The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-12-03 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PRESS

humanity. The Turkish Government is still endeavouring
to avoid the evacuation of the Principalities, and probably
will not ktep its faith until compelled by the menaces of
Russia, or the interference of the Foreign:Ambassadors at
Constantinople.
Thtre has been, it will be perceived by out quotations be-
low, a rapid advance in the French funds. The improve-
thent is the Five per Cents on Wednesday was Sf. SOc-;
and in the Three per Cents if. .Sc.fi

Faxxcit FUNDS.—PAtts, Nov. 30.—Fire per Cents. Et
Three per Cents. opened at 62f. 50c.; closed at 62f. 90c. ; Bank
Stock 20101. ; Rente 4e Naples, Certif. Falconnet, 771. 60c.;
Royal Spanish Loan 1623. elf.; Rente d'Espagne 111. Exchange
on London—one month, 24t. 93e. ; three months, 24f. 7k.—
Coors A uthg Wipe.

Last night we received the Amsterdam Papers of
Wednesday. The following are extracts:—
__
__

Bzni.tx, Nov. 22.

In order to remedy the decline of the trade with China, the
Russian 11!inciter cf Finance has presented licenses to several
merchants, to procure from the manufactories in the Netherlands
such goods, especially woollens, as have hitherto been French,
and almost exclusively In Prussia, for the commerce with China.
Large purchases fur Russian account bare accordingly been made
this autumn.

BATAVIA, JULY 26.
striuminixinT ihtl/TTE.

We have received news these two days past by native boats, that
the expedition against Soups, in 3facoasar,has returned, after mak-
ing itself master of that place, Waite happy to communicate to
our readers the particulars bf &a event; which, in the present state
of 'Sirs In Celebes, is of great importance, by the insertion of the
reports of :tlajor General Van Geen, Commander of the troops.
General Van Geen, in a letter of the 9th July, announces his in.
tention of sending back part of his force to Java as soon al possible,
and to embark himself for Belittle, with his Highness the
Paournbahan, of Sainanap, of whose support on this campaign
the General speaks in the highest terns. The Netherland troops
did not lose a single man on this occasion, but the enemy had a
great many killed.
*General Van Geen's report Is of extreme length. The whole of
the Estraordinary Gazette octopi's nearly four pages of the Am.
tterdam Cut root. These are the latest accounts from Batavia
direct that have been received at Arbsterdam. The Batavian journals
to the middle of August are expected every moment.

The late extraordinary depression of the Money Market—
the rapid decline in the value of Shares, in almost every
public Company, which, till lately, had been sought for
with avidity—the extensive shock given to commercial con-
fidence by some recent failures in quarters utterly un-
expected—the almost unprecedented scarcity of money,
aggravated by the prodigious difficulty of obtaining dis-
counts either from the Bank or frpin monied capitalists—
the great pressure of embarrassments in the mercantile
world, combined with the extreme difficulty of obtaining
relief through the ordinary channels of accommodation—
all this presents a state of things which could not
fail to excite that very general panic which has been
seen to prevail. It is clear that all this convulsion and
derangement could not take place without adequate causes,
and the daily press could not be better employed than in
truly tracing out those causes, and thus snaking the severe
experience of the present hour furnish a lesson of valuable
caution for the future. But far from being made the great
engine of public information, the conductors of more than
one daily journal, instead of surveying the crisis of affairs
with large and prospective views—instead of staying the
public fears and steadying the public feeling—have done
just the reverse. They have been employed in magnifying
the danger, and, without at all attempting to develope its
origin, have studied to aggravate its effects.
It is quite clear that the value of paper money depends
entirely on the degree of con deuce reposed in the parties
issuing it. When that confidence Is broken in upon—it
matters not by what circumstances—the value of such
paper must be depreciated. That this faith has been
thus shaken is most certain, ind from this has arisen the
accumulation of difficulties which st present weigh so
heavily on the commercial world. It affects more or less
all the transactions of our mercantile intercourse, foreign
and domestic. In a word, it has led to the present crick.
With reference to this crisis, the leading article of the rime:
of Tuesday last, delivers itself thus:—

" Our readers will observe by an interesting article from the
city, that credit is undergoing a severe trial both in town end
country. We know how to feel for individual distresses, but the
main good of the nation requires that the crperiroent should be
allowed to work. Let it work, then, we repeat—let the fermenta-
tion exhaust itself--the dregs will subside—the froth will evaporate
but the body of the liquor will conic forth clear and mellow, and
fitted for endurance."

What can be more confused, vague, and unintelligible
than this? What is it but a metaphor without consist-
ency, and a mass of words without meaning? " The main
good of the nation," we are told, " requires that the ex.
periment should be allowed to work." What experiment?
Who is making it, and cpon whom, or what is it
made ? What are we to understand by an experiment,
the fermentation of which—if it is suffered to work—will
exhaust itself, its dregs subside, and its froth evaporate?
It is slaver jargon to tell us that " the body of the liquor
will come forth clear and mellow, and littedjOr endurance I"
Comparisons, if happily applied, are always valuable as
illustrations; but when a public Journal affects to be teach-
ing some great truths with regard to the present condition
of public affairs under incongruous and absurd similes,
which have no relation whatever to the aubject, it pays Nut
a sorry compliment to its readers, since it takes their ig-
norance for granted.

Unquestionably the pernicious excess to which specula-
tion has bet is carried has occasioned a degree of pecuniary
distress in the commercial world, which cannct but bring
much useful instruction along with it. On the subject,
more particularly, 'of paper credit it is full of important
admonition; but to draw the proper conclusions froin it
the mind of the instructor shotild be previously well read
in the principles of political science; because if the con-
clusions drawn from it are false, they must, if widely
spread, become, from the consequences involved in them,
extremely injurious. On this ground it may be worth
while to examine the validity of the doctrines which the
Times puts into circulation on this subject:—
Property whether real or personal, cannot be depreciated by
any change in that which is not property, but the assumption
and imitation of it. Credit gained by pretence, and given by
credulity, and wasted on the projects of cupidity mingled with in-
discretion—that port of credit which is now in its last agonies—can
in no manner affect by its dissolution any proxrty but that of the
individual who has atiminittercd to its extravagancies by the loan of
his private resources."

Now no specific proposition can be more untrue, than
that property cannot be depreciated by any change in that
which is not property ; or, in other word, that because
credit is not property, property therefore cannot be af£•eted
by any variations credit may undergo, and that that sort of
credit which is here said to be in its last agonies, " can
in no manner affect, Jy i.'s dissolution, any property ha
that or the inilicidual who has administered to :It caravel.
gancies by the loan of his private, resources."—We would
ask whether the credit of a .great American Agent which
had enabled him recently to speculate to an excess, which
ended in his failure—whether this credit did not affect by
its dissolution the property of thousand', who bad never

ministered to its resources? It was, in truth, a credit so
high' and so undoubted, that its dissolution entailed ruin
upon the holders of bills drawn upon it, and involved
numbers who, except as the holders of those bills, were no
otherwise connected with it. It is a doctrine which ought
not to go forth to the world, that those to whom credit is
given upon the faith of their probity or of their prudepce,
cannot by the failure of their speculations depreciate the
property of others, which that credit has enabled them to
embark ; aud that their abuse of the confidence reposed
in their integrity will not affect any property other
than that of the individual whose credulity they have im-
posed upon. The Times thus proceeds:—

" The crisis which has caused an much consternation in the city,
therefore, is the natural result of eager and accumulated speculation,
carried, Arose; thefacility with which every adventurer was ae-
constsodatri by capitalists at a loss to find vent for their money, to
the memo and mo►t frightful excess. Severe though it be at this
instant, if the crash had been postponed, it would only have fallen
with aggravated pressure, and covered a wider field. Speculations
attempted with borrowed or with inadequate means, and founded
on over.sanguine estimates of futurity, have failed to afford the pro.
fits expected from them, and have therefore not enabled the under.
takers to repay the capital which they had borrowed. It is the
common reaction of over-trading—it is not a disease, but the na!u.
sal core for a disease; and though far from palatable, it is a nues-
rant care, and, for tl e time, a complete one."

We have here a string of assertions, but no reasoning;
and these assertions are, moreover, so indiscriminate in
their application, as to be worth nothing. Is it meant to
be animist] that the high and flourishing state of mercan-
tile confidence, which is the very soul and source of all
credit, is to be deprecated as affording too great finalities
to speculative enterprise, and too strong an encouragement
to commercial adventure? To insist upon this would be
preposterous; and yet the above language leads to this
inference, or it leads to none. It is in the very essence of
all. great undertakings to be attempted with borrowed
means. The New Rives-14c immense canals which in-
tersect the country in every direction—how would these,'
and other rublic works of equal magnitude and utility,
have been constructed, without borrowed capital, and with-
out that credit upon the faith of. which that capital was
lent ? That over-trading is a peat evil no one will dis-
pute, and that its effects are in every way destructive no
rational man will deny: but we may lament this very sin-
cerely without denouncing as mischievous that flourishing
state of credit which is the natural consequence of accumu-
lated capital. That such credit may often be improvidently
given, and such capital injudiciously employed, every one
knows ; but that the former is deservedly trusted, and the
latter skilfully applied in a thousand instances to one of an
opposite kind, is a fact which admits of unequivocal proof.
In all the new relations which are opening to Great Bri-
tain, and in the extensive improvements which are pre-
seining themselves daily to the spirit of enterprise, a wider
range than ever is offered to commercial adventurers;
credit will continue to be given, but late events will make
the capitalist look more carefully to his reimbursement;
and this is the lesson of instruction to be drawn from
them. As the profit on all advances is in proportion to
the risk, the lender must unavoidably be exposed to 100,
and must occasiorally incur it. In a wealthy kingdom like
this the competition to capitalists in the money-market
must necessarily give great facilities to credit; withAtt it
capital could not be diffused; it would lie wholly unpro-
ductive, and all the benefit; would be lost to the country
,1 which arise from its extensive distribution and active em-

Voitnent.
We shall take an early opportunity of adverting, in con-
tinuation, to the remarks which, in conic:ion with this
subject, the Times prooeeds to make uposKthe paper cur-
rency, and the conduct of the Bank. It may be shown
without difficulty, that neither the one nor the other has
had any share in produdng the particular distress to which
we refer.

CITY, FRIDAY EVENIXO.

The improvement to-day in the Consols market Las been
very great. CoMidetice seems to be fast returning, and
there is every prospect of a rapid and steady advance.
Consols for the Accaunt opened at 84 833. As soon as
the expresses lird arrived from Paris with the quotations
of the French funds, Consols for the Account rose from
944 to 85, and finally closed at 847. The prices of all
other seem ities were also materially higher. •
A similar impulsc operated in the Fereign market.
Colom'lian Bonds, which opened at 64, advanced to 63„
and Mexican 6 per Cent. from 651 to 67i.
No attention was paid to shares.

The private letters from Paris intimate that no less
scarcity of money exists there than in London. On Tues-
day last, the continuation from one month to another,
on Neapolitan Stock, was If. 75e., or at the rate of mere
than 20 per cent. per annum.
Advices from Stockholm, dated 11th November, state
that expectations were entertained that English capitalists
would subscribe to the new Joint Stock Company for work-
ing the coal mines in Scania to the amount of six or per-
haps eight hundred thousand rix dollars, so that the whole
fund will-amount to 800,000 or 1,000,000 rix dollars. The
conditions proposed by the English are said to have been
acceded to, with some unimportant exceptions, by the
Swedish shareholders, but the English have stipulated for
a certain time before they give their ratification.
We have received a file of the Soutli Akicon Commercial
Advertiser, to the beginning of October. It will be re-
membired that this is the Cape of Gocd Hope paper which
was suppressed by the Governor, and which has been since
re-established under the protection of the home govern-
ment. The re-establishment of this paper has proved a
great triumph to the friends of independence in the colony,
and according to private accounts, the sensation caused by
it exceeds any thing ever witnessed at the Cape. The
paper itself alludes to this in a leading article: " It is new
in the history of the colonies, to sec the streets adjoining a
printing-oftce almost blocked up by crowds of the most
respectable people, eagerly waiting for the issuing of a
newspaper.".Seolsrnan.
Naw T.lnlFr roa THE NETHERLANDS.—A Brussels
paper states that the project of law concerning some changes
in the tariff of customs has, among other regulations, that
no vessels shall be considered as ships of the Netherland.s
but such as are provided with sea passes, delivered accord-
ing to the law of 14th March, 1819. The followin im-
port duties are proposed to be levied from Ist Jan. 1826 :
" On Rye, it: hOe.; Wheat, I If. Cotton, not span. for
100:ba.. 130 c. ; Coffer, per do. 12f.; Seed Oil, per bsrrel, If. BOc. ;
Rape Seed and Turnip Seed, per last, i. e. on importation, 2f. ;
exportation, Lf. ; transit, 4f. _

"` Changes are also proposed upon the duties on the following
articles:—Beer. hides, copper. linens, madder, pepper, cattle,
Rugßr, tobacco. fish, and linseed."

Letters from. Bahia received yesterday state the
arrival of the August packet from England on the 3d of
October. The Exchange, which had at one time reached
66. was quoted at .13 and 54.

In most of the so:thern provinces of the Russian empire
the harvest has been extremely abundant this year, and
corn is in consequence very cheap. dreadful storm of
wind and hail did immense damage in Courland on the
16th.Amzus:.

The Jesuits of Rome have just celebrated, in a nintt
pompons manner, the late beatification of a member ..f
their Order. There were three solemn misses and as
many vespers, accompanied by two large orchestras. The
façade of their church wu profusely illuminated on three
successive evenings, and a large baud of music placed in
the area before the edifice, to amuse or edify the po-
pulace,