The Sun.
London, England, 1838-04-06 00:00:00

MAILS,

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HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE TO-MORROW.
Morning Li minutes after 0 Evening 4l minutes after 0

INTEw SYSTEM of SL A VERY and the
FRAUD upon the BRITISH NATION, EXPOSED
In the WEEKLY TRUE SUN of the Bth of April.

THE COURT GAZETTE and FASHION-
ABLE GUIDE, which will be accompanied by a separate
Stamped Sheet, gratis, of TO-MORROW,

WILL CONTAIN :-

. -
i, Thy Autobiography of Single-, 9. Fine Arts.
ton SoitLq. Esq., of One Tree 10. New Music.

in
Hill, the County of ----. 11. Residences of the Nobility—
,. Anecdotes from ; the Scrap- BowoOd, the Seat of the Mar-
Book of a Modern in:yeller. quis of Lansdowne.
The Dentist, &c. 12. Modern Belles.
3. Excursions from the West-13. Silent Lovers.
Harrow. 14. The Lady and the Car-
4. rt..lie Debutantes. penters.
5. The Parting. 13. The Coronation.
6. The Opera—The Prima Don- 16. Her Majesty's first Drawing
na—Lucia do Lammermoor. Room.
7. 'The Drama.—St. James's 17. Corrected Lists of the Pre-
Theatre. sentr-tions and Ladies' Dresses.
8. Concerts. 18. Fashimable News, &c. &c.
Offices, 162. Piccadilly, and 22, Catherine-street.

The puigication of Tuts SUN NEWSPAPER commenced this day
at 10 winutes past Three o' Clock.

_
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alux,

WITH WHICH
et THE TRUE SUN" IS NOW

INCORPORATED.

LONDON:
FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 6, 1838.

The zisual quarterly statement of the Revenue will be
found in atinther part of our Paper. It exhibits, as was
generally expeciet, a considerable falling off, both on the
year and on the quaff ter. The deficiency is principally in
the Customs and Excise. For our own part, we are free
to confess that we anticipated ft much greater diminution,
and we are therefore thankful. that matters are not
worse than they are, considering the difficulties of vari-
ous kinds with which the trade and comOerce of the
country have had to struggle during the 1ti,71, three
months. Not only have the effects of the late derangement
of the money market been severely:felt, but in addition to
this source of commercial and manufacturing, and there-
fore of financial. depression, the unprecedented rigour of
the past winter has thrown insurmountable impediments in
the way of the merchant, the trader, and the shipowner.
There is, however, good reason to hope that we have now
passed the lowest point, and that the tide which has of late
been running so strong against our financial prosperity has
begun to set in the opposite direction.

Perhaps our readers remember—we do—that it was
confidently reported in ,tie monied circles of the metro-
polis towards the month of November, 1836, that there
was not above two millions sterling' of bullion in the Bank
of England. About that period a great outcry was raised
against the CHANCELLOR of the EXCITIQUXR for not
raising the interest of Exchequer bills, and so allowing the
Bank to sell them and gather in bullion. The CHAN-
CELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, after a good deal of badger-
ing on the part of the Bank and the monied in-
terest, gavel way ; he raised the rate of interest ;
the Bank then sold its Exchequer Bills with a considerable
profit, and it filleJ its coffers with gold. The bullion,
which about November was said to be not above
2,000,0001., amounted, according to the returns published
in March, 1837, to 4,048,0004 In December of the same
year the returns state that the bullion was 8,172,0001., and
in March of the present year, 1838, the returns, as published
in the Gazette, give the amount of bullion 10,015,000/.
Here then in one year, from March to March, there was
withdrawn from the general circulation, by the Bank of
Eoghnd alone, no less than 5,967,000 t. If we go back to
November, 1836, we shall find that the sum gathered in
from the public by this one corporation, in sixteen months,
was eight millions sterling.
Now if the Bank had augmented its issue of paper as it
increased its stock of bullion, on the known and recognized
principles of breaking, fi:ling up by its " promises to pay"the
void which it created by its to.kinc, from others the actual means
cb
of payment, no injury would prhaps have been done to the
public ; but while it was gi.thsring in bullion it was not in.
creasing its paper circulation. In March, 1837, that
amounted to 18,178,0001. ; in December, to 17,998,0001.
and in March, 1838, to 18,600,0001. Thus, up to the
close of 1837, it decreased its circulation, as well as in-
creased its stock of bullion. This Spring ii has again ex-
panded its circulation a little, but not proportionately to the
amount of the bullion which it has gathered. The way in
which it obtained bullion was by disposing of securities.
In March, 1837, they amonnted to 30,579,000/., in De-
cember to 420,727,0001., and in March, 1838, to
22,792,000/. It was therefore by selling its securities,
namely, Exchequer Bills, on which the public had raised the
rate of interest, and which form no part of the general circu-
lation, that the Bank of England took away from
commerce in sixteen months eight millions of the cir-
culating medium. Either the Bank of England, the
great conservator of our circulation, had been most
careless, and even profligate in its conduct, when
it had only 2,000,0001. bullion, with upwards of
18,009,000 notes in circulation ; or it is very much over-
careful and stingy now, when it has only the same amount
of note; ia circulation with upwards of 10,000,0001.
of gold in its coffers. To appreciate, however,
the full effect on the commerce of the country of
this variation in the amount of gold in the coffers of the
Bank, we must remember that its notes are a legal tender
in all other places than at its own counter ; and that the
most approved principle of banking allows of the issue of
21. promises to pay for every 11. of bullion which the banker
keeps in his till. Thus, when the Bank of England gathered
in eight millions of bullion in sixteen months, without issuing
any more promises to pay, so that country bankers having its
notes and regarding them as gold, might have augmented
their issues in proportion, it is plain that it must in that 16
months have eansed a diminution in the sound and health)
circulation of commerce to the extent of 24,000,000/.
But while it was thus limiting a currency composed of
paper founded en gold, every body is aware i;:at a vast deal
of spurious paper was destroyed. Commerce was crippled
like poor Grimaldi; its sinews were drawn up by cramps
hard and painful knots, so that it was wholly lamed like
him by its own over-exertions, and at that precise time the
Bank of England chose to withdraw from it much healthy
sustenance, and cast it helpless on its back. We shall not
indulge in reflections. We only state facts ; and we leave
commercial men to appreciate the mischief which must have
been done to trade by a sound and healthy circulation
having been limited, contemporaneously with the destruc-
tion of much bad paper, to the extent of twenty-four
millions. One reflection, indeed, we must make. It
is plain that the Bank was enabled to cramp the cir-
culation without much loss to itself, by the increased
rate of interest on the Exchequer Bills, which it sold
to get in bullion ; and thus the public was actually
taxed, to enable the Bank to exert its mischievous action
on the commerce of the country and of the world. After
these few remarks, we believe our readers will easily dis-
cover one of the real causes of our languishing trade, and
our fallin revenue.

An animated debate took place in the House of Corn.
mons last night, from which the publ:c and reporters were
excluded, previously to forming the Committee to decide
the disputed return for the county of Wicklow. The sit-
ting Members are both petitioned against on be-
half of the defeated Candidate, the petition prays that the
return shall be declared null and'voi I, and that he shall be
declared duly elected. The point on which the debate
aro,,, was whether e telt of the two Members should be
allowed :o strike one name from the 33 names brought
forth by the Ballot, to form the full Committee, till
the number be reduced to 11, for one name which
the petitioner struck off, or whether both should strike
only one for his one. Tile Act 4 GEo. IV. C, 22, which
regulates these matters, declares, that when there are more
than two parties before the House, having different inter-
ests, that each of these shall successively strike one from
the long list, till it be reduced to eleven. Now as Mr.
AcToN petitioned against both Members who stood on the
liberal interest, and were supported by pretty much the
same voters ; it was alleged by the advocates of the pe-
titioner, and of course by all the Tories, that the two sitting