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j^gnsAsarSI, 1S59.] !flf IilASIS, t(ft
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COMMON SENSE OF THE BANK CttAHfER QUESTI...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Sentiment of acquiescence has been rooted dut of the Italian , heart . 1 ? hose who will not Tefeogoise this truth , in its full significance , are wilfully blind to the facts of the Italian question . Before 184 s 8 the Austrian rule in Italy had become intolerable . It had all but destroyed the manufactures of the Lombard cities , it had consumed in taxes almost the whole product of the Lorn * bard plains , only comparable , in their natural fertility , with the plains of Beauce And the
richest provin ces of Giiiua . The failure of the revolution , instead of mitigating the national thirst for independence , exasperated it . An inextinguishable sense of wrong , a jealousy , a hatred , unappeasable by any amnesty , reform , or concession whatever , became the political religion of every patriot , and the atrocities perpetrated by the Austrian generals at Brescia , Eerrara , Bologna , and Mantua , elicited a curse upon the empire which neither time nor any gracious words can
remove . A registry of massacres , of spoliations , of imprisonments without trial , of secret military murders , of mothers and virgins flogged by soldiers in the open streets , of young patriots blown from the cannon . ' s mouth , of old men and young girls burnt in a bonfire at Brescia , of families ruined , of whole districts made desolate , of Austrian Italy , from , border to border , filled with mourning and terror ; - —these are the counts of tlie Italian indictment—crimes not to be
obliterated or-condoned . The Italians know well that tlie question of the future lies between Italy and the aliens who oppress her ; the issue is no longer between Guelf and G-hibelline , Pope and Emperor , but between foreign domination and Italian independence . " Whoever recommends the Lombardo-Venetian people to compromise with Austria will be regarded with suspicion and contempt hy every true Italian . The living and the dead forbid the sacrilegious and fratricidal compact .
ITua-Ncis-Joseph , visiting the Italian conquests of liis dynasty , has provoked a silent manifestation which must be instructive to Europe . The political activity of Genoa and Turin has been quickened by the unmistakable fidelity of the Austro-ltaliau people to the symbols of 3 . 848 . Conceive how Ma . 3 Tin would have been welcomed had he entered Venice the day after Prancis-Joseph had left it ! Count Cavottu has been furnished
with new proofs of the ardent life that struggles for free action , throughout Italy ; but , however sincere , he is rendered powerless by tlie embarrassments of his position . Meanwhile , however , it is time for politicians in England to consider what interests "they have in upholding the imperial integrity of Austria . The solemn diplomatic fiction , of the necessity of an Austrian empire in . the centre of Europe was exploded in 1849 , when the first Russian musket was fired in
Hungary . It may still be insisted upon by fossilfed pedagogues and pedants ; but it is' a mere txick of superannuated diplomacy , and disappeared from tho world of realities with MiSTTEitNicn . Souwarzenberg commenced the now epoch of military centralisation , against which all tho Liberalism of Europe , Germany included , has arrayed all tho forces of the 3 futuro . The sooner our statesmen and our governmental publicists acknowledge this
truth , tho better for tho fortunes of lEuropo . Tho Revolution only sleeps , and when its " great wakening light" is seen , 3 iew counterpoises to tho despotic principle represented as much by Fhakots-JosErir as by At / exanbea 11 ., muwt bo sought , but not in tho Austrian Empire . We have , always boon , willing , with a deep and sorrowful conviction , to acknowledge that even doapotism is better than nnnrehy ,
but it-is an old & nd . an -obsolete trick to describe anarchy aa fch © one alternative of despotism . We have seen perfect » ecurity a & cl order in a Soman republic of our OM times ; we see Imperialism co-existent With misery and terror ; we cannot think t 3 iat even that amusing fiction , the Balance of 3 ? ower , would suffer through the absence of tlie soldiery and placemen who constitute the Austrian party in Italy .
J^Gnsasarsi, 1s59.] !Flf Iilasis, T(Ft
j ^ gnsAsarSI , 1 S 59 . ] ! flf IilASIS , t ( ft
Common Sense Of The Bank Cttahfer Questi...
COMMON SENSE OF THE BANK CttAHfER QUESTION . The debate upon the Bank Charter Act is half done ; those who have acquired the greatest amount of scientific and practical knowledge have rallied to the contest , and those who are for returning to the policy of " the dark ages of banking , " as lord OVEEstone calls it , have been virtually beaten before the meeting of Parliament . Admirable auxiliaries for reviewing the whole subject
have been placed at the disposal of the debaters . Lord OvTsnsTONE has permitted all his tracts , letters , pamphlets , and oral evidence on the subject , to be collected in one handsome volume for private circulation ; Mr . M'Cui / loch is the editor , and that is not the only service that Mr . M'Culloch has performed . Lord Overstone was , as everybody knows , the eminent banker Jones Loyd ; to him , Government , hank , and commercial public has always turned as to the highest authority "; in the policy that has been adopted he may be said to have been the partner of Sir Robert Peel . In one of the
most . important , tracts , a '" Commentary on the Petition of Merchants , Bankers , Traders , " & c , in 1847 , Lord Ovesstone was associated with Colonel Torbens , the most precise writer on the subject that we have . Mr GrEoitaE Aubuthnot- —private Secretary to Sir Robert Peel for several years , including 1844 , when the present Bank Charter Act was passed , and to Sir Charles Wood , who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1847— - has published a pamphlet which grasps the main arguments upon the subject , and exposes the outrageous fallacies of those who go for repeal or considerable modification . *
Lord Overstone ' s volume reviews the whole history of the question fr \> m " the dark ages of the currency "—that period from 1797 to 1819 , during which the Bank of England was restricted" from paying for its notes in gold . During that time the guinea was worth twenty-seven shillings and more ; and although the bank-note never sank to the value of assignats , or of the revolutionary notes of the United States , the public
incurred an immense amount of loss by the fact that each five-pound noto in its hands gradually became worth no more than three or four pounds , or less . In 1819 Mr . Peel , afterwards Sir Robert , obtained the passing of that Act which so angered Cobbett , but "which redeemed our circulation , and enabled every person , holding a five-pound note , really to hold five pounds in , his hands . The IBank Charter has been renewed at various
periods since—in 1832 and 18-14 !; and m that time two great steps of progress were taken . In 1810 , the Governors of the Bank of England distinctly denied the principle that the issues of notes were to bo rogulated by the exchanges ; they have since learned the fallacy of that denial . By tacit consent the civilised world has accepted the precious metals , gold and ttilvcr , as its current money . The coin of different countries varies — depreciated coin , however , becoming rarer and rarer ; under ch ' H ' crent ; shapes and stamps , given * Tracts nnd other Publications on Metallic and Pupor Currency By tlm Uitfht Hon . Lord Ovoralono . Sir Uobert Peel ' s Act of 1 . 844 , regulating ; the . Issue of T ) nnk-Notes , vindicated . By Q . Arbuthnot . Longmans .
amounts of gold or silver bear nearly the saiite yplue . They are current , not snly between individuals , but between communities ; * h © V flow from haad to hand , and frofti land to land , exactly according to the p & yineiits to life made . The richest country , like the richest person , is constantly drawing to itself tihfe largest amount ; , and Sending from itself fh . e largfest amount . If any country , however , has on hand an . amount of saleable goods unusually large in proportion to the money
within its frontiers > it sells some of those goods ; money is sent to it , and the exchanges are * in favour * of that country . That is , persons who deal particularly in the commodity of the precious metals find it profitable to send them thither . When the exchanges are ' at par , '—tbat is , when there is any advantage in sending money either out or in—the share of the currency of the world is just about proportionate to the average wants of that country ; as Lord
Overstone expresses it , tli e currency of that country is full . " If at that period there were an excessive issue of paper-money , money would become too cheap in that country ; it would become comparatively dearer elsewhere ; gold ' would go out , paper would take its place . The currency of the country would recover its former proportion , only there would he paper instead of gold—depreciated paper . Credit would be injured , and no advantage would be gained by the entire
process . It is the same even when the currency is at a low scale , and when , the gold is going but ; because the country only retains for itself the share of currency which naturally comes to it in the course of commerce ; any more than that share , low as it may be , flows away . No tyrannical restrictions to keep money at home can prevail against the movements of commerce , especially in articles
so portable as gold and silver . Before 1827 the Bank of England had an idea that it should contract or expand its issue of notes by the index of prices . If prices were ' high , more notes ; if prices were low , fewer . This index is apt to be confounded , either by excessive speculation under the influence of an apparent prosperity , or by desperation ; and in 1827 the Bank , cancelled a
resolution which it had made to take no notice of the exchanges . Another important alteration of opinion took place . The Bank had based its issues of notes upon tlie gold within , its walls ; but it confounded its ordinary operations of banking with its duty as a department of the State , issuing notes that are practically the money of the State . The deposits of its custom era may bo scixt in and out in the most rapid manner , and withdrawn by cheque . Thus , by confounding its two
departments , the Bank was quite unable to make the paper money expand and contract exactly as ji purely metallic circulation would expand and contract ; and it was liable to make over-issues in the face of the exchanges without knowing . The principal object of tho Act of 184 . 4 , passed by Sir Robert Pjsei , was to divide tho two functions ; the Issue department was separated from the Banking department . The Issue jDepartmont is tho State department , only under tho control of im important commercial bodv tho control of an important commercial body
; ; the Banking department is a private establishment belonging exclusively to tho company of tho Bank of England , and without any interference from tho ( State beyond tho necessity of producing summary accounts every week . Tho rules aro those . Government owes tho Bank of England 11 , 000 , 000 / . ; the Bank holds ponnnncnt securities , fixed , property , Ac , worth about 3 , 000 , 000 / . On tho strength of this permanent property it is allowed to issue 14 , 000 , 000 / . of notes ; for
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 31, 1857, page 11, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31011857/page/11/
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