The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-24 00:00:00

IHE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING,' NOVEIiffER 24, 1857.

without relaxation, was avoided, that money did
not become worth 20 or 30 per cent, as the
Times admitted it would have been but for the
infringement of the existing law, but still the
pressure was so long continued that speedy re-
covery was rendered impossible. The OVERSTONE
theory was closely folliwed. Matters were al-
lowed " to go t.) the last extremity until the
danger of general confusion bad become
immi-
nent." The Bank itself must have suspended
payment, but for the issue of the additional
2,000,0001. on securities.

But notwithstanding the favourable auguries of
the OVERSTONE journals, whose cue is now to
speak hopefully, we are convinced that we have
not yet seen the worst of the transaction. The
enormous failures that have occurred, and the
continuance of the minimum rate of ten per cent.
for discount, must bring ou other disasters.
Besides, the drain for gold still continues to India,
China, the Continent, and the United States, and
the sock in the Bank has been reduced to some
s'x millions and a half, little more than a month's
provision, should the drain continue at its present
rate.

Since the Act has been infringed, it is just as
well that complete relief should be afforded. This
can only be obtained by the issue of small notes
for 1/., and the fractional parts of 1/. upwards.
By adopting this course, the use of gold would be
economised, and at least twenty millions of sove-
reigns now circulating from hand to hand in the
transactions of every-day life would become avail-
able for our foreign trade, or for strengthening
the reserve of bullion that should always be main-
Weed. But the quality of the note is no
less important than its denomination. The 1/.
note should be one so secured, that it
would be acceptable to every person for domes-
tic use. It should be made a legal tender, and
the Government should render itself, and the
entire property of the nation responsible. There-
fore, so long as it was receivable in payment'of
every tax and duty, so long would it be free'y
accepted by the butcher and baker ; and every
fair tradesman who did not desire to excite a
panic for the purpose of lending out money at
usurious and exorbitant interest. This would
answer every domestic purpose, and confer on
the community that inestimable blessing, a sure
and satisfactory circulating medium adequate to
its wants and exigencies. Industry would then
flourish. Working men would be enabled to re-
ceive remunerative prices for their only capital,
"labour." The revenue returns would show con-
siderable improvement under the heads " Cus-
toms, Excise, and Income-taxes"—all, in fact, that
denoted the comfort and prosperity of the people.
There would be happiness in every cottage. Even
the needy housekeepers would be better off.
But against all this the Times advocates the
interests of the party whom it justly designates
as the " hard calculator." He has worked bard
to make money worth 15 or 20 per cent., heed-
less of the misery and suffering imposed on the
great majority of the people. Anything that
prevents or retards the accomplishment of this
iniquitous and abominable scheme, is a hardship
on " the hard calculator." It is not now " con-
vertibility " that is required ; that flimsy disguise
has been cast aside. It will no longer impose on
tile most credulous dupe. It is scarce and dear
money at 15 or 20 per cent., that is the object.
The credit notes, although redeemable in gold on
demand, defeat the atrocious designs of "the hard
calculator," and therefore they are to be depre-
cated. We could not have conceived that any
journal would have had the audacity, and, we may
add, the folly to promulgate such a theory. But
the Times has drooped the mask, and we rejoice
to find that the issue is narrowed, and that the
specious pretexts so long put forward have been
abandoned—that the monetary question now
rests on the true foundation, and that the views
and wishes of the builionists are now manifested in
all their unmitigated enormity.

The sound principles of equity have been justly
and fully carried out in the decision pronounced
by the highest legal authorities in the case of
HENRY versus the Great Northern Railway Com-
pany. The view already taken by Vice-Chancellor
Sir PAGE WOOD, was hffi rmed by Lord GRAN •
WORTH, the L )rds Justices agreeing in his opinion
that the preference shareholders were invested
by the Legislature with a priority of right
over the ordinary ones, so far as to entitle them
to the ful payment of their stipulated interest
before the latter could make their demands on
the dividends of the season. It was sought, and
we are not about to attribute unworthy
motives to those who raised the ques-
tion, to throw the losses recently Bust tined
by the Company through the gigantic frauds of
one of their suborkiinate officials, upon the
shoulders of those who held the preference stuck
therein. The misdeeds of the notorious REDPATII.
had had the rffect of creating spurious Great
Northern stock to the annunt of neatly a quarter
of a million sterling, and he had conducted his
fraudulent proceedings with so masterly a hand
that the Directors found themselves, when his
detection took place, totally unable to discrimi-
nate the genuine stock from the spurious. The
interposition of the Legislature was then invoked,
and an Act was passed in August last, sanction-
ing the application of the balance up to the com-
mencement of the year, which equipoised the amount
of the fictitious shares and stock, to meet the
losses caused by the frauds and forgeries of RED-
PATH. The true construction of this, and the
several acts of Parliament enacted relative to the
Company, was the subject of dispute before the
Courts of Equity, and we rejoice on every ground,
at the view taken by the learned judges to whom
A was submitted, a view which, should an appeal
he ill-advisedly made to the House of Lords, will
indubitably be confirmed by that supreme Court
of Appeal.

Had the Directors succeeded in obtaining jud:m
cial sanction to their attempts, the situation of
the preference shareholders would be lamentable,
bath with regard to their own interests, and those
of persons placed in the same category as holders
of railway stock. What virtue would there be iu the
term, what advantage iu the position of the
" prefer:Alice shareholder," were he t) be made to
suffer fur the evil fruits of circumstances, over
which he had not the slightest control, by the
withholding of the stipulated rate of interest, upon
the solemn assurance of which lie had been in-
duced to advance his capital to the Groat Northern
or any other railway, relying upon the good faith
Hof its directors ? Who wool' henceforward be
found ready and willing to come forward, when
the completion of a line was depending upon cer-
tain advances of money, if the compact assuring
him a fixed amount of interest for his advance
was to be treated as s ) much waste paper upon thu
first plausible opportunity ? Nothing could be
really more injurious to the well-being of railway
Boards of Management themselves than the success
of a movement so replete with solemn mockery as
that which it has been strenuously sought to put
into operation in the present case. They would
forthwith be regarded in the light of faithless
customers, with whom there would be no security
in dealing; and, when hard pressed at the eleventh

hour for the necessary sinews of work, would find ,
the pockets of capitalists hermetically buttoned
up against their solicitations. For the sake of all
parties, therefore, the decision of the Court of
Chancery, of which we have spoken, is matter for
g-3nuiee congratulation. It was given in mani-
fest accordance with the spirit of the Legisla-
ture, and most assuredly in unison with those
principles of common sense and honesty which
are level to the capacity of even those who have
little acquaintance with the province of the
Legislator or the Judge. The attempt made to
spoliate the preference shareholders in order to
cover losses incurred through the villainy of a
servant of the directors, who certainly manifested
a culpable negligence in regard to him, afforded
by no means an edifying spectacle to the commu-
nity ; but a lesson has been read which will, we
trust, prevent any similar outrage upon just and
rightful claims. The parties assailed have resisted
the attempt unduly made to make them suffer,
with becoming determination, and their triumph
has been signalised by the burden of the costs of
the litigation being cast upon their adversaries.
The ordinary shareholders will, of course, have to
rue the expense incurred by the campaign, and
make themselves content, as best they may, with
the attenuation of their dividends to nonentity for
the nonce through this untoward proceeding of
the directors. The preference shareholders are
pronounced entitled to their legitimate privilege
of teeing raid in full from the 30th of June, 1856,
before any dividends are distributed among the
former ; and even .shc,uld the surplus be found
insufficient for the consummation of that object,
to have their claims made good from the following
half-year, before any payment be made to the
rest of the shareholders. It is the unanimous
opinion of the learned functionaries who sat in
judgment upon the case, an opinion clearly and
taheaitatingly expressed, that their priority is
fully and positively established, and that, using
the words of Lord Justice KNIGHT BRUCE, " to put
the construction upon the act which was contended
for by the defendants, would be to do
gross injustice to the preference share-
holders, and to carry it out would be
both arbitrary acd impossible." Let us hope
that rights of this description may for the future
be held sacred from unwarrantable trespass, and
that railway directors will exercise such vigilance
over all departments of their staff as may prevent
the recurrence of the pernicious rogueries of a
REDPATH or a ROBSON, with their costly and an-
noying concomitants.

THE THEATRES.

HAYMARKET.

List evening a most amusing farce, from the pen of
J. M. Morten, E-q , entitled, "Take Care of Dowb,"
was produced here, and met with a most triumphant
success. The somewhat ominous title led us to expect
something savouring of politics and red tape, but instead
thereof we found it pourtrayed the miseries and 6iffieul-
ties of an old schoolmaster named Wallop, in his endea-
vour of taking care of Dowb's wife during his absence
from his country house at Barnet. 'Wallop, formerly
the tutor of Mr. Dowbiggin, arrives in London on a
visit to him, and there discovers, as he imagines, Mrs:
Dowbiggin in clandestine correspondence; but the real
fact is that Ramsey is courting Fanny, her sister. In
Wallop's endeavour to "take care of Thwb," he falls
Into the hit-bed, nearly breaks his leg with the garden
roller, and, to crown all his miseries, he imagines he
has committed a murder by shooting the disturber of
Dowb's peace, whom he fancied he bad discovered hidden
in a tree. The "unfortunate victim," to Wallop's inex-
pressible delight, turns out to be nothing more
than a scarecrow, and the old schoolmaster, having
an explanation ensues,
hadand
all
is
eonffidcaioaumanineasbslye.xpoßsentleketone, as Mr. Wallop,,
was in fall force, and for nearly an hour the audience was
kept in a state of convulsive laughter by the peculiar diffi
culties in which he becomes involved in carrying out
his resolve to "take care of Dowb." There can be no
doubt that the faroe will for some time to come prove
highly attractive. The house was crowded to excess.

LATEST NEWS.

FRANCE.
PARIS, MONDAY EVENING.

The Courrier dit Bas-Rhin, of Strasburg, asserts
positively, in spite of the repeated contradictions
which have been given, that the English Govern-
ment has resolved to raise a foreign legion for the
East Indies. It even adds that one of the principal
recruiting offices is to be established at Strasburg
on the Ist of December, under the orders of Colonel
Hudson, assisted by Major Cafe, Captain Wil-
kinson (paymaster), Captain Herring (deputy ditto),
and Captain Wendt, who is to have the charge
of the clothing department. Two of the officers,
Major Cafe and Captain Wilkinson, are, says the
Conrrier, known in Strasburg, from having been
there for some time when the Anglo-Swiss Legion
was raised.
How far the Courrier die Bas Rhin is correct is
unknown, but it is certain that applications on the
part of Frenchmen to enlist for service in India
have been made at Marseilles, and, within the last
few days in Paris.

The cash in hand in the Bank of France amounted
this morning to 192,500,000, being a fresh increase
of 3,000,000 since Friday.
BOURSE, Nov. 23.—The following were the last
quotations :

Cash. fr.
ti per Cents

End of Month.
—fr. -

play the part of Protector of Europe/ Is England the
Power which is always on the ilok-out for a diplomatic
question, of which to make a matter of European im-
portance ? Is it the British Gove:nment which is so
riesirous to drag the Ht,lstein affaii before the Paris
C Jnference I"

PORTUGAL.
SOUTHAMPTON, MONDAY NIGHT.
The Ta.gus, Ca,prain Admiralty agent,
Lieutenant Greville, R.N., has arrived with the
Peninsular mails. She left Lisbon on the 19th
inst., and has brought nineteen passengers.
Amongst her cargo are specie and bullion to the
value of nearly 9,00 W. sterling.
Her Majesty's ship Curlew was at Gibraltar.
The steamer Aurora was at Oporto. The Tagus
spoke the steamer Volga on the 22d. The mail
packet Alhambra, was at Vigo.
Yellow fever was still ravaging at Lisbon ; about
80 a day die of it. The Cardinal Patriarch has
died of the fever ; he is at present buried in the
fever cemetery, but he will be ultimately buried in
the royal vau'ts. It is supposed that he will be
succeeded by the Bishop of Oporto. The opera
and public amusements were suspended for three
days on account of the dea th of the Cardinal
Patriarch. One of the greatest capitalists of Lis-
bon, SOllhor Igressa, is dead.
The Lisbon Bank is about to raise the rate of
discount, which has hitherto bees at fire per cent.
The Bank has acted most liberally to the commer-
cial community, and has alleviated the monetary
pressure.
In foreign exchanges at Lisbon the transactions
have been limited. Exchange on Loudon, 54, at
30 days ; and 54g at 90 days' date.
The stock market continues stagnant.
At Cadiz the inhabitants were in hourly expec-
tation of news of the Queen of Spain's accouch-
ment. _ _

At Gibraltar the exchange on London was 50if
for 90 days.

A Vienna letter states that the reduction of the
cavalry of the Austrian axmy will be of about 9,000
horse., or at the rate of 30 per squadron in the light
cavalry, and 20 in the heavy, whilst the depot squa-
drons will be entirely suppressed.

The Bourse Gazette of Berlin states that the
authorities of Hamburg have it in contemplation to
adopt measures similar to those of Prussia, Saxony,
and Bavaria, for tine exclu,iou of foreign paper
money.

MONEY IS POWER.

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

Government has dope right in extending the
issue, the reservation of Government in not allow-
ing the Bank of England to appropriate the pro-
ceeds of that issue to their own excessively accu-

mulated wealth is good ; but such inordinate
capital CAn endanger the whole State again in a
very short time even with this extension. The
greater the issue given to any one body, the greater
their circulating medium becomes, the greater is
their power of controlling the monetary world
whether for good or for evil. .

Now, since money is power, as well as knowledge,
both of which the Governors and Directors of the

Bank of England have given us vast and ample
evidence of their possessing to a dangerous degree,
is it not prudent for Government to consider
seriously to what extent do they endanger the
whole nation by leaving any one body corporate to

become so unwieldy ?
It must be evident to every prudent statesman
that no one company ought to possess too much in-
fluence over the nation, so as to make it suffer and
tremble by the selfish exercise of a power that was
given foc national, not selfish purposes.
Money per se is powerful, but when in the hands
of such subtle and acute observers as constitute the
Directors of the Bank of England, with their every
day's practice and long experience in the monetary
world, what overwhelming power has the nation
held over it in, terrorum at the mercy of crafty and
cunning persons that have given us enough evi-
dence of late that they know how to enrich them-
selves entirely at the nation's expense and suffer-
legs.
It certainly answers the purpose of the Bank to
have only one idea and one means only in checking
the soi-disant speculation, i.e., the raising the
rate of discount, the only way that has been sug-
gested by the wise heads in Threadneedle-street,
and yet these wise heads know well that
the money they let out has a given day

for payment, and the refusal to renew the accoin-

modation which they themselves originally induced,
superinduces a plausible excuse for raising the rate
of interest, while it more and more cripples the
borrower, until he becomes dangerous to these
wise heads, when they knock him up as if he were
a thing not worth a mention.
It must be well known that the money which is
paid for high rates of,discount, such as the present,.
is greater than the profits of trade when reduced
to its net amount. Now,, the monetary men have
only to continue this policy of high rates long
enough, and the money must be fast going out of
the hands of trade and commerce, and just as fast
going into the hands of the bankers and
money-lenders; and this state of things continued
will bring the whole nation ultimately to bow
before the shrine of gold, as if it were the god of
the universe, instead of that which it will be found
to be—the demon destroyer of all fair play.
Formerly the high rate of interest was the excep-
tion, and the low rate the rule ; now, for these last
seven years, the high rate of interest is the rule, and
the low rate the exception. Is not this benefiting
the inordinate!y rich, and crushing the -rising
energy of the country ?
What is Lord Palmerston doing when he recom-
mends to the Bank the minimum rate of 10 per
cent. ? He is doing that which a legislator ought
not to do, much less a Premier ; he need not en-
courage ruin faster than it will come in its
natural course upon the victims of these wise-
heads.

I Our Premier should have spoken baldly to the
bankers of England, and told them they were the
promoters of speculation themselves, and the
starters of all extensive schemes, however wild, in
whatever country, with whoever they can find
energetic enough to risk their all, and, what i
much worse, more than their all.
On the return of Parliament our legislators have
to inquire what has been the result of the abolition
of the usury laws? Has it stopped speculation ?
Has it checked speculation more than tue use of
the usury laws did ? But, above all, has it be-
nefited the bankers above all others ? Lastly,
does not that enhanced position of the bankers of
England, arrived at by high rates of discount,
endanger the whole country, and lessen the pre-
rorgative of the Crown ?
The last remark I. will trouble you with is,
shall the nation through the Government govern
this country, or shall the directors of the Bank
of England govern, independently of either people
or Government ?
The power of knowledge is great enough, and
when unc)nnectel with a commensurate amount
of the good intention of national advancement is
dangerous enough, but the power of gold made to
subserve the selfish and the sordid intentioa of
individual advancement at the expense of all else,
is menacing in the extreme, and will before long
destroy England, as it did Greece, as it did Rowe ;
because that which destroys the moral power of a
nation destroys the nation itself, soul and body.

ROYAL BRITISH BANK DIRECTORS —We are requested
to state that Mr. _Hugh 11111, Q.C., is not one of the
counsel fir the defence in this case.
The Journal de Constutinople announces the sus-
perAon at So.yrna of the house of Topuz and Co., with
liabilitie3 to the amount of about 40.000/.
iIAIN DRAINAGE OP THE METROPOLIS,—The Board of
Works met yesterday specially to resume the considera-
tion of this subject. After long discussions' it was re-
solved by large majorities, on the motion of Mr. Carp.
mael—" That the reprt of the board submitted to tht,
Commissioner of her Majesty's Works and Public Build-
ings, also the reports of Messrs. Galton, Simpson, and
Blackwell be referred to the engineer, together with two
other civil engineers, with instructions that ,hey report
to this board as to the main drainage of the metropolis ;
which
and in reporting on the expenses of the works
may be proposed, they will state, first, the amountto
Bo*
cesntry for carrying the sewage of the metropolis
and secondly, in ca:e funds should be
tprofviodoetdfa,
the
further cost of carrying the sewage, to
thi
et.,pe,trowl nsohsouoengineersld bl
e mtr,
iidd
rtyhifre.trGehieeror
il ii,
,r(),;‘o‘albe'ela:ctitgd the
r.. It was also IbB eeaawikt seassociatedlatcyh ;ain
E
sessions, estimates of
re-
solved to call upon the First C(.).tilinedsiodner to. furnish
the board with further plans,
the plan of the referee engineers.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—(This Day.)

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.
(Sittings in, Banco, before Lord Campbell, Justices Cole-

ridge, Wightman, and Erie)
THE ST. PANCRAS VESTRY.
"L'he Solicitor-Gentral moved for a rule nisi, calling
poll the vestry of St. Pancras to show cause why a
mandamus should not issue, calling on them to elect an
auditor, under the direction and order of the Poor-law
Board, pursuant to the 4 and 5 Wm. IV., chap. 76, sec.
46. The rating, Stc., of the parish was vested in the
Vestry, and the managenieut of the poor in the directors
of the poor ; and the Poor-law Board, on the 14th May
last, called upon the directors to appoint an auditor of
the accounts relative to the parish within two
months. On the 18th July, after the exphation of the
time of election, application was made by the Poor-
law Board to the parish authorities, and a lengthened
correspondence ensued. The result was that, on the
28th Oct., the clerk to the directors communicated to
the Poor-law Board, that they did not consider them-
selves empowered to elect an auditor, the election of
the parish officers being vested in the vestry. The
learned counsel contended that the election of officers
under the local act had no reference to the poor-law act,
and that the auditor was a new officer appointed under
the latter act.

Mr. Justice Coleridge asked if the local act provided
for the auditing of the parish accounts
The Solicitor General said it did by the 83d section.
Lord Campbell—You say this is an independent
officer, and is to be appointed under an act superadded
to the local act

The Solicitor General—Yes.
Rule granted.
THE QUEEN V. REMP—ALLEGED CRUELTY BY ♦ HUBBANB.

Mr. Power moved that Mr. Kemp, the defendant in
this case, should be called oa to give security.
Lord Campbell—ls Mr. Kemp here ?
Mr. Kemp, who was brought up in custody of Mr.
Keene, governor of liorsemonger•lane gaol, then came
forward.

Lord Campbell—Have you anything to say I
Mr. Kemp—Yes, tny lord.
Lord Campbell—Then the CJurt will bear anything
you have to say on the law.

Mr. Kemp then read a written statement, from which
we gathered that he stated tha minor charges contained
in his wife's statement to be totally untrue, and many of
them greatly exaggerated. He denied that he even com-
mitted the acts of violence alleged, and attributed it to
his wife's unfortunate malady, not being at times in her
right mind. She had on frequent occasions, and before
sevtral persons, charged others with having attempted
to smother her, as she had alleged against, him. He
had tried every means' to get rid of the foolish
notions with which her mind was imbued, but without
effect. He admitted that be had taken away her ring,
but denied that he bad used violence in so doing. 110
was induced to do so because she had degraded him, but
he was ready now to return it to her. Her statement
with regard to the application to a single magistrate,
and that he refused to entertain her information, was

untrue. It was made in petty sessions before several, who,
after hearing the facts of the case, unanimously dismissed
her application. He had been lately in difficulties, and
had had to pass through the Insolvent Court, and at the
magistrates suggestion he consented to allow his wife
2s. 6d. per week, with a promise that when he was ie
employment he would allow her 101. a-year ;he bad
now obtained employment and was ready to pay her
that sum in advance. He alluded to a testimonial that
had been presented to him by the inhabitants of
Woodbridge, observing that if his conduct bad
been such as that described they would not ha/6
given it to him. He charged his wife's soli-
citors with having caused her to. institute
these proceedings against hint from ill-feeling towards
him, and that they knew her friends would pay their
charges, and that they were perfectly aware a medical
certificate had been given of his wife's insanity at certaia
times. He prayed to be dismissed from custody,
Lord Campbell said that if the law was to be rigidly
enforced the defendant must be bound over. He, how-
ever, suggested, if it was possible, fur an arrangement
to be come to.
that
twtehre swaiidivshestahtaedraernectseiwveedreatocobmemreuinieidcaotino.n
the wife's materially, especially with reference to the
statingLMo Campbell—The statementeontradiets
rr
application to a magistrate. There was a great air of
sincerity about the defendant's statement.
Mr. Power—This is the first time I have heard it, and
I have no means of inquiring into it. I understand the
law to be that, where articles of the peace are exhibited,
the party complained of must give security, whether the
statement contained in them be correct or not.

Lord Campbell--That is true ; but the Court has the
power of fixing the amount at which the party cool•
plained against shall be held in recognisances. I think
the best course will be to call upon the defendant to enter
into his own recognisances in 1001. to keep the Pea"
for twelve months.
The defendant entered into the required recognisances
and was discharged.

THE QUEEN V. THE REV, H. C. CHERRY.
In this case articles of pease had also been exhibited
against the defendant for threats towards his wife. Oa
the application of counsel, the attachment was ordered
to stand over till next term, the defendant entering into
recognisances not to take away his wife by force, as
threatened.
The recognisances were fixed at 1001. and two stirotiell
in 501. Each. '