Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-12-08 00:00:00

devote so much time and space to any single sub-
ject, but the commercial crisis into which we have
been plunged is of too great a magnitude to be
overlooked even for a day. We must, therefore,
and however reluctantly, give it precedence of all
other questions. The contemptible assertions put
forward daily, by the London hireling Press,
demand instant refutation. The millions who do
not read the metropolitan papers, and who know
nothing of Currency—the real cause of the suffer-
ings and dangers to which they are exposed—
need instruction, while the political poison which
taints our money-laws calls for the immediate
dissemmination of an antidote. The real interest
of commerce, and all else that belongs to our
social existence, also demand the utmost vigilance
and unflinching attention of those journals which
are immediately connected with the great seats of
productive tabour and trade. We scarcely need
any more cogent apology for the constancy with
which we apply ourselves to the great panic
question, to the exclusion of other matters
which are better suited to the taste of the goneral
reader. The nation has waited patiently for the
meeting of Parliament. When that event took
place, they were in hopes that the ten per cent.
discount would be removed, and that some mea-
sure of practical relief, both for the present and
future of trade, would have been brought far-
ward. Instead of this, the Government propose
and carry' a Bill of Indemnity, to protect a dozen
or so of Bank Directors, and to allow them to
issue an extra supply of notes for a period of
twenty-eight days from the meeting of Parliament!
Here we have a self-evident admission that an
expansion of our paper currency is the one thing
needful. And yet the Bank's privilege to supply
the wants of The people—we need say no more
of trade and commerce—is limited to eight-and-
twenty days, when we are to return to those very
limits which have produced the dangers which
now beset us on every side.

Another currency
~committee has been pro-
posed, it •is true, but this is merely a paltry
evasion of ithe momentous question—how are
the people :to be employed to keep them from
starvation ? It the Legislature will solve this
problem without delay, they may leave traders
and merchants of every degree to shift for them-
selves. It is mere shuffing to tell the hungry
masses €` that the speculative importer—the
reckless exporter—dishonest competition—
inflated credit—imprudent banking—and all
" this, that, and the other," are the cause of this
distress. Want is now written in the faces of
the multitude, and it was to provide for tins
want, and guard against its perils—and not class
or commercial relief, that Parliament was called
together. We have been for nearly forty years
discussing and inquiring into money—the merits
of metallic currencies—time functions and sta-
bility of bank-notes--the virtues of gal tender
—the sophistry of cash payments—the restriction
of certain species of credit, and the suppression
of all others—and though last, not least, the
doctrine of convertibility, which is to secure the
depositors in banks, as well as the holders of
notes, payment in gold on demand. On all these
subjects educated Englislm-m are as well
informed and eloquent as .the heatheias of
antiquity were in their mythology. Bat what
has' it all led to ? What have been the prat
tical results of the Legislation, which date
from this' inexhaustable stock of knowledge ?
Mr. DisRAELI protests against oar looking back
to 1819, when WILLIAM Prir's policy had been
trampled under foot by Shylocks and money-
jobbers, or to 1825—" this phantom of ancient
distress constantly raised in our debates," because
we then had a usury law, which prevented Bank
Directors from charging more than five per cent.
discount. Lord JOHN RUSSULL speaks on this
subject like a man struggling against the density
of a London fog, while the Chancellor of the
EK-chequer seeks for indemnity and pro-
crastination.

But all this time the national misery is spread-
ing apace. Friday next is the earliest day on
'Which Sir C. LEWIS could bring forward his
motion for a committee to inquire into our cur-
rency system. This farce will lead to a debate
which may occupy another week. Then we
shall have a strul-gle, headed by Mr. DISRAELI,
to defeat the Government motion, and what will
follow it is quite impossible to say. Still onward
rush the waves of national distress. The com-
mercial devastation of another fortnight will
remain, to be added to the irretrievable ruin
which has overtaken some of the greatest com-
mercial establishments the world has ever pro-
duced. Our Joint-Stock Banks, which have
already been denounced by Lard OVERSToNE in
the House of L'Ords, and without a word of
reproof, may go on " crumbling into atoms,',
under the pressure of a ten per cent. rate of
discount. These are the prospects, and there is
no use in attempting to deny them, with which
we have to face Old England's merry Christmas
of 1857. 'The Whigs will do nothing to alter
our present money-laws, as we have long since
stated ; and what crotchets the Tories will pro-
Pose cannot be kno ;vn for ten days or a fortnight
at least. This, however, is something for mer-
cantile men to know. What the Bank of &gland
will attempt iu the meantime no one can tell; but
any change they may make in the minimum rate
of discount, short of a reduction of 5 per cent.,
which would only be justified, according to law,
by an accumulation of bullion which cannot in
reason be anticipated, will be purely political,
or " nominal," as it is more cunningly called.
The Bank of England very rarely discounts
comulercial paper when the rate of interest

exceeds 5 per cent. When it rises above this
point advances are made chiefly on "securities." •
And, therefore, any reduction which would be att.&
likely to give relief to the country under ellsting
circumstances, would bring little or no more
money into trade. The .actual rate merchants
and manufacturers would then have to pay would
be 7 and 8 per cent.—the famine figures of 1847.
The meeting of Parliament has enabled us to see
our way thus far, as regards the discount market.
But what is to become of our Joint-Stock Banks,
with their depositors, shareholders, and the large
trading circles who are mainly depending on
them for money ? If they are to be left at the
mercy of a machine which can " crumble them
into atoms in twenty-four hours," the sooner
Whig or Tory statesmen let the public know the
fact the better it will b for the Imperial revenue
and general safety of society. They represent,
directly and indirectly, a capital of 200,000,0001.,
which is at present floating in the shape of
commercial bills of exchange ; and to crumble
this large amount of capital into atoms, would be
to reduce the solvency of the British Empire to
impalpable dust. Lord OVERSTONE sees this
clearly enough, although Lord DERBY, Lord
Jons RUSSELL, the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
Mr. GLYNN, and Mr. DISRAELI seem to have
forgotten it altogether. Of this, however, our
readers may rest assured, that nothing but a
stringent usury law can save our Joint-Stock
Banking system ; and that we have not a man
in Parliament who will grapple with the difficul-
ties of the times comprehensively, and convert
our oppressive fiscal burdens into a source of
happiness and wealth to the great masses of the
people, by making taxation the basis of a paper
currency, which would discharge the functions of
gold at the working-man's pay-table, and in the
other domestic transactions of the trader. Thus
far, we repeat, we can see, but no further.

THE commercial disasters, which have been
the order of the day, consequent upon the pecu-
liar and unfavourable state of the Money Market,
and the monopoly enjoyed by the Bank of
England, as well as the progress of the mutiny in
India, have caused the people of the United King-
dom, to bestow less attentiort upon Continental
matters than they are wont to do, particularly
those [farts of it, where despotism, police
espionage, and military tyranny, are the moving
elements of hard-hearted and illiberal-minded
sovereigns. Naples is one of those countries.
We have often had occasion to protest against her
tyranny and illiberalty, not only toward her own
subjects, but to our fellow countrymen and
countrywomen. The security of a kingdom,
rests not in the harsh, severe, and impressive
character of its law. No people are more
obedient and loyal, none are more industrious,
sober, and well conducted, than those who enjoy
liberty of speech, and power to comment-
-I,_,
government prosecution—upon the political
occurrences of the day. This cannot be done in
Naples. He, or she, who have such audacity,
must• prepare to become the tenant of some un-
wholesome prison, and there aivait the con-
veniance of the legal tribunals for a decision on
the charge concocted. We arc loud in the vin-
dication of our political rights at home, and so
sacred is the liberty of the subject held, that it is
shielded round on every side, and those who
invade it subjected to pains and penalties. This
is as it should be. If, th€n, we are so cautious
of the liberty of the subject at home, how should
we feel at knowing that two fellow countrymen
are falsely and vexatiously imprisoned in one of
the dungeons of Naples, unt4•ied, and denied
all intercourse or counsel with the British
Consul.

One of the men so incarcerated, happens to be
a Newcastle man; he served, his time as an
ibmt
engineer, in the establish of Mr. GEORGE
STEPHENSON, and from the fact that he was thus
connected with, and known in, Newcastle, the
workmen of that town made a move for his
liberation. They got up a memorial to Lord
CLA.RENDON, urging his interference, and re-
questing him to use his influence for the liberation
of their former fellow-townsman. The foreign
secretary acknowledged the memorial with ap-
parent courtesy, but it was anything but satis-
factory as to the main point in view ; chagrined
that they had taken so little by their move, they
determined upon a little wholesome out-door
agitation, they called upon the Mayor to convene
a public meeting—this was done, a numerous
attendance was the result. At the meeting in
question, which was held a few nights ago, there
were a number of speeches delivered, and r.,!solu-
tions agreed to ; all of which showed the detei-
mination of the men of Newcastle to know
no rest until King BOAIDA, and his
minions open the prison doors which now
confined their fellow countrymen and
set them at large, and apologizing for
the tyranny and the imprudence which dictated
their incarceration. No pretence, with the least
shadow of reason, can plead an excuse for the
detention of these men in the dungeons of
Naples, and he is not fitted to be a minister of
the British Crown, who hesitates to evince the
pluck" of an honest and courageous statesman
in such a crisis. We have•no de4ire to meddle
with affairs purely Neapolitan, nor to dictate to
the tyrannical King how he shall govern his own
people, although it is a very debateable question
how far a free and civilised people should wink
at the atrocities and degrading acts of a despotic
Sovereign, In the case more immediately before
us we certainly think that Neapolitan arsenals I