The Sun.
London, England, 1832-09-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We have been desirous, for soul; days past,
to submit to the consideration of our readers a
complete analysis, which we have prepared, of
the evidence taken before the Committee on the
Bank of England Charter, arranged in a way to
enable those who run to read, to see, and to
judge fairly of its value ; but before we do this,
we deem it proper still further to urge upon the
attention of the public the extent and nature of
the exchange of commodities, by which the uses
of currency and banking will be more clearly
seen and better understood. One of the pre-
vailing mistakes in regard to banking is, as we
have previously stated, an undue importance
which is attached to it—the assuming it to be
a primary principle in the great combination of
social affairs, while, in fact, it is only an action
of dispensable convenience. The total annual
money value of the aggregate produce of the soil
of Great Britain, at the average prices of the
last three or four years, may be stated at
160,000,000/. ; of which the producer may be
considered as consuming, for his own subsist-
ence, about 25,000,0001. per annum, leaving
135,000,0001. annually for exchange, in the first
instance for money, and for appropriations in
about the following proportions—viz.
For rent
In wages, for domestic service 4,500,000
For day labour 26,500,000
Parochial assessments
Tithes
To artificers, such as wheelwrights,
smiths, carpenters, masons, and others 12,000,600

Total indispensable charge • 91,500,00)0
leaving 43,500,0001. exchangeable against ar-
ticles of clothing, domestic utensils, fuel, and all
such articles as minister to the conveniences and
comforts of domestic life. The above amounts
have been deduced from data now before us,
which enables us to assure our readers that they
are near approximations to precision ; but were
they not so, they would not the less suffice for
the purpose of illustrating a principle like the
one we are about to lay down. It will be seen,
that whatever money price the produce of the
soil may obtain, to that extent, be it little, or be
it much, will be tile power of purchase and con-
sumption of all such articles of manufacture as
minister to the convenience, the comforts, and
enjoyments of the agricultural class of producers.
The various modes of appropriation of.the above
detailed amounts, were they to be accurately
stated, would develope some of the nicest features
of political economy, into the minute details of
which, however, it is not our intention, on this
occasion, to enter ; but we will state .generally
that the 40,000,0001. of rental is re-expended
largely in articles of luxury, and which contri-
bute greatly to the existing order of taxes ; that
the 4,500,0001. wages for domestic service is
expended mainly—indeed, speaking generally,
we may say wholly—for clothing ; the
26,500,000/. for day labour, mainly in food for
bare subsistence ; so with the 5,500,000/. of
parochial assessments, the two remaining items, in
about equal proportions, for food, clothing, and
articles of convenience and comfort; and-the whole
again, in the aggregate involution of action and ex-
change which they occasion, give rise, to a de
mand for manufactures, and all such articles as
minister to the convenience, comfort, and enjoy-
ment of the community at large:- that is, if the
aggregate produce of the soil be, as it has been,
on an average of the last four 'years, about
160,000,0001. per annum, it creates a legitimate
demand for a corresponding amount of all other
productions ; but, in addition to these, on all
average of the last five years, there has. been an-
nually imported products to the value of
45,000,0001., which create a demand for a cor-
responding amount of English productions,
making, in the first instance, a total exchangeable
value of 205,000,000/. against 205,000,000/.;
but as the whole mass of productions on
both sides pass between the producer and
importer, and the consumer, on. an, average,
through the hands of two intermediate
parties, the involved operation, in the- aggregate,.
gives rise to an account six or eight times the
value of the articles consumed, and now it is
that the uses of currency and banking will be
apparent. In the earliest stages of social life,
articles were exchanged for articles, or, in other
words, exchange is effected by barter. The first
step in advance is by confidence, and next by
home token ; but as man, beyond any other ani-
mal—more especially so in his emergence from
brute barbarity towards a social state and-moral
rectitude—appears inherently fraudulent, value
for value appears to have been an indispensable
stipulation ; but it is readily seen that great in-
convenience would soon prevail under a state of
barter, from the circumstance of a person hav-
ing an article to dispose of and not being able to
exchange it on the spot for such articles as his
fancy, taste, or caprice might lead him to think
he wanted. To meet this sort of inconvenience,
periodical resorts (fairs) prevail ; but as these,
while they afford great facility, do not meet all
the difficulties which attend the most conveni-
ent mode of exchange, by the course of events,
silver and gold, from their intrinsic qualities of
malleability and indestructibility, combined with
their comparative :,carcity, and consequent high
appreciation, have for centuries, and by the con-
sent of all mankind, been deemed-the most con-
venient standards of value. The application of
gold and silver, for the purpose of balancing the
exchange of commodities, or as tokens of
exchange, under the circumstances of society
emerging from a state of rudeness to habits of
social intercourse, may be regarded as" judicious
and proper; but to cling to them uncfer the
circumstances of society having_ _attained the
highest degrees of refinement and of sci-
entitle attainment, may be regarded as a libel
on the character of the age.. Natute has
given to gold and silver properties which
will always ensure them a deserved and
high appreciation ; but that useful class of
English society, the agriculturists, do not toil to
raise 160 millions value of produce e'nnnally for
the sake of either silver or gold ; they raise it to
exchange for other commodities, and any ar-
ticle, or species of currency, that virost conve-
niently facilitates that exchange is the article
which an enlightened and common-sense com-
munity would adopt. In different stages of so-
ciety, and in different parts of the world, various
articles have been adopted for currency, -iron,
lead, copper, tin, leather, skins, shells, 'have all
in their turn been constituted standards of value.
In some of the interior countries of Africa, in
the present day, honey, and in other parts of
the world sugar, is the standard of value ; but
all of these, as well as silver and gold, are open
to every sort of objection ; and paper, in con-
junction with science and due regulation, not
only presents itself as the most convenient, but
the only proper material out of which to consti-.
tute a currency for such a state of society as that
which England has now arrived at. Those who
declaim against it bespeak themselves either to-
tally ignorant of the distinction between the use
and abuse of a thing, or viciously inclined to

advocate a cause as repugnant to common sense
as it is injurious to the best interests of so-
ciety. That among a people supplying disciples
For Johanna Soutlicote and Robert Owen, and
other fanatics whom we might name, there
should be some to advocate the most absurd
notions in political science, need not surprise ;
but that a Paper assuming to itself the cha-
racter of the leading Journal of Europe, should
rave from day to day about filthy rags, which
term it applies to a paper currency, in language
that would expose the frequenter' of the most
vulgar tap or political union to the extreme of
ridicule and contempt, is equally a libel on the
party promulgating and on those who patronise
such effusions.—Morning Herald.

Though we have received no further accounts
of the death of King Ferdinand of Spain than
those which reached London on Saturday, we
see no reason to doubt of the fact. Nor are we
disposed to undervalue its importance in the
present crisis of European affairs. His Catholic
Majesty has been regarded as a type of absolute
despotism and fanatical intolerance ; but though
such qualities might appear in his policy, they
-did not exist in his personal character. On the
other hand, his brother, Don Carlos, who must
succeed him in real authority, either as possessor
of the Crown or Regent of the kingdom, and
whose influence will be the same in either capa-
city, is both a bigot and a tyrant. Thence the
cautious prudence and specious moderation, pro-
ceeding probably from heartless indifference,with
which the Spanish Government has been con-
ducted for some years past under Ferdinand, is
likely to be changed into a more active malignity
of oppression, and to excite a higher correspond-
ing degree of disaffection. It is not improbable,
therefore, that a change of system, and the
establishment of constitutional freedom, may
spring from the excess of despotism with which
Spain is now threatened. An important source
of political schism and of Court intrigue, which
may shake the monarchy on its basis, is not
less certain. Ferdinand is dead, leaving no
son to succeed him. In contemplation of
such an event, and desirous that Spain should
enjoy the benefit of being governed by a
Princess, if not a Prince, of his own progeny,
his Catholic Majesty altered, some two or
three years ago, the law of succession to the
Crown. The Bourbons had carried with them
into Spain the Salic law, which excludes females
from the possession of supreme power. This
law has existed in Spain from the time of Philip
V. to nearly the present date. It did not prevail
previously either in Spain or Portugal, as may
be recollected, from the reign of Isabella, and
from that of the mother of the late King John.
Ferdinand had cancelled it without any appeal to
the Cortes of the kingdom, or any consultation
wi,h those Princes whom the change might
affect. Will Don Carlos submit to such a re-
cent instance of arbitrary legislation which dis-
inherits his own family, arid makes him the sub-
ject, instead of being the Sovereign, of his bro-
ther's infant daugther ? If he sets aside the
new law, will he not be regarded as another
Don Miguel, usurping the rights of his niece ?
If he does not, will there not be a perpetual
source of struggle and division in his Govern-
ment, from the antagonist pretensions of the
voting Queen's guardians and the substantial
power of the Regent ? Of the influence which
the death of Ferdinand, in such circumstances,
and at such a moment, may have on the for-
tunes and fate of the Peninsula—of the effect
which it may produce on the contest now going
on in Portugal—and of the personal character
of the deceased despot—we refrain at present
from speaking. An opportunity must occur for
discussing these topics in a few days.—Times.

We have received no further accounts of the
state of the negotiations between Holland and
Belgium, nor any news of importance from
either of these States since Saturday. We,
therefore, postpone some intended remarks till
we can connect them with additional information.
Our Dutch correspondent, who is evidently ac-
quainted with the contents of the note submitted
to the Conference, does not in the least invali-
datp the force of our Saturday's observations.
The propositions of Belgium could notformally
have been transmitted to the Court of the Hague
by the Conference, because they were not
formally submitted to the Conference by his
Belgic Majesty. But the two Powers which
had ratified the Belgic treaty without reserva-
tion, were the proper channels through which to
send any admitted modification. The proposi-
tions in question—though not sanctioned by the
Conference—were made known to each of its
member-s, and if the King of Holland did not
intend to view them in that light, why did he
address the Conference on the subject ? If his
Dutch Majesty's note was a private communica-
tion to Lord Palmerston, as a British Minister,
and not as President of the Conference, why was
it'not limited to his private ear,—why was it ad-
dressed, not only to the Conference, but to all
the great Courts of Europe ? There could. not
be a greater aggravation of bad faith and trickery
than such a mode of defence. But our corre-
spondent denies that the note of Holland was
insulting. Let it be produced, and we shall see.
Its insulting character, we may, however, re •
mark, might consist as much in neglecting to take
notice of the propositions to which it purported
to be an answer, as in the use of positive terms
of crimination. We have no doubt that it sinned
in both,
respects, and that it was intended, not
for Downing-street or for peace, but to keep up
the spirit of the monopolists of Rotterdam or
Amsterdam, and to animate the fury of the ab-
solutist factions in Europe, who expect to derive
advantage from the result of a war.— Times.
Ferdinand VII. of Spain has departed this
life, leaving a daughter, Maria Louisa Isabel.
The old law of Castille allowed daughters to
succeed to the Crown ; but when Philip the
Fifth ascended the thrown, the Salle law was in-
troduced into Spain. But Ferdinand, some time
before the birth of his daughter, re-established
tlia old law, by which daughters could succeed
to the thront..., Under the law repealed by Fer-
dinand, he would have been succeeded by his
brother Don Carlos ; and it will now be seen
whether Don Carlos will allow the Infanta to
succeed her father, or will dispute the succession.
The Constitutionnel quotes a passage from a
letter from Madrid, in a Bordeaux paper, pub-
lished several days before the arrival of the intel-
ligence of Ferdinand's death, according to which
it would appear that opposition from Don
Carlos was anticipated on the death of Ferdi-
nand. The passage is as follows The
Queen of the French, Maria Amelia, keeps up
an active and very affectionate correspondence
with our Queen. It appears that the latter has
imparted to the Queen of the French the difficult
position in which she would find herself if Fer-
dinand were to (lie ; for, says she, the Apostoli-
cals, in spite of the sanction given to the Anti-
Salic law by the Deputation of this kingdom,
appear determined to demand the revision, which

would place her under the necessity of havin g
recourse to Louis Philip." Ferdinand's widow,
Maria Christina, of Naples, is niece of the
Queen of the French ; but Louis Philip will not,
we presume, make his relationship a ground for
interference in the domestic affairs of Spain.
Mr. Inglis, in his sensible work of Spain in
1830, enters at some length into the character
of Don Carlos, and from his account, we should
he disposed to anticipate any thing from him ra-
ther than an abandonment of his claim to the
succe=sion

" I was witness (he says) to a strange scene of rivalry
between the King and Don Carlos. When the King's
carriage drove up to the gate of the Court, Don Carlos
and his wife and family were seated in the area, and his
car:iage was in waiting : upon this occasion the King ar-
rived in state; a party of Dragoons attended him, and
his coachmen were in Court dresses. The carriage of Don
Carlos was in strange contrast with that of the King ; it
was drawn by six mules, harnessed with ropes ; in place
of postillions in Court dresses, his servants were in the
dress of Spanish peasant., in their holiday clothes—one
on the coach-box, the other employed as a runner by the
head of the mules. Don Carlos affects all this appearance
of simplicity and Spanish usage to please the people; and
for the same reason his wife generally appears in a man-
tilla. The moment the King's carriage appeared, Don
Carlos left the Court with his wife, and continued to walk
in the most crowded part of the garden, while the King
and Queen remained, dividing the attention which their
Majesties would otherwise have received, and indeed en-
grossing the larger share of it. I could not avoid re-
marking the greater popularity of Don Carlos among the
lower orders: while they only took off their hats as the
King passed, they bow,d almost to the ground at the
presence of the Infante. The presence of the Queen,
however, always produced a favourable impression; espe-
cially when contrasted with that of her aspiring rival.
One cannot look at the spouse of Don Carlos with-
out perceiving that she covets a Crown ; while, in the
countenance of the Queen, we read indifference to
it. Upon frequent other occasion-, while in Madrid, I
had proofs of the anxiety of Don Carlos to recommend
himself to the people. The most marked of these was
upon the evening when the Queen gave birth to a Prin-
cess ; not an hour after this was known the Infante drove
through the streets and along the Prado in an open car-
riage, with his three sons, who, by the repeal of the Salle
Law, were that day cut out of their inheritance. The
event to which I have alluded—the accouchetnent of the
Queen—was a matter of deep interest in Madrid, and be-
fore its accomplishment there was the utmost anxiety
among all ranks. Each party had its own views. The
moderate or Government party, and many belonging to
the other parties, who desire peace and tranquillity,
anxiously looked to the birth of a Prince as an event that
would at once extinguish the claims of those who, but for
the repeal of the Salic Law, would have had a right to the
Throne in ca-e of the birth of a Princess. The Carlists
secretly wished that the event might be precisely the op-
posite ; and the Liberal party, seeing some possible advan-
tage in whatever should tend to unsettle the existing Go-
vernment, united their wishes with those of the Carlists;
but the great majority of the respectable inhabitants, per-
ceiving in the birth of a Prince a guarantee for the tran-
quillity of the kingdom and the security of property, de-
voutly wished that such might be the event."

There would seem Co be every reason then for
anticipating from Carlos an attempt to set aside
the daughter of Ferdinand ; and the next ques-
tion for consideration is the probability of suc-
cess. The same gentleman, Mr. Inglis, gives
the following account of the state of parties in
Spain :

" I left England (he says) in the belief that there
existed in Spain two great parties—the Constitutionalists
and the adherents of the Government; the latter party,
indeed, soinewhat divided—and comprising many shades
of opinions, ranging from absolutism to a point somewhere
between that and moderation. But this estimate I disco•
vered to be very erroneous. I found thus parties in Spain :
the Absolutists, there denominated Carlists ; the Govern-
ment party, there called the Moderate party ; anti the
Liberals. The most influential of these parties is beyond
all question the first. Reckoning the total population of
Spain, this party is by far the most numerous ; it com-
prises the great mass of the lower orders throughout Spain ;
and, in many parts, almt•st the whole population—as in
Toledo, the towns and villages of the Castiles, and the Pro-
vinces of Murcia and Catalonia. it comprises, with few
exceptions the 130,000 friars, and a great majority of the
clergy, and it comprises a considerable proportion of the
military, both officers and privates ; but chiefly the former.
With such components, it is evident that this party does
not depend for its power solely upon its numerical supe-
riority. Every one knows that there is uncounted wealth
in the convents and churches of Spain *
Such appear to me to be the elements of
the party called Carlists—the strongest in numbers and
wealth, and the weakest in intelligence."
Mr. Inglis says, that " The liberal party
comprises the principal intelligence of the coun-
try ; and subtracting from the population the
lowest orders, the employes, the friars, and the
priests, it possesses a great numerical majority."
The adherents of the existing Government were
the fewest in number. If Carlos be determined
to assert his claim, he certainly possesses power-
ful resources; but yet his superiority would not
seem to be so decided as to make success a
matter of certainty. Another point of some
consequence is the influence which the death of
Ferdinand may have on the state of things
in Portugal. We should suppose that a con-
test in Spain would rather at first favour Don
Pedro, though ultimately he might suffer from
it. A short time will serve to remove doubts
on the subject. In the mean time, however, we
should suppose the probability is, that Carlos
will endeavour to possses the Crown, and that he
will be successful.—Morning Chronicle.
The report of the King of Spain's death,
announced in a Ministerial Paper of Saturday,
was supposed to rest on the authority of a com-
munication made by the French Minister to Lord
Granville, and this fact appears to be confirmed
by the subjoined letter. Up to a late hour last
night we, however, understand, that no confir-
mation of the event had been received direct
from Madrid. Upon the probability and effect
of such an event we have received the following
communication :

PA Itls, SEPT. 22._

The mail of last night had departed when I learnt that
the French Ministry had received a telegraphic dispatch
from Bayonne, announcing the death of the King of Spain,
which news General Sebastiani immediately communicated
to the Ambassadors of the principal European Powers.
This piece of information, however, has taken many people
by surprise, notwithstanding it was previously known that
his Catholic Majesty had experienced a severe attack of the
gout, and would scarcely have received implicit credit, if
it had not been communicated in so formal a manner by
the organ of the French Government, p irticularly as no
mention appears to have been made of the precise nature
of the malady, and gout is not a pressing one, or the date
or place at which the event is said to have happened. I
am given to believe that even the date of the telegraphic
dispatch is not given, and I am further assured that not
even the origin of the dispatch is known ; so that
it is matter of doubt whether the message came from
the Spanish Government or a French functionary in
Madrid. Our last accounts from the Spanish capital
are of the 11th, at which time the Court was at La
Granja, or a, Euglismen generally call it, St. Ildefonzo, at
which time there was no appearance of danger. The
King has for years been afflicted with the gout, but
within the last four or five years the attacks have not been
so severe. According to the latest advices the seats of
the disorder were the hand and knee. In 1825 he was
dangerously ill, but since that period the disorder has been
less virulent.

Of course this -occurrence has set all the Liberals agog,
and their hopes are wound up to the highest pitch.
Those who are opposed to England, and desirous that
French influence should prevail in the Peninsula, would
r juice at any disturbance that might give rise to the non-
execution of the ancient law of succession in Spain, by
Fifth, Philip the hich females ay beo
n calledh
his
m accession, to tli raonnde ,
pur-
suant March 18, 1713. This
sive,iivratontlit,eetdoofiajtyv
law was not re-established by King Ferdinand the Seventh,
but by his father, Ch irks the Fourth, with the sanction
of the Estates of the Realm, and with the concurrence of
the said King and Cortes kept secret, the law having
passed some time about the commencement of the French
Revolution. King Ferdinand the Seventh found this
law clothed with all the usual formalities, and in promul.