The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-26 00:00:00

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—Any

which the papers n
some h

buses is ver

disappointrc

EVENING EDITION

gar An Evening Edition of the NORTHERN DAILY
THaRS is now Published every Afternoon, at Three o'clock,
containing the Markets, together with all the News of the
Day, up to the hour of going to Press.

Iproof.

stallt;ri,

g over the face

gent of our productive

a bour is

cannot sel

customer

to sul

lons, or withou

e able to (1

ns, and the

se functions

i cabinet

which the peopl

have to ma

distinguish between nec

try taxation and the arbitrary confiscation of the
ition's substance ?

kre matters of such transcendant import to be

t in the hands of irresponsible Bank Director

ose stake in their issue is but as a drop in the

an when compared with the value of the

imovable property, the commercial stoc

public securities

id trading transactions as

represented by bills of exchange dependent on

prices for realisation ? They can know nothing of
the country's actual financial condition, or of the
wants, hopes, and prospects of the community they

inderta

to govern, when t

'lands of

a few banking directors

Men of the humblest capacity, however, can surely
iistinguish between usury and fair commercial

.ates of interest

They can tell whether it is
ople of England to

reasonable or
submit to the amount of money they are to have in
circulation being limited by statute, while the

just to ask the pc

Legislature has not thought proper to place any
limitation whatever on the rates of interest
demanded for the use of that limited amount of

usuall

of I and being left free to choose, there can be no doubt
parties would find out what was for mutual benefit;
so far, we think, no speaker ventured to deny that
this freedom of individual action was desirable.
The only question really at issue seems to be
whether the third party—the public creditor —could
be sufficiently protected under such a Bill. Those
in favour of it say that if provision were made, that
the Lender should not rank as a creditor against
the assets of the estate (in case of failure) until all
others were paid, and that the lender's capital, if
withdrawn within three or six months of failure,
should likewise remain liable for all debts, such a
rmissive measure would not only be a great boon,
d bring unemployed capital and active industry
n advantageous union, but would likewise be

ich more secure for the public creditor than the
instance that the capital
mld thus remain attached to the concern, and
that it could not be withdrawn suddenly—that the
interest of the borrower would be the same as that
of the public creditor, namely, to make the lenders
money liable to the risks of the business—that, in
fact, the borrower would be a kind of trustee for

present system ; they

them. Of course exceptional cases of attempts

to defraud creditors by collusion between lender
and borrower lire never impossible, and never by
any legislature can be completely prevented, but the
question is, whether they would not be less likely
to succeed than at present ? We know, that as
the law now stands, the lender can charge any
rate of interest he pleases ; that he can, and does
take good care to secure himself by some kind of

guarantee, either by getting a document, or assign-
ment of the securities and assets, or placing him-
self in some preferential position, as respects the
general creditor ; that he is always the first to
know the borrower's position and to secure him_
self; that the transaction is always of the most
secret kind ; that an understanding generally
exists between him and the borrower, or he is at his
mercy; and the practical result, as we see in
most cases of failure, is that the family creditor,"
as the lender is now termed, (in other words the
pawnbroker,) not only takes the bulk of any assets,
but should he not be covered, actually ranks
besides as a creditor, although he may, by having
received usurious interest for years, have taken all
profits during the business. This being the actual
state of things, we affirm that the creditor would
gain a great advantage over the present system by
that contemplated; at all events, we say, let the
two systems be fairly placed in the reach of the
public, and experience will soon show which is the
most beneficial to all parties. We can, however,
well understand the dislike and dismay with which
the present class of lenders of money view this
opening of the field to new capital; their system
works admirably for them ; their machinery for
securing themselves, is now perfect; they feel that
they could no longer without risk, reap or secure
large profits from the public—through any adven-
turer who could get a temporary credit on the
strength of their secret loan—their opposition,
"ore, is quite intelligible, but we think the
,y clear intellects of our commercial men have
not yet fully appreciated the objects of the bill,
and we cannot but regret, that the opponents of
it in its present shape, should not have concurred
with those of the meeting, who recommended that
instead of a sweeping denunciation of the prin-
ciple of the bill, it should be sent to the council
with instructions to have the provisions already
alluded to, as necessary to make it perfect, added
to it. The great principle of " limited liability"
having been approved by the Legislature, our
commercial men would do well to apply it in all
ted the I cases where it can be made u

applied in all other

It is so

commer

experience

)untries,
should

without hampering
ourselves, unnecessarily, with restrictions such as
many of them find too onerous, even though their
legal system, bankruptcy laws, &c., are all framed
to work in harmony, while ours are not. Nor can
there be any doubt that in committee in parlia-
ment, the protection clauses alluded to will be
introduced and adopted ; and we ask in such case
will it not appear abs-.:rd, that instead of showing the
legislature where the measure was defective, we here
should have condemned a valuable principle ? We
cannot but think that a calmer examination will
bring many opponents to take a different view from
that of Saturday.

to avail of it

Another cause for regret we think is that the
opponents of the bill insisted on a resolution
requiring the council of the chamber to carry out
their views with the legislature, although, as they
were warned, the council had not yet expressed
any opinion, and very possibly, might, as in the case
of last year, be themselves strong advocates of
the principle involved in the bill. We do not wonder
at some of the gentlemen present, members of the
council,'remonstrating against such a dictation to
the council, as subversive of the terms upon which
a gentleman accepts such an office, and. irrecon-
cileable with all independence of action by the
council, and entailing the risk of an unseemly
collision between the council and a part of the
constituency ; the obvious course open to the
opponents of the bill was pointed out-to them,
namely, to send up their own resolutions, but not
to dictate to the council, who may, perhaps, be of
quite a different opinion. We can hardly imagine
any
acceptingused as o
the medium for convey-
ffice, however honor-
able,ing sentiments as his own which he does not agree
gentlemanifbeis
w be
in ! Nor is it quite clear (although the advocates
of the amended bill did not take any
exception to it,) whether a meeting such
as that of Saturday, which it transpired had
been
circularorganised by the opponents of the bill, by a
, sulnmoning the attendance of their
adherents, is entitled to the weight which Would
be attached to the uncanvassed sponta-
neous, voice of the chamber, after hearing what
the bill really was. It was stated at the
meeting
that the London ",Law Amendment Society,"
after a full discussion of the bill, had some to the
conclusion, that with the provisions, of a kind identi-
cal with those proposed, the bill was one that would
be very beneficial. The opinion of such a body—to
whom the country are indebted, as the originators
of most of the late improvements in our law_
should surely carry more weight than the mere
exparte opinion of some local solicitor, which was
gravely put forward at the meeting.

NORTHERN TIMES.-LIVERPOOL, TURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1856.