27 MAY 1871, Page 1

It appears that the Bank of France is untouched and

the Book of the Debt safe. Its destruction would have involved financial disorder throughout France, and indeed over the world, and we must once more remark on the insane temerity which leaves such a book, and also, we believe, our own Register of Consols, as solitary records of the French and English Debt. They may be burned any day, and if, as we imagine, but one copy is kept, the loss might be irreparable. Three, at least, photographed from the originals leaf by leaf, ought to be carefully preserved, and in cities at some distance from each other. Our own Bank might have suffered like the Clerkenwell Prison, and nothing can be made absolutely safe from fire, while full scientific precautions would not cost 1.100 a year.