The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-26 00:00:00

I No. 17,189.] LONDON, TUESDAY EV SUN. OCTOBER 26, 1847.
7

TO COMMISSION TRAVELLERS,

ANTED, vONE or Ti4666liinusslON
TRAVELLERS, who have to do with farmers in the south
of England, to sell a valuable Chemical Manure, which has a very
large run in the north.
Address A. B. C. D., 55, King William-street, City, stating houses
now travelling for. Security for 300/. will be required.

AT a PUBLIC MEETING of the TRADES-
MEN and INHABITANTS of WESTMINSTER, held at
the Crown and Anchor Tavern, Strand, on THURSDAY, Oct. 21, to
take into consideration the late decision of the Judge of the West-
minster County Court, in the case of "Lord Bury v. Clark," Charles
Lushington,- Esq., M.P., in the chair, it was unanimously resolved
that a memorial be presented to the Lord Chancellor thereon, and
that a subscription be entered into to reimburse Mr. Clark the da-
mages and expenses, and that Mr. B. D. Cumming, of 4, Regent-
street, be appointed Treasurer, who, with the following gentlemen,
have consented to receive subscriptions:—Mr. Newton, 41, Brewer-
street ; Mr. Anton, 111, Jermyn-street ; Mr. Watson, 54, Hay-
market ; and Mr. Chew, 22, Carnaby-street.

they had traced with the clearness of demonstrati
to an artificial and legislative origin, were not suf-
fered by the negligence of the authority in whose
hands the law had placed a paramount discretion, to
urge their petitions and their remonstrances in vain
until,supplication passed into discontent, and discontent
deepened into a sedition, which set at nought
the law it could neither amend nor obey.
They will do more than this ; they will
see that the chosen leader of a great party,
who had been placed by the almost unanimous con•
sent of his countrymen at the head of a popular Go-
vernment, did not, by a fatal and derogatory negli-
gence of the facts of a severe crisis, bring confusion
and disruption into the ranks of his supporters, and
again reduce the name of a Whig Government into
the category of things which men regard with aver-
sion and distrust. Whether, therefore,:we view the
event of yesterday in its relation to the exigencies of
the present moment, or in its wider and probably
more important bearings upon the ieneral temper and
prospects of the country, we alike welcome it with
our most cordial commendation. In point of form
and detail it is perhaps not precisely what could be
desired. There is here and there an incongruity of
phrase, an attenuation of plan, and an impertinence of
detail, which serve only to detract from the graceful-
ness of the concession and the efficiency of the inter-
ference. The final paragraph talks of doing nothing
at variance with the integrity of the measure which
has placed " the currency of this country upon a
sound basis." Now it is by no means easy to perceive
either the prudence or the common sense of
an observation which is contradicted by the origin,
tenour, and aim of the whole document in which it
occurs. If the currency was upon a " sound basis,"
why have the Government been' compelled to inter-
fere? We. presume that nobody—not even a cur-
rency theorist--can entertain the extraordinary belief
that a sound currency is identical with a system
which cannot surmount an emergency without the
assistance of the Privy Council. If the currency be
"sound," the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of
the Exchequer may certainly congratulate themselves
on the invention of a new species of testimonial. If
it be unsound, as the public voice and their own re-
luctant interference unite in declaring, where is the
dignity or wisdom of encumbering a great public
measure with a looseness of phraseology, to say the
very least of it, both inconsistent and in no way ne-
cessary ? Then again, we are by no means clear that
the proviso of exacting 8 per cent. from the public for
the accommodation they may obtain is either wise
or expedient. It would have been much better to
have placed the whole power, together with the
whole responsibility, in the hands of the Bank. If
eight per cent. had been the fair value of the accom-
modation afforded, it would have been paid without
the help and the odium of a Treasury warrant ; and
we cannot help thinking that the Government have
very needlessly exhibited an ungracious and a grasp-
ing disposition for the attainment of a purpose which
was equally certain of fulfilment whether they inter-
meddled or not. We are quite certain, however,
that the huckstering paragraph, which pounces with
such desperate avidity upon the extra halfpence
which the measure may obtain for the Bank
by the extended discounts and the higher
rate, would have been much better omitted.
As a mere matter of morality and fair
dealing between one man and another, her Ma-
jesty's Exchequer has no more right to the increased
profit which may accrue to the Bank under the
measure of yesterday, than it has to the extra small
change which a soaking rain and a sudden thunder
shower may impel into the pockets of the proprietors
of long-stage omnibuses. The extra work deserves the
extra pay. The Bank directors take all the risk, all
the labour, and all the disagreeableness of the process,
and Sir Charles Wood magnanimously walks away
with the reward. The revenue may be in a bad way
—we have no doubt that it is—but what then ? The
necessities of the State cannot justify the practices of
the extortioner. As to the general question of the
real effect of the present interference upon the
character and permanence of the Act of 1844, we
presume that the almost universal conclusion of the
common sense of the country does not require that we
shall say much. The law has signally failed, and it
is virtually suspended. It may be more polite to say
that it is overtaken by an unforeseen and temporary
combination of adverse circumstances over which it
has no control. But vary the phrase as considerately
as you please, the plain meaning of the terms cannot
be altered : the machine has broken down—the
scheme has met with a fatal exposure—the con-
trivance has come to a dead standstill and
there the matter ends. It may be quite true that
the formalities of the interment have yet to be
performed, and the friends of the deceased will
best serve the commendable purpose of throwing a
decent and early obscurity over its many faults
by making no obstreperous lamentations over its
departure ; but it is abundantly certain that no pro-
fusion of casuistry and no diligence of special plead-
ing can call back the departed vitality. The plausi-
bility of the projectors, the pretensions of the
proposers, and the short and troubled career of the
contrivance itself, have all become matters of history,
and have passed into that obscure and teeming chaos
which swallows up with such relentless voracity all
the deformed and ricketty projects of men who cry
new lamps for old, and who themselves afflict their
fellow creatures with great and prodgious pre-
tensions. The appropriate conclusion of the
epitaph of a bad law is the celebration of
the fame and services of its victorious opponent ;
and under the guidance of this rule the con•
eluding paragraph of our criticism would be freely
open to the stigma of gross omission if it did not
couple the name of Mr. Tooke with the sudden ex-
termination which has befallen the statute of 1844.
To his clear, philosophical, and candid writings, more
than to any other cause, is the country beholden for
its speedy deliverance rom the influence of a mis-
chievous piece of legislation, and for the establishment
of a system which can boast, without overstepping
the modesty of truth, that it inculcates a code of cur-
rency management, easy, simple, and abundantly
free from the severe vicissitudes which the country
will so long and so bitterly deplore.
HERALD.—The first step has at last been taken,
and, however slowly and reluctantly, the limits as-
signed by the Bank Act of 1844 have been overpassed.
The fiat has been pronounced, after an assent, no
doubt, had been wrung from the author of that-mete--
sure; and thus, after "strangulation" had nearly
done its work, the victim is allowed to revive,—to
draw breath,—and to commence, it may be, another
struggle for existence. It is something to have ex-
torted this public confession, that the Act of 1843
will not work. It is something to have brought the
Government to an admission, that " things could no
longer be left to take their course." But we cannot
applaud the character or tenour of the step taken in-
asmuch as it belongs to that class of expedients
which we have already denounced as half-measures.
We often hear the foreign exchanges adverted to, as
furnishing the gauge and criterion of our commercial
position. To our minds it appears that a British
Minister might look much nearer home. We
should be inclined to say that our Downing-street
financiers ought to be conscious of the existence of
danger whenever the Bank of England was unable
to discount-first-rate commercial paper at five per
cent. Hence it will be seen why we denominate
the present measure of " relief" a half-measure.
To dictate to the Bank of England, as fit terms to
be offered to the commercial community, a regular
charge of eight per cent. upon the highest class of
securities, seems to us almost a
burlesque upon the
term relief. When, in former
of parties being reduced to th d e
days,
we have heard
extremity of paying
such a rate of interest to usurious bill discounters,
we have always been accustomed t
vic-
tims as doomed men—for whom theo regard r
such
London Gazette
might speedily prepare its h
columns. Hence we are
unable, with such prejudices iangng about us, to
hear the Prime Minister prescribe"eight per cent."
as the term of discount for the whole commercial
world, without fancying we listen to a general sen-
tence of bankruptcy passed upon British commerce.
But let us look a little closer at the facts. How will
the existing " pressure" be lightened Much as in
the case of the victims of the Inquisition, towards
whom,
when, under the tortures of the rack, actual
fainting
had taken place, the screw was relaxed for
.
a few moments, and a slight restorative administered ,
but there was no release until further tortures and
further " questions" had been tried. So, now, the
Government, for its own sake, shrinks from the
fearful responsibility of reducing the whole trading
and manufacturing population of Great Britain to
utter prostration ; but while it commands that
the mischief shall be prevented from going this
length, it adds, " Let the rate of interest be not less
than eight per cent. !" The operation of this mis-
called " relief" will be of this kind :—lt may avert
such a general convulsion as would endanger the
peace of the country; but it will not even postpone 1
that state of depression and paralysis which is fast
creeping over all branches of trade. Eight p 0? cent.
being the minimum, even for advances on Exchequer-
bills, it follows inevitably that respectable commer-
cial paper will not be discounted by a banker under
ten per cent. ; and even at that rate only with difficulty.
That great mass of hills of exchange, the product of
bond fide business between solvent traders, is still
excluded, and rendered useless, for all money pur-

06'
:444;7,
- •
4 4i71! -
//2 Z
' •
.<;...V4,,vic7‘ •-
bil
,
+ti ' ti's?".l
6.< •
• •
-74 , •"' • - ee
- .
___lllto I T ‘Sitk,

[PRICE SD.

poses. And the ten per cent., which must be the
current rate of discount among bankers for com-
mercial bills, will never be paid but from the
direst necessity. It will be the exception—not the
rule. No business will ever be done on the footing
of a ten per cent. discount, because there are no
wholesale trades that can afford such a charge.
" Suspension," therefore, must still he the order of
the day while money commands such an exorbi-
tant price. It will be seen from these remarks that
our advice would have been, that, if it was needful
(which no one doubts) to interfere at all—it was
most advisable to interfere effectually. A mandate
requiring the Bank to make advances on stock at five
per cent. would have entirely removed the existing
state of alarm, peril, and suffering. If it replied, that
this would have been unsafe—we ask, To whom
would it have been unsafe? Not to the Bank itself;
for there could be no danger in making advances on
Stock and Exchequer-bills. Not to the bankers; for'
they would, assuredly, have shown abundant caution
in the aid they gave, and in the sort of paper they
consented to discount. Where would have been the
danger, then? Oh! in the unlimited issue of bank-
notes, and in the " departure from sound principles."
But we have all that in the present measure! There
is no limitation to two millions, or to three millions.
Five banking-houses, that we could name,• might ap-
ply to the Bank for five millions to-morrow. And as
to " sound principles,"—why we had them all set
forth at full length in the Times of yesterday morning,
and we had then, at noon, the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer lighting his taper with these " sound prin-
ciples," in order to seal his missive to the Bank, de-
siring them to give " sound principles" to the
winds I These are not days in which to be merry, or
we might laugh at the poor Times. It fights obsti-
nately a losing battle. On Saturday it could only
make out its case for 1847, by admitting, as we
showed, that all its promises of 1845-6 (that
foreigners would take our manufactures in paymen t
for their corn) had been proved, in the event, to be
utterly baseless and delusive. Yesterday it vainly
strove to stop that concession on which Government had
already been driven to resolve. Aware that an
augmentation of Bank paper was urgently demanded,
and was, in fact, then receiving the tardy assent of
the Premier, it thus argued against this step :
" Look now to the extraordinary remedy proposed
—an advance on the national credit. We will sup-
pose it enough to give general and perceptible relief.
We will also suppose that it is not immediately nul-
lified by a run for gold. How will it work ? In the
first place, it will for the time neutralise the natural
remedies. It will give a new and treacherous vitality
to speculation of all kinds. It will lower the rates
of discount, and raise the value of securities ; thus
taking away the objects for which gold is now coming
into the country. It will discourage that careful
reserving of capital which, though sometimes carried
too far, under the impression of panics, is yet an un-
doubted and most indispensable benefit to the coun-
try. But, after all, what will be the result ? Will
any advance of the public credit, any issue of paper,
really add to the actual resources of the country ?
It will only prolong the reign of those errors under
which we are suffering. It will only quicken specu-
lation, aggravate expenditure, multiply and confirm
impossible engagements, complicate the railway
question with fresh contracts, and thus bring us, at
no long interval, to a still more terrible crisis, when
it will be childish to propose again another 2,000,0001,
simply because it will be tantamount to giving up
the principle of a convertible currency altogether."
Well, in three hours after this deprecation came
forth, the step was taken, in spite of the Times and of
Mr. Jones Loyd. The Government, in fact, dared
not refuse it. The Times tells us, that the step taken
will " bring us, at no long interval, (to a still more
terrible crisis," ending in a surrender of the Peel
currency altogether. We do not wish for " a still
more terrible crisis ;" but if it is to end in the final
destruction of the nostrums of the Tamworth cur-
rency-doctor, we care not how soon we encounter it !
Meanwhile, we give the Times joy of its task and its
fate—to refute itself, one day, and to be refuted by
facts, and Treasury decrees, the next !
POST.—At last her ajesty's Ministers have
given way to the dictates of plain common sense,
pressed upon them by the fearful necessity of the
crisis. It is evident that even at this last hour they
have done so with reluctance. The votaries of the
Peel monetary policy have died hard. But the system
is now dead. Let us see who will dare to revive it.
The bankers of London who remonstrated against
the restrictive law of 1844 were not listened to. The
present Chancellor of the Exchequer, in his place in
Parliament, actually sneered at their anticipations of
possible pressure. The bankers of London were
right. The Peel contriver of monetary restriction,
and his adviser, Jones Loyd, were wrong. Lord J.
Russell and Sir C. Wood, and the rest who con-
fided in the " self-regulating " powers of the Bill of
1844, were wrong. Let Ministers fence as they
may with the circumstances, and die upon
the question with the largest circumlocution,
still the end is that they avow their error,
and give way. We are no longer to be
tied down to the tyrannical pedantry and nonsense of
the Bill of 1844. We owe to that measure the
dreadful monetary crisis, which we think will, in a
great degree, pass away, now that reasonableness and
common sense have been admitted to the councils of
the Government. We owe also to that measure, that
even now money is to cost 8 per cent. per annum.
Surely the time will come when the people of Eng-
land will " visit for these things," and openly avow
their contempt for the pretending politicians who have
done such enormous mischief, and have so late come
to the rescue. The two curses which the last Peel
Government inflicted upon this country were restric-
tion of the monetary means of the country, and un-
restricted competition of foreign industry with home
industry, under the name of free trade. To one of
these branches of impolicy the first great blow has
now been given, but we have but half gained what
is due: to the British people, until the quackery of
free trade is also abandoned as an impracticable
folly.—The Jones Loyd oracle seems:to look with con-
siderable distaste and some irritation upon that partial
relief to the money tightness which it yesterday an-
ticipated that Government would afford. This is not
surprising, when it is recollected that to afford any
such relief is to disregard that which the oracle has
for some time given forth as the unquestionable
wisdom applicable to the present crisis. We are told
that such relief " would give a new and treacherous
vitality to speculation of all kinds, that it will lower
the rates of discount, and raise the value of securi-
ties, thus taking away the objects for which
gold
now coming into the country." Are we to
is
is
under-
stand from this that " the objects for which gold
now coming into the country " are to keep
hi
h
rates of discount and to lower the value of securities
the
itsienso
meaning at all. If that be its meaning, we think the
has
?
If that be not the meaning of the oracle, it
observation is absurd. We do not see how the
coming
in of gold should produce such effects ; and if it did
produce them the coming in of gold would be per-
nicious. But to clench the matter, the Jones Loyd
oracle asks, with a triumphant air, " Vill any advance
of the public credit, any issue of paper, really add to
the actual resources of the country ?" Undoubtedly
yes. The resources of the country consist not
merely of the material elements of wealth, but of
activity, enterprise, and perseverance, which are all
put into action by the credit system. Without
money of some kind to go on with, the resources of
the country stand still. They are not wrought up
into wealth. With abundance of money, well guarded
against home depreciation, and incapable of being
carried away as merchandise, the resources of Great
Britain are incalculable. The Jones Loyd oracl,e
groans at the idea of relief being given to those viho
are suffering, not from want of property to meet 'their
engagements, but from want of money. Such relief,
says the Times, " will only prolong the reign of those
errors under which we are suffering. It will only
quicken speculation, aggravate expenditure, multiply
and confirm impossible engagements, complicate the
railwayl question with fresh contracts% stud thus
more terrible
bring us, at no long interval, to a stilt
crisis." The plain answer to "cl':is nonsense of a
vexed oracle, whose " thunder" ti as been treated as
mere brutumfulmen, is, that exfy irience distinctly con-
tradicts such dismal propherw
es. far
We are ver
from saying that under a fr
-trade system 'anysuch
relief as the virtual reper A of the law of 1844 can
remedy for the mischief
give will be an effectuVl,B
which since February,
pos ation, but we know that on
stupid, self-sufficient 1, • 1 4-,' has been effected by
former occasions o''.. _e
monetary pressure relief was af-
forded by the B-,rik -,.acting on its own discretion with
the capital n-,„d er, edit at its disposal, and we see
no reason f.,0 doubt that the abrogation of Peel's re-
-1
strictions and the.
its disc enabling of the Bank again to use
retion, will :relieve the monetary panic.
Hla:tl:ll)lgalttToidSoE!
not just the thing t.—So the Government have at
required, but stilt I is •
principle for which.
tending—the right;
interpose on behalf
, Imething. 'This " something" •
is
1 that the exigencies of the juncture
t important as recognising the
we have been so strenuously con-
t and duty of the Government to
(if the languishing commerce and
expiring credit of the country. It would be impos-
sible to recognise , ill more explicit or more expressive
terms than is d mite by Government, in their com-
munication to tb
e ?i3ank of England, its duty to come
forward with a riai lasure of relief in suchan ousel.,

have the effect of bringing about the desirable con-
summation—a balance of trade in our favour. No

speculation of any kind is going on just now; stocks
of British manufactured goods are exceedingly low.
Business is everywhere conducted on the most
cautious principle. Eve mercantile man has of
late been contracting his liabilities, and the Franken-
stein of railway calls has all but vanished from the
scene ; or, if still visible, he is not the monster he
was. The commerce of the country will no longer
look on railway calls in the terrible light in which it
has hitherto regarded them. Distrust and depression
are already on the wane. It is to be hoped they will
soon disappear altogether, and that, after the dark
and dreary night through which we have passed, a
brighter and better day will dawn upon England.

~~~~

gency as the prslsa
question. They acquiesce :in all that has ever ap-
peared in this urnal on the subject. "Her Majesty's
Government," s Lord John Russell and Sir Charles
signed,-_" her
deepest Majesty's
regret
the
Wood, by whom the letter to the Bank directors
slseensiwgniteihave
Government
emewnhtich has
existed for some weeks upon the commercial in-
terests of thllle tr oun y, and that this pressure has
been aggravated' by a want of that confidence which
is necessary for carr • ying on the ordinary dealings of
trade. They have been in hopes that the check
given to transactions of a speculative character, the
transfer of capital from other countries, the influx of
bullion, and the feeling which a knowledge of h
circumstances might have been expected
o ese
produce,
would have rempved the prevailing distrust. They
were encouraged in this expectation by the speedy
cessation of a similar state of feeling in the month of
April last. These hopes, however, have been disap-
pointed, and her Majesty's Government have come to
the conclusion that the time has arrived when 'they
ought to attempt, by some extraordinary and tempo-
rary measure, to restore confidence to the mercantile
and manufacturing community." The measure which
Ministers have adopted for relieving the existing
pressure is at least sufficiently simple. There is
nothing complicated about it. It is easy of compre-
hension. The Bank is to be allowed to make ad-
vances, irrespective of the amount of gold it its
coffers, on the public securities, on Exchequer-bills,
and on bills of exchange, not having more than
ninety-five days to run. The period for which
the advances are to be made is to be left to the
discretion of the Bank directors—only the rate
of interest is not to be less than eight per cent.
Eight per cent. is so high a rate of interest, that
it will, in a great measure, neutralise the benefit of
which the measure would otherwise have been pro-
ductive. It is more than business generally can
afford to pay out of the profits. It will, nevertheless,
be welcomed by many a struggling house of the
highest respectability. They will be content to pay
more than a fair rate of interest for temporary ac-
commodation, in the hope of the speedy advent of
a better state of things. The great peculiarity of
the crisis has been, that houses of undoubted sol-
vency could not obtain the needed accommodation
on any terms. The Bank was not in a condition
to afford them the required aid, however unexcep-
tionable the securities, and however high the rate
of interest they tendered for the accommodation.
The necessary result has been that houses of un-
questioned solvency have fallen, one after the other,
in rapid succession ; and had Ministers not inter-
posed, it is more than probable that, before Christ-
mas, we should hardly have had a house of any
note which would not have been either hopelessly
paralysed or entirely prostrate in the dust. The
Ministerial measure will not fully meet the exigen-
cies of the case. Had the rate of interest been fixed
at six per cent., it would have been productive of
great and immediate benefit. It would have had
the effect of restoring confidence, and by that means
bringing out from their dark recesses enormous quan-
tities of money, which have been hoarding for the
last four months, and which, we verily believe, must,
by,this time, have accumulated to the extent of nearly
10,000,0001. The measure will have this effect in a
modified degree, but it will fall far short of what a
really liberal scheme of relief would have accom-
plished. It is to be regretted, for the sake of Mi-
nisters themselves, as well as for the sake of the
country, that when they had made up their minds to
do something for the relief of the monetary pressure,
they did not resolve on bringing forward an effective
measure. It has always been the misfortune of the
Whigs, when in office, to prove themselves bad
financiers. Here is another instance. It is a half-
and-half measure. It does not go to the root
of the evil—it only deals with the indications of
the disease which are visible on the surface. But,
as we said before, it is something to have ob-
tained so distinct a recognition of the principle,
that it is the right and duty of the Government to
afford relief to the mercantile interest in times of
such severe pressure as those through which the
country is now passing. In the mere fact of their
interposition, we have a confirmation of all we have
ever said on this subject. We have all through
maintained, that however resolutely Ministers might
withstand for a time, the appeals made to them for
monetary relief, they would not be able long to resist
those appeals. We saw and said from the first, that
they must succumb—that they mustyield to an inex-
orable necessity. We mentioned that Ministers were
made of " squeezable " stuff, and that all that was
wanting was a little further application of the mer-
cantile screw. Our predictions have been verified to
the letter. We have have said that though the mea-
sure will not work the wonders which some had hoped
to witness, yet that it will have a decidedly beneficial
effect. It will work all the more advantageously,
in consequence of a concurrence of favoura.ble
circumstances. The exchanges are in our favour,
and are likely to continue so for some time.
Gold is beginning to pour in, not only from the con-
tinent, but from America. The importations of corn
from abroad are well nigh at an end for at least six
months, while large orders are on hand for British
manufactures to be sent abroad. This must soon

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.
Crcr, MONDAY EVENING.
TIMES.—The suspension of the Bank Charter Bill,
announced to-day, has praducedi'a complete monetary
revolution. Consols for money, which closed on
Saturday at 80, opened this morning at 814 to
From this they declined to 80i ; but a notification
was then made by the Bank broker, that in confor-
mity with a correspondence held between the Bank
and the government, advances would be made upon
stock, Exchequer bills, and bills of exchange, at the •
rate of 8 per cent., such advances to be for periods
of not less than a fortnight or more than three
weeks (according to present arrangements), and in
ls
sums of not less than 2,0001. Upon this Consols
jumped up to 814. A reeiction afterwards took
at 8
oplalce
to 81i; but they recovered again, and closed
to 82. After business hours a most extraordinary
further movement took place, and they went to 821
to 81. For the:Accoutht they began at 82i; declined
to BB
went up to 83, and closed at 8211 to ;,3t. Sub-
sequent That the Bank Charter Bill should have been
transactions occurred at 83i.
vir-
tually extinguished at the moment of its first severe
trial can hardly be said to have been an unexpected
event. That the step should have been announced
this morning, however, is very generally a matter of
astonishment. Had it been occasioned by a combined
movement of its enemies during the pressure in the
middle of last week, or had its doom been foretold
for the very first night of the next session of Parlia-
ment, no one would have felt surprise. Those who
most admired its principle saw too plainly the effects
of its immutable action to look on with anything but
apprehension when the question of its existence was
to be decided by the voluntary acquiescence of those
upon whom its stern lesson was to be enforced. In
calm discussion, and amidst almost universal approval,
the Bill was passed. It was to provide a restraint
against national folly whenever it should reach the
airgih. It was admirable
lyt acquiesced in when
ex' i
extent of endangering national credit, but there was
no pos,sibility of ensuring that this provision, made
broken.
it
occur whenmight, it was
inosrte
,:blrennetssm, sighhoutlrdeabeehvoitlrlite,
to see the pledge taken, but it was also
fore-
tell the probability of its
But, let that event being brok easy to
always supposed it would be d •
at the subsidence of a • using the rush, and not
panic. On Friday, in London,
everything indicated a
On Saturday accounts greater feeling of steadiness.
" perceptible improvement;" 'e from Liverpool of a
_ ,from Manchester it was
reported, " everything here continues quiet, and
there is a more hopeful feeling beginning to prevail ;"
while from America we had tidings of bullion on its
way, to the extent of upwards of a quarter of a
million. With Monday came reports of a meeting
at Newcastle—one of
—expressing unreserved confidence in the banks,
coupled with accounts of persons
bringing
back their
money, and being very properly refused permission
to deposit it; while from St. Petersburgh, Amster-
dam, and all parts of the Continent, came tidings of
even larger shipments of gold. than those which Lad
been announced from America. At this moment a
meeting in the metropolis, similar to that at New-
castle, would most probably have been the only thing
needed to complete the restoration of confidence—at
least, of that kind of confidence which renders the
legitimate trader safe, while it leaves the speculatorrsised
Complaining
still powerless. But the bankers of London
no word of response to the provinces. omplaining
of the " want of confidence," they performed what
they considered to be their duty to their country in
answering the improved feeling by a terrified rush to
Downing-street.
That movement having been successful, the Go-
vernment has now fairly taken the crisis on its own
shoulders. The consequences may easily be foreseen.
A general belief that the worst is over ; a withhold-
ing of shipments, which would otherwise have been
forced off at a sacrifice ; a rise in the price of cotton
as well as of all other articles; a steady increase of
imports a cQntinuanc* of railway works; and