The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-01 00:00:00

MONEY PANICS.

There would appear to be very little utility at pre-
sent in adverting at all to the inquiry on banking affairs,
recently before a Committee of the House of Commons,
which in all probability must fall with the; present Par-
liament. and the affair, consequently, corae to nothing.
Still it may be useful again to revert to the opinion ge-
nerally entertained by practical and im.72artial men, that
the inquiry has left untouched that one great object for
which it was instituted, viz, the means -of preserving the
equilibrium of the currency, and preventing those peri-
odical panics and pressures upon the money-market,
which are ruin to the trading interests and a disgrace
to our character abroad as a commercial country. This
should specially be borne in mind, therefore, as the wish
of our leading merchants and bankers, should the in-
ouiry be resumed in the next Session, that a more
efficient Committee should be appointed, and that
their attention should be directed particularly, if
not almost exclusively, to this point. This is a sub-
ject which several correspondents are constantly urging
upon us, to press in the strongest manner possible upon
the continued attention of the commercial world, as the
time is rapid!y passing away, and great danger exists
that the Legislature may be compelled to th continu-
ance of the Bank Charter in its present state, merely be-
cause they are not prepared with anything better to sup-
ply its place. All that was really done by the banking
Committee seems to amount to little more than this—
that they have collected abundance of opinions from
English. frish, and Scotch country bankers, that. the
present system works well in their respective districts ;
and nothing can be more amusing, certainly, than the
unanimity with which the representatives of these inte-
rests respectively, at one of their late meetings, con-
curred in a resolution to " co-operate cordially in resist-
ing every attempt to interfere with a system of issue and
circulation which has been found conducive to the pub-
lic interest in their respective localities."
One suggestion by a Correspondent rel itive to the
pressures and panics adverted to is well worthy of con-
sideration. These, he remarks, are always produced by
the importation and exportation of bullion in to and from
London, to which place, though received and paid on
account of the nation at large, its effects are confined.
Bullion is neither imported nor exported from Scotland ;
and the question is, whether by the present system Scot-
land does not throw upon London that portion of pres-
sure which is due to itself, but which, if equally divided
among the whole kingdom, would never be felt ; whence
it would follow, that the whole of these pressures and
panics are likely to be the result of some unnatural work-
ing of the system which centres upon London the whole
demand, where it ought never to have come. The remedy
should lie, consequently, in some plan for so combining the
issues of the whole country in one, as to spread the de-
mand for bullion equally, and the nature of the plan
became of course the natural and legitimate object of
the Select Committee on Banking, who have brought
forward little or no evidence bearing upon it. This
has arisen probably in part from the Chairman not being
sufficimtly acquainted with the subject to conduct the.
inquiry in a proper manner, and in part from the, many
interests represented in the Committee, whose policy at
least it would be to oppose anything calculated to bring
it to a practical conclusion, in which none woukt concur
more cordially than those Members connected vith, or
under the influence of, the Bank of England, who se great
struggle would be to prevent any change whatever that
did not convey the whole control over the circulation into
their own hands.

Thus'has. the. whole inquiry been stultified„and ;the.
natural conclusion' is that-it will either have to- . re-
commenced, or undertaken in some other form. unleSs
same Ministry, which may shortly be anticipate d, with
with more knowledge of the subject, should Loring a
Bill into Parliament to settle the question without it.—

CORN LAWS.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sm.—There is no doubt that the many respectable
men who advocate the Corn-laws, do it, believing that
they really encourage British industry, and thereby pro-
mote the best interests of their country. I hope there-
fore you will allow me, through your columns, to call
attention to Earl Radnor's speech on the 14th of May,
saying, " that as more corn had been imported in the
eleven years preceding 1839, than during any- former
eleven years, he thought these laws had not answered
those landlords whose rents have risen under the Corn-
laws. They have good reason for supporting them, not
only for their own sakes, but for the sake of all :amongst
whom their gains from them circulate. But those
whose rents have fallen, like mine, under those laws,
or have not risen in proportion to the rise of corn,
have reason to doubt their efficacy, and inquire,
as Earl Fitzwilliam recommended, into the cause,
which will probably prove to be the hope these laws held
out of gains from high prices, without the pains of well
weeding and stall-feeding, as on the Continent, enough
stock to provide sufficient manure to insure good crops ;
and this has been effected by tenants adding farm to
farm till they had more than they could profitably super-
intend, or had capital to stock, and till well ; when, by
denying work their land needed, they drove so many
willing able hands into the union houses, that England
did not produce food enough to feed them, and the price
opened the ports for foreign corn to the great gain of
foreigners. But, as the Poor-law Continuance' Bill is
given up for this Session, if we are ever indulged in South
Britain with the same Poor-laws as in North Britain, and
landlords pay all the Poor-rates, they will feel the ex-
pediency of letting, to all able-bodied men, small portions
of land on which to maintain themselves and their fami-
lies till the great tenants take them into their yearly ser-
vice as they did formerly in England, and do still in
Scotland ; and, by so doing, landlords would be in all
ways gainers, for the rates would sink much below the
amount allowed for before their tenants hired their land,
their rents would then rise to the fair amount without
Poor-rates, more because labourers' allotments of
land are so much more productive than great farms—
that landlords would learn that their land is worth, if well
cultivated, which few landlords now know ; and when
once landlords know this, who would deny himself the fair
rent of his land when requiring it, would also serve his
country by stimulating his tenants to so weed and stall
feed, to produce manure, as would make bread as cheap
in England as on the Continent, and so bring back main,
fticturers, and absenteees to supply customers for all far-
mers can raise.

I am not a theorist. I began, in 1830, to let allot-
ments of land, to serve the labouring class, who have
obtained such abundant crops from land my great
tenants called worthless, that they have offered and paid
double and treble these great tenants' rents to obtain
more allotments, and not one penny has been deficient
in those little tenants' rents in ten years • nor has there
b -?en one conviction amongst 400 men admitted without
reference to character ; and the West Kent Labourers
Friend Society have given the following satisfactory ac-
count of the amendment of felons. It was at first said
they were too poor to have manure, skill, or capital, to
cultivate their land well ; it will be racked out ; but the
reverse has been the case, for, in fact, those who have
nothing but a pair of able, willing hands, if they take no
more land than those hands will well till, bestow on it much
more labour than most great farmers have capital to pur-
rhase. And what is capital but the result of labour
atore.(l up ? and which is useless till again returned to
the land in the form of labour. Great tenants, who have
not capital adequate to their farms, wish it to be thouglig;
that in England corn cannot be raised as cheap as on
the Continent, on account of the heavy taxes to pay the
interest of the National Debt ; but as no tenant can.
give, as rent, more than the surplus produce, after all
outgoings have been defrayed by him, it is really the
landlords who pay these taxes, and not their tenants ; and
the more the tenants raise the more they cangive as rent,
and the more the landlords will have to circulate amongst
all trades and professions. It is the conviction that landlords
will be ultimately the most benefited by increased pro-
duce, which causes those tenants to endeavour to mislead
their landlords into supporting laws which, instead of
encouraging industry, really only encourage sloth and ex-
travagance in those on whose industry the food of the
country depends, and whose neglect caused, in 1839, up-
wards of ten millions worth of wheat to be imported to
the great gain of foreigners and loss of English landlords,
tenants, labourers, and consumers. But remove these laws
which have not answered, and thereby stimulate industry,
and plenty raised will be found to pay better than little
and dear. J. S.
May 28, 1841.

FLANDERS.— FEROCIOUS ATTACK ON A
MAN BY A HORSE.—An unprecedented instance of
ferocity in a horse was witnessed a few days ago in the
commune of Wilryck. A man named llegroof was
employed in ploughing a piece of land ; his horse be-
coming restive, the ploughman endeavoured to enforce
obedience by blows, when the vicious animal turned
upon his master and attacked him with such obstinate
severity, that, though a man of uncommon strength, he
Nv
••as speedily thrown on the earth, after having sustained
some very frightful injuries ; his face covered with
wounds from the lilies inflicted by the rabid animal, and
his hands bruised in a shocking manner. So far from
the animal's fury being diminished by having got the
better of his victim, his rage redoubled. The cries of
the unfortunate man at length brought some persons to
his rescue, when they found the horse trampling him
under his hoofs. In •a state of extrema suffering, with
two of his ribs broken, and his whole frame covered with
wounds and bruises, death put an end to,his sufferings on
the following day.
SUDDEN DEATH.—On Saturday afternoon,
about half-past two o'clock, an awful instance of the insecurity
of human life occurred in the office of the Westminster Court
Of Requests, Castle-street, Leicester-isquare. Mr. William
Heath, f,rmerly a linendraper in good business in Tavistock-
street, and for some time an officer at the above place, sud-
(l.,nly dropped down dead whilst in attendance at the Court.
He was immediately removed to the Castle public-house, on
the opposite side of the street, hut although medical aid was
obtaiued, life was found extinct. The deceased,
who was much respected at the offi,e, was about forty years of
Ege,tiad read: 1 in Pedlar's-acre, Lambeth.
CURIOCs Wtsit.—Mr. John Murray, the
of publishers, has often expressed one very curious
wish, lam not aware that it has yet been gratified. He
has repeatedly said, after stating that he never saw the
of of the numbers of one publication of the " Quar-
terly" ready for delivery on one day, that he was very
desirous, and hoped some day to have the pleasure of
seeing the whole publication of some particular number
ready at one time ; and after having the numbers piled
up in letter-press " walls" in the warehouse, to invite
the principal. booksellers to a splendid banquet, surrounded
by one publication of the "Quarterly." This would be
an interesting incident in the annals of bibliopolism ;
and it is to be hoped that Mr. Clowes, the printer, and
the bo-Jkbinder who "does up" the "Quarterly," will
take care that no obstacles be thrown in the way by them,
when Mr. Murray seriously sets about carrying his cu-
rious it ention into effect traits' of Public Charac-
ters, by the Author of " Random Recollections."
We have to announce the death of the Hon.
Henry Dursday.awson Dame,. which took place in Hyde Park-terrace
on Th