The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-19 00:00:00

/7,-(=424,-(

EVENING

of it. The odour of ten thousand roses pleases but for
a moment ; the pain occasion by one of the thorns ;s.
long felt. One hardship in the midst of lexnr*o:,
is, to the opulent, as a thorn among flower:),
They have a lively sense of it, and the effect or
every thing is increased by contrast. Riches are o::
no value in themselves ; their use is diset,vered only in
that which they procure. Tney are coveted by narrow
minds (which confound the means with the end), for
the sake of power, influence, and respect ; or by those
of less elevated and refined sentiments, as necessary to
sensual enjoyments. It almost always happens that the
man who grows richer changes his notions of poverty,
states his wants by some new measure, and, flying from
the enemy that pursued him, bends his endeavours to
overtake those which he sees before him. Wealth can-
not confer greatness ; for nothing can make that great
which the decree of nature has ordained to be little ;
the bramble may be planted in a hot-bed, but it will
never become an oak."—Anon.

BANEFUL EFFECTS OF ALTER-
ING THE COURSE OF EXCHANGE. BY
INCREASING OR DECREASING THE QUAN-
TITY OF MONEY.

(From a Paper of Mr. Gilbart in the Westminster

Review.)
We see, then, that an alteration in the quantity of
currency will affect the foreign exchanges in two wave.
An increase in the quantity will tend to advance the
prices of commodities, and thus check exportation, and
encourage importation ; and it will lower the rate of in-
terest, and thus cause a transfer of capital for invest-
ment in foreign securities. Seeing, then, that we have
the power of thus influencing the exchanges, the elec—
tion arises, ought we, as a general principle of action, to
make use of this power's
It strikes us at once that this is an operation altoge-
ther at variance with the ordinary functions of money,
The design of money is to effect the exchanges of come
modities—to operate as a measure of value between
different commodities, and thus to show their relative
values. And it ought not only to show the relative
value of different commodities at the same time, bu'
also the value of the same commodity at different time:,
All writers on monetary science have held that tle
measure of value ought to be free from change ; an i.
they state that the precious metals were originally se-
lected for this reason, because they possessed, more then
any other commodity, the quality of permanency. it
seems as necessary to have a standard of value as
standard of weight or of measure. And were the yard
measure or the bushel measure to be perpetually chang-
ing, it could not produce greater confusion or injustice
than if the standard of value were perpetually changing.
On this ground it has been contended that corn would
be a very improper standard of value; for as, annually,
the crops vary very much, an article that is worth onte
bushel of corn this year may be worth two bushels the
next. But if the quantity of money were to be increased
or diminished from year to year, with the view of in-
fluencing the exchanges, then it would become as ime
proper a standard of value as corn. Indeed, during tl
last few years, the quantity of gold in the Bank of Eng-
land has fluctuated more than the produce of the har-
vests. There are various circumstances that influence
the prices of commodities; such as an increase or a
diminution of the supply—a state of peace or war—the
opening of new markets—the discovery of cheaper
modes of production, or the substitution of a scarce
commodity. Now seems proper that these legitimate
causes of an alteration of prices should not be counte-
racted by an artificial operation on the currency : the
natural price of a commodity is an indication of the re-
lative quantity in the market ; and when the price ad-
vances, it is notice to the consumers to reduce their
consumption. Suppose, for instance, we had a scanty
harvest, the price of corn would of course advance ;
this advance of price would induce many people, from
motives of economy, to diminish their consumption, and
to use instead cheaper kinds of food ; and thus the
quantity on hand would be eked out to the next har-
vest. But suppose the quantity of money were to he
forcibly contracted, and corn kept as cheap in this sea-
son of scarcity as it had been in the previous year, then
consumption would not be diminished ; the whole stock
might soon be exhausted, and, before the next harvest,
the nation might starve. Thus, artificial operations on
the currency might contract the effect of the natural
causes of alteration in prices, and also, by operating
unequally on different commodities, might derange their
relative values.