The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-11-28 00:00:00

of 1834

" Again, we have the adoption of the tripos of natural
sciences, which is only another form of our engineering
school, our natural history, anatomical and medical

" Another of the much-lauded Cambridge reforms is
one to secure a correspondence between the Mathema-
tical Professor's Lectures and the Mathematical Examin-
ations of the University.' Every one acquainted with the
. .

system in Dublin knows that this correspondence
accomplished here long since, both in the gr
undergraduate classes.
`• Again, in the year 1846, a grace pa

uate and

sed the senate of
hat. at the nub-

tV, students

hould r

Lary exarr

cation in an

course, from which they should be recommended to be-
come candidates for honours ; this is identical with a re-
gulation published in the Dublin University Calendar of

" If, then, Cambridge be keepinc, up with the age,
surely we must allow that Dublin has been taking the
lead in this march of reform."

We have alluded to the matter for the purpose
of laying before our readers, on such competent
authority, the course insisted upon in the Dublin
University School of Divinity. It has, somehow,
become fashionable in Liverpool to decry the
attainments and information of the Irish clergy
located amongst us. One of our contemporaries is
frequent in the use of the word 'literate,' as applied
to them, intimating, as the word is understood,
that they are men without any regular university
degree. Now, it happens that no Irish bishop
admits to holy orders any hut a graduate of his
university. The very exception proves the rule.
It is the case, some years ago, of a gentleman of
piety and qualifications in other respects, an Eng-
lish►man also by the way, admitted to deacon's
orders without having even matriculated in any
university. It was generally believed that the
Primate remonstrated at the time with the ordain-
ing bishop, and, at all events, no such case has oc-
curred since. And the extract we have quoted ex-
hibits the course through which the Irish clergy
must pass to entitle them to the degree of A. 8.,
with a Divinity Testimonium, in the University of
Dublin.

But why, we ask, are these questions mooted in
Liverpool with respect to Irishmen alone ? Wales
and Scotland, as well as Ireland, supply their con-
tingent to our clergy, and men from every quarter
of the globe mingle upon equal terms with their
brother merchants upon our 'Change. It is not to
be denied that Ireland has in some respects suffered
by the union with England, though we believe it
to be equally past question, that she has been on
the whole vastly the gainer, and would he so to a
considerably greater extent but for herself—this,

" To continue under Peel's crushing act of 1844 cannot
be right ; and, as we have inferred, the Birmingham ex-
treme inconvertible doctrines may be right. But surely,
in case of the latter meeting opposition, it might be well
to try the limited or, as it ismore correctly termed, the equi-
table mode of convertibility propounded in the book on
the national distress,' &c., recommended by our con-
temporary, ' (which was referred to iri terms of praise by
ourselves, in a recent article, addressed to the Manchester
Guardian,)' the expense of which must at any rate prove
less than the present. And even, if not so abstract, or
economical a theory as that of inconvertibility,- it com-
bines many of the latter's advantages, all the vaunted
but wanting perfections of the " Peel-Loyd," purely
moneyed interest Bill of 1844 ; and will commend itself
to many practical, hard-headed, useful, and sensible men
of business, who are unwilling, and cannot be expected to
find leisure, to dive into the hidden merits of a theory,
however beautiful in the abstract, but who- have been
again and again cheated by practical ideas—as in the case
of Free Trade—of cheapness—and in that of our fearfully-
pervadinv evil, the currency—of convertibility into some=
thing valuable, viz., gold—in other words, of summat
for your money ; " and who forget that bullion is only
useful and necessary for the lividation of international
balances, a mere representative of value in internal ex-
changes."

Our correspondent, in a word, wishes the Cur—
rency Reform Association to concede a point, not
so much to the bullionists, or rather to the advo—
cates of the present system; but to satisfy the
doubts, as to convertibility of the paper-pound, of
that " hard-headed" class of people, who conceive
that the possession of gold is the summum bonum
of human happiness, by enabling the proposed
national bank at all times to redeem their engage-
ments in that " commodity." At the same time
he reminds the class in question that, under the
Association's system. gold will only be required
for the adjustment of our international balances,
our domestic currency being sufficiently provided
for.

It is not at all likely that the association should
forget that gold would, from time to time, be re-
quired for the purpose of adjusting, temporarily,
our adverse balances with other countries, caused,
for instance, by an unforeseen failure in our do-
mestic supplies of food. In such an event they,
proposed to purchase such gold, for foreign pay-
ment, at its market rate, which would be its rela-
tive value as a commodity to consols returning
three per cent. per annum. Of the details of this
portion of their plan,—whether they would compel
the Bank to keep in stock a supply of coined gold,
and at what rate they would issue it to the public,
or receive it back into their coffers,—we do not
assume the possession of sufficient information to
speak. For ourselves, however, we should not at
all object to keeping at least as much of that
rather expensive currency in the Bank as would
give to it quite as large a redeeming power of its
notes as is given under our present system ; and
should be disposed to agree to some such plan as
that laid down in the able work, to which our cor-
respondent refers, and which we shall briefly ex-
plain. It is proposed by the writer that the weight
in gold of the present pound shall be.considered at
par with the paper pound, or with three per cent.
consols, whenever the Bank shall be possessed of
a certain supply of bullion, to be fixed upon by the
Legislature, say eleven millions and not exceeding
fifteen millions; and that, for every million which
shall be withdrawn from the country, a small ad-
vance, to be definitely fixed, shall take place in the
amount of paper money payable for a given amount
of goleen pounds. For example, when the stock
of bullion falls to ten millions sterling, £lOl in
paper shall be worth £lOO in gold ; and, as the
supply still further decreases, the amount payable
in paper pounds shall increase in a cumulative
ratio, according to a sliding scale to,be agreed upon.
The effect of such a plan, it is urged, would be to
attract back the gold exported, so soon as ever it
ivas materially at a premium over our domestic
and to promote reinvestment of the
amount in manufactures and other commodities,
which the equable supply of domestic currency
provided by the paper pound, based upon consols,
will have kept in their usual relation to the value
of each other, and that of labour, and all other
commodities, except gold itself, and the particular
article which is temporarily in deficient supply.
Such a plan could not possibly produce the same
fluctuations, even in the value of the precious metals
themselves, as compared with a paper currency, or
with commodities, as that to which consols and
every other description of property and security
are periodically liable under our present monetary
system.
We would make a concession of this nature,

currency