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Leader (1850-1860), 14th May 1859, Edition 1 of 2, Page 622, Untitled Article

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      should have greater faith in the probability of circumscribing the war . In the yaltelline the excitement against Austria is very strong , and . the inhabitants of the Papal States only want an opportunity to rise . At present it would seem that Louis Napoleon has hot enough troops ready to extend his operations to any other part of Italy ; but it is not likely that the struggle will be confined for many weeks to the Piedmontese soil or the adjacent territory . Even at the risk of evoking the spirit of revolution , the French will find themselves

      compelled to appeal energetically to the Italian people . We much deplore the sufferings that people will undergo- ^ -the alternate prey of two despots equal in guilt . We fear the success of-LiOuis Napoleon , because experience has marked him for mistrust ; but , in common with all Europe , we shall feel disappointed if he fails to execute upon the House of Hapsburg some portion , at least , of that justice which is due for its long and weary centuries of crime .

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      MR . COBDEN—FREE TRADE . The great man to whom Sir Robert Peel gave the < Jredit of accomplishing the repeal of the corn laws is again returned to Parliament . Mr . Cobden is the avowed apostle of free trade , and how far he is Bkely in his recovered position to promote its extension is an object of interesting inquiry . Reform < 5 f Parliament , which we desire , is only a means of obtairiino- good legislation , and good legislation secures freedom for all men to do all right things . We agree with Mr . Buckle that freedom is the one tiling essential * , and , consequently , the legislator who gives us free trade attains one of the chief ends for which we have a Parliament , ' and now

      insist on reforming it . If Mr . Cobden returns to public life invigorated by repose * to enforce free trade on reluctant ministers , and ill-informed public 'writers ,- he will be the most valuable acquisition the new Parliament has inade . But ' will he enforce it ? Is he so deeply embued with its principles that he will introduce them into every part of politics ? Does he believe them to be permanent rules for conduct universally applicable , which will command attention and consideration when parliamentary reform , and all similar political subjects , will have passed into oblivion ? Is he not rather a practical politician ,- who , like other

      politicians , will seek some immediate end , which ne and others fancy to be good , utterly disregarding the free trade principles involved ? We have bur doubts on this subject ; and to express them , so that hopes of obtaining great things by the honourable member ' s exertions may not be formed , and serious disappointment damaging him in the public estimation may not be incurred , is our present purpose . Besides his letter to Mr . Bright , professing his agreement with him on the subject of Reform , and his joiu-ney to America in the interest of the proprietors of the Illinois railway , Mr . Cobden has distinguished himself in his retirement by

      underof the old assize for bread , established by authority ? As if the relative value of gold and silver , like the relative value of wheat and flour , were not fully settled by the action of the market , and may be ascertained by all who have an interest in ascertaining it . Is not Mr . Cobden going back to old regulations and restrictions and ante-free trade systems , when he so little regards rights , and hints at such a thing as feasible Y Following M . Chevalier , he adopts the opinion that the extraordinary and abnormal high prices of 1856 and 1857—the result of partial scarcity , war , and excessive speculation—were quite natural and

      in order , and the equally abnormal low prices of 1858 were so much out of rule that they need not be taken into consideration . He concludes , from this exceptional view , that the very nature of the trade created by the new gold mines is calculated to increase the evil of a general rise of prices . ^ " It is a sterile commerce , " he says , " which yields neither . raw material nor capital . " Exactly what was said , by the landowners , of free trade in corn . That was described as a sterile commerce for the country however it might enrich the manufacturer , as the trade in gold , now

      described as sterile , enriches all the miners and all the bullion dealers , and all the shipowners engaged in producing and . distributing it through the world . Gold * in fact , is quite as necessary to society in the present condition of man , as corn or cotton , and the gold discoveries , besides supplying the wants of the world with a large quantity of necessary capital , has stimulated the production of other commodities in Australia , California , and Europe , in an extraordinary manner . Compared to its effects , all the regulations arid restrictions that were ever made about coinage by all the Sovereigns pf . the world have been com-It is

      pletely futile and worthless . quite an error , then , to call the trade in gold a sterile commerce , or say that it is an evil , by increasing the demand for commodities to enhance the price , Mr . Cobden believes that this new wealth , which contributes to satisfy so many wants , will enter into the currency , and merely add to the bulk of the instruments of exchange , without in any degree adding , directly or indirectly , to the commodities to be exchanged . So he joins the Frenchman'inregarding with / sorrow one of the great natural events of our time , which has already effected more to unite in one commercial league Asia , Europe , America , and Australia , than all the trade companies that ever were incorporated .

      We cannot fancy a free-trader translating M . Chevalier ' s work without drawing a lesson in favour of free trade from the facts there stated , and giving his readers a warning against M . Chevalier ' s conclusions at almost every page . The gist of the work , so far as France is concerned , ' is to set forth the great evils which have resulted to that country , and are yet likely to result , not from the gold discoveries , but from the operation of the law of the seventh Germinal Year , 11 . This law , M .

      Chevators in undertaking to establish a standard and fix the relation to that of other things wWkT metals or food But ^ either the translator ^ tj the original writer notice the circumstance and accordingly , M . Chevalier , in spite of this fauW instead of recommending that things should reveS to the natural course ,, recommends a number of alterations , against' none of which , though they all infringe the principles of free trade , does' Mr . Cobden warn his readers . In spite of the practice of the law of the seventh Germinal Year , ' 11 , M . Chevalier desires that the value of gold and silver coins should be fixed by an official regulation every six or twelvemonths . He would re-enact , therefore for short periods , the very objectionable law he

      exposes . He does this , "to save individuals from annoyance" in making their bargains . This is the very . principle of protection . The legislator being ignorant that b y annoyance , inconvenience and suffering , nature informs and guides , man wants to save them from her instruction . He in . terposes between her and her children , persisting on being nurse to grown-up babies , and , instead of saving them from annoyance , he keeps them ignorant and dooms them to misery or destruction . Mr . Cobden , by translating- , endorses the principle , and seems to us as thorough a protectionist , as to money , as ever Sir Edward Knatchbull or Gaffer Gooch was as to corn .

      M . Chevalier's attachment to the old principle of settling by an official regulation the : value of gold and silver , and his suggestions for a new coinage , &c , are the more remarkable because he recognises , in referring to the plan recommended by Mirabeau , the time principle of- a coinage—viz ., to certify that coins are of a fixed weight and fineness , and not = to assign them a fixed value to each other , such as making . a double louis forty

      francs , or a single louis twenty francs . Pieces of gold might be coined of five grammas , ' . or often grainmeSj uke the five-franc piece , -which is five graninies , and then they might each circulate the gold , and the silver pieces of five or any other number of gramnies for what each was worth . Tin ' s would apply to the existing coinage . It would consequently only be necessary — in order to obviate most of the evils which 'iL Chevalier

      dreads in France from the gold discoveries—to abolish the law of the 7 Germinal , to dechu'e that the superscription of forty francs and twenty francs , on the gold coinage was an error which 2 > eople should not believe ; and retaining silver as the unit , allow the two nietals to circulate together for what they are worth . The babies of whom M . Chevalier desires to take such great care , would soon lcru-n to make their own bargains very comfortably and very conveniently . All the new coins should be of

      a certain weight , and not have any exchangeable value in other coins marked on them . Such a simple plan , which nature and experience dictate , is , however , very much disliked by all kinds ol political schemers . They must have a standard of value , though there is none in nature . They must decree a fixed relation of value between some metals , though it never exists for a day ; they must save people the trouble ot finding om variations in the value of gold and silver , as well as of other commodities , though they nredoomca irom

      iier informs us , was much considered" by the greatest masters of monetary science of that day , and was wisely intended to establish and secure in all time the full and honest payment of all debts . But eventshave overthrown the hypothesis on which , so far aa gold is concerned , that law was framed . " By the unexpected increase of gold the intentions of the legislators have been defeated . " Is the " increase "•—are the " events " —in fault , or the lawmaker ? M . Chevalier thinks the events are

      to this by nature , and cannot be relieved » by any State contrivance . In fact they , and not the law , settle and determine by their bargaining the variations in-value of gold and silver , tmu oiau the tilings for which these arc exchanged , , I orgotthig much of his own teaching , Mr . Ubuon passes \ y without comment all tboso V ™ ^™* doctrines of the work ho earnestly recommends . We could ffo into more details to illiwtinto J » forgetfulness of the principles he once advocated . These must , however , suffice . . Wo are obliged to come to the conolusiw ^ announce it to our reader * , that Mr . Cobden thougj a freetrader as to corn , is not a *» luotnul ° l " : £ gold and silver . On this point ho is on a pt « JJ Sir . McCulloch , Lord Qverstonc , and the niuew of the Times , to all of whom , when discussing yg nnvn T , nWs . ho was immeasurably supwioi . **

      to blame , and that the gold discoveries ought not to have disturbed the honestly meant law of the gevonth of Germinal . The Fronoh legislator fixed the relation between the value of gold , and silver at 1 to 15 * . This relation has only actually existed at short periods , and , in general silver has been loss valuable than this proportion to gold , so that silver has generally been kept m circulation in Franco ; and at one time the value was so much less as almost to exclude gold from circulation . Now oiroumstancos have become

      different . The new supplies of gold , and the great demand for silver in-the . Bast , have raised its value in relation to'gold ; and those who have gold , and want silver , send the former to France and exchange it for the lattei' , according to the proportions ordained by the law , not according to the value settled by the market . A gold coinage is gradually , in consequence , taking the place of a silver coinage in Franco . These faots are an admirable ulustration of the great principles of free , trade , and of the foolishness of

      logialntnay still bo regarded as a faithful ™ F" " » "" X the public , which , like him , does not carry out w . free-trade principles it professes to admiro .

      taking the '' most humble pf literary tasksj that of translating" the work of M . Chevalier on the probable fall of gold . This might have been no bad preparation for the discussions and for the legislation likely to take place on the subject , had the original , author been a real good free trader , and hacf Mr . Cobden even had the great principles of free trade present to his mind . But wo find him , in the preface , advocating " the interference of the Government , at least to an extent necessary to facilitate voluntary contracts involving payments other than in gold . " He does not claim , as we should expect a good free-trader to claim , a right for , every man to determine for himself the conditions of every contract he wishes to make , whether it regard corn , or silver , or- gold .

      Ho is perfectly well convinced that every man should be allowed to buy corn where and when lie likes , and that the law should enforce the observance of all suoh contraots , but he is not convinced that every man should be allowed to con- ? tract to givo so many ounces of silver , or any other metal he pleases , for the corn , and that the law should ^ in like manner , enforce the agreement . Only some contracts , extending over a long period , hes would graciously allow men to form by any Other than the gold standard , and then it would , bq «; convenience , he thinks , " to have the relative value of gold , and silver periodically published , under the authority of a law , by the Bank of Englandi" Does not this remind the free-trade reader * ffocihiii notice of MU 1 on Liberty / in " . ffnuior , " though ho negleot » the principle of that yroxk to oulofjlse the writer .

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      ¦ . " ¦ ¦ ' » ¦ . ' ¦ . ¦ . ¦ ¦ . ¦ ¦ 62 % f EE LlEiPEB , [ Np 477 , May 14 , 18 RG

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      s ^ rfsnAMJrg'iSS your assent to any proposition wlueu may «»* i

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 14, 1859, page 622, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2294/page/18/