The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-06 00:00:00

Total

CREDITOR.
• Dec. 5.
Cash in hand and in fr. c.
Branch banks
Commercial bills over-
due
Commercial bills dis-
counted, not yet due
Do. branch banks
Advances on deposit of

Nov. 28.
fr. o
968,623,169 96

253,313 92

134,157 77

2154,R68,912 45
261,514,150 -

237,436,511 92
255,555,408 -

bullion
Do. branch banks
Do. on French Public
Securities
Do. by branch banks
Do. on railway sharos

56,975,700 - 65,871,500 -
11,835,377 - 11,657,277 -

12,648,200 -
7,566,900 -

12,613,300 -
7,204,700 -

and debentures
Do. branch banks
Do. on Credit Fencior

37,852,390 -27,420,650

37,910,700 -
27;662,150 --

Bonds
Do. branches
Do. to the State (Con-
Tention, June 10,
1857)
GoTernment Stock re-

984,000 - 938,200 -
905,850 - 917,350

60,000,000 -

60,000,000 -

sore
Do. disposablo
Rentos Immobalisees

12,980,750 14
85,985,737 91

12,980,750 14
35,988,787 91

(Law, Jure 2, 1857) 100,000,000 —.
gotei and furniture of
the Bank and landed
proporty branches 8,291,752
Fixpenaes of manage-
mint 2,430,307 52
Buxdries

100,000,000

8,396,531 -

2,394,064 87
22,057,908 15

Total 1,911,397,288 53 1,908,342,143 72
Certified by the Senator Governor of th• Bank of Franc•
(Signed) ROULATD.

SMITING INTELLIGENCE. —This Day.

(By Telegraph.)
UMAYESEND, Friday Morning.
Arrived, Dec. 5.—L00, steamer, from Rotterdam.

Arrived, Dec. 6.—Victoria, steamer, from Brussels ; Hoo
Poe, from Oporto; Alice, from St. Brieux ; Postboy, from
Torceira ; BtAgium, steamer, from Ostend; Gosforth,
steamer, from Marianople.
Sailed, Dec. s.—West Derby, for Calcutta.
Sailed, Dec. 6.—Crawshaw Bailey, for Adelaide ; Woo-
loomooloo, for Sydney.

DEAL, Friday Morning.
Anchored.—Jeddo, for Colombo; Witch, for Cape of
Good Hope; Sophia, for Nantes—all from London.
Passed, Dec. s.—Ocean Bride, from London, for Brig-
ham; H.M.S. Dee, from Woolwich, for the west.

LIVERPOOL COTTON MARKEZ —This Day.

Market firm. Sales probably 12,000 or 15,000
bales. Sales of the week, 73,500 bales ; specula-
tion, 4,375 ; export, 11,873; importation, 29,500 ;
stock, 431,750. Mid.-Upland, 7-1 ; Orleans, 7i ;
Mobile, 7` ; Egyptian, 6.

eyes of his betrothed he speculates extensively, loses
everything, and resolves to commit suicide. Ile
writes to all his friends declaring his intention to
that effect, and is on his way to the river to drown
himself, when he saves the life of Mr. Colburn, an
old attorney, who takes his preserver home with
him and inducts him into his domicile. Here he
meets an old schoolfellow, Richard Wise, the attor-
ney's managing clerk. He falls in love with the
attorney's daughter Constance, although he is aware
that Richard Wise has a strong attachment towards
her. Things are in this state in Old Colburn's
house when Lady Diver Kidd pays a professional
visit to the attorney touching the purchase of
Betchley Manor, of which he has the sale. Edward
Armitage, who passes under the name of John Smith,
dreads his discovery by his old affianced ; but as his
father-has died and ho is the heir to Betchley Manor,
it is necessary he should put in au appearance.
The awkwardness of having to explain the circum-
stances of his supr osed suicide to Lady Kidd, the
embarrassment of revealing his right name to the
attorney's daughter, and the predicament in which
he is placed by the death of Sir Peter Armitage
leaving him the heir to an estate for which another
claimant arises, who stoutly maintains the death of
Edward Armitage may be easily imagined. He is
extricated, however, eventually from all the humi-

liating difficulties of his position by the friendly
intervention of the ever-ready and sagacious Richard
Wise. Lady Kidd, who regrets the return to life
of her admirer, chiefly because she loses the bargain
of Betchley Manor, on which she had set her heart,
reconciles herself with a husband in the person of
the unsuccessful claimant. Edward Armitage
marries Constance Colburn, and the good-tempered
Richard Wise is left to cousolu himself with the
happiness ho has secured for his friend.
The acting of the piece was perfect in every respect.
Mrs. Stirling, as the fast go-a-head widow, ever
anxious to turn her capital and increase her per-
centage, a lady familiar with the " Course of the
Exchange" and the " Racing Calendar," although
not a loveable personage, yet withal a very inte-
resting one, was one of the great supporters of the
play. She went through the piece with a spirit and
exhilaration only equalled by that of the inimitable
Charles Mathews, who, by the way, seems to grow
younger every day. As Richard Wise he was as
lively and effervescent as champagne, and good
temper and self-abnegation personified. Mr.
Addison, as the hearty Old Attorney, was another
prefect representation ; and Mr. H. Wigan, as the
Irish claimant to the Betchley property, came out re-
markably well in a new line of business. Mr. Neville

we have seen better fitted with a part than Edward
Armitage alias Smith, but he did his best with it,
and if it was not as interesting as those which
usually fall to his lot, the fault was not his own. Miss
_ _

Louisa Moore, as Constance Colburo, completed a
cast which it would be. very difficult to improve.
The piece has been very carefully put upon the
stage, and from the favour with which it was re-
ceived it will hold its place and prove an attraction
to the Olympic.

PROTISIONS.-PRIOE OP CURRANTS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

S I R,—The public press has recently done right good
service to all hungry and thirsry souls by agitating
the question of retail prices, and calling enterprise
into the recesses of all snug holes and corners.

All sorts of classical people entered the lists, and
combated with quill under the standards of Beef
and Fish ; and all sorts of literary tradesmen found
vent for their latter-day schooling.
Aud as prices were brought down to reason so
everybody gained in the end.

There is yet an important staple which 1 think
you will agree with me to be worth considering.
Years ago it used to be a sort of season luxury—but
as it was found to be the most wholesome substitute
for butter iu the dietary of the poor, it grew to be
au important provision.
I mean Currants.

The present market price I find to be about 17s.
to 255. per cwt., even under a Customs duty of 7s.
upon a first cost, of 9s. at port of shipment or 77 per
cent. ed valorem.

I am assured that the freight and charges in all
amount to about ss. the cwt. ;and thus, taking the
average of first cost to be 95., and the duty here 75.,
we get a mean value here of 215., or, in other
words, 21d. per lb. for good medium quality.
The prevailing prices at the grocers' are, how-
ever, still 4d. and 6d. per lb. upon such qualities ; a
few shops exhibiting inferior kinds (dressed up so as
considerably to add to the weight, in giving also
a bright appearance) at 3d.
_ .

It is plain that upon articles such as these, which
are not subject to deterioration under ordinary care,
and of which the sale at low prices is rapid, the
rates above referred to are disproportionate.
I have no hesitation in affirming that if a fair
price of about 3d. per pound prevailed for medium
qualities, the consumption would be enormous,
especially as butter becomes a sort of caviare to the
million, and that it would be a great boon to all
classes, especially to the poor.

It will follow as a corollary that we may inquire
why in this Free-grade country such a staple as this
should be subjected to an exorbitant duty, and
whether we cannot induce some of our reformed
representatives to have " all this altered" more con-
sistently ? I am, sir, yours, 8c2., N.
London, December 5.

SALMON SPAWNING WITIIOUT GOING TO TIIE SEA.
—ln February, 1?63, I presented to the Zoological-gardens
a few salmon eggs received from Huninque. Some fouro
five fish of those that were hatched out at that time haver
been living in ono of tho aquaria at the Gardens over since
that date, thus proving that salmon can at least live for the
period of four years without going to the sea. I regret to
say that on Saturday morning last I received from Mr.
Bartlett one of the largest of these fish that had been found
dead in the aquarium. It was a female, weighing four
ounces, and measuring eight iacbes and a half in length.
I at once perceived that there were ova present,
so I made a most careful post-mortem, resulting in the dis-
covery of a mass of yellow coloured eggs, perfectly loose
in the abdominal cavity. I counted these ova, and found
that they were one hundred and seventeen in number. I
have no hesitation in stating that had this fish lived
another fortnight or three weeks these ova would bo quite
fit to be deposited in a nest, of er the fashion of an ordi-
nary full-grown salmon that had made its two or three jour-
neys from the fresh water to the sea. I had hoped,by means
of this fish, to have reversed my experiment of last year. It
may be recollected that on that occasion I crossed an adult
common trout with a young male salmon three years old,
this fish having never visited the sea. This year I had in-
tended to have created a hybrid, from the ova of a four-
year-old salmon that had never been to the sea, and an
adult river non-migratory species. I fear I shall be now
disappointed, unless some of my three-year-old smolts at
the Horticultural happen to contain ova. The history of
the " Salmonidre" is really so full of difficulties, that at all
events it is interesting to know that a salmon confined for
four years in fresh water will carry ova to a state of develop-
ment, and will, at the same time, retain the parr
marks, as is the case in the specimen now before me. I
am not at all sure but that ova had in this specimen been
present last winter, as I found in the abdominal cavity
several loose egg cases, as though the contents had been
absorbed, and the horn-like coats remained. Ido not
think this salmon died because it had no opportunity of
depositing the ova. The cause of death was disease of the
stomach, of old standing. This organ, instead of having
flesh-like and firm coats, was distended to the size of a
large hazel nut, and contained a gelatinous fluid, not un-
like pure albumen. The cause of this disease I am, of
course, quite unable to state. —Frank Buckland, in " Land
anti Water."

A new three-act comedy, entitled " From Grave
to Gay," has been produced at this theatre. Al-
though an adaptation from the French piece by
Scribe entitled "Le Feu Lionel," it is doubly wel-
come, as it furnishes our great light comedian, Mr.
Charles Mathews, with a new part, and also re-
stores Mrs. Stirling once more to the metropolitan
stage. The author or adapter of the piece is Mr.
Benjamin Webster, jnn., and the skill he has dis-
played on this occasion lea Is to laope one day or or
ether we may have the pleasure of witnessing a really
original work from him; because in this, his latesl
;Fork, we have strong evidence that he has
wit, and imagination quite equal to the production
of an entirely new play of his own. The plot of
the new piece briefly related is as follows :—Edward
Armitage, a romantic young gentleman, has
quitted co!l,Te with the beat prospects in lite
before him, and plenty of money at command.
Ilis fortune is soon dissipated in extravagance, and
at the moment when he is left almost penniless
he meets with a rich widow, Lady Diver Kidd,
and makes proposals of marriage to her, which
she, believing him to be a man of large property,
accepts. That he may be what he seems in the
_ _