The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-20 00:00:00

TEE MARRIAGE STATE.

" To be or not to be, that is the question." •
10614.1013:—Laws and obligations of nature, society, and re-
li.flon regarding marriage, to be observed by either sex. Time and
choice, on both sides, as to age, temperament, complexion, and
ire, to secure healthy offspring, with the art of rearing them.
Physical defectiveness and its removal. Sterility and its conversion.
OUP" Itc.
By R. J. 1317LVF.RWELL, M.D. (1841), M.R.C.S. (1827), L.B.A.
1124). Twenty-Ave years Medical 1114 Forensic Referee in these
sitters. Reception boars till fly& livening& coven till nlns,
10 arevil-alese. Reccin-strecti

DA
FATTAHLEIT NAGbEo
uNt OF
midnightS MO G
oInN BED.d—ayD, iisnrfoßrEmsasitroGn
reached the Town's-yard that a cottage dwelling in Davis-
street, Choriton-upon-Medlock, was on fire, when Mr. Rose
hastened to the spot with an engine and body of firemen.
On his arrival 'he flames had been extinguished by the
neighbours and police, but, melancholy to relate a life had
been lost. It seemed that a man named John Lee, the oc-
cupant of one room of the ground floor (the house being let
to different lodgers) had returned home from the regatta
about eleven o'clock that evening, in a state of intoxication,
and having, as is supposed, commenced smoking in bed, as
was his custom, he had set fire to the bed clothes. His
screams first gave the alarm. and when the neighbours found
him all his dress was in flames. He was got out of the room
as quickly as possible, but expired immediately. The
damage done by fire was from 151. to 201. On Wednesday
an inquest was held on the body by Mr. Herford, coroner,
when a verd;ct of " Accidental Death" was recorded.—
Manchester Courier.

On Monday last the Chinese family, recently at.-
rivPd from Canton by the British ship Lady Peel, visited her
Majesty, at Osborne, by the special request of the Queen,
conveyed through Colonel Phipps. The party were received
in the state drawing-room by the Queen, his Royal Highness
Prince Albert, and each of the younger branches of the Royal
Family. His Royal Highness Prince Albert, with his pro-
verbial affability, thinking the family would be interested in
the numerous plants and flowers of Chinese origin abounding
in the garden adjoining the drawing-room, conducted his re-
markable visitors round the terrace and parterres.
The Earl of Clarendon had an interview with Lord
I John Russell yesterday.

Mr. DUNCAN, after explaining the law in reference
to our gchl coins, which were no longer legal tender
if wanting a grain in weight, said this principle was
abandoned in regard to our silver coins, which passed
current for ten per cent more than their market value.
Thus theories differed, and pure bullionisin contra-
dicted itself in practice, as it dealt differently with
gold and silver.—(Hear, hear.) They 'w ho insisted
on the representative character of money were ac-
cused of wishing to imitate the assignats of revo-
lutionary France. This charge was truly prepos-
terous, for, as assignats proved a most miserable
failure, he who proposed to revive them would be
justly deemed worthy of a lunatic asylum.
This was one of the calumnies that refuted
themselves. To argue from the abuses of a system
against its uses was the' mean retreat of those who
were incapable of reasoning, and who slandered op-
ponents whom they were unable to refute.—(Cheers.)
Let them turn from France to Scotland, and ask
what instrument built Edinburgh, Glasgow, and
Aberdeen ? What reclaimed a sterile soil, and made
the Lothians and the Carse of Gowrie models of
agricultural improvement? What widened and
deepened the Clyde from Dumbarton to the Broomie-
law ? The answer would be a representative paper
money.—(Hear, and applause.) From the first es-
tablishment of banking in Scotland, in 1694 to 1845,
when Sir Robert Peel introduced metallic money,
the monetary instrument was paper, and the total
loss to the public during a century and a half did
not exceed thirty thousand pounds for the whole of
that long period, while during the few weeks he had
been in Liverpool failures to at least five-fold that
amount had occurred with metallic money.—
(Hear, hear.) Turning to America, when it was
a colony of Great Britain, how, he would ask, was its
land first cultivated ? David Hume, in his corre-
spondence with the Abbe Morellet of Paris,
stated that every planter was allowed to go to a Go-
vernment office and receive paper money to the ex-
tent of one-half the value of his land; and this advance
ho was required to pay in annual instalments, each
instalment being one-tenth of the advance; so that
the whole was liquidated in ten years. It was plain
that the industry of the cultivator was always adding
to the value of the security. But had he been re-
stricted to golden ploughs, the earth must have re-
mained in a state of nature ; had he been restricted to
golden axes the pritni-cval forests never would have
been felled. America must have remained a howling
wilderness, had the colony been ruled by bullionist
legislation.—(Loud cheers.) What led to the war of
American independence? That act of the British
Government, which commanded the colonists to pay
their taxes in gold and silver, and at the same time
withdrew those paper facilities for cultivating the soil
to which allusion had been made. What won their
independence ? Paper money, which Dr. Franklin,
writing in 1764, declared to be the best of all mone-
tary instruments, " when founded on sufficient taxes
for discharging hem, or on land security of double
the value for repaying it at the end of the term, and
in the meantime made a general legal tender."
What enabled Great Britain to preserve herself from
being conquered by Napoleon ? What enabled the
allied sovereigns to fight the battle of Leipsic ?
Paper-money—guaranteed by Russia, Prussia, and
England. These examples were sufficient to silence
the ignorant chattering about assignats. What opi-
nion would be formed of a logician, who, observing
that leaky vessels foundered at sea, asserted that no
ship could be made trustworthy, and then prohibited
navigation ? Yet he would not be a whit more ab-
surd than they who affirmed that because a bad
paper-money might be issued, a safe one could never
be created. Taxes formed the basis of national state
money. The amount was annually voted by Parlia-
ment, and established the limit. To the extent of
that amount the executive Government should be em-
powered to issue notes, which would derive their value
from the authority of the State that put them in cir
culation. With these the Government would pay its
own debts, the army, navy, ordnance, civil service, and
the dividends of the fundholders. These notes, not
possessing intrinsic value, would never be ex.
ported, for they would not pay taxes due to any
foreign potentate, though they would discharge taxes
due to our own Government. They never could de-
teriorate in value, as Government would be obliged
to take them back in discharge for taxes for the same
nominal amount at which they were originally issued,
nor could they deteriorate through excess, since their
amount would be rigidly fixed by a solemn vote of the
Legislature. These proper instruments would par-
take very much of the character of a post-office stamp,
which had no intrinsic value; nevertheless a revenue
was raised on them equal to two millions sterling.
The principle was therefore established, and it would
be just as easy to raise fifty millions in Government
taxation notes.—(Hear.) But it might be objected
that there was a detect in this illustration, because he
who holds a post-office stamp must have given a cop-
per penny for it. The penny simply intervened
between the act of labour and the possession
of the stamp, but it formed no part of the effective
operation, for the labourer might have received his
wages in the post-office instrument and bad been just
as well paid. In like manner, no one could possess
himself of Government taxation notes unless he had
given his labour, or the produce of his labour in ex-
change for them. Let this system be compared with
the existing one. When Government required money
it proceeded to manufacture Exchequer-bills of too
large an amount to pass into trading circulation.
Those bore interest which was paid out of taxes. The
Exchequer•bills were lodged with the Bank of
England, as a national security, and on the strength
of them the Bank issued its own notes to the value
of the Exchequer-bills. Why not save this interest ?
If the Government credit were good for an Exche-
quer. bill of one thousand pounds, why should it not
be good for a thousand notes of twenty shillings each?
—(Hear, bear.) On what did the credit rest? On
the whole amount of the national property, computed
at six millions sterling, and all the gold and silver
would be as fully responsible for the notes as they
were now. Many were alarmed by the bugbear of
depreciation, and it was desirable that this fallacy
should be refuted. During the late war, the paper
pound was enfeebled in purchasing power, and this
was practically expressed in the universal rise in the
price of all commodities—a rise caused by increased
taxation and the addition of five hundred millions to
the national debt. The depreciation of the pound
was solely the effect of taxation, which raised the
prices of commodities, on an average of eighty-eight
principle articles, from 1001. to 1751.—(Hear, hear.)
Here rose the discussion between direct and indirect
taxation, at fifty millions, when the tax became one-
eighth of the income. The eighth part of a pound
was 2s. Gd. If, therefore, the revenue was
raised by a direct tax, half-a-crown would
be taken from every man for every pound
he held, and he would only remain possessed
of 17s. 6d. This would leave him, in one
sense, a depreciated, but not a deteriorated pound,
since the pound would have been excised by taxa-
tion, which had cut off one-eighth of its original
value. Now, substituting indirect for direct taxa-
tion, the pound would sink 121 per cent. in its pur-
chasing power, or 2s. Gd. out of every 208. ; but this
was not a deteriorated power. The indirect tax
was first put on the industrious classes, in the shape
chiefly of customs and excise, but when the mode
of raising revenue was thus changed, it was never
intended to commit a fraud, and transfer the
burden from property to labour. Yet this must
prove the inevitable result, unless the industrious
classes were enabled to recover from the buyers of
goods that tax which the industrious classes had
advanced to the Government. But they could only
recover it by a rise of prices, and no rise would
take place in gold money tied down to the barter
level, for, being so tied down, it could not be a
measure of the taxation level. When, then,
a revenue was raised indirectly, the tax must be
expressed ia paper money, which would decline in
purchasing power in exact proportion to the tax im-
posed. Tile paper did not cause the rise of price, it
only permitted it; the cause was indirect taxation.
To levy indirect taxes on labour and complain that
money was depreciated, was really to affirm that
property ought to be wholly exempt from any fiscal
burden whatever.—(Cheers.) The evil of gold
money becomes the more cruel when it was consi-
dered in conjunction with the modern system of free
imports, strangely mistaken for free trade. If the
intrinsic value of a commodity were four pounds, and
the indirect tax two pounds, its price ought to be six
pounds. Admit the foreign into free competition with
ourselves ; he may be content with less than six
pounds, in which case the home price must fall, to the
detriment of native industry ; it might fall to four
pounds, in which case the tax of two pounds re-
mained permanently on the native producer, who
could never recover it from the consumer,who would
I buy in the cheapest market. But paper money cor-

rected this evil in the following manner :—The paper
pound depreciating through taxation, six of such
pounds would no longer purchase an ounce and a half
of gold, but only one ounce, as two pounds would be
due to taxation. This was the protection which a
national money would afford to industry. Mr. Dun-
can then gave a rapid review of our monetary system
fr0m1797 to the panic of 1847, in which he combated
the vulgarerror which attributed prosperity to the late
war, showing that the prosperity was entirely due to
paper money. In support of this view he quoted some
passages from the letter of Mathias Attwood to Lord
Archibald Hamilton, printed in 1823, and reprinted in
1847, which demonstrated that the country was at the
height of prosperity in 1818, when we were at pease
with all-the world. This was proved by the evidence
of Mr.' Hodgson, a merchant of Liverpool, who was
examined before the Agricultural Committee of 1821,
his testimony applying to the great towns of Liver-
pool, Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield, and Leeds.
Wheat was in 1818, 84s. per quarter, and meat pro-
portionately dear, yet there was more meat consumed
in 1818 than in 1821, when prices had fallen one-half.
Mr. Tindall, Mr. Tooke, and Mr. Marryatt all de-
posed to the prosperity of shipping in 1818, and to its
decline after cash payments were resumed in 1819.
This last gentleman stated that the qesostris, which
cost 12,175/. in 1818, was sold in 18-20 for 6,3001. ;
and he gave numerous other instances, all display-
ing the fallacy of cheapness. Mr. Duncan then ex-
plained the principle of commercial money as dis-
tinguished from national state money, basing it on
the letter of the first Sir Robert Peel addressed to
both Houses of Parliament in 1826, and on the
New York Banking Act of 1838. The notes issued
by these security banks could not be tortured into
the most remote similarity to assignats, for they
would really repose on a guarantee even more solid
than the national debt. As an illustration of what
might be effected with paper money, Mr. Duncan
explained the manner in which a market was built in
Guernsey, without its having cost a single farthing,
though ever since its completion it had yielded an in-
come of 4001. This plan ,might be applied to rail-
ways and to the Rivington Pike scheme of supplying
Liverpool with water. The lecturer then contrasted
the monetary system he had recommended with the
practical working of bullionism from 1819 to 1847,
referring to the numerous panics that bad occurred,
causing in the aggregate a loss of national wealth,
exceeding in the aggregate double the amount of the
national debt. This was entirely caused by the law
which arbitrarily fixed the price of the ounce of gold
in our coinage, so that when our goods were increased
in price by taxation being added to intrinsic value,
they became dearer than untaxed gold, and of course
the foreigner refused to take our goods, but abstracted
our legal tender. The next subject examined was
the theory of the balance of trade, which, it was con-
tended, erroneously assumed a balance of profit. Thus
if, in a given period, we sent goods to France valued
at one hundred pounds, or twenty-five ounces of
gold, and Franco sent us goods valued at 801., or
twenty ounces of gold, there was a balance due to us
of 201., or five ounces of gold. But this was not a
balance of profit, as we only received back, at a
postponed date what we had previously advanced.
Connected with this point was the fallacy of viewing
an excess of exports over imports as a sign of pros-
perity. All trade resolved itself into barter, and barter
was the exchange of equivalents. The value of ex-
ports and imports, therefore, must necessarily resolve
itself into perfect equivalency, as no nation could over-
reach any other nation. It might be asked, how
could our foreign trade be conducted with a paper
money, not possessing any intrinsic value, but deriving
its conventional value from the authority of the state
that put it into circulation ; for such money was,
and must be, valueless to the foreigner. This
difficulty was only apparent, not real. The
foreigner cared nothing for denominations of
money ; he merely calculated how much gold
of standard purity he should receive for his
goods, and he bad no concern with the monetary
instrument we might use among ourselves for car-
rying on our internal trade. Let it be assumed, then,
as an extreme case, that our paper pound, nominally
passing among ourselves for twenty shillings, was
only worth ten shillings in silver, or two and a half
pennyweights of gold. Under these circumstances,
the foreigner requiring 25 ounces of gold in payment
of his goods, would not draw a bill on the British
consignee for 1001., but for 2001., estimated in our
national money ; and thus he would obtain the 25
ounces of gold to which he was entitled. It was
clear, then, that the system proposed would not
affect the foreigner in the slightest degree.—(Cheers.)
But, it might be asked, how would it fare with the
British manufacturer ? Let it be assumed that be
produces goods for export which he values at
30,0001. in our national currency. When he sent
these goods to Hamburgh, he would not realise for
them 7,500 ounces of gold, us he did under bullionism,
but only 5,000 ounces ; but when he brought those
5,000 ounces into England be would sell them at
the Bank for 30,0001. in national money, and thus
his position was entirely uninjured.—(Cries of
Hear, hear.") The only class of persons who
would suffer by this system were absentees. Suppose
that one of this class received an income from the
public funds of 1,0001. per year. For this, his banker
remitted him a bill on Naples, with which he could
purchase 250 ounces of gold, and he thus escaped all
taxation ; but assuming that his fair share of tax, as a
man of property, was twenty per cent., then for his
1,0001. in national money, his banker would only re-
mit him 200 ounces of gold, and 50 ounces, or 2001.
would remain here as his contribution to the public
revenue. Another fallacy which greatly misled the
mercantile community was based upon the apparent
plenty of money. At the present time the Bank of
England had nearly nine millions of unemployed
notes, which they would gladly lend at a low rate of
interest, and the private bankers and bill-brokers were
in a similar position. Hence money was said to be
plentiful ; but this state resembled the congestion of
blood in the head, which is never taken for a symp-
tom of health, but of approaching apoplexy. Sir
Robert Peel, referring to the high rate of in-
terest which the merchants had to pay during the
year 1847, justified usury, asking why a man was not
entitled to receive as large a profit for the loan of
money when it was scarce, as, another man might
make of cotton or corn, or any other commodity,
when they were scarce. The answer was that
money did not resemble any other commodity, for
there was no law which limited the quantity of corn
or cotton, but there was a law which limited the
quantity of money. The parallel, therefore, was
false, as well as the inference deduced from it.
Usurious interest was charged, not for the legitimate
use of money, but for its artificial
scarcity solely caused by bullionist legislation. What
shall we say to a system which periodically ruined
the merchant, when the interest of money rose above
five per cent., and tolerated a system of pawn-
broking which legalised at all times and under all
circumstances a rate of 20 per cent., extorted from
the poorest classes of society ; and what spectacle
more strongly condemned the existing system than
that exhibited in the windows of a pawnbroker's shop
of the tools with which alone a wcrking man could
earn his wages?--(Hear.) There was a clause in
Magna Charta which even considered the state of
the serfs, who were not allowed to be fined to such
an extent as would deprive them of the implements
of their industry.—(Cheers.) To illustrate the ab-
surdity of fabricating legal tender out of a commo-
dity possessing intrinsic value reference was made to
the copper coinage of 1797. At that time each penny
weighed an ounce, or sixteen to the pound avoirdu-
pois; but in consequence of the demand for copper,
its price in the market as a commodity rose to twenty
pence, and the consequence was, that all the penny
pieces were melted and disappeared from circulation.
It was this circumstance which induced the Legisla-

ture to fix the price of gold in our coinage in the Act
of 1819, and make the note always convertible into
133 grains of the metal, whether the metal was scarce
or abundant. When the gold rose above the Mint
price, that rise was expressed in the rise of the rate
of interest, and in this cruel manner all other pro-
perty was necessarily depreciated.—(llear.) Mr.
Duncan then referred to the fallacies of over-produc-
tion, over-trading, over-population, which, he as-
serted, were phrases invented to conceal the real
under-production of money.
The thanks of the meeting were then unanimously
voted to Mr. Duncan and the chairman, and the
meeting broke up at half-past ten o'clock.

MONETARY REFORM AT LIVERPOOL.
(From the Derbyshire Courier.)
We should be content to allow the Liverpool mer-
chants to proceed, for the present, with the considera-
tion and examination of the currency question in '
their own way, did not the admirable exposition of the
subject by Mr. Duncan, which we give in the Courier
of to-day, seem to demand a particular notice. Our
readers will And is this lecture no admixture of party
politics, or advocacy of class interests. It places the
monetary question, as we wish it to be placed, entirely
on its own merits. And Mr. Duncan supports bis
opinions by an appeal to undoubted facts, and sound
arguments, 4' What," `; reclaithed a sterile
soil, and made the Lothians and the Carse of Gowrie
models of agricultural improvement ? What widened
and deepened the Clyde from Dumbarton to the
Broornielaw ? Tlw aUSWer would be a representative

Clerk—James 13 M'Avoy, to the Fisgard.
Boatswain—John Riddett, advanced to second class.
Carpenter—John Read, advanced to second class.
Gunner—Timothy Donohue, to be acting gunner.
PORTSMOUTH, AUG. 19.—0 n the late visitation of
the Admiralty to the dockyard they maturely consi-
dered the fittings of cabins on the several decks of
ships, with the view to keep as many as possible of
the guns clear, without disturbing bulkheads. Under
the poop in line-of-battle ships there will in future be
only one gun of a side within the cabins; accommo-
dation is afforded for only the captain and secretary.
The captain has a midship cabin, and one on the
port quarter, for sleeping ; and the secretary has a
narrow cabin on the starboard side. The offices for
the secretary are now to be placed amidships, so as
not at all to interfere with the guns. In three-
decked ships the admiral's apartments are—one large
cabin about twenty-three or twenty-four feet in
length, and reaching across the ship, and one midship
and two side cabins aft. On the upper deck, upon
which the admiral's cabins are placed, there are only
two guns on a side within the bulkheads, and these
are not in the least encumbered. The admiral's
steward's berth and pantry are placed amidships, so
that there are no fittings at the sides of the ship. On
the middle deck, upon which the ward-room is placed,
there are to be only two cabins—one for the master
on the port side, and one for the commander on the
starboard side ; these clear all the guns except the
after gun on each side, so that upon this deck all the
guns except two are free from obstruction. The
ward-room steward's pantry is also placed amidships,
so as to keep the sides entirely clear from obstruction.
On the gun deck only one gun on each side is within
the gun-room or midshipmen's mess-room. The
midshipmen's steward's pantry likewise is to be amid-
ships, so as to present no obstruction to the use of the
armament. In a three-decked ship there will, there-
fore, be only twelve guns with which the bulkheads
will at all interfere ; and these bulkheads are made to
slide, so that all obstructions may be removed in less
than two minutes. The other officers for whom ac-
commodation has not been provided for as above will
be placed on the orlop deck. The same principle is,
we understand, to be applied in the fitting of all two
and three-decked ships as they are brought forward.—
Herald.

The Myrmidon steamer, Lieutenant-Commander
Joliffe, sailed for Devonport on Monday.
The Vengeance received about 130 seamen from
Plymouth on Sunday, she is now about 200 short, and
it is expected that nearly that number will be entered
at Plymouth for her. She is to be ready for sea on
the 31st instant.
The Vulcan troop-steamer has come alongside the
jetty. She is to be docked and refitted, and have her
channels widened to enable her to carry more sail.
Her bottom is foul, and it made a great difference in
her rate of sailing. She brought home about 40 tons
of coal, which her commander reserved for the pur-
pose of using, if required, in the Channel. The leak
spoken of is a very trifling affair, being simply from
the packing of the shaft of the screw propeller.
The Admiral Superintendent Prescott, accompanied
by the master shipwright, Mr. Fincham, and Com-
mander Mathias, of the Britannia (Captain Yates
being ill), commenced their annual inspection of the
ships in ordinary on Monday morning, and it is ex-
pected it will be completed on Wednesday evening.
The Fairy steam-yacht, Captain Lord Adolphus
Fitzclarence, embarked his Royal Highness the
Prince Consort at Cowes this morning, and conveyed
him to this port. His Royal Highness landed at
Gosport soon after nine o'clock, and was received in
the Clarence Victualling-yard by Mr. R. Willoughby
Stevens, of the South-Western Railway Company.
As his Royal Highness's trip was quite private none
of the dignitaries of the port or garrison, or guard of
honour, were present. The Prince, attended by Col.
the Hon. A. Gordon, left the Clarence-yard in a
special train, in charge of Mr. Beattie, chief engineer,
and Mr. Godson, superintendent of the South-
Western Railway, at five minutes past nine this morn-
ing for London, and returned at about half.past six
this evening in the same private manner, when the
Fairy re-embarked him for Osborne.
The Marlborough Indiaman arrived at Spithead
yesterday from the Thames to embark passengers for
Madras.

The Pique, 40, was temporarily commissioned here
this morning by Mr. Joseph R. Ning, Master of the
Britannia, 120, who, with the assistance of 60 men
from that ship and 30 dockyard riggers, will navigate
her to Pembroke for alteration.
The Hendrik Hudson, New York packet-ship,
arrived to-day from London, and sailed for America.
PLYMOUTH, TUESDAY. We have no more favour-
able report to give of the condition of Lord
John Hay.
The Swedish merchant brig Pylad, of Stockholm,
landed here yesterday William Ranklin, third mate,
Thomas Gratnell, Adam 13ruce, Andrew Mackintosh,
A. M'Cluckie, T. Ricbards, Henry Smith, and John
Whitfill, seamen, belonging to the ship Jaeger, Cap-
tain Bartlett, the property of Messrs. Clark and Son,
of Liverpool, for which port she was bound, from
Calcutta, having left the 16th of March, with a
general cargo of saltpetre, sugar, rice, &c. On the
24th of July, at seven o'clock in the morning, i
long. 40 W., lat 26 N., spontaneous combustion com-
menced in the after-hold, between decks, and although
all hands endeavoured to extinguish it by throwing
down water with buckets, by keeping the two pumps

At the close of the dry's dutics their Lordships
dined with the port Admir.ll, Sir John A. Ommanney,
and a distingushed party, at the Adoiiralty-house,
Mount Wise.

In the evening their Lordships were present as
patrons of a ball annually given in aid of the funds
of the Royal British Female Orphan Asylum, at the
Royal Hotel in this borough. We have before spoken
of this admirable institution as- one deservedly popu-
lar, and in every way worthy of the patronage thus
annually bestowed by their Lordships. The ball-
room was early crowded with all the elite and fashion
of the town and neighbourhood.—Herald.