The Sun.
London, England, 1833-06-01 00:00:00

t SPIRIT OF THIS PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Last night Lord Althoip submitted to the House
of Commons the result of his lingthened negotia-
tions with the Bank of England for the renewal of
its charter—the conditions on whieh it is proposed
to renew it, and the duration of the projected arrange-
ITlP..nt,—together with en account of some collateral
measures of commercial importance, intended to
promote the securityof hanking,and to guard against
currency fluctuation and panic. The Noble Lord
not only stated, in a more perspicuous and metho-
dical manner than usual the details of the plan em-
bodied in his reeoltitiona, but explained the principle,
and defended the policy, of each provision as he
advanced. For some time past the projected ar-
rangements for regulating our Batik circulation have
excited less "curiosity and interest than formerly,
because Parliament having since the commencement
of the session agreed by great majorities, arid after
solemn deliberation, to adhere to our ancient s.andard
of currency, and to insist upon the convertibility of
paper into gold by whatever establishment it should
be issued, the range of speculation and conjec-
ture has beta narrowed to a smaller compass.
The discussion was no longer mixed up with
the agitating questions of 1/. notes and restric•
tion acts, but was limited to The extent in which the
public ought to participate in the late enormous pro-
fits of threadneedle-street—the amount of exclu-
sive privileges which that establishment, if continued,
should still 'enjoy—or the hest means of securing its
good conduct and preventing a recurrence of its
former errors, by a cumpulsory publication of its
treasure and accounts at short intervals. Last year,
abotit this time, when the Committee on the Batik
question was appointed, and even after the publica-
tion of its report, vague and indefinite anticipations
were formed of the immense changes in our mone-
tary System to which it might lead, and of the
extraordinary pecuniary savings tolhe public which
it might secure: The evils of the former conduct
of the Bank, since 1797, were co great and so pal-
pable, that they could not be denied by its friend-,
and could scarcely he exaggerated by its enemies.
It was therefore expected that some grand experi-
ment must be tried, or some striking revolution ef-
fected, to guard against their recurrence; and it was
not till after an effervescence of several months that
the public mind was calmed, and the ideas of the
people fixed down to something like sober calcula-
tion. But if such extravagant expectations are
now thought impossible to be realized by the most
sanguine, probably the proposed change described
by Lord Abhorp is too limited for the most
cautious. Though the particular occasion of re-
newing the Bank Charter «a. appropriately adopted
for a general inquiry into the state of our paper cur-
rency, and the conduct of the country banks, it
must be admitted that the only part of that in-
qiiiry in which the Bank of England was concerned
related to the question, whether it was to retain the
exclusive paper circulation of London and its vi-
cinity within a circle drawn at the distance of 65
miles around it, and whether there was to be any
change in the regulation of its issues, or any de-
duction from its profits for managing the Govern-
ment business. All the other portions of its ex-
clusive privileges had been abandoned, though re-
luctantly, in 1826, with the exception of the right
to which it still clung, of preventing joint-atock
hanks beyond the magic circumference from draw-
-1 ng bills of exchange for sums less than fifty
pounds, or making their promissory notes pay-
able in the metropolis. If it was thought
advisable that this monopoly of the Lon-
don circulation should be withdrawn from one
great private establishment, then another question
of the greatest importance occurred in which the
country was as much interested as the Bank—
namely, whether the Government should establish a
national bank on the plan recommended by Mr. Rt..
eardo, Mr. Joplin, or others ; or permit the esta-
blishment of as many joint stock banks of issue in
the metropolis as chose to start up to contest the
profit of supplying us with their notes. It is plain
to those who have bestowed the slightest refleei ion
on the subject, that if the former part of the alterna-
tive had been adopted, it would have rendered ne-
cessary a change in the whole system of our circula-
tion,—that it would have been little short of au
absurdity to have formed a Goveinment banking in-
stitution, without giving it the exclusive supply of
the country as well as the metropolis,—that there
would have been only one bank of issue, as there is
only one mint for the whole of the kingdom, and
that all provincial notes, as well as those of the pa-
rent establishment, must have been withdrawn. In
this case, all the interest on notes now issued by
private banks would have been secured to the
public. Private speculators would no more be allowed
to issue paper money than to coin the precious me-
tals, and all the profits and risks of a mighty and
untried experiment would have been enjoyed or in-
curred by the nation. Without undervaluing the
merits of this magnificent project, or denying the
force of the arguments by which its authors have
supported it, we must confess that in our view it is
liable to many objections, some of which were well
stated by Lord Althorp, and that we would rather
incur the loss of the interest and profits made on na-
tional tanking, than hazard the experiment of a
national bank. The other alternative of dispensing
with one privileged central bank, and permitting the
erection of numerous private joint stock banks of
issue in the metropolis, never appeared to us to
possess advantages equal to its risks. The nation,
on this suppoiition, could gain nothing by the
amount of bank-notes in circulation any more than
at present, as all the issues would be for private
profit, while the hazard of excessive issues, and con-
sequent fluctuations and panics, would be inevitably
increased. The example of Scotland, and the result
of the operations of the clearing house in London,
can by no means satisfy a prudent legislator that
the experiment would be safe in this metropolis,
while it has literally nothing to recommend it above
the existing system but its alleged additional security.
If we are thus compelled to reject the project of a
National Bank, wit h all its flattering promises of public
profit (which, by the way, some Parliamentary dis-
ciples of Mr. Ricardo have exalted far above the
estimate of its author), and if we see no gain, but
some hazard, in permitting several banks of issue in
the capital, the only question which the Govern-
ment had to determine, was how to make the exist-
ing establishment in Threadneedle-street the most
subservient to the public service,—under what regu-
lations its notes can ba rendered most secure and its
issues least floctuating,—and what is the lowest re-
muneration for which, in consideration of its mono-
ply, it can perform the Government business, in
circulating Exchequer-bills, in receiving the public
revenue, and paying the public creditor. Hitherto,
or at least up to a recent period, its conduct with
respect to the management of the currency has been
marked by the grossest ignorance, and has produced
the most extensive mischief, raising and depres-
sing property by the fluctuations of its issues, and
altering the fortune of every mart in the kingdom. It
has been chiefly enabled to perpetrate such evils by
the mystery in which its affairs and proceedings
have been involved. The remedy is, therefore,
publicity, and, this, accordingly, is part of the
Government plan. We must insist, however, that
the quarterly publication in the Gazette shall not
be an average of the state of coin arid bullion de-
posits and circulation for the previous quarter, but
that it shall be a faithful copy of the weekly returns
made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer uumuti-
hoed and unabridged. The gaius of the Batik have
for the last thirty years been enormous, and the
nation has reason severely to condemn the improvi-
dence or the prodigality of the Government which
gave it the
benefit of the last contract. From 1807
to 1822 its proprietors divided 10 per cent. on their
capital, besides adding to that capital 25 per cent.
in 1816, and receiving numerous " God-sends" at
various times, under the name of a bonus. Since
1797, when the Bank Restriction Act was passed,
to the present time, besides the dividend of 7 per
cent. existing at that period, this establishment has
distributed among its proprietors, in the shape of
bonus, paid in the form of additional dividends,