The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-20 00:00:00

British Bank, or so fully justifying a departure
from the ordinary course. We grant that such
steps may generally be regarded as inexpedient,
and that they must invariably be discouraged by
the Court ; but, in the present instance, we
fancy that the depositors will have no reason to
regret the step taken by their committee, who
have certainly displayed a degree of zeal and
energy entitling them collectively and individu-
ally to the highest credit. The Judge may
require time to deride a " vexed question," but
he will certainly not be the less anxious to do so
in consequence of the memorial, although he may
only have arrived at a knowledge of its contents
through the public journals on the evening of the
day that it was tendered for his acceptance.

We are glad to see our old friend Mr. MIINTZ
has again entered the field on the all-important
question of Currency Reform. Mr. MUNTZ has,
in his time, rendered important services to the
good cause ; and, although we may differ in some
points of detail, we rejoice in the assistance of an
auxiliary so efficient and energetic ; one, too,
who has the power and the will to explain his
views in the popular branch of the Legislature.
It is true that he has not manifested much ac-
tivity for some years past—that five years have
elapsed since he entered the lists against the
bullionist Champion on behalf of the sound prin-
ciples of which he is the conscientious advocate.
But that may, in a great degree, be ascribed
to the general apathy and indifference that
prevailed amongst those who would not
take the trouble of investigating the difficulties
of a very intricate subject, and who could not be
stimulated to action when suffering under no it'll-
mediate pressure. He, however, displayed his
foresight by the motion for inquiry which he
originated last session. He said that before the
close of the year a great pressure for money, and
a consequent advance in the rate of interest,
was inevitable. He, therefore, brought forward
his motion, although without any sanguine hope
of immediate success, as a judicious preliminary
movement, and subsequent events have vindi
cated the policy of the course adopted. Should
the exorbitant interest now charged be increased,
or even continued at its present rate, the nation
will be fully prepared for energetic action ; and
an amount of enthusiasm will be displayed not
inferior to that which signalised the agitation for
the abolition of the iniquitous bread tax.

It is not by flippant jests or ill-timed raillery
that arguments such as Mr. Murrrz adduces can
be disposed of. The Times may desire to see
Mr. MIINTZ a canon in " the Cathedral of Rag-
land" and vicar of Papertown, but we are far
better pleased to see him in his present position
as the independent representative of a large in-
dustrial constituency, peculiarly interested in the
due solution of by far the most important political
problem of the day, Mr. MIINTZ is not to be
silenced by such means, and the . Times may be
well assured that it cannot suppress the rapidly
increasing agitation on the subject by such
attack,

The Times, with a ponderous attempt at jocu-
larity, declares "if a man were to tell us that
clothing were a bad thing because it was impossible
always to adopt it to the temperature of the air,
or the state of the circulation, we should
ask, "Do you then propose we should go without
it ?" Far from it. But we believe that it is very
nearly as absurd to suppose that a fixed state of
garments should be enforced by sumptuary laws -'
that a rheumatic patient should be compelled to
wear the light garments of a Hindoo within the
Arctic circle, or that a healthy young man should
be ordered to wear furs under the sweltering heat
of an African sun. The analogy in this case is
complete. No Currency Reformer has ever recom-
mended the abolition of a circulating medium, or
a return to the old style of barter ; but every
one has insisted on something calculated to answer
the exigencies of the day. What is suitable to
one state of affairs is altogether inopportune at
another time and under totally opposite circum-
stances. The Bank Charter Act establishes a
fixed and invariablerule, from which no deviation
is allowed. When there are no bubble schemes
on foot, no wild speculations, and trade and
manufactures are in a sound and healthy condi-
tion, it cannot be requisite to starve industry,
and to reduce the creators and producers of na-
tional wealth into unprofitable consumers. It is
equally injurious when such schemes are on foot
to be obliged to force money on the market at a
low rate of interest, and thus stimulate and foster
the evil. But this is what the Bank Charter Act
is calculated to do, when gold is flowing into the
c)untry, and there is no continental competition
for the golden products of Australia. The Bank
must purchase any gold offered at 3/. 17s, 9d. per
oz. They cannot keep it idle in their
vaults. The interests of the proprietors forbid
such a course, which would speedily reduce
the dividends to very attenuated dimen-
sion. They therefore are obliged to force
money on the market at 2 per cent., trusting to
bring back natters to the old state by a species of
legeriemain process, when the time has arrived
for tie stringent application of the screw. Flue-
toations in the value of money, or, what is nearly
the same thing, in the rate of discount, thus be-
oome inevitable, and the People are at one time
surfeited and at another starved in the midst of
plukty. We must get rid of this unwise and
impolitic system. All that is necessary is that
the people should be aroused—that they should
be taught how deeply their own welfare and pro-
sperity, and the comfort and happiness of their
families are involved in the result.• Let every
Monetary Reformer now exert himself zealously
and energetically, and ere many months have
elapsed we shall have to congratulate the nation
on its emancipation from the most oppressive
tyranny that ever existed----the despotic authority
of the Moneyocracy.

The Times has made a great mistake, surely, in
the " ha'porth" of argument which figures in its
bill of banter against Mr. BERKELEY on Tuesday.
It says—it has said it twenty times—that the
Ballot is of no use, bemuse everybody's vote must
be known in England. It is only a small part of
a, man's life ; his life is known ; as is his life so is
his vote ; therefore his vote is known outside the
ballot-box.

Almost as many fallacies as words. We don't
knom every one's vote beforehand. Who knows
or ever knew the vote of the Times beforehand
It voted black a week ago ; who can insure, a
black ball for the same object next week ? We
indeed would rather bet five to one on a white
one. The Vines on Tuesday bantered Mr. BER-
KELEY, bantered the Ballot, and all who happened
to be in the company. It has done it annually ;
now who will guarantee that sOLlie day, in some
till with Lord J. RUSSELL and the Whigs, it will
not banter them, and declare Mr. BEREALUY and
the Ballot a great fact ?

Nor is every man's vote a part of his life. That
is just the thing we complain of. His conversa-
tion at his own table and his friend's table are a
part of his life ; if he be not in too much subjec-
tion his newspaper is so too ;
and should hi@ land-

lord be tolerant.of his doings, provided he do but
vote right, his occasional attendance at a public
meeting may be a part of his life also. But his
vote is a part of his landlord's life, of his mort-
gagee's life, of his creditor's life, of his customers'
life, of his employer's life. Advocates of the
Ballot want the man's life and his vote to be con-
sistent. The frequent glaring instances to the
contrary are what, more than any other reason,
will not suffer the question to sleep. We are
indignant at seeing the known Liberal compelled
to falsify the political witness of his life by
plumping fez. my Lord BROADA.CRE'S eldest son,
when he would rather vote for plain Mr. JOHN
SSIITII, who, as he thinks, would cut down taxa-
tion, and at least is a sensible Reformer.
Unhappily there are two classes whose votes
we can prognosticate with certainty. "-Tell mo
who your companions are, and I will tell you
what you are," is a law amongst the moralists,
and, tell me who your landlord is and I will tell
you what kind of hustings' politician you are,
will hold quite as true. Suppose an agent can-
vassing Berkshire for the registration or an elec-
tion, could not the editor of the Times tell him
how the tenants would vote to a man ? Would
the Editor trouble himself about each tenant ?
Would he not make out a list, or two or three
lists of the landlords, and say—There, Mr. Agent,
there you have them. Write to each of the
gentlemen in that list, then the stewards will be
directed to send you the number and names of
the electoral flock on each estate ; see that they
-are all on the register, or see that they are all at

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the poll, as the case may be.
There is another well-known class, for which
we should refer the Times to Nottingham, whose
votes can as certainly be predicted ; the gentle-
men whose votes vary with the funds, the candi-
date's funds we mean. True, they are often in
doubt till the eleventh hour ; in that case there
is, perhaps, a seeming uncertainty. None, how-
ever, in reality. The highest bidder will be the
buyer. It may be difficult to say which of the
rivals will bleed best, but none at all as to the
vote going with the most sovereigns. Sometimes,
however, at the Nottinghams the Honourable
Nabob LONcWURSE goes in to win. It is known

that he does so. Some barebone of a Radical
may contest the borough on party principles, and

just to insure that the Honourable Mr. LONG-
PURSE shall " down with the dust, and no mis-
take," but the votes were sure enough from tho
beginning. The buyer, and the fellow-townsmen
of the voters, could have named them all.
These worthies the Times always takes under

its special charge. It tells us they are the
sellers of votes mado for the buyers of votes—that
the want is reciprocal and urgent, who shall
hinder them from coming together ? What the
Times hath joined together, let no profane Ballot
put asunder. Now we d 3 not at all question the
knowledge of the Times as to the perfect adapta-
tion of the buyer and seller of votes to each other.
Slaving had no dealings in the article, we must
defer to superior authority. We can only well
believe that, as in other contraband traffic, the
mutual understanding must be good, and the gain,
on the whole, large. Still—though as in the case
of smuggling, we should speak with deference in
the presence of an old smuggler, so we feel some
touohes of diffidence now—still we imagine the
perfect adaptation may be somewhat marred by
the preventive service of the Ballot. It would

be rather inconvenient for the buyer not to know
For certain whether his money had brought him

money's worth, or whether the buyer had not sold
the same article to two parties, and furnished' it
to neither, Or, if to either, of necessity to an enemy
in one case. Consequences like these would some-

what interfere with the perfect adaptation, be-

cause it would just give play to those trivial
moral imperfections which disqualify buyers of
stolen goods from dealing, under certain itircum-
stancti, with sellers of the same.
But then America, the everlasting America, not
certainly the land which has most of our love
just now, in America every one's vote is known.
Is it ? Then why do those 'cute Yankees retain
the Ballot ? Tkey are not the gentlemen to ad-
here to a practice from superstition or for form's
sake. They must have some reason. And it will
puzzle a wiser correspondent of the Times than
Mr. ARROWSMITR to find a better one, than that
Americans find it useful as far as they want it.
Hundreds and thousands of Americans do
and it convenient not to reveal their votes
at all, or sooner than they like. The advan-
tage is, therefore, recognised by all. Even
the most independent man may have ma-

sional reasons for preferring a secret vote ;
and most dependent persons in times of excite-
ment may prefer it greatly. Testimony to its
value as the means of independent voting, and of
preserving quiet at elections, is abundant enough
from America, from Belgium, from Geneva, from
every place in which it has been tried. Indeed
the Times' own American correspondent by th•
Arabia dilates on the simplicity, ease, and quiet-
ness with which not a President only, but nine
State officers, were balloted for in one room, and at
the same time. Plas the Times forgotten its
correspondent's description of the room, with one
end railed off separate from the rest, with the ten
ballot-boxes for officers from the President down to
the inspector of schools, the concurrent supply of

tickets, and the order with which each voter falls

into his queue, answers to his name in the register,
and quietly declares his secret vote ? We beg to
refer the Times to the Times of the 1 7th, for th•
hundredth answer to its misuse of American
practices. As to Mr. BERKELEY, he can take good
care of himself and of the Ballot too ; and, should
the Ballot be a little more the fashion, we can
assure him that we know beforehand the vote of
the Times,

The Grand-Duke of Saxe Coburg is engaged on
another new opera. It is entitled Diana von Solango.
Mr. Layard has left London for Constantinople.
The works on the Salisbury and Yeovil Railway are
progressing satisfactorily.
The 103 d session of the Society of Arts commenced
beenAi
last night, Col. Sykes presided.
A meeting
nlevtitteedr
to
pinaritsh.e Wandsworth district was
yesterday fully committed for trial for letter stealing.
Letters from Paris this morning describe the discount
market as easier.
The officer* of the ilu?Alan ships at Cherbourg have
for the 26th 'het.
of Buenos Ayres bondholders has been fixed
Ti'e'rs is to be an exhibition of photographslin Paris on
the 15th of December next.
At a meeting of the Rhymney Iron Company, held
yesterday, a dividend was declared of 11. on the 501., and
01.138- eh the 451. sharee.
the queen of Iktaples is so near her confinement that.
Pi"o-31311 are being offered up in the churches of the
kingdom for her safe delivery.
The temporary station of the West-end of London and
Crystal Palace Railway, at Wandsworth-common, will
open on the ISt of December,
Operations have VArllalarleea on the Rioter and Yeovil
oiy.nimnger is liable to refund to the tree owner the
aailwaY. Irma tunnel at Maiden Beechtree, near Crow-
kerne, is begun,
of Westerton is etaked out..
The Court of Caasati'u, it Petit), has confirmed the
Judgment of the Imperial Court which decided that a
mne
and this 04-Mind in the neighbourhood
va.me of a stolen bank note if he should change one.
The ceremony of confirming the new Bishop of Lon-
don was performed this morning at Bow Church, Cheap-
side. The sacred edifice was crowded by persons anxious
to witness the ceremony. The new Bishop is to be
consecrated next Sunday.
The precise amount of the shipments of specie by the
Peninsular and Oriental steamer Colombo is 599,6901„
of which 26,975/. is gold for Alexandria, Ceylon, and
Madras, and 572,715/. silver fcr Bombay, Calcutta, and
Madras.
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