The Sun.
London, England, 1861-04-08 00:00:00

alteration in the denomination of the notes, The
Plan now proposed is simply to innoculate British
India with PEEL'S Currency Bills of 1819 and 1844.
The Bank of England issues notes to the amount of
£14,475,000 against securities, and the remainder
of its issues are against bullion. The Indian Go-
vernment is to issue four millions sterling of notes
against securities, and the remaining issues are to
he against bullion. The panic-makers are taking
possession of the monetary system of India. When
by the action of the paper currency, trade and com-
merce are deTeloped, the drain of a few millions of
bullion will, as in this country, raise the price of
money and depreciate the prices of all commodities.
By these means trade will be paralysed, commerce
ruined, and misery and destitution brought upon
the wretched Hindoo population to extents, com-
pared with which the existing famine in the upper
provinces is but trifling. If the misery and ruin
caused by the bullionist faction in 1816, 1819, 1825,
1847, and 1857 were dreadful, as they were, in
England, with all its wealth, and with a legal pro-
vision for the destitute, what may they not be in a
poor country like India, with its 150 millions of
inhabitants dependent in tine of disaster on casual
charity or the dilatory and insufficient appliance of
Government relief ?

Our contemporary, the Times, introduces a
laidatory notice of the new currency system for
India, with a specimen of audacious twaddle which
ought to be placed upon record. " There are,"
says the Times, " two kinds of laws, one local and
temporary, made up of expedients to stave off im-
mediate difficulties, and to soothe exaggerated and
other unfounded discontents, based on nothing
more solid than the popular apprehension,
and destined, after it has answered its mo-
mentary purpose, to the disregard and oblivion of
posterity. The other kind of law, of which history
unhappily furnishes us very few examples, is
founded on abstract truth, which it brings for the
first time prominently and practically before the
world. Its influence strengthens with its dura-
tion, clamour and prejudice die out, and that which
was at first mistaken for a mere local and tem-
porary arrangement is recognized in its true cha-
racter as a rule of universal utility, a solid step
onward in the progress of the human race. Such a
law, we may now say, without fear of contradic-
tion, was the Bank Charter Act of 1844."
Capital! " The Bank Charter Act," said the
writer of the City Article of the Times, on the
141 t of November, 1857, "is abrogated. Its fate,
at the second time of trial, has been the same as at
the first," and "a law" which " has been con-
demned on each occasion of trial, must be looked
upon as destroyed."
In 1844 the Bank Charter Act passed—" a per-
fect measure." In 1847 it was " abrogated." The
gold discoveries, of which its authors never of
course dreamed, supported it till its next " time of
trial" in 1857. It again shamefully and signally
failed. It was again " abrogated" by an order in
Council. The Times knows that at this moment the
final abrogation of the Bank Charter Act hangs on
a balance. The Times knows that on its third failure,
which is inevitable, this perfect measure, " founded
on abstract truth," this "rule of universal utility,
this " valuable legacy to England" is doomed not
to the " disregard and oblivion" but to the con-
tempt and reprobation of posterity. It requires,
therefore, the exercise of all the recklessness of
assertion which the Times possesses, based on its
knowledge of the ignorance of the people on the
Currency Question, to enable it to belaud this
rotten broken down Bank Charter Act of 1844, of
which the very Peelites are beginning to be
ashamed.
The limes affirm two principles. First, that
the issue of paper money " shall be based on
sufficient security." We must know what
is here meant by " sufficient security." The nation
gives " sufficient security" in its honour, good faith,
and integrity of character for 800 millions of the
debt; and we consider that its honour, good faith,
and integrity would be " sufficient security" for the
issue of 20 millions of legal tender notes, both here
and in India.
The second principle of the Times is, that the
paper currency shall vary in amount and value
exactly as purely metallic currency would have
done under similar circumstances. Tried by this
rule, we pronounce the Bank Charter Act of 1844
a total failure. The chief evil of the PEEL system
is that under it a drain of bullion causes the preci-
pitate contraction of the circulating medium. With
a purely metallic currency, preserved from exporta-
tion by a seignorage, or by being issued, like our
silver coinage, a little below its intrinsic value, we
should be safe from violent contractions of the cur-
rency. With a sound paper currency, issued under
Government authority, receivable for taxes, and
payable in gold at its market price, we should in
like manner be free from contractions of the cur-
rency and panics. Such a paper currency alone is
adapted for the requirements and convenience of
our gigantic commercial relations, and for the
equitable payment of our enormous burden of taxa-
tion. The Bank Charter Act of 1844 combines all
the evils of a badly managed metallic currency with
all the objectionable points of a paper currency.
It allows our gold coin to be exported as an article
of trade, and thus deprives the country of its money.
And by its violent expansions and contractions of
the paper currency the Bank Charter is, in the
words of the Times, "the cause of continual injury,
by substituting in debts and purchases a value
different from that which was contemplated in the
contract." Can any unprejudiced man doubt that
such is the case, when he reflects that the
changes in the rate of interest, under
the Bank Charter Act, from ll up to 10 per cent.,
have been more numerous than has been known
in a similar period in any civilised nation since
the beginning of the world ? At this moment the
high rate of interest is operating most injuriously
to the trade of this country. Every kind of com-
modity is rapidly depreciating in value, as the
Bank Charter Act provides shall be the case.
The process is in actual operation by which a
value is being substituted in debts and purchases

" different from that which was contemplated in

the contract."

The hardened effrontery of any public writer
who, under such circumstances, dares to assert
that the Bank Charter Act is not a contemptible

and dishonest failure, is remarkable even in this

age of Bronze.

It seems that a " subsidiary gold currency"—
,hat is, in plain English, gold tokens—are to be

issued in India instead of small notes. Was ever

such folly ? The plan goes to adopt expensive

small change instead of Mr. WILSON'S cheap

small notes. This may, however, be of some benefit
to India, for expensive money is better than none.

But how will it operate with regard to England ?
In 1849-50 £3,396,807 of the precious metals,
uncoined, were imported into India.
In 1856-7 the "I—..
rose to £11,301,988 ; in
1857-8 t0.£14,413,698 ; and 815,436.
India has long been the grave of silver. We

have suffered severely from the drain of bullion
to the East; and now when it is most important
to check such drain, we are positively about to
'lake a law in India which will increase it by
as additional drain of gold !
W protest in the strongest terms against the