The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-12-23 00:00:00

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The Attorney General (Mr. J. D. Fitzgerald) is a
most eminent nisi pries lawyer. In commercial
cases, and in arguing points of law, he is seen to
great advantage. But he never had serious
criminal cases to conduct; and his col-
league, Mr. Christian (the Solicitor General)
is a profound equity barrister. an adept in
spinning the finest web of casuistry that ever
could be woven out of " contingent remainders."
It is only barristers, whom long practice in
criminal cases has armed with habitual firmness in
dealing with nice questions of life and character,
(which may depend on single questions in a cross-
examination), who are equal to the responsibility
of denouncing the party on whom suspicion
gloomily 'converges. Barristers unused to such
arduous cases, like surgeons not conversant with
amputations, become nervous when the sword of
state is handed to them. They dread the conse•
quences of wielding the deadly instrument ; and
while they squeamishly falter, villians get ready
their IN eapons in every alley, and the garrotting
association thrives apace in increased security."
The miscellaneous intelligence of this day's
paper will be found of much interest. It will be
perceived that there has been a fearful explosion
at the New Bridge Ironworks, near Leeds, and
two men have been rather severely injured.
Another attempt at murder has been made at
London. The miscreant is in the hands of justice.
An extraordinary ease of money lost and found,
will not fail to attract the reader's attention. A
heart-rending case of murder and suicide is
reported to have taken place at Coalbrookdale, on
Saturday. The unfortunate man is said to be
insane.

NORTHERN TIMES

" MERCATOR," the great Currency Charlatan
is again before the public. He addresses him-
self to his credulous countrymen from Printing
House-square. His theme is the renewal of the
Bank Charter Act of 1844, and he commences
by asking :—." Is that measure to be renewed
" and rendered permanent in its present form ?
Is it to be subjected to important modifications,
" or is it to be altogether repealed, and the
" management of the circulation and the security
" for the maintenance of cash payments to be
" restored to the state in which they were before
" the act of 1844 was passed ?" The Govern-
ment, adds the enlightened querist, must shortly
declare its opinion, and tender its advice to
Parliament and the country, with a view of
coming to a " final settlement " of this question.
It is well that we have received so much intelli-
gence on reliable authority. An attempt to
renew and render the law—i. e. usury in its
present form permanent—will, we feel assured,
be stoutly resisted by the mercantile and tax-
paying classes. No amount of wire-drawn
sophistry or adroit use of Board of Trade
Returns and other official statistics which every
counting-house runner prides himself on having
mystified and rendered useless, will induce the
public to lose sight of the palpable fact that, the
practical operation of the Bank Charter Act of
1844 has produced nothing but panic, national
distruit, " unmitigated bankruptcy " in the
highest walks of commerce, and most intolerable
usury.

To talk of rendering such things permanent is,
we trust, the surest way to excite the contempt
of all thinking men. MERcAToR leads his readers
to believe that there is no such word as panic in
the English language, and that the commercial
revulsions which have occurred within the last
twelve years are merely so many dreams. When
speaking of the leading virtues of his memorable
act, his effrontery appears most startling. "It
" has," he says, " protected the bullion reserve and
" faithfully maintained the value of our paper
" money through a period of very trying circum-

" stances, and, while discharging this, its pecu-
" liar and appropriate function, the restriction
" imposed by it upon the paper issues has not
" been found inconsistent with a wonderful
" development of industrial energy, nor has the
" application of those restrictions, even in their
" most severe and stringent form, verified any of
the sinister predictions of its opponents. It
" has not destroyed credit, it has not paralyzed
" the operations of trade, it has offered no serious
" interruption to the safe and healthy expansion
" of national prosperity to an extent of which
" there is no previous example. While, however,
" it has thus extinguished the predictions of its
" opponents, it has realised all that its advocates
" ventured to promise on its behalf." There is
something so excessively impudent in these few
sentences, that we are surprised to find any man
with sufficient audacity to give them utterance.
Since the Act of 1844 was passed, 100,000,0001.
of bullion have been brought forth to give a sem-
blance of truth to the predictions of the fathers of
that Act ; and, if it had not been for this immense
and unexpected supply of gold, what would have
been the inevitable fate of this mighty
Empire ? The Act in question has not,
and never can, " protect the bullion reserve
" and maintain the value of our paper money."

We are, at this moment, paying an anti-corn-
mercial rate of discount for money simply because
the Bank Charter Act has not protected the
bullion, and maintained the commercial value o
paper money

- The value of our bank notes
:
is preserved by their being made legal
tender. Take from them this character, and
bring us into another war, and then we shall
have an opportunity of seeing how lone: the bank
note will retain its value. Saying it has not
destroyed credit, paralysed the operations of
trade, and offered no serious interruption to the
safe and healthy expansion of national prosperity,
is merely giving expression to so many self-
evident falsehoods. It has done everything
which its authors say it has not done. Public
confidence has almost disappeared within the
last tvi elve years, or since the Legislature, and
the bullion quacks in and out of Parliament,
have taken upon themselves to decide what is
" safe and healthy" in trade.
MERCATOR is evidently one of those wise men
whose nostrums must not be questioned. A
Parliament composed chiefly of landed gentle-
men, lawyers of every degree, soldiers, sailors,
and as few mercantile men as possible, must
surely know best when the merchant and trader
has had enough of trade, a sufficiency of circula-
tion to pay wages, the proper amount of credit
to carry on their business, and the exact expansion
of industry which is required to secure us the
largest amount of national prosperity. Grant
MERCATOR this privilege, and allow him to exer-