The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-07 00:00:00

or in the twenty years £7,612611 ar.nually,
...

This would show the estimated amount at
the oud of 1829 to b.
•••
or less than at the cad of 1809 by

being a diminution of ono-sixth part of the coin of
Europe and America in the twenty years.'
" simultaneously with this direct decrease of the
metallic money of the commercial world, the qua,nlity
of paper money circulating in many states of Europe
and America has been much lessened. Mr. Jacob, how.
ever, is inclined to consider the diminution in the me-
tallic value of this substitute for coin to have been but
trifling. In this, we think, we see many reasons for dif-
fering from him; but as we are anxious to avail ourselves
of his authority, we will not dispute the point, but take
his own calculation of the general stock of paper money
in circulation at both periods, as equivalent to
120,000,0001., from which, deducting one-third as the
average reserve of gold, there will remain 80,000,000/.
to be added to the stocks of coin of the respective pe-
riods. We should thus have had a circulating medium.
in 1810, of 460,000,0001., and, in 1830, of 400,000,0001,
being a decrease of thirteen per cent.' And this, we are
convinced, is a statement of the decrease considerably
below the truth.
" Having thus ascertained the direct falling off in the
supply of money, we come now to the consideration of
the increase is the demand for it, which will have bee❑
proportioned to the increase that has taken place in
the general stock of commodities, to effect whose inter-
change money is required. If this should be thought to
have only kept pace with what we know to have been
the increase in the population of Europe and America,
it will have amounted to thirty-two per cent. in the
twenty years, which, added to thirteen per cent. dimi-
nished in the mass of money, would cause a natural
and necessary fall of prices to the extent of forty fire per
cent. This rate of decline would, it is true, be liable to
counteraction from any circumstance which may have fa-
cilitated the circulation of money. But besides that we
see no reason for supposing the circulation of money at
present to be much more rapid, if at all so, than it was
in 1810; whatever allowance we might be led to make
on this ground would be Jar more than counterbalanced
by the increased production which has unquestionably
taken place beyond the proportion of the contem-
poraneous increase of the population, in this and
other states, by means both of the multiplied improve-
ments which have been effected in the arts of pro-
duction, and the diminished number of hands
which, since the peace, have been withdrawn from in-
dustrious occupation to recruit the national armies and
navies. Through these combined causes, it can scarcely
be disputed that production has not only not confined
itself to the same rate of increase as population, but
greatly outstripped it ; so that the allowance of thirty-
two per cent. is by much too low, and the total fall in
prices, which must, of necessity, have been occasioned by
the falling off in the supply of money, as compared to the
demand, since 1810, will appear to be above silty, rather
than forty-five, per cent.
" This, let us recollect, is an a priori conclusion,
founded solely on un examination of facts relating to
the comparative supply cf money and of commodities,
and wholly independent of all reference to prices, as they
they have actually shown themselves. Now, let us
inquire, a posteriori, whether this view is confirmed by
the prices current of the period, which will, in fact, be
to put our argument to the test of the experimentum
crucis. We need not, h.,wever, reintroduce here the
statements drawn from various sources of unquestion-
able authority, by which we formerly showed the ge-
neral deelines of the money-prices of commodoues,
during the twenty years ending with 1830, to have
been altogether, at a very moderate estimate, fifty per
cent. Since the date of the article we refer to the de-
pression has continued to increase, nor is there the re-
motest ground fur supposing that it has yet reached its

" Here, then, is a connexion between cause and ef-
fect, amounting, in force of evidence, to mathematical
demonstration. On the one hand we see a rapid falling off
iu the amount of the money of the civilized world, while
the demand for it is as rapidly increasing; on the other,
we perceive that which reason tells us must be the ne-
cessary consequence of this circumstance—a continuous
advance in the value of money as compared with goods,
in other worth, a continuous fall of prices. It remains
fur us to trace the effect of this advance on the interests
of society, and particularly of its two leading dtvisions—
the productive and the unproductive classes."
In the above calculations the annual consumption of
gold and silver is estimated only at 5,600,0001., which
was the amount estimated by Adam Smitk even in hi;
time. The (~?zia: icily Review justly observes, "that no one
can doubt, howevta, that there has been au immense in-
crease in the quantity of both gold and silver annually con-
sumed fur purposes of ornament end luxury." " Mr.
Huskissun stated in his speech on 18th March, 1830, that
the quantity of wrought silver plate annually stamped
in England had increased more than Went) fuld between
1804 and 1828."

From the above it will be seen that in all probability
the annual consumption of gold and silver at the present
time would more justly be taken at 10 millions sterling
tha❑ 6 millions, the amount even in Adam Smith's
time, and the real deficiency in the, supply and stock of
the precious metals in 1830, as compared with 1810, was
much beyond Mr. Jacob's estimate, and should rather be
taken at 100 millions than 66 millions.
And Irom 1830 to the present time there can be no
doubt that there has been a further deficiency in the
supply as compared with the demand to a like extent,

so that in 1850 the supply of the precious metals would
be actually less, as compared With 1810, by an amount
little if at all less than 200 millions.
Thus it will be seen that even if California should
continue to produce as at present, it has a long lee way
to bring up before it can raise the amount of the pre-
cious metals to the actual quantity that we had in 1810,
without taking into account the much larger quantity
really rcquirtd, in consequence of the growth of popula-
tion and commodities, and to say uothiug of correcting
the elKets of the Bill of 1819.
The striking facts adduced by the Quarterly Review
show the utter want of information of the many writers
on_thissubject.

In Nos: 85 and 94 of the Quarterly Review will be
found very complete statements on these interesting
subjects.

EXPERIMENTS wrrn FIBS-ABMs.—The Lords -of
the Treasury have caused Sir C. Trevelyan, one of their
secretaries, to communicate to the proper authorities of the
revenue their Lordships' direction for the delivery, duty free,
of two muskets of foreign manufacture which have arrived
from Antwerp, consigned to Mr. Lovell, the inspector of
small arms, for the service of the Ordnance Department;
the same being intended to be used in the experiments with
small arms at present taking place.
MARGATE.—TEE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.—It Will
be in the recollection of many of our readers that a very
remarkable correspondence took place in May last between
the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Mr. Waddington,
surgeon, of Margate, relative to the capture of a whale by
some poor fishermen on the Long .Sand. A few days since
the " Iron Duke" remitted, through the registrar of the
Cinque Ports, the sum of 201. 2s. 6d. (the net proceeds
received by his Grace), with directions " That the amount
be divided equally among the old widows of sea-faring men
on the late Mrs. Sarah Kidman's bounty list." On Wed-
nesday, the Ist of January, Messrs. Waddington, Brooke,
Kithaan, and Rowe, four of the trustees of the benevolent
deceased, met at the London Hotel, and distributed to each
of thirty-three poor widows 12s. 2d. from his (Grace the
Duke of Wellington, in addition to 21. 7s. 10d. from the
bounty fund, altogether 3/. each—a most kind and accept-
able " New Year's gift."—Canterbury Journal.

ROBBERY OF SIXTY POUNDS IN THE STREET.—
Last Saturday evening, as early as six o'clock, James Hil-
ton, in the employ of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lin-
colnshire Railway Company, at the Sheffield station, wig
robbed in the street of a serious sum of money, the property
of the railway company. A part of his duty was to 139-
wages. On Saturday last he had the above sum in gold in
his possession for that purpose. A number of the men.s! pin
he had to pay are engaged at the engine-shed, T.f..nlesil is
situated up the line nearly half a mile from the Bridge-
houses station. Hilton lives at the bottom of Harvest-lane,
eaoqmpuoe I iwn teaerrdfvu; tg
rd. 1
aansi lo
et
where he keeps a shop. He went to his tea, intending to pro-
ceed thence to the engine-shed.
was a long, dark, and narrow lane and across a field. When
containing between 601. and
proceeding along the lane,bwernhd,
His
ihissewl held y9l nffrr
lighted, he was seized from
13,
and robbed of a leathern purse
mg
70/. in gold. His mouth was covered to prevent his cr3 -*
out. The robbery, be states, was effected by three or four
men, but from the rapidity of the transaction and the posi-
tion in which he was held he could not obtain such a sight
of them as to to enable him to describe them. They got
clear off with the money before he could raise an outcry and
no traces of them whatever have yet been found.— Sheffield
Times.
----

-
ANOTHER DESTRUCTIVE CONFLAGRATION AT BER-
MONDSEY.—This morning about a quarter-past one o'clock
the immediate neighbourhood of the Grange-road, Ber-
mondsey, was again thrown into a state of the greatest con-
fusion in consequence of the sudden outbreak of another de-
structive fire, which, before it was extinguished, consumed a
vast amount of valuable property. The disaster commenced
in a spacious two-story building, from 60 to 80 feet long, oc-
cupied conjointly by Mr. Warren, a parchment-manufacturer,
and Mr. Thacker, a cooper, situate in Little George-street
South, Grange-road, Bermondsey, within a short distance of
the scene of the other devastating fires that have so fre-
quently alarmed the inhabitants of the neighbourhood. The
greater portion of the manufactory in which the misfortune
originated was partially, if not entirely destroyed, and the
furniture belonging to several of the surrounding neighbours
broken or seriously damaged by hasty removal and water.
It is understood that the property destroyed was insured.

- -
BUENOS A YRES.-141VERPOOL, MONDAY.—By the
Sappho, we have advices from Buenos Ayres to the sth of
November. Exchange on England 765. per oz., or doubloon.
Freights for salted hides, 352.; dry, 80s. Bales, 358. per ton
of 40 cubic feet.