The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-31 00:00:00

when he was seeking for a shprt cut to India, and

that Newton discovered the law of planetary revo-
lutions while he was investigating the fall of an
apple, are stories that will win the attention and
excite the interest of all generations. Mr. Chase
evidently thinks that he belongs to that class of
great men whose reputation nothing can shake.
He does not require that death should put the last
seal on his renown, and stamp it for the benefit of
all future time with the signet of immutability.
He prefers to be the guardian of his own tame and
to supply as early as possible all that information
which will be so eagerly sought after when the
great Chase has retired to that calm abode where
there are neither loans nor greenbacks, and the
art of the financier is neither known nor needed.
Mr. Chase does not stoop to defend his financial
measures; they stand in no need of it; their
triumphant success speak for itself. He saw
the want of his country, and he supplied it.
The country needed a substantial, permanent,
and uniform medium of exchange, and Mr. Chase
arose and gave it to them. He is at no trouble
to prove that the present paper currency of
the United States possesses these admirable quali-
ties. That nobody can doubt, and we may be
thought guilty of an impertinence if we offer any
argument in support of so self-evident a proposition.
Uniform the American currency must be, for, it
there were any diversity, the circulating medium
which broke the law of uniformity must be either
paper or gold. Paper it cannot be, for Mr. Chase has
driven out of circulation the paper of the banks, and
substituted the issues of the Government in their
place. Gold it cannot be, for gold Mr. Chase has suc-
ceeded in driving out of the country so effectually
that there is no fear of its returning from exile
to spoil the symmetry of a paper circulation. The
greenbacks are clearly entitled to the praise of uni-
formity ; nor can we deny to Mr. Chase's currency
the attribute of permanency. He has secured that
by its depreciation. There is not the slightest
fear of his greenbacks sharing the proverbial fate
of suddenly acquired wealth. They will not make
to themselves wings and fly to other lands. They
are his and his alone. We doubt if a single note has
found its way across the Atlantic, unless as a curio-
sity. Certainly Mr. Chase is entitled to claim for
his currency the attribute of permanency. A depre-
ciated paper currency is an easy possession for a na-
tion to acquire, and a difficult one to get rid of.
Nobody wishes to deprive her of it; it is one of
those blessings which excite no envy. Commerce
does not touch it, war itself will not destroy it.
Mr. Chase claims for his currency that it is not only
permanent and uniform, but substantial. This may
be proved by several arguments. In the first place,
the bulk of it is very considerable. Printing presses
have been at work for two or three years, day and
night, in producing this currency, and it would be
a curious calculation to estimate what kind of pile
the whole issue of greenbacks would make should
the Government be ever in a position to buy them
up and burn them. The substantiality of Mr.
Chase's currency may be further proved by the
immense weight which it supports. Upon it rests
the vast army and navy, the internal trade, the
credit, and the hopes of tue United States. Surely
that which supports ail this mass mast itself be sub-
stantial? The utmost strength, however, of a ma-
chine is never known till it is broken, and we may
possibly be called upon to witness this final proof of
the substantiality of Mr. Chase's paper currency
when we see the burden under which it is destined
to give way. Mr. Chase tells us that the wheels
of his department revolve smoothly, he has in hand
25,000,000 of greenbacks, worth at the present rate
of exchange somewhere about 16,000,000 dollars.
With these he can pay the army and navy on the
Ist of November, and therefore what has he to
do but to go electioneering ? Let ordinary mortals
toil and slave, let Old World financiers rack their
brains for fresh taxes, fresh loans, or further ecouo-

mies ; Mr. Chase has found the philosopher's stone
—he has got an uniform, permanent, and substantial
currency, which costs nothing and pays for every-
thing, and he need trouble his head with none of these
Old World embarrassments. We had certainly
thought there was nothing new in all this; we hEid
thought that the art of issuing inconvertible paper,
and declaring it a legal tender, had come into exist-
ence a little before tne art of declaring national
bankruptcies—nay, we had even gone so far as
to speculate on some occult connection between
the two. We now learn that we were mis-
taiten, and Mr. Chase is good enough to give
us a popular explanation of the steps which
have led him to a discovery destined to redeye
mankind from the primitive curse, and to make
them rich without inflicting on them the slightest
trouble or anxiety. Tne first thing that struck Mr.
Chase was a declaration of our own, that no money
would be advanced in this country lo the Northern
States by Englieh. capitalists. Reasoning deeply
on this announcement, he came to the conclusion
that as we would not lend he would not borrow
from us; at any rate, till we came to ask him to do
so—a qualification which we venture to think does
not much diminish the absolute nature of the pro-
position. Having established this point of depar-
ture, this ingenious man began by borrowing all
the gold he could get in his own country and pay-
ing it away for war expenses. In the course of this
process his mind was struck by the remarkable fact
that the gold did not come back to -him as fast
as he paid it away—an observation which we
apprehend has been already made by every person
who has entered upon a large expenditure of bor-
rowed money and has not credit to borrow any
more. This was exactly the state in which Mr.
Chase found himself. Capitalists became exorbi-
tant in their demands, and Mr. Chase came to the '
conclusion that instead of borrowing other people's
notes he had better issue his own. As this was, how-
ever, only another form of borrowing, and as he had,
as he tells us, previously exhausted his credit, people
who were not willing to become creditors of the Go •
vernment, which was the case with many bankers,
were unwilling to receive these notes in payment.
Then the beautiful idea suggested itself to the mind
of Mr. Chase of compelling them to take them in
payment—that is, of making them legal tender. That,
he triumphantly says, was the next step. You would
nileve done exactly, he says. as he did. It is an affair
of common sense and courage. No doubt any debtor
whose credit is exhausted, whose bills nobody will
take except at a ruinous discount, would, if he could,
make them a legal tender. Mr. Chase could, and
did, and therein lies his unapproachable superiority
over the private debtor, who, when he cannot pay,
has no resource but an ignominious declaration of
insolvency. But the greatest men are not consistent
throughout. We are sorry to observe in Mr. Chase
a lamentable confession of weakness. His next step
was to borrow money on bond. This was quite
right if he could get it ; but alas, in order to get it
he promised to pay the interest in gold. II by in
gold ? Had he net at his absolute disposal—could
he not create at will, that uniform, permanent, and
substantial currency to which labour must look for
its reward, which represents the credit of the nation,
and which, by the system of national banking, has
received, as he informs us, the support of the capital
of the country ? He found, he tells us, that he could
get gold, and so he used it; we clearly understand
every other step of his career, but this recreant
hankering for a metal which he had. disgraced, su-
perseded, and driven out of the country, is to us in-
explicable. Was there nobody there to ask Mr.
Chase what would be his next step ? Where does
he intend to get more gold, or how does he propose
to do without it ? Perhaps he had better perform
his threat of making the capitalists of England
press up ei him the acceptance of their gold; per-
haps he thieks that the payment of interest in
specie for money which is gone and spent has lasted
long enough, or perhaps he has discovered some
secret for greatly increasing his paper circulation
without diminishing its value. Nothing was ever
at once found out and perfected, and we are bound
to say that Mr. Chase appears to us to have been
more successful in pointing out the steps by which
he has ascended to his present eminence than in
pointing out how he is to ix aintain it. Icarus !,k3
very near the sun, and we want to know how he is
to prevent the wax in his wings from melting and
burying him under a cloud of his own feathers.
POST.—Whatever may be the advantages of
trades' unions to those who are members of them,
d there is no denying the inconveniienaces
annoy-
ance which they have apparently paoncialey fo
causing to the rest of the co.mcou. ty The building
strike, with all its concomitant incidents, must be
still fresh in the memory of most of our readers.
Set on foot about the most busy time of year for this
trade, it dragged ou its slow length for many weary

months, until it had ruined no small proportion of
the less opulent employers, and driven hundreds
of the men and their families into the workhouse.
So far as we remembers the victory was upon this
occasion substantially with the employers. The
trades' unions had for once to succumb, in order to
avoid the threatened introduction of foreign labour
upon a large scale. As it was, we believe that
some hundreds of country workmen were intro-
duced into the London trade, in spite of every
effort of intimidation, rfnd of course displaced
by their arrival a corresponding amount of the
labour which had been before available upon
the spot. There are instances, on the other hand,
where such a movement has terminated in favour
of the men. Within the last few weeks a strike in
the iron districts has ended by the concession of the
prices demanded by the " puddlers," and a corres-
ponding rise in "pigs." Something of the same
kind:has also still more recently taken place among
the nailers, and we believe with a similar result.
But whatever may be the merits of the case as
between operatives and employer, inter se, the
public, who are in every sense of the word the in-
jured and innocent party, invariably go to the wall.
The gain of such a proceeding to any party con-
cerned may indeed be problematical, but not so the
loss to the public. Their time, their money, and
their patience are periodically wasted ; while the
serious inconveniences which are thus occasioned
amount not unfrequently to a positive hardship.
It is therefore anything but satisfactory to be
told that discontent widely prevails just at the
present moment among the pitmen employed in
the Northumberland and Durham coalfield, and
that attempts are being made to revive a union
agitation just at a time when a steady supply
of our "black diamonds" becomes a question of
primary importance to every household. No
less than thirteen hundred men and bays
in the employment of a single firm are already
actually out on strike, and it is feared
that the example thus set is not unlikely to
be extensively followed. The cause of quarrel,
like most of its class, requires some explanation to
render it intelligible to the general reader. The
coal which has been "got" below by the "hewers
and putters" comes " to bank," or in other words
reaches the surface in " tubs," according to the
number of which the wages of the men employed
are calculated. Thus, as between them and their
immediate masters, the payment is by measure,
and not by weight, although, of course, between
the latter and the public weight forms the only
criterion iu value. As a precaution, it would ap-
pear, against attempts to "scamp" work below, any
tub which comes short of measure to bank is con-
fiscated, as the men say, without any allowance, but,
as owners assert,with an allowance of 281 b. in the
men's favour, and with special checks to guard
against purely accidental deficiencies. It is evident
that, in the men's opinion, the owner has a direct
interest in condemning a tub as deficient, inasmuch
as he pave nothing for it, either in the shape of
wages to the men, or in that of royalty to the ground
landlord. This, again, is denied by the owners,
who maintain that under such circumstances the
landlord can demand, and actually does obtain, full
pay. Tne obvious and natural remedy for such a
state of things would seem to be that payment by
weight should be substituted for payment by mea-
sure. The men ask that two inspectors should be
appointed, one by themselves, and one by the owners,
to superintend and check the weighing at the bank
top. This the masters are prepared to assent to,
hut decline to submit to the price asked for their
labour by the men. What they offer is 9,-}d. per
ton. What is asked varies in amount with the
different collieries, but is in no case below one shil-
ling. It is needless to point out how serious an
item a discrepancy which averages about 25 per
cent. must prove in the profits of any undertaking.
Neither are willing to make substantial concessions,
and the pits have stopped working accordingly. It
is just at this stage of the dispute that the trades'
unions have intervened. The owners have given
notice to the workmen who are no longer in their
employ to quit the cottages which they have
hitherto occupied at a weekly rent. The men are
prepared to yield up possession peaceably, but have
formed themselves, in the first place, as they had a
perfect legal right to do, into a trades union, and,
in the second, have proceeded to dictate terms to
others, which they have no right whatsoever to en-
force. Thus, although offering no illegal resistance
to the notices to quit, they are establishing them-
selves in tents in front of their cottage rows, with
the avowed intention of " not leaving the spot in
case the owners should attempt to introduce
other men into the place." What this means we
unhappily understand but too well, and it prac-
tically amounts to a distinct announcement, upon
the part of the men, that they are about to have
resort to illegal intimidation. They are, of
course, quite at liberty if they choose to combine to
contribute towards the support of the turn outs, and
even to refuse to return to work, if they think fit to
do so, so long as the " sacrificed" men remain under
sentence of dismissal. Whether such a line of
action be prudent or not is a question for them-
selves, but there is no doubt of its legality in the
abstract. What they have no right to do is to en-
force upon others the contribution which they have
agree to make themselves, or to prevent others from
accepting, the terms which they have themselves
thought proper to decline. But this, we fear, is
precisely where they, like others of their class, are
not prepared to stop. They claim a right, which
can never be conceded, to legislate upon behalf of
their order, and to impose their own terms not on
the masters alone, but upon such of their own class
as do not see precisely with their eyes. It is just
here that their logic breaks down. The true prin-
ciples of political economy teach us that no under-
taking can long be carried on where really remune-
rative wages are offered, and there is a brisk demand
for labour. In self-defence other masters will
always be ready to employ those who have left their
former employers on the ground of an inadequate
remuneration. Prices, in so open a competition as
the coal trade, must, within a very short space of
time, find their just level. Yorkshire, Lancashire,
Somersetshire, North and South Wales, and other
parts of the country have their coal-fields, which
will be but only too glad to supplant the northern
pits in the market if their owners underpay their
men. What the latter may fairly do, is to decline
the wages offered them. What they cannot be
allowed to do, is what trades' unions are too apt to
attempt, viz., to usurp the province of arbitrators,
and to fix, in the interest of their own members, the
balance of profits, which can only be accurately de-
termined by the more equitable, and tar more deli-
cate, test of comparative demand and supply.

BURIED HISTORY.—There are countless treasure
troves yet to be discovered. The Danes have left
innumerable marks of their invasion of the island ; not so
very long ago the skin of one of these sea•kings was to be
seen nailed to the door of the Jerusalem Chamber, West-
minster Abbey; and on some of the doors of the old Lin-
colnshire parish churches may yet be witnessed the spider-
mi9 of captured and flayed Vikings of old. But may we
not go back ages and ages, and yet find Mother Earth
preserving for us the story of the past ? was she not busy
in making the moulds, and taking off the delicate Impres-
sions of a chain of life that was not destined to reach to
the period of man's appearance on this globe ? The many
pages of the great stone book preserved in the geological
department of the British Museum come to our recollection
as we write. What texture so delicate or perishable, the
impression of which she has not preserved to us by means
of the soft mud which afterwards gradually hardened into
stone ? The scales of fishes, the forms of the softest in-
sects, as well as the skeletons of the most tremendous crea-
tures that crawled, and swam, and walked the splashy
earth, ere yet it was fit for the foot of man, are to be found
in this museum, and may be dug out any day from the Has
of the Weald of Kent.—Ones a Week.

PARLIAMENTARY DODGE.—The entire city is
convulsed to-day by a practical joke played last
night. Mr. Tom Ferguson had been speaking over an hour,
and was supposed good for two hours more, to the intense
disgust of members anxiously bent upon getting away,
when a letter was put into his hand, professedly written by
Mr. Brydges, managing director of the Grand Trunk
Rail-
way, but probably not genuine, in these words MYe
dear Ferguson, I want to see you in the library imme-
diately, diately, to renew your usual pass on the Gand Trunk.k, to the
Yours faithfully, C. J. Brydges." The bait
closed his speech in the middle of a sentence, d
great delight of half the house. Thomas readt_nortuhsenenctootei
to the door in violent haste. The Attorney-t:reply to his
after him to stop a moment, for he wanted LOS
h d " a call," and
remarks; but Tom was off, declaring he
as
h been unmerci-
shaking the letter in his hand,
Tom
mnstantly ex cl
Gnneral called
fully roasted since, and he keeps
" How the deuce could they know r had a pass."—Queba in
ee
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