On this page

• Text (2)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    June 16, 1855.] W 15 El A J)Ilt, 567

  • 

    BRITISH BANKRUPTCY. The stoppage of a ba...

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Weights And Measures. The World, No Doub...

    to ita foundations , and makes your claim to be a divine church , appear what it is—an arrogant delusion ; refuse to grant liberty of worship , your conscientious ' course , not as Peers of Parliament , but as pillars of the Church , and you declare war against one of the most sacred rights of man . ! N " ot only this ; you place yourself in the most

    inconsistent position , lamenting the heathen darkness of the land , unable , yourselves , to raise up a spark of light , and making believe that you hold , and to some extent holding down , an extinguisher over the lamps of those who would , to the best of their ability , light their fellow-creatures out of the crooked paths of wickedness .

    Let us have liberation . On every side there seems to be a breaking-down of the prestige of olden institutions . If the land were really Church of England—if Church of Englaiidism were any real , intelligible , heart-seizing thing—it would not need this system of registered public-worship tenements for its protection . It is because the Church is a political establishment , with a "territorial constitution , " that it needs protective laws . But , it would seem , there

    is no one doctrine in the sacred books and articles upon which the Church founds herself , then why pretend there is but one , harmonious , and divinely derived ? One sect has as much right to be heard as another ; one sect has as much right to official protection as another ; surely one man or men have as much right to pray when they please and how they please as another ; surely this is a matter in which all have equal rights , in which , to use the words of Lord

    Shaftesbtjry , a man shall be at liberty to do as he pleases , providing he does nothing subversive of morality . It is not always that we can concur with Lord Shaftesbttry ; we think his position , as a member of the Established Church , at least anomalous ; but in this principle we heartily concur ; and if there be one maxim more sacred , more fruitful of greatness and goodness in states than another , it is that no Government , no earthly power whatsoever , has the least right to dictate to aiw

    man or set of men where , Avhen , and how he or they shall worship . Least of all when , as is admitted , the metropolis , nay the nation , has gone far beyond the grasp of a Church falsely calling itself national , has that Church , because , by an accident , it possesses the remnants of an autocratic power bequeathed by the elder institution , of which it is only a contumacious offshoot , the right to dictate to those who are neither of the elder Church , nor of the j'ounger preA ailing schism ?

    Lord Shafxesbury's Bill escaped condemnation by a majority of one . Its great opponents were the Bishops and stout high-church and nolitical-church Lords . Clear-sighted enough in . such cases , these gentlemen see that if the law bo relaxed , it will really bo a groat blow at the theory of the Church , for it will permit an almost endless diversity of so-called church services , starting from the Prayer-book as a basis , and diverging in all directions . In the fanciful words of Lord Carnarvon , "the line

    of demarcation between Churchmen and Dissenters would be obliterated , and there would only be a tangled wilderness of vague and shadowy Christianity , professed by persons who , in reality , belong to no church or sect . " But , iu fact , in not this a tolerably accurate description of tho actual state of things hiddon under that veil of lip-confbrinity which Lord Carnarvon desires to perpetuato by penal lies P

    Wo have criod out oro this for tho utmost freedom of speech , writing , and worship ; we h * vo , while doing battle for tho honest portion of the Church , and contending for her emancipation from the fetters of the State , remained

    ever true to the ery for the full freedom ? of the whole people in matters spiritual , and , therefore , we are glad to see a movement made in the House of Lords for the repeal of that disgraceful prohibition which would prevent Englishmen from assembling for public worship , unless , like the landlord of a gin palace , they first obtained a license . Think of one worm begging of another worm for leave to pray to the Supreme fiuler , the . Father of all !

    June 16, 1855.] W 15 El A J)Ilt, 567

    June 16 , 1855 . ] W 15 El A J ) Ilt , 567

    British Bankruptcy. The Stoppage Of A Ba...

    BRITISH BANKRUPTCY . The stoppage of a bank of high character is the text for a moral preached by the Money article of the Morning Chronicle . It is pointed out as an instance how dangerous it is for a house , let it be in what business it may , to step beyond the strict letter of its functions ; and how much more prudent it is to put up with the first ascertained loss than to seek to cover it by increased liability . The moral is narrow , but it is sound so far as

    it goes . A Banker's business differs from that of every other mercantile firm whatever ; but it appears to us that the distinctive peculiarity of banking in reference to its control and its guiding moral principle , is never kept in view with sufficient clearness . It is generally thought that bankers are traders in money ; but a consideration of the function that' they perform in trade will show this to be an erroneous description . In all commercial business , properly so called ,

    some commodity passes from a seller who produces it at less cost , to a purchaser who can give in exchange something not so valuable to him ; and hence a double profit in the increased value which each commodity acquires for the person receiving it . A merchant , for example , buys a quantity of print goods in Manchester at one price , which he can well afford to give , and sells it to a foreign house at a higher

    price , which that house can afford to give ; the difference being the merchant's profit . In some trades , as in that of Commission Agent , a service is performed with a percentage on the-amount of money passed ; but here the service may be said to be the thing sold on speculation ; and the chances of the market in the long run will justify the calculation of the dealers on both sides .

    With regard to money , the case is wholly different . A Banker ' s business is to take care of cash , and so far to save the attention , the trouble , the time , and the costly machinery which the same care would entail upon every private possessor . This is a service that can always be performed , but it differs from the Commission Agency in this respect . The money itself is an ascertained value ; the payment for the service is to be got out of that very money ; and there is no necessity for depending upon tho speculative

    value of tho market . Safety is the first consideration for all , whether it be safety of custody or safety of transport ; and the very commodity sold is abstracted or adulterated when tho banker neglects any precaution necessary for securing tho abso + uto safety of tho money . As tho money always comes to him an ascertained value , so ho has no excuse for mistaking the charge in his keeping . There is nothing speculative about it ; and as soon as the element of speculation is introduced , the business of tho banker is invaded by a foreign and an incompatible business—the banker ia traitor to his

    customers . Tho only chance for a legitimate mistnko in trado is where tho banker is custodian for a given amount of property of ancortained , but not immediately convertible value ; Avliilo tho claim for monoy of immediately convertible value exceeds * tho proportion that hxD may happen to hnvo on hand . In such cases , his bank may stop payment ,

    but it will be solvent , and will pay 20 s . in the pound . No bank can pay less without being guilty of a breach of trust .. The moral of the Morning Chronicle , therefore , strictly applies to banking . A similar moral , may be extended to most kinds of business ; if we give it a broader interpretation . If every man in trade abstained from transgressing his professed function , we should have fewer

    speculative losses . The purchase and sal © of cotton requires experience , and when the agent devotes that experience to the purchase and sale of cotton , he can ; make a very hand > - some profit on the transaction . But he is not content with this ; he endeavours to get up in the United States a false estimate of the stock on hand in England , that he may buy cheap ; he endeavours to get up a false estimate in England : of the crop , that he may sell dear . His transactions are like those of

    others , based upon credit ; and before the whole round of deception can be completed , the trick is found out ; the capital that he has invested in his business is not sufficient to meet the demands upon him , and he is bankrupt , because he tried to add to the business- of cotton dealer that of swindler . Yet there are cotton merchants who run these risks without going into the Gazette at once , and the highest in the land are glad to invite them to their tables and pay them honour .

    It is the same in ship dealing . A person owning a number of ships is making a fair profit by the employment of those vessels ; he thinks that with the prospect of war there will be great demand for shipping ; lie has command of a large sum of money , and while he is supposed to be in possession of 50 , 00 GZ ., he can obtain credit for half that amount from , we might almost say , fifty different people , because they believe he can fulfil what he promises to do . He purchases , therefore , scores of ships , to be paid for , not immediately , but at a date not very long distant . The anticipated dearth of shipping is neither so sudden nor so vast as he

    calculates . He has not been carrying on a trade in shipping according to demand and supply , bvit a trade not his own , and he has been accumulating ships that nobody wants , and distributing bills that he has not the means of paying . The mistake explodes , and he goes into the Gazette , because he has drawn a number of people into his blunder without telling them what he was doing . Here was a gentleman trading in ships and dreams , but he called himself only a trader in ships , or nobody would have traded with him if he had told his real business .

    So again it is even when we descend to the most respectable of the retail traders . There is hardly a grocer ' s preparation , a drug , an article of composite food , or even simple food , which is not mingled up with something that adulterates it , and the tradesman over his counter sells real goods mingled with counterfeits , making the purchaser pay

    for tho whole as if it were genuine , lho thing is done all around , and thus the community spends in tho aggregate an immense amount of money for the carnago and consumption of tilings that it docs not want ; to say nothing of the amount spent in doctors bills , because we consume poisons where we would purchase food . , tvt ^ .-i . ^ K / - >^ . r lo l-. n \ rr » tia HiiliRtfinno in thom : falsehoods have no substance in thorn ;

    , Now , thero must bo a point in tho whole transaction where tho sham breaks down ; and at that point bankruptcy sets in . What is tho amount of bankruptcy transacted in London every year ? Wo aro aware that nobody . answer the question . The amount is by no meant ) exprossod in tho accounts of tho canes n-a / . otted . Besidos those flagrant acts of bankruptcy , there aro many cases of bank-

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), June 16, 1855, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16061855/page/15/