The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-07 00:00:00

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

• FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMES.—The intelligence from China and India,
published exclusively in the Times of this morning, ex-
cited the greatest interest in the City, and all the places
of commercial resort were occupied with it, almost to
the exclusion of every other topic. It was the more
gratifying to the merchants, as they had hardly ex-
pected that so rapid a progress could have, been made
in .the military operations against China ; and it need
scarcely be adverted to, what immense commercial inte-
rests are involved in that enterprise. It is almost un-
necessary to say, that not a syllable of news from the
same quarter transpired through any private channel in
the course of the day, so that even the great speculators
in tea, who have usually been so active •n these" ocea-
sions, were indebted to the Times for all the information
they obtained. The market for this article, so import-
ant was the news, was quite paralyzed, so that little spe-
culation occurred.

We have had a much firmer market for the English
securities to-day, our intelligence from China being con-
sidered highly satisfactory. This was also the first day
for private transfer in the stocks, which have been
closed for the January dividends, but business was not
exceedingly brisk. It was checked in a measure, we be-
lieve, by the withdrawal by the East India Company of
monies afloat in the market on the deposit of stock, which
caused a temporary scarcity. The fact that the divi-
dends were paid to-day on East India Stock, is quite suf-
ficient to account for this movement.
SUN.—Neither the accounts from China nor the Revenue
Returns have had the slightest effect on the Funds.
From the success of the China expedition it might have
been supposed the Funds would have advanced, but there
are rumours respecting an extensive funding of Exche-
quer Bills, which are quite sufficient to keep down prices.
Consols were 89+ to for the 14th instant, and 89i to
for Money. Exchequer Bills realised 18s. to 20s. prem.
India Stocks advanced to 247.

The Foreign Bonds were inanimate, nor was there any
disposition to speculate in the Railway Market. Great
Western, Brighton, and Birmingham, were about the
same as yesterday. Spanish Bonds were a trifle better,
viz., 25i to t. Portuguese not quite so good, the New
being 32i.

NEW THEORY_ OF MESMERISM.

Al the Queen's Rooms, Hanover-square, yesterday,
my. delivered a lecture upon a new theory of
Mesinerisin, to have been discovered by Mr.
Baird, of Manciesr, "an eminent surgeon." There
l
were about sixty persons p: went, many of them ladies,
and, to judge from their appearaOce, and the numerous
equipages which awaited them at the doors, the com-
pany consisted for the most part of the "higher class."
Whatever may have been said of those who attended Mr.
Duncan's previous lectures in London, it is certain that
on this occasion not more than half-a-dozen entered the
lecture-room without paying at the do:V. However ex-
traordinary therefore might appear the
patience with
which they sat out a dull lecture, and still duller illus-
trations, it could not be accounted for on the st.lPPosition
that they were friendly visitors, who came, ''Without
curiosity, merely to support a favoured empiric. Indeed,
there was a good deal in the bearing of the lecturer h
im-
self to impress any but the most ill-natured that he was
not an imposter (as according to his statement he ha.'
been styled), and that though his theory may be of little
,vorth, he considers it supremely grand and important.
The first part_of his discourse consisted chiefly of an
apology for the Mesmerists, of whose views and mode of
proceeding he showed the most profound ignorance. He
gave a clear, but somewhat stale and tiresome account
of the opposition which all new theories in science and
inventions in art have met with, and the persecutions
which their propounders have endured since the days of
Copernicus, to Harvey and Fulton ; and he very reason-
ably claimed that the facts offered by the Mesmerists
and his own instructor, Mr. Baird, should at least be
investigated before they were rejected. Ho read an ex-
position of Mr. Baird's theory, written by that gentle-
man himself ; from which we learned, that, looking
steadfastly in a particular direction, and at one object,
for some time, produces congestion of the brain, and a
train of inexplicable derangements, in the condition and
functions of the heart, &c., which, he affirms, constitute
the mesmeric sleep 1 The absurdity of this doctrine
was not greater than that of the method which the lecturer
employed for proving its infallibility. A very interest-
ing little girl, some twelve or thirteen years of age,
whefts has frequently been the subject of the experiment,
was placed in a chair. The lecturer then lifted up her
right arm with the index finger erect, opposite to her
face, and directed her to look at that finger. She sat for
little more than four minutes in that position, when he
declared her to be asleep. He then fixed her arms and
legs in a straightened position, extended from her body,
and, upon examination, we found the muscles tense, and
the limbs in the rigid state sometimes observed in mesme-
rised persons. Mr. Duncan, after a time, called to her in
a loud voice to stand up and come to him. It was not
at all wonderful, and (what Mr. Duncan seems not to
know) not at all like anything ever related of naesme=
rism, that she did stand up and go to him ; and more,
that she knelt down when he loudly bade her to do so ;
and clasped her hands together as if in prayer, when
bidden in the same manner.

Five gentlemen afterwards volunteered to subject
themselves to experiment. They were placed in a row
with their backs to the audience, and instructed to fix
their eyes intently- upon cprks fastened to their foreheads.
Thus they sat, nearly half an hour, squinting, for that is
the mode of regarding the cork, or other object, enjoined
by the new theory, natural squinters being, by Mr.
Duncan's account, not susceptible ! but they sat in vain,
and arose at length not less awake, though more fatigued
than when they sat down.
If there be any truth in the theory, nothing was said
or done at the Queen's Rooms yesterday that can, in the
slightest degree, advance it.