NEWS OF THE MONTH.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IX, Issue 562, 24 March 1858, Page 3

NEWS OF THE MONTH.

We give below extracts from the news of each v/oek, over which the late mail extends.

(From the Spectator.) (For the Week ended Nov. 21.)

Since Saturday last, facts have transpired which prove how impossible it was for-Govern-ment to avoid intervention iv the case of the Bank of England; and it turns out that the appeal to Parliament has also been rendered practically necessary. An examination of the figures alone might have shown that the Bank had fallen into a position which placed it at the mercy of accidents. During the week preceeding the day of intervention, the reserve of notes had undergone a reduction to the amount of nearly £1,200,000, leaving not more than £957,000 —whereas in 1847 the lowest amount of notes in reserve was £1,547,000. The reserve of gold and silver in the Banking Department was barely more than £500,000. It has been calculated that during the same week the advances and loans from* the Bank amounted to £5,000,000. Here was a rate of exhaustion which threatened the complete emptying of the Bank reserve, unless . the astabllshment were endowed with the power of calling up fresh | resources. When the Treasury letter was issued there was some expectation, even in the highest quarters, that it would operate as the letter of 1847 did, and would by the mere issue conjure away alarm, remaining practically a dead letter, and rendering no act of indemnity necessary. Ifc turned out, however, that the Bank was actually compelled to pass the legal limit for the issue of notes. This happened on Friday. Even now, notwithstanding an undeniable diminution of excitement, — for the Treasury letter did have some effect, —the pressure on the ' Bank has continued without interruption, and with only partial mitigation. The list of failures has been daily augmented; and has involved houses of the highest respectability, not; only in the different branches of the Ameiicau trade, or in our own manufacturing business, but in provinces so outlying' as the Swedish trade. Firms have failed for sums ranging from comparatively trifling amounts to hundreds of thousands or a million. And as the present week has advanced, the applications to the Bank have increased rather than diminished; gold arrivals alone being1 regarded as the defence against a further increase iv the rate of

discount.

The number of banks '.vliioh have suspended is now increased by the Wolverhampfcon and Staffordshire Banking Company; an establishment of some magnitude, marking by its fall the progress of embarrassment in a district which had been, erroneously it seems, sup posed to be comparatively exempt. Immense exertions have been made to counteract the moral effect of panic ; and with some success. The most conspicuous effort of this kind has taken place at Glasgow ; where all the Dukes, Earls, Baronets, Members of Parliament, and landowners, that could be mustered, appeared in public meeting to pass resolutions declaring their confidence in the Scotch banks. The leaders of the meeting went beyond resolutions: beginning with, the Duke of Hamilton, they not only declared their readiness to accept the notes of the suspended^ Glasgow banks in payment of rents and other claims, but in many cases they announced -that tlu;y had been already acting upon that principle. Tlie proprietary of the Western Bank of Scotland has been contributing largely towards the continuance of the bank; and all classes appear to have b.ien combining for the purpose of preventing interruption to commerce. Here the people themselves have been actively cooperating to furnish that which is said to bo the better part of capital, confidence. There is scarcely any foreign news to notice. The idle gossip in Paris, repeated by the * Speet;iteur,' accusing the sporting company at Compiegne of leaving the chase of the deer for the chase of "stags" in the city, lias been magnified into something worth attention by the official " warning" of the journal. In this

country it would have been laughed at, and for* gotten. A little more attention is merited by the reports that the quarrel between Redschid Pasha and M. Thouvenel is to be patched up, or has been so already. The reconciliation is recent, if true. But while the Turkish Government plead* <the hardship of being for ever debarred from the services of an able Minister, who was dismissed to please the grand agitator for the Danube Union, the energetic Thouvenel has probably received instructions from Paris not to be stiff-necked.

In the North of Italy, much is made of a political event which in this country would be regarded as a matter of course. The elections in the Sardinian States have all gone in favour of Count Cavour's Government—a turn which we might have presumed; but from the excessive satisfaction expressed by the Ministers and their friends, we infer the fears they had previously entertained of successes by the Ultramontane party, or possibly of an alliance between the Ultramontanists and the Republicans. The wildest Democrat in this country, unless he were a mere political swindler, would scarcely for an instant tolerate any opposition to a Government that aloue embodies practicable Liberalism in Italy. (For the Week ended Novemher 28.^

" Things are better in the City ;"• the Bank of France has thought it safe somewhat to abate its rate of discount: our own Bank has this week returned its issues to a. point within the limits authorised by the Act of 1844; and upon the whole, the commercial sky is not quite so black as it has looked. One of the most dangerous symptoms, perhaps, is the readiness to assume too much that we are quit of the danger; for the week has seen some very disagreeable events of the same character as those which had gone before. The suspension oP the Northumberland and Durham District Bank, with large liabilities, made up, it is supposed, by a very considerable number of smaller accounts, has unfolded another chapter of joint-stock management, with extensive dabbling in speculation.. The list of important firms that have been brought down has been daily extended: besides English and Scotch houses, it includes firms at Hamburg, Smyrna, and the Cape of Good Hope; and new disclosures have come out respecting past failures, casting additional discredit upon some of the most eminent names. Houses which not long since indig-. nantly denied their embarrassment have stopped payment, and are shown to have liabilities four or five times the amount of their assets. With regard to available assets, the banks are involved in the same predicament; even the.highest of all, the Bank of England, having at one time only a modicum of cash to meet immense demands lying at call. The number of cases in which private firms have been mixed up with the manufacture of accommodation-paper, or other devices amounting to actual fraud, is so considerable as to suggest "apprehensions that British commerce is corrupt to its very heart. We do not know that, although we were among the first to expose the extent of the corruption; but we know that the disease has spread so far that it niay be fatal to our national welfare if it be not effectually exposed and cure'!.

AYe see boastful references to the large amount of our exports continued in the face of these facts,- —as if writers had nod even yet learned how to appreciate similar references tor the past year. It is now known that amongst our exports have been consignments sent out on purs' speculation, or even for fraudulent purposes. Over-make is among the reasons why in all the towns of Lancashire immense numbers of people have been reduced to idleness and destitution ; while in many towns tha needy are parading the streets in numbers menacing to the peace.

We do not inleed forget tliafc these particular difficulties have causes beside those of overspeculation or the banking crisis,—more especially in the comparative failure of the, cotton crop, and the suspension of the Indian trade. The recent successes in the East are likely enough to be followed by some revival of commercial movement: cotton is beginning to come in, its price going down ; trade is slightly recovering in the United States; there are concurrent signs that the' extreme stagnation of the manufacturing districts will not last very long. The good harvest of this year is one security against excessive want, even under the infliction of short time; and upon the whole there are grounds for reasonable hope that matters may begin to mend, —unless a too sanguine view should lead to a reckless resumption of abuses as well as of trade.

The " manifesto " of Dr. Cullen on Indian Relief, as ifc is called, has created a sensation, because tke Roman Archbishop of Dublin writes with earnestness, is an Archbishop, and his pamphlet is bulky ; but in reality it does not advance the question which he discusses a single step beyond the point to which it was_ carried when Lord St. Leonard's first contradicted him, nor beyond the point to which the merits have been recognised by candid Protestants. Dr. Cullen states some facts which show that under the administration of the Patriotic Fund large sums of money have been given to Protestant'schools and not-to Roman Catholic schools; that children of Roman Catholic parents, even where the parents had taken steps towards their education in the hereditary faith, have in some cases been diverted from Roman 'Catholic schools; and that large sums derived from Protestant subscriptions and administered by Protestants have not been distributed with that perfect disregard of sect that was intended by the highest managers of the fund, and was unquestionably due to the national character of the sulvscripiion. Prom the manner in which Dr. Cullen raised these objections, it was not

THpiaturally assumed th.it his object was to Bpoil the new-subscription for the India Relief ITund. In that he Jms failed; but truth is 'truth, even in the mouth of the man who intends to misuse it; and these lessons ought to bewseful in compelling a purer-administration •«f thelndia Relief-Fund.

Our-Foreign Office liar been virtually called 'to -account 'by the Anti-Slavery interest of this country on the subject of the free African emigration which has been patronised by the JTrench Government. Lord PahneTston's Admiuistra-

tioii stands in rather a delicate position. Last fiummer, a deputation from certain West India > interests endeavoured to obtain the sanction of 'our Government for-a general scheme of African emigration : -no very great encouragement was

given "to that -plan, -Lord Palmerston having always been a consistent and ardent upholder ■of the Anti-Slavery blockade; but now his Imperial friend in Paris has sanctioned the scheme set going by M. Re*gis of Marseilles. It is -this-which has called up a deputation to inquire 'from Lord Clarendon what our Government is •doing to -prevent a movement which breaks through the slave-trade treaties, and diverts the Africans from industry to slave-hunting. For such is the view represented by the deputation. Lord Clarendon's reply amounts to an eipx'ession of sympathy, and a hope that as M. Itegis has not been very successful, the representations from our Foreign Office to the French Government ma}' have effect.

Uy a coincidence which is not without its the two Governments of Belgium and Piedmont are labouring under an alarming reaction. The new minister of Belgium, M. Rogier, has issued a programme of his policy, which is firm and Liberal in tone; but he only ■meets the Chambers to dissolve them; and he appeals to the country with almost the certainty that the majority of the electors are in -fiivoar of an Ultramontane reaction. Count 'Vilaln XIIII endeavoured to reconcile the "Liberalism of the towns with the Ultramon'tanism of the rural districts, by compromising "the matter and making concessions to the clergy, especially the regular clergy. But the 'towns flatly rebelled against the compromise, and King Leopold arrested the outburst of civil ■war only by au exercise of his own authority. It is doubtful whether the successor of Count Vilain XIIII, however firm in Wtone, will be able to overcome the inherent difficulties of his position.

Defeated by the Government, the clerical ■party in Piedmont has used enormous exertions •to muster a majority in Parliament; and has succeeded in obtaining, if not a majority, at least a .minority of dangerous proportions. Some of the bestrcandidates have been defeated, and we have yet to see how the extreme Liberal party will act. Nothing could be more disastrous for the prospects of Liberal parties in Italy, and therefore throughout the whole of Europe, than a permanent defeat of the principles upon which Cavour has conducted his administration.

The uosettlement which characterises the condition of the Old World extends to the New, and Europe cannot exliibit a more striking picture of restlessness than is embodied in the Government of the United States. President Buchanan is sending a mission to cement intimate relations with Brazil, whose friendship our <nwn Minister has done his best to alienate. ■Bat while the President is thus prospectively strengthening the supports of the Republic, he is unable to maintain the Federal authority over the miserable Mormons, the expedition against -the triumphant Brigham Young being abandoned for the year; and crowds of "unemployed" -riotously muster in the streets of New York, if the Empire City had sunk to the level of ;an "Old World" Liverpool. There is indeed •something to " explain away" these ugly mci <3ents. In the New York tumult, there is no small amount of humbug. Irish and foreign emigrants, who ought only to travel through the old States to the West, habitually loiter about New York. The Mayor of an expiring -corporation amused himself a few weeks since by threatening the banks which did not " accommodate," with suspended trade, want of employment, and disturbance; and he proposed ■public provision of employment for the destitute. The indolent Irish and crafty foreigners have taken him at his word, and compelled him to a.vow that he has not the means of carrying •out his own policy. As to the Mormons, their -.grand strength lies in the broad desert and in the money crisis of commercial YanWland.

It will be seen that stars and garters have been bestowed upon some of onr distinguished Indian officers, and that the Queen has raised •Wilson and Havelock to the dignity of baroHiets. This is excellent as far as it goes, as an "instalment of the debt due to the gallant men —-especially to H.-jvelock—who have kept India with a handful of troops, while, waiting for the -reinforcements we hav,e despatched to their aid. .But the country will not be satisfied with these rewards. Reraembeping upon whom, in our own time, this earn* dignity of baronet has been bestowed—the Jjmall, insignificant, and obsenre followers of the minister of the' day, in 'Parliament and out of Parliament, who have bean gazetted to that much abused d'jstinction-^the ♦country will not.be^atisfted to permit men like aiavelook or Wilson to remain very long with-,-ottt some more special recognition o"' their .claims. Parliament and the East India Com>in.y have ifldded to these inadequate honours pensions of £1,000 a-yearto each of these officers. 'B.ufc,*bearing in recdlleefcion that the dignity of a peerage, and a pension .of £3,000 a-year, to be continued for two generations in his .family; were conferred on Sir J, Eeane ■for comparatively inHignificant services, #1,000 S'jearto Haveloeli does seem a very unworthy

tribute to one of the most gallant soldiers in the Queen's army. This pension, tun, was granted only for the life time »>1 the recipient, and it \v»s not until the sense of th« Commons had been strongly pronounced on the subject that Ministers consented to continue it to Havelock's son, by a separate resolution next session. The* East India Company have acted with liberality to Lady Neil 1 and "Mrs. Nicholson, to whom 'they have granted annuities of £500 a-year each. Our foreign news is a blank. Europe, as the Queen's speech tells us, is in a state of universal repose, and scarcely a breath of movement agitates the surface. France contributes only a single item to the current chronicle— the refusal"of two independent members of the Corps Le^islatif to subscribe the oath to the present Government. The circumstance is merely noted by the journals, without exciting the slightest emotion in auy quarter. The panic in Hamburgh, of course, occupies attention, and sundry London shops, that are iti the habit of turning all such incidents to account, announce sales of " soft goods" at a " ruinous reduction" in consequence; but notwithstanding the alarm created on the Continent, and attempted to be disseminated here, confidence is slowly returning, and it is believed that the worst is over. From Spain we learn that the Queen has given birth to a son, and that the fact, notwithstanding all royal arrangements in such cases made and provided, is pretended to be doubted by certain political parties in Madrid. The case of two English engineers who have been kept in prison for five months by the King of Naples, and subjected to gross ill- ' treatment, on a charge of complicity in the late conspiracy against the Government, has been brought in an interrogatory form before Parliament. The facts of severity alleged against King Bomba are substantially established, yet nothing, it appears, can be done to obtain redress. His majesty, it is said, has discovered a new Mazzinian conspiracy, and put 400 people into prison on suspicion. The elections in Sardinia and Belgium have terminated with large majorities in favour of the Liberal party in both countries. The problem of the Principalities still occupies much attention. There is great excitement in Waliachia and Moldavia, which is inflamed by patriotic appeals to the nationality of the -people from the pulpit, the clergy callintj on their flocks to insist on their demands, and t > be ready to maintain them to the death.— Some 'News.