The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-10 00:00:00

EVENING EDITION,

THE CURRENCY. those of Scotland, are the most consonant to the 1
principles on which all equitable paper currency
The Scotch successfully resisted the attempt
is founded.
made in 14323 to put an end to the small note Let it be noted and remarked, too that
circulation in Scotland. The letters of INIALA-
the bankers who have credit in a neighbourhood,
CROWTHER, some of the fruits of that attempt,
and who substitute the small notes payable on
written by Sir WALTER SCOTT, in the Edinburgh
demand for the bills which are necessary parts
-Weekly Journal, and the replies of Joxx WIL-
of commerce, do a great service, both to those
sox CROKER, published in the Courier, then a who are engaged in long operations, and to those
journal of considerable circulation and character,
whose labours are completed in short periods.
made the attempt a part of our literary, as flaking payments between these classes is the
well as our political history, and will cause it to main ground of their utility, which will always
be long remembered. At present a somewhat make bankers auseful class of men wherever and
similar contest seems to be approaching, and the as long as division of labour exists.
Scotch have again taken to their pens and their But if these principles be correct, what can
tongues in defence of their banking system. scheming London money-lenders know of the
A report of the proceedings of the Cham-
commercial wants of Edinburgh or Glasgow, or
ber of Commerce of Edinburgh, held the week what can the Legislature, or any Commissioners
before last, to consider the subject, appeared in appointed by it, know of the quantity of paper
The Sun. Besides that, the bankers in Scot- promises to pay which will be required
land have held a meeting, and have sent by any neighbourhood 43-r by the empire at
a deputation to London to confer with the large ? They can know nothing 'whatever
Government, and oppose any plan which shall of this important fact, and the scheme
trench on their system. It is our intention to to form one bank of issue is founded on the
support their exertions as far as we can, because most contemptible ignorance of the natural pile-
-we consider the Scotch system to be the nearest nomena of commerce and paper money, or the
-approximation to a free trade in banking, which most knavish design to draw more business to the
has ever existed, and no other system has been metropolis, and enrich the jobbers here at the
ever attended with anything like equal advanta- expense of the rest of the community. We re-
ges. In the United States, the system is a joice, then, that the Scotch mean to resist the
legislative humbug, almost as bad as it is in Eng- Cockney money dealers and their toadies ; and
land, the several States sanctioning, by the grants whatever we can do to aid in supporting the
of charters, and by making laws which are never freedom of trade in money in Scotland, and to
obeyed, the fraudulent tricks of the different introduce such a system into England, we will.
bankers. In Scotland,—hut we will borrow a de- Monopoly of every kind is a hateful monster, the
.scription of the system in existence there from curse of the country ; and whenever and where-
the Edinburgh Weekly Chronicle : ever we meet with it, we will try to throttle it.

CAPITAL PUNISHINTiNTS IN

Ba.arx TINICERING.—The Bank of Scotland was established
so far back as the year 1695 and began to develope the dis-
tinctive features of the Scottish system of banking nearly at
the very first. In the year 1704 the first one-pound notes
swete issued; and interest en deposits was allowed, •and cash
accounts were granted as early at least as 1729. The Royal
Bank was started in 1727, and the British Linen Company in
1746, and both of these adopted the same course as the original
hank. The gentlemen who first conducted these institutions
had many difficulties to overcome, and much to learn, but they
took their measures with great circumspection and judgment,
and were eminently successful both in enriching the share-
holders and benefiting the public. The prosperity of the
three banks above named, and the growing appreciation of
their utility, in course of time led to the establish-
ment of many rival Companies, but not more than hare
proven beneficial to the country. Though a few of
these, and only a few, resulted unprofitably, the loss fell chiefly
on the shareholders, and not to any extent on the public.
'The insolvency of a Scotch bank has been so rare an occur-
rvnee that it is as little apprehended as an earthquake. The
Scotch banking system has had the singular Inch to escape,
hitherto, ail legislative interference, and hence has taken that
form which exactly suits the circumstances in which it has
gradually expanded itself, and become an important organ in
the structure of society. Its nice adaptation to the purposes
for which it exists, could not have been contrived beforehand
,by most sagacious minds. Nothing but the lessons of ex-
perience could have enabled even the wisest of men to con-
ttruct the complex banking machinery, which is at curie so
powerful, so delicate, and so safe in its operations. Yet,
strange to say, there is too much meson to believe
that this admirable system, which has opetate:l to the
signal benefit of the community, and been improved
from time to time by the most consumma'e men of
>business the nation could produce, is menaced at this moment
with destruction, or, what is worse, with the tinkering cf the
Ignorant fe:a-hunters and conceited lawyers who sit in-Parlia-
ment. Oise would have thought that these gentlemen would
,nave been cautious of touching the banking system which has
ao long gone on prosperously without interterence, at least till
shy had managed to get the English system, which is the
creature of their legislati ,n, into something like a perfect con-
, titiOn. But so far from that being the case, the only motive
t: sat can be guessed at for the threatened attempt to metbile
with the Scotch Banking system, appears to be the unsatisfic-
tory operation of every system that has been tried in England.
It would puzz:e anybody to see the reasonableness of
this. The people of Scotland rather object to being
,umbugged in Lankiag or anything else, " for the sake of
mifierraity." TWO centuries ago they resisted successfully the
imposition of an Episcopal Church, though the rulers of that day
did all they could to force it en them, " for the sake of unifor-
mity." Scotsmen were insensible to the glories of lawn sleeves,
mitres. and shoed hats, and had a thorough contempt for
The kilt fu' whistles that make sic a clreQ :"
They spurne4 the Episcopal Church, and would have none of it,
and they are as little likely to submit to episcopacy is busking.
We do not maiatain that the sy4ein of banking R hich exists
• in Scoland is perfect, or that the Legislatare has no right in
any case to interfere with it. But we do contend that it is the
hest which has yet been invented, and that it ought not to be
szah .cted to experiments of a doubtful stature; nor, in short, be
.egislated on at all, so long as the true principles of monetary
science remain as unsettled and obscure as they are at present.
Why is the Scotch system to be altered? Be-
.,
muse, as the Edinburgh paper says, our system
has failed. Here, in London and is England, we
are all at sea about banking, and as the Bank of
England is obviously mischievous, all sorts of
contradictory opinions are afloat on the subject
of the currency, and a Variety of projects are
broached to place it on a satisfactory tooting.
Li
Scotland, few or no such vagaries are known,
the people are content with their banks, which is
as complete a proof, by the concurrent testimony
of many minds, as can be supplied of their utility.
The chief project entertained, and which
seems feasible to the metropolitans, is to have
one bank of issue, arid the contrivers of that
•Prenchifled scheme would of course annihilate,
for the sake of their pet project of one uniform
paper circulation, the paper of the Scotch banks.
But the rest of the community have not the
same reason to be satisfied with this scheme as
the moneyed cockneys. The centralization on
which they fatten drains and impoverishes the
extremities. At the same time it only bloats the
heart and renders the whole unsound.
The origin and real use of paper currency
:would satisfy the schemers, had they not a pecu-
liar interest in their projects, that they ought for
thepublic good to set the trade of banking in Eng-
land as free as it is in Scotland, not hamper it
with new restrictions. The true natural origin
or great natural fact on which paper currency
is founded—we do not say its historical origin,
for that might be a roguish trick of a conqueror
--is the unequal times in which different com-
modities are produced. It requires nearly eleven
months to bring wheat to market after it is
sowed, while a suit of clothes for the farmer can
be made in a day, and the whole process,
from the clipping the sheep till the coat comes
home, may be conveniently completed in a
month. It requires nearly • a year, too, be-
fore the merchant who despatches a ven-
ture to China can get back any re-
turns, but the operations of the baker and
the butcher, by which he is fed, are
perfected in a few hours, or at most, days.
Those persons engaged in operations which
ex-
tend over long periods, or who enter into foreign
trade, rarely or never have wealth enough to
continue their operations. with success, and sub-
sist according to their rank, without borrowina-
.of those whose labours are completed from day
to day, or of those who have credit and
make it a trade to lend money. Borrowing,
therefore, or conducting the operations of trade
on credit, to a certain extent is the natural and
necessary consequence of commodities being
produced in unequal times.
Men borrow by bills or promissory notes, to
pay at a certain time they pay for the goods,
which they are to send to China, or for the stock
they require for their farm, by bills, which they
take up or pay when their ship comes home, or
their corn is sold. Good and proper mercantile
bills, then, the genuine offspring of trade, are
always the representatiVes of commodities on
their way to the market.
But it is not found convenient topay the
small sums continually required by those whose
labours are completed in very short periods by
such bill; and for them there are substituted the
bills or promises to pay on demand—(which are
much more convenient than those bills which
are only to be paid at a distant day)—of some
known, and supposed to be, trust-worthy
money-dealer of the neighbourhood. The
;hanker exchanges his credit to be imme-
diately used, for the bill that is not to be
paid for several weeks or months, or lie discounts
.the bill by his own notes. As far as the issues of
bank-notes are genuine commercial transaction:
—for such kites as Exchequer bills, and landlords,
notes on their income do not enter into our con-
sideration, and are rather the excrescences or
fungi of the system than healthy parts of it—as
far as bank-notes are issued to d:scouat mercan-
tile paper, they, like the bilk fcr which they are
substituted, are the representatives of commo-
dities on their way to the market, and the just
and proper demand for them can only be known
by those who know the merchants and are well
acquainted with the trade of the eeighbourhood.
On these principles it is plain Cat not general
banks, not one bank of issue, but local banks,
laud private banks or Joiin-aTtock banks, like

AMERICA.
The New York Herald of the 16th ult. contains the
following account of the " sayings and doings" of Peter
Robinson, who was executed for murder at New
Brunswick on the preceding day.
Robinson's brother James came to see him this
morning (says the writer), and on leaving him appeared
to be very much cut up. After a pause he said, " But
it's a poor way to die, after all. Have you seen any of
the preparations in front of the gaol ? I wonder whether
they are going to run me up like a man to the yard-
arm of a frigate, or to let me drop with a run. I wonder
which is the easiest death ; but I suppose there is very
little difference any way. It will be all over in a few
minutes."
In answer to a question of mine (proceeds the wri-
ter), he said, " The hooks which I used to read prin-
cipally were all accounts of pirates. and highwaymen,
and shipwrecks, and banditti ; and I often wished that
I'd had money to travel ; I should like to have seen
foreign parts, and liked to have been a pirate. I'd a
shown 'em all how to do their work. I used to read
the Scottish Chiefs,' and Arabian Nights,' and Gil
Bias,' and ' Rinaldo Rinaldini.' I was very fond of
reading Rinaldo ; it was my favourite book ; but I used
to read the Bible a good deal too, because my mother
wished me. And, Sir, if I'd never been led into that
miserable speculation with buying that lot, of Mr. Say-
dam, he'd a been alive and I should have been a happy
man. So touch for giving notes. 1 learned to read
well before I went to Barnes's ; and as I was down in
New York and an apprentice, I used to get whatever
books I wanted out of the Apprentice's Library.
tPause.) Oh, Sir. I thought I should make a fortune
in buying that lot, but I've made a halter instead."
Two men were in the cellar underneath his cell, one
crazy and the other drunk ; when the clergy left him,
Peter said, " I'm glad he's gone." " Why, Peter ?"
said the gaoler. " Because them fellows below there
are a carrying on sa ; they put the old devil into me,
awl then I'm so alraid I shall burst out a laughing
herons the clsreyman's face ; end I do solemnly believe
that. I shall burst out a laughing under the gallows.
Oh if they would only let me have the big field, and a
band of music ; I'd ask no more."
Peter had once got his chains off, in the absence of
the gaoler. He said to me today, "If my brother
Bill had only sold my toots when I wanted him, and
brought the fifty dollars, a smn been out of this
place like afl ish. I had all my chains off, and every-
thing ready ; but I had no money to start with. And
now they have put a new set of chains on me, and I
give it up for a bad job."
He this morning expressed a most anxious desire
that the Sheriff would take him out on the big field, as
he calls it, and, added be, '‘ then everybody can have a
fair chance to see me, and I'll make 'eta a speech an
hour long, if the Sheriff would let me."
Mr. Strong and his assistant have just arrived from
New York, and they are at this moment eegaged in
taking a cast of Peter's bead. He is highly delighted
with the idea of being handed down to posterity in this
way, tied cohiplied with my request the first moment
that I asked it. He said to me, " Now he sure that
you put my head alongside of Gen. Jackson's and
Gan. Washington's, and Napoleon Buonaparte's, and
Lord Wellington's, heads, and the heads of ail the great
men and great murderers. Don't put me alongside of
the heads of any speculators in lot s, and above all, be
sure and don't let any of 'em get a mortgage on to thy
head ; or if you do it 'd be a gone goose and no mis-
take. A mortgage winds up prat y much everything ;
it wound up Suydam, and it will wind up me to-mor-
row, and I shan't run down again like a clock after I
am wound up."
Robinson has lately kept his room so excessively hot
that scarcely any one but himself could remain in it.
He said I make my stove so hot that when I stand up-
right it makes my hair all crisp, and I want to get the
room so hot that it will curl like dogs' hair."
Well, in consequence of this there was a great deal
of difficulty in taking the cast of his head, because his
hair, after at le sat half a pint of oil was put upon it,
was as stiff and crisp as so much wire. The first cast was
broken, and some of his hair was cut off. " Oh," said
Peter, " shave the whole of it off, it wiil make no differ-
ence to-morrow, and then you can make a good one of
me." " Oh," said the jailer, " but, Peter, you promised
me the scalp, and I wouldn't lose that for 50 dollars."
Very well," replied Peter, " the hair will all grow
again ; or," he added, laughing, . you can keep me for
a few weeks till it does grow. But after all, I believe
the best way is to cut my head off and take it down to
New York ; and then you can do it at your leisure,
and be sure to make a good one. But, after all, I don't
know that the old woman would like that at all."
On the phrenologists first going into his cell, he
rather objecied to having the cast taken ; says he, " I
know what you want to do with it ; you want to hawk
it about the streets of New York, and cry out, " Here's
the head of Peter Robinson, the murderer, only half a
dollar." At last he said, " Well, what other great
men's heads have you taken a cast of ?" " Why," re-
plied the phrenologist, " we've taken Webster and
Clay, and Van Buren, and"—Peter stopped him with,
" Webster and Clay, I like them—l like Clay ; I
don't like Van Buren ; he goes for too quick payments ;
but wllll you put my head by the side of Clay's ?" He
was told it should be put there. " Very well, then,
you may take it ; what way shall I lay ?" And on
being told, he la!,1 himself down accordingly.
The phrenologist
told him he could change his posi-
tion as It would be mat easier. " Oh, no," said he,
never mind, " I can slant; hard knocks better than
Suydam could." The phenolaSfeist told him he had
some white hairs in his head. "Yes," said Peter,
" but I ain't very old—l'm rather young': but it makes
a great difference when a man is obliged to work as
hard as I've been forced to do all my life." When the
phrenologist was feeling his head and making one or
two remarks, Peter said, " Well, there was a man
feeling of my head soon after I was put in gaol ; and if
I I'd a known as snitch as I do now, I would have asked
him what it all meant." When the phrenologist ob-
served that he must be quick as all Peter's time ought
to be devoted to religious exercises, he said " Oh, go
a head with it ; we've got plenty of time, and you might
as well make a good 'un at once. A priest is going to
be with me all night to-night, but I don't know much
good it's going to do, for what's bred in the bone must
come out in the flesh. And I am a fellow that was
alive to all kinds of fun and frolic:'
When the phrenologist told him he must keep his
face very steady, he said, " Oh, yea I'll keep my face
as steady as a minister's ; not like that Methodist Mi-
nister, though, that stood behind the Judge in the
Courtroom, for he looked as ridiculous as an owl in
an ivy bush, when you see 'em by daylight. But I will
look very amiable though ; I'll look as smiling as a
basket of chips." A minister who was present said to
him, " Peter, you should remember what an awful
matter you have to undergo to-morrow." " Very well,"
said Peter, " suppose I have, it's only me that's got to
suffer any of it."
Ile vies highly amused when he talked of shaving off
his hair, and said to the gaoler, " Conover, you've got a
night-cap you'd lend me to wear to morrow, or this
would do for a night-cap—this plaster ; it's a pretty
tight fit to be sure ; but then I always was fond of
tight fits."
Mr. Graham asked how he thought he would feel at
the last moment. " Well," said he, coolly, " I've tried
to imagine how I should feel under the gallows ; but I
asl' pretty tey t nhieu echethe
rCourt-
house. ks
an
mo we
alsl o
I I
do shallow
, andfe feel
house. Didn't I look the Judge right in the eye then
ndm I
sameshall
I've always felt the same ; inY feelings haven't
changed, and they won't cS. siege, for I can't realise
anything so dreadful about dying, only I should like to
have a band of music, the big field, and 20,000 spec-
tators."
After musing a little, he said, with great earnestness,
" After I'm dead and gone beyond the reach of all
their tyranny, and grinding, and vengeance, I don't be-
lieve that a good many of 'em will be satise I ; but
whatever you do, don't let 'em dig me up and make
medicine of me." I put my band to his head and ob