It has been confidently stated that Government is determined to
redeem the 4 per cent. Stock, by converting it into 31 or even, as some allege, into 3 per cent. The whole account, we may premise, is but' a rumour,—Government has not committed itself by any decla- ration on the subject ; yet as the report has excited a very great sen- sation among the class;of annuitants most deeply interested, we should not be justified in omitting to notice it, as well as some of the specu- lations to which it has given rise.
One of the holders of 4 per cent. Stock has addressed a letter to the body, in which, after denouncing the measure as fraudulent, he points out a mode of resistance to it, by which, it seems to him, they may baffle every attempt on the part of Government to carry it into execution. He reminds the gentlemen of the 4 per cents, that their claims upon the country amount to one hundred and fifty millions ; he alleges that the Government hats no right, without the consent of the lenders, to pay off' the loan, far less to alter the rate of interest upon it ; he therefore calls upon them to be true to their own interests—to combine in a refusal to sanction the conversion of 4 per cent Stock into 31 per cent.; and if Government will be rid of their claims, to insist upon full payment of the whole 4 per cent Stock at par. Money to the amount requisite cannot, of course, be found; and this scheme of conversion must, the writer declares, be " returned to the Minister's portfolio as a piece of waste paper." To declare, as the writer of the letter alluded to does, that a debtor may not, when it suits him, discharge his debts, or take every honest advantage of variations in the value of money to lighten their pressure —to declare that before doing so he is bound to consult his creditors' wishes on the point,—would amount to an assumption that the interests of debtor and creditor may become identical, and that the debtor is bound to watch over both. As a theory, this is curious in itself, and doubly so as emanating from a professed hater of things so visionary. As to the means recommended for forcing Government to continue to pay upon one class of loans a higher rate of interest than the market price of money warrants, we are unable to perceive any likelihood of their proving effective. It is improbable in the extreme that so large a body of men, including individuals differing widely in their situa- tions and sentiments as to what is desirable in the investment of money, should, in the unsettled state of the commercial world, refuse to ac- cede to a slight reduction of interest on their claims. But should even a great proportion of them demand their money, Government is not bound to pay of all at one time. It might be necessary, perhaps, to continue the present rate of interest to the portion whose claims cannot be immediately liquidated in money ; but if Government securities re- tain their present high value, it would not be difficult in a short time, to redeem the whole of the debts due to those who are likely to oppose a measure which the state of the country calls for, and which the gene7 ral rate of profit promises to render easy of execution. On the value of money at present, the author of this letter hazards some rather odd observations. He says that it is worth more than 31 per cent., while he alleges in the same breath that the country is nearly ruined.
" The true standard (he alleges) by which we ought to measure the value of money, is not a transient high price of Stocks, produced by the expectation of some scheme of finance concocted by the Minister, but the real financial and commercial situations of the country; and who will say, that with an annual taxation of 50,000,0001. and with the distresses both in trade and agri- culture, which for so long a time have been the topics of complaint with every one, the situation of country is such as to justify a measure which on the very face of it, contrary to the fact, presumes redundant resources, ' and a prosperous condition in all the departments of our national economy ?
We should say, that in specifying heavy taxation, and the distresses in trade and agriculture, the writer specifies the very circumstances that
do justify the measure which he condemns,—and prove besides, the extreme improbability of his assumption that the value of money, as indicated by the rate of profit, is anywhere very high. .
Some Yorkshire clergymen, of the Established Church, have been. challenging, the Catholic priesthood of Lancashire to a wrangling- match about their differences on points of faith; and the Catholics : have had the good taste to decline the meeting. We can fancy, nothing more preposterous and childish than an attempt to strengthen ' any creed by a victory that would be the reward of coolness,, fluency, and dialectic subtlety merely ; nor can we fancy anything more likely to lessen the influence of both parties over their flocks? than the intemperance of language into which disputants unused to t controversy in public would inevitably be betrayed. We may be per miffed to remark too, that clergymen of the Church of England, in' Yorkshire as well as elsewhere, might be better employed in preparing themselves to meet the call of the nation for reform of the temporall abuses of the establishment, than in mooting questions merely specu-.. lative about the nature of its doctrines.
SPECTATOR OFFICE, SATURDAY, Two O'CLOCK.
German Papers have arrived this morning, but almost destitute of news. Most of the Russian corps which were to evacuate Turkey halA already crossed the Danube. The recognition of Don MIGUEL by Don PEDRO—a current rumom yesterday on the Stock Exchange—was a hoax. The Duke of WELLINGTON has received from the county of Kent!' a set of resolutions agreed to by all the Grand Jurors, setting forth thsi depressed state of agriculture, and praying for relief. As no remedy h' proposed, the Duke will probably do no more than merely acknowledge ti the receipt of the paper.' He has, however, been pestered with indivi- dual entreaties to recommend to Parliament a return to the Smal Note system,—a course which we know he has hitherto declared Ulu' he will not adopt. The Dublin Papers of Thursday state that accounts have been re ceived, from a high quarter, that Lord JERSEY will be the next and las,' Lore Lieutenant of Ireland. TILE LATE FAIR AT LEIPSIC.—It appears front an authentic document upon the subject of the late fair at Leipsic, that the sale .of French goods is sensibly dimi- nishing, particularly of cloth. Our fashionable articles, however, still preserve a marked superiority. Notwithstanding the estimation in which the clocks and watches of Geneva are held, the demand for those of France was also consider- able ; but it was not so with' French jewellery, which is daily losing ground. For French cloths and stuffs of every description there was little demand,—chiefly, as it appears, from the late events in Turkey and Greece, which prevented the attendance of the Turkish and Greek merchants, who used to purchase largely. There was very little demand for English goods, of which we saw only what remained in the warehouses from the last fair. There were few goods from Saxony, the manufacturers of that country having been able to find sale for their productions without sending them to the fair. There were a great number of dealers from Vienna, who readily disposed of jewellery, ribands, women's shoes, and amber. Shawls, owing to the regulation in Turkey prohibiting their use in the army, were very low in price. Common woollen cloths, leather, &c. were eagerly bought up by Russian and Polish merchants, for the use of the armies.— French Paper.
The Grand Chancellor of France, Monsieur D'Ambrey, died on Monday ; and Messrs. de Villele, Peyronnet, Lally Tolendal, Barthelemy, and Polignac, are named as candidates for the title.
During the late journey of the Duchess de Berri, she stopped to breakfast with four ladies of her suite at an inn at Bezier, and was charged 700 francs (281.) for the repast, which was a very indifferent one into the berg min. At another inn at Arles she was charged ft AN francs (about 961.) for four repasts. The Duchess paid these extortionate demands, but not without signifying her displeasure at them.
Our journals now give an account of a monument, which the Emperor has long since resolved to erect to the memory of his brother the late Emperor. It is to be a Doric pillar, resembling Trajan's pillar at Rome. The shaft of the column, of one block of red granite, is to be eighty-four feet high ; and the whole monu- ment, including the pedestal and the cross on the pillar, one hundred and fifty- four feet high ; so that it will surpass any similar monument, ancient or modern. The pedestal to be covered with bronze, adorned with ancient Russian arms and Creek and Russian trophies made out of the cannon taken from the enemy The pedestal will bear the simple inscription—" To Alexander I. by grateful Russia." The work is begun, and may be finished in twoyears.—Prussian Slate. Gacette.,,
Rain has been falling at Gibraltar, by the latest accounts, as if a second deluge were at hand; and it has been accompanied with hurricanes that have done a great deal of damage.
Time Bombay Courier of the 13th June contains the following announcement. " The Supreme Court at Bombay is reopened by the Honourable Sir J.P. Grant, for general business, and a Criminal Sessions will be held on Wednesday next. In noticing this event we cannot refrain from congratulating the whole commu- nity, European and native, upon the exemplary conduct it has, without an ex- ception, displayed since the suspension of the law on the first of April last. The slight shock which public credit experienced on the first announcement of the closing of the court, subsided after a brief interval, as people became sensible that it is not to the operation of the laws alone they owe the security of pro- perty ; but that public morality, and a general conviction of the policy of honesty and probity, constitute in a great measure the basis of daily transactions."
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