The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-21 00:00:00

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TEE BANK OF ENGLAND.

(From the Tinges of yesterday.)

. .
Once =exercised. It is absurd in this advanced stated civi-
lisation, for any nation to insist, in its treatment of other
nations, upon powers which have no foundation innational
right, and rest entirely upon arbitrary precedent. It would
be doubly absurd toi insist upon it when such a Power as
the United 'States _denies. its justice, and would resist its
application in her own case to the last extreinity. If we
rightly read thelaat- debates in Parliament-upon the sub-
:ject,, the British Government,
.notwithitandlng their late
instructions to the English consul at Riga, are disposed to
adopt a new policrin regard to the rights of neutrals co-
ineident in all essential respects with our own, and are ex-
pecting in their communications with our Governmenti to
enter into' a plain and permanent; understanding upon the
subject. Such an, understanding is certainly due to the
rank which both countries hold in the scale of nations; and
to the' moral power of both in the affairs' of the'world.
" We' regret to see that there is in some quarters a
jealousy towards the alliance of the Western Powers, which
seemitolitiVe its source in a feeling that this alliance may
be turned against American interests. There is not the .
'shadow of a reason, for this. General Cass's arraignment of
Lord Clarendon's remark, that the accord between England -
and France was perfect in regard to both hemispheres, was '
however well meant, altogether' uncalled-for and unjust:
We have the-best of all possible authority for making" this
statement. „Lord' Clarendon, -in alluding
to this, hemis-
phere,' had reference simply and exclusively to :the joint
action of France and England—in which, the United States
shared—in Buenos Ayres and ParaguaY- " There was not a
partiele of foundation for SenatOr Cass ' s impUtation, and.
no man was more astonished than Lord Clarendon himself
when he first heard of it. The aim of his remark was, as
the whole context snowed: to
whiclihive hitherto- been rivals,siy that two countries, had learnt-to know:eadi
.other better,' and, hid ' abandoned their old business of
getting up and keeping up rival ,factions in dilf rePt-parts
'of,the world. , Those who" know anything about the long
'and bitter contentions of France and England and La Plata
-will understand the pertinency of the allusioA. It was not
intended to refer in any way, directly or indirectly, pub-
licly or covertly, on any construction or in any sense what-.
ever, to the United States, or to Spain or Cuba, or to any.
relations between Spain and the United Statee, or to any
possible contingencies that might spring therefronl• . e
have the best reasons for knowing tls:lt the Mmunstra- ,
tion at Washington understands this fully. With the
information it has now before it, it wonld: not now ven-
ture' to give a moment's countenance to the imputations
of Senator Cass ; neither can the country; without
great injustice to itself as welt as to England, give them
the least credit. ' Such paltry jealousy, such exaggeration
of trifles as light, as air, are utterly unworthy of a great
people, confident of their ability to maintain their rights,
• and inspired with a sense of their national dignity. Eng-'
land is now engaged in a. noble struggle—noble, though
it may have been, in great' part, prompted by her .own
national interests, fer.these interests are in this case iden-
tified with those of humanity and civilisation. She ap-
proaches 'us with an, open hand, and with a will ready to
unite with us .in reformations for which we have long
laboured singly and without appropriate effect. • It is im-
possible for our Government not to meet her, on so just an,
pbject, with the same cordial bearing, and, utterly oblivi-
ous of all petty resentments and distrusts, to settle at once
and for ever great principles of international law demanded
,alike by the necessities of commerce and the interests of
civilisation."
. A telegraphic despatch from New Orleans announces
the arrival there on the sth inst. of the steamer El Do-
rado, with. dates froM San Francisco to the 16th of
March, a fortnight later than previous advices. The
steamer George La'w was to sail from , -Aspinwall for
New York on the 31st of March, with' 500 passengers
and $1,000;000 in gold dust. 'The El Dorado reported
the gratifying fact that Lieutenant Strain and his party
of explorers were safe, and had arrived on the Pacific
const. The steamers leaving San Francisco on the 16th
of March had over $2,000,000 in treasure. The mining
accounts were still exceedingly favourable. The coun-
try was healthy, but .the rainy season had been un-
usually severe. The San Francisco markets were quite
stagnant. Six failnres, including two commission mer-
chants, had occurred. Money was stringent, and real
estate had largely declined in value. Colonel Fremont.
had been overtaken in the mountains, going the central
route to San Francisco. Several of his party had died
of cold and hunger. The trial of Colonel Watkins, 'of
the Walker Expedition, had commenced. The aceonnts
from Walker's Expedition represented that it was
•cidartered. at St. Vincent's, and,
_was daily d*indling
away.' - .
In the I•Tew-York markets, sterling exchange having
become firmer, had advanced to 109, the bulk of trans-
actions, however, . being effected at 1081 t 0.1086. The
stock market exhibited / general depression in conse-
quence pf „the. enhanced value of money. In railway
'shares,'boads, and miscellaneous stook there was a gene-
ral decline. Payments during the week were very heavy,
and not less than 23,200,000 dols., passed through the
'clearing-house on the sth inst. Exchange on Paris was
quoted 5.131, gamburg, 36 to i, ,Bremen 791. The
cotton-market' was irregular and unsettled, at a decline
of ic. to lc. Ashes unaltered. ' Fleur and meal in to-
lerably brisk request for home use and. on speculation.
Grain quiet, more on account of the absence of a suitable
supply than of the demand existing. Corn was very
active; A redtiction on the rates of freight to Liverpool
had caused more to be done 'in corn shipments. Flour
.3s.- Cotton, id. to 11-32 per lb., Corn in ship's bags,
klid. to 9d. ' Corn to Glasgow, 124. -

P.ROJECT.SD MINISIRRIAL ATTACK ON

The commercial position of the Spanish ministry is at
this moment by no means an eligible one; indeed, it is
some degrees lower than that of Spanish ministers has ever
been before. In a time of profound peace foreign and do-
mestic credit is to the Spanish minister utterly hopeless,
and without a real in the treasury he dares not empire to
the dignity of a loan. All he can do is to entreat heisMost
Catholic Majesty's loyal subjects to pay the taxes of the
ensuing quarter in advance, in consideration of which they
are to receive .a discount of 8 per cent., and will confer a
never-to-be-forgotten favour on their obliged and very
humble servant the bankrupt Minister of Finance. Yet,
even in this abasement of his Iberian compeer the Finance
Minister of England may find something to envy. The
Spaniard has no money and no credit ,• but then he has no
balances in the Bank of England, and no deficiency bills.
He has no pampered and overgrown corporation to set
itself up,.with something of the prestige of official position
and all the license of private action, and to warn him that
he must not expect them to lend the public its own money
except it bo perfectly convenient for them to do so. It is
probably better to beg at Saragossa than in Threadneedle-
street, and to be a humble petitioner for the temporary use
of other people's money than our own.
If any one doubts the untenable nature of the position
now taken up by the Bank of England with respect to the
government, he has only to consider what position the
Bank would occupy if all peculiar support were withdrawn
from it, as it may be within twelve months after August,
1855. In the first place, let us suppose the Bank to lose
the management of the public debt. This would be a very
serious loss of a very handsome allowance, which no trading
concern would willingly give up. There can, however, be
no doubt that the mere allowance from government of
3401. per million on six hundred millions, and 3001.. per
million on the remainder of the debt, very imperfectly re-
presents the advantages derived by the Bank from this
agency. The convenience of depositing the dividend when
it has been received, and the confidence inspired by the
possession for a time of such vast sums of money, naturally
attract depositors to the private branch of the institution.
Besides, the plan upon which our debt is paid, by necessi-
tating a large accumulation of money in the hands of
the Bank four times a year, gives a considerable balance
to be employed for the purposes of profit, and thus indi-
rectly increases the advantages derived from Government
connection: But the most marvellous instance of the ex-
traordinary advantages derived by the Bank from its
connection with the Government is yet to come. The
Government has borrowed from the Bank eleven millions
of its capital, for which it pays interest, and, in return,
the Bank is permitted to create fourteen millions of paper
money, which it can lend to the Government or any of its
subjects at interest. Thus the Bank is placed in that en-
viable position which is popularly supposed to be so difficult
to obtain—that of at once possessing and eating its cake.
The Bank has lent to the Government eleven millions' for
svJfich it duly receives interest, and yet, by a proams,
almost magical, those eleven millions are returned to its
coffers, and are just as available for the purpose of making
money as if they had never been lent at all. In fact, the
felicity of the Bank is paralleled by nothing but the infeli-
citye of the Government, which, being possessed of the
power of creating eleven millions of money and
camnPl°ltl2-
them in buying up eleven millions of its debte,rorof any
purpose it thinks proper, delegates the
that money to the Bank, and then borrows from its own
creature the money it has thus enabled it to produce._ The,
operation is very much the same as if
corn a landownendroshlroaetigt.
large
rn rent, a then
lease a farm to a tenant at a ppp
er
e
himself become sub-lessee ofh-is otwhnealandaltyaraed7tcck toootates of
No one, except a government whose
and abstruse to be regulated b y
sense, would think of borrowing at all while it
commona
unexceptionable and facile means at hand of making
an
money ; and the absurdity would not be diminished by the
fact that the very money borrowed was created by the agency
of the borrower, and made over to the creditor in order to
be leet to him. Toseek for a,parallel one must have re-
course to fiction, and remember the steward of the Spanish
cavalier in " Gil Blas, who made so very great a favour
of lending him his own money. In addition to these pri-
vileges, we must not omit the large public accounts which
aro kept at the Bank in obedience to the diffeient statutes
and rules of law, which raise the deposits of this favoured
institution to an amount which private bankers look and
long for in vain, and enable it in its deposit branch very
greatly to counteract the restrictions placed by the law of
1844 on the branch of issue. Nor ought we, in enume-
rating the advantages enjoyed by the Bank, to forget that,
although for all its notes above fourteen millions the Bank
is obliged to retain a corresponding amount of bullion,
there is an immense profit .in the mere largeness of the
issue. Every fire, every loss of a coasting steamer or sail-
ing vessel, destroys a certain amount of this currency, and
thus diminishes pro taut° the liabilities of the flank.
When we consider that this institution has been in exist-
ence since 1694, and pass in our minds the innumerable
disasters which have occurred in that 160 years, we may
form some slight idea of what the Bank has gained, and
what the Government might have gained by the destruc-
tion of the promises to pay. Such a return would be a
curious one, and would form an apt sequel to the debate
of the other night. For all these advantages and privi-
leges, the value of which is so great, that, after retaining
in its hands a considerable "Rest," and paying for build-
ings enormbusly expensive both in their site and in their
construction, the Bank can afford to its shareholders the
not unsatisfactory dividend of 9 per cent., it pays to Go-
vernment annually 180,0001.
Now, let us suppose the arrangement contemplated in
the act of 1844—a repayment to the Bank of all the funded
and unfunded debts of which it may be the holder, and
the cessation, or rather the reverting- to Government of
the power of managing its own debti,par_whaw keeping its
(ounrliti
money, and issuing its own promises to