The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-10 00:00:00

THE WEATHER.-Strx OFFICE, SEPTEMBER 10, 1861.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE,
67—highest since noon yesterday,
51—lowest this morning and during the night.
63—this day at noon.

. BAROMETER-29.98.
WlND—North-Westerly—lisht ; with cloudy weather.

t
tlryt rrf:
CA
rE4:
‘A`;iti/P •
„ •-,1 6
't • I'lo A - •
b1:01T`
;

TRE SUN.

LONDON, TUESDAY, SEPT. 10, 1861.

We direct public attention to a letter from Mr.
HAMER STANSFELD on the Bank Act of 1844, on
his joining the Currency Reform Committee for
the abolition of that most pernicious piece of legis-
lation. Had PEEL but lived a little longer he
would have abrogated that act, and conferred more
benefit on the nation than he did by the abolition
of the Corn Laws, great as was the bounty given
by that splendid measure. Though PEEL was firm
in what he considered right, yet he was no bigot.
Reason and reflection swayed his intellect, and when
he detected his error no prejudice could stand in his
way in confessing his mistake, nor make him hesitate
in doing all the justice in his power to remedy the
evil. Witness Catholic Emancipation and many
other. concessions to the freedom of thought.
What the Corn Laws were to the Landlords so
is the Bank Act to the Bullionists. The ope robbed

the people of their. bread and the other of their

money. And the "wisdom" of Parliament sanc-
tioned the infaMy ! Posterity may not believe it, but
if it does, it will blush at the conduct of its Progeni-
tors in the path of legislation. Human nature is as
liable to error as to accident, but as knowledge ex-
pands the intellect, common honesty ought not to
be ashamed to confess and disavow the prejudice.
The Millennium will never come while self-interest

acts in antagonism to justice. People may profess,

but that is vain until practice confirm the deed.
Mr. STANSFELD very' manfully confesses that he
was wrong in supposing at one time " that the issue
of £14,000,000 of Bank notes, all payable in gold
on demand, against a Government debt which is
practically not convertible into gold, is not a sound
or natural foundation for the national currency."
But he g.dds that further reflection led him to enter-
tain the very contrary; for says he—" When I
considered that the payment of the interest of the
debt whs guaranteed by the entire property of the
nation f(valued at £6,000,000,000) and that repudia-
tion was impossible, I came to the following con-
clusion, that the £14,000,000 of notes were really
based on the property of the nation." Now this has
all along been our own opinion, for what safer
security can there be than that of the nation at
large on which to found a sound currency? The
nat ion will not run away from itself—and if its
credit be good for £800,000,000 of a national debt,
surely it is more than good for a driblet like
fourteen millions : the wonder with all thinking
men has teen how the Government has suffered so
paltry a sum to remain unpaid, seeing and feeling
that all its financial operations were hampered and
harassed by this debt to a body assuming the pre-
rogative of making money, and thereby robbing
the nation of its own proper reward. In the
Russian war we spent about one hundred millions
in two years, and yet we boggle about paying off
about a seventh of that amount ! There must
surely be some secret motive for all this, else
Government would never submit to have its hands
tied by a set of jobbing bullionists for their private
advantage at the national expense. We had hoped
better of Mr. GLADSTONE, who, with all his crot-
chets,
,we yet believe to be sincere in his de-
sire to benefit his country. Let him seize the
mantle which fell, unhappily, too soon from
his prototype, and remove the shackles from cur-
Telley as he has from commerce. He will meet
with strong opposition, no doubt, as all men
who endeavour to do good are sure to meet, from
hostile and selfish interests. But opposition to a
patriot mind, earnest for the good of his fellow-
-111211, will only serve to stimulate instead of re-
And the present Chancellor

tarding his purpose.
of the Exchequer, if we mistake not, is just the
Mem to carry his convictions to a successful issue.
We have no-wish to damage the proprietors of
13, La Stock, nor to infringe on the privileges of
tin-) Directors; but we cannot see any reasonable
objection on their Ftrts to a reform of the cur-
ter, cy. They have managed matters " unto' well"
on their own account, and would no doubt prove
the mselves excellent auxiliaries to the Government,
for a
fair consideration, " in working out a
Nat Tonal Currency by means of a National Bank
Not e.

"V re have five pound notes in England, and one
pound notes in Scotland and in Ireland. Why not

in England ? What is good for two cannot be bad 1
for one. Scotland has been transformed froth bar-
renness to a fruitful garden by means of her one
pound note currency, and so has Ireland. Why
deprive England of the boon which has enriched
her neighbours P . Is it done to please or benefit the
Bullionists—those Mammonites
. ,6 Who, dead to glory, only burn for gold ?"
If freedom of action be necessary for health, it is
doubly so for commerce and its life-blood currency.
Why not, then, liberate the labour of man by giv-
ing him free scope and facilitate his endeavours in
business and commerce both on land and sea, by a
generosity which shall redound to individual as to
national advantage ?
Mr. STANSFELD is of opinion that notes issued
with the liability and ability to pay them in gold
on demand would constitute a sound national cur-
rency, and that one third of bullion would give
ample security as the Bank has found by experience
for the issue of notes to the full amount. Now why
should we hesitate in having a national Bank for
universal circulation at home founded upon the credit
of the nation and receivable for taxes ? This would
save the wear and tear of gold which is now a na-
tional loss. It would besides enable us to avoid
panics—that source of dismay to many and of ruin
to more. It would liberate commerce from the
shackles of the Bullionists who work double
tides with the rise and fall of discounts, and profit
by the general calamity. Fluctuation is their
harvest.

Then as to the price of gold—let it find
its level by its value in the market—supply and
demand will test its virtue. If the foreigner had
to pay our price, not his, there would be less
runs for gold when wars were preparing to break
out, and mankind might be saved the havoc and
the spoils of conquest.
Public credit is founded on public confidence ;
and as the circulation of a national Bank Note of all
denominations became generally diffused, a mutual
brotherhood of good feeling would pervade society
and render panics a matter of memory like the
wonders of other days. The people would improve,
the nation become richer, and, if danger threat-
ened, be all the stronger to meet and to repel it.
Besides, the nation instead of working for the
money-profit of others would pocket the profit
itself and so far lessen taxation.

The news just arrived from America by the
Canadian steamer Bohemian, confirms the report
of the defeat of Colonel TYLER in Western Vir-
ginia; This is the part of Virginia which first
elected fresh representatives and a governor, and
afterwards voted to form a separate State from the
eastern part. They will have to arm for the
liberty they demand. A letter from Gauley-
bridge, near Summerville, the place where the
battle took place, gives the number of the killed
and wounded, which seems to show that the battle
was a small one in regard to numbers. It may
have been a fierce one, however, or a repetition of
Bull's Run, for we are told that an entire Ohio
regiment were scattered during the fight.
From Missouri the tidings are not good for the
North, The Confederates, who had already gained
possession of the important station at Springfield,
were bringing up their baggage, and the Fede-
ralists advancing to meet them. Martial law has
at last been proclaimed in Missouri, and the slaves
of insurrectionists declared free ; the rest, we hope,
will soon follow. General M'CuLLocH, who soon
came to life again, is marching on St. Louis, but
the Unionists are said not to fear him.

On the Potomac there seems to be no impor-
tant change. The Unionists are said to be re-
tiring from Harper's Ferry, but it is probably
merely a strategical movement. A battle is be-
lieved to be imminent; but, notwithstanding the
bankers' deputation, it may be hoped M'CLELLAN
will not be induced to fight before he is quite
ready. The mysterious naval expedition is said
to be destined for Cape Hatteras, in North Caro-
lina. What they are to do on the long strip of
Island we are not told.

When two such men as Sid WILLIAM Arri•

STRONG and Mr. FAIRBAIRN differ on a subject
with which both are so well and practically
acquainted, as that of the Patent Laws, the pre-
sumption is that there is truth on both sides—that
is, that each of them looks at what is really a side

of the same subject, and that each generalizes from
those facts which have struck him most forcibly.
There is involved in the subject the great question
of public advantage—should we have more useful
inventions completed with or without patent laws ?
But there is also involved in it the question of
justice—shall we do right and justice in refusing to
secure to an individual the full advantage of his
own invention ?

The sentiment of justice is we believe so strong
in this country, that even were it demonstrated
that the progress of invention suffers by making
its devices property, we should still hesitate to
benefit the country at the cost of wrong to the
inventor. But the truth must lie somewhere mid-
way between the two. For instance, there may be
invention-sharking as well land-sharking ; and
when a schemer only hits upon an idea like that of
the solid railway wheels mentioned by Sir Wm.
ARMSTRONG, or the wire constructed cannon, an
idea sure to occur to fifty persons in the state of
the manufacturing process, it is quite unreasonable
that mere priority in a guess of which he makes no
kind of use should give him a monopoly of the process,
and, what is worse, of all the modifications and im-
provements which might arise out of it. What a
violation of all common sense was the grant of the
gutta percha patent—of a patent to use a raw article
of commerce in the way in which every one knew
it could be used, and in which it was actually used,
if we remember rightly, in the British p ssession
of Singapore. Yet in the existing state of the
patent laws the company had as good a right as
any one else to be the first comer. It strikes us
that there must be room for improvement just here.
Mere priority of an idea, to the working out of
which some only apparently practical scheme can
be added ; or, of some idea which, like that of soft-
ening gutta percha by heat, is but an essential
quality of the material, the application ^ of
which could hardly escape a child, cannot be a fit
subject of patent protection. As civilised aovern-
ments now protect the public against the unlimited
acquisition of land in their colonies, and require
that a suitable proportion of it should be cul-
tivated; so it should protect the public
against the unlimited acquisition of mental terri-
tory, and limit the inventor to that portion of, what
we might term the public mental domain, which he
could turn to actual accoant.

In looking at the representations of both sides,
we certainly incline to the belief that repeal of the
patent laws would in all probability be no bar
whatever to the progress of invention. The in-
ventor is essentially an inventor, and cannot
forego his nature. In numberless ways he
would bring out his schemes, and would
have the stimulus to bring them out, of know-
ing that unless he did a mere scheme could
bring him no profit. It would always be in his
power by private contract to protect himself
during his negotiations with some practical man,