The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-05-13 00:00:00

FRIDAY

On FRADAY next, the 16th instant, at Twelve o'clock,
at the Brokers' office, 13, Exchanze-buildings,
2740 Bundles COIR YARN,
ex Lydia Mllenry and Argonaut, from Bombay.—Apply to
T, sr, a LITTLEDALE & CO., Brokers.

The peculiar difficulties of the times require the
exercise of the strictest economy in every branch
of the national expenditure, in which local taxes
occupy a very conspicuous place. Great, if not
convulsive, changes must take place in the mate-
rial condition of the realm, and whatever property
the Corporations of England now possess, ought
to be husbanded with unprecedented frugality, as
it is the last they will ever receive by Royal grants,
charters, or even purchase, from the Crown. We
shall have no more local privileges conferred upon
any municipality, and Liverpool will be fortunate,
indeed, if she should succeed in defeating
the attack made on her Passing Tolls
and Town Dues. Looking, therefore, en-
tirely beyond the circle of party strife, we feel
no hesitation in calling on men of all shades of
politics to step forward and endeavour to put a
stop to the alienation of any portion of the Borough
Estate for an inadequate price. The Ratepayers
need not care who gets the lands the Corporation
have to•dispose of, but they are bound to see that
they are not sold for less than their value, or
given away by, or to, any man who will not bid
openly at a public sale for that which he desires to
purchase.

Now, it is well known that the Corporation have
paid as much as 8/. per square yard for land,
within one cartage length of the Prince's dock,
and that they should now offer land, equally well
situated, and in'perpetuity, for 2/.los the square yard,
does certainly appear most unpardonable. Only
a few months since, one of the:ptincipal movers in
this affair induced the Council to sanction the
purchase of a large piece of land on the other side
of the river, required for a spoil bank, or space for
the deposit of 'earth, for 2/. 10s. per square yard.
Now, if land was worth fifty shillings at that out of

plot of. ground in great Howard-street—the centre
of all the trade and traffic of Liverpool—must be
worth something more. Taking into account the
relative advantages of the two sites, the only con-
clusion to be arrived at is, that the price paid at
Birkenhead was extravagantly high, and a glaring
waste of the 'corporate funds, or that the ground
in Great Howard-street is to be disposed for little
more than a nominal consideration. The worthy
Alderman who induced the Council to purchase
the Birkenhead land will probably explain this
palpable anomaly on Wednesday next. In
the meantime the wards are organising,
and will make such an appeal to the Lords
of the Treasury, as will convince the Govern-
ment that such wholesale jobbery cannot
be perpetrated in these days, with that cool oom-
posure and brazen effrontery which have marked
the whole of this dispicable transaction.

THE CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER stated most
distinctly, in the House of Commons on Friday,
that " it was not the intention of the PALMERSTON

" Cabinet to propose any measure for altering the
" Bank Charter Act of 1844." This announcement
will enable the commercial classes to see their way
with regard to the " value of money" for the next
nine or twelve months, and it fixes the Govern-
ment with a direct responsibility as to the future
of trade. We can have no ruinous contractions of
the circulation—no drains of bullion, panics, nor
famines, which may starve commerce, and famish
industry, for which the Whig Administration will
not be answerable to the community. When
moments of great trial do arrive, we shall know
where to direct our reproaches. The Opposition,
both in and out of Parliament, will understand
how to appreciate the hardihood of the advocates
of usurious discounts. The CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER'S speech also shows to the
world that the Bank of England is viewed
by the present Administration more in the
light of a political machine, than a great and
independent commercial banking institution. Sir
CORNEWALL LEWIS did not allude to the moderate
rates of interest the manufacturers and traders
generally were compelled to pay for money to
meet war taxation, the unrestricted freedom of the
circulation, nor did the right honourable Baronet
venture to compare the rates of interest demanded
in this country, with those at which the Con-
tinental producers have obtained accommodation
for the last two years.

The PALMERSTON Cabinet believe that the Bank
Charter Act gives us the command of large
reserves of bullion, a desideratum which could not
be obtained by any other means, but the CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER has proved to the
satisfaction of every man of ordinary understand-
ing that the most paltry political necessity—leaving
the varied movements of commerce and wants
of industry wholly out of the question—is
sufficient to drain us of our gold, and render
the cardinal virtues of their philosophical
theory so many nullities. Sir CORNEWALL LEWIS
does not soar high into the regions of figures,
or dive deeply into the running waters of the
ceaseless current of mercantile life, to illustrate
his conclusions. He speaks of the Bank as
though it were an obscure branch of the ExOle quer
over which ho presides, ani by a little :utdition
and substraction he satisfies himself that the
Bank Charter Act answers its purposes admirably !
And as we shall not be over-taxing the patience
or arithmetical knowledge of the reader by citing
the right honourable gentleman's array of millions
and minor totals, we will give them :—" The

" remained to be paid. That amount would
" probably be paid by two remittances of 200,000/.
" each, and the remainder by bills. It might also
"be anticipated that the demand for the corn-
" missariat chest would be less, and altogether it
" was now likely that the amount of bullion
" would increase rather than diminish." There is
not one word about trade in all this, the CHANCEL-
LOR of the EXCHEQUER'S object being simply to
show that although making money dear, does
lower the prices of our products, we cannot keep
the gold at home when an Ally wants a small
loan, or we have a commissariat chest to supply.
It would have been impossible to have put into
Sir CORNEWALL LEWIS'S mouth, arguments more
completely damnatory of the very measure he was
defending. Notwithstanding, that the rates of dis-
count varied from six to ten per cent., all through
the period to which the above figures relate, still
it is proved that we lost 730,0001., in addition to all
the bullion we imported within the four months.
Our receipts of gold average fully 1,000,0001. per
month—we have seen the average set down at
1,500,0001. per month—but taking the lowest
estimate, it is quite clear that we have, according
to the CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER'S statistics,
parted with 4,730,0001. of precious metal, between
the sth of January and the grd of May. Who, then,
will pretend to say that the Bank Charter Act of
1844 does attain the sole object of its authors, and
Whig supporters ? It does not prevent the gold
leaving the country, but, on the contrary, it has
produced the heaviest drains ever known, if we
take into account the extraordinary rapidity with
which the largo increased quantity of gold
produced is swept away from our shores.
With all the bullion Australia and Cali-
fornia have added to the world's stock, the
drains felt in England are heavier and more fre-
quent than ever. And yet Ministers decline to
make any change in the law, with a degree of
pertinacity, peculiar to men full of faith in the
soundness of their dogmas, and honest convictions,
as to the unanswerable arguments they adduce in
their support.

Time must, however, bring this commercial
nation back to reason on this most important
subject. That system which forces " a fall
" generally in the prices of all commodities," in
the production of which the industry and capital
of the country are employed, cannot be much
longer maintained. If the CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER had entered on a recapitulation of the
losses sustained in trade, by .making money
artificially dear, and all commodities proportion-
ably cheap, in a vain effort to keep 730,0001. at
home, we think the popular voice would have
been able to decide whether the Empire
is to be longer scourged or not by the Bank Charter
Act. If our Finance Minister had estimated the
advance of interest for the last two years and a half
at three per cent., and the reduction which has been
forced upon producers and the holders of produce,
at twenty per cent., where would he have found
the profit of the merchant or the income of the
trader? With a political or State engine ruling the
prices of commodities, it is impossible to estimate
the depreciation which all classes are exposed to,
in addition to the variations in price, which are inhe
rent in trade itself. It matters not what changes
the arbitrary laws of supply and demand may
bring about, if gold leaves the Bank of England
the State machine is resorted to to superadd a
political depression in the value of every man's
substance ; and this is the system which Sir
CORNEVALL LEWIS tells a mercantile people, it is
not the intention of the Government to alter.