The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-02 00:00:00

spigrr OF THE L G JOURNALS.

An address of a few inhabitants of Birmingham
was presented the day before yesterday to Mr.
Peel,—we can hardly say on what subject;—not
an his retirement from office, for it is now four
good months since he chose that better course ;
we presume, therefore, it was an address ofton-
dolence on his continuing out of office. These
good people of Birmingham) being zealous, ac-
tive manufacturers, consider employment, no
doubt, as the soul of life, if we may. use such an
expression, "IVIr. Peel, therefore, being now
" out o'.business," is, in their estimate of things,
out of all possibilty of happiness ; trade is extinct
with him, and he is consequently a fit object of
compassion. Hence, probably, this address ;
though the authors of it may not know the work-

ings of their own minds any more than they do
those of the machines by which the manufactures
of the place are perfected ; and they very natu-
rally console themselves, as well as Mr. Peel, that

there will be a speedy demand for the articles in
thick he deals, " and that the time will soon arrive

when he shall be called on by his Majesty to assist
in his councils and the government of the country."
Mr. Peel replies to the address in a modest and
sensible manner ; and above all, we approve of one
part of his reply, in which he seems to refute the
pretensions of privileged dulness, to lord it -over
their fellow-subjects. " I never," says he, " can
reflect with any other feelings than those of pride
and satisfaction, on my own intimate connexion
with that important class of society, whose in-
genuity and active exertions have not merely be-
nefitted the land of their birth, but have increa-
sed the comforts of life, and improved the con-
dition of mankind in every country of the globe."
Whether " the condition of mankind in every
country of the globe" is not as likely to be im-
proved by acknowledging the independence of
the brave, and participating with them in the
maxims and practice of a liberal policy, as by
merely vending to them the products of our looms
and forges, we: eave to my man of ordinary re-
flection to decide. We wish the condition of
mankind to be improved by either process, and
shall challenge public support for those who
seem to possess the greatest capacity for giving
elect to both.— Times.
While every one whoSe daily business calls
him to the city returns home with exclamations
of wonder at the -present and unprecedented
overflow of money, few or none take the trouble
of reflecting what consequences are likely to arise
from it. We confess that our own attention
to the subject has been for some time super-
seded by a train of considerations directed to
public interests of a more distant nature ; but it
is only justice to an intelligent correspondent,
whose letter we published yesterday under the
signature of " Barton," to state, that there are
many of his observations which seem to us to
merit the notice as well of the Bank as of his
Majesty's Ministers. The interest of money,
measured by the rate of discount, is apparently
much lower than ought to be wished. A rate
of interest which does not exceed from n to 3
per cent. per annum, proves, in general, that
there exists a want of safe and profitable employ-
ment for capital, a consequent stagnation of com-
mercial industry, and a national condition the re-
verse of prosperous. Where capitalists are long
unable to find at home a secure channel through
'Which to put their wealth into motion, they either
transmit it to foreign countries—where, in many
instances, they end losing it—or they transfer
themselves along with it, whereby both the citizen
and his fortune are lost to the country whence
they emigrate—or, finally, they begin to embark
in enterprises, and to invest their capital in se-
curities, which they hope may, yield a profit mag-
nificent in the same ratio in which it is con-
fessedly precarious. This is one wide cause of the
malady of ovcrtrading, which may be properly
termed the endemic of most commercial coun-
tries. We fear that the mischievous tendency
has been increased by those who ought to have
watched and restrained it ; more especially after
the tirades with which both Houses of Parlia-
ment echoed soon after the calamities of the au-
tumn of 1825, which proved that some at least
of the King's Ministers knew how to make a
'scape goat of the wild speculations of men in
business, if the same Ministers had nothing;
snore laudable in view than to conjure up a Fe.-
text for the concealment of their own mistakes,
instead of developing a useful fact as a basis for
future caution. But the truth is, that among
the more wary and reflecting, members of the
monied world, Ministers and the Bank of Eng-
land are both censured as co-operating parties to
the present overflow of circulating wealth. It
may be true that the recent stimulus given to
trade has been furnished by the increase of
money ; but. that is a source of passing joy, to
be paid for, we fear, by a distressing and dan-
gerous re-action. So the inordinate rise, of the
public funds—almost 10 per cent. within a few
weeks--might have given a shallow triumph to
the Treasury in the days of such a Minister as
Mr. Vansittart ; but it proves to a man like Mr.
Canning, nothing more than the excess of money,
the great material of gambling speculation, over
the fair demands of sound and wholesome com-
merce. It would be desirable to ascertain at
once, what value of Exchequer bills have--been
thrown into the market, and what portion have
been taken 'by the Bank of England since the
vote of the last Session of Parliament. We
are anxious also for precise information
as to the relative amount of Bank notes now
circulating compared with each of the last twelve
months. If the quantity floating be greater than
ordinary, the Bank have an opportunity of con-
tracting the issue in time to avert any similar
convulsion to that from the effects of which the
nation is but just .recovering; and if the issue
has not increased, the official evidence of such a
fabt will at once exonerate the Bank from all.
suspicion of having caused or aided the evil
which seems in a rapid course of reproduction,
and will,guide the investigators of our financial
state towards other quarters where may be found
the real mischief, with its appropriate remedy.
Perhaps it would have been discreet in Mr. Can-
ning to obtain from Parliament a power .of
funding Exchequer bills as the occasion might
suit, at any period before the ensuing session.
Such a measure would help in some degree to
relieve the overflow of convertible capital, and
could hardly be adopted under more advan-
tageous circumstances than when Consols exhibit
.a
tendency to reach the half-way point between
90 .and 100. It may be remarked in favour of
the policy of the Bank of England, , that in so
far as its rate of aliscount exceeds that of other
banking establishments, which is now, we be-
lieve, the case to
.the. amount of lor per
cent.,--theßan_kregulation operates as a check,
instead of an gicouragernent, to an excessive
currency.--Aid.

Some of the advocates of the Ministry are in
raptures because (as they tell us) the Pacha of
Egypt has thrown off his allegiance to the Porte,