The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-05-11 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL .FIYLNCIAI• REFORM
ASISOCIAtION.

The weekly !nesting of the Cour ell wag held on Tuesday,
Fraziers Bonit, 23q., 'one of the vice-praidents, in the
chair- .
_ _

The TIRES Newstseeta.—Thee first subject adverted to
after the reading of the minutes and the transaction of other
routine business was the article with which the "Times of
that 'thy thotight proper to aceompany the publication of the
address Elf the Council. to the -members of the ne A House of
Commend. Apart iron the "amusement occasioned by the
extrayegance of the travestie which some suggestions and
itlustrattons of the address uaderge at the haods of the
the editor, whilst its main pints , axe slurred over. the
appearance in the most conspicuOus part of the 'lliates
even of such a leader was a source of. gratification to the
menbere present, es proving in' the 'first- pleee that the
ministerial oreste must hive been hard bested when it
resorted to burl6que and'carica,tere iris'ead of arguineat;
and, in the second, that, in the opinion of that organ, the
pUbliCations of the association` are beginnin e to tell pew-
tingly on the legislature as well' as ap seethe ptiblic mind,
since the Theessot not ill the ha oie of devoting tong leaders
to popular ,movements which it really believe,' to be ton
centemplible for serious notice. . It . was not deemed
uecssaary to furnish' the Times with a list of the
members of the Council, the number of subseribers,
or any other proofs of active yitalita .or even to
refer, it to its own , report of the , public
meeting on the 22ad of January last, at which the 12 --loci-
pies ,of the
,assoeiatio-s were unaoisnously affirmed—in
order to remove tbe affected doubts of the nines as to the
actual existence onhe association, Oe clear up its pretended
perPlexity as to whether Ms. R ihsr`son Gladstone, its
president. is a mere myth- or a red livin bsieg The
:C3IIY4A taken by the Times with regar-t to the questions of
provincial and fiscal reform was einnedered to be highly
discreditable, but still quite in keeping with its iittetr able
mode: of proceeding in relation to all getat changes fbr the
better, which is always divided into three principal. stages
--firs-, contemptuous silence, then ridicule, and, lastly,
zealous support, even t- the extent of bludgeons and
brickhets, if. these should be deemed necessary ta success.
With regard to Financial Reform the- Tenets seems to have
now got Leto the,secoad stage ;
,it will reach .the third all
in good time ,
Tea PUttete A.CCi;UNTS AND Tat AATioNit, Deer.—
Amongst the corresp meleuce road were letters from derirga
Bowyer, E,q., M.P. fir Dendslk, relative to the dock
yards, the audit return, end government .rnentifacturez ;
And tine from H. 8. Mirgtn, Ese , public' accenntant.
eThe following is an extract from lIIr Meagan's letter :
"I attach more irnOrtance se the rep at on pnbliomonies
than to anyorher retern which has appeared for many years.
'er am satisfied that if the accounts were kept decently,
ruling off the balances quarterly, eo that the statistical.
tables might agree, we should soon , get-rid of much
difficulty in ferreting out information. Ish mld like
to see a table giyirg the national debt at its com-
mencement in 1638; showing also how it stood at the
commencement of each successive reign, and at the pre-
sent time. The comparisons would be instructive."
Tam Curtnerscv.—Ntr. Note vice-p-ea:dent( f the London
Central Currency Reorat Committee, attended on the
in+rodurtiOn John filinith, fir' the purpose of ex-.
pleining the objects of the bede with which he is connect-d,
and showing that to each a body as the Financial Reform.
Association the money in which taxes were paid, as well
';as their emorint, and the mode of levying them, was a very
legitimate subject for consideration. The chairman said
the question of the car ency was every wide one, and there
might be seine doubt how far it clone within the scope of
the association. Mr. Nett conceived that the whole Ties-
time lay in a nut-shell; and that. as there was nothing so
universal as meney, which bOnght everything, so this
question was one with which a Financial Reorat Associa-
:tion was specially borind to. deal. Oitaht money to be
sot ethine intrinsically valuable, or only representing
value ? He maintained that, for all domestic purposes, it
,ought to be only the representative cf value. In ferrner
times, as they found from scripture, there was a tribute
money and .local money. In this country, the ancient
Fxchequer Bill was nothing but altieipated texts put into
an available form. Government received stores, then anti-
cipated taxes, by peeing for them in Exchequer Bills ; end
these bills now carried interest because a period was fixed
for their payment. Th-y ought to pass from hand to
hand, on a par with the precious metals, as they did in
all civilised- countries. This sort of conventional money
was established by Pitt, in 1797, and by means of it they
were enabled to carry on a long and expensive war, and
to par taxes much higher than during the late war, with-
out anything like the same pressure. In 1819 there was
a call for a return to emit payments, and an attempt was
made to introduce again a-money with intrinsic value; it
was deferred until 1822, and when the change came into
operation there was an immediate fall of 50 per cent. in
the prices of all egsieultural produce, and such distress in
the manufacturing dietricts, that Lord Castlereagh pre-'
posed the re-issue of £1 notes.. A degree of prosperity,
quite astounding, was the result of a sufficiency of nv'ney.
Then came the panic t f 1825, which was relieved by
similar means ; another restriction in 1829. and then the
panic of 1836, when the great house of Brown and Co.,
with superabundance of means, hot none available in the
shape of money, was saved from failure by a large gev rn-
msnt loan of exchequer bills ; and under the present
currency system, such things would be of constant oemr-
rence, not for want of wealth, but of the means of dis-
tributing it. It was quiet certain that, in order-to get
real &pedant, of tra le, there must be a free price of gold,
instead of one fixed by ant of parliament. The Chairmen
Said the events referred to had been explained on other
grennda The question for the council was, whether the
Financial Referm Association, instituted for two special
objects. the enforcement of enonemy in the public
expenditure, and an equitable system of taeation, were
concerned in this money ignestien, which was a
different thirg altogether. It might be a very
proper one for censideraion, but the council could
not as yet commit itself either one way or the other.
Mr. John Smith said that these being their objects, they
were evidently so bound that they could not enter fully
into the currency question as such ; but it was quite
within their province to call for an impartial enquiry into
all the circumstances connec,ei with the question, so tikt
it might be heard and decided upon by men net pledged
either for or against Peel's bill, or to any particular system.
Mr. Nott was convinced that unless there were an honest
enquiry the real burden of either direct or indirect taxa-
tion could never he ascertained. The Chairman asked
what the Currency CoMmittee pronesed as a substitute for
a metallic currency. Mr. Nott said the committee were
not pledged to any particular plan. The question which
they wished to see decided by competent men wag, whs.
thee money should necessarily be of intrinsic value, or
whe her it should be conventional.- Lord Overstone
was pledged to the Act of 1844, which fixed a price
on a commodity, whose value, as they all knew, varied like
that of every other commodity in tl- e market. Mr. Taylor
approved the plan (11821. Mr. Tooke had his opinions,
an -I the object of the Currency Committee was to iibtain a
fair scrutiny of all the different sehemes. before a Royal
Commission, consisting of the first and ablest men in the
land, all above being bribed, or othereise improperly
influenced. As one of such men he named Mr. Pemberton
Leigh. Such an enquiry was all the Currency Committee
'wanted ; but they would not get it nnlsss commercial
men asked for it. If such- bodies as the Chamber of Corn-
inerce and Financial Reform Associations remained quies-
cent the question as to the renewal of the Beek Charter,
and the maintenance of the Act of 1844, would be decided
'by a packed committee of the House of Commons. 'Bat
if the Chancellor of the Excheq tier attempted to app qnt
such a e anmittee, the Currency Committee would if
,prl-
- supported, aptly to the Hence of -Lo-da fr a !loyal
Commission. The Chairman said that in New' York the
principles of free trade in b aiking and limited liability
were in full operation. The shareholders were only liable
to the extent of their shares. and banks might issue what
amount of notes they pleased, but for every note they must
deposit state stock, which, on any default ef payment, was
available for the creditors: It was sgreed that the council,
Without committing itself to any particular theory, might
petition for enienitty, and after sonic farther conversation
Mr. Nott withdrew.
TIM HITDSON BAY Comreer.—A pstiiienio the Hens° of
Commons on this subject, to be entrusted eo Mr. J. C.
Ewert for presentation, with a request to Mr. IreNAIL to
surport its prayer, was adopted. The following is its sub-
stance :—" That with few exceptions, and these under
special circumstances only, every Bri ish subject has the
constitutional rights of settlement in, and of free trading
to and
and p
diofromeveryotpeaprtin of British l
part of the British dominion.,
Thatione,un these
rthsee
rights and these laws have long been and now are, a dead
letter over nearly the whole continent and British North
America, excepting chiefly Canada—that is to say, over a
country equalling all Europe in extent, comprising
millions of acres of ferti'e land,—abounding itt
coal and mineral' wealth,—watered by fine navigable
rive-s, presenting the finest possible field
for emigrants, —and capable of becoming the
grain and provision store of all Christendom. That
these vast and valuable regions have been claimed, and are
at present held, as the private property.. and In ,dships of a
mere.handful of individuals constituting the Hudson's Bay
Company, under a charter granted by King Charles
and thet they further claim and exercise the piivilege t f
exclusively trading therein, under parliamentary license.
That there are many reasons for be that the charter
was invalid from the first; none whatever for: supposing
that the monopoly of the company:is:held for the public
benefit. That in conveying What was called Rupert's
Land to the Hudson's Bay Company, King Charles ex-
pressly excluded from the grant all lands, minerals, rivers,