The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-06 00:00:00

the,

~~~~

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1853.

According to custom, the prorogation of Parlia-
ment enables us to amuse the public at intervals
with the record of speeches delivered at political
dinners, banquets, and other convivial entertain-
ments. It is a pleasant way of passing the holi-
days among certain of our representatives. It
serves two good purposes, bringing them into
personal communication with their supporters,
and keeping their names meanwhile conspicuously
before the notice of the population. How much
the latter object is a matter of solicitude to the
more ambitious we all know from the tale, or, as
you may spell it correctly enough, the tail, of the
dog of ALCIBIADES. So that a harangue so many
columns long be delivered, and reported, and
printed in the columns of a popular newspaper, it
matters little to many of the speakers whether it
be the utterance of matured wisdom or of the
crudest commonplace—an outpouring of sagacity
and experience, or a jumble of the emptiest bal-
derdash. HANSARD is sometimes bad enough we
all know—dull as a blue-book, long-winded as
(what is absurdly called) a brief, formal
as a despatch, and monotonous as a prelection.
But HANSARD is nothing, absolutely nothing, in
all this to the vast majority of your after-dinner
reporters. There—rhetoric reaches but too often
a sublimity of bathos beyond the imaginings even,
we should conjecture, of the immortal SCRIBLERUS.
Whoever ventures to toil through the more ex-
tended orations indulged in at the festive board
by those solicitous to see their names prefixed a
day or two afterwards to an unusually large spe-
cimen of the art of the typographer, finds himself
doomed to the perusal of a mass of cooked statis-
tics and ponderous witticisms such as even out-
Hansards HANSARD. It is seldom that the " Con-
stant Reader" can rejoice over those more delectable
incidents of the vacation, as "few and far between"
as angelic visitants, when the constituents of Shef-
field can listen to the bitter but wholesome truths of
Mr. ROEBWCK, or when those of Buckinghamshire
can chuckle over the brilliant personalities of Mr.
DISRAELI, or when those, again, of Auld Reekie
can hearken delightedly to the spoken essays of
Mr. MACAULAY, an eloquence so often before now
audible in the Commons, and visible in the Edin-
burgh. If we cannot this evening refer to the
reported oration of the annalist of the Whigs, or
of the author of „
Coning or of the historian
of England, or of any other among the more
remarkable rhetoricians of the present age—we
have the opportunity, at least, of calling attention
to a speech not less worthy of consideration—a
sensible, plain-spoken, straightforward, business
speech, given elsewhere in to-night's impression of
our journal, delivered as long
ago as the beginning
of August, and as far away as the
by a man as distinguished as the designer Of' a
atjahe
tubular bridge across the Menai Straits, the Hon.
Member for Whitby, ROBERT STEPHENSON.

The occasion upon which this speech was de-
livered, it will be observed, was that of a public
dinner given at Montreal, in honour of Mr.
STEPHENSON. This dinner—its, object, and not
its viands—let us remind the public, was some-
thing better and nobler than such festivities are
under ordinary circumstances. It was a tribute
of respect from a gigantic colony about to ad-
venture upon the labour of creating for itself a
colossal system of railways—a tribute of respect
from this colony to the genius, the energy, and
the enterprise of the greatest engineer of this
the greatest epoch the world has yet wit-
nessed in engineering. The Chairman of the
banquet well understood the real dignity and
worth of the chief toast of the occasion, that of
the principal guest of the evening, when he in-
troduced that guest to the assembled company
simply as " the son of the celebrated JOHN STE-
PHENSON "—adding that he had inherited (it
might have said also that he had enhanced) "his
father's genius and his father's reputation." It
was as far back, it will be remembered, as 1828,
that ROBERT STEPHENSON was called by •
his father
to assist him
in the Liverpool and Man-
chester Railway. So that his skill and
judgment have both been ripened under
enthuery's expe-
more than a qua
quentlrter of a
1832 c, assumed
Hence. Subsey, in
the responsibility entailed upon him as engineer
to the grand trunk line between Liverpool and
Birmingham. It was not until 1847 that he was
entrusted with the task of constructing a railway

' to connect Chester with Holyhead, and in the ac-
complishment of which enterprise he effected, by
spanning the Menai Straits with a tubular bridge
of iron, the most wonderful of his many extraor-
dinary engineering achievements. Whatever
may be said by Mr. FAIRBAIRN and others,
in depreciation of the share taken by this
distinguished man in the designing and carrying
out of the tubular bridge near Holyhead, the
glory of that singular product of science and in-
dustry must ever afterwards belong by right to
ROBERT STEPHENSON. It iS not by any means
surprising, therefore, that with his extended and
unrivalled reputation, but particularly after the
completion of his great masterpiece, Mr. STE-
PHENSON should have been selected for the direc-
tion of many of the large railway projects adven-
tured upon in various parts of the European
Continent, or that he should have been
chosen by the Pacha of EGYPT to preside over
several important works now in progress in his
Pashalik. As about the crowning labour of
engineering, the new bridge at Montreal—
the bridge destined to carry a railway across
the waters of the St. Lawrence, is—it will
be remarked—about to be designed by Mr.
STEPHENSON. With this gigantic enterprise
in hand, no marvel that the men of Montreal
offered to the illustrious engineer the tribute of a
public banquet, expressive at once of welcome,
encouragement, and congratulation.

T visit to Ireland has terminated.
The Royce hoßoyalyal
Squadron, which left Kingstown Har-
bour on. Saturday night, arrived at Holyhead at
an early hour yesterday morning, and even while
we are writing her MAJESTY is en route for her
Highland home, there to enjoy for a brief period
the domestic felicity so dear to her heart, and for
which she is so eminently qualified. She has
left her faithful people of Ireland after a week,
not displeasing, or, we trust unprofitable to her-
self, and one of intense and unalloyed gratifica-
tion to them. The State pageantry has passed away,
but not so fleeting will be the recollections or the
results of the auspicious event. We firmly be-
lieve that the most sanguine anticipations that
have been formed as to its consequences will be
fully realised, that the familiar intercourse of the
past week will be frequently renewed, and on
every occasion under equally propitious auguries.
The proceedings which have just been brought to
a conclusion, without a single casualty to
mar the all but universal satisfaction, are
eminently calculated to remove the preju-
dices and misapprehensions that have hereto-
fore existed, and which have impeded that close
and intimate union, that should have existed be-
tween the sister Kingdoms. The natural results
will be that the bonds by which they are (we trust
indissolubly) connected, may be strengthened to
their mutual advantage—that English capital may
flow into the country, where it can be so usefully
and profitably employed in the full development
of its neglected capabilities, the ample returns
from which will satisfy the expectations of the
most sanguine speculators.
The infamous misrepresentations of those who
imputed a want of loyalty to the mass of the Irish
people, and who by such calumnious assertions in-
duced the SOVEREIGN to abstain from inspecting
so important a portion of her dominions, are, it is
to be hoped, henceforward and for ever set at rest.
It will be impossible from this time forward to in-
sinuate doubts as to the sincere and heartfelt love
and affection of the Irish for their QUEEN. There
could be no doubt as to the cordiality of her re-
ception, or the fervour of their devotion. The vile
attempt to diminish that cordiality, to damp that fer-
vour signally and completely failed; and even the
solitary Journal by which it was attempted is
conscious of that failure, and, mirabile dictu,
appears to be somewhat ashamed of the part it
acted on the occasion. It has not, it is true, had
the grace openly to retract, or humbly to apolo-
gise for the grave error into which it was betrayed,
but contents itself with attempting to depreciate
the amount of enthusiasm—to sneer at that the
existence whereof it cannot, notwithstanding the
most wilful blindness, altogether deny. Let us
hope, then, that the alienation which has hitherto
existed between the SOVEREIGN and the people
of Ireland mill be for ever removed—that there
will no longer be the same negligence on the one
side, or discontent on the other—that the time
when the presence of the Monarch, save at the
head of a hostile army, was unknown for suc-
cessive centuries, has for ever passed away—
that the precedent established by Queen VIC-
TORIA may be annually followed during a
long, happy, and prosperous reign by herself,
and by her descendants through all gene-
rations, and that ere long Ireland may be
thought worthy of having a Royal ,Palace suit-
able and preparcd for a prolonged residence by
the SOVEREIGN.

But other misapprehensions must also vanish,
and the mists of prejudice be dispelled. Eng-
lishmen and Irishmen must learn to know and
appreciate their mutual good qualities, to look
upon and regard each other as brethren, and not
as beings of an inferior race. The Irish must be
taught to abandon the disgraceful sneers and dis-
paragement of " the Saxon," to respect the
steady perseverance, unblemished integrity, and
sterling humanity of those who, we trust, will no
longer be regarded as strangers in the land ;
while Englishmen, in turn, may forget the paltry
spirit of depreciation, which leads to the injurious
and resulting notification, that " No Irish need
apply," which betokens the inherent vulgarity of
the narrow mind by which it was conceived and
p:omulgated. We shall not recal the memories
of the illustrious dead, to show that Irishmen can
faithfully and efficiently discharge the most im-
portant duties that could be intrusted to the
hands of ordinary men. With so many and such
brilliant examples, we need not disturb the ashes
of those who, while living, were honoured, and,
when dead, were lamented. The Irish Exhibi-
tion—the magnificent result of the boundless
liberality, unflinching zeal, and indefatigable per-
severance of a few individuals of the middle class
—will furnish sufficient illustrations. The names
of WILLIAM DARGAN, CUSACK RONEY, and JOHN
BENSON, will furnish an adequate reply to the
despicable and paltry calumny—will for ever re-
move the distinctions which badly-disposed and
weak-minded individuals have endeavoured to
establish between the equally loyal and equally
industrious English and Irish subjects of Queen
VICTORIA.

Among the causes prominently put forward by
the friends and admirers of the Directors of the
Bank of England, as affording ample justification
for the recent increase in the rate of discount,
are "the rise in wages and general employment
of the working classes, so that every family, in-
cluding those that were previously destitute, have
now, on an average, two or three sovereigns in
their Possession ; and the demand for an increased
cairreiniseatolieuprito meet the larger payments caused by
" evils" (!) h"
'These, then, are some of tll-2
~which it
medium of the
guarcuans and is the imperative duty of the
coiit regulators of the circulating
that must be sumnrary to repress--the nuisances
what may be the amourt7 abated. No matter
of
suffering to the in-
dustrious population occasioned by the attempt.
Any improvement in Wag
choefckemed_
with stern determination.
Any increase
ployment, so that those able and
Willingto work
daily
should be certain of occupation, so
enabled to earn their daily bread by theiras t
doa bel
labour, must be steadfastly discountenanced, but-
the mere notion that families " previously destitute
should each have two or three sovereigns in their
possession !" available for any exigency, and set
aside for uncommon events, was enough to
strike terror into the heart of every ea.,
capitalist, to excite commotion in Lombard-
street, and make every directorial hair in the
bank parlour stand on end ! Two or three sove-
reigns in the possession of every family! Mon-
strous ! Even including those previously desti-
tute ! Horrible ! Atrocious ! Enough to shake
society to its very foundations—to make the arti-
sans and operatives aspire to the enjoyment of
comforts that should be placed far beyond their
reach—which even their sanguine day-dreams
should not venture to anticipate. Praise, then,

the sagacious Directors. Oh, ye moneyocrats, sing
paeans in honour of the provident regulators of
the circulating medium—the cautious magnates
of Threadneedle-street.

But whatever may be the views and opinions of
the " men made of money," whose hearts have
long since changed their characters, losing the
attributes of mere flesh and blood, after under-
going the approved process of induration in the
Temple of Plutus, who are enchanted at the
notion that " the natural augmentation of prices
which occurs has the salutary effect of compelling
men to content themselves with less food because
they can afford to buy less ! ! !"—what, we ask,
will be the feeling of those who are to be so
coolly sacrifled at the shrine of wealth, and whose
compulsory abstinence is regarded as such a master
stroke of policy ? Will they likewise approve of
this cold-blooded wisdom ? Will they consider
it right or proper to prevent production—to
diminish the National Revenue 7 Will they con-
sider it expedient that the price of money must
be upheld at any cost or under any circumstances,
and that they are to return Representatives to
Parliament for the purpose of maintaining a
stringent code of laws, in order to place enormous
power in the hands of men capable of using it in
such a manner, and with such objects ? We ven-
ture to believe that, when their attention is
directed to the matter, they will be enabled to
understand its permanent importance, and to per-
ceive the imperative necessity of agitating for
Monetary Reform—the repeal of the iniquitous
Acts of 1819 and 1844, and the establishment of
" free trade in money," and of a circulating me-
dium adequate to the wants and exigencies of the
country.

We, at least, have nothing to reproach our-
selves with on the ground of indifference and care-
lessness on this deeply-interesting topic. Long
and earnestly we have laboured in the cause, en-
deavouring to impress upon the public mind the
fact that our monetary code, and the extraordi-
nary restrictions thereby placed upon the issue of
bank notes, and the consequent stagnation of
"the very life-blood of industry," were the real
causes of the national distress. Our arguments
were combated. Every reason but the right one was
assigned for the commercial crisis that paralysed the
national industry, and hurled to the earth first-
class houses, involving bankruptcy and ruin to
firms which it had taken generations to establish
in the high position which they occupied at the
time of their downfall. Much of the mischief
was ascribed to the vast expenditure on rail-
ways, which the country (forsooth) was unable
to afford, but at length the real exciting
cause of all the mischief has leaked out, and that
on authority which the bullionists will not be in-
clined to question or dispute. The Bank Di-
rectors adopted measures to produce " the
salutary effect of compelling men to content them-
selves with less food, and therefore they put on the
screw," and maintained it with such fearful per-
tinacity. It is true that in that instance they
were not altogether willing agents. The iniqui-
tous Act of 1844 enforced the stringency on
that occasion ; but they are now voluntarily, and
without any possible necessity, resorting to
similar proceedings, and have actually raised
the minimum interest to the same rate
at which it stood on the 25th of October, 1847,
before the issuing of the celebrated letter which,
by virtually suspending the Act, effected a speedy,
almost an instantaneous, cure. We had hoped that
the discoveries in Australia and California, and
the enormous quantities of bullion that have been
imported from the auriferous soil into this country
would have prevented a repetition of the mischief.
Such unfortunately has not been the case, and,
therefore, nothing remains but to revive the
agitation for monetary reform which for some
time has been suspended.

THE LORD MAYOR.—The Lord Mayor is recovering
from the effects of the recent accident on the Great
Northern Railway, although still suffering from pains
in the head, and from want of sleep.
ROYAL POLYTECHNIC INSTITIITION.—Her Majesty
Queen Christina, of Spain, and her Court, honoured this
institution on Saturday, and spent some hours in exa-
mining the different models and works of interest.
Several ladies and gentlemen of the Court made a voy-
age in the diving bell.
DEATH OF GENERAL SIR NEIL DOUGLAS, K.C.B.—

Lieut-General Sir Neil Douglas, K.C.8., and K.C.H.,
colonel of her Majesty's 78th Highlanders, died at Brus-
sels, on the Ist inst. This distinguished officer entered
the army in 1801 ; served with the 79th at the siege of
Copenhagen, in 1807 ; with the expedition to Sweden,
in 1808 ; and subsequently to Portugal and Spain, in-
cluding the battle of Corunna, ; expedition to Walcheren
and siege of Flushing, in 1809 ; the Peninsular cam-
paigns from December, 1809, to January, 1811, and
again from April, 1813, to the end of that war in 1814,
including the defence of Cadiz and the battle of Busaco
—wounded through the left shoulder joint by a ball and
by another in the left arm ; battles of the Pyrenees,
Nivelle, Nive, and Toulouse. Served also the campaign
of 1815, and was severely wounded through the right
knee by a ball, and contused from a ball hitting a but-
ton, at Quatre Bras. Sir Neil received a cross for the
battles of the Pyrenees, Nivelle, Nive, and Toulouse.
He was colonel of the 81st from July, 1845, and only
of late held the colonelcy of the 78th Highlanders.
FUNERAL OF THE LATE LIEUT-GENERAL SIR C. J.
NAPIER.—The funeral of this great soldier which has
been fixed to take place on Friday next, at the Garrison
Chapel, Portsmouth, will not be a military funeral, but
it will be attended by the Commander-in-Chief, Lord
Hardinge, the Earl of Ellenborough, and a large num-
ber of other military officers of distinction. A requisi-
tion has been presented to the Mayor by members of the
Town Council of the borough, asking him to call a spe-
cial meeting of that body, in order to make arrange-
ments for their attendance at the funeral, and so show
the appreciation in which the inhabitants of Portsmouth
held the talents and the services of this great man. It
is also understood that the Masonic brethren of the lo-
cality will pay their tribute of respect to the memory of
the deceased general who was a distinguished member of
the order, and one of its zealous supporters.
MR. DISRAELI, M.P., AT AYLESBURY.—The Right
Hon. B. Disraeli, M.P., is to meet his constituents at
the annual ga,thei:ng of the Royal Bucks Agricultural
Assoc'at'on at Ayle-bury, on the 14th inst. Mr. Du
Pie, M.P., has also accepted an invitation to attend.
The dinner is to take place at the George Hotel.
THE LATE LIEUT.-GENERAL SIR WALTER RALEIGH
GILBERT, BART., G.C.B.—A monument is intended to
be erected to the memory of this gallant officer, whose
achievements in the Punjaub campaigns place him
among the most distinguished soldiers of the Indian
army.

The letters from Rouen mention that the market for
manufactured goods was quiet without material change
in prices.

in the Amsterdam advices it is stated that a few
second-rate houses have just failed in the oil and corn
trades.

BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF
SCIENCE.—This society will commence its sittings for
the present year at Kingston-upon-Hull to-morrow,
under the direction of Lord Londesborough, Sir J. C.
Constable, Bart., Lord Hotham, M.P. Captain the
Hon. Arthur Duncombe, M.P., Lord Goderich, M.P.,
the Hon. F. C. Lawley, M.P., Mr. W. Wells, M.P.,
the Mayor of Hull, and the Rev. J. H. Bromby, the
committee who were elected on the 4th of December,
1852, together with several other influential gentlemen,
whose names have since been added to the list. The
business to-morrow will commence with the election el
officers, and in the evening the president elect will de-
liver his inaugural address. Upwards of 70 papers have
already been received on various branches of science,
and these will be referred to the different sections. A
great number of excursions have been arranged for, and
the meeting generally is expected to be one of a very
attractive character.

DEATH OF AN ACTOR AND DRAMATIST.—Mr. John
Wilkins, a young actor of considerable ability, attached
to the Sadler's Wells company, and a dramatic author
of more than ordinary talent, as his five-act play of Civi-
lisation, in which Mr. Anderson sustained the principal
character, and several other dramas from his pen, abun-
dantly prove, died suddenly on Monday week. He
played Hecate in Ma bah, on the Saturday preceding
his death, in apparent good health, and on Monday
morning he was a corpse. What renders his sudden
decease most distressing, is the fact that he leaves a
widow far advanced in pregnancy, and two orphan chil-
dren of tender years, completely destitute.
THE LATE D. M. Mom (" DELTA").—It is with much
pleasure that we are able to announce that the name of
the widow of Mr. D. M. Moir, of Musselburgh—so
well and widely known in the world of letters as the
" Delta" of Blackwood's Magazine—has been submitted
to the Queen by the Earl of Aberdeen for a pension of
1001. a year, and that her Majesty has been pleased to
approve of the Premier's recommendation.—Edinburgh
Advertiser.

BZlE:hLeAldlrEanFi Inßc
iEu
elsz•rt
yt e rTH sE
and Sarah Daniels, husband and wife (the former a
Chelsea pensioner), aged respectively 57 and 79 years
eEd Da
yG An RE-
eR ob Ao Dd e—s Mo
fr .
Thos.
0 Ss
of age, residing at No. 8, White Lion-place, Edgware-
road, who were burnt to death in their apartments
early on the morning of Saturday last, whilst in a state
of intoxication. It appeared from the evidence that
they had been quarrelling together previously,
and that the husband,- who was an out-pensioner of
Chelsea Hospital, and had drawn his money that morn-s-
-ing, was heard to swear with an oath that he would
burn the house down. No clue could be gained as to
the origin of the fire, and the jury returned an open
verdict.