The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-18 00:00:00

FRENCH

FIRST EXHIBIT
SCHOOL of the FINE

MAD'LLE

NRTS in Liverpool, in

ROSA BONHEITR'S

GREAT

"THE HORSE FAIR,"

Is NOW OPEN at the
place, Church-street.
men's Season Tickets,
till Five o'clock.

'erpool Academy Rooms, Old Post-offici

Ladies' D

Catalog'
o, 3s 6d

—Open from Tel

B. FRODSHAM, Secretary

kort4rrn firm

MON-DAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1856

" PiatcEs are low. Trade depressed. The Bank of
India has declared a dividend of 20 per cent ! "
Such was the substance of the intelligence received
from India by the last Overland Mail, and we woul d
ask, what prospect is there of that country's pros-
pering where the usurer is allowed to walk off with
dividends far greater than the average profits of the
producer and trader can be ? A writer, in the
Edinburgh Review, of July last, quoted a passage
from The Life of Metcalfe, which formed a portion
of a speech delivered by that high minded states-
man on usury, in India ; who said "he found not
merely the normal state of affairs in the Nizam's
" Court and country, corruption and extortion, the
" most atrocious mismanagement, and consequent
" anarchy—for all of which he was prepared, more
"or less—he found what was far worse, British
" subjects, and those not solely persons uncon-
" netted with the public service, engaged in the
" illicit and' unrighteous trade of the Hyderabad
lenders, exacting from a miserable people

" money-

" interest at the rate of 25 per cent, and backed to
`` a lamentable extent by the highest authority in
" India." Her^ * ^of what is called
" British goner

a pictu:

ern progress

What nation can Local
interest, added to exces

such is

En ate rates of

ye taxation ?

Whereverour flag waves, usury has been suffered
to raise its head. The natives of India, the long
established colonist, and the newly arrived emi
grant,in one and all of our transmarine possessions,
are subject to pretty much the same oppressive
system of exaction. In the mother country, or seat
of Empire, with all our panics, sudden suspensions
of eniploYment, contraction of the available means
of trade, increased State taxes, and local rates,
we are infinitely better off than those who fly to
the forests of Canada, the jungles of India, or
the
plains of Australia, in search of a fairer field for
their intelligence and industry. Those evils which
banish our most valuable citizens pursue them
to the remotest parts of our dominions, and
bankers may now boast of profits which the law
denies to the pawnbroker The theory of money

restriction, which was confined for some years after
its promulgation to this country, is now in full
operation throughout the British Empire—a result
which we would fain believe was never anticipated
by its authors, or by its most earnest supporters.
They could never have hoped for the arrival of a
day when banks, throughout our productive pos-
sessions, would be deriving 20 per cent. profits
from depressed trade and low prices
No

sane or patriotic statesman would have
opposed such a system to the peace and prosperity
of our_ wide-
spread dominions. There is no such
thing to be extracted from the soil, or from man's
industry and intelligence, as a clear gain of 20 per
cent. per annum. Such returns can only be
derived from money lent at usurious rates of
interest. Money, instead of coming to the aid of,

civilization, must, therefore, at the pr went

aunt be swallowing up the entire production of
and producing universal misery. In
dealing with such gigantic evils and dangers, we
have nothing whatever to say to theory, such as
whether the notes of this or that bank should be
Legal Tender, whether our paper circulation should
be convertible, or whether a metallic basis is
required to preserve our Currency from deprecia-
tion. All Parliament and the people have to look
to are the broad facts that the rates of interest,
throughout the British Empire, range from 6 to
25 per cent., and that money, even at these
ancient Hebrew rates, is not obtainable, upon the

the Empire

best security and for the most legitimate purposes,
to one-half the extent required. We have, for the
moment, given up contending for what a

large portion of our readers conceives to b 3