The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-20 00:00:00

The Moniteur publishes the official return of the
customs revenue for the month of September and
for the first nine months of the present year. For
the former period the receipts amounted to
15,9G7,537fr., being au increase over the corre-
sponding month of last year of 738,056rr., and for
the latter period to 143,180, 538 fr. , or 13,358,532 fr.
more thin in the corresponding months of 185 G.
The items of revenue which have shown the greatest
increase during the nine months of the present
year are—coffee, 5,528,5681 r. ; potable liquors,
4,108,098 fr. ; mahogany, 60,256 fr. ; linen or
hempen thread, 96,572 fr. ; ccal, 522,088 fr. ; in-
d'go, 72,885 fr. ; hemp, 128,153 fr. ; gold and
silver, 63,4691 r. ; nitrates of potash and• soda,
72, 665 fr. ; foreign sugar, 8, 331, 692 fr. ; linen
and hempen wove goods, 25,618 fr. ; sundries,
3,571,663 fr. Those articles which show the most
material falling off are—corn, 849,339 fr. ; cochineal,
51, 918 fr. ; raw cotton, 064,596 fr. ; oleaginous seeds,
15,839 fr.; tallow, 71,341 fr.; raw wool, 261,912 fr.;
rough castings, 714,493 fr. ; bar iron, 2,718,120 fr.:
pepper, 111,859 fr. ; and French colonial sugar,
3,051,888 fr.
M. Valley, Prefect of the Marne et Loire, has,
according to the Independance of Brussels, been
named Prefect of the Nord in the room of M.
Collet-Meygret who has assigned his post, and is
to be made a receiver-general.

The following are seme biographical particulars
furnished by the Spectateur, of Admiral Armero,
who has been charged by the Queen of Spain with
the formation of a cabinet of which he is to be
president.

Don Francis° Armero y Peneranda entered the
Spanish navy in 1822. He was a midshipman
when the civil war between the partisana of Queen
Christina and those of Don Carlos broke out, and
at the second siege of Bi'boa by the Cellists he was
raised to the rank of lieutenant, and at the third
siege to that of captain ; this last rank was the re-
ward for the bravery and skill he displayed in
going up and down the river of Bilboa with his
vessel, under the fire of the enemy, in order to carry
re:nforcerneuts to the city. Capt. Armero was the
first wk.) I aided at the br dge of Luchana on the day
of the vicory which gave the title of Count
de Luchana to General Espartero. He after-
wards obtained further rank, and commanded
the naval division of Catalouia. In 1840, when
minister of marinp, he accompanied the Queen
Regent and Queen Isabella to Valentia. After
the events of Barcelona, which compelled the
Queen Regent to quit Spain, he retired from
I,olitical life, and did not return to it until 1843,
when he Was made minister of marine in the first
cabinet presided over by Marshal Narvaez, and
afterward filled the same post in that of which
M. Isturitz was president. In 1848 M. Armero,
who was then vice-admiral, was appointed to the
command of the Spanish squadron at Cuba. On
his return to Spain he was named to the post
of minister of marine in Brave-Mnrilio cabinet,
which office he resigned a short time before the
die,olution of that ministry. In 1855 M. Armero
attained by seniority the rank of captain-general
or admiral of the fleet.. Admiral Armero hag,
therefore, owed his advancement - solely to his
:nil.tary and administrative services, and from the
frankness and naederation of his character he en-
joys the highest consideration in Spain. He is
closely united by conformity of principles and
political feelings, as well as by long standing per-
sonal friendship, to M. Mon, now Spanish am-
bassador at Rome, and his first act was to sum-
mon that diplomatist to Madrid, in order
.to ob-
tain his assistance in the formation of the new
cabinet."

The Debats returns to the subject of the Rus-
sian railroads, and expresses the following

views :
"We will not speak of the traffic, nor of the
hopes which it leeitireattdy causes to be conceived
to the advantage legitimately
railways, in a country so rich
and se little turned to account, in which, by frosts
in winter aad drought in summer, the internal na-
vigation is suipended during half the year—a
country which is divided by nature into distinct
region-) producing some timber, hemp, and resinous
subs ances, oth rs wheat and grain, some coal and
cattle, leather and wool, others iron and salt ; s,
that each one supplies the others withcertain articles,
and is +,bliged in its turn to obtain from the others
most of the objects neosssary for the existence or
employment of its population. Tue future alone
can tell us the value of a network of railways of all
these conditions, which have not been met with
together in any other country ; but who can doubt
at present that they will be must favourable ? No
doubt also it is not nece,sary to discuss the question
whether ornot the capital necessary for the construc-
tion of the Russian railways can be found without
too much difficulty. A hundred or a hundred and
twenty millions of francs a-year for ten years is not
so large a sum now-a-days, and Russia, if left
to her own resources would certainly be 'able to
supply it. What we now see taking place proves
this. A financial journal, for example, informs us
that on the first two days, the 13th and 14th of this
month, on which the exchange of scrip for definitive
shares was proceeded to at St. Petersburg, oat of
26,922 shares admitted to be exchanged, the et-
pital they represent was paid by anticipation on
26,602. In the midst of the embarrassments which
weigh on most. of the money markets of Europe,
who can exp'ain to us such a movEment, if it be
not that on the one hand the Russian railway
shares are being taken by persons of foresight, and
on the other that Russia herself is able to put chase
the securities which the embrarasstuents or the
illiberal and unenlightened hostility of certain
European capitalists have discredited ? Will not
the impassioned detractors of an enterprise formed
with such prospects of definitive success, and doe
tined to cause vast benefit to a large fraction of
humankind, some day repent of hostility which is
injurious to their own interests, and but little
generous with regard to their fellow-creatures ?"
The Siecle continues with much extravagance to
attack the policy of the Bank of France, and says :
" The Bank was not established yesterday. It
has passed through many crises, ancf is more
flourishing than ever. But if we read its history
we shall see whether it was always by means 0
an increase in the rate of discount that it resisted
the crises. These repeated eleva'ions of discc'uut
are in fact of much more recent date, and many
merchants remember to have seen the Bank of
France maintain its discount at 4 per cent., when
the Bank of England had fixed its discount at a
much higher rate ; and yet its prosperity was not
wetted. The measure of which commerce now
complains is more severe than usual, and it derives
from. a special circumstance a veritable social
gravity. The new law permits the Bank of Fiance
to raise its rate of discount ; but the new law does
not derogate from the principle of other laws a:;
regards the interest on m)ney. The Bank can
lend at 6 per cent., tut bankers are forbidden to
do so. How will the latter contrive to manage in
order to make the;r customers pay legally the in-
terest demanded by the Bank? Suppose they find
the means of eluding the law, and of violating the
enactments relative to the interest 'on money ; see
what a perturbation that would make in social re-
lations ! Such a man was a usurer yesterday,
and ac such worthy of being prosecuted, but at
pre: eat he is so no longer. Pa :cal slid, in speaking
of mountains What is truth on one side is false-
hood on the other.' But in this case it is not; a
mountain which separates truth from error, it is a
single minute—that which suffices for fixeig the
rat,- of discount of the Bank. At such an hour it
was so much—it is now 6i, at such an hour a
money-lender was giti'tyof nen y, and now he is riot
se, though he lends still dearer ! But let us make a
very great concession to those wit) contradict US; let
us admit that theß France, established to sup-
plyirerce and French
the w tuts of Freneh coin
credit, has no other means of protecting its inte-
rests i i Otob_!r, 1837, in the midst of peace and
tommercial prosperity, than that of raisieg its die-
ion.t to 6} lax cent. ; that is to sag', dimandiug
from a merchant who borrows 1,500 t., nearly luof.
a year for the service ; admit th's, and what does
it prove ? Evidendy that the institution is a Fad
one, and muss
reformed. We detnand4l ie-
imma when the privilege was ienewed, and they
meat be made s .me day. A b ink which chaeges
such a high interest is not in harmony either with
he wan's of modern- commerce or with those el
our social state."

• The following telegraphic despateho3 have b3c n
received :

BunLIN, Oct. 18.—The Ring slept well last
nig: t, but, although his appetite has returned, ho
recovers his strength but very slowly.
BERLIN, Oct, 18.—A conference of the Zollvezehi