The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-11 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, APRIL 11, 1853.

JOZEAU'S COPAHINE-MEGE, or Saccharatta
C SSPULES, approved by the French College of Physicians, and
successfully administered in. the Paris and London Hospitals, and
acknoWledged by them to be the best remedy for ,the cure of
Gonorrohcea, Glect, and Lencorrhceal Discharges, on art average of
six days (see " Lancet " of 6th Nov., 1852, an extract from vk hich
will be forwarded immedittely Ott application).—Prepared and sold
by G. Jozean, sole French chemist, 49, Ilaynwket, London ; and
Jozean, Phannacien, 161, Rue 51 ontnutrtre, Pail ; and Ihe principal
chemists of France. England, and the Colonies. Price of bottle of
100 capsules, 4s. 6d.; 50 do., 2s 91., with dirc:. ions, and stamp with
the nama of Gabriel Jozzau printed thereon.

NELSON MEMORIAL FUND,
FOR HIS DAUGHTEI% IMAM.

`ENGLAND EXPECTS EVERT HAN WILL DO IDS DUTY."

ITTEZ.

The Right Ilon. Earl Nelson.
The Right lion. Earl Londesborou3h.
Admiral Sir T. B. Capel, IC C.B.
Rear-Admiral Sir W H. Dillon, K.C.H.
Sir \Vm. Burnett, M.D., fi.C.II , F.R.S.
*Rear-Adm. dohn Pasco, Stonehouse.
*Sir Geo. Magratli, .D ; F &c., Plymouth.
*Capt. G. L. Browne, R.N., Bridgewater.
*Capt. J. Lyons, R N., Farehsm
*Corn John Carelake. R.N , Stimoivh.
*Com. Henry Lancaster, Connaught square.
*Lieut. L. B. Reeves, Douglas.
*Capt- W. Poore, R.N., Andover.
Sir James Duke, Bart., M.P.
Colonel Sir Duncan Mcdougall.
Sir John M`Neil, Dublin, LL.D., F.R.S.
T. Thomson, Esq., M.D., Inspector-General of Hospitals.
Rev. W: S. H. Meadows, M.A., Canterbury.
Rev. J. White, M.A., Canterbury.
J. Walker, Lsq., LL,D., F.R.S., &c.
T. J. retuigrew. Esq.. F.U.S., F.S.A.
Captain 11. Nelson, rinity-house.
B. Richards, Esq., Tunbridge-wells,
B. Blundell, Esq., F.S.X., Temple.
J. A. llordon, Esq., University Club.
Rev. John Boole' M.A.
W. H. Robinson, Esq.
Norman Wilkinson, Esq.. Stock Exchange.
Charles Attwood, Esq., Tow-law
(*) Surviving Officers of the Victory.

TREASURER.
Sir James Duke, Bart., M.P.

wanesdtwardof
thiSs°tuoTwlin WareALbEes RingpAlrLoWseAcYut.
—edThvie wgoroourkslsy
landed on the banks of the Towy, and another cargo has
satisfac-
torily. A cargo of rails for the permanent way has been
been disembarked at St. Clears, where operations for
laying the rails will, it is anticipated, be commenced in a
few drys. The embankment from the Ystrad property to
the edge of the river Towy, on the Rhydygors side, has
been all but finally completed, and the works at the
bridge are being pushed forward as rapidly as circum-
stances will allow. There seems to be no lack of energy
or activity on the part of the officials to secure the open-
ing of the line into Pembrokeshire at an early period.
In connexion with this important national undertaking,
we may mention that Mr. Brunel passed through this
town on Wednesday last en-route for Milford Haven, to
complete his inspection of the site of the proposed rail-
way terminus and docks, the bill for promoting which is
now before Parliament, and will most probably pass this
session. The time, therefore, is not far distant when
Pembrokeshire will become as important a county as
any in the kingdom, and probably as prominent a feature
in the geography of the world as even Australia itself.—
Welshman.

YIELD OF GoLD.—The Melbourne .Argus estimates
that the total yield of all the gold fields from October 1,
1851, to the end of December, 1852, amounted to nearly
sixteen millions sterling !

NATIONAL DEBT REDEMPTION ACT.

( From the Times. )
The Chancellor of the Exchequer very aptly
compares the National Debt to a first-class fortress,
which is not to be approached without the greatest
circumspection. He cannot walk over it at once,
as Wellington took some cities in Spain, hardly
stopping in his march for the purpose. So he
attacks, or rather menaces, the debt :on three
sides, leaving time to show which demonstration is
the feint, and where the actual assault is to be
made. At this moment it is a matter of doubt
whether the 500,000,090/. 3 per Cents. aro to be
cut to pieces with a stock of greater interest, and
less capital, or undermined by a stock with greater
nominal capital but less interest, or flooded by in-
undations of Exchequer bonds, so issued as not to
recoil on their authors. We must be pardoned if
we lament the necessity of operations so opposed
to the simplicity and boldness of modern strategy.'
Had a Chancellor of the Exchequer come forward-.
and said, " Here are thirty millions of 31, per
Cents. with certain peculiar conditions, said an
equal number of 2i per Cents., and about the
same number of bonds of a hybrid character, partly
stock, and partly bills,—l propose to reduce. them
all to one common form, and then we shall know
how to deal with them," we are not quite sure that
the very simplicity of the proposal would not have
carried the public approbation. Simplicity, of
course, is often a mistake. Thirty years ago sim-
plicity was the rage. As in architecture, so in poli-
tics, all was Doric, harmonious and grand. That
fashion is gone, and we have lapse 4 into more com-
posite, as well as more convenient ddlerr3. Certainly
the present is an example of the newer taste, and only
happens to be too like its anthill% Were that gentle-
man a highwayman, he would not be content withpro-
pounding the two alternatives usually addressed to
the traveller. He would bewilder his victim with
a third or a fourth, so nicely balanced as to invite
comparison even under those trying circumstances.
So, when Mr. Gladstone offers the fundholder, in
return for his 3 per Cents., money, or 3i per Cents.,
or 2i per Cents., or something neither money, nor
bills, nor stocks, but a little of all three, and partly
21 per Cents., partly 24 per Cents., it is impossible
not to trace the paternity of the scheme, though we
have not disputed, nor do we dispute, that the
measure may be the very one suited to the emer-
gency, and Mr. Gladstone,' consequently, the very
man to meet it.
Very great men have not always been clear either
in their objects, or in their means, or in their ex-
pression. Cromwell and Castlereagh were equally
past understanding. To come home to finance,
Bexley's speeches and measures were both enig-
matical. Now, what is the object of Mr. Glad-
stone's present scheme ? He says it is to lay the
'foundation of an irredeemable 24 per cent.—that
is, we presume, eventually to reduce the interest
of the whole debt from 3 to 2i. But, singularly
enough, the only alternative under no immediate
limitation is that which raises the interest, to 34,
with a decrease of the capital, the fdrmer being a
reality, as Mr. Gladstone takes pains show—
the latter only a name. Then, itis dto
fficult to
see the use of diminishing the interest, except
i
with a view to diminising the debt, and it inlay
well be asked what is the use of making a debt
redeemablehence, if that remote
b
raising the figure at
which
by
ersmade from 100 to 110 ?
oohis
redemption
be a t pu
za r e
must
seytde ba
If we are to go on paying interest for ever, then
it matters not :whether the nominal capital be
increased or diminished ; for were all the
500,000,0001. 3 per Cents. changed into Mr. Glad-
stone's new 24 per Cents., even on the increased
capital we should pay a less aggregate of interest
than we do now. But we hope not
.to go on paying
interest for ever. We hope to make the fund-
holder take his money and be gone. That must
be the ultimate end of all these operations ; and,
on the supposition we have just mentioned, we
should certainly have to pay him 550,000,0001.
This does not look like keeping the great end in
view, and, while we are laying a good foundation
for an intermediate object, we seem to he sacrificing
the great object for which all our foundations and
intermediates are intended. It is true we are re-
minded that if we only put our annual savings of
interest into a box, and open the box in 1894, we
shall find the-50,000,0001. to a-farthing. Ay, but
what if we spend our annual savings in war
steamers, and harbours of refuge, and. Mediter-
ranean fleets, and in fortifications at Alderney and
Corfu,—where shall we find our 50,000,0001. ?
Happily, as we think, this potentiality of mis-
chief is obviated. The " foundation "is to be
small and experimental,—a mere 30,000,0001., in-
volving only a possible addition of 3,000,0001. to
the debt. But the inconsistency of the measure
and its professed object are hereby much increased,
for while the 24- per Cent. Annuities and 24 per Cent.
Bonds are both limited to 30,000,0001. each, the
only form of commutation to which there is no

limit whatever, and which is permitted to the
whole extent of the 500,000,000 i., is that of the 31-
per Cent. Annuities. What becomes, then, of the
great foundation of 'a per cent. stock, whicli.Mr.
Gladstone describes as the great aim of Government
and the very key of his resolutions ?

Notwithstanding this complexity of means and
indistinctness of purpose, the resolutions, as they
now . stand, have many recommendations. The
only unlimited alternative is one that would give
us immediately a respectable saving in the interest
Of our debt, and a very great saving in the capital
to be redeemed forty years hence. The other al-
ternatives are limited to safe amounts, and only to
be extended if found to answer. With 20,000,0001.
commuted into the 3i per Cents., against 30,000,0001.
into the 2 per Cents., we should still diminish
the capital. The Exchequer bonds are at least a
safe measure. They would effect a great saving
at once, to be doubled shortly, and would be alto-
gether redeemable at the end of 40 years. On each
side, however, there is a drawback. If the new Ex-
cheqner bonds are found to answer the same purpose
as Exchequer-bills—and therein principally stands
the expectation of their finding favour with the
public—will they not compel a higher rate of in-
terest on Exchequer-bills to get the latter into
circulation Y On the other hand, these Exchequer
bonds and these coupons are to be as transferable
as a Bank of England note. Of Bourse, they will
be just as liable to be stolen, and just as easily ne-
gotiated and cashed by the wrongful possessor.
This, however, is the holder's risk, and perhaps we
need not talk about it ; but when we are told that
these bonds are to form the material for provincial
Stock-Exchanges, to supersede large
balances at
the country and London bankers', to enter into
speculation at the continental Bourses, and to be
carried like circular notes by careless tourists from
city to city, in pockets and portemonaccies, we can-
not help fearing that a good many will find their
way into bad hands. Another danger, of course,
is the holder's risk. The new Exchequer bonds
can hardly fail to fluctuate in value quite as much
as Consols. Convertible only forty, years hence,
they will almost fulfil the idea, so much desiderated
in some quarters, of an inconvertible paper cur-
rency. How much will they occasionally fall in
value when even Exchequer bills payable on de-
mand a few months hence have been at 31. or 41.
discount ! That, however, is the holder's risk,
and, in spite of these drawbacks, we have little
doubt that the new bonds will be a favourite
sse-
curity, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer will
soon find himself invoked to issue another batch.

(From the Morning Herald.)
The resolutions proposed by. Mr. Gladstone on
Friday night are intended to be the foundation of
a financial operation which it is not at first easy to
understand. The plan suggested is one not en-
tirely consistent with the professed object of the
Finance Minister, and very far, indeed, from being
consistent with itself. The only recommendation,
indeed, which was strongly urged by its author,
was, that while it was an experiment in every con-
ceivable direction, in none could it carry the ex-
periment so far as to produce any serious amount
either of evil or good.
Let us say in the outset, that we entirely object,
even uponia limited icale, to experiments upon such
a subject. Public credit depends upon public
opinion. Public opinion, it is avowed, is intended
to be diverted by these experiments. It is said
that one great object of the measure is to fami-
liarise the public mind to a Two-and-a-Half per
Cent. Stock. This argument is, in fact, an ad-
mission, that, whether for evil or. good, it is utterly
impossible to deal with the public securities, even
to a limited extent, without seriously affecting
that opinion upon which public credit depends.
The national funded debt of this country con-
sists, not of sums of principal money, which the
nation has undertaken to repay ; it consists entirely
of annuities chargeable upon the revenue of the
nation—annuities of which the' nation can only get
rid by paying the principal sum which they repre-
sent. Every person who holds 1001. in the Three
per
,Cent. Consols is entitled to receive from the
nation a perpetual annuity of V.-a year until the
nation may be in a position to extinguish that an-
nuity by paying him 100(. But the payment of

this 1001. can never be enforced by the holder of
stock. All he can insist on is,! that until the
country pays him 1001. they shall pay him each
and every year 31. If, therefore, the nation can
obtain from any one else 1001. by the grant of an
annuity. of 21. 10s. or 21. 155., instead of 31.; • it is
plainly the interest of the nation to obtain thelool.
on those terms, and get rid of its present annui-
tant by the paythent of the 1001.
In this way, and in this way only, it is that the
charges whibli are called the interest on the national
debt can be reduced. The country has a perfect
right to say to the holder of 1001. stock, now receiv-
ing 31. annuity, " Unless you agree to take less
than 31. we will pay off your 1001." In the present
state of the finances of England it is quite plain
that we can only offer this when we can find some
one else to, give us 1001. on cheaper terms. In this
manner we have several times effected a reduction
of the charge of the national debt. The last ope-
ration of this nature was performed. by Mr. Goul-
burn in 1844, when he succeeded in reducing the
Three-and-a-Half per Cents. at once to Three-and-
a-Quarter, and ultimately to Three.
With a very small proportion of the debt,
amounting to about 10,000,000/., Mr. Gladstone
proposes to deal in the same way—that is, he pro-
poses to its holders to pay them off unless they
agree to his terms. This power is, in fact, a mere
incident in, or rather extraneous to, his plan. That
plan is to be considered as . it proposes to attempt
to make an impression or an experiment upon an
annual charge of 15,000,0001. due each year from
the nation to the holders of 500;000,0001. of Three
per Cent. Stock.
--If the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to
compel the holders Of this. stock -to Accept of any
terms different from their present conditions, he
could only do it by offering them the alternative
of repayißent of the principal. That the time has
come when a perpetual annuity of 3/. charged upon
the revenues of the nation is worth a little more

than 1001. seems evident enough ; that such an
annuity will every day rise in value is reasonably
to be expected ; and men conversant with the sub-
ject have for some time entertained the belief that
before long the nation would be in a position to
propose to the holders of these annuities either to
accept of a lower amount or else to offer them the
principal money, which would, in the event of their
refusal, be obtained elsewhere on more favourable
terms.
It must be distinctly understood that neither
this, nor anything like this, is attempted by Mr.
Gladstone. He states, in the first place, that the
sum to be dealt with, 500 millions, -is so enormous
that no minister could take upon himself the re-

sponsibility of offering to pay it off—assuming, we
think very unfairly, that the nation is not at per-
fect liberty to deal with it in detail. Incovenience,
no doubt, there might be, and a suspicion of un-
fairness, in selecting particular holders of stock to
be paid off ; but there is no obligation of national
faith which would prevent us from paying off any
one holder of this stock, even although we were
unable to deal with all.

A more serious objection lies in the fact that we
have bound ourselves to every holder of this stock
not to pay him off without a year's notice. Mr.
Gladstone refuses to undertake to produce the
money at the end of the year. The possibility of
his being able to obtain it at the end of that period,
without great loss to the nation, would depend
upon the then price of stocks. He would be a bold
man who would answer what that may be in twelve
months.

Delivered, therefore, as he conceives himself,
from any attempt to deal with these funds upon the
old principle of offering the holders the option of
accepting new terms or being paid off, we might,
perhaps, have expected that Mr. Gladstone would
have left them alone. Not so. He adopts the
novel, and, we cannot help thinking, rather ques-
tionable, course of offering to the national cre-
ditor a new bargain, which he may either accept
or remain exactly in his present position entirely
at his own option. By what considerations will
that option be determined ? Solely by those of
his own interest. If new terms place him in
a more favourable position than the old, he will
accept them ; if not, he will reject them, and
remain as he is. The transfer into the proposed
new stock can only take place when the fundholder
believes that by taking it he drives a harder bar-
gain with the nation. No man will part with what
he has for something which you propose to give
him unless you persuade him that what you offr is
something better than that which you ask him to
give up. Unless, therefore, Mr. Gladstone's pro-
posal enriches the fundholder, it falls to the ground
utterly abortive. He either offers the owner of
stock something worth more than his annuity of
three per cent. or lie does not. If he does, the
nation is the loser ; if he does not, the stockholder
will reject his terms, and the debt remains exactly
as it is. •

Pointing out, then, the wide difference between
a proposal like that made by Mr. Goulburn, which
you enforce by the alternative of paying off the
principal, and that now made by Mr. Gladstone,
which will only be accepted on the ground that it
puts the fundholder in a better position, let us
state what are the terms which Mr. Gladstone offers
as an inducement to the fundholder to give up his
3 per cent. He offers him his choice of three se-
curities. First, he offers him for each hundred
pounds of stock, producing an annuity of three
pounds, a sum of ' 821. 10s., paying an annuity at
the rate of 3i per cent., and with a guarantee that
it shall not be redeemed for a period of forty years.
Secondly, he offers him for each 1001. a sum of
1101. in a stock that is to, pay 2i per cent., and
a guarantee that it is not to be paid off until
1894.

That is, the holder of every 1001. of present stock
may choose either to have an annuity of 21. 17s. 9d.,
liable to be redeemed after forty years by a pay-
ment of 821. 10s. ; or an annuity of 21. 155., liable
to be redeemed after the same period by a payment
of 1101. The fundholder may select whichever of
these proposals he shall think most disadvantageous
to the nation, or he may retain his present annuity
of 31., redeemable by 1001., the Chancellor of the
Exchequer having kindly assured him that it is
impossible it ever can be redeemed.

It must not be forgotten that at the very last
moment Mr. Gladstone wholly altered his original
plan by limiting the new Two and-a-Half per Cent.
Stock to thirty millions. We do not now pause to
inquire what confidence can be placed in the Fi-
nance Minister who actually submits to Parliament
so vitally-important a scheme, and at the last mo-
ment alters it in so essential a part. It would not
be difficult to show that had the original plan been.
adopted, the only effect would have been that the
whole of our debt would have been converted into
unredeemable annuities, and so far as the national
liabilities are concerned, the producing classes and
the agricultural interest would have been robbed of
all the benefits which are accruing from the recent
discoveries of gold.

We will not say that this was the object, but
most assuredly this would have been the effect of
the plan. One other alternative, however, he still
offers to the public creditor, subject to a similar
limitation of the issue to thirty millions. The
holder of 1001. stock may, if he pleases, receive an
Exchequer Bond for 1001. bearing interest at 21.
155., and likewise irredeemable for 40 years. The
conditions of these latter securities are to be
named to' a great degree at the discretion of the
right hon. gentleman himself.

For these "coupons" the right hon. gentleman
seemed to claim the merit of originality of concep-
tion, expatiating largely on the advantages that
attend every security bearing interest, and at the
same time transferable by mere manual delivery.
Whether the system of representing the national
liabilities by such documents be right or wrong, it
had been previously tried, and deliberately aban-
doned. A very large proportion of the Irish debt
was represented by debentures, or, in other words,
by these Exchequer Bonds. An act of Parliament
was passed to convert, or enable the holders to
convert them all into the ordinary stock.
We have endeavoured to put our readers fully
in possession of the nature of this mischievous, and
at the same time peddling plan. We will demon-
strate when next we advert to it that the transfer
of any portion of our present liabilities into any
ono of the proposed substitutes would be attended
win the most serious injury to the nation. At
present we can only point attention to the one un-
precedented feature, which is sufficient to con-
demn the plan. The change of security is to be at
the option of the fundholder, and, if effected at all,
can only be effected in consequence of his persua-
sion that it benefits him at the national expense.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)

The success of the financial scheme which the
Chancellor of the Exchequer brought forward on
Friday night is a matter of great public im-
portance, while the tactics of Parliamentary fac-
tion excite at present but a limited interest. It
may; however; be ineide'ntally - remarked- that the
members of the late Government display a charac-
teristic want of judgment in treating a project for