The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-01 00:00:00

Z 11E SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 1, 18N7,

properly speaking, in currency, so great, that its
speedy abolition would be ensured. It has, toiti/
recently, been the object of the hard calculators
to mystify the nation, to induce the industrial
classes to suppose that a really simple question
was one of a very elaborate character ; and it is
really ridiculous to find how many have been
misled, by the trick. Let those persons only de-
vote calm and attentive consideration to the
question, in which they are more deeply concerned
than any other that could be ventilated—en which
the welfare and prosperity of the country, and
the happiness of all the producers, the working
bees of the national hive, mainly depend.
To the meeting at East Retford, a full report
whereof will be found in another part of this
day's impression, we can refer with feel-
ings of unalloyed pleasure and satisfac-
tion. The speech of the Reverend Jowl
TWELLS disclosed a perfect knowledge of the
subject, and that knowledge turned to the very
best acount. Nor was the Rev. Gentleman for
half measures ; he went t 3 the very root of the
evil, and unanswerably proved that the Act of
1819 was equally impolitic as that of 1844,
although its injurious results were greatly en-
hanced by the complementary measure, which had
not only twice failed in the avowed objects for
which it was enacted, but would have produced
the very effects it was said it would avert. In
every point, in every argument put forward by
Mr. TWELLS, we fully and cordially concur.
Where everything was put forward in terse and
appropriate terms, it is impossible to present a
summary. The process of condensation had been
carried to the highest degree, and if we allude
only to some few points, it is not because the
others aro less worthy of attention, but that
time and space prevent the possibility of looking
to all. Mr. TWELLS' brilliant, and what is still
better Ibis truthful —and, we do riot mean
to intrude on the functions of Punch by perpe-
trating a play on words), his sterling acid Tess,
must be carefully read in =tens°, to be duly ap-
preciated.

But for the extraordinary and unexpected dis-
coveries of gold in California and Australia, and
the increased production from the Ural Moun-
tains, the system would have long since fallen to
the ground. The introduction of 150,000,0001.
of gold bolstered up the plan, but foreigners ob-
tained the benefit of that enormous amount
through the agency of Sir R. PEEL'S Acts. The
palmy days of Queen ELIZABETH, as they were
termed, merely occurred from the addition to the
circulating medium through the discoveries of
COLUMBUS. There were not in those days currency
quacks who professed to be " bard calculators,"
and who considered that they had a right to prey
upon industry, by transferring the property of
less wary men t 3 their own hands, at less than
half the actual value. Plunder it might be
termed in the vicinity of the 011 Bailey.
" Looting " amongst Sepoys, " Swag" in the
ancient rookeries and thieves' kitchens of
the metropolis, but "hard calculation" in
Printing-house-square. We guard against skittle
sharps, and those who take advantage cf
unheeding rustics, but the object is the
same in every instance—to appropriate the pos-
sessions of others. We may say with PEAOHU3I
in "The Beggar's Opera"—
" Since laws were made for every degree,
To curb vice in others as well as in me,
I wonder we've not better company
Upon Tyburn tree."

It is very easy to prophecy after tho event has
happened. Rather an old truth it must be ad-
mitted, but one juit now well worth repeating and
bearing in our remembrance.
Eighty thousand Sepoys revolt suddenly in
1857 in the Bengal Presidency alone ; perhaps
altogether the aggregate number of mutinecra in
that portion of our Eastern Empire may be little,
if anything, short of one hundred thousand fight-
ing men, carefully trained and maturely disci-
plined. The defection startles us like a thunder-
bolt from a blue sky in a serene noon at midsum-

mer. The intelligence of so strange and appalling
a calamity falls upon the national ear as unexpec-
tedly as the sudden explosion of a volcano in the
midst of some calm green English landscape. Yet
—after the first shock of astonishment, everybody
begins to think—" Precisely ! What I have all
along anticipated I saw clearly from the very
first how it must all end ! This is exactly what
I myself long ago predicted ! I knew perfectly
well the inevitable consequence of our misplaced
reliance upon these men ! The faithlessness of the
Sepoy was a thing notorious !"—and so forth.
Now, for all this, there is really only ono word of

appropriate comment ; and that ono word—hum-

bug ! From first to last the self-gratulations ex-
pressed far and wide, as to the all but universal
recognition of the insecurity of our hold upon the
loyal affection of the Sepoy soldier, is literally the
very grossest delusion imaginable I So far from
the Sepoy being in any way all this while under
the ban or the brand of suspicion, he has been,
now during one entire century, vaunted fur his
steady and reliable attachment. We have, one
and all, been, more or less earnestly, bragging of
his devotion to our Government. "One and all"
we repeat—even the most sagacious of ob-
servers. Even men like Sir CHARLES
NAPIER, the glorious conqueror and adminis-
trator of Scinde. It is erroneously imagined
by many who have not themselves carefully scru-
tinised the writings and opinions of that remark-
able man that he explicitly foretold the Infidelity
of our Sepoy troops. A most extraordinary mis-
apprehension, to say the least of it ! When, on
the contrary, so far from expressing any doubt
whatever as to the loyalty of the Sepoys, Sir C.
NAPIER, during the course of his illustrious
career, took frequent occasion to eulogise that
native section of our Anglo-Indian Army in the
strongest language imaginable, From his spoken
and written words alike, might very readily be
culled panegyrics the most emphatic upon the
Sepoy Soldiery—panegyrics having especial refe•
rence to the loyalty of those troops, and to their
attachment to the banners they had so often fol-
lowed to victory. What the sagacity of Sir C.
NAPIER did recognise, what that great man did
distinctly and undeniably prophecy was—not the
innate and constitutional turpitude of the Sepoys,
but—the intrinsic and unconstitutional hollowness
of our whole syslerh of Oriental misgovernment !
Against the folly of that system he raised his
authoritative and thrilling voice—in vain—
leu,.lly, eloquently, cnergstically ! Against the
insanity and atrocity of our entire scheme of mal-
administration in Hiodostan he protested rese-
lately and consistently. Bit—not again t the
Sepoy troops as faithlcsc=, were we warned by
bin') any more than by MiLts, or by OR.IIE, er by
MALCOLM ! No—the writers upon India bave
almost uninterruptedly, from first to last, for a
hundred years consecutively, from 1`75-4- to 18•571
been all of one mind about the Sepoys.
Take, in simple illustration of this, two of the
most p Tubr writers cf the day-11.1ACAULAY and
ALISON ! Two of the mcut widely read and was-
known of our aunalists—the Toiy historian, and
file j historian.

Sir AECIIILLILD ALL ON has Written in so many
words at p. 617 of the 7th volume of Liy

History of Europe, that " nothing could shake the
fidelity of the Indian troops !" He has there
further and yet more emphatically remarked that
—" Volumes might be filled with the anecdotes
which have occurred during the last eighty years,
illustrative of thesteady courage and incorruptible
fidelity of the Sepoy troops." Thereupon he men-
tions one of these memorable anecdotes, dating as

far back as the siege of Arcot, where the provi-
sions at last running very low, the Hindoo soldiers
entreated their commander (ROBERT, afterwards
Lord CLIVE) to allow them to boil their rice, the
only food left for the whole garrison—saying
" Your English soldiers can eat from our hands
though we cannot from theirs ; we will allow them
as their share every grain of the rice, and subsist
ourselves by drinking the water in which it has
been boiled !" Turning the leaf on which we
read this, we find Sir ARCHIBALD upon the very
next page (p. 618, vol. vii), repeating " nothing
could shake their fidelity." • And immediately in
further proof of this, relating another anecdote—
one of later date—one referring to the year 1783,
during the march of 1,500 Sepoys a distance of
500 miles to Madras. Iu spite of every tempta-
tion to defection proffered to them by the wily
agents of TIPPOO SAHIB—ALISON writes, " Not
only did they all remain true to their colours, but
they swam the tanks and rivers by which they
were separated from the officers during the night,
bringing them all they could save from their little
pittance ; ' for we,' they said, ' can live on any-
thing, but you require beef and mutton.' " So
much for Sir ARCHIBALD ALISON. Now for the
great Whig historian—his contemporary.
Lord MACAULAY is not one jot less explicit in
his commendation of the Sepoys as loyal and
faithful soldiers of the Company. In his cele-
brated essay upon CLIVE, he alludes to the fidelity
of the native troops repeatedly. His lordship at
p. 185 of the 3rd vol. of his Essays says, in one
of his terse sentences—a sentence falling like the
blow of a hammer—a sort of sentence, with him
almost always, by the way, " hitting the right
nail upon the head"—" The troops were steady."
Those troops being the Sepoy troops—and
their steadiness, eliciting from the noble critic's
pen not one syllable expressive of astonishment.
He takes the fact as a mere matter of course—and
we hardly wonder to find him doing so, after
reading at an earlier page in the same volume (p.
161, vol. iii.) as follows—" A hostile Monarch
may promise mountains of gold to our Sepoys on
condition that they will desert the standard of the
Company. The Company promises only a mode-
rate pension after a long service. But every
Sepoy knows that the promise of the Company
will be kept : he knows that if he lives a hundred
years his rice and salt are as secure as the salary
of the Governor-General : he knows—" et cetera,
et cetera. Meaning by all this that we may rea-
sonably count upon the fidelity of the Sepoy sol-
dier. And as with MACAULAY, and' as with
ALISON, so also with others. The belief—in spite
of all that is now said to the contrary—was
almost universal: the belief that JOHN SEPOY
was staunch to the back bone ! Occasional ex-
plosions of rage like the bloody outbreak at Vel-
lum in 1806, being looked upon by the majority
as events in their way quite exceptional.
No—lct there be an end, if possible, for once
and for all, of this strange misapprehension. Ls t
us not close our eyes to the truth that this recent
revolt of 80,000, or 100,000 native soldiers in
the Bengai Presidency was altogether as startling
as it was unprecedented. It was not foreseen.
The break down of our system, our odious and
insensate system of Indian Misgovernment was
foreseen without doubt by many of us, clearly
and distinctly—and as clearly and distinctly pre-
dicted ! But not this frightful and wholesale
mutiny of the &Toys who had so long eaten our
salt, and worn our raiment, and fingered our
silver ! From this terrible and unimaginable
atrocity we may now learn the immensity of the
evils against which we have been. all along pro-
testing—the evil we aro now called upon to
remedy—that of our whole scheme of Oriental
Misgovernment.

LATEST NEWS.

AUSTRALIA.

ALEXANDRIA, Nov. 23.

The Australian mails will go forward per
Tamar. The dates per Simi% are Sydney, Oct.
11 ; Melbourne, Oct. 16 ; Gallo, Nov. 6.

An after-mail had reached with Sydney papers
of the 13th.

The European arrived at Melburne on the 14th
Oct. Her detention is attributed to adverse winds
and a failure of machinery,

The reports from the goldfields were good. The
escort returns equal last year's. Price of gold,
3/. 16s. 3d. for Castlemaine to 3/. 19s. 9d. for
Ballarat.

Th© Suffolk sailed for London on the 31 Oct.
with 112,446 ounces. Exchange for draughts, 60
days, 11 premium.

Trado was dull, save for Eastern produce. The
markets continue overstocked, but goods were not
sacrificed, and the speculation was restricted by
the tightening of the money-market and the firm
attitude of the banks.

The Lands Bill had been thrown out in the
Upper House, but the Haines Ministry had deter-
mined not to resign. The bill to abolish State
Aid to Religion was rejected by a majority of one.
The report of the select committee on railways had
been adopted. Two trunk lines were to be con-
structed, and loans on debentures were to be raised.
A license-tax of 103. per month per head had
been imposed on the Chinese, three members of
the Legislature only dissenting.
The gold received by escort at Sydney dur-
ing the quarter ending the 30th of September was
35,803 ounces, against 28,252 ounces last year.
Wool was firm--superior clips, is. 10d. to 2s. ld.
Tallow freely supplied—prices not quite so firm.
The transport Ballarat, which sailed on the
15th of Aug., reached (alle on the the 4th of
November.

MALTA, Nov. 27.

Her Majesty's ship Urgent, with detachments
from Portsmouth and Queenstown for Malta and
Corfu, arrived last night.

The Independance Beige says :—" Oar private
correspondence from Constantinople, of tke 18th,
announces that M. Thouvonel has just officially
demanded, in the name of the French Govern-
ment, the assent of Turkey to the Ishmus of Sui z
scheme. This demand has produced considerable
impression on the Ottoman Ctbinet, which has
immediately met to consider the project. But,
in the face of the open opposition which England
has made to the project of M. de Lesseps, the
Ministers hesitate to pronounce upon it, and they
have not yet come to any resolution."

FRANCE.
PARLS, MONDAY EVENING.
The treasure in the Bank of France continues to
increase.

It exceeds 206,000,000 ; and as the bills payable
to-day are very considerable—it is said above
72,000,000—the result will beto reduce the amount
in the Portefeuille anti that of the circulation, and
to add to the metallic reserve.

A telegraphic deBpatch from Madrid, of the
29th, stat-s that the health of the Queen and the
infant Prince leaves nothing to be desired.
The Moniteur announces the reception by the
Emperor, at a private audience, of Monsignor
Sacconi, Archbishop of Nica3, apostolic nuucio,
who delivered the answer of 1 is HolineSs to the
letters of meal of M. Rayneval.
M. Kern, the Swiss Envoy, and Minister Pleni-
potentiary ; Juan Francisco Martin, Minister of
New Grenada ; and Lafond do Lurcy, Minister of
the Republic of Cost% Rica, were received by the
Emperor in private audiences.

Iu the Paris corn market during the past week,
very little business was •transacted. The fall in
flour, which appeared gaining ground in the early
part of the week, suddenly ceased, and the four
marks are now quoted at 53f. the sack of 157 kilo-
grammes. Wheat was offered and its price tends
downwards, excellent quality being sold at from
27f. to 28f. the hectolitre and a half. Some sam-
ples of Montereau were offered at 28f. the 120 kilo-
gramme. The greatest number of the country
ni,rkets have arrived with a decline, prices how-
ever being exceedingly firm in the ports of the
Me literranean and of the Atlantic, which must be
attributed to the demands made for exportation.
BOTTESE, Nov. 30.—The following were the last
quotations :
Cash. fr. End of Month.
ti per Cents - —i.
:3 per Cents 67 _
Bank Shires 3OOO Credit Foncier 515
Credit Mobilier 765 Roman
Do. Account 760 Austrian
831
Belgiaa 4 -
Fieduontesd (5) B3 some Debt

RAILWAY4-11'011 CASH.
tr. a.
fr C.
Orleans
Northern ............ 9)0 -- Western 4—
New Ditto 732A— Strasburg
Lyons and Mod EB6l— Grand Central
Now Ditto... ....... 8,55 Sardinian . 4274—
Geneva ............... 600 Austrian Cum. ... 6671-
-

PUBLIC MEETING AT EAST RETBORD TO
PETITION. AGAINST THE BANK
CHARTER ACT.

A public meeting of those opposed to the mone-
tary system established by Sir Robert Peel's bills of
1819 and 1844, was held at the Town Hall, East
Retford, on Saturday last, (Nov. 28) at half past
three o'clock. The fact of its being market-day,
though convenient for the farmers, made it nearly
impossible that those engaged in trade could be
present. There was, however, a highly respectable
and intelligent audience including most of the
principal farmers in the district. Among those
present we obzerved—Mr. Councillor Wilkinson,
(in the Chair); the Rev. J. Twells, (Rector of
Gamston) ; Mr. Enoch Uodgkinson, Mr. F. White,
Mr. Robert Baker, (Gainston) ; Mr. a J.
Rogers, (Gamston) ; Dr. Timm, (Scrooby House),
E. Chapman, Esq., Mr. J. Allison, Mr. George
Kelk, Mr. J. White, (Babworth) ; Mr. J. C.
Payne, (Ordsall) ; Mr. John Walker, (Matterseys) ;
Mr. Johnson, (Blaco Hill) ; Jacob Ogle, Esq.,
Mr. J. Wightman, (Elksley) ; Mr. J. Lester,
(Babworth) ; Mr. S. White, (South Leverton) ;
the Rev. C. Lee, (Hexham) ; Rev. A. Brook,
(Vicar of Kist Retford) ; the Rev. C. D. Butter-
field, (Rector of West Retford) ; the Rev. H. C.
Mitchinson, the Rev. W. A. Piumptree, Mr. A.
Liller, Mr. Bryan Clarke, (Tuxford) ; Mr Rose,
Mr. Cooper, and Mr. Knight, (Eaton); Mr.
Pinder, (Bellmont) ; &c., &c.
On tha motion of Dr. TIsUM, seconded by Mr.
G. CHAP3IAN, Mr. Councillor Wilkinson was called
to the chair.

The CHAIRMAN then spoke as follows :—This
meeting had been convened for the purpose of con-
sidering
the propriety of petitioning Parliament in
favour of the revision of the Bank Charter. He
regretted that, owing to professional engagements,
the mayor was unable to preside at that meeting.
Many people were unwilling to engage in any move-
ment respecting the monetary laws, on the plea
that they did nob understand them. It must be
-admitted that the question was of a difficult and
complicated nature, and multifarious in its relations
and influences ; but he din not consider that because
a question was difficult fully to understand in all
its details, that therefore it should be neglected.
(Hear.) Who, for instance, understood thoroughly
the physiology and pathology of the human sys-
tem ? if we had any disease or pain, our ignorance
of the functions of the human body did not prevent
us from applying to the doctor. (Hear, hear.) This
is the case with the Bank Charter Act. It has
twice been proved to be in a diseased condition,
the main principle of the act having been suspended
in 1847, and again in 1857. It was quite evident
that an act twice broken cannot be maintained—
(bear, hear)—and he should therefore say th It the
Charter should be so altered or revised as to be
tantamount to a repeal. Now that we have got
free trade in corn, the restrictions and monopolies
of the Bank Charter Act ought not to be retained.
We ought to have free trade in money as well as
in corn and other commodities. (Cheers.) He
thought that it was high time the bullionist power
should be placed within proper restraints, and no
longer be permitted to disorganise the finances of
the country and spread ruin over the land.
(Cheers.) The chairman then called upon the Rev.
John Twells to move the first resolution.
The Rev. JOHN TWELLS, on rising, said—lt is
now seven years since I had the pleasure of addres-
sing you in this hall on the subject of the currency.
I cannot, therefore, be justly accused of obtruding
myself unnecessarily on your attention ; indeed, I
may rather claim the compliment paid by the French
gentleman to the English traveller,—"This gen-
tleman apparently has a great talent for silence."
Since that time events of great importance have
taken place, which have excited the interest and
called out the energies of the English people to an
unwonted extent; and with regard to the monetary
question an event has occurred, more remarkable,
perhaps, than any which has happened for rainy
centuries. I mean the unexpected and extraordi-
nary discoveries of gold in California and Australia.
The gold yield of the Ural Mountains in Russia,
which had in a short period increased from 2,000,000/.
to 4,000,0001., had excited much speculation as to
the effect to be produced by this increase of gold.
In 1848 it was announced that gold had been found
in California, and in 1850 the amount produced
was 5,000,0001. ;in 1851, 8,000,0001. Gold was
discovered in Australia also in 1851, and in 1852
no less than 9,735,9031. was exported. In 1853,
10,445,7001.; and the pro luction has continued to
an undiminished extent up to the present time.
It may be concluded, therefore, that the enormous
amount of something like 150,000,0001. of gold has
been thrown into the markets of the world by the
discoveries in California and Australia. One of the
first effects which we can ascertain. (and I must
mention that we are greatly assisted in these in-
quiries by the information compiled from official
sources by the Economist), is the displacement
of a large portion of the silver coinage of
France by gold. In the four years before 1850
the silver coined at the mint in Paris was at
the rate of 3,873,000/. sterling annually, while
during the same time the amount of gold coined
was only at the rate of 767,0001. annually, that is
the proportion of gold coined to that of silver was
about one-fifth ; but the change after 1850 was most
remarkable. In the six years which follow, the
silver coined was only at the rate of 1,566,0001.
annually. During the same period the amount of
gold coined increased to the unprecedented sum of
10,820,000/. annually. In 1854 and 1855 the
change was still more extraordinary, the gold coined
in Paris being of the value of 36,500,0001., while
that of silver was only 985,0001., that is rather more
than thirty-six of gold to one of silver. The total
amount of gold coined in France during the six
years from 1850 to 1855 was 64,940,000/. sterling.
During the period from 1851 to 1855, it may be ob-
served that gold was coined at the London Mint tt
the amount of 38,254,000/. No*, under the cir-,
cumstances of this extraordinaryproduction of gold,
an appeal, to Parliament to alter or even to consider
the reformation of the monetary syetem appeared
hopeless—we were told on every side that the gold
discoveries would solre the difficulties of the cur-
rency question, and insure the prosp,rity of the
nation. The average rate of interest for money was
to be, according to the Times, 3i per cent. The
only difficulty was what to do with this enormous
influx of gold Was the Bank to be relieved from
buying it ? Should Si, notes he withdrawn from
circulation ? Should the quantity of gold in the
sovereign be doubled ? How were we to dispose of
our great, our increasing, our superabundant me-
tallic wealth ? In April, 1852, the Times, after
mentioning that the rate of discount for the best
paper had for a considerable time ranged between
and 1/ per cent., said—" The absence cf a coura-
geous spirit of enterprise (this is what they now
call over-trading and reckless speculation'),
is the penalty that has weighod down the
country ever since 1847, and the old fading
of healthiness (which the Times now calls the spirit
of the "dashing speculator") will not be restored
except by the difficulty of obtaining any return for
capital in the routine channels (which it now calls
"the slow profits of honest industry"), coupled
with apprehensions of a possible further lowering
in the interest of the public debt." The amount of
gold in the Bank of England was then about
20,000,0001., the currency consequently expended
the rate of interest, as was observed, under 21. per
cent., and this short-sighted writer has added his
mite of encouragement to stimulate the over-specu-
lation, which the necessary consequence of such a
etato of things. (Cheers) In July, 1852, the
amount of gold in the Bank rose t:3 not less than
22,042,683/. The stock of bullion being in excess
of the amount of Bank notes in the hands of the
public by 700,1281. In Nov. 17i tons of gold ar-
rived in London within a week. In July, 1853,
the First Minister of the Crown, Lord Aberdeen,
in his speech in the City, referred to " the bright
prospects which he saw at that time throughout
the whole of tie country," and spoke of its pros-
perity, happiness, and degree of progress as alto-
gether unparalleled. He (Lord Aberdeen) attri-
buted it to the enlightened system of financial and
commercial policy of the late Sir Robert Peel. Lord
John Russell spoke of free-trade "as having con-
duced most materially to wealth, prosperity, and
comfort of the great body of the people. These.
etateinents were loudly cheered by the good citizens
of the City of London. In the meanwhile, as my
agricultural friends around me will remembter, and
lam most happy to think that they have to re-
member, the prices of agricultural produce bad
reutly improved. Wheat, iu Oct., 1803, sold at
Uxbridge at 100 s. per quarter, this was, of course,
of the first quality; in 1854 and 1855 it com-
manded from 80s. to 90s. per quarter.
I find that I sold, wheat myself in 1855
at 925. per quarter. Now, during this period
of prosperity I con_idered it my duty to
give the whole sal jeet a careful reconsideratioi.
Some of my friends legs insane on the currency
question than myself began to believe that although
system was a lad one the wonderful effects
of the gold discoveries would interpose 'ln effectual
remedy.. It is
.easy to be wise after the event.
I, therefore, am glad that I wrote down during
this period of prosperity the deliberate convictions
'of my own mind, because I fled that I then ex-
pressed in the most decided possible language a
conch: ion at which I had arrived that even the
gold discoveries could not remedy the evils of our
urvound, uuphilosophical, and most injurious mo-
netary system. (Cheers.) I find that I then said
that " not even gold could prove a substitute for a
good monetary system." " That if our gold impor
tations fad, our vaunted prosperity would vailish
like a d.teani ;" and " that gold w.not the Her-

cules to extricate us from our difficulties." I
mention these, and I might refer to scores
of similar observations, not in a spirit of
self-laudation, to show that the-principles which I,
in common with all sound currency reformers, held
of the unstable character of Peel's fair-weather-
money system, were firmly retained at the time
when that system was supposed to be most pre-
eminently successful. (Hear, hear.) A change
was then approaching ; as early as 1853, the drain
of silver began to manifest itself. It is not nee -s-
-sary for my argument that I should be able fully
to account for that drain. One reason undoubtedly
is, that the great discoveries of gold had un-
settled the relation which, on the continent of
Europe, previously existed between the value
of gold and of silver. In France the ancient
relative value of gold to silver—namely, that of
one to fifteen and a fraction is retained, although
in our own country and in America the relative
value of the metals in the coins has been altered.
Silver became, therefore, aprofitable article of com-
merce in relation to gold. It paid the merchant to
purchase silver five franc pieces in France with gold,
and to export the silver. He knew by the figures,
to which I have previously referred, that this pro-
cess had been going on in France, and that a large
portion of the 100,000,000 of silver coin, which was
estimated to' constitute the silver coinage of that
country, has been displaced by gold coin. Large
importations of silver have been for several years
past taking place to India and China. Now, to
supply the place of the silver coinage which has
been withdrawn from circulation, and to satisfy the
large demands for silver in the East, it has become
necessary to withdraw gold from this country. We
find, therefore, that the continued arrivals of gold
from Australia have for the two or three past years
been barely sufficient to enable the Bank to retain
an amount of bullion adequate to justify in supply-
ing the country with the necessary amount of paper
circulation. At the commencement of this year it
therefore became necessary to attempt to check the
drain of bullion by a rise in the rate of discount.
On the 3d of April the rate was iaised to 61 per
cent. ; on the 18th of June it was reduced to 6 ;
and on the 15th of July to 54 per cent. On the Bth
Oct. it was again raised to 6 per cent. ; and on the
12th Oct. to 7 per cent. ; and the effects of the
American panic—a panic principally caused by the
defective monetary system of that country, where,
as in England, the mistaken policy of the
bullionists prevails—caused the rate to be raised,
on the 19th October, to 8 per cent. ; on the 5.11 of
November to 9 per cent. ; and 'on the 9th to 10 per
cent., at which the highest legal rate probably ever
ex toted by the creditor class frOm their debtors in
this country it now remains. (Hear.) On Thurs-
day, November 13, the Bank Charter Act was sus-
pended, by a letter addressed by the Prime Minis-
ter and the Chancellor of the Exchequer to the
Bank. We meet together to-day, therefore, under
this peculiar state of things, that the Bank Charter
Act is suspended, and the convertibility of the note
for the time abrogated. Parliament has been un-
expectedly called together at a very short notice to
deliberate on the steps necessary to be taken in
consequence of this infringement of the law of the
'land. Now it was said in 1844, by Mr. Jones
Lloyd (now Lord Overstone), who is, as you know,
one of the principal promoters and supporters of
Peel's monetary system, that the Bank Charter
Act of 1844 "has been justly described by its
author as the compliment of the Bill of 181.9, as the
further step which was necessary to render that
measure complete, and to give to the public every
possible security for the effectual maintenance of
specie payments. This is the true object of the
' measure ;- and by its efficacy or otherwise in this
respect, the success or failure of the measure ought
to be tested."
How then stands the question with regard to the
Bank Charter Act ? It was suspended by a letter
from Vie Ministers n 1847. On an inquiry into the
circumstances of that suspension it was decidedly
condemned by a Committee of the House of Lords,
and it only escaped a similar fate in the House of
Commons' Committee bpi the accidental, though
unavoidable absence of two members of that Com-
mittee. Of the 17 witnesses examined before the
Committee of the House of Commons, in 1848, 13
condemned the Act, and four witnesses supported
it. Among its four supporters were three direct'. re
of the Bank and Mr. Samuel Jonea Lloyd. Among
those who condemned it were the late Mr. Samuel
Gurney, the first money-dealer .in Europe ; Mr.
George Carr Glyn, the eminent London banker ;
Mr. Bates, the head of the house of Baring,
Brothers, and Co. ; and Mr. Birkbeck, the re-
cognised representative of the country bankers of
England. At this time Lord Ashburton (formerly
Mr. Alexander Baring), a far higher financial
authority than Lord Overstone can presume to be
considered, pronounced, as his judgment,. that the
Bank Charter Act " was a great experiment which
had signally failed." (Hear, hear.) But it is con-
demned by more important evidence than any yet
cited. It is condemned by the fact, it is condeamed
in the very test which Lord Overstone propounded,
namely, its efficacy in giving to the public "every
possible security for the effectual maintenance of
cash payments." What was the state of the Bank
of England on the 23d of October, 1847, as to the
effectual maintenance of cash payments I It was
this :

LIABILITIES._

Notes issued.
Deduct held by the Bank itself ...