The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-01 00:00:00

TIIE SUN,

the hypothesis of the immortal author of the
"Wealth of Nations." PEEL, by his gradual and
far-seeing reductions of the tariff, corroborated the
arguments of HusxissoN by the experiences of an
improved and prosperous Excheque COBDEN, by
his denuncictions against the mon polists—denun-
ciations as pregnant with logic as they were lumi-
nous with eloquence—proclaimed the reality of that
commercial doctrine which had been hinted by
ADAM SMITH, advocated byllusa issoN, systematically
tested by PErr., and accepted as a part of the Tuscan
constitution by the daring and enlightened
LEOPOLD. The acceptance of free trade by the
legislators of the United Kingdom is consequently
well calculated to render the population of these
islands curious as to the condition of their fellow-men,
whether in adjacent principalities or in the territories
of a remote archipelago. Every session this curiosity
will be more perceptible. Every session the Foreign
Secretary will find his Parliamentary catechists mul-
tiplied in number and confirmed in pertinacity.
While Sir CHARLES WOOD is being dragged over
the burning ploughshares of investigation for the
purpose of proving his innocence or culpability in
regard to the depression of the money market ; while
Sir WILLIAM SOMERVILLE is passing through the
ordeal of an inquiry in the House of Commons as to
the continued destitution of the Irish ; and Lord
PALMERSTON is being badgered, like an important
witness at the Old Bailey, upon the failures and suc-
cesses of British diplomacy—we trust that Lord
MORPETH, as Chief Commissioner of Woods and
Forests, will not be overlooked or allowed to
escape from the Ministerial bear-bating, scot-
free. Among the " divers urgent and important
affairs " mentioned in the royal proclamation,
surely not one is more urgent or more important than
the health of the people, and especially the sanitary
condition of the labouring classes and the destitute.
While his colleagues are given up without reserva-
tion to the inquisitiveness of the popular representa-
tives, shall Lord MORPETH alone escape? Forbid it
that justice which is attendant even upon the
official ptrtfolios of France and the red-
boxes of England! However brief may be the
sitting of Parliament, we conceive that there
will be ample time to elicit from the Govern-
ment some explicit declaration as to their proposed
scheme of sanitary improvement. The health of the
community is certainly not less urgent or important
than the stability of public credit, the pacification of
the Irish malcontents, and the character of our rela-
tions with the various Cabinets of the continent.

On Saturday we alluded to the manner in which
" the national honour may be placed at the disposal
of a foreign potentate, if the present system should
be persevered in." Already, under the ukase issued
at St. Petersburgh, on the 31st March last, nearly
4,800,0001. of our national debt is the property and
at the absolute disposal of a monarch against whose
designs it is necessary to guard with the utmost vigi-
lance. It is probably but a beginning, and may from
time to time be further increased, until that power
may be still further enhanced. The natural effect of
the present depreciated value of the public funds of
this country is to induce foreigners to make still fur-
ther investments therein, and thus to become entitled
to draw large annual incomes from our shores, to
obtain mortgages on the labour and industry
of our people. When the AUTOCRAT has set the ex-
ample, it may he looked upon as certain that many
of the wealthy nobility of Russia, who have acquired
large sums by the importation of grain to England,
will follow the precedent, and that thus the amount
of British stock held by Russian owners as well as
other foreigners will be very materially increased.
The gold which has left our shores, and which in the
natural course of events would have returned in pay-
ment for our manufactures, and the products of our
industry, by which vast quantities of employment
would be afforded to our oleratives, and a healthy
impetus given to our trade and commerce, will, in
lieu thereof, be made a permanent charge on the
nation, for which gold must always be provided, and
a certain annual exportation thereof must take place.
Our national debt, grievous and onerous as it un-
doubtedly is to the hardworking and productive classes,
inequitable as it is, that an annuity exceeding
28,000,0001. sterling, the interest of a debt which
was contracted for the preservation of the property
belonging to the wealthier classes, should be prac-
tically levied from those who reaped no part of the
benefit, there was at least this redeeming point; we
labouredifor our own brethren, they were Britons who
received the benefit of our extra toil, and the money
was not taken from our shores ; it circulated in the
country, and a great portion of it was generally ap-
plicable to works of improvement within our own
dominions. The additional wealth dispersed amongst
the fundholders occasioned an additional demand for
the supply of the home markets, and afforded additional
employment to the working classes. But suppose it,
or even a considerable portion thereof, to be the
property of foreigners, then indeed the prospect
would be a gloomy one, the evil would be wholly
without mitigation. We should be deprived
of the advantages which enable us in some
degree to contend against the enormous weight of our
taxation. And yet this is what a strict adherence to
the bullionist system, the pertinacious rejection of a
national inconvertible currency, must bring us.

The ablest of the advccates of the Bank Charter Acts
and of a restricted circulation based wholly on bullion,
and subjected to the most stringent regulations, admits
thi•=, and in fact points it out as the only remedy.
Our contemporary this day says, when alluding to
the recent suspension of the Act of 1844, " When a
whole country i 3 poor the only parties to help it are
our neighbours. That, inflict, is the natural remedy
for this case, and the remedy now in operation. Nothing
I;iit the introduction of foreign capital in exchange fur
our securities can set us up again." It is then for the
people to say whether they are prepared to maintain
"the integrity of the standard " at such a
price, whether they will expend their toil
for the aggrandisement of the foreigner and
the stranger, or whether they will adopt the sounder
syotem, under which there will be full and adequate
employment to every person able and willing to
work, and the great bulk of the interest of our debt
will be expended in our native land. It is the fact,
that a large proportion of its national debt is due to
strangers, that has reduced Spain, with all the extra-
ordinary natural advantages which it possesses, to
such a lamentable condition, and made it a bveword
am ingst nations. The same may be said of Por-
tugal. Are we ambitious of being classed with
them amongst the principalities of Europe ? The
history of the late Peninsular war attests the British
power under an inconvertible currency. Can the
hardiest bullionist assert that such exertions could
have been made, that such glories an I such eventual
successes could have been obtained, with an exclu-
sively gold or circulating medium, or with paper
convertible into gold on demand ?
But great as is the inconvenience of sending a large
portion of the interest of our debt to ether lands, it
is by no means the worst part of the transaction ;
there a known, a certain evil is to be encountered,
which can be provided against by increased toil and
diminished comforts to our labouring population. But
evils of far greater magnitude, although less appa-
rent on a mere casual inspection, are attendant there•
on. The foreign exchanges can be acted on with the
greatest facility ; whenever they are in our favour,
they can be altered by a sale of the British securities,
which will furnish a fund in England to be drawn
against, and prevent the necessity of sending gold to
effect the same object. The Bankers' Jllagazine
for October contained an excellent article, " A Scheme
for a New Currency Act," in which it advo-
cated the propriety of the Bank of England always
holding a certain portion of its assets in the public
securities of Continental States, and it urged " that
every million of such securities so held would be
equivalent to so much bullion, for the purpose of cor-
recting adverse exchanges." Every argument so ably
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Should the Czar meditate an aggression on
our
Eastern empire, which is said ever to be an object of
great temptation to him—should he desire still further
to crush the liberties of Poland—to arrest the pro.
greys of Liberal opinions in Europe, or to ex-
tend the doctrines of absolutism, what an enormous
his British stock,
power he is possessed of in