The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-19 00:00:00

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

LIMES. —Not a word has been dropped to-day ( Thurs.
sday) in any quarter to throw further light on the transac-
tions connected with the proposed sale of the" deadweight"
annuity by the Bank. No new offers are likely to be
made as the matter now stands, for all proceedings of
the kind must be totally at random, so long as the
minimum price which the Directors have resolved on is
concealed ; and as it is understood that the brokers to
whom it was communicated are under pledge not to
reveal it, it is not likely that the Directors them-
selves will do anything to make the public the wiser
on tic subject. This was board day' at the Bank,
and some notice or other was eagerly looked for,
either in relation to the dead weight or to a further
increase in the rate of interest, but the day passed
off silently. Their conduct in the business is univee.
sally blamed, and they seem to be left literally with
out an advocate. The plain course to be 'taken, if they
really intended to bring the " dead-4eight" annuity to
market, was to invite some of the leaders of the monied
interest to a conference with them; to have stated how
much of the dead-weight they wished to dispose of, and
then to fix a day for receiving tenders, allowing a proper
interval for the formation of lists, as in the case
o Govern-
ment loans ; to have opened those tenders publicly, placing,
if they thought proper, their own minimum price scaled
up along with them, and, if none of the tenders came up to
it, to offer the annuity at that rate to any of the contending
lists: the price, if a fair one, would be sure to be accepted,
or have led to a coalition of the bidders, making up, of
course, a very strong list, and thus the affair would have
4P been disposed of. To make the purchase more easy,
se as the Bank could not require the whole of the money
at once, it might have been completed by instalments,
and a scrip issued to represent those instalments. Till
this step, or something of the kind, be taken, they
will remain under the stigma—a very dangerous one for a
42 public body now on trial before the country.—of making a
48 false show of a sale, calculated to influence the money
market improperly, in order to carry en ulterior object,
13 wholly distinct from it, of making money scarce and thus
enabling them to hold on in security the valuable asset
which they professed a desire to sell. No transaction of
the kind, so shuffling, so evasive, as this would be, if this
is the proper construction of it, has ever taken place, we
are persuaded, with any other public body in this country.
Some statements ere current in the city respecting the
intentions of Mr. Spring Rice as to the charter of the
Bank of Ireland, to the renewal of which great opposition
is making on the part of all the other Irish banks. To a
deputation from them, which waited on him in the course
of the week, he is said to have stated that he intended
to bring in a Bill to restrain all other joint-stock banks
from issuing notes in a circle of fifty miles round
Dublin, by which, of course, the most objectionable
part of the Irish Bank monopoly would be re-
tained; but to qualify this he is to introduce a clause
that the Bank of Ireland shall be compelled to fur-
nish all Joint-stock Banks within the fifty mile circle, and
out of Dublin itself, with its own notes, on receiving an
adequate security. Mr. Spring Rice means, it is added,
to renew the charter of the Irish Bank for four years,
making its further continuance dependent on the fate of
the Bank of England in 1844; but providing, that if no
material change shall take place in the latter, then the
charter of the Bank of Ireland should run on for fourteen
years. Some privileges of an indefinite nature, for Joint-
stock Banks generally, were hinted at, meant probably to
reconcile them to this measure, but the deputation aro
said to have left much dissatisfied, and to have expressed
their determination to offer every opposition in their power
to this measure.
The quarterly meeting of the Bank Proprietors was
held to-day, when, after the transaction of the usual rou-
tine business, and the motion of adjournment, Mr. Black-
burn attempted to put some questions to the Chair, with
a view, as he stated, of obtaining information under the
" peculiar circumstances" of the state of affairs of the
Corporation. He was, however, overruled, and not per-
mitted to proceed, on the plea that there was no business
before the Court, exceptieg the confirmation of the minutes
of the former Court.

PO appears by the accounts received from Man-
chester to-day that although there had been an advance of
lid. per lb. on cotton received in the Liverpool market, that
lower instead of higher prices had been offered for yarn.
The feeling of both buyers and spinners seems to be to
hold off doing business as long as possible,for the purpose
of thoroughly crushing the American speculation in the
raw material. To carry out this object with effect, the
majority of the millowners have resolved upon keeping
,heir works upon short time for another month.
The East India Company have given notice that they
will nego!iate bills upon Bengal at the rate of 2s. the ru-
pee, and on the other two presidencies at 2s. old. ; and this
is a reduction of rather upwards of six per cent. in favour
of the merchants making remittances to our Eastern pos.
sessions, an advantage which is of great importance at the
present moment, when the interruption of the opium trade
with China would otherwise render a considerable expor-
tation of silver indispensable.
We have not been deceived in anticipating that there
would be abundance of ignorant twaddle about the Direc-
tors of the Bank of England declining to accept the ten-
ders made yesterday for the purchase of a portion of the
dead weight annuity. There is one short and simple
answer to all these cavillings, namely, that none of the
tenders were sufficiently high for them to accept, con-
sistent with their sense of duty. It is difficult to conceive
upon what rational ground the accusation, can be made that
the Directors of the Bank had no real intention of dis-
pt sing cf the annuity when they gave the notice, merely
because they have not considered it prudent to disclose the
terms upon which it had been previously determined to dis-
pose of it. It is quite enough for the parties to know that
they have not made such offers as could be accepted, an
every-day occurrence with public boards, without any per_
son for a moment attempting to impute any other motive
than the inadequacy of the terms. The tirade against the
Bank Directors put forth in the columns of one of our Co-
ntemporaries, that they had issued the notice to sell the an-
nuity nier._ ly for the purpose of exciting alarm, exclusive
of its absurdity, is in excellent keeping with the statement
that there is not now above a million of bullion in the
coffers of the Bank. They we alike entitled to attention,
as manifesting access to correct information, and sound
logical deduction.