The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-23 00:00:00

'_f E SUN, LONDO N,

rather than permitting it to lie idle and unpro-
ductive where no interest is paid on. balances.
There is a double motive for this attack. It
may, in the first place, serve to divert attention
from the Act of 1844, by offering the Joint-stock
banks as a vicarious sacrifice in place of the teal
offenders, and, by so doing, reduce the competi-
tion, and thereby materially enhance the
profits of the aforesaid " hard calculators."
It would, therefore, combine the useful with the
agreeable—would " put money in the purse," and
also bolster up an impugned theory ! This is too
good a chance not to be eagerly grasped. at. We ac-
cordingly find a series of articles all systematically
attacking these establishments, and striving to
transfer all the odium from the monetary code, to
their mode of transacting business. The real
cry is for " protection" to hard calculators, al-
though it is put forward by those who, in all
other respects, profess to be free-traders or advo-
cates for unrestricted competition. Now, really,
the class is about the last entitled to any degree
of sympathy. We should think the trading,
manufacturing, and other industrial interests far
better entitled to support

It was always believed that a large
amount of banking capital, affording
every reasonable facility to legitimate
traders, was the greatest element in creating
national prosperity. It was the admirable system
established in Scotland, affording a healthy
stimulus both to trade and agriculture, that
mainly produced the welfare of its hardy and
intelligent inhabitants. It was probably the in-
ferior supply that redacad Ireland to such a de-
plorable position, for, be it remembered, that
comparing banking capital with population, Scot-
land had more than 4/. per head, while Ireland
had scarcely 15s. There being, in the former,
13,000,000/. invested in banking operations,
while Ireland had virtually but 5,000,000/., as a
large portion of the Bank of Ireland stock was
lent to the Government, and therefore diverted
from its legitimate use, and yet the population of
Ireland once numbered nearly eight millions,
while that of Scotland was but three millions.

It is against these invaluable institutions that
the attempt is now mainly directed, and two or three
cases of imprudence are made the grounds for the
attack. We believe, however, that the people of
Scotland will not permit any further tampering
with the syst3m which has proved so beneficial,
ind under which there have been fewer failures
than under any ever practised in any country or
under any code !
We wish to warn our brethren " agent the
l' weed" of the intention while there is yet
time to avert it. They are a clear-headed, ener-
getic, persevering, and resolute people, more
fully alive to their own interests, and not quite so
easily bamboozled as Joan BULL. They are not
dazzled by the glitter of the sovereign, and find
that the 11. notes are far more convenient than
sovereigns. As we have repeatedly stated, the
latter are only seen in the hands of wandering
tourists, and whenever received by a true Scots-
man, are forthwith exchanged for " the worthless
raga" against which the Jupiter Tonans of Printing•
house-square so loudly bellows. No matter what
Jilr. GLADSTONE, or the Times, may please to say
against the cheap system of currency, it has been
fully tested in Scotland, and will not be aban-
doned without sufficient cause. Let an inquiry
—if demanded—proceed by all means. The
most stringent investigation will only establish
the superiority of the Scottish system, and show
that any legislation,should be towards giving to
England a share of the benefits which the sister
kingdom has so long enjoyed.
What, may we ask, have been the pro-
portion of the failures of banks in Eng-
land and in Scot!and during the pre-
sent, and, we may add, the last century.
They have not been the tenth part, we believe
we might say the hundredth part, in Scotl ind of
what they have been in this country. The re-
cent stoppages have only been occasioned by the
impolitic and uncalled-for Act of 1845, and not
a single creditor will lose a shilling in either case.
The shareholders may suffer, but not the deposi-
tors or noteholders. What, then, is the ground of
complaint t Simply, that there is too much
credit to please those who would grind the work-
ing classes to the utmost, and seek to transfer
the whole profits cf trade to their own pockets.
We, however, recollect when the " credit," en-
joyed by English traders, and the cheapness of
money in England was considered the groat
foundation of national prosperity. Now,
all that has been changed, and according
to the new school, or rather am old one
under a new mask—the object is to keep money
scarce and dear, so that " the hard calculators"
may obtain for themselves the property of less
prudent men. It is for the people to say which
principle fs best calculated to promote the welfare,
prosperity, and happiness of our Sovereign Lady
the QUEEN, and of her loyal and devoted subjects.

We must expect a plentiful crop of crotchets on
the eve of a new Reform Bill, and by all means
let us have them out. They can do no harm.
Even some proposals ludicrous in themselves will
suggest practical thoughts to men of sounder
minds. One of the chief uses, also, of a daily
press is to give free scope to the thoughts of all ;
and it is with pleasure that we always do so—that
is, if there be intelligence enough in any commu-
nication to make it worth printing—however op-
posed it may be to our own views.
One of these impracticable crotchets we tike to
be the memorial just forwarded to 14)1.1 PA.LMER-
STON on behalf of a separate territorial represen-
t ttion of the classes who have received a " liberal
education." A memorial signed by hereditary
peers of the realm and by spiritual peers, by
archbishops and bishops, by doctors of divinity
and doctors of medicine, by judges and lawyers of
all grades, by distinguished naval and military
men, by professors of every art and science, by
authors of all kinds, by clergymen of the Church
of England and by dissenting ministers ; such a
memorial, from men of all political views, claims,
of course, a polite notice. But, however great
the names attached to it, its proposals must be
discussed on their merits. We, of course, cannot
be suspected of wishing to undervalue the class to
which we belong. We should personally share in
the proposed privileges and advantages, if such
they be ; and our opinion may, therefore, be pre-
sumed to be an impartial one. We, however, are
inclined to view the very proposal itself as a proof
that the " liberally-educatzd class" had better be
isingled in representation with the other classes
than firm a separate one, The very habits of
thought which could suggest such a scheme as that
before u., show that its promoters appreciate
rightly neither themselves nor the English public.
"It will never do," would be the first remark of
Ayr Li pol4i
all the Joan BULLS of Old England.
I A.
deprecate
hundred and forty / cians—we should decidedly
handing over seventy seats, that i 3, ono
votes on a division, to the
I Conservative or stand-still party.. No cne can
doubt that the vast majority of
Church clergy-
men, military and naval
universities
belonc, to the
officers,
lawanyde Tgsr, a
dmueadt iecsa
ofl
glorious ones, of
Exceptions, and
Tory party.

course abound ; but at the poll we believe the
Conservatives, in the classes mentioned, would
outnumber the Liberals three to one. Even if
" Dissenting teachers not carrying on trade,"
were included, they are but a small part of the
ninety-two thousand who are to form the new con-
stituencies ; and they would include the numerous
Wesleyan travelling preachers, who are perhaps
among the bitterest enemies iu the kingdom of
popular liberties. Sir JOHN PAKINGTON, as a
Conservative and professed educationist, ought to
hail the proposal, hut real Liberals should reject it
at once if they think it of any consequence not to
throw seventy seats, beyond rocal perhaps, into
the hands of their opponents.
We are by no means satisfied, however, that Sir
JOHN PAKINOTON or any one else can regard the
proposal as one favourable to education. Were it
a scheme to require of every voter a minimum
amount of education, as a sine qnct non to a vote,
it might be regarded fairly as a stimulus to na-
tional education. Many of the bet Liberals and
ardent friends of education have wished that such
a suffrage test could be devised. The only diffi-
culty seems to be unfortunately an insuperable ono
—that of finding a simple and efficient test of edu-
cation itself. In Australia where the suffrage is very
extended, it is to be required, four years hence,
that the voter should sign his name at some stage
of the polling. Even this would have its use,
andiif the suffrage were as largely extended here as
we should desire, we should perhaps like to in-
clude the signature of the voter amongst the
qualifications for a vote. Of course it must be
affixed to the register, not to the ballot papers,
whenever we get them.
The proposal of the memorialists is altogether
of an opposite tendency. It is to separate the
educated men from the masses. It selects classes
which no working man or ordinary tradesman
can possibly enter, and says to every one else,—
"Stand by, I am more educated than thee."
This is, we think, to put special education, such
as that enjoyed by the gentlemen in question, in
the most invidious light possible. It would create
prejudice against it rather than respect for it, if
its possessors thus seemed to disclaim association
with their lass fortunate fellow-men. The wealthy
would be seen voting contentedly with the poor,
but the "liberally educated" superciliously with-
drawing themselves from contact with the many.
Everywhere the educated would form one consti-
tuency, and the presumedly uneducated another.
Great numbers among the latter would often
think themselves as goad as the select, and with
reason too, for there is much self-education in
England of a most valuable kind. Such a kind
of elect )ral peerage would indeed, we are per-
suaded, be very distasteful to the excluded classes.
We, however, decidedly object to the main
principle of the plan. We think that the educated
should, ou the contrary, at an election, mingle
with the uneducated, just as the lord on these
oc-
casions shakes hands with the blacksmith. The
freedom, in this sense, and warm discussions of
our English elections are amongst their best and
most useful features. If the educated in any con-
stituency have really better knowledge and judg-
ment than their fellow-voters, let them use their
knowledge, not put its light under a bushel. Lot
them diffuse it by public meetings, by personal con-
ference, and by the press, among the masses. If
they have it not, they have no claim at all to form
a select constituency; but if they have, then let
them patriotically try to raise the consti-
tuencies to their own standard. It is
surely best that such mea shouli depend
for political success on imparting their knowledge,
than on keeping it to themselves and their
clique. The real sdvance of the country consists
in the advance of the masses.

We are, also, by no means satisfied that
these intellectual constituencies would be the best
qualified to close representatives for our very
practical country. Nearly all the classes referred
to have received not merely a liberal, but also a
professional and technical education. The pur-
suits of the greater part of them train them one-
sided to habits of thought, and their ideas flow
in channels, apart to a great extent from those of
ordinary life. No men on earth will fight more
tenaciously for some visionary fancy, than some
professional men, clergymen especially ; and
lawyers, too, are generally very apt to regard
everything from their peculiar point of view, and
that not the most genial one. Of the lawyer class,
moreover, we have always had an ample supply in
the House of Commons. Speaking generally, we
should say that voters of no class more need to
have their angularities and rigidities rubbed off
and softened by the social collisions of our public
elections, than just those men who have received
a " Liberal education." Indeed both classes of
electors are the better for their amlagamation into

one body.
All agree that if any of the liberally educated
classes are excluded by the present franchise, it
would be well to include them in any extension
of it, as far as practicable—but it is a totally dif-
ferent thing to create a new set of educationally
aristocratic constituencies by parcelling out the
kingdom amongst the learned and other profes-
sions, and thus creating professional constituen-
cies, professional franchise, and professional sena-
tors. No--in elections, at least, Englishmen will
demand that all should " row in one boat."

A ilossTics Causs.—The Dublin Freeman says that
the long-expected affidavits in the case of " Kingston
and Sadleir" have been filed on both sides, and that they
exceed in extent any that have ever been filed in Ireland
in any one case. The affidavits, it is computed cover
7,000 folios.
The Duchess of Parma has issued a decree, dated
the 11th, authorising the establishment of a joint-stock
company for working the lignite mines of Soriano, re-
cently discovered.
Since the imposition of a stamp duty en journals in
Austria, measures have been taken for affixing the
stamps to each sheet while going through the press, by
which the trouble of sending the paper to the stamp office
will be avoided.

The Pope has contributed 500 scudi towards the re-
lief of the sufferers from the inundation of the Po in the
provinces of Lodi and Pavia. (The scudi is sfr.
The Chamber of Commerce of Trieste has approved
of a project founding a caisse de secours for the silk
trade, and has sanctioned its statutes. A subacrip
tinn was immeclately opened for raising the capital,
amounting to three millions of francs.
'Doe Esperance of Athens says :—" The excavations
being made at the Theatre of Bacchus continue to be
carried on with great activity. The Minister of Public
Worship visits the spot every day, and the conservator
of antiquities himself directs all the works. Among the
foreigners who show the greatest interest in these txc:-
vations is Mr. Wyse, the English minster, who is a
great amateur of archaeology."
The appointment of an Ambassador to this Court from
the Emperor of Russia in the parson of Baron Brunow
may be regarded as a political fact of some si,guificanc..
The rank of ambassador has not been c mferred on a Rus-
sian Envoy since 1839, when Count P, z 2) di B sego was
succeeded by Baron Brunow. No public man was,
perhaps, m re,anxions to preserve the long con inued
amity betw..,En England and Itu,sla than Baron Brunow,
Ma, $ t lot it was to be compelled to return from his post
on lb: eve of hostiliti.s. The return of Baron Brunow
with the highest rank that can be hsid by the envoy
of one county to another may be regarded as strong
ovidvnc t of the filet:di/ disposition of the present Ernpr-
ror, and of his just appreciation of the interests of the
co an tr ies.

PRICE OF GOLD.—The qu,tation of pld at Paris is
aLo it 1 pt r mils discount, and the short exchange on
Loudon is 25.25 per Ti. sterling. Ou comparing these
rates with the English 31int price of 3/. 17W. 10td. per
Ounce for standard gold, it appears that gold is about
4-10tha per cent. dearer in London than in Paris. At
Hamburg, owing to the commercial derangements, r o
foNign exchange quotations have been published. The
course of exchange at New York on London for
bills at 60 days' sight is 109 to 1091- per cent, for first-
?lass paper. At the prevent rate of disc,unt hore there
is consequently no profit on the transmission of gold
rorn this country to the United Stater.