The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-24 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—In your report of what fell from me in the House of
Lords on Thursday evening, you have made a mistake as to
the letter of which I read an extract. It is true that the
Baptists of Jamaica have released all their apprentices—at
least so I have been informed ; but I did not say that the
writer of the letter I quoted was of that communion. He is
not so, but he is, I think, certainly the most wealthy resident
proprietor in Jamaica, and second to no person I ever had the
pleasure of being acquainted with, in talent, liberal feeling,
and general acquirements.
May I hope that you will be kind enough to insert this notice
in your publication of this evening.
I remain, Sir, your obedient servant, _

SLIGO.

Mansfield-street, March 24.

MONEY and COMMERCIAL MARKET.

(From the Morning Papers of this day, Saturday.)
TlMES.—After an interval of several days, during which
nothing could be said with the least certainty to account for
the rise in Dutch stock, the matter has assumed a definite
shape, which amounts to this—that the King of Holland is
understood to have come to the resolution of signing the 24
articles relative to Belgium, which have hitherto kept the two
countries from the final adjustment of their differences, and left
Holland burdened with the whole of the public debt contracted
previous to the separation. Now that the truth is known,
there are very few persons here, and the state of opinion is
said to be the same in the commercial towns of Holland, who
do not think the cause assigned a very inadequate one for
the great rise in value which the enormous Dutch debt has
experienced within a very short space of time, and that too
at a period when the credit of the Government was begin-
ning to be shaken by the recent large additions made during
peaco to that debt. In fact, many persons doubt the sin-
cerity of the King of Holland in making the declaration as-
cribed to him ; some even doubt the truth of the statement
to that effect ; and others even ascribe to him the sinister
intention of allowing these rumours to get into circu-
lation of completing by such means in a more successful man-
ner his financial measures for the Session. But, were all
doubts on his side removed, there are others started with re-
spect to the assent of Belgium to such a mode of settling the
differences between the two countries; so that the best state
of things which can follow is, the renewal of negotiations the
issue of which must be uncertain for many months, and
which may ultimately come to nothing. if nothing else
can raise a new dispute, there is the pregnant question of the
debt, and from what period Belgium shall assume that por-
tion of it which it was originally intended by the treaty should
be done.
It is worthy, perhaps, of remark in this matter, that so
great was the ignorance which prevailed even in the best com-
mercial circles in Holland and Belgium, as well as in London,
the cause of the advance, that merchants were mutually seek-
ing information of their correspondents ; that the letters from
both sides were occupied with inquiries why the Dutch funds
had risen. 'Who the chief operators were, for whom the pur-
chases were made, by which the advance was produced, re-
mains to be ascertained, but there is a strong impression
abroad that the whole is the result of some deep-laid and art-
ful manoeuvre by which the public of both countries are to
be made to suffer. Some serious reaction in prices seems
as the natural result of all this to be very generally looked for.

MORNING Posr.—A morning paper, which has been la-
bouring for some days past to get up a prejudice against the
Bank Directors for sending a limited amount of specie to the
United States—a measure which has received the unqualified
approval of the mercantile interests both here and at Liverpool
—has at length abandoned its positions relative to this matter,
as no longer tenable. A portion of the evidence given before
the Bank Committee of the House of Commons is introduced
into its columns, the tendency of which is to show not only
that the present proceeding of the Directors is by no means
without a precedent, but that the transmission of gold to
foreign countries has, under particular circumstances, been at-
tended with results highly beneficial to this : and that similar
shipments on the part of private individuals have not been
found to be equally availing for the object contemplated—
namely, the rectifying of the course of exchange. The spe-
culations of the journal alluded to are thus admitted, if we
are correct in the interpretation we put upon the reference
made by it to this evidence, to have been unfounded. The
truth has, by some meaas or other, been at length forced
upon the conviction of the writer. This is sufficiently proved
by what follows the extract from the evidence published. It
is urged against the Bank that the Directors are in the
present instance shipping gold to the United States, with a
view rather to the profit that may accrue to them from such
an operation than as a means of restoring the equilibrium of
the exchanges, and of serving the manufacturers in the north
of England and the merchants of both communities, for such
it undoubtedly will be. That the Bank Directors are coun-
tenanced by the merchants in the course they are pursuing is
evident, from the circumstance of their being associated in
it
with two leading firms in the trade ; but then the discovery is
ma-le that one of the partners of the London establishment is
also a member of the Bank Direction. This fact is brought
into view, we suppose, to awaken, if possible, a fresh suspicion
of the purity of the Bank ; but how happens it that if the
transaction complained of be destitute of that mercantile cha-
racter which has been imputed it should be promoted by the
parties referred to ? Altogether a more wretched attempt to
put a bad construction on a good motive than is to be found in
the present case we never witnessed.

MORNING CHRONICLE.—There is beginning to be a good
deal of conversation in the higher monetary circles of the City
about an important letter which has been received at the Bank
of England from Mr. Biddle, and which is said to contain a
decided declaration of war between the Bank of England and
the Bank of the United States. It seems that this letter has
been provoked by the treatment which Mr. Jaudon has re-
ceived from the Bank Directors since his arrival in London, and
particularly in the refusal to allow him to open an account at
that institution, which has been considered as an affront by the
Bank of the United States. This would appear to have been
totally unexpected by Mr Biddle, who supposed that his esta-
blishment was upon the best of terms with the directors of the
Bank of England, who had just previodsly sent out offers of
credit to the Bank of the United States, but which were
very courteously refused. Mr. Biddle is now said to have
foreseen the danger of taking any credit from the Bank
of England; the irregularity of the management of
which had been exhibited in the destruction of the large
American houses in London and Liverpool, and which
caused him to abstain from all obligations to an institu-
tion which would not hesitate to withdraw their advances
at the first moment of panic or alarm. The very circumstance
of the Bank Directors having sent the letter by the Post-
office, consequently by way of Halifax, and causing it neces-
sarily to be nearly a month behind the time at which it would
have been received by the regular packets from Liverpool or
London to New York, was itself an evidence of the superan-
nuated manner in which such important negociations continued
to be conducted by the Bank. Under these circumstances it
as thought more advantageous to establish a direct agency
in England, and Mr. Jaudon, in corning here, requested, as
we are informed, neither credit nor favour of any description
from the Bank of England, but solely to be allowed to deposit
his money and draw upon it in the ordinary way; and which
the Directors in strictness had not the right to refuse. In
the meantime, Mr. Cowell, the agent of the Bank of England,
arrived in the United States, and was received by Mr. Biddle
in the most hospitable manlier, tieing furnished vrith apartments
in the Bank, and his mission facilitated in every possible manner
by Mr. Biddle, and to an extent which is allowed to have largely
contributed to the successful collection of the money of which
Mr. Cowell went in search. In the midst of all this came out
the advices that Mr. Jaudon had been so degradingly treated
by the Bank Directors ; and the letter which has now been
received is said to be one in which Mr. Biddle expresses
great indignation against the Board, requesting, at the same
time, that the remaining business of the winding-up of the
affairs of the suspended houses, in conjunction with Mr.
Cowell, might be instantly removed elsewhere. The most
important point in connection with this business at this moment
is the apprehension that this schism will counteract, in some
measure, the present operation of the Bank of England in
sending out gold. As far as the Bank Proprietors are con-
cerned there ought to be no consideration, but the public will
be the chief sufferers. It was a matter of no small surprise
to every one that in making so large a shipment of specie the
Bank should have consigned it to a private firm, but this is
now explained. The Bank of the United States will, no
doubt, commence purchasing bills, as soon as the intentions
of the Bank of England are known, which will neces-
sarily occasion a rise in the rate of exchange, while
the moral effect of this importation of bullion into New
York will lessen the premium on gold, thereby rendering
the advantages expected by the Bank of England from
this transaction extremely problematical. By the last advice?,
the rate of exchange on London was 107, and the premium
on gold 3. To the rate must of course be added commission,
freight, and insurance, 2 per cent., making the exchange 109
to the Bank, and deducting from this 3 per cent., the premium
on the gold, there remains only 3i per cent., the difference
between the reduced sum and the par of exchange, 109 i, fur
interest and profit to the proprietors of Bank Stock. This
would be the result were matters to remain stationary ; but,
as we have already stated, the natural expectation is that there
will be an advance in the exchange, and a depression in the
premium, and then what will be the position of tho Bank of
England? Had the United States Bank been employed on
th:s occasion there would not, of course, have been so much
risk of such an event, as this powerful institution would have
been interested in making the operation work well; whereas,
by the, e,
may existing
b e
fairlyarrangement,
expected.
its opposition,ln
nevery
as
respect a
i questiont
has
very imprudent to provoke the malice of so far-sight a!na
and so bold an operator as the President of the Bank of
the United States ; the more so as, in this instance, he
will be supported by the whole banking interestsi of tie
be
e of
been
profit
United States, where the Bank of England s already
very unpopular, and will be rendered doubly so by the treat-
ment of Mr. Jaudon, especially as it appears to be taken as an
insult to their national pride. The very act of refusing the
account of Mr. Jaudon was wrong, as turning away from the
Bank of England the very largest, and therefore the most
profitable account which could be brought to any bankers who
desire to do their duty to the proprietors of the stock of the
Institution; and in numerous ways the Directors have injured
the property of the shareholders, by this most imprudent and
altogether needless provocation which has been offered to the
Bank of the United States. That the Bank of England
should regard the permanent establishment of Mr. Jaudon in
London with considerable jealousy and displeasure wt:3
can
perfectly well understand ; but this does not warrant their dis-
courteous conduct towards him ; and it must be admitted on
all hands, that the mission of Mr. Jaudon has been of the ut-
most importance to the commerce of both countries in many
respects. The crop of cotton, for instance, could not have
teen brought forward otherwise, under the position in
which
credit and confidence were placed both in the United States
and in England. Mr. Cowell has written home, we under-
stand, for instructions how to proceed, but we have not heard
What is the nature of the reply of the Directors.

MORNING HERALD. —There has been a greater disposition
manifested to invest capital in commercial enterprise during
this week, and it has bad the effact of improving the rate of
interest on money for commercial purposes to a slight degree ;
wliilst on the other hand it has tended to create considerable
heaviness, not only in the Consul Market to-day, but also in
some of the heaviest British securities. The Foreign
Market has also felt the influence of this new turn in the tide
of capital, and it has checked much of the late speculation in
the Share Market.
The transactions in the Foreign Exchanges have been but
limited, and the rates have nut advanced upon those quoted on

the last post day. On Paris they rule at 25f. 85c to 25f. 87,12-c. ;
on Amsterdam, at 12 41- al2 4 ; on Rotterdam, at 12 4.1 a
12 5 ; and on Hamburg, at 13 13 a 13 131.
The Railway Share Market has been very flat, and all de-
sir for present speculation in Railway Shares has vanished.
Great Western has receded to 261 pm. ; Brighton are 21 Fm. ;
Black wall, 2f pm. ; Southampton are 7; dig. ; the New
Shares are 19 pm.
Amongst the Miscellaneous Shares the great attraction con-
tinues to he those of the Asphalte Company, which have been
done at 17 pm., but the closing quotation was 14 pm. Austra-
latia Bank Shares are 26 pm., and National Provincial Bank
of England, If discount.
Adverting to our short notice yesterday of the great meeting
wnich had been held in Calcutta upon the important subject of
an efficient communication by steam between Great Britain
and our Indian territories, we find that many of the private
letters received yesterday dwell, in energetic terms, upon the
blessings which a perfect steam navigation would confer upon
our Indian fellow-subjects, by bringing, as it were, metapho-
rically speaking, the two countries much neare: to each other.
It appears that the desire of the natives to obtain a rapid per-
sonal communication with this country is increasing daily; and
as nothing is so calculated to cement a perfect union of feeling
between the more enlightened classes of the natives of our
oriental empire and the British residents, these communica-
tions deprecate in strong terms, the apathy with which the
kings of Leadenhall-street, and the Board of Control, have
attended to so important a question.
The following extract from the address of Baboo Dwarka-
nath Tangore, at the meeting to which we have referred, will
be interesting, inasmuch as it may be taken as, representa-
tive of the general feelings of the native subjects, on the ques-
tion of a more rapid communication with this country :
" We may get our letters sometimes a month, or sometimes
two months earlier than without steam, but as far as personal
communication with Europe, we are little aided. If we would
go to England, we must contemplate a voyage of six months,
during which nothing shall meet our eyes but an expanse of
waters. If the parties could get their children placed at
English seminaries, within a reasonable distance of time in
communicating with them, and within a moderate length of
passage, they would have been sent to Great Britain. The
native population do wish for knowledge, but how are they to
get it if they are shut out from access to its sources? They
must be enabled to go to the spot whence it emanates ?"
It is to be hoped that this powerful demonstration on the
part of the leading British residents of Calcutta, as well as on
the part of the principal native merchants, will have its influ-
ence upon the Court of East India Directors and the Board
of Control. These are not times when foolish and impolitic
prejudices, with a view of maintaining false principles of as-
cendency, are to be fostered ; the interests of British India
must not be lost sight of, by those who draw such princely
revenues from her fertile soil.