The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-13 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR,—Your condescension in yielding to my re-
quest (pro bono publico) to spare room for the in-
sertion of my letter on the subject of the present
alarming state of our monetary system, and conse-
quent panic, which appeared in your valuable and
widely-extensive circulation, induces, me to throw
iu my mite of advice without an unnecessary hour's
delay in this very critical juncture.: I allude to
your impression of yesterday, the 12th inst. The
distressing state this country is in induces me to
address the nation through an appeal to Messrs.
Palmerston and Sir Cornewall Lewis—the former
as the Prime Minister of her Majesty Queen Vic-
toria, the other as Chancellor of the Exchequer,
the purse-bearer of the nation. I first tell my Lori
Palmerston it is his imperative duty to convoke a
Ministerial Council, and issue an order addressed to
the governor and directors of the Bank of England
to suspend cash payments for six months, or a
national bankruptcy will be sure to happen in a
couple of weeks, spreading the most frightful and
disastrous ruin.

My Lord, I appeal to your recollection, that early
in the last session I not oui y wrote to you to advise
what should be done to ease the country from its
heavy distress, arising from the costly expenses of
the Crimean scandalously-conducted war, but I
showed you bow to reconvert one-third of the
national debt into a copious currency, as 60 per
cent. had been, and by which our debt from the be-
ginning had been contracted. I repeated this ad-
vice and warning thrice in three weeks, and left
each letter at your lordship's residence in Piccadilly,
in person, to assure myself there should be no
delay in their reaching your hands. My lord, I
am a titled man like yourself, and my feelings as
regards contumely are as keen as your own, or any
man's, let his station and title be ever so superior
to my own. Your lordship never condescended
even to acknowledge either of these three letters.
In my addresses to Lord Aberdeen for six months
on the subject of our National Gallery neglect,
before the appointment of Sir C. Eastlake as direc-
tor, I told. this haughty Scotch Nobleman that he
placed himself above the Queen, for he took no
notice of a number of letters I addressed to his
lordship, but her Majesty, our Queen, always ac-
knowledged those addresses (I fearlessly addressed)
within fourteen days.
You, Sir Cornewall Lewis, answered my first
letter, showing you how to convert oue-
third of the national debt into a sinking
currency, to expire in 25 years, 30 years, and 35
years, You requested one to
no
paper, urging the old hacka:.edexcuse,
time to spare. Of course, high you ,
who can-
not rise at 7 in the morning, and who dawdle about
doing nothing till the clock strikes 12, when you
put on you hat and trot off to the Ti-easury, and
fomain there three or four hours, seeing what the
reai official subordinates are doing ; the rest of the
day bei.:.95 spent, most probably, in reading leading
articles in avers morning papers ; for which oblig-
ing services you receive perhaps 5,600/ .11-y ear I
told you, sir, that it was impdssible to. cOmi,,ly with
your request ; for the preparations in exten.qo for
rojseuctrefisloleeiii
bexopoklaionfincognasilidethraeblweosrikzein.g Tofhaint yI
wasp
volume of writing and calculations would alarm
'
you, be cast on one side, and treatedwith admission
to the official basket to be consumed, b
allowed an interview for half an hour,
lutsh.foullwd were
able to explain the whole matter with ease. Being
denied the privilege of speaking to you, I recall to
your memory that I would yield and place in your
hands all that I had written, on condition that you
would give me your official promise (conditional)
that if you adopted my project, you would reward
me for years of intense thought, and weeks of toil
in writing. This you said you could not do. You
could, sir, absorb the labours of no small genius,
adopt his enlightened view of what must be done
to cure the dunderheads of the bullion-ruinous
fancy. In using these words, they are prophetic ;
for our stupid, our more than stupid love of a golden
currency, is now shown to be the nation's ruin. I
shall recall to your recollection my prophecy, sent
to you in the form of a letter, of the exact cour,e
you would take to meet the money wants of the
Treasury, to pay some of the frightful expenses of
I the atrocious Crimean war. I warned you full

~-

three weeks before the commencement of the ses-
sion before the last one.

I appeal to you, sir, if I did not show you your
plan as clearly and as exactly as if you had done it
yourself.

I told you, and I repeat it, that you had no
genius any more than either of the Chancellors of
the Exchequer since the time of Walpole in 1700,
who have been legion, whose only mental resource
was loan upon loan, heaping taxation upon taxa-
tion, till the burthen became intolerable, and re-
peals of many taxes and modifications of _others
were forced from Ministers prime and Chancellors
of the Exchequer sublime. I t old you, sir, I could tell
you how to convert the whole debt into a currency
—reward the holders of 300 millions of the 3 per
cents. ; give them the reward in the form of e
bonus, paying off the said amount, at par, 1001. for
100 stock, which secured currency should be ex-
tinguished in 25, 30, and 35 years. The funds were
at 94 at that time, not 10 percent. lower.
I now appeal to you, my Lord Palmerston. I
proclaim that you must instantly stop cash pay-
ments by the Bank of England, and issue 11., 21.,
and 31. notes, or the commercial classes of the
country will be ruined, and tens of thousands of
traiesmen and people. You will have riots, and
butchery by legalised authority will fall upon those
who rise to demand fair play. I tell you more;
and old as I am, eighty-three and eight months,
I shall live to see a well-organised paper currency ;
and if gold must be issued to please certain weak
intellectual desires, it must have one-fourth of alloy
in it, useful to our nation only, which will not be
coveted by the gold-grasping conjurors of the Con-
tinent. Sir Robert Peel's complimentary bill of
1844, to finish his bill of 1819, of infamous memory
—of awful memory—consummated his ignorance of
the money subject.
A gold currency can never suit and fit such a
great commercial country as our own. Dr. Frank-
lin, who published his memorable work on a paper
currency in 1827, February the 27th being the
date, pointed out to the American people the vast
superiority of an established credit, and a paper
currency based thereon, with a metallic reserve as
a security. He, like Mr. President Van Buren,
shows the superior advantage to such commercial
and manufacturing countries as England and Ame-
rica, the vast superiority of a cheap currency to an
expensive one, of gold. I ask your lordship to tell
me, if you can, what currency of either gole. or sil-
ver, or even a base coin means ? I never found
more than a dozen or two clear-headed men who
were able to explain it. Without the remotest in-
tention to insult or offend your lordship's feelings,
I will undertake to explain. A sovereign being
stamped with the portrait of the reigning sovereign
assumes by an agreed Royal privilege, a eertaie
value, whether pure or alloyed. That is the
first position. The next and real repre-
sentative of any coin, be it gold, silver, or,
base, is labour paid for in a concentrated
form. The labour to procure gold, constitutes
its first value. The labour must be paid for ; and
when the gold so had—whether Mexican, Califon'
nian, or Australian—is shaped into coin, it passe!
from hand to hand as payment for fresh toils an
i 4
labours, and so on, so long as men or females all
paid for their services. Thus, some of the gold
coins represent tables, chairs, or carpets paid for
making. First, the hewer of the mahogany tree
is paid, then the trimmer, then the transporter,
then the shipper to any country, then the broker,
then the timber merchant, and then the cabinee,t"
maker, and, lastly, the dealer in furniture. 0°
that the great mahogany tree had at first only
prospective value, but no value at all until
felled and shaped for transport ; in fact, e°
more value than a thistle or a bramble. 061,
any philosopher dispute this truth ? I ores"
at four in the morning to write this lettsr;
I labour for the love of my country. I can get II
remuneration. I toil not for it, or any other re'
ward than a people's acknowledgment, that I toe
for the good of the millions. My maxim is, foil°ig
Jesus Christ's answer to those who asked hinato
DO
plain his religion ; He sublimely replied,
unto others as thou wouldest they should do, ,to
you"—that is my religion. I sacrifice, wa"'
time and money to obey that Divine and
precept. None but God could ever have utterettio
this glorious injunction. The going thrice a day
church to mutter, as green parrots do, a net u';
neeis
forms of Prayer, obeying the clerk in r
turning up their eyes, and half moaning,
elreelingt
and performing the true hypocrite,
ceive the Almighty as theydeceentvcee
ther
themselves,ifrauds andaa
on Monday mornings recommence
d
vile doings, trying to pass as honest men, with
moral language to varnish their dishonest dealings;
My next, I shall address, as I do this, to our bold
Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, and the eonv
mon-place Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Collie'
wail Lewis, in which I hope to unfold satisfactorilf
my grand project of reconverting one-third of our
debt, at a time, into an expiring currency ; shoo':
ing that every holder of 1001. stock shall have it
counted to a value of 4001. ; robbing nobody, hurt:
ing no one, but conferring a blessing on the who,'
people of happy and glorious Old England.

I am, ac.,
Professor BARON VON REINAGLE, C.E.
Marylebone-street, Regent-circus,
Nov. 13, 1857.