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sentiment of acquiescence has been rooted out of the Italian heart . Those who will not recognise this truth , in its full significance , are wilfully blind to the facts of the Italian question . Before 1848 the Austrian rule in Italy had become intolerable . It had all but destroyed the manufactures of the Iiombard cities , it had consumed in taxes almost the whole product of the Lombard plains , only comparable , in their natural fertility , with the plains of Beauce and the
but it is an old and an obsolete trick to describe anarchy as the one alternative of despotism . ¥ e have seen perfect security and order in a Roman republic of our own times ; we see Imperialism co-existent with misery and terror ; we cannot think that even that amusing fiction , the Balance of Power , would suffer through the absence of the soldiery and placemen who constitute the Austrian party in Italy .
richest provinces of China . The failure of the revolution , instead of mitigating the national thirst for independence , exasperated it . An inextinguishable sense of wrong ,-a jealousy , a hatred , unappeasable by any amnesty , reform , or concession whatever , became the political religion of every patriot , and the atrocities perpetrated by the Austrian generals at Brescia , Ferrara , Bologna , and' Mantua , elicited a curse upon the empire which neither time nor any gracious words can
remove . A registry oi massacres , of spoliations , of imprisonments without trial , of secret military murders , of " . mothers and virgins flogged by soldiers in the open streets , of young patriots blown from the cannon ' s mouth , of old men and young girls burnt in a bonfire at Brescia , of families ruined , of whole districts made desolate , of Austrian Italy , from border to border , filled with mourning and terror ;—these are the counts of the Italian indictment— -crimes not to be
obliterated or condoned . The Italians know well that the question of the future lies between Italy and the aliens who oppress her ; the issue is no longer ' . between . Guelf and Ghibelline , Pope and Emperor , but between foreign domination and Italian independence . " Whoever recommends the Lombardo-Venetian people to compromise with Austria will be regarded with suspicion and contempt by every true Italian . 'The living and the dead forbid the sacrilegious and fratricidal compact .
JFBA . NOIS-Joseph , visiting the Italian conquests of his dynasty , has provoked a silent manifestation which must be instructive to Europe . The political activity of Genoa and Turin has been quickened by the unmistakable fidelity of the Auatro-ltalian people to the symbols of 1848 . Conceive how Manin would have been welcomed had ho entered Venice the day after ITiiancis-Joseiph had left it ! Count Cavotjb , has "been furnished
with new proofs of the ardent life that struggles for free action throughout Italy ; but , however sincere , he is rendered powerless by the embarrassments of his position . Meanwhile , however , it is time for politicians in England to consider what interests they have in upholding the imperial integrity of Austria . The solemn diplomatic fiction of the necessity of an Austrian empire in the centre of Europe was exploded in 1849 , when the first Hussian musket was fired in
Hungary . It may still bo insisted upon by fossilfed pedagogues and pedants ; but it is a mere trick of superannuated diplomacy , and disappeared from the world of realities with Metternich . Screwarzenberg commenced the new epoch of military centralisation , against which all the Xdberaliam of Europe , Germany included , has arrayed all the forces of the Future . The sooner our statesmen
and our governmental publicists acknowledge this truth , the bettor for the fortunes of Europe . The Revolution only sleeps , and when its " great wakening light" is seen , new counterpoises to tho despotic principle represented as much by ITuajnois-• Toseph as by Alexander J L , must bo sought , but not in tho Austrian Empire . We have always been willing , with a deep and sorrowful conviction , to acknowledge that even despotism is better than anarchy .
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COMMON SENSE OP THE BANK CHARTER QUESTION . The debate upon the Bank Charter Act is half done ; those who have acquired the greatest amount of scientific and practical knowledge have rallied to the contest , and those who are for returning to the policy of " the dark ages of banking , ' as Iiord Oveb-STONE calls it , have been virtually bea , ten before the meeting of Parliament . Admirable auxiliaries for reviewing the whole subject
have been placed at the disposal of the debaters . Lord OvERSTONB has permitted all his tracts , letters , pamphlets , and oral evidence on the subject , to be collected in one handsome volume for private circulation ; Mr . M'OTTiiiiOCit is the editor , and that is not the only service that Mr . M'Cttlloch has performed . Xiord Overstone was , as everybody knows , the eminent banker Jones Loyd ; to him , Government , bank , and commercial public has always turned as to the highest
authority ; in the policy that has been adopted he may be said to have been the partner of Sir Robert Peel . In one of the most important tracts , a " Commentary on the Petition of Merchants , Bankers , Traders , " < fec , in 1847 , Xord Ovierstone was associated with Colonel ToUrens , the most precise writer on the subject that we have . Mr
George Arbtjthkot —private Secretary to Sir Robert Peel for several years , including 1844 , when the present "Bank Charter Act was passed , and to Sir Charles "Wood , who was Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1847—has published a pamphlet which grasps the main arguments upon the subject , and exposes the outrageous fallacies of those who go for repeal or considerable modification . *
Lord Ovekstone ' s volume reviews the whole history of the question from " the dark ages of the currency "—that period from 1797 to 1819 , during which the Bank of England was restricted" from paying for its notes in gold . During that time the guinea was worth twenty-seven shillings and more ; and although the bank-note never sank to the value of assignats , or of the revolutionary notes of the United States , the public incurred an immense amount of loss by the
fact that each five-pound note in its hands gradually became worth no more than three ov four pounds , or less . In- 1819 Mr . Peel , afterwards Sir Robeut , obtained the passing of that Act which so angered Cobbett , but which redeemed our circulation , and enabled every person , holding a five-pound note , really to hold five pounds in his hands . Tho Bank Charter has been renewed at various periods since—in 1832 and 184 i 4 i ; and in that
time two great steps of progress were taken . In 1819 , tho Governors of the Bank of England distinctly denied tho principle that the issues of notes were to be regulated by the exchanges ; they have since learned the fallacy of that denial . By tacit consent the civilised world has accepted the precious metals , gold and silver , as its current money . The coin of different countries varies — depreciated coin , however , becoming rarer and rarer ; under different shapes and stamps , given
amounts of gold or silver bear nearly the same value . They are current , not only betwe&n individuals , but between communities ; they flow from , hand to hand , and from land to land , exactly according to the payments to be made . The richest oonntry , like the richest person , is constantly drawing to itself the largest amount , and sending from , itself the largest amount . If any country , however , has on hand act amount of saleable goods unusually large in proportion to the money
within its frontiers , it sells some of those goods ; money is sent to it , and the exchanges are * in favour' of that country . That is , persons who deal particularly in the commodity of the precious metals find it profitable to send them thither . When the exchanges are * at par / - —that is , when there is any advantage in sending money either out or in—the share of the currency of the world is just about proportionate to the average wants of that country ; as ILord
Overstone expresses it , the currency of that country is full . " If at that period there were an excessive issue of paper-money , money would become too cheap in that country ; it would become comparatively dearer elsewhere ; gold would go out , paper would take its place . The currency of the country would recover its former proportion , only there would be paper instead of gold—depreciated paper . Credit would be injured , and no advantage would be gained by the entire
process . It is the same even when the currency is at a low scale , and when the gold is going out ; because the country only retains for itself the share of currency -which naturally comes to it in . the course of commerce ; any more than that share , low as it may be , flows away . JSTo tyrannical restrictions to keep money at home can prevail against the movements of commerce , especially in articles so portable as gold and silver . Before 1827 the Bank of Enwland had an idea that it
should contract or expand its issue of notes by the index of prices . If prices were ' high , ' more notes ; if prices were low , fewer . This index is apt to be confounded , either by excessive speculation under the influence of an apparent prosperity , or hy desperation ; and in 1827 the Bank cancelled a resolution which it had made to take no notice of the exchanges .
Another important alteration of opinion took place . The Bank had based its issues of notes upon the gold within its walls ; but it confounded its ordinary operations of banking with its duty as a department of the State , issuing notes that are practically the money of the State . The deposits of its customers may bo sent in and out in tho most rapid manner , and withdrawn by cheque . Thus , by confounding its two departments , tho Bank was quite unable to make tho
paper money expand and contract exactly as a purely metallic circulation would expand and contract ; and it was liable to make over-issues in the face of tho exchanges without knowing . Tho principal object of tho Act of 1844 , passed by Sir Hobert Peel , was to divide the two functions ; the Issue department was separated from the Banking department . Tho Issue Department is tho State department , only under tho control of an important commercial body ;
fcho Hanking department is a private establishment belonging exclusively to tho company of tho Bank of England , and without any interference from the State beyond tho necessity of producing summary accounts ovory week . Tho rules arc those . Government owes tho Bank of England 11 , 000 , 000 / . ; the Bank holds permanent securities , fixed property , &c \ , worth about 3 , 000 , 000 / . On tho strength of this permanent property it 33 allowed to issue 14 , 000 , 000 / . of notes ; for
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* Tracts an < l other Publications on Metallic and Paper Currency . Uy the Right Hon . Lord OvcTstonc . Sir Robert Peel ' s Act of 1844 , regulating the Iasue of BnnU-Notes , vindicated . By Cr . Arbutbnot . Longmans .
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J ahttary 3 X , 1857 . ] TOB LJSAPEB . Kft
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 31, 1857, page 107, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2178/page/11/
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