The Sun.
London, England, 1839-06-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 24, 1839

SOME CONSEQUENCES OF THE

CakN-L hW S.

(From the Spectator.)
Except in times of actual panic, the business of the
country has seldom been in a more unsatisfactory state than
at present. The pressure on the Money Market is severely
felt. The Bank of England, upon whose store of bullion
there is still a heavy and almost constant drain, has ad-
vanced the rate of discounting bills of exchange and pro-
missory notes to 5N per cent. For some time the Bank
has been striving to turn the Foreign Exchanges in fa-
vour of this country by sales of Exchequer Bills and
other Government securities, but without success ; and
it is extremely doubtful whether even the extraordinary
advance in the terms of discount will have much effect
in the desired direction. Under these circumstances, it
is suggested that the Bank of England might enter into
some arrangement with the Bank of France, by which a
portion of the specie in the vaults of that establishment,
amounting to about 18,000,000!. sterling, might be trans-
ferred to the concern in Threadneedle-street. The
Morning Chronicle says—
" The simple knowledge of the fact, that the Bank
of England was entitled to draw upon the Bank of
France for two or three millions sterling, would of itself
give life and animation to every branch of trade, and the
bills would soon bring the exchanges into a wholesome
state. The remedy of the present existing evil, of want
of confidence and perfect stagnation of business, is sim-
ple in the extreme ; and if the Batik of England will
not adopt this plan for the general gold, it is bound to
do so for its own security, instead of raising the rate of
discount to 51- or 6 per cent., which, when practicable,
must engender the greatest inconvenience and difficulty
to the whole mercantile body."
This appears to be a simple operation, and that it
might give temporary relief we are disposed to believe ;
but the real cause of the present difficulty will not be
permanently removed, or prevented from recurring, byany
juggle upon the exchanges. It is not far to seek, and a plain
man may comprehend it. Payment for corn imported to
supply the deficiencies of the last and preceding years' har-
vests must be made ; and as manufactured goods will not be
taken by the Continental creditor, perforce gold must be
sent. The necessity ofa larger expenditure for bread di-
minished the purchases of other articles—such as cloth-
ing—by the great bulk of the people ; and the failure
of the home trade has not been compensated by a
foreign demand. Hence the state of things described
in the following paragrarh from the Manchester Guar-
dian, a journal by no means inclined to exaggerate evil
under a Whig Government.

" We scarcely remember to have witnessed, except in
periods of decided panic, a more gloomy and spiritless
market than that of Tuesday. The demand for yarn
was extremely limited, and the prices which were readily
and freely offered last week could in very few instances
be obtained. In most descriptions of goods, too, the
business done was very small, and, generally, at loser
prices. In consequence of this unpromising state of
the market, the working of short time is again rapidly
extending. The spinners and manufacturers in Ashton,
Stalybridge, Hyde, and the neighbourhood, who had re-
sumed full time, have again resolved to restrict their
time of labour to a time not exceeding four days per
week : and an agreement to that effect was then signed
by forty-seven of the principal firms in that neighbour.
hood. It is expected that this example wi Ibe followed
by the principal spinners and manufacturers in Stock-
port and the neighbourhood. In this town, too, the
working of short time is extending ; and the extensive
works of Messrs. Birlevs and Co., have been this week,
we believe for the first iiine since their establishment, re-
duced to three days per week. Other mills have been
reduced from four days to three, or from three to two
days ; and several have been stopped entirely."
Now, the operation which the Morning Chronicle
proposes with the Bank of France, could only act bene-
ficially by enabling the Bank of England, secured for a
time by the supply of bullion irregularly obtained, to
discount freely, and thus give an artificial stimulus to
trade. A genuine wholesome commerce would not
thereby be generated.
Under the existing Corn-laws, seasons of commercial
difficulty must occur, whenever scanty crops compel
Englishmen to seek wheat abroad for home consump-
tion. The derangement of the exchanges and the
troubles in the money-market, now prevailing, were
forcibly pointed out by Mr. Grote, in his speech on
Mr. Villiers's motion, as the inevitable result of a large
importation of foreign grain. That prophecy has been
accomplished to its full extent.
It is fearful to estimate what might have been the
consequences of another bad harvest this year. Present
embarrassments would have been incalculably aggra-
vated. But, happily, (and this is the bright spot in
the prospect), while all else around is gloomy, there is
a promise of abundant crops. Will the country then
forget the time of scarcity, and cease to demand the
only means of avoiding it and its consequences in
future—a free trade in corn?

RAISING OF THE RATE OF INTEREST BY THE BANK
OF ENGLAND.—It will be seen from the article on the
London Money Market, in another part of our Paper,
that great excitement has been caused in the City by
the raising of the rate of interest by the Bank of Eng-
land to five and a half per cent., and confining the ad-
vances entirely to bill* of exchange. This rate of inte-
rest, which has never before been charged by the Bank
of England since the lowering of legal interest, from six
to five per cent., in the reign of Queen Anne, has been
brought about entirely by the operation of the present
absurd system of Corn-laws, which compels us to supply
the deficiencies of our native produceby sudden and violent
imports of grain at enormous prices, to, be paid in gold,
instead of by gradual imports at moderate prices, for
which payment could, in great part at least, be pro-
vided through the ordinary channels of commerce. If
the eyes of the merchants and manufacturers of Eng-
land are not F.peedily opened, by the occurrences now
passing before them, to a full perception of the evils of
the present Corn-laws, they must be much more blind
and insensible than we conceive them to be. Let the
landowners have a tax upon corn, if it must be so ; but,
at any rate, let them collect it in any way that will not
produce other evils far worse than the mere amount of
tax itself,—deranging all the channels of trade and
commerce, and endangering the very foundations of our
monetary system.—Manchester Guardian.

FIRE IN A COAL-PIT.--A remarkable circum-
stance has occurred at one of the coal works, near
Oswestry, by the ignition or spontaneous combustion of an
immense heap of lime coal, or " slack," amounting, it is
said, to between 2,000 and 3,000 tons ; and a loss, we
regret to state, to the enterprising proprietors of about
4001. This great body had been thrown together from
time to time in a damp state, and caused the above singular
combustion. It was disbovered smoking and burning
about a foetnight ago, and all the colliers, &c., were im•
mediately set to work in removing the coal away in small
heaps about the ground, but a great body of the interior
remains burning and the spot has been visited by hundreds
of persons.—Shrewsbury Chronicle.
UNCERTAINTY OF HUMAN LIFE.---Thursday
Westminster, on the body of Mr.
late clerk to the works at West-
evening an inquest was held at the Duke of Ormond's
d4i9e'd under awfully sudden circum-
srajitiaaitnnaseedtekr.RPAartbilenbticeiaefryps:Peawtargeireeoddt, from the evidence that on Thursday
morning the deceased was heard to knock violently at the
wainscoting of his room. A person who lodged in the same
house went into the room, and found the deceased on his
knees, the blood flowing copiously from his nose, cars, and
mouth. Deceased exclaimed, " There he is—there—there
he is." Immediately afterwards he fell back and expired.
The deceased, who was a respectable sober man, had held
the situation a number of years. Verdict—" Natural
Death."

POSTAGE.—The idea of giving any paper ma-
nufacturer the monopoly of making all the stamped covers
is so preposterous as well as unjust, that we cannot think
the Government, or Commisioners of the Board of Stamps,
ever contemplated such a thing. We have seen a specimen
of the sort of paper which was designed for the envelopes
of the penny letters, and we have no hesitation in saying,
that it would soon he proved as easy to imitate that paper
(and, ergo, to defraud the revenue), as it was for the
Numismatists to multiply Queen Ann's farthings. But
why, we ask, why have a stamped wrapper at, all ? No
need, in our humble opinion, for any " job," either in the
paper manufacture or the stamping-office. Let every
person sending a letter or a number of letters, to the post,
forward therewith as many pence as letters, and the busi-
ness is done. All the machinery necessary is the attend-
ance of a person at the post-office window, to take in the
letters and money, instead of having then slipped into a
letter. box ; and, be it recollected, one person has to be,
under the present system, in almost constant attendance at
the window to take in " post-paid" letters, &c. We in-
vite the attention of the press arid the public to this sub-
ject, while there is )et time, for after the scheme is brought
minatoymb ey
s, operation,nl pE rßatoi tcuhe e.
slow to
in
it, however defective or objectionable it
cA,asr
Eii constitutedsioeF
Journal.
o];
rßnoa authorities"xN c :1101 bne verySa-
turdayS
week, about half. past eleven o'clock, as a police
constable of the N division was on duty near the Kings-
land-road Bridge, he heard a voice shouting
flelp
help I I'm drowning,. He proceeded to the spot whence
the voice came, and found that a person was in the Re-
gent's Canal. The drags were immediately procured,. and
a man was promptly
, dragged out and taken to the King's
Head. There tne usual means for resuscitation were re
sorted to for nearly an hour, but without effect. The
body was then taken to Shoredit.th workhouse, and next
day was owned by the father of the deceased, who lives
in Maria-street, Kingsland road at a short distance from
the bridge, and who stated that, at a little after eleven the
previous night he left his son at the garden-gate speaking
to a young
woman, his sweetheart, when he said he would
come in ,
terms with the Young woman. Deceased's name is Ronald
tie left deceased apparently on good
Waltham, and he was only twenty years of age'
On Saturday Lord Morpetli gave a grand public
breakfast in the grounas of his Grace the Duke of Devon-
shire, at Chiswick, in which two splendid marquees,
tended;uniavtbhlee s tat
whole
oo
ff
the
ee
Cabinet weather,
covering nearly four acres of ground, had been erected, 700 cards had been issued, and, the
ra
of the fashionable world being present. The company
began to arrive about one o'cicck, and the whole had not
left the grounds until after dark. A strong party of the A.
and T divisions of police were in attendance at the en-
trances to preserve order. Ministers,
and the elite
it st fully at-
the u