The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-31 00:00:00

ACCUMULATION, PROPERTY,
CAPITAL, AND CREDIT.

(MOM A CORRESPONDENT.)
THIRD ARTICLE.
It is of so much importance that the erroneous (O-
nions entertained en the subject of Capital should be
corrected amongst the masses of the people, that we
have taken the trouble to give the large extracts on
that subject in our previous Numbers, which we trust
has pat the value of capital and capitalists in their
proper station—as the beat assistants to the working
classes. We cannot expect to remove every impedi-
ment to industry or correct every evil in
the society until
we have ascertained what have been causes of
such impediments and such evils ; and it is only by a
thorough understanding of the nature and advantages of
capital and of credit that we can be induced to promote
and protect both. The following are the most worthy
remarks of the American lecturer on the latter subject,
and we hope they may meet the attention of the work-
ing men of this country, upon whom attempts have been
made to poison and misrepresent the effects of capital

in this country :
" The legitimate province of credit is to facilitate and
to extend the use of capital, and not to create it. I
make this remark with care, because views prevail on
this subject exaggerated and even false ; which, carried
into the banking system, have done infinite mischief. I
have no wish whatever to depreciate the importance of
credit ; but it is the credit which arises from confidence
between rr.an and man, the result of honourable deal-
ings in fair and moderate business, which enables men
who carry on business to acquire for a time additional
capital to enable them to extend their business, and
effect many transactions which are beneficial to the
community as well as to the merchant, and which
could not have been otherwise accomplished. That
credit has in Scotland been available as capital for
the time, and has undoubtedly, when kept within proper
bounds, has done good to all parties. It has done
wonders for this country. It has promoted public and
private prosperity ; built cities, cleared wildernesses,
and bound the remotest parts of the continent together
with chains of iron and gold. These are wonders, but
not miracles ; these effects have been produced not
without causes. Trust and confidence are not gold
and silver ; they command capital, but they do not
create it. A merchant in active business has a capital
of twenty thousand dollars ; his credit is good ; he bor-
rows as much more ; but let him not think he has
doubled his capital. He has done so only in a very
limited sense. He doubles the sum on which for a time
he trades ; but he has to pay back the borrowed capital
with interest ; and that, whether his business has been
prosperous or adverse. Still, I am not disposed to
deny that, with extreme prudence and good manage-
ment, the benefit to the individual of such an applica-
tion of credit is great ; and when individuals are bene-
fited the public is benefited. But no capital has been
created except by the profits. What the public gains
is the superior activity that is given to business bybring-
ing more persons, with a greater amount and variety of
talent into action ; the private person has the profits of
the credit, or temporary capital.
" These benefits, public and private, are not without
some counterbalancing risks ; and with enterprising
habits and ardent temperament, I should deem the
formation of sound and sober views on the subject of
credit one of the most desirable portions of the young
merchant's education. The eagerness to accumulate
wealth by trading on credit, is the disease of the age
and country in which we live. Something of the so-
lidity of our character and purity of our name has been
sacrificed to it. Let us hope that the recent embar-
rassments of the commercial world will have a salutary
influence in repressing this eagerness. Let us hope
that hereafter merchants will keep themselves more
beyond the reach of the fluctuations in business and the
vicissitudes of affairs.
" But it is time to close these general reflections.
We live at a period when the commerce of the world
seems touching a new era ; a development of energies
before unconceived. Columbus discovered :a new con-
tinent ; modern art has diminished by one-half its dis-
tance from the old world. The application of steam to
the navigation of the ocean seems about to put the
finishing hand to that system of accelerated communi-
cation which began with steam boats along the coast,
and canals and railroads piercing the interior. The
immediate effect of this improvement must be a vast
increase of the intensity of international communication.
The ultimate result can be but dimly foreseen. Let us
trust that it will give renewed vigour to the march of
civilization ; that it will increase the comforts of those
who now enjoy its blessings—and extend these blessings
to the forlorn children of the human family, who are at
present deprived of them.
" Whatever may take place in this respect ; whether
or not the navigation of the Atlantic Ocean by steam
vessels is to be generally adopted as the mode of com-
munication, commerce, no doubt, in virtue of other
causes of ascertained and unquestioned operation, is
on the eve of acquiring an activity beyond all, previous
example. As in all former ages it has been one of the
most powerful agents in shaping the destinies of the
human race, it is unquestionably reserved for still
higher functions. I confess that I look myself for some
great results to be produced by the new forces in
motion around us. But of this we may rest satisfied,
that the greatest advantage which a manufacturing and
commercial country can have is capitalists with plenty
of capital, to put in motion the energies of our working
classes, and no portion of the community is so much in-
terested in protecting property, in supporting capitalists,
and in maintaining peace and quietness in the country
by which credit is to stand high, at home and abroad,
as the working classes. We hope, therefore, that
the erroneous opinions expressed by ignorant or de-
signing men against capital and capitalists will be cor-
rected ; and that the real benefits to a country from
both will be understood."

RAILWAY FROM EXETER TO

FALMOUTH.

FALMOUTH, OCT. 27.—A meeting was held at the
Guildhall in this borough yesterday, pursuant to a re-
quisition to the Mayor, as a preparatory or a preliminary
one, to the grand county meeting to be held on Tues-
day next, the 29th instant. The Mayor was called to
the Chair. Several of the leading characters of the
town attended, and all would have been present but for
the ill chosen day and hour of assembling on the oc-
casion.
The MAYOR briefly stated the declared object of the
requisitionists, and alluded to a meeting a fortnight
before at the Polytechnic Hall, which he conceived to
have been a county meeting, on this subject, when in-
fluential and large landed proprietors attended from all
parts of the shire, and some from distant parts of the
adjoining county. He then stated what had been done
since. He had received letters in the interval from all
parts of the kingdom, and one particularly from the
surveyor of the port of London, in which a lower level
was recommended than that formerly intended to have
been acted on. On the subject of subscriptions. for
shares, in reply to letters he had addressed to leading
persons he had received but one definite letter—it was
trom Mr. Rennolds, the worthy steward of the Hon.
Lady Basset. Mr. Rennolds stated that he would him-
self give 1,0001. towards the object.
[lt was rumoured in the Hall that Lady Basset would
give 5,0001.1
As to the approaching meeting, he had been deputed
with other gentlemen to wait on Lord Falmouth, who,
with Lord Boscawen, promised to attend. He appre-
hended that the County Members, with the exception
of Lord Eliot, who was detained in London, would be
present ; also, the several Borough Members. The
original line was prcposed to he through Southampton,
but as a line was about to be commenced from Exeter
to Plymouth, through Tavistock, the latter town was
intended, at least proposed, to be the termination of
the intended railway-45 miles in extent. In case the
landed gentry were disposed eventually to give their
lands, as they appeared at present inclined to do, it was
calculated that 12,0001. a mile would be sufficient. The
Noble Lords he bad mentioned, would set the example.
The shares were intended to be at 251. each, and in
number 25,000. .

Three other gentlemen addressed the assembly in
most animated and demonstrative speeches, as to the
necessity of active exertion " one and all." In which it
was recommended, in the spirit of our county motto,
that every one who could possibly get away from Fal-
mouth on Tuesday, should go up to Bodmin.
It was in conclusion intimated, that the approaching
meeting would not be a final one, but that a committee
would be formed there to canvass in their several locali-
ties for shareholders and subscriptions ; and a subsequent
meeting of the county would be called for the purpose of
obtaining a report of progress, and to arrange for making
an immediate simultaneous movement throughout the

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AT CORK.—This morn-
ing, between three and four o'clock, the very extensive
and elegantly-finished tanning concerns of the Messrs.
Hackett, at St. Barry's, were discovered to be on fire.
The alarm was immediately given, and messengers were
dispatched to the respective residences of the proprietors
and the various fire-engine establishments. In less than
half an hour the engines were on the spot. Meantime
the fire spread most rapidly through the lofts and stores
of the establishment, and presented such a mass of flame
that all present apprehended the total destruction of,
perhaps the largest and most perfectly fitted concerns in
the tanning trade in the country. But in less than an hour
the flames were perceived to give way to the operations
of the engines, and at halt-past six o'clock the fire was
got
indown. Upon examining the concerns we found that,
owing to a large proportion of the back stores being
supported by metal pillars, and the roof being iron, se-
veral thousand tons of bark and valonia were saved,
and
a large branch of the building comparatively uninjured.
We are glad to learn that the Messrs. Hackett are fully
insured to the extent of the damage done. At present,
it is not known how the fire originated, though it is sup-
posed to have been from the smouldering of tan in the
vicinity of the steam-engine attached to the premises.—
Southern Reporter.

ATION

TilE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1839.
qOUSE

CON STAN-

understand, he put out of the window with his hand 1
a little tin dish, and received from each of them a
few paras. It appeared to me that the boys looked
upon him as an inspired man, and had been solicit-
ing his blessing. On the boys giving him the
money, three young Turkish females came to the
window and addressed him in a familiar, laugh-
ing tone, which he replied to in the same style.
I never saw such a merry fellow before among
the Turks. He laughed and joked with the girls
who seemed to be much amused. At last he as-

sumed a more serious air, and appeared to me to be
telling them their fortune, and, as far as I could make
it out, it was only another version of an old story told
both in the East and West. They were soon each
to get a husband, " eye adam, pek eye adam" (a
good man, a very good man) ; he was to have
" tchock para" much money), and in due time there
were to be plenty of little babies ; at which an-
nouncement the girls giggled, and he having put out
his little box, they gave him some money. As I
was turning to go away, he called out " Captan,
Captan, gil borda." I looked round ; he was waving
his hand for me to come nearer. I did so, when he
told me that if I would give him some money he
would whistle me a tune. I dropped a twenty-
para piece into his little box, and he instantly com-
menced, and executed one in such a manner as to
convince me that there were greater fools in Con-
stantinople than he was. After visiting all the cells
I made my way home in no very pleasant frame of
mind, as so great a proof of the savage nature of
the government under which I was living had never
before been presented to me.
The next time that I visited the madhouse was
towards the end of spring ; the inmates, with one
or two exceptions, were nearly the same!, one new-
comer was sitting cross-legged upon his bench, with
no clothes but the capote thrown over his shoulders.
Eight Turkish women stood in the room laughing
and giggling, throwing him from time to time small
pieces of money ; nor did the appearance of a
stranger at all interrupt the exhibition or abash the
females, who seemed to consider it fine sport.
At the beginning of June I again paid a visit to
the mad-house. The weather was scorching. The
inmates were covered and housed the same as in
winter. They seemed to know of no change
either in clothing or lodging ; and I question much
if they had had themselves washed from the day
they entered, or were likely ever to be washed again
on this side the grave.
[Marshal Marmont, in his work on the Present
State of the Turkish Empire, speaks in a very in-
dignant strain of the treatment of lunatics in Con-
stantinople ; but his translator, Colonel Sir F.
Smith, while admitting the justice of the Marshal's
censure, adds, " It should be borne in mind that
insanity is often believed to be feigned in Turkey,
in the hope of escaping the punishment deserved
for some offence, and that prisoners are often sent
to these Timar Khans' by the judges, instead of
the infliction of the more rigorous sentences justi-
fied by law."J—London Saturday Journal.

ROYAL EXCHANGE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.