The International Monetary Conference at Brussels has -suddenly become more
interesting. It was supposed that it would confine itself to abstract propositions ; but on Monday Mr. Alfred de Rothschild, one of the English delegates, proposed that if the American Government would continue its purchases of silver, now amounting to 54,000,000 ounces a year, the other Governments represented should for -five years purchase five millions sterling a year more of the metal. This would give full time for argument and agreement, and allow silver to decline at a safe rate, while it would not interfere with gold as the standard for England, Germany, or elsewhere. Only, silver as token-money should be more used by a withdrawal of broken gold coins like the half-sovereign, and by raising the limit of legal tender in silver. The proposal, as we have argued elsewhere, would do no permanent good whatever ; but it may be accepted by the Conference because it delays changes, and because it relieves its members from the ridicule which attends a futile meeting. The Conference, however, binds nobody, and the Americans are already saying they will not accept the proposi- tion. They must stop the purchases of silver, or the Treasury, crushed by the preposterous pension list, will be unable to meet its engagements, a contingency which they do not intend to face. The alternative is higher direct taxation in peace time, —which would destroy the party that introduced it.
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