The Sun.
London, England, 1826-07-11 00:00:00

race. Is it not absurd to suppose that an hour's attend- -
g'
ance upon a lecture, and even that often disregarded, is
all that a college tutor has to attend to ? It is clear that
such is not his own interpretation of his duty, by the care
he takes that the parent shall pay for that, and every
thing else. But what sort of auditors are these who suffer
infants to be plundered by the wholesale, and who are
strongly suspected of pocketing a good per tentage upon
the extravagance they thus encourage and connive at ?
When we hear, too, of the persons who have charge of
these matters, and who are thus obviously abusing the
most sacred trust, being so warm in favour of Protestant-
ism, and so doubly warm in their fears of Popery, may
we not ask them if they would not more . effectually serve
the Church of England by training up its future Ministers
in better principles and* habits, than in the over-
zeal which they show to defend the Establishment
which they are thus themselves employed in virtually un-
dermining ? How far the mere study of Greek and
Latin, and the abstruse points of philosophy, qualify men
for the active duties of life, may be made a question; but
it is not one which we mean to agitate;- but one thing is'
quite clear, that any system of education which disregards
morals, and leaves youth to ascend the rugged paths of
life by a road which leads neither to virtue nor happiness,
and which is bounded neither by natural affection, econo-
my, nor `prudence, and which, when they arrive at its
termination, they leave contaminated and not improved,
must be one deserving of the highest censure, and cannot
too soon be made the subject of a complete and general
reform.

- [THE BRITISH PRESS.] ..
The calamities into which this. country has repeatedly
fallen in consequence of over-production, have been owing
to causes which lie much deeper than any' of those partial
cirturnstances to which they have generally been ascribed.
Nothing can be more'evident than the fact that all coin-.
modities derive their real value from their capability of
Ministering to the necessities of man; and although there
are some commodities of little use, which derive an artifi-
cial -value from their rarity, while there are • others of in-
dispensable use, which are of no value, on account of their
abundance; yet necessaries must be considered as the
only true measures of value, because things possessing only
artificial value can never. acquire any importance, but as
a means of procuring necessaries in exchange for them, or
as luxuries, after men are in full possession of rill necessa-
ries; so that the abundance of necessaries,- in fact, causes
and increases the value of all other commodities. As this
view is new, it may require- some farther explanation.—
Water is the most necessary and the most abundant pro-
duct of nature; but it is of .no. exchangeable value, at

least in this country. If water, however, were scarce,
Fold would be of less value ; because a large quantity of
it would be given for an indispensable necessary, and con-
sequently the person possessing a certain quantity of the
precious metal would be incapable of procuring so large
a quantity of other commodities. The value,, there-
fore, of a certain quantity. of gold would be diminished
by the sum necessarily expended on an article which now
costs, nothing. The same is the case when necessaries of
any sort increase 'in price. The abundance of necessaries
must therefore be Considered as essential to national wealth.

Now it appears to us, that the distresses Which have over-.
taken this country, have arisen from an undue share of ,
labour bestowed upon comparative superfluities, under ,
the common idea that if a certain quantity of gold were
given for that labour, the workmen engaged in manufac-
turing these luxuries must necessarily be beneficially
.ern-
played. In consequence of this circumstance, too great
a portion of population has been thrown into 'the ma-
nufactory ; while the Corn Laws, by indulging the supine-
ness of the farmer, have prevented agriculture from
malting any progress to be conloted with that of our
' manuLctures. Xt hit:obvious, therefore, that the produce
of the manufactures being increased, hile that of NO-
culture has remained almost stationary, the former species
of produce must necessarily have suffered a depreciation
as compared
,with the latter. It appears clear, for these
reasons, that the only relief to be expected in our
present circumstances, is by an importation of foreign
grain in the mean time, and by the gradual employ-
ment of a greater proportion of the skill, capital,
and industry, of the country, in increasing . the agri-
cultural part of our national wealth. These subjects, from
their very nature, are obscure, and can only be thoroughly
Understood by their practical applications. We yesterday
suggested one such application of the principle here laid
down ; and we would suggest several others ; but the ne-
eisiary imperfection of projects formed without previous
experiments, and the little, attention generally paid to any,
thing in the shape of a scheme, prevents us from entering
into any details of this nature. We content ourselves at
present with re-stating our principle, in hopes that it may
meet some eye capable of appreciating its consequences,
and able perhaps to put it partially to the teat of expe-
rience. We assert, then, that the Principal cause of the
distress in this country is the comparative backwardness of
our agriculture as compared with our manufactures.

[THE NEW TIMES.]

Among the many displays of brilliant oratory and logi-
cal argument with which the House of Commons and the
country were delighted during the last. Session, our read-
ers will, no doubt, recollect a speech en the state of the
currency, in which the night Hon, Secretary for Horne
Affairs, speaking of, bank paper, very beautifully illus-
trated the way in which its issues are affected, by a pros-
perous and an unproaperons state of trade, by comparing
it to a metallic rod, 'which, in hot weather, expands be-
yond, and in cold weather contracts within,' the limit of
rigorous adjustment, threatening, in either extreme, the
stability of:the:edifice Which its purpose was to .uphdd.—
When an extension to Scotland of the prohibition of the
small notes was in contemplation, it became of no small
importance to our
,Northern friends, to show by what
correctives this vicious teteency was there kept under,
and they did So, by pointing to a part of - their prac-
tice of banking, which has something of the same effect
as the counteracting bars in the cases alluded ,to in Mr:
Peel's argument. . This is the plan of exchanging at cer-
tain fixed periods; the notes of one bankfor the notes of
another, by which any irregularity of issue is inimediatelT
checked. Nov it might doubtless he remarked of this
device, that like others of Man 'S finding opt, it has its de-
fects. For instance, as it is the interest of all banks to
get their paper as extensively circulated as possible, half.
a-dozen in one town might, without the slightest collusion,
extend their issues beyond what the occasions of the district
fairly demanded, and being all relatively in the same situ*,
teen, the cheek abovementioned would be completely inv.!
'naive. This would unquestionably be the case, were the
banks.sinall, loeal and of limited Capital. But it ought. ne-
ior to be' forgotten, that though banks, having the same'
motives to action as indiViduals,, stash it being their. inte-
rest to circulate their notes,: it will also be their aunt to
eireidate then; ' still, no bank that has/ the moans of fq•,...
ing, Will ever so far give way to this feeling of interest,
its to bring those means of paying into hazard. This is
the Knot of the system of regulated, issue in Scotland ;
not that each hank in a country town exchanges its notes
with its neighbour bank, but that there are in Scot-
4nd.' three or four establishments of immense wealth,
' and of suCh habits .of cautious and prudent dealing, as.
immense wealth, never fails to generate in corproWe:
bodies; and , these three . or four act as regulators' on
all the . rest, which being younger, and buying le"
ttf lose, might other Wise break loose into as great extra-
vagancies as the most. werthless and wasteful of their
Southern brethren. This Check,' it is abundantly evi-
dent, could not be kept up
,
pital alone. The:danger-of 1 i .
It thsciases. must be AA!"
d 't by esablishmenta in the ca-
countere by local remedies; load :hanks must le checke&
by branch banks. It is in this war that the. Bank of Scot-
, land, and a few more, give soundness and safety to the
gummy of the most remote districts of that kingdom;
~ and thus the branch banks of
~,,,5,!•01,4„,,d
constitute the
i'lnost valuable part of the system;'Mid-Until "We imitate.
Sr.,otland in that, as well as in other parts of their ma-