point required no further comment. He ledged that he understood, as the Bank would now proceed to the next point of had understood, that one of their privithe bargain, which was, that a bill leges was protection from the rival acshould be introduced to revive the coun- tion of joint-stock banks in London and try banks, and to hold out an induce- its neighbourhood. That noble Lord had ment to the establishment of joint-stock admitted that such was his understandbanks, who would not issue their own ing; viz. that the privilege had been notes. He knew not whether the strict sold to the Bank for a pecuniary consiletter of that part of the bargain had deration; yet he now stated that he been fulfilled or not. Lord Althorp thought it right no longer to adhere to considered that he had discharged his that part of the bargain, and said that part of the bargain, and certainly a bill he would not allow the Bank to retain had been introduced respecting it, but it. On what grounds did the noble it had been departed from, and the bill Lord support such conduct? Why, he had in it such various absurdities and stated that doubts having been raised, incongruities, that it was not a matter as might be upon every subject upon of wonder that a minister should be that point, he had submitted the case to anxious to withdraw from it. The re- the law officers of the crown, who had sult, however, was, that this court had given it as their opinion that it formed been deprived of one portion of a bar-uo part of the privilege to the Bank forgain, by which they were induced to merly, and therefore it ought not to de make large concessions. That, there- so now. When, he would ask, was the fore, was the second instance in which case submitted, and the opinion of the the bargain had not been fulfilled. law-officers taken upon it? He had (Hear). How could the Chancellor of asked whether the directors had seen it, the Exchequer, with any degree of jus- and had been told they had not. Was tice, state that he felt himself obliged, that just-was it any more than just, by the strength of public opinion in the that they should have been put in posHouse of Commons, to submit to the session of that case and opinion? (Hear). hard necessity of abandoning that And as it was for the interpretation of a which he had promised, or rather supposed doubt, he would ask whether sold, to the Bank? (Hear, hear). the Bank had not a right to have been Such a consideration, he should have heard, to explain by its own law-officers thought, would have made that noble their interpretation of the contract. No Lord peculiarly jealous in securing to such thing was done, and all the notice the Bank those exclusive privileges on the Bank had upon the subject was the the granting of which rested the main sending of a clause at twelve o'clock, foundation of the Bank. That part, demanding an answer with respect to it however, of the exclusive privilege of at three o'clock. Such a proceeding, in the Bank of England, that no stock his opinion, was unreasonable, unjust, bank established within a certain dis-and unconstitutional. (Hear). It aptance of London was to be taken from peared to him that Ministers were dethem-in this the Chancellor of the Ex-termined to use the language, “ Give chequer departed from a clear agree. me your watch and your purse-in ment, as had been shown from his own "deeds of this nature delays are dan letters. Now, he believed, the rule laid "gerous-give me them directly, or I down on interpreting a contract was, "will take your life. (Hear, hear). that it was binding on the party making What was it that they had stated? We it, in the sense in which that party un-admit that we agreed to sell you certain derstood it. That he believed to be an privileges, but we are determined, our established principle, and he would ven- legal advisers having given us their ture to say, that no honest man, unless, opinion that you had them not before, indeed, it was his Majesty's Ministers, to take some of them from you; we would depart from it. (Hear). The now demand your immediate acquiChancellor of the Exchequer acknow-escence in them; Parliament is draw

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ing to a close; and if you do not in- which the court had so lamentable a stantly accede, the session will be display that day. The worthy proended, the whole arrangement will go prietor, after paying a high compliment for nothing, and your situation in the to the late governor, and regretting his country will be a rather unpleasant absence, or he was sure he would have one." In his opinion, eternal shame supported him in the views. which he was the portion of a government who took, concluded by submitting the folcould adopt and sanction such a course.lowing resolutions for the adoption of It was not that which, in the history of the court: the country, that the Bank had a right "First-That this court feels itself to expect, and it would justify them in stating, that for fidelity in engagements to protest against the treatment it has "bound, in justice to its own character, they must cast back a longing, lingering look, to by-gone times. (Loud cheers).« cellor of the Exchequer, who has, in experienced at the hands of the ChanHe felt that he ought to apologize for "the opinion of this court, most imhaving detained the court so long in uttering sentiments which he could not the terms of his own proposition; properly and unjustly departed from but feel ought to actuate the breast of every man who was anxious to keep up" certain privileges to the Bank, on con"and after having engaged to grant his own dignity, and the important in-sideration of stipulated pecuniary conterests of his country. (Hear, hear). 66 cessions, has determined to withhold Upon a former occasion, he had urged "from the Bank some of the most imthe court to adopt the proposition of Ministers, upon the ground that the final "portant of those privileges, without and immediate settlement of this im"making a corresponding statement in "the pecuniary consideration. portant question was of the last and greatest importance to the country. He felt the necessity for it in a tenfold degree at the present moment; and he would appeal to all present, if it was not notorious, that a conviction that the question was settled, had produced an altered tone in the public mind, and a new range of prices had been established on that understanding. (Hear). If such was the case, and he defied denial, what frightful consequences would not result from having the subject re-opened, and the whole matter again set afloat? (Hear, hear, hear). Yet with all the evils he had pointed out attending it, with all its injustice to the community, his Majesty's Government had periled it. It was for that court to act as it thought.. best to secure its own rights and privileges; but as he thought it would be Mr. SMITH said he would second the better to accede to the proposition of motion, in order to show that they were Ministers, rather than to place the pub-ready to sacrifice, at what they thought lic welfare in jeopardy, he should hold the shrine of public interest, their own up his hand in favour of that proposition, at the same time strongly proMr. YOUNG moved a resolution to testing against the vacillation of purpose the effect that it was the opinion of the that had now become so characteristic court that the renewal of the Bank of the present Government, and their charter should be rejected, unless upon departure from solemn contracts, of the terms of the letter of the Chancellor

"Secondly-That although this "course of procedure fully satisfied the "Bank in rejecting the arrangement, "this court, considering the extensive be the result, and considering that a injury to the public interest that might new range of prices had been made upon the conviction that the question was settled, is unwilling to assert its "undoubted rights, and authorises the "court of directors to submit to the arrangement.

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"Thirdly-That the governor and "deputy governor should wait on the "Chancellor of the Exchequer with "the resolutions, and that the papers "that had been that day read should be printed, for the use of the Court of "Proprietors."

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interests and their own private feelings.

of the Exchequer, of the 2. of May, "pense of the metropolitan police. That 1833. police was, besides, often sent into Mr. WINTER Concurred in every word" the country, and employed there as that had been uttered with reference to" well as in London." the conduct of the Government towards The police of the metropolis is under them. It was for the public benefit the command of the Secretary of State that they should all, have time to con- for the Home Department, and is, in sider of the subject, and he should there-truth, a political as well as local police. fore propose that the meeting adjourn For political purposes, large bodies of to this day week.

After a short discussion, Mr. Young withdrew his amendment, and the first resolution was put and carried.

The GOVERNOR then proceeded to put the second resolution, but was interrupted by Mr. Blackburn; and it was ultimately resolved that the Court 'should adjourn till Friday.

the police are occasionally drawn from the various parishes comprehended under the Metropolitan Police Act to the Court or the Houses of Parliament. It would not be more reasonable to throw the charges of the regiments of Guards of the metropolis, because they do duty there, than to throw the expense of a police force, applicable to national purposes, on the metropolis. What, for instance, have the inhabitants of Greenwich locally to do with St. James's, or the neighbourhood of the Parliament? Yet the parishes of Greenwich and Deptford are at present obliged to pay for a police for the purpose of preserving order in Westminster during periods of excitement.

I BEG my readers to pay attention to the following article from the Morning Chronicle, which is a defence of the grant of sixty thousand a year, out of the public taxes, towards the expense of the spy-police system; and also to the letter of Mr. ROGERS, which the One great cause of the unpopularity Chronicle has not yet published. I of the police with the householders is, have no time this week for any com- the grievous addition made to their ment on the matter. Mr. ROGERS is a burdens by that force, especially in the gentleman of great experience in pa-poorer parishes. The loss of patronage rochial matters; and whose judgment to parish boards, and the necessity of with respect to the matter of his letter, pensioning many of the old watchmen, is worth more than that of all the doc-who could not be turned off to starve, trinaires in the world.

whereby a double burden was imposed, in some parishes, might, no doubt, have something to do with the unpopularity. (From the Morning Chronicle, 9. inst.) But we are satisfied that the main In a committee on the Metropolitan cause is the additional burden. For it is Police Acts, Mr. Spring Rice moved a impossible to compare the new police resolution, that 60,000l. yearly be grant- with the old system, without being ed out of the consolidated fund in aid of struck with the great superiority of the the metropolitan police-rate. This former. Justice will, ere long, be done grant was objected to, on the ground to the new police. It will be admitted, that every town should support its own that no system can be so perfect, as to police. Lord Althorp, however, truly exclude the influence of the ordinary observed, that the metropolitan police infirmities of our nature, and that the was in some measure a general police. errors of individuals prove nothing in "The metropolis," his Lordship ob- the question between one system and served," differed from other towns, be- another. Is the security of the metrocause the police of the metropolis polis better provided for than it was? was important to that of other towns, Is order better enforced? He must be a "which was a reason that they and the bold man, indeed, who answers these country should contribute to the ex-questions in the negative.

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"

To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle.

to compare the new with the old sysSIR,-In your paper of Friday last, I tem of police, without being struck with observed one more article in favour of the superiority of the new and further, the half-Tory half-Whig doctrinarian you say, that he must be a bold man system of police. In this article you at who denies that the security of the melast admit, that which we Radicals have tropolis is better provided for than it always asserted, namely, that the me-was.

tropolitan police is a political body, ap- You do not explain what you mean plicable to, and used for, political pur- by superiority. If you mean superior poses; and you take care that no ex-expense, I freely grant that its superiority pression of yours shall indicate your is very great indeed; if you mean supedisapproval of such an employment for rior brutality, I am not inclined to such a body. question it; but if you mean that the This, then, is the English version of new police is of superior advantage to that gendarmerie, the endurance of the residents in those parishes (and there which for so many years made the were many such), in which there were Fench people the scorn of Englishmen. local day street-keepers, I deny it altoOur Gallic neighbours wiped away the gether; for a long residence in one réproach at the commencement of their such parish convinces me of the supefirst revolution. The return of the des- riority of the old system at from onepotic principle again fixed it on them: haif to two-thirds of the expense of the again they threw it off: and now it is new. Again, you say, "Security of the attempted to be fixed upon English-metropolis." If you mean from foreign men, while the editor of the Morning invasion, or from rebellion, I have noChronicle sanctifies and vindicates its thing to say, except that I thought that adoption. the great end for which police was estaWhen, in August 1829, the com-blished, was the security of property; missioners of police invited me to a and I am perfectly satisfied, that in my consultation, preparatory to the intro- neighbourhood property is far less seduction of their disguised spies into the cure than under the old system; forparish of which I happened to be war-merly at any time of the day or night den, Col. Rowan declared to me his we could call in a known officer in desire to assimilate the police here as much as possible to the police of Paris, which he said was, for its perfection, the admiration of all Europe: and, when the indignation which rose in my coun- But the old police had an advantage tenance, showed him that he had let out which the new has not, or can ever too much, he very adroitly exclaimed, have, without producing great evil—I "But then the French fellows don't mean that discretionary power of remind being knocked about." Sir, within moving annoyances, and of preserving eleven months from that day, the French the peace in minor matters, hardly cognifellows knocked the gendarmerie about; zable by the law. This discretionary and perhaps it would have been wiser power was safely exercised by the old for the English imitators of the Bour-day street-keeper, because he acted. bon-police to have then given up their under the eyes of the housekeepers, experiment, and not have waited for the who knew him well, and who were at recent exposure by the Calthorpe-street once his security and a check on his Jury, and the now coming exposure of the Popay scoundrelism, to provoke one universal burst of indignation from honest English fellows against the spy system and the abettors of that system.

But I come to the main purpose of my letter. You say: It is impossible

three minutes, now no one knows where to find a policeman unless he goes to the station-house, giving the intervening time for the escape of the thief.

conduct. The ingenious theorists, who write so fluently about every thing, and know so little of that which they write about, may make themselves merry about the "Charlies" and the "Charley system," but they may depend upon it, that the only healthful and effective, as

well as least expensive protection for
property, is a local police, if that must
be the name, formed indeed on general
principles, but immediately paid by and
accountable to the housekeepers of the
district which it watches.
I am, Sir,

Your obedient servant,
GEO. ROGERS.

tal-out variation.