On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
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.
-
-
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.
Untitled Article
the affliction that , by giving a twelvemonths notice through Mr . Speaker to the Bank of England , the nation can get rid of these acts- A more lame conclusion to a solemn investigation , from winch for nearly two years much information and wise direction haYebeen expected , has seldom fallen under our notice . The committee avows that it has not inquired whether " the present laws constitute a perfect system for regulating" the paper circulation of an empire , " but has inquired whether they have secured that the variations of this currency shall be in conformity to
the laws by which a metallic currency would vary . Even this one point the committee does not elucidate ; it contents itself with asserting , contrary to the fact , " that no one contends that the object has not been obtained . " Because Bank of England notes , regulated by law , and the restricted circulation of the empire administered by other banks , have varied according to the gold in the Bank of England , the committee assumes that the whole paper circulation of the empire has varied in quantity exactly as a metallic circulation would have varied . The assumption is very incorrect . That the paper currency has kept on a par with gold , and
has varied in "value with , it , it gold have undergone any variations in value , is quite true ; but this is the inevitable consequence of the nature of a promise to pay gold on demand and the power to demand the payment at pleasure- How can a banknote be depreciated in relation to gold as long as the holder can at every instant exchange it for the gold it represents ? Depreciation is impossible as long as the law enforces the observance of contracts and does not interfere to exonerate one party from the duty of fulfillihg them . There must indeed be the means to execute this duty , and the state which unwisely interferes with the business of the banker and authorizes the issue of a certain amount
of bank-notes , making them a legal tender , is bound to provide the means of paying them whenever payment is required . To accomplish this one object , which every honest banker by his own means and own exertions accomplishes , is , in truth , the purpose of our cumbrous Bank Acts . But so uncertain and doubting is the committee , that it scarcely ventures to declare on its own authority that even this purpose is achieved . "It appears , " says the committee , " that the present law ensures the maintenance in the coffers of the Bank of an adequate amount of bullion , whilst the history of past years proves that such an amount had not been maintained by the unassisted wisdom and firmness
of the Bank Directors ; and the present Court of Directors are unanimous in desiring that they should continue to be fortified by the provisions of the present Act . " This is all the committee can say in favour of the present law ; and because the Bank directors have wanted wisdom formerly , and now dare not trust themselves , the mercantile community is to remain subject to Bank Acts and currency laws which have no warrant in free trade , and which the committee has taken , no pains to show are beneficial to the nation and ought to be maintained .
We have different banking laws for the metropolis and the provinces , different banking laws for E igland , for Scotland , and for Ireland , and it is utterly impossible that all can be good laws . Paper currency is a modern invention , and , with banking , is susceptible of continual improvement . " The country bankers , " says Mr . Rodwcll , one of themselves , " were not at all aware of the consequences of their issues ; if they had been , such disasters would never have arisen as arose in 1825 . " They only share a universal ignorance . Man has no a priori knowledge of the consequences of his actions , and can only learn them after he has acted . If the Legislature kucw beforehand all the eonsc quenccs of what it does it would make fewer laws
and as it cannot even yet , in common with the bunker , know all the consequences of paper currency and of banking , it is more than probable that the old laws which it has prescribed for these growing parts of society are at all tiincs injurious . On this interestiug topic the inquiries of the committee have shed no light . Not one of the complicated and difficult questions at issue concerning the Bank Acts is cleared up by the report , ; nnd elaborate inquiries continued through two sessions have issued in a most trivial result . That the committee has compiled a reasonable though not a readable account , of the commercial convulsion of lust year , we have stated ; but of the consequences of the acts regulating our currency and banking the report leaves
the public as ignorant as were the bankers in 1 S 2 & of the effects of inundating the country with thei * paper .
Untitled Article
NEW CALEDONIA AND BRITISH COLONIZATION . Besides the movements which will be . ' made , to colonize N " ew Caledonia from the neighbouring settlements of the "United States , from Vancouver ' s Island , and from this country by way of the Pacific , it is most probable that the Droad region which has hitherto passed by the name of Oregon , as well as that lying east of the Rocky Mountains above the Mississippi , will be approached by emigrants making their way through the British colonies of North America . The debate in the House of
Commons on Tuesday evening gives us the satisfactory announcement that the present Cabinet is quite prepared to deal with the emigration and its inevitable consequences . On this , the Canada side of the question , the embarrassments are not perhaps so great as on the Pacific side , where so much American jealousy and so many disagreeable relations are mingled with the subject ; but it is essential to the proper disposition df ' . tlw territory , and to the integrity of the British empire , that every impediment to * the freest settlement of the -country
should be removed as rapidly as possible . The explanation of Sir Edward Bulwer iLytton is the most direct proof that the Government is prepared , and we are induced to suppose that the hue of action 'which it intends to pursue will \ e well suited to the juncture . The difficulties ^ luch have to be met in opening that splendid territory for British colonization are of various kinds . Its position is peculiar . It lies between the sterile and uninhabitable lands which
border the extreme north of the American comment , the deme woods which block up the patliway for emigration from British North America , the settlement of New Caledonia , and the . American States . The gold fields , which are the great attractions for the new colony on the Pacific coast , lie to the back of the territory for which our ^ Ministers are providing a local Government ; ' and unquestionably they wilL constitute a similar attraction fox settlers from the other side—that is , from the Hudson ' s Bay Company , from Canada , Nova Scotia , and NW Brunswick . The territory which is more immediatel y in question lies in the midst of the American continent towards the north ; it is
well wooded—too densely wooded in some parts ; fertile , even in the open prairies ; and well watered with rivers flowing m various directions . The cliiniite is somewhat more extreme than we are accustomed to experience in this country—colder in winter , but much warmer in summer , and calculated to try the constitution ; but upon the whole healthy , bracing , and ripening . It is most certain , that the territory will be thickly peopled some day ., and the practical qnestion now is , whether it shall be gradually peopled ^ rom the colonies bordering on the Pacific , largely intermingled with Americans , or more promptly settled by emigrants from this country , principally finding their way to the part through North American colonies .
The difficulties in respect of inaccesibility arc increased by certain technical difficulties of law . The Hudson ' s Bay Company is established under a charter granted by Charles II ., the validity of which is under some doubt with regard both to ' Charles ' s flowers of convening lands then in possession of the Jrench , and the amount of territory actually conveyed . The colony of Canada has also set up some not very defined claim to the territories which arc contiguous with it towards the west . The effect of these claims hitherto has been rather to deter settlement . The Hudson ' s Bay Company , indeed , more than twenty years ago , established a settlement on the Itcu Kivcr , which lias prospered to a
certain extent ; for it is self-supporting aiid capable of self-defence . _ But founded by the Hudson ' s Bay Company , it is peopled far less by Irish , English , or Scotch , than by a very different class , who cannot be regarded as forming good colonists , though they are brave , skilful -woodsmen , bold riders , and practised in the uso of firearms . Of the S 000 settlers , says Sir William Eyre , not more than one quarter arc British settlors ; l . hc vc&t consist of half-breeds—the descendants of the employes of the Hudson's Buy Company , or the British colonists that have wandered so far west , and have intermarried wii . li the indigenous Indian tribes . Now , generally speaking , the cluiructer of the half-breed docs not fit him to perform the
duties of a British colonist ; he is brave sharpwitted , and eager in the pursuit of his own interest ; but he is seldom so frank either as the Englishman or Indian . He has a constitution which lies between the energy of the British and the indolence of the red man . He would make a better militiaman , or sportsman , or possibly trader , than agriculturist or special constable . The Red Biver , therefore , is scarcely successful as a British colony . It was remarked b y Mr . Lowe in the debate , that Canada possesses abundance of unoccupied land , which might be filled up before we trench upon the
possessions of the Hudson ' s Bay Company ; but this is a very false view of the subject . The spread of settlement throughout the " North American , colonies , and indeed throughout all considerable territories occupied by the British race , has been noted for the spontaneous character of its movement . The bodies of emigrants pursue the veins of fine land , the tracks ot streams , the course of valleys ; they obey almost the direction of the sun and wind , rather than map themselves down by any predetermined arrangement , as French colonists might do . The country thus sketched out in the skeleton by the living
people is afterwards filled up at leisure as the settlements spread laterally . Even now there are many portions of the States of the American Union—large tracts in Pennsylvania , for example —which are still wild and unoccupied ; while that energetic people is establishing agriculture and law in great communities to the west of the Rocky Mountains . If colonization , is to be resumed in British North America , at a rate in any degree parallel to that which has been going on unbrokenly in the territories allotted to the TTnited States ,
there must be precisely the satne ^ perfect freedom of choice , the sameunrestrained variety of direction , the same electric shooting , as it were , of the crystallization of settlement that we witness to the south of the British boundary ; and there can he little doubt that the absence of that freedom has turned the direction of immense numbers who have left our shores far more than any peculiar liking to the form of government . The degree of indifference shown for this part of America hitherto is no measure of the value which it might possess in the
eyes of the emigrant if the British Government were simply to throw it open > to reawaken the dormant energies of the Emigration-office , to diffuse information on the subject ,, to guide the emigrant , and to give him the security of Jkitish laws for life , property , and freely pursued industry . 1 he whole question is now under consideration , but we infer from the language of Sir Edward Liytton that he is on the proper track . The rights of the
Hudson s Bay Company are about to be examined by the Law Officers of the Crown , with a view to determine what they are , and then to render justice to the corporation . We may anticipate that the territory of the Company will be better defined than it is now ; that the essential rights under the charter will be affirmed , with the right of trading supremacy in the Company ' s own district not within the bounds of colonization . - At the same
time , we anticipate that tJie claim of the Company over the settlements available for settlement will be negatived , its licence for exclusive trading " , which will expire next year , being no longer renewed for the parts opened to settlement . The colonizing of the territory had been offered by the late Colonial Secretary , Mr . Labouchero , to Canada , should that colony think fit to accept the responsibility , moral as well as financial ; but the Colonial Secretary avows his belief that Canada will not avail herself of tlie offer . In that case , it will be incumbent upon the present Colonial Secretary and his colleagues to provide for the local government of the territory ; and if we may still further
anticipate , we arc inclined to expect that the arrungemcut which the Ministers will submit to Parliament next session will result in turning towards that part of Hkitfsh North America no small portion of the emigration which has of lato years been checked in its flow towards Australia , mid has been so unnaturally limited to tlic States . In this event , the promised measures would have a very considerable effect in reawakening the departmental energies of our Government under Sir Edward Lytton ' s administration , in imparting new energy to the shipping business , in calling out what niuy be culled the purveying department of the British colonies over which the
emigration must pass , nnd in giving u new value to all the neighbouring lands of tlioso colonies , the Hudson ' s Bay Company included ; with the further
Untitled Article
No . 435 , Jtjlt 24 , 1858 , 1 THE LEADEB , 711 , ¦¦ _ ,. ——— ..- ¦— . i - — , ^_^—i ^ i ^——^^—Mt ^^ 1 ^——
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), July 24, 1858, page 711, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2252/page/15/
-