The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-18 00:00:00

SP O.RTING NOTES.

The meeting at Liverpool last week was a success so far
as the fields were concerned; but the questionable running
of several of the horses engaged, and the "milking" of
others, will not soon be forgotten. How Mr. Merry could
send Sir "William to Liverpool and keep the horse in bet
ting up to within an hour of the race demands some expla •
nation. When an M.P. and a member of the Jockey Club
can do such things, how can the smaller and perhaps more
honourable class of owners be found fault with for follow-
ing the example? Prince of Denmark is another that the
handicapper ought not to forget, and the same remark ap-
plies to Bantam. Mr•. Frail has provided four days' excel-
lent sport for this week if the frost does not interfere with
the meeting. The Nursery Handicap has an excellent
entry, but I can see nothing likely to interfere with the
success of My Mary. Gabrielle d'Estrees ought to win the
Gold Cup, as she meets Lady Ripon on 101 b. better terms
than in the Liverpool Cup. Gibraltar or Lord of the Manor
ought to carry off the Corporation Plate. Flirtation ap-
pears the best on paper for the Shrewsbury Cup. Queen
of Spain should have no difficulty in disposing of whatever
may oppose her in the Salopian Stakes.

A FRESH MAN.

THE FIRST OFFICIAL ACCOUNT OF

TEE CONFEDERATE TREASURY.

The circular of their Secretary of the Treasury
gives no very encouraging account of the pecuniary
resources of the Confederate States. So complete is
the official silence of the rulers of the New Common-
wealth, that we have now, for the first time, a dis-
tinct account of the nature of the cotton loan, of
which so many vague descriptions have been
hazarded.

In the first place, it is not a loan or a "subscrip-
tion" of cotton at all. It gives the Government no
right to any specific bales whatever. It is only a❑
engagement on the part of the planter to subscribe,
for the use of the Government, a certain sum of
money out of the proceeds of a certain number of
bales of cotton when sold. The planter re-
tains the produce in his custody, has the
exclusive right of declaring when he will sell
it, and at what price he will sell it. The Govern
ment get nothing in preesenti, and it is open
to the obvious effects of many contingencies whether
the Government will ever get anything. The
planter may become bankrupt, and the cotton on
his estate may be seized by his creditors; or he
may be needy and fraudulont, and dispose of the
crop surreptitiously. All the Government appears
to receive is an order on the factor or commission
agent who is to conduct the sale ; but the factor
can have no present possession of the cotton, for
the Government will not permit it to be brought
down to the seaport town where he conducts
his business. He can only pay the Government
when he receives and sells the cotton, and,
especially if the Confederate Government should
chance to be unsuccessful, he may never receive or
sell it. Some other broker, who has no cognisance
of the transaction, may bs selected to sell the
cotton and to transmit, the nrnnnpric: fn the plantor
From other parts of Mr. Memminger's circular it
would appear that just now the planters are ex-
tremely desirous of cash.
What, then, it may be asked, do the Government
gat by this uncertain promise to make a loan at a
distant period ? They gain, or hope to gain, pre
sent credit. They bind the most wealthy part of
of the population to give them aid, not indeed now,
for even the richest planters have now little money,
though much cotton—but as soon as it is in their
power. The Government gets all it can from its
future subjects, and it must do with it as best it
may.

The Government must want credit exceedingly.
It is issuing promissory notes, which Mr. Mem-
minger officially tells us have supplanted
all the other currency of the country. It is car-
rying on a war of existence upon credit, and the
sole wonder is that it is so successful as it has been.
Probably, rather stringent measures would be put
in force both by the Government and the populace
against any cautious person who objected to take
Treasury notes. As the Government are issuing a
vast paper currency, it naturally wishes to have
some vague connection with real wealth, and asks
even the present promise of a nominally secured
loan at an indefinitely distant period.
Such is the glimpse which Mr. Memminger
affords of his own Treasury. The account he gives
of that of the planters is not much better. It ap-
pears they want a loan, too. As they are to lend
to the Government something hereafter as soon as
they have sold their cotton, they ask the Govern-
ment to lend them a little now to carry them over
the trying interval previous to its sale. The Go-
vernment is issuing countless promissory notes,
and the planters would like, not unnaturally, some
for their own use. But upon this Mr. Mem•
minger is even amusingly stern. He is not defi-
cient in political economy. He says he wants his
notes for himself. He has a very expensive war
to carry on, and his resources are tried to the
utmost, and no portion of them can be squandered.
If he helped the planters he would issue so many
notes that the whole currency would be depreciated,
and so the Government would have to pay in a
medium which has become less and less efficient
every day.
It is evident that the difficulty which we pointed
out many months since is really pressing upon the
Confederate States. We showed on March 26,
1861, that the Southern States were utterly defec-
tive in pecuniary resources—that the deposits in
their banks were only £15,000,000, a little more
than those of a single London joint-stock bank.
Mr. Memminger recommends the planters to ask
aid from the banlxa; but if the banks had plenty of
money to lend, the planters would not have peti-
t tioned Mr. Memminger.—Economist.

It is reported that Air. Maelise has been offered
a knighthood, and, like Mr. Thomas Fairbairn, declined the
same.

THE FRENCH STEAMERS .—We Herapath) hear
that the Emperor Napoleon has eight steamers of 3,206 tons
each building or to be built on this side of the Channel for
the West India service, the individual cost of which is to be
£llB,OOO, with £12,000 additional for furnishing. The
steamers for the East are said to be of 4,000 tons each, and
to cost £lBO,OO. There is also to be a line of larger ships
than those for the West Indies to go to North Americas
wonder whether ohe £40,000,000 deficit of his Imperial
Majesty will act as any bar to his steam navigation enter-
prises.
MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF A LUNATIC IN COLNEY-
HATCH AS-Mt:M.—On Saturday afternoon a highly-respect-
"'
able jury was empanelled before Mr. G. S. Brent, the
deputy coroner for West Middlesex, in the County Lunati,,
Asylum, Colney-hatch, for the purpose of inquiring into
the circumstances relative to the death of Joseph Bing,a
aingeadw2Ba,rda poaftmielniteihn
htheaNtvaassyalnumin, who was asift°all;pdeaBrtne td that
the deceased was idiotic, and had been in the asylum since
the 20th of July last, He was in No. 14 ward, which is
appointed for idiotic and dirty patients, and on Tuesday
last he was found dead at the bottom end of the ward, with
a handkerchief round his neck, There was some evidence
as to one of the other patients in the ward having spoken
to the effect that deceased had been strangled by another
of the patients, but it was not clearly proved that any one
saw the act done. Tho medical evidence showed that
death was caused by strangulation. There did not appear
to be any blame attachable to the officers of the asylum.
Ultimately the jury returned the following verdict :
That Joseph Bigg was found dead in a ward of the
asylum aforesaid, and that his death was occasioned by the
mortal effects of suffocation from strangulation by means of
a certain handkerchief placed round his neck, and that the
said handkerchief was placed round the neck of the said
Joseph Bigg and that the said strangulation was thereby
caused by souse person or persons to them the jurors
known,"