The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-24 00:00:00

garded as a treatise rather than a lecture—to the
attentive consideration of our readers and the
public generally. It will well repay perusal.

The evil has arisen from the defective state
of the stamp law. A large revenue being de-
rived from stamps on bills of exchange and pro-
missory notes, it became essential, for the sake
of revenue, that cheques which pressed rather
closely thereon should be limited in their func-
tions. The chief conditions thus imposed were,
that the cheque should be made payable to bearer,
be payable on demand, be drawn on a banker
whose place of business was within fifteen miles
of the place of issue, and that they should not
be post dated. If any of these requisites were
wanting they virtually became bills of exchange,
and required a stamp proportioned to the amount.
Some relaxation was granted last Session by an
enactment, that if a cheque had a penny stamp
affixed it might be drawn at any distance from
the place payable, and on any party, whether a
banker or not, and made either to bearer or order.
This latter very salutary enactment was, however,
neutralised by the proviso that the party by
whom it was payable was not bound to inquire
into the authenticity of any document. All ho
had to look to was the genuineness of the order
to pay, or, in other words, that the signature of
the drawer was correct, but the incidents of all
unstamped cheques remained precisely as before
the passing of the Act of last Session.
It will from this appear that there has been a
constant struggle between a very injurious law and
the universal desire of commercial men to obtain
complete security in matters which now form a
very considerable portion of the national currency,
and without which it would be impossible to
carry on business for a single week. The mere
fact stated by Professor LK% that the transac-
tions passed through the Clearing House,
to which only twenty-six firms have admission,
in a single year amounted to nearly a thousand
millions of pounds sterling (974,580,0001.), will
show the vast importance, the vital consequence,
of a well-defined and strictly-ascertained law on
the subject, a law, too, that will impose additional
difficulties in the way of any person improperly
dealing with these valuable instruments of ex-
change, and which will accommodate itself to mer-
cantile practice, and the wants and wishes of the
commercial community. This can be done by
giving practical efficiency to the special endorse-
ment or crossing, and assimilating the cheque in
these respects to a bill of exchange payable at
sight. As it has been decided by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer that they are not fitting subjects
of taxation why should mischievous regulations
be enforced, which were only originally adopted
for the sake of revenue, and compelling a much
heavier stamp than that which was so recently
and so energetically objected to.

It would be seen in our third edition of Satur-
day last that on that day the newly-constituted
Metropolitan Board of Works proceeded to the
election of a permanent Chairman, and that Mr.
TRWAITILS was appointed to tie office by a con-
siderable majority.
The candidates put in nomination, and who
were voted for were ten in number, the principal
ones being Mr. ROEBUCK, Deputy HARRISON, and
Mr. THTAITBS. That the former was not elected
has caused some degree of disappointment in cer-
tain quarters. We cannot, however, confess to
any participation in the feeling. Entertaining
the highest respect for the independent spirit and
unquestionable abilities of that gentleman, we
were by no means prepared to recognise in him
the fittest person for the office, nor to concede
that because he had "done the State some service"
t was the duty of a popular Board to elect him.
No doubt certain advantages might have been ob-
tained by his election, but in our humble opinion
the selection of a shrewd business man, of conci-
liatory manners, was more in accordance with the
spirit of the bill, and most likely to conduce to its
successful working. The rejection, therefore, of
Mr. ROEBUCK on the ground that whatever ser-
vices he has rendered the public in a Parliamentary
capacity ought to be acknowledged in another
way, and that to convert so important an office
into a reward for services elsewhere, of a different
nature, was inexpedient, has our entire approval.
The delicate health of Mr. ROEBUCK, irrespective
of the above objection, also and very naturally
had its weight with the members of the Board,
who reasonably apprehended the possibility of his
breaking down under the great labours and re-
sponsibilities attached to the office.

The contest ultimately lay between Deputy HAR-
RISON and the now Chairman. Which of these gen-
tlemen is best fitted for the office wo cannot pre-
tend to say, nor what the result might have been
had Mr. HARRISON come earlier into the field and
taken it with more vigour ; but beyond a tinge of
apprehension that Mr. TIIWAITES is so far com-
mitted to a particular scheme of drainage as to
demand an effort on his part to free himself from
bias in the consideration of the general question,
we see no cause to question the discretion of his
supporters. Ia point of fact we are disposed to
regard him as much the sort of individual re-
quired--the right man in the right place. Of his
ability and energy there cannot, we should ima-
gine, be any doubt, and unquestionably few men
have paid more attention to the subjects with
which he will have to deal than he. Ho is a per-
sonable man, too—can talk, and talk sense and
is not at all likely to compromise the dignity
and importance of the office ho now holds by petu-
lance or want of courtesy and dignity. That he
and Mr. Deputy HARRISON, both business
men,
should be at the head of the poll, is a good
symptom, from which we are disposed to prognos-
ticate very favourably as to the future career of
the Board. Under the chairmanship of Mr.
TIIWAITES, we look to see the great principle of
local self-government so dear to the hearts of all
true Eng,lishieen triumphantly vindicated. The
Board have now a splendid opportunity for
use-
fulness before them ; not only is it in their power
by wise resolves and vigorous action to
metropolis,
the condition of the inhabitants of the
but also to set such an example to similar
to
bodie
bodies,
if it all lethargic or illinformed, and o
Govern-
ment itself in this country, as the latter will find
it difficult not to follow. Immense as may be the
beneficial results in these directions, the c)nse-
(ponces of palpable success will not be confined
to this country, for the example of the Board will
furnish a powerful and most effective argument
to the opponents of bureaucracy abroad, an ar-
gument they will not be disposed to neglect, and
which may ultimately deal a death-blow to that
demoralising system.

We are informed that Mr. May succeeds Mr. William
Ley as first clerk assistant of the House of Commous,
on that gentleman's resignation. Mr. May is the author
of the able treatise on Parliamentary Practice, which
we have had occasion more than once to notice with
well-deserved commendation, as the great authority on
the subject of which it treats.—Timcs.
FUNERAL OF COLONEL Satur-
day.—The:remains of Colonel Sibthorp were interred to-
day in the family vault at Canwick Church, near Lin-
coln. The body arrived by rail at the Great Northern
Station at one o'clock, and the funeral procession from
the station to Can wick was followed by agreat concourse
of people. The deceased Colonel was attended to his
last resting-place by his two brothers and four sons, some
other relatives, iis tenants, and family dependants.