The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-04 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

XII. Revolution of Fructidor. September 11,
1797.
XIII. Revolution of Prairial. May 25, 1799.
XIV. Revolution of Brumaire. Nov. 8.
XV. NAPOLEON made Emperor. May 18, 1804.
XVI. Restoration of the Bourbons. May, 1814.
XVII. Return of the EMPEROR. March 20,
1815.
XVIII. Re-acceptance of the Bourbons. July.
XIX. Rise of the Citizen King. July, 1830.
XX. Proclamation of the Republic. February
24, 1848.

With such unprecedented vicissitudes in the go-
vernment of France, and with a still more vivid
because a more immediate, remembrance of the
changes which have occurred since the Revolution of
February, it would be madness to look forward,
without a profound sense of trepidation, to the
futurity awaiting the newly modelled Republican
Constitution. When we bear bin mind the ardour
already evinced by the different classes and shades of
politicians in the French capital—the Legitimists,
the advocates of a Regency, the Bonapartists, the So-
' cialists, the Ultras or Red Republicans, the Communists,
the Fourierists, the St. Simonians, the Mountaineers,
the Prudhonists, the Absolutists, and the Utopian
dreamers, whose bubble is called Socialite—when we
remember, moreover, that the foremost of the Mode-
rates, the only party whose ambition arises from a
genuine and unsophisticated patriotism, are repaid
with ingratitude and calumny, it is impossible for us
to be over-sanguine as to the prospective permanence
of the proposed constitution. We can only yearn
with all the earnestness of an ardent sym-
pathy to behold the peaceful consolidation of
France, the systematic establishment of her
Government, and the lasting security of her Constitu-
tion. While we pronounce these aspirations we would,
nevertheless, if possible, remind the men of Paris of
a fact which has been already recognised by the
electors of Ma9on. We would remind them that the
historian of the Girondists has shown by his adminis-
tration of three months' duration—an inverval during
which the wave of his finger might have
worked the weal or the woe of Republican
France that he has not studied in vain
the records of the First Revolution. He saw that
the bane of France throughout that appalling epoch
of blood and spoliation, when the Guillotine was the
Juggernaut of the Parisians, and when the Executive
was transformed into a mere Machine of Murder ;
LAMARTINB saw that the agony of France throughout
that ghastly era arose solely and wholly from the in-
dulgence of jealousy, envy, and hatred among the
different parties, and even among the different indi-
viduals who constituted the Senate of Repub-
lican Legislature. LAMARTINE recognised this
in the records of the Royalists, the Giron-
dists, the Dantonists, the Herbertists, and the
Terrorists indiscriminately—and therefore, to prevent
the renewal of this great danger, he not only accom-
panied the proclamation of the Republic with the
initiative decree, abolishing the punishment of death for
political offences, but he resolved, at all hazards, to
abstain from party prosecutions, even though it led in
the end to his own discomfiture. LAMARTINE has
kept his resolve with religious exactitude, and the
consequence has been that every action in his illus-
trious career as an Administrator has been misappre-
hended and misconstrued. Let the citizens of the
French Republic con that career scrupulously, and
let them meditate in time whether it bears not
throughout remarkable evidences of the calmest wis-
dom and the noblest humanity.

The first great want of Ireland, the true cure for
the sufferings she has undergone—and, we regret to
say, is still enduring—is most undoubtedly the de-
velopment of her industry, the affording of full and
adequate employment ;to the myriads :of labourers
who are now unproductively consuming the national
resources, in place of being the producers and
creators of national wealth. Labour is the only true
foundation and basis of capital, which really consists
of nothing but hoarded and accumulated labour in
various shapes. Now, it is manifestly a false eco-
nomy to permit that labour to remain useless and
unproductive while there are fields to be cultivated,
waste lands to be reclaimed, bogs to be drained, peat
to be converted into fuel, minerals to be extracted
from the bowels of the earth ; fish to be captured in
the depths of the ocean ; or articles of various kinds
conducive to the comfort or happiness of mankind
to be manufactured. As we have not as yet arrived
at that refinement of political economy, which would
suffer those who are unable to earn their own sub-
sistence to perish of starvation, as they must be sup-
ported whether they remain perfectly idle, or actively
occupied in useful and beneficial pursuits, it is surely
a wiser and more judicious policy to obtain the returns
which they are both able and willing to give, and not
to permit a sinful waste of the means at our disposal,
a burying in the earth of the talent with which we
are entrusted.

There is, however, one insurmountable obstacle to
the development of Irish industry, which cannot be
removed, so long as our present monetary code con-
tinues in existence. The circulating medium—the
currency of the country—is utterly inadequate to its
wants and exigencies. Without a sufficient quantity
of the representative of value, its industry languishes
and declines. It is the motive power that sets the
wheels of the state machine in action, and keeps the
various parts of the general body in healthy and bene-
ficial operation. A glance at the recent returns of the
average circulation of the Irish banks will show
how utterly disproportioned to the number of in-
habitants, to the taxation of the country, and to
the mines of wealth that remain dormant and unde-
veloped, is the amount of currency within that part
of the United Kingdom. It appears, then, that the
entire circulation of Ireland, on the average of the
four weeks ending 12th August last, amounted to
4,313,3041. only, and as the authorised circulation
of these Irish banks, sanctioned by law, amounts
to 6,354,4941., it follows that the Irish banks
are below their fixed issues no less than
than 2,041,1901.—0 r nearly one-third of the entire
amount. Does not this simple fact fully explain the
poverty and wretchedness of the country—the absence
of employment, the increase of poor-rates ? The
very life blood of industry is wanting. Money is
scarce and dear, and every branch of product is
withered and dried up in consequence of that
scarcity.
In estimating the amount of currency that would be
required in Ireland, the peculiar circumstances of
that country should be borne in mind. In England the
authorised circulation, exclusive of that which is based
on gold, amounts to 22,290,3761. sterling; in addition
there is that which is issued against gold and silver,
which on the average amounts to at least eight or ten
millions more say, in round terms, at least
30,000,000/. of notes, fur carrying on the general
business of the country ; but as these notes are all of
the larger denomination, none under 51. being sane
tioned, a very considerable amount of gold, not less
than from thirty to thirty-five millions sterling, re-
mains in the hands of the public, circulating from
hand to hand. This alone gives a currency amount-
ing to sixty-five millions for England alone,
without taking into account the amount of business
transacted by means of bankers' cheques and bills of
exchange, which form additional representatives of
value to an extent wholly unknown in Ireland, and
far beyond the proportion which the relative wealth
and profit of the two countries would seem to re-
quire. But at the other side of the Channel a gold
currency is comparatively unknown—small notes
circulate in place of sovereigns. A certain quantity
of gold is retained in the Bank to meet the absurd
requirements of the recent Act; but it is never
sought for, or required, except by parties
who withdraw it for the purpose of hoarding. As a
general medium of exchange the one-pound note is
greatly preferred, both in Scotland and Ireland, to the
sovereign. The 4,313,3041., therefore, performs all
the functions which it takes 65,000,0001. to discharge
here ; or, in other words, a population, one-half of
that in England, is obliged to be satisfied with a cur-
rency one-fifth of what we find too little for the ge-
neral purposes of our country. This, it is, that
paralyses the commerce and the industry of the
island, and occasions that lamentable neglect of the
magnificent natural resources which it possesses.
IVe have ourselves witnessed too recently the cala-
mitous results of a contraction of the currency. 'We
have seen that the withdrawal of six or seven millions
of gold, end the consequent diminution of the circulat-
ing medium by perhaps one- tenth of its total amount,
had the effect of depreciating the value of every de-

scription of property, and brought thousands to the
verge of bankruptcy. What, we ask, must be the
conlition of Ireland when one third of its entire cur-
rency has been withdrawn within a brief period ?
Does it not account for all its sufferings and wretch-
edness ?

What is to be the cure for this monster evil ? How
can we stimulate the industrial energies of the coun-
try? How afford it a currency sufficient to bring
into active employment its now useless and unpro-
ductive labour ? We believe that it is perfectly
practicable to do so, and that such a currency would
be fully as safe as any based upon bullion; that the
labour of Ireland could be fully occupied, and the
destitute poor fed, without any appeal to the bounty
or to the compassion of England.