The Press. — 1853-07-23 (London, England)

CHARLES X. ! In short, the Journal des lkbats very, properly treats this great fact as an evidence that gohl is rapidly superseding silver as the circulating inalium of France, a result which, it (Oda, the country should not contemplate with dissatisfaction, if it were not that gold is threatened with a depreciation equally alarming and imminent. This inference it sustains on the demonstrable ground that the relative values of silver and gold, calculated on the previous production of each, have been altogether inverted by the prodigious influx of the latter metal, whilst the accustomed yield of the former has been scarcely, if at all, affected. At the commencement of the present century the annual production of gold was, in round numbers, muter 800,000 ounces troy. This had been tripled even before the discoveries in California and Australia. It is now four times greater than in 1848, and ten times greater than in 'slat ; and it goes on perpetually reduplicating. The writer in the .Debats confesses his bewilderment in the contemplation of the possible results of a phenomenon, foreboding, in his opinion, the utter confusion of comtneree, which is only to 1w averted by some as yet Immature(' expedients, to he suggested by fiscal and economical science. The expedient thus obscurely alluded to has been elsewhere explained to imply the " the " demonetising of gold," and the taking refuge in silver as a single standard for the currency of France. We hold that such a resort would be tantamount to fiscal suicide. Why should Franee restrict herself to pay in one metal when she has two at her option? The simple course is to leave the existing system as it is, permitting public convenience to consult for its own interests, by selecting as the medium of its settlements that one of the two metals which circumstances may designate as the most suitable. Meanwhile, one result is obvious and inevitable. It will be impossible for France, whilst  the present influx of gold continues, to keep the silver for her own circulation when a profit can be Made by carrying it elsewhere, at an enhanced rate of exchange. Mid, so long as the Bank of Fnince tint replace the effituc of silver by the influx of gold, commercial eonti(knee will experience no shock, and commercial honour will remain inviolate. Besides, the peculiar position of France, as regards the balance of trade, renders it indispensable for her to retain gold as a legal 1 ender :—else, how are the United Kingdom, the U 'tiled States. anti Australia to make their payments ter the exeess of Freneh exports which now find their way to these countries, and for which the imports in return are far from furnishing an equivalent: The exports of Franc© in 1811 were close upon a 5,000.000/. sterling ; her imports were but 414,000,000/. Take away the power to pay the difference in gold, and mark the emtvulmunt that must follow. From (treat Britain alone our exports of specie to France have been, in-1 s IN 1519 IWO 4,00,000 suppose that Funny, in her panic at. the sudden distortion of her currency, were to insist, on the payment of this balance in silver,—it would amount to an abatallte disruption of our eommereial intercourse. We can conceive nothing more mischievous to our own interests, as well as destructive of those of France anti other countries, than that, in her pilule tweletioned by phenomena so little anticipated, she should resort to expedients such as have been hinted at. anti which, in removing a SllpllOSed illeollVelailellee, would inflict a substantial and a permanent injury.