The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-13 00:00:00

exists in this important staple of consumption, may be
of interest, not only to those trading in the article itself,
but also to every one connected with the piece goods
manufacture. We have only to look at statistical facts,
and we shall then at once be in a situation to judge of I
the effect of our system of commercial restriction, and
of the danger we incur of seeing our trade cut off or
lopped down with the United States, as well as with the
Brazils, and others of our best customers. The imports
of cotton into the United Kingdom this year, to the Ist
instant, amounted to 956,620 bales, against 1,194,330
bales, during the same period of 1840. The stock on hand
is reckoned to be 746,620 bales, while in August last,
although the receipts had been so large, it was not higher
than 595,440 bales, making a decrease of 238,000 bales
in the arrivals, and yet an augmentation of 150,000
bales in the stock. This points naturally to a dimi-
nished consumption, and upon reference to the returns
we find this decline to have been from 787,900 bales
during the first seven mont;:,s of 1840, to 626,110 bales
during the corresponding period this year. The United
States appear to have suffered most by the decay of our
manufacturing industry, for there is as been an increased
consumption of cotton in our East India possessions.
With the certainty of average crops in-America, or that
even should they not prove an average, they will produce
more than we want, it is not to be wondered at that the
market for the staple should wear so heavy an appear-
ance. There were symptoms of improvement, it is true,
about a month ago, but these have proved evanescent,
and bound up as is the very life and soul of the trade
with the prosperity of our export commerce, we
scarcely see what hope there is of its assuming for a
long time a healthy state of activity. Unfortunately
the evil does not rest here, for it ever grows while
it exists. Thus, our inability to become better, or
even such good, customers as formerly to the American
growers, deprives them in turn of the power to take so
large a quantity as usual of our manufactures ; and our
anti-foreign policy, our undue preference of colonial
trade, leaves us no other outlet to make good that we
lose, since the inability to serve our own possessions is
quite as great under the present system as is that to do
good to foreign customers. One evident result of this,
beyond all dispute, must be, to drive those who cannot
afford to purchase our goods with cash, to look at home
for the means of obtaining them, and thus begins the
necessity, or, which soon follows, the taste for manu-
facturing.. All these are such well-understood facts, and
are so bruited about and openly discussed at the present
moment among parties of every shade of politics, that
we are almost weary of even alluding to them ; but, in
spite of the ungracious task, we cannot refrain from
noting the daily evidence around us of the thorough
rottenness or inefficacy of our commercial tariff.
CHRONICLE.—The continued rain which fell last
night and during the day has produced considerable
heaviness in the English Funds. There was a further
rise to-day in Mark-lane of about 2s. per quarter, both
on Foreign and English wheat. The Foreign Ex
changes yesterday evinced a decidedly unfavourable as-
pect, and as there is at present a very limited stock of
Foreign wheat in this country, large importations must
inevitably take place. Some well-informed parties esti-
mate the quantity that may be required at as much as
two millions of quarters-, and unless there is a very
speedy change in the weather for the better, that com-
putation may not be much beyond the truth. At all
events, and under any circumstances, a million of quar-
ters must be paid for, and, according to recent advices
from the Continent, the price of fine wheats had risen to
50s. and 575. per quarter. The bullion in the Bank of
England is 5,000,000!., and one million quarters of
wheat, at 50s. per quarter, would cost 2,500,000/., leaving
only 2,5000,0001. on hand in the Bank coffers, being
almost precisely the same balance as they had on hand
in November, 1839, when the Bank was declared to be
within six weeks of bankruptcy, and when that result'
was barely avoided by a 2,000,000/. loan, obtained from
the Bank of France. The Bank parlour cannot, there-
fore, be on a bed of roses, and the question comes to be;
what'arg; they to do to meet the corning storm ? They
cannot look for the saM6 assistance from the Bank of
France. The fortification of -Paris requires all their
spare money, and even if:they had ft tolend, it is doubt-
ful whether there is the. w_ill to do so, tall things consi-
dered. It is said, however, that considerable supplies of
specie are expected from South America, but they, of
course, will consist chiefly of silver, and even if they
should' amount to anything. very considerable, are not
likely to remain very leng in this country. The Direc-
tors, therefore„eannot place much reliance on having
their coffers replenished from that quarter, and the only
course remaining forithem is to operate on the Money
Market by sales of itock..
POST.—We havelreqUently drawn. attention to the
injurious, and, in todinanjPeases, ruinous effects of the
extension of credit con Sequent 'Upon the introduction of
Joint-Stock Banks. In doing so we have not attacked the
:principle, but the mode in ,which riikny of these institu-
tions have been first concocted, and th& 'manner in which
they have subsequently been -carried on. The "security
of the.pnblic who deposit their' wealth or hard earnings,
in the case of well-conducted Joint-Stock Banks,is, prima
facie, greater where the capital; on which the credit
of the establishment stands is known, and perisidii.
tally stated, than when it rests on,report merely, or
conjecture. But capital is not the pnly foundation
on which confidence should be made ,f,o rest. The
characters of the parties to whom its administration
is confided, not for probity alone, but for experience
also, their position in society placing them above the
suspicion of employing it for their individual advantage,
should constitute even more than capital its claim to
public support. The larger the capital in the hands of
the designing or inexperienced in business, the greater
will be the extent of the mischief resulting from the
employment of it. Of this we have alreadis before us
but too many instances. Pi here J oint-btock banks have
been properly organised, they have done good, and we
have uniformly spoken encouragingly of those that have
afforded prove of their being of the number. Our pro-
vince has, however, been that of attending more particu-
larly to the injurious working of the system. Well con-
ducted banks need no pointing out, except occasion-
ally, perhaps, as examples worthy of imitation ; but
the exposure of fraud and deception, wherever they
are known to form the basis of, or 'to be practised in
the management of a bank, we hold to be most important
to persons interested in it, as well as to the community
at large. Fault has been frequently, @lnd with the
Press by the Shareholders in Companies of; all ,descrip-
dons for the freedom with which it has criticised their
proceedings, as tending to depreciate their shares in the
market ; and they are careful, whenever they have the
misfortune to find themselves partners in a questionable
concern, to abstain at public meetings from all interroga-
tion calculated to expose its weaker points. This feeling
of solicitude for the nominal value of their property con-
tributes more than anything else to the growth and con-
tinuance of abuses, and leads to an eventual loss which,
by the exercise of a less timid policy from Ahe first,
might be avoided. •t-,.
HERALD.—The meeting and proceedings: of the
Mavylebone Joint Stock Bank held yesterday have been
the' topic of general conversation and astonishment in the
City. The meeting was held for the purpose of dis-
solving the Bank, and of course declaring its insolvency.
The liabilities were stated :
Due to the Westminster Bank
To other creditors ; 5,000

Total £30,000
The assets in hand, and available at ll,OOO

To be made good • £19,000
Towards the; liquidation of which balanee there were
assets not exact so tangible in the shape of payments
or instalments on sha:f's ,„` £17,000
Doubtful debt, including that of the managing
Director, 16,0001
The story of the rise and fall of this bank lies within
a brief compass of words, and would seem to be a sort of
one-act winding-up farce to the grander first five-act
tragedy pieces of the Joint Stock drama as performed on
the Norwich and Manchester boards with thundering ef-
fect. The Marylebone concern boasts some five or six
years of a green old age, and started into existence with
something like a million of capital—on the prospectus.
But from the prospectus the mighty capital travelled no
',rther, as Mr. Vannay, the managing director, found to
his "may, as he dolefully told the tale, for when specially
retained a„:.,1 brought exproo from Scotland "to work a
capital of 300,6,1"0/.1" he was saluted on arrival with a beg-
gtifi account of a tit; with only 6,000./. ofeapital stock depo-
sited. To work however the Company went, with so much
the more because of the money vacuum They ap-
pear to have discottilted to the right and the left vith per-
severing prodigality Mid the most impartial ignorance
or accommodation of all corners and customers, for since
the period of his connection wit:: the bank, Mr. Han-
nay told the meeting that " no fewer than three of the
Directors had become insolvent, and no feWer than ninety
of the customers." Mr. Hannay himself confessed to
having overdrawn his own account by about 16,000!.,
for which he had deposited security to the amount of
2;0001. only, and that in the shape of bank scrip which
wag unsaleable and valueless then, and must now be
worse thati nib It is fair' to add that he proposes a
-second mortgage, by way of additional 'cover—on •estates
in Scotland valued at 56,0001., but ridden over by a first
mortgage of 41,0001., which it may be' feared will leave
but a sorry remanet for clearing off his debt to the Com-
pany. It would be a waste of time to dwell further upon
such a joint-stock banking burlesque as exhibited by
such exposures and such a balance sheet of brazen bank-
ruptcy.
- -

THE WEATHER.—Noori:, AUGUST Q.
ROYAL GALLERY OF SCIENCE, APELA TOE-STREET.
Barometer
Thermometer... 58 Highest 6O 1 Lowest ......... 45
Wind W.—Freezing Point 32 Dog.

Patronized by their Majesties the King and
aucen of Hanover, and their Royal Highnesses the Princesses
Augusta and Sophia, her Serene Highness the Princess Estdrhazy,
the I'th:ceases Mary and Rosa, her Gfrace the Dowager Duchess of
ofiti their Orates the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Dukes
7Aevonshire, and Manchester, Lord Hill, &c. In addition
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n Albemarle street,,Pic.
feel great
the

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which thousands of deaf •p(frsons have been greatly benefited, is not
the least perceptible, ntit- more uncomfortable, than having a pielce
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the York Eiotel, 1114 76. King William.street, Bank.—No con-
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CO M M N 1, ENCEMET 0, Tli Vt HA.R.EST,`-,--NOt-
i vithstabdipg.lhegcnepl prevalence of wet weath Hustle
the backwardness of the crops generally, 'Mr.
Ibegan harvesting on Monday, at Kemp-town farm, an&
.cut wheat, barley...awl oso47+.Brighton Guardian. :.: '
r..