The Sun.
London, England, 1830-06-14 00:00:00

But our contemporary (the Examiner) says the
talk in Parliament is a mere waste of time and
opportunities for more profitable exertions. Profitable
to whom ? To politicians in Parliament, foreign
affairs are a safe account. Not so domestic affairs.
A party falls to pieces the moment you leave the
field of foreign politics. Hence the great use of a
war to politicians. So long as the war lasts, it fur-
nishes matter to an Opposition which can be wrought
without much danger of disagreement. But with
peace comes the necessity of discussing domestic
affairs; and here every step leads to disagreement.
There was indeed one great domestic question which
did as well as war for holding parties together—the
Catholic question ; but that question is no more.
It was one of the most beautiful abstractions which
could possibly be devised for a politician ; for no
one interest could be said to be affected by the carry-
ing of the measure. It is needless to say that there
is hardly another question of which the same thing
may be practicable. Touch on Reform, for instance,
and you will find yourself deserted. Propose any
measure of efficacious retrenchment, and in ordi-
nary cases you will have at most a couple of dozen
votes. Mr. Herries and Mr. Goulburn have both
told the House this Session that they were defeated
in their measures of economy by a coalition of both
sides. If the higher regions were safe the Duke of
Wellington might set a hundred Terceiras and a
hundred Greeces at defiance. But when the danger
is in these regions, a question respecting Greece will
doli as well as another for a trial of strength. Any
stick will do to boat a dog with. The public may
not care about Greece, but the public does not keep
in or turn out a Minister. And if the disposition to
look Gut for a pretext should exist, though the pub-
lic do not take a deep interest in the affairs of
Greece, most assuredly the conduct of Lord Aber-
deen would not give to the Ministry the support of
public opinion. Politicians do not, as we have said,
possess now the ad vantage their predecessors pos-
sessed of having a public interested in foreign affairs
to sympathise with them. They have the fight now
nearly all to themselves when they quit this king-
dom. But there are weighty reasons for steering as
clear of domestic interests as possible in political
warfare. There is a fable of a bear who was in alli-
ance with man, and to drive away a fly threw a
stone at the fly which broke the man's skull. Our
parties are too cunning to recur to a popular alliance
which may, like that of the bear, be somewhat un-
manageable.—Morning Chronicle.
Sir Robert Peel's remark, that " twenty such
Members as Mr. Hume in the House of Commons
would put a stop to business altogether," was very
complimentary to that gentleman—for stronger tes-
timony than this could not be borne to his steady
and indefatigable zeal in watching over the interests
of his constituents and the public. We wish there were
many other of our Representatives who deserved to
be comprehended along with the Hon. Member for
Aberdeen in this sentence of Ministerial reprobation.
Then that sort of business which Ministers are most
anxious to hurry through the House—namely, the
votes of money to Government, under the head of
supplies, estimates, &c.—would certainly be stopped,
unless they were reduced to a scale more consistent
than they now are with the resources of the country
and the professions of retrenchment and economy, of
which Ministers were so liberal when they first as-
sumed the administration of affairs. There is, in-
dead, another Hon. Member, whose exertions of
late in the same useful line of arresting the progress
of profuse expenditure which has long distinguished
Mr. Hume, entitles him to a large share of Minis.
terial obloquy and public approbation. We allude
to Sir James Graham, whose exposure of the "con-
sular jobs" will not be easily forgiven by the official
consumers of the public taxes, nor, we trust, be
soon forgotten by the tax-paying people, whose bur-
dens he so industriously labours to relieve. The
smallness of the majority which Ministers were
enabled to muster, with all their efforts, on Friday
night, when the " consular charges" came under
discussion, ought to make them ashamed of persist-
ing with a vote which many of those who usually
divide with them had not sufficient disregard for
their own consciences or for public opinion to sup.

port. On such a question a majority of only 23
looks more like a defeat than a victory. Ministers
should have understood it as such, and have imme-
diately reduced the vote demanded for the consular
charges, which was 87,9701., to the amount of the
proposed amendment, which still left them the very
liberal sum of 79,9701. No person could have the
least doubt that the latter sum would have been
amply sufficient for all just and reasonable purposes,
and for supporting the dignity and efficiency of our
consular appointments, though it would certainly
be too little to supply the prodigal and reckless ex-
penditure, of which the Hon. Baronet who moved
the amendment furnished some striking instances to
the House. Let us take one or two of these in-

stances to show what has been the nature of the

economy practised in the Foreign Department, of
which Lord Aberdeen has the superintendence.

The lion. Baronet stated, if rightly reported, that
Mr. Rickets, who was Consul at Rome, went out
in 1825; and during the first year he received
3,8551. In 1826 he received, including salary,
house-dent, and a few other items, 3,7631. In 1827,
being en the voyage home, he received 2,812/.
During the years 1828 and 1829 he remained at
home receiving his full salary—so that for five
years of service, two of which were spent at
home, he received 13,6001. of the public money !
It is true, as the Honourable Baronet observed,

the present Ministers were not in office when this
appointment took place; but they were in office
during the years 1828 and 1829, which were the
years in which Mr. Rickets received his full salary
as Consul at Rome while he remained in England.
Nobody can blame Mr. Rickets for this—he could
not be expected to refuse what was so bountifully
allowed him—but the system, and the Ministers who
support it, after making the loudest professions of
retrenchment and economy, deserve the severest re-
probation of a country which their conduct has so
bitterly disappointed. The case of Mr. Nugent, the
Consul to Chili, was another instance. He also
went out in 1825. He received during the first
year 3,050/. The second year he received the same
amount, having remained the whole of that year at
his post. In 1827 he received 2,500/. In June,
1828, be returned to England, receiving during half
that year his full salary for doing nothing ; and
during the whole of 1829—during what Sir James
Graham sarcastically called " the golden reign of
Lord Aberdeen, the conscientious economist"—he
still continued to receive his full salary. Such are
the proofs which, in this department, Ministers have
given of their determination to redeem their pledge of
cutting down all unnecessary expenditure,and lighten-
ing the burden of grinding taxation, which presses
the industry of the people to the earth ! If any of
the majority on this occasion represent open and
populous places, we hope their constituents will not
forget their conduct when they come, at no distant
day, to give an account of their stewardship.—
Morning herald,
An extended traffic in spurious copper coin, and
an extremely profitable, if not a strictly honourable
one, is carrying on at this moment with Brazil. It
is well known that the currency of that country is
in tho most deplorable state, so much so, that gold
and silver ;re Oriven almost wholly out of circu-
lation, and the chief, ii not the only media of ex-
change, are paper and copper, which latter is at a
premium, by the last accounts, of about 35 per cent.
In order to keep up such a supply of copper cur-
rency as is absolutely essential for the wants of the
country, the Brazilian Government has lately trans-
mitted large orders to England for copper blanks,
which, on arrival, receive the Government stamp,
and are put in circulation. The nominal value of
these blanks, when coined, is 80 reis, which, at-the
par of exchange, would be equivalent to about ed.,
but, in the present depreciated state of Brazilian
paper, would be something less than sterling.
The "seignorage" of the Brazilian mint is, in this case,
a pretty considerable one, as a pound of copper, which
makes iG of the blanks, costs I ld., and the profit,
therefore, is Somewhere between 300 and 400 per