The Express.
London, England, 1862-03-17 00:00:00

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bucksionc K. Vint .% mad Cows: C. Irmo& Wu Oliver.
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AM rAmiLy JAJLi. Mr. Coroptari...oowiminev at 7.

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Ur. V. fiatthaara and Maa tialtert —Cusamance at 7t.

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LONDON, MONDAY, MARCH 17.

Tuts evening the House of Commons is to
resume the consideration of Mr. HOIL*FALL'eI reso-
lution on the Law of Maritime War. The discus-
sion of the subject on Tuesday was not satisfactory.
Thu resolution offered to the House was vague and
Models, and the more important speeches were sin-
gularly unsteady. Mr. HOL4FALL invites the House
to attirmthat the present state of international mari-
time law, as affecting belligerents and neutral, is
unsatisfactory, and calls for the early attention of
the Government. So think Mr. 8E:471:40C and
Mr. BAILLIE COCHRANZ, who would undo the,
reforms accomplished at Paris in 1856. The hon.
Member for Liverpool is dissatisfied, however, for
a very different reason, and would carry those
refonns yet further. Indeed, he has no difficulty
in showing that, by favouring the neutral,
they place our shipowners at a disadvantage—
since now, at the first suggestion of a war
in which we may possibly be engaged,
commerce shuns our flag, and British shipping all
over the world is thrown out of employment. It
is urged that the shipping interest ought not to
be expected to bear in this way the brunt of con•
tentions which are national, and the burden of
which should, therefore, be distributed fairly over
the community ; and the remedy suggested is a
further change in the law of maritime war, no leo
than the general exemption from capture of private
property at sea.

Mr. 114.saritt's speech narrowed the scope of
the motion, and placed the subject before the
House as a practical question. It has, however,
most frequently been publicly treated as part of a
general amelioration of the usages of war under the
influencesof humanity anal civilization. In this latter
aspect two things are to be remembered. On the
owe hand,wo must not despair of effecting improve-
ments because we have only moral means
wherewith to regulate war and bloodshed ; for
experience shows that the rules of war are
not beyond the power of reason to regulate. And
on the other, we must guard against the weakness
of supposing that anything is gained by inducing
nations to consent to rules the consequences of
which in practice are not clearly apprehended, or
which it may be foreseen would have • one-sided
operation. The greater part of what we call in-
ternational law is merely international morality;
an I the fact that no power exists to enforce
its rules makes it especially necessary that all
parties should perceive • common advantage
in their observance. Any attempt to
faros on • change, however beneficial, for which
the mind of the world is not well prepared, and still
more the attempt to introduce • state of the law 1
calculated in practice to favour oue State or one class
of belligerents, would end only in disappointment,
disgust, and recrimination. In this view of the
matter, Lord Piinuorr,..,..'s declaration that the
adoption of Mr. Ilduirst.e. proposition as a rule
of international law would be pernicious to this
country, is one very necessary to be considered.
If all nations were even nearly alike in the
nature, sources, and employment of their warlike
power, it would be improper to argue upon this
question from the peculiar circumstances of
• given country. Since, however, it is
not so, the application of one rule to
unequal circumstances would be very likely
to result in injustice. It would not surprise
us to see the representatives of a continental
Power, which was in the habit of over-
bearing all its neighbours, and interfering
everywhere by means of enormous armies,
urging in a congress arguments for dindniahing tbe
power of belligerents at sea ; but if another Power,
having • very small army, and • navy not too
large to defend its scattered possessions, had a
voice, then those arguments would not go un-
challenged.

But since the question has been brought forward
with practical aims, let us ask how Mr. HORN-
FALL'S principle would work. Lord PAL- I
EWITON says it would be fatal to our political
power. To ;Ole up the right of capturing the
ships 91 an enemy would be to cut off our
right arm. And it It Implied 01 necessity
that it would not have the same effect upon other
Powers ; otherwise it would be sufficient to answer
that if all nations saw their advantage in fighting
only with th,• left arm, a common agreement to
do so would not be very unreasonable. To us
it seems that the effect of the proposed rule
on the relative power of England and her neigh-
bours would he the precise contrary of that which
Lord PA I.llr.it-To% expects. At the commencement
of the war out merchant ships would go freely
everywhere under the protection of the rule. Accord-
ing to the same rule, the enemy's merchant ships
should also go everywhere : but they would not;
the enemy would soon find that he had conceded to
us • real advantage in return for one that was merely
nominal. For his ships would be confined to their
ports by a Britiah blockading squadron. The
practical inequality of the rule would then become
intolerable, and the whole arrangement would col-
lapel. Even in this condition, however, he would
not be powerless to inflict damage on the British
shipping which had ventured all over the world
under the supposed protection of international
law, and it would not be strange if, having begun
to violate agreements, be proceeded to issue letters
of marque.

A. long am thq ;;;,,„„„imi lair of blockade is main•
tamed, and it is strictly regular to Phut np the
ports and coasts of your enemy at which you do
not pretend to be fighting, it is difficult to see
how the principle of Mr. Hossratt's proposition
could be tendered to foreign Powers with the
slightest ann.a of acceptance. It is in the
power to blockade, and not in the right to

prey upon the enemy's ships after letting his com-
merce escape in neutral bottoms, that our advan-
tage lies. Neither Parliament nor the country, we
believe, is prepared as yet to surrender this right,
and nothing is more to be deprecated than pledg-
ing the good faith of the nation to an ill-consi-
dered policy. But, perhaps, in time we may see
our way to relinquish this in return for the im-
munity of oar vast mercantile marine from capture.
At all events the subject is one which much needs
discussion. And let our legislators discuss it with
full confidence in the fruitfulness of such delibe-
rations. Whatever may be said, it is possible
to introduce into the practices of war ameliora-
tions which, resting solely on the moral in-
tegrity of the belligerents, stand the rude
test of experienoe. It was argued on Tuesday by a
member of the Government, that agreements limit-
ing the power of a belligerent to damage his enemy
are futile, because, by the fact of war, all treaties
between two Powers are dissolved. But even if a
law, made for the event of war, is not by its very
character exempted from this rule, it is
surely not to be supposed that two civilized na-
tions will, in the face of the world, break an agree-
ment into which they voluntarily entered in anti-
cipation of the circumstances. Regard for its
own honour, and for the opinion of the neutral
world, which is generally armed on these occa-
sions, and capable of increasing the power of either
side by alliances, would restrain it from so
disgraceful an act. It must not be said that
nations are not capable of keeping their deliberate
promises.

WHAT will this plethora in the money market
lead to I is • question in which few of us are en-

For the next two or three

weeks its possible that a certain demand for
money may be stimulated by the hold which the
Bank of England gets upon the circulation at the
termination of each quarter ; but this will be cor-
rected as soon as the State makes its usual quar-
terly disbursements to its annuitants and other
creditors. Apart from this momentary influence,
it is believed that the tendency of the market is
still towards increased abundance. The last re-
turn showed a large addition to the unem-
ployed resources of the Bank of England;
the accounts of the Bank of France
point likewise to • reduction in the value of
money ; the continental and other exchanges are
at • point which allows us to add to our already
large stock a considerable portion of the gold im-
ported ; there seems to be as yet a remarkable
absence of foreign commitments ; and, what is as
important as any of these considerations, trade
presents no iodications of recovery. Were the
war in Americo to come to an end, and supplies of
cotton once more to become available, it is pro-
bable that a large amount of money would be ab-
sorbed in that important branch of buainess.
But, taking a general glance over the wide field
of trade, it seems unlikely that legitimate
commercial business will be able to work
off the large surplus of money, the pressure of
which has carried down the rate of interest to a
point rarely witnessed in this country, and very
unsatisfactory to the capitalist. It is expected by
some that, accidents apart, the rate of discount of
the Bank of England will be reduced next month'
from 2i to 2 per cent. In that case the terms in
the general market would doubtless be still lower.
The policy of • reduction by the national establish-
meet may be questioned, and it is, perhaps, very
doubtful whether it would do • better
business at 2 per cent than it does now
at 2i. We suppose the plea of the directors will
be that they must do the best they can for the
interests of their proprietors ; and the somewhat
remarkable circumstance that the Bank is about
to declare a reduced rate of dividend, while all
the other joint-stock banks in London have pre-
sented statements satisfactory to their respective
proprietaries and leading to • considerable rise in
the prices of the shares, certainly goes to show that
the Bank of England is at a decided disadvantage
in the present state of the money market in rela-
tion to its competitors. Though the latter allow
interest upon the deposits entrusted to them,
they manage to pay high dividends,
while the Bank of England, which
gets its deposits free of interest, yields • much
lower return on its stock, and is now about to re-
duce the rate of dividend. The remedy, regarding
the matter merely from the bankers' point of
view, is for the Bank of England to go in and
compete more actively for business with other
bankers and money lenders ; in other words, the
Bank minimum will probably, after a while, be
lowered.

Far be it from us to say • word in ad-
vocacy of increased banking competition. Though
quite aware that no currency scheme will keep
the financial current perfectly smooth, and eradi-
cate the seeds of evil ere they can germinate,
we have a strong opinion of the defects of a sys-
tem of currency which tends to make money arti-
ficially dear when it is most wanted, and which, I
by creating fresh paper money most rapidly at the
very moment when it is not wanted, sharpens the
competition of overladen bankers. But in allud-
ing to the probable appearance of the Bank of
England as a more earnest competitor amongst
contending bankers for the diminished amount of
business now to be picked up in the monetary
arena, we simply describe the present inevitable
tendency of the market. In trying to dis-
cover what is likely to come of it, we
can only be guided by • reference to
part experience. This shows that, at a time of
depressed trade, when money accumulates and
falls to a merely nominal value, the accumulation
continues until at last the public get tired of it,
and then speculation sets in. Trade, in the ordi-
nary sense of the word, cannot carry off the load
of money--cannot relieve • market which, after
long waiting, demands to be relieved. Speculation,
therefore, rises, and does what trade cannot do.
Speculation has many shapes and channels. There
may be speculation in cotton, corn, tallow,
sugar, or other colonial produce, the effect of
which is, that we attract here, under the
stimulus of high prices, vast quantities of
such articles from various parts of the world,
pouring out our gold in return. Then other forms
of speculation are foreign loans, foreign or home
railways, mines, banks, docks, steam companies,
and so forth, the action of which on the money
market is the greater or lees according to the
amount of capital which they draw away to foreign
parts. When speculation has gone to • certain
length, it brings its own cure in the form of a rim
in the rate of interest, and as trade has likewise
probably by that time recovered from its torpor,
as well as received some illegitimate im-
pulse, it generally happens that the monetary
pendulum swings to quite the opposite extreme.
Perhaps it goes from li or 2 per cent. to 8 or 10
—from plethora to panic ; for it is • peculiarity
it the speculative phase that no accurate amount
is kept of the foreign commitments entered into,
and the aggregate of these ultimately proves
heavier than the market can well bear. We are
as yet only in the 2 per cent. stage, and though it
would not be too much to say that the seeds of

panic are ordinarily sown when the money
market is in its present condition of plethora,
our acts seem as yet to have been sufficiently
(prudent. It would appear that we have not yet
become quite tired of looking at our heap of
money. It may be as well, however, to cast an
eye forward, remembering at the same time that
seasons of great ease in the money market, such as
that now experienced, have always ended, sooner
or later, in rampant speculation of some kind.