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

tatiltikt altnt

LONDON, TUESDAY. NOVEMBER 16, 1847.

The National Anti-Gold.law League held their
sixth public meeting
by day
evening. While numerous
plans are
day ynt da'yput forward, advocating a
variety
of views,ddifferent any of which would be
more advantageous to the
thecountry than the present
of
system, the originators
League and its chief
orators are steadily adhering to
the
principles pro-
mulgated on the formation of
gaining new converts to their doctrineste association, and
and additional
strength to their body. The quantity of informa-
tiont
afforded at each meeting—the clear and satisfac-
tory explanations on every point of controversy
the sound arguments adduced, are forcing
conviction
upon upon every unprejudiced and disinterested eti°n
son. To those gentlemen who have devotedpr.
thernselves to the task of enlightening the public
mind on this by far thr most important question 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
problem, a deep debt of gratitude is due for the
zeal azid energy they have displayed and are display.
ing. Now, they have to encounter the obloquy, the
sneers, and the ridicule which are substituted for
argument in the early stages of a controversy. Per-
sons, Vacs are unable to refute the reasons they bring
f
rwardt, will endeavour to pooh-pooh the question, as
if the •
is cent was absolutely too plain for discussion—
One which any child or old woman could understand
as fully as those intelligent men who have laboriously
ocsupleithemselvestberweoen. Hereafter, when it has be-
come more, fashionable,hnuouty influential men have
recorded tjieir t
opinions as 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-bullionists 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 be 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 done, 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 he
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 com-
mand 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 Chapultepec
thirty soldiers were hung in front of the American
forces. The cruelties perpetrated by 11En NAN CORTEZ,
on his first expedition into Mexico, Inve been sur-
passed in barbarity and heartlessness, by the heroic
commanders of the Model Republic.. If despotism
can be symbolized by a knce, Ains-?rican republi•
canism may be henceforth represented by a gallows,
and this from the same spirit of ltisi.orie heraldry
which would indicate French repvll icanism by a
guillotine. Never, we undertake to aver most dis-
tinctly, never has national reputation been so dis-
graced, not even by the ineendiarisms of the bocage
or the noyadcs of Nantes—not b, 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 exa gp,erated 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 ft lexico, in ac-
cordance with the directions of the War Department
of Washington, have been remarkable for their in-
congruous character. Such was inevi table. The
comparative youth of the United States as an inde-
pendent power, and the comparative su dd.enness of this
unprincipled aggression upon the neig hi bouring terri-
tories, rendered it impossible that tb 3 army dis-
patched upon the expedition should be o therwise than
singularly heterogeneous. All classes., all nations,
all religions, added their quota to the en listment, 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 lara 'e numbers of
mercenaries and adventurers. Among such very
doubtful additions to the American for ..;es were bri-
gades like the handful of Irish soldiers commanded
by -Major RILEY, and who deserte d at dirre-
rent times from the flag of the United
States to • serve under that of B 1 exico. On
the occasion of the hand-to-hand encounters
which preceded the entrance of Genera 1 SCOTT into
the capital of the invaded territories, tt ,ese unfortu-
nate wretches were captured by thei r victorious
assailants, and brought to trial in sepa rate batches
for the crime of desertion. That militaa 7 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 rece gnised and
universally accepted. That we a ':knowledge
with the utmost distinctness; but it must
be remembered, at the same morrient, that
a natural distinction has been irtvarfiably made
between the desertion of native soldiers and that of
mere mercenaries; and it must he especb .ily remem-
bered that even in cases where the culprit s have been
proved most culpable, their sentence hat; been pro-
nounced with a calmness befitting the majesty of
justice, and their punishment inflicted ',without any
violation of the decenciesof
humanity.
or of
.;tinheent
a noblestnd
dictates and impulses
instance the manner ohouftn7k-tY' In, the present
h
execution was directly the rverse, judgment
was hurried, precipitate, and in/. s
cot ous. The
execution was characterized by t 1 te utmost
refinement of cruelty and by a fiendish prO longation at
once of the ecstacies of revenge and the agonies of
despair. Although sixteen deserters We 7e hung on
the 9th ultimo at San Angel, and four more
on the following morning at Mixcoac, tt thirst for
the
United on the part of the commar der s of
United States was unslaked. The cribe to which

we would especially direct attention was reserved for
a more remarkable opportunity ; it was to consecrate
a victory, and to associate with the glory of their
regiments the g,L om of their tribunals. It was
not enough that a dozen men, who could
not have been formally convicted, were subjected
to the degrading chastisement of the lash; it was
not enough that the letter " D " was branded upon
each man's cheek ; it was not enough that RILEY
had writhed under a whip of raw hide, wielded by a
Mexican muleteer; the consummation of these
cruelties was delayed until the 13th ultimo, when
a deed was to be performed before which the ruth-
less heart of the most sanguinary dictator might have
quailed. On that day, thirty of these Irish deserters
were brought out in a body at Mixcoac. They were
pinioned ; ropes were about their necks, and they
stood each man under a gallows. It was a moment
when the most pitiless might have refrained from
enhancing their anguish; it was one of those mo-
ments when the most dastardly ruffian finds his
evil passions relenting, and when the stoicism
of the hangman himself has been known
to soften. For nearly two hours Death
stared those thirty men in the face—during that hor-
rible interval they remained each one with the halter
round his neck, and the beams of the gibbet over his
head, shuddering on the verge of the grave, drinking
from the bitter chalice of dissolution slowly to the
last drop of its dregs of agony. For these protracted
and unparalleled torments, the thirty deserters were
indebted to a Colonel of the United States army, who
had pointed to the neighbouring battlements of
Chapultepec, and declared to these doomed men that
the signal of their execution should be the capture of
that stronghold, and the appearance upon its walls
of the banners of the American Republic. When at
last the stars and stripes rose triumphantly above the
stones of Chapultepec, these thirty men " were all
swung off together." The name of this colonel was
HARNE T.

Of all the atrocitia ever perpetrated in warfare, not
one is recorded more cool, deliberate, and devilish in
its cruelty. It is a fitting illustration of the sentiments
of rapine and injustice in which this Mexican invasion
has originated. It is a testimony, moreover, that the
Americans have received a terrible reception from
their opponents, for it is among the most famous re-
marks of the most wonderful soldier who ever trod
the earth, that whenever an army is ruthless in vic-
tory, be sure it has very narrowly escaped defeat !

,
...4" -,llitt e • Ac, t ),,,,,,,it '
• ' a
.i: _
__.,_,..,•-•4 Z • , .
\"*. ,A
-; ,- 0 i ,tt , .. ..... , -,,
. i
l'rii'i t-
..,..
.:, -
't......r.... , . ! • '4l' -m. G '