The Sun.
London, England, 1833-04-24 00:00:00

SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF LONDON

Yesterday being St. George's Day, the Society of An-
tiquaries met at their apartments in Somerset-place, in
pursuance of their statutes and charter of incorporation, to
elect a President, Council, and Officers of the Society for
the year ensuing, whereupon,
George. Earl of Aberdeen. J. Gage, Esq.
H. R. H. the Duke of Sussex. H. Gurney, Esq.
J. Amyot, Esq. H. Hallam, Esq.
N. Carlisle, Esq. W. R. Hamilton, Esq.
C. P. Cooper, Esq. Right Hon. C. W, W, Wynn.
Sir H. Ellis, Knt.
eleven of the Council, were re-chosen of the New Council,
amid
C. R. Cockerell, Esq. Sir F. Madden, Knt.
Rev. J. B. Deane. J. H. Harkland, Esq.
I). Gilbert, Esq. Right Hon. Sir R. Peel, Bart.
It. Lemon, Esq. Sir T. Phillips, Bart.
E. Lord Bishop of Llandaff. C. G. Young, Esq.
tea of the other Members of the Society, were chosen of
the New Council, and they were severally declared to be
the Council for the year ensuing ; and, on a report made
of the officers of the Society, it appeared that
George, Earl of Aberdeen, K.T.,was elected President.
Thoma► Amyot, Esq., Treasurer.
John Gage, Esq., Director.
Nicholas Carlisle, Esq., Secretary.
Sir Henry Ellis, Knt., Secretary.
The Society afterwards dined together at the Free
Mason's Tavern, Great Queen-street, according to an-
nual custom.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Mr. M. Attwood is evidently much chagrined
that the only intelligible construction which his
speech and motion admit of, was put upon it by
Lord Althorp. In truth, if Mr. M. Attwood
did not aim at depreciation, he aimed at nothing.
The whole burden of his speech was, that the
country was in great distress ; that that distress
was caused by the adoption of a metallic stan-
dard, and the consequence is obvious, that, by
departing from the standard alone can the dis-
tress be relieved. Last night, however, on Sir
Henry Willoughby moving the order of the
day for resuming the adjourned debate, Lord
Althorp offered an explanation of an expression
used by him on Monday night, that, as an ho-
nest man, he could not consent to the motion,
with a view of obviating the inference that he
meant to imply by it, that Mr.M. Attwood was
a dishonest man. This was all very fair and proper
in his Lordship ; for different men have different
standards of honesty, and it does not follow, that
because lie considers depreciation dishonesty, an-
other man would not consider it equity. In fact with
many persons, convenient, equitable, and honest
are taken as synonymes. However, Mr. M. Att-
wood availed himself of the Noble Lord's expla-
nation to make a speech which it would puzzle
all the reconciliatory critics of Germany (for in
that country there is a class of critics who would
prove to you that the difference between an
Atheist and an orthodox Trinitarian is only ap-
parent) to reconcile with the drift of his speech
on Monday night :
" The Noble Lord's arguments (said Mr. M. Attwood)
were all directed against depreciation, which the Noble
Lord used as if he had proposed depreciation. He had
made no such preposition. He bad urged the House of
Commons to inquire into the condition of the country,
and what had been the effect of the monetary system as it
now stands ? His proposition was to inquire if they did not
possess some means of relieving that condition, without
committing injustice in violating the faith pledged to the
public creditor."
Lord Althorp, in reply, said—
" The tendency of all the Honourable Member's argu-
ments was what be had stated. • * • In his speech
last night he had applied himself—and this was the be-
ginning and end of his speech—to show that the distress
of the country was caused by the monetary system, and
that by an alteration of the monetary system a rise of price
might be produced, and distress relieved,—(Hear, hear.)
He asked the Hon. Member bow he could produce a iisd
in prices if be did pot lower the standard of value? in

that sense ha had argued the question, and said that the
common-sense view of the matter wag, that the eff,cts
described by the Hon. Member could only be produced by
the standard of value." _ _

Mr. M. Attwood, being a shrewd man, is
aware that there is much in a name; and though
he would wish the effects which can only be
produced by lowering the standard of value, he
would not wish to have it thought that he advo-

cated depreciation or spoliation. There are
many people who possess a great delicacy re-
specting names. The advocates of deprecia-
tion as a relief for distress, were evidently inua
bothered last night, iF we may use such a word,
with the statements of the Vice-President of the
Board of Trade. These gentlemen are fond of
generalities. From the masterly analysis, how-
ever, of Mr. P. Thomson, it was made to appear
distinctly that the period which they describe as
one of great prosperity was one of great
privations to the labouring classes, and that
the labouring classes have, upon the whole,

never been so comfortable as during the
period which they describe as one of unexampled
distress. The working classes must he stupid
beyond conception, if they do not perceive that
the depreciation, which the currency doctors tell
them is.to be a remedy for all their evils, will

materially injure them. The single fact that
depreciation does not immediately produce a
corresponding rise of wages, and that apprecia-
tion does not produce a corresponding fall in

wages, is of immense importance to the poor.
The late Mr. Huskisson was always at great
pains to show, that one of the most distressing
results of the depreciation of the currency was

;he deterioration of the condition of' the labour-

ing classes. The capital acquired by the farmers
(luring the period of the depreciation, was c ipital
drawn from the mi'eries of the poor. When
agriculture was flourishing, as it is called, the
labourers were subjected to great privations, and

without the aid Of rates would have starved;

and it was not till agricultural distress pressed
down the tenant, and compelled the landlord
to make one abatement after another, that the

labourers recovered their position. Our readers
will do us the justice to bear witness, that
during the period of the fires in the agricultural
districts, we always contended that the condition
of the labourers was better rather then than it had

been some years before ; and that though the
administration of the poor laws in the South led
to a good deal of petty oppression, and to the
disastrous notion that the poor were entitled to
throw the blame of all sufferings arising from
whatever cause, their own imprudence or vices,
for instance, on those who were continually in-
terfering with them, the condition of the labour-
ers, on the whole, was not deteriorated. "When
the landed interest was depressed (said Mr.
Cayley, last night) all other interests suffered,
for all depended, more or less, on its prosperity.
This might easily be proved. In 1817 and in
1819, wheat was 80s. or 90s. a quarter, and the
country was then in a great state of prosperity."
The prosperity was so great in these two years,
that we had green bag reports, and meetings of
an insurrectionary character throughout the
country. In the report of the Secret Committee
of the Commons of 1817, it is observed, " Not-
withstanding the alarming progress which has
been made in the system of extending disaffec-
tion and secret societies, its success has been
confined to the principal manufacturing
districts, where the distress is more prevalent,
and numbers more easily collected ; and that,
even in many of these districts, privations
have been borne with exemplary patience and
resignation. Great allowance must be made
for those who, under the pressure of urgent dis-
tress, have been led to listen to plausible and
confident demagogues in the expectation of
immediate relief." With respect to 1819, the
Manchester massacre is quite sufficient to deter-
mine the prosperity of that period. At the
close of that year (Dec. 1), the Marquis of
Lansdowne proposed the appointment of a Com-
mittee " to inquire into the state of the manu-
facturing districts—the necessity of such an in-
quiry (he said) could not be disputed at a period
when all parties were agreed as to the alarming
state of the country. The general desire of
some change in the people appeared to arise
only from a feeling of uneasiness proceeding
from distress." When corn is high, landlords
are prosperous ; but to say that all are prospe-
rous because landlords are prosperous, is to
reason, like the woodman in Moliere, who in-
sisted that when his belly was full no one should
be hungry. It has often been remarked by those
who have visited lunatic establishments, that the
patients, however insensible to their own aberra-
tions, are peculiarly alive to the vulnerable points of
their neighbours. Without meaning any thing of-
fensive to Mr. A. Baring, we must say that he often
reminds us of one of the patients in question. No-
thing could be happier in its way than his expo-
sure of the delusions of Mr. M. Attwood, and his
proposing him as a fit Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer for the Grand Seignor :
" With the variety and the complexity," he observed,
" of the interests of the country before his eyes, he con-
fessed it did surprise him not a little, that any man out of
Bedlam should dream of proposing anything so prepos-
terous, and at the same time so unjust, as that which had
given rise to the present discussion. His surprise., he ac-
knowledged, was somewhat lessened when he recollected
that talent, and even genius, were often allied with pecu-
liar intellectual conformation, which was often subject to
aberrations, that could be accounted for upon no admitted
principle.—(A laugh) Of the
proposition upon which the House was then called to pro-
nounce a decision, he might truly say that nothing like it
was ever proposed before. The Hon. Mover of that motion
might, without much impropriety, have his services
transferred to the Sublime Porte. He would make an
excellent Minister for the Grand Sultan at Constan-
tinople, and the proposal which he had just
made, was one which would answer exceedingly
tvell for a Turkish Budget—(Great laughter)—one of the
most prominent features of the system of Government
i pur-
sued in Turkey, was the frequent changes made n the
measure of value. A French gentleman had recently pub-
lished in an Almanack the number of changes made in the
value of the Turkish piastre, from the reign of Mahomet I.
to the present time. He should not trouble the House
with many of the changes, but he could not help ob-
serving that they were not only annual in their occurrence,
but in some instances, semi-annual. In the years 1823
and 1827, the value was twice changed, and the variations
ranged within three shillings and three pence. As to the
changes in the standard of value, of which 113 had been
speaking, their mischief was understood and appreciated in
every country, the least advanced in the science of poli-
tical economy. The Turks themselves bad now their eyes
open in more senses than or..,—(Hear, hear.)"
Mr. Baring was not only happy in charac-
terising the delusions of Mr. M. Attwood, but
he was also happy in his illustration of the fac-
titious prosperity caused in their neighbour-
hoods by " three Norfolk 'Squires of 10,0001.
a year each, mortgaging their estates up to their
full value, and spending the money raised in
four years, as applicable to Great Britain
during the war, when loans to the extent
of forty millions were spent in a year. At
the end of the four years the Norfolk
'Squires would come to the workhouse, and, at
at the end of the war (said Mr. B.) the people of
England would have found themselves in apoor-
house, had there been one large enough to re-
ceive them.,, But yet this Mr. Baring, who
sees so well the folly of Mr. M. Attwood's at-

tempt to create prosperity by robbing Peter to
pay Paul, propounds himself a notable scheme
for compelling the Bank of England, in a few
months, to stop payment, and gravely dwells on
his panacea of a double standard. The coun-
try bankers are to be relieved from keeping coin,
and allowed to pay in Bank of England notes.
If there is any over-trading, the effect will bf.
the same—the bank-notes will be transmitted
London without loss of time, and gold de-
manded for them. If the Bank of England
attend to their interests, knowing that all thu
responsibility rests with them, they will make i
as difficult for the country bankers to have thei,
notes as sovereigns. So much for Mr. Alex.
Baring. Sir Robert Peel gave him a few hits.
The debate was again adjourned.—Morning
Chronicle.

COURT OF CIiANCI4IItY, APRIL 23.

MANNERS V. CHARLESWORTIL

This appeal was argued a short time since, and
we reported it pretty fully. The motion was for
an 'order to set aside a return of Commissioners
upon a commission of partition, and that a new com-
mission might be directed. The only point the Lord
Chancellor reserved for consideration was whether the
Commissioners had improperly shut out evidence
from their consideration, and the presence of parties
and solicitors from their private conferences ? Hi-
Lordship was now clearly of opinion with his Ho-
nour the Vicc-Chancelior, that the Commissioner,,
hid acted in no way improperly, and that, there-
fore, he was bound to refuse the application,
and to dismiss the motion with costs.

The LORD CHANCELLOR, at the rising of the
Clurt, gave judgment in several o, her cases.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER, APRIL 23.