The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-02-11 00:00:00

ment debt, on which the Bank can issue notes,
does need a symbol which can pass current in
trade. The Bank's stability is mainly, if not
wholly, based on the paper which represents this
debt. It' is from the employment of the
14,000,0001. of notes issued that dividends are
paid
,to the proprietorsiof the Bank's own stock.
And this very large sum of 14,000,0001. is held
to be an inconvertible element in our banking
system which cannot be remedied, and from
which no possible danger or inconvenience can
accrue either to the Bank or the public. Hence
we find the principle of inconvertibility estab-
lished, and the safety of issuing bank notes on
public or other bona fide security tested by time,
embracing periods of monetary pressure such as
have never been experienced in any other country
in the world. What, then, becomes of the ex-
pediency of restricting the Bank's issues, which
was the sole object of moment the Bank Charter
Act of 1844 was meant to effect ? If it has been
found perfectly safe to issue 14,000,0001. of
paper against securities, what is to prevent our
issuing 28,000,0001. of legal tender on a similar
basis ?

Sir G. CORNEWALL LEWIS is very apprehen-
sive of a depreciation of our paper money ; but
he does not appear to be at all concerned about
the injury which is done to property and all the
industrial interests of the people, by making money
artificially scarce and extortionately dear. Whigs
of Sir E. CORNEWALL LEWIS's school could never
see the injustice of this course. They have eve'r
been blind and deaf to the wants of skill, in-
dustry, and enterprise. They are now proposing
the renewal of a principle which they know
to be a chimera—to perpetuate:that which PEEL,
with all his hardihood, dare not propose for more
than ten years ; but they pass over usury, which
has taken such deep root in the heart of trade
and commerce. They do not pretend to inquire
into the effect a large increase in the Government
expenditure—in taxation—and a simultaneous
decrease in the banking issues—the available
means of trade—are likely to have on the float-

ing substance, 'immoveable property, and in-
dustry of the community. A Select Committee
is to sit with closed doors, on these all-vital
questions. To put the country to the expense
of another blue book, which is to disclose some
more of our Bank Directors' very disinterested
motives is raising the discounts:—such, for
example, as causing " a fall generally in the
" prices of all commodities." One Bank Director
has told us that this is the result looked for, and
we only regret that each attempt that has been
made for the last quarter of a century has proved
successful to the extent of many millions, which a
few skillful "Bears" have divided between them,
and are known to possess at the present moment.

IT is well we know from the Pikeists that no
man has a right to put his name to a Corporate
Memorial, even in a case of life and death,
unless it is to be found in an unauthorised
Directory_ Formerly., tha Itiirgoca Poll was
taken as the standard of respectability ; but now
those who do not place their names on a list
published for the benefit of an individual pro-
prietor are not to be ranked among the living, or
recognised as inhabitants of Liverpool. Should
the Pike water poison, without a moment's
notice, a thousand people, no heed is to be taken
of "locksmiths and fitters, whitesmiths, tinmen,
" smiths, coppersmiths, tailors, watch case
" manufacturers, grate fitters, painters, mill-
" wrights," who may perish at the feet of the
jobbers. Their names are not in the Directory,
and therefore they are not citizens, and have no
lives to lose ! Monday's debate has brought
this important discovery to light. Mr. SAMUEL
HOLME took upon himself the unenviable task
of making the announcement to the people of
Liverpool ; but in his anxiety to insult the great
bulk of the most deserving class of the commu-
nity, and to analyse the names of the requisi-
tionists, he and his Pikeist compeers forgot, as
Mr. SIIEIL very properly observed, to analyse
the water which this insulted class of men have
the most reason to fear. They have no time or
health to hazard, and no money to throw away
on doctors and apothecaries.
If their names are not in the Directory, that
is no reason why they should be recorded in the
books of our hospitals. The question before the
Corporation was one of health, and not of
politics. The man who has not a house, a vote,
or a place in the Liverpool Directory has health
and life to lose as well as the most successful
jobber in the Town Council. If they were
householders or voters, the Pikeist chiefs would
not be where they are, to vote away first the
money and then the public health of the town.
" The fact of these names not being on the
Directory," said Mr. SHELL, " was the very
" reason why they should be held more deserving
" of attention in that room, because they repre-
sented a class who required the protection of
" the Council more than others, and to whom
" the quality of this water was a matter of more
" essential importance." And he added, " Give
" the people the water ; let them use it ; let it
" injure their constitution, destroy their health,
" perhaps send many into the next world ; and
" then the gentlemen of the Water Committee
" would be kind enough to take the matter into
" their consideration, and see whether some
" remedy could not be applied." The town
will surely never wait for the arrival of any such
calamities.

It is all very well for the aristocracy, who fre-
quent our principal hotels, to run the risk of
drinking drainage peat water, highly oxidised ;
but the working man cannot afford to run such
hazards; and it is not because the rich do com-
plain, they may not be ill without knowing the
cause. They may have no reason to fear cholic
or cholera, but the poor man has, and the Coun-
cil ought, as Mr. SHELL contended, to protect
him. The Pike water may not be positively
dangerous at this cold season of the year, and in
the mixed state in which we have been receiving
it ; but who will venture to say that it will not