The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-18 00:00:00

ERUPTION OF MOUNT VESUVIUS.

Or about 31. 10,. each for a population of fourteen mil-
lion., and 30s. per head fa. a population of twenty-one
milli n~. Premising that the nature of money used in a
country should be considered with reference to the prices
to be expressed—in our case combining large taxation
with natural value—th contractions we have suffered
in monetary affairs were shown to have arisen from the
attempt of theoretic legislation to render the bank notes
in circulation strictly conformable to gold ;—the at-
tempt was described as po-itively antagonistic with the
fair and just adaptation of prices to our highly taxed
condition in this country, and as clearly productive of
the commercial or rather monetary panics of 1822, 1825,
1836, 1839; and 1847 ; panics in which the property of
all men engaged in trade had been for the time of their
prevalence depreciated fully 30 per cent.—a state of
things from which this country is now only delivered by
arrival of metallic treasures from California and Aus-
tralia—which arrivals it was affirmed passed through
this country as through a sieve, leaving our monetary
circulation almost as sensitive and fluctuating as it was
before their discovery. Here illustration was afforded
by reference to the " Bank of England Barometer,"
recently published by Letts, which Mr. Knott stated
should be consulted by all persons likely to be affected
by the fullness or scarcity of money. The fact that
we never had in this country a period of sustained
remuneration in price when the Bank of Eng-
land note circulation was materially under 24 millions,
was placed in comparison with the much loner period
during which the commercial interests of this country
have been struggling with a sum under, rather than over,
20 millions, and this under the action of the Bank screw
—applied as it was— as the inevitable law of the existing
system, to check the departure of gold in 1853—that is to
say, to force down the prices of this country so as to
render them cheaper for exportation than the gold neces-
sary to the convertibility of our paper money. The
action of this strange operation was shown by references,
to questions and answers of the governor and deputy--
governor of the Bank of England, on occasion of the
Commons' committee on commercial distress in 1848.
The answers adduced were those numbered 3,278 to
3,283 inclusive. The act of 1819 was declared to have
proceeded on the egregious error of Mr. Ricardo and
others, that its operation would not diminish
prices more than three or four per cent., while
it was soon admitted that by the fall in prices
it had aggravated the national debt and taxation
30 per cent., as proved by silver coins of that period,
produced by Mr. Knott, and showing that full difference
between the intrinsic value of the coinage as at that
time and at, the present. Prices it was affirmed had
been reduced as much as the currency was appreciated.
No wonder, therefore, it was remarked, that the princi-
ple of the act of 1819 had, of necessity, been mitigated
in the years '22, '25, and '36 ; that this country had
never enjoyed a prosperity except in periods of its prac-
tical suspension ; and no wonder that when, by the mis-
chievous legislation of 1844, it was rendered an inflexible
reality, it gradually prepared the way for the terrific
p inic of 1847. The attempt at gold convertibility was
shown in figures to be a mere fiction unworthy a great
nation like thie. The attempt to erect the measure of
value of gold into a standard of value was denounced as
fraught with the depression of honest, but smaller capi-
talists, and with the comparative misery too manifest in
the working classes. Here a passage of a speech of
Lord J. Russell in the House of Commons in the year
1844 was read, in which he showed that, com-
pared with the last century, there had been a deplorable
diminution of the comforts and social condition of the
labouring classes, while luxury had overspread the more
wealthy portion of the population. A comparison was
drawn between the effect of the system of money which,
with all its defects, nourished industry during the long
European war, and that which now exists under conver-
tibility at a fixed price of gold. The seventy millions of
taxation paid cheerfully by a population rising to four-
teen millions only, was contrasted with the fretlulness
felt at a similar extent of taxation at this time, while the
severity millions of loan during some years of the war
was adduced in proof of the prosperity afforded by the
monetary system of that day. It was alleged that this
action is essentially one to be fostered by crelit ; that
credit is, in fact, a proper consequent of civilisatien,
while it appears to be the object of some modern
statesmen to force us back to a condition of barter
and to disallow the working of • our mines of coal,
iron, and lead—our mills and our machinery—in the
arts of life, unless we can first measure our operations
by the presence of a metal of foreign production. The
effect of panics was illustrated by the case of an indivi- I
du LI who he would suppose lia,•l embarked a surn of capi-
tal, partly borrowed, say of 10,0001., in a business con-
sisting of plant, mock, and debts ; that, no ing upon the
spirit of this commercial age—engendered by large capi-
talists—of small profits and quick returns, he had in-
curred a liability to the extent of some 20,000/. or 25,0001.
per annum, and was suddenly brought under the influ-
ence of one of our periodical panics. His banker, under
the pressure and alarm he felt, bad unwillingly come to
the determination of diminishing the scale of his accom-
modation to customers, and declined to discount in con-
tinuance the ordinary paper of this tradesman, which
did not exceed the usual dates of his trade. Rather
than resort to the Jew, and wrong his creditors
under usury, he stopped payment. His assets at once
became depreciated 30 per cent. ; and where was his
capital ? It had totally disappeared. He appealed to
his creditors ; they offered to accept 15s. in the pound.
His friends, sufferers already, dare not come forward
with the requisite security or means—arrangement could
not be effected—ruin succeeded, and in the midst of
panic, bankruptcy wound up with a dividend small, in-
deed. This, it was observed, was a type of a deserving
and middle class or tradesman ; and on this class was
our monetary system now telling at the present mo-
ment, notwithstanding the Bank of England screw had
brought back three millions of gold to her coffers. The
increase from twelve millions had not enabled the pro-
ducers of the country to enjoy more than the addition
of a million to the circulation of Bank of England
paper ; each million of which withdrawn, or added to,
involved the destination or fate of the several millions
of bills of exchange they sustained. Mr. Knott said
he was not there to propose a substitute for the pre-
sent system ;—that end might be effected in more
ways than one. But he would say this much, with
confidence : Gold is mainly valuable to us in our fo-
reign exchange. Why not, then, at once solve the
difficulty by carrying out honestly and consistently the
principle of free trade, putting gold at its market price
in a suitable, sound, and sufficient paper money of the
realm, limited by Parliament, and receivable in taxes ?
He concluded by observing that it was the oppression
and inhumanity of the system that induced him to enter
into explanation• like this, and this because under the
existing system we witness those who produce our wealth,
year by year, insufficiently fed, clad, and housed. He
desired to see such an alleviation in respect to prices, of
our present erroneous system, as would secure " a fair
day's wage for a. fair day's work," without plunging the
liberal employer and capitalist himself into bankruptcy.
At the conclusion, Mr. T. H. SMITH put some ques-
tions to Mr. Knott, and particularly as to the working
of the proposed system in preventing imprudence. It
was replied that no legislation could prevent imprudence,
ai.d that it carried its own punishment and correct on.
Mr WRIGHT observed, that if Mr. Smith's questions
implied that the present system tended to prevent im-
prudence, it should be considered that it was calculated
to create imprudence and foster speculation—rendering
money at one time a drug, and at another almost un-
attainable ; thus reducing commerce to a 'system of
gambling.
Mr. FELEIN said he had listened with great attention
to Mr. Kno t's remarks, and wished he had dwelt
more on the very important contrast he bad drawn be-
tween the proportions of currency now, with those dur-
ing the war ; that he had long been convinced that some
great defect existed in the act of 1844, which admitted
such enormous fluctuations in the value of money ; and
after entering at some length into the subject, proposed
that the Legislature should be requested to institute an
inquiry int i the working of the act.
Mr. WRIGHT replied that Parliamentary inquiry had
already been made, and in vain ;—that the inquiry in
1848 after the panic, when he was examined, had pro-
duced a large blue ook, which no one read ;—that the
Report of the Lords' Committee was indeed a most ela-
borate and excellent one, declaring that the act of
1844 had produced the panic of 1347, and that, if
it had not been suspended, the Bank of England itself
would have stopped payment ; that in the Commons, on
the other hand, it had been contrived that the Commit-
tee should in the majority consist of the originators
vote
the act, including Sir R. Peel himself, who passed a vtohee
that it was not expedient to make any alteeif•ati
act ; that the reports of the two Houses. n Poarnliainment
had been
thus neutralising one another, legslatio
avoided altogether ; that the Lords' report,t_
ehomwaenvueari
remained a great fact—that it diesetraveudsetofubi
of all currency reformers, and t ia ba t
Assoc c t of
at
had been published by the Currency Reformat
tion.
Mr. KNOTT added, thatf truth,thereport
inofthteheteeCt
ho m
omf
tnhs
e,
drawn up in defiance o
evidence, questions,
to which
was a great discredit to the Legislature Mr. Knott
Mr. BEARLT put some q
replied.
Mr. Tomussos inquired as to thedewffeacrt;owf Veen Mr.
posed system in
that the
oeyf
estcemarcihtye
asnuggested would be
Knott showed tha
better in both cases, and that the gold, atb presentlocked.
up in clonteatic circulation being lot at li ert7s Pro_7l
_

The following is an extract of a letter from
Naples, dated May 8 :
"You may conceive my delight this daj last week,
the let of May, when I came to dine at --, and the
servants told me that Vesuvius hail broken out ill a vio-
lent state of eruption. I thought the dinner would have
never ended, I was so impatient to go a-id see it ; how-
ever, at 9 o'clock -- ordered his carriage, and we drive
to Santa Lucia, which is, you know, the quartier on the
Vesuvius side. It was a lovely night, without a cloud,
and the moon as bright as in the month of August. As
we turned the Chiatamone there was the mountain
standing out of the plain against the blue starry heavens,
and a broad stream of lava slo xly rolling down its
cone, and fiom the summit a thick cloud of smoke
spread over it in the shape of a gigantic pine tree, the
lower part of which, from the reflected fire, was red,
while higher up a thick black layer of smoke, with a
white top, lay curling over like the foliage of the tree.
The lava was streaming in one broad flood from about
half way up the mountain's cone, whence, when it got
to the bottom, it seemed, from the ground being leas
steep, to crawl along until it reached the edge of the old
crater that forms the vacuum between Vesuvius and
Monte Somma. Here it found itself arrested on the
brink of an abyss some 200 or 300 feet wide ; and, from
the distance we were at, we could see the stream of fire
rushing over like a vast cataract, with immense boulders
of red-hot rocks hurled over, and chasing each other
down until the ground got more even, and the speed
slackened. From this point the lava crept on, but
so slowly that it was difficult to mark its pro-
gress ; and the effect was beautiful as it burned
the trees it met in its course, which flamed
up with a bright blue light like Roman candles.
The reflection of the burning mountain was thrown
across the sea on the very edge rf the spot where we
were standing, and formed a lovely contrast to the beams
of the pale silvery moon as they lit up Capri and the
Sorrento coast. The best remains to be told. pro-
posed going on to Portici to see the eruption nearer.
When we got there I suggested Messina as preferable ;
and, in short, it ended in his taking a donkey we met,
and I walked. So we proceeded, both of us dressed as
we were, in thin evening shoes and light apparel, until
we reached the summit of the mountain, after a severe
tug of two hours. However, we were well repaid, and
I shall never forget the scene, as we stood within a few
yards of the cataract of fire which I mentioned before.
A strong wind blew the smoke over Monte Somma, but
the heat was terrible, for we were pretty near it, of which
you may judge whet I tell you that, fautede mieux, I lit a
cigar from the edge of the torrent as it rolled over the edge
of the mountain. We remained there some three hours,
which passed quickly enough, and as we descended the
mountain we were gratified at seeing the eclipse of the
moon, which took place at about 3 o'clock in the morn-
ing, and of which previously we knew nothing. In short
we were very fortunate in the night, for it was the only
one on which the moon bad shone since this day last
week. As you may suppose, the lava bad made great
progress, and it does not seem to be diminished. I went
again, but to another part, last Saturday night. It was
then threatening a village called San Sebastiani, for it
has already got into the plain, and has destroyed an
infinity of property. I hear to-day that the stream is
600 feet in breadth, and has engulfed three houses.
They have sent firemen to build walls, to try and turn
the direction of the stream. However, that won't do
much vod. When I was there last Saturday it was
a curious sight to see the wretched proprietors cut-
ting down their vines and trees to save the wood.
Thousands of people were standing in front of the ad-
vancing flood, for in the plain there is no danger as it
moves about 50 yards in five hours. When it is likely
to cease nobody can tell, as every day the mountain
opens fresh craters, and it is likely to continue to do so.
To-day we have an awful storm, and it is thundering and
dightning and raining torrents, such torrents as are
only seen in Naples. If it clears up -- and I are
going this evening to see`the village destroyed.' People
talk of it as if they were going to the Surrey Gardens.
However, it is no joke for the owners ; and a branch stream
has made a direction of its own towards a lovely villa be-
, longing to the Marquis St Angelo, and in all probability
by to-morrow he wits have an unpleasant neighbour in his
flowtr-orden. This is the most popular eruption, they
say, that has ever been known, and all the world goes to
Vesuvius of an evening. The King and Queen went
'there the other night, and spent it on the mountain.
The last three or four eruptions have always taken place
on the other side, and consequently have been difficult
1 to get at, and but little has been seen from Naples.
This one, if it goes on, will do a great deal of damage, as
there are three villages between it and the sea, and the
ground is much cultivated. I shall be able to tell you
snore about it in my next letter, as I have not given you
much of an idea of what a grand sight it is. Tee fact is,
it would be very difficult to do so, as any description
would fall very far short of the reality. 1 had heard a
great
deal of the effect of eruptions, and pictures repre-
senting them are not scarce, but I can assure you that
nothing I had seen or heard gave me the slightest
idea of what it really is."