The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-31 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

certainly not weakened by the consideration that, I
according to external appearances, it is just now the
winning side—we are far more solicitous not to part
company with truth and good sense. As it seems
to us that a large portion of the proceedings of ti e
free-trade demonstration of Thursday last, reported
in our paper of Saturday, shows much more of en-
thusiarn than of sober judgment, we have no alter-
native but to say so. We do not believe that the
free-trade cause has anything to gain by hasty and
passionate exaggerations of the benefits which com-
mercial liberty undoubtedly has in store for Europe
and the world. Nor can we think that the merited
reputation and influence of its promoters will be per-
manently enhanced by a refusal to deal practically
with a practical question of grave public import.
For this is positively all that we can make out of
the speeches of Mr. Cobden and his friends, so far
as regards the subject of national security. They do
not look on the matter as worth a serious thought.
It having recently become a subject of much
anxious doubt whether our existing means of national
self-defence are sufficient or insufficient for the pur-
pose for which alone any national defences can be
reasonably maintained in time of peace—namely, to
avert the first disastrous consequences of an unex-
pected quarrel with an armed neighbour, and to
ensure the country against being taken quite by sur-
prise in such a contingency--our Manchester free-
traders get up, and say they do not care whether the
defences are sufficient or not. They sneer very
heartily—more heartily, perhaps, than consists with
good taste and correct feeling—at the highly profes-
sional authorities by whom the doubt has been started,
but they contribute nothing whatever towards re-
moving it. Their principle is to let the whole thing
take its chance. Sufficient or insufficient as these
same national defences may be for the purpose for
which they are kept up, the doctrine of our Manchester
friends is, that in no case shall any attempt be made
to improve them. One gentleman was just tolerated
in the remark, that this country must, for the present,
keep up " a certain armament," because " the world,
as a whole, has not arrived at such a state as to enable
us to do without it ;" but it was more than Mr.
Milner Gibson could venture on, to add, that if this
" certain armament" were palpably inadequate to its
end, it ought to be put on a footing more in accord-
ance with the necessities imposed by the " state of
the world as a whole." By other and more influential
speakers all consideration of the sufficiency or insuffi-
ciency of our national armament is flatly ignored.
Mr. Cobden, in particular, unconditionally pledges
himself to divide the House against any proposal—no
matter by what arguments it may be supported—.
for adding one shilling to the naval and military esti-
mates. He even allows himself to be hurried
into saying, that " this is the real question—
will you have an increase to your army, navy, and
ordnance ?" Mr. Cobden, like other men of first-rate
intellectual power, is so much in the habit of stating
the views of his opponents correctly, that we are
greatly surprised at this piece of carelessness. The
" real question" is, whether army, navy, and ord-
nance, severally and collectively, are, in their present
state, adequate or inadequate for the contingencies
which they are intended to meet. Mr. Cobden of
course has his grounds for thinking this question so
utterly unimportant as not to deserve a serious thought,
one way or the other. Prudent people will jw.ige of
their validity. The Honourable Gentleman refuses to
listen to argument on the subject of the sufficiency of
our existing national defences, because he considers
that since the repeal of the corn-laws war is as
good as impossible. lie and his friends had always
put the case for commercial freedom strongly on the
ground of the inevitable pacific tendencies of that line
of policy, and it is a " shock to his feelings" to see
people going about and proclaiming that those ten-
dencies are no absolute guarantee for the world's
peace. He Iselieves that the common interests created
and cemented by free commercial intercourse are
naturally potent enough to overbear diplomatic and
national jealousies ; and he cannot endure that
anybody should betray the smallest misgiving
as to the completeness and sufficiency of a
European reconciliation which has been in pro-
gress exactly one year and a half. Mr. Cobden is of
opinion, Ithat because Great Britain has just taken
the first decisive step towards a revolution in the
commercial ideas and policy of Europe, which re-
volution, when consummated, will have a powerful
tendency towards the establishment and perpetuity
of universal peace, therefore Great Britain may
forthwith regard war as a contingency which there
is no earthly occasion to be prepared for. He is
further of opinion that the French people, in parti-
cular, are essentially unmilitary in their ideas and
dispositions. They "have gone through a process
which almost disqualifies them from going to war "--
the process, namely, of a social revolution that has
greatly equalised the distribution of property and the
pressure of taxation—and have consequently "a most
sensitive feeling with regard to the expense of
going to war." Tnis last position the Honourable
Gentleman omits to illustrate by pointing to the
excessive unpopularity of Algerian "glory," and
the difficulty cf bringing the Chambers to keep
the standing army of 350,000 men on a decent foot-
ing. Even though it is Mr. Cobden who says it, we
may safely venture to hold ourselves excused from
the necessity of gravely controverting such a state-
ment as that the French people—meaning, of course,
the politically active and influential classes of the
French people—are, on fiscal or any other grounds,
" di,qualified" for war. But we must put in a word
against the extraordinarily bold assumption which
forms the gist of the Honourable Gentleman's plea for
ii -
rheliy-p-a esi-s ihat certain beneficent "tendencies,"
which undoubtedly attach to a policy of commercial
freedom, may be already relied on as confidently as if
they were realised results—in other words, that a vast
revolution in European opinion and feeling does not re-
quire time for its accomplishment—does strike us as
one of the most marvellous hallucinations that ever got
the mastery of a man's sober judgment. What an
astounding disproportion between premises and con-
clusion ! When Mr. Cobden has just been obliged,
like the rest of us, to confess plainly that unfore-
seen circumstances have thus far prevented the
other and simpler " tendencies " of free-trade le-
gislation from taking the shape of practical results,
he has not the smallest hesitation in treating indi-
rect and comparatively remote tendencies as if they
had realised themselves already. Before the nations
and Governments of Europe have given any satisfac-
tory evidence, speaking generally, that they even un-
derstand our new commercial policy, or look on it as
much more than a splendid bet dubious experiment,
the Honourable Gentleman talks as if it had already
revolutionized the whole European mind. We must
again say, that when we consider how many centuries
Europe has been in possession of a common rule of
faith and practice, common moral ideas, and common
religious beliefs and expectations, and how far the
" tendencies" inherent in these still are from producing
their natural results, it does seem a prodigious rash-
ness to build national security on the moral tenden-
cies of a commercial policy which has not yet had
time even to work out its primary economic tendencies.
Perhaps this self-deception is no more than natural
in a gentleman who has recently been seeing nearly
' all Europe on its best and most amiable side. But
a man like Mr. Cobden should be able to appreciate
more accurately the practical political value, for
present purposes, of demonstrations half of cour-
tesy and half of sympathy ;proceeding everywhere
from minorities of enlightened men, in advance of
their age. One portion of the lion. Gentleman's
speech we cannot allude to without pain. The terms
in which he spoke of the Duke of Wellington could,
we should think, only be agreeable to that portion of
his auditors whose admiration he would least value.
How is it that one great man cannot be just and
generous to another great man, of a different order
of greatness ? Why must Mr. Cobden speak of the
Duke of Wellington with that sort of unappreciating
and narrow-minded contempt with which the Duke
of Wellington would, we fear, speak of Mr. Cobden ?
Perhaps this contracted and exclusive way of think-
ing is natural to the practical order of genius ; still
one would have liked, had it been possible, to see our
free-trade leader capable of putting a handsome con-
struction on the motives and acts of the
brave old man whose most conspicuous public
service was to terminate a twenty years' war, and lay '
the foundations of a thirty years' peace.
POST.—The great free-trade meeting at Man-
chester seems to have been little better than an ex-
plosion of ignorant folly on the subject of the policy
of national defences. In this herd of donkeys, the
bray of the Vice-President of the Board of Trade
appears to have been the longest, and that of Mr.
Cobden was probably the loudest. The whole affair
was utterly disgraceful to persons walking on two
legs and pretending to the exercise of rational facul-
ties. According to Mr. Milner Gibson and Mr.
Richard Cobden, we ought to believe that the French
nation does not and cannot foster hostile feelings
against the English nation, and that, even if the
power existed to make a successful attack upon us,
the will does not! Now, we humbly submit that
the utterance of such folly as this is excusable only
in the lowest imaginable stages of ignorance. We
may pardon the dull, doltish dreamer when he
dreams of his own little interests or prejudices, but
here is a matter which concerns the national security
and honour; and the utterance of such stuff as we
have adverted to, on such a subject, is merely dis-
gusting.. In such a matter our business is to learn
the practical truth, and to act from knowledge, not
from the cosmopolitan sentiment of the mere dealer
and chapman. It is natural that the mere nterchaet
should wish for universal and continual peace, that he
may sell his wares with the more security; but it is
exceedingly stupid that because he wishes for this he
should assume that there is no probability of war.
It is hardly necessary for us to say that every rational
person who has travelled abroad, or has examined the
ordinary sources of intelligence on the subject, must
be-aware that the hostile feeling of the French nation

to the English nation is as strong as ever it was. '
Even the French who are most intimate with the
English abroad, and who respect them most, do not
therefore abandon their hostility to the British nation.
They think it would be unpatriotic to do so, and France
has not become, nor is not likely to become, so ex-
tremely mercantile as to abandon her patriotic senti-
ment. It is, moreover, though a trite saying,
extremely true, that the best way to preserve peace
is to be prepared for war. Of course it would be ab-
surd to make our preparations for a possible war on
as large a scale as our proceedings in the ease of
actual warfare. No one seeks to rush into the ex-
tremes which the silly free-trade brawlers talk about,
now that their free trade policy has been dis-
covered to be a " shadow and a sham," upon which
it is inconvenient to dwell. But he is no better than
an idiot who does not perceive that even upon th
mere pounds, shillings, and pence view of the ques-
tion, we shall do much wiser to be prepared for re-
sistance, and thus to deter those who might be dis-
posed to attack us, than to suffer the terrific loss which
even the smallest amount of success by an invading
force would be sure to occasion.

REVIEW OF THE MONEY MAR-
KET FOR THE MONTH OF JANUARY, 1848.

There has been a most striking contrast between
the condition of the money market during the present
month, and its condition at almost any period during
the preceding year and a half, but especially during
the last six months. There has been a return in no
slight degree of the phenomena which distinguished
the experience of 1843 and 1844, and the difficulty
has not been with borrowers on good security to find
lenders ; but I,s ith lenders confining themselves to
such conditions to find borrowers. In other words,
there has been a partial return of that superabun-
dance of ready capital, which, a few weeks ago, in the
opinion of many acute people, was a most unlikely
event. The Bank returns hereafter quoted will show
that at five per cent. the directors experience
an exceedingly small demand fbr advances, and
there is a general complaint among the dis-
count houses that employment for their funds in
the negotiation of good paper is a matter of very great
difficulty. There is no doubt, that in the somewnat
fastidious classification which distinguishes this " good
paper," rests no small share of the impediment. The
events of October are still too recent to permit the
free circulation of any bills which are not of a very
superior description, and while it is quite true that
there would be no difficulty in placing funds in the
discount of ordinary trade acceptances, we can easily
understand that there may be a very limited demand
for accommodation among houses of first class emi-
nence. The phrase, therefore, of cheap money must
be read subject to an important reservation. Money
is very cheap only to a very select class. It is gra-
dually becoming cheaper to the general body of those
who habitually find employment for by far the largest
portion of it.
Encouraged, and, we think, justly encouraged, by
the returning ease of the money market, the railway
companies have resumed a vigorous prosecution of
their works, and the periodical " calls" are again be-
coming of large amount. The calls advertised for
the last and present month have been—
December, 1847 .. £2,358 670
January, 184$

£7,035,745

We never concurred in the vehement clamour
raised against the railway companies as the parents—
almost the exclusive parents —of all the mischief
which signalised the early part of the autumn. We
have from the first regarded the railway expenditure
as purely a question of degree, and we can only re-
peat now, what we have already stated more than
once, that an outlay of about 25 millions per annum,
so long as the country is kept free from artificial
panics and pernicious Legislative interference with
its banking economy, will be a source not of danger
but of prosperity and safety. We entertain a strong
opinion that the severe shock sustained in October can
be traced by the clearest evidence to the mischievous
operation of the present Bank Charter Act.
The decline of the rate of interest has of course
forced up the price of the Public Funds, and the im-
provement in their value has also been aided by other
circumstances. A suspicion has got abroad, either on
good or bad foundation, that the accounts of several
of the leading railway companies have been very
loosely managed, and statements are made that in
some cases a fictitious appearance of prosperity has
been kept up by the payment of dividends, not out of
actual profits, but out of subscribed capital. We have
no means of judging how far these suspicions have
any just foundation, but at all events they have not
failed to influence the price of railway property most
prejudicially; we observe, for example, that from the
middle of December to the present time, while the
price of Consols and Exchequer-bills has increased
some three or four per cent., the value of the shares
of the London and North-Western, the Lancashire
and Yorkahire, and several other prineirmi
railway, has either been stationary or has receeded.
If this unfavourable symptom should lead to its pro-
per and legitimate consequence of a full and patient
investigation of the concerns of each company, the
benefit will greatly outweigh the inconvenience. The
next month will witness most of the half-yearly meet-
ings, and our advice to all persons interested in rail-
way property shall at least he brief and practical:—
Attend the meetings yourselves, and if you are not
satisfied with what you hear do not hesitate to say so.
The near approach of the session of Parliament has
naturally directed the attention of the Stock Ex-
ther,,h,hil;ts, ~c rt ft•-•,-I;rlff r.f -Exchequer-
bills. It is alleged that the quantity in circulation
has been shown by the weakness of the market on so
many occasions to be excessive, that for the sake of
its own credit the Government will scarcely venture
to run the hazard of this portion of their obligations
falling to a discount, or being retained above par only
by a rate of interest considerably higher than is paid
on the funded debt. There is considerable force in
this argument ; but the present Chancellor of the
Exchequer has a peculiarity of vision which does not
always see things in the same light as the rest of the
world, and it will not surprise us to see him try the
experiment of leaving the quantity untouched and
reducing the rate of interest.—Bankers' Magazine.

ANTI-GOLD LAW LEAGUE.—We find in Douglas
Jerrolds Weekly IVewspoper of Saturday tho following
answer to the question asked by Mr. Dickinson, in his
letter of the 25th of January, which appeared in The
Sun of Thursday evening last. Mr. Dickinson asked—
" Why did Mr. Benuoch disguise from Mr. Cobden,
that one of the objects of the Anti Gold law League is
to sebstitute a silver standard at the fixed price of ss. 6d.
per ox. for the present gold standard at :3/. 17s. lOid.
per oz ?" To which the Editor of Douglas Jerrold
replies—" Mr. Dickinson is completely in error. The
League utterly repudiate a silver standard as well as a
gold standard. They insist on a piper pound, based on
the ss hole wealth of the nation, and convertible into
taxes as the standard of value. It is to be I,.oped that
Mr. Dickinson will make himself master of facts before
he again appears before the public as a censor."
MYSTERIOUS ALLUSION TO A HIGH CITY Mall-
CANTILE HOUSE.—Some reports have been in general
circulation in the City, within the last three days, re-
flecting upon an eminent mercantile house, and stating
that a private investigation was going forward at the
Mansion House on the subject. It has also been stated
in a newspaper that a warrant had been issued against
the parties to whom the calumnious allusion has been
made. We have made inquiry as to the alleged mys-
terious investigation, and find that there is no inquiry on
foot, that no private examination has taken place, and
that no warrant has been issued. We have been given
to understand, from the best authority upon the subject,
that some application was made, about a week ago, to
the Lord Mayor, which was founded upon an entire
misapprehension, and his Lordship at once, after hearing
the explanation of the parties who applied, refused all
interference whatever.—Observer.

ACCIDENT ON THE RIVER.—OR Saturday night
sh(,rtly after eight o'clock an accident occurred at Lon-
don-bridge, by which two persons lost their lives. It
appears that a lighter laden ith sand, called the
Charles, belonging to Mr. Reading, of Bankside, was
cornieg up the river with the tide, having five men on
board, and upon reaching London-bridge the men were
unable to lower the mast in time to pass under the
bridge, the lighter ran with violence against the centre
arch and canted over. The men were all thrown into
the water, three were picked up, but the other two were
unfortunately drowned.
[ADvnwrisEmENT.]—A Gentleman, Sixty years of
age, cured of a dreadful bad leg by Holloway's Ointment
and Pills.—Mr. Nicholas Page, residing at Newsham,
had been suffering for three years with wounds on his
leg of a most awful nature, to cure which he tried a great
variety of specifics, and consulted nearly every surgeon
within twenty miles of his house, yet all failed to give
relief ; as a last resource he used Holloway's famous
Ointment and Pills, which healed his leg in a few weeks.
In gratitude for the wonderful cure effected at his ad-
vanced age, he thus gives every publicity to the circum-
stance, that others may derive similar benefit.—Sold by
all druggists, and at Professor Holloway's Establishment,
244, Strand, London.
THE MURDER OF ELIZA DAVIS ELEVEN YEARS
Aoo.—On the 9th of May, 1537, a young woman named
Eliza Davis, barmaid to Mr. Wadley, the King's Areas,
Laxton-place, Frederick-street, Regent's-park, was
murdered in her master's house. The party upon whom
suspicion rested was said to be a modeller, who was in
the habit of frequenting the place; and for a long while
Inspector Aggs and Sergeant Pegler of the S division
were in quest of the said person without ever being able
to gain tidings respecting him. We have now good
reason for believing that there is at length a chance of
the hitherto mysterious affair being cleared up, Inspector
Tedman, of the D division, being in possession of some
very important particulars relative to the case, and cir-
cumstances of a strongly su-picious nature have recently
transpired tending to the conclusion that the sanguinary
act was not the work of the modeller above referred to,
but of another man, who at the time of the occurrence
lived in the immediate neighbourhood.
Two brothers, Francis and Jervis Roebuck, have
been committed at Huddersfield for robbing the mill of
Messrs. Starkey, in which one of them was a confidential
servant, of a quantity a wool.