The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-30 00:00:00

sucoND EDITION

etrtnia4
LONDON, FRIDAY. APRIL 30, 1847.

abrogation of that enactment
which was speciously
Nothing but the totalcabrogation
through dParliament in
1844, under the plea that it was roetiu•l'
further " alterations and vicissitudes in
nthtato medium
prevent
of exchange which regulates the value of
every
article in the country"—nothing, we say, but the
total abrogatien of that enactment, or the miraculous
reversal of the eternal laws of Nature, can preserve
the empire from a more frightful panic than has ever
heretofore been experienced. It behoves the Govern.

went, therefore, to be vigilant and:active ; it behoves
every man in the two august assemblies of legislation
to bestir himself for the salvation of that national

credit which is now vaccinating, and oscil-
lating, and tottering over an abyss of in •
volvement. In protesting against the deplorable
Bank Restriction Act of Sir ROBERT PEEL, we are
not cavilling as to the impropriety of some trivial
financial speculation, we are insisting upon the
necessity of obliterating from the statute-book of the
present legislative decade, a principle which has
carried the commercial interests and the monetary
stability of the country to the very limits of inse-
curity and disquietude.
It were madness to blink the reality which
at present forces itself upon the conviction of
every one at all acquainted with; the opera-
tions of the Money Market; unless some step be
taken to inspire the mercantile world with confidence,
unless the Bank of England be released from those
preposterous trammels which have prevented the de-
velopment of its financial strength, unless something
be done to counterbalance the evils already effected
by the Currency blunder of 1844, we must be carried
headlong into a whirlpool of difficulties as great as,
if not immeasurably greater than, the difficulties of
1825. The diminution in the price of the Three per
Cent. Consols from 971. in the June of 1846 to 861. in
this, the fourth month of 1847, shows already the suc-
tion of the current of this terrible Maelstrom. The per-
ceptible decrease of employment shows it; the con-
sequent diminution of wages shows it ; the state of
the canal shares, of railway shares, of the unfunded
debt, and the impracticability of obtaining discount—
all show it. A serious alarm has taken possession
of those engaged in banking; it is an alarm, we will
grant it, that is scarcely justified, inasmuch as the
amount of bullion still retained in the cellars of the
Bank of England is on the average greater than can
be remembered during many preceding occasions of
pressure. Nevertheless, that there is a very con-
siderable degree of trepidation cannot be
for a single moment questioned, and when once
this trepidation has thoroughly imbued the
public mind, we know by a terrific experience
the disastrous consequences which ensue.

As was visible in the ever-memorable convulsion of
1825,there is a growth in these panics as traceable as in
any meadow cowslip. A panic seldom, if ever, starts
into existence like a mushroom ; it germinates in-
visibly; it expands, and swells, and rises above the
surface, and then bursts forth into poisonous exube-
rance.

What was the case in 1825 ? There was a pro-
tracted interval of doubt as to the capability of the
banks for converting their paper issues into money.
That doubt affected, as a matter of necessity, the
whole variety of private and joint-stock banks in the
kingdom. There was a rush for cash payments upon
Sir PETER POLE'S bank, and a consequent crash ;
and that, it can never be forgotten, was merely
the preliminary to a vast succession of simi-
lar disasters. All this arose, however, mainly
from the dread as to the impossibility of obtaining
sufficient credit money ; and how 'a as this great
anxiety removed, and in what manner were its results
to a certain extent remedied ? The explanation has
been very happily compressed into a sentence by
Mr. JAMES WARD, in a recent pamphlet. " For-
tunately," says he, " some one in the Bank re-
membered, or stumbled over, some large pack-
ages of one-pound notes which had never been
issued, and the issue of which had long ceased to
be considered as a necessity which could arise in
rerum natures." That was the means of salvation.
The incubus was removed, and the social system was
without any repetition of its monetary throes and
agonies. The directors of the Bank of England, then,
in 1825 restored business to its previous state of
activity and confidence by circulating large quan-
tities of one-pound notes ! Had the ruinous
enactment of 1844 been already passed they
would have been as helpless as their suc-
cessors are at this present instant; they
would have possessed the means of rescuing the na-
tion from a peril so imminent and appalling that Mr.
HUSKISSON declared the country to be "within
twenty-four hours of a state of barter," and yet,
with the Bank Restriction Bill of Sir R. PEEL
looming over their heads, they would have been in-
capable of budging one inch, or of stretching out a
finger. The effect of that lamentable measure,
indeed, is to produce artificial panics—panics arising
from no dearth of bullion or specie, but from a want
of a superabundance of bullion and specie—panics
produced for the gratification of a dream and the
preservation of a bubble. 'Was ever a grand com-
mercial community placed in such gratuitous
straits and encompassed by such voluntary dangers
in mere obedience to a preposterous whim ! As it is
very excellently expressed in a Parliamentary peti-
tion, published in another column, the real uses of
credit money are absolutely reversed by the enact-
ment of 1844, because, under the operation of that
enactment, when the country is in a position to do
without the aid of the Bank credit, then the Bank can
furnish it most abundantly," whereas " when credit
money is really required, the Bank is compelled to
withhold its help !" Surely the scales of Justice must
have settled upon the eyes of the Legislature ! Until
the Government makes a remedial movement in the
direction we have indicated, namely, by rescinding
the law passed under the late Administration, we
shall continue to clamour unceasingly for its abroga-
tion—its immediate abrogation—its utter and de-
cisive abrogation.

No subject can, or ought, to interest the mind of
an Englishman so much as that of the navy of his
country. His attention cannot be engrossed by any
matter of greater national importance. The foremost
rank which we occupy among the most civilised and
powerful states of the world, is attributable to our
past and present naval supremacy ; and unless our
maritime strength be sustained, commensurate with
the guardianship which we have to maintain over the
vast and numerous dependencies of the British Crown,
and which can only be effected by augmenting its
power in proportion to the relative advancement made
in their naval resources by other powers, we shall
inevitably forfeit the exalted distinction we have
acquired over the rest of the universe. Still, though
our naval affairs are thus entitled to pre-eminent
consideration, it is difficult to rouse the attention of
the country to a due reflection as to their efficient
administration. The stability of the service, con-
sistently with a due regard to economy, is the pre-
dominant consideration. Economy in the ma-
nagement of everything connected with our
naval armament, is a point to which the Board of
Admiralty should be compelled to pay adequate
attention. The enormous expenditure which we
annually incur for the support of the navy
imparts extreme importance to the question of eco-
nomy. At the same time, retrenchment should not
be exhibited in any niggardly spirit. Wherever
economy is sought to be enforced, to be judi•.
cious it should be also liberal. Whilst moderate
estimates are always acceptable to a nation so
heavily taxed as the English, yet, if it were to be
ascertained that they had been framed upon a scale
below what was really required for the stability of
the navy, the heaviest censure would be deservedly
visited upon the Board of Admiralty. With the
progress of science, improvements, apparently highly
valuable, and important mechanical suggestions, are
being constantly made. Their merits in rela-
tion to naval architecture have to be tested upon a
gigantic scale. It is the bounden duty of the
Admiralty to encourage, within reasonable bounds,
the different experiments necessary to test the merits
of various scientific inventions. To this species of
encouragement are we indebted, in no small degree,
for the present superior excellence of our navy over
those of our rivals. It is not to be expected that every
experiment should be successful, nor reasonable to call
that a waste of money which may have been expended
without producing a satisfactory result. It is a ne-
gative advantage to have ascertained that any parti-
cular invention has not answered the contemplated
end. All knowledge is based upon experience.
Frequently a series of experiments is indispensable
to afford a fair trial to a mechanical novelty. It
sometimes occurs, that in the process of one experi-
mentnpdlao
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