The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FRA3I THI3 EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
STANDARD.— The Three per Cent. Consols
were yesterday at par. One hundred pounds in stock
selling far one hundred gold sovereigns. This marks
an epoch in our history which suggests many im-
portant reflections. Ninety-five years have passed
since public credit occupied the same proud posi-
tion ; the Three per Ceat- Stock has not been at
par since 1749, and in 1749 the public debt was
little more than one-tenth of its present amount—
namely, about eerenty- eight millions sterling. The in-
crease of the debt were but an equivocal proof of the
increase of the wealth, even of those to whom the debt
is due., and the reverse of a proof of the increased
wealth of those by whom it is due, were it depreciated
in value ; but rising as it rises in price, it affords a
gratifying demonstration of the- enormously aug-
mented affluence of both. The nation is now be-
lieved—and the belief is all in such a case—
as well able to meet engagements of 750
millions, as it was believed able• to meet 78 millions
of engagements in 1749. As regards the stock-
holders, therefore, the capitalists in the country
have multiplied nearly tenfold in value in the
95 years ' and the wealth of their debtors must have
increased at least tenfold also; but this is not an
adequate view of the subject. The improvement in
the price of stock is not the work of 95 years; it
has been effected, and in a far greater degree, in
just half the period. At the commencement of 1798,
the price of the Three per Cents. was 47,
less than half the price at par, the present price ;
many millions of the stock, now worth its full
price, was then, and for several years before and
after, bought at half, or less than half,
the price that it would now bring. .And
at that time the public debt—the amount, in fact,
of stook in the market—was little more than half
what it is at present, confining the market even
to the public stock ; not one-third, if we add the
various other stocks on sale—all 23 it were
bidding higher prices against the public stock. In
the year 1798, then, the market offering certainly less
than one-half the present amount of securities of all
kinds, more than one-half, in fact not one-half, the
present price could be obtained for the best among
them. It is true that 1798 was a year of
alarm. The French was- was at the time at
its height ; and the rebellion in Ireland,
which the lately convicted conspirators have
been labouring to repeat, ..was impending ; but
the state of the stock market for years before and
after 1798 prove that the effect of the immediate alarm
was not very considerable. The money was want-
ing ; the State wanted to borrow more than the people
had to lend. The people are now, however, able to
pay twofold what they borrowed 50 years ago.
Whoever lent the public 5001. in 1798 has had six
per cent. for his money for 46 years, and
may now receive 1,0001. This is to support public
credit, and public credit is strength and safety.
Bnt credit is not strength and safety only. The
example which it has been our business to note this
day—the example of a nation whose securities stand
at par, after such augmentations of her debt, and such
dangers and difficulties as Great Britain has had to
struggle with during the last half century, this exam-
ple is a means of economy no less than of strength and
safety. In no possible adverse conjecture can
Great Britain ever again hare to borrow at such a
disadvantage as in 1798. A -Whig Government
could do much ; a Whig Government, in fact, not
only checised the upward progress of the public
securities, but even reduced the Three per Cents.
from 92 to 88, in the 11 years between 1830 and
1841 ; but we may almost defy a Whig Govern-
ment even to reduce the price of securities again
ifiuch below 90. The grould has been made good
so far ; the capital is in the country, and, what is not
lees important, is shown to be in the country. It
must be employed, and this we must all have learned,
both by experience and by the discussions of the last
few years, that capital not only grows faster than the
polls:lotion, but much faster than the means of profit-
ably employing it can grow, do all that we can by
industry end enterprise. This ()tens a view as to the
future—hitherto we have referred chiefly to the past.
The Three per Cent. Consols have risen to par from
88, during less then three years of Sir Robert Peel's
Administration ; and what is to be above all things
remembered, they have risen concurrently with
a prodigious outlay in railroads and other specula-
tions absorbent of wealth, and with a very great
Improvement in commercial industry and enter-
prise, as the financial returns attest. Will the price
rest permanently at par ? We ask will the price
rest permanently at par, because we can imagine
many reasons that will operate to suspend the
upward progress for a season. But upon what
ground is it to be assumed that the elastic move-
ment which has raised the public securities 12 per
cent. in less than three years, will not continue its
force beyond the present point ? IVe confess that we
can find no such ground Capital will continue to
increase beyond the means of employing it, so long as
the commerce and manufactures of the country shall
prosper; publib credit, if capable of improvement,
will continue to improve, and the time may thus be
brought on when men, unable to obtain two per cent.
upon any other secure investment of money, will gladly
take two-and-a-half or even two-and• a quarter,
through the purchase of public stock. It is thin that the
"I,,ight hundred millions inscribod on the wall,"
so muclian object of terror a few years ago will be
effaced or regarded as an object of indifference.
Twenty years more of European peace and of moral
improvement at horns would effect it all, and what are
twenty years in the life of' a nation ? Our readers
will scarcely think these reflections out of place when
they consider the occasion of them.
GLOBE.—It is no part Of our duty to settle the
relative value of the Standard's "authorised," and
" unauthorised," communications. Whether the
latter or the former be most deserving of credence,
or whether they be alike worthless, may be safely
left to the discernment of the public, aided by the
experience which our Contemporary has supplied in
the frequent detections and exposures of his most
confidently-affirmed and reiterated statements.
The position which the Standard occupies with
reference t' the National Board of Education in Ire-
land—the Irish clergy—and Sir Robert Peel, is evi-
dently one of considerable embarrassment. It has
been positively and repeatedly affirmed, and is
generally believed, in Ireland, that Sir Robert
Peel has intimated that preferment will be, in
future, withheld from such of the Irish clergy
as persist in opposing and counteracting the
operations of the national system of education in
that country. The Standard positively affirmed, with
all the confidence of authority, that there was not
a single word of truth in this statement. It now
admits that the contradiction, thus positively given,
was not supplied by authority; but still persists in
its' truth. In the meanwhile the aspect of affairs
in Ireland tends to confirm the belief that some
such determination has been come to by the Go-
vernment, and an explicit intimation thereof been
made to those whom it specially concerns to
comply' with it. The Parliamentary grant to the
Educational Board in Ireland is incrtased ; and the
allowance from the Ecclesiastical Commission to the
parish clerks who aot as schoolmasters in the sehocls,
set up by the.clergy in opposition to the Government
schools, is withdrawn. But what is mire remarkable,
as confirmatory of the report which is re-iterated by
the Dublin Mail—the recognised, and generally ac-
cusately informed, organ of the Ultra- Protestant
party in Ireland, with which journal the statement
originated—is, that the Government organ (the Dublin
Packet) has, ever since the report was published, em •
ployed its most persuasive powers to effect an acquies-
cence by the clergy with the supposed determination
of the Government to maintain and extend the Na-
tional System of Education. " A crisis has arrived
in the affairs of lie Church. The time has come
when longer opffisition to the National Schools
will be not only useless, but mischievous. Make
a virtue of necessity ; and submit with a good
grace to that which, if an evil, is inevitable.'
This, is substance, and almost in words, is
the advice which the leading journal of the
Irish Government addresses to, and urges upon,
the truculent Clergy with reference to the system of
popular education they have endeavoured to counter-
act and destroy. In the last number of the Packet
which has reached this country, we find the same
subject disctssed, and compliance with the Go-
vernment views and purposes enforced, with increased
earnestness. A few sentences will illustrate the al-
tered state of circumstances which the Irish organ of
the Ministry endeavours to impress on the clergy of
the Established Church in Ireland :--
" Often as the subject of National Education has at,
tracttd the public mind, never was such engrossing in-
terest fixed upon it as at the present moment. We are
deeply convinced that there is a critical turning point
now, and that the welfare of the Church of Ireland very
much depends upon the manner in which she guides her-
s*" at this nice and difficult juncture. We are anxious,
therefore, fearlessly to discharge our duty as public
monitors, and to offer such practical iuggestions as flow
frail our own most careful consideration of this mo-
mentous question."
"It is seldom," says the wily inculcator of s uh-
raiseon to the will of the powers that be—"it is
seldom, alas ! that a public man can act merely on
abstract principles of what is best, per se. One point
seems fixed —that Government will continue the
National Board. All sides seem to agree on that.
Their resolution seems to gain force and fixedness."
Well, and what then ? Do systems change their
nature from evil to good as political parties rise and
fall ? Does the policy which was fraught with mischief
to she interests of Protestantism, when administered
by a Whig Government, become the source of blessing
when meted upon by a Conservative Administration ?
Let us ponder well the suggestions of the Government
scribe, who advises the most sturdy of the clerical op-
ponents of the National Board to consider their ways
And be wise
But, perhaps, some will cry out 'shame What