The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-26 00:00:00

!S. ±,
THE SITN, 14,01q.13019', FRIDAY 1:111NINd JAIIITARY 26, 1844:

represent and embody the peculiar spirit of its
age. This the Monopolist Association does not
do. On the contrary, it is in direct opposition
to that spirit; and, as a necessary consequence, must—
notwithstanding its exertions—grow weaker and
weaker in exact proportion to the progress of en-
lightened public opinion. When men are groping
about In the dark, nothing is more likely than that
they should mistake one thing for another—a dwarf
for a giant ; but when they come forth into the broad
day-light they see things as they really are, divested
of all exaggeration, and reduced to their just
dimensions'. Now the people are no longer grop-
ing about in the thick darkness of ignoraoce ; the
broad steady light of intelligence has been let in on
them, consequently there is not the slightest appre-
hension that they will mistake the small, trivial circum-
stance of a monopolist Confederacy for a "great fact"
like the League. But, alas, for Sir R.PEEL 1 The agitation
of the corn-law bigots, though it has no terrors for
the free-traders, will be quite imposing enough to
alarm his delicate political sensibilities. He, who is so
apt to take fright at phantoms, will be pretty sure to
mistake the shadow for the substance; and we
should not be at all surprised were he to make
another retrogade move towards the monopo-
lists, on whom last session he had all but brought
himself to turn his back. Well, let him do so; it is
net one Paar, nor a hundred PIUS, that can stop
the triumphant progress of the League ; it moves for-
ward in spite of him ; and the day is not far distant
when we shall see this man of many faces—this ex-
pounder of solemn plausibilities—dragged an unwilling
captive at its chariot wheels.

Since the above remarks were written, we
have read, with the attention it deserves, an
account of the great meeting of the League,
which took place at Covent-garden Theatre last
night. What a striking contrast does not this meet-
ing exhibit to those which the monopolists have of
late contrived to get together with such difficulty !
In the one case we find earnestness—sincerity— con-
fidence—and inflexible determination of purpose; in
the other, faint-heartedness, scarce hidden beneath
the flimsy disguise of noise and bluster—
clumsy special pleading, with which conviction has
nothing to do, substituted for plain, manly, sound
reasoning—and coarse abuse attempted to be palmed
off for energetic appeals to the feelings. The League
directs its efforts to enlightening the understandings of
its audience—the monopolist Confederacy, to the
strengthening and confirming of their prejudices. The
one states broad, undeniable facts—the other runs
riot in the realms of fiction. The one describes
things as they are the other, as they are
not. Every successive meeting of the League is at-
tended by enthusiastic crowds—every successive
meeting of the Monopolists, by a set of sulky de-
pendents, to whose intelligence and quick-wittedness
we should be sorry to depose on oath at Bow-street.
In referring more particularly to the proceedings of
the League last night at Covent-garden, we cannot
avoid noticing in terms of high praise the admirable
speech delivered by Mr. Fox. It was just what such a
speech should be—animated—argnmentative—full of
lively illustrations drawn from the most obvious and
familiar sources happily timed and skilfully
adapted to the taste and temper of the audience to
whom it was addressed. Mr. Fox, speaking
the sentiments of the Leaguers, boldly re-
pudiated the idea that they entertained any-
thing like a compromise. They were entitled to
a full measure of justice, and they would not be put
off with light weight. They were the chosen repre-
sentatives of the interests of the industrious classes,
and for those interests they would struggle through
all difficulties, and at all hazards. "The total, the un-
conditional, the immediate abolition of the corn-laws,"
observed the speaker, " was what they asked of all. They
sought no more—they would take no less, whether
from Sir B. Peen on the one side, or from Lord J.
Ruesenn on the other." Mr. Ginsois, in the course
of a pithy, closely-reasoned address, lashed the
Monopolists in such scientific style, and
with such evident heartiness as would have drawn
bursts of applause from one of Lord CARDIGAN'S
drummer-boys ; and Mr. Bourn's. instituted a suc-
cessful comparison between Sir ROBBRT ruul. and
that punctual and dextrous man of figures and ac-
counts, Mr. Alderman Guam. In point of spirit and
energy the mooting was one of the most remarkable
that has yet taken place in tho,metropolis.

The strength and force
.with which the influence
of the currency upon the public weal daily grows
upon u, has prompted us to redeem our promise of
returning to the subject, and we are the more in-
duced to do so from the perusal of a pamphlet, by
Mr. GILLIBRAND HUBBARD, which has just fallen in
our way. It is natural to look upon the observations
of an official person as possessing more than ordi-
nary weight, when they refer to the matters with
which he i s presumed
daily conversant. For
threasonis
in
w
ethese
pages werepa tso be
inclined to study the opinions
contained
with
no
little respect ; but
we must confess that we have seldom been more
woefully disappointed than in this instance. Going
over a large field, and comprising topics of the most
various and extensive importance, and hav-
ing one definite object in view, we had
a right to anticipate straightforward argu-
ment and logical deduction. The unity of his
objects—the demonstration of the necessity and
utility of a national bank of issue--gave him an ad-
mirable opportunity of arriving at it by the clear
declaration of premises and the natural deduction of
conclusions. The statements of his page of contents
would, one would conceive, have helped him mate-
rially, for it is to all appearance satisfactory enough,
but in the course of considering the texts -of his
several chapters, he has contrived to mix up so much
of ill-arranged thoughts, and sophisticated argument,
as to render his conclusions altogether wide of the
truth. It is painful to speak thus severely of, no
as it is impossible to follow the author
doubt, a well-intended effort, and the more so in the
in the confined space
of a newspaper article, and our observations must,
thprmeseungthctashee,
whole of his range
therefore, have a general bearing, rather than a per-
son al reference.

Huma=n appears, with all the advocates for
a metallic currency, to entertain a confused notion of
the nature of money. He has been so much accus-
tomed to the sight of bank-notes and sovereigns that
he' has learned to consider nothing really of value
until it has been converted into these representatives
of value, not being satisfied with a bank-note itself,
indeed, except insomuch as, he has a certainty of turn-
ing. it into sovereigns, thus, at all times, possessing
thqe power of putting what he conceives to be of in-
trimic value into his pocket. He forgets that gold

itself is but so much shining trash, except in so far as
it can be exchanged for commodities, which, as they
conduce to physical comfort, or mental elevation,
can alone possess the value he desires. Every grain
[ of .corn that tends to the bodily sustenance, and every
yard of cloth that covers from the cold, possesses an in-
. trinsic ; value and a piece of printed paper, impressed
with an authority possessing the power, legal through
enactment, and moral from position, of rendering it
available to the community at large, becomes as ser-
viceable in the purchase of commodities, asthe
brightest sovereign that evens eoin—nay, in-
finitely more serviceable—as it is free from the con-
tingency to which gold, as the circulating medium
between nation and nation, is liable, of being at any
time withdrawn from the country, by the operations
of trade ; while it possesses, moreover, the additional
advantage of accommodating itself with less incon-
venience to the various requirements of the social
public.
The great evil occasioned by the advocates of a
metallic currency, consists in their promotion of the
notion that gold is of more service as a currency, be-
cause it possesses, as they conceives an intrinsic value,
not recollecting that the currency of the social system,
is, like the vital fluid in the corporal system, only the
medium through which the means of nutriment is
conveyed to the whole body politic, and that through
the very scantiness of the mass, and through its
great liability to waste by depletion, either from
abrasion and loss at home, or from draughts for
abroad, utterly insufficient for the purposes for
which it is designed. The very circuanstance of gold
being of exchangeable value gives it a double cha-
racter, and consequently renders it a cause of dis-
turbance in the internal circulation. If used solely
as the medium of internal currency, so as to prevent I
this disturbance, its natural action must be to reduce
all prices in Britain to the measure of those countries I