The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-03 00:00:00

TH_E _SUN, LONDQN,_THURSDAY EVENINeisz_A:P_RIL is, 1856

to the people has been for a very problematical
advantage to our foreign trade.

The limes declares that, "as we require gold
to meet balanc9s of. debt to foreign nations at
periods When our exports have not been fully suf-,
&lent_ to pay, for our imports, we must have some.
means of converting our.. circulation into this
material." And this is, in fact, the sole argument
that can be urged for our complicated and ruinous
monetary systema foundation, that will, by DO,
means sustain the elaborate:superstructure that
has been erected thereon.- We Contend that this
<provision would: be adequately made by leaving
the supply`to private enterprise, and rendering
gold, as it. ought to be, purely an article of mer-
chandise:, Of course, the A'atienal Bank, for the
purpose of sustaining the value of its notes,
would, although not ' required to do so
by law, keep • a certain supply' of the pre-
cious metal, in its coffers, or, 'possibly, what
would'-answer, the purpose of keeping the exchange
favourable to England just as well;' might hold a
certain amount a securities easily convertible] at
the principal foreign exchanges. But in addition,
there would be capitalists always ready to deal in
matter that offered a reasonable prospect of
gain. The contracts for the purchase of foreign
commoditiesmighti if neicivary, be made payable
In so many ounces of gold or silver bullion,'Or. in
money coined for the express purpose of foreign
„
-trade, and the purchaser.wonld have nogreater
risk in calculitine-the preMium, •if any, which he
might be coulpepedt6 Pay,-lhan he Would at pre-
sent, to estitnate the possible increase in the -Mi-
nimum rate of discount, on the enhanced difficulty
of obtaining money on any terms whatever.
The fact is the foreign trade is a mere " raw-
head and bloody bones," a bugbear raised for
the mere purpose of " frightening the isle
from its _propriety," and inducing the people
who will not take the trouble to think for them-
selves to" commit their interests into the.hands
of the currency quacks, who reap golden harvests
[-from their credulity and, apathy.

It is time that a stop should be put to this
system; and that a National. Bank, with National
Notes of 11., 21., and 31., should' prevent that
fluctuatilan n the value of money; and in ih-O rate'
of interest, which has been " more injurious to
the nation (teste RICHARD COBDEN) than the.
failure =of all the Banks of Issue that have ever
yet stopped paYment." Lat the ..Monetary: Re-
formers give for this all-important point " a long
pull, a strong► pull, and a pull altogether,"' and
they may be assured of speedy aid complete suc-
cess, that will place the welfare and prosperity of
the nation on a firm and enduring basis. ,

The French Fire-Insurance invasion, to which
we so early called attention, has compelled the
defenders of the national revenue to appeal at
last to the House of CommonS. The Chancellor
of the Exeliequer *as very confident at first that
Englishmen would not rely on a French guarantee
against loss or damage by fire." Experience
has taught him better. The War and the Alli
ance have at ,leait -„given us increased confidence
in our neighbour ; and, with reasonable reliance
on her business associations,, it is not in human
nature to pay 125 per cent. more, for the same
advantage, tb an; `English thdn to a French-cons-
pang. AmthigstoAT own circle this, at least, i§
not the case,
.for, we known of I.:4dy-cla'y
-cies being talien in. Le FriiNcu. We eairtiof ddubt
that, if the present duty were continued, and the
French companies' operations; in England not ren.:
dered it muss issue in our largest insur-
ance companies dissolving themselves, and be-
coming reconstituted am French offices.

It will be, hOwever, matter of regret if the
affair does not „bring the subject of Fire limn
auce Duty fully under consideration: The pre-
sent rate of the tax is absurdly' exorbitant ;` fully
200 per cent. on the first-class risks I.—a rate' of
duty wholly at variance with our present corny,
mereial and fiscal principles. We ,do not deny
that equal taxation for insurance'on English
property, whether the insurance be granted by
an English or a French Company, is a fair
free-trade arrangement, since it specially,
favours neither country ; but the other
great principle of commercial taxes that of
moderate diities, as distinguished from duties
which seriously check consumption,, is flagrantly
contravened, by such . an anomalous Govern-,
ment ' charge. The only Secretary of a Fire
Company, so far as we remember, who has'a seat
in the }louse of Commons, denied, indeed; -the
probability of a large,: increase' of insurance lausi
neSs, by a'reductiou of the duty front three shil-
,
lingS toone-shilling- per cent. Insurers in his
()Ice will probably think the
_worthy Secretary
had an eye rather to the five per cent. received by
his office =from Government for collecting the dirty
than to the interests of the awured. A worthy
Tory of the' last generation, a kind of Insur
ance ELDON,: his experience of byegone times
bears but little upon the views and habits of the
present day. The two facts that in France,
where there is no duty 4 seven-eighths of the pro-
perty is insured,
,and
,in England only one-third,
are clear evidence of the effect of the duty, for it
will lacier, be as.serted; we presume, that English-
men are less provident than their volatile neigh-
bours.

perty. We belielie fully as much. incendiarism, on 1
the whole, occur in regard to other- property-m.l in
,regard to farming stock,: and there- is!not, there-'

-•

The injurious working of the duty is very
much due to the - fact that Fire Iniurance is
a dead" charge 1 in the vast majority of
cases, not a penny of what is paid comes
back to the insurer In any shape. If he lays
out hjs money-;in life 'insurance he receives it
again, in the reversion he secures for those most
dear to htm ; if he .invests- it in articles of core-
meree which pay duty. he still gets a profit npon
them." but Fire Insuiance is simply'provision
against a loss—a loss which, it is true, if it oc-
curred, Might beggar hiir—but a loss which it is,
say, thirteen hundred to one whether it will occur
in a first-class risk, .andperhaps a hundred to one
even in,thonaost hazardous risks. Hence thou-
sandg will not pay -an' exorbitant Government'
duty lor mern,proteckion--againSt.' a possible loss
-The offices' charge is tio small that any one -Would
rune inpur that than' haiard theo f a
possibility
•
serious loss. lb is the pi+ovoking extortion of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer which persons resent,
and too frequently to their own erabarrassaient
Or even nun.

TR-EA-TBIOAL GOSSIP.

Several-of the London papers deny on authority
;that Miss Charlotte Cushman has taken the lease
of,the Haymarkpt Theatre.:' All the gasconade o
a City paper is 'conneOtion with this subject has
been thrown away. Among other felicitous things
'it ,was stated that Miss. Cushman intended visiting
New York for the purpose of making engagements
—the artists •hete being far superior to those in
London. On the strength of this item all the
little varieties of the profession have been airing
themselves, and commisserating the London, ma-
nagers in a truly ludicrous Manner. No one fa-
miliar with the. English stage need be told that the
sta.temerN is sihiply ritliculons. There are some
excellent actors here, but they can lie counted up
on the tips of ,the fingers, and are driven ;into
obscurity by, the mention .of such names as
Compton, Benjamin Webster; Howe, Buckstone,.
Keeley, Leigh Murray, Harley, Chippendale,
Farren, W. Lacey, Robson, Wigan,.C. Mathews,
and Wright ; or, amongst.- the. ladies, Miss Rey-
nolds, Mrs. Keeley, Mts. Stirling, or the new Lon-
don actress, Miss Blanche Fane, and a score of
others we couldcmention. &Me very bad samples
of English actors have'arrived in this country, it
is true-, but the reason is, obvious—really good
artists are better paid, there than here. Now, if
Miss Cushman really did want to make arrange-
ments in this city, she could only find three gentle-
men who WOuld make an impression on a London
audien3e. Wei. refer ,tto John Brougham, .Rarry
Placide, and William Burton, actors so admirable
and so infinitely, above anrother artists,- comic or
sentimental, An., . this city,.. that we :are almost
ashamed to chip; theni -into'. a disciision
.of this
character.—From a New York Paper, ,of Tuesday,
18th March laot. • -

fore, any excuse fur permanent exemption of
landed produce on that score
Now, therefore, is the time to petition. Every
one who has a hundred pounds' worth of property
is interested in doing it. All who are actually
insured, conStituting,as they do the great body of
the electors, are of course directly concerned in
the repeal, or large reduction of, this semi-bar-
barous duty. Insurers in other countries are not
disgraced and punished for prudence in this way.
Were insurance here, as it ought to be, duty free,
and were it heavily taxed in France or Russia, we
may imagine the, self-complacent censures our
Hon. Members and Chancellors of the Exchequer
would deliver on the rude fiscal devices of those
countries. As it is, even Mr. GLADSTONE and Sir
C. LEWIS must own that their compeers in Paris
and St. Petersburg can still teach them something:

6T, "!,

.As we observed very recently, the unfairness
of the tax, as a class tax, ought also tobe insisted
on,. Land and landed produce wholly escape it:
Owners of =combustible property, farmers excepted,
pay the whole of the insurance duty. The lords
of the soil, as such, enjoy either natural or legal
imnann for 'the soil anti its produce. The en-
tire incidence of the tax falls where it is hardest to
be bOine.: Landlordilai% by this a sum more than
equal.: to the entire: ,fire insurance duty. - We
vf°lll4PO:th4 attention of Mr. ITADvan,
R'lngutsox,, Mr. HANKii and all the members
who 4)te'• • -
a, ted the ,interests of the non-agrioul.7
tural community on Tuesday night, to this •im-
-IPanrdt ae-dn'c ree7ety i,
sei
irijra t They should ask that
-
b® ri-umjct to an annual charge
of 3s. per cent: `on
iti-Valne, if the fire insurance
dutyl...";4tB4llBd) and oi course that farming pro
:petty should pay the duty paid by all. other ,