The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-16 00:00:00

iTCarairixt AUTh

LONDON, UESDAY, JULY 16, 1844.

After some ,prelin-sinary business in the House of
Lords of little importance, the LORD CHANCELLOR
moved that the amendn lents made to the Dissenters'
Chapels Bill be taken into consideration.
The Bish p of LONDON, after some remarks, moved
that the amendments be taken into consideration that
day six months.
The Bishop of DURHAM app roved of the Bill ; and
aller a lengthened discussion, title amendments were
cwied by a majority (including• proxies) of 161.
Moir Lordships then adjourned.
Tho House of Commons met at twelve o'clock
yesterday, and discussed in Con.nnittee several
clauses of the Poor-law Amendment Bill. Sir J.
GRAH'AM made a speech relative to asylums for stray
paupers, which did him honour—a rare circumstance,
and elicited approbation from both sides of the
House. A division took place on the 36th clause,
relative to asylums for the destitute poor, when
there was a mljority of 77 for the clause, only 6
voting against jt. The Chairman reported progress,
and obtained leave to sit again or. Wednesday, at
twelve o'clock. The House adjourned at three
o'clock. The House met • again at five, when
the first affair that attracted notice was a
speech of Mr. Wonsnouss, who on Saturday had
charged, though not in direct terms, Mr. Waluar
with setting fire to his house in Argyll-street, for the
purpose of getting the insurance money. Mr.
WomniousE offored the most ample apology for the
insinuations wide% he had thrown out against Mr.

WAKLEY

Sir ROBERT ria:r. male a few remarks highly

honourable to his character, which, in, private life, all
admit to be a model for his countryraen. The Hon.
Member for Finsbury, he said, might retire from the
House that night with the understanding that com-
plete reparation had been made to his feelings, and
that he could carry his head as erect as any man
breathing. This was received with loud cheers from
all parts of the House.
Mr.IVAKLEy acknowledged in feeling terms the
tribute which had been paid to his innocence, and
we hope this decided expression cif public feeling will
put the vile calumny for ever at rest.
After some questions put to the Government, awl
explanations between Mr. T. DUNCOMBE and Lord
A. LENNOX, in reference to the Horse-racing Bill'
which are given sufficiently brief in the Parliamen-
tary report, Mr. WYSE moved for a Select Commit-
tee to inquire into the facts connected with the for-
mation of the special jury in the case of the QUEEN
v. DANIEL O'CONNELL and others.
Lord ELIOT opposed the motion.

The discussion on this motion lasted the greater
part of the evening, and, on a division, the Committee
was refused by a majority of 18.
Leave was given to bring in a Bill to amend the
Church Endowment Act. The Duchy of Cornwall
Bill was read a second time.

The other orders of the day were disposed of, and
the House adjourned at a Quarter past Twelve.

In the discussion that took place in the House of
Commons, on Saturday last, on the su!lject of the
Poor-law• Amendment Bill, several remarks were made
respecting the necessity of educating the humbler
classes, which show that Hon. Members are at length
beginning to awake to a consciousness of the many
serious evils which are the inevitable results of popu-
lar ignorance. In this respect, Swing, it must be
confessed, has done some good, however unwittingly;
for had it not been for his alarming demon-
strations, we question much whether such a
House of Commons as we now possess—a House
elected for no other purpose, apparently, than
to promote the interest of the great landowners—
would not have allowed things to remain in
statu quo, and postponed the momentous question of
national education to the indefinite period of the
Greek Kalends. But Swing's vagaries are hints not
to be misinterpreted nor trifled with, and when the
agricultural Members find their tenants' barns blaz-
ing, they know not but it may be their own turn
next—" nam tua res agitur parks cum proximus
ardet." Hence we now find many of them full-
fraught with the discovery that the poorer classes,
more especially in the rural districts, are not quite so
illumined as they had imagined them to be, and
professing their readiness to assist them to the
benefits of a cheap practical education. Alluding
to the benighted condition of these long-neglected
masses Mr. IVARLEY observed :—" The subject of the ,
education of the poor had always been postponed in
that House to other subjects, and, in consequence,
they now had the most ignorant population on the
face of the earth. They were a right-thinking and a
right-feeling people, but they had not the materials for
thought. If the people had been properly instructed,
would they have had the incendiarism which they
now had in Norfolk and Suffolk ? The moral, phy-
sical, and intellectual education of the masses had
been too long neglected. The religious question had
been made the great bone of contention, and the
poor children had been neglected." Severe as are I
these animadversions, there is but too much
truth in them, as recent events have shown. We say
nothing of the midnight freaks of Swing, who,
with the destructive torch in his hand, may justly be
considered as the symbol of rustic ignorance ; but it
is not long sinee'it was proved beyond the' possibility
of refutation, that of Upwards of a hundred individuals
committed. at the quarter sessions of two western
counties, at least two-thirds of them could neither
read nor write, and the remainder had bad but the
scantiest possible share of education ! And yet, de-
spite these acknowledged and generally-known
facts, Colonel RUSHBROOKE had the folly to state
that the Honourable Member for Finsbury
was greatly mistaken wheriThe ascribed the recent
incendiary fires to the deplorable ignorance of the
people ! If the fires in question do not originate
in ignorance, in what do they originate ?
In discontent, perhaps, induced by the pres-
sure of extreme poverty. Granted. We do not
for an instant deny the hypothesis ; but surely dis-
content would never have dreamed of manifesting
itself in such a manner, if it had not been for the
blank, besotted ignorance of the incendiaries! We do
not find Swing exhibiting his vagaries in the manu-
facturing districts, notwithstanding the deep and
general distress that has prevailed there with little
intermission for the last six years and upwards ? We
do not find him shaking his blazing torch over
the Scottish barns and hay-ricks. And why? Because
in Scotland, as in the northern manufacturing coun-
tries, the humbler classes are, generally speaking, a far
better educated set of men than are to be met with in
the agricultural districts of England. But the question
is scarcely worth discussion, and admits not even
of a doubt. The plain truth is—and it is a truth
that cannot be too often or too earnestly insisted
on—that at least one-third, we might almost
go further, and say one-half, of the crimes com-
mitted by the poorer classes have their origin in
ignorance. As for the idea of Arcadian innocence
and simplicity—notwithstanding Mr. BANICES' assbr-
tion that these virtues are still to be found vegetating
in full luxuriance in Dorsetshire, under the shadow of
his own park-walls—it is a mere delusion,---
a theme fit enough for poets, but not for
men who have to deal with the stern
realities of life. We no longer live in the
golden age ; and if our swains, as they are constantly
doing in Virgil's Eclogues, still have recourse to the
pipe, it is not for the purpose, of discoursing sweet
music, but of " blowing a cloud ;" and this, not by
the banks of " purling streams," but over a pint of
purl at the beer-shop or the ale-house.

It is impossible to deny that the House of Lords
generally contrive to infuse into their discussions of
economic and commercial questions which have al-
ready occupied much of the attention of the House
of Commons, a larger amount of sound sense and
average information than has been brought to hear
upon them in the more popular assembly. We
venture merely to note this fact. To others we must
leave its explanation. Whether this is to be found
in the circumstance that the speakers among the
Peers are fewer, and, for the most part, those who
have been elevated to their distinguished rank
by the influence of their own superior ability or
knowledge, or conduct in the professions they have
adopted at the commencement of their public career,
we by no means take upon ourselves to determine.
But it is much to their honour that great practical
questions are more fully -and dispassionately debated
—and Committee investigations and business more
satisfactorily transacted—by the common acknow-
ledgment of all parties who are, in such matters,
ever brought into connection with them—in the
Upper, than in the Lower House. The debate
of Friday evening, on the motion for their Lord-
ships resolving themselves into a Committee on the
Bank of England Charter Bill, supplied another con-
firmation of this often-affirmed proposition. And
however much we may take leave to dissent from
same of the views announced by the Earl of RIPON
on bringing forward this Bill, or, from some of the
cone lusions at which Lord ASHBURTON would ap-
pear to have arrived in arguing upon its principles;
we are bound to state that the speeches of these Noble
Lo..ds were distinguished by their great sim-
plicity and perspicuity of statement—the new and,
important lights which they let in upon some points,
and t he forcible illustrations they suggested as to
others. A comparison of the Ministerial statements
offered oil the introduction of this measure in the
Lords' am 1 Commons' Houses respectively, will re-
dound, in the judgment, of every reader, greatly to
the advantage of that delivered in the former. The
speech of Lt 'rd MONrEAGLE was. certainly the most
extraordinary, the most inconsistent, and the most
damaging that was ever delivered " in support" of a
Bill in that as sembly. Yet even in his Lordship's
address we find' abundant matter for curious specu-
lation connectt si with this Bank and Currency
question, and c, Yrtain important aspects under which
it had not occurrt .d to those who took part in the dis-
cussions of last mk with and of May, in the Commons,
to regard them.
From the Earl of RIPON, an old disciple of the
bullionists' school, ar d intimately associated with the
opinions and °bidets ,}r Hirsiuss4/4, we were, of i

course, prepared to expect the most favourable opi- ,

I nions of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Currency Bill of 1819 ;
on " the great principles of which" the Noble Earl
informed their Lordships the last charter to the
Bank of England had been granted. It is
curious, however, to observe how completely
Lord RIPON establishes the fallacy of the
assumptions on which that disastrous Act was
founded, which is yet the theme of his eulogy, anil
of which the Bill now before the Lords is the "final
complement," by his own admission of its failure as
a working experiment. Could any more cogent
reason have been assigned for forbearing to carry out
its final " co:nplement ?" In the first place, the
Noble Earl (in language so elaborately guarded that
his early political friend and leader Mr. CANNING
might himself have dictated the passage) "thinks he
is justified in saying that the principle of the Bill of
1819, which rested everything upon the convertibility
of paper into gold, does nut appear to have had the
effect of preventing injurious and excessive fluctua-
tions. Why, such a (lead mistake did the Bill of
1819 turn out to be—that Bill which Sir ROBERT
PEEL predicted was to ensure us a constant adequate
supply of bullion, and permanen t con vertibility of paper,
—that (says Lord RtroN) "in 1826 the amount of
bullion in the coffers of the Bank was so low that
some persons apprehended that the time was near
when it would have none at all ; but it fortunately
happened that, shortly before this critical period the
exchanges had become favourable. Many persons
who looked upon them as indicating the actual state
of the money market, became convinced that the tide
had turned." But, with all submission to these far-
seeing authorities, neither the alteration in the foreign
exchanges, nor the circumstances which induced
them to believe that the lowest ebb of the gold efflux
was now reached, saved the Bank of England from
bankruptcy. These were not the proximate causes of
its rescue; and we all know that in matters of such
vital urgency as a crisis of this kind, it is only proximate
causes which it imports us to detect. A distant phy-
sician, with the reputation and skill of Esculapius
himself, is of no use to a patient whose moments are
numbered, and who can only be saved by instant
succour. Accordingly, Lord RIPON acknowledges.
" so critical was the state of affairs "—(in spite, ob-
serve, of the improvement in the nominal notation
of foreign exchanges, and the favourable impres-
sions of the sagacious gentlemen who watched them)
—" that the very morning on which the Bank Direc-
tors thought they would be called on to pay their last
sovereign" (under this admirable gold guarantee
Bill of 1819 !), " there arrived at Dover a consider-
able quantity of sovereigns, which had been, in the
previous years, when the exchanges were against us,
expOrted to France in the way of merchandise. That
supply arrived at the critical moment, and the appre-
hended stoppage did not take place."
So much for our suicidal folly in enforcing by
statute, to the extent of PEEL'S Act of 1819, this
charming principle of convertibility of paper- into'
gold at a fixed standard price ! We make it
imperative on the great currency manufactory
of the country to be prepared with gold, where-
with to defray all, or any part of, its paper
issues in demand. We adopt this measure, on the
plea and assurance of its wise author, that its direct
tendency will be to control those exchanges ; and (by
rectifying their tendency to turn against us) to keep
our gold in the country. But the foreign exchanges
—unlike the House of Commons—have a will of
their own, and little regard for the sagacity of the
Minister who talks of regulating their action. They
do turn against us. The gold flows rapidly away from
The great currency manufactory or depot. Its hoard
declines from week to week by millions. Well, the
foreign exchanges, irreverently quizzing the mone-
tary nostrums of Sir ROBERT PEEL, amuse them-
selves by rising and falling again. Alas ! for the Bank
of England ; no corresponding tide of Pactolus flows
into their emptied cellars. The exchanges,' unlike
the moon, exercise no certain or sensible attraction
on the tides of—bullion! The Threadneedle-street
manufacturers are at their last gasp—the curtain is
about to drop on the tragic close of their exist-
ence—when lo! their good genius in this exi-
gency (dignus vindice nodus) arrives to save them—
not in the fragile form of a Hamburgh " Price
Current," or a Table of the Foreign Exchanges—
but in the substantial reality of a Dover clipper, full
freighted with golden sovereigns. On the failure of
the Ministerial expectations, formed by the Govern-
ment in 1826, of the remedial consequences that they
anticipated from the formation of joint-stock banks,
their successors in administration discovered, from
the experience of 1832, 1836, and 1839, " that the
mere convertibility of paper into gold was not a secu-
rity against these fluctuations."
And yet to this destructive, clumsy, uncontroll-
able machinery for regulating our monetary
system, thus proved to be radically vicious in design,
and incompatible in its working with the "great princi-
ple" which it was devised expressly to effectuate, Sir
ROBERT PEEL iS so spell bound, after having received
all kinds of magnetic passes from his professional
adviser, Mr. JONES Loyn, as to propose
giving further extension, by the still more
mischievous " final complement " now before
the Legislature. In this " great principle " of
deception is found the principle of the Bill of
1819. The vast majority of the House of Commons
have been also so effectually mesmerised, as, defying
the evidence of their own blunted senses and percep-
tions, implicitly to confide, for a means of escape
from those tremendous difficulties and dangers which
are indeed at hand, but which would have no present
existence were that principle disincorporated frotn
the statute-hook, to this " final complement."

On a future occasion we shall advert to the more
important features of this instructive debate, espe-
cially Lord MoNTEAGLE's objection to the proposed
limitation of the Bank issues ; to Lord ASHBURTON'S
references to the opinions formerly advocated by
himself on the subject of a double standard of gold
and silver ; and to Sir R. FEELS erroneous version
of the Acts of Parliament making silver a legal tender
within a giVen amount only.

Madrid journals of the 7th have been received, but
they bring no news. Pompous declamations appear
in most of them relative to the Morocco war, and if
we were to believe all that these miserable boasters
state, the war cannot last for a month. Spain, by
her strong arm, will obtain reparation not only for the
insult offered her by the Moors, but will take pos-
session of an extensive tract of country adjoining
Ceuta, where she will establish a strong line of forts.
A letter from Seville states that M. CARDER°,
who was lately arrested at Madrid, has passed through
the former city closely guarded.
On the 6th, the Three per Cents. were quoted at
25i for cash, 26 at sixty days, and the Fives at 191.

In the French Chamber of Deputies on Friday the
navy estimates were passed, and an extraordinary
credit of 8,000,000 francs were voted for the current
year. Though the pamphlet of the Prince DE JOIN..
VILLE made a vast noise at the time of its publication,
and angry debates were expected when the marine
budget was brought forward, no allusion was made
to it on Friday. Possibly even the opposition thought
there was too much truth in the statements made by
the Prince, and the less said on such a painful subject
the better. In reference to the expedition sent to
Morocco, M. LIIEBBETTE wished to know if events
in that quarter would not occasion an increase of
their expenses. Considerable sums of money were
due for former expeditions. For that of 1823, Spain
owed 43 millions ; for that of 1827 to Greece, 6 mil-
lions were due; that to Belgium, in 1831, 2 millions ;
to Mexico in 1838, 6 millions; to Buenos Ayres, 16
millions, giving a total of 73 millions. He hoped,
too, that the Emperor of Monocco should be made to
defray the present expenses, whatever they might
amount to.

Admiral MACKAU could tranquillise the Hon.
Deputy's mind on the subject, as the vessels and fri-
gates sent to the coasts of Morocco would not at pre-
sent occasion any additional expense. This squadron
was furnished by the usual vessels on duty. If the
character of this demonstration should by chance be
afterwards changed, and war should break out, he felt
confident that the expense would not be at the charge
of France.

A letter from Oran of the 28th ult., in the Algerie,
gives an account of the arrival in the roadstead of the
squadron commanded by the Prince DE JOINVILLE,
at four in the afternoon, and adds : _ _

" The three ships of the line and the frigate Belle Poule
have on board 700 marines, 208 artillerymen (2 batteries),
and 150 of the 3d regiment of Engineers. Independent of
these troops, there have beenorgani.sed on board the squadron