The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-12 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sir,—With pleasure I've read your article in the sun
of this day, and eonsideryou deserve the warmest thanks
of the public, for the able exposition of your views on
oar present disgraceful currency laws—laws which, in
their practical operation, are making the rich richer,
and the poor poorer every day. flay I give an illus•
tration of what I consider the true cause of this panic ?
We are doing as a nation what it is unsafe for an indi-
vidual to attempt, viz,, trading largely beyond our means,
but not up to our wants. By a return I find that the
note, gold and silver coin—taken together—is very little
more than it was seven years ago. flow can we then be
otherwise than hard up? Our trade has enormously
increased, and with it we require a largely augmented
currency, or we shall go on to trade with straightened
means, and scatter sorrow and distress on every side.
And now for the remedy. In my opinion it must be
an immediate issue of Government notes equal in
amouht to the national debt. Make them value one
pound, a legal tender, and not convertible into gold on
demand.

The public will have as much confidence in them as
in sovereigns ever so bright, and for all purposes of
trade the notes will be quite equal. By this means our
,listress will be at once mitigated, and trade receive
.-.reat an iffipstiss as a man when x.lniitted to the pure
air of heaven who was dying for want of its exhilirating
,xygen. We fArO trading below our wants, and para-
lysing trade for want of a more expansive currency,
Let neither the moneyocracy nor red-tapism starve us
into submission. If the people are in earnest a change
in our monetary system will be immediate, and the
confidence of the country again restored. If the panic
does not arouse as to aotiou now, we shall deserve to

suffer the increasing ruin which our pre3ent rgonetar
system entails.

Your obedient servaat,
. MERCHANT.
P.S.—The Times looks for ease from a contrac-
tion of trade ; before that can follow thousands will
be laid low, and suffering aggravated for want ofs
simple mode of relief,

TO Tait iIUDITOR Of 111717.
the subject of currency is again of SOLED im-
portance I must respectfully take the liberty to submit
for your considerAtion the substance of a letter which I
addressed to the Right Honourable Lord John Russel/
on the Ist of May, 1847.

I proposed, in order to check the then great demaid
for bullion at the Bank of England, and to facilitate the
discounting of commercial bills at a moderate rate of
interest, that the Bank be allowed to issue two kinds of
notes—one kind to be put in circulation on discounting
bills of ordinary character (such notes to be legal tender
in payment of bills and in general payment throughout
the country), and for which no gold shall be demandable
at the Bank for one year after the date printed or writ-
ten on the notes so issued.

The other kind of notes, same as at present to be
issued in payment of drafts and of all Securities (not
bills) that might be considered as representing the real
capital of the country. I hold that, as bills are for
accommodation, the holders of such instruments have
no right to demand gold for them. How is it ? A.
man goes to the Bank with a bill, perhaps, got up for a
purpose, and receives Bank of England notes for it,
what just right has that matt to return the notes and
demand gold in exchange, with a view, as it might be,
of exporting same for a premium
It what I have suggested was adopted parties
requiring gold for notes issued on discounting bills,
would have to apply for it at the bullion office outside
the Bank, and most likely would have to pay a small
commission for the accommodation ; and thus by setting
a nominal value on specie, gold would flow into,
instead of out of, the country, and in a very short
time would become so abundant that any quantity
might be Lad at its real value. The new notes might be
i,sued for months, marked January, 1856 ; February,
1856, and EO on, then at the commencement of the new
year there would be eleven months' issue on which gold
could not be demanded, against one month's issue, for
which gold could bo demanded.

I do not propose that the law should be altered with
regard to the withdrawal of one pound notes from
circulation in England, I would say that if a bill for ffin.
were to be discounted, 915/. of ne v notes should be
given and the balance in gold or silver.
The Bank should be at liberty at all times to issue
either kind of note, or gold or silver, as they in their
judgment might think proper.
The whole plan to extend to Ireland and Scotland, if
deemed advisable.

I aro, itc„
SAMUEL ELLIS.

Dablin, Nov. 11, 1857.

Loss ow A RUSSIAN STEA24lllll.—Advices have been
received at Berlin, from St Petersburgh of the loss of the
Russian steamer Kouba, of 100-horse power, in the
Caspian. The steamer was driven on a reef in a violent
storm, and out of a crew of 75, the commander, two
lieutenants, a sub-lieutenant, and 18 men perished.
The watch placed in French cabs to mark the time
btve, it appears, proved a temptation to thieves, and
since the establishment of the now system 59 have been
stolen. The robberies were effected with so much deslF.
terity that the vigilance of the drivers was in vain ; the
men are made to pay 45f. for each watch stolen.
The law courts of Athens are about to be engaged in
suit in which six millions of francs is involved. A Greek
of distinction, named Totzizsa, left by will to his widow
his whole fortune, consisting of the above-mentioned
sum. The testator's brother, residing at Leghorn, dis-
putes the will and hence the suit. The case excites great
interest at Athens.

FATAL AOOIDENT.—A. shocking accident took place
on Tuesday last in South Devon, causing the instant
death of the unfortunate gentleman to whom it occurred.
Mr. W. Wills, a gentleman residing at Ilsington, on the
borders if Dartmoor, was out hunting at Torbryan, near
Newton Abbott, when, in crossing the railway, the fore
feet of his horse caught in a " sleeper " the animal
stumbled, threw Mr. Wills over, and fell 'Ten biros
killing him in a moment.
A NEW ALHEBITE CElLENT.—Professor Edmund
Davy, in a paper, read to the Royal Society of Dubber
proposes the following as an excellent cement for repair'
ing gutters, drain-pipes, pumps, &c. It consists iu two
parts of common pitch melted together with one part of
gutta percha. This compound is in many cases prefer.
able to gutta percha alone, and may moreover be dried
and preserved for use. In order to apply it to metal
gutters or pipes, they should be warmed with a hot iron,
and the cement then be poured upon a leaky place. It
iA
oot
jhoeurniasubstances.l says
:
rr
equally applicable to woud, glass, porcelain, ivory,
loather,az parchment,Ar;
L m
—The ffer number
gfr of
fa
CROP.a ,
"The apple crop has now been so far gathered through.
out our county as to enable us to state that the yield
has exceeded all expectations ; in fact, although the
blight' brought off large masses of blossom, and induced
fears that we should again experience a failure, as the
summer waned they came out well,' and unprecedently
large and juicy. Indeed the present very pressing
demand for casks shows that the make,' both of perry
and cyder, will exceed that of many previous years."
Letters from St. Petersburg state that the price of
previsions has become s.) exceedingly high in that city
that the government has thought it advisable to open
the state granaries, and to sell the wheat held there is
reserve. This favour is, however, only accorded to such
persons as are known to be in want of it.
ALARMING FIRE AT WOOLWlCll.—Yesterday morning
at an early hour considerable alarm was created in High*
street, Woolwich, in consequence of a fire, which was
nearly attended with the loss of several lives, taking
place in the extensive range of premises belonging to
Mr. William Cassell, a tobacconist and dealer in British
wines, situate at No. ID in the above-named street. The
discovery was made by police-officer W. Becher, No. 85
of the R division, by perceiving smoke pouring torth front
the lower windows. The officer at once sounded an alarms
and after considerable difficulty he succeeded in arousing
the inmates, but before he could accomplish his object he
was compelled to foroe the front door. Fortunately, the
whole of the inmates managed to get out of the back
window, and thereby escaped horrible deaths. The
origin of the fire is unknown.
Tun Mem" OF THE NILE.—" The waters of the Nile;
says a letter from Cairo in the Annales du Commerce Es
torieur, " this year attained, for a fortnight only, the
height necessary for the inundation of the land, and the
consequence is that. large portions were not watered.
On the other band, the accounts which have been ree
calved from Upper and Lower Egypt on the state of the
inundations are satisfactory. In Central Egypt, and par-
ticularly in the district of Cairo, fears are entertained for
the crops, but many of the farmers hope that as the
river is very uncertain in its movements, it may rise
still more. The crop of maize is secure from all danger.
M. Conte, member of the French Institute, and
so well known for his experiments relative 10
pisciculture, has just left Perth, in Scotland, t°.
which country he has been sent by the Ersperor Napo
leon to inquire into the state of the salmon and trout
fisheries. The learned gentleman has visited the differ
rent streams in that part of the country and paid sOpnecti4at
attentinn to the establishment at Itzsrhmonikti. doste
also,
Tay, for the artificial production
te inquiries into the
during his stay, made very main
nature of thepbrerseeenditnsgtaotfe osaflmthoenliengiLaottilvaenednaanedtmtheneiter
relative to the
preservation.
The old soldiers of the first regiment residing at
Fontainebleau, who have received the medal of St.
Helena, about 160 in namber, lately raised a au.
scription for having a mass celebrated to
for the repose
of the soul of Napoleon 1., and a "Te Deum " as an
expression of gratitude for the receipt of the siedaL
The mass isnd the " Te Deum" were performed at the
parish church on Saturday, the cure officiating. Gen.
Husson, senator, who wears the medal, the ssb-prifeet,
the civil and military authorities of the town; and A
deputation of the garrison were present. After the ser-
vice, the old soldiers went to the Hotel de Tills, and
there, on the proposition of General Husson,yesolved to
raise a fund for the relief of such medallists belonging
to the department as might fall into distress.
SIIAIESPIZRE A MILITIAILAN.—The name
Shakspere" occurs in a certificate of the names and arcs
of trained soldiers—trained militia, we should now Oh,
them—in the hundred of Barlichway, in the county 0'
Warwick—under the hand of Sir Fulk. Grevilin
(" Friend to Sir Phillip Sydney"), Sir Edward Greeilln
and Thomas Spencer. Was our William Shakspere
soldier I Why Rot? Johnson was a soldier, and had elsi°
his man. Donne had served in the Lois Countries i WhY
not Shakspere in arms i At all events here is a field for
inquiry dnd speculation. The date is Sept. 22, 1605, the
year of the Gunpowder Plot, and the lists were poiisibli
prepared through instructions issued by Cecil in eons!'
quence of secret information as to the working of We
plot in Warwickshire—the proposed head-quarters of the
insurrections-7Se* Papers, edited by It Aiwa L." 444
IM

THE MINERAL WEALTH OP ENCILA.ND.—When we re*
flect on the fact that British miners have been searching
our native rocks for metalliferous minerals since the dale
when the merchants of Tyre supplied the ancient world*
and that we are now drawing from the earth annually
metals alone which have a market value of 20,042701°i
we cannot but be struck with the enormous amount 0
mineral wealth which has been stored in the rocks of thee.
" far islands of the West." From the" Records of Mining•
Metallurgy" we learn that coal has been worked sine°
1234 in Northumberland; but at that period the quanta
of fossil fuel raised must have been very small. In the re'
port of the committee of the House of Commons the eon:
sumption of coal in Great Britain in 1827 is statea,
as 22,700,000 tons ; in 1856, according to the " Mineral
Statistics," it had increased to 66,645,450 tons. The
coalfields of the united kingdom have been estimated 'l°
contain an area of 12,000 square miles, and various ell
the estimates which have been made to determine
time required to exhaust them. Little reliance can, sv;
suspect, be placed upon any of these computations ;
one
thing is certain, the coal beds of Great Britain el
notinexhaustible, and with a falling off in the suPPIY. °
fuel the staple manufactures of the country must decline
and England must sink from her high estate to the poet
Lion of a third or fourth rate State among the nations.
Nearly 67,000,000 tons of coals are now raised from our
collieries, which in ] 856 numbered 2,829, and in every
part of the country the oleo of coals it :169anc.i?g:
in opening her porte to receive British C 031%
Denmark, Prussia, Italy, and Russia are our cuetoza.el_
for both coals and coke. Egypt and the East Indlea,s,
ChiinLg
the United States of America, Coili, Brazil, and
are regularly receiving our fuel in quantities
with each country annually from 33,000 tons to
toge.—Aaenourn. `.)703:000