The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-09-11 00:00:00

THE BRITISH PRESS.

carried too far. If it depended upon writers like those
to wli'm we have alluded, we should soon see Jamaica and
our West India Colonies part and parcel of the United
States. The following letter may give some idea of their
feelings on the subject :
Extract of a letter from Jamaica, dated 10th July, 1826:
" We continue to have a good trade with America, as you will see
by the Jamaica Papers. But this trade is likely to be interrupted for
some time by a Treasury order to the Collector to receive all duties
upon foreign produce. The Receiver-General is bound to collect
the same under the Island Acts, and we are theretine at this
moment paying both. Unless this Treasury order be counter-
manded, great vexation may seise to trade, if the circumstance does
not cause some angry discussion when the Assembly meet, and pre-
vent the House from doing what otherwise they are disposed to do."

We are not aware of any adequate cause which can ac-
count for the exclusive predilection manifested By some
of the provincial Journals for the joint-stock system of
banking on the Scotch principle. This conduct seems ex-
tremely inconsistent, particularly in Papers which have
always been in the habit of declaiming against a certain in-
fluence, supposed to prevail to an alarming extent in this
country. The Scotch system of banking possesses great
stability, and many advantages; but all its advantages
arise from the securities affinded by the circumstance of
the partners being men of landed property ; and we should
not have expected to find a system of this kind advocated
by those very Journals which are in the habit of loading this
very important inn rest with the most unmerited obloquy.
Those very Jaurna's setich declaim against the alleged tax on
the poor, levied by the operation of the Corn Laws, are out-
rageous for the establishment of joint-stock banking com-
panies at Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, &c. Happily, by
the law which will soon came into operation, neither country
bankers nor the Bank of England will have long to supply so
large a portion of our currency. If it be allowed (and it can-
not be denied) that there is a certain quantity of currency
required for conducting the business of the country, and
that this quantity is nearly constant in ordinary circum-
stances, it will not be difficult to prove, that any body
of men entering into the room which the failure of so
many country bankers has left vacant, must obtain a clear
sum equal to the amount of notes introduced into circula-
tion ; and that sum must continue in their possession
till some ether species of currency drive their paper out of
circulation. We are not disposed to attach much import-
ance to the abolition of one-pound notes, farther than as a
means of preventing forgery, and of giving additional cre-
dit to the paper of the Bank of England. apprehend
that the paper which will be thrown nut of circulation in
consequence of the recall of the small notes will not be
supplanted in all cases by gold. It is certain that the two
principal channels through which small notes are thrown
into circulation (by advances on securities and discount-
ing bills) must still continue open after the small notes
cease to circulate. The demand for advances and dis-
counts must continue. Credit is like any other commodity
—if it cannot be legally sold, it will be disposed of
clandestinely. If no regular arrangement be made for
supplying the demands of the public, souse substi-
tute will be found which will answer the same pur-
pose. What prevents the Bankers, for instance, from
issuing common mercantile bills payable on a given day,
in the understanding that they shall be payable on de-
mand ? Even if no expedient of that sort were devised, it
is probable that the result of the return to a currency of
gold exclusively would caule a great augmentation in the
quantity of private paper now in circulation, inasmuch as
the farroer or merchant, who was formerly supplied at the
Bank, would either issue bills in his own name, 6: would
procure for valuable consideration the acceptances of per-
sons possessing more general credit than himself. A
certain portion of the medium by which purchases are
made must, for this reason, be paper; and it may be de-
monstrated that there is a natural demand for pipe r in every
mercantile coup try,distinct and separate from the demand for
circulating medium in general—a demand which arises from
the nature of paper as being adapted for certain purposes
which gold cannot answer—a demand which will, we believe,
render it impossible to substitute gold in all cases for it.
If the circulation of a provincial town be taken at 500,000/.
and bills were drawn on that town to the amount of 100,0001.
it is clear that the circulation, without some more speedily

expansive medium than gold, must suffer a temporary
diminution to meet these demands, and that diminution
-would be equally felt though an equal amount were payable
the very same day in London, because the gold could not
in either case be transported immediately to its destination.
We therefore think decidedly that there ought to be some

stable basis for the management of the paper transactions of
the country. The landed securities of the Scotch Bank
Proprietors certainly arc unexceptionable; but it is impos-
sible, in such a country as England, to give to such estab-
lishments that uniformity of operation, that combination

of system, which is absolutely necessary, in order to keep
the extent of issues in the precise proportion of the de-
mand. It was maintained, by the Scotch Bankers exa-
mined in the Committee on the Banking System, that the
Scotch method of comparing the issues of different banks
could not be applied to England, oil account of the greater
extent and wealth of the country. In short, we cannot
conceive any possible arrangement which would so per-
tUctly unite security with due combination and control, as
1 a system whi:ll should embrace all England by its ramifi-
cations, which would rest its credit on that of the State,
and would be liable to the control of the great Council of
the Nation, in whose hands alone, in connexion with the
Executive, the charge of regulating the currency and ma-
nufacturing money can with safety be deposited. The
larger notes will in future supply a greater rortion of the
circulation of the country, in consequence of those parti-
cular circumstances which render paper in some cases pre-
ferable to gold ; and the regulation of the circulation of
these larger notes should, in our opinion, be placed in
hands directly under the control of the Legislature.

CITY, SATURDAY EVENING.
The deserted state of the Stock Exchange fur the last
fcw days forms a peculiar contrast to the general boisterous
scene which, during all other periods of the year, pervades

this notorious Babel. The "hum of either army" has

ceased to astound the astonished interloper, and for once
at least there is something like an appearance of order in
this mart of millions. The consequence of this annual
cessation, this "pause of hostility without peace," amongst
the Bulls and Bears, gives a consequent uninteresting cha-
racter to the Stock Market. Consols opened this morning
at 79, were done during the day at from 791 to 1, and at
length closed at 794, the scale of business done being cer-
tainly the minimum on the average of that of the last six
days. Even imagination was allowed a holiday, and re-
ports were as scarce as Shares at a premium.
The general accounts from the manufacturing districts
are of a character to produce a favourable effect on all
species of marketable Securities. Employment is gradually
displaying itself, and that circumstance is the best guarantee
for its continuance. _ _ _

- -
regulated. We sincerely wish that the lesson may not be I ln the Foreign Market, Mexican Bonds, which closed

yesterday at 51e, have, during the day, varied neatly two
per oent., having been done as low as 51, and as high es
521 sellers at the close of the market : however, they could
not be quoted at more than 521. The subject of the divi-
dends payable in October is the eternal theme, upon which
the changes arc rung, from day to day, as regards these
Securities. 'f he report of Messrs. BA nesco having under-
taken to pay them, should the dollars not arrive oppor-
tunely for the purpose, is again revived ; and though at
present the report does not seem to Ix: sanctioned by au-
thority, still, as tit re is little doubt but that the money is
at Vera Cruz, it has at ►east the stamp of probability,
which is more than can be said for the ono-twentieth part
of the reports generally in circulation. The sp: et-
ing the Chihli!) dividends appears in some measure to have
subsided, inasmuch as they have recovered within one per
cent. to their usual price, being now 37. The Bonds of
Colombia and Oreece are
.fittered at 321 and 12&; and
even the wisest among the wise men of the East are not
prepared to say when they will he set free. The letters
from tkr. French capital this morning give very unsatisfac-
tory accounts of the state of Spain ; and the consequence
has been that the Bonds have declined to 24. The
Nerthern Securities show little variation. There have
been some preliases made in Danish Stock, which has
• advanced to 574 ; while Russian is a shade lower, at 82.
The French Funds, by the last accounts, remaintd unal-
tered.