The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-07 00:00:00

B ANK-B ULL 10 IV-DIS COUN7:

On Monday, December 31, the Bank raised the
rate of discount from 5 to 6 per cent. The reduction
in the amount of bullion held by the Bank amounted,
by the return on Saturday last, to not less than
£500,282, and the exports during the past week
exceed the imports by a nearly similar 5um—
£561,014. large sums, which have since arrived,
have been immediately taken for France.
The Bank of France discounted on Friday, Dec.
28, £BOO,OOO, and £1,440,000 on Saturday. The
French Bank raised its rate of discount on Wed-
nesday last from 41 to 51 per cent.
The result is that alarm and anxiety are again
introduced into all commercial circles. Let our
readers observe that this feeling of distrust takes
place in face of peace with China and a commercial
treaty with France, and, as we are again and again
assured, a sound and healthy state of trade. The
fact is, that whether bullion is wanted for the East
in consequence of disturbances there, or for America
in consequence of secession, or for France from any
cause whatever, the withdrawal of a small amount
of bullion is by the present money law made to act
most injudiciously on English trade and English
interests. No matter how careful, provident, or
sagacious the English trader may be, if gold go out
discounts are raised, the circulating medium con-
tracted, and the price of all his commodities lowered,
and the demand for what he has to sell at the same
time diminished. For the great body of the trading
community suffering from the same causes, and the
working classes being gradually thrown out of
employment, the purchasing power of the English
people sustains serious diminution. The gold dis-
coveries have saved England front a monetary and
social revolution, and they still bolster up this
rotten and fatuous • system, but even tons of gold
could not stave off the panic of 1857, and at this
moment our merchants and traders are suffering
in spite of enormous imports of specie, and all the
favourable circumstances which the bullionist
writers ascribe to our commercial condition.—
Derbyshire Courier.

WILLS AND BEQUESTS.

The will of Elizabeth, Comtesse de Chatauvil-
ard, wife of A:fred Louis do Blance, Count de
Chatauvillard, formerly of Dieppe, but late of
Enghien, both in France, was proved in London,
on the 27th of December last, by Charles Earle,
Esq., of The Firs, Leamington, and Thomas Young,
Esq., of Sackville-street, Westminster, the execu-
tors therein nominated. Her ladyship's effects in
this country were sworn water £7,000. The will
was made in this country in 1854, and a codicil in
France in 1857; both are written in the English
language. Her ladyship died at Engnien
on the 4th of July last, being possessed
of property in England and Ireland, under
marriage settlement and. the will of her late father,
Robert Beely, Esq., of Ireland. The Countess has
left an annuity to a friend, and bequeaths the rest
of her property over which she had a power of dis-
position to her son and daughter, the latter being
the wife of Baron Camille du Port d'Alis.
The will, with five codicils, of General the Hon.
Edward Pyndar Lygon, C. 8., of Spring-hill, near
Broadway, Worcestershire, and of Upper Brook-
street, Grosvenor-square, were proved in her
Majesty's Court of Probate on the `46th of last
month. The executors nominated are General the
Right Hon. Henry Earl Beauchamp, the brother;
the Right Hon. Lady Jemima Catherine Louisa
Lygon, the sister ; and the Hon. Frederick Lygon,
the nephew of the testator. The personalty was
sworn under £60,000. The will and first codicil
were executed in 1846, and the other codicils
between 1851 and 1859. The bequests are
confined to his family. He has devised his estates,
both real and personal, to his brother, Earl Beau-
champ, and his sister, Lady Jemima, bequeathing
to his sister a life interest therein, and, on her
decease, Clo wlio!e is to devol-,-_, to the Earl and his
issue. General Lygon was a bachelor, and died on
the 25th of November last, aged 74.
The will of Thomas Thornton, Esq., of Bruns-
wick-square, Brighton, has been proved in London,
and the personalty sworn under £200,000. Probate
was granted on the 21st of last month to the execu-
tors, Lieut.-Col. George Thornton, E.1.C., the bro-
ther ; Henry S. Welch and Alfredß. Welch, Esqrs.,
the nephews; and Henry J. Thornton, Esq., the
cousin of the testator. The bequests are various. The
principal legatees are his two sisters, his brother,
two nephews, and a niece. For his sister who has
resided with him he has made a handsome provi-
sion, and has left her the residence in Brighton, with
the furniture, carriages, and other effects, and has
appointed his two sisters and his brother, the '
colonel, residuary legatees for their respective lives,
and on their decease bequeaths the residue to his
two nephews and niece, Mrs. Clark (the children
of his sister Adelaide, Mrs. Welch); and to each of
there he has left an immediate legacy of £lO,OOO ;
and bequeaths to his two nephews his collection of
shells, birds, and other curiosities, together with
his books. To each of the ten charitable institutions
hereunder mentioned he has left a legacy of £4O0—
namely, King's College Hospital, Deaf and Dumb
Asylum, School for Indigent Blind, Asylum for
Mots (Reigate), Philanthropic Society, Gover-
nesses' Benevolent Institution, London Orphan
Asylum, Merchant Seamen'S Orphan School, Sussex
County Hospital, and the Brighton Infirmary.
From t 1 Allostrated London News) Jan, 5,

TFE TN sOUTu CA 1V).7., iN 4
_ _ _

Tho ...'Vew York Times publishes the following
extract of a private letter from a lady in South.
Carolina, received in that city :—" I fear thatseces-
sion and revolution are, with our people, foregone
conclusions ; we have gone so far retraction and
recession are impossible, and that civil war, with
all its consequent horrors, is already upon us. I
shudder for the wives and mothers, sisters and
babes, of South Carolina as I contemplates the im-
mediate future of the State Do not be surprised
at any time to see me and the children in your
midst, for no arguarent could induce me to remain
here an hour longer than I should be compelled to
if the worst should com' to the worst. You may
imagine, dear uncle, our situation, but you can
never realize it in its fulness. Already we trEmble
in out own homes in anticipation and expectancy of
ble to bur st forth at any moment—a negro
what is 11::
insurrection,
Could you see the care and precau-
tion displayed ht.'
re by the proprietors of the :
ne-
groes, not only p.:inters, but others, you would
not for a moment c:.nvY us our poscessions.
Not a night passes that do not securely loCk our
field servants in their quarto."; but our most to ved
wh„-n in ordinary time):
and valued house servants,
we would trust to any extent, 9,-e watched and I
guarded against with ail the scrutiny ,:nd care that
we possess. Our planters and owners of slave pro-
perty do not allow their servants to have any inter-
course with each other, and the negroes are confined
strictly to the premises where they belong. I,V e
are all obliged to increase our force of overseers to
prevent too free intercourse even among our own
servants. The negroes feel and notice these new
restraints, and naturally ask why is this ? But it
is unnecessary for them to ask the question, for they-
all comprehend the cause as well as we who own them.
They have already learnt enough to give them an
idea of what is going on in the State and the nation,
and this knowledge they have not gained from the
Abolitionists, as some suppose, but from the conver-
sation of their owners indirectly held in their pre-
sence. They have already heard of Lincoln's election,
and have heard also that he is for giving them
their liberty, and you may imagine the result. You
have heard that our servants all love their masters,
and their masters' families, and would lay down
their lives for them—that the coloured race in the
South prefers slavery to freedom—that they would
not be free if they could, &c. That is but the
poetry of the case, the reality consisto in sleeping
upon our arms at night—in doubly I;olting and
barring our doors—in establishing and nraintaining
an efficient patrol force—in buying watch-dogs,
and in taking turns in watching our eleepieg
ehildren, to guard them and ourselves from th e ven-
geance of these same ' loving servants'—a vengoance
which, though now smouldering, is liable to bOret
out at any moment, to overwhelm the State in spite
of the palmetto flags or State precautions. You at
at the North are not the only ones who are suffer-
ing financially by this new panic. The planters.
among us are really suffering from the depreciation
of their property. Already negroes are not worth
half price. No one dares to buy a servant, fear-
ing lest he, in doing so, should be introducing
upon his plantation one tinctured with the idea
of freedom. My husband has but a few
servants-1 believe but thirty-one, all told—still I
feel (and so does he) that they are thirty-one too
many in such times as these. He would sell them
immediately, if it were possible; but the truth is
he could realize nothing for them at present, or at
most not more than half their real value. Slaves
are a drug in the market, my husband says, and
you know him well enough to judge of his judg-
ment in such matters. Now, one word as to the
military force of the State to protect us against an
irsurrection. I presume, with the exception of
Charleston, and perhaps a few large towns, that
the remainder of the State is situated very much
the same as we are here ; and I will give you an
idea of bow well prepared we are to resist a mob.
Upon our place of about 1,200 acres we have of
whites, males—husband, two overseers, and' my son
of 18 ; total four ; females—self and cousin, little
Lucy and the wife of one of the overseers—four;
of whom only four at the most are capable of bear-
ing arms, to offset which we have at least 17 field
bands, sturdy young negroes, besides the female
servants. And this is a fair representation of the
force upon our plantations. Considering such a
state of facts, do you blame me desiring to absent
myself, my husband and children, from the State ?" I

told me that they had been shipped to him at Dublin
,(1 never received. Afccr he left my service he de-
nied the receipt of them.
Mr. Wontner, in the course of the investigation,
said several extraordinary documents had been
found on the prisoner when taken into custody.
One printed in the shape of a handbill spoke for
1 `Self :—" 10s. will be given for the address and re-
sidence of James Tite, commercial traveller, late of
Belmont-terrace, Tiverton. Description—Height, 5
fret 4 inches; round face, no whiskers; very boast-
ing in his manners and conversation. Apply to,
FiLiher, draper, St. Sidwell's, Exeter." Another was
a letter written in April last respecting his dis-
charge, about that time, from the debtors' prison in
Lancaster Castle ; and a third was of a peculiar
character, entitled "The Debtors' Song aid Chorus.
Of this ditty, set to the tune of " He's a Jolly
Good Fellow," a few of the stanzas are subjoined :
" Welcome, welcome ! brother debtor,
To this poor but merry place,
Where there's many a bolt and fetter :
Bailiffs dare not show their face.
" Ne'er repine at your confinement
From your sweetheart or your wife ;
Wisdom lies in true resignment
Through the various scenes of life.
" Every island's but a prison,
Strongly guarded by the sea;
Kings and princes, fur this reason,
Prisoners are as well as we.
-" What was't made great Alexander
Weep at his unhappy fate ?
'Twas because he could not wander
Beyond this wide world's prison gate."

There being other charges against the prisoner,
he was remanded until Saturday next, the Lord
Mayor de clinisg, under the circumstances, to enter-
tain an a, pplication made by Mr. Lewis to admit,
him to bald.

ksUILIDE TARO UGH

.TEALOUS.Y.

A most determined act of self-destruction was
committed in Frome on Friday morning, under
very distressing circumstances. Mr. Henry Taylor,
the unfortunate man, was about 58 years of age,
and had lately retired, after amassing considerable
property as landlord of the King's Head Inn. On
previous evening he retired to rest in his usually
good spirits, and arose in the morning ' shortly
before 7 o'clock. Telling his wife to lie still, he
went downstairs, calling up the servant-girl before
doing so. A little time after his son heard the
report of a gun, but such an occurrence being not
uncommon, he thought nothing of it. Mr. Taylor
being soon after missed, however, search was made
lor him, and on the door of the water-closet being
opened, the unfortunate man was found in a sitting
position, but horrible to relate, one half of his face
was completely blown off. It was at once clear
that the unhappy man had killed himself by placing
the muzzle of the gun to h:s face, and pulling the
trigger by means of a string which was attached
to it. Two letters were found on the seat, near the
body, and so determined was he to destroy himself,
that he had also provided himself with a knife
and a razor. The letters, one of which was
dated " Dec. 31," were addressed to Mrs.
Taylor. One as follows :—" With regret I write
this ; but you must thank your brother James for
this raksh act I am about to commit, as I have not
had my common senses since I first found out that
you and him were so gay together. * * * I
pray God Almighty to bless you all ; and before
this comes to your hand, I shall be in eternity. I
thought of killing James first and myself after-
wards, bu t let him die as he must.—Yours, most
truly, Henry Taylor. P.S. I should not have keen
driven to this, only by that scamp of a fellow. He
is the worst of all men. I cannot forgive him or
you;
o
ino r dear children, what will become
of them ? So lam off; God bless everybody."
The seconi letter' was thus:—" I have been looking
round. I see you an, in a sad state. I wish I never
saw that Jim. He h.ts been my destruction. This
is a sad blow for you... I loved the ground you
stepped on till you manse much of him and little of
me. God bless all the dear children and yourself.
I could say a good deal .I:Yore, but my heart is too
full. I could not speak a word, but was a fool or a
liar. This has been brewia'g in my mind for some
time. I have had the gun Loaded for some time to
shoot myself. So adieu for over." The unfortunate
man had latterly given way to drinking. Thissa l
occurrence has caused no little consternation in the
town, where the unfortunate man was well known
and much respected.—Bristol Mercury.

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