The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-31 00:00:00

IX t AUL
• •

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 31, 1844,

- The Irish State trials were resumed on Monday,
when the Court met at the usual hour. Mr. MOOR 6
was expected to speak first, but he was anticipated
by Mr. JoHN O'CoNNnix who disavowed altogether
any participation in the sentiments expressed by Mr.
saw, in his defence of him, which might be con-
strued in favour of federalism. He declared, though
it should prejudice him with the jury, that he could
admit no principle but that of the right of his country
to an independent Parliament.

Mr. Mooau, as Counsel for the Rev. Mr. TIERNEY,
then addressed the jury. His speech was exclusively
directed to the case of his client, and not touching at
all on any general questions. He clearly pointed oat
the failure of all evidence proving any connection be-
tween his client and the other traversers, up to
the meeting at Clontibret on the 15th
of August, and then contended that it was strictly
necessary to prove that meeting an illegal one, before
Mr. TIERNEY. could be at all affected by the in-
dictment. He remarked strongly on the Crown not
having produced any evidence of the character of
that meeting except that of two policemen, though
there were present at it two stipendiary magistrates,
immediately in the service and under the control of
the Crown, whom they might easily have called. He
produced considerable amusement by the manner in
which he treated the evidence given as to that
meeting, the illegality of which was proved by
nothing more than that some persons were a little

crushed in the throng, and among them a policeman.
If crushing in a crowd was to be considered a proof
of the illegality of a meeting, then the Court of
Queen's Bench had for the last fortnight been a most
illegal assembly ; the jury-box was protected
from inconvenience, but every other part of
the Court, even the judgment-seat, had been
invaded, and the Learned Judges themselves had
been " crushed" by those whom it was not possible to
resist. This allusion was to the number of ladies who
have been accommodated with seats almost on the
bench ; and it created a hearty laugh, in which the
Learned Judges joined. But a far better point for
his client was made by him, in, reference to the con-
versation sworn to by tho witness, Policeman
M'CANN, which was said to have taken place between
him and the Rev. Mr. TIERNEY, on the 16th of June,
two months before the meeting at Clontibret. When
evidence of this conversation was tendered, it was
objected to by the traversers, as it formed no part
of the indictment, but the objection was overruled.
M'CANN swore to a long conversation, in which Mr.
TIERNEY spoke of the Union as not binding on
conscience, and on the spread of the Repeal feeling
in the army, and the great things which the army
had done in Spain. Mr. MOORE emphatically denied,
on the pert of Mr. TIERNEY, that any such conversa-
tion ever occurred ; pointed out its improbability; and,
though he could call no evidence of the falsehood of
the witness, he proved, by referring to the dates of
the newspapers, that no revolt of the Spanish army,
to which M'CANN said Mr. TIERNEY alluded, took
place till the 11th of June, and that consequently it
was impossible that anything could have been
known about it in the county of Monaghan
on the 16th of the same month. This dissection of
the Crown evidence seemed to have some effect on
the jury. He was exceedingly were in his remarks
on the conduct of the Attorney-General; and his
speech, altogether, was a spirited, able, and what is
better, an effective display of legßi talent, acumen,
and oratory. He did not occupy so much time as
was anticipated.
Mr. HATCHELL then addressed the Court for Mr
RAY, the secretary of the Association, denouncing
the Crown for having included him in the indict-
ment, thus depriving the traversers of the best wit-
ness they could have called to, prove the object and
legal constitution of the Association. This may be
taken as the pith and substance of the Learned Gen-
tleman's address, which concluded at half-past two
o'clock.

Mr. FITZGIBBON, who was the next in order of the
traversers' counsel to address the Court, then applied
for an adjournment, on the double grounds of his own
personal indisposition, and the impossibility of the
jury, in a case of such magnitude, attending to the
views of so many counsel in such rapid succession.

The Chief Justice said he had observed the in-
disposition of Mr. FITZGIBBON for several days, and,
concluding that no other counsel was prepared to go
on, was disposed to allow the adjournment.
The Attorney-General said he would not, for a
moment, ask Mr. FITZGIBBON to proceed, but he
thought, when there were so many other counsel,
some one of them—Mr. WHITESIDE or Mr. M‘Do-
NOUGH-might proceed.
Mr. O'CoNNELL said a certain order had been
agreed on, which could not be disturbed.

The Chief Justice then, in a manner that seemed
more than half a rebuke to the Attorney-General,
admitted the reasonableness of the application, and
adjourned the Court till Tuesday morning, when
Mr. FITZGIBBON will begin the defence of Dr. GRAY.

" What constitutes the peculiar fitness of gold to
perform the office of money ?" asks Mr. GELLIBRAND
HUBBARD. " Its limited supply," he answers, and
continues, "If it could be made as plentiful as brass
it would no longer be used as money. Supposing
that brass counters, struck at Birmingham, were per-
mitted to pass upon an equality with sovereigns,
would not the entire currency be depreciated ?"
Some men are born to greatness, some achieve great-
ness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
The last we conceive must have been the misfortune
that has befallen Mr. HUBBARD—for misfortune it
certainly is, when a man finds himself in a position
for which he is evidently unfit. We are inclined to
be very tender with Mr. HUDDLED, for we entertain
no doubt, as we have before observed, that right feel-
ing directed a wrong head. But really, when the
happiness, or the misery of millions is placed upon a
turning point by a fallacious theory, it is no joke, and if
ever we met with bottled nitrogen in print it is to be '
found in the inference which our quotation would so
palpably induce. It is true, there is at first sight
nothing perceptible to the eye. It seems nothing but
a bottle of smoke ; and, with a slight alteration we
might apply a hacknied quotation to it, and say that
it is—
.

" Vapor et preterea nihil,"

but it is vapour of so injurioua a nature, that .we feel
compelled, in sober sadness, to add :
"Sed lethalis in sternum, si pectore haustus."
Had there ever been a period in the world when
symbolic money had not been used in the change of
commodities, had commerce never been able to pro
ceed without the use of those means of reprisenting
value, which possessed no intrinsic value in them-
selves, had the attempt even ever been made 'to do
without them, then would the fallacy which is here
propounded have had some excuse to palliate, that
weakness, of which wickedness, is made, to apolo-
gise for the terrible mischief which its
practical operation would accomplish—an ope-
ration in the monetary world which, like
the deadly influence of wintry •congelations , upon
external nature, would so contract the intercourse
between nation and nation, and between man and
man as to render the satisfaction of the requirements
of our present refined and artificial state of existence
altogether impossible—would so influence the deal-
ings of men as to throw back the world centuries in
its experience, and would consign the poor to imme-
diate destitution and famine. If the present-limited
supply of gold constitutes its peculiar fitness to per-
form the office of money, how much more fit would
it not be for that office if the supply were more
limited still, and its virtue might be increased, so that
just as labour daily increased the quantity of commo-
dities in the market, the amount of -moneS, would be
so diminished that labour would speedily find ithelf in
a state of starvation, from a want of the means
through which those commodities were to be pur-
chased. And we suppose the author of this won-
derful apothegm would at length so enhance the
value of his favourite gold as to cause the whole of the
value of the commodities of the world to be represented
by a unit no larger than a Mathematical point.
This would indeed be the acme of the gold theory,
unless he would attain the pinnacle of perfection, by
annihilating gold altogether, and then, perhaps, he
might effect a great good. TrUly, the sublime and
the ridiculous are, in some things, wonchiously near
neighbours.

It is sometimes not a little useful, in the appre-
hension of a subject, to recur to the principles on
which it is based, and to examine the terms by which
it is expressed. Had Mr. HUBBARD taken the
trouble to inquire a little into the origin • and use
of that of which he talks so much and so incor-
rectly, he would have found that the term
money itself was derived from a Latin word, signi-
fying just one of those very Birmingham tokens
which he holds in such utter eontempt--a piece of
metal made into a token of authority, by the im-
press of a public stamp—just such a thing, in fact,
as, not only at Birmingham, but in almost every town in
the kingdom, purchased during the war thequantity of
goods which it was authorised to represent, just as a
one pound note in Scotland will do now. Moreover,
it may be a little news for Mr. HUBBARD to hear—
for be seems to lack information sadly on this subject
—that this same term moneta, from which our term
of money is derived, is neither more nor less than
another form of a word, the signification of which
is "to advise," and thence by secondary inference,
and according to commercial usage "to inform," just
as a bank note, or a bill of exchange, does in the
present day.

Thus we find that money consists, in fact, of
tokens, of whatever substance, issued to represent
value, and bearing an impress of authority, which
advises or informs all men that it is receivable and
payable by the State whose impress it bears. The

whole story will be found in the excellent pamphlet,
entitled "An Essay on Money," to which weiallvded
in our last, and a more clear or able exposition- of a

opic it has seldom been our good fortune to meet with•
We should not have troubled our readers with so