The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-26 00:00:00

lie at large the privilege of issuing money, which
they had usurped, and, as it appeals t)
us greatly abused, before the passing of Sir
Robert Peers Act. Nor do we suppose that,
iu whatever hands the issue of paper money be
placed, those hands will be suffered to set it in
circulation without giving adequate security that
the note shall be exchanged for gold ou demand.
This country is becoming more and more every
year the entrepot of the whole word,—the bank
through which payments are made and received,
not without duly enriching the hands through
which they pass. It is absolutely and essentially
necessary for such a country that its currency
should be immediately convertible—so as to faci-
litate large remittances to foreign countries—and
elastic—so as to repress by a spontaneous and
vigorous action at the very earliest moment the
tendency to contraction or expansion. This can
only ne done by requiring that the currency should
contract and expand just as it would do if it were
only metallic ; and this again can only be effected

by the most stringent precautionsagaiest over-issue.
So far, then, we entirely agree with "Mercator."
But the questiou will arise, to which he dues not
seem to have addressed his mind, whether the prin-
ciple,. of the act of 1844 do not of themselves con-
demn the very machinery they employ ? The great
principle of that ac, undoubtedly is that the powerof
issuing paper money is as much an imperial preroga-
tive as the power of issuing gold, and consequently
that whatever profit may be made by the process
:410112 be the profit of the State, and not of any
trading company. The Bank has lent to the Go-
vernment 11.000,000/. of money, for which the Bank
receives the ordinary rate of in, erel paid to any
other lender. The security on which 11,000,0001.
of bank-notes are issued is the ability of the Go-
vernment to pty the interest, and, if necessary, the
pliticip ot its debt. What reason can be given
why the Government should delegate to the Bank
with one hand its own prerogative of issuing this
money, and with tLe other supply it with that
credit without which such a power of issuing would
avail but little ? Every farthing that the Bank
makes byt he power of issuing 14,000,0001. of money
against securities on which it receives interest is
just so much abstracted from the purse of the
country without any consideration whatever. To
put the matter in another way, the credit upon
which 14,000,000/. of notes are issued is the credit
of the country, and would remain if a department
of the Government, instead of the Bank, were to
undertake the issues. fu all the banks of issue it
is found that a certain sum is required ix) meet the
notes daily presented for payment, and that beyond
that sum and a sufficient margin a supply of gold
need not be kept. It is upon the remainder that
the profit of the Bank is made This remainder is
assumed by the Bank Act of 1844 to be 14,000,000/.,
and it has never been considered to be too large.
If Government, then, undertook the office of is-
suing its own notes, it is evident that it would
have 14,000,0001. at its disposition, and might prac-
tically lessen the national debt by that amount, or
save itself, in round numbers, about half a million
per annum. This seems to dispose of the Issue
D partment of the Bank.
Stripped of the power of issuing notes, and re-
stricted merely to the ordinary operation of bank-
ing, there seems no good reason why the Bank
of England should enjoy the exclusive patronage
of the Government more than any other establish-
ment. Many may think that the concerns of the
Government are sufficientlylarge, that credit is suf-
ficiently good, and their means of investing in their
own securities sufficiently ample, to make it worth
their while to be their own bankers, just as large
shipowners find their advantage in being their own
insurers. This consideration derives considerable
force when we remember that it has been the pr,,_
tice of the Bank till very lately to lend the Govern-
ment their own money at inter st, advancing the
ill striking a bal
intitoimeet the deficiencies
Oauce,
as
any
e baele.a. would do with h;
privat • cos
'omer
instead
teaadect
o between receipts and payments, and charging in-
terest oniy on the gross excess of the latter over
the former. It may also be very questionable in
these days of Free Trade whether Government, at
any rate, should go out of its way to vest in any
corporation time power of regulatine
the rate of dis-
count, and thus place it in a situation in which it
must be divided between
fhb public interest and
the advantage of its shareholders.
We save sug4ested these topics as matters which
are more likely to be seri ,
tcousidered by Par-
liament and the eiointr v thanotls return to the old
system of unlimited i
u by aprivate banks, and
an abolition of the d•ss. s • established between
Istinctiou este •
the Issue and Departments of the Bank
Banking Departm
of England. \V hall be very glad to bear our
e s
correspondent "
Mercator"
on these subjects. It
is, no d v-r true t hat the act of of 1844 has
been tested b y
y 'dive c x tretnes of scarcity and abund-
ance) by the famine of 1847, and by the gold (I. is
coveriee of California and Australia. It is_ gdratify-
jug to hear, as he tells us, that FriededeTnraou
et
t Las
succeeded, and that the ship
haearerl undamaged.
storm with sails, tackle, and
like to know how,
But stilt more should wtehe
act of 1844, the
upon the principles of
of the Batik of Eng -
continuance of the privileges
Government,
and why the
land can be defended,
k amply for all that it does
after paying the 13.111.er should delegate to it
of banker
for it in its capacity
the privilege of creating 14,000,0001. sterling for
no consideration at all.

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character
George-row, le'esitTnigdii'ngg
Union-street Borough-road. Southwark. The building in
which the disaster commenced was nearly 70 feet long,
and contsLied several thousand tons' weight of rags,
Jive' vetehlel seixtutealtiemivne
bags, carpets, &c. Tile property flanked the premises
of Mr. Raines, mathematical kat' ument maker, and the
newly erected property of Messrs, Sc evens and Sons, the
proprietors of the Darlington Iron Werke in the South-
wark-bridge-road, so that at one time it was apprehended
hat the entire clump of houses and workshops in the
immediate neighbourhood would have been consumed,
and this no doubt would have been the case bad the wind
been higher than it wa3 at the time. TJufortunately, by
some mistake, the turncocks were not sent for until after
the engines arrived, but the moment they reached the
spot water was obtained from the Southwark and Lam.
beth plugs, and the engi, ea having been set to work,
the firemen, under MI. Hender,on and Mr. Co,norton
of the West of England, were enabled to confine the
flame- principally within the warehOwes of Mr. J-well ;
nevertheless, a
great deal of mischief has been done to
the premises of Mr. Raines, the mathematical instru-
ment maker, and some trifling
injury has been also done
to the new works of Mcsbrs. Stevens and Sons. Fortu•
nately the sufferers were insured.