The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-23 00:00:00

I remain, Sir, your constant reader,
VANE LONDONDERRY.
IVynyard Park, Sept. 21.

(Copy.)
TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING POST.

Sir,—Your leading articTe- of the 18th inst. has
filled my mind with the most unmeasured surprise.
You state your belief of the arrival in town of a de-
putation from Newcastle-on-Tyne, for the purpose of
representing to her Majesty's Government the dis-
tressed state of the coal proprietors.
Without presumption I may be permitted to ob-
serve, as connected with, and now directing, one of
the oldest and largest collieries in the north of Eng-
land, that I have never heard one word of such de-
putation, nor believe in orn iota of the distress pro
claimed by you in any one of the great collieries in
this district.

True it is that I perceive with amazement in the
Newcastle Journal of the 18th, that a meeting had
been convened for the purpose of petitioning the Go-
vernment for monetary aid for general commercial,
manufacturing, and mining interests (as the resolu-
tions agreed to state). But I beg to declare this was
not a meeting of coal owners alone, but of gentlemen
of all classes and descriptions engaged in the com-
merce of this country.
Indeed, with the exception of the (certainly very
respected) chairman, Mr. Bell, I do not find the
maines of any one large proprietor, only those of
viewers and gentlemen who have speculated largely
in shares in the numerous small collieries that have
been lately opened out in Northumberland and Dur-
ham. In justice, therefore, to others and myself, who
have neither been consulted or advertised of these
proceedings, and who utterly deny the existence of
coal owners' distress, as _they disapprove of this pro-
ceeding, I am bound most strongly to protest against
your leading article.
In my judgment the coal trade was never in a
more healthy state ; we reap not the same high prices,
but those who have large coal fields, great establish-
ments, and capital embarked in the trade (which is
now happily free of regulation of vend), meet with
fair remuneration, and are content ; and these pro-
prietors ought not to be run down or plunged into
the mass of those who (from causes unnecessary to
explain) have thought fit to join in this strange and
most extraordinary appeal to the Government of the
day—the more strange and extraordinary, because at
the very meeting they had read to them the already
formed decision of the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
where he most wisely and truly states, " that
nothing in his power could prevent the consequence
of over speculation in trading matters, and that
there was nobody who thought there was any want
of circulation, or any extraordinary pressure on
the money market for houses in good credit."
Nevertheless, with this answer before them, it seems
the deputation sallied forth. I apprehend Sir Robert
Peel's Act was properly framed to prevent the bol-
stering up of fictitious credit, and seems to me as if
it had been prophetically introduced as a safeguard to
the present crisis; I also am of opinion that if the
Government listened for one moment to the present
appeal from the soi-disant coal proprietors, it would be
soon followed by an application from the dealers in
corn or the merchants in sugar.

I have now trespassed too long on the patience of
the public (before whom I have no doubt these
humble opinions will be laid), and yet, strong as my
feelings are on this subject, I should not have ven-
tured to give birth to them, but for the incomparable
article in the Times of this day, which compels me, as
a coal owner, to vindicate myself, and those proprie-
tors who think with me, before the public and the
country, however unpopular or condemned I may be
by many or all of my young colleagues at the New-
castle meeting.—l have the honour to be, Sir, your
obedient servant,

VANE LONDONDERRY,
Lord-Lieutenant of Durham.
Wynyard Park, Sept. 21.

THE STATE OF MONEY AND
MERCANTILE AFFAIRS.

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, WEDNESDAY.
The deputation appointed by the meeting of bankers,
merchants, coal owners, and others, held in this town
on Saturday last, to wait upon the Chancellor of the
Exchequer with respect to the present state of mone-
tary and mercantile affairs, left Gateshead yesterday
morning by railway for the seat of the Right Hon. Ba-
ronet, at Hickleton, near Doncaster, where arrange-
ments had been made by letter for an interview. All the
members of the deputation were present except the
mayor, who was unable to attend, owing to indispo-
sition. The deputation returned by the mail train,
which reached Gateshead at twelve o'clock last night,
and the following is given as the substance of what
transpired :
The members of the deputation were personally in-
troduced to the Chancellor of the Exchequer by Mr.
Bell, M.P., who stated that the object of the deputa-
tion was to represent to the Right Honourable Ba-
ronet that the monetary crisis which afflicted most
parts of England, and which had been most severely
felt during the month of April last, was now
again apprehended as likely to be felt in a si-
milar or even greater degree than at any former
period • and that though Newcastle and the north of
England were not so much affected as other places,
in consequence of there being no speculative business
carried on there, yet it was feared that the present
stringency and threatening aspect of the London
money market might increase to such a degree as to
cause a withdrawal of the usual facilities to commer-
cial transactions, and that, if such a contingency
should arise in this portion of the kingdom, the
danger would be very considerable, in consequence
of the great staple trade of the district being coal
mining and iron making, which required the payment
of large sums of money in weekly wages, the sus-
pension of which, by throwing large bodies of men
out of employment, would create very great con-
fusion and disturbance. Mr. Bell was particular in
explaining that the trade of the district was in a sound
state—that railway speculation had hardly existed at
Newcastle—that there had been no large speculations
in corn there—and that there had not been a single
tailure arising from the pressure of the times; and
that it was because the trade of Newcastle was as yet
in a sound and healthy state that the trading com-
munity wished to take such steps as would prevent
the evils which, from the general state of monetary
and mercantile affairs, they were led to apprehend.
Mr. Bell concluded by introducing Mr. Armstrong
as the vice-chairman of the Chamber of Commerce,
to whom he referred for any further explanation.
Mr. Armstrong said he had very little to add to
the observations made by Mr. Bell, in all of which
he fully concurred. The object of the deputation
was not to enter upon the question of the monetary
system of the country, or offer any suggestions as to
any course that it might be desirable to pursue, wish-
ing to leave these matters entirely to the considera-
tion of the Government. He repeated that the trade
of Newcastle was not a speculative, but a routine
trade—that it was yet in a sound and healthy state,
though many of the consumers and smaller trades-
men, it must be admitted, had suffered from the crisis
in April last, and from the fall in the value of their
goods consequent upon the monetary fluctuations. At
present there was a feeling of alarm lest the general
pressure should so increase as to lead to the with-
drawal of the facilities now afforded to commerce,
the effects of which in this part of the kingdom would
be of a most serious character.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said he did not
consider there was any just cause for the apprehen-
sions which the deputation and the mercantile body of
Newcastle appeared to entertain--that the Bank of
England had not limited its discounts—that he could
assure the deputation, as far as he knew, and he fully
believed, it was not the intention of the directors of
the Bank of England to limit discounts, as they had
done in April, or to resort to any other stringent
measures ; that he felt confident the worst was past,
and he thought the alarm which at present existed
would speedily subside.
Several members of the deputation stated that the
conduct the Bank of England had pursued towards
the commercial interests of Newcastle had been
marked by great judgment and liberality; that in
consequence of the new mode adopted by the Bank,
in the classification of bills, a certain quantity of un-
exceptionable paper was necessarily excluded from
discount ; but that upon the whole the public of New-
castle had reason to be highly satisfied ; that some
pressure certainly did arise to this district from the
curtailment of the usual facilities generally afforded
by other London houses to merchants and brokers in
Newcastle, arising from the late serious failures, and
the want of confidence consequent thereupon ; but it

The Chancellor of the Exchequer attributed the
high rate of interest and the diminution of capital to
the competition of railways with the commercial in-
terest, and also the speculations of many large mer-
chants, which had been erroneously calculated.
It was urged by the deputation that the circulation
of the Bank of England was now only 17,800,0001.,
while, when at the highest point of last year, it was
nearly 22,000,0001.; the diminution having operated
very seriously upon the prices of goods, creating a
fall in the value of all produce, and causing very
serious loss to the community in general ; and that
from that loss Newcastle did not entirely escape,
though affected in a manner much less than other
places, in consequence of its trade being a routine and
not a speculative one.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer said he con-
sidered the deputation had confounded the distinction
between capital and circulation, and that if there was
a diminution of capital arising from the export of
money to pay for produce, that was a void that was
to be expected from the course of trade.
With regard to a diminution of the capital of the
country, the deputation expressed their opinion that
the capital existing was quite sufficient for the opera-
tions of commerce, but that the evil arose from the
want of confidence inspired by the knowledge that
such mighty interests were dependent upon acci-
dental variations in the reserves of the Bank
of England to a very trifling extent ; and that
this uncertainty operated so as to destroy confidence
on every the slightest appearance, or even apprehen-
sion, of a probable diminution of the Bank reserves ;
and thus, by destroying confidence, had the effect of
making the holders of capital keep it locked. up in
places
it whereto it
takevv -acceisnsitbhlee,ompesrtaetaidonosf
allowing ais t immediately
s usual channels
of commerce. ""The deputation dwelt emphatically on
the evils arising to their ordinary legitimate trade
from the rapid and sudden fluctuations in the value of
money thus produced, and they complained that it was
impossible to base their commercial calculations on
supply and demand as in former times, because
these sudden fluctuations in the value of money so
operated on prices as to render such calculations
difficult, and often impossible.
The deputation remarked that it was not their in-
tention to enter with the Chancellor of the Exchequer
into the question of the currency, or to give opinions
as to remedies, but that they considered they had per-
formed the functions delegated to them by the
meeting when they had stated the great evils which
had befallen the trade of the country generally from
the unusual fluctuations that had taken place in mone-
tary affairs during the last three years ; and they
begged to be allowed to express a hope that the
Government would take into consideration the de-
sirability of some modification of the recent Banking
Act, which placed the commerce of the country in
such imminent danger, that the withdrawal of
money from circulation, and consequent severe pres-
sure upon all branches of trade, were now depen-
dent upon the accidental diminution of a very small
amount of notes in the reserve of the banking depart-
ment of the Bank of England—the commercial com-
munity did think it hard that hundreds of millions in
value should be dependent upon such accidental cir-
cumstances.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said that a re-
laxation of the Bank Act could only be effected by
Act of Parliament, and was not a question within the
department of Ministers to decide, nor was it in the
department of Ministers to counsel the Bank of
England as to what amount of paper they should dis-
count. The Right Hon. Baronet concluded by ex-
pressing his willingness to listen to the expression of
the opinion of the commercial community on all mat-
ters of this kind, or any other in which their interests
were involved, and to give those opinions the best con-
sideration in his power.
This terminated the discussion, and the deputation
withdrew.

THE LATE FAILURES.
The following is the statement of affairs of Messrs
Giles, Son, and Co., presented at the meeting of their
creditors :