The Express.
London, England, 1847-11-09 00:00:00

COURT OF ALDERMEN.

Yesterday a court was held for the despatch of the
last remaining business of the mayoralty.
TILE CONVICT AUNT ANN HUNT.—Alderman Moon, is
one of the visiting magistrates of the gaol of Newgate, pre-
sented the following communication which he had rsoeired
from Sir G. Grey, and communicated as directed
Whitehall, Now e, 1047.--Gentlemen,—With reference to the ense
of Mary Ann Hunt, the convict under nentemae of death in the gaol
of Newgate, in which me the sheriffe, for moons reported to me,
directed that the execution of the sentence should he delayed, sod
afterwards, by command of her Majeety, the capital sentence woe
resulted until further order should be given I have the honour to
Inform you that, under the emend circumManCen which hove occurred
In this cane, her Majesty has been pleseed to command that that amt.
knee shall not be carried into effect. I request that you will own.
Munlcate to the primate thin information. The prisoner will be
detained In !imitate until after her expected confinement, when the
commuted mntence will be notified.—l am, gentlemen, your most
obedient servant, o.oam.
SUNDAY TRADING. —A report was read, which stated
that, in obedience to an order of the court, to consider the
report of the inspectors of weights and measures for the last
year, the committee for general purposes certified that they
proceeded therein, end directed the inspectors to visit their
districts upon some Sunday, and report their obserwations
as connected with Sunday trading; and having subsequently
received • report from them thereon, they had annexed the
sale to that report. The committee had considered the !sub-
ject of Sunday trailing, and were of opinion that it is not
expedient for the inspectors to exercise the duties of their
office upon Sunday.—Sie P. Lsuriesaid the committee had re-
commended that the inspectors should not be directed to inspect
the weights and measures of trod espeople on Sundays, because
so to employ them would be anctioning Sunday trading by
the authority of the court. He would tell the poor, how-
ever, for their government, that the shopkeepers who traded
on Sundays were. the grosiest of all the impostors with when
`.l, could e,

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surgeon,
ienetdheytuttteitriqhui-ife-wn'aumieti.'haTiiir-e..toolTetiwitte
turgeoe, WWI called, and suggested the removal of the child
gentlemen. - Anyuung 0" I.° l"'"`""'" !" 7 -- —.- ---- ----, :"--- "7:" --a "--- is coro
To
fleece
e were d i ffi cu l tHi ese to,e
wan
ee
not contendedfefor
preventing C
with'P lne
ht hi:op.:Otis:see:lst
from r of
ho Newington workhouse.—Ann Dispain, nurse at the week- ybieutendehyhedryaohthrereresempecchethwthdrahr from
ey. the market, ants iv,
.:Inth•-i
quite inadequate," say they ;" it won't work; it can t recepuon was prepared for the King at Genoa. In nwspwatmeto
be carried out; it will never do," It is not the made- Such advice, as the vigilance of the agents In CaraboboThe first act us establishing a bank of issue, or continuing al
.--- Sunday trading.
q yof the law they really fear, but its effectiveness. of the government allows to issue from Naplesone already existing, would be to mortgage property amount- , fr
712 geeing in ceraries on Sunday morning, but he wished that
They declare that it won't work, being resolved that are filled with narratives of an atrocity' so revolt- " The introdueersof Mis Ter: ex.tverire moose or Immiers- the trading should cease at Lige. o'clock.—Tho report was
tee
although every nourishment and attention was Riven itdied
yizusei
it
saidie she received the child from the last witneas, and pein le toes one-third
w. 1 i
ever m
ho more
e Wanbefore the
th e
p circulation
ehb.e. w
Anyh i c h
other it e m0d...,- ' a j
it shan't work, and do all in their power to prevent it ing that it is impossible not to cling to the lion
also
pledgele ctuhltervalionvein theh spacetheeflit: of
feathrse tad 'greed W. bed with one of the female inmates.—When thefc
from working. Sir Luaus O'BRIEN (of all men tying.)l hope that they are more or lees exaggerated. allgualall
gree, if a greater proportion than one-third eight
tneir Whole deceased was first brought its extremities were cold, and, seriptien of property might answer for this mortgsgeequidela 0
well with government stock ; but yet the latter is the m
condemns it as " the means of encouraging idleness That such measures could be deliberately adopted agrant should to found at that time uncultivated, the grant ERRATUM.—In our article of yesterday, on the about four o'clock on the following morning —E. D. 'Hewitt 01
amongst the lower classes." The lesson of idleness is by any civilised government of the present day shall be reduced to the actual amount of land then in eulti- state of our relations with Brazil, the year 1814 was incor-
,atio.... redly printed 1814. state and covered with mud. He believed that the child had
said that when he saw the deceased it wan in an exhausted convenient form. Secondly, it is advisable, for the interests
of the country, to maintain the value of this stock. Thirdly,
it renders expensive and tedious inq unnecessary. a SI
.7
much more likely to be 1 ed from the example of such almost exceeds thu compass of belief : still more
died from the exposure and exhaustion consequent upon the The bank of issue would necessarily obtain on au seem
-
I

pi per out. for the capital invested in this mortgagedstock ;
ML we do met contemplate • state of business where
*stratum will form any temptation to capitalists. They
would also have the interest accruing from the average
obtaio in the
ameanteoareo aotfhteircuir
b.lation that their notes may
ONO. A beak of issue, however, never
many circulates to the amount fixed by law. It must &l-
imp have • stock of notes at its different offices for the
aronmetion of business ; end under a sound system of bank-
*, it becomes the interest of every man to increase this
&umbering stock of notes. The supposition, therefore, that
whets would always have in circulation, and yielding inte-
rmit, a sum of money equal to tlii it fixed issue, is erroneous.
SO, as some expense must be connected with the establish-
jest of government offices to conduct this business, or with
emextrenion of the staff is the present stamp offices, to in -
ands the requisite and additional operations, there is no
pod by wbicb it could be more fairly met than the profit
Laing (coin the paper circulation. That might be
ems by an individual tax on each note stamped by the
government office, as has been previously the case ; and as
oath note would require to bear very apparently • govern-
ment stamp as the guarantee for its val.dity, this mode of
riming a revenue to meet the necessary expense seems least
objectionable. A general tax of one or one and a third per
feat. might be taken from the dividends accruing on the
orarh lodged against the notes issued ; and that plan
bos also the advantage of simplicity. On its adoption,
books of issue would require power to withdraw
put of their mortgaged stock, by lodging an
equivalent amount of their notes to be cancelled.
The common objection, that we should be inundated with
gaper money—that we should have over-issues, consequent
air Minion, destruction o(credit, of confidence, accompanied
by periodicel panics and crashes—may be made to this plan
In England, but will scarcely be repeated in Scotland,
where the guarantees against an over-issue have long and
effectively :checked the disease, or even in Ireland, where
their operation is practically known.
In Scotland interest is allowed on current accounts ; and
no
man, therefore, who has an account with a banker, re-
tains money in his poeussion. There can be no doubt that
the circulating medulla of England is—gold being in-
cluded—twenty-fold the currency of Scotland, for five
time. the population, who do not transact a propor-
tionately much larger business than that of Scotland.
A five-pound note in Scotland does four times the work
of in English contemporary. Notes, however, thus rapidly
paid into the office where the holder transacts his business,
are not largely those of that office. They are composed in
average quantities of the general currency ; and thus
tankers have • mutual exchange of their notes, paying the
Induces in bullion. The tendency to over-issue is thus effec-
tively checked by the knowledge that, within three days,
the "promises to pay" will be returned. This currency
must be convertible in bullion. There is a standard of money
value, and we do not require it changed. The paper cur-
rency tan still be held convertible into sovereigns at the pris-
ing weight. This convertibility, as an absolute badness
extending to the whole circulation, however, as has been
already stated, is, in any case, a fiztion. No man
really imagines that the currency is convertible. It
anew be supposed that all the paper in the country could be
psid in gold. The existence of this ability is, indeed, abso-
lutely unni cessary. Public confidence is the great requisite
for an internal currency. Public confidence is possessed by
the Snitch banks pre-eminently, and will ultimately be ac-
corded to all banks governed on the same principles, and
toeducted with equal prudence. Until very recently, little
or no gold has been demanded for notes in this couotry.
The gold required has been for exportation, and we have
lad no run upon the banks for internal purposes, until
within a few days in some localities of England.
Convertibility, therefore, really means public confidence
that, when required, the one-pound note will bring twenty
,▪ s • with a strong conviction that the change will
be required, except in small quantities. Bank, ri,
therefore, fur internal purposes, do not require a large stock
of coin. A stork of bullion is squired, however, some-
where to balance foreign exchanges. There is no proba-
bility that our outward business can ever present • fair ac-
count. There will be • balance on some side of the pap, r,
end it must be squared off.
We must, therefore, have a stock of bullion, and it has been
assumed that this stock should be kept by some large
bank, at present by the Bank of England. We see no
sound reason for that assumption. Some parties have pro-
pad that the government should buy all the railways,
and trade in that way. It is, at least, more consistent with
the functions of government that the Mint department
shooed hare the custody of coin and bullion. We ao not
stop to examine here the arrangements necessary for the
commencement of this system, because they are evidently
matters of detail ; but when the government has come into
the position of the Bank of England, as the bullion keeper
of the country, the subsequent working tray require to be
explained, and that can be done in • few sentences.
There is at present a fixed price of gold ; and as an inter-
nal standarl of value, it may be advantageous, although a
fixed price of any commodity appears inconsistent with prin-
ciples very generally held. This fixed price, however, is •
positive loss often in our transactions with foreign coun-
tries. Meech ants have frequently exported gold not to
balance exchanges, but se a commodity yielding a profit.
The government, therefore, should be empowered to sell
coin to those who want it for its average value in foreign
markets ; or, what comes nearly to the same result, be em
powered to charge • commiseion on coin required from them.
The principle on which the bullionista justify the sus
pended law is, that when the exchanges go against us by any
cause, such as the recent large !lurching of corn, the bill
operates to return gold by reducing the price of commodi-
ties, thus forcing them upon foreign markets, and re-
storing the equanimity of the exchanges. Tae operation is
extremely expensive. It reduces not merely the value of
geode exported or stocks sold in a foreign country, but all
other goods and stock whatever. We prefer to throw
out the inducement in another direction. Under the
system of currency we propose, there would not be large
quantities of coin in the vaults of bankers. When, there-
fore, a merchant required gold for the purposes of expert, he
would draw on his banker for the sum in bullion. The
latter would have to cancel notes to that amoutt in order to
obtain gold; or deposit his notes with the government office,
to cover the advance he required, at the price of gold in the
average of foreign countries, if that were higher than our
standard ; or at our standard, if it were lower. This opera-
tion would not narrow the circulation, because if
bankers found their issues shortened too much by
the transaction, they could increase them by far-
ther purchases of stock. The price of stocks gene-
rally and indirectly of goods and produce would be
partially maintained; while the export of bullion would be
so far discouraged as could be consistent with prudence, and
thus far inducements would be given to make payment in
goods of debts to foreign countries. We could conceive the
possibility of the government officers being nearly run out of
bullion. It is not a likely circumstance, but it might occur.
In that use, they would require to buy wherever it could be
found ; to incur loos in the purchase; and thus to raise the
price abroad, and necessarily at home, so as to accomplish
their object in getting the exchanges balanced by goods in-
stead of gold.
The nation would lose something by the transaction in
this scarcely possible case, but better that it should lose five
Of ten per cent. on the sum required, four or five millions,
dun, as during the recent crisis, eighteen to fifty per cent.
ilk all stock, share., and produce, reducing wages, anni-
hilating profits, stopping works, and causing a social revolu-
tion for the benefit of a few capitalists.
We are approaching the period when a change in the car-
reney laws will be made, and whatever may be the system
adopted, the principle of freedom of trade in money, as in
other matters, must be vindicated.—Tot's Magazine.