The Sun.
London, England, 1833-09-20 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF TIIE PUBLIC JOURNALS•

Yesterday a General Court of Bank Proprie-
tors was held at their house in Threadneedle-
street, to pass through the necessary cere-
mony of what they call considering or de-
claring a dividend. The whole considera-
tion of the affair consisted in an announcement
by the Governor, and in an acquiescence by the
Proprietors, that a dividend of 4 per cent. for
the last six months, or of 8 per cent. for the
year, had been recommended by the Directors,
and was proper to be adopted by the Court.
With this amount of profit all parties seemed
satisfied ; asking no questions with respect to
their capital, and proposing no changes in its
management, worthy of the slightest comment
or discussion. As this is the first meeting for
declaring a dividend which has occurred since
the passing of the new Charter Act, it might
have been expected that the attendance of pro-
prietors would have been more numerous, and
that their proceedings would hay e been more
interesting. In saying so, however, we have
no desire to see a house of business converted
into a debating club, or to propose that the
management of a body of Bank Directors,
elected by the proprietors, should on every oc-
casion be subjected to a hostile scrutiny; but we
fullyexpected to witness after the enactment of the
new bill a meeting so large as to show that the pro-
prietors were alive to its importance, and so in-
quisitive as to prove that they were anxious to
ascertain all its bearings. The large dividend
of 8 per cent. on the increased capital of
14,686,0001. is still continued, and the pro-
prietors are assured that no portion of this
amount is derived from the capital or the reserve
fund of the corporation. They have still, there-
fore nearly 3,000,000/. of rest untouched, to be
employed in their future business, or divided
among the Proprietors, as the Court of Di-
rectors and the General Court of Proprietors
shall see fit. They will likewise at one of their
general meetings between the Ist of October
next and Ist of October, 1834, or within the
course of a year, have to decide whether the
one fourth part of the debt now due from the
public to the Bank (or 3,638,2501.), and to be
repaid by Government, shall be divided as a
Longs among the proprietors, or shall be kept as
a part of their trading capital, at their own dis-
posal, like the reserve fund, and not bound up in
any Government security. In the former case
their capital will be reduced from 14,553,000/.
to 10,914,7501., on which latter sum their
dividend will in future be declared ; in the
latter their capital may remain as at present,
though a fourth part of it may have been paid
up by Government. This will form a most in-
teresting question for the Court of Proprietors,
and involve only such principles as are within
their usual sphere of judgment. One striking
result of the late examinations into the concerns
of the Bank, and one immense improvement in
its proposed management, are to be found in
that perfect disclosure of all its affairs which
has been laid before the public, and in that pe-
riodical exposure of its accounts which the Act
in future secures. Though we had obtained
nothing but this from the late discussions, the
gain would have been of the greatest import-
ance. We shall no longer hear Bank Proprietors,
at meetings like that of yesterday, inquiring in
vain into the amount of bank notes in circu-
lation—into the extent of the reserve fund—
into the amount of deposits, or into the quan-
tity of bullion locked up in the Bank cellars.
These facts will be known to all the world who
can read the Gazette, and we only regret that
Parliament did not insist on having the weekly
=cows ordered to be transmitted to the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, instead of the conso-
lidation of them at the end of every month,
and the publication of the average taken from
these consolidated accounts at the end of every
three months. The accounts might have been
kept back for three months or one month ; but
;When they are published, they ought to he
published as they are transmitted in the weekly
returns, so as to enable the country to form their
own judgment on an extensive body of facts as
well as the organ of Government. This speci-
fication we have always insisted upon as neces-
sary for public protection, and it still appears to
us that the operation of public vigilance on Bank
affairs will be very imperfect or inefficient with-
out it. By removing from the Bill for renewing
the Bank Charter, and postponing to a future
session, some proposed measures relative to the
country banks' circulation and the establishment
of joint-stock banking companies, several of
the general principles involved in the Bank Act
as originally brought forward by Government are
now in a state of abeyance. One great point,
however, of a general character, has been gained,
not by the Noble Chancellor of the Exchequer,
but by the Law Officers of the Crown, on which
we expected again to have heard some comments
at the meeting of yesterday. The new Act de-
clares, that no restrictions :ire to be placed on
to number of partners in a banking company
avlria'h does not issue promissory notes, whether
that company be within 65 miles of London or
not. On looking at the successive Acts of Par-
liament which are relied on for establishing the
hostile privilege of the Bank of England in
this respect, it appears altogether surprising
that their import and intention should have
been so long neglected or misconceived.
The declaratory clause on this point, about
which the Court of Proprietors were formerly so
clamorous, but about which nothing yesterday
was said, must go far to reconcile the public to
some of the most objectionable provisions of the
:Bank arrangement. With the exception of the
ia,Drovident bargain made for the public, by ae-
eepting the paltry sum of 120,0001. as a deduc-
tion from the immense gains of the Bank, for
renewing privileges in which the public ought to
have equally shared, the only really doubtful
clauses of a general nature now embodied in the
Act; are those which relate to the legal tender
qualifica!ion of the Bank note, and to the modi-
fication of the usury laws. On the former point
we have often expressed our objections and our
fears. Its operation can avowedly be of no use
except in a season of panic. At ail other times
its best recommendation would be that it was
totally inefficient, dormant, and inactive ; and
what wise statesman would provide for extra-

ordinary emergencies, in which rules are ge-
nerally disregarded, at the hazard of injuring
those permanent interests which we ought al-
ways to consult, and the neglect of which
may lead on the apprehended crisis ? We
therefore beseech the public to watch carefully
the operation of the legal tender clause ; and,
if they find that it either reduces the faci-
lities of procuring gold in country districts,
or introduces anything like an agio with country
bankers, to address their remonstrances and
petitions on the subject. If ever a country note,
or a Bank of England:note, for any interme-
diate sum between _51.. and 101. is issued, its

appearance should be taken as evidence that
mischief is intended, and ought instantly to be
denounced. The legal tender provision is hap-
pily no privilege of the Bank of England on
the preservation of which it can insist, as it is
enacted in the very clause itself that it may be
repealed, the words being, " And be it further '
enacted, that from and after the first day of
August, 1834, unless and until Parliament
shall otherwise direct, a tender of a Bank note
shall be a legal tender." The modification of
the usury laws, or rather their repeal, in the
case of bills of three months and under, may be
useful in unlocking capital at a time of commer-
cial distress, and can scarcely be felt at any other
period. Though this part of the act may have
already the force of law, we believe that in pre-
sent circumstances it will be a dead letter.
Happily the Bank is not likely to consider this
enactment as any portion of their exclusive
privileges, as their dividends will not be likely
to be increased by risking their money in loans
on usurious interest to the distressed or the
necessitous. Their 8 per cent., which they
declared yesterday, should abundantly satisfy all
their desires, as it more than exceeds their rights.
—Times.

The first annual meeting of the London and
Birmingham Rail-way Company was held yes-
terday, when the Committees were appointed,
and active measures determined for the com-
mencement of this important and national un-
dertaking. The wonderful properties of steam,
and the extraordinary political consequences
which must result from its power and applica-
tion, have been little considered by the public
and Governments. At this moment practical
projects are in progress for economising time
and expense in human transit, and for diminish-
ing the risk of life by loco-motion, which, only
twenty years since, would have been ridiculed
and considered utterly impracticable. A Bill
for connecting Liverpool with Birmingham,
passed in the present session, will abridge more
than one half the time and cost of travel be-
tween the great western seaport and the metro-
polis, via Birmingham. A public Company,
under most respectable auspices, is forming, to
obtain an Act next session for a railway com-
munication between London and Brighton. M.
Thiers, the French Minister of Commerce is
stated to be visiting the country, among other
objects, with the view of determining the prac-
ticability and most expedient plan of connecting
by railway the French coast opposite England
with Paris ; and if Dover or Dieppe is selected,
as the sea-port termination of the Gallican line,
the merchant of Liverpool may leave his Ex-
change and appear on the Bourse at Paris the
next morning, without rumbling four days and
nights in coaches and diligences ! France and
England will thus become accessible to their re-
spective inhabitants at a saving of more than half
the present time and cost of travel. The poli-
tical and military consequences of this connection
of the two countries, especially in the present
state of Europe, are beyond calculation, and can
scarcely be exaggerated. Thus the progress of
British science, the industry and genius of our
native mechanics, will be the real destructives
of the Holy Alliance, the great solvent of
despotism, and impel civilization in a rapidly
progressive ratio. In the meanwhile, the ef-
feet on, and enhancement of, the value of pro-
perty will be equally wonderful. The estates
within twenty miles of the vicinity of the large
towns will become the locality of country villas
of merchants and manufacturers. We do not
doubt that by the certain increase of capital and
products, and the tributary streams of transit,
even water-communication—the affrighted op-
ponent of rail-way lines—will greatly benefit.
Some few present private interests must suffer at
first, but the aggregate prosperity of the nation
will be vastly promoted. Recollecting that the
application of steam to the propelling of boats
and locomotive carriages on iron rails, was only
" yesterday" denounced as an impossibility, we
entertain little doubt that carriages will also
soon be successfully moved by steam on the
turnpike-roads. The first difficulties are indis-
putably overcome : and the fact of so much
present (though hitherto unsuccessful) talent
being applied to accomplish this great deside-
ratum, is some proof of the practicability. The
letter in the Chronicle of Monday, of a " Civil
Engineer," has excited considerable attention ;
and it is unquestionably expedient that these
great projected national lines of inter-communi-
cation should be constructed with reference to
the superiority and defects of existing rail-roads.
We have never lent our columns to the
" Doustcrswivel" schemes of sinister projectors
and jobbing lawyers and surveyors, nor puffed
up the imposing scrip of bubble Companies to
trade to the moon and the milky way. But the
practical and national projects of the midland
rail-ways, opening such a wide vista of prosperity
and political good, cannot but be an object of
intense local interest and public concern. Even
the Tory Peers this Session retired their objec-
tions to railways ; and who can tell but that their
Lordships may not give in to the use of the po-
litical plough of Reform. Government, we
should not marvel, may one day be accomplished
by steam—a singular economy and new distri-
bution of power.—Morning Chronicle.
The report made by Captain Chads to the
Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, re-
specting the circumstances attending the loss of
the Amphitrite off the coast of Boulogne, will
nct, we suspect, prove satisfactory to the coun-
try. It is true the Captain has to make another
report relative to the conduct of the British
Consul, but the following passage in the report
just made seems to dispose of the whole mz.tter,
by representing that as an unavoidable calamity
which it was believed might have been very
easily avoided. The Captain says--,, From the
numerous vessels passing up and down Channel,
it ought to he expected that occasional disasters
should occur, and that, too, without misconduct
being imputable. The present instance of the
Amphitrite I consider to be one of this de-
scription." If the dreadful loss of lifewhich
resulted from this shipwreck was " adeaster,
without misconduct being imputable," we do
not see what necessity there is for further
inquiry into the conduct of the Consul. He
must be, of course, blameless. Whether he
was present performing the duties which his
station and humanity imposed upon him, or whe-
ther he was absent, it was quite clear that a mis-
fortune for which nobody is to be blamed can reflect
no discredit upon him. But is Captain Chads
justified in stating that there is no misconduct
imputable to
ificcdertauinndettriatcainur yep:l:fiaesrrttslaosi:tic,e?fs
j3nNoVwe
liveswhich,
kwere
of
pt
sr.
aocprelt
i .r
measures had been taken, between the time of
the striking
of the vessel
and the flood-tide,
which was several hours, theyig have been
1
all saved. VVe look at the case
in much the
same point of view as our Contemporary of the
Standard, who says " It would appear, from

the statement of Captain Chads, that neither the
commander of the Amphitrite nor any of the
crew were at all aware of the certain destruction
that awaited the vessel where she was placed,
though every one in Boulogne was fully con-
vinced of the impossibility of her escape. This
we cannot help thinking makes the case of the
British Consul and the French authorities by a
great deal the worse. There may be doubts
whether they could lawfully command or permit
the landing of the convicts, but there could be
none whatever that they were bound by every
obligation of humanity to give to Captain
Hunter the most solemn and authentic
assurance of that danger of which he was
manifestly unconscious, and his unconscious-
ness of which lost the lives of 132
of our fellow creatures. The Consul, it is
true, was absent; but this, we cannot help think-
ing, to be a bad excuse. Without requiring to
make the seat of his consulate a place of im-
prisonment, it is surely not too much to expect
from an officer charged with the most important
interests of his country, that he will not leave
his post unoccupied by an adequate representa-
tive." The conduct of the French Custom-
house officers, which was disgraceful to a civi-
lised country, made it more necessary that the
British Consul should have been present ; there
are harpies in every country, whose fingers are
never stretched forth but for spoil ; but in
France, we are told that the possibility of such
functionaries acting upon a humane instinct, in a
case of overwhelming misfortune like a shipwreck,
is prevented by orders truly barbarous, and upon
which, it appears, the Custom-house officers of
Boulogne but too faithfully acted. Is this a
proof of the dose and cordial connection between
England and France, of which the Ministerial
papers tell us so much ? Is this a proof of the
liberality which such English doctrinnaires as
Poulett Thomson, and others of his school, have
infused into the doctrinnaires of the French Go-
vernment ? After three years of " liberal "
intercourse with the Government of Louis Philip,
we are told that the local authorities at Bou-
logne are not only prevented by the orders of
their Government from giving assistance to the
drowning subjects of England, but are even
obliged to prevent that assistance being ren-
dered by others ! Ah ! such orders are a sad
commentary on such a hollow interchange of
compliments as took place the other day at
Cherbourg. In the one instance they cost the
lives of upwards of 130 British subjects. It
will not do to stifle this affair whether as re-
gards the French Government or the British
Consul ; it must become a subject of Parlia-
mentary inquiry. It is well known that every
one of those lives could have been saved.
Somebody must be responsible. It is stated
that everybody on shore knew the vessel was
lost from the moment that it struck, yet the
Captain was allowed to indulge in his ignorant
anticipations of getting off with the flood tide.
This dreadful catastrophe, and the unaccountable
loss of life on board the Leith packet the
Wemyss, must undergo a full, searching, and
rigid investigation.—Morning Herald.
We rejoice at its being in our power to com-
municate to our readers some authentic accounts
relating to the situation of Lisbon, respecting
which the most intense anxiety prevails. These
will be found in two Lisbon letters written by
distinct persons, and detailing the military opera-
tions of the sth, together with all other me- ,
morable incidents to the 7th inclusive. A more
perfect picture could not be drawn on the same
space of paper. For these details our readers
would, however, be in some measure prepared
by the contents of the Paris letter, which we
yesterday published. The facts therein men-
tioned are now mainly confirmed ; and the hasty
sketch of the Pedroite lines, on comparison, will
also be found essenthilly correct. The affair of
the sth, although a mere reconnoissance, was
still a serious one, and the loss considerable on
both sides. The Royalists, it is acknowledged,
advanced under a heavy fire to within pistol shot
of the city intrenchments, when the elite of the
garrison sallied forth with the evident intention
of cutting them off. A very sharp conflict en-
sued, and the Royalists withdrew to their posi-
tions, after losing three field pieces and three or
four hundred men. The Pedroites suffered in the
same proportion, but the Miguelites gained the
object for which their movement was made. A
very large force was collecting, and every pre-
paration making for a general attack. In the
meanwhile, as we anticipated, the King's troops
had taken possession of Belem, and he himself
is stated to have fixed his residence at his palace
of the Ajuda. A 7e Deum had been sung at
the patriarchal church near it. The Royalists
were therefore in possession of the third of
Lisbon. We refer to the details themselves,
and, in answer to the remarks of an Evening
Contemporary respecting the means of supplying
the capital with water without the aid of the
aqueduct, we beg him to notice what is said
upon this subject by the writers of both our
Lisbon letters. The wells of which he speaks
are chiefly situated on that ground now occupied
by the Royalists ; and the Lisbonians, for well
known reasons, are not very fond of drinking
well water. The fact of there being plenty of
wheat in store and no mills to grind it is a curious
one. We shall close these remarks by merely
observing that the last Madrid letters announce
that the fall of Lisbon was daily expected there.
We subjoin the extract of a letter, dated Paris,
17th inst.:—
" I confidently believe that ere this Don Miguel's troops
will have obtained possession of Lisbon. Such was the
impression in Madrid when the last accounts left there.
The Pedroites lost their sons-s by the c ipture of two field
pieces, not considering the sacrifice at which the capture
was made; but the next day they looked sad and despond-
ing, when they saw the formidable preparations around
them. They already fi,el that they are not the gainers by
the theatre of the war having been changed. Those who
were at Ornto begin to think that harder work awaits
them in the Lisbon lines than in their old intrenchments.
Neus verrons ; but, in the meantime, we cannot think
that tbe British Government will have sent off the be-
trothed of a Leuelvenberg till all the stormy weather is
over in the Tagus. If they have, it will be amusing to
see her come back with a flea in her ear. It would seem
that the cholera is making great and melancholy progress
in Spain. It is a travelling disorder, and has already
made some havoc in Seville, Badajcz, Ayamonte, and
Huelva. The Government, however, is extremely vigi-
lant, and the best preventive precautions have. been
adopted."—Morning Post.

When the rebels during the civil war were
ravaging the cathedral and plundering the Royalists of
Exeter, the resident Canon, Archdeacon Helvar, then be-
tween eighty and ninety years of age, was dragged from
his bed at midnight and hurried on board a ship, where
he was detained in close custody, and subjected to the
most barbarous treatment until he had consented to pay
the sum of 800/. for his redemption. The following is a
copy of the protection he thus purchased :—" Whereas
Archdeacon Helyar has submitted, and sent 8001. to the
Parliament to the Parliament apon the propositions.
These are therefore to require all thc, forces of the Parlia-
ment to take notice thereof, and protect him in his per-
son, family, and goods, strictly charging and commanding
that no man henceforth molest or trouble him. Jan. 19,
1642, Signed for Northcote, Sam. Rolle," &c.