The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-21 00:00:00

i PRICE SD.

pended in their production, and which labour they
embody or condense ; but the latter implies that
some tax has been imposed on labour when en-
gaged in the act of production. Now suppose that
two sets of workmen are engaged on the same
fabric; that in the one case th raw material pays
no duty whatever to the Government, and that no
tax whatever is imposed on the food, clothing, or
lodging of the workmen ' • under these conditions
the fabric can be sold for its intrinsic value, or
what means the same for its barter price.
Now further suppose that thething,
other set of workmen
have to pay duty on the raw material, and a tax
on their food, clothing, and lodging, these latter,
it is clear, cannot sell for mere intrinsic value ;
they are entitled to something more, and that
something morn is precisely the amount they have
paid in taxation. In the first case, prices are said
to be low ; in the second, they are said to be dear.
Of course among ourselves no such difference can
exist as we have assumed, since all our working
classes are placed on a level, and are subjected to
one uniform law. We have only stated the dis-
tinction hypothetically, to illustrate the nature of
the argument.
In this country we are all subject to indirect
taxation. Therefore, when prices are low, that is
when they range at the barter level, the condition
of the working classes is miserable, for they pay a
tax which they cannot recover from those who con-
sumestheciaut
eins
twlyheanretihneycoramnfgoretaabt
their products ; but when prices are high,
working clastses do recover that taxation, and con-
letheeiretaunixa:tianondelejeosh:Tlq,:butehuieshsiees:
prosperous state is always enjoyed for a short period
before a monetary panic, but it ceases so soon as
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prforeignerpropounded—Why
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lion instead of our fabrics ?

According to our monetary legislation the price
of gold in our coinage is fixed, and fixed at the
barter price ; consequently, when commodities rise
in our home markets to the taxation level, they
become dearer than gold ; it is in this state of
things that the foreigner prefers payment in cheap
gold rather than in dear goods. He sells in our
dear market, but he will not buy in our dear
market. Suppose that wheat risen from forty to
sixty shillings in Mark-lane, then the foreigner
gets three sovereigns instead of two ; but all other
goods have risen in the same proportion, and he
refuses to buy. He can supply himself on the
continent with what he wants for two sovereigns,
and thus has a clear surplus of one sovereign.
Thus it is that our monetary legislation offers him
a premium to abstract our bullion ; then discounts
rise, the currency is contracted, and prices fall
from the taxation to the barter level ; this is the
lesson taught us by the history of panics in 1825,
in 1837, in 1839, and in 1847 ; and we appear to be
on the eve of another, from which nothing can
save us but Australia, and even the casual arrival
of the Kent and Marco Polo, with nearly half a
million of gold, may not deter the Bank from
raising discounts to five per cent.
About two months since the Times printed an
objurgatory article, complaining that the Austra-
lian markets were naked of goods, and reproaching
our merchants and manufacturers with remissness.
Now the same journal urges the Bank to check
this trade by contracting the currency. Russia
wants gold to prosecute its infamous crusade against
Turkey, and drains it away from us in exchange
for her wheat ; and, therefore, we are to suspend,
the production of necessaries for Sydney and Mel-
bourne. We are afraid to send our fleet into the
Dardanelles, lest Nicholas should sell out the funds
he holds in our consols and in the French and
Dutch securities. These several sums amount to
4,600,0001., according to the official report of the
Russian Minister of Finance, printed in the Alge-
meine Zeitung in 1847. How truly does our pre-
sent humiliating position justify the prediction of
the Marquis of Titchfield, in the speech he de-
livered in the House of Commons on the 11th
June, 1823, when he explained the mistaken views
on which the Act of 1819 was passed, and the evil
effects of that measure. We quote the following
passage, which is pertinent to the present crisis of
the Turco-Russian question :
"It was impossible to mention the general subject of
war without referring to the state of things on the con-
tinent, since that had the most intimate connection pos-
sible with the present discussion ; for upon Mr. Peel's
bill depended the question whether the Influence of
England should be evszthing2r saklijpg44 altron.lban,
continent. But, perhaps, there was still a greater mis-
chief behind, which was the knowledge on the continent
that financial embarrassment was the real key to our
present policy, and the encouragement which that reflec-
tion held out for wicked and ambitious enterprises. The
whole history of England, and the well-known character
of its people, marked at once, to every foreign govern-
ment, that nothing but financial considerations could
have restrained the impulse every true Englishman felt
on the promulgation of the horrid sentiments in the
French king's speech to the Chambers. They all knew
full well that there was but one check to that impulse-
-600,000,0001. of debt borrowed in one currency and to
be paid in another. The state of our finances had been
perfectly understood from that instant, and had become
a matter of congratulation to the despot, and of grief
and dismay to the oppressed."

Since that speech was uttered we have seen
Poland obliterated from the map of Europe,
by the extinction of the Grand Duchy of
Warsaw—the free city of Cracow handed over
to the despotism of Austria the rising li-
berties of Italy extinguished by French bayo-
nets in Rome, and Hungary abandoned in her
generous struggle for freedom. Now Russia sets
us at defiance, and insults us by declaring in a
hypocritical and mendacious manifesto that the
fact of fortifying the capital of Moldavia and Wal-
lachia, garrisoning the whole country with troops,
and depriving the Hospodars of their authority, is
simply a pacific occupation ; and to add injury to
insult, the Czar permits the Sulina canal to be
choked, that he may deprive us of supplies of Da-
nubian corn, and raise the price of bread to our
people. Such is one of the phases of the currency
question in its purely political aspects involving our
national dishonour. The Czar is now neutralising,
as far as he can, the benefits we ought to receive from
the repeal of the Corn-laws. Let all who live by honest
labour prepare for a season of adversity, for with-
out employment there can be no wages, and when
discounts rise the power of giving employment is
weakened, and when they become excessive are
paralysed. Let them carefully ponder over the
bitter satire which Mr. Cayley embodied in an
amendment to one of the clauses of the report
drawn up by Sir Charles Wood when Chancellor of
the Chancellor :

" It would greatly tend, in the opinion of your com-
mittee, to the safety of the public, if there should pre-
vail among the mercantile and working classes of the
community, a clear perception of the position in which
they stand under the act of 1844. That they should
distinctly understand that when the gold is exhausted in
the coffers of the Bank, every merchant and manufac-
turer is to suspend his operations, and every artisan and
labourer is to remain idle, without work and without
wages, until the gold be restored to the coffers of the
Bank."

Of course this amendment was rejected, for it
would have completely exposed the fraud ; but we
reproduce it, as a warning and an instruction to the
working classes. _ ALADDIN.

P.S.--Since this article was in type, our expec-
tation has been verified. On Thursday the Bank
raised the discount to four-and-a-half per cent.

LORD BROUGHAM'S LAW REFORMS.

( From the Press. )

After a public career of more than half a century,
and upwards of 40 years of stormy Parliamentary
life, Lord Brougham finds himself, by the univer-
sal consent of his most distinguished contem-
poraries, entrusted with the duty of carrying out a
class of reforms touching more closely than any
others the welfare of his countrymen. A repub-
lication by Ridgway of two speeches by Lord
Brougham in the House of Lords in July last, re-
minds us forcibly of his services as a Law Reformer.
A quarter of a century ago he made his memorable
speech on the abuses in the administration of
the law : he now finds adopted nearly all the
suggestions he then made, and most of them
he has had the crowning satisfaction of passing
into law. To Lord Brougham we owe the awaken-
ing of the public mind to evils the existence of
which had been detected by philosophers, though
they had not then been exposed by publicists.
Still more are we indebted to him for the marvel-
lous energy and perseverance of his efforts to era-
dicate those evils. His war with the abuses of
Chancery ; his changes in the law and practice of
bankruptcy ; and generally his successful efforts to
simplify legal procedure—these, although they
have produced results as universal as they are bene-
ficial, yield in importance and value to that great
reform which " brings justice home to every man's
door,"—the County Courts Act. If Lord Brougham
had done no more than this, it would have been
enough for his fame. He is sensible, however, that
much must be done, even to render this measure
perfect ; and thus we find him still aiming at
further Improvements ere yet he can feel his task