The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-21 00:00:00

COMMISSIONS OF LUNACY.

Monday a commission of lunacy, to inquire into
the state of mind of Mrs. Anne Sturrock, wife of
Captain Henry Sturrock, R.N., of Montpellier-place,
Blackheath, was opened at the Green Man Hotel,
Blackheath, by Francis Barlow, Esq., one of the
Commissioners.
Mr. J. Baker Wright, solicitor to the surviving
trustee under a will by which Mrs. Sturrock derived
her property, was first examined, and produced an
office copy of a will, by which it appeared that she
was entitled to nearly 2,0001. a year under the will of
Thomas Welladvise, her former husband. He had
advised Mr. Axe, the trustee, not to pay any more
dividends to her, because he considered her in such a
state of mind as to be incapable of giving a valid re-
ceipt. The last dividend was paid in October last, in
the presence of Captain Sturrock, as indeed they were
on most occasions.
Dr. Shirreff, of Dartmouth-row, Blackheath-hill,
deposed that he had known Mrs. Sturrock for very
many years, and had attended her professionally since
the Bth of February, 1841. The last time he saw her
was on Saturday. She then exhibited unquestion-
able proof of mental imbecility, which she had la-
boured under since February, 1841, and had gradually
got worse. She was merely cognisant of passing
events, but forgot every thing almost instantly. She
had quite forgotten the visit of Dr. Burrowes on the
previous day, She was also lost to the sense of the
proper decencies of life, which she would otherwise

have observed. He had no hesitation in saying that
she was of unsound mind, and incapable of managing
her own affairs. The infirmity, in his opinion, arose
from old age. She could not hold a conversation, and
when he tried on Saturday to make her understand
that this inquiry was about being made, she got very
angry, and said, "What the - business have they
with my money ?"
Dr. M. Burrowes deposed that he was called in on
the 18th and 19th of November last to give his opinion
as to the state of mind of Mrs. Sturrock. Amongst
other questions he asked her her age, and she said be-
tween forty and fifty, although she was eighty-two.
He asked her when she had seen Dr. Shirreff, and she
said not for a long time, although she had seen him
the day before. She was certainly not in a sane state
of mind on any of the days he had mentioned. Every
attention was evidently paid to her, and she possessed
a great deal of physical ability, but, nevertheless, it
would be very inconvenieet to take her before the Jury.
Mrs. Mary Cooper deposed that she had been in the
habit of attending Mrs. Sturrock for a year and eight
months. The latter could not dress herself. She had
never spoken of property but once, and then said she
had none. She was not cleanly in her habits, but
required to he attended to like a child. Conceived her
to be quite incapable of taking care of herself or her
property. Witness told her that some gentlemen
would call on her to ask about her property, and she
replied that if they did she would blow their brains out.
Some of the Jury went to the residence of Mrs.
Sturrock, and, on seeing her, expressed their full con-
currence in the evidence given, and returned a ver-
dict accordingly, dating the period of the commence-
ment of her imbecility on the 18th of November.
Yesterday a commission de lunatico inquirendo was
held by Mr. Winslow, Chief Commissioner, and a
Jury of fifteen County Magistrates and gentlemen of
Middlesex, at the Cadogan Hotel, Sloane-street, re-
lative to James Smith, lately a veterinary surgeon
and farrier, of large practice and business, of Great
Scotland-yard, Westminster.
Mr. Sergeant Shea and Mr. Warren appeared for
the prosecutor of the inquiry, viz. -.Mrs. Smith, the
lunatic's wife.

Mr. Sergeant Shea said that prior to 1838, the
physicians who attended Mr. Smith considered that
his ailment was corporeal, proceeding from dyspepsia
and diabetes, but that it would probably end in in-
sanity, unless great care was taken of the patient.
They advised change of scene, and he was removed
to Ramsgate, Gravesend, and Boulogne, the effect of
which was improvement in his bodily health, but hy-
pochondriacal augmentation. Early in 1839, he be-
gan to fancy that he could neither sit, stand, nor walk,
eat, drink, nor sleep, like other men. lie had taken
strange offence at his wife, and treated her with great
indignity. Mr. Smith was at,'present an inmate of
Blackland's private asylum, Chelsea.
Evident having been given in support of this state-
ment, the lunatic was introduced. He is a power-
ful man, between 40 and 50 years of age. Though
the presence of so many gentlemen apparently awed
him,' he ever and anon broke out into the most
violent diatribes against his wife, his medical ad-
visers, and his attorneys. He described incoherently
his past life, how he had amassed by long toil
8,0001., how his wife had married his money and not
him, how she had given him something one morning
in his tea, which had murdered him. He claimed the
protection of the Jury, and hoped they would not
send him back to what he called a prison, to be
watched and beaten by two keepers, but would place
him in a room where he should have sufficient food,
and see nobody. After providing for his wants, he
hoped that the remainder of his property would be
given to some charity. He complained of pain from
the sole of his foot to the top of his head; said that
he could not sit, though he was sitting ; and trusted
that he should not be punished for what he had just
spoken. Every body that he knew before he recog-
nised; • and being seated near Mr. Carpenter, a county
magistrate and juror, he seized him by the hand,
saying, " Don't you recollect the old blind mare I sold
you six years ago, for 61. Is. ?" Mr. Carpenter said
he did, and succeeded in allaying the excitement of
the unhappy lunatic, who followed Dr. Sutherland
tamely out of the room.
The Jury immediately found that " James Smith
had been of unsound mind, and incapable of ma-
naging himself and property, since the 30th of De-

ceinbe-r, 1838."

We are requested to state that a paragraph which
appeared in some of the papers on Monday, in re-
ference to an extensive failure in the corn-trade (that
of Mr. Dunn, at Wakefield), is incorrect.
THE LATE CALAMITOUS FIRE IN GOODMAN'S-
FIELDS.—The Committee for administering relief to
the unfortunate sufferers by the above catastrophe
held a preliminary meeting on Monday at the Swan
Tavern, Whitechapel. Among those present were
Thomas Mills, Esq. (in the chair), the Rev. Mr. Sco-
vell, and Messrs. John and Edward Cook. The sub-
scriptions already received amount to nearly 401. The
total sum required is expected to be about 4001. It
was mentioned incidentally during the meeting that,
although no member of the family of Holland had
sent in a statement, the case of the unfortunate young
woman, now lying in the hospital, was of all others
the most deserving consideration in the ultimate dis
posal of the funds raised. Her recovery is, however,
extremely doubtful. It was finally arranged that the
Committee should solicit subscriptions throughout the
district of Whitechapel, and hopes. were expressed
that benevolent individuals among the public would
aid in the good work when the circumstances were
made known. The children of Proudfoot and Sum-
mers will be buried at the expense of the Committee.

In the first exhibition of the Royal Academy, after
its removal to the present Gallery, I was much struck
with the beauty of a little statue of " The Girl
Reading," which the catalogue ascribed to a sculptor
named " Macdowall." The name struck me as Irish ;
but being surprised that I should not before have
heard of the artist who was capable of producing such
a work, I made it my business to find him out.
He did not call upon me, as stated in the Ulster Times,
but I went to his lodgings, in one of the sub-
urban streets near Euston-square, where I found
him, in quarters ill suited to his profession, either
from their extent or situation—being-too small to hold
his models, and so exposed to the sun, that it was dif-
ficult to keep the clay damp whiLst he worked at it.
To my astonishment I found that he was not only an
Irishman, but from my own town—a Be?fasi man !
His miniature studio was filled to excess with his
unpurchased productions, all evincing the same
talent, and exhibiting the same perceptions of beauty,
as that which had attracted my attention in the ex-
hibition.
His story was as follows c=-Hissfather converted
some small houses in Belfast into money, which
he almost immediately lost in some injudicious specu-
lation, and died, leaving his widow and this son, then
a child, with almost no provision. At 12 years of
age, haling sought the protection of some relatives in
London, he was bound apprentice to a coach-builder
(not a stone-cutter, as stated in the Ulster Times),
and shortly after his mother died. His master sub-
sequently became a bankrupt ; and whilst settling
his affairs, took his apprentice to lodge in the house of
the late French sculptor, Chenu, where he amused him-
self by modelling in clay, and for the first time dis-
covered his own taste for sculpture. His master, on re-
suming business, removed to Ireland; but,having treated
Macdowall with some unkindness, the latter con-
trived to obtain a surrender of his indentures, aban-
doned his half-acquired handicraft, and, almost
without a shilling, and altogether without a
friend, he boldly resolved to become an artist, and at
once started in his new career as a sculptor. Tutors
and teachers he had none, because he could not com-
mand the means to avail himself of their instruction ;
but, after years of self-taught study the most labo-
rious and persevering, he found himself at last qualified
to earn a livelihood. But it seemed as if his struggles
and difficulties were only then commencing. Sculp-
ture in this country is a thing so costly, that the
wealthy alone can aspire to possess themselves of it.
The rising sculptor can look onlr to the rich ; his
most trifling works require an infinity of study and
labour; and the very unwrought material of a single
statue may often cost a greater sum than a finished
painting of Pickersgill or Sir Thomas Lawrence.
These difficulties, too, are increased in the case of the
imaginative sculptor, as contrasted with the portrait
painter : the latter can safely rely on the vanity or
sympathy of the public for employment ; but the
poetical sculptor is dependent solely on that rarer
quality—their purity of taste. Still Macdowall was
not altogether without resources, and for years he
contrived to support himself by modelling for the
figure shops, by employment in the studios of his
more fortunate rivals, and by occasional designs for
works in silver and or molu. His genius was, how-
ever, of a loftier range, and by degrees study and ma-
tured skill qualified him to undertake works of the
highest order. But he wanted a name to allure a pur-
chaser; his designs, though praised when exhibited,
were returned to him unproductive ; and he failed to
procure a single considerable order either in bronze
or marble. Modest and retiring by nature, his diffi-
dence was increased by disappointment ; he at last
almost shrunk from making an exertion, when he
seemed only destined to undergo defeat. At length,
half by accident, and half in despair, he was per-
suaded, in 1828 or 1829, to send in a design for a
statue of Major Cartwright, which was about to be
erected in Burton-crescent. He was late in for-
warding it; but although the Committee had ac-
tually come to a decision to give the work
to another, they instantly reversed that de-
cision on the appearance of his model, and
gave it the preference. The funds subscribed, how-
ever, proved eventually inadequate for the completion
of the work as contemplated by him ; and the young
artist was again doomed to disappointment. His
talents had, however, attracted the attention of the
Ma'or's family, and he still speaks with gratitude of
their early friendship. No opportunity of equal im-
portance presented itself to him afterwards ; and
when I saw him ten years later, he told me that his
subsequent career had been one almost unbroken
series of disappointed hopes ; his labours had been all
unproductive ; his works in clay, when he could
command the means to get them up, were admired
and praised, but procured no commission in marble ;
his last effort was then in the exhibition (the statue
of " the Girl Reading," which I had seen), and if
that failed also, he might prepare to sink in despair.
It had already, however, been most promisingly
received ; Sir Francis Chantrey, a genius whose mind
was as far above petty jealousy, as his talents were
beyond the reach of petty rivalry, had that year the
placing of the works for exhibition in the sculpture-
room ; he had been struck with the extraordinary
beauty of Macdowall's statue, he gave it one of the
most prominent positions in the saloon, and brought
several of the Academicians round to admire it with
him. Still no order had yet reached the anxious
artist for a single copy of it, and I found him when I
first saw him in all the anxiety of mingled hope and
despondency.
On hearing his story, I at once applied to some of
those gentlemen whose united taste and liberality are
the stay and the support of British art, and begged
them to go and see the statue in the Royal Academy.
Lord Francis Egerton, after seeing it, at once gave a
commission for it in marble. Mr. Wentworth Beau-
mont, then Member for Northumberland, did the
same, and ordered three other groups beside; Lord
Dungannon ordered one for his splendid mansion at
Brynkinalt ; Mr. 11,Pealmont, of Eaton-square, gate
orders for busts; Mr. Henry, of Dublin; Mr.
Davison, of Belfast ; and others, followed the same
example ; and in the course of a few weeks,
merely from having had
his merits pointed out to
those who had the judgment and discrimination to
appreciate them, the before neglected sculptor found
himself with orders in his hands to the amount of
some thousands of pounds. He then removed from
his unsuitable lodging, in the suburbs, to his present
studio, Margaret-street, Cayendish-square, where he
received fresh proofs of public favour, in orders from
the Duchess of Sutherland and Lord Panmure.
Year after year his reputation has been advancing, as
his productions bave.been seen and admired; and not
only the public, but the Royal Academy have repaid
him by their spontaneous honours for twenty years of
trial and neglect. In 1841 the Royal Academicians
elected him an " associate," uncanvassed and un-
solicited.
The most recent event in his story, and the one
which elicited the notice of Mr. M`Dowall in the
Ulster Times, is his selection last week by Sirßobert
Peel to execute the national statue to the memory of
Lord Exmouth. Sir Robert Peel's cultivated taste
for art, and his munificent patronage of British
artists, are familiar to every, one. On the occa-
sion of having these statues to dispose of, he in-
timated his desire to extend the Government pa-
tronage to those artists of high talent in distant
parts of the kingdom, who had hitherto been almost
excluded from a share of metropolitan orders, and
that a monopoly of these should no longer be con-
fined to men of great name, but that the patronage at
the disposal of the Government should be made
available in hastening the attainment of popularity
by those men of ability whose names were, as yet, so
little known that their reputation was still dispropor-
tionate to theirgenius. With this determination he him-
self visited in person the studios of some of the London
artists, and amongst the rest, of Mr- Macdowall ; and
in two days after, communicated to him in a letter,
characterised by excellent feeling, that he had been
chosen to execute the statue of Lord Exmouth.
Mr. M'Dowall's struggles for success may now be
considered at an end. He has received the highest
tribute to his talents which his country can pay; he
has had the honours of the Academy spontaneously
conferred
upon him by the heads of his own profes-
sion; and he has been chosen by the Prime Minister
of England to execute the monument voted by the
nation to the memory of one Of her most distinguished
naval heroes,

ERUPTION OF MOUNT ETNA.
(Extract from a letter, dated Palermo, Dec. 1.) -
The day before yesterday, passing along the 'Ma-
rina' or public walk that skirts sthe exquisitely beau-
tiful bay of Palermo, and casting my eye over the
range of the Aladonian mountains, and beyond the
picturesque hills of Termini, I saw resting above _the
snowy ridge• of hoary-headed old Etna (which lies
literally east of sunrise from 'here) a long bike of
feathery whitish cloud, which, from its peculiar tree-
like shape, I knew at once to be smoke from the vol-
cano. Accordingly towards night, when the sun had
dropped down into the bay of Mandell°, a deep-red'
lurid glare became distinctly visible at the foot of the
column of smoke, and all the world was then aware
that the volcano was in active operation.
This has continued ever since, dimly discernible by
day in a pillar of cloud of that peculiar form which an
eye, experienced in eruptions, instantly perceives to
be the vapour from a crater—and more conspicuous
by night in a body of deep-red fire, of the apparent
size of an ordinary haycock, but brightening and less-
ing fitfully with the swells and lulls of the blast. of
the fiery furnace.
Telescopes have been much in requisition of nights,
since Tuesday, and many persons say they see the
showers of red hot rocks rising and falling in the air
above the crater, but I myself have as yet seen
nothing more than what I have described above, and
this much is as clearly visible to the naked eye as is
the outline of the Surrey hills from the cockney moun-
tain of Highgate.
The air-line distance of Mount Etna from Palermo
(which in the vulgar vernacular is commonly called
the distance as the crow flies) is above ninety English
miles, and to any one unfamiliar with the marvellous
translucency of the Sicilian atmosphere it might seem
almost incredible that a mere smoke in the. air could
be discerned a hundred miles off; yet true_it is that
never when on board a steamer have I seen the
out of its own chimney more plainly when the smut
was falling on my own very. nose than I see from
hence the column rising out of old Vulcan's chimney
on Mount Etna.
To-day I watched it, from the rocky heights- of
Belmonte, for an hour or more. before sunrise. At
first, while quite dark, only the 'Are was visible, like
a great bonfire, or furze burning on a mountaintop,
save that it was in colour of a deeper red. But with
the first faint touches of the coming day the smoke
became gradually visible, and more and more distinctly
marked, streaming along due north, till it stood over
the islets of Volcano and Lipari, where it brought up
with a round turn, as we tell the Marines, and thence
swept away eastward towards the further Calabria.
As the rosy tints of the rising sun came up
behind
the smoke or vapour (which, by the way, is midi
more steam than smoke), it was illuminated with the
ruddy light, and assumed the gorgeous appearance of
a prodigious blazing cloud, flaming in the forehead of
the eastern sky, until it gradually faded into the light
of common day. At this time, too, the delicately pen-
cilled crescent of the waning moon -became indistin-
guishable from the brightened lightof the surrounding
sky; but the volcanic vapour soon again became vi-
sible, stretching its fantastic but exquisitely pic-
turesque form along the horizon, in the tamer cha-
racter of cloud-like smoke, and much resembling
the cloud vomited forth from the funnel of a gi-
gantic steamer.

As you may not he aware of the precise shape of a
crater, I think it as well to tell vou that it is exactly
like the washhand basin in the dressing cabin of the
said steamer, when the stopple at the bottom is pulled
out to let off the water you have used in washing.
The basin itself •resembles the crater, commonly so
called, at the very bottom of which is the huge funnel-
shaped bottomless pit, that spouts forth smoke and
steam, white hot stones, black mud, grey ashes, and
streams of many-coloured lava. The outer basin,
commonly called the crater, or cup, as aforesaid,
varies in different volcanoes from a hundred yards to
a quarter of a mile deep. The depth of the fiery
funnel itself Empedocles (of mortals) only knows,
and he, though he threw back his slipper, by way of
wishing the world good luck, never returnedto tell.
The height of Etna is the best ascertained of any
lofty mountain in the world. Cacciatore, the pre-
sent Astronomer Royal at Palermo and our coun-
trymen, Sir John Herschell and ikiptain Smyth,
the celebrated trigonometrical surveyor, by processes
entirely independent of and unknown to each other,
all fixed it at 10,874 feet English, not differing a
fathom in the three computations. So exact a coin-
cidence, in a case in which several compensations had
to be allowed for, must necessarily have been partly
accidental; but, as Dr. Wollaston said of it, the acci-
dent was one upon which no three fools could by any
possibility have stumbled. It is worth observing that
Etna, which is more than twice as high as Vesuvius
(about twice and a half), has not half so large a cone ,
of clinkers and ashes at the top, nor is its crater any-
thing like so large or deep as that of Vesuvius, which
latter is in fact quite a model volcano, as if made for
show. Generally, in volcanos, the height of the cone
and depth of the crater are in the inverse ratio of the
whole heights of the mountains to which they belong.
It would seem as if the expansive forces within the
volcano, having a greater vertical 'height to work
through before they reach the surface, either do not
eject the scoriae and ashes so far, or in so great quan-
tity, or perhaps both these circumstances combine to
render the
.hollow conical cup at the top small in
diameter and shallow in -depth in proportion as the
general elevation of each volcanic mountain is greater.
The present great eruption of Etna (it is at this
moment flaming away with undiminished brilliancy
and grandeur) is the first that has been visible at Pa-
lermo since 1832. Intelligence' travels slowly. in
Sicily, and we have not yet had any authentic advices
from the scene of action. The weather is indescrib-
ably delicious, like a May of the best quality. in Eng-
land. Sitting on the rocks the cold hour before sun-
rise this morning was perfectly pleasant. The flowers
and many fruit trees are in full bloom, and the newly-
dropped lambkins are frisking in the fields. g.
P.S. I have just seen a letter from Riposte, within
fifteen miles of the crater. The hurly-burly began
its pother on Sunday night. The smoke that after-
noon, and the drying up of the springs, betokened
that Enceladus was getting fidgetty; and in the dead
of the night the mountain heaved and quivered like
the midships of a three-decker, when she pours her
first broadside into the ribs of the enemy. A roar
succeeded louder than a thousand train of artillery,
and myriads of red hot rocky fragments shot up to the
heavens. No lava had yet begun to flow. Many
persons here saw, or thought they saw, it floating
doWn the flanks of the mountain to-day ; but, as Ido
not tax my imagination for my facts, on this head
I can at present tell you nothing. But you may—.
With fancy speed on golden wing,
To sunny climes of classic lore;
Where poets touched the trembling string,
And still delighted shepherds sing
On Italy's enchanted shore !
Sicilia's vales shall greet thine eyes
Where Etna's fires sublimely rise,
Tinging the evening skies with flame !
Or midnight glories widely shed
In grand—yet soul-subduing dre ad—
Or hide in clouds his towering head
From young Aurora's purple shame !

ROYAL INSTITUTE OF BRITISH ARCMTECTS:At
the second meeting of the session, held on Monday,
Mr. George Godwin, Fellow, read an essay on the
architecture and history of Tournay Cathedral, a
building of considerable extent, and striking cha-
racter, which is but little known. It is about the
same extent as Salisbury Cathedral, and has fine
towers of large size. The transept terminates at each
end in a semi-circular absis of great beauty, inter-
nally. Monsieur Dumortier, a member of the Bel-
gic Chamber, ascribes the name and transept to the
6th century, but Mr. Godwin showed that they were
probably not older than the 11th century. The choir
was rebuilt at the end of the 12th century, and is a
noble specimen of pointed architecture. Restorations
at the national expense are now going on. Mr.
Hoskinz continued his paper on the Church of St.
Mary, Redcliffe, Bristol, and its proposed restoration,
to which we have already alluded. John Shaw, Esq. ,
was in the chair, and the meeting was numerously
attended.

CHRISTMAS IN SWRDEN.—The period of the festi-
vities of Christmas, which continues in Sweden till
the 6th of January, is dedicated to universal rejoic-
ings ; presents are tnade, the receivers of which are
required to guess the givers • the people have alio a
custom of knocking at each other's doors at this season.
On the 24th of December a crier solemnly proclaims
the peace of Christmas (Julafred) ; in virtue of this,
the punishment of all offences against social order is
double that incurred at any other period of the year.
This proclamation of the peace of Christmas is a cus-
tom of great antiquity, and extends over the whole
kingdom, and nothing is suffered to disturb the tran-
quillity of the season. Symbols of this rite are to be
discovered on the old Runic stones.

CIIRISTMAS.—We are informed that the house of
Leaf, Coles, Smith, and ld 'Change, intend
making next Monday a close Co.,day, in consequence of
Christmas-day falling on a Sunday. In many coun-
try towns requisitions have been got up to the chief
local authority to sanction the making of that day a
holiday for the working classes; in most of these
cases the idea has been gladly acted up to, and it is
probable that next Monday will be a day of general
rejoicing and abstinence from labour.
THE CIIAIN PIER.—A curious experiment is now
being made at the head of the chain pier, Brighton;
that of raising fresh water from below the ocean
means of an Artesian well. It is intended to bore to
the extent of 70 feet, at which depth the chalk forma-
tion will, it is expected, be penetrated, and fresh water
obtained, which will be applied to the formation of
ijet d'eau. The attempt, if successful, will be a most
interesting work of art and science, as well a, a great
acquisition to the pier.

LONDON :
WEDNESDAY MOSNING, DECEMBER 21, 1842.

We have not before found an opportunity of
noticing the observations of Mr. HOPE, which
the League thought worthy of a prize, on the
effects which the Corn-law has had on the
farmer. He being an occupying farmer, may be
supposed to be intimately acquainted with them,
and to be worthy of the confidence of his class.
We have on two or three occasions called the
attention of the tenantry to the influence of that
law in making them promise higher rents than
they could ever be enabled to. pay. We have
adverted to their degradation at being compelled,
whenever prices fell, to ask the forbearance of
their landlords, and accept a reduction of their
claims, as if the farmers were insolvent or pau-
pers. Here are some of Mr. HOPE'S remarks,
which we consider as peculiarly appropriate :
" But I need not remind at this period (1822) those
poor farmers' who are obliged to sell their crop to
pay a rent which they had agreed to give by calcu-
lating the price of grain at double what they could
then obtain. Much persuasion surely cannot be re-
quired to satisfy them of both the danger and folly of
attempting to obtain famine prices in ordinary seasons.
Neither shall I attempt to convince the wealthy, who
could afford to store up their own crop, or buy that of
their poorer neighbours, because I acknowledge at
once that, for them, this system of a hunger and a
burst' wrought admirably, whatever wretchedness it
produced to other members of society."
"I sometimes wonder that my brother farmers have
never asked themselves this question—' Have we, as
a class of capitalists, been more prosperous than other
classes of traders ?' Take for instance the grocers,
linen-drapers, or innkeepers, of your neighbouring
market towns. Take the average of those engaged
in any of these trades with a capital of say 2,000!. ;
then take the average of farmers, similarly circum-
stanced, and I ask you, which party, at the end of a
dozen years, upon an average, has realized the most
money?fknow your answer will be in favour of
the grocers,. drapers, and innkeepers. How is this to
be reconciled with the notion we have been taught to
entertain by the landowners, that the farmers are
specially protected ? There have been no laws passed
under the pretence of giving protection to drapers,
grocers, or innkeepers ; there are not a large number
of landlords owning the
ment professing to grocers' shops in Parlia-
Watch over their interests ;_ and
yet
the grocers are c retail more prosperous as a body
than. you. Surely this is enough to awaken your sus-
picions of the delusiveness use nohndarshrer
term) of all those promises which
political
mike to you at the hustings, or at agricultural din-
ners.,. But let me further ask, did you ever know the
entiie body of grocers) or any other trade, to be up in
arms at the same time all over England comp
lamaningd i
Ai distress ? You may have known bankruptcies

losses to fall upon particular individuals, but did you
ever know the whole body of any particular trade
throughout the kingdom calling exclusively to Parlia-
ment at the same time to relieve them? No ; such a
thing never happened, and never can occur. Yet we
have•known the farmers of England, in a body, five
times complaining of unparalleled distress, since the
passing of the famous law for their protection in 1815,
and appealing to Parliament for the relief of their
sufferings, and this generally happened when trade
and manufactures were comparatively prosperous !
Will not such facts as these induce you to doubt
whether the law which interferes with your trade,
with no better results than these, had not better be
totally and immediately repealed ?"
How is that want of success and prosperity of
the farmers to be accounted for, if the Corn-law
does not cause it ? They are a hard-working,
frugal, pains-taking race of men, than whom no
persons in the community deserve to be more
prosperous and wealthy. They feed the whole
of us ; and it is a disgrace to society that they
are not at least as easy in their circumstances
as retail traders, to say nothing of the land-
owners, who contribute not at all to the national
wealth. Mr. HOPE has not pointed out all the
circumstances which make the Corn-law inju-
rious to the actual working Pgriculturists, though
he has indicated, in the words "poor farmers,"
the chief source of the evil of such laws.

To the poor farmers who are obliged to sell
their crop t ) pay a rent doublQ what it ought to
be, the Corn-laws have, it is plain, been an un-
mitigated mischief. Now Mr. HOPE has shown,
n the second paragraph we have quoted, that
the bulk of the farmers are poor. Then the
Corn-laws have been an unmitigated mischief
to the bulk of the farmers, conferring advan-
tages only on those who are the opulent excep-
tions to the rule.

It has always appeared to us to be a benevo-
lent dispensation of Providenee that the cultivators
of the soil are made, without any intervention of
the Legislature, a .dependent and an indebted
race. This arises from a natural circumstance,
which has not been sufficiently noticed by writers
on political economy, namely, the different pe-
riods required to complete and bring to market
the production of different trades and occupa-
tions. A plough may be made in a few days,
and a pair of shoes in forty-eight hours. The
tailor completes a coat fbr the farmer in three
or four days at most, and in a few hours the smith
shoes his horses, or repairs his broken implements.
But the farmer, as the rule, must work front six
to eight months at least, between buying the
seed for his spring corn and reaping it ; eleven
months, or more, between sowing his wheat arid
selling it ; and if he be a rearer of cattle, he may
be obliged to wait two or three years before he
can send his produce to market. It requires a
much longer time to perfect his produce than
that of other tradesmen. He becomes, in conse-
quence, indebted to all the tradesmen whose work
for him is completed in a few hours, or days, or
weeks. All those tradesmen make him pay, not
only the wages of their workmen, but the interest
of their capital.
He also, in the majority of cases, advances the
wages of his labourers a whole year, before be ob-
tains any profit on them ; while the profit of
other tradesmen begins when they send their
goods home. As a rule, the bulk of the farmers
pay their tradesmen's accounts only once, or at
most, twice a year ; and in the great majority of
cases they must run in debt to those who work
for them. They have, every Michaelmas, nume-
rous other obligations to acquit, as well as an ex-
orbitant rent. If they were not an indebted race,
and were able to live from year to year without
incurring obligations to those whose labours are
perfected in shorter periods than the harvest ri-
pens, they would have the rest of mankind at
their mercy ; that they have not, is the result of
the great natural fact we have pointed out, which,
in our judgment, is a dispensation of Providence,
for which all gratitude is due.

Now, the farmers being naturally, and, of
necessity, an indebted race, loaded with obliga-
tions at and before the period of the harvest,
what does the Corn-law for them ? It adds to
all their obligations. It. makes them promise a
higher rent. It makes them pay more for seed
cern. It enhances the monied price ofthe wages
of the journeymen smiths, tailors, and wheel-
wrights, which they have to pay; and they have
also to pay profits on the larger sum requisite
to pay those wages. The law cannot secure
either a good harvest or the price of grain ; that
remains a contingency. Thus the law increases,
with unerring certainty, the farmer's obligations,
and leaves him a contingency for remuneration.
Experience has proved that the odds are as much
against him as against those who deal with
usurers; and. at the end of the game all the ad-
vantages, as Lord BACON says of usurers, are in
the landlord's and the tradesman's till. That is,
we believe, the explanation of the circumstance
that the farmers have not thriven under a Corn-
law,
which has promised them such great advan-
tages, equally with the grocers, butchers, and
drapers. To the farmers the Corn-law is a great'
aggravation of all the natural peculiarities of
their condition; it increases their obligations, and
increases their dependence.
The only practical question now remaining,
we believe, as to this law is, shall it be totally or
partially repealed? Let the farmers listen to
Mr. HOPE on this practical and important ques-
tion

" 'Whatever modifications take place short of total
repeal, the burden will be thrown, if possible, under
all sorts of pretences, upon the farmers. The expe-
rience of the late changes in the Tariff and the Corn-
law has shown this pretty plainly. The landowners
have laboured to convince you, at your recent agri-
cultural gatherings, that the alterations in the late ses-
sion have had little effect upon prices. They still try
to assure you that the law will afford you ample prod
tection. But, even if the law did protect you (which
it never did and never will), what guarantee have
you that the political landowners will not come to an
agreement again in London next session, as they
did in the last, with Sir Robert Peel, and consent to
another alteration ? Depend upon it, there is no
chance of your coming to a satisfactory adjustment of
rents and leases, so long as you allow the intervention
of politics in your bargains with the landowners.
Politics may be a winning mewtohtthhosei‘wrho have
their own arrangements to make it
the day; but I pity the case of the farmer
who
any Corn-law for the value of a farthing, in making
a bargain for his farm with his landlord.
So long
the owners of your farms can point to a law,
asaas
reason for obtaining a certain price for their produce,
you will in no case be able to make a safe agreement
for the use of their land. Get rid of all such interfe-
rences with your dealings at.once. Let the Corn-laws
be totally and immediately repealed,and then every
tenant throughout the kingdom will at once be
the c ase
brought on fair terms to a settlement with his
land-
lord. - Public opinion and. the necessities of
will then force an equitable adjustment of rents and
leases, and the dealings between landlord and tenant
will thenceforth settle down into mere matters of bu-
siness, with which politics will no longer interfere."
Mr. HOPE is right. Any modification of the
laws whatever will only have for its effect to
continue the system by which the landlords,
undwr the pretext of protecting the farmers,
have extorted from them all their substance,
and. degraded them into political tools. They
want to go on in the same career, and throw all
the losses, if any, that accrue from altering their
law on the tenants. But the system which lays
on them unnecessary obligations, which prevents
them getting rich, like grocers and drapers,
should, for their sakes, be not only totally but
immediately abolished. Modifications of it will
only introduce additional uncertainty into all the
operations of the agriculturists.

The country gentlemen, it appears, begin to
be alarmed at the increasing amount of county-
rates, and to be ashamed, as well they may, at
the increase of crime. In Devonshire, the fol-
lowing expense was incurred in the year ending
Michaelmas, 1842 :—The committal of 370 pri-
, goners cost 547/. 13s. Bd.; prosecuting them,
2,868/. 18s. 4d.; maintenance while in impri-
sonment, 20s. each, 3701. Total charge upon the
county-rate, 3,786/. 12:3. The expense of other
counties may be inferred from that of Devon,
giving a sum, probably, of 150,000/. a-year for
the county expenses of administering the cri-
minal law, independent of an immense number
of other expenses. The facts which have
lately been brought to light are stimulating
Devonshire Magistrates to inquire into the matter.
plan to save the county-rates, poor-rates, a
speedy administration of the law, and check the

practice of arbitrary commitments, of which the
following is an outline, is proposed :
The several Counties of England and Wales shall
be divided into districts, in each of which shall be
holden, at least once a fortnight, by Justices of the
Peace for the County, a Sessions to be called, The
District Sessions. That a Jury of six persons, taken,
if practicable, from as many different parishes, shall be
impanelledat such Sessions. That the power ofpunishing
by the Court shall be limited to fine, solitary confinement,
and, if the prisoner be a male, private whipping ; and
that a clerk with a salary, to be paid out of the
county-rate, in lieu of fees, shall be appointed by the
majority of the Magistrates resident within the dis-
trict, but irremovable, except at a General Sessions
of the Peace.

We offer no opinion on the plan, but we can
assure the country gentlemen generally, that
their administration of the law is calling down
reproaches from all quarters; that their ma-
nagement of gaols is a subject of continual cen-
sure in the most influential of the Tory and
Whig journals ; and that their credit and honour
require them no longer to alminister in routine
supineness a system which at once creates and
multiplies crimes and criminals, and entails pro-
digious expense on the country.

The Tory journals appear to be in a sad state
of embarassment and perplexity, as regards Sir
R. PEEL'S intentions on the subject or the Corn-
laws. Is he going to make any material altera-
tion in them, or is he not? Is he going to repeal
them altogether, or is lie not? The Ministerial
organs seem specially uneasy and sensitive on
these points, doubtful what opinions to
entertain, and they vent their anxieties
from time to time in a manner that pro-
vokes laughter, notwithstanding their pathetic
earnestness. One day our perplexed Contem-
poraries are confident that the Corn-laws will be
allowed to remain, for the next session at least,
in precisely the same condition in which they
now are ; and the next, they frankly confess
that- they are quite at sea on the subject; even
while they tell you that they hope for the
best, their manner indicates that they are
not without apprehensions of the worst; and the
Post, in an agony of impatience, piteously
supplicates Ministers to make at once a clean
breast of it, and not keep all their friends and
supporters in a state of torturing suspense. If
you have anything to say, say it without any
more fuss or ceremony, is our Contemporary's
earnest advice to Ministers. " Her Majesty's
Government," observes the Post, " would do
much good, if they would take some mode of
authoritatively informing the public, whether it
is, or is not, their present contemplation to make
any important alteration of the Corn-law of last
session." Our Contemporary's amiable solicitude
on this subject is wholly thrown away, fur Sir
ROBERT PEEL, who is as wary a fox as ever
sacked a hen-roost, will be hurried into no pre-
mature revelations of his policy ; lie will quietly
bide his own time ; and when that time arrives,
and the Right Hon. Baronet's intentions are
made manifest t,) an expectant world, we are not
without a suspicion that they will be such as will
by no means tend to throw our Contemporary
into extacies of admiration.

The present isolated state of France, and the
unfortunate issue of every attempt to increase
her power and influence at foreign Courts, form
remarkable features in the government of a
Sovereign who is allowed on all hands to be a
man of great foresight, experience, and judg-
ment. Every scheme of aggrandisement, and
every approach to a closer alliance with foreign
Powers, have signally failed. In Spain, in Tur-
key, in Germany, and even in Belgium, French
influence is at a very low ebb, and, as far as any
judgment can be formed from present appear-
ances, cannot rise much higher for many years.
The fault, we believe, lies entirely with the Sove-
reign. He commenced his reign as an ultra-Libe-
ral, nay, almost a Republican ; he courted LA-
FAYETTE and FOY, and .LAFITTE for a time, but
as their political principles were not quite suited
to Royalty, he cast them off in turns, and has
finally assumed a character more resembling that
of the Grand Monarque, than the Citizen King.
The fact is, that he deserted the Liberal party in
France, without inspiring either the Conserva-
tives or Legitimists with much confidence. He
has deceived the same party in Spain. At the
commencement of the civil war, he formally
allied himself with England to support the friends
of the Constitution, but it was soon observable
that his heart was not with them ; and since the
triumph of ESPAUTERO and the establishment
of peace, that country has been twice convulsed
by the intrigues and plots of his cousin. We
will not say what countenance he has given to
her schemes, but, at all events, he retains
her in France, and thereby encourages
the discontented to look out for some
favourable opportunity to dethrone the RE-
GENT, and destroy a Liberal Government.
No surprise, therefore, can exist that the family
of Louis PHILIPPE is not admired in Spain.
His policy, too, in espousing the cause of MEHE-
MET Am, and encouraging a subject to rebel
against his master, has ruined him in the esti-
mation of the Courts of Russia and Austria.
They have a natural horror of rebellion,
they hate its abetters in any shape, and they
cannot place confidence in one whom they have
long regarded as an usurper, even though he
now imitates them in checking liberal institu-
tions, and ruling his country by military force.
His MAJESTY is in a thlse position, and is the less to
to be pitied as it is entirely the work
of his own hands. How different would have
been the influence of France throughout the
world had the policy with which he commenced
his royal career been faithfully observed ! He
would have been looked up to by all the liberal
spirits of the age—he would have secured the
affection and loyalty of his people, and made the
name of France a watchword to the free, and a
terror to oppressors.

We have received the following intelligence
from Cologne, dated Dec. 11 :—" On the day be-
fore yesterday, Captain BLOOMFIELD, of the
English Artillery, passed through this city on his
way to Trieste, in order to make arrangements
for the conveyance of the mail between India
and England through Germany, by way of
Frankfort, Cologne, and Aix-la-Chapelle. It is
not yet decided whether the English steam-boats
shall land at Trieste or Venice."

b thee The P r
alr,e
hyoaalvri s
revolt papers,
htaßnga er Barcelona
botho n a in their t
aonndes Conservative and L i -
results.
commenting
T on
e
Ministerial party know that Louis PHILIPPE set
ESPARTERO the example by bombarding Lyons
and are equally aware what
(rave rise to the in-
surrection. They appear, therefore, anxious to
d Predicamentcourtiias broughti wthletimeh.
their r udevotion the
atNov k
twhaer
" We do not blame the S • 59
Spanish autitorities,
says the Journal des Debats," fur having vigour-
ously repressed the insurrection at Barcelona.
We never approved or justified an insurrection
in any country ; we have ever condemned the
violation of the laws, whatever be the pretext or
cause; but we can never approve of the barba-
rous measures employed to reduce the unfortu-
nate
city, and, after its reduction, the illegality,
more cruel and, if possible, more culpable—the
means taken to punish the inhabitants. We did
not say to the Spanish authorities, when they
were compelled to abandon Barcelona, ' Humble
yourselves before the insurgents or treat with
them.' We told them,' When you have secured
the victory, lie humane and respect the laws.
What we advised the Spanish Government to do
is what the French Government has practised
during twelve years, and has had no ' cause to
repent of it.'"
The turn in the Liberal papers is still more
remarkable. From hatred to England the
writers blindly took part with the Government
in opposition to their professed principles, and to
save their character they attack the French Go-
vernment, that is Louis PHILIPPE, for insulting
Spain, by conferring with so much precipitancy
a mark of honour on M. LESSEPS, the Consul at
Barcelona, and also intimate in plain terms'that
they have not the courage to carry out a plan so
rashly and inadvisedly begun. The National in
adverting to these facts, says:—
The French Government being convinced that our
Consul Was calumniated, replies by conferring a new

distinction on M. Lesseps. This is nothing less than
a challenge to the Spanish Government. This chal-
lenge is the first act of the d7ama which may produce
the most unpleasant differences between the two
countries. If Espartero, seeing that his representa-
tions have been despised, sends his passports to M.
Lesseps, M. Guizot will send his passports to the
Spanish Charge d'Affaires. All diplomatic relations
will be then interrupted, and from this situation to
open hostility is but a step. To cause the bayonets
to advance there wants but a pretext, and pretexts
have ever been found when wanted. No, we know
the degree of valour belonging to the present system
for now twelve years. We know all of which it is capa-
ble, and we know that, pretend as it may, it will never
dare to go to war with England.
The Commerce thus follows up the attack on
the KING:—

The different organs of the national opposition in
France have expressed a very natural indignation
against the bombardment of Barcelona; but if they
have censured with severity the conduct of Espartero,
they have censured with equal severity the conduct of
their own Government under similar circumstances.
The principle which has inspired their remarks has
been at once political and moral, it does not change
according to circumstances; injustice is always consi-
dired injustice, and inhumanity is always inhumanity.
Can the Ministerial journals say as much? Is the
indignation which they express against the Govern-
ment of Espartero as frank and natural ? Is it in-
spired by a feeling of humanity and by the interest of
civilisation ? We doubt it much; and we cannot
help thinking that they would have shown less horror
for the excesses of which Barcelona is the theatre if
the Government which commits them had not been
that of the Regent.
You inveigh with warmth (it adds) against the
bombardment of a rich and commercial city like Bar-
celona. You enumerate the disasters that have ac-
crued from it ; but have we not cause to wonder at
the feeling you affect for the fate of Barcelona ? Who
was it that ordered the bombardment of that noble
city, Lyons ? Were the batteries of Fourvieres
terrible than those of fort Montjuich ? Did they not
spread dehth and destruction like thelatter ? The ruins
of Lyons deserved as many tears as those of Barcelona,
and nevertheless your eye remained dry, and you
opened the mouth only to demand fresh means of re-
pression, and other restrictions of our liberties.
No more fabricated dispatches had been re-
ceived at Paris, on the departure of the mail-.
The affair turns out a coup: manqué, and the
guilty parties look at one another with shame
and sorrow.

The family of Dort Mahomed have been all re-
moved under an escort from 1-A)odiana, where they
were established and are marching down the country;
it is supposed that Benares will be their final desti-
nation.

THE INCOME-TAX IN MARYLEBONE.—ASSESSMENT
OF WORKHOUSES.—Considerable excitement has this
last two or three days pervaded the Borough of Mary-
lebone, in consequence of the rigid manner in which
the assessment of tradesmen, and the poorer class of
persons, is carried on. The course pursued, is to assess
them indiscriminately at 1501. per annum, leaving the
onus upon the parties who are assessed to prove that
they have not so much ; and although it would ap-
pear from the notices served, that fifteen days are al-
lowed for the assessed to give notice of appeal, still
the actual time allowed is but five days, and a large
number of persons, from the vague manner in
which the document served on them is worded, have
already been thus shut out from an appeal against
their assessments. At the weekly meeting of the Board
of Directors and Guardians of the poor, held on Fri-
day, great astonishment was manifested when the Se-
cretary, Mr. Thorne, laid before the Board a notice he
had received from the Income-tax Commissioners, as-
sessing the Marylebone workhouse, to the income and
property-tax, at the annual value of 2,6391., the 7d.
in the pound duty, on which he said was 761. 19s. sd.
Mr. Gibson said this was the most monstrous demand
he had ever heard. What in the world could the
Commissioners be thinking about to assess a parish
workhouse? Mr. Rathbone thought this assessment
of a workhouse to the Income-tax involved a very im-
portant question, and that was whether workhouses
did not come under the denomination of cha-
ritable institutions.—(Hear.) He believed there was
a clause in the new Income and Property Tax Act,
expressly exempting all charitable institutions from
assessment, and as he conceived that workhouses for
the reception and maintenance of the poor could not
be looked upon in any other light than charitable
establishments, he thought the Board ought to claim
exemption. After some further discussion, the Board,
on the motion of Mr. Gibson, unanimously resolved to
appeal against the assessment.
THE FLAG
Off_ E;sGLaisn. Not a port have I
visited. since I left America, that I did not see the flag
theo fE,nvgatlearnsd.
of
Franceltivat; it was the only one floating inhe first flag I saw on entering
the ancient harbour of Rome, at Civita Vecchia,
Again I saw it in the deserted harbour of the Piraeus,whereonce rode the fleets of Themistocles. I first
saw the dome and minarets of Constantinople from
beneath a cloud of cannon smoke that issued from
British line -of-battle ships, saluting the Mahommedan
ally of Britain. The first object that met my eye on
the uofm
cataracts, the
h English
n g sohn
Pyramids was the cross of
traveller had planted
the borders of the
tsshetae.lriGen. ge trßeyond
nct
which
t
Desert of Nubia, the only sign of civilization that I
saw was the English cross flying from the masts Of a
traveller's boat. Here, on the extreme verge of civil-
ization, I stood before this emblem ,of the universal
presence of that nation; and in the lawless regions it
gave me a pleasing sense of security to find myself so
near a representation of that Power beneath whose
broad aegis there is protection abroad for the most
humble fugitive from violence and oppression.—
American Traveller's Journal.
MR. RUSSELL'S VOCAL ENTERTAINMENT.—Mr.
Henry Russell, who has acquired great reputation in
America by, his vocal talents, gave his first entertain-,
ment this season, at the Hanover-square Rooins, on
Monday. The programme cor.sisted of fourteen songs,
which he accompanied very skilfully on an excellent
pianoforte, manufactured by Kirkman. His most
successful efforts were in a new song, called " The
Founding of the Bell," " The Maniac," and " The
Ship on Fire." A repetition Of the two latter was
loudly called for. The large concert room was crowded
to excess, by a most respectable audience.
A DILEMMA.—Last week a lady with two chil-
dren, one an infant, travelling by the Great Western
railway from Bristol to London, having occasion to
get out of the train with a little boy while it stopped
at Swindon, requested another lady, a fellow-pas-
senger, to hold her infant. In descending from the
carriage the little boy stumbled and fell, and during
the time his mother was occupied in brushing his
clothes the unearthly shriek of the whistle of the en-
gine gave the signal for starting, leaving the lady and
her child behind, to the no small consternation, not
only of herself, but of her fellow-passenger, in whose
care she had placed her infant, ani to whom it oc-
curred that it was a trick on the part of the mother
to get rid of the child. Oa arriving at the Steventon
station she related the circumstance and begged per-
mission to leave the child there, which being refused
she determined on waiting the arrival of the next
t:ain, in the hope, although as it seemed to her a for-
lorn one, that the mother of her charge might be
amongst the passengers, which to her great joy hap-
pened to be the case, thereby relieving her from a
most unpleasant dilemma.—Berkshire Chronicle.
ABSOLUTION AT A TURKPIRE GATE.—On a Sun-
day evening, last autumn, a lady of the Roman Ca-
tholic religion, visiting Harrogate, hired a carriage to
convey her to the priest's house, a few miles distant,
and on her way had to pass through a toll-gate, at-
tended by a collector well known in the neighbour..
hood as "Joe," and whof in his blunt honesty, boasts
of being a " Leeds joiner." On her arrival at the gate
Joe demanded the toll, on which, supposing herself
exempt, when on her way to a place of worship,
she said,
"I'm going absolution," which latter word
sorely puzzled. poor Joe, who replied he did not
"know sake a place hereabouts," and believing that
the little demur in paying the to* arose from the lady
having no chare,
he civilly consented to allow her to
pass, if she would pay on her return. This caused
her to explain that she claimed exemption, and Joe
having been partially enlightened that absolution was
some ceremony at the priest's house which he did not
understand, brought all his knowledge into play to
contest the claim. In vain the lady asserted she was
going for absolution to the nearest place of worship,
for Joe smartly replied, " Absolushun ! Abso-
lushun ! ! it woant do for me,—absolushun
woant pay rbar." She then attempted to rea-
son with Joe on the unreasonableness if not
illegallity, of demanding toll under the circumstances,
but Joe continued inflexible, and showed " absolution
stuck in his gizzard," as he often repeated the word
in a low grumbling tone. The lady, notwithstanding,
persisted in her claim to exemption until poor Joe
waxed warm, and delivered himself as follows :
" `farm, I've been a bar tenter these foive-and-twenty
years, and I ne'r heerd o' absolushun afore." The
claimant became annoyed at Joe's pertinacity, and
proceeded to lecture him pretty freely, but he
i an-
swered, " I care nout abowt the noise ye make 'th
hoile—l must have't toll ; there's nout abawt abso-
lushun on my board, and I ne'r see'd it in't Genral
or Loocal Act." Baffled by Joe's law and eloquence,
the lady paid the toll, and threatened to summon him.
—Leeds Intelligencer.
THE GIANT FIGHT.--Yesterday morning this
long pending fight was brought to a termi-
nation in favour of Freeman, after fighting thirty-
eight rounds. The Father Thames steamer was
engaged for the occasion, and started from London-
bridge to North Point, on the Kentish coast, just
below Gravesend. Nearly 400 persons were present.
It was fought in the short space of thirty-nine minutes.
Neither men were at all injured.

MONEY and COMNIERC.IAL NEWS.

CITY, TUESDAY EVENING.
The Stock Market did not leave off better than it
opened, and there was a report that pigeon expresses
brought the prices of the French funds rather lower
this afternoon. Consols were 931 to 93 4, closing
buyers at the latter price. The usual purchase was made
in the Reduced Taree per Cent. Annuities at 94i by the
Government broker. Exchequer Bills brought 49g.
to 51s. premium ; and Reduced Three-and-a-Half
per Cents., lOr to 1. Bank Stock was 171 k to 1721.
In the Foreign Market there was no buoyancy,
but Mexican Stock slightly improved, on account of a
decree received, it is said, by the Acadia steamer,
directing that one-fifth of the Customs' duties should
be set apart for the completion of the dividend upon
the foreign debt. The Bonds were 30k to 31 ;
Spanish Actives closed at 184 ; and the Three per
Cents. at 241. Brazil Stock was firmer at 69:1 ;
Russian Bonds brought 1124 ; and Dutch Five per
Cents., 1001 to
Since the morning the only sales in the Share
Market have been in Great "Western at 25, and in
the New at 141 premium. Brighton were 131 to 14
discount. Australasia Bank Shares realised 14 prem.
The demand for Bills of Exchange was about equil
to that of last post-day, and the rates paid did not
vary to any extent; being these :—Amsterdam,
12 54 ; Antwerp, 12 5i ' • Frankfort, 15111 ; Paris,
971 c. to 921 c. ; Hamburgh, 13 14 4 ; and Ti e
9 59 to 10.

The following are the official returns of the ex-
ports of Bullion from the port of London for the
week ending Thursday last : oz.
Silver Coin to Calais
Silver Bars ditto
(From The Sun of Last Night.)
The Cotton market at Liverpool yesterday was
quiet. Sales 3,soo•bales ; of which 700 bales Ame-
rican on speculation ; 250 Surat, at 3l d. to 4d.; 100
Maranharn, at 54d.; and 3,150 American, at 41d. to
7d. per lb. Prices were therefore much the same. In
the Railways there was also but little activity. Edin-
burgh and Glasgow were 481 ; Grand Junction, 186 ;
'Birmingham, 188 ; Brighton, 36 ; Manchester "and
Leeds, Half, 32 ; North Midland, Thirds, 20i ; and
South Eastern, New, 171.
A memorial has been drawn up by the provision
trade, or the firms engaged in importing foreign
cheese, butter, &c., addressed to Government, and
praying for a reduction-of the duties upon those arti-
cles, which are now too. high for the consumption of
the poorer classes, who have, in consequence of their
reducel means, purchased less than last year, while a
large portion of the quantity imported has been re-
shipped, not being saleable here at the current rates.
The dealers desire a reduction of one-half in the pre-
sent impost.

The exchange comes over the same from Ifamburgb,
13s. 711 on London, and the price of gold 4311.
The American tariff affects nearly all the Conti•
nental States as well as ourselves, and appears to be
very injurious to the Russian manufacturers of sail-
cloth, and other fabrics peculiar to that country.
The English still manage, somehow, to get their
cotton twist into France, and so far the advance in
the duty has not quite excluded them yet. The Irish
manufacturers at Belfast have even received some
orders of magnitude lately, for shipment to France,
and the Belgians complain on this score as though
they had a perfect right to see us wholly excluded
from the market of their neighbour.
In the English Market there is rather more firm-
ness, though the affair of the French Consul being so
strongly implicated in the Barcelona insuarection,
excites both suspicion and mistrust. Consols for the
opening., were quoted 931 to 93/ ; Reduced Three-
and-a-lialf per Cents., 101 to 101 f ; the Three per
Cents., 94-a to 94/ ; and the Long Annuities 12 9-16 ;
Bank Stock has been firm at 1711 to 172}; Exche-
quer Bills are 495. to 51s. premium.
From 1 and 1 per cent. premium, which were the
current rates yesterday, the Canada Debentures have
this morning improved to 11 per cent. premium.
They are now regularly introduced into the English
Market, and will be sold as a Scrip until the 9th of
January next, by which time the second instalment
will become due, the first being required on Thurs-
day next. The name they bear is " Canada Guaran-
teed Four per Cent. Debentures."
The Foreign Market has been rather more ani-
mated. Spanish Five per Cents have fluctuated from
184 to 181 ; and the Three per Cants. from 23/ to
24k ; the French Five per Cents. have been done at
118 f. 50c.; Mexican Bonds have been higher for Ac-
count, having touched 32 and 321, but they have
since given way to 311 ; Russian Bonds are worth
1121 ; and Dutch Two-and-a-Half per Cents., 52k
to 52k.

The Railway Shares are quite neglected, but
holders keep firm. Great Western are 251 ; Ditto,
New, 14i ; and York and North Midland, 43k. prem.
Brighton are 14k, and Birmingham and Derby, 591
discount. Provincial Bank of Ireland Shares are
18} premium.

MANCHESTER STOCK. EXCHANGE, DEC. 19.—There
is no material alteration in our market; prices con-
tinue tolerably firm. Midland Counties' Fifths, 2/.
6s; Manchester and Birmingham, 20; Bristol and
Exeter, 47i ; Dublin and Drogheda, 24 to 22 ; Man-
chester and Salford Water Works, 52k.

CLOSING PRICES.
BRITISH FUNDS.
Rank Stock
3 per Cent. Red. ........ 94g Ditto Bonds ....... —pm
3 per Cent. C0n5....
3i per Cent. Red... 101 Ditto New Annuities...
New 3i per Cent — Ex. Bills, 1,000/....2d. 49 pm
Nqw 5 per Cen. - Ditto 5001...... 51 pm
Long Annuities to expire Ditto Small
Jan. 1860 ...... 12 9.16 Bank Stock for Acct.
Oct. 1859
Jan. 1860 — Consols for Opg.
f FUNDS.
Portuguese, 5 per cent.
Ditto, New Ditto
Prussian, 5 per cent.
',Russian, 5 pei cent 1124
Ditto, Metallic ...... .
Spanish, 5 per cent
Ditto, Deferred....
•
French, 5 per eent.llBf. 50
Exchange —f. —c
French, 3 per cent —f. —c.
Dutch, 2.4 per cent. 52a.
Ditto, 5 per cent. .. 100 k