The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-20 00:00:00

THE CURRENCY.

Sitt,—A correspondent of the Times, who signs
himself "Spectator," has attempted to cram the "currency
question " into a nutshell, which he then cricks, laying the
kernel before his readers ea the sum and substance of what
demands their attention. This mode of isolating an im-
portant question, and cutting off all links of connexion that
couple it with passing occurrences, is commonly resorted to,
both in political and economical discussions, and it is this
which leads many to suppose that such discussions lead to no
practical use. The weaker party is of course the gainer by
the diffusion of this notion. Ili, aim is for the moment
gained, if he only succeed in proving that the whole mat-
ter in dispute is one of comparative insignificance.
In this manner, air, has the present currency crisis been
isolated by the advocates of the Bank Charter Art from the
serious considerations it involves, as 110041 LS its bearing on
the true source of wealth, the character and credit of British
traders and manufacturers, is put in its proper light. Penn
this point of view, the matter in debate cannot be Itsounvd to
be whether the Bank of England might safely Lillie d liWe
more or a little less; 1101- is a compar.son, such Is "Spec-
tator" has given, between the present issues and those of
1539, exhaustive on the suliji et of the limit whi, h the
Burk can be ellawed. The ipponeste the restrictive
=enures of 1• et are far from taking 'their stand on the
Bank Chart, A t abne. but look upon that as
the twat cussinsuons of a series of restri•Wve measures,
each se.' ell ci which rnilitst• against what is more int-
pot's,* *ben 8,9 existing bank, the true source of credit in
this mss 'I There ere, therefore, other opponents to that
=out, torn those whom "Spectator" has chosen to °unwise
end, .wc, heeds and they take their stand upon a much
r ground than the proportion of the present to the
past .sues/ the Bank of England.
Wiser we aro asked whether the present issue of
ti0,57:,0001. in 1 ink notes is not sufficient, seeing that in
11,39 only 1.5.5i0,0001, was issued by the bank, we must
deny that this question can be answered by a plain " yes" or

The Bank issues are not yet en isolated fact, according to
wb.ch our merchants have to regulate their trading opera-
tions, although the acts of 18W and 1844 tend to make them
such. Accordingly the amount and nature of those issues
still receives its stamp from what the nation at large is doing
outside the Bank walls. Were we, therefore, to admit that
such a question is at all relative to the present crisis, our
opponents must allow it to take a more genera: shape, and
it becomes this : " Under what circumstances can the cation
view the extension of imam by the Bank of England without
alarm ? " "Spectator" has answered this question in his own
fashion, when he 'aye that not less than 8,5(55,0001. is hoarded
in bullion in the Bank cellars. Ile triumphantly sake, there-
fore, is not this sufficient exertion of credit on such a basis
The render, doubtless, here peiceives the nutshell, and the
cranny through which all opposition is sought to be crammed
into it; but as we have taken our eland outside, we shall
answer in our own way. Were the gold in the Bank cellars
the real basis on which the present issues rested, we should
my they were not only enough, but that they were unjus-
tifiably, nay, criminally, large. Conjurors as the authors of
the Bank Charter Act wish to be thought, we cannot
imagine any trick of thimblerigging by which 36,868,1021. of
liabilities can be paid on demand in gold out of a stock of
sovereigns not exceeding 8,000,0001. We shall, therefore,
be excused if we acknowledge thtt the flippant tone which
has been adopted in some quarters when the present crisis
is talked of, makes a disagreeable impression on our
minds. We see an institution, the nature of which.
constitutes it a resource for the national credit in
emergencies, exposed to immiuent risk, from the I
thoughtless lcv.ty of thou' who first created and now
sneer at its dtn,p.r. That a continuation of mercantile
failures, on the scale of those which happened in September,
would lead to a run fur fold must be acknowledged pro-
bable. How the Bank would meet a run we leave to "Spec-
tator" and his friends to answer.

We do not, however, think the Bank issues exaggerated
or reprehensible, but not for the reason on which "Spectator"
apolagines for their amount. We believe the "other tecuri-
het, taken in connexion with the "government securities,"
to be full value for those issues; and, unier the circumstances
which throw the onus of supplying us with a circulating
medium, we reirr.l that both the amount of issuer and of the
"other securities" ace not larger than we find them.
These other securities" are formed of the elite of our
merchants' acceptances drawn by houses of unchallenged re-
putation. Cx-sar was not more careful of his wife's fair name
than the Bank is of the unsuspected value of the bills it dis-
counts. The rule by which it returns a bill as soon as either
drawer or acceptor tails has been complained of as a hardship.
Be this as it may: with the responsibility now unfairly
charged upon the Bank by its supposed friends, the directors
cannot be too cautious.
Now, the run which the gold cannot by any conceivable
circumstances meet or avert is prevented, and may ►e sail to
be morally impossible, as long as these '• ether securities "
retain their value-in other wads, aa lass as the 'majority

of our teldrekents retain their etedik,, Destroy this etedit,
lOaetber by false Icel.:Litton, demoralising ii.ttueneer, war,
Ot ruble( ry, and yuu liars your store of bullion to meet the
run which becomes inevitable Invigorate trading credit, by
education, by reforming your institutions, by ensuring indi-
viduals who unite in associations for industrial purposes the
greatest ponible security and liberty, and it is clear that the
store of bullion becomes a luxury which the Bank and the
nation can afford to keep, but which yields no mon than the
salvers and goblets upon a rich man's sideboard.
We have got a somewhat larger horison around us already
than " Spectator " wishes to allow ,• but we 'Dust take a slid
higher view of the securities on which the Bank issues are
founded. Let us consider that the whole amount of com-
mercial bills in circulation is not lees than 400,000,0001. The
20,000,0004. discounted by the Bank is but a small sum in
romper**. It would be a patriotic wish, that a larger
proportion deserved to be comprised in the elite. But who
is to sit as umpire on their merits " Spectator's" friends,
Sir It. Peel, Mr. M'Culloch, and Col. Towns, have con-
demned the whole mass—they are not drawn against gold.
But, in justice, no mere are the 20,000,0001. discounted by
the Bank, nor even the 14,090,0001. lent to goveznment.
Here, then, we stand on the bores of a dilemma. Will
" Spectator " content himself with 9,000,000 sovereigns as
the basis of our currency? Hee, he must recommend the
Bank to curtail its issues, fur by so doing he withdraws (as
has too sorely been felt) the strong hand of government from i
protecting the interests of trade ; which means the barter of
commodities. He thus reduces commercial actions to a scale
Is which it Is possible to represent all goods in geld,
sod to mein at this end be must anaihilate all real credit.
Tb• other 'view shows that the present issues of the Bank are
wit only oak but out of all proportion limited, when we re-
past **annual increase of the national property and the
growth of trade. Since 1839, one hundred and fifty millions
of property in railways alone has been created, and the in-
ternal traffic of the country bag perhaps doubled. An in-
creased circulation in the present year is so far from being
ground of alarm, that the very small amount of that increase
must strike every thinking man as an index of pressure ex-
isting somewhere. By the neglect of this very significant
index in some quarters, and its erroneous interpretation by
the friends of " Spectator," the present crisis has been
brought about.—Scatrraron.

Mze&ns. THOMAS, SON, AND LEFETHIL—A. meet-
ing of the creditors of Mean. Thomas, Son, and Lefevre was
held yesterday, Mr. Bosomy Dobrve in the chair, at which
the following statement was submitted:
Da. S s. d.
To sundry creditors
To acceptances viz..
actouat of De Jersey
and Co.
Oa account of J. Thomas
andCa.,St.Petersburg,
11/.., their droughts . 26,057 17 10
De Jersey end Co..'
draughts 74,610 7 0
Draughts of other par-
ties
115,907 10 6
On account of sundries 49,372 14
—116,009 6 11

401,760 9 4
To balance surplui 40,112 10 0