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

TIMES.- LIVERPOOL, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1857.

with its high scale of interest. He trusted that the Liver-
pool Chamber of Commerce would move. He hoped the
Manchester people would not long hag their fetters by
upholding a system which shut up their mills and cast
thousands of workpeople out of employ. Edinburgh,
Glasgow, and, he hoped, Leeds, would speak out. He
earnestly entreated the Council to send in a petition on
the very day that Parliament met. He had himself felt as
well as seen the effects of. the present system, and no
earthly motive could induce him to enter into business
again until it was altered. He had almost taken a
vow that he would never cease his exertions until
it was overthrown, knowing, as he did, its evils theore-
tically, and having felt them practically. They should pray
for a renewed committee of the House of Lords, that
House having signally condemned the act of 1844 in 1848.
If the Commons'eCommittee of last session were renewed,
they should petition that one of the representatives of each
of the largo towns might be added to it. Failing such a
committee, the next best thing, he repeated, was a Royal
Commission. Pending a deliberate inquiry, they should
ask that the Bank issue of notes on national securities,
limited by the act to £14,475,000, should be extended to
twenty or twenty-five millions. The Government letter
had let out tw millions beyond the fourteen millions, and
there would probably b 3 an attempt to make that the per-
manent limit. Bet it should be recollected that the
Bank had been obliged to sell Government securities
amounting to 0E3,600,000, so that the necessity for such a
total was proved by the necessities of trade. The real
secret which w.s at the bottom of all the laboured articles
of " Mercator," and the Times, had been avowed by Lord
Overstone, when he intimated to the Commons' Committee
that his ultimate object was to have nothing but a
metallic circulation. His lordship was asked by Mr.
Cayley—" Do you think that the transactions of this
nation could b 3 carried on with me'sti ic money only ?"
and (as would be seen from questions and answers
3787-8-9, et seg.,) he most distinctly pledged himself to
that opinion, which, if it were acted upon, must produce
a curtailment of the manufactures of the country, to the
extent of about seventy-five per cent. On this point, the
b calm and intelligent evidence of Mr, Edward Cripps was
well worthy of c insideratiou. In answer to Question
5498, also put by Mr. Cayley, he characterised this as a
most extraordinary notion, and sail he could hardly ima-
gine how it ever entered into the head of a sane man. He
(Mr. Knott) was most thoroughly convinced, that if ever
an attempt were made to carry on the commerce and
manufactures of this country with a metallic money only,
the whole system would explode, and the throne itself
would soon afterwards totter to its fall.
On the conclusion of Mr. Knott's address, an adjourn-
ment to Wednesday was agreed to,
The adjourned meeting took place accordingly, RICHARD
Joartsort, Esq., in the chair.
Mr. BRITTEN, a gentleman who, during the last ten
years, has given his almost undivided attention to the
Currency Question, was present by invitation. He stated
that his object was, not so much to further his own views,
as to get together persons who had studied the subject, to
talk it over quietly, and reduce the points on which they
were agreed to the smallest possible compass. Whenever
this had been done, in his experience, he had always found
that however widely men might appear to differ, there
were some points on which they really agreed though they
might have arrived at them by different roads. He
did not anticipate much benefit from any large assembly
of persons in London, or elsewhere, such as hid been
suggested by the Council, for at such assemblies tlere was
always a tremendous amount of talking, and hit little
listening to the purpose. But if in this or other towns a
few persons met together, and drew up some fie or six
propositions, on which all agreed, then it would certainly
be very advantageous to send some one person t. advocate
them at a general conference. He also thought he present
made of conducting inquiries before Patiamentary
committees unsatisfactory, since the result vas, almost
invariably, a mass of contradictory evidence, rom which
it was next to impossible to draw any practicalconclusion.
Without entering into any particular expositioi of his owe
views, he illustrated what he considered the absurdity of
the present system, by saying that if any MU undertook
to supply a thousand million pouts ls of cotton next year, at
81 par lb., everybody would ca'l him mad first, because
there is not so much cotton in the world ;and, secondly,
because next year cotton may be worthl6d instead of
8d per lb. But it was quite as abard to under-
take to pay a debt of a thousand militias in gold,
at a certain pric-, when, notoricesly, there is
not so much gold in the world, and that f there were, its
price may vary quite as much as that of cotton. He
described promissory notes of all kinde as out the transfers
of debt from one person to another, aid said that the
indispensable requirement in all sound fortes of legal
tender was a definite value entitling the ultimae holder,
who had no debt to pay, to go somewhere and demand
something for it. If any proposed form of legal tender
had not this definite value there was a fallacy in tie pro-
position. As to the present system, he expre;sea his
conviction that if men had gone to work expressly for the
purpose of producing something which slould occasion
constant uncertainty air] endless convulsiocs, they could
not possibly have devised any scheme ly which those
objects would be more effectually attaned. At the
request of the Council, Mr. Britten undertook to
draw up a few propositions, with a vies to their being
submitted to a subsequent meeting, na of the Financial
Reform Association, but of members obit, of the Chamber
of Commerce, and other gentlemen who may be invited to
attend. A petition to the Hous, of Common was
agreed upon, and has since been ent off to Mr. J. C.
Ewart for presentation. The follaving is its substance :
" That in the deliberate judgmen, of great numbers of
intelligent persons of practical kno7ledge and experience,
the present system of National Balking and Currency is
completely erroneous in principle, deeply injurious to the
general community in its working, and likely, if persisted
in, to be productive of conseque.ces sti 1 more disastrous
than any that it has yet cccaioned, though these are
alleged to be of the most griev.ue description. That, on
the other hand, other persons, (pally intelligent, and also
possessed of practical knowlecke and experience, contend
that that system is sound bothin theory and practice, and
most beneficial to the nation generally. That, hitherto,
the course of legislation on the subject appears to have
been guide :l exclusively by tie opinions of the latter class

comprising many greit CopiaHas who have grown rich
under the present system, tc whom periods of commercial,
manufacturing, and industial calamity bring great ac-
quisitions of wealth, ani vhose individual interests are,
therefore, deeply involved inthe continuance of a system most
advantageous to them, how3ver incurious it may be to th 3
rest of the community. Mat, under these circumstances,
it is most desirable that tiara should be a searching and
thoroughly impartial inv,stigation of the principles and
operation of the monetary laws cf the country, conducted
by men of the highest ability, character, and standing, who
are not pledged to one system or another, but desirous
only of the truth, and free to adopt and pursue the best
means of ascertaining it." Tie prayer is for such an
investigation, either before an open committee of the
House, so constituted as to comnand universal respect and
confidence, or in such other way as may seem best adapted
to accomplish the ends in view,viz , the ascertainment of
the true principles on which a national currency should be
grounded, and the promotion of he general welfare which
is so vitally concerned in their &Option.

THE BALLOT SOCIETYAND THE QUEEN'S

SPEEff.

On Thursday night a crowdd public meeting W2S held
at the Greyhound-inn, Sydenhar, in favour of the Ballot
and Parliamentary Reform.
Mr. John Bennett, F.B.S ,took the chair, and read to
the meeting the passage of the Queen's speech announcing
the intention of the Governtnat to bring forward a Reform
Bill.

Mr. Stavely, of Geelong Victoria), gave a clear and
detailed description of the waking of the Ballot in Vic-
toria, accompanied by reform to a plan of the polling
room used at the elections inthat colony.
Mr. Whitehurst (vice-ehaimin of the Ballot Society)
then addressed the mr-etin„; atgreat length, recapitulating
the usual arguments for the tallot. He advocated the
Ballot, becanie it would lead to legislation intended for
the benefit of the middle, the fading, and working classes
of the country. He wanted tie country not to trust Lord
Palmerston, who was ose of tle government that introduced
the six acts, and his elm government had lately put one
of them in force agaisst an editor of a newspaper.
Mr. Janes Camplell also addressed the meeting.
Mr. Hall.mcved, and Joshua Beardmore secor,th d tie
following resolu'ioi, which was unanimously and enthusi-
asqcally carried :

Resolved,—Tht this meeting desires to Express its
satisfaction at th announcement in the Queen's speech
!hat the attenOn or Parliament, will be called to the
laws which reg':ate do; represen'ation of the people in
Parliament, wit! a view to consider what amendments may
be made therein and at the same time desires to record its
conviction tha no extension of the frauchiEe will be
• eatisfactory utl‘ss accompanied by the vote by Ballot.
That copies if this resolution It,: forwarded by the chair- •
man to Lord lalmervon and to Mr. Charles Wykeham
Martin, and M. James Whatmart, the Members of Par-
liament for th division of the county.
Mr_ Elt (o' the Baro-, Society) moved, and Mr. Le
Maitre (Ballo Society), seconded a vote of thanks to Mr,
Bennett far pesidinT,,which that gentleman acknowledged,
and the meet* then separated.

At IEWIS & ONPANY'S, flane'agli-street,
BOIS are CL.OTEIED from tc:e Ages of Six Twenty Years