The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-03 00:00:00

DAILY WEATHER TABLE,

SATURDAY, SEPT. 3, 1853.
State of the wind and weather at each of the following
places at nine o'clock yesterday morning. The stations
are arranged in order of latitude.
SOUTHAMPTON—S.W., gentle breeze—overceast.
FOLKESTONE—W., gentle breeze -overcast.
T2UNBRIDGE—N.W., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
'GREENWICH—W., gentle breeze—overcast.
STROOD—W., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
SWINDON—N.W., light breeze—rain.
CAMBRIDGE—N., gentle breeze—small rain.
BIRMINGHAM—N., gentle breeze—rain
YARMOUTH—W., strong breeze- cloudy.
The returns from the following places indicate the state
of the weather on Thursday morning at nine o'clock :
PORTSMOUTH—S.W., strong breeze—rain.
SOUTHAMPTON S.W, gentle breeze—overcast.
FOLKESTONE—S.W., strong breeze—overcast.
'GREENWICH—S.W., gentle breeze—partially cloudy.
STROOD—S., gentle breeze -partially cloudy.
SwirinoN—W., calm—partially cloudy.
CAMIMIDGE—S., gentle breeze--cloudy.
BD3.MINGHAM—S.W., gentle breeze—overcast.
YARMOUTH—S., strong breeze—heavy rain.
euEwE—E., gentle breeze—overcast.
-!ciOLYHEAD—S.W., strong breeze—rain.
WHITBY—calm—rain.
DARLINGTON—E.S.E., gentle breeze—overcast.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tara Der —Morning 50 min. after 1 I Evening 10 min.aft. 2
To-Moaaow —Morning 28 min. after 2 I Evening 45 min.aft. 2

THE WEATHER.—Sux OFFICE, SEPT. 3.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
61—highest since noon yesterday.
48—lowest this morning and during tho night.
62—this day at noon.
BAROMETER, 30.19—a rise of nearly half an inch since
yesterday.
It is new moon to-day at noon, and promi sea fine
weather.
WIND, W.N.W. to N.W.—Smart breeze, and cloudy,
with suusVine. It blew a heavy gale last night, with rain.

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§IA,II.

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1853.

Seldom has the aphoristic phrase of TAOITUS,
pessimum genus laudantes, meaning,
of course, that flatterers are, of all enemies, the
most dangerous, been more strikingly verified
than it was on Thursday evening, on the occasion
of the Cutlers' Annual Feast, at Sheffield. If
everything that was there said in a complimentary
manner in reference to the local trade were to be
believed, the credit of the town was never more
I'-ippily or more securely established. Whereas,
:;if anything that was said by way of disparagement
Were to be admitted as correct, we should neces-
Sarily be compelled to regard the reputation of the
place as being, on the contrary, at this moment ix
the greatest jeopardy. A glance at the reported
'proceedings of Thursday evening will demon-
strate at once the force and justice of these ob-
servations. It will be perceived from the speeches
there delivered in the presence of the Master
Cutler, on the occasion of his solemn inaugura-
tion, a ceremony rendered doubly remarkable
this year by the circumstance of his occupying at
the same time the post of Local Chief Magistrate,
that some of the orators ventured upon words of
'iming, while others contented themselves with
p,iving utterance only to the language of congratu-
lation. The latter circumstance was possibly, how-
ever, inevitable from the courtly nature of the
toasts successively introduced. It was only rea-
sonable, indeed, that agreeable and encouraging
sentiments should have been alone expressed
response to addreses in which were amiably
vulogiFied. the Duke of NORFOLK and the House of
EDWARD, the Earl FITZWILLIAM and the House
Of -WENTWORTH, the Lord WHARNCLIFFE and the
la'ause of WORTLEY. Besides it can only be re-
garded as natural that the position of Sheffield
'should be painted quite couleur de rose by the open-
hearted guests who spoke in the hearing of the re-
rend historian of Hallamshire. It was simply
there fore, in accordance with what might alone
4.4ve been •• •
anticipated, that Lord EDWARD How-
tvistba for example, gratified the pride of
aZtussasseitustabilletcl cutlers, including wardens, searchers,
dr,ubt notes, by his excessively cordial, and we
Happily, theeerdingly welcome, felicitations.
day at these festeivWitre others present on Thurs-
res who hazarded a few whole-
some hints in the
Warningwayasoft adidce as to the present,
and even of
o the future. Mr. ROE-
MUCK, for example,
ventured in this manner a
corrective reflection, even thou(th, as he himself
acknowledged, at the risk of beingb considered " a
pains, He re-
death's head at a feast" for bis
eveenXistillg
minded his hearers that although.
prosrperity was undoubted, although
Wars every prospect of its further continuance there
still it might cease ! He explained to them
that it might cease, moreover, from two
causes—either from within or from without,
eith.er from our own conduct, or from
the conduct of parties abroad. A service
'ole reminder, and one which, doubtless, sug-
gested to Mr. W. A. MATTHEWS, both Master
Cutler and Mayor of Sheffield, his subsequent
reference to some rather unpalatable remarks
Made the other day in the course of an agricul-
tv,ral dinner at Gloucester by Lord ASHBURTON.
it was then remarked by that Nobleman, that in
the articles of cutlery and edgetools, the town of
Sheffield was notoriously losing its reputation.
Alluding to this assertion, the Master Cutler, it
is to-ue, gave the Noble Lord's remark a dccidcd
an d positive contradiction. Yet, in the very act
t't doing so, he blundered into an unintentional
.Justification of it. Nevertheless, " Lord ASH-
- s remark," he said "might be true in some
denial ofvidual
tcases. "
heßemeuler—this after a distinct
accuracy
Were told," add of the statement. " They
Axnericana beate(L the Master Cutler, " that the
_e
_Sheffield manufacturers in
certain articles, an
A rather large admission
he must admit was true."
and one, let us observe,
by no, means satisfacton' Ou further explana-
tion it appears, indeed, io
edthe Master Cutler's
own showing, that this arllem
fariority of Sheffield goods,g.wheanmicoarecipmairti
dwith-
.
the goodsmanufact ured by the cutlersof

an inferiority in the material and not in the
i workmanship, and that it has especial reference to
sedge-tools ! Upon this the Mayor and Master
ICutler of Sheffield remarked on Thursday—" The
manufacturer of edge-tools in America invariably
used the best steel that Sheffield produced regard-
less of price ; while some of the Sheffield manu-
facturers were aiming at a greater profit by
making a cheaper article from inferior material"—
adding—" it was not in workmanship, but in the
use of the best material that the Americans
gained any superiority." Does not that
very consideration render the conduct of
these Sheffield manufacturers only the more,
instead of making it the less, reprehensible ?
The superiority of American edge-tools, recollect,
is a superiority of material, and not of workman-
ship. And that very material is derived by the
cutlers of the United States from Sheffield—the
Sheffield manufacturers (let us give the deplo-
rable admission of the Master Cutler over again)
aiming at a greater profit by making a cheaper
article from inferior material ! Why, after this,
no one can marvel if the American razor
is preferred by the close-shaver, if the
American scissors are selected by the sempstress,
if the American scythe is taken by the mower,
and the American sickle by the reaper, and the
American lancet by the surgeon—instead of what
were formerly unrivalled in the trade, the
razors, the scissors, the scythes, the sickles,
and the lancets of Sheffield. No wonder if the
backwoodsman chooses the axe, and the adze, and
the pruning-knife, and the bill-hook of the United '
States to those manufactured in the workshops
of Hallamshire. It is another example of
the suicidal effect of following out the penny-
wise and the pound-foolish principle. It is a false
economy of the better material in the foolish
hope of securing larger profit. With this melan-
choly confession before us from the Master Cutler
himself, we cannot for the life of us comprehend how
Lord A SHBURTON can be pronounced rash or pre-
cipitate, much less how he can be viewed as un-
just or inaccurate, in declaring that in edge-tools
Sheffield is losing her reputation. It will be fortu-
nate for that time-honoured capital of cutlery, if
the enterprise of its manufacturers be revived by
the serious reflections consequent upon this rather
startling acknowledgment. A revival of energy
the more requisite, for the maintenance of
the prosperity of Sheffield, now that Aus-
tralia is being rapidly peopled under the in-
fluence of wholesale colonisation now that
England in this, as in her other world-famous
manufactures, has the prospect opened to her of
some 300,000,000 or 400,000,000 fresh cus-
tomers consequent upon the triumph of the
Chinese Revolutionists.

Another attempt has been made to reduce the
circulating medium of the country—another effort
to arrest the tide of national prosperity ; to di-
minish the wages of labour, and thus to lower the
demand for, and, as a natural consequence, the
prices of the various articles of comfort and com-
parative luxury which have recently been placed
within the reach of the working classes. It would
almost seem as if the great desideratum were to
screw down the condition of the industrious po-
pulation of the country to the " starvation point,"
to take care that there is no chance of those who
earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow
"waxing fat " or " kicking." The Directors of
the Bank of England are anxious to prove them-
selves hard task-masters, grinding down the poor
and needy to the very utmost, and to the best of
their power playing the game of the moneyocracy.
With this view they have once more followed up
the blows they have been inflicting at intervals
since the beginning of the year, and on Thursday the
" official" announcement was made at the break-
ing up of the Bank Parlour of the increase of the
minimum rate of discount from 3i to 4 per cent.
The same extraordinary prescience displayed
on several former occasions, was manifested in
various instances in the present movement. If
distinct intimation had been given to certain
individuals of the intention, they could not have
operated with greater confidence. It must, how-
ever, have been either unequalled sagacity, or
some mysterious power of vaticination belonging
to the successful operators ; for it would clearly
be unjust to suspect for a single moment such
highly honourable men, or even a single member
of the Board, of such undue favouritism as deli-
berately hinting the intention, or such weakness
as letting it " leak out" beyond the precincts of
the Sacred Chamber. The public only know that
the valuable secret was in some manner discovered,
that good use was made of the early information,
and that the accuracy of the opinion thus acted
on was established in due course.

But it may be asked, as it has repeatedly been
on former occasions, why should not the Directors
of the Bank of England be entitled to charge such
rate of interest as they may think proper for the
use of their money, the only commodity in which
they deal ? and why should they be bound to
look in any degree beyond the interests of their
constituents, by whom they have been elected,
and the only parties to whom they are account-
able for their transactions ? In support of these
views it has been stated, and with some degree of
justice, that the duty, and indeed the power, of
regulating the national currency, of contracting or
expanding the circulation of the country, was com-
pletely taken away by the Act of 1844, which pro-
fessed to establish a self-acting regulator—an auto-
matical action that would dispense with any dis-
cretion or exertion on the part of the Directors,
and that consequently they were only responsible
to the proprietary for their proceedings, their
duty being to obtain the highest rate of interest
practicable under the circumstances of the money
market. There would be some foundation for
this argument were it not fo: the character of quasi
nationality still appertaining to the Leviathan
Establishment—the exclusive privileges which
still confer upon it a species of monopoly, and
prevent the possibility of "free trade" in banking.
If the Bank Charter were repealed, or suffered to
expire in due course, there would, of course, be
no possible objection to the Directors doing what
they liked with the enormous funds placed under
their control and management. But while they exer-
cise such extraordinary influence on monetary
affairs, owing to the restrictions on other banks,
they cannot possibly rely on any defence founded
on the supposed private character of their estab-
lishment.

A brief sketch of the recent advances may be
acceptable to the general reader, and enable
him to form a more minute judgment of the
step just taken. At the commencement of the
present year, the Bank charge for discount was
only 2 per cent. It had been gradually dimi-
nished from the time when, in October, 1847, it
was, in obedience to the celebrated letter from
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and Sir CHARLES WOOD,
which virtually suspended the Bank Charter Act,
raised to the exorbitant and usurious rate of 8
per
cent. The Directors had contested every re-
duction, holding on at the higher rates until they
found that they were under-bid by parties out of
doors ; that they were were rapidly losing their prestige,
being followingA in place of leading, other dealers
the spirit
unless they were prepared
to conform. to
minds
of the times, they should
make up their
to meet their proprietors
with a lower dividend,ns
cheap price of monetary The good effects of the
speedily perceptible. TairYle accommodation was
over-caution—thei re-
remains of the commercial crisis
fullysis of 1847 passed
away—the working-classes
em
ove
employed at
prd,
errs as
reinu n erative wages—the revenue had
and was still improving, and "all :d cut im
me
a marriage bell." This slate of affairs was too
good to last. The Directors, by way of a
" Christmas-box" to the creators and producer;,
of national wealth, struck the first blow, '4
At the termination of the holidays—during the-
first week of the New Year they raised the price
of money 25 per cent., or, in other words, from 2
to 2i- per cent. These complaints at this uncalled-
for interference with the national industry were
loud and general. It was said that the other
dealers would not follow in the same direction,
and that the magnates of Threadneedle-street
would speedily be compelled to retrace their foot-
steps. The Directors were, however, determined.
They speedily followed the first onslaught, ands

within the same month of January—indeed
in 14 days, from the 6th to the 20th—they made
a further advance of 20 per cent., or from 2. to
3 per cent. Thus it stood for some months.
Despite the formidable attack thus made, the tide
of prosperity continued flowing. It is not easy
to dry up the channels of industry that have been
opened in propitious seasons. The working classes
were still kept fully occupied, and everything still
went on so smoothly that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, the "smartest chap" of the Adminis-
tration of all the Talents, was encouraged to
try his celebrated, although abortive, experi-
ment to diminish the rate of interest of
the National Debt. The time was fixed with-
in which the options should be made, when
on the very eve of the appointed day the
rate was again increased by 16 2-3ds per cent.,
or from 3to 3-1- per cent. The great financial
operation was thus marred—the saving to the
nation was thus prevented. The Directors evinced
for themselves a strong claim on the gratitude of
the defeated GLADSTONE. Once more, and, ac-
cording to our humble judgment, more than once
too often, they have repeated the dangerous
experiment. Again, raising the rate from
31 to 4 per cent. ; and let it be borne
in mind that this last increase, making the
rate as high as it ever had been ix ade, was made
at a time when, according to the latest returns,
they had more than 17,00-0;000/. of bullion in
their coffers, and there were 7,644,880/. in notes
unemployed, or more than three millions and a
half sterling beyond the reserve generally con-
sidered essential for the banking operations of the
" ancient lady." These matters will have to be
fully explained on a fitting opportunity. The
time will arrive when an adequate expiation must
be endured, when the Directors will find it diffi-
cult to persuade a Parliamentary Committee that
the Chinese insurrection (!), or the general em-
ployment of the working classes (! 0, or the ship-
ments to Australia a ! !) afforded sufficient grounds
for such an uncalled-for and injudicious proceeding.

COURT CIRCULAR.

DUBLIN, SEPT. 1.

Her Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince Albert
visited the Exhibition yesterday morning, and in the
afternoon were present at a review of the troops of the
garrison under the command of Sir Edward Blakeney.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert also visited the
Model Lodging Houses, attended by Sir Edward
Borough, and inspected the Pub'ic Baths and Wash-
houses recently erected.
The following had the honour of dining with her Ma-
jesty yesterday :—The Lord-Lieutenant and Countess of
St. Germans, Earl Granville, the Duchess of Welling-
ton, the Marquis of Breada'bane, the Marquis of Bath,
the Earl and Countess of Mayo, the Earl and Countess
Clonmel, the Earl of Listowel, Viscount and Vis-
countess Monck, Viscountess Forbes, Lord and Lady
Clarina, Lord and Lady Talbot de Malahide, the Hon.
Miss Bulteel, the Chief-Justice of the Court of Common
Pleas and Mrs. Monahan, and the Attorney-General.

Dispatches were sent from the Colonial-office yester•
day to the Governor-General of Canada and the Go.
vernors of the other North American provinces.

THE ROYAL CHILDREN IN SCOTLAND.

The Royal party, embracing the Princess Royal, the
Princess Alice, the Princess Helena, with Colonel Bid-
dulph, Miss Hillyard, and Madame Roland, with at-
tendants, arrived at the Stonehaven station of the
Aberdeen Railway at a quarter past one on Thursday.
They were accompanied by several of the directors of
the railway, who had proceeded to Forfar in the morn-
ing to receive them. The station was very beautifully
decorated and converted into neat reception and dining
rooms for the occasion. The party, after partaking of
an elegant luncheon prepared by Mr. Douglass, of the
Douglass Hotel, Aberdeen, proceeded in carriages by the
Slug, or mountain, road, to Banchory, on their way to
Balmoral, which they would reach not later than half-
past seven the same evening. The stay at Stonehaven
occupied about half an hour.

CRYSTAL PALACE.