The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-04 00:00:00

PORTUGAL.

. -
We have received letters from our Lisbon correspon
dent of the 25th of December.

The efforts made to sustain the funds at the prices
quoted at our last dates have proved ineffectual. The
Five per' Cent. Scrip of the home debt- had fallen, on the
17th instant, from 71 to 65, and up to the 25th no sales
at a higher price had been made. The rage for the
formation of capitalist companies still continued. A
new Company, with a capital, on paper, of 20,000 contos,
upwards of four millions and a half sterling, had sprung
up in one day, and gone through all the stages of its in-
corporation in twenty-four hours after the submission of
the project to the Sovereign. It is to be feared that
these speculations arise too much out of emergencies in
the money market, and others of a political kind, to
afford indications of a healthy state of things either in
finances or politics.
Mr. Tozer, the English gentleman who has been im-
prisoned iu various gaols and fortresses in Lisbon,
Caimbra, and Oporto on a charge of aiding and abetting
the designs of the persons implicated in the late revolt,
has been brought to trial, after as incarceration of up
wards of nine months, and acquitted.

FLANDERS MAIL.
BRUSSEtS, DEC. 31.—The average price of Wheat
last week was 16f. 71c., and that Of Eye 10f. 43e. per
hectolitre. •

There is no alteration in the duties on importation
and exportation.

Their Majesties arrived yesterday evening, at nine
o'clock, by a special train from Valenciennes.
The Senate adjourned indefinitely on the 31st, after
having voted the project of law relative to the treaty
with the Zollverein.
A correspondent at Paris informs us, that if no com-
mercial arrangement should immediately take place be-
tween Belgium and France, it is at least reciprocally and
amicably agreed that the status quo shall continue.—
Courier Beige.
BRUSSELS, JAN. I.—The Moniteur Beige, of this day,
contains the official promulgation of the treaty with the
Zollverein, with his Majesty's sanction.

A Sur "Ber."—Miss Elizabeth Peabody offered
to lay a wager, on the Presidential election, with any
eligible young man, viz., that if Polk were elected, she
was the winner, and should have her opponent for a
husband ; but if Polk were defeated, then her opponent
was the winner, and would be entitled to have her for a
wife

NOVEL ARTICLE or IMPORT PROM AIISTRALIA....-
We have been shown some candied peaches from Sydney,
which are said to be the first which have reached Eng-
land from our Australian colonies. They are quite
equal in flavour to the French dried plums, and a much
finer fruit.--Manchester Guardian.

Tn FREE CHURCH COLLEGE.—Lord Jeffrey has
addresied the following letter to the editor of the Scots-
man :---"Sir,—My attention having been called (for the
first time this morning) to a statement in your paper of
last Wednesday, with reference to a report of my having
been one of the munificent contributors to the projecttd
college of the Free Church, I am bound to disclaim the
credit of any such splendid liberality, and to state that I
have not subscribed anything to that undertaking.. It
will be obliging in you, therefore, to mention the fact in
your next publication. I am, Sir, &c., F. thIFFRItY.-
24, Morray-pleioe, Dec. 17.
ARRIVAL OF THE AUSTRIAI4 AMBASSADOR.—We
have to annouiace the arrival in this country of his Ex-
cellency Count, Maurice Dietrichsen, the newly accre-
dited Ambassisdor from Austria to the British Court,
who reached Chandos House, .aecompanied by his
Countess, at a late hour on Tuesday night, travelling via
Brussels from Vienna. His Excellency will have an
audience of her Majesty on Monday next, to present his
credentials.

The investiture of the Knights of St. Patrick is
postponed from to-day, the 4th, to Monday, the 6th of
January. • -
FORGERY AT 'BEIM—An audacious forgery was
committed on the bank of Messrs. Oakes, and Co., in
Bury, last week, by a person employed as clerk to the
Norwich and London Direct Railway Company, named
Boning, from. London. He had obtained leave of ab-
sence to spend Christmas with his friends, and some sur-
prise was excited by his not returning at the time ap-
pointed. On the, bank book being examined, an entry
was found of a payment of 1021. for which the directors
had given no ori3er, 'and on inquiry it was found that the
money had been paid to Boning on a cheque bearing
forged signatur es of Mr. Eagle, Mr. Prigg, and Mr.
Beard, three of the directors of the company.—Chelten-
ham Chronicle.

LIABILITY OT TITHES AND CHARITABLE INSTITU-
TIONS TO BE ItATED.—On Thursday a meeting of the
churchwardens and overseers of St. George the Martyr,
Southwark, was held in the vestry-room of the church,
for the purpose of making a rate towards the relief of
the poor, when two very important points were mooted,
viz., that of rati mg the stipend of the rector, and which
affects every lip ring in the city of London ; the other
point, relative to the rating of charitable property,
which also' affects every charitable institution iu the
kingdom. The, Rev. Mr. Horton, the rector, remon-
strated against. this attempt to diminish his stipend,
which was only 400 L, out of which he was compelled by
law to pay a esnraate 150/. If his income were thus re-
duced, he should apply-to Parliament for an increase of
his stipend. After, some discussion, in the course of
which it was stated that counsel's opinion had been taken
on the point, and that they bad pronounced the stipend
of the clergynit in to be legally rateable, it was moved
and carried that. the Rev. Mr. Ilorton's stipend be rated
at only 1501. per annum. The next question of rating
Bethlem Hospital was then considered. The opinions of
counsel taken oat this point were directly opposite. Mr.
Gutch, the solicitor to the parish, read the judgment
given by Lord Denman in the case of the Quaker school
at Croydon Gibe try
which was v. the Inhabitants of Croydon), and
Precisely in point to Bethlem Hospital, and
in that case Lord Denman laid it down that the ratal
was good. The Governors themselves knew from their
own counsel whom they had employed to defend the ap-
peals, that the y were liable. It wan ultimately agreed
that a case sh( mid be drawn up, embodying the whole
of the points, t o be laid, if possible,' before her Majesty's
Attorney-Gen nal, or some other eminent Queen's coun-
sel, for his °pi) non, for the future guidance of the pariah
officers,