The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-01 00:00:00

L'P'L

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 1 ,1844.

The first act of the Spanish tragedy is accon..plished.
The Constitution is destroyed, and Queen CHRISTINA
now reigns at Madrid. During the eventful and
distressing scenes of the last three years, we know
not whether to impute greater blame to the authors of
the movements, or to the mercenary, treacherous and
degraded individuals who performed the offices of
spies, and renegades. The concocter and ring-
leader of a plot for wicked purposes is, no doubt,
greater criminal than the dupes or even the willing
agents who carry his designs into execution ; but the
vile work performed by the latter, the want of prin-
ciple, and the cold-blooded deeds of cruelty to which
they lend themselves render them more odious in
the-eyes ofeenanikeno. Twie tlwavactcr -rAbsoluts Arta
will ever attach to those Spaniards who have
made themselves a by-word in Europe, who have
sold the liberties of their country,, and shed the
blood of their countrymen like water. One thing is
certain—the late revolution had its origin in France ;
but whether it was planned by GUIZOT or SOULT, or
by the Cabinet, or by the " Chateau," we will not
take upon ourselves to decide. Queen CHRISTINA,
about the year 1841, in the character of Regent,
issued an ordonnance at Barcelona, against the muni-
cipal .rights of the towns in Spain, which ex-
cited almost universal indignation, and compelled her
to take refuge in France. Her intention was to re-
tire to her native city, but, whether for the purpose of
carrying on intrigues against her adopted country, or
living in retirement, with her paramour, at Naples,
we have no means of judging. That intention, how-
:. . .
,ever, was disapproved of at head-quarters ; she was
induced to come to Paris, and her little Court from
that time to her departure, formed a sort of refuge for
the discontented and unprincipled men of Spain. The
enemies of ESPARTERO looked to her and the Court
43tPrance as their last hope, and they were soon gra-
tified. M. SALVANDY contrived to pick a quarrel
with the REGENT, because the REGENT would not
suffer the emissaries of CHRISTINA to sow the seeds
of dissension and rebellion in the Court of the young
.QuEEN. SALvANDY was recalled, political relations
between the two countries were broken off, and then
followed the most barefaced, wicked, and successful at-
tempts to destroy a system of rational government, for
-which Spaniards had waded through seas of '.flood
The affair of Pampeluna miserably failed, because Don
DIEGO found no sympathy among the people or the
army; but those who undertook the work were men
of strong nerves, of deep design, of great perseverance,
and not to be deterred by one coup manqué. It is need-
less to recite in detail the schemes that ensued, further
than to say that the affair of Barcelona, the revolutionary
speeches in the Cortes, the venality of the army, and
-the expulsion of ESPARTERO completed the work.
'The editor of a disreputable journal was made Prime
Minister; NARVAEZ, known only for his joint ser-
lice! with ESPARTERO in putting down absolutism,
became Dictator ; and this duumvirate speedily abo-
lished the Cortes, disaratel the National Guard, and
established a military despotism. What man of corn-
:mon sense can have the slightest moral doubt as to .the
znain-spring of this revolution.; and.in what light are
we to :view apedple, possessing the finest country in
-the world, who can thus stiffer themselves to be
bribed 'and betrayed ? Not satisfied with selling,
themselves to an enemy, the traitors aredaily imbru-
ing their hands in the blood of their fellow-citizens,
and the cries of the victims and the lamentations of
-their friends are mingled with the shouts of rejoicing
--Which welcome the principal actors in this bloody scene.
_Though thousands. raised their voices against the
lad and constitutional government of ESPARTERO,
-the country almOst unanimously acquiesces in the
tlyrannical' deeds of NARVAEZ They see the Con-
otitution destroyed without a murmur. From the
:Prince to-the peasant there is no 'class. that evinces
:any feelings of honour, or love of country. The
*QUEEN and her Prime Minister, in the Assembled
States of the nation, give each other the lie, men
sof the same political principles betray their friends,
•Withotit, remorse, and the very peasants hunt to
death- the few leaders that would awaken the country
le its degradation. Never was a people so fallen.
;They acknowledge only two states of society—
/rebellion and slavery. They prefer the latter, and
let them enjoy it. The horrible crimes of Spaniards
In the New World, are visited upon the present race,
mud the Divine denunciation against a profligate
/nation, is fulfilled—" I will give children to be their
princes, and babes shall rule over them:"

As the Easter recess will intervene before the
question of the Bank of England Charter renewal can
be brought on for discussion in Parliament,' we
trust that Peers and Members who propose to take
part in the proceedings which may be submitted for
the sanction .of the Legislature, on a question of such
vital importance to the best interests of the empire,
*Nil' devote some portion of the interval to its most
careful considelratlon. Those who may not have
hitherto addressed themselves to the study of our mo-
retary,systern.lvith that degree of attention which
they would devote to any other subject involving a
pecessity for some degree of statistical research, we

would entreat to render themselves acquainted with
the more prominent facts and principles that are in-
dispensable to found a correct judgment on the merits
of the controversy now sustained between the advo-
cates and the opponents of our present scheme of
currency, governed as that is by Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
Act of 1819. Those who had not only studied the
bearings and details of that system in all their ex-
tent, at the time that Act was passed ; but who took a
part, more or less active, in the debate and arguments
that attended its agitation, we would respectfully re-
quest to re-consider the same subject under its
new and actual aspects in 1844, irrespectively of the
weight and authority of the great names which, in
times past have sanctioned the most adverse proposi-
tioos. Let all bear in mind the fact, that not a
step can safely, honestly, or logically be taken, in
the renewal of the Bank Charter, without raising the
question of continuing or abrogating our present
monetary system.
To re-invest the Bank with their charter, unshorn
of the tremendous powers which it confers on this
corporation, of contracting or expanding the currency
at pleasure, would be, first, to continue thatunen-
durable depreciation of the wages of industrial labour,
the existence of which is the real barrier to a com-
promise on the factories' labour question between the
advocates of Twelve and Ten Hours' Bills, and the
opponents of all legislative interference whatever with
the details of factory employment. Secondly, such a
re-investment will assure the "certain return at un-
certain periods"—as we have shown in former articles—
of the hideous commercial panics of 1825 and of two
subsequent periods. In both these cases we as-
sume that the gold standard of 1819 would be ad-
hered to. See how it would continue to operate, as
it has ever since operated. You leave the Bank with
its liability to pay any uncertain quantity of its issued
notes upon demand, on gold of a standard fineness, at
a standard price fixed by your statute. This price is
very often cheaper than that given in the bullion mar-
ket. Sometimes the latter rises very considerably ;
and the inevitable operation of such a rise being to
make holders of notes send them in to be changed for
gold, which is thereupon forced into the bullion
market in exchange for silver, bills, &c., or
paid for foreign commodities, until the market
price subsides to the Mint price of the metal—the
Directors of the Bank (wisely for its own purposes,
but it may be fatally to the activity of commerce and
to commercial confidence) reduces, as much and as
fast as possible, the issues of that paper to which its
bullion on deposit can never bear more than-a very
inferior proportion. That its own notes are by law
convertible into gold at a given price per ounce—no
matter what may be the uncertain and higher price
'n the market, and the consequent loss and difficulty
co be incurred in obtaining it—is sufficient reason to
induce the Bank to limit its liability to pay in gold
by withholding the usual issue of its paper in propor-
tion to the demands of increasing trade, &c. Those
who rely on the maintenance of their issues to an
adequate extent, according to the custom of the Bank
when circumstances are not unfavourable to its ob-
servance of that custom, for the discount of the com-
mercial bills they hold, or advances on their own
bills and securities, whether to complete investments
for export, or to pay for investments imported by
them, suddenly discover themselves unable to obtain
money in any proportion to their requirements, al.
though they may have securities in their strong-box,
or goods in their warehouses, to a hundred times the
amount—in value. If this be the operation of a gold
standard of value, as it is called, on the market of
money, and thereby on the general market of trade
at home, its operation is still more disastrous on the
wages of industrial labour, and has the deplorable
effect of placing the reciprocal interests of the manu-
facturer and the labourer, however fairly the former
may desire to deal with the latter, in those false re-
lations which constitute, as we have seen, the main
difficulty of the factory question. So long as the
taxation of this country continues at its pre-
sent enormous height, and commodities of sub-
sistence contribute, in the shape of Customs and
Excise, so largely to that revenue, it is evident that
the wages of the manufacturing artisan, for example,
cannot be adequate ones, if they do not represent—be-
sides the value of his labour—that proportionate
amount of taxation which, although he actually pays
it in the progress or Ins labour, It was tle.untien'uted
meaning of the Legislature should be paid by the
wealthy consumer. Now the manufacturer, owing
to the competition of foreign rivals, and to the pre-
ference that the foreign customer, or importer, shows
for the gold into which he can convert the Bank notes
he is paid in (for his raw material, his corn, or his
fabrics), over returns in our manufactured goods—
really cannot obtain more than the natural or gold
prices of his goods. It is impassible for him, then, to
pay wages to the factory labourer which shall repre-
sent, as they ought to do, the taxation in addition to
the natural value of his labour. The factory labourer
is thus reduced to the alternative of maintaining even
his present pittance of compensation, by an added
term of his already. protracted daily labour ; and the
manufacturer to that of retaining his services on these
hard terms, or of discharging him.
Such, then, being the resulting effect of a defi-
ciency inherent in our "gold standard" currency, we
,would press it upon every Member of the Legislature,
as a sacred duty, to re-consider some great principles
which were singularly lost sight of in the delibera-
tions that preceded the settlement of that standard in
1819. We would beg them to observe that the pur-
port of the Bill of 1819 was a great anomaly. It
was, in effect, to make gold cheap, under any and
every condition of circumstances, in which it should
naturally, as a commodity, be dear ; and this cheap-
ness was to be obtained at the expense, and to the
loss, of every other commodity.

The same Act consecrated by legislative authority
the most fatal of all erroneous principles in the policy
of a State—viz., the giving the highest degree of
iistrinsic value to money, which should be always, to
the greatest convenient or practicable extent, the
representative, not the actual merchandise, of value.
And if the working of the system has since been as
disparaging as we have described it, to every interest
in the country but one—the men of realised money
capital—if the wages of industrial labour, manu-
facturing and agricultural, have so declined under it,
that starvation, pauperism, and discontent are mani-
festing themselves at all times, in some district or
other of the country, with more or less of organisa-
tion—we put it to those who are to determine on the
renewal of the Bank Charter, whether it will not be
true wisdom to arrest the great evils of such a system
and such a statute, before their pressure shall have
precipitated numbers into a war against capital ? -Let-
not those to whom the discussion of such a question
in Parliament may fall be frightened from considering
the expediency of repealing PEEL'S Bill of 1819, by
vague declamations about the danger of re-opening
questions, unsettling contracts, &c. The perils, the
derangements, the frauds, and hardships of the past—
the inevitably-recurring panics and crises of the
future—are and will be the fruits of retaining this
Act upon the statute-book. The abolition of the
standard, the relief of the Bank from the necessity to
pay in gold, except at its market value, will go far
to the completion of that simple and safe process
which only is needful for the accomplishment of our
return to a better monetary system. To further
other enactments which it may be expedient to pass,
more especially in reference to the future relations be-
tween the Bank and the Government, we Will advert
hereafter.

The discussion that took place on Friday in the
House of Commons on the subject of the Factory
Bill will certainly not tend to raise the character
of that Assembly in the eyes of the country. To
say nothing of the evident embarrassment that per-
vaded every speech, with the solitary exception of
the manly, straight-forward one made by Mr.Dux-
COMBE, it was clear that there was a reluctance on
the part of the House to follow up with zeal and
energy the steps it had already taken in behalf of the
unprotected operatives. Hon. Members seemed to
shrink aghast at the idea of inflicting too serious
a blow on Ministers ; the question of humanity was
with them of far less importance than the question
of the stability of the PEEL Cabinet ;:and they evinced
a vacillation and a lukewarmness, clumsily disguised
under a show of regret, vexation, and all that sort
of thing, which will enable Sir JAMES GRAHAM to
carry his darling point of throwing the factory opera-
tives overboard. Last week, the House was boldly in
favour of the claims of humanity. This week, it is
all for expediency. Last week, it took the lofty and
generous tone which becomes a British senate, This

week, it cringes at the foot-stool of power. Oh
"lame and impotent conclusion !" Who, henceforth,,
will be otherwise than slow to believe in the sincerity
of a set of men who can thus play fast and loose--
blow hot and cold—and most egregiously stultify them-
selves—on a question which they were bound to follow
up boldly, and without respect to persons, to its legiti-
mate conclusion ? Of course Lord ASHLEY'S Ten
Hours' "Employment Bill" is lost for this year. It
might have been otherwise—it ought to have been
otherwise—but then the PEEL Ministry would have
been compromised ; and what are the claims of the
poor—the helpless—the overtasked thousands in the
manufacturing districts, compared to this great
consideration ? Perish the rights of humanity, pro-
vided Downing-street be still retained by its present
occupants ! If we can make the claims of the
one harmonise with our duty to the other, well
and good; if not, let the weakest go to the
wall ! We are sorry—very sorry for the operatives
—we grant their case is a strong one—but PEEL must
be kept in place at all hazards ! Thus argues the
House of Commons, and never yet did it adopt a more
lame—unworthy—suicidal course of argument. Have
the humanity-men been merely fighting a cross all
this time ? GOD knows ; but one thing is evident—
namely, that they have laid themselves open to very
grave suspicions. Meantime, all that remains for the
over-wrought operatives to do, is to practice
the difficult virtues of patience and forbearance.
They must endure their sufferings in silence,
and await calmly the advent of better times.
Their friends, if they have not absolutely betrayed
them, have at any rate lost all zeal in their cause.
Lord ASHLEY, who but the other day flamed like the
meridian sun in their behalf, is now as cool and mode-
rate as sunset. He has discovered that " second
thoughts are best"—that strong impulses, no matter
how generous, are not to be trusted—and that the
better part of valour is discretion. We wish him joy
of his discovery. It is at any rate a politic one, if it
have no higher claims on our consideration.
We will, however, just venture respectfully
to remind his Lordship of one little circumstance,
which may possibly have escaped his recollection.
In more than one of his Parliamentary speeches—
which always, like JOSEPH SURFACE'S conversation,
abound in fine sentiments—he has, if we remember
rightly, indulged in many virtuous phillippics against
war, and the horrors which it brings in its train.
Now, if war kills its masses, has the Factory System
no sins of this sort to answer for ? Ar© there not
hundreds, possibly thousands, of poor, emaciated
operatives, men, women, and children, who annually
die off, some in early youth, some in middle
age victims to the inexorable Moloch of
cupidity ? Can the under-ground cellars, and chilly,
unfurnished garrets of Manchester tell no,
tales of lingering deaths by starvation, disease,
and dull, gnawing, hopeless despair? Look at the
squalid, death-stricken figures that one constantly
encounters in the manufacturing districts ! If you
meet with a face impressed With the rosy hue of
health, be sure it belongs to a millowner ; if with one
stamped with the ineffaceable lines of wretchedness,
be sure it belongs to a victim of the Twelve Hours'
system. Yet these last perish by hundreds ; and
when their case becomes at length so notorious
that it is taken up by the House of Com-
mons, the very man who brings it forward, as he says,
from the most disinterested motives, is the very first
to relax in his remedial efforts, the instant he per-
ceives that perseverance in a good cause is likely
to endanger the Ministry. Lord ASHLEY is, we be-
lieve, a well-intentioned man, but his humanity is
sadly hampered by his Toryism. The one urges him
to befriend the operatives—the other to leave their
case as he finds it. Nature forces him one way,
Expediency the other. He would do good, but
he is afraid to do good ; because just at the mo-
ment when he is making up his mind
to push vigorously forward in the right path, Sir
JAMES GRAHAM'S basilisk eye is on him, and he
comes to a dead halt. We trust, henceforth, that
Lord ASHLEY will be somewhat more sparing of his
fine sentiments; or, if he must needs expatiate on the
evils of war, not forget to enumerate also, and boldly
denounce, the evils of the Factory System, which has
killed quite as many thousands as NAPOLEON ever
slew in the field.

We have received the iiladrid journals of the 23d,
which contain letters from Aranjuez, describing the
meeting of the QUEEN DOWAGER and her daughter.
The scene is thus represented in one of these
letters :

" The night before Queen Isabella and the Infanta Louisa
were to embrace their mother they could not close their eyes,
and were continually heard to ask what the hour was. At
four in the afternoon they entered their carriage, and left
Aranjuez for the spot where the interview was to take place.
It is said that Queen Isabella had early in the morning de,
sired a physician to proceed thither with suitable medicines,
in order to afford seasonable relief to such persons as the
Royal interview might too deeply affect ! ! On reach-
ing the taut erected for the occasion on a plain
to the right of the Andalusia and Valencia road,
the Queen and her sister could not sit quietly ;
they repeatedly rose and advanced, in order to
descry as soon as possible the carriage conveying their
aukrust mother. At half-past four the daughters of the
Infante Don Francisco de Paula arrived, accompanied by
Madame Arana, their First Lady of honour. After respect-
fully embracing their Royal cousins, the Infantas imme-
diately proceeded to Madrid. At a quarter past five the
Queen-Mother arrived, accompanied by the Minister of Grace
and Justice, M. Mayans, and General Narvaez. The first
meeting between the mother and daughters was a silent one,
tears only expressing their feelings. In the tent the marks
of tenderness exchanged between them were more touching
still. At six o'clock Maria Christina received persons of
distinction, among whom were M. Bresson, Mr. Lytton
Bulwer, the Ministers, at whose head figured M. Gon-
zales Bravo, M. Isturitz, and other personages. After
this official reception the Queen-Mother entered her carriage,
with her two daughters, who contended for the seat on her
right, when Maria Christina sat down in the middle and said
to the young Queen, take thy place on my right, for it is
thine,' and to the Infanta, ' take thy place, which is on my
left.' Along their whole road they were saluted with the
liveliest acclamations. At half-past six the Royal carriage
entered Aranjuez, amidst the ringing of bells, and before they
could reach their apartments, the Queen and her daughters
had to make their way through a dense and enthusiastic
crowd. At the moment they were entering the apartments,
the venerable Duke de Baylen respectfully advanced, and said
to Maria Christina, ' Madam, I am happy to have again in
my old days, the honour of-' The Marshal laboured
under such deep emotion that he could not utter a word more,
and Maria Christina hastened to address him in the most
affectionate terms. lam coming,' she said, to deprive thee
of thy guardianship.' It has given me plenty to do,' replied
the Duke."

On the 18th Carthagena still held out. Another
smart engagement had taken place, in which it is said
the besiegers succeeded in taking possession of the
suburb of San Anton.

The Three per Cents. were done at 37i for cash,
arid at 38 at 60 days; and the Five per Cents. at 23
for cash, and 231 at 60 days.

The French Conservative Government has also sus-
tained a defeat of some importance, and we rejoice
that, like the defeat of the English Government on
the Factory Bill, it is in the cause of humanity. On
the Order of the Day being read in the Chamber of
Deputies for the discussion on the 23d clause of the
Recruitment Bill, fixing - the period of service at
eight years, in place of seven, as • formerly, M. Du-
PRAT moved, as an amendment, that the length of
service should be seven years; and the amendment
was seconded by the son-in-law of Marshal SOULT,
the Marquis of MORNAY. The amendment was op-
posed by Marshal OuniNoT and Marshal SOULT, on
the ground that eight years was the shortest period
of service that could keep up an effective army of
500,000 men, M. 0. BARROT, in support of the
amendment, spoke- in a way befitting his character as
the advocate of popular
.rights. " The Chamber," he
said, was supposed to represent all the classes., of
society. To keep Up that fiction—(Cries of Oh,
oh,' and laughter)'--they ought to show some solici-
tude for the feelings pf that portion of the people on
which the increase of service now proposed by the
Government would press most heavily. If the Cham-
ber only knew the anguish with which families
counted the years that their children passed in the
army, and the anxiety which they evinced for their
return, they would not treat an additional year's ser-
vice so lightly." The amendment was put, but after two
trials, the President being unable to say on which
side was the majority, recourse was had to the ballot,
when there were for the amendment 170, and for
the original motion 163, being a majority of seven
against the Government. On the same day M. GAR-
NIER PAGES laid on the President's table, in the
Chamber of Deputies, a proposition for the conver-
sion of the Five per Cents. This proposition is simply
the revival of the plan submitted to the Chamber in•
April, 1840, which was rejected by the House of
Peers. M. DE LAMARTINE also presented a petition
praying that Dort CAELOS be restored to liberty.
It is signed by large number of persons of note, in-
cluding M. DE CHAUTEAUBRIAND, and will shortly
be submitted to the Chamber, at a moment when the
State of Spain will confer on it all the interest of an

order cf the day; it will be warmly supported by
the most influential Members of the several Op.
positions.
We find no further intelligence in the Paris
papers relative to the disturbances in Italy. The
funds on Thursday were a shade lower, the Three
per Cents. closing at 82f. 80c., and the Fives at
121 f. 65c.
THE BOURSE—TIIIIRSDAY, Ahem 28.