The Sun.
London, England, 1833-02-05 00:00:00

THE BANK CHARTER.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Six,—ln doing me the honour of noticing my publica-
tion on the Bank Charter, you are pleased to express your
dissent from nearly all the opinions it contains. Since,
however, you agree in the paramount importance of the
adoption of such measures only for the reform of our mo-
netary system as are founded on sound views, which are
not to be attained without discussion, I may expect you
to afford room in your columns for a very brief vindica-
tion of opinions, from which, it appears to me, you dis-
sent only because you misconceive them :

1. You think it indifferent whether we have a silver, a
gold, or a mixed standard, provided we have a sound
Nanking system. Permit me to say that, under the most
perfect banking system, conceivable money must fluctuate
in value with the standard metal. Now in the work you
quote, I have shown ample grounds for believing that
gold is far more variable in value than silver ; particularly
from its exclusive employment in settling inter-national
balances, occasioning continual fluctuations in its local
supply and demand. These fluctuations are indicated by
the exchanges. And to select as a standard measure of
value a metal which the exchanges prove to be always
varying in value, with every change in the balance of our
loan-jobbers' financial dealings, and our merchants' com-
mercial dealings, with tie continent, seems to me just as
wise as it would be to take the column of mercury in the
barometer fur a standard measure of length.
2. That country banks should be made to give security
for the payment of their notes, is no novel proposal. It
is grounded on the same principle as the prohibition of
private coining ; viz., the duty of Government to take
precautions for protecting the public from being imposed
on by f ilse, or inconvenienced by doubtful currency. The
security should, of course, be applicable only to the pay•
meat of the banker's notes. His depo.it business stands
on quite a different footing from his note-issue; and I
know no grounds for the interference of the law with the
former branch.

3. When I ventured to put my name to a proposal for
establishing an inconvertible paper currency, I knew well
the almost universal prejudice again-t such a system. But
my object is to remove popular prejudices, not to truckle
to them ; therefore, it is that I beg to ask of you and
your readers a candid consideration of the following plain
question :—Were we not subjected to this frightful bugbear
"an inconvertible paper currency," within our recollec-

. _
tions, for a quarter of a century? And is it not true
that Britain made greater strides in wealth, power, and
productive industry, in those twenty-five years than in any
preceding century? For the first thirteen years of that
period there w .s no over issue of consequence on the part
of the Bank, and its paper was not depreciated. And if,
in 1810 and the subsequent years, the Bank did over issue
till its paper sunk in value 10, 20, and 25 per cent., the
cause is obvious. There was nothing to prevent its
doing so but cobweb scruples of honesty in the breasts of
its managers. If there were nothing else to prevent the
passengers in Ludgate-street from helping themselves to all
the plate in Mr. Rundell's shop, should we wonder if the
plate did not stay there long ? Yet, few reasoners would
adduce its disappearance as a❑ argument for prohibiting
Mr. Rundell from putting his plate in his windows. The
way to prevent people from meddling with Mr. Rundell's
plate, and a bank from depreciating its paper by over
issuing it, is to make it penal to do so ; to compel the
note-issuers, by Act of Parliament, to keep their paper
honestly at par value, and the thieves in Ludgate street to
keep their hands honestly off Mr. Rundell's counters.

But it is feared that Government and Parliament would,
" in extraordinary emergencies," sanction an over-issue of
national paper, and that political alarms would discredit
it. Allow me to say, that whatever risk there might be
of such an event is, at least, not more than what we are
liable to at pre•ent. Bank of England paper is only nomi-
nally convertible. Every body knows that there is not, and
can never be, enough gold in the country to pay a third
part of the bank notes in circulation, or a three hundredth
part of all the outstanding money liabilities, payable on
demand, in coin. The Governor and Directors of the
Bank, and all the practical men, acknowledge that no
provision is, or can be made, by any bank, against politi-
cal panics,—so that, in such emergencies as your objection
contemplates, nothing can prevent a suspension of cash
payments, and all the evils (whatever they are) of an
inconvertible currency. Convertible paper is, in fact,
only a pretence. It can be convertible only so long as
things go on smoothly, and few people care about con-
veiling it. Let political alarm arise under such a sys-
tem, and a panic ensues, with all its frightful features,—
a run for gold—the breaking of banks—the cessation of
mercantile credit—the ruin of trade—and lastly, a suspen-
sion ofcash payments, when all the harm is done, which
it might at the beginning have prevented, The truth is
(and the ex imple of 1797 proves it), that a suspension of
cash payments (or an inconvertible paper) does no harm,
and can do none, until it is over-issued and depreciated ;
which depreciation is to be prevented by a law as easily as
cash payments are for a time secured by a law,—as easily
as the thieves are prevented from walking off with Mr.
Rundell's plate. While the superior advantages of a non-
convertible currency, over one payable instantly on de-
mand, in cash, are, Ist, That it precludes the possibility
of panics, runs, and their attendant evils. 2d, That it
saves the enormous expense to the country of a bullion re•
serve of twelve or fifteen millions. 3d, That it prevents
any rapid fluctuations in the amount of the circulation,
and consequently in prices, by giving time to adapt the
extent of paper issue to the altered value of the standard.
These are benefits worth purchasing at the cost of a pre-
judice—pardonable enough in a people who had smarted
so severely from the roguery of the Bank action during the
latter half of the term of the Restriction Act—but which
still ought to give way before the advances of the school-
master. A scaldtd dog fears cold water. The prevalent
dread of paper and preference of gold as the only safe
currency, ranks in the same class of rational motives. Let
us hope we shall not always legislate only upon impulse.
You will observe I have expressed the opinion that
there nee but tiro o
alternatives
n exclusiveteranativesb
before n
ret:iist—wa perfectly free
b,n4ng system, sal
Paper-issue.
That the former (especially with a silver standard) would
be an immense improvement upon the present system I
assert. But that the latter would be a still preferable
arrangement, I believe, for the reasons given partly above,
and more fully in the work you have been pleased to notice.
I am, Sir, your very obedient servant,
Castle Combe, Feb. I. G. POULETT SCROPE.

About a quarter past 9 o'clock last night,
some diabolical villain 8:1 fire to an oat-rick, containing
the produce of 20 acres, the property of Mr. CHILD, of
Chalk-pit-farm, in the parish of Hurley, which was to-
tally consumed. The rick was situated in a field about
300 yards from the dwelling-house, and near a wheat-
rick; but there fortunately tieing but very little wind, and
the inhabitants in the neighbourhood using every exertion,
the latter was preserved. A reward of 501. is offered for
the discovery of the etrefulerwv.—Readiny Mcrcury.

LITERATURE.

WHYCHCOTTE OF ST. JOHN'S. '2 Vors,

LONDON. 1833.

This work is the production of an able and prac-
tised pen, and has been thrown off, possibly by way
of relaxation, during the intervals of severer study.
The author has evidently attained his full growth in
point of intellect, for the impress of maturity is
stamped on every page. His book is of a miscel-
laneous character, partly didactic, partly anecdotical,
partly biographical, and partly fictitious narrative.
Many of the biographical sketches are clerical,
and drawn from University reminiscences. The
author, we should guess, was a clergyman, from his
(apparently) intimate acquaintance with the habits
and peculiarities, personal as well as mental, of
some of the most distinguished divines of the day.
But be he lay or clerical, one thing is certain, that
lie is a writer of very considerable ability and ex-
perience ; of a somewhat caustic turn of mind ; ably
stored with much and various knowledge ; and of
remarkable readiness and fluency of style. He
writes everywhere currente cala»zo, as if free of
the authorial craft, from early adolescence. He
has also some little tact at book-making; and, as
occasion demands, can spin like a silk-worm,
or a penny-a-line man. The best parts of
his book are his ghost stories; though the day,
alas ! has gone by for these delightful gossipings.
Dr. Brewster's late letters on " Natural Magic," have
explained away the supernatural to the conviction
of even the most bigoted ghost-fancier, and hence-
forth the churchyard is a safe place, even to the
school-boy, at the " witching hour of night,"—for
the dead will be seen no more. Ghosts, like
witches, have lost their hold on the imagination ;
the " school-master" has taken them in hand, and
bound them down to keep the peace to all eternity.
We subjoin an interesting anecdote ( with which we
must close our cursory notice) about Lord Grey
and the bloody head. In the good old times this
head would have been a real one; now it is only an
"hallucination."

" But what,' said our good-natured, hospitable host,
wishing to break the awkward pause which this reply had
created, ' what of Lord Grey and the bloody head ?'
." Simply this. A summer or two ago Earl Grey
came down into Devonshire, and fixed his head-quarters
at the Government-house in Devonport. He was de-
clared to he very much out of health, and was indeed
afflicted with a most singular disorder; for continually
present to his mind's eye was a bloody head. Go where
he would, at home or abroad, in solitude or in society,
this very revolting spectacle pursued him. The features
rigid in death—the lead-like, lifeless eye—the brow con-
vulsed in agony—and the neck, from which drops of gore
seemed to trickle—these features form no very agreeable
portrait. Such, however, as it was, no art could exclude
it from the Earl's presence, and it embittered every mo-
ment of his life.

Change of scene was prescribed, and his Lordship
came to Devonport ; hut there his enemy followed him,
and confronted him, turn where he would, with its fixed
and steady gaze. lie then went to Endsleigh Cottage, a
beautiful country seat of the Duke of Bedford, near Ta-
vistock. For once he seemed to have distanced his pur-
suer,:and for many days enjoyed the luxury of being alone.
But to a large dinner party given there, the bloody head
came, uninvited, and stationed itself opposite to its old
intimate, whom it harassed and disheartened with its pre.
sence, till the companionship became unbearable, and the
Earl, abruptly and in disorder, quitted the table. All
this the medical men accounted for on physical grounds,
and demonstrated clearly enough to his family, that it
arose from hallucination.'"

STANDARD NOVELS, No. XXIII.
LONDON. 1833.
The revival of Miss Austen's " Sense and Sensi-
bility"—the whole of which is comprised in the pre-
sent number—does credit to the taste and sagacity
of the editor of this miscellany. Though not of the
loftiest class, in point of genius ; though possessing
few stirring scenes, no great stock of invention, and
absolutely no eloquence, yet there are few tales in
the English language which deserve to be more ge-
nerally read than the one in question. It is wholly
of a domestic character, dealing only with the juste
milieu, or middle classes, and does not contain one
single character, male or female, that is not drawn
from life, and that does not, in every page, impress
this fact upon the reader. In the truth and simpli-
city of her conceptions, as well as in the arch,
shrewd, quiet way in which she works them up,
Miss Austen bears no slight resemblance to the
author of " Tom Jones." She is a Fielding, with-
out his grossness. Her dialogues, in particular, are
inimitable. In point of ease and perfect natural-
ness, we know of nothing equal to them. Madame
D'Arblay is more pointed and sarcastic; Miss Edge-
worth more polished; Mrs. Inchbald more dramatic;
but, as regards strict, uniform adherence to truth,
even down to the minutest points, such as the use
of particular conventional idioms, Miss Austen beats
them all hollow. Yet, it must be confessed, she
wants vigour. So fearful is she ever of overstepping
the propriety of nature, that she invariably under
acts rather than over acts her part. Yet this arises
not so much from want of fancy or buoyancy of
spirits, as from a sort of classic horror of exaggera-
tion. In one or two instances, indeed, she ventures
to run without her leading-strings; but the flight is
a short one,and, as if astonished and frighted at her
boldness, she invariably makes all haste to tie them

on again. This is the only draw-back to Miss

Austen's genius. In every other respect she comes
as near perfection as it is possible for human intel-
lect to do. Her " Sense and Sensibility" abounds

with characters, such as the reader may meet with any
half hour in the day; is penned with consummate
care—though the art has been exquisitely concealed—
and inculcates the purest and most valuable of
morals. It has, besides, this further merit, that it is
equably sustained throughout. No one scene rises
above another in excellence ; no one character
throws another into the shade—all is chaste, correct,
and in the most unbroken keeping. Those ac-
customed to the romantic stimulants of our modern
novelists, may perhaps be apt to exclaim against the

insipidity of Miss Austen's works. They would bein-
sipid, certainly, were they not so exquisitely life-like;
they are insipid also on a superficial perusal, but
when studied attentively—and they deserve atten-

tion—will be found to contain gems of rich, though
sober humour, delicate satire, infinite archness of ex-
pression, and unbounded truth of delineation, 'What
for instance, in its way, can exceed the truth and
quiet beauty of the dialogue, where a shrewd, worldly
wife strives to persuade—and of course succeeds
in doing so—her husband, from his intention to be-
stow a handsome annuity on his half-sisters, by re-
minding him of his favourite son, whom he will be
robbing by such misplaced liberality ? Again, what
can be superior to the hearty, homely, good humour
of Mrs. Jennings, with her match-making propen-
sities, her favourite panacea of cherry-brandy, which
always did her husband's cholic so much good, and
therefore—mark the sequitur !—must be Equally
effective in ali cases; or the sudden friendship of an
old Devonshire Squire for a young Oxonian, be-
cause he was such a judge of horse-flesh, which, in
the sportsman's opinion, was the very perfection of
all sublunary wisdom ? But we must hasten to a
close. In a word, then, " Sense and Sensibility"
is, in every respect, a " Standard Novel;" and one
that always will be read with the same pleasure with
which we read the " Vicar of Wakefield," namely, for
the matchless ease, grace, and ;Mutt: of the narrative.