New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-09-27

Mr.. GOschen wrote in 1854, before the close OF
our war; He observes that the great demand
from England for cotton at shigh prices will
give us an opportunity to reform our cur
rency and goes on to speculate in regard to
our probable action:
We may expect one Of two things TO happen Either,
though they may have the immediate intention OF
improving their currency. the premium on gold.
through abundant supply which tho circumstances
indicated will place ut their disposal will fall
to such degree as to hasten their action in
spite OF their indifference; or. what is quito "a
probable the temptation will rather be to increase
their imports than to improve their currency; great
imitation OF prices and OF trade In general will ensue the
inducement which redundant circulation Of paper
money often creates. Of importing to an unlimited
extent will have It's full effect and foreign liabilities
Will thus be created which will absorb that surplus Of
gold Of which the situation described has given them
the command. In the former American finance may
possibly issue from Its ordeal without catastrophe In
latter and probable case, terrible collapse
will. in the end, be inevitable.
On looking at the situation calmly, the
reader will agree with us in the opinion that
Mr.. Goschen is pretty nearly right. A still
more circumstantial prediction of the great
English panic of 1925 may be found in Cob
belts works, in two savage letters to the
congratulating the House of Commons on the
unprecedented prosperity of the nation.
Cobbett was strongly impressed with the be-
lief that England never could pay in gold the
interest on the immense debt contracted
in her long wars with Louis XIV, the re-
volted colonies and Napoleon, a mistake which
makes it necessary to reject many OF his
ideas. His writings, however, contain pro-
found views and an inexhaustible fund of in
formation regarding the practical workings of
an inconvertible paper currency. Richard
Golden, true friend of the American Union,
in speech at Rochdale, Nov. "a, 1868,
says: "They (the Americans) are mis-
taken if they think they can carry on
"a civil war like this, drawing a
"mllion men from their productive industry
"to engage merely in process of destruction,
"and spending their two or three hundred
"millions stering-I say they are mistaken
"and deuded if they think they can carry on
"a war like that without terrible collapse,
"s0oner or later, and am sure there will be a
"great prostration in every part of the COM
"munityn We thought, some of us, that we
had escaped and we congratulated ourselves
that we were great people, for whose bene-
fit the laws of the universe could be suspended.
We no longer think so.
Political economy is fast getting to be an
interesting subject for investigation. A num-
Der of persons of late have been industriOusly
overhauling the recent English publications in
search of a medicine to cure the panic. They
find that owing to the difference in the finan-
cial systems of London and New-York, Their
labor is fruitless. 1t is worth noting, however,
that IN 1925 the English Government refused
to issue Exchequer bills because of the injury
the public credit would thereby sustain. Sir
Robert Peel gives the following account OF
the feeling on the Governments refusal
"The feeling of the City, of many of our
friends, of some of the Opposition, was
" decidedly in favor of the issue of ExchequeI
"bills to relieve the merchants and manufac-
"turers. 1t was said in favor of the issue
that the same measure had been tried and
succeeded in 1893 and 1911. Our friends
whispered about that we were acting quite
Gin a different manner from that IN which
"Mr. Pitt did act, and would have
acted had he been alive. We felt
satisfied that however plausible were
&" the reasons urged in favor of the issue OF
! Excheauer bills, yet that the measure was q
dangerous one, and ought to be resisted by
"the Government The Government per-
sisted in its refusal, and the panic ran its
course, the Bank of England, like our banks
doing its utmost to alleviate the pressure
And SO we get back to the point whence we
started, and our best advice to those who
have debts which they must pay, and stocks
bills of exchange, or merchandise of any
description with which they must pay them
is to take at once what they can get, and
thus contribute their share toward setting the
wheels of business once more in motion.
THE MIXED COMMISSION.