CURRENT LITERATURE.
The Economy of Capital; or, Gold and Trade. By R. H. Patterson. (Blackwood and Sons.)—The earlier chapters of this book are a recast of a series of papers which appeared in Blackwood's Magazine. The sixth chapter, on "The Bank of England," is new. This chapter is an elaborate attack on Sir Robert Peel's Bank Act, and advocates what is called "free trade in money." Every bank is to be at liberty to issue as many notes as it can get the public to take, and the author does not seem to hold, though he expresses no dislike to, the modification of this extreme view which would require the issuers of notes to buy 100/. Consols for every 100/. of notes issued. It would be quite impossible for 118 to enter into this controversy, but we think the length at which it is treated is a mistake. It makes the book too bulky, a fault which might, however, to some extent, be amended by cutting oat certain por- tions which are really repetitions of what has been said before. But, what is worse, it takes away from the popularity of the book, both be- cause bulk increases cost, and because people who like to read about money do not care to go into the currency question. Mr. Patterson writes so clearly and gracefully that an account of our monetary system, and of the effect of the gold discoveries, and of banks, and dis- count houses, and credit companies, from his pen is very attractive; but one does not want this supplemented with elaborate controversy of what Is at all events the received opinion. If it had been confined to twenty or thirty pages it would have been very well, but two hundred is too much. In a literary point of view the book is excellent, so excellent that it may perhaps float even under the burden of chapter vi.
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