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

LATE T NEWS

FRANCE.

PARIS, MONDAY.
The Emperor, the Empress, and the Prince Im-
perial arrived at four o'clock yesterday afternoon
at Compiegne, whore their Majesties will remain
until the middle of next month. To-day a num-
ber of guests are expected at the palace, wherethey
will remain for a week, and be succeeded by others
who have received invitations for the following
weeks.

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
15,967,537 fr., being an increase over the corre-
sponding month of last year of 738,056 fr., and for
the latter period to 143,180,538 fr., or 13,358,532 fr.
more than 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, 5,528,568 fr. ; potable liquors,
4,108,098 fr. ; mahogany, 60,256 fr. ; linen or
hempen thread, 96,572 fr. ; coal, 522,088 fr. ;
72,888 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, 849,3391 r.; cochineal,
51, 918 fr. ; raw cot ton, 1,064,596 fr.; oleaginous seeds,
15,839 fr.; tallow, 71,341 fr.; raw wool, 261,942 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. Vallon, 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 some biographical particulars
furnished by the Spectateur, of Admiral Armero,
who has been charged by the Queen of Spain with
the formation of a cabinet Hof 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 partisans of Queen
Christina and those of Don Carlos broke out, and
at the second siege of Bilboa by the Carlists 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
reinforcements to the city. Capt. Armero was the
first who landed at the hedge of Luchana on the day
of the victory which gave the title of Count
de Luchana to General Espartero. He after-
wards obtained further rank, and commanded
the naval division of Catalonia. In 1840, when
minister of marine, he accompanied the Queen
Regent and Queen Isabella to Valentia. After
the events of Barcelona, which compelled the
Queen Regent to tpiit Spain, he retired from
political 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. IsturiJz 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-Murillo cabinet,
which office he resigned a short time before the
dissolution of that ministry. In 1855 M. Armero
attained by seniority the rank of captain-general
or admiral of the fleet. Admiral Armero has,
therefore, owed his advancement solely to his
mil:tary and administrative services, and from the
frankness and iioderation of his character ho 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-
sena' friendship, to M. ilon, 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 legitimately causes to be conceived
to the advantage of railways, in a country so rich
and so little turned to account, iu which, by frosts
in winter and drought in summer, the internal na-
vigation is suspended during half the year—a
country which is divided by nature into distinct
region, producing some timber, hemp, and resinous
substances, othsrs wheat and grain, some coal and
cattle, leather and wool, others iron and salt ; so
that each one supplies the others withcertain articles,
and is-obliged in its turn to obtain from the others
most Of the objects necessary for the existence or
employment of its population. The-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
doubt also it is not necessary to discuss the question
at present that they will he most favourable ? No
whether or not the capital necessary for the construe-
tioa 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 tak;ng place proves
tilts. A financial journal, for example, informs us
that on the first two days, the 13th and 14th of thia
month, on which the exchange of scrip for definitive
shares was proceeded to at St. Petetsburg, oat of
26,922 shares admitted to be exchanged, the ca-
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 Eureps,
who can explain to us such a mottsment, 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 purchase
the securities which the embrarassrnents or the
illiberal and unenlightened hostility of certain
European capitalisls have discredited ? Will not
the impassioned detractors of an enterf rise formed
hostility which ech e
t is
i:
o
attack the policy with such prospects of definitive sueeess, arid des-
tined to cause vast benefit to a large fraction of
humankind,The ssomeco
ncontinues
nduaeys rwe ehnl tu offch g injurious to their own interests, and but little
iecle
t i
generous With regard to their fellow-creatures ?"
of the Bank of France, and says :
"The was not established yesterday. It
B
has passed through many crises, and is more
flourishinwe; shall see whether it was
always by means of
g h
so
in at
the
rateover.
o Ban ut
discount wet tt read
ttt its
resisted history
the crises. These repeated elevations of discount
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 fixe.l its discount at a
much higher rate ; and yet its prosperity was net
affected. 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 Franca
to raise its rate of discount ; but the new law does
not derogate from the principle of other laws as
regards the interest on money. The Bank can
lend at 6!)- per cent., but bankers aro forbidden to
do so. How will the latter contrive to manage in
order to make their 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 u,urer yesterday,
and as such worthy of being prosecuted, but at
present he is so no longer. Pascal said, in speaking
of mountains :--` Whit is truth on ono 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 fixing the
rate of discount of the Bank. At such an hour it
was so much—it is now 6i, at such an hour a
money-lenderwas cruiityof usury, and now he is not
so, though Le lends still dearer ! But let us make a
very great concession to those who contradict us ;let
us admit that theßan k of France, established to sup-
ply the wants of French commerce and French
credit, has no other means of protecting its inte-
rests in October, 1857, in the midst of peace and
commercial prosperity, than that of raising jta dis-
count to 6i per cent. ; that is to say, demandius
from a merchant who borrows 1,500 f., nearly 100 f.
a year for the service ; admit this, and what does
it prove 1 Evidently that the institution is a had
one, and must be reformed. We demanded re-
forms when the privilege was renewed, and they
must be made some day. A bank winch charges
such a high interest is not in harmony either with
the wants of modern commerce or with those of
our social state."

The following telegraphic despatches have b3en
received