The Sun.
London, England, 1859-05-11 00:00:00

better, if he can, next time. But for a gentleman
who once professed himself to be a Liberal, but who
now, for some reasons best known to himself, takes
the name of Liberal-Conservative, in order to
turn out the ABDIEL of the Ballot battle of last
session by bribery, is rather more than we ought
to sit down by patiently. We know nothing per-
sonally of Dr. MICHEL. All our acquaintance with
him is through the pages of DOD, and would be,
we suppose, if he were twenty years in Parliament.
Mr. WYLD has at least work to show. When old
leaders relented to the cry of " pity the embarrassed
Whigs," he gave his pity to coerced and fettered
electors. The result bas proved that he was right.
Lord JOHN causeda dissolution on an issue which has
awakened no enthusiasm ; and he sees already half
his majority lost ; in fact, one counting in divisions
as two, the whole is gone. Had that determined
autocrat but heartily adopted Mr. WYLD's amend-
ment he must, sooner or later, have had the whole
country with him. As things stand we see no
reason why Mr. DISRAELI should not adopt Lord
JOHN'S £6 franchise, and then Lord JOHN and the
Whigs may take a long farewell of office.

A day or two since the writer of the City
article in the Times issued his opinion on the

suspension of specie payments on the continent.
The Times appears lately to have got a little light on
the subject of currency, and hence various statements
which it now puts forth very sententiously " to
dispel all mystery on the matter," are mere

truisms which have been known to Currency Re.

formers for the last half century.

Thus it gravely informs its readers that a sus-
pension of specie payments " is merely a matter of
external arrangement, and can never in the
smallest degree affect the internal intercourse of one
nation with another. There can be no such thing

as a suspension of payment in the foreign trade 01
any country. If the Sardinian Government de.

.
sire at this moment to buy a certain quantity o.
iron in the London market, they must pay for i
just in the same manner as heretofore. We do no.

make the contract for notes of the Bank of Turin,
but for a specified amount of gold, or its equiva-
lent, to be handed to us here." All this is true
enough, and just amounts to this, that the trade
between nations is in reality barter. If I go to
Turin and want to sell my goods, I may be paid in
paper of the Bank of Turin ; but that paper is of
no use to me in England, and therefore, before I

part with what I have to sell, I calculate exactly
what amount of the goods which I wish to obtain
I can get for these Turin notes, or what amount of
gold I can get for the notes, and I charge such a
price for my goods on the notes of the Bank of
Turin as will enable me to buy goods or gold of
the value of the commodities I wish to dispose of.
When we were so fortunate in England as to
have a Finance Minister who understood the right
use of paper money, and we had inconvertible notes,
the foreigner traded with us in the same way. He
brought his goods to England, and with them
brought such an amount of bank notes as would
enable him to purchase the goods or the gold which
he considered a fair equivalent for the goods which
he sold. Let us hope that no reader of the Tines
will ever again inquire how we can carry on our

foreign trade with inconvertible notes.
But here the intelligent knowledge of currency
on the part of the Times' writer stops. He begins
to say that " a suspension of specie payments by
any individual State is but a rough way of confis-
cating the property of certain classes of its inhabi-
tants, and throwing additional taxation upon all."
And what, he asks, " can be the inducement" to a
nation to have inconvertible notes ? " Nothing
but to evade its debts at the expense of certain
to open taxation levied
fairly upon all." And he proceeds to affirm—for
he offers no proof of what he says—" that the sus-
pension of specie payments to the fundowner, the
annuitant, the officeholder, and all to whom the
State are bound to make fixed payments, is an
announcement that 10, 20, or 50 per cent. (accord-
ing to the extent of depression of the inconvertible
notes as compared with specie) will in future be
impounded. It is therefore confiscation, and no-
thing else."
Here the Times' writer becomes extremely
muddy in his ideas about currency. First, he tells
us that " additional taxation is to be thrown upon
all," and then that the supposed benefit is to
arise by the " confiscation" of a portion of the pay-
ments due to certain classes.
We will endeavour to explain the real action of
inconvertible paper money receivable for taxes.
We must first remind the Times' writer that there
are other classes besides the fundholder, the annui-
tant, and the officeholder. There is the great pro-
ducing class of the country. The fundholder, the
annuitant, and the officeholder are not to be treated
with injustice. But their interests are certainly
not alone to be consulted. The bees must be
thought of as well as the drones of the hive. The
great mass of the people, the manufacturers, the
farmers, the six millions of working men are to be
considered in a monetary system as well as the
fundholder, the annuitant, and the officeholder.
The limes' writer puts the case as one in which
it is necessary to raise additional taxes. Who
ought fairly to pay these taxes ? We reply, the
The farmer, the manufacturer, the poor
man, as well as the fundholder, the annuitant, and
the officeholder, as they each and all derive ad-
vantage and protection from the national expendi-
ture, should, in just proportions, contribute to it.
Now, this can only be the case when additional
taxes are imposed, with an expansive currency for
internal use. As taxes are imposed, the producer
ought to be enabled to recover from the consumer
the fair amount of taxation which the consumer
owes to the State. This requires an expansive
currency. For, if the State take away from the
producer, in the shape of a tax, a certain amount of
the work of his hands, he must charge a higher price
to his customer, the consumer, to enable him to get
the tax back. But you cannot have high prices
without an increased amount of money. The auan-
tity of commodities manufactured remaining the
same, in order that a higher price may be obtained
for them, the quantity of money must be increased.
This is not a theory. It was reduced to practice in
this country between 1797 and 1815. As new
taxes were then imposed, the circulating
medium was allowed to expand, the producer got
a fair remunerative price for his goods, and the
consumer, whether rich man or poor, the fundholder,
the annuitant, the officeholder, the farmer, the
tradesman, and the operative paid his contribution
to the general fund of taxation.
We said that an expansive currency for internal
use was necessary. An inconvertible paper money,
receivable for taxes, supplies this expansive cur-
rency for internal use. One very great advantage
of having a paper currency is that it is not liable to
be expended, withdrawn, or hoarded. At a time of
war, for example, when gold and silver go abroad
to pay soldiers, a paper currency remains safe at
home, and with it we carry on our domestic trade.
We say, then, that an inconvertible paper cur-
rency, receivable for taxes, is a fair, open, honest
system ; and that it particularly preserves the pro-
ducing class, the ?corking man—and wt; include the
man who works with his head as well as the man

consumer.