The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY

him ; A3hnrst, Son. and Morris, Oil Jewry, London ;
1 Hodgson and Allen, Birmingham.
Theodore Rnbinson Kenway, broker and comrnissica
merchant, Birmingham, Feb. 5, at ten, and Feb. 20, Ai
half-past eleven, at the Birmingham DiEtlict Cart.
BizAlestoo, 0r.7&al assignee, iirmingham ; W. H. Reece,
Birmingham.

SCOTCH SEQUESTRATIONS.

Adam Watson, coal merchant, Hutchesontown of Glas-
gow ; Faculty Hall, Glasgow, Jan. 23, at ono.
Alexander Aitkenhead, baker, Glasgow; Victoria Hote',
Glasgow, Jan. 23, at eleven.
Emil Golaton and Co., importers of foreign goods, Glas-
gow, Jan. 24, at twelve, within the Globe Hutel, Glasgow.
Begbie, Wiseman, and Co., merchants, at the Faculty-
hall, Glasgow, Jan. 21, at twelve.

COITESE OF EX(
Amsterdam •-• 11 14

"ANGLE.- TIES DAY.

Gibraltar ...... •••••• ••

Ditto, three months .. 11 17 l
Rotterdam 11 17%
Antwerp .............. 25 32%
Brussels .... • • ........ 25 32%
Elamburgh ............ 13 6%
Altona •• •• •• •• •• •• ••
Ditto, three months .. 25 65
MarseiheS 25 C 71,..,
Rourdeamt • .... •...
Frankfort-on-]fain •• .. 118%
Berlin •• •• ..•• •• • • •.
Vienns.•• •• •• •• •• •• •• 10 42
to 43
Petersburg •• . • •• •• •• 37
Madrid .. • •• • • •• 49
Cadiz 49%
Barcelona

Lezhorn ••••••••••—•, 29 5734
Genoa 000000 •••••••••• :5 75
Venice•••••••••••••.••

Naples •• • ..• •.. 43
Palermo ..... 129
Messina. ..
Lisbon .. ••.. • . 511,4
Oporto ................
51
Rio Janeiro ..... .•• •• .•
Buenos Ayres .....
New Tork,6o days' sight
Philadelphia .. ......
PRICES OR BULLION, :PA OZ.
Foreign Gold in Bars £3 17 9
Portugal Gold Ccin 0 0 0
Mexican Dollars f) 0 0
New Dollars 0 0 0
Sfloer in bars

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON, BRIGHTON, AND SOUTH COAST.
The directors of this company have decided upon re-
commending the payment of a dividend for the ha!f•year
ending the 31st of December of 4 per cent. on the
consolidated stock of the company, inakirg the total di.
vidend G per cent, for the year 1856.

THE UNITED STATPS.

(From a Correspondent of the Time.)

NEW YORK, Dec. 29, 1836.—The revolution of
time brings me once more to the usual review of
what the dying year has done for the United
States, and what the United States has done for
it. This time I have no wars or victories, no
commercial crashes, no civil convulsions (beyond
the border struggles in Kansas), as food for the
pen. No great statute has this year changed
the political balance of the country, to call into
action bitter sectional strife. No statesman of
towering strength has passed away, leaving the
country without the restraint of his power. No
successful railway Samson 'has fallen, pulling with
him the pillars of public confidence and secnrity.
Instead ,of these we have this year the national
election-27,000,000 people working themselves
into a gradually increasing excitement for four
months, quietly voting at the close, and sinking
the next day into an apparently profound apathy
until the incoming Administration shall deve!ope
iis policy. Tlae year began with faint murmurs
from the plains of Kansas—murmurs of outrages
and oppressions—of the grossest abuses of stolen
power in the hands of brutal men—murmurs faint
and discredited. Soon the stories took visible
shape, and before the first of the political conven-
tions met we saw actual civil war ; fortified Law-
rence surrounded by Missouri invaders, and de-
fended by Free State rifles. The Federal power was
interposed on behalf of the Missourians, and the Free
State men were obliged to succumb. The different
political conventions next met and put forth their
nominees and their declarations of principles. The
Ostend Conference, endorsed at Cincinnati, was
denounced as " the highwayman's plea" at Phila-
delphia. The not-extension of slavery, proclaimed
at Philadelphia as a cardinal article of faith, was
winked out of sight at Cincinnati. The canvass was
conducted with a greaterfluctuation in the chances
than was supposed possible in the outset, and Mr.
Buchanan was at length elected in the face of the
most imposing opposition vote ever given in the
States that threw their electoral votes for Colonel
Fremont.

The year has also produced great changes in the
relations between Great Britain and this country.
January, 1856, was more than a " *inter of dis-
content." Let us hope that January, 1857, is the
beginning of a perpetual spring. A year ago
the enlistment embroglio was in its worst phase.
I think it was a year ago yesterday that Mr.
Marcy sent the long defence of the American
position upon the question which effectually shut
the door against any settlement, except by with-
drawing Mr. Crampton and the offending
Consuls. The Central American question also
was in about as bad a way as well could
be. Mr. Buchanan and Lord Clarendon, having
failed to agree about the construction of the Clay -
ton-Bulwer Treaty, had laid down their pens in
despair. Lord Clarendon had proposed arbitra-
tion ; Mr. Buchanan had said there was nothing
to arbitrate ; and Mr. Crampton had quietly
stowed away in his portfolio a similar offer which
he was instructed to make at Washington. Now
all these questions are happily disposed of. Mr.
Crampton was dismissed without disturbing the
diplomatic relations of the two countries. Mr.
Dallas replaced Mr. Buchanan, filled with the spirit
of conciliation, and armed with plenary powers. A
treaty was concluded with Honduras, by which the
sovereignty of the Bay Islands was definitely vested
in that Republic, on a plan the possibility of which
was first foreshadowed ts the Times when the
troubles seemed most difficult of adjustment ; and
another treaty was entered into between Great
Britain and the United States—which still awaits
the action of the Senate—by which prospective
arrangements are made for defining the limits of
the Mosquito occupation ; for establishing a free
port at Greytown ; for opening the navigation of
the San Juan to citizens of Costa Rica; for settling
the territorial disputes of Costa Rica and Nicaragua
by arbitration, if they cannot be otherwise disposed
of; for the recognition of grants of public lands ;
for an annuity to the Mosquito Indians ; and for
defining the limits of that hitherto very vaguely
bounded territory, the Belise. Thus, after the lapse
of seven years, and the expenditure of any quan-
tity of best hand made linenpaper foolscap diplo-
matic pattern, to say nothing of convincing argu-
ments and bad temper, these question's are adjustLd
on the precise basis which the late Mr. Abbott Law-
rence on behalf of the Government of the United
States offered in 1849. Meanwhile, however, power
has changed hands twice in this country, and is
soon to pass again into new hands. New men
have come up in the Senate,new interests have been
created, the national wealth and commerce hay.,
expanded beyond the belief of those who have not
seen it, and the nation has become more conscious
of its strength, and less willing to submit to a cur-
tailment of the foreign influence which it feels to
belong to it upon this continent. There is said to
be some doubt whether the settlement which in
1850 would have been acceptable to everybody will
be palatable to the Senate in 1857. At the last
advices from Washington the opposition to the rati-
fication was giving way, and I hope soon to be able
to advise you that the last obstacle in the way of
the adjustment of these annoying questions is
removed.

The year 1836 has been a fortunate Year for the
commerce of the country. Although its imports.
are greater than those of any previous year, and
now exceed 50,000,0001. a-year, the exports are
still larger by 512,000,000, counting Californian
gold as a domestic production, which, economically
speaking, it is. This is a fact indicating a healthy
condition of trade, and confirfns the views I have
invariably taken—that tine
and its business, although expanded and expand-
ing, is on a healthy basis. The constant demand
for- money for the construction of new and
enlargement of old railways keeps a tight money
market. There is no sign of want of prosperity.
Railways in the West take the place of common
highways and turnpikes in an old country. They
penetrate tracts of land before inaccessible to mar-
kets, and carry with them and distribute the ra-
pidly increasing population of the United States.
Though they may not pay the shareholders they
increase the wealth of the country more than four-
fold the cost of construction.

The cotton lands of the South have been visited
by many adverse influences during the year, un-
favourable to a large crop. Though we still have
no certain information as to the whole crop, we
know euoulh to say with a proximate accuracy
that it will be under the average. The agricultural
lands of the West, on the other hand, have been
busy there, also, getting large new tracts into cul-
vation, and if the new year have genial sunshine and
refreshing rain harmoniously intermingled we may
look for an increased production of cereal crops.
In the east, our city has continued its expansive
strides with undiminished energy. New streets
stretch their thin arms out on the rocky waste to
the north. Old streets "down toun" lie in ruins
preparatory to appearing next year in the splen-
dour of marble and sandstone. Pophlation still
pours in ; wealth, churches, poverty, and crime in-
crease side by side, and croakers, here as every-
where, mourn over the rottenness and predict the
speedy downfall of this Babylon. But in spite of all
we grow, and grow rich, and growing rich spend
our money—in houses that are palaces, in equip-
ages, silver, servants, and wines. New ships lie
at our wharf,, new warehouses receive now con-
signments, and we continue to prosper. The yel-
low fever hung at our door for months, threatening
to chock our growth, and unquestionably did do
injury to our trade, but not enough to be percep-
tible. With that exception the past year has been
one of unbroken prosperity.

Most noticeable of all is increase in the good
feeling towards England—not the good feeling of
cabinets, but the more solid good feeling of popular
will. I see it in el-cry part of the country where
the public mind has an opportunity to express
itself.

There is little localnews of interest for this packet
at this time. Congress will not be in session until
the holidays are over. The House will try to get
hold of the Pacific Railway in some form or other ;
and as they will jumble together a variety of grants,
and. thus combine a variety of interests, it is possi-
ble that something may pass. The modification of
the tariff will also come up, upon the reports of Mr.
Leacher and of Mr. Campbell. Mr. Letcher's bill,
taking the tariff of 1846 as its basis, transfers ma-
nufactured silks to the 30 per cent. schedule ; flax
and blankets to the 25 per cent. ; raw wool to the
10 per cent. ; and raw silk and dyestuffs to the free
list, and then a uniform reduction of 20 per cent.
upon all the duties levied under the tariff of
1816. Mr. Campbell's bill puts on the free list
raw materials and dyestuffs used in American
manufactures, and leaves blankets in the 20 per
cent. schedule, and woollen goods and silk goods in
the 25 and 30 per cent. schedules.
_ _ _

---
A most remarkable criminal trial is going on
here, the result of which, not known as I write, will
probably be known before the mail leaves Boston.
One Huntingdon, a billbroker of Wall-street, who
robbed the " note-shavers" to the amount of half
a million and lived en Prince on the proceeds, is on
trial for the forgeries. His counsel admit the exe-
cution of the paper, and set up insanity, because
no sane man ever would have committed so glaring
from a career
of swindling can lay hands
crimes. To proveevery etlr)iiuslitnhaelyareatkteb 14p
on (of which there seems to be plenty), and ask the
jury to believe that so great a rogue must be au
honest man.

The Baltic brought us the news of the appoint-
ment of Mr. Matthew as Consul at Odessa. It will
gratify his many friends in this country to know