The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-23 00:00:00

bitidlTS =snit

LONDON, FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 1847.

A financial crisis is to a commercial country what
a disastrous campaign and a beleaguered capital are
to a military country. Without a skilful application
of whatever force is still reserved, without calmness,
promptitude, and intrepid decision, the consequences
must in either instance be deplorable, if they be not
altogether ruinous. We know not, indeed, whether
promptitude and intrepidity are not, if possible, more
essential to the financier than to the captain. They are
necessary now; they are absolutely requisite at this
moment, or the panic which bas been latterly as-
suming a more formidable aspect, will be consum-
mated. Ever since the passing of the Bank Restric-
tion Act of 1844, we have been advancing blindfold
to a precipice ; the recent dearth of provisions,
and the consequent necessity for purchasing large
quantities of foreign produce to make up the defi-
ciency, have driven us to the brink of that precipice.
Let us open our eyes in time and recoil from that abyss
towards which we have been impelled by the
perverse operation of a fantastic and foolish hypo-
thesis. It is now notorious that the monetary con-
dition of the Bank of England is the very reverse of
satisfactory. And, seeing that the amount of bullion
stiliiretained in its cellars exceeds the average quan-
tity of many years, it is becoming equally notorious
that the present embarrassments are attributable, not so
much to the excessive drain of specie, as to the malign
influence of the restrictive system established by the
late Prime Minister.
On the first proposition of the preposterous law of
1844, it cannot be forgotten that we opposed to the
uttermost the principle upon which that law was
framed. We protested against a contrivance so
shallow and inefficacious ; we recognised in
its sinister provisions the assurance of some such
involvements as those by which the Bank of England
is at present surrounded. Hitherto no opportunity
has been afforded for testing the accuracy of our de-
ductions, or for demonstrating the real character of
the pet financial scheme of Sir ROBERT PEEL. The
juncture has now, however, arrived, and the illusion
of more than two years is vanishing. Common sense
assures us that our original estimate of the Act
passed in 1844 was by no means too depreciatory. The
present condition of the stock market, the present
advance in the rate of interest, the present impracti-
cability of obtaining discount, prove that all our for-
mer assertions and calculations were correct to the
tittle.

As a correspondent of undoubted intelligence, and
of no inconsiderable experience, observes to us in a
letter published in another column of The Sun, " the
present emergency loudly calls for the repeal of the
Act so prejudicial to the commerce of the country."
Wherefore should there be any hesitation.in the reci-
sion of a fallacy so egregious, so indisputable, and so
flagrantly demonstrated, as this absurd and blunder-
ing enactment ? With all his magnificent genius for
legislation, with all his extraordinary wisdom and
experience as a statesman, it is utterly useless to deny
that Sir ROBERT PEEL has committed many mon-
strous errors, and fallen into several enormous mis-
takes during the course of his political career. He
did this in regard to Parliamentary Reform, he did
this in regard to Catholic Emancipation, he did this
in regard to the abolition of the Corn Laws, he did this
again in regard to the Bank Restriction Act. But
hitherto he has had the inestimable good fortune to
perceive his own blunders, and besides that he has
hitherto ikd the magnanimity—a magnanimity be-
yond aft eulogium—of rectifying those blunders by a
timely retractation. He retracted on the Reform
question, he retracted on the Catholic Emancipation
question, he retracted on the Corn Importation
question'; let him consummate his career by retract-
ing on the Bank Restriction question. We have an
exceeding and unaffected admiration for the abilities
of the Right Hon. Baronet; we have an implicit con-
fidence in his patriotism; we are among those who
must ever continue grateful for the benefits conferred
by him upon Great Britain. Let him, we say again,
consummate his political life by the course we have
pointed out; let him, we say, with this assurance of
our admiration, our confidence, and our gratitude,
put the seal to those boons he has already
showered upon his native land, and thereby more than
expiate the blunders of his judgment !
We had hoped, cordially and earnestly we bad
hoped, that Sir ROBERT PEEL would, on acknow-
ledging the fallaciousness of protection, have simulta-
neously, or almost simultaneously confessed the
insufficiency and folly of his financial arrangements of
1844 ; for is there not equal reason to, demand a
free trade in gold as in all the other commodities
drawn from the earth ? How anomalous to proclaim
the unrestricted importation and exportation of barley,
and to place the golden metal which is smelted from
the ore of the mountains under the inexorable bondage
of 31. 17s. 10d. per ounce ! Not ad valorem, not
variable under any circumstances, however exigent,
but fixed as if by a legislative cramp. Unstring but
the knot of this disastrous enactment as the
knot of the defunct corn-laws was unstrung, give
free trade in specie as well as in turnips and leather,
and the ebbing and the flowing of money will go on
unimpeded, without unhealthy gluts or depressive
drainings. Let the proprietors of the Bank of Eng-
land capitalise 2,000,0001., as has been already pro-
posed, let that great medium of our national wealth
be empowered to purchase securities, say to the ex-
tent of 2,500,0001., let the Government extend the ar-
bitrary point of issue on securities by 1,500,0004
for the Government has the power at option of inter-
posing for the security of the Bank of England,
whenever it may so seem advisable. By some such
arrangement, but especially by the abrogation of the
law of 1844, the country may be relieved from further
anxiety, and the funds may be secured from a
similarly excited depression. Not otherwise. For a
freedom from such restraints is essential to the healthy
condition of the monetary resources of the empire.
Room must be given for the play of the elasticity of
our national finance, or the intricacies of that finance
become entangled and involved. We are tarrying
with impatience for some reformatory movement on
the part of the Legislature, for we cannot conceal
from ourselves that the emergency is most imminent.

The intelligence from India, by the Overland Mail,
is of the same acceptable character as the previous
news which we have now happily for some time past
been in the habit of receiving from our Eastern
dominions. It assures us of present tranquillity
throughout India. Here and there the prospect of
peace is shadowed by rumours of political intrigues,
which we trust will prove to be without foundation.
It is said, for instance, that Candahar and Caubul
are exhibiting symptoms leading to the infer-
ence that a northern European power is busy
in renewing its endeavours to compromise
the continuance of tranquillity on our north-western
frontiers, endeavours which originally gave rise to
the war in Afighanistan. The ruthless ambition
treachery, rapacity, cunning, and love of intrigue
which constitute the chief characteristics of many of
the Indian tribes, are calculated to render them willing
instruments for seconding the wiles and abetting the
unprincipled policy of any powerful state. We should
hope, however, that, if there be any truth in the re-
ports to which we have alluded, the severe lesson which
we have read to our enemies, from 1841 downwards,
whenever we have been compelled to draw the
sword, will not be without its effect, and that the
crafty diplomacy of any Court in Europe will not so
easily find convenient channels for its development.
The belief was general that the infamous ASnAlt
Kula; was dead, though there was no positive intel-
ligence to establish the fact. Certainly, no one would
repine at the news of his death, seeing that, perhaps,
his own father, DOST MAID:MEM would regard the