The North-Carolina standard., 1837-11-01

from Georgia. (Mr. King,) in relation tohe I
Message of the President of the United Stfs,
with mingled feelings Of regret and surpfe /
He must be permitted to say, that he. had dhe1
great injustice to- that able document, cha1c-
moderation, and dignity. The gentleman fr$n
Georgia had taken issue with the Presid4t
chiefly as regarded the expansion of the papf
system, alleged by him to have taken place q
temporaneously in England with the expat /
sion in this country. and also as to the amour
of foreign debt owing from our citizens, whis|
is estimated in the Message at thirty mllionI
Of dollars, on the lst of March last. r. B
had thought, as well from the debates p they
British Parliament as, from such writiSgs Of
that country on that subject as had fallea un-
der his notice, that the expansion OF the hper
system there, in the last few years, was al host
universally admitted The gentleman tom
Georgia was the first. so far as he was inffm
ed, to attempt to controvert this opinion. This
he had endeavored to do by reading staterfn!
OF the amount of bank notes in circulation in
England for the last four or FIVE years. irpr-
der to show that it had increased but littlei in
that period. He then draws the conclusin
because the amount of bank notes have pt
much increased in that time, that the pair
system had undergone no material expansin
In that country.
This was very fllacious standard, remaH
ed Mr.. B by which to judge of the extent
business done by banks. Their transaction;
in paper of various kinds were often very large
when the amount of their notes in circulation
was comparatively small That the rule assu!
med by the gentleman from Georgia was not a
fair one by which to test this question, and that
~ to
great extent. had taken place in Eng gland, he
begged permission to read few sentences
from an essay on banking, in a late number oi
that very ably conducted journal, the Edin'
burgh Review. After exhibiting the great
number of joint stock banks which had lately
been established in England. the writer makes
the following very just remarks: This rapid
increase IN the number and in the issues Of the
joint stock banks. has been, in part, a conse:
quence. but in a much greater degree, cause
of the late rise of prices, and Of the existing g
excitement, But we should fall into the great
est possible error. if we supposed that the IN
fucnce of the banks in question aoas TO be mea.
sured by the amount Of their mates IN eircula.
ton, payable on demand. These, in fact, con
sttute but comparatively small portion of their
obligations Most of them have been in the ha-
bit of trading. not their own capital or on the
deposites made with them, but on credit obtained
in the metropolis and elsewhere. Instead Of re-
tanning the bills and other securities they have
discounted in their Golfers till they are paid. ma
ny banks have been in the habit of forwarding
them to London to be rediscounted. To such
an extent has this system been carried, that We
are well assured that certain banks with less
than FIVE hundred thousand pounds of paid up
capital, have discounted bills and made advan.
ces to the extent of from foe to sic millions
and the engagements of others have even been
more incommensuratc with their capi,al."-
Here, then, is statement fully proving the ex'
pansion of the paper system in England. as
alleged in the Message, and establishing the
important fact that the national bank in En-
gland is incompetent to regulate it, and to
prevent its running into those excesses prompt
ed by the inherent principles of the system
itself The great number OF bankruptcies
which short time since. occurred in the great
commercial cities of England, was another
proof that went to show the existence there oi
the same specializing mania which had plodu-
ced such calamitous consequences in this coun-
try. He had, not long since, seen it mention
ed, in some of the publications of the day, that
the number OF failures. among the merchants
and traders in England. was much greater than
the newspapers of that country had given an
account Of There it was not necessary for po-
litical PURPOSES to send forth exaggerated ac-
counts of mercantile dis,resses, and to publish
daily bulletins of mercantile failures, to alarm
the country The disgraceful and extraordina-
nv avidty with which disasters of that kind
had been trumpe,eG to the world, by large
portion of the opposition press in this country,
often magnifed greatly beyond what in reality
they were, afforded melancholy example OF
the reckless spirit of party which had proved
itself but toosready to sacrifice commerce. cre-
dit country, and every thing that was sacred,
to the advancement OF factious purposes.
There was another circumstance. which he
had often seen stated in the publications of the
day, and which remained uncontradicted. so far
as he knew, that, of ITSELF and in ITSELF furnish
ed the most irrefragable proof of the undue ex
tension of the paper system In England, and
that spirit of wild speculation had been a.
broad there as we'll as on this side of the At
lantic Many Of her great banking houses
connected with the American trade, are sad
to have actually despatched agents to the large
commercial cities OF this country, for the0ur-
pose of offering the most extended creditfacli-
tiles to our merchants 1t was in this way, that
MANY who but a little while before were clerks,
without either the capital or experience neces-
sary to conduct large mercantile operations,
were suddenly converted into great Importing
merchants; and having failed for millions, the
consequences of their own imptndence were
now to be charged to the policy OF the admin
is.ration 1t was this stimulus to overtrad'ng