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

THE SUN, LONDON,

intensity of the crisis was fearfully aggravated
through its operation.
If there is any foundation whatever for the state-
ments that have been made respecting the late dis-
coveries of gold in California—if only a very minute
portion of the hopes of the speculators should be
realised—another great change in the value of money
must take place, of which it would be impossible to cal-
culate the consequences. The extraordinary results
that followed the discovery of the mines of Mexico
and Peru, and the Brazils, and the consequent alte-
ration in the value of the precious metals, are already
well known. Gold and silver continued to be poured into
Europe in unprecedented plenty; there was a vast
increase in the circulating medium of the several
countries, and, as a natural consequence, a corres-
ponding increase in the price of commodities of every
description. The average price of wheat from
the year 1459 to 1560 was about 9s.' 2d. per quarter, t
while from 1561 to 1601 it had increased to no less
than 2/. 7s. sd. Within less than a century the
average price of this, the most important article of
food for the population, had increased fivefold. Every
other article of merchandize had experienced a similar
alteration. Various causes were assigned for these ex-
traordinary changes. The enhanced prices were at-
tributed to monopolies, to hoarding, to forestalling,
regrating, and a variety of different matters, but the
true cause was only subsequently discovered, viz., the
depreciation in the value of gold and silver consequent
upon the increased supply thereof.
If gold to the value of eight or ten millions ster-
ling should be obtained annually from the soil of
California, a similar depreciation must again take
place. The bullionists will be stripped of their
strongest argument; and it is by no means impos-
sible that we shall find those who have hitherto advo-
cated an exclusively metallic currency, or, at least, a
currency at all times convertible, become the
most strenuous supporters of a national incon-
vertible note. Gold and silver have been
selected as the representatives and measures
of value, because it is supposed that there
is little probability of their being suddenly increased
or diminished in any cor.siderable quantity. The
amount that has been collected has hitherto not
much more than balanced the wear and tear, and the
waste that usually takes place, and the absorption of
the metals into other channels. Hence, say the bul-
lionists—" The quantity of these metals, available at
any given period, is much the same, and as the pur-
poses for which they are wanted throughout the
world do not vary materially or suddenly, they
maintain, as a consequence, a very uniform value,
and this value forms a standard by which to measure
the various values of more variable com-
modities." This will, however, no longer
be the case. The same quantity of labour
will no longer be required to extract the mineral
treasures from the soil. That labour constitutes the
only true measure of value. It is not because gold
and silver possess intrinsic value, that they have been
adopted by universal consent; but because they could
not be obtained without immense labour and research.
If, however, the more precious of the two—that
which in this country constitutes the only circulating
medium that can be legally tendered in satisfaction of
debts and liabilities—can be gathered up by common
labourers, without the aid of complicated ma-.
chinery or the application of capital, to,
the extent of ten or twenty pounds a day
as alleged, or even to that number of dollars—it will
soon become comparatively cheap and valueless. The
enormous increase in the value of commodities that
has already taken place in the gold producing dis-
tricts will speedily extend throughout the whole
world. Then, indeed, public creditors and fund-
holders will have just cause to complain. The word of
promise will be kept to the ear, but broken to the
hope ; they will receive the due weight of metal, of
the requisite standard, but unfortunately that metal
will no longer possess the same command over the
necessaries and comforts of life that it formerly
had ; the gold will be there, but the " purchasing
power" will no longer exist. The equity of the con-
tract will certainly not be fulfilled.
Now the plan suggested by the association would
do justice to all parties. Whether a great increase
or diminution took place would be a matter of little
consequence. Gold would follow the same law that
relates to all other commodities. Its market price
would depend on the relationship between the supply
and demand. Under the present system, however abun-
dant it may be, the Bank is bound to pay a certain
price for all that may be offered. Although not re-
quired for general use, it must still be received,
and all the transactions of the country thereby dis-
arranged. We are bound to pay when gold is cheap
and abundant the same price for which we are com-
pelled to supply it when dear and scarce. This is
certainly not very reasonable, and unless the law be
altered, and that speedily, the country will pay dearly
for the folly of its legislators.

Although the gold mines of California may stimu-
late the cupidity of the fortune-hunter, the vast
regions of Australia are still regarded as the true El
Dorado by the suffering and the starving, whose
name, unhappily, is Legion. The subject of emi-
gration now occupies much of the public attention,
and there are few subjects so deserving of considera-
tion from all who have the well-being of their fel-
low men at heart. Some three years since the
author of "Sybil" alluded to the annual arrival of three
hundred thousand strangers in this island, as testified
by the "Population Returns." "How will you
feed them ? How will you clothe them ? How will
you house them ?" he asked. "The rags of the
kingdom are exhausted, and your sinks and cellars
already swarm like rabbit-warrens." To these
momentous questions, of which three years have
only increased the imminent importance, there is but
one answer—Let them emigrate. Let the hands for
which there is here no labour repair to the lands
where there are none to labour—the lands which lie
waste for want of cultivation. This important sub-
ject has rarely been set forth in a more earnest and
forcible manner than in the present number of the
Church of England Quarterly Review. Speaking of
the number of men out of employ, the reviewer very
truthfully—unfortunately too truthfully—remarks :
Every trade is overstocked with workmen—still
more come and ask for labour. There is such an alarm-
ing amount of unemployed labour in the market that its
value—the only physical value of a man as far as
pounds, shillings, and pence are concerned—is deterio-
rated. Rather than starve, a man will work for three-
tourths, one-half, or even one-third less than another,
until the absolute and real value is altogether lost sight
of. It becomes no longer a matter of what it is worth'
—it is merely a question of what it will fetch.' "
The remedy—the only remedy—for such a state of
things is obvious. People starve by the wayside, and
if they hold out the hand to beg the passer-by ex-
claims reproachfully, " Work I" The advice, strictly
speaking, is right enough, for the labourer alone is
worthy of hire ; but, under present circumstances,
such advice is too often mockery.

" Work—work—work,"
sang the sempstress,
"In poverty, hunger, and dirt,
Work—work—work,
While the cock is crowing aloof;
And work—work--work,
Till the stars shine through the roof."
But such continual application barely sufficed to pre-
serve her miserable existence, because the market
was already overstocked by hundreds and tens of
hundreds as fit for work as she. Therefore it is a
mockery to tell a man to work without in some way
enabling him to obey such an injunction. The
Church of. England Quarterly Reviewer strenuously
advocates the adoption of an organized plan of whole-
sale emigration. But, whether such a system as he
recommends be adopted or not, the advisability of some
such scheme must be obvious to all who thoughtfully
consider the subject. " You marvel at the ingratitude
poverty?
of the poor," continues the reviewer—" why ?"
" What in effect have they to be grateful for ?—for their
lyso their thoughts
well-to-do friend,l '
ourselves in •
Let us cease to talk idly if we can, and, plac-
inghehiyr chounrdoitwioui.i, tenageinrideeyaovuorurwtiofe,anmay-
shivering and huddled neighbouXongd
In a cellar or an attic in a fever-
strickenydourself in rags, your child-
rentogether in a corner—your
cupboards empty, the relieev'
you or flatly refused younitu3shteaney—even beggary has
officer to have neglected
proved itself to be only
every
insolvency to you—
every outlet, every doorway,
us heart and hand closed
against you—and then let know the state of your
' gratitude' to your fellow-man."
There is one way, however, by which we may earn
the gratitude of the poor :
" Fifty thousand pounds is not a very great sum
to
build a house for the furtherance of pauperism. What
would that sum do in the cause of emigration? What

noble workhouses such an amount would have built in
that far kat across the seas—what smiling little cot-
tages, with the birds singing in the ears and the flowers
blooming •around the small garden—what a joyous fire-
side where sire, and son, and mother sit around and
fear nought without!"
Noble workhouses indeed ! Would to GOO that
our starving and our"paupers were so housed! Many,
we doubt not, will echo such an aspiration ; but how
many will need a hand to enable that aspiration to be
realised ?

The Archbishop of CANTERBURY has returned ex-
actly the sort of reply to the memorial of the Ply-
mouth requisitionists, complaining of the prevalence
of Puseyism in the diocese of Exeter, which it was to
be expected that his Grace would return. Inasmuch
as it is by no means impossible that his Grace may be
called upon hereafter to decide judicially upon the
conduct, life, and doctrine of his suffragan of Exeter,
it would have been clearly indecorous as well as im-
politic to have made any very pointed allusions to, or
to have expressed any very decided opinion on those
subjects ; but, with regard to the conduct of the in-
ferior clergy of the diocese, his Grace was under
no such restraint, and accordingly he thus speaks
of the " practices of the younger clergy"—practices
not only tacitly sanctioned but positively commanded
in many instances by the Bishop of EXETER. " I
could certainly have wished," says the Archbishop of
CANTERBURY, "that the younger clergy, to whom
your remarks are chiefly applicable, bad thought
themselves at liberty to follow the usage of their pre-
decessors and the example of the great majority of
their brethren at the present day, so as to acquiesce
in those slight deviations from the Rubric which
custom had sanctioned and which had not been re-
proved by competent authority. I could have wished
they had considered the APOSTLE'S example appli-
cable to their case, and in non-essential things had
yielded to the feelings of the people as he yielded to
those of the Jews, for the sake of avoiding offence and
gaining confidence. Especially I regret the intro-
duction into our parish churches of a mode of wor-
ship which, however proper and suitable in our
cathedrals, appears too artificial and elaborate for
simple and general devotion."
It is evident from this passage that the Archbishop
of CANTERBURY agrees with the great body of, we
will not say the members of the Church of England
only, but of the Protestants of the British empire, in
the manner in which he regards Tractarian obser-
vances, and although his Grace has declined for the
present to call the attention of the Legislature to the
subject, on the ground that the time is not yet come
for the introduction of such a measure, yet these
words afford abundant encouragement to all who do
not repudiate the name of Protestant to persevere in
their endeavoars to.purge the Protestant Church from
those, who nominated as ministers or servants of the
Church, would fain make themselves masters, and
who, appointed to preach the Scriptures, endeavour
to make the Word of GOD of none effect by vain
traditions. Accordingly we are rejoiced to find that
the men of Plymouth are determined to persevere
with the agitation which they have so gloriously
commenced, and in which they will, we trust, be
joined, not merely by the lay members of the
Church of England, but by the clergy and laity both
of the Kirk and of the Free Church of Scot-
land, and of every denomination of Protestant
Dissenters throughout the three kingdoms •
Indeed the Protestant Dissenters, the old
and tried friends of civil and religious liberty, are
to the full as much interested in inflicting "a heavy
blow and a great discouragement" on Puseyism as
the Evangelical members of the Church of England
themselves. In former days, when doctrines analo-
gous to those held by the Puseyites were in the
ascendant, Dissenters were persecuted every-
where to death. LAUD, and STRAFFORD, and
CLAVERSOUSE, and JEFFERIES, and KIRKE, the
persecutions of the Presbyterians, the murder
(under form of law) of Mrs. GAUNT, the
Anabaptist, are examples of what Puseyism was, and
what Puseyites would do if they could but once
obtain an ascendancy. That the same spirit still
actuates them let their fierce denunciations of all
Dissent and of all Dissenters bear witness.

On Thursday the adjourned meeting of the in-
habitants of Plymouth and its neighbourhood took
place, on which occasion the room in which the meet-
ing was held was again crowded in every part. The
deputation which had waited on the Archbishop of
CANTERBURY with the -memorial agreed to at the
former meeting, read his Grace's reply thereto, from
which we have given an extract above, and a petition
to her MAJESTY was unanimously agreed to. In ad-
dressing her MAJESTY, the petitioners say—
" We have, for some years past, observed with deep
and increasing apprehension, the adoption, by a large
body of the clergy, of a system of divinity and minis-
terial teaching, which has for its object the depreciation
of the distinctive doctrines of the Reformation, as taught
by the Articles of our Church, and the encouragement
in an equal degree of opposite doctrines of the Church
of Rome; a system which, in proportion to the extent to
which it is received or avowed, either leads its adherents
to an open conformity to that Church, or, as we believe
more frequently happens, to a virtual adoption of the
essential principles of Romanism, under a nominal and
ill-sustained allegiance to our Protestant Church.
" The class of unsound divines to whom we refer, in-
variably base the defence of their principles on their
construction of certain passages and forms of words
which occur in some of the offices of the Church—par-
ticularly in those appointed for the ordination of minis-
ters—the baptism of infants— the visitation of the sick,
and the Catechism—forms of expression which taken
alone, and unexplained bythe tenor of the Articles and
the Church's general doctrine, may perhaps be of a
doubtful meaning, and,,therefore afford opportunity for
misrepresentation. _ _

" It is, unhappily, too notorious that this system of
error has become widely prevalent throughout Great
Britain, and this diocese in particular, and we grieve to
state it to be our deliberate and painful conviction, that
its principles, as well as the ceremonial practices which
its advocates have introduced, receive encouragement
from the Lord Bishop of Exeter."

The petition concludes with the followingprayer :
" Under a deep conviction that the extensive
evils to which we have adverted will be aggravated
by any lengthened delay, and that the strength
and efficiency of the Church, and the best
interests of the, community will be largely promoted by
a removal of the occasion of a complaint so general and
well founded, we humbly but earnestly pray that your
Majesty will be graciously pleased to direct the adop-
tion of such measures with a view to an authoritative
and Protestant determination of the sense of the Liturgy
in iill its parts, and also for defining the ceremonial of
the:Church in conformity to established usages as to your
Majesty's wisdom may seem best calculated to obtain
those desirable objects."

The Plymouth demonstration has already begun to
produce its effects. The Bishop of EXETER has ac-
cepted the resignation of Mr. MesxELL, his exa-
mining chaplain, which resignation he had, before
the holding of the Plymouth meeting, refused to ac-
cept. It is true that in his letter accepting such
resignation, the Bishop of EXETER declares that to
the excitement produced by the Plymouth meeting he
pays no attention whatever, and adds, " such excitement
and such statements as are said to have been made at
that meeting, could have no weight with me ;" but in
coming to an opinion on this part of the subject, it
is necessary to bear in mind the verdict of the jury
in the case of " The QUEEN V. LATIMER." As
was well observed by Mr. SOLTAU at the meeting on

Thursday,
" Whatever sophistry might be :thrown around it;
whatever pretence might be put forward, the tact was
undoubted, that, in consequence of a meeting held at
Plymouth, some three weeks since, Mr. Maskell's resig-
nation had been given in. They might attempt to blink
the question; they might attempt to say that it proceeded
from other causes, but no man who had read the corre-
spondedence carefully, could have any difficulty what-
ever as to the true reason. Let them then make use of
the power they possessed, as laymen, and persevere as
laymen in the course which was right, and their effort
must lead to useful and beneficial results."

There cannot be a doubt but that beneficial results
must follow from this grand Protestant movement
which has commenced in Plymouth, but which will
extend over the whole kingdom. Let the example of
Plymouth be followed by every town and city in the
kingdom—let all " Protestants," of whatever denomina-
tion—let all who value the right of private judgment
en the Scriptures—let all who are for " the Bible, the
whale Bible, and nothing but the Bible," join in this
great movement. As was well observed by Mr.
BENNETT, at the Plymouth meeting on Thursday,
"this question affects all religious communities, and
the well-being of the general body of the people."

BARRISTERS-AT-LAW.—MIDDLE TEMPLE, JAN. 13.
—The under-mentioned gentlemen, called to the degree
of the utter bar on Friday, were published in the Middle
Temple Hall this day:—George Tennant, John Jrvis,
William Tapping, George Frederick Speke, Charles
Chandos Pole, Thomas Harrison, James German, John
Brewer, and John Oliver Surtees, Esqs.
The Dumbolton Serenaders, from the St. James's
Theatre, are " starring " it with great success at
Liverpool