no power of itself to issue notes. The issues, protected by State security, could only be made through the banks; and no bank would take from the State more notes than were needed by the community, as it would be a loser thereby. It is equally obvious that the public would not take from the banks more notes than could be profitably employed in business, because the note-issues (then as now) would take place almost entirely by means of the discount-operations of banks; and no man would pay interest (by discounting a bill) for notes which he did not require. Under the new system the amount of currency in circulation would be no greater than it is at present. But there is this great advantage on the side of the new system, that the currency would have a power of expansion in accordance with the varying requirements of the community, which would be of great benefit in exceptional times, as it would suffice to free the measure of value from the enormous fluctuations which at present it so frequently undergoes. And to attain this object all that is requisite is, that (under the abovenamed conditions) every bank should have a means of lending its capital and utilising its credit by an issue of notes when such notes are needed by the public. Thus, while the validity of the note would be fully secured, the currency would be kept unchanging in value; and the rate of interest would be regulated, not, as now, by a mere scarcity or superabundance of notes, but by the natural law of supply and demand -i.e., by the amount of loanable capital and the extent of the demand for it.

All trade is affected by the Rate of Interest. Capital-the realised wealth of a country-is like a vast reservoir, from which flow forth the streams which set in motion the thousand wheels of Industry. The capital of this country is enormous, our reservoir of motive power is unparalleled in magnitude: but we must look to the sluices.

Rich as we are, enlightened as we ought to be, we yet commit the folly of neutralising to a serious extent our great advantages. What should we think of a man who, after constructing with years of labour a vast reservoir for the supply of his mills, should put upon his reservoir sluices which cannot be opened wide enough to utilise the contents of the reservoir, and in consequence has ever and anon to see his mills stopped for want of an adequate supply of motive power? Yet this is exactly our own case under the present Bank Acts. These Acts, passed under a misapprehension, prevent us from reaping the full benefit of our vast store of capital; for they restrict the means by which capital can be lent, and thus raise in an artificial manner the Rate of Interest. The effect of this is most injurious to our national prosperity: it ever and anon puts a clog upon the wheels of industry, and is the chief cause of those startling ebbs of Trade, of those commercial crises, which checker the onward progress and natural expansion of our national industry.

As nearly all our trade is carried on by means of credit, by loans of capital, the Rate of Interest (one form of which is the rate of discount) forms a deduction from the profits of industry, and it may rise so high as to absorb all the profits. When the Rate is low or moderate, many industrial undertakings can be carried on, which must be abandoned when the Rate becomes high. Under a high rate of interest, the only kinds of trade which can be carried on are those which yield more than the ordinary rate of profits, or which are conducted by great capitalists, who can afford to stand a temporary loss. The trader of moderate means, or the rising man who seeks to compensate his lack of capital by industry and ability, have at such times to go to the wall, and have the mortification to see their business appropriated, or their stock bought up, by some large capitalist, who can not only

a writer which alone occasions confusion in the mind of the reader. Let a clear exposition be made let a broad and intelligible measure of monetary reform be brought forward in Parliament,—and there will be no apathy on the part of the public. But small measures won't do. During the last sixteen months, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has brought forward two separate Bills relating to the currency, and each of them, from the same cause, has fallen to the ground. In each of these Bills-the one relating to Scotland, the other to the English provincial banks of issue-there was something good and something bad. But the main reason of their failure was, that while they aroused opposition in some quarters (as every Bill does), they excited no counterbalancing sympathy on the part of the public, or even of the supporters of the Government. The Bills were petty in character, and vague in their object. We do not know what are the views of Mr Gladstone on this important question. We are not sure whether he is an advocate of the existing monopoly, or of a regime of freedom. Perhaps he still wavers. The character of both the Bills shows plainly that he is dissatisfied with the existing state of things, but neither of them showed clearly to which side he leans-whether to freedom of banking, or to an increase of the present monopoly. Accordingly the public, and Parliament itself, felt no interest in the matter. They only saw that some trifling alterations were proposed, for which no definite object was assigned; and the Bills fell to the ground, not owing to the strength of the opposition made to them, but because no one felt any interest in supporting them.

We believe the result would be very different if the question were brought forward in the manner which we have proposed. Doubt less there would be strong opposition-but certainly there would be

no apathy. The Bank of England, and some of the other banks which at present possess a monopoly of the currency, would vehemently oppose any interference with their privileges; but the commercial classes as a body would as earnestly support the measure; and the public at large would unquestionably be in favour of the principle of freedom and competition.

On a future occasion we may present in detail our plan of reform, and deal fully with the only knotty part of the question-namely, that which relates to the new arrangements to be made with the Bank of England. But, for the present, we have done enough in showing plainly the evils of the existing system, and in proposing in outline a clear and comprehensive measure of reform. Nothing can be simpler than the principle upon which that measure is based. Let all banks equally have the means of lending their capital and utilising their credit. Whatever be the conditions imposed upon the issue of notes, let all banks (subject to those conditions) have an equal right to issue notes. This is the cardinal point, the fundamental principle, of our system: and that system is so framed as to insure practical results of the ut most importance. The validity of the Note-the unchangeableness of the Measure of Value-the emancipation of the Rate of Interest from all influences save that of the natural law of supply and demand: these are the great objects which we have kept in view. And in attaining these objects, by the scheme which we have proposed, we achieve also that freedom of banking which is indispensable to complete the general system of Free Trade, and to terminate a regime of monetary monopoly which is a disgrace to a civilised country-which ever and anon inflicts immense evils upon trade, and which is the chief cause of those disastrous collapses which checker and retard the onward course of our national prosperity.

SOMEBODY ought to compile a handbook for débutants and débutantes, setting forth the most approved modes of procuring invitations to balls and parties during the London season. Not only would it be a very invaluable guide now, but it would be interesting for posterity to refer to as illustrating the manners and customs of their ancestors, and accounting for the hereditary taint of snobbism which is probably destined to characterise in an eminent degree the popula66 En tion of the British Isles. Angleterre," said a cynical Dutch diplomatist, "numero deux va chez numero un, pour s'en glorifier auprès de numero trois." Had he gone to the Bodwinkle ball, he would have remarked a curious inversion of his aphorism, for there it was numero un who went down to numero deux. But I must leave it to Van den Bosch (that, I think, was his name) to discover what there was to boast about to number three. He was evidently a profound philosopher, but I doubt his getting to the bottom of this great social problem. To do so, he would have to look at it free from all petty prejudice, recognising its sublime as well as its ridiculous features. Why did Duchesses struggle to be asked to Bodwinkle's? I almost think a new phase of snobbism is cropping out, and the rivalry will be to try, not who can rise highest, but who can sink lowest in the social scale. The fashionable world is so blasé of itself that it has positively become tired of worshipping wealth, unless its owners possess the charm of extreme vulgarity. Its taste has become so vitiated by being unnaturally excited and pandered to, that we shall have to invent some new object of ambition. Why, for in

stance, should not a select clique of Oxford Street shopkeepers give a series of parties which might become the rage for one season? They have only to get two or three leaders of ton to patronise them at first, and be very exclusive and select in their invitations afterwards, to insure success. A year or two ago the thing to do was Cremorne; why not have an Oxford Street year? The Bodwinkle tendency will result at last in its being the great ambition of a man's life to get his daughters asked to a little music and a few friends" at his bootmaker's.

In Paris, which is becoming rapidly impregnated with this spirit, that city being in a very receptive condition for everything bad from all parts of the world-in Paris, I say, they have made a very good start, as any of my fair friends who have patronised Mr Worth's afternoon tea parties in the Rue de la Paix will readily acknowledge. They will bear testimony to the good taste of the milliner, and I to the bad taste of his customers. That vain women in the highest circles of Parisian fashion can, in an eager rivalry to display as much of their backs as possible, endeavour to obtain the especial patronage of a man - dressmaker, by accepting his invitations to tea, should be a warning to you, O gentle English dames, of what you may come to. Why sacrifice self-respect and propriety to shoulder-straps? Why insist upon it that there is only one man in the world who knows how to cut out a dress behind? Supposing he can bring it an inch lower down than anybody else-if you give that inch, beware of the ell. Why, oh why, advertise your clothes in the newspapers? Is it not enough to puff your dinner

parties in the public journals at so much a "notice," without paying fifteen shillings a-piece to your dressmaker to put your names into the Morning Post,' coupled with your wearing apparel, every time you go to Court? If you persist in the practice, let me recommend you to put in your own advertisements. The press charge is 10s. 6d.; the dressmaker pockets the other 4s. 6d. Or else be generous; why keep the whole advertisement to yourself? let the poor dressmaker put her name in as having furnished the raiment, and she will, perhaps, let you off the four-andsixpence; otherwise, you may do it still cheaper by bills on hoardings

IMMENSE ATTRACTION!

The Marchioness of Scilly will appear at Court on the inst. Train glacé-poult de soie bouillionée, &c.

I am not sure that to attend the professional social gatherings of a Parisian "undressmaker" and pay him twenty francs a "look" is not less objectionable, but this is the British way of worshipping the same idol. This vein of reflection was suggested to me by Bodwinkle's ball. Talk of sermons'in stones! they are nothing to the sermons contained in drums and balls.

First, I have already let my readers into the secret history of that ball. I have told them how Lady Broadbrim and Spiffy Goldtip combined their resources and launched the Bodwinkles in Vanity Fair with a gorgeous mansion and Lady Mundane's invitation list. To describe all Spiffy's exertions in the Bodwinkle cause for some days prior to the ball would be impossible. To tell of the extraordinary suggestions that Bodwinkle was continually making with reference to the decoration of the banisters, the arrangements for supper, and the utter ignorance he displayed throughout of the nature of the en

terprise upon which he had embarked, would occupy more space than I can afford. To give a list of the guests would be superfluous, as they were very accurately reported in the columns of the Morning Post.' In spite of all Spiffy could do, Bodwinkle would insist upon inviting a number of his own friends, and nearly ruined the party irretrievably, by allowing one man to bring his daughters. However, as Mrs B. did not take the slightest notice of them, and as they knew nobody, they went away early. Nevertheless, as Lady Veriphast said, "There were all kinds of people that one had never seen in one's life before." This was the great mistake. People don't yet humiliate themselves to get invitations to meet people they never saw before. They may come to that, but at present nothing is worth going to unless all society wants to go. Then anything is. Now Spiffy had so managed, that by a judicious system of puffing he had excited immense interest in the Bodwinkle ball

he had been morally bill-sticking it in all the clubs for weeks past. He had told the most répandu young dancing men that it would be impossible for him to get them invitations. If Bodwinkle had been General Tom Thumb, and Spiffy had been Barnum, he could not have achieved a greater success. He had insisted upon Bodwinkle having Mrs B. painted by the most fashionable artist and exhibited in the Academy, where the hanging committee, some of whom were at the ball afterwards, gave it a good place, and the 'Times' critic gave it half a column. Until then he had kept her dark. No one had ever seen Mrs Bodwinkle, except three or four literary men, who discreetly and mysteriously alluded to her intellect, and a naughty duke, who indiscreetly and less mysteriously alluded to her charms. People began to want to make Mrs Bodwinkle's acquaintance some time before the ball, but she resolutely