The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-05 00:00:00

Commence at 7.

NEW THEATRF, - ROYAL, ADELPHL
Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. Benj. Webster.
THIS EVENING, THE SERIOUS FAMILY. Messrs.
B. Webster, Billington, Toole ; Miss Woolgar, Miss Sims.
After which, THE DEVIL ON TWO STICKS. Mr. J.
L. Toole, P. Bedford, Misses Woolgar, Keeley, Arden, and
Kate Kelly.
Followed by THE PRETTY GIRLS OF STILBERG.
Sir. B. Webster, Billington, Eburne, Misses Woolgar, Keeley,
and Arden.

Acting stanager—Mr. Wm. Smith.
Doors open at a quarter-past six—Commence at seven. Box
Office open from 10 to 5 -no charge for booking. No fees to
servants permitted. A registry kept of all articles found.

ROYAL STRAND THEATRE.
R.) Lessee and Directress, Miss Swanborough
THIS EVENING will be produced a new Comedietta, by
J. M. Morton, Esq., entitled WHICH OF THE TWO
supported by the company.
After which, THE MAID AND THE MAGPIE.
To conclude with VANDYKE BROWN. Mr. J. Clark.
Commence at 7o'clock.

ASTLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE,
Westminster-road.
Lessee and Manager ........ Mr. William Cooke.
Immense Success of INANHht OE.—Overflowing Houses
Nigly.
THIS EVENING, the performances will commence with
a new grand spectacle, founded on Sir Walter Scott's popular
work, entitled-IVANHOE; or, The Lists of Ashby, intro-
ducing among the vast resources of this great Hippodramatic
Temple,Tonrnaments, Processions, Banners, Combats, Tilts,
Victories, and Achievements in extraordinary magnificence.
Ivanhoe, Mr. R. Phillips ; Isaac of York, Mr. Jas. Holloway;
Richard of England, Mr. Herbert ; Robin Hood, Mr. ‘Vm.
Cooke, Jun.; Rebecca, Miss Bathurst; Lady Rowena, Miss
Dowton.
After which, the matchless and unrivalled SCENES IN
THE CIRCLE, introducing Mr. John Henry Cooke, the
greatest equestrian in the world together with Miss
Emily Cooke, Madame Blanche, Madame Bridges, Madlle.
Fleurette, and Madame Francisco, being the greatest amount
of female equestrian talent ever seen in one night in any
theatre. Grotesques—Messrs. Hemming and Thorne.
To conclude with the Farce of BATHING.
:Dress Circle, 4s. ; Boxes, Is. ; Fit, 2s, ; Gallery, ls. ; Upper
Gallery, 6d.
Private Boxes, £4 4s, £2 2s, and £1 is.
Stage Manager, Mr. R. Phillips

(IANTERBURY HALL AND FINE ARTS
%-.1 GALLERY, Westminster-road.—Open at Seven.
EVERY EVENING during the week will appear
THE DELEPIERRE FAMILY,
Consisting of three Juvenile Violinists, viz., Jules, Juliette,
and Julia Delepierre, aged, respectively, FOUR, SIX, and
EIGHT years.
The perfect execution by these Lilliputian Artistes of some
of the most difficult and brilliant Solos, Duets, and Trios ever
written for the violin, has excited mingled wonder and admi-
ration in Continental Musical Circles, and drawn forth enthu-
siastic tributes of praise from the Public Journals of France
and Belgium.
They will perform EVERY EVENING, at' NINE and
ELEVEN o'clock, in addition to the usual Entertainments.

THE WEATHER.—SUN OFFICE, MAY 5.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
60—highest sinee'noon yesterday.
45—lowest this morning and during the night.
54—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-29.96.
WIND Northerly; light and fine.

The war is proceeding, but as yet we have no
account of any conflict or act of bloodshed on either
side. The Sardinians have retired before the
superior force of their opponents, and the Austrians
ha 7e contented themselves with levying very heavy
contributions on the districts which they have occu-
pied. They have, in fact, enforced an income-tax on
a gigantic scale, on capital rather than income, and
that by even a more summary and decided process
than any issued from our own Court of Exchequer.
It is manifast that they intend that Piedmont
should, so far as practicable, pay the expenses of
the war. The pecuniary state of affairs at
Vienna is truly deplorable. The great bankers
ARNSTEIN and ERKELLES, a firm of European
celebrity, equal to any in the world, have suc-
cumbed to the storm, and suspended payment.
This may be merely to avoid the heavy
demands that would otherwise have been
pressed by the Government of FRANCIS JOSEPH,
just as fashionable tradesmen in this country are
sometimes compelled to suspend payment in order
to call in debts sufficient to pay one hundred shil-
lings in the pound. The forced loan will, however,
be materially injured by the absence of ARNSTEIN
and. ERKELLES from the assessment! And as money
is the first thing required for carrying on a war
Austria may be compelled speedily to abate her
pretensions and to concede something approxi-
mating to good government to oppressed Italy.
Since writing the above we find that there has
been a slight passage of arms, and that the Sar-
dinians claim to have repelled their opponents at
the cost to themselves of twenty men killed and
wounded. These accounts, however, come from
Turin, and must be taken with all due reserve.
As we have already stated, it is impossible to place
implicit reliance on telegrams coming from
the seat of war, and proceeding from one of the
belligerents. This incredulity is enhanced by the
fact that General GYITLAI has announced that his
army had advanced without any serious combat as
far as Combia and Cozzo ; and this is corroborated
by the statement in the Moniteur that "the enemy
(the Austrians) had crossed the Po near Combio,
but no engagement had yet taken place."
France is also in the market as a borrower, and
to the same amount as Austria. She is, however,
far more likely to get her little bill discounted,
because she appeals directly to her own
people, and any man who bas two hundred
francs (£8) available may become a rentier, a high
distinction amongst our neighbours. They are
unquestionably good financiers, and we have re-
peatedly advocated the system of appealing to the
general public, at a fixed and stipulated price,
rather than to large capitalists, or parties who are
obliged to bid in the dark, or to make tenders
without knowing the stipulated amounts that will
be accepted.
As to the war that has unfortunately commenced
our duty is perfectly clear—it is to observe a strict,
albeit an " armed neutrality." We must be pre-
pared for any alternative that may arise, but not
unnecessarily interfere in the contest. Mr.
DISRAELI clearly laid down the course to be pur-
sued on the hustings at Aylesbury, and one of the
most brilliant orators of the present or any age has
ably followed in his track. The Solicitor-General
(Sir III;GH NI`CALMONT CAIRNS) has also explained
the policy of Lord DERBY'S Administration. It is
to be one of quiet observation, ready to act at a mo-
ment's notice, but without interfering until a favour-
able opportunity may arise on behalf of any of the
b.elligerent Powers, none of whom can claim or
receive our sympathies. The maladministration
and misgovernment of Austria must have disgusted
every right-minded person. But the means
adopted by Prance are equally if not more ob-
jectionable. As the Solicitor-General explained at
Belfast, it is a new illustration of the old
myth of the
" Stag, the Horse, and the
Man." The stag—Austria—
but the horse—Sardinia—will find be
subdued,
that it
can never shake off the burden which in
the excess of passion, it voluntarily assumed.
An autocrat who allows no liberty to his own sub-
jects is not the man to confer liberty to strangers,
and the Italians would probably find that they
would not in any degree improve their position by

substituting Louis NAPOLEON, as a dictator, in
place of FRANCIS JOSEPH. It would certainty be
a change, but one bringing a more hungry de•
mandant in place of one already partially gorged.
The admirable speech of Sir H. M`CALMONT
CAIRNS is well worthy of perusal. It clearly
and distinctly developes the policy of the
Government, and should be attentively con-
sidered by every man who has not yet exercised
the privilege of the elective franchise. To show
how England is concerned in foreign affairs, we
may add that the minimum rate of discount at the
Bank of England has this day been advanced to
41 per cent., or 80 per cent. higher than that at
which it stood yesterday week.

The Austrian Government commences the war
with a great financial blunder. A loan of
£20,000,000 sterling is ordered; " but as the con-
tract is for the present impossible," two-thirds of
the nominal value of the loan is to be advanced by

the National Bank in new notes. These notes are
to be inconvertible ; but the taxes are to be paid in
silver, or its equivalent, " payable in coupons of the
National Loan." We observed on Monday that
" this would be a wise and prudent step, but that,

unfortunately, the first condition which would
render such notes unavoidably acceptable through-
out the empire is dispensed with. They will not
be received in payment of taxes, which must be
liquidated either in silver or coupons of the National
Loan. This unfortunate error on the part of the
Viennese Cabinet will neutralise all the advantages
that would otherwise have followed so decisive a
movement."

As this mistaken policy does, in fact, arise from
entire ignorance of the value and importance of a
sound paper currency, we will explain ourselves
more fully. We say, then, that had Austria sus•
pended cash payments, or, in other words, declared
her National Bank-notes to be inconvertible, and at
the same time made these notes receivable for taxes,
she would have done a very wise and judicious
thing; but that by making the National notes
inconvertible, and at the same time refusing to
receive them in payment of taxes, she has done a
very fcolish thing. Austria wants money to carry
on the war. She requires not only a currency for
domestic circulation, but specie for foreign or other
purposes. Now, had the notes to be issued by the
Bank been made receivable for taxes, the very fact
of their being so would have preserved them from
serious depreciation. The Government could have
paid their soldiers and officials in these notes, and
no possible objection could have been made by
merchants or others to receiving them, because
Government had bound themselves to take
them back. With these notes the Govern-
ment could have bought horses, corn, and mili-
tary stores, from traders in such commodities, with
precisely the same facility as gold and: silver from
bullion merchants—all at the market price. On the
prospect of a war wheat and various other com-
modities rise in price. Silver and gold would also
probably rise; but with an inconvertible paper cur-
rency receivable for taxes, these metals would rise in
a less proportion than many other commodities; for
this paper currency would supply the place of the
metallic circulation, and release a large quantity of
coin from use, thereby throwing it into the bullion
market. But whether this rise in the price of bul-

ion were greater or less, bullion would always be

obtainable at the market price. The Austrians
would exchange their commodities for the legal
tender, paper, and the legal tender, paper, would
exchange for bullion. Under prudent manage-
ment, therefore, the Austrians might raise taxes
for carrying on the war without having recourse
to loans, and with this inconvertible legal tender,
paper money, as was demonstrated in England
between 1797 and 1815, the country might prosper
in spite of war, with all its monstrous attendant
evils. The Austrian Government might have
taken this wise course.

But what will be the effects of this unfortunate
error which they have actually committed ? The
immediate effect will be to throw discredit on the
National Bank notes. Government . expects the
people to take money in exchange for their commo-
dities which it refuses to take itself. There will
be a paper price and a silver price for commodities.
As silver is drained away its price will rise, or, in
other words, the price, in silver, of all commodities
will decline. The result of this will be that the
burden of • taxation will become insupportable,
because the merchant will have to give a
larger quantity of commodities, the farmer
much of his produce, and the working man an
increased amount of labour for the taxation money
—l. e., silver, than many other commodities.
Loans must be contracted on ruinous terms.
Commerce will be most injuriously affected.
Distress, panic, and financial difficulties of
every kind will ensue. And for these effects
the Austrian Government will have itself to

blame.
What, then, is the erroneous principle which
pervades this financial system ? It is the principle
which lies at the root of the evil of our Currency
Laws, viz., that the circulating medium of a nation
must possess intrinsic value. We make, indeed,
in this country a very contemptible attempt. to
carry out this principle. We have neither a
purely metallic currency nor a purely national
paper currency. We pretend that our paper circu-
lation is convertible into a certain weight of gold,
but when the time of trial arrives the bubble
system of PEEL bursts, and the National Bank has
to run to Ministers for a letter to suspend its cash
payments, as in 1847 4nd 1857.
The Austrian Government cannot understand
that by guaranteeing to receive their own or the
National Bank paper they ensure its character and
credit, and its convertibility into everything—gold
and silver included. If they understood this y the •
would not think it necessary to stipulate that the
taxes should be paid in silver. This was exactly
what puzzled Sir G. C. LEWIS in 1857. In his
speech after the suspension of the Bank Charter
Act, he made a garbled statement of the evidence
given before the Committee on the Bank Acts by a
gentleman of great sagacity and experience (Mr.
TWELLS), and in his comments on this statement
the same ignorance and confusion of ideas are
manifest which appear in the present financial
arrangement of Austria. Sir G. C. LEWIS, indeed,
has not got so far in monetary science as the
Austrians have ; they appear to think that at a
time of danger and difficulty inconvertible paper
money may assist them. WILLIAM PITT
adopted inconvertible paper money, and carried on
successfully a great war by its assistance ; that
very shallow and superficial financial charlatan,
Sir G. C. LEWIS, ridicules the idea of inconvertible
paper currency altogether. The witness, whose
evidence he quotes, states very intelligibly and
clearly the advantages of such a paper currency.
He says—" We want it for our internal commerce,
and we want it to pay Government their taxes."
The Austrians adopt paper money for internal
commerce, but reject it on receipt of taxes. Sir G.
C. LEWIS rejects it for both purposes. The idea
of the people wanting paper currency "to pay
Government their taxes" evidently appears absurd
to the ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer. But what
did he understand by theSe words ? Did be sup-

pose that an Englishman wanting to pay his taxes
would apply to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to
give him a note to do so ? Or that the note could
be obtained without a fair equivalent being given.
for its possession ? No ; every man having taxes
to pay must buy taxation money for that purpose.
This money he buys with his wheat, iron, cotton,
or whatever he has to dispose of. It is the duty of
Government to provide the money necessary for
this purpose. If the money which Government
provides is withdrawn and unduly contracted, not
only is the internal commerce •of the country
deranged, but the man who has taxes to pay is
obliged, in consequence of the ruinous fall of prices
caused by the contraction of the legal 'tender cur-
rency, to give 50 per cent. more of his commodities
to enable him to pay the taxes. The present mone-
tary system makes us liable, whenever gold is with-
drawn from the Bank, to this violent contraction
of the legal tender money, by which trade and
commerce are prostrated, and every debtor, and,
among others, the debtor to the State, that is, the
taxpayer, is forced to pay from 30 to 50 per cent.
more than he engaged to do. We want, therefore,
money for our internal commerce, and we want
it to pay Government their taxes."
The Austrian Government and the British Go-
vernment are. opposed to the notion of receiving
inconvertible paper money in payment of the
taxes. The Austrian Government.can see no reason
why the people should not buy and sell with paper
money, but they fear that the Government would
be unable to conduct its buying and selling in the
same currency. Sir G. C. LEWIS; the then Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, on the occasion referred to,
said, with a self-complacent temper, ".The House
will see that this is rather an interesting question
to those who have the collection of revenue, if the
15 notes should not be exchangeable for five sove-
reigns." " You compel," he said in one of his
questions to Mr. TWELLS, " the . Government to
take one of these £5 notes for a sum of five sove-
reigns, do you not ?" Now, suppose specie pay-
ments were to be abolished to-morrow, and that
inconvertible Bank of England notes receivable for
taxes were established, how would the Chancellor
of the -Exchequer, as a tax collector, be affected
He would take his Exchequer Bills to the Bank,
and get bank-notes for them. These notes he would
pay away for stores and various commodities.
With them he would pay the dividends and the
salaries of Government officials. Having done so,
Sir G. C. LEWIS, if unhappily for the people of
England.he were again in office, would,'we suppose,
turn round and say, " Here's a .grievance ! why
you are paying me back in my own money." This
is exactly as ridiculous as if a landlord, on being
payed by a tenant with his own cheque, were to
complain. " What, my own cheque ! Why a week
ago, when I gave this cheque for £5, it would pur-
chase 21- quarters of wheat, and now you 'compel '
me to take it back when it will only purchase two
quarters !"

Now let it be observed, that for the maintenance
of this paltry currency crotchet of having the bank
notes exchangeable to a hair for a certain weight
of gold, we have a panic every few years, with
ruin to many rich men, and privation and bitter
suffering to many thousands of the poor.
It may be said that the Austrian Government
will obtain an advantage, for silver will become
more valuable. But what a price .will be paid for
this advantage in the injury inflicted on commerce
and in the misery of the people I. With paper
money receivable for taxes their Government might
have to pay a comparatively small sum for silver ;
but this would not be worth consideration when
placed against the advantages of the increased
prosperity of the people, and the stability of the
whole financial system. The first business of a
financial minister is to make the nation whose
affairs he administers progressively and perma-
nently prosperous. Make the people prosperous,
and the taxes will be paid without difficulty either
in Austria or in England.

Strange, that at this periodof the world's history
the science of money should be so imperfectly com-
prehended by the people, who suffer from the pre-
vailing errors, and the statesmen who are thoa
instruments of inflicting the suffering. But events
are rapidly determining the true principles of a
nation's currency. In every part of the continent
the financial system is thoroughly rotten. The
financial difficulties of India necessitate a change ;
and in our own country the next panic will shiver
to pieces the ridiculous and self-condemned system
which PEEL and OVERSTONE, in their presumptuous
ignorance, palmed upon the nation.

FOURTEEN has already proved to be the clew
gain to the Conservatives—already • when the
county returns are only beginning to be accumu-
lated. FOurteen—when but 523 members have been
as yet elected to sit in the new Parliament. Now,
Fourteen upon a division counts as twenty-eight—
and thirty-nine was the utmost that could be gained
in the way of a clear majority upon the occasion
when there was one of the fullest houses upon
record in the annals of. the Legislature. All that
an unnatural combination, not merely of opposing
"parties," but of antagonistic " factions," could
accomplish in the outnumbering of the
compact and united ranks of the Minis-
terialists: was the fact of their effecting for
that once, upon that extreme division,• a triumph
giving to the motley conquerors that narrow ma-
jority in the last House of Commons of exactly
thirty-nine ! • That in a house of 626 members !
And now, as we have shown, when but 523 returns
from the general election have been grouped
together there is apparent a clear gain of fourteen
seats to the Ministerialists ; those fourteen counting,
as before remarked, as twenty-eight upon a division
--only eleven less than the clear majority in
house numbering, on the Ist of April, 103 more
than the total of the returns (523), already realising
that aggregate loss to the Opposition.
An analysis of this "Fourteen" shows that out of
the 523 returns thus specified, there have been but
three gains to the Liberals in the counties (Berkshire,
Berwickshire, •and South Lincolnshire), and four
losses—namely, one in South Durham, one in East
Norfolk, one in South Wiltshire, and one in South
War wickshire, giving a balance upon the counties of
just one in favour of the Government. Again, upon a
careful scrutiny of the borough returns, out of the
523 members at present elected, we find but fourteen
gains, and as many as twenty- seven losses placed to
the account of the Opposition, showing here, too, a
decided advantage in the shape of a clear balance of
THIRTEEN in favour of the Government. The
" gains" to the opposition compromise two at Maid-
stone, one at the city of Gloucester,•and one at each
of the eleven boroughs hereafter particularised—Bos-
ton, Barnstaple, Carlisle, Chippenham, Cirencester,
Cricklade, Hastings, Limerick, Rochdale, Sunder-
land, and Wakefield. The twenty-seven Liberal
losses comprising in that : ormidable aggregate of
recalcitrant boroughs the two seats at each of
these five places—Berwick, Dover, Newport,
-Weymouth and Yarmouth. And one at each
of the seventeen boroughs subjoined—Ashburton,
Bedford, Bodmin, Chester, Colchester, Devizes,
Frome, Hull, Newport, Pontefract, Truro, Tyne-
mouth, Wareham, Windsor, Carnarvon, Plymouth,
and Helston. The nominations now awaited, with
the exception of one or two Irish boroughs, such as

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THE SUN.
THURSDAY, MAY 5, 1849.