All accounts from America agree in stating that the November
election will be fought out round the currency pivot. The Democrats, most of whom believe in silver, are unable to resist the temptation of catching the silver vote ; and it is understood that their Convention, which is beginning to assemble at Chicago, will pronounce " squarely " in favour of a Bill making silver legal tender for all debts at a ratio of 1 to 16, which is within a fraction of the old 5s. an ounce price for silver. The effect, of course, will be that all the silver in the market will be drawn towards the United States, and that all gold in circulation will be shipped to pay for it. The currency, in fact, will be silver, as in India and China. That will not signify in the end ; but intermediately the change will produce a vast transfer of property from creditors to debtors, a heavy fall in the credit of the States abroad, and a collapse in the transmission of European capital to America for investment. The remarkable silence of the Democratic party as to their candidate still continues, and it is probable that the leaders have some unexpected but popular name in reserve. Governor Altgeld, of Illinois, who is managing everything, and who is the most dangerous man in the Union, is dis- qualified by not having been born an American.
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