The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-27 00:00:00

.--•-
MONEY MARKET AND CITY NEWS.

CITY, Two o'CLocK.
During the past week the state of trade in the
manufacturing districts has continued dull, the in-
tervention of the Whitsun holidays having caused
almost a suspension of operations. At Manchester,
Leeds, and Bradford manufacturers have confined
their dealings to immediate requirements for the
home markets. The hosiery trade at Leicester has
continued flat, with little prospect of improvement
at present. In the hardware districts there has
been no change of importance. The gun trade,
however, at Birmingham, has shown more activity
Owing to the demand for America.
A moderate amount of business was concluded in
the Liverpool Cotton Market on Saturday, and
prices were steady. The sales were 8,000 bales.
The half-yearly interest on Russian 4 per Cent.
Bonds of the loan of 1860, will be paid on and after
the Ist proximo.

About £24,000, in gold, was sent into tho Bank
of England on Saturday.
A meeting of the Commercial Dock Company
will take place on the 14th proximo, for the pur-
pose of declaring a dividend and the
.election of a
director.

The inquiries for discount accommodation con-
tinue moderate, and bills are still freely negotiated
on levier terms in the open market than at the
Bank of England. There is an abundant supply of
capital for all the ordinary requirements of trade,
and credit being well maintained, except among the
Greek interest, the mercantile community experience
no difficulty in obtaining assistance at the current
quotations. The exportation of gold to America,
however, is still creating some anxiety, as it may
yet exercise an important influence upon the value
of money.

Continued quietude pervaded the Market for
Public Securities, but the quotations are steadily
maintained notwithstanding the extensive ship-
ments of gold to New York. Consols have remained
at 91} 2- for money, and 911 a for the account.
The New Threes are firm at 89,1.1, the Reduced at
891,; Exchequer Bills are steady at ss. to ls. dis.,
ditto advertised 2s. dis. to par; India 5 per Cent.
Loan at 1011-1,.
In the Foreign Market the dealings have been
extremely limited, and prices show little variation.
Turkish 6 per Cents. are ill 72 ; ditto, 188, 56.1
Mexican are flat at 224 ; and Spanish Deferred at
431.

In the Railway Share Market the operations have
been on a very limited scale, but prices have shown
increased firmness. Great Westerns, North-
Westerns, South-Westerns, and Midlands have
improved 55., and Great Northerns 10s. ; Lancashire
and Yorkshire declined ss. ;‘ and London and
Brighton, Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincoln, and
North-Eastern (Berwick) brought previous rates.
The Foreign lines have been dull. G reatluxem-
burg were dealt in at 71 and West Flanders
Preference Shares at 9.1.
In the Colonial Market Great Indian Peninsula
advanced 108., and Bombay and Bahia, 10s.
Joint Stock Bank and Miscellaneous Shares have
Continued in moderate request, without any:material
change in value. London Chartered of Australia
brought 234-; Union o f London, 254 ; Crystal
Palace Stock, 321 i and Electric Telegraph, 951.

BRITISH FUNDS—ONE O'CLOCK.
3 per Cent. Reduced Annuities B9l
3 per Cent. Consols Annuities
New 3 per Cent. Annuities
India Stock .. .. —
Ditto 5 per Cent
Ditto Enlaced Paper, 4 per Cent —
Ditto 51 per Cent
i Ditto Debentures, 1858 96 a
Consols for Account, 6 .... 911
India Stock for Account —
Ditto 5 per Cent.
Exchequer Bills, £l,OOO, 2d . 5 die
Ditto £5OO 1 dis
Ditto Small
Ditto Advertised
FOREIGN FUNDS—ONE O'CLOCK
Mexican 3 per Cent .. ----
Ditto Account
SpAnish 3 per Cent
.. • •
Ditto New Deferred
Ditto Account
Turkish 6 per Cent
Ditto Now Loan
Ditto Account
Dividends on the above payable in London.
French Rentes, 41 per Cent., Ex. 25f 941.
TWO O'CLOCK
Consols, Money
Ditto Account

•OST OF THE FRENCH AND ENGLISII

ARMIES,

A Field-officer, writing to a contemporary, says :
On the 27th of March last the Times discoursed on
" tho tremendous fact that the catalogue of the
French army contains 6,871 captains, which at 100
men to a company, gives a total of 687,100 soldiers
under aims."

In a letter which you published on the following
morning I ventured to dispute the accuracy of this
dreadful announcement; and I put the effective
strength of the French army in 1860 at 358,408
men.

In an article, prefaced by an awe-inspiring
"leader," the Times of to-day informs us : " The
army is distributed 334,310 men, with 69,809
horses in France, and 65,690 men with 15.896
horses in Algeria." A fall of 287,100 men from
the wondrous " total" of last March !
Having in minute detail laid before us the figures
(whence derived we are not told) of tho French
army, I hope your contemporary will favour us with
the arithmetic of the Russian and Austrian hosts.
Before we condemn the disproportionate hugeness
of French armaments, it is right that we should
know what number of troops the other great mili-
tary powers can set in line. According to the Times
correspondent at Vienna (letter published April 9,
1861), "the effective force of the Austrian army is
computed at 400,000 men." This is probably near
the mark. But what of Russia? Is her army far
short of 500,000 men ? What is Prussia doing in
the martial way 11 Is France, the only active ally
of Italy, to disband at this particular moment ?
Messrs. Roebuck and Horsman would doubtless
answer " Yes."

The French budget de guerre, and the English
army estimates, are so differently drawn up, that
it is no easy matter to institute an exact com-
parison between them. The 7irnes, however, sees
no difficulties ; by adding various items to the
French war budget, your contemporary makes our
neighbours pay £20,159,624 for their 400,000
soldiers, our 146,044 troops costing us £14,606,751.
Again, by throwing into the French accounts
£3,934,416 (purporting to represent the difference
between the conscripts' labour at their own calling,
and their pay as soldiers, at 6d. a head per them),
the 7inzes succeeds lu swelling the French army ex-
penses to £24,094,040. As your contemporary casts
no weight of a similar sort on the English estimates,
we are to assume, I suppose, that on this side of
the water the value of the recruit's " labour at his
own calling and his pay as a soldier" are identical.
The Times does not notice the fact that the cost
of the police (gendarmerie, upwards of 20,000 men)
is included in the French budget de guerre.
In short, the comparison attempted by your con-
temporary is by no means satisfactory, and will
scarcely,.l should imagine, " dissipate," as he ex-
presseshe it, " the many illusions among us as to t
disproportion between the cost of the French and
English atmies."

There are people who perceive about the preten-
tious manifesto in question a strong War Depart-
ment flavour. But, be that as it may, its ex
cathedra assertions will be received as a godsend in
Pall-mall and at the Horse Guards. At " White's"
there will be rejoicing over its figures; and poli-
tical quidnuncs will swallow its facts" for gospel.
Is it not calculated to check the inconvenient rest•
lessness of parliamentary economists, and to " put
down" the vulgar indignation now brewing in the
country on the score of military extravagance ?
To show, however, that your contemporary was
not always quite so confident as he seems to be at
present, that we get our money's worth for our
money spent in re tnilitari, I quote an earnest
appeal of his, which was given to the world so
lately as the 22d January, 1861 :—" It has been
our vain cry for years that if members of Parlia-
ment would only work in this soil (army estimates)
instead of crying about the streets like frozen-out
gardeners, they would dig up hundreds of unknown
abuses, and reduce the estimates by several millions,
'without impairing the efficiency of the service."

GREAT FIRE.—(THIS DAY.)—A destructive
conflagration broke out this afternoon, about half-
past one o'clock,
in the long range of
Workshops on the
premises occupied by John Aird
"Al Co., General Contractors, Belvedere-road. The
fire by great exertions was confined t) the workshops. Tho
loss of property is very great.
Lord Herbert has appointed Major General Sir
Lugard, K.C.8., to be permanent Under Secretary to
the War Department, for tho military division. Q the oax,