The Sun.
London, England, 1834-02-04 00:00:00

" MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,

" I have to lament the continuance of distress
amongst the proprietors and occupiers of land ;
though, in other respects, the state of the coun-
try, both as regards its internal tranquillity and
its commerce and manufactures, affords the most
encouraging prospects of progressive improve-
ment.

" The Acts passed in the last session, for
carrying into effect various salutary and remedial
measures in Ireland, are now in operation, and
further improvements may be expected to result
from the Commissions which have been issued
for other important objects of inquiry.
" I recommend to you the early consideration
of such a final adjustment of the tithes in that
part of the United Kingdom, as may extinguish
all just causes of complaint, without injury
to the rights and property of any class of my
subjects, or to any Institutions in Church or
State.

" The public tranquillity has been generally
preserved, and the state of all the Provinces of
Ireland presents, upon the whole, a much more
favourable appearance than at any period during
the last year.
" But I have seen, with feelings of deep regret
and just indignation, the continuance of attempts
to excite the people of that country to demand a
Repeal of the Legislative Union.
" This bond of our national strength and
safety, I have already declared my fixed and
unalterable resolution, under the blessing of
Divine Providence, to maintain inviolate by all
the means in my power.

" In support of this dt.tnmination I cannot
doubt the zealous and effectual co-operation of
my Parliament and my People.
" To the practices which have been used to
produce disaffection to the State, and mutual
distrust and animosity between the people of
the two countries, is chiefly to be attributed
the spirit of insubordination which, though for
the present in a great degree controlled by the
power of the law, has been but too perceptible
in many instances.

" To none more than to the deluded instru-
ments of the agitation thus perniciously excited
is the continuance of such a spirit productive
of the most ruinous consequences ; and the
united and vigorous exertions of the loyal and
well affected in aid of the Government, are im-
periously required to put an end to a system of
excitement and violence which while it continues
is destructive of the peace of society, and if suc-
cessful, must inevitably prove fatal to the power
and safety of the United Kingdom."

The courtmartial on Captain WATFIEN has
had just the termination that might have been
anticipated. The gallant officer—" gallant" not
not merely as a certain royal duke is said to be
" illustrious," by courtesy, but by virtue of a
long military career, marked by skill and cou-
rage—has been honourably acquitted, and his
prosecutor, Lord BItUDENELL, dismissed in
the following expressive style :—" His Majesty
has been pleased to order that Lieut-Col. Lord
13RUDENELL shall be removed from the com-
mand of the 15th Hussars." Not a man in the
three kingdoms but will hail this verdict. It
does justice to the deserts of both parties—to
the prosecutor not less than to the prosecuted.
The charges against Captain WATHEN are,
without exception, the most trumpery and
unintelligible we ever heard of. Think of
a fine old veteran, one of our bravest Peninsular
brought to a courtmar-
heroes, being gravely

tial on some ridiculous, enigmatical acccusa•
tions about a few " stable jackets sent from a
tailor's shop !" Why, a charge like this is
enough to split the sacred sides of Justice her-
self ! Then how was it attempted to be sub-
stantiated ? Why, by a resort to eaves-drop-
ping, and every sort of unworthy manoeuvre,
which, if encouraged, would not fail to degrade
the British army in the eyes of all Europe. But
fortunately for our gallant countrymen, the trial
has had just its fitting result.

The great amount of Exchequer Bills in
circulation does so much harm, which is so little
attended to, that we beg leave to bring it under
the notice of our readers.
Exchequer Bills are to the State what accom-
modati on bills are to a merchant. Both may be
resorted to upon a pinch to meet an emergency,
but neither ought to be continued. The pre-
mium on Exchequer Bills, however, and the low
rate of interest they bear, induces the CHANCEL-
LOR of the EXCHEQUER to continue the prac-
tice of renewing them, and there are Exchequer
Bills now circulating to the amount of between
thirty and forty millions, of which, from accounts
produced before the Bank Charter Committee,
it appeared that the Bank had purchased and
held on its own account between eight and nine
millions, besides Exchequer Bills deposited with
it by others upon which it had made advances.
In the purchase of those eight or nine millions
of Exchequer Bills, the Bank used its notes as
capital, and this abuse is one cause of the low
rate of interest leading to a low rate of profits.
Moreover, the purchase of Exchequer Bills ena-
bles the Bank to increase the currency at plea-
sure, while the sale of them enables it immedi-
ately to contract the currency to any extent it
pleases. The renewing of Exchequer Bills to
so large an amount is thus not only one main
cause of the low rate of interest and of profits,
but also of the over issue of the Bank, while the
loss and uncertainty occasioned by the alternate
expansion and contraction of the currency, by
preventing capital from engaging in the general
operations of industry, is the cause of Exchequer
Bills being at a premium, inasmuch as cautious
capitalists know that they thereby secure them-
selves against loss, and receive a small return in
the shape of interest upon their capital which
they are thus enabled to keep whole and en-
tire, in the expectation that better times may
come when they may employ it with safety to
more advantage.

The Agricultural Committee of last session
say that " there has been, coincident with the
" present system of corn laws, a steadiness in
" the price of corn of which there has been
" rarely, if ever, an experience in any former
" period of equal duration."

Where has this Committee found the facts or
the authority for this sweeping assertion ? If it
had looked into the Report of its predecessor,
in 1821, it would have found its contradiction
in these words, " When your Committee find in
" the seventeen months which passed between
" January, 1816, and June, 1817, the price of
" wheat varying from 535. ld. to 112 s. 7d.,
" and again in the three months which ensued
" from June to September, 1817, from 112 s. to
" 745., they cannot but ask whether fluctuations
" so rapid and extensive have existed in any other
" commodity of universal supply and demand, or
" in any other country, and whether these fluc-
" tuations may not have been aggravated bysome
" of the effects of the present law ?"

If the Agricultural Committee of last session
meant to confine its assertion to the existing
law, let us see how the facts stand. The pre-
sent law received the Royal assent on the 15:h
of July, 1828. The price of wheat in England
throughout the month of January, 1828, did not
exceed 51s. Bd. per quarter, when it was 235. 4d.
at Dantzic. The highest price in the month in
which the Act passed was only 51s. Bd. per
quarter, when it was 255. 4d. at Dantzic, but it
rose in the last week in the month of October
in that year to 765. in England, when it ranged
at Dantzic from 51s. 7d. to 71s. 6d., while, in
the preceding week of the same month, when
wheat had reached 755. 10d. in England, it
ranged from 545. 7d. to 745. sd. at Dantzic. In
the first week of Jan., 1829, the price of wheat in
England was 728.101,when it ranged from 505.7 d.
to 70s. 7d. at Dantzic, and in the last week in
September in that year it fell to 58s. 4d. in
England, and to between 30•. 9d. and 48s. Bd.
at Dantzic. These prices are taken from the
reports of our Consuls for 1829 and 1830,
which it is impossible this Committee can have
looked at, otherwise it never would have made
such an unfounded assertion.

Since the passing of our law of 1828, our
fluctuations appear to have reached other places
besides Dantzic, which were not previously
affected by them. Thus, in January, 1828,
when wheat was 40s. 3(1. at Leghorn, it was
695. 8;1. at Marseilles, 535. ld. at A licant, and
635. at Lisbon. In January, 1829, wheat was
at from 555. sd. to 635. at Leghorn., from
60s. Id. to 675. 6d. at Marseilles, from 375. Bd.
to 425. ld. at Cadiz, and from 565. 2d. to
83s. sd. at Lisbon.

Similar consequences have attended the corn
law in France, which is worse than ours in this
respect, that France has divided the kingdom into
four parts, and no one part is allowed to trade
with another in grain until the price in each
shall have reached a certain amount. Thus, in
July, 1829, when the price of wheat was from
48s. Bd. to 655. Bd. per English quarter at
Caen, it was from 525. 6d. to 565. 4d. at Brest ;
from 465. 11d. to 535. at Nantes ; from 475. 4d.
to 50s. sd. at Charante, and from 445. 9d. to
51s. 6d. at Bordeaux.

We shall go further back in utter demolition
of this extraordinary assertion of this Committee.
Upon an average of six years, ending in 1707,
the price of middling wheat in England was
only 255. 11d. a quarter. In the three year,
which followed, it was 62a. in 1709, and 61s. 7d.
in 1710. From this period to 1749, the price
did not exceed 275. 91 per quarter. In 1757
it rose to 475. 4d. per quarter. We pause here,
because we have indisputable evidence of the

c ause of the high price in this year. The harvest
of 1756 was greatly deficient in this countri
and throughout Europe, insomuch that the suf'
lerings of the poor in this country from this
cause were adverted to in a speech from the,
Throne. That abundant harvests are the cause 0'
low prices, the prices in 1821, 1823, and the
present year, sufficiently testify, the harvests o't
1820, 1822, and last year, having been the
most abundant we have ever known. The cause
of fluctuations, then, is the abundance or scanti'
ness of crop produced by the seasons, which
human laws cannot prevent, but human laid
may, and do aggravate. If demand were allowed
without the interference of different States t°
produce its natural effect, the prices of grain, es
of every thing, would be equalized within the
sphere of human intercourse. Nations have in
vain attempted to stop the exportation of gold'
It is of such universal demand, and so wallf
transported, that in spite of human laws, the
supply is quickly adjusted every where to the i
demand. Corn is not much less in universal]
demand than gold, but it is not so easily trans'
ported. Whenever demand, however, has been,
allowed to operate freely, the expense 01
transport has been the only difference in price'
Under every obstruction even the price et
corn equalizes itself in a course of years, and
sometimes even in one year, as it appeared in
1828. Though the price of wheat in England in
that year rose to '765., yet it did not average Os'
for the whole year. So, though the fluctuations
in different months in the years 1829, 18901
1831, and 1832 were considerable, the differ'
ence upon the whole of them was only 3s. 1 lido
the average of 1829 having been 635. 5d., and
of 1831, 665. 42d. But 495. being the average
price now, how can this C ommittee have arrived
at its conclusion ? And how strongly does the
right conclusion show the impolicy of restrahv
ing laws ! We cannot prevent the equalisaticn
of prices upon a course of years. But vo
aggravate the fluctuations produced by the
seasons in particular years. We compel the
British farmer to bring his corn early to market'
in order to pay his rent, only to raise the price
so much more afterwards, which we thus give
to the dealer in foreign grain and take away from
1
him, and we also compel him to scourge and
exhaust the soil in order to have any crop he
can raise in order to sell. We thus beat the it
in vain in attempting to increase prices, and
thereby increase rents, which we only serve 0
bring down. We do injury to all without doing
good to any ! ! !

_ _
COURT OF EXCHEQUER.-(THIS DAY')

Lord LYNDHURST took his seat on the Bench this nlOOll4
for the first time since his late domestic calamity.
The COURT was occupied the whole morning with all i_llA:
formation against a person named Dyer, of the Ilford-f°'"'
for making malt in an unentered