The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-21 00:00:00

parocitur *AUL

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1844.

The meeting of paper manufacturers and others
concerned in the important trade in that commodity,
at the London Coffee-house, Ludgate-hill, on
Thursday, were unanimous in the expression of
their support to the resolutions submitted to
them, calling on the Government to repeal
the whole of the existing duty on paper. It must be
evident to every observant mind that the necessary
tendency of a tax upon paper must be injurious to the
interests of even elementary education—and oppressive
and pernicious in respect of its bearing on the general
literature of the country. It is, therefore, originally
vicious in its nature. But when we find it demon-
strated in the exceedingly able speech of Mr. DICICEN.•
SON, the eminent paper maker (who was voted into
the chair of the meeting), and corroborated by the
personal experience of Sir WILLIAM MAGNAY, the
late Lord Mayor, that the duty " at present presses
on some branches of the paper manufacture so
heavily as to amount from 60 to 150 per cent.," and
that for the collection of this revenue, on the one
hand, " the Excise regulations adopted greatly im-
pede trading operations ;" and on the other, " the
damages done to packages (of exported English paper)
at the Custom-house," by vexatious opening and care-
less repacking, are such as to cause large parcels to be
put aside and sold as waste and refuse on coming to
hand at their destination :—we can scarcely imagine
a branch of trade which could establish a juster claim
upon the consideration of the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer. But the case of the paper makers is strong
in every point of view ; and we agree with Sir W.
MAO NAY, that the entire repeal of the duty offers the
" only adequate remedy." The depression of price ac-
cording.to. the Chairman, "had been occasioned partly
by the reduction of duty," (a reduction of lid. per lb.,
or one-half in the year 1836), " but partly by the
evasion of payment of any duty by the fraudulent
'waders." How easily these frauds are practised, and to
what extent, can only be judged by a careful notice of
the facts detailed in the speeches we have referred to,
which .also show the enormous extent of the contra-
band importations of glazed and other papers from
France, under the present defective system. Mr.
GAVSSEN said that the revenue derived from the pre-
sent duty was 620,000/., there having been an IN-
CREASE of 60 per cent. since the reduct;on of duty in
1836." Can any fact more strongly establish the
wisdom and policy of repealing the whole duty ; from
which repeal, by parity of reasoning, an increase of
just 120 per cent. on the whole consumption of paper,
and therewith the immensely extended employment
of labour (especially of female hands) in the manu-
facture, may be confidently anticipated ?

We regret to perceive, by the advertised resolu-
tions of a meeting of bankers, landed gentry, and
others, of the county of Lanark, held at the County-
hall in Hamilton on the 15th instant, the Right Hon.
Lord BELLIAVEX in the chair, that there is still an
influential portion of the Scottish people whose op-
position to the monetary legislation of Sir R. PEEL
is bawd upon a very limited, and, therefore, very
dangerous view of the question. Keenly alive to the
impolicy and mischief of endeavouring to substitute
for a national symbolic currency (of small bank-

notes) a gold circulation of positive intrinsic value
(and for that very reason of fearfully fluctuating
quantity), the Lanarkshire requisitionists appear to
have no sympathy with the sufferings of this enormous
portion of the empire. Sir R. PEEL'S fatal con-
trivance of 1819, with its " complement" of 1843
is all very good, it seems, for England; yet the same
Minister's infatuated propensity for tampering in
Scotland with the same species of monetary system
which those measures have overthrown and extin-
guished south of the Tweed, is justly denounced by
the same requisitionists as an uncalled-for and mis-
chievous experiment, having for its object to over-
throw a condition of things under which, for one
hundred and fifty years, Scotland has steadily ad-
vanced in her marvellous career of agricultural, com-
mercial, and social improvement. We own, with
pain, that unless we could imagine the Lanarkshire
meeting disposed, at the sacrifice of their own better
convictions and practical experience on the subject,
to bespatter Sir ROBERT PEEL with eulogies for the
desolation and decay which he has brought upon the
debtor interest and the enormous masses of the in-
dustrial producing classes of this country, by a
scheme of currency imposing inevitable limitations
and restraints on commercial enterprise, a permanent
tendency of increasing depression in prices and
wages—unless we can imagine the Lanarkshire meet-
ing willing to make so unworthy a compromise with
the sound principles they advocate, in order to en-
sure, if possible, the concession of them to the case
of Scotland, exclusively, at the expense of England
and of Ireland, we cannot reconcile the antagonistic
assertions of one resolution with the avowed doc-
trines of another. Thus, the ninth resolution affirms
" That this great success of the banking system of Scot-
land" (i.e., Kith (special reference to its issue of small
bank-notes under 51., long since abolished in England in
favour of a currency of gold sovereigns) " has been
mainly owing to the perfect freedom of it.e action, and to
the absence of ull legislative interference; and, therefore,
this meeting earnestly deprecate any intermeddling now
with a system which has hitherto worked so well, and
has proved so undeniably beneficial to all classes of the
country."

Now, this was also the condition of things in
England when it pleased the present Premier to
saddle her with his cruel burden of a currency founded
on his own Act of Parliament unaltering price, as to
that currency, of a commodity fluctuating from day
to day and hour to hour, in both price and quantity, in
the open markets of all the world outside of the four
walls within which he persuaded Parliament to sanc-
tion his nauseous nostrum. The embarrassments of
1822 ; the hideous panics of 1825 ; the wholesale de-
solation of every house connected with our vast trade
to the United States, in 1836, extending through
1837 and 1838 ; the downfal of eminent metropolitan
bankers ; the paralysing shocks sustained by com-
mercial confidence ever since the accelerating down-
ward pressure on prices; the grinding reduction of
the wages of labour and industry ; the spread of pau-
perism ; the thus engendered between the
crippled possessors of property and the starving ap-
plicants for work, which cannot be given to them ;
the yearly perishing away of some branch or other
of our foreign trade ; the successful competition of
the foreign manufacturer with our best and oldest
customers ; the despondency of our shipowners who
can no longer earn remunerative freights ; these
are some few among the more remarkable fruits
which the gold standard of Sir ROBERT PEEL has
bequeathed to be gathered by his country during the
last five-and-twenty years. These are the fruits
which, so long as his "convertible paper" is to be
payable on demand in gold, at the Mint price instead
of the market price, she will continue to be doomed
to gather. And it is of such bitter, such poisonous
fruits as these, that the resolutions talk in this com-
mending strain—always on the assumption that the
indulgence in such luxuries is not to be extended to
Scotland :

" That, in return for these certain evils, it has been
stated that there is a claim upon Scotland to adopt a
gold currency, not for any practical benefit to herself,
but that thereby she may contribute her aid to the re-
served fund of the precious metals which the Legisla-
ture has wisely provided should be held by the Bank of
England for the ratification of exchanges, and of com-
mercial and other dealings with foreign countries ; but
it appears to this meeting that the burden alleged to be
imposed upon the Bank of England is for the general
benefit of the empire, and in return for important immu-
nities conferred, of which Scotland, in the shape of taxa-
tion and otherwise, contributes her fair proportion, and
that London, as the great centre of commercial and
monetary dealings, is obviously the place where alone
the derangements referred to can be rectified, the re-
inittatie(.s in specie to our merchants being all directed
thither.

" That while this meeting, therefore, fully appreciates
the value of the reserve of the precious metals referred
to, and the periodical publication of its amount as an
important beacon, alike to the statesman, the banker, and
the merchant, they must, at the same time, wholly dis-
claim the belief that whether the three millions of cir
culation in Scotland consisted of gold, or of bank-notes
convertible into gold on demand,' any perceptible ab-
straction could be made from it in aid of that reserved
fund, while the amount of circulation is restricted, as at
present, to the mere necessities of the country, as a me-
dium of exchange for its daily transactions."

The "reserved fund" of the precious metals " wisely
insisted upon by the Legislature," quoad England,
forsooth ! If so, why were it not wise to make Scot-
land a party to the scheme ? The requisitionists
know better. Their first resolution declares that the
intention of the Government to withdraw from the
circulation of Scotland all small bank-notes under 51.,
has occasioned in that country a degree of alarm
which the meeting (notwithstanding their respect for
the high authority of those who deem such alarm to
be without foundation) do not fully concur in. But
the second resolution, as comprehending the chief
points of political and social importance in that mone-
tary system which Sir ROBERT PEEL seems either not
to have sufficiently appreciated, or to have strangely
overlooked, we give at length :

" That the banking system of Scotland, since its com-
mencement, a century and a half ago, has through suc-
cessive generations become more and more deeply in-
terwoven with the whole social system of our country.
Its monetary power, now based upon twelve millions of
capital, and, at least, thirty millions of deposits, has grown
up with the increasing wealth and prosperity of Scot-
land, in agriculture, commerce, and the useful arts, all of
which it has powerfully promoted; and it never possessed
the confidence and attachment of all classes of the com-
munity more fully than at present. That it has alvo
exercised a most salutary influence upon the moral and
orderly habits of the people ; by the perfect security
offered, and by the allowance for the shortest period, and
upon sums so small as 5/. or 101., of a reasonable and
equal rate of interest, industry, frugality, and sober
habits, have been encouraged through all classes, and
Scotland has thus enjoyed, for many generations, the
benefits which have been only conferred at the present
day upon England, by the establishment of savings'
banks."

The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth resolutions, like-
wise point to these invaluable, and assuredly indis-
putable results, after describing the economy and
security of the Scottish banking system, the perfect
efficiency and competency of its scheme, and its ope-
ration for all the purposes proposed to be accom-
plished by it. But will Scotland be at once so unjust
and so unwise, so unreasonable and so short-sighted,
as to desire that England should continue to groan
under a burden of which she herself so well under-
stands the oppressiveness, in order that she may
enjoy a fancied exemption from it ? Can she forget
that England is the great mart for that produce
which her hitherto undisturbed system of a paper
currency has enabled her to raise with so much
benefit to herself? Can she be blind to the fact that
when England sinks under that burden, as she will
assuredly do in a very brief space of time, if she do
not succeed in indignantly throwing it off her shoul-
ders, Scotland must sink with her ? But we will not
believe that the proceedings of the Lanarkshire
meeting represent the sense of a majority of the
Scottish people, on a subject in which they have such
ample reason to take a deep and honest interest.

A public meeting—the first annual one that has
yet taken place—of the Association for promoting
the Relief of Destitution in the Metropolis, was held on
Thursday, at the Hanover-square Rooms. The report
which was read at this meeting, gave, on the whole,
an encouraging account of the prospects of the
Society, for it appears, that within the ten months
which have elapsed since its organisation, upwards of
fifty new societies have been formed, for the visitation
and relief of the poor at their own dwellings; and
upwards of a hundred societies, in different parts of
London, have been brought into connexion with the
metropolitan Association. Moreover, nearly a thou-
sand visitors of the poor, have been called into exist-
ence since January last; and, with scarcely an
exception, the whole of the most destitute parts of
the diocese of London is now under a course of
visiting, more or less perfect, by societies supplied
with the means wherewith to meet the temporal
wants of the poor. The Bishop of LONDON-WhO,

by the bye, is far more usefully employed in advocat-
ing the objects which this Association has at heart,
than in advocating the erection of new churches in
the metropolis, v6en the old ones are only half•filled
—observed, at the meeting, that the fundamental and
most excellent feature of the Society in question was
the system of district-visiting which it had established
—a system every way calculated to induce the middle
and upper classes to overstep the chasm which di-
vided them from the lower, to descend from their
elevation into the vale of poverty, and hold out the
right hand of charity to their distressed fellow-crea-
tures. "It was undeniable," said his Lordship, "that
the present age was sadly deficient in that intercourse
between these classes which once prevailed through-
out the country, and which was so conducive to good
feeling towards one another." No one can doubt the
strict truth of this remark, or fail to perceive—if he
be endowed with only ordinary faculties of observa-
tion—the lamentable results that have ensued from
the gradual haughty estrangement of the higher and
middle classes from the lower. Of late years the
mischief has been .one of rapid progress, and its
fruits are now before us in the increasing demoralisa-
tion of the poor, and their conviction—a eonviction
which tends to increase their recklessness and
sense of degradation—that those who, from posi-
tion and circumstances, should be their guardians and
benefactors, are utterly indifferent to their interests,
and careless whether they be in a thriving condition,
or rot and die in cellars, garrets, or workhouses.
But within the last year or two a more generous and
Christian spirit has begun slowly to develop itself
in the upper and middle ranks of society. The sig-
nificant warnings thrown out by " Swing," by "Re-
becca," and by Chartism, have not been without
their effect ; and it is now at length discovered that
the vast masses of the overworked and underfed poor
are no longer to he neglected with impunity, for the
iron has entered deep into their souls, and if they can
feel a kindness, and be grateful for it, they can with
still greater acuteness feel a slight, and sternly bide
their time to retaliate. But it is not enough, in the
anxiety to benefit their condition, simply to relieve
their temporal wants, and toss alms to them with
an air of supercilious commiseration ; the kindly in-
tercourse, the encouraging smile, the word of friend-
liness and sympathy spoken in season ; the frequent
visit paid in an unassuming spirit to their cottages or,
it may be, their hovels—these are quite as effective
instruments in their way for doing good, and are
even more likely to raise the poor and destitute in
their own esteem, and win them back to the classes
from whom they have been too long estranged, than
the mere act of coldly and ungraciously subscribing
to public associations for their relief. "The rich,"
said the Reverend T. DAIS at the meeting
to which we have been alluding, "had no idea
of the mine of moral wealth to be found often in the
dwellings of the destitute, nor of the noble traits of
character which were constantly displayed by them
in their conduct to wards each other." Numerous
instances of this inherent nobility of nature; flashing
out in the gloomy depths of squalor and destitution,
have from time to time been recorded in the columns
of the public Press, and surely a class, large bodies of
whom can be capable of such conduct as Mr. acts
hints at, are well worth conciliating, even at the
cost of some personal trouble and inconvenience to
their superiors in station

Madrid journals of the 12th inst. have been received,
but they add nothing to the intelligence which we
have given from the Paris papers.
MADRID BOURSE, DECEMBER 12.—Three per
Cents. 321 cash, and 32f at sixty days. Fire per
Cents. 22 1-3 at sixty days. Floating Debt, 78 at
sixty days. Coupons, 26 at fifty-seven days. Ex-
change on London, 37 5-16.

The two leading Ministerial journals of Paris have
taken different sides in regard to the affairs of Spain
and the conduct of the present Government ; the one,
we suppose, with a view to conciliate the CHRISTINA
party at Madrid, and the other to screen the Court
and Cabinet against the attacks of the Opposition in
the Chambers. The Globe expresses great admira-
tion of the conduct of NARYIEZ in pardoning the
persons lately condemned to death, and asserts that
he was only waiting for an opportunity to show
clemency, without at the same time compromising
his duty to the throne and public order. This is
carrying flattery too far. While NARTAEZ could do
nothing less than spare the life of REUGIFO, without
exciting universal execration, he has obtained his
banishment for life, and his agents in the north are
carrying out his murderous system to his heart's
content. The journals announce that three more
of the unfortunate men taken at Hecho and Anso had
been shot at Huesca--a striking proof of the cle-
mency of the Spanish Government I The Journal des
Debats, on the other hand, denounces the atrocious
system, and calls upon Spain to take warning from
the melancholy example of France during the Revo-
lution. "Wo have declared a hundred times," it
says, " that we are not the enemies of the present
Spanish Government. On the contrary, we desire to
see it gaining strength, realising its promises, and
producing order and prosperity in that unfortunate
country. If, to arrive at that end, it is absolutely
necessary to reform the Constitution, be it so. But
we cannot have two weights and two measures ; we
cannot laud in General NA.RVAEZ, or cover over with an
indulgent silence cruelties which, with all well-think -
ing persons in Europe, we have stigmatised in
General ESPARTERO. The blood of ZURBANO'S
sons, shed without trial, and for their father's
crime rather than their own, has not cried more
loudly to our ears than the blood of the un-
fortunate DIEGO LEON. The first principle of
our politics is humanity; without it, all the
fine names which parties give each other are only
odious lies ; without humanity, there is neither liberty,
nor progress, nor veritable order. What is it we de-
mand from the men who at present triumph and
govern in Spain ? To justify their title of Moderadoes.
What sort of moderation is that which would effect its
objects, like tyranny itself, by placing beyond the
law, and by executions without trial. We are re-
minded that France has passed through these acts.
No doubt she has, and it is that which renders us
more severe towards those who, with our cruel ex-
perience before their eyes, have neither sufficient
good sense nor heart to imitate us in good, in place
of imitating us in evil. Yes, we have had re-
volutionary prevotal courts, placing men out of the
pale of the law, and executions en masse.
We, alas! left nothing to be invented in these
points ; all our parties have reciprocally shot,
banished, guillotined each other. Blood has flowed in
torrents, at one time of the Royalists, at another of
the Republicans. Yet, what party has saved itself
by such execrable means ? The Convention killed
enough, and did it not perish in its turn ? But we
have also given another example to the world. Was
not the first act of the Government of July to save
the lives of the Ministers who had issued the ordi-
nances; and who can tell what blood that first act
of courage and humanity has spared our revolution ?
Blood is not arrested by blood, but by clemency.
Such is the example which we propose to Spain and
her Government ! As long as the Government shall
shoot in Spain, it will have to fear being shot. As
long as it shall act revolutionally, revolution will
threaten it. A pardon granted to ZURBANO'S SODS
would
arms,orh
have
eouled haveaused their stern
him
ternfatthhe
father to drophis
execration f
the whole world ; at present he is an unfortunate
man, whom it is difficult not to pity."
One of the Opposition journals at last adverts to
some of the grievances to be discussed in the ensuing
session, but unfortunately they are already stale.
Most of them have been brought forward repeatedly
in the Chambers, and the journals have written about
them till even French readers have become nauseated
with the endless repetitions. Our readers, of course,
will presume that these subjects are the affairs of
Otaheite, Morocco, the right of search, and the royal
visit to Windsor Castle.

The Krie, by a royal ordonnance, dated Dec. 16,
has conferred the title of Duke on Baron PASQUJER,
Chancellor of France, and President of the Chamber
of Peers. The National thus ironically points out the
services of the Noble Peer, which entitle him to this
distinction :

" This morning's Moniteur contains great news. Baron
Denys Etienne Pasquier has just received the title of
Duke ! Most people will laugh ; as for us, we think it
woful. Devote your whole life to notoriety—court the
muses and danseuses—become the favourite of Cambs.-
cores—rise, under the protection of an imperial wing,
into the prefecture de police—tumble down under the
hand of Mallet—then be ready to salute an invasion,
and to order the Emperor's statue to be torn from the
top of his column—let the hands of the Austrians and

Prussians raise you again to power—be a fluent orator,
an elegant teller of trifles, an inevitable Minister, a De-
puty, a Peer, alternately President of the two Legisla-
tive bodies, and an unexpected member of the French
Academy—weather every storm by seasonably lowering
and rai.ing your head—serle nine Governments in fifty
years—keep a store of compliments ready for every
dynasty, aid sugar-plums for every royal christening
--
exhaust yourself to attain glory and mater fortune, and
when years shall have frozen your blood and weakened
your faculties, a man shall take you at random and make
you a duke. Poor Denys Etienne Pasquier !"
The same journal contains some unwelcome intelli-
gence for Spanish bondholders. The Madrid cor-
respondent of that paper says—
It appears that the foreign creditors of the Spanish
Government are to share in the ruin that is being
effected by the (lovernment; whilst despotism is insured
to the country, bankruptcy is imposed upon the State
creditors. You have seen by the late decree relative to
the Three per Cent. Stock, that no notice is taken of the
old Five per Cent. Debt, which principally affects
foreigners. Now, on the one hand, there is no longer
any payment of interest ; and, on the other, the securi-
ties which were to guarantee the debt are destroyed.
It is clear, therefore, that the interest augmenting the
capital, and no resource being created for this augmenta-
tion, the stock will fall to a low price, and the holders
of bonds will have in their hands only so much waste
paper. Is this what had been stipulated ? Certainly
not ; the Cortes and the Crown had solemnly pledged
themselves in the face of Europe to make national pro-
perty the guarantee for the creditors. By the fol-
lowing table you will sea how they have been
deprive.l of this guarantee. The securities taken
away from them are :—lst. 1,200,000,000 reels, the
estimated value of the property of the secular clergy.
2d. 300,000,000 reals, the value of the nunneries which
remain unsold. 3d. 200,000.000 reals, the value of the
convents of the monks remaining unsold. 4th. 800,000,000
reals, the amount of the censos of the secular clergy, and
of the religious orders of both sexes. Total 2,500,000,000
reels (25,000,00QL) Here then is a total guarantee of
' 2,500,000,000 reals taken from the creditors of the
State, and particularly the foreign creditors. With this
sum, and by respecting the mortgages solemnly appro-
priated by the Cortes to the public debt, there
existedrsoff in a period of eight
yea
thousand five hundred millions
thte he
cum means
of
seoy f
en wiping
of reels (1,875,000,000 f.) By the dispositions of the law
regulating the sale of national property, a third of the
passive debt, at the rate of fifty per cent., was admitted
in payment of national property ; and two-thirds of the
active debt, the first third not bearing interest, and the
second a debt bearing interest at four or fire per cent.
By this means, then, and by continuing the sale of na-
tional property, admitting foreigners as well as Spaniards
as purchasers, and the law making no distinction
between them, Spain might in eight years have com-
pletely paid off her old debt, and have had no other bur-
den than her three per cent. debt. The advantages of
this sale of national property were so considerable, both
for the State and the purchasers, that since 1836 there
have been disposed of in Spain 210,000 properties. The
sale is now suspended, to the prejudice of the treasury
and of the public auditors, and to the exclusive profit of
the counter revolution. Now look at the difference
which is made between the various creditors. Spaniards
who had contracts with the Government during the civil
war are paid with three per cent. rentes, at the rate of
32, 35, and 40 per cent. But foreigners, who lent to
the State in 1834 and 1835 400 millions of reals
(100,000,000 f.) at 60 per cent., and who have not had
any interest since the end of 1836, are now offered three
per cents. in payment of the interest due to them, but
are required to receive the stock at par. And are
their interests guaranteed for the future ? No. All
that is proposed is to pay them in this way fur what is
due from 1836 to 1840. They are at the same time de-
prived of the mortgages which had been granted to them
of the only means which they possessed of one day re-
, covering their capitaLw
TILE BOURSE--WEDNESDAY, DEC. 18.

rirst Highest Lowest Lest

price. Price. Price. Price.
french Five per Centa•••••• 120 115 120 20 120 .. 120 15
Three per Cents.— 84 25 .• 85 84 90 .. 55
Nevr Loan .••.•••• 86 40 •• 86 40 .. 86 30 .. 86 30
Bank of France 1275 —3275 3270 ..3270
Lailitte Bank. 5,000 f Shares.so92 59 —5091 50 —5085 ..5089
Belgian Bank....
Belgian Fives, 1840 .......• 104 •• 104 104 .. 104
1842 •••••••• 106: .. 1061 .. 1061- •• 1061
Twe-and-a-Half.• 62 60 62 60 •• 62 60 •• 62 60
Spanish Threes....
Active ..•• •••..... 331 .• 334 •• 334 •• 33/
Passive.••..•.•.... 6 •• 6 .. 6 .. 6
Neapolitan.••••-•••• • • 98 65 •• 98 70 .. 98 65 .. 98 70
Ronan ... ••••••

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