The week has been marked on the Stock Exchange by
I fall in Argentine securities so heavy as to endanger two or three of the great fir* which own those stocks, and seriously to embarrass the prbgress of the great Baring liquidation. The cause of the fall is mainly a decree allowing the National Bank and the Provincial Bank of Buenos Ayres to suspend payment of their deposits until June, which was at first sup- posed to be equivalent to bankruptcy. The depositors are, however, offered national bonds, and if the Republic had fall eretit, the decree would only be equivalent to our own suspen- sion of the Bank Charter Act. It was so received in Buenos Ayres, where the President was congratulated by the whole Bourse, and thee gold premium fell twenty points. It is quite evident that the financial affairs of the Republic are travelling from bad to worse; but it is not in the least apparent why. The taxes are the same, the expenses are the same, and the debt has only been increased by a loan of 212,000,000, intended to meet payment of external coupons for the next three years. The source of the mischief is clearly an over-issue of paper money, which makes all payments in metal too oppressive ; but whyjannot that mpney be demonetised, or reduced to its markei alue I' That leasure might for the moment cause great losses to individuals, but it would not impair in any way the resources of the State.
