The Sun.
London, England, 1833-06-06 00:00:00

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was to review a corps of ytomanr/ tivatiP -4':-;.4i
Probably before the review was over , hia Giitoe-=-----77: /
had received intelligence of thi 4ortiVe restift-';\---:'
of his late notable enterprise, 14
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have leisure to study the West lUdia ties ton,
with more accuracy now that bill'r retZfiliirr' "gi
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the trouble of forming. a ,Cabinet —4 ingt '4.7,15" 511 W,
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The Court of the Bank ProprietoraAviv burin f:d
eluded yesterday their adjourned discussion Qtt;assq aril
the propositions of Government, with respectleo In '1 ~,i:
the renewal of their Charter, by a resolution liss), suo.l
sentially the same as that submitted to the last -It -r!-,
meeting. It was not a little amusing to witness
,
the mixture of bustling patriotisin and sly.love
of lucre displayed on the occasion,—to hear
Proprietors, in the same breath, pretend to be
acting for the public, and to know that they
were contending for their own purse,—to see
them at once patronizing the national interests,
and consulting the amount of their own tlivi.
dentis,—and to observe with what dexterity they
threw the merits of the country and their own
into the scales, so as to turn the balance of gra-
titude in their own favour. One -Hon. and
Learned Proprietor actually made it out by the
common rules of arithmetic, that by allowing a
deduction of 120,0001. on the sum assigned to
the Bank for their services in paying the public '
creditor, the establishment would suffer a loss of
80,0001.1 He looked at the appendix" to
the Bank report, and he found that the ex-,
penses incurred for this machinery of clerks,
offices, and books amounted to 164,000/. This
was right. He looked again, and he found that
the average -of the last ten years gave a loss
of 40,2041. for forgeries. This, added to
the 164,0001., gave him a sum of 204,204/.
for all the charges or expenses of the
establishment. The whole allowance from
Government for this object is about
250,0001., which leaves the bank only about
4-6,0001. for the whole gain of the Bank on this
part of their transactions. If they were to get
rid of this branch of their business, therefore,
or to hand over the whole machinery to Govern-
ment, the public would only be entitled to a sum
of 46,0001. instead of 120,000/. But the ac-
count is still more unjust towards the Bank,
when it is considered that they lose one per cent.
on the whole amount of their capital lent to Go-
vernment, which may be calculated at 110,0001.
a year. By deducting the small gain of 46,0001.
from this loss of 110,0001., the Bank is actually
left minus the sum of nearly 80,000/., and
adding to that loss the sum of 120,0001., now
-o be .given to Government, they will pay
200,000/. for the pleasure of doing the public
business for nothing, instead of getting anything
for their risk and trouble I Now, in this state-
ment the Learned Proprietor forgot some im-
portant elements in the account, suppressed
several facts, and perverted others. He found
out, indeed, that the average of forgeries for the
last ten years was 40,0001. ; but he forgot to
state that nearly the whole of this amount oc-
curred in one year—namely, 1824, when Faunt.
leroy and others defrauded them to the amount of
360,214/., and that with this deduction from the
gross sum of 402,0401. for the whole period of ten
years, the average would not exceed 4,0001. in-
stead of 40,000/.1 In 1823 we find under the
head of losses, nil ; in 1827, only 1,612/. ;
in 1828, 1,1101.; and in 1829, only 700/.
This ought, in fairness, to have been stated.
But the other item of the loss of one per cent.
on their capital we can as little allow. At what
rate of interest do they now discount to country
banks, or what would they derive from investing
their money in the funds at their present value?'
In the one case only three per cent., the same
rate which the Government now pays them,and
in the other not 3i! This, however, is not the
way of stating the account. We contend that
they are now paid for managing the public busi-
ness a sum of 100,0001. beyond the remunera-
tion with which another establishment, of equal
safety and efficiency, would be satisfied ; but
the Chancellor of the Exchequer did not demand
the deduction 'of 120,000/. in favour of the
public on that ground alone—he demanded it
in consideration of the other advantages which
the Bank derives from its exclusive privileges,
and by which it has been enabled to secure for
its proprietors, in the shape of bonus, additional
interest, or additional capital, no less a sum
than 20,000,000/. sterling since 1797, without
including the continued 7 per cent. interest on
its capital as existing at that period. This,
therefore, is the losing conduct of the Bank.
This is the establishment which will be ruined by
he deduction of a paltry sum of 120,000/. from its
immense profits and accumulations I But if this
is not satisfactory, we should be willing to
compound, in the name of the public, for the
proposed sum of 120,0001., by an agreement to
participate in all the .profits of the Bank after
their dividend of eight per cent. We threw out
this hint on Monday, without knowing that
Lord Althorp had made the proposition and
abandoned it. The public should insist on re-
placing it among the conditions for renewing
the Charter ; and when the resolutions come to
be discussed in the House of Commons on
Monday next, we are sure that such a reasonable
compromise will not be neglected. . Most of
the proprietors insisted on the justice of allow-
ing the option of terminating the Charter at the
end of ten years to be reciprocal. We can
have no objections to this change, as we are
,ure that the Bank would not then surrender
A good bargain, and that the nation would not
desire to bind them to a ruinous arrangement,
even though it could. It is to be regretted that
Lord Althorp (as appears from the correspon-
dence with the Bank, which we published yes-
terday) suffered himself to be driven from pillar -
to post by the Bank directors, and finally to
.ccept for the public terms far from being
equally advantageous with those which his
Lordship first proposed. The publicity of the
Bank accounts, and the limitation of the rate
of profit, were both of conspicuous value to the
country; and with other points, to be collected
from the correspondence, ought surely not to
have been sacrificed.—Times.

Our readers will see, in the" Court Circular,"
Lhe brief history of the Ministerial movements
ti esterday. Earl Grey and the Lord Chancellor
left town in the morning for the palace at
Windsor, to have an audience of the King.
On their return, about half-past four o'clock,
they had an interview with most of the other
Cabinet Minsters ; and there was a Cabinet
:sinner in the evening, at which nearly all the
Nlinisteis were present, at Lord Melbourne's.
So much for yesterday. This, on the other
hand, will be the day of disclosures. The mo-
ion,
of Colonel Davies, in the Commons, will
,ecessarily lead to various explanations; and we
,mould suppose the Peers themselves will not be
[mite. The policy of Ministers will be approved in
he Commons by a majority of, at the very least,
a
hree to one. The prevalent feeling yesterday,
hroughout the metropolis, Was that of contempt'
the Eighty. The possibility of Tor) Mi-
-1