The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-06-24 00:00:00

FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE 24, 1842

With the debate in the House of Commons on
Monday night before us, it is impossible to deny the
present propriety, both as to principle and time of
adoption, of the course taken by government with' re-
spect to the light gold coinage at present in circulation
throughoht the realm. For the last two years, it has
been urged upon the late• and the present government
that the gold currency of the country was seriously
deteriorated, and ought promptly to be withdrawn from
circulation. On the 20th of January in the present
year a memorial was addressed to the Lords of the
Treasury, signed by twenty-four of the leading bankers
of the metropolis, suggesting "that power should be
granted to the Bank of England to clip such sove-
reigns as should be presented to them under the pro-
per weight; and that arrangements should be also made
with the Bank to take in all light sovereigns at the
Mint, at the price of £3. 178. 101 d. per ounce." At
that precise time, however, the state of our foreign ex-
changes would not permit of the immediate adoption
of the suggestion in question ; but so soon as the op-
portunity offered of the exchanges being favourable, the
order, so much commented upon of late, was issued
by the Treasury.

Thus far, therefore, the course pursued by govern-
ment was obviously warranted. But it has been urged
that the Treasury, and not the holders of light coin,
should have been the parties mulcted in the amount of
the existing deterioration, estimated at about £90,000.
But what a bonus, we reply, would thereby have been
held out for further " sweating," "plugging," and
those other illegal practices by which the gold in cir-
culation has been deteriorated ! If the state would
consent to take, at their full weight, clipped coin, what
an incentive to further clipping ! It is urged again
that notice should have been given ; that a day should
have been fixed after which light coin should be with-
drawn from circulation. What ! to enable a game of
shuffling and palming to be practised upon the unwary
throughout the kingdom ? To have paralyzed for a
time the entire circulation of the realm ? Certainly
this, whether the government or individuals were to
be the ultimate sufferers, would have been a ruinously
unwise Course ! It was obviously impolitic, therefore,
as well as unjust in its operation, that the state should
be-made the sufferer, or that the course pursued, to fi 7:-
the loss sustained upon the actual holders, should be
any other than the peremptory and sudden step adopted
by government.

It is quite certain, however, that this step has been
attended with serious inconveniences and losses to the
public, many of which might have been avoided ; many
of which ought to have been avoided ; but the whole of
which could not. Individual holders have been left too
much at the mercy of interested dealers in the precious
metals and of fraudulent tradesmen and capitalists.
The arrangements of the Bank. of England do-not
seem to have been perfect; the arrangement of the
branch banks, especially, do not seem to have afforded
the conveniences which they might have done. We
are not convinced either that the public are insured
against the reissue of light coin, upon which the allow-
ance has already been made by these banks themselves.
By the money dealers and by tradesmen it is notorious
that light coin has been freely passed after its detec-
tion, and after allowance having been made. This
evil and this loss to the community at large we think
might have been avoided, by the peremptory enforce-
ment of clipping by the branch banks, and by the ap-
pointment of authorised receivers in every large town;
and until some stringent measure of the kind is adopt-
ed the difficulty under which every honest trader at
present labours may be continued for an almost inde-
finite period.

It is perfectly well known that at the present moment
a large harvest is being reaped by a certain class of
traders, arising out of ,this order of the Treasury. In
our own town, although the absurd panic at first raised
has passed over, and the community are assured that
the heavy deterioration urged does not exist, the over-
charge made upon the exchange of light gold by these
traders is double, and even threble what it ought to be.
The bullion offices in Liverpool deduct sixpence per
sovereign, and, in some instances, much more, if it be
the slightest particle deficient; and some tradesmen
take even a greater advantage. We would respectfully
caution our readers against submitting to these impo-
sitions, in whatever way they are levied. The banks in
Liverpool, we are informed, have come to a determina-
tion to exchange all light sovereigns at 4d. each, and
half sovereigns at 21d. ; and it will, therefore, be the
interest of our townsmen to take their gold to these,
the regular channels, rather than allow themselves to
be tempted either by those dealers in the precious me-
tals, by whom the pretended real value is given, or by
those shopkeepers who profess to receive them, without
any deduction, for the wares which they sell.
In few cases, we believe, is the actual deterioration
of the sovereign above threepence. In many cases,
although the coin may appear light by the ordinary
balances in use, it is, in reality, what will be received
by the Bank of England as the standard weight. The
overcharge, therefore, of the bullion dealers, who de.
duct sixpence, ninepence, and sometimes a shilling, is
evident, as is that of the traders who, in reality, deduct
double that amount in the trashy character of their
goods ; whilst the deduction of the private banker is
obviously a fair and reasonable one.

We have been kindly favoured with a copy of the
New Tariff Bill, as it has passed the committee of the
House of Commons ; and give in this place an abstract
Of its principal clauses, for the information of our
readers :

Prohibition to importation of cattle and meat repealed ;
also in respect to fish brought by foreigners, if cleared at a
foreign port.
Turbots of foreign taking not to be landed without entry.
Tobacco, the produce of Mexico, Columbia, the Continent
of South America, St. Domingo, or Cuba, may be imported
from British possessions in packages of 801bs. weight ; and
negro-head tobacco, from the United States of America, in
packages of 1501bs.
Particular weight and tare of tobacco need not be marked
upon each hogshead, &c.
Separate manifest for tobacco not required.
Tobacco and other goods not worth the drawback, entered
and brought to the quays for shipment on drawback, for-
feited.
Foreign goods importing into the United Kingdom or
British possessions, with names of British makers, forfeited,
ifter sth January, 1843.
Spirits may come in stone bottles, not exceeding one quart
:ach.

European silk manufactures may be admitted at South-
ampton.

No allowance to be made on sugar damaged on voyage.
Goads detained for being undervalued, can only be so dealt
with in the space of seven days in England and ten days in
Scotland after final examination. _ _

Warehousing bonds to continue in force longer than three
years.

No abatement of duties on account of damage on eantha-
rides, cocoa, coffee, pepper, tea, sugar, tobacco wine, &e.,
to be made on such when found derelict, jetsam, flotsam, or
wreck.

No drawback to be allowed on goods entered out on mer-
chandise or stores, which may be of less value than the
amount of drawback claimed. Penalty of £2OO, or treble
the amount claimed.

at the—.6.-o.oplace entered tino• on drawback to give bond for dee landing
for..
Wine for officers of the royal navy may be shipped at
Liverpool on drawback.
No books whatever, reprinted abroad from original British
publications, allowed to be imported, except when the copy-
right has expired.
Prohibition_ not to take Place unless notice of copyright
and date of its expiration be given to commissioners of cus-
toms.

Coeds, the prodate of any British possession ahroad (ex.
wept the territories of Bengal, Madras, and Bombay), not
to have the benefit of such unless the goods are mentioned
in the official documents.
Lords of the treasury empowered to regulate certificates
of produce.

Timber ;nd wood to be piled at the expense of the impor-
ter, so as to enable the officers of customs to measure it, and
no allowance to be made for interstices in the pile.
But deals, battins, boards, and planks may be measured
by the piece, and taken account of separately.
Vessels that required licenses as being under 200 tons by
the old mode of admeasurement, not to require such if under
170 tons by the new. _

Vessels from which goods are thrown overboard to prevent
seizure, liable to be seized.

Act for regulating registry of vessels in Great Britain shall
extend to vessels belonging to British possessions.
Repayment of duties on barilla, used in the bleaching of
linen, repealed.

Lo'rds.of the treasury to have the power of reducing local
duties and charges upon foreign goods and vessels, in cases
of reciprocity. _

Salted beef and pork may be exported without the restric-
tion of a special bond or declaration.
Commissioners of customs may remit the duties on any
goods in bonding warehouses lost or destroyed by unavoida-
ble accident. ,

Any goods (besides woollens,linens, silks, or cottons) may
be delivered from the bonding warehouses to be cleaned,
under the regulations of the commissioners of the customs.
Committee of sugar-refiners to provide sample loaves of
patent sugar; and sugar entered for bounty, not equal to
the standard sample, forfeited. -
Drawbacks on silks, and on wood used in the mines of
Devon or Cornwall, to cease after the 10th October next.
Goods, the produce of British possessions abroad, to be
certified as such upon the clearance.
No foreign gold or silver plate to be exposed to sale. un-
less stamped or marked at a British or Irish assay-office.
Upon the schedules of duties we have here nothing
to remark, as We have already had ample opportunities
of expressing our opinions respecting them. We may,
however, venture a few remarks upon some of the re-
gulating and declaratory clauses which are now for the
first time before ns in an authentic form. And first
with respect to those which peculiarly affect the port
of Liverpool

The regulation for permitting drawback to be granted
upon wine shipped at the port of Liverpool for the con-
sumption of officers of her Majesty's navy, serving on
board any of her Majesty's ships, will effect the remo-
val of what has long been complained of as an anomaly
and a grievance. Viewed in this light even, as a con.
cession to the claims of justice, we are thankful for it.
But we would gladly entertain the hope that there is
meant in it far more than this. The advance of steam
navigation as one of the main sources of the national

safety and strength; its application to our foreign mail
service ; the comparative annihilation, by the formation
of railways, of the advantages possessed hitherto, upon
the score of easy and swift inland communication with
the seat of government, by the southern ports of Eng-
land ; the known superior facilities possessed by Liver-
pool for the outfit and repair of steam ships :—all these
warrant, at the least, a hope that this first mercantile
port of the empire is destined ultimately to become,
and that the Government which has made this conces-
sion looks forward to its becoming, an important station
for vessels employed in her Majesty's mail and other