The Sun.
London, England, 1837-06-12 00:00:00

TIIE SUN, LONDON, "MONDAY; JUNE 12, 184.

regret of all in ril;cra 1110, timor pa rice is not extinct or

Tit E, FaaxcursE.—We have already called attention
to the vitally important question affcoing the entit.ty con=
stitueneies in ft-eland, haA lien argued Wore the
Judges, Their Lordships Met yestel-dtiy; but
b,. to 1.O.0)!e to corite to aLA detision; deitcritti,.-ed to re:
open the. argutr±ent; dtiil neat Satlirday has been upon
title tnore counsel on each side. We have
heard that only four of the Judges adopt the s icw so ably
put forward by the Solicitor-General and Mr. S.-rgcant
Greene, and that the majority of the Bench are at present
either uncontinced by the arguments of those Learned
Gentlemen, or of an opposite opinion. As an adverse de-
cision upon the point at issue would, in fact, amount to a
repeal of the It.‘,!fortu as far as the ten pound
franchise hi counties is roncorned, we are happy that their
Lordships have resolved to give to tile question the most
mature deliberation before pronouncing their judginent.—
Dublin Evening Post.
STATE or THE COUNTRY.—We refer with much .plea-
sure to a mot respectable a7ldress from the district o 1
Preshford to Mr: Greene, R.M., and the reply of that gen-
tleman, in which he says that " ob,-..dience to the laws, anc
general tranquillity prevail throughout the entire county alu
city, to on extent %vide': I have not known since I came
into office." This is truly gratifying. The address was
presented by A. St. George, Esq., J.P. ; Rev. Richard
Larissy, P.P. ; James Cullen, Esq., M D. ; and F. Lalor
and W. J. Maher, Esqrs.—lbid. • •
WATERFO:ID COUNTY MEETING.—A considerable por-
tion of the space of the Illatelbrd Ch:oniole is occupied
with the important proceedings of the great county meet-
ing held at Dungarvon on Friday, and at which the High
Sheriff presided. Of the manly speech delivered on this
interesting occasion by Sir Richard Keane, our Waterford
Contemporary says, " It is creditable to the head and
heart of the Right Hon. Geutleinan, and is a proof that
decided, undying hostility to the tithe system is not con-
fined to persons of the Catholic persuasion, but is felt by all
who think properly, and reason justly. The confirmation
(continues our Contemporary) of the High Sheriff made
after the admirable speech of the Rey. 'Mr. Fogarty, with
which we presented our readers on Tuesday—namely, that
Protestant life and property are as secure in this county as
in any other part of the world, should be well pondered on
by the Noble Marquis, who, in, January, libelled the Ca-
tholic population of Ireland in general, and of Waterford
in particular, by a statement in which, it has since been
demonstrated to the satisfaction of the most sceptical, was
a mere effort of the imagination made at a time, we must
presume, when his Lordship's better intellect was too much
clouded to allow of his giving rational consideration to any

IMPORTANT FROM NEW YORK
SUSPENSION OF CASH PAYMENTS.

(From New York papers received to the 20th ult.)
TREASURY REGULATIONS DURING THE SUS
PENSION OF SPECIE PAYMENTS.

The course which the Treasury Department has deter-
mined to pursue, under the existing suspension of specie
payments, is thus officially declared

" NOTICE.

" Information is hereby given, that, during the continu-
ance of the present unfortunate suspension of specie pay-
ments by many of the banks, the Treasury Depar.ment will
continue to issue warrants, for the payment of which drafts
or checks will be given by the treasurer on the banks or
officers in the neighbourhood where the creditor resides, or
the debt was incurred. The checks will, according to
former practice, be issued separately from the warrants, and
in such amounts as may be convenient.
" The treasurer will draw these checks only on such
banks or officers as have heretofore received ample funds to
meet them, and it is therefore hoped that they will be
promptly paid in a manner satisfactory to the holders ; but
if they shall not be paid when presented, the collectors of
customs, and the receivers of the public moneys, will be
instructed to redeem them in behalf of the Treasury, by
receiving them for duties and lands.
" If they are not paid in either of these modes, and notice
of the fact is communicated to the department, no reasona-
ble efforts will be spared to preserve the public faith invio-
late, and to cause them to be otherwise discharged as soon
as possible in specie or its equivalent, as the existing laws
require ; and if returned to the department, and remaining
unpaid till the next session of Congress, it will feel bound
earnestly to request authority for early meaes to satisfy them
in a manner acceptable to the holders.
" Circulars to the proper officers, containing particular
instructions on this subject, will be prepared and published
in a few days.

" LEVY WOODBURY,
" Secretary to the Treasury
"Treasury Department, May 15,1837."
" TO THE COLLECTORS OF THE CUSTOMS

" If the bank where you deposit should suspend specie
payment, you will yourself collect and keep safely in your
own hands the public money for all duties at your port,
until further directions arc girento you from this depart-
ment how to dispose, transfer, or pay it. You must, of
course, continue to adhere to the kind of money receivable
for customs, and by which it is understood to be your duty
to require payments to be made in specie, or the notes of
specie-paying banks that are at par.
(Signed) " LEVY WOODBURY,
" Secretary of the Treasury.
" Treasury Department, May 12, 1837."

NEW YORK, MAY 9,

GREAT MEETING AT MASONIC HALL

Inlaying before our readers the following proceedings of
the meeting at Masonic Hall last night, we would only re-
mark that if the room had been five times as large as it is,
it could not have accommodated the number of 'persons who
anxiously sought admittance.
On the motion of Mr. Sheppard Knapp, Philip Hone,
Esq., was appointed President.
.Isaac S. Hone, Esq., then read the Report of the Con-1-
st:thee appointed to proceed to Washington and remonstrate
with the President on the subject of the present distresses
of the country. The following address and answer We ex-
tract from the Report :
" To Martin Van Buren, President of the United States,
" Sir—We have the honour of informing you that a very
numerous meeting of the merchants of New Yolk was held
on the ;25th of April for the purpose of considering the
present distressed condition of the city, and deliberating
upon the means of relief. It was called by more than three
hundred firms, esti was attended by a large proportion of
those merchants who are connected with the internal trade
of the Pottlitrv, and who have an especial and direct interest
state of domestic exchan,ses. •
" A Committee was appointed to repair to Washington,
an d• remonstrate with the Executive against the continuance
of the specie circular, and to urge its immediate repeal ;
also to ask that instructions may be Liven to prevent the
commencing of suits in any of the collection districts, upon
unpaid bonds, until after the Ist day of January next ; and
to urge upon the Executive the propriety of calling an extra
Session of Congress at as early a day as possible.
" In obetence, Sir, to these instructions, we present
ourselves before you; and ask your deep and solemn- at-
tention to the unhappy condition of that city which has
hitherto been the promoter and the index of our national
prosperity, and whose fall will include the ruin of thou
sands in every region of our territory. We do not tell
a fictitious tale of woe ; we have no sdflsh or parti-
san views to sustain, when we as.ure you that the
noble city which we represent lies prostrate in despair,
its credit blighted, its industry paral) zed, and with-
out a hope beaming through the darkness of the
future, unless the Government of our country can be in-
duced to relinquish the measures to which we attribute our
distress. We fully appreciate the respect which is due to
our chief magistate, and disclaim every intention incon-
sistent with that feeling ; but we speak in behalf of a com-
munity which trembles upon the brink of ruin, Which deems
itself an adequate jth!ge of all questions connected with the
trade and currency of the country, and believes that the
policy adopted by the recent Administration, anti sustained
by the present, is founded in error, and threatens the de-
struction of every department of industry.
" Our merchants, manufacturers, and mechanics have
repeatedly predicted the fatal issue of that policy. What
was prophecy has now become history' ; and the reality
far exceeds our most gloomy apprehensions. Under a
deep impression of the propriety of confining our decla-
rations within moderate limits, we affirm that the value
of our real estate has, within the last six months, depre-
ciated more than forty.millions ; that within the last two
months there.have been more than two hundred and fifty
failures of houses engaged in extensive business ; that
withiss the same period a decline of twenty millions of dol-
lars has occurred in our local stocks, including those rail-
road and canal incorporations which, though chartered in
other states, depend chid). upon New-York for their sale ;
that the immense amount of merchandize in our warehouses
has, within the same period, fallen in value at least thirty
per cent. ; that within a few weeks not less than twenty
thousand individuals, depending upon their labour for
their daily bread, have been discharged by their employers
because the means of retaining them were exhausted—and
that a complete blight has fallen upon a community hereto-
fore so active, enterprising and prosperous—the error of
our rulers has produced a wider desolation than the pesti-
lence which depopulated our streets, or the conflagration
which laid them in ashes.

" We believe that it is unjust to attribute these evils to
any excessive developement of mercantile enterprise, and
that they really flow from that unwise system which
aimed at the substitution of a metallic for a paper cur-
rency—the system which gave the first shock to the
fabric of our commercial prosperity by removing the
public deposits from the United States Bank, which

weakened every part of the edifice by" the destruction
of that Useful and efficient . institution, and now
threatens to crumble it into a mass of rules under the
Operations of the Specie Orenhit) which withdrew the gold
and silver of the country from the channels in which it
could be profitably employed. We assert that the etperi-
trit,nt liae; had a fair; a liberal trial, and that disappoint-
Meta atid tilgebic ate 'in all. its rssults—that the
promise of a regulated currency and eqUallsed aeliEnres
has been broken, the currency totally disordered, and in-
ternal exchanges almost entirely discontinued. We, there-
fore, make our earnest appeal to the Executive, and ask
whether it is not t'rne to interpose the paternal authority of
the Government, and abandon. the policy which is beggar-
ing the people.
" Amid all the distresses of our condition, we have been
gratified by a Vie;v of the generous and forbearing spirit
which has almost .invariably keil the conduct of the
creditor towards the debtor. A general disposition has
been manifested to indulge the debtor with ample time for
the arrangement of his business and collection of his debts,
and we would respectfully suggest the example for the imi-
tation of the Government. The .embarrassment and dis-
tress of the merchant would be materially relieved by the
suspending of the suits upon unpaid bonds, until a future
day, when the wisdom of Congress may grant some mea-
sure of relief.
" Feeling as we do that we have reached a crisis which
requires the exercise of all the wisdom and energy of the
country to heal the wounds which have been inflicted upon
its commerce and productive industry, we would respect-
fully and earnestly urge upon the Executive the propriety
of calling an extra session of Congress, to deliberate upon
the unprecedented and alarming embarrassments in which
we are involved. The members coaling directly from their
constituents will have had the opportunity of knowing and
appreciating the extent of the distress which exists, and we
are convinced that their collected opinions will fully sustain
those which we have expressed—and their testimony indi-
cate an amount of suffering of which we cannot believe that
you, Sir, have heretofore been aware.
" We persuade ourselves that the rcprestatiOns which
we have given of the actual condition of our affairs will in-
duce you to doubt the expediency of the policy which has
been recently pursued, and we trust to your ihtelligence for
such a change of measures as will revive the hopes and sti-
mulate the energies of the merchants of New York.
Isaac S. Hone, Thomas Tileston,
James W. Bryan, Meigs D. Benjamin,
Benjamin Loder, Elisha Lewis,
Alex. B. M'Alpin, Simeon Draper, Jun.
John A. Underwood.
" Washington, May. 3, 1837."

After the address had been read to him, the President in
brief and emphatic terms assured the Committee of his
sympathy with the distresses of his fellow-citizens of New
York, and of his desire to do everything in his power for
their r e icr, consistent with his views of his official duty ;
and said that he would answer the address in the manner
indicated in his note.
On the afternoon of the 4th, the Committee received
the following reply to their address, and deemed it so ex-
plicit as to leave no opening for any farther communication :
" WASHINGTON, MAY 4,1837.

" GENTLEMEN—I have bestowed on your communica-
tion the attentive consideration which is due to the opi-
nions, wishes, and interests of the respectable portion of
my fellow-citizens in whose behalf you act.
" In the correctness of the judgment which, in the exer-
cise of an undoubted right, you have in such general terms
pronounced upon particular points in the policy of the
late and present administrations, you cannot expect me to
concur. My opinions on those points were distinctly an-
nounced to the American people before my election, and I
hate seen no reason to change them. But however much
I may differ with you upon them, as well as in respect to
the causes of the existing evil, you may be assured of the
warm interest I shall ever feel in whatever concerns the
mercantile community, of my deep sympathy with thou.
who are now suffering from the pressure of the times, and
my readiness to adopt any measures for their relief, consist-
ent with my con4tetions.of duty.
" The prcipriety of giving to the collectors of the customs
instructions of the character desired, necessarily involves
inquiries into the- extent of the power of the Executive
over the subject, the present condition of the Treasury,
and its probable receipts and expenditures for the remainder
of the year. These examinations have been directed, and
are in progress, and the result will be communicated by the
Secretary of the Treasury to the collector at New York,
who will be instructed to give it publicity. A few days will
bo required to arrive at a safe conclusion upon some parts
of the investigation, but there shall be no unnecessary delay.
" The other subjects to which you have called my atten-
tion are, first, an immediate repeal of the order requiring
specie in payment on sales of public lands, issued by my
predecessor, for the purpose of enforcing a strict execution
df the act of Congress, which forbids the allowance of
credit on such sales ; and, secondly, an extra Session of
Congress. I have not been able to satisfy myself that I
ought, under existing circumstances, to interfere with the
order referred to.

" You must be aware of the obstacles to an immediate
convocation of Congress, arising from the imperfect state of
the representation in one branch of that body. Several of
the States have not yet chosen their Representatives, and
are not to do so for some months to come. Independent
of that consideration, I do not see at present sufficient
rea ons to justify me in requiring an earlier meeting than
Oat appointed by the Constitution.
" I am, Gentlemen, very respectfully,
.‘ Your obedient servant,
" M. VAN BUREN.
" To Messrs. Isaac S. Hone, James W. Bryan, Benjamin
Loder, Alexander B. M'Alpin, John A. Underwood,
Thomas Tilestone, Meigs D. Benjamin, Elisha Lewis,
and Simeon Draper, jun., Committee, &c.
After the reading of the address and-the President's re-
ply, Mr. Hone offered the following resolutions
Resolved that a strict construction of the Act of 1820
the only Act which could have been referred to in the
President's answer, was unknown during the administration
of Mr. Monroe and Mr. Adams, and to General Jackson
during the first seven years of his administration ; that the
necessity for such construction is not assigned in the specie
circular as one of the reasons for issuing it ; and we con-
sider the distiaction made by the President between the
notes of solvent banks and specie, designating the former
as credit, to bg erroneous, and at variance with the true
interests of the country.
" Resolved, That we dwell with satisfaction upon the fact
mentioned by the President, that several of the states have
not yet chosen representatives, and we trust that a pro-
tecting Providence will direct the people of those states to
the choice of representatives who have wisdom to perceive
and virtue to pursue the best interests of the country.
" Resolved, That we yield our hearty assent to the
preamble of the act incorporating the first bank of the
United States, which declares such an institution to be
conducive to the successful conducting of the national
finances, and productive of considerable advantages to trade
and industry in general.'
" Resolved, That the interests of tne capitalists, mer-
chants, manufacturers, mechanics, and industrious classes,
are dependent upon each other, and any measures of the
Government which prostrate the active business-men of the
community, will alas deprive hOnest industry of its rsward ;
and we call upon all our fe!low-citizens to unite with us in
removing from power those who persist in a system that is
destroying the prosperity of our country.
" Resolved, That the chief causes of the existing dis-
tress are the defeat of Mr. Clay's Land Bill—the removal
of the public deposits—the refusal to re-Charter the Bank
of the U-nited States—and the issuing of the specie cir-
cular. The Lend Bill was passed by the people's Repre-
sentatives, and vetoed by the President—the Bill re-
chartering the Bank was passed by the people's Repre-
sentatives, and vetoed by the President. The people's
Representatives declared—by a solemn resolution—that
the public deposits were safe in the United States'
Bank ; within a few weeks thereafter the President re-
moved the public dcpoeitcs. The people's representatives
passed a Bill rescinding the specie circular ; the President
destroyed it by omitting to return it within the limited pe-
riod ; and in the answer to our address President Van
Buren declares that the specie circular was issued by his
predecessors, omitting all notice of the Secretary of the
Treasury, who is amenable directly to Congress, and
charged by the Act creating his department with the super-
intendence of the finances, and who signed the order. We
therefore,
" Resalve, That all these circumstances indicate an in-
fusion of monarchical principles into our system, which de-
minds the prompt and vigorous action of every patriot."
Ti:e resolutions were unanimously adopted.
MAY 18.
THE NEWS FROM WASHINGTON.

The thunder of public indignation has at last been heard
in Washington. The Presider t and his Cabinet have
listened, been admonished, and now they obey. Congress is
to be assembled, as the merchants of New York de-.
manded. Extension is to be given on bonds, as the mer-
chants also demanded. The new specie rescript is aban-
doned. The Treasury circular, by the force of circumstances,
is repealed. The whole position of affairs has been changed
in Washington.
This beginning of the return of good sense we hail with
pleasure. The Globe, however, which brings us all this, is
in its usual paroxysms—which shows us that the depart-
ment of the Government, known as the Kitchen Cabinet, Is
dying hard. If the Cabinet proper will now throw the Ca-
binet improper into the Potomac, there may be some hopes
of amendment in our financial affairs.