The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-09 00:00:00

THE MONETARY CRISIS.

( From the Times City Article.)
The character of the accounts from saris has not
been improved by the report of the Finance Minis-
ter, the prohibition of all discussions on the crisis; •
or the police regulation forbidding money-changers
to offer a premium for silver. The opinion still is
that there is no danger of a collapse, except as a
Consequence of the Vinci apprehensions of the
crnoeegssible to regard such a con-
people ; but it is believed that the measures rtelopted
are calculated to increase rather than to allay these
apprehensions. It is said, moreover, that some of
the leading persons .connected. with the Bank of
to the views of the Em-
peror
of consideration, and hence
Franca have already
lapyna opinioniyirmg
eedn t.s,
aasndtoththaet
In these
suggested as to what would
be its effects on this side.
cieatptixeirrilpisoeui
amainly
s(cli otueui fsniinrss
idiudtneesesitpsf)seteearrir In:
iveclini
opni s u

sb
ar
roAi
ys uhi snt Pave iovs
e°t lba oyn fyasnpgiernceitaeetr ilnadayil ms
feuaonrnria gold m
ti
especially
s Inay .when
tclifeeeorsnr.-
IWioahrgclnin g cpeopleom m
oarrceo rushing
suffers
being able to get it. -If there is no serious foreign
drain remaining to be met, and if the rate of
no injury by-their not
discount is sufficiently- high to promote economy
and check speculation, so as to prevent an. adverse
balance arising with other countries, everything,
after the first shock from the announcement had
passed, might go on almost precisely as before.
The note circulation would maintain its par value,
the panic would gradually subside, unda resump-
tion would be found practicable. But an appre-
hension may be entertained that it is.not in this
way, after the note circulation in France had been
declared inconvertible, matters would be allowed
to work round to a healthy point. The cry for a
suspension is chiefly that commerce may be relieved
—a phrase familiar to all speculators, whether
in France, England, or America, and which simply
means that an increased issue of currency should be
authorised such as would produce a great rise in
prices, and enable them to realise without loss the
depreciated securities with which they fine them-
selves burdened. The probability exists, therefore,
that the Bank of France would forthwith receive
directions from the Government to relax its mea-
sures of severity, to make ample advances on stocks
and shares, and also to deal liberally with com-
mercial paper. In this way animation would again
be restored to the Bourse, speculators, such as the
Credit Mobilier, would no longer seek to postpone
or cancel their foreign commitments, and mer-
chants would renew thir orders for the importation
of produce. The advantages of the measure would
be universally extolled, and, as the interests of all
financiers of the prominent school require that a
rise in prices should go on for ever, there would
never come a time at which, in the view of these
parties, the circulation should cease to expand.
Supposing them to maintain their ascendancy, a
contraction would be out of the question, and
would be denounced as a malevolent blow against
the prosperity of the nation. Meanwhile the high
prices would be attracting all kinds of goods and
securities to the French market, a heavy and con-
stantly increasing debt would become due to foreign-
ers, and, as foreigners would not accept payment in
French bank notes, but would require gold or its
equivalent, gold would come into great demand as
an article of merchandise, and would rise to a pre-
mium in proportion to its scarcity. That is to say,
the exportable produce and manufactures of France
being insufficient to pay for the goods imported, and
a balance of debt remaining to be discharged, she
would have to obtain specie for the purpose, and, as
her only means of obtaining it would be by her
promissory paper, an extra price would be charged
for the gold in proportion to the distrust
with which these promises were regarded. Hence,
with all the abundance of circulation, the country
would never become richer. If a 100 f. note would
not purchase more than 50f. of gold, and the Go-
vernment, with a view to relieve the people, were
immediately to double the existing issues, the dis-
covery would then he made that it would purchase
only 25f. of gold, cr a still smaller sum, in propor-
tion as faith might be destroyed by their increasing
recklessness. The national credit would be entirely
extinguished, and at the same time, as all the
Government employ-es, the public creditors, pro-
prietors of lands or houses let on lease, and an-
nuitants of every kind, would be paid only in this
paper, the question of their starvation would
depend simply on the point to which the deprecia-
tion might be •limited. Ultimately the mass of
circulation might be such as to preclude all idea of
its honest redemption, and a return to a convertible
currency would be practicable only by a compro-
mise, in which the note holders would sacrifice 70,
80, or such other percentage of their nominal
claims as the state of the bullion market might
render necessary.

This is the inevitable end of a forced paper cir-
culation, running the course contemplated for it
by those who believe it to be in the power of a
State to afford at all times a sufficient supply for
the wants of the people. It has been witnessed in
Russia, in America, and a number of other coun-
tries, and there is nothing new to be learnt with
regard to it. It will be said that there is no pro-
bability it would ever be carried to such a point'
by the French Government ; but this reduces the
question merely to a matter of degree. Just in
proportion as they yield to the clamour for such
an extended issue of paper as shall re-animate the
Bourse will be the difficulty of returning to their
former position. All the contracts in the shape
of loans or otherwise made during the period of
suspension must be on condition that they shall
ultimately be fulfilled in specie, and when' the
time for this sacrifice arrives there will be a popular
sense of 'grievance similar to that manifested in
Eneland in 1819, bitter recollections of which are
cherished in some minds even to this day. On the
other hand, if the suspension of specie payments is
followed by no increase of the paper circulation or
reduction of the rates of discount, there will be
every reason to expect that the prudence thus
enforced will soon bring the balance of trade in
favour of France, so that she will have to receive
specie, instead of its being withdrawn from her. In
that case the note circulation, being not more than
sufficient at existing prices for the legitimate pur-
poses of trade, would be prevented from falling to
a permanent discount, and a gradual and safe re-
sumption might be effected by the Bank in the first
instance voluntarily giving change for. their notes
on application, but without holding themselves
bound to do so, and ultimately, when this had fa-
miliarised the people with the idea of convertibility
as an ordinary condition, by the removal of the
decree for its suspension.
The considerations thus presented will enable all
persons to estimate the results to be expected in this
country from the measure, according to the manner
in which it may be carried out. Supposing prudent
counsels to prevail, the only consequence of the
change will be that the artificial purchases of gold
which the Bank of France are now driven to make
in London will cease, and that our discount-market
will return to an easier position according to the
progress towards a general revival of confidence on
the Continent. Assuming, on the contrary, an
inflation in Paris from increased paper issues, gold
will be drained thence to this and other countries,
and great buoyancy of trade, coupled with an in-
creasing abundance of money, must be anticipated
here—results, however, that would appear miser-
ably poor in face of the evils to be sustained from
the ultimate injury which the credit and commerce
of France must undergo and the political uncer-
tainties that would be consequent upon it.

lastiarlifiursee
was
WILFUL FIRE-RAISING. A marred
named
sew.doe
_n woman auwns
asosaf
uaxa,feraew-t
spectable position in soeiety, named Garntihe
Aml it \vas evident .
days ago tried by the Court of Assizes olyf
arson. On the night of the Bth of July
discovered in the house of a farmer
Bonnet, but it was promptly extingei bs-d. I),uSsaux and.
his family were absent at the time,
of
man
we d
from the manner in which a quantity„, • 0 was
scattered abotit-that the fire bad been wilfully' ca;d:sed....
who, with her huS--- •
The house, it
Ge:trhnekrfi,
re;
fter a
band, lived next door, and she -itt while confessed
but this latter was unable to pay the
that i t Suspicion
w a
sfeslhleonwhtlolehwadomeaaans
had been the property of hei litiebami,'Who77
appeared,
40
purchase
assurance on the house being. paid by her husband, she
Id it to Doss:tux ;
bad determined to burn the place down in order to vie-
fraud the cotnpany. She added that she had pieviously
made two attempts to set fire to the house, and gate a
description of the manner in which she.had done so. in
consequence of this confession it tc-M supposed that she
might have been the author of a fire which had corn-
p'etely destroyed the house in which she and her hus-
band lived on the `...oth of January, 1845, and for which
he received s,ooofr. as an indemnity' from an insurance
company—and she being closely questioned admitted
that she had done so. She professed to feel. no sort of
attachment for her husband, and it was stated that in
the fire of 1815 she abandoned one of her children in
the midst of the flames ; it, however, was reso ed by a
stranger. He'r advocate attempted to prove that she
was mad, but the jury convicted her, though with ex-
tenuating circumstances, and the court saltercad her to
ten years hard labour -