The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-06 00:00:00

It is undersitood that, notwithstanding the plans
adopted by the Bank of France for obtaining gold, their
supply, which was equal last month to 11,500,0001., has
now fallen below 10,000,0001. This result might have
been apprehended. They have attracted bills on London
from other cities, and have thus rendered all their ex-
changes less favourable, while, at the same time, a de-
gree of distrust has probably been excited, by which the
tendency to hoarding has been stimulated.
The mode in which the greater part of the gold sent
from this aide has been obtained by the Bank of France
is asserted not to have been by the accommodation p ,per
between the houses employed in the transaction, but
simply by their clearing the market of all the bills and
bank-notes o❑ London that could be procured. The
whole process therefore appears to have been as follows:
The Bank of France proposed to the house of M. St.
Paul, of Paris, to pay a h'g'i price for a certain amount
of goad ; this price was such ae to enable M. St. Paul
to give high terms for draughts on London, which
were accordingly bought up iu all quarters and trans-
mitted to agents on this side, with instructions for the
proceeds to be remitted to Paris in gold. On the gold
being taken to ;he Bank of France the payment for it
to M. St. Paul, of course, took place in the notes of
that institution, and in this way the affair of the
first 3,000,0001. was accomplished. But it, is not to
be supposed that the amount of bills naturally
obtainable in Paris would have furnished the full
supply. The artificial prices offered attracted bills from
other quarters of the continent, and thus the remittances
have probably been composed of all the floating claims
on London that coul I be transmitted to the Paris market
from the trading ports of Prue is and of other neigh-
bouring countries. Whether the negotiation of the re-
maining 1,000,0001. was managed in the same way is un-
certain ; but, assuming even that the whole 4,000,0001.
has been so obtained, it may be regarded as the with-
drawal of an amount which must, sooner or later, come
back. If, for instance, the average total of c'eima or
London afloat on the continent of Europe at a'l periods
when the rates of exchange are not against us is
10,000,000/., and that average be suddenly reduced by
4,000,0001., our position in relation to the continent is
precisely to that extent better than in ordinary times ;
and, while the average is being allowed to regain its
former aggregate, we shall derive the benefit of retaining
4,000,0001., that would otherwise, in the course of trade,
pass throueh instead of stopping in th's country.
Doubtless, if all the negotiable claims of England on the
continent were suddenly collected together, and sent
over for realisation in the same manner as the claims
upon us have nuw been accumulated and presented, we
could at any time draw thence an equal or much greater
amount, and it is the advantage of the raising of the rate
of discount by the Bank of Enelaud that it promotes in
a legitimate, instead of an ttrtific'al manner, a process of
that description, inasmuch as by renderiug money scarce
it induces the commercial communit:ea to call in from
abroad every amount that may be available.