The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-22 00:00:00

Olmfax

LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1650.

CINDERELLA and her glass slipper, wonderful as is
the history of their adventures, dwindles into insig-
nificance when contrasted with Britannia and her
glass palace. The imagination becomes irresistibly
fascinated by the conjectures arising out of the pros-
pect of the latter spectacle. Any one in the slightest
decree acquainted with the extraordinary influences
of emulation, even when those influences are deve-
loped among mere individuals, will inevitably be dis-
posed to anticipate great things from such an indus-
trial emulation as that likely to be superinduced by
nexlyear's exposition, seeing that in this instance the
whole of the nations of the world are to be the com-
petitors. Out of a rivalry of so gigantic and conspicuous
a character it is impossible that strange consequences
should not emerge, consequences calculated to effect
in a surprising manner the interests of both hemi-
spheres, and to expedite, in a no less astonishing man-
ner, the onward march of civilisation.

While we are counting, however, thus confidently
on the beneficent advantages likely to accrue to our-
selves and our world-diffused contemporaries, we
should bear particularly in mind the circumstance
that the arena of this memorable competition will be
our own metropolis. To the capital of the British
empire, therefore, the representatives of all
the _principal powers of the earth will be attracted
for the purpose of observing the relative value and 1
excellence of their productions.. Intelligent foreigners
from the north and from the south, from the east
and from the west, will hasten to London with a pre-
determination to exercise an unusual vigilance and a
more than ordinary discrimination. Their endeavour
to be present on the banks of the Thames on an oc-
casion so momentous to themselves, as well as to
England, will be greatly facilitated by those increased
powers of locomotion which man has acquired
of late years by the scientific employment
of steam in its application to machinery. Added to
the fact of these railways threading the continents of
Europe and America, and of these steamers travers-
ing the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans—the almost
universal peace just now pervading the chief countries
of the habitable globe, will tend in a peculiar degree
to multiply the number of our visitors. Thu enter-

THE

prising Yankee, as well as the indolent Mexican, the
active Frank, as well as the enervated Spaniard, the
astute German, the wily Italian, the Swede, the
Dane, and the Russian, the minions of the
Shah and of the Caliph, the Gaiour and the Mussul-
man, the Buddhist and the Catholic—wanderers from
the coffee-plantations of Ceylon and from the tea-
gardens of China, from the sugar fields of the western
and spice groves of the eastern Archipelago—will
congregate in more or less numbers within the Bills
of Mortality, prepared to criticise as well as to be
criticised, to submit the products of their own skill
to examination, but at the same time to scruti-
nize the general aspect of ourselves and our
institutions. It behoves us consequently, so to speak,
to " set our house in order" before undergoing this
somewhat perilous inspection. We should remember
that while the foreigners will contribute their most
precious and ingenious fabrications to the palace of
the Exhibition, our whole system, social and moral,
industrial and political, will be laid bare to their ob-
servation. In the building itself they will see us as
it were in our gala dress—that is true enough.
But without its circumference they will
be enabled to traverse the streets of our
metropolis, and there to witness the English
multitude, as it were, in its every-day attire, and en-
gaged in its ordinary avocations. Without arrogating
to ourselves, as a nation, any unconscionable or un-
deserved superiority, .we may be permitted to say
that, in the majority of instances, we await this
review of our general appearance with no very timo-
rous anticipations. As if to afford encouragement on
this head to the least sanguine, we have witnessed the
favourable impression produced upon a mind such as
that of M. Du LAMARTINE, OR his very recently sur-
veying the aspect of our capital and the surrounding
provinces. In point of industry, of enterprise,
of sobriety, of decency, and even in some degree of
cleanliness, England may look with confidence to the
results of any reasonable comparison. Our healthy
agriculturists, our thriving manufacturers, our shops
crowded with purchasers and filled with the costliest
materials of merchandize, our numerous schools and
churches, and mechanics' institutes and charitable es-
tablishments, cannot fail to excite the wonder and
admiration of our visitors, as they have already called
forth the earnest panegyrics of M. DE LAMARTINE.
Nevertheless, with all these reasons for satisfaction,
on our part, at the prospective arrival of the fo-
reigners in this metropolis, there are several eyesores
and blemishes which, either from their grossness or
their magnitude, must glare upon the eye of every
stranger immediately on his entrance to the capital,
and the mere thought of which fills our minds at the
same moment with shame and indignation. Nu-
merous as these eyesores and blemishes are, we shall
only refer to one or two of the most conspicuous, in
the hope that efforts may be made betimes, either for
their removal or diminution. For instance, it were idle
to expatiate further upon the disgraceful insufficiency of
drainage throughout London, and upon the abomi-
nable practice persisted in of polluting the waters of
the river Thames. Equally fruitless would it be to
demand just now the destruction of Middle-row,
Holborn, that most ungainly and inconvenient ob-
struction in one of our principal thoroughfares.
Neither would there be much utility in calling upon
the Commissioners of Metropolitan Improvement to
cart away the old rotten houses of Holywell-
street to some waste land, where dry rubbish
can be shot at pleasure. Farringdon-street must
still remain flawed by the empty space once occupied
by the Fleet Prison, now a void as ugly as the socket
of an eye long removed, or the hollow of a tooth long
extracted. Parties must still continue to squabble
about Smithfield ; and St. John's-gate, one of the most
precious relics of metropolitan antiquity, must still
continue a dilapidated tavern of the homeliest cha-
racter. Such useless pomps as the marble arch, again
will of course remain huddled together in some out-
of-the-way corner, a mere heap of damaged bricks
and splintered marble. What we would see, how-
ever, actually placed beyond the reach of derision
before the arrival of the foreign visitors to the Exhi-
bition, may be very easily enumerated. We would
see—
First—NELson'S COLUMN COMPLETED!
Secondly—THE CENTRAL PART OF LEICESTER-
SQUARE REDUCED TO SOME SORT OF ORDER

AND DECENCY!
Thirdly—THE EXTERIOR, AT LEAST, OF ALL OUR
PUBLIC BUILDINGS RELIEVED FROM ALL US-
NECESSARY HOARDING AND SCAFFOLDING!
Fourthly—THE DISCONTINUANCE OF THE DIS-
GRACEFUL SYSTEM OF TARING HALFPENCE AT
THE PORCHES OF OUR CATHEDRALS!

Before the opening of the Exhibition of 1451 these
four improvements at the very least should 140 effected,
unless we are desirous of appearing in the eyes of
our visitors in a very paltry and disgraceful predica-
ment. That the monument erected to commemorate
the national homage for "the darling hero of Eng.
land " should remain at this moment unfinished is a
circumstance reflecting shame upon an empire gifted
with maritime supremacy. Let it not be said that
this miserable token of our parsimony and ingratitude
remained in 1851 to excite the ridicule of all intelligent
foreigners I That the other changes before-mentioned
should be accomplished in like manner must be
; equally obvious—especially in regard to Leicester-
square, when it is remembered that among
11 all the localities of London, that is the one
most frequented by foreigners. Experience has
shown, moreover, the ill effects of the long esta-
blished hoardings in front of such slowly improved
structures as Buckingham Palace and the British
Museum. As to the mercenary conduct visible in the
guardianship of a great ecclesiastical edifice like St.
Paul's Cathedral it were unnecessary to argue against
an evil so glaringly and painfully conspicuous. Im-
provements such as these should be forced upon the
acquiescence of the different authorities, and the me-
tropolis of England be thereby at length relieved from
evils reflecting disgrace upon our economy and our
civilization.

For a considerable time past we have endeavoured
to direct the public attention to the Currency question,
We have done so from a thorough conviction of its
immense, its vital importance to the industrious
classes. The commercial, the manufacturing, the
agricultural interests, and the labouring population of
the country are alike concerned in the proper solution
of the great problem. It is eminently the people's ques-
tion, on which their condition—whether it be one of
prosperity or distress, of happiness or misery—mainly
depends. A circulating medium sufficient for the
wants and exigencies of the country is indeed the
very life-blood of industry. With it, trade is brisk
and active ; the products of the loom, the anvil, and
the farm are in full demand; the skilful artizan
and the agricultural labourer are certain of remune-
rating employment, of obtaining a " fair day's wages
for a fair day's work." It is unnecessary to dwell
upon the reverse of this picture—of the inevitable
consequences of a scarcity of the representative and
measure of value. It has been too recently and
painfully illustrated to require further notice, and
those who are disposed to remain indifferent or apa-
thetic will be startled into activity by the remem-
brance of the commercial monetary panic of
October, 1847.

That untoward state of affairs was directly pro-
duced by a reckless and improvident tampering with
the currency. It was the natural result of the mone-
tary code established by the injudicious and impo-
litic Act of 1819, and rendered more stringent and
intolerable by the Act of 1844. We do not desire to
accuse the parties by whom these enactments were
carried through the Legislature of any dishonest, in-
tentions, or of any wish to increase their own fortunes
at the expense of the community ; but if such
bad been the object no more efficient means could
have been adopted for the purpose. By means
thereof the drones were enabled to extract an in-
creased proportion of honey from the bees in the
national hive ; the burden of every public and pri-
' vats obligation was more than doubled—the chains
of the debtors double-rivetted, and themselves and
families handed over to the tender mercies of their
insatiable creditors. It was, in fact, the triumph of
the moneyocracy, to whom the rest of the community
were ruthlessly sacrificed.
It was declared by a competent witness that the
Act of 1819 was carried by the power and influence
of the landed proprietors—that it was the result of a
compact between them and the great capitalists. The
corn-law was the equivalent for which they bartered
the welfare and prosperity of the country. They
vainly hoped that war prices could be main.