The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-28 00:00:00

gible, intelligible authority which imparts to the mass
the value of 4,000,0001.? Why shall it be less than
five or more than three millions ? Will the reader
believe that the concocter of, and avowed sponsor for,
" a great scheme " of monetary reform, so far from
providing the determined and defined value of so
large a proportion of its whole bullion element, abso-
lutely denudes it of any such principle of value ? Un-
der what infatuation can a Minister have brought
himself to hazard so elaborate an inconsistency ?
Under what sort of general abasement and servile ac-
quiescence in the dictum of a Minister, a House of
Commons can have brought itself to confirm so puerile
an absurdity, we are at a loss to understand. The
fact we should be at a loss to believe, if we did not
find it recorded in the Parliamentary report. He has
over and again repeated that the gold standard
will be rigidly maintained, and the gold currency
alone legalised. But he relents :
"If they allowed the Bank to keep in its coffers a
certain amount of silver, on the security of which they
issued notes, and to allow parties to receive, when they
desired it, silver for their notes, they would obtain the
advantage of preventing an inconvenience which was oc-
casionally felt by acting on the exchanges when the ex-
changes were high, and when the price of silver was low.
At present silver was sent out of the country in exchange
for gold, and the gold was deposited in the Bank."
Surely, this last is a good reason for affixing some
denomination of value to silver, if you will attach it
to gold. But if a given mass of silver is to represent
in deposit a given mass of gold, the good reason rises
to an indispensable necessity. What is the statesman-
like manner in which Sir ROBERT PEEL deals with
this necessity ?
" It would give facilities and advantages to commerce
if they permitted the Bank to issue some portion of their
notes upon the security of the silver deposit, having no
reference, however, to the price of silver, or the sum which
should be given for it, but regarding it mere!!, as a valu-
able commodity, to be dealt with at the option of the
parties."

RZ. SUM teneatis I Why, this is truly " a great
scheme." Whilst it recognises, as a sacred principle,
that the bullion, in which three fourths of your de-
posits are to be kept, shall bear a certain statutable
value, ascertained, in relation to its standard fineness,
by the Mint price, settled by the Act of 1819, the value
of the other fourth is to be left to the chances, ca-
price, or accidents of—what? " The option of the
parties." Sir ROBERT ties his victim in a chair. On
his right leg he puts irremovable manacles and fet-
ters. By way of compensation his left leg is to be
allowed to kick and plunge at pleasure. Doubtless,
a very able invention—a " great scheme"—pity, only,
that it is not a little more reconcileable to common
sense. But this " option of the parties" is precisely
THE standard which we contend for, as the free and
fair one, whereby to determine the value of the
precious metals, as of all other commodities. But if
it be good for silver, Sir ROBERT, why not for gold ?
On "silver," however, the Premier delivered himself
of too many remarkable observations not to induce us
to reserve them for the subject of future comment.

Madrid journals of the 20th announce the de-
parture of the Royal Family for Barcelona. None of
the Ministers except NARVAEZ accompanied their
Majesties. The municipal elections had commenced,
but as" the Liberal party said they were all a farce,
owing to the violation of an Act of the Cortes passed
last year, they declined voting, and the Government
party had it all their own way. The Barcelona
journals state that great preparations had been made
for the reception of the Royal Family, and that the
municipality intended to have a grand tournament to
celebrate the occasion.

On the Madrid Bourse, the Three per Cents. were
dcine at 28i for cash, and 28i 29 at 60 days, and the
Fives at 20 13-32 at 60 days.

The Journal des Debats of Sunday contains an
article on British India, which is of so singular a
character, and so unlike the general sentiments ex-
pressed in that journal, that one almost feels inclined
to believe that it had been smuggled from the office
of the National, and inserted in the Government
paper by mistake. Some of the statements are most
inconsistent, for whilA tho writer asserts that Russia
has formed a vast coalition of native princes against
England, and that her power-in India is on the wane,
and that her fate in that quarter is sealed, almost in
the same sentence it admits that she will take posses-
sion of the fertile and vast plains of the Punjaub.
Taking this as a matter of fact, what could Russia,
with the Persians and the Khan of BOKHARA,
and all the other khans and kings on the west of
the Indus, do against her frontier ? What impression
could Russia make on such a boundary as would
thus be formed by strong forts on the banks of the
Indus, and by countless steamers in its channel?
Indeed the production, altogether, is like a rhapsody
drawn by some visionary at Bombay under the influ-
ence of opium. Russia, he says, is taking gigantic
steps, and there is something terrific in her march
while she does not appear to move. We are to infer,
therefore, that she is working like a mole under-
ground, and that some fine morning her armies will
spring up from the soil of Lahore, all accoutred and
in terrible array, to annihilate the unfortunate Eng-
lish. We give the following as a specimen, and leave
the reader to judge of its merits :—" The intelligence
last received from Bombay abounds in interesting
facts. There has been a movement in politics, and
some perfectly new arrangements have been accom-
plished. Until the present period Russia has failed
in all her attempts to approach India, but we now learn
at the same time that the Persian flag floats at Herat,
where YAR MOHAMMED acknowledges himself to be
the humble vassal of the SHAH ; that Khiva has sub-
mitted to pay tribute to the Khan of. BOKHARA, the ally
and the Scid of Russia, the murderer—or at least
the gaoler—of Stoddart and of Conolly ; that all
Central Asia, from the Caspian Sea to Hindoukosk,
from Asterabad to the Indus, had been consolidated
into one vast confederation, of which Russia is at the
same time the soul and the base ; that Sunnites and
Shutes have, for the first time, forgotten their secular
animosities, in order to unite in one common league
against the English; and that Russia at length holds
in her hands the keys of Hindostan. We are only
imperfectly informed as to the means which Russia
has employed to arrive at her object, but we cannot
doubt of the results. Never truly, in our history,
did Russia make so gigantic a step towards India ;
never did she place her foot so firmly amongst
the slippery rocks and shifting sands which sepa-
parated her from her distant prey. There is
something terrific in the march of this Power, which
arrives thus without appearing to move. And still,
however little as we may be disposed to sympathise
with her, we cannot refuse her a certain feeling of
esteem which is ever excited by the solution of a vast
and complicated problem. What will England do in
presence of the danger which she feared the most ?
she who threatened to set the world in a blaze rather
than suffer the influence of Persia at Herat, or be-
cause an obscure adventurer presented himself at
Caubul, under the name of Russia. Will she again
pass the Indus to throw herself into the Khyber or
Bolan passes? No; she will for a long time remain
inert, because this task is now beyond her strength.
The tide which carried her forward is on the ebb.
These events, in the meantime, will have an imme-
diate effect on the destinies of the kingdom of Lahore.
Strong in the secret assistance of Russia, and free
from all uneasiness as to his rear, DOST MOHAMMED
and his son display extraordinary activity in taking
advantage of the disorganised state of the Pun-
jaub to recover the fragments detached by RIJN-
JEST SING from the ancient empire of the Aff-
ghans. Two brothers of the DOST are already on
the spot, and although prisoners on parole—one at
Peshawur, and the other at Lahore—they pos-
sess immense influence. There appears to be no
doubt that MAHOMED AKRAR KHAN, who had arrived
at Jeilalabad, with 12,000 men and ten pieces of
cannon, will reconquer, without striking a blow, all
Peshawur, as far as Attok. We may, therefore, anti-
cipate the approaching dissolution of the empire of
the Sikhs, and its triple dismemberment. Peshawur
will return to the empire of .Affghan ; Lahore and
the entire plain will become, probably next autumn,
the prey of the English ; Cashmere and the mountain
will remain with Huta SINGH and his family." •
The Constitutionnel states that M. GUIZOT has pro-
tested, in the name of France, against the incorpora-
tion of the Texas with the United States. "This act,"
it adds, "does not surprise us as it is much more con-
formable to the policy of England than of France."
These papers furnish no later accounts from Switzer-
land. On Sunday, the Three per Cents. were done
at 84f. 65c.