The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-25 00:00:00

KENT HOP INTELLIGENCE.

CANTERBURY.—We have been visited with some very
cold weather this week, and its effect has been very
prejudicial to the hops. It has been more like March
than May weather.

MAIDSTONE.—There appears to be a sprinkling of fly
generally through the plantations i❑ this neighbourhood;
in some sheltered situations two to four on a leaf
may be found; the bine in some few grounds is rather
weakly from the attack of fly, but upon the whole it may
be considered good.
BRENCHLEY.—We have more fly to be found daily.
IGHTII2I24.—The hops have not grown so much the
last week, owing to the cold nights, which have changed
the bino rather yellow, and we have a slight in-
crease of fly.
YALDING.—The late cold winds have very much
changed the appearance of the bine here, which looks
very yellow, and fly, to the number of one or two on a
leaf, is quite general.

SIGHT AND HEARING TESTIMONIALS, 39, AIME.-
MARLE-STREET, PICCADILLY.—Major-General Sir Ho-
ward Elphinstone begs to say that the Spectacles he
has now had some time in use, have fully redeemed the
assurance of the Messrs. S. and B. Solomons as to their
excellence, and having found so much comfort and ad-
vantage from their use, far preferable to every other
kind of glasses, 13, Norfolk-street, Park lane.—From
the Hon. George Cavendish, to Messrs. S. and B. So-
lomons, 39, Albemarle. street, Piccadilly, opposite the
York Hotel.—Gentlemen, I approve very much of the
Spectacles I purchased from you. I have made use of
glasses for many years, and never met with any to en-
able me to see equal to yours and with less inconve-
nience to my eyes. I am, yours obediently, G. Caven-
dish, Leixlip Castle, Ireland.—General Browne Clayton
feels desirous to express the comfort and advantage he
has derived, at his advanced age of 70 years, and after
two years' trial, from the use of Messrs. S. and B. Solo-
mons' Newly Invented Spectacles. Their valuable in-
ventions fully merit the patronage they have received.
Address, Adlington Hall, Lancashire.—lmproved Achro-
matic Telescopes, Opera Glasses, Microscopes, &c., &c.,
of the same kind of Lenses, to surpass any ever yet in-
vonted.—The Messrs. S. and B. Solomons' Invisible
Operative Voice Conductor Sound Magnifiers, for deaf
persons, give immediate relief to old standing extreme
cases of deafness.—Caution.--Messrs. S. and B. Solo-
mons, Opticians and Aurists, are not in any way eon-
nected with a person of the same name in their imme-
diate neighbourhood, nor in any part of the country. To
prevent mistakes be cautious, and observe—Only to be
had at 39, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly, opposite the
York Hotel.

Several of the light-fingered gentry were yesterday
detected• practising their skill on the pockets of the visitors to
the Exposition, and conducted to the Prefecture to improve
their morals. The Pafrie mentions a report that one of them
made free with the pocket handkerchief and eyeglass of his
Royal Highness the Duke de Nemours, while the Prince was
engaged in examining sme of the machinery.—Paris Print
of Tuesday.
SUICIDE OP A LUNATIC IN BETIILEM.—Last even-
ing an inquiry took place before Mr. Joseph Payne, the
Deputy Coroner, at Bethlem, St. George's-field, South-
wark, concerning the death of James Forster, aged 40,
a criminal lunatic. Thomas Ilooper, attendant at the
" criminal wing" of the institution, said that the de-
ceased first came under his charge in 1841, having been
acquitted upon his trial for some crime on the ground
of insanity. Witness saw him last alive on Tuesday
evening, at eight o'clock, when all the lunatics in that
part of the building retired for the night. At six o'clock on
Wednesday morning witness opened the door ofdeceased's
dormitory, that being the hour at which the patients rise
from bed, when he saw him suspended to the roof by a
black silk handkerchief. Deceased was then quite dead;
but, upon examining him more closely, witness saw a
wound on his throat, and another on his wrist, from both
of which blood was still slowly issuing. Witness searched
the room, and found nothing with which the wounds
could have been inflicted bu a piece of an old iron hoop.
Such a thing was not kept on the premises, and it was
witness's opinion that it had been thrown into the yard
by some boys playing outside, and that deceased had
picked it up, and kept it in secret ever since. There
were attendants employed to keep watch in the gallery
from which deceased's room led, all night, but nothing
in particular was heard. Deceased was a very ingenious
man, and was in the habit of amusing himself by read-
ing and drawing, and sometimes by making butterflies
and baskets out of silk. H strong Ile had some very de-
lusions, and net long ago told witness that he wasG me
the Fourth and Napoleon Buonaparte. Ile said, artl;e
same time, that he was going to be excommunicated from
the Church. Mr. John Thomas, the resident surgeon,
said that he was in immediate attendance upon the de-
ceased, but his services were useless. Deceased, he had
no doubt, died from strangulation. The jury returned
a verdict of " Insanity.'
AN IRISII WAGER.—Two natives of the Emerald
Isle, who were travelling together, finding their means
run short, and being in want of a " dhrop of the cra-
thur," devised the ways and means for raisin a
supply. Catching a frog in a ditch, one of them
went on with it in advance of his companion, and
stopping at the first public-house he came to, asked
the landlord if he could tell what sort of an ani-
mal that was. " What sort of an animal !" exclaimed
Boniface,` " why, you booby, it's a fin., to be
sure." " Booby here, booby there," said Pat ; "it
sthrikes me you're mistaken, for as 'cute as you think
yourself. I'll bet you the price of a pinto' whisky it's a
mouse; and I'll lave it to the first traveller that comes
up to decide betune us." "Agreed," said the landlord.
Pat's confederate soon arrived ; and being required to
say what sort of animal it was, after much examination
and deliberation, declared it to be a mouse, and thus the
landlord, in spite of the evidence of his senses, had to pay
the wager.

THE CURRENCY MONSTROSITY
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Sin,—lt seems that the circulation of banks is to remain in
stain quo. if the A I; bank now (on an avin.age of two years)
issues 100,000 L, it is to continue to do so, ad infinitum. Of
coarse, an additional Act of Parliament will be passed, en-
acting that the trade of each locality shall remain stationary
—otherwise, some impertinent town may start up, and though
now doing but 10,000/, of business, may, ten years hence, do
200,0001., yet its banks would not be allowed to issue one single
nos more than they now do !
Again, the Premier kindly takes care of the interests of
bankers, which they, poor ignorant dolts, cannot look after
themselves. lie finds out that they lose money by having so
many branches, therefore he determines to make new
branches more profitable, by compelling the bankers to pay
30/. for every one they open
But these are mere specks in the sun. The grand unsur-
passable, unspeakable, never-to-be-enough-lauded discovery,
which this profound Minister makes is, that at certain times
the Bank of England had a diminished quantity of gold, and,
therefore, " it was clear," that the "country banks ought to
have diminished their circulation !"

To say nothing of the exquisite idea, that when one esta-
blishment diminishes its circulation, another, convenient or not
convenient, must do the same, I would venture, with the
most profound humility, to hint, that if a gap be made in
one moiety (the metallic) of our currency, that is precisely
the reason why the other moiety should be increased to make
up the deficiency.
Let me venture to breathe into the ear of our never-in-
the-next-five-thousand-years-to-be-equalled-Premier what
is clearly a profound secret to him, viz., that while he ima-
gines our bank notes and sovereigns constitute our whole
currency, and that the importation of some thirty millions
of gold would suffice to banish paper wholly, and give us
his darling " metallic currency," the truth is, that our main
circulation is in bills of exchange ; and that, to supply their
place we should need—not thirty, but three hundred
millions of gold !
Moreover, that the whole of Europe could not snpp'y us
ith the amount, if we were idiots enough to desire it.
One of the greatest curses attendant on Peel's Govern-
ment is, that he conceals his plans until no time is left to
consider and discuss them.—Yours, &c.