The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-29 00:00:00

THE SUN,

LONDON, R I
RETROSPECT OF 1711PORTAN T
i
EVENTS DURING THE LA gT TWO YEARS.
(FROM A CORRESPON big NT.)
In continuation of the retrospe et inserted in The
Sun on the 19th, I send you the • letter which was
transmitted to Lord John Russel 1, Sir Robert Peel,
and others, about the 27th Dec., 18 45.
The letter, I am informed, is as I 011ows:
" There never was a time when the prosperity or
adversity of the community dept ided so much on
legislation as at the present. As : soon as the mer-
chants importing corn cause an e: cl )ort of bullion to
pay for it, the Bank of England raises the rate of
at re'icy. This di-
e 1s the demand for
idniisociosuhnest,
tarnadde,diamnidnisthheesrehtyhelescs
ts
corn, agricultural produce, manuf 'a, etures, and every-
thing else. The banks thereby h sen the demand for
corn, and stop the export of bul tic n. If the Bank
was to allow the bullion to be ex' zao rted to a consider-
able extent, it would be obliged t,o stop payment, as
it did in the last century, and th ie disastrous conse-
quences that would follow to the 'hole community it
is quite impossible to estimate.
circulation in Ire-
land "Theis
generallyquantity offo
ur bank
or- n
five
s
Britain it is usually about thirty or forty millions.
The quantity of gold that circuit sin Great Britain
is certainly more than eight titer, es the quantity that
circulates in Ireland. What is th te cause of this great
difference ? The cottages occupi
.ed by labourers and
artizans in England are at least o: F eight times the
value of those in Ireland. Tilt! furniture in the
English cottages is more than ei g ht times the value
of the furniture in the Irish cotta .g es. The houses on
building leases and the mansions v a England are at
least eight times as valuable as &los ein Ireland. The
furniture in them is in the sa vu I proportion. The
machinery, the improved harbour S ;, the floating docks,
the canals, and the railroads, a- cc 3 all of eight times
more value in England than in I rt gland. The durable
transferable property in England produced by the in-
dustry
tof its
rend.
,
inhabitantsla is at let tst. of eight times the
value
loifs obvtllati in
obvious that so much transferrable property
floating among the community must keep in circula-
,
tion a corresponding quantity of gi )Id and bank-notes,
or it must fall in value below th price in other coun-
tries, and this appears to me to be the chief reasor,
why there is more gold and no tes;; circulating in Eng-
land than in Ireland or any other country.
"It is further obvious that th e more this durable,
transferable wealth is increased, tl se greater quantity
of gold and notes it will keep in circulation. Within
the last fifteen years, nearly 1 0'0,000,000/. sterling
has been added to the permanent: -wealth of this king-
dom in railroads. It is propose 'd to increase the
wealth of the nation about 80,0 00,0001. more by the
railroad Acts passed last sessie and there are 600
plans for railroads deposited wit h the Board of Trade,
in order to obtain Acts next session. As this in-
creased wealth will materially i, acrease the circulation
of gold and notes, which also increase the price of
and demand for corn, and all o they man'afactures—as
it will increase the rent of land. and increase the re-
venue, it is highly important that nothing should be
done to prevent it.
" The increase of the wealth of the nation in rail-
roads and other durable prop( ?rty is in danger of
being impeded (and probably will be impeded) by
excessive importations of corn, ,and the consequent
export of gold to pay for it, and by the export of gold
to pay for the construction of :railways in foreign '
countries.
"The natural course of coming events may at pre.
sent be stated as follows :—First, an unprecedented
demand for labour in the manufacture of iron, rail-
roads, and railroad machinery. This will enable
millions to procure an ample supply of brea,a wto
'
have been obliged to live on scanty meals of inread or
potatoes. This will produce an unprece,tented de-
an unpre-
To
mand for foreign corn, which will occasir,n
c exporte den t eodf
goldexpor export
the
ef
banksgold to
mustpay
limit'
ri
thet. a
stop the
and refuse to make advances, and
',ltise currency,
discounts to a
tmouhcrhinggrtehaetegroledxtheanetkthtahne ever It did before;; and
n.eArreney must be dimi-
o t in mohe e.r
Hessen the value of all the
pyg This will,p ,
to an enormous amount ;
h
4e industrious classes out of
employmentr ri sl eed r still t r
kind
lo
thousands at present in comfort-
able circumstances,
tow thousands
;hring oft , t
to absolute want; ruin bankers,
merchants, anrA railroad shareholders ; impoverish
landlord arid tenant; and make a considerable dimi-
nution of the revenue.
"To avert these evils, I propose that two Acts
s'aall be passed, of which I send you outlines
" The First. An Act to allow corn to be imported
at a moderate duty (or duty free), and
pre-
vent gold being exported to pay for it. to "
Second. An Act to prevent gold being exported
'by cpeculators in foreign railways and foreign
lotteries.
"If these two Acts are passe' an increase in the
revenue, rents, the profits of business, and the value
of property generally may re:tsonably be expected for
several years."

(To BE E'JNTINUED.)
* Oct. 1, 1847.—The 7.-ciank refused to make advances
on Exchequer bills for the first time.

THE APPALLING SUICIDE IN
ST. PAUL'S CATHEDRAL.
ANOTHER ACCOUNT.—Yesterday morning, about
half-past one o'clock, a most determined case of self-
destruction was committed in St. Paul's Cathedral
by Mr. W. Davison, a solicitor, of Bread-street,
Cheapside, and 21, Bloornsbury-square. The un-
fortunate gentleman was well known in the City, and
was for a period of thirteen years one of the members
of the Common Council for Bread-street Ward. Of
late a decided change in his manners had been noticed
by his friends, and they were all of opinion that his
mind had, from some cause, been slightly impaired,
but no one ever imagined that he contemplated self-
destruction. Yesterday morning he left his private
residence at the usual hour, and, it is believed, went
to the Exchange to transact some private business.
From there, it appears, he went to St. Paul's Ca-
thedral, paid the admission money to enter the whis-
pering gallery, and shortly afterwards Thompson,
who has charge of the gallery, noticed the un-
fortunate gentleman climb over the railings that
surround the gallery, and deliberately throw himself
over. He fell with a crash that completely echoed
through the building. Several persons immediately
went to his assistance, when they found him nearly
lifeless. Without delay they removed him to St.
Bartholomew's Hospital, but he expired on the road
thither. The surgeons, upon making an examina-
tion, found that the right leg was fractured, the ribs
forced in, the lower jaw shattered, and the teeth
knocked out. The height the deceased fell it is
understood was upwards of one hundred and thirty
feet. Upon searching the unfortunate deceased a Si.
Bank of England note, 51. in gold, and 18s. in silver,
were found in his pockets, and also a number of bank
bills and other documents. He had also a gold watch
and a bunch of keys in his possession. The ring
which held the keys together was broken into half a
dozen pieces by the force of the fall. One of the
vergers was sent to his friends to inform them of the
melancholy event.

- -
DARTMOOR CONSOLS MINING COMPANY.—Yester-
day a meeting of this company was held at the office, in
Lombard-street, City; Edward Holmes, Esq., in the
chair, for the purpose of receiving the report of Cap-
tains Spargo and Gregory on the state of the mine. It
appeared from this that they had cleared and secured
Two Brothers adit, which is upwards of 300 fathoms in
length, cellared and secured the necessary shafts, and
done other important works. They had also sunk six
fathoms of Henry's shaft, which had gone down between
two rich branches of tin. The cost to the end of October
was 6301., and the liabilities for other works would amount
to 250/. It was thought that 2,0001. would be sufficient
to erect all necessary machinery, and bring tin in the
market. They concluded by stating that the mine was
well worthy of notice, and would ultimately amply
reward the adventurers for their outlay. After the re-
port was read the meeting was adjourned for a fortnight,
to take place at Coggleshall, in Essex ; in the mean-
time a deputation would visit the mine in Cornwall, and
report to the next meeting.
DEATH OF THE MURDERESS OF HER FOUR CHIL-
DREN AT BIRMINGRASI.—Yesterday (Thursday) morn-
ing Ann Wilkes, who murdered her four children on
Saturday morning, and then cut her throat, expired at the
Queen's Hospital. She was quite conscious of the
dreadful situation in which she had placed herself, and
made full confession of her guilt and the mode in which
she perpetrated the murder. The unfortunate children
were
com p
aburiedt i
tnh
et hi
re aa afternoong aptl
aSe te.
bPyltai 1 lei
rp' sov
db
ofe i ping
aanc-
y
thousand persons. _ _

MELANCHOLY ACCIDENT.—On Saturday evening
Mr. Wilson, dentist, Young-street, Edinburgh, lost his
life under circumstances of a most affecting kind. It
appears he had gone to Trinity to visit a patient, and
having done so, he proceeded to the railway station
there, along with Dr. Scott, to return to Edinburgh by
the seven o'clock train. The train not having arrived
Mr. Wilson, it appears, had diverted himself by inspect-
ing the accommodation at the station, and in doing so
he opened a door which leads from the check office to a
coal-cellar on the ground floor by a curved stone stair
which commences at the threshold of the door. Never
imagining that there would be any such descent, but
that the door opened to a room with a floor quite level
to that of the office, and it being dark, Mr. Wilson
stepped forward, and immediately he slipped down, fall-
ing on his back on the stair. On Bing taken up, it was
found that his spinal cord had been ruptured, which
caused paralysis of the extremities. He was taken
home, and attended by Dr. Scott and Dr. llandyside,
but all their skill proved unavailing, the unfortunate
gentleman expired at two o'clock on Sunday morning.
What renders the case peculiarly melancholy is, that
his wife died about six weeks ago, leaving eight chil-
dren, the youngest of whom is only three years of
age, who are thus loft to mourn over those sad be-
reavements.

IMPORTATION or GuANo.—A vessel arrived from
Calao, at the port of Liverpool, has brought an entire
conL.lsti::g 6; 1,400 tots weight of guanc. This is
one of the largest importations which has taken place of
this newly-discovered article of manure.