The Express.
London, England, 1853-10-24 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDA Y. OCTOBER 24.

TM: s;;lpt"ed peculiarity of the Bank Returns of
last week is the great diminution of the Reserve-
-1,10r1,14.;'. But this is a %Mill occurrence at this
period of the quarter and of Coo sear. In the cor-
responding a ctk of 1N.72. the reserve decreased,
1.111.2:;::.; of I3;r1, LPN/jilt; and of 180,
962.3 T"):. The amount of the reserve, however,—now
5.1:41,n....?.,—a as, in the corresponding week of 1832,1
j 2.0111. ; of 1831, 8,374,4109/. ;or Isso,
so that it is now lower by 1,271,2161., than at the
co. responding period of the year since 1840. The
of the reserve—Mdicating the dimished re-
nolret sof the Bank—is a more just cause of apprehen-
sion as to the future proceedings of that body than
the ,110 of the reserve, which is not greater than
usual in the third week of October.

Of late great interest has been excited by the
Bank, at.l as the Act of Is4l, which regulates the
issue of notes, must ere long undergo revision, we
caenot perhaps direct public attention too early to
the cor.sequ'•necs of .imitir.ee the issue of the
Bank b3oed the sum of 14,000,0001., by the
amount of gold iu its vaults. The Act requires that
the notes issued shall be equal in amount to the ag-
gregate ea:celiacs of bullion nod coin held by the
Moue department, including 11,000,0001. of public
securities. Ibis being a fixed sum, the notes issued
above this vary exactly as the bullion and coin in
the issue department of the Bank vary; and on
looking at the accounts it will be seen that there was
last wee: 322,3901. less gold coin and bullion in this
department than the week bc•fur, , and an equal decrease
in the notes issued. In relation to the issue department
the bal.'s:og department is considered a part of the
and cooscquently there was a diminution in
the week ending October 13, to which these returns
relate, of the sum borrowed by the Bank on its pro-
miser to pay of 522,390/. That is in fact a diminution
to that extent of the loanable resources of the Bank,
at 1 as the increased issue of notes from the banking
department in payment of the dividends, will, ac-
cording to rule, be speedily returned to it, we may
expect, so far as the Bank is concerned, from this
diminution of its issues,—a tighter Money Market.
At this time last year the amount of bullion in the
Bank was 21,700,0004, and the notes issued was
33,000,0601., together 56,700,0001.; now the bullion
is 11,679,0004, and the notes issued are 28,679,0001.,
together 43,35:4,0004, or a difference of 13,342,0001.
between then and now in the bullion and notes in
the Bank. By the operation of the law, therefore,
the paper money was muitiplied when the bullion
was abundant, and it is diminished now that
the bullion has decreased. The law which makes the
amount of bank-notes issued, or credit money, de-
pend ou bullion cannot be exonerated from the
charge of having made money improperly cheap in
le-,2 and improperly dear in 1833.
From the highest point to which the bullion in
the Bank reached, in July, 1832, 21,977,0001. to the
present time, when it amounts to 13,271,4741., the
decrease is 6,70.5,526/. ; and an equal decrease of
notes having taken place. the decrease of money
since last July is upwards of 13,400,0001. The Bank
0' England is not singular in having a diminished
quantity of bullion. Since the beginning of the
present half year, or since March, the Bank of
Fiance has lost 6,200,0001. of bullion. Since the
beginning of the year the imports of bullion into
the United States have amounted to 43,362,429
doll., and there have been exported 15,007,785
dole, leaving 29,354,844 dole. to be accounted
for. The banks have absorbed of this sum 934,836
dole., the sub•tressury 6,292,782 dots., and the mint
1,492,044 dols., making a total of 8,719,642 dole., and
leaving nearly 20,000,000 dole. not accounted for.
These 20,000,000 dole., says the Guided Slates Eco-
itoo.ist of the Bth inst., from which we have bor-
rowed these figures, " have been absorbed in the
circulation enhanced by the great productions natural
and manufactured." Taking the round number of
4,000,0001. for the last sum, and adding it to the
6,200,0001. lees possessed by the Bank of France,
and adding also the 8,705,526/. which has gone out of
tli Bank of England, we arrive at the conclusion that
since the beginning of the year about 17,000,000/. of
bul.ion has been absorbed and taken into use by the
active, busy commercial world. We may state that
aim to be about the amount of the increase in circu-
lation required to carry on the great increase of
business which has ensued within that period. The
apprehensions of war in some places, and its actual
prevalence in Able% say have led to some
hoarding, bat that cannot be much. Any each hoard-
ing could have had no influence on the States;
it meld only recently have had any influence in
Europe; and this absorption of bullion began before
the close of last year, and leas great in the States as
in England and France. The greater portion of it
le due to the increased activity and great extent of
commerce,—and after the gold discoveries this great
absorption of bullion by business is one of the most
extraordinary circumstances of the time.

The Act of 1844, which made it imperative on the I
Bank to limit it issues above 14,000,000/. by the
amount of bullion in its coffers, also fixed the circu-
lation of private banks at the amount then in exist-
ence, and discountenanced the use of private bank
notes. Since then, however, a large and a continual
increase has taken place in the wealth of society, and In
the credit indispensable to carry on the increase of
trade has increased in like proportion. But the Legia.
lature has placed an artificial and arbitrary barrier I
to the increue of money representing credit. It haat,
aide the amount depend on the bullion in the Bank
of England—though what relation there is between "
the• and the actual business carried on and actual
credit required in society, no economist, or financier,
or law-maker has yet found out. Instead of the
bulion in the Bank increasing with business and
credit, it decreases in a manner quite remarkable ;
and the consequence is, that precisely at the period
when credit money should be increased, because
business is wonderfully increased, and because
a greatly increased quantity of commodities
arc on their way to the market, the Legislature
arbitrarily forbids it, and causes that deficiency of
credit money, and that great rise in the rate of '
interest which the diminished resources of the Bank
compel it to ordain. It makes an artificial scarcity,
and forces men to use gold when they would other- ,
wise use paper. Of the present dearness of money,
as of its cheapness in 18.12, the Act of 1844 is more
guilty than the war in the East or the exporters to
Australia, who have only carried on business in the
ordinary way. Whatever wrong they may do in
exporting too much, they must answer for it in inade-
gume returns and diminished fortunes; but the
greater wrong done by the Legislature falls on the
whole community, which suffers severely, and can
with great difficulty detect the source of the evil.

As we draw near the end of October we are able
to ascertain how much allowance we must make, in
computing our crops, for the effect of the raise of the
last year. Without enlarging on our misfortunes of
this kiiid we may just refer to the excessive wet
which iLterfered with the last autumn's sowing, and
real that Ike:ember and January were so warns u
to prepare such plants as had germinated for destruct-
tion by the frosty weather which set in, ir. February.
In April both the atmosphere and the soil were
colder than in December and January ; and on the
ttth of May the ground was covered with snow over
almost all England. June was fine on the whole;
but Je!y, which is expected to warm the
soil in preparation for the &dieting sunshine
of August, was wet and chilly; and the only wonder
is, that, considering the perversity of the tempera-
tures of the year, we have any harvest at all. The
agricultural world knows very well that the time
WAS when such a season would have cut off the bar-
vest almost entirely, and that we owe our partial sup-
plies to agricultural improvement, especially in the
form of drainage, by means of which much cold
wet has been drawn off, and much atmospheric
warmth admitted to the roots of the growing crops.
Having learned and effected thus much, the agricul-
tural world is ready to learn new lessons from such a
season as that of 18e):3, and to try how much more of
a remedial nature can be effected. If we cannot make
the sun shine, we can save the earth from much chill;
and the drawing away the waters from the soil is
surely the next best thing to sweeping away the
clouds from the sky. In defiance of ancient jokes,
we may make ourselves clerks of the weather-
office without ridicule, after all. The next ques-
tion is.—who is to do this? Under the existing
scarcity of labour and rise of wages, can a new kind
of public works, so extensive as that of systematic
arterial drainage, be proposed? Why, yes, if it be
sufficiently profitable—anything like so profitable as
it has been found in detail, where wisely performed.
And there is, as we have observed before, the great
resource of convict labour. At this moment Captain
DEtsnAM, we are told, is in the South Seas, looking
about fur islands for penal colonies. At this moment
our bulks are already becoming overcrowded ; so
that the very dangerous experiment is tried of re-
leasing convicts, with tickets of leave, from sheer
want of accommodation for a troop of successors. At

this moment Colonel it 1313 issues • report which
tells us what has been done on Dartmoor by
convict labour. The inmates of the Dartmoor
Prison have reclaimed and placed under til-
lage Oi acres of land, turned bog into water meadows,
irrigated with liquid manure; manufactured manure
for sale out of peat aid other substances; stored
peat for gas to light, and fuel to warm the prison ;
finished a great tank, and acres of planting, and
many thousands of yards of wall ; raised great crops
of roots, hay, and garden vegetables, and a group of
farm buildings, and a respectable amount of stock—
and all this in a place where their labour interfered
with nobody, their encroachments being upon a mere
desert and nothing else. The estimated expenses of
the prison during the last year amount to 28,0001.,
and the value of the labour of the convicts to about
18,0001. May we not take the hint ? Whilst the
new penal settlement is unfound, here is a suggestion
of a great fund of labour, with a wet season, to indi-
cate exactly what we ought to do with it. Here is a
mode of employing our convicts. There would be no
room in this case for the old and un-
manageable complaint about giving away to
convicts the employment of honest men.
We see no signs of any honest men being set
to work systematically to secure us arterial drainage
by improving our watercourses; and let us by all
means get that service out of the thieves, at least till
we have found soma outlying place to send them to,
They cannot endanger society so much, if duly
superintended, as the ticket-of-leave men, who are
free to go into the towns. Instead of the existing
hulks, with dockyard labour, we should have smaller
vessels and convict companies, with meadow labour,
with such constant change of place as would obviate
the danger and inconvenience of convict residence.
We see what has been done with a stationary Daft-
moor : why should we not try a floating and itine-
rating Dartmoor—at any rate, partially and tem-
porarily, while pondering the convict case? It is
certain that, if our convicts cannot give us* thorough
arterial drainage, we must find honest men to
do it, for it requires no sorcery to foretell that it is
one of the things which will come to pus, as surely
as the seedtime and the harvest which demand it.

LATEST FROM THE CONTINENT.

RUSSIA AND TURKEY.
The fallowing telegraphic despatches have been
received from Vienna :

CONSTANTINOPLE, Orr. 17.

The combined Beets have pained through the Dar-
danelles; they will proceed up to Constantinople,
one by one. Hostilities are to commence forthwith.

Bt CHATINST, Oar. 15.

I Omer Pacha is preparing to mom the Danube,
near Ibraili and Widdin. Bridges have been con-
structed to the islands nearly opposite those places
which Turkish corps already occupy.

", Ocr. 15.

Letters from Bucharest state that strong rein-
forcements of Russian cavalry have entered Walla-
chia. Prince Clortachakoff passes all his time with
the troops, and has several times ordered the alarm
to be sounded to convince himself of the alacrity of
the troops.

AUSTRIA.

VIENNA, Ocr. 20.

The Prince of Montenegro is increasing his forces.
Denis Pacha, who commanded a corps in the late'
war, has arrived at Mostar, and is to organise a
Turkish force to watch the frontier. The Austrian
Archduke Ferdinand Max has been seat into that
neighbourhood. Salim Pacha is made Governor of
Antivari. In the Ga:ette the Austrian government
officially contradicts the report from Orson of the
12th, according to which the Turks were threatening
to attack Halefat.