The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-03 00:00:00

THE CURRENCY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,—I am glad to perceive that you are turning
your attention to the currency, and that other able
persons are doing so likewise.
The effect has already been the dealing heavy blows
to the preposterous " metallic currency" illusion ; but
I regret to observe, that two enormous errors still
pervade the reasonings of those who have made the
greatest advances in the right direction.
The least of these is, the confining the term "cur-
rency" to the Bank notes and specie in circulation,
overlooking the fact that bills of exchange form, in
truth, the main part of our circulating medium, a
part so vast, that all others sink into insignificance.
It can scarcely be requisite to prove that these
bills are as strictly a part of our circulation,
as a Bank note of £OOl. Their conversion into
cash cannot, indeed, be enforced before a cer-
tain date, but practically they are exchanged as
often as bank notes of equal amount. Every
commercial man is accustomed to see bills with
half a dozen endorsements indicating as many pay-
ments and transfers. In fact, while a million in bills
changes hands and effects transfers nearly as readily
as a million in 1001. Bank notes, the number of millions
represented by bills immensely exceeds those repre-
sented by bank paper.
The second, and more important and fatal error, is
the admission of depreciation in paper currency.
Now such depreciation is impossible, except from
doubts of the solvency of the issuers.
If a bank or a State issues any given amount of
paper, and the holders do not believe in the power
(America compels one to add inclination), of the
issuer to pay what has been promised, the paper
becomes depreciated in the ratio of doubt—if the
holder expects to get only 90/. for the promised 1001.,
the paper is depreciated 10 per cent. ; if he looks but
for 60/. the depreciation is 40 per cent.
But this is the only possible case of " depreciation"
—the change in the value of no commodity whatever
can " depreciate" the paper.
This the least reflection will show : cotton may
have fallen 20 per cent., and sugar risen as much,
since a Bank note was issued ; and shall we say that
the note is " depreciated" because it will not purchase
as much sugar as it would have done on the day of
issue ? If so, we must say that it is appreciated,
or enhanced in value, because it will buy more cotton,
i. e., that the same note is, at the same moment, " de-
preciated and appreciated, diminished and increased
in value !"
If not with cotton and sugar, neither with gold or
silver; all are alike commodities and subject to the
same laws of increase or diminution of value, accord-
ing to the ratio of demand to supply.
The whole blunder arises from a loose and unphi-
losophical mode of thinking and expression. People
see the relation of two articles, in point of value,
altered, and fancy that it is a matter of indifference,
whether they say that " A has risen," or that " B
has fallen ;" and thus, because gold, being in exces-
sive demand during the war with France (for pay-
ment of troops, &c., &c.) rose in price, the currency
writers immediately talked about the paper being
" depreciated !"
Would these gentlemen, in case they had two chil-
dren of like size, and that at the end of two year
they had found the one six inches taller, and the
other only three, assert that the latter was diminished
or " depreciated" in height ? The truth is, that it is
impossible to find an immoveable standard. Metals,
precious stones, corn, labour—all are liable to fluctua-
tion in their value relative to other commodities. A
general average of the whole might possibly be ap-
proximated to, although a task of enormous labour,
difficulty, and nicety.
I will, however, venture to assert, contrary to the
fancy of the vast body of currency writers, that the
paper of a State, regarding which no doubt of sol-
vency exists, is less liable to fluctuation, and ap-
proaches nearer to the abstract idea of the unit of
comparison than any metal whatever. A Bank note
for 100/. (or a good bill of exchange for that amount)
will, for example, at the time of issue, command
in the market a certain amount of manual labour, of
cotton, sugar, meat, &c., &c.
Let us suppose, for example, that it will command
the following articles :—viz., 200 lbs. weight of flour,
200 lbs. of meat, 200 lbs. o butter, 200 lbs. of iron,
200 lbs. of oak timber, 200 lbs. of copper, 200 lbs.
of sugar, 200 yards of linen, 200 days of the labour of
an unskilled labourer, and fifty days of the labour of
a skilled artisan.

Let us now imagine that the money value of half
these things advanced 10 per cent., that the other
half decreased in value in a like ratio—the 1007. note
would purchase the same intrinsic value.
If a greater proportion than a moiety rose or fell in
value, the command would be somewhat varied ; but,
as probably the balance might be restored by the
change in the smaller number, exceeding in ratio
that of the major number, in an opposite direction,
the actual command might remain nearly unaltered.
I am, Sir, yours, with best wishes,
BEIRNIARD.

A SCENE in the FRENCH CHAMBERS

CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES—SITTING OF DEC. 30.
The Chamber met this day for the choice of Vice-
Presidents, and for the definitive constitution of the
Chamber. After the election of the Vice-Presidents,
M. Lafitte, who, as the senior member of the Cham-
ber, had acted as pro tern. President, addressed the
Chamber as follows : Gentlemen, called for
the second time to the honour of presiding over
you, I will not abuse the privilege of my
age and my functions. The sorrowful reminis-
cences which I feel in this place would perhaps
lead me to speak to you of my appre-
hensions for the future, whilst I would only wish at
this moment to express to you my thanks for the kind-
ness of which you have given me a fresh proof ; but,
in the presence of a situation which does not appear
without danger, my conscience obliges me to tell you
what France expects of you. In the course of your
session, besides the official programme of your
labours, opportunities will offer themselves for ex-
amining if our late illusions and our fortune will be
engulfed in the abyss which opens at our very doors
—(lnterruption)—whether the struggle entered on
in various localities—(oh, oh)—between the Go-
vernment and the elective powers does not contain
within itself the seeds of a struggle still more
grave between the two principles which, for four-
teen years, we have laboured to conciliate—(Loud
exclamations from the Centre)—if the artificial calm
created on the surface of the country—(Ah, ah)—be
sufficient for our dignity—(Oh, oh)—whether dis-
order and anarchy are not at the foundation of our
situation—(Murmurs from different parts of the
Chamber)—and whether good faith and rectitude in
the administration of public affairs are not preferable
to the resources of venality—to a traffic in corruption.
—(Loud interruption from the Centre, and a Member
loudly called " Order, order.")
M. Lafitte—l consider that my age, my character,
and my position, give me a right to speak the truth
when I consider it useful.—(Marks of assent from the
Gauche.)
M. Lafitte—l shall not carry my investigations
any further.
A voice from the Centre exclaimed, " That will be
no misfortune ;" and another voice from the Left
called on the interrupter for silence.
M. Lafitte—l will not carry my investigations any
further ; but bear in mind that factions die away,
Ministries are changed, systems become exhausted,
and we, Gentlemen, we remain responsible for the
obstacles which the country meets with in the deve
lopement of those resources of power and of prosperity
which it ought to expect from the Revolution of July.
—(Loud murmurs from the Centre, and approbatory
exclamations from the Left.)
M. Lafitte then said—" I now invite the President
and the Definitive Secretaries to take their places;"
and returned to his usual seat in the Chamber.
A voice from the Centre—" A la bonne heure."

M. Sauzet, the President, then addressed the Cham-
ber, amidst the most profound silence ; and after
thanking the Chamber for the honour they had done
him in electing him again to fill the honourable
office of President of the Chamber, he concluded thus
—" The first session has fulfilled its work—let the
second do the same ; let the Chamber concur in it
with the Bureaux by the good order of its delibera-
tions, the prompt and wise distribution of its labours,
that no salutary idea may be lost sight of, that no one
moment be lost; let us know how to show what may
be expected from an intelligent and powerful nation,
and thus merit the gratitude of the country.
The President then declared the Chambers to he
constituted, and proposed to vote the usual thanks to
the Member, who, from his seniority, had temporarily
presided

Some voices from the Centre here exclaimed, " Oh,
oh !" and " No, no !" and others from the Left,
" Consult the Chamber."

President—l demand that the thanks be voted as
usual to the members of the provisional bureau.—
(Oh, oh.) There is no opposition to the vote.
A voice from the Left—" Yes, there is opposition,
Consult the Chamber."

President—l again demand that thanks be voted to
the Provisional Bureau.—(Yes, yes). There is no
opposition.—(No, no.) The thanks are voted.—
(Loud murmurs and exclamations from the Left.)
The Chamber soon after adjourned.

THAMES TUNNEL.-The number of persons who
passed through the Tunnel last week was 37,114.
LIEUTENANT MUNRO.—It does not appear that the
statement which has been put forth by several of the
papers with something like authority, namely, that
Lieut. Munro would surrender this session and take his
trial at the Old Bailey, has any foundation or truth in
it. No notice of any such intention has been given to
the officers of the Central Criminal Court, nor is it
likely, under all the circumstances, that there will be.

CANADIAN POLITICS.

The folloWing is Mr. Lafontaine's note to Sir Charles
Metcalfe, relative to the resignation of the late Cabinet:
" Mr. Lafontaine, in compliance with the request of
the Governor-General, and in behalf of himself and his
late colleagues, who have felt it to be their duty to tender
their resignation of office, states, for his Excellency's
information, the substance of the information which they
propose to offer in their places in Parliament.
" They have avowedly taken office upon the principle
of responsibility to the representatives of the people in
Parliament, and with a full recognition on their parts
of the following resolutions introduced into the Legisla-
tive Assembly, with the knowledge and sanction of her
Majesty's representative in the province, on the 3d of
September, 1841:
" ' That the head of the Executive Government of the
province, being within the limits of his government, the
representative of the Sovereign is responsible to the
Imperial authority alone, but that nevertheless the ma-
nagement of our local affairs can only be conducted by
him by and with the assistance, counsel, and informa-
tion of subordinate officers in the province; and that, in
order to preserve between the different branches of the
provincial Parliament that harmony which is essential to
the peace, welfare, and good government of the province,
the chief advisers of the representative of the Sovereign,
constituting a provincial administration under him,
ought to be men possessed of the confidence of the re-
presentatives of the people; thus affording a guarantee
that the well understood wishes and interests of the peo-
ple, which our gracious Sovereign has declared shall be
the rule cf the provincial Government, will on all occa-
sions be faithfully represented and advocated.'
" They have lately understood that his Excellency
took a widely different view of the position, duties, and
responsibilities of the Executive Council from that under
which they accepted office, and through which they have
been enabled to conduct the Parliamentary business of
the Government, sustained by a large majority of the
popular branch of the Legislature.
" Ilad the difference of opinion between his Excel-
lency and themselves, and, as they have reason to be-
lieve, between his Excellency and the Parliament and
the people of Canada generally, been merely theoretical,
the members of the late Executive Council might and
would have felt it to be their duty to avoid every possi-
bility of collision which might have a tendency to dis-
turb the tranquil and amicable relations which apparently
subsisted between the Executive Government and the
provincial Parliaments ; but that difference of opinion
has led not merely to appointments to office against their
advice, but to appointments and proposals to make ap-
pointments, of which they were not informed in any
mariner until all opportunity of offering advice respect-
ing them had passed by, and to a determination on the
part of his Excellency to reserve for the expression of
her Majesty's pleasure thereon, a Bill introduced into
the provincial Parliament, with his Excellency's know-
ledge and consent, as a Government measure, without
an opportunity being given to the members the Exe-
cutive Council to state the probability of such a reserva-
tion. They, therefore, felt themselves in the anomalous
position of being, according to their own avowals and
solemn public pledges, responsible for all the acts of the
Executive Government to Parliament, and at the same
time not only without the opportunity of offering advice
respecting those acts, but without the knowledge of their
existence until informed of them from private and un-
official sources.
" When the members of the late Executive Council
offered their humble remonstrance to his Excellency on
this condition of public affairs, his Excellency not only
frankly explained the difference of opinion existing be-
tween him and the Council, but stated that from the time
of his arrival in the country he bad observed an antagon-
ism between him and them on the subject, and, notwith-
standing that the members of the Council repeatedly and
distinctly explained to his Excellency that they considered
him free to act contrary to their advice, and only claimed
an opportunity of giving such advice, and of knowing
before others his Excellency's intentions, his Excellency
btleietlivremeninhdism, therebayndhitshaevizalinldthaaNtvantof
did not in any manner remove the impression left upon
vhaast acno radni tat al
igt snmd
confidence which would enable them in their respective
stations to carry on public business to the satisfaction of
his Excellency or of the country. The want of this cor-
diality and confidence had already become a matter of
public rumour, and public opinion not only extended it
to acts upon which there were apparent grounds for dif-
ference of opinion, but to all measures of Government
involving political principles. His Excellency, on the one
hand, was supposed to be coerced by his Council into a
course of policy which he did not approve of, and the
Council were made liable to the accusation of assuming
the tone and position of responsible advisers of the Go-
vernment, without, in fact, asserting the right of being
consulted thereupon.
" While his Excellency disclaimed any intentions of
altering the course of administration of public affairs
which he found on his arrival in Canada, he did not dis-
guise his opinion, that those affairs would be more satis-
factorily managed by and through the Governor himself
without any necessity of concord amongst the members
of the Executive Council, or obligation on their part to
defend or support in Parliament the acts of the Govern-
ment. To this opinion of his Excellency, as one of
theory, the members of the Executive Council might not
have objected, but when on Saturday last they discovered
that it was the real ground of all their differences with
his Excellency, and of the want of confidence and cor-
diality between his Excellency and the Council since his
arrival, they felt it impossible to continue to serve her
Majesty as executive councillors for the affairs of this
province, consistently with their duty to her Majesty or
to his Excellency, or with their public and oft-repeated
pledges in the provincial Parliament; if his Excellency
should see fit to act upon his opinion of their functions
and responsibilities.
" Daly's Hotel, Nov. 27, 1843."
To this his Excellency replied :
" The Governor observes with regret, in the explana-
tion which the gentlemen
,wbo have resigned their seats
in the Executive Council propose to effer in their places
in Parliament, a tota-omission oL.the circumstances
which he regards as forming the real grounds of their
resignation ; and as this omission -may have proceeded
from their not considering themselves at liberty to dis-
close those circumstances, it becomes necessary that he
should state them.

" On Friday Mr. Lafontaine and Mr. Baldwin came to
the Government-house, and, after some other matters of
business and some preliminary, remarks as to the cause
of their.proceeding, demanded of the Governor. General
that he should agree to make no appointment,
and no offer of an appointment, without pre-
viously taking the advice of the Council; that the
lists of candidates should is every instance be laid before
the Council ; that they should recommend any others at
discretion, and that the Governor-General in deciding,
after taking their advice, should not make any appoint-
ment prejudicial to their influence. In other words, that
the patronage of the Crown should be surrendered to the
Council for the purchase of Parliamentary support ;
for, if the demand did not mean that it meant nothing,
as it cannot be imagined that the mere form of taking
advice without regarding it was the process contem-
plated.
"The Governor-General replied, that he would not
make any such stipulation, and could not degrade the
character of his office nor violate his duty by such a sur-
render of the prerogative of the Crown.
" He appealed to the number of appointments made
by him on the recommendation of the Council, or to the
members of it in their departmental capacity, and to in-
stances in which he had abstained from conferring ap-
pointments on their opponents, as furnishing proofs of
the great consideration which he had evinced towards
the Council do the distribution of the patronage of the
Crown. _ _

" He at the same time objected, as he always had done,
to the exclusive distribution of patronage with party
views, and maintained the principle that office ought, in
every instance, to be given to the man best qualified to
render efficient service to the State, and where there was
no such pre-eminence he asserted his right to exercise
his discretion.

" He understood from Messrs. Lafontaine and Baldwin
that their continuance in office depended on his final de-
cision with regard to their demand; and it was agreed
that at the Council to be assembled the next day the
subject should be fully discussed.
" lie accordingly met the Council on Saturday, con-
vinced that they would resign, as he could not recede
from the resolution which he had formed, and the same
subject became the principal topic of discussion.
" Three or more distinct propositions were made to
him over and over again, sometimes in different terms,
but always aiming at the same purpose, which in his
opinion, if accomplished, would have been a virtual sur-
render into the hands of tho Council of the prerogative
of the Crown, and on his uniformly replying to their pro-
positions in the negative, his refusal was each time fol-
lowed by' then we must resign,' or words to that pur-
port, from one or more of the Council.
" After the discussion of this question at so much
length, being, as he has hitherto conceived, the ono upon
which the resignation of the Council rested, he is as-
tonished at finding that it is now ascribed to an alleged
difference of opinion in the theory of responsible govern-
ment.

" In the course of the conversations which both on
Friday and Saturday followed the explicit demand made
by the Council regarding the patronage of the Crown,
that demand being based on the construction put by
some of the gentlemen on the meaning of responsible
government,' different opinions were elicited on the ab-
stract theory of that still undefined question as appli-
cable to a colony, a subject on which considerable diffe-
rence of opinion is known everywhere to prevail ; but
the Governor-General during these conversations pro-
tested against its being supposed that he is practically
adverse to the working of the system of responsible go-
vernment, which he has hitherto pursued, without de-
viation, and to which it is fully his intention to adhere.
" The Governor-General subscribes entirely to the re-
solution of the Legislative Assembly of the 3d of Sep-
tember, 1841, and considers any other system of govern-
ment than that which recognises responsibility to the
people and to the Representative Assembly as impracti-
cable in this province.

" No man is more satisfied that all government exists
solely for the benefit of the people, and he appeals con-
fidently to his uniform conduct here and elsewhere in
support of this assertion.
_ _

' If, indeed, by responsible government' the gentle-
men of the late Council mean that the Council is to be
supreme, and the authority of the Governor a nullity,
then he cannot agree with them, and must declare his
dissent from that perverson of the acknowledged principle.
" But if they mean that responsible government as
established in this colony is to be worked out with an
earnest desire to insure success, he must then express
his surprise at their arriving at conclusions which he
does not consider to be justified by any part of his con-
duct, and which he conceives his repeated declarations
ought to have prevented. Allusion is made, in the
proposed explanation of the gentlemen of the late Coun-
cil, to the Governor-General having determined to re-
serve for the consideration of her 1113,iesty's Government