The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-19 00:00:00

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

TEM DAY—:-ITorn. 56, min. aft. 6-7.vening 40 min. aft. 7
TO-MORROW—Morn.S6 min. aft. 6 —Evening 20 min. aft. `.l

THE WE.i.THER.—SUN OFFICE, Oct. 19.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
57- highest silica neon yesterday.
50 —towest this morning and during the night.
53 --this day at noon.
BAROMETER, 30'18.
WIND, W.S.W .—Light, with very fine weather.

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LONDON, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1855.

We yesterday announced the very stringent
measure adopted by the Bank of England in the
increase of the minimum rate of discount to six
per cent. for bills not having more than 6G days
to run, and to seven per cent. (!) for bills not ex-
ceeding 95 days I This is indeed a heavy blow
and great discouragement to the trade and com-
merce of the country—one that may make every
person engaged in any description of business in
which credit is indispensable, tremble in anticipa-
tion of the trials and hardships he may have to
encounter. To many it conveys the sad tidings
of bankruptcy and utter ruin—to all, except the
members of the moneyocracy, who extract unholy
profits from the sweat and labour of over-toiled
operatives and the difficulties of struggling trades-
men, the certain anticipation of vexation and loss.
It also shows that the Directors of the quasi
National Bank anticipate a further heavy drain
on their resources, and that they may be com-
pelled to adopt still more onerous rates to protect
themselves from the very formidable consequences
that may ensue, if the severe restrictions of the
Bank Charter Act be steadily enforced. Were it
otherwise, we should not have had such rapid al -
vancseat a time when there is no undue speculation
in existence, and when our internal trade is univer-
sally admitted to be in a particularly healthy
and sound condition. We are told by the
great organ of the buliionists that even
at this moment " the total absence of commercial
distrust is as marked as ever." A significant and
valuable admission, inasmuch as it completely
eliminates from the great financial problem th,
enormous quantity of twaddle with which it was
unduly encumbered on previous occasions, and
places the burden in the right direction, showing
that it has arisen exclusively from the mischievous
operation of the so-called self-acting regulator of
the currency—the infamous and impolitic Bank
Charter Act of 1844. Fortunately, that in-
equitable law is rapidly drawing to a conclusion.
It will expire in the course of the ensuing
year, and it is of vital consequence
that it should never be renewed, but that a more
salutary monetary code should be substituted for
that, which has occasioned such fearful damage to
the welfare and prosperity of the nation during

its existence.
At the very commencement of hostilities we
pointed out the pressing necessity of adopting
timely measures to arrest the drain of bullion,
which it required no extraordinary power of va-
ticination to predict. When all other nations
were encouraged to provide themselves with an
ample provision of the. most important " sinew of
war" at our expense—.when even Russia itself
could make'arrangements for supplying its greatest
want from our stores—it was perfectly clear that
every blot which our absurd legislation left exposed
would be hit ! A very ordinary degree of calcu-
lation would establish not merely the probability,
but the absolute certainty of this result. We are
already reaping the fruits of the unparalleled apathy
and insouciance of ourFinancialMinister. But there
is yet time to prevent the complete development of
the impending danger, to arrest the progress
of
the State machine on the road to ruin. Let us
pause in. the mad career, ere it be too late,
We we already been seriously, but not fatally)
hurt. ...In another month the injury may be irre-
trictizahle,:t and we may have cause bitterly to de-.
PThre the' infatuation that induced. us to perse-
vere) ree.kiesslY ip.the desperate experiment. ,
The
ruat evil to be guarded against is the in-
cessant and rapid drain of bullion from our ports.
Can this be
mestic trade? Andifso,
attested without crippling our do-
This is, the great, the how-, or in what manner ?
alb:important problem ; but,
fortuntitelyy it requires
CEDlpus to discover
satisfactory solution) ll*
mouse of the difficulty
is patent to •the world, and by removing
cause the pernicious effects will a that
also tease. Let
a auitable circulating medium, 641 equate to the

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wants and exigencies of the country, be supplied, ;
and a considerable portion of the forty millions of
sovereigns, now in daily use, will be liberated to
meet the national wants. Thirty years since—
in December, 1825—the Bank of England was
saved from stopping payment by the accidental
discovery of a box of one-pound notes. At the
moment it had but little more than a single mil-
lion of gold in its coffers. They were at once
sent into circulation, and the delight—for no
lighter term will express the feeling—with which
they were received, proved that the want of a
secure small-note currency was alone required.
The one-pound notes saved the country, and within
a single week the peril had passed away.
Why should not a similar result follow a similar
operation in the present instance ? No adequate
reason can be assigned, and it is an imperative
duty on the Government to adopt the necessary
steps without a moment's delay.

We cannot conclude without earnestly inviting
public attention to the communication of a well-
known and highly-respected correspondent, Mr.
HAMER STAMM)), to whose excellent sugges-
tions we have repeatedly adverted. The pe-
tition which he has prepared is one that
should be numerously signed, to show that
those most interested.- are sensible of the
magnitude of the emergency, and aware of the na-
ture of the remedy so urgently demanded. It
will strengthen the hands of the Government,
and enable it to follow the precedent so success-
fully adopted in October, 1848, by the suspension
of the Bank Charter—the teterrima causa mall---
the primary cause of all the mischief that has
I arisen.

It is marvellous, after all, to notice the growth
of public opinion. Labouring, as we poor jour-
nalists are, to form it, in the midst of our ceaseless
toil, and appearing tomake almost no progress com-
pared with the amount of effort, we are occasion-
ally liable to overlook the advance really gained.
Our readers, no doubt, generally gave a glance
at least, yesterday, at what so notable an ex-
Minister as Mr. GLADSTONE would say on the
great subject of our colonies. His remarks, in
one sense, were not distinguished by any peculiar
novelty ; the speech itself was, in fact, an extem-
pore one, delivered at the request of mechanics,
and intended not only to instruct the middle and
working classes, but also to gain shillings and
sixpences in the form of admittance fees, for the
benefit of a village literary institution. The elite
of the neighbourhood, we are informed, attended
in crowds; and, therefore, we may hope that
sovereigns and notes were almost as numerous as
the shillings, and that the treasury of the insti-
tution was as much enriched as the minds of the
elite and non-elite who were present.
To many, we imagine, Mr. GLADSTONE was
himself as instructive a lesson as his oratory,
and even more so. They well knew all he could
ell them off-hand about the colonies, but to
think of him, a good fair-going Tory, telling
them such things ! They listened to him de-
scribing our colonial policy of 80 years ago,
pointing out as antiquated, as needing but men-
tion to be their own refutation, the dicta which
swayed the minds of our grandfathers, obstructed
the perceptions of our own fathers, and left us
much obstinacy to overcome ; describing also the
indignation of this country at the colonies' denial
of our right to tax them while unrepresented, and
the style in which true Liberals were denounced
as Jacobins and traitors if they agreed with the
colonists. It doubtless occurred to many of his
audience while listening to all this, that the ad-
vance during the last 80 years must have been
great indeed. Here was re Reformer, no Radi-
cal, but a veritable Conservative portraying for
amusement the exploded errors of his own party.
Describing what he would surely have done and
said had his life been cast on those days, and then
showing how much wiser even Tories had now
become, no one could with more appropriate-
ness, have quoted the motto—

" Tempora mutantnr, et nos,
Mutamur in illis."

If Mr. GLADSTONE has thus advanced upon the
Toryism of 80 years back, what ought to be, and
what must be, the position of a Sir W. MOLES-
WORTH ?

Mr. GLADSTONE'S remarks were necessarily free
from Blue-bookism, and entirely elucidatory of
general principles, and we really do not know that
we could find fault with any of them. Except
from his known hankering to give the Episcopal
Church in the Colonies the privileges of Volun.
taryism and State Churchism together, which Sir
JOHN PAKINGTON and Mr. WALPOLE will never
let him do, he seems to be quite a safe successor
to Sir W. MOTYAWORTH, whenever one of the ebb-
rugs of party may carry the Hon. Baronet back to
Opposition Benches. Uncharitable folk may even
surmise that he is informing all whom it concerns,
that if Conservatives of all grades will coalesce as
a Peace Party, he can cheerfully take the Colo-
nies, if the Great Hebrew insists on having the
Chancellorship of the Exchequer. Which of our
Colonies would repudiate aMinister who touches on
all old Torynotions of Colonies but to refute them?
We once thought Colonies were to be held for the
profit or revenue they yielded to the parent State,
or that as adding to the extent of our dominion
they might increase its magnificence and influ-
ence ;—or, that we might render all their fine
fisheries, farms, mills, &c., conducive to our own
purposes ;—or, that they might furnish snug
berths and offices for our needy respectables, for
whom the Treasury Benches could not find room
at home ; or, that they might afford facilities
for propagating the Gospel ;—or, because if
stripped of her Colonies, England must in-
evitably fall ;—all these things Mr. GLADSTONE
mentions but to fling them to the winds ;
most of them he hardly deigns to honour with a
refutation. He would have England estimated
only for what she is really worth ; he thinks colo-
nial men best qualified for colonial offices. Emi-
grants now leave to improve their fortunes, not
to spread Christianity, or even, as in the days of
the STUARTS, to enjoy liberty of conscience ; and
for her greatness and glory, England must rely not
on extensive colonies, but on the industry of her
own sons—their intelligence, perseverance, pa-
triotism, and virtue.
•
seems quite prepared to treat
Mr. GLADSTONB
the wish of any colony for independence as a per-
fectly harmless, it may be but a reasonable,
thing. He even adduced the ancient Greek col()-
nisation
) in which the colony was politically
entirely independent, retaining only a friendly re-
lation to the mother city, as
the best mode of
colonisation ! At the same time he illustrated,
it seems very fully, the benefits of emigration in
raising the price of labour at home, and creating
markets for the manufacturer abroad ; thus corn-
mending colonisation- as the enricher of all. A
collection sermon, in such a style, could
hardly
fail to elicit hearty cheers ; such out-and-out
liberality, in this department, such demonstra-
tions of advantage to all from what is going on
just now at such a hitherto unparalleled rate,
I must have been gratifying to any audience. But,
I. to" come from Mr. GLansTortt---from the great.
orator of the House of COMMOI3S--and from him.
standing not on the floor of " the House," but
aiding behind the table of a country schoolroom,

4-euziL4

—really, -the Liberalism, and the condescension
together, will enrapture more than the villagers
of Hawarden.

In one respect Mr. GLADSTONE surpassed his
present associates. As a member of the peace
Party he kept the peace. He let Russia and
her chastisers equally alone. The War, the
CZAR, and PALMERSTON were all forgotten, at
least practically ; he preached peace by confining
himself tb what none could quarrel with, and by
keeping aloof from foreign or party politics alto-
gether. At the present time, when every speaker
who varies the monotony of the recess—from the
Premier to W. B.—seems unable to refrain from
adverting to the all-absorbing topic—when Mr.
BRIGHT must denounce the Press, because its
writers no longer starve in back, garrets, but even
venture to be in the majority against him, la
course from mercenary motives, since, like him-
self, they abjure starving,—Mr. GLADSTONE alone
seems quite content to talk for an hour or two,
and to leave the War to Lord PALMERSTON and
the country. Would that he had always been s
discreet ! His language then would not have en-
couraged Russia, and discouraged the army. His
speech at Hawarden will not b• translated in ex-
tens° for the Invalide Russe ; in two respects it
would be a mortification to Russia. It would
show her a country overfilled with energetic in-
habitants, in contrast to her steppes thinly peo-
pled with inanimate serfs ; and it would set before
her the difference between colonisation by the
conquests of despotism and by the enterprising
vigour of honourable commercial ambition.

In another column will be found a report of an
address by Mr. MACGREGOR, M.P., to the people
of Glasgow, in which, according to his annual
custom, he gives an account of his stewardship.
The Hon. Member for that busy emporium of
commerce reviewed, it will be seen, with much
discrimination and judgment the doings of the
late session, and put the questions of the War in
a very forcible manner. " The present War,"
he said, "had been most seriously and deliberately
entered into for the purpose of defending the
liberties and freedom of mankind against a con-
spiracy of monarchs more insidious and dan•
gerous than any that had ever been recorded
in the annals of the world. He granted that
we in these islands might for a while
longer have held aloof from this War ; but from
the first he was of opinion that the most fatal
policy for this country, and finally the most ex-
pensive with regard to taxation, was to defer de-
claring War beyond the time that that step was
resolved on,"— au opinion, we may remark,
abundantly justified by the event, and strikingly
fortified by the speaker by a reference to the
Holy Alliance. The conspiracy ho describes
as having been in full or fuller vigour than ever
at the outbreak of hostilities, notwithstanding the
hypocritical pretensions of Austria. Adding, "If
we had not gone to War we should have had a
combination of all the military forces of Russia,.
Prussia, and Austria, to prevent anything like
the development of civil, religious, or political
liberty throughout Europe. An attempt
made in the Italian States would be put
down as the insurrection in Hungary was
put down by Russia, and a rising in Poland
would be crushed by the aid of Prussian and Aus-
trian armies.° Not less forcible and conclusive was
his censure of that Ministry whose conduct hardly
excites less suspicion of treachery than the stores
in Sebastopollend countenance to the alleged tyran-
nical designs of Russia, in whose wake Austria and
Prussia should ever be looked for. Equally satis-
factory was his indignant reprobation of the
policy and the conduct of that mongrel
herd " The peace party ;" while still more
so was his vigorously expressed resolution to sup-
port the carrying out of the War with the utmost
energy, in union with France, until the only de-
sirable peace can be secured, and his advocacy of
having recourse to a loan instead of increased
taxation to meet the necessary expenses. The
speech ought, however, to be read, and we there-
fore commend it to the thoughtful perusal of our
readers, and not least to that of the dissatisfied
gentleman who so bitterly questioned the speaker
respecting the Scottish Education Bill at its con-
clusion, and [who .i7:need a good deal tof that en-
lightened liberality of feeling by which it is dis-
tinguished.

We are positively bankrupts in sympathy, The
magnitude of the demand overpowers us, and we
are compelled to resort to a lesson of fortitude.
Gentlemen in broadcloth, whose purity is as
starched and immaculate as your cambric, and
whose personal humility and sympathy for your
fellow-sinners in distress is so strikingly manifest
when you are at prayers, put up your odoriferous
handkerchiefs, moistened so heavily with tears—
have done weeping for the fate of that martyr to
kindliness, Captain HILL, and console yourself
with the reflection that this is a world of trial,
and that what cannot be cured must be endured.
If this won't do, try another tack. Picture to
yourselves the greatness of the sacrifice he has
made, and the delightful effect the record of his
devotion is calculated to produce. You can't ;
well, give over sobbing and we'll try to do it
for you.

The glory of benevolence, it is said, is to pity
the undeserving, and the greater the glory the
greater the sacrifices you make in manifesting
your pity. You nod assent ; and where, let
us ask, could your pity descend lower than
to the cells of Messrs. STRAHAN, PAUL, and
BATES ? To the cell of the begging-letter or
"something-to-your-advantage" writer ? Surely
not. To that of the petty area sneak, with that
distressing hankering of his for pewter pots ? By
no means. To the cell of the gay swell-mobsman,
with hilt gentlemanly slang, refined manners, and
charmingly-prehensible fingers ? To No. 50, where
the enterprising gentleman who stopped farmer
HODGE the other day with a modest request for
his watch, and whatever valuables he possessed
to keep it company, and, in exasperation at the
clumsy fellow's lack of promptitude, went far to
brain him? To the cell of Mr. SYKES, that
hardy child of the night, whose centre bit now
and then made its owner's way into honest doors,
whose bludgeon was not good to look at
by candle light, and whose reprobate-look-
ing dog keeps whining for its master
at the prison gates ? You are bursting
with impatience to reply, Certainly not ! It does
you credit ! These are but common culprits, 'for
whom, though
there is no defence, something
may be said in the way of extenuation. They
were born with craving
"
What
a t stomachs
you r
uei
neighbour
usharp
possesses wits,
and bred on no other principle than that of
never starve while W
is to be had for taking."
RILL'S
g. They were not early
accustomedtporig:cipd society and indoctrinated in
the choicest principles of Church and State. Un-
compassion,
society had some protection against them. They
Un-
like the objects of Captain
did not plan incursions in the society of Bishops,
and entrap the unwary confiding in their associa-
tion with unconscious Admirals. They built no
chapels and gave no alms to lure victims to their
dens. They did much evil, doubtless ; but the
gallant soldier righting for his country had not to

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