The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-07 00:00:00

TILE SOUTH OF IRELAND.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Ste,—Being anxious to ascertain the exact state of
the south of Ireland, so as to be able to take a safe
course with reference to my commercial transactions in
that part of the kingdom, I visited all the towns sup-
posed to be in insurrection, including Ballingarry and
Killenaule. I slept at the later place last night.
Wherever I went I found all quiet, and the people
seemed to be averse to any movement that would dis-
tract their attention from the approaching harvest.
There was some excitement created by the rumours
that were in circulation in each place with reference to
what was ring on elsewhere, but it appeared to me to
be merely the excitement of curiosity amongst an idle
and wonder-loving people.
Every account of what has transpired has been grossly
exaggerated and falsified by the Irish press, and every
man you converse with on the subject of passing events,
official or otherwise, seems to think it his duty to make
out a case of desperate rebellion.
William Smith O'Brien has not as yet appeared in
arms with a view of destroying the English government
in Ireland. lie has simply been endeavouring
to protect himself from arrest. He has never
had two hundred people about him at any
one time, with the exception of the local mob
attracted by curiosity; when he has been in immediate
danger of arrest, he has thrown himself on the people
about him for protection, he has told them that on
account of his advocacy of their cause he is about to be
torn from his country, and treated as a felon. In an en-
deavour to prevent his being taken by a large party of
police at Ballingary two men were shot and two or three
wounded, and at the intercession of the priest the police
were permitted by the people to retire, upon condition
that no attempt was made to take Smith O'Brien, and in
half an hour afterwards the people were dispersed to
their homes, and Smith O'Brien again a fugitive. It is
certain that wherever O'Brien appears the people in the
locality will protect him ; but they will not rise in open
insurrection. Any person who knows Ireland, knows
that a mere rescue from the civil power, is in the view of
the people a very different thing from rebellion. Many
of those who were present told me that they would not
become rebels, they would not join in a rebellion against
the Queen, but that they would protect Smith O'Brien
as far as they could so long as he remained amongst
them. They said " Sure the ouldest blood
in Ireland trusted to the men of Ballingarry."
What could they do ? And I trust that when
the English press comments upon a movement
which may or may not prove to have been an attempt to
subvert British power in this country, they will not for-
get that the inhabitants of one of the most miserable,
poverty-stricken little villages in this wretched country
could have enriched themselves by giving up the three or
four men who fled to them for refuge, but that they were
proof against the temptation, and preferred poverty and
starvation to plenty basely acquired. I believe that if
Smith O'Brien is given up it will be by one of the shop-
ocracy or middle class of the country—not by the
peasantry; I have exhausted every means of gaining in-
formation on the spot where it could be obtained, and am
certain that
Smith O'Brien has hitherto only endeavoured to
preserve his liberty;
That no rebellion was intended at present;
That the revolutionary spirit was confined to a por-
tion of the least influential inhabitants of the towns,
and fomented by a seditious press, that wrote what it
thought would sell with a view to profit;
That the Government has either been acted upon by
exaggerated reports, or has availed itself of them as a
means of crushing agitation by a coup de main; and if life
not sacrificed I, for one, will say that the end justifies
;he means.-1 am, Sir, &c., B. F. LLOYD,
Cork, August 2, 1848.

DISTRIBUTION BETTER THAN
DIVISION.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sllt,—The only apologue which ought to be added
to £sop is one of Erasmus, comparing human nature
to a drunken clown, who, as fast as you help him up
on one side of his horse, falls over on the other.
" Dum fugiunt stulti vitia in contraria currunt."
"11 n'y a rien de si rare dans les sciences qu'une
certaine egalite de raisonnement qui fait qu'en
soutenant une proposition on laisse dans son entier
une autre—Vernacularly, " Two blacks don't make
a white." _ _

When laws are made by the paradoxically covetous
rich, there will be a tendency to accumulation which
no pulling of nests to pieces can cure, for, the divi-
sion being somewhat irregular, is repeated hourly.
The modest " Spence's Plan," which we semi-
centinarians remember, proposed an equal division of
land and moveables, repeating the operation of course
in a few years. Ledru Rollin was supposed to have
similar views. Possibly he embarked with aged
Dupont (de l'Eure) lest the vesssel should be too stiff
and not crank enough. Such personages as he and
Mitchel remind one of the bachelor Sampson Carrasco,
a figure painted with all the vividness of reality, as
if one had seen him before, rushing on the scene
full tilt, out-quixoting the Don himself. Like
Panurge, in the great French romance, he did no
harm to Pantagruel great and good, pio, junto, forta,
pacific° Lamartine, briefly exemplify ing the wish of
Plato, Rep. 5, cited by Rabelais. Happy the land
whose rulers philosophize and whose philosophers
rule. G argantua, the nursing father, might be Na-
poleon, or Pius IX., or both.
Accumulation can only be moderated by banks of
discount, and honest paper drawn by real sellers on
real buyers.
Knowing one to be a great sheep-master, you will
surely say—Those are pecuniary considerations.
Thi. is just revenons a nos moutons. Why talk of
currency now ? You are premature at least ; write
to me this day six n:onths. Not so, however. La-
martine's first measure was to set up a great discount
bank with branches everywhere, imitating Napoleon,
founder of the Bank of France, whose notes, accord-
ing to a statement by M. 'Driers, 1840, are not re-
ceived at public Treasuries ! which has kept
discounts at 4 per cent. during twenty years !!
and which in crises extends discounts immensely ! !
Thus Napoleon achieved his own principle, " Draw
from the repositories of wealth sufficient to supply all
who may want employment—this creates a sort of
market or sinking fund for labour, by which its price
may be kept up." The above sentence you printed
once to oblige me—iteration is a Homeric as well as
House of Commons' trope—few maxims so worthy of
being reiterated. Small notes are made for critical
times—in the meeting of our fleets they saved us and
carried us through the war. As the rumour only of
Lamartine's H. notes raised the French funds greatly,
so in our panic of 1825 they were received with ac-
clainations. Lamartine also suspended the converti-
bility; and, as in our Reform year, the " broadsides,"
To stop the Duke, go for gold," would have justi-
fied such a measure, so Lamartine in effect declared
he would wait till gold became a sign instead of a
juggle—till public disorder had ceased to make con-
vertibility an engine of terror, which against a good
strong Government is treason.
Sir It. Peel coining into office, 1841, found Bank
of England notes seventeen millions, raised them be-
fore April, 1i142, to eighteen and a half millions, and
by February, 1843, to twenty-one millions ! Sir
Robert's state-cratt was amusing; its effects still
more so—these might be enumerated, but at present
it is enough to remind you that, in 1843, Mr. Wak-
ley was " fascinated into paying his income tax,"
which, in 1848, he found unbearable. It was not the
Premier's well-deserved compliments—fair words
butter no parsnips. No, the increase of actual, prac-
tical, rational cash which Sir Robert, no doubt, took
care should be " for business and for return," floated
the Minister in, as the restriction of 1844 floated him
out, and the celebrated majority of 100 depended on
supplying us with market-money—any congestive
bankerhood to the contrary notwithstanding.
The socialist plan seems well intended and badly
managed. 'We must cure this rabies of accumulation
which excites the just fury of Chartists, but whose
remedy they mistake,. and rush into a course which,
destroying all confidence, sets the ouvrier still farther
down the stream. The object is not rabblementing
and division, but advances and distribution. Unless
a step is made in a right direction we shall soon be
brought to the place where nec vitia nec remedia pati
possumus. Goldsmith warned Egland in afr iendly
way, that—
The time may come, when, stripp'd of all her charms
The land of scholars and the nur.e of arms,
One sink of LEVEL AVARICE shall lie,
And scholars, soldiers, kings, unhonoured die."
Your great leveller is moral death, avarice tri-
umphant, "eternal naught,p and man's digestive power
and horror of cesspool."
But " Question "—How does our monetary system
tend to hoarding and prevent distribution ? Ans.—
Our stuffs and fabrics, our work and labour under the
sun, our fervid industry Verve opus) bring the specie
here. Proverbially we know, gold is English—C or
anglais. If industry be wise, the wise men came from
the East—the work-bought metals drifted from
America to Spain, from Spain to England, as before
from Europe to Asia, besides a pretty deep drift to
" pure Caucasians?' The origin of that series of mis-
takes which make millions too poor and thousands too
rich may be that in countries without credit or con-
fidence, the " oozing " of bullion contracts their cir-
culation necessarily, and is a real evil—if so, our
jealousy of gold export is merely prism vestigia
fraudis. The hundred mints, cento :ceche, of Italy in
the cinque cento, were indispensable then. Mr. Dis-
raeli produced a letter in the House declaring simply,
"In five years you will lose India." Here is another
currency- question enough to plague Lord Brougham's
heart out. Cheshire may he the salt of the earth,
but Cheshire cannot expect Asia to pay for salt and
salt duty the same quantity of cash-money- coin as
when Indian stuffs and fabrics showered on heT,
kings barbaric pearls and gold. "Do you not see,''
said Raleigh, " that the silk, calico, and spices of the
East swallow up all the mines of the West ?" trans-
lating from Virgil's nonne vides? Let Mr. Cobden
know that Virgil's temper was never ruffled but
once, and then about free trade.
" Hic segetes, illic veniunt felicius aT. t
Arboi ei fcetus alibi atque injussa virescun
Gramina. Donne vides ?"
Don't yo roe, The first line hits off the old corn-