The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-11 00:00:00

Aw:ING. DECEMBER 11, 1845.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FROIS THE SIORNDTG PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
PROTECTION TO BRITISH INDUSTRY.
POST.--The agriculturists of England have at length
declared themselves ; they reject by anticipation all pro-
posals of compromise ; they announce their resolution
not to die without a struggle. What the result of such
a struggle must be, the contest and the triumph of 1841
will best assist us to 'estimate. We ascribe this deter-
mination to the agricultural body at large, because the
speech delivered yesterday, by the Duke of Richmond,
at the annual meeting of the Royal Agricultural Pro-
tection Society, was so spirit-stirring an appeal to all
connected with the cultivation of the soil, that he must
be worse than an infidel who can doubt the indignant en-
thusiasm it will excite throughout the country. From
this moment we may date the commencement of an
tation, compared with which all former movements have
only been the skirmishes that precede the general
action. Something we might say, perhaps, of the late-
ness of the period at which this resolution has been
taken, and something of the supineness hitherto
shown by Protection Societies ; but the latter error
is nobly redeemed by the proceedings of yesterday, and
there is still time to remedy the past, if the present be
devoted to such exertions as English yeomen have shown
themselves capable of making. It never occurred to us
that the apparent inaction of the agricultural body arose
out of any want of a consciousness of their danger, or
still less that it had its origin in the cowardice of de-
spondency. We knew our countrymen better than to
suppose such things. We knew the difficulty of pro-
curing a general expression of feeling, or of producing
unanimity of action, amongst men scattered over the
face of the country, engaged in the anxieties of a
hazardous occupation, without organised means of com-
munication, and crippled in their deliberations, when
opportunities for discussion were occasionally afforded,
by the absurd prohibition of any allusion to politics.
Now, however, a new impetus has been imparted to
the injured agriculturists. The principal protection
Society has given the word to agitate ; and the affiliated
institutions are no longer debarred from considering the
political bearings of their position, since the Duke of
Richmond has emphatically set them the example.
" The Protection Societies throughout the country,"
says his Grace, " must be up and doing. By all fair
and legitimate means you must show your determination
to the Minister and the leader of the Opposition. I say
nothing of the League, for the League would be nothing,
were it not led and supported by such men as Sir Robert
Peel and Lord John Russell." Here is no lackadaisical
abstinence from politics. The Duke, like an honest
farmer, calls a spade a spade ; and as little of hesita-
tion is there in touching on political matters when his
Grace proceeds to discuss the rumoured determination
of Ministers to propose the repeal of the corn-laws. He
meets the question fairly and without flinching. He pro-
mises to do his duty, and we will answer for it that ho will
not lack followers. These are his Grace's words :—" I
hope and trust that the recent report of an intention on
the part of the Government to move the repeal of the
corn-laws on the first or second day of the session is not
correct. I, for my own part, do not believe it. I cannot
believe, upon such authority at least, that such perfidy
would or could enter into the mind of man. If, however,
such should turn out to be the case, all I can say is, that
I most sincerely hope that the House of Commons—that
the representatives of the agricultural constituencies re-
turned for the express purpose of defending agricultural
interests----will turn it out in the Lower House. But if
they do not, I look to the hereditary Peerage of Eng-
land." How far the Duke of Richmond's hope from the
representatives of the agricultural constituencies may
be justified by the event, we cannot venture to fore-
tel ; that they may, even at the last moment, retrieve
the ground from which they have voluntarily re-
treated, is our earnest wish ; but we look t') the agri-
culturists at large as the main stay of their own
cause. The sentiments expressed by the Duke, we take
pride in feeling, will have no novelty for the readers of
the Morning Post. That they are now more eloquently
expressed, we rejoice ; that they are now put forth by
one holding the highest station and possessing all the
strength that is derived from extensive influence and
personal popularity, is a happy augury for the cause ;
and we should be indeed faint-hearted if we were to
doubt the inspiring effect of his Grace's speech on the
agricultural community. But there is another class of
men whom we also hope to see moved by the proceedings
over which the Noble Duke presided—those who
have been half frightened into admitting the ne-
cessity of sacrificing the interests or existence of
British industry by the alarm that has been so loudly
sounded of an impending famine. The reports ob-
tained by the Royal Agricultural Society from the
local associations in almost every part of England, all
concur in stating that there has been a full average of
wheat and other crops, and in many cases considerably
above an average ; and that though in almost every
district the potato crop was more or less diseased, still
that the disease had in almost all cases been greatly ex-
aggerated. This must put a stop, therefore, to the famine
delusion—a delusion so necessary for the objects of the
anti-English faction, that its leading organs only yester-
day make it matter of indecent attack on his Royal
Highness the Duke of Cambridge, that he recently ex-
pressed his belief of that which is now vouched to us on
the most competent authority. We earnestly entreat
our agricultural readers of all classes—for when all are
concerned we know no distinctions of rank—to peruse
carefully the report we give of the proceedings of yester-
(ley. Let them only follow out the sentiments of the
Duke of Richmond by united and vigorous action, and
we have no fear for the result. Without action they
are lost.
CHRONICLE.—The accounts from Mexico by the
last mail most fully corroborate an opinion which we
ventured to express several months since. This was,
that the possession of the Columbia River was not an
isolated question, the American Government pretending
at the same time, and making every effort, to possess
itself of the Bay of San Francisco and of Monterey, the
harbour and the capital of Upper California. It seems
that Mexico is no more to be permitted to preserve a
dignified and pacific resentment for the spoliation of
Texas, than England is to be permitted to occupy the
old forts and establishments north of the Columbia. Mr.
Polk is resolved to shove us from the Pacific, at least
give us warning to quit, and at the same time he forces
poor Mexico to negotiate, that is to say, to sanction and
extend the robbery of its territory. We were aware
that the United States would claim the line of the Rio
Bravo del Norte, with Santa Fti„ as part of Texas ;
but we were not prepared for the exaggerated im-
pudence of their claiming to take from Mexico all
her empire from the 42d down to the 36th degree of
latitude. One should think it were in the power, as
it certainly is in the interest of France, England, and
Russia, to put a stop to such monstrous and unwar-
rantable ambition. But France, ashamed of having
been implicated in the foolish effort to save Texas,
has washed her hands of further trouble by an adroitly
got-up quarrel between her Ambassador and the Mexi-
can authorities. For fear the horse-boy outrage was
not enough, M. Alleye de Cyprey got into another fracas
with M. Otero. It is scarcely possible to imagine a
French diplomatic agent so forgetful of his profession,
character, and schooling, as to get into scrapes that
would damage the reputation of an ensign for prudence,
unless there was some diplomatic object to be gained
thereby. It might be wise for England to keep aloof ;
but Jonathan does not understand the reciprocity of
" let alone." Mr. Polk insists on placing ono foot on
one shore of the Columbia, the other on the Mexican
bay of San Francisco. He provokes us at the same
time with Mexico, and draws his sword to bully us both
into negotiation. With all the love of peace that would
satisfy a Quaker, we do not see how such dictation can
be submitted to, or how we can quietly give
up without compensation the Columbia to a
power which seizes at the same time the only
other port of the northern continent upon the Pacific.
From the Mexicans themselves there seem few
hopes, although it is the nature of the Spanish race
to endure an infinity of wrong with an infinity of
patience and sluggishness, starting up at the eleventh
hour, when every one deems them crushed, to assert
their independence, their manhood, and their rights.
But the worst of a Spanish body politic is its ever irre-
sistible tendency to fall asunder. Every known sample
of central Government has been either so tyrannical or
so imbecile, and in both cases corrupt, that the very
name is abhorred. It is only after two or three years'
experience that the provincial deputy begins to find his
federalist prejudices wear off, and to perceive the ad-
vantages of a general government. But just as he has
acquired this experience, he is subjected to re-election,
and a totally new, raw provincial returned in his place.
One-third of the Mexican Congress is now in course
of renewal ; the result will be the return of just such
men as will fraternise with the American Democrats.
In order to allow us fully to taste the advantage of Mex-
ico being independent, the Government has aforded to
English commerce many new and valuable facilities by
lowering the tariff. But with Anglo-American councils
and principles in the ascendant, these facilities cannot
!ong survive ; and we shall end by finding the custom-
house of Fera Cruz as hostile as that of Galveston has
lately become.
ADVERTISER—The League resumes its metropo-
litan meetings on Wednesday next. On this day week
Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, Mr. Fox, and others re-appear
in Covent-garden Theatre. Theirs will be an enthusi-
astic reception. We venture to say that no one ever
appeared on the boards of that establishment, celebrated
as it always has been for the performances of distin-
guished men, who met with a tithe of the applause with
which Mr. Cobden will be greeted when he next Wed-
nesday presents himself before a metropolitan audience.
And it is right to say, that it is impossible to receive
him with more enthusiasm than be deserves. He is an
extraordinary man. He is one of the leading spirits of
the age. Without any pompousness of manner, or pre-
tensions of any kind, he has been the main agent in in
stituting, organising, and carrying on one of the most
powerful confederacies of modern times. The League is
a sort of Opposition Parliament. If it do not actually
make laws, it suggests them, and by means of the moral
influence which it commands, induces another body to
legislate in the way it thinks best. The corn-laws are
about to be repealed ; the ports are on the eve of being
permanently opened ; the long-desired advent of free
trade is at the door. To whom is the country in iebted
for these mighty proximate benefits ? There can be but
one answer to the question. The country's obligations
are due to the League alone. The credit is solely the
League's, and the League only ought to receive the
praise and gratitude of an admiring nation. Our reader
will share with us the gratification with which we regard
the return of the League—a great and never-tiring loco-
motive body—to the metropolis. The presence of
Messrs. Cobden and Bright is much wanted here. A
mighty metropolitan demonstration against the corn-laws
%till be productive of infinite good at this particular
juncture. Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield,
and most of the large manufacturing towns have al-
ready proclaimed afresh their uncompromising hostility
to the landlords' laws. They have raised their voice
against the eCnt,iuYa°°.° of then lows in any shape

or form. It is fitting that London should follow their
example. The City is about to do so. The citiz,ns
meet on Monday with that view. At the City meeting,
however, Messrs. Cobden and Bright, not being con
nected with the City, cannot be present. What is
wanted, is one or more great anti-monopolist demonstra-
tions, in which the people indiscriminately may take a
part, and Messrs. Cobden and Bright, as the impersona-
tion of the League, be the principal actors. Without,
indeed, the presence of these gentlemen, anti-corn-law
meetings, on a large scale, seem out of place. The de-
monstrations lack effect. The resumption of the metro-
politan meetings of the League will give a mighty im-
pulse to the anti-monopolist cause. It will deepen and
extend the anti-corn-law enthusiasm which is every-
where felt. The proceedings at the coming gatherings
will fan the flame of hope in every bosom in which
the fire has already been kindled, and it will light it
up where it has not as yet had an existence. The
country looks to London : the provinces fix their eyes
on the metropolis. The effect of the impending demon-
strations will be great, great in London—great through •
out the country. Ministers in Downing-street will all
hut hear the plaudits which will peal through Covent-
garden Theatre, while Messrs. Cobden and Bright are
hurling their withering denunciations at the bread mo-
nopoly, and predicting its inevitable and immediate
doom. Next morning's post will waft the speeches of
these two gentlemen to every part of the kingdom, and
in every spot and corner their appeals to the people to
make one last grand effort to crush the corn-laws will
meet with a cordial response. It is right we should here
say a word or two by way of caution. While saying
that the destruction of the giant monopoly is inevitable
and immediate, it is requisite the country should
be reminded that with the accomplishment of this
great object, there is necessarily associated the use
of means. When we' speak of the repeal of the im-
posts on corn, as work which will assuredly be done
early in the coming session, we do so on the assumption
that the people, so far from slackening in their endea-
vours to achieve corn-law repeal, will carry on the agi-
tation more vigorously than ever. Let no one, therefore
retire from the conflict with the monopolists until the
victory has actually been won. Every man must con-
tinue on the field of action, ar.d in the energetic use of
his weapons of warfare, until the enemy has struck his
colours and flies discomfited from the scene of conflict.
The shout of victory must not be raised antil the battle
has actually been won ; far less must any soldier in the
free-trade ranks, throw aside his arms while monopoly
continues to maintain a defensive attitude. A few weeks
more of conflict will be all that will be required. We
confidently expect, notwithstanding the vehement pro-
testations of the morning and evening " sisters " to the
contrary, that on the first night of the session, the Pre-
mier will announce the day on which the landlords' laws
will have to meet their doom.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.
CITY, TUESDAY EVENING,.
TIMES.—A rumour was very current on 'Change
this afternoon that a reduction will shortly take place in
the rate of discounts by the Bank directors. The de-
termination on the part of these authorities to such a
step is said to be the result of a recent interview with
the officials at the Treasury. Whether this is to ease
the money-market consequent upon the anticipated
pressure by the railway movement has not transpired.
We only give it as a rumour, without in the least de-
. . . . .

siring to vouch its authenticity. As the time approaches
for the meeting of Parliament, to be followed shortly
after by the lodgment with the Accountant General of
the railway deposits, the subject seems to be viewed with
increasing anxiety in the City. Owing to the very large
amount of these deposits, rendered evident by the im-
mense number of plans deposited, under the standing
order, with the Board of Trade, the payment of the
money in the manner prescribed by the Act of Parlia-
ment has become a matter of extreme difficulty, or, to
speak more correctly, an utter impossibility. Fortu-
nately it is one which will be fully comprehended by
the present Chancellor of the Exchequer, whose
experience in financial affairs is among the most
matured in the country, and his ready co-operation in
any safe plan that may be devised cannot be doubted,
though it is right at the same time to mention that
some of the best heads in the City are at fault in the
consideration of some practicable mode by which the
crisis is to be met. The mode of dealing in the first in-
stance with their deposits by the various railway com-
panies has been either to place the money for temporary
investment in stock, or in Exchequer-bills, or, in a much
greater proportion than either, to lend it "at call,"
which means at a lower rate of interest than is currently
paid, in order to retain the power of claiming repay-
ment, when wanted, at a few days' notice only. The
bankers and dealers in money who accept in the manner
last described the loan of these deposits, must of neces-
sity lend it out again to secure any profit by the trans-
action, and as they also must curtail the periods of lend-
ing as much as possible, a period is near at hand when
so much cash or bank notes will be in requisition that
the whole of the Bank circulation cannot supply them,
and the ordinary transactions of the country must for a
short time be suspended. The whole difficulty arises, of
course, as already intimated, from the magnitude of the
payments, for, as the law now stands, the Accountant-
General has no option but to require payment in money,
arid though by a subsequent application of the parties it
may be invested in any way they may desire, an in-
terval must unavoidably occur, during which the money
would lys entirely out of circulation, and a sort of coin-
mercial paralysis become the inevitable consequence.
Hence the remedy whatever it may be must be essen-
tially one which contrives to spread these payments over
such a period of time as to prevent this strain on the cir-
culation, which is looked at with such general alarm in
the City; and yet it might be so contrived also as to pre-
vent railway companies of doubtful character from de-
feating that beneficial provision of the Legislature which
prescribes the deposit of a certain portion of the capital
as one main test of respectability and solidity. The con-
tingency is one of so extraordinary a kind as only to be
met by measures out of the ordinary course. The Bank
directors, it is understood, have received applications for
their advice and assistance in the matter, and have had
some long deliberations respecting it, but the law is so
precise by which the payments to the Accountant-
General are regulated, that, as it is also understood, they
have been unable to devise any plan which will avoid
that abstraction of the circulation which is the great evil
now to be contended with. There seems nothing left,
therefore, but to take measures, immediately
on the assembling of Parliament, for suspend-
ing the operation of that law by the intro-
duction of a new Bill for the regulation of railway
payments. This enactment might simply provide that,
Instead of making the whole of the railway deposits, as
at present required, within one fortnight after the meet-
ing of Parliament, the parties should be required only to
do so on a report from the Board of Trade that in all other
respects they were qualified to go before Parliament;
and as only a few of the companies could be in this posi-
tion at the same time, the deposits would be regularly
made in succession, and invested without the least dis-
turbance to the circulation. The chief objection to such
a course is obviously this—that it would enable such of
the companies as were in reality not provided with the
means of making the payments as directed by the Act
to maintain a respectable appearance to their share-
holders and the public for a longer time than could
otherwise be permitted; but this difficulty might be met
by requiring them at the outset of the examinations to
put in the certificates of the bankers and others with
whom their deposits had been placed, stating the re-
spective amounts so held, which could be accomplished
at a moderate cost of time and trouble, and effectu-
ally prevent any undue keeping up of false pretences.
By the various lists which have appeared of railway
companies whose plans were, in compliance with
the standing order, lodged at the Board of Trade on the
30th ult., they are not less than 700 in number, probably
much more. Now, taking the deposit of each at
50,000/.—a very low average indeed—the total would
extend to 35,000,0001., of which the spare circulation
held disposable by the Bank of England, according to
the last return, would not furnish one. fifth part. Thus
a necessity for some action on the part of the Govern-
ment could not be more clearly demonstrable. The
mode above pointed out may not be exactly that to
satisfy the official scruples of a Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, but the alternative is one which he ought not
to contemplate without dismay. It follows, then, that
he must do something, and that he ought not to lose a
moment in quieting the apprehensions of the monetary
interest on this momentous question, by intimating to
them the measures which he proposes to adopt or to re-
commend for adoption. Since the above was written we
have been informed, on good authority, that the Speaker
of the House of Commons has, after consulting with
the Attorney .General, resolved to grant orders for the
payment of the sum required from railway companies by
the standing orders of the House, by three, four, or five
instalments, as the parties applying may wish. This
the Speaker will do by specifying in the order the
number of instalments.

CHRONICLE.—Some of the railway companies who
were unable to deposit their plans, sections, and books
of reference with the Board of Trade and the clerks of
the peace on the 30th of November, have made demands
upon allottees to pay 25., others 2s. 6d. per share, with
an intimation that the demand is made for the purpose
of defraying the expenses incurred, and that on pay-
ment of the sums asked the parties concerned will be
released from all further claim on the part of the com-
pany. This seems fair enough, and is in accordance
with the course we have urged upon the provisional
committees of projects so circumstanced. Bat the
question arises whether the promoters of these schemes
have intimated to those who have paid their deposits,
their readiness to return the amounts paid under de-
duction of the costs incurred? This is a material point
for the consideration of those concerned. The pro
moters of bond fide schemes stopped by the panic will, no
doubt, return the deposits paid, less the actual expenses
payment from those
ianncout rt
er ee ds ,
wahnod f
acil
laeidm an
By adopting
that mode of procedure, and stating their determination
top
ay thadequateeir deposits.
clearly, much evil might be avoided. But some com-
panies have refused to return the deposits paid, or to
issue scrip, or allow the subscribers' contract to be
signed. They avow that they do not intend to proceed
with the intended projects, and at the same time appear
resolved to keep the money. This shameful conduct has
been exposed by some of their victims at the Mansion-
house, and calls for general animadversion. We trust
that it will induce the numerous names of undoubted
character, connected with abortive projects, to use their
utmost endeavours to get their accounts wound up, and
a proper balance-sheet submitted to the shareholders.
It is not enough, as we have previously observed, for the
promoters of unsuccessful schemes to claim a given
amount for expenses. They ought to deal openly and
candidly with the shareholders ; show them how much
was paid, and what portion of it was expended. They
should make a clean breast of it. They should show
distinctly what they have done with the money com-
mitted to their hands, as well as the use which they
intend to make of any further payments that may be
asked by them.