The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-29 00:00:00

P' Itentog t

LONDON, FRIDAY, DEaMBEIL 29, 1843.

_ L t_ „t„._ _. •
to be derive,l"mlh° mines a g°lrand quicksilver
d;—..usered in California, they would act more wisely
in observing the admirable results flowing from the
approximation of their commercial system to the prin.
ciples of free trade, than in pursuing the visionary
speculations of a new and more seductive El Dorado.
The recent explosion of the philosophic bubble of M
CAJIT should act as a timely warning to the dreamers
of the United States. Icaria has melted away from
the prairies of Texas as the mirage melts from the
aridity of the wilderness. Those who, like the credul-
ous son of Monsieur F*****, have relied upon the
truthfulness of the Parisian Philanthropist have
found ashes in their mouths instead of apples, and have
discovered the reputed Paradise to be nothing better
than a pestilential swamp, like the Eden visited by
MARTIN CHIJZZLIIIIT. According to M. CABET,
Icaria flowed with cream and honey, with the fruit of
the olive and the juice of the grape, while, according to
those who have adventured in search of this. beautiful
" land of promise," the whole account has proved to
be in every particular the phantom of a gorgeous
hallucination. The " rubies thick as gravel " are mere
pebbles, the diamonds mere flint, the harvests mere
crops of poisonous weeds. the vintages stagnant pools
reeking with stale exhalations. Such is the resift:),
which has risen like a ghastly spectre out of the
roseate romance of the Politician. rcaria is hence
forth to be numbered with the island of Atalantis,
with Utopia, with Arcadia, with El Dorada, with
the realms of PRESTEIt JOHN, with the cave of bullion
penetrated by ALLI BABA, with the valley of brilliants
explored by SINBAD the Sailor, with the garden of
precious stones traversed by ALADDIN, with the ver-
dant solitudes of ROBINSON CRUSOE, and the fruitful
seclusion of CALYPSO. And it is after the perusal of
the exposure recently published respecting the de-
lights of Icaria that we can repeat with fresh
enthusiasm that noble ejaculation of ALFRED TEN-
NYSON—

THE SUN,

the men working in the broiling heat of
the tropics—sifting the alluvial deposits of the stream
in perforated tin pans, in the willow baskets woven
by the hands of the Red Indians, or in rude rocking
machines known among the initiated as cradles—
straining off the mingled gold and dust through the
augur holes into a receptacle below, and then blow-
ing away the sand as the husks are blown away by
the breath of the winnow. As to the products
of such strange labour, it is estimated by
Colonel MASON that a party of four men
employed in this manner in the lower mines average
one hundred dollars per diem. Even the gold mines
in the interior of Russia pale in their splendour before
the glittering earth of California.
Employing the undoubted productiveness of the
country just forfeited by Mexico, and employing that
productiveness rationally, the United States may ul-
timately derive extraordinary advantages from the
acquisition. But plunging into wholesale speculation,
like the dupes of the South Sea Delusion, they can only
reap the miseries of beggary and embarrassment.
We are the more disposed to insist upon this from a
sense that the increasing enthusiasm which is already
manifested throughout the United States in regard to
the mines of California is an augury of the expan-
sion of a Bubble, Formerly the progress of such an
expansion would have been watched with a kind of
jealous satisfaction ; but now that the interests of
different powers are becoming every day more and
more blended together, it can only be observed with
pain and anxiety.

We yesterday explained the manner in which
3,ooo,oool.sterling per annum was lost to the country
by an obstinate and impolitic adherence to the mo-
netary code established by the Acts of 1819 and
1844, all of which would be saved if national
notes of convenient denominations were issued to the
public. In Scotland and Ireland—where small notes
are sanctioned and admitted—gold is scarcely known
as a circulating medium. The people, gene-
rally speaking, greatly prefer one pound notes
to sovereigns, and if any of the latter should
be received in the course of trade, they are
forthwith paid into the bank and exchanged fur
paper. In the former country, where the science of
banking is perhaps as thoroughly understood as in
any part of the world, and where the people enter•
tain the most profound confidence in the soundness
and stability of the several establishments, the notes
issued for sums under 51. each are more than
double the value of those for Si. and upwards;
and while in England and Ireland the cur-
rency is contracted, and the banks are fer
below their fixed issues, in Scotland, on the
other hand, the circulation is extended to the utmost
extent, and we find considerable sums issued against
geld, in addition to the full amount sanctioned by
That shrewd and intelligent people are fully
aware of the vast importance of sufficient banking
rceemmedation to their country. They are aware,
that without it national l rosperity cannot be
hoped for, and they, consequently, have pro-
vided for thernselv.,s that great desid,ratum:;
awl the result is, an ample supply of the medium of
exchange, and a sound monetary system, by means
whereof a healthy stimulus is afforded to the trade
and agriculture of the country.
In unfortunate Ireland, however, the deficiency is
painfully apparent. In that unhappy land nearly
one• third of the circulation, allowed by a stringent
and oppressive law, is withheld from the suffering
people. The very life-blood of industry is wanting—
prices are artificially depreciated—production is ar-
rested—and all around is gloom and despair.
The natural result follows. We behold an oppressed
people and an impoverished nation ; ruined proprie-
tors, slothful and apathetic farmers, and starving
peasants. A social revolution is taking place, which
must lead to the most extraordinary changes in
Irish society. And that distress and misery, and
these changes and alterations, may be ascribed in a
great degree to the want of a sufficient measure and
representative of value, a currency proportioned to
the exigencies of the country, by means %% hereof all
its natural capabilities might be fully developed, and
the immense masses of labour that now remain idle
and unproductive might be set in motion, and made
the sources of national wealth.

Mr. MONTGOMERY MARTIN, in his able work on
Ireland,* has afforded a solution to this problem, and
has explained the true causes of the prosperity
of Scotland and the poverty of Ireland.
He shows that in the former country there
r,Guti:EA.ailVidgPintisliJfAtt.nnarrelletrraniraiL
paid-up capital of 7,000,0001., while in Ireland there
is but one chartered bank with 3,000,0001. paid up,
and eight unchartered banks with 2,000,0001. paid-up
capital. " Thus (says Mr. lthitTix) Scotland, for
less than 8,000,000 people has 13,000,000/. banking
capital, a valuable system of cash credits, and exten-
sive discounts. Ireland, for more than 8,000,000 people,
has not 5,000,0001. banking capital, for 2,000,000/.
of the Bank of Ireland capital is lent to Government.
Ireland has not, in fact, ten shillings per head of bank-
ing capital, while Scotland has at least five pounds per
head of banking capital, in addition to superior and
more numerous monetary establishments." Let us
consider the condition of these countries, both united
to England by indissoluble ties. The one, despite
its inclement climate, great extent of barren
soil, and disadvantageous geographical position,
has attained nearly, if not altogether, an
equality with England in agriculture, in arts,
manufactures, and general commerce. The other,
with a soil of the utmost fertility, a mild and genial
atmosphere, great mineral wealth, with bays, har-
bours, and every natural advantage, has sunk to the
lowest extremity of misery and destitution, and has
become a bye-word and a proverb to the world—a
scandal and reproach to the British name. May it
not reasonably (be concluded that similar results would
have followed, if equal monetary facilities were
afforded in both countries ? And when we regard the
circumstances of our Irish and Scotch brethren, are
we not justified in saying that a saving of even
3,000,0001. sterling, large as it is, would be by no
means the most important benefit resulting frona a
change in our monetary system ; the supply of a
currency at all times adequate to the national wants,
and the prevention of the fluctuations in the value of
money, and the rate of interest, all of which blessings
would be attained by the adoption of the plans sug-
gested by the
.Liverpool Currency, Reform Asso-
ciation.

"Better fifty years of Europe
Than a cycle of Cathay !"
With this revealed extravagance confronting them
amidst the forests of Texas, will the people of the
United States abandon themselves blindly to the
fasCinating allurements of the wealth said to be stored
.in the soil of California ?
From the bold and legible statistics given by
President Pons in his farewell Message, it
is clear that the emoluments arising to
the State, and the comforts simultaneously
enjoyed by the population, in consequence of the
adoption of a reduced and amended tariff, have ex-
ceeded even the most sanguine anticipations. Here,
then, is a solid bottom upon which to build up the
financial hopes of the union. But with California
it is impossible not to perceive that everything as yet
is merely visionary. Even the most moderate esti-
mates: of the mineral riches buried in those newly ac-
quired territories bear the stamp of the most prepos-
terous exaggeration. Among these, not the least
remarkable is the official dispatch forwarded
to Washington by Colonel MASON, the officer in
command at Monterey—a dispatch which has reached
this country with the last intelligence received from
the United States, and which is published in extenso
by ourselves in another portion of this evening's im-
pression. Were we to believe the accounts given and
.evidently credited by this very sanguine gentleman,
we should certainly be compelled to regard the
boyish blunder of Sir RICHARD WHITTINGTON in
imagining the possibility of the streets of London
being paved with gold, as being not by any means
as ridiculous as may have been hitherto conceived.
The document signed by the commanding officer at
Monterey would have made the mouth of ELwEs
water. He talks of the most precious products of the

earth as abounding like dirt. His delineation of the

The one thing needful to ensure the successful
working of any scheme of sanitary reform for the
metropolis is an unlimited supply of pure water, not
only to every house, but to every floor in every
house, and to every drain in every floor of every
house, and to every sewer. Without this ample
supply of water, every legislative enactment must
remain to a great extent a dead letter, from the
physical impossibility of carrying out its provisions
effectually. That we have no such supply at present
the bitter experience of every sojourner in the me-
tropolis sufficiently proves ; and those who do not
reside in the metropolitan districts may form some
idea of the filthy nature of the puddle with which
the Londoner is, under the denomination
of water, scantily supplied, at an enormous
expense, by a perusal of the reports made to
the House of Commons upon this subject by the
two Committees which sat in 1821 and 1827. In
consequence of the report of this latter Committee,
which was presented to the House in 1828, Mr.
TELFORD was authorised to devise some scheme for
supplying the metropolis with pure water. In the
year 1884 Mr. TELroxp's plan was submitted to the
consideration of a Committee of the House of Com-
mons ; his proposition was to bring the waters of the
River Verulam to London from the neighbourhood
of Watford, but the objections to the project were
found to be insuperable, and it was consequently
abandoned. Indeed it is evident that such a plan as
that proposed by Mr. TELFORD must be totally in-
o Table of meeting the evil ; the supply of water to
he obtained from such small streams as the Brent,
the Colne, the Verulam, and the Wandle being
ludicrously inadequate to meet the wants of this
great metropolis. The utmost that stitch a company
-Is that proposed by Mr. TELFORD could do would be
to supply a limited district after the same limited
fashion that limited districts are at present supplied
existing water companies. It would leave_ the

.1 _Eire PAlNEltinen washing for gold in the American
Mormon Digging, reminds one of the
~.nmkni einit'-,\ ,_.4 Inounts furnished by ORME of the
--, -, ;- -.- • • ,„„N
i: . -„- tr4asurteLitt-. e palace of Noorshedabad. Every
Z':4---;::-eqiititrifi&ei3.',Ii$ the process of purification
C `rJA—iingare4 ~ 4:kivr with the interHest relish_
#,.... ..10:. - :... .....t,
.-,-.: ''''/

* " Ireland Before and After the Union," by R. Mont-
gomery Martin, E!q. Third Edition. Pp. 83.

a a.

LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 29,

such experiments—credit has been too deeply shaken to
admit of the infliction of new taxes. But that resolve
on the part of the Government absolutely necessitates
the maintenance of those already existing, and it is on
that account that I call on the Assembly to reject the
proposition of the committee."—(Loud applause.)
After some further discussion the debate was ad-
journed. It was resumed yesterday, and the Ministers
suffered a defeat. After several amendments had been
proposed and rejected,
M. ANGLADE proposed that the duty should be
reduced to 10 francs per 100 kilogrammes, from and
after the Ist of January, 1849, and that it should be
completely suppressed on the Ist of January, 1850.
The Assembly divided on the first part of this amend-
ment, when it was adopted by a majority of 403 votes
to 360. This result created a great degree of agita-
tion. The second part of the amendment, after having
been abandoned by M. ANGLADE, was again brought
forward by M. VEZIN, but, on a division, it was re-
jected by a large majority.
General CATAIGNAC has been unanimously elected
a Member of the Committee appointed to prepare
the law relative to the organization of the public
force (Army and National Guard).
The club of the Rue de Poictiers (the reactionary
club of Legitimists, Orleanists, and Obscurantists),
has determined to support the Ministry.
On Wednesday, a meeting of the members of the
Assembly who supported the late Ministers was held
at the rooms of M. SAx. MM. SENARD, DEGGUEE,
BILLAULT, FLAVIN DE TILLANCOURT, FERREE, CLE-
MENT THOMAS, LANDRIN, BABAU-LARIBIERE, and
several other representatives, were present. The ob-
ject of the meeting was to consider what amount of
support the members should give to the new Govern-
ment. M. SENARD opened the discussion, and declared
that his feeling was, that they ought to give a frank
and sincere support to the men who had undertaken
the laborious and difficult task of governing the
country in its present circumstances. The majority
of those present expressed a similar opinion ; but it is
announced that a portion of the members who composed
the Club of the Palais National retired, protesting
against the decision taken by their colleagues.
A new club will be formed by the seceders, who
intend to organize themselves into a regular Parlia-
mentary opposition. General LAMORICIERE and M.
ARMAND MARRAST will be the leaders.

M. Luciazc BONAPARTE took his seat yesterday in
the Assembly as Member for Corsica. He sits near
LEDRU Rommt, among the Montagnards.
Signor CANUTI left Paris yesterday for Brussels
and London. He is charged with a mission from the
Roman Government to Paris, Brussels, and London.
-The-objeet-of his mission is to explain the views of
the Roman Government with respect to the return of
the POPE to his capital. The Government, it is sail,
does not wish to erect Rome into a Republic, or to
depose the SOVEREIGN PONTIFF from his temporal
power. It merely wishes for the establishment of a
liberal constitution, which will place his Holiness at
the head of the State, while it ensures to the people
their due share in the administration.

The President BONAPARTE paid a state visit on
Wednesday to M. ARMAND MARRAST, the President
of the National Assembly. They were in conversa-
tion for three. quarters of an hour.
It wad rumoured in the political salons that the
French and English Governments had agreed to an
armed intervention in the affairs of La Plata.
BOURSE.—PARIS, THURSDAY, 1)t c. 28.

THREE O'CL' CK.—The Five per Cent. Rentes opened
tc,day rather below the closing prices of 3esterday, but
they afterwards rose steadily till they reached 77t. 10c.,
when they began to give way, and ultimately closed at
76f. 70c , which is 30e. below the closing prices of yes-
trrday. The Three per Cents. have also fallen 30c.
The railroads were all steady and much i❑ demand.
Bank of France Shares have risen 201. Rentes to the
amount cf. 20,000 f. of the Now Lpan were discounted.
Exchange on London (30 days), 25 274; ditto (90 days),
25 174.

tiUSIRESS DONE IN FOREIGN RAILWAYS AT THE
LONDON STOCK-EXCHANGE, DEC. 28.

Boulogne and Amiens, 84—Luxembourg (10/.), 214—
Northern of France, 114—Orleans and Bordeaux, 2:34
Paris and Rouen, 19—Sambre and Meuse, 33/4.

SPAIN.

Madrid journals of the 22d have arrived.
- -

The members of the Committee of the Chamber of
Deputies chosen to prepare the address in reply to
the QUEEN'S Speech all belong to the Ministerial
party, namely, Messrs. GONZALEZ Romeao, Presi-
dent ; FERNANDEZ DI LA Hoz, Secretary ; PUCHE
Y BAUTISTA, FERREIRA CAMANO, FERNANDO ALVA-
RIZ, CALDIRON COLLANTES, and MOYANA.

MADRID BOLSA, DEC. 22.—The Three per Cents.
were done at 24 for cash ; the Five per Cents.; at
for paper; the Debt without Interest, at 4 ; and
the Coupons, at 6.