The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-03 00:00:00

SPAIN,

The following are the chief passages in the
Queen of Spain's speech on opening the Cortes, of
which a telegraphic summary has already ap-
peared :
"When, this summer, I visited the provinces of Anda-
lusia and of Murcia, and received from their inhabitants
such marked proofs of affection and respectful attachment
to my person, I awaited impatiently the meeting of the
Cortes to express to the representatives of the country the
gratitude and love which I entertain for the people at
whose head Providence has placed me.
" The Catholic sentiments of Spain are equally mine, and
I pray God to hear our prayers and to crown our efforts to
put an end to the tribulations of the Sovereign Pentiff,
always the object of my most profound veneration.
" The relations with foreign Powers continue to be
friendly. I hope that we shall see terminated in a satisfac-
tory manner the difficulties which the disagreement of the
plenipotentiaries in Mexico have opposed to the execution
of the Treaty of London. The unforseen obstacles which
have prevented it have not altered my desire to see it ac-
complished, and to realise the idea which served as its basis.
" My Government will present to you the Treaty of Peace
signed with the King of Annam.
" It will also, at the proper time, lay' before you the com-
munications which arose out of the grave events which have
taken place on the coast of the island of Cuba, and I enter-
tain the confidence that they will not disturb the good
understanding which I keep up with the Government of
the United States."

MR. CHASE'S FINANCIAL SFSTEIII.

The memorial about to be addressed by the mer-
chants and financiers of Now York to the United

States Congress on the results of the financial ad-
ministration of Mr. Secretary Chase shows not
merely that the commercial body of that city have
at length come round to the views expressed
during the past eighteen months by the English
press, but that there is a disposition to stigmatise
the proceedings of the Washington Cabinet in terms

by no means less strong than those which have been
denounced as wicked and "abusive" when they have

proceeded from this side. The Chief of the Trea-

sury is charged with proceedings calculated totally
to destroy the national credit, and with having
resorted to the most hazardous plan of finance
ever known, while he has directly reversed all the re-
cognised rules that should guide a statesman. The
effects of the system of borrowing from hand to

mouth are clearly demonstrated, and -the truth is

also recognised that it is not merely useless, but
fraudulent, to multiply paper issues in the shape of

a local tender, unless such issues are made to bear a
proper rate of interest. Unfortunately, however,

the New York merchants do not confine themselves

to the simple statement of these facts, but go on to
shape a distinct plan of finance for the future, and
to indulge in expectations regarding its operation,
which are only a degree less delusive than those
by which Mr. Chase himself has thus far been in-
spired. In commending their scheme they start
with the announcement that America has no
large capitalists who can absorb any consider-
able amount of new securities, " the condition
of the people being different from any other,"
from the circumstance that they " have their
money invested in bonds and mortgages, real estate,
State bonds, bank, insurance, and other local
stocks," as well as in current business. For this
reason, " when it is wished to float more ' money'
than can be profitably employed in trade, it must
be made to bear an interest or it will depreciate in
current value." Interest bearing notes are there-
fore recommended to be issued to redeem the pre-
sent currency, and to meet all future wants. They
are to have 20 years to run, and are to be of the
denomination of £4, £lO, £2O, £lOO, and £2OO, and
are to carry a fixed rate of 41 per cent. These
bonds " will be taken and held by all classes of the
people," and the Treasury will acquire the great
advantage of being freed from the future necessity
of contracting definite loans, since they can put
forth as many of them as they please from time to
time in payment to public creditors. An issue
equal to 200 millions sterling could, it is thought, be
absorbed in the course of six months, " without
materially affecting values," and in a short time it
is "not unlikely £400,000,000 might be profitably
taken." The process is also to enable the Treasury
to resume specie payments within 90 days—that
period being apparently the favourite one for the
financial no less than the political millenium—as
it will enuable the Government to call in all the
existing inconvertible notes of less than £4. In short
this system of credit " will make as simple and per-
fect a plan of American finance as any statesman can
desire to see established." The memorialists do not
pause to prove their opening proposition that
America is different from all other countries in hav-
ing no capital save such as is invested in securities
or business, neither do they attempt to explain
what logical connexion exists between this proposi-
tion and the desirableness of creating 400 millions
sterling of " money," by putting forth paper pro-
mises to that amount. Such omissions, however,
would be immaterial if the memorialists had shown
how the creation of the " money" in question could
meet their present difficulties. These difficulties
arise from the fact that the country is consuming
more than it is producing, so that heavy balances
have to be sent abroad in specie, and the remedy
proposed is consequently exactly the same as if a
family of a dozen persons, while outrunning their
aggregate income, were to seek to make matters
straight by passing their own promissory notes,
which no one else would take, backward and for-
ward among each other. It is from the ignorance
even of the rudimentary principles of public finance
thus manifested by all classes of the American peo-
ple—Ministers, leading merchants, and ordinary
traders—that the fear is excited that there can be
no possible cure for the course now entered upon
short of a general collapse.

SELF-DEFENCE .AGAINS7 GAI2O2TE.RS.

Evils of this sort do bring their cure in time ;
the gentleman highwayman, who used to stop the
mail on Hounslow-heath, has long since been ex-
tinguished; and we shall extinguish these human
bull dogs, by boldly dealing with them as in the
style of Mr. Burt, in the first instance, and giving
them a full measure of punitive correction in the
second. In regard to the first point, it needs to be
observed that, as no one is safe in the public
streets at any hour of the day or night, so in ren-
dering assistance promptly to a fellow-citizen in
distress on the first alarm of danger, the act is as
much one of self-protection as of mutual sharing
of the risk. But there must be a limit to the pre-
cautions for self-defence. Much as we admire the
daring of Mrs. Norman, at Wha'ey bridge, who
met a burglar with a revolver, and shot him in the
breast, we should regard it as a great calamity
were the public to take to carrying firearms, or any
really killing weapons, for defence in the streets.
A bludgeon or life-preserver cannot well be used in
mistake to harm an innocent man, but pistols and
daggers have an evil influence on their possessors,
and there is always the possibility of life being sacri-
ficed, even under imaginary alarms. Many of our
readers will no doubt remember the case of the Rev.
Mr. Smith, of Nottingham, some years since. He
had been alarmed by burglars, and procured a gun
for self-defence ; the next night he heard a tapping
on the shutters and he fired, and shot dead a poor
man who had come with a message to one of his ser-
♦ants, and who knocked on the shutters in order to
avoid disturbing him by ringing the bell. We
should have no end of domestic tragedies if it be-
came the fashion for Englishmen to go about armed;
happily that has not been the fashion for some cen-
turies past, but there is some fear of the revival of
the fashion since the dangers of the streets have so
multiplied, and the tendency to the carrying of
pistols and dirks is much to be deplored. Nor is it
possible to justify the carrying of weapons as a means
of defence against street robbers ; an oak staff or
ashen truncheon will be far more effectual Tor those
who art capable of making a defence at all ; and,
however desperate the attack, we have no right to
do more mischief to the marauder than suffices to
disable him, and render his capture certain. The
law is the best avenger, and in spite of the laxities
through which many of these disorders have arisen,
the law is, after all, our only real and permanent
defence, and every measure taken by individual
victims and sharers of the dangers should be to
bring the culprits within reach of whatever terrors
the law has in store for them.— City Press.

ENTOMOLOGY AND ETYMOLOGY.—ScaIe insects
are something more important than marvels and revelations
of the microscope, for they play an important part in the
business of man. They attack many stove plants, and
besides make their presence felt for evil upon plums,
peaches, grapes, pears, aloes, nectarines, pino apples, olean-
ders, and acacias, as well as oranges, Scale insects have
been known to destroy an average harvest. Their ravages
destroyed, in 1843, the chief derendeuce of the inhabitants
of a whole group of volcanic islands in the Mediterranean.
The learned name for this group of insects is the coccidaa,
from the Greek word coccos, a berry. The story of this
names illustrates how words are imported into languages,
and how languages grow. Probably one of the earliest
dyes used by mankind was derived from the berry of the
plant which the Greeks called Kermes, whencthe word e the French
derive their word cramoisi, and the English crim-
son. Does the word criminal come from the red stain ?
was supposed to be a berry, and when this error
The scale insect which yields the cochineal, from its ap_
pearance,
was abandoned, it was said to be a worm. During
tt
hh
ee
middle ages, while this belief prevailed, the colour was
called vermiculatim, or worm colour, and then from the
s
Year
R IT Round.,s..
T
h 3
Excise returns
French, who called a worm un ver,
tho English derived
word
CONSUMPTION vermilion.--All rai 1 ion
0 /
F s r
.
A/ the
for the first three quarters of the
year
The quantity of spirits retained forhave been issued.
United Kingdom as beverage consumption in the
gallons in the first nine months only has been 13,532,217
same period of 1861 it of the present year. In the
was 13
16,160,20 gallons, )950 ,988 gallons, and of 1860,
1