The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-31 00:00:00

that, " diving the past veer, which has been
one of great commercial gloom and difficulty, the
applicants at the Infirmary have been unprecedented i❑
number, and, in consequence, the expenditure has been
fearmily increased." In the corresponding year, 1,402
patients were admitted into the Manchester Fever Hos-

pital ; the number for the preceding year amounted to
799 only; and the deaths were in the same period in-
creased from Igo to 240, notwithsta )(ling that an addi-
tional t!mporary building was provided. The Report
states, that many applie.itions fbr admission were re-
luctat.tiy refused. The Manchester Board of Health,
in their annual Report for the same period, state that
" the year 1837-8 has been alarmingly productive of
infectious fever in Alanehester and its neighbourhood ;"
and it alludes to the " commercial depression, with its
consequent both mental And corporeal evils," as a cause
of the great increase of disease. Nearly all the infir-
maries and dispensaries, the Reports of which the Board
have inspected, bear testimony to a similar increase of
disease, and many of them allude to the commercial
crisis which occasioned it.

Criminals were multiplied in the manufacturing dis-
tricts, simultaneously, from the same cause. A striking
example is afforded by Manchester in this respect. By
the official report, it appears that 1,313 prisoners were
tried and convicted in the year 1837, at the New Bai-
ley Sessions ; in the preceding year they amounted to
1,0:31 ; and the highest number recorded in any previ-
ous year aid not exceed 1,112 convictions. The num-
Iser of committals to the Glasgow Bridewell in 1837,
amounted to 2,067 ; whilst 1,613 prisoners were com-
mitted in 1836. In the annual Report, published 2d
August, 1837, it is stated that there was an increase of
60 prisoners on an average daily, and that " the de-
pression of trade, and consequently the difficulty of pro-
fitable labour, operated last year to augment the cost of
maintaining the establishment." The Report of the
County Bridewell, at Paisley, bears still stronger testi-
mony in this respect. In 1837, the number of prisoners
committea to that prison amounted to 232, whilst for
the ve ar 1836 they are stated at 153 only.
The Board have thus, it is presumed, brought forward
sufficient data from which to form a judgment of the
tnag,nitude of the injuries inflicted upon the labouring
daises by the operation: of the Bank of England upon
the currency. It has been seen tleat the effects of the panic
in the money market were to deprive of employment a
large portion of the industrious community, to subject
them to the moat intense privations, to degrade them
to the level of pauperism, arid, untimely, to produce a
great increase of disease, crime, and mortality. Similar
consequences must always flow from a forced contraction
of the currency. Even at this moment, the same pro-
cess on the part of the Bank of England is again going
on, and producing a repetition of all those evils which
have been enumerated. In Nottingham, Paisley, Glas-
gow, and the other large manufacturing towns, multi-
tudes of industrious work-people are thrown out of
employment, whose privations are again causing a la-
mentable increase of pauperism, crime, and disease. It
becomes ,if the utmost importance to the welfare of the
community to inquire, how such baneful fluctuations
may in future be prevented. Hitherto, it has been too
much the custom to consider the question of the cur-
rency merely in its relation to the banking interests ; or,
if viewed with reference to the public welfare, it has
been merely to guard against direct losses by the failures
of banks. The far greater injuries inflicted upon the
community by the oscillations in the amount and con-
sequent value of a paper currency, will, it is hoped,
henceforth engage that consideration which they so
strongly merit.
Although it scarcely comes within the scope of their
present object, the Board will add a reflection upon the
subject of the undue privileges possessed by the Bank
of England. That such a power over the property, and,
as has been seen, the health, morals, and very lives of
the community should he vested in the hinds of 26 is-
; responsible individuals for the exclusive benefit of a
body of Bank Proprietors, must be regarded as one of
the most singular anomalies of the present day—that
the secret acts of these individuals, veiled as they are
even trona the eyes of their own constituents, should de-
cide the fortunes of our capitalists, and the fate of our
I artisans—that upon the error or wisdom of their judg-
t meat should depend the happiness or misery of millions,
and that against the meat capricious exercise of this
power, there should be neither appeal nor remedy ; that
such a state of things should be allowed to exist, must
be regarded as a reproach to the intelligence of the age,
and ae. totally irreconcileable with every principle of
publ.ic justice.
If, instead of having been handed down to us from
our ancestors, it had been proposed in the present day,
to create a joint stock bank, to be endowed with the
powers and privileges enjoyed by the Bank of Eng-
land, the common sense of the country would have
revolted against the attempt to establish so dangerous a
monopoly. Yet it is certain that any institution of the
kind, founded in the present day, must have been more
suited than the Bank of England to the actual wants
1 sof tho community, inasmuch as it would assuredly have
been required to posses an amount of capital propor-
tionatel to that of the great trading community over
i which it enjoyed such exclusive powers and privileges.
Instead, however, of possessing a fund adequate to pro-
mote the prosperity of our commerce, or to temper its
occasional reverses, the Bank of England has sunk the
whole of its capital and and many millions besides,
derived trom the public through its deposits and
circulation, in permanent loans to the Government.
A greater or more fatal delusion does act exist,
than the supposition that the affairs of any bank, whose
t copit,al is thus invested, can possibly be conducted, with
either safety to itself, or advantage to the trading com-
munity. Such a concern may, indeed, share the profits
of prosperous seasons, without having contributed one
farthing to the common fend ; but the moment a reverse
takes place, it increases the general discredit by its own
inevitable embarrassment.
In conclusion, whilst it is not designed, in anything
that has been said, to criminate the characters of the
individuals composing the Directory of the Bank of
England—a body of men generally distinguished for
commercial probity and high personal worth—the Board
beg to record their strong conviction, that tire principle
upon which the Bank is founded, especially with refer-
ence to its want of available capital, renders it impos-
sible for any body of Directors to conduct its affairs,
with advantage to the interests of the manufacturing
and commercial community.
By order, and on behalf, of the Board of Directors.
Dac. 12, 1839. J. B. SMITH, President.

A NTI-CoRN•LAW DINNER.—The demand
for tickets to the dinner on the I:3th January has been
so great, that, notwithstanding the enlarged accommo-
dation provided in the pavilion, the Council have not
env bee❑ compelled to cease supplying tickets, lest they
encroach too far on those reserved for invited guests,