The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-16 00:00:00

BANKING MADE EASY.

We would specially direct the attention of- our
readers to the letter of "One of the Million',"
which appears in our impression of this day, and
which refers to a most dangerous and objectionable
clause of Mr. Lowe's Banking Bill. It is impossi-
ble to believe that such a clause as the following,
so utterly oppo=ed to every principle of sound
legislation as regarls the important subject of
joint-stock bank 4, can be suffered to remain part
of the bill, and we are equally at a loss to under-
stand on what grounds it has been introduced. The
14th section of the bill runs thus :-" Seven or
more persons associated for the purpose of banking
may, by complying. with the requisitions of the
Joint-stock Companies Acts, 1856, 1857, in respect
of registration, register themselves as a company
other than a limited company ; subject to this con-
dition, that the shares into which the capital of the
company is divided shall not be of less amount
than one hundred pounds each." If this should
become law the millennium of the. Montague Tiggs
is at hand. Free trade in money is a phrase which
admits of wonderful latitude, but this new banking
bill goes a step further, and introduces us to.mone-
tary privateeriug under letters of marque from the
Board of Trade. —Daily News.

Tho following is the letter above alluded to

Sir,---By the existing law (8 Viet., cap. 113) no
new bank can be established with a less capital than
100.0001., and one half of this must actually be paid
up before the new bank can commence operations ;
but by the new banking bill of Mr. Lowe, which
iris been read a second time in the Commons, this
wise and salutary check imposed by Sir Robert
Peel on the formation of bubble banks will be re-
moved ; and should the bill now before the house
become law, it will be competent to any seven
persons to sub=cribe a Memorandum of Associa-

lion, which will constitute them a bank, if they
merely subscribe for one share of 1001. each.
Thus a bank may be established with a capital of
7001. sterling, and it is not compulsory that even
this amount should be paid up. It cannot sure'y
be the intention of Mr. Lowe Ito make this the law
of the land. If it is, we shall have little banks
breaking out all over the country, like a disease.
It must he a very sm‘llcountry town in which you
will not find seven schemers, having nothing to loss
but everything to gain by forming themselves into
" a batik." They will bid high fk.r deposits and
th-y will get them too. Te what vile u.=es the de-
poits will come at last, we shall probably learn a
few years hence, when the 'general blow-up comes.
It is in va'n to ur:::e that the public will have the
means of ascertaining the stabi'ity of Well con-
cerns.

Gibes Scroggins knows as much of the Joint
Stock Companies Amendment Act, 1857, as he
does of the Integral Calculus. Ho sees " The
Farmers' County Joit.t Stock Bank" over the door
—a mahogany cpunter, brass rods, and mighty
ledgers within—concludes that all is right, and
walks into the trap.
Once there, the high rate of interest offered for
his deposit se ties the business. It does not occur
to hitn that it may he the interest of the concern
not to pay principal, nor its principle to pay inte-
rest. He merely shares in the ignorance and cre-
dulity in regard to banking matters which is the
scandal of our time, and becomes its victim. Let
us earnestly hope, therefore, that Mr. Lowe will
reconsider the matter, and that in repealing the
existing act he will retain such restrictions in re-
ference to the commencing capital of new banks as
will save the country from the infliction of ionu-
merab!e cheap editions of " The Royal British."--
I am, &c., ONE OF THE MILLION.
London, July 15.