The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-06 00:00:00

The examination occupied nearly three hours.

HAMBURGH and FLANDERS MAIL.
BRUSSELS, OCT. 2.—At the grand military
manoauvres on the 27th ult., which took place in
the presence of more than 50,000 spectators, several
accidents occurred. At the sham fight two soldiers
were killed, and several men, together with some of
the spectators, were wounded by the firing.
M. Doignon, Commissary General of the Bank, has
sent in his resignation.
FRANKFORT, SEPT. 29.--Durizs ON THE RHINE.
—The committee for the navigation of the Rhine,
now assembled at Mayence, have arrived at the fol-
lowing decision : —Prussia proposes to reduce 30 per
cent. the duties of navigation of every kind, but an-
other proposition has been made by Nassau, that of let-
ting the duties up the river amount to the level of those
down the river, which is equivalent to reducing the
first tariff one-third. The Governments ofßatavia
and Baden have addressed to the Prussian a proposition,
and their commissioners, as well as those of Prussia,
have implicitly accepted the proposition of Nassau ;
in regard to the French Government this is ex-
tremely liberal, being disposed to adhere to
any proposal of a reduction which may
be presented. Holland is naturally of the
same opinion as Nassau, and manifests a pre-
ference to the up tariff. Hesse opposes both the pro-
positions, or rather in giving its adhesion, it subjoins
the condition that Prussia shall snake the present
franchise cease on paid goods. This is a concession
which Prussia cannot make, for it strikes at the root
of its general system, and if it were to adopt it, the
Rhenish provinces would complain with good reason
that they are not so well treated as the other pro-
vinces of the Elbe and the Weser. It is hoped that
these considerations will have their due weight with
Hesse, and that the proposition of Nassau will thus
obtain the assent of all the states bordering on the
Rhine.
On the 23d of September the King of Prussia
passed through Cologne, for the purpose of visiting
the cathedral, and inspecting the new buildings of
the Civil Hospital. His Majesty was met by a depu-
tation of the commercial council, and was addressed
by Al. Stupp, one of the members. The council
had hoped to have profited by this opportunity for
obtaining the right of open debates in the corporation.
His Majesty refused his concession, in a somewhat
formal answer, adding, that since the city of Cologne
had given a preference to the French commercial
legislation, to the rejection of the Prussian legislation,
they must be content to confine themselve to that,
without overstepping it, and they must endeavour to
realise the new system by degrees.
BELGIAN FUNDS.—Baussm.s, Om 2.
Actual Debt, 2% per Cent
Rothschild's Loan, Five per Cent .... •• .•
Loan of Thirty Millions, Four per Cent— • •
Ditto Three per Cent.
Ditto Thirty-seven Millions, ditto • • • .
Ditto,ditto,lB4o
Ditt0,ditt0,1842............ • • • 98%
Ditto, 1844............... • • •• • • ••• 90%
Ditto, 1836 .. •••••• • • • • • • 89%
Ditto, 1838 • • ...........• •••• • • • .... 66
Ditto of the City, 1832 •••••••••• •• .• 99%
Ditto, 1843 • • ...............
Bank of Belgium...—. ..... ••.••• • • • • •. 83%
—Brussels rapers. Oct. 2.
AUSTRIAN FUNDS.—VIENNA, Sari. 25.
5 per Cent. Metalliques• • • •• • • ••••• • • • • • 104%
4 per Cent. 94
3 per Cent. 66
Loan, 1834 ....... ........... ••• • • • •• • • 154%
Ditto, 1839 • • •• • • • • •• .• 120%
Bank Shares • . .
Esterhazy's Loan ........ . ..........
RAILWAYS.
The Northent,or Ferdinand .• ••• • • 15414
Gloggnitz ••••ss-• • • • • • • • • • •• • • •• • • •• • • 120
Vienna—Milan .. •••••••••• • • • • • . • • • • 108
HAMBURGII BORSENHALLE, OCT.I.
Bills. Money.
Austrian 5 per Cents ................ 106
Bank Shares ............ • • • • .• • • • • .. 1600
Anglo-Russian Loan •••••• • • • • • .... 104%
Russian 5 per Cent., llamb. Certificate. 100% 100%
Ditto Jet series Inscription ...... • • • • • • 101 100%
Ditto, Rope and Co., 3d and 4th series.. 96
Ditto, in Certificate.— .... •••• .• • • 96
New 4 per Cent., Hope and Co. ...• 88
Ditto Stieglitz •. • . ........ ••••• • • • • 87
Spanish New 5 per Cent.............. 12% 121(
Ditto 3 per Cent ............ 22%
Anglo-Portuguese Loan, 2% per Cent • •
Dutch Actual Debt, 2% per Cent• ••• • •
Ditto 3 per Cent. •••••••••• • • • • • •
Polish New 4 per Cent. Loan, 1844....
Anglo-Danish Loan, 3 per Cent ••• • • •
National Bank Shares

THREE NEW PEERS.-Sir Charles Coote, Bart., is
residing at Ballyfin, Mountrath. It is with inexpres-
sible pleasure we are enabled to announce that the
worthy baronet is immediately to be raised to the
British peerage, together with the Right Hon. Lord
Chief Justice Doherty, and the Right Hon. Sir John
Cam Hobbouse, Bart. Mountrath, it is said, is to give
name to the first-mentioned of the three new peers.—
Dublin Evening Packet.

STATUE Or TEE LATE KIERMAN FINLAY, ESQ.—
The statue of the late Mr. Finlay, of Castle Toward,
subscribed for by the merchants of Glasgow, was on
Thursday placed in the Merchants" House. It was exe-
cuted in Rome: by Mr. John Gibson, the! eminent
sculptor, who was present on Thursday to see the
statue placed in a proper light. The statue is after a
portrait painted by Mr. John Graham Gilbert, about
fifteen years before Mr. Fialay's death.—Scotch Re-
formers' Gazette.
v
WESTMINSTER HOSPITAL.— meeting'
Yesterday a G.
hofelgd in governors
b
orsoaanrddfroomommiottef
teh
of
vehotshpeitatrlawnas
ss.
action of general business. The report for the past
c institution,th e abo
for
quarter stated that
42,4974in.p
out-patients
had been
ntshadbeeandmpliattceedd.
on the books, and 489
Four wards, capable of receiving sixty more patients,
still remain shut up for the want of sufficient annual
income. During the past year there has been an exceF,s
of expenditure beyond the income of 1,0971. 19s. 8(1
The hospital is situated in the 101 l er snd most densely
populated part of Westminster, and has been in existence
for 128 years, during which period it has afforded relief
to .nearly 340,000 patients.
Dr. Bumpas (brother of the late Sergeant Bom-
pas), who was in practice as a physician at Gloucester,
has left his estates, real and personal—the latter
amounting to 10,0001—to his widow for her life, and
then to his children. The acting executors are his
brother-in-law, J. G. Smith, barrister, and E. G.
Smith, solicitor, together with his son, Dr. Bompas,
physician. The late Sergeant was also appointed an
executor.

Fires in chimneys in France have been prevented
by placing three frames of wirework, one foot above
each other, near the baso of the chimney ,• no flame will
pass through them; while the draught of the chimney
will not be impaired, consequently no fire can ever hap-
pen in the chimney.

THE CURRENCY QUESTION.
BIRMINGHAM, TUESDAY.—The meeting of "friends
to the cause of currency reform," held here last
night, excited some interest among commercial men
in the town, though the attendance of the general
public was not large, and scarcely seemed to be soli-
cited. About 400 gentlemen were present during
the greater part of the evening. On the platform we
observed, besides those who took part in the proceed-
ings, Mr. G. Edmunds, Mr. Gargory, Mr. Harlow,
and Mr. T. B. Wright.
The CtIAIRMAN said he would proceed in the first
place to read the circular convening the meeting. In
taking the chair he had to state that there had been
some delay in the proceedings, in consequence of the
absence of the Members for North IVarw ickshire and
for the borough, who had been engaged in important
business, and unable to attend punctually. With re-
gard to the question it was one of great importance—
(Messrs. Newdegate, Spooner, and Muntz entered
here and were recei‘ed with great applause)—affect-
affecting all the interests of the kingdom from the
highest to the lowest in trade and commerce. The 6
events which had lately taken place were sufficient to
draw the attention of the community to the subject.
Without giving any particular opinion of his own, he
might be justified in saying that the present monetary
system was ill suited to meet the growing wealth,
trade, and manufactures of this great kingdom. He
would not offer any particular observations, but wait
for those gentlemen who would bring forward the
propositions, to which, no doubt, they would give a
fair hearing and consideration.
Mr. HARLOW then read the following resolu-
tions :

" 1. That the existing depression of trade and com-
merce, as evidenced by the numerous failures of houses
of undoubted solvency, is attributable to the restrictive
and unsound monetary system established by the Acts
of 1819 and 1844, which injuriously interferes with all
mercantile engagements, rendering the same course of
action which is at one time prudent and secure at an-
other time entirely ruinous. That a single deficient har-
vest would not have affected materially the great inte-
rests of the nation had not the evil of scarcity of food
been aggravated by an artificial scarcity of money,
producing a forced and unnatural depreciation in the
values of commodities and other property, and a
sudden and extreme increase in the rate of interest,
and leading to the withdrawal of the usual banking
facilities from parties engaged in certain important
branches of trade and commerce, and the consequent
limitation in the demand for labour. That a monetary
system which necessarily breaks down under the
effects of a limited exportation of gold for the needful
supply of food, producing from such cause a general
derangement of trade and commerce, and an enormous
depreciation in the values of property and commo-
dities, thus greatly increasing a national misfortune
like that of a bad harvest, is vicious in principle and
destructive in its operation to the well-being of the
community.

"2. That the arguments now being used to mislead
the public as to the effects of the expenditure of
money in railway works and other undertakings of a
national character, and to withdraw the attention of
the mercantile and trading classes from the real evils
under which they are suffering, are of no value
whatever, and can only be taken as an evidence
that, in the present position of the country, the
monetary means are not afforded to the profitable
employment and maintenance of the population.
That in the opinion of this meeting, justified by
the history of the present century, this country,
so long as its mercantile and trading operations
are not limited by unnecessary monetary restric-
tions, is fully able to bear an expenditure equal
to that required for the construction of railway
works, inasmuch as that it has borne, without injury
or derangement, a much larger expenditure for carry-
ing on a protracted war, and for other purposes not
likely to become reproductive. That the necessary
expenditure for making the railways sanctioned, after
mature deliberation, by Parliament, has led to the
employment of a vast amount of labour in various
parts of the United Kingdom, and to a consequent
demand for provisions and manufactured articles; and
that no complaints of the pressure of railway calls
were made until the general business of the nation
was suddenly and injuriously affected by the restric-
tive operations of the Bank of England, rendered
necessary by the provisions of the Acts of 1819 and
1844. That the same restrictive monetary policy
has been attended with the same disastrous conse-
quences as in former years, when no expenditure for
railway purposes was proceeding ; and that, although
in certain cases, the employment of large amounts of
money for particular ob;ects may lead to some tempo-
rary inconvenience, the evils under which the country
is at present suffering can be attributed in only a very
trifling degree, if at all, to the railway undertakings
now in progress, as those undertakings can but slightly
aggravate the difficulties arising from other and more
permanent causes.
"3. That it is the deliberate opinion of this meet-
ing that the Executive Government will incur a
serious responsibility unless they at once propose and
carry into effect some temporary measure calculated
to restore the monetary means and the credit of the
country to an efficient state, and thus to relieve the
commercial and trading classes. That relief and as-
sistance have been afforded in former periods of
extreme national danger an•l difficulty; and that
there has been no occasion during the last fifty years
when the relief was more imFerativ, ly required than
it is at this time. T: •at the df wand for labour is
rapidly diminishing in the manufacturing districts ;
and that it will be extremely dangerous further to
neglect those remonstrance;; which have been already
addressed to Members of the Government, with the
view of inducing them to preserve the nation from the
serious evils which would follow the general suspen-
of employment.
" 4. That while measures of a temporary nature
are required to remove that most severe distress and
suffering which the population are now experiencing,
and to avert the more serious consequences with
which they are threatened, it is important that the
monetary policy of the country should undergo a fair
and searching inquiry before a Committee of the House
of Commons. That it is recommended by this
meeting, that immediately on the assembling of Par-
liament petitions praying for the appointment of such
committee should be forwarded from all the principal
towns and public bodies in the United Kingdom.
That such an inqdiry is rendered absolutely neces-
sary, now that the principle of protection to native
industry has been abandoned, and now that it has
become painfully evident that the interests of all
classes, the debtor and creditor alike, can only be
permanently secured by the establishment of a sound
monetary system, capable in its operation of sustain-
ing and extending the mercantile and trading trans-
actions of the nation, and calculated to prevent
those extreme and dangerous fluctuations which are
the natural and inevitable results of the existing
system.

" 5. That the Committee of the Birmingham Cur-
rency Reform Association be requested to communi-
cate the foregoing resolutions to her Majesty's Mini-
sters, and to forward copies of the same to the Mem-
bers of both Houses of Parliament."
Mr. T. C. SALT, in seconding them, laid it down
as the " Birmingham doctrine" upon this subject of
the currency, that metallic money and paper money
never did and never would circulate together for any,
lengthened period ; wherever it had been attempted
panics bad been the result. As the country ad-
vanced in population and enterprise, an exten-
sion of the paper system became necessary;
it got to bear a disproportionate amount to
the gold, and then the base became insufficient.
One great error had been in fancying that money,
which was in fact payment, must itself be paid.
Money was merely that which by law cancelled debt,
and all that men sought by trade was to obtain that
which should cancel their debts. All life was &
debt; if a man ate his dinner, or obtained clothing,
he increased his debt, and the whole object of man-
kind was to obtain that which should cancel their
debts. But money cancelling debt would have in
itself an intrinsic value, or at least a value of enact-
ment if it cancelled debt by law, and that value
would fluctuate according to the quantity, as was
the case with regard to any other necessary of life_.
the necessity of cancelling hunger, for instance—as
regulate illeonitesy issues. The fixedly and
justly
well as the necessity of cancelling debt. The only
rea.l
permanently t o mak
we
athse
tov realueg
very assignats, the opprobrium of paper money, read
why
us this lesson ; the only reason
they were depre-
ciated in value was because they were issued in
undue quantities. We wanted a standard a
pound of measure. Not the pound of Sir R. Peel.
Vas the sovereign that
gn he held up as a pound a real
nieasure of value ? Why, a little while it took 96
10
of these to command y,
agoo/. of the national debt, and
230 of them to buy
a North-Western share ; and now
85 in the one case, and 150 in the other, would suf-
fice ; but it was the sovereign that had changed, not
the article that it would buy ; 4,000,0001. of Bank
paper had been withdrawn ; money had become scarce
and changed.—(Hear, hear.) The panic in the spring
was relieved by a loan from the Emperor of Russia,
and, therefore, people thought the evil day was over;
but see now how the most solvent houses were failing
—those that were the very groundwork under the
London bankers. We should next see the rot among
the London banks, money further constricted, prices
depressed, but debts still payable in full. Trade existed
partly on the confidence of men, and it required a
great exertion to restore confidence when destroyed;
in December, 1825, the Bank had to issue 10,000,0001.
in fourteen days to restore something of confidence.
The terror now was just as great, and would be inw
finitely greater before the week was over, and
the Bank had no power to increase its issues,
22,000,0001., with confidence, might enable the nation
to carry on its trade, but with terror, 30,000,000/. or
40,000,0001. would not. Look at the effects of the
Bill of 1844 ; houses were failing, and we were told
not to be alarmed, for there would be twenty siing*