The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 16, 1867.

but says he could not accept the position " without
soiling himself with lies."

The illoniteur states that the Austrian General
Moering, charged with the mission of placing in the
hands of the Italian authorities the whole of the
materiel at Venice, as well as in the Venetian pro-
vinces belonging to the Austrian Government, had
on the Bth a last conference with the Italian Com-
missioner, General de Revel, and left Venice on the
11th with Colonel Kopfinger, who was associated
with him in the mission.
Prince Charles of Roumania has returned to Brest
with his brother, Prince Frederic do Hohenzollern.
The Journal de Rome of the 11th of Feb. gives au
account of the reception of M. Louis Joseph Sar-
torius of Tapia, Viscount de Priego, at a private
audience by the Pope, to present his credentials as
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from
the Queen of Spain to the Holy See. The Pope had
a long private conversation with the Ambassador,
who was afterwards presented to Cardinal Antonelli.
It is stated from Brussels that the marriage of
the Count de Flandre, second son of the late King
of the Belgians, with the Princess Marie de Ho-
henzollern, will take place at Berlin after Easter
with great pomp and ceremony. The Princess was
born on the 17th of November, 1845, and is the
fifth child of Prince Charles Anthony, burgrave of
Nuremberg, whose mother was the Princess Marie-
Antoinette Murat.

The purchaser of the three fat oxen for the cere-
mony of the Bceuf Gros this year is M. Flechelle.
They are named Sardanapalus, the Devil on Two
Sticks, and Frieschutz.

The Journal des Debats expresses high satisfac-
tion both at the pacific tendency of the Speech and
at the proposed development of public liberty. I
might furnish more extracts from these opinions,
but they would merely form a repetition of the
same great and decided feelings of approval. Of
opposition or disapproval there in reciAly mono, for
the leading opposition paper, the Siecle, can only
imagine the very airy complaint that the speech
is " vague." Such an objection answers itself, for
seldom has a royal speech been more definitive or
precise, or more abundant in the enumeration of
numerous and enlightened measures. The Siecle is
evidently embarrassed how to find a point of com-
plaint, as it admits that, although it has discovered
" vagueness," it is difficult, after a first reading, to
appreciate in all its parts a document of such im-
portance which treats of such numerous questions."
An old woman who sold fruit in the market has
been brutally murdered. The body was found
early in the morning in the road which separates the
two cemeteries of the North, not far from the Rue
',epic. She had been strangled. The murderer has
left the marks of his fingers on the throat. She was
robbed of all the money she had about her to make
purchases at the market.
The particulars of a " terrible battle," as it was
styled, were detailed a day or two ago before the
tribunal of Correctional Police, but to dissipate the
alarm which such an announcement may perhaps
create, I may say at once that the affair ended in
a fine of 16f. The belligerents were, on the one
part, Madame Moissard, the landlady of a house
over the water, her son Victor ; and on the other
part, Miss Gerard, a lady of some sixty years of age,
who rented a room in the house. Tho first witness
of the battle was M. Prudhomme, who lodged in
the house. He said he was at work in his room with
his brother, when footsteps were heard, and a voice
of thunder, that of Madame Moissard, who roared
out, " Break open this door for me." An alarming
noise was heard ; the son had broken open the docr
with a hatchet as requested. At the same time both
mother and son rushed upon Aliss Gerard like tigers.
Madame Moissard struck her an overwhelming
blow with a hammer, and her son precipitated her
to the ground with merciless violence. The son
seized her by the throat and seemed to intend to
strange her. He (the witness), however, saved
Miss Gerard from her executioners." They in
revenge throw out of the window china, linen, and
in fact every portable article which came to hand.
The President—But this poor woman, assailed with
a hammer, seized by the throat, knocked upon the
ground, must have been half-killed. Witness—
That's not my business. I describe what I saw.
The rest is the doctor's business. The brother of
the witness confirmed his testimony, adding
that there was another tall fellow behind the door
mounting guard with a hatchet in his hand, upon
which the witness exclaimed to his brother, "This
is a real battle of Sappers."
saw'Ye s
the,''
danger.exclaimed
Miss Trojan, another witness,
Young Moissard knocked about the things with a
hatchet like a Cossack. It 'was so shocking to see
the blood run from Miss Gerard's head that I
fainted." M. Bonjour, the counsel for Miss Gerard,
rather improved upon the version, and described the
movements of Madame Moiss'ard as those of a
General. She divided her expeditionary army into
three corps at the bottom of the staircase. The first,
hammer, in hand, the second, the corps of execu-
tion, the son armed with a hatchet; and the third,
the reserve corps, M. Leplat, also armed with a
hatchet. The place was carried by storm. Fright-
ful, horrible scene. Miss Gerard quietly occupied
by her work was seized by the throat and precipi-
tated to the ground by the son. Struck upon the
head with a hammer, she rose the best way she
could, her head saturated with blood. Then a
razzia was made upon her furniture. Two kind
neighbours came to the rescue, and put an end to
this ignoble and grievous battle. The advocate con-
cluded
laudable b ysaying that Miss Gerard exhibited most
forbearancein only claiming 500 f. damages
for this terrific assault and battery. Madame Mois-
sard was much excited by this unvarnished narra-
tion, and exclaimed, " I only threw two or three
miserable cups and saucers out of the window. She
scratched me like a fury, and broke the handle of a
broom about my son's head." The Court seemed to
think that the complainant was a little in fault, for
it fined her 16f., but she got the best of it, as the
defendant was ordered to pay her 20f. as recom-
pense for damage done to her goods and person.

The Bank of England and the Money
Market.

• -

The new minimum of 3 per cent. appears, from
the business of the week, to be as little likely to
encourage a return of animation in the money mar-
ket as the rate of 3f per cent. which it superseded.
It is true, that only a week has elapsed since the
change but in that wook the rostources of the Bank
have increased, whilst its business has declined.
Take the case of the private securities :
_

Feb. 6, Private securities £18,716,418
71 13, ~

Decrease £398,876
Showing a not unimportant reduction in the trans-
actions of the Bank. And that the Bank has lost
business through its terms being higher than those
in the market is confirmed by the decline in the pri-
vate deposits : _ _ _

Feb. 6, Private deposits
„ 13, 1)

Decrease
As to the resources of the Bank, the accession to
them is shown by the comparative amounts of bul-
lion and reserve :

Bullion. Reserve.
Feb. 6
~ 13

Increase ... £153,188 £546,574
But the means at the control of the Bank are best
estimated in relation to the liabilities ; and, as fre-
quntly explained, the position is satisfactory when
the reserve is equal to one-third the liabilities on
deposits, and the bullion equal to one-third the
aggregate ;liabilities on circulation and deposits
combined. The following table gives, for the past
two weeks, the excess of bullion and reserve above
these several proportions :

- _
Bullion. Reserve.
Feb. 6
„ 13

Increase •• • £605,211 £499,282
By adding together these several accretions, we find
that on recognised principles the Bank has improved
its position during the week by £1,139,563.

This, combined with the state of the market, is an
indication that the 3 per cent, minimum cannot be