The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-20 00:00:00

THE BATTLE OF TIIE BANKS OF
ENGLAND AND FRANCE FOR GOLD.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR,--For the last twelve years I have been en-
deavouring in various publications to open the eyes
of the public to the impolicy of the Act 0f1844, and
to the inconsistency of advocating free trade in
commodities whilst imposing restrictions by law
on the medium for exchanging and circulating those
commodities.

The contest, however, now going on between
the Banks of England and France for gold, the basis
of our monetary system, and in which all our debts,
bills, and bank notes are payable, must surely make
the incalculable evils of the law patent to all. The
Bank of France is not buying our gold at a loss,
as is generally supposed, but with a considerable
profit, owing to the restriction imposed on the Bank
of England by the Act of 1844.

That act prevents the Bank from issuing more
notes than their equivalent value in gold deposited,
with the exception of the fixed and never varying
amount of £14,000,000 against securities.
The Bank of France has no other restriction on
its issue of notes than that to which the liability to
convertibility imposes, and may safely issue, as
experience proves, two votes against the value of
one deposited in gold. Hence against a deposit of
£lOO of gold the Bank of France can issue £2OO
in notes, and when their rate of discount is 4-} per
cent., as at present, they may realise a profit of
about 4 per cent., allowing I- per cent. for cost of
transport, &c.

Whilst the Bank of England, being allowed only
to issue £lOO of notes for £lOO of gold, gains
nothing.

Nor is this the extent of the mischief, for the
higher the Bank of France can maintain its rate of
discount the larger will be their profit, and the
greater their power of drawing our gold from us;
as when their rate is 31 per cent. they make a
profit of 3 per cent., and when at 4k of 4 per cent.,
and so on as their rate advances.

The point at issue between the two banks is not
so much which of them can attract the most money
by raising the rate of discount, as which can
attract for the present crisis the inost gold, the
basis of their paper money ; and in such a contest
the Bank of England, with its restrictions, has no
chance of competing with the Bank of Frunce, free
and unfettered, except by its own discretion.
One mode of alleviating the present monetary
pressure and preventing a panic is the suspension
of the Act of 1844, with the view of enabling the
Bank of England to bid on equal terms for gold
with the Bank of France.

Another is the remedy suggested in the petition
at foot, by which 20,000,000 of sovereigns may by
set at liberty for exportation; a petition recom-
mended by me, in Oct. 1857, as a means of avert-
ing the apprehended panic of Nov., 1857.
These alleviating measures I would again sub-
mit to the consideration of the public, and especially
to the members of Chambers of Commerce, whose
particular duty it is to attend to the interest of the
commercial community.
I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant,

HAMER. STANSFELD.
The Grange, Burley, near Otley, 15th Nov., 1860.

" TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT KAMM

" We, the undersigned bankers, merchants, and other
liege subjects of the realm, considering that the present
foreign drain of gold most seriously deranges the domestic
currency of the country, thereby paralysing trade, throw.
ing the industrious classes out of employment, depreciating
property, and increasing unnecessarily the burdens of the
war, most humbly pray that your Majesty will be graci-
ously pleased, with a view to counteract these evils, by
Order in Council, to empower the Bank of England, until
the sense of Parliament can be taken, to issue one pound
notes to serve as substitutes for sovereigns whenever the
Bank minimum rate of discount shall exceed five per cent'.
on depositing Government Stocks for two-thirds and gold
for the remaining one-third of the amount of such issues as
a guarantee for the convertibility of the notes, and on pay-
ing interest at the rate of four per cent, to the Exchequer
for the benefit of the State, on the two-thirds of which they
would have the beneficial use, or on such other terms as to
your Majesty shall seem fit.
"And your petitioners will ever pray, &c."

TRE ANNEXATION OF UMBRIA AND

THE MARCHES,

It was not to be expected that the annexation to
Sardinia, by vote of the population; of Umbria and
the Marches would be allowed to pass unnoticed by
the Papal Government. Cardinal Antonelli has
addressed to the Foreign Ministers resident in Rome
the following circular note, dated from the Vatican,
Nov. 4, 1860. With some offence to the English
language, the following is a literal translation of
its long-winded periods :
" There was recently taken, as ground of complaint
and protest on the part of the Government of the Holy See,
the violent invasion made, in several other provinces of the
Pontifical States (subsequently to that already effected in
Romagna, by a neighbouring Government which, domi-
nated by the extravagant ambition of extending its reign
over all Italy with the spoils of the other legitimate sove-
reignties, undertook and still pursues the fulfilment of its
wicked design, ignoring and despising every right, like he
who allows no obstacle to his unbridled temper of usurpation.
Having possessed itself of the above-named provinces--
that is to say, of the Marches, of Umbria, and of a part of
the Patriomio—by means of the most hostile violence and
of a war carried on after the manner of monstrous piracieep
the Piedmontese Government now fills up the measure of
its violation of the Pontifical Sovereignty with the out-
rageous abuse—already practised by it in the territory pre.
viously usurped—by means of the exploration of the so-called
national will, pretending to create in this manner a valid
element to legitimise the extension of dominion it ha%
usurped in defiance of the rights of others. It is unneces-
sary here to note the fraudulent and ignoble artifices by
which it is customary to prepare and regulate the pretended
appeal to the popular will, so that that must justly be de.
scribed as the product of a real pressure which it is dared to
extol as the result of a free manifestation of the wishes of the
people. The thing is notoriously demonstrated, and more-
over it is not the manner of the abusive vote that it is noW
interesting to make observations upon or to bring into relief.
That which is important is loudly to censure and reprove
the great abuse and disorder by which it is sought to intro-
duce an eminently revolutionary principle, destructive of
the rights of the legitimate sovereign. Whatever ma/
be, on such a point, the ideas of a Government which
in strict alliance with revolutions, lends itself to there
as their promoteer and conductor, the principle it is pre-
tended to establish receives full condemnation from the
immutable laws of justice, from the general maxims of the
rights of nations, from the fundamental reasons of social
and civil order, and from the feeling of all well-regulated
nations. And truly, if so strange a principle be laid down,
what sovereignty, however strong in its good right, could
ever deem itself secure from the danger of being arbitrarily,
and from one moment to another, shaken and destroyed r
To what fatal uncertainties would not Governments remain
constantly exposed, and, with them, the whole of civilised
society, under the influence of a principle so fruitful, by it/
nature, of agitations, perturbations, and disorders calculated
to lead to general confusion ? It is on the grounds
therefore, of such very grave considerations that the
Pontifical Government finds itself compelled to protest
against the abuse committed, and which continues to be
committed by the usurping Government with the pretended
appeal to the vote of the populations to decide on the fate
of their sovereign, an abuse equivalent to the introduction
of a principle with ignores and vilifies all things; train•
ples upon the rights and prerogatives of legitimately consti-
tuted sovereignties ; deforms and subverts the law which,
on the basis of solemn treaties and of international convert'
tions, regulates the government of States ; tends to over-
turn the invariable and eternal maxims of justice ; este*
Wishes the monstrous right of usurpations, and insinuates
into society a germ of fatal uneasiness and turbulence.
The sentiments of high reprobation with which the
other Governments have pronounced themselves with
respect to the prevaricating policy of that of pied-
mont, and to the usurping attitude maintained
by that Power as well in other Italian State'
as in those of the Holy See, do not permit a doubt
that they will all be fully agreed in opinion with this lass
protest now put forward by the Pontifical Government in
protection and defence of the temporal sovereignty of till
Roman Pontiff against the progressive outrageous behaviour
with wbich the usurper insists on fully consummating the
horrible and daring invasion of the above-indicated pro',
vinces, as he already has done in those parts of the State%
of the Church
t previously
that
their i
Y appropriated. And there is ever'
reason to
obelievetheafford
Governments referred to will
disposed be
efficacious support to the just re'
t
monstrances of that of his Holiness, supporting at the sameatu
s
time the good right which this Government feels that it
has to render responsible the Sovereign or Government of
Sardinia for all the detriment resulting from the hostile
invasion effected and maintained in the dominions of the
Holy See, and to demand and expect complete restitution b 1
the invaders. And, in the above enounced persuasion and
confidence, the undersigned Cardinal, Secretary of State 01
his Holiness, invites you to communicate to your Govern'
meat the present note, and, &e.,
" G, Cardinal ANTONnalil."