The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-11 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.-SuN OFFICE, FEB. 11.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.

53—highest since noon yesterday.
46—lowest this morning and during the night.
53—this day at noon.

BARomnTER-29.63---rising.
WIND, S.W. ; fresh, with fine sunshiny cloudy
weather.

Whatever Mr. HAMER STANSFELD writes on the
currency question he writes clearly and well,
going distinctly to the point at issue, so that " he
who runs may read," and wafting away the
clouds of mystification that have been so adroitly
raised in order to keep the community at large in
profound ignorance of the all-important topic on
which their welfare, happiness, and prosperity so
greatly depends.
Mr. STANSFELD has now directed attention to a
serious grievance for which the Bank authorities
are deserving of serious censure. It appears that
the Old Lady has altogether neglected the reserve
of silver coin or bullion which, under the express
provisions of the Act of 1844, she was empowered
to keep, and against which, to the extent of
one-fourth of the stock of gold uselessly
buried in her vaults, she was authorised to issue
bank notes, which constitute a legal tender every-
where but at the Bank itself.
It is notorious that silver is even more valuable
than gold for the purpose of rectifying adverse
exchanges on the continent. The drains to India
and China have been of silver, and yet the Bank
authorities have pertinaciously set their faces
against receiving or storing it. It is true that
they might thereby extend their issues of notes by
20 per cent., and thus keep down the rate of extra-
vagant discount which they charged during the
commercial crisis, and avert the fearful losses
sustained by the commercial and manu-
facturing interests. But it was not their
interest so to do. The general distress, the
wide-spread panic brought money to their
coffers. They could not only divide handsome
dividends, but also give a large bonus to every
shareholder, quite sufficient to neutralise the com-
plaints of the sufferers, who found their hardly-
swept away in the financial
acquired savings
torrent.
It is well known that in 1847 a commercial firm
of high standing brought a quantity of silver
bullion to the Bank of England, and that although
their reserve of notes had dwindled to a very low
point, they refused to purchase what would at once
have increased their notes by nearly two
millions sterling. To all intents and pur-
poses, silver locked up in their vaults would
be just as good as gold indeed, an equal
weight of quarry stones would answer the
same purpose. But silver was not a legal tender
beyond 405., and therefore the directors, as if to
exhibit the full absurdity of the law, would not have
it at any price. They precluded themselves from
receiving what might have alleviated the general
distress, and averted die necessity of even the
virtual suspension of the Bank.
Mr. STANSFELD has given a decisive and con-
vincing answer to the suggestion rather than the
argument that the silver would be bought with
an equivalent amount of
gold, and therefore there
would be no perceptible increase to the bank notes
or legal tender money. Far from •
It. It was
notes, not gold, that were required—it was
notes that were required in Parnent of
the specie. As Lord ASHBURTON declared
on a former occasion, " The credit of the
Bank for every domestic purpose was perfect."
There was no run for gold, not the slightest desire
to exchange its paper. All that was required was

that men of undoubted solvency could obtain, on
unquestionable securities, the counters they re-
quired for meeting their engagements, and carrying
on their business transactions. The universal cry
was, " Give us notes, charge what you please, but
let us have notes, or even satisfy us that we can
obtain them if required." This was the demand
in 1847 and 1857.

In both instances it was satisfied by the suspen-
sion of the Act—a step which would not have been
required if the directors had availed themselves
of their power of keeping a large stock of silver,
against which they might have issued notes.
But it appears that they do not now 'consider
themselves responsible for the regulation of the
currency. As their discretion was taken away to
a great extent, they will not exercise the little that
remains ; and because they cannot issue notes to an
unlimited extent, they will not base any on silver. Mr.
STANSFELD has pertinently inquired whether they
are justified in depriving the community of so large
a portion of what was intended for them, and which,
even under the most favourable circumstances,
would afford too scanty a supply. We believe
they have a legal right to do so if they think
proper, but it is unquestionably an abdication of
their most important functions, and a violation of
duty, for which Parliament will hold them gravely
responsible whenever the renewal of their charter
may be ventilated in either house.

This is certainly an age in which the " wisdom of
our ancestors" goes for little. We ought to be wiser
than our fathers, since we enjoy the benefit of our
own observation and knowledge added to theirs.
We need not, therefore, be surprised to find Mr.
JOHN STUART MILL so much wiser than Mr. JAMES
MILL, as to enable the latter to argue against the
Ballot, which the former had so elaborately defended.

We have just now before us a pamphlet, published

by RIDGWAY in 1830, by JAMES MILL, in which
secret voting is proved to be the reform most
wanted. We have also just received one published
by PARKER, " Thoughts on Parliamentary Reform,
by JOHN STUART MILL," in which the last fourteen
pages are occupied in the attempt to show that we
are better without the Ballot.

We must acknowledge, however, that the chief
argument of the son is one probably due to his
veneration for his father :—" It appears to me,'
he says, " that secret suffrage was a very right and
justifiable demand when originally made." Again
—" Thirty years ago, the main evil to be guarded
against was that which the Ballot would exclude,
coercion by landlords, employers, and customers.
At present, I conceive, a much greater is the selfish-
ness, or the selfish partialities of the voter him-
self." And again—" At every election the votes
are becoming much more the voter's own ;" and " the
progress of circumstances has done, and is doing
more and more the work of the Ballot." Thus
would Mr. J. S. MILL save the memory of Mr. J.
MILL when arguing against what the latter thought
the one thing needful in Parliamentary Reform
prior to 1832.

Here, then, it would seem, we must come to

facts. The Reformers of 1830 were justified by the co-

ercion and intimidation so prevalent then, in demand-
ing the Ballot ; the Reformers of 1859 are justified
in rejecting it, and the one reason is, that " times
have changed." Now, we can well remember
1830, and we grant that times are changed—one
change is, that in the counties a new constituency,
amounting to one-fourth of the whole, has been
created out of a class absolutely at the disposal of
their landlords—the " tenants at will," and other
occupying tenants. One change, though asked by
some of the best Reformers, was not made—the old

freemen were retained; and in one of the greatest

changes made, that of enfranchising ten-pound
householders in boroughs, a large class was added
to the constituency of the boroughs which em-
ployers of labour could drive in an omnibus from
their factory to the poll.

It is perhaps useless to cite long instances of
coercion of tenants and operatives. We might
mention such as that at Manchester, just alluded
to; we might refer to Mr. DRYDEN, in Northamp-
tonshire, for the orthodox landlords creed ; we
might ask Sir HENRY STRACEY, in Norfolk, what
converted him, a staunch Conservative of the old
school, to the Ballot; we might repair to the
secretary of the Ballot Society, and, but for his
having in numberless cases been obliged to take a
confessor's oath, might publish a long list of indig-
nant penitents, who, however, must repeat the sin
of submitting to coercion when the next election
comes round. To all these Mr. MILL would reply
".Yes ; but they are exceptional instances." The

spirit of independence is rising nevertheless.
We think that the desire for independence is
rising, but not the power of exercising it. There
is a vast deal more education, political intelligence,
and knowledge than there was thirty years ago,
and this raakes the bondage of "landlords, em-
ployers, and customers" harder to be borne than it
then was. The old-fashioned yeoman hardly felt
it a grievance to vote with his landlord; but in
proportion to the intelligence of the modern farmer
it becomes a hardship to have to surrender
political individuality and life to a master. The
same remark is true of the operative. The Sunday
school, the weekly school, the day school, and the
Institute have made another man of him. It may
be that the coercing classes go about their work a
little more courteously, generally, than they used
to do ; but they do not coerce the less. Education
has refined the sensibilities of the dependent elector,
but it has not broken his yoke. The general im-
provement of manners mayhave covered, concealed,
and eased the roughness of his fetters, but it has
left them quitefas efficient for the political custody
of the victim. Hence the extraordinary unanimity
of all public meetings up to the present hour, and the
unanimity of the hustings too, not the open poll, in
favour of the Ballot. Indeed it is the uniform
testimony of all the classes to whom the franchise
can be extended, that to them the vote, without the
Ballot, would be a curse.

Differing thus with Mr. J. S. MILL on the main
facts of the case, it is the less necessary to follow him
into all the details of his objections to the Ballot.
They are, indeed, to a great extent, such as are
well known, and as well refuted. Many of them
were answered by Mr. JAS.
MILL "thirty years
ago." They
assume that secrecy is an evil in itself
We may grant that, like bolts and
bars, and
Brahma locks, and strong boxes, it were more plea-
sant and better if we could do without it. Unfor-
tunately electoral robbery or fraud is even more
common than that of a more palpable kind; and
we therefore must have an electoral lock and key.
The Ballot, he says, will make men lie in words ;
.. .

it may be in some cases, but the poll-book makes
them lie in their votes. The majority, we are told,
do not now vote from coercion—probably they
never did, but now, as of old time, the bribed and
the coerced, in the counties especially, are sufficiently
numerous to turn the scale. The majority of us were
not robbed before Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Police Act,
but we thought it worth while to incur a general
burden for the sake of the minority. We demand,
therefore, that all shall bear the burden of secret
voting to protect the injured minority who are
robbed of their votes.

We are told, for the hundredth time, that

electors are trustees for the unenfranchised, and
that the latter have a right to know how their
trustees have voted. We demur to regarding an
elector as a trustee ; but, passing by that, we
maintain that it is the wealthy enfranchised elector
who gets the benefit of the dependent elector's vote,
and that rare indeed is the case in which the un-
enfranchised can bring their influence to bear on
the supposed trustee. As to the general charge of
"selfishness;' and voting from " selfish partialities,"
it is impossible either to prove or to disprove it.
Of course, under either open or secret voting, un-
worthy motives may have influence in particular
cases. They must, however, be very few. Rarely
can a man have any pique to gratify by voting for
this candidate or for that; still less frequently
can he advance any sordid or pecuniary interests
by his vote—unless it be just those interests
which open voting makes selfish interests. His
vote for a "landlord, employer, or customer," is a
purely selfish one ; and he would be less tempted
to give such a vote secretly.
We are sorry to have to oppose Mr. JOHN STUART
MILL on a point of liberal policy. We acknowledge
that his ingenuity is quite worthy of the author of
" System of Logic," and " The Principles of Politi-
cal Economy ;" but in regard to electoral facts, his
knowledge of them is evidently that of a gentleman
better acquainted with the India House and India
than with polling booths and English con-
stituencies. :Clever reasoning, we acknowledge—one
thing only wanting, that it should start from a
basis of facts.

ROYAL. ITALIAN OPERA, COVENT

GARDEN.

Owing to the absence of Miss Louisa Pyne, who
was summoned to take a part in her Majesty's con-
cert, Auber's opera of " Fra Diavolo" was last night
substituted for' Satanella." This fine opera has
always been popular among us in its English form.
Its constant animation and dramatic effect enhance
the attraction of Auber's delightful melodies. Mr.
Harrison was the robber chief, and played the part
with a self-possession and reckless spirit that quite
realised the character. As a vocalist he appeared
to great advantage. His share in the duet, "On
yonder rock reclining," was much applauded, and
he sang the beautiful air, " Young Agnes," with so
much force and expression that it was enthusiasti-
cally redemanded. The long solo at the opening of
the third act exhibited his dramatic powers to full
effect. Miss Isaacs made an attractive Zerlina, and
Miss Susan Pyne a piquant Lady Allcash. Mr.
George Honey was a most amusing Lord Allcash,
and elicited great laughter by his affectation and
absurdity. The two bandits were capitally repre-
sented, and obtained an encore by their mimicry of
Zerlina. In the trios and quartettes, too, the per-
formers rendered full justice to Auber's delightful

music. The favourite pantomime of " Little Red
Riding Hood" followed to the great delight of the
juveniles. The house was well attended, and the
audience appeared to enjoy the evening's entertain-
ment.

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THE SUN.
FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 11, 1859.