The Sun.
London, England, 1851-06-05 00:00:00

as well ' logic of facts and experience, by
he e- _da and defends it. Although it
iide ..ar present purpose to enter for
'O3 upon a currency discussion, yet it is
ire than a fitting mark of respect to Mr.
and the-shoot so presided over, of which ho is
eerily member, that we ehould endeavour to
le public more extensively acquainted with the
tenets of his belief, and of the means or combliancaeti, ohnes
by which he would practically develope them. We
proceed to state, therefore, that, in the first p
entirely repudiates gold- as a standard of-value, and by
consequence silver also, equally with any other metal
or commodity. In effect he refuses to recognise the
possibility of any standard whatever. •
" The popular belief was," said be, "that we had got
a standard of value, but he would undertake to prove
that this was a perfect fiction. In the first place, it
was important to separate in the mind the idea of
standard from the idea of measure, for these two terms
were constantly confounded by writers on. political eco-
nomy, except by
these who belonged, as he did, to Mr.
Taylor'e school.
Be was the first writer who had accu-
rately distinguished between standard and measure.
All standards were fixed in nature, and were eternal as
rbr au rt) gael mae:re
andth the Gad
they ofw e nature;re so a stuobs were
bring;
fixed by men,
the virtues of
standard most caner:l,ly into service. For instance, the
diurnal revolution of the earth around its axis, and its
annual revolution round the sun, were true indexes of
time; tbey were unerring, end astronomers had never
perceived the slightest fractional alteration. A standard
must be immutable; if it were not so it ceased to be a
standard; but he should show in a subsequent portion
of his lecture that our standard of our value" of money
wee a weathercock which veered round with everwilid.".
y
We presume there can be no question that, so far as
for value, there can be no real unerring standard disco-
verable by the ingenuity of man, for ail values, that is,
commodities possessing the quality of intrinsic value, are
necesserily arbitrary and fluctuating in their relations
with each other from day to day, and neither gold nor
silver differ in this respect from any other commodity.
Its linear measure, and measures of capacity and weight,
we may arrive at the solution of a standard appreciable
by any one, but although in connexion with, it is deter-
urinate of no fixed or especial rates of value. The bushel
of wheat may obtain only ss. to.day, whilst to-morrow
it might command 103. Mr. Duncan propos. es to super-
sede, a metallic standard of value purely of fictitious
pretence, since it has been found to vary from 10 to 20
per cult., by " an instrument intrinsically valueless," by
ch Only " we could keep the relative value of all
eeramodities in parallel." This instrument is, of
''"rene-peper money. We profess not exactly to cone.
prehetid whet is meant by the process of keeping the " re-
letiee value of all other commodities in parallel." The
paper instrument being "intrinsically valueless," is,
of course, nut a commodity, strictly to speak, and there-
fore " other" must be taken as a mere verbal escape. If
equal rates of price are to be understood, we have yet to
be told %hat are the relative values of commodities to
each other, which opens the wide field for debate of de-
mand and supply, production and consumption. We
inter, however, that with credit or paper money unfet-
tered by capricious standard and bank laws, Mr. Duncan
would merely conteeel that the paper-money agent, or
intermediary for operating or measuring exchanges,
rising with the legitimate demand, and descending pro-
portionally when not so much called for, but always and
at all times easy of access, upon moderate equitable con-
ditions, to all possessed of the necessary guarantees,
whether of securities, or the podtion and character of
parties, would tend to prevent the undue depression of
prices, and in so far to conserve a certaiw degree of
parity of rs,lation ,hip between the values of all commo-
cities. That such would be the effect of a paper-money
system judiciously funded upon solid property, or upon
a national consideration equivalent, or by a combination
of both, is, we think, fur trom improbable. And thia
brings us to the scheme by which Mr. Duncan proposes
to carry out these desirable objects, based, as it will be
seen, upon conditions of undeniable safety and conve-
nience.--

"He proposed that the money of;the State, the na-
tional money, sboulo be issued under the control and by
the advice of PariAment, and that it should be limited to
the annual amount of taxation; whether that tax was 40
50, or 60 millions sterling, such should be the quantity
of national State money—based not only upon the nar-
row margin of gold that was in this country, but based
upon the 6,0110 millions of real property, which statisti-
cians tell us is the aggregate wealth of this country.
Theiefore the 60 millions of taxation would have no
insufficiency of security, nor could the money ever de-
pre.c, te since it was an express condition that it should
always be limited to the amount of times voted by Par-
liament; nor could it ever decreciate from any other
circumstance, inasmuch as the Crown would be obliged
to take it back at the same price at which it had been
issued.—(Hear, hear.) Then as to the money of com-
mtrce, he proposed the security of banks which should
be incorporated, the proprietors having given to Govern-
ment‘ tangible and convertible security in case the bank
should fail."

The security for the issue cf the commercial paper
money would consist of the derosit of Consols, or other
State or S:ate-secured stocks, as in the case of the Now
York banks ; against wt ich the incorporated
banks should be authorizAl to issue for three-
rourths of the value. Any proposed increase of
issues sub.equently to be preliminary covered in
the same proportion. • With this sketch of Mr. Duncan's
plan or theory we conclude tor the present. At a more
convenient Season we may be Wile to enter more into
detail, and exlitbit the mischievous woe kings of our pre-
•sent currency laws, as he also has forcibly described
them. In the meantime no may observe that it is a
singular anomaly in our legislation, that we have, or
must have, tree trade in anything but money or credit.
have a fixed price—the only fixture of price existing
—tor gold, and we have also restrictive laws for paper-
money. But iniquitou.; laws carry the seeds of their
own contravention or cure in them. Thus, if we cannot
have a circulating paper money payable on demand, be-
yond a curtain fixed amount, in the shape of bank-notes,
we m iy, and actually have, a bank-cheque circulation
so payable, it,el that c rculation is on the increase both
in town nn,l country. I amounts to many millions al-
ready; it will reach tens uf mdll 1-13 more; it possesses
all tine facilitiea of the banlc-note in passing from hand
to hand, is returned no sooner for payment to the banks
upon which drawn, and, in despite of the law , is be-
coming the c:nimon form of remittance between places
hundreds of miles apart.

BOOKS, CANADA. AND THE

lONIAN ISLANDS.

GENERAL POST• OFFICE, JUNE, 1851.--The Lords of
her Aliijesey's Treasury having authorised by warrant,
the extension to Canada and the lonian Islands of the
reduced rates of postage and the regulations recently
established for books transmitted by the post to the
13riti,h Colonies in the West Indies, &c., in future all
print, d books, magazines, reviews, and pamphlets (whe-
ther British, colonial, or foreign), may be sent by Post
between the Uni:ed Kingdom and Canada or the lonian.
Islands, at the following reduced rates of post-
age; viz, : —Fur s. d.
additional 31b. 3 0
Eac ) packet not exceeding ilh. in weight • 0 6
L
Ditto exceeding Slb. nd not
exceeding
gg
2111bb. ) .
21 t
Ditto exceeding 11b. and not o
Ditto exceecing 21b. and not exceeding
And so on, increasing Is. for *vary
ii action of a pound.
that the following conditions be
packet must be sent without a cover,
1. Every such
le volume only (whether
carefully Provided,
observedhoe7L,
in a cover open at the ends or sides.
or).
magazine, review, or pamphlet), the se-
venal 1 sheets or parts thereof, when there are more
printedlt
book,niust contain a sing
than
voenrea'beiom acwed or bound tigether.
3. It must not exceed two feet its length, breadth,
width. or depth.
4. It must have no writing or marlea upon the cover
or its contents, except the name and addr.:, a 0! the per-
son to whom it may be sent.
5. The postage must be prepaid in full by affuerg
outside the packet or its cover the proper number of
stamps.of the above co:ditions be violated the packs I
f any
must ba charged as a Leiter, and treated as such in al
respects.

To prevent any obstacles to the regular transmission
of letters, any officer of the Post-office may delay the
transmission of any such packet for a time not exceedinf,
twenty-four hours from the time at which the slim
would otherwise have ben forwarded by him..
As no book may be sent by any route h would
the wdbil:artment,
entail au expense of transit postage on
cie; oily to
these regulations apply, in respect to Catnapukets books, &c., sent by the British c to
via
H.alifax, and in respect to the lonian Islands, Only
books, &c., sent via Southampton.
ferleihneiathbotvheevotes and proceed-
all of which
printeddpapers allowed to pass
ings of Parliament, or of p
existing regulations.
itrirsatnisumelisosniosnaoref.iiottooxtend to or inter.
bywilwill
the
continuepo s post uut
od,bret
subjecthe ri w -stprols:phteie•

TREES.
THE
l TuesdayE LM
t o water
==-•--- „..,
—ItG RhasvAinrgEbxeennlnortsrcriOaNn
the elm trees in the north-western department
•yi"i'W
determined
which were
so sadly drooping for want of moisture, the
carriages be-
neath were quickly wbee
_ed on one side, one of Shalders's
very forcible small portable fire, &c. engines borrowed, its
reservoir stand filled by gutta perclia leading pipes from the
main, and in labs than a quarter of an hour every leaf, '
some over 50 feet high, v, twig,
and branch, were thoroughly satu-
rated with several barrels of water. It was worked without
any mercy by two of the Fire Brigade, wit
who have shown a
great preference for these engines; another guiding its '
jet
pipe, at the end of a small Copper riveted hose from the top
of a short step-ladder, causing much attraction to the visitors
in the surrounding galleries, end atthe time very
plainly showing there is no danger of a fire sam
spreadinge to any
g
very alarmin extent there,
every part liable to such a con-
tingency being so easily accessible. In the dead of the night
a single police or fireman can ' •of these engines with
bucket one hand, carry a seize one
other. and
of water with the with-
outoth any help get up a stream of water 45 feet high, or to a
distance of CO feet, with•
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Tin] EXETER SYNOD.—Tce Bishop of Exeter has
determined that the representatives of the metropolitan and
I provincial press shall not be admitted to report the pro-
f ceedings of the forthcoming diecesarisynod in the Cathedral
Church of 'Exeter. An application having been made to
the Eight Rev. Prelate, his Lordship has returned 213 answer
to that effect,