The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-28 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

In the City article of yesterday's Timm it is stated
that the Bank of England has listened to a project of
• Captain R. F. Stockton, of the United States Navy,
who, in a letter to the. Directors, dated the Rsth of
August last, recommended the appointment of an agent,
with authority, under such limitations and restrictions
as they may see fit, to maize arrangements not Only
for any claims they may have in the United States,
but also to grant credits upon the Bank of England,
to the extent of 2,000,0001. sterling, upon the deposit
of such securities as they may instruct Wm to receive.
The letter of Captain Stockton will be found in anr;
ther column. The Directors, it is said, have ap-
pointed a gentleman of the name of Cowell to the
mission, end he is to he attended by one of the principal
clerks of the Bank of England. Captan Stockton's
letter speaks for itself, and we shall presently notice it.
Without wishing to throw the slightest doubt oo the
purity of the motives by which that gentleman has
been induced to advocate the extension of credit to the
;merchants of his country, we may observe that
the speculations regarding public works in the
United States, in which he is himself under-
stood to be deeply embarked, will not suffer by
giving to American borrowers increased facilities in
the money market of this country. However the
question is not what Captain Stockton's motives may
have been, but what are the reasons mged by him in
favour of his project ? Captain Stockton warmly eu-
logizes the American merchants, among whom he says
there has not been in these times of commercial dis-
tress a single instance of private turpitude,. or even the
alightest dieposition not to pay up to the last farthing,.
'We are glad ..co heal so favourable a character of Ame-
rican me:chants ; and assuming it to be deserved, we
view this disposition to perform their engagements as
apt element of immense impottance in the resources of
the country, in the welfare of which England has so
sleep an interest. Without integrity, confidence, the
life and soul of industry and enterprise, cannot exist.
Commercial integrity is at once a proof of the existence
of great progress in civilization, and a source of
well-founded hope of still further prosperity. Cap-
tain Stockton tells us that the Americans arc of
plain and frugal habits, with enterprise and in-
dustry untiring, and with the prospect of abun-
dant crops. All that they want is money and
confidence ; and why, he asks, should they
be withheld ? Ay, why, indeed ? But will
they be withheld ? We have always understood that
money, like everything else, seeks the best market,
and if the Americans possess money's worth they will
assuredly command money. We leave out of view
the general considerations as to the ruin of the trade
of both countries from the withholding of confidence,
and the consequences to the labouring and enterprising
classes of both countries, because trade is an aggre-
. gate of individual operations, and individuals conduct
their operations with reference to what they suppose
their interest. We are under no apprehension of any
indispo,ition on the part of our merchants to embark
in trade with America, or on the part of capitalists
to support commercial enterprise. But Capt. Stock-
ton must know that as in the human frame over-feed-
ing leads to paralysis, so over-trading leads to gluts
and depression of prices. When the belief gains
ground that prices can fall no lower, the courage
of purchasers revives, and confidence is restored.
But there may be a glut of money as well as
of other things ; and the people of England would
do well to consider how far the system of cur-
rency of the United States is calculated to pro-
mote a state of things in that country which
would warrant commercial confidence. Captain Stock-
ton himself certainly delivers opinions with respect to
currency of a very questionable character ; and we
fear, from the wild notions we have seen in several
American publications, they are but too generally dif-
fused in the United States. " The available means
of the American banks," says Captain Stockton,
" cannot meet the emergencies of the times ; anti per-
mit me to say that it is by no means discreditable to
them that they cannot, or that they have suspended
specie payments. The Directors of the Bank of
England know that there is not gold and silver enough
in the world to support an entire metallic system. The
suspension of specie payments by the American banks
was, in my poor estimation, neither rash nor criminal ;
it. was the foreseen and certain effect of legislative
enactments. The banks are authorised by law to is-
sue notes to a much larger amount than their whole
capital, without being compelled, or in truth enabled,
because of its scarcity, to keep a corresponding amount
of specie." Captain Stockton must allow us to tell
him that this is pure and unadulterated nonsense.
If there were only one-tenth part of the gold which
now exists in the world, and if gold were ten
times dearer than it is, this would not prove that
there is too little gold in the world. It is of no con-
sequence to the world whether the quantity of gold
which exchanges for twenty shillings of silver be of
the weight of our present sovereign, or one-tenth of
that weight. All that the public are interested in, is
that the standard be not arbitrary and liable to fluc-
tuate. Gold has been chosen as the medium by which
all other commodities are measured in England, be-
cause its value is supposed to be less liable to fluctua-
tion than any other. Most nations make silver their
circulating medium ! but it would be difficult to see
what advantage they can derive from having to carry
about a more cumbersome medium of exchange. The
relative value of gold and silver is easily ascertainable
by the exchange market, though it is nut so easy to
tell in which metal the change may have actually
taken place. There never can he too little gold and silver
in the world, but a particular country may have too little
gold and silver; and if America issues paper to an
extent that renders its currency less valuable than that
of countries in which the circulation consists
of gold and silver, or paper convertible into gold
and silver, it will assuredly have too little gold
and silver. These metals w ill betake themselves
to other countries ; and better evidence of exces-
sive circulation in America cannot be given than the
fact stated by Captain Stockton, that American mer-
chants were obliged to submit to the " enormous and
ruinous sacrifice of 21 per centum loss on exchange."
It never can be too much borne in mind that all
schemes for giving to a nation more money than it
would have were it confined to a metallic currency are
pure fraud. We have no hesitation in saying, that so
long as the Americans entertain the notions of Captain
Stockton respecting currency, it will be dangerous to
repose confidence in them. The merchant who to-
day is worth a million of dollars may to-morrow be a
beggar, if his property be at the mercy of every
swindler who chooses to issue inconvertible paper. It.
cannot he too much inculcated, that that which mea-
sures all other commodities ought itself to be fixed.
All plans for assisting commerce, as it is called, by
making money plentiful through paper issues, are
neither more nor less than robbery. With respect to
the Bank of England, we trust it will not for-
get time lesson which was read to it on its
own errors by Mr. Jones Loyd, in his masterly
pamphlet. We trust we no more hear
Bank Directors, like Mr. Horseley Palmer,
broaching the doctri
that the body which has the
management of '.'ne issues of the country has to look
to nothing 'oeyond keeping its paper of the value of
tlrpri:onus
metals, It is very well io assist commerce
w'on one's own resources, biA when a bank of tes-
tis corm/lures b .
eprecia.tmg the currency, it violates
its dill a den.
It may be true that the profits of proprie-
lora may be increased by assisting commerce by making
'money more plentiful ; but in the lone run the innocent
traders and manuracturers of the country will be the
.sufrerers, Captain Stockton should read the account
given by Adam Smith of the consequences to Scotland
of the ()petitions of Douglas, Heron, and Co , who
Acted ton his principles. tt The moment," he says,
et vou destroy credit, and declare that nothing is valu-
Able in a country but gold and silver, the notes come
back to the bank for specie which they did not re-
present ; whilst the property which they took in ex-
change for them, and which they honestly and fairly
represented, is made worthless, and will not be re-
ceived in payment." But who destroyed credit ?
Time banks, to be sure, who issued notes which they
could not concert. If the notes had not been in
excess, they could not have been returned on the
banks. Gold and silver were not declared to be alone
valuable ; but the bank-notes were not valuable, and