The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-28 00:00:00

11-01,1141111 t, ,

LONDON, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1845,

It is curious to remark in how powerful a manner the
speculations of those Contemporaries who dispute the action
of Sir R. PEEL'S currency legislation upon the money
market confirm, no doubt unwittingly, the propositions we
have so often asserted of it. The most vehement advocate
for the Premier's gold standard theory, asks what has
become of the 30,000,0001. of deposits which have been paid
into various bankers, on account of railway shares ? Another
Contemporary, who disputes this writer's views upon the sub-
j;•ct utterly and unhesitatingly, tacitly admits that he cannot
answer this pithy question. He concurs with us, however,
in objecting to the mischievous tone assumed by the in-
terrogator, in "running amuck" against railway invest-
ments in general. But he is not less committed to all the
disastrous fallacies of the bullionist. Now, in our turn, we
beg to ask the whole of this school—the bullionists, the paper
convertible into gold, the gold standard of currency
doctors—what has become of the enormous aggregate of de-
posits paid within these few months on railway shares? We
make them a present of our own incredulity as to the assumed
amount of 30,000,0004 Be the amount what it may, it is
however certain that the sum is to be told in millions. Has
it been paid in in gold? In paper convertible into gold? In
both the one and the other? The answer will clearly be in
the affirmative to the latter. It is then enough for our purpose
to show that the many additional millions, which to make up
this aggregate must have been called out of private hoards,
must have added to the previously existing aggregate of our
circulation. Let it be contended even that it was not drawn
out of any hoards, but simply diverted from those branches of
investment in which it was before placed into
this railway share application. Then it is cer-
tain, either that the previous aggregate of the
circulation is not diminished by the mere ;fact of the
hange of investment; or, that if it be (which is most un-
likely) absorbed into the capital of private bankers, it still
exists for all purposes of the operation of the 7th and Bth
of Vic., cap. 32, and the 4th and sth of Vic., cap. 50; the
one embodying the sublime scheme of the issue and banking
department of the Bank of England, and the ether pe-
riodically promulgating the average aggregate accounts of
the circulation of all the banks of Scotland and Ireland.
This being so, we take leave to ask how it happens
that the total circulation of the Bank, according to
last Friday's Gazette, is contracted to 27,778,955/. ? That the
Bank of England felt it necessary to contract their issues
within the last two or three weeks, for some sufficing reason,
is abundantly evident on these two significant facts—they
have raised their rate of discount, and the last Gazette pub-
lication shows that the diminution of their gold and silver
bullion stores has fallen below that which we had already consi-
dered its extremest point. On the 18th inst. we announced that
the issue department of the Bank of England showed a total of
28,068,826/. ; and the bullion was, gold, 12,253,289/. ; silver
1,815,531/., together 14,068,820/. With last Friday comes the
authorised announcement, that the notes issued are
something under 27,779,0004., and the bullion only
13,783,95'1. ; viz , gold 12,018,447/., silver 1,760,504.
It would appear, therefore, that nothing is much more
clear, than that the combined operation of the Premier's mo-
netary system, and the continuous demands of railway wages
in England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Belgium, Prussia, and
even ltaly—wherever in short English capital has been em•
barked in these works—is fast draining the country of that only
legalised representative of active capital in what we may call
its ino;:ey realization, which the sagacity of the Currency Laws
will permit to us. Our condition then is now simply this:
at no previous period in the history of the country was there
ever such a development of the spirit of enterprising invest-
ment ; such a demand for incidental deposits of capital to con-
duct the vast transactions to which that spirit has now espe-
cially addressed its most vigorous energies; or a disparity be-
tween the amount of the paper which must represent
those transactions, and the gold currency in which
that paper must by law he ultimately dis-
charged, and not only ultimately, but at any
mennent on demand—so awfully apparent. Add to this
statement of facts, the consideration, that the issuers' of that
paper, must pay this gold for it, at a fixed unvarying rate of
3/. 17s. 10id. per oz., when the operation of all the other ele
inents that compose this condition of singular em-
barrassment is, to enhance its market value to
an extent, the limits of which no man can
pr tend to predict, although the enhanced value is already
sen: ibly felt in the turn of the exchangeat Paris, Hamburgh,
Bremen, &c.,upon London; and we ask whether here is not
the shadow cast before an approaching catastrophe, whose
proximity it is impossible to doubt? Whenever the fba-
lancint of the operations we speak of arrives at that point
in the evolution of the capital engaged in them
at which it will become necessary for large speculators,
either to realise, in time to save their market, or with a
view, by closing accounts, to avoid incurring furtherlossi s than
their remaining open shall-have already occasioned to them,
the immoderate rise in the value of gold money, will be in
exact proportion to the immoderate excess of paper money
and other securities, which are at present the floating ca-
pital, representing the unprecedented transactions in the
share market.

In directing the attention of our readers thus earnestly to
the course in which events seem fast determining, we must
boldly avow our own opinion to be, that taken per se, the ex-
traordinary favour lately manifested by the public for railway
speculations is a great national benefit. Making all allowances,
that can in reason be insisted upon.for improvidence, gambling
fraud, and deception—elements that will interpose their
mischievous combinations in all dealings upon so vast a scale•
—the railway mania has done immeasurable service to in-
dustrial labour throughout the country. It has applied
uncalculated masses of British capital to the most legiti-
mate of British purposes, by bringing into action,
latent and hitherto dormant facilities of com-
munication between all parts of the United Kingdom,
and with those facilities, unlimited expansion to domestic
trade. new energies to foreign commerce, and permanent
bases of increasing national grandeur.
If the working of the Currency Bills of 1819, 1826, and
1844, is gill to be permitted to run out its whole calamitous
career, not only will the panic of 1825 be renewed,
but a consummation far more awful and ovewhelming
will inevitably distinguish the 20th anniversary of the first
of those years of ruin and spoliation. In order to keep the
tendencies of railway investment in their present beneficial
course, and to avert the terrible cataFtrophe, to which we
cannot allude without dismay, what will the Minister do ?
We venture to predict with confidence, that the dreaded
result on the one hand is only to be averted, on the
other to be partially repaired (for if it happen it cannot
be radically compensated), by an organic departure from the
principles of our present monetary system. It will not be
the last, nor even the most surprising of the transmutations

fs fr°
The Paris papers contain more favourable accounts
Algiers. In a dispatch dated Djema Ghazaouat, the
rtith
October, General LAMORICIERE announces his junctiort( st.
General CAVAIGNAC on the 9th, and his preparatious et A
tacking the forces of ABD-EL-KADER without tea
telegraphic telegraphic dispatch, received by the French Govettl
ti.ey. se
Saturday, gives some particulars of the attack, but t he sr
very imperfect as the dispatch was interrupted bitolj3"
proach of night. It was conveyed from Perpig"
foll"ows:
sees eeted
- 00
PERPIGNAN, Oer. 23.—The Labrador having ;00 T•
troops, left Oran on the 21st, and arrived at Port 0%.(
evening. On the 12th, 13th, 14th, and 15th, General 7,,,tato,dt
dere fought severe combats. Abd.el.Kader rernalneelA.lne
them with 2,000 horsemen ; on the 13th, seeing a .',,,rende„,
be took to flight. The insurgents, driven to the seal s"bstl 0"-,1
at discretion. Colonel Gery, the environs of Ms%' 'd col,e;
successes against the Kabyles. General de BourJoill an to act''
Arnaud had made a junction, and awaited reinforceoei""
°I) the
kS ti
Some of the journals have abstained from re°a r.,d ode;
intelligence till the rest of the dispatch arrives, 3"
briefly allude to it. " This news," says the -4V atiesen-
calculated to cause a very lively satisfaction. Our
A r e to
ea
taken unexpectedly, having only some thousand t to re
withstand a cloud of insurgents, obliged an instant era tr..
main on the defensive, have succeeded in everywed b'
storing order, and after four days' fighting have Ore_ , coo°
on the Morocco territory such of our enemies as theY
and $
not destroy. It is another noble page in our hist°rP -ever
, for
lesson which undoubtedly will profit the .itraus'uottACP
did a governor give them such a chance as 31' islge°
and if they could not this time shake our rule 1: nth°.
they must comprehend that whatever may be the e Pr
siasm inspired by the Rhamadan, such an undertni"."`
ever impossible." jf 011
The Constitutionne/ takes nearly the same view :"--,ribes Wit,t
combat be as decisive as it appears. the revolted,. "r try,°Ped,
by degrees lose courage, and the different corps °' ,venisely of
whom their isolated position forced to defend tAcatie3di
will resume the offensive, and complete the Pout" "'"f
the country. But, as Marshal ttuaEAuD observes'
require time and efforts to re-establish the seeurlt p
ieetetj
frontier; and the expedition to Morocco cannot be s"
for several months." The only work of Marshal PL Or'
since his arrival at Algiers, appears in the tel
cf a proclamation to the French authorities eve
habitants of the place, in which he says—" These litiv°o
which have occurred since the end of September to ae d
astonished you, but they have certainl not alarme
to your future prospects. As I told you, when I Ifrics
recent adieu, France regards her establisment in feat i°ll,,f
too serious a light to allow it to decline. You see ' rtbi -
Government has just come to a determination the 1,0
itself and of France. At the first news of danger ta,ptits to
and Isis Council decided on sending large reinforcen;a &iv;
Algeria. If we were able to subject the country, 3;10,1%.
its implacable chief into Morocco with very inferior
is tea
shall now be able, with the powerful reinforeelue.° forrutr
are so generously grantedus, to bring matters to theiroel or
state, if not to ameliorate them." On which the ittu
M. Miens remarks : t the
" What is M. Bugeaud going to do 1, In an address i:ted
nista of Algiers, he says that the Government bat Pi „easel
forces at his disposal, but that, notwithstanding the retr"°- tOr;
it is not easy to re-establish tranquillity in a short tiloe•I .'
sse
less must an expedition into Morocco, to chastise -Abell 1119"._„
and punish our neighbours for their perfidy, be thought e:l.Jr.so7‘
quillity is restored, the Insurrection put down, and Abd"rders
forced to fly, without the reinforcements placed ot the se tl°„
M. Bugeaud being used. Here is a contradiction S'70,001"
first of his anticipations; let the command be left to ell cee:
who have just so gloriously avenged France, and we ar
pOt
tain that it will be the same with the second. We
moreattention to the unfortunate addresses of M. But----cotonie;
is, however, in the words addressed by him to
oo t"h
something which it is impossible not to remark, Tt; -
loc
sentiment of jealousy which induces him to accuse of reU 010014,
they have not committed the generals remaining in Afflot4cejelo
not one say, to hear the Governor, that the position W 1; coitt'
when he left, and that the unskilfulness of his succesooteb,mnief es
promised everything. It is full time to treat these r4":..pg
bee
they deserve. Since M. Bugead's return to France nOtinirs., 0
been changed in the dispositions taken by him. There. la We'
time for it. Our 90,000 men, at least those who are
of pett/
pital, continue to be dispersed amongst an infinite numbser.ool
posts. Not an order has been modified ; the west h :7-0100
bare of troops, for the simple reason that *ince Sept 4,
Mmethe
which the Marshal quitted Africa, to the 20th of the bower
it was impossible to modify the system of M. B"geaud' al tle°
vicious it might be. If, therefore, we were taken unawsr
Mbar: expresses it, the fault is M. Bugeaud's, and his alone.' t,
The domestic intelligence in these aers is not juilld both
The transactions on the Bourse on Saturday were few, tied
stock and shares depressed. The Italian refugees, "For
arrived at Merseilles, were still treated as prisoners.,
in the
teen of them, directed towards Saumur, were placed
prison of Nismes on their passage through that place.ed
Courrier de IVismes states that a Russian prince, agd iebe
banished from his country for political offences, Bor-
deauxt at Algiers, is also in the same pris°3A' Rita
has been assigned as his place of residence.
not 311
of the 16th instant, from Florence says :—" It was at otr
the subjects of the Pope who fled into Tuscany
has been et-
taincd permission to embark at Leghorn, as aorta'
roneously stated. A certain number of these u, Fort
nate men have been confined in the prisons 0!_ de-
Belvidere, and, it is feared, they will ultimately ;stise
livered up to the Papal Government." In a letter from itiLe
of the 19th we find the following:—" The short visit ma with
the Emperor NiciteeAs to our city has been attenden_ors▪ '
at
a disastrous occurrence. Yesterday, Marshal itt'ot of
wished to entertain his MAJESTY with a review. be-
the troops of the garrison being still out on the grouy
.„,..
tween Breschia and Verona, where the auttunnal,,e'dio
nceuvres are yearly practised, the Marshal liastily,,e,Tflorte-
and collected 4,000 infantry and 1,000 cavalry. ssas
nately, in the precipitation with which this measu
taken, some of the soldiers had distributed to therne_osa
cartridges; consequently, at the first fire several P
were wounded. The utunl)er is not known, but we m"