The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-08 00:00:00

party, and that the policy NS 'hick it had pursued with
inflexible consistency for the best / )art of halt' a cen-
tury, could no longer be pers fisted in ? Uaving once
been brought to confess their hurailiatiesn and admit
the sad necessity of change, tie iris's Tories will
henceforth be far from stiff or wry fielding in their
convictions; and we should not be at all surprised,
were they—under the couibin© 3 influence of
disgust and despair—to become, just as zealous
innovators as they once wet e the reverse.
Ce n'est que le premier pas gui collie. It
is the first step only that is the great difficulty.
When once that has been taken, an& th% deep-rooted
prejudices of years surrendered, a rapid progress fol-
lows almost as a matter of course_ kezisais never
halted after he had passed the Rubie on. It was on
its banks he paused, hesitating whether or not to cross
it. In admitting that change is inevit able, the Tories
have already crossed the Rubicon, an Al as to go back
is impossible, and to halt where they 11 ,ow are, is only
to cover themselves with ridicule, an d exhibit their
weakness in the most pitiable light, who can doubt
that they will press fiercely onward ? lye quite
agree with our Drogheda Contemporary that "Fede-
ralism would lead ultimately to Repeal"—and will
even go further, and state our firm conviction, that
Repeal would not merely be the ultimate, but that it
would be the immediate consequence of such a tame,
shilly-shally, inefficient measure. A Federal Parlia-
ment would not have been three months in existence,
before the excited masses of the Irish population,
finding that it could do little or nothing, where in
the wildness of their hopes they had expected
it would do everything, would regard it with feelings
of the most sovereign contempt, and clamour more
vehemently than ever for a Repeal of the Union—that
is to say, fora dismemberment of the empire, for the
two things are synonimous. As respects the project
of a triennial Parliament in Dublin, of which the
Drogheda Conservative approves, our objection to
this scheme is not so much that it is dangerous, as that
it is imp ractable. The Court—the Law—the Aris-
tocracy----and all that vast body of traders whb live by
ministering to the fashionable tastes of the day—all these
must of necessity follow in the train of the Parliament
and once in every three years, London must consent
to become a second-rate metropolis, and see her su-
premacy transferred to Dublin. But the inconveni-
ence of the project would not stop here. As a matter
of course, Scotland would insist—why should she
not ?—on a Parliament being held every three years
in Edinburgh; and seeing how successful agitation
had been in Ireland, she would begin to play the same
game on her own account, and thus we should have
the national jealousies which have been laid aside for
years revived with all their ancient acrimony.

It is a praise always to be conceded to our
brethren of Scotland, that their opinions on all great
questions of domestic policy and interest are eminently
entitled to respect and consideration. The sober,
and usually accurate, judgment at which they arrive,
when such matters become the subjects of general
discussion, seems to be the result of a certain intuitive
sag•.acity—sharpened and expanded by the sound
elementary education so largely diffused among them.
It is seldom that we have had to note exceptions to
this rale. When they de occur, therefore, they are
the more startling, by their contrast with the ordinary
course of those recorded views which have challenged
our observation. Now, one of these exceptions, we
must fairly own, we identify with the general de-
meanour of the Scottish public throughout the whole
of the proceedings and debates that ensued, in Eng-
land, on the introduction by Sir ROBERT PEEL, last
session, of the Bank Charter Renewal Bill. Whilst
it was still uncertain whether—or rather, whilst it
was still assumed that—the Premier did propose to
extend the application of his ill-conditioned measure
to Scotland, the laid spirit of Sir Mungo Malgrow-
ther was raised, and walked abroad again. All the
North was up in arms against the apprehended de-
scent of the wrong-headed First Lord of the Trea-
sury on a system, under which all Scotland had
prospered, from its first establishment, just a century
and a half ago, down to 1844, in the extension of its
.agriculture and its commerce, and the steadily increas-
jug opulence and enterprise of its people. Sir Rona's.
--if his words were intended to carry their ordinary
acceptation—had, most undoubtedly, in •ne of those
didactic prselectiones with which he favoured the
House of Commons before bringing in his Bill, inti-
mated his intention to apply it to the Northern as well
as the Southern division of Great Britain. But the
wily "manager" soon found, from very unmistakeable
indications of gathering displeasure, that he must not
attempt the twofold experiment; that the discreeter,
if not the more generous and open—part, would be,
to secure one victim at time, and b y allowing the
other to look on unscathed, for a season, the better
seduce him into a delusive belief of his own security
from a similar fate. Sir ROBERT, therefore, at first
jesuitically replied to a brief and distinct question.—
that it was not, at present, intended to apply the ope-
ration "of the Bill to Scotland and its Banks." The
bait was seized. The opposition of the Scotch
cooled down to a passive indifference to the fate of
the English banks, and this indifference enured, even
after the Premier, having " dispatched the business"
of the latter, announced, with some degree of un-
guarded triumph, " that, in the ensuing session, he
would move Parliament to enact a similar treatment
for Scotland." With these circumstances fresh in
our memory, we cannot concur with the Morning Post
in holding that, " in their attention to all matters con-
nected with the currency of their country, the Scotch
set an example to the English which the latter would
do well to follow." And when our Contemporary
affirms that if the public, here, were as much alive as
the Scotch are " to the interests of the country as in-
fluenced by the currency, they might have escaped
the fatal consequences which are likely to arise from
the operation of the recent Bank Charter Act," we
beg to remind him, that, to the selfish and erroneous
holding back, which we have described, of the Scotch
banking interest, must be mainly ascribed the issue of
that fruitless, but prompt struggle, which the English
banking interest sustained against the pretensions of
the Bill in question.
It is a more pleasing duty, now, to notice a step in
a better direction, taken by a county meeting, on this
new Bank Act, which was held at Edinburgh on
Tuesday last. At that meeting (where, by the bye,
Sir Grsoacz CLERK was present, and, for aught that
appears, not dissenting) certain resolutions, condemna-
tory of any interference with the existing banking
system in Scotland, were brought forward by Sir
GIBSON CRAIG, Bart. (father of the Hon. Member of
that name who sits for Edinburgh). These resolu-
tions we publish in another column. A very brief
summary of their more salient points will awaken in
our readers the same conviction which the resolutions
have excited in us—that the mind of Scotland is once

more keenly awake to the dangers to be apprehended

from that most rash and uncalled-for tampering with
the representative capital of the kingdom, which they
so emphatically denounce. No. 1 declares that the
Scottish system, which has been carried on ever since
1695, IN ith the addition of 1/. notes since 1704, has
met with the cordial support of all classes, especially
the agricultural and commercial community of Scot-
land. No. 2 affirms, that no adequate reason has been
assigned for the projected interference with a system
which has worked thus advantageously for all parties.

No. 3 illustrates the perfect stability and security 01

the banks, at present in operation in Scotland with
their paid-up capital of, in the aggregate, 12,000,0001.,

and their circulation, little exceeding 2,800,0001. N.
4 raises a strong argument to prove that, with this
very moderate circulation as compared with paid-up

capital, gold, which is scarcely known in the circula-
tion of the country, is not required tither by the
habits of the people, or to supplement the peculiar
mode which obtains among thern of operating on cash

accounts ; a mode which has actually diminished the

currency, coincidently with the numerical increase 01
Scottish banks. No. 5 shows that the bank-note cir-

culation of Scotland is much less than that of Eng-
land, whether in proportion to the population or the

general business of the country ; and No. 6, that the
Scottish circulation " has no direct dependence on

foreign exchanges, but varies with the demands of trade,
or with the regular recurrence of terms and great cattle

inarkets." (Would to GOD ! that Sir ROBERT PEEL

could have digested plain practical good sense like
this, instead of experimenting' on the analogous case

of the English circulation, with the crotchetty nos-
trums of the bullionists, and of his own financial pe-

dantry !) No. 7 sets forth some local reasons of

peculiar force why the change from a paper to a
bullion circulation in Scotland would be attended

with infinite vexation to the people, besides being