The Sun.
London, England, 1855-12-21 00:00:00

( From the Times.)

Mr. Salt, in the two letters which we published else-
where, has not answered our clia lenge to show us the
formula for his own hauls-note, or legal tender paper, as
he chooses to call it. In fact the challenge has never
yet met with a plain, intelligible, and straightforward
reply. Such a bank-note as he means is an imagination
of the same character as that " perpetual motion" a hich
an average number of half-crazy people are daily hunt-
ing after. In the ingenious machines constructed for
this purpose the weight is to be always exerting its
gravity, yet never losing its elevation ; the spring is to
bo always moving the wheels, yet never uncoiling ; the
ball is to be always rolling down, vet never effecting an
actual descent. The bank-note of Mr. Salt and his school
is to be always obtaining its value, yet never to be spent.
The fortunate possessor is to be always " eating his
cake," and nevertheless " having it." When a cat has
eaten a mouse it will still go about looking for it.
Mr. Salt's bank-note is to hear being eaten over and over
again for ever. Fortunatus is always to find it at the I
bottom of his purse. Ile spends it one day on a dinner,
thy next day on a coat, the next day in wages, the net
day in paying an old debt, but there it still is. Like
the golden twig of the Sybil, if you pluck it, another
immediately appears in its place, of equal glitter and
virtue. Like the dogstealer's pet spaniel, it invariably
comes back, and is sold next to a fresh customer. Such
is the nature of this note, which may, for aught we
know, exist in fAiryland, but has never yet been even
described or conceived in this waking world with any
degree of distinctness. It is a nondescript in the
strictest sense of that word, for even they who affirm
the possibility of thu thing do not commit themselves to
a particular account of it. What we want is the legend.
At present we are asked to give up a thing we
know for something which does not exist, even
in the imagination of its advocates, except in the most
uncertain and nebulous form. There can be no com-
parison between a thing which is and a thing which is
not, and which is not even placed within the reach of
mortal faculties. In all processes of reasoning the first
act, logicians tell us, is apprehension. When Mr. Salt
has caught his legal tender paper, apprehended it, and
laid it open to our understanding, in any form what-
ever, then it will be time to institute a comparison be-
tween it and the existing entity that we call a Bank of
England note.
But, having evaded the challenge to tell us what be
wants, Mr. Salt, with much assumed triumph, pro-
poses to answer another question—viz., " Whist the
matter with the bank note ?" " Why, it is gone !" says
Mr. Salt, " That is the matter, and a pretty consider-
able matter too, seeing our debts are net gone withi
it." To the same effect, when we recommend,,T him
to ascertain the meaning of 'the words,othe B
promiseank of
to pay 5/. on demand," by going t
England and getting five _ sovereigns, he A
vast replies,
" I have not got the note ; hence my gr.i.of.
quantity of gold has left the country, and, instead of the
circulation e b ing kept up to a proper amount by the
substitution of the paper money, the Bank of England
has reduced its issues of notes as much as 6,000,0001.
Even of this diminished issue of notes, observes Mr.
Salt, a more than usual number are locked vp by 800
banks, thus further diminishing the quantity actually in
circulation. Yet we are paying double taxes. This
account of the present state of ;things may be true
enough, and deplorable enough, but Mr. Salt himself
does not prescribe the remedy. He does not even ex-
pressly recommend that the Bank of England should
be at liberty to issue as many not as it pleases, with-
out any regard to the quantity of gold in its vaults.
He does not say that he would be satisfied with a re-
peal of the Banking Acts of 1844, 1845. He simply
attacks the existing state of things, which is always
easy to do. Had he demanded a return to the state of
things before 1844, we might have asked what it
was that created a necessity for the change. Mr. Salt
knows full well that the circulation of the Bank of Eng-
land notes fell even lower on several recent occasions be-
fore 1844 than it has since. Nor can he doubt that, even
if the Bank were quite at liberty to issue as many notes
as it Fleeced, with its increased experience, it would not
be likely to exceed its present limits, It would mill be
possessed with a wholesome fear of "runs," and would
therefore be far from satisfying all the gentlemen who
might find themselves with wages and debts to pay and
no money to pay them with. Then, if Mr. Salt care-
fully abstains from suggesting the remedy, his complaint
merely comes to that very old and very ordinary one—
; a want of money. It is comprised in the words, " I