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April 14> 186Q.J The Leader and Saturday...
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There can, however, be no doubt that the...
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THE POPE IN JERUSALEM. L ATE accounts fr...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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April 14> 186q.J The Leader And Saturday...
April 14 > 186 Q . J The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 347
There Can, However, Be No Doubt That The...
There can , however , be no doubt that the currency will come largely into use . As soon as notes are in the hands of the independent Commissioners , they are to exchange them with the Treasury for an equal amount of coin ; and the Treasures from ' iAiattuneto pay all demands on it , except sums less than Jen shillings , in notes . This will at once place notes to . a laige amount in circulation , and successive issues by tire tasury will at least cause as many to be used as will be required for all its receipts and payments . Notes are , in many respects , so nuich superior to coin , especially for making large payments , that they Will everywhere come into extensive use , unless restricted or prohibited . At each Presidency , in fact , there exists already a partial paper-currency , issued by the Banks of Bengal , Madras , and Bombay , and the Government plan necessarily stops them from doiii" - what it undertakes to do . It has to make an ^ arrangement with these bank s for withdrawing their notes from circulation . We know no example of a ( xovernmeut undertaking to supply such a currency , and unable to get it into circulation . The difficulty has always been to liinit the amount ; the danger arising from such a currency has always come from its excess , not from its deficiency . The practical testimony of all civilized . people is in favour of paper--pr omises-to " -pay , as subsidiary to and t he means of making actual payment ; and we cannot tor ¦ one moment doubt that her Majesty ' s Government m India ¦ will be able to substitute , to a very great extent , a paper currency for the silver now in use in Hindostaiu The notes tor iive and ten rupees will exclude a multitude of coins from common use . Another matter equally clear is that these currency boards , jj hief and subordinate ) wholly different from and independent of . any revenue or other boards , whether district or metropolitan , will constitute a very large addition to the staff of the civil service of India , and to the patronage of the Government . Men wlio handle money must be well paid to keep them honest , and the chief and subordinate commissioners will no doubt have lar « -e salaries . All the staff , therefore , will require to be paid for doing that which the Banks of Bengal , Bombay , and Madras are now dqin ° - with a profit to themselves , and might if allowed do " ¦ radually and successfully for all llindostan . Private bankers or companies of bankers do this for all Scotland . Nor does it appear likely , if the strict provision of keeping on hand coin to the value of one-third of the sum issued as notes be observed , that the Government will gain largely by the issue , beyond the additional loan it will at once contract by exchanging its promises to pay for coin . Sir Charles Wood even anticipates a loss . All the profit which Mr . Wilson sets forth is confined , we think , to the- reduction of the debt which will take place in another direction . Government securities purchased by the coin for which notes are substituted will be kept at a higher figure . A portion of the Indian debtwill . be absorbed by the Issue department , and the dividends on the securities it holds will constitute , us fur as we can sec , its only profit . The Bank of England does not pay dividends by its issue department , exclusive as arc its privileges , but by its banking business . ¦ Other bank ' s which do not issue notes make larger profit , in proportion to their capital , than the Bank of England .. Not at present to enter at large into the princip les which are at issue between this plan and free banking , we content ourselves with observing that there is no example of a State paper-currency not having- been " tampered with by the Government of the day" when that suited its purposes . -Every continental state of Europe supplies an example of such n currency tampered with , bring ing oh -the confiding people through many years greater ' disasters than " storm , pestilence , and famine . " Nor is our country an exception . Our Government has frequently " tampered " ' with the Bank circulation , ami was tlio real author oi much Of the fraud and forgery and misery , which prevailed for many yenrs , when for its own purposes it relieved the Bank from the obligation , written und printed on every one of its notes , to pay the bearer on demand . Even since it was brought to book by an honest and intelligent people for this malversation , and forced to recognise the duty of fulfilling expressed obligations , it lias not hesitated to suspend for the behoof of the Bank its own ¦ very positive enactments . To save that establishment it promised an indemnity in 1347 , and it again relieved it from its le « -al obligations in 185 7 . We do not condemn the suspension ? or the abrogation of a bad Haw ; but wo say that the class of men . who did this iu 1847 und 1857 , mid the present Secretary for ¦ India was Chancellor of the Exchequer iu 1857 , wUl never -bogglo at suspending or abrogating the law iu India , passed to , secure the convertibility of the note , when that may bo required by any fancied state necessity , They did it hero when only the Bank was in danger , and they will not hesitate . to do it m India Af they think the Government endangered . We are sure , therefore , that a State papor-curronpy has not and conuot have
guarantees for its instant and constant -convertibility into coin , equal to those of a currency of notes provided by bankers , such as hasexisted in Scotland without . forgeries or failures of any importance for more than a century . \
The Pope In Jerusalem. L Ate Accounts Fr...
THE POPE IN JERUSALEM . L ATE accounts from Pasquin , at Rome , that centre of pure religion , announce the intention of the Pope to appoint a Bishop of " the / Dead Sea and a -Cardinal of Gomorrah . Coupled with tins startling intelligence comes a truer rumour of a still more surprising nature . We are informed that at the great gathering of the Easter pilgrims at Marseilles , and prior to the starting of the . ragged crusade of those fanatics for the Holy , Land , a proposition of the Pope ' s retirement to Jerusalem was seriously discussed among the dignitaries of the French Ilomau Catholic party . By a large majority of the more zealous , it was pronounced feasible , and the plan may now be considered as the fixed expedient of an influential party of Papal adherents . It was actually proposed to make Jerusalem , and not Home , the papal capital . Weary of Italian turbulence and of Erench intrigues , the Pope himself may , for all we know , be a party to this daring and novel scheme , which if carried out ; ' unimpeded by the-E ^ iropeaiv powers ., would , be-- the-commencement-of aii ^ Jcle- -. siastieal revolution , such as the world , has not witnessed since the appearance of WicLiFr , or the Avatar of Lutueu . Itome would again become a desert , tenanted only by staring travellers , and the jabbering spectres of nionks ; the East would again be the seat of religious power , and the anchovy-sauce blood of St . jANUABit-s would boil , unheeded by any but a few half-savage fishermen . There can be no doubt that when the PpvE left Europe all civilization worth mentionin g would flow back again to the East , its first source . In another century from that terrible exodus , Englishman and Hottentot would be synonymous . A poetic frensy seizes us as we think of the Pope ' s departure from ungrateful Europe . He will sail , not in St . Peteu's bark , for that is rather wornireatcn and leaky , but in a tremendous sactfed . three-decker , limit of the wood of the true Cross . The helm will b « made of the wooden leg of St . Eakaubas , and the . ten thousand munnhy virgins , battened down in the hold , will supersede the necessity of all life-l ) oats and cork jackets . AH the metal of that miraculous bark will he forged from the wheel on which . St . Catherine was put to death , and tlie rigging will be woven from . St . Ckcilta ' s harp-strings . The chief ornament of the state , cabin will be the three heads of St . Denis ; and no expense will be spared in procuring the most warranted relics , and the feather beds will be stuffed with plumes from the birds of Paradise . The Pope , it is said , hearing of no relic that could stop seasickness , had expressed a wish ¦ toiinve the Baldachino from St . Peter ' s erected on the quarter deck into a sort of open-air cabin , but the project has been abandoned on account of the enormous weight of the onnopy . The papal keys , a little corroded by bein « - on the shelf near a box of Bokcua poisons , arc la be scoured before the departure ; and to symbolize the new dominion in the East , Cardinal Axtonblli has proposed to add a fourth crown to the papal tiara , or Corona xtuUilue , as sonic call it from its peculiar conical shape . It is said that a fleet of transports laden with winking Virgins and bleeding images will follow the Pope ' s great vessel , and that it is proposed to carry off from Kome , after first numbering the stones , the tomb of S * t . Pi 5 'n 2 n and the holy stairs . ' It will be a great wrench for the Holy Father to leave the sacred city , —of that there can be no doubt , " The treasure-house of art , the nursery of Christianity , where the first martyrs bjtxl , ami the saints and apostles preached ; the scene of so many . miracles , of such holy deeds , of such pious deaths , of so many virtues , of so few crimes . But let it comfort tlie good man that in going to this other side of Jordan , ho goes to an ecclesiastical Eden—to scenes of oven more miracles—to tho spot the holiest and most consecrated in the World . He can found new customs and create ihmv titles ; the Dead Sea will now have its efllciwnt bishop , and ( iomorrah its learned cardinal ; there can be crusades against the Arabs of Edom , and tho caravans can carry forth newly made relics to the furthest parts of . tho favoured earth . Thnt grout funst of tho Church —the Carnival , can bo revived with new attractions and Eastern dresses ; and now , unimpeded by European conventions , a snug set of rooms for the Inquisition can be erected on Mount Moviah , with attached dungeons , cool and quiet , iu the tombs of the kings in the valley of Johosaplint . This institution , improved by hints drawn from tho foolishly-abolished Star-ehairil >« r of that groat divine Lima , and the Gorman J 3 ehni- * G < tric / d is well adapted to meet the wants of the new converts , who would ilock in from the furthest regions of the Mast . Tho Swiss guards , to meet the times , will wear » eostuui © half Janissary and halx 2
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 14, 1860, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_14041860/page/7/
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