The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-16 00:00:00

The severity of the crisis was greatly aggravated
by the withdrawal of the 11. Bank of England
notes from circulation. They had passed freely
from hand to hand, had answered all the pur-
poses of every-day life ; but ea the ridiculous
pretext that they might, in time of panic, render
the position of the Bank less secure, they were
gradually removed, and their place supplied with
gold, so that from forty to fifty millions of sovereigns
were brought into use. There was thereby oc-
)casioned not merely the loss of interest of that
large sum, but an enormous wear and tear of the
precious metals. The Bank itself was saved in time of
real panic by the accidental discovery of a box
of the much-despised 1/. notes—the value where-
of was thus established beyond the possibility of
doubt. But how did our legislators profit by the
salutary lesson ? The denomination of notes that
saved the country were " tabooed." No note
could-be issued for less than 5/., so that the Bank
must inevitably stop payment under circumstances
similar to those which occurred in December,
1825. The pressure of the Act of 1819 was
thus greatly enhanced by the senseless prohibi-
tion of the small-note currency. This was the
state of affairs so loudly and justly complained of
when the new legislation of 1844 materially in
creased the difficulties of the industrious classes,
and gave a further and most extravagant profit to
capitalists and the recipients of fixed income, at
the expense of the creators and producers of na-
tional wealth. The pernicious effects of this short-
sighted and inequitable legislation will be explained
on a future opportunity—time and space are alike
wanting for the purpose this day.

If the gentlemen who got up the meeting at
Sr. Martin's-hall on Monday night be single-
minded they will succeed. Englishmen now sus-
pect and bate Alien Bills. They were never
popular, except with manufacturing monopolists,
for monopolypurposes, or with those who trembled
at the thought of Popish emissaries. As the
means of getting rid of purely political refugees
we all dislike them, and justly. We know they
would be used by the Government of the day at
the bidding of other Governments, who sympathise
with the class composing our Courts and Cabinets.
That, as the rule, no Royalist would be expelled,
while Republicans, and Constitutionalists pos-
sibly too, would be advised or compelled to take
a passage for America. An Alien Bill would be
more fatal to Lord PALMERSTON'S popularity than
was the Foreign Enlistment Bill to that of his
predecessors. It would utterly destroy at home
the belief in his being the Minister of England ;
and abroad it would embroil him with
Cabinet for whom he declined to use his obnoxious
persuade
power. Notwithstanding the language of journals
ourselvessupposed that
oathis
know his views, are cannot
Lordship would be so ill-ad • d
VlBO ,
so insane we might properly say, as to jeoparlise
his Leadership
a war for liberty, by an attack
on a liberty
in
which
his countrymen would most
certainly protect. He might get a bill through
the present House of
'
Commons, but if he suc-
ceeded they might turn him out with impunity,
for he would become as just an object of suspicion
as Mr. GLADSTONE himself. It would be useless
for the author of an Alien Act to
appeal to the
country.

Mr. Mum; the Chairman of the
meeting, how-
ever, in vain denied that the dropping of the dis.
cussion on the policy of the War was not a neces-
sary afterthought on the part of the promoters of
the meeting. Their prudence is gratifying, but
prudence it was. We see the Honourable Gen-
tleman, in his own journal of yesterday, alleges
that the choice of speakers three of them being
in favour of the 'War—proves that the meeting
was not originally a peace-trap, baited with the
refugee question. To be sure of that we ought
to know whether the speakers who are for fighting
out the independence of nations, and for incapa-
citating Russia to trample down more Hungary's,
and Polands, and Finlands, and Crimeas, and
"Principalities," &c., &c.—whether these speakers
were purchased with the sacrifice of the adver-

tised topic; of the War, or whether hating been

A social revolution was effected. The author of
the change, Sir ROBERT PEEL, more than doubled
the value of his own fortune, a point which his
venerable and magnanimous father clearly ex-
plained. We do not wish to impute private or
personal motives to the deceased Statesman, but
the effect of the change was unquestionable. Not
only were debts, contracted when gold was worth
51. per ounce, liquidated when its price was only
3/. 17s. 1 °id., but, from the necessary contrac-
tion of the circulating medium, " the purchasing
power " of the pound sterling was greatly en-
hanced, so that virtually 20s. would purchase fully
as much as 40s. under the previous currency sys-
tem. The apparent cheapness had its charm, but
it was quite illusory, for the wages of the work-
ing classes fell. in a still greater ratio, and, inas-
much as certain fixed payments remained un-
altered, they found themselves unable to
obtain anything like the same quantity of
the comforts, or even the necessaries of life.
The value of land diminished, as well as every
description of commodity. But the landocracy
were bribed to disregard their own interests, by
the iniquitous bread-tax, and thus the operatives
were doubly ground down.
It is needless to expatiate on the intense suf-
ferings occasioned by the working of the enact-
ments relating to cash and corn. Those who can
recollect the disastrous years from 1816, when
the preparations for the resumption of cash
payments were commenced, will require no
monitor to explain the terrible crises that
ensued—that desolated many hearth; and
reduced those who had once been prosperous
merchants, to the verge of bankruptcy, if not to
absolute ruin. Banks failed in every district.
The rents readily paid in a paper currency could
not be collected, tenants were ruined, and land-
owners who had mortgages affecting their estates
shared their fate, while others, who fortunately
for themselves were unencumbered, sustained
serious losses, and were obliged to content them-
selves with greatly diminished incomes ! Such
were the effects of PEEL'S first act of 1819, which
produced a social revolution, in"which all moneyed
men or capitalists suffered severely.
There was, however, no artificial restriction.
The Bank of England was permitted to issue notes
to any amount, and in any denominations it
thought proper. The only stipulation was that
these notes should be convertible on demand, that
any person bringing Bank paper should be en-
titled to receive the specified amount of gold in
return. The Directors could -therefore use their
own discretion in ascertaining the nature and ex-
tent of any peculiar pressure—could discover
whether the want was for domestic) purposes or
foreign exigencies. In the former instance the
notes were just as good as bullion ; in the latter,
however, they might be compelled by the opera-
tion of the law, to injure the home trade in
order to arrest an evil for which the
sufferers were in, nowise responsible. They
were, in fact, like " the whipping boys " of
princes in the olden time, when the faults and
shortcomings of royal pupils were visited with ter
rible severity on their less distinguished fellow-
students.