The Sun.
London, England, 1837-12-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1837

ham on the subject of negro apprenticeship, Mr.
STURGE, who was present, and addressed the meeting
at considerable length, stated that the twenty millions
of money given by the people of England, under the
notion that the. were thereby putting an end to all the
horrors of slavery, has produced few, or no, beneficial
results ; for that the slave-system is still kept up by
the West India Colonies with quite as much ri-
gour as ever. In proof of this startling asser-
tion, Mr. STURcn adduced a whole host of
facts—observing, in particular, that the flogging
of women was carried to quite as atrocious an excess
as ever it was. If these things be really so, it is high
time that Government should look to it, with a view
to apply a prompt and efficient remedy ; but for our
own part—without at all designing to impugn the ve-
racity of the gentlemen who spoke so eloquently at
the Birmingham meeting—we cannot help thinking
that there is much exaggeration in the matter, and
that they have been misled by false statements from
interested parties in the Colonies. One reason why we
incline to this opinion is this—we lately published
in The Sun a communication addressed by a resident
clergyman in Jamaica to a friend in England, wherein
alluding to the present condition of the negroes, he ex-
pressly stated that they were all, with scarcely one
exception, in an improving, and even a thriving state ;
that they were satisfied with the treatment shown
them, and evinced every disposition to meet the
views of their masters. Now, as this communica-
tion was from a gentleman well qualified to give
a sound opinion, inasmuch as ha is a man of great
experience, a shrewd observer, and one not likely to
be carried away by prejudice or passion, we think it
goes far to neutralize the statements made on the other
side of the question. However, be this as it may,
there seem to- be considerable doubts and uneasiness
in the public mind respecting the present condition of
the West Indian slaves, and therefore we think it the
bounden duty of the Colonial Office to lose not
a moment in enquiring into the subject.

vite all opinion to conciliation, and promise more security for
the future. It is under such auspices that the present Session
opens, and that the Crown has summoned us, no longer to a work
of repression, of which the statute-book affords but too ample
traces, but to improvements which are the results of tran-
quillity, and the aim of the general feeling of stability. This
Chamber will be Conservative, in this sense, that it will not
permit faction to raise its head, nor disturb public order ; and
that it will also express with frankness the wishes of the
country, and keep with firmness what is its prerogative, with-
out ever exceeding it. It will be Conservative, in that it will
resist and prevent all retrograde measures, and all deviations
likely to frustrate the true principles of our constitutional Go-
vernment. To maintain and to, contain : such shall be its
motto. I hope that our Parliamentary discussions will show
signs of this favourable state of affairs and of opinion, and
that the labour of the President will require few efforts beyond
your adhesion to direct your deliberations."
The accounts from Madrid are of the 20th inst.
Senor CA NOS has been gazetted Minister of Marine.
A report of the approach of CA BRERO upon Sara-
gossa, at the head of 8,000 Carlists, had roused the
patriotism of the inhabitants of that city, who flew
to arms and rushed out in crowds to meet the enemy.
CA BRERA on their approach fled to the mountains.

FRENCH FUNDS -Pants, Nor. 28.
Five per Cents., 1071. 80c. 90c. 80c.
Four per Cents., 1011. 10c.
Three per Cents., 781. 75c. 95c.
Bank Actions, 2,535 f. 2,537 f. 50c. 2,539 f.
rtente tie Naples, 971. 91c. SOc. 95c.
Roman Five per Cents., 1011%%.
Spanish Actives, 20%%.
Spanish Passives, 4%.
Belgian Loan, Five per Cents, 102.
Brussels Society, 1,7101.
Belgian Bank, 1,5401. 1,51171. 50e. 1,5401.
Portuguese Loan, Three per Cents. 19%.
Dutch Two and a half per Cents., 53.
EXCHANOR ON LONDON.
One month, paper, -f. -c. ; money, 251. 47%e
Tree months, paper, -f. money, 2.51. 30c.
LAST PRICES.
Five per Cents. 1071. 90c.
'Three per Cents., 781. SOc.
Ban), Actions,
Romans' 100%.
Belgian Loan, 102.
Belgian Bank, 1,5101.
Brussels Society, 1,7101.
sPortuguese Three per Cents., 19%.
Spanish Actives, 20%.
Spani;h Passives, 4%.
Dutch Two and a Half per Cents., 53.

CANADA.

In February last, Mr. S. JONES LOYD published
a pamphlet on the influence of the Bank of England
on the state of our monetary affairs, in which he
pointed out the incompatible functions of the Bank as
a Bank of Issue and a Bank of Deposit and Dis-
count, the serious consequences of such an incon-
gruous union of functions, and the necessity of adopt-
ing some means to separate the management of the
currency from all ordinary banking affairs. He has
followed up that pamphlet with another, the object of
which is to prove that the late crisis has confirmed his
opinions, and that while the same system is continued,
the commercial world must be periodically convulsed,
and the Bank exposed to the greatest embarrassment,
and even insolvency. To this system he attributes the
dangerous position in which the Bank was placed in
the spring of this year, and which he thus describes—
" The situation of'the Bank of England at this period was
critical and difficult in the highest degree. The first indica-
tion of the approaching crisis, not perhaps at the time suffi-
cien►ly attended to, bad been a change in the state of the ex-
changes ; a heavy draM upon the gold of the Bank had taken
place; her treasure had suffered a continuous and alarming
diminution ; and the urgent necessity on that account of a
corresponding contraction of her issues was very generally
acknowledged. But to effect this was found impracticable ;
the demands for assistance to concerns brought into a state of
temporary embarrassment; the calls of commerce for sup.
po►t during a period of pressure ; the necessity of pre-
venting, if possible, any convulsion among the country is-
suers, lest the alarm thus produced should cause an in=
ternal drain upon the treasure of the Bank simultaneously
with the exterual drain, though the exchanges, under which
sho was already suffering; these considerations, deriving ad-
dition weight from the concurrence and sympathy which they
met with on the part of a large portion of the public, proved
to be irresistible ; and the consequence was that at the period
in question the Bank, in rendering her account to the public,
appeared in this anomalous and alarming condition :-1-ler
treasure reduced to an unusually low amount, whilst her cir-
culation was undiminished ;—The aggregate amount of secu-
rities held by her unusually high, whilst it was notorious that
the most realisable class of those securities had been parted
with, and that, in lieu of them, in her efforts to meet the de-
mands alluded to, she had load herself with securities of a very
different character."

TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD (MENEM), ITER MAJESTY'S SECRETARY

OF STATE FOR COLONIAL AFFAIRS,

The Memorial of the British American, West Indian, and Ge-
neral Shipping Association of the City of Glasgow,
Showeth—That your memorialists are engaged to a consi-
derable extent, and many of them have embarked capital to a
large amount, in the trade between this country and Canada,
and are consequently deeply interested in the welfare and
prosperity of that colony.
That your memorialists cannot contemplate without dismay
and alarm the successful efforts now making by an evil dis-
posed faction to disseminate seditious principles in the minds of
her Majesty's North American subjects, particularly of those
composing the French population i• the province of Lower
Canada. That the leniency and forbearance hitherto mani-
fested by the Executive in that province, so far from having
had the effect of repressing the disaffection now unhappily so
prevalent there, r..ther seem to have stimulated it to greater
activity, until it has at length displayed itself, not only in the
most daring attempt to intimidate the officers of the Crown
from executing their duty, but in open acts of aggression and
rebellion, opposing the public authorities with force of arms
to the effusion of blood, whereby the lives and property of
her Majesty's loyal subjects have been endangered, and the
whole framework of society exposed to the risk of being dis-
organized.
That the executive government in Lower Canada secras
either inadequate or unwilling to exercise its power in a
judicious, firm, and efficient manner, and the disaffected party
appear determined to leave no means untried for subverting
every thing constitutional and British in the province.
That, so long as matters are suffered to remain in their pre-
sent unsettled state, it is quite obvious that the operations of
commerce must either be at a stand altogether, or receive
such a check as to occasion the most serious loss and incon-
venience to your memorialists and others engaged in this
trade ; while by such interruption the revenue of the country
must also be greatly diminished.
Your memorialists are firmly persuaded that the principal
cause of disunion which exists in the Lower Province, and to
which in great part the present alarming state of affairs is to
be attributed, arises from the existence of a municipal system
vicious in principle and injurious in operation, whereby the
inhabitants of that province are subjected to a code of laws
administered in the French language, and governed by rules
not recognised by the English courts—a codo which affords no
security either to person or property, and which, so long as it
is permitted to exist, must ever oppose an insuperable barrier
to that harmony between the two great classes of the commu-
nity which is the surest guarantee of national prosperity.
Your memorialists would therefore respectfully but ear-
nestly submit this most important subject to the consideration
of your Lordship; and while they pray that you would be
pleased to call the attention of her Majesty's Government to
the urgent necessity of immediate, vigorous, and effective mea-
sures for quelling the rebellious and mischievous spirit which
has been manifested, and restoring tranquillity and security to
the colony, they would humbly beg to offer it as their decided
opinion, confirmed by the experience of well-informed persons,
that the root of the evil cannot be wholly extirpated until the
inhabitants of Lower Canada are put on the same footing
in regard to the administration of laws with.those of the Upper
Province.

Such a❑ alarming condition of our monetary affairs
he does not impute to wilful mismanagement on the part
of the Directors, but to the double and incongruous
functions of the Bank, which compel her to practice
the very reverse of the principle on which she ought
to act—that principle being, that the joint liabilities
of notes and deposits should vary as the amount of
bullion. Mr. HORSLEY PALMER, in March, 1837,
declared that the Bank had acted up to that principle
laid clown in 1832, yet, according to the Bank returns,
there had been a gross departure from it in the course
of this year. On the 14th of December, 1837, the
circulation and deposits amounted to 28,194,0001.,
and the bullion to 8,172,0001.; whereas, on the
7th of March previous, the former amounted to
31,438,000/., and the latter to only 4,048,0001.
" By this statement (says Mr. Loyd) it appears that the
bullion has increased 4,124,0001., whilst during the same period
the joint liabilities have diminished, not increased, 3,244,0001.
Therefore it is clear that the joint liabilities have not varied as
the bullion has varied, and consequently the rule laid down by
the Bank has not been observed."

Signed in name And by appointment of the Association.

Letters have arrived from correspondents at Montreal of
the date of the first inst., bringing intelligence up to a later
period than was brought by the Independence, by which the
message of President Van Buren was conveyed to this coun-
try. The following extracts are from the letters of a gen.
tleman who has the amplest means of ascertaining the true
situation of affairs :

" Lieut.-Col. Wetherall's return to town (after fourteen
days' absence, with the loss of three killed and 18 wounded,
with 32 prisoners taken in arms, their cap of liberty, &c.) has
given us all fresh courege. He will no doubt remain. Five
hundred men are barricading all the smaller streets of Mon-
treal. None but Great St. James, Notre Dame, St. Paul,
and the main street of the St. Lawrence suburbs, will remain
open. A strong redoubt has been erected on the Cote a Bar-
ron. Lieut.-Col. Gore was sent off yesterday with three
companies of the 32d Foot, two of the 24th Foot, one of the
83d Foot, a division of cavalry, six field pieces, and a train of
artillery, to take St. Denis by storm, and reduce it to ashes.
It will be done this evening or to-morrow morning. The rebels
are not over 400 to 500 there.

Neither, it appears, has the rule laid down by Mr.
LOYD been adhered to—the rule, namely, that the
circulation should vary as the bullion ; for while the
securities, in March, amounted to 30,579,0001., they
had diminished to 22,727,0001. in December, when
the bullion had nearly doubled. Mr. LOYD contends
that the best remedy for these alarming fluctuations is

,o separate the two functions, those of Issue, and

those of Deposit and Discount ; and that the proper
remedy, under existing circumstances, would be a de-
termined action on the part of the Bank, for the pur-
pose of keeping,up the amount of its securities, and
making the circulation vary, at least in some propor-
tion relative to the increase of bullion. No doubt the

Brown, Papineau, and O'Callaghan, are still at large. The
two latter ran away at St. Charles before the troops came up
—the former, as Lieutenant-General of the rebels, remained
to hear the first shot, and then speedily departed. Every-
thing is doing to place Montreal in a good state of defence.
Fears are entertained that the rebels are arming and equip-
ping in great numbers at Terrebonne, at the Brule point
Claire, and in the direction of the Lake of the Two Moun-
tains. This last place has been the hot-bed of rebellion for
some months, the conventions being held there. Fears are
also entertained that the by-town and Upper Canadian mails
will be stopped, or have to be sent round by the United
States, a detour of fully 120 miles. We have full informa-
tion that General Scott commands the rebels in chief at the
Brule ; Lieutenant-General Eschambault is second in com-
mand. They have, in three divisions, fully 2,000 men, well
armed and equipped. Rumours are afloat, that in the winter
they purpose, by a combined movement, to attack Montreal
by storm I
The priests at St. Charles, previous to the troops coming
up, administered the sacrament to the rebels, to encourage
them to stand bold or die. The slain that were left on the
field were voraciously mutilated by hogs which had been
penned up' in the rebels' stockade, and got loose on its being
fired by the troops.
Poor Lieutenant Weir, of the 30th regiment, was shot by a
rebel captain's order, immediately after falling into their hands.
He was conveying despatches to the regular troops, and was
betrayed by his rebel conductor, who drove him to St. Denis,
instead of St. Charles.

former would be the safer course for the Bank ; but
would it be equally advantageous to commercial inte-
rests ? If the Bank, in a time of difficulty, such as
that which has just passed away, were to contract her
issues as the bullion left the country, and refuse to take
any but convertible securities, certain ruin to thousands
would be the result ; many with assets double the
amount of their liabilities, but which they might not
be able to convert for years, would be forced to part
with them at half their value, and would consequently
be brought to a state of bankruptcy. The Bank, dur-
ing the late crisis, has acted on a very different prin-
ciple—on a principle somewhat similar to the second
proposed by Mr. LOYD, but in a more generous
spirit, and what has been the result ? She has re-
lieTed many who were in temporary embarrassment—
she has saved thousands from utter destruction—and
but little doubt remains that if she be a loser at all it
will be only in a trifling degree.
Whatever may be the defects of the system, there can
be but one opinion as to the important services which
the Bank has rendered to the commercial world within
the last nine months. We have not space for further
comment ; but we have no doubt Mr. LoyD will gain
his object, and draw public attention to questions of
such serious importance to the steady and equable
progress of commercial welfare.

" TO THE QVEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.

"May it please your Majesty,

" We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects, in-
habitants of the settlement of Victoria, in the district of St.
Francis, and province of Lower Canada, humbly beg leave to
approach your Majesty, and to offer our sincere condolence on
the demise of our late beloved Sovereign William IV.
" If there is left to us and our fellow-subjects a consolation
under the loss of a King whose entire reign was devoted to the
welfare of his people, it is in the confidence which we feel
that your Majesty will pursue a similar course of rectitude in
the government of the British dominions; and that by follow-
ing the dictates of a noble and ingenuous mind, your Majesty
will, like your several predecessors, securely retain the affec-
tion which your subjects have unreservedly devoted to the de-
scendant of an illustrious line of Sovereigns.
" As Britons, we revert with pride to the splendour which
has characterized the reigns of former Queens, and hail the
accession of your Majesty to the Throne of your ancestors
with every presentiment of increased glory to our country.
" We are remote from your Majesty's august Throne,
but we yield to no class of our fellow-subjects in the sincerity
of our loyalty. We are now in this, the country of our adop.
tion, but our attachment to your Royal person has been
brought with us from the land of our birth, and though form-
ing an inconsiderable portion of your Majesty's numerous
subjects, yet we venture to exprers our sentiments of true gra-
titude for the Royal care and protection in which we know
that we participate.
" In the arduous task of subduing the forest, and convert-
ing the haunts of wild beasts into the abode of man, our first
efforts were made under the auspices of your Majesty's high
name ; and, though yet few in number, we are the precursors
of tens of thousands of our countrymen. As fathers of the
Victoria settlement, it shall ever be our aim to inspire our
followers with the centiments of attachment to your Royal
person which are so warmly cherished in our own hearts.
" That Providence may bestow upon your Majesty every
blessing, that your Majesty's reign may realize every antici-
pation of happiness and prosperity formed by your Majesty's
dutiful subjects, and that your Majesty may be permitted
long to govern a free and faithful people, your petitioners will
ever pray."
(Signed by 200 male inhabitants of British origin.).

The Paris Journals of Thursday have all been re-
ceived. On Wednesday the Deputies concluded the
election of the President, Vice-Presidents, and Secre-
taries ; and the only two new names appear in the list
for the ensuing session, the votes of the opposition
have greatly alarmed the Cabinet Liberal Members,
who at the last election could hardly command a vote
against the Cabinet were only defeated on Wednesday
by majorities so narrow as to mark their all but equa-
lity with Ministers in dividing the suffrages of the
Chamber. On being conducted to the President's
chair, M. D uPrN addressed the following speech--or
rather Ministerial manifesto—to the assembled de-

putics
" Gentlemen, and dear Colleagues—My first necessity
is to express to you the gratitude with which your suffrages have
filled me. I thank the Chamber for conferring on me
the greatest honour that election can confer upon a citizen.
This election, repeated seven times, through so much vicis-
m situde of events
id oscillation in opinion, gives me li-
berty to cast a regard upon the past. The Legislature
of 1830 saw the victory of an heroic population com-
bating for liberty and laws. It drew up a declaration
of the 7th of August, and called a new dynasty to the
throne. The Chamber of 1831 was employed, upon exeFri-
plernentary laws, guaranteeing the public liberties, whilst
it was at the same time obliged to combat those attempts at
creating disorders which the union of all good citizens has
succeeded in putting down. The Chamber of 1834 sought
to establish a balance between extremes. But alas ! another
clime, more execrable than sedition, interrupted its labours,
and flung public opinion into sad perplexity. Yet, before
terminating its career, it witnessed a royal amm-sty, in accord
with its wishes, bring a salutary truce to hatefcl passions, in.

The Dowager Countess of Dunmore left Farrance's
fotel, Belgrave-street, yesterday, for Leamington.