The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-29 00:00:00

tempt which he felt for their conduct) they preferred
making a purse of two or three hundred pounds to
educate their eldest sons at Oxford or Cam-
bridge, and left all the rest of the family
to grow up in ignorance." This is ano-
ther striking illustration of that rage for
the genteel and the respectable, which is so
conspicuous a feature of the present day. It is asto-
nishing what pecuniary sacrifices, even men who are
fund of money and are impressed with a most ex-
alted notion of its value, will make in order to esta-
blish a claim to gentility ! Why do not our citizens
allow their sons to be educated at University Col-
lege ? The system of tuition pursued there is a cheap
one, and it is also of the highest and most
efficient character. Granted, but then it is not gen-
teel—it is not something to boast of in the way of
superior respectability ! A rich London tradesman
feels no self-exaltation—no pleasing thrill of vanity
at telling his friends and acquaintances that his son
goes to University College; but he does feel his self-
complacency exalted, when he has it in his power to
inform them that he has a son at Oxford or Cam-
bridge. The very announcement of such a fact
raises him in his own estimation—it is a proof
that he is a man of substance—of respect-
ability—that he is a member of the thriving
family of the Somebodies. And yet, at Uni-
versity College, his son is sure to receive a sound edu-
cation ; moreover, he is still under the parental eye,
and freed from all temptations to extravagance ; whilo,
at Oxford or Cambridge, he is far away from home ;
constant opportunities of running into expense and
dissipation are allowed him ; and the odds are that,
long ere the period arrives for taking his degree, he
is inextricably involved in debt, and has learned
nothing but the art of killing time, injuring his
health, and blighting his prospects for life!

A letter from Mr. CAYLEY, addressed to the Duke
of RICHMOND, has appeared in the Morning Herald,
in which the Hon. Gentleman, attempts to excuse
himself for having garbled his extracts from ADAM
SMITH, almost as flagrantly as Lord ASHLEY mis-
quoted M. VILLERME. It will be remembered that
when the Earl of RADNOR exposed Mr. CAYLEY'S per-
versions of ADAM SMITH'S authority in the House of
Lords, the Duke of RICHMOND denied the fact of
misrepresentation. Mr. CAYLEY produces the real
words of ADAM SMITH, and is incompetent to dis-
cover that he has thus proved Earl RADNoa's case
to the letter. Now the source of Mr. CAYLEY'S delu-
,ion ii his failure to understand the following simp!e

passage :
" The interest of the dealers, however, in any particulai
branch of trade or manufactures is always in some respects
different from, and even opposite to, that of the public.
To widen the market and to narrow the competition is always
the interest of the dealers. To widen the market may
frequently be agreeable enough to the interest of
the public, but to narrow the competition must always
be against it, and can serve only to enable the dealers,
by raising their profits above what they naturally
would be, to levy, for their own benefit, an absurd tax
upon the inert of their fellow-citizens. The proposal of
any new law or regulation of commerce which comes from
this order ought always to be listened to with great precau-
tion, and ought never to be adopted till after having been
una and carefully examined, not only with the most scru-
pulous, but with the most suspicious attention. It comes
.'yom an order of men whose interest is never exactly the same
with that of the public, who have generally an interest to de-
'eive and even to oppress the public, and who accordingly
nave, upon many occasions, both deceived and oppressed it."
Mr. CAYLEY does not see that this reasoning is
just as applicable to dealers in corn and bullocks, as
it is to dealers in broad cloth and calicoes. The
narrowing of the competition" is both the professed
)hject and the direct result of the corn-laws, and
Through it the aristocratic corn-dealers are en-
abled "to levy for their own benefit an absurd tax
&won the rest of their fellow-citizens." They are
he dealers who have most oppressed and deceived
the public, and in this passage ADAM SMITH
:las accurately predicted the iniquitous means
by which the oppression and delusion have
been effected. Now, Mr. CAYLEY has substituted the
words " merchants and manufacturers" for " dealers"
in his reference to this passage, and has thus attempted
to restrict the application of ADAM SMITH'S universal
truth. Either he did this intentionally, knowing
himself to be included as a cattle and corn-dealer,—
in which case, what are we to think of his honesty ?
—or, he was utterly unable to comprehend the pas-
sage, level as it is to a schoolboy's capacity—in which
case what are we to think of his intellect ? It is a
nice question between obliquity of morals and ob-
liquity of mind, which we must wait for Mr. CAYLEY'S
next appearance as a public writer to determine.

or patrons !) " The employment throughout the
country, on very tempting rates of commission, of
respectable agents, whose character has cloaked the

want of respectability of the company." (The no-
tion of treating this mere " worldly wisdom" as a
"deception," and hoping to provide against it, are

puerile simplicities.) " Opening banking accounts with
the Bank of England and other respectable banks."
(The best prima facie evidence of honest intention.)

" The selection of offices in respectable situations, and
fitted up in a respectable manner." (Would the
Committee have an intending Clerical Assurance
Company, for example—any other will do as well

On a more deliberate perusal 'of the Report of the
Select Committee on the statepf the Law respecting
Joint-Stock Companies (except Banking Companies)
with a view to the greater security of the public;"
the opinion which we expressed on Saturday last of
its deep interest and importance is fully borne out.
Every day's experience adds something, moreover, to
the gravity of the question, as to the extent to which,
and the modes by which, the available capital of the
country is in process of investment.
The recent operations of the Government in re-
ducing the interest of a certain class of the public
debt; the astonishing abundance of money in the
market ; the low rate of interest which money bears ;
the tendency of the national resources to a degree of
expansion, which nothing but the crippled condition
of our monetary system, and our monopoly fetters,
prevent from developing itself into the broadest
and most substantial basis on which commercial credit,
energy, and enterprise, were ever yet established; all
these are predisposing causes to one of those " pa-
,exyarns of speculation," which the " Report" before
is so truly describes as a periodical visitation upon
our prosperity. To very rash investments in ill-con-
sidered, or unsubstantial, projects and adventures, men
are stimulated by the influence of a passion, so intense
even in savage life, that it may • well be deemed an
'nherent propensity of our nature—the spirit of
;ambling. Nothing but the discipline of education
in civilised life can at all arrest or control this pro-
tensity. In civilised society, where the intensity of
:xcitement equalises the pressure of artificial wants
to that of natural ones in a state of nature, nothing
'nit experience—the experience of loss and ruin—can
allay the impetuous action of this spirit of play. For
each is the mainspring of all speculation on realising
higher scale of interest than that which the public
securities afford. And we greatly fear—though we
,tonfess to our apprehensions with reluctance—that
the causes we have enumerated, acting on this spirit ,
of speculation, and invigorated by the exigencies oc-
casioned by a declining rate of interest on the Debt,
will speedily bring us to the verge— if it do
not precipitate us into the vortex—of some
,uch disastrous panic as that of 1825 or 1834. We
cannot too narrowly watch the consequence that al-
most inevitably follows, in England, a large funding
'peration on the part of the Government, like the
conversion of stock with a view to the reduction of
the interest upon it. Because, though the public ad-
vantage, either immediate or ultimate, resulting from
,uch a proceeding, be indisputable and extensive, the
effect is a most simultaneous and coincident, both on
the large and the small fundholder, in urging the one
to seek tile investment of his large capital where he
may derive at least the same rate of interest as he had
been accustomed to in the converted stock, (on the
principle, that to preserve it at that rate is essential
to the general scheme of his own financial projects) ;
in urging- the other, to invest where he may draw at
least as much interest as he did in the altered stock,
inasmuch as, being the only or principal source of his
very limited income,—with less than that amount of
interest he cannot exist. vise
Still there are passages in this " Report," and The heaviness of the debate in the French Chamber
principles involved in the "resolutions" wherewith it of Peers was much relieved on Friday by a violent
concludes, from which we must express our dissent. I attack by Count DE MONTALEMBERT on the Univer-
As to these, we cannot help thinking that the Com- I sity, and by the President compelling a Peer to make
a speech. The Noble Count, after a long speech in
mittee, in their anxiety to devise guarantees Against
praise of the clergy, referred to the religious side of
the fraud, ; and plundering of bubble companies, have
the question, and asserted that the majority of the
laid dowi t general principles of future legislation in
young men who left the University came out sceptics
respect -of joint-stock partnerships which, in their
and disbelievers. Let the experiment, he said, be
practical working, would be found to discourage, en-
tried. Take one hundred youths who had terminated
cumber,, and paralyse the operations of even the most .
tlaer studies, and not ten Christians would be found
legitimaste of such associations. The truth is, that
the amongst them ! Religion was every day attacked in
print iple of non-interference by Parliament
Governer sent with the appropriation or investment of its dogmas either directly or indirectly—by works
published by certain professors, or by discourses de-
private capital in the hands of individuals or cor-
porate b odies, is, in the abstract, so sound and valu-
livered to their pupils. The Minister of Public In-
able, fit at each new departure from it seems fraught struction, M. VlLLEMAlN,indignantly repelled the
with fee sh matter for objection. It requires to be
charge, and denied that the University was hypocritical
vindicat ed on grounds the most precise and clearly and tyrannical.
defined, to raise a reasonable case for sending it before lt accorded liberty, he said, but under
proper regulations. In reference to England, he
the Leg islature for its sanction. Now, we have in
a former article admitted the evils produced to
the pa tblic by the various classes of viciously reminded M. DX MONTALEMEERT that no college
could be established without a Royal charter, and
that it required the Reform Bill to authorise the
constitt ited joint-stock companies, which the " Re- foundation of the London University, after a struggle,
not possibleto ex- I
port" denounces. Those evils it is which lasted 25 years, of the Catholics against the

for the illustration—go to Monmouth-street for
offices, and clothe its directors and clerks in the cast-

off habiliments retailed by the miscellany-landlord
below ?) " The concoctors and managers living at
great expense, entertaining their neighbours, and
thereby endeavouring to fortify themselves against
suspicion." (How large a portion—half, or
a third, or three-fourths--of our swarming
metropolitan population of 1,800,000 souls, are,
in a manner, bringing their " modes of decep-
tion" on the world, and on themselves too, within
this category ?) Then, it seems, that a company
"duly constituted," even under the requisitions of
this Report--and being authorised, on its provisional

registration, "to use one common name—to open sub
scription lists —to receive deposits," &c.—shall "not

make calls! " Really, in nine cases out of ten, the
date at which the "actual " registration of joint-
stock companies, subject to such disabilities, will
take place, and their power of "making calls" can be
exercised may be safely looked for, ad Gracas Ka-

lendas, and not before ?

We have accounts from Lisbon by the Peninsular
steamer to the 22d of April, where public affairs re-
mained nearly in the same state. The troops in the
fortress of Almeida, with BONFIII at their head, still
continued to bid defiance to Viscount FONTE NOVA
and his 4,000 men; and not only so, but it now turns
out that the rebels have really been able to get up
steomghil%e'enaene :appearance eaarance of popularity
guerilla party in
their
e t
fl
vinogu ih,
stoh aas
to their cause.

Two Royal decrees had been published, one esta-
blishing what may be regarded as tantamount to
martial law throughout the kingdom, and another
prolonging the suspension of the Habeas Corpus and
the liberty of the press, to the 23d of May next.
Several suspected persons had been shipped off to
some distant colony without any form of trial. Among
them ;ye the Deputies LEONEL TAVARES and GRIJO,
tne editor of the Tribuno, ANTONIO DE Cuxua, and
HOLTREMAN, a lawyer.

Madrid papers of the 21st have been received, but
they bring no intelligence of the slightest interest.
The QUEEN was to leave Madrid on the Bth of May
for the Baths of Echavaleta, in Guipuzcoa.
The following appears in a Barcelona paper, and
shows that the present movement among the Carlists
is emouraged by Don CARLOS himself:—

" The ex-Carlist Brigadier Domingo Forcadell, who has
been seized on the frontier, had about him a Royal dispatch,
again appointing him Brigadier, and three patents of the
national order of St. Ferdinand, all of them signed by his
pretended King. A few days ago the Carlists severely
wounded two French Custom-house officers who were in pur-
suit of them."

The Castellano, a Madrid paper, announces, by
authority, that no change in the Cabinet is con-
templated.

The Three per Cents. were done at 36 for cash, and
36i at 60 days, and the Five per Cents. at 22i at
60 days.

aggerate. But the recommendations of the "Report"
regard the better administration, in future, of "all
joint-stock companies other than banking compa-
nies." Will it be either fair or expedient to apply to
such as may be in in all respects legitimate, this,
which is one of the most favourite recommendations
of the Committee—namely, that in the very first
preliminary of the registration prescribed to be made
by each new company, there shall be in the provi-
sional stage, and subsequently on the actual registra-
tion, published particulars of " the names and ad-
dresses of its promoters ; of the names, addresses,
and occupations of its members, with the share
held by each ; the names of directors, trustees, patrons,
auditors, and all other officers of the company, with
their occupations and addresses ; and a written con-
sent of acceptance of office by each, &c.
With all submission to the Select Committee, to
assume that in a country like this, where men are
so jealous of their commercial standing (and men
engaged in business supply the great mass of share-
holders), people will be ready thus to avow them-
selves beforehand, before all the world, pledged
to the patronage and support of a yet untried undei-
taking, involving possible and indefinite loss to them,
—is really to show a marvellous misconception of the
prejudices and opinions of that sphere of society
within which the Committee's resolutions are to take
effect. Again, we will predict that they who reckon
on getting directors, patrons, trustees, and auditors,
to give each a written form of acceptance of his office,
together with his occupation and address, know very
little of the ordinary course of such transactions, or
of the impracticable and really not unreasonable ob-
jections entertained by the more influential class of
individuals from among whom such officers are
usually taken, to the mere trouble, to say nothing of
the hazard, of committing themselves to any such
self-certified acts. If conditions like these are
to be insisted on, we are safe in predict-
ing that in the most legitimately purposed, and most
maturely .organised joint-stock scheme which
can be hereafter devised, it will be impossible
to find shareholders for whom patrons, trustees, and
directors, can be required; or, if there be any body
of shareholders willing thus to proclaim themselves,
in limine—directors, trustees, or patrons, who will
answer their requisition to be so presided over after
the threshold of their undertaking shall have once been
crossed. The same remarks apply to the proposed
preliminary register, and publication of the deed of
settlement, in every case of a new company. This,
too, might prove a proceeding calculated to prejudice
its affairs, or to thwart its success in a variety of
ways : to open to rival or competing concerns prin-
ciples of management, and modes of proceeding, com-
pensation, &c. &c., which it might be to their essen-
tial interest, and with perfect propriety and legality,
to keep to themselves. Among the "modes ofdecep-
tion" which are set forth as being adopted by fraudu-
lent companies, we fully concur with the Commit-
tee in reprobating " the use of the names
of persons laving no existence—of those of distin-
guished, wealthy, or respectable persons without their
authority; the getting inserted in newspapers reports
of pretended meetings, and puffs relative thereto ;
the fraudulent variation of prospectuses from time to
time ; the making of fraudulent accounts, so as to
deceive the directors and shareholders," &c. But
all of these are offences which we feel no doubt might
be criminally proceeded against, as for acts of fraudu-
lent conspiracy, and if the existing law be insufficient
to reach them, its reach might easily be supplemented
by some declaratory Act. But, on the other hand,
how can it be imagined that penal or preventive legis-
lation can ever reach such vaguely defined, or merely
constructive offences as these :—" the use of the names
of such persons as patrons and honorary directors
with their consent, whilst they have been ignorant of
the nature of the concern and its transactions,
and have exercised no control over them ?" (Then
they ought not to have consented to be directors