The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-19 00:00:00

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
CHRONICLE.—We decline all notice or controversy under
this head, of mere matters of election. If the monopolists,
therefore, think they can derive any advantage from the degra-
dation of the City article of their leading journal into a mere
channel for electioneering purposes, they are welcome to it, and
shall enjoy the full benefit, for our part, unmolested. We
shall continue to direct our attention to matters more legiti-
mately connected with the Money Market, and to descrip-
tion of City news which may be supposed likely to. carry some
portion of general interest, as bearing upon the finance, the
trade, and commerce of the station. The field is wide and
large enough to afford us' ample materials for remark, with-
out trespassing on the business of other fellow-labourers in the
vineyard. We have devoted some articles lately more parti-
cularly to the banking interests,_ for the purpose of endeavour-
ing to convince them that they ought to make
common cause with the Executive and the people in
carrying a reform of the duties on imports, and a
revision generally of the tariff. We trust that we
have not been altogether unsuccessful in the ob-
ject of our wishes, although they may not have created a,
" complete ferment in the City," which one of our City erns-
temporaries modestly assumes to have been the immeditte re-
sult of his lucubrations on subjects, we must renserk, which
have no more affinity with the Money Market than fire has with
water. Whether our remarks have been successful in con-
vincing others of the truth of our opinions, time will show ;
but we have at least the satisfaction of knowing that they are
sincerely believed on our part, and-that they are distinctly and
clearly within the proper sphere of our department. We have
confined ourselves to a consideratiOn of the results which the
success of the Ministerial policy may have upon the Money
Market, and shall still adhere to that course of doctrine. In
doing so we have stated that we find a satisfactory reason for
the support which that policy has received from the leading
capitalists and bankers of the City, in the fact that a moderate
fixed duty on corn would relieve the Bank of England from
the recurrence of those drains upon its coffers which in 1839
reduced it to the verge of bankruptcy, and in the evi-
dent increase of banking business and profits which
would result from that change, and from the adoption of a more
liberal commercial policy, so as to unchain the productive ener-
gies of the people. We must not; however, judge entirely of
them by such views of self-interest. We shall not think so
badly of human nature as to believe that the leading men of
the City of London are barren of the milk of human kindness,
and that they have no bowels of compassion for the want and
destitution which as ail the thousands of operatives now wan-
dering in a state of starvation through the streets of our great
hives of population. Although the bankers of London may be
considered as the officiating priests at the great temple of mam-
mon, we are not to conclude that they have no thoughts of the
sufferings of those beyond its precincts, whom hard fate and
bad government have reduced to misery and despair. We be-
lieve, on the contrary, that all of the great leading nasneuttat
attended the meeting in the London Tavern were actuate by
higher views than the mere enlargement of their money bags.
They were actuated by the laudable and patriotic desire to feed
ti, hungry and to clothe the inked, and to improve the moral
and physical condition of their suffering fellow-countrymen.
TIAIES.—Some observations baying been made in the City
on the large difference between the quotations for money and
the account in the Consol Alatket when a money sale takes
place during the shutting of the books, it may be as well to
repeat that these sales cannot be made but on a very special
application, which must he approved by the Governor of the
Bank. An impression has gone abroad that such transactions
render the shutting merely nominal, but this is altogether a
mistake, as it is only a few dap ago that a broker was unable
to effect a sale, because he could not give a sufficient reason,
whereas in another operation he was able to obtain the de-
sired permission, because he pointed out the necessity of the
transfer. The effect of this limit to operations on the price of
Consols is, that the buyer,not being able to sell out imme-
diately, as when the books arc opened, but being compelled
to keep his capital locked up till the opening, requires some
equivalent for this disadvantage. Hence he pays a price some-
what lower than under ordinary circumstances, and this occa-
liens the difference mentioned above.
.The large number of persons of the humbler classes who
now find themselves a prey to money-lenders of the most op-
pressive and profligate character will not be gratified to per-
ceive the progress through the Legislature of a Bill to con-
tinue to January, 1844, the present law, by which certain
bills of Exchange and promissory notes are exempted from
the operation of the usury laws. The present system is one of
the most grinding that can be imagined. A young man who
is anxious to commence business, and wants a small sum
(say 1001.) to commence with, has not the slightest chance of
obtaining money under twenty per cent., and indeed may con-
sider himself exceedingly fortunate if he has to pay no higher
rate. It is said, that the usurers or their attorneys, for it is
generally one of the legal profession who is s.esn by the unfor-
tuna e borrower, arc so conscious that their demands will not
bear even a momentary investigation, that they will not allow
an applicant to reduce the interest they demand to anything
like a rate ; but ask for a round sum to be deducted at
once from the money they advance, without any consideration
on the subject. A correspondent writes, that on applying for
a sum of 601., he was at once asked for 4/. for three months,
and that on beginning to reckon what rate per cent. that was,
he was rudely interrupted by a remark that business was never
done in that way, but that he might either agree to give that
sum or close the transaction at once This proceeding might,
at the first glance, seem to be of no great importance, as of
course a sum of money remains the same, whether reduced to
the denomination of a per tentage or not ; but it is really
a good illustration of the principle on which the money-lenders
work, namely, that of seizing immediately on the necessities
of the unfortunate, well aware that a habit of refit ction might
in the end tetiou-ly injure their nefarious trade. It is to be re-
peated that money, being a standard of value, is in a different
predicament to articles of merchandise, and that a desire fir
some restriction on traffic in the former is quite consistent with
the advocacy of free trade.
SUN.—Nloney in the Stock Exchange seems easier, and as the
accounts from the manufacturing districts have been more
favourable within the last day or two, there is likely to be a bet-
ter feeling ere long among the commercial interests generally.
Political excitement is the chief bar to an n
improvement • I trade.
The Funds were firm to-slay, and in some instances a slight
advance °cent red. Consols were 89 to 89i buyers; Exche-
quer
Bills at. ss. to .7s. premium ; and the Reduced Three-
and-a-Half per Cents, at an improvement to 89i ; Exchequer
Bills weress. to 75. premium.
Foreign Stocks and Railway Shares ranged lower. Spanish
Actives at 214 to 22, Portuguese, New, at 33 rilexicanat
264 ; Chilian at 60%, and Dutch 'l'w 'd
a Hal per
Cents. at 52k. Great Western Railway Sharesian -ere 24hf to
251, prem., Brighton 61, and South Eastern 18wdise.
Bills of Exchange on the principal Continental Cities were
supported this afternoon at firm rates, viz., Paris 25f. 6,0 e. to
65f., Hamburgh 13 10i to ie Amsterdam 12 4i, and Frank-
furt ISO.

WATERMEN Alth LIGHTERMEN'S

AMS-. •
On Thursday the Second H
AOUSESnniversay Festival of this
Institution was celebrated at the London Bridge house
'ravens.

Alderman LUCAS, the President, in the Chair.
excel-
lent
banquet,.p\‘a
Upwards 200 gentlemen sat down to a most excel-
amongst whom were Messrs. Kemble and
young, the Members for East Surrey, Mr. Wood, M.P.
for Southwark, and Mn Woverley Attwood, the candi-
date for the City of London.
After the usual loyal toasts were drank,
The CHAIRMAN proposed " Success to the Institu-
tion," which had strong claims upon their benevolence.
It was to afford an asylum to the aged and decayed
watermen and lightermen, and their widows, of the river
Thames, who were deprived of the means of subsistence
by the advancement of science and theimprovements of
the metropolis. Their misfortunes were not of their
own generating, and therefore they had stronger claims
upon the feelings of the British community.—(Cheers.)
T here was no class of persons more meritorious, and to
none were trade and commerce more indebted.
Song by Mr. Hudson, composed by him expressly for
the occasion, which received immense applause.
Mr. KEMBLE, M.P., rose to propose the health of the
worthy Chairman, the flanider of the Institution, and he
was proud to see hint surrounded by so many assembled
-to support it.--(Clicers.) • There was no case of distress
but would meet with sympathetic alleviation in it.—
(Cheers.) It was' worthy of the character of English-
men, to afford an asylum to a class of men, in
their old age, whose active zeal was always prominent
in promoting the welfare of their fellow-men.---(Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN, in returning thanks, said that he
had passed the greatest part of his life amongst _those