The Sun.
London, England, 1830-02-03 00:00:00

CHARACTER OF COLUMBUS.

Columbus was a man of great and inventive
genius. The operations of his mind were ener-
getic, but irregular ; bursting forth at times with
that irresistible force which characterises in-
tellects of such an order. His mind had grasped
all kinds of knowledge connected with his pur-
suits; and, though his information may appear
limited at the present day, and some of his errors
Palpable, it is because that knowledge, in his
Peculiar department of science, was but scantily
developed in his time. His own discoveries
enlightened the ignorant of that age ; guided
conjecture to certainty ; and dispelled numerous
errors with which he himself had been obliged
to struggle.
His ambition was lofty and noble. He was
full of high thoughts, and anxious to distinguish
himself by great achievements. It has been said
that a mercenary feeling mingled with his views,
and that his stipulations with the Spanish Court
were selfish and avaricious. The charge is in-
considerate and unjust. He aimed at dignity
and wealth in the same lofty spirit in whish he
sought renown ; but they were to arise from the
'territories he should discover, and be commen-
surate in importance. No condition could be
More just. He asked nothing of the sovereigns
but a command of the countries he hoped
to give them, and a share of the profits
to support the dignity of his command.
If there should be no country discovered, his
stipulated viceroyalty would be of no avail ; and
if no revenues should be produced, his labour
and peril would produce no gain. If his com-
mand and revenues ultimately proved magnifi-
cent, it was from the magnificence of the re-
glons he had attached to the Castilian crown.—
What Monarch would not rejoice to gain em-
Pire on such conditions ? But he did not merely
risk a loss of 'labour, and a disappointment of
ambition, in the enterprise ; on his motives be-
lug questioned, he voluntarily undertook, and,
with the assistance of his coadjutors, actually
defrayed one-eighth of the whole charge of the
first expedition.
The gains that promised to arise from his
discoveries he intended to appropriate in, the
same princely and pious spirit in which they were
demanded. He contemplated works and achieve-
ments of benevolence and religion ; vast contri-
butions for the relief of the poor of his native
city ; the foundations of churches, where masses
should be.said for the souls of the departed ; and
armies for the recovery of the holy sepulchre in
Palestine.

In the discharge of his office he maintained
the state .and ceremonial of a Viceroy, and was
tenacious of his rank and privileges, not from a
mere vulgar love of titles, but because be prized
them as testimonials and trophies of his achieve-
ments; these he jealously cherished as his great
rewards, In his repeated applications to the
King, he insisted merely on the restitution of
hie dignities. As to his pecuniary dues, he
*OW leave them to arbitration, or even to the
disposition of the King; " but these things," said
be, nobly, affect my honour." In his testa-
ment, he enjoined on his son Diego, and who-
ever -after him should inherit his estates, what-
ever dignities and titles might afterwards be
granted by the King, always to sign himself
simply-," the Admiral," by way of perpetuating
in. the family its real source of greatness.
His t•onduct was characterised by the gran-
deur.of his views, and the magnanimity of his
spirit. Instead of traversing °the newly found
countries, like a grasping adventurer eager only
for immediate gain, as was too generally the case
with contemporary discoverers, he sought to as-
certain their soil and productions, their rivers
and harbours ; he was desirous of colonising and
cultivating them; of conciliating and civilising
the ,natives ; of building cities, introducing the
useful arts,. subjecting every thing to the con-
troul
of law, order, and religion ; and thus of
founding
regular and prosperous empires. In
this glorious lan he was constantly defeated by
the dissolute rabble- which it was his misfortune
acomm
and ; with whom all law was tyranny,
tiseful dallorder restraint. They interrupted all
Peaceful works by their seditions ; provoked the
Indians to hostility ; and, after they had
thieltazsd.heaped misery and warfare upon their own
,zsuid overw helmed Columbus with the
ruins
With bd's: Q' die edifice lie was building, theyn
charged
ein the of the confusio.
g

1:11e wing extract
'° ofa letter from a correspon-
d • "ggests a useful change in the management of the Tea
Y
be 'ad the East India Company, which will probably
rntidi nPted 411001 any renewal of the charter, however
•
th ta take place. There seems to be no reason why
411,efie }purchaser of tea at the salts of the East India Company
of 4"14. not be placed in the same situation as the importer
Allwhich are bonded until the payment of the duty.
shet°4t is required is perfect security that Government
4 tr;,feeeive the amount payable as duty ; in which case
'`4l delay can signify little, while to the purchaser it
e,t3;be of the utmost consequence. The following is the
4,4 ,t referred to:—" Teas are all imported by the East
the 4,,Caialpany, and are sold by them at four sales during
:I,iute:;lP,,rett,he price they then bring regulating the duty,
late it op per cent. on the cost; they are put up in
six, and pine chests, according to the &scrip-
sZ and *Cron after sale ligt Company issue a note or in-
trh.e for: every
PctlitetilA are
di
lot (there are about 15,000 in each sale),
distributed to the buyers ; these notes state the
pri Ml' net in the lot, which are calculated at the selling
wi
4° a' and likewise the amount of duty ; when the buyer
e to Clear part of a lot, he must first pay the Com-
fy their amount, with the duty for the whole ; the
er cannot be complained of, but the ;atter is extremely
uthterinn.ahle, as it puts tea on a different footing to any
article of import lodged in a bonded warehouse, on
Re You are only required to pay the duty as you have
11k'ion to take the goods from under the KING'S lock.
,-,
Where the system r res,es most heavily on the trade is,
the.°Nigation they are under of paying up the duties on
ier purchases when the Company's prompt day arrives,
4t,be:thrke months after the sale, although the teas may
Or "(jolted fee months,—some perhaps not for a year
thee "et and asthere is pot any drawback on theartmi.e,
awli}c„nance, of disposing of them for exportation.
done
he I,,i'Tl4' tbui locking up a very I trge capital that might
rettlyr:,.T-;;Itlly employed, and that, ton, when the goods
dutia% 'n a place of perfect security, and on which th!
...._77:4111 not to be paid until taken fur consumption.'
es,

CURRENCY QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—Mr. Western% Letters, the Birmingham
meeting, and many other "signs of the times," seem
to make it probable that some further discussion
will take place in the ensuing session of Parliament,
on the subject of the currency. Will you allow me,
then, to avail myself of your circulation, to bring
before the public certain views, which appear to me
important, on this topic ?_

It seems proper to begin with observing, that dis-
tresses, arising from fluctuation in the amount of
circulating medium in the country—now tempting
to rash speculations from its abundance, and now
aggravating the consequences of these by its sudden
diminution—are no novelties in our history; on the
contrary, they have been in all ages constantly re-
curring, as vacillations in the course of the foreign
exchange, or in the confidence of bankers, or in the
interests or opinions of individuals sufficiently power-
ful to be able to operate on these, have dictated.
They are thus coeval with our existence as a com-
mercial state; and would at first sight appear even
inseparable portions of that existence, although, if
it were possible to cast them off, the relief would
obviously be like casting off an ague, of which the
hot and cold fits are almost equally prejudicial to
the constitution. The inquiry then, which it would
be really interesting to see taken up by the Legisla-
ture is this—Can a separation from these accidents
be effected or not ? Can the country be not only
relieved now from the pressure of a restricted cir-
culation, but guaranteed against its recurrence at
any future time ? And to this question the follow-
ing observations apply :
It appears to me then, as an individual reasoner
on the subject, that the distress usually ascribed ex-
clusively to fluctuations in the supply of money, may
be equally imputed to its fixed value; That as it
would not occur at all, if wages, prices, taxes, and.
all other money payments fell at all times in the
precise proportion that the amount of currency in
circulation was diminished—this being impossible, it
would, ;n like manner, not occur, if the value of the
currency (whether paper or gold), was allowed to
rise or fall, as it was scarceor abundant, and was thus
made to maintain one constant relation to the busi-
ness which it was required to transact, instead of al-
ways varying according to circumstances. That this
could be effected by repealing the laws which
make a pound sterling. of pecuniary obligation pay-
able only by 20 shillings of currency, and by allow-
ing it to be pail by so many more or fewer, accord-
ing to the actual value of money in the market at
the time : That this arrangement, instead of unset-
tling money transactions, would, in fact, fix them,
because it would make them always represent the
substance of the accommodation obtained when they
were entered into, and not the name only : That
inasmuch as the real value of money fluctuates in
the market, according to the supplies of bullion and
credit at different times, it is obviously more
rational that its nominal value should fluc-
tuate with this, than, by keeping it fixed,
to make it almost certain that they can never
coincide; That a system of money payments in cur-
rency subject to a calculation founded on its in-
trinsic value in the market, when the payments
were made, once introduced, would soon work of
itself, without the possibility of iudividual fraud or
• evasion, by a course of domestic exchange (pre-
cisely similar to the foreign exchanges) which would
readily accomodate itself to every fluctuation, and
only require the sanction of a law making the
current exchange of any place, and neither more nor
less, a legal tender at that place ; And that thus
established, it would prove beneficial in a great
many other ways, besides compassing its direct
object; in particular, as whatever adjustment
might be thus at any time made in money
connects, would be to a considerable extent
amicable, because the exchange contemplated would
be just the expression of the sense entertained by
all the most intelligent debtors and creditors as to
what they ought respectively to give and re-
ceive ; as by relieving debtors of the embarrass-
ments in which they art frequently placed by
mere changes in the value of currency, it would
prevent many bankruptcies, and much of the loss
and discredit, alike ruinous to debtor and creditor,
which result from their multiplication ; as it would
enable any amount of domestic business to be trans-
acted with any quantity, however small, of specie,
without assistance from paper, unless in so far as
convenience may dictate, and would ;hus deliver the
inland trade from all those vacillations to which
it is at present subject, caused by the mere changes
in the issue of Bank Notes ; as it would, in like
manner relieve it from all interference arising from
the course of the foreign exchanges; and as it would
-keep public taxes and salaries constantly in the
relation to other interests, which the Legislature
intended when it fixed them, instead of allowing
them to rise and fall without controul. It will be
impossible to illustrate all these points in a
short letter; many of them, indeed, seem to require
no development; and the remainder may be gathered
from the following remarks.
It can scarcely be necessary to prove that what-
ever the degree in which the amount of currency in
circulation may at any time be contracted, eo incon.
venience would ensue if all motley payments were
at the same moment reduced in the same degree,
nor that this can only be effected by allowing the
currency to rise in nominal, as thus in real value, as
it diminishes in amount. The fact is, that, ob-
viously, on sound theory, these two should never
separate; to call that fixed which is intrinsically
mutable being mere deception, where not success-
ful, (as, in the case of exchanging money against
goods, the change in the real value of the money
being here merely transferred to the goods,) white,
where it is successful (as in the exchange of money
against a specific obligation,) it bestows an undue
advantage, and entails an undue loss on one or the
other party, and introduces uncertainty and confu-
sion where they would not otherwise exist. The
point, however, which it seems most desirable to
consider here is the degree in which the anomalies
thus introduced are injurious to the community,
the degree, in a word, in which the system of
fixing the nominal amount of payments, which are
to be made in money necessarily changeable in its
real value, may be fairly charged with the suffering
ar hich the country now endures.
The relative supply of currency in a country, de-
pends partly on itt absolute supply, partly on the
supply of credit which furnishes a substitute for it,
and partly on the absolute supply of commodities
and labour. Under existing circumstances, should
a change occur in any one of these, and they are
each dependent on a thousand contingencies, the
whole frame is affected by it; and as there are no
assignable limits to the rise and fall of commercial-
confidence in particular, so neither are there any
limits to the changes which may thus take place in
the proportion between the supply of currency and
credit on the one hand, and that of labour and com-
modities on the other, nor any guarding against in-
conveniences which may reach us by so many
avenues. Supposing then a sudden relative de-
ficiency of currency takes place; Ist, if rents are
not reduced instantly, universally, and proportion-
ally with the relative scarcity and high price of
money (for all these conditions seem necessary),
the price of land produce is not sufficiently reduced
—rents rise in value—farmers are less able and less
willing to make a suitable reduction of price—con-
sumers are less able to purchase land produce,—the
demand for it is suddenly lessened,—the supply
being nearly the same becomes relatively greater;
and these are exactly the facts in the present agri-
cultural distress.

2. Whatever keeps up the price of land produce
or prevents it from falling sufficiently in relation to
the supply of currency in the market, tends to keep
up the nominal wages of labour, which must always
be influenced in some degree by tile price of sub-
sistence; rind the high nominal wages lessen the
employment for labour, and thereby lower the real
wages in the same way that the high prices lessen
thq consumption of land produce, and lower the

profits of agricultural capital. The relative excess
oflabour israscribed to imprudent marriages, and
the relative excess of produce to impro,ident specu-
lation; the blame is thus tranf,,rred to the labourers
and capitalists. "Le ?nalhear a toVours tort."
3. Whutcver keeps up the price of land produce,
and the wages of labour, supports ;11r:early the
same degree the prices of all cornmodiues, for in;
tellectual, equally with manual labour, being sup-
ported by the produce of the soil, whatever keeps
up its price, operates on the price of commodities
produced by machinery in the same way, and nearly
in the same degree as on that of commodities pro-
duced by labour. The consumption of all commo-
dities, and the demand for all kinds of labour, are
thus lessened—a universal glut ensues both of pro-
duce and productive power; and a sudden failure
the demand for them, not unlikely to be followed
by a proportional failure in the supply, if by some
weans Ur other rite balance is not soon restored.

4. If debts and taxes are not also reduced in amount,
when the currency is contracted, they rise in relative
value; and the costs of production in all commodities
affected by debt and taxation, (ansl in this country
what are not ?) are thus raised. Under the influence
of strong competition prices fall, to the destruction
of profits and multiplicatio❑ of bankruptcies ;—but
still, they do not fall enough, they do not fall as
they would do without injury, were money pay.
ments variable in amount, and fixed in relative value.
The greater the actual amount of these money pay-
ments, the greater is the distress. The more diffi-
cult their re-adjustment, the longer will that dis-
tress continue. Commercial speculations increase it,
whether they be honest or dishonest, wise or foolish,
because they encourage borrowing and lending, and
increase the amount of fixed payments. Agricul-
tural improvements increase it, for the same reason.
Upon the mere theory the distress should be thus
found greatest in the most Wealthy nation, and in
the most enterprizing age,—greater in this nation
than in any other,—greater in this than in any
former age. And is not this theory lamentably
verified by all we now see around us ?
To conclude, then—lf these views are correct, or
if there is even the slightest chance that they may
mey, if examined, be found correct, the question
which they table respecting the currency is by
far the most important and most urgent that can by
any possibility, be now brought before the Legisla-
ture. Under the influence of certain others, the pe-
cuniary engagements of the country, public and
private, have all been nearly doubled in real value;
and the most extreme (listless prevails, of which,
whatever the other causes, this cannot but be one
most powerful. On the other hand, occasional le-
gislation on such a subject would be gross injustice;
and it is difficult to say which would be worst, the
authoritative issue of an uncertain or depreciated
currency, or the authoritative reduction of public
claims, without bringing every shoulder, in propor-
tion to its strength, alike to the wheel. There
seems, then, only to remain the endeavour to strike
out some general principle which shall apply not
merely to the present, but to every future exigency,
and with the least possible exertion of authority,
and the greatest possible impartiality at the same
time. And such a one is that which has just been
considered. We are all now dragging a lengthening
chain, the ‘veight of which we feel only the more
severely every step we advance. Each return of
commercial prosperity is a snare in our path; and
when it disappears, all our embarrassments are aa-
g, avieel We thus go on from bad to worse, with
intervals which were once considerable, but which
have of late years almost entirely disappeared ; and,
by attempting to fix that which is in itself mutable,
and of which all the relations arc mutable, we have
introduced confusion where there would otherwise
have been harmony—" we have sown the wind, and
reap the whirlwind." The only way in which we
can permanently unravel the confusion, is by at
ouce frankly changing our object; and since we
cannot command the relative supply, nor conse-
quently the relative value, of money and credit in
the market, ceasing to determine the precise amount
of them which shall be requisite to discharge specific
obligations, limiting the effect of our stamps and
coinages to the mere expression of the quantity of
each exhibited, and leaving that quantity in all
transactions, as already in the purchase of goods, to
find its own value in the market. This at least
appears, at first sight, a feasible ;node of effecting
the object, and as such would seem deserving of
attentive consideration.

It is objected, indeed, by some, that there is no
evil of the kind here specified, and that conse-
quently to consider a remedy is absurd. Whether
there is, or is not, such an evil, however, may
safely be left to the common sense observation of
the public; but there is one proof adduced of its
nonexistence, by a Morning Paper, which assumes
a peculiarly decided tone on the subject, too
curious not to be noticed. It is said that a larger
amount of balances is now left at the Bank than at
any former period, and that unemployed capital is
therefore overflowing. And to besure it is, and is not
this the very complaint ? The goods are too dear,
and they are left on the merchant's hands. Skill
and industry will not employ money, because they
cannot pay its price, and the fixed burthens on its
use, and make their own of it. And it is well for
the cases in which the choice is yet to make; but
there are others in which the money is already in-
vested, and its heightened price is urging to bank-
ruptcy those who embarked it under the most favour-
able auspices. It is their relief which should be first
contemplated ; and afterwards the assistance of those
also who, if money were a little cheaper, or if its price
and the burthens on it were made to rise and fall
with the means of profitably inve,ting it, would be
very glad to borrow some of these dead balances,
now accumulated and useless, and by giving them
life and circulation, give thousands bread, and the
country renewed prosperity, by their means. M.

FRY AND CHAPMAN'S BANKRUPTCY.

Yesterday a numerous assemblage of the credi-
tors and 'others concerned in the late failure of
Messrs. Fry and Chapman, bankers, were attracted
to the Auction-mart, to witness the sale of three
valuable policies in the Equitable Office, effected
on the lives of Messrs. William and Joseph Fry, and
which were submitted to public competition by Mr.
W. W. Simpson, by order of the assignees, pre-
paratory, it was understood, to the winding up of
the concern. The first lot consisted of a policy of
15,0001., effected in April, 1800, on the life of Mr.
W. Fey, aged 62 years in June next, with the ac-
cumulations thereon, amounting to 4,5004, subject-
to the premium of 1391. 9s. a year. The auctioneer
stated t hat the office p; ice of this policy was 5,100/.,
at which price it was put up, and eventually knocked
down to a gentleman for 5,160/. Tke second lot
comprised a policy for the same sum, effected in
July, 1804, with 3,000/. accumulations, on the life
of Mr. Joseph Fry, aged 53 years, and subject to
the premium of 127/. 15s. per annum. This lot
produced 4,060/. The third policy was one belong-
ing to :he same firm for 1,000/., effected in March,
1809, on the Ile of Mr. J. W. Round, aged 56,
with an accumulation of 6301.; annual premium
29/. 18s. 6d,, sold for 720/., making a total of
9,940/. for the three policies. At the same
time Mr. Simpson offered for sale, by order of the
assignees, the life-interest of a gentleman (Mr.
Chapman) aged 35 years, on the interest and pro-
duce of 4,0001., standing in the names of very
respectable trustees, contingent on his surviving his
wife, aged 29 years. Added to this was the con-
tingent interest of the said gentleman in the princi-
pal sum of 2,000/.in the event of his dying %%ithout
issue by his present wife, he now having six children.
This lot was put up at 104, and after a slight com-
petition fetched 100/.

Exertionsiin a very high and in-
fluentialt a
rit'oe obtain the vacant bishopric for Dr.
PEARSON, the Dean of Salisbury, which, we understand,
is resisted by an important and powerful personage., in
forour of another, who, he conceives, has u prior claim.—
Morning Pager,