The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-25 00:00:00

EVEN NG EDITION•

MONEY MARKET and CIT Y NEW S•

(THURSDAY EVENING.)
TIMES.—The clerks in the Bank of England are
about 700 in number. They are not over-well paid
or courteously treated, but they are remarkable for good
order and attention to the business they have to per-
form ; great part of which, from the nature of it,
necessarily passes under the observation of the
Any matter, therefore, which either wounds their
feelings, or weakens their cdnfidenco in the governing
body, acquires a species of general interest, but above
all in this locality. Now, every one who is at all ac-
quainted with the workings of a great establishment
like this is aware, that with respect to the details,
the Governing Board, the Directors, can have little
more Chan a nominal superintendence, and that the)
are made to see and to decide spoil every thing
through the eyes of certain favoured individuals,
beads of departments, against wlapm, should they
chance to abuse the power conffded to there, all
chance of appeal is literally shut out. All com-
plaint, even against themselves, is referred back to them
by the Governor, and their decision is anal. In a
great majority of instances, and always if the principal
is a perfectly honourable and intelligent and good-
natured man, no great injury may ensue from this course
of practice ; but should it happen to be otherwise, then
the consequences may be serious indeed, not to an in-
dividual merely, but to the well-being and contentment
of the whole establishment. A case which has just
occurred, will be the best illustration of the preceding
remarks. _ .

Among *te recent alterations, termed improvements;
in the management of business at the Beak, was one
lately introduced into the " sorting-office," but in which,
as is alleged, no efficient check on the clerks, as is in-
dispensable in all such offices, being established, the
whole of those employed, if any notes are missing, are
exposed to suspicion, and any individual might be liable
to a charge of fraud without any means of refuting it.
Short]; after this new arrangement had been at work a
5!. note was missed, but seems to have been returned into i
the goaeral.mass a day or two after, as the balance was
then tq that amount in excess. The incident, however, was
studs the subject of a species of general charge against
the clerks so employed, who were told separately by th,
superintendent of the office, that it had been traced
further than he chose to say, upon which the construc-
tion put by the clerks was, that the remark was dictated
rather by his mortmeation at finding the plan thus im-
perfect, than any actual belief in the commission of
fraud. The whole was, as the entire body of clerks be-
lieve, an accident. A day afterwards, however, a Mr. G.
Duff, one of their number, was removed to another and
less important office, whence it was inferred generally
throughout the Bank that he lay at least under the
suspicion of having abstracted the note in question. A
ruinour of this having reached Mr. Duff, he proceeded
to the head office, and requested to know for what
reason he had been removed to another office, which
was, however, refusal, and Mr. Duff, finding himself
labouring under a sort of reproach connected with this
affair, for which be could obtain neither explanation nor
redress, at length addressed a letter to the Governor of
the Baek, of whifsh the following is an extract :
.; Having, on the 23d of October, been unexpectedly or-
dered to leave the Sorters'-ofnec, and to proceed to the
Accounts Drawing-office, entirely out of the course of
seniority, and finding an impression prevalent in the mind,
of my fcllow-cleiks that the reason of my removal was
some suspicion against see is repaid to a note which bad
ben abstracted and afterwards replaced with the intention
of foiling the plea of the Sorters'-(.ffiee, and having in Vdih
cpplhel for the reason of my removal, although the painful
feature of the case seas stated to him, my mind has been
so nysch distressed as to cause serious illness. I therefore
Irtm.bly trg that you sell be pleased to accept my rcaina-
tion, as I am quite incapable of performing my duties
with such a stigma resting o■ my character."
To this very sensible, and indeed almost affecting,

appeal, no answer was r. turned for three tvcck,,
a personal interview. was solic►ted, at cvl►.cn the appli-
cAut was told that :he tvliole case was known to the

Governor, and that hi, resignation was a:ceptetl..
Nox, it :lily laid be laid down as a mist sound
general rule in ail sue:: matter_, that there ought to be
no interference between an employer and the person
employed, but there are several reasons which mak
this ease an exception to it. The first and strongest
ii the fret that the treatment of this individual is Con-
sidered by nearly the v.hole of the clerks in the esta,
hiishiwnt to affect thttn, cud in some degree to

grade and alt,r their po,sit:on, so much so that s:-
rera►l of theta ha,i prepr,sed to proceed in a body to
the
,Governor in order -to protest against it, and vrere
only prevented from ch;i:ig 10 at the iostance of the
'thirty aggrieved ; next, there is to be colsidered the
great- probability, under all the eirentnstances stated,
thitt neither ilia Govetnor nor any of the Board of

Directors have the remotest iilea of an act al
it:loath:a Karin;; been committed ; and, finally, •
that there rem:airs in that case no medium but the
pros' through which n rehrarirg of the case can h,
obtained, and justice done to the injured intli6dua!,
stould he really stand in the situation he has de-
s;rtae 1. rendering s: h amends to him, the whole
corps ct clerks will he gratified and conciliated, and a
real service be conferred on the governing body itse.li.
It r ill bo remembered that in conseqlence of the
aine•iß.ltietion telt by the merchants on the last d.-
livery oi the letters received by the overland mail,
at the delay oecasicocd by the preference given to the
sea-ritute, a letter was n..i.ircs.;std to the Peat-offive on
the subject by the Eist India and C..ina AssnciA-
-IE..
non. . To this letter the fullowins answer has been re-
ecived

Gancral Pest-cffice, Dec. 23; IS-LO

" Sir,--Having submitted to the Postmaster-General
your letter cf the 12th inst., I stn directed to inform you
that his Lordship is quite unable to account for the recent
departure from the inslractions, as to the transmission of
the Indian mailA..i•ia Marseiles, nu(' I am, at the same
Ptitne, desired t9miCthat the subject vras uirler his Lord
ship's aetieut consideration and inquiry.
" I am, Sir, &c.,

"THOMAS L'AWILEN.CI?., S.:Tretacy.
" John Stikeman, Esq., East India ani
China Assuciation."

A new species of security has been introduced into
the Stock-Exchange, called Trinity Pods. They are
issued on account of the erection of lighthouses and
beacons on various points on the coast of the United
Kingdom, and arc understood, though that is not at
present quite certain, to. have the guarantee cf the Go-
vernment They ere to bear ictcrest at 4 pir cont., and
the holders will have the power of requiring payment
in full after six months' notice. No quotation of them,
however, has as yet been given.

POST.—The English funds, after some• fluctuation
Leing the day, closed under much depression. Sales
of Console to a large amount were effected at prices
rane,ing between and 86 for the opening, though for
what amount did not transpire. An increase in the
amount of the floating debt was again talked of as pro-
bable at no distant period, and it is surmised by those
who calculate on such an event that operations in the
funded securities may have been resorted to as a prepa-
ratory measure ; but upon the point, whether or not
they emanated from the Savings Banks' Commissioners
or from private parties who may have obtained a know-
ledge of the moves of the Government, no opinion was
hazarded. hints that pass from one to another,
as conveying a possiUe solution of the cause of the de-
c;ining action of the markets, are repeated here as they
are given, but more in the way of Stock Exchange gos-
sip than as approaching to auything that can be de-
pended on as a guide. We may add, however, that
among the on din in circulation was a report of the
Corporation of the Triaity House being about. to raise
a loan at four per cent, interest for the term of seven
years. The object of such a loan is not apparent.
A cerrespondeut who calls himself " An Old Baltic
Trader" addresses us in broken English, complairing of
what has been stated under this head in relation to the !
corn trade. He does not, indeed, pretend to deny that 1
debts are contracted in the continental markets through 1
the dealings of our speculators, as would, we may con-
ceive, be the case were the feet not notorious to the
jartior clerks of every counting-house in the City. It i!,
however, asserted that the extent of the business done
laws been grossly exaggerated. This foreign " trailer"
katees so very little of the subject on which he write",
or makes the statement he does with so little regard to
honesty, that, while he admits the establishment of a
drawling account in the northern corn districts, he would
Convey to else minds of our readers the notion that such
a circumstance is one that can have nothing whatever to
do with the exportation of specie. The truth of this he
would demonstrate by affirming that " of the quantity of
foreivi grain which arrives in British ports, not one
tajf ri on English account at all, the principal portion
lacing consipned by Bahia speculators for their own ac-
as if that mall make any difference.
clue and risk,"
These supplies of grain have equally to be paid fOr by
the consumers of this country. The anxiety professed
by the " Baltic trader," who argues in this manner to
set our readers right, is really not a little amusing, The
" Baltic trader" says nothing of the combination of in-
terests called a " club," or company, through the in.
Silence of which the duties are forced up in England,
and the pricer of grain are forced down in the north of
Europe ; but that such combination exists is
altlaough it may nt ha easy to prove that it is in a
formal aud recognised shape. The understandings on
'Change between the principal houses in the trade, as
regards the points to be advised from post-day to post-
daY, are supposed to fora: the principal part of the ma
chincry by which their objects ore accomplished.
Whatever odium attaches to the empartetion of the
metals is, according to the " Baltic trader," to be cast
exclusively on thous who. undertiake the merely raecha-
njqal tweeds of putting them on board a vessel, and
'.l.es tale of them. He says upon this point
" 'A° Jeve-merchants (I mean Chr:stians as well as
IsracijlteS if the
C:itY) „ohne ate the exporters of the pre-
(Poo metal of tills kingdom. For the sake of one per
cent, they Would
empty the Bank coffers, one and all
alike. Whil:e2°s „lia Hull not open his eyes to tea and
read the riaril of the City houses that daily and wctlcl.
slapo. the cum ? That a great d:al is often shipped to
greatly to be
our eirlienies is deplored, but the general
run of exportation er th-e'precieus metal is mere mer-
cantile prcfrt-sccl:ng of the rich houses in the