The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-04 00:00:00

HAY MARKETS.

SMITHFIELD.—Meadow hay, £2 Os to £5 5s Od ; clover
do., £3 Os to £slss ; and straw, £1 18s to £2 2s per load.
A fair demand.

CUMBERLAND. Meadow hay, £2 Os to £5 Ss ;
clover, £3 Os to £5 15s Od ; and straw, £1 18s to £2 2s
per load. Trade rather dull.
WHITECHAPEL. Meadow hay, £2 Os to £5 5s Od ;
clove, £3 Os to £5 18s Od ; and straw, £1 18s to £2 2s
per load. A slow trade.

Let the London Bankers, Discounters, and Mer-
chants, who are more independent of its influence
than those in the country, demand gold for their
Bank notes, when the Act of 1844 must again be
suspended, as in the Panic of 1847 and 1857, and
the like results will follow—a rapid fall in the rate
of discount, the revival of commerce, and ample
employment for the working classes.
To expect relief in any otifer way is hopeless :
the public are dumb-founded on the subject; for
notwithstanding the present extraordinary mone-
tary pressure, and the woeful experience of past
years, they stir not. Were it otherwise, and the
country sufficiently aroused to obtain another Par-
liamentary inquiry by a Committee of the House
of Commons, what greater, hope of relief could be
expected than from the previous Committees which
sat in 1848 and 1857 ?

On the Committee of 1857, consisting of twenty-
five members appointed to try, with closed doors,
the cause of the Public v. the Bank Monopoly,
there were—

2 Directors of the Bank of England.
2 Members, selected expressly to watch over the
interests of the Joint Stock and Private
Issue in Bankers.

3 Bankers, besides the Bank Directors.
4 Members, who had already committed them-
selves in support of the Act by having voted
for it in the committee of 1848.

Amongst these was the Hon. E. Cardwell, who
succeeded Sir G. C. Lewis as chairman, whose strong
bias in favour of the Act was palpably manifested
in his treatment of the witnesses: He requested
the Leeds Chamber of Commerce to depute some one
to give evidence before the committee ; and they
accordingly, after passing resolutions calling for
the abolition of the restricting and essential prin
ciple of the Act, and for a discretionary power to
be given to the directors of the Bank to issue one
pound notes, appointed Mr. John Smith, of the
banking firm of Messrs. Beckett and Co., to appear
on their behalf. Mr. Cardwell sought an inter-
view with Mr. Smith previous to his examination ;
what passed at that interview was never made pub-
lic, and Mr. Smith does not feel at liberty to say,—
but this we know from the printed report of the
evidence, that not one question was put by Mr.
Cardwell as chairman, to elicit and record in the
minutes of the committee the resolution of the
Leeds Chamber of Commerce. What hope, then,
is there left for any relief from the Act, save from
the mercantile community compelling its suspen-
sion by their own influence?
Were this accomplished, the directors of the Bank
of England would have the same liberty as before
of issuing any proportion of notes to gold they
thought prudent ; and wore they now to issue 3 to
1 Cie the monetary pressure of 1839 they issued 7
to 1) the Bank reserve, which governs their rate of
discount,would be £16,000,000 instead of £6,000,000
and the rate of diseoue t, according to their rule,
would be 3 per cent. instead of 8 per cent.
And were one pound notes issued to serve as sub-
stitutes for sovereigns, gold would be set at liberty
sufficient to satisfy our own requirements as well as
those of France and other countries.
I remain, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
HAMER STANSFELD.
Highfield, Windermere, March 12, 1861.

ef PLENTY OF GOLD, AND WHERE AND
HOW TO GET IT.

" Sir,—The new Parliament has met—the Select
Committee on Banking has again been appointed ;
and though the Chancellor of the Exchequer very
fairly told the House of Commons that he shall not
oppose the Committee being an open one, should
the House desire it ; yet, with the exception of
Mr. Roebuck, not a member seemed to think it
worth asking for. This indifference on the part of
the elected can only be palliated by the apathy
shown by the electors at the late general election,
who scarcely put a question to any candidate on a
subject affecting more than any other their materia►
welfare. Now the difference between a secret and
an open committee is almost tantamount to the
difference between renewing or repealing the Act
of 1844. Under an open committee the evidence
would be published daily ; the press would be the
advocates of the contending parties ; the public
would be the jury; and truth would obtain the
verdict of public opinion, which in this country is
omnipotent. Upon a secret committee the public
will be kept in the dark until the evidence is com-
plete ; and then, after the Legislature has probably
renewed the baneful charter, it will be laid before
them in volumes too ponderous to be read, and too
late to be of any service ; publicity, and not secresy,
ought to be the ordeal to which our monetary laws
should be subjected.
" The monetary pressure:still continues, and will
continue, and merchants and others can expect no
redress for years from the slow process of legisla-
tion ; they should, therefore, make use of the power
already in their hands.
" Let them demand gold for the notes they hold,
as by law they are entitled to do, and by so doing
they will put an end to the absurd and unjust Act
of 1844—absurd, because producing the very evil
it was intended to avert—unjust, because sacrificing
all other classes to the monied classes.

" Let them demand gold for their notes, and
Government will be obliged to suspend the Act as
in 1847, when the severity of the monetary pressure
will instantly cease, as the panic then did. The
Government may do this with perfect safety, and
without departing in the least from the principle
of convertibility—by empowering the Bank of Eng-
land to issue one pound notes in exchange for sove-
reigns—the Bank reserving one-third of the sove-
reigns to ensure the convertibility of the notes into
gold.
" The continued oppressive stringency of the
money market must be my excuse for repeatingat
this moment the remedy I recommended some time
ago for the unnatural monetary pressure, and which
at the same time would add considerably to the
wealth and revenue of the country, by converting
unproductive into productive capital, and by the
Government reaping the benefit of the charge for
discount.

" I am, sir, your obedient servant,
" HAMER STANSFELD.
" Burley, near Otley, May 25, 1857."

THE WEATHER.

METEOROLOGICAL REPORTS.