The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-07 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JUNE 7, 1853.

place, in the price of many commodities ; there is a!
growing apprehension for the coming harvest, not '
only here but on the Continent, and the corn
merchants of England, preparing to meet the emer-
gency, aro ordering more corn from America and
from the east of Europe. From the extension of
trade and the general rise of prices, freights have
risen ; ships enough for the ordinary purposes of
commerce can scarcely be obtained, and all these cir-
cumstances extend very much the demand for capital.
Some payments, too, for making railways are still
in progress, though of no very great amount, but while
they are an investment of capital, for the sake of
income, never to be returned,—the expenditure of
which only pays the wages of labourers, many of
them now foreigners, and replaces the capital of
some brickmakers, ironmssters, and others, some of
wham are foreigner,,—the capital invested in trade,
in supplying Australia, in importing corn, in bring-
ing hither cotton and wool, and all the raw material
of manufactures, is continually renewed or replaced
with a profit. All the present and all
the recent extensions of business, therefore,
requiring a large increase of capital, but stimulating
production and consumption in every part of society,
serve, as the enterprises are completed, continually
to enlarge the capital of the country. The gold
which has of late been poured in so plentifully, a
great deal of which has been exported almost as soon
as it arrived, has no peculiar utility or value that
should make us prefer it to other capital ; but when
it comes hither in greater abundance than it goes
away, it is a proof that the enterprises of our mer-
chants have been successful. The increase of gold,
as of other commodities, is a test of their having
carried on a profitable trade, and it is only as a proof
of the increase or decrease of capital in the country
that the increase or decrease of the gold in the Bank
of England can have any influence over the rate of
interest.

The bullion in the Bank at present is 17,944,5471.,
a large supply is relation to the notes in circulation,
and in relation to the average quantity of bullion in
the Bank. But the bulk of this gold belongs to its
depositors; there is a certainty of a large sum being
abstracted from it, and the amount has successively
declined from 20,686,5171. at this time last year,
from 22,065,3491. at the end of July last year, and
from 20,527,6621. at the beginning of the present
' year to the sum above mentioned. In losing, as we
have shown, a large portion of its deposits, the
Bank has lost the gold from its vaults, and
there is thus evidence, not only of the
diminution of its own resources, but of
continual demand for capital which the returns of
trade at present do not immediately replace. In
fact, rising prices and considerable profits continually
tend to increase trade, and the merchant no sooner
completes one successful operation than he engages
in another still more extensive; thus while the
supply of capital is continually augmenting, the de-
mands on it by his success are continually increasing.
The abstraction of gold from the Bank, as its great
depository, and the gradual rise of the rate of interest
in the market, wholly independent of the Bank, indi-
cate that capital is not replaced with an adequate
profit quite as fast as it is expended. For a brief
period, therefore, wholly irrespective of winds or
arrivals from Australia, we may expect a tightened
money market; but the action of the Bank which
brings this condition prominently into notice, and
helps to strengthen it, is mainly dictated by its own
comparatively enfeebled resources, and slightly only
by the demand for capital being temporarily in ex-
cess of the aver-renewed supply.

LAST night's adjourned debate on India was
very ponderous. Sir hits Wm Boon was
ready with a formidable array at figures to allow
what a debt of gratitude India owes to Leadenhall-
street. But if less confused than -PRESIDENT of
the &mac of CONTROL in his statements, he was
equally unsuccessful in making out the case he sought
to establish. The impression gains ground, and
is likely to gain ground, that this Government
measure on India is merely a Continuance Bill,
under the pretence of real legislation. There is no
term to the proposed new arrangement; and the way
is open for further legislation whenever we please.
Most foolishly the Government throw away all the
advantage they might derive from a temporary
arrangement, and subject themselves to allthe mischief,
without any of the benefit, of assuming that the matter
will be settled should the new measure pass. If they
had avowedly proposed a Continuance Bill for a couple
of years there would have been more satisfaction in
India, among those who most need satisfaction, than
has been caused by any other legislative act we ever
had to report to them. They would have borne their
(Mill with some patience, ander such an engage.
ment that their ease should be looked into.
But, the Government say, the Board of Directors
and other authorities, pray for settlement above
everything. Immediate legislation was the key-
note last night of Sir J. Went Hoax Nothing
is so bad for India as suspense. But the
Directors must know very well that theirs is a sus-
pensive meow& and not a renewed leave for twenty
years. So Leadenhall-street must be displeased,
too. And weir they may be; for no man with a
grain of sense will take this proposed bill as a settle.
meat. The measure is wonderfully like its pro-
pounder, as he appeared on Friday night—at once
vague and finical--arrogant and uncandid—unre-
panting and grudging, but compelled to yield
—full of ostentation, while wholly below the occa-
sion. One small particular shows the spirit and
logical quality of the speech as well as half
a hundred. Sir C. WooD, in presenting a pic-
ture of native Indian life under our rule, enlarged
upon the blessing of the small taxation
of the people. He quoted the " great poli-
tical economists" for the doctrine that taxation should
be raised from the smallest possible number of
articles, saying " that recommendation is entirely
attended to in this case, and every article of con-
sumption in India is excluded from tax except salt."
Three. times over, he pointed out that salt is the
only taxed article of consumption. How the con-
sumption of salt, which is a prime necessary of life
to a population living on vegetable food, has fallen
off to an enormous extent, we have already shown.
This salt—by the enormous taxing of which in
former times hundreds of thousands of the natives
were swept off by disease—has now, under lighter
duties, returned less to Government, by a very heavy
sum, in three years, than before. What an inference
this yields, as to the state of the people which Sir
CHARLES WooD and Sir JASON Willi Bonn repro-
sent as improved and continually rising. What
an infliction it is to read their basting;, when we
know what the state of things really is ! and if it be
so to us, who are interested in the case only through
conscience and sympathy, what must it be to the
people of India, sitting amidst their desolation, to
hear of the pictures offered to our Parliament and
nation of the bleadngs of our rule in Hindustan
Sir C. WooD draws unfavourable likenesses of the
mien who were there before us. It is a pity he did
not think what might be said by those who will
come after us. It is from official personages on the
spot that we learn (for the natives have no means of
informing us) that the native aristocracy are disap-
pearing; that the native gentry are gone; and
that the peasantry are paying the taxes with their
tools and cattle, after having parted with their per-
sonal ornaments. And this is true of regions widely