The Evening Star FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1873

Evening Star, Issue 3326, 17 October 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1873

WB are glad to see by the Cable telegrams that although the Bank rate of interest has been raised to five per cent, no redaction in the price of wool is recorded. It is a sign that, notwithstanding the derangement of the money market through the export of gold to Germany and the United States, the bona fide demand for wool is so good as to maintain quotations in spite of adverse influences. But it must not, therefore, be concluded that no effect has been produced on the wool market by the rate of discount. Our reading of the matter is that, on the whole, the state of trade at Home is such that had not the Vienna and Wall street panics interfered to prevent it, higher prices would have ruled than have yet been seen. We do not suppose that the money-quake will last long. International communication through steamships and railroads is now so rapid and cheap that the transport of bullion, instead of being a work of weeks, is reduced to a few days or hours ; in consequence a less amount is needed for regulating exchanges and keeping in reserve, and its magical effects in restoring confidence are multiplied. The pressure has been severe, but the English market can hardly be said to have been taken by surprise, for the Austrian panic gave the note of warning. It is to be sincerely hoped that the account of the insane proceedings contemplated in France are misunderstood or misrepresented. Surely the French have had lessons enough to prove that monarchy is not the form of government suitable for them. They have tried it or had it forced upon them four times during the century, and if we add the reign of the first Napoleon, five times, France needs rest. The people left to themselves would develop its fine soil and industrial resources, if they were not harassed by political adventurers who care for nothing but their own aggrandisement. It is, however, difficult to say what will satisfy French statesmen : their ideas differ so much from our sober-sided modes of thought. The best of them does not appear to have realised the truth that Governments should be the servants of the people they rule over ; and that their chief use is to keep order, secure to each citizen his rights, and maintain peace. Their notions extend to how France stands, so as to dictate to (ther nations, besides old world notions of glory, that ought, by this time, to be stripped of their tinsel, and thei’’ hollowness exposed and acknowledred. If the telegram be correct, the Government favors the change; the Government commands the army : the army has always been a monarch’s engine, and the people will have no alternative but to submit. If so, the revolution will be one of peace.