The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-20 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, APRIL 20, 1867

" The Bank of France have again increased
their rate for the purchase of gold from 4fr. to
6fr. per mine." In other words they pay a pre-
mium equivalent t) 6 per e.;nt., or 12s. per 1001.,
for the bullion which they supply at par to their
customers. We need not say that this is opposed
to every sound principle of banking, and that a
certain loss must necessarily be incorred in the
operation. But yet the managers of the establish-
ment find their account in this abnormal proceed-
ing. It is perfectly clear that so long as it is
continued the gold must be attracted from Eng-
land to France, and no increase in the rate of
discount, even were it advanced to 10 to 12
Per cent., could resist tho stream. An ad-
ditional .12 or 1 per cent. is simply ridiculous,
and can only be paralleled by the proceeding
of Mrs. PARTINGTON in striving to sweep back
the advancing tide with a broom. By the course
adopted the French Bank can obtain an ample
supply of the precious metals at a comparatively
trifling expense, which will not only be amply re
imhursed by additional business, but for which a
state indemnity can readily be obtained at any
moment. By this skilful manceuvre they transfer
the difficulty, from their own to our shoulders and
obtain perfect ease at a trifling cost ; while the com-
mercial and manufacturing interests of Great Britain
are ort the verge of ruin, and completely paralysed,
in consequence of the dearth of the " very life-
blood of industry," a circulating medium adequate
to the wants and exigencies of the country.
It is easy to ascertain the trifling expense at
which these untoward results may be produced.
A premium of 6 francs per tale amounts to but
6,000/. on 1,000,0001. ; to 60,0001., on
10,000,0001., nearly a million more than was re-
tained in the coffers of the Bank of England during
the week ending the 11th inst. For each 6,0001.,
or 12,0001., as a portion would be withdrawn
from general circulation, say equal in amount to
that taken from the Bank itself, the stock of
the precious metals in both departments would
be reduced by 1,000,0001., and this would ne-
cessitate, according to the present system, an
increase of 1 per cent. to the rate of discount ;
and before 120,000!. had been applied, the
" Old Lady" should stop payment, unless the ,
Government intertos3d, and again suspended the

operation of the unwise and impolitic law that
had occ,isiolicd all the mischief. NJW this mea-

sure which, sooner or lat?r, must be resorted
to, might just as well be tiken in good time!

W© should not wait for the abstraction

of the steed before securely fastening the stable
door ! The indispensable precautions should be
adopted while there is yet some bullion to pro-
tect, and not delayed until every French peasant
has 41. or 51. in English sovereigns, or French
gold carefully hoarded for any emergency that
may arise.

One of our most consistent and indefatigable
monetary reformers, Mr. HAMER. STANSFELD, has
directed public attention to this inevitable con-
sequence of the Act of 1844, and the nation has
now irresistible proof of the accuracy of the as-
sertions we have incessantly put forward respect-
ing the tendency of this iniquitous and unstates-
manlike code, intended to make money, or rather
currency, scarce and dear, but which may end in
something like the destruction of " the goose that
laid the golden eggs," and involve the moneyocracy
themselves in the ruin of those who have hitherto
been their dupes and victims ! As Mr. STANSFELD
shows, the Bank of France, " by beingt a liberty to
buy the very gold which our laws prevent us from
buying, by taking away all inducement to buy,"
have been enabled to relax the stringency of their
rules for discounting, and even to contemplate a
further reduction of the rate. They, in fact, gain
by being free what we lose by being restricted,
and the result is that their gold, as well as the
gold of the Bank of Vienna, is increasing, while
ours is steadily and rapidly decreasing ; and, as
Mr. STANSFELD truly declares, assuming the rate
of discount at 6 per cent., " the Bank of France
!slakes a profit of more than 12 per cent.,
whilst the Bank of England receives only Id. per
ounce for the cost of paper and printing. Under
such circumstances it is surely well worth its
while to pay not merely 125., but ten times 12s.
per 1001. premium.
The Bullionist organ is exhibiting its usual
versatility on this important question. It is
already trying to wriggle out of the admissions, so
damaging to the cause it advocates,which it made
on Friday. On that day it announced, ex cathedra,
that " the perplexities of the money market seemed
greater than ever," and that "under no circum-
stances could a return to cheap money be anti-
cipated for several years." This day, however,
it completely changes its views. It declares that
the operations of the Bank of France " can have
no permanently disturbing influence," and that if
the process straitens us to-day, we shall be so much
the easier for it a month hence." This is the old
and used up cant, that has already been repeated
usque ad nauseam. It is not merely a twice told
tale," but one continued from day to day with
variations of every kind. But the flittering illu-
sion has been constantly dispelled by the sad
reality, and it must still vanish before the wand
of truth. The Times acknowledged on Friday
that " for many months persons have been look-
ing to the present period as that at which some
change in the unfavourable state of our bullion
balances might be expected, and instead we bare
the Bank reverting to almost its highest rate of
discount, while the stock of gold is reduced to a
point lower than at auy time during the last
ten years !" It is astonished at, but cannot
deny the facts. They have, however, been
strictly in accordance with the predictions of the
Monetary Reformers, the natural and inevitable
results of existing and easily-ascertained causes.
At present there is a competition for the precious
metals. The Bank of England is prohibited from
meeting its opponents on equal terms, and there-
fore mast yield. The gold must leave our
shores. There must be a dearth of currency ;
and the trading and manufacturing int sreets
must be exposed to serious losses, if
not reduced to bankruptcy and ruin.
This is the actual state of affairs, and with the
deplorable experience of past years the Chancellor
of the Exchequer proposes to renew the cx.sting
code for a further term of tea years, without
change or modification of any kind ! This suicidal
determination must be resisted by every possible
means. The nature of the disease is patent—the
remedy easily discoverable.
The Bank of England must be enabled to
compete in our own markets, on equal
terms with the foreigner, or far better it
should be freed from every responsibility in
connection with the currency, which should
henceforward be regulated by a Government de-
partment under the control of Parliament. N. t-
tional Bank notes of small and convenient de-
nominations, receivable in payment of taxes, and
made a legal tender in all parts of the United
Kingdom, would answer every purpose that could
be required for a domestic currency. The price
of gold would then vary according t) the natural
laws of supply and demand, and England would
be enabled to supply her wants in the same man.
ner as other nations. Ail that she requires, is
" a clear stage and no favour." She will
not shrink from equal competition, but that
she has a right to demand, notwithstanding the
specious fallacies and pompous platitudes of
Mercator and his disciples. The present system
cannot be maintained In justice to our indus-
trial population, we are entitled to demand a
decisive and comprehensive change—a mere modi-
fication, which might have satisfied the people a
few months' since, will not answer now. The
activity of the remedy must be proportioned to
the extent and magnitude of the disease.

The fifth Parliament of VICTORIA may now be
said to have been completed by the Constituencies.
It seems only yesterday that the " Fourth" was
in the very flush of its existence. Yet it is
actually to-day as much a thing of the past, as
utterly dead and byegone as any specimen (even
the earliest) of the old Saxon Witenagemot.
And already--before its successor bps assembled,
before a single division has taken place, before
ene solitary proposition, good, bad, or indifferent,
has been submitted to its deliberate judgment--
we may safely predicate of this fifth Parliament
of VICTORIA that it is a vast improvement upon
its immediate predecessor. Nor is this saying
vary much after all, in praise of the now House of
Commons ! For the old one, the House of 's2
the House that began its existence by sounding
the superfluous Requiem of Protection, and ended
by channting the worse than superfluous Pcean
of the bloody-minded barbarian, YEn ! For
that Parliament, in the aggregate, we entertain
not the most spectral semblance of the merest
sentiment of a regret. It had but one conspicu-
ous merit that we are aware of—the merit of
readily and ungrudgingly voting the supplies during
the continuance of the sanguinary and expensive
contest with the CZAR of all the Russian. But
even that one redeeming characteristic is all but
blotted out of our grateful remembrance by its
equally ready and ungrudging approbation of the
despicable compromise called a Peace, with which
the Muscovite war was brought to a premature
and ignominious conclusion. No—frankly be it
confessed, as to the House of Commons which has
but just now "died the death," we cannot by any
possibility think otherwise than with unalloyed
satisfaction of its having been dismissed abruptly,