The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-06 00:00:00

February, and that tenders would be received for it till the
sth of March. Up to the date of the message, how-
ever, the Governor states that not one offer had
been made, although at that time money was
not considered to be scarce, and the " credit
of the State was unimpaired." This is attri-
buted to a " combination" among the banks, or, as he says,
" institutions of their own creation," and an inference is not
unfairly drawn from it of the " impropriety of permitting
the monied resources of the commonwealth to be used to
her own injury " This will be best understood by the fact,
that the State is itself a shareholder or partner in several of
the banks to more than the amount of the loan required,
which would have been available for the public service if
not so locked up in concerns which now refused any as-
sistance. The following is the statement of this partner
ship account or capital stock owned by the State :
In the bank of Pennsylvania, 3,750 shares at Dollars.
400 dolls. each
In Philadelphia Bank, 5,233 shares at 100 dols 523,300
In Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank, 1,708 shares

at 50 dolls 85,400

Total 9,108,700

These shares are asserted to be worth moreover consi-
derably more than prime cost, as bearing no double pre-
miums in the market. The State, says the Governor, is
therefore in the " humiliating attitude " of being the
" holder of three-fifths of the whole capital stock of one of
the said banks," and et without the power of controlling
the " direction of a single dollar of its loans." He takes
occasion from these circumstances to impress the necessity,
strengthened by " every day's experience," of dissolving
all connection between the Commonwealth and the banks.
Anxious to " maintain the public faith," the Administration
which had been little more than one month in power, had
been obliged to ask, and failed in obtaining, " loans to
pay off engagements which it bad no hand in cotracting."
The Banks are assured, however, that so long as the execu-
tive power remained where it was then vested, they should
never be permitted to " control its political or fiscal opera-
tions."

That paragraph shows distinctly how the money
power works, and we have no doubt, if the landed
gentlemen would look closely into the question, they
would find that the monopolies of money which they
have granted inflict on them, and on the great bulk
of the agriculturists, a far greater evil than would
be inflicted on them by a total free trade in corn,
though that were to realise their wildest fears. If
the banks of America can combine against the State
and against the cotton-manufacturers of England,
can our landed gentlemen suppose that the English
banks do not annually combine to make them give
up much more than they gain by the Corn-laws ?
The bulk of the harvest in the majority of instances
comes to market at one period of the year. The
farmers have rent to pay at Michaelmas, and their
labour to begin for the next year, and they must
sell. The bankers and the monied classes know
that fact, and make their arrangements accordingly.
What is more easy than for those who are inte-
rested in having prices low in autumn, because they
are buyers of the farmers' produce, to put a check
on the circulation, to make money 2,3, or 5 per
cent. scarcer, and more valuable at that time than
others, and so buy cheap of the farmer ? And
what can be more easy for those who have
the controul of the money market to make it
plentiful and cheap when they have to sell ?
What then if it should turn out, as the rule, that
money is made scarce when the agriculturist has to
sell, and plentiful when he has to buy, or that he sells
by heaped, and must buy by stricken measure ?
We think if the landed gentlemen were to examine
this matter, particularly if that ingenious Baronet
who wrote a pamphlet, entitled " Corn and
Currency," were to sift it, they would find a perio-
dical change in the amount of paper circulation,
invariably unfavourable to the agricultural interest.
The landed gentlemen in Parliament, would, in our
humble judgment, be much better employed in
tracing the influence of Bank Monopolies and Joint-
Stock Banks on the interest of their tenants, than in
earning for them and for themselves the just hatred
of an injured people. In fact they extort a few
pence or shillings from each poor person, to
give a pound to the monied capitalist.
Their fraudful avarice does not rescue them from
loss, but it excites against them public indignation
and contempt. If the same Act which sets the
corn trade free were also to set the trade in money
completely free, the landed gentlemen would gain
by the alteration. But they are in love with re-
strictions and monopolies, and those they have im-
posed on the trade in money are more injurious to
them than the restrictions in the corn trade are
beneficial. We see as well as most of the inquirers
into the subject, the vast, the overwhelming power
which money capital now possesses : we cannot,
however, propose any restrictions on its use, for
that would be against our principles ; and we be-
lieve that all its mischiefs would be remedied by
setting the trade in money entirely free.

Yesterday an Address of Thanks (not before
time) was presented to the LORD MAYOR, for his
great and un wearied exertions in putting down the
Coal Monopoly. Mr. RENNIE, Mr. EWART,
Mr. HOWARD ELPHINSTONE, and other
gentlemen connected with the Anti-Coal Monopoly
Association, composed the Deputation. The Mar-
quis of LONDONDERRY was most tremendously
lashed by all parties. His defence of the Coal
Monopoly and abuse of the LORD MAYOR were
pronounced to be, in the words of the late Lord
LIVERPOOL, " TOO BAD." Mr. EIVART, in an
excellent speech, sho,wed that exactly the same
arguments were used for the monopoly of the
East India Trade that are now used for the Coal
Monopoly, and the same disinterested fears ex-
pressed that the public would seer from the aboli-
tion of the regulations. Tea, forsooth, would be
dearer, and so will Coals—but what was the fact ?
Tea was reduced to a fair and reasonable price,
and so will Coals. The LORD MAYOR defended
himself against Lord LONDONDERRY with great
felicity, and expressed his surprise that the two
Honourable Members who had sworn at New-
castle they would meet him face to face, had de-
clined to accept his invitation to do so in London.
We feel more than an ordinary interest in these
proceedings, as The Sun was the first to take up
the question. It has since obtained vast additional
support, and certainly the LORD MAYOR has been
a giant in the cause. It matters nothing to us
what his Lordship's political partialities may be,
we recognise in him a practical Reformer, and in
that capacity he shall ever have our humble but most
earnest and, persevering support.
The account the LORD AIAYort gave of the
causes which led him to suspect that all was not
right in the coal trade, is exceedingly amusing.
Mr. BRADFIELD, almost as soon as his Lordship
had taken his seat on the bench, drew his attention
to the subject, and persevered for some days in the
same course. Then came a worthy Alderman, who
denounced Mr. BRADFIELD as a very troublesome
person—one who pestered every Lord Mayor, about
what he called a wicked combination, but which
was nothing more nor less than a certain arrange-
ment among coal-owners and others to keep prices
steady, and not annoy the inhabitants of the metro-
polis by eternal fluctuation. Then came a coal-
factor—then a coal-owner and ship-owners in
great varieties, from all of whom the LORD MAYOR
obtained information sufficient to convince him
that there was something behind the cur-
tain that could not bear the light. When he
began to denounce the system then the hornet's
nest opened on him ; but with determined perse-
verance he continued the attack till he silenced the
last of the buzzing and stinging tribe. The Mar-
quis of LONDONDERRY, the last of his assailants,
has done with his Lordship for ever." The
observations of Mr. GAY, the surgeon, well de-
serves the notice of time humane. It was the poor,
he said, on whom the system bore most heavily,
and he could not but regard the efforts of the LORD
MAYOR as tending materially to diminish the high
rate of mortality from colds and consumption, which
unfortunately prevailed. A cheap supply of coals
would do more than ten free hospitals for preventing
many of the diseases that afflict the lower classes.

We last week invited public attention to a plan
which we understood to be in progress, for running
Steam-carriages on the turnpike and other public
roads, throughout the kingdom, with a view to
extend to all the advantages of Railway speed com-
munication, and thus efficiently checking the esta-
blishment of Railway monopolies. We have since
been favoured with a Report made by Mr. ALEX-
ANDER GORDON, civil engineer, upon the practi-
cability of such a plan, from which some very in-
teresting extracts will be found in another column.
Mr. GORDON entertains not the shadow of a doubt
of the success of such an undertaking, and from the
inquiries which we have been able to make, we are
hardly less sanguine. The practicability of running
Colonel MACERONI'S steam-carriages on common
roads, is fully established ; while, as the Report cor-
rectly suggests, their expense will only be proportioned
to the amount of traffic on any given line. To
form an adequate conception of the importance of
such steam carriages in facilitating trade, it must
be borne in mind that there are hundreds of thriving

towns in England which it would be impossible to '
connect by the most extensive system of railways.
There are others the trade of which would not
defray the expense of railways, chargeable as they
are with the interest upon an immense sunken
capital, though it would yield to steam-carriage
proprietors a very handsome rate of profit. One
of the natural effects of Railways will be to cluster
the population : steam-coaches would prevent this
from ever being felt as an evil, by inviting their
dispersion over the face of the country. Should a
Railway prove unprofitable, the capital sunk in
it becomes valueless ; not so steam-carriages,
which may be conveyed from one line to an-
other, as they may be wanted, without any
loss whatever. But by far the most important
consideration to the public is the influence which
they will have upon Railways, in the way of cheap-
ening communication by means of competition.
This is a consideration of the utmost moment.
Competition is the only certain security which the
public can have against the establishment of what in
time might become a most injurious monopoly ; but
competition will be out of the question if the old turn-
pike and cross-roads be suffered to be broken up,
or go out of repair before the steam carriages are
fairly brought into general use. The plan, on
public grounds, unquestionably calls for the most
active encouragement ; and if extensively carried
on, will be at once beneficial and profitable.

The important speech made by the Marquis of
NORMANBY in the House of Lords a short time
since, in reply to the Earl of RODEN'S motion re-
specting Ireland, has just been reprinted by RIDG-
WAY, in the form of a pamphlet. After a second
attentive perusal of this speech, we are more firmly
impressed than ever with the conviction that it tri-
umphantly refutes every objection urged by the
Tories to the system of Irish policy pursued by the
Noble Marquis. We say nothing of the modera-
tion—the manliness—the consistency—of its tone
throughout—qualities rarely seen enlisted on the
side of error and sophistry, and consequently not to
be found in any one single sentence of Lord
RoDEN's phillippic ; our business at present
is with its statements ; and these, we repeat,
make desperate havoc among the random assertions
and hypotheses—miscalled arguments—urged by the
ex-Grand Master of the defunct Orange Lodges—
in fact, leave the poor old Tory not a leg to stand
upon. The Noble Marquis establishes, first, the
fact of the progressive tranquillity of Ireland, by re-
ference to the returns from the inspectors of prisons,
and the charges of the judges of assize; secondly,
that in the exercise of the prerogative of mercy, he
hazarded an experiment which has been far more
successful than all the gaggingßills andinsurrection
and coercion Acts that were ever put in force
for the pacification of Ireland ; thirdly, that in his
legal, magisterial, and other appointments, he saw
fair play between Catholic and Protestant ; fourthly,
that by establishing local prosecuting solicitors, he
has rendered the administration of justice most
efficient throughout the sessions of Ireland ;
fifthly, that by his improvements of the constabulary
system he has been the means of protecting life
and property wherever such protection was most
needed ; and lastly, that his distribution of clerical
patronage has been uniformly of such a character
as to render hopeless all parry attack upon it.
Now, after the establishment of facts like these,
built on the strongest documentary evidence, what
becomes of that lengthy string of assertions which
the Earl of RODEN, in the excess of his self-com-
placency, is pleased to dignify by the name of argu-
ments ? Why, they vanish like night before
dawn. Doubtless, he and those who act with
him, regret bitterly that they ever attacked Lord
NORMANBY'S system of policy—ever offered to do
battle on Irish ground. It is Ministers' strong-
hold. They may be weak on other points,
but on the question of Ireland, they may
bid defiance to the most desperate assaults
of Toryism, as a few days will show when the
topic comes to be discussed in the House of Com-
mons. " Unparalleled !" Yes, my Lord RoDEN,
the state of Ireland is, indeed, as you justly observe,
" unparalleled," though not in the sense in which
you use the term. Its present tranquillity is " un-
paralleled ;" its universal expressisn of heart-felt
gratitude for the services conferred on it by an
English Lord -Lieutenant is 4‘ unparalleled ;" and
equally " unparalleled" is the enthusiastic recep-
tion which it has just given to that high-minded
Nobleman's successor. These are novelties which
may well strike a Tory with astonishment, and in-
duce him to exclaim with uplifted hands and eyes
that they are without parallel in his recollection.
As we have already more than once taken occa-
sion to observe, we are no very ardent admirers of
Ministers, but common justice compels us to ex-
press our conviction that, as regards Ireland, their
policy has been humane—enlightened--impartial—
in an eminent degree. Where energy and decision
were requisite, as in the case of the Orange Lodges,
they have boldly struck the decisive blow. Where
forbearance was the wisest policy, they have been
forbearing ; and they are now reaping the
fruits of such a judicious system of legislation,
in the eager rallying of all Ireland, at this critical
juncture, under their banner. When we see, as we
are now seeing, a whole country rushing forward
to the rescue ; when we see Irish Reformers of all
shades and classes foregoing their common dif-
ferences, and coalescing—a Whig CLoNcerrtßY
and a CHARLENIONT with a Radical O'CONNELL
and a GRATTAN—for the express purpose of
keeping Ministers in, and their opponents out, of
office, we have the strongest possible testimony to
the high deserts of the one party, and the utter worth-
lessness of the other. It is not a head-strong im-
pulse, but a deep, solemn conviction, that is stirring
Ireland to its centre at this moment—a conviction,
which despite the acknowledged difficulties of their
position, will ensure Ministers a triumph.
We speak confidently on this point, because we
feel that the language of complaint and despondency
is not the language that should be used at a crisis.
like that now banging over us. It is both unwise
and ungenerous to indulge in such a spirit—un-
wise, because it tends to strengthen the hands of
the Tories, already quite strong enough without our
assistance ; and ungenerous, because it evinces a
want of ordinary gratitude to that Ministry, who—
whatever be their defects—have conferred such
practical benefits on the country, as a Con-
servative would not even dare to dream of.
That they must move vigorously forward, if they de-
sire to retain office, we are quite as well aware as
the most Radical of our Contemporaries can be ;
still this is not the moment to insist on their advo-
cating the impracticable. To urge on them the
adoption of measures which—as the recent debates
on the Corn-laws show—there cannot be the
slightest hope of their carrying in the present
House of Commons, however wise and just they
may be, is no evidence of patriotic zeal for
Reform, but, on the contrary, is an evidence
of that nice, prudential instinct which induces a rat
to hurry away from what he conceives to be a fall-
ing house. For our own part, we are for a Liberal
Government, instead of for a Tory one ; but this
not so much from our love of Ministers, as from
our hatred of their opponents. From the one party
we may hope something—from the other nothing.
With respect to Ireland, God help that unhappy
country, if once the Tories resume their domination
over it ! The old scenes of anarchy and confusion ;
the old party distinctions ; the oppressions of the
Clergy; the exactions of the triumphal and infuriated
Orangemen; the partial justice of their magistrates,
and the ruffian brutality of their subalterns—all this
will be renewed in its worst form and with these
causes of discontent actively at work through-
out Ireland, and goading her into incessant viola-
tions of the law, what hope of amelioration can there
be for the political condition of England ? Justly
observes Lord NORNEANEY, that the recent discus-
sion in the House of Lords on the subject of Ire-
land, is tantamount to an acknowledgment that the
Tories are, above all things, desirous to get that
country once again into their clutches.
" Do not deceive yonrselves, my Lords ; if you accede
to this motion, the effect must to convince the people of
Ireland, and to make a strong impression upon the people
of England too, that you are about to take on yourselves
the Executive Government of Ireland. Are you prepared
for the consequences of such a step 1 It is not for me to
impress upon your Lordships what these consequences
may be. But in the much less serious point of how it may
affect myself. It is possible that the result of this night's
division may be to prove that I have not acted as a nn,jority
of your Lordships would have thought right. Whatever
the effect of that decision may be upon my future posi-
tion, it cannot at least deprive me of the pleasure I
derive from the paft, in the reflection that it has been
granted to me tc raise the political condition, to
sustain the legitimate hopes of those whom my So-
vereign had graciously committed to my charge. It
has been my lot to live on terms of intimacy and friend-
ship with many of your Lordships to whom I am politically
opposed. I will not affect to be indifferent to your good