The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-31 00:00:00

THE WEATHER -SUN OFFICE, JAN. 31.

THEMIOMETHR, Lowest, 32 ; Highest, 50 ; Noon, 34.
'BAROMETER, N.W.
NOTE.—The number 32 on the Thermometer denotes
the freezing point, and 55 temperate. In Barometers
fair is usually placed opposite 30, and rain at 29.

ttititj WATER AT LONDON-BRIDGE THIS DAY.
Morning ... 40 minutes after M. 1 Evr:ning .. 21 minutes after 11.

" What constitutes the peculiar fitness of gold to
perform the office of money ?" asks Mr. GELLIBRAND
HUBBARD. " Its limited supply," he answers, and
continues, "If it could be made as plentiful as brass
it would no longer be used as money. Supposing
that brass counters, struck at Birmingham, were per-
mitted to pass upon 'an equality with sovereigns,
would not the entire currency be depreciated ?"
Some men are born to greatness, some achieve great-
ness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
The last we conceive must have been the misfortune
that has befallen Mr. HUBBARD—for misfortune it
certainly is, when a man finds himself in a position
for which he is evidently unfit. We are inclined to
he very tender with Mr. HUBBARD, for we entertain
no doubt, as we have before observed, that right feel-
ing directed a wrong head. But really, when the
happiness, or the misery of millions is placed upon a
turning point by a fallacious theory, it is no joke, and if
ever we met with bottled nitrogen in print it is to be
found in the inference which our quotation would se
palpably induce. It is true, there is at first sight
nothing perceptible to the eye. It seems nothing but
a bottle of smoke ; and, with a slight alteration we
might apply a hacknied quotation to it, and say that
it is—

" Vapor et preterea nihil,"

but it is vapour of so injurious a nature, that we fee;
compelled, in sober sadness, to add :
" Sed lethalis in sternum, si pectore haustus."

Had there ever been a period in the world when
symbolic money had not been used in the change of
commodities, had commerce never been able to pro•
teed without the use of those means of representing
value, which possessed no intrinsic value in them-
selves, had the attempt even ever been made to do
without them, then would the fallacy which is here
propounded have had some excuse to palliate that
weakness, of which wickedness is made, to apolo-
gise for the terrible mischief which its
practical operation would accomplish—an ope-
ration in the monetary world which, like
the deadly influence of wintry congelations upon
external nature, would so contract the intercourse
between nation and nation, and between man and
man as to render the satisfaction of the requirements
of our present refined anu artificial state of existence
altogether impossible—would so influence the deal-
ings of men as to throw back the world centuries in
its experience, and would consign the poor to imme-
diate destitution and famine. If the present limited
supply of gold constitutes its peculiar fitness to per-
form the office of money, how much more fit would
it not be for that office if the supply were more
limited still, and its virtue might be increased, so that
just as labour daily increased the quantity of commo-
dities in the market, the amount of money would be
so diminished that labour would speedily find itself in
a state of starvation, from a want of the means
through which those commodities were to be pur-
chased. And we suppose the author of this won-
derful apothegm would at length so enhance the
value of his favourite gold as to cause the whole of the
value of the commodities of the world to be represented
by a unit no larger than a mathematical point.
This would indeed be the acme of the gold theory,
unless he would attain the pinnacle of perfection, by
annihilating gold altogether, and then, perhaps, he
might effect a great good. Truly, the sublime and
the ridiculous are, in some things, wondrously near
neighbours.

It is sometimes not a little useful, in the appre-
hension of a subject, to recur to the principles on
which it is based, and to examine the terms by which

it is expressed. Had Mr. HUBBARD taken the
trouble to inquire a little into the origin and use
of that of which he talks so much and so incor-
rectly, he would have found that the term
money itself was derived from a Latin word, signi-
fying just one of those very Birmingham tokens
which he holds in such utter contempt—a piece of
metal made into a token of authority, by the im-
press of a public stamp—just such a thing, in, fact,
as, not only at Birmingham, but in almost every town in
the kingdom, purchased during the war the quantity of
goods which it was authorised to represent, just as a
one pound note in Scotland will do now. Moreover,

it may be a little news for Mr. HUBBARD to hear—
for he seems to lack information sadly on this subject
—that this same term moneta, from which our term
of money is derived, is neither more nor less than
another form of a word, the signification of which
is "to advise," and thence by secondary inference,
and according to commercial usage "to inform," just
as a bank note, or a bill of exchange, does in the
present day.

Thus we find that money consists, in fact, of
tokens, of whatever substance, issued to represent
value, and bearing an impress of authority, which
advises or informs all men that it is receivable and
payable by the State whose impress it bears. The
whole story will be found in the excellent pamphlet,
entitled "An Essay on Money," to which we alluded
in our last, and a more clear or able exposition of a
topic it has seldom been our good fortune to meet with•
We should not have troubled our readers with so

Average circulating medium, per individual ... £ 16 0 0

Then, taking the above average as a basis, he goes
on to ascertain what the circulation ought to have
been, only to keep pace with the population, and
what it really has been, and then exhibits the defi-
ciency sustained by the country, leaving his readers
to conceive the dreadful misery that must have been
experienced, whilst this crushing process was going,
or rather, we should say, is going on :

1820 to 1825 (both inclusive)
Average population

12,050,000

Circulating medium required at 161. per indivi-
dual £192,800,000
Actual circulating medium :
Bills of Exchange £129,500,0001
Bank of England notes 21,000,000 1
Country bank notes - 174,000,000
Gold in circulation in England
and Wales 13,000,000

Deficiency £18,800,000
Or only 141.95. of currency per individual.
1826 to 1831 (both inclusive).
Average population

Circulating medium required £214,000,000
Actual circulating medium :
Bills of Exchange £115,000,000
Bank of England notes 21,500,000 60,000,000
Country bank notes, &c 10,500,000 '
Gold as before

Deficiency £54,000,000.
Or, only 12/. of currency per individual.
1832 to 1839 (both inclusive).
Average population

Circulating medium required £239,680,000
Actual circulating medium :
Bills of Exchange £loB,ooo,ooo}
Bank of England notes
Country bank notes, &c 10,800,000 150,000,000
Gold as before

Deficiency £89,680,000