The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-09 00:00:00

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1853.

The Chancellor of the. Exchequer has already
materially modified the resolutions of which he
had given notice. He has felt the weight of the
numerous and well-founded objections that have
already been put forward to the second branch
of the alternative offered—namely, the conversion
into a New 2-i per Cent. Stock at 1101. for each
1001. 3 per Cent. Stock. He had not, however,
the candour to acknowledge his error, and to
withdraw that part of his proposition. He still
offers the option, but limits the amount that can
be taken to 30, 000, 000/.
-sterling-not of 2i
Stock, but of the amount of the great Stocks—
the Consolidated and Reduced—that may be con-
verted into the New Stock. The amount, then,
will be 33,000,0001. in place of 30,000,0001. ;
and if -we add to that 11,000,0001. for the
10,000,0001. of South Sea and other Annuities
that are to be necessarily connected, the increase
to the nominal amount of the debt will be only
4,000,0001. in place of 50,400,000/., which it
might have been according to the terms of the
original notice of motion. This is unques-
tionably a great improvement, inasmuch as
it limits the amount of loss occasioned by
the nominal increase of capital, to less than
one-twelfth of what it might otherwise have
been. But why should even 4,000,0001. be un-
necessarily sacrificed ? Why should so large a
sum be cast upon posterity without any equiva-
lent to the present generation ? We must also
recollect that it is described as an experiment—
an attempt to test public opinion so as to ascer-
tain how the proposition can be carried out to a
much greater extent. It is, in fact, neither more
nor less than the introduction of the sharp end of the
wedge, in order to obtain thatwhich the Right Hon.
Gentleman ackowledges to be " his ultimate aim

—which will prove the key of the provisions in
the resolutions he was about to propose," namely,
" to lay the foundation of a new and INTERMIN-
ABLE public debt, bearing interest at 2i per cent."
The 30,000,0001., therefore, is not all that we
shall have to deal with. The intention is clearly
and unequivocally avowed to turn the entire public
debt into that species of security ; thus involving
a loss not merely of 50,400,0001., but of about
77, 000, 000/., if Mr. GLADSTONE'S views should
receive the Legislative sanction. But this is not
all. There is something still more objectionable
behind—which does not appear on the face of the
resolutions, but has unadvisedly dropped from the
Right Honourable Gentleman and which we un-

hesitatingly assert to be totally unprecedented,
such as no Financial Minister has ever hitherto
dared to put forward !
The New Stock is to be interminable ! ! ! We
are to saddle all future generations with a per-
manent charge,
himself The R
toi gbhet
far H own
iso ue
rr atbhlaen Gaennyt e -
man, supposingof
his predecessors, apparently imagines that no
future occupant of
the office he now fills can pos-
siblywishes to cut off any
chancebeforhihsisrisvualc,cessors of achieving distinction
or emulating his own performances.reatnaierWoef
might venture to remind the g
the well-known principle of which he has seem-
ingly lost sight—the English law " abhors a
perpetuity." No man can deal with his property
for a term exceeding a life or lives in b • eing, and
21 years in reversion. No Parliament can have
authority to bind its successors for thousands, or
tens of thousands, of years. Hitherto, any legis-
lative provisions to which the public faith has been
pledged, have not been made for a period that
might reasonably be considered to exceed a gene-
ration—to be altered, if desirable, according to
the legal principle, within the duration of lives in
being at the time of the enactments. We
believe that Mr. GOULBURN'S operation in
1844, for the conversion of the Three-and-a-Half
per Cents., which bound down the nation for 30
years, viz., 10 years at 3/ per cent., with 20
at 3 per cent., was the greatest ever offered ex-
cept in the guarantee on the East India Stock,
which extended to 40 years, but being limited to

6,000,0001. sterling, could scarcely be considered
las a general precedent. Mr. GLADSTONE, how-
ever, not merely extends his term to 41 years—
to 1894—but avows his intention of rendering
the charge INTERMINABLE !! ! The proposition
appears so monstrous—so unconstitutional—so
destructive of the rights of our descendants—that
we cannot believe it can receive the sanction of
a British House of Commons.. It may, possibly,
be very desirable for the Fundholders to prevent
the anticipated effects of a vast augmentation in
the stock of the precious metals. But it is not
the interest of the nation—it is not fair to pos-
terity to create an insuperable obstacle to their
receiving the benefits of future improvements.
What would be thought of our progenitors if,
for a temporary benefit to themselves, they hail,
fixed the interest of the debt at 5 per cent., which
would be permanently charged on the nation ? It
would have been less in proportion to the then
'ate of interest than 2i to the present. But,
still, it would have been most injurious to
the interests of the present generation —it
would have been an Sisurpation of such a
character that it could not be submitted to.
It is bad enough to mortgage the labour of our
descendants, but it would be intolerable to render
the burden perpetual, as it would be if the charge
were made irredeemable ! ! !

We do not, then, believe—notwithstanding
the exaggerated eulogiums of the Right Hon.
Gentleman the Member for Coventry, or the
specious fallacies of the Hon. Member for West-
bury—that the propositions can be carried into
practical operation. The suggestion for a con-
version into 821. 10s. of a New Three-and-a-Half
per Cent. Stock might be worthy of consideration.
But that is so much less favourable than either of
the other branches of the alternative; that it will
not be resorted to until the others are exhausted,
and then not to any considerable extent, inasmuch as
those who are disappointed in the scramble, that
must ensue for the limited stock, will most proba-
bly wait for the future legislation that has been
more than hinted at by the Minister of Finance.
Our objections to the proposition are certainly not
removed by the plausible address of the Chancellor
of the Exchequer, or the determination of the
Ministerial Leader in the House of Commons to
allow no time for consideration, but to enforce an
immediate decision in so thin a house, and when the
leading features of the measure had been only pro-
mulgated the day previously, and the chief one of
all was so materially modified in the enunciation
of its provisions.

It is drolly insisted upon by one of the re-
viewers in the Quarterly that ARTHUR GORGEI
is distinguished by—among other things—" in-
tegrity of purpose." We cannot but admire the
tenacity with which our contemporary in this, as
in so many other instances, clings to a thoroughly
obsolete opinion to the very last, at a time when
it is abandoned by everybody else in the wide
world as altogether vain and valueless. It is
like CLAUDE FROLLO, in the French romance,
grasping, to the latest moment, at the nozzle of
that bending—bending—bending leaden spout on
the turret of the old Cathedral. Every split in
his cassock, every warp in the gutter-pipe, only
makes him hold on with a wilder and more eager
desperation. It was so with the Quarterly and Pro-
tection. It is so with the Quarterly and the Hunga-
rians. The story of th e Magyar war of Independence
is familiar enough by this time to the vast majority
of our population. The incidents of that me-
morable struggle are among the most fully com-
prehended occurrences in the later history of the
European Continent. The speeches of the pa-
triots engaged in that famous contention have
furnished even the humbler classes in Great
Britain with " household words" that have fired
their enthusiasm—as the ballad of "Chevy Chase"'
was wont to do Sir Pinup SYDNEY—as with the
sound of trumpet. Distant as the seat of war
was from ourselves, we were still, from first to
last, so roused with interest, that we watched
with unfailing vigilance the fluctuations of for-
tunes of battle in that heroic country, from the re-
treat upon Debreczin to the advance even to the
walls of the imperial city of Vienna, down, in-
deed, to the morning of GoRGEI'S defection, and
and his compatriots' flight beyond the frontiers
of the Ottoman territory. Perhaps there is not
among the most conspicuous characters in Europe
any public men more fully understood, more ac-
curately comprehended, more justly appreciated,
than the different leaders of the Hungarians.
We are familiar with the virtues and foibles of
them all almost as well as with those of our own
statesmen. It is thus with PEBOZEL. It is thus
with BATHYANNI, the brave and unfortunate. It
is thus with BE3r, gallant old BEM, down to his re-
nunciation of Christianity and his death in the
Turkish dominions. It is thus with the youthful
KLAPKA, and the experienced DErasiNsm. More
than all, it is so with the two most remarkable men
whose names appeared so glaringly before the world
in connection with that renowned war of Inde-
pendence. If it was thus with regard to the
former personages, it was peculiarly so with refer-
ence to ARTHUR GoRGEI, and with a nobler and
a greater man in every consideration, Lours Kos-
SUTH, the some time Liberator of the Hungarians.
Throughout these islands the name of KOSSUTH
has long since come to be regarded as the symbol
of patriotism—as that of GORGEI has at the same
time come to be viewed, deliberately, as the syno-
nym for everything base, and dastardly, and
treacherous. In this manner public opinion has
pronounced upon the two men definitively and
beyond the possibility of any misapprehension.
Yet, here comes the Quarterly in the April of
1853, with its astounding declaration that " in-
tegrity of purpose" is among GoRGEI'S most me-
morable characteristics ! It is something wonder-
ful what an aptitude some men evince for doing
violence to the common sense of the intelligent
multitude. In a similar way we know of some
astronomical curiosities who really and truly now,
in the middle of the nineteenth century, seriously
believe that the Newtonian system is an egregious
fallacy, that Sir ISAAC was altogether an impostor,
and in the so-termed principle of gravitation,
there is " nothing in it," any more than there
was with, the crater of Vesuvius when examined
by Sir CHARLES COLDSTREAM. Precisely in this
category of eccentric marvel-mongers and depre-
ciatory of established reputations, we cannot but
class one or two of the habitual contributors to
the Quarterly. Supposing it were otherwise, we
should never have these extraordinary reviewers
believing, in the broad noonday light of Free
Trade, in the preposterous old ghost of Protection.
Neither should we at this hour find them insisting
earnestly, and almost pathetically, upon the "in-
tegrity of purpose" of the very man who flung
down the sword of Hungary at the feet of the
AUTOCRAT Contributions such as the one to
which we are here making allusion should cer-
tainly, in any future editions, be introduced in an
appendix to the " Curiosities of Literature."

DISTRESSED NEEDLEWOMEN'S HOME.—Yesterday the
committee of this charity held its monthly meeting at the
institution, 15, Carburton-street, Fitzroy-square, when
the minutes of the last meeting having been confirmed,
the secretary reported that the receipts of the month had
amounted to 741. 6s. sd. ; that, through the kindness of
many ladies (among them Lady Clinton, Lady Bayley,
Lady Jolliffe, Miss Hartopp, Mrs. Thompson, Mrs.
Colonel Brooke, Miss Culverwell, Mrs. Berry,
Mrs. Clarke, Miss Burton, Mrs. Ross, Mrs. Kin-
dersley, &c.), 32 women bad been employed,
several of whom were 60, and some 70 years
of agehte; s
had beenthat,th reduced from 74
roughth e kindl. 4
e. 10d. t
afforded,ee
the d
421.
3s. 6d. ; that the women were truly grateful for the kind
assistance rendered them ; and that Miss Taylor had
kindly presented another bed and furniture, &c., when
it was resolved that the best thanks of the committee be
presented to Miss Taylor for her kindness in behalf of
the institution ; to Mr. West, for the interest taken by
iihnnissmttiitt;uutttloootnnh; and
bankers, for their kindness ; and to Messrs.
Nisbet, for kindly receiving subscriptions in aid of the
r,Thed
arrangecommitteefor
ssomeimprovements
having passed
andth e
additions, and inspected some work, with which the
were highly delighted, the meeting was adjourned.
SINGULAR CIRCUMSTANCE.—A singular circumstance
lately happened on the Great Western line. A stag
which had been uncarted near Thingley got upon the
railroad near Corsham station, and was making its way
towards Box, just as the express train was emerging
from the tunnel. The engine-driver seeing the dogs
coming, at once relaxed his speed, and sounded the
whistle, and the pack divided to the right and left, and
passed the train 'without one of them being hurt. The
stag afterwards entered the tunnel and was secured there.
—WiltAire Independent.