The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-01 00:00:00

tion in any telegrs phic communication that
may be established with China. It is also
indispensable to the suppression of pircey, and
for that reason alone, if no other, it should be
maintained. Its abandonment would be the most
com-?lete illustration of "a penny-wise and pound-
foolish" policy: ; and we are convinced that further
consideration will induce Lord DERBY to modify
his opinions. It may be, right to refuse to esta-
blish an injurious precedent ; but when a similar
case arises, we are convinced that the British
people will be satisfied to incur the trifling outlay
that may be thereby occasioned.

There are none of the industrial classes who are
not deeply injured by the effects of the Bank Char-
ter Act. Through its baleful operation, agricul-
turists and manufacturers are made to regard each
other as natural opponents, being led to believe
that their interests are incompatible, and that the
welfare of the one is incompatible with the pro-
sperity of the other. They are, in fact, like the
children described by LOCKE as "tugging at a
scanty coverlet," and each endeavouring to obtain
more than a fair share of that which the negligence
of the head of the family has not provided, and
which is insufficient to cover all. Should it, how-
ever, be enlarged to adequate dimensions, all could
obtain what their necessities required without seek-
ing to deprive any of the number of a suitable share
of the common stock.

In truth the interests of agriculturists and manu-
facturers are, or rather, under a sounder system of
currency, would be, closely blended. Each would
find the other his best customer. The well-paid
artizan would consume a large proportion of do-
mestic produce, while the burly yeoman, happy and
contented, would bedeck his wife and daughters in
native manufactures. Under the combined influ-
ence of corn laws and money laws this natural
effect was completely altered, and it would be by
no means difficult to show that so long as they
remained co-existent, whenever agriculture was
thriving manufactures were depressed, and vice versa.
The plough and the loom were brought into appa-
rent antagonism, while the real enemy of both--
"the hard calculator"—was laughing in his sleeve
at their mutual folly, and still labouring to in-
crease the purchasing power of the pound, so as to
double the burden of rents, rates, and taxes, and of
every debt payable. This evil affected both yeo-
man and artizan in a similar manner. They were
both victims. The only gainer was the usurer,
who, behind the scenes, pulled the wires of the

puppets.
There can be but little doubt that the Corn-laws,
and the Act of 1819, were the result of a corrupt
compromise between the landed and the moneyed
interests. At the termination of the war the land-
owners clearly perceived that, the artificial stimulus
being removed, it would be impossible to maintain
rents at the prices to which they had become accus-
tomed, and in accordance wherewith they had
regulated their expenditure. They grasped at
any device to avoid a wholesome rentrenchment,
and bitterly have they suffered for their fatuity.
The bullionists willingly assented to pass a Corn-
law that would enhance the price of food, while
the landowners, on their part, agreed to the resto-
ration of cash payments, or, in 'other words, to the
substitution of a gold pound, worth 205., for a
paper pound worth only 135., thus increasing by
at least 50 per cent. the burden of the National
Debt, as well as of every private liability and fixed
payment. Under this system mortgages were fore-
closed, and estates passed from the possession of
families in which they had remained for many
generations. Tenants were ruined by having kept
to the terms of leases which they had executed in
more prosperous times. After a vain attempt to pay
I rent out of capital, hoping against hope that a
good time was coming they gradually sunk one by
one, and it would be impossible to estimate the
amount of misery and suffering occasioned by the
joint operation of the Corn-laws and the money

Laws.

The landlords, however, soon found to their cost
that in depending on the so-called " Protec-
tion" they were leaning on a broken reed. They
had vainly imagined that by the Corn-law they
could maintain the price of wheat at the old rate,
although the return to a metallic standard of
money, with every note convertible on demand,
must inevitably reduce it. There was a natural
law against them, and they strove to get rid of one
anomaly by introducing another fallacy of a still more
glaring character. The fact was, the laws were
directly opposed to each other. The object of
one was to keep up prices of one description of
commodities—that of the other, to depress prices
of all kinds without exception. The latter, of
course, prevailed as any one of ordinary capacity
might have known would be the case. The tenant-
farmers were the earliest victims at the shrine of
the false idol which had been set up. Their posi-
tion after the Act of 1819 came into operation was
truly deplorable. The landlord, erroneously con-
ceiving that the monopoly established would keep
up the prices of agricultural produce, sternly
refused to make any reduction of rent. This rent
was virtually enhanced 50 per cent. by the altered
value of money, while the prices were reduced in an
inverse ratio. There was, as we have already
stated, a desperate attempt to make both ends
meet, which, for 0, time, was achieved by the sacri-
fice of the capital embarked in the cultivation of
the soil. This, of course, aggravated the evil.
Then, when the tenants were ruined, the landlords
had to succumb, a general reduction of rents was
submitted to, while the charges or mortgages and
other incumbrances remained the same as ever.
The money-lender and fundliolder profited, but it
was at the expense of the industrious classes.
They acquired wealth while others were brought
to the verge of ruin.
The Corn-laws, which never at any period ful-
filled the sanguine anticipations of their promoters,
have been happily abolished. The monster
monopoly was destroyed. But the still more in-
jurious monopoly has been not merely retained,
but the restrictions rendered far more onerous.
The Act of 1844 still further enhanced the value
of money when it was scarce, while, if abundant,
it produced an inflation that must inevitably lead to
a speedy collapse. We have already witnessed its
signal failure in 1847 and 1857,• the compulsory
suspension of the law and the terrible losses sus-
tained by all classes. It is now for the agricul-
turists to exert themselves to obtain a repeal of
the entire monetary code. They have a right
to demand it, since the fancied equivalent
has been completely taken away. Nor are the
manufacturers less deeply interested. They have
also had painful experience of a dearth of currency,
of the almost total cessation of credit in conse=
quence of the absence of a measure and representa-
tive of value. Mills were closed, and operatives
turned out of employment. No sale could be ob-
tained for manufactured goods, or, indeed, commo-
dities of any description. Notwithstanding an
impending famine, the orders for American bread-
stuffs were countermanded, and that because a few
millions of sovereigus were withdrawn from the
Bank, while some eight or ten millions still re-
mained idle and unproductive in the coffers
of the Bank. Their production at that time, and