The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-25 00:00:00

EVENING SUN

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.
FROM TILE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
T I MES.—As every question ought to be im-
partially discussed, however strong the apparent
justice of one side of it may be, the annexed let-
ter cannot be refused a place :
" EXCHEQUER BILL CASE.
" Sir,—With respect to the above unfortunate affair, I
would beg to submit a few observations, feeling assured
that whatever cause you espouse, your chief desire is to
be guided and borne out by facts and the true state of
the case, in order to do justice to all parties whether pub-
lic or private. In my daily intercourse with those in
the City most conversant with the larger money trans-
actions, I have scarcely met with a single individual,
when made thoroughly acquainted with all the circum-
stances of the case, but who considers the parties who
incautiously lent their money to the borrowers upon
those spurious bills have themselves entirely to
blame. First, on account of the credit and standing 01
the borrowers themselves ; and next, the rate which wa,
otl,red for such loans : for had those parties reflecte4.
for a moment what could be the possible inducement for
any banker or capitalist for the ordinary and legitimate
purpose of his business to raise money for months to-
gether at such a rate even as five per cent., and far less al
six or seven, upon a security only yielding an interest 4,1
zt:l, they might have paused and concluded that tin
capitalist, rather than submit to so positive a loss,
would sooner have disposed of the bills at once, or else
that there was something more than suspicious behini
the curtain. And as to the public in general havirq,
suGre4l or been placed in an awkward position by these
fraudulent bills, that was quite impossible, since no one
having purchased bills in the market, or had them ex-
changed at the usual periods at the Treasury, could pos-
sibly have come possessed of these spurious bills, which
were carefully kept nut of circulation for fear of imme-
diate detection, butt were exclusively employed as depositf
for loans when so cunningly obtained, and as carefully
exchanged by bills of the like stamp when the periods
for renewal drew near.
"To confirm these remarks, I have only to refer you
50 many, within whose range of information I have no
'doubt you have equal means of access—parties who, I
have understood from themselves, declined entering inti
the very same transactions from a conviction there must
something wrong at bottom, and therefore would only
be affording fiicilities for some improper object.
" Government, I have reason to believe, is aware of
these facts, which, together with the fear of establish-
ing a dangerous precedent, will lead it, I doubt not, to
act a very independent part in the matter.
" The tone of your arguments upon this subject ap-
pearing to be so much at variance to what has come
within my own knowledge and I have heard expressed
by leading men in the City, that my chief object is merely
to put you au fait of what is canvassed upon what may
be teruMi 0.4 e opposite side of the question.
"I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
"AN OLD SUBSCRIBER.
"London, Dee. 23, 1841,"
The force of this argument appears to be more
specious than solid. Most of the parties who
hold the Exchequer bills declared to be spurious
had no knowledge of the source from which they
were obtained, but purchased or lent money on
them- through those brukers whom they had
been previously in the habit of employing. As
the fact was notorious, too, that the Bank of
England was in the practice of lending money
upon Exchequer bills at the rate of per
cent., the holders considered only that they
followed that authority, and did not reflect
probably on the difference in the trans-
action arising out of the length of time. In-
deed it is well known that one of the greatest and
most respectable among the sufferers in this
unfortunate affair was induced to lend his money
in consequence of the example thus set by
the Bank. This leaves, however, the far more
important questions untouched, which are—
whether the bills are forgeries or not, and whe-
ther, even if that is the case, they were not issued
under circumstances which rendered all care an d
foresight useless in discovering the defects in
them, the officers of the Exchequer being alike
imposed upon by them. If Ministers really in-
tend to back out of the affair, it must be done by
means very different from those described in the
:above letter. No danger can arise from the pre-
cedent ; if proper care is taken at the Exchequer,
Irani will be impossible, and would have been
so in the present instance had its now " excel-
lent system" been adhered to. On the subject
of the right of the holders to compensa-
tion, another correspondent refers to the case of
Mr. Gilbert Ricketts, registrar of the Supreme
Court of Madras, a public officer of the East
India Company, who having died, and the state
of his affairs showing that he had made away
with monies intrusted to his care as such public
officer, an inquiry was instituted by Parliament,
and the result was an Act for the relief of the
sufferers, and giving authority to the East India
Company to apply a part of their territorial re-
venue to that purpose. The practice of the Bank
of England, however, as quoted yesterday, is
still more relevant. The paper, the type, and
tire stamp-are admitted, the signature believed
to be genuine on the rejected Exchequer bills.
;Lad they were declared to be genuine by the
officers of the Exchequer. Such circumstances
cannot hut implicate the Treasury and the Go-
verntnent in the fraudulent issue.
The inconvenience occasioned to the public by
the circulation of light sovereigns, the difficulties
that have arisen from the Stamp-office and other
public departments refusing to take them, have
been more than once noticed in this Journal.
These evils are, comparatively speaking, of
minor importance, but there are others, which
show that the light sovereigns have a serious
etkct on the currency of the country. The mer-
chants and bankers, it is well known, continually
look to the state of the bullion in the Bank of
England, as a guide to their operations, and,
without entering into the question whether
they are right or not in taking the bullion as
their index, that they do so is an undoubted
fact. Hence it is material that' the bul-
lion should be kept in as natural a state as pos-
sible, neither unduly increased nor unduly di-
minished by any adventitious cause, or the index
will not represent the real state of things. Now,
the Bank of England being obliged to refuse
light sovereigns, it seems that a great number
of these are tbrced back into circulation, so that
-the bullion in the vaults, far from representing
the real state of the currency, presents too low an
amount, and thus misleads those who refer to it as
their guide. The wear and tear of the coin, of
course, increases daily, and it is said the number
of light sovereigns is already so great, that sonic
of the Bank Directors conceive 33 per cent. re-
main unnaturally in circulation. It is generally
BuPnosed, however, that this estimation is too
'high, and that those who have made it have
omitted to take into account the slight counter-
action whirls would arise from the heavy sove-
reigns being forced into the Bank vaults. At all
klvents there is no doubt that the currency is nta-
teriall:V affee.tedi and the numerous evils show
that no time should be lost on time part of Go-
,
areathernmwt
ac sake
to take some remedial measure. By
in ,at the public offices, they show
that they do not con 'a
er the light so' vereigns as
a proper currency, and yet the country at large
is obliged to take them as a legal tender, so that
there is one currency between man and man,
and another between the public and the Govern-
ment.
SUN.—The Stock Market closed this evening, to trans-
fersedduring
being, of course, p
purchase, and the quo-
Christmas day.
There seemed some disposition to
tations advanced a little. Consols for opening. were 89-h-
-to it 11.%t0 12s.
Exchequer Bills brought
premium;
to 941 andthe Three
Bank Stock was firm at 165 to 1634 ; Reduced Three
and-a-Half per Cents. obtained 981
per Cents. 89 to 4.
Spanish and Portuguese Bonds were 3 shade firmer,
but it was in the entire absence of any animation in
and the latter ei-
ther of them. The former were at 21, at
33. Mexican were at 26 and Dutch Five per Cents, at
t 09i to 4.
We have still to notice a better market for Shares than
for Stocks. Great Western were higher tollay, viz.
19 to 21 ; York and North Midland New, 161 ;
Bir-
mingham Quarters, 18A ; ditto Thirds, 24 ; ditto New,
2151 ; and South Western, 193 to 20& prem. ; Briglitoi
were l 1 ; Eastern Counties, 14i ; Hull and Selby, 11il;
Manchester and Leeds 5 ; Midland Counties, 14;f ;
Northern and Eastern, 8 ; and South Eastern, 23 dis. ;
London joint-stock Bank Shares were 24 prem. ; and
National Provincial Bank of Eugland I dis.
Bills were taken upon the Continental Exchange Cities
at very nearly the rates of last post-day. Paris 25 72k
to i 7 ; Amsterdam, 12 41 to 4i • Antwerp, 12 3:44 to 4 ;
Frankfort, 150 ; Haraburgh, 13 101 to 101 ; and Trieste,
9 50 to 51.
Our advices from Liverpool state that Messrs. Crofts,
soap-boilers, whose failure was announced some days
since, have made a very satisfactory settlement of their
affairs with their creditors.

- - -
ARBAROUS MURDER IN HANTS.
SOUTHAMPTON, DEC. 23.—Intelligence has just been
received here of a most barbarous murder, committed
on a servant girl, by a party of three excavators, on the
road between Winchester and Southampton. It ap-
pears that the young woman was walking towards South-
ampton, rather late last evening, having been engaged
as a servant to a family in the neighbourhood. She
was accompanied for some distance on the road by her
father, and when he separated from her she gave
him a shilling to go into a public-house on the road-
side to refresh himself. While he was sitting there
three excavators walked in one carrying a bundle, which
the father knew to belong to his daughter. He, of
course, took immediate steps to have them taken into
custody. Several persons went immediately in search
of Alit young woman, and found her murdered, which
atrocious act wtecointnitted (there i. not the shadow of
a deubtof the fact) by the three ruffians who had just
been secured.' .
The General': Stearn Navigation Company's
CobliabinieoY. Norwood, from liotterdLrn,
oir-rthi", custmoi,use, at ten o'clock, A.m., ye:,-
"eidiaiititsb-the DuS)a