The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-22 00:00:00

BANK OF ENGLAND CHARTER.

The time is drawing near when Sir Robert Peel
must break his protracted silence respecting the mea-
sures
to be proposed to Parliament, in connection
With the approaching expiration of the Charter of the
Bank of England.
If the rules which the Prime Minister prescribes
for others could for a moment be supposed applicable
to himself, we might wonder that the declaration of
his intentions on a subject of such magnitude should
be so long deferred. He has recently, in une-
quivocal language, stated to the House of Com-
mons what he thinks of those who delay the dis-
cussion of important measures till the concluding
months of the session of Parliament.. If the repre-
sentatives of Ireland pray for a few days longer to
confer with their countrymen on a proposition which
is to convert their national representation into an
engine thr registering the edicts of the Orange
landed proprietary, he gives a grumbling acqui-
escence, but under protest, and with an express
stipulation that no one shall hold him respon-
sible for whatever may be the consequence
of such blameable procrastination. But it would
seem that in his judgment delay is an evil only when
it is to be employed in deliberation ; when his
purposes have been made known, he deems it im-
possible that the nation should require any length
of time for the consideration of them. But he in-
variably reserves the declaration of those purposes
to the latest possible moment. It is becoming
the practice of the Government to have only one of
its measures before the public at a time, withholding,
if possible, until that one is out of danger, or re-
jected, or withdrawn, all knowledge of those which
are to follow.
The Bank Charter question has not taken the
Government by surprise. Since the last renewal,
in 1833, it has been known to every one that this
year, if not sooner, would be the time to legislate on
the subject. Having ample time to prepare, Minis-
ters accordingly gave early note of preparation.
The settlement of the Currency was among the
promises in the Queen's Speech ; and, certainly,
those promises were neither so many nor so brilliant
as to account for any tardiness in determining
how they were to be fulfilled. If the Ministers had
not made up their mind, during the recess, what
measure they should submit to Parliament on this
i-übject, they must be incapable of making it up, on
reasonable grounds, at all; and if they had, what
prevented them from at once introducing their Bill,
that its principles and provisions might have been
canvassed, by competent persons, during the ten
weeks, and upwards that have since elapsed, and the
minds of Parliament and the public prepared for an
adequate discussion, before the month of June, when,
as Sir Robert Peel tells us, it becomes a question
wkat portion of the Governmant measures the Go-
vernment intends to abandon ? -

Instead of this, Ministers have maintained that perfect
silence which they seem to regard as characteristic
of statesmanship ; and we do not believe that there
is one, even of their Parliamentary supporters, ,
who can surmise, on just ground, what their pro-
position will be. The time, however, is past when ,
Sir Robert Peel's silence was supposed, even by
his own party, to conceal some great mystery of
State craft. He profited by this delusion while he
could ; but, like most of the prestiges on which he
subsisted while out of place, it did not survive a year
after his accession to office. Most persons are now
convinced that when he says nothing, he has nothing
very valuable to say; that, as was formerly observed
of another political character, when he shakes his
head, there is nothing in it.
From the remarkable absence of interest, and
even of curiosity, which prevails in almost all quar-
ters concerning the promised measure—a state of
the public mind so unlike that which has so often
before been experienced on similar subjects—it
may be inferred that, in the opinion of the public,
Ministers are not likely to propose any material
alteration in what exists ; but will renew the Charter
of the Bank of England, on its present footing,
without extension, but also without curtailment, of
any of its exclusive privileges. This conjecture is
doubtless a very probable one. That a Minister will
do nothing at all, when not urged to action by some
powerful pressure, is generally a safe enough guess.
But still this is only a presumption, and sometimes
fails. What a Minister will never voluntarily do, is
to move in any direction that conflicts with the inte-
rests on which he relies for support. But where
none of these interests are implicated, the habitual
disposition of official men to leave things alone
alternates, especially since the Reform Bill, with
a rather strong occasional inclination to signalise
themselves by meddling. One of the principal
effects of that memorable measure, and of the general
break-up of old ideas and associations which accom-
panied it, was to diffuse a notion much more wideiy
than ever before, that the business of a Government
was not to sit still and receive the taxes, but to
look out in all directions for all means which could
be discovered of conferring benefit on the community.
The demand for improvement, and the spirit of it,
have been in far more active operation upon the minds
of rulers in the last eight or ten years than formerly.
But as the circumstances which stimulated the desire
for improved legislation could not all at once confer
the capacity of it upon men who had been occupied
all their lives with any kind of objects and ideas
rather than those which Would have qualified them
for such a function, they are apt to come to their new
task with minds rather ill prepared; and the very
men who, when their purpose is to maintain things
unaltered, hare at their fingers'-ends all the common-
places deprecatory of " speculative changes," are often
found, when they think the time is come for being
reformers, to be ready, dupes of the
~crudest and
most superficial theories.
We confess that in the case which has led us into
this line of remark, our fears are chiefly of this
latter kind. The present system if it can be so called,
of the currency is, doubtless, far from perfect, as is
implied in the fact, that it is a medley of several sys-
sems, foundecron conflicting principles. But we be-
lieve that the amount of practical evil fairly attri-
butable to its defects has been enormously exaggerated
by most writers on the subject; while we con-
fidently affirm, that no theory which has been pro-
pounded for its improvement is sufficiently matured,
or has obtained that general sanction from the
opinion of those who are entitled to be considered
authorities, which would justify Parliament in
making any considerable changes on the faith of such
a theory. Yet we feel by no means certain that some
attempt of this nature will not, on the present occa-
sion, be made. If there is at present no strong direc-
tion of public sentiment in favour of such changes,
neither is there any strong disinclination to them ;
while, such is the diversity of individual opinion on
the subject, and so much that is plausible may be said
in favour of almost every view, that scarcely any plan
could be proposed of which, if brought forward by
Government, it could be affirmed beforehand to be im
possible that a considerable section of the mercantile
' public might be induced to give it their support.—
Chronicle.