The Sun.
London, England, 1847-06-05 00:00:00

I \N\
bersung

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 5, 1847

The question of emigration was last night brought
before the House of Lords by Lord MONTEAGLE, who
moved for a Select Committee to consider the means
by which emigration might be made a benefit to the
social condition of Ireland. In the reasons adduced
i by the Noble Secretary for the Colonies for assenting
to the inquiry, in his masterly and convincing reply,
we most cordially concur. He has acted on a grin-
; ciple which has not hitherto been sufficiently recog-
nised. Heretofore it was too much the custom to
consider that entering into an investigation was an
admission of the accuracy and justice of the charges
or the principles asserted by the mover—that it
implied a general acquiescence in his views ; Lord
GREY, however, adopted a more judicious course.
He consented to the appointment of the pro-
posed Committee, because he believed that
the result would be to disabuse men's minis
of a dangerous error, viz., that emigration could
T be made useful to the greatest imaginable extent.
I \laxly erroneous and unfounded opinions on the sub-
ji !ct are, unhappily, too prevalent. Certain classes in
I reland have been impressed with the most extrava-
g ant ideas on the point. They
,have looked upon
a large and extensive system of emigration as the
o my remedy for the ills of Ireland. They have de-
li berately stated that there can be no prosperity for
'eland until one-fourth of her population are trans-
ff to other shores—until two millions of people
tire banished from their native land ; that, for the
supposed benefit of Irish landlords, their estates are
to be cleared, their country depopulated at an expense
to the national Exchequer, or, in other words, to the
English taxpayer, of some forty or fifty mil-
lion pounds sterling. Such was the scheme originally
brought forward and supported by many ,Members
eeinsi
)f either House of Parliament, and other influential
TEntlernan connected with Ireland. But whei2, at
ngrt h, the question
hte
db eifno riets tdheefenSceen, a toer,
ne ie it ang
voice briceuouplgiit repared to advocate
it to the extent that had previ-
-0 WY been urged. In fact, as
the Noble Lord had
s' meted it was utterly
It will not be the
land entirely repudiated.
t; se proposed inquiry ethasatt valuable. of the results of
c enered what is the it will at length be dis-
point re
inters and advocates of
emaig3l:aatilmed at by the sup-
-1 ha y really desire to go. It will pni;i toth what extent
son le certain propositions, the fallacy ofmwhic4owhn to
real lily be exposed. Hitherto they have
ar~uteaedn
that .t the population of our sister island is too n er_
ous for fits resources, that an adequate supply of food
cannot hie raised in the country for the maintenance

of i inhabitants, and that, consequently, nothing
cga. be efficacious but the removal of the aurplus

" WHAT JS A POUND ?" Assuredly the riddle of
Sphinx was not more bewildering or inexplicable
than this simple inquiry, if we may estimate its dif-
ficulty by the diversity and contradiction of the an-
swers given by modern financiers. A pound! why,
the colour of the chamelion has not been provocative
of more opposite assertions. For all that could be
adduced from the perverse definitions of this incom-
prehensible thing—a pound—by those who are pre-
sumed to be deeply versed in the monetary science,
we might as well endeavour to penetrate the Elusy-
nean mysteries, to solve the variations in the magnet,
to concoct the elixir vita, or to prove that mankind
has not in all ages been most credulous and most ex-
travagant.
Until we have arrived at some definite understand-
ing, however, as to the signification of a pound it is
hopeless to expect anything like sound or even safe le-
gislation in regard to national finance. Sir R. PEEL
has assumed to himself a species of despotism in
regard to the Currency : it is natural, therefore, that
to him public curiosity should be first directed for
some explicit interpretation of this awfully mysteri-
ous monosyllable. Sir ROBERT PEEL has given his
interpretation—three years ago he gave it—repeatedly
since then he has given it ; but such an interpretation !
such an ingenious jumble of paradoxes, such an
eccentric puzzle of words, as left the original ques-
tion as invisible as a needle in a bottle of hay.
Arguing from the premise that a pound (a nominal
pound) of gold is 123.1-274 grains of gold, Sir
ROBERT PEEL maintained that the meaning of a
pound is literally " a definite quantity of gold with a
mark upon it to determine its weight and fineness."
Remember, he asserted this upon the premise that a
pound is fixed at 123.1-274 grains of gold; and he
asserted, almost in a simultaneous breath, that an
ounce of gold being legally determined to be of the
value of 3/. 17s. 100., an ounce of gold and a pound
of silver must be considered as equivalent, or, in
other words, that the signification of an ounce of gold,
being estimated by law at the sum of 3/. 17s. 10fd.,
is simply the expression of the value of gold relatively
with silver. While uttering these opinions Sir RO-
BERT coolly knocks the ground from under himself,
cracks the reed upon which he is leaning, by con-
fessing that silver can no longer be regarded as a
standard of value—that, in short, the silver coinage
is at present " a mere token," seeing that the
value of silver has fluctuated within recollection
from 625. to 665. per pound ! Was ever magnificent
castle in the air so instantaneously demolished, and
that, moreover, by its very fabricator ? Why, if
silver coinage is a mere token, gold coinage must
equally be a mere token ! If silver generally varies
in value, a pound ;of silver must vary in value,
and consequently a fluctuating pound of silver
cannot by possibility be the equivalent of an unfluc-
tuating ounce of gold ! The meaning of an ounce of
gold at 3/. 17s. 10id. Sir R. PEEL defines, as we
have already stated, to be merely the expression of
its relative value to silver. J therefore, the value of
silver is variable, the value of gold, as it is rated
proportionately with silver, must necessarily be
mutable in like manner. Already has Sir ROBERT
considered a pound as being composed of 123.1-274
grains of standard gold, and he has declared that
quantity to have been decided upon from the circum-
stance of the pound of account having been formerly,
namely, in the reign of WILLIAM the CON-
QUEROR, literally a pound (weight) of silver.
Yet this lesser metal, by which the more precious
metal; is estimated, cannot, he acknowledges, be
viewed as anything more than a mere token, because
its value fluctuates like that of any baser commodity.
From first to last, throughout Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
explanation, there is an utter chaos of contradictions,
and paradoxes, and prevarications. From first to
last it is manifest that his arguments are based upon
premises of inherent rottenness. From first to last
it is certain that a pound is not, as he maintains, an
actual thing—an existent fact—a visible and repre-
sentable substance, but that it is, on the contrary, a
;fiction—an ideal and suppositious medium—a phrase
used conventionally and symbolically.
From the root, therefore, from the very founda-
,sons, the present system of the Currency, as modelled
and constructed by Sir ROBERT PEEL, is un-
nound and untenable. From the root, from
tbe very foundations, it must be remodelled
and reconstructed. In another column will be
focund a communication from a provincial banker
pointing out the urgent necessity for some combined
ef brt to insure a gigantic alteration in the national
Currency, and especially directing attention to the
upportunity afforded for that effort by the approach-
ing general election. The suggestion is admirably
timed and is eminently entitled to consideration.
Meanwhile the electors throughout the kingdom
should weigh the matter seriously in the balance.
They should probe the wounds caused in our Credit
by the Bank Charter Bill of 1844, the causes of which
are conclusively set forth in a brief but emphatic
-pamphlet by Mr. CHARLES ENDERBY. At the county
and borough hustings let not the late financial in-
volvements be forgotten.

retters from Rome, dated the 27th ult., state that
the Rev. Dr. MILEY and Mr. DANIEL O'CONNELL
had arrived there, bearing with them the heart of the
late Mr. O'ComiELL, enclosed in a silver urn.
"No words can describe," say thotli letters, "the
grief and disappointment that was experienced at the
announcement of O'Connell's death. A triumphal entr
was pre pared fur him. The compartments of the arch under which he was to pass were reedy, and every other
arrangement made to receive him, rather as a prince
than as a pilgrim. The stroke which crushed all our
hearts has deranged all this, and the glowing enthu-
siasm which busied itself about his triumphal entry
is sorrowfully but earnestly engaged in preparing for
the grand requiem which is to be celebrated for his
eternal repose on the 15th June in one of the chief Ba-
silicas of Rome. Padre Ventura, the brightest ornament
of the pulpit in Italy, is preparing the funeral oration.
An audience is to be granted to the Rev. Dr. Miley
and Mr. Daniel O'Connell immediately on the return of
Pius IX. from Suliaco, for which place his Holiness
started this morning at three o'clock. Half Rome has
followed him. The Pope's own suite and guard were
small, but their deficiency was more than compensated
for by the sixty or eighty young Roman nobles and
gentlemen, who turned out splendidly mounted and
appointed as a volunteer body-guard for their Sove-
reign, wtio reigns supreme in every heart. His Holi-
ness is not expected to return before Tuesday next. In
the iaterim the heart of O'Connell is deposited in the
ancient church of St. Agatha, which is served by the
Irish college, where, on Monday next, a solemn re-
quiem is to be celebrated for the departed. whose death
has plunged the venerable prelate, the Very Rev. Dr.
Cullen, who presides over the college, and his commu-
nity into the bitterest grief."
The POPE has appointed five new Cardinals, two
French (the Archbishops of Cambrai and Besancon),
and three Italian—M. ANTONELLI, Treasurer; M.
BUPONDI, Prolegate at Ravenna ; and M. FoarrAar,
the Pontifical Nuncio in Paris."

A Berlin letter states that on the 28th ult. the
whole of the Court, the Foreign Ministers, and seve-
ral members of the two Orders of the States of
Prussia, had the honour of dining with the KING at
Potsdam, in honour of the birthday of the Queen of
ENGLAND. This is the first time that this mark of
respect towards her Britannic MAJESTY has been
shown in Prussia.

A letter from Munich, of May 27, says—" The
news lately given by the journals, that the KING in-
tended to separate the administrative power from the
judicial, turns out to be exact. Yesterday, the anni-
versary of the granting of the Bavarian constitution,
hi MAJESTY, after a Cabinet Council of three hours'
duration, gave orders to have this great and salutary
measure carried in to effect. At the same time the
KING is-sued an ordcnnance, enacting that the pro-
ceedings in all the couits of law, civil and criminal,
uhould he public."

We quote the following (min the Speller Gazette:—
"It is said that the Emperor Nicholas about to do
an act of generosity towards Imola Poles as have been
condemned for political offences. Those who have been
exiled to Siberia, and whose estates have been confis-
cated, are to be allowed to return into the kingdom, and
re-enter into possession of their property."

The intelligence from
Ti Lisbon, brought by the
ger, the arrival of which at Southampton we an-
mounced yesterflay, is to the 29th ult. The Bulldog
arrived from Engiand on the 27th, and was supposed

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