The Sun.
London, England, 1845-06-02 00:00:00

that the labouring community pay no less than
16,000,000/. per annum of indirect taxes, which it was
the interest of the Legi-lature in imposing them that the
consumer, not the producer, should pay. The institu-
tion of a gold standard simply reduces prices to the
same level they would reach in the most highly-taxed
country of Europe ; the wages paid are small in pro-
portion to these gold prices , and the unfortu-
nate industrial labourer has to buy out of them,
in the most heavily-taxed of countries, the highly-
taxed means of his subsistence. Is it in the
face of such a state of things, that Lord JOHN
RUSSELL will contend that the traces of the mischiefs—
the inexcusable and irreparable mischiefs—produced by
the crude monetary legislation of Sir ROBERT PEEL,
have passed away ? But such an inconsistency does
not surprise us. The support of that system, which is
in itself a violation of all the first principles of political
and commercial and fiscal consistency, cannot lead to
any other results. Let us try this question by a single
test. Sir ROBERT PEEL in 1819 (and again last year)
attempted to justify his pernicious interference with
the development and application of capital, by insisting
that to permit the continuance of a paper currency was to
encourage improvident trading, fraudulent speculation,
&c., and that to give unity and extension to the gold or
metallic system would be to consolidate commercial con
fiderce and mercantile stability. We shall say nothing
about the overweening confidence of that statesmanship
which assumes that it can draw, without prejudice to
this stability and this confidence, the arbitrary line of
demarcation that separates at any time the limits at
which legitimate commercial enterprise and spirit ter-
minate from those where unwarrantable spe-
culation begins. We shall not pause to inquire
how these legislative attempts to limit even the
pernicious activity of speculation can be compatible with
that first principle of free-trade, which is identical with
the perfect freedom of capital and of its employment.
But if Sir R. PEEL'S monetary system were anything
else but specious cheat and delusion, certain results
must, ere now, have become matters of history and fact,
which are not only not so, but of which all that is the
converse of them is. Under the operation of a paper cur-
rency, from the Bank Restriction Act of 1797, till 1819
or 1820, legitimate trade should have declined;—gam-
bling speculation should have attained its height;—the
mighty bubble of British commercial superiority should
have burst; and 1819-20 should have found only a
mass of wreck and ruin to gather up, in order to combine
into a more substantial system calculated to work out a
far more prosperous future in all these -respects
to this empire. From 1819.20, under a purely metallic
currency, combined with one only class of pe,per circula-
tion, convertible, on demand, into gold, at a previously
fixed ascertained price, we should, in 1845, be in a condi-
tion of unrivalled national prosperity.. The control of the
commerce of the world ought to lie in our hands. Ille-
gitimate speculation ought to 1-.a.ve disappeared ; bank-
ruptcy to be comparatively u•Anown ; labour universally
employed, and wages fairly remunerating labour. Now
what is the fact against t)-,e hypothesis ? Between 1797
and 1819-20, we had P:tmost engrossed the commerce
of the world. We w ere superior in all its markets. We
maintained for 13 years the most expensive and desolating
war on the recor Asi of history, out of which we emerged
triumphant. liar industrial community were, for the
greater part o'i that interval, well employed, and wages
comprised, saver and above their natural relation to the
value of, labour, that equitable margin which allowed for
the ce,thributions to taxes payable by those producers.
Our, commercial failures and private bankruptcies bore
&es—proportion to the amount they have attained between
1819 and 1845 ; and all the failures of banking houses
were absolutely an insignificant aggregate by the side of
the ruinous convulsions of 1825 alone, and again of 1838.
'Elioitmous private fortunes were acquired and diffused.
There was not one element wanting to a condition of
supreme pre-eminence in all that constitutes the
political and commercial grandeur of nations. What
have we encountered since 1819-20 ? The decay
of many branches of our foreign trade ; the successful
competition of foreigners in very many branches of our
manufactures. Gambling speculations, txtensive and
reckless, in equal proportion to the intolerable pressure
of the screw put on by the currency legislation of Sir
R. PEEL (which operates to prevent the realisation of
prope)ty, under whatever exigencies, except at ruinous
sacrifices, to meet the demand for its golden represen-
tative) have already shaken, and will frequently desolate
the money market. The poor-rates show no symptom
of permanent reduction. Vast masses of the labouring
poor are pining in fruitless, hopeless solicitude for em-
ployment. The revenue can only be made to keep pace
with the expenditure of the country by the imposition
of new taxes on property and income. Where is the
one tingle benefit which the country at large has de-
rived from the Premier's currency measures ?

According to accounts from Lucerne, the Grand Council
of the canton had ordered Dr. STEIGER to be placed in a
dungeon of the Kissitcharm, 50 feet under ground, from an
apprehension that au attempt would be made to rescue the
unhappy prisoner. If these unfeeling despots were paid by
METTERNICH to render republicanism not only contemptible
but abhorred, they could not serve his purpose better. It is
said that this deep politician denounces their cruel disposi-
tion, and refuses his sanction to the imprisonment of STEIGER
for life.

The Madrid journals of the 23d are chiefly filled with ac-
counts of the formal proceedings which took place at the pro-
rogation of the Cortes. The QUEEN closed the session in

person, with the following speech:—

" Senators and Deputies,

" All the hopes which I had conceived in seeing you assembled
round my throne at the opening of the present session have been
fully realised. In the space of a few months, thanks to your
praiseworthy perseverance and real, you have terminated a great
number of important labours, which in other days would have been
sufficient to have absorbed the whole time of the Cortes. Your
first work has been the reform of the Constitution—a reform
brought about after a wise and deliberate discussion, and which
has been welcomed by the nation with that respect and confidence
which it so well merits. To facilitate its execution, in establishing
the necessary agreement with organic laws, you have authorised
my Government in a competent manner, for recent experience had
shown that it was not easy to do it by a shorter course. lam con-
fident that the laws passed by my Government, in virtue of the
authorisation of the Cortes, will give no reason to repent the-con-
fidence reposed in it. I thank you sincerely for the liberality you
have shown in your provision for my royal house, and for, all my
august family, which has received so many testimonies of your
fidelity and of your noble loyalty.
' • • "

" Among the numerous and important laws which have ob-
tained your approbation, either to accomplish solemn treaties, or to
improve different branches of the public service, the law relative
to the provisional dotation of the clergy merits my particular atten-
tion, as well as the important measure of the restitution to the
clergy of the property unsold. In this you have given a further
proof of lour spirit of reparation in securing solemnly the inte-
rests and the rights created under the protecting shadow of the
laws, which will never be disturbed at any period, or under any
pretext. To put a glorious termination to your labours, you have
examined with particular *are the budget of the State, and fixed
the expenses required for the public service. My Ministers have
.devoted themselves with zeal to this arduous duty, deeply con-
vinced that without establishing the order and harmony necessary
between the finances and the different branches of the Govern-
ment, it would be impossible for the tranquillity and welfare of the
country to be based on a solid and staple basis.
" My Government greatly appreciates the value of the autho-
risation which you have given it for the regulation of the public
debt. In a matter so delicate, it will have no other guide than
the principles of equity and justice ; it will lighten as much as
possible the charges which weigh on the State ; but it will, at the
same time, abstain from taking any steps which may wound the
honour or the interests of the nation Uniting in your discussions
the most extended liberty to loyalty and honour, you have ren-
dered a signal service to the country, in giving strength to its in.
stitutions at the same time that you have understood the neces-
sity of supporting the Government, by joining in the great work of
the re-establishment of order and the salutary influence of the law,
and in avoiding dangerous reactions.
" Thanks to your conduct, not less skilful than prudent, my
Government has been happily able to continue the work com-
menced, and the progress which is manifested in the nation is a
presage of that happy futurity of which it is so deserving.

If, with the help of Divine Providence, this hap[ prognostic,
which is so agreeable to my heart is accomplished, th ccess will
be in a great measure due to you, gentlemen, who at the com-
mencement of my reign, and at so decisive an epoch, loyally M.
filled the mission confided to you by the nation."

On the 23d, the Three per Cents. rose 14, per cent., closing
at 33 cash, and 34 at 60 days ; 158 millions done. Five per
Cents. 24, at 60 days, Passive Debt 8 cash.

The discussion in the French Chamber of Deputies on the
extraordinary estimates for Algeria was brought to a close
on Thursday, and the amount proposed by the Government
agreed to by a majority of 189 to 39. Attempts were made
by several Members to cast blame on the Foreign Minister,
as well as England, fur the failure of General DE LA. RUE'S
negotiations with the Emperor of MOROCCO, but they com-
pletely failed. The Chamber listened to the speakers with
the most provoking indifference, and seemed to approve of
the following just rebuke administered to these disturbers of
public peace by the Minister of the Interior, M. DUCHATEL:
Let not those who protest their desire of preserving
amicable relations with England as essential to the peace of
the world affect to believe, in the face of irrefragable proof to
the contrary, that our quarrels with Tunis and Morocco
sprung from the commercial resentment and suspicious in-
trigue of England. If it was true, you ought to feel
regret at being obliged to say so ; but when it is not
so, it is not by casting seeds of discord between the
two nations that you render a service to your country."
Marshal SOULT replied in somewhat the same style to those
who blamed the expedition against the Kabyles, and said
though due attention had been paid to the opinion of the
Committee who had pronounced the expedition unreasonable,
imprudent, and impolitic, the Government still would con-
sider itself at liberty to reduce the Kabyles when it might
think expedient. The Bill for the conversion of the Five
LA
per Cents. was brought forward in the Chamber of Peers,
when
protesting
the
againstFinan Finance
erep Minister,
of
took
the first Ai
opportunitye4v of AP IAGNE9the
Committee,• which described the ro d p pose measure as unjust.
He had expected to be called upon merely to give
explanations on secondary
compelled to defend the prinC3i;
tans,
dwthhile he found himself
the State. He then ',proceeded to giveefiunandonczabted right of,
re-
specting Government loans, and the conditiona detailsone
w h
ich