The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-07 00:00:00

'1 nit,

nearly a million in excess of the total in use in
June, 1856, when the rate of interest was but
4i per cent., and from that it deduces, that there
can be no necessity "for any enlargement of the
circulation by means of an issue of 11. notes, or
any similar device, on the plea that the existing
amount is not sufficient for the commercial wants
of the country." Never was there a greater
fallacy uttered. The Times must well know that
"the efficiency of the circulation is not by any
means identical with its money account." That
point was established beyond the possibility of
doubt, before the Lords' Committee in 1848. Mr.
JONES LOYD, now Lord OYERSTONE, was the only
witness that put forward so palpable an absurdity
as that now advanced by the Times. He denied
that there could be any pressure because
the notes in the hands of the public
were to an amount almost unprecedented, and
that the private securities were upwards of
20,000,0001. But every other witness exposed
the fallacy. The Governor of the Bank (Mr.
Moans) said—" It was not that there was an
insufficient amount of accommodation given to
the public, but that the public were hoarding
notes, bankers would not part with their money,
and country bankers had a larger amount of notes
sent down to them." While Mr. NORMAN, a
strenuous supporter of the Act of 1844, declared
that " the panic occasioned much hoarding," and
that " the spirit of hoarding diminished the effi-
ciency of the circulation." Mr. HORSLEY
PALM.ER asserted that " there were nearly
3,000,0001: issued merely for the mainten-
ance of credit, and not required for circu_
lotion." While Mr. SAMUEL GURNEY, an
unimpeachable witness, went much further
saying, " I have not the slightest doubt that at
that period at least from 4,000,0001. to
5,000,000/. of the notes issued were locked up
and inoperative, in consequence of the alarm and
fear of not being able to get bank-notes at
all." The present circumstances are very similar.
Every man is preparing himself for a possible,
aye, a very probable danger, and that is known
to the Times, for yesterday it declared that " The
Bank can provide for wants, not fears," a piece
of bombast, as we subsequently explained.
The same point was established by the imme-
diate relief afforded by the issue of the Govern-
ment letter of the 25th October, 1847. "All
harm appeared to have ceased on the issue of the
letter," said the Governor. " lie did not so much
want the money, but we wanted a certainty, that
if we did want it, we could get it." In fact, the
scarcity of money was artificial, not real, and the
panic was a moral one, produced by the mis-
chievous and whimsical provisions of the
Bank Act of 1844, and not by want
of confidence in the securities themselves.
Even Mr. JONES LOYD recognised that, for he
said—" The remedial character of the measure
was not the discounting at 8 per cant., but the
declaration to the public that at 8 per cent. dis-
count there was an unlimited supply of bank-notes
at their command." This is what is now required ;
and the issue of 11. notes, by relieving a large
quantity of gold, now required for the transac-
tions of every-day life, would render the relief
immediate, and enable the Bank to steer through
the dangers with credit to itself and advantage to
the community.
There is another feature in the returns worthy
of special notice. The additions to the " rest
for the ten days, or, in other words, the profits
realised by the bank during that period,
amounted to 66,080/. "Itis an ill wind that
blows nobody good," No wonder that the
Directors approve of regulations that enable
them to realise such extravagant profits at
the expense of the trading and manufacturing
interests. Lord OTERSTONE, too, may probably
add another million to his already overgrown
fortune. But what's fun to them is death or
ruin to the victims. Surely Parliament should
look to the interests of the community at large,
and legislate for the good of the nation anal not
merely for the moneyocracy, that they may be
enabled to prey on the vitals of the industrious
classes.

The responsibilities devolving upon a nation
that increases at the rate of actually from 300,000
to 400,000 souls a-year, must be regarded as ob-
viotis enough in themselves. It would be difficult
t) say, however, which among them all ought to
be considered the most imminent and imperative.
Whether the moral or the physical, the sanitary
or educational. A thousand lives, it is estimated,
are added every day upon the average to the mass
of our population. A considerable proportion of
what may be called this surplusage of vitality is
of course annually drafted from our shores by
emigration. Nevertheless, making all allowance
for this compensative drain—the steady and rapid
increase of the great bulk of the population is, to
say the least of it, very remarkable. And, ac-
cording to a very comprehensible ratio, with the
increase of our numbers increase also appreciably
our individual and national responsibilities.

It is the instinctive sense of this which has
given rise in comparatively recent times to two
very notable and important movements—move-
ments, however different in their respective cha-
racter, so far at least (in their common origin)
harmonious. To wit--the Sanitary movement
and the Educational movement. Iu each, as yet,
we have done little more than make the merest
possible comments. Of this the statistics periodically
accumulated, on one hand by the Chief Inspector
.of our Convict Prisons, and on the other by the
Registrar-General, afford rather startling, and cer-
tainly very conclusive testimony. Thanks to the
comprehensive industry of those two important
public officers, we are enabled securely from time
to time—so to speak—to guage the moral and
physical health of the community. Armed simply
with their weighty opinions, we are able to plomb
alternately the crime and the disease of the general
multitude.

A wider average, of course, gives us larger and
therefore surer results. It is sufficient for us,
however, in this country, to restrict our attention
for the most part to the calculations affecting the
condition of our own insular population. Lock-
ing to our own interests, to our own ambition, to
our own hopes of amelioration and advancement
—it becomes a theme of secondary consideration
that one death occurs every second of time, sixty
deaths every minute, 3,600 every hour, 86,4C0
every day, 31,536,000 every year, out of the
huge total of 938,711,473, or in round numbers
1,000,000,000, making up the aggregate of this
earth's inhabitants. An estimate such as this is
simply appalling. What we have to take iut )aecount
is—an aggregate something over 31-,500,000—
not one very nearly reaching the enormous and
hardly conceivable sum of 1,000,000,000. We
have to consider matters affecting 27,744,400--
constituting
according to the last census, tire
mass of our own
population. Net the " tottle
of the whole, mak' '?
ing up the population of the en-
tiro globe---a " tottle" I
necessarily, in the faintest
possible degree, merely
proximate. Anything
deduced from an analysis of the latter—that is to
say, from anything affecting the theory
of proba-
bilities in relation to the stupendous mass of
968, 714 4 73 individuals—possesses for us little

better than a merely abstract interest. And for
this one simple reason enough : that while a great
deal may be learnt in regard to the Past, from
any such comprehensive investigation, absolutely
nothing can be augured in regard to the Future
in obedience to the guiding light of experience.
It is not thus, however, by any means that we
are left in a manner despairing upon the brink of
our own land-locked sea of calculations. Practical
results of a solid kind are not merely possible—
they are really, in a manner, inevitable from in-
quiries bearing directly upon our own indigenous
population.

To epitomise our argument by the mention of
a single fact, it will be enough if we direct atten-
tion to the statement put forth by the Registrar-
General in his last return, to the effect that, out
of the deaths occurring during the last quarter in
England, not fewer than seventeen thousand may
be regarded as premature, or, in another phrase,
avoidable.

Nevertheless, the aggregate deductions com-
pacted together in this remarkable return must—
in spite of that one fearful estimate—ba deemed
in sober truth, to be eminently satisfactory. It
is satisfactory, for instance, to learn from this
authoritative source that the deaths, upon the
whole, have been less than the average mortality!
—that the births have been more numerous than
upon any previous return for a similar period !
that the marriages have considerably exceeded the
average of the quarter during the laSt decade,
viz., from 1847 to 1857 ! Altogether, we say, the
results, in a very peculiar degree, are satisfactory.
It is surely encouraging and consolatory, more-
over; at the same time to bear in mind those
contemporaneous statistics, proving, beyond they.
reach of doubt, facts such as the following—that
beef is Bi, mutton 4, and wheat 17 per cent.
below the average of the two last past summer

quarters I
Estimates of this kind serve a double purpose

in our onward march. They enable us all the
more clearly to appreciate the expansion and the
imminence of our responsibilities—and which,
doing this, they afford us the solid boon of direct
and positive encouragement.
Let us recollect that, upon an average, some
68,000 persons come to an untimely end amongst
us every year—that our population is steadily
increasing at the rate of about 1,000 a day,
otherwise 365,000 annually—let us recollect

:here and similar facts : and we shall most

assuredly not slacken our efforts at sanitary im-
provement—afforts, again we say, only now barely
commenced !

THE STATE APARTMENTS.

LDrd Chamberlain's Office, Nov. 6, 1857.

Notice is hereby given, that the State apartments
of Windsor Castle will be closed from this day, until
further orders.

THE CONTINENTAL COUBT,S'.

PARIS, Nov. 5.

Count Walewski, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and M.
Billault, Minister of the Interior, have returned to Paris
from Compiegne.
M. Abbatucci, Minister of Justice, is again compelled
to suspend his labours for some time in consequence
of the state of his health. It is supposed that he will
be not less than a month absent from his official duties.

Count de Ray neval, Ambassador of France to St. Peters-
burg, has now recovered from the indisposition which has
hitherto opposed his departure for Russia. The jouxpey
of the count to Nice, which was spoken of, appears to
be no longer deemed necessary.
Th 3 Emperor and Empress of Russia arrived on tie
27th nit., at the palace of Tsarskoe-Sele, near St. Peters.
burg, from their excursion to Kieff and Moscow.