The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-11-06 00:00:00

THE

THE CURRENCY QUESTION

THE LIVERPOOL FINANCIAL REFORM
ASSOCIATION.

r Sir ,33 Tin EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.,
41)1)4 Our talented correspondent, "J. W ' has, it
411, re, taken umbrage at my last letter, and has
whottitaltly made up his mind that I am an ignorant booby,
eto.,_ as not learned the first principles of the doctrines. of
ignorcancy, and the alphabet of the science of money , an
thatiktnk,lls, upon whom his time is consequently wast9d.
()fits „`"m for the compliment, but am not yet convinced
km ;Nth. lam well acquainted with the principles
thottak'Phabet on which his theory is founded ; and, having'
belie long and seriously on the " Currency Question,"
;Waite as firmly in my principles and alphabet as
1,, does in his.
im`hr discussion must not become personal. It is of such
Ors 'lance that it extends beyond the fireside and beyond.
4eepePlintrY, and, embracing as if does,
.a principle of
b 3, the to all mankind, its influence is only bounded
10 the
limits of the world. Let me, therefore, hope that,
tata" Controversy, which seems inevitable, all the. corn-
th:lts will preserve their temper, and keep in mind that
edrite, not so much for each other, as for the public.
dstioe'iltit wish, at present, to attack "J. W." He
.has
alto le cause good service, by clearly and forcibly
Meg "I.
AN With
defects of our present system, and, so far, I
c with him.
114,111 opposed also to the extensive use of bullion, as the
1 Medium of exchange.
1 4 ,while I see our present dangerous position, and
vh4e contracted, insufficient state of our currency—
,Dovatjace that the devotion to gold is the cause, and thatd
,will, see in our present course may be our ruin, and
fcit,_soBt certainly, be a continual thorn in our side— a,
41137 averse to those theories which, hitherto unsucces. -
4411,7° claim to be adopted as an all-sufficient panacea. In
Pos,e- am afraid of any note or paper, which does
that
Poonsas real, tangible value, wherever used; and on a
it oppose J. or rather J. W's." p
it
plans.
neee 8 necessary to mend our currency ; but is not
Und:atY to adopt the almost-untried. and imperfectly-
oes.st°,l expedient of paper, which has, ir.i. itself, no
Which Neither is it necessary to resort to bullion alone.
advoe wcnid be committing national suicide at once. I
intaciaete
, another plan—a plan which will at once supply
to
newtmeel' bullion, sufficient paper. and sufficient security,
Is havingWhen only appeared very lately ;* but, believe,
e" Your readers know its advantages and its dimensions,
one, of them, and even "J. W." himself will cry
teatirbel,ka," and acknowledge it as the best and most
u plan yet proposed.
143' next I hope to place its. substance before you,
point out its superiority.—Your respectfully.
A CURREI,CY REFORMER.
lier Pool, November, 4, t 856.
i•—l cannot help remarking upon one striking
.fea.
its -O.:J. W.'s" plan, which he may, perhaps, consider
Iletßlguest recommendation. It is evident that, if his
I,ltrue„._ be adopted, whenever the country finds its circu
the 7, cramped, it will only be necessary to petition
vkizillaticellor of the Exchequer to add ten or twenty
N 444 to our taxation, and issue notes to correspond,
tleht/„.it Is evident that the more we have to pay the
tsol,', We shall be ! This would be a feat greater and
yot; Wonderful than anything Professor Anderson has
~,"c`c°93l?li bed.
Lveluffon of the Currency Question. By 0. B. G.—E. Howell,
erp,01,1856.

At the last meeting of this association the sincere arid cordial
thanks of the council were voted to Francis Boult, &q., for
his services as representative of the association at the Free
Trade Congress recently held at Brussels. It is worthy of
record that, but for this association, Liverpool would have be, n
totally unrepresented at the Congress. Such a circumstance,
had it occurred, must have been highly prejudicial to the pro-
gress of free trade principles on the Continent, because both
free traders and protectionists would have inferred from it that
Liverpool, the second, if not the first, commercial place in the
world, was either disappointed by the result of their partial
application in this country, or indifferent to their extension.
GERMAN MILITARY COLONISTS AT THE CAPE.--The
intended establishment of military colonists at the Cape of
Good Hope, at a cost of something like £9O or £lOO per man,
was brought under the consideration of the council by the
president, who protested against it as a most unjustifiable ex-
penditure of the public money, and contended that government
had no right to colonise any part of the 'vor Id, either with
soldiers or civiliaes, without the consent of Parliament. It
appeara, from a recent speech of the govt.] nor, Sir George
Grey, to the Cape Legislature, that 8,000 men of the German
legion were expected to be sent out, the geelter part of them
accompanied by wives and f unifies ; that cacti man was to be
provided with camp equipage, and an Enfield rifla, and to be paid
pars. Now, the cost of conveying each
6d a day fur three
soldier to the frontiers of Kiffirland, cannot be less than £l2,
and that of his arms, &c, £6 ; rations for a year, at 6,1 a day,
£9 2s 6d, and pay for three years, at the same rate, £27 7s 6d.
Materials for a hut, furniture, tools, seeds, &c, cannot well
cost less than £2O per man. The wives and families of the
men, who may fairly be estimated at an equal number, will
have to be conveyed, and supplied with rations. Government
will also have to incur considerable expense for roads, bridges,
churches, schools, gaols, magistrates, &c ; and, in case of
sickness, accident, or destruction of property by the Kern's,
it will have to support the helpless, or make good the loss.
Should everything turn out successfully, this Colonisation experi-
ment must cost at least £BOO,OOO, as appears from the following
estimate in round minibus : —Three years' pay of 8,000 men.
at 6d per day, £19,000; conveyance of 8,000 men, at £1.2
each, £96 000; conveyance of families, at £l2 each,
£96,000 ; rations for the men, at £9 2s 6d each, £73 000 ;
rations for the families at £9 2s 6d each, £73,000 ; arms and
accoutrements, at £6 per man, £48,000 ; materials, furniture,
tools, &c., £2O per man, £160,000; miscellaneous expenses
for roads, &c., £50,000: total, £815,000. Towards this
expenditure, the Cape Legislature has been aiked to contribute
£40,000 only, or something like a year's interest upon it.
The rest is, of course, to be paid by the patient and well-
plucked people of England. This might be, comparatively, a
small sum, and well bestowed, if it were likely to secure the
frontier, and prevent the recurrence of a Kaffir war, every five
years or so ; but what chance is there of the attainment of
such objects ? The advantage anticipated from colonies of
this kind, is the placing of bodies of men ttained to arms, and
accustomed to military discipline on exposed frontiers ; hut, to
secure this advantage, they must obviously be located and
remain in the immediate neighbourhood of each other, and
must be called out, from time to time, for training purposes.
Now, the primary condition of a colonist's success, especially
in a new country, is perfect freedom of action and locomotion.
He must be at liberty to go where he likes, and to turn his
hand to any employment for which he is best adapted ; for if,
without capital, he could be fixed to the soil, and have his
occupation marked out for him, for any length of time, he must
ultimately become a discontented pauper. What are the
means by which it is proposed to keep the military colonists in
the frontier villages, where alone they can he of any service in
the way suggested ? Compulsion is, of course, out of the
question ; and, as to inducements, they are limited to a few
acres of wild land, worth little or nothing in such hands,
sixpence a day for three years, and rations for one. Are such
inducements likely to keep the colonists in remote and un-
settled districts, without roads or markets, and in the im-
mediate neighbourhood of hostile tribes, when they know that
they can command the highest wages in civilised and populous
places, with every convenience at hand ? It will be the inter-
est, both of the soldiers themselves, and of the employers of
labour, that these 8,000 men should be absorbed in the
labour market instead of becoming pauper landholders, on
the irksome tenure of military service, against hordes of
restless savages. When the men see this, as see it they
will, how are they to be prevented from following the
course pointed out to them, alike by their inclinations and
their interest? if coercion be attempted, there is the Dutch
Republic, cognate in race, language, and manners, ready to
afford them a welcome reception ; and, in ease of hostilities
between the British and the Beers, it requires no conjura-
tion to foretell on which side our German military colonist=
will range themselves. It has been alleged by Sir George
Grey, as an encouragement to making this silly experiment,
that the pensioner colonies in New Zealand have been sue
cessful, and that the pensioners have not abandoned their
Now, though the settlement of those pensioners has
cost upwards of £BO per man, they have turned out, as might
have been anticipated, most indifferent colonists, not worth half
as much, for any purpose, as an equal number of ()refinery emi
grants, who might have been located at half the expense. If
they have, generally, remained at their stations, it is, in the
first place, because they would have forfeited their life pensions
by desertion ; in the second place, because they are, for the
most part, man past the prime of life, who cannot command
high wages and, in the third place, because they were sta-
tioned in one of the longest settled and most desirable districts
of the country. Not one of these reasons will apply to the
cate of the German military colonists at the Cape. In point
of fact, they are one and all reversed ; and, under such cir-
cumstances, it is easy to calculate that the net result of the
experiment will just be an addition to the white population of
the settlement, valuable or otherwise, as may happen, at a vast

Bir To THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.
kit,
es) Civ:lisation is a favourite subject with all men having
ti.qttletertsions to philanthropy, and yet, probably, there
Itsi few minds capable of grasping it in its most liberal

tsett illation has many phases, and yet there are but few
1144 caPable of grappling with the, subject manfully, in more
llati6,4°nle one of these—in like manner we find also, that
•Isstnia their march of civilisation, usually show a predi.
favour of one or other of these pre-eminently—
alrre'Probably, from their being peculiarly qualified for the
tativt)ement of that one feature.
tell us Premise, in the first place, that civilisation has a
ellltith-4181 moral, .a scientific, an artistic, a literary, an agri-
' mechanical, and a mercantile phase.
Iktinwould not become us to say that England is a-head of all
tllle7ittis in all these respects, respectively, neither is it our
Nt•. to define her full share in the promotion of the
lion of the world at large, and yet we think we may,
ta-l't outraging common decorum as between nation
44)i:tit)°, say, that if in her modern history there be one
thawhich she is more conspicuous than another, it is in
tor h!' her commerce, and hence we do not hesitate to claim
I,;rthe foremost rank in the van of civilisatir —commer-
est4: All things combine to qualify her for this post, and to
4aite her to lead forward with that boldness and daring,
pietae-rylia're sus'ained her in all eventful periods of her past
0
s.! free institutions, under discipline superior to any thing
„,
4111111,4 in the most despotic, countries, are the glory of Eng-
fop% e,n but, if we would maintain our character, d put
014 tnSt same spirit of generous philanthrophy, which made
tost",:eators willing to suffer loss for the general good of their
llai,-bY. of their descendants, and of the world-universally, we
tittiLlS they did, press forward zealously, or we may lose our
latitt,-,aet and t.e left in the rear by some more youthful corn-
tlist ?I 'note ardent and more diligent, than ourselves even in
we are so peculiarly gifted,
Rid-raagland. with all she has attained to, commercially—
the all she has done for the world in this respect, and truly
sfhichhat done much—ii herself the subject of convulsions,
ilileotne and go like an intermittant fever, with which she
llt and reels with throes that seem for the time-being, to
111 b•• ;t1 the stabili`y of the nation, though probably that sta-
tlidtwd;.l in no way whatever effected, and that the torture
ttits„,..''''corefiture to which she is subjected is altegether the
litecit.ttehce of some misarrangement in her social arrange-
Itt ci and quite irrelevant to her wealth and well being ; au.]
taltiestaan°7l been visited with these commercial epidemics so
164: till at length it has come to pass that we look for
the il,eriodical re-appearance as a matter of course, just as
fs,:nhabifauts of some localities look for the yellow
.Ittia°4(l) like them, we do what best we can to meet the
tan' ultt aCver dream of any bold undertaking to remove the

stations.

and perfectly unnecessary expense. Even supposing that the
legionaries, or any considerable portion of them, remain at the
frontiers, the question arises, how obedience and discipline are
to be maintained amongst them ? They will not be
amenable to military law ; the fear of dismissal cannot
be very potent, situated as they will be; and they
have no pensions to lose. With such difficulties to
contend with, ministers must be much more astute than
they have credit for being, if they have devised any effective
means either to restrain or punish them, if they refuse to
turn out when summoned, or should happen to prefer plan-
deiing the colonists to defending them. There is, in short,
abundant reason to apprehend that these foreign mercenaries
may become very troublesome and dangerous colonists. The
best course that can be adopted, is just to convey to the Cape
such of them as choose to go there, and give them land, if
they like it, in conformity with the terms of their enlistment,

ki,"?) let us ask—Have the great gold crops saved us from
teal
P'le time of war ? Have they warded off these con.ttner-
4iert,„Ptic attacks in time of peace ? Have we been in any
Ale -",,,re More free from them since gold ham been more
Let the experience of the nation, yea, of the
answer this ! But, let England solve the problem, and
the ,-„e,4,cif to the task of unravelling the mystery in which
tity—"Joot is shrouded from the apprehension of the cornmu-
°lac 4telarge, that she may, with the solution, not only reap her
I'4e °' the reward thereof, but still retain her position in the
Ifq civilisation in this respect, that is, commercially,
also 1:: bad panics before the great gold discoveries, we have
Aa h,: them since ; if we have had panics in time „
of war,
m'v
e also such in time of peace ; so we see that the increase
'111;iP does riot relieve us, and, likewise, that peace does not
tilkt 49 from thee convulsions. Hence we venture to assert
thtl'l°og, as gold is allowed to hold its present false positions
lee th coromercial economy of the country, we shall always
Irapcl re, "ne effects follow the same cause, though we should
°kit,` mountains of quartz, rich with the precious metal, till
hap'aY labourers should earn a guinea per diem, and a
Thern loaf be worth three half crowns.
44111 golden basis on which we suspend our commercialercial
t° it. y is, evidently, unequal to the office which is assigned
°IR4 ',I:n(1 yet our prejudices are such in favour of these bits
Ille4);"Y metal, that I believe it will be a tedious work to open
eYes see that the evils to which we allude, and under
iteffiit'heY at's made to smart so severely, are owing to its
tc,e;",eY• I am very reluctant to introduce any apologies,
hnt ,„,'ePIY to any remarks irrelevant to the subject in hand ;
itepre—Y last observations least me to say, that with these
to el ,"i°llB I am rather disposed to use the hit than the spur
tltiiii'iLtn°vements ; and the subject is one of suet expansive-
Nie'iat the difficulty is not hew to keep it up, but how to
for it?," it—how to keep strictly within its legitinute limits :
l
and • '.4158 through all our social system, and so affects all,
llie,itilures all, saving a very small class, and that class the
,tl/110 live, and thrive, and grew rich by the writhings of
)!11l in times of trouble. If any apology he considered
444'1 to dire courtesy, to your readers, for my not intruding
the 4%ooner, I .must freely make that epology, appending to it
t ten
. -nhiance that though there is no lack of matter, there is
2'-at pressure of the routine occupations of life, which
ttrektitßllch as these on the midnight hour,—Your obedient
Coat NEIT VA.

and then leave them to do as they please. If military
colonists be wanted, they can be had in abundance from the
militia regiments, or disbanded troop; of the line ; but,
whether the colonists be foreign or British, Government has no
right to enter upon any such enterprise, without the consent of
Parliament, first asked and obtained. The project was
denounced by the council as a gross job, probably originating
with Prince Albert. It is also one of encroachments on the
rights of the popular branch of the Legislature which threaten,
if not checked in time, to bring the British Constitution much
nearer than it is to the German level.
TAXES AND TAX-COLLECTORS —A case was mentioned in
which a tax-collector (the celebrated Mr. Shimmin) had re-
fused to call for taxes before putting in a restraint, alleging
that all persons are bound to pay their taxes when due, and
that the collector is not bound to call for them. It was sug-
gested that, if this be law, it ought to be altered, or that
collectors, being paid for doing nothing, ought to be dispensed
with. It was also suggested, that a central office for the
receipt of taxes of all kinds, with one set of collectors, would
be a great convenience to the public, and greatly reduce the
coat of co lection.
BOARDS OF CUSTOM AND EXCISE.—The consolidation of
these two boards, which discharge analogous functions, was
urged both on the ground of economy, and that of efficiency.
It was alleged that two establishments, and two sets of
officers, for the performance of similar duties, constitute one
of those anomalies which ought to be abolished ; and that the
real reason for continuing such a system, can on), be an tin-
. willingness to diminish government patronage.

WHAT IS A You NO LADY.—This much agitated q testion,
we presume, will now be finally set at rest, as we find an
elderly lady advertising for a companion, expressly stating
that " the young lady must be about 49 years of age."
THE CROPS IN CONNAUGHT.—Speaking of the harvest in
the west, the Galway Mercury says :—" Everything rela-
tive to the harvest is now safe, so that rain can do but littl,-
harm. The harvest is a splendid. a rich, and a beautiful
one, thanks be to the Almighty Giver."
It is understood that all the differences between the
English and Swiss shareholders of the South Eastern Rill.
way of Switzerland have been arranged, and that the balance
of .£160,000, certified as due to Messrs. E. Pickering and
Co., the contractors, is in course of payment.
DEATH OE A COMEDIAN. —An inquest has been opened
at Great Yarmouth on the body of Thomas Russell, a
comedian, who died suddenly in the green-room of the
theatre of that town on Wednesday evening. It appeared
,hat he had been in embarrased circumstances, and had
denied himself, to a great extent, the necessaries of life.
ENTERTAINMENT AT THE LONDON TAVERN BY THE LORD
MAYOR ELECT.—On Monday the Lord Mayor elect enter-
tained the Court of Aldermen, the Sheriffs, and officers o
the Corporation of London, and a distinguished party of
private friends at dinner, at the London Tavern. Among
the guests were General Sir W. F. Williams, of Kars, Bart,
M.P.; General Sir G. Pollock.
DovRR, Nov. 3.—Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of
Wales and the Prince Alfred arrived here this evening at
seven o'clock, by South Eastern train, and were conveyed
in carriages to Birmingham's Royal Ship Hotel. Their
Royal Highnesses were accompanied by Sir Fred. Stovin,
Colonel Seymour, and Mr. Gibbs, and dined at the Ship
Hotel, evhere his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales,
Colonel Seymour, and Mr. Gibbs will sleep. His Royal
Highness the Prince Alfred, with Sir F. Stovin and Lieut.
Trrt.,
.at Aem Cowell, will proceed to Ostend, in her l‘lajesti,'s p cket
inc °l.`? girl; 4Y, GIRLS AND PRESTON S. Bnooxs.—The Vivid, Captain Allen, specially appointed. His Royal
134,r,oklliptc,hr,irtthe Lowell have given expression to theirtomorrow the Prince of Wales will return, to London
late Sumner outrage, by sending to P. S. . The travelling public will be pad to learn
141c1,.a. N,,indiy Pieces of silver (three cent pieces), a rope, that Mr. Birmingham has recently become the proprietor of
'104114. ug sheet, with a letter freely expressing their the Lord Warden Hotel, the old establishment, however,
being still kept up.

THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.
reply to your correspondent, "Nepos," who writes
a~Eireptouziptu on gold, in your impression of to-day, I would
11: tLolo answer his last question—" Thou lov'd one, what
Thou most illogical leader of society, with thy
lo°pitt atalents, thy unsound arguments, thy alluring,
,64414.1,4" ,}l,etoric, thy baneful doctrines, and thy all-searching
Simply, in a word, I will tell him it is, when
4th the root of all evil."—Yours, MosEy.
'N'enaber, 1856.