The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-08 00:00:00

Paßilatiim

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1844.

The Marquis of NORMANDY, in the House of Lords
last evening, made some remarks about the recal of
Lord ELLENnoabuthr,- and faintly called for docu-
ments which he evidently knew would not be granted.
He, at the same time, defended the course pursued by
the Indian Board of Directors, and contended that
lentil the correspondence en the subject was produced,
the House and the country could not entertain a
shadow of suspicion as to their motives.
The Earl of RIPON declined to produce the corres-
pondence, or enter on the matters adverted to by the
Noble Marquis.
Lord BROUGHAM, after adverting to the recal of
Lord ELLENBOROUG If, expressed his satisfaction at
the appointment of Sir HENRY HARDING E, and
inferred from this, that the policy which Lord
ELLENDOROUG H had pursued, and which had been so
successful, would be continued by his successor.
The Duke of WELLINGTON disclaimed any inten-
tion of interfering with the privileges of the East
India Directors in the remarks which he had made
on a former evening; but, at the same time, he must
repeat that he did not consider they had exercised
their priiileges with discretion.
Severatother Lords spoke, and thus the discussion
ended.
The 'joule adjourned at Half-past Seven o'clock.
In thd House of Commons Mr. MACKINNON moved
that the'report on the Leeds and Bradford Railway
Bill be -considered that day
six months, and on a
division the amendment was lost by a majority of
Sir R: PEEL contradicted
the statements that had
appeared in some newspapers to the effect that Cap-
tain DRUMMOND had refused to ail' dor protection to
Colonel BONET, the leader of the •
Insurgents at Ali-
cante. Colonel BONET had never applied for
pro.

tection.
Mr. HUME moved for all copes of correspondence
between the Court of Directors of the East India
Company and the Government, respecting the recal
of Lord ELLENBOROUGH.
Sir R. PEEL opposed the motion. Si: H. HAR-
DINGE, he said, would proceed to India by the next
packet, and nothing should induce him to send out at
the same time a correspondence that might fetter his
administration. From the remarks made by Sir
ROBERT PEEL in his speech, and from remarks made
in the Lords, the public may infer that Sir HENRI-
HARDINGE will pursue the policy of his predecessor.
A number of other Members spoke. Mr. MA'
CAULA.Y hoped Mr. HUME would not press his mo-
tion. Lord JOHN RUSSELL concurred. Mr. HUME
persisted- in his motion, and, on a division, he was
supported by 21 Members, and opposed by 197.
The House adjourned at Half-past Eight.

Sir ROBERT PEEL 1-
evening, gave a direct
contradiction to the accusation made against Capt.
DRUMMOND, commanding the Scout, off Alicant, for
not protecting Colonel BobiET when he applied to

him to save his life. Captain DRUMMOND, in a
letter addressed to the Secretary of the Admiralty,
states, that at the request of the British Consul, he
bad an interview with Colonel BONET, whose object
in visiting the ship was to offer any assistance in his
power to Capt. DRUMMOND during his stay at Alicante,
to which the English officer made a suitable reply.
Colonel BONET then left the ship, and never after-
wards made any application for protection. This is.
at utter variance with statements which have appeared
both in Whig and Tory journals. The Madrid cor-
respondent of the Morning Post gives the following
melancholy account of the interview :—" I am glad
to see that Capt. DRUMMOND'S refusal to give a re-
fuge on board his ship to the rebel BONET, at Alicante,
has been brought before the House of Commons.
The Morning Post was the first to mention this ex-
traordinary occurrence, which has since been severely
commented upon by several foreign journals. It is
quite true BONET was shot through the back, without
trial, becauae Captain DRUMMOND denied him an
1 asylum on board the Scout. The insurgent leader
went on deck, accompanied by Mr. WEARING, our
Consul at Alicante ; and an eye-witness of the scene
says, in writing to me, that he will never forget
BONET'S look of utter despair, as he went over the
vessel's side, and entered the boat which rowed him
on shore to certain death." Now, this is an atrocious
accusation against a British officer, and, therefore,
should not have been made but on the best authority.
It turns out the charge is utterly false, and the Eng-
glish navy and the English nation, too, are thus ex-
I posed to the most cruel obloquy by foreigners, for
acts which never were committed.

No vacancy which has occurred since the general
election—not even that of the City of London—is so
important to the friends of free trade as that of
South Lancashire. The League would have only
rendered itself ridiculous by attempting to wrest un-
fortunate Woodstock from the Duke of MARLBO-
ROUGH, or Launceston from his Grace of NORTHUM-
BERLAND ; these agricultural boroughs are valued by
the nation at their proper worth, and a contest in
them would scarcely excite more attention than a
squabble in a servants'-hall—but the southern division
of Lancashire, the great seat of those manufactures
which have suffered most severely under the curse
and blight of monopoly, is a constituency which, at
the present crisis, holds the destinies of futurity and
the fate of England's industrial prosperity. If the
manufacturers allow themselves to be mis-represented
by a monopolist—if they aid or assent to the
return of an enemy of their class and order,
with what face can they hereafter ask the Eng-
lish people to help them to burst chains
which they have themselves forged—to break
fetters which they have themselves riveted ?
Under such circumstances, it is the duty of all free-
traders in South Lancashire, to be up and doing; the
crisis has come upon them suddenly and unexpec-
tedly, but the supporters of a good cause can never be
wholly unprepared, for truth is an inexhaustible ar-
moury and sincerity is a ready weapon.
We know not whether the free-traders have yet
fixed upon a candidate, and in fact the man in this
case is of infinitely less importance than the principle.
The great question placed in issue, and perhaps to
some extent staked on the result of this election, has
but a very remote connection with family interests or
even mere political parties; it is simply the question
between "good trade" and "bad trade "—between
" open markets" and "closed markets"—between
" remote payments" and immediate returns ;" and
under such circumstances a man should select his
candidate, as he choses his clerk, irrespective of all
considerations but his aptitude for the task entrusts('
to his charge.
We have heard several persons named as likely to
be put in nomination, and we may add, that not
one of those mentisned could fail to be a useful repre-
sentative ; but in all constituencies, there are local
elements of strength, not easily discoverable by stran-
gers, of which advantage ought to be taken in so
close a struggle as that which is impending. Pre-
judices must be conciliated, hereditary prepossessions
respected, and old topics of irritation avoided. To
court opposition is to invite defeat; it is the policy
of the League to win by persuasion rather than to
conquer by force.
No political party that ever existed in this country
has had so simple and intelligible a creed as the
League ; it is comprised in two words, FREE TRADE.
To increase the articles of this faith would greatly
diminish the chances of proselytism, and, at the pre-
sent moment, any addition to the avowed objects of
the League would be equally wrong and impolitic.
No man when selling his goods asks whether the
purchaser is a Whig or a Tory ; the question would
be just as absurd if asked respecting those who bring
customers to his shop. No matter what the creed or
party of a. monopolist may be, he is the man who
drives away purchasers from the manufacturers'
warehouse, by telling them that the only payment
they can offer shall not be received ;—no matter by
what conventional designation a free-trader may be
known, he is the man who opens the world's markets
to the manufacturer's productions, and brings him
ready payment from all the ends of the earth.
To prefer the monopolist, because he is baptised
with some name hallowed by unmeaning prejudice,
would be worse than the folly of the Byzantine r,
who chose their leaders from the colours they wore in
the chariot-races of the circus ; to reject a free-trader
because he had received some nick-name not in ac-
cordance with irrational prejudice, would 'be to imi-
tate the folly of the Republican patient CROMWELL'S
days, who refused to be healed because the physician
prespribed a sovereign remedy; or the worthy alder-
man of our own days, whose stomach revolted against
a radical cure.

The men of Lancashire, and particularly of its
southern division, have taken the lead in appealing to
the. people of England against the restrictions by
which the industry of the nation is crippled, and
rendered unproductive. They have thus voluntarily
incurred a responsibility which they are now called
upon to fulfil. On them the eyes of the nation will
be fixed for the next fortnight, and their example will
either point the way to speedy victory, or furnish an
excuse for the retardation of a cause, the ultimate
success of which is certain, but every delay of which
is fraught with serious peril to the general community.

On Monday night Sir If:PEEL submitted his eleven
resolutions, connected with the conditions on which he
will propose to Parliament, at a future day, the re-
newal of the charter of the Bank of England. The
Premier expressed a strong desire that Members
would not, then, enter into any discussion of
them, but take time carefully to deliberate upon and
digest them. Some of our Contemporaries, we per-
ceive, have taken this hint upon its literal expression,
by abstainir g for the present from any detailed exa-
mination of the purport and effect of these "resolu-
tions." If we were sufficiently alive to the
honour of having our opinions confirmed by
Ministerial authority, we should have sufficient
grace to follow the example of those brother
journalists. 'We perceive that Sir ROBERT took
the same view of the universal pervading
importance of this question of the Bank Charter,
which we hazarded in a leading article on Mon-
day. He considers it as " entering into ever"
transaction of which money forms a part." He al-
lows, as we have argued, " that there is no contract,
public or private—no engagement, national or indi-
vidual, which is unaffected by it." That "the en
terprises of commerce, the profits of trade, the arrange-
ments to be made in all the domestic relations of so-
ciety, the wages of labour, the transactions of the
highest amount and of the lowest, the payment of the
national debt," &c., &c., are all affected by it.
But if we follow the course thus set us, and the
Premiers recommendation to Hon. Members, we
eisa,ntnooote
vaibasetnaitnly,
,inththeepumrepaonstei mo
feh,
ef
rr o.lmi A r
je
Ems
Ta ry ki,
S nGgot
vheartni
-t
ment to give to the Bank a greater, because a more im-
mediate, control than ever over the currency of the coun-
try, and to extend and aggravate the pernicious princi-
ples and influence of the disastrous Bill of 1819. It is
air ROBERT PEEL'S clear desire and intention to
enhance the evil which he has the unenviable distinc-
tion of having already inflicted upon our national
prosperity, by enactments which can have no other
o?eration than to make money dear. If he have
abandoned his original purpose of constituting the
Bank of England the sole bank of issue, he has pro-
posed that there shall be no new joint-stock (
of
issue) authorised hereafter. But we purposely re-
frain from going at present into the examination of
his plan in detail.
The Right lion. Baronet laboured, with moot

pains-taking but not very felicitous application, to
bring a few jokes to bear on the impugners of his
Currency Bill, and of the sagacity of the Bullionist,
but his "great guns" were harmless. A speech more
illogical in its attempts at "reasoning down" (as
this process is called in Parliamentary parlance) his
opponents we have never perused. He talked in re-
ference to the gold standard, "of the principles which I
determine the price of that of which paper is •
merely the representative." From whence we infer
that Sir ROBERT really would have us believe that
money must necessarily be metallic, or that value can
be expressed only in money. He must recant such
paradoxes as these, before he next attacks the
writings of the " Gemini," and Birmingham in
general, albeit, Birmingham will always he redolent
of distasteful associations to the non-reforming Mi-
nister of 1829. But if Sir ROBERT was unfortunate
in his exposition of principles, he was not less at
fault in his illustration of a pound. " What is a
pound," said the gleesome Baronet, "and what is an
engagement to pay a pound ?" . . . " The whole
foundation of my measure rests upon the assumption that
according to practice, according to law, according to
the ancient monetary polity of this country, the mean-
ing of a pound' is neither more nor less than a
CERTAIN definite quantity of gold, with a mark upon
it to determine its weight and fineness ; and that the
engagement to pay a pound' means nothing, and
can mean nothing else, but the promise to pay to the
holder on demand, when he demands it, a definite
quantity of the precious metals." Now, how does the
reader suppose that this close reasoner—this acute
and ironical scourge of the TAYLORS, and LEATHAMS,
and ATTWOODS—illustrates his own definitions by the
" practice," the " law," and the " ancient monetary
system of the country ?" To begin, first, with the
last, he thus re-states and answers his own question :
" What is the meaning of the pound, according to
the ancient monetary polity of this country ? In the
reign of WILLIAM the CONQUEROR a pound of silver
was the pound of account. The pound represented
both the weight of metal and the denomination of
money." Why, then, a pound (of 12 ounces, Troy) was,
by our " ancient monetary polity," NOT " neither
more nor less than a CERTAIN definite quantity of
gold,"—to wit, one ounce of such weight and stan-
dard as to be equivalent to the Idint value of
3/. 17s. 10id. "By subsequent debasements of the
currency, a great alteration took place—not in the
name, but in the intrinsic value of the pound ster-
ling." How ? Then the pound, in all that subse-
quent period, was NOT, either in " practice," " law,"
or " our ancient monetary polity; a certain definite
quantity of the precious metals." But it was an in-
dPfinite quantity. "It was not until a late period of
the reign of Queen ELIZABETH that SILVER, being
THEN the standard of value"—(good bye, " ancient
monetary system," and " polity," and " standard" of
GOLD !) —" received that determinate weight which
it retained without variation, with constant refusals
to alter it, until the year 1716, when gold was prac-
tically substituted for silver as the exclusive standard
of value." So, from WILLIAM to ELIZABETH, our
" ancient polity" recognised, NOT the pound of gold,
but the pound of silver, as the standard of value.
From a period not a century after the close of WIL-
LIAM'S reign till 1567, say about 300 years, even this
pound was of greatly debased silver ; and from 1567 to
1719, or for 150 years, the enhanced value of the pound
remained unaltered. Farewell, the "ancient prac-
tice" by which our gold standard of value is said to be
sanctioned ! Well ;—"for a certain period afterwards,
both gold and silver constituted the standard of value;
and in 1717, it having been determined that the value
of the guinea should be 215., in 1774 it was enacted
that no legal contract should be discharged in silver
for any sum of more than 251." Adieu! most con-
sistent, unbroken, venerable, presumptive "custom of
the country," only chequered by these trifling
changes !—" That" (measure of 1774) " therefore
made gold substantially the measure of value in this
country." Sir ROBERT'S " therefore" is about as
good a sequitur as his definition of " certain definite"
(that is, unchanging and unalterable) quantity.

One more citation, and we will leave Sir ROBERT
for the present. He supposes himself to be arguing
against any change in the existing standard of value.
" There is no more reason," he says, " why a pound
should not be bound by all transactions—notwith-
standing our increase in wealth—there is no more
reason wby you should change your pound—than
there is to say that a foot shall be a foot and a half."
The difference between the two cases, the reason for
such a principle of adoption in the one—•the utter
absurdity cf its application in the other—are things
so self-evident, that we will not waste one word of
commentary on such a preposterous analogy. lied
the Premier proposed his own "foot" for the standard
of Parliamentary symmetry in that member, it would
have had not one tittle less of relation to the matter
in hand, or been one iota less inefficient as a measure
of comparison I

A Correspondent in the Times, of yesterday morning,
makes some forcible and pertinent allusions to the
shameful manner in which Trafalgar-square has
been already disfigured, notwithstanding it is only
a few days since it was thrown open to the public.
" Already," he says, " this noble Square has been
polluted by brutes in human shape ; and dirty boys,
besides, are suffered to disfigure the reservoirs, and
fill them with orange peel, wood, filthy rags, and
paper. Meanwhile, the police, whom we pay so
well, aro idly looking on, or engaged in the
elegant employment of ogling the women." It
is a remarkable fact, but one that has been ob-
-erved a hundred times, that wherever the police
are most wanted, there they are sure never to be
found. On almost every occasion of a street disturb-
ance, whether by day or night, it invariably happens
that they make their appearance on the scene of ac-
tion just at the moment when order is restored, and
their services may be dispensed with; while they may
be seen idly lounging about in twos and threes, and
ever ready at one's call, when there appears not the
slightest chance of any demand being made on their
interference. Where were they, let us ask, when the
nuisances alluded to by the- Times Correspondent were
perpetrated in the most magnificent Square of which
this, or perhaps any other, metropolis can boast?
Why were they not actively on the alert to repress
with a firm hand any attempt at a nuisance ?
It might have been taken for granted that
the throwing open of Trafalgar-square more
especially when it is borne in mind that the
opening of the Royal Academy Exhibition to the
public took place nearly at the same time—would
have attracted a vast and motley crowd, and for some
days to come at least, the police should have mus-
tered strongly in the neighbourhood. True, there
were a few policemen about, scattered here and there
among the mob—we saw one or two ourselves yes-
terday—but they must have paid very little
attention to their duties, otherwise the reservoirs
would never have been in the condition
which our Contemporary's correspondent describes.
We trust that the nuisances which he so justly de-
nounces will not be suffered to be repeated ; or, if
repeated, that the offenders will be instantly taken
up by the police, and summarily dealt with accord•
ing to law. It is perfectly intolerable that in one of
the greatest thoroughfares in London ; which is in
the immediate neighbourhood of some of our most po-
pular public exhibitions; and which is thronged every
hour in the day, nuisances should be perpetrated with
impunity which, as the writer in the Times observes,
are "an offence to common decency." The terrace
in Trafalgar-square is one of the greatest ornaments
of the metropolis, and should be thronged by re-
spectable people, for whom it forms a most agreeable,
airy promenade at all hours of the day; but if no
pains are taken to keep it in a decent, orderly state,
it will assuredly ere long be quite deserted by all hut
the lowest and most vagabond portion of the com-
munity, and instead of being the boast, it will be-
come the disgrace of London.

. We have received Madrid papers of the 29th nit.
but they bring no political intelligence in addition to
that conveyed by the telegraphic dispatch of the
2d inst. One of them contains a letter from Malaga,
giving the following details of the expedition to
Morocco.
" The frigate Christina arrived two days ago, along with
a sloop of war, and has jast left for Tangier, to demand
satisfaction for the insult offered to our nation in the person
of its representative. Probably this satisfaction will not be
given. The Moors prepare for the struggle, and are al-
ready approaching the coast. Foreseeing this, the head of
our naval force has made the proper preparations to carry
such of the consuls and the Spaniards as may wish to quit
Morocco into Spain- The expedition sailed to-day, the
24th, and yesterday an English ship left Gibraltar for