The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-21 00:00:00

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uitit,
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LONDON
TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 21, 1842.

Mr. CHARLES BULLER, in an able speech, last night
called the attention of the House of Commons to the
late proclamation concerning the gold coinage.
The Hon. Member brought a considerable quantity
of research to bear upon the question, and showed
that on former occasions the whole nation had borne
the loss of the depreciation of the coinage, not the
unfortunate individuals who happened, by no fault of
their own, to hold the light coin on the 3d of June.
We believe, that there is not a man in the kingdom
who does not agree with Mr. BULLER, and who does
not reprobate the unthinking, reckless proceeding of
Mr. Gori.llualx. Without a single day's warning,
that gentleman, by one stroke of his pen, and by one
setting of the printer's types, depreciated the gold cur-
renev of the country, and impeded its free circulation.
He embarrassed the whole community. What excuse
did the Right Hon. Gentleman make for this con-
duct ? Here is what he said :

The law laid it down as a principle that the gold
coins of these realms, when it was under a certain weight,
was no longer a legal tender for any payment. No person
was compelled to take it, and if any party took it he
could not compel others to receive it from him in return.
It followed therefore, clearly as he thought, that when a
considerable portion of the gold coin of the country was
deficient in weight. that was a subject which would neces-
sarily attract the attention of the Government. It would
be extremely prejudicial to any class that a great pro-
portion of the current coin should be so deteriorated that
it could not be offered as a legal tender in any payments.
But Mr. Go-taut RN might have waited till the people
complained of the coin—till they refused it in pay-
ment; and then he might, if he could have found no
better means, have come forward with his proclama-
tion. The people, however, never complained of the
coin. There were some stories in circulation about
its being plugged and clipped, but the public was per-
fectly satisfied with it, and there is not the smallest
justification for Mr. GouLutieN's unreflecting conduct!
We are afraid, were the subject inquired into, that
Gout.ntßN would he found to have been the
more cat's-paw of the avarice of the Bank of England.
That corporation is re-issuing light sovereigns; that
corporation will get more notes into circulation by
the depreciation of the coin ; and as that corporationf
l
seems the party most likely to profit by GOLTL-
BURN'S conduct, we can only suppose that he has
acted so improperly from the sinister influence of the
Bank parlour.
Weloart afer to iir• Bulaile. able "'Pooh for a

full exposure of the evils of ,the measure, by
that gentleman properly said ,e Ministers had done
more harm in a. fortnight than, their tariff NI uttlif
make up in the course of a year. Mr. BARING, Sir
R. PEEL, and Mr. HUME justified conduct of the'
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, btii- their obserra-
tions do not alter our opinion that the inEiction of *0•
much evil on the working classes 'Was -wholly unt-
called for,

The Government is the authority responsible,
for the currency ; the people are not respon-
sible. The Ministers, therefore,- ought to have
acted very differently. Instead of making the
public boards and offices refuse light coin,
they ought to have enjoined them to receive it
in all payments, and to receive it sit all times, unless
it was very bad, and there was a good ground of sus-
picion that the person tendering it waS+, fraudulently
cognizant of its deficiency. They ought to have
asked the Bank of England to do the same,
and they ought to have enjoined that body to.
stop all the light coin it received in the.
course of its own business, and which was paid in
by public offices, and send all that light coin to the
Mint, the Government making good the loss. So
• they would gradually, and at all times, withdraw all
light coin from circulation, and keep it out of circu-
lation, never causing the public any trouble, The
currency would no more be liable, under such a
plan of renew-al, to be sweated, than under the pre-
sent plan. The cost of renewal, too, would always
be paid by the public, and would never fall on indi-
viduals. As to the detection and punishment of clip-
pers and sweaters, they must be provided for by dif•
ferent laws and different methods.

To-night Mr. WART) brings for Ward his resolution,
" That in all future elections for Members of Parlia •
ment, the votes be taken by Ballot." Notes ithstand-
)ing the astounding acts of corruption, and some (i.f.
intimidation, which the late election brought to light,
we cannot compliment Mr. WARD by saying that
his motion is well timed, or that it is precisely what
is now needed. As a step towards constitutional im-
provement, we might regard it with satisfaction; but.
we doubt whether it ought to precede the extension of
the suffrage.- The bribery, and corruption, and inti-
midation now so rife, are only the symptoms of a great
disease, the cure of which .cannot be effected by the
Ballot. It will apply only to the .existing consti-
tuency ; the great complaint out of doors is, that tho
existing constituency is a legal usurpation, and apply-
ing to it the Ballot may only conceal its deformities,
without curing them.
However useful the Ballot may beiiiprevent inti-
midation, to those who are willing to be bribed it
♦will supply a place in which they may safely com-
plete their guilt. The late disclosures concerning
Bridport, Belfast, Ipswich, Newcastle7under-Lyme,
Nottingham, &c. &c., all show a great numler of
electors willing to be bribed. There were more such
cases at the late general election than cases of Intimi-
dation. As long, therefore, as the present small
boroughs are preserved, in which the vote has a con-
siderable market value and the voter is needy, as long
as he regards—to use the language of Mr. M.
the candidate, who gives him a few pounds, as his best
friend, the Ballot, we are afraid, will only be a
screen for bribery. It will enable every needy voter
to sell his vote at the highest price, unchecked by fear
or shame. It may prevent intimidation, but that is,
now, possibly, a less evil than the bribery it will en-
courage.

At any rate, the Ballot is not demanded by the
bulk of the unenfranchised ; and, should it be carried,
will be of no avail in healing our present dissensions.
It certainly is not the thing which is now wanted ;
and, as Mr. WARD knows, we believe, that he cannot
carry his resolution, he might as well leave the mat-
ter untried. It rather appears to us as one of those
much derided make-believes, or routine shams, In the
present state of parties, than as a real measure, which
he who brings it forward oxpects will succeed. It is
a parade motion, made now because it has a
kind of party purpose in it, and was made be-
fore when intimidation was more dreaded than
bribery, and when confidence was placed in
the present constituency, of which experience has
now demonstrated it i 3 quite unworthy. It was
originated long Lefore the existence of the present
dissatisfaction of the unrepresented, which will ranker
them regard the Ballot as conferring an additional
privilege on the elector, degrading them still more, by
totally excluding them from any possible means of
influencing the elections.

Oxr,NsTrunx's Wisvo3t.—A Contemporary remarked
yesterday, • apropos of Mr. Goulburn's bungling pro-
clamation about the coinage, that " ChancenorOxen-
stiern's remark on the little wisdom with which the
world is governed, will never be obsolete." That there
will always be bungling Goulburns meddling w;:th and
marring affairs is too probable, but had the celebrated
Chancellor lived till our day, he would not have adopte..l
the conclusion that such bunglers govern the world.
The Chancellor himself, in his remark, is a conclusive
proof of the little knowledge, and less wisdom, pos-
sessed by his class ; for he really seems to have sup-
posed that the meddling Goulburns of all ages have*
governed a world which has always run away front
them. in fact, statesmen, whether they be called Goul -
burn or Wellington, do not govern the world ; they do
not even govern society ; and the Chancellor's remark
is only strictly true as signifying how very little wisdom
indeed is to be found amongst that class, all of whom,
like the bungling Mr. Goulburn, continually pretend
to govern the world, and merely produce, in all cases,
as he has done in the case of light soi emigns, continual
confusion and disorder.

Lord John Russell's Bill for the better discovery of
bribery, after
.providing for the formation of a Commis-
sion, to inquire into extensive bribery, on an address from
the House of Commons, authorises the Commission t o
apply for and require the assistance of the Judges. We
venture to assert, should this Bill become a law, that the
Commissionwould rarely or never sit without the presence
of a Judge, and that in fact the Judge would be the
Commission. This provision, therefore, goes to place
indirectly that pow‘e. t 4eciding Attch cases in the
hands of the Judges of the land, where it ought to he
placed, which the Ilouse of Commons directly and
pertinaciously refuses. It is a secret retreat of the Bun.
House from an untenable position.

A SHARK SWALLOWING A NEWSPAPER.—A Scotch
Journal says:—" On Thursday morning, while some of
the fishermen engaged, in the halibut fishing, off the
Isle of May, were drawing their nets, they discovered in
one of them..a, young shark, measuring about five feet
and a half in length, which they succeeded in capuiring
and bringing on shore. In the evening the animal was
opened, and to the amazement (.1 those present, there
were found in its stomach a tin canister, containing
thirty-four coins, a number of the Edinburgh Evening
Courant,. dated 1811, and another of the London courier
of the same date I "—Newspapers certainly make their
way into strange nooks and corners, but this is the first
time we ever heard of their being 'dortdeiliated in the
epigastrium of a shark. The animal, however, seems to
have been utterly unable to digest the two Journals in
question—a convincing proof' that their leading articles
must have contained an unusual quantity of mixed laid
and brass ! As all sharks aro Tories, we are not so
much surprised at our Isle of May friend's swallowing
the Conner, as at His being too delicate to digest its po-
litics.

MR. WILSON'S ENTERTAINMENT
of SCOTTISH SONG 4,(1 MUSIC.
Fain to catch the last warbles of Scottish minstrelsy, before
it finally fades, in the person of Mr. Wilson, from our metro-
polis, we attended his last I,seture but one? delivered last night
at the Music Ball, Store-street, prior t 4) his quitting London
for the North. Notwithstanding the semi-score of letturet,
with their multiplied songs, which we htvehearil, last night
brought fresh chants to oar ear, with their accompanying
pleasantness of new sounds. " Gloomy winter's now
awe," composed by Tannehill, a Paisley weaver, formed a
charming love-canticle, expressive of the blossomy burst of
summer, and the likeness of one beloved to its blooms anti
beauties, as perceived by the youth 'enamoured. Tannehill,
whom the Ettrick Shepherd made a journey of a hundred miles
on foot to see, and who subsequently wrote "Jessie, the Flower
o' Dumblane," which was once sang at every highway, home-
stead, and hearth, drowned himself, we understand, from the
disappointment of neglected genius. Truly beautiful was
" Flora Macdonald's Lament"---the sighings of a fair-
haired beauty, who, as she beholds the vessel of the
forlorn Stuart fading in the blue distance, breaks into e
trene of sorrow, pitiable and full of sobbings. Another Jaco-
bite song, but of a manly clansman-like class, in which fervent
"" it appear as if ‘gre‘iinC::aar.coll....eoime,e,,::::niih:aeryhetinewg, 'iatisrveesi;:r,,,e,:atiaitvld..
heart-chords of his stout liegemen were flung around 1136
Neil Gow. with whom the next song,
le:mThaphseamslisilasisar laid
or manner a
GI upon
m er,r i "thethe
words
aStuart,s
a
Pr ince unbreakably.
that his how mum
for
deft
ttchehsis oninsttbruemveinotlaintlt:
sboe, d'istin„euislied among a hundred. This, doubtless, tsa
dainty morsel in itself : the .
milating her to a rose—one. dewy
maiden-whisper breathes her foutlneA, and bravely- she be-
blushes suffuse their vermillion over her cheeks : the 1,,n•
land Willie" went off as trippingly
zanildeesn,
a short time after, the bonny
festal doings of the tilee-egad guests are
" Lady Gowrie." " Muir-
as a marriage-bells
in sooth, its burden is the bridal of a daughter, and the
glibly reci!ed
sowing, winning, and *.riding, bre one anti ail accomplished ist
a trice, with the spirit of a Lochinvar captUre. Alternating
from gay to grave, the " Land of tte.Leal " fell on the OW'
with elegiac sadness.
Ic‘oen‘tvii continuously and a
t l e l i decorousg
who
or
still; h o
sv.o'
Mr. Wilson Lad fuller and fashionable rooms last night than
htedni-yi t ha
tdtreanwdahl
ifmro,mwseo
dmo annoyt
know : text NI d
on ay, however, if destined to be the last, will,
no doubt, from the songs selected, be a rich and parting luxury.

On Sir John Easthope's motion, on Thursday, for
tho abolition. of Church-rates, Mr, OW paired 0a'11,.4h
Fluntre,