COMMERCIAL.

Southland Times, Issue 891, 31 January 1868, Page 2

COMMERCIAL.

New Yobk, Dec. 16. Business in all its departments is very much depressed. Railway shares and Government securities are quiet. Gold is 134£. London, Dec. loth, Evening. Consols for money, 92f ; United States 25 bonds, 7l£. The English newspapers have joined in a hue and cry against all members of the Fenian Brotherhood, which has only served to increase the general excitement and alarm. The public funerals that were to have ! been held yesterday in many provincial cities in England and Ireland were prevented by the authorities in every place where an attempt was made to carry them out. Much indignation was shown by crowds in some instances, but no violence was committed. In London, battalions of regular troops, to the number of 6000 men, are constantly under arms to assist the police in maintaining order and suppressing any Fenian demonstration. It has been definitely asserted that *he European Conference plan proposed by the Emperor on the Roman question has failed. The assembly was to have taken place at Munich on the 9th instant, but some difficulty was experienced in the diplomatic correspondence before the day arrived. Paris was then spoken of as the place of meeting, and the form of representation was changed, but was adhered to subsequently. After the delivery of the speech by the French Minister Rouher to the Legislature on the subject of the relations between Rome and Italy, in which he declared that Italy could never go to Rome by force, the hesitancy of the Powers assumed the form of op6n objection to proceed on the ground of inutility. It has since been ascertained that the Conference or Congress will not assemble, as all the Great Powers have positively refused to attend. A deputation from the English^ Bible Society recently presented the Emperor Napoleon with a copy of an English Bible. The Emperor made a brief address to the gentleman of the deputation, in which he declared it was his first rule to protect all religions. The Great Powers have addressed a note to the Sublime Porte, asking that the navigation of the Dardanelles may be made free to the shipping of all nations. Despatches have been received in London from Massowah, which report that the British Abyssinian expedition has advanced a considerable distance into the interior of the country ; but the last accounts state that the troops were suffering from scarcity of water. ♦