The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-20 00:00:00

THE WEATHER-PARKS.

In the Regent's Park, yesterday, several persons had
the temerity to venture on the frozen surface near the
Marquis of Wellesley's mansion, and were sliding and
skating for some time ; the ice, although very strong,
bent beneath their weight. About two o'clock, whilst a
gentleman was skating on that part of the ornamental
water facing Hanover-terrace, the ice gave way, and he
was immersed in the water. He was immediately got
out by William Griffiths, iceman No. 2. Towards the
afternoon great numbers ventured on, although the ice
was broken at the sides. In the forenoon a serious
accident occurred in this park to a boy, named
Jones, residing with his parents in North-street,
Lissou-grove. The poor little fellow was sliding on
a kind of gutter, caused by the late heavy rains, which
was frozen, when he fell, and fractured his skull.
In Hyde Park and Kensington-gardens crowds of persons
were collected; but the only part of the Serpentine capable
of bearing was near the bridge. On the Round Pond in
Kensington-gardens great numbers were sliding and skat-
ing, as in the Regent's Park. The Royal Humane Society's
men were on duty. The ice in St. James's Park was very
thin. Yesterday was piercingly cold, and in the forenoon
there was a slight fall of snow. About two the weather
cleared up, and the remainder of the day was clear and
fine. The thermometer at the entrance of the superin-
tendent's office in the London Docks stood, yesterday at
noon, at 29 degrees. At four o'clock in the afternoon it
had risen to 33. Throughout the day there was a slight
breeze from about N.E.

It is still a subject of regret to many who have
the welfare of the profession warmly at heart, that the
late promotion of Flag Officers did not go down to Sir
Charles Napier, as this would hardly have included a
dozen officers under 60 years of age, and all and every
one must admit that we ought to have Admirals under
this standing for active duties where physical energies
are required. That this did not take place we are con-
vinced was not the fault of the Board of Admiralty, but
was caused by the Chancellor of the Exchequer's econo-
mical views, which alone prevented the promotion gene-
rally being as extensive as could have been desired.—
Naval and Military Gazette.
We arc glad to hear that the officers of the Com-
missariat are likely to participate in the advantages of
the late Brevet. We, trust that a similar reward will be
bestowed upon the Medical Members of the United Ser-
vice. Their activity, zeal, and intelligence, constitute a
strong claim to the distinction in question. To promote
the Commissariat at the expense of the Medical officers
tGazette.
th is
of the Navy and Army, would be an act of crud injus-
tice, and an insult which we are convinced the present
Government will neversanction.— United Service
The torrent of bankruptcy and distress i
roted by
locality rolls on with accumulated force. Another
the largest lace houses in the town has been uprooted
the storm, and will necessarily brillg down a number of
smaller establishments along with it, throwing t
pervades
in
he
workpeopie out of employ, and fearfully
general distrust and anxiety which
of trade and commerce. Bankruptcies,s ioniecvvie•eenracysi iebnsrg:
and
nch
Idol
compositions with creditors, are .
and confidence and credit have constantly occurring,
received a blow which
has made them stagger
general stagnation of and
reel, so as to add to the
ham Review.. business on every hand.—Notting-

FEELERS._A
Lon-
don papers, that the report has appeared in the
under 545., to fall one
price rises till
forward ti'measu Government has determined to bring
'for en 18s. duty when
it
reachesone sb
6ilBlisn. f
m.fol
er
ne ‘t- corn is at or
shilling that the
fixed at 4s, the duty is to remain
We look upon the scheme as an insult to
the people, and as • . such we hope it will be treated. Let
friends our
not . waste a word of argument upon such de-
vices, but exert themselves with renewed vigour for the
total and immediate repeal of all taxes upon the neces-
saries of life.—Anti-Bread Tax Circular.
THE Foa Or SATURDAY..— On Saturday
forenoon, about a quarter-past ten o'clock, three persons,
of the names of William Miller, John Elliott, and John
Fraser, were accompanying . a person of the name of
Jonathan Fordham, who resides in Palmer's Village,
Brewer's-green, Westminster, to Battersea, in order to
fetch some willows used for the purpose of making
baskets; they had scarcely cleared Westminster-bridge,
when, owing to the darkness of the day, the boat in
which they were came in contact with a large barge, and
all four were precipitated into the water. Fordham,
with great presence of mind, laid hold of the side of the
barge, and thus saved himself. He then managed, after
some trouble, to rescue Elliott, but Miller and Fraser
were drowned.
The Agram Gazette states from
Bahia
that a
Russian ship of war had passed by that place on her
way to Silistria, to take soundings and observations fur a
chart of the mouth of the Danube.

EVENING SUN

MONOPOL Y OF QUICKSILVER.

(From the Bankers' Circular.)
Admitting the expediency and necessity of regulating
a paper currency by the supply of gold and silver, that
supply must, as far as the mines are concerned, be unob-
structed, equable, and adequate to the annual absorp-
tion or destruction of those metals by manufacture, wear
and tear, or loss ; and, if it be not so, the regulating
power is a cheat, and gives out fraudulent results. Again,
if a standard of value in the precious metals be esta-
blished by law— takingn certain quantity of gold or sil-
ver of a certain fineness, and stamping it at the Royal
Mint—on the calculation of certainty and equability in
the supply, and if from any cause the supply becomes
materially and permanently diminished, the standard
ceases to be a just one ; and it must be re-adjusted to
prevent oppression to the people in paying an undimi-
nished amount of taxes, unreduced rents, and other fixed
pecuniary obligations. Further, if, under such circum-
stances, an equitable adjustment of the standard of value,
or an equitable reduction of rents, taxes, &c., do not take
place, the Government that permits the injustice to con-
tinue, causes an ever-springing motive to arise in the
breasts of the people to rebel against the oppression.
These proofs we could enforce by citing the highest au-
thorities on public law in our language to confirm them.
Now let us bring them to the test of experience.
It is well known that none but the richest ores will
yield pure metal without, the use of quicksilver, and
that the price of this product in great measure deter-
mines the quantity of silver coins and bars that shall be
annnually poured from the minesinto the civilized world.
The mines of quicksilver' are not now worked to any.
extent in any part of the world except in Germany and
Spain, the principal being in the latter country. The
Spanish Government knowing the importance of this
commodity to the production of silver—and being dis-
posed to do justice to the people—have always, while
they had the possession of the mines, kept the price mo-
derately low, viz., at about 40 dollars per quintal. That
Government has sometimes at former periods farmed
out these mines, but the price, we believe, never-rose in
the hands of the contractors above 41 or 42 dollars per
quintal. Unhappily, however, for the interests of the
commerce of the world, unhappily for the welfare of the
heavily taxed people of poor old England, Mr. Roths-
child about seven or eight years ago got possession of the
silver mines of Spain, snaking a clear profit by working
them, it is said, of 0,0001. per annum. How did he
accomplish this ? He trebled' the price of quicksilver,
which now sells fur 120 dollars per quintal, instead of-
the old, just, and almost uniform price of 40 dollars; and
through the medium of his great power and influence in
Germany, he• induced the proprietor of the only other
important source of supply. in the whole world simulta-
neously to do the same.
Extract of a le! to faom Mr. R. Thornton, Chairman
of Committee of Spanish Bondholders, addressed to Sig-
Surra y hull, Minister of Finance for Spain, dated 7th
August, 1841 ;

.:It must be well known to his Highness, as having
formerly served in Peru, and it cannot be hid from your
Excellency, that under the Government of Spain, which
through an especial tribunal supplied her colonies with
quicksilver at a low fixed price, the yearly coinage of
Mexico was about :30,000,000
New Granada 3,000,000
Peru, about 7,000,000
Chili, about 3,000,000

making, in all, say...
to which adding, say

$43,000,000
00,000,000

for silver produced in bars, but not coined, we
arrive at 563,000,000
Of hard dollars. as the yearly produce of silver alone of
the Americas formerly Spanish, while quicksilver was
supplied at a cheap rate. From inquiries which 1- hare
made, I believe I do not exaggerate when I state that
the present monopoly or that sine qua non of amalgama-
tion has injured these young nations to the extent of at
least 20,000,000 dollars annually, depriving them, in the
same ratio, of the means of paying for the wines, brandy,
and paper of Catalonia, the wines and fruit of Andalucia,
the iron of Biscay, and the goods of British manufacture,
and inflicting a proportional injury on the currency of all
countries. I humbly submit to your Excellency that a
monopoly so injurious should not be continued."
In corroboration of the above we state that a gentle-
man intimately acquainted with the statistical affkirs of
Mexico and South America, recently arrived in England
from that part of the world, assures us that thousands of
tons of silver dug out of the Mexican mines are thrown
aside, because they contain too little silver to admit of
profit when working them with quicksilver at its present
high price. Formerly, when it was at a moderate price,
viz., one third of its present value, every pound of this
ore would have been worked to bring forth the silver
contained in it. The exports of quicksilver from London
and Liverpool to Mexico, Peru, &c., were, iu the years
1837, 1838, of bottles 29,373 against 21,904 in the two
succeeding years 1839, 1840 ; these are the particulars—
Years 1837. 1838. 1839. 1840.
Bottles 14,300 14,573 . 10,811 11,093
If the supply were increased thirty. per cent. above
that of the latter years, if 21,904 were augmented to
29,373, the supply would be brought up' just to the level
of the former, and if with the increase of the supply the
price were lowered to the old standard of forty . dollars
per quintal, what a prodigious diderence it would make
in the production of silver fur the uses of the commer-
cial world. The labour bestowed in the production of
the ore has been expended, and it is ready to be con-
verted into bullion. There it lies a useless and offen-
sive mass, just us a Pennsylvanian farmer suffers heaps
of manure to accumulate from generation to generation,
when spreading in either case Would increase production,
promote trade, and in the former case would relic ve and
• benefit the whole commercial world. " Money is like
muck, (says Lord Bacon), no good except it be spread."
Money hidden amidst thousands of tons of ore, raised
by great labour,. because a rich monopolist must grow
-richer, is to-blast industry. at its source, and mock the
institutions of society in the- exercise of one of their most
important functions. •
Our well-informed friend considers the estimate of
five millions sterling as the amount of the falling oif in
the annual supply of silver, compared with the supply
when quicksilver was comparatively cheap, a moderate
estimate. What proportion of the seven or eight years
during which the Spanish contract has been in the pos-
session of the present possessor has been marked by the
high price of quicksilver, we do not exactly know ; but
the total deficiency in the supply of the precious metals
to Europe, caused by his inexorable interdict, cannot
be less than front twenty to thirty millions sterling.
Now we care not what a man's views or opinions con-
cerning money may be ; they may be as strict as Mr.
Hume's, as lax as Dr. Smith's, as inconsistent and con-
tradictory as Mr. Ricardo's, as antiquated and absurd as
Sir Robert Peel's ; yet, if he be a man of sense, we
would calmly ask him why he attaches so much import-
ance to the possession of one or two millions more or less
of bullion in the coffers of the Bank, and looks en with-
out concern at the master evil which puts it in the power
of avarice to keep twenty or thirty millions sterling from
the money-markets of the world, of which the Bank of
England is the centre ? How can he reconcile his mind
to a system which gives an individual foreigner residing
in the City of London, the power of raising the standard
of value when he can get 80,0001. a year by doing so ?
he measure of value in the hands of a speculative loan-
Is it or is it not
placing the Royal prerogative of fixing
monger, making him, in the exercise of this delicate and
important prerogative, Monarch over her Majesty the

Queen ?
We have, as we think, laid bare one of the main
sources of the evils which now 'aftlmaniecolatss.utohrciaeisabt country ; it is
a forced contraction of the basiS of thei circulating me-
dium affecting all commercial credit in every country,
smt,oreanpdotedinst-
which causes low prices, stagnation,
:necimeas that law is admitted to
ccaounsteenotf.
mercantile
appearslltiledtios
disturbance
beat
lrlyderangement
tharnsottflaer Ca
so
Nii,•vn
1-ellgaiarvenTddsiesitresco, Corn-law—defective
obediently,
importance—ourtbe. standard is gedoltah,isnsoutkillescillvßies.r.o&f Co.l'irtthee
more valuable in relation toncl'ldw,
ofetcht
eeff,
ci if
natni yn
e,
ioi
tn, ourN‘i, iee
It r rei s
The other silvermethod,
which are in use, besides amalgamatingiallndble.aitsoe
tmhaekceurrseilnyceyr
quicksilver be ' rai
our own. ,
ton
,t. to fa.
e x leveltsilverrac itni n valueg‘
~it tliiie
mer-
cury, will be extensively adopted if the price of
will be defeated.]—ED. Sun.
`':ed, and the object of the monopolist

. THE DERBY.—Mr. Maher has sold Bailin-
keele to Mr. Dixon, of Knightsbridge, for 2,000 guineas;
Policy and The Golden Rule, late Honest John, have
been sold to Mr. Forth for some time.
The Duke de Nemours has returned to Paris,
after a tour of six weeks, during which his Royal High-
ness has inspected the four new regifrents or Hussars,
at Verdun, Fontainebleau, Versailles, and Vendome.
The Independent of Brussels mentions that
Captain Piraon, formerly Attache of the Relgian Lega-
tion at Constantinople, has set out for Texas on a diplo-
matic mission.
DEATH OF Dit• BARCLAY.—It is our painful
duty this week to record the death of Dr. Barclay, mi-
nister of Kettle. The Doctor was in the 93d year of
his age, and died father of the Church, having been or-
dained to the charge of that parish on the 14th of May,
1778. He was a man of high literary and scientific at.
tainments, and enjoyed -to the last the very highest de-
gree of respect aud esteem, not only from his parishioners,
and trottedhf.ather up
but from his co-presbyters. Dr.- Barclay was
the celebrated Captain Barclay, who died in 1837
. .--...
Fijiihire Journal.
The late Eail of Westmorland was always
anxious that proper care .should. be taken of his horses.-
NI/laic h
A few days before taking to his bed the last illness,
the Pavilion,
Lordship was driven to his stables, when he ordered all
the horses to be brought out separately,
and down before him. Although totally blind,
to the Lord-
shipye-
was very partial to equestrian exereise
enjoyed in the riding school attached to
TREMENDOUS STORM IN NORTH 'DEVON.—
her Majesty having granted the privilege
nerTabßleEtaErlN.
heard of Was
The neighbourhood of Bow, in this county,
with thunder
was on
Monday visited by a terrific hail storm,
time. The
and lightning, which continued for ;
lightning destroyed two s<a)fckas
reascpeornetaohs'ulqinoef three, which
parish. At Copplestone also the storme farmer in the
stood in the stack
of the
appalling, though we have not
Queen's confinement,
of any accident
perfectly
occurring.—Sonierset County Gazette.
On the morning
Lord Hill was amongst thOse wh
attend at the palace. His Lordship° were summoned to
when he arrived at the palace h was rather late, and
e met the Duke of. Wel,
liNgton, who was returning ho
Hill's inquiry as to how mattersme. In answer to Lord
were, his Grace said,
" All over—fine boy, very. fine boy, almost as red as your

The Princesse Adelaide, we are glad to state, is
recovered from her indisposition.

PIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
GLOBE.—The Tories of South Devon have
been entertained by their Representatives, Lord
ti'ourtenay and Sir J. Y. Buller. The Times,
whence we obtain our information, describes the
gathering in the inflated phraseology generally
emplOyed in recording events of the kind. The
company, large—the viands, excellent—and the
cheers, tremendous! The tout ensemble was, in
fact, perfectly enchanting. It was " a most
important political demonstration"—such as
" had not been witnessed for a I long time in
the county." As a banquet given to cele-
brate a great political triumph, by a party
which has recently obtained ascendancy in
the country, the constituencies of which have
recently transferred the Government to its hands,
we naturally looked for two things. We ex-
pected that there would have been a fair portion
or professions of constitutional attachment to the
Crown, and of cordial congratulation to the
Queen and her illustrious Consort, on the recent
birth of an heir to the throne of her ancestors.
We looked also for a clear exposition of the
measures which, in the present ernbarrast•ed
state of the trading and commercial interests,
and the consequent deep distress of large num-
bers of the population in the manufacturing
districts, the representatives who addressed
their constituents en such an occasion would
be prepared to propose or support, with a view
to their relief. In both these expectations we
have been disappointed. The loyalty was cold,
even for Conservative temperatu re. The whole
of this part of the day's proceedings is aptly,
though somewhat ambiguously, disposed of by
the reporter in two lines. " The usual loyal and
constitutional toasts were proposed and received
with due enthusiasm." Whether the scene which
the recent Exeter Hospital feast exhibited was
repeated, but the description suppressed, as unfit
for the public eye; whether the health of her
Majesty was received with marked dislike or
with cold respect, rendered more invidious by the
" continued and uproarous cheering" with which
Conservatives deem it consistent with due deco-
rum to express their relative feelings of attachmen t
toward the two illustrious ladies whom they thus
usually bring into invidious positions at their
feasts, we have no means of knowing. Either
may be implied in the phrase, that the "usual
toasts were proposed and received with due
enthusiasm." The public know what Conserva-
tives over their cups have deemed due to the pre-
sent Sovereign. There is nothing in the report
of the Devon meeting from which to infer that
they have improved in their sentiments; al-
though, under their changed circumstances, they
may have become rather more prudent in their
modes of giving utterance and publicity to them.
If the loyalty of the Devon Tories was cold, their
political orations were equally meagre. Sir It.
Peel could have desired nothing more vague than
the speeches delivered at this " great political
demonstration."

STANDARD.—An evening organ of the Op-
position has returned to the charge upon the
Irish appointments. As this accuser has made
some remarks of the Standard the pretext fbr
its renewal of the war, and charged us with hut
partially meeting the case, we shall, as briefly as
we may, dispose of all the heads of accusation.
First, let us explain that we do not mean to
defend the Irish Government from the imputa-
tion of having preferred Conservatives to office;
if the Irish Government had failed to make such
a preference, it would stand in need of a defence;
it wants none for doing what was merely its duty
to the Constitution of the country, and to good
fitith between man and man. The members of
the Government have been placed in their pre-
sent elevated station by the Conservative people
of the United Kingdom, represented by the
great Conservative majorities in the two Houses
of Parliament, because they, the Members
of the Government, are believed to main-
tain Conservative principles ; and, in order
that they may as far as possible (without
injury to the .public service), promote the
influence of such principles—and it is ob-
vious that one of the most effectual modes
of promoting the influence of any principles
is to encourage them by patronage. We,
therefore, are so far from denying that
the Administration, either in Great Britain
of in Ireland, has preferred Conservatives in ap-
pointments to office, that we boast, on behalf of
Ministers, that they have made this preference
universally when they could do so without harsh-
ness or injustice; and it is a matter of exultation,
that so strong is the Conservative party in quali-
fications of every kind, that Ministers have been
able to make this preference universally without
incurring the reproach of a single unworthy or
inefficient appointment. All the men who have
been placed in office are admitted by the most un-
scrupulous objectors to be men of fair character,
of competent ability, and objectionable upon
no other ground than an agreement in political
sentiment with the Ministers who have appointed
them, and with the great party who have recom-
mended these Ministers themselves to the fa.-
your of the Sovereign. The accusers of the Con-
servative leaders, who, while these noblemen and
gentlemen stood in opposition, tried to injure
them by the prediction that in office they would
desert both their professed principles and their
friends, naturally en.ough wish that the predic-
tion may be verified ; but it is a little too much
to make the non-fulfilment of a slanderous
prediction matter of accusation. We come
now, however, to the several articles of im-
peachment brought forward against the Irish
Government. They are as follow :—First, Mr.
Blackburne, the Irish Attorney-General's ap-
pointment of his two nephews, the one to be his
secretary, the other to be his professional junior.
Secondly, the appointment of Mr. Brewster, to
be consulting Counsel to the Chief Secretary for
Ireland. Thirdly, the appointment of Mr. Lefroy
to be Baron of the Irish Exchequer. To these
appointments are added, in these lists of wrongs
and grievances, the change of the physician
and apothecary to the Lord Lieutenant's house-
hold, and the reduction in the number of stipen-
diary Magistrates. The alleged oppression of
the Tipperary attorney, who was not allowed to
make his office of solicitor at the Sessions a sine-
cure, is no longer insisted on. Now the bare
enumeration of such a list of grievances, even
were all admitted in the exaggerated shape in
which they have been represented, must demon-
strate upon what trumpery grounds the whole
accusation rests.

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE.
PortTsm°"Tn, DEC. 17.—The following statement will
tend to remove the misconception which appears to exist
both at home and abroad as to the extent and object of
even incl atl.
the armament fitting out •
this and other ports, and
will show that,
China, there has been nulling the vessels destined for
but, excludinr, the equipmecurter whatever of the Navy;
special and isolated object, havir China, which is for a
ever to European questions, therengh no reference what-
siderable reduction, especially in
thlets be 9 a very con-
During the last four or five mola Mediterranean.
tioned ve.sels, including the Powerful, sB4the _Tidermen-
on its passage home to be paid off, h__ vhich now
aye been paid out
of commission :
Britannia, l2O ; Bellerophon, 84
, ; Belleisle 79 Q
marang, 28 ; Crocodile, 26 ; Tyne, 28 ; e_, :- ; k,a-
Princess Charlotte, 104 ; Edinburgh, 72 u
; serireton, 10 ;
49 ; Dido, 90 ; Hazard, 18 ; Ringdove, 16 ; Melville'
72 ; Powerful, S 4 ; Castor, 36 ; Carysfort, 26 . Ostes'
IS ; Forester, 16 ; and Sider, 6; being
ailtogethe;
seven line-of-battle ships, seven frigates,
and six 1
3 Q°Ps,
carrying 892 guns.
The vessels which have been commissioned during
the same period are :
Queen, 110 ; Illustrious, 72; Madagascar, 3g ; Spar-
tan, 26 ; Thalia, 44 ; Dido, 20 ; Pantaloon, 10 ; Harle-
quin, 16 ; Malabar, 79 ; Warspite, 50 ; Alfred, 50 ;
Isis, 44 ; Volage, 26 ; Syren, 16 ; Serpent, 16 ; Belvi-
dera, 36 ; Formidable, 84 ; Vindictive, 50 ; Cambrian,
36 ; North Star, 98 ; L'Aigle, 24 ; Hazard, 18 ; He-
roine, 10 ; being four ships-of-the-line, 12 frigates, and
seven sloops, mounting altogether 896 guns.
Of the vessels paid off the following are from the Me
terrenean :

Britannia, 190 ; Edinburgh, 72 ; Carysfort, 26 ; Ha-
zard, 18 ; Princess Charlotte, 104 ; Powerful, 84 ; Tyne,
28 ; Scorpion, 10 ; Bellerophon, 84 ; Castor, 36 ; Dido,
20. Total, five sail of the line, four frigates, and two
sloops, mounting altogether, 594 guns. In addition to
the foregoing, three more line-of-battle ships have been
ordered home ; the Ganges, 84 ; Hastings, 74 ; and Im-
placable, 74.
Of the ships which have been commissioned the fol-
lowing only are ordered to the Mediterranean, being two
with eOl- battle ships and two frigates:—The Queen, 110,
o the flag of Sir E. Owen ; Malabar, 73; Belvidera,
`)6; and L'Aigle, 26.
The soi
16; Harnadron for China are the Cambrian, 36; North,
Star, 28; Dido, 20; llziu.rd, 18 ; Warspite, 50; Syren,
lequin, 16; Andromache, 2S; which the _Mada-
gascar, 4.1, has
gone to relieve at the Cape of Good Hope;
together with the Belleisle, Apollo, and Sapphire troop-
sldps, and the Minden, hospital-sho.
Of the other ships commissioned, the Illustrious, 72,
has gone to the North American and West Indian sta-
tion. Tice Spartan, 26, is for the same destination ;
Alfred,
ica 50, is for South America ; Pantaloon, 10, Coast
of Afr ;
West Indies, Heroine, 10, for the same ; Serpent, 16,
The destination of the Formidable, 84 ; Thalia, 44 ;
nolsis,
know 44 ; Vind
Iticitve, 50 ; and Volage, 26 • ' is at present
China. t n. s supposed that some of them are for

THE VACANT GARTER. The Duke of
Buckingham and Lord Wharncliffe are both das
likely to succeed to the distinguished honourname of being
created
in that a Knighnoble t of the Garter, a vacancy having oc-
Earl of Westmorrand. curred order by the demise of the venerable