The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, JULY 16. 1844.

, After some preliminary business in the House of
Loris of little importance,' the LORD CHANCELLOR
moved that the amendments made to the Dissenters'
Chapels Bill be taken into consideration.
The Bishop of LONDON, after some remarks, moved
that the amendments be taken into consideration that
day six. months.
The Bishop of Duankm approved of the Bill ;. and
after a lengthened discussion, the amendments were
carried by a majority (including proxies) of 161.
Tkir Lordships then adjourned.
The House of Commons met at twelve o'clock
yeiterday,-• and discussed in Committee several
clauses of the Poor-law Amendment Bill. Sir J.
GRAHAM HI %de a. speech relative to asylums for stray
paupers, whit VI did him honour—a rare circumstance,
and elicited itp:)robation from both sides of the
HoUse. A d irisit.ln took place on the 36th clause,
relative to asylums for the destitute poor, when
11i.was a majority of 77 for the clause, only 6
%,*.ikitt•itk The Chairman reported progress,
0 .1
1.4 84 "Active to sit again on Wednesday, at
oli The House adjourned at three
use met again at five, when
0 &;:..ftiif: that attracted notice was a
Air DEnousz, who on Saturday had
not in direct terms, Mr. WALT=

with setting fire to his house in Argyll-street, for the
purpose of getting the insurance money. Mr.
WODEHOUSE offered the most ample apology for the
insinuations which he had thrown out against Mr.
WAKLEY. _ . .

Sir ROBERT PEEL made a few remarks highly
honourable to his character, which, in private life, all
admit to be a model for his countrymen. The Hon.
Member for Finsbury, he said, might retire from the
House that night with the understanding that com-
plete reparation bad been made to his feelings, and
that he could carry his head as erect as any man
breathing. This was received with loud cheers from
all parts of th:, House. . _

Mr. W` acknowledged in feeling terms the
tribute which had been paid to his innocence, and
we hope this decided expression of public feeling will
put the vile calumny for ever at rest.
After some questions put to the Government, and
explanations between Mr. T. DUNCOMBE and Lord
A. LENNOX, hi reference to the- Horse-racing Bill,
which are given sufficiently brief in the Parliamen-
tary report, Mr. WYSE moved for a Select Commit-
tee to inquire into the facts connected with the for-
mation of the special jury in the case of the QUEEN
17. DANIEL O'CONNELL and others.
Lord ELIOT opposed the motion.

The discussion on this motion lasted the greater
part of the evening, and, on a division, the Committee
was refused by a majority of 18.
Leave was given to bring in a Bill to amend the
Church Endowment Act. The Duchy of Cornwall
Bill was read a second time.

The other orders of the day were disposed of, ani
the House adjourned at a Quarter past Twelve.

The Herald of this morning, in an article full of
paradoxes, makes the luminous discovery that Con-
servatism is everywhere rapidly on the increase.
" The spread and growth of Conservative principles,"
says our sanguine Contemporary, "at the present
moment are really wonderful. The advance becomes
even visibly apparent from month to month." The
Herald must have wonderful optics to be able to see
what is " visibly apparent" to no one else in the com-
munity. Where are the signs and tokens of
the rapid spread of Conservatism? Assuredly they
are not to be found in the House of Common,
where the regular working PEEL majority is, if any-
thing, rather on the decline than on the increase, or
at any rate stationary ; and where the party itself is
filled with doubts and distrusts, distracted with feuds,
kept together with difficulty, and as splenetic and
hypochondriacal as a rheumatic old woman in a No-
vember fog. If we look without the walls of that
eccentric assembly which—by way of a joke, we pre-
sume—calls itself a national Senate, still less shall
we find any indications of the spread of Conservative
principles. The people appear to be everywhere le-
thargic, if not absolutely indifferent, except, perhaps.
in the manufacturing districts, where the generial
feeling is certainly anything but Ministerial. We
might even extend this exception to the agricultural
counties, for no one can deny that, torpid as is the
public feeling there, opinion runs by no means so
strongly in favour of the Conservative Cabinet as it
did when this notable Junta first entered into office.
Too liberal for the agriculturists, and not liberal
enough for the manufacturers, Ministers are deci-
dedly strong nowhere but in the House of Commons;
and even now, notwithstanding present appearances
are in their favour, no one can calculate on the
continuance of their power, for a very evident
spirit of uneasiness pervades Parliament that in-
dicates anything but a settled state of the political
atmosphere. But our Contemporary is quite satis-
fied of the truth of his assertion—we wish him joy of
conscientious conviction—and points to the recent
election at Birmingham as a proof that Conservatism
is rapidly on the increase. It is singular how this
great town rises and falls in the estimation of our
Tory journalists just according to the representatives
it sends to Parliament. When Birmingham returned
a Liberal, then it was a place whose political influ-
ence was of no moment whatever; but now that
it has returned a Tory, the Herald suddenly discovers
that the weight of its authority is great, and points
to its choice of Mr. SPOONER as one of the most
striking signs of the times. Now every one knows
the means by which this gentleman's election was
secured. It was not the increased strength of Con-
servative principles that enabled him to defeat Mr
SCHOLEFIELD, but the disastrous split amongst the
Liberals. Had Mr. STCRGE not come forward, as
he unquestionably ought not to have done, the Tory
candidate would have had about as good a chance of
entering St. Stephen's, as Sir J. GRAHAM has of re-
gaining his long lost popularity. It was the Quaker
" did it all." Our Contemporary goes on to say :
" The divisions among the Conservative party.are di-
visions consequent upon known and ascertained
strength. The assurance is becoming daily more
and more confirmed that there is little to fear from
the opponents of Conservative principles, and that the
Whigs are defunct and unable to resume the ma-
nagement of affairs, even were the most extraordi-
nary concurrence of events to place the oppor-
tunity within their reach." The assertion in
the above passage, that divisions among a poli-
tical party are manifestations rather of its strength
than its weakness, is one of the most preposterous
paradoxes we ever remember to have met with. But
though the _Herald may be cf opinion that Conserva-
tive disunion is a proof of Conservative strength, not
so thinks Sir ROBERT PEEL; he has no faith in our
Contemporary's parodex ; he derives no comfort from
the fact that his supporters are split into sec-
tions, and are quarrelling among each other,
like cat and dog ; but laments it as a most " un-
toward" circumstance, and from time to time
delivers, in his perplexity, long and confused political
homilies on the subject, seasoned with menaces, not
unmixed with sunlications. As regards the Herald's
sneer, that the " Whigs are defunct," our reply is,
that now snore than ever are Whig principles in the
ascendant. Indeed whatever good there may be
in the PEEL Cabinet, is solely attributable
to its adoption of these principles. Its tariff,
for which it takes so much credit to itself;
is a Whig principle—its free-trade tendency is a
Whig principle—its new-born toleration in religious
matters is a Whig principle—its concession of a
Post.office Committee, in deference to the just
wishes of the people, is a Whig principle—in fact,
it is on Whig principles that it conducts public
affairs, knowing v. ell, from humiliating experience,
that it is not Whiggism but Toryism that is defunct.

It is impossible to deny that the House of Lords
generally contrive tp infuse into their discussions of
economic and commercial questions which have al-
ready occupied much of the attention of the House
of Commons, a larger amount of sound sense and
average information than has been brought to Lear
upon them in the more popular assembly. We
venture merely to note this fact. To others we must
leave its explanation. Whether this is to be found
in the circumstance that the speakers among the
Peers are fewer, and, for the most part, those who
have been elevated to their distinguished , rank
by the influence of their own superior ability or
knowledge, or conduct in the professions they have
adopted at the commencement of their public career,
we by no means take upon ourselves to determine.
But it is much to their honour that great practical
questions are more fully and dispassionately debated
—and Committee investigations and business more
satisfactorily transacted—by the common acknow-
ledgment of all parties who are, in such matters,
ever brought into connection with them—in the
Upper, than in the Lower" House. The debate
of Friday evening, on the motion for their Lord-
ships resolving themselves into a Committee on the
Bank of England Charter Bill, supplied another con-
firmation of this often-affirmed proposition. And
however much we may take leave to dissent from
some of the views announced by the Earl of RIPON
on bringing forward this Bill, or, from some of the
conclusions at which Lord ASBBURTON would ap-
pear to have arrived in arguing upon its principles ;
we are bound to state that the speeches of these Noble
Lords were distinguished by their great sim-
plicity and perspicuity of statement—the new and,
important lights which they let in upon some points,
and the forcible illustrations they suggested as to
others. A comparison of the Ministerial statements
offered on the introduction of this measure in the
Lords' and Commons' Houses respectively, will re-
dound, in the judgment of every reader, greatly to
the advantage of that delivered in the former. The
speech of Lord MONTEAGLE was certainly the most
extraordinary, the most inconsistent, and the most

damaging that was ever delivered " in support" of a
'Bill in that assembly. Yet even in his Lordship's
address we find abundant matter for curious specu-
lation connected with this Bank and Currency
question, and certain important aspects under which
it had not occurred to those who took part in the dis-
cussions of last month and of May, in the Commons,
to regard them.
From the .Earl of RIPON, an old disciple of the
bullionists' school, and intimately associated with the
opinions and objects of Mr. HUSKISSON, we were, of
course, prepared to expect the most favourable opi-
nions of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S Currency Bill of 1819 ;
on " the great principles of which" the Noble Earl
informed their Lordships the last charter to the
Bank of England had been granted. It is
curious, however, to observe how completely
Lord RIPON establishes the fallacy of the
assumptions on which that disastrous Act was
founded, which is yet the theme of his eulogy, and
of which the Bill now before the Lords is the "final
complement," by his own admission of its failure as
a working experiment. Could any more cogent
reason have been assigned for forbearing to carry out
its final " complement ?" In the first place, the
Noble Earl (in language so elaborately guarded that
his early political friend and leader Mr. CANNING
might himself have dictated the passage) "thinks he
is justified in saying that the principle of the Bill of
1819, which rested everything upon the convertibility
of paper into gold, does not appear to have had the
effect of preventing injurious and excessive fluctua-
tions. Why, such a dead mistake did the Bill of
1819 turn out to be—that Bill which Sir ROBERT
PEEL predicted was to ensure us a constant adequate
supply of bullion, and permanent convertibility of paper,
—that (says Lord RIPON) " in 1826 the amount of
bullion in the coffers of the Bank was so low that
some persons apprehended that the time was near
when it would have none at all; but it fortunately
happened that, shortly before this critical period the
exchanges had become favourable. Many persons
who looked upon them as indicating the actual state
of the money market, became convinced that the tide
had turned." But, with all submission to these far-
seeing authorities, neither the alteration in the foreign
exchanges, nor the circumstances which induced
them to believe that the lowest ebb of the gold efflux
was now reached, saved the Bank of England from
bankruptcy. These were not the proximate causes of
its rescue ; and we all know that in matters of such
vital urgency as a crisis of this kind, it is only proximate
causes which it imports us to detect. A distant phy-
sician, with the reputation and skill of Esculapius
himself, is of no use to a patient whose moments are
numbered, and who can only be saved by instant
succour. Accordingly, Lord RIPON acknowledges
so critical was the state of affairs "—(in spite, ob-
serve, of the improvement in the nominal notation
of foreign exchanges, and the favourable impres-
sions of the sagacious gentlemen who watched them)
—" that the very morning on which the Bank Direc-
tors thought they would be called on to pay their last
sovereign" (under this admirable gold guarantee
Bill of 18191), " there arrived at Dover a consider-
able quantity of sovereigns, vilich had been, in the
previous years, when the exchanges were against us,
exported to France in the way of merchandise. That
supply arrived at the critical moment, and the appre-
hended stoppage did not take place."
So much for our suicidal folly in enforcing by
statute, to the extent of PEEL'S Act of 1819, this
charming principle of convertibility of paper into
gold at a fixed standard prife ! We make it
imperative on the great currency manufactory
of the country to be prepared with gold, where-
with to defray all, or any part of, its paper
issues in demand. We adopt this measure, on the
plea and assurance of its wise author, that its direct
tendency will be to control those exchanges ; and (by
rectifying their tendency to turn against us) to keep
our gold in the country. But the foreign exchanges
—unlike the House of Commons—have a will of
their own, and little regard for the sagacity of the
Minister who talks of regulating their action. They
do turn against us. The gold flows rapidly away from
the great currency manufactory or depot. Its hoard
declines from week to week by millions. Well, the
foreign exchanges, irreverently quizzing the mone-
tary nostrums of Sir ROBERT PEEL, amuse them-
selves by rising and falling again. Alas I for the Bank
of England ; no corresponding tide of Pactolus flows
into their emptied cellars. The exchanges, unlike
the moon, exercise no certain or sensible attraction
on the tides of—bullion! The Threadneedle-street
manufacturers are at their last gasp—the curtain is
about to drop on the tragic close of their exist-
ence—when lo their good genius in this exi-
gency (dignus vindice nodes) arrives to save them—
net in the fragile form of a flamburgh " Price
Current," or a Table of the Foreign Exchanges—
but in the substantial reality of a Dover clipper, full
freighted with golden sovereigns. On the failure of
the Ministerial expectations, formed by the Govern-
ment in 1826, of the remedial consequences that they
anticipated from the formation of joint-stock banks,
their successors in. administration discovered, from
the experience of 1832, 1836, and 1839, "that the
mere convertibility of paper into gold was not a secu-
rity against these fluctuations."
And yet to this destructive, clumsy, uncontroll-
able machinery for regulating our monetary
system, thus proved to be radically vicious in design,
and incompalible in its working with the "great princi-
ple" which it was devised expressly to effectuate, Sir
ROBERT PEEL is so spell bound, after having received
all kinds of magnetic passes from his professional
adviser, Mr. JONES LOYD, as to propose
giving further extension, by the still more
mischievous " final complement" now before
the Legislature. In this " great principle" of
deception is found the principle of the Bill of
1819. The vast majority of the House of Commons
have been also so effectually mesmerised, as, defying
the evidence of their own blunted senses and percep-
tions, implicitly to confide, for a means of escape
from those tremendous difficulties and dangers vs hich
are indeed at hand, but which would have no present
existence were that principle disincorporated from
the statute-book, to this " final complement."

On a future occasion w•e shall advert to the more
important features of this instructive debate, espe-
cially Lord MONTEAGLE'S objection to the proposed
limitation of the Bank issues ; to Lord ASHBURTON'S
references to the opinions formerly advocated by
himself on the subject of a double standard of gold
and silver; and to Sir R. PEEL'S erroneous version
of the Acts of Parliament making silver a legal tender
within a given amount only.

Accounts from Madrid of the Bth state that pre-
parations were still going on for the Morocco war,
and that orders had been sent to the Governor of
CEUTA to place that fortress in a respectable state of
defence. The regiment of Galicia, which is to form
part of the expedition, left Madrid on the 7th, another,
the regiment of Baylen, followed on the Bth. The
editor of the Historiador, an Opposition paper, was
dragged out of bed on the night of the 7th, and
thrown into prison for some remarks in his journal
on the political chief of Madrid.
The Three per Cents. were done at 251 for cash,
and 26* at 60 days, and the Five per Cents. at 20.

On Sunday afternoon the French Government re-
ceived the following telegraphic despatch :

BAYONNE, JULY 13.

The Cortes are dissolved by a decree of the 4th, inserted in
the Gazette of the 10th. The electoral colleges are convoked
for the 3d of September. The general ballot is to take
place on the 14th. The new Cortes are to meet on the 10th
of October.
AnOther decree of the 4th re-establishes in the Basque pro-
vinces the deputations and municipalities according to the
Fueros. The general juntas are shortly to assemble, and to
appoint Commissioners to settle with the Government the
question of the Fueros which shall be submitted to the ap•
proaching Cortes.
Nothing has been changed in the customs or the adminis-
tration of justice and the police.
A third decree orders the removal of the remains of Montes
de Oca from Victoria to Madrid.
Accounts from Algiers of the sth inst. have
reached saris. The troops of Marshal BUGEAUD re-
mained near the Morocco frontier, and the Prince DE
JOINVILLE was in communication with the Marshal,
who it was understood would not commence opera-
tions without further orders from the Government.
A general feeling prevailed at Algiers that the affair
would be amicably settled, and the following paragraph
which appears in some of the French papers published
in the South, is therefore probably correct :—" It was
reported on the 10th in the Salons of Toulon, gene-
rally well informed, that the Emperor of MOROCCO
had acceded to all the conditions required by France.
The expedition had been accordingly recalled, and it