The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-27 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, NOV. 27, 1857.

The• community at large are at length, although
somewhat tardily, becoming alive to the vast
importance of the currency question. They have
witnessed with dismay the wide-spread rain occa-
sioned by the Acts of 1819 and 1844, and al-
though they have hitherto permitted themselves
to be bamboozled and mystified by bullionists,
they are rapidly discovering the deplorable conse-
quences of a fettered and restricted circulating
medium.

• The: principles by which the monetary concerns
of the nation are regulated are the same at all
thim.
A proper measure and representative of
°laws is required to facilitate exchange, and to
arable the workbag classes to convert their only
.
'available capital, "labour," into something by
means whereof they can supply the wants of their
families. Gold has only been adopted because it
a
was an article generally acceptable, which repre-
sented a ceitain amount of accumulated labour.
But there was no reason why we should
not improve Thereon,' or why the nation. should
be fettered by obsolete rules. LYCIIRGIIS, one of
the most 'eminent legislators that ever existed,
thought that the money of a State should not
Possess intrinsic value ; and he devised means to
deprive iron, the bullion of the day, of its mallea-
bility, so as to prevent its use as a commodity or
article worth hoarding. PLATO—the divine
kr..azo, as he was styled by his contemporaries—
earnestly recommended a double currency—one
fur domestic circulation, of no intrinsic value, and
another for the purposes of foreign trade. And
the justice and propriety of the doctrine will be

admitted by every unprejudiced and disinterested

person.
As the Times long since admitted, there is not
the slightest necessity for bullion, so far as the
internal commerce of the nation is concerned. A
deposit of Government securities, or the fact that
the paper issues were receivable in payment of
taxation or duties would be all that could be re-
quired. Either would ensure the purchasing
power, although we have always asserted the
superiority of the latter principle, inasmuch as it
might, under a panic, be impossible to rea•
lise the Government Seeurities, and even
were it otherwise, great losses would
necessarily accrue in the operation. But
the visits of the tax-gatherer are, unlike those of
angels, neither few nor far between. Although
an unwelcome visitor, he must still be received,
and anything that will satisfy his claims will be
gladly accepted by the people.
It is true that we have an extensive foreign

trade, and that gold or silver may be required to
adjust balances with other nations ; but the pre-
cious metals can easily be obtained at their mar•
ketable value, in accordance with the invariable
laws of supply and demand ; and the difficulties
arising from a small premium would scarcely be
worth mentioning in comparison with an exor.
bitant rate of interest, and the difficulty, we
might almost say impossibility, of obtaining pecu-
niary accommodation at any price. In a proper
state of affairs, temporary loans or discount should
be much cheaper than permanent investments.
But at present we find that the interest of the
Government funds is but 31. Gs. Sd. per cent.,
taking consols at 90, while the minimum rate of
the Bank of England is 10 per cent., or three
times that amount, for first-class paper, and nearly
double that for persons of inferior prestige.
We have great pleasure in commending to the
calm and earnest consideration of our readers two
exceedingly interesting and important documents,
which will be found in another part of this
day s impression. The one is the account of a
meeting, at which a truly consistent and honest
monetary reformer, the Rev. J. TWELLS, now
rector of Gamston, gave expression to his opinions
on the subject, and the other from Mr. HAMER
STANSFELD, a gentleman of extraordinary ability
and sound judgment.
It is seven years and a half since Mr. TWELLS
delivered the admirable speech, or rather lecture,
referred to, but every sentence is applicable to the
present state of affairs, and it would be difficult
to find an address of equal ability. It clearly and
distinctly points out the nature and extent of the
evil, and of the suitable remedy. He puts for-
ward a clear, definite, and understandable object,
and it would be well for the nation if it had a Mr.
TWELLS in every district, equally capable of im-
pressing on the people the vital importance of the
principles which he advocates, and the effects
thereof on the welfare and prosperity of the
nation. His indefatigable exertions are the more
honourable, inasmuch as they are perfectly disin-
terested, for he would be amongst those who would
be personally benefitted by the stringent ob-
servance of the OVERSTONE principles ; but as a
high-minded and conscientious gentleman, as a

Christian Minister, he felt that he owed a duty to

those who only required to obtain employment,
and that great desideratum to the working man,
" a fair day's wages fur a fair day's work."
Mr. :STANSFELD'S dialogue is also admirably
calculated to promote a knowledge of the subject,
and that is all which is required. Had we a

dozen such men as Mr. TWBLLS and Mr. STANS- I
YEILD in Parliament we feel that the question
would be speedily decided, despite the specious
fallacies of the Times, or the shrill squeaks of the
Penny Whistles.

We are very glad to hear from Lord LYONS, at
Cagliari, when he has such intelligence to for-
ward as tiiat we received from him on Wednesday;
but we should be much better pleased to hear from
him at Naples. Any one could have forwarded
us the Indian news. We could receive a sum-
mary of the contents of Indian journals and
letters quite as well without an. Admiral's signa-
ture. One of our own Reporters, we have not
the least doubt, would epitomise the news better.
At Naples we want something more than a trust-
woithy reporter. We want a man to create his
own report there, and send it to us. Nobody
insults this country, and tortures our citizens at
Cagliari. At Naples, two British citizens still lie
in irons, untried, and denied the sight and counsel
of the British Consul.
All honour to the men of Newcastle. One of
the prisoners is a Newcastle man, an engineer,
and received his training in the factory of one of
England's real aristocracy, GEORGE STEPHENSON.
The workmen of the town partake of the charac-
ter of that illustrious man ; they will try what
they can do. They are not to be put down easily.
They sent just a memorial with 800 signatures of
their own to Lord CLARENDON, through their, mem-
ber, Mr. RIDLEY. They receive a reply, cour-
teous enough, but cold enough also, and assuredly
not such a one as MILTON would have written for
CRO3IWELL. They call a public meeting, under
the auspices of their Mayor, and a crowded and
enthusiastic meeting it was, although held on a
wretched night. Newcastle men care little about
weather when a fellow-citizen's life and liberty are
at the mercy of a Neapolitan tyrant, and when a
British Minister seems to be nonplussed by
a Royal bully. Mr. STEPHENSON'S men have
learned of their master. The readers of his
deeply interesting life will remember, that when
in charge of the coalpit steam-engine, his manage-
ment of it was insulted by a boxing bully ; he
challenged him at once. Friends tried to per-
suade him that his antagonist was certain to
punish him severely, and begged him to humble
himself to the terror of the neighbourhood.
GEORGE was far more peaceable in -disposition
than half our peace men, but he would not, accept
peace at the price of insult and of humbling himself
to the insulter ; he knew he had a good cause and
a strong arm, and he told his friends to leave him
to take care of himself. The bully would not
give in—the battle came off—Geonen thrashed
his man in a very few rounds,—avenged the in-
sult, and he and his insulter were good friends ever
after. ' Newcastle men think STEPHENSON a model
man, and so do we. They think Lord CLARENDON
would be more worthy the name of an English-
man if he showed the same pluck as he did ; we
quite agree with them here too. They do not
wish to hurt a hair of the head of an innocent
Neapolitan ; but they think that Ne tp:)1 tan
arsenals' and frigates, if there be any, might be
advantageously bombarded if immediate redress
be not offered. For ourselves wo should think it
no loss to Europe if some of those mercenary or
miscreant Swiss who protect the tyrant from his
subjects, and but for whom the atrocities now
endured by our fellow-citizens could not be per-
petrated, were exposed Whatever to a few of our bouabshells.
the laws of any nation, we affirm
that an Administration which refuses to a gen-
tleman, recognised by a
foreign Government
as its representative, the natural international
right to see one of his fellow-subjects lying under
accusation of a crime against the State—that that
administration is guilty of the grossest insult to

tke foreign Government. By implication, it im-
putes sinister motives, and denies the respectabi-
lity of the agent recognised by the foreign Go-
vernment. Such a request would never be refused
in this or any really civilised country, though the
guilt of the man accused hardly admitted of doubt;
but when the innocence of the accused is
well known—when he has been accused ga al-
most technical grounds—to refuse to an accredited
Consul all access to the prisoner, is, we conceive,
an insult which no king in Europe but FERDINAND
could offer, and which no great power, with a fleet
almost alongside the Royal culprit's quays, but
England, would tolerate for a moment.

Can Lord PALMERSTON meet Parliament with.
these men in prison ? Does he forget that he is
more responsible for these two men than General
HAVELOCK was for Lucknow ? The mutineers were
ten times more difficult to deal with than a King
of NAPLES, and certainly their temper and their
cruelty were not worse than his. These men—
these Englishmen—are in irons ; the irons are
literally torturing their bodies, and the addi-
tional torture of their miserable damp dungeons,
and deprivation of food, is endangering their lives
and their sanity ! The case is not one which ad-
mits of delay and of diplomatic rules and eti-
quette. Health and ife will not wait on diplo-
matic routine. Lord PALMERSTON must act at once,
or he may incur the guilt and reproach of diplo-
matic manslaughter. Surely, in Lord PALMER-
STON'S eyes, one British subject—one of his, Gives
Romani—is of more value than fifty such brutes as
FIRDINAND has proved himself to be. We can
assure his lordship that the public is getting im-
patient over this case; They do not deem it a
little one ; and we strongly advise him to wipe it
off the list of questions which he will have t 3
answer very soon after Parliament meets.
Lord LYONS is near at. hand. Lst him require
the men to be placed in his custody ; let him
answer for it that they shall be forthcoming at any
early day named for a trial; let him await the
result of the trial with his ships cleared for action
(just to liberate the tongues of honest witnesses),
and let him inform His MAJESTY that he will not
leave the port without compensation for damages
to two British prisoners while merely accused
without a shadow of a pretext, and quite willing
, to stand a fair trial.

It is never too late to mend. We hail with
satisfaction the adherence, albeit at the eleventh
hour, of our contemporary, the Times, to the
views which we put forward many a month since
on the immeasurable superiority of screw steamers
over sailing vessels, in the transmission of troops
to India. So far back as July last, when the
question of the expeditious conveyance of our
armed forces to the East was ventilated in the
Rouse of Commons, we drew the attention of our
readers to the arguments brought forward by com-
petent authorities, of far superior weight and
experience to that egregious mis-ruler of the waves,
Sir Citaams WooD. It was, on that occasion,
satisfactorily demonstrated that a vast difference
existed between the respeotive advantages of the
two modes of carriage : it being shown amongst
points of contrast, that the average time taken by
98 sailing vessels was 130 days to India, whilst
that of seven auxiliary steamships was but 93
days, making a difference of no less than thirty-
seven days—a difference of incalculable importance
at such an eventful juncture. In despite, how-
ever, of the obvious necessity and certainty of the
employment of the more modern species of navi-
gation, such claims were, in bis usual vein of
official effrontery, ignored by the First Lord of
the Admiralty, who endeavoured to support his
absurd and untenable position by a monstrous
hash of erroneous statistics. At that time the
oracle of Printing House Square was mute, but
now, not for the first time falling into our wake,
it becomes suddenly awakened to a sense of
the detriment involved in the negligence of the
Government, and descants eloquently upon the im-
portant advantages that would almost certainly
have accrued had our struggling handfuls in
Bengal been timely reinforced through the agency
of screw-steamers.

It is really too bad that the fortunes of a
mighty empire, and the lives of its brave defen•
ders, should thus be made the sport of incapacity,
perversity, and blundering. As to the misma-
nagement, in which Sir CaABLEs WOOD systema-
tically revels, we have had such frequent occasions
of directing attention to the exercise of his powers
of mischief at the expense of the nation, that it
were needless to expatiate upon this particular in-
stance. We fairly confess that we never
hope for any measure of public good to
come out of his hands. Heaven alone knows
what evils might have been averted in India,
what successes secured, had the earliest military
drafts been despatched by steam transport, when
in spite of the incalculable emergency of the occa-
sion, and in defiance of grave and pressing re-
monstrances, sailing craft was pronounced more
advisable for the purpose, and time, every hour
of which was inexpressibly precious, boat to the
amount of several weeks.

Nor is this all. We earnestly impressed on
the Government the crying expediency of •ending
troops overland from Malta and the Mediter-
ranean—which would have saved half the time
round the Cape—have averted the massacre of
Cawnpore—saved the precious lives of many gal-
lant men, besides enormous sums of money. But
our warning was unheeded until now, when it is
just too late.

It is now sought to throw the chief burden of
blame upon the shoulders of the East India
directors. It is said that they have been " the
partisans of that method of marine loco-
motion which best accords with their
antique traditions." We do not seek to
excuse or extenuate ,their conduct. Far other-
wise I We are delighted that it has even at
the very last hour been duly appreciated, and
that there is at length a prospect of getting
rid of the anomalous double Government, which,
in 1853, we exhibited in its true light.
The theory was—lndia for the Civil Service, and
the "old ladies" of Leadenhall-street ; and the
nation will no longer submit to such "fictions."
It was echoed by the 'Times, from ourselves, •" the
type of obstruction and circumlocution, has had
its day, and must now give way to something
better suited to the present time, and to
actual wants." It would be impossible
for Ministers to continue the obnoxious system
without incurring the censure of the entire com-
munity. But they themselves cannot be consi-
dered free from blame. They permitted one
of the most hopeless imbeciles that ever
presided over a public department to act on the
red-tapist theory, and to delay the assistance that
was so urgently required. He was a worthy
co:bdjutor of the East India Company; and, if
thy are to he summarily dismissed, it would be
well if the Yorkshire Baronet, and Mr. Satin;
of Cannon Row, were included in the same
categc'ry.

Lon I and Lady John Scott have left the Clarendon
for islxineham Paddox, Leicestershire.
B ACID ED HARMONIC SOCIETY.—The Siamese Arohas-
sad ore w ill be present at the opening consort of the
se:!uson at Exeter Hall this evening.