The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-10-14 00:00:00

.
REPLY TO LETTER I. ON THE CURRENCY
QUESTION.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NORTHERN TIMES.
Sir,—Your correspondent, " J. W.," proposes, I notice,
to enlighten your readers on the Currency Question.
In the name of fortune, Mr. Editor, let him do it soon—
let him tell us whether his reading on the subject has been
in books less than fifty years old or not—let him tell us
whether he has ever witnessed the working of an irre--
deetnable paper currency abroad or not.. If he has, let
him tell us in how many places.
"In some recent -City Articles, the Times has adinitted—
I presume, madvertently—that, while our gold diminishes,
our wealth increases ; that, unless we spend, more than we
earn, we cannot become impoverished as a nation and
that, if we earn mere than we spend, we must needs be
enriched, without reference ,to the amount of the precious
metals which we, may .hold at any given time. The gist
of the argument .employed by the Times to allay the
anxieties of commercial men awakened by the unmistake-
able signs of an approaching monetary panic, is simply
this—' We are not such fools as to barter our gold and
silver for other articles, such as silk and tea; -unless we
hope to gain by the exchange; ergo, we need not be
alarmed by a temporary drain of gold, for this cannot
possibly affect ns injuriously; so long as the credit side of
our profit and loss account furnishes us with indubitable
evidence of our commercial prosperity.' "
If he reason until Doom's-day, he will .never affect the
truth of the foregoing extract. Does he not perceive his
own obj.efion is provided for in the words—so long as the
credit side of our, profit and loss account furnishes us with
indubitable evidence of our commercial prosperity. How

silly to ask—
" Is, then, the Times a convert to the doctrines of the
currency reformers 7 Has it abjured the creed of the
ballionists ? Is it prepared to demonitize gold, and to
deal with it merely-as a commodity, and not as the sole
basis of our currency, and the only real representative
of our national wealth? If so, the argument is sound and
conclusive, and I congratulate the country on the conver-
sion of the leading journal."
Although I am no admirer of the Times, I do say it is a
most fortunate circumstance for this country that the
" leading journal" is sound on this subject, and far above
the carping criticism of J. W." The most serious
scenes over witnessed in American cities has arisen from
the disastroui mnehelion of vain efforts, to make paper
'take the place of gad. There must be some standard of
value. What standard does "J. W." recommend ? Of all
articles of intrinsic value, gold is most convenient. To the
extent to which you substitute paper, you substitute, cur!.
rency which possess a double character, which is *partly_
made up of real value—that in the coin—and ofcredit value.
We usually accept the credit value as equal to theseal
value, because we know there is, or will be, real value to
meet the paper, which is, in itself, only,a promise'to pay
real value._ If Paper is as good as coin for currency, and-
there is no change in value owing to paper notes, then. is
it not obvious that the paper notes in England would
be just as good as they are now, even though there were
no coin at all in England wherewith to perform the pro-
mise to pay on demand?' And this is the ridiculous result ,
to which currency crotchets would lead us. We should
promise to pay what we had none of, and yet our promises
would be said to be as good as the reality. The more la
man has of the article he promises to supply, and the
more we trust him. So it is with nations—the nearer we
approach to purely permanent metallic currency, the
higher will rank our paper promises, and the fewer will
be failures in business.
If the nation is now called upon to export coin, it must
be for one of two reasons. Either the nominal, i.e.,
exportable, or the real value of our exports, has been too
small. It is possible to ship abroad £100,000,000 in
goo.ls at nominal value, which may produce less
than £90,000,000 abroad—whilst the imports may have
cost us £105,000,000. Hence the export of coin to pay
the balance, which may possibly be owing. " But, if a
certain number of counters are in the very nature of things
required to circulate that wealth, and if the laws of this
realm require that counters of gold only shall be used for
that purpose, or, at least, counters which shall be
vouchers for a certain amount of that metal deposited in
the vaults of the Bank of England, then is the argument
of the Tunes, as applied to a country so circumstanced,
unsound and inconclusive. Then our wealth cannot
increase while our gold diminishes. Then we may become
impoverished a; a nation, though we do not spend more
than we earn.' Nay. though we Tray have been earning for
many years more than we have spent, the depreciation of
property caused by the withdrawal of gold may make us

poor indeed."
That is nonsense I—if the remark apply to railroads or
other fiscal property, their useful value is not the less,
although their nominal value may be so. If it apply to
importable commodities, it is untrue ; for of them we are
enabled to buy more corn; or cotton, or sugar, with the
same counters. In neither case is 02 nation made poorer
thereby.—Yours very respectfully, and not ashamed to be,
A BRITISH AMERICAN BIILLIONIST.
P.S.—Let me recommend J. W. to read that lucid work
of W. M. Gonge, of Washington, on " Currency."

THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AND MUSEUM

TO THE EDITOR, OP THE NORTHERN TIMES

Sir,—A most important subject is now before the Liver-
pool public, namely, the proposed erection of a library and
museum, contiguous to St. George's Hall. Permit me, Mr.
Editor, through the columns of the NORTHERN TIMES,
cuAphativally to proto3t o.gainat the erection of any structure
(save a monumental column) upon the spot %Awe it is at
present intended to raise this iustituLien ; Ghotild ouch o thing
take place, it will, without exception, be one of the greatest
architectural blunders ever perpetrated in the town of
Lis

Pte late Sir Robert Peel once declared that the National
upied the finest site in Europe. Sir, I contend
that if the natural bounderies (so to speak) of our august
building be not tampered with, the space they enclose will►
be found quite equal to that at Charing-cross, and certainly
one of the finest and boldest areas in the United Kingdom.
To 'place such a structure as the library at the point pro-
posed, however clever the design (and report speaks favour-
ably), will not only be to dwarf it by the Leviathan triumph
of modern times, but to altogether obstruct the splendid
effect of the latter as it bursts upon us from the Islingto❑
approach in all its glorious perspective. I would, therefore,
beg to suggest that the Corporation of Liverpool go for
powers to obtain as much of Islington-terrace and Shaw's-
brow as will enable them to give to St. George's Hall an
imposing and unVbrm flank, the centre of which might be
prominent in design and devoted to the purposes of an
institution, and to the right and left first-class places of
business (strictly uniform), which latter, in a money point of
view, would no doubt yield a satisfactory return —the whole
to be in appearance worthy of 'the 'name of "St. George's--
terrace." In conclusion, I would allude to the very splendid
position occupied by Commutation-row, as seen from
Shaw's-brow. I believe Mr. William Earle has pointed
out this to the Town Council in very forcible language; and
a thousand pities it is that the proprietors of this short row
did not agree to carry out their " improvements " according
to a uniform deign. Had they placed the whale in the
hands of a man of talent, ho would have produced something
effective, at no greater cost, and in keeping with the adjacent
pile —as it is, I will borrow an expression of Hr. Earle's,
and pronounce the whole thing to be " rascally," and the
only possible pretext our local governors can have for build-
ing opposite. I trust, however, they will choose the lesser
evil, for better far to suffer Commutation-row to remain
exposed in all its deformity, than erect an edifice which will
block out from one of the chief points of sight that work of
the modern Vitrnvius, which is so deservedly the pride of
the people of Liverpool.--I am, 44e., L.

Gallery me

DRUG SHOPS