The first sign of an improvement in the money-market causes
an immediate demand for an entire discontinuance of the policy which has led to that improvement. No sooner are Consols ran- ging above 94, and the reports from the Bank of France describ- ing a tranquil mind within the walls of that establishment, than the commercial public in London is crying out for a lower rate of discount. We are told of the easier rates which are given out- side ; of the accommodation which can be obtained at Paris, Hamburg, and Vienna,—the rate declining as you recede from London, so that the late proportion of discounts is in fact reversed. We are told of the arrangements which have been made_ on an average calculation of interest, and which at present occasion positive loss to commercial men. We are told of the debentures on which railway companies and other public bodies have to raise large sums at regular periods. A formidable minority in the Bank-parlour, it is said, opposed the last advance to 7 per cent. Gold is coming in from Australia. We are more than safe, and we should begin to relax.
There are, however, some considerations against this view. Circumstances, no doubt, are altered ; but whole series of com- mercial movements are not to be changed and reversed in the course of a week. If there has been improvement, are we to suppose that it has been brought about entirely without those re- medial measures which were adopted by the Bank of England; and the Bank of France? Is the condition of the Continent, its government and speculations, so entirely changed that the whole danger is past ? If the Steam Navigation Company which has just received the sanction of the Czar is less insidious, less gigan- tic, and less reprehensible in every way than the Russian Rail- way scheme, it is at least evidence that speculation is continuing,: to extend, the recent check notwithstanding. And the an-!. nouncement of a_ new periodical in St. Petersburg, set on foot with an impulse from the highest power, to " develop " all sorts of enterprise, and to be called the Actionnaire, is formidable— the Imperial pupil of De Morny and the Credit Mobilier coming
out as editor of the Shareholder ! The judgment pronounced by the Irish Lord Chancellor, telling the creditors of the ' Tipperary Bank that they have no remedy save through the course of a regular winding-up, might be a memento for some who would be willing to let go the restraints upon extreme spe- culation, the very instant the worst -panic has subsided. We cannot but remember, that in the same quarters where we find- these prompt exhortations to the sudden abatement of Bank discount-rate, we had not long since, on data quite as imperfect, prophecies of a "suspension of cash payments" by the Banks of France and England ! Finance is not well administered by fits and starts.
