The Sun.
London, England, 1854-02-11 00:00:00

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LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 1854,

Saith the Earl of ABERDEEN, Prime Minister of
England, though an octogenarian—" I for one
deny that war is inevitable. . . . I do not aban-
don the hope of peace. . . . Please GOD, no effort
shall be spared on my part to preserve it." Re-
markable words, uttered not in 1853, but in
1854—not eleven months ago, but last evening
in the House of Lords, on the 10th of February.
Uttered while the people of this country still
have in remembrance the failure, again and yet
again, of the Vienna Conference. Uttered with the
blue book still damp from the press, half-thumbed,
in the hands of our legislators, both elected and here-
ditary—the blue book, recounting the whole of
those egregious blunders of modern diplomacy which
have illustrated the melancholy history, extending
back from the massacre at Sinope to the silver
star at Bethlehem ! No wonder the Earl of
DERBY intimated his belief, yesterday, that no
one participated in the hope still cherished by the
First Lord of the Treasury—no, not one single
individual among the vast masses of the popula-
tion.

It is tolerably well certain by this time, that
within a comparatively brief period Ministers
will come down to the House of Commons for the
purpose of demanding pecuniary aid from the
votes of the assembled representatives. An assur-
ance that such a step would sooner or later be
taken was given to the country, it will not be
forgotten, at the close of the second paragraph of
her MAJESTY'S Gracious Speech from the Throne,
a paragraph ending with this candid and resolute
avowal—" I think it requisite to make a further
augmentation of my Naval and Military Forces,
with the view of supporting my repre-
sentations." Later on, moreover, her MA-
JESTY'S Speech added, with considerable signi-
ficance, in the sentence addressed exclusively to
the Gentlemen of the House of Commons—" The
estimates of the year will be laid before you, and
I trust- you will find that, consistently with, the
exigencies of the public service at this juncture,
they have been framed with a due regard to eco-
, n_omy." Nevertheless, with these explicit
declarations fresh in our memory from the
lips of the SOVEREIGN, the Premier avows that
war is not inevitable, that peace may still
be regarded as within the scope of anticipation,
and that for his part he shall spare no effort that
may lead to its preservation. Fatuity such as
this in a First Minister of the Crown was, per-
haps, never before surpassed, or possibly even
paralleled in the annals of Constitutional Govern-
ment. With the Russian
Ambassador M. DE
BRUNOW, recalled from the Court of St. James's,
and the Russian Ambassador, M. DE KISSELEFF
recalled from the Court of the Tuileries'
—with the British Minister, Sir HAMILTON
SEYMOUR, and the French Minister, General DE
CA STBLBAJAC, instructed to take their departure
forthwith from the Court of the Russian AUTOCRAT
• at St. Petersburg—with the diplomatic relations
thus manifestly interrupted, with the combined
fleets in the Black Sea, and the probability at
almost any moment of our hearing accounts of a
naval action in the direction of Batoum, or of
Varna, or even of Sebastopol—the Earl of ABER-
DEEN insists that war isnot even now inevitable ; that
• peace maystill be secured; and that, "please GOD,"
he shall spare no effort on his part to promote it !
All the while actiTe measures are being adopted on

both sides of the British Channel to prepare the
two countries allied in the vindication of Turkish
independence for any emergency that may result
from still pending occurrences--to prepare them,
that is to say, in a sort of supplementary manner,
for already neither France nor England
were perhaps ever before in so marvellous a
state of warlike preparation. Evidences of
these yet further precautionary measures may be
recognised at once both in the military and in the
maritime departments of the Allied Governments.
Looking nearer home than our Gallic neighbours,
and to the latest of these signs of a tardy vigour
of determination, we observe the orders trans-
mitted from the Horse Guards, on Thursday even-
ing, to the Infantry Barracks at Windsor, direct-
ing 350 rank and file of the 2d Battalion of the
Scots Fusilier Guards to hold themselves in readi-
ness to embark within the course of another week
for Constantinople. We point to this in-
cident as to another indication that, even
in the view of Ministers themselves, War is
becoming every day more manifestly inevitable,
whatever was babbled yesterday in the House
of Lords by the nominal leader of the Admi-
nistration. However much it has become ine-
vitable to all appearance—war does not interrupt
in Paris the magnificent building improvements
there being carried out by the munificence of the
Imperial Government any more than amongst
ourselves the project of Parliamentary Reform
is postponed, thanks to the conscientious re-
solution of some of the abler members
of the Coalition. Precisely thus are matters
situated in regard to the internal condition of
France and England, and in reference to their
external relations with the more formidable among
the great Powers of Christendom. And precisely
at this juncture does the " travelled Thane " war-
ble, with bucolic sweetness, about the blessings
of peace in the midst of the din of this domestic
activity and of these warlike preparations. Fri-
volity may lead some kindred Aberdeenite, next,
to perform a sword dance on the edge of the
crater of Vesuvius.

Bad it not been for the providential discoveries
of the mineral wealth in California and Australia,
and the vast amount of bullion that came to our
shores from the recently discovered gold fields,
we should long since have obtained a thorough
and efficient reform in our monetary laws. The
disastrous effects of that iniquitous code had been
too clearly ascertained in 1847 to permit any
doubt to remain on the subject. It was
seen that the Act of 1844 had natu-
rally led to the panic of 1847, and that it
would, in due course, produce other and
still more calamitous results, the evil in-
creasing in intensity on each successive visita-
tion. Houses of unblemished credit and unques-
tionable solvency were unable to find means of
meeting their engagements, not from want of
property, but from the deficiency of the mere re-
presentative and measure of value. The Bank
itself could lend Government Stock, but it could
not spare its own, notes.(!) Even persons who
had imported a large quantity of silver were
unable to obtain advances thereon, because
the Bank held the full proportion of silver which
it was enabled to take credit for under its charter,
and consequently that which would have been, to
all intents and purposes, as valuable as gold for
the purpose of preserving the convertibility of the
Bank note (if that was the great desideratum)
was necessarily rejected, its owners subjected to
great expense and inconvenience, and the best in-
terests of the nation endangered through the ex-
portation of the specie. Nothing but the virtual
suspension of the Act, by the celebrated letter of the
25th October, saved the country. The efficacy of
the remedy at once established the character of
the disease, if any doubt could previously have
existed on the subject ; and but for the cunning
and " dodgery" of the then Chancellor of the
Exchequer, Sir CHARLES Woon, and the co-
operation of the packed Committee of investiga-
tion, the existing law would have been repealed
or greatly modified. Public attention was, how-
ever, for a time diverted from the subject until,
as we have shown, the influx of bullion from the
auriferous lands afforded opportunities for largely
increasing the circulation, without infringing on
the provisions of the Act of 1844.
But for that abundant supply we should have
been ruined had we not reformed the law. As it
was, the impolitic enactments neutralised the
value of the discoveries, and prevented the full
development of the national industry. We have
again had a species of monetary panic, which
the golden returns from Australia, arriving
opportunely at the moment when they were
most urgently required, have alone pre-
vented from being as disastrous as that of
October, 1847, and we now find the minimum
rate of discount in Threadneedle-street 5 per cent.
on unexceptionable paper, and the circulation
greatly diminished, while the prices of all the
necessaries of life are enormously increased. Thus
at the very moment that there is a necessity for
additional monetary accommodation we find it
materially curtailed. Attention is therefore once
more directed to the subject, and we shall be
greatly disappointed if an agitation do not
speedily arise which will enforce judicious altera-
tions in the Act. These are said to be the days of
"unrestricted competition." Why, we ask, should
not the competition be extended to banking as
well as to other trades ? Why should we not
have a free trade in money as well as in money's
worth ? These are questions to which straight-
forward and explicit replies must be returned.—
Free Trade in money—unrestricted banking is
worth a struggle. The bankers themselves feel
the difficulties in which they are placed as well as
their customers. They find it almost impossible to
avoid incurring fines for over issues, and they justly
complain of not being permitted to increase their
circulation, although the excess beyond the "fixed
issues" should be secured by the most ample gua-
rantees, either in the shape of Government securities
or even the deposit of bullion in their cellars, as al-
lowed to the Bank of England and the English and
Scotch banks. This is indeed a grievance which re-
quires speedy redress, even if the convertibility of the
bank note should still be considered an indispens-
able condition—a grievance on which we shall
have something more to say ere the session be very
far advanced.
But, meanwhile, there is one point which we
cannot refrain from touching on, although briefly,
at the moment. The bullionist organ, the great
advocate of the Act of 1844, the Times itself, has
acknowledges that there is a matter connected with

he working of the law which requires amend.
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ment. It declares that " there -is no reason
to believe that the sum which was adopted
in 1844, an that at which the direct paper cur-
iency of the country might be safely fixed, was
at all too high ;" and confesses that " the abstrac-

tion of VOO,OOO/. from this amount has created a

vacancy which has been, filled up with gold tha

might otherwise be employed for foreign payments."

It adds—" This is a circumstance not intended,

and which should be remedied forthwith !"

This is an important admission from such

a quarter. It clearly proves the injurious

consequences of the useless deposit of bullion
that " might otherwise be employed in our

breign trade." It, in fact, surrenders the entire

question, unless prepared to assert that the sum

arbitrarily fixed on ten years since was
adopted on some infallible principle, so that no
change of circumstances could justify an altera-

tion. Surely all that the most determined
bullionist could require would be ample security
for the paper issued, and its convertibility on

demand.

It may be a question in what form that

security should be given ; but, after the admission

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above referred to, there can be no difference as to

the propriety of liberating as much gold as practi-
cable, so that, in place of being locked up uselessly
and unproductively, it may be made available
" for foreign payments." It will become an

important question to decide how far a really
national note, based not only on the entire pro-
perty of the nation, but on the industry of the
people, should become the circulating medium, at
least for home transactions, so that all the bullion
would become available for our foreign trade. It
is impossible to over-estimate the importance of
this topic. If the national note were adopted,