The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-26 00:00:00

MEXICAN BONDHOLDERS.

Culone: Facie) has, by order of Isis Government, com-
muniene 1 to the Committee of Mexican Bondholders
the following cerrespendence
(Translation.)
" )(Lexie.), Mugu t 6, 1850.
" Messrs. Manning and Mackintosle
" Gentlemen,—A few days before the departure of
the packet last month, I addressed you offic'ally, by
order of the President, inquiring if you had remitted to
England the. amounts proceeding from that part of the
tobacco revenue belonging to the Government which is
allotted to the payment of dividends, and which had been
paid over to you. As you have not been pleased to return
any reply to that queetion, I have now, by the express
order ut his Excellency, to request a plain and catego-
rical answer from you whether or not you have for-
warded the said funds to England? In case they have
no: yet been sent, the President desires me to tell you
that it absolutely must be done by the next English
packet.
"The Government which makes sacrifices to main-
tain its credit, and keeps its ( fficials starving rather
than touch the funds which have been assigned for the
payment of the external and domestic debt, has an un-
doeb;ed right to watch over and to adopt all the neces-
sary measures, that these sacrifices should have the de-
sired result.
"You will reply as tray be advised within three days,
and understand that, if you fail to do so, such proceed-
ings as the case may rt quire will be adopted.
God and liberty.
(Signed) " PAYNO." •
" Mexico, August 9, 1850.
" Excellent Sir,—We have the honour to reply to the
letter of your Excellency, of the 6:h instant, in
which you ark us if we have remitted to England, for
the bondholders, that portion of the tobacco revenue
which we have received for that purpose. We beg
to observe that, on the sth article of the convention
of the Bth of July, 1849, concluded between Senor
Don Francisco Arrangoiz and Mr. W. P. Robertson,
it is stipulated that the funds which the resident Mexican
agent of the bondholders receive for the payment of
dividends t emain, from the moment that the agents give
their receipt for them, for the account and at the risk of
the bondholders. This article was framed for the pro-
tection of the Government sgainst any responsibility,
and at the same time in order to leave us at liberty to
pass to our credit or debit in our account with the bond-
holders the entries which we consider just.. According
to this convention cf the Bth July, 1849, we alone, there-
fore, are responsible for the sums which we have re-
ceived, and having given cur receipt for them, which for
ever covers the Government of the nation against any
responsibility, these Sums now belong to our account
with the bondholders.
" Wo beg to assure your Excellency of our considera-
tion and respect.
(Signed) " MANNING and MACKINTOSH.
" His Excellency the Secretary of State for the
Department of Finance."
"From this day you will suspend all further pay-
ments of funds which you have hitherto made to the
house of Messrs. Manning and Mackintosh, for trans
mission to the bondholders in England. hi future you
will, with the concurrence of the comptroller, remit
every week all funds collected, however insignificant
they may be, to the board of directors of the Aca-
demy of San Carlos, who are instructed to forward them
to London by the monthly packets.
"By order of his Excellency the President, I com-
municate this to ,you, with the assurance of my consi-
deration. Gcd and liberty.
(Signed) " PAYNO.
" The Administrator 'of the Tobacco Revenue.
.‘ Mexico, Aug. 6, 1850."
"Mexico, April 8, 1850.
" Excellent Sir,—We arc in receipt of the dispatch of
your Excel!eacy of the Ist inst., accompanied by a copy
of the account of the contract coucludel by us with the
Supreme Government, under date of March 5, 1846, and
of matters arising out of it.
" We beg at:once to observe to your Excellency that
we do not agree to our being debited with 670,902 dolls.
as the amount of tie cotton licences, because this matter
has been definitely disposed of by the 6th article of the
convention concluded on the 6th of July last between his
Excellency the Minister of Finance, Senor Don Fran-
cisco Arrengeiz, and Mr. W. P. Robertson, which is to
the fallowing effect, viz :
Art. 6. The. permission to import raw cotton
which the Gaverninent gave to the creditors on the 19th
of July, 1847, valued at 680,000 dolls., being in pey merit
of sums which belonged to them an were taken from
the maritime customs of Vera Cruz and Tampico, re-
mains &finitely for the account of the creditors, what-
ever may be the loss at which they may realise it.'
" With respect to the other items of the said account.
we shall examine them, and advise your Excellency
whether they agree with our books.
" We beg to renew to your Excellency the assurances
of our consideration and distinguished regard.
"God and liberty.
"MANNING and MACKINTOSH.
"Isis Excellency the Secretary of State for the
Department of France."
" Mexico, April 15, 1850.

"Messrs. Manning and Mackintosh,
" Gentlemen,—With reference to the account ren-
dered by the general Treasury of the agreements en-
tered into with you on the sth March, 1846; the 20th
July, 1847; and 20th June, 1848, which account, by
order of his Excellency the President, I transmitted
to you with my letter of the Ist instant, you state,
in reply, that you disagree at once to being
charged with the 679,902 dolls. for the cotton licences
which were transferred to you, in conformity with the
sth article of the agreement of the 20th Jury, 1847, in
reimbursement of amounts collected at the maritime
custom-houses, intended for the payment of dividends,
but stopped in virtue of the decree of the 2d alay, 1846.
You found this objection on the 6th article of the con-
vention of 6th July, 1849, concluded between Senor Don
Francisco Arrangoiz and Mr. W. P. Robert Lon, which
says that the said licences shall thfinitively remain for
account of the bondholders at whatever loss they may
eventually be realised; but tou
rs ave forgotten that
this convention is not y ified by the two
parties in whose name it was concluded, viz, by
the Congress, and by the committee of bondholders of
the foreign debt of the Republic; and that in the mean-
while you alone are responsible for the property in ques-
tion. That being the case, and the supreme Government
having always the right to inquire, in order to provide
the needful respecting the distribution of the property of
the nation, his Excellency the President desires me to
say that it is necessary that you should state, whether
or not, you have realised, wholly or in part, the said
licences; and in case it should have' been done, how it
has been realised, and what has been done, or what you
intend to do, with the proceeds.
" All which I have to say to you by order of his Ex-
cellency the President, in order that the needful may be
done.

" God and liberty.
" °CAMPO."
(Signed)

LONDON,

able statements represented the average daily
earnings of each individual not to exc€ed 5 dolls.
This year, in the statements of a similar character,
the amount is represented to be between G dolls. and
10 dolls.; while the unusual height of the waters is
described as a serious drawback. If with the next
increase of population there is to be a like in-
crease in individual results, the prospect will indeed
be an extraordinary one —and it would almost seem
that something like a feeling to that effect exists
among the present it habitants from the eagerness
with which every report of a swarm of new-comers
is received.

But even in the face of all these circumstances,
it is something apart from the gold-finding that
demands the chief attention both of the practical
merchant and of the philosopher. Although, as far as
the mines are concerned, we must keep our eyes
open for extraordinary events, still these events are
beyond the power of certain calculation either one
way or the other. The probable continuance or iu-
crease of the supply is a matter of opinion upon
which each person must be left to his own specula-
tions. The momentous fact, which nothing can now
do away with, is, that 300,000 or 400,000 Anglo-
Saxons are settling themselves on the shores of the
Pacific. A new world is before them. They look
across to China, Japan, and all the riches of the Indian
Seas, and the use they will make of their opportuni-
ties may be best inferred from what they have already
accomplished, and from the known aspirations which
the people of the United States hare so long directed
towards that region. Already the presence of a large
number of Chinese is a distinctive feature of the po-
pulation of San Francisco, and already the Sand-
wich Islands, Australia, and Southern and Central
America have been called into a new life from
the traffic that has been established. The prophecy
of Humboldt, that the activity of commerce would
be carried progressively from east to west, is
rapidly in process of fulfilment. At present, how-
ever, there are few signs that even this fact is appre-
ciated in Europe, and the thing to be apprehended is,
that when in the course of a few years the success
arising from it shall have led to excitement, our
people, Rho are regardless of it now, will then rush
furiously to overdo what should have been done mo-
derately and deliberately from the first. It is to pre-
vent foolish extremes of this sort that every endeavour
should be made to familiarise the public with the con-
templation of the change that is coming on, and to
induce the spirit of enterprise to adjust itself to the
new order of things while it can rationally and pro-
fitably do so, instead of waiting to regain by a sudden
and destructive rush the opportunities that will have
been lost through inattentiou.—Timer' City Article.

COUNTY COURT ABUSES.
FRAUDS UPON TRADESMEN.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlB,—Relying upon your well-known impartiality,
strict sense of justice, and your fearless exposures of
fraud in its various hues, I trust you will insert the
following.
I am a beerseller, and upon the'evening of Satur-
day, July 27, three men came to‘the bar of my house
and called for a pint of ale, for which one of them
tendered a sovereign. My wife, who was serving at
the time, gave change (less the amount for the ale),
viz., one half sovereign, three 1121 f-crowns, two
shillings, and some halfpence. After remaining up-
wards of half an hour, the one with the change went
out, returned, gave my wife a half-crown, wishing
for smaller change; she saw at once it was counter-
feit and refused it ; an altercation ensued, and they
all left. The sequel is, I was summoned to the County
Court, Duncan-terrace, for the 2s. 61 I appeared
this morning, and although I produced a witness, a
respectable person, who was standing at my door
sheltering himself from the rain, and who proved that
he saw this very man cross the road, speak to another
man, re-enter my house, and then tender the spurious
coin, yet the judge decided against me, and I have
been ordered to repay the 23. 6d, thus giving the
11. 2s. GI. for 1/., besides expenses, to say nothing of
my loss of time.
Surely, Sir, there must be some redress for this, or
there is no protection for tradesmen. Perhaps some
of your numerous correspondents can point out a
remedy.
I forgot to state that this man swore he received
the sovereign in Sr. Paul's Church-yard, and though
a pouring wet night my house was the first he came
to, although a mite distant, to get change to pay his
man.—l remain, Sir, an old subscriber,
G. MAXWELL.
Old-street, St. Luke's, Sept. 25, 1850.
_ _

[The law does not give any appeal against the de-
cisicn of the County Court in such a case, and the
euitors are entirely at the mercy of the judge, how-
ever stupid, unreasonable, or prejudiced he may
ED. Sun.]

CAXTON'S "PROOF SHEET."—Mr. Welker, of Mar-
garet-street, Cavendish-square, has just completed an en-
graving, of the mixed class, of Mr. J. E. Doyle's painting
of Caxton submitting his first proof-sheet to John Esteney,
the abbott of Westminster,. in 1477. The character of the
subject is imposing, and the execution of the engraving is
highly satisfactory. The scene is laid within the precincts
of Westminster Abbey, which it is generally admitted
was the place where the clerical authorities of the time
allowed the erection of the first English printing press. In
the centre stands the press itself, being a transcript of
the one found on the title-page of a book printed by
Jodocus Baaius Ascensianus, a contemporary of Caxton.
At the case behind is Wynkyn de Worde, the assistant and
successor of Caxton. On the left, in front, sits John
Esteney, the abbot of Westminster, to whom the first Eng-
lish printer, Caxton, and the author, Earl Rivers, are sub-
mitting a proof-sheet of the "Dictes and Sayinges of the
Philosophers," the first work which bears a date, and which
the Earl had translated for the use of his nephew and
pupil, the young Prince of Wales, afterwards Edward V.
It is gratifying to observe that, after a lapse of nearly four
centuries, public opinion is being directed to commemorate
the introduction of Caxton's art. Painters and sculptors are
competing for the honour of perpetuating his great achieve-
ment, and in the contest for distinction the printer and en-
graver of the present work will take a foremost place..
Suspicious CASE.—An Italian, who is in exile in
France, for the active part he took in the insurrection of
Rome, has just been arrested under very singular circum-
stances. A few days ago a banking-house of the quarter
Feydeau received from a correspondent at Rome directions
to pay a sum of about 400 f. to a Count de P—. Two days
after a person presented himself, and stated that he was the
Count; he was almost blind, and was led by one of his
friends. He was called on to prove his identity, which he
did by producing his passport; he was then asked for his
letter of credit, but he said that he had mislaid it: He
added that he was to leave the same day fur the south to be
treated for his eye-sight, and he asked the banker as a fa-
vour to spare him the loss of time which the necessity of
demanding a new letter of credit would occasion. The man
seemed so respectable, and his passport so satisfactory, that
the banker gave the money. Two days later the banker was
informed by a second letter from his correspondent that an
ex-lieutenant of Garibaldi was making dupes in France and
other countries, by passing himself off as the Count de P—.
The police immediately arrested the man who received the
400 f., and at the same time succeeded in, discovering the
veritable Count de I'—. The latter, on seeing the ex-
lieutenant, declared that ho knew nothing of him; but the
lieutenant swore that he was the veritable Simon Pure, and
`that the other was an impostor. It is not known how the
ex-lieutenant could have obtained the information with which
he presented himself to the banker. A searching judicial in-
vestigation has been commenced.
CARDIGANSHIRE.— A BOLD WOMAN.-- Police
constable Harrison, of the constabulory rural police in this
county, stationed at the village of Llanrhvstydt, having oc-
casion to come to Aberystwyth on business. left his wife at
home. No sooner bad the policeman turned his back than
a robbery was committed by a tramp at a farm-house not far
distant from the village. The policeman's wife, having re-
ceived information, immediately started off, and came up
with the tramp with the stoleu property on his person. She
secured the thief, aril detained him until her husband re-
turned.—North Waits Chronicle.
NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SWALLOW.—In the
summer of last year one of a small batch of enthusiastic or-
nithologists in Methven, after discussing the migratory
habits of various kinds of birds, differed from his friends on
the question " Whether the swallow, on its return, after its
winter absence, took up house in the same locality it had
migrated from." He maintained the negative, giving such
plausible reasons as induced the coterie to devise some me-
thod in obtaining a settlement of the question. The cnly
method, therefore, was to catch a swallow. This they inge •
niously contrived to do. They captured a female as she was
feeding her young. Taking great care of her, they sewed a
small piece of.red ribbon about its neck, in such a manner
as it would not, in ordinary circumstances, get loosened, and
then sent her to the broad expanse. The hedged bird reared
its young, and continued in the neighbourhood until the mi •
grating season, when, with its fellow, it disappeared. Great
was the anxiety this spring of the naturalists to discover if
it would return. Group after group appeared, but not the
ribboned favourite. At length, ou the 13th day of April,
among the last influx of returning emigrants, appeared the
identical bird, thereby overthrowing the hypothesis that
they do riot revisit their former haunts. But what is worth
still more notice is the circumstance that it built its nest
and reared its this year's brood in precisely the same spot it
did the year previous. It flew again to sunnier lands only a
few days ago.—Perth Courier.
A branch of the Royal British Bank is to be
opened at Islington on the Ist of October.
The dividend declared yesterday at the half-yearly
meeting of the General Screw Steam Company was at the
rate of 8 per cent. per annum, and the report and accounts
were received as satisfactory.
The Halifax Guardian contains the following ex-
traordinary statement:—" On Saturday last a young man,
named William Blarsden, of Deanhead, left home to sell
some cattle in Halifax market. Not meeting-with a cus-
tomer, he had to drive the cattle home again, and not ar-
riving at his usual time, his parents became rather uneasy
at his stay, and remained up to two o'clock in the morning,
waiting his coming. They then retired to rest, and on get-
ting up in the morning they were horrified at finding their
son's coat, waistcoat, and hat laid down under the'r window,
saturated with blood. Slight traces of blood were also ob-
served on the gate leading to the spot where:the clothes were
found. There were about 301. in his pockets. Immediate
inquiries were made, but no traces of Marsden have been
discovered."
ACOUSTIC ALTERATIONS IN EXETER HALL.—The
alteration which is being made at Exeter Hall consists in
forming a coved ceiling instead of a flat one, the now ceiling
being 12 feet higher in the centre than the former one. This
is being effected, withouk,,clisturbing the slating of the roof.
Wrought-iron girders are. being fixed to the sides of the
present principals, and the tie-beams will then be removed.
One of the iron girders isoiow in its place.— Builder.
The Austrians coul&not thr-sh the llongarian,;,
because the Magyars would not show them their backs.--
.Punch,
•

CALIFORNIA.
A feeling has now become prevalent that the last
accounts from Califorcia are of a character to con-
firm more strongly than ever the most favourable an-
ticipations of its present and permanent yield. From
the first tbere has always been reason to suppose that
such general statements as might reach us would be
rather under than over the truth, and every succeeding
account has tended to support that impression. The
inducements to exaggeration were to be looked for in
the desire cf land specu'ators to get the country
peopled, and also in the universal impulse on the part
of discoverers to exalt the wonders they have exclu-
sively seen. But, although these must have operateddinary
,
especially amongst Americans, with extraor,
force, there were influences to be recognised on the
other side of a still more powerful character. The
land speculators have never been more than a small
minority ; and the mass of the population working
at the mines have therefore, if there was any
doubt about the supply of gold being limited, always
been interested in preventing any further arrivals;
while as regards the love of the marvellous on the
part of discoverers, it must be recollected that this
would be far more than counter-balanced by the in-
variable tendency of the world, and especially the
scientific portion of to adopt the safe course, and
to treat as a delusion everything that exceeds the
range of routine experience. A still stronger pro-
bability that the country and its products would be
liable to be adversely described existed, moreover, in
the fact that all the: went to it were impelled by in-
ordinate acquisitiveness, and that vast numbers be-
longed to the unthinking classes, who are least
fit to emigrate, and vs ho would be disappoint
anyw here. The noise made by one such p
would, as the promoters of emigration well
know, exceed, in its first effect, any expressions
that might proceed from a hundred who were well
satisfied. Yet, complaints have all along been sin-
gularly rare, and it is now found that with a fort-
nightly post to New York, which carries on each oc-
casion more than 20,000 letters home to the families
of the emigrants, each containing, it is to be pre-
sumed, the unreserved truths of individual experience,
the general confidence in the riches of the district is
increasing throughout the entire Union. The de-
pression which has prevailed in England during the
past two years, and which hasteen no less humiliating
than was the wild folly of which it has been the
penalty, must likewise be taken into accountas causing
everythirg to be looked at from this side through a
false medium. All faith in the possibility of success-
ful-enterpri-se has been destroyed, and there has been
no thought except that it must be vain to look in other
parts cf the globe for that which has been extin-
guished here.
Of course, under the influence of the facts which
have now been arriving in fortnightly succession for
a year or two, something like a sense of the impor-
tance of the movement is, as we have said, at length
beginning to grow up, but it will be long before a
real estimate of advises take root. At this moment,
according to the by the last packet, there are
from 50,000 to 100,000 persons approaching Cali-
fornia by the overland track. The emigration to
San Francisco by sea also continues, and will again
be greatly augmented by the tffect of the last re-
ports, and by the shortened transit through Nica-
ragua. The population of the state, the,s
fair to reach before another year shall have elapsed
between 300,000 and 400,000 souls—a total equal
to one-tenth of the entire population of the
Uuited States within the memory of many. Last
year, when the number of persons in California
wes not more than 100 000 the must unfavour-
• •

THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 26, 1850.

R H UDDLAN ROY AL EISTEDDFOD
AND NORTH WALES FESTIVAL.
THE BARBIC CHAIR PRIZE.
RUUDDLAN, WEDNESDAY.—This prize, 'which was
regarded as the chief prize conferred by the Eistedd-
, fod, was deferred to the close of yesterday's proceed-
ings. The prize was—
For the best poem in Wclsh on Yr Adgyfodiad (the
Resurrection), the chair prize of 251. and a gold
medal. For the second best composition a premium
of 51. There were 28 competitors.
The most intense excitement was manifested to learn
the name of the successful candidae. At length the
name of the Rev. Evan Evans, of Ince, in Cheshire,
was announced as the competitor on whom the honour
had been conferred. The second prize was awarded
to the Rev. W. C. Williams, of Llanrwst.
The Rev. Mr. Evans was then led to the bardic
chair, on the right of the president, by Talhaiarn,
and Mende Idris, the Bard of the Eisteddfod ; and
the successful candidate having been placed in the
chair,
Talhaiarn and the Bard of the Eisteddfod, as is the
usual custom, each recited an extempore piece of
poetry in honour of the event.
The Hon. Mrs. Rowley then approached Mr. Evans,
and invested him with the gold medal.
PUBLIC DINNER IN THE CASTLE.
About six o'clock a public dinner took place in the
castle, in honour of the celebration of the Eisteddfod,
to which about 250 of the leading gentry and clergy
of North Wales sat down.
The chair was occupied by the Right Hon. Lord
Mostyn, president of the Eisteddfod.
The chairman was supported on his right by Sir
Stephen R. Glyn, M.P., W. Shipley Conway, Eeq ,
Sir John flanmer, Bart., M P., the Very Rev. Dean
of Bangor, Captain Cotton, &c. ; and on his left by Sir
Watkin W. Wynn, Bart., M.P., Sir R. Vaughan,
Hon. Thomas Price Lloyd, Hon. Lloyd Mostyn, Ge•
neral Sir Love Parry, &c.
At the vice-president's table, and in other parts of
the room, we noticed the Earl of Powis (vice-presi-
dent), the Hon. Mr. Rowley, J. Williams, E-q ,
M.P., Captain Mostyn, John Lloyd Wynn, Eeq., the
Archdeacon of Cardigan, Captain Morgan, &c.
The usual losal toasts were given in succession, and
duly acknowledged.
A grand concert on the harp, for a gold medal, a
silver harp, and a gold brooch harp, then took place.
The concert announced for last night did not' take
place. Miss Lucombe, Miss M. Williams, Mr. Sims
Reeves, and Mr. Machin sing at a concert to-night.

COURT CIRCULAR.
BALMORAL, SEPT. 23.
Her Majesty went out walking this morning.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert went out
shooting.
In the afternoon her Majesty drove in an open
carriage with Prince Alfred. The Marchioness of
Douro was in attendance on her Majesty.
The dinner party this evening will include her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Ken t, Baroness Speth,
Lady Augusta Bruce, and Sir Edwin Landseer.

Mr. Distin and his sons will have the honour of
performing before her Majesty this evening.

A deputation from the vestries of St. Margaret and
St.',John, Westminster, relative to the alterations in
progress in St. James's Park, had an interview with
Lord Seymour yesterday, at the office of her Ma-
jesty's Commissioners of Woods and Forests, in
Whitehall-place. The deputation consistel of the
Rev. William .Cureton, Dlr. Trollope, Mr. George
Wilson, and Mr. Rogers, vestry clerk, St. Margaret's.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer has left fickle •
ton Hall for his seat, Garrowley [louse, Yorkshire.