform. their duty, andit is
to be hoped that, with cordial.suppor.t from all who
do not wish to see the financial affairs
tooth coun-
try subjected.to fluctuations. by a cons liability
to secret tricks, they will
.be found to have adminis-
tered tsa those who require it a expect that will
never be forgotten on the observances. ed from
all who aspire among men ot business to be held
-erthy of respect and confidence.