The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-20 00:00:00

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• • Aes.",e `),44
of little consequence whether gold was or was not the
measure of value. There were three natural ,:eietees
lents in corn, silver, and gold. It took about the same ,
quantity of labour to grow and produce a quarter i;.tl(E.l
wheat as it did to produce 5 grains, 3 dwts. of golel., or-
-81 ounces of silver ; and thus it was that these speezatleZelS.Ma"'
commodities were natural equivalents for each 'bitter;
and acted as parallel rates of value. Now an ounce of
silver was rated in the exchange markets as being worth
ss. was, in fa,,t, we-mil only 4s. I Id.. but for the
sake of argument he would take it at its exchangeable
value, and call it ss. 2d. Now it was ascertained that,
according to the natural worth of gold, and the equiva-
lent value of silver, that a quarter of wheat, when not
subject to taxation, ought to he worth 33s 7d., and con-
sequently' that 61 ounces of silver ought to purchase that
quantity of corn ; but by the effect of indirect taxation
the price of this corn was raised to 50s. It was taxed
more than 50 per cent., but the gold and the silver
which was used to purchase it were untaxed, and the
consequence was that the farmer and the manufacturer
had to give one-half more of their labour than they used
to do. Gold could not rise in price ; it was positively
required by Act of Parliament that it should be re:-
stricted to 31. 17s. 101 d. an ounce, and by thus placing a
taxed equivalent against an untaxed equivalent the pro-
ducer only got 84 dwts. of gold for that which ought to
have produced him 124 dwts. Mr. Canning had de-
scribed Sir R. Peel as the acme of sublime mediocrity,
and Mr. Dlsraeli, the other night, had stated thata Con-
servative Government was only an organised hypocrisy;
but he would go further, and assert that Sir R. Peel.
when introducing his Bill of 1819, was either shamefully
ignorant of historical facts, or criminal in misrepresenting
them. He had stated that his object wa, to restore the
standard of Elizabeth ; but what was the fact ? They
sovereign of the present day contained only 5 dwts,
3 grains of gold, or, in other words, 123 grains, whereas •
the sovereign of Elizabeth contained 172 grains, making
a difference, at the rate of twopence a grain, of no less
than Bs. 4d. between the value of the sovereigns
of Elizabeth and Victoria, so that this profession was
like many other of his professions, a vain and a
false one: his object was to keep down gold to the
Mint price of 31. 17s. 101 d., for he knew that if he could
make gold cheap he would make labour cheap also.
That his object was not security so much, was shown by
the circumstance that the only bank whichwas allowed to
issue 'totes had themselves the other day been obliged to
go to the Bank of France to borrow [3,500,0001. There
was no cabalistic power in a sovereign, for it was, after
all, but a token of valve, and the impression of the
Queen's head upon it conferred no additional intrinsic
value ; it only was a certificate of a certain weight and
fineness, and if the Goldsmith's Company were to issue
similar emblems, they would be taken by Mr. Rothschild
or any other great capitalist just as readily as .sove-
reigns. The belief that the intrinsic value of gold gave
a greater security to the public was altogether fallacious,
but the injury which it worked was a sad reality ; and
the Act by which it was brought into existence was that
attempt which, after the conclusion of the war in 1815,
the landowners made to shift, the burden of the debt
from their own shoulders to those of working men, and it
was a well-known fact that the working man did absolutely
pay 72 per cent. of the whole taxation of the country,
and the Bill of 1819 was passed in order to perpetuate
the,high price in corn and the low price paid for the
labour of the working man. Mr. Duncan then went
into a series of statements to show that the foreign
trade of the country is not nearly so valuable as it was
supposed to be, and he believed that attention was
directed to it which might be much better applied to ob-
taining a better mode of distributing the wealth which
labour produced. Ile showed that the attempt devised
by Colonel Torrent, Mr. Joplin, and Mr. Jones Loyd,
to secure a favourable rate of exchange, was fallacious,
and that the only effect wrought upon the exchanges was
occasioned by sending a continually-increasing quantity
of goodsi into the foreign market, to bring that gold
back to tilt, country which, for our domestic purposes,
was totally useless. Gold, he allowed, was a necessary
medium of exchange between country and country, but
the application ail it as the standard of value in
Britain was neither more nor less than obliging Our arti-
sans to work ;sixteen hours a day to obtain those
necessaries which a working man in Germany
got for eight hours' exertion. He thought that, as ho
had pointed out an evil, lie ought also to point out a
remedy, and that was, issuing of Exchequer-bills for
small sums to the full amount of the taxation;-and he
showed that, as these bills would be based on the whole
property of the country, no doubt could be entertained
of their validity, and after showing that the present Ex-
chequer-bills were derived from the old Exchequer
tallies, as evinced in the term bill for bille, an old Nor-
wan French word, and thence applied in its derivative,
billet, to the Exchequer tally, which was a piece of wood
notched ix a particular way and then divided, one part
being laid up in the Exchequer repository, and the other
issued and circulated in the country in payment for
stores or other necessaries, and which was returnable at
thel end of twelve months—he iadduced an instance of
the utility of using such notes where a new market had
been erected, through the exertions of Mr. Brock, at
St. Peter's Port, in the island of Guernsey, who
issued notes of a similar kind in payment of the
works, and who annually redeemed the notes,
to the extent of 4,000 L, out of the rents of the
eighty stalls which the market contained. The same
system might be adopted by Government and he felt sa-
tisfied that if the plan were adopted it would at once
secure to the working maw a full rate of wages, to those
in the middle classes a fair remuneration in business
profit, and whether accompanied by direct taxation,
of which he heartily approved, or not, would bring the
whole available property into play for the benefit of the
community at large, and would equalise those burdens
which were now grinding all the lower portions of so-
ciety into dust. Mr. Duncan concluded his long and
perspicuous lecture amid the earnest cheers of what had
been a most attentive audience. •

THE SALT-HILL MURDER.

AY LESB URY, WEDNESDAY. —I t is extraordinary with what
avidity every morsel of intelligence relating to the mur-
derer, John Tawell, is sought and snatched up by the public..
Far and wide inquiry and speculation are busily on foot con-
cerning him, but nearer the scene of the murder he is the
general topic of conversation. As may be supposed, many
incorrect stories concerning him find their way into circu-
lation, but nothing can be more absurd and reprehensible
than some of the inventions which idle gossip has promul-
gated.
Public feeling is, generally speaking, against him, and
every day some fresh amount of crime, in the way of' poison-
ing, is attributed to him. Sarah hart is supposed by the
credulous to be by no means the only person upon whom he
has practised his knowledge of chemistry; and it is suspected
that while he kept his druggist's shop in Sydney a wide field
was open to him for the exercise of his skill. His partner
at Sydney is said to have died suddenly, leaving him all his
property. His two sons are said to have left this world
suddenly. His first wife, it is stated, died suddenly. Sarah
Hart had a narrow escape once; and these circumstances, in
connexion with her murder, by no means lessen the belief of
his guilt.
By those who have any knowlede of the prisoner he is re-
garded very differently. Lverybody who knows the wretched
man speaks well of him, and everybody who has conversed
with him has received a favourable impression. Mild, gen-
tlemanly, and unaffected in his manner, he listens to what-
ever is said to him with respectful attention, and converses
with all the serenity of' a martyr. A convict of the gaol re-
mains with him at his request throughout the day, as a sort
of attendant, and to this man he is particularly communica-
tive. He received the visiting magistrates yesterday with
great composure, and expressed his thankfulness for the con-
sideration shown to him. It was intimated that nobody
would be allowed to visit him but those whom be expressed
a wish to see, upon which he observed, that he desired, to see
nobody but his wife, and he looked forward to another in-
terview with her. One of the magistrates suggested to him
the propriety of foregoing such a scene, and sparing the feel-
ings of his wife in particular, of whom he had so lately taken
leave. Ile, however, persisted in the wish and hope of again
seeing her, meekly alluding to the affectionate terms upon
whicri they had lived together.
It is remarkable that the culprit has never once com-
plained of the sentence which was passed upon him. When
the hope of escape (which had been very great within him)
was suddenly crushed, he observed that " The judge was a
just judge, but a stern one." He has once remarked, with
remote reference to his sentence, " that he could conscien-
tiously acquit himself of cruelty or treachery to anybody."
But he rarely, if ever, adverts to his crime.
He continues to receive numerous letters from all quarters
of the country. His time is divided between writing and
praying; and he occasionally sees the chaplain, Mr. Cox,
but no revelation has yet been made by Tawell. Great care
has been observed by the authorities to prevent, what it is
thought by many he will attempt, the making away with
himself. Mrs. Tawell is known to have been aware of the
existence of such a person as Sarah Hart, and eten of
Tawell's having children by her; but she was utterly un-
conscious of his visiting her, and attributes his last visit to
purely humane motives.
Friday, the 2.Sth instant, is decidedly fixed for the exe-
cution, unless the Secretary of State orders it otherwise. A
petition to Sir James Graham has been this day set on foot :n
the town of Aylesbury, praying that Tawell's sentence of
death may be commuted to transportation for life. This pe-
tition is grounded upon an objection to the punishment of
death, and the prayer is set forth in behalf of all who lie
under such a sentence. The petition is signed by a few
tradesmen of the town, nearly all of whom are Dissenters.

- - -----
THE HAMPSTEAD MURDER.
110FKLH'S DEFENCE.—The line of defence that will pro-
bably be adopted by Mocker on his trial, for the murder of
Delarue, seems pointed out by his conduct, and by his
anxiety to correct the evidence of the policeman who was
left in charge of the body in the field whilst the stretcher
was brought. He will, most probably, assert that whilst
waiting by the body, he and the policeman agreed to plun-
der it, and that that was the whole extent of his criminality.
Many m •of the circumstances would bear out such a defence.
First, the great improbability that a murderer would revisit
the spot so soon afterwards for no apparent object; secondly,
the withholding by the policeman of the fact that any one
had been with himin the held; and, thirdly, the buttoned-up„
pockets of Delarue ; as it would not be likely for the rnar-''
derer to stop and button the pockets of the man he had
killed, whose cries, continuing nearly two minutes, would
most probably have been heard. Such a line of defence
would also account for the blood on Hocker's clothes, and
for the silence he observed on the subject. The presence of
the three ill-looking men in different parts of Hampstead,
on the day of the murder, who were last seen going towards
the place, and have not since been heard :of, would also
afford some countenance to the statement that Delarue had
been murdered by them, as originally supposed, and that
becoming alarmed they had run away before plundering the
body. The fact of the supposed murderous weapon having
been discovered before the murder was committed, and the
absence of proof that the prisoner had possessed any other
weapon calculated to inflict the wounds on the head of De-
larue, are also in his favour, so far as negative evidence goes.
He would, indeed, have some difficulty in explaining other,
though minuter, parts of the evidence against him ; but the
line of defence we have mentioned would be supported by
several of the circumstances that have been adduced against
him.
THE GLOOMY PATH.—WC understand that in consequence
of the attention that has been drawn by the recent murder at
Hampstead to the gloomy path by the side of Bellsize-park,
leading to the Haverstock field, it is intended to adopt mea-
sures for the removal of the high close wooden fence, which
was erected within the last six years by Mr. Wright, the
late banker.- The path is inclosed between the black wooden
fence, seven feet high, on one side, and an old brick wall.atill.