The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-18 00:00:00

TEER SVN, LONDON, FRIDAY RVRNiIiG, JULV 14, 1856

Some six months since, and before the accep,
ante by Russia of the peace propositions put for-
ward by Austria with the concurrence of the
Western Powers, a decided and general improvt
ment was perceptible in the Money Market. A.
the quotations of approved securities on the Stock
Exchange had within a few days increased nearly
2 per cent. The market, which had been in a
very depressed condition, completely recovered
its buoyancy, and great animation was displayed
not only among the habitual jobbers, but on the
part of the general public. The Bulls were sti-
mulated to the highest degree of joyous excite-
ment—they looked as if a glorious victory had
been obtained, as if another Sebastopol had fallen,
and that the Allies had exhibited an unflinching
resolution to follow up the triumph to its legiti-
mate results. The Byars, on the other hand,
seemed completely chop-fallen. Previously they
had it all their own way, and had succeeded in
working down the 3 per Cent. Consols to 85/,
but a rapid rise to 87T, repressed their unpatriotic
exultation, and made them regard the existing
state of affairs with a " green and yellow
melancholy." Had the nationality of Poland
been recognised, and. its indepenience and
integrity guaranteed by the Western Powers, they
could Rot have been more completely dispirited
and humiliated.
A stranger to the operations of the Stock Ex-
change would have been completely astounded at
the excitement prevailing on every side. Nothing
was known respecting the progress of the War.
There was no reason to suppose that Russia would
abate a particle of her unreasonable pretensions,
and the AUTOCRAT was, according to the Ameri-
can dialect, as " bumptious" as at any former
time. Nor was it any apparent liberality on the
part of the venerable old Lady of Threadneedle-
street—any anticipated reduction of the minimum
rate of discount below the 7 per cent. which she
demanded for pecuniary accommodation, even on
first-class paper. Far from it ! Toe AUTOCRAT
was more bellicose, the Old Lady more exacting
than ever. But there was a rumour in circulation
that fully accounted for the auspicious change !
It was positively asserted, and generally credit3d,
that Government contemplated, ou the suggestion
of the honourable gentleman the member for
Westbury, the issue of no less than twenty mil-
lions of really national notes of convenient deno-
minations, not convertible into gold. on demand,
but which would be received in payment of all
duties and taxes into the national Exchequer.
The suggestion was received with enthusiasm,
and it received that sterling and unquestionable
proof of public approbation, a rise of 2 per
cent. in the quotations. If the mere hint
produced so great au effect, what would
the reality have accomplished ? It is not
too much to say that the improvement in
prices would have been more than quadrupled,
and that every description of investment would'

have been enl ►anced in value at least 8 or 10 per
cent., and thi tt all the natural capabilities of the
United Kingdom would have been fully and com-
pletely developed, and that every man able and
willing to labour would have achieved that great
desideratum the certaia4,y of " a fair day's
wages for a fair day's work.." Capitalists would
still receive fair remunerative interest for their
accumulations, but they would not be enabled to
seize the lion's share. of the profits, while those by
whom they had many been earned were starving
in the midst of aloundance. We should certainly
hear nothing of the impious cant respecting over-
population and over-production, as if any of our
fellow-creatures -whom the DEITY had gifted with
au immortal spirit could be got rid of, or there
could be over-production so long as a hungry hu-
man being wanted food or clothing.

It is true that the Bank of England should be
restored to its proper position as a private trading
corporation--that the notice which would for over
sever the connection between the State and the
Bank should be speedily given. But this created
no alarm even amongst the proprietors of Bank
Stock. The quotations thereof participated in
the general improvement, and on ample founda-
tion, for judging from the profits realised by
other Joint-Stock Banks unencumbered by
State protection, the dividends would be
largely increased, by obtaining free trade in
money and unrestricted competition in legitimate
banking operations. That the issue of notes is not
lindispensable to success may be gathered from the
fact that those realising the largest profits are,
under the present law, precluded from sending
notes payable on demand into circulation ; and
although the power, under judicious regulation,
would be beneficial alike to those great establish-
ments and to the community at large, the Old
Lady would not be in any degree worse off than
those who are enabled to obtain and profit by the
business which she turns from her doors, in con-
sequence of the baleful influence of State protec-
tion. In fact protection, in any form, is almost
as injurious to those in whose favour it is enacted
as to the great body of the people. It exercised a
demoralising influence, which prevented the fa-
voured few from striving to deserve the support
which they believed was secured by Act of Par-
liament. Farmers did not endeavour to discover
the best modes of cultivation, because they thought
that the Corn Laws insured a certain monopoly.
They were therefore always grumbling and dis-
contented, while people were writhing under the
intolerable burdens, and since the abolition of the
broad tax they have been better off than during
its continuance, save at the times when, in com-
mon with all the industrial and productive classes,
they suffered from the effect of a tightness in the
Money Market, and the withdrawal of pecuniary
accommodation, which the manufacturers of bread
require as largely as the manufacturers of textile
fabrics, or the merchants or traders who deal
therein.
Let then the people, and more especially the
Monetary Reformers, exert themselves to obtain
the great boon, the mere suggestion whereof pro-
duced such extraordinary results in January last.
Let them demand the speedy dissolution of the
ill-omened compact between the Bank and the
Government, which places the control of the cir-
culating medium—the very life-blood of industry
—in the hands of a private trading corporation,
whose first object must naturally be to secure the
largest amount of profit for themselves, reckless
of the results which their operations may and
must produce on the general welfare and pro-
sperity. Lot there be a rmll National Bank,
placed under the control and direction of a de-
partment of the Government responsible to Parlia-
ment, and lot there be an adequate supply of 11.,
21., and 31. notes, which, being based on the en-
tire taxation of the country, cannot be depreciated,
but will always maintain a purchasing power; the
only point which the party receiving the "worth-
less rag" would consider. The addition of 20
millions of such currency would, as Mr. JAMES
WILSON some time since declared, " immediately
add to the effective capital of the country, to our
stock of commodities, or, what is the same thing,
our command over them to the extent of 20 mil-
lions, just as much as if we dug that amount of
bullion out of the centre of England." Surely
such a result would be worth a strenuous effort
ou the part of those now suffering under a defici-
ency of the only recognised representative and
measure of value. Let them make the attempt,
' 1 and the great object will speedily be accomplished.
e-

" There's many a slip between the cup and the

lip" says the old adage ; and, applying it to
Hampstead Heath, we would have the population
of the metropolis remember the preservation of
their favourite place of recreation can only
be assured to them when the Heath is
legally turned over to their all - just claims
upon it being satisfied. Whether this be effected
by the Metropolitan Board of Works, by volun-
tary subscription, by Government, or by the two
latter united, let them never rest satisfied until it
is so. None of these agencies, under the pecu-
liar circumstances, might not with more or lesspro-
priety be appealed to ; the Metropolitan Board in
its representative capacity and as aßoard of Health,
voluntary subscription as for a charitable object,
involving a great popular benefit, and Govern-
ment, if not in its paternal (?) character, in part
discharge of a debt long owing to the metropoli-
tan population, whose welfare has been sacrificed
to avoid offence to the Corporation Moloch. So
far as our own feelings are concerned, we should
prefer the purchase of the Heath by voluntary
subP3ription, considering the many heavy claims
on the Metropolitan Board, and the danger there
is of disgusting Londoners by heavy taxation with
the principle of local self-government. But the
vast importance of having the health preserved
overbears any consideration of this sort, and if
Government aid is to be had, the population are
entitled to it on more grounds than we have
indicated, and may fairly seek for it.
All we insist on is—let there be no cessation of
effort until Hampstead Heath is the people's.
It sometimes happens, in the busy course of
life, more especially in great cities, that good sub-
3tautial citizens who have turned an honest penny
to some account, forget
"The days they went a gipsying

A long time ago,"
and need the friendly turn of having them brought
to their recollection. Probably these columns
may fall into the hands of some such well-mean-
iug migrates. Indeed we are certain of it. So
let us at once be confidential. You know—it is no
use denying it—you used to take somebody out
an airing to Hampstead Heath, and were wont
to say, after you had peeped under that somebody's
bonnet, how good the bracing breeze, more espe-
cially if taken on the back of a Jerusalem pony,
goaded to persaltatory locomotion, was for the
complexion. You know yoti did ; and you know,
beside, you anticipated every jaunt a week before-
hand, and chawed the cud of satisfaction at the
remembrance a week after. Our dear fellow, the
Hampstead breeze, is as good as ever it was, the
donkies as nimble, and blushes as rosy and becom-
ing as ever they were ; and, by a strange provi-
go% there are young folka now as there were the;

only perhaps their faces are a little sallower, and
they want fresh air and recreation rather more
than you did. Give them what help you can
lend them in the way of influence. Honour the
old days by doing your best to enable others to
enjoy the innocent pleasures that enlivened and
consecrated them. Speak out for Hampstead
Heath ; do as were you young again you would
be done by. In case the metropolitan reader has
no pleasant reminiscences of this sort in connec-
tion with the Heath, still we claim his voice in
his capacity of valetudinarian. Between him and
us and the post the air of the Heath has salu-
brious properties, if taken with reasonable exer-
cise, that would surprise you. O.ily try, and in
the meantime speak up for the Heath. Badinage
apart, we really cannot afford to lose it. What,
after all, is it among so many ? Two-and-a-half
millions of population, that is twenty-five hundred
thousand people, with only this really salubrious
spot where air may be had " neat as imported "
to resort to within several miles of the city !
Only think of it ; and threatened with the loss
of that. There's not a Cockney going has reached
man's estate but will deserve the infliction popu-
larly reported to be undergone by adventurous
• aspirants to masonic honours if tho Heath is lost !

THE SUFFOLK-STREET GALLERY.

(SECOND NoTIOE.)
As the collection now on view upon the walls of
this, popular Gallery, the Collection ConStittiting
the thirty-third annual exhibition of pictures by
" Society of British Artists," is announced to
close almost imniediatelywe hasten to supplement
by a few remarks the opinions expressed by ts at
some considerable length in its regard at the pe-
riod when the annual " view" for the season
(about two months since) commenced. The prin.
cipal contributions to the collection we then
took occasion to particularise. Several pictures,
however, of more than average excellence
were nevertheless at the same time allowed to pass
almost unnoticed, not quite unaccountably, we
conjecture, in a single survey of upwards of "eight
hundred" separate paintings—large and small,
good, bad, and indifferent ! Besides the distraction
of the attention by the mere numerical array of 800
And more productions displayedupon the walls of the
Rye apartments, it should be observed, moreover,
that other obstacles not unfrequently stand
in the way of the merits, or, for that matter some-
times, even, of the very existence of a picture being
recognised. For example, there is No. 192, hung
a little too low, and No. 246 hung a great deal too
high ! The latter (No. 246) being--so far at least
as we can perceive its excellence at such an absurd
elevation—a work of no inconsiderable merit, a

view "On the Towey, Carmarthenshire," by W. L.
Banks. The rolling up of the white clouds from the
horizon ; the crisp outline of tlfe rocky eminence to
the left, "shouldering," as it does, into the heavens,
far above the green tree-tops 3 the jumble of the
huge boulders in the fore ground where the angler is
ilingiug, his delicate length of baited-hair into
the trout stream—all appear to us to be ren-
dered with the master hand of one skilled
in Art hardly less than he is manifestly observant
of Nature. It seems to us a positive injustice to
the painter of this graceful glimpse of mountain
scenery, to lift him up so very loftily above the
heads of his contemporaries, bringing his production
(elevated though its pretensions may be) into such
very close proximity to the ceiling of the principal
apartment. The former picture already alluded to
(No. 192) is a lovely little cottage interior--
" Feeding the Bird," by R. Holingdale—so true
to the reality that one could almost unhook the
bellows from the wall to have a blow at the fire ;
:hrust one's hand inside the cage, at the open door
of which the hero of the scene is pecking cheerily ;
or take up from that table yonder, in the full light
of the lattice, that green apple, there, seeming to
tempt one to take a juicy bite out of it,
from mere greediness. The old fish-salesman in
No. 173, " The First of the Season," is evidently
meditating in the corners of his cunning eyes the
take in of some salmon-loving customer. As for No.
139, " The Expectant Wee Things' " by E. Cock-
burn, there is surely no one but will at once admire the
exquisite beauty of the idea of the picture—the
sweetest and prettiest conceivable ! The " wee
things " at the sunlit doorway, the tinniest upon
tiptoe, greeting the unseen " Dad" whose shadow
is cast forward by the evening light full upon the
shining wall in the background. In No. 121,
" Portrait of Captain Morgan of the 17th Lancers,"
by R. Buckner, will be seen the soldier-like effigy,
lancer's cap in hand, of the heir to a historic name,
estate, and reputation, those of Sir Charles
Morgan of Tredegar. Painfully like, we conjec-
ture, must be No. 222, "Portrait of a Lady,"
by G. G. Bullock, in reference at once to
the simpering, selkatisfied mouth and the
prevailing glory in face and figure of rather pre-
mature embonpoint. Portions of the white drapery
in 248, "Prophecy of the Destiny," by S. Ander-
son, remind one of that marvellous white scarf coiled
by the magical brush of Mr. Egg about the felt wide-
awake of Lord Raglan, in his admirable picture of
the Council of War on the morning of the taking
of the Mamelon. Such, in brief, are among a few
of the more noticeable pictures, either for merit or
demerit, in the prtlsnt year's exhibition of the
Society of British Artists is Suffolk-street—pic-
tures unobserved at first among the more obtrusive
characteristics of the chief contributions to the
gallery—among the sea-views of Pyne, and the rus-
tic groups of Hill, and the half-nude heroines and
gaudy draperies of Woolmer, and the tawny, dark-
eyed, pearly-toothed Italian urchins of the Presi-
dent Hurlstone.

LITERATURE.

The Edinburgh, Review. No. CCXI.
Decidedly the most attractive paper in the
newly-published number of the Edinburgh, is the
one simply entitled " Samuel Rogers." Although,
there is a respectful but altogether rather depre-
ciatory article (among the eleven contributions
making up the aggregate hulk of the contents) in
reference to that portion of the " Memoirs of
Sir Robert Peel," which relates to the memorable
part taken by that illustrious and self-sacrificing
statesman in regard to the " Catholic Question !"
Although immediately afterwards comes an earnest
and patriotic digest of the correspondence recently
affecting so very seriously the friendly relations of
Great Britain and the United States ! Although
there is a learned treatise upon the " Coins of
Greece "—a chapter of historic gossip interesting
alike to the numismatist and the antiquarian
Although these and several other contributions of
importance lend their charms to the number be-
fore us—still, for our part, we cannot but regard
as the paper in this 211th instalment of the Edin-
burgh, the genial and anecdotal biographic-criticism
upon the author of the " Pleasures of Memory,"
the lettered nonogenarian who recently expired at
22, St. James's-place, overlooking the Green-park,
the spot henceforth to be remembered as his classic
London residence. The unobtrusive benevolence of
Samuel Rogers, his caustic wit, his graceful and
harmonious ve:ses, his exquisite and most fasti-
dious taste, his spiteful personalities, his many
illustrious friendships, his breakfasts, his gro-
tesque features, his pedestrianism, his intui-
tive aptitude for the discovery of anything
in the shape of a fault anywhere, his
choice pictures, his celebrated mots—all these
things, in this ono brief but appreciative article
upon himself and his writings, meet, at the hands
of the reviewer, with•a succinct but adequate cele-
bration. Absolute scorn is expressed, and,
we conceive, not undeservedly by the writer
for the catchpenny volume recently published.
by Mr. Meson, under the title of the "Table Talk"
of the Poet of Memory. Several excellent and
characteristic anecdotes of Mr. Rogers are
introduced in the course of the paper under
notice, becoming more plentiful towards its
conclusion. Altogether, the estimate formed of
Samuel Rogers by the reviewer in the Edinburgh
appears to us to be in the main very just indeed,
whether viewed in reference to his heart or in re-
ference to his intellect. " Sir" G. C. Lewis on
the Credibility of Early Roman History" is the
theme of the first article in this new number
of the Edinburgh—due credit being given to the
censorship of Niebuhr's scepticism, adventured
upon by that shrewd and speculative scholiast, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Palmer ston's
Government. A critical notice of the " Diary
of General Patrick Gordon" (carrying us back
in imagination, while we read to the Sweden,
Poland, and Russia of the seventeenth century) is
followed by a very curious epitome of re-
markable facts and figures relating to the
metropolis, under the suggestive heading,
"Growth of the Map of London." Besides
these, moreover, should be noticed a hasty tribute
to the genius of " Heinrich Heine ;" a sketTh of
a rather extraordinary historic episode under the
twin title of " Cavallier and the Camisards ;"
a brief dissertation upon the " Supreme
Courts of Appeal ;" and a scrutinising
glance at the literary " Remains of William Ar-
cher Butler," recently deceased—a man who, al-
though be died comparatively young, occupied
in the University of Dublin, for ten years, the
chair of Moral Philosophy :—articles completing
the eleven varied contributions comprised in this,
the latest, instalment of our eminent Whig Quar-
terly Contemporary.