The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-03 00:00:00

Notes issued £21,141,065
Daduct held by the Bank itself 957,710

£20,183,355
............... 5,314.b59
.................... 12,935,344
853,075

Public deposits
Ocher deposits
Seven day and other bills ...........................

39,286,433

ASSETS.

In the issue department—
Gold coin and bullion... 6,6,065
In the banking department
Gold and silver coin..

501,443

7,170,50,

Balance which the Bank could not pay in gold
or ail Ter .............................................. 32,115,925
You sea, then, not only from the arguments which
have been used, but from the facts and figures,
that this fair-weather measure, the Bank Charter
Act, has, on two separate occasions—when its
true object, " the effectual maintenance of specie
payments," has been testa' has most com-
pletely and most disgracefully faded. (Loud
cheers.) You cannot possibly convert the
enormous indebtedness of this great nation
into gold. The convertibility of the note at a
fixe 1 rate has been demonstrated to be a mere
political fiction. But there is another, and a novel
aspect, under which this question has recently been
presented to the public. The Times, the organ of
the bullionist party, charges the whole of the
people of England with dishonesty. "Any man,"
it says, "who comes under an engagement to pay a
certain sum on a 'eel, ain
given day pled es himself
to deliver so many sovereigns. No doubt," it says,
had nut the Government letter appeared on Thursday money would have been worth 20/. to I
331. per cent. owing
to the general panic which
would have been created," while we are subse-
quently told " the hard calculator sees the time at
hand wises the gold he has prudently reserved will
be worth 15 pt-r cent. The Government steps in
i.) feu-trite the results of his patient enquiry and
refiec ion." This is the true way of
putting the
case. Lord Overstone said. in 1844, that the
object of the bill was the efft•ictual maintenance of
specie payments. Sir Robert Peel declared that
one of its principal objects was to prevent the
repetition of such
panics as had occurred in 1825,
1837, and 1839, and preserve us from commercial
depression and ruin. But in 1857, the long
•
worn
mask is at length thrown off and the usurer stands
revealed in the face of day. (Loud cheers). It is
not the maintenance of specie payments alone, but
such a maintenance of specie payments as may com-
mand an usurious rate of interest which they
m,37 require. (Flea-, and cheers). And not
only so, but the "bard calculator"
expected that he should be able also "to buy sugar,,
silk, and all sorts of articles at a vast reduction.'
But; his expectations have been disappointed,
"thanks to Government." The producerwe are told,
(be says)
ought as a matt a- of course to be sacrificed to the
consumer. Put the case of the farmer. A farmer
in profit erous times commonly makes the laud his
bank. Whatever capital he can by persevering in-
dus:ry, and the results of " patient inquiry
and re-
flection," accumulate he invests in the improve-
ment ( f his land in better management, better
cultivation of, the soil and improvement of his stock,
and he naturally expects it will secure to him the quiet
possession of the fruits of his industry.
rni.taken is his calculation. Trier° has been ano-
ther how
titer man at work ;—this is the " hard calculator."
He has improved, his acquaintance with Peel's
bill, and cultivated au acquailitpice with the opera-