Money is as much a necessity as bread in the world. Indeed, it is of more; for bread alone carries a man a very little way, according to modern notions, whereas money is the lever that lifts every obstacle from the path. It would seem quite reasonable, therefore, to infer that when the same means have been established for making the surplus at one monetary centre available to supply the deficiency at another, with the rapidity which is proportioned to the more sudden pecuniary requirements that are developed than is the case with corn, the very serious and prolonged disturbances which have been experienced in the past from such a cause would gradually be prevented in the future. [Sidenote: THE GROWTH OF WEALTHY MONETARY CENTRES.] Apart from the single question of rapid telegraphic communication, there is another matter deserving of as much consideration, which is the increase in the number of large monetary and commercial centres. Of late years the growth of wealthy centres has been rapid, and the reservoirs of unemployed money have thus been increased so that a deficiency at one could be supplied from another at a price. Diseases of the body break out here and there in the world at different periods, and other centres of population get warning, and by quarantine and strict sanitary measures, its spread, as in the case of cholera, is checked. Speculation is a disease of the mind, and like diseases of the body which arise from indulgence, carelessness, and neglect, it in the same way comes to a crisis at places where greed of money, folly, and commercial debauchery hurry people into extravagances and luxury that are sure to result in a general eruption. The growing wealth of continental states is an important feature in the altering character of Europe, from a financial point of view, as we near the last quarter of the nineteenth century. As monetary centres, both Berlin and Vienna have been taking a much more prominent part since the Franco-German war than there was any prospect of their doing before the transfer of so much wealth to Germany by the war indemnity payments. At the same time, London has risen higher, and to a level of still greater importance even than she had occupied before as a trade centre. In proportion as other such centres are growing in influence with their reserves of floating capital and credit is London shored-up, so to speak, against the violence of a commercial crisis by the growth of subsidiary monetary centres, which form the second line of defence. Such a second line of defence against a sudden collapse of credit, such as we have experienced several times during this century, is of the utmost importance to a centre like London, where the existence of an elaborate system of book-credits causes such an economy of the currency. [Sidenote: PRIVATE CIPHER TELEGRAMS AS EXTERIOR INFLUENCES UPON PRIORS.]