The Bimetallists had a field-day on Tuesday. Mr. Everett,. the
representative of the farming interest, moved a resolution expressing alarm at the increasing divergence between gold and silver, and urging the Government to enter an inter- national conference for the removal of that evil. The drift of his speech, amid some absurdities, one of which we have quoted elsewhere, was clear enough. Previous to 1873, silver had stood to gold for two hundred years in the ratio of 15i to 1. It was now 34 to 1. The cause was not the increased quantity of silver, for the increase of gold had been as great. It was legislation, and legislation could remove it. Mr. Courtney supported the same thesis in a condensed speech,. which is worth careful study; and Mr. Chaplin descanted in his usual style on the injury to agriculture caused by the low prices resulting from the disuse of silver. The speech of the evening, however, was Sir William Harcourt's ;. and is probably the clearest statement ever made of the Monometallist case. The Chancellor of the Exchequer derided conferences which, as he showed, could not agree on a ratio ; doubted if the nations could or would adhere to any currency agreement in war-time ; and dilated with remarkable force on the danger which any change would involve to credit, and the certainty that England, the great creditor of the world, would be paid in silver only. After all his arguments, however—most of them delivered with an air of certitude—he found there was danger of defeat or of irritating Liberal Bimetallists, and declaring that a con- ference could do no harm, he accepted the resolution. For reasons stated on another page, we think him right ; but he- was a little absurd in stating that the resolution had nothing Bimetallist about it.
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