The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-14 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUL Y 14, 1841.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS

in the. Mediterranean,' New Brunswick, the Cape of Good
Hope, Van Diemen's Land, and Ceylon ; and, after these
sees shall . have been provided for, to carry out the same
gooi.,rvork in Sierra Leone, British Guiana, South Aus-
tralis', Port Philip, Western Australia, and Northern and
Southern India. We do not hesitate to say, that the assem-
bling of this synod (for we can call it by no other name) is the
meet important event in the history of the Church of England
which has happened since the time when her convocation was
put to silence for vindicating her creed in the memorable ease
of Bishop Hoadley. Ever since then the govetnment of the
Church has been virtually in abeyance, and she seemed te
have lost the rower of acting unitedly according to her proper
organization. Swarms of societies usurping her name and
office, though but little
_influenced by her principles, have
stepped in to fill up the place; which her inaction left void. We
honour the intentions of those who were instrumental in the
formation and iaiaintenance of these societies, and, of course
we are far from denying that they have been the means of az
complishing much .geod, which might otherwise have been left
undone. But we believe that they hare also unintentionally
d, tie some evil ; that many of them have introduced new tests
and standards of dnctrine, either at variance with those of
the Church, or, at all events, not of her imposing : that
few of them hare kept ecclesiastical order in view,
and that the majority have regarded immediate and specific,
rather than general and permanent results. There has been
natinity of plan, no concentration of energies, no adequate and
comprehensive notion of good to be attained and evil to be
avoided. Each society has acted_in its own petty sphere, ter-
minating its views within itself, not co-rperating (for the most
part) with others, but rather discovering a dislike and jealousy
of competition in the same field of labour. They have acknow-
ledged no responsibility to any common ecclesiastical authority,
aid have admitted"no control on the part of the rulers of the
Church over their' operations. The consequences have been
a large amount of canfu,ion, a conside: able addition to the ele-
ments of discord within the Church at home, an unjustifiable
and mischievous interference with foreign churches not subject
to our jurisdiction, a great degree of perplexity, distraction,
and discouragement to the re:igke.sly disposed public, whose
caitributions have been demanded cn every side by a Babel of
unauthenticated appeals, and an expenditure of vast sums of
money vtithout any proportionate results in the proper fields
of missionary exertion.

MONEY MA11;104'437. and CITY NEWS.
FROM THE MORNING PAYERS OF THIS DAY.

E.S.— The premium on gold at Paris is 74 per male, which,
at the English Mint pride of 3/. 17s. 14*. per ounce for standard
gold, gives an exchange of 25. 34, and the exchange at
Paris on London at short being 25. 45, it follows that gold
is 0.44 per cent. dearer in London than in Paris.
By advices from Hamburgh the price of gold is 429 per
mark, which, at the English Mint price of 31. 17s. 101,id. per
ounce for standard gold, gives an exchange of 13. 7, and the
exchange at Hamburgh on London at short being 13. 7rl, it
follows that gold is 0.40 per cent. dearer in London than in
Hamburgh. . _

The course of exchange at New York on London is 1083
per cent., and the par of exchange between England ano
America being 109 23-40 per cent., it follows that the ex-
change is 0.82 per cent. against England. But the quoted
exchange at New York being for bills at 60 days' sight, the
interest must be deducted from the above difference.

HERALD.—The belief is gaining ground in the United
States that the project presented by the Secretary of the
Treasury for the creation of what is loosely termed a Fiscal
- Agent of the United States, but which in reality means a Na-
tional Bank, will be affirmed by Congress with certain modifi-
cations during the present extra session, and become law,
therefore, unless objected against by the President. On the
21st Mr. Clay brought up the Report of the Select
Committee on the:. currency appointed to consider the plan
and details, and did not hesitate at the outset to designate
it by its proper name as a "bank of the United States."
which " a sound and just policy requires the -establishment
of with as little delay as practicable." The Committee
report strongly in favour of such a bank, but suggest
various modifications of the original scheme. For in-
stance the maximum of dividend to be allowed the stock-
holders is raised from 6 to 7 per cent., which after all will be
no great temptation for the investments of foreign capitalists,
fur although the higher rate is to be legalised, yet the profits
n-ay not be such as to allow it to be divided, whilst in some of
the older countries of Europe where money is most abundant
securities not Jess solid are to be found where nearly as great a
return may be steadily and annually realised. It is scarcely
possible that the capital of such a bank can be established by
the subscriptions of shareholders in the United States alone,
that is, if the condition, and an indispensable first condition it
should be, were that the shares subscribed should all be paid up
in specie. If permitted to be paid up in the paper of state and
other banks, or in United States treasury or other bonds, the
present vicious state of the currency would be very little im-
proved by the bank. Again the extreme rate of legalized divi-
dend must be a less allurement still to capitalists in a coun-
try like the United States, where tl.e rases of interest
ruling on money are never less than 6, but ranging variously
and often from and between that point up to 25 and even 30
per cent. per annum. Another important modification sug-
gested by the Committee or Mr. Clay consists in permitting the
Bank to deal in foreign exchanges, that is, to buy and sell fo-
reign bills of exchange. and give foreign credits, &c., which
seems a very questionable sort of interference with what should
represent as c!osely as possible a branch of regular trading ope-
rations. With a powerful competing Bank ever in the field
against him the merchant will seldom be able to calculate with
any precision the result of his combinations, however prudently
they may be planned. The differences realized by exchanges
favourable or the reverse, frequently constitute the sole
profit upon a mercantile operation. Another modifica-
tion of the original draft of the scheme consists in, ac •
cording to the Bank, an indefinite power to establish
branches in the various States of the Union. Doubts
are entertained in some quarters whether this may
not be viewed among the states themselves as an . invasion of
states' rights, end resisted accordingly. There are otherwissa
considerable number of stringent provisions for controlling the
action and management of the proposed bank, the principal
seat of which is to be located at Washington, so as to bring it
more under the general supervision of the Government.
One of the reasons urged for the establishment of the bank is
fairly stated to be the counteraction " of the influence exerted
by the Bank of England upon American interests," atkc. In
pursuance of another recommendation of the Secretary of the
Treasury, a bill to authorise a loan fur 12,000,000 of dollars
had been reportertio the House of Representatives, and it was
expected would pass. The object, as stated on a former occa-
sion, is to provide for the deficit in the treasury, anti withdraw
a portion, or the whole, of the floating debt, or treasury bills,
from circulation.

POST.—The fall of Spanish stock to a price one-fifth below
the amount of the interest in arrear is a circumstance that the
holders profess not to be able to comprehend. They surely
cannot forget that supplies of ready money have been repeatedly
drawn by Spain from this and the Continental market, through
the issue of newly-created bonds, convected from masses of
what is called " ancient stock," lodged years back in the hands
of capitalists as security for petty advances. Such deposits,
although no more than perhaps 31. or 41. per cent. was given
upon them, being redeemed, have been put into circulation in
their converted form at the price of the day. No market can
withstand such a system, and the present weakness of the fo•
reign funds being otherwise unintedigble, it is but rational to
coneldde that capital is once more absorbed upon the old prin-
ciple. The Committee of the Stock Exchange offer no impe-
diment to such operations, for the obvious, though very unsa-
tisfactory, reason, that their body live by the fluctuations caused
by trickery and fraud. The Spaniards had never the shadow
of a justification to urge for the issue of Active and Passive
Bonds privately against those put out under an open contract,
materially underselling the legitimate subscribers; nor had
they any right whatever to make purchases of Deferred, or, in
fact, to traffic in either class of bonds during a suspension of
dividends. A practice more undermining and fatal to the
bondholders could not be conceived ; but those reports to which
we have often referred show the enormous extent to which it
was carried, up to the time of their publication in 1837.
SUN.—There was. a good deal of business doing in the
Funds to-day ; but although in the early part of the day
prices receded a trifle, purchases could not subnopoitly
be made at the decline. Consols were ”i). to IN for
Money, and 898 to 29i- for the Acconnt,' 44chequer
Bills .realized 17s, to Us, premium,. liallk Stock vas
firm at 169 k to 170 ; East India Stook WAS at 1148 to 249,
the Reduced Three-and-a-Half per Cents. 99k to i• ; the
New Three-and-a-Half per Cents. 988 to ; and the
Reduced Three per Cents. 90 to 89t,
We heard of one sale, for. 20,0001, ltl Sprtnish Stock,
which dropped from 20i to 99.6 I, but rallied before
the close of business to 20:i to k ; Portuguese New Five
per Cents. were 30 to 29k, a fiat of k per cent., and the
Three per cents. were not higher than 18 ; Colombian
Bonds declined to 19 and 181 ;. and Mexicitp to 2 and
25 ; Chilian were steady at 61 I PLIiO4
per Cents. went down to 401 to i, and Austrian were
supported at 108--.
'The Railway Shares continue to slide down gradually.
Great Western suffer snore than any other line, on ac•
count of the unfavourable rumours respecting ik decline
in its traffic, and which it is believed may have caused
the non-publication of the usual returns at the close of
last week. The Old Shares were done at 18 to 17, the
New at 7+ to 4, and the Fifths, at 41 prem. ; London
and Birmingham Shares brought 69, York and North
Midland 24, and South Western, 16k prent, • Brighton
were 68 to 6 ; Blackwall, 10 ; Croplua, 1 Manchester
and Leeds, 20
London;
rand North
n fiAlt tll a d 84 ; and South Eastern,
Ist diS, Westminster Bank Shares Were
2+ 1 and Provincial of Ireland, 16 premium.
l
.Antwerp, 12 31 4. ;
Hamburgb, 13 10i to rankfort, 150-1 ; and Triestee i—Paris, 25f. 65c.
There was a tendency to improve in the Foreign Ex-
changes this afternoon, and the current rates at which
paper
.; wasne
Amsterdam,o t negotiated
12 4to
ted ereT out:he i
9 57 to 58. •
The following are the official returns of the export of
bullion from the port of London for the week ending
Thursday last :
Silver Coin to llamburgh 35,000 oz.
77 British West Indies 56,000
~ Calais 160,000
Bars to'Hamburgli 2,800
Rotterdam 7,000

L .
• SPORTING IN RUSSIA.— The immense shoals
of salmon which literally swarm in almost all the rivers,
would appear almoSt incredible to those who have not
been eye-witnesses of their numbers. They are to be
found in such countless multitudes that great quantities
Of them are left on dry land by the sudden I.4eQeding of
the waters, where they remain to Tilt i and at certain
periods of the year the rivers seem so perfectly choked
,with them in some places, that they may be. speared or
netted by those who are fond of this sport until it abso-
lutely.beconies wearisome. They not only form one of
the principal articles of the diet of the inhabitants of the
north.of Russia, but likewise,are the only species of food
tglilveepnutrpo theirose
o fdsolgos,g4l‘..hilicli,i4vialith4mAc4tAttitrrtec‘artslioetrpt
prey
—to say entirely subsist upon
tlle gy.egli,nrtinn a the year, and duripx..th. •
rip when they are in the greatest pr0f1.4...-- -
i„,_
is a great amateur of __sin, bruin, who
, __comes so dainty that he will
only ponds.--
• - ~,nu to eat the head and back. His evening
meat consists of those portions of twelve or fifteen fine
salmon. Trout and °they fine,species of fish arc like-
wiseto be found in vast abundance in all the rivers and
lakes.--Sporting Magazine •

MR. PEREGRINE COURTENAY.

Within these two days, a report arrived in
London that the Right Honourable Thomas
Peregrine Courtenay, younger brother of the
Earl of Devon, had met with his death by
drowning, while he bathed at Torquay, which
lies on the sea-coast, about twelve miles distant
from Powderham Castle, the local residence of
the Devon and Courtenay family. The report
proves too true.

Mr. Peregrine Courtenay was the second son
of William Courtenay, Esq., Assistant Clerk of
the Parliaments, and Patentee of the Subpcena-
office, Court of Chancery. His mother was the
Lady Henrietta Leslie, the daughter of Sir
Lucas Pepys, Bart. His brother, William
Reginald Courtenay, married, in 1830, into the
Fortescue family. His sister, Elizabeth, was
formerly Maid of Honour to Queen Charlotte.
Mr. Courtenay himself was for several years
M.P. for Totnes, and was Vice-President of
the Committee for Trade, and a Commissioner of
the Board of Control. He was born May 31,
1782, and on the Oth of April, 1803, married
Anne, daughter of the late Mayow Wynell
Mayow, Esq., by whom he has left a family of
thirteen children (eight sons and five daughters),
all of whom, with his lady, survive their melan-
choly loss.
In 1818, Mr. Peregrine Courtenay first ap-
peared before the world in a literary point of
view by the production of " A Treatise on th(
Poor-laws," published by Mr. Murray. It wa
dedicated to the Hon. Sturges Bourne, and was,
expressive of the writer's repugnance to many of
the measures laid down in the Report of the
then Committee on-the Poor-laws. It was lau-
datory of the moderate reform which Mr. Sturger
Bourne had already commenced in this line, and
was also propositive of certain stronger measures
which, with becoming modesty, the writer advo-
cated.
The pamphlet forms a thick octavo, of up-
wards of 160 pages, and contains a great quantity
of condensed reasoning and cogent argument.
He does not Profess to point out a course of fun-
damental reformation for relieving the country
from the entire burden of the Poors'-rate, or of
correcting those solecisms in political economy
by which it is occasioned, but expresses himself
as believing that, with a nicer adjustment, the
burthen may be made tolerable. He shows that
if the Poor-laWs are necessaey, they are neces-
sary evils that, though the principle is benevo-
lent, it does not generate benevolence in indivi-
duals,—for nothing can be less like charity than
in order by a Justice, or an allowance by an
Iverseer, and that it depends as much upon the
temper of the overseer as upon the spirit of the
pauper, whether the right of relief shall be esta-
blished by audacity or fraud. Much misery, he
declares, is alleviated by the Poor-laws, which
we must not be prepared to disregard, and that
the principle, therefore, of reform should be
that of preserving all we can of the beneficence
of the law, exercising munificence rather than
stint. His treatise must be referred to fur an
adequate conception of its value.
Mr. Courtenay's second literary production
was " A Letter to Lord Grenville, on the Sink-
ing Fund," also published by Murray. It pro-
ceeded from him while he held his respon-
sible office under. Government in 1828, and
expressed only the sentiments of himself as an

individual writer. He entered the field un-
biassed, and totally ignorant of the opinions en-
tertained by the then Cabinet, or the Finance
Minister, on the great qxestion which at that
moment was at issue. In the outset he gives a
full and historical explanation of the system of
finance established by Mr. Pitt, the author of
the Sinking Fund, and pursues Lord Grenville's
argument, point by point. The Letter itself is
dedicated to this N oblernan, and the foundation
on which the true principle of the Sinking Fund
is based, is distinctly stated by Mr. Courtenay to be
" That the Legislature ought not to impose a
perpetual burden upon the resources of the
country." This talented Letter forms an octavo
of nearly 140 pages, and is lucidly and lumin-
ously written.

Most of Mr.' Courtenay's literary productions
bear imprint as coming from Powderham, the
ancient seat of the Courtenay family. The late
lamented gentleman was an ardent and enthusi-
astic lover of literature, and the quietness attend.
ant on its pursuit. Politician though he was,
nothing delighted him more than to emerge out
Of the dusty arena of strife and contention, and
to bury himself in the • classic bowers which
Devon bountifully offered. His virtues fitted
him for the shade. Glare and publicity oppressed
the quiet nature of his spirit, and Powderhain
served as an Elysium to his soul, enfolding him
in the tranquillity of its scenes, and the
repose of its arcades. This lovely spot,
in which he so much 'delighted, is situate
in the manor of Kenton, and-its situation, though
low, is extremely beautiful, upon the banks of ,
the river Exe, Which is a mile-and-a-half broad
at high water, being within three *miles of. its
confluence with the British Channel; the win-
dows of the Castle command a view of Topsham,
and all the shipping that come up there, with
many adjacent seats. The grounds arc extensivt;
the park well-stored with deer, and OW .P.hrah—
bevies and plantations of exoties witli lawns and
. .
pleasure-grounds, occupy 4 grcliturffeflCO of
nearly ten miles, It has 4 full Pommand of the
ocean to the west. .The rugged.brow.of 0.6 an-
cient fortress has been much suicothed and
adorned by modern taste, and furnished in the
most sumptuous manner. It 1111680 mi fine ori-
ginal Vandykes, a-Wilson, and Rubens,
with many eabinPt "Sintings, and a number of
drawings 1,,y 4.41 rd Courtenay.
Within a short distance of this Castle are a
multitude of 604-bathing places, such as Daw-
fish, Exmouth, Teignmouth, and Torquay, which,
on account of their recent origin, present a tine
contrast, says Neale, to the proud and haughty
aspect of Powderham, still glorying in its
strength and antiquity, it was at the last of these
4gpe
hathincr,, al that the lamented subject of this
r
J. 4'
rilolll44lrl M. Courtenay, met with his death.
The third and more important work which
Mr. Courtenay produced to the world, consisted
of his " Memoirs of the Life, Works, and Cor-
respondence of Sir William Temple," published
by Longman, in 1880. This was a work admi-
rably calculated to bring out to advantage the
powers of Mr. Courtenay, and call forth his poli-
tical talent, for Sir William Temple was one
whose diplomacy.mtinental as well as English
politicians have celebrated, and lauded his poli-
tical maxims. Notwithstanding the frequency
and the intensity, as also the singularity of the
commendations bestowed upon Sir William
Temple, his printed.letteri bad before this time
been but imperfeetly.beiore the world, and in a
multitude of oases unpublished; considering him,
therefore, only as a writer, whose elegant and
harmony of language alone was admirtd by all
as a master-piece of style, he assuredly deserved
that his name should he well recorded. What
had been said of him before this time was chiefly to
beifound in Abel Boyer's " French Memoirs," some
papers of Swift, the published letters of Lord
Arlington, and the letters of D'Estrades.. These
were for the most part poor and meagre, and
Mr. Courtenay, pressc4 by. a sense of this, ap-
plied himself to reap, from other and recondite
sources, such biographic or literary treasures as
the kingdom. possessed. Accordingly, we find
that the BaconsufSuffolk, who were supposed
to have some valuable papers in their possession,
were 'applied. to; and from the Rev. John Longe,
Vicar of Coddonham, in that county, Mr. Cour-
tenay obtained courteous permission to examine
these-precious remains. From the -rare 'archives
of the British Museum Mr. Courteuay also
ob-
tained many unpublished parts of Sir William
Temple's diplomatic correspondence, and in the
State Paper-of ee he found a great deal that had
never been published; indeed, from these last
he confessed himself to have derived many of his
most curious particulars, that had hitherto been
totally neglected. The Ormond papers, collected ;
'
by Carte, in the Bodlciala Library, also afforded
qh‘e ventiquarian
l as also to
m
him much assistance. In his researches, too,
upon this history, .he was further indebted t9t9:Mr.Smith, the Duke of Buckingham's libmilan,
who furnished him with transcripts of the Essex
papers
ito thei the MS. library
treasurernbra A' yat
L 5
Society; Dr. Sadleir,i of Dublin, and several
members of the Athensaum Club, who, in the
end,
as lie pleasantly- expresses-himself, taught
t
him i; the superiority of literature to politics for
developing the kindlier feelings,
and conducing
to an agree Able--
ark indeed made by Mr. Cour-
• rem 9
tenay, shows the placid disposition of his minoi
his
1 •work,spite '2.
but, truth to say,
tion, is leavened with politics In a far greater
degree than perhaps even he desired to suppose.
In fact, it is the only drawback on his book. He
introduces the politics of the. day, 40 far -as to
indulge in the dramatic license of %Pig up Sir