The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-23 00:00:00

WAR AND FINANCE.

The country is at present so intent upon the war in
the Crimea, that it will not find time to attend to other
considerations. But everything in England is a money
question. And the state of the national finances cannot
long be disregarded.

Tilers is little doubt amongst many of the moat emi-
nent and right-judging of the London merchants and
bankers, as well as amongst those scientific persons who
have most deeply studied the monetary question, that
but for the unlooked-for flow of an enormous amount of
gold into this country from California and Australia, the
state of the country, during the last year, would have
been most calamitous. The efflux of gold to pay for
corn would have necessitated a contraction of the cir-
culating medium by the Bank of England and the
country bankers, and a panic worse than any we have
yet witnessed, inasmuch as free trade would have
facilitated the export of bullion, would have been the
result. Any resistance to Russian aggression would
have been, under such circumstances, out of the ques-
tion. Our sword must have slumbered peacefully in its
scabbard, for the simple reason that we should have
destinies of Europe have thus been made to
been unable to pay the expense of drawing it. The
gnooltd
stay
yt the
with depend on
the fortuitous discovery of the precious metal in
week, come
Cali-
fornia and Australia.
What are the present circumstances of the country 7
Large sums of bullion have, week afti r
into the country, frequently to the amount of nearly
Bank a
un
sk. has
it
,not
0 million,
asyeedt. still
ethe
bullion
nk
did
df
did not even pass through the Bank, but appeared
to leave the, country immediately
A. steady drain of bullion from y after its arrival.
m the Bank has thus set •
On January Ist, 1553, the Bullion
ment (which regulates the issue in the Issue Depart-
Ou 3i,ot December, 1853, it, h of notes) was 20,014,0051.
and by the return for _Oc ad declined to 15,180,0801.,
12,350,0331. tt•h7, 1854, it had sunk to
Consequently
which on Jai y 9 active circulation of notes
January 1, 1853, was
23,053 510/on De-
cember 3 -
1, 18J3 , 21,079,8601 and ' " was
return of
Oct. 7, 1554, only 19,9600151.•, by the
Money being thus made scarce,
e scarce, various heavy failures
have oc • in •
curled Liverpool and other places, and, to say
the least, a check is given to the prosperity of trade.
At a time, therefore, when it is of the greatest import-
ance to this country to maintain that commercial
prosperity which may keep up the revenue,. and enable
the people to bear the increased and increasing burden of
taxation, our whole financial system is dependent on the
quantity of gold which we may be able to retain in the
Bank coffers.
This is the result of Peel's monetary policy—a policy
which has done more harm to this nation than the mis-
takes of all the other shallow pretenders to stateinceano-_
ship put together, and which, but for the interfere lc
et
Provilence in revealing vast masses of gold
ver
__
ofb
this time, would have brought us to the very ge
ruin.
wil never
This policy, is so radically bad that it
for a time,l disarm
" come right. ' Circumstances may,
but onl a complete reform
it of a portion of its veno, .
I.—Deyrbyshire Courier. .
will remedy the enormousm evi

Dr. Evory Kennedy has been unanimously re-elected
president of the King am'. Queen's College of Physicians
in Ireland for the ensuing year.

NAVA-1, AND Mll.lI'AliY INTELLIGEY CE.

The Royal Albert, 121, screw, Captain Sir Thomas
Pasley, has nearly completed taking in her guns ; the
lower deck ones are now only wanting. The decks are
being planed, and her internal fittings finished.
The Victory, 104, Captain J. C. D. Hay, flag of Vice-
Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane, K.C.8., hoisted mast-
head garlands of flowers on Saturday, and was dressed
in honour of the 49th anniversary of the Battle of Tra-
falgar,
The screw steam-ship Exmouth, 91, having been cop-
pered, was taken out of Devonport dockyard on Friday
and placed in the floating basin ; her engines will be
tried in a few days.
The Ajax, 60, Captain Warden, and the Brisk, 14,
Captain Seymour, went into Portsmouth harbour on
Saturday to refit.
The frigate Thetis, 38, was placed in the stern dock in
Devonport dockyard on Saturday, to have her copper
examined. She is to be got ready with all despatch, so
as to enter the Baltic before the ice sets in.
The Curacoa, 31, new screw-frigate, Captain the Hon.
U. F. Hastings, will leave Portsmouth harbour for Spit-
head in a day or two.
ti The Eurydice, 26, Captain Ommanney, is reported as
about to leave Portsmouth for the West India station.
The Horatio, 2.2, screw, Commander Jenner, is in the
basin at Sheerness. She has been caulked inside and out,
and her copicrer examined in the dry dock. This vessel
carries ver7 heavy metal, and when finished no doubt
will be foY.- general service.
The Cossack, 21, screw-corvette, Captain Fanshawe,

is at 3-,er moorings over on the west shore at Sheerness.
She "is manned and coaled, we hear, and only waiting
deg,nitive Admiralty orders. It is, however, generally
bfJlieved the Black Sea will be her sstination.
The Tartar, 20, screw, has arrived at Chatham from
Woolw.ich, to be fitted for sea.
It is reported that the crew of the Leopard, 18, pad-
dle-wheel frigate, will be turned over to the Dauntless
to make up the complement of that ship, which has been
reduced by a draught to make up the crew of the Co-
lossu.s.

The Harrier, 17, screw, Commander Storey, will ge
out of Portsmouth Harbour te-morow, and, after testing
her qualities and speed, will anchor at Spithead, take in
her powder and shell, and await orders.
After the screw corvette Miranda, 15, Captain E.
`ilyons, left Plymouth Sound for the Black Sea on Friday
evening she lost a man overboard, about four miles S.W.
of name Head, during a smart breeze from the N.W.
The ship was immediately hove to, and the cutter and
jolly boat sent in search ; by the former the man was
rescued with a boat hook just as he was sinking. Ho
had been some time in the water, and his recovery was
doubtful. While hove to, the Miranda's starboard side
was driven by the flood tide, against the port bow of the
fishing smack Two Brothers, and carried away her bow-
split and jib. Fearing, from the water she took in, that
she would go down, the owner, Jabes Burt, and his boy
scrambled up on the port of the Miranda. The smack
fell aft, and the flange of the steamer's screw cut her rode
in two. Captain Lyons sent Burt in the jolly boat,
ender charge of an officer, who, finding the smack still
seaworthy, reinstated him, and the ship proceeded.
Port Admiral Sir William Parker is attending to the
repairs of the Two Brothers. Two of the Miranda's men
are under hospital treatment ; one had both. hands blown
off while loading a gun to salute the Impregnable on
Thursday ; the other lost a thumb in stopping the vent
of a gun on the same occasion.
The brig Nautilus, 10, Lieutenant-Commander Dol-
ling, went into winter quarters in Hamoaze on Friday.
Tile Swallow, 8, screw sloop, Commander Craufurd,
left Spithead on Saturday for Gibraltar.
The Morayshire, hired transport, having a full cargo
of victualling stores for the Black Sea fleet, sailed from
Portsmouth on Saturday.
A sailing transport arrived at Spithead yesterday
afternoon from the westward.
A French steam sloop put in at Spithead yesterday
afternoon from stress of weather.