Mr. R. Giffen on Thursday published in the Times a
fierce attack on bimetallism, which he declares to be, as regards monometallic countries, attended with this tremendous initial difficulty. Gold is actually worth about twenty-one times the price of silver. If any other ratio is fixed—and the bimetallists want to fix 15i—every creditor afraid that he may be paid in artificially appreciated silver, will call his debts in at once. The banks will begin, and as the debts to bankers exceed six hundred millions sterling, there will be universal bankruptcy. That sounds formidable ; but suppose the Government gave a year's notice of the change? Would not the bank credits have all run out ? And how did it happen that when the United States remonetised the silver " dollar of our fathers," the universal bankruptcy did not happen ? Busi- ness in the United States is conducted with borrowed money just as it is here, only more so. We are not bimetallists, failing to see the use of the change except to silver-producers; but the monometallists ring their alarum-bell much too loudly.
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