8 MAY 1869, Page 1

Thursday was Ascension Day, and the Directors of the Bank

of England, in accordance with an old and laudable custom, all

ent to Church. Having confessed themselves miserable sinners, and Prayed to be delivered from the world, the flesh, and the I Devil, and heard, we hope, what the Apostles thought about the "publicans," the State bankers of antiquity, they came back with rather gloomy views of life, and raised the Bank rate to 41 per cent., not an uncommon effect of ex officio piety. The mundane reason for their action is, we believe, the drain of money to America, American bonds coming over here in masses ; but "service," when attended perfunctorily, very often raises an acute desire to mortify the flesh—at somebody else's expense.