The Sun.
London, England, 1840-08-12 00:00:00

'4-`t' ~

NING EDITION.

C:

/140— TW'a

:ARKET and CITY NEWS
(TIJESDAY EVENING.)

C HIM NICLE.—An amendment has been proposed
in the House of Lords relative to the Joint Stock
Banki og Companies' Bill of an iinpoqant character,
with •Nhich, on the motion of the Caancellor of the
Exch,:quer, we observe that the Commons have disa-
greed.. Lord Denman he'd, in a late case, that after
obta'.ning judgment against the public officer of such cor-
por:ations or copartnership, the creditor before pro-
ceeding in execution against the individual shareholders
WAS bound to give them notice, se ghat they might
have an opportunity of being heard. The House of
Lords wished to do away with this obstacle, and to
render the property of the whole copartners liable to
be taken in execution so soon as judgment was p o
nounced against *heir officer. Not only so, but they
proposed to make the clause applicable
.to all parties
who w shareholders at *he time when Judgment was
obtained.; although they might have ceased to hay.•
any connection with the concern without limitation of
time, whereas the liability is restricted at present to
suits raised within three years of the date when they
ceased to be partners of the company against whom
judgment may have been issued.
We aro not sure that the amendment proposed by
the Upper House should have been disagreed from,
when we reflect upon the loose manner in which joint-
stock banking has been freqneady conducted of late in
different parts of England. Parties become sharehol-
ders in joint-stock banks for the mere purpose of obtain-
ing pecuniary accommodation. A system of overdrafts
has been carried on in many instances, of the most im-
provident character. The capital of the concern is
often locked up in unsaleable securities, and the Di-
rectors then ha le recourse to drafts at two and three
months upon their London agents, which are largel3
accepted from the high commission. The consequence
is, that when pay-day comes the Directors are obliged
to make a sudden call upon the parties to whom they
have thus been enabled to make improper advances,
and failure to a large amount necessarily ensues. It is
time that _something should be done to put a check
upon the heedless manner Ia which the country joint-
stock banks are in the habit of making advances.

HERALD.—The Funds continue firm without any
material advance. The Royal Speech was not looked
upon with very particular favour, and it was especially
remarked that in the assurances of the friendly disposi-
tion of " Foreign Powers," the word "all" was omitted,
which was construed to point exclusively at France.
In noticing the Sub-Treasury Bill recently passed
by the Congress of the United States an opinion hai,
been expressed that it would end in establishing a Go-
vernment paper currency in lieu of the Rink paper
which has been the cause of so much public damage
and confusion. It is not pretended by this of course that
a State paper currency may not be better adapted as a
real sign and less fluctuating medium of money value to
the wants of the community, than the much abated,
often worthless, and ever varying values of the paper-
money promises of the thousand b inks of the union.
The utterly wretched and depreciated state of the paper
currency all over the United States rendered a correc-
tion necessary, and the more stringent and even penal
the better. To this length, however, federal legislation
was not sufficiently empowered, as States' rights would
have come into question, before which the authority of
the federation, as always happens, must have given
way. All that remained therefore was, as it would
appear, simply to have re-affirmed the constitutional
law, that customs duties, land sales, and ether revenue
payments, should only be receivable in the legal, that
is, the bard money currency, alone recognizable by the
State. Such in fact has been to a great extent the
practice during the two last years. There needed not,
therefore, the cumbrous machinery of a Sub-Treasury
Bill to effect an object so simple in itself, and already
established as a principle of the institutions of the
country, had no other ulterior design been contemplated,
or had Van Burea, General Jackson, and the other hard
money men, deceptiously so styling themselves, really,
however secretly, had no other project in view. But who-
ever considers with care the enactments of the Sub-
Treasury Bill cannot fail, with all its studied pretence
and affectation of rigorous adhesion to principle, to
perceive that while one thing is avowed and prominently
put forward another is in reality meant. As witness
the far-fetched and ridiculous solicitude with which pro-
vision is vaguely attempted to be made for enforcing
the prompt presentation and payment of treasury
drafts, by way of proving the still inextinguishable
hatred of anything in the shape of a paper circulation,
in the following clause of the Bill :

" &c. 23. And be it further enacted, that it shall be
the duty of the Seeretary of the Treasury to issue and
publish regulations to enforce the speedy presentation of
all Government drafts for payment at the :place where
payable, and to prescribe the time, according to the dif-
ferent distances of the depositaries from the seat of go-
vernment, within which all drafts upon them, respectively,
shall be presented for payment; and, in default of sudis
presentation, to direct another mode and place of payment
which he may deem proper; but in all those regulations
and directions,; it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the
Treasury to guard, as far as may be, against those drafts
being used or thrown into circulation, as a paper currency,
or medium of exchange."
It is no other than a gross absurdity to pretend to fix
any determinate time for the presentation of a treasury
draft of this description, after which its payment should
be refused. Such a limit in public as in private con-
cerns must be impracticable if attempted, and the re-
fusal of payment of a draft presented after maturity
would be no less an act of insolvency in a State than in
an individual. It is clear that in proportion to the opinion
of the solidity of such an instrument of exchange as a
treasury bill, would be its convenience, and therefore the
longer the period in which it would be kept in circula-
tion, as always like a Bank of England note convertible
into specie on demand. There is no law, and there
can be no law, in the United States, absolving the
Government from the payment or redemption of the
note at any period after maturity whenever presected.
An anomaly so extravagant would strike at the root
of all eredit whatever. Therefore it is, in the midst of
all his hypocritical pretence, pushed to such an extreme
of absurdity as to lay bare the latent meaning, that it
becomes evident the real design is, gradually and in a
way least likely to excite suspicion, to pave the way
for the establishment of a national and universal paper
currency. And such is the end of the hard money
farce and crusade as understood, enacted and carried
by General Jackson and Van Buren for purely party
purposes, and to throw dust in the eyes of the sage
Republicans in the shape of certain taking watchwords
meaning, like the " Appropriation Bill" here, nothing
more than to keep those in office who are there. As
bank p.iper will still remain in circulation all the same,
and as side by side with treasury u ,tes, it has been as
exuberant, or neatly so. as heretofore, it would appear
that the Sub-Treasury Bill in fact will exercise but an
insignificant influence in correcting the admitted evils
cf the circulation as nom existing.

TIMES.—By alvices from Harneurgh, the price of
gold is 427 per marls, which, at the English Mint
price of 3/. 178. IW-d. the ounce for standard gold,
gives an exchange of 13.6, and the exch :nge at Ham-
burgh on London at short being 13.5, it folloAs that
gold is 0.47 per cent. dearer at Hamburgh than in
London.

The premium on gold at Paris is 8 per mille, which,
at the English Mint price of 31. 17s. lOid. the ounce
for standard gold, gives an exchange of 9..5.3.5, and the
exchange at Paris on London at short being 2.5.171, it
follows that gold is 0.70 per cent, dearer at Pais than
in London.

The course of exchange at New York on London
is 107 per cent., and the par of exchange toetvveen
England acid America being 109 23 40 per ceni.., it
follcws that the exchange is 2.57 per cent. against
England.
The Royal speech was circulated its the city some
tine before the conclusion of business, but does not
appear to have made any great impression either way.
The jobbers, 'however, remarked on the omission of the
word " all" before the words " Foreign Powers" in the
second paragraph of the speech, as rather ominous, and
they are disposed to anticipate that, when fully col-
sidered, it may create some uneasy feeling with the pub-
lic. It is, perhaps, sufficiently explained by what is al-
ready known of the state of politics.
SUN

N.—The Foreign Exchanges
this afternoon. The rate on Paris declinedereagain heavy
to 251.
47ie., 50e.; on Amsterdam it was 121 a
burgh, 13 Bto ; and on Frankfort, to Ham-
The City politicians were chiefly occupied t
the discussion of a probable allusion in the 4:14"v in
Speech to the progress of the Treaty betweenlieetnh:
Great Powers on the Eastern Question, and the course
which the French Cabinet might have resolved upon
adopting. It seems, however, that the disclosures mtde
by the Foreign Secretary, the other night, in the Howe
of Commons, are all it is at present deemed advisable
to make. One good effect has resulted from her Ma-
jesty's Address, and this has been to establish firmness
in the public securities. Consuls opened rather heavily
this morning at 911, receded subsequently to 91, and
rallied to 913 for Money. For the 27th instant tha
lowest price of the day was 91-,1-, and the la...est 911,
buyers. The Reduced Three-and-a-Half per Cents.
declined to 100+ :12-, and the New Three-and-a-Half per
Cents. to 991 it, but the Three per Cent. Annuities
were still 912- to Exchequer Bills were firm at 24s
to 265. premium, and East India Bonds improved to Is
discount, and Is. premium.
Is Bank and India Stocks there was no business
done.