Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-12-02 00:00:00

TO. THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.

The necessities and wants of mankind are iho patrons
and trade and manuticturv, and commerce may be said
to step in and carry on the interchanges between nation and
nation.

Interchanges in their primitiveness consisted in giving
one &scrip-ion of production for anther—commonly
termed barter—and to this day the commerce of some
portions of the world is so carried on in part, if not chiefly
so. It may not, therefore, be very far from accurateness
of expression to say, both that industry is the mother of
eomin,rce, and that commerce is the parent of labour,
since each may result from the other.
Bring forth the works and products of men's hands, and
comm=rca springs no and finds a market for their con.
sumption, and by presenting them to other nations, opens
to them in tun a new field fur labour, thus giving them
an opportunity of p-oducing something wherewith they
may obtain the things suited to their newly developed wants
and ideas.

This is the substance—the moling principle of all
business; so that—exclaiing the miser of the most crude
order—every plrs-la labours and trades for a return in
kin—certainly not for money, strictly so speaking—for
although this, Kith the more improved mode of operations
amonzst us who have made primitiveness in such things
cbsoltt r, be on the fav of it, no one with his faculties in
a healiby state strives to obtain, or even to accumulate,
money with( ut having s'sme ul'erior object and end in
view, for without that it is in its fullest sense utterly
nseletP, and either his £lO,OOOO represents £lO,OOO worth

of food rind raiment—or, if you will, £lO,OOO worth of
luxurifs and comfort, or £lO,OOO worth of pomp and
ostentation—or else it is nothing more than the miser's
portion—altogether worthless—an insignificant monument
of great folly and much senselessness—a gorgeous excres;
ceace and accumulation of the motto' Waste not want not'
—a glaring emb!eln of avarice, if net of gross imbecility.
Money, therefore, is, as it were, merely an accidental
ingredient in trade and commerce, being neither the thing
we work for cr bid for, nor yet even the thing we offer
in payrnen', if looked at in its true character, which is
that of a representative of the thing we want from our
neighbour, and of the thing our neighbour wants from us—
in short, it is merely a thirg of convenience to facilitate
trade, such as we have described, and it should be nothing
more ; bey,nd that it justifies some of the ancients who
denounced it as ohnoxions to the well-being of nations-
Its introduction has grown out of the necessities and
requirements of mankind, and its application has become
more and more extended, as the capabilities, an treasures,
and produce of the various quarters of the globe have been
opened up from nation to nation. Yet it is very necessary
that, while we acknowledge its great usefulness, we do not
assign to it a virtue or a position foreign to its normal
character, which is that of a medium between value and
value or b;tween property and properly —a thing repre-
senting a cotain amount of wealth—but so far as its
own intrinsic worth is concerned, not necessarily of

itself of any value but representatively—that is, as
such, exclusively in its mewl condition, and with its
money merits simply. Assign to it, or give to it, the value
of gold and silver, and you at once place it in the commer-
cialbalances with all other things, of which—apart from the
Mint impress or its currency titles-7U is but an item,
subject to the same natural laws of supply and demand.
Arbitrate to it, as gold and silver, a fixed nominal value,
and you at once place it in a false position—onl antagonis-
tic to all other things, including labour of every description,
instead of being in that just and beautiful concord with all,
Which should be its esfe,ttial. characteristic. For money
bat is a medium of exchange, she it l be as the peace-
maker between hosts of conflicting belligerents—breaking
down the discrepancies between them—assimilating in
value the most incongruc,us artic:e3, wad, like the flue
balances of t' .e chemist, equipoised to an unerring nicety,
carL.ble of adjusting to each its exact relative value. If it
be anything st;ort‘of that, I believe that it is not the thing
required, or, at any rate; adequate to the circumstances of
modern tmes; and that until we have it so, vita may be
compared to the drivers of a most magnificent vehicle, laden
with vast treasurei of incomparable value, trundled about by
a gigantic power with the most reckless carelessness, having
neither grease to our wheels, nor breaks to check our speed,
and yet he, dlessly pursuing our rash course without regard
to moor or mountain. No wonder that we should, as such

ofetimts be nearly swamped—sadly hindered and unable
to make progress, and driven to the mortifying necessity of
sacrificing a great portLn of cur hard-earned wealth to
avoid an reme,lieble and disgraceful overthrow.
I maintain that a medium of exchange need not itself be
of any intrinsic worth, and that the more invaluable it is
in that sense, the more perfect will it be, and for the aim..
ple reason, that all things being subject to the law of sup-
ply and demand, it cannot vary in velua with its own
changing circumstances; and moreover, that by affixing
to it a definite given unchangeable price, to avoid this
evident deficiency in its constitution for the work in hand,
yon do hut in appearance and superficially provide for the
evil, which is thereby aggravated, in a compound degree,
by an unnatural organisation, eminently disqualifying it
for the functions assigned to it; for although the name of
its value change not, its relative value must flue'nate much
more than it would as a simple element of commerce. Y
Gan no more qualify it by such means for its high and ad-
judicating office, than you can establish a ptr of supply
and do rani for it, which would be the only basis justi-
fying the course pursued. And yet this is the kind of cur-
rency with which we are carrying on the gigantic com-
merce of these realms, and, like a sat of idiots, we are
amazed when overt ken by these disturbing panics, which
are the werk of our own folly, ani seem paralysed with
horro-, and then endeavour to aocount for the desolating
'visitation in any way but the right one.
Imprudence, over-trading., high speculation, war, and fa-
mine, are arraigned, in turn, as criminalr-in-chief at our bar
whereas they are nothing more than accidental accessories'
whose power for evil could, I think, be very much curtailed
under a sound system ; for I believe that these 'in excfes
may, in a great measure, be said to grow out of our present

At LEWIS & OMPANY'S, Ranelagh-street,
BOYS are CLOTHED from the Ages of Six Twenty Years•

ItKill-A

system. Let it be kept in mind, that lam not, as yet,
advocating any plan or proposing the detail of what we
ought to have, but am only showing the impotency of what we
now possess and use, as demonstrated to the world in every
civilised quarter of the globe, at this moment, in the
reiterated sounds of distriss which were so pathetically
prognosticated, this time last year, in the columns of this
jou-nal. The fact is, that neither war nor faini e have
produced the evils which have -overt lea us in our dreamy
illusions of commercial prosperity and golden safety—in
the which it is pretty evident we had no great
faith, or we should net have found it requisite to bolster up
our fancied confidence with our unremitting puerile and
feverish enquiries, from day to day, as to our stores of
bullion at the Bank, and as to the influx and eflux of the
precious metals, which, so far as they are held and used as
a medium of exchange, might almost as well be at the
bottom of the sa, for all the good they do us, and are
likely to do us, while the law affecting them continues as
it is. Indeed, were we to drive a shaft from the rotunda
a! Threadneedle.street, down to an extensive field of virgin
gold in its immediate vicinity, to supply the bank coffers,
relief could not possibly be more than temporary, with
our present currency fallacies in fall force.— Your obedient
s3rvant, CORNELIII3.
Liverpool, 27th November, 1857.

THE BANK CHARTER Acr OF 1844.

TO THOMAS B. HORSFALL, ESQ ,

Dear Sir,—l am sure that the great majority of your
constituents willlagree in the opinions which you expressed
yesterday, at the Chamber of Commerce, on the subject of
the Bank Charter Act of 1844. Few, I think, can doubt
that that act has failed in some of its most important
objects ; and every one must approve of your wish to
make the act " as perfect as it can be made."

Whilst the Bank- Act was under discussion, in the year
1844, the bankers of London clearly pointed out to the
late Sir Robert Peel, who was then at the head of the
Government, the precise defect in the bill, which com-
pelled the Government to suspend its operation in the year
1847, which has again compelled the Government to
suspend it, in the present year, and which will compel
every Government to suspend it, if it remains unaltered,
which is not prepared to sacrifice a nation to a theory. On
that occasion, Mr. Masterman, who was then one of the
members for the city. reminded the right hon. baronet,
the First Lord of the Treasury, (Sir Robert Peel), " that
a memorial had been presented, on the part of the
London bankers, which had in view the object of obtain-
ing a power of expansion, on certain occasions, when
it became requisite; but he feared, from a communi-
cation which he had had, that the head of the Govern-
ment would not agree to that power of expansion.
He hoped, however, that a little further time would be
given to consider the request whick had been made, for it
was one of very great importance." The same views are
strongly u ged by the late Mr. Alderman Thompson, and
by a sensible honest man, whom you will never see again
in Parliament, Mr. Archibald Hattie, the late member for
Paisley. After stating ,; that he entirely concurred in
the principle, that all promissory notes payable to the
bearer ought to be instantly convertible," he added that
he objected to the compulsory reduction of the issues of
the bank, with every decline in the amount of its gold,
On that subject he said :

"If tilts plan were to come suddenly into operation, after
a period of increased prices, the ruin which it would bring
upon the whole country would be a thousand times greater
than io 1825 or 1839. Let it be supposed that there were
fourteen millions in securities and eight millions in bullion,
and that there were in this country an occurrence similar
to that of 1839 —that, in the course of nine months, there
were seven millions of bullion taken out of the country—
what, then, wculd be the effect of the proposed law?
There would be tuch an utter collapse in so short a period,
that it must be plain to every man of experience that no
bank in London could stand it : no merchant in London
could stand it."

The person who undertook to answer these home-
truths was Mr. Henry Goulburn, the Chancellor of
the Exchequer under Sir Robert Peel's Government,
and his answer is specially deserving of note. He said :
" The lion. gentleman who seconded the amendment
said, that if they imposed upon the circulation of the
country the restrictions proposed by the present bill,
the consequence might be, in a moment of panic, a
difficulty, most disastrous, for which it would be
difficult to find a remedy. The hon. gentleman
suggested a case, and said—Suppose that in the
course of nine months seven millions of bullion
should be withdrawn from the limited amount
lying in th , Bank, what a predicament would the Bank
and the commercial interests of the country be placed in,
if there be not a power to issue an additional quantity of
notes? His ANSWER TO THIS SUPPOSITION WAS, that if the
principle of the present measures be a just and sound one,
its operation upon the exchanges and prices would be so
gradual, THAT THESE SUDDEN DIMINUTIONS OF THE STOCK
OF SPECIE, WHICH THE TWO GENTLEMEN CONTEMPLATED,
WOULD NOT BE LIKELY TO OCCUR. SPECIE BEING THE
BASIS OF THE CIRCULATING MEDIUM OP THE COUNTRY,
WOULD ITSELF BE OONTROLLED BY THE DEMANDS OF TILE
CURRENCY, IN A WAY WHICH WOULD PREVENT ANY UNDUE
EFFLUX OF THE PRECIOUS METALS."

Such was the language with which Sir Robert Peel's
Ch incellor of the Exchequer answered Mr. Hastie, Mr.
Masterman, Mr. Alderman Thompson, and the bankers of
London, in 1844. The new Bank Act " would prevent
any undue efflux of the precious metal." What is the
fact ? It is this, that between the 10th day of October
and the 11th of November, in the present year, the efflux
of gold from the Bank of England was three millions
s erling in four weeks, a rate of eftl ix many times as
rapid as that supposed by Mr. Hastie, and derided by Ur
Goulburn. What is more, it was a rate of efflux which
was increasing in rapidity every day, having reached a rate
of nearly a million and a half per week, before it was put
a stop to, by the issuing of the Government
order, on the 12th of November. Never, or, certainly,
not since the actual suspensions of cash pay-
ments in 1797, was the Bank of England exposed
to so terrible a drain, or in such imminent
danger of being again compelled to suspend cash pay-
ments. A delay of a few days more would probably have
realised the hopes of the enemies of British credit, and
have again reduced the Batik of England note to the level
of the assignat and the shin-plaster. And yet we are
assured that the act of 1844 has not failed in any essential
respect, and are threatened, by those wh) will
move heaven and earth to fulfil their threats, that the next
time, the screw shall be kept on, whatever the consequences
may be. I hope, sir, that you and your colleagues, and
the other representatives of the great interests of the
nation, will have influence enough to save the country from
a third infliction of this ruinous theory.
But not only was Sir Robert Peel's Chancellor of the
Exchequer mistaken in supposing that there would be no
sudden drains of gold under the Bank Act of 1844 ; he was
equally mistaken in suppesing that a gradual drain must
be put an end to, by a steady reduction in the issues of the
Bank The drain of 1847, which preceded and caused the
suspension of the Bank Charter Act in 1847, was a very
gradual one It continued from January, in that year, to
the 25th of October In the course of that term of nearly
ten months it drew four millions of gold from the Bank,
and of course, caused a diminution of four miiiions in the
Bank's issue of notes. By that time the pressure had
became intolerable, and the act was suspended with the
concurrence of all reasonable men.

What, however, is still more remarkable, and ought by
no means to b 3 lost sight of, is the fact, that though the
gal of the bank steadily diminished in 1847, during the
whole time' the restrictive clawe of the B.nk Act con-
tinued in operation, it began to increase as soon as the
Government give the Bank freedom in it 3 issues ; and it
continued to increase so steadily, that in the October
following the gold of the Bank was considerably higher in
amount than before the commencement of the drain. In
the first week of January, 1847, the bullion and coin in
the Bank amounted to £12,480,000 ; on the 23rd of
October, when the panic was at its worst, the gold had
sunk to £8,300,000; and in the first week of October,
1818, when the removal cf restriction had done its
full work, it had risen to £13,400,000. Thus,
in direct defiance of the theory of the act of 1844,
restriction of the issues was found to diminish, and the
removal of restriction was found to increase the supp:y of
gold in the coffees of the Bank. Precisely the same course
of things is taking place now. During the panic of
October and November last, the bank lost more than three
millions of g)11; since the suspension of the act of 1844,
it has regained nearly a million, and seems likely to recover
much more than that, if not all that it had lost.

Viewing this question, therefore, purely as a question of
currency, and granting that the maintaining of a broad
metallic basis for tke issues of the bank is a very important
object, it is clear, from the working of the act, both in
1847 and 1857, that you will reader a greatjervice to the
country, even as relates to that object, in assisting to modify
and improve the Bank Act of 1844.
That, however, is only one of many important considers-
done, all urging to the same course of policy.—With much
respect, I remain, dear sir, your obedient servant,
Athenaeum, Dec. 1, 1857. T. B.

At LEWIS & COHPANY'S, Ranelagh-street.
BOYS era CLOTHED from t'ae Ages of Six to Twenty Tenni.

'

MONETARY AND COMMERCIAL.

LIVERPOOL, Tuesday Evening.

The Cotton Market keeps very steady. The sales
to-day were about 7,000 bales, including one third
on speculation and for export.
The Liverpool Share Market has been dull, and
lower to-day, by to per cent., than yesterday,
closing tolerably steady. The following were the
transactions :-Caledonian, 39, 381, 381- ; Eastern
Counties, 11, 11 1-16 ; East Lancashire, 88i;
Great Western, 52/ ; Lancashire and Yorkshire,
911, 911, 911; Lancaster and Carlisle, 75 ; London,
Brighton, and South Coast, 103 ; London and
North Western, 951, 951, 951, 951, 951; Manchester,
Sheffield, and Lincolnshire, 36, 351, 356, 351, 35f ;
Midland, 831, 831 ; Dovers, 19, 18 15 16, 19, 181,
18 15-16 ; Grand Trunk of Canada, 9f, 9 13-16 ;
Great Western of Canada, 1.84; Great Luxembourg,
6 1-16 ; Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire
£lO Shares, 111; Chester Preference 8 per Cent.,
16 ; London Fire and Life, 8. The follow-
ing were the closing prices :-Blackburn, 9, 91;
Chester and Birkenhead, 63i, 64; Caledonian,
381, 38 ; Chester and Holyhead, 151, 16 ; Eastern
Counties, 11, 11i ; East Lancashire, 88, 89 ; Do.
9/. Shares, par, ; Great Northern, 23/, 23f ; Do.
A, 91, 10 ; Great Western, 511, 521 ; Lancashire
and Yorkshire Stock, 911, 911; Do. 9/. shares,
par / p ; Liverpool, Crosby, and Southport, 181,
181 ; London and North Western Stock, 951, 95/ ;
Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire, 351 351;
Midland Stock, 831, 831; North British, 111, 12 ;
North Staffordshire, 44, 41 d; North Eastern -
Berwick, 23 3-16 23 5-16; York and North Midland,
401, 41; Leeds Capital Stock, 241, 254; South
Eastern and Dover, 181, 18 15-16 ; Dutch Rhenish,
51, 51 d ; Great Western of Canada, 184, 184 ; Do.
new shares, 24 21 d ; Great Luxembourg, 6, 64 ;
Grand Trunk of Canada, 92, 9 13-16.

The Funds, to day, have fallen. The continua-
tion on Consols is heavy. The market is also pre-
judiced by the failures at Hamburg, and by the
reports that a large amount of specie has been sent
to that city from this country. The engagements
due on the 4th are heavy, and the demand for
money will increase. To-day, Consols for Money
and the Account closed at 91!.

In the London Railway Share Market there was
not much done, and we mutt quote prices rather
lower. The following. were the closing prices:—
Caledonians, 764, 761; Eastern Counties, 541, 551 ;
East Lancashire, 88,90 ; Edinburgh and Glasgow,
59, 60; Great Northern, -923; ditto A, 76, 78 ;
Great Westerns, 511, 511 ; . Great Western of
Canada, 181, 18k; Grand Trunk of Canada, 91;
Lancashire and Yorkshire, 912 ; London and North
Western, 951 ; London and South Western, 88i;
Leeds Northern, 51; Manchester, Sheffield, and
Lincolnshire, 351; Midland Stock, 831 ; North
British, 48, 49 ; South Eastern and Dover,
62i, 634; York, Newcastle, and Berwick, 92,
93 ; York and North Midland, 81, 82.
After official hours the following were the nominal
prices :—Caledonians, 76*, 761; Eastern Counties,
10Z-, 11 ; East Lancashire, 83, 90; Great Northern,
92, 93 ; Do. A, 76, 78 ; Great Westerns, 511, 511;
Lancashire and Yorkshire, 911, 91/ ; London and
North Western, 051, 951; North British, 48i ;
York, Newcastle, and Berwick, 92, 93 ; York and
No7th Midland, 81, 82.

From the circular of Messrs. Peel and Co., of
Alexandria, dated the 20th November, we learn the
following interesting particulars :

Cotton : Prices have fallen considerably. " Fair" to
" good fair" has been sold at from 17i dols to 183 dols,
or 101 d to 101 d per lb, f. o. b., and we look for lower
prices. Flax : The only sales are 250 canters dressed at
piastres 145, or £3B per ton, f. o. b., and 50 cantars ord,
rough at piastres 72, or £2O 103 per ton, f. o. b The
article is now dull, and 1,000 canters arrived of Pasha's
dressed not yet offered for sale. Wheat : Contracts for
November and December are now obtainable at piastres
72. On the spot Saidi has been sold at piastres 74& to 78,
or 28s 3d to 29s 6d per qr., f.o.b. ; Behereh at piastres 67
to 72, or 25s 6cl to 27s 3d per qr ,f.o. b. Beans : There
have been no sales for several days. The last price was
piastres 741, or about 27s per qr., f. o. b., but we expect a
fall of is to is 6d per qr. Indian Corn: Contracts
for delivery in February were done at piastres 70 to 76,
but they are now worth only piastres 67, Linseed without
demand, but little in the place. Freights Os 6d to 7s 4d
according to size, has been paid for Beans for orders, 5s
to direct ports ; an active demand for vessels to load
Wheat on the Coast of Syria at lOs to 11s for orders, with
few seeking ships. Exchange on London piastres at 104
per X.