The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-14 00:00:00

Admission. Is.

1110:1 WATER Al LONDON BRIDGE.
Tata DAT Morning 21 min. after 7 i Evening 51 min. after 7
To Hosaow—Mosning 3t m n Ater 8 I Myeging 11 min. alter 9

THE WEATLIER.—SuN OFFICE, SEPTE3II3EII. 14.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
60—highest since noon yesterday.
42—lowest this morning and during the night.
61—this day, at noon.

BARO3IETER, 30.28.
WIND E,S.E.—mcderate breeze and fine.

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Obrvilina
LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1850.

Much interest has been excited at Manchester, the
manufacturing metropolis of this mighty empire, by
a series of lectures which Mr. JONATHAN DUNCAN,
the clear-headed, intelligent, and indefatigable secre-
lary of the " National Currency Reform Association,"
recently delivered at the Mechanics' Institution of
that town, on the all-important ques►ion to which he
has devoted himself with so much zeal and assiduity
for many years past. It is needless to say that in
Mr. DUNCAN'S hands the subject was treated clearly
and intelligibly, and that much sound information
was conveyed to the audience, who listened with
anxious attention to the salutary truths enunciated by
the talented monetary reformer.
It cannot be supposed that the people of Manches-
ter will long remain indifferent to the great problem,
on the proper solution of which their own welfare and
prosperity, in common with that of the great body of
the industrious classes, so wholly depends. They have
hitherto exercised an important influence on the great
economical questions of the day, and they will surely
arouse themselves from the state of quiescence into
which they had fallen, or rather into which they had
suffered themselves to be lulled by incompetent
leaders.

The establishment of free trade, the abolition of the
pernicious monopoly which, under the- name of "pro-
tection," so long hung an incubus over the land, in-
creasing the price of food to the over-toiled artizan,
and enervating the energies and sapping the prosperity
of its warmest advocates—the sturdy yeomen of
England—who suffered themselves to be seduced by
its fatal blandishments, was owing to the shrewd,
practical common sense, the vigorous action of
the men of Manchester. That " great fact," the
Anti-Corn-law League, sprung into existence and was
nurtured among themselves, until it finally attained
the gigantic proportions which enabled it to crush the
monster monopoly. During their apprenticeship
they learned how to conduct a peaceful agitation,
to convey the voice of public opinion, temperately but
firmly expressed, to the reluctant ears of the Legisla-
ture, and discovered that no merely human power
could withstand the irresistible force of the popular
will.

Such persons may for a time be deceived, but they
cannot long be kept in blissful ignorance. They
may be misled by fallacies, but they will not continue
blindfolded when accurate information is attainable,
and in Mr. DUNCAN they have been so fortunate as to
find a competent instructor, possessed of the highest
qualifications for the task he has undertaken.
The subjects selected by the talented lecturer were

" labour, trade, and currency." He pointed out the
intimate connexion between them, and proved that the
employment of labopr, the briskness and activity of
trade, depended on a currency adequate to the wants
and exigencies of. the country—that a sufficient cir-
culating medium—a proper representative of value—
was the very. life-blood of industry, the motive power
which sets the wheels in action, and produces the de-
sired results. He lucidly explained the intolerable
evils arising from our present unwise, impolitic, and
inequitable. system, which is equally opposed by the
principles of justice and of expediency, and he traced
those evils to their very source and origin—the foul
sink of " bullionism."
The parrot-cry of " over-production," the specious
fallacy put forward by the bullionists to shield their
favourite theory from the reproaches of those who
have suffered deeply and bitterly through its agency,
was well commented upon by Mr. DUNCAN. " What,"
he asked, " was the definite meaning we attached to
the preposition over,' when we used the term over-
production ?' As no one objected, to production,'
the evil, if it existed, must be in the comparative
significancy of the preposition. To say that there
was production over' the natural desires and appe.
tites, or wants, was absurd, and must remain so until
history produced circumstances under which every
man, woman, an I child had more to eat and clothe
themselves with than their natural appetencies required.
The only sense that could be given to the preposition
was that mor3 gools were produced than there was
metallic money to circulate, so that the production
was over the quantity of money permitted by the
Acts of 1819 and 1844 to be in circulation. The
error, therefore, was clearly in bullionism itself, and
not in the in lthtrial capacities of the human race."
Mr. DUNCAN was right ; how could tEere have been
" over-produc ion" when a large portion of the com-
munity where undergoing the most deplorable priva-
tions? Of what was the over production ? Was it I