The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-12-19 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

own house; but no mention is made of Peter. (Hear,
hear.) He then proceeded to contend that the Christian
religion was introduced into Britain long before Austin,
the monk, visited the country—that the venerable father
of the celebrated Caractacus, who had been detained for
seven years a hostage at Rome for his son's loyalty, re-
turned in the year 59, along with four missionaries, one
of whom was Aristobulus, mentioned by St. Paul—that
they established the Christian church—that bishops were
established and consecrated—that in the second century
there was an Episcopal Church in this land—that this church
was represented at the Council of Arles in 314, nearly three
hundred years before Austin's arrival in the country. The
Church of Wales never wholly submitted to the Church
of Rome. It was often obliged to give way to it, but at
last again regained its entire independence, and now
claims its descent, not from Rome or St. Peter at all, but
from the great Apostle of the Gentiles. ( Loud cheers.)
The rev. gentleman then, in eloquent terms, showed the
peculiar advantages of Protestantism as compared with
Popery, and appealed to his audience to be prepared for
the coming struggle between the two principles, if they
valued genuine liberty and pure Christianity, and sat down
amid loud cheers.

The Rev. T. NOLAN, on coming forward to second the
resolution, was received with enthusiastic applause. He
delivered a most excellent address.

The resolution was then put, and carried unanimously.
The Rev. CHAIRMAN, in closing the business of the
evening, strongly urged his hearers to be prepared for the
coming struggle between voluntaryism leagued with Po-
pery, and the friends of established order—to hold fast
the truths of religion ; and in the exercise of their oppo-
sition, to do it firmly, unitedly, but in quietness, sobriety,
and without offence.

A vote of thanks was passed to the Chairman, by accla-
mation, after which the meeting separated.

THE LYING-IN-HOSPITAL.—The seventh annual meet-
ing of this valuable institution was held on Thursday,
and was respectably attended. The Mayor presided. His
worship remarked on the admirable manner in which the
institution was conducted, lamented that in but two places
of worship bad collections been made during the year,
and recommended an application to the Council for aid.
The report showed that during the past year 155 patients
had been admitted; and 110 attended at their homes—
total 265. But one child had died, and eleven were still-
born. The receipts had been £2BO, and the expenditure
£320. It was hoped the public would liberally come for-
ward to support so excellent and humane an institution.

THE HEALTH CommerrEe.—At the sitting on Thm.q..
day, there were only five members present—Mr. Tinne in
the chair. The report was favourable as regarded the
health of the town. The increase of deaths in the past
week had been 12 over the previous week, but 15 fewer
than the week before that. The three cases of Asiatic
cholera in Carlton-street—a man, and his wife and child
—have proved fatal. They arrived on Monday from
Dumfries, via Annan, where the disease was prevalent,
and the man and woman died on Tuesday and the child
on Wednesday. No case of the same disease bad origin-
ated in Liverpool. The inspector of nuisances made his
usual report, showing the number of nuisances removed,
and the number of cellars not fit for habitations cleared
out, &c. The Health Committee have taken every pre-
caution in the neighbourhood where the fatal cases of
cholera have occurred, with a view of preventing the
spread of the disease. All the courts and passages near
have been thoroughly cleaned.

WEST DERBY GUARDIANS, WEDNESDAY.—A letter
from the Poor-law Board was read, sanctioning th e
appointment of Mr. Morley as collector of poor rates for
the township of Everton. An injunction, signed by the
Commissioners for administrating the laws of relief of the
poor in England, had been sent to the Board, ordering
the dismissal of Peter Arrowsmith from the office of
assistant overseer of the Great Crosby district. Mr.
Sidney, in accordance with the notice given by him a fort-
night since, moved that a suitable building be obtained to
be used as an industrial school, and that the present
workhouse be enlarged, so as to meet the present require-
ments. Some discussion ensued, but no one having
seconded the motion, it fell to the ground. It was how-
ever agreed that the law clerk should write to the Poor-
law Board, for an answer to -a motion for enlarging the
house, proposed by the Rev. Mr. Badnall in June last,
and forwarded to them, but to which they had not yet
replied. In answer to a question from the Board, the
Poor-law Board stated it was quite sufficient for the sub-
stitute of a medical officer, were he duly licensed, to prac-
tice as a medical man within the meaning of sec. 109 of
4 and 5 William IV.

DOCK COMMITTEE, THURSDAY.—A resolution of the
Shipowners' Association, on the propriety of deepening
the Queen's Dock, was referred to the Sub-committee of
Works.—A presentment of the Grand Jury at the Quar-
ter Sessions was read, complaining of the furious driving
of spring carts, and of the great inconvenience and danger
which resulted from the practice of landing and embark-
ing passengers, in sea-goinc, boats, at the stairs appro-
priated to the Seacombe and other boats. The receipt of
the presentment was ordered to be acknowledged, but the
committee did not consider the matters complained of
came under their jurisdiction.—Mr. Poole was appointed
a member of the Marine and Master Porters' Sub-com-
mittee.—lt was resolved not to fill up the vacancy in the
Warehouse Sub-committee until after the present com-
mittee had presented their report. recommending reduc-
tions to the extent of nearly £2,000 a-year. Mr. Aikin
was glad to find that his idea of the possibility of saving
£l,OOO a-year was likely to turn out not so very absurd.
—Mr. Holme referred to the erroneous opinions which
prevailed as to the rate of interest derived from the Albert
Dock and warehouses, and proposed that a correct and
clear statement should be furnished, in order to set the
matter at rest. It was stated that the accounts would be
brought before the committee in a week or two, and if
they were not in a satisfactory state, an order on the sub-
ject would be then made.

THE SELECT VESTRY.-At the meeting on Tuesday,
Rector Campbell in the chair, a deputation waited from
the inhabitants of Abercromby Ward, who had held a
meeting, and were averse to increasing the fever sheds in
Brownlow-hill, so that they might be available in case of
cholera breaking out. The deputation suggested that the
sheds should be removed to a distance outside the town.
A long discussion ensued, and the Chairman said he did
not think cholera patients would be sent to the sheds, but
no pledge would be given.—Mr. Shimmin was called in,
and reprimanded by the Chairman for tampering with the
register, and advised to be more careful in future.—Miss
Parry was appointed mistress to the Workhouse, at a sa-
lary of £25 per annum.—Premises were ordered to be
obtained in Christian-street azd Moorfields for additional
dispensaries.—The committee resolved that all medical
appointments should be annual.—ln answer to a question,
it was stated that cholera patients would not be removed,

but houses of refuge would be established for the recep-
tion of healthy persons from infectious neighbourhoods.
—A letter was read from Mr. Rounthwaite, of the City
of Dublin Company, relative to some remarks made by
Mr. Ferguson on the charge made for paupers to and
from bublin, but the subject of it was not entertained.—
Mr. Bennett said he considered some remarks made in
last Friday's Mercury, in reference to Mr. Earle, were
totally without foundation. Mr. Earle said he was quite
careless of anything written in some of the newspapers.
He had, in days gone by, appreciated the opinions ema-
nating from the Mercury, but he must be compelled to
state that the profligate and reckless character of the pre-
sent emanations of that paper were quite undeserving of
notice.—There was no further business.

CORRESPONDENCE,

THE MORNING CHRONICLE AND THE BANK

CHARTER OF 1844

EVIDENCE OF WILLIAM BROWN, ESQ., M.P.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SlR,—Many of your readers are doubtless aware that
the editor of the Morning Chronicle has recently favoured
the public with a series of articles respecting the evidence
given before the Committee on Commercial Distress.
Whether the object of this writer be to display the extra-
ordinary power inherent in Sir Robert Peel's Bank Char-
ter, to maintain the convertibility of bank notes into gold,
or to prepare the right hon. baronet's supporters with a
few hints for the coming session, I must leave your
readers to determine for themselves. The writer of these
essays has exercised considerable ingenuity in attempting
to expose what he considers to be the fallacies of those
who are opposed to the principles of this act, including
Mr. Glyn, Mr. Gurney, and Mr. Tooke. Having, as he
terms it, " grappled with the tenets" of these gentlemen,
he has now commenced an attempt to analyse the evi-
dence of Mr. W. Brown, the member for South Lanca-
shire, and that of Mr. Wylie, a merchant in Liverpool.
We find also on the 9th instant that he has stepped out
of his course to utter his denunciations against the " Li-
verpol Currency Association," which he styles a " con-
clave," and the " putative child of that Financial Asso-
ciation whose fiscal discoveries have lately enlightened
the public."
Without being called upon to adopt the separate opi-
nions of each of these parties, it may not be altogether
useless to examine how far the views of this writer have
any claim to public attention. He begins by paying his
compliments to Mr. Brown "as a merchant" ; but he is
" compelled to pronounce his notions on currency and
banking to be crude, ill-digested, and contradictory";
and further, that he " cannot identify Mr. Brown's opi-
nions, on monetary questions, with any distinct school
or theory"; that Mr. Brown " qualifies his assertions,
upon any definite point of doctrine on which his opinion
is desired, with a ' sometimes', an occasionally', or a
' much to be said on both sides'."
Now a thorough examination of the evidence of Mr.
Brown entirely falsifies these assertions. It. is true that
Mr. Brown has not advanced his opinions upon any sub-
ject with a dogmatical assurance, that is frequently as-

sumed by men of far less experience than himself in 'com-
mercial transactions ; but in the whole course of his exa-
mination his answers to questions " upon any definite
point of doctrine" are given in language unqualified and
unequivocal. He is called upon by that committee to
give evidence as a merchant, and not as a banker ; and it
is only when he is called upon for his opinions on ques-
tions connected with the latter that he has expressed him-
self in qualified terms ; but whenever he is called upon to
express an opinion on the commercial transactions of this
country, he does so in the most decided language, and with

a degree of confidence which can only be possessed by a
person of his long and extensive experience in the mer-
cantile world. We may therefore deny, without hesita-
tion, the imputed contradictions of this gentleman's evi-
dence. It was not to be expected that Mr. Brown would
be called upon to form a new Direction for the Bank, or
establ;sh a new mode of issuing paper money. I have
alraedy stated that he was called upon as a merchant, to
give his evidence ; and as a witness who has lived through
all the commercial panics which have occurred during the
last half century, both in war and peace, his opinions
upon the operations of an act which, if permitted to exer-
cise the extent of its power, would have prostrated the
commerce of the country in ruins, and left the Bank in a
state of insolvency, are invaluable.
By comparing the remarks of the writer in the Chroni-
cle with the evidence of Mr. Brown, it will be found that

man confines his views to facts—such as the separation
of the bank and issue department, the amount of notes
in reserve for discounts, and the small proportion of
specie to the amount of liabilities in the bank department.
Also the "absurdity" of maintaining so large an amount
of bullion in the issue department, while the liabilities to
depositors is not secured by a shilling in the pound.
On these points the evidence of such a NI itness as Mr.
Brown is of the highest importance, and his opinions are
unanswerable.

The first charge brought against this witness is, that he
condemns the " facility for discounting ;" and on the
other hand "he regrets that the bank had not power to
enlarge its issues." Now in the question referred to
by the Chronicle—(2,244)—Mr. Brown makes no such

• ,
charge against the bank. He is asked, " might it not
have been possible that the ministers of the Crown might
have thought that that restriction of discounts (meaning
in April 1847) ought to have commenced two months
earlier, while the directors of the bank were of a differ-
ent opinion ?" "It is very probable, if it had commenced
two months earlier it would have saved a great deal of
difficulty to the country." It is on questions like these
that Mr. Brown qualifies his assertions, simply because

they concern the operations of banking, more than of
mercantile pursuits; and must be left to the dircretion of
the bank directors. Why the writer has brought in op-
position to this part of his evidence the answer to ques-
tion 2,222, we cannot discover. The remarks of Mr.
Brown respecting " a larger amount of specie in their
vaults" is solely referable to the bank department which
is fully proved by his answer to the next question, (2,222)
" when you speak of the specie in their vaults, &c.,
you mean the reserve in their banking departments."—

I speak of the whole spcie held by the discount depart-
ment, assuming that the specie in the bank of issue is
also available for them."

We must remark here, that in the evidence of Mr.
Brown be does not condemn the Bank for not having suf-
ficient amount of specie at their command, but that what
they do possess is so separated by the act of 1844, that the
Bank has no power to relieve the discount department in
the time of great pressure. It is impossible for any but a

caviller to put any other construction upon this part of his
evidence. When Mr. Brown says the Bank might have
reduced its specie to two millions, it is in reply to a ques-
tion, whether the Bank had ever found " eight millions of
specie in their vaults on any similar occasion previously ?"
The question is a very natural one ; and we may imagine
no small degree of stupidity would have been attached to
the advocates of such a system of banking by foreigners,
when they learned that the Bank of England had become
insolvent with £8,000,000 of bullion in its coffers ; yet
such would have been the case in the space of one more
week, had not the act itself been suspended, notwithstand-
ing the assertions of Mr. Jones Loyd to the contrary.
We can pity tke writer for not being able to compre-
hend the difference to the Bank between a commercial
and a political panic. It is a tact well known, that in al-
most every instance of a commercial panic in this country

it has been paper, and not gold, that has been requires ;
and there is not onaecord an instance in which paper is-
sues have not been the remedy of the Bank to recover its
position. It is the sudden withdrawal of this means of
accommodation to our merchants that has brought them
into difficulties, which have terminated in their ruin.

We cannot help thinking, on a review of the evidence
of Mr. Brown, which occupies 23 folio pages, that the
Chronicle has by no means done justice to that gentleman
by collecting here and there a few passages, on subjects
which are not easily decided by any single individual ;
while, on the other hand, he has kept out of view the more
important points of the subject on which he is called to
give his opinion. _

Before closing these remarks, we shall notice the re-
ference of the Chronicle to the mode of issuing notes by
the Bank. " Has Mr. Brown never read the act of 1844,
or has he never heard that this very government debt
forms the main part of the basis upon which the Bank is
authorised to issue its fixed amount of £14,000,000 of
notes, UNREPRESENTED BY BULLION ? " He then ex-
plains it in government language :—" We will continue
to pay you interest at 3 per cent. on that £11,000,000
which we owe to you ; but besides that, you shall virtu-
ally have the use of that sum, as if it were repaid to you,
in being allowed to issue notes to that amount upon the
securities which you hold on account of it." We are
then informed that the other " three millions form the
residue upon which the issue of the fourteen millions is
based, and they too are represented, pound for pound,
by an equivalent amount of Bank paper issued to the
public."
It would not be necessary to enter into any investiga-
tion of this theory of creating paper money, were it not
for the vindication which is here boasted of by the Chro-
nicle : nor could we scarcely imagine, that within two
days from this period, the same journal should have pub-
lished, in its remarks on the " Liverpool Currency Asso-
ciation," the following :
" In the first place, it is to be observed, that the 'basis' on
which the Association propose to found a national currency',
is the National Debt. They are pleased to call it capital, mis-
led, perhaps, by the equivocal term Public Funds': but no
one surely needs to be informed that the -*500,000,000 referred
to has, as capital, no existence: it is sunk, spent, dispersed to
the four winds; the debt, i.e. the obligation to pay, alone sur-
vives. To talk of a capital of £800,000,000 being guaranteed
by the property of the British nation, is mere moonshine
The writer then adds :
" Now, what these gentlemen propose is
the debt the bath and guarantee of a new lit

[ctually to make

Doubtless both M. Brown and the " Liverpool Cur-
rency Association" will both feel themselves under an
obligation for such enlightened views. Here we find a
writer vindicating one chw what in two days after he ut-
terly condemns. He tells Mr. Brown, that " the govern-
ment debt forms the main part of the basis upon which
the Bank is authorised to issue its fixed amount of
£14,000,000 of notes !" He laughs at the " Liverpool
Currency Association," and exclaims, "These gentlemen
propose actually to make the debt the basis and guarantee
of a new liability." He says, " they are pleased to call it
a capital." Now, in the very quotation printed in the
Chronicle, the association says nothing of the kind ; but
that " Consols represent a bond fide amount of capital,"
or, in the language of the Chronicle, " Debt."
We make this digression to show how the advocates of
the Bill of 1844 are driven to a course of reasoning which
is contradictory and delusive. If the evidence of Mr.
Brown cannot be reconciled with any " distinct school or
theory," or with any '` fixed principles," of this much we
are certain, that he has clearly shown to the committee of
the House of Lords, and to those who have read his opi-
nions, that the theory of the Bank Charter Act of 1844
has been propounded, acted upon, exploded, and con-
demned'by every sensible merchact in the kingdom. It
has been proved, by the evidence of Mr. Brown and many
others, that it can neither bring gold to the Bank nor
keep it when there. It is, in short, in the language of the
committee, an act which has " to be repealed the moment
it comes into operation, and is, therefore, good for no-
thing." FABRICHJS.
December 13th, 1848.