The Press. — London, England, 1853-06-11 00:00:00

JUNE 11, 1853 the tenant pays here the lan dlord is to pay there. The English landlord has the tax de ducted on receiving his rent; the Irish land lord is to pay before he receives, or whether acedn he wakes or not. He is accordingly pl i this comfortable position : should he press his tenants for rent, he is a heartless tyrant — should he venture to eject a tenant who has run into arrear, no name will be too vile for the " exterminator ;" he must therefore solace himself for the loss of rent by the satisfactioti of supporting his country, and on the fiction of an income support the reality of a tax. This is the first instalment of that justice to Ireland" which, in the opinion of some members of the Government, consists in trans ferring the " rights" of property to the tenant, leaving the " duties " and burdens to the owner ; confiscating the property of the Church, and obtaining as much as possible for the imperial treasury. It is natural that men who have a strong dislike to paying rent should object to th e visits of the tax-gatherer their remonstrances, backed by the Irish sece ders. have produced the desired effect; and the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, supported by a sort of feeling that Irish landowners are not popular—that, in fact, a superstition has been spread that they are ogres, who caused the potato rot, the famine, and the exodus — and making an unscrupulous use of a tyrant majotity, has perpetrated a glaring injustice under the name of equality, and established in Ireland a principle he would not venture to propose for this country. We may expect to see other instalments of similar justice ; the point of the wedge has been got in, and in a yielding material it cannot be hard to drive it dome. SILVER. TuE wondrous results of the recent discove ries in California and Australia have involved this country in a double dilemma —a plethora of gold, and a deficiency of silver. It is but a few months back that the Bank of England counted its silver coinage by a few hundreds, while its stock of gold was reckoned by mil• lions, the late CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER was besieged by clamorous applicants to urge the Mint to exertion, and front all parts of the kingdom poured in appeals for an increased issue of shillings and florins. Mr. DnutAELl had the penetration to discern the cause of this scarcity, and the remedy ; and the country still waits for Mr. GLAnsrosy's reply to his predecessor's inquiry whether the tiorernment had considered the necessity render ing gold a legal tender in India The facts are little known to the public at large, but they are of a startling character ; and the course which he thus indicated his own intention to have pursued, had he continued in office. is no little creditable to the discern ment and ability of the late CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER. Nor are we without hope that his successor will see the necessity of speedily adopting the expedient suggested by the saga city of Mr. llnotkm.t. England is the only country in Europe which limits herself to a gold standard. France avails herself both of gold and silver ; the rest of the Old World has adopted silver alone. This result has been precipitated by the events of the last five years. No sooner had the influx of gold from California commenced in 184744, and its extent and magnitude been ascertained, than Holland and Belgium, exerting an an cestral instinct in matters of finance, sold off some four or five millions of gold at a trifling loss, and announced silver alone as their future standard of value. Thus two causes have been in simultaneous operation to enhance the value of silver—an in creased demand for its use, and an inversion of the proportion which had heretofore prevailed between its annual production and the pro duction of gold. The latter has increased almost miraculously, the former has scarcely augmented in its amount. This is the first strange fact to which we would direct special attention. Previously to 1847 the relative value of gold to silver was about one to fifteen ; and on this basis our toreign exchanges w ere calculated, an ounce THE PRESS. of gold. at 31. is. Ski., being, to an ounce of sil ver, at five shillings, as ohe ta fifteen anti a halt Ten years ago the production of the precious metals averaged about eight millions sterling a year. of which about one million and a quarter was gold. In 1850 the total production was estimated at twenty-one millions, and of these fourteen millions were gold, and only half that amount silver. At the present moment the proportions are still more surprisingly distorted, owing to the almost stationary supply of silver. whilst that of gold has been reduplicated by the collection of upwards of 14.000,0001. per annum in Australia, added to a still larger amount from California. The inevitable consequence has been a rise in the comparative value of silver, and an ad verse and prevailing change in the course of exchange between Great Britain and every country which has adopted a standard of silver. But this evil has been aggravated by the peculiar constitution of the currency in our own Indian possessions. where silver alone is a legal tender. And, as our imports from these countries far exceed the value of our exports. the balance must be paid for in silver. For example, in the year 18-19-50, when our exports to India were somewhat about ten millions. and our imports seventeen millions, the difference. Iseeen millions, must be paid in silver rupees. But, as silver has been growing scarcer year after year. the course of exchange has been simultaneously adverse to England ; in other words, we in London have been giving two shillings and a penny in gold for a rupee of two shillings in silver to be paid to our correspond ents at Calcutta. And the second fact to which we beg attention is, that our imports from India,—our coffee, our cotton, our silks, sugar, and indigo,—either for home con sumption or exportation, arrive in England loaded with this disadvantage in the cost, occasioned by the fact that silver alone is the legal standard in India. The loss will eventually fall, and in au intel ligible form, upon the consumers in England; for in the event, of which there is now every prospect., of the increase of gold making still greater head iu advance of the produce of silver, the value of the latter will go on aug menting; and, whilst the price of commodities purchased by gold in Great Britain will have correspondingly risen, the importer from India will find it impossible to sell at a cheap rate to the people of this country com modities which d he hits purchased in India frith siker raised by aventitious circumstances to an unnatural value. And now we come to the p r actical test of the evidence of the evil of which we complain, and we believe that. the public are little aware of its magnitude, or the formidable influence which it is already creating on the interests of trade in these countries. Our t m-commercial readers will keep in view the fact which we have endeavoured to simplify, that as we im- port indigo, silk, sugar, and other articles from India, to a far greater extent than we export to them British produce in exchange, the balance we must pay in hard cash, mid that. cash I;i:reg . . which we buy at the rate of two shillings and a penny for every rupee of two Before the discoveries of California and Australia, and whilst the production of silver WM in excess of that of gold, the exportation of silver to India was insignificant, but gold went there in considerable quantities : for example, in IR-14 and 1845 the silver sent to India did not exceed the value of 5,0001. or 6,0001. a year; in Is4o and 18-17 it wits even less ; but, in the year which succeeded, the drain of silver from this country to India had gone on increasing with surprising rapidity and very serious effect. It was, in round numbers, in 1109 1:1:14$1 1850 • ' ' • . • • • 111.),11147 Igsl . . • • 1,640,187 %KV. . . . . 3,114,04/4 Simultaneously with this outpouring of silver from our own possessions we have of course to meet the demands of other countries whose standard is silver. lint with these the MI culty has been more or less obviated by the nicer balance of trade ; in other words, they take our goods and manufactures instead of our coin. In their ease, should inconvenience anise from such a cause, we should be 123 unprovided with a remedy ; but in the instance of our dominions and colonies the matter is widely different ; and sotmd sense as Well sOUIId I►oliew require that one and the same currency should prevail throughout our territories. This is the obvious and reasonable remedy proposed bv Mr. Dtkot.m.i, and to which Mr. titAnsToNE 6s not vet given his reply. We do not urge at present the extreme eourse,but which eventually may become the simplest and the most practicable one, to assimilate the produce of the whole empire, and make a gold standard tar India in substitution of a Over o ne. A change so sudden and sweeping might produce there loeal inconvenience ; but the interests et both countries (hkum(' that the intermediate step should not he longer delayed of making gold om wdl nx surer legal slumlord fin' on our Rost uflia posmourionx. Billbrokers and the financial department of I .cadenhall-strc et , who 'uw gun by the existing anomaly, would no doubt grumble at the reform ; but the trade at the United Kingdom demands it, and sooner Ill' later till' change must come. When once effected. it. will speedily regulate the disturbed balance between our exports of the precious nketals ; it will enable us to eon tinny our purchases of the pr o duce of India at their natural price, 111111 nut by payments in a coinage raised by accidental ciremustanees to fictitious value ; and, whilst relieving tireat Britain of the inconvenienee incidental to her plethora of gold, it. will liberate the silver now confined in o n e colonies, and which, flowing into continental channels, will iu tum restore the equilibrium of exchange occasioned by the reeent discovery of gold. lt is seldom that IL Chancellor of the Exche quer has 1111 opportunity afforded to him of effecting so extensive a reform by so simple an expedient, and we earnestly hope that the dis cernment of the House of Commons will sup port the suggestion of Mr. DisuAtmt for an amended standard for India. - in Various articles and eoniniunieations type are necessarily I►ostpone►l. TIIE OXFORD INSTALLATION OhItiREES. To THE EOITolt OV " THZ PuEss." Sir,—ln addition to your well competition between the lists of Lord Derby and the Duke of WellingtAm, I beg to send yon Millier materials for the confusion of cavillers, in the list of degrees granted on the ()evasion of the installation of Lord tirenvillo in 11410. The following were the person.. ages to whom degrees were then granted : I. Hoke of Si ttttt Tsai. V:. %Isconlit Carleton. 1. Marquis of Buckingham. 13. Lord Itniyhrooke. t. Manlius of Itownshivc. 14. Isiril Cawilor. .1. Manplis of Ely. Vt. latnl Ceningtim. It. Earl of Essex. 10. Ht. Hon. W. Wickham. 11. Earl of Abingdon. 17. ltt. Hon. 4 it'll. Tierney. 1. Earl of Jersey. 104. 10. 11'011. Wm. Elliot. . Earl Forteseue. 19. !sir .lohit Newport, Bart. Earl of Carysfort. .90, Sir .lohn Anstmther, lit. Earl Temyle : . 11. Mr. Fawn, U.S. Anikele). I rooms), sir, yours obediently, M. THE OXFORD CHANCELLORSHIP. TO THE EDIToIt ot.' "THE r11i15,4." Sir,-1 perceive that the reelite newspaper has ventured to revives the oft-repeated fiction that Lord Derby was forces' on the I'mversity by the long-vnea tient intrigues of a clique. Now, it is notorious to every resident here that. the , clique movement was made by the Peelo- Posey lie ft fends of the Chronicle in inventt of the Duke of Newcastle. As want a% the Intke of Wellington's 411•11 th WitS lillOWil two meetings were held in ( iriel Conitmon Resent, at which resolu tions were passed in favour of the I of sew castle, wed one of the party, t Mr. Sewell, I believe) putlineself into communication with his grace to persuade him to stand. These proceedings were taken in anticipation of the friends of Lord Derby, who arc again falsely charged with premature eagei ness. I may be excused, perhaps, from troubling you with these well-known facts, which it would be unnecessary to repeat but for these reiterated caltunnies. I am, sir, your obedient servant, Oxford, June 1 0 . P. C. L. Tun Goi.n (Ina. or YirroatA is computed, from official documents, to have amounted to 4,175,147 oi. during 1851, which, at the price of 40s. per ounce, gives the value 113,709,9g5f. With regard to emigra tion, it appears that the number of arrivals in the colony during the year Is:4 was 97,661; and the departures 27,021. —Total increase, 70,631). I