The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-10 00:00:00

POLICE

hat the contractors, Messrs. Bennett and Bird, received
tabout 21,0001. of the public money yearly, or about 75
per cent. of the whole expenditure of the Commission,
and were en some occasions (as we understood) paid
before their accounts were laid before the Board.
Mr. lIERTSLETT, the clerk, on being questioned, said
that the contractors had applied for the money before
the accounts came before the Board, but it bad not been
paid to them.
Mr. LESLIE proceeded to argue that it would save
labour, and prevent errar, to have the accounts made up
daily, and that there was no possible objection to the plan.
Mr. LAURIE strenuously supported the proposition,
which, after a long and uninteresting conversation, was
negatived, by a majority of 17 to 10, and Mr. Donald-
son's amendment was agreed to.
The fourth, fifth, and sixth resolutions, which were
intended to carry the third into effect, were also lost.
But the seventh, which only affirmed the advantage of
the plan proposed in the third, was, strangely enough,
carried by a majority of 8 to 7, upon which Mr. Leslie
remarked, " They wanted the fuglernan this time I"
The eighth resolution, which proposed an improve-
ment in the mode of recording petitions was agreed to,
with a slight amendment.
The ninth, which was to the effect that the surveyor's
reports should be laid before the Board, written in a
book, to be kept in the office, was lost by a majority of
fourteen to ten ; and an amendment, proposed by Mr.
Donaldson, that the rcports should be bound up
afterwards, was adopted.
Mr. LESLIE said that the next four resolutions related
to one subject of great importance, and he would, with
the leave of the Board, submit them together. The
first stated that the present arrangement for making a
sewers' rate entailed an enormous amount of labour,
which could be most safely and materially diminished ;
and he went into a series of minute details in support
of this statement. The others were to the effect—
" That it would be of great public advantage and it is de-
sirable, that maps be prepared and engraved of such district,
showing the mode by which every tenement is drained ; and
that such district maps be on such a scale as ultimately, and
with all convenient speed, to show every street and tenement
in the district, and its private drainage into the public sewers.
And that every addition,-alteration, or diversion of the sewage
be added thereto. That as occasion may require for the purpose
of a rate, the portion of each parish in the district be separated
from the map, and with an order in writing be sent to the
various vestry clerks, requesting them to supply the names,
residences, and rentals of all persons rated to the poor within
the limits of such map. That the vestry clerks' returns to the
precedir. g order of Court, under the authority of the 52d
George 111., cap. 48, sec. 7, being a true copy 01 the rate-book
of the persons assessed to the poor-rate, with the designation
and rental cf the property they occupy, together with the map
of the drainage of the district, are the best documentary evi-
dence the Court of Sewers can supply to the jury touching
two important questions left for their decision and presentment,
viz.:—The property that receives benefit or avoids damage by
the sewage of the district, and the persons who aro legally and
judicially recognised as the occupiers of that property."
He was convinced that
.if they went on in the present
very imperfect manner, allowing their officers to tamper
with the list furnished by the vestry-clerks, and dis-
pensing with such accurate information as the maps pro-
posed would afford, they would inevitably find themselves
in difficulties. Lists made out from the parish rate-books
by their own clerks, were not legal evidence under the
Act, which required that the lists should be made by the
vestry. clerks. He had always opposed the issuing of
warrants against the hospitals, the churches, and the
prison, and although the majority of the Board had been
against him, the result proved that he was right. In
the trial in he Queen's Bench against the Governor of
Bridewell they were defeated, and had to pay the costs
of the other party as well as their own. The plan which
he now submitted would prevent the recurrence of such
mistakes, and render them much more secure in their
proceedings.
After another very long and desultory discussion, in
which Mr. Laurie and another gentleman supported Mr.
Leslie's proposition, whilst Mr. Donaldson and others pro-
nounced it expensive and useless, the resolutions were
negatived
Mr. LESLIE said that although he expected his next
proposition would also be negatived, he would request
the serious attention of the Board to its object. He
would not say that there were no defalcations under
other Boards. But it could not be denied that under no
other Commission had there been so many defalcations as
under this. The system of employing collectors with a
per tentage, had the effect of placing the men themselves
in very great temptation, and not only was the business
done inefficiently, but the most distressing consequences
had occured to innocent parties—the unfortunate securi-
ties. In one case of a defaulter, who had been defraud-
ing the Commission for twelve years, two respectable
families were completely ruined by the proceedings taken
by the Board against them, as his securities. Not only
would all this be avoided by giving the collectors fixed
salaries, and employing them as the servants of the Com-
missioners, so that they would be amenable to the crimi-
nal law for any embezzlement; but by the system which
he proposed in the following resolutions, the greatest
possible dispatch in the collection of the rates would be
insured, and the possibility of fraud almost prevented
The resolutions were to the effect—

"That the expense of collecting the sewers' rate is very great,
and that the system of such collection is most defective ;—that
the exclusive occupation of the collectors should be as clerks to
the Commission, and their whole time devoted to the business
thereof,—that the remuneration should be by fixed salaries,
and not by a per centege, which most unequally pays the col-
lectors, varying as it does under the existing system from 10A-d.
per house to 41d. ; yet in the aggregate entails, taking the
average of the last bi years, an annual charge upon the rate-
payers of three rounds sixteen shillings and eightpence per hun-
dred pounds collected, or a gross annual sum of one thousand
pounds :—and that the present system of allowing the col-
lectors to take away from the office the rate-beoks, and per-
mitting them to have blank notice papers and blank receipts
to be filled up by themselves, is a very improper mode of col-
lecting public taxation. That the rate-books do always remain
in the office, and be so prepared that every party charged in
such rate may, immediately on payment, be thereon discharged.
That the collecting clerks take with them, on proceeding to
collect, books of receipts prepared in the office, and alto a
pt
per
e apbasreendt re-
stumps
for
form of daily return, showing the name of the person, the
locality, and the amount received, to be
filled up on the spot;
that at the close of the day's collection the amount tendered
cbeyipetase,hsueehrkbe chetyoubeed asgtaaminpsetdths,e,itha stumpssiaomf the
the purpose, showing the day each sum was accounted for, and
that from these daily returns the party charged on the rate-
book be discharged."
[The remaining resolutions related to the details of
the account keeping.]
Mr. DONALDSON opposed the resolutions. He said
t hat in the last twenty-five years rates to the amount of
600,0001. had been collected, upon which the defalcations
had been only 5,000/., and of this the public lost no more
than 2001, the securities having made good the re-
mainder. He denied that the employment of clerics as
collectors would be more efficient, and appealed to the
meeting if they were prepared to dismiss from their ser-
vice, for the sake of a very doubtful experiment, men
who had served them faithfully and without fault, some
of them for more than thirty years.
Mr. MAYHEW moved, and Mr. LAURIE seconded an
amendment, to the effect that the plan of Mr. Leslie
should be acted upon, by the employment of collecting
clerks, according as vacancies occurred amongst the
present collectors.

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EN ENING, JANUAR 10, 1R44,

THE CURRENCY.

It is commonly supposed that a currency of paper
cannot be depreciated, so long as it is convertible into the
precious metals, but this is a palpable mistake. As soon
as a paper currency, though convertible into the precious
metals, becomes extended, so that the whole currency,
paper and gold, passes the limit of these metals, depreeia-
tion of the whole mass immediately commenees, and
continues until the gold be expelled from the country,
and the mass of currency of paper and gold b.e thereby
sufficiently reduced, that the limit of the precious metals
is again restored. The gold leaving the country is
merely the consequence of the previous depreciation, and
it is only after the gold is gone, and a reaction takes
place, that the depreciation, which has been in existence
all the while, is discovered ; and, in proportion as the
limit of the precious metals is more or less exceeded
through the addition of paper money, will the deprecia-
tion be greater or less, and will these metals more or less
rapidly leave the country.
It appears from the returns in No. 1 of the Appendix,
that the average issues of the paper money of the Bank,
from the 18th November, 1834, when those returns were
first made quarterly, to the 10th November, 1840, when
they came to be made public monthly, were, on an
average of the whole of these returns, 17,990,0001.; but,
as the Bank, at one period during that time, that is, to-
wards the end of 1839, actually ran short of gold to
meet the demands on them from over-issues, which
could only proceed from depreciation of the whole
mass of currency, both paper and gold, and the Bank
Directors were obliged to go, like beggars, to the
Bank of France to burrow a large amount of the pre-
cious metals there to supply the demand for them at
home, it is perfectly clear, that that sum, in addition
to the gold that will circulate along with it is above
the limit of the precious metals required for this coun-
try ; and, therefore, an issue of convertible paper money
to that extent cannot be permanently supported in circu-
lation by the Bank ; a fact of which the Directors of the
Bank, from their previous experience, could not by pos-
sibility be ignorant. It is probable that not more than
17,500,0001. of Bank paper, convertible into gold, can be
permanently put into and maintained by the Bank in
circulation.
Here, it must be observed, that it is not the moment
the notes leave the Bank that their influence on the
mass of the currency, in reducing its value and in raising
prices, is felt. They must, first, get into general cir-
culation, it is evident, before their influence on the cur-
rency can be felt ; and it appears from the annexed re-
turns that from six to nine months are necessary for this
purpose. Keeping this in view let us analyse those re-
turns, and the conduct and motives of the Bank of Eng-
land's Directors, in their management of the currency,
will be more clearly understood.
For three months, ending with 13th December, 1836,
the average issues of the Bank were 17,361,0004 and
their stock of gold, three months afterward; was
4,048,000/. Their stock of gold continued to increase,
the Bank making purchases of it, and accumulating it
improperly, in the meantime, until the Ist of May, 1838,
when it amounted to 10,002,000/. No rational cause can
be assigned for this accumulation consistent with common
honesty. The expense of maintaining to large an
amount of idle unproductive stock in the shape of the
precious metals being great, it was not to be expected
that the Bank would so far sacrifice their own interest as
to retain it, and it became both their interest and duty to
diminish it. Their straighforward honest course, in that
case, was simply to coin so much of it, and to pay it
away, keeping their issues of paper money as they were
at 17,361,0001. But this did not suit the views of the
Directors. Their self-interest forbade it. Instead of
reducing their immense stock of gold by such honest
means, they increase their issues of paper money until
they depreciate the whole circulating medium of the
country, and increase the money value of every
man's property, and their own among the rest,
and then commences a demand on them for
gold for the conversion of their notes, the in.
evitable effect of their over issues; and of that effect
they could not, by possibility, be ignorant; and, in this
way, they chose to relieve themselves of their extra
stock of gold. They give vent to their gold until it be-
comes imperatively necessary for them to lay on the
screw, as it is termed, by calling in their notes to pro-
tect themselves from insolvency ; and then down go
prices, to the wall go their industrious fellow-subjects,
to the dogs go the labouring classes, and up goes the
value of money, paper money and all. It appears from
these returns, that the Bank continued increasing their
issues of paper money until they reached 19,350,000/.,
and then the gold, which bad by this time been leaving
the country, continued to go away until their stock en-
tirely disappeared, and they were compelled, as before
mentioned, to go to the Bank of France, and to borrow
from that establishment no less than two millions and a
half of the precious metals of France, to preserve their
own establishment from insolvency. In the meantime
the screw was applied, and applied so vigorously, that in
little more than twelve months the average amount of
the Bank's issues were reduced to 16,112,0001., as before
mentioned (they could not have been reduced to that
extent earlier without creating a convulsion in the coun-
try, such as would have made the Bank Directors them-
selves tremble), and the contraction was continued
at little more than that amount for eighteen months
afterwards ; until the greater portion of the la-
bouring classes in the manufacturing districts
were thrown altogether out of employment and
rendered utterly destitute, and had to be maintained by
public charity. The deplorable destitution which then
prevailed, notwithstanding Sir Robert Peel's false asser-
tion to the contrary, that the currency had nothing to do
with the distress, was notoriously the effect produced by
the operations in the Bank parlour, for as soon as the
screw was in some degree relaxed, the labouring classes
began again to find employment.
' The Bank of England Directors endeavour to palliate
their misconduct, in thus so unjustly contracting their
issues, by alleging that it was absolutely necessary for
them to do so to protect themselves and their establish-
ment from ruin. No doubt it was. The averment of
the Bank Directors is correctly true. But who created
the necessity ? The Bank Directors themselves created
the necessity, by previous over issues of paper money,
which they knew were to depreciate the whole circu-
lating medium of the country. They knew and could
not possibly be ignorant of the fact. Their own past ex-
perience must have taught them, long before, the fact
that those over issues would be followed by a reaction
sufficient to create that necessity, with as much certainty
as the sun sets inA is firmament.
Under these: .: easmstances is there a man in the
whole country, wnoee attention is once called to these
facts, so simple as to believe that the Bank Directors and
their friends, to whom they communicate the secrets of
the Bank parlour, do not take advantage of these
changes ? Is it possible to conceive that a Bank
Director, or the friend in his secrets, exten-
sively engaged in trade, will continue to hold his
stock of goods on hand, after a contraction of the cur-
rency is dtermined on, and he is in the full knowledge
that in six or eight months hence his stock will be re-
duced, in money value, perhaps 30 per cent. ? Is there
a man in the whole country su simple as to believe that,
when an expansion of the currency is determined on, the
Bank Director, or his friends will then get out of stock,
or rather will not largely increase his stock of goods on
hand, when lie knows full well that in six or eight
months afterwards he will clear by it perhaps 30 per
cent. of additional profits ? If so, that individual must
not only be a man of mighty great simplicity, but em-
bued with more than Bosotian stupidity.
No demand, it is very evident, will ever arise on the
Bank for gold, if the Bank keep down sufficiently the
amount of their issues of paper money, so that the total
amount of the whole circulating medium shall not exceed
the limit of the precious metals ; for it is the excess
beyond that limit only, which operates in depreciating
our present domestic currency,' confined, as it is by
law, to these metals. A stock of gold, therefore, though
it be quite necessary to support, for a season, a dis-
2dthi4elosen3ci, erersai
fbtreesi iearnn:sdoiustsbauni
see:et:l
isos
efsoyafrßythahafneovkirer of England notes, and to
enable the Bank Directors and their friends to plunder
enablinge
rs ,t
hitherto
ntdhot
Banke
fi%o•ary alreadyttho e s
luaps
port its issues of paper money, if they are confined within
the proper limit. One million of gold will suffice for meet-
ing demands on the Bank, if the Bank do not over-issue,
as well as the twelve millions which they now hold.
Where was the necessity for a stock of gold when their
issues amounted only to 16,112,0001. ? They required
no stock of gold then whatever ; simply because their
issues were then kept so low, that the whole circulating
medium was within the limit of the precious metals,
and, consequently, their notes were of equal value with
gold.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Ssn,—ln your paper of the 20th instant the following
questions are put by " A Cumbist," and answers re-
quired—
" Ist. If the Bank of England has twelve millions of
gold in its coffers, why does it not contract its notes, coin
the gold, and put it into circulation ?
2d. If the Bank of Eneland cannot get rid of its
gold, except by depreciating its paper, or by permitting
it to be depreciated by other banks of issue, or by coining
and putting it into circulation, how is the Bank to rid
itself of the present enormous accumulation of this metal,
and for what object does the Bank keep so large an
amount of gold in its coffers ?"
Permit me to offer the following answers to these
questions :
To the Bank of England is given the power to regu-
late, as it is termed, the currency ; which they pretend
to do according to the wants of commerce, this being a
commercial country—that is to say, to enlarge the cur.
rency when supposed, or rather assumed by them, to be
too small fur the wants of commerce ; and to reduce its
amount when assumed by them to be too great, or de-
preciated.
In support of the power given to the Bank to regulate
the currency there are two assumptions taken for
granted, which have no foundation in truth. It is
assumed, in the first place, that the currency has no
fixed standard, but must always necessarily be in a state
of fluctuation in regard to its value ; and, in the next
place, it is equally erroneously assumed, that the cur-
rency of commerce and the domestic currency of a State
are one and the same thing, and that there is no differ-
ence between them.
But there is implied in the very nature of every mea-
sure—and :he currency is, merely, the measure of value—
a standard, that is, a fixed quantity, which neither
admits of in nor over ; and, that there is such standard
of the currency, independent of any regulation of the
Bank of England, as well as of every other measure, can-
not possibly admit of doubt.
The wants of commerce, as to a medium of exchange,
are supplied by bills of exchange, Exchequer bills, ban-
kers' cheques, and the large notes of banks, which are,
properly, the currency of commerce ; and these being
all payable in the domestic currency of the country, are
ruled in regard to their value by the value of that do-
mestic currency ; from which, in the nature of things,
they cannot depart ; without regard to their own extent,
however great their extent may be. But the domestic
currency of a country is that which is declared legal
tender by the State, and which enables the working man
to exchange his labour for food ; the command over the
labour of man being the very essence of Wealth : and the
domestic currenqy of a State is, obviously, necessarily
ruled in regard to its value, simply by the limitation of
its amount.
In this country the precious- metals form the limit of
our domestic currency, the coins alone being legal
tender. And although bankers issue paper money to a
great amount, yet being payable in the precious metals,
that paper money is thereby effectually tied down to the
limit of those metals, and does not increase that limit,
nor add to our domestic currency one single pound
sterling ; a truth that can easily be as clearly estab-
lished as any truth in Euclid ? It is in virtue of its
limit alone that any domestic currency can ever operate.
All the banks in the country, therefore, with the sin-
gle exception of the Bank of England, never can disturb
our legal domestic currency. But that Bank, with its
extraordinary means.and.powers, can, and actually does,
disturb it, but, for a limited period only at a time ; a
period sufficiently long, however, to enable the Directors
of that establishment to plunder their fellow-subjects of
their means, in the manner to be immediately ex-
plained.
E very expansion of our domestic:currency beyond the
limit of the standard, which, as already described, is the
limit of the precious metals, is, of course, the undue in-
crease of the money value of every man's property
throughout the country ; and every contraction of the
currency, on the other hand, within the limits of that
standard, is the depreciation in money value of that pro-
perty, and the undue increase of the value of money capital
itself ; and every change, therefore, on the average
amount of the Bank of England's paper money, from
the, great extent of their issues, forms an altera-
tion of the standard • and, consequently an alteration in
the value of the whole of our domestic medium of ex-
change, as well as of the currency of commerce, which
depends on it, as already described.
The average issues of the Bank of England, for the
three months ending with Jan. 7, 1841, were reduced,
according to the published returns of the Bank, as ap-
pearing in the Gazette, (See Appendix, No. 2), to
16,112,0001 ; and, again, the average of those issues for
the three months, ending Feb. 4, 1843, was 21,108,0001.,
(See Appendix, No. 3). Between these quantities there
is no less a difference, in round numbers, than
5,000,0002 sterling. This expansion of the currency, it
is clear, raised the money prices of all commodities
at least 33 per cent. above those at which they stood for
the three months ending with Jan. 7, 1841, as every one
may satisfy himself by making the calculation.
The reduction in the amount of the Bank's issues
during the nineteen months in No. 2 of the Appendix,
ending with May last year, sufficiently accounts for the
sufferings and distress of the labouring classes during
that period ; and the expansion of these issues since,
sufficiently accounts for the very small ephemeral pros-
perity we have since had, and which can only last until
the Bank again put on the screw.
Thus, under the pretence of regulating the currency,
which in the very nature of things admits of no such
regulation—for every alteration in the amount of the
Bank's issues of paper money, as already observed,
creates an alteration in the previously existing value
of the whole circulating medium of the country—the
most enormous power, that ever was given to mortal
man over his fellow creatures, has been given to one
class of the community over the lives and fortunes of
their fellow-subjects. And to what class has that power
been given ? To the very class who were sure to abuse
it—the class of the money-owners—the class who had
the most powerful inducement to do so, that of self-in-
terest. How many thousands of innocent victims in the
middle ranks of life has not this power, within these few
years, sent from affluence and comfort into the Gazette?
How many hundreds of thousands of innocent victims
among the lower ranks has not this tremendous power
sent to untimely graves, during the same period ? With-
out sufficiency of currency there cannot be sufficiency of
price, and without sufficiency of price there cannot be
sufficiency of wages ; and the insufficiency of wages
which existed during the last few years, from the ex-
treme contractions of the currency by the Bank of
England, first emaciated and attenuated the bodies of
its innocent victims, the labouring poor, rendering them
easily susceptible of every passing disease, of typhus and
other fevers—the never-failing concomitants of insufli-
cient nourishment—and then swept them away into un-
timely graves.
To compare great things with
sin
that the Legislature gave a powertaoll' let us suppose
the publicans of
London, to regulate the liquid measure of the pint, by
extending it, at times, as far as a pint and a half when
trade was, in their estimation, brisk, and reducing it
at other times, when they thought trade dull, as 'far as
half a pint only. Can there be the least doubt in the
mind of any sane person,
that these publicans would not
immediately take advantage of the power thus com-
mitted to them, and turn it to their own ae-
count ? They would, no donbt, affecting, or
pretending liberality, and a hypocritical regard for
the public interest, sometimes raise the mea-
sure to a pint and a half, and it would be always their
interest, and they would never fail to do so, when they
were themselves out of stock and
going to purchase,
and they would take very good care to be out of stock
before they made such change, for they would then pur-
chase in stock such enormous advantage to themselves ;
but they would much more generally, that is to say, so
long as they had anything to sell,
keep down the mea-
sure to a half-pint only. With regard to their brethren
throughout the country, who might not know when
these changes were about to take place, those brethrenld
could reap no advantage from them, for as they would
buy, not knowing the movements at head quarters, they
would sometimes find themselves, without any fault of
their own, ruined and undone ; and, at other times, un-
expectedly and unduly enriched.
Yet this is the very power, on a grand scale, given to
the Bank of England over the whole country, under the
false pretence of regulating the currency. They some-
times raise prices and give a slight ephemeral prosperity
to the indtistry of the country, so as to blind the public
as to the real nature sad extent of their power ; but
they much more frequently, to suit their own greedy and
selfish ends, crush that industry to atoms, and sweep
both the labour of the working classes, and the profits
of their employers, into their own pockets.
That the Directors of the Bank of England abuse the
power over the currency thus entrusted to them, and
turn it premeditatedly to their own individual ad-
vantage, is beyond all possibility of doubt, for
idemonstration,se
d
and that, too, of the averages
firtamis thceairpabolievn opfubl
of their issues as appearing in the Gazette, from the
time they were first ordered to be published in 1834 to
the present time. The same charge, however, cannot be
brought against the partners, or Proprietors, as they
are called, of the Bank ; for, unless they had access
to the movements in the Bank parlour, which they have
no right to claim, and others may obtain that knowledge,
through the favour of the Directors, as well as they,
they are in no better situation than the other victims of
this extraordinary establishment.
The limit of the precious metals being:the standard,
and not the material substance of which they are com-
posed, otherways than as they form that limit, as soon
as the limit is exceeded by the paper money of the Bank
of England, the currency becomes of lower value,
and, consequently, the metallic part of it, be-
ing thereby depreciated as well as the paper
part of it, in reference to the value of the metals in
other parts of the world as the universal standard, leaves
the country, until the currency being thereby suffi-
ciently contracted, the limit of the precious metals be
again restored.
But the Bank of England, and the Bank of England
alone, have it in their power, from the extraordinary
command they possess over the currency of this coun-
try, from the enormous masses, almost the whole, of the
public money constantly passing through their hands,
and their notes being declared legal tender everywhere
except at the Bank, to put into circulation, and
to maintain in circulation, for a limited time, an
extent of paper money sufficient to cause the
whole domestic currency of the eountry to- ex-
ceed the limit of the precious metals. They ac-
complish this by storing up in their vaults a large quan-
tity of the precious metals, as they have done at present ;
they theri put out their paper money to such an extent,
as to cause the whole currency, consisting of gold and
paper, to exceed that limit ; and instantly
the whole
mass becomes depreciated, in reference to the standard,
and continues so as long as their stock of gold lasts, by
which they keep their paper in circulation, but no longer.
When their stock of gold becomes exhausted they paitst
put oh the screw, by calling in their notes.

It is evident that when our domestic currency exceeds
the limit of the precious metals, it is necessary for the
Bank to have an extra supply of those metals, which can
only last while the depreciation is continued and the
metals are being drawn away. It has been already
stated that not more than 17,500,0001 of the Bank of
England's paper money can be put into, and perma-
nently maintained in circulation by the Bank on the
strength of gold money—that is, the gold that will re.
main in circulation in the country, without causing an
excess in the whole currency, beyond the limit of the
precious metals. But the returns annexed (No. 3) show
that the issues of the Bank of England have been
greatly increased beyond 17,500,000 t, not for the last
six or eight months only, but for the last eighteen
months and upwards ; and yet the gold in the
coffers of the Bank has not been drained away
as formerly, but has been going on increasing
notwithstanding this apparent over-issue of paper
money. How, it will naturally be asked, if the above
theory be true, is this phenomenon to be accounted for?
It is capable of a very clear and satisfactory solution.

It will be fresh in the memory of every one, that
about twelve months ago, or better, a proclamation was
issued prohibiting the circulation of light gold, and a very
great portion of the gold in circulation was found to be
light. Great dissatisfaction with this measure was ex-
pressed, at the time, by the public, as cruel and urjust,
especially coming, as it did, immediately after the great
depression and distress: of 1841 and 1842. Some lest
3d., some Gd., and son') no less than 9d., on the sove-
reign, although the lightest of them was far above the
value of a tax included priced commodity of equal
amount. The proclamation has been since repeatedly
renewed ; and the Bank have acted with a degree of
keenness in stepping the circulation of light gold never
before witnessed. By thus crying down light gold
great loss has been thrown on the public, and the public
have become, fur the present, disgusted with gold money,
and they take the notes of the Bank in preference to
gold. A greater number of notes are, in consequence,
thus maintained in circulation than formerly, and the
gold is thrown in upon the Bank ; and thus is this phe-
nomenon explained. Accordingly we find that, as the
notes must be changed before being put to their proper use,
enabling the labouring classes to exchange their labour for
food, an uncommon demand for silver has arisen instead
of gold ; but the Bank, alleging that they are not
bound, refuse to pay; in silver ; and, thus their notes, to
a greater extent than ever known before, are kept in
circulation without expelling the gold from the country.
The fact, therefore, of nineteen or twenty millions of

' the Bank's paper money being permanently kept in cir-
culation for the present, does not prove dint the limit of
the precious metals is thereby exceeded by the whole
mass of the circulation ; because, that limit may be
made up of paper alone, as well as of paper and gold
combined. It merely proves, that that limit
is constituted by paper at present to a
greater amount than usual. But, perhaps, it
proves • something more. It proves, that the
Bank of England Directors are not ignorant
of the true theory of the currency. There cannot be a
its
origin that the movement against light gold had
origin in the Bank parlour, and the object of it truly
appears to be to divert public attention from the effect of
the issues of paper money on the circulation, ns exhibited
in the returns of the Bank, and to lull suspicion as to
the Bank's conduct in the management of the currency ;
and admirably has it been calculated for that purpose.
It proves beyond doubt the superior knowledge which
the Bank Directors possess of the working of the pre-
sent currency system, and that instead of being ignorant
of this question of the currency, they in reality under-
stand it but too well.
The answers to the questions put may now be antici-
pated
Ist. The Bank of England can, but will not, contract
its notes, coin the gold, and put it into circulation at
present; because, that would defeat their object in col-
lecting so large a sum of these metals, that object being,
to support for a season, when the time suitable for them-
selves arrivee, an over issue of their paper money, and
to enable the Directors and their friends to commit those
frauds on the unsuspecting public already spoken of.
2d. The Bank can easily get rid of their present stock
of gold by coining it and passing it away, keeping their
issues of paper money steadily at the same:fixed amount,
the whole circulating medium not exceeding the limit of
the precious metals, as ascertained by their own ex-
perience ; in which case, gold will flow into them as fast
as it flows out. But the Bank will prefer to rid them.
selves of their present dead stock of twelve millions and
upwards of these metals, as they have always hitherto
done, by depreciating, by over issues of their paper
money, the whole mass of the currency, both paper and
gold, and supporting the depreciation as long as their
stock of gold lasts, and the Directors individually, and
the friends in their confidence have any thing to Fell.
But they will be more cautious this time, how they rid
themselves of their present stock of the precious metals
for very good reasons. In the first place, they have
become suspected ; and, in the next place,
they are about, when Parliament assembles,
to apply for a renewal of their charter,
with increased powers over the currency, by
the shutting up of all other, the minor banks of issue,
under the pretence that these banks interfere with their
proper regulation of the currency, although it is as clear
as the sun at noonday, that in regard to their interfer-
ence with, or control over the currency, they are utterly
powerless either for good or for evil. -
But in whatever way the Bank of England get rid of
their present stock of the precious metals, it cannot
escape observation that they have been accumulated for
some purpose which the Bank do not choose to avow
for it is well known that the profits of the establishment
do not warrant the expense of keeping up such an emir.
mous amount of unproductive capital even for the time it
has now been kept up.
Early in 1840, a complaint was brought before Par-
liament by the merchants and manufacturers of Man-
chester that they bad been stript of their means, from
time to time, by some invisible power, and that they had
lost within a few years no less than forty millions of
money, and that many of them were, in consequence,
ruined. Suspecting the cause to spring from the manage-
ment of the currency, they petitioned the House of Com-
mons for an inquiry into the conduct of' the Bank of
England in regard to their administration of the cur-
rency. An inquiry could not be refused, and a Com-
mittee of Inquiry was appointed "On Currency and
Banks of Issue." But the inquiry was quashed by the
Committee, and the reputation of the Bank on
that occasion, was saved. The Committee was ap-
pointed under the auspices of the late Whig
Ministry, with the acquiescence of the Tory party, and
at its appointment (Istate the fact from my own personal
knowledge) it was neither understood nor intended, nor
expected, that the Committee should report anything.
The appointment of that Committee was a hoax played
off on the public, and particularly on the petitioners,
by the late IVhig Government, for although it was com-
posed of men of all parties—Tories, Whigs, and Radicals
—the Members were all on one able : on the side of the
money power, and against the people. They consisted
either of great money capitalists, or of their agents and
tools ; and, true to the confidence reposed in them, they
quashed the inquiry and reported nothing—that is,
nothing to the purpose for which the inquiry was osten-
sibly instituted. They were appointed merely fur the
purpose of talking and amusing the public, until the
storm, " the pressure on the money market," as it was
then called, should blow over of' its own accord. The
storm was allowed to blow over without control, in the
manner already seen ; and it sent many thousands of the
middle classes into the Gazette, and consigned hundreds
of thousands of the labouring poor to untimely graves.
Whether gold and silver money, composed as they
entirely are of intrinsic value, be a sound or just cur-
rency or medium of exchange, in a country where the
prices of commodities are artificially increased about 125
per cent. above their natural or intrinsic amount, as prices
were in this country at the date of the Bullion Commit-
tee's Report, in 151 1, forms no part of the questions
put, as above quoted, and therefore I will not trespass can
your indulgence in discussing that branch of the subject ;
but I may here shortly state, that although gold and silver
were evidently ordained by nature to be the medium of
exchange,. and universal standard of %able among all
civilised nations, and have been accordingly recognised
as such in all ages, yet they obviously cease to be so,
wherever the prices of commodities are artificially in-
creased by taxis above their natural amount, because,
being a fixed quantity, limited by nature in their amount,
the precious metals are adapted, as the medium of ex-
change, to the natural prices of commodities only, or
prices without the taxes ; and they are evidently inca
pable, therefore, of measuring those prices at their tax
included amount.

JAM
Edinburgh, Old Broughton, Dec. 30, 1843. ES PEDIE.
APPENDIX.
An Account of the Aggregate Amount of Promissory Notes pay.ble
to bearer on demand in circulation in the United Kingdom, and
of the precious Metals in the Bank of England as appearing (tom
• the Gazette quarterly .

No. I.
From the commencement of the Returns to the 10th Nov., 1840,
FOR TILE PERIOD FROM NOTES BULLION.
18 Nov. 34 to 10th Fcb.1835... £18,099,000 £6693,000
10 Feb. to 5 May, 1835... 19,542,000 6,197,000
5 May to 28 July 1835.., 18,322,000 6,283,000
28 July to 26 Oct 1805_ 17,930,000 6,186,000
26 Oct. to 12 Jan 1836... 17,282,000 7,076,000
12 Jan. to 5 April 1836... 18,063,000 7,801,000
5 April to 28 June 1836... 17,890,000 7,362,000
28 June to 20 Sept 1836 .. 18,147,000 5,719,000
20 Sept. to 13 I)cc 1836... 17,361,000 4,545,000
13 Dec. to 7 March 1837... 18,178,000 4,048,000
7 March to 30 May... 1837.., 18,419,000 4,420;000
30 May to 26 Aug. 1837... 18,462 000 5,754,000
26 Aug. to 14 Nov. —1837... 18,844,000 7,432,000
14 Now. to 6 Feb. 1838... 18,206,000 9,543,000
6 Feb. to 1 May 1838... 19,084,000 10,002,000
1 May to 24 July . 1838... 19,256,000 9,74)1.000
24 July to 16 Oct 1833... 19,350,000 9,437,000
16 Oct. to 8 Jan. 1839... 18,201,000 9,336,000
8 Jan. to 2 April 1839... 18,371,009 7,073,000
2 April to 21 June 1839... 18,101,000 4,344,000
25 June to 17 Sept 1839... 17,960,000 2,810,000
17 Sept. to 10 Dec 1839... 16,732,000 2,887,090
10 Dec. to 3 March 1840... 16,678,000 4,271,000
3 March to 26 May 1840... 16,817,000 4,386,000
26 May to 18 Aug... —1840... 17,128,000 4,560,000
18 Aug. to 19 Nov 1810... 16,798,000 3,729,000

21-4377,485,000

General Average for the whole periodf, 17,990,000

No. 11.
Monthly returns for the Quarter, including the fuur Weeks from
10 Dec. ending7Jan. 1841 £16,112,000 £3,557,000
4 Feb. ...... 16,230,000 3,8111,000
4 March .....• 16,372,000 4,076,000
1 April 16,537,000 4,339,000
29 April 16,587,000 4,638,000
27 May ...... 16,615,000 4,921,000
24 June ........ 16,632,000 5,098,000
22 July 16,821,000 5,170,000
19 Aug. 17,228,000 5,106,000
17 Sept 17,481,000 4,975,000
15 Oct.
13 Nov 17,272,090 4,491,000
9 Dec•
6 Jan. 1842
4 Feb.... 16,630,000 5,237,000
4 March
31 March
29 April 17,235,000 6,500,000
27 May

19-X320,205,000

General Average of the whole period £16,852,894
No. 111.
Monthly returns for the quarter, int 1 uding the four weeks
ending NOTES. BULLION.
24 June, 1842 Z17,795,000 £7,320,000
22 July
19 Aug 18,952,000 8,496,000
15 Sept.
14 Oc• 20,004,000 9,633,000
10 Nov . 19,903,000 9,789,000
8 Dec
7 Jan., 1843
4 Feb
4 March 20,340,000 10,984,000
1 April
29 April ..... .. ................. ... 20,329,000 11,316,000
27 Slay 19,422,000 11,325,000
24 June
22 July 19,809,000 11,872,0(X)
19 Aug.
16 Sept.
14 0ct..19,240,000 12,086,000
11 Nov.
9 Dec 18,791,000 12,990,000

20—£388,218,000
General average of the whole
period 19,410,900
Deduct first general average
No. I.

17,990,C00

General average amount of issues ---
beyond the first peri0d............ 1,420,900

OUTLAWIM—During the morning service on Mon-
day a proclamation of outlawry was posted on the doors of the
parish church at Brighton, declaring Mr. Thomas Heed Kemp,
formerly M P. for Lewes, and projector of Kemp Town,
Brighton, an outlaw, he haring neglected to render in an
action brought against him by Sir W. Pilkington, Bart., and
Dame Mary Milbourne Swinnerton, his wife.
Accounts have been received at Holderness House
which state that Lady Alexandrina Vane, daughter of
the Marquis and Marchioness of Londonderry, and sister
of the Marchioness of Blandford, is seriously ill of the
scarlet fever, at Paris, and it is feared the other members
of the family may also take the infection.