The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-11 00:00:00

both sides of the British Channel to prepare the
two countries allied in the vindication of Turkish
independence for any emergency that may result
from still pending occurrences—to prepare them,
that is to say, in a sort of supplementary manner,
for already neither France nor England
were perhaps ever before in so marvellous a
state of warlike preparation. Evidences of
these yet further precautionary measures may be
recognised at once both in the military and in the
maritime departments of the Allied Governments.
Looking nearer home than our Gallic neighbours,
and to the latest of these signs of a tardy vigour
of determination, we observe the orders trans-
mitted from the Horse Guards, on Thursday even-
ing, to the Infantry Barracks at Windsor, direct-
ing 350 rank and file of the 2d Battalion of the
Scots Fusilier Guards to hold themselves in readi-
ness to embark within the course of another week
for Constantinople. We point to this in-
cident as to another indication that, even
in the view of Ministers themselves, War is
becoming every day more manifestly inevitable,
whatever was babbled yesterday in the House
of Lords by the nominal leader of the Admi-
nistration. However much it has become ine-
vitable to all appearance—war does not interrupt
in Paris the magnificent building improvements
there being carried out by the munificence of the
Imperial Government any more than amongst
ourselves the project of Parliamentary Reform
is postponed, thanks to the conscientious re-
solution of some of the abler members
of the Coalition. Precisely thus are matters
situated in regard to the internal condition of
France and England, and in reference to their
external relations with the more formidable among
the great Powers of Christendom. And precisely
at this juncture does the " travelled Thane " war-
ble, with bucolic sweetness, about the blessings
of peace in the midst of the din of this domestic
activity and of these warlike preparations. Fri-
volity may lead some kindred Aberdeenite, next,
to perform a sword dance on the edge of the
crater of Vesuvius.

Bad it not been for the providential discoveries
of the mineral wealth in California and Australia,
and the vast amount of bullion that came to our
shores from the recently discovered gold fields,
we should long since have obtained a thorough
and efficient reform in our monetary laws. The
disastrous effects of that iniquitous code had been
too clearly ascertained in 1847 to permit any
doubt to remain on the subject. It was
seen that the Act of 1844 had natu-

rally led to the panic of 1847, and that it
would, in due course, produce other and
still more calamitous results, the evil in-

creasing in intensity on each successive visita-

tion. Houses of unblemished credit and unques-
tionable solvency were unable to find means of
meeting their engagements, not from want of
property, but from the deficiency of the mere re-
presentative and measure of value. The Bank
itself could lend Government Stock, but it could
not spare its own notes (!) Even persons who
had imported a large quantity of silver were
unable to obtain advances thereon, because
the Bank held the full proportion of silver which
it was enabled to take credit for under its charter,
and consequently that which would have been, to
all intents and purposes, as valuable as gold for
the purpose of preserving the convertibility of the
Bank note (if that was the great desideratum)
was necessarily rejected, its owners subjected to
great expense and inconvenience, and the best in-
terests of the nation endangered through the ex-
portation of the specie. Nothing but the virtual
suspension of the Act, by the celebrated letter of the
25th October, saved the country. The efficacy of
the remedy at once established the character of
the disease, if any doubt could previously have
existed on the subject ; and but for the cunning
and " dodgery" of the then Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Sir CHARLES WOOD, and the co-
operation of the packed Committee of investiga-
tion, the existing law would have been repealed
or greatly modified. Public attention was, how-
ever, for a time diverted from the subject until,
' as we have shown, the influx of bullion from the
auriferous lands afforded opportunities for largely
increasing the circulation, without infringing on
the provisions of the Act of 1844.
But for that abundant supply we should have
been ruined had we not reformed the law. As it
was, the impolitic enactments neutralised the
value of the discoveries, and prevented the full
development of the national industry. We have
again had a species of monetary panic, which
the golden returns from Australia, arriving
opportunely at the moment when they were
most urgently required, have alone pre-
vented from being as disastrous as that of
October, 1847, and we now find the minimum