The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-12 00:00:00

privilege of the Bank of England, until the
result of this composition should have been
ascertained. If in the course of twelve mouths
it shall thence appear that the country circula-
tion is not one third of that of the Bank of
England; and if it shall also appear that country
bankers do not over-issue, but that the Bank of
England always does over-issue until it is con-
strained to contract the circulation in order to save
itself from being drained of gold, could it then be
contended that such exclusive power of over-
issue should be continued to the Bank ; or if
it shall thence appear that with an unlimited and
free pcm er of issue allowed to country bankers,
there is no over-issue by them, could it then be
said that a currency proceeding from freedom of
issue, which is found to be a sound currency for
every part of England beyond the pale of the
Bank monopoly, cannot be a sound currency for
the metropolis and its neighbourhood ? Would
it not thence be found how a sound currency
could be secured and maintained ? and upon
what ground of reason or common sense is the
country to be put in a situation where it is to be
deprived of the benefit of this experience, and
be compelled to submit to the mischiefs of the
power of over-issue to be renewed to the Bank
for a period of ten years, although the result
of one year's experience under such composi-
tion, may be to enlighten the most obtuse, and
to open the eyes of the whole country to the
evils arising from the exercise of it by the Bank.
The House of Commons has, by its vote of
the 4th inst., adopted the resolution proposed
by the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, Of
renewing the exclusive privilege of the Bank for
a limited period. But it does not thence fol-
low, that that limited period shall be ten years,
as is proposed in the Bill that has been brought
in. Power should at all events be reserved to
put an end to the term upon reasonable notice,
and upon repayment of the debt due to the Bank
by the Government. The Bank will find it
necessary to invest a considerable portion of its
capital in Government securities. But it should
have the whole of it at its disposal, and a large
portion of it will be required to enable it to
carry on its business, for it will then find, that
it cannot create nominal capital as it does now
by purchasing Government securities with its
notes, which it will then also find can be used
only as accessories to deposits and its own capital,
and that in wholesome banking issues bear a
small proportion to the amount of the deposits
and capital of a Banking Company, and a still
smaller proportion to the industry and capital
which are put and kept in motion by such
issues. In truth, the Bank as well as the
CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, has yet

to go to school in the business of sound
banking. We trust there are Members in the
House of Parliament able and willing to teach
them wholesome lessons in this respect. The
country requires it at their hands, and will not
submit to have its industry paralysed by this
monopoly for ten years longer. When it shall
be freed from this incubus, and other restric-

tions which repress it, we shall find that in place
of having masses of unemployed capital, all the
capital we have will be too little ; and in place
of having a number of unemployed labourers in
England, we shall require additional labourers
from Ireland, as in better times we have hereto-
fore done, and in place of driving these unfor-
tunate strangers from our land, we shall welcome
them to our shores.

Any Bank Proprietor is liable only to the
amount of the stock he holds.
This immunity was granted by the first
charter of the Bank which conferred upon it no
exclusive privilege. It should remain the only
chartered banking company in England. Char-
ters are only the means of enabling meddling
Ministers to interfere improperly, or intriguing
ones, or those who are under the influence of
intriguing friends, to do acts of favouritism. All
charters are more or less restrictions, and every

restriction operates more or less as a monopoly.
But skill and industry should be as free as air,
which ever becomes pestiferous when prevented
from circulating freely.
Nor are charters at all necessary. Notwith-

standing the restrictions imposed by the 7th
Geo. IV. c. 46, which ought to be removed,
upwards of thirty joint stock-banking companies
have established themselves in England—some
of them composed of nearly 1,000 partners,
every one of whom is answerable to the whole
extent of his fortune for the engagements
of the concern. What better security can
the public have for the good management or
the stability of these establishments ? But when
men prate about security for issues, do they
know what they talk about ? Issues, as already
said, bear a small proportion to deposits, and a
still smaller proportion to the aggregate industry
and capital which they put and keep in motion.
And will any one make deposits with a Banking
Company who should give security for its issues
To give security for issues, therefore, would be
to deprive a Banking Company of the maul
means of carrying on its business.

We have now before us a printed copy of the
Bill for the abolition of slavery throughout the
British colonies, of which we on Monday gave an
abstract on the authority of a Contemporary.
That abstract we can now affirm to be substan-
tially correct ; but one provision of some im-
portance was not mentioned. By the ninth
clause it is provided that the apprenticed la-
bourer may purchase his discharge against the
will of his employer on an appraisement. The
mode in which the appraisement is to be made
is to be prescribed either by Orders in Council
or by Acts of the Colonial Legislatures.
We should much wish the latter to be ex.
eluded from all share in such an arrange-
ment. Men are bad judges in their own
cause, and when it comes to be a question
with planters at what rate they shall part with
all power over those whom they have been ac-
customed to look upon as cattle, we fear they
would be apt to take something more than the
bare value of the labour they will lose into
calculation. An Order in Council, regulating
the mode of appraisement, would be much pre-
ferable and much less liable to suspicion and
misconstruction than any thing that could be
done by the West Indians. If it be true that
nemo fuit repente turptsszmus, it is no
less true that no man suddenly rises from
an exceedingly debased moral condition to the
height of virtue. The West Indians from the
very nature of their position have had their ideas
of moral right, as regards the negroes, perverted,
and, therefore, we say that they should be trusted
as little as possible with the arrangements which
are to restore the black population of the West
Indies to the privileges of which they have been
plundered. This again reminds us of the argu-
ment we urged yesterday in favour of giving