15 SEPTEMBER 1855, Page 2

The war fixes its stamp on every act of life

amongst us which comes publicly to view. Joy at the " glorious news" has been the universal expression of the national countenance. From Prince Albert lighting up the Highlands with a great bonfire before Bal- moral Castle, and so enabling the country around to share the gratification of the Queen who looked smiling from the windows, to the humblest tradesman in the pettiest town, coming out for an exchange of words with his neighbour, the feeling has been one. The Cabinet Councils meet, and the public departments are hard at work, to push forward the business connected with the war.

The Bank has again raised its discount, this time to 4 per cent; but the event has not occasioned any panic. Consols did not fall by so much as ; and although " surprised,"—which it need not have been, seeing the steady downward course of bullion,—the City was not alarmed. The remittance of the Turkish loan is mentioned as the proximate and provoking cause for the pre- caution ; but it is due to continued causes, which are too well understood to leave any ground for fear; and the occurrence ex- cites no " vulgar impatience of taxation," so that the war be prose- cuted commensurately. Still the fact does point to a tightening pressure consequent on the vast outlay ; a pressure which the people bear, not with blindness, but with cheerfulness, because they approve of the occasion for it.