The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-31 00:00:00

IHE SUN, LONDON,

and a host of others, " whose name is legion,"
afford a brilliant contrast, showing what zeal and
daring can accomplish under the most adverse
circumstances.

The departing year commenced with the Chi-
nese difficulty, and the strange and, we must say,
factious combination of the Yehites, against the
PALMERSTON Ministry. It is true that the Go-
vernment had many vulnerable points. But
these were unwisely disregarded, and the assail-
ants directed their chief energies against their
very strongest position, where they were sustained
and supported by public opinion. Mr. COBDEN,
directed the onslaught, and by the aid of a
motley collection of auxiliaries, obtained an
unexpected, and, for his party, a very unfortu-
nate triumph. The wily chief of the Ministry
perceived his advantage, and, in place of re-
linquishing the seals of office to the eager hands
ready to grasp them, at once announced a speedy
dissolution, and an appeal to the country. This
was at the same time a bold, and a constitutional
course, which won golden opinions from all man-
ner of men, and the result was the unequivocal
defeat of the Yehites, and the consolidation of the
power of Lord PALMERSTON. The ♦ery leaders
in the conspiracy were deprived of their seats, and
many old members saw with regret that they had
to make way for new and untried men.

The second session of l85i" proved the
vast accession of strength to the Ministry.
Large majorities were obtained on every im-
portant question, while those which might
have led to differences of opinion were postponed
until next year. A Reform bill was promised, and
permitted to remain in their hands, all instal-
ments of justice being resolutely refused by a
house of which the large majority were protessing
reformers. The Currency question —the most
important that could possibly be brought forward,
and on which the welfare, happiness, and pros-
perity of the people mainly depended—was hung
on the shelf of a select committee ; and the Jewish
Bill, after being carried by an overwhelming majo-
rity of the Commons, was contumeliously rejected
by the Lords. All these matters will, therefore,
have to be disposed of during the remainder of the
session opened during the present month.
We have already alluded to the Indian mutiny,
and, in another article, to the all-important Cur-
rency question. These, with the promised and
inevitable Reform Bill, will provide abundant
employment for the Legislature, to say nothing of
the many other topics that must be taken into
consideration. We trust that matters will now
improve. The omens are far more favour able
than they had been even a week since, and we
may look forward to the "good time coming,"
which we trust 1858 will produce.

There was a time, and that within the memory
of men who have not yet passed the middle age,
when usury was regarded as contrary to public

policy, and a'serious offence on the part of those
who accepted more than 5 per cent. in the shape
either of permanent interest or temporary loans
or discounts. Under that system commerce,
trade, and manufacture flourished, and it was for
the protection of these important interests that
the enactments were sanctioned. England then
attained the high and palmy position which she
has since occupied. No doubt usury was occa-
sionally practised, and that on a large scale ! But
the usurers did so at their own risk, like men lend-

ing to minors, who were compelled to rely on the
honour of the borrowers. The excuse for the

large discounts sometimes charged was, that it
was essential to establish an Insurance Fund to
meet the losses occasioned by repudiation, and
the principles of free trade were loudly evoked
in order to obtain a repeal of the obnoxious pro-
=visions. The speeiona argument, that the trade

in money should be made as free as in any other
comniodi'..y, prevailed, and the restrictions were
altogether removed, so far as securities for terms
not exceetZ:l4.; twelvemonths were concerned.
This was •la first stage in the money-lender's
progress. VI hen that was obtained all the
former arguments were abandoned. Never
was there a more striking case of tergi-
versation. The cry for free trade in
money had served its purpose. Money-lenders
were freed from all annoyance, and unrestricted
competition was the order of the day. But that
did not by any means satisfy the cravings of the
acute party whose souls were panting for larger
profits. They wanted " protection" to prevent
others from interfering with their unholy gains ;
accordingly the outcry then was for a system
that would prevent the fluctuations in the value
of money, and preserve the currency in an equit-
able state. It was to give an uniformity of value
to our paper cu,rrency, to establish a money in
which the business of the country could at all
times be transacted with safety and security
—that was the avowed object of the PEEL-
LOYD Bill. Its Parliamentary sponsor never
at that time hinted at its being intended to en-
sure the convertibility of the Bank note, and for
a very good reason. The security of the Bank
note was never impeached. The argument, if put
forward in 1844, would have been ridiculed and
treated with the profound contempt it merited.
However the alleged reason prevailed, and the
iniquitous and impolitic Bank Chartar Act re-
ceived the legislative sanction. This was stage
No. 2 in the money lender's progress.
The theory on which it was founded :w is
speedily proved to be thoroughly unsound. The
Old Lady, of Threadneedle-street, being ob-
liged to purchase all the gold offered
at a fixed price, was obliged, in order
to maintain her dividends, :to find employ-
ment for it on any terms that could be obtained,
money became a drug in the market, It was
difficult to -get- good bills at even 2 per cont. In-
deed, we believe that first class paper, particularly
if of a long date, was readily discounted at 1i or
1/ per cent. in Lombard-street. Thisled to therail-
way mania. of 1845, the first fruit of the Act of
1844. We need not now speak of the excite-
ment that prevailed during that period, uutil the
matter had proceeded far enough, and it suited
the purpose of " the bard calculators" of the
day to bring about the collapse, which object was
easily effented.

Then came the terrible change. The wildest
speculatians were succeeded by the severest de-
pressions. Fluctuations in prices, and in the
value of all kinds of property, were far greater
than at any former period, under unlimited, irre-
sponsible issues of paper money. The measure
and representative of value practically disappeared,
mills and factories were closed, operatives were
thrown out of employment, and compelled with
their families to undergo the most terrible priva-
tions. Although a famine was impending over
the land, we could not purchase the flour and
cereals tendered in unexampled abundance by
our transatlantic brethren. And this arose from the
abstraction of. a few million sovereigns, while there
was still a largo quantity remaining uncalled for,
and perfectly useless in the coffers of the Bank.
all there
The Act -which occasioned or greatly aggravated
calamities was at length suspended, not
for the Hake ot
the industrial community, whose
difficulties were rnpletely ignored by Sir CHAS.
WooD, but to save the Bank of England, whose

Ideposits would have been drawn on to an extent
I far exceeding the amount of notes in reserve.
The letter of the 25th October was therefore
issued, and the Act virtually repealed.
Parliament was, of course, convened before
Christmas, in order to sanction the step taken by
Ministers, and a carefully selected or rather
packed committee was appointed to inquire
into the causes of the commercial crisis. It
was then that Sir IL PEEL for the first time de-
clared that to ensure " the convertibility of the
bank-note was one of the objects of the measure."
A doctrine carried still further by " Mercator"
in the Times, who declared that it was the sole
object, and that it was never intended or supposed
that it could prevent fluctuations in the value of
money, which were inevitable. Thus practically
abandoning the false and fraudulent pretext on
which the act was obtained. This was stage No.
3 in the money-lender's progress.
Again, a panic producing more disastrous re-
sults even than that of 1847 occurred. The
Ministers clung longer to the bill, and therefore
the mischief was materially enhanced. At length
they yielded for the very same reason that their
predecessors had in 1847—viz., to save the Bank
that must have stopped cash payment, notwith-
standing seven millions of gold lying in its vaults
—gold that was of no greater value than an equal
weight of paving stones. And now the mists
were at length dispelled, and the real object of
the " hard calculators" was openly and unblush-
ingly avowed. The Times complained of the re-
laxation, because it prevented the increase in the
value of what it was pleased to term " money "
prevented the rate of interest from spring-
ing up to twenty or thirty per cent., and
the " hard calculators " from obtaining pos-
session of the property of their softer brethren at
very inadequate prices. Parliament was again
summoned, and again the wooden dodge was re-
sorted to, of shelving the question, by referring it
•to a select committee, which will doubtless be vary
judiciously chosen, and whose report may be re-
garded as a " foregone conclusion." This is the
fourth stage in the money-lender's progress, and
may be regarded as " the beginning of the end."
They have now reached sight of the goal, as
they fondly imagined. Already they grasp, in
imagination, the property of their neighbours,
but they may find the fifth stage very different
from what they picture to their fancies. The
commercial and manufacturing interests are the
geese that lay the golden eggs. They are being
rapidly destroyed, and when that destruction has
been effected, and the revenue of the nation re-
duced to comparatively slender dimensions, and
the ruined people are thoroughly exasperated,
they may discover that they are not quite so
clever as they suppose, and that " honesty would,
after all, have been by far the best policy."