The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-07 00:00:00

ILóruii IflL

LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY 7, 1844.

The House of Commons last night went into Com-
mittee on the Bank Charter Act, when Sir ROBERT
PEEL made a very long speech on the Currency
question, and on the necessity of revising the privi-
leges granted to the Bank of England under the
Whig Government in 1833. These privileges were
granted for a period of twenty-one years, but only
conditionally. The Government reserved to them-
selves the right of reconsidering the question, if, after
a lapse of ten years, they gave notice to the Bank
that alterations might be necessary. After mature
deliberation, on looking at the state of the country,
the present state of the currency, and other circutn-
stances, the Cabinet had considered it their duty to
avail themselves of
the opportunity, and pro-
pose resolutions 'which, if adopted by the
Legislature, would produce considerable changes.
These resolutions he would not require the House to
adopt till they had a full Opportunity of weighing
well their import; and he, therefore, did not ask for
an immediate decision. The introductory part of his'
speech was not very
inviting. It consisted of a very
dry essay on the principle which constitutes the
mea-
sure of value, and more particularly on what was
meant by a pound sterling, and what was the engage-
ment to pay a pound ; and, after adverting to the dif-
ferent standards of value which had existed in this
country, including silver and paper, he (entreated the
House, as gold had been the standard of value for a
hundred years, with some exceptions, that theyNVo I.lld
not depart from that monetary system. ye was op-
posed to the demand made by certain writers on cur-
rency, that country bankers should be allowed to
issue paper. Country bankers had no control,
and were utterly ignorant of the state of
foreign exchanges. He was opposed, also, to a
National Bank, and concurred with Lord ALTIIORP
in his statements, when the charter was renewed in
1833, that the Bank of England was preferable to a
Govern ment Bank. Then came the important part
Right Hon. Baronet's speech. He proposed

that the Bank of England should continue in the 1
possession of its present privileges, but that it should
be divided into two distinct departments—the issue
and the banking departments. To the issue depart-
ment he would transfer the whole amount of bullion
in the Bank, and the issue of the Bank should take
place upon two conditions only. The first was, that
there should be a definite amount of security ; and
the second, that the banking department should
have no power to issue notes on deposit, and that the
amount of issue should not exceed 14,000,0001.
" I propose further," said he, " that there be frequent
reviews of the accounts of the Bank—both of the
banking and issue departments. Objections have been
hitherto made to the publication of these accounts,
but I confess I see no reason why these accounts
should not be published, and I think publication of
these accounts would be highly salutary. I propose
that it be enacted by law that there shall be returns
to the Government from the Bank weekly of the ac-
counts of the issue of notes ; of the amount of bullion;
of the fluctuation of bullion ; of the deposits ;
accounts of every banking transaction in the issue
and banking departments of the Bank of England."
With regard to country banks, he proposed that they
should retain their existing privileges, but that they
should not issue more than they had done within•the
last three years—that they should have the privilege
of suing and being sued, and that they should be com-
pelkd to select competent, efficient, and responsible
directors. He proposed, also, to place the joint-stock
banks in London on a similar footing with other
banks, and give them the power to accept bills to any
amount, and at any date. He proposed, further,
that, with regard to joint-stock banks, there
-,hould be a periodical publication of the names
of all directors and partners, and that they should
publish periodically the amount of their issue.
No new joint-stock bank was to be established with-
out application to the some Government department.
He again reverted to the Bank of England, and pro-
posed that when the issue exceeded 14,000,0001., the
profit should belong exclusively to the State, and the
increased issue was not to be left to the Bank, but to
three Members of the Government. The charter was
to continue for the original time specified, namely,
till 1855, with power to the Government, on giving
notice one year previous, to make alterations at any
time while the charter existed. With regard to
Scotch and Irish banks now existing, he proposed no
changes. These are the main principles of the Bill,
and the Right Hon. Baronet, after adverting to what
he had done in 1819, and stating the interest he took
in establishing a secure currency, submitted them to
mature deliberation of the House and the country.

In the House of Lords the Bill introduced by Lord
CAMPBELL, entitled the English Debtors Bill on the
Continent, went through Committee, and was ordered
to be read a third time on Monday. Lord CAMPBELL
deserves credit for this measure. It will reach a
number of those unprincipled men who have fled from
their country in debt, and live like wealthy English-
m?n abroad while their creditors cannot reach them,
Lord WHAUNCLIFFE laid on the table the report of
the Committee which had been appointed to watch
the building of the new Houses of Parliament. It
appears from this report that Mr. BARRY has departed
f.-oin the regulations laid down by the Committee,
and his Lordship intimated that he would call the
attention of the House to the subject on Thursday.
Lord MONTEAGLE gave notice, that on Thursday
he would move for a Select Committee to inquire into
the effect of protecting duties on the commene of
the country.
A discussion took place on a motion of the Mar-
quis of NORMANDY, relative to the appointment of
Mr. O'BRIEN as a stipendiary magistrate, but it led
to no result. The House adjourned at a Quarter to
Nine o'clock.

In the Commons, Mr. ROEBUCK presented a peti-
tion from Mr. BARNARD GREGORY, complaining that
he was confined in a solitary cell, that he had no bed
but a matrass on an iron frame, without sufficient co-
vering, and the only drink allowed to him was water-
gruel.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM said Mr. GREGORY was not
kept in solitary confinement; he was placed in a room
of a superior kind, where there was a fire, and many
other indulgences allowed, which would not be al-
lowed to prisoners of the same class; and so far from
his health being impaired by confinement, he was
better than when he entered the prison. Under pre-
sent circumstances, he did not consider it expedient
to make any alterations with regard to his treatment.
Mr. IloasmAN put a question to Sir JAMES
GRAHAM relative to a statement which had appeared
in some of the newspapers, to the effect that a soldier
had committed an aggravated assault upon a woman
in Westminster, and had been fined 10s. by Mr. JAR-
DINE, the magistrate, on the ground that the soldier
was intoxicated.

Sir JAMES GRAHAM said he had made inquiry, and
the magistrate had given an explanation which was
satisfactory. Mr. JARDINE bad never admitted in-
toxication as a plea for outrageous conduct, and on
that occasion had distinctly stated that it could not
weigh with him for one moment in adjudicating pu-
nishment.

Mr. HoEstrAm said he was perfectly satisfied with
the explanation.
A brief conversation took place relative to the mo-
tion of Mr. HumE on the recal of Lord ELLENBO-
- when it was understood that Mr. HumE's
motion would have precedence this evening. Sir
ROBERT PEEL intimated that what he had to say on
the subject would be very short.
The House went into Committee on the Bank
Charter Act, when Sir ROBERT PEEL moved a num-
ber of resolutions, which we have referred to in a se-
parate article.
After a few observations by different Members the
resolutions were laid on the table, and ordered to be
taken into consideration on Monday se'nnight.
The House then went into Committee on the Fac-
tories Bill, when all the clauses were gone through ;
the House resumed, and adjourned at a Quarter to
Two o'clock.

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 hare
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
classes have bad station and power, and the means, in
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
scarcely one single sympathy in common with them ?
It is a sad mistake our rulers are making in thus
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 accounts from Madrid are of an alarming
character. The BRAVO Ministry have all resigned,
and General NARVABZ 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 :

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

FOREIGN AFFAIRS.

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

" M. 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 NARVAEZ 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 364, and on the 29th they had fallen to 30k, 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
this great and rapid fall there is another good reason,
independent of the elevation of NARVAEZ, a soldier of
fortune, a " mere sabre" to the head of the Ministry.
The public begin to look forward;:to some terrible
convulsion about Church property. The priests and
the military rule at the Palace ; and orders, at the
instigation of the former, had been privately issued to
suspend the sale of Church property. Those-who have
purchased Church lands are, therefore, in the utmost
consternation, for they believe with good reason that
they will not be allowed to hold it undisturbed.
The " Sabre" Government will repudiate the acts of
a Radical Cortes, and rob the purchasers, in the same
way that FERDINAND robbed those who had lent
money to Spain when he was not absolute KING.
The Castellano endeavours to dispel the panic by
asserting that " there is no cause for alarm in the idea
of giving back the unsold property to the clergy, and
that there is no intention of interfering with existing
interests ; that the question is one which ought to be
considered calmly, and upon its own merits. It re-
minds the public that previous to the pronun-
ciamentos of 1840 the Cortes had passed a law
which the Crown had sanctioned, by which the
property of the secular clergy had been assigned
to them as a part of the provision designed for
them by the State, together with 4 per cent. upon
agricultural produce in place of the tithe—that this
law was indeed upset by the famous mutiny or pro-
nunciamento, as it was called, of 1840, the Cortes
which followed having done everything exactly con-
trary to their predecessors ; but that now a reaction
had taken place in the public mind ; that some of the
juntas formed last year against ESPARTRRO had sus-
pended the sales of Church property ; and it says the
question now is, Will it be just, politic,
and convenient, to give back to the secular
clergy the property of which it was de-
spoiled, and which is not yet sold ?'" It replies
to this query in the affirmative, while, at the same
time, it alludes also to the restoration of the whole
property, on the present possessors being indemnified.
The possessors and the public evidently have not much
hope of indemnification. We have no accounts from
the provinces of the effects produced by these two
events, but there can be no doubt that they will pro-
duce a great convulsion, and that some new scenes of
horror will be enacted in that distracted and helpless
`s,untry. The French Government have incurred a
fearful responsibility by sending CHRISTINA, NAB..
VAEZ, and other firebrands, to destroy the Constitu•
tion, and lay waste the kingdom.

The Paris papers of Saturday have been received,
but W 3 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. GUIZOT and Admiral MACILAU,
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 122 f.