WAS THE BANK CHARTER BILL CARRIED BY BRIBERY?
Mucti has been said of the bribery practised by the United States Bank in the abortive attempt to procure a renewal of its Charter. The application of similar means by the Bank of England for a similar purpose, seems to have been considered as utterly out of time question ; and yet the thing after all is not impossible. We certainly cannot put our finger upon any individual whom we sus- pect of having received, a bribe from the gentlemen of the Bank parlour; who yet, somehow or another, appear to have made away with a vast sum of money just about the time when they were mosotiating that fitmous bargain for the renewal of their Charter. At least such is the case if any credit is due to the following state- ment, which appeared in the Times on Tuesday, under the sig- nature of a a-ell-known correspondent of that journal, DANIEL T T 4 RDCASTLE.
furnished in 1832 to the Committee of the House of August I8:k2, the rest of the Bank amounted " By the accoun::.
flelivered, this rest on the 7th of
it appears that on the ;tt., to 2,880,(X10/. ; whereas in the ;recount now' August 1802, amounted to only 2,296,000/. In Augusi 1633, it amounted to only .2,240,00M ; and in December 1831, to only 2,224,0001. ; and therefore, be- tween the rest as it stood in August 1802, according to the account delivered to Parliament, and the rest as it stands in the present account in December 1833, there is a difference of 656,000/. ; and this cannot be ascribed to the difference in the mode of making out the accounts, and that the account of 1832 was the state of a real fact on a particular day, while the present account is the average result of many facts throughout a long period of time: we say this cannot be alleged with auy show or colour of reason, because the item we are considering is a profit—the balance of a debtor and creditor account; and therefore, whether the account for any given period of time be stated by way of average or by any other way, makes; no manner of difference. The reason of this is plain,— the Bank in its regular business never incurs a liability without first obtaining a security ; that is, it never has a debt without a corresponding credit ; and therefore make up the account after what fashion you will, as when the debits increase or decrease the credits must increase or decrease to the same extent, so by every mode of operation must the rest remain the same, and nothing can alter
or disturb a rest but a real change of circ tances. In brief, a rest in the present case is a profit, and nothing can reduce a profit but a loss."
But the decrease in the "rest" of the Bank is easily accounted for, on the supposition that half a million or so was judiciously expended in procuring the easy passage of this bill through Parliament.
"The payment of the bribe mast have gone to alter the forum proportion between the debits and the credits of the Bank ; and accordingly this took place ; for the credits on the 7th of August 1832, were 33,130,000/, and the debits were 80,250,000!.; r.nd on the 3d of December PM, the credits wise 33,294,0001, being 169,000/. more than the credits of August 1832. Now, batiug losses or corruptpayments, the proportion between the debits and credits it, December 1833, must have been the same as in Aegust 1832 ; and the credits ia Deeeniber being 33,294,0001., the proportional debits ought to have been 30,399,000/.' whereas they are 31,074,0001., making a difference of 695,000/. And this difference, be it always noted, is not on the credit side of the account —the value of the securities, but on the debit side—the amount of liabilities. Tile securities have increased 169,000/., but the liabilities have increased 504,000/. ; and this is precisely the state of things that would have obtained if the renewal of the Bank Charter bad been achieved by means of bribery."
It is rather a suspicious circumstance, that the defalcation in the Bank surplus should have occurred when it did. Still we are not prepared seriously to impute corruption to any man or set of men, on the mere figure statement which we have quoted. It would, however, be as well, if some of the officers of the Bank would enlighten the public on the subject ; and explain how it happens—if such be really the fact and no mystification in the business—that there is so great a variation between the two ac- counts of the money on hand on the 7th August 18:32.
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