Star.
London, England, 1825-08-30 00:00:00

-77110741,11!".117"

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!at par; while, on the latter, therevill be bot a quarter's
dividend due—leaving their, nett price at 71. In com-
paring the relative prices of the two kinds •of Stock,
this circumstance should always be remembered. It
appears then, that the holder of the new Three per
Cents. is in this situation. If he had kept his old Stock,
it would now sell for £100; but. he consented to a di-
minution of one-fifth of his income, and the four-fifths
which be still receives, sells, notwithstanding, for £94
13s. 4d. so that the moneyoralue of his reduced Stock,
is already within £5.65. Bd. of the value of the unre-
duced Stock. This is an evident proof of the soundness
of our first opinion, that the holders of the new Stock
will have no reason to regret their bargain; and we
repeat, confidently, that the French Three per Cents.
will continue to gain very considerably, in relative value,
both upim the old Stock and the intended Four and a
Half per Cents.
In this country the Funds have just experienced a
remarkable depression ; within these few months we
have seen Consols at 96—they were yesterday sold
for money at 87k. Our cotemporaries, one and all,
impute this circumstance to the sudden scarcity of
money. No doubt ;—but what occasions the scarcity
Money ? The sudden demand for it. True again:
—but whence the cause of this sudden demand ? The
eagerness of the great Stockholders to realise even the
present prices, before the Funds shall fall still lower.
This is also certain. But why the apprehension ?
Here our friends leave us in the dark. Some say
the Bank has effected, or is meditating a consi-
derable reduction of its issues; which we also think
probable, and that:therein they do wisely : others, that
the principal stock-jobbers are withdrawing them-
selves from the speculations which have recently dis-
graced the Stock Exchange, and, marvellous to relate,
will no longer, from conscientious motives, countenance
fictitious bargains. Still the remote cause of this change
of measures is to be discovered. And when we re-
member that the Bank Directors, as well as the great
Proprietors of Stock, are among the most shrewd,
keen-sighted, and best informed of mankind, we must
believe that the present aspect of affairs in Europe has
something to do with the question.
We are not ignorant, however, that several causes
have concurred to raise the price of the Public Funds
in this country to a preposterous and unnatural extent,
utterly incompatible with the reasonable profits of
capital in an industrious community, which causes are
now beginning to subside. Foremost among them
must be placed the tricks of Stock-jobbers, or, as old Dr.
Price used to say, " the execrable practices of the Alley:.
We appeal to the judgment of any experienced Stock-
broker, whether, if under pain of felony, no sale of
Stott had ever taken place, except bona fide and posi-
tively for money, the price of Consols would have
risen about 85 ? Whereas, by means of time-bargains
and speculations for a rise, concurred in and assisted
by the leading proprietors, there is no limit to which
they may not be forced op. The re-action consists in
the efforts of those speculators, who gradually have
become possessed of great quantities of Stock, first
to realise their profits, and then, when the mar-
kets become depressed, to sell for a fall. A curious
effect of time-bargains may be !seen, on reference
to the prices just before the French Revolution.
From the peace in 1783, until the eve of the latter event,
Consols remained tolerably steady, about 80 or 85.
But in 1792, when the King of FRANCE was a prisoner,
and only three months before his murder—when it was
manifest to all Europe that a great convulsion was at
hand, Consols were forced up to 94, purely by specula-
tion. Five years afterwards they fell to 47.

This forenoon we received the Fankfort Journal of
the 23.1 instant ; it quotes from the Oriental Spectator
a long article, which we subjoin, although we must
candidly confess we do not believe one word of it. It
relates to a treacherous massacre of some Turks by the
Greeks, at Syra, related in the true French style, and
as romantic and improbable as any tale of fiction or
melodrama, that has been produced for the last twenty
years. The following is the article: •