The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-21 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, OCT. 21, 1864.

Among the many topics discussed by the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer in his recent oratorical
campaign, brilliant and statesmanlike as all Mr
GLADSTONE'S displays unquestionably are, he
touched but incidentally on finance—the very topic
of all others with which he is supposed to be most
practically conversant. Whether it was from
modesty or policy we leave time to determine. He
made but a slight allusion to the present accumulat-
ing distress in the great monetary circles of com-
merce, but he Eulogised the wisdom and foresight
of the directors of the Bank of England as exam-
plifiad in their conduct of that national establish-
ment, as they no doubt amply deserved. That this
was a trying time for men in business was, of course,
no fault of theirs, but still the pressing circumstances
did exist, as the public felt to their cost. Nor was
this attributable to any specific cause, so far as events
in the wide range of public opinion seemed to ladle
cate. Still bankruptcies took place, and rumours of
failures or impending failures were of daily—nay, of
hourly occurrence—until apprehension produced
alarm, and the very suspicion of danger actually
precipitated the evil which a cooler judgment
might have prevented. If the adage that money
be the root of all evil be correct, surely the want of
credit, or the imputation of the want of it, is quite
as bad, if not worse. For who will trust if there
be a doubt? And if the rumour of the doubt be
magnified by frequent and insidious iteration, no
virtue can well bear up against the scandal ; for
men do not stop to inquire, but believe, or affect to
believe, and seemingly lament the unexpected
catastrophe to a neighbour who was ever the most
honourable of unfortunates. Thus, unlooked for
circumstances, however trivial at the beginning,
aeon assume an adverse character, and calumny,
with ill-concealed jealousy, hurries the victim to
his doom. But the question still occurs. Here
we are in the full the of prosperity,
with business ever increasing, not only in our
home trade, but expending in our foreign with a
fair promise of still further extension, and yet
there is a scarcity of money. How is this ? Have
oar means of production exceeded expectation, or
has the equivalent for our labour failed to keep
pace with our power of production ? Is not this
the age of free trade, which Mr. GLADSTONE has
so eloquently and so truly glorified ? Yes; but
the free trade principle is chiefly felt at the extremi-
ties ; it is in full swing at the circumference, but
almost inert at the centre, where its influence
should be most aotive. We have free trade in
almost everything but the one thing needful—
a'",7. It not money the symbol of p)vver, the re-
presentative of labour, th© true source of wealth ?
Teen why restrict the free action of that labour by
contracting or restraining the action of its
representative or symbol money ? It ie
le this narrow view of the operation of
cause and Eff,ct, that
our present difficul-
ties and commercial failures
are mainly
at tribut:lble. The hatieiraents of the youth have
ceased to suit the necessities of the man, and the
wonderful growth of our trade and commerce has
outstripped the limited power of what was our
standard currency. That amount of currency re-
presented as a token the extent of cur productive
labour, but now fails to represent our accumulated