The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-18 00:00:00

SUNDAY FUNERALS.

We trust some of the West Kirk Session were pre-
sent at the meeting on Tuesday se'nnight, and wit-
nessed the unanimity and determination displayed in its
proceedings. They may rest assured that a spirit is
abroad upon the subject which is not to be trifled with.
Men ask themselves with wonder, how a practice which
was never challenged by so good a man as Sir Henry
Moncrieff, during his long incumbency, has been disco-
vered in our day to be a desecration of the Sabbath ;
and whether a dozen of men, sitting in private conclave,
are entitled to set aside at their discretion, a privilege so
long enjoyed by the poor, and of so much value to them ?
Our standards acknowledge that there are works of ne-
cessity and mercy, which may lawfully be done on the
Sabbath day ; and we may surely ask whether any •
work is better entitled to stand in this category than
that of burying.the dead? If it led, even remotely, to any
thing light, immoral, or indecorous, there would be no
excuse for the prohibition ; but how contrary is the
fact! It is the most solemn act which it falls to the
lot of humanity to perform. It is a religious act ; for
in bringing home to man the impressive symbols of his
mortality, it touches the chord in which religion has its
source. We would ask the most sensitive roan as to
Sabbath observance, whether the sight of a funeral on
the street as he returns from church, excites one idea
at variance with the service in which he has been en-
gaged ; whether, on the contrary, it does not reinforce and
necpen every serious and solemn thought? The truth is,
the prohibition to bury on Sunday is one of the many
acts of aggression committed by the Church on
the poor, while professing to be their special
friend and guardian. It is an act exclusively against
the humblest class of society. The middle and upper
ranks never bury on Sunday. With them it is, and al-
ways will be unfashionable, because it speaks of poverty,
and even the better circumstanced of the working
classes avoid it when they can. It is the poor only who
resort to it, and solely from necessity ; and the West
Kirk Session, in stopping the practice, is in reality
trampling on the rights, and making war on the neces-
sities of the poor. Thu Pharisees in some of the city
churches made a similar attempt, but were defeated
by the Town Council. And this is one of the many
facts which show the arrogant spirit of those petty
irresponsible oligarchies the Kirk-Sessions, and the
want of sympathy between the Church and the
People. Would anybody elected by the people
have dared to meet in an obscure corner, and send forth
an edict like this, cutting off a numerous. class from a
privilege so long enjoyed, and of so much importance to
them ? Assuredly not. Our Highflyers talk much of
purging the pulpit of the grievance of Intrusion. we
would put more trust in their words, if they showed any
desire to act upon the principle where it is within their
power, by purging the Session of the same evil. An
eldership popularly chosen could not have so far mis-
taken its duty as to make this wanton attack on the
rights of the poor ; or, to speak. more correctly, such an
eldership Tfould not have lent itself as an instrument to
the 'Fartuffes with whom this wretched piece of hypo-
crisy originated.—Scotsman.

ROWLAND'S Ono N TO.—ThiS discovery, ---
for
the Breath,
may he censidereZwithout a riva --Diseases of the Teeth
effectually cleaning the Teeth. and purifying
and Gums generally arise from.. neglect, or the use of
its disinfecting
R;roviplearntdie'ss, °wlhitet°i's tfhroeniTeth,prsotidmuucelasteas
deleterious acids; the former allows concretions to form ;
while the latter corrodes the
_eonnatmel, and _o
agnudickstidmeuelaaytiv—e
the Gums, and purifies the Breath --thus effecting all that
human agency can in continuing the existence of those
highly prized organs to the latest periods of human life.
ission with
The Cavahere Altavilla Villetta Calichiopuli,
President of the Legislatiye Assembly of the lonian
-: an address to her
Islands, and on
Majesty, has been gramouslydi.ior.nina.ted by the Queen
Knight Commander of the distinguished orderof S r.
Michael and St. George, as a proof of her Royal favour.
The communication of this mark of honour was courteously
made to the Cavaliers by Lord John Russell.
39, ALBEMA RI,E-S T R EDT, PICCADILLY, AND
76, Kiso WILLIA M.-STREET, BANK ~.._
‘,17 ENGLAND.—.
Deafness, and those who aro slightly dull of hear-
difficulty to catch
ing, and find a
a specia.l m
the sound of
a distant low speaker at a public assembly, will find
a most astonishing advantage from the use of the
Messrs. S. and B. Solomons' Newly-invented Invisible
Operative Voice Cor.ducter, which, when fixed into the
cavity of the car is so small, not the least perceptible, nor
more uncomfortable than having a piece of wool in its
place. By this extraordinary and valuable invention, not
only does the hearing become acute, but the Ears arc so
i
from their use, thatndividuals, in a
much improved great
number of instances, can hear most distinctly without them.
It will, therefore, be seen that persons do not incur any
constant habit of being compelled at all times to make use
of them, and in consequence of the numerous individuals
having been altogether relieved from deafness, they have
become in general use. The Messrs. Solomons' Newly-
invented Spectacle Lenses, immediately they are placed
before imperfect eyesight, either by day or candlelight,
every ohj,ct becomes clear and distinct, and the most mi-
nute particle is seen with exact distinctness. Their
valuable improvements in the material are secrets to them-
selves, and are solely confined to their Establishments,
39, Albemarle-street, and 76, King William-street, Bank.
No connexieri with persons of tio Same name.

A demand for bank notes to represent the transac-
tions of society may arise or be evaded in a great variety
of ways. Formerly the number of persons who kept
accounts with a banker were few in comparison with
the number at the present time, chiefly arising from the
fact that no banker would open an account without an
understanding that the balance on such an account
should be sufficient to pay him the trouble and expense
of keeping it, and consequently bankers' accounts in
those days were strictly deposit accounts, and a large pro-
portion of the transactions of tradesmen were of neces-
sity represented by bank notes.
So far from this being now the case, in all our large
cities and towns the use of them is superseded to an im-
mense extent by bills of exchange and the use of
checks, and in London many millions in amount arc
daily taken to the clearing frouse, and not a single
bank note is required to represent them. Banker A
has checks and bills on banker B for 100,0001., and B
has checks and bills on A for 101,0001., and the balance
between these two parties is paid by a check on the Bank
of England, and in this manner nineteen-twentieths of
the superior transactions of society are now settled
without the intervention of bank notes. A similar sys-
tem is also gradually extending itself to all other places,
and even the farmer, who formerly had his breeches-
pockets crammed on going to or returning from market
with the local notes of some provincial bank, now finds
It much more safe and convenient to let his cheek-book
represent all his transactions.
Another most important feature in transacting the
business of the present day is to be found in the prac-
tice which very generally prevails of drawing bills for
the amount of an order on the first of the month after
its execution, this bill is then sent for acceptance
through some bank, and, when accepted, is discounted
by this bank, so that instead of our manufacturers and
dealers having, as formerly, large capitals absorbed in
book debts, this item is now a nonentity, and the tra-
vellers of many such, when they go their journeys, have
not one shilling to receive, and thus the uses of which
money is capable is taxed as far as the ingenuity of man
can carry it.
This often produces a great pressure for money on
particular days, and a great laxity on others, giving a
very uncertain and irregular character to the money
market, and our manufacturers would do well to obviate
the inconvenience which this is continually producing by
varying their days of drawing.
To show still more conclusively that the amount of
bank-notes in circulation has little or no effect on the
amount of business done, look at the history of the panic
in 182.5. The circulation of the Bank of England in 1817
was about 30 millions, in 1825 20 millions, and
yet in 1825 the actual amount of commercial transac-
stoiocniestyw
weraes
mteand-fowlidthwshpaetcutlahteiyonw. ereThien
nluBmlb7e, r aanfdoaalrl
mills has most fearfully increased, and the quantity of
goods manufactured has also increased to an almost
incredible extent since 1817, and yet, in consequence of
the additional facilities of checks and bills in
is repre-
senting our transactions with each other, there a less
amount of bank paper of all kinds in circulation at
present than at any period for the last thirty years,
and it is with great difficulty the Bank of England can
keep afloat its present reduced circulation of seventeen
millions.

Having now shown that there is no relative or neces-
sary connexion between the state of trade and the
amount of bank paper in circulation, I will proceed to
point out a fallacy indulged in by many of our political
economists, that the value of articles is governed by the
relative circumstances of supply and demand, and if I
succeed in proving a negative to this I, of course, dis-
pose of another of their conclusions, that the state of our
currency is mainly influential in inducing high or low
prices. _

I could with great facility travel through many
trades and point out the various principles which
have crept into the mode of conducting them, but for
our present argument I will select two.

Ist. The Baltic Tallow Trade. The importation of
Tallow, I believe, amounts to about 40,00t0n per
annum, and commences with the opening of the Baltic
about the months of May or June. The dealers in
this article, s, ithout, however, the slightest reference
to the period of its arrival, the amount of the supply,
or the demand for consumption, have introduced a
system of Bulling and Bearing ; and it not unfre-
quently happens, that they commence operations six,
nine, and even twelve months in advance of the actual
importation ; and that a quantity amounting to three
and four times the amount of the whole supply, has
been actually bought and sold long before a single cask
has reached our shores. And I believe that I am not
over-rating it when I say, that the speculative trans-
actions of this character do amount ;n the course of the
twelve months to ten times the amount of the whole
importation. Well, the supply arrives, and is landed ;
the order for the delivery of one hundred casks is
made out by the importer A, in favour of the buyer B,
who endorses it over to C, who endorses it
again to D, and so on through every letter
of the alphabet. I remember once seeing an order of
this kind with 32 endorsements on the back of it—to
one firm it had been endorsed four different times, who
had as often passed it on again to others, thus repre-
senting in fact 3,200 casks instead of 100. Now, let
us see how this operates in the end ; the value of 100
casks of tallow is about 1,600/., A draws his bill on B
for 1,600/., B draws on C for 1,603/., and so on through
the entire list until bills are thus created mounting, to
more than 50,000/., to represent property of the value
of only 1,600/. As long as all the parties to such
transactions remain sound these bills are of course duly
honored ; but let any one of this string of names drop,
and sec what jeopardy it places the whole in. I have
known twenty in this trade, who never were worth
1,60 W., that have been either drawers or acceptors of
such bills to the extent of 50 or 60,000/. ; and to show
that this system of dealing infects all alike, the highest
as well as the lowest, I will add that I have known
one large importing house to be Bears of this article to
the extent of seven or eighty thousand casks, and ac-
ceptors or drawers of bills to the extent of a quarter
of a million of money, and, to make the climax
more complete, one of the partners in this firm
was a leading oracle in his clay and gene-
ration on all financial or currency questions,
and wrote more nonense respecting bank issues
and their effect on high and low prices than almost
any other man living. Understanding to the greatest
nicety the effect of an increase or decrease in the issues
of the Bink, he could account for everything but the
want of success for his own operations, and after hav-
ing been the ruin of many, failing in these, he sought, I
believe, :or the means of subsistence among the hono-
rary distinctions of our public companies. It is hardly
necessary to add that one after another of all who em-
bark in such a pursuit, do, like him, withdraw from the
stage, and disappear from the list of our merchants ;
others, however, take their places, and at the present
instant of time are pursuing the same reckless, gambling,
and desperate game. As closely allied in circumstances
as in the nature and properties of the articles is
The Whale Fishery Trade.—The whole supply of
Sperm Oil amounting to three, four, and five thousand
tuns per annum, is bought up and under contract one,
two, and three years in advance of its arrival, and is
resold over and over again long before even the whales
are caught in the South Seas. One individual can
thus control and regulate the prices at his pleasure with-
out the slightest reference to the amount of the supply
or the demand for consumption, and the very natural
effect of such a state of things is to enhance the price
to the public, who have been consequently paying for
the last three or four years from 30 to 50 per cent. ad-
vance on the average of prices of the preceding twenty
years. Not the least remarkable feature in the m Ater
is that, notwithstanding this apparent advance in prices,
the fishery is neglected and rapidly going to decay, the
reason being obvious, that under such a system the
shipowner, who must fit out his ship for a three years
voyage, can no longer calculate on the price he is likely
to obtain for his cargo, for if an extensive outfit was to
take place in expectation of realizing the presenthigh
prices, prices, it is more than probable that the prices wouldbe
s
as extravagantly reduced as they are now advancy(i
,and
the shipowner would incur the chance of certain ruin,
because, forsooth, our trade must be conducted by a race
of gamblers, in the place of merchants.
As the certain consequences resulting from trades so
conducted, a class of men called Dealers, who formerly
stood between the importer and the manufacturer, and
carried on a legitimate and prosperous trade, has nearly
ceased to exist. They can no longer calculate on a
profit derivable from any comparison of the supply and
demand, but are entirely at the mercy of the Bulls and
Bears, and, like the gentlemen of the Stock Exchange,

. „
c•eired in Oil or Tallow." It may be justly charac-
terized as a foul and leprous spot on our commercial
system, which the Bank of England and all other
banks would do well to exercise their utmost vigilance
in eradicating.
I have selected these two branches of our trade be-
cause in them the evil appears to have taken root, and
to have struck deeper than in others ; but the operation
of the same pernicious principles have been felt in almost
all. Inquire for the once numerous body of Blackwell
Hall factors, and you will find their propensities for
gambling in wool have left them scarcely " a local
habitation or a name;" nay, even the manufactures of
the country are subject to the same influence. I re-
member en instance of fifty ends of cloth consigned for
sale by a manufacturer in the country, which made six-
teen evolutions from one house to another in the short
space of ten days. Bills to the amount of 2.0,000/.
were manufactured to represent the sales from one to
another, and the article itself had not advanced one
yard towards the consumer until the last of these job-
bers sold it to a leviathan establishment, for cash, the
next hour, at about two-thirds of its real value. Nearly
the whole of these dropped one after another into the
G azette,l and the manufacturer, who had drawn at six
months, on account of the sales, found himself minus
the value of his cloth.

Cotton, indigo, and even corn, are almost all of
them periodically visited with similar operations,
and so long as a large proportion of the
transactions of men are of this speculative and
gambling character, it is impossible to prevent money
being at one time plenty, and at another extremely
scarce. Neither the state of the money market, nor
the prices of articles, will be regulated by natural
causes. but must be altogether dependent on the extent
to which this artificial spirit of speculation may be
carried.

To talk, then, of protecting the merchants, traders,
and the higher classes of society, from losses arising
from the nonpayment of bankers' promissory notes. is
extremely fallacious and unnecessary. Their present
mode of conducting money matters has nearly super-
seded the use of bank notes, and they may be fairly left
to protect themselves ; but, inasmuch as bank notes are
still necessary to represent the payment of wages, and,
in fact, all the transactions of the lower classes of so-
ciety, who cannot, after the fashion of their betters,
keep a banker, with whom to adjust their balances with
each other, there can be no reason why the protection
to this class should not be of the most positive and ab-
solute character.

The profits of bankers are, of course, derived from
their issues, and as the more notes they can keep in cir-
culation the greater is their 'profits, they have a direct
interest in keeping the circulation full, and in their com-
petition with each other to do this, they have abrogated
all the old principles of banking. Instead of accounts
with bankers being deposit accounts, from the use of
which deposits the banker f ormerly made his profits,
they are now become anything but deposit accounts, and
we have joint-stock banks competing with each other
as to who shall be most liberal in doing business for no-
thing ; some will keep your account on a very small ba-

lance, others withoutany balance but for a. small sum

per annum, some will allow interest on your deposits,
while nearly all will lend you their own notes, and

charge you a month's interest on the balance at

the end of every month ; and throughout the entire
of Scotland this is particularly the case, for the
entire community there may be said to be carrying on
trade with a very small proportion of their own capital,
but with the paper borrowed in this manner of these
banks, having them entirely at their mercy, may ur.duly
excite them to speculation, or lay the whole, as they have
occasionally done in the town of Dundee, prostrate in
the dust.

To protect the public from a recurrence of such con-

tingencies, to give permanent value to our circulating
medium, and to restrain this false and vicious principle
of trading as much as is practicable, there is no alter-
native left but to compel every establishment licensed
to manufacture promissory notes, to give security for
their payment. Whether the public ought to submit
to the mode proposed by the Bank of England for

effecting this, is a question I shall endeavour to answer

In my next.

A COMMERCIAL TRAVELLER.
Sheffield, Aug. 29, 1840.

DRAINAGE OF THE FENS.

HALL'S PATENT HYDRAULIC BELT, OR
WATER ELEVATOR.

On Wednesday last the first public trial of the
Patent Hydraulic Belt for the purposes of Fen
Drainage was made at Salter's Lodge, near Downham
Market,

The Belt is composed of a wooden material,
passing over two cylinders of wood at a cer-
tain distance from each other. Any number of
belts may be employed, according to the body
of water to be raised. By the mere velocity of
the belt, a sufficient power of attraction is produced
to raise the water and throw it over the tap cylinder.
For the purpose of the experiment, the engine was made
to employ about three-horse power, and with this extent
of force more than 800 gallons of water raised per
minute, at a lift of about twelve feet. The superiority
of the belt over the ordinary mill was sufficiently attest-
ed by the comparison the spectators were enabled to
make by the keeper of a wind-engine near setting it
in motion. This mill was of twenty-five horse
power, and at the time of the commencement of its
operations had the advantage of the water running
off, by the belt raising the water to its level, yet
the greatest lift did not exceed two feet, nevertheless it
raised no more water than the belt worked, as before
mentioned, by the engine, at throe-horse power. In
the opinion of the engineer, the additional outlay of but
75/. would serve to raise 2,500 gallous of water per
minute, instead of 800 gallons.
The triumphant success which attended this experi-
ment of the Hydraulic Belt, most gratifying as it must
have been to the ingenious and enterprising inventor,
proved scarcely less so to those among the numerous
persons assembled to witness it, who were capable of
estimating the extent of utility to which it might be
made serviceable, and of appreciating the advantageous
improvements it is capable of effecting in the great work
of Fen Drainage.--Cambridge Advertiser.

DONCASTER RACES. Agrippa's Prophecy
fulfilled, as prognosticated in Bell's Life in London of
Sunday last, September the 13th, in which Sporting
Journal Launcelot was pronounced the winner of the St.
Leger. The best, most authentic, and fullest account of '
the Races, will be given in Belts Life, accompanied by a
Portrait of Launectot, pourtraycd by Mr. Herring, who
will, in addition, add his Symmetry. The price of Belts
Life in London is Fivepence. Belts Life is published in
time for the Euston-square Station Railway, at one o'clock
on Saturday afternoon.
THE GLASGOW DIVINITY CHAIR.—SHICe
we last offered a Jew observations upon the subject, a good
many candidates have appeared, some ofLagetreeerasotoefnr , o
, someof
lesser pretensions, for the vacant chair. We have heard
f Glas-
gow,tho names of Dr. Hill,lo,dfoilnDibeangirelgl,yht,,heDmrir.a.t r
.flya Edinburgh. It
Dr. .
,were Dr.
Gray,a
d delicate,
1 i
co Cat it
aeGs:l
aants: of
might
appear an invidious, task to at-
tempt to adjust the respective merits Glasgow
w C:
fessor of Hebrew, and Mr. Buchanan,
oe
and cldaiinmbsurogfht.hese
is
various individuals. This, however, rendered altogether
name, before
bwyhethheitaepapnebareaenociels.admong them of another
givei
wearyecl ncitdiissetrieledint
afinorethoef
toathneammeateoon::toosi'y
c in its
veryC h e l bestm er s of—
reputation with the
or excuse the selection of anyy
owniell
enlsoet, owaisieilny
suuncdhearstmanadn
civilized world. The country
may be obtained. But Dr. Chalmers is already a Profes-
sor of Divinity, and in the metropolitan University—why
think, tor Edinburgh,bring him to Glasgow? T
andflolart
Dis
r.a
Chalmers,
hoitmiesesihf.obuuldt
in which Glasgow need have nothing to do. It Glasgow
can acquire such a man, it is not for the electors to com-
plain that Edinburgh is, not preferred.—Scottish Guar-
dian.---[ Still the weatilercock ! lie veered first from Ca-
vcrs, in Roxburghshire, to a place in Fife—then to Glas-
gow, then to St. Andrews, then to two churches, and the
Divinity chair, successively in Edinburgh, and now he is
about to veer back to Glasgow.)

On the Birmingham and Gloucester, opened about
two months and a half, 18,414 miles have been travelled,
and 33,155 passengers carried with the like freedom
from accident.
The Newcastle and Carlisle, which, from its first
partial opening, is now five years and five months, has
been travelled on to the extent of 15,641,859 miles, and
carried 1,038,946 persons, has had no fatal accident
to either. But there have been three slight accidents,
and a sailor broke his thigh jumping off the train.
The total sum of the miles run on these nine rail-
ways is about 2:26 millions, the number of persons car-
ried from ten to eleven millions, and we have no doubt,
by the time we have received accounts from the other
lines, the two numbers will be considerably swelled.
Out of all these numbers of miles and persons there
have been only two fatal accidents to passengers, and a
few contusions, the number of which on one or two
of the lines are not given to us. Probably they are
under sixty altogether.
Now if this be not a demonstration clear and irre-
fragable as the existence of the sun at noon day, of the
superior safety of railway travelling over that of all other
modes yet invented, we should like to know what is. We
fearlessly challenge any one to produce such evidence of
security in favour of any other system. Multiply the
fatal accidents a hundred fold, and we doubt whether
combined with the numbers carried and miles travelled,
any other mode of transport could even then be
found to compete with it. Are the unfortunate cases
therefore which have happened on the Hull and Selby
and Eastern Counties, both of which have been clearly
traceable to the want of due care on the parts of the
servants, to be szit against facts like those we have ad-
duced ? Is it fair, we would ask, to endeavour to cry
down the greatest improvement of modern times in the
face of such evidence as we have given, running over a
period of ten years and upon nine different lines, on ac-
count of the accidents which have happened on two
lines, one of which has been opened only about twelve
months, and the other partially, not fifteen ? Just as fair
would it be to cry down stage-coach travelling because
a coach had been overturned through negligent or vvillul
driving, or steam navigation, because of the dreadful ac-
cident that happened at Hull some time since by the
bursting of improper boilers. We are quite sure the
Times must feel that its attack upon the safety of rail-
way travelling has not been made in the spirit which
usually characterizes the tone of that powerful journal
towards new inventions, and that it must perceive from
the facts we have brought forward, that it has been car-
ried away by the warmth of its indignation against two
solitary cases of negligence and wilfulness, to make ob-
servations which are not merited by the railway com-
munity.