The Sun.
London, England, 1853-04-07 00:00:00

LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 7, 1853.

TO AGENTS.—Life Assurance Agents in any
part of England may with advantage become Agents for Fire
Insurance, and thereby greatly extend their Life business. The
Directors of the UNITY FIRE INSURANCE ASSOCIATION—an
institution established on new and Important principles, and possess-
ing upwards of Two THOUSAND SHAREHOLDERS, whose names and
addresses are published with the Prospectus—are ready to receive
applications for Agencies, accompanied by references. By looking
over the List of Shareholders, applicants ,wl,ll probably find several to
whom they are known. For terms, prosrtectuse., &c. apply to

THOMAS H. BA.YLIS, GetiealtManaier ancfgeCretary.
Chief Offices, 40, Pall Mall, Londea.

THE FIELD.—THE LARGEST PAPER in
EUROPE.
THE FIELD, or COUNTRY GENTLEMAN'S NEWS-
PAPER, consists of 24 pages, with ILLUSTRATIONS by the first
Artists The increased space will enable the conductors to make
each department more perfect; and they hope, by the careful exclu-
sion of every subject of objectionable character, to render THE
FIELD all that a Gentleman's Sporting and Family Paper should
be. Published every Saturday morning in time for the early morn-
ing trains, and may be bad of all newsmen.
Office, 4, Brydges-street, Covent-garden. Price 6d.

YORKSHIRE SOCIETY, for Boarding, Cloth-
ing, and Educating the Children of respectable Yorle,
Parents, or Parents reduced by Misfortune or Death, who sha
side or ha' sided within 10 miles of the General Post-office, St
Martin's-le-and.
The FORTY-SECOND AN!IV ERSARY DINNER is appointed
to take place at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, on Thursday,
May 5, 1853—
The Lord Viscount GODERICH in the chair.
STEWARDS.

The Rt Hon. Lord Londesboroughi
The Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Wood,!

Bart., M.P.
The Rt. Hon. M. T. Baines, M.P.
The Hon. Francis Lawley, M.P.
Wm. Beckett, Esq., M.P.
Frank Crossley, Esq., M.P.
George Hadfield, Esq., M.P.
Benjamin Oliviera, Esq., M.P.
Robert Stephenson, Esq., M.P.
Wm. Wells, Esq , M.P.
Henry W. Wickham, Esq., M.P.
James Alderson, M.D.
Anthony Bannister, Esq.
Charles Bischoff, Esq.
Henry Blanshard, Esq.
Francis Blake, Esq.
John Bolton, Esq.
Isaac Carr, Esq.
John Cattley, Esq.

John Day, Esq.
Peter Dickson, Esq.

. _
William Fryer, Esq.
Robert Gibson, Esq.
Samuel Hallam, Esq.
John Hodgson, Esq.
Francis Hutchinson, Esq.
John Hutchinson, Esq.
Thomas Hutchinson, Esq.
Mark Hutchinson, Esq.
Richard Hutchinson, Esq.
George Kindlay, Esq.
George Leache, Esq.
Robert Malburn, Esq.
Henry Powell, Esq., M.D.
James Saner, Esq., M.D.
James Saner, jun., Esq.
Peter Stainsby. Esq.
Wm. R. Vickers, Esq.
Robert B . Woodd, Esq.

Tickets, one Guinea each, to be had of the Stewards ; of the mem.
bers of the Committee; of the Secretaries; and at the Tavern.
By order, &c.,
HENRY TRISTRAM, / Hon. Secs.
FRANCIS W. BLAKE,3
Schools, March 28, 1853.

THE ESTABLISHMENTS ARE KNOWN
EVERYWHERE, and their BUSINESS is PROFITABLE
to EVERYBODY.—It is now unnecessary for E. MOSES and SON
to puhlish the fact of their commodious, complete, and magnificent
arrangements for the first and most distinguished business in the
world; but it is right that their patrons and the public should be
acquainted with the vast preparations they are perpetually making,
tc supply the most fashionable and comfortable attire at the lowest
prices, and to provide ladies and gentlemen with every kind of cloth-
ing in the newest fashions, and the most superior qualities. The
order department provides elegant styles of MILITARY or NATAL
COSTUME in the most accomplished cut and workmanship, or
LIVERIES to any devise which may be desired—superior quality—
excellent workmanship—dispatch and economy may be depended

upon.
The ready made department is replete with new styles of dress for
daily wear or special occ talons, and attire for juveniles not to be
equalled elsewhere for novelty, superior quality, and economical
charges. The hat and cap section is replenished with every new
style, and the best goods are charged very low prices.
The hosiery branch displays articles of incomparable elegance
suitable for ladies, gentlemen, and children, the quality and price of
each article showing how far the establishments of E. MOSES and
SON excel all others.

Emigrants are provided with their outfits, or any part of them, al
wholesale prices, by E. MOSES and SON.
Persona about to embark for Australia may gain a large per cent.
age on small investments made in clothing manufactured by E,
MOSES and SON.

All classes of passengers are furnished with the requisite goods
and clothing for any voyage or climate, and the price of superior
articles is much lower at E. MOSES and SON, than at any other
house.

Complete suits of outfits for ladies and gentlemen, and shipsailing
information may be had on application, or post free to any part of the
kingdom.

CAUTION.—E. MOSES and SON regret having to guard:the
public against imposition, having learned that the untradesman-like
falsehood of " Being connected with their Establishment," or " It's
the same concern," has been resorted to in many instances, and for
obvious reasons, they beg to state that they have

No CONNEXION WITH ANY OTHER HOUSE IN OR OUT Or LONDON,

except their own Establishments, as follows :-:.

London City Establishment, 154, 155, 156, and 157, Minories, 83,
14,85, and 86, Aldgate, opposite the Church, all communicating.
London West-end Branch, 506, 507, 508, New Oxford-street, I, 2,
3, Hart-street, all communicating.
Bradford (Yorkshire) Branch, 19 nd 20, Bridge-street.

Sheffield Branch, 36, Zonate.
Merchant Tailors, Clothiers, Hatters, Hosiers, Furriers, Boot and
Shoe Makers, and General Outfitters for Ladies and Gentlemen.
IMPORTANT.—ShouId any article not give satisfaction, it will be
exchanged if desired, or, if preferred, the money will be returned
without hesitation. All goods are marked in plain figures, the lowest
price, /rem which no abatement. can be made.

. •
The Establishments are closed from sunset Friday to sunset on
Saturdays, when business is resumed till 12 o'clock.
A new Book, entitled The World's Pharos," containing the
Emigrant's Assistant, full list of prices, and directions for seif•mea-
surement, may be bad on application, or post-free, to any part of
the kingdom.
A handsome Almanac for the year ending 1853 can be had gratis,
on application.

Ici I'on panic Francais. Qui si parts Italian°.
Ater strieht man Deutsch. Aqua se habla Espanol

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC( -JOURNALS.

CONSOLIDATED FUND _AND NATIONAL
DEBT REDE_MPTIQN ACTS.
(From the Tit ' .)
i
The Chancellor of the E hequer's announce-
ment of a motion to-morrow f a committee of the
whole house to consider the Co solidated Fund and
National Redemption Acts will revive many an old
reminiscence, and manya dormant train of thought,
in the elder portion of our readers. Forty years
will carry us back to the days, when the National
Debt had not yet attained it present monstrous
proportion, when it was still young and intolerable,
and when every table was covered with pamphlets
on its illegal or its ruinous character, and on the
best way of getting rid of it. Most the schemes
for its redemption were little more than repudia-
tion, in one flimsy guise or another, But the
iniquity and presumption of visit* the sins of one
generation on another, and leaviat to the unborn
the inheritance of a debt larger than the world had
yet seen or conceived, was the prevailing idea of
serious pamphleteers. The utmost that the nation
could do, it was urged by a large class of financial
malcontents, was to burden the future for ten years,
or, at the utmost, twenty, that being the period
during which nature makes us guardians and trus-
tees for the rising generation. But theories and plans
for paying the costs of the wa and discharging our
increasing liabilities were as riS- in thaw days as plans
'of drainage, extramural interibent, life assurance,
and communieation on railways are in ours. The
debt having attained a certain colossal roundness and
perfection, and the war having happily, ended, the
question of gold versus paper served for some years
to fill up the void in financial minds; and from that
day to this we have seldom bEgn reminded of the
old controversy, except when Chancellors of the.
Exchequer came forward from, time to time with
the terrible announcement —terrible to many a
widow and orphan—that stockholders were to be
immediately offered their money or a lower rate of
interest. By degrees we have come dovin to 3 per
cent., and for many years Consols have not been
sufficiently above par to allow any'further reduc-
tion. Now, however, for many menths; they have
been so much above par, or so little below it, that
it has become a question whether a bargain may
not be made with the fundholder, and whether
something may not be thrown in to make up for
the want of a more decided premium in the market.
According to rumour, that is the interpretation of
Mr. Gladstone's announcement ; and, on the sup-
position that it is so, the judgment of the money
world has already been pronounced in its favour in
es that are looming '
the infallible voice of the Stock-Exchange.
I
i n Undtheeru thendh nmi
da
enry, s
hand when money may be a drug, Consols may be
cofunttge,enacnid with the days at
considered as always trembling on the eve of con- '
version. The Chancellor of the Exchequer can al-
ready borrow as much money as he likes for a
twelvemonth at I.'i per cent., and what is more
likely than that 2 per centr may by and by
be the regular price for loans on unquestionable
security ? It is true that, under many circum-
stances, a great abundance of money has a ten-
dency to raise the rate of interat. It is so in a
new country, with new resources continually
opening, and with many ways presenting them-
selves by which a man trade g with borrowed
capital can turn it over often en ugh to pay a high
interest, and accumulate a for une besides. But
in an old country like England ' great disturbance
of capital is more likely to reduce the rate of in-
terest than to raise it, and, we •repeat, nothing is
less improbable than that before long Government
may have as much money as it wants by paying
21. per cent. a-year for it. But the real hardship
will be, that when Government has almost com-
pelled the creditor to take 21. instead of 31., it will
still be unable to prevent the depreciation of the
capital in the market, and the creditor who has
innectehsseitimaes
iwnedruecwedortbyh,hsisayp,rivloat2ertkoeste,ilmwayhesntillthbeye
reluctantly acquiesced in the bargain when Consols
are at 90, or less. Indeed, it may be naturally
supposed that a stock which pays 21. is more likely
to fall much below par than one which pays 31.
For those who buy and sell money, for those who
speculate in the funds, or wholiald a few thousands
of stock on the reserve fund of Commercial enter-
prise, and, still more, for those who havo to live
on the interest of their money, it will always be a
very great hardship that their stock may be further
depreciated. With such a prospect as this before
us, there appears to be little doubt that a stock
certain to pay 2A- per cent. for 20 years will be a
more valuable property than one paying 3 per cent.,
but liable to be reduced to 2 per cont., or even
lower. If rumour says true, that is the proposal
which will be made to the fundholder, and a large
proportion of fundholders will be glad to accept it.
The two conditions offered by the Government,
supposing the rumour to be correct, are the cer-
tainty of 2-i per cent. for 20 years, and the certainty
of repayment at par at the end of that period, as
opposed to the chance of reduction to 2 per cent.,
and a depreciation in 1873 or 1883 to 801., or even
601. When stock paying 5 per cent. has been with-
in the memory of living men at less than 50, what
may not be the market value of ' stock paying 31.,
or so low as W.? Certainly the present seems the
time for bringing the immense security of Govern-
ment to bear on the general insecurity of commer-
cial affairs. There is no class of debtor, not in-
cluding the Irish landowner, who has not been re-
cently enabled to pay off old debts with new ones
paying less interest, or to make some other advan-
tageous bargain with his creditors. Even France
has done this in the very midst of revolutions, con-
vulsed by factions, occupied by armies, and go-
verned by a despot. We have the best security in
the world, for England, so liberal and so changeable
in many respects, will fight to the last drop of its
blood to maintain its financial integrity, the real
palladium of its commercial prosperity. Mr. Glad-
stone appears so far to understand our position, and
to seize the opportunity it offers. We take the mea-
sure as wefind it, and we have described the proposal
as an advantageous one to the fundholder. In the
city it appears to be thought even too advantageous,
that is, accompanied with too much risk to the State.
It is asked, what if a large proportion of the stock-
holders should immediately accept the offer, and
Government should find itself obliged to pay them
all their debts at par in 1873, when possibly com-
mercial or political events may make repayment
difficult and costly ? It is even suggested that this
part of the bargain might be modified, with the
option on the part of the Government of paying
its debt at the end of 20 years in 3 per cent. stock.
This may perhaps be necessary, and even with this
modification we are inclined to think the offer a
good one for the fundholder ; but it should be re-
marked that the bargain cannot be a very good one
for both parties at once ; and that if the State gains
present ease by a reduction of the rate of interest,
it must expect to purchase that ease by under-
taking some of the creditor's risk. The present 1
state of affairs is, that the State is burdened with
the payment of an immense annual interest, and
the fundholder has much uncertainty in his future
prospects, as he knows neith
• er the rate of interest
he will receive nor the market value of his stock
twenty years hence. The pro o 1) ~
sal is and must be
a matter of " give and take. To be relieved
somewhat of its present annual payment the State
must relieve its creditor somewhat of his future
sh his risks with-
uncertainty ;but it cannot dimini
out increasing its own, as the risks—that is the
chances of change—exist, and must lie on some
shoulders or other. The proposal is that Govern-
ment, for a present consideration, shall take a por-
tion of these risks on its own broad shoulders, and
the fundholders will do well, we think, to accept
the offer.

FOREIGN AND BRITISH SHIPPING.
( Prom the Morning Post. )
It will scarcely be forgotten that, in the frequent
discussions with regard to the future of the national
policy which took place on the accession of Lord
phlanngce in complete- Illor of the
Derby's Government to . power, Mr. Gladstone
assumed to himself as a mission, not only the office
of convoying free trade safe and
.intact into har-
bn oe
susr ,t
hbeu
inai
tl
ao hd e
system
e mt of. dAe vs e
co
Exchequer it has since become his peculiar province
to do this so far as concerns the adaptation of the
financial arrangements of the country to the new
policy ; and on the 18th of the current month we
shall learn how the chiefest representative of the
traditions of Peel proposes. to get over the pons
asinorunt that Mr. Disraeli was submerged in at-
tempting.
Nobody questions the difficulty of the passage.
Everybody admits that, will he nill he, be he
Peelite, Derbyite, or Whig, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer must compass it with free trade on his
back—and encumbered,. too, with all the crotchets
that have been of late elicited
i by Parliamentaay in-
vestigations, and lie sleeping n blue books till they
shall be waked by the Minister moving that the
House resolve itself into a Committee of Ways
and Means. The experiment will be an interest -
ing and, possibly, a slippery one ; and the atten-
tion of the public has been so engrossed in watching

its coming off, that they appear almost to-. ba,ve
lost sight of the condition of one of our. MoSt
important branches of industry, whiCh is daily
suffering progressive deterioration because free
trade in its completeness continues to be withheld
from it. It is not from the stirring within us of
any of the old leaven of Protection—not from any
jealousy of those who overthrew what we defended,
nor even from any anxiety to uphold, as a class
merely, .the British shipowners, that we again
earnestly call attention to the rapid decrease of the
share, which, relatively to other nations, Great
Britain has posseSsed of the carrying trade of the
world, but because We consider that branch of in-
dustry of vital importance to the prosperity and
consequence to the United Kingdom, and -deem
its conservation and-protection one of the mostrim-
perative duties of an English Minister.
We do not propose to go over all the old ground
again ; nor is it necessary for our purpose to quote
figures and statements which we have put in evi-
dence before, and which remain unanswered, to
show that from 1848 to 1852, the relative poidtion
of British shipping was not maintained either at
home or abroad. It cannot be denied that, with
regard to the United States especially, and with
regard also to the most important of the European
carriers, such was the fact. That pro Position, at
any rate, was not refuted ; but then we were told
that there was a new trade about to open, and to
expand into great importance, both with California
and with Australia, and that of both of these the
British shipowner would undoubtedly get the
lion's share. We expressed doubts as to such a
result being attainable ; and the reasons which we
gave for those doubts have since, we regret to ob-
serve, been entirely justified by facts as regards
California, and the trade from the American shores
there, and from thence to the eastern seas. Look-
ing to the last published returns from the Board
of Trade, it is to be feared that, even with respect
to the 'trade newly created with our own colony,
we are little better off.

It appears from 6; comparison of the total tonnage
cleared outwards in the month of February of 1851
and X 855, and we take this month of the present
year be-cause it was then that the Australian traffic
had attained peculiarly high. development, that the
total clearances outwards in tonnage were—

British. Foreign.
In Feb., 1851 359,199, composed of 229,208 128,991
In Feb., 1853 505,438, 297,600.......207,838
Now, we ask, is that a relative ratio of progress
as between ourselves and foreign nations on which.
a British public can look with satisfaction, or a Bri-
tish Minister without inquietude ? Will I.r: Glad-
stone and Mr. Cardwell sit complacent or listless in
the face of such circumstances as these ; and will
they make no. attempt to persuade or to drive the
foreigner to grant us the reciprocity of unrestricted
competition, and render trade as free in their ports
as it is in ours ? They have a screw in the recipro-
city clause, though somewhat a rusty one, perhaps.
If negotiation and gentle requirements fail, why
not try if it will work or no ?
We have given above the gross increase of the
clearances of foreign tonnage outwards. It may be
worth while to see how that was apportioned. In
the case of Denmark, the increase has been from
6,000 to 11,000 tons ; in Prussia and the German
States, from 18,000 to 23,000 tons; in Holland,
from 4,000 to 11,000 tons ; in Belgium, from 2,000
to 4,000 ; and ix the instance of the United States,
from 50,000 to 100,000 tons.
The entries inwards present a still more remark-
able and a still more disagreeable result. They
are :

Total Tonnage. British. . Foreign.
In Feb. 1851... 366,107 composed of 243,471 ... 122,631
In Feb. 1853... 457,151 „ 241,338 .. 215,816
This increase, in nearly a duplicate ratio, appears
to have been thus distributed among foreign carry-
ing nations:—
Feb. 1851. Feb. 1853.
Russia 5,000
Sweden
Norway
Denmark 12,000
Prussia 6,030
Other German States 10,000
. Holland - 5,000 , 13,000
United States ' ' 46;000 •68;000 •

Add with all this transference of traffic from the
British to the foreign carrier, the consumer gets,
we will not say no 'benefit, but no equivalent or
proportionate benefit, for freights are no lower than
before the repeal of the navigation laws. Now, we
take it that the questions of the relative merits of
protective and free trade systems being buried and
done with, and a very active motive for fudge in
these matters removed, no man will say that this
is a desirable state of things, or one out of which
our commercial marine is to be left to flounder as
best it may. We are quite aware that shipowners,
ship-dealers, and ship-builders aro not at this mo-
ment complaining. The shipowners, like old Ge-
neral Costigan, love to bask in a bit of sunshine ;
but we shall hear enough of the voice of their com-
plaining when the Australian ships find crews to
bring them home, and they are thrown suddenly in
a lump for sale or freight on the market here. But
we are not looking solely or peculiarly to them or
interests—we are looking, and we confess with
great anxiety and doubt, to what must be the fu-
ture influence of these circumstances on the posi-
tion of this country, if they are left without check
or amendment. It is idle to hope to stop their
progress by a Pilotage or a Passing Tolls Bill.