The Sun.
London, England, 1826-02-13 00:00:00

THE LONDON 'JOURNALS:
DAILY

Extracts from Ihe 11<»-ning Papers, Feb. 13,1826.

LTHE alms.]
The adjournment of the debate on the currency
of the kingdom allows of our saying a few words
on the subject,by way of conveying to legislators
the sentiments of the people, at the conclusion of
the first stage of the business. When it is con-
sidered that the first total suspension of Bank
paments in cash was but for the short period of
thirteen weeks, and that it was afterwards pro-
tracted for nearly a quarter of a century, it IS
impossible but that considerable distrust must
be both felt and expressed respecting the cer-
tainty of the final recut of this smaller paper fry,
the one and two pound country notes, when the
very act for their suppression begins by allowing
of their continuance for three years. The circu-
lation of these notes is allowed on all hands to
be an evil in itself, and the cause of many
other evils ; yet it is to be endured, according
to Mr. B.obinsott's proposition, till February,
1829. The very act of tracing the figures
of so distant a date, almost makes the hand
tremble.' As to the other measures of joint-stock
banks and branch banks, we really take no ac-
couk of them. We have a strong suspicion that
those measures will never take place. If they
be established, they will, we should fear, have
the very mischievous effects of forcing more
paper into circplation, of increasing the price of
ell the commodities and necessaries of life, and
of throwing us to a still greater distance behind
our neighbours in the security of the circulating
medium. Let the nation adhere rigorously to the
recall of the petty country notesrand, if possible,
shorterfthe proposed duration of their existence,
and much will be etrected. We at first pressed,
as an additional measure, the demand of deposits
of security from country bankers. Such a plan
would no doubt be useful, but might perhaps
bear too heavily at present .on those to whom it
is meant to apply. It must he hbserved, also,
that the one and two pound notes are really
Arced 'upon the bumble awl laborious classes
of society. They have no option but to take
them ; and when those who issue them (ail, then
their possessors are thrown into a'state of starve-'
Con: whereas the more elevated persons into
whose hands notes of live pounds and upwards
come, are more capable of judging of the solvency
• of the bank from which they emanate ; they can
choose between rival establishments, and must
therefore impute some blame to themielves if
they finally suffer loss from a bankruptcy. The
recall of the one and two pound notes, therefore,
we repeat it, is the measure which should be
above all things pressed to a conclusion ; and we
confess, that in the midst of the desplair which
we feel at seeing the period of their existence str
long protracted, sve derive some hope and com-
fort from that prompt but illegal act, of Govern.
ment, iu prohibiting at once the issuer of more
stamps for such notes. The number of them,
therefore, which cannot be increased by fresh
issues, must be diminished by bankruptcies, by
wear and tear, and by the provision which, what-
ever may be the day of their final departure, it
will be necessary to make for that time. One
might suppose, if thetas were any consistency in
the Members of Government, that they who have
talked so lonaly of the propriety of a large peace
establishment in soldiers of every kind, would
likewise see the necessity of obtaining and keep.
log up a large peace establishment of metallic
currency ; or to what' will Bank paper sink. in
,crase a war should break out ?

LblOnNlng roar.)
Tits evening the discussion of the measures
proposed by his Majesty's Ministers for the he.
provement of our systems of banking end cur-
rency will be resumed in the house of Commons.
In looking back to the debut which took place
on Friday, we must be excused if we say, that
the proposed measures were not, in our opinion,
treated with perfect fairoess.n An error, which
it won hl require great charity indeed to describe
otherwise than perverse, seems to have pervaded
every speech delivered in opposition to them—
the error, we mean, of supposing that they hid
beton devised with the view of administering direct
anti immediate relief to existing embarrassments.
No such intention, it is quite manifest, ever
entered into the mind of Administration ;--and,
in our view of the subject, it is not one Of the
least merits of the measures proposed by them,
dint they at once put an' end to any expeete.
tion that might hoe been entertained of the
direek interference of Government to provide
adequate remedy for a distress, which, however
*e may deplore its existence, we cannot hut per-
ceive to be retributive and remedial—the natu•
rel retribution and the appropriate remedy to
the vices and excesses of commercial specolation.
All sound general principle forbids such interfe-
rence. At a period of war, or of internal corn.
motion, linked, When the necessary operations
of,Government itself may have been a princi.
pal, cause of the distress, defeating as they
often do the most legitimate vnterprixes, and
baffling the most prudent ortil ,accurate
lotions of individuals, and ,when„the prolonga
tion of distress might impart a new strength or
Inspire a bolder audacity to tilts ellorta of the
foreign or domestic for—in such circumstances
as those it may often become the duty of
Government to interpose its influence, and '
sources in the affairs of Commerce. These are
special cases or exec ptitm, cud the conduet which
rusty have been adopted on such occasions, how.
ever at variance with time letter, is in no degree
contrary to the spirit or subversive of the oath°.
city' of the general 11w. If general principles are
not to govern our conduct at a moment of univer.
sal tranquillity, they are (as was well argued
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer "Ton another
part of tine subject) utterly worthless. They are
thingamerely to talk about---fit point a moral
or adorer a talc," but never to possess the least
influence upon the real business of life. :vertu
the practical men, as they are called, render a
sort of indirect homage to the authority of gene-
sal principles on this subject, by not venturing to