The Sun.
London, England, 1825-12-19 00:00:00

DIED.

On the 17th inst., at Hampstead, in her 81st year, Elizabeth,
widow of the late John Baker, Esq.
On Saturday, the 17th inst., Mrs. Sarjeant, of King-street,
Cheapside.
On the 16th inst., at his residence, Weston-lodge, near Bath,
James Richard Miler, Esq., in the 81st year of his age.
On the 19th of August last, on the passage to the West In-
dies, Lieutenant Henry Ashfield, R.N. (first) of his Majesty's
sloop Jasper, and son of the Rev. Charles Ashfield, of Stewk-
ley, Bucks.
On the 15th inst., in Curzon-street, in his 80th year, Archi-
bald Mearns, surgeon, formerly of the 3d regiment of Guards.
Yesterday, at neon, Dire. Phillips, of Grove-cottage,Clapbam.

THE LONDON JOURNALS.

DAILY

Extract: from the Morning Papers,Dec.l9, 1825.

[MORNING Post.]
There was still much agitation in the Money
Market on Saturday, but the fluctuations were
chiefly in Money Stock. The books for transfer
of the New 4 perkents., as well as.the Consols,
are still open at the Bank for the convenience of
the public, and 791 ex dividend was the quota,
tion at which 3 percents. were done at the begin-
ning of business. As the day advanced, however,
the want of money increased, and an hour before
the close of the Market the price for Money
Consols was as low as 78. For the Account, the
variation was not very important, the opening
price having been 81-11,the highest quotation 81k,
and the lowest (which was the closing price)
814 Exchequer Bills underwent considerable
fluctuations during the day, having been done
at 70 discount, from which they advanced to
40 discount, and the last price was 60 discount
for the 1,0001. Bills, and 55 for the 5001. India.
Bonds were quoted as low at 80 discount, and at
the close of the market 70 discount was the quo-
tation. There was a slight re-action in Bank
Stock from Friday's price, it having been done
at from 202 to 203. In the Foreign Market
Spanish Bonds bore a very low quotation, 121- to
13 having been that of the close on Saturday.
South American Stock was very heaary, although
not much business was doing in it ; but some
very heavy sales of Russian and Austrian Bonds
took place, and former closed as low as 82, but
the other Continental Bonds were not much af,
fected. The rest of the Foreign Securities pre-
sented nothing of moment. The house of Everett,
Walker, and Co. have issued a Circular to their
friends, in which they state their intention of
winding up the accounts of the Firm by paying
twenty shillings in the pound.

[THE Timm]
We really do not know under what state or
condition of public credit we this day address the
country. Dark rumours and boding suspicions
have certainly been in circulation, that the Bank
of England would suspend its cash payments,
under a Council Order of course; and if such
should prove to be the case, the portentous mea.
sure may, perhaps, be announced or made known
in the city about the time that the reader takes
into his hand to peruse these our statements on
the subject. But we cannot yet believe that the
Bank will have been driven to take this step :
neither could we, on inquiry, learn, at a late
hour last night, that the official forms of state
necessary to qualify the measure, and clothe it
with a legal exterior, had been gone through by
His Majesty's Ministers. It was on a Sunday,
in the year 1797, that His late Majesty was
summoned from Windsor by Mr. Pitt and his
Ministers to do that which he had never dome
in the course of his reign,—namely, to attend to
secular business on the day which our religion
consecrates to sacred repose and the worship of
God. On the evening of that Sunday the Order
in Council was issued, by which cash payments at
the Bank of England were suspended : we say
" suspended," for that was the term used at the
time, although much too weak to express an ar-
tificial paper circulation thence commencing, and
which was to endure for a quarter of a century,
But we could not learn that the serenity of
the sabbath was disturbed in a similar man-
ner yesterday by the King and his Mini-
sters ; and therefore we still hope that the
authorization of a paper currency in lieu of
cash, is the measure which is and will be
long " suspended." The recollection, however,
of the day on which the Bank last stopped pay-
ment, induced us to look back to the records of
the time, and to glance over all the circumstances
under which the event took place; and certainly
the correspondence between Mr. Pitt and the
Bank at that period, does present such a speci-
men of meanness and subserviency on the part of
the latter, and of insolence mingled with embar-
rassment and evasion in the former, as will
hardly be found to exist in any °thy official
documents. The-Directors repeatedly inform
the Minister, and pass resolutions to the same
effect, that they will make no more advances
to Government—that they cannot do it with..
out absolute ruin to their establishment. la
contempt of these resolutions, the Minister as re-
peatedly demands of them fresh accommodation;
sometimes promising amendment, while he is
actually engaged in the eventual violation of that
promise, by sending money out of the kingdom,
which can only be replaced by the Bank—at
other times scorning to make any such promise,
but calling abruptly for money, as if the Directors
had never signed a resolution that none could be
supplied. We present an instance of the latter
kind. After a debate on one of Mr. Pit t's letters,
dated July 20th, 17917, the Directors resolve
" That the Court do not consent to advance any
66 more money for the payment of such bills
" which (as) fall due after the Ist of August."
Hereupon they received a letter from Mr. Pitt,
dated July 27, in which he says, " That it will
4' be impossible to avoid the most distressing and
" serious embarrassments to the public service,
." unless, iu addition to the accommodation for
44 the present month, the Court can consent to
" advance the second sum of 800,0001. in the
" month of August, and can also make
" provision for the payment of such further
" Treasury Bills," &c. &c. On the receipt
of which letter, it is resolved, " That this
66 Court do agree to advance for the service of the
" public the sum of SOO,OOO/, towards the end of
" the month of August," &c. &c. The follow-
ing is Mr. Pitt's own account of one of his volun.
tary contributions ;—" Mr. Pitt said, that he
64 would lay his plan for the liquidation of the
44 rest (of a sum due to the Bank) by an addition
" to the late voluntary loan, or by some other
" measure as might be most forcible."—(Minute
of Interview on February 10, 1797.)

[NEW Times.]
Although, AS we stated on Saturday, the issue
of one and two pound cotes by the Bank of Eng.
land is a measure of great and obvious utility,

yet we are not surprised to find it made a subject
of cavil and misrepresentation by the ignorant
and the malevolent. " The determination of the
Bank to issue small notes," says a misleading
3-marital, 44 produced a scene of extraordinary
agitation." We can only say we were on
'Change at the time alluded to ; we heard
the fact very generally mentioned ; and we
perceived no agitation at all. Some persons,
from the time that has elapsed since the
former circulation of these notes, were not
immediately aware of the legal footing on which
they stood ; some supposed that the issue of
then] could only take place under the authority
of an Order in Council ; While others thought
that their issue was in itself a suspension of cash
payments. To obviate these misconceptions, it
maybe proper to state briefly the changes which
the 'law respecting Notes below Five Pounds has
undergone. Prior to the year 1777, any person
might have issued a promissory note for any
amount ; but in that year a statute was passed
(17 Geo. 111. c,>30.) by which the negociation'of
promissory notes for twenty shillings, or any sum
between that and five pounds, was prohibited.—
In 1797 the Bank of England was prohibited
from paying any of its notes, of whatever
amount in cash ; and in the same year
the prohibition of issuing small notes was
suspended, until the Bank of England should
resume cash payments, and the Bank of
England as well as lithe Country Bankers thus
became entitled to issue One or Two Pound
Notes if they thought fit. In 1821 (after some
preliminary measures) an Act was passed to per-
mit the Bank of England to pay its Notes in
Gold (stat. 1 and 2 Geo. IV. c. 6) and in 1822
another 'Act was passed, authorising the issue
of One or Two Pound Notes till the sth of
January 1833. In point of fact the Bank of
England continued to issue notes of this de-
scription till sometime in 1822, when they
withdrew them for their own convenience,
and by their own voluntary act. They now again
issue them by an act equally voluntary. It was
said that the Governor and Deputy Governor
had an interview with Lord Liverpool previously
to the issue, and on that occasion they probably
informed the Noble Earl of the intention of the
Bank, which we have no doubt received from his
Lordship an entire approbation.

[MORNING CHRONICLE.]
We regret to say, that to the list of towns,
which have been agitated by Bank stoppages,
must be added Birmingham, in which one out of
the six establishments came to a stand on Satur-
day last. A Meeting of the principal Inhabi-
tants took place on the same day. That town, ac-
cording to letters we have seen, was, as may easily
be conceived, in a most agitated state throughout
Saturday, especially in the evening. Itis, however,
so much the interest of manufacturer; and others,
who employ workmen in such neighbourhoods as
Birmingham, to exert themselves to support the
credit of existing establishments, that we have
no doubt confidence will soon be restored. It is
but justice to the other Banking Houses of that
place to say, that from information we received,
the event in question has been some time ex-
pected by us. We are glad to see that every
where the greatest exertions are made by the
influential inhabitants to allay apprehensions,
and to prevent that destruction of confidence,
which would involve all in one common ruin. We
can picture to ourselves no greater calamity than
a general stoppage of payments, which for a time
would throw the manufacturing population out of
employment ; for it is impossible to conceive that
manufacturers can go on paying thousands every
week, if they receive no returns of their bills. At
the same time,we must say, that the barefaced way
in which it is avowed in the different provincial
papers, that Banks have been obliged to suspend
payments from having their property locked up
in mortgages, reflects great disgrace on us as a
nation. If this had been the first, or the second,
or the third time, even within a few years, that
Bankers, and through them the public, had suf-
fered from so glaring a deviation from the princi-
ples of banking, as the lending money on mort-
gages or other long-winded and unmanageable se-
curities, there would be some excuse for us ❑ow,
but the nation has been convulsed over and over
again in this way, and yet the moment the pressure
is over, wego on without profiting in the least from
our former experience. A journalist who knowing
the besetting sin of his countrymen, and yet is
afraid of aggravating the evil of want of confi-
dence by his remarks, is placed in a very disagree-
able predicament at the present moment. We
are almost certain that the present lesson will be
thrown away on us, as former lessons have been,
and that the moment the pressure is over, the
combination of interested individuals will again
prevail over the public as it has always hitherto
prevailed. The whole system of country bank-
ing in England is rotten to the core ; but it is so
connected with people of influence in the several
districts, that we fear Ministers will be again
forced by the Country Gentlemen and Bankers,
to abandon their designs for placing the business
on a secure footing.

[BRITISfi PRESS.)

Last night we-received the Eroile dated Satur-
day, with the other Paris Papers of Friday; they
supply us with no political intelligence of im-
portance. The French politicians, of all parties,
seed] to be agreed in considering the financial
•
operations of M. de Villele as the leading cause
of the' late panic in the Money Market both of
England and France. His friends applauded his
sagacity to the skies for having so dexterously
availed himself of the critical moment to carry
bis plans into effect, while his opponents,
in terms equally unmeasured, condemn him
for having recourse to so culpable an arti-
fice; to the prejudice of those public creditors
-who relied on the faith of Government. The
disputants on each side are alike in error. M.
de Villele, certainly, had nothing to do with the
produCtion or the ruinous alarm which originated
in this country, and affected the French funds as
being a smaller mass of the same kind as our
own, and therefore, in price, dependentupon them.
We even doubt much whether he foresaw the
crisis which Was approaching. Many better versed

" than he in the mysteries of stock-jobbing knew
nothing of the impending storm till it burst
over their heads. The prices on the Paris Stock
Exchange on Friday indicated what is called firm.
'less, in the jargon of Capel-court. The sub-
scription for General Foy's family amounted to.
upwards of 470,000 francs, almost 19,0001. ster-
ling. The Etoile says, that the Attorney-General
has finished his report concerning the transactions
of M. Ouvrard. Nothing is stated as to the in-
tended proceedings. The conference between the
Duke del Infautado and the Foreign Ministers
are reprsented to be frequent and earnest ; but no
one could guess what was the nature or would be
the result of Ahem. The only business in which
progress is made in Spain is that of the hangman.
No changes impede the regular execution of his
functions. The Madrid Gazette announces that
four soldiers belonging to the Constitutional army
were hanged at Grenada on the 25th of last
month, for having barbarously murdered some•
prisoners whom they had to guard. The Jour-
nal des Debuts states that the offence for which
really these men suffered, was their having ar-
rested some Royalists during the days of the
constitution, by order of their officers. A few
such judgments as this would place the soldiery
in a very perilous predicament : if they obey the
orders of their officers they are hanged for so
doing the next political change; if they refuse,they
are forthwith shot for mutiny. The Greeks, it
appears by the advices from Zante, made, on the
13th ult. a gallant sortie from Missolonghi, under
Karaiskaki, and after penetrating to the rear of
Redschid Paella's army, returned into the town
with 1800 prisoners. ThelCapitan Pacha was on
his way to Missolonglii when his exploit was per..
formed. Miaulis was following with the Greek

fleet.

[THE PUBLIC LEDGER.]
fr We learn from the Brussels Papers, that mer-
cantile couriers are continually passing through
that city, between Paris, Amsterdam, and Ilam-
burgh. They also contain a new and striking
instance of the firmness with which the Govern-
ment of the Netherlands perseveres in its im-
proved plan of religious instruction. The. stu-
dents of the college of Thielt—an establishment
formed according to the monastic rules of school
discipline—have received orders to quit, before
the end of this month, because the Professors
have refused to submit to the new regulations.—
The students, who amount to about 350, will, it
is said, for the most part abandon their studies,
and return to agricultural pursuits ; by which
change, neither the State nor themselves will lose
any thing ; for, instead of becoming, in all pro-
bability, bad Ecclesiastics, they are likely to be-
come good farmers. All the furniture of the
College is to be immediately sold by auction ; and
when so cautious a Govkrnment proceeds in this
decisive manner to root up old abuses, it is almost
ten to one that it acts in strict conformity with the
feelings, not only of the sound part, but of the
great body of the nation. Thirty years ago, a
similar course of proceeding would have lighted
the torch of a civil war ; whilst, at present, it
has merely stirred up the bile of the most bigotted
portion of the Catholic Clergy. Such is the mighty
resolution of mind which the political events of
the last quarter of a century have brought about
in that country! In the mean time, a pointed
contradiction is given to the report, that the
journey of the Count de Celles to Italy is con-
nected with the Ecclesiastical Affairs of the
Netherlands ; Ind instead of proceeding to Rome
on a mission to the Pope, he merely goes to
Naples on family affairs.