The Sun.
London, England, 1833-01-31 00:00:00

BRUSSELS AND GERMAN PAPERS.

BRUSSELS, hoe. 28.—The Burgomaster, the Muni-
cipal Council, and several of tl e respectable inhabitants of
the Commune of Doel have resolved to petition his Ma
jesty to eause batteries to be erected against the fort of
Liefkenshoek, and also to arm the ancient forts of the Old
Doe' and Frederick Henry, which, in cue of need, could
interrupt all communication between Lillo, Liefken-
shoek, and Holland. These measures were part of the
plan of attack formed by General Sebastiani.
Several detachments of soldiers, cured in the hospitals
of cbarleroy, arrived at Brussels yesterday, and are going
to-dapA to join their regiments.
It Y. 00 It is affirmed that a partial reduction of the
• --
army is ser.C'usly in contemplation.
The L. defendant announces that a duel took place yes-
terday morning between the Count de C. and Marquis P.
The latter received his adversary's ball in his side, but no
fatal conserenees are apprehended. i rison at Most,
Eighty-seven en, from the mlitary p
m
who have been pardoned, have arrived at Ostend, com-
manded by Captain Marcelli'. They embarked, on the
26th, on board the English ship the Britannia and the
Dart slonp to be conveyed to Ramsgate, whence they will
be sent to Portugal to inn the army of Pon Pedro. An•

„(talri
V) At) - tit

LONDON,
THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 31, 1833.

We have no further arrivals from Portugal
this morning ; but orders have been given to
the troops recruited by Colonel COTTER to
hold themselves in readiness to sail immediately
for Oporto ; they are well equipped, and have
received their pay in advance. A great many
old soldiers, v, ho served during the Peninsular
war, are in their ranks. A quantity of ma-
teriel will go out with them. Great activity is
displayed by the agents of Don PEDRO in this
country since the despatches received yesterday,
and every reinforcement will be instantly afforded
to enable him to commence a successful attack
upon the Usurper's troops. It is said that as
•oon as this expedition arrives at Oporto, Mar-
shal SOLIGNAC, who finds the bombarding war-
fare will never carry the cause of the QUEEN, is
determined to give the enemy battle in the open
field, and try their force, as great desertion exists

among them, and many would join the Constitu-
tionalists, were it not from fear.

The report that the Marquis de PALMELLA
has resigned is perfectly correct ; it was officially
made known yesterday. A disagreement has
existed for some time past between Don
PEDRO and his Excellency on :several par-
ticular points. It matters little
.'whether the
Marquis de LOULE, or any other Marquis,
may have been appointed as Prime Minister, or
Minister of War and Marine ; what Don
PEDRo wants, is clever generals and good sol-
diers, and not diplomatists. The former he
has, and as for the latter he can dispense with
them for the present. Important news may,
therefore, be expected shortly from Oporto.

We insert a letter from a Dover correspon-
dent, in which allusion is made to the expense
of the Packet Service on that station. Of the
correctness of the fact stated by our correspon-
dent we know nothing ; but we will take this
opportunity of observing that the branch of ex-
penditure in question is but one of a vast number
of branches in which public economy might be
exercised. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE•
QUER, when applied to on the subject of the
Assessed Taxes, and the oppressive duty on
Advertisements, observed that he would willingly
proceed to the entire extent desired by the
applicants, if they could point out to him the
means by which the deficiency to the revenue,
which such a remission of taxes would cause,
could be made up. It is rather extraordinary
that his Lordship himself did not perceive those
means; for he had only to contrast the business-
like condition, and early hours of attendance, of
the department over which he presides, with the
costly slovenness of some other public offices, to
be struck with the facility of making good the
deficiency in question by the adoption of a more
general economy. Although we should be the
last persons in the world to recommend the en-
forcement of the WELLINGTON mode of retrench-
ment, which turned out of office only ill-paid
working clerks, we cannot refrain from observing
that there is abundant room for public economy
on a large scale ; and that, without the slightest
injury to the public service, an enormous sum
might be saved annually by reducing all salaries
above 800/. per annum, at least one-third, and
all above 300/. per annum, one-fifth ; at the
same time dispensing gradually with all useless
officers, such as those who lounge away their
time reading newspapers, and whose duty is
only to receive a few affidavits in the course of
the day, and to write for a dozen times or so
their own signatures. Since the Government
will not reduce the army to the peace footing,
which would be the readiest and most popular
mode of economy, let us hope that they will
economize at least in our civil departments, be-
ginning with their own salaries, which, although
low for an expensive and war system, are far too
high for the present state of things, and incon-
sistent with professions of rigid economy.

Mr. POULETT SCROPE, a Fellow of the
Royal Society, and, we believe, the brother
of Mr. POULETT THOMSON, the Vice-Pre-
sident of the Board of Trade, has recently
published a pamphlet on the Bank Charter
question, with an inquiry into the nature of a just
standard of value. Mr. SCROPE considers that
the whole question of our monetary system is
involved in that of the renewal of the Bank of
England Charter, in which we perfectly agree
with him, and it is almost the only point on
which we can have the pleasure of doing so.
The objects he has in view are, Ist, the return
to a silver standard ; 2d, the substitution for the
Bank of England of a National Bank, or Board
of Metropolitan Note-issue ; 3d, to compel
country bankers to have paid up capital to the
amount of their issues, or to deposit property as
security for its payment ; and, fourthly, the pub-
lication of a tabular statement of the average
price of the mass of commodities, by competent
authority, as a standard of exchangeable value.
This last scheme of Mr. SCROPE occupies a
great portion:of the pamphlet ; but as it is not very
closely connected with the question of the Bank
Charter, upon which only we mean to treat at pre-
sent, we shall postpone saying any thing upon it to a
future opportunity. With regard to the first point,
we must confess we have never been able to perceive
that it was of any great consequence whether a gold
or silver, or a joint gold and silver, standard were
used, provided banking were put upon its natural,
and, therefore, proper footing. In Scotland we
imagine neither bankers nor the public at large
would derive any benefit from the use of a silver
instead of a gold standard. The evil to be cured
does not arise from having a gold standard, but
from having a barbarous system of banking. 1'
With respect to the third point, if any persons
feel satisfaction in the idea of bankers giving
security for the amount of the notes issued by
them, we dare say, that although it might cause
some little difficulty at first, it would not be
greatly objected to by bankers; but we would have
Mr. SCROPE bear in mind that the plan would
give the holders of the notes no greater security
than every other creditor of a bank. The notes
issued by hankers, for the most part, form a very
trifling portion of the amount of their liabilities.
They are but as a few drops in the bucket, the
mass of a banker's debts arising generally out
of deposits. Few banks, indeed, have failed,
not having sufficient assets to cover their
outstanding notes. Supposing this security
to be given, if the banker fail, the law would
give all his creditors, whether on deposits or on
notes, equal claims upon it. As far, then, as
the payment of the notes is concerned, this
giving of security for the amount issued is per-
fectly visionary, and no one has yet thought of
asking bankers to give security for the amount
of their deposits as well as issues.
We now come to the second question, that
of the establishment of a National Bank—
a question more important than all the
rest, because one which must immediately
be settled. 'Mr. SCROPE has evidently read
most of the works which have been pub•
lished for the last fifty years, bearing upon the

subject he treats of, and, as a matter of course,
is obliged to acknowledge the principle of freedom
and competition as that which most conduces to
public benefit ; but, having got the idea of a
National Bank into his head, all principle is
made to give way to his favourite plan. In
a kind of exordium, he says, " Let every
one, who is called upon to decide a matter
of such vital moment, beware of building
on false premises ; let him resort to first prin-
ciples, and not move a step but with a solid
conviction of having made the ground good
behind him." Yet, will it be believed, that the
very first data he requires is that it should be
compulsory to take the notes of the National
Bank, and that they shall not be convertible into
money at all, except, indeed, some one should be
willing to buythem dale holders ? We have already,
on former occasions, stated, that our objections
to a National Bank would, to a certain extent,
be diminished, if any plan could be pointed
out which would give the public perfect security
against the depreciation of the notes issued by
it. But so far from guarding against the dangers
we apprehend from putting the power of issuing
paper to any extent into the hands of the Go-
vernment, and then suddenly declaring a suspen-
sion of cash payments, Mr. SCROPE aggravates
those evils by giving the National Bank the
exclusive power of issuing inconvertible notes,
and compelling their acceptance by making
them legal tender. He thinks that being based
upon the credit of the nation, and payable for
the taxes, they could not be depreciated.
If the quantity issued were small, and
no fresh notes were issued as the old
ones were paid in, undoubtedly they could
not long be materially depreciated ; but even
supposing we assume, as he does, that it
would be possible so to constitute the Bank
that notes should be only issued so long as they
were at par with the market price of gold, we
ask what the Government would do in the
event of their being all paid in ? It would have
no funds to go on with, for by the very data
required, the notes are not worth a farthing
directly the public becomes afraid to take them.
To talk of confidence in the national credit pre-
venting them from being depreciated is exceed-
ingly ludicrous with the experience we have of the
manner in which that credit is liable to be
shaken. Does Mr. SCROPE recollect that the
funds, a short time before the Duke of WEL-
LINGTON'S resignation, were at 96, and that
within eight months they tumbled down (from
tvtznt of confidence in the national credit) to
72, and even now have not recovered their former
price? It is clear that if his national notes had
then formed the greater part, or the whole as he
wishes, of our circulation, they would have been
poured into the Treasury to the last rag. If more
had not been issued, the Government would
have had nothing wherewith to make its pay-
ments ; if more had been issued, they would
have been sold at a discount ; the persons in the
employ of Government, and others who would
have been obliged to take them, would have been
robbed, and down would have fallen the whole
structure of the National Bank, which, according
to Mr. SCROPE, was to have afforded us an
unvarying, constantly at par circulating paper,
representing--nothing. But this is looking
at the matter in the most favourable point of
view, viz., assuming perfect adherence on the
part of the Directors of the National Bank to the
instructions given them for their guidance; but
we contend that, there being no example in the
history of a Government,invested with the power
of issuing paper inconvertible at demand into
cash, not abusing that power, it is dangerous in
us to intrust it to our own Government. The
dependence of the Directors not upon Govern-
ment but upon Parliament, even Reformed as it
is, would, in the event of any popular temptation
or apparent necessity, prove of no avail against
the abuse of this power. Does Mr. SCROPE
forget that the assignats were issued in France,
under the sanction of a Legislature quite as re-
sponsible as our own ? Does he forget the
dreadful consequences that followed—the ruin
of all credit—the destruction of all commerce,
and, finally, the equitable adjustment by which
one-third of the debt was sponged out ?
Surely, surely, it is not for us, with our eyes
open, to run into calamities which are not merely
of possible occurrence, but which experience
proves, at some time or other, to be of certain
occurrence.

It was our intention to have convicted Mr.
SCROPE of advocating a fallacy out of his own
mouth ; but the length to which our observa-
tions have already been extended, prevents us
to-day quoting the passages of his pamphlet
which we marked on reading it.

Our correspondent " Daleth" has furnished
us with another letter on the subject of the
Repeal of the Union. It is, as usual, ably and
dispassionately written, but—we say it with
deference—makes more of the subject than it
deserves. The Repeal Question is for the
present little better than a caput mortum, where-
fore elaborate discussions on its injurious ten-
dency may safely be postponed till the re-appear-
ance of Mr. O'CONNELL and his tail in Ireland.
But long ere then, measures, we hope and be-
lieve, will have been taken effectually to prevent
its resurrection. Many indications show that
Ministers are at length awake to the necessity of
doing something" for Ireland, and so taking
the game of agitation out of the hands of the Re-
pealers. The words " doing something," are, we
know, very much like that sort of phraseology
so often used in Kings' speeches—wherein the art
of saying nothing is carried to an excess
amounting almost to the miraculous—but this
time we do really and truly believe that " doing
something," amounts to more than " doing no-
thing"—that it is better than a mere CASTLE-
REAGII figure of speech, and means, in plain,
unsophisticated prose, " doing a great deal," and
in the proper spirit.
It is time, indeed, that something should be
done for Ireland, for hitherto she has been a
mere nursery for sucking Tory politicians. Our
acknowledged fools in England have been always

considered quite Solornons enough to preside
over the destinies of the seven millions. Mr.
(nor/NELL gave a striking instance of this the
other evening in the House of Commons, when
he observed that Lord MANNERS, though he
was considered far too indifferent a lawyer for
even a Solicitor-Generalship in England, was
admitted, by an Ultra-Ministry, to be " the
very thing" for an Irish► Chancellorship !
"Of two things, however," says Daleth,
" Great Britain has never allowed Ireland to
feel the want—bayonets and bibles." These
are valuable gifts certainly, and in their way quite
as valuable as the generous Tory donation of a
MANNERS. Yet, strange to say, not one of them
has yet been successful. The headstrong Pat-
landers, who, like froward children at nurse, or
boys under the discipline of the birch, can never
be brought to know what is good for them, have,
in almost every instance, objected to a bayonet,
bartered—infatuated sinners !—a bible for a
quartern loaf, and discovered that the man who
makes a bad English Solicitor-General, cannot
fail to snake a worse Irish Chancellor !

But there is no pleasing some people, so
bayonets and bibles, and shallow Tory lawyers,
having altogether failed, it is now our duty to
try other remedies for Ireland. Suppose (just
by way of novelty), we endeavour to conciliate
her by kind, just, and liberal treatment ! The
notion, it must be confessed, is original, and
has not even a single precedent to support it ;
still we cannot but think it will be attended with
the happiest results. Of this at least we are
certain, namely, that any change in our mode of
governing Ireland, must be for the better, for
it cannot, by the remotest possibility, be for the
worse.

French and German Papers give a deplorable
account of the state of affairs in Turkey, which
now seems to have quite paralysed the energies
of the SULTAN and his Divan. The capital is
wholly without the means of defence, but, not-
withstanding this, " by the advice of the assem-
bled Ulemans, 11AHN1OUD has positively refused
the assistance of Russia." The report is still
circulated that Marshal MAtsoN will not go to
St. Petersburgh. The Constitutionnel says that
on the subject of the Turkish question, Austria
begins to look on the conduct of Russia with a
very wary and jealous eye.
Since writing the above, we understand that
accounts have just been received, by express,
that an armistice has been concluded between
the Turks and the Egyptians.

A mail from Jamaica has arrived, sailed on
the 6th December from Carthagena, from Ja-
maica on the 18th, and from Crooked Island on
the 30th, by which Jamaica Papers to the 18th
of December, have been received at the North
and South American Coffee-house. The fol-
lowing are extracts :

THE DISSOLUTION OF THE ASSEMBLY.
EXTRACT OF THE GOVERNOR'S SPEECH.

" GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY,
- -

" Those considerations of public convenience which
might have induced me to postpone for a few days the
conclusion of the Session have necessarily been suspended
by that unfortunate collision between the two branches of
the Legislature, which renders it hopeless to expect that
any further business could now be brought to a satisfactory
termination.

" In taking the only course which is thus left to me, I
flo not think it necessary to make any comment with re-
spect to the question in dispute further than this, that
those who are so ready to assert their own claims to pri-
vileges which are not Parliamentary, upon the mere plea
of undisturbed assumption on their part, would have
shown more discretion in not so prematurely and arbitra-
rily denying the other the right to a privilege, which, un-
less withheld by special permission, belongs as a matter
of course to a legislative body, which likewise appears to
have been formerly recognised by the resolution of the
House itself, and which is supported by the undeniable
evidence of acts on the Journals, which owed their origin
to the second branch of the Legislature.
"MR. SPEAKER, AND GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE
or ASSEMBLY.

" I could not but foresee, by the tendency of your very
first proceedings, that I might at any time find myself
obliged to take the disagreeable step which is this day
forced upon me. When inflammatory topics were wan-
tonly introduced into your first address to me, it was im-
possible to calculate how soon the most conciliatory in-
tentions might be diverted from their original direction by
an imperious sense of duty.
" I must now thank you for those portions of the an-
nual supplies which you have already voted. Your task
has been much lightened by the liberality of the British
Government in taking upon itself the payment of his Ma-
jesty's troops during the present year.
" I have no inclination to enumerate the other in-
stances in which you have disappointed my expectations.
So much of your conduct appears to have courted that crisis
which is now arrived, that you cannot be surprised when I
announce to you, that it is sot my intention again to call
together the present Haute of Assembly. As soon as the
circumstances of the present season render it expedient, I
shall appeal to an enlightened constituency. The liberality
of that enactment which did away with all distinctions of
colour, I duly appreciate.
" GENTLEMEN OF THE COUNCIL,

" You are now about to return to your homes. I
have myself no apprehension that any persons will
he found misguided enough again to brave the penalties
of rebellion ; I have the greatest confidence in the efficacy
of the measures taken fur the immediate suppression of
any such attempt. I now dissolve this General Assembly."