The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-01 00:00:00

LA TEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

ITALY.

FLORENCE, DEC. 31 (Evening).

Count Hompesch, the new Bavarian Minister,
and the members of the Corps Diplornatique, were
received in public audience to-day by the King.
To-morrow his Majesty will receive the Senate
and the Chamber of Deputies.

OUTWARD AMERICAN MAIL.
QUEENSTOWN, DEC. 31.

The Royal mail steamship Scotia arrived here
to-day (Sunday), at 7 p.m. She embarked the
mails, passengers, and latest telegrams, and pro-
ceeded at midnight. All well.
She experienced a terrific gale.

FRANCE.

PARIS, JAN. 1.

Yesterday the Austrian Ambassador, Prince Met-
ternich, on behalf of his Sovereign, presented to the
Emperor, for the Prince Imperial, the Order of St.
Stephen of Hungary. At the ceremony of the
presentation Prince Metternich said his Austrian
Majesty was desirous that the heir to the French
Throne should early learn the sincere interest which
he felt, and would never cease to feel, for his Im-
perial Highness.

The Emperor, in thanking Prince Metternich for
this act of the Emperor of Austria, replied that he
was deeply touched, and added that the Prince
Imperial would always preserve that high mark of
solicitude on the part of a Sovereign to whom his
father had vowed sincere friendship.
Generals d'Alleville and Vinoy have been ap-
pointed Senators.

BOURSE, Dec. 30, Two o'clock.—The market
again opened on depreciated rates. Three per Cents.
have been done below 68f., but have since recovered,
the monthly operation of the reponsc des primes
having been accomplished as follows :—For Rente
3 per Cent., 68f. 02ic. ; Italian Fives, 65f. 35c. ;
Credit Foncier, 1,327 f. 50c.; Credit Mobilier, 813 f.
75c. ; Spanish Mobilier, 467 f. 70c. ; Northern,
1,135 f. ; Lyons, 846 f. 25c. ; Lombard, 433 f. 75c. ;
Austrian, 428 f. 75c. ; and Immobiliere, 538 f. 75c.
Three per Cents. are now quoted at 68f. 7ic.,
showing an advance on yesterday of sc. Italian
Fives have a decline of sc.—at 65f. 40c. Credit
Mobilier Shares are lf. 25c. lower—at 815 f. Little
variation in the Railway Department ; Austrian
Shares have regained 2f. 50c. Three o'clock.—The
market has improved, and left off as follows :

1-1 per Cents 9B
Do. end month —

Roman —
Ottoman Fives 42 35
Mexican Loan —
Do. Bonds —
Russian —
Austrian
Spanish Threes
Home Debt —
Deferred

3 per Cents. 6B 15
Do. end month 6B 15

Credit Mobilier ... 817 50
Do. end month ... 823 75

Bank Shares 3715

Credit Foncier 1325
Italian Loan 65 35

Do. end month 65 221-

'AYE.

Cash. Amt.
... 842 50
... 1135 -
- ... 847 50
... 571 25

Orleans
Northern
Lyons and Mediterranean
Southern .
Western
Eastern
Sardinian .
Austrian — ... 436 25
Lombard — ... 435
North of Spain — ... 172 50
Saragossa — ... 218 75
Ditto to Barcelona — -- ... 101 25
110111 all — ... 158 75

The Cotton Crop at the South.
A recent circular from an English house, well known in

the cotton trade, and conspicuous for many years by their
trustworthy statistics of cotton—the ➢iessrs. Neill Brothers
—gives us some very interesting data on this important
topic. The different partners have traversed carefully,
since the war, the various portions of the cotton-growing
States—one taking the Atlantic States, another Tennessee

and Northern Alabama and Mississippi, and a third Ar-
kansas, Louisiana, Red River, and Texas.
Widely conflicting estimates of the Southern stocks of
cotton have been confidently put forward since the sur-
render of the rebel armies, some running as high as
5,000,000 bales and others as low as 500,000.
The most favorite figures, and those which it was
understood the Treasury Department had sanctioned, from

investigations made for revenue purposes, being 1,500,000
bales of all kinds, old and new. The Messrs. Neill, how-

ever, have arrived at the conclusion that the supply will
count up from 2,000,000 to 2,100,000 bales, of which they
estimate the old stocks at 1,650,000 bales, and the growth
of this year at 400,000 ; and it appears by the • data they
furnish that more than half of the entire quantity, viz.,

1,090,624 bales, have already been sent to market.
This fact alone seems to justify their estimate, that the
total will not fall short of 200,000 bales, however much
it may exceed it.
The history of the war may, in a measure, be traced in
the facts which their business report discloses. Thus, while

the aggregate figures represent about half a crop of the
years preceding the war, the Carolinas, in Messrs. Neill's
estimate, only stand for 110,000 bales, or about one-fifth of
an old crop. This is doubtless explained by the fact that
the great ports from which cotton was shipped during the
war, through the blockade, were Charleston and -Wilming-
ton, which thus drained those States. The great State of
Georgia was hermetically sealed, and the bulk of the crops
of 1861 and 1862 would have been found there by General
Sherman, had it not been for the home manufacture, for
which Georgia has long been distinguished among Southern
States, and which attained to considerable importance dur-
ing the war. Notwithstanding the quantity of cotton that
must have been thus used up, this State, in connection
with Florida, stands in the present estimate for 330,000, or
about half an old crop.
Alabama suffered less than any other Southern State,
except Texas, and had it not been for Wilson's great raid,.
nearly a whole crop would have been found. And even
after allowing 150,000 bales for the destruction thus effected
the State is estimated to yield 420,000 bales, of which
220,000 have already been delivered at Mobile.
The extensive region drained by the Mississippi suffered
much more severely, the presence of contending armies
having been felt ever since the summer of 1862, much
cotton having been destroyed to prevent it falling into the
hands of our armies, or confiscated by them, and long since
forwarded North.

The total receipts of old and new cotton at New Orleans
are estimated at 700,000 bales (or only about one-third of
a formor crop,) of which 431,000 have already bean deli-
vered. _ _

It is pleasant to turn to a State from which wo have to
chronicle no falling off. The crop of Texas varied for a
few years before the war from 150,000 to 250,000 bales,
and the supply of the present season is estimated at
190,000, or about an average of former crops, notwith-
standing the fact that largo quantities of cotton were ex-
ported for the last two years of the war via Matamoros.
This satisfactory supply is accounted for by a large plant-
ing the present season—more than half of it being new
cotton—and the yield would have been considerably larger
still but for the depredations, not of the rebel or Union
army, but of the "army worm," the most destructive
" guerilla " known to the cotton crop.
From another quarter the report is very satisfactory.
Memphis had become an important cotton centre only a

few ;ears before the war—her receipts amounting in ono
season to as much as 400,000 bales, to the surprise and
jealousy of many of the older markets. But large as these
figures are, the present estimate (320,000 bales for Ten-
nessee and the neighbouring counties), is not greatly
behind them.
This is confirmed also by the fact that 206,000 bales have
already been delivered. Nearly ono-half of the total esti-
mate (or 150,000 bales), is put down as new cotton, and
this is the most encouraging feature in the whole case, as
' nearly the whole must be the product of free labor—that
entire district having been within the Union lines for the
past two years.
This large supply of cotton will be an important wind-
fall for Mr. M'Culloch. At the former average weight of
the bales, 460 pounds, the total weight of 2,100,000 would
be 960,000,000 pounds, upon which the revenue tax of two
cents per pound will amount to $19,320,000 —an excess of
$5,520,000 upon the sum which 1,500,000 bales (which is
understood to have boon the Secretary's estimate) would
have produced.
Another important consideration is the effect of so large
a stock and so largo an exportable surplus of cotton upon
the money market and the exchanges. At present, our
speculators, aided by the currency inflation, are " carry-
ing " enormous stocks of cotton.
1,100,000 bales have already been delivered at the ports
and northern and western towns, and it will not, to those
who know the trade, seem unreasonable to presume that
half of what remains in the interior has already been
bought from the planters, and paid for by Northern capital.
No wonder that money has become scarce and dear, for
the whole estimated supply, at present prices, is worth
$400,000,000, and of this the proportion exported thus far
is only about one-sixth. Let the stocks of cotton and
grain be moved forward more rapidly by the holders
coming on the market, and we should hoar no more of
advancing rates for gold on account of the demand for
export, or of declining prices of our Government funds.—
Ncto York Timm