The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-07 00:00:00

THE SON, _LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, AUGUST 7, 1866.

this act, or shall at any time render a false account,
such banker shall forfeit the sum of £lOO for every
such offence.

XIX. And be it enacted, that for the purpose of
ascertaining the monthly average amount of bank
notes of each banker in circulation the aggregate of
the amount of bank notes of each such banker in
circulation on every day of business during the first
complete period of four weeks next after the 10th
day of October, 1844, such period ending on a
Saturday, shall be divided by the number of days of
business in such four weeks, and the average so
ascertained shall be deemed to be the average of
bank notes of each such banker in circulation dur-
ing such period of four weeks, and so in each suc-
cessive period of four weeks, and such average is
not to exceed the amount certified by the Commis-
sioners of Stamps and Taxes as aforesaid.
XX. And whereas, in order to insure the ren-
dering of true and faithful accounts of the amount
of bank notes in circulation, as directed by this act,
it is necessary that ~the Commissioners of . Stamps
and Taxes shall be empowered to cause the books
of bankers issuing such notes to be inspected, as
hereinafter mentioned : be it therefore enacted, that
all and every the book and books of any banker
who shall issue bank notes under the provisions of
this act in which shall be kept, contained, or en-
tered any account, minute, or memorandum of or
relating to the bank notes issued or to be issued
by such banker, or of or relating to the amount of
such notes in circulation, from time to time, or any
account, minute, or memorandum, the sight or
inspection whereof may tend to secure the render-
ing of true accounts of the average amount of such
notes in circulation, as directed by this act, or to
test the truth of any such account, shall be open
for the inspection and examination, at all sea-
sonable times, of any officer` of stamp duties
authorised in that behalf by writing, signed by
the Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes, or any
two of them • and every such officer shall be at
liberty to take copies of or extracts from any such
book or account as aforesaid ; and if any banker
or other person keeping any such book, or having
the custody or possession thereof, or power to pro-
duce the same, shall, upon demand made by any
such officer, showing (if required) his authority in
that behalf, refuse to produce any such book to such
officer for his inspection and examination, or to
permit hint to inspect and examine the same, or
to take copies thereof or extracts therefrom, or of
or from any such account, minute, or memorandum
as aforesaid kept, contained, or entered therein,
every such banker or other person so offending
shall for every such offence forfeit the sum of £100;
provided always, that the said commissioners shall
not exercise the powers aforesaid without the con-
sent of the commissioners of her Majesty's Trea-
sury.
XXI. And be it enacted, that every banker in
England and Wales who is now carrying on or
shall hereafter carry on business as such, shall on
the Ist day of January in each year, or within 15
days thereafter, make a return to the Commis-
sioners of Stamps and Taxes at their head office in
London of his name, residence, and occupation of
every person composing or being a member of such
company or partnership, and also the name of the
firm under which such banker, company, or partner-
ship carry on the business of banking, and of every
place where such business is carried on ; and if
any such banker, company, or partnership shall
omit or refuse to make return within 15 days after
the Ist day of January, or shall wilfully make
other than a true return of the persons as herein
required, every banker, company, or partnership
so offending shall forfeit and pay the sum of £5O ;
and the said Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes
shall on or before the Ist day of March in every
year publish in some newspaper circulating within
each town or country respectively a copy of the
return so made by every banker, company, or
partnership carrying on the business of bankers
within such town or county respectively, as the case
may be.
XXII. And be it enacted, that every banker
who shall be liable by law to take out a licence
from the Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes to
authorise the issuing of notes or bills shall take out
a separate and distinct licence for every town or
place at which he shall, by himself or his agent,
issue any notes or bills requiring such license to
authorise the issuing thereof, anything in any
former act contained to the contrary thereof not-
withstanding : provided always, that no banker
who on or before the 6th day of May,
1844, had taken out four such licences,
which on the said last-mentioned day were re-
spectively in force, for the issuing of any
such notes or bills at more than four separate
towns or places, shall at any tine hereafter be re-
quired to take out or to have in force at one and the
same time more than four such licences to authorise
the issuing of such notes or bills at all or any of the
same towns or places specified in such licences in
force on the 6th day of May, 1844, and at which
towns or places respectively such bankers had on or
before the said last-mentioned day issued such notes
or bills in pursuance of such licences or any of them
respectively.
XXIII. And whereas the several bankers named
in the schedule hereto annexed marked (C) have
ceased to issue their own bank notes under certain
agreements with the governor and company of the
Bank of England ; and it is expedient that such
agreements should cease and determine on the 31st
day of December next, and that such bankers should
receive by way of compensation such composition as
hereinafter mentioned; and a list of such bankers,
and' a statement of the maximum sums in respect
of which each such banker is to receive compensa-
tion, hath been delivered to the commissioners of
stamps and taxes, signed by the chief cashier of the
Bank of England : Be it therefore enacted, that
the several agreements subsisting between the said
Governor and Company and the several bankers
mentioned in the schedule hereto relating to the
issue of Bank of England notes, shall cease and de-
termine on the 31st day of December next ; and
from and after that day the said Governor and
Company shall pay and allow to the several bank-
ers named in the schedule hereto marked (C), so
long as such bankers shall be willing to receive the
same, a composition at and after the rate of £1 per
centum per annum ou the average amount of the
Bank of England notes issued by such bankers re-
spectively and actually remaining in circulation, to
be ascertained as follows ; (that is to say),
on some day in the month of April, 1845,
to be determined by the said Governor and
company, an account shall be taken of the Bank of
England notes delivered to such bankers respec-
tively by the said governor and company within
three months next preceding, and of such of the
said Bank of England notes as shall have been
returned to the Bank of England, and the balance
shall be deemed to be the amount of the Bank of
England notes issued by such bankers respectively
and kept in circulation : and a similar account
shall be taken at intervals of three calendar
months ; and the average of the balances ascer-
tained on taking four such accounts shall be
deemed to be the average amount of Bank of Eng-
land notes issued by such bankers respectively and
kept in circulation during the year 1845, and on
which amount such bankers are respectively to re-
ceive the aforesaid composition of one per centum
for the year 1845, a similar account shall be taken
in each succeeding year ; but in each year such
accounts shall be taken in different months from
those in which the accounts of the last preceding
year were taken, and on different days of the month,
such months and days to be determined by the
said governor and company ; and the amount
of the composition payable as aforesaid shall
be paid by the said governor and company
out of their own funds ; and in case any
difference shall arise between any of such bankers
and the governor and company of the Bank of Eng-
land in respect of the composition payable as afore-
said, the same shall be determined by the Chancel-
lor of the Exchequer at the time being, or by some
person to be named by him, and the decision of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, or his ncminee, shall
be final and conclusive : Provided always, that it
shall be lawful for any banker named in the sche-
dule hereto annexed marked (C) to discontinue the
receipt of such composition as aforesaid, but no
such banker shall by such discontinuance as aforesaid
thereby acquire any right or title to issue bank
notes.

XXIV. And be it enacted„that it shall be lawful
for the said governor and company. to agree with
every banker who, under the provisions of this act,
shallp e r b e
annum
banker a compositionsuaetbtahnk notes, to allow to such
foorlßrla,
nielbsolf
relinquishmentko n,e per c entu mo f
Ount of
.ank. of England notes
ni
de de
r andat iho keptuis in.fccirrnculation ascertainingb y such a
n a
hwahnikehers,hoalrlabechisshs
no tes ;
payable
ballet
containedl
thetlie pri
provisionsprivilege o of
herein issuing
determining the amount of composition
to the several bankers named in the schedule hereto
marked (C) shall apply to all such other hankers
with whom the said governor and company are
hereby authorised to agree as aforesaid: Pro-
vided that the amount of composition payable to
such bankers as last aforesaid shall in every
case in which an increase of securities in the issue
department shall have been authorised by any
order in council be deducted ont of the amount pay-
able by the said governor and company to the pub-
lic under the provisions herein contained : Provided
always, that the total sum payable to any banker,
under the provisions herein contained, by way of
composition as aforesaid, in any one year. shall not
exceed, in case of the bankers mentioned in the sche-
dule hereto marked (C), one per centum on the
several sums set against the names of such bankers
respectively in the list and statement delivered to

the Commissioners of Stamps as aforesaid, and in '
the case of other bankers shall not exceed one per
centum on the amount of bank notes which such
bankers respectively would otherwise be entitled to
issue under the provisions herein contained.
XXV. And be it enacted, That all compositions
payable to the several bankers mentioned in the
schedule hereto marked (C), and such other bankers
as shall agree with the said governor and company
to discontinue the issue of their own bank notes as
aforesaid, shall, if not previously determined by the
act of such banker as hereinbefore provided, cease
and determine on the first day of August, 1856, or
on any earlier date on which Parliament may prohibit

the issue of bank notes.
XXVI. And be it enacted, that from and after
the passing of this act it shall be lawful for any
society or company or any persons in partnership,
though exceeding six in number, carrying on the
business of banking in London, or within sixty-five
miles thereof, to draw, accept, or endorse bills of ex-
change, not being payable to bearer on demand,
anything in the hereinbefore recited act passed in
thelfourth year of the reign of his said Majesty King
William IV., or in any other act, to the contrary
notwithstanding.
XXVII. And be it enacted, that the said gover-.
nor and company of the Bank of England shall
have and enjoy such exclusive privilege of banking
as is given by this act, upon such terms and condi-
tions, and subject to the termination thereof at such
time and in such manner, as is by this act provided
and specified'; and all and every the powers and
authorities, franchises, privileges, and advantages,
given or recognised by the said recited act passed
in the fourth year of the reign of his Majesty King
William IV. as belonging to or enjoyed by the said
governor and company of the Bank of England, or
by any subsequent acts or acts of Parliament, shall
be and the same are hereby declared to be in full
force and continued by this act, except so far as the
same are altered by this act ; subject nevertheless to
redemption upon the terms and conditionsfollowing,
(that is to say), at any time upon twelve months
notice to be given after the Ist day of August, 1855,
and upon repayment by Parliament to the said
governor and company or their successors of 'the
sum of £11,015,100, being the debt now due from
the public to the said governor and company, with-
out any deduction, discount, or abatement whatso-
ever, and upon payment to the said governor and
company and their successors of all arrears of the
sum of £lOO,OOO per annum, in the last-mentioned
act mentioned, together with the interest or annui-
ties payable upon the said debt or in respect thereof,
and also upon repayment of all the principal and in-
terest which shall be owing unto the said governor
and company and their successors upon all such
taffies, Exchequer orders, Exchequer bills, or Parlia-
mentary funds which the said governor and com-
pany or their successors shall have remaining in their
hands or be entitled to at the time of such notice to
be given as last aforesaid, then and in such case,
and not till then, the said exclusive privileges of
banking granted by this act shall cease and deter-
mine at the expiration of such notice of twelve
months ; and any vote or resolution of the House
of Commons, signified under the hand of the
Speaker of the said house in writing, and delivered
at the public office of the said governor and com-
pany, shall be deemed and adjudged to be a sufficient
notice.

XXVIII. And be it enacted, That the term.
" bank notes" used in this act shall extend and ap-
ply to all bills or notes for the payment of money
to the bearer on demand other than bills or notes of
the governor and company of the Bank of England ;
and that the term " Bank of England Notes" shall
extend and apply to the promissory notes of the
governor and company of the Bank of England
payable to bearer on demand ; and that the term
" banker" shall extend and apply to all corporations,
societies, partnerships and persons, and every indivi-
dual person carrying on the business of banking,
whether by the issue of bank notes or otherwise,
except only the governor and company of the Bank
of England ; and that the word " person " used in
this act shall include corporations ; and that the
singular number in this act shall include the plural
number, and the plural number the singular, except
where there is anything in the context repugnant to
such construction ; and that the masculine gender
in this act shall include the feminine, except where
there is anything in the context repugnant to such
construction.
XXIX. And be it enacted, that this act may be
amended or repealed by any act to be passed in the
present session of Parliament.

as many cases have occurred among women and
children, who have no such refuge at hand as that
afforded to sailors by the Seamen's Hospital Society.

Appledore, in Devonshire, Sherborne, in Dorset,
and Charlestown in Cornwall, have been visited by
cholera, several persons having died in these places.
During the last few days the disease has abated.
The Town Council of the city of Exeter have
advertised for paid sanitary inspectors to make
periodical house-to-house inspections. The St.
Thomas Local Board are most vigilant in detecting
and abolishing nuisances, and a powerful disinfectant,
hitherto used with great success in deodorising the
parochial sewage, is to be served out to the poor
people.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN.
TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin.,—With the view of making the public aware,
at the earliest period practicable, of the dividend
likely to be declared by this company at the ensuing
general meeting, I am authorised to state that the
accounts, though not yet finally audited or approved
by the board of directors, indicate a dividend, for
the past half-year, at the rate of 6 per cent. per
annum.—l am, Sir, your obedient servant,
STEPHEN REAY, Secretary.
Secretary's Office, Euston Station, Aug. 6.

1363, and thus it passed over by marriage to the
Hapsburgs. Roveredo, which was held by the
Venetians from 1416 to 1609, became in the latter
year part of the Austrian monarchy, from which it
was never afterwards permanently detached. We
have already said, and we now most earnestly repeat,
that it would be a wise policy on the part of Austria
to rid herself of this last subject of dispute between
herself and Italy. The occupation by a foreign
Power of the valley of the Adige down to the Lake
of Garda, that key to the great gate of Italy thus
left in the hands of a hostile neighbour, constitutes
a perpetual menace to the new Italian kingdom ; it
is a thorn in the side of the Italians which will allow
them no rest, till increased strength and opportunity
enable them to do for it what they have just done
for Venetia. It is a certain source of future wars.
But, however desirable it might be to remove this
bone of contention for the future, there is no doubt
that for the present the Italians have failed to esta-
blish completely their claims on that district by right
of conquest, and it is hardly to be expected that
Austria will give up to persuasion what was not
wrested from her by force, or that Prussia will re-
commend the surrender of lands which, up to five
or six weeks ago, were no less German than Austrian.
The recent victories of Garibaldi and Medici in the
Tyrol, which had so nearly put them in possession of
Trent, and which enabled them to elicit the vote
of the inhabitants in favour of annexation, far from
smoothing the difficulty, have only added to it, by
encouraging, on the one side, the hopes of the
Italians, and on the other by arousing the wrath of
Austria, who, anxious to retrieve in the South
the losses sustained in the North, has lately
poured no less than 90,000 of her very best
troops into the valley of the Adige, and is unlikely
to listen to a word either of peace or armistice till
she has driven the intruders out of the disputed dis-
trict. But there is more. The " rectification of
frontiers," as stipulated in the preliminaries now
under discussion in Paris, lends itself to a twofold
interpretation. The Italians hope to draw their line
in Tyrol at that point between Trent and Botzen
where the two nationalities come into contact near
two villages bearing the significant names of Mezzo
Lombardo and Mezzo Tedesco—the point through.
which Lord Palmerston proposed to draw the fron-
tier line during the pourparlers of 1848 ; but Austria
insists not only on the whole Tyrol down to Riva,
but even on a part of the Friuli on the side of the
Isonzo frontier. It is clear that if any dispute arises
on these grounds the Italians will be left alone to
settle it, for Prussia, as we have said, will back the
Italians in no other claim than that on Venetia, and
Italy most assuredly cannot count on any sympathy
on the part of either the Government or the people
of France. Happily, there are still several days of
the existing truce unexpired, and we trust that, if
necessary, the truce will be renewed. It would be
melancholy indeed, if, with a most advantageous
peace already within her grasp, Italy, by insisting
on her extreme pretensions, should again expose her-
self to the attack of Austria and to the risk of a
crushing defeat.
HERALD.—The most remarkable feature of the
opposition offered by Mr. Mill and his friends to the
Extradition Treaty Bill, after the intense ignorance
they have exhibited as to the practical effects of the
clauses against which they protest, and as to the
general course of English justice, is the persistence
with which they have pretended that the adoption
of the principle of extradition is a gratuitous con-
cession to France, and have ignored the patent fact
that during the whole time the treaty of 1843 has
been in force the benefits of it have been almost
exclusively enjoyed by England. A person deriving
his knowledge of the subject only from the speeches
of Mr. Mill and Sir Francis Goldsmid would
necessarily suppose that this country has really no
interest in the maintenance of such a treaty, that
its lapse would not encourage in the slightest degree
forgery or murder, and that both life and property
would be quite as secure in London if to all the
other inducements to take either were added this
of absolute immunity upon reaching Boulogne or
Calais. He would further assume that the treaty
was a Machiavellian scheme on the part of the
French Government to possess itself of certain for-
midable political opponents now resident in Eng-
land, and that the acceptance of such a treaty was
a disgrace to the British Government, and that its
adoption by Parliament would amount to the aban-
donment of the sacred right of asylum and a base
submission to the dictates of a foreign Power. Now,
how far such an unfortunate person would be from
the truth anybody who will only read the new bill,
and remember that it but alters in a very slight
degree an act which has been in force more than
twenty years, can discover ; and it really seems sur-
prising that men like Sir Francis Goldsmid, who is
one of her Majesty's counsel learned in the law, and
Mr. Mill, who, aLhough unfortunately not a candid,
is certainly a clever man, should have talked last
night what canjonly be described as such utter rub-
bish. If they did not know when the bill was intro-
duced into Parliament, they did know after the ex-
planations given on the second reading that it
enlarged in no degree the old act. The offences
remained the same; the same necessity of giving
to the magistrate before whom the person arrested
in virtue of the Secretary of State's warrant might
be brought sufficient evidence of the commission of
the crime and of the connection of the prisoner
with it as would justify him in committing that
prisoner, if an Englishman, for trial upon the
charge, was maintained, and the only alteration
the new bill made was to save the most absurd ex-
pense of bringing over a witness to swear to the
authenticity of the depositions, when the legal and
usual way of proving that authenticity is the certifi-
cate of the Minister of Justice, which can cost very
little, and is far more reliable than the testimony of
any witness. Sir Francis Goldsmid and Mr. Mill
knew that in the course of the twenty years the
French Government had made no attempt to obtain
the extradition of a mere political opponent, and
they knew, too, that the new bill would not give it
any greater facility, except in this saving of expense,
a saving which a Government really anxious to get
an opponent into its hands would certainly care
little about, for obtaining that extradition; and yet
they must needs attempt to obtain, last night, the
insertion of a clause expressly exempting political
offences from the operation of the act—political
offences which, be it known, must consist in mur-
ders or attempts at murder, and so to give practical
immunity to all assassins or would-be assassins,
whether of the Emperor of the French, his Ministers,
or even the meanest of the officers of his Govern-
ment. Sir Francis Goldsmid's argument was of a
very singular kind, and his illustration was stranger
still. He attempted to prove that by the French
code, the present Emperor of the French is a mur-
derer, because he shot a soldier at Boulogne, and
thence to show that any person resisting authority
in open insurrection could be demanded by the
French Government and must be surrendered to it.
We will say nothing of the good taste or of the
decency of this sort of talk. Mr. Neate indig-
nantly denounced it, but the Radicals around Sir
Francis Goldsmid cheered it vociferously. But
the argument so impertinently illustrated was alto-
gether beside the mark, and one must suppose that
when Sir Francis left his practice he left his law
behind him. The bill has nothing to do with
French ideas of murder. No person would be given
up for a murder merely because the French code
makes out some offence which he has committed to
be a murder. The magistrate before whom he is
brought has to deal with him as he would with an
English subject. He has to satisfy himself that
there is sufficient evidence of the crime, and the
prisoner's connection with it, to justify him in
committing that man for murder, or the attempt to
murder, according to English law, before he sur-
renders him to the agents of the French Govern-
ment •, and even if the French code, therefore,
should make murder out of nothing, no Frenchman
need fear being given up to the vengeance of his
Government . for that made-up crime. Lord
Stanley, and after him Sir Hugh Cairns, showed
very clearly that Sir Francis Goldsmid's original
clause or either of his alternative ones was
unnecessary, and, under the circumstances,
impossible of acceptance, and, if it could
have been adopted, would have worked most
mischievously. There is not, as Lord Stanley
said, the slightest reason to apprehend any
attempt on the part of the French Government
to turn the treaty to political ends • and if the at-
tempt should be made it would undoubtedly be de-
feated. On the other hand, as Sir Hugh Cairns
pointed out, it was not competent for the Govern-
ment to alter the treaty without the assent of the
French Government, and that the adoption of such
a clause would have necessarily had for its conse-
quence the non-execution of the treaty, and its con-
cession of perfect immunity to the more skilful and
daring of the criminal population of both countries.
Further, as Lord Stanley urged very forcibly, the
adoption of such a proviso, which must be extended
to all our treaties of extradition, would, in the first
place, give perfect security to the vilest assassins
who might contrive to reach our shores. Wilkes
Booth, had such a clause existed in our treaty with
America, or in the act of Parliament giving effect
to it, would have been perfectly safe, could he have
reached any part of her Majesty's dominions. The
illustration was well_adapted to the Radical oppo-
nents of the bill ; for although they think the mur-
der of a King is a crime, that of a President is in
their eyes the greatest that can be perpetrated. And,
moreover, the immunity would be reciprocal, and
this most undesirable result would follow, that any
Fenian who might shoot a witness or a policeman
would be safe, if he could once get out of England.
In fact, such a clause as that proposed by Sir F.
Goldsmid would be a direct encouragement to po-
heal assassination, an object which neither the hon.
baronet nor Mr. Mill, although the Westminster

Ire ........

philosopher's repudiation of all sympathy with th
crime did not appear very hearty, could have in-
tended. Mr. Mill, who had greatly misunderstood
the operation of the measure, desires safeguards for
the criminal which practically would make any
treaty a farce. He insists that no person should
be given up unless he is confronted with his ac-
cusers, unless all the witnesses against him shall
be brought over and be cross-examined, and he
have the opportunity of bringing over all the Wit-
nesses he pleases. That is to say, the honourable
gentleman practically wants for all French crimi-
nals—and with regard to political assassins he
directly claimed it—that before a person can be
given up for a crime committed in France the whole
matter shall be tried out here. It is quite evident
that if the French Government had to put all this
machinery in motion to obtain its malefactors it
would make England a present of all the criminal
who could find their way to that then common
sewer of crime. Sir Francis Goldsmid ultimately
withdrew his amendment, the Government having
consented to limit the operation of the act to a term
of twelve months. Lord Stanley had allowed that
the house was placed at a disadvantage in having
to discuss the question at so late a period of the
session, and had expressed at the same time
opinion that the whole subject of extradition de-
served to be inquired into thoroughly, and dealt
with in a systematic manner. Basing himself upon
this declaration of the Foreign Secretary, Mr. Mill,
and after him Mr. Ayrton and Mr. Kinglake, aP'
pealed to the Government to be content with
temporary measure, which would enable the subject
to be dealt with comprehensively in the next session!
and to that course, as we have said, the Government
assented. We may hope, therefore, that some
general measure, dealing not only with the process
of extradition,' but with the crimes which it era-
braces, at present far too limited in number, will be
introduced to Parliament early enough next session
to allow of proper consideration, and we would fain
trust that the honourable gentlemen who have taken
so prominent a part in opposing this bill will
the recess to acquaint themselves more thorouri
with the subject. Our great commercial common
might render them some valuable assistance in that
respect. Do the bankers and traders of Westminster
desire that dishonesty of all kinds shall find a safe
asylum so handy as Calais ?