The Sun.
London, England, 1827-10-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PLI3LIC JOURNALS.

We yesterday inserted a notice of the inten-
tion of a number of distinguished Peers and
Commoners to raise, by subscription, a Mond-
ment to the memory of .Mr. Canning. We are
glad to see such a:determination manifested tio
do justice to a man, whose counsels were so
eminently calculated to promote the prosperity-
of his own country and of mankind. We owe more
to the liberal spirit diffused by Mr. Camiing
over the Administration of the country at hone
mid abroad, than we can ever- repay by honour.
to his memory ; but it is worthy of the first men
in a great nation to pay such a tribute to hini,
as-an incitement to other Statesmen to elevate
themselves above vulgar considerations, and to
look forward to the lasting approbation of their
fellow-citizens.--Morning Chronicle.
It appears, from the meeting of maltsteils
which took place the day before yesterday at the
Coffee-rooms in Marls-lane, that some modifica-
tions are to take place in the new malt tax. The
duty of Government upon such an occasion, and
indeed upon all occasions where taxes on manu-
factures are imposed, is this--to ascertain, with
as much precision as possible, the quantity of
the article manufactured, and to interfere as little
as possible with the process. The provision
that ninety-six hours should be spent between
the cistern and the kiln, was intended to produce
a great increase by growth in the article ; but if
the bud thus protruded were burnt off in the
kiln, what heart or strength would remain for
the beer? We learn from our letters—of which
we have sufficient to high-dry fifty quarters of
malt—that according to the present system the
barley is not suffered to grow much. We hope
this is not a pretence, and the watering-pot used
after the grain is removed from the couch. Let
Government, however, look sharply to the ad-
mission of the barley, and the exit of the malt ;
and let its . officers watch, not direct, the inter-
mediate process. At this the honest maltster
will not complain.—Times.

To whatever extent the Reports of the. Com-
missioners of Irish Education may be acted upon
or condemned, they contain, undoubtedly, a
large mass of' information, as curious as any
Parliamentary documents within our recollection
have exhibited. The Reports now published
are the Eighth and Ninth, of which the former
is exclusively occupied by an inquiry into the
constitution, administration, incidents, history,
studies, and other properties of the Roman Ca-
tholic College of Maynooth. It appears that a
considerable number of persons connected with
that establishment 'have been examined by the
Committee, and it is impossible to withhold from
(we might say one and all of) the Rev. Gentle-
men either actually or formerly belonging to it,
and discharging the functions of collegiate offi-
cers, the • praise of possessing an uncommon
fund of controversial quickness, acuteness, and
subtlety, manifested in reply to questions, and
under the pressure of circumstances, severe
enough to try at once the intelligence and tem-
per of the best-trained disputants living. We
shall touch no further on this subject, than to
express our satisfaction that the course of edu-
cation at Maynooth is confined to the priesthood
and inaccessible to the laymen of the Catholics.
The Ninth Report is a document of more po-
pular concern, embracing more immediately the
subject of general education ; but unhappily, in
proportion to its extensive interest, will be the
disappointment experienced by those who antici-
pated much' suceitss from the plans and recom-
niendations which the Commissioners bad pre-
viously developed. This' Report, containing a
distinct acknowledgment of the total failure of an
experiment suggested by the first Report of the
Commissioners, and in consequence directed by
the Irish Government to be tried—for the gene-
riil and combined instruction of Protestant and
Roman Catholic children in the same schools,
and • from portions of t'Ae sacred Scriptures
agreed upon by the heads of both churches.
—The benevolent policy of bringing up
the children together, and thus uniting
by the ties of an early intimacy, habit,
and affection, those who might, under different
circumstances, be taught (as their parents have
been) to regard each other with disgust and ani-
mosity, surely requires no enforcement from rea-
son, charity, or true religion. But the proposi-
tion, as we said before, was defeated—defeated
by the incompatible, though doubtless conscien-
tious views and claims of the respective churches,
neither of which would abate of pretensions, or
surrender advantages, which were utterly at va-
riance with those of what, for want'of a better
word, we must denominate its rival. It seems
to be a subject of deep regret, that however va-
luable ought to be deemed the incorporating a
common system of religious instruction with
every course of education which aims at chari-
table, moral, and virtuous ends, the humbler but
more practicable experiment has not been tried,
of sending children of the different sects to the
same school, but submitting them in matters of
religious faith and discipline to their own pecu-
liar teachers. Something, though much less
than by the former undertaking, might in this
way be effected. We are at the same time
bound to observe, that such education as can
be had from books alone may be found more ex-
tensively throughout the sister island than in this
country ; and that to realize practical civilization
and sobriety among the Irish poor, will require
the use of more material instruments than the
administration of 'intellectual food, where the
body is exposed to cruel hardship and suffering,
and the mind, even from childhood, sorely irri-
tated by the sense of them. As a special and
intermediate Report-to the Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland contains nthatevei is most important in
the document before us, we begin this day with
a highly interesting portion of its contents, viz.
a correspondence between the Commissioners of
Education Inquiry, and the respective heads of
the Established and Roman Catholic Churches,
where the bearings of the question at issue are
displayed in the language of the parties them-
selves. The whole correspondence being too
voluminous for a single insertion, we shall pro-
bably recur to it hereafter.—lbid.

Judging by the apparently calm and quiescent
state of the Ministry, one would be led to sup-
pose that public affairs-, both abroad and at home,
were in the most tranquil and prosperous state,
and one might not only conclude, with the Chan-
cellor Oxenstiern, " with how little talent the
world is governed," but with how little trouble
too. But though, we trust, it will not turn out
that the present calm portends a storm, there can
be no doubt but that the situation of Ministers
is not precisely that bed of roses which then
appearances would denote ; but that they ha,
their hands and heads as completely full of vital,
important matters as ever fell to the lot of
British Cabinet to contend with. The foreign,
policy alone of their predecessor, seems to bays
left them work enough cut out fora long.sum-
mer's day; and if they are able to extrkatelyitr

selves and. the country .from the dilemma in
which Mr. Canning's too enthusiastic policy has
involved us, both with Portugal and Turkey,
they will prove themselves entitled to the full Con-
fidence and approbation of ,Parliament and the
country. We trust that it will turn out that they
are so engaged ; nor do we think at all the
worse of them for not proclaiming to the world,
day by day, every step they take, or deliberation
they may hold. There has been 'already some-
what too much of that ; and much as we must
naturally be friendly to the public knowing all
they can with safety and propriety know, yet it
is obviously the nature of State affairs, that they
should not be prematurely blazoned to the world;
and we should say of those who cannot' keep
their own council, that they are not fit to be
instructed with those of the State. The finan-
cial difficulties of the country are, hoWever, after
all, thegreat mill-stone of incumbrance which the
Government has to contend with, and if Minis-
ters are seriously bent upon, and have the cou-
rage-to encounter this hydra, Parliament should
of necessity, be called together much earlier than
has of late years been the practice, and the probe
and proper remedies applied to this desperate
wound fearlessly and without delay. 'What the
remedies to be proposed may ultimately be, must,
in some measure, &Pend upon circumstances
which are not as yet sufficiently known to the
country, or perhaps, to Ministers themselves, to
be capable of being developed. Much has been
said of promised reductions ; we wish they may
turn out to be available to any important ex-
tent. Ministers know full well, when the prun-
ing knife comes, what wincing and resistance it.
every where meets with ; and when it is
Considered that the taking off' of every 1,0001.
(nay, we might say, of every 1001. y. converts a
friend into a foe, no wonder that they, like their
predecessors, time out of mind, flinch from the
ungrateful, however necessary, task. On this
and other grounds we do not look to proposed
reductions as likely to afford any great source of
relief to our financial difficulties ; and, though
we give Ministers credit for intending to do all
they can upon this head, and in the way of eco-
nomy, they would be egregiously deceiving both
themselves and the country were they to flatter
themselves with this alone as a panacea for its
financial difficulties. Nearly, if not quite as fal-
lacious would it be to rely upon the prospect of
any important or permanent increase of the pre-
sent Revenue. On that head every thing ap-
pears to have been carried as far as it will go—
and in some cases so far, indeed, as to defeat it-
self. Indeed the very accounts just made up and
published to the end of the present quarter, show
that with all the returning prosperity which the
country is now enjoying, a little improvement in
the Revenue would have exhibited itself, but for
the adventitious circumstance of the large ac-
count received for corn duties, which, like the
Emperor of Austria's " God-send," gives a flat-
tering appearance to the account. It seems then
to us, we confess, that in the preSent situation of
things, recourse must be had to some new source
of Revenue, and that, hateful as the inquisito-
rial nature of a Property Tax may be, it is the
only .way in which at once ample means can be
found sufficient to meet the expenditure of the
country—to lay by something towards really di-
minishing the debt, and at the same time, per-
haps, enable Ministers to repeal or modify some
of those present burdens which press most &fen-
sively upon the community. It will be curious
enough, to be sure, should it fall. to the lot of
the Whigs to reintroduce this very tax, which
they had the unpopular task of increasing during
their short Administration in 1806. But mere
temporary popularity, or its reverse, is what a
Statesman ought to disregard. If a timing is
right, either in public or private life, it ought to
be done, regardless of momentary impressions or
inconvenience. We shall be truly glad to find
that the Finance Committee, which is to be ap-
pointed when Parliament meets, is able to meet
the difficulty in some other way. At any rate,
the sooner they commence their labours the
better ; for we know of no way in which Minis-
ters are more likely to acquire the confidence of
the country, than by evincing an earnest desire to
meet promptly and fearlessly those difficulties
which, like similar ones in private life, are half
overcome by the courage to meet them.—Morn-
ing Herald.
A correspondent of the old Times, in his ob-
servations on the circulating medium, inserted in
that Paper of the 13th instant, assumes, that
the reduction of the rate of discount from five to
four, implies a fall in the value of money of
twenty per cent. " 'When money," he says,
" can obtain for its possessor only four-fifths of
its ordinary interest, it will soon cease to obtain
for him more than four-fifths of its ordinary pro-
duce in commodities." This is confounding
things quite distinct the one from the other—
the value of money and the rate of profit. If
the monied man makes only four per cent. in-
stead of five, by discounting, it is true that the
produce of capital invested in commodities—the
merchant's profit—will, arteris paribus, .be re-
duced in proportion ; but the money will " pro-
duce" (purchase), cateris paribus, the same
quantity of commodities as before. We per-
fectly agree with the correspondent of the Times
in one particular—that " the great desideratum
in a currency is invariableness of value ;" but of
-all expedients for attaining that desideratum, the
most preposterous would be " limiting by Act
of Parliament the amount" of the Government
paper, which he proposes to substitute for, all
other paper—that Government paper inconverti-
ble too. We believe the writer of the article
we are noticing, is the only one who has ever
imagined the possibility of fixing, a priori, the
amount of the circulating medium—a thing in its
very nature variable, as depending upon the
greater or less activity of trade and extent, and
frequency of transactions. This is truly " Uto-
pian." The idea of a currency entirely me-
tallic is so far from Utopian, that it has local
existence in several countries of the Continent ;
and it is more practicable in this country
than in any other, on account of the practice of
Bankers' settlements being so peculiarly calcu-
lated to supersede, in large payments, the use of
money, whether coin or paper, ,at least in_ those
of the metropOlis. But we are•far from consi-
dering on that account, as the writer in the
Times seems to do, (but for its supposed im-
practicability,) the substitution of a metallic for
a paper' currency, as a desideratum. On the
contrary, we deem most weighty the objections to
such a change, which he thinks very light. He
says, " the proportion of capital which it would
require would be very small, in proportion to the
whole capital of the community." Now, small
•,__ might be, we apprehend there
• or considerate persons who
plate with dismay the conse-
icting from the productive
try (for such would be the
the reserve of the banks) the
'paper in circulation. The
in the subject of the Branch

Banks (if he be, As We are inclined to think—not-
withstanding his sweeping depreciation of all
paper, save one issued by Government—'-aCountry
Banker) is natural enough, and so far reasonable
as regards the stamp duty to which the country
bankers are subject, and from which the Bank of
England is exempt : a point which has been
fairly stated and forcibly argued by one of their
number. On equal terms, competition ought to
be allowed ; and on equal terms, the Country
Bankers would probably do better business than
the Branch Banks, at least safer, from' their
superior knowledge of the country customers.—
New Times.

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