The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-21 00:00:00

transactions, even to a very moderate degree. Gold
is but the product of labour; it ie, no doubt, more
substantial than other articles of value, but still it is
only as a token of labour that its relative values is
considered. It requires E 0 much labour to collect
so much gold, whether by digging it out of the mine
or crushing it out of the rock, and the labour must
be compensated by the produce of its toil. So gold
is but the representative of labour, and passes as a
token of the value of so much labour. But if all the
gold passing current in the world were coined into
sovereigns it would fail to represent even one-half
of the transactions of British commercial enterprise.
Why then fix the value of gold at a standard price
of h 3 l7s. 1011, when every commodity is allowed
to find its value in the market, either in quantity
or quality according to the demand and supply ?
We allow labour free scope in all its products but
in that of gold, and yet we make that gold a stun.
dard of value far below its real worth, judging by
the demand. Yet, in idea, the price fixed is but
nominal, for the value of the article is enhanced as
the rise in discount has of late so lamentably testi-
fied. Nor is the rise confined to the Bank of Eng-
land—it has increased all over the Continent, for
the value of money cannot long be dear in one
country and cheap in another, more especially now
that there is such freedom of intercourse among
civilised communities. If the standard in gold were
abolished, and the article left to find its own true
level, like other commodities, panics would cease
The Ant of 1841 has been lauded beyond its worth,
for its efficacy has been tested, and its fallacy proved.
Twice it has failed, and now again it is found want-
ing. Indeed, the Chancellor of the Exchequer stated
that no Government would be hardy enough to be
answerable for its security. Then why permit
such a statute to remain as the rule of our na-
tional currency ? As trade expands the circula•
tion should correspond. That gold cannot meet
the necessities of trade is proved by the substitu-
tion of paper for part of the currency, but that
paper is bared upon gold, and when the gold
diminishes in amount the paper is also diminished,
so that one evil begets another. Surely there
must be something wrong in the Act that sanctions
such an absurdity. Gold is but a token
of value, which value is representative
of labour, but paper represents that value also
founded on national confidence. If a piece of paper
be considered to represent five or ten pounds, cr
even a thousand pounds, why should it not for
mere general convenience be allowed to represent
one or two pounds, founded on the credit of the
nation, and limited to a certain amount represen-
tative of our annual taxation ? Even now some
fourteen millions of debt to the Bank is considered
as good security for the issue of paper to that
amount. If the national credit be considered good
for eight hundred millions, it must surely be good
for a larger amount than fourteen millions to
the Bank. Bat there again, when the Bank
finds its stock of gold to be unequal to meet
the demands of trade, it is compelled to
have resource to the Government for help,
in other words, to suspend the payment of gold for
its notes, so that in effect the Beak trusts to the
Government in its season of distress, and profits by
the loss of the public. Is this just ? Why should
the nation be at the mercy of any one class ?
There has been nothing of recent occurrence in
public affairs to warrant the present ruinous per-
turbation in the money market. Surely there must
be something wrong in the working of a system
that periodically brings about such deplorable re.
sults. Aa the stcck of bullion rises or fiats public
opinion is elated or depressed. Bullion is the baro-
meter of the national pu!sc, and when the bullion
is low the national spirit becomes very low indeed.
How long will the nation be left at the mercy of
this Doctor Bullion P We hope Mr GLADSTONE,
who has done so much for the freedom of trade,
will yet do the one thing needful, give us free trade
in money, and so emancipate the country from a '
danger ever pregnant with disasters.

It is difficult to say where people will stop when
once they take ttn obstinate notion into their heads.
They seem to cast consideration to the winds, and
only to seek to express their feelings in some strong
or striking manner. Thus it is with the colony of
Victoria in the matter of transportation to 'Western
Australia. This vexed question seems destined to
be the source of constant and continual irritation
to all parties concerned, It is much to be deplored
that the concession of the Home Government has
not exercised a better inflaenze upon the minds of
the colonists. The earnest recommendation of the
commission appointed to inquire into the state of
the convict system in general has been almost put
aside in order not to outrage more than was neces-
sary the opinions so decidedly expressed against
the transportation of convicts at all by the colo-
nists. Many censured this arrangement upon the
part of Ministers, and declared they had given in
unnecessarily, and yielded to a foolish prejudice',
but all efforts seem to have been in vain. The
letter of Mr. CARDWELL has added fuel to the
flame instead of quenching it, and the most extreme
measures seem to be obtaining favour in Victoria,
A great part of the confusion arises, however, from
the fact that the affair has been taken up by those
who are making a regular job of it, and heed no•
thing so much as getting themselves into notoriety
and making a good " party cry" out of the fracas.
The minute on the subject of Transportation to
Western Australia that has been submitted to Sir
CHARLES DARLING, the Governor, by the Victoria
Cabinet, is most extraordinary, and doubtless those
who thought the result of Mr. CARDWELL'S dem
spatch would not be satisfactory were not
prepared for this step being adopted. A
tone of indignation, and a spirit of threathen-
ing breathed through the tenons of the
communication, such as to create surprise and
misgivings on the part of those who peruse it, and
to afford a striking example of the lengths to
which people will go when they lose sight of reason
in their infatuated notions. The Government of
the colony consider that they had a " right to ex-
pect" the measure of justice, by which terms they
designate their demand that all transportation to
Western Australia shall cease forthwith. How it
can be justice for one colony to dictate terms to
another it is very difficult for lookersion to decide,
bnt at the same time this burst of indignation is
still more uncalled-for and unprovoked when we
consider that more than ample concession had been
made to the exorbitant demands of the colonies.
Why the inhabitants of 'Western Australia should
have their petition totally disregarded, seems as
strange reasoning as why the inhabitants of the
opposing colonies should have their wish carried
out to the letter. It is well known that
convict labour is very efficient in per-
forming the works of a new colony, and those
who have rejped the benefits of such labour them-
selves in the earlier stage of their history now
positively prohibit their fellow colonists from the
advantages of such aids to progress. The reasons
given are quite absurd, because the number of con-
victs who pass from Western Australia to the other
settlements is comparatively small, and it is incur-
ring a serious responsibility for the st ke of prija-
dice thus to deter men from bting put in the way
of gaining an honest livelihood. T o temptations
in this country to their returning to ;Lek old habits

are very strong ; and, besides, there is an insuperA
able difficulty to their obtaining employment in
many cases. Both these evils are, in a great mea-
sure, if not altogether, avoided in the distant lands
to which the recommendations of the Commissioners
urged their transportation. The extreme lengths
to which the demurrers to Mr. CARDWELL'S
despatch have thought fit to go in their
zeal is most inconsistent and, reflects little credit
on their judgment, consideration, or respect for the
mother country. "Unless the terms of the existing
arrangement with the Peninsular and Oriental
Company be altered, and the company consent that
their packets shall not touch at any port in Western
Australia, the Government of Victoria will, at the
expiration of six months from the first of Novem-
ber next, cease to contribute their annual subsidy ;
and, further, they will withdraw their offer to join
in establishing a fortnightly service except upon
similar conditions." It is reaVy lamentable to
witness such an example of blinded prejudice on
the part of those who ought by every consideration
of justice and consistency to know better and to act
more wisely. It is strange that the interested or
infatuated arguments of a few should so have influ-
enced the many, hut such is often the case, It
is not often, however, in these days, that
we witness such a spirit of intoleration in the old
States of the world, and in the new Colonies that
have sprung up into existence of late years, it is sad,
indeed, to see that such narrow totions have been
growing with their growth and strengthening with
their strength as it were. It is a very bad illus-
tration to the world of the sense and good feeling
of the Anglo-Saxon race in a new home that they
should thus comport themselves, Whatever foun-
dations some people may have thought the objec.-
tion to convict transportation to Western Australia
rested upon, this unjustifiable act of threatening
will do away with entirely. Nothing is ever
gained either in large or small matters by such
manifestation of impotent haste and such an exhie
bition of blind rage, and however much our Govern-
ment may regret the confusion that has arisen, they
cannot, in consistency, now depart from their deter.
urination, and they ought not to do so for the sake
of example.

BANK OF FRANCE.

PARIS, October 20.

The following is the return of the Bank of France
for the week, together with the corresponding
figures of the previous account :

OCT. 20. OCT. 13.
DR. f. C. t. c.
Capital of the Bank 182,500,000 182,500,000
Profits in add it ion toCapital
(Art. 8 law June 9,1857) 5,934,031 GO 5,722,688 53
Reserve in the Bank and

its branches
Reserve in landed property 4,000,000 —4,000,00 D
Notes in circulation 761,296,775 754,479,725
Bank notes to order and re-

ceiptg payable at sight 6,176,821 62 5,679,107 48
Treasury ace. cur, creditor 68,262,830 03 66,934,450 53
Currentaccounts—Paris 100,A9.279 9) 100,080,572 15
Do. branch-banks 23,548,393 20,445,251
Dividends payable
Discounts and sundry
interests 14,817,385 13,813,622 83
Re-discounts of the last

Fix months
Sundries

1,206,755,774 25 1,195,803,044 51
CR.
Cash in hand and branch-

banks 254,073,596 14 251,423,737 64
Commercial bills overdue 7(30,613 76 982,8U3 29
CommercialbillsdiscouLteci

not yet due..
Do. branch-banks.... 298,917,770 297,967,113
Advances on deposits of
bullion
Do. branch• banks 5,084,300 4,468,000
Advances on Frenchpublio
securities ..
Do, branch-banks 9,079,5,0 8,932,450
Advance:, on r.:Away shares
and debentures 27,719,500 27,921,600
Do. branch-banks 20,016,8U0 10,814,2C0
Advances on Credit Fon-
cier Bonds 461,400 448.500
Do.branch-banks.... 386 700 393,600
Advances to the Stat©

(Cony( n. June 10, 1857) 60,000,000 60,000,000
Govt. Stock Reserve 12,980,750 14 12,980,750 14
Do. disposable
Routes iintnobilisees (Law
June 9, 1857) 100,000,000 100,000,000
Hotel and furniture of the
Bank
Landed property, branches
Expenses of management 1,812,306 41 1,615,512 14
Sundries 6,4.9,825 79 4,238,655 42

• 1,206,755,774 25 1,195,803,041 51
Certified by the Sub-Governor of the Bank of France.
(Signed) ANDOUILLE.

Royal English Opera, Covent-garden,

The new English Opera promises to be an ex-
traordinary euxess. The audiences attracted by
" Alasaniello" have been immense, and last night
Flotow's "Martha" drew a crowded house. The
cast included Madame Lemmens Sherrington
(Martha), Mies Fanny Huddart (Nancy), Mr
Henry Haigh (Lionel), Mr H. Corri (Plunkett),
Mr Aynsley Cooke (Lord Tristan), while the in•
cidental divertissement was danced by Mdlle. Rose
Giraud, and Mdlles. Dachatean and Bonfanti,
Madame Letnmens-Sherrington, of course, extorted
an encore for her " Last Rose of Summer" in the
third act, but the effect was as nothing to the
positive furore of admiration which burst forth at
the close of her romanza, " Here, in tranquil
thee appoggiatura silence." The shake preceding the grace notes was
itself was graceful,
ted. Alias Fanny Huddart,
as Nancy, sang the music allotted to the part with
remarkable sweetness; and Mr Haigh, although
fluent,as true
and as
rix aggera
apparently suffering from cold, executed the
favourite air, gi She appeared, all seemed love,"
with excellent effect. Mr Corti and Mr Aynsley
Coeke also deserve commendation for the pains
they took with their respec:ive parts. The choruses
were well maintained, and leave no point unfilled—
the orchestra so complete and close that the over-
ture narrowly escaped an encore. The Richmond
fair, with its gay and busy groups, and the graceful
dances so full of quaint and antique coloure,fortned
one of the most animated sights imaginable; and
the whole spectacle was an admirable specimen of
skilful stage management. Mr Macfarren's "Hel-
vellyn" stands announced for Wednesday next.