The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-24 00:00:00

at an exorbitant cost of soma 8, 10, or 12 per
cent., that completely destroys the profit of the
merchants and manufacturers, or rather transfers
it into the pockets of the moneyocracy. All
classes of securities are once more buoyant, and
quotations on the stock exchange have materially
improved, and all these felicitous results are
mainly ascribable to the almost simultaneous
arrival of the Lightning and the long-expected
and anxiously looked-for James Baines—the
former bringing gold worth, in round terms, some
560,0001., the latter 700,0001., or in all about
one million and a quarter sterling ! These sums
are not even added to our own stock of bullion.
Our continental competitors are still in the field,
and as they are willing to pay more for the
coveted article than the Bank is permitted to do,
under its charter, they must, of course, obtain
the preference I We are indeed congratulating
ourselves that, out of the amount brought by the
Lightning, 70,0001., or one-eighth of the whole,
has escaped their clutches, and that reasonable
expectations may be entertained that a portion
of the remittances by.the James Baines may be
permitted to remain in the country !
Can there possibly be a stronger commentary
on the terrible operation of our iniquitous mo-
netary code than that afforded by this extraordi-
nary state of affairs ? What would be thought
of a private individual worth, in helms, land,
furniture, cattle, stock in trade, and " capital" of
other descriptions, some 5,0001. or 6,0001., being
materially affected in all his transactions, and his
mind being greatly exalted or depressed by the
addition or substraction of a sovereign and a quar-
ter ? Should he, in the former event, be prepared
to launch into extravagance, or to indulge himself
with luxuries, or, in the latter, to cut off ordinary
comforts, and dispose of a portion of his real pro-
perty at a heavy sacrifice—should it fluctuate
in value from such comparatively trivial causes—
the man who so acted would be thought a fitting
inmate for a lunatic asylum, and the certificate
of two medical practitioners would be thought
unnecessary to show that he was incompetent to
the due management of his own affairs.
And yet this is precisely what we are doing
under the existing currency laws. Political eco-
nomists unanimously concur in the opinion that
there is a complete analogy between the affairs of
nations and of individuals. Now, the accumu-
lated and realised property in the United Kingdom
has never been estimated lower than from five to six
thousand millions, and a million and a quarter,
the amount conveyed by the Lightning and James
Baines, bears the same proportion thereto that
11. ss. would to the property of a man worth
5,0001. or 6,000/. Should not, then, our legis-
lators be held justly responsible for the purely
gratuitous and uncalled-for inconvenience occa-
sioned to the industrial interests of the country,
by the vast addition to the price of money, and
the exorbitant rate demanded, and reluctantly
paid, for pecuniary accommodation ?
But we are told that there was a marked ame-
lioration in the Bank Returns, which sufficiently
indicated the turn of the tide, even before the
arrival of the Australian treasure ships. The
weekly account of the Bank of England for the
week ending the 14th instant showed an addition
to the bullion in both departments of 154,0151.,
and to the notes unemployed of 456,3801., while
there kas been a simultaneous reduction of the
active circulation by no less than 309,9501.
This decided amelioratian could not have been
produced in a single day.- - It -must have been
spread over the whole of the week, and the Di-
rectors of the Bank must have been perfectly cog-
nisant thereof at the time when thy =gave a fur-
ther turn to the monetary screw, by_advancing the
minimum discount to a uniform rate of 7 per
cent., and decided that bills having more than 30
days to run should not be rediscounted for the
brokers. It therefore appears on the infallible
evidence of their own accounts that the announce-
ment which, as we were told by the bullionist
organ, " caused considerable surprise," was wholly
uncalled for, and that all the risk and inconveni•
ence to the commercial world might have been
averted without the slightest danger. There is,
however, a significant explanation of the change.
The addition to the Rest during the week has
been 17,2261., much more than the average at
this season ; and there is every reason to suppose
that the profits will be still greater before we see
any material reduction in the starvation price
of money, or of the unnatural constraint, that has
so long paralysed every department of commerce
and enterprise. The public may feel naturally
indignant, but the Directors will laugh in their
sleeves. The Bank may exclaim with the muse,
celebrated by Horace—
" Populus me sibilat, at mihi plaudo
Ipse cdomi, simulac nummos contemplor in arca I"

An increased issue of paper would relieve the
general distress, but the Directors have reduced
the activo circulation by 309,9501. during the
last week, of which the public have any account,
in addition to 297,0001. abstracted in the preced-
ing week, being more than 600,0001. within a
single fortnight. Can the persons who have thus
acted be considered proper controllers and ma-
nagers of so important a department, on which
thd welfare and prosperity of the nation so greatly
depend ?

It is obvious that they should, at the earliest
possible moment, be relieved from a trust which
they have so shamefully disregarded, and which,
indeed, was directly counter to their own peculiar
interests. The direction of the national currency
should be placed under the care of public officers,
directly responsible to Parliament for their acts.
There should be a really national Bank, and really
national notes, of convenient denominations,
which, as clearly pointed out by Mr. JAMES WIL-
SON, M.P., nearly ten years since, would " im-
mediately liberate at least twenty millions of
capital from unproductive use, and render it
available for the purchase of food and raw mate-
rials, for the employment of our population, and
for all the purposes to which such an increase of
capital could be. applied." This is what the nation
requires, and this it will obtain, if the people are
only true to themselves, and persist steadily in the
demand for that which their welfare and prospe-

rity so imperatively require.
As to the effects to be produced by this im-
portant
change we shall adept the words of the
present Secretary of the Treasury (in the
Economist, of 9th May, 1847). The Honourable
Gentleman said—" While therefore, at present,
we economise the capital of the country by the
note
use of five-pound s and upwards to the extent
we would accomplish the same
to
of
the
114
e,
extentO OO , 000
01 ~
of
34,000,0001. or
20,000,0001.
in addition, by the us© of one-pound notes,and
with the most perfect safety, We should thus
immediately add to the effective capital of the
country, to our stock of commodities, or, what is
the same thing, our command over them, to the
extent of 20,000,0001., just as much
as if
we dug
that quantity of bullion out of the centre of Eng_
land ; in the same way as France will add to the
amount of her capital by extending her issues
from notes of the denomination of 201. to those
of 51., and in the same way as Russia has, by the,
law of 1839, accumulated in the fortresses of St.
Peter's and St. Paul's, bullion or capital to the