The Sun.
London, England, 1832-06-30 00:00:00

BANK COMMITTEE.

(From the Times.)
THURSDAY EVENING.-Every one with the least consi-
deration must perceive that any premature and hasty deei-
.ion of the Bank question, can lead to no other result than
that of perpetuating the existing order of things. Grea
as are-the evils of the present system, and great as may bt
the changes required, yet no one with the least prudence
can demand that tiny step whatever should he taken upon
so important a question, without inquiry the most ample
and consideration the molt mature ; and that, consequently,
if the matter must be decided at once, it can only be by a
further prolongation of the Bank monopoly. This, which
must he obvious to all, is particularly so to those by whom
ibis last-mentioned consummation is most devoutly wished,
namely, the Bank of England and the private hankers.—
Between these two parties, at the commencement of the
proceedings, there existed a deadly feud. The encroach
ments of the 13 ink. both in the country and in London,
upon the business of private hankers, had generated a hos-
tility against. on the part of the latter, of no common
rancour; and it is not to be denied that the public hwe
considerably benefited by this division in the enemies'
c imp : for it must he admitted that we are considerably in-
debted to the exertions of the private bankers themselves,
for that enlargement and prolongation of the inquiry
which is likely to take place. A common danger, how-
ever, has had the not uncommon effect of reconciling these
feuds. The private bankers have seen their error, have
made common cause with the Bank of England, and have
j dried heart and hand with that establishment in the very
intelligible endeavour to bring the proceedings of the Com-
mittee to a close, in whet we are sorry to remark they
are powerfully supported by their friends on the Com-
mittee. The plea is, the danger likely to result from the
agitation of the question,—a mere bugbear, for which there
is not the shadow of a pretence. In a period of generrl
distrust and discredit of b inks, this might have been urged
with more reason. But if there ever was one time better
adapted than another for the prosecution and puilongation
of this inquiry, with a view, not to an early, but to an
ultimate settlement of the question, the present is that
time,—a fact in which all persons agree, and about which
there cannot he a dispute. The public will, therefore, not
be a little surprised to understand, that the Bank is endea-
vouring to get up a petition in the city in favour of a speedy
settlement of the question. That they may succeed in
this, we do not dispute, and that similar petitions may, by
the same kind of influence, he got up from other parts of
the country, we equally believe. There are always a
class of needy persons (and the apparent distinction and
consequence of the parties is by no means a proof that they
do not belong to this cites), who can refuse a Bank no-
thing. But we are quite as.ured that no house that felt
itself at liberty to refuse, would be made a tool of for any
such purpose; and we firmly believe, that if petitions of
this kind are got up, they will be so completely seen
through, that they will totally fail in their object, and
bring nothing but contempt upon all who may be con-
cerned in them.

It is quite absurd to suppose that the inquiry can be
stopped by any such manoeuvring. If this Committee in
this Parliament were to attempt to close it, the next Par•
liament would undo all that this had done. The present
Committee can only open out the inquiry,—it has
not the power to do more than this with justice to the
subject; and any step that it may take not purely prelitni-
nary, will be entitled to no respect, and will receive none.
FRIDAY EVENING.—Tbere is something so repugnant
to the national feeling in the idea of settling a great ques-
tion, or any part of it, by a secret conclave, that we should
be afraid the cause of truth itself would suffer, if pre-
sented to our view through so unpalatable a medium, and
we are not sorry to find the conviction pretty general, not
only that the present Secret Committee on Bank affairs
will not be able to to do more than report the evidence,
but that they ought not to do more. Of the propriety of
this conviction we shall be the more convinced if we do
but take a glance at the Committee itself. The subject is
universally admitted to be extremely difficult, and though
it has been long under consideration, no one is prominently
put foaward as possessing any authority in relation to it.
Those Members of Parliament, in particular, who have
given great attention to it, have only left it in greater
obscurity than before. They can reason with much
plausibility respecting the errors of their opponents,
but when they come to their own conclusions, they are
found still more impotent and impracticable than those
they have impugned. Of those who are thus understood
to have distinguished themselves on the present Commit.
tee, we may mention, 1. Mr. Attwood, whose panacea
for all the evils of the State, both moral and physical, is
a depreciation of the standard,.—that is, reducing the
weight of the sovereign, and paying a debt of 20s. with
108., or 15s. ; 2. Sir James Graham, who is a degree
less decidedly wrong on the same point; 3. Mr. Baring,
who has alternately supported and impugned every given
principle and measure, but whose grand specific is the
adoption of the silver standard ; 4. Sir Robert Peel, whose
measures have been sufficiently unfortunate to ruin any
proposition with which his name is connected ; and 5.
Sir Henry Parnell, whose remedy is a perfect freedom of
trade in banking and currency, which has at all events

the merit of simplicity, though it leaves us much in
the dark as to the mode of its working in future. Now,
if the question] is to be decided by knowledge and
authority, these are the Members of the Committee to

be presumed most competent to settle it. But should
the public be so perverse as to conclude that they are
quite as likely to embarrass the question as to settle it by
their crotchets, we must look further, and ask if any im-
partial adjustment of it is likely to proceed from any of the
following gentlemen :—Sir Matthew White Ridley, Sir
John Wrottesley, Mr. Robarts, Mr. Heywood, Mr. John
Smith, Mr. Vernon Smith, bankers ; Mr. Alderman
Thompson, Bank director ; or Mr. Irving, partivr of a
Bank director ? To which phalanx may we not add Mr.
Goulburn, and Mr. Herries, as gentleman most willing to
keep "the poor abuses of the times in countenance?"

Now should the public, as is most probable, place no
confidence whatever in any of the above parties for the
settlement of this extensive, complicated, and all-
important question, to whom amongst the following are
they to look for that command of it which will enable
them not only to free the subject from its own obscurity,
but from the additional complexity in which the
Borings and the Attwoods of the Committee, on the one
hand, and the interested junta above-mentioned, on the
other, are certain to involve it; viz. Lord Althorp, Sir
J. Newport, Colonel Moberly, Mr. Peregrine Courtenay,
Mr. George Philips, Mr. Poulett Thomson, Mr. Alder-
man Wood, Lord John Ruud!, Mr. Warburton, Mr.
Morrison, Lord Cavendish, Lord Ebrington, Mr. Lawley,
Lord Morp,th, Mr. Strutt, Mr. Bonham Carter, or Mr.
Stanley, M.P. for Hindon ?

Assuredly there are amongst these, men of great good
sense, and great integrity, and some of them more than
average abilities, but there are none who, in the public
estimation, have any pretensions to the commanding
talent in question. It is imp9ssinle, therefore, that, from
the judgment of a Committee thus conipos-d, and also act-
ing in secret, the hasty settlement of this difficult and all-
important question can be tolerated. The honest and
well-meaning Members of the Committee, who form the
great majority of those last-mentioned, cannot fail to per-
ceive this, and we may trust to their good sense and inte-
grity as the best safeguard in the present emergency.
They will perceive the fully of coining to any determina-
tion on the subject with a Committee thus formed ; and
having no sinister object to gain, will resist any measures
whatever proposed by those who have.

At Chices'er 500, and at Lewes 300 persons,
were last week regaled with plentiful dinners of roiot beef
and plum pudding, in honour of passing of the Reform
Bill; in addition to which, at the former place, buns were
given to the children.
A surgeon at Vienna has lately made use of
elastic band, of small size in articulating skeletons, instead
of the ligaments now gener.lly used. This allow! a more
accurate study of the mechanism of the parts in their
luxutions.

Mr. ARNOLD'S forthcoming " Dramatic
Stories" are expected with no small impatience on the
part of the theatrical world, for, we understand, they are
likely to furnish more subjects for dramatic representations
than have ever been obtained from any one publication.
A JURYMAN FINED FOR INTOXICATION.
—Yesterday evening an Inquest was held at St. Bartholo-
mew's hospital on the body of WILLIAM MAWLEY, a
child of five years of age. One of the Jury, named
M`GLI/ooL, soon became very turbulent, which, it was
perceived, arose from intoxication. The COLON ER—You
are drunk, Sir. Juryman—l know it. CORONER—Then
I shall fine you 20s. for contempt of Court. Juryman—
Then you won't get it; I'll he cursed it I ply it. Collo-
NER—Then you are in the custody of the beadle. Mr.
11PGitEcoa, on this, became so noisy, that the CORONER
committed him to the Compter. The child, it appeared
died fiosn injuries sustained by fire having ignited his
clothes by playing with a match.—Accidental death.
THE BICETRE.—It is not generally known
that this name of a notorious French prison is merely a
corruption of the English word Winchester." During
the temporary pow scion of Paris by the English, after the
death of lirsia.r V., the then Bishop of WINCIMETRR
buil a palace there, the ruins of which form part of the
present edifice : clipping and changing the consonants,
aided by foreign pronunciation, have done all the rest,