The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-22 00:00:00

toning 4-2". A tut

LOXD'JN, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2i, 1847.

Before to-morrow evening the question Jewish
disabilities will in all human likelihood b decided,
and—what is more—decided constitutional) y. That
religious tolerance necessitates in the Legi :stature
principle such as must ultimately amount to a pro-
fession of national indifferentism, is one oft hose me-
taphysical sophisms upon which fanaticisr a chiefly
reposes its authority. And it is by the reite !ration of
this sophism that the more bigoted are ende; tvouring
to scare the Genius of Liberality from the I douse of
Commons, and to render ineffectual the suffrages
which have declared the Barcn L1024.1M DE ROTHS•
CHILD to be a popular representative. I Vhen a
body of educated and enlightened men cant be con-
vinced that freedom means tyranny, that gel 2erosity
means malevolence, or that Christianity meat Is Poli-
tical and Ecclesiastical Oppression, this most formi-
dable of all the sophisms of fanaticism may be re-
garded as the text of British legislation. Unti. I, then,
however, we are satisfied that beneficence and justice
will continue to sway the judgment of the Se nate.
The principle involved in the proposed decision of Par-
liament reduces itself to a very simple alternativ e. If a
Jew cannot sit in Parliament because a person pro fessing
his peculiar doctrines is, ipso facto, disqualifie KI from
interfering in the government of a Christian people,
then, say we, a Jew is necessarily, upon th e same
showing, disqualified from exercising the pr eroga-
tive of the franchise. The sequitur is ines itable.
There is no medium course; there is no sh irking
the consequence of such a line of argumer it. If'
Baron ROTHSCHILD be ejected from the 3 .over
tpheetenutntdoe reset
.aonpdeirnagt 0 tihnattl
the
aenbar;
'louse by reason of his religior, it can solely be upon
c+,.vm isen
td declared
ee d
ten cpoo mr
al
affairs of a nation with Ch
ple which would
driesctlians ; and the p.
thereb
b. re a Jew to b e in-
capable of becoming a yMel-'• er., would simulta-
neously pronounce his in
Elector. It becomes, therefore,capacity to confirm ean
I a question as to whether not
so
nuch
tinue to advance upon the parhewashall con-
ligious liberty, but as to whether of
re-
we shall turn
to the right-about upon the high road of bigotry and
intolerance. The circle is narrowed—the alter! : hive
is most simple, but if it is most simple, it is also z nost
momentous. At the very commencement of the I lew

Parliament a matter in which the whole character
of the empire is implicated is brought under its
consideration. Shall England advance or retrograde
in the cause of civil and religious freedom ? The
question is already put. It must be decided imme-
diately, emphatically, constitutionally, and for ever.
There is an anecdote of ELLISTON and GEORGE
IV., told by one who so loved a joke that he could
suck the marrow out of the driest bone of a
reminiscence—CHAßLES LAMB to wit—which anee-
dote tallies ridiculously well with the present
dilemma of her MAaesTy's Most Faithful
Commons. According to the essayist, the
comedian devised a trick for the gratification of the
PRINCE REGENT. The place was Brighton ; the
scene was the Pavilion ; the occasion was a banquet;
the hour was twilight. In the midst of the festi-
vities the dining-hall was suddenly darkened, and a
sentence as terrible as that which appalled the
revellers of BELSHAZZAR, appeared upon the wall
in gigantic letters of the colour of blood. It was
this : 6' EARTHQUAKE ! ...BRIGHTON ! !—SWALLOW
UP ALIVE! !!" The trick is being revived at West-
minster. Scarcely has the new Parliament assem-
bled when a sentence as pleasant in its signification
is displayed before the eyes of its astonished Members.
A. prophecy is pronounced; an alternative is enun-
ciated; the Parliament is threatened, and through the
Parliament the empire. Christianity will be jeo-
pardised by the admission of Jews to the House of
Commons. The Legislature must either confirm
the supposed disabilities of the Israelites, or the
predominance of Christianity in the nation
will be forfeited. Let Parliament but declare
a Hebrew to be qualified to become a Legis-
lator, and our Cathedrals will in time be as
irreparably in ruins as the temple of the Ephesians,
and as desolate as the Halls of Baiclutha. That is
the prophecy, the alternative, and the threat pro-
nounced against the national representatives, in anti-
cipation of the decision upon the important case of
Baron LicesEc DE ROTHSCHILD. The prophecy,
however, comes only from the oracles of Exeter Hall :
the alternative, from the darkened judgment of
bigotry : the threat, from the delirious ravings of
fanaticism. Examine the alarm for a moment, and
it proves to be as much of a trick as the optical
illusion of ELLISTON in the Pavilion. Mere clerical
blue-fire—an ethical transparency—the hocus-pocus-
ing of so many ecclesiastical pantomimists.
There cannot, indeed, be a reasonable doubt—
s doubt worthy of one instant's consideration
—as to the course which will be pursued in this mat-
ter by the House of Commons. The representatives
of the people will recoil from that abyss of retrogres-
sion into which the constitution will be plunged in
the event of any concessions cn their part to the
clamours of religious intolerance. Declare the Jew
disqualified by his religion from occupying a seat in
Parliament, and you declare him incapable of exer-
cising the elective franchise : deprive him of
the franchise, and you must disentitle him to
every kind of civil or social immunity. Reduce him
to this condition, and open persecution cannot be far
off. From one degree to another the descent is irre-
sistible. The complaint will not long be—" You spat
upon my Jewish gaberdine, and called me Dog!" Were
we to adventure upon this retrograde policy in re-
ference to the children of ABRAHAM, we should, like
GRATIANO, conceive it to be an act of munificence
to supply them with halters gratis! The Parliament
of England will, however, under the Ad-
ministration of a RUSSELL, remain staunch to
the genial spirit of the Constitution, and
loyal to the cause of that moral and political tolera-
tion, which is enumerating fresh advocates even
among the principalities of Italy. If the Jews have
been redeemed from their state of degradation under
the walls of the Vatican, shall a crusade of bigotry
be permitted to pursue them under the shadows of
Westminster Abbey ? If the Jews have found not
merely countenance but consolation within the cir,

cumference of Papal Rome, shall they encounter
only ignominy and abasement in Great Britain ?
Upon these great questions, the Members newly
elected by the population will decide forthwith. May
they evince, in the manner of their decision, a due
sense of their own responsibility, and a proper con-
viction of the justice and humanity of their con-
stituents!

The Bank Charter Act of 1844 has been virtually
abrogated, and it is now admitted, on every side, that
important changes in the monetary laws of the coun-
try are absolutely essential. A great variety of opi.-
nion, however, exists as to the nature and extent of
the alterations that should be effected, some contend-
ing that nothing should be tolerated as a circulating
medium but gold coin, or paper convertible on de•
mand, into gold at a fixed price ; while others insist
that such a system is radically wrong, and wholly
inconsistent with the permanent welfare and prospe-
rity of the nation ; and that any attempt to main-
tain a gold currency must necessarily occasion pe-
riodical crises, repeated fluctuations in prices, and prove
deeply injurious to our trade and commerce, and
still more so to the labouring classes, who are depen-
dent for their daily subsistence on their daily la-
bour, and to whom anything which interposes
obstacles to employment, or operates as a check upon
production, must have the most fatal results. These
constitute the two great parties—the bullionists and
the anti-bullionists—between whom the battle is to
be fought. There are innumerable sub-divisions,
however, on either side. Some of the former class
desire that the directors of the Bank of England
should be afforded the widest and most unlimited
discretion, that the only regulation should be that
their notes should at all times be exchangeable for gold
at the rate of 3/. 7s. 100. per ounce, and that so
long as their obligations are thus discharged, there
should not be the slightest interference with the
manner in which they may think proper to carry on
their business, or the amount of paper they may
deem it desirable to send into circulation ; while
others object to such extraordinary powers being con-
ceded to an irresponsible body, and suggest various
checks by which the Bank may be controlled, and a
self acting system introduced that will prevent the
bullion leaving the country, either by regulating the
issue according to the amount of specie in its coffers,
or by making the minimum rate of interest depend
thereon.

The ground-work of Sir R. PEEL'S late Act,
which permitted an issue of 14,000,000 sterling, on
securities, and required that for every note circu-
lated beyond that fixed limit, an amount in gold
sufficient to redeem it should be retained in the Bank
cgllars in the issue department, was one of these
kinds of restriction, while that of the regulation of
the present Ministry, as set forth in the letter of the
Premier and the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
was of the other eight per cent. being fixed
as the lowest rate at which the Bank should
malce advances on any description of security. The
bullionists, therefore, are divided into the non-restric-
tionists and the restrictionists, the latter being again
divided into those who would regulate by the re- 1

striction of the issues, and those who would do so
by the rate of interest that should be demanded on

loans. All are objectionable, although the doctrines
of the restrictionists are still more injurious to the
country than those of the other party.
The anti-bullionists, in like manner, are divided
nto parties, who advocate the issue of notes based

ion a variety of different securities, to guard

the public against the possibility of loss,_ and
who would establish different descriptions of
checks as to the amount that should be

sent into circulation. All, however, are actuated by
a cordial desire to upset as well the Act of 1819 as
that of 1844, to introduce a free trade in gold as in
any other description of commodity, and to provide
a currency sufficient for the wants and exigencies of
the country; to give employment to every one able
and willing to work, and to develope all our indus-
trial resources. We hail every one holding these prin-
ciples (however much we may differ in details) as a
coliaboratQur, and shall gladly co-operate with him
in the cor,test that is inevitable.

Many admirable publications have lately issued
from the pens of anti-bullionists, which depict in the
strongest and most forcible manner the evils that have
been inflicted on the country by the present system,
and which must convince any disinterested and un-
prejudiced person of the impolicy of the monetary
laws. We have just recsived a pamphlet from the
pen of CHARLES ENDERBY, Esq., F.R.S., entitled
"Our Money Laws—the Cause of the National
Distress,"
which is deserving of the most attentive