The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-12-06 00:00:00

cent. discount. This 10,017,0001. exhibited, an
increase, however, of 1,705,0001. over the returns
of the 25th of December in the same year, when
base political heartlessness recommended an 8 per
cent. minimum rate of interest.
The remarkably rapid return of bullion here
shown followed the reduction of the Bank's rate
from Sto 7 per cent. There was nothing in the
internal condition or external prospects of the
country to produce so startling a change iP..the
Bank's affairs. On the contrary, famine was
then at its height. The whole of the Continent
was known to be on the eve of a revolt. Still the
rates of interest were lowered. In December,
'47, the minimum discount was fixed at 5 per
cent., the previous reduction to 7 per cent. having
increased the stock of gold to 12,230,000/. within
a month. Then came the European outburst of
1848. The memorable events of that year were
enough to have shaken the confidence and demol-
ished the mercantile stability of our entire Em-
pire. But the Bank pursued a wise and liberal
course. They went on reducing their rates for
accommodation from 5 until it reached 3 per
cent., in November of that year of universal
/ turmoil. The p►actical effect of this rational
course is peculiarly instructive, and ought never
to be lost sight of by the business public in sea-
sons of social revulsions or political commotion.
The Bank's rates were no- sooner lowered to 31
per cent. than the bullion reserve reached
14,169,0001, This was in June, 1847. In the

following November the discount was again re
duced to 3 per cent., at which rate it was con

tinned to November, 1848, when we had no less
than 16,30,000/. to carry the country through
the alarming dangers which were still imminent.
Had the Bank yielded to the crying of the
lovers of Bear -accounts at that most critical
epoch, what would have been the inevitable re-
sult ? Fortunately they followed up their cheap
money policy up to June, 1852, when we find
22,232,000/. of gold in theircoffers. The minimum
rate was then 2 per cent. But they suddenly
raised it in January, 1853, to 2} per cent., and
they continued in their dear-money career up to
September in the same year, when we find the
rate advanced to 5 per cent., and the reserve of
bullion reduced, by the public alarm produced
by the Bank's stringency, to 15,613,0001. only !
Now we have gone thus minutely into this his-
tory of dear and cheap money, in order to show
the actual effect which the two courses had, not
so much on the general interests of the country
as they had on the movements of bulli'On itself.
Every particle of experience we can bring to
bear on the subject proves most irrefragably that
the dearness of money frightens, as it were, the
gold out of the Bank's vaults. And hence arises
the question—How is this vast Empire to be
secured the inc,alcula.blebenclits of cheap money ?
The gqld we possess is the. money of the com-
merce—the floating capital of trade. It is
required day by day to adjust the balances of
foreign transactions, which must always be
heavily against a people, who, like our-
selves, import vastly more than they ex-
port. We are always in debt, owing to our
short supply of food, raiment, and raw material
of various kinds, to the full amount of gold we
possess. Our merchants must sustain their credit
and integrity. They are discharging their highest
and most sacred of all national duties when they
are supplying the community with the indis-
pensable necessaries of life; and to take from
them the only means they have to work with for
fiscal purposes, or to give a colouring of truth to
the joint-stock fable of—"I promised to pay" gold
on demand, is a piece of State folly and Whig
blindness, which must, ere long, exhaust the
patience of a commercial people.
A' State ceases to be a State when it cannot'
supply its own wants, without taking to itself
the money which its subjects owe to the people of
,other countries; and a: Government ceases to be
just, when they suffer usury to be super-added
to taxation, and the cost of feeding and clothing
a people where no corresponding advantage can be
shown. These would be harsh axioms to employ,
if those who guide the destinies of this great com-
mercial country, were not fully aware of the bane-
ful workings of the system they administer ; but
our Chancellors of the Exchequer know full well,
what an advance of 2 or 3 per cent in the rates of
discount adds to taxation. The bank directors
have told them, without reserve, that the make
Money scarce and dear to produce " a fall

genere.lly; iii the prices' of all commodities.
They;l9Ovv that demanding taxes in gold (i
fo-reigiii)roduct) is the worst of all phases of
despotism. It would be futile to tell them, when
the,:mOichant cOnipelled'td send his gold abroad
,to meet a natural deinad n :for bulbullion that a direCt
je~;islstide.irfteiferenEe' with thd. •free current df
trade takc:Siiiace,44e rates Ofs4iscount are raised,
,and:.thaf thd. diapiOsso'.:,motley which ensues,
causes' lionezt.uidiiitrk be thrown out of
einplOyin.enc and half': starved. Every half
educated- statesman knows that the scarcity of
money dates from the tame surrender of the
CrOwn's high Prerogative Of deciding what shall
lie the legaltender of the nation,' its value in cir-
culation, and, the rate of interest it shall bear, in
`discharging',the functions ,of a•riational currency.
.The day has!gOric:*;we trust; for hoodwinking
ailyl assuredly break 80,000,0001 of
the people on these all-important topics.
taxationN
onr
irbuulplioonn.e, earth can_ m
: p'
' doWn' 'Under the 'pressure of 70,000,000/. I'ry
'50,000,000/ in America, with all her great
reSoUrces,' growiiig energies, and miraculous
:deVelopment. Experimentalise with a budget of
'40:00d,o00/ on All the Russias; with their million
,of bayonets to enforce the theories and sophis-
rtrieS.' of '' mddein V and ConservatiVe
bullionism. If the sceptical want to know whit
the result of these experiments in other countries
would be, let them look simply to the practical,
the matter of fact operation of the bullion laws
of England. The theory preached by their
advocates is fascinating enough, but the end of