The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, MARCH 20, 1838.

MONEY and COMMERCIAL MARKET.

( From the Morning Papers of this day, Tuesday.)
TlMES.—lnsurances have been effected at Lloyd's for about
600,0001. in specie shipped for the United States by the
three last packets of the London line. Some curiosity was
excited in Liverpool by insurances effected at the Lloyd's
there on p.ccoe.nt of the same parties for 50,0001. more shipped
by the *Mediator, one of the London line of packets. It ap-
pears that considerable exportations of specie arc making also
from Liverpool to the United States.
By the last accounts from Washington it appears that the
subject of Mr. Biddle's bank has been brought before Con-
gress, under a report from the Judiciary Committee of the Se-
nate relative to the use which it seems he continues to make
of the notes of the old United States Bank, the name of
which he still assumes, under a Charter granted by the
State of Pennsylvania, though the old Charter—by which
those notes were sanctioned—has long expired. It is pro-
posed, in the Bill which accompanied this Report, to
make the re-issuing of these, or similar notes, here-
after, punishable with imprisonment. Mr. Biddle is
charged, in the report, with having 20,000,000 dollars
of these notes under his control, and with putting them into
the hands of his branch banks and agents, who exchange them
for the notes of the local state banks, who are kept from a re-
sumption of cash payments by a threat of having them thrown
in upon them. He is thus enabled to keep the state banks in
check, and to buy up for his own purposes the merchandise
and produce of the country.
In a report on the trade of New York it is shown that it
has fallen off nearly one-half in 1837 compared with 1836, the
imports being 118,000,000 in 1836, and 68,000,000 dollars in
1837. The difference in duties received by the Government
in the latter year is 7,600,000 dollars.

The Grand Jury of Boston have indicted the President and
four of the Directors of the Franklin Bank, the report en
which we lately gave an abstract of, for official misdemeanour
and criminal neglect of duly, in certifying a false return made
by the cashier of that bank to the Legislature. They were
arrested and bailed in the sum of 2,000 dollars each.

MORNING Posr.—The news from Rio Janeiro was consi-
, dered more satisfactory than any that had been received from
that direction for some time past. In addition to what has
been already made public, we learn, through the medium of a
mercantile letter, dated the 19th of January, that there was
some reason to hope the insurrectionary proceedings at
Bahia had been put an end to. It is stated that a steam-vessel
was entering the port from Bahia with colours flying, a circum-
stance from which it was inferred by many that everything
there had been quietly settled. Business was improving most
materially in every department of commerce, especially in the
produce market. We take the following review of affairs from
a letter received at the North and South American Coffee-
house, the general accuracy of which may be relied on :
" Our import trade has been brisk on the whole, especially
for cotton and linen manufactures, flour, beer, and butter,
whilst wines, ironmongery, and iron, have been dull. The
last-named article is rather improving. Our stocks of foreign
merchandise continue to be light. The demand for the pro-
duce of the country has been animated, and large purchases
of coffee, sugar, and hides have been made, at prices high in
comparison with the quotations received from Europe.
American vessels are beginning to arrive more freely, bring-
ing for investment (chiefly in coffee) flour, grey cottons, tea,
tobacco, some India piece goods, specie, United States Bank
bills and credits. The exchange has continued at 27+ to
upon London, 345 on Paris, and 640 on Hamburgh, at
which considerable sums have been passed by her Majesty's
ship Acton, subsequent vessels to Europe, and the present
packet (the Lyra). The local stock rose almost immediately
after the payment of the dividends from 1 to 21 per cent., and
is now nearly as high, ex dividend, as it ruled with the divi-
dend included. It is expected to continue to advance, it
being pretty well understood that the present Minister of Fi-
nance will not require to issue fresh bonds for any part of the
credit voted by the Chambers of 4,558 contos of reis (about
500,0001.) until after the re-assembling of the Legislature,
when he will propose certain financial measures and regula-
tions, which, if he carries them, as he in all probability will,
must tend to raise the price of stock, and that considerably.
When, in September, he accepted office, he laid before the
Chambers in the most candid and able manner the state of
the treasury, and showed that he had to remit to the Govern-
ment agents, for arrears, dividends, and other purposes, be-
fore the close of the year about 200,0001., which it was sup-
posed he could not do without great sacrifices, or creating
new Stock. However, he has accomplished it, without re-
sorting to either, and the account-current with the London
agents shows at this moment a balance in favour of the Go-
vernment. He has remitted, is remitting (by this packet
about 30,0000, and will continue to remit promptly for the
dividends due in London next April, and so sensible are he
and his colleagues of the value of public credit that no means
will be left unemployed to raise it and keep it at the
highest possible pitch. This much I can communicate upon
what I deem very good authority. Our latest dates from
London are to the 12th of November. Six per Cent.
Stock, ex. div., 871 buyers; Five per Cent. ditto, 71 ; Ex-
change on London, 27+ to 27-?,-; Coffee, first quality, 3,300
to 4,600; Sugar, R., 2,900 to 3,000; ditto, M., 1,700 ; and
hides, 190 to 230."

MORNING CHRONICLE.—We are truly glad to And that the
Bank of England has at length determined to make a ship-
ment of gold to the United States. This will not only be the
means of giving life and animation in the United States, but
will lead to extensive orders for our various manufactures.
It is evidently the harbinger of more cheerful times. The
Bank intend to send 1,000,000/. ; Messrs. Rothschild,
250,0001. ; and various other firms different amounts, making,
in the aggregate, about 2,000,0001. sterling, we understand.
The whole, we believe, is consigned to Messrs. Prime, Ward
and King; but a portion of it, report says, is on account
of the Government, to meet bills from Canada. The
effect produced by this operation in the United States
will be quite astonishing. The resumption of cash pay-
ments has been the great desideratum for a long time, but
the difficulty of insuring permanency to so vital a mea-
sure has delayed it. At a public meeting held at Boston
on the 20th ult., on this subject, one of the resolutions
adopted was :—" That it is impossible for the banks to
resume specie payments by curtailment, because curtail-
ment begets panic and destroys confidence, and because
general and generous confidence is indispensable to precede,
to accompany, and to follow the resumption." This has been
our own view of the matter, as the public will remember, but the
difficulty is now overcome; and notwithstanding the Bank of
England is reprehended by the City correspondent of the
Times for adopting this measure, in another part of the same
paper it will be seen that the return to specie payments is
what the Americans require to set all energies in motion.
Our Contemporary is, no doubt,:greatly annoyed at this event,
as it will wholly frustrate all his gloomy predictions and an-
ticipations, especially as regards the liquidation of debts
due to this country ; for he must plainly see that the cir-
culation of the precious metals throughout the United States
will speedily revive confidence, and thereby enable those
indebted to this country to realise their assets and liquidate the
claims upon them. Notwithstanding the stagnation of almost
every kind of business which has existed in the United States the
lcits ayposition say
t hat
a one n
thee of
period
debts of the suspended American firms in London have been
working off
wess andas
ewoembpeal
ri believe
with
e
establishments, whose affairs our Contemporary regarded as
hopeless and forlorn, has reduced its liabilities to about 150/.,
to nothing, in fact,
the firm was compelled to yield to the pressure of the times.
The Americans have strained every nerve to pay off their
debts. They have refrained from entering into new engage-
sacrificed everything to the one grand •th
at
of and point,
of maintaining their credit. We have so repeatedly, however,
alluded to this subject that it is unnecessary to dwell at any
length upon it now; but we call attention to the annexed ex-
tract from the New York Journal of
..owneree of the 24th
ult., which gives an impartial description of the state of affairs,
and corroborates all that we have said on various occasions :
" If any man has cash in his pocket, or city acceptances,
and wants bargains in dry goods, he can get them at our auc-
tion offices or jobbers stores. The sacrifices are very great ;
such as in our judgment the prospect ahead does not warrant,
and such as will not soon he made again. We do not think
there is much to brag of in the assortment of goods on sale in
our market, though it is probably quite as good here as
anywhere. In truth the stock of foreign manufactures in the
the country is very small, and the assortment very much
broken. Importers and jobbers are but little inclined to act,
being disposed to wait until the impulses without set them
in motion. The importations are very small. The mer-
chants from the interior will many of them buythan the
y
would less
f
would do if their own courage was •
suostnaine by sympathy of
courage and fresh stocks of goods the Atlantic. The
result of all thiswill be,
that the old stocks throughout will
be lightly replenished, and e• k d and
pieculled over until they
are pretty much gone, and the country will he more destitute
of goods than it has been since 1819. The demand will soon
require a new state of • •and •
activity, the importations must
be large, to supply the great deficiency. Business is de-
ranged. Old associations and aeg uaintanceships are broken
up, but the demands of the
country must, ere long, correct
these difficulties. Many of our jobbers are now giving cre-
dits to distant merchants ; but it cannot be expected that, after
so many failures, full confidence should immediately be exer-
cised towards all who deserve it. Some unnecessary dread is
likely to be felt of a fire, which has made such dreadful havoc.
A return to specie
payments will be the signal for returning
confidence. Until then the feeling of insecurit • cannot, and
in fact should not, be w dissipated."
d. • •ate d. "
In discussing these matters it should never be forgotten how
completely the two countries are now identified in interest ;
and it is as much for the benefit of English trade that assist-
ance should be rendered to the merchants of New York, as to
tl:e merchants of London, Liverpool, or Leeds. It is a saying
in Lancashire that New York is Liverpool,Liverpool •is
and
New York.

MORNING HERALD. —The determination of the Bank of
England to export bullion on their own account to the United
in consequence of the favourable nature of the ex-
change between the two countries for that operation, has
cBtrtelatees,
d some considerable degree of attention ; and, perhaps,
the snore so, inasmuch as it was doubted on Saturday by many
well-informed parties that the Bank direction had the opera-
tion in immediate contemplation.
By many this operation is viewed as a clever mode of em-
ploying a surplus portion of their stock of bullion, whilst
others have denounced it as totally incongruous with the fixed
duties of the Bank of England. Well informed and practised
men consider the operation, under the present circumstances
of our commercial relations, to be perfectly legitimate, since
it may have the effect of stemming at once the tide of the
precious metals towards the United States, where we have
sufficient experience that the market is soon glutted ; but as a
general principle this mode of employing the accumulation of
precious metals is considered to be foreign to the strict duties

of the Bank of England, inasmuch as a pretended national
establishment, it ought not to extend its sphere of business to
foreign countries.