Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-11-27 00:00:00

THE NORTHER TIMES.---LIVERPOOL, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27 1857.

while still vindicating the wider objects of the
Charter:

Next Thursday Parliament meets for the- des-
patch of " urgent business." We are now informed
that it is likely that the address on the Royal
Speech will be moved in the Commons by Mr.
Wykeham Martin, member fer West Kent, and
seconded by Mr. Ackroyd, member for Hudders-
field.
A ministerial paper of yesterday says that the
statements that have recently appeared in Conti-
nental Journals, to the effect that English agents
were recruiting in various parts of the Continent,
are false and groundless.

In the London Bankruptcy Court yesterday, the
hearing of the Royal British Bank case was
adjourned for the result of the trials of the
Directors in February next. Mr. Linklater made
a statement of the present position of the Bank-
ruptcy affairs, which holds out considerable hope
of the shareholders being shortly relieved of their
liabilities, at the same time that the creditors will
be satisfied.

The continental news does not contain any items
of interest. It is announced that the Wallachian
Divan has declare its incompetency to solve the
question of the internal organisation of the pro
vince, and had resolved to demand to send a repre-
sentative to the Paris Conference. The internal
organisation of the province was the only question
the Divan was elected to solve, as laid down in the
Treaty of Paris.

Our Paris advises announce that M. Dupin is to
he installed as Procureur-General of the Court of
Cessation to morrow (Saturday.) The speech.
which, according to usage, he will pronounce on
that occasion, will be looked forward to with con-
siderable interest. IL Daubigny, the government
candidate, has been elected in the Sarthe by an
enormous majority. He polled 18,000 votes against
4,000 given to M. Jules Favre, who did not, how-
ever make any personal canvass The despatch
does not state the number of votes given to M.
Richer l'Eveque, the candidate denounced by the
Prefect's letter.

THE first French Empire was based upon land.
The second, which is now before us, is based
upon gold. The former fell with Assignats ; the
latter awaits the sad fatality which attends Bri-
tish commerce. As land fluctuated in value, the
currency which represented it became depre-
ciated. Frenchmen knew full well that the entire
dead (veight- of the State could not be borne
by any one portion of the national wealth.
They saw that Government prodigality would
lead to the reconfiscation of land. This fear
converted the friends of the Assignat scheme into
its most determined enemies, and the currency it
produced was abandoned as worthless, by com-
mon consent. The Bullionists' hoax, as deve-
loped in the present condition of Great Britain,
is equally valueless, and the French of 1857 can=
not support it except by violating its leading
principles. The Bank of France, when pressed
for gold. buy it at a premiipn of 4. or per cent,
They do this to avoid the industrial and commer-
cial, consequences of advancing the rates of dis-
count, of throwing labour out of employment, and
causing " a fall generally in the prices of all
commodities." But, by pursuing this course,
they lose those profits which alone render our bul-
lion basis tolerable, even to such inventive mortals
as JONES LLOYD. They miss, first of all, the
advance in the rate of discount ; secondly, they
forfeit ths.-. increased value given to gold by the
depreciation of produce, and every other
description of property. Add to these their loss
of ors per cent. on every '-14/. wohh of gold
bought, and what remains as the foundation of
the second Empire ? Is France prepared- for the
cri,is which England has gone through under
our Duiliou IwposLure alie bids higher. for
gold than other nations; but, as if to expose the
false doctrine preached by the London Times, she.
cannot get as much as she wants.of the precious.
.metal. She may have a balance of trade in her
favour, and so have we, particularly
,with the
gold-producing countries ; yet experience sho•wS"
us that we cannot command gold to secure con-
tinuous employment and stability to trade.
In commerce, gold has a universal, but not a
fixed value. It must not be said, therefore, that
it is a universal standard of value. Its market
price must at all times vary according to the
functions, which those nations who uses it at all,
assign to it. For instance, if one State demands
that 80,000,000/. of taxation 'shall be paid in
gold, and that taxation shall take precedence o

every other demand on the subject as England
does, and another State provides a domestic
currency in paper, or p ter—as in Germany—
gold must be worth just 80,0000001. more where
it is required to pay taxes. The British
legislative have tried hard to give.the " chosen
metal" unnatural value, and it has "succeeded by
the depreciation of mercantile stocks, houses,
Ships; agricultural produce, and land itself, and
reducing all to a state of bankruptcy. This
.nation has-lost filly 50,000,000/. within the last
month, by depreciation in the value of its
,substance; and hence_ we find that the value of

gold must be measured by the functions it has
to discharge, not on commerce alone, but on the
political organisltioris of States. In the'hands
of absolute rulers, whether Bourbons or Bona-

partes, who think poverty of mind and body the
happiest order of things, such a system as ours
may be the best that could be. devised. For if
they were to attempt to make taxation or any other
element of their political existence, the basis
of currency, it would be too much to expect
them not to abuse it, and clavert that which
would be a blessing to a Constitutional people,
into a scourge for themselves, and their peace
seeking neighbours. But in a State politically
and socially constituted as we are, we can make
any one of our national necessities or obligations
the basis of a currency, which in all domestic

.ransactions, shall discharge the functions of

gold.

• •
We have a representative Parliament whom

he Sovereign or people can dismiss at pleasure.

We are consequently in a position to select any

money we please for the payment of taxes, so
long as the use of that money would not enfeeble
the State, or, inflict loss on the public creditor.
These evils may be avoided, .as they are in the

present Bank of England, by making our taxation
money, legal tender. What, then, shall he the
basis of this legal tender ? and what shall be its
amount ? Certainly not the labour which has
not yet been employed, the wheat that has not
yet been sown, the spindle that has not been
moved, the capital which remains to be turned,
or the ship that has yet to be launched. There
is something that must go before the hungry
man and the enterprising capitalist. The wants
of the State are in reality the first to be consi-
dered, but they are the last, in fact, which 'can
be realised. Here we have the truth culminating
on the two opposite poles, while we are left to
ponder over the huge mass of indebtedness which
establishes the correctness of both allegations.
Fortunately, however, the intrinsic value our
money—gold—possesses is measured by the
stability it gives to the Empire and commerce.
Now, this value is merely conventional, and the
stability it gives is purely comparative, after all ;
and we need only point to the present political
and social condition of the United Kingdom to
prove the dangerous character of our financial
stipulations, and the unenviable place in which
comparison would leave our credit and general
prospects in trade. We have entered into a
covenant among ourselves, or rather Parliament
has for us, which we cannot fulfil, and we cannot
pay other countries for the produce we have
received from them, and this must have come to
pass if all had gone on smoothly abroad.
Excessive taxation, such as must necessarily
follow wars, conquest, and the spreading, of
Empire, added to the high prices produced by a
natural increase in demand, have exhausted our
conventional means; and as these causes cannot
be removed by artifical nostrums, similar to
those we now live under, and which render
all trading and mercantile pursuits so many
traps, snares, and delusions, we must at once alter
our conventional compacts as regards money.
We must infuse new life into the State, by
allowing it to use the credit to which it is entitled.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer will require
80,000,0001., or very near it, within the next
twelve months. This we should be sorry -to
hear Sir CORNEWALL LEWIS " promise to pay on
demand." But there can be no valid objection
to his issuing Exchequer notes for one pound,
and any larger, sums, containing a promise to
receive them again, in payment of taxes and
duties. These notes, as a matter of course, would
be made legal tender, and at the end of each
fiscal quarter of a year, the public would find
themselves in possession of the amount of
taxation demanded from them, instead of having
to go abroad to sacrifice their hard-earned sub-
stance, in order to find a foreign product, gold,
to pay taxes: Some people call this socialism,
chartist doctrine, and a thiusand other absurd
names ; but who ever heard of a nation's destroy_

ing its own commerce, throwing its entire
population into idlen*ess and want, and then
calling itself sound, safe, and strong, in a social
or political !sense ? It is easy to coin names and
to indulge in childish suspicions and invectives,
but we are BU,UUU,UUW. short of the money we
require to carry.on.
,the production and trade -of
the country; and- until-some-niore rational Fain
can be sUi,o-eited-the mercantile classes will look
to Parliament to make taxation the basis of our

•
• .
and worthless of powers on the roll of European
nations, with beggared resources, and scarcely a
line of battle-ship fit for service. Whatever may
be said of the administrative talents of the
President of the Mexican Republic, it is certain
he has endeavoured to carry on the goveinment
of the country with a view to the social and
political amelioration of his couutrymen, and the
advancement of civil and religious liberty. While
he was so acting from truly patriotic views, we
find the emissaries of Spain in the island of Cuba
plotting and scheming how they could best make
an effectual invasion of Mexican territory,
thereby compelling the authorities at the capital
to erect fortresses at Vera Cruz. It should be
further observed that the Spanish fortresses in
Cuba were organised for a campaign, all the
munitions of war were provided, sham sieges
were performed, and everything put in train for
a grand coup d'etat at Vera Cruz and the States
of MONTEZUMA. The Cubans are fond of vaunt-
ing that they have a reserve fund of four millions
of dollars to defray the expenses of the projected
campaign. Now, it strikes us, that the character
of these extenders of Spanish territory would act
much more pleasing to GOD and man were they,
with this " reserve fund," to pay the claims upon
their decrepid and worn-out mother country in
Europe; and if the capitalists in Cuba are desir-
ous of subscribing for the purpose of aggrandis-
ing Spain, and extending her colonial possessions,
it would be much more suitable to relieve the
Government of Spain from the degrading stigma
of uncertificated bankrupts. Our advice to these
Cubans is to put aside their military designs
upon Mexico; but, if they despise the warning,
then we tell them that should ever SANTA ANNA
be sent as Viceroy to the QUEEN of Spain in
Mexico, they must be prepared for the most seri-
ous of consequences-

In such a state of things we gather from some of
the most influential journals in the United States
that that Government would undoubtedly profit
by Spanish infatuation, for it is much more than
probable that the American Government would
feel itself compelled, from a perfect weariness of
the faithlessness of Spain, and the weakness
of Mexico, will resolve to terminate the lengthy
account of mutual jealousy between both coun-
tries, and annex Mexico as one of the United
States. If Mexico, on the other hand, cannot
govern herself, and if Spain cannot reftain from
her aggressive designs, it is but natural that the
United States should step in between the two,
and prevent. them from establishing a policy of
unity
.and civilisation on the great American
Continent. Seeing Spain in all :her ,attributes
as a monarchy, we say she is unfitted
for the risk of conque.st or territorial extension,
so that we cannot, for the life of us, understand
upon what ground they can justify an invasion
of Mexico. We regret to see that in the strug-
gle now going on in Mexico, the priesthood' has
set itself against the'authorities, • only
on par with what is going on just now in Belgium.
In both countries it is simply a duel between
the- inolpie or ferotious and corrupt ecclestas-
.
tical despotism on the one hand, and liberal self
government on the other. It is the duty of
England to watch with earnestness and constancy
the turn of affairs in Mexico, because, it cannot
eventuate in any manner that will not' interest
Great Britain. As matters look at present, Spain
is placed in a very delicate position. It will not
do in the nineteenth centuryjto tolerate piratical
aggression.

THE MARCHIONESS OF LONDONDERRY'S DINNER TO HER
TRNNANTRY.--The annual rent-day dinner of Lady Lon-
donderry took place at Winyard a few days ago. In the
morning`g-there was a numerous exhibition of stock to com-
pete for the liberal prizes offered by her ladyship and Earl
Vane. The dinner took place in a spacions coach house,
which. had been fitted up expreisly for the occasion. The
interior was beautifully decorated with f.stoons and other
devices, and a profusion of variegated lamps and Chinese
lanterns gore to the whole a very charming effect. The
Marchioness took her seat at the head of the table, and was
supported by Earl Vine, the Duke, and Duchess of Marl-
borough, Sir W. Eden, Bart.e&c. The proceedings were
of a strictly privata nature. -

Tip LAND QuesrroN AND THE MONEY CRISIS.--Dr.
B ,gg,'in a letter to the people of Scotland, says —One,
and perhaps the most important, lesson to be learnt from
what has happened, is, the necessity of providing a more
simple form 'of solid investment for the earnings of the
people, by opening up the whole soil of Scotland to fair
competition on the principal of " Free trade in land." The
railway system presents in the meantime a form of invest-
ment which, at all events, is free from .unlimited liability,
and which will probably c )ntinue to improve with the
progress of the country. Bat, along with this, all the
fetters which bind up the land of Scotland, or hinder its
transference, ought to be struck off.; and land should be
and easily might be, bought or sold like, any other commo-
dity in the Stock Exchange. This would go to the root

of many of our evils, would immensely increase the wealth
of the kingdom, the prosperity of railways, the comfort of
the people ; it would diminish pauperism and taxation,
and supersede the necessity of any emigration for at least
a century to come. It is laudable but comparatively easy
for our great noblemen, with wh)le counties in absolu'e
possession, holding no bank shares, or if they do, shielded
from all real risk by the law of entail, to stand amidst the
wrecks of the present system and cry up its excellence,
without saying a word of the social mischiefs t) which we
alluded. In one sense, we do do not dispute the great
benefits which our bsnking system has conferred upon
Scotland. On the contrary, we rejoice and glory in it, but
the people will, by-and-hyo, discover that, especially for the
investments of small capitalists, " the best bank is a bank
of earth. "

POSITION OF SHAREHOLDERS 01' JOINT-STOCK BANKS.—
There is an attempt being made just now, through
motives the very revers) of those professed, to excite
public-sympathy on behalf of the shareliolders of those
banks whose past managemeit the present monetary crisis
has proved to he defective. Wa feel very deeply for many
of these unfortunate persons, and yield to none in repro-
bating the reckless speculation and mismanagement by
which their money has been squandered, and themselves
in too many cases brought to the verge of beggary and
ruin. Bat we must not allow our sympathy to run away
with our reason. It will not ,do to create a distinction
between bank shareholders and partners in other business

,':

speculations, when really there is none ; and if banking
investments and other trade investments are of the same
class, they should have the same principles applied to
them. Now, in trade it is a very well understood general
law that great profits mean "great riske, and if we ind
that the banke which have proves unsound in their mange-
ment were paying their shareholders large dividends as
compared with those paid by other well-conducted estab-
lishments, we are driven to the conclusion, that in the less
which has overtaken them now, the shareholders arc simply
being called to account for former inordinate profits.
Looking back at the quotations in the Edinburgh share
list a couple of years ago, what do we find? Taking the
British Linen Company's Bank on the one hand, as the
model of an establishment conducting a sound trade: as
money lender, &e., and the Western Bank as its opposite
in this respect, we find the law we have mentioned fully
borne out by the figures placed opposite the names of these
establishments. A £lOO share of the British Linen Com-
pany's Bank, the price of which is stated at £223, paid a
dividend of £9 to its holder ; two shares of the Western,
of £5O each, and changing hands at the price of £76 each,
or £152 for the two, paid a dividend of ..E8 to the proprietor
of them. Why is this ? Here we have, in the case of the
British Linen Company, an investment of £223 purchasing
an annual interne of £9, while an investment in the
Western of only £152 purchased an annual income of £8
If the profits of both banks had been equal the Western
should have been able to pay only a little more than £6
annually t) the person who invested £152 in the purchase
of stock, instead of £B, its declared dividend. Is it not
wonderful, with such handsome profits accruing, that all
the shareholders of the British Linen did not sell out and
buy Western stock ? It certainly is, if we are now to
condole with the shareholders of the Western as mere
victims, and to rail against the management of their bank
as a matter in which they had neither participation
❑or profit. But this will not do. The man who purchased
Western stock knew very well, or should have known
very well, what he was doing. It must have been well
understood in the share-market that only speculative and
hazardous management could enable the Western Bank
to pay the dividend it was paying; and the low pice of
the stock, as compared with the amount of dividend, was
•ccasioned by the very calculation of the greater risk thus
arising. Whin, therefore, any one invested his money in
'Western stock he knew that he bought a large dividend
and a large risk. If he wanted a big return for a lit In
money, and was nct afraid of the risk that implied, he
joined the Western in speculation. If, on the other hand,
he wished to have his capital safely laid up, and was not
greedy of gain, he invested in the British Linen Compa-
ny's, or some other safely conducted bank. While then,
it is very lamentable that ruin should threaten so many
persons through the failure of the Western, it is only just
to remember that the chance of that ruin gave them
hitherto a good income for a comparatively small sum of
money. They cannot fairly complain buause the event
has come which they knew very well might come, and the
probable, perhaps sodden, occurrence of which was an
element in their money-making calculations.—Ethnburgb
Daily ExpreS3,