Mr. Balfour on Wednesday made a striking speech on Bimetallism
at the Mansion House. We have said enough about the speech elsewhere ; but may mention here that Mr. Balfour ridicules the present currency of the Empire, which, he says, is gold in London, silver in Hong-kong, and in India, something which is neither gold nor silver, but a coinage with a forced value put upon it, a currency as a! bitrary as any paper currency ever was. He denied that, with our vast trade, we could afford to look only to ourselves, and grew eloquent on the necessity of the whole world settling the currency question, and the probability that the world would do it. He believed that the bimetallic idea was spreading; that even conservative financiers were becoming converted ; and that all parties would shortly combine to bring to an end "this reproach to our civilisation." Already they had ceased to regard Bimetallism as a fad, and were aware that until 1853 law did keep the two metals in a fixed ratio to each other. There is a note of almost passionate earnestness in Mr. Balfour's speech quite curious to hear ; especially when we remember that as yet no constituency has expressed any opinion upon the subject.
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