29 AUGUST 1874, Page 3

The Bank of England on Thursday reduced its rate of

discount to 3 per cent., and as its Reserves amount to 50 per cent of its liabilities, the rate may yet be lowered farther. Indeed, it is lower in open market, and we have thus, in an exaggerated form, the phenomenon that with cheap money and a plentiful harvest, there is nothing doing. This cannot last, and if some unforeseen occurrence does not again raise the rate, as was the ease last year, the market should this winter be flooded with speculative schemes. The difficulty of the speculators seems to be to discover anything to do which the public does not thoroughly distrust.