The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-05-17 00:00:00

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FRO3I OUR LONDON CORRESPONDENT.

,PP---

MONDAY MORNING.
THE leader of the House of Commons, Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, gave the Roman Catholic members a feast of
hear, hears, cheer, cheers, on Tuesday evening ; but he
got—luckless wight, pitiful pugilist--a damaging blow for
his pains before the night was over. The motion before
the House was an important moral one, propounded in
terms modest to a fault, by Mr. THO2UAS CHAMBERS ; it
merely went for a measure to " facilitate the recovery of
personal liberty in certain cases," those cases having
reference to conventual establishments, such as nunneries,
to permit of visitation or inspection by two or three pro-
perly authorised persons, at various periods, on the same
plan'as other asylums are visited with the most salutary
results. lam not going to meddle with Mr. CHAMBERS'
maiden speech—here and there it was crude ; but it was
fragrant with damning proofs of necessity in favour of the
motion. At a rather late hour Lord JOHN RUSSELL got
up flurried ; he knew he was going to do what is called
in university language " not the cheese.', He opposed
the bill. LUCAS and MURPHY moved about extatic, and
screamed the leader on till he appeared " clean daft,"
and talked away at no end of its being the boast of
Englishmen that the law of the country was all-powerful
on the subject. Why, then, your emasculated Ec-
clesiastical Titles Bill ? Then his inane babble
about Habeas Corpus ; how are the deluded in-
mates of a convent to get it, JOHNNIE ? by
tying a bit of paper under the wing of a stolen pigeon,
and letting the bird fly out of the grating, eh ? Then
again, said the Protestant Lord JOHN, many of those
ladies entered the institutions from feelings of deep devo-
tion, and with a view of passing their lives in devout con-
templation of the greatness and glory of GoD. Sic nearly
spoke his lordship. "Many." How many ? Is one incar-
cerated ? Yes. Then the power ought to be abolished—
or at least inquired into. Yet again, quoth the leader of
the coalition cabinet in the House of Commons. if the
motion were carried, they mu.,t pass a law, not for the in-
spection, but for the suppression of nunneries. This is
going beyond the question. Oh, but says Lord JOHN
RussELL,—author of the Durham letter, written most ap-
propriately, by accident on purpose, as O'Coe:YELL would
have said, on the eve of the city election, when Lord JOHN
knew he needed a lift, even if a left-handed one, to get
into the stirrups,—leave the subject of convents and their
inmates to the intelligence and common sense of Ro-
man Catholics themselves ! Fie on you, JOHN RUSSELL ;
and then your peroration about the indignation—bothera-
tion of the Irish nation if the measure were carried
People asked what was the meaning of the noble lord's
speech ? Some said that Mr. CHAMBERS would not have
carried his motion if Lord JOHN RUSSELL had held his
tongue. Certain one thing is, that the Roman Catholic
Irish members, the ultramontaners especially, never left
the house since they had a footing in it with greater glee
with Lord JOHN RUSSELL and his speech, which was
lauded to the skies as magnificent. But Lord JOHN was
licked, and his government kicked. He has one or two
more such operations in store, and the ministers know it,
feel it, and shake. I cannot help repeating that a new
member, with a maiden speech, beat the ABERDEEN
Government in the plenitude of their power ; that all the
coalitionists got were cheers from a handful of Papists—
their natural enemies !

It would be altogether supererogatory, and by no
means news, to tell you that the conduct of ALGERNON
PERCY, D.C.L., Fek. S., the second son of the second
Duke of NORTHUMBERLAND, and now Duke of that ilk
himself, has been much canvassed since my last commu-
nication, in connection with the monstrous dock-yard
doings, now developing themselves like ugly fungi, and
much faster than healthier vegetation. One of the pre.
sent heads of the Admiralty, a good Conservative, sup-
porter of Church and State—Bible and Crown for ever !
a friend to the poor, whether in dock-yard or the work-
house, told me that the Duke's error lay in his not
looking sharper. He had great power—took everybody to
be aa gentlemanly as himself—good easy man—he is blame-
able and blamed for not looking deeper into the administra.
tion of the details of his high office. This is the head and
front of NORTHUMBERLAND'S offending. I have it as I
have stated from the mouth of one of themselves now in
office. It was capital to see and hear the Duke give his
evidence, there was such nonchalance about it. In one
of the c. L. I. o. papers in the Spectator—not RINTOUL'S
newspaper, but the periodical of the days of ADDISON—
we read of a fast man of that distant period, who would
sign a deed conveying thousands, sans ceremonie, without
pulling off his glove. The Duke's manner out me
in mind of that hero of the Sir CHARLES COLDSTREAM
School. " I don't know, really," said the Duke to a vital
question ; " I didn't want to renew the vexatious ques-
tion ;" " I took no notice." Of a vast number of ques-
tions put and answered, the samples given form the gist
of his grace's evidence. Calm, provokingly cold, when
a biting Whig (I remember no names !) put a ques-
tion, the Duke answered with a suavity worthy of imita-
tion. It is a great acquisition, if you are not phlegmatic,
to be able to keep your temper. I could not help remark- 1
ing, how much the Duke resembles his late brother : tall '
and of fair complexion, and dressing in the same style—
splendid blue frock of course, trousers of any colour ex- I
cept black or brick-dust. The present Duke is a quiet
man, but well vindicates the character of England for
grand hospitality. He is a scholar, though a sailor from
eleven years of age—fond of the fine arts antiquities
also—l•Tinevelaean-telling undeniable truths of the great 1
prophets of the Bible. It is stated that the Duke was
never angry in his life but once ; he was then Lord
PRUDHOE, and a captain in the navy ; he had been ;
" mooning" about with his ship near Alexandria, there was
nothing doing—not a fly buzzed. At Alexandria cer-
tain excavations were going on ; PRUDHOE took a hand
in them,—paid the beggars well who dug for him ;
they had to be well watched—greater thieves never (
were crucified. After an outlay of a large sum, Lord
PRUDHOE succeeded in raising to the surface a pair
of colossal lions in red sandstone, weighing, I hesi-
tate to mention how many tons. No sculpture has
ever been produced like that of the period ; if you doubt,
go, during these Whit-holidays, and look.—admire, and
then kiss the stony lips of the granite MEMNON in the
British Museum. MICHAEL ANGELO, great father of
the graceful and magnificent CANOVA, WESTMACOTT,
CHANTREY, BAILY, all of you would have given your
fortunes, could you have endowed with such love and life
the statues you have all but made immortal. But ho !
Touching PRUDHOE'S Alexandrian lions, he paid well for
raising them out of the opthalmic dust, and chartered a
British ship to take them to England. Soon after his
lordship returned home, heard of his lions, went down
to the dock with a friend or two, saw the antique cargo
got out of the hold—beheaded ! The graceless buffer at
Alexandria thought he could stow the sculpture better if
the heads of the lions were sawn off ! It was even so ;
and to this day you may see them with their heads
puttied on. Lord PRUDHOE stormed more at this
than he has done at AUGUSTUS STAFFORD. The
Earl of DERBY, you will perceive, came to the rescue
of Mr. STAFFORD both before the committee and in his
place in the House of Peers. The noble earl was quick
about it in the latter assembly. A mis-statement of his
evidence appears in an evening newspaper, published at
the usual hour in the afternoon ; soon after five o'clock
his lordship calls the attention of the peers to the subject,
contrasting the inaccuracy of one evening organ with the
accuracy of another,—all within an hour or so of publica-
tion. I remember lesser men being more periphrastic,
when complaining of the papers, two or three days after
the cause of complaint had appeared in the journal ; a
" mushroom" generally gave the house to understand
that he never saw the paper in question—that " his atten-
tion had been called to the erroneous statement." Fudge !
At it again—more pictures and less need of them. Ever
since the death of the late King of the French, and months
before it, a great number of packages arrived at Clare-
mont from Paris, addressed to the " old foozzle." Many
of them were carefully lined with oil cloth to keep water
away ; they contained pictures chiefly collected from the
Spanish school of art. The Custom-house authorities
always had orders from our Government to let LOUIS
have the packages without examination or payment of
Customs' duties. Louls was a remarkable man, I need
not tell your readers ; even in exile in his son-in-law's
(LEoroLD's) pretty house at Claremont—beautifully
situated in Woodland-vale, a brief " spin" from the me-
tropolis,—he used to order a bottle of Medoc, and jingle
a glass with humble visitors if they had the entrie.
Clever, shrewd, and varied in conversation, he outshone
all his children; if you had not known him, one would
have taken him for a pedagoguist—a very rich, somewhat
learned, and retired London tradesman, who had paid as '
much attention to foreign politics as to parish ones ; and
there are many such within the bills of mortality. But,
for all this, and his capabilities as a linguist, ancient and
modern, I question if he in the fine arts was a real judge.
A man is not made so in a day, or by mecha-
nical teachings ; he must be to the manner born
—have an eye to the beautiful—must not look at
a picture merely as money's-worth, which Louis
frequently, if not always, did. Well, then, a tre-
mendous lot of—no, I won't say Spanish rubbish—but
Spanish pictures have been on view some time back, and
knocked down the other day by the hammer. One word
about art. We have all seen and admired Mottieeo's
nature-touches of Spaniards and Spanish life. There are
more of them valuable in this country than in Spain it-
self—let me couple Franca and Germany ; then why add
to our stock of that great vagabond-painter's works ? To
be sure, we have not many specimens in the National
Gallery, but they are in the country—Dulwich Gallery,
and so forth. Lorrs's Spanish pictures were brought to
the hammer, many of them sorely damaged ; the gamins,
and other blackguards of Paris, were not nice with the old
the deuce with his
man and his hoards, they played Theeries
smokin_:
pic-
tures, mimicked JOINVILLE in the T
cigarette—very insulting—but, hang them, why did they
damage the pictures ? The varlets hadfound their way
down to Louis's cellars, and, careless of corkscrew, bad
their fill, and came up stairs like sons of BELIAL, and
ruined many grand works. These were afterwards glued
together the best way possible, but, after all, they looke(,
many of them, last week, battered indeed. They were
polished off, and the auctioneer set to work. A gentleman
was there for the National Gallery, a man of good fame ;
he looked wonderfully wise, or stupid, or important, or
all three. Sprite of St. LURE! the agent for the National
Gallery—the people's gallery—sanctioned by the ABER-
DEEN Government, began bidding like mad for a picture
done in treacle—and bad treacle, too • the picture was
said to be by ZURBARAN, a Spaniard. Had it been a
MURILLO, stocked as we are with them, the act might
have been excused. Did the agent bid against himself ?
He had it all his own way ; and had the dirty, dingy
Spanish liquorice knocked down to him for the country
at a price close upon £3OO. I would not give a five
pound note for the bargain ; no country gentleman with
a knowledge or taste for the fine arts—and there are many
such, though evidently unknown to the Government,—
would place this ZURBARAN in the summer-house of his
orchard,—nor, indeed, in out-house used for humbler
purpose. A few hours after the purchase, the Earl of
ABERDEEN and the Marquis of LANSDOWNE, both good
men in the arts, Intimated in the House of Peers that—
yes—there were pictures on sale—Spanish ones—some
had been bought for the Gallery—they believed ; in
abort, they didn't know what they were talking about.

Two or three hundred pounds out of JOHN BULL'S
pocket is not much in the picture way ; it is being made
a fool of ! If a ZURBARAN was wanted for the Gallery,
why not bid against the KING of PRUSSIA'S man of busi-
ness, who bought a beautiful bit, by that master, in his
unmistakeable clear manner, for about half the money
we have paid for the treacle-daub referred to ?
Of mere chit-chat in decent society, towards the close
of the week, Sir ROBERT PEEL and BERNAL OEBORNE'S
shooting at each other in nubibus, that is, in imagination,
has afforded a little scope ; according to that foul-mouthed
hag rumour, the two lads were down in the Essex marshes
like a couple of donkeys,—nothing of the sort. There
was nothin,, said of BERNAL OSBORNE by Sir BOBBY
which, on the' question at issue, could have provoked the
bile of a batrachian—a frog, about the coldest piece of
materialism Professor OWEN and your correspondent are
acquainted with. PEEL and OSBORNE are bricks both,
though on the opposite side of the house. I hope your
gracious readers will excuse my too frequent use of the
architectural symbol. The gentlemen named are per-
fectly unlike each other in manners, habits, and education,
except that they are both " spicy." I have known the
whig OSBORNE tear up the card of a foolish antagonist
full twenty years ago, without infringing the laws of
honour, and knowing he might have my advice or
pistols, if he wanted either, for we were both at the
same place at the same time. Then for Sir ROBERT
PEEL, he is very " loud." This phrase now has super-
seded " fast," though it has nothing to do with high words
or loud talking, both the most abominable things under the
sun. The present Sir ROBERT is by no means so quiet as
his father, even when of the same age •, I don't think he is
so well educated, but he is a fine dashing fellow, taking
after his mother, Lady PEEL, a common occurrence for a
first child. The late Sir ROBERT, as we all know, was
called spitefully Orange PEEL ; the present baronet is
dark-complexioned, with a moustache to match, appa-
rently more cared for than his immortal part. Sir ROBERT
is the man Count D'ORSAY was—nobody can come near
him in fashion ; GEORGE WOMBWELL is old enough to be
his father, and snappish enough to be placed among the
canine curiosities of the Z )ologicals, still he is a prime
creature ; ADOLPHUS FITZCLARENCE is growing careful ;
Lord ASHBURTON, strong and healthy, finds he must be
quieter, seeing he has to support the gravity of the
second baron's coronet; and Tom DuscomnE is now
never to be seen in the same heap either in om-
nibus-box or on the Mall ; JAMIE MACDONALD,
with his silver locks, and moustache and whiskers
black as " Nox and Erebus," with his confr re,
the smart soldier and smart man, H.R.H. the DUKE of
CAMBRIDGE, are all we have left. Sir ROBERT PEEL
spewed much feeling for his father's memory in scarcely
lifting the blinds of the town mansion until the other day.
I have not seen him lately at the opera, trying to get into
his box, with a red tie about his throat. The box-keeper
sacred him right by refusing his admission, and reminding
him where he was. While on the subject of good man-
ners, let me add, that since Count D'CrasAT and his
sagacious poodle—the latter made immortal by LANDSEER
—have gone the way of all flesh, Sir ROBERT might have
his drive without the French article peering over the
leathers of his cab, as wise looking as if he were a minister
of the coalition. LANDSEER has been sketching all the
week at Osborne—lots of new subjects, beastly and birdly
of course. His old dad died lately, close upon ninety.
He beat me at bagatelle not long before. How delightful
to hear the old cock crow ; but such a bore to talk to—
he was so deaf. lie mentioned, just before he died, that
"he had a knocking at the door"—a little premonition.
The father of all the LANDSEERS rallied—it was no go—
yes—it was going, gone ! He was a merry creature,• Old
LANDSEER. Shortly before he shuffled off the mortal
coil, he kicked up a row with me, because I kindly, but
foolishly, substituted Lafitte for old strong Port, which I
humbly feared might be too potent for the old man.
" Can't cheat me," he said. I looked—felt soft—and
allowed the first LANDSEER to have his way. Bless the
name! The finast portrait of modern times was that of
Old LANDSEER, by his son, in the Academy last year.
The admirers of the beautiful in nature had a treat of
rare excellence furnished forth at the Horticultural
Society's Gardens, Chiswick, on Saturday. The elite
of the fashionable world was present, if such a phrase be
admitted, seeing the Duke of DP:voistssitnE—the near
neighbour of the gardens—was absent, being at present ill
with his annual visitor, hay fever. The flowers were
transcendantly beautiful, and varied in the extreme.

Vied with its fellow plant in luxury
Of dress."
But, alas ! they were chiefly stove and hot-house. The
day was fine, at least as fine as a hot sun and a piercing east
wind would allow it. However, it was a splendid change
from the rain, hail, wind, and storm of thunder and
lightning of most previous exhibitions in the same spot,
when satin shoes were metamorphosed on pretty feet into
ancle-jacks of sand and slush. I was much gratified to
notice such a vast combination of foreign specimens, of the
family of Orchidece especially; some of our old English
flowers I was even still more gratified to observe not
only not despised and rejected, hut in the place of honour.
"Oh, my love is like the red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June."
So runs one of the loveliest of Scotia's songs. Though
we have not yet had June, we have the roses. Cape and
other heaths called Ericas were in abundance, of almost
every colour and size. Magnificent, doubtless, but
methought not half so beautiful as our ow❑ dear old
mountain heather. Foolish association of ideas—made up
of base recollections of boyhood—playing truant and other
mischiefs ! There is a peculiar interest attached to the
exotic flowery families. Time is within the remembrance
of not very old gardeners when we had scarcely a flower.
except in the greenhouse of the rich and curious, that was
not of old English rearing. Now, by the last twenty
years' exertions of the Horticultural Society and others,
we have hundreds of new specimens, gathered by travellers
in all parts of the world, two of the chief of whom, named
DOUGLASS and CUNINGHAM, Scottish lads, trained to
such pursuits, were sent abroad to " botanize" under the
auspices of the society. The specimens new to science
sent home by these young men were wonderful, and are
now to be found in every part of the United Kingdom.
But the gatherers have literally gone to their " long
homes." DOUGLASS was wandering through the woods
in the Sandwich Islands, picking up a plant here, another
there, and unwittingly fell headlong into a pit-fall made
for the capture of wild bulls, one of which was at the
bottom, and, mad by captivity, gored the helpless botanist
to death !

The chief company at the Horticultural Gardens left
before six o'clock, scant time to drive to town, dine, and
dress for the Opera,—the first night of VERDI'S Rigoletti.
I have already given VERDI'S character as a composer OZ
Italian opera ; he knows the art of construction well
enough ; he is a good grammarian ; master of instro-
mentation ; knows which instruments should " come in"'
in such and such places, and give effect to such and such
phrases ; he has a keen eye—say ear—to effect ; his suc-
cession of chorus, solo, and concerted piece of all sorts,7-
snatch appropriate, of recitative,—all are there correct, in
their proper places—methodical ; a critic with learning,.
without heart, cannot find fault. If the ingredient:;-of
grand opera enumerated above are there, what the deuce
else do you want? Mens divinior ! In his new opera,
VERDI has done wrong ; whether owing to laziness or
affectation, he gives no overture.—a few bars—medl2cre—
the curtain rises. A vile fault, VERDI. There is more in
the construction of such overtures as those to Den
Giovanni, Semiramide, Tancredi, and Barbiere,
shadowing forth most musically the whole story and scope
of the work to follow,—than is to be found in a century- of
Rigoletti. In the new opera, however, "VERDI now and
then gives a gleam of melod; ; he feels that something of
the sort ought to be there, but no sooner is the tympa-
num conscious of this. than its unhappy owner is driven
into a fit by sound and fury. Rigoletti is 'Sitcom's best
work—there are two or three good bits in it ; Mmuo and
RoNcom, indeed all the artists—for there was no shuf-
fling—ably vindicated the maestro ; and the management
has lavishly mounted the opera. The house 771iS a galaxy.

COMMERCIAL AND MONETARY NE

MONDAY NIGHT.

THE maiden financial operation of Mr. GLAD-
STONE, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, for reducing
the interest of the National Debt, does not appear
to have been as successful as was anticipated. His
plan was the compulsory conversion of the South
Sea and other three-per-cent. annuities, to the
amount of about Ten Millions, into three new kinds
of stock, severally distinguished as £3 10s. per
cent., £2 lOs. per cent., and Exchequer Bonds
bearing interest at £2 15s. per cent., with the ad-
dition of accepting a further voluntary conversion
of other stock limited to Thirty Millions in the two
last-named descriptions. It was believed that the
plan would meet with general favour, as during the
discussion the funds maintained their value; but
within the last few days they have been slightly de-
pressed, and, notwithstanding the publicity which
has been given to the Finance Minister's scheme, it
has been very coldly responded to, and, for the
present at least, must be considered a manifest
failure. Up to Saturday night the whole amount of
the new stocks which had been accepted were :
£3 10s, per cent. Stock £47,074 Bs. 6d.
£2 10s. ditto 1,193,456 16 6
Exchequer Bonds

Total £1,244,031 ss.
The last item is but a miserable fraction of an issue
which it was deemed requisite to limit to Thirty
Millions, so great was to he the demand for it, and
shows the reed on which they leant, when the Minis-
terialists concluded that they had secured in Mr.
GLADSTONE the fountain of financial wisdom.
Another point worthy of observation is, that by far
the greatest preponderance of choice is given to the
£2 los. per cent. stock,. which was the most ob-
jected to, on the ground that it increased the nominal
capital of the National Debt, and thereby rendered
future reduction or extinction more difficult of
operation. Money duringthelast week has not been
so easy, and as the returns from the Bank of England
show an decreasingstock of Bullion, notwithstanding
the continued receipts of gold,. it is- evident that the
excess of imports over exports is• having a sensible
effect upon the balance of trade,as.is-furthershown by
the unfavourable state of the ratesof foreign exchange.
It has so long been the practice- to attribute all our
commercial prosperity and industrial activity to
Free-trade policy, that it was difficult to disabuse
the public mind of an impression; so strenuoasly
persisted in; but the truth is every day becoming
more apparent, that while to the gold' discoveries in
California, and especially Australia, may be attri6
buted the great impetus which has been given.to our
home trade, the same- cause has operated to miti-
gate, if not avert,. the monetary disarrangement and
commercial distress- which would inevitably have
resulted from ercessiveimportations, had'there been
no counteracting influence. Some elaborate state-
ments have recently been published of the yield of
gold in Australia, from, which it appears that in the
year 1851 it amounted to £1,105,825, while during
the year 1852 it had' increased to £12,440,119g; cal-
culating at the Mint price of £3 17's. to `d. per
ounce. The same authority states that the pros-
pects for the future are equally good ; for, although
there may not be the same extraordinary discoveries
of huge nuggets, the reports of which gave such .an
impetus to emigration, the steady application of
scientific skill will more' than probably yield an.
ample return.
The manufacturers still, pertinaciously cling: to
their desponding opinions- of- the Cotton trade; if
the Manchester Guardian may be received as the
organ of this important interest.- But, in spite of
their dolorous complaints, and their adherence th-
the advice not to purchase more than required for
immediate consumption, theyare compelled to admit
that demand and prices still keep up, and that after.
all the warnings about excessive supply, in order to
alarm the Liverpool holders, tbestock of Cotton has
considerably diminished, and it' may yet be a ques-
tion whether it will be sufficient for the increasing,:
consumption. The subject in dispute has been-,
simply as. to the difference between supply and.
demand, as affecting future prides, and while the
manufacturers, for their own interests, have been
taking the extreme view on .one side; the holders in
oar market have refused to take the alarm so inge-
niously raised, but have steadilY- maintained their
ground, and present circumstances 'appear fully to
justify the wisdom of such a course, and to lead to the-
inference that the manufacturera-have overshot their
market. In connection with the Cotton trade a new,
eubject of difference has arisen in'what are called the
new terms for arranging the frauds on the buyers. of
falsely packed Cotton. By the old system all
atieks, stones, and other rubbislr, fraudulently placed
:a, bales, were returnable to the Importer at the price
paid for them... On the suggestion, however, of the
American Chamber 'of Commerce, of Liverpool, and,
with the concurrence of the Directors -of the Cham-
ber of Commerce, and the Commercial. Association,
of Manchester—all able authorities it may be sup-
posed—it was determined by the Cotton Brokers"
Association, of Liverpool, that all returns shall
either be replaced by an approved quality, or paid
for at the prices of the day when the return shall
take place. This, arrangement bas been objected
to, .on the grounds, as stated by, the Manchester:
Guardian, that if the market should rise, the buyer
will hardly trouble himself to send back an inferior
Cotton which, has become worth almost as much as
will be allowed to him, and, if the market should
fall, the buyer will receive back less than he paid.
Such an objection shows more strongly tha.desire
to make a complaint than any sound reason for it.
If the buyer receives less than he bargainedifor, by
the false packing, the only. equitable remedy is to
replace the deficient weight of good Cotton, by an
equal quantity of the same quality, or, as is pro-
posed, to repay him a sum at which he could re-
place it for himself at the market price of the day.
By this.mode the buyer has substantial justice, and
is left altogether independent of fluctuations in
value,,which is thus thrown upon the seller. So
far from relaxing the stringency of rules affecting
such.: transactions, the new arrangement tends
rather to increase it„and, no doubt„will operate in
this respect to the advantage of the buyer.
The return from the Bank of England, for the
week ending the 7th of May, gives the following
results, when compared' with the previous week :
Public deposits .. 4;265,469; Increase £331,147,
Other deposits .. 12,201,614 ;; Decrease 721,006
Rest .. 3,146,809,;, Increase 25,822:
On the other side of the account—

Government securities £13,221,382 ; the same as before.
Other securities 13,608,166 ; Increase 101,421
Notes unemploy:A 8,274,395 ; Decrease 410,015
The amount of notes. in circulation is £23,469,84.5,
being an increase of ..-€.3134290 ; and the stock of
bullion in both departments is £18,225,221, show-
ing a decrease of £1290,7-3, when compared with
the preceding return.

ISSUE DEPARTMENT.
Notes issuad'.. £31,744,213 Govrnt.Debt.. 411,015,100
Other securities 2,984,900
Gold coin& bu1n.17,725,086
I Silver bullion 19,154

£31,744,240

were taken on speculation and for export. TO-DAY
the advices per Arabia of a still further decrease in
stocks on the other side had a favourable effect on
the market, and the sales reached 8,000 bales, at
full prices, of which 2,500 were on speculation and
for export. The market closed very firmly.
PRODUCE.—There has been a good demand for
all descriptions of Sugar, at an advance of from 6d.
to is. per cwt. The sales consist of 850 hhds.
B. P., and 6000 bags Bengal. Of Foreign the
sales were 3000 bags Pernambuco, and 40 hhds.
and 150 brls. Porto Rico, at public auction. Of
Molasses 90 puns. Trinidad, to arrive, sold at
19s. 6d. per cwt. In Coffee not much doing. Tea
was firm during the week; but little business was
doing until Friday, when, owing to advices from
China, some considerable sales took place of medium
Congous at full prices, the quotations being at l ld.
to ls. ld. for common to fair. In Cocoa little
doing. Of Rice 6000 bags Bengal sold at 10s. 6d.
to 1 is. per cwt. for low middling to good white.
Of Rum only 100 puns. Demerara sold at fully
previous rates. 400 bags Black Pepper realized
4d. per lb. Guano was not in good demand, and
barely 200 tons sold. In Hides little doing. Of
Rosin the sales amounted to 1700 brls. American,
Nothing doing in Turpentine or Tar. Of Saltpetre
100 bags sold at 28s. per cwt. for 41- per cent,
Olive Oil in moderate request, and 50 tuns sold at
previous rates. For Rape Oil little demand. Lin-
seed Oil 28s. per cwt. Spirits of Turpentine dull
at 50s. per cwt. Fur Palm Oil, on the spot, a
limited demand, and for arrival an easier market,
about 900 tons having been sold at £35 per ton.
Tallow rather lower in price, and a dull market,
Petersburg Y. C, selling at 475. to 4-7's. 6d., and
about 200 casks South American at 445. to 17s. 6d.
per cwt. Of Hemp a small parcel of Petersburg
sold at £39 per ton, For Jute a fair demand, the
sales reaching 1500 bales, at £lB 10s. to £22' 7s. 6d.
for common to fine, TO-DAY the Sugar market
has been quiet, and the•only business reported since
Friday consists of 2,500 bags Bengal, at 395. to
39§.. 6.11. for Benares, and, at 41s. to 41s. 6d. far
Cos-sipore; 25 hhds. Porto-Rico at 38s. to 3Ss.
and 4'oo bags Maceio at I rs-. fd. per cwt. Nothing
done in Molasses, Rum, or Coffee. Since the de-
livery of the China letters, holders of Tea have
shown- increased firmness, and sales have been'
made to-day both to the trade-and on speculators'.
account, at fully previous rates-, to a slight advance
upon blackisir leaf of strong descriptions ; common
Congou of sound quality is in demand from 11-": d.
to ls. per lb. A small parcel of Bengal Rice is
reported at ill's. 3d., and two thins African Red
Gum Copal at' 1255. per cwt.
WooL.—The business of the week has not been
so very active as is generally ths-case here for a
short time previous to the opening of the colonial
sales in London,- the actual business-being on the
" hand to mouth" principle, manufacturers only
supplying- themselves for pressing and' immediate
requirement ; yet holders continue very firm, and
the few sales made have been at very, full rates,
Iv!th every prospect of being firmly maintained.
Imports for the week: —1,321 bales, consisting
of 429 bales Buenos Ayres, 613 Alpaca and
Pera, 18 Portugal,. 189 Mediterraneam• ports,
43' Irish, 22 Scotch, and seven coastwise.
The'next series of public-sales in London, being the
first'of the new clip from Australia, will commence
on Thursday next, when about 40,000 bales of
foreign ,and colonial will be brought forward'; as the
demand is pretty active,and the market generally
very bare, a satisfactory result may be anticipated.
No arrivals of Spanish or Lisbon, except a small
parcel of greasy Spanish, from Santander, not•' yet
on the market ; Frontier and Alentejo continue
much inquired for, as also Oporto and Casten:and°,
all of which would meet a ready sale at ext:eme
quotations:;

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN THE REV.
SAMUEL MINTON, THE REV. JOSEPH
BARDSLEY, AND MR. J. MACDONALD.

A Mr. Macdonald, a Roman Catholic layman, is en-
deavouring to cover the retreat of his Priests from the
.numerous challenges which have been sent them, by in-
viting several clergymen of the Established Church to
meet him in oral discussion. With what success, the fol-
lowing replica,• from the Rev. S. Minton and the Lev:
J. Bardsley, will sufficiently show :---