The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-03 00:00:00

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LONDON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 184$.

The rate of interest at the Bank of England on
bills not having more than three months to run,
was yesterday reduced from 3k to 3 per cent. It
will, we believe, generally be conceded that the di-
rectors of the great national establishment should
not charge a higher rate of discount, or maintain a
higher price for money, than the various bankers and
great discount houses, by which they are surrounded,
and who are not entitled to any exclusive or extraor-
dinary privileges. It is yet notorious that for some
time past money could be obtained freely on first class
paper on easier terms than at the Bank of England.
If, therefore, the directors were not prepared to sacrifice
the business of the concern, to disregard altogether
the interests of the proprietors of Bank Stock, and to
report at the next half-yearly meeting, a divi-
dend becoming " small by degrees, and beau-
tifully [less," no other course remained but to
announce an immediate reduction. They have
already disgusted many of those who had been among
their best customers by the stringency of their
proceedings. Men who had successfully weathered
the storm, and fully and fairly
liability,
were denied the accommodation they t everytheyhadjust reason to
expect, and compelled to make heavy sacrifices, which
a more liberal spirit on the part a the directors would
which
was have rendered quite unnecessary. Thescrew,
was put on during a period of panic and general
sation of credit, was kept up to the fullest extent
when there could no longer be the slightest necessity
for a course so detrimental to the industrious classes
generally, and mere especially to all those in any
manner engaged in trade or manufactures, or earning
their daily bread by the sweat of their brows. The di-
rectors, however, attempted to keep up the artificial
scarcity of money at any loss to the proprietors,
whose interests it might have been supposed it was
their especial duty to protect. The Bank reserve
was increased to an extent far beyond the amount
which is generally considered to be fully sufficient for
the business of the Bank, and which might have been
issued to the public with the most perfect safety ;
while at the same time large sums were drawn in
every week from the public, to whom accommoda-
tion was meted out with a most nigiardly
and sparing hand. Private securities were
less and less in every week, until the
amount was reduced in less than one short year from
20,400,8971. to 10,847,210/., the first being the
average lent on private securities for the week ending
the aOth October, 1847, the latter fur the week end-
ing fhe 21st October, 1848.
Notwithstanding the above facts, which clearly
and unequivocally prove that the directors should
long since have adopted the course they have at
length so tardily pursued, there are to be found
persons, who condemn the proceeding, who would
desire for their own vile purposes that the
country should still be kept in a state
of difficulty and distress—that want of confidence
should be apparent on every side—that prices should k

be depreciated—mills and factories idle and deserted—
artizans and operatives unemployed—and everything
low and unremunerative, save the interest of money.
Those amiable men, the Moneyocracy of the country,
loudly complain of the reduction, proclaim the impro-
priety and inexpediency of the Bank giving the signal
for security, and thus taking the game out of their
hands. They cavil and fret because the
directors have " for the nonce," disregarded
their narrow and restricted views, to which
they have too long been the slaves, and dared to fol-
low the path which a due consideration of the inte-
rests of the Bank proprietary, and of the community
in general, simultaneously indicated. They cannot
conceal their vexation and disappointment, and,
forgetful of the adage, " they bark where they are
unable to bite." Those prejudiced and narrow-
minded men may, however, be treated with silent
contempt. The motives by which they are actuated
are too palpable to deceive even the most cre-
dulous. The nation will not be deterred by
their croakings from taking full advantage
of the improved prospects—of the more pro
pitious seasons—" the good time coming "—which
we hope and believe to be at hand. They will not be
permitted to realise their own forebodings, to accom
plih the evil they prophecy with such intense anxiety
for the fulfilment of their predictions. The public
may now be convinced of that which a careful ex-
amination of the Bank returns for some time past, and
of the general prospects of the country, would have
satisfied the more experienced, viz., that there is no
immediate danger of monetary embarrassments ; that
greater facilities for obtaining money at fair and reason-
able interest will be afforded ; that confidence and credit
will gradually improve until they are at length fully
re-established, and just and adequate prices may be
obtained for every description of property. We again
congratulate the public on the step that has been
taken by the directors of the Bank of England, a step
which was not only equitable in itself, and what the
country had a right to expect at their hands, but wise
and politic in the highest degree, and likely to
prove equally beneficial to the Bank itself and to
the nation.

Really the contradictions and perversities of judg-
ment displayed by the gentlemen who stickle for the
sanctification of the Sabbath are exceeding all reason-
able and bearable limits. We can endure the nui-
sance no longer. To squeeze the whole question into
the compass of a very portable proposition, we say for
once and for all—lf Mr. SO-AND-SO thinks that by
shaving his chin upon the Lord's day, he is acting
sinfully, why, in Heaven's name, let him go unshorn
until Monday morning, but for GOD'S sake don't
allow him the power of making his neighbour:
equally unclean by compulsion ? Were the whims o'
half-a-dozen frequenters of the conventicler to coun-
terbalance the will of the multitude, we should soon
enough have the whole fabric of society turned topsy-
turvy. We should exist upon biscuits and cold meat
fifty-two days in the year; we should be shivering
over our unlighted hearths for twenty-four hours in
every one of the weeks of winter ; we should have
not the permanent consecration of the Sabbath, but
the periodical stagnation of the community. N(
trains would run upon the railways, not an omnibus,
a stage coach, a cab, a hackney carriage, not

" A whisky, buggy, gig, or go-cart,
Curriele, or tand-m;"
nay, not even the most ramshackle brougham, the
most ricketty clarence, or the most unostentatious
chip of a wheelbarrow would break the monotony of
our streets on a Sunday. Sadness and silence would
descend upon the population of our great cities with
the bolting of the last shutter on Saturday nights.
Religion would doom horseflesh to the stables once
every seven days, and would unconsciously promote
the interest of the cobblers of England, Ireland, Scot-
land, and Berwick-upon-Tweed by the compulsory
trituration of shoe leather. Every line of traffic and
communication would be blocked up as effectually as
by the barricades of the Parisians. The cooking of a
cutlet would be prohibited as an infringement of the
Commandments. The receipt of a letter would add
an eighth to the seven deadly sins. The purchase o.
a newspaper would require for its expiation some.
thing more than the singeing influences of the
" purgatorial fires" mentioned by the ghost in
Hamlet. Now, we protest in teto against this enor-
mous humbug. We maintain, in defiance of di-
rectors of railways, of Secretary-KERS, of
PLIIMPTEES, of AGEEWS, and of all the other
godly individuals la ho are known under thr
soubriquet of Sabbatarians, we maintain, we say, in
defiance of all these very excellent gentlemen, the'
GOD never intended our souls to pass through life it.
a straight-waistcoat. The virtues inculcated by
Christianity are persuasive, not peremptory. We are
taught to be moral, not forced willi-nilli into this or
that pathway of excellence. One of the divinest
glories of the religion founded in Palestine is its non-
interference with the will exercised by humanity.
Had it been otherwise, twelve unlettered fishermen
would never have dissipated the sensuous charms of
Paganism. To found Christianity (such as it is de-
picted by the Sabbatarians of Scotland) would have
required an army greater than that of XERXES, a
cunning more profound than that Of MACHIAVELLI,
a military awe more overpowering than that of ALEX
ANDER, the resolution of CIESAR, the daring of Harm
HAL, and the dazzling pomps of NAPOLEON. As it was,
the Gentiles were lured into a recognition of the
divinity of CHRIST and of the truths of his religion,
not by arbitrary enactments and rigorous penalties,
but by the inspirations of eloquence, by the force cf
logic, by the purity of precepts, and by the witcheries
of example. But, No! The Sabbatarians can't, for
the life of them, perceive one atom of all this. The
truth which is as a shining light to the million is as
an impenetrable blackness to themselves. Oculos
habent, et non videbunt : aures habent, et non audient
nares habent, et non odorabunt. To them religion i 2
as something intimately dependent on the temporary
cessation of the labours of letter-carrying, engine-
driving, and the like diabolical operations. They are
in the minority, it is true ; but they are moreover (to
their own thinking) in the right—and therefore we
must down all of us on our marrow-bones and submit
to their adjudication.
Wait a moment, however, and let us see whether
these men, who expect the whole population of
the United Kingdoms to yield obedience, without a
murmur at the despotism of their evangelical whims,
are consistent with themselves and their theory !
They say that all Sunday travelling is sinful—end
yet they convey the mails very submissively on their
railways, and in so doing employ stokers, and guards,
and engine-drivers, and policemen, and a number of
other subordinates! They deny a daughter travel-
ling to the death-bed of a father a seat in one of the
empty carriages in a mail-train--and yet they convey
the letters, and those letters may be filled, for aught
they know to the contrary, with libels, and chal-
lenges, and and back-biting, and all abomina-
tions! One of the Sabbatarian lines is closed against
a Duchess—while another facilitates the journey of a
Queen! But here, take the following tidbit of
practical morality. It is the record of a number of
penalties inflicted only the other morning
publicans DAY.—Two or three licensed
mises beforegondraion'keilonegk
With
sunft were charged in the police-court on Saturday
itohfinthethfeaisrt_
day,
aonfdthetiatirlangoown that day haying been •
lawful authority.' mrseltapart for public worship by
for two of the parties, a.nd Robertson, solicitor, appeared
being a day set apart for public :c1 thath the fast-day, not
rity, no conviction could take piacores lrful autho-
r: oheriff Dick-
son, however, entertained a differen't opinion,
the complaints proven. Similar objeionsbajul found
taken by Mr. Robertson in cases Of the same description,
curring within the jurisdiction of the magistrafesu% 1?•
Tullis concurred in the opinion given by the :hear'lfh-
substitute. Penalties were imposed in all the cases."l -
And then read the subjoined paragraph as a testi-
mony of the consistency of these sanctimonious
money. makers.
" THE FAST DAY.—Thursday having been the half-
yearly sacramental fast, was observed in the city with
the usual solemnity, all the shops end other places cf
business being closed. The weather being fine, a con-
siderable number of people devoted the day to excursions
of pleasure, for which the various railways afforded every
facility. We learn that 6,450 passengers travelled by
fr
the Edinburgh and Northern Railway ; 5,000 by the
North British ; 1,500 by the Edinburgh and Glasgow ;
and 900 by the Caledonian. The Fast Day in Glasgow
having occurred on the same dey, there was less at trac-
tion to visit that city than hitherto ; but on the North
British Railway a source of amusement was found in
Gullane races, which took place on Thursday. The
various churches were in general well filled."
The deduction .from all this is too obvious to be
stereotyped. It reveals the perfect disinterestedness and
the inflexible consistency of the godly individuals called

Agnewites. Yet, as an additional token of their en-
lightenment we may observe that they have recently
exerted their energies to prevent the transmission of
the mails on all Sundays to and from Rothsay. On
those doomed days the steamboats shall no longer, if
they can help it, spoom across the Firth of Clyde on
such errands of Satan. Bute is to be closed against
the contamination of loving letters and impertinent
journals. The Sabbath, in that quarter at least, is
henceforth to be kept holy—a revival of the sanctity
and seclusion of the once famous Icolmkill. The
Sabbath ! And it is this day, encumbered with these
execrable and most un-Christian restrictions, which
is apostrophised by a Labourer's Daughter as The
Pearl of Days ! The Pearl of Days, forsooth I they
would soon render it the Curse of Weeks. But
enough of this. The scruples of a few superstitious
persons are not going to overrule the rational mo-
rality of twenty-six millions of human beings in the
middle of the nineteenth century. The extra agita-
tion of the Sabbatarians is only leading the more ra-
pidly and the more inevitably to their own final dis-
comfiture.

THE FRENCH REPUBLIC.

We have received the Paris papers of yesterday.

Wednesday, being All Saints Day, was observed
as a strict holiday in Paris, and consequently the
majority of the journals did not appear. Among
those published was the Demecratie Pacifique, which
states that several quarrels have occurred between►
the soldiers of the Gardes Mobiles and the soldiers of
the Line, and that conflicts have, in many instances,
ensued in which the ouvriers took part against the
Gerdes Mobiles. The Gardes Mobiles were on
Wednesday confined to their barracks in the Fau-
bourg Poissoniere to prevent the recurrence of these

In consequence of a difference of opinion among
the several members of the Clubs of the Rue de Poi-
tiers and the Institute, they have determined that, as
clubs, they, will abstain from recommending any
candidate.

M. TRIERS supports the pretensions of Lours NA-
POLEON BWIAPARTB, being moved thereunto by the
promise of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with, of
course, full power to " wcrk the telegraph," as usual.
Prince Louis NAPOLEON is already giving him-
self the airs of royalty—keeping himself aloe f
from the profane vulgar, transacting all business
through the intervention of his cousin, who acts as a
sort of Prime Minister to him, holding levees, grant-
ing audiences, contracting loans, and drawing up lists
of his future Cabinet. One of these Ministerial lists
gives the Foreign Affairs, as we before
stated, to TratERS, the Interior to ODILLON
BARROT, the Finance .to FOULD, War to OUDI-
NOT, Marine to DUPETIT THOUARS, Commerce to
LEON FAUCHER, the Post-office to EMILE DE GI-
HARDIN, and the Prefecture of Police to LEON DE
MaLLEvILLE. In fact, it is the Ministry of the old
Centre Gauche, which, presented by Louis PHILIPPE
to the people rs a peace offering on the 24th of Fe-
bruary, was rejected by them with contempt. The
only addition being the appointment of M. EMILE DE
GIRARDIN to an office of trust—an addition not at
all calculated to add tai the respzctebility or the sta-
bility of the proposed Bonaparte Cabinet.
General CHANGARNIER has published a letter, de-
claring that he will not permit himself to be nomi-
nated is a candidate for the Presidency of the
Republic.
A deputation of the wives of those who have been
condemned for taking pert in the insurrection of June
went through the streets of Paris yesterday, intend-
ing to present a petition for a general amnesty to the
National Assembly. The procession was stopped at
!he Pont de la Concorde by the police, and the peti-
tion was received by one of the officers and carried
to the Assembly, after which the women quietly
dispersed.
The following are the candidates, as far as hitherto
known, for the vacant seats in the National Assem-
bly the Charente-Inferieure, Marshal BUGEA.UD
and M. PAILLET ; in the Tarn, the Abbe DE GENOUDE
and M. FOREST; in Corsica, M. E. DE GIRARDIN,
the Able DE GENOUDE, and LUCIEN BONAPARTE ; in
the Yonne, MM. ALEXANDER DUMAS, FREDERICK
GAILLAEDAT, and PINARD; in Calvados, M. GUIZOT
is put forward, but without his own consent; no other
candidate has hitherto been started. The election
takes place on the 19th of November.
At the sitting of the Assembly yesterday the dis-
cussion on the revision of the Constitution was com-
menced. A motion by M. DEVILLE, to the effect
that the whole Constitution should be re examined
and re-voted by the Assembly, on the ground that
during the former discussion Paris was in a state of
siege, was, after a smart debate, withdrawn, and the
first eight paragraphs were agreed to. On the ninth
paragraph being proposed, M. FELIX PYAT moved,
as an amendment, that the clause recognising the
right to labour should he re inserted. The amend-
ment was, after a sharp and angry debate, rejected
by a majority of 562, the numbers being—for the
amendment 86, against it 638. The discussion on the
revision of the Constitution had not concluded when
the post left.
BOURSE, PARIS, THURSDAY, Nov. 2.
THREE O'CLOCII.—To-day there was again a heavy
tall at the Bourse, which is attributed entirely to the
uneasiness produced by the approaching election, and
the bad state of the finances of the Republic. After the
close of the Bourse the Five per Cents. fell to 671. 40c.
For the Account, the French Three per Cents. have
fallen 40c. ; Five per Cents. 50c. ; and the Lsan, 75c.
For Money, the Three per Cents. have also fallen 400. ;
the Five per Cents. have fallen 55c.; and the Loan 75c. ;
Bons du Ti ilor not quoted ; Bank of France Shares
have fallen 40c.; Belgian Bank Shares have fallen 5f.;
ditto Five per Cents. have fallen per cent. ; Spanish
Funds not quoted ; Roman has advanced I per cent. ;
Rothschild's Receipts are at 79. Exchange on London
(30 days), 25 45 ; ditto (90 days), 25 27h. Railway
Shares have again declined; Orleans have fallen 3f. 75c ,
and the Rouens 6f. 25c. In the others there is no mate-
rial change.
BUSINESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT TB
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, Nov. 2.
Boulogne and Amiens, 6%—Namur and Liege, 43,1.