16th Jan.
We learn that telegrams have been received here announcing the reconstitution of the Steamer Conference, a step which has been forced on the shipowners at home by the ruinous rates to which freights have lately fallen. Six companies participate in it; the P. & O., Holt's line, the Mutuals, the Glens, the Bens, and the Shires; and we presume that it is not intended to raise the rates to a prohibitive level, but only to put them on a fair living basis. The French and German mai! lines are prohibited from joining in any such agreement, on the ground that they are subsidised by their respective governments. It has been judicially decided that a Conference is not an illegal con-bination, and steamers have been doing so badly of late, that there is not likely to be any deep objection here now to their combining to establish fair rate:
A Farr, Bravriru: $x1x,—Sulpholine Soap gives the natural tint and peach-like Bloom of a perfect Complexion; makes the Skin smooth, supple, healthy, comfortable.:. Sulpholine Soap, 64. Tablets. Everywhere. (4)
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.