00,10114 of the prrg.
STATE OF THE MONEY-MARKET.
COURIER.—The currency, we regret to say, still continues in a very un- satisfactory state, without any immediate prospect of improvement. Many persons expected that the rate of interest at the Bank would have been raised yesterday ; but those who anticipated that such would be the case, were brit very imperfectly informed as to the facts. It is only under certain circum- stances that an increase of the rate of interest is at all expedient, or is calcu- lated to have any effect. The Bank declares the terms on which she will lend; but, in the event of the rate of interest charged by her being already equal to, or somewhat above the market rate, nothing whatever could be gained by raising it higher. Now this, we believe, is at present the case. Money may at this monent be obtained from the great discount merchants and other private parties, on as low, or rather lower terms, than those demanded by the Bank; but while this state of things continues, it is plainly out of the power of the latter materially to contract the circulation by raising the rate of interest; and unless it had this effect, a further rise would lie merely injurious to a few individuals, without being productive of any corresponding public advantage. Under these circumstances, it is difficult to see how the existing redundancy of the currency can be obviated, and the further efflux of bullion prevented, unless it be by the Bank lessening her securities. We arc well convinced, too, that the Bank would do this immediately, and that, indeed, she would have done it a good while ago, had it been in her power. But the incomprehensible policy of the Government, or rather of Mr. Spring Rice, opposes an all but invincible obstacle to such a proceeding. Exchequer Bills are now partly at a discount, and partly at about par. ; and this being the case, were the Bank to throw a million of such bills upon the market, they would immediately sink to 5, 6, or, it may be, 10 per cent. discount, and be all but unsaleable! This, however, is a fictitious and unnatural state of things, which must be corrected. We rather incline to think that Mr. Rice had good reasons fur declining to fund Exchequer Bills during last session ; but the circumstances are now altogether different ; and if the right honourable gentleman obstinately persevere in opposition to the unani- mous opinion of all individuals, of all parties, qualified to judge as to such matters, in refusing to raise the interest on Exchequer Bills, so as to place them on a level with other negotiable securities, lie will incur a weighty responsi- bility; and will very seriously compromise not the interests of Government merely, but all the best interests of the country. Besides, it is next..to. certain that the right honourable gentleman will be compelled to do at no distant period, what he ought voluntarily to have done more than six weeks since—that is, he will be compelled to raise the interest on Exchequer Bills to 31 or 4 per cent. About two millions of the bills now in circulation may be forthwith paid in as revenue, and we know that some of them have already been so disposed of. Now, suppose that 1,500,0001. were so paid in, Mr. Rice would have to go to the Bank to beg of them to make advances for the Government service, or he would have to do what is equally brd—he would have to sell out a part of the Stock held on account of the Savings Banks, on the pledge of the bills sent into the Exchequer ! And suppose that he succeeded in this sort of juggling, what, after all, can he gain for the public by refusing to take the plain, straightfor- ward course of raising the interest on Exchequer Bills ? Certainly not the miserable pittance of 100,0001. And all the while that this wretched game is going forward, the hands of the bank are tied up from doing that which Mr. Rice knows right well she ought to do; the mercantile affairs of the empire are paralyzed ; a feeling of distrust is widely diffused ; and the ablest and most ex- perienced individuals can form no correct idea of what the denouement may be. — October 14.
A TALE OF THE TIMES.
MottxrxC CHRONIcLE—One of the best signs of the times is the anxiety of
our honest contemporary of Printing-Louse Square to have the credit of being still a Reformer. It was long supposed that the Times knew its own interest, and always took care to shout for the winning side ; and the departure from its ordinary tact, in abandoning the cause of Reform in November 1834, at a time when the nation was deeply indignant at the Tory manoeuvre to defeat that Cause, was inexplicable on the ordinary principle of Printing-house Square tactics. Macchiavel tells us, that if an army has a strong force of artillery, the opposing army should, above all things, first try to gain possession of it : and, to compare great things with small, when Punch is foul-mouthed, the best cure is to get hold of Punch himself. The Tories took 'a lesson from Macchiavel: they at once made a bold push for the artillery of Printing-house Square ; and the Reformers found one morning, to their no little astonishment, one of the Duke of Wellington's engineers turning its guns against themselves. Instead of entreating a good word from Punch, a rich Tory, who had suffered much from his ill tongue, opened his purse, and purchased hog and puppets, and Punch became quite a new man. The knowing ones remarked, that all of a sudden the Times, which, for a dozen years at least, had never ceased mauling 31r. Alexander Baring, (now Lord Ashburton,) carefully pointing out the bearing of his breeches-pocket on his arguments, and the facility which he pos- aessed of setting up a position to bowl it down again, and the rancour which it displayed when an opportunity presented itself (as in the case of Mr. Bingham Baring) against all Mr. Alexander Baring's connexions, became blind to the imperfections of that distinguished personage, and gradually the truth oozed out. The public, however, did not relish this attempt of the Tories to fight under false colours ; and so soon as it became evident that the Times hail undertaken to deliver over the " three-fourths of the people of England, whose political opinions it guided," to the enemies of the People, with as little ceremony as one German Prince makes over to another the dominion over so many hundred thousand souls, the object for which the Tories made so heavy a sacrifice was in a great measure frustrated. The Times betrayed the People, and the People deserted the Times. The guide of the po- litical opinions of three-fourths of the People of England lost all influence with the People. In spite of all attempts to conceal the unpleasant truth, it soon Sias known that its circulation dropped off; and of those who became aware of this important truth, we were not the last, having profited so much by the change which had come over the spirit of the oracle of Printing-house Square. Satan, in Milton, cannot blot heaven out of his remembrance ; and, in spite of boasting language, it is obvious that he is by no means satisfied with hell. In like manner, the Times every now and then looks back to the period when it combated for Reform ; and, yielding to the bitter consciousness that all its abuse of O'Connell, and endeavours to frighten the nation with the bugbear of Popish Ascendancy, have been lost on the People of England, pays a homage to Reform, by claiming the character of a consistent supporter of that cause,-offering thus an outrage to every reader possessed of a grain of common sense. An instance most gratifying to Reformers of this extorted homage occurs in the Times of yesterday, in that part of the speech of Sir George Sinclair at the Caithness meeting where the honourable Baronet observes- " When I had the honour, at a later period, again to represent the county. Earl Grey and his colleagues bail been called to his Majesty's councils ; and I deemed it my duty to give to the Herm m Bill, as well as to the other measures of that Administra. Lion, a hearty, though but servile support. At length. however. a schism took place in the Cabinet. Four of its must influential members-namely, the Duke of Richmond, the Earl of Ripon, Lord Stanley, and Sir James Graham, simultaneously retired trout Office. At this eventful crisis I deemed it incumbent on me to investigate the grounds which had induced them to resign ; and the more'so as I entertained the greatest re- spect for the character, the talents, the eloquence, and the integrity which my noble and right honourable friends had so constantly and so prominently displayed whilst I bad the honour to cooperate with them in the House of Commons."
On this the Times, with matchless effrontery, makes the following com- ment- n In all this Sir George Sinclair concurs with the views which, without abandoning a single principle of genuine refurm as opposed to revolution, this journal has strenu- ously and successfully urged upon the country. To the constitutional improvement of our national institutions, in contradistinction to mischievous novelties and democratic experiment, there is no assignable limit consistent with the preservation of the Mo- narchy in its organic structure which we should decline advancing. Our intelligent countrymen know this well. It is nut, therefore. we who have changed, but the dege- nerate Ministers, whose base pandering. to a Popish and revolutionary faction we should never cease to oppose. The difference between them and ourselves, in reference to the country, is precisely analogous to that subsist jug between a benefactor and a banditti; in other words, our sole object is to improve and strengthen the Constitution ; theirs is to maim and plunder it."
When Voltaire was told that his account of the battle of Fontenoy was desti- tute of truth, he is reported to have said-" No matter ; there are not above three or four of the present generation who know it not to be true, and in
ano- ther generation there will be no one able to contradict me." Unfortunately for the Times, its apostacy is too recent, and access to its file is too easy, to allow it to imitate the French historian with success. Who does not know, that far from having the justification (if justification it be, which it is not) of "sir George Sinclair, it laboured day after day to drive Lord Grey, Lord Stanley, Sir James Graham, and Lord Ripon from the Cabinet-that it triumphed Oyer their retreat as a great benefit to the country-that the sole object of its labours seemed to be to replace them with more decided Reformers-that Lord Durham and Mr. Abercroniby were warmly eulogized in its columns, and that Lord 3Ielbourne's Alinistry received its support till the day of its dismissal ? Nay, so little suspicion had any one of the faithlessness of the Times, that the ac- count of the dismissal of the Melbourne Ministry appeared iu that journal as well as in the chronicle, with the remark in the Times that the Queen had done it all, which, with its usual treachery after the apostacy, is attfibuted to a member of that Ministry. The new light followed, but did not precede the dismissal ; and thenceforward the Times has been labouring lustily, with but little effect-thanks to the good sense of the people of Eugland-tu damage in every way the cause of Reform, to promote the views of those who opposed the Reform Bill and every other amelioration of our institutions, who now seek to make that bill a dead letter by again giving the Lords an ascendancy in the Commons. The impudence, however, benefits the Reformers. It is a homage extorted from the lying spirit to the power of their cause. No Reformer would think of assuming the guise of a Tory. Some crazy-brained fellow like Mr. Lechmere Charlton may outrage public opinion by glorying in being an opus- tate; but in general the man who abandons his cause from selfish motives seeks to disguise his meatiness. No honest man seeks the reputation of a rogue ; but many a rogue, like Colonel Charteris, knows the value of a character, and tries to play the hypocrite. Fortunately the Times is too abandoned to be longer able to deceive. There are wolves whom no sheep's clothing could disguise.- October 13.
DILEMMA OF THE LANDOWNERS.
TRUE SUN-The serious amount and the still more serious misappropriation
of the County-rates is at length arousing the attention of those who have to pay them, and for which some efficient plan of control would long since have been devised, but for the influence which interested parties are too often allowed to exercise on the fears of their superiors. Ready as the landed aristocracy at all times are to relieve themselves from thepressure of taxation, they are slow to perceive the difference between retrenchment and reform, and regarding the latter with apprehension, they bear the burden with slavish submis- sion. It was not until the Poor-rate amounted to one quarter of the entire rental of the land that they ventured upon an experiment which renders it utterly impossible that State Pensions and the Corn-laws can much longer be endured. An effectual control of county expenditure is felt to be most desirable, but it is at the same time felt, and that most undesirably, that popular control over one department paves the way for its interference in all others ; and thus, step by step, reluctant advances are made in the career of social regeneration, until at last it will be found that the revisiuu of county and all other expenditure cannot be effected, as it ought to be, unless those to whom it is intrusted are in their turn chosen and controlled by the popular voice. These are hard terms for the privileged orders, but they are just nevertheless.- October 13.
SWISS MEANS OF DEFENCE.
TIMES-It would be politic and desirable for France to seek some means of settling this question peaceably. Whatever the mere population of the Cantons may be, the Swiss are a warrior people, among the boldest, hardiest, and most skilful that ever fought. Their country is one vast fortress. Front the outer extremity to the centre there is a terrible succession of posts, impregnable in the hands of a force s) numerous and so enthusiastic in defence of the national honour as all accounts assure us the Swiss mountaineers would be found were France to prosecute this ungraceful quarrel. Switzerland was divided within herself when, during the wars of France and Austria, towards the close of the last century, the country was repeatedly overrun, and when Bonaparte afterwards oppressed it. But the successful struggle, now to all appearance less likely to fail than ever, which the officers of Don Carlos have so long maintained in a district not one-third the size of Switzerland, nor one-tenth so strong, against an army which on open ground must have annihilated them in a single fort- night, may serve to assist us iu framing some conjecture as to the front pre- sented by the Alpine citadel of the Cautons, now one and all animated by a common sense of injury against a French or any other invading host. Far better that Louis Philip should negotiate in time, and on principles whichimay meet support from the general morality of Europe. We recommend to atten- tion the daily news from Switzerland.- October 13.
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