The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-18 00:00:00

7,41 g ("7....424074-:44 §un

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 1854,

As the bullion Lit organ has truly remarked, the
" power of creating money is an undoubted pre-
rogative of the Crown." Tne material of which
that money may be composed. is a mere com-
modity that may be bartered or disposed of in
the ordinary way of business, just like any other
article of commerce. Whether it be gold, silver,
or copper, it is the Roy-al stamp which causes it
to pass current from hand to hand, and to be
freely and willingly accepted at its nominal, with-
out any inquiry as to its intrinsic, value. We see
silver varying in price according to the demand,
and gold would do so but for the enactment that
enables any person to dispose of it at a certain
fixed price, the " seignorage," or sum to
be charged for the royal privilege being
distinctly ascertained. No one, however,
when offered a crown piece, or an equivalent
number of half crowns, shillings, or sixpences,
Pauses to inquire whether silver is depressed in
price, a mere drug in the market, or in brisk de-
rna.nd. He knows that, he will be able to pay it
away at the same price at which he received it,
and that knowledge satisfies him ; he cares for
nothing more. Th 6 Royal stamp convinces him
of that fact, and that is all he wantsi.
By why is this ? Why does the effigy of the
Sovereign induce every man to abstain from fur-
ther inquiry, and make the coin on which it is
impressed so generally aceeptable? Simply be-
cause that coin will pro Canto liquidate the de- 1
niands of the nation on the last holder. Every
man knows that he will have to meet the tax-
collector, and that if he possesses snore of the
means of extinguishing the claim thay.4, is required
for hia own purposes, he will find others less
favourably circumstanced, who will have to pur-
chase the means of doing so. "No circulating
Medime of any kind, therefore, ccat be in excess
or in danger of resection, so far as it is propor-
tioned to the national taxation, not going beyond
the amount to be drawn in within a certain spe-
cified time from the people. And this is equally
true whatever be the material in use, whether it
be gold, silver, or copper, or paper, leather, or
*lens.

What, for instance, is an Exchequer Bill ?
What guarantee is given for its payment ? . It is
a piece of paper,
" or " a worthless rag," as it
snight be 'termed by a bullionist, which is not
convrtible" into the precious metals, but which
Will at any moment be received in payment of
Lazo or duties in any Government office. Pra-
ctically they are but rarely offered for that purpose,
for, inasrunch as they bear interest, they command
a certain premium in the be. too market. It would therefore
fixpensive a mode of liquidatin the debt
g
to tiva State to be generally resorted to. The large
ame•ants generally specified constitute
.another
ter'sjua obstacle. Few men have to /.
I, 0004 pay into the Exchequer or CUstom-house 500
at aor
eagle payment. The person who has an Exche-
river Bill, then, in place of paying it to the Cro.
vornment collectors, disposes of it on the Stock
7a ge_generally at a handsome premium
and liquidates
liability with a portion of the
proceeds. The hi 4
ultimate value, however--the
attribute that renders it universally acceptable,
and insures an unceasing demand--is nd—is the know-.
ledge that it will be accepted in payment of taxes
or duties to the Crown.
.glow, if the denomination, of these notes, in
Phice of being 1,0001., 5001., or even 1001., were
taut 101., 51., or 11., so that they could be aPPIi-
„
ftbie for the payment of all taxe4, it is mildest
that they would no longer
be restricted to the
lauds of bankers and great merchants, They
world constitute a useful circulating medium,
which would I/0 available fur al/ the transactions
of every-day life. • Every man in business would
have the means of passing them oil again. As the
national income may be taken in round numbers
to amount to 57,000,0001. per annum, to which
at least 5,000,00 W. tnay be added for poor rates,
there would he a weetri—_.,.absorption of 1,200,000/.
of these Exchequer Bills )
“re beaming interest,
Which would so far
- tuaintain their value that
'
, -
;they would command a
preruiunt nearly, if not
-Ai t ()Roth er, equal to Q. amount d tze on the day

of tender ; and it would follow, as a necessary
corollary, that there would bo no necessity for in-
terest in order to insure their willing acceptance.
The entire interest on the unfunded debt would
thus be got rid of. And , the pecuniary
saving would be the least valuable part of
the alteration for the certainty of obtaining -that
which has been truly described as " the life-blood
of industry"—a circulating medium adequate to
the wants and exigencies of the community.---a
steady representative and measure of value, not
liable to the fluctuations which a metallic cur-
rency, or one based_,,!:m metal, would so
stimulate trade and manufacture that any man
able and willing to work would be sure of obtain-
ing employment at remunerative wages ; and
would thus not only enjoy the comforts 'which
every person of ordinary humanity must desire to
see placed within the reach of the labouring popu-
lation of the country, but each individual would
become a useful member of society—the creator
and producer of national wealth—in place of
being an idle consumer, a drone in th,e national
hive.

We should then hear nothing of the impious
cant of "over-population," or " over-produc-
tion." If the industrial resources of the country
were fully and fairly
developed, as they would be
I under a judicious and well-devised monetary sys-
tem, it would be long, indeed, before there would
be any complaint against an addition to the
" thews and sinews" of the nation ; and whenever
there Valf3 a danger that the quantity of, food
raised in the country by experienced agriaultu-
lists, who made the teeming earth bestow her
utmost produce, the broad lands of British Ame-
rica, the fertile plains of Australia, would offer
suitable places of refuge. Indeed, it would be
difficult to indicate a part of the earth where the
Angle-Saxon energy and determination would not
be cordially welcomed. Let not weak, foolish
man dare to question PROVIDENCE. Let not
the worm venture to murmur against the
will of his Omniscient CREATOR. " Over-
population Where are the superfluous
elements, or who are to be cut off to make way
for the fresh corners, and to reduce the numbers
to what the pretended philosopher has the arro-
gance to say is the proper amount. " Over-pro-
duction" is another cant cry, equally audacious
and indefensible. Can there be an over-produc-
tion of food, so long as any one remains without
sufficiency to eat or drink—an" "over-production"
of garments, so long as any remain inadequately
Covered t There cannot be " over-production" so
long as there is a single hungry person to be fed--a
naked one to be clothed. Until such unfortunates
can no longer be discovered, the cry is impious.
It grows, however, out of our monetary code, that
reduces everything to that single standard, and
distorts the medium through which the affairs of
the nation is to be regarded. If an Englishman
" likes gold. in his pocket," there are not merely
thousands or tens of thousands, but millions of
his countrymen, who suffer severely for the grati-
fication of his whim—whose welfare and happiness
are sacrificed at the shrine of the idol which he
has set up, and whose prosperity is as nothing
when cast into the opposing scale to the preserva-
tion of the integrity of the standard ! !

The Debate on DUBLIN University is certainly
worth a moment's attention at least, while our
National Seminaries are so much before the public.
It arose on Mr. FAGAN'S, the member for Cork,
asking leave to bring in a bill to found and endow
a second college on a wider basis than the exist-
ing one. Dublin University, unlike the kindred
institutions at Oxford and Cambridge, is not
composed of a number of colleges, usurping the
powers and privileges of the original University ;
but is entirely comprised in Trinity College—a
college founded by Queen ELIZABETH, and which,
therefore, ought not to be involved in much
obscurity as to its origin and character.
Like almost all endowments, however, a few
generations have sufficed to furnish ground of
debate as to " the founders' intentions." Mr. FA.-
'curt affirms that the terms of its charter are so
unlimited that all her I'SIAJEsTY's subjects, Catholic
as well as Protestant, have a fair claim to its ad-
vantages, honours, and" emoluments. Mr. HAMIL-
TON (the Member for the University) replies that
it is impossible to suppose Queen ELIZABETH, ex-
communicated and deposed by the POPE, could
have founded a college for Roman Catholics ; a
controversy which many would decide according
as they held that all charters were to be inter-
preted in the most liberal manner possible, or that
we must endeavour to supplement indefiniteness
-of language from the historical facts of the time.
Of the two principles the formeris the only one which
can make the arrangements of the past harmonise at
all with the wants of the present ; but we are
surprised that broader ground on this subject was
not taken. With the intentions of Private
Founders HENRY VIII. and CHARLES 11. took
great liberties at Oxford and Cambridge, or the
decrees of the Council of Trent would there super-
sede the Thirty-nine Articles, and Mr. GLAD-
STONE and Lord JOHN RUSSELL propose to take
yet further liberties. But when the Founders
are Monarchs, and when, consequently, all their
acts, and all the property given, must be
regarded as national, the question seems
to us reduced to its easiest form. We
should, of course, consider it open to inquiry
whether it were better to. keep Trinity for Protes-
tants, and Maynooth for Catholics, but cannot
think that the consideration of what ELIZABETH,
JAMES 1., or CHARLES 1., wished or willed, ought
to weigh for one moment with our present Legis-
lature. These Monarchs, and their generation,
had their-day, and did what they liked with their
own ; but we demur to their notions of the public
good being taken as the guide of ours. Indeed,
as to the STUAP.TS, it was thought for the nation's
good, at the time, to behead one, and to send the
rest to learn wisdom, if they would, by foreign
travel.
It seems to us that the strong part of Mr.
FA.GAN's case was the least debated. There was
no little dispute whether Trinity College was, or
was not, properly a Protestant College ; whether
or not Roman Catholics ought to be content with
the really liberal practice of the College authori-
ties, in virtue of which the humbler honours and
pecuniary prizes, with the entire education, were
open to Catholics and Dissenters; and whether
" confiscation," the scare-crow of abuse-defen-
ders, were involved in his proposal ; but what in
' the eyes of such of the general public as might
condescend to notice an Irish debate was the grand
charge, was really an undefended action. We are
at a loss almost to comprehend why none of the
many whose vocation is the attack of abuses, did not
find even a monster one here. Mr. NAPIER, in-
deed, spoke touchingly of the laborious life led by
the Fellows as a reason for so few authors having
sPrung from their number ; but perhaps the
reader will think that there were influences of a
more soporific kind when he reads the following
facts. The landed property of Trinity College
amounts to 200,000 acres. It is valued to the
poor-rates at 92,000/. ; the actual yearly income
is 64,000/. ; and the University is now empowered
so to let the land as 'to raise the income to
100,0001. It is the richest Univer4tY in Europe.
And now for the toil-worn Fellows.

The Provost receives annually £3,500
Seven Senior FellaWs, each
Six First-Class Junior Fellows, each 900
Six Second-Class Fellows, each
Altogether, according to Mr. FAGAN, no one
contradicting, the Provost of Trinity College and
thirty-five :Fellows divide annually 34,0001.
among them. Now, whether a second college,
more acceptable to the Catholic laity than,
from some causes, Trinity has proved,
be founded or not, what, we ask in the name
of all reason and conscience, are incomes
like these to continue for ? The Head of
an English University Rouse passes rich, and
'iurcly ought, with 8001. a-year; and 2501. a-year
is held to be the proper standard for a fellowship
by our Oxford reformers. Howcouldthte
Oxo-
nians listen to this statement of Irish fat hings

and repress their indignation, that even Mr. GLAD-
STONE should propose to pare down every fellow-
ship to such a paltry minimum, when Dublin
Junior Follows rejoiced i i 4001.) and Senior Fel-