THE JOINT-STOCK BANKING SYSTEM.* 



" In general, if any branch of trade, or any division of labour, be advantageous to 

 the public, the freer and more general the competition, it will always be the more 

 so." ADAM SMITH. 



IT cannot have escaped the notice of the least observant even of our 

 readers, that there is much in the present state of the money-market 

 and in the gloom generally impending- over the Commercial world to 

 create a very painful interest and alarm. That there is a great and 

 increasing demand for the circulating medium in all parts of the 

 country as well as in London and Dublin cannot be for one moment 

 doubted by any one who reads the provincial news ; and although we 

 hope for the best with the most cheerful, yet we cannot avoid express- 

 ing what we fear is a too well-grounded apprehension that a state 

 of still greater embarrassment than the present must necessarily pre- 

 cede a return to prosperity. 



It would take up more than our columns could afford to canvass the 

 various causes to which these troubles are attributable ; but we may 

 at least enumerate some of them. Mr. Spring Rice is regarded by 

 many as the chief author of all their misfortunes, and to him have 

 they looked and not looked in vain for the remedy from the 

 Exchequer : a futile remedy, we fear. At any rate Mr. Rice must 

 beware of his movements ; for if from bankers and traders he needs 

 to fear no outbreaks of discontent, yet from the distressed manu- 

 facturers an increasing pauper population both in Lancashire and 

 Staffordshire, the voices of two millions of hungry and sturdy petition- 

 ers will sound like thunder in his ears with a fearfulness that shall 

 convince him of the fruitlessness of resistance. A second party (among 

 whom is the Edinburgh reviewer) denounces as the cause of our 

 troubles the public insanity on the subject of rail-road and other 

 bubble schemes which promises to absorb, according to Mr. Poulett 



* 1. Debate on Joint-Stock Banks in the House of Commons. Mr. Clay's speech, 

 &c. Mirror of Parliament. 



2. Edinburgh Review, July, 1836, pp. 419441. 



3. Joplin's Examination of the Commons' Report. 



4. Clay's Speech reflections and remarks on the Edinburgh Review. 



5. Letter to W. Clay, M. P. by Vindex. 



2 P2 



