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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The Democratic party on the Continent
has always asserted that the French Revelation was
not a mere historical event bounded by definite
epochs in time, but a movement which has never
ceased in its operation up to the present hour. The
French Revolution is still going on, they say. As
it may be said to have been in action for years—no
one can tell how many—before 1789, since, of course,
the outbreak of that period was only the manifesta-
tion of forces that had been in existence for a gene-
ration past, so the French Liberals hold that it is at
work still, undermining all the political fabrics which
are built on the oppression of man by man or nation
by nation. Of course, we see that they merely
make the Revolution synonymous with the advance
of the principles of private and public right, and,
using the word in this sense, no candid observer
will differ from them. But it remains to be ex-
plained how so large a body of acute and earnest
thinkers should look upon a bloody phase in human
history, a period which began with anarchy and
the guillotine to end with military despotism and
desolating wars, as identified with the triumphs of
civil and national liberty. The chief reason is, we
think, to be found in the existence of that body of
monarchical compacts whieh are known as the
Treaties of 1815. Doubtless the philosopher may
say that 1789 consecrated the principles of liberty,
equality, brotherly love, and so forth, and that
wherever these advance 1789 has the glory. But
this vague doctrine, founded upon French self-
esteem, would never have influenced men of every
continental nation ; and yet, certainly, the re-
newed activity of the French democracy has been
looked for with hope by Italians and Poles
struggling against foreign usurpation, as well as
by German Liberals worn out by the tyranny and
folly of their Sovereigns. The reason has been that
the French were the conquered of 1815. The
Sovereigns who banded for the most just and holy
of causes—that of asserting national independence
—overthrew the intolerable despotism of Napoleon,
of which no better proofs can be found than those
extracts from the new volumes of the Correspon-
dence which may be read in our Paris letter this
morning; but they no sooner found themselves all-
powerful than they used their power to secure their
own imagined rights against their subjects, as well
as the real rights of their respective nations against
French aggression. The consequence has been that,.
by a strange perversion, the military disasters et
Napoleon have been associated with the wrongs of
liberty; the highhanded usurper and his circle of
weak and unprincipled vassals have been re-
gretted by those who fancy that their's
was a golden age in comparison with the leaden
oppression of later days, and that however much
they might tyrannise in fact their theoretical
principles were those of democratic liberty.
Nearly half a century has passed since those famous
Treaties were signed. The proud and elated poten-
tates of that day probably thought that they were
immortal. A final settlement of the great European
questions then took place. Hardly a subject of dis-
pute, small or groat, which had ever engaged the
attention of the Sovereigns failed then to be brought
for ward. On the whole, they were in excellent
temper with each other. There had been a serious
difference the year before on the subject of Poland,
which had exhibited the flee Powers in the same
combinations as at the present day, but after the
return from Elba and the campaign of Waterloo all
irritation was suppressed through the strong desire
to make a firm and lasting disposition of Europe.
They were all so much of one mind that they did
the work too completely. The Eoglish Ministers
did not, indeed, forget the traditional princi-
ples of their country, and some of the redeeming
clauses of this compact are due to them—notably the
stipulations in favour of Poland which have been the
ground of the latest appeal to the Vienna Treaties.
But on the whole the Kings and statesmen of Eu-
rope were of one mind. They saw nothing but a
dread vision of anarchy and irreligion—the making
opportunities for unscrupulous usurpers to torment
the world. The belief that mankind was by nature
doomed to perpetual tutelage, and must bo led either
by a legitimate ruler or by an adventurer—a Crom-
well, or Robespierre, or Bonaparte, was general not
only among hereditary Princes but among statesmen
and writers. Even men like Talleyrand and Can-
ning to the last believed that the desire for a more
popular Government in England would lead to
events like those of the French Revolution. Napo-
leon in his exile thought that the Duke of
Wellington would assuredly make himself King,
If these were the ideas of master minds, can we
wonder that the narrow and half-educated con-
querors, who had been bred in German, Russian,
and Italian Courts, should resolve to take good
security against what they considered as popular
madness. They acted, on the whole, generously
to each other. There was not much desire on
the part of the great potentates to rob their
weaker brothers. They mediatized sparingly, and
only in obedience to the plain interests of Europe.
Germany was left with too many Courts, and Italy
was given up again to the Papacy and the minor
Sovereigns. But no precaution was neglected by
which the nations could be united against France,
by which the Sovereigns could be interested in
opposing that aggressive Power and the spirit of
popular discontent by which it had been made so
formidable. The Treaties of 1815 were not the
work of tyrants hostile to humanity, as is believed
by Continental Republicans; they were approved
by the public opinion of the time, and held by not
illiberal statesmen to be masterpieces of policy and
foresight ; and yet they had hardly been in exist-%
ence five years before their weight was felt to be
grievous, and the history of Europe since then has
been little but a struggle to escape from the condi-
tions they imposed. Attention is now more particu-
larly directed to them by the alleged assertion of Lord
Russell that they are abrogated %et the act of Russia
refusingin to fulfil the stipulations made in favour
o f the Kingdom of Poland. Lord Russell did not,
indeed, go so. far, and. the interpretation of the
French. press is more in accordance with its own
wishes and traditions. than with the actual words of
the British Minister. But it may be allowed that
these treaties. •have been so habitually violated by
the chief parties to them, and have received at last
so fatal a
.blow through the repudiation of the great
Conservative Power of the Continent, that any
i fur-
ther appeal to them would be idle. England s, in
fact, almost the only Power which has cared to ad-
just its proceedings by the literal terms of these
agreements. In ceding the lonian Islands to
Greece our Government has been careful to recog-
nise the rights of those who committed the Repute.
tic toits protectorate. The assent of France, Austria
Russia, and the other Powers has been formally
asked, and the cession will be made with as much
diplomatic seriousness as if the Treaties were only
six months old. But with the Continental Powers
the course has been widely different. The Vienna
treaties they have always been ready to cite against
their opponents, never against themselve s. We do
not complain of the result. The treaties made an
injudicious distribution of European territory, and
indirectly by the confidence they gave to the
Continental Sovereigns, tended to retard the pro-
gress of civil liberty. Most of what has been done
in spite of them has been well done ; and, though
it will be rather strange if their death-wound
shall be owing to one of the few just and humane
stipulations that they contain, yet we must be
content. The good and the evil have been alike
contemned, and, as each of the greater Po
Powers for
its own convenience has violated them, it is now
beyond the rights of any to oppose them to claims
that may be founded upon reason and humanity.
Russia and Austria, with the assent of Prussia,
have destroyed the freedom of the city of Cracow ;
France has incorporated Savoy and Nice, and
broken up the Italian system as it was founded
anew in 1815. Numberless other changes have
taken place, th© most important being the sup-
pression of the Cunstitation and independent Go-
vernment of Poland thirty years ago. Although
we have had no part in breaking up the Vienna sys-
tem, yet we have no reason to fear accepting the
work of others. The independence of the European
nations will be better secured by domestic content
and harmony between rulers and subjects than by
the text of Treaties which have, rightly or wrongly,
become odious.

DAILY NEWS.--Another death under the wheels
of
an omnibus has taken place, and the coroner's
Jury. though they have absolved the drivers and the
owners from blame in this particular instance, have
thought
it right to append to their verdict a strong_
remonstrance against the practice of " nursing,"
which they declare on their personal knowledge to be
still in full force in frequented thoroughfares. So
it would seem that the horrible spectacle of last
August, when in one of our chief streets a heap
of bloody sawdust marked the spot where a victim
had been slaughtered, has, ere September was out,
ceased to act as a warning. The death of one female
Blondin sufficed to stop the sacrifice of more lives
in that particular form of sensational effect, but the

death of an omnibus conductor is too trivial an item
to prevent persistence in the sensation race of the
omnibus, where the immediate prize is a few extra
coppers, and the ultimate ambition the forcing a
rival off the road. So be it. We must adapt our
remedies to the evil, and as it would seem that om-
nibus owners are not to be restrained by sentiments
of decency or of regard for the public safety, we must
try to find out some other means of reaching their
feelings. We know not whether in the scattered
and voluminous police regulations of the metropolis
there is any power to prohibit a practice which is
the most dangerous that can be carried on in its
crowded streets, and the great case of the Saloon
Company against the General Omnibus Company,
a few years ago, served only to show that if an
indictment for conspiracy would lie, it was scarcely
capable of proof. But if the law in this respect is
inefficient, it must be altered. We cannot continue
to allow the greedy competition of those who pro-
fess to serve us to make our streets as perilous as
a battle field. Racing and " nursing" are amuse-
ments for which there can never be apology. They
are not fair competition. Neither a new candidate,
nor an old servant, has a right to damage his rival
in that way. The public cannot gain by it, for its
only object is to put an end to that fair competition
by which alone cheapness and convenience are to be
attained. Thus there is neither reason nor sympathy
on the side of those who choose to indulge in so peril-
ous and iniquitous a means of raising themselves by
crushing a competitor. It is, therefore, a fitting case,
if any can be conceived, for intervention of the
police to put the practice down. Let them, if they
have not the power, be armed with the power of
summoning every driver who is seen racing, and
the owners of every omnibus which is seen " nurs-
ing," and let sharp personal penalties in both cases
put an end to a system which makes the traversing
of our streets as dangerous as the walking in a fog
along a railway line. In the matter of racing both
parties are equally guilty ; in the matter of" nurs-
ing" there can be seldom any difficulty in discover-
ing the real culprit ; and if in the former case it
may be only the drivers who are to blame, it must
in the latter be almost always the owners. The
i
apportionment of the penalty which we have ndi-
catad is, therefore, the fittest to reach the root
of the evil, and there can be no doubt it ought to
be strictly exacted. The liberty of the subject is
carried a little too far when it is made to include
the liberty of slaughtering, and the name of free
trade is abused when it is applied to proceedings
whose object is at any hazard to maintain a mono-
poly. It would, indeed, be well if the immediate
penalties of the police court could in other instances
be substituted for the cumbrous and haphazard
operation of a civil action for driving in the streets.
At present there is no interference with the cab or
the heavy van which turns the corner at speed, un-
less an unlucky foot passenger is killed or seriously
damaged, and so clever is the driving, and so preter-
naturally acute are the senses of the Londoner, that
these accidents happen in an infinitely small propor-
tion of the occasions on which they might reasonably
be expected to result. The consequence of this com-
parative infrequency is carelessness,and the accidents
which do occur are generally traceable to the care-
lessness which is bred by the rarity of the penalty.
But the accidents would become very much fewer
than they are if power were given to the police to
take note of those who are acting in such a way as
to make them probable. This would be a constant
and steady check; the fear of an indictment for
manslaughter, or an action for damages, is too re-
mote to be practically effective. The rule by which
police cautions, or summonses, would be guided,
need not be different from that which regulates civil
liability. It is laid down by the judges that on
approaching a crossing it is the duty of the drivers
of carriages to look out for the foot-passengers, but
at every other place it is the duty of foot-passengers
when crossing the street to take care of themselves.
There is reason and good sense in the distinction,
and it points out a way of securing safety without
inconveniently diminishing the speed of vehicles.
To require that every driver should slacken his pace
on approaching a corner or a crossing, so as to be
able to pull up instantly on the appearance of any
one in front of him, will not materially diminish the
rate of our progress through the streets, aid this is
a rule which the police might very well be charged
with enforcing. We must, indeed, consent to a cer-
tain amount of police regulation when we cease to
be wanderers in the desert or herdsmen on the
hills, and crowd together three millions of souls in
one huge city. Acts harmless enough elsewhere
become full of peril when done amongst a multitude.
But prevention is better than punishment, and a
few slight fines or admonitions inflicted every week
for dangerous practices would be tenfold more con-
ducive to our safety and comfort than a trial for
manslaughter once a year, or the verdict of a jury
for twenty pounds and costs, occurring perhaps
four times as often, as the penalty for a broken leg
or fractured ribs.

POST.—It will be in the recollection of the public
that one of the first consequences of the introduction
by the Federal Financial Minister of au inconver-
tible paper currency was to drive out of circulation
the specie which was then in use. Money dealers,
like other merchants, sought the best market in
which to dispose of their precious commodity, and
ship load atter ship load of bullion was exported
from America to Europe. The effects of the drain
thus created soon manifested themselves. Gold first,
and silver afterwards, rapidly disappeared, and the
citizens of the Northern towns found themselves
obliged to conduct even the most trifling business
transactions on credit. The man who rode in a cats,
or dined at a tavern, or purchased a pair of gloves
at a hosier's, was obliged to take, in lieu of his
change, to which he might happen to be entitled,
a certificate of indebtedness for that amount. After
a time certificates for various sums were kept in
readiness, and each person became, so far as re-
garded the issuing of bank notes, a private banker.
In the meantime the premium on gold rapidly rose.
Unfortunately, too, it rose and fell in such a spas-
modic manner, and the quotations of our day dif-
fered so much from those of the days immediately
preceding and following it, that, in the ea ery-day
transactions of business, shopkeepers were driven to
despair in their attempts to estimate at its market
worth the Federal Treasury notes, the only circu-
lating medium which was left in use, The want of
dollars, and after a time
me of cents, created a demand
for their representatives in the new currency ; and
to meet this demand the Federal Government were
obliged to issue notes of the smallest denomination.
" Green-backs," as the Americans learned to call
the Government notes, supplied the immediate
wants of the community, and rendered unneces-
sary the devices to which the mercantile classes
had been driven to compensate for the deficiency
of "change." Still, however, notwithstanding
every effort on the-part of the Government to pre-
vent it, the specie continued to flow eastward across
the Atlantic, and in the same proportion what may
be termed the metallic currency disappeared from
circulation. Congress, which at the time was in ses-
sion, conferred on the Secretary' of the Treasury
powers to issue bank notes ad ; and this,
combined with the unsatisfactory progress of the
war, :tended to increase the value of gold, and
necessarily to depreciate the paper currency which
had to so great an extent displaced it. Such was
the general condition of financial affairs in the
Northern States at the commencement of the pre-
sent year. It is, however, not a little singular that,
although during the past six months the successes
of the Federal armies have not been such as to in-
spire sanguine hopes of the speedy and victorious
termination of the war, the financial aspect of
affairs has apparently improved. We are far from
denying that the results of the summer campaign on
the Mississippi were not such as should have raised
in the money market the value of Federal securities ;
but, regard being had to other circumstances, it still
remains to most men in this country a marvel that
the paper currency of the United States should
have stood as high as it did in the middle of the
past month, namely, before the defeat of General
Rosencranz. At one period last year the premium
on gold exceeded 65 per cent. Within the past two
months it has been as low as 26. A citizen of the
Northern States would doubtless refer this singular
variation to the military successes of the, past sum-
mer, and to the conviction, shared by so many in
the Moth, that the " backbone" of the rebellion
may now fairly be considered as
.broken. That the
Northern population are sincere in this conviction
is, we suppose, proved: by the willingness. with.
which they exchange specie for one-third more
.its
representative value in paper. But. that which
shakes the confidence of Europeans is. the worth of
Federal paper is a circumstance of which the Ameri-
cans appear to take no account. We are a tax-paying
people in this country, and are accustomed y ear by
year to see the debts, or the interests on the debts,
created in past times paid by the revenues which
are thus raised. We know from experience that
there is but one way by which the financial credit
of a State can be supported, namely, by providing
with regularity for the payment of the Government
creditor. Now, the circumstance to which we have
alluded, and which amid the blaze of Federal vic-
tories has not attracted the attention of the Ameri-
can nation, is that during the two years and a half
which the war has lasted not a single dollar has
been raised in the way of taxation, If the success
of the campaign on the Mississippi raised the value
of Mr. Chase's Treasury notes, surely the fact that
during the past twelve months he has increased the
Federal debt by abo'it one hundred and fifty millions
sterling ought to have tended to depreciate the in-
convertible currency, which rests alone on the cre-
dit of the state. Add to this that, whilst increasing
his liabilities, the Secretary of the Treasury has
omitted in any manner to provide for them, and'one
may well express astonishment that in the third
year of the American war the premium on gold

should be less than half of what it was in the
second. The currency which no Qv constitutes almost
the sole circulating medium in the United States
belongs to the class of what are termed on the Stock
Exchange "speculative securities." The note with
which a citizen of New York or Washington pur-
chases what is necessary for his daily wants changes
materially in value from day to day, according as
the fortunes of armies fighting in distant regions
vary, or as stock-jobbers speculate for a " rise" or
"fall." Gold which to-day is quoted at 35 premium
may, from a variety of circumstances, be quoted at
25 or at 46 a week subsequently. This is the pre-
sent condition of a Republic which three years since
was esteemed the most prosperous in the world.
Singular as this condition is, it entirely fails to rivet
the notice of those to whom seemingly the changes
which have been wrought should be most apparent.
The Americans no doubt think it a nuisance that a
difference should exist between the apparent and
the real value of a banknote; but they reconcile
themselves to it as being one of the hard conditions
of war. Their armies are now, as they consider, on
the high road to victory, and as each success will
diminish the premium on specie, the paper cur-
rency will be at par simultaneously with the
extinction of the rebellion. It is purely a matter
of time, and to all appearances a very short time,
when the Union, refreshed rather than exhausted
by its recent struggles, will once more stand forth
the envy and the admiration of all other States.
With such prospects, who, then, ought to be sur-
prised that the premium on gold has fallen instead
of risen during the past year ? Nay, rather, who
should not express his astonishment that capitalists
do not eagerly convert their gold and silver on such.
profitable terms into the Treasury notes of the
United States of America ? It is idle to argue with
those who hold this language ; and, as it is useless
to dilate on the pleasures of vision to one who is
born blind, it is equally in vain to endeavour to con-
vey to the hitherto untaxed people of America a
notion of the weight of the burdens which are
occasioned by a gigantic national debt. Mr. Glad-
stone on one occasion spoke in Parliament of what
he termed "an ignorant impatience of taxation."
At present it may be said that the American nation
are simply ignorant of this mode of providing for
the satisfaction of State liabilities. When the war
has terminated, it will be seen whether they wilt
also deserve to be characterised as impatient of
taxation.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

LIVERPOOL-FRIDIY.

All this morning we have had continued heavy rain, and
at this day's market there was a small attendance, but
the demand for wheat was generally more firm. Oats Id
per bushel cheaper. Barley, beans, and peas unaltered.
Indian corn at the prices current on Tuesday. Flour very
dull.