The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-08 00:00:00

through the rule, than about three times as many as
it has full weight gold in its coffers. Thus, for the I
undisguised advantage of its stock-holders---not for
the public benefit—which it may be supposed
would be the rule for the exercise of the prerogative
—the whole currency of the empire is now regulated.
To get a large per tentage on its capital, the mer-
chants who direct its operations at one time force a
large quantity of their promises to pay into circula-
tion ; then an alarm seizes them, whether well or ill
founded is of no consequence, they curtail their
issues, and to make up for the diminished amount
raise the rate of interest, and crush, absolutely ruin,
all those who have entered into business or com-
menced their operations on the custom, a few months
ago countenanced by the Bank, of charging only
three, or at most five per cent. for money.
These are evils which would not be endured from
a Government, and why should they be tolerated
when inflicted by a few merchants for their own be-
nefit, and the benefit of the proprietors of Bank
Stock ?

There is no chance, we are afraid, in the present
state of the public mind, and of knowledge on eco-
nomical subjects, of seeing a complete free trade in
banking and money. We, therefore, as the next
best
thing, must insist on the propriety of
taking the enormous power we bare described from
the Bank of England ; and if it must be concentra-
ted in the hands of any one body, let it be given to
a responsible branch of the Government, constitu-
ted as a National Bank. Let those who exercise
it be accountable to Parliament, and, receiving a
fixed salary, not be under a temptation, nor en-
dowed with a power, to fleece the public in order to
enhance their own not honest gains.

The W higs have been in office nine years, and
during that time the bulk of the clergy, the great
mass of the county Magistrates, the Peers, and the
opposition in the Commons, latterly almost as
strong as the Ministers, have all been Tories.
Within these nine years only a portion of the po-
pulation have grown to manhood, and of that por-
tion a large number have been moulded by the To-
ries. So far as authority can give its impress to a
population, the long reign of the Tories, prior
to 1830, nestled as they have ever since been in
every nook and cranny of the State, filling the
A► my, the Navy, and the Church, must have made
the present generation Tory in thought and deed.
The Whigs have not yet been long enough in
office, and they have been toe determinedly
and successfully opposed by the Tories—
particularly on matters of education and
concerning the Church—to have had much influence
over the thoughts and deeds of that part of the
population which has grown to manhood since
their accession to power. Whatever may be the
tendency of their policy, whether to humanize or
brutalize the people—whether to inculcate a reve-
rence or a contempt for the law—they have been
too short a time in power to allow of that policy
showing itself in the habits and thoughts of the
people. Whatever may be the character of the
people, therefore, at present, so far as the policy of
the Government can influence it, that must have
been formed by the Tories, not by the Whigs.
For all the ignorance imputed to them—for all the
coarseness belonging to their manners—for their
preference of violence to reason—for their want
of respect to the law, the Tories are much
more to blame than the Whigs. As yet the
Aristocracy and the 'Anglican Church domineer
over the nation, and to them must be ascribed the
faults and follies of the governed.

Having said so much towards forming a correct
view of the influence which the Whigs may have
have had over the imputed tendency of the people
to resist authority, we must add, that it has been
the constant effort of the Tories to make authority
unlovely. They have invested it with terror, re-
gardless whether or not it were also clothed with
the higher attributes ofreason and justice. They have
thought it sufficient to declare that the law
must be obeyed,
.and have never attempted to
make it worthy of obedience. Such a mode of
governing mankind may possibly succeed in China,
though it is doubtful, but here, where a tolerably
free press exists, where all men are invited to dis-
cuss the measures of Government, to expect that a
blind obedience can be enforced to unjust laws is a
palpable absurdity.
Now, the Tories have continually refused to
amend the laws. They form themselves into a great
union to conserve whatever exists, including an im-
mensemass of abuses. While they do that, and while

the people are groaning under great burdens, political
and economical, they have also continually spoken
of the masses with scorn, and have added insult to

injury. On that ground we charge the Tories with
being the main authors of that discontent which now
pervades the masses ; and the Whigs are only to be
blamed for it inasmuch as they have sometimes imi-
tated the Tories.

The ancient laws and institutions of the country
are not adapted to the present condition of the com-
munity, in relation both to its numbers and its know-
ledge. For many years, however strongly
those institutions have been supported by pre-
scription, by custom, and by the self in-
terest of a few, they have been generally con-
demned by public writers. Nevertheless while the
Tories would not reform them, they have insisted on
their being obeyed ; they have treated with contempt
those who have sought improvement; and the result
is, that wide-spread discontent has fixed itself deep in
the hearts of the people, which, sooner or later, unless
Toryism be annihilated, will overwhelm the empire
with confusion and anarchy. Let the Tories look
on their work, and be humbled and sad.

The Magistrates seem to be sadly puzzled and
not a little divided about the mode of carrying into
effect their law for shutting up public-houses on Sa-
turday night. The paid Magistrates, shortly after
the New Police Act came into operation, inflicted
fines for opening a door after twelve. Some three
days ago the Chief Magistrate at Bow-street laid
down a different law, and decided that the landlord
of the Albion Tavern had committed no offence by
opening his door at half-past twelve on Sunday
morning to let out fourteen customers, who, of
course, had not been sitting half-an-hour with
empty goblets. The Chief Magistrate of the City
yesterday decided the very reverse, and considered
the opening of the door a sufficient test and an
ample warranty for inflicting the fine. Luckily,
however, for the hotel-keeper, it was urged that he
sold coffee and tea, and muffins and crumpets, and
that he was not compelled to close at the hour spe-
cified. Then, said the LORD MAYOR, very pro-
perly, the " Act is a dead letter," and dismissed the
information. We have all along urged that this
part of the Act is a dead letter, and are glad to find
that the 'Magistrates begin to read it in that light,
and are glad to catch at any sort of excuse to get
out of the mass of absurdities into which they have
involved themselves by a wanton interference with
the rational enjoyments of their fellow-citizens.
Would they not act more prudently by taking a lenient
and rational view of the clause? They can vindicate
the object for which it was inserted, without wast-
iangstethame time of the public with a miserable investi-
gation as to whether a poor family, arriving late in
were at a certain hour drinking beer
or coffee.