The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-15 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—lnquiry into the laws of money and the science
of exchange is not a mere dilletanti amusement :which a
man may take up and lay down just as he pleases.
The memorial quoted above shows that a barbarous
money system like the gold, as an instrument to carry
on our extended trade—a trade thrust upon us by the
necessities of an enormous population, who are beginning
to be dependent upon foreign commerce for all raw ma
terials and food—is absurd and most injurious; and that
we must invent a scientific money if we wish such
commercial revulsions as we were witnes,es to, in
this town, in the memorable October of 1847, not to
recur every three or four years, in what Mr. Jones Loyd
calls "an established cycle." We must set ourselves to
discover a sound monetary system, which, by facilitating
exchange, would render labour always available—would
supply the wants of our people—empty our shops and
warehouses—end would cause to disappear that frightful
tic stitution and misery, which seem such extrordinary
and unaccountable concomitants to our wonderfully ad-
vanced powers of production.

It is the WANT Ol ♦ SCIENTIFIC MONEY that shall
expand and adapt itself to our growing necessities, that
may be attributed that extraordinary spectacle which
must have struck the most thoughtless among us—a
spectacle presented to our eyes on any given day, in any
given street, of men able to work, and willing to work,
having no work to do, and in want of everything; and
these same streets containing rows of shops full of the
goods wanted by these very men, and the proprietors list-
less behind their counters, lamenting the lack of customers.
A willingness to produce, and an intense desire to con-
sume, and yet the healthy circulation stopped by enchant-
ment! Production divorced from consumption!! " Oh!
if the invisible accursed nightmare, that is crushing
out the life of us and our's, would take a shape—England
* * full of wealth—of multifarious produce, supply for
human want of every kind; yet * * dying of inanition,
with unabated bounty the laud of England • • waving
with yellow harvests—thick studded with workshops—
industrial implements—with fifteen millions of workers,
understood to be the strongest, the cunningest, and the
willingest our earth ever had—with hunger, nakedness,
and misery for their reward," is owing to our present
barb:..rous gold money, and to the want of a circulating
medium, which shall adjust itself, and increase with the
wealth which it is its peculiar ltn,ction to circulate and
distribute. .

What that scientific money shall be, I will examine
hereafter, arid I call upon your readers to help i❑ so im-
portant an inquiry. .

I can dit,cover no principle, only clever expedient
in the letters of a London Banker.
The California discoveries demand instant exertion in
this investigation. PACTOLUS.
Liverpool, Dec. 31, 1848.

IDOLATRY IN INDIA.
TO 7'HE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,--I have perused the letter of "An East India
Proprietor," which appeared in your paper of the 10th
inst., with much satisfaction, and shall be obliged if you
will indulge me with inserting the following remarks.
People who compare the rule of England in India with
its rule in other colonies, are apt to conclude that the
system works well, and therefore should remain undis-
turbed. In other words, that the present charter should
be renewed. It was not many days ago that a Member
of Parliament said to me " Give India to the Colonial-
office and it will be lost." The circumstances are totally
dis.iimilar. If India were by nature less rich than it is,
if its powers of production did not surpass those of any
country in the world, long ago it would have been a
desert. The East India Company have done their ut-
most to ruin the country, its population has been thinned
by famine, and its revenues aro well nigh exhausted;
they have changed and changed again, to find the means
of extorting more and more, till they have left but one
system, which an ordinary observer can recognise—a
system of universal poverty.
What have the East India Company done in the way
of education? what to advance the people in affairs of
government? Take Madras as an example. They have
given 5,000/. per annum to educate a country possessing
a population of twenty millions! they have established
a high school at Madras! but where will there be found
a school appointed by the Government within the pro-
vinces?

Their Governments are composed of foreigners—not
a man of the country being permitted to take a share in
them; the only individuals capable of imparting the
knowledge essential for due government, and for the
welfare of the country, are wholly excluded! Would
this be so, if India were subject to the Colonial-office?
Is it so at the Cape of Good Hope? Is it so at Ceylon?
In which are the inhabitants of the country most fitted
by education and intellectual acquirements to be asso-
ciated with their governors?
_ .

The strength of the East India Company is the
ignorance of the people, and to maintain this has been
their constant endeavour. The East India Company
will tell you that their laws and administration of justice
have given security to life and property! " Solitudinem
faciunt, pacem appellant"—they have taken away the
incentive to theft, they have reduced the country to a
nation of paupers, and now pride themselves on the fact
that people do not steal! The calendars of the circuit
courts will show that during the past fifteen years (an
interval I speak of from personal knowledge) the cases
in which property to a large amount has been the ques-
tion are rare indeed.

" An East India Proprietor" would do well to con-
sider whether the interference of authority to establish
the Christian religion in India is not more likely to stir
up an opposition to its introduction than to aid its dis-
semination. Had the missionaries, as in former days,
been left to perform their own work, without the inter-
vention of secular authority, they would have done more
than has been accomplished.
I remain, Sir, your most obedient servant,
EAST INDIA PROPRIETOR SECUNDUS.
14th January, 1848.

DISASTROUS FIRE AT ALLERTON Yesterday
. ncl" .3i,tvale,
d be morning the premises of Mr. James Lowther, i
i"ngsub-
two
Allerton, took fire, and, before the flames coui
i.
dued, a considerable amount of property,
The alarm of
valuable horses, were totally de.star.o.y;
eat three, imme-
fire reached the station abouts,h il fire
direction brigade,
o I.
diately upon which the
b found that the barn, two
were dispatched from
Mr. Hewitt. On his army
were on fire, and the dwell-
e Liverpool,naee
cottages, and
Lowther was in the most imminent
" , house of Mr. several houses .
a plentiful supply of water was
-
pond, and poured upon
danger. Fortunately-,
A neighbouring. .
from
procured
which were raging with great violence, is
the flames,
consequence of a heavy blowing gale at the time. By
the greatest exertions on the part of the fire brigade, the
fire was eventually got under control, but not until a
barn, two cottages, and an outhouse were destroyed, with
all they contained. There were a number of horses in
one of the stables, but such was the rapidity with which
the flames extended, that the whole of them could not be
rescued. Two of the animals were burnt to death.
Some of the people had a narrow escape, and one female
was obliged to make a hasty retreat almost in a state of
nudity. Mr. Lowther's house narrowly escaped being
destroyed. He was insured in the Royal Life Assurance
Company, but his loss, which at present cannot be cor-
rectly estimated, will it is feared, be very considerable.—
Liverpool Mercury.
MARYPORT, JAN. 12.—Arrd. Ocean, Huddart, Quebec,
with part of stanchions, bulwarks, skylight, &c. carried
~way.