The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1895-05-08
halfpenny. At the head of this

halfpenny. At the head OF this
party was William Lowndes, Sec.
rotary of the Treasury, and mem.
Der Of Parliament for the borough
Of Seaford, most respectable and
Industrious public servant, but
much more versed in the details of
his Office thar in the higher parts
Of political philosophy. He was
not in the least aware that piece
Of metal with the Kings head on
it was a commodity of which the
price was governed by the same
laws which govern the price Of a
piece Of metal fashioned into a
spoon or buckle, and that it was
no more in the power Of Parliament
to make the kingdom richer by
a crown pound than to
make the kingdom larger by call
ing a furlong a mile. He serious.
ly believed, incredible as it may
seem, that if the ounce of silver
were divided into seven shillings
instead of five, foreign nations
would sell US their wines and their
silks for a smaller number Of ounc.
es. He had a considerable follow
ing, composed partly Of dull men
who really believed what he told
them, and partly of shrewd men
who were perfectly willing to be
authorized by law to pay hun
bred pounds with eighty. Had
his arguments prevailed, the evils
of a vast confscation would have
been added to all the other evils
which afflicted the nation; public
credit, still in it's tender and sick
ly infancy, would have been de.
stroyed; and there would have
been much risk of a general mutt.
ny Of the feet and army. Happily
Lowndes was completely refuted
by Locke in a paper drawn up for
the use of SOmers.
Somers was delighted with this
little treatise, and desired that it
might be printed. 1t speedily be-
came the text book Of all the most
enlightened politicians in the king.
dom, and may still be read with
pleasure and profit. The effect of
Locke's forcible and perspicuous
reasoning is greatly heightened
by his evident anxiety to get at
the truth, and by the singularly
generous and graceful courtesy
with which he treats an antago-
mist of powers far inferior to his
own. Flamsteed, the Astronomer
Royal, described the controversy
we'll by saying that the point in
dispute was whether five was six
or only FIVE.
Finally, the sound money men
won the victory; the currency of
the realm was restored to it's old
and true standard; order emerged
from chaos, and England resumed
her march Of prosperity and power.
The situation here is the reverse
of what it was in England in 1896;
but we have two parties divided
on the same lines that divided
those of England at the period
referred to. Cheap money had
brought distress, confusion aud
ruin to England; one party, the
sound money party, sought to re-
habilitate the currency, aud the
other, the cheap money party,
sought to perpetuate the confu-
sion and to reduce the standard
of value. In the United States
we have a sound money system
composed of gold, silver and pa
per, interchangeable with each
other, and each dollar possessing
the same debt.paying and tue
same purchasing power. Hence
here the sound money party is for
the preservation Of the existing
monetary condition, and the cheap
money party is for tearing down
the solid and substantial system
and replacing it with cheap and
rotten currency, out of which must
inevitably spring speculation, gam.
bling, confusion and ruin. The
history Of the monetary movement
in England in 1896 is or ought to
be a lesson to our free silver ma
MACS. 1t is not a speculative ar.
gument for sound money; it is a
perfect demonstration of the evils
of unsound money.-[N. O. Daily
States.
1t is q matter of no moment