The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-05 00:00:00

miry manner suggested by Mr. Sailth. The Act
required the Aldermen, upon the receipt of the pre-
sentment, to cause a proper and sufficient board to be
put up for the safety Of the ras,e73 by, aed to eau
notice to be given to the owners of the Luildings, if
known, and if not known, to be affixed to the premises,
and in case the ruinous houses were not taken down or
repaired within fourteen days, it would he the duty of
the Aldermen to remove then at the expense of the
City, looking to the sale of the materials or to the ar-
rears, when discovered, for. repayment. If the Court
of Aldermen were to act in any other way than strictly
in confOrmity with that prescribed by the Act, they
would subject themselves to actions at the instance of
the owners of the ruinous premises and of the adjoining
property. By the ancient custom of the City of London,
there was no doubt that the Lord Mayor, in cases of
sudden emergency, attended with imminent and
immediate danger to life and limb, might interpose his
authority to wall in the dangerous buildings, and t 3
abate the nuisance. That power, since the passing
of the Buildings Act, had be m rarely put in execu-
tion, and could only be recommended in ca es when,
from the urgency of the occasior, the public security
would not admit of fie relay rcqui-hte to call in aid the
powers of the Building Act. In such cases there
could be no doubt that the Lord Mayor would be ad-
vised to exercise his authority, bu , in the present in-
stance, such an interference could not be supported.
With this exception, in the meantime the back wall of
the fallen houses which had been presented must be
remoied by the order of the Court.
Mr. Sm*th, and the gentlemen of the Inquest gene-
rally, acquiesced in the opinion given by the City
Soicitor, ar.d after a conversaion between Mr. Wood,
of the Dispatch, and Sir Peter Laurie, the Court
broke up.

DREADFUL OCCURRENCE IN ST.

BRIDE'S CHURCHYARD.

Yesterday the grave-dfiger, Scott, his assistrnt
David Thompson, aged 29, and a boy, were engaged in
digging a grave in St. Bride's churchyard, which was to
be twenty feet deep, opposite the door of the Bell pub-
lic- house. Thompson was below digging and fining
the baskets of ta-th, which were hoisted up by Scott
and the lad by means of poles and a pulq. At t.velve
o'clock Thompson had got down seventeen feet, and
said he thought he could go five feet further. He
continued at work till a quarter to three, when the
earth on each side gave way, and the grave was almost
instantly closed up. Scott and the boy gave an alirrn,
and very spteJily Inspector Foresby and a large
body of the City Police were on the spot, and
without a moment's loss of time five or six men were set
to work in clearing out the grave, but as it wai known
the gravedigger was at 1• act eighteen feet below, no
hopes were entertained that his life coull be saved, as
the earth is heavy and loomy, and likely to cause in-
staLt suffocation. The work of the men proceeded
with great rapidity, but it was b df-past five before they
came to Toompsoll's head. He was found standing
uprigl t, but quite dead, having been buried nearly
three hours. It was now found that the coffins from
the neighbouring grave bad fallen upon his body, and
amidst which he was so completely jammed that it was
found necessary to remove them before the body could
be got out. Mr. Fare, the Churchwarden, who super-
intended the operations, directed what was to be done,
but it was a work of great difficulty, and night had now
come on.

Torches and candles were supplied to those who were
emplo)e I in the 1 Lborious and even dangerous work,
several of whom belonged to the City Police, and ulti-
mately five coffins were removed. The position of the
body was thus more accurately discovered, and the
hands were found to be raised to the head, and partly
covering the face, as if the dying man had sought to
prcvect by such feeble aid, the pressure of the im-
mense weight upon him. Still the body was so firmly
locked in the earth that all attempts to remove it from
the grave while life was in it, wore for hours of no avad.
It was necessary that great caution should be used, that
every foct of earth taken away srioull be sup-
plied with strong shoring, or otherwise the lives
of other five or six men would be sacrificed in addition
to that of Thompson. At nine o'clock fresh difficulty
occurred by the fall of earth upon the body consequent
upon the removal of the coffins, but within a quarter of
an hour afterwards this was so far loosened that tl,e
corpse was raised by ropes, and immediately taken to
the church and placed in a shell. The face was much
blackened, the chest was deeply indeated, and the left
leg was broken. There is no doubt the calimity arose
through negligence in not properly shoring up the grave
as the work proceeded. The deceased lived in Gun-
powder-alley, Shoe-lane, and was well known. The last
(ale of a similar character occurred about 40 years ago,
when the sexton of Clerkenwell Church was in the same
way buried.

CURRENCY IN MALTA
(From the Times.)

Some accounts have been printed and circulated
privately of the state of the currency in Malta, which
are well worthy of general attention. Every one
will be prepared to expect from the previous history,
and from the peculiar position of that island, an
exceedingly mixed and partially debased currency,
but, neverthel ss, in a course of gradual reform,
since it has become a possession of Great Brita're
Of this, however, no symptoms whatever are appa-
rent ; on the contrary, a state of confusion exists,
which must render the carrying on of the trade of
the place unusually difficult and uncertain. A brief
description can hardly fail, one would imagine, to
bring on promptly both the consideration and the
application of the proper remedy. At present, it
seems, there are five kinds of money, which are
legal tenders in Malta, viz., M ita money, the Spa-
nish pillar dollar, the South American dollar, Bri-
tisk silver and gold, and British copper, including
the grain, or twelfth pelt of a penny. The
general introduction of British metallic currency
was prepare] by a proclamation of June, 1825, in
which it is enacted that certain enumerated coins
shall pass current, and the intention to introduce
the British metallic currency generally is speci-
fically stated. By a proclamation in the following
year it was ordered that all Government accounts
should be kept in sterling, but, nevertheless, although
this method was of course adopted in the Govern-
ment offices, the merchants and shopkeepers have
continued to keep their accounts in the money of the
order of St. John, the unwillingness to change
being attributed to the frequent changes and uncer-
tainty of the currency, the multiplicity of coins 'ad-
mitted as legal tenders, and the depreciated nature
of the British silver currency. It is worthy of re-
mark, that when British silver was put into circula-
tion in the island, the pound troy was, by the
authority of the Act 56th George 111., cap. 68, coined
into 66 shillings instead of 62 ; but while the same
Act established that such depreciated silver should
not be a legal tender in England to an amount exceed-
ing 405., in Malta it has been ma le so to any amount,
diiplacing the more valuable local currencies, and
causing a loss to the inhabitants of 6 per cent., since
prior to the introduction of the present British coins
the currency passed at rates at 625. per pound troy.
The Spanish pillar dollar becoming scarce in 1834, the
British Government caused proclamations to be issued
at. Malta, Gibraltar, the lonian Islands, and other places,
enacting that the South American dollar should be a
leg vl tender at the rate of 4s. 4d.-0 coin irregular in
weight, and by no means regular in alloy. Indeed, the
dollars of the Guadalaxara mint were found to contain
so exc ssiva a portion of alloy. that in 1836 it was found
ne.es,ary to cell them in. The effect of this introduc-
tea was -not only the banishing of the mote valuable
currency, so that Spanish, Sicilian, and Imperial dollars
are at a premium, but even British silver does not cir-
culate freely, since the Commissary engages to give a
1001. Treasury bill for every 101/. 10s., and therefore
whenever the continental exchanges are at a rate which
enables a banker to import dollars, and exchange them
for British silver at a profit on the Commissary's rate, a
premium is borne by the British silver. Besides the
obvious evils of an irregular currency, in causing the
heavier coins to be melted down, there is a further one
occasioned by the present system—namely, a practice
in France and Italy of sifting the dollars received from
South America, so that the light ones • alone may be
sent to Malta and other places where they are a cur-
rency. Another disadvantage of these South American
dollars is, that in Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Barbary,
Alt eria, Fez, and Morocco, they are rejected, while they
will not pass as currency in Sicily, Naples, the north of
Spin and Italy, or at any rate arc only taken at a dif-
ference of 5 or 6 per cent. under the value of the Spa-
nish dollar. So great is the preponderance of this vi-
cious coinage th:t a six months' return from the Trea-
sury, tne Anglo-Maltese Bank, and the Malta Bank,
shows that the proportion of South American dollars is
above 89 per cent , while that of English is under 5,
'sad that of all other coinage put together is under 6
per cent.
A plan proposed for the reformation of a currency
obviously bad is the repeal of all the proclamations al-
ready existing, and an enactment that British copper
shad only be a legal tender to the value of 12d., and
shillings and sixpences to the value of 405., and that for
larger amounts the only legal tender shall be a 4s.
piece, a coin which it is proposed shall be created, and
which the Treasury are to give in exchange for all the
present coinage, to be received at their present value.
The effect of such a measure would, it is said, be the
abolition of the South American coinage, but not of
tine Spanish pillar dollar, sovereigns, or doubloons,
which would offer no inducement for parties to present
them at the Treasury. The Maltese seem to think,
that in justice the British Government ought to bear
the loss occasioned by the conversion, since that has
caused the vicious system which demands the change ;
but at the same time the author of the plan stated above
seams to think that it would be better for the island to
submit to the loss than to suffer such a system to con.
tinue. With respect to the plan thus offered, and which
proceeds from a resident in the island, it is not the
olject ol this notice to advocate or condemn it, but
there seems, at any rate, no doubt that a thorough re-
form of some kind or other is required.