The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-29 00:00:00

LIE - S 111,1).1, lONDO N, T U SDA. Y, ,

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.— (This Day.)

GUILDHALL.

William Jones, remanded, charged with having por-
tions of a silver snuff-box-in his possession, supposed to
have been stolen.
Police-constable 152 stated that he met the prisoner
in Barbican, on Tuesday, the 22d, and suspecting him,
he asked bun what he had got. Prisoner replied, " only
a bit of silver he had found in the City.' On examining
it, the policeman found it was a silver snuff-box that had
been bent and broken up. The prisoner gave the name
Jones, but refused to give his address. The policeman
had since ascertained that the prisoner had given a false
name.

Alderman Gabriel—ls the prisoner known at all ?
Springate (the gaoler)—No, your worship.
Alderman Gabriel-I.las his real name and address
been discovered ?
Policeman —No.
Mr. John Probert, surgeon, 6, New Cavendish-
street, deposed that on Saturday morning, the 19th,
between 6 and 7 o'clock, he went frum his house to
Devonshire-place, New-road, in a hired cab to visit a
patient. Afterwards he found that he had left his silver
snuff-b6x in the cab. The broken pieces produced were
paits of it. The inscription on the inside of the /id and
the crest on the outside hal been erased.
Alderman Gabriel (to prisoner)—What have you now
to say to the charge?
Prisoner—l found it in the City about 8 o'clock in
the morning f the day I was taken into custody.
Alderman Gabriel—Do you still refuse to give your
real name and address?
Prisoner-=I don't like to give it because it might do
me much harm. I know I did wrong is keeping the
silver after I found it.
A friend of the prisoner's came forward and stated his
real name was William Nevitt, and that he resided in
one of the streets leading out of Fitzroy-square.
Alderman Gabriel remanded the prisoner for another
week to enable the police to make further enquiries
about him.

' RUSSIAN RAILWAYS.

Recent financial advices from Russia furnish
some interesting particulars. It is said the total of
bullion in the fortress of St. Petersburg and at Mos-
cow exceeds 20,000,0001. On the other hand, the
paper circulation is estimated at nes rly 120,000,0001.
and the rate of exchange continues at a point that
must involve great loss to all who have to make
foreign payments. Practically, the currency is in-
convertible, since the Government allow only very
small quantities to be exchanged for gold, although
occasionally, when the depreciation, as measured by
the rate of exchange, threatens to go on too rapidly
they allow certain defined amoants to be shipped
by the leading bankers. With regard to the grand
railway scheme, of which, according to report, the
English public may expect to hear more the mo-
ment they may be again disposed to get rid of their
money upon auy invitation, the latest particulars
are as follows :—The company have about 4,000
versts of line to construct in 10. years, at a cost of
about 45,000,0001. Their first issue was about
12,500,000/. OF this they retained one-fourth for.
Russia, on which 37A roubles was required as a
first instalment on each share of 125 roubles. When
the Government reduced the rate of interest on
Bank deposits, on the Ist October last, from 4 per
oent. to 3 per cent., the directors took the oppor-
tunity of offering 5 per cent. on all payments in
full, and of this the shareholders readily availed
themselves. At the present moment, therefore,
about 96,000 out of the the 150,000 shares reserved
for Russia have been entirely paid up. Of the
shares issued in other countries only a small pro-
portio❑ have been paid in full. On the Warsaw
line the road is finished for about 120 versts, and
the distance has been performed in two hours and
a-half. Only the Imperial family, however, have
as yet travelled on it, the opening to the publio
being delayed ns usual by all kinds of difficulties.
It was now expected to take place in a few days.
In the meantime two goods trains were being run
daily, the receipts of which were about 1,0001. per
week. The company have a numerous staff of
French engineers at Moscow, and in the south,
making surveys ; and the Russian engineers are
alleged to bs very indignant at their being set aside.
The pre/eut price at St. Petersburg of a share of
125 roubles is 3 premium, but in Poland they have
been far from popular. The affairs of the Riga and
Dunaburg Company are said to be making progress
but slowly. The Government have accepted their
caution money of about 100,0001. The concession
is not yet signed, a multitude of obstacles being
raised on trifling points, but which were expected
soon to be adjusted.

LECTURES AT TILE INNS OF COURT.

The following is a prospectus of the lectures to be
delivered during the ensuing educational term by
the several Readers appointed by the Inns of

Court :

" CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND LEGAL HISTORY.
"The public lectures to be delivered by the Reader
on Constitutional Law and Legal History will comprise
the following subjects :
"The Reign of George 11., the Progress of onr Juris-
prudence, the State Trials and Debates in Parliament.
The Reader will thee trace the Origin and Progress of
our Constitution through the Reigns of the Plantagenete,
the Tudors, and the Stuarts.
" In his private classes the Reader will follow the
same course.
"Books.—'Tindal or Benham's History of George
the Second ;' Blackstone's Commentaries,' ley Kerr,
♦ols. 1 and 4 ; Register and Annual Register
daring the Period ;' Parliamentary History,' Hallana's
Constitutional History,' Statute Book,' Preface to
Gilbert on Uses,'; by Sugden ; Bracton's Treatise,:
Matthew Paris," Reeve's History of the English Law,
Sullivan'. Lectures,'. Fortescue de Laudibus Legum
Angliee' (Amos's edition), Millar'. History of the Con-
stitution,' Creasy on the Constitution.'
_ _

" EQUITY.
"The Reader on Equity proposes to deliver during
the ensuing educationaf Term a course of nine lectures
on. the" following sOjeeits
"1. On the General .Principles adopted by Courts of
Equity with reference 'to Trusts and to Equitable En-
cumbrances on Real and Personal Estate.
" 2. On Notice and Registration.
" 3. On the relief afforded in Equity against Penal-
ties and Forfeitures.
".4. On the Nature of Legal Mortgages.
"5. On the Equitable Rights and Remedies of Mort-
gagors and Mortgagees.
" 6. On the Jurisdiction of the Court over Charities.
" The Reader will continue with his senior and junior
classes the general courses of equity already commenced.
He will also continue in the senior class and commence
in the junior to explain the leading rules of pleading
equity from the work of Lord Redesdale.
"The LAW OP REAL PROPERTY.

" The Reader on the Law of Real Property proposes
to deliver in the ensuing educational term a course of
nine public lectures on the followin f, subjects :1--
"I. The Insolvency Acts so far as they affect the
Law of Real Property.

"2.' On Condiiioni of- Sale.
" 3. A. comparison between the Old and New Law
with respect to Wills.
" 4. Thu Statutes let of Victoria, cap. 26, and 15th
and Hai of -Victoria, cap. 24.
"5. The decisions upon lase Statutes.
"In his private classes thbiteader on the Law of Real
Property will refer more particularly to the cases cited
in Me Public lectures. He will also endeavour to go
through a complete course of Real Property Law, using
the work of Mr. Joshua Williams as a text-book.
" JURISPRUDENCE AND THE CIVIL LAW.

"The Reader on Jurisprudence and the Civil Law
proposes to deliver • the course of the ensuing
ednaational term nine public reCtures on the following
übj ecti
:
"1. The Influence of certain Theories of the Roman
Juri-coneults'on International Law, and the Existing
Relations-of Sovereign States to each other.
" 2. Crimes and Delicate.
" 3. Ancient Codes : their Nature and Influence.
" 4. The conception of Equity, and the Forms it has
assumed in various system of Jurisprudence.
"5. The development of the Roman Law.

" With his private class the Reader will proceed
through the principal departments of Roman Law, using
as his text book the Systema Juris Romani Hodie
Usi.aci, Latin edition of Mackeldey (beginning at page
132). _ _ _

The Reader will endeavour to form a second class
for the study of the Elements of Roman Law. This
latt-r class is intend° i for gentlemen who have no
previous acquaintance with the Roman jurisprudence.
He will read the Institutes of Justinian, beginning at
their commencement.
"COMMON LAW.

"The Reader on Common Law proposes to deliver
during the ensuing educational term nine public lectures ;
the first six of which will be on the Law of Contracts,
and the three remaining lectures on the Law of Bail-
ments, as under :
" THE LAW OF CONTRACTS•

" Lecture I.—On Contracts generally ; their Nature
and Classification.
" Lecture 2.—On Special Contracts.
"Lecture 3.-0 a Contractr between Landlord and
Tenant, and Remedies incident thereto.l,
" Lecture'4.—Ot Simple Contracts and - tlie
In-
gredients in the Right of Action ex-Contraft.
" Lecture 5 will he devoted to an inquiry respecting
the Nature of Implied Promises.
" Lecture 6.—A general view will in this lecture be
taken of Mercantile Contracts and Remedies.
" Ties LAW OH BAILMENTS. _ .

" Lecture 7.—The Nature and Classification of
Bailments, with especial reference to the case of ' Cogs
v. Barnard.' Lord Raym, 909, will be considered.
" Lectures 8 and 9 will be devoted to an examination
of the Law applicable to various classes of Bailees,
Common Carriers, Innkeepers, and others.
" With his private class the Reader will consider the
Law of cfontracts and of Bailments according to the plan
above indicated, illiistilating the subjects treated of by
reference to recent cased, and to the.folloving works
Smith's Mercantile Law' (ed. by Dowdeswell), and
Leading Cases' (4th ed.), Story on Bailments' (Ch
ed.), Broom's Commentaries on the Common Law.
" By order of the Council,
RICHARD BETHELL, Chairman.
"Council Chamber, Lincoln's-inn, Dec. 18."

" The following are the days and hours for the delivery
of the public lectures by the Readers appointed by the
Inns of Court, and for the attendance of the private

EV'UING,

INTERESTING LETTER FROM (JJIINA.

(Front the limes' Correspondent.)
SHANGHAI, OCT. 17.
BALANCE OF TRADE.
The reader who may haply have followed me through
my discussion of the opium trade will probably have
long since forgotten that it came under our consideration
silly as one article of import.
If we have to pay 15,000,000 k for tea and silk, and
deliver only 7,000,0001. in opium and 1,500,0001. in
India cotton, and 2,000,0001. in British manufactures,
we have 4,500,0001. still to make up. Of course, we try
to do this as much as possible without putting our hands
into our pockets. We buy rice at Siam, and, trying to
place some of our goods there in return for it, we tran•
ship it to Canton or to any other hungry and locust
infested province, whereof China always has several.
We go into the Straits and buy or barter sharks' fins
and birds' nests, putchuck and cutch, buffalo horns and
mother-of-pearl shells, and all such like Chinese delights,
and we proffer them in part payment. But there is still
a large margin to fill up. No wonder, then, that in the
first three months of this year, 1857, we were obliged to
export 7,639,000 doh. in silver, or that the drain has
since been going on with undiminished strength.
Moreover, we must remember that of the 8,500,0001.
which we take in opium and cotton from India, we can-
not pay for it all even by the thriving export trade to
Calcutta, nor absorb quite all the balance in rent and
in dividends upon East India stock. Some silver or gold
must go there also.
But another serious inconvenience arises from this
payment for tea and silk in silver bullion. Silver is not
an article which, like birds' nests, the Chinese can snake
soup of, nor is it their custom to expend it greatly for
articles of luxury. Their women wear bracelets and anklets
of it, but the men prefer to gloat over it in the form of
ingots. Now, according to laws from which even China
cannot emancipate herself, it happens that as the rarity
of an article of barter ceases so its commercial value di-
minishes. This is already taking place in China. Not
only are the exchanges against us, but people who are
paid their salaries here in silver find that the dollar, so
dear to buy from England, is becoming daily less valuable
in China. Some years ago a Carolus dollar could be bought
at 4s. 2d. English money, and when you had thus bought
it you could change it for 2,000 of the copper cash of the
country. At the present day, partly by action of the
exchanges, and partly because the people of the interior
once had a superstitious confidence in the weight and
purity of the Carolus dollar, and preferred it to any
other medium of commerce as the only foreign coin
they knew—just as some of our country people prefer
the notes of a neighbouring bank to Bank of Eng-
land notes or sovereigns—a Carolus dollar costs us
here 7s. English money. When you have suffered
this loss by the exchange, another loss comes upon you
when you exchange it into the only currency of the
country. Instead of getting 2,000 cash for it you have
great difficulty in getting 1,200. This second loss arises
partly from the country people having got over their
inordinate love of Carolus dollars, chiefly from the dimi-
nished value of silver, and in a small degree from the
increased scarcity of copper cash. This scarcity of cash
also arises from the diminished value of silver. Imme-
diately the relative value of silver and copper was dis-
turbed the Parsees found it profitable, notwithstanding
the Chinese prohibition, to export the cash as metal.
They are now working the same operations in gold—
buying up all they can get and exporting it to India.
Thus it happens that a man who has a fixed income
from England, instead of gettings2,ooo cash for every
4s. 2d., only gets 1,200 cash for every 75., a difference
so enormous that it would be incredible if every table of
offieial figures did not prove the fact.
Strange to say that merchants here draw no conclu-
sions from these premises. Fortunately for himself,
however, the merchant's optics are those of the lynx
rather than those of the eagle. An extremely far.
sighted commercial man must always run risk of bank-
ruptcy, for the most absolutely certain sequences are
often the most uncertain in point of time. But as time
is the essence of commerce, your farsighted merchant
would be ruined while his certain sequence was still iu
sight.
They see prices going up enormously, and, with occa-
sional vibrations, still maintaining their advance. They

look upon this as an unnatural state of things in the face
of abundant silk seasons, and they refuse to buy. 'Un-
doubtedly they may thus temporarily reduce prices, for
accumulated stocks must be sold ; but in the long run
prices will continue to advance iu spite of them, until
they reach a point at which competition will stop the
price, or rather the sale of China silk, and price will
check the consumption of China tea. This may not be
so very fir distant, for, if my reasoning is correct, silver
will become dearer in Europe just in proportion as it
becomes cheaper in China. This tael of silver was for-
merly worth 2,000 copper cash, and is now only worth
1,100 ; but the Chinese producer reckons his expendi-
ttire and his returns only in copper cash. As silver
becomes more plentiful its value in relation to copper
cash goes on diminishing—it takes more silver every year
to give to the peasant who grows silk or tea his reran
nerating amount of the only currency he knows.
If I am right in this position, then, our British mer-
chants in China must admit, what at present some of
them are most unwilling and most careless to perceive,
that it is vital to their wellbeing to attempt to push our
manufactures into China. We may find a silver Cali-
fornia, but, putting miracle aside, I can see no other
remedy for the present unsatisfactory state of things—no
other means whereby the export of tea and silk can go
on—except the sending of cottons and broadcloths and
hardware and lace to China instead of bullion.
REABON3 ALLEGED FOR THE PAUCITY OF BRITISH
EirouTs.
The reasons umally a leged are-1, that the Chinese
are not easily induced to adopt foreign fashions ; 2,
that- the Ching Ware a manufacturing people; 3, the dis-
turbances caused by' the rebellion ; 4, the exactions of
the Chinese Custom-houses.
All these difficulties exist, but they are individually
much over-estimated, and they tare in the aggregate
quite insufficient to account for the phenomenon.
let, That the Chinese are not easily induced to adopt
foreign fashions. This is true only to a very partial
extent. You can't make a China woman wear a Cran-
bourne-street bonnet, nor a Coolie wear a pair of Stuart
plaid trousers ; they are even so bigoted as to consider
that their narrow cottons, 10 inches broad, are more
conveniently made into their garments than your wide
longcloths. Toey do not like your flimsy cottons ; I
have seen them take them between their fists, and rub
the dressing out. At Ningpo the Chinese can buy the
' best gray skirtings at sd. a-yard, and they yet prefer to
pay 6d. -a-yard. for home-made cotton cloth not quite the
it
superior fineness of the English texture ;
width. But this is not because they are insensible
they cannot afford to buy the
home-made
material.d The
to
an w
home-ade cloth is of thrice the substance ,
The Britishil last
cakeo
is because
'a Chinaman for at least two years.
between stones,
would wear out in six weeks. Depend upon it that a
heith
Chinaman is of all human creatures t most a
cheaper and
ia
washed in Chinese fashion, by beating
all matters of economy ; provide him
better thing than he can make at home and buy
nd he will
it. But you must give him what he wants. If Yung
c l
A'Lung, the tailor of Canton, were to send a cihr
emar to
u
w
the Deputy-Lieutenants of England, that
t
he had sent to England rich mandarin dresses much
handsomer than the stiff clothes which they wearon
grand occasions, and inviting them to go to Court ala
Yung
Chinoise, we should scarcely think 'that Yung A'Lung
had made a wise or profitable consignment.
A'Lung is not such a fool. He sends us cheap gold lace
of the proper width and quality. Surely Manchestero rcan
produce a piece of strong thick cotton cloth 10 12
inches wide and put it down at Shanghai
at less than
6d. a yard
At this moment narrow thick calicoes, which one of
the Hong Kong houses had the wit to order from Eng-
land, are selling at very remunerative prices. Tbere
is also some trade doing in cotton brocades, made in
imitation of the Chinese silk brocades, of the
same flowered pattern, and dyed to the same
colours. These are laid down
at Shanghai at 3i
tads ; they there readily. fetch • 5 taels ; and I am
told tlik the Chinese merchants find a ready market for
them up-in the tea country at 13 taels. No doubt if the
mandarins find this out there will be a tremendous
squeeze upon the Chinaman's profit of 8 taele somewhere.
But it is a mistake to suppose that the Chinese are not
fondof Western fashions. In going through the house of
the richest merchant in Ningpo I was surprised to notice
that, except in the servants' rooms, there was not a bit
of Ningpo furniture in the house. The furniture was all
of Chinese manufacture, but it was of simple fashion,
without a mandarin, or a dragon, or a piece of inlaid
ivory about it. An English knife is a most acceptable
present to a Chinaman, and a telescope is a treasure to
covet through a life. He loves cherry brandy and de-
lights in champagne, and many a Shantung man comes
out smart on New Year's-day in a camletcoat (of Chinese
fashion) and brass buttons from Birmingham. But why
insist upon a Chinaman changing his habits to become
d shapeless. women,
and
your customer ? Every morning throughout the Chinese
empire there are 300,000,000 of blue cotton breeches
drawnwear
them, h,
n.
es:e r
They human
arelegs.
five different patterns and five different sizes all through
the empire. My Coolie says that his cost him 200 mad],
childrenTh ere are alike
note i
but that he is obliged to have a thick quilted pair in the
winter, which cost him 1,000 cash. Here is scope for
Manchester energy !
2. The Chinese are a manufacturing people—This is
not true in the sense in which it is used. Of course, they
obtain a produce by hand labour, and so did Adam when
he delved and Eve when she spun. Bat in a competitive
sense the Chinese have no manufactures. Their hand•
loom is a miserable thing. Their shuttles pass to and
fro at a very languid pace. They can produce small re-
sults with great ingenuity. There IA a working weaver
who imitates with wonderful art all our English ribands
and fringes, and who is kept in constant employ by Eu-
ropean ladies to match English fabrics. English ladies
who wear out their father's horses and carriages and the
patience of politeshopmen in matching twopenny ribands
f,r dear country friends would find him invaluable. But
he could not produce 20 yards of silk at any reasonable
price.
China is not a manufacturing nation, whatever she may
become when her intercourse with the West is perfect and
her enormous coalfields opened. She has at present a
happier destiny than the factory and the forge.
" Bella gerent alii, sad to felix Austria nube."
To manufacture is our necessity, to produce is China's
privilege. Be it our humble task to work up her produce
into fabrics; to supply local deficiencies in her favourite
food, and to clothe with blue integuments the nether
portions of her teeming people. This is the true interest
of the two countries, and any little gentle compulsion
tending thitherwards will be to theultimate good of both.
8. The disturbances caused by the rebellion.—This is
a really important difficulty, and must be in some way
removed. I hope our commercial men do not propose
to themselves to postpone active business in China until
the roads shall be macadamised, gaslights established in