The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-05-07 00:00:00

8

._ ~ . , .

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We quite agree with " A Protectionist Churchman," that the
constitutional Association is stepping beyond their proper
limits if a petition is now lying there for signature, praying
for a meeting of convocation "to make a decree setting forth
the Catholic doctrine of hol baptism." We always imagined
that the high boast of the Tractarians was, that they were
perfectl), content with the prayer-book as it is; but it now
appears incontrovertible (as we always contended), that this
satisfaction is characteristic of the evange►ical clergy alone.

ebt Zibrypoot 'tanbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING. MAY 7, 1850.

WE have before us another communication from
-is correspondent, whose letter on the subject of a
time currency, as available to enable us to carry
out the Pike scheme, we inserted in our publication
of the 16th ult. ; and we take the liberty of giving

its substance here, in order to found upon his plaii
a few remarks of our own. The letter in question,
we may state, has been elicited from our cones-
- pondent by the requests of several friends who are
interested in the subject ; and we attach to it our-
selves the more importance because we know the
writer to he correct upon the question of the cur-
• :rency generally, and to have had experience of the
working, in Canada, of the system which he advo-
cates. Moreover, since the publication of his letter
in our columns, we have not observed a single ob-
jection raised against his views. The bullionists
are, just now, wonderfully silent. Their strong-
holds have been attacked rather effectively, and
'there is no reply. Possibly they feel that late ex-
perience has left them with little ground to stand

upon.
In his last letter our correspondent traced a
-twenty shilling.note of twelve months date, drawn
upon corporation security, from its first issue to its
maturity. In the letter before us he is more dis-
tinct upon this part of the question, and gives his
experience in a very lucid manner :
" Supposing," he says " as an experimental trial of
the working of the ' time currency srtem,' the corpora-
tion would undertake the completion of the Sailors'
Home.' which. in its present state, loudly proclaims a want
of funds, or want of financial arrangement; and it really
would be wiser to borrow money at 10 per cent. to finish
it, than suffer it to remain in its present condition. lam
wrongly informed if there are not respectable parties in
Liverpool, who would supply ull the requisite furnishings,
after the building was completed, and take 12 months
-after date corporation notes as payment of their accounts.
" Such being the case, the Sailors' Home may be in
active, and it is to he honed beneficial, operation in a very
few months. Froze► what I have seen accomplished, I
am convinced of the y of the due completion of
this magnificent undertaking, through the means I have
endeavoured to lay before the public. For argument sake,
say the Sailors' Home will requi.'• to.finish it 1000 work-
men, sixteen week,, at 20s. each per week. I will endea-
vour to show, in a tabular torm, the financial transactions
as they will probably occur, and thus illustrate the work-
ing of the system of issuing notes at 12 months after date,
and also of the manner of their being withdrawn from
•circulation. Although I may not be quite correct, I shall
be suffieiontly so to explain my system, or to make myself
understood.
" On 14 of May 1000 men are employed ; and on the
'7th £lOOO will be nue to them for wages, and thus the
system commences :
Notes Wages Notesrecd. Total
issued pan! back weekly Weekly amt.
Date. weekly weekly. forborough addi- of notes
rates, &c. tion. out. W'kly
7th May.. 1000 1000 nil. nil. 1000 Ist.
14th 900 1000 100 900 1900 2nd.
21st „.. 800 1000 200 800 2700 3rd.
28th „ .. 700 1000 300 700 3400 4th.
4th June .. 600 1000 400 600 4000 sth.
11th „ 500 P'oo 500 500 4500 6th.
18th „.. 400 1000 600 ,480 4900 7th.
.25th 300 1000 700 300 5200 Bth.
2nd July.. 200 1000 800 200 5400 9th.
9th .. 100 1000 900 100 5500 10th.
16th „ nil. 1000 1000 nil. 5500 11th.
Thus far, then, wages to the amount of £5500
would have been paid, and work to that extent
completed, without the Corporation of Liverpool
having been called upon to expend a shilling in
hard cash. Mr. Wyberg's signature, as treasurer,
and the cost of paper and printing the notes, would
have been all that was required. By this time the
validity of the currency proposed would have been
•established, and in all probability not more than
the weekly issue of Elobo for wages would he
brought in to be cancelled up to the completion of
the work. Say that this requires a period from
the Ist of May to the 20',h of August, there will
be at the latter date £5500 of the notes in circula-
tion, having, however, ten months to run. This
amount, of course, would be reduced gradually,
.and our correspondent anticipates, from his expe-
rience, that about the 22nd October £lOOO would
remain to be brought in, which would probably
be entirely liquidated by the end of February,
1851.

The interest upon the cost of the building. has
been saved up to this date. A valuable establish-
- ment for the seamen frequenting this port has been
opened. Labourers have been employed, and con-
sumers have been found for our imported produce, '
and for British manufactures. But the Corpora-
tion have to redeem these twelve months' notes,
and it will be said that this cannot he done out of
ordinary income. Be it so. There is still a re-
source, as our correspondent suggests, by which
the repayment of any outlay may be extended over
a series of years. What is to prevent the Corpo-
ration from paying the wages of our police in these ,
twenty shilling time notes ? What is to prevent
their paying contractors for clothing of the police,
and other similar expenses ? No tradesman would
refuse such a currency, and thousands would be
glad to exchange their stocks in hand for a security
so undoubted.
The selection by our correspondent of the Sailors'
Home as his example of the working of time cur-
rency, is made without considering that the Cor-
horation—the proposed issuers of such a currency—
ave nothing to do with the building in question.
St. George's Hail might have been mentioned ;
yet still the difficulty would arise that the Corpo-
ration can expend nothing except surplus income.
To such an objection, however, we may reply that,
practically, there would be no income expended.
The Corporation of Liverpool might easily, on its
own credit, and without the payment of a farthing
of interest, raise money sufficient to carry out any
undertaking which would be ultimately remune-
rative.
And here we venture to take a course a little
bolder than that of our correspondent, and yet
corroborative of our sanction of his system. An
act of parliament would, of course, be required to
enable the Corporation to carry out the system.
Why not, then, go for a greater good than either
the economical construction of the Rivington Pike
works or the Sailors' Home. Our town is acknow-
ledged to be deficient in sanatory condition. A
large portion of the area upon which it stands has
been built over without any comprehensive plan.
Unsightly and unventilated courts and narrow
streets, shut out our working population from the
light and the fresh breeze of heaven ; and it has
been proposed to remedy these defects by opening
out in selected parts of the town wide thorough-
fares, to serve as lungs or air passages. The out-
lay, however, required to effect this important
object would be large, and our inability to expend
more than the surplus of our income stands in the
way. An improvement act would therefore be
required ; and say that we propose for the purpose
to raise a sum of £500,000. The amount may
seem startling ; but we venture to prophecy that,
by means of such a system of local currency as
that advocated by our correspondent, all that we
require could be effected without entailing any
material burthen upon our future resources. The
expenditure might be spread over a period of, say
ten years. No interest need accrue meanwhile ;
and by the improved value which would be given
to the property required to be purchased, which the
Corporation should be bound to sell after construct-
ing upon the sites good houses and shops, the debt
might be in the end entirely, or very nearly, extin-
guished. We committed a folly in not availing
ourselves of the power of carrying out a measure of
this description years ago. We ought never, for
instance, to have allowed Cook-street to be blocked
up by the erection of the Branch Bank of England
in its present site, and thus lost the opportunity of
forming a splendid approach to St. George's Hall.
Burlington-street, again, ought to have formed an
opening from the river direct up to Everton ; and
from the south end an approach should have been
formed direct to Edge-hill. By such means we
should have promoted the health of the town, and
removed from it the stigma under which it has so
long laboured.

THE following observations, contained in the
able monthly circular of Messrs. T. and H. Little-
dale and Co., published for Saturday last, upon
the subject of the present famine in cotton, are
worthy of very serious consideration :
" By the steamer which arrived from New York on
Monday last, the fact of a short crop for the present sea-
ion is placed beyond all doubt, and a probability from