The Sun.
London, England, 1825-12-20 00:00:00

patient ; and the present scarcity of money may
be a malady of that description; at least our rea-
sonings of Monday morning on the probability of
a suspension of cash payments were good for that
day, no suspenSion having yet taken place ; and
they may be goOd for to-day, if no new demand
for coin spring up. The Bank will, no doubt,
do every thing, in its power (acting on the
emergency, we fear, and not from fore.
thought)—but still it will do every thing in 'its
power, under such circumstances, to avoid so fear-
ful a measure as the suspension of cash payments
—a measure of which human wisdom could not
see the result, or calculate the consequences.
The Bank would not now And another House of
Commons-, and more particularly as the Parliament
is drawing to a close, capable of declaring that a
one-pound note is equal in valne to a sovereign,
though the latter should vanish from public view,
and could note be purchased clandestinely for
less than the pound-note and five shillings.
The price of uncoined gold has risen latterly, but
is still not equal to the coined value. On Satur-
day it was at Si. 17s. 64d. per oz., the Mint price
being Si. 17s. 10{d. The sovereign, therefore,
would still buy up a trifle more than its va-
lue in bullion. As we stated in our Journal
of yesterday; from the Parliamentary Return,
the price of gold, antecedently to the stop-
page in 1797, was from 41. 2s. to 41. 4s.
per ounce ; the uncoined'material, therefore,
would at that.timo bay up the guineas, which be-
came more valuable ,by being melted. The Ex-
Thange on Paris is, we believe, still about 50
centimes, or fiveapence in the pound in our
favour.

[MORNING POST.)
The alarm respecting the solidity of Bankers
in the Metropolis having subsided, efforts were
made yesterday to excite other fears, and the
Public were told with much apparent earnest
ness, that it wag to be hoped that the Bank of
England would not resort to the " portentous"
measure of suspending cash payments, and that
his Majesty had not yet been called upon to
break the sabbath as in 1797, to authorise a pa-
per currency instead of cash. This attempt, how-
ever, to accredit a falsehood by pretending disbe-
lief, completely failed. It was known that far
from 'any idea being entertained of driving gold
out of circulation, orders had been sent to the
Mint, and means had been adopted by tliat esta-
blishment to coin sovereigns with tenfold, ac-
tivity, and that the amount coined .every week
for some time would fall little short of a .rpil-
lion. The " weak. invention of the enemy"
recoiled upon its authors, and the restoration
of public confidence continued to make rapid
progress towards completion. In the coun-
try, although apprehension has' Lieen created
by the failure of some Banks and the run
upon others, yet general confidence is also reviv-
ing. The inhabitants of most of the con-
siderable towns have taken prompt and judi-
cious measures to support
.public cre.dit, and
in many places the Nooility and the 1;111(14,
Gentry stand foremost in the declarations;
issued to secure that end. Into Scotland no
portion of the alarm penetrated, owing in
part, perhaps, to the character of the people,
but still more to the excellent constitution of the
Banks in that part of the island. The great ma•
nufacturing and trading district of Lancashire,
1
where Bank of England notes and specie princi•
pally circulate, has been entirely exempt from
panic.

F.W T 131 Es
The Old Times is perfectly desperate, and in
its desperation, it becomes utterly shameless. After every other
attempt to spread alarm, it raises the utterly unfounded cry of
" Bank Restriction"! ! Thus it begins its misleading article
of yesterday We really do not know under what state or
condition of public credit we this day address the country
Dark rumour and boding suspicions have certainly been in cir-
culation that the Bank of Enkland• would suspend its Cash.
Payments, under a Council Order, of course ; and if such
should prove to be the case, the portentous measure may per-
haps be announced or made known in the city, about the time
that the reader takes into his hand to peruse these our state-
ments on the subject." These ten or twelve lines are 'quite
enough to, startle and alarm the readers, if any such there
be, who can believe a syllable that they read in the Times
and when their fears are once wrought upon, the Journalist
kndws well that all his modifying and qualifying phrases will
not take out the sting. There still remains the phantom which
has been conjured up-:-Bank Restriction.—To put an end to
these shameless experiments on public credulity, we declare
once for.all that they:are utterly without foundation. We say
and we-say it on undeniable authority, that his Majesty's Go.
vernment has never in the most distant manner contemplated
any such -thing as a restraint on cash payments. No Order
in Council on the subject has either been propoied'or medi-
tated. Nothing but extreme necessity could. justify such an
Order; of that necessity there is not the most distant sha-
dow of .probability. The state of peace, the financial prospe-
rity, the activity of trade, the solid and substantial wealth of
the country, the low market price of gold--all these are facts
which show that the idea of a Bank Restriction at present is an
absolute chimera, or a wicked' wilful invention to deceive and
terrify the.public.- The Bank Restriction Act first took place in
1797, and we are reminded of that era, as if there were any point
of resemblance between it and the'present time. " The early part
of the year' 1797," says the biographer of Mr. Pitt, " was on
many accounts the most gloomy period of Mr. Pitt's po-
litical life. The failure of the negociation for peace, cOm-
bined with other causes, some of the temporary, others of a •
permanent nature, had materially affected the credit of the
country. The Funds had sunk full 3 per Cent. beneath their
lowest point of depression towards the close of the American
war." (In 1781 they,were 54i ; in February, 1797, they were
0! • and in April following 48k.) Add to this, that there was
an alarm of French invasion. There was a spirit of disaffection
among.our seamen—the seeds of rebellion had been sown in
Ireland-,--the two preceding harvests had been scanty—we had
remitted a loan to,the, Emperor of AUSttia, and subsidies to
our other. Continental Allies----:and finally the market price of
gold was 41. is. an ounce, being six shillings and three half-
-
pence above the Mint price'. ,'The Times admits that there is
not one point of similarity Woman the era.of 1797 and the pre-
sent time. Then why mentikl797 ? Solely to alarm, and to
keep alive that panic, the consequences of which are so fatal
to public prosperity, to private comfort, and to general security.

[MORNING liERALD.]
Letters from the country, received yesterday
morning, were much less disastrous than were expected. The
failure of one or two banks in Dorsetshire, connected with the
house of 'Williams, are all that are spoken of. All the letters
front Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Liverpool, are
written in a very confident tone. It was not to be expected that
in Lancashire there would be any material distress, they have
no paper currency, and they now feel the advantage of being
'without it ; the runs upon all the banks in the country have
been in every instance with small notes.; •the lower orders take
the greatest alarm, and their exchanging single notes created
more confusion and mischief in the different towns than all, the
heavy demands of their more wealthy neighbours. It was a dull
market at the Corn Exchange; and very little business was
done. The buyers think prices will be lower, and the farmers
are staunch in their demands. The markets of Saturday,. in
Norfolk and Suffolk, were generally steady at the previous
week's prices.—It is now said that the house of Wentworth
will be obliged to go into the Gazette, that the son will not cut
off the entail of the landed property. The creditors can only
have the life interest of the. present Mr. Wentworth in this
estate. In spite of the notice from the Exchequer Bill Office,
that the interest would be risen to two pence a day, Exchequer
Bills left off at 85 to 90 discount. The death of the Emperor