The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-03-17 00:00:00

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TO-MORROW,

TO-MORROW, the 18th inst., at Half-past One o'clock,
at the Commercial saleroom, Temple-court,
4000 Boxes American CHEESE,
200 Do. Do. BACON.
TRIMMER & GRAINGER,
Bank Chambers, Cook-street.

••••A

cultivation, we would willingly leave Lords
CLARENDON and COWLEY to tie up the
destinies of the quarter of the globe on which
England's lot has been cast, just as the noble lords
might think proper.
But France and England cannot exist for the
half of another generation on political or inter-
national benevolence. They cannot remain mendi-
cants, and live on the crumbs the CZARS of Russia
and other military despots may allow them to
receive from the Danube, the Black Sea, and the
Baltic. Our trade must bo tolerated and respected
on the rivers and seas of Europe, as it is on the
waters of America, Asia, and Africa. And since
treaties, more especially those relating to the
Bosphorus, the Euxine, and the Danube,
embDdied many stringent conditions affecting
commerce, it is positively necessary that the
people of both France and England should
know what it is the Conference propose
doing, to obtain for them that free
and enlarged commercial intercourse which the
present condition of the Western Powers so
imperatively demands ? Let us know, without
evasion, what material advantages we are to
receive for the precious blood we have shed, and
the hard-earned millions we have spent, and Eng-
land may safely leave Russia to think over her
defeats, and diplomatic tricksters, to gloat
over their imaginary political gains. We must
confess that we have no faith in post-diluvian
politics, seeing that the designs of the greatest
masters in the art of arbitrary government, have

rarely out-lived, or added, one particle to the
posthumous fame of their authors. With these
impressions, we would freely allow the British
representatives any amount of liberty
to wander in the tenebrious regions of
speculative policy; but where trading, and
other :material interests, and subsistent
rights are involved, we would have our Constitu-
tional representatives speak out like honest and
fearless Englishmen, that the Parliament and
people of this country may know what they have to
expect—how far the real land living interests
of humanity are to be sacrificed at the footstool of
self-destroying arrogance, and a despotism which
feels itself so ephemeris that it cannot be persuaded
to accept a challenge for another year of war,
which, in these days, is nothing more than an
" episode."

THE glorious triumph of the Joint Stock
Banking System is exciting universal attention.
The bullionists are amazed at the success that

has attended [Banking adventures, in the face
of restrictions which they have always thought
prohibitive. They pretend to be quite at a loss to
understand where dividends, varying from 10 to 20
per cent., come from in these hard times. Such a
phenomenon can be easily explained. The Bank
of England applies the screw on the first appear-
ance of a derangement of our banking and
currency system. The mercantile public being
next refused accommodation fly to the Joint
Stock banks, where they get what they want, and
by meeting this demand these banks make their
high dividends. That they are mainly, if not
wholly, indebted to the advances made by the
Bank of England in the rates of discount, for their
large profits is certain, and that they could all live
and do well if they were not allowed to charge
more than 4 per cent. for the use of their custo-
mers money, called, " deposits," is abundantly
proved by the dividend returns they publish
periodically. It would scarcely be violating any
rule laid down by COCKER, to say that a bank
which nets 20 per cent. profit, from discounts
varying from 5 to 7 per cent., might divide 10 per
cent. among its lucky shareholders, from 2 and 31
per cent. interest. If these low rates of discount
will give the capitalist 10, or even 5, per cent. for
the use of his money, it is quite clear that every
sixpence charged above those rates is so much
taken from the commercial classes by an infamous
system of usury.
The mercantile men of London see this very
plainly, and they appear resolved to go on estab
lishing Joint Stock Banks until they can obtain
discounts at a fair rate, and secure for the institu-
tions they create, a 10 per cent. dividend on their
capital; And the only wonder is, that they have
not commenced such a movement long before this.
The Bankers' Circular, of the Bth inst., published
three tables, showing the rapid and extraordinary
growth of what are known as " the six London
" Joint Stock Banks." The first of those returns
show the miraculous increase in their dividends
between 1845 and 1855 :

Rate of Dividend Rate of Dividend
declared for 1845 declared for 1835 Increase
per cent. per cent. per cent.
London & Westminster
Bank
Lon. Joint Stock Bank 6 121 108
Union Bank of London 5 20 300
London & County Bank 6 10 100
Com. Bank of London 6 10 66
Royalßritishßank,lB49 4 6 50
If this is to be the ratio of increase in every ten
years, where will banking profits end ? As the
circle of demand becomes wider, and the deposits
and interest of capital go on accumulating, the
dividends falling to the shareholders will continue
to swell the value of their stock, in the ratio the
Bankers' Circular has shown :
['aid up Present Premium
share market price per cent.
.‘•
45 125

London and Westminster Bank 20
London Joint Stock Bank .. 10