The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-04 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4.

Tnz Bank Act of 1844 is onoe more upon its trial,
and not a few misgivings are entertained as to how
it will work. It is scarcely necessary to remark 1
that the rapid action of the Bank directors has
produced a considerable sensation in commer-
cial circles. The Bank directors seem die-
posed, as in duty bound, to enforce the
Act as stringently as Lord Overtone him-
self could wish. Though the minimum is nomi-
nally 8 per cent., a still higher rate is charged
at the Bank in many instances, while for the ad-
vances which the Bank makes at this period of the ,
quarter, and to which the discount establishments
are admitted in common with the mercantile public,
the charge is 9 per cent. It is still questioned
whether even theme high terms will effectually con-
trol the drain of bullion ; that it will be to some
extent checked is highly probable, but 165,000 ,
sovereigns were yesterday withdrawn for ex-
portation, and it is understood that large
sums will be required for transmission to
Brazil in the course of the next few days.
Foreign engagements already entered into by
our merchants and capitalists mast of course be
fulfilled whether the value of money here be high
or low. One of the meet favourable events of the
moment in its bearing upon the money market is
the fall which is taking place in the price of cotton,
for, in proportion as that commodity declines in
value, the inducement to send out bullion for its
purchase abroad must be lessened, and no proof is
needed that it is to the bullion requirements of the
new cotton countries that the present straitened
condition of our money market is chiefly attribut-
able. Sight must not be last of the important facts,
however, that much of the bullion which is being
despatched to the new cotton fields goes merely in
fulfilment of contracts previously entered into, and
that, so far as these contracts extend, they must be
complied with, even should the price of cotton here
experience an enormous fall. This is one of the
chief reasons why the rapid rise in the Bank rate of
discount has hitherto failed to arrest the foreign
drain, and in this respect the present crisis in:the
money market differs essentially from those pre-
viously experienced. The Bank directors will now
probably pause to watch the effect of the rapid
strokes which they have just aimed at the evil. An
impression prevails that an advance in theminimum
to 9 per cent, within the next three or four days—
perhaps on Monday or Tuesday next—is quite
within the bounds of probability. It is, however,
becoming a question of importance as to how far the
commercial chime can bear the severe tightening of
the screw ; and at periede like the present there is
always some danger that they may lose their
equanimity, and press upon the Bank to an extent
dictated rather by vague apprehension than by
actual necessities. In 1847 and 1857 it was the
exhaustion of the reserve, and not of the bullion,
which caused the Bank Act to be suspended. The
present period differs from those, because there is
a well-grounded belief that the general condition of
trade is sound. Nevertheless, we must not alto-
gether shut our eyes to one unsound point—the
excessive speculation in the cotton trade. The
position of this branch of business will now be
narrowly scrutinised, and it will be matter for con-
gratulation if the speculators are able to bear up
against their difficulties. Were the amount of
cotton bills afloat legs large than it is, the disposi-
tion to confidence would be still stronger. Mean-
while, the appearance of the discount market
generally is still satisfactory, considering the cir-
cumstances. Capital does not circulate so freely as
cuuld be desired, and the market generally is
unsettled, with a considerable degree of irregularity
in the rates. The majority of the transactions
in good bills yesterday were from 8 to
9 per cent. Instances are mentioned in which
offers have been made to discount six months' paper
at 7i per cent., without any supply of bills being
forthcoming. This may be held to indicate that
merchants regard the existing high rates as tempo-
rary only. That money will be maintained at its
present point for a period of six months is, accord-
ing to all experience, improbable, for crises in the
money market, though they may be sharp, are
ordinarily of no long duration.

THE probability that the railway from London-
bridge to Charing-cross will be opened for traffic by
the let of January next lends additional interest
to the various projects for the extension of that
line. It should, however, be observed, in the out-
set, that the opening from London•bridge to
Charing-cross will only be a partial opening of the
system. The Charing-cross Railway has two great
objects, the first of which is to bring the traffic of
the South Eastern Railway to a West-end station,
with which it has hitherto been unprovided. This
object will be accomplished by the opening of the
line from London-bridge to Charing-cross. But the
second and more important object of the Charing-
craw Railway, and that from which the share-
holders expect remuneration, is the develop-
ment of an omnibus traffic between Charing.
cross and the City by trains which will run
every five minutes, and perform tho journey within I

the same space of time. The large peossoger traffic
expected from this mute can only be developed
when the new bridge at Southwark is completed,
which cannot be forupwards of a twelvemonth tram
next January. Shareholders must, therefore, not
be misled by anticipations of results from the open-
ing of the London-bridge and Charing-cross
communication. The chief effect of that communi-
cation will be to improve the traffic of the South
Eastern Railway. It will not be until the line is
fully opened to Cannon-street, in 1866, that any
large results can be expected by the Charing-cross
proprietors.
In the meanwhile it may be interesting to con-
eider the ulterior use which is proposed to be made
of this communication. The Charing-cross Com-
pany will themselves propose to parliament in the
ensuing session two great plena. The first, which
is called the "Charing-cross Northern Railway," is
an underground line, which is proposed to be carried
from their present station under the Strand to the
junction of St. Martin's-lane with Long-acre, where
there will be a station. From that point it will pass
at the back of Long-acre, on the north side, across
Drury-lane to Holborn, where another station is
proposed, in the neighbourhood of King-street and
Queen-street. Passing under Holborn, the line
will run under Great Ormond-street, to the east of
Queen-square, and, by way of Marchmont-street,
to the east of Burton-crescent It is proposed to

pawl over the Metropolitan Railway, but under the
New-road, which will, however, have to be raised 6
or 7 feet to admit of this arrangement. After passing
the New-road and entering Somers-town, the line
will diverge so as to form junctions with the London
and North Western, the Midland, and the Great
Northern stations.
This line of communication is said to meet with

encourarement from all the great companies which
it will bring into combination, and it would no
doubt be a convenient arrangement for all of them
to be able to send on and receive passengers
from Ruston, Agar-town, and King's-cross, to so
convenient a centre as the Charing-races Railway
station. The great object, however, which such a
line would subserve would be that of local traffic.
Such a line would afford • direct communication
between the northern suburbs and the west end of
London, as well as with Lambeth and other places
on the south side of the Thames. The cost of
making this communication would no doubt be
great, but a direct line between Charing-cross and
the Northern Railway termini seems to be an
object worthy of accomplishment at almost any
cost.

The second line promoted by the Charing-cross
Company is called the Charing-cross Western Rail-
way. It starts from the Lambeth side of the rail-
way at the point at which the London-bridge line
will join the South Western ; and, running parallel
with the South Western to Lambeth Butts, it will
there cross to the north shore of the Thames, be-
tween Milbank Prison and Holywell-street, West-
minster. From this point the line will pass by the
Westminster Scholars' playground to the Victoria
station, and from thence it is proposed to carry it
through Chelsea and Kensington, to join the Ken-
sington Railway, and from that to the Hammer-
smith Junction. On the north side of the Thames,
this railway is proposed to be carried chiefly under-
ground ; on the south aide, it will be on a high
level.

The main object of this line is to establish a
direct communication between the City and the
Western suburbs of the metropolis, and it is one
which could be accomplished by this route
without the additional wet which would have
to be incurred in making another line of
communication between Charing-cross and the
City. A number of projects are promoted
with a view to connect the City and the West-
end by means of the Thames Embankment ;
but as the Charing-cross Railway, when its line is
perfected, will afford a communication every five
minutes between the desired points, it seems
scarcely necessary to incur the expense which
would follow the construction of a railway
either along or under the Thames Embank-
ment, and by the line of the new street from
Blackfrinrs-bridge underground to Cannon-street.
A Thames Embankment line, it is to be observed,
could not be upon a level with the stations at
Charing-cross, Blackfriars-bridge, orCannon-street,
whilst the Western line proposed by the Charing-
crawl Railway might run into every station between
Hammersmith and the City.

These are the lines promoted by the Charing-
cross Company, under the auspices of their own
engineers. There are, of course, other projects, such
as the " North and South London Junction",
described in the Express some weeks since.
It proposes to bring the Tottenham and Hampstead
Junction Railway from the Holloway-road to
Villiers-street, Strand, very much ou the same
gradients as the Charing-craw Company propose to
communicate between the north and south of the
metropolis. The "Metropolitan Grand Union"
we have also described. It is an underground line
from Kensington to the Victoria station, and thence
beneath Victoria-street to Westminster-bridge,
where it will avail itself of the Thames Embank-
ment, and so pass into the City to a junction with
the Blackwell Railway. The same route is followed
by a branch of the "Metropolitan District Rail-
way," and by the "London Union Railways," the
vast schemes of which we shall have to speak here-
after : but all these lines are subject to the disad-
vantages already described as attending the use of
the Thames Embankment.

" The Paddington and Charing-cross Railway"
is an underground line devised to run from the
Great Western Railway, at Paddington, across
Hyde-park, the Green-park, and St. James's-park,
to the Thames Embankment, at Whitehall, where it
will also form a junction with the Chariog•croes
station. This line is said to be favoured by
authorities connected with the Great Western Rail-
way Company ; but it appears impossible to sup-
pose that the Crown will allow a line of railway to
be constructed under the parks and in such close
proximity to several of the royal palaces•

Another scheme, which will probably prove
equally visionary, is called the Thames Viaduct.
It proposes a high level railway from "the third
pier of Westminster-bridge on the Middlesex side,
to the second pier of London-bridge on the City
side." This line is actually proposed to be carried
over all the bridges between Westminster and Lon-
don. Such a proposal would create great astonish-
ment if it were new. Strange as it is, however, it is
one of a class of projects which have been before
the public on previous occasions, and of which the
promoters appear to become the more fond the more
frequently they are rejected ; in accordance, appa-
rently,
with the same law which induces parents to
attach themselves moat warmly to those of their
children who are least admired. It may be observed
of this line that, even if it was possible to construct
it, it would only effect what is already accomplished
by the penny steamboats ; and that there would
evidently be a great difficulty iu getting the pas- I
senger traffic of such a line (to say nothing of fuel
for its engines) from off the bridges with which it j
would communicate.

gbt Court.