Alabama state intelligencer., 1831-04-20


 nue through Congress The people, therefore nave no time to lose, if they meano have any hand Tn me decision of this great question 10 the Dahk lseh' it must be advantageous, Cat least) Il not deshapie to know it's fate at once, that it may avod Vi mere is to be no renewal) the trouble and expense Of ma tinlvinp branches upon the eve of dissolution, and the risk and inconvenience of extending loans oe> yond the term of it's existence To the debtors upon mortgages. and indefinite accommodations It must be also advantageous not desirable to be nothed In advance of the end of their ndulgencies: so that to every interest, public and private, poltica ana pe cuniary general and particular, full dlscussion' ana reasonable decision, is just and proper.
 1 hold myself justified, MT President, upon the reasons given for proceeding in my present appca- ton but as an example is sometimes more authorl- tatve than reason will take the liberty to produce one which is as high in the point of authority as II IS appropriate in point of application, and whicn nap pens to fit the case before the Senate as completely as if it had been made for it. 1speak of what has lately been done in the Parliament of Great Britain. It SO happens that the charter of the Bank of Eng land to expire upon its own limitation nearly about the same time with the charter of the Bank of the United States, namely, in the year 1855, and as far back as 1824 no less than nine years, before It's ex- piraton. the question of it's renewal was debated, and that with great freedom in the British House of Commons will read some extracts from that de- bate, as the farest way of presenting the example to the Senate, and the most efecnal node of securing Co myself the advantages of the sentiments express ed by British Statesman.
 THE EXTRACTS.
 Sir Henry Pdrneu "The House should no longer delay to turn it's attention to the expedeney of newing the charter ofthe Bank of England. Here tofore it had been the regular custom to renew the charter several years before the existing charter had expired. The last renewal was made when the ex- isting charter had eleven years to run the present charter had nine yearsonly to continue and he felt very anxious prevent the making of any agreement between the government and the Bank for a renew al, without full examination of the policy of again comforting upon the Bank of England any exclusive privilege. The practice had been for government to make secret arrangement with the Bank; to sub init it immediately to the proprietors ofthe Bank for their appreciation; and to call upon the House the next day to confirm it without affordng any op- portunty offar deliberaton. So much information had been obtained upon the banking trade, and up- on the nature of currency in the last fifteen years, that it was particularly necessary to enterupon full investigation of the policy of renewing the Bank charter before any negotiation should be entered up on, between the government and the Bank; and he trusted the government would not commence any such negotiation, until the sense of Parliament had been taken on this important subject"
 :" Mr Hxmc sald it was of very great importance that his msjesty's ministers should take immediate steps to free themselves from the trammels in which they had long been held by the Bank. As the n- terest of money was now nearly level with what it was when the Bank lent large sum to govern ment, he hoped the Chancellor of the Exchequer would not listen to any application for renewal of the Bank charter, but would pay off every shilling that had been borrowed from the Bank. ..... Let the country gentlemen recollect that the Bank was now acting as pawn-broker on large scale and lending money estates, system entirely trary to the original intention of that institution. He hoped before the exprsion of the charter, that regular inquiry would be made into the whole sub- ject."
 Mr Edpard Eltios [" It, (the Bank of England) is a great monopolizing body, enjoying privileges which belonged to no other corporation, and to no other class of his maesty's subjects. ....... He hoped that the exclusive charter, would never again be granted; and that the conduct of the Bank during the last ten or twelve years, would make govern ment very cautious how they entertained any such propositions. The right honorable Chancellor of the Exchequer, (Mr Robinson,) had protested a. ganst the idea of sraining any point to the prejudice of the Bank: he thought, however, that the Bank had very little to complain of when their stock, after all their past profits, was at 23S.r
 The Chancellor ot tue Enehequcr, " Deprecated the discussion as leading to practical result"
 Mr Alexander Barring, Objected to it as prema- ture and unnecessary.
 Str WiHiam Puteney Gin another debate) "The prejudices in favor of the present Bank have pro- ceeded from the long habit of considering it sort of pillar which nothing can shake. -. .. The Bank has been supported, and is still supported, by the fear and terror which, by of its monop0- Y, It has had the power to inspire. It is well known that there is hardly an extensive trader manufac- turer, or banker, either in London or at distance from it, to whomthe Bank could not do any serious injury, and could often bring even Insolvency -. consider the power given by the monopo. ly to be of the nature of all other despotic power which corrupts the despot much as corrupts the slave. It Is Tn the nature of man that a monopoly must necessarily be i'll conducted Whatever language the (private) bankers may feel themselves obliged to hold yet no one can believe thatthey have any satisfaction in being, and contnu- ing, under dominion which has proved so grievous and so dsasterous. lean never believe tatthe merchants and bankers of this country will prove unwilling to emancipate themselves, if they can do 1t without rlsking the resentment of the Bank No man in France was heard to complain, openly, of the Bastile while it existed. The marchauts and bankers of this country, have the blood of English men, and will be happy to relive themselves from situation Of perpetual eror if they could do it con- sistenty with due regard to their own interest"
 Here is authority added to reason,-the force of a great example added to the weight of unanswerable reasons, in favor of early discussion So that trust have efectually put aside that old and convenient objection to the "time e;"that most flexible and ac commodating objection which applies to all reasons, and all subjects, and Is just available for cutting off late debate, because is lae as it is for st hing an early one, because it is too early
 But it is said that the debate will injure the stock holders that deprecates the value of their proper ty and that it is wrong sport with the vested rights ofindividuas This complaint, supposing it to come from the stockholders themselves is both absurd and ungrafeful. lis absurd, because the stockholders at least so many ofthem as are not foreigners. must have known, when they accepted charter of limited duration, that the approach of its expiration would renew the debate upon the propriety of its existence that every citizen had right and every public man was under an obligation, to declare his sentiments reelyi that there was nothing in the charter nume- rous as its peculiar privileges were to exemnt inc Bank from that freedom of speech and writing which extends to all our public affairs and that inc charter