The Sun.
London, England, 1832-07-30 00:00:00

and universal yell for battle. No, my Lords,
take the right onward course,—fulfil your own
engagements like honest statesmen—force, for you
still may do so, other Governments to execute
theirs,—leave it not in the power of Belgium to
allege truly, that you have betrayed—of England
to complain that you have humbled and dis-
graced her,—of France to tell her citizens that
you never meant fairly towards them or of her,
—of Russia, Prussia, Hanover, and Austria, to
boast, that if you had not the frankness to avow
your adoption of their principles, you at least
had not courage, by word or deed, to counteract
them. We need only refer to our Brussels letter of
Friday laat for proof —if proof were wanting—
of the prevalence of that spirit among the Bel-
gians, which may lead Lord Grey, when perhaps
too late for any good result, to reflect upon the
shallowness of his own expectation that a display
of imbecility and terror can, at any time, be a
safeguard against the visitation of war.—Times.
The present aspect of affairs on the continent
of Europe, is calculated to revive the suspicion
which most people felt as to the existence of
some private understanding between Holland and
Russia, and perhaps others of the Five Powers,
respecting the dispute with Belgium. When
the King of Holland first declared his resolution
not to abide by the award of those whom both
Belgium and Holland had agreed upon as refe-
rees in their differences, many people thought
him a fool or a madman, if not something
worse. The something worse referred to a
conspiracy against the peace and liberties of Eu-
rope, which present circumstances are by no
means calculated to disprove. It was evident
that, by keeping open the quarrel with Belgium,
the chances of a general war would be prolonged,
for at any time that quarrel would serve as a
match to the train, whenever, in the judgment
of treacherous councillors, the period should ar-
rive for plunging the whole continent in confu-
sion and bloodshed. Those who dared to laugh
at the mistifications of the Holy Alliances
amused themselves with the protocols issued by
the Five Powers, rejected by the sulky King,and af-
terwards remodelled by the negotiators, to be again
rejected with an obstinacy that seemed irrecon*
citable with reason, except upon some base mi-
d( rstanding. The Ministerial prints taunted
those with absurdity who suspected that Russia,
whose mouth was full of professions, while her
hands were reeking with the blood of Poland,
could act so treacherously as to encourage the
King of Holland in rejecting terms to the dicta-
tion of which Russia was herself a party. All
this confidence of the Ministerial Press went
upon the supposition that the Governments of
Russia and of Holland were too high-minded to
be guilty of such duplicity as was thus ascribed
to theni. But looking to what has since taken
place, can we, upon the ground of character
alone, refuse to believe any thing of the Conti-
nental despots? Are they not at this moment
arrayed against free institutions, and ready to
n:arch into the territories of any Power that shall
dare to give them encouragement ? When they
talked of mercy to Poland, they were studying,
new modes of insult and oppression to-
wards a brave but fallen nation. When

they talked of a general disarming, they
were arming and increasing the amount
and effectiveness of their troops. It is impossi-
ble, on combining those facts with the present
critical state of the Continent, not to acknow-
ledge that there is cause, and much cause, for
suspicion in every thing they have lately done.
Even our Ministerial contemporaries will, we
hope, acquit us of absurdity in the case of Hol-
land, if we allow the admitted prevalence of bad
faith to shake our reliance on an amicable ad-
justment in that quarter. The game which
Russia and Prussia are playing at this moment
in Germany affords some clue—it may be an
erroneous, but it is a plain one—to the game
with which Holland has been perplexing the
whole civilized world. If in the anxiety to re-
cover Belgium she has lent herself to any iniqui-
tous project for establishing tyranny in other
countries, the reward of her perfidy may be
near at hand, notwithstanding the great military
display appealed to by her Allies as the guaran-
tee of their success.—Morning Herald.

We foresee that the Currency and Banking
System will occupy no small portion of the poli-
tical attention and interest of the country. The
Press again teems with discussion. We have
been unable, for want of space, till to-day, to
insert a Memorial, presented by the Birmingham
Political Union Council to Lord Grey in October
last, and which, we presume, was withheld from
publicity lest it might distract the public mind on
the all-absorbing question of Parliamentary Re-
form. This document, which clearly aims at
lightening the burthens of the industrious
classes through the means of a reduction of the
standard, may be deemed to represent the opi-
nions of a large class of the people, who
attribute all the pressure and distress of the
times to " Peel's Bill" of 1818 19. Truly
Sir Robert Peel has been a most unlucky
legislator. Mr. Cobbett reviles him as the
foster-nurse of this important measure, and yet
labours to maintain it untouched—believing
tliat he foresees in its operation the down-
fall of our monetary system. Mr. Attwood
and his adherents, on the other hand, cat-'o-
nine. tail the Right Honourable Baronet for his
obstinate adhesion to the present metallic stand-
ard, and impute to him the shrewd motive of
consulting the creditor interest in the increased
value of money. All past ills, and all present
and future monetary miseries, are thus debited
to the heavy account of Sir Robert Peel. He,
they say, assisted to build loan upon loan with an
inconvertible currency, and having thus heavily
laden the camel, broke the legs which enabled
the animal to carry his burthen. We should

think that the Bank Committee was a seat of
prickly thorns to the Member for Tamworth ;
and it will be curious to see whether any and
s.vhat recantation of opinion he will make on the
discussion of this subject in a Reformed House
of Commons. If (as he has prematurely flat-
tered himself on the Russian Loan discussions)

lie should regain (pro tempore) the reins of
power, and be able to deal with this question,

notwithstanding his facility of turning, we
shall be indeed surprised. But, seriously, the
Bank question must be fully and satisfactorily
investigated and settled. The evils of an un-
settled currency or of apprehended alteration are
incalculable. Credit is suspended, confidence is
lost, and the good foundations of a monetary
system are shaken, while repairs are delayed. We
offer no opinion on the subject matter of the
Memorial," but we regret to learn that the
state of trade and commerce generally is unsa-
tisfactory; and while the general depression of
the pecuniary interests of the nation continues,
we shall have a deluge of propositions and coun-
ter-projects for the restoration of prosperity.
Every man who fails now dates his insolvency
from the extinction of " One Pound Notes ;
told every school-boy ascribes his poverty from
improvident outlay at the confectioner's to the

_ .

scarcity of the circulating medium. But the
monetary system of the country, its abuses and
defects, is obtaining more than common ob-
servation.
Copy of the Memorial presented to Earl Grey in Oc-
t..her, 1831, from the Council of the Birmingham Political
Union, on the Distressed Condition of the Industrious
Classes :

" To the Right Honourable Earl Grey, First Lord
of his Majesty's Treasury, &c. &c.
" 'file Memorial of the undersigned, forming the Coun-
cil of the Birmingham Political Union,
" Respectfully showeth—
" 1. That your Memorialists think it their duty to re-
present toyour Lordships, that for the last six years a gene-
rally increasing state of depression and distress has existed
,limughout all the manufacturing and agricultural dis-
tricts of the United Kingdom.
" 2. That this state of depression and distress st

continues to increase, and your memorialists seriously ap-
p:ehend that, unless remedial measures are adopt-d, a
period is rapidly approaching, in which the operations of
industry, from the loss and ruin attending them, must be
gc nerally suspended throughout the country.
" 3. That your memorialists have good reason to be-
lieve that no branch of industry exists in the United
Kingdom in which the prudent employment of labour is
attended with any fair and reasonable profit ; and they
have equal reason to believe, that in almost every branch
of industry a positive loss has attended the employ ment of
I ibour for several years past, and does now attend such
employment ; and your memorialists think it their duty
to represent to your Lordship, that, unless this state of
things can be altered, general convulsion and disorganiza-
tion of society become inevitable.
" 4. That your memorialists attribute this distressing
and alarming state of things to the general contraction of
the credit currency of the country; which has been ef-
fe:ted by the unjust and impolitic attempt in which the
Legislature has been vainly engaged sine- the year 1819,
to render all the paper taxes, tithes, rents, debts, and oh-

. .
ligationg of the country, convertible by law into gold
at the ancient and unsuitable standard of 31. 17s. lOid.
per ounce.

" 5. That by this destructive and most unjust attempt,
the prices of commodities are beaten down within the
grasp of the fixed charges and moneyed expenses attend-
ing their production ; and thus the reward of industry is

destroyed, and the population of the country are in a great
degree either deprived of employment or of the fair wages

of their labour, or are otherwise supported for a-whileby
the sacrifice of the capital of their employers.
" 6. That, notwithstanding the general and ruinous de-
pression of the prices of property and labour which has
been thus effected, such depression of prices has not yet
been sufficient to prevent the gold coins from being ex-
ported to foreign countries; and your memorialists are in-
formed, and believe, that a very large exportation of gold
coins has taken place during the last twelve months, and
does still continue to take place, thereby forcing a still fur-
ther reduction in the already ruinous prices of commodities
and labour throughout the United Kingdom.
" 7. That in order to meet and prevent this exports •
tion of the gold coins, the Bank of England has been in-
duced to make a very considerable reduction in the circu-
lation of its notes, thereby further reducing the wages of
labour and the prices of commodities, and increasing the
deficiency of money, at the very period when the issue of
bank notes ought to have been increased in order to re-
medy it; and in this way it is that the great and vital
interests of the country are sacrificed to the restoration of
an antiquated standard of value, which is neither just. suita-
ble, nor practicable, under the existing state of society in
England.
" 8. That whilst the profits of industry are thus anni-
hilated, and whilst the wages of labour are thus beaten
down, and every labourer in the kingdom is injured,
humbled, and degraded ; whilst the labourer is thus de-
prived of employment on the one hand, and reduced in
his wages on the other—in this painlul and degrading
state of things the prices of food are artificially kept up
by cruel and unjust corn laws, without considering that,
before the poor man can be called upon to pay high prices
. .

for his food, it is necessary that the money should first be
put into his pocket wherewith to pay them. Your me-
morialists earnestly solicit the attention of your Lordships
to this great and crying error of legislation ; an error
which has not protected the agricultural classes from ruin,
brought upon them by the fraudulent money laws of ISI9,
but which has done more to alienate the affections of the
people from the Government, and from the upper classes
of society, than almost any other measure that was ever
adopted by a British Parliament.
" 9. That your memorialists are informed that, accord-
.

ing to the last returns made to the House of Commons,
the circulation of Bank of England notes has been now
reduced to about seventeen millions sterling at the termi-
nation of the quarter, which is the exact amount to
which it was reduced by similar operations at the termi-
nation of the quarter in the momentous week preceding
the panic of 1825.
" 10. That this serious reduction of the Bank note cir-
culation, combined with a similar reduction of the gold
coins of the country above alluded to, has already produced
very large and alarming failures among the mercantile
interest of Bristol, London, and other places, exactly in
the same manner as similar failures were produced by si-
mi'ar reduction: in the few weeks preceding the panic of
1825 ; and your memorialists cannot but anticipate either
the recurrence of a catastrophe similar to that which oc-
curred in the close of 1825, and, perhaps, as fatal in its re-
sults, or such a general and progressive increase of national
difficulties and embarrassments, as may prove totally de-
structive of the social sy,tem.
" 11. That your memorialists are exceedingly reluctant
to intrude upon the weighty and anxious occupations of
your Lordship, and they will not entertain a doubt that
the Reformed Parliament, whenever it may assemble, will
forthwith proceed to rectify evils of such a fearful and
alarming magnitude as are here adverted to; but your
memorialists apprehend that the sufferings and dangers of
the country are too urgent to al:ow the prudent postpone-
ment of the means of relief until the Reformed Parliament

can assemble; and therefore your memoi ialists respectfully,
but most earnestly, beg leave to recommend to your Lord-
ship the adowion of the following preparatory mea-urea,
which they deem calculated to stay the increase of com-
mercial and agricultural difficulties and embarrassments—
to relieve the general distress which afflicts the industrious
classes of the community—and to place the country in a
condition of safety, and or comparative ease and prosperity,
until the Reformed Parliament may have leisure to adopt
definite and efficient measures :

" 1. The making of silver a standard of value and a

legal tender as it is in every other country in the world,
and as it was in England from the commencement of Eng-
Ws history, until the disastrous monetary measures of 1816
and 1819, were adopted.
"2. The allowing of the Bank of England to issue 1/.

notes, and the making of Bank of England notes legal
tenders from all persons whatever, except the Bank of
England itself.
" 3. The inducing the Bank of England forthwith to
re-issue the bank notes which have been recently with-
drawn from circulation, and to increase its circulation, per-
manently, from the present reduced amount of seventeen

millions at the termination of the quarter, to at least
twenty-five millions at the termination of the quarter,
which, in the opinion of your memorialists, is the loti est
amount under which the necessary profits of industry, and
the beneficial employment of labour throughout the
country, can be restored and preserved.
" 12. That your memorialists apprehend that your Lord-
ship must clearly foresee that a period is rapidly approach-
ing in which this great subject must be grappled with,
and in which it will be found absolutely necessary for Par-
liament, either to adjust the monetary system of the
country to the existin, state of society, or otherwise to
cut down the public and private burthens of society into
conformity with the present monetary system ; and your
memorialists respectfully represent to your Lordship, that,
in their opinion,the latter process will be found to be utterly
impracticable, and that, if attempted, it will result in
universal anarchy; and your memorialists further re-
spectfully suggest, that it would be most unwise to defer
the decision of this great question until compelled by cir-
cumstances, the pressure of which will allow no time for
reflection.

,‘ 13. Your memorialists respectfully suggest to your
Lordship the propriety of having a subject of this delicate
and vital nature decided in the quiet deliberations of his
Majesty's Government, without rendering its public dis-
cussion unavoidable throughout the country; for they
cannot but apprehend that dangers of a very serious cha-
racter may arise from its public discussion, and they
greatly fear that the people would be driven to madness,
it ever they should come to discover that all their misery
and distress have been occasioned by an Act of the Legis-
lature. And your memorialists apprehend that too many
of them would come to the conclusion that such an Act
releases them from the duty of contributing to the taxa-
tion of the country, and of rendering obedience to laws
Which oppress and destroy the people, instead of defending
and protecting them.
" 14. That it is the sincere wish of your memorialists,
that when the Reform of the Parliament is effected, the
political excitement of the nation should cease; and
it justice is done to the people, they are per-
t', ctly satisfied that it will cease. But this excitement,
as your Lordship must well know, hits grown out of the

,

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, ,
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• ;,,c •

rooted wrongs and the hoarded injuries of many years ;
ind it can only be allayed by a restoration of that perma-
nent prosperity among the industrious classes, which the
people of this country have a right to require at the hands
of their Government.

" 15. Your Memorialists would be deficient in the
dutiful and grateful loyalty which they owe and feel to
their most excellent King, and in the respect and gratitude
which they feel to your Lordship, if they did not solemnly
express to your Lordship their firm conviction, that, under
the present system of the currency, the permanent restora-
tion of the national prosperity 19 not possible—that the
p'under and oppression which it imposes upon the indus-
trious classes is too enormous to be submitted to—and
th it, if persevered in, no Reform of the Parliament, and
no human power, can prevent universal anarchy in Eng-
land.

" 16. That your Memorialists entertain no doubt that
the adoption of the monetary measures above recommended
will greatly contribute to restore the reward of industry,
and the full employment and just wages of labour through-
out the country ; and after these just and righteous ob-
jects shall have been secured, if the restoration of the ancient
standard of value should he found consistent with their pre-
servation, your memorialists will have no desire that it
should be abandoned ; but your memorialists respectfully
remind your Lordship, that the restoration of the an-
cient standard of value was submitted to by Parliament
and the country, under the pretence, assurance, and belief,
that it would add only four per cent. to the weight and
value of all the taxes, tithes, rents, debts, and obligations
of the community, but that it is now universally acknow-
ledged to have secretly and fraudulently increased all such
burthens full cent. per cent. instead of 4 per cent. ; and if
this should still be found to be the result of a restoration
of the ancient standard of value—if this should continue
to be the degree in which it increases the wealth of the
rich and the poverty of the poor—in which it aggrandises
the idle and unproductive classes, at the expense of the
industrious workmen and their employers, your memo-
rialist, in the name of their constituents and of their
country, will, in this case, protest against the enforcement
of such an atrocious and Heaven-crying act of fraud,
tyranny, and destruction ; and so long as society holds
together under its effects, they will never cease to use
every possible legal exertio❑ to obtain justice and redress.
" 17. Finally, your memorialists respectfully offer to
produce to your Lordship, or to Parliament, the most un-
questionable proof of all the facts and positions here laid
down ; anti they most earnestly conjure your Lordship, as
you value the safety of the Tht one and the happiness of
the people, not to suffer your Lordship's high and unsullied
name to be compromised in the vain attempt to support
the guilty measures of your predecessors—those guilty mea-
sures which your Lordship has always disapproved—which
have disorganized the monetary system of Europe, and car-
ried difficulty and embarrassment through every country of
the world--which have produced in England a mass of
misery, discontent, and discord, totally unparalleled in
the history of the country—and which, if adopted by your
Lordship, will most certainly render your Lordship's Ad-
ministration as short, and as signally disastrous, us any
which the pages of history record.
" Birmingham, Sept. 14, 1831."
The above memorial was agreed to, unanimously, by the
Council, after five nights' deliberation, an signed respec-
tively by 34 of them.

Read to Lord Grey, and explained by a deputation 01
four of the Council, a few days afterwards. —Morn. Chron.

SECON 0 EDITION

SUN OFFICE, Seven a' Clock.

PERIA LPARLIAMENT

1 HIS EVENING.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Mr. SADLER presented two petitions from Charles
Stewart and Alexander Leeds, who were employed in
cotto❑ mills at Dundee, and who complained that they had
been dismissed from their employments and deprived of
the means of support for themselves and families in conse-
quence of the evidence they gave before a Committee of
the House upon the Labour in Factories Bill. The Hon.
Member said, when he originally brought forward his pro-
positions, he foretold that sending for witnesses to prove
the cruelty practised by the existing system would prove
highly injurious if not ruinous to many of them, and the
result had proved it, for many of these poor men, after
being compelled against their wills to come to London
and give evidence, found on their return that their situa-
tions were filled by other persons. Such instances of in-
justice had occurred to many poor men who were ex-
amined some years, back before Sir R. Peel's Committee
relative to the cotton trade. It was due to the character
of the House to protect persons who might be required to
give evidence before Committees, and to afford them com-
pensation for the injury done them.
The petitions were ordered to be printed.
Mr. R. GORDON asked on what authority the Hon.
Member asserted that persons had lost their situations by
giviiig evidence before Sir R. Peel's Committee?

_
Mr. SADLER referred the Hon. Member to the Re-
cords of Parliament, where the number of cases were
stated.

Mr. BRISCOE was of opinion that an inquiry ought
o be instituted.

Mr. SADLER declared that he had refrained from
bringing many important witnesses before the Committee,
from fear of the consequences to themselves.
Sir J. C. HOBHOUSE was surprised that these men
could have been punished for giving evidence, for the evi-
dence had not been published. If they had, the case re-
quired some investigation.
Mr. SADLER said, that although the evidence had not
been formally printed, still the evidence of the workmen
had been circulated among the masters, and they had acted
upon it.
_ .

Mr. R. GORDON had never heard of similar cases, al-
though he had sat on Sir R. Peel's Committee. He
thought the Hon. Member's humanity had been imposed
upon by these men.
Mr. LITTLETON thought this was not a subject for
Parliamentary inquiry. Bad as the dismissing men for
giving evidence was, it was not so bad as the conduct of
certain Noble Dukes who had turned out their tenants for
voting according to their own opinions. —(Hear, and a

laugh.)
Colonel EV ANS moved for a return of the rate-payers
of St. Mary, Lambeth, SL Marylebone, St. James Clerk-
enwell, St. Pancras, St. Andrew Holborn, and all the
parishes in Westminster, who had paid their rates on or
before the 20th of July.—Ordered.
Sir J. C. HOBHOUSE said he understood that the re-
turn of the metropolitan voters would be twenty times
le,s than the framers of the Reform Bill had a just reason
to expect.

LOrd W. LENNOX presented a petition from an indi.
vidual named John Walking, against military flogging.

SALARY OF POSTMASTER-GENERAL.

Lord W. LENNOX said, in consequence of an obser-
vation made on a former evening by the Hon. Baronet, the
Member for Newport, Cornwall, and the subject having
been once or twice alluded to when he was unfortunately
not present, namely, the conduct of his Noble Relative at
the head of the Post-office Department in now receiving
the salary, which for some time after his appointment to
office he had refused to do, he was anxious to call for docu-
ments that would put the case in its proper light—and in
alluding to the subject he begged to be distinctly under-
stood that he did not impute the slightest blame to those
Hon. Members who had felt it their duty to introduce the
subject ; he felt that the public conduct of public men.
ought always to be fully and fairly discussed, and he was
grateful to the Hon. Members for giving him an opportu-
nity of showing how the case stood, and he was sure that
they would be equally anxious to remove from aray public
man any false impression that might exist. Under these
circumstances, be woula move for a copy of a Letter from
fbtyheo2rdoctrhooff tAhperitolrsds3lC;omasmaislssoionoenres
individual of the 19th of June, 1832, and
tfo3;flioertm.hßeSlehPpTellryiesnaaogsmfußterhyi ceo,
Postmaster-General of the 23d of June,
1822.
Mr. S. RICE said it was a mistake to suppose that
either the Noble Duke (Richmond) or the Lord Privy
Seal (Lord Durham) bad departed from their original in.
tendon. They stated their intention to the Committee,
and it was the decided opinion of that Committee, and
concurred in by the whole House, that it would be im-
proper for persons holding high official situations to de-
cline receiving the salaries attached to the offices, and it
was only by the repeated applications of the Lords of the
Treasury that they at last consented to receive their salaries.
The Right Hon. Gentleman thought the recommendation
of the Committee perfectly right, because there would be
no control over any office under Government, if he was
not properly pail for hisservices. It would be an unfair
and an unjust distinction between persons of great wealth
,%ho bad the power of giving their services gratuitously,
and others who had not. He was very glad the Noble
Lord had called for the Papers, which were calculated to
du away any impression that ought not to be entertained.
Mr. ROBINSON was very much disposed to concur
with the observations of the Right Hon. Secretary of the
Treasury, that no officer ought to serve gratuitously.
The Hon. Member never understooj that theK+setvations
which