A clever pamphlet, bearing the title of " La Banque
de France et in Banque de Savoie devant l'Interet Public," has just been published in Paris. The author not only asserts the absolute legality of the existence of the Bank of Savoy, both under the treaty of annexation, which placed it in the same position with regard to the Bank of France that it had previously occupied with regard to that of Piedmont, and in virtue of subsequent judicial decrees, but assails the legality of the monopoly possessed by the Bank of France. Putting aside legal questions, however, he Argues the subject solely on commercial grounds, and though some of his financial views would scarcely bear strict investigation, he ably sums up a very strong case against the monopoly enjoyed by the Bank of France, and its present constitu- tion. Under these circumstances, the sudden development of the Bank of Savoy, with its more liberal constitution, Appears to threaten the " fetichism° " inspired by the Bank of France to such a degree that its administration has been making desperate efforts to induce the Emperor to interfere in aid of the monopoly for which an extension of fifty years was obtained in 1857. " Si la Banque de Savoie n'existait pas, it faudrait l'in- Tenter," says the writer; but as it does exist, and, in the present state of French opinion, it seems not improbable that the revolu- tionizing of the French monetary system may not prove a fact certainly not looked for by France when she went to war for " an idea."
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