The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-09 00:00:00

intrti %bitten

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
STANDARD. The Three per Cent. Consols
were yesterday at par. One hundred pounds in stock
selling for one hundred gold sovereigns. This marks
an epoch in our history which suggests many im-
portant reflections. Ninety-five years have passed
since public credit occupied the same proud posi-
tion ; the Three per Cent. Stock has not been at
par since 1749, and in 1749 the public debt was
little more than one-tenth of its present amount—
namely, about seventy-eight millions sterling. The in-
crease of the debt were but an equivocal proof of the
increase of the wealth, even of those to whom the debt
is due, and the reverse of a-proof of the increased
wealth of those by whom it is due, were it depreciated
in value ; but rising as it rises in price,. it affords a
gratifying demonstration of the enormously aug-
mented affluence of both. The nation is now be-
lieved—and the belief is all in such a case—
as well able to meet engagements of 750
millions, as it was believed able to meet 78 millions
of engagements in 1749. As regards the stock-
holders, therefore, the capitalists in the country
have multiplied nearly tenfold in value in the
95 years; and the wealth of their debtors must have
increased at least tenfold also; but this is not an
adequate view of the subject. The improvement in
the price of stock is not the work of 95 years ; it
has been effected, and in a far greater degree, in
just half the period. At the commencement of 1798,
the price of the Three per Cents. was 47,
less than half the price at par, the present price ;
many millions of the stock, now worth its full
price, was then, and for several years before and
after, bought at half, or less than half,
the price that it would now bring. And
at that time the public debt—the amount, in fact,
of stock in the market—was little more than half
what it is at present, confining the market even
to the public stock ; not one-third, if we add the
various other stocks on sale—all as it were
bidding higher prices against the public stock. In
the year 1798, then, the market offering certainly less
than one-half the present amount of securities of all
kinds, more than one half, in fact not one-half, the
present price could be obtained for the best among
them. It is true that 1798 was a year of
slarm. The French war was at the time at
its . height ; and the rebellion in Ireland,
which the lately convicted conspirators • have
been labouring tb repeat, was impending ; but
the state of the stock market for years before and
after 1798 prove that the effect of the immediate.alarm
was not very considerable. The • money was want-
ing ; the State wanted to borrow more than the people
had to lend. The people are now, however, able to
pay twofold what they borrowed
.50 years ago.
Whoever lent the public 5001. in 1798 has had six
'per cent. for his money for 46 years, and
rnsy now receive 1,000/. This is to support public
r dit, and public credit is strength and safety.
But credit is not strength and safety only. The
example which it has been our business to note this
dad.—the example of a nation whose securities stand
at par, after such augmentations of her debt, and such
dangers and difficulties as Great Britain has had to
struggle with during the last half century, this exam-
ple is a means of economy no less than of strength and
safety. In no possible adverse conjecture can
Great Britain ever again have to borrow at such a
disadvantage as in 1798. A Whig Government
could do much; a Whig Government, in fact, not
only checked the upward progress of the public
securities, but even reduced the Three per Cents.
from 92 to 88, in the. 11 years between 1830 and
1841 ; but we may almost defy a Whig Govern-
ment even to reduce the price of securities again
much below 90. The ground has been made good
so far ; the capital is in the country, and, what is not
less important, is shown to be in the country. It
must be employed, and this we must all have learned,
both. by experience and by the discussions of the last
Am: years, that capital not only grows faster than the
population, but much faster than the means of profit-
ably employing it can grow, do all that we can by
industry and enterprise.. This opens a view as to the
future—hitherto we have referred chiefly to the past.
The Three per Cent. Consols have risen to par from
88, during less than three years of Sir Robert Peel's
Administration ; and what is to be above all things
remembered,
.they have risen concurrently with
a prodigious outlay in railroads and other specula-
tions absorbent ,of wealth, and with a very great
improvement in commercial industry and enter-
prise, as the financial returns attest. Will the price
rest permanently at par ? We ask will the price
seat permanently at par, because. we can imagine
many reasons that will operate to suspend the
upward progress for a season. But upon what
ground is it to be assumed that the elastic move-
ment which has raised the public securities 12 per
cent. in less than three years, will not continue its
force beyond the present point? We confess that we
can 'find no such ground Capital. will continue to
increase beyond the means of employing it, so long as
the commerce and manufactures of the country shall
prosper; public credit, if capable of improvement,
will continue to improve, and the time may thus he
brought on when men, unable to obtain two per cent.
upon any other secure investment of money, will gladly
take two- and-a-half or even • two-and• a-quarter,
through the purchase of public-stock. It is thus that the
" Eight hundred millions inscribed on the wall,"
so much an object of terror a few years ago will be
effaced, or regarded as an object of indifference.
Twenty years more of European peace and of moral
improvement at home would effect it all, and what are
twenty years in the life of a nation? Our readers
will scarcely think these reflections out of place when
they consider the occasion of them.
GLOBE.—It is no part of our duty to settle the
relative value of the Standard's "authorised," and
" unauthorised," communications. Whether the
latter or the former be most deserving of credence,
or whether they be alike worthless, may be safely
left to the discernment of the public, aided by the
experience which our Contemporary has supplied in
the frequent detections and exposures of his most
confidently-affirmed and reiterated statements.
The position which the Standard occupies with
reference to the National Board of Education in Ire-
land—the Irish clergy—and Sir Bobert Peel, is evi-
dently one of .considerable embarrassment. It has
been • positively and repeatedly affirmed, and is
isenerally believed, in Ireland, that , Sir Robert
Peel-, has intimated that preferment will be, in
future, withheld :froth such of • the Irish clergy
as persist in opposing and counteracting the
eperations of the. national system of education in
that country: The Standard positively affirmed, with
a 1 the confidence .of authority, that there was not
a single word of- truth 'in this statement. It now
admits that the contradiction, thus positively given,
was not supplied by authority ; but still persists in
its truth. In the meanwhile the aspect of affairs
in Ireland tends to confirm the belief that some
s tell determination hes 'been come to by the Go-
vernment, and an explicit 'intimation thereof been
made to those whom it specially concerns to
! comply with it. The Parliamentary grant to the
Educational Board in Ireland is increased ;'and the
allowance from the Ecclesiastical Commission to the
palish clerks who act as schoolmasters in the schools,
'et up by the clergy in opposition to the Gcvernment
schools, is' withdrawn. But what is more remarkable,
as confirmatory of the report which is reiterated by.
the Dublin Mail—the recognised, and generally ac-
e tuately informed, organ of the Ultra- Protestant
party in Ireland, with which journal the statement
originated—is, that the Government organ (the Dublin
Packet) has, ever since the report was published, em.
played its most persuasive powers to en acquies,.
uence by the clergy with the supposed ,determination
of the Government to maintain and extend the Na-
tional System of Education. " A crisis has arrived
in the affairs of the Church. The time has come
when longer opposition ,to the National Schools
will be not only useless, but mischievous. Make
a virtue of necessity; and submit with a good
trace to that . which, if an evil, is inevitable.'
This, in substance, and almost in words, is
the advice which the 'leading journal of the
Irish Government addresses to, and urges upon,
the truculent' clergy with reference to the system of
pepular education they have endeavoured to counter—.
act and destroy. In the last number of the Packet
ts hich has reached this country, we find the same
sobject discussed, and compliance with • the Go-
vernment views and purposes enforced, with increased
earnestness.. A few sentences will illustrate the al-
tered state of circumstances which the Irish organ of
the Ministry endeavours to impress on the clergy of
the Established Church in Ireland : •
" Often as the subject of National Education has at,
Erected the public mind, never was such engrossing in-
t ;rest fixed upon it as at the present moment. We are
deeply convinced that there is a critical turning point
now, and that the welfare of the Church of Ireland very
much depends upon the manner in which she guides her-
elf at this nice and difficult juncture. We are anxious,
therefore, fearlessly to discharge our duty as public
monitors, and to otler such practcal suggestions as flew
from our own most careful consideration' sf this mo-
mentous question."
"It is seldom," says the wily inculcator of sub-
svission to the will of the powers that be—" it is
seldom, alas ! that a public man can act merely on
abstract principles of what is best, per se. One point
3 IST w SCOTTISH COMPANIES' PRICES. I s fixed —that Government will continue the
APRIL 1, 1844, i National Board. All sides seem to agree on that.
per rent irit of Scogland '
per
, t 7.1 Bank 1691 Thtir resolution seems to gain force and fixedness."
erer vent. Di.'tish Linen Letnpny
per Con.Verciai Bank 222 Wen, and what then ?Do systems change their
ver cent. 01.1;2.'0 Union Bank
cept. Wester*? Bank:. .... Z 124" nature from evil to good as political parties rise and
_ policy which was fraught with mischief
74 tall ? Does the
. cent. Central Pe:. of Scotland 38
ipty cent. Caledonitonsinsurance
vet con L Hercules Drstiance •'". 10 00 24 to the interests of Protestantism, when 'administered
to o o 1)y a Whig Government, become the source of blessing
Pi,--er cent. North Brit..Doance 10 0 0 21
. , cent. insurance Co of L,cotL
vr.cent. Edinburgh Lite imam —io when acted upon by a Conservative Administration ?.
-- 12 10 0 17% Let us ponder well the suggestions of the Government
scotush union Incur 10 0 1
CL :wit. Standard Life Incur 2lO 0 4% -.tribe, who advises the most sturdy of the clerical op-
; I,e, lent. Dalkelth Fylwair 1) (0) to) e 5 portents of the National Board to consider their ways
.„ pet feat. Eden, and talc.
di Green ait 25 0 0 is and be wise :-
144 Arc ye tluasjele.and Ara Rail. 1 —. 2.5 4 0
• "But, perhaps, some will cry out shame ",What
•

SUN OFFICE, Seven o' Clock.

PRICES OF SHARES
IN • 'ANALS, RAILWAYS, BANKS, ASSURANCE
AND OTHER COMPANIES' STOCK..

oewidend
I.*r

LONDON, TUESDAY, APRIL 9.

Amount

Name. of COZZI.. I of
pantos. I Share.

Annum.

t per cent.
• 41.

Paid. Price.

Canals. 1.
£ a. d. s.
Ashton and Oldham... i 97 18 0
Ashby..de-la-Zouch-av 113 0 0
Basingstoke ... 0 0
Bzecknock & •Abe.rgar. 150 00'
Birmingham,l-16thsh. 915 0
Do. and Liverp. Jut.c. . 100 0 0 100 0 0
Chelmer & Blackwator 100 0 0
Coventry 0..160 ..... 100 ( 0
Crorn ford lOO 0 0
Dr.,lley
... Derhy........ . .... 100 0 0
D rube and Mayne..... 41 13 4 41 13 4
Ellesmere and Chetter i 131 0
Erewash ..- • 100 0
Forth and 100 6 0 leo o 0
Grand Junction lOO 0' 0%
Grand Union lOO 0 .0
Grand Surrey lOO 0 0
Grand Western."... 100 0 0
Glamorgansh., ay. cosi. 1'72 13 4 ,
Gloucester & Berkeley 100 0 0.,
Grantham. ........ 150 0 0
Hudder5t1e7!...........av WI -6 6
Kenner r..id Avon ...av 30 16 Id
Lancaster .* 47 6 8
Leeds and Liverpool... 100 0 0
Leicester -
Leicester & Northamp B3 10 0
Loughborough ....ay 142 17 0
Monmouthshire lOO 0 0
Montgomeryshire lOO 0 0
Melton Mowbray
100 0 0
Mersey and Irwell lOO 0 0
Macclesfield ..... 100 0 0
Neath lOO 0 0I
()Mord lOO 0 0
Peak Forest av 78 0
Regent's (or London).. 33 10 8
Rocndale as 85 0 0
Shropshire
Somerset Coal. l5O 0 •
Do. Lock Fund Stock 12 10 0
Staffordand Worcester 140 0 0
125 0 0
Stourbridge .. 146 0 0
Sttatford.on:Avon...av 79 9 8
Swansea." .... 100 0 0
Severn & Wye & Rail. 26 9 3
Trent & Mersey, 14 sh. 50 0 0
Thames & Mettway..av 19 5 8
Warwick and Birming. 100 0 0
Warwick and Napton lOO 0 0
W,rcester & Binning. 78 8 0
Wilts and Barks av 87 10
Wisbeach lO5 0 0
Wey and Arun llO 0 0

itryst•

411,
SI. 1.35.

It. ss.

...
$3/ 126.8 d.

la+.
10s.
:441.

171.
11. LA.

6 el c tad .
28
5L
ID&
IM.

Z2l. 100.

Los.
11 44

' 51 it cent.
pee cent.
4 per ctn...
4 ter cent.

Docks.
Commercial
East and West India
London
Ditto Bonds
Bristol .......
Do.Bnds,var. amounts
St. Katharine
Ditto
Ditto Bonds
Southampton

r ceut-
, per cent.
pes cent.
4 per cent.
4 pet cent.

100 0 0
Stock
Stock

147 9 0

Stock

A P=r cent.

18e. Id.
per cent.
le.

50 0 0

50 0 0

3i lOs.
4 percent.
d per cent.
.;;per cent.
I M-k.d. Pr sh

63 2 8

ss.
4 w
73. per 'share
per cent.
31.

100 -0
0

5 per cent./
ei bds.
per cent.
per cent.
..$ per cent.
cent.
cent.

1 o
I 100 0 0

70 10 3

500 0 0

25 0 0
100 0 0
100 0 0

50 0 o
125000
;250 0 0
5000
100 0 0
10000

E 6 0 0
1000 o 0

20 0 0

20 0 •
20 0 0
Stock
100 0 0
25 0 0
25 0 0
500 0 0
100 0 0
100 0 0
100 0 0
50 0 0
25 0 0
25 0 0
20 0 0
50 0 0
20 0 0
100 0
5 0 is
Stock

100 0 0
100 0 0
20u 0 0

40 0 o

50 0 g

1011 0 0
100 0 0
100 0 0
50 0 0
25 0 0
100 0 0
10 0 0
50 0 0
100 0 0
28 0 0
59 0 0
25 0 0
50 0 0

....
All paid

20 0 0
4$ 0 0
20 0 0
77 10 0
50 0 0
20 0 0
20 0 0
2000
100 0 0
100 0 0
75 0 0
50 0 0
50 0 0
50 0 0
25 0 0
30 0 0
50 0 0
100 0 0
50 0 0
s') 0 0
50 0 0
50 0 0

23 0 0
100 0 0
41 13 4
100 0 0

30 0 0
100 0 0
03 12 9
100 0 0

100 0 0
1 100 0 0
1100 0 0
I 00 0 0
;100 0 e
25 0 0
50 0 0
12 10
,100 0 0
100 0 0
100 0 0
50 0 0
20 0 0
50 0 0
1100 0 0
100 0 0
50 0 0
25 0 0
50 0 0
10 0 0
RS 13 4
12 15 4
100 0 0

1&
314

I/185
14

1200
155
100
117
360

365
L 0214
41
24U
62
120
140

32 0 0
41 6 10

13 15 9
100 0 0
Sono
'7O 0 0

100 0 0
2 0 0
22 0 0

o e
1.0 0
1,0 0 0
30 0 0

70 0
SO 0
40 0

50 0 1 r

51) 0 11
20 0 is
100 0 0
50 0 0
25 0 0
50 0 0
23 0

5%
172
122

5 0 0
15 U 0
100 0 0

7 0
100 0
100 0
40 0
45 0
15 0
20 0
100 0
I, 50 0
25 0
50 0
1 25 0

150 -0
0

:38
108

35 0 0
2$ 0 0
2000
100 0 0
20 0 0

31 0
13 10 0
140 0 t,
25 0 (
150 0 0

c.s.
J I IQ+•

v
,VJ per cent.
.itu per sh.

0 0
55 0
20 0
50 0
10 0
t 0
25 0

1.34 et 6h.

00
`4O 0

73 0 0
100 0 0
25 0 0

21 0 0
23 0 0
13 0 0
75 0 0
7 10 0
7 10 0
40 0 0
13 0 0
55 0 0
20 0 0
10 10 0
3 0 0
.5 0 0 0
7 0 0

-
130 o
it 0 3
40 0 0

72%
18%
5N
16

i 210 0

-
100 0 0

100 0 0

ii%
131(
5%
400

11.136.

1441
48
632
IF6

16
16
2
409
1198.

170
205

12%
lbi

413
41%
13i

22
20
24
120
91
36
22
1 %

SS
207
SI
56
60

124
654
23:3

119%

11034
55 1.1
4151
11%
65'3
5
236
26%

57 Va
25
265
34 54
3114
121

4.4
fy
l•
134

20
31
6
10

5%
118

10 0 6 13;
30 0 0 2.1
35 10 0 11%
7210 0 41
lot
3 o o
14 0 0! 2714
I 1 10 3 'fin
20 0 4
75 0 )6
25 0 0 4
50 0 0j 50 0 0 51
100 7 0 1100-0 0 104
25 0 0 1 20 0 0
50 0 o.i. 50-.0 0 ,
20 0 0 20 0 0 4

10 0 0
100 0 0
50 0 0
100 0 0

100 0 0
15 0 0
5 I) 0
5 0 0
10 0 0
10 0 0