Star.
London, England, 1825-12-21 00:00:00

MILITARY PROMOTIONS.

Commission in the Montgomeryshire Royal—Regiment of Militia,
signed by the Lord Lieutenant of the County of Montgomery.
Charles Gardner Humphreys, Esq. to be Captain.

Comnsistion slitned,by the Vice-Lieutenant of Some
James Benjamin Coles, Esq. to be Deputy Lieutenant.

Commissions in the Lower Blackburn Regiment of Local Militia,
signed by the Lord Lieutenant of the County Palatine of Lancaster
William Adam Hutton, El. to be Captain, •ice Richard Pilking-.
ton, resigned ; Henry Hawarden Faaakerley, Esq. to be ditto,
•ice William Ormerod Pilkington, resigned.

EMBARRASSMENTS IN THE MONEY

MARKET.
,liii,

PROM THE CALEDONIAN MERCURY.
The commerce of a country may be embarrassed by
various causes; but the malady by which we are at

. .
present afflicted, which, however, appears to have
greatly abated, is a confirmed case of domestic alarm.

At the close of the last war, when our commerce was
excluded trom the Continent by the hostile decrees of
Napoleon, and from the United States by the war with
tha. country, the want of a mas ket was the great evil
under which it suffered. In a long course of prosperous
industry, it had gradually extended over every past of
the world ; there was scarcely any country on which
we did not depend for an outlet to our surplus
produce; and suddenly this great and expanding trade
was pent up by unnatural violence nithin our own nar-
row territory. Our merchants were accordingly op-
pressed with a load of unsaleable produce; tride and
industry languislsed, and the country was filled with
workmen, starving for want of employment. There
were bankruptcies in consequence, and an alarm, and
a great demand for money.—At pre.ent we have none
of these evils to struggle with. It is merely an alarm—
a want of confidence which has suddenly spread

through the mercantile community ; and which has
originated in overtrading ; in that ardent speculation
which is the consequence of a continued course of con-
fidence and high credit, and which is festered by pro-
fuse issues of paper currency. In a rich and trading
country, there is no doubt, that when credit and con-
fidence ate high, all the various banking establishments
are anxious to circulate their paper ; they are competitors
in this line of industry; they are rival money dealers;
and like all tivals they are eager to offer their gocds for
sale. Hence a great facility of Gbtaining credit; and
hence a variety of rash commercial adventurers start
up, who, standing on no solid ground, are overthrown
by the first adverse blast. An alarm commences ; a sun
upon the banks for specie, and all the evil cimsequentes
which have unfoi tuna•ely taken place.
The difficulty is how to find a remedy against such
evils without unduly restraining the freedom of trade,
Where such convulsions arise, however, the Legislature
have not only a clear right, but it is their bounden
duty to inquire,whether any precautions can be adopted
to prevent a recurrence of such enormous evils? For.
merly it was the high and exclusive prerogative of the
sovereign to supply the community with currency. No
one was allowed to interfere in this important duty.
IBut, by the introduction of paper, any individual may
slow set up for a dealer in money, and fill an extensive
district with his notes, which circulate among all ranksl
lon the faith of his name. In these circumstances, con-
sidering that, by the circulation of this money, every 1
individual is liable to become the creditor of the money
dealers, would it be any stretch of power in the Legis-
lature to exact from them some security as to their abi-
lity to pay what they issue ; to take care that they shall
not send forth a supply of currency which is not worth
its current value, and thus eventually involve thou-
sands in misery ?
We adverted in our Paper of Thursday last, to that
absurd and pernicious law which restricts the number
of partners in an English Bank to six individuals. 'file
strange impolicy of this law must be manifest, when it
is considered that the respectability of Banks, and the
confidence of the public in their stability, is the only
sure check to domestic alarm. Now, the more we
multiply the partners of a Bank, the greater will be
their wealth, and the greater the security to the public.
The law imposing this limitation ought clearly to be re-
pealed; and if, in addition to this, some inquiry were
made, and some security exacted from every money
dealer in Eigland, of his ability to pay what be issues,
the trade would be placed on a safer basis, and the com-
munity secured from the evils of an insecure currency,
arising from the insolvency of Banks. But it is vain to
imagine, that when the currency of a country consists
almost entirely of paper, it will be possible entirely to
provide against those periodical shocks to public credit,
which seem necessarily to arise from its free use. The
only practicable restraint on the issue of paper is its im-
mediate convertibility into specie, at the will of the
holder ; now we have at present this restraint ; an over-
issue of paper is necessarily returned on the banks for
specie; and yet this check has not been sufficient to
secure the community against the present alarm. The
truth is, that we cannot restrain the spirit of confidence
among commercial men; in a season of prosperous
trade it will be carried to a great, perhaps an undue
extent; money will be abundant and easily got; the
banks will be liberal in their discounts; and as long as
mankind are ambitious, and fond of dashing schemes,
that lead, as they suppose, by a short cut to wealth,
they will embark in rash and desperate speculations ;
failures will be the consequence of this overtrading ;
alarms will arise, and all their evil consequences. We
may endeavour to modify these evils, and the experi•
meet ought certainly to be tried; but we doubt much
whether a e can altogether prevent the oscillations of a
mercantile community between the opposite extreme;
of high confidence at one time and of alarm and dis-
trust at another. These evils seem in a certain degree
inherent in the very nature of credit, and of paper cur-
rency, its great auxiliary.
p -41
•
The late panic has been detrimental to the disposal
of landed property by auction: the sales intended for
yesterday and Monday, at Garra way's, were with
drawn, and several %%Lich had bee., announced put off.

tHE IMPERIAL FAMILY OF RUSSIA.
The late Emperor of Russia has left three brothers
and two sisters. His bothers are the Grand Dukes
Constantine, Nicholas, and Michael ; his sisters, Mary
Grand Duchess of Saxe Weimar, and Anne Princess
of Orange.
Constantine, as we hare alreidy Oates!, was born in
1779. His grandmother, the Empress Catherine, caused
him to be so named with reference to her views on Con-
stantinople, and in his youth she caused a medal to be
struck with the inscription, " Constantine King of the
Greeks:' He was of an impetuous disposition, and
early :hewed a disposition for arms. He served under
Suwarrow in the campaign of 1799, against France,
and meant to have joined the Austrian army under the
Archduke Charles, in 1800, but the defeat of the Rus
sians in Switzerland, occasioned his moan to St. Pe.
tersburgh. In 1802, he paid a visit to Vienna, where
the Emperor of Austria gave him the honorary corn•
mand of a Hussar Regiment. In 1805, he took the
command of a Russian corps, destined to act against
France, and took part, at the head of his Regiment of
Guards, in the unfortunate battle of Austerlitz. He fol-
lowed his brother, the Emperor, in the campaigns of
1812, 1813, and 1814, aid entered with him thy City
of Paris, but did not accompany him to L mdoti. He
fit st went to Russia, and then to the Congress of Vienna.
After the second deposition of Bonaparte, Constantine
was made-Viceroy of Poland. This Pi bee has not
been •ery fortunate in his matrimonial connections. He
was marrizd at t'ire eat ly age of seventeen to the Princess
Julia, of Sase•Coburg, from whom he was divorced
in April, 1820, for the purpose of marrying the Princ,:ss
of Lowicz; but this L tdy not being of Royal extrac-
tion, a decree was issued by the Emperor Alexander,
with assent of the SC3 ste, assigning the succession to
the Throne to the Archduke Nicholas. The latter, who
is the child son of the Emperor Paul, is seventeen years
younger than Constantine. He has never been engaged
in the pursuit of arms, but has travelled over many
parts of Europe, and in paricular has visited England,
through which he made a tour of careful inspection
with his brother Michael. Nicholas married, in 1817,
the Princess Charlotte Wilhelmina of Prussia, by w hoer
he has a son and two daugnters. Constantine has had
no issue by either marriage.
'lke following is a description of Taganrog, where
the Emperor of Russia died, extracted from Dr. Clarke's
Travels:—Taganrog is situate upon the cliff of a very
lofty promontory, commanding an extensive prospect
of the Sea of Azof, and all the European coast, to the
mouths of the Don. Azof itself is visible, in fair wea-
ther, from the heights of the citadel. At present the
number of inhabitants does not exceed 5,000. The
water, as in the Don, is very unwholesome when the
winds carry off the salt water; but when a current sets
in from the sea, it is more salutary. The foundation of
a town, intended for the metropolis of the empire, in a
place liable to insuperable disadvantages, was not ono
of the wisest plans of Peter the Great. The water here
is so shallow, that no haven could possibly have been
constructed, unless by forming canals at an expense
beyond all calculation. The ships now performing
quarantine lie off at the distance of ten miles ; and all
vessels drawing from eight to ten feet water cannot ap-
proach neater to the town than fifteen verses. Taganrog
forme' ly contained 70,000 inhabitants ; but, in conse-
quence of a capitulation made with the Tuiks, the ori-
ginal city was entirely rased. Its revival may be re•
terred to the establishment of the Armenian colony at
Nakhtshivan. At present all the best houses are in its
suburbs. The citadel contains a miserable village, full
of ruins, exhibiting at the same time, traces of consi-
derable wink's now abandoned. The inhabitants enter-
tain hopes that the Empetor will visit and inspect the
place, and that then it o ill become a town of the first
importance in the Empire. There is not any situation
in the south of Russia more favourable for commerce,
were it not for the want of water. Ships from the
Black Sea find here, in readiness for embarkation, all
the produce of Siberia, with the caviare, and other
commodities of Astracan ; whereas at Cherson and
Odessa they have to wait far lading after their arrival.
But it is only during three months in the year that
commerce can be carried on at Taganrog.

A letter from Paris states that the Bank of France
had, within the week, thrown an enormous sum into
circulation by discounts.
Dovca, Dec. 19.—This afternoon, the Po lugger,
belonging to Messrs. Rothschild and Co. arrived from
France, bringing ten chests of gold, said to contain
100,0001. • Several dispatch boats have arrived from
the other side since four o'clock ; and several expresses,
both from London and France, have been forwarAed in
the course of to-day. Yesterday morning, a large
French galley, of ten oars and eleven men, was taken
by the Coast Blockade seamen, on suspicion of being a
smuggling boat. There was nothing found in her, but
various bales of silks and Bandana handkerchiefs were
picked up in various directions, not a great distance from
where the galley was taken. The men have been sent
into confinement for examination,and the goods secured
in the Customhouse. _ _

Monday an Inquest was held before J.W. WHATELIY,
Esq. at the Woolpack Inn, Moor-street, Liverpool, on
view of the body of Richard Perry, who, we have al-
ready mentioned, was murdered in his shop by an Irish-
man, named Michael Ford. When the Jury had re-
turned from viewing the body, the prisoner was brought
in, heavily ironed, and was accommodated w ith a chair
on the left hand of the Coroner, opposite the place re-
served for the witnesses. He was dressed in a blue
coat, with a dirty red handkerchief round his neck. His
appearance indicated an uncommon degree of hardness
and inflexibility, and during the whole examination he
behaved with great indifference, his countenance
scarcely undergoing any change, even while the widow
of the deceased was detailing, with great anguish of
mind, the circumstances of his ingratitude and barba-
rity. He was for a long time concealed from her view,
out of regard to her feelings, but when she looked for a
moment to identify him, and exclaimed, with a tone of
terror, Ay, that's the man !" he looked on one side,
as if not wishing to meet her gaze. He is about five
feet ten inches high, and not very stout. His cheek
bones are high, his eyes large and full, but not dark,
and his hair is of a light sandy cast, bei- g mach curled.
The first witness examined was the niece, and then a
woman who entered the shop immediately after the
murder; Mrs. Perry was nest examined,. and some
other persons who assisted in carrying the body from
the shop into the kitchen, and lastly the surgeon and
the Liverpool Police-officer. The investigation occupied
nearly six hours, at the end of which tune the Jury re-
turned a verdict of " Wilful murder against Mich .el
Ford," and he was forthwith committed by the Coroner
to take his trial.

• • -•• . • •••• •

• WUNTIT BANIEts

BATH, Measure 20:
The erects of the embarrassments which have rice- ntif
prevailed, have in some degree been felt in this city
during the past week; but froth the promptitude with
which all demands were met by the 13 inks, confidence
remained unshaken. This mornirig, however, consider-
able agitation *.+s excited, in consequence of the very
respectable firm of Messrs. Cavenagh, Brown, and Co.
having posted the following placard :
" Messrs. Cavenagh, Broitne. and Ce. with agonizing feelings,
are obliged to inform their friends and the public, that from the
overwhelming pressure of the moment, and the impossibility
of converting their securities into cash, they are reluctantly com-
pelled for the present to suspend their payments.
" Bath Bank, December 20."

A most respectable Meeting was yesterday held at
Chelmsford, at which Lord Petre, T. Bramston, Esq.
J. J. Tuffnell, Esq. and a numerous list of the Magis•
trace atozl respectable inhabitants of the County were
present, at which a declaration, was adopted, expressive
'of their utmost confidence in the stabil,ty of the firm of
Sparrow, Hanbury, and Co. Bankers in that town.

BRIGHTON, Damn= 19.
This town has been the scene Wino ordinary degree of
confusion to-day—the cause,. she Banking-house of
Messrs. Lashmar, Moggridge, and Co. in St. James's-
street ; and the Banking-horse of Messrs. Tamplin,
Creary, Gregory, and Co. in Castle-square, having
severally suspended their payments. In consequence
of these events, the run upon the other Banks—the 011
Bank, Mitchell, Mills, and Co. the Union Bank, Mesta.
Hall, Vest, Borer, and Co. and the Banking-house
of Messrs. Wissney and Co. has been incessant: but
every demand that has been made upon them has been
promptly ansiaered.