The Sun.
London, England, 1831-10-03 00:00:00

is a copy :

" DEBTS AND CREDITS OF THE BANK.
1)r. the Bank. March 27, 1819, Cr.
To Bank n0te50ut....£24,710,770 By advance on Go-
To other debts, viz., vernment securi.
Drawing accounts, ties, viz.:—
audit roll, Excise- On Exchequer-bills,
quer-bills deposit- on malt, &c., 1819;
ed, and various Bank loan, 18CS
other debts 9,237,7911 supply, 1816, at 4
33,948,560 per cent.; interest
due, and loans to
Government on un-
claimed dividends £9,078,330
By all other credits,
viz.:—
Cash and bullion;
Exchequer-bills
purchased, and in-
terest, bills and
notes discounted ;
Treasury bills for
the service of Ire-
land, money lent,
and various other
30,101,420

Balance of
surplus in
favour of
the Bank
of Eng-
land, ex-
clusive of
the debt
from Go-
vernment
at 3 per
And the
•
advance
to Go-
vernment 5,2:11,190
per 56
Geo. 111.,
c. 96, at 3
per cent. 3,000,000

J;39,179,750

£39,179,750

By the permanent
debt due from Go_
'cerement for the
capital of the Bank,
at 31. per centum
per annum £11,696,800
By the advance to
Government per
Act 545 Geo. 111., c.
96, at 3/. per centimi
per annum :1,030,000
DAWES, Accountant-General.
.819."

(Signedl " WILLIAM
Bank of Lngland, March 31, 1

From this statement, it therefore appears, that
independent of the original capital of the Bank lent
to Government at 3 per cent., the Bank also pos-
sessed a❑ active disposable capital of 5,231,190/. ;
but then it was understood (and we believe there is
little doubt of the fact), that in the large lumping
sum of 30,101,420/. for which the Bank takes credi',
there is included 1,000,000/. for the value of the
premises in Threadneedle-street, and this being de-
ducted from the before mentioned 5,231,1904, would
leave a sum of 4,231,190/. applicable to all the pur-
poses of the establishment.
However necessary it may be that an establish-
ment which has the entire direction and controul of
the currency of the country, should publish regularly
and periodically the state of its affairs, yet, strange
to say, this has never been required either by Par-
liament or the Bank proprietors; and since the year
1819, we know nothing officially of the affairs of
the Bank. This defect we will now endeavour to
supply. We have very diligently considered the
subject; we have been assisted in our researches by
men of great and extensive information ; and having
carefully put things together, the following, we be-
lieve, will be found to be a pretty accurate account
of the present position of the Batik of England :
Dr. Dr.
Debts,—viz., I Credits,—viz.,
Bank-notes in circu- Exchequer-bills £4,100,000
lation £18,000,000 Deficiency bills 1,500,000
Private balances 5,000,000 City bonds
Due to public offices 1,200,00) Mortgages
Public companies 31'0,000
Dead weight annuity 11,100,000
Bills of exchange, ad-
vances on Exche-
quer-bills, &c 1,700,000
Cash and bullion '3,000,000

£9.4,`200,000
N. 13.—This account, it will
be seen, leaves out the value of
the Bank premises, and which
in the former account delivered
to Parliament was put down at
1,000,000/.

.£-.23,900,000
Balance 300,000

X 24,200,600

From this statement it therefore appears, that so
excellently have the affairs of the Bank of England
been conducted, that in the period from 1819 to the
present day, the Directors have worked a diminution
in the active disposable capital of the establishment
of 4,531,1901.: for in 1819 this capital stood at
4,231,1901., and now it is 300,0001. worse than
nothing ; and when a few circumstances which we
shall proceed to relate are taken into conside►ation,
there is in all this nothing very marvellous.
The Act for the resumption of cash payments
was passed in 1819, and from that moment the pro-
fits of the Bank began to decline very material') ;
and so that, reckoning from that period till 1823, it
is quite impossible that the net profits of the Bank
could have exceeded 900,0001. per annum; and yet
during all this time, and up to October, 1823, the
Bank paid a dividend of 10 per cent. per annum.
Now the dividends on Bank stock are made on a
capital of 14,553,000/., and this during a period of
four years and a half will make a sum of 6,548,8501.
But the profits made during this periodamounted at
the rate of 900,0001. per annum, to only 4,050,000/.;
and therefore dividends to the extent of 2,498,850/.

were made out of capital, and this was so much in
reduction of the balance which existed in 1819.
In the year 1823 the Bank reduced its dividends

to 8 per cent.; and in that year it also purchased of
the Government the annuity of 585,740/. for the
sum of 13,089,419/., payable by several instalments,
the last falling due in July, 1828. Now were all
other things to remain the same, this was a bargain
whereby the Bank would be able to improve its in-
come; but then all other things would not remain
the same, for the Bank having at the period of this
purchase but very little disposable capital, could
only pay for the annuity by the creation of fictitious
money,—that is, by an immense issue of Bank '
notes : but the natural tendency of so large an issue
of Bank notes would be, to reduce the rate of inte-
rest; and accordingly this happened, and of this the
Government availed itself to reduce the interest on
Exchequer-bills. And again, by overstocking the
market with money, but very few bills of exchange
were presented to the Bank for discount; and to
that what the Bank gained by Elie annuity was in
good measure lost again by the reduction of the in-
terest on Exchequer-bills, and by the great d'minu-
tion in the amount of bills discounted. And there
fore, all these things taken into consideration, it may
very fairly be presumed that the profits of the Bank
since 1823 (if we even leave some large losses of
which we shall speak presently entirely out of the
question) havb not been adequate to the payment of
the reduced dividend of 8 per cent., and that a por_
tion of this dividend has regularly been paid out of
capital.
Having gone through the period from 1819 to the
present time in a general way, we now come to two
marked distinct circumstances by which the Bank
suffered severely, viz. the forgeries of Fauntleroy,
and the panic of 1825-26 ; by some the loss of the
Bunk on these two accounts is computed at
1,500,000/., but no one at all versed in these mat-
ters has ever estimated it at less than 1,000,000/.
And then take this remark, that the panic of 1825-26
was entirely produced by the operations between
the Bank and the Government. In 1823, the Bank
bought the annuity of 585,740/. In 1824, the
Government reduced the 4 per Cents., and to pay off
the dissentients it borrowed .6,000,0001, of the

Among the recent arrivals at Brighton is
HARRIETTE WILSON, who now occupies apartments in
Waterloo-place.--Brighton Gazette.