Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-08 00:00:00

•
of man, and his physical and moral powers are
made to depend upon his mean of obtaining a
share of the circulating medium of the country;
that the question can ever be hushed into silence,
until it has assumed a form, which has for its
foundation equity and justice. We have never
thought it either necessary or advisable to force any
dogmas upon the public to the exclusion of
every other man's opinion ; our efforts have,
for a series a years, been directed to the exami.
nation of a monetary system, which, it
is impossible to deny, has been founded upon
a mixture of ignorance, injustice, and incon-
sistency. In ignorance, because it had its origin
when the great mass of the people had no know-
ledge of its operations. In injustice, because it
conferred upon a small body of men, privileges,
which, by the fundamental law of the country,
belong to all the community. In inconsistency,
because we have one system for one part of the
country, and a contrary one for another part. To
one we assign a fixed limit of the circulating
medium ; while to another there is no limit what.
ever. In one part we legislate that a bit of engraved
paper signed with the name of an officer of
some company, shall pass as circulating medium
for no less a sum than 61.6 grains of gold,
or £5 ; while in another part of the United
Kingdom the same bits of engraved paper may
pass current for 123 grains. In one part of the
kingdom those pieces which pass for the less
amount are considered as a public benefit; while
in the other they are considered a curse, and pro-
ductive of panics, and every other species of
disaster. Now what is the reason of all this ? The
simple and only correct answer to it is, that there
are monopolists in the three parts of the kingdom
whi ch generate and mantain these anomalies,
because it is to their advantage to do so ; and,
therefore, they have a direct interest in
perpetuatig them ; but there is an interest
far more powerful in its claims of justice
than they—it is that of the public ; and
so powerful has it became that its voice must be
heard on this important question. We know not
what course the association which met on Monday
at the London Tavern, intend to pursue ; but our
experience and the knowledge we have of public
opinion on the matter, enable us to form a tolera
bly correct judgment on what should be done. In
the first place, we would advise the Association
against that common error into which so many
monetary reformers have fallen, by commencing
with some system of their own recommendation, to
the exclusion of every other ; for however
sound, or however plausible it may appear
to its projectors, such a course is productive
of great mischief. The first great duty of
an Association which seeks to reform our currency
and banking laws, is to commence their operations
like a skilful surgeon, by laying open to view the
seat of the disease in all its various phases ; and
delineate its courses of action upon the various
parts of the body politic ; to point out where it
affects the system, and show the result of its opera-
tions; this is the first great duty it is called upon
to perform ; and if faithfully discharged, we have
not the slightest doubt that the country will
respond to the call in the most satisfactory
manner. A select and secret Committee has
been appointed to examine this subject; but their
deliberations are conducted with closed doors, so
that nothing can be known of its progress until
aftes Parliament has been again dissolved, and an
unreadable blue book of a thousand pages is com-
piled to tell the tale. Now, the Currency
Association should forestall this : it should make
known through its agency .an accumulation of
facts, which Government could not possibly ignore ;
and by this means place in the hands of every
member of the house information to guide him in
giving his vote upon the question, whenever it may
be submitted to Parliament.—Banker's Circular.

POLITICAL GOSSIP.
The commission on the purchase of commissions
in the army is sitting. His Royal Highness the
General Commanding-in-Chief has been examined.
It is said (United Service Gazette) that his evidence
tends. to support the present system.
The commission for considering the best means
of securing the health of soldiers in all situations
and in every particular, have despatched Dr. Suther-
land and Mr. Ferguson to the continent, to make
investigations of the systems of other countries.
Notices have been served that select committees
to try the petitions complaining of an undue election
and return for the county of Mayo, the borough of
Cambridge, and the borough of Rochdale, will be
chosen by the general committee of elections, on
Monday, the 22nd instant, at half after twelve
o'clock in the afternoon, in No. 14 Committee-
room of the House of Commons. On the following
day the committees on the Pontefract, Marl_
borough, and Wareham petitions will be chosen.
All parties interested are severally directed to
attend the general committee by themselves, their
counsel, or agents.
A parliamentary return has been issued relative
to the expenditure in England and Wales in poor re-
lief. It appears that in the half year ended lady-day
last the sum of £1,079,885 was expended for in-
maintenance and out-door relief in 621 unions,
being a decrease of £1,118,770 on the expenditure
in the corresponding half-year of 1856.
A general feeling prevails amongst medical
officers of the army, and in the civil department of
the profession, that in meeting out the honours and
rewards incident to the late war, military surgeons
have not been treated with impartial justice. The
principle established by the Commander-in-chief
has been, that honours should be awarded only to
those medical officers who were present at the
battles of Alma and Inkermann. This principle
excludes many military surgeons who were with the
army the whole of the campaign previous to these
actions, and who served subsequently during the
whole of the siege of Sebastopol.
" The country," says the Weekly Despatch," ex-
presses very general surprise at what is regarded
as the extreme subserviency of the new House of
Commons to the Government. It forgets that
when parliaments are septennial the members do
not look to their constituents, but to the minister at
first, trusting that their early peccadilloes will be
forgotten before another dissolution. The consti-
tuencies are greatly surprised that so large a dowry
should be voted to the Princess Royal, and we
hear that members are much shaken in their de-
termination by the number and vehemence. of the
letters of remonstrance they receive from their
constituents on the subject of their extravagance
in this vote. We think the government has
materially damaged itself by the proposal which it
would, perhaps, however, be ungracious towards
Prussia now to modify "
The Press think's that the Duke of Cleveland's
speech on the new Reform Bill is an additional
proof, if such were wanted, that Conservatives can
regard the subject of parliamentary reform with as
much confidence as the liberals. The interests of
the former were 3o injuriously affected by the
settlement of 1832, that it is almost impossible
any fresh arrangement could leave then worse
than it found them. However, " there are one or
two observations which fell from the noble duke
which, though doubtless prompted by a liberal
generosity, seem to be a little at variance with those
rights of which his grace declared himself so warm
a supporter."

What we are to do to retrieve our reputation, or
what we are to fight for when we have got our
troops and our gun-boats into the Canton waters,
we (Saturday Review), cannot discover that any one
exactly knows. " The only information we have
been able to gather on the subject is from the
ministerial organ, which tells us that we are at war,
not with the Chinese empire, but with the insti-
tutions of China,' and further, that the anger of
Europe is excited by the bigotry and seclusion
which form the traditional policy of the country.'
In what chapter of the law of the nations it is laid
down that bigotry and seclusion constitute a cams
belli, we have yet to learn Such language as this
is only one specimen among many of the filli-
bnstering morality which, through the medium
of the press, is becomming too popular in this
country."
When we look at the great institutions, especially
those of France and Austria—the vivid emulation
—the keen collegiate spirit—the proud remem.
brances they inspire in the pupi)g—sud see how