The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-27 00:00:00

%T o. 17,190.] LONDON WE _iNESDAILT r f
„
E ,
13.
OCTOBER 27) '1847.

PRESS.—WANTED, at CHRISTMAS
A_ _NEXT, by the Proprietor of a Provincial Journal in the
Midland Counties, a Person as EDITOR and REPORTER. The
most respectable references will be required. A share may be had
in the business.
Apply, G. C. L., Courier-office, Leamington, Warwickshire.

MPLOYME NT FOR SPARE TIME.
The EAST INDIA TEA COMPANY appoint AGENTS in
Towns and Villages. Persons, whether shopkeepers or not, provided
they are respectably connected, are accepted. The Company's ar-
rangements do not require the Agent to find capital, and their Teas
being all in packages, and the price marked on each, no trouble is
occasioned in the sale. Many persons make a handsome addition
to their income by this Agency, and without the slightest risk of loss.
Ofilees, \0.9, Great St. llclen's Churchyard, Bishopsgate• street, City,

SILVER TEA SERVICES OF NEW PATTERNS.
A• B. SAVORY and SONS, Working
Silversmiths, 14, Cornkill, London, opposite the Bank,
respectfully inform their customers that they have recently finished
a few new designs, in accordance with the present improved taste,
and tint they are sold at reduced prices from those customary in
the trade.
Uxbridge Pattern. Thalia Pattern.
Strong Silver Tea Pot.. £lO 18 0 Strong Silver Tea Pot. £l3 0 0
Ditto Sugar Basin.. • • 614 0 Ditto Sugar Basin.... 711 0
Ditto Cream Jug ••• • • • 410 6 Ditto Cream Ewer.. • • 5 2 0
Ditto Coffee Pot. ••• .. 14 10 0 Ditto Coffee r0t.... •• 16 17 0

Complete •• • • ••£36 12 61 Complete ...... • .£42 10 0
A variety of upwards of Fifty Silver Tea and Coffee Services may
be seen li the Show-rooms, and on application the illustrated Price
Current, containing drawings, with the weights and price of recent
designs, will be forwarded to any part of Great Britain, Ireland,
India, or the colonies. Drawback on gilver Plate exported Is. 6d.
per ounce.

11.11 OYAL POLYTECHNIC IN; STIITTuURETI.,O4Nthe,
ii.l/41, The Last Week of the LECTURES on C (IA RACTER, wi.th
Musical illustrations, by Mr. J. RUSSELL, eaei Evening, at
Eight o'clock, except Monday and Saturday. A LEC
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES of a JET of STEA3 I, ;in refere „o to
VENTILATION, &c., with Novel and Interesting EA perino, 4w., by
Dr. BACIIHOFFNER, daily at Half-past Thre.). CH EMICAL
LECTURES. The ELECTRIC TELEGRAPHS vrorKed‘ The
WORKING MODEL%, explained daily. The bear etitul O'''PTICAL
E EFECPS include an entirely New Series of DISSOL VING- VIEWS,
DIVING BELL end DIVER, with HYDE'S NEW APPARATUS
for CONVERSING with PERSONS under WATER, zko,
Admission, Is. ; Schools, Half-price.

=.~

[ADVERTISEMENT.] —One of the greatest impositions
practised at the present day by shopkeepers, not only in
London, but in every city and town throughout the
Kingdom, is that of forging the property of another, and
imposing on the public the counterfeit article with all
the assurance of innocence.—We allude in the present
instance to those admirable requisites for the toilet, the
Macassar Oil, Kalydor, and Odonto, as prepared by the
Messrs. Rowland, and which, from their merits and re-
putation, are the constant objects of fraudulent imita-
tion, The parties so counterfeiting concoct some trashy
compounds resembling in appearance the preparations
of Messrs. Rowland, and by adopting the very same
names and copying the labels, bills, &c. &c. endeavour to
pass them off as the " GENUINE ;" reckless of the injury
which they will inevitably inflict on those who are de-
ceived into using them. We would therefore advise all
patrons of Messrs. Rowlands' articles, to purchase only
of respectable venders—and particularly to observe the
Caution in their advertisements which frequently appear
in our parer.
ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.—Her Majesty
has sent a fine specimen of South American tapir to the
gardens in the Regent's-park, which she bad already dis-
tinguished by several marks of her favour during the
current year. The animal in question will not be valued
on account of the source from which the Society has
derived it, but also as filling up an important vacancy in
their collection, which, we are informed, has just re-
ceived two other additions of great interest—a group of
the great bustard, and an alligator of unusual dimensions,
SALMON FISHING.—The salmon fishing in the
Tweed closed on Friday last, the 15th of October. From
the quantity of fish sent into the West Riding of York-
shire and to the Glasgow market new markets
opened up in consequence of the opening of the
railways—it is impossible to arrive at anything like
a correct result of the quantity of fish caught during the
season. In general terms, however, it may be stated,
that the season just closed has been more than ordi-
narily unsuccessful—even on a comparison with former
seasons scarcely considerel an average. The prices, in
consequence of the meagre supply in the town, have
never been below 7d. per lb. for grilse, and 81d. to 9d.
per lb. for salmon.—Berwick Warder.
HINTS TO WINE DRINKERS.— On Friday 103
hogsheads of adulterated wine were brought out from
the entrepot at Paris, and their contents spilt into the
Seine. " Immediately after this operation (says an
eye- witness) the surface of the river was covered to the
distance of 200 yards with an innumerable quantity of
fishes, poisoned by the deleterious liquor."—Galignani's
Messenger.
[ADVERTISEMENT.]—CURE OF A CANCER OF THREE
YEARS' STANDING BY HOLLOWAY'S OINTMENT AND PILLS.—M,Tg.
Raging of Armagh, had a caacer on her lip for three years, wit
the first medical men in the country could not cure ; at last she
advised to purchase Uolloway's Pills and Ointment, at Mr. Thorn!).
great )
these son's, bookseller, Armagh, which effected a perfect cure. Nool
absecs.es, or had legs even if of several years' tie
st tine
at
edl
dues; b." their ree
of their !nubs, when uregainc cx,
ttrl a
li ce,r,ci itne
Use
of the eve of ‘submitting to amputation at the
hospitals and elsewhere.---Sold by all druggists, and at ProresSor
Holloway's EatibUthineut, 244, strand, London.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS Or THIS DAY.
TIMES.—We shall expose ourselves to no little
derision, but really we feel rather like naughty boys
kept in and tasked, when h holyday is given to the
rest of the school. Nothing can equal the chorus of
jubilation which rises all round us for Monday's de-
liverance. Our Contemporaries vie with one another
,
which shall shout the loudest and throw up his cap
the nearest to the stars, If the " boon" was to be
given, it is a pity it
was not reserved for a royal
birthday, 7,neu it would have come very suitably
in the P
p a.,e of the general gaol delivery that used to
adaJrn such occasions. The pulpits, of course, will
take it up, and cry " Babylon is fallen." A giant
incubus of some sort ofother is removed from the ap-
prehensions ofa considerable portion of society. The
unanimity is wonderful; and, what is more wonderful
there is pretty nearly the same amount of talent
exhibited by parties that have hitherto afforded no
room for comparison on this point. Sentiment levels
all human inequalities. A beggar can share his grief
with a king, and a genius sympathise with a fool.
There is much the same diversity in the persons who
join in the transports of the present occasion. We
never saw wise men so weak, or weak men so witty.
They don't know when to stop, they are all so beside
themselves with joy. " Peel's Bill is knocked on the
head! Hurrah !" and there are before us at least
ten pages of uninterrupted shouting. Of course we
are entirely out of the sport. All we can do is to be
malignant and prophetic, unless when some ancient
bit of wisdom, some homely old fable or proverb,
occurs to our relief. We have derived a little satis-
faction from remembering the tale of the saucy maids
Who wrung off poor Chanticleer's head because
he disturbed their morning's dreams. It is true
we have crowed both early and shrill. Of course we
are a public nuisance, and have been so for some
time. We have not, however, for many a long day
been so unmercifully abused as within the last
twenty-four hours. All this we could stand with
equanimity enough. The worst is, whatever comes
to pass, even if every bit of gold should eventually
depart from the coffers of the Bank, and the rate of
discount rise to 20 per cent., we shall not be allowed
the smallest credit for our present opinions. A dozen

writers will cry out, " Did we not tell you all this ?
We predicted as much." Or there will be the repeal
of the corn-laws on which to lay all the misfortunes
of the country. Disasters are laid upon free trade
just as broken crockery is thrown out of sight into the
first hole that can be found. Whatever the result of

pension of Peel's Bill
last Monday's measure, whatever the disappointment
of Ministers, it will be claimed as a triumph by some of
arethe Pstairllti
satisfaction is—for what ? For an increase
ringinge whose shouts
our
ears.for
Al
the sus
l this immense and un-
boundedof our capital ? For any increase of exports likely
to balance our accounts with our neighbours ?
For the increase or cheapening of the materials of
industry ? Not for one of these things ; not for
any one substantial benefit whatever. There is
nothing whatever to justify this demonstration of
joy and security, except a word a breath of air
—a promise of credit, an exhibition of confidence
by Government. The very persons who have
been trying with all the might of des-
perate stupidity to attach a sobriquet to the
Chancellor of the Exchequer founded on his'
habit of hoping for the best, and who recently
declared that his confidence was of no value, are
now transported beyond the decencies of civilised
delight at a word of encouragement, a pat on the
back from Sir Charles. lie promises credit. That
is enough. The position of the country is not a bit
better to-day than it was on Saturday. There is no
assignable improvement of wealth, condition, powers,
or resources. The only change is this—whereas
nearly the whole nation had been foolishly and im-
morally contracting engagements beyond a safe esti-
mate of its means ; and the only party in the State
which had not so pledged itself beyond its depth was
the Government ; that single exception no longer ex-
ists ; Government has joined the delusion ; Govern-
ment has engaged its credit beyond the safe estimate
of its power, made after much consideration in the
Bank Charter Bill; Government is now in a

position to find itself one day stopping payment,
and completing the list of princely mercantile
houses that have sunk under the storm. A

measure such as that which has just been sus-
pended represents only that moral control which a
strong-minded man will exercise over his runaway,
or, to use the modern term, his " go-ahead" appetites.
A. man with some scruples imposes a law on himself,
a limit beyond which he will not transgress. He is
tempted, excited, bewildered, ashamed. At last he
gives up his principle. lie feels an immediate libera-
tion. He is now at large. He can do as he likes.
lie is no longer the slave of discretion. This is all
that the- nation has to boast of. The conscience of
the nation, the high controlling power,' has given
way. Thereat ambition, covetousness, rivalry, and
all the more fiery impulses greatly rejoice. It
is the confidence of intoxication, and amounts to
nothing but " Thank God, I have a better opinion
of myself than I had a year since." We have
not the least desire to mingle in such rejoicing.
On unquestionable grounds we fear that the
capabilities of this country are a good deal worse
just now than they have been this twelvemonth. The
deputation from the Lancashire cotton-spinners, who
ought to have been heard at the same time as the
Liverpool requisitionists, throws some light upon the
state of affairs. They give us some serious facts, and,
even where they err in demanding an unwarrantable
interference with speculators, they point out inciden-
tally how little claim those gentlemen have to be
buoyed up by the credit of the State. In answer to a
question by Lord John Russell, the cotton-spinners
make some interesting explanations. So " vicious,"
they say, is the system of credit which has obtained in
Liverpool, that a speculator can buy 10,0001. worth
of cotton by the deposit of 1,0001. or 2,000/, giving
to the broker an acceptance for the whole amount.
The banker discounts this bill, holding the cotton as
security. Thus, a hazardous speculation intercepts
the cotton on its arrival, and enhances the price,
sometimes to an exorbitant degree, before it gets to
the factory. But all depends on the state of dis-
counts. The business may be said to subsist on dis-
count, as nine-tenths of the capital is borrowed for
the nonce. Of course, they who play such tricks
must expect to be ruined now and then ; and if
a bank chooses to take part in a speculation,
and share the profits, it must also abide by
the laws of the game. So extensive is the prac-
tice as to create a direct antagonism of interests
and jealousy of feeling between Liverpool and
Manchester. The deputation from the latter place
are for summary measures—for illegalizing the sort
of operation we have described. At least, they pro-
pose that the security should be invalid beyond one-
half or two-thirds of the value of the produce de-
posited. It is needless to say this plan will not do.
Mercantile " pressure" is the proper and natural
remedy for tlais game. When a few of these reck-
less and grasping speculators have been obliged to
sell their produce at a loss for want of discounts the
plague will abate. However, neither of these two
remedies, it seems, will be applied at present. The
importunities of the Liverpool bankers and mer-
chants have prevailed. An inexhaustible supply of
discounts is promised, and, as a natural consequence,
the speculation revives, cotton rises in the market,
and further difficulties are thrown in the unfortunate
oo aware,eadi
that n fgr
tto
hhm
anything
ee
cotton-spinner's way.
A recentlylth o u g
seenh w e
oa are
heard, e n
wNelChLaEve.
ill4Times posseses the power of dangerously mat
risi
public mind on commercial questions, we:unaffectedly
deplore the course which our contemporary has of
late been pleased to pursue. It cannot be agreeable
to any considerate person to see a once influential
organ of the press fritter away powers for public use-
fulness which might have been—and we trust yet
may be—advantageously employed in assisting to give
a practically beneficial direction to national opinion
and policy. Freely crediting our contemporary, of
course, with an average amount of good wishes and
intentions, we do think the responsibilities of journal-
ism have sat more lightly on him throughout the
recent crisis than is right or becoming. He
has borne public misfortunes with a com-
posure which, if exhibited under the pressure
of private calamity, would evince a truly stoical for-
titude. The literary recreation of writing smart
things, and dressing up common-places in inge-
niously twisted diction, seems to have seriously im-
paired both his natural sympathies, and his taste for
the practically useful. If our contemporary had
actually enjoyed the crisis, he could not have
laboured, with more of apparent self-satisfaction, to
make the worst of things, and to enforce, in his best
style of stilted jocosity, the grand moral of letting ill
alone. He has written up the policy of inaction and
despair, in a style of sly humour and quaint eloquence
which would be really pleasant, notwithstanding its
affectation, if one could quite forget that the matter
was serious. Under the circumstances, it is impos-
sible not to lament the total absence of any attempt
systematic derision of
at useful suggestion, and the
the best-considered methods of alleviation. There is
something offensive in this easy and indolent, not
to say heartless, way of treating a national disaster.
To tell a suffering and panic-struck community,
morning after morning, that the best thing they
"
can do is to leave- the agony to take its course,

and to let the " progress of stoppage" go quietly on
according to Cocker, is hardly fulfilling the obliga-
tions which a British journalist owes to a British
public. If a public writer really can find nothing
more to the purpose to say than this, there would be
at least decorum in clothing so fearful a message in
sober and earnest modes of speech. Our contempo-
rary's vehement aversion to all attempts at alleviating
the pressure of unavoidable commercial difficulties,
and breaking the force of a calamity that strikes him
as being admirably en re le, leads him, of course, to
put the worst possible face on the late proceeding of
Ministers. That the beneficent " progress of stop-
page," and march of insolvency, should have been so
" rashly" interfered with—at a time, too, when its
rapid acceleration had begun to produce all the
happy consequences contemplated by legislative
wisdom in 1844—is, very naturally, set down
by him as the worst thing that has befallen
the nation yet, during the whole of the rail-
way era. This we can understand ; and we are in
no way solicitous to deprive our contemporary
of the satisfaction of nursinc, his grievance. The
luxury of woe may be pardoned some unseemly
extravagances of expression, when the chief mourner
has the irritating consciousness that his dear deceased
has left but few friends and admirers. We are not,
however, so easily disposed to give our contempo-
rary quite his own way in stating the rationale of
what Ministers have done, or undertaken to do. It
may be the taste, or the policy, of the Times, to
magnify to the uttermost all the possible and contin-
gent tendencies of a mischievous character that can
be imagined to lurk in the " virtual surrender " of
" Peel's Bill," and to " carry out the principle" to
the length of an eventual and prospective " suspen-
sion of specie payments." But it is not desirable
that any public writer should be allowed, uncorrected,
to indulge his ill- temper in careless and sweeping
misdescriptions of an important act of the Govern-
ment. We take leave, therefore, to register our de-
nial of the dictum of the Times, that " the Mi-
nister has undertaken to regulate the supply of
money"—or, as it is elsewhere repeated, that " Go-
vernment now comes forward as a great money-
lender." Lord John Russell has no more undertaken
to regulate the supply of money than Sir Robert Peel
undertook, in the session of 1846, to regulate the
supply of food. What Lord John Russell does now
is, like that which Sir Robert Peel did then, a qua •
lified withdrawal of the regulating hand of the State
from an affair which it is experimentally found that
the State has regulated very absurdly. The Govern-
ment no more comes forward now as a great money-

lender, than the Government came forward then as a
great food purveyor. The Government comes for-
ward to relax (in a particularly cautious and guarded
manner, by the way,) certain artificial restraints on
money lending, which have been but very recently
imposed, and which are found to work intolerable
mischief. It is nonsense to talk of this act of
Ministers as an assumption, on the part of the State,
of responsibility for the condition of the money-
market, or as an " interference" with the natural
laws of commerce and banking. The implied appeal
to the just and reasonable aversion felt by all
thoughtful persons to " State interference" with
mercantile transactions, is a perfectly ungrounded
appeal. So far as it goes, the Ministerial proceeding
is a piece of non-interference policy. It is a cautious,
and almost timid, move in the laissezfaire direction.
Positively one would think, to hear our contempo-
rary, that "Peel's Bill" was a rescript of nature—that
the gimcrack of 1844 belonged to the eternal order
of things—that its " virtual surrender" was like
loosening a screw in the frame-work of the universe.
What Ministers have done may be right or wrong;
but assurredly it is not open to the Times's objec-
tion. So far from having " come forward" to " interfere,"
for the purpose of helping commerce out of natural
difficulties, it would be nearer the mark to say that
the State has stepped back, and (pro Canto) desisted
from an interference that is seen to have plunged
commerce into artificial difficulties, and turned a pres-
sure into a panic. 'We think the commercial com-
mon sense of our countrymen may fairly be trusted
to comprehend the true meaning of the Ministerial
act of Monday, and to rate it at its just practical
value. It abrogates, so far as it goes, a needless and
mischievous interference with the natural laws of
commercial credit—an interference which had be-
come totally unendurable, at a time when circum-
stances imposed extraordinary exertions on our
trade and industry—and it places us consequently
in a far better position for grappling with difficul-
ties, and bearing up under pressure. That is all.
People need not frighten themselves with visions of
" suspension of specie payments"—and they must,
not be up in the air with the notion that Govern-
ment will, or can, " make money easy." " The pro-
mise to pay" means all that it has ever meant, and
there is not the smallest danger of its not being faith-
fully kept; only a new patent device for ensuring
convertibility turns out to be preposterously costly
and cumbrous, and is condemned accordingly. And
the railway-and-potato difficulty is just as formidable
as it was; only we are better prepared to contend
with it and subdue it, now that we have got rid of an
extra difficulty which we had very ingeniously manu-
factured for ourselves. The gold in the Bank is a
finite quantity, and the age of miracles has ceased ;
only we have made up our minds that our gold shall
not lie quite idle, and that we will use it as far as it
can really be made useful, without infringing the
rules of practical commercial prudence. How very
pleasant and beneficial it would be, if the Times
could lay aside its crotchets, its ill-humour, and its
affectations, and help us in explaining to the public
the exact practical merits of a question of so much
public interest.
HERALD.—We should wrongly designate the
present holders of patronage and power if we called
them a Government. Placemen, indeed, they are.
Dressed in brief authority, they receive the wages of
'officials and the mouth service of underlings and de-
pendents ; they wear fine liveries, hold councils, and
enforce observances; but as for governing the coun-
try, the wax-work Ministers in Madame Tussaud's
brilliant exhibition are just as useful and efficient.
In 1846 Lord John Russell was driven to interpose
between famine and a starving people in Ireland.
Against his will, his conviction, and his resolution,
he was forced to purchase food for a community
threatened with decimation by a frightful plague.
After he had avowed that the only way to ensure a
helpless people's safety was to leave them to shift for
themselves, and after hundreds of thousands of his
fellow-creatures had fallen victims to the atrocious
policy, he was literally compelled by the indignant
spirit of the United Kingdom to provide food for
hunger, sustenance for dying men. The Minister did
not rule the country ; the country governed him. In
the battle between general common sense and indi-
vidual political conceit, the former, as a matter of
course, finally gained the victory, but at a cost of
human life far beyond that occasioned by any one
sanguinary war recorded in universal history. In
1847 the tale is repeated in England. We have had a
famine of money, and the Minister has obstinately
refused to allow the people to be fed. Granarieshav e
by no means been empty, but the gates have wilfully
been locked. Commerce has sickened, credito has
been destroyed, yet Government has placidly looked
kd
on and said, " Things must take their course." Shalle
we sum up the hearts broken, the happiness lost, the
beggary produced by the failure of commercial
houses, the suspension of labour on extensive works,
the sudden dismissal of willing hands in almost evrenrys
city of the kingdom, all brought aboutl by
fficieifcy
incompetency and unpardonable
people base struggled
and again has
with the stubbornness of the Ministe
the latter been defeated. The governed have laid
prostrate the governor. The 25th day of October,
1847, has seen the barrier knocked down which
was raised against the crying necessities of the nation,
and has also beheld a feeble
Government utterly im-
potent before the demands of a community who un-
derstand their interests be
handsomely pay others
better than their masters,
and do the work whichthey
to accomplish. Had Ireland been tranquil under the
dolce far niente system of
.the Minister, who shall say
h
how wide-spread would aye been the havoc ; where
fever, the offspring of famine, would have stopped ;
where anarchy, the parent
melancholy
call mischief, would
have failed to extend her m
the merchants and traders of a
Englandywin g? Had
submitted to
Chancellor of the
the flippant dismissal of th
Ex-
chequer, the other day, whoe
shallcalculate the amount
of disaster that would have been heaped on the
country ; the extent of the bankruptcy that was about
to involve so many in irremediable ruin ? We be-
lieve in our hearts that, with the last capitulation of
Ministers, our mercantile troubles are in the, way
of removal. The renunciation of the principle of
the Banking Act of 1844 is the dawn of a
brighter day. The submission to facts which
could not be overturned is a confession of error which
renders a return to the old and vicious system a
sheer impossibility. However inadequate may be
the aid afforded, the argument conceded is of vital
consequence. For the future the Legislature will
never place a drag chain upon the energies of trade
and commerce whilst the country is laden with pro-
perty, and men of substance and character are de-
sirous to engage in legitimate and profitable enter-
prise. The immediate followers of Sir Robert Peek
are chuckling at the power of their master; they
have rather reason to mourn at his defeat. At his
sole instigation, it is averred, Ministers have relaxed

[PRICE SD.

~-,-,-...a 6.......:
the operation of the Banking Act, and given up the
principle for the maintenance of which they so
long contended. Had the author of our troubles
not advised the opet 'log of the safety-valve, we were
all to have been I clown mercilessly into the air.
This says much fort he lamentable incompetency of
the Whigs, but little for the financial sagacity of
Sir Robert reel• upe ea his ability as a Minister of
Finance, the late Prearlier staked his credit to the
world, and has lost his pledge, His famous and pet
measure, inoperative p: prosperous times, has. broken
down at the first appearaof gloom and pressure.
ne'.9
Whilst other men foresaw the inalllity, Sir Robert
asserted proudly the capability of his I3iii ju a season
of difficulty and trial. The first test robs him of the
halo with which credulity had so long surrounded him.
The man who is alone competent to govern for a mere
cantile community would have swamped such a com-
munity had they net taken matters into their own
hands, and overturned his precious handiwork. Sir
Robert Peel, who framed the Banking Bill of 1844,
and the present Whig Government, who, under Sir
Robert Peel's patronage, adopted the Bill as their
own, have both been beaten by public opinion arrayed
against them and the organs which, to the
last moment, have upheld their cause. Sir Robert
Peel makes public confession of his error when the
truth is extorted from him, and can no longer be
withheld—his puppets echo his words, and do his
bidding when he moves the strings. Is nothing to
be learned from these facts ? If Sir Robert Peel has
given way where he defied criticism and claimed uni-
versal applause, what is the inference ? If he is not
to be trusted as a financier, is he to be considered
immaculate as a free-trader? The ancient diNinity,
who played its idolators false in one respect,.was not
relied upon or referred to in others. If the God of
War will not gain victories for his supplaint soldiers,
he will hardly be more generous where his influence
is less apparent. Within three years we have wit-
nessed a great statesman pulling down a fabric which
he built for perpetuity. Within a second three years
he must give a helping hand towards the removal
of other obstructions to the public comfort, or they
will tumble down without his interference. The
relaxation of the harsh provisions of the Banking.
Act of 1844, even were it twenty times as favour-
able as it is, would still leave the national industry
maimed and afflicted beneath the operation of the free
trade scheme of 1846. Our troubles, imminent as
they are, and confounded by the operation of conflict-
ing causes, are still traceable, for the most part, to
two special lines of policy—to the free trade policy,_
which took our money from the country ; and to the
financial policy, which refused to supply, in any way,
the place of that money on its departure. The pri-
mary source of the mischief is still untouched. How
long it will remain so depends upon the goodness of
Providence and the endurance of man. The sinking
trade of our cities and towns, the depopulated facto-
ries, the falling revenue, the sounds of complaint and
discontent heard amongst the labouring masses of the
country, are no evidences of stability and long life—
give us no reason to hope that the last measures of
Sir Robert Peel will share eventually a nobler fate
than the first. If they be not doomed we have
strangely miscalculated the operations of cause and
effect. During the discussion of the Banking Act of
1844 (if we remember rightly) it was proposed in
Committee of the House of Commons to introduce a
clause giving the Bank of England, in times like the
present, a paver of meeting the pressure, similar to
that afforded by the Government on Monday last.
The clause was resisted and finally rejected at the
instance of the present Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Sir Charles Wood is down upon his knees,—so is Sir
Robert. But they have both to fall still lower.
POST.—The Russell Government had so com-
pletely committed itself to the restrictive policy in
respect to money, that it acquires no respect, and de-
serves no gratitude on account of what was done at
the last moment to relieve the pressure upon the
public and upon the Bank. When the Liverpool
deputation was in London, but a few days ago, the
answer of the Government was, not only that it could
do nothing, but that if it were to authorise advances
upon the public credit, it would thereby make mat-
ters worse. Yet the Government a few days after-
wards sends a missive from Downing- street to the
Bank, recommending to be done that very thing which
it had said would make matters worse ! Was it that
after the Liverpool deputation had departed the grand
and statesmanlike thought occurred to Sir C. Wood,
that Government might take advantage of the crisis
to do a little bit of usury ? Was it that though
the misery of Liverpool could not touch the
Ministerial mind, yet the possibility of going
snacks with the Bank of England in a charge
of eight per cent. upon advances, had given a
favourable complexion to the recently-rejected pro-
position ? On the 21st of October Ministers could
not see that it lay with them to do anything for the
relief of the monetary crisis, or that, if it did, they
had the ability to apply an efficient remedy. On the
25th of October they say, that " the time has arrived
when they ought to attempt, by some extraordinary
and temporary measure, to restore confidence to the
mercantile and manufacturing community." We
should be glad to hear what were the events between
the 21st and the 25th which made so great a difference
and which satisfied the Ministers on the latter day
that it was high time to do what they supposed, or
affected to suppose, on the former day, that they had
no means of doing. Was it in the interim they had
got the leave of Sir Robert Peel to pronounce the
practical condemnation of his Bill of 1844 ? Was it
that, having duly humbled themselves before that par-
ticularly honest and consistent personage, they were
permitted to avow that his fair-weather scheme of cur-
rency must be tossed overboard as an intolerable in-
cumbrance when the storm raged so as to make
matters rather dangerous? But why is this "ex-
traordinary" measure of relief to be only " tem-
porary ?" Are her Majesty's Ministers of opinion
that excessive pressure and difficulty are wholesome
alteratives ? Do they think that large doses of
commercial dismay, and a course of " great stop-
pages," are now and then good for the health of
the mercantile body ? If nob, why should they
say that a measure, not only extraordinary, but
" temporary," is that upon which they have resolved i
We think, if they will condescend to take the advice
of men of good sense and experience, who do not go
in fear of that eminent and steady statesman, Sir R.
Peel, they will set about some important permanent
measure for giving to the industry and enterprise of
the British empire an abundant currency based upon
property—secured by good management from do-
mestic depreciation, and guarded from exportation by
the circumstance of possessing no intrinsic value. If
it be true, as some say, that the country has still
much practical difficulty to struggle with—if it be
true that in the coming year as well as in the
de present
to
very considerable sacrifices will have totbrevimnga,
vern
the
save a portion of the Irish peopled
from
measures a
the monetary affairs of the kingdom.
a the lt is difficult
inst
enough for the country to ben!.
up
ina one part of the
circum-
stance of a beggared population
g to go
greater is the necessity for a goo_
United Kingdom, end an wonted deardess of the
But inraw material of manufacture n another.
unwonted
i
pro-
portion as these events require great exertion to cope
With them, is the insanity of crippling industry by
restrictions upon monetary circulation. In an active
community nothing stimulates industry like a free
circulation of money. Nothing stimulates production
so much as rising prices. If, then, there be occasion
for more than ordinary exertion—for more than usual
activity of productive industry—the readiest and most
certain way to promote this is to make money abun-
dant and to make it safe. In this there is no difficulty
if the Government would exercise common sense, re-
gulated by experience and inspirited by courage.
Her Majesty's Government are pleased to inform the
Governor and Deputy-Governor of the Bank of Eng-
land, that " they are not insensible of the evil of any
departure from the law which has placed the currency
of this country upon it sound basis." Such a para-
graph as this affords a notable instance of the silliness
to which Ministers of State may be driven, when
the pressure of events compels them practically to
condemn that which is still with them a favourite
theory. What can be more absurd than to say that-a
certain law has placed the currency on a sound basis, ,
when the very purport of the letter in which this
assertion is made is to relieve the currency from the
intolerable restrictions which this law has imposed?
If the currency be placed upon a sound basis by Peel's
ootlronla
e?tr
hdl Parliament
somti
shteuenhpother
tfr
iyordrte
hiaat
law, why authorise the Bank to violate Peel's law,
dari
sinedsmdiocunpunirltoodymuofsi%o:htrehe sutnuos applytchthoe
yec. ialoirineatutofi
al,tlye BillsPmt eaeeoblaf'snsO
Bill
allunn
ruin to the whole mercantile community should be the
result of its destructive operation ? But let Ministers
sigh, and vow, and protest as they
Bill, Peel's ill is doomed.may about Peel's
found guilty. Sentence is
It has been tried, and
deferred until the meet-
ing of Parliament, but •in the meantime its func-
tions are suspended. Even the Times, that weeps
over the event,
and
anticipates all manner of evil
from suspending a law which threatened almost im-
mediate bankruptcy
to two-thirds of the mercantile
community, does not hesitate to admit that the law
has received its death-blow. " The Bank Charter
Act," exclaims our angry, because disregarded, con-
temporary, "is virtually surrendered." Again we
are told, in the same column, that " the measure
certainly does appear in its tendency a fatal blow to