The Sun.
London, England, 1826-03-28 00:00:00

sign4te 44 aggression and encroachment," by
makii.g any return at all.

[BRITISH PRESS.]
We have every reason to believe that the Com-
mittee appointed to inquire into the expediency
of extending the English system of currency to
Scotland, will conclude their labours by esta-
blishing completely both the public utility and
the practical justice of that measure. Mr. Kirk-
man Finlay, formerly Provost of Glasgow, and
Mr. Blair, from the Bank of the British Linen
Company, two of the persons deputed to- Lou.
don on the part of the bankers of Scotland, are
the only witnesses who havens yet been examined
by the Committee ; and it is not a little extraor-
dinary that their answers to the questions put to
them, tend in substance to prove that all apprehen-
sions of danger to the banking interests of Edin-
burgh is purely visionary ; and that any pecu-
niary loss they may sustain will be infinitely out-
weighed by the substantial and permanent benefit
that will accrue to the collective interests of the
community in Scotland. It is certain that these
witnesses had neither any wish nor any intention
to confirm these facts by their testimony. Quite
the reverse. But an inquiry so judiciously con.

ducted as to bring out the truth, will always
succeed, where—as in the present case—the inter,.
rogatories are ptit to honest and upright men. It 1p
not uncommon for 'persons of this class to beguire
themselves into a belief, which, when it is brought
to the test, they find themselves conscientiously ob_
liged to surrender. They may wish to support a
certain side of the question, but when they come to
close quarters, and the facts are against them, the
°
must give way. Mr. Blair, for example, on being
asked whether he did not think that the Scoter;
bankers would find sufficient means, after a timeh
of indemnifying themselves against any eventual,
loss from the prohibition of one and two pound
notes, was obliged to admit that in all likelihood

they would. Now this single admission shows
what little cause there has been for all the cla•
mour and cornplainings which have been mended
so loudly across the kingdom. As to the number
of bankruptcies in Scotland, they will be found,
on nn attentive and exact inquiry, to be
comparatively more numerous than in England ;
and it will be seen that the facility of trading on
paper credit has led to speculations quite as ex-
cessive, and triernbarrassments quite as ruinous.
That the same proportion of bankers have not
stopped payment in the north as in the south ►s
true ; but comparing the number of banks on both
sides the Tweed, with a full and true account of
the proprietors that have silently broken up their
establishments, after bringing themselves to the
verge of ruin, they will be found to bear a fair
proportion to the number that in England have
publicly announced their insolvency. The pub-
lic loss, we admit, has not been the same in both
cases ; but as far as the mischievous consequences
of coining paper wealth, and creating false capital
are concerned, the Report of the Committee will
furnish no ground of appeal to the Legislature to
except Scotland from the opel ation of the remedy.

I-
MO NI N POST.]
IJOHI King informed the house of (,orris the
other night that the stock of wheat o►) hand was
unusually small, and attempted to frighten the
country into the belief that a scarcity of that
important article might pro 4 Wy: be' felt before

the next harvest. It was rather an unfortunate
accident for his Lordship, that in the very
same tveek when he ventured upon this asser-

lon and prediction, the price of the quarter',
oar in London h la I
8..0U.- _lave fallen exactly

five per Cent. In this fact there is at least
something which will cheer the despondency
his Lordship's prediction may have excited, in
the minds of all but those (hot perhaps a very

,umerous class), who thittlc the accuracy o
!is information and judgment, upon such a sub

jeet, likely to be superior to that of the toler-
ably acute ITIMI who frequent Mark-lane on mar-
Itpt days. We have been puzzling ourselves,
however, to discover what benefit his Lordship's
constant argument against the Corn Law could
derive from his assertion even if it had been

true. We presume, that even Lord King cannot
imagine the framers df that lit w to be ignorant,
or to have forgotten, that under any system of
law, wheat will be sometimes more and some-
times less abundant, or that occasional periods
of scarcity were not contemplated in the pass-
ing of an act, which in almost every clause
refers to and provides for such an occutrence.—
It is, we know, contended by Lord King and

SOMO others, that the effect of the Corn la.ws is
to stop the cultivation of corn übroad with any
view to the English market, and so to deprive
us of the only sources from which we could
derive an adequate supply, even in the case in
which a foreign supply is not forbidden. The
answer to this is, that we do not want foreign
countries to net upon the system of growing

corn for our use ; the system we encourage by
our doctrine and example is that of each corm.
try producing upon the, average enough for its I
own consumption, and trusting in the case of
failure of crops at home to supplies to be obtain.
ed from abroad—nn expectation not likely to be
disappointed, because the differences of soil,
Cli-
mate and situation, render any thing like a gene-
ral anti simultaneous failure a very bnprobable
event. These diversities of soil and clioette are
a beneficent dispensation of nature with a view
to secure immkind at all times from the horrors of
an universal dearth, nor does the corn law of Piing.
land in any degree counteract, as is pretended,
this dispensation ; it is, on the contrary, directly
subservient to it. If Brigid utl ere systerna.
tically to depend upon foreign countries for
a large proportion of her annual consumption of
corn, those countries would no doubt be quickly
placed in u higher state of cultivation, and be.
come metre productive upon an average of years
than they now are ; but is it not plain that the
evil consequences of an unpropitit SPithOti ope.
rating "Poo those countries would then be greatly
84gr3vniedt and more exten,ively diffused ?
dispensatien of nature is indeed opposed to the
opinions of those tt ho contend that the situation
of any country can justify it in devoting its atten-
tion and encouragement•,to mnnufamires ni►cl
cammere,to the injury of its agriculture ;