An International Question

The English statesmaii, Hon. A. J Balfour, the leader of the bimeta lifts of Britain, is often quoted by the silverites of this country as in accorc vit)i their views ou the silver question. If aiiy of them veally believe him to be in acoord with their views, aud th.;t he vill, with his powerful influene, aid in bringing Eugland to that view, they are as far froni the facts in the case as th east is from the west. He is a real bimetalist, not a silver monometalist. He does not believe, as do our silverjtes, that one nation can alone and independently niaintain bimetalism. Note what his position really is on the question as shown by the following excerpt from a recent speech of his: "I am most strongly of the opinión that if there be a qnestiou in this world M'hich is by its character fit to be dealt with by international agreement, that ques tion is the character of the eurrency by which international commercial business is to be carried on. I believe there are individuals who cherish the dream that eurrency is a matter for the state to regúlate independently and for itself alone, that with its eurrency 110 foreign nation has a right to interf ere, that it is a matter simply for the citizens of every community in relation to each other and that the outside world need not be taken account of at all in coming to a decisión upon a question which is one of pnrely domestie policy. LadidS and gentlemen, (his is a dream. I will go furthe and say it is a dream worthy only of a mediaeval nation. We have long passed the stage in civilization when each country was a self-contained, or approximately self-contained national unit, and when it could afford to disregard the interna! commercial relations of other countries. "