The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY -EVENING, APRIL 8, 1861.

alteration in the denomination of the notes. The
plan now proposed is simply to innoculate British
India with PEEL'S Currency Bills of 1819 and 1844.
The Bank of England issues notes to the amount of
L 14,475,000 against securities, and the remainder
of its issues are against bullion. The Indian Go-
vernment is to issue four millions sterling of notes
against securities, and the remaining issues are to
be against bullion. The panic-makers are taking
possession of the monetary system of India. When
by the action of the paper currency, trade and com-
merce are developed, the drain of a few millions of
bullion will, as in this country, raise the price of
money and depreciate the prices of all commodities.
By these means trade will be paralysed, commerce
ruined, and misery and destitution brought upon
the wretched Hindoo population to extents, com-
pared with which the existing famine in the upper
provinces is but trifling. If the misery and ruin
caused by the bullionist faction in 1816, 1819, 1825,
1847, and 1857 were dreadful, as they were, in
England, with all its wealth, and with a legal pro-
vision for the destitute, what may they not be in a
poor country like India, with its 150 millions of
inhabitants dependent in time of disaster on casual
charity or the dilatory and insufficient appliance of
Government relief ?

Our contemporary, the Times, introduces a
laudatory notice of the new currency system for
India, with a specimen of audacious twaddle which
ought to be placed upon record. " There are,"
says the Times, " two kinds of laws, one local and
temporary, made up of expedients to stays off im-
mediate difficulties, and to soothe exaggerated and
other unfounded discontents, based on nothing
more solid than the popular apprehension,
and destined, after it has answered its mo-
mentary purpose, to the disregard and oblivion of
posterity. The other kind of law, of which history
unhappily furnishes us very few examples, is
founded on abstract truth, which it brings for the
first time prominently and practically before the
world. Its influence strengthens with its dura-
tion, clamour and prejudice die out, and that which
was at first mistaken for a mere local and tem-
porary arrangement is recognized in its true cha-
racter as a rule of universal utility, a solid step
onward in the progress of the human race. Such a
law, we may now say, without fear of contradic-
tion, was the Bank Charter Act of 1844."
Capital! " The Bank Charter Act," said the
writer of the City Article of the Times, on the
lath of November, 1857, "is abrogated. Its fate,
at the second time of trial, has been the same as at
the first," and " a law" which " has been con-
demned on each occasion of trial, must be looked
upon as destroyed."
In 1844 the Bank Charter Act passed—" a per-
fect measure." In 1847 it was " abrogated." The
gold discoveries, of which its authors never of
course dreamed, supported it till its next " time of
trial" in 1857. It again shamefully and signally
failed. It was again " abrogated" by an order in
Council. The Times knows that at this moment the
final abrogation of the Bank Charter Act hangs on
a balance. The Times knows that on its third failure,
which is inevitable, this perfect measure, " founded
on abstract truth," this "rule of universal utility,
this " valuable legacy to England" is doomed not
to the " disregard and oblivion" but to the con-
tempt and reprobation of posterity. It requires,
therefore, the exercise of all the recklessness of
assertion which the Times possesses, based on its
knowledge of the ignorance of the people on the
Currency Question, to enable it to belaud this
rotten broken down Bank Charter Act of 1844, of
which the very Peelites are beginning to be

ashamed.
The limes affirms two principles. First, that
the issue of paper money " shall be based on
sufficient security." We must know what
is here meant by " sufficient security." The nation
gives " sufficient security" in its honour, good faith,
and integrity of character for 800 millions of the
debt; and we consider that its honour, good faith,
and integrity would be " sufficient security" for the
issue of 20 millions of legal tender notes, both here
and in India.

The second principle of the Times is, that the
paper currency shall vary in amount and value
exactly as purely metallic currency would leave
done under similar circumstances. Tried by this
rule, we pronounce the Bank Charter Act of 1844
a total failure. The chief evil of the PEEL system
is that under it a drain of bullion causes the preci-
pitate contraction of the circulating medium. With
a purely metallic currency, preserved from exporta-
tion by a seignorage, or by being issued, like our
silver coinage, a little below its intrinsic value, we
should be safe from violent contractions of the cur-
rency. With a sound paper currency, issued under
Government authority, receivable for taxes, and
payable in gold at its market price, we should in
like manner be free from contractions of the cur-
rency and panics. Such a paper currency alone is
adapted for the requirements and convenience of
our gigantic commercial relations, and for the
equitable payment of our enormous burden of taxa-
tion. The Bank Charter Act of 1844 combines all
the evils of a badly managed metallic currency with
all the objectionable points of a paper currency.
It allows our gold coin to be exported as an article
of trade, and thus deprives the country of its money.
And by its violent expansions and contractions of
the paper currency the Bank Charter is, in the
words of the Times, "the cause of continual injur),
by substituting in debts and purchases a value
different from that which was contemplated in the
contract." Can any unprejudiced man doubt that
such is the case, when he reflects that the
changes in the rate of interest, under
the Bank Charter Act, from 4 up to 10 per cent.,
have been more numerous than has been known
in a similar period in any civilised nation since
the beginning of the world! At this moment the
high rate of interest is operating most injuriously
to the trade of this country. Every kind of com-
modity is rapidly depreciating in value, as the
Bank Charter Act provides shall be the case.
The process is in actual operation by which a
value is being substituted in debts and purchases
" different from that which was contemplated in

the contract."
The hardened effrontery of any public writer
who, under such circumstances, dares to assert
that the Bank Charter Act is not a contemptible
and dishonest failure, is remarkable even in this
age of Bronze.

It seems that a " subsidiary gold currency"—
that is, in plain English, gold tokens—are to be
,ssued in India instead of small notes. Was ever

such folly ? The plan goes to adopt expensive

small change instead of Mr. WILSON'S cheap
small notes. This may, however, be of some benefit
to India, for expensive money is better than none.

But how will it operate with regard to England ?

In 1849-oe. 4-'3,396,807 of the precious metals,
coined and uncoined, -.n imported into India.
In 1856-7 the amounnt rose to £11,3u1,23e in

857-8 to £14,413,698; and in 1858-9 to £15,815,436.

India has long been the grave of silver. We
have suffered severely from the drain of bullion
to the East; and now when it is most important
to check such drain, we are positively about to
ZZl,'.,._wa.ededaiptontweasitinainraltnihndeioaaftwrgoohnlih will increase it by
strongest
t terms against the

new currency system for India as expensive, in-
convenient, and defective in detail, totally erro-
neous in principle, and ruinous as to its probable

effects.

An ex-M.P., deprived by the folly of some
constituency of the advantage of publishing
his views by a motion and a speech in the House
of Commons, has resorted to the Imperial method
of a pamphlet.* He thus oilers to us the only
possible compromise of the Church-rate question !
He acknowledges that there is something which
looks rather dogmatic in claiming such high
ground for his proposal, yet he is too confident
of its justice to admit anything of arrogance, i❑
saying to Churchmen, my plan, gentlemen, or
abolition is the alternative—choose which you
will have.

To Dissenters the only bribe to compliance is that
the:Church is strong enough, as late divisions prove,
to keep the question open for an indefinite time.
He seems to us, however, to overlook one fact
—the fact that the more belligerent and energetic
Dissenters by no means wish to bring the Church-
rate contest to a close. The Liberation Society
acknowledges that the subject was forced upon
them as a practical one, which they could not
neglect without displeasing their best supporters ;
but that the longer the Church retains so easily
assailable a privilege as that of compelling persons
to pay for its worship and the repairs of its
temples—so long as it enables every Dissenter to
attack it annually in every parish vestry—so
much the better for the abolitionists, not of the
Rate only, but of the Establishment itself. Aboli-
tionists might like a victory, as all engaged in
a contest do, but we are confident from what
we have seen in their own writings that the
opponents of State Churches would inwardly
lament their own success. Church obstinacy for
a good grievance is their strength, and the
ex-M.P. will we expect find, that Dr. FOSTER,
Mr. MIALL, and other leaders in the Liberation
Society, will reject his plan and insist on simple
abolition, well-knowing that the latter will not
be soon conceded, and that thus they will retain
their parish battlefield, because the Church retains
her Rate.
But what is his plan ? The very simple one of
leaving the whole machinery for laying a rate
exactly as it now stands, but taking away the
power to enforce it. There is to be no labelling of
Dissenters, no exclusion of them from the parish
vestry, no notice whatever to be taken of them as
Dissenters, but whoever pleases is to be at liberty
to refuse to pay the rate when the collector calls,
and there is to be no penalty for the refusal !
A Churchman would ask—of what possible use,
then, is the formality'of summoning a parish meet-
ing, and going through all the legal ,formalities,
if no one is bound to conform to the decision of the
majority ? But we certainly think that the right
thus to convene the parish, and to continue a
practice which has such a long prescription in its
favour, would be no small advantage to the Church.
It would, and this is what Dissenters would much
dislike, exhibit the Church as the National Church
by the nation, giving to it the power to assemble
the parish or district in which it stood. Though the
State would withdraw compulsory powers in regard
to the rate, it would not withdraw the parochial
position indicated by the right to summon a meet-
ing, nor would it throw off whatever bond Church-
rates may constitute between the national Govern-
ment and the Church.

Then, again, with regard to the amount collected,
we are inclined to think it would be quite as much
as by the present system. Allowance would be
made when the rate was laid for probable refusals ;
the greater part of the Church-going parishioners
would merely wish to know the proportion fairly
belonging to them, and would assuredly pay it
not the less willingly because they could not
be coerced to do it. It would be a point of honour,
when the law did not compel others to pay for
their worship, to: pay for it themselves. If, fre-
quently, straitened means caused any to refuse the
small amount, others better off would more than
make it up. The power of habit, the shame of
being known as defaulters in less worthy men,
but far more generally, the pleasure felt by all men
in doing their fair part towards any common object,
would leave the Church bat a slight loser. Indeed
we fully believe that the better temper in the
parish, and the growing liberality of persons not
acting under compulsion, would more than make
up the present total of the rate ; indeed, the only
difficulty would probably be, where a clergyman
well deserved to have all expenses thrown on him-
self and the few who abetted him. When, for
instance, he defied his parishioners by making a
Protestant service as Popish as he could ; or when
his temper got him into quarrels with the parish ;
or when as in the case of Mr. CHEESE, his own
slice of parish good things was large enough for
two, three, or four good clergymen. " Let the
parson pay," would probably be the cry in such
cases—and, so it ought to be.
Our ex-M.P. may justly plead that none of the
plans yet proposed as compromises have ever
united the Church Rate party. The objections to
"labelling Dissenters" are unanswerable, both those
advanced byDissenters themselves and those brought
forward by Churchmen. Charging estates by
landlords is repudiated by landlords, since they
will riot diminish the slight control which
the vestry confers on the parishioners over the
vagaries of the:most crotchetty class of men in the
world. Dissenters he hardly seems to think of as
determined objectors. We shall be surprised, how-
ever, if they be not. Partly because they will, as
we have already observed, dislike the aspect of
Church Supremacy implied in the authority to
summon a Parish meeting ; bat also because they
will think, and we fear with too much truth, tha

n a great number of parishes, the Dissenters wi

be compelled by fear of their superiors, though not

by fear of the law to pay the rate as before. We
expect, therefore, should the proposal ever come
before the public, that the reply of Dissenters will
be, "we are willing the Churchwardens should
have powers to make voluntary collections from th©
congregation, or to levy a small charge on the sit-
tings for regular accommodation, but we cannot

agree to their making a voluntary rate on the
parish. The distinction is, indeed, very fine ; we
have, as yet, seen no plan which gave the slightest
hope of its competing with simple and unconditional

abolition ; and, if this scheme has any chance, it
will be from its great simplicity, and from its hardly
doing more than enable the Churchwardens, legally,

:o resort to voluntary contributions in the same

,node in which they formerly obtained them by
compulsion.

possible in regard to Church
Rates. By only
Bya former nise
Member of the -House of Commons.
London : Murray. 1861.

If war is still doubtful—there can be but little
question, we should think, at this moment that
Peace is more than ever precarious.
Look—almost anywhere—over Europe, and the
preservation of tranquillity is there visibly trem-
bling in the balance.

It is many years since the nations began to arm
more and more resolutely and systematically. Dr,

CIaiNINC, we presume, would say—for Armaged-
don. Any one can see, as the phrase is, with half-
an-eye—for no good, for the inevitable crash that
is certain to come sooner or later. Besides—apart
from the significant fact of this general and con-
tinucus armament by sea and by land, this reor-
ganisation of military discipline and reconstruction
of maritime forces—there is the glaring fact,
visible to all those who care to glance in its direction,
that the very basis of European Tranquillity (as
last arranged by the agreement of the assembled
Powers of Christendom) has been destroyed. The
Treaty of Vienna, the treaty of 1815, has long since
become nothing more valuable than so much waste
paper. The great principle, unheard of at the
epoch of that treaty, the principle of non -interven-
tion, has been accepted and proclaimed by the
leading States of Christendom. The rights of
nationalities are allowed, and when successfully
vindicated upon the field of battle are recognised.
No further talk new of so-called Holy Alliances
among the despots of the earth—Unholy Alliances,
for the purposes of putting down this'and that
nationality and of setting up there, at the pleasure
of the despots, this and that sovereignty. Italy
resolves upon accomplishing her independence
through Unification—and have we not in the past
few months recognised the actual realisation of
the day-dream of so many patriots, poets, princi-
palities, generations ? The triumphs achieved
by the Italians, we may rest assured, will—must by
necessity—prove contageous. Besides the Italians,
there are the Poles. Besides the Poles, there
are the Hungarians. Besides the Hungarians,
there are the Wallachians, the Moldavians, the
Transylvanians clusters and clusters of na-
tionalties between the Euxine and the Caspian.
The combustibles are lying about on all
hands in profusion—ready, at an instant, to start
into a fury of conflagration. And there are
"signs of the times," even at this moment, so
easy of perusal that " those who run may read"
them—" signs of the times " full of significance.
What is the meaning, let any one ask, of GARI-
BALDI'S visit just no ,v to Turin ? The Hero of
the Neapolitan War of Liberation would never,
at such a juncture, quit his dignified retreat in
the isle of Caprera for a mere idle excursion.
How about that sale of the Farnese Palace at
Rosie ? How about FRANCIS 11., late King of
NAPLES, selling that palace at Rome to his
Imperial Majesty NAPOLEON 111. !' Does that look
very like a preparation on the part of the latter to
withdraw his troops from the Eternal City How
about the " situation" of affairs just now at
Warsaw? Do those affairs look very pacific ?
And, as to Venetia, we may be certain Austria has
never concentrated an army of 200,000 men there,
to be beaten very easily out of the strongholds of
tho Quadrilateral ! Particularly so long as old
RENEDEK can try his hand at emulating the
veteran glory of old RADETZKY ! As to
Hungary—have not some of her bravest sons been
getting their hands " in" again, in the way
of hard fighting, during the last year or two at all
the more seriously contested struggles in the Roman
Peninsula ? Besides, common sense tells us that a
man like KOSSUTH does not remain perfectly
quiescent during ten or twelve years together, and
then go so far as to get his paper currency in readi-
ness—without having good reason to know that he
is at length once more upon the brink of some grand
opportunity. If there is otherwise noticeable at
this moment among the various Powers of Christen-
dom an appearance of calm and imperturbability,
it is but the deadly and ominous lull preceding the
first burst of the hurricane.

The International Exhibition of 1862 is now, as
the majority know, in active preparation. The
site for the new Metropolitan Crystal Palace has
not only been selected, but there, upon that chosen
site, the foundations of the future structure been
marked out, and the building labours have been
there already commenced. It is a significant cir-
cumstance, moreover, this time, that the locality
hit upon is no longer a certain portion of one of
our great parks. The Exhibition will be opened
—not in Hyde-park. It will simply overlook the
grassy expanse whither its predecessor, The Ex-
hibition, the wonder of a year, attracted to
itself sightseers from the two hemispheres.
Consequently the next Crystal Palace, the Crystal
Palace for 1862, so soon as tle Exhibition in whose
behest it will be re-erected, shall in duo course of
time have been brought to a close—the Crystal
Palace of 1862, unlike the Crystal Palace of 1851,
will not have to be destroyed, and " like the base-
less fabric of a vision leave not a wrack behind !"
So far, so good. That the necessity for its removal
will thereby have been dissipated, we may rejoice ;
for it is to all intents and purposes so much money
saved. But then the spot upon which it will
be built is, suspiciously enough, the very spot
upon which H.R.H. wished to gather together
in spite of the nation, in spite of the House of
Commons, the Art Treasures of the United King.
dom. The National Gallery was to be bodily
carried off to South Kensiugtcn. " ALBERT'S Folly"
was to swallow all the paintirgs, all the sculptures,
all the collections—the Turner Gallery, the Ver-
non Gallery, the Sheepshanks Gallery—every
bequest, large and small, good, bad, and indifferent:
and to jumble them altogether without taste in that
hole in the corner between the Gore and Brornpton !
Leaving to the Industrial Academy their present
coign of 'vantage" overlookieg the so-called Finest
Site in Europe! Now, while we are preparing a
building for the Exhibition 0f1862, let us take care
that we are not at the same tine for the sake merely
of carrying out a nonsensical whim of H R.H., con-
structing a trap for the National Gallery at South
Kensington. The projectel building may be
all very well as displayed to view in the litho-
graphic print* published by Mr. GOVER—but it
is against the site chosen for it that we wish to
protest—not against it, however, as the site of
next year's exhibition, but as the future site en
permanence of England's National Gallery.
For the National Gallery we could not
have a better site than the very ono the
wretched structure now called the National
Gallery, ompies. Let that site be still retained—
for that purpose—and for that purpose exclusively.
It is the Royal Academy we want to have removed
thence, as (while there) a public nuisance and a
flagrant interloper. Compel the Academy to
move on"—anywhere else—it matters nothing to
the public where. Let them move on, we
will say, for example, to Burlington-
House, Piccadilly. But compel them we would to
move on somewhere. And then—Gone the Royal
Academy—Rebuilt be the Fagade of the present
unsightly ediaee in Trafalgar-square and we
cculd not in all London or Westminster find a

LAriEsT NEW,

TELEGRAPHIC INTELLIGENCE.

ITZEHOE, APRIL 7, EVENING.

The Committee of the Estates have concluded
their examination of the Danish proposals ii:\ refer-
rence to the Budget.
The report of the Committee will be discussed in
the Estates to-morrow.

It is asserted that the conclusions of the Com-
mission are to the following effect :—That the
Estates cannot treat the Budget in the manner pro-
posed—•namely, that the Assembly should merely
make proposals, and that the Government should
decide thereon.

BERLIN, APRIL 6.

In to-day's sitting of the Chamber of Deputies
Baron von Schleinitz expresseil, in the most ener-
getic and distinct terms, his disapproval of the pro-
ceedings of M. Schlippenbach with respect to the
clandestine correspondence between General Bosco
and the citadel of Palermo.

The Minister said that he had applied for authen-
tic explanations on the subject, and would take the
necessary steps.

TURIN, APRIL 6 (Evening).

In to-day's sitting of the Chamber of Deputies
the following order of the day, proposed by Signori
Terrearsa and Mazani, was adopted :

" The Chamber, taking into consideration the de-
clarations of the Ministry that the law shall be
strictly executed, and being confident that the
Ministry will take the most suitable measures for
hastening the administrative unification of the pro-
vinces of Naples and Sicily, and insisting on the
immediate publication of the measures of public
safety promised by Government and on the execu-
tion of public works, passed to the order of the
day."

TURIN, APRIL 6.

In to-day's sitting of the Senate, Signor Rocca
announced that on Tuesday next he should put an
interpellation to Count Cavour respecting the affairs
of Rome.

The Opinione of to-day gives a denial to the
reports that the Government intends to issue a
forced loan.

PARIS, APRIL 6.

The Patrie of this evening says :—" The report
that a French naval division had left for Syria is
completely fal3e. The squadron of evolution, com-
posed of three divisions, will leave Toulon in the
second fortnight of April, in order to execute ma-
nesvres on a large scale on the open sea."

VIENNA, APRIL 7.

The Turkish blockading squadron has arrived

before Antivari.

MADRID, APRIL 6.

The Duke and Duchess of Montpansier have left
for England, on account of the illness of their
mother, the ex-Queen Marie Amelie.

The committee charged to examine the press
laws have presented the project of a new law to the

Cortex,

NAPLES, APRIL 7.

The Duke of Cazaniello has been arrested on
account of two letters he had received from Francis
11. Several members of a Bourbon committee,
among whom are Ruggiero and two priests, have
also been arrested. It is rumoured that an impor-
tant conspiracy has been discovered, in which five
bishops are said to have participated. The indig•
nation against the reactionists is general. Perfect
tranquillity prevails.

WARSAW, APRIL 6.

The demonstration which took place on Thursday
night before the picture of the Virgin was repeated
yesterday evening.

The crowd again dispersed without being inter-
fered with by the military.
The cause of the prevailing agitation is the sup-
pression of the delegation of citizens for the main-
tenance of public order.

PESTH, APRIL 7.

In yesterday's sitting of the Upper House Count
Apponyi in his opening speech announced the
abdication of King Ferdinand and the accession of
Francis Joseph, and said that it was the sincere
wish of the King that the rights of Hungary should
be maintained.

Prince Esterhazy, in most touching terms, paid
a tribute of respect to the memory of Count
Bathyany, who was executed for high treason in
1849, and held up the patriotism of that martyr
as an example for others.

Count Zichy demanded the formation of a Hun-
garian Ministry. The demand was supported by
the majority of the members.

In the Lower House official documents relating
to the abdication of King Ferdinand and the acces-
sion of Francis Joseph were laid on the table.

AGRAM, APRIL 7.

The imperial eagle has been replaced on all the
public offices. The garrison was stationed in the
public squares on the occasion. The city is tranquil.