The Sun.
London, England, 1833-07-05 00:00:00

• it
b* 241 i) tt

LONDON,
FRIDAY EVENING, JULY 5, 1833.

The report of the Committee on the Bank
Charter Acts having been last night presented
to the House, we are enabled this day to give a
correct copy of the resolutions on which the
Bills for the removal of the Charter of the Cor,
poration are to be founded. They now stand as
follows :

1. That it is expedient to continue for a limited period to
the Bank of England, certain of the privileges now vested by
law in that Corporation, subject to such conditions as may be
provided by any Act to be passed for the purpose.

2. That so long as the Bank of England shall continue 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
promissory notes of the said Corporation be made a legal tender
for all sums above 5/.

3. That provision be made by law during the present session
of Parliament, for the repayment to the Bank of England of one-
fourth.part of the amount of the debt now due by the public to
that Corporation.
4. That the rate of allowance and remuneration now se-
cured by law to the Bank of England for the management of
the public debt, and services rendered to the public, be conti-
nued to that corporation for the limited period to be fixed as
aforesaid, subject to an annual reduction of 120,0001.

5. That the laws restricting the interest of money to 51. per
cent. shall be repealed, so far as they relate to bills of exchange
not having more than three months to run before they be-
come due.

6. That all banks issuing promissory notes payable on
demand, shall enter into a composition in lieu of stamp duty,
at the rate of seven shillings for every 1001. on the notes which
such bank shall have in circulation.

The first is what any one may agree to, for
the Bank Charter might be renewed, subject to
conditions which every one would acknowledge
as rendering it an institution as useful to the
country as it is now pernicious and mischievous.
The second resolution has undergone two alte-
rations ; one of no consequence whatever, and
the other of such consequence, that if Lord
ALTHORP do not take care to nullify it by the
provisions of his Bill, the whole scheme will
be virtually defeated. The first alteration
was made at the suggestion of Mr. BARING.
Originally Bank of England notes were made a
legal tender, provided the Bank should he bound
by law to pay its debts and liabilities in gold.
Mr. BARING observed that it was now bound by
law so to do, and appeared to apprehend that the
expressions used might cast a doubt upon the
subject, or hold out the expectation of its not
being bound by law to pay its liabilities in the
legal coin of the realm. The wording now used
was in consequence adopted. The only prac-
tical effect of the change, as far as we can ob-
serve, is to make it barely possible for a combi-
nation of individuals to annul the legal tender
privilege by creating a run upon the Bank or
one of its branches (as long as the branches
continue to exist), which shall make it stop
payment. This is a contingency barely within
the range of possibility ; but as to the change
making the country forget that the Bank has
been relieved, and may therefore again be re-
lieved, from the burden of paying its debts in
coin, if that be Mr. BARING'S object, he may
assure himself that it is hopeless. The amend-
ment is just such a one as we should expect the
calibre of his mind to produce. He talks
sixty-four pounders, and invariably ends by
firing a pop-gun. The other alteration in the
resolution is the celebrated one made by Lord
ALTHORP, making Bank-notes " above 51."
only a legal tender. As we observed yesterday,
it will entirely depend upon the provisions of the
Bill, whether this alteration will amount to
nothing or to every thing ; whether it will be no
restriction at all upon a man's wishes, or whether it
will enable him, with the slightest possible
trouble, to defeat the Bill. The third, fourth,
fifth, and sixth resolutions are the same as were
originally introduced. The object attained by

the third was of little value, except as affording
a handle for making a good bargain with
the Bank; but as Lord ALTHORP has not
availed himself of the argument it afforded,
we really do not see of what service it will be
to us. As to taking advantage of the present
low interest of money to reduce the amount of
debt due to the Bank, the operation must, in
the first instance, be attended with loss, the rate
of interest at which the money would have
to be borrowed being higher than that now
paid to the Bank. Besides this argument
against the resolution, it may further he
urged that the progress of time is at least as
likely to reduce as to raise the interest of money.
The bargain resolution has been received with
such universal obloquy, that farther railing at it
would appear almost as gratuitous as blackening
the Devil. We will observe, however, that
there are two things connected with this resolu-
tion, which we especially admire. The first is,
the success with which the Bank Directors have
worked this miserable tub in gulling the whale.
By sticking out for the half of what they at
present receive for the management of the public
debt, the Directors have almost entirely di-
verted attention from the main object they have
in view, viz., getting possession of the whole cir-
culation of the country. What will a few tho usands
per annum more or less signify if they can add
twenty or thirty millions per annum to their pre-
sent circulation ? Let them knock all rival
banks of issue on the head, and the paying, in-
stead of receiving, 100,0001. odd from the Go-
vernment, becomes almost a matter of indiffe-
rence. We trust that the concessions made by
Lord ALTHORP will prevent the fulfilment of
the anticipations of the Directors, and that some
degree of competition will be preserved to the
country. But however the monopoly of the
Bank may be thus limited, the renewal of its
old privileges alone entitled the public to a
better bargain. In short, any privileges being
granted which yielded the Bank proprietors a
profit at the expense of the public, created a
right in the public to share in such profit.
The second object of our admiration connected
with the bargain resolution is the hardihood
with which Members voted for it in spite of the
plainest proof of its improvidence. Do they sup-
pose that a day of reckoning will not come ?
The resolution for the relaxation of the usury
laws is good as far as it goes, but we should
Prefer seeing Mr. POULETT THOMSON renew
his Bill for the entire abolition of that legacy of
barbarian ignorance. The Tory Government
showed itself sufficiently enlightened to encou-
rage him in the attempt he made to acomplish
the object three years ago. We well recollect
the opposition he received from certain parties
in the House, who wisely thought that throw-
ing impediments in the way of money being
lent at an interest proportionate to the goodness
of the security, enabled them to obtain it for
less than it was naturally worth ; but we should
think that the commercial knowledge that has
since been infused into the Legislature, would
prevent the recurrence of such opposition, and
facilitate the progress of Mr. THomsoN, or any
one else who may feel inclined to take up this
subject. With regard to the last resolution, we
see nothing in it to which objection can be
offered on the part of the public.
We have now passingly examined the whole
of the foundation on which Lord ALTHoRP
proposes to build the superstructure of the new
Bank Charter, and we still hold the opinion we
have expressed from the beginning, that as far
as it will be operative at all, it will be unjust ;
but that, like all measures intended to coun-
teract the natural operations of commercial credit,
it will inevitably defeat its avowed purpose.

We alluded, a few days ago, to the forcible
carrying away of several hundred male children
from Warsaw by the Russians, for the purpose
of flaying them brought up in the Russian mi-
litary schools and colonies, and eventually in-
corporated in the army; so that, in the course
of a few years, those Polish youths, who, if
left in their native country, would have im-
bibed the patriotism of the noble-minded but
unsuccessful men who lately raised the stan-
dard of revolt, may become the instruments of
Polish misery and degradation. It appears
from very recent accounts, which have reached
us, that Prince PASKEWITSCH having repre-
sented to the EmPEnott that the forcible
removal of the Polish children had been at-
tended with an excitement which threatened a
new revolt, the enlightened Autocrat has hit
upon an expedient which exceeds all his former
refinements upon atrocity. The Russian agents
in Warsaw have been instructed to send
ambulatory vendors of spirituous liquors and
sweetmeats into the streets to dispose of their
stores gratuitously to children, who, under the
influence of' liquor, are followed by the agents,
and easily induced to put on little Russian uni-
forms, and to parade the streets like drunken
recruits in this country, inviting others to join
them. If we had not received this fact from a
source of the highest respectability, we should
not have given credit to it, although experience
has shown that, where freedom is concerned, the
Russian Government is capable of any atrocity.

We are pleased to find from Lord AL-
THORP'S admission last night, that plans are in
progress for granting a charter to the London
University. We see no reason why this should
not hare been granted long ago ; still less why
the bigoted, interested representations of Cam-
bridge or Oxford, should have had the slightest
influence in withholding it. Because these two
learned bodies are endowed with extraordinary
privileges, shall the London University have
none ? Because they are " virtuous," shall
there be "no cakes and ale" for others?
Luckily tLe day is gone by for monopolies,
whether of commerce or intellect. Henceforth
there must be a free trade in education, as in
every thing else.

it appears that Lord PALMERSTON and Mr
STANLEY voted in the minority last night against
the motion of Mr. PHILLIPS for an inquiry into
the circumstances connected with the Liverpool
petition of the 21st of February, and that Mr.
EDWARD ELLICE, the Secretary at War, voted
in the majority. The popularity of Mr.STANLEY
and Lord PALMERSTON will not, we imagine, be
increased by the knowledge of the fact that they
staid until so late an hour in the House of Com-
mons, for the purpose of voting against inquiry into
the alleged ►malpractices of a portion of the Liver-
pool electors ; but the public will be glad to find
that the brother-in-law of the Prime Minister—
himself one of the principal Members of the
Government—not only voted for but also spoke
in favour of such inquiry. We are informed by
a gentleman who was present, that shortly after the
division, when Mr. ELLICE resisted the motion of
Lord SANDON, the evident object of which was to

stifle inquiry, some observation was made by Sir
HENRY HARDINGE on the want of taste dis-
played by Mr. ELLICE in persisting in the
course which he had adopted when he saw that
the only two Cabinet Ministers then in the House
were against him. Mr. ELLICE is stated to have
replied that when the performance of a public
duty was required, he never allowed himself to
be governed by any other consideration than a
sense of that duty, and that, as a Member of the
House of Commons, he would not relinquish
his right of independence.

A private letter from Holland states, that
previous to the arrival there of his Ambassador,
DEDEL, from London, the KING was
quite against arranging his affairs with the Bel-
gians ; but when he found the favourable recep-
tion tl-,at DEDEL met with from the people, he
immediately changed his determination, and
sends t 9 this country an extraordinary agent, the
Minister of War, his most confidential servant.

We have seen a private letter from Lisbon
stating that if the expedition had on board from
5,000 to 6,000 men they could have taken it
with the greatest ease.

We learn from the German papers that it is
intended to transfer the sittings of the Hun-
garian Diet from Presburg to Pesch. A line
of telegraphs is being established between Vienna
and the latter city, which, it is said, will be ex-
tended to the borders of Turkey. Letters from
Stutgard, dated the 26th June, state that about
seventy persons have been arrested in different
parts of the kingdom, on account of a supposed
plot in favour of liberalism in Wirtemberg.

The friends of Reform will rejoice to see
that the attempt made last night by those who
long for the return of the good old times of
boroughmongering and corruption, when each
man, with a purse—long enough, was sure of a
seat in Parliament ; when every poor man in a
borough town was sure of having a fowl
in his pot at the election—if a freeman—
Reformers, we say, will rejoice to see that Lord
SA ND ON'S barefaced attempt to shield his friends
at Liverpool from the consequences which must
ensue from a fair and full inquiry completely
failed. The real respectability of Liverpool, the
merchants and tradespeople of that wealthy town,
are much obliged to his Lordship for wishing to
tie them to the corrupt body amongst which he
finds his principal supporters.

We have at last some evidence of the progress
of sound commercial knowledge in France, and
that the labours of the English Government to
produce some modifications of the prohibitory
system, have not been in vain. The Moniteur
of Tuesday announces, from the Minister of
Commerce, that the whole of the tariff of
France will be examined at the next Session,
with a view to liberalizing them ; while an ordi-
nance in the same Moniteur allows, among
many other facilities, the exportation of raw and
thrown silk—a concession long and earnestly
demanded by the English manufacturer as a fair
compensation for the admission of silk stuff into
England. We rejoice in the triumph of these
liberal principles. They will bear much fruit.

We congratulate the country on the verdict
of acquittal yesterday, at the Old Bailey, by an
honest and intelligent Jury, in the case of
GEORGE FUR S EY, who was charged with
stabbing a policeman during the well-known
Caithorpe-street affair. The Jury could have
given no other verdict, which, indeed, they
might very honestly have insisted on returning at
the close of the prosecutor's evidence, though,
like strictly conscientious men, they decided on
sifting and weighing (even to the minutest atom)
every scrap and fragment of evidence, no matter
how superfluous and irreconcileable with com-
mon sense. The case broke down under the
examination of the very first witness (the pro-
secutor), who said, " (liter I had received the
blow, I retired back two or three paces ; I then
looked particularly at the prisoner, and saw an
instrument, like a dagger, in his right hand."
And yet, when he comes to be subjected to a
cross-examination by no means over-rigid or
searching, this witness is compelled to admit,
I had my sight until I was wounded, and
then my sight was taken away." This is
establi-hing identity with a vengeance ! The
moq despotic parson magistrate that ever existed
would hesitate at committing even a poacher on
such evidence.

As regards the conduct of the policemen, the
trial at every stage of its progress afforded
abundant proofs—were any extra proof needed--
that it was marked by bare-faced violence and
effrontery. What says the Rev. J. PIERCY on
this subject ? " The policemen," observes this
competent and respectable authority, 4, sur-
rounded the people assembled, and commenced
to beat them indiscriminately with their staves.
Nothing whatever had been done to provoke
this. The people endeavoured to escape, but the
police, who were in ambush, rushed out and
prevented them. Saw many knocked down,
bleeding,—in fact, deluged uith blood. Saw
the policemen strike men, women, and children."
The Rev. Gentleman further added that he
" was not examined before at the inquest, but.
sent a note to the Coroner requesting to be
heard before him." This should be inquired into.
There was no hesitation, we remember, on the
part of the CORONER, to collect, and turn to
the best account, every scrap of evidence in
favour of the policemen : how comes it, then,
that such reluctance was shown to admit the
testimony of a clergyman, who expressly states
that he " was in such a position as commanded
a view of the whole meeting and ground to
the end of Calthorpe-street ?" We repeat, this
must be inquired into. But, indeed, the whole
business must be made the subject of a search-
ing, unsparing investigation. Honest, peace-
able folks must not " be deluged with blood"
with impunity. They must not have their
brains knocked out, just as if they were so
many sheep in a slaughter-house. One Man-
chester Massacre is quite enough in a century
—and so Sir FRANCIS BURDETT ~voulo
think, were not his thoughts just now too
much engrossed with the more important con.
sideratiou of a Peerage.
It must be exceedingly refreshing—to qtiotc
a phrase never before used—to the Whigs tc,
find that their reign has been almost as mucl,
distinguished by a display •of brute violence
against the people, as that of the Tories. It the.
latter had their " Peterloo," the former have
their " Coldbath.fields." It' Tory yeomanry cut