The Press. — London, England, 1857-11-21 00:00:00

society than had been ever wanted before. The enormous depreciation in the value of agaicultural produce, and consequent discon tent of the rural population, was but one of the evils thus occasioned. Another and more widely felt effect was the vast difficulty found in keeping up the supply of silver, so as to meet, however inadequately, the immense requirements that had there sprung up. An obvious means of modifying the evil would have been to authorise the Government collectors to receive in payment of revenue the notes of the three Indian Government banks ; but for some reason, wholly incom• prehensiblc to us, this expedient was rejected, and the payment of the whole revenue through out India, as well as of the balances on com merce, had to be made in silver coin. It must be quite clear that unless the silver currency of India can be kept up to the full wants which the increasing amount of cash transactions there must necessarily create, the only course by which the Money Market can be brought into a wholesome condition is by admitting (a new element of exchange, or rather restoring the old one of AKBER'S time. This would enable India to partake to some extent in those advantages derived everywhere else from the greatly increased production of gold. It would, moreover, place her commercial intercourse with the mother country on an infinitely better footing, by having henceforth a common medium of ex change. What should be done, therefore, is to make gold again a legal tender in India as well as silver, and to coin fin• the purpose ten rupee pieces, five-rupee pieces, and two-and a-hal f-rupee pieces, as in AKBER'S reign. These, when found receivable at par as revenue, would soon get very n idely into circula tion, and so relieve the bullion market both there and in England of a large portion of the pres3ure on it, occasioned by the necessity of maintaining the circulation of a hundred and fifty millions of people entirely in silver coin. At the same time, the notes of the Govern ment banks, though still left optional of ac ceptance to the people generally, should every where be received as revenue too. This would add greatly to their circulation ; and if means were taken to insure under every circum stance their ready convertibility into specie, we have no doubt that they would find accept ance everywhere, and thus entirely remove the present diffi3ulty arising from the deficiency of silver coin. If the Govorrr.nent would only adopt these measures they would find that one great stumbling-block in the way of Indian finan ciers, the inadequacy of the circulation to the performance of the duties that are required from it, would be at once removed. And this without force of any kind, in an honest, mer cantile, and statesmanlike way. At the same time a very great source of disaffection among the rural population of India would be re lieved. This is, that they are constantly obliged to sell their produce at a ruinous depreciation, not because the equitable rate of grain has fallen, but because every culti vator in the country has to pay his rent at a certain season in silver coin, and the scarcity of silver coin renders it utterly impossible that all should be supplied at once. To obtain this silver coin then at the moment, everything must be sacrificed, though a few months after wards, when all the revenue has been collected, it returns, as a matter of course, to its natural price. In short, at every turn in India, whether land or mei chandise is the question, the inadequacy of the circulating medium is daily more and more apparent ; and that scarcity arises solely from confining the legal tender to silver coin alone. This it is which cripples everybody, causes. an infinity of dis tress that might be obviated, and deranges enormously the bullion market both on the Continent and here. Until this evil is reme- died any idea of re-establishing public credit in India will be hopeless; and the only means of remedying the evil is the adoption of the measures which we have explained. By this process the currency will be put on a sound and sufficiently expansive basis, and the foun dation laid for the employment of a proper amount of it in the shape of loans to the State. But that is a point which we propose discussing in our second article on this sub- THE PRESS, NOVEMBER 21,1857. ject, which we shall entitle Credit, and which we propose giving in our issue of Saturday next. THE TWO ARISTOCRACIES. VANITY is, perhaps, after all, the most power ful lever in affecting the majority of mankind. And he who aspires to lead or to influence his fellow creatures, except by a very circuitous route, must have this engine in continual requisition. Nevertheless, there are certain limits to its efficacious operation. Flattery by a skilful artist will not be brought into direct collision with facts. No indications of private malignity will be permitted to appear in his language. When these rules are violated, adulation is wont to recoil upon its author. Nothing excites in the human breast such intense disgust as to find we have been made a cat's paw ; and we cannot help thinking that some such discovery will sooner or later dawn upon the minds of that " middle class " to whom the leading journal has lately been addressing so many clumsy and maladroit compliments. The middle classes, we are told, have super seded the aristocracy in the exercise of all those qualities which were once the peculiar attributes of the latter. Our late victories in India, of course, form the text of these dis courses ; and HAVELOCK and NEILL, we are in formed, prove with perfect clearness that the NEVILLES, the DE BURGHS, and the DE VERES have forfeited the virtue of their ancestors. The Times, however, is perfectly well aware that two names alone are not sufficient to establish so sweeping an assertion as this. So they take us back to the days of HASTINGS and CLIVE, and inform us that these, too, did not belong to the English aristocracy. We must inquire, then, what that aristocracy is to which they did not belong, and whether it is one which has ever affected to generate high per sonal qualities. The word " aristocracy " is used in this country in a double sense. There is an aris tocracy of rank and an aristocracy of race. The first denotes simply the governing classes of the country—" the upper ten thousand "—and from them we admit very willingly that HAST INGS and CLIVE were divorced. The latter denotes, on the other hand, that widely-spread but greatly diversified body who can still trace their descent to the Norman conquerors of England. Now, when we attribute special personal qualities to an aristocracy—we don't mean qualities acquired by culture, such as taste or refinement, but certain inherent moral qualities which fit them for governing their fellows—it is clearly in the latter of these two senses that the word* aristocracy is used. Nobody attributes any virtue to a DE BURGH or a NEVILLE because he has a seat in the House of Lords, or because he has 40,0001. a year ; but because he has the same blood in his veins as the bold barons of the Plantagenets. He is not great because he is a lord ; but he is a lord because he is great. The theory may be true or false, but it is the only one on which he can claim any personal superiority. We are not now expressing any opinion of our own as to the validity of what is called the " theory of blood." We only mean to say that the test adopted by the Times for disproving its validity is an entirely fallacious one. The writer opposes two classes to each other which are not two, but one. To the aristocracy of race HASTINGS and CLIVE most certainly did belong, as truly as a NEVILLE or DE BURGH, and are 1123 just as gond proofs of its prowess as if their names had been Grenville and De Vere. Aristocracy in the other sense of the word is a totally different affair. It is a most valuable political institution. But its maintenance rests upon entirely distinct grounds, anti its merits havo no proper place in the present discussion. But, to leave historic illustration, and descend to contemporaneous events, do the assertions put forward by the Times derive any support from the experience of the last few years Who were the most distinguished leaders in the late war? Who led their men, never under fire before, through a hailstorm of can non and musketry, up to the very bayonets of a foe with every advantage of ground, num - bers, and position ? And who, when the short, sharp struggle was done, lay pouring out their heart's blood on the crimsoned slopes of of Alma, but scions of those very houses which are now alleged to be degenerate ? One of the most ancient and noble fa milies in Britain which lost two gallant sons in the vindication of European li berty might well have been spared this mean and mendacious taunt. Who led the six hun dred into the valley of death? And who, at that second Albuera, where, as has been well said, " groom fought like noble, squire like knight," was conspicuous above all for intrepidity and devotion, but the lamented CATM;ART ? Who, during the long and dismal winter, when the stoutest heart quailed, and the kindest grew cold in the selfish apathy of despair, fur nished so bright an example of unflinching attention to his duties, and unflagging solici tude for his soldiers, as the gallant Colonel YEA? And who, of all our heroes, fell more gloriously with his front to the foe on that hapless anniversary of Waterloo? This true soldier, as great in the sickening trials of the camp as in the fearful moment of assault, was of that ancient west - country stock whose deeds have been worthily cele brated in the fervid periods of Kt NGSLEY. Who was universally recognised as the ablest officer in our army, and the fittest suc cessor to Lord RAGLAN, but the zealous and unfortunate MARKHAM, whose end, if less brilliant, was not less glorious than that of a Yea, a Cathcart, or a Goldie. And MARKHAM, too, sprung from a famous old race of English gentry. Who, on that final day of blood, when the act of one man redeemed disaster from disgrace, and hid his country's failure behind the spectacle of his own heroism, was the adored of every English tongue, and the theme of every English pen, but he whose name requires no illustration from us—a descendant of the ancient WYNntiAms ? And who now, when the loss of our vast Oriental dependency seemed a possible event, were chosen to restore our fortunes with the full concurrence of the nation, but the two aristo cratic names of Wyndham and Campbell? We ask no more for the aristocracy than a fair field and no favour. By their fruits shall we know them. If they are really degenerate they cannot lead us in battle ; and if they do not lead us in battle they can never lead us elsewhere. As long, however, as any of their old fighting qualities remain in them, it is as impolitic to deprive ourselves of their services as it is ungracious to begrudge them an acknow ledgment. The middle classes in this country do not require to be exalted by the unjust depreciation of the upper. They stand on independent ground, and can afford to despise adulation from below as well as hostility from above. None, we are certain, would have been ' so eager to deprecate the odium of a comparison as the brave men who have departed. Never was greater need for all classes to stand shoulder to shoulder, and strive with one heart for the redemption of national honour and the satisfaction of innocent blood. Let not events which ought to be a call to union, be turned t to an occasion of discord. There is no need