The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-13 00:00:00

onerous duti. s, and, by t ompromising our neutrality, would compensate for errors in legislation not committed by them, but
materially impair, if nor estroy, that confidence we Lave here- by their rulers, lmides the greater part of 14 million_ more for
tofore been favoured with by all classes of the public, stamps and postages, houses and windows, the whole of which
- .4. Signed, on-behalf of the meeting, ought to be paid by the rich, or by those who are above want, ae•
"CH RI sTOPIIER HES, Chairman. cording to their respective means, is an impest of such magni-
STEPHEN N. ELRINGTON, Secretary. tube, to be made without reason on men who are wholly
" January 10.'
unprepared to meet and unable to bear it, as cannot fail
to ex-
When the above reso!ution was adopted, the meeting cite feelings, not merely of disconteot in those whetn it Ores,
adjourned." but of indignation in every lib:lid mind.-
REPRESENTATION or TIPPERARY. It came suddenly upon the people, and such was their eon,
There is a letter in town to-day which slates that the Re- stern lion at the time, such their perpetual harass of Mind ever
peelers are coniplet,ly nonplussed for a candidate, Mr. Maher since to be able to stand their ground, that they have not yet
havieg declined the honour %Odell was cut out for him. Tie had leisure to inquire how, or why, or by wh, se fault, they are
lion Mr. (-'Callaghan, son of Lord Lismore, is now spoken thus overwhelmed with difficulties which thicken as the years
of ; but it is ar more probable that Mr. Daniel O'Connell, jun., roll on. In the interim, they are told by those public wrttors
will be the opponent of %Ir. Ponsonby Barker. and public speakers who profess to be their friends, that all is
"NATIONAL" POETRY. going on right. " Wait a little longer (they say), and we will
The following specimen of Irish manufacture, being a corn- j get the taxes repealed which oppress you.' But if a mistake has
panio.,-piece to the exquisite lyric, " Papa, who is the Saxon?" been committed, if those taxes ought not to fall upon them at and from the same hand, makes its timely appearance in the why should they wait a day ? Why should they not petition at
Freeman of this day. It is headed— once that these taxes should be charged as before to the eon-
" MILLIONS, TO TIIE RESCUE r sumers of commodities? If Government will not furnish the
" Up. up, to the rescue—the war-whoa?, resounds, means of carrying them to their destination by an issue of
And your bravestare game for the Sassenach hounds ; paper money, they can, at all events, commute them for a pro-
Up, to the rescue, and rally to save
perty tax, and so relieve the producer. But whatever is done
Or ye boast not one drop of the blood' of the brave. should be done quickly, firthousands of lives are lost while
" Old tyranny oft played the game with our sires, we hesitate.
And they pert-hed, alas ! in rebellion's dread fires;
But your tactics are now to await the attack,
And you scatter, for ever, the Sassenach pack.
" Each moment of life is a moment of pain
To the bondman who tamely submits to the chain,
And remember, posterity honours his grave
Who tights I:ke the valiant, or falls like the brave.
"Be true to your chief—hold the hell-hounds at bay—
Shun treason and traitors, but shun not the fray;
Let the onset be theirs, and each forest and glen
shall rock at the rush of our warrior men.
" Together, together, stand firm as yet,
Aud fling fierce defiance at tyranny's threat—
Up, up, to the rescue, and. rally to save,
Or ye boast not one drop of the blood of the brave."

THE CURRENCY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN,

_ .
• Dear Sir,—Your Correspondent, Mr. Vedic, has favoured
us with an article on the Currency, exhibiting much industry,
but, unfortunately, based upon erroneous principles. He assails
a most mischievous institution, but dues so upon utterly untena-
ble grounds.
As the error is in principles, more than in details, and, as the
latter are voluminous, I shall confine myself to one sentence,
which is the key to Mr. Pedie's position.
This- gentleman. after comparing the average issue of the
Bank of Eegland, for the three mi nths ending January, 1841,
with the i sue in those ending January 1843, and showing that
the issue in the latter exceeded that of the former by five mil-
lions, proceeds thus:—" This expansion of the currency,. it is
clear, raised the money price of all commodities about 33 per
cent. above those at which they stood for the three Months
cr.ding with January 1841."
Now if " all commodities" rose in prie, of course land and
the Government securities rose likewise. We cannot suppose
that a merchant who, dealing in 500 articles. of each of which
he possessed a thou Sand pounds' worth, found each 1,0001. bud-
defile raised to 1,3304, could find no alteration in the nine of
the s.um he might have in the Three-and-a-Half per Cents.
If corn is at a high price, land becomes more valual le, as the
instrument by which corn is produced. If iron douh!'es in
value, an iron mine fetches more in the ma: ket.
Now the capital ecs:essed by the inhabitants of this country,
if we incluite the funds, is probably litt!e under 3.500
millions. It may be objected that Consols are cot a capital.
Assuredly they are not national wealth ; but being in the na-
ture of a mortgage on the physical and mental cling es of the
popelation, they become a saleable capital to individuals.
Mr. Pedie's proposition, then, taken rigidly, is, that a traria-
tint of five millions in currency makes an alteration of 1,155
millons in the value of our capital I l—a disproportion between
cau•e and effect with a vengeance !! !
However, we will eltal gently and liberally with the proposi-
tion, and assuming a vastly smaller ratio of operation on land
and funds than on other commodities, we will take the amount
at only a fourth part, say roundly 288 millions—nay, let us
throw in the odd 34 millions, and confine ourseives to the
neat, compact little sum of 250 millions—arid then ark tie
most desperate and credu,ou, of theorists, whether it is pose
Oak, for him to believe that a public company can, by theissue
of fire millions of notes, raise the value of our espttal to the
extent of 250 millions !! !
Mr. Pritie cannot be otherwise than honoured by compari-
son with a.writer whose admirable virtues so well accord-with
her splendid and powerful talents-1 allude to Miss Martineau.
That lady, in one of her tales, intended to enforce and illus-
trate the doctrines of political economy, introduces a bode. of
people in Siberia, who established a currency of mouse--skins,
and the amiable authore.' 'icing an unflinching believer in the
potent rictim of a currency) finishes her account nf a- day's
trailing thus:—

THE CURRENCY.
PAPER MONEY VINDICATED.
A certain measure of value is necessary, if we would hold
commerce with foreign counties; and the average price of
wheat over the Ct.ntinent of Europe in gold or silver gives that
m. a•ure. It three quarters of an ounce of silver be the average
value of a bushel of wheat in England, and that quantity be
coined into s. 100. (at ss. 2d. per ounce), the quarter will
be worth 31a. If one ounce of silver be its average equivalent,
the price of the quarter will be 41s. 4d.e To preserve perfect
unio-may of price in gold or silver at all timers, on the average
of seven or ten years, it should he the duty of Parliament, on
any petition to that affect being presented from those who con-
e...lye the mselves aggrieved, to ascertain whether the measure
has departed from the standard ; that is, whether since the last
arrangement more or less silver or gold had become the average
ria.urai equivalent of a bushel or a quarter of wheat; and to
slier the shilling and the pound sterling in weight accordingly.
Finless this be done, a sudden influx of the precious metals
might take place, from•new discoreriei of mines, or from im-
proved meteods of working those in use, which would have
.he effect, m a few years, of altering the measure of value to so
great a degree that fixed sums payable for a lorg series of years,
might not be of half the worth they are at present. How many
payments made by public companies and other corporate bodies,
on account of trusts confided to them centuries ago; are reduced
to eomparatiaely nothing, from the want of such a committee
for the supervision of the coin as that which is proposed ! How
many charities have bran injured by inattention to this plain
duty of Ciovernment ! Perhaps nothing has so much contri-
buted to deter people from making charitable bequests in
money, as the thought, that in the lapse of years it will have
become of little value. But without taking so wide a range,
every anitlord who lets a farm or house on lease, and every
teriaat also who takes either, ought to be protected from such
natural dierease or diminution in the value of our coin as he
finds to be attended with practical loss or inconvenience to
liimeelf. From 1287 to 1338 that quantity of silver which is
now (entree it to 335. Bd. would purchase, on the average a
quarter of wheat. From 1339 to 1451, the price of a (emitter
was 21s. 3d. of our present money. From 1453 to h;6O, it
took only 10a. of the sanic money to buy a quarter of wheat.
During the whole period silver had become so enhanced in
value that on., shilling was worth in the last I.undred years as
much as three hart been in the first hundred years, and as two
in the tnidele period ; so that in the course of a century he who
• oritracted at the beginning to pay a certain sum, th n called
lON., had to ray at the end what was still called 1001., though
it was really weal' 204)1. From 1561 to 1700 the value of
silver decreased in comparison with corn, being on the aver.. fie
of that whole per ott exchangeable in the proportion of 15s.
against the quarter of wheat, by which the receivers of fixed in-
come were injured, being paid notquite 25/. in the name of 1(101.
Ender the direction of a " Canunittee for the Supervision of
Coin," the pound in gold or silver will always represent, or he
exchangeebie for, an equal quantity of %sliest, taking the ave•
rage of a number of years. Let it be supposed, then, that 31s.
or 3.5 s or 40, is the true measure of value for a quarter of
wheat in Eriglane ; as there is no doubt that this sum reprc-
sera, the natural value of wheat, it is just and necessary as a
measure of value between different rations, for without this or
some such meanie they could not adjust the value of their re-
spective mnimed ties io the common market of the civilised
world. But what is ju t and necessary between the inhabitants
of erifferent countries may not 1 e equally or at all so between
the different inhabitants of the same country. Before we can
dere canine whether they are all entitled to be treated as the
inhabitants of another State, and paid according to the natural
measure o value, we 'nu t see whether there are not some eir,
cuniatances affecting the value of money, applicable to them,
and not to the foreigner.
They differ from him in the fact of being liable to a different
degree of taxation. Every man is protected in his person and
p.op,,rty by the State in which he resides, f r which protectiere
he has to pay the State ; and this is evidently a payment which
neither ought to be nor can be exacted from the inhabitants of
a for. ign state by another Power, but e hich allay reasonably
enough be required of the denizens of each particular county.
Whether it ought to be so required from them, as to cause Buy
difference in the price of commodities, will deliefid upon the
erode or taxation,
Suen taxation as falls upon realised Property, independent of
lamb-, needs not at d will not add to prices. Whatever suns
are 1. vied as a tax on land, or on capital in the abstract, as to.
impel ty in the funds, arediaeetly takan frtan ;he parties, and
Deed not add to prices. If the landowner says, " I ray all tee
bureees of the State, arid for some cf them, at least, I ought to
be reimburs d ; it is but tair, therefore, that I should be allowed
to dernaad more rent for my land than before this tax was
levied :" the ease r would be, " If you increase the rent of
your .and, the farmer must have an increased price for his
corn ; and the manufacturer who consumes it, paying that
advaneed price, must have an increased price for his pro•
dilations. If Le gets this by our interdict of foreign goods,
except under payment of a certain duty, which is the only way
he cart ge. it and keep it, you must pay a higher price for every
thing you buy, and the outgoings would, in that case, greatly
exceed the additional sum you receive from your increased rent.
If we do not protect him from foreign competition, he cannot
produce his goods with so much advantage to himself here as
abroad, and he will soon transport his manufacture to countries
where corn is cheaper, by which means you will lose far more
in the end than the tax for which you are contending."—Such
taxes then as these, wh.ch do not require or necessarily lead to
an advance in the price of confine dities, may be levied without
causing a difference ;o die individuals of a country in the price
paid by them and by those of other countries. But thiS is not
the general character of our taxation. There may be, th4efore,
other circumstances connected with it which will have an effect
on prices, considered with reference to individuals of the same
count, y.
'I hat there are such circumstances will be clearly evident,
when we consider that our large revenue is nearly all derived
from titres on the following articles : —Malt, hops,•beer, wine,
spirits, sugar, tea, coffee, tobacco and snuff, corn, butter, cheese,
currants and raisins, cotton, wool, silk, printed goods, hides and
skins, paper, soap, candles and tallow, auctions, licenses, coats
glass, timber, bricks, &c. From the taxes laid on these articles,
under the head of Customs and Excise, we raise the sum of
forty millions annually, and horn the Stamps, Assessed Taxes,
and Feist-office about fourteen minions more, making in the
whole about fifty-four millions for the year 1830. All these
taxes, or nearly all, are not directly drawn from the parties
who are intended ultimately to pay them : they are first paid
by the producer or vi nder, and he charges them, with some
profit for his outlay, to the consumer, whence they ere called
taxes on consumption.
Now how is the producer to charge these taxes to the con-
sumer. unless he can add them to the natural price ?" There is
clearly no other way. But if he adds them to thenatural price,
his commodities will then be so much dearer than the same kind
of articles pro weed on the Continent by all the difference be.
tweet, our taxation and that of other countries. The conse-
quence of this will be, that the Englishman cannot afford to
take the same price in the common market of Europe which
will compensate nu ri of other countries ; he must have more,
or he must lose the extra amount he has paid in taxes. lie
cannot get mole in an open market, and therefore he is shut
out altogether ; or he loses the amount of his taxes, in which
case, the producer, and not the consumer, pays those taxes
which ate then erroneously called taxes on consumption.
Perhaps you will say, " Ile has got die home market to him-
self, and in that he gets repaid his tax." If Government were
to lay protecting duties on all the above commodities, and the
preventive-service men were to exercise a vigilant scrutiny, we
might prof ably succeed in keeping up such a price at home, in
gene. al, as would repay him ; but he is at all times liable to be
injured in the extent of his trade by the successful issue of
smuggling transactions ; to guard against which additional
sums of money must be spent, which will render additional
taxes necessary.
We will suppose, however, that he could be protected from
competition with foreigners in the home market, on all articles
specially taxed ; what in the next place is to save him from that
same competition to all other things? Men who pay taxis
on corn, neer, clothing, &c., on everything, in short, which
is needful for their support or c.omfort while engaged in pro-
ducing the various commodities by the sale of which they
live, niust charge for everything they produce a
price as much higher than the natural price as that
taxation which is peculiar to them amounts to. They
must therefore be enabled to advance every commodity that
can be offered for sale to a higher price than their conti-
nental rival, or they are not repaid in the same degree that he
is. All competition must therefore be guarded against in the
home market, in every kind of good., or the Englishman has
nut jusico done him. As this cannot be done, it follows that
with a metallic currency he cannot escape suffering in the de-
gree in which he is taxed beyond these persons who ate engaged
in the production of commodities in other-countries.
But it will be said that there are some article; which the
foreigner produce-, and the Englishman cannot pretend to
produce, such as wine, brandy, &c., and he is at least not liable
to injury here ? I tear, however, that this fact alto will militate
against him. Whatever is imported for sale here ought to be
paid ter by the export of some other articles. The foreigner
has a bill on England for the amount of his wine, which he
wenta to make the most of. If he buys English goods with it,
he most pay so much more for them, as the taxation adds to
natui al p. ice. He prefers going to a cheaper market, and con-
seqaentry receives gold tor his bill, with which he can buy more
goods in other countries than here. Heavy sacrifices are made
by the Englishman to prevent this; and, especially after his gold
has been tarried away, his price lowers; fir he has then to
tempt the foreign purchaser, in order to get it back again, by
the superior h. apness of our commodities comparediwith those
of ;ess taxed eountries. In doing this he loses even more than
the, taxes whie h he has paid ; and that he loses these is the
point which I have been proving.
If this representation be true, it will follow that prices in
a metallic curieney cannot be maintained in England, fur a
continuance, higher than they are in neighbouring countries, or
than natural price warrants. Ity a desperate struggle for life or
death, our productive classes have for along time upheld them,
in defiance of every disadvantage under which an unwise Go-
reinment has compelled them to labour; but prices still are
gradusliy sinking, and must soon find their true level. For
s.xteee yearat the productive classes have been paying the
gi ester part of forty millions a year in tastes, which ought not to
h:.ve been required of them ; taxes whiZ:h should have fallen al-
together on the consumer ; and they still remain 'crushed to the
eat th by this terrible visitation upon them of a burden which they
were never intended to bear, nor can bear much longer. Forty
milli ne to he taken every year from the working classes, to

•• By Er nest's help, and to her own utter astonishment, she"
(the lucky original possessor of a mouse's skin, intrinsically
worth one fatthing) ‘. presently fund he,self inis•rets of a
prfect pa's of patter's of the finest wickerwork, a large packet of
tea Odell had just crossed the fr artier, pepper enough to last
the winter, and a vigor.;us young reindeer ! !!"
Your readers may rssibly smile. at this astounding specimen
of the lenwh to which a thorough theorist wid go ; Lut as-
sert dly Alr. Pedie beats the lady hollow
The real truth is, that, with certain snialeree allowances end
res, rvations, prices are but Rile affecte.l by variations in the
currency. I' (feet has been confounded with cause. trade is
not brisk because currency is abundant ; hut currency is abun-
dant because trade is brisk.

If the transactions of a country are doubled, its currency
must be increased ; if greatly diminished, p per goes back to
its issuers. Bankers' issur's are naturally governed by the de-
mand for their goods ; they may be occasionally rather-too
facile in parting with teir property, as the wine merchant or
diaper is, but, as a general rule, the body trust, on the
only those SN I Q may reasonably be cal:cued to rim them, and
who will not borrow, and pay interest on, more capital than-they
think they can advarragrously employ.
The fundamental " original sin," which lies at the boo of
all ecrrency theories (of the usual school), is the mystiticaim
sb tri a .‘ standard of value."
There is no such vandard—if it means something which' will
always command the saw amount of those other things which
men consider valuable.

PRESENTATION OF THE lIUM kNE SOCIETY'S
MEDAL TO A FRENCH SAlLOlL—Yesterday a deputation
from the Humane Society, consi,titig of Sir E. Cothington,
Captain Codrington, M.P., Mr. Ilao es, M. P., Ste., presented
to Jean J. Gasvert, a sailor on board the French f.igtee
Cuvier, lying off Mad:wall, a siiver medal, for having, at the,
risk of his °on life, saved a gentlcaman of the name of Turner
from drowning on Christmas-eve. 'I he gtn;letuan had ;arm
into the liver from Blackwall-pier.
11. G. WARD, ESQ., M.P —We tire rtjuited to
learn that our able representative Mr. Ward, in a letter to Mr.
Alderman Dunn, has arranged to meet hiconstit2ents iu Shef-
field, on Monday, the 22d instant.
PIZEACHERSIIII' Or LINCOLN'S INN.—Yesterday the
Bev.- J. S. Anderson, M.A. incumbent of Trinity Church,
Brighton, and chaplain to the Queen Dowager, was elected
Preacher of Lincolh's Inn, vice -the Rev. Dr. Lotudale, pro-
moted to the see of Lichfield.

A grand Masonic hall will he given next week in uid
of "'f he Aged Masons' Asylum." The proceeds are set .apart
entinly for this charitable purpose, and, we have no doubt, the
" brethren " s i il, as usual, show their liberality on the oe-
cmion.

ENCROACHMENT 01. TIIE SEA.—ill consequence of
scvelal falls of the cliff at Black-rock, the eastern extrerr\ity of
Brighton, the carriage road is considered dangerous, ar,d a new
road is now forming, nearly fi.ty feet more inland, whieh
makes the third road rnarle within the last twenty-five years.
One has been completely washed away, and the seccnd now
on the very brink of the cliff. Formerly cricket matches were
played by the Brightonians, on a green in fr, nt of the Aberga-
vertu), Arms Inn, which must now be occupied by the carriage
road.

FLUENCY OF TIM EMU SEX.—Mr Yoaniley,
speaking of the eause, varieties, &c., a stammering, observes,
" It is of rare occurrence in the female sex, the proportion of
female eases bring not more than seven per rent !" Married
men, we opine, have h•ng been aware of this great fact."
11'hen the late John KernMe was one day pat•sing
along Cheapside, he was met by two chimney. sweet s, the
younger one accosted the elder one thus—'• I say, Bill, there
goes a player man." " Oh, don't insult him, Jack," raid the
other; "no one knows what anybody may come to."
lIEFINEMENT.—In Dresden, a little ragged *.child
was heard to call from the window of a mean house, to her op-
posite neighbour—" Please Mrs. Muller, mother scads het best
compliments, and, if it's fine weather, would you go a begging
with her to-morrow

_ .
IVIANCHE,,TEIt UNION HOSPITAL.—The. Senate of
the University of Londun has recently r«,,,gni4d- Ccr-
titica!es or Attendance, on the Medical Pracuce and Clt-
nical Lectures of the ALtnchet:tpr Utii.,n Hospital.—
ilfedicit Garcite.

On the last Sunday in the old year, as the governor
of the Bingham Union Poorhouse was escorting the
inmates to the pari*h church, which has bcen
custom ever since the formation of the union, a number
of the pnupers withdrew front the proees:ion; and
entered the Primitive Methodist Chapel ; for this
breach of discipline, the governor br,mght them before
the magistrates on the 4th instant, %ago the Bench
decided in favour of the paupers, allowing them the
privilege to attend What place of-worshio they thought
proper, so as they returned in the pr, per time to• the
workhouse. On Sunday lust, they embraced the privi-
lege of attending the Wesleyan chapel in the morning,
nubile Primitive. Methodist chapel in the afrernoem.—
Not I.nglia ni Review.
While fishing for pike in the river . ill on Thurs-
day wct Ic, John Care, Esq., of' Heti& ley, hook.-ti and
killed a fine speeimen of sea trout, Or Salmi) Trutta,
Marina, ‘veiglit six and a hall pounds, a cfretuns! ance not
usual at this season of the year.--Newcastle Adeo

* 1 have mated the natural trice of corn in silver or gold
thus h)pothesically because opinions differ on the•subject of its
actual 41119Ulit.
fi This was written in 1833:

Did a pound weight of gold cenimand the same number of
posuds weight ef iron, sugar, and -tour, six months prier and
six months subsequent to the bat le of Waterloo?
A circulating medium., f any Lind is merely an instilment
.1 exchange—a kiod of unit of cemparison—a cenvenieuee,
saving the trouble ~t barter;-anal such a convenience will
always be created by tke •itigeouity of man. In one State
luather, in another iron, in a third shells, in a fourth pi:o, in
a fifth silver, in a sixth p.iter, has been used.
It is a curious fact that the most abskract and I.l,iloSephical
view of the matter is takers by the n'-glue's of Africa. who have
an entirely ideal -unit of comparison, called a " bar,' and
•ho
cx,hatige so many " bars" of tobacco fur to many " hara" of
ivory—so many " bars" of gold du.t against so many "bare" of
rum=-so many ',r bars" of palm oil against so many " bafa" of
.poe r, he.
It would be a"conE•UTumation devoutly to he wished" if we
cou'd ship off our cur: eney theorists to catharia
BEIRNIARD.
l'. S. The wisest mea- use, in respect to tie cur:en, y, would
be that s,ggested (I believe) by some of your correspecdeeta,
viz., that Government should issue, by d, gr,es, forty or ii.ty
ruilii.ins of Sfate notes, receivable in payne nt of taxes. ilts
would certainly drive in a considerable amount of our present
paper (and release much p',l f,:r purposes of I,rtigi:
merce), but it would make the pubis:. indept-ndept of barking
whims, and do away with all the stuff about "a metallic' 'cur-
rency"—physically impossible, if even desirable; and hot to he
desired, were it otheraite.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SL?.V.
Sir,—Since writing my observations en Mr. Pedie's first
letter, I have s,.en, but not had time kro peruse his secand ;' if I// find anything requiring further übseAatior, I will trouble you
with a few lines. I row address ou chiefly to notice some
observations of Germ/mica' my last.
It is sciireely nece y more than that he offer., no
proof that paper was ted, nor even a shadow of argu-
ment. Supposing we •e to concede all he assumes, as to
variation of relation be: teen gold and pal er, it would not in-
validate my obser,atjasn that the Change of ratio was occasioned.
not by diminishs44l`alue of paper, but enhanced value of gold
( which was Mt it at demand to pay a million of soldiers of dif-
ferent nations under arms during the late war).
If a banker elle, issued a hundred thousand pounds worth of
notes were required to withdraw them when gold was at an ad=
vaneed pi ice, his property might be diminished by the reees-sity of buying the gold, but earls note, instead of being depre-
ciated, would (as I have observed in a prior cummunicition)
be enhanced, because by its exchange far gold every hbltier
would be iut in the command of more sugar, iron, he., than
he could have e-mmanded when he took the note.
As to Parliament preventingethe depreciation of paper' the
job would be by no• means harder, nor a whit less difficult, than
the same body r,gulating the quantity of sunshine which
should fall or, each acre of land in the country. Parliament
may enact that a turnip shall be of equal value re a pine-apple
—and when alter such an rnactmert we find the holder of a
pine-apple exchange it fur a turnip, I will concede the Whole
question of depreciation to " Gerinanicus."—Always yours,
HEIR:SI/EMI