The Sun.
London, England, 1840-11-16 00:00:00

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

(SATURDAY EVENING.)
C H RONICL E.—We trust that the directors have
been enabled to induce their branches to follow the
stringent policy adopted at head quarters. It is well
known that some country establishments who may be
properly classed under the denomination of " branch
banks," inasmuch as they issue none but Bank of Eng-
land paper, have an interest in doing the largest amount
of discount business when the state of the exchanges
makes it prudent for the Bank management to reduce
the amount of their circulation, because by agree-
ment with these establishments they have the use of
the notes of the Bank of England at a fixed per
centage to a fixed amount, for a stipulated pe-.
riod, and thus, when a rise takes place in the value of
money, their profits rise along with it, so that the
greater the amount of discounts which they ne7otiate
when money is scarce, the higher their profit. This is
one of the errors which the Bank Directors committed
in times past, through the clashing of their private and
public interest, which is now proved beyond doubt by
the report of the Committee on banks of issue, where
it is shown that the operations of the country discount
department of the Bank is generally in direct opposition
to that of the Bank parlour, the former having been at
the maximum amount when the bullion has been at a
minimum.
We give the Directors credit for being now sensible
of their past blunders in this department. But their
repentance has been tardy, for it is not above twelve
months since we had good reason to know that the)
were obstinate in error, as a reference to our columns
about that period will demonstrate. We are quite
aware that the branch Banks have been profitable auxi-
lirries. Their business is also increasing, and they,
perhaps, are necessary to keep the field against rival
establish rats, but this is no tenable ground for the
Bank of England to maintain in its public capacity.
The reasons which may influence its directors, with a
view to the profit of the shareholders, are inadmissible
as arguments to support the directors in the policy
which should guide them as managers of the national

currency.
When the exchanges are unfavourable, and the
specie is leaking off, the position of the Bank of Eng-
land by means of these branch banks is most unsatis-
factory. At present the refusal of' the Manchester
branch to do discount business is loudly complained of
by the mercantile classes there, and yet the Manager
is only acting as he ought, and in the manner which
sound policy dictates. But this mixing up of dis-
count operations with the legitimate business of the
Bank of England, as the national bank of issue, ex-
pow., it to constant animadversion when there is a
pressure for money, and shows plainly the necessity fo'
applying a legislative remedy to separate its private am.
public functions.

POST.—The funds were drooping to-day in ho
markets, but the change since yesterday was more par.
titularly seen in the Foreign House, where everythins
was again quite depressed, and strongly in contrast witt
the then encouraging prospects of parties operating fo:
the rise.
The bonds issued by Count Toreno, in thc'year 1834
and for which the par price of 601. per cent. was paid
it
this country for the purpose of enabling the Spanish Go-
vernment to carry on the war of succession again s:
Don Carlos, are now mcdestly termed " foreign
bonds" by the honest people of Madrid, and, as w,
tooted two days ago an effort was about to be made, it.
cons quence of the influx of some small amount of then,
wet haps 2,0001. or 3,0001. nominal) from Paris, to pu,
a e.'op to any further competition of the same kind
The ergement used in support of this scheme of exclu-
sion is that according to the law of the Cortes, tie
Toren° raper of 1834 is entitled only to an " inscrip-
tion nonn'netive," not negotiable, but that Seno
San IsliParr issued, before his retirement Iron
the nuance department, a Royal order, entitling it t,
be converted ;nto five per cent. home stock, whiel,
being negotieble, and the price having been, at Paris
"I, whilst at Madeid it was 25 or 26 per cent.,
quantity of it had been presented for conversion
we operation yielding to the French speculator a clew
profit of 3 or 4 per cent. Under these circumstances
it is found convenient to the conscientious gentlemen te
tM,aL to declare Senor San M;llen's Royal order it
itgel, and the new Minister of Finan tt'. Gamboa, is me
ereilised to negative the effect of it by issuing
cou.tter order. To crown all, it is urge,i, in illustrz,
the beneficial result to he derived from sure
counter• order, that had the balsa not been subject t,
the coe-oetition of the " foreign bonds" in question
the home Actives would have risen to 30 per cent.
So, then,. after inundating the markets of London
Paris, Brus,:e!s, Antwerp, and Amsterdam, first open'y
end next cla,edestinely, with these obligations, for the
chief part of stehich 60/. per cent, was taken in gold.
and upon which 251. is now due in interest, making et
tot-al of 851. per and through the non-payment it
an; part of which thousands of families have been pat
perised, an uproar is made, because, indeed, a few pal.
try thousands of realer Are sell: back to be sold at 251.
per cent., the foreigner sustainiog, by his misplaced con-
fidence in Castilian honour, a loss- of 60/. per cent., r
the whole of the capital originali.:l paid over to the
contractors for the prosecution of the ever, and for the
maintenance of the Queen's army.
Spanish stock is apparently once /Mr c, the rage in
this market, and we dare say fresh dupes -id presently
triad themselves entangled in it. We have, t otwever, so
effectually exposed the game that is playing as ,‘.O render
it impossible, we should hope, that a single relti.er of
this journal can be cf the number.
Tile contractors do not, we are to recollect, undte-
take to interpret the Spanish laws ; and to appeal tej
them upon the subject of the present movement woufi
be unavailing. Any reference to General Alava would' '
prove equally fruitless ; but, if the British Ambassador I
at Madrid be of any use whatever, he will take care
diet the fresh injustice which the Spaniards are seekinn-
.to do his countrymen shall not be done without remon-
strance or with impunity. It behoves Mr. Thornton
and his committee to be vigilant, and we would recom-
mend them to put themselves in communication with.
,Mr. Aston upon the points adverted to.
The French committee have made but little demon-
strsaion of energy since the death of Doctor Paradise
the, late Chairman, whose losses and anxieties, arising
out of the treachery of the Spanish Government.
brouneiet him prematurely to the grave ; but it is again_
under the presidency :of an able, enterprising man, and
we are much mistaken if any disqualifying order of the
nature ca" the one alluded to, will be quietly endured by
this spirite d body.
A meetiog of the holders of Portuguese and Spanish
Treasury Bands will be found advertised in another
part of our paper. Great activity will be required in
order to preveuc the merging of these special and dis-
tinct interests in the general mass of Ake foreign debts
of the two nations. Holders not residing at a great
distance should attend by all means to protest against
so flagrant an act of dishonesty. The bondholders at
istrge should, moreover, make common cause with their
fellois-sufferers if they would have their own more con-
siderable claims respected. The wholesale system of
plunder and fraud now practising by Spain and Portugal
must be attacked at every point, or the fatal e:utmple
will he sure to extend itself to other quarters.
Mr. William Elliot. of Weymouth (banker), ruh-
Fishes a letter, addressed to the Chancellor of the l'x-
chequer, on country banking affairs, and the projects ti
establishment of one general bank of issue. The write.'
defends the country bankers from the charge alleged
against them of extending their accommodation to a
point calculated to embarrass the monetary concerns
of the kingdom. He denies distinctly that there has,
• in his vicinity, been any excess in the issue of notes, and
his assertion is, we doubt not, entitled to the fullest
credence. It is not in a quiet town like Weymouth
that anything very objectionable in banking matters
is to be looked for, but Mr. Elliot is not pre-
pared, we apprehend, to answer for the uniform cir-
cumspection of his brethren in the north of Eng-
land. It is an established fact that the extrava-
gances committed by the banking interests in that part
of the country have had the effect of keeping up the
prices of all kinds of foreign commodities at an undue
elevation, thereby all but annihilating the export trade of
the manufacturer, and of forcng gold from the cotrers of
the Bank of England, in defiance of every effort of the
Directors to prevent it. Foreign grain, cotton, .eilk,
indigo, wine, spirits, and every other foreign article' of
merchandise, as well as foreign labour, and above ill,
foreign mock and share proPerty, has been paid for: si
inordinate rates in gold. The e;lcanarise from so
excese of bank issues alone. The bankers in the note h,
especially' the issuing joint-stock bankers, have be
running a race with each other in making advane es
rashly and recklessly upon all these things. T.
e,!itor of The Sun conceives that the paper Circulatic te
of he Bank of England ought to be sixty million n
instead ocoixteen, and that the institution is worth:
of no Aspect on account of the niggardi
ness of its paper c nag(' Our Contemporary meat s
well we have little question ; but, were his opinions t e
be acted upon, a very short perseverance in the systeri,
they embody would serve effectually to starve the poor,
and to involve the country in the consequences of a
general bankruptcy and civil war. Mr. Ellio: says quite
enough to exculpate the old Bank of Weymouth trout
al blame, and, in the selection of his concluding extras -
from Adam Smith, were the practice of the last ten
years not twist thoroughly at variance with the theory it
conveys, he might have acted wisely in bringing forward
that eminent person as a witness in favour of country-
hAulting, as conducted upon the broader principle, the
defence of which he hos undertaken. The letter is a
compound of palpable misconceptions, but- there is, ne-
vertheless, an air of honesty about it seldom to be met
with in this class of publications.

HgRALD.—The funds dial of the Globe editorial
for retle,-.ling the sunny splendours of the policy Palmer-
stonian is. Dre;cast to-day , for after some trivial fluctu•
ntioni Col tsols receded to 894 to .; for money and time,
leating " foreign policy" at a discount of pc
cent. upon yesterday's quotations.
Sotne se 3 sation was excited in the City by the pub-
A
lication oF dmiralty notice to the officials at all the

outports, urging the most strenuous efforts for the en- -
Estment of seamen, under the favourable circumstances
presented by the necessary stoppage of the navigation
at this season of the year to the north of Europe, by
which the merchant shipping carrying on that trade
would to a great extent be unemployed and
the hands consequently disengaged. It is known
that for some time past the Lords of the Admiralty, as
indeed all the officers of that department, have been
occupied most laboriously and incessantly in the en-
deavour to recover lost ground, by fitting out for im-
mediate service every vessel of war disposable, and
putting others into a more active state of preparation
for service afloat. It is understood also that great
attention is now, somewhat about the eleventh hour,
directed to furnishing the dockyards and arsenals
with more complete assortments of naval stores and
munitions of war. "My Lords" seem determined to
earn their salaries!this year fairly, so far as hard work,
if never before, for they are in attendance daily at the
Board, it is said, from ten in the morning until eight in
the evening, without once budging from the desk.

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS'

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
(From the Morning Herald.)
The exposition of certain transactions connected
with the dealings of a concern in the City, calling itself
the British and Australasian Bank, which has recently
been made at the Mansion House, and which we re-
ported at considerable length, naturally excited a good
deal of public attention. It was evident that the incul-
patory statements made by Mr. Alderman Pirie, by
Mr. Ashurst, and Mr. Beddome, could not rest where
they were. Either the managers of the concern, which
had been made the subject of charges imputing, at least,
serious irregularities in their mode of doing business,
must give a satisfactory answer to those charges, or
other proceedings must be taken for the protection of
the public interests. It was thought that some answer or
explanation] was about to be given, when an advertise-
ment appeared calling a meeting of the shareholders of
the British and Australasian Bank for Saturday last at
the office of the establishment in Nloorgate-street. As
we had published the proceedings at the Mansion
House, we thought it only fair to give a report of what-
ever took place at that meeting, which was presumed
to have been convened for the purpose of meeting the
charges there made, and offering matter in defence or
exculpation. But so far were the Proprietors and Share-
holders of the bank in question from duly appreciating
the valuable service which the press could render them
by giving immediate publicity and circulation to their
defensive statements, that they closed their doors against
the reporters of the journals, and repudiated the gratu-
Acus assistance tendered them by the organs of public
Tiuion in making their case known to the whole world.
We complain not of ingratitude in this matter. The
public will draw their own inference from the preference
of secrecy to publicity—of darkness to light
—which the parties concerned in the manage-
ment and character of the British and the Australasian
Bank have thus evinced. The reporters were told, as
a reason for not admitting them, that the meeting was
only one of Proprietors and Shareholders. Be it so.
The reporters had certainly not qualified by being
holders of shares. If they had, they would not have
',seen the most proper persons to be the medium of
communication between the bank and the public. It
was precisely because they were not Shareholders that
the public would place most reliance upon the impar-
tlality of their reports. We now tell the parties respon-
:ible for the management of a banking concern against
which such serious complaints have been made as those
contained in the Mansion House reports, t hat the pub.
de expect a full and explicit answer to the charges pub-
licly made by such respectable authorities as Alderman
Pirie, Mr. Ashurst, Mr. Beddome, and Mr. Richards ;
irel if that answer is not given, no secrecy, no mysti-
tic vien wiil avail them—much less will it benefit them
o endeavour to sileece the press by threatening actions
for libel. We, at all events, shall not be prevented
from doing cur duty to the public by resorting without
rear or favour everything that publicly transpires, tend-
ing to throw light upon the real state and transactions
of an establishment in which the interests of many of
our emigrant countrymen, and they not of the richest
class, are invoiced, and who shall not be left to their
fate without redress or protection. The real character
of the transactions revealed at the Mansion House we
will not now more particularly describe. We wait to
see whether they are denied or satisfactorily explained.
If not, and that within a reasonable time, the holding
of meetings of Proprietors and Shareholders with closed
doors will not satisfy any body—and, least of all, the
actual sufferers.
(From the Morning Advertiser).
Alderman Harmer has declared his intention to re-
sign the Aldermanic gown, and in doing so has evinced
:hat high spirit which has been the great characteristic
of his life. There runs through his letter of i esigna-
tion a strong feeling—an honourable conviction that he
has done his duty as a public officer—that ho has been
wronged by base calumny and political hostility. Mr.
Harmer must be re-elected, even although he himself
may refuse to he a candidate. The electors of the
Ward of Farringdon owe this to themselves, to the
justification of their former choice of Nina—they owe it
to the cause of justice : it is essential, in order to show
the world that malice and a vindictive spirit, although
they may wound an honourable man, yet cannot de-
stroy him, nor long be triumphant. Let then, ihe
friends of justice immediately rally and canvass for Ar.
Harmer, and once more elect him Alderman of he
Ward. It would be deplorable. indeed, were the t cv
deprived of the services of a gentleman so talented eed
so charitable and humane as Mr. Harmer.
(From the Times.)
The recant sentence passed by the Livery of Lce-
d„,l ):as now taken full effect. Mr. Harmer has re-
signed the aldermanic gown, which it had been more
for his ovra comfort and the City's credit if he had
never been persuaded to accept. We war not with the
fallen ; and, least of all, with such as exhibit any signs
of repentance. This last act of Mr. Harmers is the
most praiseworthy, As well as the most sensible, that
lie has given as ocCaSiOrl to record. It releases him
from the grave perplexity of next year's choice, either
to decline a contest, and thus admit his disgrace, or to
meet it, at a vast expense, and with, at least, the risk of a
second and more intolerable defeat. It releases the City,
also, from the possibility of cancelling, by any mistaken
relenting, next year, the deliberate decision in favour of
religion and loyalty which has illustrated its annals of
the year 1840. Of the late candidate we shall only re-
peat at parting what we have more than once distinctly
stated, that we have never attributed the crimes of the
Dispatch to himself as his personal acts, but that,
standing in the relation to that paper which he confes-
sedly did, it was impossible but that he should be held
:fairly responsible for its general character.
PROM THE DAILY PAPERS OF SATURDAY.
:
(From the Standard.)
1 The poll at Cambridge was resumed yesterday
morning, and we were enabled to communicate the
result in last night's Standard. As might have been
anticipated, the majority in favour of Lord Lyndhurst
was considerably increased before the close of the poll ;
it being exactly two to one. The learned and estim-
able Bishop of Lincoln walked into the Senate House
yesterday morning arm-in-arm with his Lordship,
and gave a vote in his favour, amidst the loud cheers
of the bystanders. Another gratifying fact in con-
' nection with this contest is worthy of mention. Lord
Lyndhurst polled the largest number of votes ever
recorded on behalf of any previous candidate. It
it; impossible to speak too highly of the zeal and
good feeling which have been exhibited through-
out the struggle by Lord Lyndhurst's supporters.
Before his Lordship's return to England, and before,
of course, his consent to become a candidate could be
knower, several of his friends—some of them wholly
unconnected with the University—pledged themselves
in the most handsome and liberal manner to form a gua-
rantee fund to cover the expenses which are inseparable
from all elections ; whilst many of the most respectable
inhabitants and tradesmen of Cambridge volunteered to
the Committee to furnish beds gratuitously to above 50
of the outvoters.
(From the Courier.)
The result of the Cambridge election is such as no
man ought to have been in doubt of from the corn-
. mencement. The triumph of Lord Lyndhurst has
been, as his eminent merits, signal and unrivalled,
but although no doubt could hang over the final
;result of the contest, it is only discharging a debt
'of common gratitude to record how much more
signally that triumph was rendered, than it might
have been, by the reaction in his favour of all
that unwearied malignity of personal abuse brought
to bear or rather sought to be, by the Ministerial
press against him. The Noble and Learned Lord was
even better served by his bitter foes than by his
most devoted friends, and the lesson may serve as
a warning hereafter how infinitely more service-
able is the malace and hate outrageous of an im-
potent and unprincipled faction than its warmest sup-
port. That truth must be felt by none more keenly
than that amiable as accomplished young Nobleman
Lord Lyttelton himself, whose cause had the misfortune
to be damaged still more than otherwise it would have
been by their fulsome, injudicious, and we believe, intru-
,i si ve and undesired advocacy. The event, adverse as it
m ay he to the flattering expectations in which he might
teiely indulge on the representations of partial friends'
) ei ne reflect no discredit upon him. Nay, honour may be cle- ,'
t ri veil from a contest with a competitor so eminent, and
of 114 h reputation so well earned and so long estab-
icing be,
dlt
as Lord Lyndhurst, Lsinynaidiheuvrsi(ti,
thhoeu though id e
rth defeat, has
* tataienis of a young Nobleman like LO and
Lyttelton tne,
'i Tice 1 before in University honours, that so large a body
eptshe
eroistro n,p,sor,itveasttlitene
or
ri
,m personalfaa.vo,r,
ui majority
1 of i c allied and distinguished
i atimajed, there can he no doubt, by conscientious cojnvicY-
htalivaen breycomrodteiav
.In feeling as,
Conservative
. :' ;.‘t"l'6l;,,Cerg:iatisoinitdnert,l:o:::ilcosornuutf6l:tdbreest, we hope, will now end even the recol-
differences:e,iy,hi v
eo f sentimentdi,vided th
I:3eneptohristet°secoafsei°anch candidate. Feese are nut times for
441 l=uring.

(From the Globe.)
Every fresh account from Canada indicates a return
of a better state of things, and a return, too, to that
more wholesome effervescence which belongs of right to
free Governments. The non-contents with the project
of the union of the provinces have, either in accordance
with the changed tone of their own feelings, or in sub-
servience to the sentiments of the constituents whose
suffrages they are soliciting, signified pretty generally
their adherence to the present Constitution. The news-
papers of both provinces teem with electioneering intel-
ligence and addresses ; and breathe principally a feeling
of impatience at the delay which must elapse before
the general election for the United Parliament shall
take place. It was expected that the Special Council
of the Lower Province would meet again before that
event, and pass some ordinances to put the two pro-
vinces in some respects on an equal footing, es-
pecially as regards the municipal institutions, the pro-
visions respecting which were rejected from the Union
Act. The incorporations of the cities of Quebec
and Montreal had been carried into effect ; and the ap-
pointment of the first Council, the members of which
had been named by the Governor-General, bad given
general satisfaction. They consist of a fair admixture
of French and British. These bodies had commenced
operations in a creditable, business-like manner. They
had formed themselves into committees for various pur-
poses, and seemed disposed to put to immediate use
their important functions. The opposition to the Union
Act, which had been struck up in one quarter, was a
faint attempt on the part of the promoters of the
French petition which was presented to Parliament
during the last Session, to renew that fruitless agitation.
It was seconded still more feebly by the French people.
Lord Sydenham had been returned to Montreal for
some time. He was ill at his arrival—so ill, as not to
be able to receive the demonstrations which the munici-
pal authorities and others desired to make by way of
greeting on his return. But though he suffered for
some time, he had regained his usual state of health.
The weather had become extremely cold, changing from
great heat to the opposite in the course of a few days,
and there was every prospect of an early and severe
winter.