The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-16 00:00:00

CURRENCY REFORM.

_
We have frequently felt it our duty to call the
serious attention of our readers to the urgent neces-
sity which has long existed for revising and altering,
if not altogether abandoning, the absurd and ruinous
monetary system established by Sir Robert Peel's
Currency Bills of 1819 and 1844. We are glad,
therefore, to find, by an advertisement in another
column, that a public meeting will be held in York
next week, in order to promote that important object,
at which the Rev. John Twells,who has eminently dis-
tinguished himself on many occasions, by his able ad-
vocacy of Currency Reform, will be present.
No valid reason can be assigned why gold alone
should be allowed to regulate the exchangeable value
of the aggregate property and capital of the country.
The natural tendency or such a system is to prevent
the free circulation of gold, by fixing a price upon it
in this country, and insisting upon its retention here
at all costs and hazards. And being our principal
circulating medium, a sudden drain is necessarily an
abstraction of the very life-blood of our internal trade,
the export of which has to be suddenly arrested.
Whereas, were gold a mere commodity, its export
would be attended with the same results only as the
export of so much iron, cloth, or calico.
This subject is of considerable importance to
farmers, as well as to the trading and commercial
interests. Whenever there is a scarcity of the circu-
lating medium, it is out of the power of the people
to pay a high price for agricultural produce, and
hence they are driven to consume inferior food, to
the great loss of the cultivators of the soil. This
has been experienced over and over again, and it
will continue to occur so long as our circulating
medium shall not represent the actual wealth and
property of the country. The extension of the cur-
rency system is especially due to the farmer as an
act of justice. It is well known that the landlords
gave their consent to Sir Robert Peel's Act of 1819,
with the distinct understanding that they were to
have the corn-laws ; and now that the compact has
been broken, mainly, we believe, by the distresses of
1847, which were in a great degree to be attributed
to the operation of the restricted currency, they have
a right to demand that the currency shall be no longer
fettered, to add to the enormous losses which they
have already experienced. We trust, therefore, that
there will he a numerous attendance of farmers on
Thursday, to meet the members of the York Farmers'
Club, and that they will unite with others in demand-
ing a revision of our monetary code, and the adoption
of such salutary laws as will afford to the nation the
advantages of a currency adequate to the wants and
exigencies of the population.—York Herald.

SUNDAY TRADING IN BERMO NDSEY
A general meeting of the master butchers of this
populous district of the metropolis, took place last
evening, at the Horns Tavern, Bermondsey-square.
for the purpose of taking into consideration the pro-
visions of a Bill about to be introduced into Parlia-
ment, by Mr. Williams, M.P. for Lambeth, the ob-
ject of which is to suppress Sunday trading as far as
possible. Mr. J. Hayman presided, and stated, that
from communications which he had had with about
300 butchers, he was convinced that they were almost
to a man in favour of a measure which should enforce
entire closing on the Sabbath. They well knew that
if such a measure were passed it would have a most
beneficial effect in preventing the working classes from
wasting their money on a Saturday night. The fault of
all Sabbath legislation hitherto was, that it was im-
practicable—a character which would be removed by
Mr. Williams's Bill. He then went through the
clauses. The Bill had the merit of being very short
and definite in its provisions. There are but twelve
clauses. The first contains a general prohibition
against selling, hawkiog, crying, or publicly offering
or exposing for sale in any shop, warehouse, market,
thoroughfare, or other place within the metropolitan
police district or the city or liberties of London, any
goods, chattels,, effects, matter, or thing whatever
(the excepted articles are afterwards stated).
The second clause continue s the existing statutes as
to taverns, steam-packets, club-houses, &c. The
third takes away the responsibility of servants. The
exempted articles are declared by the fourth clause to
be : medicines or drugs for medicinal purposes ; milk,
before nine in the morning and after one in the after-
noon ; tea, coffee, ready-dressed food, or other re-
freshments, in any coffee-shop, &c., before ten in the
morning and after one in the afternoon, or at any
period of the day to lodgers or residents ; meat
or fish, before nine, between May and Oc-
tober ; fruit, pastry, &c., before nine and
after one; newspapers before ten and after
one ; and cigars and tobacco after one. The
fifth clause prescribes the penalties on conviction-ss.
for the first offence; from ss. to 20a. for the second ;
and from 20a. to 40s. for the third; only one
penalty to be incurred in a day until the third offence.
The 6th clause authorises the goods of hawkers to be
seized, redemable on payment of ls. By the 7th
clause, no articles, except meat, fish, poultry, fruit,
pastry or ice, can be delivered after 10 o'clock. The
remaining clauses relate to the enforcing of the Act,
and the recovery of the penalties. It is to come into
operation on the lst June. The several clauses were
discussed seriatim, and appeared to meet with general
approvill; and a resolution was come to, affirming the
necessity of some legislative enactment for securing
one day's rest in seven.

THE LATE FATAL OCCURRENCE AT WORTHING.--
The subscriptions fur the relief of the widows and children
of the eleven men who unfortunately lost their lives in the
Worthing roads, in a fruitless attempt to render assistance to
the crew of the Leila Ruokb, have amounted to the aggre-
gate sum of 6000/. The committees appointed at Worthing
and riiighton to
.make the collections and appropriation of
the money hate disagreed in their notions as to the proper
mode of making the distribution, and consequently nothing
has yet ben dune with the money, beyond the administra-
tion of temporary relief to the distressed families. One
of
of
the plans proposes to regard the subscription as a kind
national reward for a brave action, and to make the
bution of all alike, regeidless of age or circumstance, ex-
cept that the orphans, and in three cases. dependent parents,
having each one :Imre, the widows should have two; while
another, regarding the money as being raised for the relief
of distress occasioned by the calamity, proposes that all cir-
cumstances, whether pecuniary or relating to age or other
matters, should be considered. Our readers will remember
that the .first fatal and unsuccessful attempt to board the
Lelia ROokh was followed by a second, which was success-
, ful. The boatmen, 23 in number, have since claimed sal-
vage, and on Monday last they met, and shared between
them 636/. 6s. Bd., which had been awarded to them on that
account, on the application of Messrs. Iremonger, of Little-
reCo4olll Of the theite 94 the Ado3iNty.