The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-26 00:00:00

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and aid us by your great influence, in
work out good government for the people •
Ireland, and Scotland. We invite your anis\
more especially, as we have in no small degi AaAillitrtl!..4At:4)l/43
encouraged in originating this movement by your ; v
advice and recommendation at various periods—in L
don at the close of the last Anti-Corn-law Delegh
as well as in your late excellent letter to the M,
Warren and Nightingale, of Manchester.
We call upon you, Liberals of Ireland, to join
our earnest endeavours to emancipate the people
the yoke of aristocratic tyranny and misrule, at,
raise you to a level of political equality in all resp,ctl
with ourselves. We are well assured that the utpon

ietween your county and ours is not to be kerl.
either by force or fraud, and that. the only lasting
of connection between us is equal law and equal j , :
It is only legislative injustice which now tends to p -
duce repulsion and disunion between us ; let us cor-
dially join, therefore, in contending for justice to ”:1.
and thus perfect the British and Irish Union in impet-iAI
justice and general good Government.
We feel assured that it is only by such a combr•
movement, that the cause of liberty is to be stretic
ened ; that local and general improvements are to he
wrought out ; that the resources of our cammon country
are to be developed ; and that the popular happiness
and well-being are to be secured ; and by such marts
only can we hope that great national distress is to b.•
removed, and a wide and wasting revolution to be avvrt,::,;.
(Signed) J. G. MARSHALL,
Leeds, Nov. 19, 184
Chairmano of the Assodiation.

BANK OF ENGLAND AND IT

ISSUES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Question 26.—" What is the remedy if we have too
little money ?
Answer.--it We must erect a Bastik; ia, well con- .
puted, doth (almost double the effect opined money ;
and we have in England material „lora Bank which
would furta stock enough to drive the trade of the
whole commercial woild."—Sir W. Petty's " Quautu•
lumcunque," 1682.*

Sin,—Being about to offer a few remarks on a para-
graph which appeared in your Journal of the 27th ult.,
I think it will be as well, in the first instance, to quote
it, in order to bring it better to the recollection of your
readers. ,

" While the population and wealth of the country
have been increasing at a very rapid rate, the capital
of the Bank of England has been stationary. To make
it relatively of as much national importance as it was
thirty years ago, independently of the economical use
of money, which renders bank-notes less in demand, its
capital ought at least to have doubled, whereas a large
portion of it has been locked up in securities that arc
not immediately available ; and the whole sum haS not
been increased. To make its circulation now of as muck
relative importance to the nation as it was thirty years
ago, it ought to be at least sixty millions, whereas it is
not seventeen."

I am now about to show that the present issues of
the Bank of England—say, for the sake of argument,
seventeen millions—are fully equal to what sixty mil-
lions would be, supposing the same circumstances to
exist now, as regards monetary affairs, as did thirty
years since, and our trade trebled to what it was then.

In the year 1810, or thirty years since, the currency
was nearly depreciated twenty-five per cent. I ssCv
nearly, for the price of gold had not reached 51.3 s 10d..
which would have shown a depreciation to that amount.
A year or two after, it not only reached, but exceeded
that rate of depreciation ; but, for the sake of am:-
moot, we will take the depreciation at twenty-five per
cent. In order to compare seventeen millions of money
at the present day with the currency so depreciated,
we must add a sum equal to one-third of that amount
(viz. 5,666,6661. 13s. 4d.), which will show that
22,666,666/. 13s. 4d., is but equal to the seventeen mil-
lions now. Depreciation merely adds to the tale of
money without increasing value. Money is but a mea-
sure as a weight ; the alteration of the standard of
money has the same effect as alteration of the standard
of any measure of ponderosity, capacity, or extension.
Supposing that the books of the Customs had shown
on the day of the imperial gallon first coming into us,
that there were 5,000,000 of gallons of wine in bow;
would the Lords of the Treasury have instituted an in-
quiry what had become of one million gallons, be.-
cause the books had shown 6,000,000 to have bee:,
in bond the day before ?
This principle will show why the currency appeared
to be contracted after the resumption of cash pay-
ments, and it is not a little singular that all the writers
on " the contraction. of the currency" were satisfied
with comparing numbers together, without comparing
relative values. Another circumstance has not been
duly taken into consideration, if even notice—viz., the
shortening of the terms of commercial credits. Thirty
years since,six, nine,twelve,eighteen, twenty-fotit months'
credits ,were usual and common—two months' credits were
the exceptions. I believe it will be found now rather to
be reversed, that the short credits are the rule, and the
.long ones the_ exceptions... As this point. will
a chief one in my argument, it will require to be dwelt -
upon and illustrated.
Supposing, for instance, that the general average of
commercial credits one year were to be six months, and
that it required fifty millions circulating credits, viz.,
treoferable debts, usually called paper money, to effect
the various changes of commerce, and that the mer-
chants the next year shortened their credits to three
months, it is evident that twenty-five millions of such
paper-money would give equal facilities to commerce
that the fifty millions did the year previous. To follow
up my argument, I suppose that credits have been re-
duced one half, and our trade doubled to what it was
thirty years since (having previously shown that tIle•
17,000,0001. of the Bank of England issues is equal to
22,666,6661. 13s. 4d.), I contend that the seventeen
millions would be equal to the depreciated sum doubled,
viz., 45,333,3331. 6s. Bd. And again, if we proceed
and find that the credits of trade, on the average a;-e
reduced two-thirds to what they were thirty years
since, and that the trade of the country is trebled, it
is contended that the seventeen millions would be equal
to the depreciated sum (22,666,666/. 13s. 4d.) trebled,
viz., SIXTY-EIGHT MILLIONS, had we the depreciated
currency now that we had thirty years since, with ave-
rage credits reduced two-thirds, and the trade of the
country trebled.
I will venture to assert that with the present apparent
small sum of Bank issues, as compared with those thirty
years since, it the Bank of England books could he
examined, that taking the gross amount of mercantile
accommodations for the whole of last year, and adding
one-third to make such sum equal to a twenty-five per
cent. depreciation, that the mercantile accommodation
by the Bank would be found to be three times what it
was in an year when gold was 51. 3s. 10d. per ounce.
At this particular time I consider that the point
which I have broached, viz., how far the shortening or
lengthening the terms of credits has an effect on a given
amount of currency, worthy of the deepest considera-
tion, as the chief argument in support of a single bank
of issue has been that the currency, being in the hands
of one party, can be kept stationary, or only to vary as
the deposits of bullion are increased or diminished ; if
it can be positively demonstrated that by merchants re-
ducing the terms of credit, a given amount of currency •
may be as effectively increased as by credits remaining
the same and the amount of currency increased,
pretensions of one bank of issue with a given amount of
currency must have a steadiness in principle about equal
to the steadiness of the wind. The following hypo-
thetical case will show in what manner a reducing of
credits would act :
Banker A. issues his notes in dis-
counts of two months' bills to the
amount of 20,000/.,—these notes
supposed to be returned for the
payment at two months' end, when
they may be re-issued to the like
amount ; this amount, turned six
times in the year will show a gross
annual return of
trt:oeti
with
hr3n2ooo,
year,O
0, 0
w 0 £120,003 0 0
Banker B. discounts bills at three
turnedill
smiiooi
vst hsashfgoot orwuorsts hsttiehamaanetmns
uAoiauu.i
months' bills will have as great anoo £l2o,ooola.ninudaiiscounting ti o
as i 3.
with 30,000/. ; A. will have a greather. profit than B.
for each will have to pay a duty
issues
of 3s. 6d. per cent. is lieu of staomnp idsuatvieesrage
have to pay on his average of 20,000/. a duty of :1;)1,,
while B. will have on his 30,000/. the sum of 521. Ws.,
each making the same annual return ; B. will have to
pay 50 per cent. more duty to the Government than
A. But this
point relative to the Government duties
will not affect the Bank of England, as the Comp.:oY
pays a given sum annually, so that a reduction of its
average would not cause a reduction of duties.
The Bank of England having announced that
its accommodation in discounts will be limited to
bills not having more than sixty-five days to run,
p n
should, as a matter of prudence, reduce the amount
of
its issues. If the same amount of issues be continuo..
I have little doubt that by the spring of 1842 we stratl
see interest as low as two-and-
arenotesto-
turnedwhich willbe
follow:;immenseamount
bankers who kept the Bank Paper to meet the average
return of their own notes, will not now require tlhc
'same amount in hand to do so.
July 27, 1694.
hB‘c
a rt: r &:11"s.D.
first ra n
*Twelvet d
I am, Sir, t'our's,
Ilfracombe,
}cars N
afterov 18,
this
18t
h4eo.
R
to the Bank of England—viz.,

Onr private letters from Sidon assure us that it
was Lieutenant Anderson who was the first to plant the
Br;tish fl g on the roof of a houFe at Sidon, and that :t
gave way beneath his tread, fortunately without doing him
any serious injury.—United Service Gazette.