The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-05 00:00:00

biening

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 1847.

" WHAT IS A POUND ?" Assuredly the riddle of
Sphinx was not more bewildering or inexplicable
than this simple inquiry, if we may estimate its dif-
ficulty by the diversity and contradiction of the an-
swers given by modern financiers. A pound ! why,

the colour of the chamelion has not been provocative
of more opposite assertions. For all that could be
adduced from the 'inverse definitions of this incom-
prehensible thing—a pound—by those who are pre-
sumed to be deeply versed in the monetary science,
we might as well endeavour to penetrate the Elusy-
nean mysteries, to solve the variations in the magnet,
to concoct the elixir vita, or to prove that mankind
has not in all ages been most credulous and most ex-
travagant.
Until we have arrived at some definite understand-
ing, however, as to the signification of a pound it is
hopeless to expect anything like sound or even safe le-
gislation in regard to national finance. Sir R. PEEL
has assumed to himself a species of despotism in
regard to the Currency : it is natural, therefore, that
to him public curiosity should be first directed for
some explicit interpretation of this awfully mysteri-
-1 ous monosyllable. Sir ROBERT PEEL has given his
interpretation--three years ago he gave it—repeatedly
since then he has given it; but such an interpretation !
such an ingenious jumble of paradoxes, such an
eccentric puzzle of words, as left the original ques-
-1 tion as invisible as a needle in a bottle of hay.
Arguing from the premise that a pound (a nominal
pound) of gold is 12.31-274 grains of gold, Sir
ROBERT PEEL maintained that the meaning of a
Ipound is literally " a definite quantity of gold with a
mark upon it to determine its weight and fineness."
Remember, he asserted this upon the premise that a
pound is fixed at 123.1-274 grains of gold; and he
asserted, almost in a simultaneous breath, that an
ounce of gold being legally determined to be of the
value of 31. 17s. 100., an ounce of gold and a pound
of silver must be considered as equivalent, or, in
other words, that the signification of an ounce of golds
being estimated by law at the sum of 31. 17s. lOid.,
is simply the expression.of the value of gold relatively
with silver. While uttering these opinions Sir R.,-
BERT coolly knocks the ground from under himself,
cracks the reed upon which he is leaning, by con-
fessing that silver can no longer be regarded as a
standard of value—that, in short, the silver coinage
is at present " a mere token," seeing that the
value of silver has fluctuated within recollection
from 625. to 665. per pound ! Was ever magnificent
castle in the air so instantaneously demolished, and
that, moreover, by its very fabricator ? Why, if
silver coinage is a mere token, gold coinage must
equally be a mere token ! If silver generally yam ies
in value, a pound
,of silver must vary in value,
1 and consequently a fluctuating pound of silver
cannot by possibility be the equivalent of an unfluc-
\
tuating ounce of gold ! The meaning of an ounce of
1 gold at 31. 17s. 100. Sir R. PEEL defines, as we
Ihave already stated, to be merely the expression of
its relative value to silver. If, therefore, the value of
silver is variable, the value of gold, as it is rated
proportionately with silver, must necessarily be
mutable in like manner. Already has Sir ROBERT
considered a pound as being composed of 123.1-274
grains of standard gold, and he has declared that
quantity to have been decided upon from the circum-
stance of the pound of account having been formerly.
namely, in the reign of WILLIAM the CON-
QUEROR, literally a pound (weight) of silver.
Yet this lesser metal, by_which titajaWritAtiV;;^%
viewed as anything more than a mere token, becaue
its value fluctuates like that of any baser commodity.
From first to last, throughout Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
explanation, there is an utter chaos of contradictions,
and paradoxes, and prevarications. From first to
last it is manifest that his arguments are based upon
premises of inherent rottenness. From first to last
t is certain that a pound is not, as he maintains, an