The Sun.
London, England, 1829-12-21 00:00:00

THE FOI R PER CENTS.

(From the Times.)
An address " To the Proprietors of Four per
Cents." has been hawked about with some
activity, and has just fallen under our notice.
The object of the paper is to 'effect a combina-
tion among the Four per Cent. Stockholders,
engaging them, one and all, to refuse- the offer
supposed to be intended by the Minister, of a
stock of 3i or 3 per cent., in lieu of the higher
one now in their possession. We believe that
it would be difficult, if not impossible, to pro-
cure the' rejection of such a proposal, so exten-
sive as to inflict any serious embarrassment on
the Minister of Finance. Even if so large a
sum as 40,000,0001. or 50,000,0001. were
found necessary to meet the demands of the
discontented Stockholders, who can doubt that
the money might be had,inla moment at an interest
of 31 per cent., where the acknowledged pur-
pose of the loan was one of economy, and not
of prodigality, adding strength to all the public
securities by diminishing the general pressure
upon our income ? If the Minister appre-
hended auy inconvenience from the result of a
confederacy among the Stockholders, it would
be easy for him to divide them into a given
number of classes, and to convert the whole
mass of stock by as many successive operations.
In that case it must be fruitless to combine.
Events, however, especially in foreign States,
are not sufficiently under the controul of an
English Minister to insure 'him against a fall of
stocks, so serious, and even so immediate, as to
baffle every scheme, however well designed, for
the- conversion which it is presumed he meditates.
TO THE PROPRIETORS OF 4 PER CENTS.
"London, December, 1829.

" You notice the report in circulation, that it is
the intention of the Minister to propose to Parlia-
ment a reduction of the interest of Four per Cents,
to Three and a Half per Cents,—in other words, his
intention of taking from us one-eighth part of our in-
come. The pretence will he, to make it worth our
while to accede to his proposal, by giving us what
he ridiculously calls a bonus: that is to say, giving
us in lieu of 12i per cent, of our property, what is
not worth a farthing rushlight ; and this generous
attention to our interests follows the act of his
having forced up the price of the Stocks to an un-
natural height, in order to enable himself to entrap
us. You are well aware that, powerful as he is, he
can do nothing in these premises without our con-
sent; and that, by the terms of our covenant with
the State, we may call for our payment in money at
par. Such a payment, it is
.well known, the Mi-
nister cannot by any possibility make, for the capital
of the Four per Cents. is 150,000,0004 of money,
and accordingly the success of his manoeuvres
wholly depends on his inveigling us into his terms.
The purpose of this address is to prevail on you all
to a man to reject his terms; and if we act bravely
and in a body, we may cast his project to the winds.
We have the remedy in our own hands. Let there
be meetings of the kolders of Four per Cents. in
every town in the kingdom, and an engagement one
to another entered into, by which each holder shall
bind himself to demand money for his stock. We
shall then have the satisfaction of seeing the Mi-
nister's project returned to his portfolio as a piece of
waste paper.

Be rissurcd that this project of the Minister is
nothing less than a perfect juggle, the purpose of
which is to make us victims of cunning manoeuvres,
and a misrepresentation of facts. The measure has
precisely •the same objects in view which the
avowed advocates for violating faith with the public
creditors entertain, though it is to be effected by
different means ; and much more worthy are the
means proposed by our open enemies, than the sly
and concealed contrivances here resorted to.

" The preliminary contrivance is the expedient of
forcing up the price of the public funds, by propa-
gating the report of this measure being in contem-
plation; and the second step is to reduce the inte-
rest upon Exchequer Bills from 2d. to l&d. a-day,
in order to render that rise in the Storks durable for
so long a time as the measure may require to be
effected. When effected, we shall probably see
the interest upon Exchequer Bills again raised,
and the speculations by which the rise in the
Stocks has been produced will cease.
The third expedient is the proceeding at the
Bank of England on the 3d instant, by which the
unheard-of measure is resorted to of lending money
upon Exchequer Bills, India Bonds, and Bills of
Exchange, during the shutting of the books of the
Stocks for the dividends. This is the most un-
blushing job that was ever adopted. Every body
must see that its direct object is to give an artifi-
cial price to the Public Securities, the better to in-
flict this meditated injury on the holders of Four
per Cents., and it is resorted to under the pretence
of relieving the public from a want of money, when
it is notorious that there is, at least in the Money
Market, a redundancy of capital, and when that very
redundancy is alleged as the ground upon which the
reduction of the Four per Cents. is recommended.
" But the mechanism by which this project is to
be rendered practicable is not less to be condemned
than the statement of facts which is put forth to
justify it is false, and the reasoning by which it is
upheld is delusive. Here we are made to be the
dupes of gratuitous assertions and visionary theories.
It is not true that the value of money is no more
than 3i per cent, per annum. Wherever we look
for cases of the investment of money (with the ex-
ception of the Three and Three and a Hall per
Cent. Stocks of Government, the prices of which
have been carried up by artificial means, and have
reached a pitch notoriously unsuitable to the situa.: