The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-14 00:00:00

OIt_NING__,EDITION

Priht Royal spirit into submission, they were dislo)al.
While the recurrence of a long-remettil;ered and deeply
deplored catastrophe was possible, they were disposed
to disloyalty. Was there a dinner-party at the Palace,
they talked of Royal orgies. Was the weapon of as-
sassination levelled, they were infinitely facetious upon
" pistol practice in the Park." Were able and honest
men, not of their professed doctrine, put into office,
they alluded to the forced abdication of the second
James. And now who so loyal as they ? Truly the
raacient city of Canterbury must be hard bested for
faithful subjects of Queen Victoria, if Mr. Smythe and
his supporters are to pass muster under those colours.
Mr. Smythe couples most abundant abuse of the
Government with a declaration that Sir Robert
Peel and Lord Stanley vote more frequently with
Ministers than would his opponent, Mr. Wilson ; and
h intends to follow Sir Robert Peel and Lord Stanley.
And moreover, he abuses the Septennial Act as a Whig
measure, " a blue Act ;" yet he will resist its repeal.
After such precious specimens of logic and consistency,
it is hopeless for him to offer himself as the champion of
tr.e intelligence of the country against Mr. O'Connell
or any other oppugner. The meeting that could tole-
rate and applaud him, is sunk below all defence. In
his return, the stultification of Canterbury would he far
more palpable than its cathedral. These exhibitions are
very humbling to our national character. We could
almost find in our hearts to petition the Carlton C:ub
not to make our cauntry the laughing-stock and con-
tempt of Europe. We would say to them, try the
isioney power to its full extent, bribe to your hearts'
satisfaction, avail yourselves of every technicality that
the most rascally lawyers can turn to account in the
lierversion of the Reform Act, uprear your Constitu-
tion on the pedestal of the beer barrel, intimidate and
coerce every poor dependent creature whose occupation
brings him within your gripe—but kayo some tender-
ness for the intellectual reputation of a people which
has bad " the start of the majestic world." Do not
richt your battles with shallow and brazen quacks.
Voserve some decorum in your choice of champions,
and if you really be as sure of beating us as you pre-
tend, allow us to fall with decency, and make not your
own triumph a dishonour to the English mind. We
fear the petition would be in vain. The exigencies of
the party require it to be inexorable. Our only hope
is, that intellect and honesty are not extinct in Canter-
bury. Mr. Sinythe, like our Contemporary the Stan-
dard, objects to the Ballot, because " no scheme which
wit or human ingenuity can devise will ensure the ob-
ject of secresy." If the Tories believe this, why are
we not agreed upon its adoption ? They can well af-
ford the experiment which afters are desirous of try-
ing. Their corruption and coercion may still proceed
if the Ballot can give no secrecy ; and what would they
have more ? Their insight into the vanity of all pre-
cautions against their own nefarious devices ought to
tider them tolerant of die deluded believers in the
pusaility of secret and independent voting. Either
their objection is dishonest, or they are the most unreason-
able, churlish, and intolerant faction upon the face of the
earth. But the very strenuousness of their hostility
evinces their dread that protection would be realized.
And in the protection of honest opinion they rightly
forebode their own discomfiture.

(From the Times )
The character of this country is essentially Conserva-
tive. '['here are always, indeed, mobs to be collected
by rogues, enthusiasts, or bigots, sometimes idle mobs,
nod sometimes, we grieve to say, hungry mobs, all quite
ready to vote that everything they suffer from is every
body's fault but their own ; and at indefinite periods
once perhaps is ten or a dozen years, there arises some
general or panic excitement, which hurries along with
it. a considerable portion of the more respect able
classes. But, except for these partial and casual ex-
cesies, the English are a sober-minded people, willing
to be guided by their natural leaders, and exceed-
ingly indifferent to theories of government. Of po-
litical liberty, indeed, they are very jealous ; but
tee), care little for political power. In their pocket
and in their religion they must not be harassed ;
eon it here any hardship or other abuse is exhibited,
especially if its pressure be on the weak, they will
lisva it redressed ; but their interposition seldom
s .eks to go much further : for they have pretty
generally the good sense to perceive that few of us pos-
sess lawn-1360n or leisure sufficient to qualify us for
the incessant toil of politics : and that the best course
with respect to our political counsellors, as with respect
to our legal or our medical ones, is to choose our men with
earn, and, having chosen them, to leave our case in
their bands, :arid upon their responsibility. That is the
constitutional principle of our government, and that is
qv; general inclination of our people. They are Con-
servative, not because they prefer ose set of partisans to
aiiarier, but because their tendencies are to fixedness
rather th in to change, and to recognized gradations of
power and rank, rather than to an uneasy straining after
impracticable equality. The Whigs, from the begin-
ning, have miscalculated the whole matter, and in no
one particular more grossly than in that of their isinni-
clisal Corporation Bill. They might have learned a les-
'sort from the working of their own Reform Act, but
they ware too dull to take it. The general election in
January. 0:135, being the second under the Reform Act,
lessf almost doubled the number of the Conservatives
in the Ilouse of Commons. To men at all capable of
being warned, that sudden increase from 150 to near
300 might well have been a warning. It might have
taught them that the popular feeling which had en-
rib!ed them to carry the Reform Act was not a rest-
less itching for progressive and endless innovation, but
A single determination on the part of the people to
compel the redress of what they regarded as an in-
tolerable abuse of their Representative Constitution.
Although the first election—that of 18:32—had
brought upwards of 500 Whigs and Radicals into
Parliament, the next, in 18:35, diminishing that aggre-
gate force by about 150, left the Whigs at the mercy
of Mr. O'Connell. Yet the Whigs conld not discern
is this any symptom of a Conservative tendency on
the part of the nation at large ; or, if they did, they
were so infatuated by their own selfishness as to fancy
that they could neutralize the mind of the British
people by a bit of Whig legislation—by a new elec-
tioneering job. If the drawing of the great lottery,
isain they, has not been quite so profitable as we caleu•
hated, we will have a .4 little go" in aid of it ; and so
ttisey resolved upon passing the measure now known by
the name of the Municipal Corporation Act. By that
enactment they promised themselves that they should
gain an accession 01 from 57 to 59 scats, and extinguish
ielie Conservatives for ever in a flood tide of popular en-
aiistisiasin which was never to have an ebb. Oa the 4th
ssi' January, 18:36, very shortly after the first general
to.'o election under the new Act, we stated our reasons
for be 'ieving that, favourable as the election had been
to the VsThigs, they would neither gain their expected
accession of seats in Parliament, nor long continue to
retain their :nfleence even io the elections of corpora-
tors. We observed, that as all the Parliamentary no-
aninations appertaining to the corporation system had
already been killed outright by the Reform Bill, there
;were none of them left for the working of the Corpora-
tion Act to strangle. We showed that the disgust with
esiai.ell the jobbing and roughriding of the Radical town-
eentsaillors could not fail to inspire the burgesses niust
bring back the popular feeling in the towns to the res-
peesatee t which, with few exceptions, is the Conserve-
eive) class of inhabitants ; and that, in three or four
ye,iri, the municipal electors would fleetly restore their
confidence to a municipal administration of which pro-
perty end character should be the guarantees. Those
were out predictions in 1836. In 1837, that part of
them which related to the Parliamentary elections was
verified by a largo increase, instead of any diminution,
iin the number of the Conservatives returned to the
reiouse of Commons, and in 1840 the remainder of our
teestitaipations becalme realized by the overthrow of the
:art's.4 and Radical.candidetes at almost every town elec.
twat time Tweed to the Tamar. From these facts,
time
these 1
. oessuivocal and sustained manifestations of the
#
,both in the Parliamentary and in the
public op4aitgir
e, at ctjaaa, it is possible to draw only one
municipal a
that
~ the tend the ha-
couelusioo, namely,
people ; is opposed
bitual teridenc
-f
perpetual
)..of the kanglish
change and to the
eo the project; o
domination of etelgar adventurers. Mob autho-
Vily is hated most when it comes nearest
and in this view, the :Municipal Reform Act will really
Lace been a substantial larnent to the country. As long
.ea the election of democratieal pretenders was only into
ithe House of Commons the perception of the evil was
:lost ie its distance and generality, no particular consti-
•tueney having any opportunity to see it in its immediate
working. But when the Municipal Act let a herd of
longry Liberals into the domestic administration of the
tos.os,the householders soon became awake to the true
chat acter of these gentry. Their insolence, their ignor-
ance,
.their covetousness, their corruption, al( those quali-
ties which signalize the beggar set on horseback arid speed
him to th,. proverbial termination of his journey, were then
seen and felt, and ere long resented, by the indignant
householder& of the towns. From what they viewed ,
with their own eyes, they formed their judgment of
what was less immediately obvious ; and they came to
the conclusion that the class of people of whom the
tc wns had got these specimens, were no very desirable
re preventatives for the cation. Thus the operation of
a e, Municipal Reform has weterially aided the resto-
re don of the popular mind " to Its swan' and pristine
lit elth ;" and the experience of Liberia) power will be fer
.
nit •ny a year the safe guarantee of Conservative prin.,
nip les. rt is not, indeed, to be taken for granted that
«weal, burgess who has voted for a Conservative Town-
.cou, eilior will also, if he happen to be a. Parliamen-
tary et,setor, record his vote for a Conservative Member.
The ties of private connexion And the respect for pri-
vate eharaieter may not infrequeutic influence a Liberal,
as he calla himself, to vote for COOfer v ativ e Town-
Councillors. He excuses himself to his brother Radi-
cals by pleading that the town elections are not political
but local affair v, and that his duty is to do the best
for the town. Eats though for these reasons you must
beware of calcu 'Lein upon the universal assistance of
your corporate co asetituents in your Parliamentary elec-
tions, yet this ga sat and .clearanteantage you derive
from you municipal 1 victories, itilat alley Amato an opi-
nion of, moral s trength of the ,Conservatives, and
allog,/tikeo
is
Is to to in a disunited, undisciplined,

and uncreditable state. This appearance of affairs
not only encourages your friends and .disheartens
your enemies, but operates in a very practical way
upon your canvassing-book, by bringing the waverers to
your side. The Conservatives, therefore, bid fair to
meet the next general election (and it probably will not
be a very distant one), with all the appliances that can
secure success—with good majorities solemnly pledged
in their favour—with the popular opinion, not only of
the Parliamentary electors, but of the burgesses, loud
in their cause—and with all the contingent advantages
appurtenant to the party which possesses the supe-
rioray both of the numbers and of the ground.
( From the Morning Advertiser.)
That we are (!fficial/y, if we may use the expression,
the special organ of the Licensed Victuallers, whether
in the metropolis or in the provinces, is a fact which
we have no wish to conceal, although we are aware
that it militates to a certain extent, against the force
of our arguments when any claim on their part comes
under our consideration, or any case of oppression de.
mantis our attention. A weaker advocate, less skilled
in the duties which they owe to the public, and the
rights which they are entitled to enjoy in common with
their fellow-subjects, would be more successful in the
cause of justice, because less suspected of partiality or
prejudice ; still there is no reason why we should not
lift up our humble voice in vindication of the rights
and privileges of men who, in later times, have been
the sport of legislation, and the victims of magisterial
as well as Parliamentary caprice. Placed, with regard
to other classes of society, in a position which enables
them to exercise great influence upon the minds and
morals of the communities among which they may
happen to reside—possessing, as they do, a large stake
in the welfare of the country, and characterised by uni-
form sentiments of loyalty and obedience to the laws of
their country, it would be prima facie inferred that un-
der such circumstances the Licensed Victuallers would
have formed special objects of protection and encourage-
ment with any sane Government under which they lived ;
hut what is the case? For the last twelve years they
have been the objects of persecution, and the victims of
legalized plunder—encroachment upon their trade has
followed upon encroachment—enactment upon enact-
ment—imposition upon imposition—tax upon tax—and
oppression upon oppression, until not only has the trade
been ruined in all its best and most useful features, by
which it was wont to be recognized, but the Licensed
Victualler is not even now master, as every Englishman
by law is, of his own house. If our readers think that
we are guilty of exaggeration in making this statement,
let them remember how many cases of infraction of the
law have been attempted to be established against the
trade, simply because the sounds of a piano or some
other musical instrument were heard within their do-
miciles ; and, above all, let them look into the case
mentioned in our paper of Monday, and decided at
Union Hall police-office, in which, if the report he
correct, no Licensed Victualler shall in future allow
his private friends to enjoy his society and their own
after the legal hour of the night, on pain of being
fined, either for disorderly conduct or the non-observance
of legitimate hours. In the last case, as well as in the
former, the police were the instruments, and the inter-
ested instruments. Two of them swore that they heard
" several persons singing' Hurrah for the Road,' " but
without adducing any instance of riot,disorder, or absence
of respectability on the part of the vocalists ; and three
of the very persons who were thus innocently amusing
themselves in a friend's house and at a friend's expense,
in a jovial song, swore with equal clearness, and assu-
redly without any interest or prejudice, that " the per-
sons in the house were all relatives of the defendant."
Under such circumstances, but more especially under
the doubt expressed by the presiding Magistrate, of
the actual intentions of the Legislature as to the ap-
plication of the Act to beer-sellers or to Licensed Vic-
tuallers, the clear course to be pursued was to have
dismissed the case ; but no : the Magist rate gave more
credit to the evidence of the police interested in a con-
viction than to the evidence of three disinterested per-
sons, and finally fined the defendant in the sum of 40s.
for having dared to entertain a few friends in his
house We entertain every respect for Mr. Traill, the
Magistrate who presided in the above case, as an upright
judge ; but if the instance referred to be properly re-
ported, there never was a grosser departure from the
principles of law and justice. The law says nothing
upon the subject, and justice and common sense declare
that the Legislature never could have contemplated
such an infringement of the rights of private individuals,
as that of preventing them from enjoying the society of
their friends and relatives at any time and at any hour
that they might deem proper. To imagine such to have
been its intention would be to suppose that it hod re-
solved to make Pariahs of publicans, and outcasts from
society of all who desired to furnish it with comfort or
convenience.

(From the Globe.)

We have been glad to see our weekly Contemporaries
lately showing some tendency to assign a foremost place
to questions of practical and fiscal economy. We no-
ticed last week the Spectator's useful abridgment of the
Report on Import Duties ; and the Examiner has had
one er two able articles on a branch of the same subject
—the Reports of the Select Committees of both Houses
on the Petition of the East India Company. We do
not mind the slight infusion of bitters in either Con-
temporary. The best friends of the Government must be
most desirous that subjects of this kind should be forced
on them by the utmost possible " pressure front with-
out." The Penny Postage was in this manner pressed
upon official adoption. No measure has added more
justly to the popularity of the present Government. Yet
no Government could well have been expected to effect
such a change, without the previous sanction of a
strongly announced public opinion. There is another
reason why official strongholds must be stormed with big
blue books, and the contents of those books, used as ma-
teriel for incessant assaults on them on these subjects—
and this is, that the thoughts and attention of men in
office are too much divided betwixt mere official routine
and mere petty warfare. They have little time or
energy left for any thing else. The sole remedy for
what is otherwise rernedfless in this land of faction,
is, that the public should inform itself on its own
material and substantial interests ; and they will
soon make parties and Ministers wage their offen-
sive and defensive warfare on that field. A popu-
lar Chamber of Legislature (whatever the elective
franchise) can never lag far behind an informed and
awakened public. If Parliament waste time in the
mere contests of faction, the fault must partly be in the
public, amongst whom factions can find auditors. The
moment the demand for other topics is manifest, the
supply will follow. Symptoms of this are already visible,
and oddly enough—some of them in Me Lords. The
Lords' Committee on the India Petition have made a
Report, ascribed to Lord Ellenborough, which puts
forth just and enlightened views on Colonial policy—
" That no partialfavour should grant to one cclony any
advantage over another, either in colonial ports or in
those of United Kingdom ; still less that Parlia-
ment should partially secure for the produce and manu-
factures of the United Kingdom any advantage in any
colonial port over the competing produce and manufac-
tures of its own dependencies." This is a new and
notable start of hereditary wisdom ; though of course it
will find no favour in the eyes of the Standard.
(From the Standard.)
The excellent speech of the Hon. Mr. Smythe, at
Canterbury, has plainly told—the Morning Chronicle
makes it the subject of an angry article this morning.
Our Contemporary commences its criticism by an attack
upon the city of Canterbury, which we suppose will be
appreciated by the voters of that ancient city at the ensu-
ing election, and proceeds to fall foul of the Conservative
party and the Conservative press, deviating rather widely
from the truth in reference to the latter. The misreported
speech of Mr. Bradshaw supplies the pretext for both in-
vectives. Now, with reference to that speech, Mr. Brad-
shaw has distinctly disavowed it, and this is generally
considered enough among gentlemen when even the
most delicate point of honour is concerned ; but Mr.
Bradshaw has not merely disavowed the speech, and
denied that he ever entertained the sentiments which it
has been interpreted as ascribing to him—he has ex-
pressed regret that any language of his could bear such
misinterpretation ; and it is to be remembered that this
disavowal, this denial, and this expression of regret,
were not in any way extorted, or even solicited from the
Honourable Member for Canterbury, but came from
him as his own spontaneous act. This would be
something more than enough among gentle-
men ; however, the Morning Chronicle writes for
those who are not gentlemen. Be it so ; our Contem-
porary at least writes in England, and therefore
writes for just and honourable men, Now, will any
just and honourable man so far trust to the hearsay of a
reporter—who may have been mistaken, and who has
acknowledged, we believe, that he was mistaken—
against the testimony of a gentleman of unimpeached
honour and veracity, who certainly must know better
what he said than the reporter of his speech, and against
the testimony of all the other hearers ? There might
be more difficulty in following the general rule of evi-
dence, it the words imputed to the speaker were so
clear and unequivocal, and so criminal in substance, as
to leave no choice between the convictioonrotnhethoetioieore
side,
that
thethat they
reporter v r e rwe a asp
go
uk
thy a
ofs
lweiPlfGurlteindilareppesentation.
uSsucer
b,
eldi o
two e
Av
rr., isu rnaodtote
l wc: a
take
of the p
ae
ke away
ys
seoemc
improprietye erroneously
f-sf style and manner, and there was nothing in it which
any gnglisliman ought to be ashamed or afraid to say,
under the like circurotpces.

( From the Courity.)
What are the public to think of the disgusting by•
pocrisy with which ignorance was feigned of the actual
position of Frost and his companions, and of the mode
in which they had been dealt with by the Governor ?
It is clearly a shabby attempt to fix the responsibility of
this promotion and premium for crime upon that office!
in case of need, and accordingly we shall be amused in
Parliament, when the case is brought forward, with a
long yarn about the doctor's certificate of good con-
duct on the voyage out, which led Sir John Franklin,
in the innocence of his heart, to conceive the convicts
worthy of a better fate, and to patronize them accord-
ingly, when all the while Sir John was acting only
upon a foregone conclusion, and in pursuance of abso-

lute, however private, orders from his superiors at home. I
It is unhappily the besetting si❑ of Lord John Rus-
sell's character, as of the acts of his Administration,
that between the straightforward and the tortuous
course he is too often seen to elect the latter, and to
prefer rather to accomplish ends by the little arts of
cunning and stratagem than by the fearless frankness
of a statesman who has weighed causes and conse-
quences, and is prepared manfully to justify and accept
the responsibility for what he has conscientiously re-
solved upon, whatever the risk of censure or the odium
contingent. We are not disposed to enact the part so
common and congenial with the office and habits of the
Vs Attorney-General, that is, to argue in aggrava-
vation of the punishment of Frost and his unhappy as-
sociates ; but neither are we insensible of tile perilous
affront to loyalty, justice, and public morals, when
crime, and that of the deepest die in every shade
known to the Constitution, is not alone permitted to es-
cape its condign penalty, in one part of the empire out-
raged, but in another part exalted with honorary if tint
lucrative marks of distinction above classes of crime
and criminals around of much more pardonable and
lower degrees of enormity. For it cannot be forgotten
that the crimes of which Frost and his co-mates stand
attainted were, not high treason alone, but treason and
murder. On their heads lie ail the blood shed at
Newport, besides the sin of levying war against the
Sovereign and compassing the overthrow of the institu-
tions of their country.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

(TUESDAY EVENING.)
CHRONICLE.—The President's Message was the
chief subject of attention this morning, but the interest in
it was not sustained. It is, in fact, looked upon as a dying
eulogy, by Mr. Van Buren, on his owe official existence,
founded on his having carried on the affairs of the Union,
since the year 1337, in the midst of much commercial dis-
tress and suspension of specie payments, without having
had recourse to a national debt or a national bank. The
Sub-Treasury 13111, of course, forms the principal subject
1 of self-praise ; and, as he leaves the public Treasury with
only jBOO 000 in its coffers against 4,000,000 of Treasury
Bills in circulation, he very gravely assures Congress that
" an overflowing Treasury, however it may be regarded as
an evidence of public prosperity, is seldom conducive to
the permanent welfare of the people." This is similar
to the well-fed, purse proud parsons in this country
telling us that no rich man can enter the king-
dom of Heaven ; which may be all very true, but
few people, nevertheless, seem to prefer poverty when they
have an opportunity of filling their pockets ; in the same
way, we suspect, this doctrine of Mr. Van Buren will find
few admirers amongst the citizens of the United States.
An empty treasury always brings along with it vague no-
tions that means must be adopted to supply the deficiency,
and certain disagreeable associations of new taxes force
themselves upon the people's mind under such circum-
stances, which by no means add to the comfort of their
fireside contemplations. Measures hays been adopted
very promptly indeed by Mr. Clay to show that he has no
beliet in the blessings of the sub-treasury scheme and
empty coffers, for he has already given notice in the Senate
of his intention to introduce a bill for its immediate repeal.
Mr. Van Buren, however, meets all such hostile demon-
strations towards his official policy as the emanations of po-
litical excitement, which have misled the people for a
time, but which will not long maintain their decep-
tive influence. After briefly retracing the chief measures
of his Government, from which he maintains that much
benefit has been conferred upon the people of America,
he consoles himself with the expectation that they must, is
the long run, receive the reward due to merit; that they
" will receive the final sanction of a people whose un-
biassed and fairly elicited judgment upon public affairs is
never ultimately wrong." Mr. Van Buren assumes, as the
ground of his enmity to the establishment of a national
bank, that it has been " repudiated by the framers of the
constitution as incompatible with the rights of the States
and the liberties of the people." There is a party in the
United States who sue opposed to a national bank, upon
the ground that the power to establish it was not conferred
upon the Federal Government by the Constitution ;
and it is acknowledged that every power not abso•
lutely conveyed by that instrument to the gene-
ral Government was reserved by the States and
the people. But the Harrison party, we believe,
take a different view of the question, because, by the
constitution, " the right to coin money, and to regulate
the value thereof" is specially conveyed to the Federal Go-
vernment ; and they construe this to be a couveyance of
the power necessary to use the proper instrument for re.
gulating the money which they are authorised to coin.
They sty, for instance, that if power be given to the Go-
vernment to maintain a navy, it necessarily confer, the
right to.build ships ; and so the right to coin money neces-
sarily conveys the right to construct the machine, and use
the means requisite to give it circulation and vitality.
They recognise no difference between the right to coin
money and to issue paper currency ; specie, and convertible
paper issued as its representative, they look upon as one
and the same thing, and that the greater power conferred
necessarily includes the less. The Van Buren party apply
a much narrower meaning to the words used, and deny
that, in the strict and literal sense, they are sufficient to
carry out the right of founding a national bank of
issue. Mr. Van Buren states also that the framers
of the Constitution held thelsame opinions. Some of them,
perhaps, may have done so ; but others, and, we should say,
the majority of them, did not ; for many of them, we hear,
took part in the debates which preceded, and supported
the former charter granted to the Bank of the United
States, under which it existed for years as a national in-
stitution. Parliamentary precedent, we suppose, has not
much weight in the United States, otherwise Mr. Van Bu-
ren would not have made a statement in his speech so dia-
metrically opposed to it. We cordially agree with Mr.
Van Buren in his denunciation of a large public debt as
being the cause of increased expenditure, and of leading
to a system of oppressive taxation. His sentiments on that
head will find general acceptation among the people
of this country, who must appreciate the truth of
them but too strongly and too well from the test of
dire experience. We cannot, however, perceive how an
empty treasury is to be the best safeguard against such
evils, or that an overflowing one would be likely to accele-
rate their occurrence. If Mr. Van Buren be correct in
taking merit for having devised a system of financial go-
vernment " not subject to be again overthrown by the
suspension of banks, or the explosions of a bloated credit
system," we should fully agree with him in believing that
the overthrow of his administration was the result of tern.
porary error on the part of the people, from which they
would ultimately recover; but we should rather apprehend
that his system, if persevered in, would produce an oppo-
site result ; that it would starve the public treasury, and
leave the monetary system of the country without any
efficient governing influence or regulating control, to
be again visited with convulsions, the victim of new
contractions and expansions, the tricks of empyrica, fresh
panics, and wide-spread distress. The Americans have
now a splendid field before them—a noble opportunity of
regaining their national credit. We trust they will use it
firmly and prudently, taking care to avoid the dangi rous
mistake of again rushing into gigantic schemes of specu-
lation, over trading, and internal improvements. The ac-
counts received seem to place the resumption of specie
payments this month beyond all doubt ; and that is a great
step gained towards a return to a better system. No
change is reported in business matters since the last ar-
rivul. Exchange on London was 81 to 9 prem. United
States Bank Shares. 651 to 66.

TIME S.—The financial portion of the American.
President's message has naturally been referred to with
a good deal of interest in the city. Notwithstanding
his approaching retirement from office, not the e'.ightest
wavering is to be detected in the principles by which his
financial policy has been uniformly regulated, and but for
that circumstance, our capitalists might have come at once
to the conclusion that neither the creation of a national
debt, nor the establishment of a national bank, can here-
after take place in the United States. That the policy of
General Harrison, who will succeed to office in March
next, is opposed to that of Mr. Van Buren, is well
known, more particularly as regards the formation
of a national batik ; but it seems to be an opinim
pretty currently entertained here, that a few mouths
longer may so tend to consolidetas the sub-treasury system,
by which the Government is enabled to dispense with a
bank altogether, and to reconcile the people to its opera-
tion, that the Harrison party, with all their predilection
for a national bank, will find it difficult to carry it into
operation. Mr. Van Buren's account of the siteation in
which the Government was placed by the failure of the
banks in 1837 is thought by many persons here to de
simple, clear, and convincing, and to afford a
justification for all the subsequent proceedings of the
Treasury. It has fully exposed also the unfairness
of some of those attacks upon the Government
during the first attempts to act for itself, when some
creation of debt was inevitable ; in the course of
which attacks the essential fact was usually kept out
of sight, that the deposit banks, at the time of the
general stoppage, held Government money to the amount
of about $23,000,000, which was locked up and became
inaccessible by the failure. That the Government ahottld
have made its way so well as it has done, under so entire a
suspension of its resources, is the real matter of wonder,
and very much to its credit. The statements in the jour-
nals that his return is a false one remains yet to be proved.
There are many persons here whose interee is it would
suit to see a national debt recommenced in the United
States, and, above all, to find the reconstruction of a na-
tional bank sanctioned by Congress ; but much praise is
given to him, nevertheless, for the consistency of bis
principles, and his perseverance in them ; nor has the pas-
sage in the speech been overlooked, in which ho describes
the degradation and insult to which every country is sub-
ject which consents to borrow money from foreigners.
Mr. Van Buren, it is observed, touches very lightly on
the debts of the separate States, which did not lie within
his province, but his remarks on the fatal consequences and
degradation of borrowing money abroad apply equally to
them, Qf course the subject of the adoption of such
state debts by the general Government is not even adverted
to, and it appears, in feet, that no party was ever formed
in Congress, possessed of the least influence, for the sup-
port of such a measure,

Altogether it may be inferred that the great struggle for
the ascendancy: of the banking interest, though notices
have been given to bring it early forward, will be suspended
until General Harrison comes into power. Mr. Van
Buren anticipates at least the possibility of its success, but
he predicts at the same time, in that case the return of
all that overtrading and excitement by which the country
has suffered for the last three years, and from the conse-
quences of which it is just beginning, in his opinion, to
recover. _ _

The report of the Secretary of the Treasury, which
has likewise been received, shows in greater detail the
financial condition of the United States. The aggregate
ordinary receipts for the year 1840 are sat down fit
$17,197,763, and those from additional sourceg—i.iz. tl 73
receipts of principal and intereit out of what was due from
former deposit banks, but not available till January, 1840,
the receipts from the fourth bond of the " United States