The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-15 00:00:00

*trontrWlttion

SUN-OFFICE, Half-past Three o'Cloch.

Every post brings some new feature of the general
indignation manifested, not now against the new sliding
scale, but against the Government, and the system
of which they are the especial guardians. Nottingham
has made the latest demonstration, and by no means
the least effective. At a meeting held there yesterday,
consisting of more than 80,000 persons of all ranks,
a Nobleman was called to the chair, and an
Alderman moved a resolution denouncing petitions to
the two Houses of Parliament as " farces," and calcu-
lated only to add insult to suffering. The resolu-
tion was carried by acclamation. Another no less re-
markable, as it is the first of the kind carried
unanimously at a general meeting, was moved by a
Chartist. It demanded the Charter, the whole Charter,
and nothing but the Charter, and, strange to say, every
hand was held up for it. Is Sir IL PEEL then pre-
pared to go on with a measure which does
not even satisfy one-half of his own party, and which is
stirring up from south to north the worst feelings, not
against him and the DUKE, and their Cabinet only, but
against both Houses of Parliament, and even the Throne
itself ? Will they not learn wisdom by experience,
and grant at once the reasonable demands of a starving
people, before rebellious hunger and hopeless despair
drive millions to abhor the very names of Parlia-
ment and Constitution ? The next step probably will
be to petition the Throne. Such a course would have
ten-fold more effect than cart loads of petitions sent to
men who seem determined to stand by their class. Her
MAJESTY cannot fail to be moved by the cries of her
people, and if the otfi.T of First Magistrate be not an
empty name, her earnest entreaties will, not be made in
vain.

The Report of the Commissioners appointed by the
Lords of the Treasury, ',to inquire into the Exchequer
bill fraud has been submitted to Parliament. It forms
a blue book of 13S pages, the marrow of which, how-
ever, may easily be comprised within the limits of a
leading article. The Report which, apart from the
evidence, occupies- fourteen pages, establishes the im-
portant fact that facilities for the grossest frauds existed
in the Exchequer 13111• office—frauds which it was impos-
sible for the public either to detect or guard against.
The absence of sufficient internal checks, and the incom-
pleteness of general supervision, afforded the late "Se-
nior Clerk," Mr. 44UMONT SMITH, abundant op-
portunities for the commission of frauds to any
extent. The words of the Report are most explicit :
" The sole direction of the quantity of paper to be
manufactured, and of the paper to be printed, and of the
plates to be engraved, and the custody of the moulds of
the plates, of the paper imprinted and printed, of the
press seal and counterfoils, as well as the entire prepara=
tion of the Exchequer Bills, were entrusted to the un-
controlled discretion and integrity of the Senior Clerk of
the department in which the Bills wore prepared, and,
during his absence, of his assistant-clerks, unchecked
by any regular examination of the stores or of the trades-
men's bills, or by any regular periodical destruction of
surplus printed paper, worn-out plates, or counterfoils."
Other temptations to the commission of fraud were
constantly held out to the Senior Clerk. The
Comptroller-General, Lord MONTEAGLE, admits in his
evidence that nothing could be more loose and irregular
than the way in which he conducted the business of his
office. His Lordship often signed bills at his private
residence, at the Privy Council, in the House of Lords,
and wherever else it pleased the Senior Clerk to send
them to him in a despatch-box, of which the only protec-
tion was that he retained one key and the Senior Clerk
another. After reading the evidence the public wonder will
not be so much that Mr. BEAUDIONT SMITH was a rogue,
but that he was not one to an hundred times a greater
extent than he has yet been proved to be. There have
been occasions when he has had Exchequer Bills, in this
loose way, to an amount exceeding seven millions sterl-
ing in his possession, without official let or hindrance to
his dishonest appropriation of them.

Two important facts then are established by the Re-
port :—Firstly, that the business of the Exchequer-office
has been scandalously conducted for a long series of
years ; and, secondly, that the holders of the Forged
Exchequer bills arelully entitled to have them replacep
by good bills, or the full amount of the sums for which
they were drawn in other Government securities. The
recipients of the forged bills have no right to suffer for
the scandalous mismanagement of the officers of her Ma-
jesty's Government appointed to superintend the business
of a department so important as that of the Exchequer.
The improvements recommended in the Exchequer
Bill-office by the Commissioners are obvious and com-
mon-place enough. A superior style of engraved plates--
mechanical means of distinguishing impressions—and an
closer connection between the Office of Issue and the
Bank of England, occupy the most prominent place.
In conclusion, we may remark that the Report
has disappointed us. There were more rogues than
two or three connected with the Exchequer forgeries,
and we expected that the Report would have
attbrded some clue to their discovery. On the
contrary, the Report really looks as if there was an
anxiety on the part of the Commissioners to draw a veil
of oblivion over the past. In the list of the wit-
nesses examined we cannot put our finger upon the
name of a single Steckbroker. • None of the City
people were examined who were at all likely to
supply any clew to the elucidation of Mr. BEAU-
MONT
.SMITIeB Stock Exchange transactions. This
is a point which we cannot suppose will escape the
Penetration of the House of Commons. There ought to
be no hushing up of a crime by which national credit
has been injured, and the public robbed to an extent as
yet incalculable. The present Report may do, so far as
concerns the future management of the Exchequer Bill-
office ; but we want one which shall supply such details
of its past mismanagement as are required to satisfy the
ends of justice.

The United States Government has a crow to pluck
with the Republic of Mexico. Should extremities be
had recourse to, there can be but little difficulty in de-
termining to which Power 011111 belong the better
portion of the plumage. In addition to the old
grounds of complaint, we find it stated that the
Santa Fe expedition, treacherously seized by the orders
of General SANTA ANNA, *as composed, for the
most part, of American citizens, and that on
their march into the interior, three of the prisoners,
being
unable to walk, were taken out and brutally shot
by the Mexican soldiery. We are not surprised that
the report of such a cowardly atrocity has roused the.
indignation of the North American people. None bur t
wretches who would disgrace the uniform of a bandit's
gang,.could,participate in the murder of three unresis t-
ing humarebeings; guifty of no crime, charged with :no
ofTeac'e-; and so overcome with fatigue and sickness as to
be unable to Walk.a step unassisted. And 'yet it mutt
be of such cowardly villains that the Mexican army it;
composed, since General SANTA ANNA expressed neither j