The Sun. — 1842-01-11 (London, England)

VIZ.  The nominal amount of the loan to be 7,520 contos (1,600,0001.), at 5 per ceat. annual interest, payable by the Board of Public Credit ; for which amount inscriptions are to be given to the Company. The Company is to deliver to the Government,  Contos. In money l,OOO In tickets of arrears due to the civil service, since 1838 1,600 In ditto, ditto, between 1833 and 1838 5OO In ditto of arrears of pensions and half-pay from 1833 to 1841 In bonds of the foreign debt not yet converted 2,000 In unpaid coupons of the foreign debt.... 365  7,465 These two amounts do not tally exactly, but the reason of the difference is that of the arrears of pay tickets ; the most modern in date are to be taken at 20 per cent. above their nominal value, and the others at par, while those for arrears of pensions are to be received at various rates of discount. The whole plan is exceedingly complicated ; but one thing clearly to be made out from it is, that the very showy figure of seven thousand and odd contos will shrink down to a very small amount in hard cash—a diminution of hulk for which the effect produced upon a huge bundle of spinach by the process of boiling, is the best simile I can think of. Thus, while an addition of above a million and a half sterling is made to the funded debt of the country, and a further annual charge of 80,0001. is incurred, the immediate and only benefit derived by the Government from this financial operation is a temporary lift to the amount of little more than 200,0001., which will soon go, leaving the country more heavily bur. dened, and therefore in a worse state than before. The conclusion of this arrangement is announced in a decree, in which it is also provided that the civil servants of the State shall henceforth and for ever be paid with the utmost regularity. This, of course, is to be understood with the tacit clause, " If there should be money to pay them with ; "and I must confess myself much at a loss to conceive how this one loan is to fill up for ever after the gap resulting every year from the inefficiency of the revenue to cover the expenditure. On the contrary, it seems evident that the annual deficit must be rendered still greater by the additional charge incurred for the interest on the new loan. This measure is, as you will perceive, the long-canvassed general capitalisation scheme, which I mentioned in my last, as having been insisted upon by the Finance Minister, and opposed by his colleagues, who at last gave way to him ; and the " Company of National Credit " is, in fact, the Bank of Lisbon, the Directors of which have thought it most prudent to engage in this transaction under an assumed firm, as they have reason to fear that if it were known generally that the bank itself, after the very large claims it already has upon the Government, had engaged to make further advances of money to so great as amount, its credit might be greatly shaken, and a general run upon it might be the consequence. The Prince de Joinville sailed from this, in the Belle Poule frigate, on the 31st ult., having only stayed a week instead of a fortnight, as he at first said he would do. He was treated with great distinction during bis short stay here, both by the Court and the principal nobility. The French Minister gave a grand ball in his honour on the eve of his departure.  A new Minister has arrived here from the United States. His name is General Barrow.  In reference to that part of the Royal Message to the Coites conveying the satisfactory assurance that " order and tranquillity t4ign undisturbed throughout the country," I have to state that, on the 26th instant, a grand fracas took place, at the University of Coimbra, between the students and the Municipal Guard, in which two persons were killed and fifteen wounded. Also that at Ameixoiera, thirty miles from this city, a caravan of passengers was stopped and plundered by a mounted guerilla to the'amount of 5,000 crowns. The notorious Mattos Lobo, who murdered a whole family in this city about six months ago, and is now under sentence of death, attempted suicide, on Friday last, in a very novel manner ; that is, by gnawing both his wrists so as to open the veins, in order to bleed to death during the night. What agonies of remorse must have driven him to so frantic a resolution He did not succeed in his object, however, for the weather being exceedingly cold the blood soon coagulated, and refused to flow.  By an order from the Patriarch, public prayers pro felici partu of the Queen, are to be offered up in all the churches on the 9EII, 10th, and 11th of each month, till the event takes place.  On the 30th ult„ a grand review of all the troops in this city, about 5,000 in number, took place at the Ta• pada Park, at which the King was present, as also the Prince de Joinville and his officers. Marshal the Duke de Terceira commanded on the occasion.  Although the a'solition of the differential duties will begin to have effect on the 18th instant, an additional charge of one-fifth of the amount of duties will continue to be levied upon goods coming in vessels of nations in whose ports additional duties are charged upon cargoes imported in Portuguese vessels. Therefore, as the British Orders in Council imposing extra tonnage dues upon Portuguese ships, and extra duties upon their cargoes, have not yet been rescinded, all goods coming in English vessels to this country will be subjected to the payment of the additional one-fifth of the duties, until those Orders in Council shall have been rescinded. It is important to commerce that this should be generally known.