The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-11 00:00:00

THE MONEY CRISIS.

NECESSITY FOR THE SUSPENSION OF
THE BANK ACT.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE MIN.
SlR,—With the exception of the Times (which
paper, all powerful as it is, seems determined to
uphold the Bank Charter at every hazard—even to
that of prostrating the entire trade of the United
Kingdom), the Daily News, and your own influen-
tial paper, and other leading journals in London,
seethe r necessity
slie o I the ° f
money
Government
market
as it did in 1847.
stepping forward uingto
to the e

Seeing clearly what was coming, I endeavoured,
on the 13th of Oct. last, toirnpress upon the readers
of The Mercantile Journal, the great necessity for
such a step, as it was, and is, folly to imagine that
an advance of afewper cents. in the rate of discount
will pievent gold leaving the Kingdom, so long as
produce can be bought with it abroad 40 or 50 per
oent. under par. Since the Ist of Oct., the rise on
discounts has been 4} per cent., equal to an addi-
tional load upon the commerce of the nation of no
less than 20,000,0001. sterling, calculating
600,000,0001. as the average amount of floating
bills of exchange I
Can any mercantile country, however rich in re-
sources, withstand such a crushing influence as
this for any length of time ? and, yet, the. Times has
the hardihood to say, in its monetary article of this
day, that "it does not see any necessity for Go-
vernment interference." Sir, I take the liberty of
repeating now what I have said weeks since. fitl
the merchants of the nation arouse themselves, and
respectfully call upon the Government to suspend
the Bank Act, pro tempore, ere it is too late. It is
not the restriction to any particular rate of die-.
count that is now required—it is confidence—confi-
dence in the merchant being able to obtain cash for
his bona fide billswhan he requires it. At present,,
he cannot have this' as the operations of the Bank
h
Act, closet the
yarepocketsmost required
oos f the bankers
be
opattehne, veryand
moment
consequently they are obliged to refuse discounting
a large proportion of the paper offered to thew,
irrespective of their character.

At the present moment, there aro between sixty
and seventy millions of sovereigns in circulation
throughout the United Kingdom ; a large pro:
portion of this immense supply is paralysed by the
extinction of notes of small denomination in Eng-
land—say, of 11.21. and 3/. notes—the use of whieh
would, as a matter of course, release a correspond-
ing value of gold to the amount of small notes
issued, or nearly so, and thus give an immense
additional supply to meet the foreign demand. Let
the Bank of England, and other banks of issue in
England, be authorised to circulate, saYI,
20,000,0001. of these small notes, and let Bank or.
England and Bank of Ireland notes be made legs'
tender throughout the United Kingdom, and mone-
tary matters will promptly assume a more satin:
factory position, confidence will be restored, and
we will hear much less opposition in future to the
Banking Act of 1841. If the supporters of this
Act will not listen. to any comprotnne, no matter
how reasonable, they way expect to find that their
whole financial fabric will tumble about their ears
ere very long.
The amount of bullion at present in the vaults of
the Bank of En_ and is about the same as it was
ou the 24th October, 1847, wLeu the fam°lls
Government letter was issued, and the reserve of
Notes rapidly diminishing to a dangerous figure.
In such a tiwe as this, promptness of action is re-
quired to save the nation fn•in the consequences of
a fearful monetary panic.
TLIE EDITOR OF " THE BELFAST MERCANTILI4

JOURNAL."
Corn Exchange, Belfast, 9th Nov., 1857.
P.8.7j understand that the merchants of Glag:
gow, Liverpool, and Manchester, have petitioned
or are about to petition the Government tointer-
fere. Let every town in the United liingdou
follow their example.

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