The Sun.
London, England, 1840-10-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONriON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, IMO.

the 21st to Marseil!es. It is most probable that sill
will go to Naple,: in one of the Mediterannean packets.
The Emancipcileztr of Toulouse says,'" General Leo-
pold O'Donnell, late Commander-in-Chief of the Army
of the Centre, and Ex-Captain General of Valencia
and Murcia, arrived on the 20th at Toulon, coming from
Perpignan, where he had been wading for some days for
Queen Christina, whom he preceded, and with whom
be has gone to Narbonne.

The account which the Banker's Circular
gives of the power now possessed by " loan
contractors" and " bill brokers" over the resources
of the Bank of England cannot fail to be deeply
interesting to the commercial and monied classes.
The substance of the circular is that the loan con-
tractors and bill brokers can, whenever they please,
and without any expense, bring theßank of England
to a stand-still. Such a statement, which is calcu-
lated to excite alarm in many persons, does not
cause in us the smallest uneasiness.

We have, on two or three occasions within the
last three months, pointed out to out readers, on
the authority of Mr. LEATHAM, the Wakefield
banker, on the authority of our Co:respondent,
" A Commercial Traveller," and from several well-
known facts, that the circulation of the Bank of
England, in consequence of the enlarged use of
bills at short dates, checks, etc., has become of
comparatively little importance in a national
point of view. Bank-notcs have ceased to be the
chief instrument, if ever they were, of carrying on
commercial transactions. While the population and
wealth of the country have been increasing at
a very rapid rate, the capital of the Bank of Eng-
land has been stationary. To make it relatively of
as much national importance as it was thirty

years ago, independently of the economised uses of
money which render banknotes less in demand,
its capital ought at least to have doubled, whereas
a large portion of it has been locked up in securities
that are not immediately available, and the whole
sum has not been increased. To make its circu-
lation now of as much relative importance to the
nation as it was thiity years ago, it ought to be at
least sixty millions, whereas it is not above seven-
teen. In spite of all the cockering and bolstering
of the Legislature, in spite of the new Charter, and
the legal-tender clause, the Bank of England
has dwindled in relative importance at least two-
thirds; and on that plain principle we consider the
statement of the Banker's Circular as no proper
subject of public alarm, whatever it may be to
Bank Proprietors. The very statement, in fact,
is a decisive proof of the relative decay of its power.
When its capital and circulation, in relation to the
whole wealth of the country, was two-thirds greater
than at present, it could easily defy the whole con-
clave of bill-brokers and loan-jobbers.
The lesson which this teaches to the owners of
Bank stock we are not interested in enforcing,
though it may suffice to explain the dwindled im-
portance of their monopoly and their lessened pro-
fits. It will inform them also, that it is idle for
them to expect, with a stationary amount of capi-
tal, an increasing quantity of business, and the pre-
servation of the power of the Bank. But we wish
to draw public attention to this additional proof of
the folly of the Legislature, against which most
sensible men proteSted at the time, in making the
notes of the Bank of England a legal tender ;
and the equal folly of the Bank in grasping
at that with its relatively diminished resources. Just
in proportion as its circulation and its power be-
came less in proportion to the whole community,
was it foolish in the Legislature to confer on the
Bank of England paper such a general and legal
character ; and just in the same proportion was it
foolish in the Bank to incur such a responsibility.
But for that other banks would share the task and
the danger of providing gold for the paper in circu-
lation ; now it is confined to the Bank of England,
and by that privilege, with its weakened resources,
it is exposed to danger from the operations of
bill-brokers and loan bankers; and by that privilege,
and that alone, can the public suffer from the Bank
of England being drained of its gold. That the cu-
pidity of the Bank Diieetors should have blinded them
is less extraordinary than the ignorance and want of
thought of the Legislature. Neither appears to
have been sensible of the relative decay of the
Bank of England, though the fact must have been
apparent to sincere and careful inquirers in 1833,
as well as in 1840.

We are absolutely overwhelmed with letters con-
cerning the case of Captain REYNOLDS, only a se-
lection from which we can publish. We have no
recollection► of an individual case exciting such a ge-
neral, not to say universal feeling. The army,
and the honour of
,the army, are dear to the

public, and they show their profound respect for
this branch of our national defence by the inte-

rest they take in the case of Captain REYNOLDS.
In addition to the general desire of Englishmen to
see fair play, and not to allow an individual to be
trampled on by an overbearing, arrogant Noble, they

are convinced in this case that the national safet

will ultimately depend on a proper spirit being
nourished in military men, and they step forward to
rescue Captain REYNOLDS from oppression, and
the army from degradation.
The subject has now become of great national
importance. If the Court-martial had been a fair

one, if its sentence had been lenient, or even
just, if the Commander-in-Chief had weighed the
long services of Captain REYNOLDS against the

petulance of the Earl of CARDIGAN, and repri.
manded him, while he recommended Captain REY.
NOLDS to that mercy the stern regard of the Court

to its duty did not allow it to show, the whole
matter might have quietly gone off as a mete
squabble between two officers, at which the public
would have laughed. But as 'the Court-martial was

not a fair one, as its sentence has been most un-
meritedly severe, as it went out of its way to pass a
heavy censure on those officers who, being called
as witnesses, thought that Captain REYNOLDS
must have been grossly provoked to commit
an act of insubordination, and as all its con-

duct has been approved of by the Commander-
in-Chief, acting, no doubt, under the legal
advice of the Judge-Advocate-General, and
has been confirmed by her MAJESTY, it is no
longer a squabble between two officers, but a serious
difference between the authorities at the head of
the army and the public at large.
Lord HILL, and those who govern the army,
expressly say, by approving of all the finding of the
Court, that under no circumstances of private irri-
tation—neither under insults nor blows, must a sol-
dier violate in the least the strict rules of military dis-
cipline. The Tory Judge Sir W. BLAcKsToNE,
declared the military code in his time to be a
law of slavery, unfit for free men ; but that
code had not then been pushed to the
extreme of crushing all generous and honourable
feeling in order to gratify a personal favourite or a
vindictive superior.

It is invariably held that the outrages of slave-
owners go far to justify even the great crimes which
their goaded victims sometimes commit ; and shall
it be said that no insults, no outrages com-
mitted by a Colonel, can justify an officer for de-
manding satisfaction ? If that principle be to-
lerated now that it is propounded, adieu for ever
to all that can rescue military men from the deep
degradation of being the hired and brutal instru-
ments of a vile system of slaughter. They must
have no convictions, no feelings; they must he pas-
sive tools in the hands of men like the Earl of
CARDIGAN. The welfare of the army, and the

defence of the country, require the public to

interfere.

It ought to profit, we think, by this oppoltu-
nity, to demand a ievision of our military code.
By that the Sovereign is empowered to make laws
for the army ; and the laws that he and his mili
tary advisers have made, from time to time, are
cruel and unjust. The House of Commons will

not be warranted in passing the Mutiny Act, un-
less the military code be corrected. It is the duty
of the Legislature to draw up a well-defined code
for the army,
or to have that which is drawn up by
military men laid before it for approval. If it
contain an enactment that no provocation what-
ever shall justify, excuse, or sanction an infericr
from resenting the insult of a superior, it must be
abrogated. A military life must by no means be

made by absurd or cruel regulations more onerous
and painful than it is of itself ; and the best of ot.r
population must no longer be terrified from the
defence of the country by a code of laws only fit

for slaves. A reform of the Horse Guards, and a
revision of the Mutiny Act, ought to be the fruits

of the trial.

From the treatment of Captain REYNOLDS we
may infer the treatment of the privates. A Brighton
paper alludes to the number of them belonging
to the 11th who have been imprisoned at...ievves
since the regiment has been at Brighton : and no
doubt they are treated, without the means of mak-
ing their case known, with severity and injustice
still more harsh than Captain REYNOLDS. For the
sake of the privates, as well as the officers, the servile
code must be revised. The character of our army
when on active service is by no means such as to
satisfy those who would make war, when they are
obliged to wage it, a source of as little misery as
possible ; and much of what is immoral in that cha-
racter is due to our military code, which at once
keeps respectable men from entering the army, and
degrades those who fill its ranks.
The Commander-in-Chief, by giving his sanc-

tion to the conduct of the Earl of CARDIGAN
and the Court-martial, has made this question
one of fearful importance. Tyranny is no longer

e unauthorised act of a violent man, it is au-

thorised by law. The. law to which we look for
refuge and protection is become the oppressor, and

the law must be reformed. To sustain Captain
REYNOLDS, which we rejoice to Eee the public
are enthusiastically doing, is to defend the national
liberties, and to cherish feelings of honour in the
army.

By way of keeping up their spirits during the
recess, the Conservatives are, as usual, having re-
course to public dinners—a pleasant mode of
passing away time, which just now, we should con-
ceive, must hang somewhat heavy on their hands,
full of regrets, as they must be, for the past, and
distrustful of their prospects for the future. On
Friday last a fragment of this disheartened faction
dined together at Newton in Lancashire, in a
" splendid dining hall," whose " fittings-up" and
" banners with appropriate inscriptions" have had
such a bewildering effect on the senses of the Pro-
vincial journalist, who records the particulars of the
ovation, that, like Mrs. Malaprop, when she
meant to be more than usually eloquent, he has
lost sight, in his acstacies, of all method and
meaning.

Of course there was a small sprinkling of par-
sons in attendance at this party dinner, to whom,
as Churchmen, the Chairman, Lord Siermore,
addressed a variety of such compliments as were
hest suited to their capacity. The Church, in-
deed—the whole Church—and nothing but the
Church—was the main burden of his song ; which
we regret to add, was more of an elegiac, than
a sprightly, character. His Lordship was spe-
cially plaintive on the subject of the working
clergy, who, be observed, " carried on their la-
bours with the meanest pittance of subsistence
on which any gentleman can be supported."
This is .true, and .being a truth, why .dos ;not,
his Lordship take up the matter,' with —a
view to proiide a remedy ? If ''he really
commiserate the destitute state of the . in•
ferior clergy, why does he not show his faith by
his works, and insist on a reduction of the ex-
orbitant salaries of the hierarchy, and the other
high Church dignitaries ? A few thousands de-
ducted from the unapostolic incomes of some
twelve or fourteen of our Bishops, and distributed
among the hard-worked objects of Lord SAN-
DON's sympathy, would produce all the good
effect he could desire, and enable him, at the next
Newton dinner, to exchange the song of lamenta-
tion for that of rejoicing. But no ; his Lordship,
rneerointling willienacgbce
etsissloit,
actively
bestow
hoionefn
cttsort.ilheeui:rvcboheKr
it,edfg:
wordsthis
we
)Nr,:eiondubi
ICabundance
dos
stirring
Re-
form, of which, as a staunch Conservative, he en-
tertains a pious horror. The Noble Chairman
next went on to panegyrize the immeasurable tole-
ration of the Church at large. "To whom," he
asked, "do we owe the tepee] of the Test and
Corporation Acts, which excluded Dissenters nom
their rights as citizens ? To whom do we owe
the repeal of the laws which excluded Ro-
man Catholics, but to the Church of Eng.
land ? While we have these facts to appeal to,
he Churchdwe
yin particular—must
hat a shaking of fat
I think we may safely affirm that
benthercehisonfoi3Cilstiumrcpl
equal to ours for toleration." What exquisite
Bishops
—iroonoyrisfaheeoreorliteHpowntihLepoglTiowiTsst!
obstacle to these reme-
dial measures for years. It was the Church that
occasion
Test Acts
the great—indeed r eeThe
fchuckleepiscopal
tiolen sides rree apmding
t itoi tf
not o t
the
Church favour Catholic Emancipation; Why, it
Churchy lit ahte
swoal se
‘mvaigshtthaelmCo
got up all the popular clamour against them; that
thundered and against them from the pulpit
in the
senate ; that pronounced them to be devices of the
Devil ; and denounced as Atheists all who dared to
support them. If the manacles were at last struck
from the limbs of the Dissenter and the Catholic,
the righteous deed was done in
spite of the
Church, not with her concurrence. But perhaps
the vindictive old Dame mayhave been taught
toleration by experience. Indeed I How comes
it, then, that JOIN THeutocelop has been lan-
guishinggaol years in for
two alive-and-sixpenny
Church-rate?
Having sufficiently flattered Mother Church,
Lord SA NDON, by "3' of variety, proceeded to
abuse Ministers. "The only reason," he said,
" they have a majority in the House of Commons
is, because they have no principle." A Tory
talking of principle always reminds us of the
Devil quoting Scripture. For what is a Tory ?
A man who has no principle, save such as furthers
his own party interests—whose only notion of
duty is that of getting into office, and maintaining
himself there at all hazards—who opposed the
repeal of the Test Acts—who opposed Catholic
Emancipation _— who opposed Reform in the
Church, the law, and the representation yet
who nevertheless conceded them all, in defiance of
every article of his political creed, rather than run
the chance of being extinguished as a public man
That there are some exceptions to this charge,
among the Tories, we admit ; but, speaking of
them as a body, they have of late years been dis-
tinguished for nothing so much as their flagrant
political inconsistency. Henceforth, we would

advise Lord SANDON to say as little about Whig
want of principle as possible ; for he may rely on
it, the accusation will be sure to recoil on the heads