The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1876-04-16

of such men as Halifax, Montague and Somers
IN Williams Parliament. Every one OF them
owned, at last, that this seemingly simple
problem of forcing an inferior money out OF
circulation was beyond his capacity. They
were plausible pleaders, m asters Of parliament
airy fnesse, and contrived to send their names
down posterity as the names of great men, but
they knew nothing of political science! In
the last extremity, when the chaos Of oom-
MERGE and the desperation of industry threat
ened bloody work, Montague and somers sent
for Sir Isaac Newton and John Locke. The
philosophers instructed the parliamentarians;
bill in accordance with their suggestions
passed, and light coin gave more trouble to
the nation. One of the most devoted partisans
of the stuarts was Sir Dudley North, great
London merch ant, in the Turkey trade, who
had been dead some years before the adjust
ment of the currency trouble. Eminent au-
thority has pronounced him" the most pro-
found, the IN ostioriginal and the most accurate
thinker of his age" Of his genius we can
form an idea when we know that from him
Adam Saith plagiarized that system of politl-
cal economy which he has expounded in his
" Wealth of Nations" Among the fugitive
compositions left by Sir Dadiey was small
pamphlet showing how the currency could be
regulated. This pamphlet was adopted as the
basis of the bill presented by Montague and
Somers. Its value was understood by Newton
and Locke, and it was the whole substance OF
the curative law Yet the brochure had passed
for years under the very noses of Lords and
Commons, without it's existence being known
to them, perhaps; assuredly without its prin-
ciples being understood and to this day those
who gulled the public with rhetoric and Chi
csnery outshine the scientific benefaetor OF
nation!
The monetary condition of England in the
days of William was widely different from the
present monetary condition of the United
States, and the English difficulty was not near
so complicated as the American difficulty. In
the United States we have no money but ire
deemable paper, but the Bank of England was
not permitted to issue bill less than twenty
pounds (about Sl00), aud that was cashed on
presentation. Hence the English problem
was, comparatively, of very easy solution.
These explanations made, We come to the
maxim developed in the experience of Eng
land. Paraphrazing Mscauley, it is as follows:
When the State treats superior money and
inferior money as of equal value, the superior
money will not drive the inferior money ont OF
circulation, but will itself be driven out.
For example, if the milled coin of England
only could have been received for public Dues
and none other could have been legal tender,
the perfect money would have been the cur
rency, but the short money, we'll as the full
money, serving every purpose the same, that
which bad the least value circulated. With
this light let US trace the operation of the
Silver Bill 1t is proposed to redeem all the
fractional currency with silver, twenty-five
dollars of which is legal tender in payment of
a debt, and like sum is receivable for an in
ternal tax. Thirty odd millions of fractional
currency are computed to be in circulation.
Besides these there are out, in whole currency
Ones twos fl YES, twe nties, and 80 on-several
hundreds of millions. These notes are taken
in payment of internal revenue, without limit,
aud are legal tender without limit So, what
ever the nature of fractional currency, the
Government excludes it from circulation, by
| giving whole currency the immense advantage
of exclusiveness as legal tender aud exclusive
| moss as legal tax money. There is another in
superable obstacle to the circulation of silver,
the impeachment which, in less degree, pre-
vented the circulation of milled coin in Eng
land. This difficulty is the difference between
a money of value and money of debt, the
sumstan ces, can never be equal to the former,
since more or less ifs always attend pro-
mise, and our paper has reached the worthless
ness of inconvertibility. Now we have every
element in our pCoblem. Silver is to oisplace
certain part of the paper money of the coun'
try. The Government, pretending to wish the
| circulation of silver, treats it as an outlaw
and surrounds inconvertible paper with every
advantage it can confer upon it to secure itf
currency. What hsppensf
To-day it takes one hundred and three dol
lars of paper to buy one hundred of silver, and
one hundred and thirteen of paper to buy one
hundred of gold. Therefore, in the open mar
ket, the relative value of silver to gold is at
1O3 to 113. What is coming is foreshadowed
by banks, which are reported as boarding
fractional notes. As soon as the Treasury
branches open for the redemption, "a" will
take ten Thousand dollars of the fraotionals to