The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-30 00:00:00

joyous, and exhilarating as they were, contained more
than this, or they would leave no permanent impres-
sion bohind. The crowning event of the day was, in
truth, eminently significant. The opening of a new
exchange, of a place in which merchants are to con-
gregate, by an illustrious Sovereign, and with a
stately ceremonial befitting the highest acts of
royalty, Was characteristic of the age, of the position
and- destinies of this mighty empire, and of the Mo-
..

narch by whom the act was performed with ao much
grace and dignity. When Gresham first erected his
comparatively humble Burse, the commerce of Eng-
land was only in its vigorous infancy, but the sagacious
policy of Elizabeth afforded the merchant protection
and encouragement. Since then the child has be-
come a giant. English commerce has risen to be a
power without parallel in the history of the world.
It has made vast territorial conquests, by which rich
and populous regions have been added to the empire
it has sustained the nation through a protracted
struggle of life and death with the most formidable
enemy it has ever known ; and, greater triumphs
than these—it has carried the language and civilisa-
tion of England to the extremities of the earth, dis-
pelling ignorance and barbarism at every step of its
advance. Commerce having thus become a main ele-
ment of the national greatness, it is fitting that its
claims should be publicly honoured and recognised.
It is time that the last traces of that old feudal pre-
,;ulice which regarded trade as a less honourable em-
ployment than ..s.ar, should be eradicated from our
minds. It is time that the habitual sentiments of
every class should be brought into harmony with this
stubborn and momentous reality. This truth could
not be more strikingly proclaimed or happily acted
upon than in the ceremony of yesterday. When
Queen Victoria journeyed in state to open an Ex-
change, she rendered a homage to the commercial
power of her kingdom, and practically recognised its
connexion with the grandeur and stability of her throne.
A struggle of long standing, however, by which
commerce is excluded from its just influence in the
government of the country, still remains to be brought
to a conclusion. The aristocratic power which once
trampled on the trader, still loads him with cramping
and vexatious restrictions, and the elastic force of
commercial enterprise is debarred from that almost
boundless expansion of which, under free and en-
lightened legislation, it would be capable. This dis-
cordance evidently needs a remedy. If commerce he
of vital moment to England, the legislation which
affects it must become subject to commercial in-
fluences ; enlightened commercial opinion must
acquire a decisive force in the deliberations of Par-
liament. The aristocracy must follow the example
of the Sovereign, and acknowlege gracefully their
obligations to the founders of the Royal Exchange.
Until commerce assumes its true place in the govern-
ment of the country, there will he a constant jarring
and uncertainty in the movements of society. A
growing power, unduly compressed, must expand
until its restraints are burst asunder. The commer-
cial class in this country may be deprived of its
just influence for a time, but sooner or later it will
acquire what is withheld, with a movement sudden
and violent in proportion to the delay. Far better
would it he to surrender at once to the merchants of
England the regulation of English commerce, and so
put an end to the conquest so long kept up between
the supposed interests of an aristocracy and the intel-
ligence of the age. With such concessions, the open-
ing of a new Royal Exchange would, indeed, be the
starting point of a new era in our commercial his-
tory. The prospects of commercial enterprise,
stirring as they were in the days of Elizabeth, when
the wealth of the New World was just opening upon
the eyes of adventurers, were in truth both narrow
and fallacious, compared with those which would
now spread out on every side with a system of free
interchange between nations. This grand develop.
ment of the capabilities of commerce has been re-
served, we may trust, for the present age. The cir-
cumstances of the time at once invite us, and enable
us to effect it. If the opening of the new Exchange
shall prove to be the precursor of this beneficent
alteration, which it seems to foreshadow, the cere-
mony of yesterday will take its place amongst the
memorable events of a reign desti2ed, we trust, to be
equally long and glorious.
HERALD.—The Queen's visit to time City yes.
terday excited an interest without example our
time, and it presents a moral of great value ; but yet
it is much easier to sympathise with the interest tharr
to explain its causes; much less difficult to feel the
moral than to put it into proper words. Queen
Victoria has claims upon the affectionate respect of
her countrymen and countrywomen, which English-
men and Englishwomen would cheerfully acknow-
ledge, even were they not her subjects. She is a
young and a beautiful, and a good woman—a model
mother and a model wife. These are qualities which
are nowhere so highly appreciated as in England,
because nowhere else are the most amiable attributes
of womanhood so frequent, or so much a part of the
solid happiness of the people. But, in addition to
these high claims upon our veneration and love, Queen
Victoria is our Sovereign, and the good Sovereign of
a free people is an object of attachment more exalted,
vehement, and enduring, than any other Sovereign
can be. The Sovereign of a free country admits the
subjects of that country into a partnership of
council and of power, which, while it leads to no
degradation, gives room for those affectionate ties
that can only exist where there is some community
of condition and of end. This union of circum-
stances necessarily renders Queen Victoria the
most popular of Sovereigns living, or perhaps that •
ever lived. Her high personal qualities are exactly
suited to her station ; her station is precisely that in
which these qualities can be developed with most ad-
vantage and honour. We will not insult this beloved
Princess by a comparison with any foreign Sovereign
of her sex, because there is none such whom it would
not be almost a pollution to place beside her ; but
compare her even with our own Elizabeth, whose
name is " familiar in our speech as household words"
to express patriotism and magnanimity, and assuredly
Queen Victoria will not sink in the comparison. The
qualities of the two Queens are different, because
they lived and live in different ages, but the qualities
of both are equally great; and who will deny that
those of the Princess under whose mild and affec-
tionate rule we live are much the more amiable ?
Elizabeth had to reform a rude age, and to prepare a
people for greatness, and admirably she acquitted
herself of the task assigned her by Providence—Vic-
toria has to rule a people far advanced in refinement
and in morals, and to continue them in the happy
course of advancement by reflecting, with the added
lustre of the Crown, all their best accomplishments and
highest virtues. If we are to estimate the merit of the
benefit conferred, by the required difficulty and sacri-
fices, it is impossible to give a preference to either..
Queen Elizabeth had many dangers and obstacles to
contend with, but to minds of native force action is the
highest gratification, and we may doubt whether
Elizabeth would be as happy in an age like ours as
she was in her own rougher generation. Certain it
is that if she had not considerably modified her virago
habits, her example would be anything but conducive
to the " domestic" comfort (we use the word in its
most limited sense) of the male division of her subjects
in the nineteenth century. Now, though undoubtedly
it costs Victoria nothing to present the example of
wife and mother, which she does present, she, too, has
had trials as Queen, which must have cost more to a
vigorous mind, like hers, to pass through than any
which ever confronted Elizabeth; and this, after all,
is the great test of strength of understanding and of
principle. We can all afford to be magnanimous when
it costs nothing; but when sacrifices are to be made,
then we are fairly tried. Queen Victoria was called
upon by her people and her Parliament to make sacri-
fices. We all regretted that they were sacrifices; but the
safety of the empire demanded them, and the Queen
made them, promptly, cheerfully, and ingenuously,
and yesterday she had the reward, which certainly
she did not seek, but which cannot be on that account
the less grateful. The reception of Elizabeth, '270
years ago, could not be more enthusiastic, and sure
we are that it was not so affectionate. We give else-
where the particulars of the ceremonial upon this
splendid and most delightful day; but our readers
must draw upon their own hearts for a real repre-
sentation of the feeling that animated the millions
who bore a part in the ceremony, whether as actors
or spectators. We never saw such a consent of
of affectionate loyalty, and we hardly thought the
thing possible.
ADVERTISER.—The spectacle which was yes-
terday exhibited in the City of London, will not soon
be forgotten by the many myriads who had the gra-
tification of witnessing it. Nor will it, we are sure,
ever be obliterated from the memory of the illustrious
personage who was the principal performer in it.
The enthusiastic reception which her Majesty met
with, as well as the extent and brilliancy of the pre-
parations made to give her a welcome worthy of the
great city she honoured with her presence, must have
inspired the royal bosom with feelings of profound
gratitude for so striking a display of devoted loyalty,
as her Majesty's metropolitan subjects then afforded.
Nothina could be more appropriate than the pre-
sence of the Sovereign at the opening of such a
place as the Royal Exchange. Thna(t.i eisns a
wealthg nifi e nits
building is theoenxfdtreounnist,javneocifetoltilnahtnelie)robcuoeu. boundless wealth
It is to the
yooffoofGurLreat Britain that we are, in a great
ctohofemtrmheeesurCelteit
measure, to attribute the superiority of this country
to every other on the face of the earth. Destroy the
trade and commerce of England, and the axe is laid
at the root of our national greatness. With her
commerce crushed, this country would inevitably
become a secondary power. The chief source of our
wealth would be impaired. And an impoverished
country cannot possibly lung maintain its social or
political influence. Her Majesty is therefore deeply
and directly interested in the prosperity of English
trade and commerce. No one, indeed, has greater
reason than the Sovereign to rejoice in the com-
mercial well-being of these realms. Consequently