The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-01 00:00:00

The Bank Charter Act.

It is singular how universal the impression is
abroad that the temporary suspension of the Bank
Act of 1844 was virtually a suspension of specie
payment by the Bank of England. In the Chicago
Tribune of July sth there is an article headed,
" Plunder Pretext of the Prohibitory Ring," from
which we take the following passages :—" All at
once a great financial panic broke out in England,
where $150,000,000 of our bonds were held by
speculators, smashing numerous banks, and render-
ing insolvent hundreds of merchants and commer-
cial companies, and compelling the great financial
regulator, the Bank of England, to ask of the Go-
vernment the right to suspend specie payments.
What was the result? Why the British holders
of our Bonds sent them home by the cord in order to
extricate themselves from their embarrassments.
Their own banks having refused to pay specie, they
checked on Uncle Sam for $60,000,000 or
$70,000,000 on sight." This is what we get, and
all we get, for making a law which "no fellow can
understand." The same impression holding strongly
on the Continent has drained, and is draining, Eng-
land of the precious metal, and it is in vain for the
English press to endeavour to explain what really
did happen. The Bank of England never moved
in the matter at all. They took up a dignified
position, which gave great umbrage to the Joint-
Stock Banks who combined in the application to
Government. A director of one of these is reported
to have turned angrily on the representative of the
Bank of England and said, " I can draw two
cheques on you, which to-morrow morning
will shut up the Bank of England." But the
Bank made no application to Government.
The grave error abroad, however, is that the Govern-
ment authorised the Bank to stop specie payment.
Nobody wanted or asked for specie payment. The
Bank had close on £13,000,000 of bullion in its
cellars. What was wanted was an extension in
the issue of notes, which the law of 1844 restricted.
Over an arbitrary boundary the Bank could not
pass, on the brink of which it was, and all the people
wished for was the removal of that boundary. Tell
the people in a ship at sea that the last cask of
water has been broached, and an agony of panic and
thirst will be the consequence ; but let the captain
declare that he has a condensing machine on board,
by which the sea can be turned into fresh water,
and the panic and thirst cease. No one for a
moment dreamt of the stoppage of specie payment,
yet this fatal idea has got abroad, and has produced
the most injurious effect on our exchanges, and,
in consequence, the large and disastrous drain of
gold which has tended more than any other cause
to keep up the 10 per cent. minimum. —Anglo-Anzeri-
can Times.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE—This Day.
LONDON, Aug. 1.--Wind this day at noon—South-
Westerly ; moderate breeze and fine weather, but rather
cloudy.
BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.
GRAVESEND, Wednesday Morning.
Afrived, July 31—Metropolitan, from Hamburg; Aurora,
Eaglet, and Annio Foster, from Montreal; Neckar, from
Quebec ; Diana, from Berbice ; Jacob Levi, from Jamairom
ca;
Kelpie and Kingstown, from Bathurst ; l'recieux, f
Morlaix.
Arrived, August I—Waldoch, from Montreal ; Volan't
from Messina; Corsair's Bride, from Cape Town William
Thornborrow, Concordia, Lord Strangford, Fairy, Alabama,
and Marnhull, from Guernsey ; Lizzie, from Gergente ;
Ingeman, from St. Crux.
DEAL, Wednesday Morning.
Anchored—Argonaut, from Montreal; Louisa and Fre-
derick, gam §Wanor, frog th 9 YfePt 49th fox London.