The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-01 00:00:00

INUIT WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.

rd., DA —Morning 41 min. afterl2 Evening 1 miu.aft.
To-Monnow—loraing 23 min. alter 1 Evening 41 1

TEE WEATTIEII.—Sine Ovrat, Ocr. 1.
TrIERMOIEETER, IN THE SHADE.
61. -highest since noon yesterday.
50 --lowest this morning and during the night.
62 —this day at noon.

BAROMETER, 29.16.
WIND, N. - Moderate breeze, and cloudy weather.

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q.tt a r
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LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1853.

Scarcely less uncertainty has been felt of late
in regard to the movement of our fleets than has
hitherto been prevalent in reference to the pro-
gress of our diplomatic negotiations. It is a cir-
cumstance deeply to be regretted both as affects
the tranquillity of the public mind, and the repu-
tation of her MAJESTY'S Government. Nor do
thus by reason of our failing to appre-
we speak
ciate the necessity of discretion on the part of
our Administrators in not allowing their acts to
transpire prematurely. It is one thing, however,
to observe a due amount of caution, and another
to provoke suspicion, and unnecessarily to pro-
tract suspense, by preserving at all hazard an
obdurate, and mysterious, and irritating tacitur-
nity. Instead of advantage resulting from this
over-care on the part of a Cabinet, evil must inevi-
tably be the only consequence. Agitation must
prevail upon 'Change. Doubt must paralyse the
energies of commerce. Hesitation and delay must
necessarily exercise a prejudicial influence over
the Money Market, causing a correspondent de-
pression in the Funds—that great political baro-
meter. Such, in fact, have been the inevitable
results of the recent secrecy maintained by Minis-
ters in reference to almost everything relating to
the Russo-Turkish difficulty. Naturally enough
that secrecy has given rise to all kinds of ru-
mours and reports, statements and counter-state-
ments. Deprived of all regular and authentic
information, the people have reasonably enough
had recourse to conjectures however vague, and
day-dreams however illusory. Besides which,
the unfortunate results of this uncertainty in
the public mind have been deplorably en-
hanced by the conflicting assertions made by the
different organs of the Administration. In this
particular, however, we are only gathering
the inevitable fruits of the Coalition. We are
collecting the harvest of difficulties, as we
scattered the seeds of confusion. If we have
sown the storm, we are reaping the whirlwind.
A Cabinet, the members of which represent such
diametrically opposite opinions, must needs, of
course, carry on the affairs of the country thus
confusedly. It is what could alone have been
(by any rational man at least) anticipated. Con-
struct a Government of Liberals and Peelites,
Radicals and Conservatives, and you must ex-
pect to find its councils divided, at least, some-
times. Consign the Premiership to an Under-
Secretary of M. GuizoT, and a man whose judg-
ment is notoriously influenced by Russian predi-
lections—give the Home-office at the same
time to a thoroughly English Minister—pro-
mote an Advocate for "large measures" of re-
form to the Admiralty—appoint a ruler with-
out a wish for Parliamentary innovation to
the Chancellorship of the Exchequer and
then expect matters to go on satisfactorily. If
any one does, under the circumstances, then is he
more sanguine than the believer in Utopia, or than
CASEY'S latest emigrant to Icarie. Mem-
bers of a Coalition like the one now dominant
in England, must by necessity blow hot and cold
upon certain subjects, and differ from each other
in regard to the policy most advisable to be
adopted by her MAJESTY'S Government.
That Ministers have actually so differed in re-
ference to the Russo-Turkish difficulty must have
been long ago apparent to the mass of the popula-
tion. Otherwise we should never have witnessed
these confused accounts of the movement of our
fleets, and of the progress of our negotiations. A
,decided policy would have been long since adopted.
.A resolute bearing would have been displayed to-
wards the Russian AUTOCRAT. A faithful adher-
ence to our Turkish ally would have characterised
'our conduct towards the Divan at Constantinople.
Instead of shuffiing we should have been con-
sistent. We should have revealed promptitude,
instead of procrastination. England, in fact,
would have acted from first to last as became the
pride and glory of her reputation. All this—if
the views of her Administrators had not been
deplorably divided ! That, however,. they have
been unhappily. Discord has interfered with
the proper working of our diplomacy—as was,
indeed, inevitable with a Cabinet presided
over: by an ABERDEEN', and yet comprising within
its limits a CLARANDON, a GRAHAM, and a PAL-
MERSTON. It is, we believe, in our heart of
heirts, the malific influence of an effete but

ob-stanate Premier that has acted upon the
councils of her Britannic MAJESTY thus pre-
judicially. Of the manly sentiments entertained
by the Leader of the House of Commons during

this emergency, we have become tolerably well
acquainted now that the people of Greenock have '
been addressed by Lord JOHN RUSSELL. As to
the patriotic and energetic temperament of the
present Home Secretary, that is well known
to the country at large from all the ante-
cedents of Lord PALMERSTON. The Admi-
ralty, moreover, is fortunately presided over
at the existing crisis by a statesman no less
resolute and gifted with capacity than Sir
JAMES GRAHAM : while the seals of the Foreign-
office are in the safe keeping of an administrator
like the Earl of CLARENDON, one no less able
than he is chivalrous. Allow rulers such as these
to follow somewhat more freely the bias of their
inclinations, and England would not much longer
have cause to lament the indecision of the Cabinet
on its subserviency to the Russian Government.
Relieve the Ministry from the incubus of a Pre-
mier predisposed to truckle to the AUTOCRAT, and
Englishmen would not much longer find reason to
bewail the timidity and weakness of the Coalition.
Lord STRATFORD would not then send. to Besika
Bay for merely one or two ships-of-war, but
would promptly demand the attendance of the
whole fleet at Constantinople. Admiral Dux-
DAs would not despatch the fleet under
his command simply piecemeal through the
Dardanelles. We should not be left in doubt
as to whether the Channel fleet under Admiral
CORRY had set sail from Queenstown on a mere
excursion, or on a warlike mission to the Baltic
or the Mediterranean. The Emperor NICHOLAS
would find his lawless ambition opposed, not by
querulous remonstrances or timorous repre-
sentations, but by the might and energy
of an indignant and determined Govern-
ment. When may these desirable dreams
be realised ? How long are the destinies of Eng-
land to be abandoned to the whim, the passion, or
the prejudice, of the "travelled Thane," the "dear"
and " excellent" Athenian ? Quousque tandem ? A
nation yearns for the reply—a people with their
reputation compromised, and their patience nearly
exhausted.

The favourable reaction on the Stock Exchange,
to which we alluded in our impression of Thurs-
day, still continues. The disgraceful panic which
for a short time prevailed, before the opinions of
bona fide holders of stocks and shares could be
ascertained, is greatly allayed, if not altogether
subsided. The Bears have discovered that Eng-
lishmen are not quite so gullible as they had sup-
posed, and that although some few persons rushed
into the snares laid for their reception, the great
majority wisely abstained from playing the game
of their unconscientious opponents. Nay more,
there was an abundance of money in readiness to
sustain the market, and to prevent any undue
sacrifices of valuable property. One energetic
effort was made to keep up the excite-
ment, and to send prices down, but happily
its effect lasted but for a short time, and
only a temporary check was given to the gene-
ral buoyancy. The ill-timed movement of the
Bank Directors will not, however, speedily be
forgotten, and it is difficult to say whether the
very unexpected rise in the minimum rates of
discount created greater surprise or indignation
in the public mind. Even those who have here-
tofore supported the Threadneedle-street magnates
—who applauded their prudence and foresight (!)
and were enchanted at their systematic and in-
cessant attempts to reduce the circulating medium
and increase the value of money, are beginning
to grumble at the unprecedented lengths to
which they have proceeded. The Leviathan
itself—organ of the Moneyocracy though it be—
has, for once, spoken out, and questioned the pro-
priety of the regulation that places such extraor-
dinary power in the hands of a few individuals,
who, generally speaking, have their own views to
carry out—their own peculiar interests to look to.
In the City Article of the Times of yesterday we
find the following :—" The violent fluctuations in
Consols, caused by the Bank announcement, in-
volved many parties in serious losses, and was
urged as another proof of the inexpediency of
fixed rates being published from time to time, in-
stead of the charge for accommodation being left,
as it is in other banking establishments, to be re-
gulated by the daily wants of the public." Our
contemporary is right. It is the quasi official
character given to these announcements, in conse-
quence of the connexion of the " Old Lady" with
the Government, that occasions the mischief thus
referred to. If there was no attempt to regulate
the nationalpurrency—if the Bank was but a private
establishment, looking solely to its own interests
and trying to employ its money to the best advan-
tage, we should never interfere with the discretion
exercised by the Directors, however injuriously
it might operate for the general body. They
would have a right to act as they thought proper,
and to obtain the highest rates of discount that
would be submitted to by the applicants for pecu-
niary accommodation. But their position, while
it confers extraordinary privileges, carries with
it corresponding obligation. If " property has its
duties as well as its rights," the assets of the Bank
of England are peculiarly bound, and the general
welfare of the national prosperity must be re-
garded by the Managers, in dealing with these
assets, with as great attention as the more ina,
mediate interests of the proprietors of Stock, and
if that sacred obligation should be lost sight of,
they should be forthwith divested of the exclusive
privileges which have been conferred on them in
consideration of the responsibility thus assumed.

Of all the movements hitherto made, none,
with the exception, perhaps, of that taken to de-
feat the effort of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
—none have been so palpably erroneous, so decidedly
mischievous as the present, by which, for the third
time within the month of September, they have
increased the interest by one-half per cent.,
making from the Ist to the 29th of the month a
charge amounting to nearly 43 per cent., or 150
per cent. on the rates charged in the beginning of
January. The additional turn to the screw—the
further difficulty imposed on the trading community
—could not be required for the purpose of checking
undue speculation, or of preventing the market
from being flooded with foreign loans, particularly
those to Austria and Russia, which have chiefly
been referred to. It is not very probable that
anything connected with either of these
countries would have been meddled with in
the present unsettled state of the political
horizon and of the Eastern difficulty, if the
Directors had reduced in place of enhancing the
rate of discount. No, it was the rally on the
Stock Exchange that was to be discouraged—it
was the parties purchasing corn, so that the wants
of the people might be supplied at something less
than famine prices, who were to be checked in
their operations. These were the objects of the
movement, and although the intended effects
have not been produced, it is not the Bank
Directors who are to be thanked for the
failure, but the energy and determination of
the people, combined with the wonderful indus-
trial resources of the empire.
They " manage these things better in France."
In monetary affairs, as well as in many others,
our continental brethren have great advantages
over the " nation of shopkeepers." During all
the changes in England—during the entire period
in which the rate of discount in England has been
advanced from 2 to 5 per cent., the entire vari-
ation by the Bank of France has been only from
, 3i to 4 per cent. The difference of steadiness
being as 150 to 12 1-3 d per cent. But there
the directors do not encourage wild specu-
lation in the first instance, for the purpose
of turning the tables and ruining the speculators
who have been encouraged to embark in under-
takings on the faith of the abundance of money
and the low rate of pecuniary accommodation.
Therefore the people avoid the evils to which we
are subjected, notwithstanding that they are less
favourably circumstanced in other respects.
These matters must, however, be kept in recol-
lection when the question of the renewal of the
Bank Charter comes on for discussion, and when
the loss to the community of nearly a million ster-
ling through the defeat of the financial project
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer is to be pro-
vided for. Mr. GLADSTONE has a substantial
grievance to avenge. He feels the injury inflicted
1 on his character as a financier, and he will not

permit the parties responsible for that loss to
escape without a striking token of his thorough
recognition of the part they have acted in the
political drama.

England versus Tuscany again. A British sub-
ject being this time the subject of the dispute.
The press has taken it up rather warmly, and be-
tween banter of the Martyr and abuse of the
Duke has argued the case in pretty spicy style.
It is a nice topic now that topics run rather short.
The simple question is. What ought to be done to
Miss CUNNINGHAM for violating Tuscan laws, by
distributing Bibles and Protestant Tracts ? The
facts are not only not denied, but even gloried in
by the lady. The arrest is no mistake of some
over-zealous officials, but the Grand Duke himself
consigns her to due course of law. His Grace,
Excellency, Highness, or whatever be his style
and title, the ruler of considerably less than two
millions of disaffected Italians, most coolly locks
up in a Tuscan gaol one of the eight-and-twenty
millions of Queen VICTORIA'S heartily attached
subjects, and says he will have his pound of flesh.
This is brave any how. Not, perhaps, quite so
much so as it appears at first sight, seeing British
Statesmen have of late borne the snubbing of
European Potentates, from an EMPEROR of Russia
to a QUEEN of Spain, with marvellous quietness.
The Duke, moreover, has a strong case. May
he not make laws in his own dominions ? May
he not enforce them when made ? If foreigners
come there unasked, may he not require them to
obey the laws ? Do not other States ? Do not
Englishmen themselves establish a religion, and
make such laws as they deem best for its conser-
vation ? If the Royal Jupiters set such an ex-
ample, why may not a Ducal homunculus carry it
out to the full?

Yes, the indignant advocates of the lineal de-
scendant of JOHN KNox (for such are Miss CUN-
NINGHAME'S heraldic honours) exclaim, but your
law itself is infamous, a scandal to Christendom
That, the Duke may reply, is my business ; or
mine and that of my subjects at least. Persuade
us to alter it if you like ; keep out of Tuscany if
it does not suit you ; but come here and obey it,
or come and disobey it, and bear the penalty with-
out complaint. It were certainly difficult to reply
to the Duke. Most difficult of all for a sturdy
Presbyterian, whose creed still embodies tho-
/ oughlypersecuting formulas in regard to Episcopacy
and Catholicism, however much the strength of dis-
s-nt may have reduced them practically to harmless
words. In fact, the whole question runs up to one
which most who unsparingly abuse the Duke, would
be slow to answer in the negative. That is, has the
State a right to protect or to further the interests
of Religion ? How many Englishmen, and how
many Irish Protestants and Scotch Presbyterians
would deny this ? Yet it follows, most logically,
and practically too, that the Duke only applies the
principle with consistent rigidity. He will use
the whole force of law in behalf of what he deems
the true Religion. He will not merely discourage
false religion by irritating exclusions, not merely
forward the true by endowing and patronising it
at the cost of the false : he will exclude the false
altogether. As false religion is acknowledged to
be injurious to the State, he deals with it as with
other crimes—he will, so far as in him lies; have
none of it in Tuscany. In a word, there is no
consistent standing-ground between thorough-
going Religious Equality and thorough-going ex-
clusion of all false religion.
Of course, it will be seen that we deem both the
Duke and his prisoner in the wrong. That " who-
ever shall circulate works hostile to the Roman
Catholic faith, with the view of seducing any
member from that communion, shall be condemned
to the House of Correction, and subjected to hard
labour for a period not less than five nor more
than ten years," is a most unrighteous and cruel
law, we need not waste words to prove. On the
other hand, it should need none to prove that Miss
CUNNINGHAM; knowing of the law, ought either
to have obeyed it, or to have made up her mind
to the treadmill. It will be observed that she did
not endeavour, like a primitive Christian when
his faith was persecuted, quietly and secretly to
spread her views of truth ; she openly distributed
her tracts and books, apparently desirous to pro-
claim her contempt for the Duke and his law.
No doubt Miss C. is tolerably safe from any
serious inconvenience. Mr. SCABLETT and the
American Charge d'Affaires have done their ut-
most ; the Grand Duke and his Duchess too re-
fuse to interfere, but the Ministers look upon the
matter in a more business point of view, and will,
it is said, have the Martyr tried and released by a
pardon from martyrdom at once. We must re-
peat our wish, as in the case of the MADIAIS, that
English Catholics would more generally sustain
the rights of Protestants in Catholic States. The
disgraceful laws of Tuscany and Spain are uni-
versally and justly attributed to the influence of the
priesthood ; and these repeated exemplifications of
the working of Roman Catholicism unchecked tend
more than anything else to keep up the No Popery
cry in this country. Memorials from liberal
English Catholics, praying for liberties in Tuscany
for Protestants such as Catholics enjoy here,
would be far more useful eventually, than the
suggested visit to Florence of the Duke of Wel-
ington or the Agamemnon.