The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-26 00:00:00

TO CUithESFONDENTS.

43coud Mitt= ool.n. Express.'" (=Winne tna same evening's
Olifile.° 14 kogiblith,l Clrtly TUPC) anal Triday Lias
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trot wes,,u. intended far "The ri;ifew,“ Lawton Peening gaper.
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day of puo.estmoi.

MOH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tao Day—nonins. 311.3!* Afternoon Ih 19‘.
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6h. 40m.

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LILVDO4V, TUESDAY, JULY 26.

Lonn Deane met with signal discomfiture in
the attempt he made last night to induce the
Peers to :outdate) the Tax on Successions Bill
It will be bees by the debate that the ex-Premier
brought forward certain amendments in Committee,
the obvious effect of whi:b, if carried, would have
been to destroy the measure;—by depriving its provi-
sions of all their impartiality, and by postponing in-
definitely those pecuniary results anticipated by the
CHANCELLOR of the Exults ems:a : results which,
under the financial arrangements of the year, are in-
dispensable to avoid au actual deficit iu the national
pocket. Lord DERBY, with his usual recklessness of
everything but the defence of his own personal con-
duct and policy, admitted that what ho was seeking
to reject was " the corner-stone of the whole financial
system "of the Government. Yet with perfect 'any-
fruid he urged upon the House of Lords the propri-
ety and expediency of displacing it by a summary
vote at the very end of the session; and thus prac-
tically assuming the function of overhauling, nay,
of absolutely nullifying, the deliberate proceedings of
the only assembly in the realm which by the letter
and spirit of the constitution has the right to deal
with matters of taxation. But the majority of the
Peers have shown themselves wiser in their genera.
tion than their giddy and intemperate favourite. By
102 to 68 they overruled the perilous proposition of
Lord DERBY, and ratified the justice of the principle
that an inheritance in land ought to yield to
the national revenue an amount of contribution
equal to that so long paid by those who come into
the possession of property in money or other chattels
by testamentary disposition. And certain it is, as
was well expressed by Lord LANSDOWNE, that in
thus :acquiescing promptly in an enactment so pal.
pably equitable and fair, their lordships are doing
about the most prudent thing,—in a strictly selfish
point of view,—that can well be conceived.
But Lord DERBY, who seems to be wholly inca-
pable of estimating political consequences, would fain
have had the Peers vote an amendment, the terms of
which would have exempted all successions created
by settlement bearing date prior to the present year
from the operation of the bill, upon the plea that other-
wise Parliament would be enacting a retrospective
law. But what is the retroactive effect of such
a measure compared with that of the Incumbered
Estates Act, which even he did not venture to reject
when in opposition, or to repeal when in poster? It
was clear that to make such an exemption would be
to adjourn the practical utility of the measure for
many years to come; and substantially, therefore,
the amendment must be considered as tantamount to
defeating the bill. But in that view the proper
course would have been to have taken issue on the
second reading,—which the Tory opposition, for some
sagacious but inscrutable reasons, omitted to do. In
vain Lord St. LEONARD'S and his Grace of CLEVE-
LAND endeavoured to reconcile this inconsistency
on such incidental ground as that of time. Equally
abortive was the effort of Lord DERBY himself to
make it appear that it was for the middle
classes deriving property by inheritance that he was
generously pleading, rather than for the landed
aristocracy, whose titled chiefs he was addressing.
Lord ABERDEEN'S answer was telling and triumphant.
They all knew, said the Prime Minister, that it was
not generally the custom amongst the middle orders
of society to make, as the phrase went, "eldest
sons:"—property acquired by industry, when it did
not reach a very large amount, was usually distri-
buted among the family according to rules which by
those who had accumulated it were deemed meet
equitable :—it was among the class whom the
Peers more especially represented that a different
practice prevailed ;—and there could be no disguise
regarding the fact that the prejudices and jealousies
which Lord DERBY and his associates sought to
enlist in their cause were essentially those of heredi-
tary rank and fortune. The middle classes, whose
property for the most part is known to consist of
chattel and personal estate, already pay the tax on

successions—that tax which, when extended to free-
hold inheritance, Lord DERBY does not scruple to
designate as "plunder." It is fair and reasonable
that a merchant or a tenant farmer, a physician or a
manufacturer, should be taxed from one to ten per
cent. according to the disposition by will of his pro-
petty, but—according to Lord DEBBY—it is " plun-
der" when the nobleman or baronet of equal wealth
is subjected to an equal impost. The honesty and
liberality of the Tory Peer were never more trans-
parently displayed than in this assertion.
Much anxiety was evinced by several of the im-
penetrable dullards of the late Cabinet to repudiate
the memorable admissions made by Mr. DISRAELI,
when trying to lead them out of the slough of their
effete prejudices—respecting this very extension of
the Tax on Successions. Lord ABERDEEN read,
amid the cheers of the House, several passages from
the Budget Speech of the late CnAxcELLos of the
ExcnErwEß, pointing plainly and irresistibly to the
necessity of dealing with the anomaly that has here-
tofore been suffered to exist. Ho was first inter-
rupted by& peevish and petulant call to order by Lord
DERBY, and subsequently by an equaUy foolish,
though more solemn, disclaimer by Lord HARD-
WICKE of the sentiments of his former colleague. Mr.
DISRAELI can well afford to pity and forgive these
lordly niaiseries, when he recollects how signally the
views he was the first to broach as Finance Minister
have been confirmed by the deliberate votes not only
of the Commons but also of the Peers.

The event of last night will be a warning to
leaders like Lord Dsnnv not to try issues in future
upon great questions in Committee. On the second
or third reading of • bill proxies are available ; but
In Committee the indolent members of the Upper
House cannot be made useful to their party, fur they
cannot be persuaded to attend. No diligence or im-
portunity on the part of the aristocratic "whips"
can succeed in inducing effluent and pleasure-seeking
members of the Upper House to forego their amuse-
pents or other pursuits after the weather has become
hot, and a prolonged residence in town has become
irksome. Men liko Lord MORNINGTON may be
brought down on such occasions to take the oaths
and their seats for the purpose of voting against jos-
tie° and right ; but personages like the Duke of
RwrLAND refute to postpone their yachting cam-
lions for a few days at this season of the year foe
the purpose of being told in a division at Westmin-
ster. Verily the Tory party seems to he iu a state
of rapid thaw—to the great benefit of the nation. It
now only remains to make the third reading secure,
and the Successions Duty Bill—the corner-stone of
M►. GLNIP,TONE'S Budget—will quickly be the law
of the laud.

WUAT do men want to borrow ? is just now,—when
a great deal is said about the interest of money,--a
question of considerable importance. The usual

answer, of course, is—" money;" and as there is a :
probability of gold coming into the country in
great quantities, the inference immediately drawn '
is, that money will be plentiful and interest low.
But no person borrows money to keep it. Almost
all borrowed money is immediately expended. If
borrowed by a spendthrift, it goes very soon for I
horses or fine clothes, or wines or carriages, orb
whatever the man has • taste or a desire for. The
jockey or the tailor, or the wine-merchant, does not
keep it in his pocket, or in his till, except for a
short time, when ho buys with it more '
of the commodities he has sold, or sends it to
his banker to bo ready for tho purchase of more

commodities. In the meantime it swells the amount
of his bank deposits, and enables the banker to lend
something more to some one else. The con-
sumption of the spendthrift replaces with a profit
the capital of the tradesman, and enables and in-
duces him to buy more goods to sell to other spend-
thrifts. The original borrower only borrows money
to obtain possession of the commodities he covets,
and the result of the loan is to increase the demand
for the goods on which it is expended.
But the greatest borrowers are the industrious
classes, who borrow to make money by the loan,
and who immediately expend every farthing they
borrow in buying more commodities to sell again.
The merchant, who borrows on the invoices of a
cargo coming to him, or discounts the bills which his
correspondent has sent to him in payment of his
last consignment of hardware, does so to continue
his transactions—to order more coffee from the
Brazils or to pay the manufacturers of Sheffield or
Birmingham for an additional quantity of hardware
to export. If the spendthrift could have carriages,
horses, wine, &c., without borrowing money, or if
the merchant could at once and immediately barter
his whole cargo of coffee for an additional quantity of
hardware, neither would borrow money as the mere in-
strument for attaining his ends. What men want the
loan of, therefore, and what they borrow money to
command the use of, is other commodities than
money, carriages, wines, coffee, hardware, &c., whe-
ther they are for their own personal consumption or
to be exchanged with a view to profit.
Money is merely the instrument for borrowing
goods as it is merely the instrument for making ex-
changes ; and, as all the money in the world is a very
small sum in comparison to the wealth it exchanges
—as one sovereign in its time is the means of buying
and selling many thousand pounds' worth of goods
—so all the money in the world is a
sum very small in comparison to the immense
masses of goods it enables men to borrow and lend.
Great too as is the increase of money from Californian,
Australian, Russian, and Mexican mines, the increase
bears but a very small proportion to the increasing
wealth it is intended to circulate, and much as all
our banking improvements tend to economise the use
of money, it seems probable the number of mines is
so small compared to the number of all other classes
of producers, that the proportion which tho whole
money in the world bears to all other commodities,
must be continually diminishing. If it were not
that we continually find out methods of
transacting business, of buying and selling,
of borrowing and lending, of actually bar-
tering goods fur goods, or services for
services, without using money at all, we
should be much hampered in our oper-
ations, and the increase of wealth would be
retarded by a scarcity of money. It is not, there-
fore, the abundance of the instrument for making
wars and for making exchange which settles the terms
on which loans shall be made and exchange effected,
but the relative abundance or the scarcity of the
commodities which men require, whether to consume
them or to trade with them for a profit.
Corn has risen is. to 10s. per quarter within a short
time, and any man who now wants to buy or to bor-
row corn must pay more for it than he did a month
ago, though in the meantime money has not be-
come more abundant or scarce. If he buy or borrow
cora to make money by selling it, his profit, or the
interest he makes of his venture, will depend
not on the quantity of money, but on the quantity
of corn, and on the number of people requiring it
hereafter. Thus the rate of profit and the rate of
interest on money as the mere instrument of trade
does not depend on the quantity of money, but on the
quantities of various useful and desirable commodities
in exisicnce and on the number of persons demand-
ing them.

We scarcely need tell our readers that at present
the demand for all kinds of commodities is very
great. The proportion is rapidly increasing between
those who want food and the amount of food at their
command, and accordingly the price of breadstuffs,
meats, and provisions of all kinds, is rising more or
less rapidly throughout the commercial world. By
the last arrivals from Australia the want of goods of
all kinds there is so great that our merchants
are reproached with sluggishness for the
deficient supply, and we learn by statements
from France that silk is much wanted to
carry on the manufacture at Lyons. There are
ten buyers it is said tor every parcel of silk to be
sold; and at the same time cotton is rising in our

own market and in the markets of the continent.
Such is the demand at Manchester for cloth that
many qualities hitherto considered only suitable for
the eastern markets are now bought for home use, We
are far from saying that the gold discoveries have not
contributed to this result. They have abstracted
from Europe a considerable quantity of labour or
productive power which for a season they have ren-
dered unproductive, however more productive it will
become hereafter. They have excited hope and sti-
mulated enterprise. While they have taken labour
from our market they have given it abroad a rich re-
ward, end have contributed, with other causes, to
raise the wages of labour, and raise the standard of
its rewards all over the world.
From whatever combination of causes the effect
may have been produced, it cannot be denied that
consumption has overtaken production in all three.
lions, that everywhere there is an active and efficient
demand for more food, more clothing, more comforts,
and more luxuries of all kinds. To bay these com-
modities men must give more for them. They can
only be borrowed, too, on higher terms. It is natural
to suppose that the demand which has begun will
continue to increase, and not only must men give
more for commodities, but all who borrow
them will be willing to give more because
on no other terms can they continue busi-
ness, and because they will expect as the
demand increases to make more profit by the loan.
Trade is most active with rising markets. The pre-
sent rise in price, therefore, and the present general
demand for goods in excess of the production, is a
sign that the interest of money— however large or
small may be the supply of gold—will become higher.
One of the great exchanges to which, perhaps, in
amount all other exchanges are subordinate is that
between capital and labour—between property al-
ready realised and industry wanting property. At
present this species of exchange is excessively active.
Capital can scarcely get enough industry for its pm-
poses, and industry cannot find enough capital to
pay for its exertions. Though the competition be-
tween them is in general very great, and the chief
deduction from profit is wages—the one varying in-
versely as the other—yet, at the present time, profit
is so large, or is expected to be so large, that capi-
talists are willing to give, and do give, much higher
rewards to the labourer than formerly. At present,

both profits and wages }Hive increased, and both
classes who carry on the great exchange between
property already realised and inciJetry wanting pro-
perty are in an improved condition, sod are pleased
with their prospects. But these classes constitute
the bulk of society, and both being comparatively well
off, the present great demand for commodities of all
kinds is more likely to increase than diminish. But
there are also the bulk of the producers, and when
we say the mutual exchanges are large, active, and
profitable, capital is well employed and production is
immense as well as consumption. A general rate of
high wages implies the employment of great armies
of labourers, and that production is going on in like
proportion.

With active and immense production—with a con-
tinually increasing demand—with both labourer and
capitalist acquiescing in their mutual shares, if not ex-
actly contented—with a strong and a just expectation
that thedemand will be even greater hereafter than at
present, there must be a strong desire to borrow
capital, in order to share in this general prosperity.
Every day almost gives a fresh stimulus to peaceful
and profitable industry. Every day adds to the
demands of industry on realised property—promising
to repay the loans with profit. Every day, there-
fore, till new enterprise shall be rewarded with a
great increase of realised property, must see the
demand for capital increase; and every day there is
a tendency to a rise in the value of money as
the instrument of borrowing, of buying, and
of selling. We are not surprised, therefore,—
though the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER and
some actuaries who have assumed 3 per cent. as the
natural rate of interest, may be—to learn that bets are
laid in the City that interest will rise to 5 per cent.
before Christmas. Such a circumstance, though
attended by some inconvenience to a few, would be
to the community as little disastrous as it is at pre-
sent generally unexpected.