The Sun.
London, England, 1825-12-30 00:00:00

111 E LONDON JOURNALS.

DAILY
Extracts from Me Morning Papers, Dec. 30, 1,845.

[NEW TIMES.]

As confidence in our Banks and Bankers is re-
viving,efforts will be made to prevent confidence
among our merchants and manufacturers. "At
the existing rate of wages," said a Journal yes-
terday, 44 there can be no adequate foreign vent
for our commodities ; and from the spirit of over
trading upon small or fictitious capital manifest:
lug itself in the efforts of desperate men to carry
en a losing traffic, the failure to sell what has
been bought upon trust recoils upon those who
have granted credit indiscreetly." The object
of this language cannot be mistaken : it is to
dissuade men of .all ranks in the commercial

world from giving that fair and liberal credit
which has always hitherto characterised British
commerce, it is to blast confidence, and to spread
on all sides a cold, narrow-minded selfishness,
which would eventually defeat its own object, by
creating difficulties, embarrassments, and losses,
throughout the whole trading community. But
we ask, where is the reason for all this? Nation-
ally speaking, we are abundantly rich and wealthy
—our finances are thriving, our industry prospers,
our towns are enlarged, our roads, canals, and rail-
roads are daily improving in construction or ex-
tending in length. Individual fortunes may in
some few instances have been injured by over-1
trading and over-speculating ; but, generally
speaking, there have been few respectable and
well-established houses that have deviated in
any great degree from their usual course of
trade, or violated the maxims of an enlightened
prudence. Why, then, should confidence be
withdrawn from such persons ? Why should the
man who, six months age, could buy 20 hogs-
heads of sugar, or 20 pipes of wine, on credit, be
forced to-day to pay ready money for all his pur-
chases ? • If he be a known gambler in the Alley,
or large speculator in the Share Market—if he be
a ,great holder of Spanish Bonds or of Greek
Scrip, it may be reasonable that his credit should
proportionably suffer in the estimation of steady
solid traders. But such characters are rare in the
trading community—they are the exceptions and
not the rule: we speak not of them—we speak
of the great majority of British merchants and
traders. It would betray a gross ignorance of
trade to argue that it would be universally car-
ried on without credit, and that all transactions
should be for ready money. As well might it be
said that we ought to revert to the ancient and
barbarous mode of barter. In truth, the richest
men in the present day, if they are actuated by
a spirit of enterprise, give and take credit on
the most liberal scale. The panic in the monied
world has probably re-acted to a certain degree
on trade, and checked for a moment that libe-
rality of mutual accommodation which had pre-
viously existed between merchant and merchant,
merchant and manufacturer, or manufacturer and
trader ; but as the cause ceases, the effect
must also cease ; and whatever may be said by
insidious writers, we feel persuaded that a gene-
rous confidence will continue to characterise the
dealings of our countrymen. Lamentable indeed
would be the consequences if those who spread
a panic through the monied world could do the
same through the world of commerce ! If the
great merchant would not trust the wholesale
dealer, the latter could not trust the retail
dealer, nor he the consumer. Obstacles would
arise at every step, and the public inconvenience
and injury would be so inuett greater than they
were daring the late panic, tic the sphere of alarm
would be wider ; while a diMinished consump-
tion would produce a falling off in the revenue,
and necessitate an increase of taxation. Most
earnestly, therefore, do we exhort individuals of
veight and influence in the commercial part of
the community to let it be seen that their confi-
dence in the general stability of those with
whom they deal is undiminished. Let them give
the•same credits as formerly ; let them act with
the same liberality : their example will be sure
to he followed ; and the attempts of the malevo-
lent to propagate new alarms will be rendered
impotent and ineffectual.