The Sun.
London, England, 1861-03-02 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, MARC ii 2, 1861.

TEE BANK O 1 ENGLAND.

FRIDAY EVENING.—The funds have been gene-
rally steady to-day, at a fractional improvement,
but the tone of the market was less strong after
regular hours. The tendency to a relapse was
chiefly in consequence of, an active demand for
money, owing to the absorption taking place at the
Bank by the rapid increase of the reserve. The
return published this evening shows a further large
augmentation not only in -the reserve, but in the
bullion, and again demonstrates the impolicy of the
step recently taken, and -which was in contraven-
tion of every principle by which the movements of
the rate of discount have hitherto been supposed to
be regulated. " Watch the stock of bullion and the
state of the has been the invariable admoni-
tion since 1841 ; but, if a rapid improvement in
both is to be attended by the same results as would
accompany a fall, there can be no opportunity for
the exercise of discrimination. The only plea
attempted has been that the advance to 7 per cent,
failed to stop the drain of gold ; •but this is entirely
erroneous, as the bullion and reserve were both
higher at the moment when the rate was raised to
8 par cent. than a fcw weeks previously, when 7
per cent: was considered sufficient by the Bank,
and more than sufficient by the public at large, who
looked to the light of precedent. Moreover, the
extent of the subsequent further increase not only
shows that the,drain had been arrested; but that the
tide had been efficiently turned, since no one will
believe that the results witnessed during the past
two weeks have been from the sudden change from
7to 8 per cent. If gold would have continued to
"go out at 7 per cent., it would still have gone with .
only diminished force at 8 per cent. Besides, if we
are to suppose that a movement of 1 per cent. could
so instantaneously bring in between £600,000 and
£700,000, it is clear that with so potent a remedy
always at their command there was no occasion for
the Bank to rush to a measure of precaution while the
question of its necessity was in doubt. It is also to
be borne in mind that when the Bank went up to 8
per cent. no one had the slightest knowledge of the
increased American demand for gold that was about
to arise from the acceleration of cotton shipments
under the double apprehension of a blockade and an
export duty. If, notwithstanding these circum-
stances, the movement has been shown to be totally
unwarranted, the proof to that effect would have
been still more extraordinary had they not occurred;
and the policy or impolicy of an act must be judged,
not by subsequent accidents, but solely by the con-
siderations that existed when it was performed. It
was in reality, therefore, more strikingly indefen-
sible than it appears at this moment. Assuming
that, while the Bank are largely gaining bullion on
balance, the fact that we are sending; heavy portions
of all the totals we receive to America is to be urged
as a reason for putting up the rate of discount, a
reason of that description will always exist. As
soon as we once more begin to get'remittances from
America we shall then, perhaps, be sending half-a-
million a fortnight to India and China. Hitherto
it has not been thought necessary to trouble our-
selves with anything but the question as to the
general result_ It was deemed sufficient if, on the
whole, more gold was coming in than going out—
a state of affairs which would have been viewed
with especial content if, as is now the case, even the
portion of our receipts which we were unable to
retain was being sent away, not to pay debts, but
to bring in unusual quantities of valuable produce
which we could hold available for realisation when-
ever we might consider it expedient, from the temp-
tation of profit or the suggestions of necessity.—
Tunes' City Article.

day at the Admiralty E. Mills, master addi-
tional to the Asia, for the Euryalus; J. R. Cooper,
second-class assist.-engineer to the Trident; H.
Thornton, second-class a.ssist.-engineer to the
Fisgard, for hospital treatment; A. C. Archdeacon,
assist.-paymaster in charge to the Nereus ; N. J.
W. de Courcy, G. A. J. Macdonnel, and T. A.
Watkins, naval cadets, to the Princess Royal; W.
Alfred Norman and Reginald G. Drew have been
nominated to naval cadetships.

ThE MISFORTUNE OF BEING TOO

CLEVER.

The law, we are told by an ancient authority, is
the perfection of reason. He takes care, however,
to explain, that the reason of which it is the perfec-
tion is not the common sort of reason, but that
" artificial" sort which is " gotten by long study
and experience." This gives us to understand why
it is that common people, in some instances, fail to
perceive the wisdom and justness of legislative acts.
They have not the artificial reason which is needful
for a proper cOrnprehension of the artificial business
of legislation. • .

With this quaint sentiment before us, we have
no difficulty in reverentially confessing that Mr.
Gladstone's reason is of a sort the very reverse of
common, and for that cause not appreciable by
common minds. -He has obstinately insisted that
the Income-tax should be levied Equally on all
classes of incomes, irrespective of the consideration-
whether they proceed from permanent or precarious
sources. We protest, with Mr. Hubbard, that this
equality is most shameful inequality, and that the
tax can be levied, and ought to be levied, in such
form as to recognise, in some measure at least, the
difference between the income which a man has
without earning it, and the income which a man
has almost to wear his life out to obtain.

We are glad, therefore,. that Mr. Hubbard's
motion was carried against the Government,
and shall be still more glad to learn that the
committee appointed has reported in favour of his
views, and that the House of Commons is prepared
to give its sanction to a principle so conformable
with justice and common sense.
We think it a misfortune for a man to have a
too subtle and refined intellect. It is like living up
in the expanse above the earth. This sort of life
incapacitates for ordinary mundane duties. A man
who soars habitually to the stars, cannot be ex-
pected to pick up crumbs from the low earth. We
are continually seeing instances of this superfine
kind of life. We have wonderful mathematicians
amongst us to whom Euclid is A B C, and who
can resolve problems which border on infinity, or
at least on insolubility, with perfect ease, and with
a kind of recreative sensation as the fruit of their
effort. But we have heard deep men of this class
who could not do an ordinary sum in arithmetic,
and who would be beaten in mental figuring by
the shallowest of market women ! We have heard
of men learned in claSsics, familiar with the gods of
Pagandom, and all its poets and historians, who
have found a difficulty in writing good English,
and positively could not spell correctly the ordinary
words of their mother-tongue. We have heard of
medical men who, as surgeons or physicians, could
deal skilfully and successfully with the extremest
ills to which flesh is heir, but were sur-
passed by Old Mother --- and Quack-
doctor -- in the cure of burns, scalds,
wounds, and the thousand-and one little ail-
ments which befal some one or othear daily. Mr.
Gladstone's inability to deal with common cases
arises, we presume, from a corresponding peculi-
arity incidental to his superfine genius.
What can be more clear to a common oomprehen-
sion, than that a professional man or a trader who
earns, with his wits or his fingers, say £5OO a year,
is not so able to pay taxes, and is not under the same
obligation to pay them, as the,fundholder with his
sixteen thousand and odd in the Three per
Cents ? The earned income depends on many
contingencies; the income :from the funds on
none. The professional income ceases when
a man is worn out, and if he has not saved
beforehand, he becomes a beggar or a dependent.
On the other hand, the permanent income survives
in perpetuity the present receiver, and becomes the
means of maintenance or settlement for those who
follow him. It is preposterous to assert that a man
with £5OO a year, who may die penniless, unless
of that £5OO a year he lays by for the winter of his
life, is equally rich, equally available as a subject
for taxation with him who, though living up to the
last farthing of his £5OO a year, will die worth a
great many thousands of pounds—that is, all the
principal money from which his income accrued.
Mr. Gladstone affirms that he cannot see the
force of this argument, and he is disposed to be
tricky because Mr. Hubbard has endeavoured to
simplify the question, and to redress the wrong
which it involves. The Chancellor of the Exche-
quer intimates that the argument is "a sentiment."
If it were of that airy nature, we should have thought
that he would be more likely to receive it, as be-
longing to the atmospheric region wherein he is
so fond of ballooning. It is unfortunately a com-
monplace matter-of-fact position—a simple rule-
of-three sum. Every boy in the day-schools of the
country can understand it. But our sublime Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer is a master only of abstruse
equations. He stands bewildered in the presence of
vulgar fractions, and profoundly declares an equa-
tion like as " two and two make four" to be a mere
sent im en t.—Norfolk News.