The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-05 00:00:00

.1 rl r. iJ

from 7 per Cent,, at which it was fixed on the
13th ultimo, to 6 per Cent. This change applies

not merely to discounts, but to advances on securi-
ties respecting which thescrew has perceptibly been
relaxed. The bullionist writers are in raptures
at the prudence and moderation of this step—
simply because it has greatly disappointed public
, expectation, and although in the right direction
has not gone by any means so far as had been
confidently anticipated, or as the exigencies of
the !commercial and manufacturing interests re-

quired. The Bank has done little more
than retrace the step taken on the 13th
ultimo, going back to the rate of
61
per cent., which is now uniform, in place of a
higher charge being made on bills hay* more
than 60 days to run. As, however, it is optional
with the Directors whether they will discount

such paper, the relief is not by any means of an

important character.
The Times, which recently so clearly pointed
out the incalculable evils of a high rate of interest,
which it truly declared to be a great " national

disaster," justifies the adoption by the Directors
of a more gradual process than might otherwise
have been anticipated. It points out that the
Bank might, by further restrictions, have been
enabled to exact nine or even ten per cent. ; and
the inevitable inference follows, that we should
feel grateful for the moderation that contented
itself with merely 61, when half that rate
cannot be obtained for investments in Consols.
This, however, is merely a repetition of the argu-
ment of the fox to the stork in the fable. Reynard
might have bitten off the head unguardedly
placed in perilous proximity to his throat, and
therefore the animal engaged in rendering him
important service should be thankful for his
moderation ! We have no doubt that the Di-
rectors would gladly screw up the rate of discount
to the highest pitch if they could only do so with
safety to themselves. But there are two all-suffi
cientreasons for their seeming moderation. It would
not quite do to " kill the goose that laid the golden
eggs." A further great contraction of the cur-
rency would impose such difficulties in the
way of commercial men that many stoppages would
inevitably take place, by which, notwithstanding
the stringent precautions adopted, considerable
losses might be sustained that should be set off
against the increase of interest. Many unques-
tionable bills should also be rejected in order to
produce the necessary panic and confusion, so
that on the whole the apparently liberal policy
may prove the most beneficial for the pecuniary
interests of the Old Lady herself.
But there is another and even more pressing
argument. The charter has virtually expired.
The entire monetary code must be discussed early
next session, and it is more than doubtful
whether the Bank will be allowed to continue to
regulate the currency, and to exercise almost
despotic sway over the rate of interest exacted
from the industrial classes. So grave a breach of
trust, so gross a dereliction of duty would unques-
tionably turn the balance against them, and they
would speedily be reduced to the private position for
which they are best qualified, and to which they
should speedily be restored. As it is, they will
And it difficult enough to vindicate their conduct
in increasing the rate of interest at a time when,
as we have recently proved from their own re-
turns, the tide had perceptibly turned, and the
bullion was gradually but steadily flowing in, the
reserve. of notes increasing, while the active cir-
culation was being subjected to enormous reduc-
tions. We shall therefore decline to give them
any credit for not pressing the power which
should never have been confided to their charge
to the highest point, considering the serious con-
sequences that must have followed such an at-
tempt. _ _

But even as it is,, we find that the English
rate of interest, usually the lowest of any, is now
much higher than that of any of the leading
money markets of the Continent. It is more than
i per cent. higher than at Paris, and from 1 to
It per cent. above the current charge at Ham-
burg, Vienna, Berlin, Frankfort, and Amsterdam !
Now, one of the chief advantages possessed by
the manufacturers of England over those of the
Continent has been the facilities for obtaining
money at reasonable rates. It has more than
counterbalanced the higher rates of wages which
the encrmous indirect taxation renders indispens-
able ; and if money is to be rendered scarco and
dear it requires no extraordinary degree of
prescience to foresee the decadence of English
industry, and the transfer of some of our
chief products to other districts, where the
moneyocracy are more reasonable in their
charges. As we stated in our impression of
Monday—" The usurer who ♦entures little and
produces nothing, should be contented to see the
creators of the national wealth retain for their
own use a portion of the profits realised by their
indefatigable exertions."

The Duke of CAIIBtIDGE is again justifying his
,appointment as Commander-in-Chief. His Royal
-Highness already begins to evince a willingness
to fulfil, without any unnecessary delay, those
fair promises of military reform shadowed forth,
but a very few weeks since, in that manly speech
of his at the Mansion House—that speech which
seemed on the instant to be little less than a
doom formally and authoritatively pronounced, as
far at least as concerned the general organisation
of the Horse Guards, upon the evil system Boz
has lately designated so happily the system of
Circumlocution. Henceforth to a considerable
extent, thanks to H.R.H., there really appears
to be a prospect, in the military depart-
ment of our administration, of an end being
at length put to the brain-wearying,
heart-breaking work of mere—" form-filling, cor-
responding, nainuting, memorandum-making,
signing, countersigning, referring backwards and
forwards, and referring sideways, erosswist, and
zigzag!" For the sole purpose, it would actually
appear (as Mr. DICKENS has lately intimated with
a wise and caustic irony), that some Noble or
Right Honourable BAE,NACLE may exult from his
place in the House of Commons, from the height
of the particular post to which he happens at that
precise moment to be sticking, " that within
the short compass of the last financial half-year,
this much-maligned department has written and
received fifteen thousand letters, twenty-five
thousand minutes, and thirty-two thousand five
hundred and nineteen memoranda !" Actually—
there does
really appear to be the foreshadowing at
last of an end to all such monstrous folly at the Horse
Guards, new that the last Martial BAxNACLE has
been knocked off that post, to make way for one
who can "dare
to be above all family interests
and party prejudieets
and beyond the influence of
every personal and political
predilection. His
Royal Highness the Duke ,
kjA3IBRIDGE has
proved more than mice, by this • time, his
sense of
what is really expected from I •
um by the nation at
large, in his new, and very difficult, and most re-
sponsible position as the General Comma
Chief. He has demonstrated this
clearly
enough already, upon more than one occa-
sion, and by so doing has shown, beyond the
possibility of mi3apprehousion, his resolution
not wilfully to squander one of his many