NEWS OF THE WEEK.
R. GOSCHEN on Wednesday delivered a most important 1_VX, speech before the Leeds Chamber of Commerce, the .main drift and object of which we have described elsewhere. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has, it is clear, been seriously .alarmed by the financial crisis. so narrowly averted in the Baring affair, and desires to awaken the country to the danger it runs from the smallness of the reserve of gold kept in the Bank of England. He grew absolutely solemn in describing -this danger, and called upon all the bankers in the country to 'keep a larger proportion of their deposits in their own hands. He even hinted that it might be necessary to compel them to do this by taxation, though at present he should only bring the opinion of depositors to bear by insisting on a more fre- quent publication of accounts. He stated, moreover, that while he was not opposed to an issue of one-pound or even ten-shilling notes, and did not consider the danger of forgery a final argument against the scheme, he should issue them, if at all, not to increase currency, but to provide a "second reserve" in the Bank of England, which might enable the Bank to dispense with suspensions of the Bank Charter Act. He has not yet settled on his plan for this ond, but he is in communication with the Bank about it, and it is pretty clear that his mind inclines to accumulate a new stock of gold by the issue of small notes based on that metal, and to allow the Bank in times of extremity to use it, thus reducing the notes for a moment to securities based only on confidence in the State. His measures will create much discussion, especially if they seriously touch the banking interest, which at present profits greatly by endangering the imaneial safety of the community.
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