The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-07 00:00:00

European Msurance Society.

At the annual meeting of the directors and shareholders
of this society, a most encouraging report was read to the
meeting. It stated that the business continued tc, increase,
and that the gross amount received in premiums during
the year was £310,623 against £169,658 in 1864,
and £119,526 in 1860. The new premiums on the life and
guarantee policies, issued during the year, amount to
£43,463 6s. ; whilst in the fire department the result is
equally satisfactory, tho amount of now premiums for the
year is set down at £18,926 13s. sd. The actuarial inves-
tigation, appointed by deed of settlement, is now in pro-
gress with the greatest rapidity, and the most satisfactory
result is confidently anticipated by those whose position
gives them a knowledge of the affairs of the Society.

Liverpocl Cctton Market. —Tide Day.

Sales probably-5,000 hales, at prices to f lower.
The failure of the Agra and Masterman's Bank has
had a very depressing effect on the market.

Mn. S. 0. BEETON has just now taken occasion
to inform the public and the trade that, in conse-
quence of his premises in the Strand being required for
the new Law Courts, that he is obliged to postpone the
publication of the following works, recently an-
nounced as forthcoming this spring, viz. :—his
"Book of Poetry," "Dictionary of Geography,"Dietionary
of Natural History," " Dictionary of Gardening," "M. de
Bonne chose's History of France" (translated by Sir Las-
cellos Wraxall), " Charles Lever's Charles O'Malley," and
other works illustrated, and the Rev. J. G. Wood's works
on Natural History.
The biddings for bills on India took place yester-
day at the Bank of England. The proportions
allotted were—To Calcutta, £168,300 ; to Madras,
£7,500 ; and to Bombay, £52,000. The fninimum
price was fixed at—is. 11d. on Calcutta and
Madras, and is. 111 d. on Bombay. Tenders at and
above the. minimum will receive in full.
The meeting of creditors of Messrs. Peto and
Betts has been postponed till Friday, and it will be
held in the City instead of at the West-end.
The annual meeting of the shareholders of the
Emperor Life and Fire Assurance Societies was
held yesterday, when a dividend was declared of 5
per cent., free of income-tax, and a bonus of 1 per
cent.

Mr. Price, of the firm of Price, Holyland, and
Waterhouse, has been appointed by the Master of
the Rolls, provisionally, official li luidator of Moore,
M'Queen, and Co. (limited).
The gold taken to the Bank yesterday amounted
to £228,000.

COMPENSATION FOR A STREET ACCIDENT.--Yes-
terday, at the Secondaries' Court, an action in the
Queen's Bench, " Fitzrnaurice v. Baxendale and Co."
(Pickford and Co.), was heard, brought to recover com-
pensation for a street accident. Mr. Hall Smith was for
the plaintiff, of the firm of Barry and Fitzmaurice, tea
dealers, Mincing-lane, and Mr. Joyce appeared for the de-
fendants, who had allowed judgment to go by default.
The damage was laid. at £5OO. The plaintiff was in Fen-
church-street on the 19th Feb., when a package fell from
one of Pickford's vans and injured his face. He was, it was
alleged, disfigured for life. His medical and other expenses
were about £2O, and he considered he was entitled to £250
for the disfigurement, and £250 for his loss to the firm.
The jury assessed the daniages at £5O.
The Earl and Countess of Clarendon received at
dinner yesterday evening, at their residence in Grosvencsr-
crescent, the Marquis of Ilartingt on, the Earl and Countess
Spencer, the Earl of Morley, Countess Frances Waldegrave
and the Right Hon. Chichester Fortescue, M.P., Lord Gil-
ford, Lord Lyttelton, Lord Skelmersdale, Lady Cremorne,
Lady Bloomfield, Baron and Baroness de Baude, and the
Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, M.P.
DETERMINED SUICIDE FROM BLACKFRIARS- I

BRIDGE.—This morning 'a determined suicide was
committed by Henry Stephens, aged 52 years, bookbinder,
who resided in Cumberland-street, Hackney-road. It ap-
peared that the deceased jumped over the temporary
bridge of Blackfriars. Boats and drags of the Royal
Humane Society were put into requisition, but the body
was not recovered. The deceased left his address in his
hat. No cause is assigned for the suicidal act.
A MONSTER ABATTOIR.—A new city slaughter-
house has been erected at Bridgeport, near Chicago, in-
tended for the entire slaughter work of the latter city. It
is 270 feet long, 175 wide, and three storeys high. It has
a daily capacity for working off 1,200 head of cattle, 2,000
hogs, and 1,000 sheep.
TAE METRIC SYSTEII IN AMERICA.—On the re-
commendation of the National Academy of Sciences
Congress passed recently a bill, which has since been
approved by the President, providing for the issuing of a
coin of the value of five cents, which shall supersede all
paper fractional currency of a less denomination than ten
cents. This coin is to be connected with the French
metric system by its weight of five (Fr.) grammes, and
its breadth of one-fortieth of a metre (39.37 in.) On
Thursday the house passed promptly three bills providing
that hereafter it shall be lawful throughout the United
States to employ the weights and measures of the
metric system; directing the Secretary of the Treasury to
furnish each State Government with a set of these
standard weights and measures ; and authorising the Pre-
sident to appoint a special commission to negotiate with
foreign Governments for the establishment of a common
unity of money, of identical value in all commercial
countries which shall adopt it. These are very consider-
able strides in a direction towards which all Europe is
tending, as we took occasion to show in No. 39 of the
Nation. England has gone so far as to legalise the metric
system as the House of Representatives has just done ; and
it would be well if something like the action of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science should be taken
here. That body appropriated money to erect in conspicu-
ous places mural tablets containing the metre and its sub-
divisions. Besides the most obvious conveniences likely to
result from international agreement on the metric system,
the aid that statisticians will derive from it is simply in-
calculable.—New York Nation, May 21.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. MUNIFICENT
CONTRIBUTION TOWARDS BUILDING ONE OF THE WIKGS.—
The council at their session on Saturday last, Lord Belper,
Vice-President of the College in the chair, were gratified by
a communication from Mr. Samuel Sharpe, one of their col-
leagues, to the effect that as, from the increased number
of students in the college, and of boys in the school, the
need had arisen for a larger space for class-rooms, which
would, perhaps be best supplied by adding a wing to the
present building to receive the school, Mr. Sharpe wished
to present to the college the sum of £l,OOO as a means of
forwarding this desirable improvement, and as a step
towards raising a building fund, on condition that the
donation should be invested in Consols, and allowed to in-
crease at compound interest by investing the dividends in
the same stock, until the council, after receiving other gifts
for the same purpose, should think fit to make use of it for
building. On the motion of the treasurer, Mr. Grote, it
was resolved unanimously:—" That the council feel deeply
grateful to Mr. Sharpe for his munificent donation, and
that the sum be forthwith invested in Consols, to be pre-
served and to accumulate, in the hope that Mr. Sharpe's
generosity may operate as an example to others." This
seems a fitting opportunity to remind our readers of the
distinction so repeatedly overlooked between the Univer-
sity of London and University College. The college, al-
though the parent of the university, has no connexion
with it, except the incidental ono of its students present-
ing themselves for examination for the degrees of the uni-
versity; and has never received assistance of any kind
from Parliament, but owes its existence and maintenance
to the contributions of friends, to the liberal principles
on which it was founded, and to the payments made b'
students.

Her Hawaiian Majesty, Queen Emma, is at
Carlsruhe at present, where she receives kind attentions
from the royal family of Baden. Her Majesty will make
a short visit to Paris, and then revisit England. Whilst
here she will occupy Lady Franklin's house at Kensington-
gore, which her ladyship has most kindly placed at her
disposal. The Queen's stay will probably be brief, and
then she will return to her native islands.—John Bull.

REVIVAL OF STAGE COACHING TO BRIGHTON.—
On Saturday a four-horse stage-coach started from London
to Brighton, with a full load of passengers, and is continu-
ing running this week, and its route is through Kenning-
ton, Brixton, Croydon, Crawley, (to. It has five relays of
horses, and makes the journey in six hours. The aboli-
tion of toll-gates on the roads has induced this experiment,
and, if successful, other " drags" are to be put on the road.
The course of exchange at New York on London for bills at
60 days' sight is about 1091 per cent. At these rates there
is a prat on the importation of go:d from the United
States, •