The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-01 00:00:00

2

in the way of vanity and servility require, titles-4a
of themselves to a discount ; dukes become one-pound
notes, of which it requires one and a half to mate an
honest guinea ; and barons are bad shillings, scarcely
worth sixpence. Half the political gentlemen in
Paris, Messrs. TITIEIS and Guam. included. OM
barons, but blush to own the soft impeachment. What
earthly hum lies in the innocent creation P In these
mild and generous days, instead of sending our ene-
mies to perdition, let us simply wish them no more
harm than to be ridiculous.

Britons events are daily adding to our e
on the subject of banking. We think the d%tillao:
server cannot but recognise a striking accordance in
the occurrences of the last and the present year, both
at home and amongst our neighbours. The moat pre-
judiced in favour of any particular system will own
that grave reasons have presented themselves for re-
considering what were considered to be established
principles.'
Foremost amongst the principles which a few years
back it was much the fashion to decry, was the
notion of leaving bankers the uncontrolled manage-
ment of their issue. As long. as private
banks would issue notes at will, the misery attending
every crisis was unscrupulously charged to the ac-
count of the banker, who was accused of having
nourished speculation. It was of no avail that the
banker who did so became the sure victim of his im-
prudence, and thus served as a warning to his
compeers. Bankers were assumed to be incorrigible
venders of worthless paper when they had an oppor-
tunity. The public was voted to be incapable of re-
sisting the temptation to take notes which were known
to be issued without security and without limit.
Sailing upon this current of public opinion, the
followers et Sir Roemer PEEL'S policy voted a
strait-waistcoat for every banker, as the sole way of
protecting an unarmed and simple public from his
predatory claws. Experiments have since then been
tried in eoarly all the states of Europe, both on the
results of restricted and of unlimited issues. Those of
the Austrian minister of finances are amongst the pro-
minently useful lessons that have been taught us.
Baron Kumsee came into office with an impression
that the Bank of Vienna, which, until his time, bail
been managed by directors chosen from the leading
merchants of that city, had degenerated from its on-
ginal character for general usefulness, and had become
the mere tool of the rich houses who had access
to its coffers. He found that thus houses
had bills to an enormous amount in its portfolio, and
that the Vienna firms had become organs through
which the paper currency of the bank circulated to
the remotest corner of that immense empire, the
extremities of which are about eighteen hundred
miles asunder. The insinuations of rivals and ene-
mies, and the prospect of never-fading laurels to be
gained by a successful exploit in this field, where he
bad full liberty from his colleagues to do as he liked,
urged him to adopt a decided line of reform. The
governor of the bank, although then a merchant, was
named by the crown. The firm of which he was a
partner, got into difficulties, and stopped payment.
A great deal of their peter was in the hands of the
bank. The opportunity and the exc2se for acting
with decision were furnished, and the minister did not
let them slip. Stringent restrictions were imme-
diately enforced against the large houses that Ltd
availed themselves of bank accommodation. They
were pressed so hard that many broke, entailing rain
on thousands, and spreading dismay throughout the
commercial world. In the confusion that ensued,
nothing was talked of bat the vigour of mind shown
by the not very youthful minister, and the criminal
extent to which accommodation had been afforded to
those who did not deserve it No evidence was
produced u to the share the unffirtunate
house had in promoting trade, or agricul-
tural and manufacturing industry in the remote
provinces of the empire, which without each accom-
modation, or its surrogate, a good organisation of local
private credit, could not have been effected. Still less
did any inquire into the possibility that the trading
connexion of those houses was as useful to the bank,
as the aid of the bank was to them. Such questions
are seldom asked anywhere, and we cannot wonder
at their not presenting themselves to the minds ofjhe
people of Vienna. But the reformation that had been
projected was accomplished. The direction was re-
constituted, and the control of the bank placed more
immediately under the Minister of Finance, who soon
after started a novel system. This consisted in an
extension of the issues on the authorisation of the
minister, beyond the strictly trading limit.
When the tide of speculation that had so long
favoured railway enterprise began in 1846 to set
against it, the pressure of fresh calls became early
sensible at Vienna. Baron KIJBECK thought to stay
its force by purchases of shares made on government
account whenever the market flagged. A large issue
of notes was the result, which, not being called for
oy a corresponding increased production, threatened
to bring about a depreciation. The minister became
alarmed, and tried to stop his supplies, bat was met
by irresistible evidence of the imminence of a tremen-
dous crash the moment he did so, which he had not
the nerve to encounter. A notification has, therefore,
been issued to the effect that the purchases will be
continued, although the result of pressing them much
further may be foreseen by all.
This result of ministerial interference in trading
matters, to the extent of regulating the dependence
of the trader on his banker, is here attended within a
short space with its inevitable accompaniment—an as-
sumption of responsibility by the servants of the
crown which they have no means of supporting. A
depreciation of the bank paper would, by destroying
trade, endanger the political stability of the empire;
and if a revolution were avoided, the loss of so useful
an establishment as a central national bank would be
almost irreparable. All this has been encountered by
a minister's attempting to strengthen the bank and
extend its functions through government support. In-
. stead of appealing to trade, and awakening the whole-
-1101110 competition of private credit, which would
eventually have called forth a circulation of local
notes that could be exchanged for those of the
national bank in case of need, and which would have
given a proper elasticity to the currency, all private
issues were suppressed, and branch banks in all the
provinces were substituted for the trading connexion
that had been destroyed. But the asks of the
central bank, which might, if the natural chan-
nels for circulation had not been stopped up,
. have circulated almost without limit, threat-
ened to become a drug when there was no com-
mercial confidence to carry them into circulation.
Baron Kuesce, like every other minister who tries
the experiment, will find that no one, not even the
crown, has en unlimited power of issue, and that the
public not only keeps a strict watch over all who pro-
fess to trade on creffit, but that it is both a safer and
less onerous to
to leave banking to those who un-
derstand its laws and have watched their operation
practically in spheres to which a minister's eye can

It appears from our Paris despatches of Wednesday,
that the popular demonstrations in favour of parlia-
mentary and electoral reform, are assuming a foroe
and extension which the court and cabinet had not
at all anticipated, and consequently • to excite
both attention and uneasiness. The nat Meaux
was signed by 1,700 persons. monster ban-
quet is now announced at Comes.
The frightful massacre of the Arab tribes in Mo-
rocco, reported in the Paris journals, appears, by
more recent arrivals, to have been greatly under-
stated, owing to a press error of the Algiers journal
rEcho d'Oran, front which the report was taken.
„A typical error," says that journal of the 18th Sept.,
" was committed in oar last number. In the report
of the extermination of the tribes of the Hachema and
Beni-Amen we gave their numbers at from 1,200 to
1,500 only; it was 12,000 to 15,000 we should have
printed ! !—and it would have been more exact to
have stated a higher number." Truly, French domi-
nation in Africa is destined to be recorded in charac-
ters of blood. These unfortunate triles took refuge
among their fellow-religionists in Morocco, who ex-
terminated them in cold blood, flinging the children
over precipices and into ravines. To prove how much
the number of these unfortunates hasbeen underrateone tribe
d
at 15,000, the Echo d'Oran shows that
alone, the Beni-Amen, on the lowest estimate,
• have amounted to this number. It consisted of 2,200
tents, these tents containing, one with another, seven
persons, giving a total of 15,400; and besides this,
there was the other tribe, little less in amount. A
few scattered fugitives, not amounting probably to
one hundred, were all that escaped to bring the
bloody tidings of the extermination to the christian
lova& rs, the original curse of the country, and canoe
of such wholesale massacres.