The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-26 00:00:00

TILE BANK. OF ENGLAND

CHARTER.

Nearly all the delicacy and the difficulty of his scheme may
be said to lie in the mariner in which his proposed National
Bank is to be constructed, so as to be freed from the control
of any future corrupt Ministry, who may pervert it to im-
proper uses, and yet quietly proceed with its functions in the
support of the banking and trading in periods of danger.
There seems no impossibility, however, in giving to the new
institution that independent character which can alone sus-
tain its utility, and the general features of the plan, as has
been already stated, obtain much approbation among those
who ought to be looked to by the Ministry for advice and
assistance at this important juncture.—Times.

The following letter has been addressed to the editor of the
Times

"Sir,-1 am informed it has been stated by the editors of
the Morning Chronicle and the Standard that they are dis•
posed to think it probable my Considerations connected
with the renewal of the Bank Charter,' which yesterday ap-
peared in the columns of the Timeg, bad been written after
communication with my son, the President of the Board of
Trade. In consequence, I think it my duty thus to declare
that I had/no communication on the subject of them with
My son or with any . other member of the Government,
directly or directly, or indeed with any other person previous
to doing so; they are the fruits of the experience of along
commercial life, and under impressions of the importance of
their object, I ventured to submit them to the public under
my sole responsibility, however undeserving of confidence
they probably may appear to many. I ought also to add,
that I am wholly unacquainted with the views and intentions
of the Government in connexion with this subject.
"I have the honour_to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,
" JOHN GLADSTONE.

"Carlton-gardens, March 23."

THE FACTORIES BILL.

The five gentlemen whose strange votes, against both pro-
positions, reduced Friday night's whole proceedings to a
nullity, were :
W. Aldam (Leeds) William Ewart (Dumfries)
Captain Archdall (County I John Martin (Tewkesbury)
Fermanagh) George Palmer (Essex)
The following Conservative Members, who had been absent
from the Factory divisions on Monday night, voted with the
Government, and against Lord Ashley, on Friday :
Allix, Peter Jolliffe' Sir W. G. Hylton
Arbuthnot, Hon. Hugh Lascelles, Hon. W. S.
Bailey, Joseph (Worcester) Maunsell, Thoinas Philip
Bell, Matthew Powell, Col. (Cardiganshire)
Buller, Sir J. Y. (Devonshire) Rous, Hon. Captain
Cartwright, William Ralph Russell, Charles (Reading)
Charteris, Hon. Francis Seymour, Sir H. Beauchamp
Follett, Sir William" Sheppard, Thomas
Hale, Robert Blagden Stuart, Henry (Bedford)
Heathcote, Sir W. (Hants) Waddington, Harry S.
Irving, John Yorke, Hon. E. (Cambridge)
The following Whig and Radical Members, absent from
the divisions on Monday night, voted with the Government,
and against Lord Ashley, on Friday :
Currie, Rai kea Ord, William
Hayter, William C. Ward, Henry George
Marjoribanks, Stewart Wrightson, William Battie
Morrison, James (Inverness) (Northallerton)
Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Morgan O'Connell, absent on Mon-
day night, voted with Lord Ashley on Friday.
Captain Gladstone, M.P. for Ipswich, and Mr. Sturt,
M.P. for Dorset, who had voted with- Lord Ashley on Mon-
day night, absented theinselvesfroin the division on Friday.
Lord J. Russell paired with Sir J. C. Hobliouse for Lord
Ashley's amendments ; as did Mr. John S. Wortley with Mr.
C. Wood. Mr. Wortley was absent solely through illness.
Mr. Aaron Chapman, who had voted with Lord Ashley on
Monday, was kept away en Friday by domestic affliction ;
and Lord Alfred Paget, who had also voted with Lord Ashley
in the previous debates, was absent on Friday in consequence
of the death of Lady Uxbridge.
Dr. Bowring, the Radical Member for Bolton, who voted
with the Government on Monday, was absent from the divi-
sion on Friday, in consequence of the great dissatisfaction his
votes of Monday had occasioned in that borough.
We hear that Mr. William H. Stanton, the Whig Member
for Stroud, who- had not voted on the former night, went
down into the country on purpose to consult his constituents,
and came back again, saying that they had no objection to
the ten hours' amendment. He consequently voted with
Lord Ashley.— Tory paper.

FURTHER PARTICULARS OF THE
• DREADFUL EXPLOSION ON THE POTOMAC.
(From the Public Ledger.)
Captain Stockton's great gun was again loaded with shot,
' and another trial made of its strength and efficiency. The
gun was pointed to leeward, anl behind it stood Captain
Stockton, a little to the left of him Mr. J. Washington
Tyson, assistant postmaster-general of your city. By the
side of the latter, a little behind him, stood Mr. Strickland,
also of your city; and a little to the right of, but behind
him. Colonel Benton. of Missouri, who had a lady on his arm,
and Judge Phelps, senator from Vermont. To the leeward of
the gun stood Judge Upshur, late Secretary of State; Go-
vernor Gilmer, late Secretary of the Navy, who had but a
few days ago entered on the duties of his office; and a little
behind them our late Chargé de Affaires to Belgium, Mr.
Maxey, of Maryland. By the side of him stood Mr. Gar-
diner (I believe this is the way he spells his name), of New
York, and Commodore Kennon, of the Navy, wh3 at the
same time was chief of one of the bureaus of the Navy de-
partment.
When the gun was fired, the whole ship shook, a dense
cloud of smoke enveloped the whole group on the forecastle,
but when this blew away, an awful scene presented itself to
the view of the spectator.
The lower part of the gun from the trunnions to the breech
was blown off, and one half section of it lay on Mr. Upshur's
breast. It took two sailors to remove it. He was badly cut
over the eye, and in his legs ; his clothes were literally torn
from his body; he expired in about three minutes. Gover-
nor Gilmer, of Virginia, was found equally badly injured. He
had evidently been struck by the section of the gun before it
had reached Mr. Upshur. Mr. Sykes, the Member from New
Jersey, endeavoured to raise him from the ground, but was
unable, A mattress was procured and he was placed on it ;
before any medical assistance could be procured, he was no
longer among the living.
Mr. Maxey had his arms and one of his legs cut off, the
pieces of flesh hanging to the mutilated limbs, cold and blood-
less, in a manner truly frightful. He died instantly.
Mr. Gardiner, of New York, and Commodore Kennon,
lingered about half an hour; but they did not seem for a
single moment to be conscious of their fate, and expired
almost without a groan. The flags of the Union were placed
over their dead bodies as their winding-sheets.
Behind the gun, the scene, though at first equally distres-
sing, was less alarming. Captain Stockton, who was 'mocked
down, almost instantly rose to his feet, and jumped on time
wooden carriage to' survey the whole effect of the calamity.
All the hair of his head and face was burnt off, and lie stood
calm and undismayed, but silent, over the wreck. In addi-
tion to the deaths already mentioned, about a dozen sailors
were badly wounded ; one was dead, and behind him,
Colonel Benton, Judge Phelps, and Mr. Strickland, as if dead,
extended on the deck. On that side, by a singular concate-
nation of circumstances, Mr. Tyson, of Philadelphia, was the
only person who stood his ground, though a piece of the gun,
we►ghing about two pounds, had passed through his hat,
about two inches from his skull, and fallen down by the side
of him.

The lady who had Colonel Benton's arm was actually
blown into the rigging, but not hurt. Colonel Benton ex-
claimed, immediately after he fell, " Lord, I am hurt I" but
he was only stunned. He was carried aft and placed on
a mattress, where Mrs. Benton and his friends administered
to him what aid they could, which, however, he repeatedly
declined, saying there was nothing the matter with him.
He tasted a little brandy and water (no Cologne being at
hand), and was soon after able to walk, with some slight
assistance, over the- railing of the ship on board the steam-
boat that took the company otf.to Washington.
Judge Phelps, of Vermont, had his hat blown or knocked
off, and the buttons of his coat torn ; but he was not other-
wise injured. _ _

Mr. Strickland, of Philadelphia, was not at all injurel, and
instantly recovered his position.
Miss Woodbury and Miss Cooper, who, in company of
Captain Reed, of the army, and Mr. Welles, of Philadelphia,
had been standing on a leeward gun, were not hurt; but
Miss Woodbury (the beautiful and accomplished daughter of
the senator from New Hampshire) had her whole face
sprinkled with blood, which, however, I am glad to say, was
not her own.

Such was the force of the explosion, that the starboard and
larboard bulwarks were literally shattered, and that part of
the gun I described was blown into twenty or thirty pieces
besides the two principal sections.
Judge Wilkins was only saved by a witticism of his. He
had taken his stand by the side of Governor Gilmer, but some
remarks falling from the lips of the latter, and in perceiving
that the gun was about to be fired, exclaimed, " Though
Secretary of War I don't like this firing, and believe that I

Mr. J. Gladstone's letter, which appeared in the Times of
Friday, has been the subject of very general comment
among the City capitalists, and appears, on the whole, to be
that plan, compared with many others lately current for a
reform in the currency, which will obtain the majority of
suffrages in its favour. That the exclusive privileges of the
Bank of England are about to cease, and her whole consti-
tution to undergo important modifications, is a conclusion to
which most people have come who have bestowed any con-
sideration on the subject, and for these reasons—that the
evil is manifest ; the period for a legal remedy at hand to be
applied now, or to stand over of necessity for ten years longer ;
and, lastly, that a state of the money market exists which
can oppose no obstacles to the Minister's plans, so far 4 they
may depend upon a new creation, or a new disposition of
capital.

Capitalists are only waiting, therefore, as they have been
for a considerable. time past, for some indication of the course
intended to be pursued by the Ministry, respecting which
nothing has yet been suffered to transpire. This feeling will
very naturally account for the notice which has been
bestowed upon Mr. Gladstone's letter; for though no sort
of official character can be ascribed to it, it is de-
finite and clear in its view of the subject, novel and plau-
sible. The circumstance which especially recommends it to
their approval is the very slight alteration which it proposes
in the existing system ; for all men of property dread and
abhor great and sudden changes, and in this there is nothing
absolutely new, except that another bank, and that a Go-
vernment one, is created; and the Bank of England is called
upon to part with those of her exclusive privileges which
have for so 14ng a periocl been an annoyance to the public
and dangerous to herself. There are circumstances in this
plan which would leave the Bank of England in a better po-
sition than before, as the amount represented by her stock
of bullion might then be at once rendered productive, instead
of lying wholly useless, as it is at present. The Government
business or agency would naturally find its way to her, in the
character of the Bank possessing the largest capital of any
in the metropolis; and by being left free to assist commerce
at the periods when it was most required, instead of desert-
ing the merchants at the moment of danger, which she was
compelled heretofore to do by a regard for her own safety,
she would become a point d'appui, instead of a rock a-head,
to the trading community.
The only thing noticed as a defect in that part of Mr.
Gladstone's plan which refers to the Bank of England is his
reserving the character of.a legal- tender to the notes
issued by her in the same manner as those notes to be
issued by the. proposed " National Bank." These
last should alone, as is considered in many quarters where
the subject has been discussed, possess that character, though
there is this to be remarked in its favour—that any sudden
alteration in the character of that which forms so large a
proportion of the existing circulation might lead to much
public inconvenience. This may, therefore, as a matter of
prudence and caution, which this subject above all others
requires, in whatever manner it is approached, justify for a
time the reservation of this privilege ; but a limit might be
fixed for its dufation, to a time when the notes of the "Na-
tional Bank" had found their way into general circulation,
and when these latter alone should possess the distinction of
being a legal tender in all payments.
Mr. Gladstone's suggestions for placing a more effective
che,k upon the issues of notes by joint-stock com-
panies and private partnerships in banking are well gnough
adapted for the purpose. They are not, however, new, and
might be found in practice to be attended with so much
inconvenience, not to mention the facility with which eva-
sions could be practised, that they would probably become a
dead letter, and that in a very short time.