The step taken by the Bank of England in raising
its rate of discount from 3 per cent to 3-I per cent is generally ascribed to the necessity of providing for payment of the dissentient holders of Exchequer Bills, who, declining to accept any of the new Stocks or the Exchequer Bonds, will have to be paid in cash, probably to the extent of 3,000,000/. Notwithstanding the very great diffi- dence with which Mr. Gladstone at first proposed his new kinds of Stook, as an experiment, it is not in human nature that he should not be disappointed at the little demand for them, espe- cially for his most novel and applauded creation, the Bonds. There are probably many reasons for that fact,—the general de- mand for the profitable employment of money outstripping even the increased abundance of that commodity ; a disposition to hold on and see when the "war prices" may begin; and an idea that better terms may be obtained from Government than Mr. Glad- stone has offered. But we have not yet quite seen the end of the "experiment."
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