The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-18 00:00:00

VENT BILL.

On the motion of Sir EDWARD KNATCH-
BULL, the House resolved itself into Committee for
the further consideration of the Report of the Tithe
Commutation Act Amendment Bill. The Hon.
Baronet proposed some verbal amendments in the
Ist clause, which were agreed to.

The remaining clauses were agreed to without a di-
vision. The House resumed, and the Report was or-
dered to be received to-morrow.
Mr. WOODHOUSE -gave notice of his intention
to put a question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer
prior to the nomination of the BAnking Committee on
Thursday next. The Hon. Gentleman, however,
omitted to state the nature of the question he intended
to put to the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
The House rdjourned at a Quarter before Nine
o'Clock.

LATEST NE 11 S FROM AMERICA.

By the packet ship England, Captain Waite, which
arrived at Liverpool yk iterday evening, we have received
New York Papers to the 23d, and Canada Journals to the
11 th ult. inclusive Messages from President Van Buron
and Governor Porter, and a speech of Mr. P. Thomson to
the Legislature of Upper Canada, will be found below.
The two first are worthy of the attention of our commer-
cial readers. Mr Poulett Thomson, we are happy to
observe, omits no opportunity of pouring balm into the
wounds iuflicted by the civil war upon the Canadian popu-
lation of every race and party. His Excellency is in the
truest Christian sense cf the Gospel text, ipeacemaker--
the character of all others most wanted at present in
Canada. Having opposed him so repeatedly during his
mismanagement of the Board of Trade, we are happy to
do justice to his great ability in a much more exalted and
more arduous public employment.
We find in the American Journals two Resolutions,
which Mr. PICKENS has obtained leave to introduce to
Congress relative to our relations with China. These we
have thought proper to introduce in a leading article, to
which we refer our readers.

Business in New YGrk was in some sort stationary for
several days before the sailing of the England. The
latest accounts from London and Liverpool were oF the
3rd and 4th of January. We copy from the New York
Courier and Inquirer of the 22nd, the following money
and commercial intelligence :
" New York Money Market--Friday Night, Feb. 2l—There
was not much business done in Stocks to-day, and prices varied
but little. Twenty Shares Manhattan sold at a 2, and though
this is an advance on yesterday's prices, we cannot perceive that
the current of public opinion is at all turning in favour of the
position of this institution. 50 shares Sandusky Bank were
sold by auction at 50 per cent cash.
Nothing has been doing in foreign exchanges worthy of no-
tice. Inland exchanges are dull.
A report is afloat that the United States Bank is about to
make a new issue of pest-notes, and in consequence the rate of
discount on Philadelphia is somewhat higher. Very little !fi
doing in uncurrent money, and no alteration in rates. SpliF"'
comes in faster than it leaves us, and there is but little intiulri
for it. American gold and silver and sovereigns are at par;
Mexican dollars are at per cent., and Spanish at 3to 4 per
cent. premium. _

Flolir is dull and nothing doing.
The North River is open from Vorplanek's pint.
PHILADELPHIA. rEll. 20, P.M.

Stocks have not changed in any material degree to-day ; the
few shares of the United States Bank disposed of were taken
at SI, cash, and usual way. At the sales of the second board
tulineexcountenances of the
..en
eeo f members
friend, r
ieerndquite
in
theshe pe o
fbay
few
shales of Delaware and Hudson stock ; it was readily taken
at 75k.

Sales at the Second Board-50 shares United States Bank, at
81, cash; 205 do. 81, 12 do. ; Delaware and Hudson, at 754.3
After the board, 27 shares Bank of Kentucky, 834; 1 do.
Lehigh, at 534.
Prices, United States Bank, 80 to 81 ; Vicksburg, 12 tol3 .

MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT.
An important message was received from the President
of the United States before the adjournment, asking the
Senate to consider the peculiar condition of the Treasury
in the lee illation of the country. An issue or Treasury
notes is likely to he the consequence, as some of the mem-
bers have intimated.

" To the House of Representatives.,—
" I submit to Congress a communication from the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, repeating suggestions contained iu his
annual report, in regard to the necessity of an early provision
by law for the protection of the Treasury against the fluctua-
tions and contingencies to which its receipts are exposed, with
additional facts and reasons in favour of the propriety of the le-
gislation desired.

" This application assumes that although the means of the
Treasury for the whole year may be equal to the expenditures
of the year, the department may, notwithstanding, be ren-
dered unable to meet the claim upon it at the times when
thei may fall due. This apprehension arises partly from the
circumstance that the largest proportion of the charges upon
the Treasury, including the payment of pensions and the re-
demption of Treasury notes, falls due in the early part of this
year, viz., in the months of March and May. while the re-
sources on which it might otherwise rely to discharge them can'
not be made available till the last half of the year, and partly
from the fact that a portion of the means of the Treasury con-
sists of debts due from the banks, for some of which de'ay hal
already been asked, and which may not be punctually paid.
" Considering the injurious consequences to the character,
credit, and business of the country, which would result from a
failure by the Government;for even a short period, to meet the en-
gagements ; that the happening of such a contingency can only
be effectually guarded against by the exercise of legislative au-
thority; that the period when such a disability must arise, if at
all, and which, at the commencement of the Session, was com-
paratively remote, has now approached so near as a few days,
and that the provision asked for it is only intended to enable
the Executive to fulfil existing obligations, and chiefly by anti-
cipating funds not yet due, without making any additions to the
public burdens, I have deemed the subject of sufficient urgency
and importance again to ask for it your early attention.
" Feb. 17, 1840." "M. VAN BUR EN."

" Treasury Department, Feb. 15.
" Sir,—The duty entrusted to this department of supervising
the execution of such laws as are connected with the fiscal ope-
rations of the Government, induces me to make to you the
following communication :
" In the annual report on the finances, submitted to Congress
near the commencement of its present session, I had the honour
to state in substance, that if the new appropriation should not
exceed in amount the estimates then offered, and if the indebted
banks should meet their obligations with punctuality, the re-
ceipts for the whole year would probably equal the expenditure'
" After the lapse of nearly three months, those views remain
unchanged, except so far as subsequent events, heretofore com-
municated to you and to Congrese, may in some degree affect
them. But whether those events—viz., new constructions of
the tariff laws by the Courts, and increased embarrassments
of business in consequence of the suspension of specie ,
pay-
ments by the Banks continuing over a large part of the Unites'.
States, will reduce the revenue so much as to render
new means on those accounts indispensable, cannot yet be de-
cided with certainty. But it may be ascertained before Con-
gress adjourns,and can then, if necessary, be suitably provided for-
" It was also stated in the annual report, that the uncertaintl
of receiving prompt payment from the banks, and the eonre-
nienee of having a larger balance on hand in the Treasury than
was likely to exist, as well as the fact that the greatest deb"
due from the banks were not payable till the last half of the
year, while the largest expenditures were charged on the first
half of it, and particularly in the month of March, required
some adequate provision of means to meet those contingencies
and inequalities, and rendered • the earliest attention to nen'
legislation on this subject highly prudent, if not indispensable,
for the effectual security of the the public credit.'
" The prompt adoption of such precautionary measure vra'i
further urged on general grounds of expediency, considering the
f
existing embarrassments of the country, the suspension
specie payments by many of the banks, and the fluctuations
and uncertainties to which our receipts and exp The
experience were'
from various causes then enumerated, constantly exposed. .'"
experience and occurrences during nearly one-fourth of a year
which has since elapsed, have strengthened the impression then
ce
entertained on this point ; and in official communications
made of the appropriate committees of Congress and yoursen.f....
took the liberty to repeat my conviction of the continued
jue'd
gency and importance of the measure previously recommended
in relation to it.
" But no action having yet taken place concerning tbia s°b-
ject, though the period is near at hand when the due it,
nonce of the public credit seems most imperatively to require
1 shall proceed to state, with more minuteness than heretot° I_o
some of the circumstances which make such a provisiotthi of
essential at the present moment. Early as the sth and 7
notes
March, a very large amount of pensions and Treasury
become due, in addition to other and ordinary demands... 1 hey
will exceed, in the aggregate, two-and-one quarter mitr
n of
dollars, and for the payment of which funds are yet to
rne 00
(;
vanced by the Treasury to the amount of about sl,4•'"'
" On the 13th of March more Treasury notes fall
due, not yet redeemed, computed at
" Others fall due and are redeemable in the rest of ,D
March, April, and May, estimated at
...
------
2850,
" These constitute an aggregate of burdens but little slier'
of $3,000,000, beside other payments fur ordinary object:. be
_
•• From those particulars it will be seen that, in order
able to discharge all anticipated claims punctually, and rce.t____
on hand the appropriate balance of about two millions for::
mon purposes, a provision of means is expedient to the ectts T•
ar,nig

f .171 three-fourths millions of dollars, subject to be used in
sip part as may be found necessary to meet the public
ergo, cs, under all the uncertainties to which our financial
operations are liable.

" At this late day a power to issue Treasury notes instead of
those heretofore or hereafter 1-Meets-fed, or to snake a temporary
loan to that extent, subject to be redeemed after sixty or ninety
days',. notice, seems the best, and in fact the only effectual, me-
thod of providing such means, until the receipts in the last
half of the year, or subsequently, may enable the department to
extinguish any debt incurred.
" An increase of the tariff, or a recall of deposits from the
States, would be too slow in their operation for obtaining ade-
quate funds seasonably, as some of them will be needed within
two or three weeks.
" To confer an efficient power, to procure necessary means,
Would make no addition to the public burdens, but merely aid
the Executive branch of the Government to execute the laws
with fidelity, by discharging appropriations already imposed by
Congress; and to the prompt payment of which the public
faith has been solemnly pledged. The propriety of doing it,
therefore, seems too obvious to require further comment.
" Having submitted these views, in addition to those hereto-
fore presented an the same subject, this department, except
under new authority from Congress, can accomplish nothing
more than to continue to meet the public engagements to such
an extent as may be practicable, however imperfectly, under
the existing laws and the means already at its disposal.
" Respectfully,
.‘ LEVI WOODBURY,
" Secretary of the Treasury.
" To the President of the United States."