The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-21 00:00:00

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«.
note." This means, "I have not got\7o-1_
k• :.---1
inisy-II have not even credit ; I have not evess-s ,.,
any property which I can exchange for money." It jos._k.,,
,',-;211110-......\'-)
very old case, a very intelligible case, a very courism*s,-t5",t,,d,6; :`!,i.spS V
(---)
case. We have no idea how it is to ba rki4cleed.7,- "445•:-.1 ..._,. 1
Mr. Salt roes not help us out of our difßculty..- We .-'l. s "g
could name a hundred persons, each of whom we shauld.....) ' -- .
be
-
be delighted to present with 1,0001. Will Mr. SO tpll! -, ,
ir-: how we could do this, unless we happened to. '' ' •-',%.,,a,
10n 0001, t, spare of our own t
We are quite aware that it is not a subject to be trifles'
with. Few difficulties have stronger claims to our Ryas:
pathy than those of merchants and manufacturers who
having been induced by prosperoas time to embark in
large ventures, suddenly find themselves stranded by in-
creasingth that
ar iai ttroa
dt,eiir pricesslheor and failing
Ili
efeaevi
elwi
rnhggeondbe
beyond
aoe nneddr.rho
irsl
htd
aei
sap
tbh,
ean superfluouslydshou commit.l
alwaystad;in
oe , bel,lykt
elotefpi X
a'd Oinss
distress
ryffie
steshi advicesufficient
hp proportion
hint
woarettilioi arnnv
impossible
svhiebi
ani often
ec
iapnidtai i
ni beforendea.
ready and convertible form. If it is unkind to make WS
suggestion at this time of day, much more is it a mere
Fcribable remedies. When a manufacturer finds him-
self wilout money to pay his workmen and his cre-
ditors Mr. Salt calls on the State to make money for
him. How can it do so, except by a miracle f Indeed
it is the State, as Mr. Salt himself notices, that wants
money most f all. The State wants twice as much as
usual, and thereby greatly aggravates, if it does not
wholly cause, the distress of the manufacturer! They
both enter the money-market, the food-market, the iron
and lead-market, the labour-market, the ship•market,
and various other markets, and the State must have
what it wants at any price, while the manufacturer goes
to the wall. The former has unlimited means—that is,
unlimited as against each individual trader, while the
latter has only limited capital and limited credit.
The Sate cannot pretend to give and take at the same
time. It only takes, and is now taking at a most
fearful rate. Vain, then, is it to expect that the State
can give the trader the capital which Mr. Salt
complains that he finds himself deprived of. Let
that gentleman look at his own figures, and he
will find that the State is now taking, he says, fifty
millions a-year more than usual, while the circulation at
the service of trade is reduced by some six or seven mil-
lions of gold, as many of notes, and doubtless a much
larger quantity of private bills. Do not these two facts
explain another ? It may not be an agreeable explana-
tion, but it is our business to tell truth—not to flatter ;
least of all did we aver tell the British people that the
war would conduce to their material prosperity. On
the contrary, we know full well that there are martyrs
in the Crimea and martyrs at home, and the latter are by
far the most numerous and the most suffering of the two.
Mr. SALT has sent us a second letter, which reads like
a P.S. to the first, and accordingly lets out rather more.
ETavug been reminded that the bank-note is only a pro-
mise to pay so many pounds, and that the act of Parla-
ment merely prescribes the weight of a pound sterling
in gold, he admits that this is not price, but quantity.
Yet he exclaims, "Hence the mystification and the
fraud. The law birds us to pay our debts, not
in an equivalent value of gold, but in a fixed quar-
tity." The law very properly binds us,—that is, every
individua I end the State itself, to do what they promised
to do. What, then, was the promise ? Was it to pay
an " equivalent ?'' No such thing. Everybody, debtor
and creditor, throughout the whole of these transactions
was fully aware that the debts would be paid, not in an
equivalent value of gold, but in a fixed quantity. Had
the ruh'ic lender heard a whisper of an " equivalent,"
or any other hocus, he would not have advanced a six-
pence, except, perhaps, on a very much higher rate of
interest. The understanding of the who'e nation was,
that the debt would be paid in what was then meant by
a pound sterling in gold. The course recommended by
Mr. Salt under the pretence of straightforwardness and
honesty would have falsified every pecuniary engage-
ment in the country. Mr. Salt has his eye chiefly to
the c melts don of the late war, and his mean-
ing is that we ought then to have compounded
with our creditors, and c )mpelled them to accept in full
of alt demands as much gold as they might be supposed,
on circulation, to have lent to the State. Fortunately,
however, for the honour and prosperity of the nation
that was not done, and now Mr. Salt wishes to supply
the omission by the issue of a paper which shall prevent
us front incurringa debt of this literal, exact, and onerous
desciiption. This is to be an inconvertible legal tender
paper. We have asked for some account of it again and
again, to no purpose. But Mr. Salt now intimates very
suspiciously that its purpose is to extinguish debt.
What, then, can it be—the sponge? Not quite that.
It is to extinguish debt on a reasonable estimate. Only
think of it being left to every debtor in this country
to pay just as much as he thinks it quite ne-
cessary to pay I What a delightfully philosophical
not to say metaphysical interest it would impart
to all pecuniary transactions ! With what ec-
Stacy the partners in an insolvent bank would
read a resolution passed by the House of Commons,
"The valise of legal tender money is not special as is a
dock warrant, but universal in its ministration to the
great human necessity of cancelling debt." "The great
human necessity" is felt very widely, and great would be
the rejoicing at the issue of a paper to cancel it, not to
pay it. But the rejoicing would be that which resounded
day and night in the little kingdom described by Macau-
lay in the neighbouring Whitefriars, between us and the
Temple. It would be the rejoicing of rope' and thieves
who had escaped debt and justice, and cared neither for
prison nor for censure. Whether Mr. Salt would rejoice
or not when it came to that point we do net know, but
no hone-t man would.

MR,. ALBRRT SMITE'S MONT BLANC,
HOLLA.IID, lIP THIS RHINE, and PARIS, Is now Open
every evening (except Saturday), at 8 o'clock. Stalls (which can be
taken from a plan at the box-office every day between 11 and 4,
Without any extra charge), 3s. ; area, 2*. ; gallery, le. The Morning
Representations take place every Tuesday,(, Thursday, and z,aturclay,
of 3 o'clock.
Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly.

[PRICE 4D. STAMPED SD•

happily the hue of editorial thoughts can change even as
the cameleon's.
In perfect anticipation of seeing you of another colour,
and in its newest g:ose,—l am very respectfully yours,
T. CLUTTON SALT.

ARGYLL ROOMS.-LAURENT'S CASINO
NOW OPEN for the winter season. Prin -ipal Cornet
a Piston, M. Bouleourt.—Doors open at 8. Admission ine
Laurent's new Varsoviana every night.

Sir,—You question me so directly through your cor-
reApnndent Mr. Hill, that you bind me to answer arid
yourself to insert the reply. So, unhappy Mr. Editor, it
is your doom that I should still be your correspondent,
and that this currency ghost, which you have so often
laid, should still haunt your columns, making them
hideous. _ _

THE NIGHTINGALE FUND.—It is intended
to issue a Second Subscription List on Mooclay, the 2.th of
December. Subscriptions will be received at a vof the bankers
of London. the provinces, Ireland, and Scotland; and the Honorar,
Secretaries will be obliged by being furnished with the na'nes of
Stibseribers previous to the 22d December.

SIDNEY HERBERT, 1 Hon. Secs,
S. C. HALL,
OUlee of the Nightingale Fund. 5, FAIT* neat-street,
December 17.

r Mr. Hill is right in his demonstration that if four so-
vereigns weigh an ounce, the price of gold will always
be 41. an ounce, let the value of gold vary as it may. In
all other cases price is the index of value ; in this case it
ceases to be so, and only denotes quantity ; hence the
mystification and the fraud. The law binds us to pay
our debts, not in an equivalent value of gold, but in a
fixed quantity.
Let us see how it operates.
We borrowed the bulk, of our national debt at 601.
in paper money worth about 401. in gold, or 10.0 z. of
gold to the 1001. stock. We are bound to pay 250 a.,
and to pay in value 74 per cent. interest for 3 per cent.
we agreed to pay ; and, when John Bull renacnitrates
against the wrong the callous usurer audaciously ex-
claims. " Why, John, are you going to cheat your cre-
dit3rs ?" and stupid, simple John agrees that the thing
passes his understanding, and so the Reign of Fraud—
the Reign of Fraud and Terror, is established.
Mr. Hill says I have not pointed on: any way of con-
ferring a definite value on mere pieces of paint'.
Mr. Hill has not read my letter. The value of legal
tender paper is not special, as is a dock warrant, but uni-
versal in NI minibtratien to the great human necessity
of cancelling debt, and therein has a valda perfectly in-
dependent of the law that makes it convertible into a
fixed quantity of gold ; inconvertible legal tender minis-
tering t) an equal want will have an equal value. Its
value as Igal tender will vary, like all other articles of
prime necessity exactly in proportion to its abundance
or scarcity ; and to regulate its value it is only neces-
sary to regulate its quantity, which the present law
deranges.
How to regulate the quantity we will see hereafter.
Conversion of money into merchandise is barter. Con-
♦ersion of money ire° any one particular article is a
monopoly of barter, at variance with all sound principle,
arid having the additional trifling objection that it is a
physical impossibility to convert all debts into one
article.

LAST FEW DAYS.
ROYAL LYCEUM THEATRE. —THIS
EVENING, and every evening during the
week, the GRAND ELEUSINIAN SPECTACLE of MAGIC
and MYSTERY, by Professor ANDERSON, the Great
Wizard of the North, in 12 acts, with ever-changing variety
of incidents, continuous surprises, novel and extraordinary
effects,

Magic and Mystery is an entirely new entertainment, pos.
fuming distinctive characteristics and peculiar phases of
amusement. It is not a monologue, for the audience them.
'elves perform their parts with the principal actor, some of
them on the stage and others in front ; it is not an exhibition,
for though everything becomes metamorphosed before the
eyes of the visitors No one can be positive that he sees any
one thing; but it is a comedy really performed by the eom-
luny ; a melodrama replete with startling positions and unex-
pected denouements ; a magnificent spectacle, with 2,000 of
the public every night to appear as auxiliaries ; and an ex-
travaganza, in which all that scorns to be is entirely beyond
the bounds of probability.
Professor Anderson returns his thanks to thronged and
fashionable audiences which have nightly filled the Lyceum
Theatre to overflow, and by means of whose generous aid he
has been enabled to announce Magic and Mystery for con-
tinuous repetition. He believes that no professor of his art
has at any time or in any place been honoured with an
amount of MOMS so extensive, so decided, and so unusual.
Ffe would attribute that success to three causes ; first, that
in his present entertainment he has placed before his visitors
the results of a life sedulously devoted to the attainment of
lerfected skill in one peculiar art, and to perfect which he
has travelled the globe in every clime ; secondly, that he has
*pared no trouble nor expense to put this entertainment on
the stage in the most elaborate manner, by the employment
of the first mechanicians and artists of the day ; and thirdly,
that, while endeavouring to provide amusement for those
Who honour him with their presence, he has not forgotten that
it is possible to afford information also, and that the oppor-
tunity should not be neglected of exposing conjuring wher-
ever it has been used for nefarious purposes, or whenever by
resorthig to the conjurer's arts, in an illegitimate manner,
the designing have succeeded in making dupes of the
oredulons.

The only legitimate function of money is that it shall
cancel debt ; the only qualification we can require in it
is that it shall be cf steadfast value. Legal tender money
regulated in quantity is payment of just value, and net
a promise to pay.
Forty years of alternate speculation and ruin, 40 years
of torture under the effect of the Bank screw, have
surely de nonstrated beyond dispute that the issue or the
withdrawal of legal tender money increases or diminishes
the employment of labour, raises or reduces demand and
the general range of prices.
I myself am weary of what Lord Liverpool was pleased
to call the stern path of duty. Listen, most gracious
Editor, to your amiable enthusiast. Let us boil our peas
finish our pilgrimage in comfort.
The regulation of our system by the exchange gives us
no timely warning ; the train of miechief is all laid be-
fore it is possible to detect it ; there is no escape from
the explosion ; the withdrawal of the paper money
simultaneously with the gold money is a double curse,
and it comes like remorse, that punishes, but does not
prevent our errors.
I do know a better standard than gold ; for the pre-
sent I will only cs,mply with Mr. Hill's wish, and point
out a better applieati ,n of the gold standard.

The 937 letters on the subject of spirit-rapping, which Pro-
fessor Anderson has received, from the time of opening the
•heatre up to the present date, bear witness to the great in-
terest taken on the subject of this singular delusion ; whilst
Many of them bear melancholy evidence to the dangers which
ttend a belief in the superstitious nonsense of the " Spiri-
tualists." Judging simply by the correspondence which has
resulted Professor Anderson's exposé of spirit-rapping and
Lis illustration of the so-called table phenomena, have pro-
duced a sensation unequalled by any previous attempt to ex-
I ose a mischievous and impudent juggle. It is impossible
for Professor Anderson to reply at length to a tithe of the
communications which reach him on the subject. He regret.
that many of these should come from ladies and gentlemen
who, from their position in society and their well-known in-
tellectual attainments, he would least have expected to have
1 een converts to a belief so preposterous in itself, and so
asily susceptible of being controverted and disproved. Every
evening, from the Lyceum stage, Mr. Anderson's opinions oe
pirit-rapping are expressed, and every evening, within th•
Lyceum, how tables can be made to rap is exhibited
cmd elucidated. It is respectfully requested that this
I üblie exposition will be accepted generally as Professor
Anderson's only mode of replying at full length to his
Multitudinous correspondents. He regrets that the
tames of the great and learned of the land should
have been made to figure in the documents emanating
from the spirit-rappers, as for instance the following, ex-
tracted from the Morning Advertiser of Thursday, Septem-
ber 20, and taken by that journal from the New York Spiri-
tual Telegraph. It purports to emanate from an American
,pirit-rapper, Mr. D. D. Hume :—" Sir David Brewster
frankly confesses that he is sorely puzzled' at what he has
witnessed, and Lord Brougham acknowledges himself to be
thoroughly nonplussed. Both of these noted men brought
the whole force of their keen discernment to bear upon the
solution of the phenomena; but the presence of substantial,
actual hands, and the demonstrative strength of the spirits
who thus clothed themselves for the time, and moved mate-
rial objects about the room, proved to be too much of a ques-
lion for them to master." Mr. D. D. Hume, the author of the
above, has recently left England, and the following account of
who, and what he is, occurs in the Family Herald, No. 648:
This young man, who is a Scotchman by birth, and now
in Italy, is a remarkable medium for all the manifestations
without apparatus. Barnum, who is well-known throughout
e Anglo-Saxon world as a splendid humbug, offeredhim 2,000
dollars per annum if he would perform at his museum in New
York. Barnum then took it for granted that mediums could
be bought. He was somewhat astonished when his offer was
refused. Hume, on telling the fact in London lately, simply
and honestly remarked, that the money would have been very
acceptable to him, for he was poor, young (under 20), an or-
Phan, and in very bad health : but he would have been afraid
of losing his power as a medium, and he would sooner lose
Lis life. The -refusal, however, made Barnum thoughtful.
Ile inquired into the subject; and now Barnum, one of the
greatest humbugs in the world, and withal a conjuror, is
une of the firmest believers in spiritualism." It is cer-
tainly surprising to find such a paragraph as this in the
editorial article of au established journal, the oditor of whom
might be supposed to be sane. Even if Barnum does believe
in spirit-rapping -- does spirit-rapping gain or lose by
this accession to its adherents ? and, with Barnum 's endorse.
went to it, is this bill, drawn on public credulity, more likely
to be negotiated I Professor Anderson would believe not ;
but, when he finds that educated clergymen of the Church of
England have the temerity to subscribe their names to so gross
tt swindle, when he finds that the incumbent of Wortley (the
Rev. N. J. Godfrey) positively asserts his belief in it, and
writes a book on the subject, he considers it to be time for
Lira to state that which he knows of the mechanism by which
it is effected, and the mischief to which it tends. In the
Aforning Advertiser of October 5 appears a letter from Sir
Dayld Brewster, relative to that which he saw at Cox's Hotel,
in company with Lord Brougham. He distinctly states that
which the Wizard of the North proclaims every night—that
spirit-rapping is nothing more than conjuring applied to bad
Purposes. In the Morning Advertiser of the following day,
however, there is an answer to Sir David's letter from one
Who was present when he and Lord Brougham had their
seance with the spirits, in which the writer says, that " the
Wale (a large dinner-table, I believe) moved about in the most
extraordinary manner, and, among other things, a large ac-
cordion was conveyed by an invisible agency to my hand and
then to Lord Brougham's, in which, held by his lordship's
right hand, apart from any person, it played an air through.
With such a statement, printed for the edification of
the people of the 19th century, with the facts before us that
the mast talented men of the day are permitting themselves
to ho deluded by these juggling spirit-mongers—that the
greatest novelist of the age is now engaged in making it the
'subject of a new work, and that a " spiritual convention"
Las actually been advertised to be held in St. Martin's-hall,
Professor Anderson trusts that his exposures of the spiritual-
ists of America, as given by him nightly at the Lyceum, will
be received by the people of England as genuine honest at-
tempts to provide an antidote for the bane of the spiritual

Deprive gold of its monopoly as a sole ultimate legal
tender, add thereby restore it to its natural value ; cease
to use it as a coin, and then it may serve as a point of
comparison for your legal tenJer paper. Its rise or fall
in price, other things equal, will instantly indicate the
rise and fill in your legal tender paper, before a general
rise in prices has stimulated general importations and
turned the balance of trade against us ; there will then
be no great premium on the exportation of gold, and if
it is exported it will not in the least degree disturb our
monetary system.
I do not now pretend to fix what price of gold will be
a just standard.
I assume—that in any case the standard must be made
subservient to life and happiness, and that life and happi-
ness must not be sacrificed to the standard ;
That a limited issue of legal tender paper will sustain
its value, and that a sufficient issue will insure the full
employment of labour, creating the greatest amount of
national wealth, and will also cause the greatest amount
of national happiness, by its just distribution ;
That•it will sustain a regular range of prices propor-
tionate to the cost of production securing honest indus-
try from oppression, and limiting insolvency to folly and
♦ice. _ .

14,ppen what_ willjactilLtmployment of labour must
be secured; this is at once the first duty, the first right,
and the keystone of social order.
I have assumed these things as self-evident axioms ;
if you can throw a doubt on them I am perfectly ready
to inflict on you the tediousness of demonstration.
The public will not read a long letter, and your space
forbids one, or I could show in the regulated develop-
ment of industrial power a dawn of hope brighter than
your imagination dreams of ; for the present the Bank
continues to lose its gold and withdraw its paper—usury
triumphs, and industry languishes. Can you tell me
how far 18 millions of Bank issue is from panic point,
and how near you will have the hardihood to approach
is ? Will the Government want a loan of 26 millions ou
of this remnant of circulation

(From the Morning 1:1 erald.)

We should scarcely deem it necessary to direot the
attention of our readers to the anonymous correspon-
dence of a daily journal were it not put forth to the world
with great pomposity as coming from " a high financial
authority." Under the signature of " Mercator " the
Time 3 has heralded forth to the world what it is pleased
to designate " a few simple truths on the currency."
We have already referred to " Mercator's" letter, but
as the writer has put forward several of the gravest fal-
'soles, and interwoven them with the most ingenious
sophistry, we shall spin revert to the document.
Let us first examine the point from which " Mercator"
starts, and if his position can be established in this re-
spect all further argument would be perfectly useless.

The responsibility of the Times is great in proportion
to its influence. It cannot think on these matters too
deeply.—l am, Sir, very respectfully yours,
THOMAS CLINTON SALT.

In the first place he denies that our trade and com-
merce are carried on by means of paper money, or its
circulation. If this were true what utility can we assign
to the Bank of England itself !
In the next place we are informed by this "high
authority" that trade and commerce are carried on only
by means of capital, a word in which the supporters of
the Peel currency theory delight to mystify every argu-
ment they advance. If " Mercator" means that trade
and commerce cannot be conducted without the exist-
ence of capital, in the form of gold bullion, then was
there never a greater fallacy enunciated ; for the asser-
tini is contradicted by the transactions of daily life.
Is the circulation of 38 millions of paper currency in
the United Kingdom only a myth, or a mere phantom,
existing only in the brain of some deluded fanatic !
Surely men who deal in bank-notes are not all dreamers, as
"Mercator" would have us believe them to be. We con-
fess ourselves to be autongst those who believe the issues
of bank-notes to he a veritable fact. We take them to
be a part and parcel of the currency of the country, and
essential to our existence as a commercial, a trading, and
a tax-paying people. We maintain that the Crowe
alone should have the right to grant these issues, on
terms which should be male general throighout the
country. The sovereign right of the State to control the
issue of notes should be exercieed with as much autho-
rity as tee right to superintend the coinage at the
Mint ; the demands of the public being limited only by
such restrictions as the Legislature might deem neces-
sary to enforce upon all who are engaged in the business
of banking, upon the ieeue of such notes.
" Mercator," like all those of the same school, is hor-
rified at the supposed violation of the promise to pay,
and considers that without the Act of 1£44 it would be
a lucre empty and unsubstantial form of words. But
what is this promise, as it now stands
? . Is the security
ecuritt
ro The Bank cany
equal to the promise ? Certainly 'e
only pay in gold by sufferance, and not on absolute me•
tallie security. The
greatpoint for the country to con-
eider ise whether,
dneitted the issue of 14,000,000/,
of promises to pay,
h"i"ahout a single grain of gold to re-
deem them, that law shall remain irrevocable.
eleecator " consoles himself in the belief that " the
prosperity and progreee of a state are made by the laws
,
of nature. But we believe that this doctrine is held by
nme but these who have placed themselves in a position
far above nature's demands. To the working of nature's
laws he compares the circulation under the Act of 1844,
which he says is made by that act to " depend on the
free and unfettered course of the community in regard to
their trading operations. If they bring in geld, they in:
crease the circulation ; if they take out geld they dimi-
nish it. In this respect they are properly free agents ;
neither law nor authority interferes with them, and thus
the regulation of the amount of the currency is strictly
in the hands of the public. This is sound and legitimate
free trade in currency." Having made this announce•
meat, " Mercator" inquires, with the most perfect sang
froid, whether an act which thus provides for the circus
lating medium can be called " arbitrary" or " inelastic.'
Those who seek for an amendment of our currency
laws will not be carried away by such subtle and inge-
nious arguments as "Mercator" has put forth in the
columns of the Times. Their object must be to reduce
the system to something like simplicity, by sweeping
away the strange anomalies that exist. The present fa-
vourable moment lost, and the monopoly of the money
power will rear its head with redoubled force. Already
is it exercising a most
dangerous influence in the state.
" Mercator" asserts in the most audacious manner that
the circulation is entirely in the hands of the country.;ttl
Was ever statement put forward that had so li e
truth to support it I Did the country decide upon allow-
ing the Bank of England to issue 14,000,000/. upon a
debt to lend out at interest, while it received at the same
time interest upon that
e Was it the will of the
country that placed a limditetbot the circulation of all banks
of issue, and prohibited the establishment of any new
banks throughout the country, except such as should use
Bank of England notes ! Was it the will of the country
that the Bank of England should have conferred upon
privileges, :ncompatible with the interests of
it exclusive
the couetry ? These arc all questions that must be re-
plied to in the negative. It is true that the Bank
corporation
has been eucceseful hitherto in securing to
itself these extraordinary and exclusive privileges ;
but is the continuance of them in accordance with the
progress and spirit of the age in which we live ! We
are amongst the most strenuous advocates for allowing
the Bank of England to retain the high character and
position it has so long maintained as a great national
establishment; but we cannot allow ourselves to be de-
ceived by such fallacies as " Mercator" has gilded over
with his accustomed ingenuity ; and we feel persuaded
that the Bank, as a corporate body, will find the interests
of its proprietary rendered far more secure by yielding to

(From the Times.)

Mr. Salt, in the two letters which we published else-
where, has not answered our challenge to show us the
formula for his own bank-note, or legal tender paper, as
he chooses to call it. In fact the callenge has never
yet met with a plain, intelligible, and straightforward
reply. Such a bank-note as he means is an imagination
of the same character as that " perpetual motion" which
an average number of half.crazy people are daily hunt-
ing after. In the ingenious machines constructed for
this purpose the weight is to be always exerting its
gravity, yet never losing its elevation ; the spring is to
be always moving the wheels, yet never uncoiling ; the
ball is to be always rolling down, yet never effecting an
actual descent. The bank-note of Mr. Salt and his school
is to be always obtaining its value, yet never to be spent.
The fortunate possessor is to be always " eating his
cake," and nevertheless " having it." When a cat has
eaten a mouse it will still go about looking for it.
Mr. Salt's banknote is to bear being eaten over and over
again for ever. Fortunatus is always to find it at the
bottom of his purse. He spends it one day on a dinner,
the next day on a goat, the next day in wages, the next
day in paying an old debt, but there it still is. Like
the golden twig of the Sybil, if you pluck it, another
immediately appears in its place, of equal glitter and
virtue. Like the dogstealer's pet spaniel, it invariably
comes back, and is sold next to a fresh customer. Such
is the nature of this note, which may, for aught we
know exit in fairyland, but has never yet been even
described or conceived in this waking world with any
degree of distinctness. It is a nondescript in the
strictest sense of that word, for even they who affirm
the possibility of the thing do not commit themselves to
a particular account of it. What we want is the legend.
At present we are asked to give up a thing we
know for something which does not exist, even
in the imagination of its advocates, except in the most
uncertain and nebulous form. There can be no com-
parison between a thing which is and a thing which is
not, and which is not even placed within the reach of
mortal faculties. In all processes of reasoning the first
act, logicians tell us, is apprehension. When Mr. Salt
has caught his legal tender paper, apprehended it, and
laid it open to our understanding, in any form what-
ever, then it will be time to institute a comparison be-
tween it ansl the existing entity that we call a Bank of
England note.
answerl at' neth e withr
q mueuscthion vißut, having evaded the challenge to tell us what he
wants,nse
s t
/S
Mr. . Sal
matter with the bank note I" Why, it is gone !" says
Mr. Salt. " That is the matter, and a pretty consider-
ablep
matter teo, seeing our debts are not gone with
bins
assumed
—. triumph, pro-
, ' Whati
it." To the same effect, when We "I recommend
promise
to ascertain the meaning to
of "the words,
the
Bank
of
to pay 5/. on demand," by going
England and getting five
" I have not got the note ; hence my
ynt instead of the
sovergnsr,iefh:e, replies,Avast
quantity of gold has left the cou
t pyrOp aer aneouut by
substitution of the paper mooney, a,
the Bank of England
the
circulation being kept up t
of notes as much as 6,000,000/.
Even of this diminisheds issue of notes, observes Mr.
l number are locked up by 800
has reduced its issues
Salt a more than usual
banks, thus
Yet we are paying double taxes. This
farther diminishing the quantity actually in
circulation. b
d deplorable enough, but Mr. Salt himself
enough, an
account of t e present state of:things may be true
does not
recommend that the Bank of England should
prescribe the remedy. He does not even ex-
pressly at liberty to issue as many notes as it pleases, with-
out any regard to the quantity of gold in its vaults.
He does not say that he would be satisfied with a re-
peal of the Banking Acts of 1844, 1845. Re simply
attacks the existing state of things, which is alweys
easy to do. Had he demanded a return to the state of
things before 1844, we might have asked what it
wag that created a necessity for the change. Mr. Salt
knows full well that the circulation of the Bank of Eng-
land notes fell even lower on several recent occasions be-
fore 1844 than it has since. Nor can he doubt that, even
if the Bank were quite at liberty to issue as many notes
as it pleased, with its increased experience, it would not
be likely to exceed its present limits. It would still be
possessed with a wholesome fear of "runs," and would
therefore be far from satisfying all the gentlemen who
might find themselves with wages and debts to pay and
no money to pay them with. Then, if Mr. Salt care-
fully abstains' from suggesting the remedy, his complaint
merely comes to that very old and very ordinary one—
a want of money. it is comprised in the words, "I

balers.
La the course of the last five weeks 100,017 persons have
visited the Lyceum Theatre,—a larger number, it is believed,
than has ever before been assembled within its walls in so
short a period. Magic and Mystery is repeated every even.
ins, the programme being continually changed. Grand
fashionable Day Performance, or Saturday, December 22, at
2 o'clock ; the programme being thus arranged ;
Part 1. —Act 1. The Mesmeric Couch : or, the Clinics'
Cepabliities of the Atmosphere : in which the Wizard will do
by magic that which some suppose to be effected by mesmer-
ism, and illustrate the possibility of sleeping unsupported in
tint air.
Act 2. The Aqua-lvial Paradox ; exemplifying the power
of producing animated nature from fire and water only, and
the possibility of eliciting from the simplest elements the most
complex forms of ornithological existence.
3. Le Livre des Reeueils Choisies : or, Puck's Own
Pocket Book, with Puck himself within it. Typifying the
evening's entertainment in the production of the very volu-
minous from a small volume, in the extraction of magnitude
out of minuteness, in developing bulk where no space appears
for its existence, in discovering odd things in add places, and
In "bringing forth unexpected wonders from the most unlikely
plasse for to be found.
A.ot 4. Magical Lannrantinn nr, Transition without Trou
Me, In which will be comprised—the Adventures of a Wed-
ding' Ring, the Peregrinations of a Bank Note, the Transfor-
mation—blask into white, and the Discovery of every Article
in the position which would seem the most inappropriate.
Aois 5. L'Ecrin do Verre; or' the Casket of Crcesus. Into
wL deb, though made entirely of glass perfectly transparent,
any I suspended so as to be visible to the eyes of all present,
the Wizard will cause the money of his visitors to transport
itvielf, and rain into the casket, though its lid be closed,
lot :ked, and the key in the possession of the audience.
_ Act 6. Clairvoyance Extraordinary ; or, the Transparency
of Opacity.
Act. 7. A Now Bottle of Bacchus ; or, the Novel Wine
and Spirit Store. An improvement upon the " inexhaustible
battle," inasmuch as the Wizard's bottle will net only be in-
exi,:austible, but will change its contents, ad infinitum, at the
ward of command, producing soda-water, butter-milk,
Ehmonn salts, Port, Sherry, brandy, gin, rum, whisky,
noyean, or any other wine or spirit requiredfinally
proving to be filled with pocket handkerchiefs perfectly 417,
said occupying the whole space when tightly packed.
Act 8. Half an Hour with the Spirits Expose of
seririt-rapping. Introducing the spirit-rapping table and
*eosin of the invisible&
Act. 9. Grand Mystic Amalgam, in which the property of
Om) Wizard's patrons will undergo some strange metamor-
pkoees, and, amongst others, their handkerchiefs become
transformed into the flags of victory—the banners of Eng-
wid, France, Turkey, and Sardinia.
JA.c . 10. The Enchanted Chair of Comus, in which he who
stints himself will be under the magic spell, and appear to
the audience, under circumstances least expected, in a posi-
t.), as peculiar as perplexing.
Act. 11. The Mystery of the Charmed Chest ; or, the
S-ucleus of the Night's Wonders. To comprehend which the
:Audience will have the goodness to observe, in an earlier part
se the evening, the chest suspended (like Mahommed's coffin)
in mid-air, into which all things will travel, and out of which
an will be produced.
nAt. 12. The Hoziological Evaporation ; or, the Sht.test
Itouto to the Antipodes. Illustrating the easiest mode of
zi ddina our'elvcs of a troublesome friend, and the advantages
of the newly-discovered dia-terrestrial passage from the west-
ern to the eastern hemisphere.
Doors open each evening at half-past 7 ; commence at 8.
Private boxes, 11. 118. 6d. and 1/. ls., t• be obtained at the
B ox-office, or at the principal libraries ; stalls, 4s. ; dress
nc
circle, as. ; upper boxes, 2s. ; pit, ls. ; gales the direction.llery, 6d, The
liter-office is open daily, from 11 till 5, u
ei p Mr. Chattorton, jun. Grand fashionable Morning Per-
.rmanci on FetstrdAy, December 2-2, at 2 o'clock. Doors open
til ;halt-past 1.