The Sun.
London, England, 1833-10-19 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

We had recently occasion to notice the
attacks repeatedly and systematically made on
the personal character of Lord Durham in the
Conservative press, the palpable object of which
is to depreciate the political character of a distin-
guished advocate of popular opinions. All who
know Lord Durham in his public and private
relations, would despise the calumnies alluded
to ; but, although we rarely advocate resort to
the law as a defence of character, it is obvious
that there are limits to forbearance ; and that
when offensive libel,' are perseveringly repeated,
self-respect demands legal redress. We extract
from the Durham Chronicle a proof of the
utterly unfounded nature of some of the calum-
nies propagated against his Lordship, and which
that liberal local paper has fully exposed. We
regret to observe the party virulence of tire
country Tory press, which, in proportion to the
decline and fall of Conservative power, appears
to indulge in increasing personalities and private
calumny. Extreme criticism on the public acts
of public men may be tolerated, and are the
partial and occasional consequences of a free
press; but the gross falsehoods to which we
allude are a foul course of political warfare, and
most detrimental to good neighbourhood. The
Reformers of the north of England are not
affected by this libellous system, as appears by
the following leading article in the Durham
Chronicle:—
" The Reformera of Gateshead, ever foremost to do
honour to those who have fought earnestly in the great
battle of Reform, have taken advantage of the Earl of
Durham's visit to the north to invite him to a public
dinner, to be held in that town on Wednesday the 9.11
inst. His Lordship, reciprocating the feeling which
suggested the compliment, cordially accepted the invita-
tion; and we are gratified to hear that the circumstance
has afforded unalloyed satisfaction to the inhabitants of
that public-spirited borough, and to the friends of liberal
principles in the neighbourhood generally. No exertion
will be spared, we understand, to render the entertain-
ment worthy of the cause with which it is connected ;
and there is every reason to believe that his Lordship will
experience an enthusiastic reception from the most nume-
rous, respectable, and intelligent party ever assembled in
Gateshead upon a festive occasion. We doubt not this
bar quet will be the forerunner of similar demonstrations
of public respect and confidence in other parts of the
country ; i.nd that additional and conclusive proofs will
thus be given of the important truth, which was wont in
former days to he so stoutly denied by the enemies of
the country's independence, that it speaks in and through
its former distinguished representative.
" Meanwhile, as a set off against the flittering testimo.
nials of popular affection which the Noble E irl is about so
honourably to receive at the hands of a community to
whom he lets rendered such eminent services, the old
Tory squad are croaking their raven notes, in the vain
hope of lowering the Noble Earl in the estimation of the
country. The licentiousness of their press is again aroused,
and so blind is the rage, and so reckless the malevolence
of its conductors, that one worthy mistakes a signal of the
Royal Yacht Club for the tri-coloured flag of France—
which the party affects to regard as an emblem of danger
and destruction ; and another gravely avers that his
Lordship is so uncompromising a leveller, as to have de-
termined to ' sweep' one of his own villages ' from off
the face of the earth,' because of some offence that part of
its population are alleged to have committed ! The ab-
surdity is great—.the malice infinite. Nothing, however,
is too monstrous for these veritable gobe-mouches. What
marvellous discovery the sagacious scribblers and exem-
plary moralists will next hit upon, remains to he seen ;
hut juicing from experience, and as it is reasonable to
presume that, under the exasperation occasioned by their
failure to impose upon the public in the instances above
alluded to, they will strain hard to bring forward some-
thing more striking, we shall be surprised indeed if
it do not prove a thumper.
" Subsequently to the foregoing being put into type,
the Earl of Durham's solicitor has handed to us a letter
written by his Lordship, instructing him to institute legal
proceedings against the Editor of the Durham Advertiser,
for the libellous attack made upon the Noble Earl in
that journal last week. The offensive article is quoted in
enother column ; and being, as it is, wholly false, little
as we admire prosecutions for libel in the abstract, it would
he difficult, we think, to imagine anything more deserving
(as a base and wicked attempt to cast an unjust stigma
upon the character of a public man) of being made the
subject of an Repeal to a jury—especially when it is con-
sidered in relation to, and as a fruit of, the regularly
organized system of gross vituperation and groundless
slander, upon which the offender in this case, and his
partner in iniquity, have lately acted in reference to the
Noble Earl, upon whom they have incessantly poured the
vials of their wrath. His Lordship's letter will be found
among our advertisements. It places the matter in the
proper lieht, and suggests an unanswerable justification of the
course his Lordship has resolved to adopt. We doubt not a
tremendous howl will be raised in the Conservative kennel ;
but a consideration of the contents of hi. Lordship's brief
and pithy note will deprive the rabid pack of all power ti
infect the sound and right thinking portion of society
with the virus that circulates in the veins of their own
body politic."

Few members of the aristocracy have maintain-
ed so high a private character as Lord Durham ;
none have been more fearless or consistent
advocates of popular opinions, through good
and evil report. The Tories may rest assured
that they will fail in their aim of lowering his
reputation and their in potent attempts will
rather mark Lord Durham as a nobleman whom
they desire to sacrifice as a victim, for stern and
successful exertions in the great national work
of Parliamentary reform.—Morning Chronicle.
We alluded yesterday to a singular document
which we had received by the last arrivals from
New York, namely, a defence by President
Jackson of his former conduct in refusing to
pass the bill for renewing the Charter of the
United States' Bank, and his pretended reasons
for withdrawing the Government deposits from
that institution, and transferring them to the
States Banks of the separate members of the
Union. The latter was the direct, immediate,
and ostensible object of the paper, but the former
occupies by far the greatest part of its di.cussion,
explanations, and reasoning. The question
cannot fail to be curious and interesting to all
those who, having an acquaintance with financial
transactions, are desirous of attaining a compe-
tent knowledge of the working of republican
institutions among our transatlantic brethren,
while probably the general inattention to Ame-
rican affairs in this country may be pleaded as
Our apology for a brief recapitulation of the cir-
ealmstances to which the President's paper
refers. A bank, with a capital of 35,000,000
dollars, had received the sanction of the Congress
in 1816, and was endowed with an exclusive
charter for 20 years. The United States Govern-
ment, or, in other words, the Government
of the American Union, was authorized to
subscribe '7,000,000 dollars towards its capital,
and to enjoy a proportionate share of its profits.
Its necessity and utility had been maintained
both by the American statesmen of that day,
and by General Hamilton and other patriots of
a prior period. The object of its establishment
was to secure an equal rate of exchange between
the different states of the Union,—to facilitate
pecuniary transactions among the trading part 01
the confederated community,—to render more
secure, economical, and rapid the transmission
of the public revenue from the most distant states
of the Union to Washington,—to check or
control the operations of the local banks,—to
establish a more uniform system of currency,—
and to enable the Government to effect its pay-
ments with greater frugality and expedition. To
accomplish these purposes the parent institution
established more or fewer branches in nearly
every state of the Union, collected a store of the

precious metals at its different counting-houses,
and began to regulate the issues of paper by a
regard to the state of the foreign exchanges.
Never did any banking institution commence at a
more alarming period, or engage in a more ha-
zardous or arduous undertaking. An extracndi-
, nary number of Bank failures had previously
taken place in nearly every commercial state of
the Union,—the exchange against the notes of
the provincial banks, or, in other words, the
debasement of the currency, amounted in most
cases to 10, 20, or 25 per cent,—financial
and trading transactions were thus far rendered
inconvenient and uncertain,—cash payments
were little known,—paper obligations, for sums
so low as a shilling or half a crown in value
were current,—the greatest confusion prevailed
in the trading community, and the Government
found the utmost difficulty in establishing the
means of an easy intercourse between the Trea-
sury at Washington and the Custom-house
offices at the distant ports. The chartered
Bank of the United States, which was founded
with the hope of mitigating or removing these
evils, is alleged by its partisans to have effected
wonders of financial order and economy.
Whatever may be said on this head,—whatever
deduction we may he disposed to make from the
periodical reports of the Directors, which have
been published, and to one or two of which we
have formerly called public attention, it must
universally be admitted, that ever since the erec-
tion of the Federal Bank the general currency
of the country has been improved, the local
banks have been obliged to secure themselves
against public distrust by a more adequate re-
serve of specie or bullion, the exchange; with
Europe have become less unequal or fluctu-
ating, and the Government revenue has been
collected and transmitted with more expedition
and at less expense. The profits resulting to its
proprietors from this Federal Chartered Bank,
though they never approached those of the cor-
poration of Threadneedle-street, have always
been considered adequate to the expectations of
its founders; and to whatever amount they rose,
the Government at least enjoyed the lion's share
of the benefit. The charter of the company being
granted only for2o years, expires,we believe, in the
beginning of 1836, and President Jackson, for
plausible reasons no doubt, has decided that its
exclusive privileges or facilities shall not be re-
newed. After a laborious inquiry into the expe-
diency of renewing the charter, by committees of
the House of Representatives and of the Senate, in
the spring of 1832, and after the publication of se-
veral of the most able and enlightened reports which
we have ever read on a similar question, the two
Houses of Congress passed a Bill authorizing
the renewal of the charter. The President
having done all that lay in his power for pre-
venting such a result,—having in his annual
messages for two years previously denounced the
establishment, and seeing that its influence
would be used against him at his late election,
determined boldly to subscribe his veto to the
measure. He even went further in the long
paper which expressed and justified the grounds
of his negative, and insinuated a suspicion against
the solvency of the obnoxious institution. The
two parties—the President of the Union and the
President of the Bank—still continuing hostile,
he has now given orders to withdraw the Go-
vernment deposits intrusted to the federal
institution or its branches, and to hand
them over to the local banks. It is in justi-
fication of this latter measure that the long
and argumentative paper to which we
have alluded is drawn up. It is a curious
spectacle to see the chief magistrate of one of
the most powerful commonwealths in the world
committed with a body of capitalists, or a com-
pany of bankers, on a point of financial security
and electioneering influence. It is still more
curious to find the temporary ruler of " a roar-
ing democracy," elected by the universal suf-
frages of the citizens, putting his veto on a
measure sanctioned by the two Houses of Con-
gress, likewise chosen by the same democracy,
and supposed to represent more faithfully or
directly the national volition. But it is the
most extraordinary thing of all to observe how,
in that " best of all possible Governments" (as
the government of our republican transatlantic
brethren is sometimes represented to be), mea-
sures of general policy are decided on private
grounds and for personal objects, without any
reference to general principles or national inte.
tests. Yet this is not our account of the matter,
nor the picture of any malignant libeller of
American character or institutions, but that of
General Jackson himself, who unveils the mys-
teries of popular elections, and teaches stran-
gers to appreciate the value of democratic
suffrages, guided by what he describes as " a
hireling press."

" Having," says he, " taken these preliminary steps to
obtain control over public opinion, the Bank came into
Congress, and asked a new Charter. The object avowed
by many of the advocates of the Bank was to put the Pre-
sident to the test, that the country might know his final
determination relative to the Bank prior to the ensuing
election. Many documents and articles were printed and
circulated at the expense of the Bank, to bring the people
to a favourable decision upon its pretensions. Those
whom the Bank appears to have made its debtors for the
special occasion nere warned of the ruin which awaited
them should the President be sustained, and attempts were
made to alarm the whole people by painting the depression
in the price of property and produce, and the general loss,
inconvenience. and distress, which it was represented
would immediately follow the re-election of the President
in opposition to the Bank."

He afterwards tells us, that large sums of the
Bank money went to bribe the press to advocate
his overthrow at the last election.
" A new state of things," he says, " has, however,
arisen since the close of the last session of Congress, and
evidence has since been laid before the President, which
he is persuaded would have led the House of Representa-
rives to a different conclusion, if it had come to their
knowledge. The fact that the Bank controls, and in some
cases suhstantially owns, and by its money supports, some
of the leading presses of the country, is now wore clearly
established. Editors to whom it loaned extravagant sums
in 1831 and 1832, on unusual time and nomind se-
curity, have since turned out to be insolvent ; and to
others apparently in no better condition accommod .tions
still more extravagant, on terms more unusual and some-
times without any security, have also been heedlessly
granted."
But without having room for any further ob-
servations on these collateral points, we beg
only, in conclusion, to state, that President
Jackson has not in the least relaxed in his oppo-
sition to the Bank char er since he announced,
about a year ago, his veto on its renewal,—that
as his period of office will exceed that of the
existing corporation, the latter must necessarily
be allowed to expire,—that its funds will, there-
fore, be divided in the course of the next two
years among its proprietors to the derangement,
probably, of the monetary system of the Union,
another
—and that it will not depend uponfedertal b
the Gaennkei
irl;gl
or his party if ever
establishment should
terminationho m uoldroefstuthhacenecebte7o charter
it
y.
succeed
oarfsthaend
he,"‘fttoisthbeu
but
Prathhaantit4.t Ban
It It is considered as the decision of the country 8
then cease to exist, and no man, the President bellies hall
il
has reasonable pound for expectation that any other

Bank of the United States will be created by Congress."
Times.

The further prorogation of Parliament to the
12th of December, leaves no doubt as to the
intention of Ministers not to assemble the great
Council of the nation again during the present
year. To upbraid the Whigs with inconsistency
is such a worn-out theme that it is in vain to
have recourse to it, otherwise we could refer
them to whole columns of Parliamentary debates
in which, year after year, when in opposition,
they were constantly calling for an earlier assem-
bling of the Legislature. At present, their
conduct in thus abandoning their recorded
opinions, is not only inconsistent, but, we may
add, unnatural and unpaternal. The reformed
Parliament is their own child, to which it might
have been supposed that they would overflow
with parental fondness, and that, like the parents
of other pet children, they would never be happy
out of its company. The child, however, is,
we fear, not so great a favourite with its parents
as might have been expected. In its adult form it
proves not to be sufficiently dutiful, obedient,
and compliant ; while the very manliness and in-
dependence of which its parents were, in antici-
pation, so proud (but of which, by the bye,
neighbours and lookers on do not accuse it of
having displayed too much), are the very qua-
lities which these parents seem now least inclined
to cherish. Dropping, however, this tone of
badinage, we cannot but otpress our regret that
Ministers should not themselves see the import.
ance of an earlier assembling of Parliament ; and
even laying aside other considerations, how much
more convenient it would be to themselves to
commence the sitting at a period which would
enable diem to terminate it before the clog days.
The truth, we fear, is, that it is looked upon as
the evil day which moo persons are anxious to
postpone, as the period of labour and of badger-
ing, which they have not the coura:ze to en-
counter, as long as it can by any possibility be
avoided. Upon the same principle half the
business of life may be put off, and when
it is, not only is the trouble and labour in ge-
neral greatly increased, but ruin often overtakes
the man who is for ever postponing what
ought to be done at once. But were there
no other reason for assembling Parliament,
the appellate jurisdiction of the House of
Lords presents to our mind an unanswerable
ground for the High Court of Parliament being
open when the other Courts of Westminster
Hall are. What would be thought if the doors
of these latter, instead of being opened at fixed
and stated periods, were to remain closed till it
suited the Judges to meet ? The argument is
quite as strong, if not stronger, in the one case
than in the other ; for if closing the doors of the
latter would be a denial of justice, what else is
it so to abridge the sittings of the Court of
Bernier resort as to add to the evil of previous
delay, and, in fact, to play into the hands of
parties typo, it is well known, frequently appeal
for no other purpose ? The truth is, individual
convenience is for ever allowed to supersede
public duty, public interest, and public conve-
nience. That such ought not to be the case no
-man in his senses can for a moment doubt ; and
it is equally indisputable, we think, that, in an
age of reform like this, the people have a right
to expect, at the hands of those whose whole
fame rests upon that one quality, such a display
of it in their own persons and deportment as
may evince at once their own sincerity, and the
value of the principle they have been contending
co r.—Mo rn ing Herald.

BANKRUPTCY COURT, OCT. 18.

(Before Mr. Gimmiqsioner MERIVALE.

EXTRAORDINARY PROCEEDINGS UNDER AN OLD

COMMISSION.

The creditors of Mr. John Holder, of Kingston-
upon-Hull, tailor and draper, assembled to-day, pur-
suant to an order made by the Court of Review, to
take out a renewed fiat, for the purpose of another
inves.igation of the bankrupt's affairs.
The proceedings adopted to renew the commis-
sion were at the instance of the bankrupt himself, a
commission against whom was issued on the 12th
of February, 1811. The bankrupt surrendered and
passed his examination, and a dividend of 3s. 6d. in
the pound was paid to the creditors. Mr. Robert
Kiddy and Mr. Edward Rush worth were the assig-
nees. No proceedings were taken to bring the
bankrtm's affairs to a close, and he, conceiving that
the estate had not been properly managed, sought
fur, and obtained leave to take out a renewal of the
old commission.

Mr. Phillips, a solicitor, stated that it had been
discovered that Mr. Rushworth had been buying up
the debts of the bankrupt ; the creditors appre-
hending they would obtain little or no dividend in
addition to the first that had been declared. In one
case the Learned Gentleman .vas understood to
state that one creditor had sold a debt of about
2001. for .5/. The Court of Review had directed
that the old assigness should not take any part,
either directly or indirectly, in the choice of new
assigness, which was the chief object of the present
meeting. Notwithstanding this order, it would ap-
pear by art affidavit he would read, that Mr. Rush-
worth had taken measures to interfere with the
choice of new assignees. He then read an affidavit
signed by William Pearse, who deposed that he was
a creditor under the commission issued against the
bankrupt in 1811 ; that seven or eight years after-
wards he was requested by Mr. E. Rushworth to
sell his debt, which he did to the assignee for .5/.
The affidavit went on to state that Mr. Rushworth
had endeavoured to obtain powers of attorney from
creditors to select as the new assignees parties
whom Mr. Rush worth wished. There were several
powers of attorney of this nature.
The COMMISSIONER replied that, if there were
fifty of them, not one should be acted upon. The
trick was the most useless one that had ever been
played.
Mr. Attwood was then appointed assignee, anti
Mr. Green will act as the official assignee to inves-
tigate the accounts.