Sir William Harcourt was entertained at the Mansion House on
Wednesday, and made an optimistic speech. His main drift, of which we have said enough elsewhere, was that the fiscal and economic policy of the last fifty years had been a great success, and that the Government intended to adhere to it. He gave a covert slap or two to Bimetallism, but did not repeat his declarations against that system. He expressed entire ignorance of the causes of commercial depression and revival, but thought he saw some evidence of better times coming. Trade with America was certainly in- creasing, and there had been a most remarkable increase, £700,000, in the amount received for stamps in the first six weeks of the commercial year. The Governor of the Bank of England, we notice, was not so sanguine as the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He only "hoped" that the dawn of improvement which "some" discerned might precede a broad and lasting day. It is curious that the City has never yet discovered a trade which would serve the purpose of a com- mercial barometer. Lord Beaconsfield said that the sale of sulphuric acid always indicated the progressive or receding activity of trade ; but we have been told that the best index to the prosperity of commerce is the sale of hats. People who are doing well never wear their hats out.
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