The Sun.
London, England, 1844-12-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OP SATURDAY.
GLOBE.—About half a dozen of the Post's " gentle-
men agriculturists" assembled yesterday afternoon at the
Freemasons' Tavern, for the purpose of " agitating" for
the repeal of the malt duty. Mr. A. Spottiswoode, the
Queens's printer, was selected by the meeting as
an appropriate chairman for the occasion ; and Mr.
R. Baker, the paid agent of the Essex Pro-Corn-
law League, was the chief spokesman of the day.
The Chairman declared his innocence of all know-
ledge relating to the object for which the persons pre:!
sent had assembled ; " but there were, no doubt, several
gentlemen present who were acquainted with the sul?-
ject ; and he trusted it would be discussed with t: lit
good temper which was essential to its proper undei-
standing. The object, he believed, was to do good to
those who naturally looked up to the landowners and
farmers for snpport and assistance ; and he would only
say, that the class to whom he referred had not hitherto
received that fair protection to which they were en•
titled." Mr. Baker undertook to:support the Chairman's
deficiency of information ; and, certainly, if the number
of topics the introduced were to be regarded as a fair
criterion, we should reverence the man as a locomo-
tive cycloptedia of political economy. " That one small
head shold carry all he knows," or rather talks about,
may well excite " wonder" in the minds of the
Essex farmers. The repeal of the malt duty was
the theme of Mr. Baker's eloquence; the object to
attain which he endeavours to incite the farmers to
agitate. If Sir R. Peel would but take off the malt
duty it would rectify the blunders of his tariff ; atone
for the injuries inflicted on the agriculturists by the
newly-adjusted sliding scale; and make up the losses
sustained by the currency : in fact, Mr. Baker, like
other empirics, has discovered the panacea which, if
applied to tke agricultural distress, will render the farmers
fat and flourishing, and their labourers brisk and blessed.
Among other matters, of equal probability, Mr. Baker
suggested the following as inducements to " the gen-
tlemen agriculturists" to agitate for malt-tax repeal:—
"In former times the farmer found his labourers in
good home-brewed ale, and paid better wages to his
men. No doubt the rate of wages was the first con_
sideration, but it was equally true that the discontinu-
ance of the old allowance of good strong beer had pro-
duced much dissatisfaction amongst the labouring
classes. That he conceived to have been one of the
main incentives to that moral disturbance which had
produced the commission of those horrid outrages un-
happily too frequent in the agricultural districts. That
discontented feeling was, he believed, fairly traceable
to a reduced standard of wages, and in no little degree
to the discontinuance of the labourer's customary
allowance of beer. The labourers were not only
worse paid, but they got worse beer, and less of
it. . . . . If the malt duty were abolished, the
labourer would no longer have occasion to resort to
the beer-shop, for he would be enabled to brew his
own beer at a fourth of the price which he now
paid." Beer at one penny per quart—one fourth of
the price which the labourer now pays for it, when he can
get it—is one of those illusions with which agricultural
labourers may be cheated, but which will certainly im
pose on no one else. No man capable of adding two and
two together can arrive at such a conclusion. Mr.
Baker, we presume, is capable of doing so. His asser-
tion, therefore, cannot be the result of ignorance
and, if not of ignorance, what then ? The utmost
reduction of price which beer would experience, even
to the labourer—if his condition were so improved
as to enable him to brew for himself and family—
would be somewhat less than one penny per quart.
Mr. Baker's observations evidently had reference to
s letter of Mr. Tower,. of Weald Hall, which appeared
in the Chelmsford Chronicle of yesterday, and which pro-
pounds a notable scheme for retaining the duty on malt
to the general consumer, but relinquishing it so far
as beer for farmers and their labourers is concerned.
Were it not an illustration of the extremity to which
the agricultural protectionists are driven for expedients
by which to uphold their falling cause, and the des-
perate efforts they put forth to preserve themselves
from the gulf toward which their insane and cruel
policy is fast impelling them, Mr. Tower's scheme
might be allowed to pass into oblivion without
remark. As a scheme for upholding rents, and thus mi-
nistering to the landlords' interests at the expense of the
general community, it may be worth while to expose its
absurdity. Mr. Tower belongs to that unfortunate class
of politicians who advocate " Protection to Agriculture,"
end yet call themselves Whigs. Mr. Tower,_ in the letter
alluded to, proposes that " Every occupier of land, get-
ting his living chiefly thereby, and not being rated at
more than -C— a year to the assessed taxes on carriages,
horses, dogs, and male servants, should be allowed, on
payment of a small fee, to register his private brew-house
at the Excise-office nearest his residence. Bond should be
given to insure that the beer should be drunk on, and
not sold to be carried off, the premises. The Excise
officer should, on receiving notice, attend and certify
the quantity of malt mashed, on which the duty would
be repaid, the quantity brewed at any one time not being
less than bushels." This " Protection-to-Agriculture"
advocate goes on to say—" All the benefits to the la-
bourer anticipated by the farmers, would be rendered
available; the promised check to the corruption of the
beer-shops would be obtained, and no other interest
materially affected or disturbed by its operation."
This sage would not " check the corruption of
the beer-shops," but would sct up a fresh beer-shop
in the house of every little farmer throughout
the land, and one "licensed to consume upon the
premises"—that is, a beer-shop of the kind which
it now requires a certain rating, and the signature
of six, or a majority of inhabitant rate-payers, to
obtain. There would be very little necessity to give
bond that the beer should be consumed on the premises.
Give liodge a comfortable fire, beer at three-farthings
a pot cheaper than he can get it at the Tom-and-Jerry
up the 2treet ; and the Legislature need be under no
apprehension of his seeking the bosom of his family
as long as " Master " will let him have another pint.
The landlords have done all that men could do to-
wards destroying the peasantry. They have made
them dependent by bad poor-laws, and desperate iby
bad game-laws ; they have starved them by exacting
high rents, and left them in the grossest ignorance and
rutal ty And now a scheme is propounded by a
siember of the class which has so signally failed in
duty to the labourers, to complete the ruin they
have caused, by proposing a plan by which the
labourer would be encouraged to spend his earnings on
his master's premises, in beer brewed with malt the
growth of his master's land, and consequently for his
master's profit—in order that his master may be better
able to pay his landlord the high rent which must
otherwise be reduced. The family of the labourer will
be little disposed to thank the projector, of this notable
exhibition of landlord wisdom. Their present wretched
supply of food and raiment would be still further dimi-
nished by the amount expended on ale allowed to be
" drunk,' free of duty, on the master's " premises."
STANDARD.—The deliberation of the Board of
Heads of Houses and Proctors at Oxford, upon Mr.
Ward's "Ideal Church," and the Tract No. 90, have
come to a close, and the result will probably app.ar
on Monday, in a very ably written paper. Mean-
while let us state what we believe to be a faithful
abstract of the Board's decision. The opinion of the
Board, to be submitted to a Convocation to he
.holden on the 13th of February, is in the form
of three propositions :—First, to censure the false doc-
trines in Mr. Ward's book, more particularly that doc-
trine which relates to subscription to the Articles of the
Church. Secondly, to strip Mr. Ward of his degrees in
the University, should he not submit and retract.
Thirdly, to make provision that in future the
Articles shall be honestly subscribed, that is in
their plain grammatical sense, without evasion or
mental reservation, but as far as the 'effect can be
be secured juxta animum imponentis. The Board has thus
faithfully and courageously discharged its duty the Uni-
versity, the country, and the Church. More than submit
the matter to Convocation it had no power to do, and we
think that it acted wisely in allowing two months for the
person whose fate is to be decided, to prepare a defence,
if he can • to reconsider his errors if he has enough of
dense and candour remaining ; or, not an improbable
event, boldly to follow to Rome so many of his brother
sectar;ans as have gone before him. The friends
of the Church and of the Protestant faith, who
are members of Convocation, must not neglect
the advantages offered by this comparatively long
notice. Let them regard the 13th of February as a
day sacred to their first of social duties connected with
religion, and in time make all necessary arrangements to
ensure that they can bo at Oxford upon that
day. With such notice as they have, no ex-
cuse less than the physical impossibility of the journey
can justify their absence from Oxford, on the 13th of
February. So far, the University has shown its deter-
mination to protect the purity of the Church, and to
restore its peace. We have little doubt that the course
which the Bishops are about to adopt will be as unam-
biguous and as energetical.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS
CITY, FRIDAY EVENING.

TIMES.—Some inquiries having been made as to the
origin of the bills at 60 days' sight, drawn by the Bank
of England, alluded to the other day, and the mode in
which the operation is conducted, the following informa-
tion may he fund acceptable:—
About the year 1836 the bills of the East India firms
had been brought into temporary discredit by some
failures which happened at the time, so that these bills
did not find ready purchasers in the Bombay market. It
was conceived, therefore, that a new sort of paper of
unquestionable credit might be introduced into India
with advantage, and nothing seemed more fitted for this
purpose than bills made by the Bank of England and
payable by themselves. A resolution, passed in April,
1836, authorised the issue of the required paper, and
since that time it has been in use.
And now with respect to the mode of operation. A
Barty who wishes to remit money to India applies to the
ank by filling up the following form, to which a list is
attached, and pays (of course at par) for the bills which
he takes :

" To the Cashiers of the Bank of England.
" London, -, 18
" - request to be furnished with the un-
slermentioned bills, at 60 days' sight, in triplicate,
amounting to .C-, the first to be accepted and held by
the Bank of England, for thr, purpose of being delivered
to the holders of the seconds or thirds, whichever may
he first presented."
The bills so obtained are remitted to India, and have
peculiar advantage, which is exprc:,,ed by the con-
dition in the form that the " firsts" aro to be accepted
and held by the Bank of England. The paper which is
slrawn by a firm in India On London, is generally made
tayable at 60 days after sight, but the GO days do not
egin to run till after ti'..r acceptance in London. 'The
Bank paper, on the con, rary, being accepted at once, and
held for the purpose of being delivered to the holders of
the seconds and " thirds," the 60 days begin to run
(rpm Ole date, and tho bills are payable Immediately on