The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-24 00:00:00

GOLD AND T.HE CURRENCY.

TO THE EDITOR OF TELE EDINBURGH ADVERTISER.
Sir,—I have read
with great interest your able arti-
cles on the Currency.
It is vitally necessary, if posi•ible,
to awaken people's
nie ' attention to all that is at stake ;
our national credit, our private fortunes, our commerce
and manufactures, and our means of carrying on the war
in which Lord Aberdeen
Aterdeen and the Peelites have entan-
gledunfortunate that so great a question is
I
us I It o
obscure, that many able men who would be indignant
:t the
supposition of their being ignorant of any other
important subject, almost glory that they know nothing
of this the turniug-wheel of all the business of life. I am
glad to see that the people of Paisley are giving a lesson
to all the trading community, by passing strong and
sensible resolutions against the continuance of a system
which seems to have been invented by the monied class
for their own special benefit at the expense of every other.
The following sketch of the way it works is not new, but
needs repetition :
When money is abundant and easy to be got (that is,
when the Bank coffers are full of gold, and a large issue
of notes is Cowed), commerce and manufactures thrive,
sha
speculation is afloat and prices of stocks, re
g e' the
commodities rise, while interest of debt falls. nn and
the ex-
monied class sell at a great profit. But
change turns against us—perhaps owing
of corn,
or a bad harvest requiring a great importationthe gold oozes '
or a costly war, or a mixture of caunseks---, sogenrtrading,
notes are buried
out of the country and out of the Bank,
in place of it, circulation contracts, credit is restricted,
1 interest rises, failures crowd one after the other, and

a panio ensues, to the destruction of all confidence ;
and when prices sink almost without a limit, then the
monied class buy, and get enormous bargains. It is
said that a banking Lord, in the panic of 1846, made
70,0001. by one transaction, with a house run hard for
one day ! Thus, while they share in the prosperity of
the country, their great harvest is in its adversity. It is
so calculated—it is so written in the bond. They flourish
in the universal distress.

And why is this cycle of prosperity and distress en-
dured ? They profess to keep circulation and prices
steady to check over-trading, and to force back, by a
sort of bankitupt sacrifice of our goods, the gold they
consider indispensable to lie ensconced in the Bank cel-
lars Gold is thus made a curse ! The sinful love of it
is aggravated, and hoarding increases the evil. Why
should it not be left free, and come and go as during the
war, when we were at the height of national prosperity.
Why should every one's property, from the Land's-end
to the extreme North, be reduced in value in order to
encumber the Bank with coin intended to be useless!
Why should the value of gold be attempted to be fixed,
when everything else varies as well as itself ? By what
delusion is our circulation said to be based on gold, when
the first fourteen millions of notes do not represent a
single sovereign ? In fact, onr coin is only the small
change of our whole currency ofl
annoyt eds,i bills,it
ibeos horde, &c.
&dies.-
This artificial state, with so n
asters in its train, results from the pretext of endeavour-
ing to regulate and control what should be left free in
all respects, except that the Banks which issue notes
should produce ample security; but that need not neces-
sarily be gold.—Your constant reader, and
A FREE-TRADER IN GOLD.

MR. COBDEN'S LETTER.