The Sun.
London, England, 1848-08-23 00:00:00

TE*ttW

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 23, 1848.

The attention of the House of Commons has again
been called to the fatal effects of the Bank Charter
Act of 1844. Although, at this advanced period of
the' session'," nothing could be attained of any real
value, it was at least desirable to show that some re-
sult should follow from the inquiries that have taken
place, and that the public and their representatives in
Parliament would not await in listless apathy the dis-
tress and suffering occasioned by a blind adherence
to an abstract theory. If the investigations directed
by both Houses of Parliament were intended to answer
any beneficial purpose, if they were not mere pretexts
to avoid an immediate discussion, when the public
mind was fully awakened to the vital importance of
the subject, and men of all classes were smarting
under the injuries and losses they had sustained from
the total prostration of credit that had taken place,
some steps should be taken to follow up by active
proceedings—by certain and tangible measures—the
information that has been obtained, and not to
permit the evidence that has been taken to re-
main buried in the pages of the Blue-book,
in which it is contained. The Right Honour-
able Gentleman the Member for Stamford has given
an assurance that he will not permit the question to
be thus shelved ; and by the motion which he last
night submitted, calling upon the House to take into
its serious consideration, early in the, next session of
Parliament, the reports of both Committees, he
afforded the best proof of his sipcefitf and steadiness
of purpose. A certain was given by his state-
ment into the management of the Committee of
which he was himself a prominent member ; and
he clearly established that their decision in favour
of the continuance of the Bank Charter Act, without
r elaxation or modification, was wholly opposed to the
opinions of the great majority of the witnesses examined,
four-fifths of whom, and those the persons whose
varied experience, representing the most influential
and deeply interested classes, should have given pecu-
liar weight to their testimony, strongly condemned
its provisions, and yet the report said, that "after
a careful review of all the evidence" they are of opi-
nion, " that it is not expedient to make any altera-
tion in the Bank Charter Act of 1844."
This statement we unhesitatingly denounce as amost
unfair attempt to mislead the public, as to the tendency
and effect of the evidence so given ; the quibble of
the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER that "a jury
should not be debarred from taking into their consi-
deration the value of the evidence given before them,"
is unworthy of notice, and we regret to be obliged to
say unworthy of the character and position of a
Cabinet Minister. The Committee were, of course,
justified in coming to such decision as they thought
proper, and any person acquainted with its composi-
tion could have little doubt as to what that decision
would have been—that it would fully exonerate the
mischievous provisions of the Act of 1544 from the
c reation or even the aggravation of the commercial dis-
tress; but we repeat that they had no right to
permit the public for a single moment to be so far
deceived as to suppose that decision to be in any
degree founded upon the evidence that was adduced
before them, when it was wholly opposed to the
weight and authority thereof.
Before entering ee the analysisetl n'e of the evidence
Gentleman, given by the
_Right Hon.
we may be
P
permitted to direct the public attention to
one extraordinary fact stated by h
that " there were six Members intimately
connected with commercial affairs m the Common'ntimately
Committee, and it was remarkable that of those five
always voted in the minority." 'Thus it would a
that the independent and unprejudiced practicaliipa
themeenr
of business on the Committee were opposed to
Act, in nearly the same proportion as the witnesses
examined before them, and yet the votes of Sir R.
PEEL and Sir CHARLES WOOP, and of their adherents,
set aside the opinions of those who from their position
and valuable experience would have commanded the
public confidence.
There were then, it appears, twenty-six witnesses

examined before the Committee, of those two were
exclusively examined on the subject of the East India
trade. There remained twenty-four persons, of whom
nineteen were unequivocally and decisively against
the Bank Charter Act, declaring that it required
amendment, while but four were decidedly in its
favour. Let us look, however, to the different
classes by whom that evidence was given, and the
disproportion of numbers will be enhanced by the
still greater disproportion in the weight that should
be attached to their testimony.
First, then, there were four gentlemen delegated
and selected by large and influential commercial
bodies to represent them and express their opinions
before the Committee, viz., Mr. BEVAN, by the
London bankers ; Mr. BIRKBECK by the country
bankers ; Mr. KINNEAR by the Chamber of Commerce
at Glasgow ; and Mr. MACFARLANE by the Chamber
of Commerce of Edinburgh. These gentlemen were
unanimously of opinion " that the Act of 1844 con-
siderably aggravated the commercial distress of
1847," and stated " that it required to be amended
by the introduction of some power to abate its re-
stricting regulations." These persons, then, who
spoke the opinions of the great bodies they repre-
sented, could not be regarded as ordinary witnesses,
whose individual views only were put forward. We
regret that a want of space precludes us from
completing the consideration of the analysis of the
evidence this day, we shall, however, return to the
subject to-morrow.

Politics so generally and largely monopolise the
space of our leading columns, that the consideration of
a matter of a strictly literary character in this de•
partment of a newspaper would almost seem to
demand something very like an apology from the
journalist. Yet, considering the circumstances under
which this article is written, we apologise not, even
to the extent of one syllable. We dare to say that
the emotions with which even our feeble utterances
will be read must inevitably, in the hearts of the in-
telligent, amount very nearly to those of positive
gratitude.
There is a man in England who has recently
written a book—called "An Inquiry into the Phi-
losophy and Religion of Shahspere"—a big, laborious
book of 547 pages. The name of this person
is paraded upon the title-page of his volume
as —" W. J. BIRCH, M.A., New Inn Hall,
Oxon, author of the " Real and Ideal," &c., &c. To
epitomise the purpose of his present composition with
the utmost possible degree of brevity, we should say
that it is an endeavour to vilify the character of a
dead man, whose name is one of the noblest and
holiest glories of the human race. The whole pro-
duction is one prolonged and agonising struggle on
the part of the writer to realise this intention—an
intention so inspiring, so graceful, and so benignant,
as to constitute of itself its own panegyric. From
-the first line of the " Preface," to the last diphthong
in the appended " Additions and Corrections"—from
the exordium to the peroration—it is manifest
throughout the entire work how acute have
been the throes of its conception, and how
distracting the torments of its birth. Every sentence
is a spasm—every epithet is a twinge—and whenever
the style merges into a disjointed glibness, it is per-
ceptible with what excruciating pangs the author has
wrilthed into volubility. Nor is this surprising when
we remember that the aim of the production—an aim
evel.. present to the imagination of its scribe—is
ensi nently calculated to carry along with it its own
tr er nendous punishment—like the damned soul de-
scri bed by DANTE in his Inferno, gnawing the skull
of :his enemy, for ever and for ever, his lip reeking
blood, and his teeth tangled with the
hviir of his victim. Regard the question
in its simplest aspect, and we undertake
to sly that the effect is little else than a sensation of
bon or. Here, in the middle of the nineteenth ceo-
tun is presented to us the spectacle of a man
dew ting all his moral and intellectual energies—
ho K ropathic we must acknowledge them to be, as
far :as his present effusion enables us to decide—de-
vo to lg the whole, we say, of his moral and intellec-
turd energies to dim the lustre of a renown second
to it% at of no human bard that has ever trod GOD'S
ear ti since the days when Jeassaias chaunted the
woes of Babylon amidst the desolation and soli-
tude of Jerusalem. Mr. W. J. BIRCH—en-
, we suppose, of the sublime celebrity
of SHAKSPBRE—envious, as the emmet might
be @of the dimensions of the behemoth—Mr. W.
J. I hitcra, M.A., strives in this big, empty book
of hi ;, to hold up the fame of SHAKSPERE to the exe-
crati )ri of the world by arguing that the poetical
work s of SHAKSPERE, his comedies, his tragedies, his
"Ve ius and Adonis," his " Rape of Lucrece," his
soma As and even his minor fragments, all tend irre-
sistit ly to prove him not only a debauchee,
druni bard, and a profligate, but a libidinous and irre-
ligiot is blasphemer. To demonstrate that SHARSSERE
was ' intensely irreligious, that his dramas teem
with impieties, that his philosophy was built
up on infidelity, and his religion buried
uncle c the filth and ordure of atheism, Mr.
W.. -. BIRCH takes the plays of SHAKSPERE, one by
one, beginning with Titus Andronicus, and ending
with the Tempest, and endeavours, as far as the stalest
soplati ems and the grossest misconstructions will enable
him,. to bedaub the fane of the giant dramatist with
the d Ist and mire of his imputations. The effort has
not ,ven the merit of originality. For every one
knee already that the purest and most pellucid ut-
term. 3es of a virgin lip may be distorted into the
viles. conceits and the most disgusting double-
entex lres by the ingenuity of a foul imagination. It
is l ecisely in this manner that Mr. W. J. BIRCH,
M.A ~ has acted towards the divine and ravishing
melt lies of SHAKSPERE. And how he has proceeded
in th is very pleasing effort may be discerned in a few
mom ants by glancing at the mere manner of his intro-
duct on. The whole work is based upon " conjectures,"
" s," " aiay-he's,"-and,"onay-pot-be's." Mr. Brach
then argues in this fashion. He says that "probably"
Sue:, KSPERE frequented the society of MARLOWE, that
Mei .LOWE was said to be an unbeliever by ANTHONY
)D, and that consequently SHAKSPERE was an
Atli He says that SHAKSPERE " doubtless"
ated MAELowE's style from the force of asso-
ciali on with MARLOWE in his early days, that the
&C.,: of this imitation has been " verified" by the
accl sation of GREENE, and that therefore SHAKS•
TE= 3 was an Atheist. That SHAKSPERE knew
Rl.l SIGH, that it was " a current opinion of his age"
that RALEIGH was without religion, and that
then ,fore SMAKSPERE was an Atheist. That
'6 it; is possible " SHAKSPERE knew BACON, that
mud i of BACON'S Essays " are said " to have been
take 1 from MONTAIGNE, that the design of both
Mos TAIGNE and BACON " seems to be" to distinguish
betvo een the quibblers on religion; that SHAKSPERE,
in a passage in the Midsummer Night's Dream
" see ms" to have coincided with an idea expressed in
BAG sts's third Essay, and that, therefore, SHAM..
emu ; was an Atheist.

In this slovenly and execrably illogical manner
does Mr. W. J. BIRCII enter upon his ungrateful
then ie. We have alluded to his:volume, not in bitter-
nesa of feeling, but in utter contempt of his singularly
ignoble and slanderous ambition. He has pilloried
bias ,elf upon the title-page of his " Inquiry," and has
wit every sentence in the volume branded himself
wick . a brand which would most certainly be eternal,
but that his very name itself has such a fortunate
affinity for oblivion.

A YACHT VOYAGE TO NORWAY, DENMARK, AND
SWI DEN. BY W. A. Ross, ESQ.—Mr. Ross, who per-
form ed his journey to Norway in company with Lord
Rod sey, has in these lively volumes furnished a guide
whis h will be highly welcome to all tourists to the north,
part icularly to yachtsmen and adepts in the use of the
rod.: and gun. His sporting details, in reference to fish-
ing, bear shooting, &c., are highly amusing, and will re-
miss I the reader forcibly of Nimrod's vivacious narra-
tive' . Independently of its forming a work whose ori-
gito lity and truth, together with the novelty of the sub-
ject and the romantic interest of many of the incidents
it 4 :ontains, must at any time ensure it favour, the
" y tcht voyage" possesses at the present moment an ad-
di ti onal source of interest to numbers whose arrangc-
m e nts for their autumnal tours have been disordered by
tb e. state of affairs in the southern part of the continent
of 'lEurope.—Evening Paper.
'PROROGATION OP PARLIAMENT.—It is now un-
d stood in official quarters that the business of the session
v,
ill be brought to a close, if possible, by Friday, the Ist of
1 ;.ember, and that her Majesty will prorogue Parliament
in person
to on the following day ; and will afterwards pro-
ceed i)c,alichat, ndwehneinb,araktteonndsbd by the
theMb rt
BViiecetkoriliaaagrlied,
do cralty steam-yacht, and other vessels composing the
AdTbues :tdtlyelue:EnLatehliee::,eiejr.eonuttn and Prince
BalmoralA l Albert ers
ht
owvti
nl
gpriozed,

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