The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-18 00:00:00

Bank of England Returns,—Last Evening.

An Account, pursuant to t.
cap. 32, for the week ending

:he Act 7th and Bth Victoria,
Wednesday, Jan. 16, 1867.
PARTMENT.
Goyernrnt. Debt.£ll,ols,loo
Other Securities 3,984,900
Gold Coin and
Bullion
Silver Bullion

ISSUE D:

Notes issued .....£33,272,645

£33,272,645
BANKING D:

£33,272,645

Proprietors' Capi-
tal £14,553,000
Rest
Public Deposits
(including Ex-
chequer, Sav-
ings' Banks,
Commissioners
of National
Debt, and Div
Accounts) 4,467,001
Other Deposits 21,064,710
Seven Day and
other:bills

::PARTMENT.
Governmt. Secu-
rities(including
Dead Weight
Annuity) .... £13,111,068
Other Securities 19,999,718
Notes 9,972,225
Gold and Silver
Coin ..., 1,008,200

£44,091,211

£44,091,211

MAILS FOR NEW ZEALAND.—At the request of
the post-office of New Zealand, the correspondence for all
parts of that colony, without distinction, will in future
be forwarded la the mail despatched from this country on
the 2d of each month, by the route of Panama, unless
specially dir4icted to be sent by another route.
THE COLD.--We should be overlooking a fact of
great medical and social interest if we omitted to
note the severity of the cold and of its effects on life.
During the severe frost of the first few days of the year it
was apparent that, despite the tendency in comfortable
and healthy people to regard cold at this time as the
right thing, the community generally were feeling
that there was an enemy to life in the air, or, to
speak more accurately, perhaps, the fatal absence of a
friend—a certain amount of heat. Even the young
and the strong saw the first signs of the frosth yield-
ing
with a feeling of thankfulness. osew o
have appointments involving the seeing of T
a hrgenumbers
of
weak
the sick poor
resistance h
doubtlesstaty in h
goth u the most vivid
tecondition impression
of
the of
poverty can
Toffheerptaoles,uccholcdo,ldpiashethheadt, 4f
January. tohuot!
jpaatniuenartys.of dispensaries and hospitals, and the but little
better look of those who are confined.to such beds as they
have in fireless rooms, made hospital and dispensary
duties at once more urgent and more painful than usual.
How terrible the delusion is that weather like this is
beneficial. It is dangerous to the brain, and lets paralysed
patients in for second attacks. It is still more deadly
to the chest, and he is a healthy man who does not feel
touched by it in some part of the respiratory apparatus. It
drives the poor into th,ir overcrowded houses in increased
numbers, and so favours fever and other epidemic dis-
ease. And, in a word, apart from its more specific
effects, it is generally and through the whole body devi-
talising. It takes the life out of the body and reduces it
by so much to the condition of surrounding things. The
Registrar-General sho'r s us that we have in frost a cause
of death fa severity more like plague than anything else.
Cold can run a sharp race with cholera. In one week
it has raised the number of deaths by 445 in London alone.
Last week 1,891 deaths were registered. In Glasgow the
mortality in last week was at the rate of 73 per 1,000!
Can nothing more be done to enable medical men who
have to see the sick poor iu this season to relieve them
more efficiently and more directly than by present arrange-
ments is possible ? It would be a most reliable and efficient
charitable investment to form a fund to be used by medical
men, who aro in the very best position for seeing where a
blanket, or a ;shilling., or a soup ticket is most urgently
1100d03 and cPultilviwat couvleto]y lance.

/ .w...M.,-...m 6.1. 1....
- _
Railway Traffic Returns for the Week,

Railways.

Mlles Opened. Receipts.

_ ,----------%
1866. 1865.-- 1866 18E5
£ 4
Belfast and N. Counties 9Ol 991 1,923 1.825
Belfast and County Down 49 19 640 576
Blyth and Tyne • 36 36 1,258 1,35 6
Brecon and Merthyr ..... 6B 64. 1,142 1,1 25
Bristol and Exeter 134 1216 5,699 6,5 19 Caledonian, Scottish Central 562 562 31,877 32, 878
Cambrian
Cockermouth K & Penrlth .. 315 316 376 299
Cork and Bandon 2O 20 377 386
Cork, Blackrock, & Passave 66 66 122
Cork and Limerick I Irei.t
Cornwall
Deeside l7
Do Ext, nsion
Dub itn & Ilehast J unction - - 83181
10661'357
21:442:82125
21.. 1:34:9;1:9 Dubai, and Drogheda 75 75 1.311, 1. 49 Dublin and 31eath
Forth and Clyde Junction
Furness, &c B5 83 4,405 4. 255
Glasgow & South-Western
at. Eastern,N rtlt.,&E. Union
Great Northern 421 V. 32.401 33, 103
Great North of Scotland
iit. Northn. & \Vesta. (Irel.) Blt 711 456 35%
3E. Southu. & Wes tii.(lrinil.) i:9/ s6;} 5.43.1 6 .709
Great Wclteru 131.4 12sol 67.103 32,581
Highland
Hoy lak • -
Iristi .N, orth• Western ll5 145 1,762 11,466
Isle of Wight 8 151_ t 2.
Lancas'Are & Yorkshire 403 903 41.660 40,709
Limerick and Ennis..."
Li'sterick and Foynes 266 281 101 54
Llanelly 461 461 48, t 47
Llynvi Valley
London & North-Western . - 1304 129 11 107,221 106,225
London & South-Western 503 4903/4 19,780 21,017
Lond. Brighton, &S. Coast 314/ 2931 19,371 19,373
London, Chatham, & Dover; i 1351 134 / 6,866 7.7 a
all Metropolitan Extension 1 121 12
.6 1,7:2 2,300
Do. Kent coast
Lon., Tilbury, & Southend
Londonderry and Coleraine 36} . 3,4 27.2 228
alan.,Shetfield,&Lincolnsh .. 246 246 17,. 92 17,752
Ranch. S.Jun.&Altrincham.. 9} 91 1,420 3.620
Maryport and Carlisle ....... 28 28 1,331 t,3 8
Metropolitan
Midland (incl. N.-Western)., 81,7 614 38,061 41,155
Ilid laud GLW es tn. of hind... 2601 2801 3,337 3.832
nonmouthsh. Rail. & Canal.. 44 44 2.169 2,385
North British, Edin., Pertla
and Dundee
N-Eastern and Stock. & DarL 12201
North London ll
North Staffordshire 258
Pembroke and Tenby 276
11:iymney 221
Scottish North-Eastern 143
Somerset and Dorset 66
South Devon . ....... 1105
South-Eastern 330
Taff Vale 63
Ulster 1055
Vale of Clwyd • ... 10
Waterford and Kilkenny
.. 31
Waterford and Limerick 77
West C0rk..... . 174
W,.cxham, Mold, &c . 14
Whaven,Cleator,&Egrmnt.. 10
FOREIGN AND COLONIAL.
Austrian 822
Bahia and San Francisco ...• 762
Belgian Eastern J unction 265
Bombay, Baroda, & Cen. India 306
Detroit and Milwaukic lB9
Dutch Rhenish lOBl
Eastern of France
Eastern Bengal ... llO
East Indian
Grand Trunk of Canada 1377
Great Central of Belgium 285
Great Indian Peninsula 7Bl
Great Luxembourg 134
Great Southern of India
Great Western of Canada 345
Madras. ..
Madrid, Saragossa &Alicant BBB
Northern of Canada .. .. 94
Northern of France 764
Norwegian Trunk
Ottoman ..
Paris, Lyons, & Mediterrn 2151
Paris and Orleans lB2l
Recife and San Francisco. &c 776
Scinde. ..
Do. Punjab, &c 253
South Austrian, &c . . 1798
Do, Piedmont lines 619
Southern of France 960
Victoria
Welland.
West & N-Wn. of France

7178 69,159 28,952
1.207 k 58,700 80,931
11 4,571 4,459
258 6,:50 7,636
118 22J 96
13 8
191 1,056 1,0t3

66 832 1,063
98 3.331 3,740
315 18,366 19 614
63 5,602 5,519
10511 2,617 2.748
10 101 1,6
31 24 280
77 1,149 3,239

14
10 MlB9 b 3)

822 53.479 52,611
761 793 799
261 323 348
306 5,715 10,351
189 4,828 4,842
1081 4,992 4,968
1551 73,983 6 ,603
110 $,234 2428
1129 44,339 34,.826
1377 26,288 26,448
265 5 913 6,571
590 18.271 3 .501
134 5,559 5,522
79 1,388 1318
315 11,487 13,263
611 8,8 0 10,612
778 22,330 19.841
94 962 1.035
724 69,442 68,214
44

481 908 76!
20 6 151,446 145,312
18 8 8,228 76,134
774 1,677 1,0 3
105 2,032 1,461
253 3,595 1,391
1691

619 - -1
823 3.3,779 34,312
254 11,441 10,666
25 1(6 i 25
1151 51,758 50,904

COURSE OF EXCHANGE.—Last Evening.

Amsterdam Short. 11. 15 11 16*
Ditto 3 Months. 11 18 11 19
Rotterdam
Antwerp — 25 37 25 42}
Brussels
Hamburg — 13 8f 13 8f
Paris Short 25 10 25 27*
Ditto 3 Months. 25 32} 25 40
Marseilles
Frankfort on tho Maine 1191 119*
Vienna — 13 45 13 55
Trieste — 13 45 13 57*
Petersburgn
Berlin
Madrid — 471 48
Cadiz
Leghorn
Milan
Genoa
Naples — 27 0 27 15
Palermo
Messina
Lisbon —51 f
Oporto — 511 51}

THE PROPERTIES OF IRON AND STEEL-11l

considering the fitness of iron as a material for

ships and bridges, and particularly for the latter,
says l'rofessor Metlauley, one most dangerous
defect to which it is liable must he taken carefully
into account, namely, its tendency to crystallise,
and thus to lose a very large portion of its strength.
It appears from Mr. Fairbairn's experiments, that
with constant changes of load, or with the same
load, but with constant disturbance of the metallic
molecules, from vibration, fracture will, in time,
certainly ensue of itself. It has been ascertained
that an iron girder will break with about 400,000
changes of load, accompanied by vibrations ; a fact
which but too clearly shows that the spontaneous
destruction of our iron bridges is but a question of
time, and not even of a very long one. The ex-
planations of this very alarming fact, the danger
from which is, unfortunately, not even confined to
bridges, but extends to the axles of locomotives and
carriages, and to the various portions of machinery
which from time to time so unexpectedly give way,
is found in the restoration to their primitive form
of the crystals which had been elongated and mutu-
ally entangled by the hammering to which the iron
is subjected during its manufacture. It might be
supposed that steel, from its tensile strength being
so much greater than that of iron, would be, in
every instance, far preferable to iron. Such, how-
ever, is not the case. If, for example, steel is
used in the formation of a girder, its thickness may
be much less than if iron were used. But this very
circumstance, as it is almost equally liable to oitida-
tion, causes its strength to be impaired with much
greater rapidity. Thus, a plate of iron half an
inch thick is much less weakened by oxidation to
the depth of the sixteenth of an inch than a plate of
steel which at first is only a quarter of an inch
thick. In the one case the strength of the plate is
diminished only to the extent of one-eighth ; in the
other, with the same amount of oxidation, to the
ex tent of one-fourth. In the former case the plate
would stand, when in the latter it would be sure to
give way. Again, it might be supposed that steel
would answer best where violent concussions are to
be withstood, and that, therefore, it would be an
excellent material for armour plates. The reverse
is, however, true. Steel is strong only when ex-
posed to a force that is slowly applied. A cannon-
ball which would cause only indentations in iron,
or, at the worst, merely pass through it, would dash
a plate of steel to pieces, dealing destruction, most
probably, to all those in its vicinity.—Pittsburgh
Mining Journal.

The Committee of the Stock Exchange have
marked. They have also ordered the fifth instal-
ment of the New Zealand Government 6 per Cent,
Loan (£250,000) to be officially quoted.
The greatest wonder in the State of lowa is the
" Walled Lake," which is three feet higher than the
earth's surface, and occupies 1,900 acres. It has
not yet been ascertained where the water comes
from or where it goes to, yet it always remains fresh
and clear.

E —EN YORK HERALD"I,orN THE ATLANTIC
bYeArrfc3lH.llT,
hasß" Amc
theE . Herald,ini3 British
shDpecuebmlic-
-follliolewil\nrgewreflections. upon the recent
yacht race :—" The great change
opinion of this country and its people which this
and other conflicts of oar great war have brought
about, we see in the honours showered upon these
yachtmen. We have conquered even the doubts
and delusions of England, and John Bull wel-
comes Brother Jonathan as a chip of the old
block. The good Queen, always our friend,
has at last won her Cabinet to our side ; and
so those Alabama claims, Mr. Seward tells us, need
not occasion the least alarm. And this is well for
England, fur just now comes in the most important
hint suggested by this yacht race, to wit—What
will become of the commerce of England in the
event of a rupture with this country, unless we have
in advance a settlement of this Alabama question on
the American doctrine of maritime belligerent rights ?
We believe that, as we can build and man sailing
vessels so as to make the time of steamships, a war
of twelve months with the United States would be
more disastrous to England from such craft than
the work of the Alabama a hundred times over.
Such are among the practical teachings of this yacht
race. But as England has turned from the offences
of our late war to the courtesies and hospitalities of
peace and friendship, let us hope that the influence
of this yacht race will largely operate in behalf of
the general interests of peace, and in widening the
moral power of the great Republic, ite people) and
its infititutiono."