The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-18 00:00:00

FRANCE.

PARIS, July 17.

Prince Napoleon left lagt night for the head-
quarters of the army under Victor Emmanuel. His
Highness is entrusted with a special mission.
BOURSE, July 17.—Two o'clock.—The market
shows more firmness to-day, and quotations have
generally regained the ground lost yesterday.
Threes are at 68f. 40c., or 30c. higher, and Italian
Fives at 52f. 30c., an advance of 70c. Credit
Mobilier Shares have improved 13f. 75c., viz., to
635 f., and Spanish Mobilier 7f. 50c., to 332 f. 50c.
Credit Foncier Shares are 2f. 50c. higher, at 1270 f.,
and Comptoir d'Escompte 5f., at 840 f. In Railway
Shares Lyons gain 2f. 50c.—at 847 f. 50c. ; Aus-
trian, If. 25c.—at 340 f. ; and Lombard, 3f. 750.
at 376 f. 25c. English Consols are telegraphed with
an advance of
Three o'clock.—The market closed on the fol-
lowing quotations :

4j per Cents
Do. and month

3 per Cents.
Do. end m0nth...... 68 35
_ .

Credit Mobilier ...
Do. end month ... 630

Credit Fonder —
Do. end month 1270

Bank Shares —
Italian Loan —
Do. end month 52 10
Mexican Loan —
Do. Bonds —
Spanish Threes
Home Debt —
Deferred
'AYS.

For Account.
Orleans 852 50
Northern lllO
Lyons and Mediterranean B5O
Southern 525 7.

Western 542 50
Eastern
Sardinian
Austrian
Lombard 375
North of Spain
Saragossa 125
Ditto to Barcelona
Roman

JOINT STOCK BANKS.—A pamphlet has been
published by Mr. William Ray Smee, F.S.A., on
this subject, with a view of obtaining for deposits placed at
interest in joint stock banks greater security. The matter
is a very important one, and the ideas of Mr. Smog are all
put forward in a clear, forcible, and intelligent manner,
and they deserve the most serious consideration of all
those interested in the commercial prosperity of the country.
With a view to greater security for the deposits he sug-
gests to the Legislature the consideration of a measure in

which it might be enacted that for every £lOO,OOO received
by any bank on deposit at interest approved securities for
that amount be lodged in the Bank of England, together
with the exact total of such deposits held every Saturday
by each bank. The pamphlet is an exceedingly interest-
ing one, and will well repay perusal.
rilE BEAUTY OF ICE.—Witness the phenomena of
crystalisation, to appreciate which we need go no further
than the freezing of water and the formation of snow. Pro-
fessor Tyndall deftly and delicately dissects a block of ice
by means of a beam from his electric lamp, pulling the
crystal edifice to pieces by accurately reversing the order of
its architecture. Silently and symmetrically the crystal-
ising force had built the atoms up ; silently and symme-
trically does the electric beam take them down. Hero we
have a star, and there a star ; and as the action continues,
the ice appears to resolve itself into stars, each ono
possessing six rays, each ono resembling a beautiful six-
petalled flower. By shifting the lens to and fro, new star-
flowers are brought into view ; and as the action continues,
the edges of the petals become serrated, spreading them-
selves out like fern-leaves. Probably few are aware of
the beauty latent in a block of common ice. Only think,
continues our eloquent countryman, of lavish nature operat-
g thus throughout the world ! Every atom of the solid
ice which sheets the frozen lakes of the north has been fixed
according to this law, Nature "lays her beams in music,"
and it is the function of science to purify our organs
so as to enable us to hear the strain. To many persons a
block of ice may seem of no more interest and beauty than
a block of glass ; but, in reality, it bears the same rela-
tion to glass that an oratorio of Handel does to the
cries in a market-place.:The ice is music, the glass is noise ;
the ice is order, the glass is confusion. In the glass, mole-
cular forces constitute an inextricably entangled skein ; in
the ice, they are woven into a symmetric web, of the won-
derful texture just described.—Dickens's "All the Year
Round."

COUNTY OF TYRONE ELECTION.—We learn by
telegraph that Rear-Admiral Seymour was yesterday re-
elected for ale county of Tyrone unopposed.