The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-09 00:00:00

TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 9, 1847.

A PROPRIETOR wished to know the difference be-
tween the present and the former offer of the Great
Northern Company.
A DIRECTOR replied that the: present proposal of
the Great Northern Company was, to take off the
arrangement with the canals, and to form the line
from Ambergate to Grantham, being, in fact, the
best part of their line, only.
The CHAIRMAN said the question could not be en-
tertained that day, as the meeting had been convened
for the purpose of accepting or rejecting the offer of
the Great Northern Company.
A long, stormy, and somewhat personal discussion
followed, during which many conflicting statements
were made. Ultimately the meeting went to the
vote, and the result was that the offer of the Great
Northern Company was rejected by an overwhelming
majority.
The meeting then terminated.

RETROSPECT OF IMPORTANT
EVENTS IN THE LAST TWO YEARS.
(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

In
Nisoi
uhedbinzcetthooicontinuation
aotnosdoe fdL2t9olaltriehnd reu
jenitodtr.hmo,
ns
elpneßstcetlnisosdfsi ne3t;shloe,eur tseac dinorr
RobertrlaiTdNNgh,se.
,
Thet
an
Peel, p
ra
en
imported
vsro
posed
ednhdte
aramts
th,
eeana
bmdb
utonoul
del ti
eno
rttnha
teNbe,
e,2adi7snutgthay
eo,
(or
oßpDroi
"Bill
tcoetemdemiabnt
allow
orl
p,
v,da, lyucBtey4:os)nr:
it." It commenced by stating " That excessive im-
portations of corn occasioned the export of a very
large amount of the gold and silver money of this
realm, which obliged the banks to contract the issue
of their notes ; that both these lessen the value of all
the property in the kingdom, diminish the revenue,
and are very injurious to the productive and indus-
trious classes of the community.
"Be it therefore enacted, That from and imme-
diately after the passing of this Act, all corn im-
ported into this kingdom shall be liable to the duties
in schedule A (that is, wheat 205. per quarter ; other
grain in proportion), unless the vessel by which such
corn is imported shall, the voyage immediately before
or after, take out to the kingdom from whence the corn
is imported, for merchants, there a cargo of British or
Irish manufactures of equal or greater value, in which
case the corn shall be liable to the duties in schedule
B (that is, to a moderate fixed duty or a nominal
duty)." Then followed clauses for levying the 20s.
duty on part of the cargo where the manufactures
exported were of less value than the corn ; equitable
rules for valuing the corn in British and foreign ships
penalties for frauds, and a suspension of the 20s. duty
where it could be ascertained that the balance of trade
was in favour of this country with the nation from
which the corn was imported.
This proposed amendment of the corn-laws was
rejected by the Government, and Sir Robert Peel's
Bill was adopted in its stead. The construction of
railroads proceeded with imprudent rapidity ; the
demand for foreign corn became enormous ; the bul-
lion in the Bank diminished several millions; and in
the autumn of 1846 there was a second deficient
harvest, with the enormous demand for corn still
continuing. It became evident that Sir Robert Peel's
Corn-law Bill must be altered ; when, as a remedy
for the disasters that were besetting the country from
a want of corn and a want of currency, Lord John
Russell's suspension of the corn duties was tinkered
on to Sir Robert Peel's Corn-law Bill. While the
corn merchants were waiting for the Suspension Bill,
they limited their imports and kept up prices. But
the A Act w
largest
as
shipscertaint
hoef
coal passing,
trade they
d
ethoand sent them in ballast (not with
aft
ceaßonsragistsatiogisonhengdatarfisaedet manufactures) to foreign countries for corn,
and next left them to return to their former trade.
The bullion has since been drained away for the
corn, and all the disasters have followed which Lord
John Russell and Sir Robert Peel were warned of,
in the clearest manner possible, in 1845. I think the
onlymen Member
t,inthe ospfrPinagrlioafmentwho told the
1846,
that
tt h
e ir corn-lawG overn-
tAh.easlghoeldemainndenitnjßuareilwtahye
commwoluKing.hl da evregc erbeeoaeftnl ytihnedfoicmromui nenidtsrhy,
that a copy of the letter and
Bills sent to Lord John Russell, Sir Robert reel, and
others, was also sent to the directors of the Bank of
England, to ascertain if it met with their approba-
tion, and that nearly all the banks, as well as the
Bank of England, have ever since been acting on the
principle on which those Bills are founded, by giving
the
ere exportliberal e f
Baccommodation e
tt
uo r
epse rtshoanns
t 0
00
he eyr
on
tehd in
e rs,
and by refusing it altogether where it was likely to
promote the export of bullion.
I believe it is a well-known fact that `"hen
foreigners are draining away our gold, the more paper
money there is afloat the faster the gold vanishes.
This has seen felt in foreign countries as well as in
England.

For the last twenty years, whenever it has been
necessary to put a stop to the export of bullion, the
banks have always effected it by diminishing their
issues, and diminishing accommodation. It appears
by the former retrospects in The Sun, that for this
purpose the banks have diminished their issues since
1844 about fifteen millions. Lord John Russell
now proposes to mitigate the disasters with which the
commerce of the country is beset by acting exactly
contrary to all the bankers, and by extending the
issues of the Bank of England. I agree with the
author of the articles in the Times, and those who
entertain similar opinions, that it will most probably
aggravate the disasters ;—unless, indeed, the above
amendment of the corn-laws is adopted, or some im-
proved modification of it, to prevent the bullion being
exported for excessive importations of corn.
If such an amended Corn-law Bill is passed, the
enterprise of the railroad makers will increase the
energies of the British and foreign merchants, and
increase the demand for British manufactures. It
will also increase the imports of corn without draining
away the bullion to pay for it, an i it will render un-
necessary the Bill proposed by the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce for dissolving existing com-
panies or impeding their progress. The railroad
makers have increased the wealth of the nation in
permanent property in a few years more than any
companies or partnerships that have ever existed in
this country. I think, therefore, they should be en-
couraged and fostered as much as possible where they
do not injure the shareholders by making the calls too
rapidly, and while they refrain from causing excessive
importations of corn and an export of the bullion.
As the wealth of the nation increases the currency
must also be increased, and Sir Robert Peel's limit on
the Bank notes must be removed within a short
period. But, while there is a drain on the bullion,
and while the present defects remain in the corn-
laws, Lord John Russell's measure for increasing
the paper money is premature.
Nov. 9, 1847.

LITERATURE.
POEMS. By George Powell Thonws.
An elegant volume of versification, with an unpre-
tending title-page. George Powell Thomas is a
Captain in the Bengal Army, and already known in
some measure to English readers by his " Views of
Sitnla." He has in his present compositions adven-
tured upon loftier grounds of authorcraft, and, as he
acknowledges in his brief and manly preface, has
been sustained in so doing by a conviction that " the
age of poetry never will, and never can, pass away
but with time itself." The success of preceding
bards in divers particulars has not abashed him ; he
has striven to pluck a leaf from those laurel groves
which had been already thinned by the fingers of the
illustrious. The exquisite ejaculations addressed by
William Cowper to a miniature of his mother have
not deterred our author from penning some graceful
verses "On seeing a Miniature of my Mother." The
sublime and almost divine hymn chaunted by Samuel
Taylor Coleridge, when gazing upon the sunrise
among the snows and pinnacles of Chamouni, has not
scared him from the production of certain impas-
sioned lines "On a distant View of the Snowy
Range of the Himalayas at Sunset." The Asiatic
intonations of Thomas Day have not prevented him,
with all their beauty, from printing a passage on
"The Jungle River." The inimitable epigram of Sir
William Jones, an epigram that can never be repeated
too frequently—
" On parent's knees a naked, new-born child
Weeping thou satst, whilst all around thee smiled;
So live that, sinking to thy last long sleep,
Then thou mayst smile whilst all around thee weep ;"
has not induced him to obliterate the poem headed
" The young Father to his First Born." The memo-
rable letters of Sidney Smith on " repudiation"
have not silenced his remarks "To Brother Jona-
than." The renowned travestie by Samuel John-
son on " The Hermit," showing the effect of true
Scriblerian Bathos, in a parody, ending " Come in,
my lad, and drink some beer," has not frightened
Captain Thomas from the publication of the jeux-
d'esprit imagined off the island of Jungheera. The
playful, and almost prattling, tenderness of Leigh
Hunt's verses to his little son, aged three years, has
not so far affected our author as to dissuade him
from writing in rhythm " To his Daughter, aged
four years. There are a variety of similar indica-
tions of audacity which, notwithstanding the melli-
fluousness of the language in which they are embo-
died, and the arts of rhetoric by which they are em-
bellished, remain to us " nevertheless notwithstand-

ing" quite incomprehensible. We cannot conceive,
indeed, but that it the pruning-knife had, been skil-
fully applied by Capt. Thomas to his poetical blossom-
ings, the result would have been preferable. Had
he restricted himself, for example, to such originali-
ties as that of " The Frozen Ship," the most
pretentious, and, to our thinking, the most
creditable composition in the volume, he would
have very materially increased his chances of acquir-
ing popularity. We remember perfectly well the first
appearance of the narrative, which suggested the
vision to his imagination, and bear in recollection, too,
that the coincidence struck us as being peculiarly
fitted for commemoration in a metrical form. That
coincidence was so thrilling, so fraught with horror,
so pregnant with thoughts of despair and desolation !
These characteristics have been well and passionately
conveyed in the poem beginning at page 45. Some-
times a noble and most suggestive theme is frittered
away in common-places, as in the " Sonnet suggested
by the Daguerreotype." What a novel and lovely
subject for a sonnet! A sonnet on the Daguerreo-
type. How Wordsworth would have commemorated
the genius of Daguerre! How Charles Lamb would
have quipped and cranked over the metallic reflection !
How Herrick would have chinked his words in
honour of the congealed shadow How Abraham
Cowley would have sucked honey-words out of the
fact through his quaint goosequill! But here—at
page 227—what an abortion of a sonnet, a sonnet in
truth such as might readily be supposed capable of
making the ghosts of Milton and Petrarch " squeak
and gibber" not "in the Roman streets," but in the
Hades of the quaffers of Helicon. Occasionally the
writer neutralizes the sweetness of one stanza by the
inanity of another : as thus, when addressing Miss
Jacintha Hunt, daughter of Leigh Hunt—
" I ask, if like thy gifted sire.
Thou touchest, too, the poet's lyre ;
Thy gifted sire makes answer terse,
Jacintha is herself a verse.'
"Yet albeit those sweet eyes of thine
Beam full of poesy divine,
To aught that's beauteous, good, or true,
Sure am I, ne'er averse are you."
The fourth verse, how epigrammatic! the eighth, how
strangulated and ineffective ! 'With all its inequali-
ties and hobblings, however, the book has sortie casual
snatches of true melody, and some intermsittea pas-
sages of genuine sentiment.

THE BLESSINGS OF TEMPERANCE. A
Poem. By John O'Neill.
__ _ _

Most of the systematic upholders of the pt ineiples
of temperance, and the disciple s of Father Theobald
Mathew, are long ago familiar with this poetic
homily. The present copy of it demands some brief
commemorative notice, inasmuch as it is a second
edition of an effusion already a favourite with the in-
telligent. Its popularity was, however, first achieved
under a different title, namely, " The Drunkard." We
are by no means partial to this mode of rechristening
a poem, especially when that poem is as worthy of
approval as the one written by John
" The Blessings of Temperance" may be more ap-
propriate as conveying more explicitly the intention
of the author, but we should have preferred seeing
the second edition with its old familiar title, " The
Drunkard." Appearing as this republication does, so
immediately after the remarkable glyphographic
plates of George Cruikshank—" The Bottle"—it is
entitled to a more particular attention, seeing that
the illustration of the verses of O'Neill must have first
suggested the series to that famous artist. Indeed,
one etching—that at page 16, " The Drunkard's
Home"—may be said to contain the germ of " The
Bottle." Of the other embellishments, who can ever
forget Cruikshank's sketches of tha " Upas Tree,"
or of " The Raving Maniac and the Driv'ling Fool ?"
O'Neill's poem is calculated to disseminate such an
abhorrence of the vice of drunkenness, and such a
love for temperance in all things, that its republication
in this cheap and compact editio❑ merits the encou-
ragement of every well-wisher of humanity and every
lover of talent in poetic literature.