The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-27 00:00:00

MORNING SUN

merits of any measure by its money price. Thus,
when the looked-for scheme of emigration is dis-
cussed in the City, the first question generally
put is, " What will it cost?" The advantages to
be expected from the execution of a large and
comprehensive plan of emigration may be con-
sidered so great by philanthropists as to induce
them to look upon the expense as a secondary
matter; but when the financial embarrassments
of the country, and the impoverished position
of the public Treasury are considered, the
pounds, shillings, and pence become of serious
importance. When we remember that the Re-
port of the Select Committee on Emigration last
session recommended an expatriation en masse
of about sixty thousand souls as needful to re-
lieve the destitution prevailing in the Highlands
and islands of Scotland, we perceive at once
that millions of money must be expended in
order to carry into effect any general and effi-
cient measure of emigration throughout the
United Kingdom. The expense of sending
60,000 emigrants to Canada could not be safely
estimated at much under 400,0001. The cost
again per head to New South Wales under the
bounty system is 201., so that to transport the
same number of adults to Sydney or any part of
our Australian colonies would be fully 1,200,000/.
The gross expense of conveying 120,000 emigrants
in equal portions, therefore, to New South Wales
and Canada, would certainly incur an ex-
pense to the Treasury of about 1,600,0001.
if the Government were to propose a measure
of so limited a nature as that to which
those figures apply, the addition of 1,600,0001. to
the expenditure for the next year does not ren-
der the task of equalising the revenue and ex-
penditure one of more easy accomplishment ;
and unless it were brought forward on a much
more comprehensive basis, the benefits accruing
from it would be of no permanent duration ; for
in lieu of the numerical subtraction of 120,000
from the gross population by emigration, the ad-
dition by births would be nearly 400,000 in the
year 1842. The only ordinary funds which the
Government could command, to take off the load
from the Exchequer, are the colonial land funds,
which would not do much to alleviate the charge.
The necessary conclusion, accordingly, is, if the
Government determined on a scheme of emigra-
tion, that Mr. Goulburn must soon appear again
in the Money Market with some new patch-
work of a loan or funding ; thus adding more and
more to the amount of the public debt.
TIMES.—The late transactions of the Bank of
England in stock turn out to be not absolutely a
lending of money on such security, but the
taking back of Consols upon which the Bank
had previously itself borrowed money. This
operation is one not unfrequently resorted to
within the last two years, and is for the purpose
of equalizing the rate of money in and out of the
Stock Exchange.
The proceeding of the house of Coutts and Co.
against Lord Strangford is now understood to be
not an action at common law, but in the form of
a bill of discovery filed in Chancery, in order to
ascertain the degree of knowledge possessed by
his Lordship of time origin of the Exchequer bills
accepted by that house as security, with the view
of instituting legal proceedings, on evidence so
obtained from Lord Strangford, against other
parties. This is no abandonment, as has been
interpreted by some, of the claim against the
Government for the spurious bills, but in order to
show that all possible legal steps have been
taken against those even suspected to have a
guilty knowledge of the original fraud, in aid, so far
as it may go, of the liability of the Government.