The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-03 00:00:00

a principle, but the absolute antagonism to all
principle. In fact, the very absurdity of our prac-
tice is being so daily evinced that the foreigner
comes over to buy our cheap gold while he can get
it at 21 or 3 per cent.—but keeps away when the
price rises to 5,6, or it may be 10 per cent! He
alone is wise in his generation, and we minister to
his wants with our eyes open. No doubt he thinks
us very liberal, but at the same time very foolish.
And whence does the excessive prodigality arise
on our part ? Why, from no will of our own,
but from the cunning contrivance of those who
periodically profit by our misfortunes. 'We set
up a standard of value like a block of granite,
against which we run our heads, but return no
wiser from the collision. Why should we have free
trade in everything else and yet withhold it in money
—the very keystone of all our dealings ? The
thing is so absurd that one is left to wonder
at our credulity. And who profits by the sudden

rise in discounts or the fictitious value of money ?
Why, the Bullionists—the shareholders of the
Bank of England stock. It may suit the exigencies
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the time
being to subserve to the necessities of the moment
by still warding off the day of reckoning with the
Bank of England, because he does so with money

not his own.
But is that Minister an honest man who does
with the money and credit of the nation what he
would never do with his own? We are nominally—
we say so advisedly—we are nominally indebted to
the Bank of England fourteen millions, for which
we give them the national security to use to their
own benefit. If their stook of bullion become so
low that they cannot meet their promises to pay,
the Minister of the day steps forward with the
National Guarantee and saves them from Bank-
ruptcy. Suddenly tho price of money under-
goes a very great fall, the character of the
Bank is saved, and its coffers enriched at
the national loss in all its wide ramifications of
trade, commerce, and agriculture. Now, is this a
fit state of things to be endured ? Shall we thus

go on—

" From age to age in everlasting debt ?"
Well, we may be asked where is the remedy ?
Very easy and very simple. Abolish the standard
price of gold as an absurdity in principle, and as it
has proved, ruinous in practice. Let
_gold, like
every other commodity, find its own level. If it be
over-plentiful it will fall in value like corn or any
other produce ; if scarce it will rise in value as the
demand increases. Well, then, we may be
asked what becomes of the circulating nzediunz for
the wants of commerce ? Aye that word medium
strikes at the very root of the standard. For what
is medium but the token of value ? It is like a
ticket ton theatre or to a railway—a representative
that you have deposited the value of the thing you
require. And why should not a similar ticket,
note, or representative of 'value pass current
throughout the land ? We have bills of exchange
—or floating securities—passing., current in com-
merce, trade, and in all manner of ways, and why
not have such symbols of value in the shape of notes
of one pound, two pounds, or three pounds ?
We have abundance of five-pound notes, and
millions of ten, twenty, and thousand pound
Now where is the virtue in the
,arge notes that may not be found in the smaller
denominations ? We think the risk in the low is
as nothing compared to high rates. But the secret
lies in this, that the makers of the law deal in the
larger notes, and those who have to obey deal in
the smaller, when they can get them. And why
not get them ? Because the issue of small notes
of £l, £2, and £3 would infringe on the privilege
of usurers and bullionists, who profit by the neces-
,
sities of the people—a people whose living is derived
from labour in agriculture, trade, and commerce.
Now, is this a wholesome state to live in ? Is it
an honest one for Ministers to trade on politically,
or subserviently to gain a temporary or even a
permanent majority ? Would any one Minister,
in his private capacity, practice or even connive
at such barefaced jugglery ? We think not. He
has too much respect for personal character to
stoop to such indignity. And yet, in his Minis-
terial capacity, he shrugs his shoulders and shares
the odium with his fellows, while others—the
money grinders—pocket the fruits of Ministerial
inquity—because they are irresponsible ! Future
ages will wonder while they curse the iniquity of
those who *perpetrated such villanies, while they
may weep with indignation at the endurance of the
millions who suffered.

notes.

Our ancestors seem to have understood the
use of money far better than we do. For
in their dealings with one another they used
symbols or tokens of value. A packman could
carry his wares on his back, or it may be, as he
grew richer by his labour, he could afford a donkey
or a poney to share his burden, and barter per-
sonally with his customers ; but when the extent
of his business exceeded those limited means of
transport he was compelled to have recourse
to a system of exchange, and employ
tokens as representatives of his trading
transactions. And what were those tokens ? As
various as the habits or customs of the people. In
ome cases, bits of leather—in others cowrie shells;
or, in short, any symbols that the people had
faith in as being the representatives of an honest
and confiding system of barter. And why should
not we, who profess to be wiser than our fore-
fathers, act up to the common sense of things ?
A man cannot carry a ton weight of
silver to pay for a purchase—nor would
he find it convenient to carry even a hundred
weight of gold to complete the bargain. But he
would give his cheque on his banker or make any
'equivalent arrangement which, so long as there is
confidence, would settle the matter conveniently to
the satisfaction of both and the profit and security

of commerce.
Well, now, the Chancellor of the Exchequer pro-
poses to make a Financial Statement on Monday
and enter into the mysteries of his Customs Duties
Acts with a view to explain the commercial
treaty with France. What better could he do than
to propose a free commet cial treaty with the
people
of his own country, by striking off the fetters
which shackle them in their money matters? He
may answer—the debt due to the Bank stands in
the way. We answer—pay off that debt in one
year, or in more. We paid some eighty millions
for the Russian War, for which no man is the
better, while thousands of families are placed in
mourning. And yet this money was spent in two
years—and here we boggls, about paying a sixth
part of that amount ! Verily ! where there's a
will there's a way. But it don't suit the necro-
mancy of the day, nor the cunning of the times.
Yet we shall lw wiser before long—if necessity be
the mother of invention !

The proverb, that the darkest hour is that before
dawn, seems to be realising in the once hopeless
night of Italian independence. The day-star of her
resuscitation is now shininiout in all her own
beautiful effulgence. Not only has her dark
oppressor been vanquished in his strength

of arm, but now her y spiritual tyrant is fast
hastening to his own perdition, and others
are following in his train with yet more giant