The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-16 00:00:00

THE : .;UN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 16, 1858.

country. The Lords' •Committee, in their lucid and
able report, declared.. that the restrictions thereby
imposed " materially aggravated the pressure," and
produced the pani 3" of October, -1847. They
clearly and distinct ly explained the process by
which the distress was produced and credit
virtually annihilated. They showed that the Bank
itself must have closed its doors but for the issue of
the Government let'ter of the 25th October, which
afforded immediate relief, and that the suspension
of the law ought t, a be regarded as tantamount to
its total repeal. In deed the only excuse that could
be received for a de liberate violation of the enact-
ment was a firm determination to abrogate it at
the earliest possible opportunity. Provisions that
only work during fair weather—that alike stimu-
late a mania or a panic—that render money at
one time a drug in the market, and at another a
commodity that cannot be obtained at almost any
price—that make the rate of discount vibrate
between 1 and 20 per cent. cannot be sustained or
justified on any pretext.
In the Commons' Committee, JOSEPH HUME, the
staunch, consistent, and independent Liberal and
Free Trader, moved a resolution—" That, in the
opinion of the Committee, the laws for regulating
the issue of bank notes, payable on demand, aggra•
vated the commercial distress in England in 1847."
This was supported by eleven independent mem-
bers, including the names of Lord GEORGE BEN-
TINCK, Mr. DISRAELI, Mr. GLYNN, Mr. HERRIES,
Mr. T. BARING, Mr. JAMES WILSON, Mr. SPOONER,
Mr. HUME, Alderman THOMPSON, Mr. IluDsOlc,
and Mr. CAYLEY ; while in the carefully-selected
majority were included Sir ROBERT FEEL, Sir
JAMES GRAHAM, Mr. GOULBURN, Mr. CARDWELL,
and Mr. BECKET, all holding influential places in,
or closely connected with, the Ministry, by which
the inauspicious measure was carried ; and Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, Sir CHARLES WOOD, and Mr.
LABOUCHERE—three members of the Government,
who had determined to support it perfas aut nefas.
Indeed, it was on the appointment of that commit-
tee that Sir CHARLES WOOD made that remarkable
statement, that a Government would act very
erroneously in consenting to the appointment of
any committee) of the nature of whose report they
could not previously form a clear estimate. In-
deed, this was so clearly understood that many of
the members opposed to the Act abstained from
undertaking an arduous and practically useless
duty. Mr. DISRAELI felt that there were ample
grounds on which to frame the necessary legisla-
tion, and this will account for the apparent indif-
ference with which himself and many of his sup-
porters regarded the proceedings of that body.

Had Parliament -proceeded to legislate speedily
after the crisis of 18t7, there can be but little doubt
that there would have been a complete revision of the
monetary laws. Public feeling had been thoroughly
aroused. Every commercial man was smarting
under the heavy losses he had sustained. The
working-classes saw and remembered the sufferings
endured by their families and themselves. They
saw the many comforts which they had accumulated
dispersed, and sold for less than half their value,
and the savings which they had set aside from
their hard earnings taken away, in order to obtain
the common necessaries of life. If it had then been
thought that the law which produced, or at all events
greatly enhanced, these fearful evils would be
maintained, there would have been a convulsion
throughout the entire country—a pressure from
without that would speedily have brought Parlia -
ment and the hardest of the hard calculators to
reason. Sir CHARLES WOOD, however, artfully
contrived to shelve the question for an entire session,
until the grievances were forgotten, and the people
became comparatively indifferent respecting a ques-
tion in which their welfare, prosperity, and happi-
ness is more deeply concerned than in any other that
could possibly be ventilated..

There are, however, even stronger grounds at
present for revising and modifying the law, even
than in 1847. It has failed a second time in its
operation, and once more wide-spread ruin and dis-
tress hare been the awful results, Again, traders
of unquestionable solvency have been compelled to
suspend payment. The minimum rate of discount
at the Bank itself was advanced to 10 per cent.,
and nearly double that out of doors. Ten years
previously it stopped at 8. There was, if possible,
a greater starvation of currency. The measure and
representative of value, the life-blood of industry,
was absolutely wanting—production was arrested,
mills and factories closed, and tens of thousands,
aye, hundreds of thousands of men, able and will-
ing to work, deprived of employment, in order to
gratify the pet theories of Lord OVERSTONE and
his disciples, and to enable the hard calculators to
add to their already overgrown hoards at the ex-
pense of the industrial population of the country.

But there are other important reasons which
render the case still stronger against the Bank. In
1847 it possessed an existing charter which would
not expire until the termination of twelve months any
time after the Ist of August, 1855. Parliament
could scarcely have interfered with the provisions
of that Act without giving a fair equivalent. It
had done nothing to forfeit its privileges ; for
although authorised to transgress the prescribed
limits, it had contrived to keep within them—the
knowledge that they could do so, if necessary, and
did not, having completely restored confidence, and
dissipated the panic as if by the wand of an enchan-
ter. But this is altogether changed. The Act
has virtually expired, only awaiting the notice to
quit which may be given at any moment. The
Directors well knew the vantage ground they oc-
cupied in 1848. They could at any time have
raised a cry of breach of faith had there been any
interference with their valuable privileges, by
which their profits have been so greatly enhanced
during every period of monetary pressure. That
element is completely eliminated from -the circula-
tion. And Mr. DISRAELI cannot entirely, as he
thinks, prosper without any embarrassment arising
from that quarter.
Besides, the Bank actually exceeded the amount
in 1857. It was compelled to do that which, ac-
cording to law, incurred the forfeiture of it* char-
ter. Every difficulty has, therefore, been smoothed
away. And Mr. DISRAELI will not only be justi-
fied, but imperatively required to enter on the task
which had previously been evaded by Sir CHARLES
WOOD and Sir G. CORNEWALL LEWIS. It is, there-
fore, the proper period for monetary reformers to
bestir themselves. The light cloud is already pass-
ing over the moon's disc. A golden opportunity
will arise, which, if neglected or misapplied, will
leave the people securely fastened in chains, from
which there will be but little hope of escaping for
a series of years.

COURT CIRCULAR.

WINDSOR, Nov. 15.

The Queen, with Princess Alice and Princess Helena,
rode in the riding-house this morning, attended by the
Hon. Mary Bulled.
The Prince Consort, accompanied by the Prince of
-Wales, went out shooting.
Toussoun Paella, only son of the Viceroy of Egypt, was
introduced to her Majesty the Queen by Sir Moses Monte-
fibre, to take leave on his return home.
Messrs. German had the honour of exhibiting on Satur-
day to the Queen and the Prince Consort a working model
of their recently patented new propeller, in lieu of screw
and paddles, with boiler and engine complete.

LATEST NEWS.

INDIA.

The following telegram has been received at the
East India•bouse

To THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE, INDIA:
HOUSE, LONDON. FROM G. F. EDMONSTONE,
ESQ., SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF
INDIA WITH THE GOVERNOR-GENERAL.
ALLAHABAD, OCT. 16.
OUDE.

The following events have occurred in Oude
since the date of my last message, on the 4th of
October :- .The rebels had advanced on Sundella
with 12,000 men and 12 guns. Captain Dawson
entered a fortified enclosure with 1,400 police in •
sending back his 500 cavalry to Mallecabad.
fantry,
On the 10th of October the rebels were driven out
of Sundella, losing one gun and 100 men killed.
On the Bth a column sent from Luck.now attacked
the rebels at Zhamoo, near Sundella, and routed
them, taking three guns. The pursuit was kept
up for 10 miles, and 1,000 rebels were killed. Our
loss—Europeans, two officers and seven privates
wounded ; police, four killed and 44 wounded. On
the sth of October Brigadier Eveleigh encountered
a body of rebels at Meeahgunge, near the Cawn-
took two guns, and killed and wounded
pore-road,
200 men. Our loss trifling.

The Kftpoorthalla Contingent have again disj
finguished themselves in an attack on the town .of
Bundooree, near Bairam Ghaut, on the Gogra
River; 400 of the rebels were killed, without any
loss on oar side.

A strong column, under Brigadier Wetherall, is
being formed at Soraon, in the Allahabad district,
on the left bank of the Ganges, and will advance
into Oude immediately.
NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES—BENARES

Artillery. They proceed towards Gooneh to-
morrow.

KANDEISH.

Metarain, the leader of the rebel Bheels in Khan-
deish, was killed on the Bth Oct. by a party of
Holkar's cavalry, under the orders of Captain
Keating.

Her Majesty's 6th Enniskillen Dragoons arrived
in Bombay, per steamship Oneida, on the 16th

instant.

H. L. ANDERSON,
Secretary to Goverment.
Bombay Castle, Oct. 25, 1858.
VINCENT G. MONTANARO.
Malta, Nov. 14, 1858. •

The following telegram has been received at
Mr. Reuter's office :

MADRID, Nov. 15.
General Concha has been nominated President of

the Senate.

Governthent does not accept the resignation of
the Marquis of Habana.

FRANCE.

PARIS, MONDAY.

The Moniteur of yesterday has the following :
" Since the commencement of this century France
has vainly attempted to enter into relations with
Cochin China. The incessant pitiless treatment of
our missionaries has more than once brought our
ships of war to the coast of the kingdom of ' Ann am,
but without any success attending their efforts to
enter into relations with the Government of Cochin
China, and obtain an attenuation of its habitual acts,
of violence. In 1856 the Government of the Emperor
sent a spe'cial agent to Tourane, to make another
attempt to overcome the blind obstinacy of tho
Court of Annam. That agent was not even allowed
to land, and he was compelled to leave without being
able even to forward to
,Hue the message of which
he was the bearer.

This proceeding was followed by a new and
still more rigorous persecution than ever of the
missionaries, and a bishop, M. Diaz, was put to
death after being first put to severe torture. As
the Government of the Emperor could not allow
his overtures to be so disdainfully rejected and his
solicitude to be made the pretext of persecution, an
expedition was resolved upon.
" The Spanish Government suffering under simi-
lar griefs, hastened to concur in the object of the
expedition, the command of which was entrusted
to Vice-Admiral Rigaud de Genouilly, placing at
his disposal a Manilla regiment and two ships of war.
The report which we published the day before yes-
terday makes known the first results obtained in
the Bay of Tourane by the united flags of France
and Spain."
Every exertion that was made to effect a serious
re-action in the Rente having failed to succeed, the
quotation 'became firmer as the closing of the Bourse
approached, and the price rose from 74f. 40c. to 74f.
70c. The Mobilier reached 992 f. 50c., and railway
shares partook of the advance.

The last price of Rente was—Three per Cents.,
74f. 60e.

PRUSSIA.

A letter from Berlin, of the 13th inst., says :

"The Minister of the interior, M. Flottwell, has
prohibited the circulation of the Swiss paper, the
Bund, throughout the whole of Prussia. The
Minister invokes the law on the press which, when
one copy of- a foreign newspaper has been once,
seized, authorizes the Minister of the Interior to
prohibit it altogether. (A copy of the Bund had
been formerly seized.) The reason of this step has
not transpired, and has caused considerable surprise
at Berlin, as the Bund was allowed admittance
under the late Ministry, even at the time of the
Neufchatel crisis. It would have been well if the
Minister had notified the special reason for so
serious a proceeding."

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

GREAT NORTH OF SCOTLAND.

The annual general meeting of this company was
held at Aberdeen on Friday ; Mr. John Stewart, in
the chair.

The cIIAiRMAN congratulated the shareholders
on the present position and prospects of the com-
pany. The receipts for the year showed an increase
of £4,000 over those of the previous year, while the
expenditure was less, the working expehses of the
line being only 31 per cent. of the receipts for
traffic. This was 8 per cent. less than the working
expenses of the Caledonian, the cheapest•worlced
line in Scotland, and 13 per cent. below the average
cost of working all the lines in England. The plant
of the company had been maintained in a most effi-
cient state' and, while the expenditure in various
matters of detail had been considerably reduced the
working stock of the company was never in a better
condition. For this they were mainly indebted to
their active -and intelligent secretary, Mr. Milne,
In reviewing the traffic of the year he was sorry to
say that the:increase had all been on the first three
months, and arose from the opening of the Banff,
Macduff, and Turriff Railway, the traffic of which,
however, had not been sustained. - They had suf-
fered on the Great North of Scotland line in con-
sequence of the general stagnation of trade and
commerce, which for a time had affected nearly all
the lines in the kingdom ; but of late trade had im-
proved, and now their weekly income promised to
give them. a total for the next year of larger
amount than they had yet realised. The Alford
Valley Railway, to which they had subscribed,
would be opened in January next, and no doubt
materially benefit the company. ' The Aberdeen
and Inverness Junction had been materially bene-
ficial to the Great North of Scotland ; the Formar-
tine and Buchan line, to which they were also sub-
scribers, would be made as soon as the proprietary
and residents in the district had subscribed £2,000
a mile, and he was glad to say that some of the
proprietary had set a good example to others by
giving their land at the rate of £1 per acre of
ground-rent, or perpetual feu. He concluded by
moving resolutions approving the report and the
dividend on the original shares of the company.
The resolutions were passed unanimously.