| Show silver issue in en england 6 land the silver question has been brought prominently before the people of england in rather a peculiar way when kir Sir robert peels administration in 1814 formulated the present charter of we the bauk bank of england which instrument has since been familiarly known as peels act a provision was inserted which the bank to issue cissne notes upon silver bullion to the extent of one fifth of its metallic rol K 70 while at various times propositions have been ma male made le that the bank should exercise thi this s privilege n 9 the authority given by the clause has not not been made use of the institution having consistently made gold the only metal for its reserves the fact that this privilege existed I 1 came into strong prominence at the ibe fourth international monetary conference in 1892 and at various times has been bean the object of a host of suggestions gest gast ions on the part of the bimetal lists and supporters of the silver idea on both continents at the semiannual semi annual me meeting etine of the officials of the bank of en england gland a few days ago mr hugli hugh 0 smith governor of the bank said he had addressed the chancellor of the e ex x as follows referring to our conversation we beg to say the bank is prepared to carry out what is laid down as permissible in the bank charter viz to hold one fifth of the bullion held against its note issue in silver provided always that the french mint is 13 again open to the free coinage of silver and that the price at which silver is ia procurable and ea leable eal sable are satisfactory at the same time mr smith stated that proposals had bad been laid before the british government by the united states and france whereby england might iti increase crease its use of silver as a contribution to an international agreement which while not affecting the english gold standard might enable the mints of france and america to resume free silver coinage among the propositions was one asking the bank to hold the amount of permitted by the bank act of 1811 1841 that is in brief the way the silver question has been brought before the people of great britain the bankers are now using their best efforts to prevent present recognition of silver by the government and from the cable grams it appears quite a determined campaign is being waged by the mon ey lenders the fact that they are so aroused is to our mind a good omen they must fear the government and the people are inclined to the proposition that comes from the united states |
