The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-14 00:00:00

"

LONDON,
SATURDAY EVENING, JANUARY 14, 1837.

The installation of Sir ROBERT PEEL, as Lord
Rector of the University of Glasgow, took place in
that city on Wednesday last. The speech of the Right
Honourable Baronet on this memorable occasion, is,
without exception, the best he ever delivered. Its chief
recommendation was sound common sense, expressed
in language remarkable for its simplicity and heartfelt
earnestness. It is something new to us to praise the
Right Honourable Baronet ; but Heaven forbid we
should ever be ungenerous enough to allow po-
litical prejudices to get the better of us, when discus-
sing his claims as a friend and instructor of youth ! It
is delightful to see him in this capacity, laying aside
for a time the bitternesses of party spirit, and anxious
only to impress on the minds of the rising generation
the necessity of strict attention to intellectual pursuits,
as the surest means by which they may achieve distinc-
tion abroad, and happiness at home. Sir ROBERT did
not exhort his young hearers to enlist under the ban-
ners of party. He did not impress on them the pro-
priety of their becoming staunch Conservatives : no,
he doffed the motley Harlequin robe of the politician,
and assumed instead the sober dress of the School-
master. The points we chiefly admire in his Inaugural
Address, are, first, the healthy practical view he took
of his subject ; secondly, the utter absence of all
perplexing, abstract, metaphysical speculation ; and,
lastly, the uniformly encouraging tone of his remarks.
He spoke, not like a literary pedant, but like a literary
cosmopolite. He did not undervalue great natural en-
dowments, but he gave due praise to acquired ones.
He spoke reverentially of
its full share of gnius, but he allowed
praise.
e ~ Irepeat,”sa in-
dustry
id
he
" with the earnestness of the deepest conviction, that
there is, in my mind, a presumption amounting almost
to certainty, that if any one of you will determine to

be eminent, in whatever profession you may choose,
and will act with unvarying steadiness in pursuance of
that determination, you will, if health and strength be
given you, infallibly succeed." Sir ROBERT is here
speaking from his own personal experience ; but
indeed throughout, it is evident that personal expe-
rience is the Mentor that suggests his opi-
nions, as the following passage sufficiently be-
tokens On by far the greater part of you, it
is incumbent to acquire those qualities which shall fit
you for action rather than speculation. It is not
therefore by mere study, by the mere accumulation of
knowledge, that you can hope for eminence. Mental
discipline, the exercise of the faculties of the mind,
the quickening of your apprehension, the strengthen-
ing of your memory, the forming of a sound, rapid,
rnd discriminating judgment, are of even more im-
portance than the store of learning." We have here
the good sense of the man of letters, sharpened and
modified by the experience of the man of the world.
Better, or more immediately and generally applicable,
advice could not, under the circumstances, have been
given, had all the Utilitarians and Political Eco-
nomists in the kingdom clubbed their wisdom for
that purpose. Would that the Right Hon. Baronet's
exhortations to his party were of the same generous
and beneficial tendency ! But we feel ourselves en-
croaching upon politics, and it is not with these de-
grading strifes we have here to do. We here meet Sir
ROBERT PEEL on neutral ground. He is not now
the politician, but the schoolmaster ; and in this capa-
city we hold out to him the right hand of respect and
amity. We may shortly meet him again in his old, and,
we fear, embarrassing vocation, as leader of a great
faction, when far other language must be held towards
him ; but this shall not prevent us now saying, which
we do in the sincerest and most unqualified terms,
that—with the single exception cf Lord BROUGHAM'S
—his Inaugural Address is the most manly, the most
unaffected, the most earnest, and the most intelligible,
that was ever delivered at Glasgow. It is a pure and
healthy fountain, from which the aspiring youth who
thirsts for knowledge may drink and be refreshed.

An Anti-Church-rate meeting, the report of which
will be found in another part of Tice Sun, was held
on Thursday last, at Liverpool. The sentiments ex-
pressed by the speakers on this occasion, and cheered
by the assembly, were in unison with those which have
been uttered wherever a meeting having the same ob-
ject in view has been convened. Throughout the
length and breadth of the land the same language is
heard—the same spirit prevails. Liberal Churchmen
everywhere unite with Dissenters in condemning the
compulsory support of one religious system by the pro-
fessors: of another, and,i❑ adopting the active measures
which are requisite to put a stop to so great an iniquity.
The Churchman feels equally with the Dissenter, that
the cause of true religion is sacrificed, and, moreover,
that a blow is struck at the very foundation of his pe-
culiar faith, by the confession of the church-raters,
that that faith requires the strong arm of secular power
to uphold it. He feels, also, that to compel men who
disapprove of a particular worship, to maintain that
worship is alike a violation of the rights of conscience,
and contrary to the principles of justice. In ad-
dition to this he is ashamed that the Church to which
he belongs, a Church so richly endowed that it can
afford to allow some of its ministers greater incomes
than the Princes of the land receive, should de-
scend to the meanness of levying contributions upon
those who can derive no benefit from it, and who
have their own worship to support besides.
These are the feelings of the more enlightened por-
tion of the members of the Church of England on the
subject of Church-rates, and these feelings naturally
lead them to co-operate with the Dissenters in
getting rid of that which, if it does not press
equally hard on the conscience, is in most
other respects as obnoxious to the right-thinking
• Churchman as to the Non-conformist. That the
Church-rate is doomed to fall before the power that is
now arrayed against it—and that very speedily, too—
we have not the least doubt. The Church of Eng-
land does not number within its pale more than half
the people of England ; yet it possesses funds adequate
to maintain an establishment that shall comprehend
the whole population. It claims, in its wisdom, the
same religious allegiance, and the same temporal
support that were willingly granted to a Church whose
tenets were held by every member of the ceinmu-
nity. Can anything be more unreasonable, more
"alien from common sense, than such a claim ? But
in this we find exemplified the truth that bodies of
men, united in exclusive Corporations, not under po-
pular controul, never advance with the times, and are
never in harmony with an enlightened people.

The Hon. and Gallant Member for Totncss, Colonel
TORRENS, has addressed a letter, in the form of a
pamphlet, to Lord MELBOURNE, on the Currency
question. The opinions of Colonel TORRENS, upon
all the leading political topics of the day, are so well
known, that we consider it unnecessary to enter at any
length into the nature of his views with regard to our
monetary system. As, however, the subject is one
which claims the especial consideration of all com-
mercial men at the present moment, it may be of im-
portance to observe, that the fundamental principle of
Colonel TORRENS' system is the establishment of free
trade in money. He maintains that the expansion or
contraction of the circulating medium ought to be
regulated solely by the Foreign Exchanges, and that
to the violation of this principle--a principle by
which the Directors of the Bank of England
profess to be guided—is attributable to the periodical
shock to which public credit is exposed. Were the
Directors of the Bank of England to allow their issues
to contract under the action of adverse exchanges, and
to expand when the exchanges are in favour of Eng-
land, he is confident that the frequent shocks now felt
in the commercial world would never have been ex-
perienced. But instead of contracting, the Directors
of the Bank of England have uniformly allowed their
issues to expand under the action of adverse Foreign
Exchanges—thus cheapening money and raising prices,
when the conservation of public credit rendered a
course precisely the reverse absolutely necessary.
The observations made by Colonel TORRENS upon
the system of Private Banking in the Metropolis are
deserving of the gravest consideration. We shall not
fail to take the earliest opportunity of showing that
the principles which regulate their operations are by
il
no means so sound as the Hon. and Gallant Gentle-
man imagines. The credit created by them, though
answering all the purposes of money, is, afterar nl , pcpurleey
s.
fictitious; whereas the temptations to dishonesty which
they hold forth, are in some sort irresistible with
men of extravagant habits, aid loose principles.
Colonel TORRENS entirely overlooks the appli-
cation of Bank issues ; he treats the question
as if it made no difference to the community,
whether a banker employed his credit in enabling an
agriculturist to bring a thousand acres of untilled land
into cultivation, or to multiply the luxurious enjoy-
ments of a titled spendthrift. Now, though this has
nothing to do with a national bank, it certainly ought
not to be overlooked in an inquiry into the true
principles of Private Banking—principles which appear
never to have been practically understood out of Scot-
land. The following extract from Colonel TORRENS'
pamphlet, comprises a summary of the doctrines which
the author seeks to inculcate :
" I shall briefly recapitulate, and conclude. The cousi-
derations which I have presented to your Lordship, will, as

venture to believe, be found sufficient to establish the
aositions

" That Bank deposits, which may be drawn against at
sight, perform the functions of money, and are component
parts of the general medium of exchange :
" That a given amount of circulating money becomes the
basis of a much larger amount of Bank deposits, or eredit
money :

" That the recent disturbance in the money market was
occasioned by the error committed by the directors of the
Bank of England, in departing from the principle, of leav-
ing the currency to contract or expand under the action of
:he foreign exchanges :
" That this error originated in the failure of the Bank
lirectors to distinguish between effects produced upon the
general medium of exchange, by a diminution of their cir-
culation, and by a diminution of their deposits
" That if the Bank of England were to regulate its
issues of paper by the course of the foreign exchanges, the
circulation would always remain in the same state, both
with respect to amount and to value, in which it would exist
were it wholly metallic ; and that no over-issue of paper
by the provincial Banks could have any permanent effect in
rendering the currency of this country redundant in relation
to the currencies of other countries :

" That the interposition of the Bank of England for the
purpose of supporting commercial credit, is necessary in
those instances only, in which a previous departure from
sound principles by the Bank directors themsels:es, may
have occasioned a sudden contraction of the currency, and
have produced a crisis in the money market :
" That if the Bank directors were to adopt a judicious
division of employment, in conducting the two-fold opera-
tions of the Bank, and to establish a complete separation
between its functions as a bank of issue, and its functions
as a bank of discount and deposit, no transactions, of what-
ever magnitude, between the Government and the Bank of
England, could interfere with the strict and uniform appli-
cation of the only sound principle upon which a paper circula-
tion can be regulated ; namely, that of leaving it to con-
tract or expand, as the foreign exchanges become favourable
or adverse :

" And that should there exist, under the present arrange-
ments and circumstances of the Bank of England, any
practical obstacle to the establishment of a complete separa-
tion between the business of issuing, paper, and the business
of holding deposits and making advances, it will become
necessary for the Legislature to place the medium of ex-
change under the management of competent functionaries,
appointed, not by the holders of Bank stock, but by Go-
vernment ; responsible, not to their co-proprietors, but to
Parliament ; and having for their first object and primary
duty the protection, not of their own corporate property,
but of the general interest of the nation."

Owing to the stormy state of the weather, the
French journals of Thursday have not yet reached
London. As Thursday was fixed for the opening of
the discussion on the Address, in answer to the
Speech from the Throne, in the Chamber of Deputies,
the delay in the arrival of the evening papers of that
day is rather unfortunate.
We are also without any intelligence from Spain.

CHANCERY COURT.-(THIS DAY.)

The LORD CHANCELLOR, having disposed of the re-
maining lunatic petitions, proceeded with the appeal of the
Attorney-General v. the Dean of St. Paul's.

VICE-CHANCERY.-(THIS DAY.)