The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-03 00:00:00

r.o indisposition on the part of the American authori.

ties to admit the principle of M'Leod's non-respon-
sibility under such circumstances. They referred his
detention to the peculiarity of their Constitution,
which prevented them from at once interfering to effect
his liberation, without violating the independence of the
State within the jurisdiction of which he was charged
with an offence, and to whose tribunals he was amenable.
This, however, though sufficient to induce the British
Government to postpone the imperative demand for his
instant liberation, by no means bars its claim to satis-
faction for the violation of international law involved in
such detention ; nor M'Leod's claim to reasonable re•
paration for the personal injury inflicted on him, and
which his Government is also bound to tee that he obtains.

STANDARD.—The municipal elections of the
present year merit particular attention. whatever may
be the degree of power or influence exercised by muni-

cipal bodies—and their power and influence Ire not
to be lightly rated—they unquestionably afford, in
their political character, an index to pub!ic feel-

leg of great importance—to the public feeling more
particularly in the larger class of towns and
cities, and of the less exalted orders of the com-
munity. These bodies are elected in a manner exactly
representing household suffrage, and by constituents
altogether free from aristocratic control. When the
political character of municipal elections, therefore, nearly
coincides with the political character of elections to Par-
liament, the sense of the people may be pronounced as
nearly unanimous. It has been objected to the result of
the general election of July, that the great majority
which that election has given to the Conserva-
tive party is the effect of aristocratic power, of
landlords' influence, and of the dishonesty of those
who are, inconsistently enough, called by the advo-
cates of universal suffrage " corrupt freemen,"
merely because their qualification is persons', and
,not founded upon _a ieroposty - test: Matte of th-ese
objections can apply to the municipal elections. The
ejectors in municipalities know nothing of aris-
tocratic power, or landlords' influence, and they are all
householders. The municipal elections may, therefore,
be taken as completing the testimony to an universal
public opinion afforded by the elections to Parliament,
when both agree in political character. Of this agree-
ment generally, however, we have to-day the gratifica-
tion to present indisputable proofs. These proofs are
rendered, too, much more valuable by the time when they
offer themselves, and the circumstances under which they
are offered. The elections have been held after anew Mi-
nistry has been about two months in office—a Ministry
which has with honest reserve abstained from buying
support by captivating promises, and which has had
no opportunity of earning fsvour by any striking per
formance. A severe general distress also prevails,
to an extent to sour men's minds, and to in-
dispose them to a Goverment that does not, be-
cause honestly it cannot, hold out some plan of
immediate relief. This is a severe trial for any Adminis-
tration. Contentment, even in prosperity, is a lesson
not always learned ; contentment in difficulties is a
still harder task—and this in the case of individuals—
but the people must repose a large confidence
indeed in their rulers when they manifest their
approbation of those rulers under such a state of
suffering as now unhappily afflicts the country. On
one side, the people have had enough of ex-
citing exhortation to inflame any other people or even
the people of England in any other age, to re-
ject the Administration under which so many hard-
ships arc endured. The dissertations on the Corn-
laws and the existing commercial system, as the
sole causes of the present distress—the speeches
of anti-Corn Lecturers to the same effect—the taunts
at Sir Robert Peel's silence—the libels upon the unas-
sailable character of the Premier, and upon the charac-
ter of his colleagues, would, in any other nation, or
at any other time, ensure the destructioa of a
Ministry ; but the English people of the present day
have learned the great duty of hearing both
sides, and have thus enabled themselves to see
that the Corn-laws and the commercial system, in-
stead of being the causes of the present distress,
are the guards against far worse evils. The people have
grown wiser Than their late political teachers, as the Par-
liamentary and municipal elections abundantly demon-
strate. We look for the solution which the Anti-Corn-law
writers will give to the result of the municipal elec-
tions with some curiosity. The explanations by which
they palliated their defeat at the general election in
July are, as we have seen, altogether inapplicable
and insufficient. The municipal electors are neither
aristocrats nor landlords, nor dependent upon
aristocrats or landlords ; nor arc they corrupt
freemen. They are, if any men are, precisely
the class least likely to lee warped by influence or
interest, when the question concerns the internal
trade of the country, unless it be in the direction
opposite to that which we have taken. Will our
Liberal Contemporaries acknowledge that all their
writing has been in vain, and that the present gene-
ration of Englishmen are, incorrigible ? We an-
ticipate something of tl.e kind. The encourage-
ment given to the formation of " young men's asso-
ciations" seems to prove a consciousness that the
arguments of Liberals are only suited to the green in
years and in judgment. Our men are too thoughful
and too earnestly intent upon their duties to give place
to the Government of striplings where the vital interests
of the country are perilled. Old England will be old
England still, governed by mature minds, though de-
cended by young arms as well as ones.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.
FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
TIMES.—Some new incidents have transpired to-day
relative to the spurious issue of Exchequer bills, threat-
ening to revive the ferment, which of late has partially
subsided. It is said, that in some instances, in which
bills have been sent up for examination and found spuri-
ous, the people at the Treasury have refused to return
them at all; and an instance of the hind is mentioned, in
which the amount of bills deposited exceeded 40,000/.
The parties, too, were of the highest character and
standing, wealthy themselves, and posessing very wealthy
connections, and they are said to have been so extremely
indignant at the course pursued at the Treasury, that
they have declared that they and their connections will,
in March next, send in all the Exchequer bills they hold
to be exchanged, not for new bills, but for money, and
that they will never again place their capital in that de-
scription of security. This demonstration has caused so
much alarm, that many persons have come to the re-
solution not to send up their bills to be examined at all,
but rather to keep them, until the day when all Ex-
chequer bills come to maturity, and then to demand pay-
ment of them at the Exchequer. Respecting the adroit-
ness of the original fraud, some matter has transpired
which is very curious, and we have heard it stated to-
day, that more than three months ago, parties holding
Exchequer bills, respecting which, though they felt no
particular distrust, they thought it prudent to put their
authenticity to the test, went up to the Exchequer,
where they were submitted by gentlemen, who are ready
to swear to the fact, not only to the inspection of that
office in which Mr. E. Beaumont Smith is the principal,
but to the Exchequer Issue-office, and that at both
these very bills were declared to to g.tnuine. It
turns out that these are now, under the new in
spection, pronounced spurious. Surely, it is re-
marked, under such extraordinary deception as this,
where every possible precaution was taken to avoid being
imposed upon, and where the bills aro in the hands of
perfectly innocent parties, the right to recover against
the Government must be all but irresistible. But the
circumstance which, above all, makes impression in the
City is the acceptance of Exci:equer bills for examina-
tion at the Treasury, and the reftn:al to return them af-
terwards if found spurious.
This nit;!-10 of proceeding
is held to be very different from that of n: erely refusing
to pay spurious bills, and, if persisted in, the Treasury
will incur a degree of odium in the great moneta-7 cir-
cles, which it will take a very long time indeed to
eve
off. The system is mean and altogether unworthy even
of any private person of respectability, so that men go
into the Treasury as they would go into the office of a
pettifogging attorney, where they must use every possi-
ble precaution to avoid being taken in.
CHRONICLE.--On the Bth instant (this day week)
the second instalment of 20/. per cent- is payable on the
of England.
Exchequer bills have in consequence been in demand
scrip of the 5,000,0001. loan at the Bange, but in consequence of
Bank .
tthoe.
e are very few to
be had, and no one will take those which are not stamped,
dna tym oltin e tr
I is
e sent S
except on guarantee. The bills of the large banking este-
toicnkteEhxechexanamined
there
esta-
blishments are to be first examined, and it is said that
those of the firm of Coutts and Co, alone will. occupy se-
veral days. The jobbers, therefore, decline to transact
business ~as sellers of Exchequer bills, as they do not
know where they are to be had for delivery against the Bth
instant; and thus the subscribers to the Government
funding are placed under the risk of being compelled
to pay half the second instalment on the scrip in
money, from the unsaleable position in which the un-
funded debt is placed by the recent notice of the Comp-
troller-General. The Chancellor of the Exchequer
cannot seriously intend to avail himself of this state of
things. If the " inevitable delay" in stamping and com-
paring the bills sent up with the counterfoil shall be
such as to render it impossible for the subscribers to
avail themselves of the conditions of the loan contained
in the Treasury notice of the 21st ultimo, it is incumbent
on the Government to issue a fresh notice, and to post-
pone the period of payment of the second instalment, so as
to give due time for the supply of the market with ge-
nuine stamped bills. The terms of the funding are,
that 5,000,0001. of Exchequer bills should be taken ill
exchange for stock, at the rate of 112/. 2s. Three per
Cent. Consolidated Annuities for every 100/. of Excite-.
quer bills. tinder the present state of the Money Market,
the subscribers are desirous to pa--
,y the whole in Exche-
quer bills. It is more convenient for many of them
to do so, but there is every appearance that they
will be compelled to pax one-half in money or forfeit
their right to the scrip, in consequence of ;he impossi-
L bility of obtaining Exchequer bills. Those who have