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“THIS IS TRUE LIBERTY, WHEN FREEBORN MEN—HAVING TO ADVISE THE PUBLIC, MAY SPEAK FREE.” —Euripwes.

CHARLOTTETOWN, P. E. ISLAND, MONDAY, MAY 15, 18348.

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[No. 41.

Ea SE

MONDAY, MAY 15, 1848.

|Land Tax Bill has appropriated, during fifteen years, |

the proceeds of that Assessment. It formed a security

ws a a ~____ |paid regularly, as well as the L500 voted to augment THE CURRENCY, OR FINANCIAL QUES PION. the Lieutenant Governor’s Salary provided, which, of, Tue Legislature having separated without enacting Course, it was necessary to secure—since it was to be|

. ‘ . . “ie | orig 1 . anything respecting the Financial Affairs of the Island, g'¥¢"—on some fund having a real value and founda-|

our last No., page 265, fifteen lines from the bottom of the first column, for “ 5,000l. per month,” read 5001. per

amply sufficient to Lenders that their interest would be,month.

Ir is a great public misfortune that the Currency ques- tion, as it is called, has engrossed so much public at- tention, and more particularly in the Legislative Bodies.

the question remains still open for discussion. Having tion. And though none are more friendly to Education jt might be almost deemed—if there could be any mo- already given to the subject much of our available space |than we are—none more desirous of promoting and en-|tiye in it—a device ofsome adversary to turn our thoughts —we shall dismiss it from our editorial columns, COUf@ging it in every possible point of view—yet, we! fom what is passing around us, and preventing our with the observations we are now about to offer. cannot see what would have incapacitated the Legisla-|jooking into our own case, and asking ourselves the

The difference of opinion between the two Branches ‘¥*¢ from voting as large a sum annually as the surplus | qyestion—Do we or do we not intend to avail ourselves consisted—as we endeavoured last week to explain—|0f the Tax will produce, without tying it up, and Fen of the offer very intelligibly, though not in a direct in the different view taken by each, of the proper pro-/4ering it unavailable, either to secure a Civil List, when form, made to us of that system of Government termed portion between the cash in reserve and the notes to be the auspicious hour for the introduction of the Respon-|« Responsible,” without which we cannot be said to issued. This, certainly, was too grave a question to al-|Sible System of Government shall have arrived, or to) enjoy the British Constitution? ‘The Legislature should low of compromise. But it is not our intention now to| Cty out the financial views of the Colonial Minister.) have considered that nothing can be paramount in in- discuss this point. The subject, from the very outset | Let it, however, be observed, that if the principle of is-| terest to this matter, and it should have been their first and first publication of Lord Grey’s Despatch, presented |S¥ing two pound notes for oer pound of specie in the, duty—(no matter which party is the stronger for the itself to our mind in a point of view entirely different | Pxchequer, in which all parties seem to concur—be 4/moment)—to address the Home Government on the from that in which it has been treated in the Legisla- /J¥st OM, then to go as far as we propose, a loan of subject. Mr. Duncan MeLean has been styled, by ture; and the great mistake appears to us to have ori- L6,000 might be enough. We think the sum may be) some of his new political allies, the Father of Respon.- ginated ix the notion, that the main thing sought to be obtained if the Home Government accede to the re- sible Government in this Island; yet, we regret to ob- effected was the settlement of the Currency, whereas, ree of the House of Assembly. serve, our quandom friend has shown a most unnatural

that object was only a secondary and subsidiary one,—| There are periods when money is plenty, and the dif-

disregard for his bantling—whether it be that he has

ihe main desideratum being to adopt a financial measure, suited to our circumstances and which would put a stop to the baneful system of Warrants, and cause our paper issues to be made payable on demand, and render them

ificulty of obtaining it, not great. Butof this there can be no certainty. It would be better, indeed, to have

| ;

| L.12,000 and to issue no more notes, but to keep a large 'proportion of the money in some Bank, where interest

}

discovered since his political conversion traits of cha- racter and deformities in this same Responsible Go- vernment, which might prove injurious to the mainte- ‘nance of his new faith—or whether it be that, in his

. aa a } 2 ite 3 iV © ; >, . ° ° ° a current in the other colonies, by giving them a real ya-/ 0" deposits is given, and on which Bills could be drawn, | yightly perigrinations through the cerulean blue, his

Jue ;—and an additional object was the contraction of which would be advantageous to the Colony, and pre-| our public debt, and ultimately getting rid of it. These Vent any extraordinary demand forcash. And if this

appear to us to have been the main objects of Ear) | matter Ore, APPIN SHO NINO nee tes wart Grev’s communication, and though we by no means *°? afford to supply an annual sinking fund, which desire to depreciate the labours of the Council and As-| Would, with a pradent eee veer FOR, sembly, or the information exhibited during the diseus- | /iauidate our entire public debt.

sion by some few members of both Houses, yet, with All this appears to us to be so plain and practicable,

alldeference, we conceive that those who originated the | thane carp.netin what manner the Currency mongers

measure began atthe wrong end. Now, with the view | may settle that part of the subject. ;

of discussing, how easy it would be to proceed on an-| There are strong and plain indications that there will other basis. Let us make a few enquiries. In the first |P° temporary decline in our revenue this year—all the place the Legislature, it must be observed, has voted | Well-informed mercantile men agree in predicting this to pay the interest of Warrants the sum of L1500 for | decline ; andevery boty smite pat sitip-building 7 This has been doneon a calculation, |i Island at the present time is no longer a profitable

the present year. jor safe pursuit—and the few ships destined for this place

of course, of there being afloat L25,000 of those instru- ; ams eto ments. There are L11,500 of inconvertible notes also fom Europe, plainly indicate the extent of our commer-|

. . : . sae : ; } : ° in circulation, on which no interest is payable, but cial operations during the present year: Indeed, it

which, of course, are of no value out of the Colony, and | would be wonderful if sree art of the general depres- necessarily displace the same amount of specie, or notes $!0" which has spread itself so extensively through |

soul wrapped up in the sublimer mysteries of Astrono- my, his affections have been weaned from an object so earthy in its nature, and so, comparatively, unworthy of his reflections—is a matter npon which we have not been informed by the New London Herschel, and respecting which we cannot, of course, impart any information to our readers. In the Session of 1847 Mr. Rae very be- nevolently adopted the child—and though we know our friend entertains, up to this hour, the most profound af- fection for it, we do not believe that he has regarded with any degree of favour, all the airs and opinions which young Responsible Government in this Colony has assumed, and which are understood to have been

borrowed from the Nova-Scotians and Canadians ; so .

that in the Legislature, at the present hour, Responsi- ble Government can scarcely be said to possess any publicly recognized exponent and advocate. But we are firmly convinced—and we shall never cease to pro- mulgate our conviction so long as the question remain

convertible into cash at the Treasury. It was said a "rope and America, should be unfelt by us alone. {ti aheyance—that, until the vivifying System which short time ago that there were L5,000 of specie in the 8s therefore, much to be feared that there has not been) , ow happily obtains in the neighbouring Provinces, be-

Treasury, andif that sum is not there now, it has dis- placed an equal amount of Warrants. that there would be no difficulty in funding, say L20,-

It appears to us|

that prudence shown by the Legislature in incurring ex- ‘penses, which common foresight ought to have suggest- ‘ed—and that habits of extravagance are still the most

come part of our own institutions, we shall never have a Government that will be fully and cordially respected by the great majority of the People, because, without

000 of Warrants ; nor do we think, if properly managed, congenial to the majority of the House of Assembly *|that system, it is impossible for any Government to be there would be any difficulty in borrowing L12,000 at More money has, in fact, been appropriated in the late | perfectly independent, efficient, and impartial. Under

5 per cent. If these two operations were effected, there would be a debt of L32,000, the interest of which would

be—

L.20,000 at 6 per cent, 1.1200 12,000 at 5 per cent 600 L1,800

The sum voted by the Legislature in 1847 to pay inter- est on Warrants was L1,800.

Now, these two things being effected—namely, the joan procured and the Warrants funded—the L11,500 of notes in circulation might be declared a legal tender by proclamation, and they would be represented by the 12,000 borrowed ; and, if it were thought necessary, a further issue might safely take place. But it will be asked, how are we to get L12,000 as a Loan? The House of Assemb!y have presented an Address to His Excellency the Lieutenant Governor, praying that he will forward their request to the Home Government, to guarantee a Joan to the amount named. But it is to be lamented, that, with a strange want of foresight, the

‘Session than the Revenue is likely to produce; and if

this really turn out to be the case, it will greatly embar-

Currency question, but which would be more properly named the Financial question. Shouldthe public debt exhibit an increase at the commencement of the next Session of the Legislature, the country will know which of the two parties in the Assembly is the cause of it.

Perhaps, at the bottom, the greatest difficulty that at- tends, and is likely to attend the settlement of this ques- ‘tion, arises out of the delusion of mind under which some parties labour, that there is a great necessity for an issue of paper, inconvertible, if they could get it; but as the common sense of mankind prevents that, then payable on demand, no matter by what represented. And though, indeed, they find neither of these positions tenable, they are still at the bottom of all their proceed- ings, notwithstanding the modifications to which they have been compelled to submit.

the present hocus pocus form of Government, the policy of Administration—if it really has any definite line of

rass any attempt next year to settle what is called the) action at all—can scarcely he otherwise than weak and

vacillating. The late famous financial project has been lost through the want of an efficient Government. There was no Administration to determine upon any plan—to give the initiative, or prepare a passage for it through Parliament. One would think that the failure of this measure ought to be sufficient to show that we are living undera false system, and, to crown all, we are doing so by our own choice,—but every month and every year supplies us with abundant arguments against adhering to this rotten and worn-out fabric in which we have placed our institutions--wherein the pure air of English liberty never entered, and in which the Queen’s Representative—who should be as a bright reflection from a genial and beneficent sun, moving above all and animating all—sits as the gioomy deposi- tory of some tremendous and hidden power, but sur-

Exratum.—In the article on the Currency Bill in rounded by intriguers and corruptionists, he is nearly

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