The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-27 00:00:00

Friday, October 26.

BANKRUPTS.—Jossyn THOMAS, Catherine.street, Rtrand,
newspaper proprietor—RALPH RICHARDSON, Cate:hair, builder
—SANuEL JONES, Houndsditch, draper and grocer—CHARLES
CLAYTON, Wolverhampton, iron founder—DAVlD PRATT, Bir.
miugham, thimble manufacturer—CHAßLES Mooaa, Rochester.
road, carpenter—JOHN itowaRNAN, Tiverton, grocer and Berlin
wool dealer—WaLyEa Moss, Ripley, Derbyshire, grocer—WIL-
LIAM LLOYD, Newton in the Willows, Lancashire, butcher—.
JOHN Nionoisos, West Derby, surgeon and boarding-house
keeper—ARTHUR OREENHILL, Harrow-on.the.Hill, baker—Wit.
EDWARDS, Croce-Street, Finsbury, ale and porter merchant—.
GEORGE RIDGE and THOMAS JACKSON, Sheffield, muuktiers—
CHRISTOPHER BECKET, Manchester, brewer.
SCOTCH SEQUESTRATiONS.—WILLrAN FINDLAY JOIN.
STONE, Glasgow, shipOWller—JAMEl3 I..BITCH LA.140, Glasgow
writer.

pug Cadet anb Citg

FRIDAY EVENING.

THERE has been a marked improvement in the tone
of the Stock Exchange this week. Money has been
tolerably abundant, and the lowest rate for choice
paper has been four and a half per cent. We do
not, with the immense war expenditure proceeding,
see any present probability of the rate being much
lower.

Consols for time and money, which last week
closed at 87, were yesterday at the closing 881, es-
tablishing an advance of one per cent. in the week.
The advance would probably have been more, but
for the ankle in the Times intimating the probabi-
lity of a difference between our Government and that
of the United States. On Monday they were 871 1;
on Tuesday they improved to 871; on Wednesday
the market was buoyant, and closed firmly at 88.
On Thursday they were 881, which was the closing
price to day, though the market was, on the whole,
weaker.
The rate ofinterest on Exchequer Bills was raised
on Tuesday, both classes, to 21d. per cent. per day,
being at the rate of 31. His. Old. per cent. per annum.
The rate previously borne by the March bills was
21d. per day, and by the June 211. per day. The
effect produced upon the price of these securities by
the announcement was but slight and the price to-day
ranged from 2 discount, to 3s. premium.
Turkish Stock has slightly improved ; the Six per
Cents. were to-day done at 791 to 1, and the Gua-
ranteed Four per Cents. at 21 to j discount. In
Shares there has been little alteration, but on the
whole they are a trifle better than when we last
wrote.
The Bank return in this evening's Gazette again
shows a considerable diminution in the stock of
bullion. The amount in both departments has fallen
from 11,752,4211. to 11,230,2071., a decline of more
than half a million. 0:1 the other hand, the item of
" other securities " has declined from 19,280,446/., to
18,789,5121.. and it is this decline which doubtless
influenced the Directors not to disturb their rate of
discount, though the drain of bullion, in spite of
arrivals from Australia, continues to proceed un-
checked. The decrease in the commercial securities
held by the Bank, must be partly attributable to the
payment of the dividends which have been pro-
ceeding for the last two or three weeks. The reserve
notes of the Bank are now, 4,557,4901.
The high rate of discount, and the probability
that a higher rate will prevail in future than we have
been accustomed to of late years, has directed the
minds of commercial men to the present state of our
currency laws, and the expediency of some altera-
tion in the Bank Charter Act is freely canvassed.
We have heard several eminent merchants and
manufacturers declare their conviction that it
will
be impossible for the trade of the country to flourish
under such pressure for money as now exists ; and
they express themselves favorable to an alteration of
the existing system. We state our own opinion on
this important point as bristly as we can.

OCTOBER 27, 1855.

Were it not for the large and increasing produc-
tiveness of the gold fields in Australia and Cali-
fornia, there can be no doubt whatever that we
should ere this have been compelled to suspend cash
payments through the excessive demand for gold
caused by the war. In that case there would have
been no choice whatever. Theories must have
yielded to necessities, and some system of currency
rausthave been established which would have afforded
to our trade and commerce a necessary medium of
♦xchange.
But at the present time we totally deny that any
such necessity exists. The high rate of money is
caused by our enormous war expenditure; and,
whatever system of currency may prevail, money will
and must be comparatively dear, so long as the drain
of capital for war expenses proceeds. It is impossible
for any contrivance to make money cheap at a time when
a great and extraneous demand for it exists. The
rate of discount, it is true, might now be at four
instead of six per cent., supposing the value of the
sovereign by large paper issues were raised to thirty
shillings. But in that case no one would be bene-
fitted. Persons who have been accustomed for the
last thirty years to exclaim against Peel's Currency
Laws do not seem to understand how radically cir-
cumstances have now changed. Those laws, when
they originally came into action, were most cruel and .
unjust, and spread ruin over the land. They depre-
ciated the value of every commodity, except money
itself, which they greatly enhanced, and the in-
dustry of the country was sacrificed to the money
intetest, fundholders, and annuitants of every de-
scription. But that action, which subsisted to
some extent up to 1818, was entirely changed
by the gold discoveries, and for some years
an opposite action has been proceeding. Property
of all kinds, with commodities, and the products of
industry, have been rising in value, and, to some
extent, persons with fixed incomes have suffered
from the dearness of the times. To suppose that
there can be any real want of a circulating medium
now, when California and Australia are yearly adding
from twenty to thirty millions to the general stock in
the world, must be a great mistake. If we cannot
keep in the country a sufficient stock for the purposes
of our trade, it must be because the prices which
prevail in this country are too high, and the only
remedy can be such an advance in the value of
money as must check speculation, force sales, and
bring back to us the bullion we require.
Does this generation really know what a pure
paper currency means in practice? It means bread
at 2s. a loaf—our union houses filled with paupers—
a sudden inflation of prosperity to some classes and
of ruin to others. It means an artificial system
which sooner or later would be put an end to, with
an amount of distress similar to that which followed
its abolition after the close of the last war.

No sound financier will say, that with the enor-
mous stock of bullion now circulating in the world
this country need want a supply for its wants. It
there is great difficulty in keeping or getting such
supply, that must arise not from such scarcity of the
metal as would justify us in dispensing with its use,
but from the drain of our capital to support the war,
which is an evil that must be submitted to.

We know all the arguments that can be alleged in
favour of a purely paper or theoretical currency, and
we think them sound, could the system be so estab-
lished as to be guarded from abuse. But we doubt
the practicability of any precautions which could be
used for that purpose; and while the supply of gold
is so plentiful, it is on every account more desirable
that the existing system—which is a natural system
—should prevail. Least of all would it be proper to
alter it at a time like the present, when the circum-
stances of the war would prevent it from having a
fair trial.
When capital is much in demand money must be
dear. That is the case at present; and the com-
mercial world has no more legitimate cause of
complaint that the rate of discount is six per cent.,
than the working man has that his bread is a shilling
a loaf. We still think, however, that the establish-
ment of a Crimean Bank, for the use of both armies,
would greatly economise the use of bullion, and
prevent much of that drain which has lately proved
so inconvenient.
These considerations are altogether apart from the
expediency of allowing the Bank of England to
issue notes independent of bullion in cases of great
emergency. That relaxation was beneficial in 1847,
and may be resorted to whenever a similar necessity
occurs. The rule should be maintained, but a dis-
cretionary power given for exceptional departure
from it. _ .

The total amount of gold taken to the Bank, out
of the recent arrivals from Australia, is believed to
be about 300,0001.
Advices from Paris report an improved tone,—and
Rentes have shwon a tendency to rise.
In the New York markets (say late accounts)
money was scarce at seven to eight per cent. on first-
class business paper at sixty days', and eight to nine
per cent. on four months' paper of a similar grade.
The Stock Market was somewhat easier.