The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-06 00:00:00

THE SUNS

not receive the sanction or support of any right-
minded or honourable man—no matter whether
he be arrayed under the same standard with the
Hards" or " Softs," Whigs or Democrats,
Temperance or Anti-Liquor-Law men, or Know-
Nothings. The proceedings of Mr. CUSHING must
be equally objectionable to the true-hearted men
of all sides, and we may well leave him to the
retributive justice that must await him at the
hands of his own countrymen.

The Chamber of Commerce at Liverpool has
spoken clearly and intelligibly in reference to the
all-important question of the Currency. Its mem-
bers, sound practical men of business, have seen
the serious injury inflicted on their own interests,
in common with that of the entire community, by
the ♦ery impolitic and inequitable restrictions
imposed by the Act of 1844 ; and as the time
_when its provisions must again be considered by
the Legislature is rapidly approaching, they have
very judiciously "ventilated" the question, so
that it may be fairly and correctly brought under
public notice.

The Council of the Chamber, in answer to the
numerously signed requisition presented to them,
pointed out one very important failure in the
act. They show clearly and distinctly that al-
though the convertibility of the note be main-
tained, the reserve of 'totes may be completely
exhausted, and that the claims of the depositors
are totally disregarded ; that the issue department
may still retain a largo stock of bullion, while
the Bank itself was wholly unable to satisfy the
claims of those having legitimate demands on its
assets.

They truly state that "in the event of such
an assumed contingency the Bank of England,
under the provisions of the Act of 1844, is
powerless to afford any facilities to the commer-
cial world, and that (although the originating
causes be not precisely parallel) the same calami-
tous crisis as that of 1847 may again be wit-
nessed 1"

They might have gone much further. They
might have stated that in such an event, and
should the Government interference be desired,
the convertibility of the notes should inevitably
fail. For let us suppose that the Bank, through
the insufficiency of the reserve of notes, was com-
pelled to dishonour the cheques of its customers !
That such an event was possible is established by
the testimony of Mr. JONES LLOYD (now Lord
OVERSTONE) himself, who stated before the Com
mittee on the commercial crisis of 1847', " that the

Bank was only saved ftom suspension by the
Government letter of the 25th October." Such an
emergency may again arrive, and then, we repeat,
what would become of the much-vaunted converti-
bility of the bank note ?

There would, of course, on the first stoppage of
payment, be a regular closing of the concern.
Notes would no longer be payable at the Bank
premises, although they might be forced as " legal
tenders" throughout the country. Supposing that
there were at the time of stoppage eight millions
of bullion in the bank coffers. But under the act
there would be twenty-two millions of notes in
circulation, towards which there would be 4-11ths,
or about 7s. 3d. in the pound. But would not
the depositors have an irresistible claim to par-
ticipate in the assets ? Most unquestionably they
would so, and the dividend might thus be dimin-
ished to something less than ss. in the pound on
all its liabilities.

The natural conclusion is, that inasmuch as
the security of the deposits may be greatly en-
dangered by a rigid adherence to the ptorisiorls
of the act, and as the notes must share the same
fate as the deposits, the convertibility of the
notes is really greatly hazarded by the very en-
actments intended to secure it against any
and every risk ! This is a strictly logical con-
clusion ; and we defy any bullionist to impeach
the accuracy of the premises.
It is, in fact, a repetition of the old myth, of
which varieties are to be found in every laud,
almost in every district, that the dreaded evil is
produced by the very means adopted to counter-
act it. We leave the bullionists "to crack this
nut," requesting an answer to the simple and in-
telligible interrogatory, What would be the effect
on the currency of the inability of the Bank of
England to satisfy the demands of depositors ?

It is quite possible to be carried along so fast
and easily as to lead you to fancy the rate you
aro travelling at is actually slow. In such a case,
of course, the error into which you have fallen is
corrected by reflection on your arrival at a point
which you had deemed far distant. Some such
delusion we are inclined to think is a little too
prevalent as to the progress of railway com-
munication in this country. Justice, we are of
opinion, is hardly done to the great body of rail-
way proprietors throughout the kingdom in rela-
to their magnificent achievements. Barely a
quarter of a century has elapsed since railway
operations were commenced, and if we wish to
form a tolerably accurate notion as to how they
have been carried on, we have only to pause for a
moment and look around us. And what is the
result ? Why, from one end of the country to
the other, we find a perfect network of railwa
communication, the loops of which are yearly
being drawn closer. In achieving so desirable
a result, it may be asked what have railway
proprietors not had to contend against ? Moun-
tains have had to be tunnelled, hills to be cut,
valleys to be arched or elevated, rivers to be
spanned, and thousands of miles of rails laid evenly
down, to say nothing of the factious or interested
opposition which has been surmounted. And now
instead of being borne slowly along by driblets
and at unfrequently recurring intervals in stage-
coaches, waggons, or canal-boats, the population are
whirled daily along the rail by myriads in every
quarter of the kingdom, so that a youth of 30
has seen more and knows more of the aspect and
customs of the country than his great grandfather,
his grandfather, and even his father, at thrice his
age. How grandpapa would have stared had he
been told that a system of communication, which
could be carried on at the rate of a mile a minute,
would be so far in vogue in 1854
peastooplbel A
e per-
sonally made use of by 111,000,000
yet the prophecy would have been verified by the
event.

A system which has attained to such magni-
tude in so brief a period could hardly fail to be
encumbered in its progress with some de-
fects. When, however, the difficulties which
railway directors have had to encounter
in the discharge of their onerous duties
are taken into consideration, surprise will
rather be excited that legitimate causes of com-
plaint have been so few. It was not the develop-
ment of an existing system they were entrusted
with ; it was the creation of a new, the merits
and demerits of which could only be ascertained
by trial. On the one hand shareholders were
eager for high dividends, and on the other the
public clamoured for comfort and safety with cheap
rates. In this dilemma whom had they to look
to for support but the officials in their employ ?
And these officials, from the highest to the lowest,
were necessarily new to their work. Every pro-
fession, trade, and species of labour almost contri