The Sun.
London, England, 1837-03-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Mr. Samuel Jones Loyd has just published a pain-
phle under the title of " Reflections suggested by a
perusal of Mr. J. Horsley Palmer's Pamphlet on the
Causes and Consequences of the Pressure on the Mo-
ney Market ;" and we can safely say, that it has never
fallen to our lot to peruse any production with more
unqualified satisfaction. The, enlightened author is so
well known, that it is scarcely necessary for us to in-
orm our readers that he is a partner in the eminent
king firm of Jones Loyd and Co. We need hardly
rye, that even the best writers on the intricate sub-
; a currency have experienced great difficulty in ex-
essing their views in so clear, and, at the same,
me, practical a manner as to make themselves gene-
a.-y understood. Mr. Jones Loyd his been emi-
nently successful in overcoming the difficulties of the
übject ; and as it is of the utmost consequence to the
v elfare of society that this question should not be rnis-
• nderstood, the public are greatly indebted to him for
n exposition which, while it will bear the most rigid
xamination of political economists and critics, and even
casts a light over the mystifications of Mr. H. Palmer's
statement itself, is at the same time level to the capacity
of any man of business of ordinary understanding. Mr.
Jones Loyd, too, whilst lie delivers his opinions in
the most open amd manly mauner, displays at the
same time so much temperance and moderation, that
even those of whose system he disapproves, and on
whose conduct he animadverts, can entertain no feel-
ing of rancour.towards him. The pamphlet is emi-
nently adapted to rouse the public to a sense of the
great importance of the subject of it ; and if the in-
quiry into our monetery system, on which Parliament
is imperatively bound to enter, be pursued in the same
spirit as that which Mr. Loyd has displayed in his
" Reflections," we may indulge the hope that political
and party strife will not be mixed up with it, but that
public men, impressed with a due sense of its magni-
tude, will be actuated only by an enlightened anxiety
for the welfare of the nation. Impressed with the
import ince of diffusing as extensively as possible the
" Reflections" of Mr. Jones Lloyd, we have taken the
liberty, which we trust he will pardon, of not confin-
ing ourselves to extracts, but laying the entire pamph-
let before our readers in another part of our Journal.
This, while it does justice to Mr. Loyd's views, frees
us from the detailed analysis of them which it
would otherwise have been incumbent on .us to give.
Mr. Lloyd, it will be observed, commences with no-
ticing the circumstance that Mr. Palmer can only meet
his opponents by decrying the accounts laid by the
Bank before Parliament, as giving " a false represen-
tation of the action of the Bank, and calculated only
to mislead," and by referring to accounts accessible
only to the Bank Directors themselves ; and he shows
that the explanatory circumstances on which that gen-
tleman relies for the justification of the Bank do not in
reality affect the question. The principle set forth by
the Bank Directors, in their evidence before the Par-
liamentary Committee, and by which the Bank pro-
fesses to be guided in the regulation of the currency, is
" to keep the amount of its securities fixed, and to
leave any variation in the amount of circulation and
deposits to be balanced by a corresponding variation in
the amount of specie." The principle (observes Mr.
Loyd) met with a degree of acquiescence which a
more close examination of the subject will hardly
warrant, under a mistaken view of its pro-
bable action. As a manager of the currency it
is undoubtedly a sound rule that against the
amount of notes out it shall hold at its disposal
securities and specie ; that the amount of securities
shall be invariable ; and, consequently, that all fluctua-
tions in the amount of notes out shall be met by a
corresponding fluctuation in the amount of specie in
deposit. But then the Bank acts in the twofold ca-
pacity of manager of the currency and conductor of a
banking concern ; and Mr. Loyd shows that it is
quite absurd to talk of the Bank, in this last character,
keeping the amount of its securities invariable. It is
in the nature of banking that the amount of de-
posits should vary with a variety of circumstances ;
and as the deposits vary, the amount of that in which
they are invested must vary also. Mr. Loyd scouts
the idea broached by Mr. Palmer, that the differ-
ences in the degree of permanency and variation of
amount in a certain class of deposits constitute any
essential difference upon principle in their nature

or character. He shows that a large diminution of
specie may take place, and be met, not by a cor-
responding decrease of circulation, but by a decrease
of deposits ; whereas, all who have reflected upon
the principles of paper currency must admit that
the amount of paper issued should be represented
by an amount of securities which. never varies,
and an amount of specie which is left to fluc-

tuate with the fluctuations of the amount of
notes out. The rule, in short, ought to be that the
variations in the amount of circulation shall correspond
to the variations in the amount of bullion, by which
means only we can obtain " a paper circulation, vary-
ing in amount exactly as the circulation would have
varied had it been metallic." Mr. Loyd is of opinion
that it would be better to separate altogether the busi-
ness of banking from that of regulating the currency,
than to depart from so essential a rule ; but he agrees
with Colonel Torrens in thinking that there is no in-
superable difficulty in rendering the currency depart-
ment of the Bank totally distinct from that of its other
business. But then the Direction must be very diffe-
rent from what it is at present ; for (and we request
the particular attention of our readers to the remark)
" to perform very delicate duties, in every step of which
the personal interests of the mercantile, trading, and
money classes must be immediately affected, we select
not a body of individuals qualified (by their total se-
paration from all such interests) to exercise a dis-
passionate and disinterested judgment ; but, on the
contra-v, men the most largely engaged in mer-
cantile and monied operations, and therefore
more than any other class exposed in their private
i..-lerests to the immediate effects of any action
upon the currency." Though it be possible, therefore,
to separate the two departments, a complete revolution
in the constitution of the Direction must take place
before the Directors can be safely entrusted with the
trying functions of managers of the currency. We have
often stated, that to make profits the Bank are under
an irresistible temptation to tamper with the currency.
Mr. Load, too, while he admits that the Legislature
have delegated powers both to the Bank and the joint-
stock banks which ought not to have been communi-
cated to them, shows that the conduct of the joint-
stock banks is really beside the question. " Is it pos-
sible," he asks, " fcr the joint-stock banks to maintain
an e‘<paw ion of their issues for any permanency, in
the face of a regular, steady, and undeviating course of
contraction on the part of the Bank ; or will such a
course on the part of the Bank bring the subordinate
issuers into such a situation, that a corresponding change
in their issues becomes inevitable ?" These ques-
tions we answered some time ago distinctly in the ne-
igative. Mr. Loyd shows that while the Bank of Eng-
land complains of the over issues of the joint-stock
banks, its own branch banks were running a race of
competition with them. The Bank has not shown,
and cannot show, that the action of the joint-stock
banks is beyond its control. " The Bank must first
prove that it has really tried the effect of a steady and
uninterrupted course of contraction, and that in face of
this the issues of the joint-stock banks have as stea-
dily increased." The information given by Mr.
Palmer, as he observes, tends directly to the opposite
conclusion. We request the particular attention of
our readers to the charges brought by Mr. Loyd
against the Bank, founded on an examination of
its circulation and bullion from January, 1536, to
February, 1537. The circulation is considerably
higher at this moment than it was in January
1836, though the bullion has undergone a very
large diminution. He impugns its conduct with
respect to Exchequer Bills, subsequent to the
rise of interest upon them. " The measure," he
observes, " has only served to enable the Bank to sell
its Exchequer Bills and increase its discounts, thus
forcing upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer a rise
in the rate of interest upon his unfunded debt, instead
of charging an increased rate of discount upon com-
mercial bills." In short, there is the strongest evi-
dence of the misconduct of the Bank, which, so far
from contracting its circulation, increased it, while its
bullion was constantly diminishing. In vain the Bank
of England rep.!..oaches the joint-stock banks, when it

appears she has not exercised the controlling action
which she might have exerted. We have all of us
heard tales of generous robbers, who took the money
of the rich, to give it to the poor. In a character
not much more advantageous is the Bank exhi-
bited, when it is seen to aid embarrased con-
cerns, not from its own resources, but " by an abu-
sive use of its power over the circulation, by increas-
ing its amount, wizen all regard to principle would
require it to be diminished." The Bank, by fail-
ing to exercise its controlling action on the joint-
stock banks in due time, may have deemed itself
bound to indemnify them in some sort by interference
in their behalf ; but the indemnification ought to have
been at its own expense, and not that of the public.
All the difficulty of the crisis has arisen, as is well
shown by Mr. Loyd, in the failure of the Bank to
contract the circulation in due time. He happily il-
lustrates the effect of well-timed contraction by an old
eastern proverb, " which says, you may stop with a
bodkin a fountain which, if suffered to flow, will sweep
away whole cities in its course. An early and timely
contraction upon the very first introduction of excess
in the circulation is the application of the bodkin to
the fountain ; comknercial convulsion and ruin in con-
sequence of delay is the stream sweeping away
whole cities in its course." Mr. Loyd analyses
with much acuteness the American branch of Mr.
Palmer's pamphlet, and exposes the contradic-
tions between the causes assigned for the efflux
of gold to the United States, and the course
of conduct pursued by the Bank. He scouts the
idea of any considerable portion of gold returning from
America. As the demand has been produced by an
alteration in the relative value of gold in that country,
if remittances in specie are to come from America,
they will more probably be made in the depreciated
metal, silver. The silver so obtained can of course
be sent to a market where gold is cheaper than in Ame-
rica. Mr. Loyd very justly contends that we have
very imperfect data for forming a judgment on this
all-important question. Our readers may remember
that we again and again urged that the Bank accounts
were insufficient, and that, to render the publication
really useful to the country, it should be constant and
not at wide intervals, as at present. " Imperfect, vague,
and ambiguous accounts (he observes) must under any
circumstances be mischievous ;" and among the ad-
vantages which would arise from such a publication
as that for which we contended he states, " the
public will be enabled to regulate their course
under the full light of truth, instead of pro-
ceeding with a doubtful and hesitating step
through the delusive twilight which now sur-
rounds them ; the unreasonable expectations of assis-
tance and support from the Bank, which it is impos-
sible for her, without violating more important duties,
to satisfy, would rapidly vanish under a more correct
conception on the part of the public of her true posi-
tion ; and every tendency of the Bank itself to yield
to importunate demands, and under the present pres-
sure of circumstances to deviate from the straight
path of duty, would at once be checked by the con-
sciousness that all her acts were under the public eye,
and that a firm adherence to the true principles of
currency would be rigidly exacted from her." Mr.
Loyd, for the sake of readers not familiar with the
distinction of between banking and issuing money,
shows in some detail the manner in which the banker
must be moved onward by the stream of events. He
cannot contract his accommodation at a period when
the whole trading world are under one common
impetus of expansion ; and if, besides his legiti-
mate resources, he be also entrusted with the
power of isuing paper money ad libitum, he inevi-
tably abuses that power. Mr. Horsley Palmer's
pamphlet is full of passages in which the duty of the
Bank to the commerce of the country is dwelt on ;
whereas a bank of issue should have only the ex-
changes in its eye. The Bank at present cannot per-
form its duty as it ought. The Legislature has dele-
gated to it incompatible functions. Mr. Loyd well
observes, that " the tendency, whenever this union of
issue and banking takes place, to produce mutual in-
terference and confusion, is abundantly evident through-
out Mr. Palmer's pamphlet." That pamphlet, from
the absence of all guiding principle, produces much
the saris effect on a well-constituted mind as would be
produced by listening to a number of words uttered
without any connection. Mr. Loyd concludes with
some important suggestions. First, to strengthen the
monopoly, as regards currency, of the central issuer ;
second, to make a gradual approach towards the sepa-
ration of banking functions from the management of
currency ; and, third, to have a distinct separation in the
accounts of the Bank of the management of currency from
every other branch of her business, to have a separate com-
mittee of currency, and to associate with the committee
a representative of the Government, whose presence
should always be requisite to constitute the Com-
mittee effective for business. There must, in this
case, we should suppose, be something like what the
French call a suppleant, in case of absence from sick-
ness or other inevitable causes. Mr. Loyd " thinks
the presence of a Member of the Government in all
the deliberations of the Committee would prevent the
Bank from abusing her power over the currency for
the promotion of her banking purposes ; and the
Bank would exercise a similar power over the Go-
vernment." This, with a full and intelligible pub-
lication of the proceedings of the Committee, would
give the public, he apprehends, a sufficient controul
over the body. The inquiry on which the House of
Commons has entered will embrace the operations
of the Bank, though no such object may have been
contemplated. The joint-stock banks cannot be
fairly judged without considering also the conduct
of the Bank. We have, therefore, great hopes
from the inquiry ; and certainly Mr. Jones Loyd
has, by his seasonable pamphlet, greatly aided the
Committee in their investigation. We trust that at
last the public will have something more solid to rest
on than it has hitherto possessed. The property and
happiness of individuals have been woefully trifled
with from the ignorance of the Legislature when the
last Charter was given to the Bank. This state of
things should be terminated with as little delay as pos-
sible. The most painful part of the crisis is, we fear,
to come ; but when it is once over, the Bank must
not be suffered any more to fall into temptation. Even
now, with the halter about her neck, as it were, she
has been at her worst tricks ; for as Mr. Lloyd slily
observes, " with the view of discharging her first duty,
she compels the Government to raise the interest on
Exchequer Bills, and thus realises her securities ; but
here commerce interposes and carries away, under the
form of discount, what was intended to go to the re-
duction of circulation ; and thus the last condition of
the Old Lady becomes worse than the first."—.llorn-
ing Chronicle.

In the House of Commons last night there was ano-
ther of those scenes which tend so admirably to raise
the character of that assembly in the estimation of all
respectable men at home and abroad. We allude to
what occurred on Mr. Walter's postponement of his
motion for addin,, other names to the Committee on
the Poor-law Bill, and for which we refer the reader
to our Parliamentary report. Mr. Rice appears to
have been particularly irate—indeed, so much " flab-
bergasted," to use one of his own favourite expressions,
was the Right Hon. Gentleman, that he actually said
" HE could not CONSENT" to the motion being with-
drawn. •Now, Mr. Rice has just as much to do with
consenting to any Hon. Member withdrawing a motion
as he has to do with what is going on in the moon,
and indeed much less, if we may judge by an hal-
lucination that carried the mistaken leader pro
tent. of the House of Commons (!) into the corn •
mission of the still greater mistake .of declaring that
the postponement of the motion was " a violation
of the established rules and orders of the House."
The Speaker told the leader pro tern. that Mr. Wal-
ter had a perfect and undoubted right to postpone
his :notion, and the motion was postponed accordingly.
Nevertheless, some Hon. Members were supposed to
have saluted Mr. Walter with a groan as he left the
House, but we are induced t_r consider this a mistake.
The groan was probably given " more in sorrow than
in anger "—in sorrow that the " packing had failed
in its object, and that the Speaker should have pro-
nounced that to be " a perfect and undoubted right "
which Mr. Rice, in his .great learning and experience
of Parliamentary practice,
had denounced as a viola-
tion of the rules of the House. By the way, we be-
lieve Mr. Rice was once destined (by himself at least)

for the Chair of the House of Commons! What an
escape for the House ! We have only further to ob-
serve, in calling the attention of our readers to this
scene, that we trust that neither Mr. Walter nor any
other Member, will be deterred from the performance
of his duty by the " noises and " hootings "of the
adherents of Ministers in the House, or by the bully-
ing of persons in their pay or patronage out of doors.
Let the gentlemen hoot on—they can discredit none
but themselves : let the person's who slandered Ser-
geant Jackson slander others too—no one can believe
a word they say : let Cupid draw his arrows to the
head—a fool's bolt is soon shot.—Times.
Sir Robert Peel evinced great alarm last night in
the House of Commons, lest the measure respecting
Church-rates, about to be proposed by the Government,
shsuld be prematurely urged on the consideration of
the House. Whenever a step to the right is about to
be taken by the Legislature, we are sure to find the
Tories endeavouring to throw every impediment in the
way, and feigning apprehension that some dire and
terrific result is impending ; but whenever an abuse is
to be defended, we find them flinging all discretion and
caution aside, and ready, coute qu'il coute, to protect
their cherished corruptions from the process of puri-
fication. The Right Hon. Baronet's affected alarm
was, to his great mortification, proved to be unfounded,
as, in reply to a question put by him to the Chancel-
lor of the Exchequer, he was informAl by that Right
Honourable Gentleman, that the course which he ad-
vocated—namely, that the Ministerial resolutions, with
respect to the Church-rates, should be moved in Com-
mittee, after which the House would be afforded time
to deliberate on the principle—was that which the
Ministers intended to adopt. Thus the Right
Hon. Baronet was deprived of the opportunity, for
which he seemed most solicitous, of charging the Go-
vernment with taking au undue advantage of their op-
ponents, and attempting to commit the House to a
principle without allowing time for deliberation on its
merits. To all acquainted—and who is not acquainted?
—with Sir Robert's capacity to make much ado about
nothing, and exaggerate trifles with inflated verbiage,
it will be apparent that the unobjectionable manner in
which the Church-rate measure is to be introduced,
has deprived him of an opportunity of opposing the
matter of the Bill, on pretence of denouncing the man-
ner of its introduction. With respect to the Ministe-
rial measure on the subject of Church-rates, we have
already announced, on competent authority, that it
will be satisfactory to the public. And as our opinions
on the damning injustice of taxing men for the sup,
port of a Church with which they are not in com-
munion are already well known, when we say that
the measure will be satisfactory, we, of course, im-
ply the exoneration of those who dissent from
the Church from the payment of its rates. We
shall reserve a further discussion of the question till
we have the Ministerial plan before us ; not that,
like Sir Robert Peel, we want time to consider the
principle, but because public opinion being decided
on the principle, it now only remains to consider the
most desirable mode of giving it operation. If Sir
Robert Peel and the Tories were about to be taxed
for the building and repairing of the Roman Catholic
chapels in Ireland, and the houses of the Dissenters'
worship in England, we wonder what time would they
require to deliberate before they would venture to de-
clare the injustice of the principle ? But the injus-
tice of levying Church-rates on Dissenters is even
greater than this, because there are other funds of the
Church specifically set apart for the objects to which
the rates are applied, and the Ministers of the Church
first misapply these funds, and then impose on their
Dissenting fellow• citizens a tax to compensate their
malversation. Is this justice ? Is it Christianity ?
What would Philpotts call it if the aggression were
on the other side ? He would invent a new epithet
for its designation, for it is something worse than rob-
bery and spoliation.—Morning Advertiser.
The Attorney-General, we are glad to perceive, at
length appears to be really in earnest in proceeding
with his Bill for the Abolition of Imprisonment for
Debt, and substituting for that mischievous, cruel, and
impolitic practise, the more reasonable protection to
the creditor, of rendering the property not the person
of the debtor (except where absconding from the juris-
diction is meditated) available in discharge or satis-
faction of the debt. If we mistake not, it is now
four years ago since the Attorney-General pro-
mised to bring in a Bill to effect what it is the object
of the present Bill to accomplish. He contrived to
evade the fulfilment of his promise for a long time—
last session he brought his Bill into the House of
Commons so late, and proceeded with it so slowly,
that the session had nearly concluded before it went
up to the House of Lords. Desirous as we were to
see the measure become law, we think the Lords
acted perfectly right in not taking a Bill of so much
importance into consideration under such circum-
stances. As a deliberative body, they are bound to ex-
amine the Bills sent up to, them from the House
of Commons, before they pronounce a decision upon
them ; and if they did not, they might at last be
thought to have no higher office in the work of legis-
lation than to register the decrees of the Commons.
The Bill for Abolishing Imprisonment for Debt was
not proceeded with in the Lords, because there was no
time allowed for mature and satisfactory examination
of its details, even though the Lords had been agreed
that in point of principle it was unobjectionable. Yet
the not passing this Bill was one of the charges made
against the Upper House, by its democratic assailants,
and even by the Attorney-General himself, though it
is evident that, under all circus cances, it was the
Learned Author of the Bill and the House of Com-
mons that were to blame. Now, indeed, we find that
the Attorn. y-General is, as he ought t ts, proceeding
with the Bill in the early part of the Session, and
thereupon he is accused by the opponents of the
measure of undue haste and precipitancy. How
far that charge is deserved, what we have already
stated sufficiently shows. The principle of this Bill
has been greatly discussed of late years, and we hare
written so often upon it in former Sessions, that .we
can offer nothing new ; but, inasmuch as the opponents
of the measure have raked up all the old arguments
against the measure which, we thought, had been long
since disposed of, we may also venture to revive the
• reasoning by which those arguments had on former oc-
casions been answered. The most zealous opponent
of the principle of the Bill, on Wednesday night—
indeed, we may say, the . only avowed opponent of its
principle, for the opposition of others was to parts and
not to the whole—was Mr. Richards. Nor can
we say that he was a persevering opponent, for his
determination to throw it out, by moving that the
Speaker leave the chair that day six months, only
lasted during the debate, and evaporated when the
question came to the vote, for he actually voted against
his own motion. Thus his arguments against the mea-
sure, so far from converting anybody else, did not con-
vett himself. He did not stand even in a " glorious
minority of one," to support the principle contended for
in his elaborate and well-studied speech. He preferred
" turning his back upon himself," and siding with the
majority, by which that principle was.left in a state of
complete destitution—zero being the highest number by
which it was supported. Let us, however, glance at
the sort of arguments by which Mr. Richards endea-
voured to advocate the cause to which he gave his elo-
quence, but denied his vote. The main argument was,
that the law of arrest for debt discourages extravagant
habits and improvidence, and the rem:att,ailt of it
encourages
therefore make people very careless about plunging into
debt. We always thought that one of the strongest
i
objections to the law as it stands s, that
habits of thoughtless expense and ruinous extravagance,
by the facility of false credit, which it creates. The cre-
ditor relies upon the law, which pledges the body of the
debtor for his debt, and does not take the proper steps
to ascertain, in the first instance, whether the person
applying for credit has the means of paying him or not.
When the debtor is ruined, or fast gliding on to ruin,
by his extravagance, the creditor resorts to the bailiff
for his " co-operation" to squeeze the debt out of the
body of the defaulter. Better, we should think, it would
be to have a security on his property, if he had any, and
if he has none, all the bailiffs in England could not
squeeze the debt out of him, unless they could sell
him, according to the law of the 12 tables, (or a slave,
or " coin his blood to drachmas," which was never
known to be done, except in the poet's mint. Where
then, is the benefit to the creditor—where the protec-
tion of imprisonment for debt ? That law, indeed,

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY, MARCH 3, 1837.