The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-06 00:00:00

Thg •

LONDON:
MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1841.

It was generally supposed that Mr. BEAUMONT
SMITH would plead guilty; his doing so, there-
fore, only so far disappointed the public as it
has completely stifled those disclosures which the
examination of witnesses and the defence were
expected to elicit. Why was it supposed that
Mr. SMITH would plead guilty, when our law
offers every criminal, defended by a sagacious
Counsel, so many chances of escape ? He had
engaged Sir THOMAS WILDE to defend him ; that
Learned Gentleman is known never to give up a
cause ; it could not have been anticipated that he
would recommend a plea of guilty, and the gene-
ral anticipation must, therefore, have been founded
on the circumstances of the case itself. The pub-
lic had marked how it had been secretly inquired
into at the Home-office; what lame evidence was
produced against SMITH at Bow-street, and RA..
PALLO at the Mansion-house; and there was a
general suspicion that strong motives existed
somewhere for huddling up the case as closely
and snugly as possible. Hence the general be-
lief that SMITH would plead guilty, in order to
withdraw his case as speedily as possible from the
public eye.
If such suspicions existed before the trial,
what passed on Saturday has confirmed them.
Mr. SMITH declared " I never derived benefit,
even to the small extent necessary, to relieve me
from my comparatively trifling embarrassments,
and I am at this moment in debt for money
actually borrowed from sources unconnected with
Exchequer bills, to pay off my original incum--
brances." Who has derived benefit, then ? who
has pocketed the 360,0001. of which several parties
have been defrauded ? If not Mr. SMITH, who
is this gigantic spoiler of the public? Who
could have influence enough over him to induce
him to forge Exchequer bills to such an enor-
mous amount, from which he derived no benefit?
Mr. SMITH thus described the mysteriousindi-
viduals :

"Pecuniary difficulty, arising from misplaced confi-
dence, and liabilities of a very limited extent, not exceed-
ing a few hundred pounds, although beyond my means to
next, first exposed me to the suggestions of those who
tempted me to obtain a temporary relief by the fraudulent
fabrication of Exchequer bills, to be pledged for a short
time, and then to be redeemed and cancelled for ever. I
yielded to the temptation, but without obtaining the pro-
mised relief, and, once committed, I became in the power
of the tempter, and my retreat has been prevented."
It was not his own thought, therefore, familiar
as he must have been with Exchequer bills, that
tempted him; it was other persons, and they
must have known of the possibility, known even
of the feasibility, of forging Exchequer bills,
and perhaps knew that the thing had before
been successfully done. The dark and mys-
terious inquiry in secret at the Home-office, the
commitment of Mr. SMITH on a lame confession,
and his present declaration that he was tempted
by others, who must have known the whole
mode of managing the issue of Exchequer bills,
and never derived any advantage from putting
into circulation forged paper to such an enormous
amount, involve the subject in inscrutable mys-
tery, and give a solid ground for the very worst ,
suspicions.

We cannot understand M`.
Smirn's assumed

motives for remaining here, founded, as he says,
on a notion of honour, while a halter was, as it
were, round his neck, when he might have fled
from the country, in order to give a full explana-
tion when the detection should take place.
During the long period of my distress, therefore (he says),
although I was nearly overcome by it, yet I was induced
to continue the commission of my offences to avoid im-
mediate disgrace, and forbore making a full disclosure of
my previous criminal conduct, which I had often desired
to do. I therefore always resolved, that whenever the
time of discovery should come, that I would remain and
instantly avow myself as the solely guilty official person,
and make the best reparation in my power, by prevent-
ing unnecessary alarm and agitation to the public. I de-
termined that I would bear the whole consequences of
my guilt, and not permit the innocent and honourable
persons in the office, whether high or low, to be subjected
to unjust suspicion."

Who can believe that statement? We do not.
Mr. SMITH never expected detection. He lived
on in complete security, and those who beguiled
him promised him to the last perfect safety and
impunity. No man sins so egregiously certain
that he will be detected and exposed; and Mr.
SMITH, the instant the hope of impunity had
left him, would, we believe, have fled had he
not instantly fallen into the gripe of the law.
That statement is meant to conceal the real
motive of Mr. SMITH'S conduct, which appears
to us to be a wish to sacrifice himself and take
on himself the whole official guilt, for those who,
knowing the feasibility of forging Exchequer
bills, had tempted him to commit the offence.

The termination of the trial has put an
end to all present means of investigat-
ing the subject; the public are left com-
pletely in the dark ; but not so the Ministers.
They have received, and possess, all Mr. RA-
PALLO'S communications. They investigated the
matter for several days at the Home-office ; they
knew, it is therefore to be presumed, all the par-
ticulars to which Mr. SMITH has alluded. If the
public be not made acquainted with those parti-
culars, it will be universally suspected that the
Ministers have strong motives for keeping the
public in the dark. If, after Mr. SMITH'S con-
, duct, any favour be shown him in the penal
colonies, it will be suspected that he pleaded
guilty from a hope, if not from a promise, of
finding favour. If the whole matter be
not cleared up—if those individuals who
tempted Mr. SMITH, and who have plundered the
Exchequer, or individuals, of such enormous
sums be not dragged into day—if the dates of the
first forgery he not stated—if all the agents be
not named (for Mr. RAPALLO is supposed to have
become an agent at a late period of the transac-
tion)—if the share of the several individuals con-

cerned be not made known—the public will have
reason to be dissatisfied, and to entertain the
gravest suspicions. For the honour of public
men the matter must not be left enveloped in its
present mystery.

Mr. Baron PARKE'S observation, that Mr.
SMITH'S conduct " entailed ruin on hundreds of
individuals, and loss to many of their whole for-
tunes," has excited much uneasiness. We hope
that it is not to be considered as an exposition of
the law on the case, as it' it were settled in the
minds of the Judges that the Government can-
not be held responsible fur the forgeries. If that
be the law, a number of individuals will, indeed,
suffer serious loss; but we shall wait till the case
is tried before a competent Court to believe tha t
the Judge means so to decide. If that shall,
however, be considered as the law, the Govern-
ment must be prepared to pay off all its Exche-
quer Bills, for they will no longer be " current
money with the merchants." We have heard

of one banker who has already declined receiving
Exchequer Bills.

We have always thought that the question of
payment or not would mainly depend on the
knowledge of the individuals holding the bills
that they were improperly come by, and that,
where no suspicion of complicity existed, the Go-
vernment would pay the bills, which its own
dishonest servant had issued. On this ground
we regret that the trial has failed to supply the
public with any information, and that the words
of Mr. Baron PARKE imply that the whole loss
will fall on the individuals who hold the forged
bills. But Mr. Baron PARKE has, we trust, been
premature in expounding the law, and the Go-
vernment will not inflict ruin on individuals by
the wickedness of its own servants.

The Lord Bishop of RlPON—the words are so
printed in the Tory Journals, with a view of re-
storing to the princes of the Church some of
their lost feudal grandeur, and of endowing them
with a Puseyite veneration in the minds of the
people, and so imposing on and cheating the
public understanding— the Lord Bishop of
RIPON stated at a great public meeting, held at
Wakefield on Thursday last, to promote educa-
tion, that England was on this point behind
several other nations.

It was a humiliating fact, with respect to Europe at
large, that, with the exception of the two extremities of
it, Rulsia and Spain, England stood the lowest in the
scale of popular education. There ought in every coun-
try to be one-fourth of the whole community receiving a
general education. He doubted whether in any country
the maximum had ever been attained. In Wurtemberg,
perhaps, the higl- -t of any country, there was one-fifth
of the populatioi_ submitting to education. His Lord-
ship then referred to one of the cantons of Switzerland,
where an immense sum was annually granted for the
education of the people, and to the fact that a law had
been passed in Austria preventing any man from being
married, or any tradesmen from employing workmen,
until he could read, write, and cast accounts. His Lord •
ship next alluded to the schools in Scotland, established
in every village, and supported by a tax ou the landed
proprietors. With respect to England, however, it
proved a lamentable exception to the rest of Europe, for
in this country only 1 out of every 11 or 12 were under
primary education ; and if that were the case with re-
spect to England, they must be satisfied that in that
diocese, comprising as it did a large manufacturing dis-
trict, the average must be still less favourable.

This is a sad and a humiliating fact, but to
whom is it humiliating? To the bulk of the
people ? No. To the master manufacturers ?
No. To the clergy? Yes. To the law-makers,
to the gentry ? Yes ;to them it is deeply humi-
liating, had they any right feeling, but they
seem to have no shame on account of their own
scandalous negligence. _

Whose duty is it, and has it been, to educate
the people ? Not
.that of the master-manufac-
turers, or the people themselves. The duty of
the first is to preside over their establishments,
to devise and execute new fabrics, to make and
sell cloth and iron, and supreminently well have
they performed this duty. The duty of the
second is to assist the masters, and contribute to
the production of useful articles, and nobly have
they done their part. The duty of the clergy is
to educate the people. To perform that duty
they are set apart, exonerated from all produc-
tive labour, amply endowed, and richly paid.
Our ancestors, not unmindful of the great social
task confided to the clergy, appropriated most
munificent estates for the purpose, which have
increased
in value as society has increased
in numbers and. wealth; but the clergy have
misappropriated these endowments, and have
perverted them to enrich the priesthood.
Wretchedly as the people have been fed, they
have been even worse taught; and the old reply
of the farmer to the parson marks with great
accuracy the relative duties of the parties. When
Hodge was reproached by his Reverence with
being better fed than taught, Hodge rejoined
cc True, for I feed myself, and you teach me."
feed and clothe society is the business he
of the
farmers, manufacturers, and their workmen; to
teach it is the expressbusiness
tement of le
and duty of
the priesthood. The tt Lord
Bishop is therefore damning proof of the mis,
behaviour of the priesthood.

On this proof, however, the priesthood now
found a demand for further favour and further
power, and ask for greater opportunities to be
still more criminally negligent. Not content
with their present dominion, they grasp at the
whole education of the people, that they may
consign them to still greater ignorance and still
darker superstition.

It will be worth while to consider for one mo-
ment the manner in which the duties of the pro-
ducing and the teaching classes have been per-
formed. Our education, says the Lord Bishop,
stands the lowest in the scale of Europe, save and
except Russia and Spain, Our productions stand

•at the very head of the civilised world. In com-
parison to the size of the country and the num-
ber of the people, England, in wealth and me-
chanical power, is the foremost of all the nations
of the world. Honour, great honour, this to the
producing classes. Disgrace, great disgrace, this
state of education to the teaching classes. Ad-
mirably have the producing classes done their
duty, and scandalously have the teaching classes
neglected theirs ; yet, with an impudence which
surpasses even their negligence, they continually
reproach the producing classes, and continually
assume to themselves the Godlike merit of pre-
serving and sustaining society, and continually
demand more power and more wealth.
That simple statement is quite sufficient to
establish the view which we take of the duties of
the educating and producing classes, but it may
be not inappropriately enforced by the little we
know of the production and distribution of wealth
in former and present times.
In 1696 the population of England and Wales
was estimated by Mr. GREGORY KING at
5,500,000. According to the late census it is
now 15,911,321, or it has increased nearly three-
fold; for the sake of simplicity we will say
threefold.
In 1691 the nett income paid into the Exche-
quer, according to Mr. CHALMERS, in his" Com-
parative Estimate," was 4,249,757/. Taking round
numbers, let us assume that it was in 1696
5,000,0001. Last year the payments into the Ex-
chequer on account of Great Britain were
44,000,0001. sterling. The population of Scot-
land is 2,628,957, or more than one-sixth of that
of England and Wales. We substract, there-
fore, one-sixth of this revenue to obtain the re-
venue now yielded by England and Wales alone,
which makes the revenue last year of Eng-
land and Wales 37,700,0001. While the popula-
tion, therefore, has increased since 1696 three-
fold, the revenue has increased sevenfold.
Whatever may be thought of the manner in
which the Government has done its duty to
the productive classes, there can be no
doubt whatever that the productive classes--
in providing the Government with a revenue
sevenfold as great as in the reign of King
WILLIAM, and more than twice as great as their
ancestors provided at that period, man for man--
have amply done their duty to the Government.
Each man now pays more than double the sum,
for the services of the Government, which each
man paid in 1696.
In 1696, the rental of England and Wales
was estimated, by Mr. GREGORY KING, at
10,000,000/. It is now, according to Mr. M'Cut.-
Locn's calculations, in his statistical work, at
the very lowest 30,000,000/., which we believe to
be an under estimate ; but, assuming that the
rental has increassd only to 30,000,000/., even
that is a greater increase than the population.
About 1696, the revenue of the Church, in
England and Wales, was estimated at 577,000/. ;
at present it is at least 3,500,000/. ; or, while the
population has increased only threefold, the in-
come of the priesthood has increased more than
sixfold, exclusive of sundry grants made to them,
to the extent of nearly 3,000,000/. within a few
years, and yet they are not contented.

We are sensible of a discrepancy in these
statements, between the great increase of the in-
come of the priesthood, and the increase in the
rent ofland; and we are inclined on this, as well as
on other considerations, to suppose that the pre-
sent rental of England and Wales is much under-
estimated by Mr. M'CuLLocx. At the same
time, it is not to be expected that the increase of
the rental should have kept pace with the in-
crease of the rental should have kept pace with
the revenues of the Church. The latter, till the
Tithe Commutation Act passed, was derived
from a share of the gross produce of land, which
increased as the production increased; the former
is paid only out of the net produce, and after all
the expenses of cultivation have been paid.
Besides these contributions of the working
classes to the revenue of the State, the rent of
the landowners, and the income of the clergy,
there is another branch of wealth, we mean the
profit on capital, which has increased in a
much greater ratio than either the rent of land,
the income of the clergy, or the revenue of the
State ; but we do not pretend to have any data on
which to calculate the increase since 1696.
It is certain, however, from the great num-
ber of persons who now live in opulence
and ease, without toil, that the increase in the
amount of profit, all of which is yielded by la-
bour, has been very great indeed. Taking into
consideration this great increase—the increase in
the income of the clergy, in the rental of land,
and in the revenue of the Government—it must
be at once apparent that the working classes
have energetically done their duty to society.
Their condition as to education, as to food
clothing, and lodging, proves, on the contrary,
that the other classes have not done their duty,
towards the working classes. They have not
not obtained a due share of the wealth
they have produced, while their education
has been almost wholly and shamefully
neglected. Do we from this statement infer
that the priesthood should be encouraged to
educate the people more and control their edu-
cation ? No. We infer from it that the priest-
hood is totally inefficient to perform the duties
prescribed to it. We infer, too, from such facts
as the establishment of mechanics' institutes
that the productive classes, if not interfer-,d-
with, and if allowed to have a due share 'di their
l
own productions, will educate tle-.nselves. In
fact, they have done this for al! useful purposes.
.1.-r
The prime object of the education, and of the
Is to enable them to per-
form of all men.,
their dutp-,s,
the chief of which is to get
their own subsistence; and if the education of
the worsting men enables them amply to provide
fmi, clothing, comforts, and conveniences for
society, their education is what it ought to be.
No other education is of any importance com-
pared to that; and that species of education, the
apprenticeship by which trades are learnt, the
working classes confer on one another, and no
other persons can confer it on them. For them
book education is an amusement, a recreation,
a pastime, which they would do well to
cultivate; but it is not necessary to the
performance of their duty as producers. As
members of a political society they have
duties to perform in relation to the Go-
vernment and their fellow-citizens, which require
a considerable degree of education, but this edu-
cation they must give thenlelves, or get it as
r:;sthood and gentry will
they can, and the pri
only use the poweg of giving it, if they have that
power to corrupt and mislead the people. So
far from concluding that the priesthood should
regulate the public education, it is clear that
over the education which enables the different
classes to perform each his respective duties
they can have no influence. They may be able to
educate priests, but they cannot educate a nail-
maker, an engineer, or a sailor. They might in
the attempt mar these useful labourers. Over
the moral education of society a paid priesthood,
bribed to support a system, not to find out and
maintain the truth, can have none but a most per-
nicious influence, and under such a pernicious
influence, of such a priesthood, is England now
suffering, as the total disregard of moral prin
ciple in her legislators testifies.

'he inquest on the bodies of a poor woman of
the name of THOMPSON, and her infant child, at
Pennington, Lancashire, of which we published
the commencement on Thursday, terminated on
the afternoon of that clay, when the Jury re-
turned the following verdict :—" That the de-
ceased being reduced to a state of extreme
want and mental suffering, came to the de-
termination of destroying herself; and, being
unwilling to leave her infant child behind,
destroyed her likewise." This amounts to
a verdict of murder and felo de se, and
the bodies of the mother and child, placed
in the same coffin, were committed to the earth
at a late hour in the evening, without the usual
rites of the Church. This is a heart-rending
story, surpassing anything possibly that fiction
ever invented. The accounts received leaye

"IV
114.*
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ate il;"