The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-16 00:00:00

eltentag

LONDON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1847.

The Nati •
onal Anti-Gold-law League held their
sixth public
arepub daylicby
meeting
last evening. While numerous
plans
rey day
put forward, advocating a
different variety of
views, any of which would be
more advantageous t
the country than the present
system, the originators
the League and its chief
orators are steadily adheringofto the
mulgate a on the formation the association, and
principles pro-
gaining new converts to thTnehiroedoctrines and additional
iiiantity
strength to their body.
feleanr.traonvdersy
tion afforded at each meeting—the
satisfac-
of informa-
tory explanations on every point of
the sound arguments adduced, are forcing —and
upon every unprejudiced and disicnintg conviction
son. To those gentlemen who haeyrested
themselves to to the task of enlightening
the devoted
mind on this by far the most important questionublic
of
the day, who have spared no exertions to promote
the prosperity of their country, which they believe to
be dependent on a sound and speedy solution of the
pro
bleu' a deep debt of gratitude is due for the
,
zeal and energy they have displayed and are display..
lug. Now, they have to encounter the obloquy, the
sneers, and the ridicule which are
argament in the early stages of a et
Per-
sons, who are unable to refute the reasons they bring
forwa.'d, will endeavour to pooh-pooh the question, as
if the point was absolutely too plain for discussion—
one which any child or old woman could understand
as fully as those intelligent men who have laboriously
occupied themselves thereon. Hereafter, when it has be -
cora more fashicrnable,when many influential men have
recorded their opl:4ona as to the necessity for a ra-

dical reformation of the monetary code, when a
majority, or even a strong and rapidly-increasing
minority, of the anti-bullioniats have forced the
Minister of the day to make concessions to the general
feeling, when the conflict is nearly over, and certain
victory awaits them, numbers will flock to their
standard, anxious to participate in their triumph; but
although such volunteers will ever he received with
open arms, and although they, in common with the
entire nation, will be benefited by the adoption of a
free and unrestricted currency sufficient for the wants
of the country, the chief honour must be accorded
to the original labourers, to the enthusiastic men
who have formed the vanguard, and have abided
by their colours, under every change, through evil
report and through good report.
The Chairman of the League (Mr. BENNOCH) last
night exposed one of the great fallacies of the bul-
lionists. They argue that gold should be the
only standard of value, and that as one of the chief
elements of a standard or measure of the value of
every other description of commodity, should be its
own unvarying value, therefore gold should be main-
tained at a fixed price. This, however, is palpably
absurd. There is perhaps no article that has
varied more in its intrinsic value than gold
itself, or in which there have been greater
fluctuations. Gold is, in fact, but the
produce of one description of labour, and the attempt
to maintain gold at a fixed price is to endeavour to
make that one description of labour regulate all
others. It has been well said that "we must not
seek for the cause of value in commodities them-
selves, but in something extrinsic and external, and
that external cause is the quantity of labour required
to obtain them. In this quantity of labour lies the
true measure of value." The object of this labour
may be to supply an actual want, it may produce
something of real utility, which is absolutely es-
sential to our comfort or happiness ; or it
may be expended on something which merely gra-
tifies some fancy, or arbitrary desire, of those who are
enabled to apply to the acquisition of that which they
wish for, and to which they attach an ideal importance,
the superfluous means of which they are possessed.
In any case, it is the amount of the labour required
for the attainment that regulates the value of the
object, and valuable property, or what is termed ca-
pital, is nothing but hoarded labour in various shapes
and in various amounts.

The attempt to make gold, or even gold and silver,
or any precious metals, the only circulating medium
is to make the real foundation of every description of
value—labour—dependent on the amount that has
been applied in one direction and hoarded up. If
we have not gold, manufactures of every descrip-
tion, all kinds of industrial pursuits, and every
species of reproductive employment is to be brought
to a stand. Because there is a deficiency of the pro
ducts of one kind of labour (and that not the labour
of our own countrymen, or that on which they can
be employed in their native land), myriads of men,
able and willing to work, are to be kept in compulsory
idleness, and prevented from adding to the cumu-
tive property of the country in works of real and
positive utility, by which time and space may be
practically almost annihilated, and the greatest
facilities given to the internal commerce and traffic
of the country. Because foreigners and aliens
have not worked as industriously as they
might have dor e, or we have not enough
of the products of their labour, our
own children are to be prevented from employing
themselves in useful pursuits. As well may it be
said that, because the workmen of Birmingham had
turned out, and refused to labour, the mills of
Manchester should be closed, and its numerous ope-
ratives exposed to the greatest privations.
The precious metals are undoubtedly useful for the
purpose of carrying on our foreign commerce. They
are also valuable for many other purposes ; but it is
ridiculous to say that therefore they must be the sole
medium of exchange—that our home productions
cannot be exchanged without their intervention
There may be something which will always corn
mend a value for home use, inasmuch as it would
enable the possessor to bear his portion of the
burdens to which he may be obliged to contribute
for the satisfaction of our debt and the support of our
national establishments—that would represent every
description of accumulated property in the country
which, under a State guarantee, would be liable
therefor, and also the labour which should be given
by those who were not possessed of property, to satisfy
their liabilities to the community. Such a circula-
tion, valueless in itself—but representing value—and
made a legal tender upon all occasions, is what we
require, and England will never be really prosperous
until it is conceded.

As the star-spangled banner of the United States
fluttered triumphantly on the walls of Chapultopec
thirty soldiers were hung in front of the American
forces. The cruelties perpetrated by HERNAN CORTEZ,
on his first expedition into Mexico, have been sur-
passed in barbarity and heartlessness by the heroic
commanders of the Model Republic. If despotism
can be symbolized by a knout, American repuhli •
canism may be henceforth represented by a gallows,
and this from the same spirit of historic heraldry
which world indicate French republicanism by a
guillotine. Never, we undertake to aver most dis-
tinctly, never has national reputation been so dis-
graced, not even by the incendiarisms of the bocage
or the noyades of Nantes—not by the rigour of
WESTERMANN or the callousness of NARVAEZ—
as the nationality of the United States
has been disgraced by one of its subor-
dinate officers at Mexico. That it may not be
conjectured that our sympathy is exaggerated or our
indignation of superfluous violence, we shall detail,
in a few syllables, those incidents of unchristian
vengeance which have stigmatised with such infamous
notoriety the name of an otherwise unnoticeable
martinet.

Whatever troops have been marched into California
or into the more southern portions of Mexico, in ac-
cordance with the directions of the War Department
of Washington, have been remarkable for their in-
congruous character. Such was inevitable. The
comparative youth of the United States as an inde-
pendent power, and the comparative suddenness of this
unprincipled aggression upon the neighbouring terri-
tories, rendered it impossible that the army dis-
patched upon the expedition should be otherwise than
singularly heterogeneous. All classes, all nations,
all religions, added their quota to the enlistment, and
diversified more strikingly the moral and physical
appearance of the armament. American captains led
under their standards not merely the brave recruits
of the United States, but with them large numbers of
mercenaries and adventurers. Among such very
doubtful additions to the American forces were bri-
gades like the handful of Irish soldiers commanded
by Major RILEY, and who deserted at diffe-
rent times from the flag of the United
States to serve under that of Mexico. On
the occasion of the hand-to-hand encounters
which preceded the entrance of General SCOTT into
the capital of the invaded territories, these unfortu-
nate wretches were captured by their victorious
assailants, and brought to trial in separate batches
for the crime of desertion. That military discipline
is the very soul and existence of an army, and that
the rigorous and judicious punishment of desertion
is absolutely essential to the maintenance of military
discipline, are truths universally recognised and
universally accepted. That we acknowledge
with the utmost distinctness ; but it must
be remembered, at the same moment, that
a natural distinction has been invariably made
between the desertion of native soldiers and that of
mere mercenaries; and it must be especially remem-
beredProvedthatmost
etven in cases where the culprits have been
culpable, their sentence has been pro-
nounced with a calmness befitting the majesty of
justice, and their punishment inflicted without any
violation of the decenciesf of society,
dictates and impulses of or of the noblest
humanity.f In the present
iristan
reverse. a
n bdoth
The judgment
judgmentand
executione instance
twasbe directly the,
aoti?n
was hurried, precipitate
mrinies of
fbndeeol'oll3. The
execution was characterized
refinement of cruelty and by a fiendish prolong theutmost
once of the ecstacies of revenge and thea
despair. Although sixteen deserters were
the 9th ultimo at San Angel, and four g moreon
on the following morning at Mixcoac, the thirst for
vengeance on the part of the commanders of the
United States was unslaked. The crime to which