The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-27 00:00:00

BATE OF DISCOUNT.

Although the desirableness of an immediate re-
duction of the rate of discount is generally admitted,
great doubt appears to prevail as to its being'
adopted by the Bank this week. The Bank
direc-
tors being the only persons who can judge oftliereturns which will appear in next Friday's Gazette,
it is possible they may have reasons for delay
which cannot yet be appreciated ; but, supposing
these returns to present favourable features, their
hesitation to give relief from the exceptional pres-
sure which has lately prevailed will be regarded by
many with disappointment. There is no branch
of the industry of the country which can remain
unaffected by the existing state of the money-
market, while with such firms as are under heavy
commitments based upon calculations of an ave-
rage rate of discount it constitutes a daily question
of actual loss to be sustained. To railway coin-
panies and other public bodies requiring at regular
periods to raise large sums on debentures it is like-
wise a formidable point. One plea in favour of
hesitation will probably be that it is desirable to
give time to ascertain if the firmer tone of the con-
tinental exchanges will be maintained ; but, not-
withstanding the feeling that if there is any room
for doubt it is always better to err on the side of
caution, the matter is too important for delay to be
justified on merely conjectural grounds. It must
likewise be borne in mind that just in proportion
as the present rate is upheld beyond its natural
and proper term the rebound to a different condi-
tion will be more sharp—a contingency always
to be guarded against as much as possible. With
respect to the continental exchanges, they are now
free from any feature to cause apprehension,
especially as it is not necessary to the satisfac
tory course of trade that they should remain in
favour of this country, whose function it is to
discharge all the Australian and a great portion of
the Californian payments that fall due to fo-
reigners, contenting itself with the surplus that
may remain. As regards the rates of discount
now in force upon the continent, they undoubtedly
fail to warrant the maintenance of 7 per cent. in
London. At Paris first-class paper can be nego-
tiated at 52, at Vienna, Frankfort, and Amsterdam
5 per cent. is the general charge, at Hamburg it is
6 and in Belgium 4 per cent. We arc, therefore,
altogether out of harmony with the rates of other
commercial cities, and while on the one hand it is
true that the recent approach to a recovery of con-
fidence throughout _b.-trope is yet far from having
made such progress as to remove all doubt as to its
being permanent, there is on the other enough to
authorise a favourable movement for the present,
and nothing to prevent the step being retraced if
even in a short time such a course should be found
desirable.—Times.

DOWN NVITH THE PEumßuLATons.—Hooping.congh
and oronchitis have been largely LW to children in the
last ten days. Medical men of experience attribute
much of the prevalence of the complaint to children
being taken about in perambulators, in which they sit
for hours without motion of the limbs or exorcise to
kcop up the Ico'ssi.ry