The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-20 00:00:00

851.

[PRICE SD.

paper money." Is this, or is it not, a fact ? We call
into court a witness of no ordinary character—Sir
Walter Scott. After declaring that paper money
has so completely expelled gold from the country
of Scotland, that you never by any chance espy
a guinea there, unless in the purse of an accidental
stranger, or in the coffers of the banks themselves,"
he goes on to say that, " through means of the credit
which this system has afforded, roads have been made,
bridges built-, and canals dug, ,o
-sling up to recipro-
cal communication the most sequestered districts of
the country—manufactures have been established
unequalled in extent or success ; wastes have been
converted into productive farms ; the productions cf
the earth for human use have been multiplied twenty-
fold, while the wealth of the rich and the comforts of
the poor have been extended in the same proportion."
Such is the testimony of this singularly sagacious and
clear-sighted man ; one who loved his country with
all the devotion of genius, who felt the responsibility
of the part he was taking in advocating a representa-
tive system of paper money, and who in so doing placed
himself in direct opposition to his political associates
and to his best and oldest friends. As to the fact of
the advantage of a good paper money system
in
America, we call as witnesses Benjamin Franklin
and David Hume. Are these men likely to be de-
luded by currency crotchets ? The former, Franklin,
has written philosophically and practically on the
uses of a paper currency, and his motive for sup-
porting the system of paper money was his conviction
that it was indissolubly united with the prosperity of
his country. We will not follow Mr. Duncan through
the argumentative and lucid statement in which he
discussed the fallacies of tle advocates of Sir Robert
Peel's system, and fully explained the advantages of a
sound system of paper currency convertible into gold
at the market price. We may, however, notice his
allusion to what is commonly used as an argument
against the necessity of a more adequate
circulating medium, viz., the apparent plentiful-
ness of money in this country. "At the
present time," said Mr. Duncan, " the Bank of
England had nearly nine millions of unem-
ployed notes which they would gladly lend at a low
rate of interest, and the private bankers and bill-
brokers were in a similar position. Hence money
was said to be plentiful ; but," he further ob-
served, " the plenty of money, which indicated a
healthy state of trade, only existed when the money
flowed freely into the tills of the shopkeepers and the
pockets of the working classes, denoting high profits
and high wages." The fact is, money is then only dis-
charging its proper function when it is circulating
from hand to hand, facilitating barter, and expediting
the exchange of one commodity for another, and ef-
fecting, above all, that great and important exchange,
the exchange of the poor man's labour for food, clothes,
and lodging. The effect of the existing monetary
system is that we live in a state of modified
panic. The Bank is afraid of letting out its notes
for more than a short period, for if a little gold is
withdrawn from the country there may be a sudden
demand on its resources ; the private bankers are
afraid in like manner to discount or lend money for
more than temporary purposes; merchants and ma-
nufacturers all live in daily dread of some " mone-
tary pressure,"—and the ill effects of this system, as a
matter of course, extend to every artisan and working
man in the country. We ask the merchants of Li-
verpool whether they are willing that this state of
things should be permanent ? Or if they think the
advocates of a reform of the monetary system wrong,
are they prepared to find men to accept Mr. Dun-
can's challenge ? Can they find three bullionists to
come forward, and publicly, deliberately, and philo-
sophically discuss the subject of the currency ?

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