The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-09-20 00:00:00

-LIVERPOOL, SATURDAY.

abundant. How, then, are we to account for the
stagnation of trade? The uninitiated only will ask
such a question. It is quite obvious that gold is not
sold to the Continent. If it was, it would tell its
own tale. It has not gone in trade to adjust a
balance against us, nor do we believe that
France is buying bullion in England at all,
seeing that gold is cheaper in nearly every
other part of the world. Why should France come
to us under such circumstances ?

" India and China are swallowing up our
" precious metals," is the Bullionist's cry. But we
answer—for what ? Is it wanted for conquest in
the former, and for sport in the latter ? Do we
give gold away, or do we sell it ? or have we a
balance of trade to settle in countries where
commerce has been pretty nearly suspended for
the last three years ? Wars in one, and rebellion
in the other, have improved the trade of neither,
while they have done vast injury to our merchants
in both directions. The silk-worms of China are to
drain Europe of its silver, according to the London
Times. We are to part with our gold in the
purchase of silver, which is to be forthwith
shipped—without approaching our banks—to the
Celestial Empire, where the people will not
receive any other metal, and refise to
take foreign goods. The India House, to

avoid a loan at 5 per cent., must appropriate
3,000,0001. or 4,000,0001. of the reproductive
railway funds to meet liabilities, as they have,
it appears, anticipated their large territorial
revenues. Our cotemporary would lead us to
infer that last year we paid for the subjugation of
Oude 10;000,0001, and that this year India will
absorb 18,000,000/. ; but the aggregate requirements
of India and China are subsequently reduced by a
very able species of legerdemain to a total of
12,000,0001, which is to swallow all the bullion we
are to receive from Australia as fast as it arrives,
leaving us the importation of precious metal from
California only to carry on trade. .
Such an arrangement, with a tolerable balance
on hand, may answer our purpose. But what is to
become of the Continent? We must participate
more or less in its misfortunes. The "leading
" journal" seems at last to view the matter in the
same light as we do. It now says :—" The prevail-
" ing disquietude regarding the drain arises from
" the extraordinary way in which the inconvenience
" of the movement is aggravated by the effect of
" the silver standard on the Continent, and the
" deprivation the people are experiencing from the
" disappearance of their regular medium of
" exchange. In consequence of this the panic is
" brought home to every shopkeeper and peasant,
" and the movement assumes all the terrors which
" popular ignorance can bestow upon it." Here,
then, we find that monetary matters have arrived at
a climax, and that all the gold in the world will not
give a nation a solid and sufficient bases of circula-
tion. It comes and goes like the air we breathe,
and it is rather too bad that trade and industry
should be crippled as they are by the fallacies
which blind politicians have laid down for our
destruction.

We are distinctly told by the London Times,
that the present stringency of the Money Market
is perfectlyjustifiable, while in the same article it
declares, that "every dollar we" are now parting
" with will ultimately be repaid with the addition
" of some considerable profit for our services as
" carriers, insurers, and agents." With this fact
before us, why should " the withdrawal of specie,
" which is calculated to contract our circulation,
" and, perhaps, occasion an increase of the pres.
" sure now regarded with disappointment," be
submitted to ? Are we to be for ever passing from
one panic into another? Are the prodigalities of
the Indian Government, the natural fluctuations
in demand and supply of one or two articles of
commerce—rebellions and troubles in the most
distant corners of the earth—to leave us at the
mercy of Bulls and Bears in -our Produce and
Discount Markets, as well as' on the Stock
Exchange? These are queries that ought to be
answered before " all the terrors which popular
" ignorance can bestow on " panics over-
takes this country. Continental communi-
ties are not prepared for the crisis impend-
ing, and will not submit to those aggravated
derangements in their economic system, with the
habitual composure we do. France will never
acknowledge the perfectability of the bill of 1819,
nor rest quietly under the Bank Charter Act of
1844 ; and it is useless to rely on our monetary
philosophy for the tranquility of the Continent, or
a better state of things at home.