The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-24 00:00:00

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.
CITY, THURSDAY EVENING.
TIMES:—The meetings of the Croydon and Epsom
and Croydon Railway shareholders were for the special
purpose of amalgamating the interests of the two Com-
panies, and resolutions to that effect were passed unani-
mously at both. It transpired in the course of the de-
bate at the Croydon meeting, that in the event of the
:ioiith-Eastern Company taking a lease of the Green-
wich line, the Directors would be quite prepared to ac-
cept the terms which the Croydon Company have offered
the Greenwich Company, as respects tollage and room
for the experiment of the atmospheric principle. The
result of the working of the Dalkey branch in Ireland
was stated to be most successful, and the cause of the
late stoppage explained, as arising from necessary re-
pairs to the engine employed on the line.
• It is pretty generally understood that the deficiency
bills deposited by the Treasury with the Bank to cover
advances for dividprids and other'causes, are either en-
tirely paid off at this moment, or their amount so much
reduced as to leave them altogether a matter of no im-
portance. This is the natural result of that disposition
of the surplus revenue, ever since the country had such
a thing to boast of, which has been adopted in applying
the greater part to paying off deficiency bills ; but the
incident has other bearings, which well deserve to
be understood by the public generally as illustrating
the financial position of the Government. The pub-
lic account with the Bank of England does not differ
in principle from the account kept by any pri-
vate person with his banker. If credit is good,
and money is wanted in advance,. it is readily
obtained at a fair rate of interest, and in this
way the Treasury have been borrowing of the
Bank of England for a number of years past on
the growing produce of the taxes, such advances being
represented by an issue of Exchequer bills, which were
gradually cancelled as the new revenue came in. From
various causes, mismanagement being at the bottom of
all, the whole quarter had usually run out, and new ad-
vances were required before the old ones were paid off,
thus presenting no very creditable account, had it been
that of an individual instead of the Government. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer, therefore, judiciously di-
rects his first effort by applying his surplus revenue to
the diminution of these balances, to improving the cha-
racter of his account, and relieving himself of all obli-
gation to his banker. But beyond this his object pro-
bably had some reference to the operation of the new
Banking Act, and to the possible contingency of hav-
ing to require advances from the Bank, at a time when
the prescribed limit of the circulation had been reached
by demands from other quarters, and thus making the
Government interfere with the principle of their own
Act, or otherwise submit to some inconvenience in
making the great periodical public payments. Whether
this-motive has had -any- weight with him or not, his thus
making himself independent, of all 'advances from the
Bank will certainly free him from all danger of the na-
ture described, as well as place the Government in that
independent position towards the Bank which they ought
always to have occupied. Instead of having interest to
pay, as heretofore, for those advances, the Government
may even derive some advantage from the employment of
the surplus balances. These things are peculiarly valu-
able, too, at a time when angry discussions with foreign
Powers are going on, in showing our finances to be as
free and unembarassed as they possibly could be.
Our attention has been called to several evidences of
a very decided movement among certain parties con-
nected with the shipping interest against the arrange-
ment (now pending) between the Government and the
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Company, for establish-
ing the communication between Suez and China. On
the Bth inst. a petition was presented to Parliament,
praying that the public money granted for the purposes
of steam navigation might not be applied for the exclu-
sive advantage of any companies or individuals, but that
all engaged in shipping might participate therein, or
equally compete for it. No particular company was
mentioned in this petition, but it is pretty evident that
the Peninsular was the one particularly pointed at. The
document from which we extracted some statistics the
other day was connected with the same movement, and
that same document has been reprinted, with some addi-
tional remarks against the proposed arrangements. The
object of the statements is to show that the three con-
tractors received from the public for conveying the mails
to Halifax, the West Indies, and Alexandria, more than
twice as much as could be expected from Post-office re-
ceipts ; and that the nation therefore incurred a great
loss by paying the contractors large sums for conveying
the mails, which all other ships and steamers are obliged
to convey without payment. Much of this loss it is de-
clared is caused by confining the public patronage to a
few, the virtual monopoly having enabled the contractors
to exact important concessions. The terms of the Pe-
ninsula Company are then described, and the remarks
conclude with the observation, that measures ought to be
taken to ascertain from Government the course to be
adopted in bestowing 170,000/ of public money.
That public money ought not to be expended without
due consideration on steam communication, or anything
else, will be readily admitted ; but we do not see, till
further evidence is brought forward, why we are to as-
sume that the Government acts quite blindly in making
the contract with the Peninsula Company. A certain
service is to be performed, and a certain Company under-
takes to perform it, nor do we see any competitors in the
field who arc ready to state their terms, and show that
the Government had better engage their services than
those of the Company in question. Or is it intended
that the whole communication with India is to depend,
not on any arrangement with particular parties, but on
the Post-office shipping letters by such vessels as happen
to sail, as in the case of the comparatively unfrequented
parts of the world ? As it would be impossible to insure
regularity under this system, it is hardly to be supposed
that its adoption is intended to be recommended. If re-
gularity of transmission is designed, which of course it
is, it ought to be clearly ascertained, before the contract
plan is attacked, that there are parties ready to start at
stated times, and with the uncertain chance of passen-
gers, without the sure prospect of Government remune-
ration. We have been informed that communications
with India have frequently been worked at a loss, and
that nothing short of a Government contract would in-
duce a person to undertake the service for any length of
time. Under these circumstances, it is premature to ob-
ject to the Peninsular contract till some more tangible
reason is brought forward than any we have yet seen.
At the same time all attempts that have for their object
a saving in any department of public expenditure are
worthy of favour and commendation.

THE STADT DUTIES TREATY.
The treaty was signed in London on the 22d of July,
by the Earl of Aberdeen and Mr. Gladstone on the part
of her Britannic Majesty, and by Count Kielmansegge
and the Sieur Hupeden on the part of Hanover.

The first article provides that Hanoverian vessels ar-
riving in British ports, and British vessels in Hanoverian,
shall be subject to no higher dues or charges than na-
tional vessels respectively.
By the second, third, and fourth articles, a reciprocity
of free advantage is given to the British and Hanoverian
vessels in carrying of goods to and from the dominions
of either Power to the dominions of the other.
Article five declares that, for the convenience of com-
merce, the advantages detailed in the preceding articles
shall be extended to llanoverian vessels entering British
ports from the mouths of the Meuse, of the Ems, of the
Weser, of the Elbe, or from the mouth of any navigable
river between the Elbe and the Weser, or between the
Trave and the Memel.

The sixth article ordains that, from the Ist of October
next, the Stadt charges on British vessels shall, with a
few exceptions, be the same as those-specified in the con-
vention between the " Elbe-bordering States," signed at
Dresden on the 13th of April last. The excepted articles
are to be charged only the two-thirds of the duties speci-
fied in the Elbe convention.

By article 7, the contracting parties engage that no
reduction of duties, nor any powers, privileges, or immu-
nities whatsoever, in matters of commerce and naviga-
tion, shall be granted by either to the subjects of any
other State, unless Hanover or Great Britain, as the case
may be, be entitled to the same advantages and on the
same terms.
The eighth article provides for the continuation of the
treaty until the Ist of January, 1854, and to a further
period of twelve months after either party shall have
given notice of its intention to terminate the same.
A conference was held at the Foreign-office on the 9th
of August, between Lord Aberdeen, Mr. Gladstone, and
the Sieur Hupeden. At this meeting the Hanoverian
Plenipotentiary stated that it was not certain whether all
the parties to the convention of the 13th of April would
have finally ratified the articles of the convention on the
Ist of October next. He, therefore, proposed that, until
all the Elbe-bordering States have ratified the conven-
tion, the present duties shall continue in force with the
exception of those on the articles distinctly specified in
the 6th section of the treaty of July.
To this proposition the British Alinisters agreed, upon
certain precautionary conditions being conceded. -

THE RAILWAY AND THE HARBOUR OF AYR. We
observe with pleasure that the original intention of the
Railway Company to run a line of single rails from the ROME, AUG. B.—The wife of Prince Dtni Pros-
terminus here to a point on the North Quay, is now in Pero Sciarra Colonna, born Princess Donna AMU Pig-
su,(ldenly, in
course of being carried out. It was at one time con- natelli di Monte Leone, in Sicily, died here
y
jectured that, in order to accomplish this object, the
house of Lottery-hall, now the property of the Company, her 42d year. This distinguished lady was ,the last
branch of the celebrated Cortes family, to which Fer-
would require to be taken down. This, however, has anCortes,the
been obviated by
making a slight curve in the line,.: • .
din and
' after Allgemeine Zeitung.
emerging from the garden at the rear of these prmis s REV. DR. BURNS, OF PAISLEY.—The ,Res. Dr.
The contractors for building the additional berths on tehe.
North Quay are hurrying the work as rapidly forward Burns, of Paisley, as received a call from
,t to Free
as circumstances will allow; so that, ere long,- Church congregation in Toronto, ITpper Catiada. A
we may very able and impressive appeal has been addressed to
confidently expect to see a great augmentation to the the Rev. Doctor and his congregation by the people of
mineral traffic of our harbour. Weunder ad that Toronto, in which they employ the most persuasive ar-
several coal-proprietors and iron-masters onlys '
wait the
AN OCTOGENARIAN —OH Wednesday
completion of this improvement to dispatch their pro- Charles Hurst, aged eighty-two :Stith, who
ducts from the harbour of Ayr in preference to other afternoon
. SUICIDE or .
. lived by himself, in a cottage in Dog and‘Fox-court,
ports along the coast.—Ayr Observer.
of Rich- Wimbledon, was found hanging from the-bannisters, stiff
LITERARY INTELLIGENOE.—The Duke
mond is preparing for the press a work of astounding
and cold. No reason can at present be assioeVor the
interest to the turtites, containing a narrative of the "qui act. _lnformation of the
~ Foch. (big, chater, the coroner. circumstance has been sent' to
tang" actions, under the title of H Our Riess. "
—Punch.

ENGLAND AND FRANCE.
The question of war or peace is the most mo-
mentous that can agitate the councils of two groat
nations. It involves such a magnitude of evil or of
good as he must be dull indeed who contemplates
without emotion, or makes his election withmtt pause.
The character of a nation is a topic which xiaay not
be jested with, as on it hinge the chances of a ,secure
peace or a sanguinary war.
We would treat this matter with the gravity it
deserves. We would import a due measure of ear-
nestness and seriousness into every subordinate dis-
cussion which is linked to it ; we would, therefire,
while we unwillingly depart from our usual
.practice
of disregarding the cavils of our contemporaries, treat
the tone and temper of our antagonists who. ,discuss
it, with as much fairness, moderation, and gravity, as
their mode of discussing it deserves. If we smile, it
is not from any indifference to the importance" of the
dispute at issue; we leave it to our readers to explain
the cause.
A Whig contemporary yesterday handled the topic
in his funniest way. He began-by c.ondeaussiasg the' -:-;
want of judgment we displayed in publisAiing the
letters of British officers from Tangiers. He depre-
cated the temerity—he questioned the grifunds—of
our criticism on the seamanship of the Prince de
Joinville and the gunnery of his fleet; he proceeded.
to unsay all that he had most strenuously-urged the
day before ; talked with mild philanthropy of the be-
nefits of peace, as though he had not done ,his test to
hound on the dogs of Ate, and raise a flame of inex-
tinguishable hate between England and France ;--
and then—after this exquisite specimen of sp if-ab-
sorption—quietly ended by quoting the communica-
tion of a correspondent at !Tangiers, which confirmed
in every particular the facts which we had stated, and
the inferences which we had implied. So much for
the feuds of party, when a question which affects the
dignity and greatness of the country is at stake It is
human nature peeping out through the shreds and
patches of faction. It is Winifred Jerikins,lisking
" What are all these rarities and vagaries to the
heavenly Jerusalem ?" and forthwith proceeding to
comment upon a tippet, gauge the dimensions of
a hoop, or the profundity of a flounce.
The truth is, Englishmen of all parties feel alike on
the present relations of France and England. They
are zealous for the honour of their country ; they re-
member with pride the struggles and the dangers,
the triumphs and the splendours, of the past; they
would not sully the glories of the olden by the humi-
liation of the present time ; they would not bequeath
to their sons a less noble heritage than they-them-
selves derived from their sires. Hence the anxiety
that no unworthy compromise may be effected, no
degrading concessions tendered—that France may
not exult over a clever manoeuvre or an insidious vic-
e tory. But the same men also remember the horrors
and the atrocities of all wars—horrors and atrocities
which the last great conflict between the two king-
doms realised in their gloomiest form, but which
England, straitened and hard-pressed though she
was, felt less than any other State of Europe. They
remember the mass of human suffering accumulated
in every hospital, the annihilation of human liberty
in every city of the continent; and while they
think of the severer woes which war brings upon
mankind, is it strange that they should also remember
the weight of taxation it imposes ; that remembering
this, they should deprecate an appeal to arms, and
pray that there may be peace in Europe ?
Yes, it is not peace between two great and often
antagonist nations; it is not the harmony of the lily
and the rose alone that men think of; it is the
concord of many kingdoms, the tranquillity of in.
numerable States, and the pacification of Christen-
dom, that men consider when they long for peace.
England and France at war, where would be the
tranquillity of Europe? England and France in
harmony, what great or desolating war can interrupt
the happiness of the world ? It were as reasonable
to suppose that the great bodies in the physical world
could come into mutual collision, without carrying
havoc and destruction amid their dependent satel-
lites, as that the two kingdoms of France and
England could contend, without involving the other
States of Europe in the fortunes of the contest. And
it is the consciousness of this—of 'the peril to which
a rash engagement in war would expose more than
the first parties to it—of the responsibility which lies
upon men in high station—of the enormous evil that
one hasty or ill-judged measure may introduce
amongst other elements of disturbance—it is this
which, felt in a lesser way and with a less individual
interest by men in private station—should exert a
strong and intelligible influence upon the mind of
Ministers, on whose every word and every sentence
depend, humanly speaking, the chances of war or
peace. A Minister of Foreign Affairs cannot but feel
the momentous responsibility too deeply to act with
precipitation. He should be cautious and wary,
therefore, not to be the first to throw away the scab-
bard, and to plunge Europe amid the conflagration of
an unnecessary and unnatural discord.
But, in his anxiety to insure the blessings of peace,
he should not he disposed to truckle with ignominious
humility to exorbitant demands or insolent proposals.
He well knows that between two great nations the
only terms which one ought to offer, and the other to
accept, are terms of equality and reciproCity. He
must make no adulatory supplications to the magni-
tude of French power or the arrogance of French
ambition. lie must be aware that base concessions
would stink in the nostrils of the English people ;
that his sacrifice of national [dignity would be the
certain excitement of national wrath, and that a
peace founded on undue 'pretensions, and undue sub-
mission, would but pave the way to a war such as
only an insulted people would wage to resent a foul
dishonour and a monstrous injury. Lord Aberdeenc
and M. Guizot both know the value of Oil*, ant.
the enormities of war. They both know the 'Meta
rests of their respective nations, and, left for theme
selves, we doubt not but that they would disappoiSak
the rabid votaries of Bellona by doing all they could
to foster the confidence and increase the amity of
those whose Ministers they are.
A word for ourselves. We have been—and may
again be—accused of using our influence to foment.
the bad passions with which France and England
are now disturbed. " God help ye, 'silly . ;tines. ?"
What is the gist of our offence? •Vire report the ob-
servations of British officers present at Tangiers, eye-
witnesses of the operations carried on, and capable
of testing their skilfulness from their own profes-
sional experience ; these accounts give us no exalted
opinion of French naval tactics; we publish them ;
we draw inferences from them. What then ? Is
this, too, to be a national Insult to France ? h
England or the English Cabinet to be held respon-
sible for the records, however authentic—fo-r the
opinions, however just, of the Times ? It is no mat-
ter to us, whose opinions or sentiments we are sup-
posed to represent. But we do protest agaitist any
misrepresentation of our objects. We do .protest
against the imputation of ;fomenting hostilities be-
tween England and France. But, at the same time,
we do protest against the mouse-like pusillanimity of
being supposed not to know where our strength lies
in the hour of danger. God forbid that there
should be war, say we. God forbid that we -should
be the first to provoke an appeal to arina! But we
say no less firmly and sincerely—"lf we are to go to
war, we know the secret of our strength. * It.is in the
justice of our cause, in our clinging' islhere-nce to
peace, as long as peace remained in view f it is 'also in
that navy, which, under God's blessing,thea tarried
our flag triumphantly to every quarter vf therworld,
and which, we fondly hope, shall yet wave as.proudly
as it did at Ushant, at the Nile, at Trafalgar.'„ It is
no fault of the French that they are not ,made for
sailors ; but it would be a great fault on our part, if
Iwe did not profit by our proficiency on our own ele-
ment.—Tinzes. -.•