The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-05 00:00:00

were arranged to be exchanged for post notes, or others;ise re-
tire,l, are said to have been surreptitiously thrown on the market,
and the jealousy of the New York houses was brought into
efficient operation to clinch the business. •
We are concerned to find that this state of things had pro-
duced a serious derangement in trade on the other side, and we
apprehend that it must be attended with unfavourable results
in our own manufacturing districts. _

If, however, the Legislature of Pennsylvania should recog-
nise the necessity of the suspension by modifying the law re-
garding the charters of the banks, and giving it a legal sanc-
tion for a certain period, the suspension of specie payments in
the present deranged state of the currency in the Southern and
Western States would be a great auxiliary to the collections of
the bank ; which, for the period from the 4th of January to
the 4th of February last, amounted to $1,007,000. If the
suspension be legalised it will enable the Bank to devote their
means to fulfil their current engagements in Europe ; and
it will be satisfactory for the public to know that the
three eminent houses connected with the institution in this
country hold State stocks and other undoubted securities for
three times the amount of their commitments for its accounts.
Endeavours are now making, we believe, to make matters
even worse than the sad reality, and to frighten the timorous,
and particularly ladies, about the case of 111‘Leod, under the
unfounded allegation that the Americans secretly foment •the
quarrel for the secret purpose of getting rid of their State
engagements by hostilities. Jonathan is much too mercantile
an animal to come to blows with his best customers • but rs
these rumours are propagated with no small degree of indus-
try in various quarters, we think it right to show that this
scheme is totally absurd, and to remove all uneasiness on.the
subject by quoting the 10th article of the Treaty of Amity
and Commerce, and Navigation, between Great Britain and the
United States, dated Nov. 19, 1794. See "Marten's Recueil
de Traites," tom. V. p. 460, which runs as foll,,ws :
" Neither the debts due from individuals of the one nation
to individuals of the other, nor shares, nor moneys which they
may have in the public funds, or in the public or private
banks, shall even in any event, of war or national differences,
be sequestered or confiscated, it being unjust and impolitic that
debts and engagements contracted and made by individuals,
having confidence in each other, and in their respective Go-
vernments, should ever be destroyed or impaiied by national
authority, on account of national differences and discontents.
" On this Treaty, in respect of Article X., Chancellor
Kent, in his Commentaries on American Law,' vol. i., p.
165, observes : There can be no doubt that the obligation of
that article was not impaired by the war of 1812,.but remained
throughout that wa-, and continues to this day binding upon
the two nations, and continue so until they mutually agree
to rescind the Article; for it is a principle of universal juri
prulence, that a compact cannot be rescinded by one party
only, if the other party does not consent to rescind it, and does
not act to destroy it."
Tis is conclusive.

POST.—The intelligence commueicated this morning of
the fresh shock sustained by the banking interest of the United
States, caused considerable agitation among our commercial
men. The explosion of the United States Bank, and the de-
• rangement of money matters generally which followed thet
event at Philadelphia and in other parts of the Union, cannot
hut have a very bad effect in this country. The branch and
i other banks of the'western and southern States may be expected
, now, one and all, to suspend specie payments, a proceeding that
, must operate greatly to the prejudice of the commercial body of
America, and of course of our own merchants and manufac-
turers. It had been hoped that the long interval of
inactivity which had' been experienced in the import
trade would have ,been succeeded at length by one of extra.
ordinary prosperity. , Without the necessary money at:comae).
dation'the importing establishments will, however, be totally
unable to run off their stocks, even should they have .prodded
themselves with supplies ; but orders will doubtlesS be coun-
termanded where time will admit of it, although money may
have been remitted to pay for them ;- and certainly nothing
that had been in preparation for export, on consignment, will
now go forward. The American community-are aes, lutely left
without a currency. This second break-down is another proof
of the fact for which we have over and over con'enda,
namely, that the United States cannot maintain, a me-
tallic circulation simultaneously with Great Britain, so leng
as they era borrowers of British Capital The shart.s
of the; United States Bank, which hatl previously been
doing at 911. to 10L, were to-day quoted at no more than
51. to 61. per share. The interest our capitalists have in the
concern is believed to be about four millions out of the seven ;
yet such has been their infatuation that they have themselves
by their incessant abue of it Hone even more Apan General
Jackson and Mr. Van Buren toltieteete to • ita''prestnt posi-
tion. It is not thought, now that the mischief has le en com-
pleted, the Bank wilt be deprived of its charter. 111 any of the
jobbers who fancied they might benefit largely by its fall, and
who bought sbaree at 4U to 50 . d.illars each, mu-t pc obably—
and they will in this case be but little 'pitied—Le ruined by
the subsequent depreciation to 26 or 27 dollars per cent.
The New York Co,,rier and Enquirer make; the fo:lowing
remarks upon the subject of the second suspension
We need scarcely say the intelligence that the Bank ~f the
United States had again suspended specie payments cause] con-
siderable sensation in the City yesterelay. To us it appesrs to
be an event much to be deplored—not particularly on account
of its stockholders or the holders of its notes, but on account
of the deleterious effect it will have on the batiking system
generally, and on American public credit abro :d. and that at a
moment when both the Federal Government and the State Go-
vernments have occasion to resort to their credit on no insigni-
ficant
scale.

Of the causes which have led to the suspension we have
no doubt the most prOminent is the speculations which have
been going on -here, based upon the depres-ion cf the
value of the stock. There is no o.her way of accounting
for the excessive demand on the institut.on for specie
The demand for specie, on which the suspension took
place, was made by brokers in New York at a time when
the discount on the paper here was little or nothing more than
the expense of sending on the notes and biin,:ing back the
specie. Why, then, was the 'specie demanded.? We much
mistake if there have keen any who ha, e really a s'ake in the
general prosperity of the country, and who have lent their
aid to promote these stock-jobbing assaults on the Bank—we
much mistake, we say, if they do not hare cause to' deplore
their conduct, no bank is safe against such attacks. The
Bank has already paid out in specie. the resumption,
nearly as much as the whola ardount of specie in .the vaults
of the Bank of England; qui!e as much as all the specie held
by all the banks of this State, according to the Comptroller's
Rep6rt, which amounted on the Ist of January lastlonly to
5,499,122 dollars, and Vet the run on her was still continued,
and not for any fixeign export demand. We repeat, no
bank can withstand such assaults, and believing, as we
firmly do, that the welfare of the country has been most
materially promoted , by the banking system, we can-
not but look with dismay on a line of conduct which
places the whole at the mercy of stock -gamblers.. Take, to
illustrate our view, the State Comptroller's Report just pub..
lisped. banks have a circulation of rising 15,000,000
dol., and deposits to an amount. rising 17,000,600
and to
Meet-all this hilt five' millions and a half of specie, if specie is
demanded. We cannot account for the'really malevolait feel-
ing evinced by some journals at this, in our view, truly Unfor-
tunate event. The Bank of the United Sta:es is certainly,
now, at least, in no way connected with partisan politics, and
why, therefore, its downfall, if downfall it should prove, should
be,considered by any except the gamblers. in its steck, as a

CHRONICLE.—We deeply regret the inability of the Bank
of the United States to maintun specie payments ; and the
last accounts received, by the Acadia steamer, afforded
grounds for expecting a different result. The " run " was
represented as having ceased altogether for the withdrawal of
deposits, and the demand for specie in exchange for notes
was,also said to have been subsiding. Sinister influences, how-
ever, were at work ' • the machinations of the enemies of the in-
stitution, supported by a portion of the English and American
press, have been successful in the work of mischief, and the authors
of it have now the happiness of being able to say, " See what true
prophets we have been l" It is not surprising that the Bank of
the United States, crippled and damaged by the injudicious
nature of its past management, having upwards of 40,000,4 00
of dollars of its assets locked up in State stocks of various de-
nominations, and assailed by a host of enemies, personal and
political, should- have been unable to resist the force of this
combined attack, and that it should have been at last compelled
to yield to the torrent which so assailed it. Before doing so,
however, we observe that the Bank had paid away little short of
6,000,000 dollars in coin cud specie furids and that their efforts
to maintain specie payments had been rendered abortive by the
intentional accumulation and extraordinary enforcement of its
instant liabilities. A large amount of its notes also, which