The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-12-19 00:00:00

admitted. Several amongst them, especially M. de
Pourtales Pury, have obtained a provisional
parole.

THE further reduction of the Bank of Eng-
land's minimum rate of discount will afford great
relief to trade at this critical season of the com-
mercial year. All the country requires is
confidence, to render us one of the most prosper-
ous, united, and powerful nations upon the
earths Give us constant employment, abundant
imports, and some well-devised token of our
immoveable wealth, and we will find exports to
command the gold of the world. We have the
industry mud concentration of labour to supply
the demand of the universe. We can also con-
sume more than all the other countries of the
globe can send us. We want more cotton, at
this moment, than is grown—more sugar than we
can procure. We have been half starved for
corn ; and it would save us millions annually, if
we only knew whence we could rely at all times
for enough of breadstuffs. We should be all the
richer, if we had larger stocks of foreign-grown
silk, flax, and hemp. Oil, tallow, lard, and some
prime beef and pork would be acceptable. More
coffee and wine would be an advantage; and
yet, strange to say, the Legislature will impose
upon us a currency system, and a volume of
banking laws which, in practice, not only pre-
vent our merchants from sending out orders to
supply our various wants, but which actually rule
the prices the produce they have imported shall
realise in our markets !

We are, therefore, grievously stinted in sup-
ply, and shamefully wronged out of the lawful
profits of demand. This system originated with
the Whigs. PITT threw it to the winds ; but the
breath had scarcely left his body, before Parlia-
ment was hoodwinked into returning to Whig
usury, and love of meddling with the natural
current of prices. Labour felt the recoil first ;
corn secondly, the fundholder next, and the
holders of foreign and domestic produce shared
the remaining losses. Industry has never since
rallied—farming land has never recovered the
shock—the national creditor has lost nearly one-
half of his dividend—and producers and shippers
can scarcely venture to calculate, from one day
to another, on a moderate commercial profit.
All are depressed and surrounded by unfathom-
able doubts and dangers. If there be a shadow
of truth in these allegations, the country must
be very anxious to learn what Lord PAL➢iERSTON
intends doing with the laws which have produced
so many social evils. If the late Sir ROBERT
PEEL were at the head of affairs, we can scarcely
think that he would still cling to his bullion nos-
trums, after all we have witnessed from their
practical operation within the last ten years.
He would not have left the country pinioned in
time of war. Ile was famous for applying the
knife to the cords of State when he saw the strain
becoming too heavy. He cared little for the
wants of industry ; but he dreaded the mur-
murs of the manufacturer, the hostility of the
merchant, and wrath of the middle and annuitant

classes.

They were not well advised during the great
Bullion hero's lifetime ; but they have grown

in knowledge since his decease, and it is really
time that Lord PALMERSTON should decide
whether he will follow in the footsteps of the

PEELITES, or the immortal Whigs, of usurious
notoriety. The Bank of England's Charter stands
in need of repairs, and it will hardly be considered
fair to take the public by surprise on a question
of such universal importance. The course the
Bank of England is pursuing just now is not in
accordance with the theory on which their Char-
ter and monopolies are based. They have, in
fact, thrown aside, long since, all ideas of uni-
formity with regard to the regulation of their
discounts. Formerly, the rates were advanced
or lowered according to the amount of bullion
actually in their coffers ; now, they seem to place
extraordinary faith in anticipations of various
kinds. For instance—if they think gold is likely
to go out, they raise the discount ; if they suspect
it will come in, they lower their pretensions.
This is not precisely what PEEL and his sup-
porters bargained for. They wanted to keep the
gold in the country to supply internal wants
when there was a demand for it abroad ; but the
Bank finds it impossible to raise the rates as a
precautionary measure, while their vaults are full
of the precious metal. They let it run off, and
when they have no money to keep the springs of
trade in motion, they augment the evil a hun-
dred-fold by raising their discounts to an inordin-
ately high level.

The mischief is all over before the Bank Di-
rectors can venture to act up to the specious
theory—for they dare not attempt to stop a drain
of gold before it is at an end. It is too late then
to " cause a fall generally in the price of all
" commodities to bring back gold." Commerce
could not bea • the pressure, and trade would
perish under the weight of the parental screw-
The " Beals- on 'Change may reap a harvest
from the forced sales of the needy ; but, a sys-
temised depression of the floating property of
the nation is not what the Legislature desire. It
would be nothing short of treason to suppose
such a thing. We want to hoard gold when we
get it ; but all our experience shows us that it is
impossible to do so. Why, then, continue the
attempt ? Why leave the country wholly depen-
dent on a commodity we cannot control, and
allow usury to be resorted to in the pursuit of an
impossibility ? There is nothing whatever in
the turn which has taken place in the actual
condition of the Bank of England's reserve, to
justify, according to the theory of the Bullionist,
the favourable changes which have taken place
in the rates of discount. And if we are to be
ruled by private judgment in monetary matters,
those who ask to be allowed to decide the quan-
tity of money we are to have in circulation ought
not to be permitted to regulate its price, which
decides the value of every other commodity.
These are grave subjects for Statesmen to deal
with ; and it is generally hoped that Lord PAL-