The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1895-05-08
A CASE IN POINT.

of the folly OF cheap aud deprecia.
ted money. We have before us a
case in point. In 1896, during the
reign of William III, the currency
of England was in great disorder.
The coins had been clipped and
abraded until their intrinsic value
was reduced to greater or less
extent. Yet they still circulated
at their stamped value; but in ODE.
dience to the natural law the un.
clipped or the least clipped coins
became more and more valuable
than the clipped coin, and hence
were melted down and sent abroad,
the inferior pieces being left alone
in circulation.
Macaulay, in his history of Eng
land, gives us a vivid picture Of
the condition Of things which
was produced by this cheap or
deprecated currency. He says {:
The evils produced by this state
Of the currency were not such as
have generally been thought wor.
thy to occupy a prominent place
in history. Yet it may we'll be
doubted whether all the misery
which had been inflicted on the
English nation in a quarter Of a
century by bad Kings, bad Minis.
ters, bad Parliaments and bad
Judges, was equal to the misery
caused in a single year by bad
crowns and shillings. Those
events which furnish the best
themes for pathetic or indignant
eloquence are not always those
which most effect the happiness Of
the great body Of The people. The
misgovernment of Charles and
James, gross as it had been, had
not prevented the common bust.
ness Of life from going steadily and
prosperously on. While the honor
and independence of the State
were sold to a foreign power, while
chartered rights were invaded,
while fundamental laws were VIC.
lated, hundreds of thousands of
quiet, honest and Industrious fam
lilies labored and traded, ate their
meals and lay down to rest in com.
fort and security. Whether Wings
or Tories, Professionals or Jesuits
were uppermost, the grszier drove
his beasts to market; the grocer
weighed out his currants; the dra-
per measured out his broadclotll;
the hum of buyers and sellers was
as loud as ever iu the towns; the
harvest home was celebrated as
joyously as ever in the hamlets;
the cream overtlowed the pals OF
Cheshire; the apple juice foamed
in the presses OF Herefordshire;
the piles of crockery glowed in the
furnaces OF tile Trent; and the bar
rows of coal rolled fast along the
timber railways of the Tyne. But
when the great instrument of OK
change became thoroughly de-
ranged, all trade, all industry,
were smitten as with palsy. The
evil was felt daily and hourly in
almost every place and by almost
every class, in the dairy and on the
threshing floor, by the anvil and
by the loom, on the pillows of the
ocean and in the depths of the
mine. Nothing could be pur-
chased without dispute. Over
every counter there was wrang.
ling from morning to night. The
workman and big employer had a
quarrel as regulSrly as the Satur.
day came round. !; Gu fair day or
a market day the clamors, the re,
proaches, the taunts, the curses,
were incessant; and it was we'll if
no booth was overturned and no
head broken. No merchant would
contract to deliver goods without
making some stipulation about the
quality of the coin in which he was
to be paid. Even men of business
were often bewildered by the con-
fusion into which all pecuniary
transactions were thrown. The
simple and the careless were pill.
LACED without mercy by extortion-
ers whose demands grew even
more rapidly than the money
shrank. The price of the necessa-
ries of life, of shoes, of ale, of oat
meal, rose fast. The laborer found
that the bit of metal which, when
he received it, was called a shil-
ling, would hardly, when he want
ed to purchase a pot of beer or a
loaf Of rye bread, 60 as far as
sixpence. Where artisans Of more
than usual intelligence were col.
lected in great numbers, as in the
dockyard at Chatham, they were
able to make their complaints
heard and to obtain some redress.
But the ignorant and helpless pea
SAINT was cruelty ground between