The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-03 00:00:00

BANK IN A HAT.

(From " Sutherland's Loose Leaves," a pamphlet pub-
lished in New York, commeiaorative of the progress,
in 1838, of banking in Michigan, and rebellion in
Canada.)
There had been created in Michigan, by an Act of
a recent Legislature of the State, what was called a
general banking system,' which had about this time got
into full operation. Under this law, associations for the
issue of bills were formed and established in multiplicity
throughout the State. During my stay in Michigan,
I visited one village in the interior, having no more than
500 or 600 inhabitants, in which there were then no
less than four of these banks, as they were denominated.
Other villages, containing half the number of inhabi-
tants, had two, three, and so on, and a number of places
I passed through on my perambulations in the State,
existing as villages only in name (as they contained no
more than four or five habitations each), had also each
their bank.
" The bills issued by these concerns, which bore
the style of safety fund banks'—but more generally
known by the name of wild cat banks'—and their
notes by the denomination of ' wild cat money'—
were in most extensive circulation. And as the flood-
ing of the State with these bills had had the effect
to banish therefrom all better currency, the bills,
however questionable in character, were, by the people,
cx xecessitatis, universally received and accepted as a
currency for the ordinary transaction of business. Why
these institutions of Michigan were called wild cat
banks' I was never informed, and could not now even
conjecture, unless it was that their location, or the
places from which many of the bills of the wild-cat
money' in circulation were issued, were matters of as
much uncertainty, and as difficult to be arrived at, as
was the whereabouts of the animal whose name they had
been made to assume.
" But banking and bill-making associations were not
the only incorporations that the Legislature of the new
State of Michigan had been prolific in bringing into
existence. Railroad incorporations flourished almost as
extensively as 'wild-ca‘, banks,' and if there had been
railroads as abundant as railroad incorporations, there
had been less complaint and delay on account of the
mud by which Detroit was surrounded. However,
among the number of railroads for the construction of
which incorporations had been formed, there was one
to extend from Detroit to the village of Pontiac, some
twenty miles or more to the north. This road had been
graded for about half its distance from Detroit—and
upon such part rails were laid for one track, on which
the company constructing the road had commenced
running a single car at stated times for the conveyance
of passengers as far as Royal Oak. The remaining
part of the route to Pontiac was supplied by an ordi-
nary lumber waggon as a means of conveyance.
" On a day appointed for the car to run upon this
road, I concluded I would endeavour to make my way
as far as Pontiac by means of these public conveyances,
and took a seat in the car for Royal Oak. Other than
myself, there were but two passengers in the car. The
one of these, by the side of whom I was placed, was a
young gentleman, apparently in the last of his teens.
The other a young lady, who was, perhaps, his junior of
two or three years. On my first entering the car, I
guessed the two to be a brother and sister, but it was
soon made known to me that the individuals bore a
nearer and closer relation to each other ; and from their
bland and polished manners, they were, to me, very
agreeable and amusing road companions. They told me
that they were very recently from the city of New York,
and had taken up a residence at the village of Royal
Oak, where our ride upon the railroad would terminate.
" While the car rolled on by the agency of a one-
horse power, the conversation, in which both my fellow- ,
passengers engaged with true American ease and socia-
bility, turned upon the operation of the' general bank-
ing system' of Michigan, and the universally deranged
state of the currency which then existed in the country ;
and although they were both of an age that did not al-
low them a legal majority, the gentleman nevertheless
spoke more advisedly of those matters than I had often
found it done by intelligent persons of a more perfect
age—and in the matters of exchange, loans, and dis-
counts, the lady showed herself no less learned than
her lord.
" From the drift of the conversation which had been
carried on, with the fact that my fellow passengers
were, as they had informed me, recent emigrants from
the city of New York, I had drawn the conclusion that
the young gentleman was engaged in the retailing of
merchandize—and of this I ventured to inquire ; when
I was informed by him that he was the cashier of one of
the banks established under the general banking sys-
tem,' located at Royal Oak ; and the lady produced
from
her reticule one of the bills of their bank, and exhibited
it to me. So far as the bill was concerned, it was a
very handsomely executed engraving, with a beautiful
vignette. A. very pretty thing it was, and so was the
lady. Then, as I was advised we were near our stop-
ping, I put my head out of the window of the car in
order to get a view of the village. From the name it
bore, and the fact of its being the location of a bank, I
had expected to see something of a place ; but, to my
surprise, I beheld little else than stumps and trees.
The village was merely a cleared spot upon a plain,
without stores, shops, or dwelling-houses, save a single
dwelling, then kept as a public-house, with the barn and
shed belonging to it, and a shed for the housing of the
railroad cars-
" So extraordinary did this place seem to me for the
' location of a bank, that, as the car was stopped, I was
induced to inquire if we had really arrived at the village
of Royal Oak? Being answered in the affirmative,
and seeing nothing that looked like a banking-house, or
office, I asked—' Where do you keep your bank ?'
Oh !' replied the lady, my husband keeps the bank
in his bat.' "

CORN PROSPECTS.—For the last two years the
harvests having proved defective, an immense amount
of gold has been abstracted from circulation to purchase
corn in the Continental markets. This has necessarily
curtailed the circulation, and raised the discounts upon
first-rate commercial bills, while all others have been
rejected by the banks. Manufacturers and merchants
have been consequently fettered, and the operations of
trade to a great extent suspended, and in many places
broken up. For the frequent recurrence of this state
of things, as Lord Monteagle justly remarked on almost
his last appearance in the House of Commons, the
English traders must be prepared, until foreign
wheat is allowed to be exchanged for English manu-
factures, instead of compelling its purchase with gold.
Judging from the agricultural reports, we fear the com-
ing season will be as unpropitious kr agricultural pro-
duce as those of 1838 and 1839. At Mark-lane, we
are assured that very extensive contracts have been en-
tered into for forward delivery of corn at foreign ports,
in the expectation that notwithstanding the depressive
effect of the large proportion of inferior grain, the ave-
rages will so advance as to cause foreign corn to be
admitted at a low duty. We may therefore look for a
continuance of, and even an increase of, the pressure on
the money market, arising from the export of gold for
the purchase of corn, and with it the ruinous results to
those of our manufacturers who have hitherto managed
to maintain their standing, and increased privation and
distress to the people in their employ.—Evening Paper.
ELECTRICAL EXCITEMENT IN LEATHER BY
FRICTION.—The Rev. Thomas Drury, under date of
Dec. 17, 1838, at Keighley Rectory, Yorkshire, Eng-
land, communicates the following fact to Dr. Faraday.
He speaks of what he terms an extraordinary electrify-
ing machine, which is no other than a leathern strap
which connects two drums in a large worsted mill in the
town of Keighley. " The dimensions and particulars
of the strap are as follows :—lt is in length 24 feet ;
breadth, R inches ; thickness, k inch ; it makes 100
revolutions in a minute. The drums, over which it
passes at both ends, are two feet in diameter, made
of wood fastened to iron hoops, and turning on iron
axles ; these drums are placed at ten feet distance
from each other, and the strap crosses in the middle be-
tween the drums,'where there is some friction ; the strap
forming a figure of eight. There is no metal in con-
nexion with the strap, but it is oiled. If you present
your knuckle to the strap above the point of crossing,
brushes of electrical light are given off in abundance,
and when the points of a prime conductor are held near
the strap, most pungent sparks are given off to a knuckle
at about two inches. I charged (says Mr. D.,) a Ley-
den jar of considerable size in a few seconds by present-
ing it to the prime conductor. The,:gentleman who told
me of this curious strap has frequently charged his elec-
trical battery in a very short time frcm it, and he in-
formed me that it is always the same, generating electri-
city from morning to night, without any abatement or
alteration. If this strap had the advantage of silk flaps
and a little amalgam, it would rival the machine in the
lecture-room in Albemarle-street."—Ameriean Journal.

TILE BARON GERAMB.—Many of our read-
ers must remember this eccentric individual, whose
career in London caused so much excitement in the
world of gaiety and fashion. What will be their sur-
prise to learn that the ultra man of fashion is metamor-
phosed (by some extraordinary circumstances with
which we are unacquainted) into the rigid anchorite,
and that he has entered that abode 01. the most self-
denying enthusiasts on the earth, the celebrated monas-
tery of La Trappe, and, in the fervour of his devotion,
has made a " pilgrimage" to the Holy Land, of which
he has written an account, announced fbr immediate
publication in London. Report speaks highly of it, as
illusti sting, with a truly religious feeling, the present
condition of the ever-interesting localities of Scripture.
The production of such a work from such a pen will un-
questionably be chronicled amongst the most remarkable
" curiosities of literature."
A Society held at the King's Arms, Hounds-
ditch, called the " Harmonious Knights of Benevo-
lence," and consisting
chiefly of Jews, have, to their
credit, distributed among the poor, within the last two
months, 500 quarters loaves and 20 tons of coals.
It is known everywhere on the Continent, in all
Courts, great and small, that the three Cobourgs, father
and two sons, are to arrive about the 20th of January,
and that the marriage is to take place on the Bth of
February. _Correspondent of the Brighton Gazette.