The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY MORNING, APRIL 97, 1844.

ment had received a communication from the Indian
Board of Directors, announcing that they had exer•
cised the power which the law gave them, and re-
called Lord ELLENBOROUGH.

Mr. MACAULAY, on receiving this information, said
he would defer the motion relative to Gwalior, of
which he had given notice, as it would be more
agreeable to justice to wait till Lord ELLENBOROUGH
could defend himself in his place in the other House.

Mr. RoEsucic referred to a letter which he had
received from Mr. SMYTHE, the Member for Canter-
bury, relative to certain remarks which he had made
as to the politics of that gentleman, and which bore
all the symptoms of a challenge. The letter ended
thus :—"I call upon you to state that you did not
mean to apply these words to me, and, if you did, to
retract them, or refer to a friend, with whom my
friend, Captain GARRETT, may communicate." Thib
led to en episode in the grave proceedings of the
evening, which was ended by Mr. SMYTIIE saying
that the matter should go no further. It seemed to
be the general impression that the Hon. Member for
Canterbury showed both spirit and discretion through-
out the whole of the proceedings.

Sir ROBERT PEEL then moved the order of the
day relative to the charges against Mr. FERRAND.

The SPEAKER asked if Mr. FERRAND was in his
place.
Mr. FERRAND answered at once, and, after advert-
ing to the charges made against him, concluded in
these words :—" In the name of the people of Eng-
land I refuse to plead at your bar."
Sir JAMES GRAHAM denied every imputation
made against him by Mr. FERRAND, and said that
after the most diligent inquiry and search among
Government papers he had been unable to find any
trace of any correspondence with Mr MoTT, or with
any parties connected with the Poor-law Commission.
After some further remarks he said he was an accused
party ; he asked for a a trial and acquittal, and he
was sure the House would do him justice.
Mr. S. WORTLEY did not consider the expressions
used by Mr. FERRAND would bear out the imputation
put upon them ; but he rose chiefly to ascertain
from that 'gentleman himself whether he had used the
words with the meaning attributed to them. Mr.
FERRAND said nothing.
Sir ROBERT PEEL then addressed the House, but
was interrupted by the SPEAKER, who said, according
to the usages of the House, the Hon. Member for
Knaresborough should withdraw.
Upon this Mr. FERRAND left the House, and was
followed by Sir JAMES GRAHAM and Mr. HOGG ; Mr.
PETER BORTHWICK closed the rear, amidst shouts of
laughter. •

Sir ROBERT PEEL resumed, and, after adverting to
the charges, moved two resolutions, the substance of
Which was, that the imputations made against Sir
JAMES GRAHAM and Mr. HOOO, by Mr. FEERAND,
are wholly unfounded and calumnious, and have no
effect in the slightest degree upon the honour and
character of the Members to whom they refer.
After an amendment had been moved by Mr.
I'RENCH, which found no seconder, the motion of Sir
ROBERT PEEL was carried unanimously.
On the order of the day being read for the House
I:ioing into Committee on the Factories Bill,
Mr. T. DUNCOMBE moved that the Bill be referred
q) a Select Committee. Mr. WARD seconded the
amendment, and, after a number of speakers had ad-
dressed the House, the motion was, on a division,
tleg,atived by a majority of 103.
1 The House then went into Committee, and adopted
st.veral clauses.
On resuming, the Poor-law Committee was post-
honed till the 10th of May. The other. orders of the
clay were then disposed of, and the House adjourned
tit Twelve o'Clock.

The FERRAND farce is played out ; and the cur-
in has dropped upon one of the most absurd pieces
If acting that even St. Stephen's ever witnessed.
Chere is no stage like the House of Commons for
inacting bombast upon—no arena in which the fe-
rpeity of the tiger, or the agility of the monkey, can
tie so well displayed; and whether it be a FERRAND
that threatens, or a ROEBUCK that squeaks, provided
the roar of the one be not too terrible, or the pipe of
the other too shrill, we know no audience So willing
to listen, to cheer, and to encourage the actors. But
if the bounds which custom has prescribed be over-
stepped—if the least departure take place from that
system of conventionality which allows truth to be
negatived by mistake, modesty to be borne down by
assurance, and independence to be overrun by party
on all sides ; then there is no audience so severe
as the Lower House of Parliament. What bet-
ter stage could have been selected fur the display
which three nights have witnessed? What more
favourable audience could, have been hoped for; and
‘Vhat more ridiculous piece could have been pre-
sented, than the one which has been performed,
listened to, and unanimously approved ? Yes, ap-
proved ; for if the farce had not been approved, it
would not have been allowed to he played out—and
we. do not know any other tribunal, save the English
House of Commons, that would have entertained such
a cause, or listened to such a case as Mr. FERRAND
presented. No Judge, sitting in the outer court of
the Queen's, Bench, would have suffered the time of
the Court to be occupied for one moment by such a
subject as the High Court of Parliament debated for
three nights.
, The present House of Commons, admitted on all
hands to be the most corrupt House that ever assem-
bled in the walls of St. Stephen's—a House in which
are found a greater number of MeMbers whose seats
were procured by bribery and corroption.;,than in any
Parliament within our memory, and numbering
among its inmates men whose' names' are now, and
always. will be, associated with those' of renegade
politicians, convicted bribers, and that race of saints
and sinners with whom the pOssesSion Of a virtue is
deemed ample atonement for the commission of a
crime, was a fit tribunal to deCide upon the conduct
Mr. FERBAND. And it is saying but little against
FERRAND, to declare that in such a House he
had no friend—nor much for that Hous'e, to say that
it repudiated Mr. FERRAND'S grossness.
Mr. FERRAND we believe to be an honest, en-
thusiastic blockhead; far better' suited to look after
his Own pigs, than to legislate forl the SWinish
tif ude. He was,a fit tool for the `rory craft to work
with, when they wanted to attain some party object
lle was proud of distinction, no matter how gained,;
he was ready to command a fire-ship, or to lead a
forlorn_ hope—to assault a watchman, or to break a
window; All came alike to him; and the Tories
used him well-:-that is, they used him fur all their
dicti and dangerous work—and then, why they
used him ill. He was troublesome—he was unma-
nageable—he kept low company-7-he associated with
OASTLER and others whom the Tories
.petted when
out of power, but hated when in. And then FER-
RAND rebelled. Can it be wondered at ? Can flesh
and blood stand GRAHAM'S peevish spleen—PEEL's
cool scurn—Sra;stieY's fiery petulance,? Flesh and
blood cannot do it, in the shape of Mr. FERRAND.
And so he did not and -would not stand it. Verily
he has his reward ; so have his late Tory friends, now
his enemies, and more of such they will have ; for if
ever party deserved the hate amen of principle, it is
that unprincipled party which now holds the helm of
Government, but has neither honesty, talent, nor
ability to guide it.

The recal of Lord ELLENBOROUGH from India,
which we announced as being under consideration
some weeks back; is, at length, officially stated, and
the next mail to India will carry out the orders for
his return: We presume that Sir JAMES GRAHAM
.will be his successor in the Governor-Generalship-,-a
post which has long been the abject of the renegade
baronet's'am. Mann, and which Lady. GRAHAM's dis-
inclination to quit the shores of England is, we
believe, the only obstacle to his at once posse Ling.
All discussion in Parliament as to
the policy of Lord
ELLENnonauCtes Government, will be, of course,
suspended until his return ; and,
whateverfaults may
he charged against his administration, it mustibblee
conceded, on all•hands, that the outward and visible
signs of prosperity are more apparent in India now
than when he assumed the reins of Government. Where
the policy of Lord ELLENnottonan might have led
the rule of England, and. how far such policy
might have been wise and judicious, are
questions that. may have • puzzled the Court of
Directors and Sir ROBERT PEEL; but no one.
for
can
deny that, bating a little absurdttLyL,EaNnßdoßalolouwinB.
unposity and inflation, the rule _ GH
has been a successful, and for England, a triumphant
one. There have been no gross mismanagements like

that of Caubul—no defeat to be deplored—no incom-
petent commanders to be censured—and if the seeds
of future disasters be sown, which we very much
doubt, there are no symptoms or signs of them at
present. Sir JAMES GRAHAM will have one great
advantage in India. No man is more thoroughly
hated or despised than he is by all parties at home—
he may gain credit and honour abroad—the field is a
wide one, and the opportunity ample.

It is exceedingly edifying to see the entire House
of Commons thrown into violent hysterics, as was the
case the other night, by the conduct of an Hon.
Member, whose worst fault seems to be that ha is too
apt to be carried away by his prejudices, and to
speak at random, without thought or premeditation
We have few or no sympathies with Mr. FERRAND ;
his politics, generally speaking, are our aver-
, sion ; we think him coarse —rude —rash —and
inconsiderate to a degree; but we do not believe him
capable of such a crime as that of deliberately and
maliciously slandering the fair fame of a public in-
dividual, merely because he may happen to be op-
posed to him in politics. That the Member for
Knaresborough has given just cause of offence to
Sir JAMBS GRAHAM and Mr. HOOO, we are far from
meaning to deny; but the case is by no means so
aggravated a one as the sensitive delicacy of these gen-
tlemen would induce us to believe it is, and we can
find nothing in the vague, random, indiscreet charge,
brought so unceremoniously against them by Mr.
FERRAND, that at all justifies their fierce, though
virtuous, resentment. The common sense of the
House of. Commons—a peculiar species of sense, by
the bye, for which the Imperial Senate is by no means
remarkable—has already decided, and warmly too,
in their favour ; and there, we conceive, the matter
should have been allowed to rest. As for the
indignation of uninterested Members, which
showed itself so fiercely on Tuesday night,
we are at no loss to guess the cause in which
it originated. Hon. Gentlemen were anxious to have
the dullness of Parliamentary proceedings enlivened
by the spectacle of a bear-bait; they had promised
themselves great fun from the exhibition, and the
dogs were all ready for a set-to ; but unfortunately,
just at the moment when expectation was raised to
the highest pitch, the bear refused to allow
himself to be tied to the stake, but giving
a surly grin of defiance at the dogs, turned tail, and
bolted! This naturally caused great disappointment
among the lovers of sport, which vented itself in just
such a storm of execrations as was levelled against
the late Monsieur CHABERT, the fire-eater, when he
uncourteously declined allowing himself to be baked
to death in an oven, merely to gratify the humane cu-
riosity of those who had paid their shillings to witness
the pleasing spectacle. Mr. FERRAND has already been
quite sufficiently roasted by the House of Commons
—more especially by Messrs. GRAHAM, ROEBUCK,
and Hooo—and we think they may now rest satisfied
with the agreeable conviction that they have done him
to a turn, like a goose on a kitchen spit. As regards
Sir ROBERT. PEEL'S grave proposal of searching fur
precedents as 'to the way in which the House has
been in the habit of acting when Honour-
able Members happen to have made fools of
themselves, never was there anything so sub-
limely and solemnly absurd! It reminds us of the
awful gravity and business-like determination of
purpose exhibited by Noodle in Tom Thumb, when
he hears that Doodle has expressed himself irreve-
rently of that immaculate Ministerial functionary,
Lord Grizzle. But, indeed, the whole affair of Mr.
FERRAND appears to us to abound in the elements of
the richest farce, and we do not despair of seeing
it shortly transferred to the boards of the Hay-

market, under the apt title of " Much Ado about
Nothing; or, a Scene from St. Stephen's." And
three nights have actually been wasted on this absurd
matter, and at a period of the session, too, when every
hour has its value! How much public business might
have been got through within this space of time ! The
great question of the Corn-law might have been dis-
cussed and settled one way or other, for the season ;
the Factory Regulation Bill, and the changes
in the New Poor-law measure might have
been decided upon ; the Chancellor of the
Exchequer might have brought forward his Budget ;
and the Premier might have talked his usual amount
of solemn sophistry on the subject of the Income-tax.
In a few weeks, Ministers will—as they always do
about a month or so after Easter—begin to pre-
face all their speeches with " at this late period of
the session," &c., in justification of their favourite prac-
tice of shuffling off obnoxious measures; and yet we
will venture to say not one of them will take into
consideration that they themselves have helped to
trifle away the time of the House, by givingsuch undue
prominence and importance to this absurd squabble
between Messrs. FERRAND, GRAHAM, and HOGG.

The secret of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S intentions with
regard to the renewal of the Bank Charter, and the
revision of the Currency question, appears to have
been better kept than is usually the case. where any
given line of policy has been already discussed between
the Government and a public corporate body. Our
readers are aware that a •succinct statement of the
alleged propositions of the Cabinet on the
portant topics we allude to has been set abroad, on
the authority, it is said, of communications con-
fidentially made •by a Director of the Bank of
England to a certain private country banker. To
that statement we will advert presently. But the
authenticated state of the case remains simply as it
stood on the day after the 21st ultimo, when Sir
ROBERT PEEL, having received and heard the Depu-
tation commissioned to wait upon him by the
General Meeting of Provincial Banker held in

London, declined t'•r'disclose to them one word about

he purposes of hei MAJESTY'S advisers touching the
objects of the desired conference. Nothing certain or
definitive, therefore, is actually known as to the
course which the Preinier means to pursue in' the
matter. So far from perpetrating any "great fact,"
he has vouchsafed no "sign," beyond, indeed, a shake
of his head, doubtless as profound, but unhappily as
inexplicable, as Lord BURLEIGH'S in the play. Yet,
there were - " stuff and pith" _ enough in the- recent
address transmitted to him from the "Private Bankers
and the Joint-Stock Bankers of Yorkshire" to haie
extracted—one should have thought—some glimpses
of intention ; some shadowing forth of organized
plans—in the principles and the 'details of which
were involvcd the present hopes .or fears, the future
well-being or prejudice, of millions of his countrymen.
He was reminded, in that address, of the incalculable
benefit which had been derived by the empire from
the able exercise of those privileges of which, it was
assumed, on the credit of the rumour we have already
referred to, that he means and still means to deprive
private banks and public banking 'companies. It was
demonstrated to him that in proportion to the almost
incalculable- benefit and aid which the commerce,
agriculture, and industrial labours of the country had
derived from those privileges=in the case 'of the
former for nearly a century, of the latter during the
last seventeen yeass--would• be the embarrassment,
the distress, the panic, the widely-spreading in-
solyency and ruin, whiCh must ensue upon their
abrogation. When the Premier was waited upon, he
looked unutterable plausibilties, after the most ap-
proved forms of., official gesticulation ; and with
oracular solemnity, said, "That, at present, on 'the
part' of her MAJESTY'S Government; lie Must decline
to say anything." With this statesmanlike and very
interesting communication, he blandly bowed, and
the Deputation retired.
To keep his purposes secret is undoubtedly; in
he general proposition, an .excellent property, in a
Minister of State. No man has more forcibly illus-
trated its excellence than Sir ROBERT PEEL; but,
e converso.' It is precisely what he has failed io'clo.
on certain occasions of signal and momentous interest,
to the public ; of vital importance to his own personal
career as a Chief Minister of the Crown. Whether
the case regarded the relief of Roman Catholic Dis-
abilities, or the extinction of rotten boroughs—the
difficulty of making himself acceptable with the
ladies of a Royal Household, or the crowning diffi-•
culty of dealing with Ireland,—we have known Sir.
ROBERT PEEL'S intentions au pied de lettre, for
months before. They have been patent—transparent;
albeit he himself has thought aloud about them, and
talked enigmatically of them, as if the world without
had continued as blind and uninformed in reference
to them as he could wish. No man has more ad-
birably imitated, in 'his time, the ostrich, who, if it
can but thrust its own head into a bush, complacently
imagines that all its pursuers are at fault. Now we
are unwilling to give him credit for one jot of states-

manlike sagacity, prudence, or discretion, on account (
of his dogged taciturnity in the present instance,
with regard to a question so entirely sui genesis as
the views which his Government may have adopted
upon the future scheme -of banking and currency to
be established throughout these kingdoms.
Does Sir ROBERT PEEL mean to renew the Charter
of the Bank of England upon its present terms, the
currency and the standard of value remaining on the
footing upon which they were placed by his never• to-
be-forgotten wonder of 1819 ? The experience of
1825-26, 1833-34, 1836-37 ; the seventeen years'
trial or experiment and extensive working of
the joint-stock banks, established in the closing
years of GEORGE the FOURTH'S reign ; the uninter-
rupted, the panic-unstricken prosperity of Scotland,
with its still unprohibited issue of 1/. and 21. notes
since they were put down by statute in England—
the increased monetary prosperity of Ireland, which
has retained the same inestimable aid to the deve-
lopment of her agricultural and commercial resources
—the increased stability of country banks from the
modification of the enactments as to partnerships ap-.
plicable to them, and the corresponding increase of
popularity which has long attended their paper issucs
in the rural districts ; these are elements, many
of the most important of which could not
be said to be in existence when the sane
great question was last dealt with by Parliament;
whilst others did not then, as they now do, co-exist
and work together. Therefore it may be assumed
that the Charter of the Bank will be renewed, on dif-
ferent terms. What these terms may be, it was the
Premier's duty, surely, to have sufficiently announced
before submitting them to Parliament, in order to
give fair opportunity, to those who are best qualified
to discuss such matters, to prepare themselves with
whatever information, arguments, or statistics, may
seem most applicable to a due appreciation of the
faults or the merits of the Premier's statement. If
no such previous intimation be given, we
shall imagine, of course, that the same mys-
tification is to be practised on the Legislature
as was employed in 1819 in forcing down a
measure, every line of which told of an organic change
in the most prosperous of monetary systems which
the world had ever witnessed, on the authority, in op-
position to so long a practical experience of its prodi-
gious powers, of its astounding success, of anybody
and every body who was less qualified to pronounce a
judgrx,ent on the matter, than those who, though pos-
sessed of the greatest light and intelligence and
practical knowledge that could have been brought to
bear upon it, were never examined at all ! Parlia-
ment is to be taken by surprise immediately after the
Easter recess of 1844, as it was after the Easter
recess of 1819. Wanting, then, all authenticated
statements on the matter, let us suppose the alleged
intended propositions of Government really to be those
which it will venture to bring forward. What are
they ?

To suppress the smaller note circulation in Scot-
land and Ireland, to compel the withdrawal, within
a given time, of all local and provincial paper (bank
notes), to substitute in its stead Bank of England
paper, exclusively; and to constitute the Bank of
England the sole Bank of Issue. What may be the
quid pro quo which the Bank of England is to secure
to the Government in return for these outrageous
monopoly-keys,—kevs, that are to lock up and let
out at pleasure the whole paper currency of the Em-
pire,—has not yet transpired in any shape so tangible
as to warrant us in noticing it. But if it
be gravely intended,—if it be really pur-
posed—to bring forward propositions of this
kind, the Government presuming to enter on such
a task had 'need take care that they steer clear of
future impeachment. The Minister presiding over
such a Government must have lost his reputation for
habitual caution and cold conception, who will
challenge the indignation of a people already so
grievously shattered as they have been by the dis-
astrous Act of 1819, in asking their assent to further
measures for crippling the currency, paralysing in-
dustry, checking agriculture by drying up the
fountains of its encouragement—Obstructing com-

merce by damming up the circulation in one main
channel, instead of giving, it the freest flow through
multiplied currents ; and, lastly, by assigning over to
one Corporation, whose alternate expansions and con-
tractions of the currency, even when modified by the
controlling counter agency of joint-stock and other
banks of issue, have been so abrupt and violent as on
more than one occasion to have brought the nation
withintwenty-four hours of bankruptcy—an unlimited,
uncontrolled, unchecked, unmitigated power over that
currency which, under less perilous conditions, they
have so grossly mismanaged, and so disastrously tam-
pered with. On a future day we will consider to
what extent the mischief of such exclusive powers to
the Bank will be aggravated by the coincident main-
tenance of PEEL'S gold standard—if, indeed, that ex-
tent be capable of adequate appreciation.

The accounts from Madrid are to the 18th. Ac-
cording to one of the Government journals, the
Castellano, reports of a marriage between the QUEEN
and the eldest son of Don CARLOS were current in
the capital, and generally believed. Her MAJESTY,
it was expected, would set out for Catalonia about
the beginning of. May. It is said she is suffering
under a scrofulous complaint, and that her medical
attendants have recommended the use of sulphurous
waters. On the 18th her MAJESTY, accompanied by
her matter and sister, assisted at a solemn Te Deum
which the Knighti of the Military Order of Alcantara
caused to be sung in the Church of the Holy Sacra-
ment in honour of the return of the QUEEN MOTHER

to Spain.
The Three per Cents. closed on the 18th instan
and
aatt
3670*dacJas•sh: 37i
at 60 days; the Fives at 22i
•

The Paris papers are chiefly occupied with debates
n the two-Chambers on education and improvement
of prison discipline. The speakers in general display
much statistical knowledge on these important sub-
jects, but, as the matters at issue are almost entirely
exempt from the influence of political prejudices and
popular excitement, the speeches excite little interest.
On Tuesday Baron CUAULES DUPIN made a speech
in favour of the Government Bill on Education, de-
fended with much ability the course adopted by the
University, and showed that the outcry raised against
it by the Church was entirely unfounded. "There
were," said he, " four sources from which instruction
might be obtained—the Royal colleges, the Communal
colleges, private schools, and establishments where
young men were prepared for the priesthood. The
Royal colleges only contained 18,700 pupils, com-
prising amongst them 2,200 free pupils—certainly not
too many for a population of 34,000,000 souls. The
number farmed in the three othet,kinds of establish-
ments amounted to upwards of 50,000. And yet, in
the face of those figures, the University was accused
of monopoly ? In 17ii9, the number of pupils who
received whole bourses or partial aid from the State
was not less than 40,000, and at present the whole of
the pupils receiving bourses or half-bourses were not
more than 7,000. This difference undoubtedly did
honmir 'to the former period, and shoWed that all Was
not to be rejected in the ancient regime. In the
present day, there were 43 departments with Royal
colleges, and just as many without any; so that,
whilst accusations were made against the University
for its grasping spirit, half the kingdom could
not by any possibility be under its influence'
In the Chamber of Deputies M. CANNOT opposed
the Prison Bill, because he looked upon the confine-
ment of prisoners not so much in the light of punish-
ment as a means of reformation ; the silent system
would not 'effect- tbat,'and it had, in fact, been aban-
doned in several countries. M. Ds BEAUMONT,
though supporting the principle of the Bill, was op-
posed to absolute isolation. It had been tried in
only one prison in America, and had not succeeded.
The Bill only isolated prisoners from all vicious con.
tact, and there was nothing to prevent their receiving
religious instruction whilst so confined. Looking to
the question of mortality, the Hon. Deputy main-
tained that the prisoners held apart afforded fewer in-
stances of death than others. In the prisons of France
the mortality, from 1839 to 1843, had been eight per
cent., and in the prison of Fontevraud it had reached
12 per cent., whilst in the penitentiary of Pennsyl-
vania, where the solitary system was adopted, the
deaths were only two per cent. He next alluded to
the alleged cases of madness caused by solitary con-
flnement;and declared that there was much exagge-
ration in what had been alleged. The debate was
adjourned. At the same sitting M. DUCHATEL, the
Minister of the Interior, moved a vote of credit for

506,000 f., for the establishment of a new telegraphic
line between Paris and Havre, and Boulogne and
Avranches, so as to open with the capital a correspon-
dence with the entire coast of the Channel. The line
will also communicate with Brest by Avranches.
What a contrast this forms with the niggardly
economy in this respect of the English Government,
who grudge the expense of only one or two lines !
The Funds were still improving. On Wednesday
the Five per Cents. closed at 122 f. 40c., and the
Threes at 83f. 75c.