The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-06 00:00:00

lb-min

LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 6, 1844.

We implore every Member of Parliament who de-
sires to see the commercial and monetary condition
of this country established on a prosperous and per-
manent basis, to be in his place, in the House of
Commons, this evening. Owing to the almost
smuggled notice which was given by Sir GEORGE
CLERK (amidst the confusion of the House
breaking up after the discussion on the Budget of
the 29th ult., and the pro for= reading of the Bank
Acts) of the Premier's intention to submit certain
resolutions tonching the renewal of the Bank Char-
ter, we believe that many gentlemen are not
aware of the important business thus appointed for
to-night. On, the " Vote" paper of the 29th it
stands as No. 88 of that evening's proceedings, the
i
ast within some eight or ten of the whole. On the
Notices" given on the 29th, it is an entry
papernot
ore .prominent or discernible. For these
reasons, and. because of the pertinacious taciturnity
which Sir RoBEETEL PE
of the Governmentobserved
onFriday night, after Mr. THOMAS
BARING hi4l,ointedl
this subject- in an earlier
Yruaddressed Mr. GOULBURN on
stage of the business, we
gentleman
are most anxious that no should be sur-
prised, even on the first enunciation of these inten-
tions, into a tacit though relucant toleration of pro-
positions which he may find grave reasons for ob-
jecting to, but; because of their unexpected d vel
ment, be unprepared to resist. It is true thate if, asop-
the Chancellor of the Exchequer stated, "he believed"
(for (for it would be a pity—a deplorable inconsistency
were any of the subordinates of a PEEL Administra-
tion to be at any time in a condition to speak out
openly and with certainty of the intentions of his
chief) it be not the First Lord's design to call for a
vote, of the House upon the resolutions on the same
- night, it is so far the less probable that any Hon.
Members will be taken by surprise in this matter.
But -we have not much faith in the ingenuousness
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer's " belief," and
none at all in the reluctance of the First Lord to
disembarrass himself of its implied conditions, should
a favourable opportunity present itself for snatching
up a vote of the House on his " Resolutions."

Now, the entry_ on the Vote paper of the 29th,
"134:-Bank of England Charter. Act 3 and 4
William c. 98, for giving to the Corporation of
the GoTinier. and Company of the Bank of England
certain privileges for a limited period, under certain
restrictioaa—read. l Also, :several other Acts relating
to the Cl:Carter of the Bank of England, and advances
by them to the Government--and also to Banks and

Banking partnerships—read. Committe3 on Monday
next."
Those who know how utterly unintelligible and
unlistened to are the proceedings when, after the
"field-day" business—like the " Budget"—the
motion has been agreed to " that the other orders of
the day be now read"—will easily understand that
of all which is recorded in this entry, nobody but
the Speaker, Sir GEORGE CLERIC, and the Clerks at
the Table, heard or knew one word at the time. And
if others had, the amount of their knowledge en the sub-
ject would have been no greater than it actually was
for these pro forma proceedings are like the new
gas cooking stoves. Everything is put down, no-
body sees how.; shut up, nobody understands why;
cooked by fuel, nobody can tell what; and taken
out, dished and served, nobody can tell when. Now
the House of Commons' process is much the same.
Acts of all reigns are said to be read which no man has
heard, of purport and effect which no man could divine;
certain steps taken which no man is cognisant of ;
and the whole affair is finished before any man can
say it is begun. li). eat morning it is dished up in the
Votes after the fanciful fashion just quoted. It is
surprising how much matter is condensed into the
mummery of this pro forma" business. A Member
moves the House into Committee, and then that a
certain order of the day be read. Mr GREENE pro-
pounds the order with a rapidity equal to that of
galvanic communication, and (may we be pardoned)
quite as unintelligible. The Clerk, taking up a
roll of paper, gravely says, " this is an Act," and
throws it under the table. The mover, who has in-
voked the sublime machinery of the Committee, and
its presiding genius, Mr. GREENE (dignus vindice
nodus), being satisfied himselcassumes the House to be
equally satisfied, with this instructive statement. He
proceeds to move certain resolutions, which are
actually read at the table once; the Chairman then
proposes that they be read a second time, and, if there
be no opposition, the House, by a well-bred fiction,
assumes that. they are read again. Then the Chair-
man proposes himself, "that he do now leave the
Chair ;" takes the sense of the Committee by pro-
posing " that they who are of that opinion say aye,
of the contrary opinion, no ;" and, because none
answer either with the one monosyllable or the

other, he concludes, on the extra-Parliamentary
axiom that "silence gives consent," that the ayes
have it ; quits his chair, walks to the door, is called
upon by Mr. Speaker in his most benign manner,
and, with modest brevity, announces that the Com-
mittee on such an order have come to certain reso-
lutions. This "fact" is recorded by the Clerk, and
printed in the votes distributed on the morrow.
Such, then, is the whole amount of what has been
preliminarily done—of what has subsequently been
made known—of the proceedings that are to lead
the business of this evening. This business is yet
more succinctly announced in the notices of motions
—"Monday, 6 May. Sir Robert Peel.—ln Commit-
tee on Bank Charter to move resolutions."

But what is there which regards the well-being of
this great empire, the integrity of its power, the
prosperity of its trade, the maintenance of its politi-
cal grandeur, the subsistence of its millions of in-
dustrial population, the payment of the wages of
their labour on a scale compatible with its value,
and, therefore, adequate to their physical sustenta-
tion, which is not involved, more or less, in the
terms upon which you will renew this charter of the
Bank ? In which of their multiplied relations are
not the security of property, the energy of trade, the

productiveness of capital, theemployment of manufac-
turing and agricultural labour, the further develop-
ment of our vast but latent resources, the present main-
tenance and activity of our shipping—manufactures—
and all our staple trades, mixed up with this ques-
tion of the renewed privileges of the Bank of Eng-
land ? On what other pivot turn the sacredness of
property, the inviolability of legal title and pos-
session to all the realty and personalty of
the kingdom, but the public good faith in
the confidence of which our wealth upholds
and everywhere supplies and animates the arteries of
this mighty monarchy ; and what is the controlling,
absolute, disastrous influence which alone—except
only the decree of Providence—can endanger the ex-
istence, as it already paralyses the operations of that
wealth, if it be not the power exercised under the
charter of the Bank ? Former Governments have
done rashly, no doubt, in putting into the hands of
two dozen of private gentlemen, presiding over the
amurs ui u private Corporation. this tromandnue
authority, morally or politically speaking, of life and
death over the whole national community. These
Governments might plead in their excuse, however,

the pressure of frightful political exigencies, the dis-
organisation of the public revenue, the imminency of
perils from without, only to be grappled
with by the concentration of energies within,
the State. They might allege that money being the
grand lever of all action in modern times, they had
made large present sacrifices, and consented to still
more important concessions for the future, to those
who could soonest supply them with the funds in ex-
cess of those raised by public taxation, necessary for
the current services of the empire, and the wars and
the expenses in which it was involved. In all this
there might be some show of palliation for the un-
statesmanlike improvidence of confiding to private
hands the entire control and management of our mone-
tary system. But even pending the last and most
costly of those wars, the gigantic proportions of our
commerce have vastly expanded themselves. Capital
has multiplied itself under every discouragement of
taxation. The resources of our manufacturing ca-
pacity, the productive powers of our industrial la-
bour, and the still unrivalled perfection of our ma-
chinery have enlarged the amount and variety
of our commodities to an extent which
the most sanguine of speculative minds could
scarcely have anticipated. The estimated rental of
England and Wales, alone, rated this year to the poor-
rate, is 62,000,0001. per annum. The annual taxation
of the United Kingdom is not 12,000,0001. less ; and
there is a surplus of public income of more than
4,000,0001. for the current year. Yet, with these
marvellous elements of public prosperity, how hap-
pens it that the market of labour is so frightfully
overstocked, the poor-houses so fearfully crowded ?
—that of the industrial community, even that portion
which is in work is starving; and that the manufac-
turers are unable to pay them higher wages ?—that
a surplus income of 4,000,0001. is out-balanced by
an aggregate of poor-rate for England and Wales of
upwards of 6,000,0001. ?—that pauperism, and the
crimes generated by abject poverty are on the in-
crease ?—that our manufactures and our machinery
find new competitors starting up in Europe and in
America ?—that declining markets are coupled with
increased production ; and accumulated stocks,
so far from being put into distribution among the
classes whose labour has been most taxed and worse
paid to produce them, re-act on prices, and by lower-
ing them still further, run down diminished wages ?
—that this state of things, attributable neither to the
avarice of masters nor to the indolence of workmen,
co-exists with the monstrous and oppressive scandal
of more than 30,000,0001. of taxes being actually paid
by the producer or half-famished artizan and labourer,
which ought to be, which were intended to be, but
which, under our existing monetary system, cannot
be paid by the consumer ? We answer, that all this
happens because the Bank of England have a charter,
in virtue of which they control the whole currency
of the country, expand or diminish the circulation,
make money scarce or plentiful, derange the plans of
the merchant and trader, disorganise private incomes,
check the salutary enterprise of trade, diffuse doubt
and suspicion among all classes, and in proportion as
they repress and distract all the operations of legiti-
mate business, encourage gambling adventure, enrich
unprincipled and merciless usury, and promote profli-
gate and reckless jobbing.
Yet our quarrel is not with the Bank. They are
but the instruments of a legislative folly. The mon-
ster mischief, under whose commissi on their charter
has worked these evils, is PEEL'S Currency Bill of
1819. Banyuthniet
nfpuerile,measurement—in
yet terrible, anomaly of ima-
giningasurement—in assigning, by
statute, a fixed value to the ounce of standard gold—
the total quantity of gold above ground or below,
hoarded or in circulation, coined or in bullion, being
just as fluctuating as it must be ever uncertain—the
Legislature armed the Bank with two swords. The
convertibility of its notes into gold on demand was
that which any body of men, or individuals,might
use to cut down the Bank into bankruptcy, whenever
more of its notes would be brought to its counters
than there should be bullion in its cellars to pay
them withal. The power to issue more or

less of those notes to any extent it might fancy, The public begin to look forward to some terrible
according to the cheapness or dearness of gold in the convulsion about Church property. The priests and
market, was the sword with which the
.Bank could the military rule at the Palace ; and orders, at the
cut down any body of men, or individuals, whose instigation of the former, had been privately issued to
operations in trade had been based on the fallacy of suspend the sale of Church property. Those who have
supposing that the circulation at one time remained purchased Church lands are, therefore, in the utmost
the same as at another, and that its facilities, or the ex- consternation, for they believe with good reason that
changeable value, of their securities, bills and money, they will not be allowed to hold it undisturbed.
were, therefore, the same at like periods. The sad records j The " Sabre" Government will repudiate the acts of
of the working of PEEL'S Bill, and the co-incident intlu • a Radical Cortes, and rob the purchasers, in the same
ences of the Bank Charter, are to be read in the Ga•• way that FERDINAND robbed those who had lent
zettes of 1825, 1826, 1833, 1834, and 1838. Ancient money to Spain when he was not absolute KING.
bankers, merchant princes, and a host of honourable The Castellano endeavours to dispel the panic by
asserting that "there is no cause for alarm in the idea
merchants and traders of minor celebrity, were lite-
rally swept out of the circle of British commerce by of giving back the unsold property to the clergy, and
the panics of those years. There is, as the City cor-
that there is no intention of interfering with existing
respondents of all our Morning Contemporaries, con-
interests ; that the question is one which ought to be
firm an opinion of our own in stating every pos-
considered calmly, and upon its own merits. It re-
sible indication of the approach of such another minds the public that previous to the pronun-
hideous crisis in 1844, if it be not arrested in time. ciamentos of 1840 the Cortes had passed a law
Let every Member of the House of Commons be which the Crown had sanctioned, by which the
at his post this evening, animated by a determination, property of the secular clergy had been assigned
if possible, to avert that crisis, so far as its approxima- to them as a part of the provision designed for
tion would be the result of continuing to the Bank them by the State, together with 4 per cent. upon
its charter on its present terms. • agricultural produce in place of the tithe—that this
law was indeed upset by the famous mutiny or pro-
Whether this be intended by Government, or not,
or in what modified shape it may be proposed to
nunciamento, as it was called, of 1840, the Cortes
renew it, all Englishmen beyond the doors of the which followed having done everything exactly con-
Cabinet have as yet no means of judging. Again trary to their predecessors ; but that now a reaction
we ask, why all this silence ? Is Sir ROBERT PEEL had taken place in the public mind; that some of the
juntas formed last year against ESPARTERO had sus-
anafraid to give the mercantile and moneyed Members
opportunity of considering his propositions, what- pended the sales of Church property ; and it says the
ever they may be, before their discussion? Is it too question now is, Will it be just, politic,
much to concede to the commerce and capital of the and convenient, to give back to the secular
country such a means of maturely deliberating upon— clergy the property of which it was de-
before their representatives in Parliament commit spoiled, and which is not yet sold ?' " It replies
themselves to a single step in advancieg—the scheme to this query in the affirmative, while, at the same
on which the Ministers may be disposed to grant re- time, it alludes also to the restoration of the whole
nswed privileges? Have the public at large no reason, property, on the present possessors being indemnified.
from the dreadful experience of the past, to anticipate The possessors and the public evidently have not much
similar results for the future, if similar causes are hope of indemnification. We have no accounts from
to remain in operation. If they are not so to remain, the provinces of the effects produced by these two
what has prevented the Right Hon. Baronet from events, but there can be no doubt that they will pro-
announcing that fact long since, and quieting the duce a great convulsion, and that some new scenes of
alarms and, fears entertained by those who deprecate horror will be enacted in that distracted and helpless
his irretrievable, and, we must say, presumptuous I,Eauntry. The French Government have incurred a
tampering with the currency in 1819 ? If they are fearful responsibility by sending CIIRISTINA, NAR-
to remain—what shall we not have to fear from the VAEZ, and other firebrands, to destroy the Constitu,
counsels of a Minister who can have been all this tion, and lay waste the kingdom.
time brooding over a perverse and audacious deter-
mination to re-enact those bad powers which all sen-
sible and experienced observers concur in indignantly
denouncing? If Sir ROBERT be unjustly suspected
as to the character of his intentions, he has only him-
self to thank for the misconception. If those inten-
tions be such as they are thus suspected to be, our
entreaty to Hon. Members is at once fortified and
justified. Leave nothing, we will add, to the Right
Hon. Gentleman's further consideration in this last

event ;—but principiis obsta ! Reject his resolutions.

" There is a strong and growing feeling," says a
Whig Morning Contemporary, " that the working
classes of this country have been too much left to
themselves—that masses of population have been al-
lowed to form in the seats of our manufactures, with-
out adequate provision, or with hardly any provision,
for the education of children, the amusement, or men-
tal improvement of adults, or the healthfulness of the
localities in which their dwellings are crowded to-
gether. There is a strong feeling that, with the
means we have, the working classes are not either
physically or morally so well off as they might
be—and that the fault is chargeable in no
small degree to the neglect of the various Govern-
ments of the last thirty or forty years. No statesman
can or ought to disregard these growing impressions."
There is much calm, sound sense, in these remarks,
though we hardly expected to have met with them in
the leading organ of the W higs and the middle
classes. The working masses of the population have,
indeed,.for years past, been treated with nearly equal
indifference by the two great contending parties of
the State; the Tories—if we may judge from their
legislation—seem to have been almost wholly un-
conscious of their existence ; while the Whigs have
had little hesitation in sacrificing their interests to
those of the class immediately above them. Few and
faint are the voices that have been raised in Parlia-
ment in behalf of the claims of the labouring portion of
the community. Few—miserably few and inefficient
—are the remedies that have been suggested for the
amelioration of their condition. While the middle
elassss huva hstri r"1
a great degree, of controlling the Legislature, con-
ferred on them by the Reform Bill, the lower classes,
by whose agitation principally that important mea-
sure was carried, remain in the same abject, defence-
less, destitute state as ever. True, proposals for giv-
ing them the inestimable benefits of a sound, prac-
tical education, are, from time to time, brought for-
ward in the House of Commons ; but these proposals
never get beyond their first stage of discussion, for
some obstacle or other is sure to arise to
prevent them from being carried into effect. True,
a new system of poor-laws is adopted for the
express purpose of nourishing a manly spirit of
independence in the minds of the labouring classes ;
but 10, when the system begins to work, it is found,
in many of its details, to injure, oppress, and degrade
in their own estimation and in that of others, those
whom it was meant to benefit. True, a proposal is
made for limiting the hours of labour in the manu-
facturing districts, and thereby giving the overtasked
operative a chance of doing some little for himself and
his family in the way of evening instruction ; but no
sooner does the Minister set his face against
the scheme, than those who have brought
it forward, and been most zealous in its
support, take fright, and the whole thing
falls at once to the ground. Under these dis-
heartening circumstances who can wonder at the un-
deniable discontent and bitterness of the labouring
classes of the community ? Who can wonder that
they fall an unresisting prey to the acts of designing
demagogues, and hug to their breasts the flattering
delusion of the Charter? Who can wonder that the
estrangement between them and the classes
immediately above them becomes daily more
marked ; and that they regard their repre-
sentatives—or rather their nominal representatives—in
Parliament less as friends than oppressors, who have
scaly scarcely
soande
mistakes gl e
our
rulers
in l
e rs
a re common
making it h them het
thus
?
u s
wantonly disregarding the claims of the labouring
classes, and trying experiments on their patience and
forbearance by inclosure bills—trespass acts—game-
laws and Heaven knows how many other
vexatious enactments, whose only object is to
benefit the strong at the expense of the
weak—and assist the rich to the manifest de-
triment of the poor. The evil of such partial,
one-sided legislation may not be felt in its full effects
just now, but assuredly a day of reckoning will come
—and this at no distant period—when those who
have the power will bitterly regret that they did not
exercise it in a more equitable, beneficent, and con-
siderate spirit.

The Paris papers of Saturday have been received,
but wa find nothing in them of importance. The
discussion in Committee on the Prisons' Bill con-
tinued, and twelve clauses had been adopted.
The Peers were still occupied with the Education
Bill. In the Chamber of Deputies on Saturday, a
petition was presented from certain operatives of
Paris, for the abolition of negro slavery in the
French colonies; and, after an interesting debate, was
referred to the Minister of Marine. From the re-
marks made by M. Guizur and Admiral MAcicau,
we learn, that the Government intended to abolish
slavery, but not all at once, and that it would be
necessary to prepare the slaves for freedom during
some years before total emancipation.
The funds continued firm. On Saturday the
Three per Cents. closed at 84f. 55c., and the Fives
at 1221.

THE BOURSE—TuEsDAy, MAY 2.

First Highest Lowest Last

Price. Price. ' Price. Price.
French Five percents•.•.•• 121 75 .. 121 75 .. 121 65 .. 121 70
Four per Cents.
Three per Cents B4 20 •• 84 45 .. 84 20 .. 84 45
Bank of France... ..... 3090 ••3090 . 3090 .•3090
Laftitte Bank, I,ooof. Sharesll67 50 • • 1167 50 • • 1167 50 ..1167 50
5,000 f. Sharessls7 50 —5157 50 ..5157 50 ••5157 50
Belgian`Bank 1841. lllO —lll5 ..1110 ..1115
Belgian Fives, 1831.• • ..• .• • 103} • • 103 f • • 103 E • . 103 E
1840 1051 .• 106 .. 1051 .. 106
1842 1081 •• 1081 .. 1081 108 f
Dutch Two-and-a-Half 61f • • 61f .. 61f .. 61f
Spanish Active •••• .• •
Threes .... •• •
Passive ....•. ••.. • • 6 • • 6 .. 51 .. 51,
New Deferred l4l .. 14} .. 14 .. 14

Old Deferred .•• • • • 7- • • 7- • • 7 7
Portuguese Five per Cents • • 45 .. 45 .. 45 ..
Neapolitan . 102 .. 102 .. 101 85 .. 101 84
Roman ........... 1064 .. 1064 .. 1064 .. 1064
RAILWAY SHARES.
380 .. 380 - .. 375 .. 375
L.B. 250 256 25.. 250 .. 256 25
Rouen • • • • • • • • 962 50 . • 96.5 .. 962 50 .. 965
Rouen to Havre............ 725 .. 732 5D .. 725 • • 732 50

Orleans . • •

•• 972 50

Strasburg to Bale. • .
A.vignom to Marseilles• •• •

.. 271 25 .. 275
.• 765 .• 770

RAILWAY SHARES, FOR THE ACCOUNT.

Versailles, L.B• ••• • • • .. .. 245
Rouen • • • • • • • • • •

.. 2GO -.. 245
.. 972 50-.. 965

Rouen to llavre.. 730

Orleans ...... ..... ........ 970

The accounts from Madrid are of an alarming
character. The BRAVO Ministry have all resigned,
and General NARVAEZ is to be at the head of the
new Cabinet. This important news was conveyed to
Paris at a late hour on Saturday night, by the fol-
lowing telegraphic dispatch :

.. 977 50-- 970

" MADRID, MAT 2, 1844.
" THE AMBASSADOR OF FRANCE TO THE MINISTER OF

FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

" The whole of the Ministry have resigned, and
their resignation has been accepted by the QUAEN.
General NAEYAEZ has been intrusted with the forma-
tion of the new one, in which M. MuterLoazs is to
be included.

"Al. BRAVO and his colleagues have stated to her
MAJESTY that they are willing to give their support
to their successors.

" Madrid is tranquil."
The French Ambassador, however, or perhaps the
authorities at Madrid, have suppressed still more im-
portant news. As soon as the fact became generally
known that NAEYAEZ was to form the new Cabinet,
a panic took place on the Madrid Bourse, when the
funds fell in two days nearly 6 percent., and business
was transacted to the enormous amount of 127,600,000
reals. On the 26th ult. the Three per Cents. closed
at 361, and on the 29th they had fallen to 30i, and
so eager were holders of this stock to get rid
of it, that sales continued after the usual period of busi-
ness, and the latest quotation was as low as 29. For
fit
onhis rd teupgnerene,
da
ate I
tn
mdo
ferrtaehpeisd
abr fallsabre"
elevationthereto tho fe
Ns
head
A R v anotheroAfEzt
the
eao reason,Ministry.
er o f

•• 257 50
• 972 50