The Sun.
London, England, 1822-09-11 00:00:00

[TII E TI-MES.]

'Much fluctuation occurred yesterday to Bank
Stock, probably occasioned by the statements
recently circulated, that the Directors intend to
reduce the rate of interest on their capital. The
opening price of the stock- was 253; it then sud-
denly defined to 245 ; rose afterwards to 250,
and closed at '247. We understand, however,
that considerable doubts prevail among well-
informed persons, whether. the measure will
really be adopted by the Court. It is said, that
the sums likely to be required of the Bank by
Government, for the pension-commutation scheme,
agricultural loans, &c., will be sufficiently exten-
sive to call into operation nearly the whole-,of
the disposable capital ; and that, though the inte-
rest paid for its use is at a loiv rate, there will be
an adequate reserve fund from the gains of for-
mer years, to continue the present dividend for
some time to come. If this should prove to. be
the case, the Proprietors will reap the advan-
tage of having formerly permitted the Directors
to withhold the disclosure of the real state of
their affairs ; since it is evident, had the entire
profits been then shared, that a diminution must now
have taken place, and the incomes of numerous
persons lessened who made them their depend-
ence. Whether this reserve fund- will hold out
till the arrival of a more prosperous period in
the affairs of the Bank, is another question. The
approaching half-yearly meeting of the Court of
Proprietors will give rise, without doubt, to
some interesting discussion.

(-BRITISH PRESS.]
We hope that the Austrians have not acted
the, part ascribed to them. Such a direct viola-
tion of the neutrality which their Government
-has professed would be disgraceful. A letter
from Smyrna, detailing the efforts made by the
french and Austrian Consuls and the Commanders
of two French vessels, so save from the fury of
the Greeks, the Turks w Ilo,after the capitulation
of Athens, sought refuge under the French and
Austrian nags, represents 'the French as actuated
by a similar friendly feeling for the Turks. The
rage of the Greeks, it says, was excited by the
ara•ival of intelligence that eight thousand

Turks had advanced through the pass of Ther-
mopylae, and entered Thebes, and that another
corps of 15,000, had approached by the way of
Negropont. This news, and that brought by the
fugitives from Scio respecting the villages of the
Mastic, induced the Greeks to attack the Turks,
of whom they are said to have killed from 700 to
800. The remainder (about 400) fled to the Euro-
pean Consulate for protection, and 'were at last with
much difficulty got on board the French ships. In
the mean time between 2,000 and 3,000 Greeks
were endeavouring to escape, in consequence of
the advance of the Turkish corps from Negropont.
Lieutenant Argous, the Commander of a French
vessel called l'Estafette, caused these men to be
blockaded in the port of Athens, and would not
allow them to embark until the Turks had first
been secured. The article eulogises the gallantry
and resolution of the Freinch in protecting the
'Turks ; but the fate of the unfortunate Greeks,
after the advancing Turkish force had reached
Athens, is left unnoticed.

{MORNING CHRONICLE.]
Those who have read the very remarkable
article in The New Times crying so lustily for
help for a sinking state, very naturally inquire
what has happened since the death of Lord Lon-
donderry, to render it necessary to fill the chasm
in the Cabinet produced by the loss of one of no
very extraordinary proportions, with a first-rate
Titan. During the lifetime of the late Foreign
Secretary, our contemporary never discovered that
commanding eloquence and brilliant oratory were
things to be desired, and he saw Mr. Canning
about to take his departure for India without
bewailing the event, as calculated to hasten
materially the decline and fall of corruption.
The nightly hum from the Ministerial side of
the House then answered all the purposes of Go-
vernment, and to have mentioned eloquence would
have been ill manners. But now things are
suddenly changed, the monotonous bee-like note
of those who have been filling their thighs with
honey, will no longer sooth the senses, and lull
the ears of our Country Gentlemen plundered of
their sweets. The stirring spirit of economy and
Reform, is to be met by a torrens dicendi copia—
the nothingness of the system is beginning to
appear, it would seem, and the inflation of Mr.
Canning's breath is called for to plump it out, and
make it look_seemly, plausible, and sound. There
is something, however, very portentous in this
extraordinary demand for the powers of persua-
sion. A Government founded on public opinion
could never need for its very existence, as our
contemporary describes, the assistance of elo-
quence. America requires no eloquence 44 to
reclaim the deluded and re-animate the faithful."
A plain unadorned exposition of affairs is found
sufficient to preserve its people from delusion,
and to give them reason to rely on the wisdom
of their Government. Where there is manifest
utility, there can be no occasion for the poetry
of persuasion—the art, for the most part, of cap-
tivating the imagination, in order to mislead the
judgment. It needs no eloquence to convince
the people of England that the reduction of taxes
effected last Session was a great good ; but it
will require much to persuade them that their
purses may not be still more spared, and that
they are the happier or the richer, because a
number of privileged Gentlemen are largely paid
for nothing to do at their cost. But it were idle
to insist further on so trite a truism, as that ob-
vious utility recommends itself, and that elo-
quence exerted in its savour is trifling, and
against it powerless.

[MORNI NG lIERALD.T

The new Law of Marriage seems destined-, in
carrying its enactments into execution, to encoun-
ter more obstacles than even its most violent op-
ponent had apprehended. It is certain that the
object of the Legislature was to amend that part
of the Act of George 11., whereby marriages, ce-
lebrated by licenses improperly obtained, or by
bans irregularly published, were absolutely void
at any distance of time. The consequence was,
'that either party, after years of cohabitation, was,
`liable to- become the victim of the other, or
even of a third party—be abandoned and ex-
posed, with perhaps a numerous offspring, to
lasting poverty and disgrace. The titles and
inheritances of the parties also were insecure.—
These were deplorable consequences of the law,
were the source of a multitude of evils—and
proved the impolicy of having ever reduced the
matrimonial union to a mere civil contract, where-
by it was divested of the sanction of religion.—
We are not now, however, disposed to make any
comment on this point. The preserft Act was
passed to correct the defect in the former law,
and to obviate the recurrence of similar evils. It
makes all marriages, when once celebrated, no
matter whether lawfully or unlawfully, good and
valid to all intents and purposes, so far as they
were allowable by the Ecclesiastical laws before
the Act of George 11. Thus the principle of
the law is founded in justice, and is without ob-
jection, except perhaps in the sudden transition
from one extreme to the other. But the details
of the law are so encompassed with doubts and
difficulties—there is such a want of method and pre-
cision—the clauses are so obscured with technica-
lity, and every part so incumbeeed with references
and repetitions, couched in such enigmatical lan-
guage,• that four out of five who sit down to
peruse it will rise with a very confused idea, or
rather no idea at all, of its enactments. A com-
pliance with the required formalities becomes
therefore impossible, and in this respect it is de-
Went in one of the internal characteristics of
' law. For how can obedience be yielded to a law,
the subject matter of which is impossible, and the
provisions unknown or unintelligible ? It does
appear strange, that a law, which is meant to
regulate the tenderest,' and one of the most
universal connexions in life, should be sur-
rounded with so many difficulties. How much
of the Act of Henry the Eighth was repeated
by the Act of Edward the Sixth, how much of
both was repealed or revived by the twenty-
siith of George the Second, and, finally, what
effect the present law may have on all the
former, first-rate lawyers are unable to come to
any thing like an unanimous decision. When
Doctors thus disagree, what chance of escape is

left to the simple unsophisticated public ? BM those
faults are not peculiar to the laws concerning mar-
riage. There is not, perhaps, one chapter of our
legal Code—we mean the. Statue Law—that is not
liable to similar objections. The defects of the
Marriage Laws hive been noticed and canvassed,
because every individual in the community, women
as well as men, is immediately or indirectly
interested in the clear and proper understanding
of them. Other chapters of our Statute Laws
have not become the subjects of frequent com-
plaint or of critical remark—not that they are
more perfect, but becatise they have not so ge-
neral an operation.