The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1878-02-06
A DEPRECATED CURRENCY.

suppose Congress mas the power to pass q
law that silver coin, whose value is less than
q dollar, shall pass for dollar, what is gained
BY it? Is there any good possible? Ga the
contrary, would not the consequences to the
country be bad and only bad? 1t must and
will, if such thing takes place, work most
disastrous effects upon the happiness and pros
perlty of the people. This is no new thing.
1t has been tried to make deprecated colt
take the place of an honest one, more than
once, or twice, or thrice. by the English govern
ment. The first account we have of debase-
ment of the coin was 10 1864, under Edward
Nv. If we can believe what is said of it by the
chroniclers of that time, we shall be far from
finding any good coming out of it. Says one
Enthusiastically, it was a robbery of the COM
mon people for the benefit of the royal treas
ury." Says another, "The damage to the great
ones of the kingdom was extreme"
Again, in the time of Henry VIII, the value
of money was so debased that the rise in the
price Of all commodities was so great that all
the ordinary relations of supply and demand
we're disturbed to fearful extent. The suffer-
ings of the people were attributed to anything
but the right cause-iew saw the inevitable
result of the debasement Of the currency.
In 1896, under William III. the evils of the
suaportable, Macaulay says of it, "rhe evils
produced by the state of the.curreaey was not
such as have generally been thought worthy of
place in history. Yet it may we'll be doubted
whether all the misery that has been inflicted on
the English nation in aquarter of century by
bad kings. bad ministers, bad parliaments and
bad judges, were equal to the misery caused in
| single year by bad crowns and bad shillings. u
lo fact, the wretchedness aud misery to the
i common people and to the country at large,
were too many to be detailed here; but in a word
l we may say that "unmerciful disaster followed
/ fast and followed faster," without one aleviat-
ing cumstances SO long as deprecated money
was in circulation.
We should think England had tried the ex.
pertinent of the debasement of the coin long
enough to be satisfied of its utili ty, if it was
useful, or of its wIckedness. Let see if she
learned wisdom from 1t. In crisis of great
i commercial embarrassment in 1896, the House
l of Commons passed the resolution that they
l would not alter the standard of gold and slyel
in ineness. weight or denomination" What
was the effect? True money flowed into circu-
lation, trade revived, the crisis was passed, the
nation was solvent. hundred and twenty
| six years afterwards one of the English states
| men, IN resisting motion against the resump
tlon OF cash payments, rested his most power
1ni arguments on the great historical precedent
OF 1870 and concluded by moving in the very
1 words OF the resolution, "That this house will
not alter the standard of gold and silver il
| ttneneSS, ,oeight or denomination
Now, are we able to learn from all these
things? Or must we pass through the same
trouble that England passed through before w
can learn wisdom?
And what for is this Idebasement? Is a lie
better than the truth? A debased coin is lie
Should Congress enact that coin shall pay fol
more than it is worth, would that make 1t pay
II Il" hnu mill hA-a
| after find that they have sown the wind, ant
that they have reaped the whirlwind.
G. W. G..
! CORNISH, Jan. %, 1873.