The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-01 00:00:00

THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

Sir,—As the public has taken a great interest in the
of the Dank lime thi.failure tneni;,—"`tql
blishrnent of the governor, probably a plain statement of the
business of the Bank of England and its present usages may
be useful.

The Bank of England is a joint stock bank, invested with
peculiar privileges, and possessing peculiar powers. It is
governed by directors, elected out of the proprietary ; but,
from long usage, the election is really conducted bj the di
rectors for the time being, who insert fresh =ream vacancies
occur in what is technically termed the house 114, which is
never opposed.
The form of an election is gone through by advertising a
public meeting when a vacancy is to be filled up, and all
holders of Bank stock of six months' standing have votes.
The proprietary may be termed a very open one, as Bank
stock is daily on the market, and the holding of Bank stock
constitutes a proprietor ; but the proprietors are so much
scattered, that a few resident in London have it all their
own way.
The all-important privilege of the Bank is that the notes
are, by act of parliament, " a legal tender," and, also,. that
it is the privets banker to the government, deriving a
revenue from ttllnCting at! 5.-
quently having a large amount in hand, in the shape of de.
posits, made from time to time to meet the quarterly divi-
dends. The power possessed over the money market, in the
largest sense of the word, is derived from this close con-
nexion with government, and the means of using this
power for its benefit a chiefly in dismounting " bills of ex-
change:" and the daily amount employed in this branch of
the Bank's business secures to it the custom of all classes of
mercantile and private beniiimg arm, It u in fact the oily
public discounting establishment in the gantry; ana
through this channel the current value of money at interest
is now chiefly regulated, and money is said to be plentiful sr
scarce on Change as the Bank is liberal or niggardly in their
discounts—and so dependent is a large portion of the mer-
cantile community on procuring discounts through the Bank
that it is of vast public importance that the system of discount
should be governed by a principle. It is also of vast
importance to the proprietary that this department should
be ably conducted, for on it depends a large item in the
profit and loss sooonnt. By the proprietary °sly can the
conduct of the directors be legitimately called in question,and this through the public meet ngs held half-yearly, when
an opportunity offers of any prep tor asking questions, or
proposing particular measures. But custom has shown this
power to have been little used; It has been the good fortes'
of the Bank to declare large dividends, and the propriehrs,
being content, have generally no disposition to cavil about
trifles, and it is never to their interest to ask a question, the
answer to which would reduce the value of bank stock In
the market. 1 have no idea that the neat meeting will

materially differ from its predecemers ; but I think any pro-
prietor that would boldly take the opportunity that now offers
itself to demand a detailed account of the amount of corn
bills that have been discounted and vrhukamount has been
noted for non-payment, would do %great service, and fairly
put the public in a situation to knditesrhetheCititas or has
not exercised sound commercial knowledge clutigt4e . last
few months, as regards this particular branclib , so
largely and unsoundly represented by bill transactions.
I do not pretend to knew accurately what ordeal a Milling
through before it is discounted but this I know, the judg-'
went ought to proceed from "disinterested" parties, and •
knowledge of human nature tells me that if those who daily
eat in judgment on them were interested in the corn specu-
lation, that a risk has occurred from a to favourable de-
cisi w having been made in favour of corn bills the last three
months. However, from these statements, it is evident that
front the proprietary must proceed any alteration in the
system of election of governors and directors: the govern-
ment has no power over it. J. N.