The Sun.
London, England, 1830-04-05 00:00:00

what perhaps is still more valuebie, that no
individual partner in the Bank can belong to the
class of adventurers who are prompt to dash for-
ward in pursuit of large and rapid prcfitsj at the
risk either of their co-partners or of the ptiblic, and
in the comfortable consciousness that they have
every thing to gain and nothing to lose. The ac-
commodation these Banks afford to the community
consists in receiving the deposits of small as well as
large sums, for which they allow interest from the
day on which they are made, and in lending money
in various modes at a rate of interest one per cent.
higher than that which they allow to Ilteir depo-
sitors. They are thus the intermediate agents be•
tween the whole of the borrowers and the whole of
the lenders of the country, affording additional se-
curity to the latter, and additional fecilities to 'both,
and deriving the remuneration of their services from
the difference of one per cent. in the interest of a
very large proportion of all the money lent and bor-
rowed throughout Scotland. They discharge in
Scotland all or nearly all the functions which are
executed in England by bankers, money agents, bill
brokers, and savings banks. The issue of notes, the
payment of interest on deposits, and the receipt of
very small deposits, are the chief circumstances
which, distinguish their business from that of the
bankers of London ; the latter is the only important
particular in which the current of their transactions,
so far as it depends upon themselves, differs from
that of a country banker in England.—There is one
important circumstance, however, which more per-
haps than any other has enhanced the reputation of
the Scotch system of banking, but which since it is
evident that it might have arisen equally under any
other system, ought, we think, rather to be ascribed
to some peculiarity in the habits, character, or situa-
tion of the Scottish nation. We allude to the prac-
tice of what is called cash credit, arid yehich con-
sists merely in the opening of a credit account by
the Batik, to the extent of which the individual it,
whose favour this is done may draw—interest being
charged on the actual advances, and the Bank Leine
secured from eventual loss by the bonds of the joint
bond of the party seeking this accommodation, and
two of his friends. That this practice has conferred
great and extensive benefits upon Scotland there can
he no doubt. To point them out in detail would ex-
ceed our limits, and it is needless, since the fact is
attested by the unanimous declarations of all who
have ever had an opportunity of becoming personally
conversant with the subject. It is one thing, however,
to admit that this practice has been beneficial to Scot-
land, and another to conclude that with the Scotch
system of banking it would necessarily, or
probably, gain a footing in England. We be-
lieve it would not do so, and our reason is,
that with a ,system of banking, certainly present-
ing no impediment to its introduction, is has never
yet been introduced. It is, we conjecture, a plant indi-
genous to the soil of Scotland, and tvlich, however
it may have sprung up and flourished among her pru-
dent reed thrifty population, will scarcely bear to be
transferred to any other region. To the establish-
ment ofa better system of banking than this country
has hitherto enjoyed, a legal impediment is, how-
ever, presented by tire Charter of the Bank of Eng-
land, which forbids the establishment of any othei
Bunking Companies consisting of more than six
partners; and although by an Act of the Legisla-
ture, passed with the liberal concurrence of this
great Corporation four years ago, the monopoly of
the Bank of England has been so far relaxed as to
admit of the establishment of Bankse with an unli-
mited number of partners in any part of the country
distant more than sixty-five miles from the metro-
polis, and no material tendency to. an improved
system has yet been exhibited; it still cannot be said
that a fair experiment has been made as to the form
which English enterprise, intelligence, and capital
would naturally assume'in this department of exer-
tion, so long as they are not allowed free action in
an extensive district of the kingdom, which- in
wealth and commercial importance greatly ex-
ceeds any other. It is from this district that
the example and impulse of imptovement might Ve
expected to proceed, and while it is fettered no prkt
of the kingdom can justly be deemed free. The
Charter of the Bank is, indeed, the only legal im-
pediment to the introduction into England of the
Scotch Ban:Acing System, although. time Quarterly
Retie-10r 'Otreli;lloiii.eti4;felethi*Feeisilit
arraigning the conduct and impugning the wisdom
of the Legislature, enumerate several. It is no
essential part of this system that theliability-to loss
of the partners in a Bank should be limited to their
several original subscriptions to its. capital. Of
this there cannot be a better proof than that such
limitation with respect to the Scotch Banks them-
selves, is not the rule, but the exception., extending
only to the two or three Banking Companies, in-
no
corporated by a peculiar Charter. Nether Carr it
he assumed that the privilege of issuing notes
small
is essential to this system. The Quarterly Review,
however, takes for granted that it is so, without any
attempt to show how far the privilege in question
actually contributes to the profit of the Scotch Banks,
and in forgetfulness •of the significant fact, that the
Bank of England, net unusually negligent of its
Corporate interests, voluntarily relinquished the ex-
ercise of this privilege during a period of consider-
able duration.—Morning Post.
We are glad to observe that the Bishop of Lon-
don, in presenting two petitions to the House of
Lords, on Friday night, from certain persons in Lon-
don and Northamptonshire, praying for the abolition
of the punishment of death in cases of forgery, stated
his acquiescence in the prayer of the petitions,. and
expressed a hope soon to see capital punishments
effaced from the Statute-book altogether, except in
cases of great -atrocity. This sentiment is worthy
of one who is a chief among the Pastors of the
Church, to whom his less exalted brethren look up
for instruction and example, and whose high station
imposes on him the greater responsibility of diffusing
the true principles of Christianity among the
people. We sincerely wish that the hope expressed
by the Learned Prelate, of seeing capital punish-
ments effaced from the Stanite-book except in ex-
treme cases, may be soon realized ; hut, from the
manner in which Mr. Peel has undertaken the," amend-
ment" of the criminal law, we doubt it.. Mießoel takes
credit to. himself for having reformed tie criminal
law, and seems not a little vain of wha4' he has
done, and of the ignorant praise which has Orenverted
his mechanical labour into a work of splendid and
comprehensive legislation. What, then,: has Mr.
Peel done ? . He has repealed a -considerable num-
ber of obsolete and superfluous Statutes, and con-
densed the provisions of the criminal law into a
smaller. compass than that iu which they were con-
tained before. He has cut off sothe.antique distinc-
tion4s—sneh as benefit of Clcrefy—a privilege unjust
i inits origin, and, when the reason of its institution
ceased to be obvious, exceedingly absurd. He has,
in
,a few instances, facilitated the conviction of
guilt by dispensing with immaterial forms—such
as . the necessity of proving the mine: of
more
than one partner in a firm, as regards the lawful
C
possession of stolen property. He LA narrowed
the
power . of .taking objections to stave judgment,
&c., !then-. verdict, by enacting that, the "omission of
certain formal proofs, such- as & proper venue, shall
not avail the prisoner, although such objections,
when taken before verdict, arc still as valid as ever.
What has Ire- left undone ?. The .greai work- of
legal reformation—the amendment of the spirit of
our laws—the conversion of-a barbarous into -a civi-
lized code—of a cruel, capricious, arid uncertain
system of criminal law, into one of a rational, de-
terminate, and uniform character, in which punish-
ment, instead of being excessive and precarious,
might be just and inevituble; not a lottery, in
which some offenders may draw death for minor
crimes, and others, more guilty and more lucky,
find it their lot to be awarded a slighter
punishment, or to escape with complete impunity—
but a well proportioned and graduated plan of retri-
butive justice, according to which none 'et,ould meet
a heavier sentence than their crimes delerved, and
all would be sure to undergo the degree of infliction
which their offences merited. This is not Mr.
Pect's Code—this code has yet to be created ! When