The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-14 00:00:00

(II

LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1847.

The National Anti-Gold-law League is proceeding
vigorously and efficiently. The society last night
held its first public meeting, at the Crown and
Anchor Tavern, and the chairman there announced
the firm determination of the originators of the move-
ment not to relax their efforts until the fatal monetary
system, against which they have declared war, is
abolished, and measures introduced which will
permit the full development of the industrial
resources of the country. The members of
the League have adopted the course by which
success must ultimately he attained. They in-
vite discussion, and declare themselves ready to re-
ceive all questions addressed to them in writing, and to
return an answer to every relevant question during the
discussion of the ensuing evening. This is a bold and
manly determination. It is casting down the gauntlet
to all comers. By such means the points of doubts
and difficulty by which well-meaning men are influ-
enced, and induced to withhold their assistance, to
refrain from co-operating in the arduous struggle
that has been commenced, will receive speedy solu-
tions. It is also intended to hold local meetings, the
first of which is to take place at the Lecture Hall,
Greenwich, on Friday next. The real objects of the
society will thus be fully explained in every district
the public mind fully awakened to the vital import.
ance of the question, the magnitude of the interests al
stake, the effects of the present laws on our national
prosperity, the simplicity and safety of the measures
by which they may be replaced, and the stimulus
that would thereby be afforded to the productive
powers of the country.
No persons can possibly be blind to the present
evils to which the country is exposed, the gigantic
failures, the daily stoppages of houses that formerly
commanded almost unbounded credit, and that at a
period when after the strictest investigation the sus-
pended firms, or at least a large proportion of them,
are found to be in a perfectly solvent condition, and
to be possessed of ample assets, even at the present
depreciated prices, to liquidate every engagement,
and to leave a considerable surplus for the principals ;
the general distress and difficulty experienced by
the trading classes of every grade, and the extraor-
dinary sacrifices to
rwhich they, are compelled to
submit, in order to procurf
e the the means necessaryto
carry on their business,
exertion, or at anyplroiesse'sbeofeinrltd;beld they can by any
the public
to. do so ; the de-
preciation in the
g yesterday
-rpduablic funds, Three
per Cent. Consols bein
thanythsold at 81i or
morei than 15 per cent. lower
were little
more than a year since, and Four per Ceiynt. below the
lowest point to which they receded during
in April last, and a corresponding reductionthepanic'
the value of every other description of Pro ert in
but, above all, the general failure of emplopym,yeTt
by which our artisans and operatives, and all the la-
bouring classes, are reduced from a state of compa-
rative comfort and independence, the fruits of their
own honest industry, to the greatest poverty and
destitution, and that by no fault or misconduct of their
own—all attest the fearful character and extent of
the present emergency. Its existence, then, being
admitted (and who can be found bold enough to deny
it?) the next inquiry will naturally be as to the cause
or causes to which such lamentable results are ne-
cessarily ascribable. There cannot be much greater
difficulty in returning an answer to this question. We
find almost all the elements of the greatest prosperity
co-existent with the undoubted distress. We have
had, happily, an abundant harvest ; there is
an ample supply of food for the people at fair and
reasonable prices. There is a considerable demand i