The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

A motion was made last night, by Mr.
Buckingham, " That a Select Committee be
appointed to consider the best practical means
of progressively reducing the national debt, and
of the best mode of assessing the taxes, to effect
that object, without depressing the agricultural
and commercial interests of the country." Mr
Buckingham's plan is to convert all the stocks
into one national annuity fund, bearing interest
at the rate of 5 per cent. (the present rate of in-
terest being about n per cent.), to terminate
in 100 years, and to be diminished annually at
the rate of 1 per cent. For some time the pay-
ment would be larger than at present, and to
meet this additional burden, he proposed a
graduated' property tax, or rather an income
tax. The obvious difficulty in the way of
giving effect to a plan of this sort is, the im-
possibility of raising the additional taxes which
would be necessary. It is one thing to contract
a loan in terminable annuitie,, and another to
convert perpetual into gradually terminating an-
nuities. Lord AlthOrp said, the effect of the
Hon. Member's plan would be, to increase the
existing burdens at the first, by eighteen millions.
While Mr. Buckingham proposed to make the
present generation pay for posterity, Mr. Cobbett
thought that the present generation ought not
to pay for. the past." " As a child in the cradle,"
he said, " could not be bound to pay for debts
contracted by a father who left him nothing ; so
he (Mr. Cobbett) did not consider the indus-
trious classes bound to pay for debts contracted
before their titne, and by usurping Parliaments ;
—Parliaments which had, in fact, no right to
sit in that House. He held that they were not
bound in conscience or in honour for such debts
so contracted." The question of title is rather
a ticklish one. Perhaps the Hon. Member for
Oldham would allow the title of the present
Parliament to contract debts. But who made
the present Parliament ? The last Parlia-
ment. If the title of the last Parliament
was bad, how can the title of a Parliament
made by its act be good ? How are
we to get a Parliament with a good title in this
way, except we are to follow the plan of the Spa-
fields patriots, and call a National Convention ?
The doctrine that the acts of a Government sub-
mitted to by a nation, are not to he valid by
posterity, because there was a defect in its title,
is one which would lead to very serious evils.
We quite agree with Mr. D. W. Harvey, that
all property throughout the country is mortgaged
to the fundholders, and that it ought to be
deemed at least as sacred as any other description
of property. We also agree with him, " that
many persons who pretend to be alarmed at the
idea of applying a sponge to the national debt, are
really glad to hear the Radicals talk of such a pro-
ceeding." They may be assured that the moment
an invasion of one description of property is sanc-
tioned, every other description of property will
become insecure. Every man who possesses
property should discourage to the utmost ail
doctrines which sap the foundation of property.
There is room for further economy and retrench-
ment, and there is ample room for a more
equitable assessment of the burdens, and we
trust that considerable relief will ere long be
thence derived by the people ; but let us hear
nothing of sacrificing the property of one class
for the convenience of the other classes. The
grand objection to the entering on discussions
of this nature at this time is, that they can lead
to no result ; for Parliament with its utmost
tliiigence can hardly get through the business
which must be disposed of. On a division the
numbers were 38 to 57, giving a majority of 19
against the motion.—Morning chronicle.
So long as there can remain a doubt on the
effect of the " legal tender" clause to diminish
the quantity of gold circulating in the country,
or to ircrease the difficulty of obtaining specie
for notes, in ordinary times, so long ought that
clause to be resisted. We have repeatedly men-
tioned that we think the danger might be ob-
viated, if for any good purpose it was necessary
to make bank notes a legal tender, at any time,
or for any sum, by raising the amount of the
privileged paper to a sum upwards of 101. It
would rot then, as Adam Smith remarks, enter
into the transactions of master and servant, or
affect the common retail business of the country,
and, if useless, would at least be harmless.
Lord Althorp, with that unhappy spirit of com-
promise which is peculiar to his party, and
which, in attempting to please every body, gives
satisfaction to none, agreed to raise above 51.
the denomination of the privileged note. It
was properly stated, in answer, that the law
might be evaded by issuing notes of five guineas
instead of five pounds ; and though we may
hope that a great national banking company,
order the control of public opinion, would
not be so regardless of character as to
take such an advantage ", of the new Act,

still we think that if the resolution is to he em-
bodied in a law, effective precautions ought to
be taken even against improbable dangers. We
would therefore propose, in the spirit of the Mi-
nistry and of the majority on the vote of Tues-
day, that to the second resolution, as given in
our paper of yesterday, there be added the words
"and that no notes be issued for any sum be-
tween 51. and 101., as at present." The resolu-
tion would then run thus :—" That it is the
opinion of this Committee, that provided the
Bank of England should be bound by law to
discharge in the legal coin of the realm all such
of its debts and liabilities as shall be demanded
at the Bank of England, or at any of the branch
banks thereof, it is expedient that the promis-
sory notes of the said corporation b 3 made a
legal tender for all sums of 5/. and upwards;
it being enacted that there shall be no
notes issued for any intermediate sum be-
tween 51. aid 101." If we cannot have thus
an immediate convertibility of larger notes into
gold, in the case of a run on a country bank,
we shall at least not endanger a run, by banish-
ing gold from retail or general circulation, or
even diminishing the quantity in ordinary use.
As the question of the joint stock banks is
formally postponed, and the disputed point of
" the legal tender" of Bank of England notes
is for the present settled by a vote of the Com-
mittee, the next topic which will engage the
attention of Parliament, is the equivalent or
compensation to be given by the Bant to the
public, for the exclusive privilege of continuing
to issue notes for the metropolis, and the pro-
spective advantage of engrossing the currency
of the kingdom. On the amount of this com-
pensation, the policy of the settlement of the
bank question mainly depends. It has been
proved over and over again, in a variety of letters
from our able correspondents, particularly in
those of " Daniel Hardcastie,"—in several able
,piture,tvpoicularly that entitled " An Irnpar-
:.,l4l. iiiiiiimSo-tche Bank Question, by a Mer-
chant, -71'ini4irlome articles of our own, that
the staterni,nC,4f.:;the net income which the

Bank hats.tvr cio-•-0:,,s the only gains it

derives from its connexion with the Govern-
ment, or its monopoly of the circulation, is ex-
tremely defective and underrated. In the estimated
account of the profits derived from these sources,
as given in the appendix to the Bank report, we
find only the paltry sum of 178,8751. Of this
sum, 134,8751. is placed to the account of the
profits obtained from 20,000,0001. of notes
circulation, and 4,000,0001. of Government
deposits, and only the sum of 44,0001. is
set down as arising from the management of
Government business. To lessen the gains on
the first head, the Bank makes the expense of
the circulation amount to 106,000/., and de-
ducts from the gross produce 147,0001., as the
difference between the interest on its cwital lent
to Government at three per cent., and the in-
terest which it could make from investing this
sum in other securities ; while it reduces the
interest derived from Government securities, by
representing a large part of its issues as invested
in Exchequer bills at a low interest, instead of
being invested in." dead weight," and other
more profitable employments. The diminished
profit or exaggerated loss on this head may be
estimated at more than 150,0001., while the
whole of the Government business may be
transacted for less than 100,0001., instead of the
actual charge of 248,0001. But without pay-
ing any attention to specific statements (erro-
neous and garbled as they are) supplied by the
Bank, we need only attend to the amount of the di-
vidends which it has paid, the bonuses which it has
shared, and the additions to its capital which it
has made within the last 30 years, to be con-
vinced of its enormous profits. In 1797, and
up to 1800, the dividend on Bank Stock was
only 7 per cent., but in 1799 the proprietors
received a bonus of 1,164,2401., thus making
their dividend for that year 17 per cent. ; in
1801 they received another bonus of 582,1201.,
thus raising their dividend to 12 per cent. ; in
1802 they were again so lucky as to receive the
snug sum of 291,0601., to share among them ;
in 1804, more lucky still,they divided 582,1201.
of a bonus in addition to their usual interest of
7 per cent., thus raising their profits to 12 per
cent. In the two following years, namely 1805
and 1806, their divided gain was equally enor-
mous ; and from 1806 to 1816 they received a
dividend of 10 per cent., without any bonus.
In that latter year their treasure had so much
accumulated that they proposed an addition of
a fourth to their then existing capital, which
was 11,642,4001., being equivalent to a bonus
of 2,910,6001., or a dividend for one year of
55 per cent. From that time to 1822 their
dividend was 10 per cent. on their enlarged
capital of 14,553,0001., and since the year
1823 it has been eight per cent. on the same
amount. By adding these multiplied bonuses to
the augmentation of stock, and the increased
rate of interest above seven per cent. since
1799, we make up the prodigious sum of
17,318,0701. But this is not all. The Bank
has still a rest, or reserved fund, of about
3,000,0001., or at any rate of 2,637,760/.,
which remains to be divided, and which would
raise its gains in about thirty years to more than
20,000,0001., besides the reasonable rate of in-
terest of seven per cent. on :its capital as in
1800 !! It would be superfluous, after such a
display of enormous gains, acknowledged in
their own accounts, to enter into a critical ex-
amination of minute details respecting the ex-
pense or profit attendant on particular branches
of their business. We are quite sensible that
some of these sources of emolument are now
closed or diminished—we know that the Re-
striction Act was the parent of many a bonus
which has now ceased—and we are quite aware
that by a new arrangement Government depo-
sits have fallen off from 11,000,0001. to about
4,000,000/. since 1815. Having been obliged
to reduce their own dividend from ten to eight
per cent. in 1823, it would be absurd to sup-
pose that the Bank could afford to the country
such an amount of deduction from their present
profits as we might have been warranted to ex-
pect from the immense distributions of booty
which it made among its proprietors in the
first twenty years of the present century. But as
Lord Althorp calculates on the increase of

Bank of England circulation under the new
Charter, the profits of the establishment must
increa-e in proportion, and it would be a shame-
ful abandonment of public duty in Members of
Parliament not to insist on the right of the
nation to participate in these profits. Let the
Bank be limited to a reasonable dividend on the
present amount of its stock, and let all its sur-
plus gains be divided equally between it and the
public, by whose authority alone it exercises the
right of coining money. Such a limitation was
fixed upon the dividends of the East India
Company, and ought to be on all similar mono.
polies.
This excellent idea was suggested by
the Noble Lord himself, in his first correspon-
dence with the Bank, and only surrendered by
that good-natured unsuspecting facility which
has made him the dupe of the Bank Directors,
and exposed him to the taunts of Sir Robert
Peel, Mr. Baring, and other Tories, as having
been overreached in his Bank negotiations.
But the public ought not to suffer from the
deficiency of firmness in our financial Minister ;
and no bargain that he has made an tie up the
hands of Parliament from attempting a more
equitable arrangement. As we have before
stated, the 6th and Bth resolutions, which are
as follows, are postponed till next session. We
repeat our wish, that the whole business had
been postponed.

. .
"6. That it is the opinion of this Committee that it is
expedient to give facilities by the grant of royal charters
for the establishment of joint stock banks, at a certain dis-
tance from London; but that every such royal charter
shall contain certain stipulations to be enforced with re-
spect to all such chartered hanks.
" 8. That it is the opinion of this Committee that it is
expedient to make provision with regard to joint stock
banking companies."—Times.

There are few minor matters in which the
present Ministers have done themselves so little
credit as in the extreme reluctance and timidity
which they have shown in correcting the abuses
permitted to exist by their predecessors. Among
these, we would mention that of allowing the
doors of the Insolvent Court to be closed for a
vacation of six weeks every autumn—a scanda-
lous abuse, with which the unfortunate victims

of our wretched system of imprisonment for debt
arc again threatened. Now, here are four well-
paid Commissioners, with whose conduct, ex
ceps in this particular, we have no reason to
believe but that the public are perfectly satisfied.
The law constituting their Court authorizes
them to act conjointly or separately ; so that any
one of them is competent to do any of the duties
of the four. And we put it to the honour and

good sense of those gentlemen—what would be
the hardship of one of them at least attending to
the duties of the London Court at all times ?

Even one of the Judges remains in town during
the whole of the autumn, and attends daily at
chambers to transact the business of the three

common law courts ; and we cannot help think
too that it would be just its excusob!e were the