The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-08 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.-SUN OFFICE, OCT. 8.

THEILDIOHETgjk, IN THE SHADE.
63—highest since noon yesterday.
47—lowest this morning and during the night.
53—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-20.74—a rise of a quarter of an inch. t,
WIND, w.N•W. ; light, with fine cold weather. It
blew almost a hurricane in the Channel yesterday from
S.S.W.

THE SUN.

FRIDAY. OCTOBER 8, 1858.

The Australian Mail Service is every year be-
coming a question of more and more importance,
both to the colony and to the mother country. It
has hitherto been so mismanaged, so slow, so un-
certain, and so exclusively in one direction, that the
grievance has grown at last to a magnitude quite
intolerable. As such, as a positive and un-
deniable impediment to the interests of our-
selves and our antipodes, the old contract
was summarily got rid of by the new
Colonial Minister, Secretary Sir BULWER LYT-
TON, almost upon the morrow of his instal-
ment in office as the ruler of our sixty vast and
scattered possessions. So far so good. A mon-
strous annoyance, to call it by its mildest phrase,
was removed—and it was of course to be followed
by something in every way, it was to be hoped,
compensative and consolatory. There was, at any
rate, this advantage gained—that we had a " clear
stage "—and now only wanted there should "no
favour" in what was to follow.
An alternate fortnightly mail was spoken of
as probably the future arrangement. The Austra-
lian Mail, in other words, it was hoped would
henceforth regularly quit the shores of England
on alternate fortnights—now going eastwards, via
Suez ; now westwards, via Panama. Both sides of
the great Antarctic Continent were to derive
benefit, turn by turn, from this new and rational

system of organization.
According to the terms of the new Government
tender some of those hopes threaten to be "dashed"
rather unexpectedly. A careful analysis of this
tender will be found in another column—an analy-
sis given by one well capable of making it—by the
very man, in fact, who has already boldly main-
tained the practicability of /conveying the mails to
or fro between London and Melbourne, via Mar-
seilles, in forty-one days and a-half ! Mr. EDWARD
WILSON, reverting for a moment to this his very
startling estimate of time and distance, says as
truly as frankly, " My calculation has never been
challenged." No wonder that, having clearly made
it out by his own cautious and rational estimate,
that scarcely more than a month and a-half need
be consumed in traversing this distance of 10,625
miles, extending' by way of Suez, from London to
Melbourne—no wonder, we say, that any one,
seeing the matter clearly and vividly in this light,
should recoil from the notion of witnessing that
same route travelled over in 55 days with
mingled feelings of dismay and indignation.
Mr. WILSON apparently can hardly believe
the evidence of his senses when he reads that, really
and truly, fifty-five days are to be allowed as the
margin, according to the terms of the new contract
—a contract, moreover, that is to hold good for a
period of seven years' duration. His simple com-
ment upon the prospect before us is almost as de-
spairing in tone as it is unconsciously whimsical in
the manner of its utterance. "Six days and a-
half," says he, " too long now : perhaps twice six
days and a-half by the end of the seven years." A
delightful calculation truly—yet one, however
extravagant it may seem, that we should endea-
vour to guard against as a mere possibility by every
kind of precautionary measure that could be con-
trived.'

As to the particular portion of Mr. WILsON's
argument, in which he depreciates the value of the
route rza Panama—that we cannot for an instant
accept as in any way convincing. As there are two
Ades proverbially to every question, . so manifestly
there are two sides to this Antarctic Continent of
A ustralasia—a fact that seems to be only half re-
cognised by Mr. WILSON, and even that only occa-
go] tally. Granted that the route to Melbourne
front London is more than 2,000 miles farther by
way oLf Panama than by way of Suez—granted that
the fo ruler route to Sydney is over a thousand miles
further, the route to Adelaide more than 2,000 miles,
and still more even to Tasmania—yet the establish-
' aent of this regular mail communication would
:be so far manifestly advantageous that it would
ffect, beneficially, periodically, and at regular in-
tervals, the mercantile enterprise of the world in
the Atlantic and Pacific—securing a systematic
ilutercoufse between this country and some of its
L qat It valuable possessions : northwards with British
C 49.11 ambia, southwards with one- whole moiety of
4 • .
k as tralia, eventually with China, with India, and
the Eastern Archipelago. Because the route via
Su • is 'so much nearer than that of Panama, we
cal 2not therefore agree with Mr. WILSON that the

former line, for postal purposes, must therefore, by
inevitable necessity, be "a complete delusion."
We look for better things from it. We cannot be-
lieve that "the communication by Suez is deliberately
to be kept slow that it may not outrun its Panama
competitor." Anything so flagrantly a' c urd and sui-
cidal would be inconceivable even under a Whig Ad-
ministration. It is " a complete delusion" nowadays ,
we believe--now, when so many of the old bonds
of red-tape have been snipped asunder, and when
the demon of Circumlotution has to a consider-
able extent been exorcised.

The Bank of England still retains its minimum
rate of discount at 3 per cent., and the Times is
consequently intensely irate at the refusal of the
directors to lend themselves to the operations of
the peculiar favourites of Printing-house-square,
whom it has been pleased to designate as " hard
calculators." As we have at all times explained
money may be made too cheap as well as too dear,
and discount at 1 per cent. is scarcely less objec-
tionable than at 10, and for this simple reason,
that it inevitably leads to over-speculation, and
eventually to a monetary crisis, in which all
the savings accumulated during the favourable
period are absorbed, and even prudent parties
either absolutely ruined, or involved in debts and
difficulties, which cannot be altogether got rid of
before the' occurrence of another emergency. It is
a common proverb that " extremes often meet," and
where money is at one time a drug in the market,
freely offered on the cheapest terms to any
one who can exhibit a. plausible pretext
for its use, it will speedily become com-
paratively scarce and rare, when the " hard
calculators" think that the time has arrived for
playing out their trump cards and producing
general confusion and distress.
The Times speaks of the refusal to lend money
at less than 3 per cent. as " an attempt to put com-
merce under restraints," hinting that it " can only
end by increasing the evil it is intended to
avert ;" by which we infer that it supposes
that the directors must eventually succumb,
and offer money at any price that may
be offered. This is certainly very different
from its former opinions. We can recollect articles
in the " Thunderer," ascribing a great portion of
the evils that occurred in 1847 and 1857 to the con-
duct of the very same parties in following " the
movements of the market," and reducing the rate
of discount to 2 or 2f per cent., thereby exciting
the temporary mania, which was sure to terminate
in panic.

The Times urges the most powerful argument
against the Act of 1844, when it points out the
necessity of "inflation" of the currency as one of
its inevitable consequences. It says—" The effect
of delay, therefore, is merely like that of a dam,
and the tide will be more intractable in proportion.
If inflation is dreaded this week, when there has
been a large addition of gold, what will be the
chances seven days hence when the dividends will
be in course of payment, and the Persia will have
brought a further large sum from New York, and
we also shall have received a new quantity from
Russia, and perhaps from Australia?" When gold
is cheap, it finds its way to England, for there,
under such circumstances, the best prices can be
obtained. The Bank is allowed no option.
It must take all that is offered at a fixed price of
£3 17s. 9d per ounce, and when there is a heavy
drain it must disburse that very same gold at
£3 17s. lOd. —the half-pence being all that
is allowed for the fluctuations of the market,
in an article which the Times declares to be
subject to the same laws as " grain, cotton, or
anything else."
That is the verypo'int which we, in common with
every true currency reformer, have Constantly
insisted on. We have declared that gold and silver
should be treated as grain or cotton, that there
should be a perfect free trade in money, whether it
be made of the precious metals, or of paper.
There should be a circulating medium which
would be universally acceptable, and which would
answer every domestic purpose. This would be
obtained by making it receivable in payment of
rates and taxes, and rendering it a " legal tender"
in discharge of every debt.
This, as the Times admitted nearly two
years since, would be quite sufficient for
carrying on the internal trade of the
country without the deposit of a single
ounce of gold or silver ! Why, then,
do we not get it ? Why is this great
boon denied to the horny-handed labourers who
are able and willing to givei" a fair day's labour
for a fair day's work," and who know no greater
evil than compulsory inaction, and being obliged
to " bury their talent," and to become useless
consumers, in place of being the creators and
producers of national wealth, simply that th•
" hard calculators" may profit by the confusion
that attends a monetary crisis ; that they may be
enabled to obtain goods at less than the cost of pro-
duction. The industrial community are ruined.
Households, once happy, are reduced to the greatest
distress and destitution, in order that usurers:may be
enabled to swell their plethoric money-bags, and
fatten on the ruin of the people.

It is the artificial restrictions on the issue of
Bank-notes that have greatly enhanced, if they
have not entirely created the evil. For 140 years
the rate of interest never varied more
than 1 per cent. Trade was then properly
conducted, and industry, probity, and skill
invariably received their just rewards. It
was not then a mere gambling speculation. Steady
progress was more thought of than a triumphant coup
—that might possibly give the " gold chain," but was
more likely to end in the " wooden leg." Men did not
expect to get rich in a moment. " Slow and sure"
was the motto, and they thrived accordingly. But
now a feverish effort is necessary—the system that
gave prosperity to Old England, and happiness to
its inhabitants, has vanished, in obedience to the
dictates of the monetary quacks.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge
leaven town to-morrow, for Manchester, on a visit of in-
spection. During his stay his royal highness will be the
guest of General Sir Harry Smith, commanding the
northern district.

Lady Katherine Hamilton, third daughter of the
Marquis and Marchioness of Abercorn, is to be married on
the 26thinst. to Viscount Valletort, eldest son of the Earl
of Mount-Edgcumbe.
King Louis of Bavaria on the 2nd assembled all
the Royal family at a grand dinner, prior to the departure
of King Otho for Greece, which was to take place on the
following day. This latter monarch is not to return to
Greece via Vienna, as was at first intended, but will proceed
to Trieste by Salzburg and Bruck.

HAYMARKET.—On Monday next, Mr. Charles
Mathews will make his first appearance since his return
from America. Mrs. Charles Mathews will also make her
debut in this country. •
OLYMPIC.—A new drama, of which great expec-
tations are entertained, by Mr. Wilkie Collins, is announced
for production at this house on Monday next. It would,
however, seem doubtful whether it will not be postponed
for a few days. .
THE OUTWARD PENINSULAR MAIL—The steam
ship Alhambra, Captain Steward, left Southampton yester-
day, with the above mail, 37 passengers, and a full cargo.
Aiming the passengers were Major Barstow and Lieutenant
Lambert. _ _

The South Western Company now telegraph the
atrival of the Channel Island mail packets in England to
Jersey and Guernsey, This affords great satisfaction to
the friends and numeffius passengers who travel by those
packets. The telegrams sent by Channel Island submarine
cable are increasing in number every week. Last week a
message was despatched from Lothbury to Guernsey, at 10
minutes past ten, and was delivered in the latter place at
15 minutes past ten.

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