The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-28 00:00:00

BANK ISSUES.

The Gazette of last night contains the following re-
turns under the new " Act to make further provision
relative to the Returns to be made by Banks of the
amount of their Notes in circulation." The period is
twelve weeks prior to the 27th of April last, and the
average amount in each case is certified by two of her
Majesty's Commissioners of Stamps sind Taxes :
Warwick and Warwickshire Bank, at Warwick .z

—Greenway and Co 30,504
Oxfordshire Witney Bank, at Witney—J. W
Clinch -
Whitby Old Bank, at Whitby Chapman and Co 14,258
Whitby Bank, at Whitby—Frankland and Co 2,076
Wellington Somerset Bank, at Wellington—E ,
S., S., H., and C. Fox
Weymouth Old Bank, and Dorchester Bank, at
Weymouth and Dorchester—Eliot and Co 16,461
Wolverhampton Bank, at Wolverhampton—R
and W. F. Fryer - 11,867
York Bank, at York—Swann and Co.
Stourbridge Bank, at Stourbridge—Rufford &Co 17,295
Bromagrove Bank, and Stourbridge and Broms-
grove Bank, at Bromsgrove—P. and F. Raiford 16,799
Derby Old Bank, and Scarsdale and High Peak
Bank, at Chesterfield and Derby—Crompton
and Co.

Oswestry Bank, and Oswestry Old Bank, at
Oswestry—Croxon and Co 18,471
Ringwood and Poole Bank, and Town and
County of Poole Bank, at Ringwood and Poole
—G. and R. Ledgard
Newmarket Bank, at Newmarket—Eaton and Co 23,098
Monmouthshire Agricultural and Commercial
Bank, at Abergavenny and Monmouth—Bailey
and Co.
Norwich and Norfolk Bank, at Norwich, East
Dereham, Attleborough, and North Walsham
—Gurney and Co 75,372
Leicester Bank, at Leicester, Melton Mowbray,
and Loughborough—Paget and Co 32,322
Lewes Old Bank, at Lewes, East Grinstead, and .

Tunbridge Wells—Molineux and Co 44,836
Lymington Bank, at .Lymington—C., S., and
G. F. St. Barbe 5,038
Doncaster Bank, and Retford Bank, at Worksop,
Retford, Doncaster, and Thorn—Cooke and Co. 63,519
Boston Bank, at Boston, Spalding, Louth,
Spilsby, and Horncastle--Garfit and Co 75,069
Exeter Bank, at Exeter—Sanders and Co 37,894
Lynn Regis and Lincolnshire Bank, at Lynn,
Swaffham, and Downham Market—Gurney
and Co.
Hull Banking Company, at Hull, Beverley, Bar-
ton, and Grimsby
Leeds Commercial Banking Company, at Leeds 13,914
Leeds and West Riding Banking Company, at
Leeds and Bradford
Ludlow and Tenbury Bank, at Ludlow 10,215
Moore and Robinson's Nottinghamshire Banking
Company, at Nottingham 35,813
Suffolk Banking Company, at Ipswich, Bury St
Edmunds, Mildenhall, Saxmundham, Stow-
market, and Woodbridge 7,449
Storey and Thomas's Banking Company, at
Shaftesbury 9,714
Leicestershire Banking Company, at Leicester,
Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Hinckley, Market Har-
borough, and other places 86,060
Leamington Priors and Warwickshire Banking
Company, at Leamington, Warwick, Southam,
Kenilworth, and Banbury 13,871
Lincoln and Lindsey Banking Company, at Lin-
coln, Gainsborough, Louth, Horncastle, and
other places 51,620
Northamptonshire Banking Company, at North-
ampton, Daventry, Wellingborough, and Stam-
ford 26,401
Leeds Banking Company, at Leeds
Lancaster Banking Company, at Lancaster, IJI-
- Preston, and Kirby Lonsdale 64,311
Stuckey's Banking Company, Bristol Somerset •
shire Bank, and Somersetshire Bank, at Lang-
port, Bristol, Bridgwater, Taunton, and other
places 356,976
Knaresborough and Claro Banking Company, at
Knaresborough, Wethorby, Ripon, Easing-
wold, and other places

..:. 28,959

LORD J. RUSSELL AND " SPECIAL
BURDENS."
(From the League.)
The last discussion of the session arose in conse-
quence of a speech delivered by Lord John Russell
on the condition and prospects of the country. In
that speech the Noble Member for the City of Lon-
don returned to the question of " special burdens" on
the land. In the debate on Mr. Villiers's motion, Sir
Robert Peel confined his "special burden" complaint
to the single " burden" of maintaining the poor; but
the Noble Lord has discovered two other " bur-
dens," the county rate and the malt duty, which, in
his opinion, entitle the agriculturists, that is, the land-
owners, to peculiar consideration on the part of the
Legislature. It is pleasant to find the question of
protection to agriculture, or, to speak more correctly,
of protection to rent, placed on some ground which
can be understood and fairly grappled with ; and we
feel grateful to our opponents when they show us
their points of defence.
From the importance attached to the question of
county rates, one would be led to imagine that this
impost was one of a very heavy and grievous cha-
racter ; and that, although raised from the land, it
was appropriated to objects in which proprietors of
the soil had no interest, and that over its expen-
diture these ill-used individuals had no control.
Now, what are the facts of this case of suffering
and injustice inflicted on the owners of the
soil ? The county rate is a burden laid upon all land
and buildings, and is, for the most part, expended in
the maintenance of roads and bridges, and in the pro-
secution of various classes of offenders against the
laws. The amount of the rate is fixed by the
magistrates in each county, and in their hands
is the control of the expenditure. The magistrates
are generally landowners, and, if there be any
want of economy and care in the disbursement
of the amount collected, they are wholly responsible
for it. The entire amount of county rate collected,
in 1842, for England and Wales, was but 703,5261.,
England paying 666,9771., and Wales 36,549/. ;
and this sum was levied on laud and buildings
spread over more than thirty-seven millions of acres,
averaging not more than W. per acre, and being
not more than 31d. in the pound on the annual
value of the property assessed. But in what coun-
ties is it that the county rate appears as a very large
item of expenditure ? Middlesex pays not less
than 87,7151. ; the West Riding of Yorkshire,
49,592/. ; Lancashire, 41,328/. ; Surrey, 32,5431.,
that part of the metropolis on the south of the
Thames causing Surrey to stand so high on the
list. The amount paid in 1842 in these four coun-
ties was 211,1781., or very nearly one-third of the
amount paid by the whole of England. Lancashire
alone paid 41,3281., whilst the whole of Wales paid
but 36,5491. From this it is clear that this " special
burden" is not special at all, but general, and
shared in by the towns and the manufacturing as
well as by the agricultural districts ; and unless it
be assumed that land ought to pay no taxes, and
that owners of land are a class of so sacred a cha-
racter as to be entitled altogether to exemption
from taxes and all other inflictions to which man-
kind in general are subjected, we know not how
any sane man can regard the county rate as any
ground for the existence of the corn-law as a
means of compensation to the class of landowners.
In the discussion of the question of the food mo-
nopoly, there have been adduced many reasons for
its continuance—some fraudulent, and others simply
ridiculous ; and this of the burden of the county
rate is about the most absurd of all. What is the
value of land without roads and bridges, and who
are so much interested in the punishment of offen-
ders as the owners of property ? How many in-
stances are there in every county, of the value of
land being prodigiously increased by the forming of
roads and the opening of new markets for the produce
of the land ? To dwell upon these points would be to
assume a want of common capacity on the part of our
readers ; and we confess we cannot persuade ourselves
that Lord John Russell was in earnest when he, ven-
, tuned to speak of the burden of county rates as one
entitling the landowners to tax the food of a whole
• nation and to inflict the evils of famine upon multi-
' tudes of their fellow-countrymen. The landowners
• would do well to inquire if county rates are not
geuretiantgly
aninacrpeuasneidshinbgy
atheelass"burden of
" ro:re-
erswhpo e
made so by laws enacted by landowners to provide
; sport and amusement for
friends. how much of the count themyse ves
d. their
rate in Norfolk,
Suffolk, Buckingham, and other agricultural coun-
ties, is expended in maintaining a police force to act
as gamekeepers, and in punishing poachers ? The
landowners and magistrates in those counties can