The Sun.
London, England, 1836-11-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We find in our report of the Money Market that
Government and Bank Stock experienced a farther
decline, and that Exchequer Bills were at a discount
of Ss. and 10s. The accounts from Ireland, as de-
tailed in the letter of our Dublin Correspondent, are
rather calculated to excite apprehension. It would
appear that Bank of England notes are not a legal
tender in that part of the empire ; and Irish banks in
the possession of the notes of our great money corpo-
ration, or other securities which watild be available
here, can make no use of them in cases of a run. To
meet the difficulty large shipments are in the course of
being made to Dublin. Two hundred and sixty thou-
sand sovereigns were shipped on Thursday and yester-
day for that city, the policies of insurance upon which
have been effected at Lloyd's at 5 per cent. We hope
the bank which has been more particularly run upon
will weather the storm, and that a bank in the north
of Ireland, respecting which injurious reports were in
circulation, will also be found equal to its engagements.
One of the great evils of the monetary system of this
country, which throws upon one bank the responsibi-
lity of attending to the exchanges, but admits other
banks to the privilege of issuing notes, is that excessive
expansion is followed by a ruinous contraction of issues.
" A few weeks since," observes the Courier," joint-stock
banks were rising up like mushrooms in all parts of the
country ; and all, or at least nine-tenths of them, were
hoisting every sail they could possibly carry—that is, were
daily augmenting their issues, and discounting and redis-
counting all sorts of bills, notwithstanding the state of the
exchanges—as evinced by the continued drain of gold upon
the Bank—showing conclusively that the currency was
already full to overflowing, and that a revulsion would ine-
vitably follow. Recently, however, or since the facilities
for obtaining accommodation in London have been mate-
rially lessened by the growing scarcity of money and the
rise in the rate of interest, the joint-stock banks are all
upon the opposite tack ! They are now taking in sail in
every way ; and provided they can get themselves off the
ice, they do not seem to care much who they leave behind
them. It rosy, however, be doubted whether this cry of
Sauzc qui pent be not raised a little too late. Many of
the banks in question have got masses of securities upon
their hands, which it will be no easy matter to transmute
into Bank of England notes or gold ; and even those who
hold Exchequer Bills cannot get rid of them—thanks to
the policy of Mr. Rice—except at a heavy loss."
Under these circumstances, the Bank of England
has undoubtedly a very delicate duty to discharge.
We agree with our Evening Contemporary " that in
endeavouring to avoide Charybdis, they may be forced
too near Scylla." The joint-stock banks may, in
their desperate plunges to extricate themselves, add
considerably to the evils of the crisis. There is yet
nothing in the internal situation of the country to
justify alarm. The worst feature in our situation, is
the deficiency of the crops of Scotland and Ireland ;
but for this evil commercial men have been for some
time prepared, and though a deficient crop necessarily
demands sacrifices, vet we trust they will not add ma-
terially to our embarrassment. Such being the case,
it is to be hoped that great care will be taken not to
precipitate the contraction in such a manner as to give a
shock to confidence. Of all conceivable evils, the great-
est toast be the paralysing the industrial system of the
country, by whatever tends to disturb the usual course
of business. The time will come when the faults
of the past, which have been numerous and im-
p ,nay be considered with a view to guard
them in future. In the meantime we must he-
s' ow our cares on the impending danger. Individuals
or companies aiming exclusively to secure themselves,
may find to their cost that in a generrl state of distrust
there can be no individual security. It behoves us all,
then, to be careful how we do or say anything calcu-
lated to produce disorder in the country, the conse-
quences of which no man can calculate. A bank, by
proceeding with too much harshness against the debtors
whom it lately encouraged to become its customers,
may create an alarm in the neighbourhood which may
spread rapidly into others. \\re trust, therefore, that
the satire qui pent system will not be carried so far
that even the fastest runner may be overtaken. The
tank of England having the greatest responsibility,
will no doubt see the danger of subjecting the indus-
try of the country to too violent a strain at a time like
the present, when the utmost caution and delicacy are
demanded.—Morning Chronicle.
In the authorized paragraph which appeared in the
Times of yesterday, announcing that a great Conser-
vative meeting and dinner will take place at Wakefield
early in December, the main points on which it is most
- essential that the notice of the country should now be
immoveably fixed were stated with equal brevity and
clearness. After remarking on the blessings which
the people of England have inherited from the wisdom
of ages past in those institutions which, through the
connexion of a Protestant church with a limited mo-
narchy, have secured to us the enjoyment of civil and
religious freedom, the " Wakefield Conservative Asso-
ciation" goes on to particularize the dangers which
England has at this moment to contend with. It has
" beheld with alarm the attacks with which, year after
year, those valuable institutions have been assailed,
and which threaten alike the existence of the House of
Lords, and a total dissolution of the alliance between
the established religion and the State." Yes, in
these two points lies the bulk of the peril, so far as
the causes of future mischief are concerned. The
magnitude and number of the evils resulting in-
evitably from such causes the Conservative Association
dares not meddle with, for they arc neither calculable
nor finite. The Conservatives of Wakefield, there-
fore, alive to the ruin which menaces the Church and
the House of Lords, the two venerable bulwarks of the
Throne itself, and our only barriers against a tyran-
nical democracy, resolve that they will use their best
endeavours at the next election to substitute for the
present Member—viz., Mr. Daniel Gaskell, who does
not represent the principles or sentiments of any but
the revolutionary mob of that intelligent and wealthy
town—a gentleman "of independent Conservative
principles," who, while he resists the wild innovations
of the restless in spirit, and desperate in fortune, " will
be ready to assist in carrying out such safe and sa-
lutary reforms as maybe found necessary for the correc-
tion of real abuses in the Constitution, and which may
be best calculated to restore it to its original vigour."
Well then, it appears from these declarations, which
present an accurate picture of the spirit which prevails
throughout the intelligent and independent mind of
Great Britain, that, Ist, the Conservatives of Wake-
field will not have a Revolutionist for their representa-
tive ; and 2dly, that they will have a sound and en-
lightened Reformer. To an enemy of reform they do
not dream of giving their support. What was Sir
Robert Peel's address to Tamworth ? Why, that he
would oppose revolution with all his might; and that
he would as strenuously advance the cause of substan-
tial rfform. Of course, the scullions and dirty-work
doers of the Whig faction mocked at the late Prime
Minister, as if he meant but " to keep the word of
promise to the car, and break it to the hope," being
that peculiar practice for which the juggling friends of
Whiggery have long since rendered themselves famous.
It was far otherwise with Sir Robert Peel. He went
straight onward with his plans of real reform. But the
terror of the Whigs lest he should make good his word
and prove his integrity to the nation, by completing
those corrections of abuse, and supplying those de-
fects both of administration and of institution, which
he had avowed his readiness to consider in the right
reforming spirit—that terror was the true and ill-dis-
guised motive of their eagerness to expel him from
'Office, before he should have established such a firm
footing in the esteem and confidence of the Reformers
of England, as would put it beyond the power of Ra-
dical violence and Whig hypocrisy to remove him.
It is worth while for the people of this country to
ask themselves what advantage would accrue to them
or to their children from the accomplishment of those
fundamental changes in the frame of the British Go-
vernment which are made the war-cry of this miserable
faction. The subversion of the House of Lords
what will that do for them ? It is written in the his-
tory of the great rebellion of Charles 1., when the
House of Lords was actually abolished, and the land
was fiercely and cruelly scourged by its thenceforth un-
bridled taskmaster, the liberal but inexorable " Long
Parliament," which haunted its lawl'ul Sovereign to
death, and gave Englishmen his canting murderer for
their tyrant. What, again, will the destruction of the
national Church, and the substitution of the voluntary
principle, do for us or for our posterity ? Consult
again the page of history, and the transactions of the