The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-24 00:00:00

TEN-MILE FOOTRACE

Two months since an Indian of the Seneca tribe sar-
med "Deerfoot" fur his il-etness, arrived in-this country,
and at once challenged the pale-faces to try their speed with
a son of the North American Indians. Matehr...s were made
for him, and the learned had so great a belief in their u n
champions that the Indian was seen fully provided with
engagements. The race of yesterday, to run ten miles, was
between John White, of Gateshead, J. Brighton, of Nor-
wich, and E. Mills, of Bethnal-green, and Deerfoot, for the
Champion Ten-mile Cup and £5O for the first man, and £lO
for the second, and came off at the White Lion, Hackney
Wick, in the presence of between 3,000 and 4,000 spectators .
White, considered the fastest runner of the day, accepted
the ten-mile challenge; so did Mills, the six-mile champion,
and J. Brighton, of Norwich, the four-mile champion. Mills
defeated the Seneca Indian by a few yards in a six-mile race
at these grounds a few weeks since, and the Indian last
week defeated White at Salford in a four-mile run. The
competitors had to traverse 68 times round the ground to
complete the ten miles. When the word was given for the
men to appear on the mark, Deerfoot appeared in a wolf-.
skin, with a feather in his headband, and tinkling bells
round his waist. When the bell rang for the start, Brighton
was found to be a defaulter; and both Mills and White ap-
peared very diminutive in comparison to the " Red-jacket,"
" Off I" was.pronounced, when the trio departed, White with
the lead, Mills second, Deerfoot last, and so they continued
for half a mile, when Mills took the lead, which he kept to
the mile and a half, when the Indian went to the front amid
loud cheers. White then tried to recover the lead, which
he gained, but failed to retain, and at three miles had to
succumb. The remainder of the race between Mills and the
Indian was of an exciting character. Ever and again Mills
struggled hard to leave his opponent, but the Indian occa-
sionally shot a-head in a way which astonished the specta-
tors. There was not a yard between the two at the seventh
mile, when the Indian &reed the pace, and on commencing
the eighth went right away, when Mills, who was evidently
in pain, gave in. The Indian finished at his leisure, in 51
minutes 25 setonds.

`VHO ARE
_THEoPPONENTSOF THE

BANK CHARTER ACT 01 1844.

(From the Money Market Review).

Lord Brougham once said at a public meeting on
social science that the question of currency was so
far settled that it was only now discussed by the
Birmingham currency doctors. Notwithstanding
the versatile genius of the noble and learned lord,
we are not disposed to accept his opinions upon
this subject as we should upon a point of law. Wo
are ready to admit that there are currency quacks,
as well as medical quacks and legal quacks. In-
deed, quackery is so insinuating in its movements,
that it penetrates into almost every business and
profession of life. We do not, however, on this
account confound a Brougham with a pettifogger
who frequents the purlieus of the police-courts, nor
a Brodie with the quack who professes to cure every
disease with some universal nostrum. It is the
same with the subject of the currency. There are
men to be found who have studied it so thoroughly
as to have reduced it almost to a science ; while
there are others who attempt to propound theories,
being ignorant of its first elements. It is the duty
of those who are anxious to promote a sound mone-
tary system to separate the one from the other, so
as not to mistake the shallow reasoner for the man
who can substantiate his arguments by facts. There
is plenty of good company which a man may keep
in descanting upon the issue of bank-notes, as well
as if he undertook a translation of Sophocles or
Herodotus, without descending to the lowest
depths of literary degradation. It is to prove this
that we propose to answer the question, " Who are
the opponents of the Bank Charter Act of 1844 ?"
Those who think that the opponents of that Act
form only an insignificant body of inexperienced
men, are but imperfectly acquainted with the his-
tory of the subject. It is a fact, not unknown to
the commercial and banking world, that numerous
secret and select committees have been appointed,
which have terminated only in the cost of blue-
books, which few persons have the opportunity or
the courage to read ; the subject is then shelved
for another period, when the same farce is enacted
with similar results. The supporters of the Act
of 1844, with Lord Overstone at their head, whose
confused argunts and French quotations are re-
garded as something extremely " weighty," adjudge
the evidence on their side as a`great triumph, and
they go on their way rejoicing. The mercantile
community succumb to this little knot of privileged
monopolists, and, divided as they are in their action
fo obtain any reform, leave their opponents to revel
in the full enjoyment of the maxim—divide et im-
pera,

- Why the evidence of Lord Overstone, himself one
of the principal originators of the Act of 1844, should
always be made to occupy so large a space in these
committees we do not know, except it be to make
a show of evidence that contains more fallacies than
that of an other witness examined before the com-
mittee. And what may be marked as a singular
fact is, that before the termination of the same year
in which this evidence was given, his theories, or
what he terms " principles," were scattered to the
winds ; and on the morning of Lord Mayor's-day,
1857, the Bank of England was under the dread of
having to suspend payment. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer (Sir G. C. Lewis) having put the fol-
lowing question to his lordship :—" Confining our-
selves at present to the period since 1847 and 1848,
do you think that subsequent experience has con-
firmed your views with respect to the sound policy
and beneficial operation of the Act of 1844 ?" he
gives the following reply :—" Undoubtedly ; the
whole coarse of events since 1847 has year by year
strongly confirmed in my judgment the opinions
which I have always expressed respecting the prin-
ciples upon which the Act of 1844 is founded ; and
I have the strongest grounds for saying that those
opinions have year by year been growing greatly
throughout the whole mass of the public, and that
the course of events during the last two or three
years has created a strong feeling in favour of the
Act of 1844, where there was previously considera-
ble misgiving respecting it." Lord Overstone then
refers to the opinions of the Bank Directors who
had been examined on the subect.