The Sun.
London, England, 1853-09-03 00:00:00

an inferiority in the material and not in the
workmanship, and that it has especial reference to
edge-tools ! Upon this the Mayor and Master
Cutler of Sheffield remarked on Thursday—" The
manufacturer of edge-tools in America invariably
used the best steel that Sheffield produced regard-
less of price ; while some of the Sheffield manu-
facturers were aiming at a greater profit by
making a cheaper article from inferior material"—
adding—" it was not in workmanship, but in the
use of the best material that the Americans
gained any superiority." Does not that
very consideration render the conduct of
these Sheffield manufacturers only the more,
instead of making it the less, reprehensible ?
The superiority of American edge-tools, recollect,
is a superiority of material, and not of workman-
ship. And that very material is derived by the
cutlers of the United States from Sheffield—the
Sheffield manufacturers (let us give the deplo-
rable admission of the Master Cutler over again)
aiming at a greater profit by making a cheaper
article from inferior material ! Why, after this,
no one can marvel if the American razor
is preferred by the close-shaver, if the
American scissors are selected by the sempstress,
if the American scythe is taken by the mower,
and the American sickle by the reaper, and the
American lancet by the surgeon—instead of what
were formerly unrivalled in the trade, the
razors, the scissors, the scythes, the sickles,
and the lancets of Sheffield. No wonder if the
backwoodsman chooses the axe, and the adze, and
the pruning-knife, and the bill-hook of the United
States to those manufactured in the workshops
of Hallamshire. It is another example of
the suicidal effect of following out the penny-
wise and the pound-foolish principle. It is a false
economy of the better material in the foolish
hope of securing larger profit. With this melan-
' choly confession before us from the Master Cutler
himself, we cannot for the life of us comprehend how
Lord A SHBURTON can be pronounced rash or pre-
cipitate, much less how he can be viewed as un-
just or inaccurate, in declaring that in edge-tools
Sheffield is losing her reputation. It will be fortu-
nate for that time-honoured capital of cutlery, if
the enterprise of its manufacturers be revived by
the serious reflections consequent upon this rather
startling acknowledgment. A revival of energy
the more requisite, for the maintenance of
the prosperity of Sheffield, now that Aus-
tralia is being rapidly peopled under the in-
fluence of wholesale colonisation now that
England in this, as in her other world-famous
manufactures, has the prospect opened to her of
some 300,000,000 or 400,000,000 fresh cus-
tomers consequent upon the triumph of the
Chinese Revolutionists.

Another attempt has been made to reduce the
circulating medium of the country—another effort
to arrest the tide of national prosperity ; to di-
minish the wages of labour, and thus to lower the
demand for, and, as a natural consequence, the
prices of the various articles of comfort and com-
parative luxury which have recently been placed
within the reach of the working classes. It would
almost seem as if the great desideratum were to
screw down the condition of the industrious po-
pulation of the country to the " starvation point,"
to take care that there is no chance of those who
earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow
" waxing fat " or " kicking." The Directors of
the Bank of England are anxious to prove them-
selves hard task-masters, grinding down the poor
and needy to the very utmost, and to the best of
their power playing the game of the moneyocracy.
With this view they have once more followed up
the blows they have been inflicting at intervals
since the beginning of the year, and on Thursday the
" official" announcement was made at the break-
ing up of the Bank Parlour of the increase of the
minimum rate of discount from 3' to 4 per cent.
The same extraordinary prescience displayed
on several former occasions, was manifested in
various instances in the present movement. If
distinct intimation had been given to certain
individuals of the intention, they could not have
operated with greater confidence. It must, how-
ever, have been either unequalled sagacity, or
some mysterious power of vaticination belonging
to the successful operators ; for it would clearly
be unjust to suspect for a single moment such
highly honourable men, or even a single member
of the Board, of such undue favouritism as deli-
berately hinting the intention, or such weakness
as letting it " leak out" beyond the precincts of
the Sacred Chamber. The public only know that
the valuable secret was in some manner discovered,
that good use was made of the early information,
and that the accuracy of the opinion thus acted
on was established in due course.
But it may be asked, as it has repeatedly been
on former occasions, why should not the Directors
of the Bank of England be entitled to charge such
rate of interest as they may think proper for the
use of their money, the only commodity in which
they deal ? and why should they be bound to
look in any degree beyond the interests of their
constituents, by whom they have been elected,
and the only parties to whom they are account-
able for their transactions ? In support of these
views it has been stated, and with some degree of
justice, that the duty, and indeed the power, of
regulating the national currency, of contracting or
expanding the circulation of the country, was com-
pletely taken away by the Act of 1844, which pro-
fessed to establish a self-acting regulator—an auto-
matical action that would dispense with any dis-
cretion or exertion on the part of the Directors,
and that consequently they were only responsible
to the proprietary for their proceedings, their
duty being to obtain the highest rate of interest
practicable under the circumstances of the money
market. There would be some foundation for
this argument were it not for the character of quasi
nationality still appertaining to the Leviathan
Establishment—the exclusive privileges which
still confer upon it a species of monopoly, and
prevent the possibility of " free trade" in banking.
If the Bank Charter were repealed, or suffered to
expire in due course, there would, of course, be
no possible objection to the Directors doing what
they liked with the enormous funds placed under
their control and management. But while they exer-
cise such extraordinary influence on monetary
affairs, owing to the restrictions on other banks,
they cannot possibly rely on any defence founded
on the supposed private character of their estab-
lishment.

A brief sketch of the recent advances may be
acceptable to the general reader, and enable
him to form a more minute judgment of the
step just taken. At the commencement of the
present year, the Bank charge for discount was
only 2 per cent. It had been gradually dimi-
nished from the time when, in October, 1847, it
was, in obedience to the celebrated letter from
Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and Sir CHARLES WOOD,
which virtually suspended the Bank Charter Act,
raised to the exorbitant and usurious rate of 8
e Cent.
pr
, The Directors had contested every re-
unction, holding on at the higher rates until they
fl'ilnd doors that they
that itl
were under-bid by parties out of
being followieley.Were rapidly losing their prestige,
in moue g, in place of leading, other dealers
Y and that, unless the were roared
to conform to the • y p
make up their minds to
of the times, they should
to
meet their proprietors
with a lower dividend:
of
moneta The good effects of the
cheap price
accommodation was
speedily perceptible.
over-caution—the re-
remains re-
ThrYo
remains of the commercial
crisis
were full y employed at
1847 passed
h admproved,
away—the working-working-classesremunerative wages—the revenue
and was still improving, and " all vventi
a marriage bell." This state of affairs merry
as
Was to,
good to last. The Directors, by way of a
" Christmas-box" to the creators and producers
of national wealth, struck the first blow
At the termination of the holidays—during the
first week of the New Year they raised the price
of money 25 per cent., or, in other words, from 2
to 22 per cent. These complaints at this uncalled-
for interference with the national industry were
loud and general. It was said that the other
dealers would not follow in the same direction,
and that the magnates of Threadneedle-street
would speedily be compelled to re trace their foot-
steps. The Directors were, however, determined. I
They speedily followed the first 4r)nslitught, and I