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who had exhausted honour , who had outliyed dynasties , who had refused to wear the mantle of justice under a law-breakerthat Tie should Tecanfc is a shame to France and no honour to the Empire . We do not begrudge the Empire the allegiance of M . I > UTIN .
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INDIAN RELIEF FUND . The Indian Relief Fund progresses favourably , and promises soon to rival tbe splendid proportions of the Crimean collection . From a report just issued , we find that a sum exceeding 280 , 749 ? . lias already been subscribed , and that out of this amount 54 , 4 : 77 ? . 13 s . 9 d . has beenremitted to various places in India without delay , whilst power to draw bills to the amount of 19 , 0002 . has been also forwarded to the authorities at
Calcutta , Bombay , and Lahore . "W e may further add that 1085 ? . have been distributed in this country in the shape of loans , and 1793 ? . 9 s . 7 d . in donations . The greater ppTtion of the money has naturally flowed into Calcutta as being the capital of Bengal , and the place of shelter to which the principal sufferers from the mutiny would most probably resort ; . To Lucknow , 5170 ? . 10 s . has been sent ; to Bombay—independently of the sum the committee organized there is at
liberty to raise—724 SZ . 14 s . Id . ; to Agra , 10 , 3 ^ 71 . ; whilst we are glad to find that the asyluni at Kusowlee has been yoted 1000 Z . In addition to the remittances already on their way to India , the sum of 5000 ? . goes out by the next .-mail ; entrusted to the G-ovemor-Gleneral , to be transmitted to Delhi for the relief of the sufferers in the various stations of that territory , The greatest economy seems to have been observed in the operations of the committee . The whole amount
of salaries hitherto paid is noted down at 167 ? . 6 s . 7 d . ; while the miscellaneous expenses have been 510 ? . 7 s . 7 d . It is true the cbarge for advertisements shows a large figure , rising to no less than 3098 ? . Os . Id . ; but publicity has been a natural stimulus of the subscription . Advertisements on a large scale have been essential to the success of the Fund-committee and the satisfaction of the
subscribers . We make no comment upon the generous promptitude with which all classes of the community have cotne to the relief of their suffering and mourning fellowcountrymen in the East we only trust the impulse of Britisli charity will not cease until the vrork is complete , and a fair prospect held out that the distress of Anglo-Jndian widows , orphans , and destitute will , as far as lies in human aid , be adequately relieved .
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PAYMENT OE THE INDIAN DAMAGES . In the paper on the ' Payment of tho Indian Damages , ' in our last number , we made a very serious blunder , unaccountable , if everybody does not remember the hallucinations which may seize upon the most vigilant mind . We reckoned that the cost of 50 , 000 soldiers landed in , India , at 100 Z . a piece , would amount to 500 , 000 ? ., whereas it should have been 5 , 000 , 0002 . It happened luckily that the whole force of pur argument would have "been strengthened tenfold by taking : the
proper hgures . In that paper we indicated the means by which India might be made to pay with advantage to herself and without injustice : good government would render the land more profitable . But there are some means by which immediate revenues might be obtained without injury to India , with direct advantage to this country , and with the effect of immediately counterbalancing tho new ctetot .. One is the extension of railways . Begardrag the whole amount invested in Indian , 'railways as a loan—and it could bo
obtained for that purpose on reasonable terms —it is almost self-evident that the revenue derivable from the railways themselves forms a very small part of the advantage derived to India and its Government . The rail fare can never be more than a per-centage on the business transacted T ) y the railway . Another source still more prompt would be a boon to India in the shape of an improved circulating medium . We allude to such a reform of the
currency laws as would render gold a legal tender , and would , upon that basis , put in circulation a fair proportion of State paper . In this country , with a population of only 30 , 000 , 000 , something like 14 , 000 , 000 ? . was assumed as the capital against which a portion of the paper currency might issue : why not embody the expenses of the Indian war in a similar debt , and let the paper issued against it float in India , a new expansion of her monetary system , and immediate payment to us for the expenses we haye incurred .
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MR . CCHSTINGHAM AT BBIGHTON . We do not undertake to support Jifr . Coningha . 1 i in all his political views ; but by his speech at Brighton he has rendered a real service to the Liberal party . The demonstration was the more remarkable inasmuch as Brighton is an aristocratic town , and Mir . Gojtinqham , by culture as well as by
association , belongs to the class of societ y generally averse . from , declarations so out-spoken and courageous . The honourable gentleman , after his reception by his own constituency , might well afford to be rebuked by the Blenkinsop of official High Xife , especially , as he succeeded in drawing the Government card with respect to the future administration of India . Does an India Bill mean No Reform Bill ?
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There is no learned man but will confess he hath much profited by leading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him to read , why should it not , at least , be tolerable for his adversary to write j—Mii / ton .
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THE M ONETAEY CRISIS AND THE BANK OF ENGLAND . ( To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , — -Atatitne of monetary pressure like tlie present , most people are too apt to work themselves up to the belief that somehow or other the Bank of England is to blame , and that Parliament has but to meet and pass some short acts to set all to rights at once . Now , there is no creative power , no magic in either Parliament or the Bank . They are both mighty institutions in their way , but they can no more create money , or ma . ke unsound credit sound , or enable any considerable portion of the vast commerce and manufacturing of this or any other country , to be carried on for any length of time by men without means , than they can make the printing-machines at the Bank , transform the paper they , are fed with into sovereigns . There is no mystery in the present crisis . It has come , not like that of 1816 , by an exhaustive war , short supplies , and a Corn-law ; nor like that of 1825 , from food being at famine prices ^ and a consequent sudden drain of gold to buy corn at tho moment wherever it might be found ; nor like that of 1887 , from bad harvests , glutted warehouses , protection , starvation of the people , and outflow of bullion to buy bread ; nor like the crisis of 1847 , from a railway mania and a general bursting of bubbleB . With marked distinctness from all these , tho existing crisis has come upon us at a period of unexampled abundance . Never in tho world's history was there so rich a harvest housed throughout the world as in tho present year . Our manufacturers have for the most part been cautious , our exports and imports have risen enormously , our commerce has been in the main aound , and Australia and California have steadily year on year poured in upon us their millions of gold . Tho present crisis is neither more nor loss than a re-diacountiny crisis , and it has been brought upon us by a departure on the pnrt of banks and bill-brokers from the Bound principles of real banking .
A Banker ' s legitimate business is to keep in ner feet security , so that they shall be ready at demand " the deposits of his customers . ' It does not follow the deposits are to be locked tit > in the bank safe , and that the bank is to become a hoarding-house , but it does follow that the moners so entrusted to the bank are not to be advanced in enormous sums to individuals , nor to be lent upon securities that in a commercial crisis cannot be realized at once , or become absolutely inconvertible and for the time valueless . ' Bankers—some hold to it still—used to consider themselves bound to have a positive knowledge of the soundness of the parties upon whose bills they advanced the money of their customers . They discounted , in fact , within the circle of their own acquaintance ; they gave legitimate help to legitimate trading , they distributed the help fairly ; and they kept besides a sufficient reserve to make them easy about the demands of their depositors . Of course , on this system no large interest , if any interest . at ' all , could be allowed upon , deposits ; and fortunes were not to be made in a few years . Gradually , however , has grown up a totally different system , and , under stress of unhealthy competition , banking has been driven from its safe and honest course . The banks and bill-brokers have become the upholders of fictitious credit , and the finders of capital for the conduct of enormous businesses by men of no means . Instead of discounts belonging to real trade , they keep afloat millions upon millions of bills that represent no value whatever ; and uphold a rotten competition that robs fair traders of their rightful profits , and involves honest men in the ruin of rogues . The joint-stock banks keep Mttle or no reserve of their customers' money : it is out on mortgage , out on ships , out ori loans at fixed periods , out on bills , out on call with the billbrokers . By these shifts they pay large dividends , and run large risks , at the peril of their shareholders and depositors . Surely no one imagines that the Liverpool Borough Bank , the Western of Scotland , the City of Glasgow , the Staffordshire and Wolverhampton , or the Northumberland and Durham , district bank , have been compelled to close their doors from Losses in the true business of banking . It is not as bankers , but as traders , as money-lenders , as builders of ships and warehouses , as pushers of trade and stampers of worthless bills for bankrupts or penniless men , that they have failed . The closing of their doors comes of a career of dishonesty as bankers deserving exposure and punishment , and the non-exposure of which , more than the failure of the banks , is a public calamity . But how is it all this goes on so long ? How is it the bills of Cole , Davidson , and Gordon , of Sadgrove and Ragg , of Banes , Hopperton , and a thousand othermen of fraud and of straw , professional bill acceptors and professional signers of imaginary names , pass current in the commercial world at all ? Does it not come of the fact that the joint-stock banks and the bill-brokers either do not or cannot exerciBe the due supervision of bankers into the condition of parties for whom they discount , and that the Bank of England is expected in times of pressure to re-discount without question , as firstclass bills , all that come from the banks or billbrokers ; and is not the cure plain enough , that the Bank shall make it a rule to charge an additional ONE PEE CENT . ON ALL HE-DISCOUNTS ? TlllS
would , no doubt , be a heavy blow to the business of bill-broking , which is in reality a business without capital , upheld , on the one hand , by money at call , that is , the money of depositors in all the banks in all parts of the country sent up daily to Lombardstreet to be advanced on bills , and as to vast numbers of which Lombard-street can know nothing , and upheld , on the other hand , by the re-dhcoimt whenever needed of these brokers' bills by the Bank of England . This re-discount system once checked , the joint-stock banks must of necessity , as tho demand on the part of the bill-brokers would become less , keep a larger proportion of their customers money in hand , and must discount less , as they will no longer be enabled under any circumstance !! , without additional cost , to trade upon the money of the Bank of England . ; This check upon re-discounts is therefore the legitimate remedy against the recurrence of such a state of things as we are now happily pass through . Whether the Bank of England will venture upon it , unless under special enactment , is another matter . Thero need , however , be no ihfllculty in enacting that such a difference of charge upon re-discounts must in future precede any relaxation on the- part of Government of the Bank Act . Even this would compel tho joint-stock bunkers and bill-brokers to look a little moro before them than they have done of late . But in any caso tho remedy for a flood of unsubstantial bills , and t ' ov the mischievous competition set up by unsound credit , is assuredly not iu the issue of more bank-notes . 1 am , sir , Your obedient servant , J . C .
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9 . [ CN THIS DEPARTMENT , AS Jxi OPINIONS , IIOWEVER EXTREME , AKE ALLOWED AN KXl'RBSSIO-H , TUB EDITOR NECKSSAB 1 IA" HOLDS IIIMSKLF KESrONSIBLK 1-OK NONK . l
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1 * 42 > HE LEADEB , TNo . 401 , November 28 , 1857 .
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Leader (1850-1860), Nov. 28, 1857, page 1142, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2219/page/14/
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