The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-16 00:00:00

IHE SUN, LONDON, WE'DNESDAr .EVENIN DEC,EAII3ER 16, 1857.

EXCHEQUER NOTES.

(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)

So then, the inquiries that are to be made are of
that questionable character that they are to be sotto
voce, or, in parliamentary phraseology, a committee
is to be appointed, select, to inquire into the opera-
tions of the Bank Act of 1844, with instructions
from the Chancellor of the Exchequer "to inquire
into the causes of the recent commercial distress,
and to investigate how far it has been affected by
the laws for regulating the issue of bank-notes
payable on demand." Now, if the Chancellor of
the Exchequer had not wished to ignore the cause
of the distress, he would not have shut up the
mouths of the members of the house by his select
committee—a polite mode of excluding the vulgar
ear from all that closely concerns them, because
deeds of wrongs endured must yet be enacted in
perpetuity.

No good is intended, no good can come out of
these closed doors, their frequent adoption is an
insult to the house of representatives, whom we re-
turn, to make laws for all, not for the exclusive
benest of the money jobbers, at the expense of all
besides.

An inquiry ought at once to be entered into,
how far has the Bank of England (as the head and
leader of the banks of England) used or abused the
immunities they have enjoyed in their Bank
Charter? To what extent has their countenance
to hypothecation given rise to the present failures ?
In short, to what extent has the Bank acted
sordidly and selfishly instead of universally and
nationally ?

This can best be arrived at by comparison, and
analogy ; first, by comparison. We will take the
English aristocracy—the original lords and land-
lords of Great Britain ; take the rent rolLs of the
entire original landed proprietory within the last
century, and tee what rate of interest the lands of
England pay Unselfishly have the good old
lordly landlords acted in not raising their rents at
every rise of their tenants' produce, compared with
the eager and grasping covetousness of the bank-
ing
money lender, not allowing a quarter per cent.
to escape him if a pretext (not an essential cause)
can be raked out of the embers of the monetary
consumption ? Let only the honest man answer
this inquiry, will the monied lord bear any compari-
san to t'ae old landlords of England ? The answer,is,
lands pay from 11 to 21 per cent. while money pays
in the hands of bankers—the Bank of England es-
pe3ially-15 to 20 per cent. nett and upwards.
A great fact has again to be acknowledged,' that
the bankers are for the greater part Whigs, while
the old landed aristocracy for the greater part are
Conservatives, and, the truth shall be spoken, they
(the landlords) do conserve their immunity integral
to their credit, and to the satisfaction of the nation,
compared with the money-exacting Shylock that
will have his pound of flesh out of the Antonio of
the struggling commerce of 1857. Yes, " the law
allows it and the court awards it," augmented in-
terest, quarter upon quarter per cent., is added till
half upon half, and one upon one make
up the round sum of 10 per cent. minimum,
and by law is enforcel ; so nicely does the Bank of
England dovetail its interest with the Palmerston-
ian policy. But where is the good Portia of our
day to successfully plead the cause of juatict against
this money oppression in this select committee ?
Why do not the old lords of the land say, " We
must raise our rents in order to prevent any one
coming on to our estate that is a man of straw,"
thereby punishing all their tenantry for one 3 As
well might they raise their 2i per coat. of rent
roll to 10 per cent, to all, making, as the banks of
England do, an addition of 7i per cent. to their
capital, equivalent to an augmentation of capital to
the extent of three thousand pounds for every ono
thousand, turning one into four. As well might
the physician double and quadruple his fees,
the parson his tithes, the manufacturer his
prices, the farm-r his produce ; .but the lab)urer,
who is the primary producer of all, who, instead
of doubling and quadrupling his salary, has abso-
lutely to receive less pay, has to work short time,
and even live without employ, because of the sor-
didness of money makeri, that do rot blush to
make en inordinate profit at the expense of star-
vation for the artisan.

Will, then, this lord of money admit of any
comparison with the lord of land ? Better might
we admit Dean Swif.'s comparison of women and
the duals.

Every day discovers to us soma new feature of
bid practices iqduced by bhukerzi themielves. The
CASO before Mr. Commissioner Giulburn—ln Re
Sy ere, Walker, and. Syers—is an expose of the
facility given to the fast men, without any capital
at all, with one only of visionary figures : the
bankrupts came to the court with ls. 21. in the
pounl, throu ,11. pledging goods and hypothecation ;
they had liabilities to the ext nt of a quarter of a
million sterling. In two years there was a sweep-
ing item of 31,741/. for general expenses—the
full particulars of which will ho found in the Times
of Thursday, tho 10. h. inst. " They had traded to
the extent of 1,000,0001. in two years without any
capital," by pledging goods as soon as they chine,
and getting bills discounted.

Now, then° men received a second-class cniifi-
cat, and no further punishment for their con-
duct. But what shall be said of the Oriental and
other batiks that made the advances to within 15
or 20 per cent. of the value of the good; ma the
system was such that a man could thus go on for
millions 7 This tells the tale that the bankers induce
tbo 'speculation, and even aid and abut the fraud,
knowing they can fall back upon high rates of
disount to ply for any losses that oxasionilly
Occur. This is a strong instance that high into-
,at tin dine time opens up a
Pinishinent upon the inno-
creens‘t, f
and rliioctuss a
field for the speculator and fraudulent trickster,
wh.ch low rates of interest would not encourage.
On., of two alternatives are left for the Govern-
ment to act upon in order to remove the frequent
recurrence of these di=graceful disclosures. The
rates of interest must be kept uniformly low, either
by limiting the maximum to 5 per cent., or by
adopting a new issue, called Exchequer notes, pay-
able in taxation to the extent of 20 millions ; the
latter would, by increasing the circulating medium,
have the effect of rendering money more abundant,
and in due course would reduce the rates of dis-
count to a whjlesome mediocracy.