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

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 fewyears 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-
fees to serve us to mike 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
apportionment of the penalty which we have indi-
cated is, therefore, the fittest to reach the root
of the evil, and there ban 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.
Bat 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 iu 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, acid 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 an 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 cab,
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 every-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 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.
g, 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 libitum ; 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 improveid. We are far from
denying that the results of the eummer campaign on
the Mississippi were not such as should have raised
in the money market the value ofl'ederal securities ;
but, regard being had to other eircuenstances, 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
oe gold exceeded 65 per cent. Within the Fast two
months it has been as low as 26. A citizen of the
Northeen States would doubtless refer this singniar
variation to the military successes of the past sum.
mar, and toconviction,shared by so many en
"of the rebellion
the North, the: the " backbone T
the
Northern population ae e smear
may now fairly be considered aes
ilenroktheine.
conviction
tttiohne
which they exchange spemei or is, we suppose, proved; by
fthezeei.ltiihnigrdnemsserweiitthe
But that which
PaPe:. in the worth of
shakes representative
the
confidence
value
oifnEuropeae s
.h. _
Federal paper is a circumstance of
eerar.:l;cahttehxe-Apemyeierig-
in this country, and are ac
cans appear to take no account. W
people accustomed year by
year to see the debts, or the interests on the debts,
created in past times paid by the revenues which
arc thus raised. We know from experience that
there is but one way by which the financial credit
of a State con bo 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 about 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, andione
may well express astonishment that in the third
year of the American war, the premium on pia