The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-22 00:00:00

BOROUGH AND SPITALFIELDS.

The arrivals of home-grown potatoes continue on a mo-
derately extensive scale ; but the receipts of foreign aro very
limited. Compared with last week the demand has de-
cidedly improved, and prices are well supported. Shows
are selling at from Ms to 80s, and Regents 100 to 130 s per
ton.

SEEDS.
Tho business doing in seeds is confined to a few small
parcels, at prices about equal to those current last week.
Cakes move off slowly, at our quotations.
Turnip, White,p.bus.26s to a Carraway 30s to 348
Swede —s —a Coriander lBa 20s
Mustard, Brown .. 8s 12s Henapseed, per qr 4Bs 528
White, new.... 5s lOs Linseed,Eng.sowing 62s 66s
Tares,
Old per quarter 3fis 40s Baltic s4s 58s
Canary, per quarter 306 50s Odessa
Rye grass, sew 26s 28s Linseed Cake, p ton 54s 58s
Clover, Red Eng., ct —s —s English .£lo Os.£lo los
White —a —a Foreign £9 les 10 15s
Foreign Red.... —s —s Rape Cakes,p ton 51 103 61 Os
White. —a —s Rapeseed. pqr .... 70s 76s
Trefoil, new........ —s —s

WOOL.
The public sales of colonial wool have commenced, and
prices, compared with the previous series, have fallen quite
lid per lb. on the average. Australian—Clean sheep's,
is 6d to 2s 21d ; scoured, is bd to 2s 7d ; handwashed, is
4id; lamb, Is 31d to 2s; locks and pieces, is to 51d.
Port Philip—Clean sheep's, is 6d to 2s 2d ; secured, is 7d
to 2s Old ; handwashed, le 31d ; locks, is Id to is 7d.
Van. Diemen's Land— Clean sheep's, is 5d to is 111 d ;
lamb, is 8d to is 10d; locks, Is ld to is 91d. Now Zea-
lancl—Clean sheep's, is 41d to is 7d ; scoured, is 6 to
1,44; grease, lld to 130 Id. Swan Itiver—Clean sheep's
Is 51d to la 9d; scoured, is 6d to Is 9d per lb. By private
Lolnstrac Mao business doing.. in English wool is limited.
637 week's i",Poris were 739 bales from Port Augusta,
from Port Philip, and from 1,517 Morctown Bay.
•
„ ,

Our market TALLOW.
p, y. c. being cobtinues dull, at further reduced rates.
rooted,
tions. Roue h fat 2s. 7d. to_day, at 48s. per cwt. in all'posi-
per Sibs,

.
1857, 1.
___ •
•
1859. 186). 1861.
5880 d to '4883d to 5:1,11 t.O 53s b
Stock thk 4147. •• • '.13455 , 14,702 2-7: --- --- ----
Price of Y.C. .. {
___B od ,833 31 152 55 004
—8 Od to 48g Cd to
Delivery last wcck 1,526 /;724- i',',,u,,C —8 0(1 --8 0(1
Ditto frOM June 1 10,323 9,250 1,156 1,479 1,503
12,9 N
Arrivals 1..4 week 1,781 951 2,515 8,746
Ditto from Jun,. 1 11,214 12.427 15,9.8 12 ,S6l 1,408
Price of Town •••• os 3d 50s Oct 524 9d 5`6"49„.464 ,893
-,... ,,,, ed

lIIPBUILDZIN FOR THE ADMIRALTY

THE MERSEY v. THE TYNE.

On Tuesday last the Lords of the Admiralty de-
tided to accept the tender of Messrs. Laird, of. Bir-
kenhead, to build an iron screw steam transport, at
£26 per ton, and that of Messrs. Samuda Brothers,
of Milwall, to construct a sister ship at £24 ss. per
ton. The Army and Navy Gazette, of Saturday, in
announcing these contracts, has the following re-
marks 1—" It strikes us that this determination on
the part of their lordships is open to very grave
criticism. Here we have a difference of £1 15s. per
ton, or a gross sum on the tonnage of £4,900 ; and
when we take into consideration the fact that the
Mersey shipbuilders have an advantage over their
brethren of the Thames to the extent of 10s. per
ton in the purchase of their iron, Bs. per ton on
their coals, something considerable on their scale of
wages, and 'no small trifle in the difference of the
value of their premises—taking all these matters,
we say, into consideration, we might arrive at the
conclusion that either Messrs. Laird will make a
very handsome sum out of this job for the public, or
that Messrs. Samuda will have to regret their par-
ticipation in it; but from information which has
reached us we are enabled to say that a very emi-
nent London shipbuilder, who has never failed to
give satisfaction to the country, was prepared to
build the ships at even a lower price than Messrs.
Samuda. The same can be said of another firm on
the Mersey, another on the Tyne, and another on
the Humber. All these gentlemen are of high
standing in their profession, and were perfectly
ready to enter into the required bond for the due
performance of their contract, and were thoroughly
willing to comply with all the requirements of the
Admiralty. We may therefore safely say that
Messrs. Laird made a hit of rather an enviable
character on the 9th inst. We can scarcely believe,
as several parties have insinuated, that the calling
for tenders from eight firms was a mere farce, and
that it was predetermined to give the contracts to
the two houses already mentioned. It is to be
hoped that the Government will be afforded an
opportunity to explain their conduct in this
matter, for as it stands at present it is
" beyond our comprehension." It is rather difficult
to see what is aimed at in this paragraph, the whole
of the complaint seeming to be that Messrs. Laird
have got a better price than Messrs. Samuda, and
that the Government did not accept the lowest ten-
ders. Other firms on the Thames, the Tyne, and
the Humber Were prepared to build the ships at a
lower price, and to enter into the required bond,
&c. But what is there in the arrangements made
to warrant such comments, or to call for explana-
tions from the Government ? Eight firms were
invited to tender, and the Admiralty, not being
bound to accept the lowest offer, gave the contracts
to the two firms which they considered, from their
reputation and experience, the most eligible for such
engagements. Mr. Laird's tender was, it seems,
£1 15s. per ton more than Messrs. Samuda's ; but
both builders are, it is only fair to suppose, equally
good jadges as to what is the lowest prices they can
afford to build at in a manner worthy of their re-
putation, and Mr. Laird could not be expected to
lower his price to Messrs. Saniuda's, with any more
fairness than he could be asked to execute the work
at the prices named in the tenders from those yards
on the Tyne and the Humber which the Army and
Navy Gazette does not name, but concerning some
of whom the report of the Galway Contract Com-
mittee, to be issued to-morrow or next day, will
probably not exhibit quite so much squeamishness,
if we may augur from the evidence. The total
failure of the penalty system in the case of the iron-
cased ships has, it is believed, shown the Admiralty
the necessity of employing only builders of the
highest eminence, and who have worked in a punc-
tual and a proper manner, for the department be-
fore ; and to this cause, it is but reasonable to assume,
the selection of Messrs. Laird and Messrs. Samuda
in the present instance may be ascribed. It is no-
torious, and the lesson cannot have been lost on the
Admiralty, that the firms on the Thames and the
Tyne failed to complete the iron-cased ships by the
time stipulated in the contracts, though working
under heavy penalties for non-eompletion, because
they knew by experience that the penalties would
not be enforced; and the lamentable break-down of
the Galway liners built on the Tyne and the Hum-
ber at prices several thousands under what any
builder of eminence. on the Mersey or the Clyde
would have constructed them for, is at once an
example of that false economy which appears to be
recommended by the Army and Navy Gazette, and
a warning against its adoption by the Government.
The Engineer of last week, probably a better judge
of practical matters of this kind.than the Gazette,
after stating that the Gal Way Company paid
£90,000 for each of their vessels, and, after losing
one on her second voyage through springing a leak,
are now employing Messrs. Laird to make the
others seaworthy at a cost of about £20,000 a-piece,
observes very Judiciously, that " had they given
£lOO,OOO per vessel at the beginning, they might
now be running four splendid steamships, built by
• such firms as Laird's or Samuda's and engined by
Penn or Maudslay, and be returning ample profits
to their shareholders." What is best for private
companies must be best for the State also, and we
are glad to see that the Government is at last alive
to a truth so obvious. Lord Clarence Paget, if
interrogated on the subject of these contracts, may
justify the selection of Messrs. Laird, notwithstand-
ing the difference :of price, by the facts that the
Dover, the first vessel built by the firm for the
Admiralty, though more than 20 years old, is still
in good condition; that the same firm have since
built about 40 vessels for the Government, and 50
or 60 for the East India Company, all of which are
known to have done good service ; and that the gun-
boats built by them during the Russian war, as
fully shown by the report, were the only vessels of
that class that were not found, two or three years
afterwards, more or less affected by dry-rot. Surely
it is better for the country to have its ships built
by such a firm, than to follow the " penny wise and
pound foolish" example of the unfortunate Galway
Company, even though by the latter course there
should be a seeming saying of a few thousand
pounds in the first instance.—:Liverpool Albion.

THE EUPERATESVALLEY ROUTE TO

INDIA.

(From the London and China Telegraph.)
It is not too much to say that there is no existing
or projected railroad that can for a moment com-
pare, in point of interest and importance, with that
of the Euphrates Valley. It brings two quarters
of the glob into juxtaposition, and three continents
—Europe, sia, and Australia—into co4elation. It
binds the vast population of Hindostan by an
iron link with the people of Europe, it inevitably
entails the colonisation and civilisation of the great
valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris, the resus-
citation, in a modern shape, of Babylon and Nineveh,
and the re-awakening of Ctsiphon and Bagdad
of old. It will also settle the mail route to and
from Australia and China—an element of prosperity
of a very great importance, for the passenger traffic
from the Australian colonies exceeds one hundred
weekly, and ere the railway can be completed will
be five times that number—of whom more than half
will take the shortest route, while the number of
emigrants from this country who will prefer a pas-
sage of forty to over eighty days, may also be fairly
expected to be very large. According to Sir John
Macneill, who was assisted in the survey by Cap-
tain Burgess and the officers of her Majesty's steam
ship Stromboli, there is every facility for making a
harbour in the vicinity of the ancient port of Sileucia
near the mouth of the Orontes, and the country
na
es i Antioch, Killes, and Ailam,- to Aleppo, ninety miln length, presents no engineering diffi-
country, dotted makingove a
culty. By r
-detour a rich settled
accommodated, and with towns .and villages, is
ea 1 n e
lasn bridgela dt
attritanffiche
is lines would be
unnecessary. A. large
istence, as the toll-books
show that about 1,200
each day. This will be the
of the railway, from the INTediterriain
hnoata
:or
olasornereAsttahtalldoneeayptdtopheportionis nss.-
coniplete work, having a port at one end
sian Gulf, the link from Sileucia
aitnsdelfthae chief emporium of Mesopotamia at the
other, to which the traffic from India, Bagdad,
tlec-- on to
Or should. the railway be eal 8;e-,
converges.
the
Chest..-ty and Sir John
route
t he
Eup
recommendedhrates, 60 mbyileasenb.ey.ond Alel2,-.1,0, by
Macneill, there would be a stit more perfect work
of about 150 miles in ler.gib, beginning at a port
in a great sea and erivnng ' at the headofa nabve fi naviga-
ble river in a greater ocean. This would
itself, and 1.-,,, itself, a complete, perfect, and pro-
fitable Praterprise ; not only would a new country
be opened up to European enterprise, but a direct-
ness in the route to India obtained, which few would
believe who do not work it out on the map.
Taking the line of the Austrian railways to
Trieste, thence by rail to Jabor Castle, down the
stream of the Euphrates and by the Persian Gulf
to Kurraehee, where the Scinde Railway, the first
complete Indian line, commences the future net-
work of Indian lines, the traveller will follow
a route as direct as any railway can be ex-
pected to afford. Eight days and six hours
will take the traveller through Trieste to Sileucia,
thence the railway will take him in five hours to
the head of the navigable waters of the Euphrates.
Three days and three hours more will see the river
voyage completed` to Bussorah ; and three mart,
days—tnakins in all 14—bring the traveller to
Kurrachee, where the Scinde Railway keeps the
western door of the railways of our Indian empire.
Like most-of the other railways for which India
is indebted- to Mr. Andrew, this - line from
Sileucia to Jabor Castle, though complete
in: itself, is regarded by him as the parent of •