THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 v.ZQ
 
 A PETITION 
 
 TO THF. HONOURABLE 
 
 THE COMMONS HOUSE OF PARLIAMENT, 
 
 TO RENDER MANIFEST 
 
 THE ERRORS, THE INJUSTICE, AND THE DANGERS, 
 
 OF XHE 
 
 MEASURES OF PARLIAMENT 
 
 RESPECTING 
 
 CURRENCY AND BANKERS; 
 
 SUGGESTING MORE JUST AND PRACTICABLE ARRANGEMENTS. 
 AND PRAYING FOR AN INVESTIGATION: 
 
 ACCOMPANIED WITH 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS AND REFLECTIONS, 
 
 WHICH SHEW THE 
 
 UTTER IMPRACTICABILITY OF PERFECTING THE 
 
 PRESENT POLICY, 
 
 DANGER OF FURTHER ATTEMPTS TO ENFORCE THAT 
 
 POLICY. ■ 
 
 BY 
 
 HENRY BURGESS. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY J. RIDGWAY, PICCADILLY, ANO 
 J, M. RICHARDSON, CORNHILL.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 MAKCHANT, PRINTER, INORAM-CorRT.
 
 
 TO 
 
 SIR FRANCIS BURDETT, Bart. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your undertaking to present the following 
 Petition to the House of Commons, at a time 
 when the state of your health and other cir- 
 cumstances rendered it not a very convenient 
 or agreeable duty, is a proof of the interest 
 which you take in the subject of the Cur- 
 rency, to which it relates. 
 
 It is alleged by the Petitioner, on the part of 
 the productive classes, that a measure, in which 
 their welfare is peculiarly and essentially con- 
 cerned, has been adjudicated in the High Court 
 of Parliament, upon partial and ex-parte evi- 
 dence. That, while no evidence was sought or
 
 taken from the productive classes, the evidence, 
 upon which the case was adjudged, was derived 
 chiefly from persons who might have an inte- 
 rest directly opposed to the great body of the 
 people engaged in raising the productions of 
 the country. That this terrible wrong has 
 inflicted an injury upon every industrious man 
 of capital, in the country, more grievous than 
 could be inflicted by a direct Act of Confisca- 
 tion : because, in that case, the hand that 
 directed the Confiscation would be seen, and 
 the character of the suflerer would be saved ; 
 but, in this case, a man has been so insidiously 
 deprived of his stock, that, without having any 
 power to protect his property, he suffers the 
 aggravated injustice of being charged with 
 incapacity or imprudence, for losing it. 
 
 If this most serious allegation be true, con- 
 sistency or fame can offer no inducement 
 which ought to influence an upright man 
 to persevere in a measure of such injus- 
 tice. The responsibility would be too awful,
 
 even for a man of cold and selfish pru- 
 dence to undertake. The time is approaching, 
 when the number of participators in the injus- 
 tice will afford no man security against the 
 public indignation. But, if this consideration 
 of numbers could give a delusive conscious- 
 ness of security, what would impartial history 
 say of the character of a public man who 
 could be so deluded? One would expect, 
 therefore, that every man of sense would 
 promptly set about to ascertain what degree of 
 truth is contained in this allegation of injustice 
 and wrong ; and, if he found it true, that he 
 would quickly exert himself to apply a remedy. 
 
 When I express to you my grateful acknow- 
 ledgements for the exertions which you have 
 made, to protect the rights of the industrious 
 part of the public, in the important affair of the 
 Currency, I cannot refrain from also expressing 
 a hope, that you will, at the next meeting 
 of Parliament, be joined by all other great 
 Landed Proprietors, in one vigorous and
 
 6 
 
 united effort to restore justice to an oppressed 
 People. 
 
 I have the honor to be, 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Your obHged and 
 
 Most obedient servant, 
 
 HENRY BURGESS. 
 
 81, Lombard-street, London, 
 Aug. 5th, 1829.
 
 A PETITION, 
 
 To THE Honourable the Commons of 
 THE United Kingdom of Great Bri- 
 tain AND Ireland in Parliament 
 assembled, 
 
 The Humble Petition of Henry 
 Burgess, of No. 81, Lombard- 
 street, in the City of London, 
 
 Sheweth, 
 
 That your Humble Petitioner is a person 
 who has, for many years, had much personal 
 intercourse with men in the middle classes of 
 life, in most parts of the kingdom. He has been 
 an attentive observer of their condition, and 
 of the condition of the labourers who depend 
 upon them for employment and support : And 
 being anxious, above all things, to know the 
 actual state of the country from personal 
 inquiries, he has, during the last ten months, 
 visited the country towns of England and 
 Scotland, between London and the sea-coast, 
 in different routes, on every side of the Island ; 
 
 A 2
 
 8 
 
 in order that he might rest satisfied that he had 
 obtained the most accurate information. He 
 beheves that he has, in that time, travelled a 
 greater number of miles, and conversed with a 
 greater number of persons in the various gra- 
 dations of life, than any other individual has, 
 during the same period. He has endeavoured 
 to make his observations, free from the bias of 
 pre-established opinions : and the result of his 
 labour is a firm conviction, fixed in his mind, 
 that most men, in every calling of life, in a 
 condition below the wealthiest class, have, for 
 ten years past, been living, not out of their 
 profits, but out of their stock. That industry 
 and skill, with ordinary prudence, have met 
 with no reward. That moral principle is 
 rapidly breaking down : — men, who were for- 
 merly respectable, cannot bear up against their 
 difhculties ; and they resort to deception and 
 mean artifices, in order to snatch a little tem- 
 porary relief from the severe pressure which 
 has been imposed upon them. He is convinced 
 that ruin is spreading rapidly throughout the 
 Land : And the cause which has occasioned 
 this ruin being at the present time in un- 
 diminished operation, its effects are increasing 
 so much, that, if Parliament delay the applica-
 
 tion of a remedy until another Session, there 
 will be great hazard of the present constitution 
 of society, in relation to debts, contracts, and 
 obligations, being broken down and destroyed : 
 and that the sequel must be, increased misery 
 and crime amongst the poor, — a debasement ol 
 the moral character of men in active life, w ho 
 are in a condition just above the labourers; — 
 domestic turbulence, and national dishonour. 
 
 That your Humble Petitioner believes the 
 great cause of the evil which now threatens to 
 impoverish, and permanently to degrade, the 
 industrious men of capital in the middle classes, 
 and the labourers in their employment, to be a 
 misapprehension in those who are possessed of 
 political power, respecting the state of the cur- 
 rency in this country; and the prodigious in- 
 justice which they have unconsciously commit- 
 ted, in attempting to apply a remedy for alleg- 
 ed abuses in the circulating medium. But, as the 
 currency of this country had been, at various 
 periods before the present era, deranged, de- 
 graded, and depreciated ; and measures for its 
 restoration had been successfully executed, 
 without producing such a remarkable convul- 
 sion in society as is now contemplated by your 
 Humble Petitioner; it maybe requisite, in sup-
 
 10 
 
 port of the Prayer of your Humble Petitioner, 
 to glance, in the briefest manner, at one or two 
 of those periods, in order that the distinguish- 
 ing circumstances of the present time may be 
 more clearly seen, and justly appreciated. 
 
 That, in the last ten years of the seventeenth 
 century, the fluctuations in the currency some- 
 what resembled the fluctuations in the currency, 
 during the first twenty years of the nineteenth 
 century; with a difference in magnitude and 
 degree, corresponding to the increased traffic 
 and -commerce of the country in the latter pe- 
 riod. Between I69O and 1695, the guinea 
 passed current at thirty shillings : but, during 
 the first three months of the year I696, it was 
 gradually reduced, by law and public procla- 
 mation, from thirty shillings to twenty-two 
 shillings. Owing to clipped and debased coin 
 being the general currency, the Bank of Eng- 
 land notes circulated, in the year 1695, at a 
 premium of ten per cent, above the current 
 coin : while before the close of the year I696, 
 clipped and debased coin being no longer cur- 
 rent in the same manner, the Bank of England 
 notes circulated at a discount of twenty per cent. 
 In the first of these two years, when the currency 
 was in the most depreciated state, a tod of wool
 
 11 
 
 was worth thirty-six shillings: In the last of 
 these two years, after the currency had been 
 greatly raised in value, a tod of the same wool 
 was reduced to twenty shillings : and there was, 
 at the same time, a corresponding reduction in 
 the prices of other commodities.* This effect 
 took place, when the Bank of England notes in 
 circulation did not amount to a million ster- 
 ling; when there was hardly any paper, issued 
 by Private Bankers or traders, circulating in 
 England : and at a time, when silver was a legal 
 tender to any amount. Between this period 
 and the commencement of the reign of George 
 the Third the coin and currency of the country 
 having been, at times, greatly depreciated by 
 various means and artifices, some measures to 
 raise their value were contemplated by the 
 Government, soon after that monarch ascended 
 the throne. These, however, were not carried 
 into execution until the period from 1770 to 
 1780; — a period, the commencement of which 
 was remarkable for speculation, and the great 
 increase of mercantile credit and bills-of-ex- 
 change. Light and depreciated money was 
 
 * See Appendix, No. 1.
 
 12 
 
 current during the first three quarters of the 
 eighteenth century ; and silver, by tale, was a 
 legal tender to any amount. In 1773 mea- 
 sures for the reformation of the gold coinage 
 were commenced, and were carried into execu- 
 tion during that and the succeeding years. An 
 Act was passed in the year 1774, To prevent base 
 silver being imported and made current in Eng- 
 land, and to prevent any person being obliged 
 to receive more than twenty-five pounds in sil- 
 ver money, by tale, — an act which still left sil- 
 ver a legal tender, by weight, to any amount. 
 It was, at that time, legal to issue small pro- 
 missory notes : and many of these did circulate 
 in different parts of England. In the year 
 1775, an Act was passed, " To restrain the Ne- 
 gotiation of Promissory Notes and Inland Bills 
 of Exchange for any Sum less than Twenty Shil- 
 lings.'^ And in the year 1777? another Act was 
 passed, " Further to restrain the Negotiation of 
 Promissory Notes and Inland Bills of Exchange 
 for any Sum less than Five Pounds."' — These 
 measures produced extreme distress, amongst all 
 traders, farmers, manufacturers, and merchants. 
 Between the year 1728 and the year 1772, the 
 greatest number of bankruptcies, in any one 
 year, was 301. In 1772, they amounted to
 
 the unprecedented number of 525: and the 
 number increased till 1778, when there were 
 692 ; which was the highest number of bank- 
 ruptcies in any one year, after 1728, until the 
 year 1793. During this period Lincoln Wool — 
 which, because its peculiar properties render it 
 less affected by foreign importations than any 
 other production of the land, and because there 
 is less variation in the quantity produced and 
 consumed of it in every year, or in a series 
 of years, than in any other principle article of 
 domestic produce, is the best commodity that 
 could be selected to show the state of the cur- 
 rency — was sold for less than nine shillings per 
 tod, or four-pence per pound ; this being less 
 than half of the price the same wool had been 
 sold at, a short time previous to the measures 
 for reforming the currency being commen- 
 ced. The farmers of Lincolnshire held three 
 and four years stock, there being no adequate 
 demand at that low price. After the mea- 
 sures for reforming the currency had been 
 carried into effect, the circulating medium be- 
 gan to be again depreciated, and the price of 
 Lincoln Wool rose until the commercial crisis of 
 1793, when the price was twenty-eight shillings 
 per tod, or twelve-pence per pound. That cri-
 
 14 
 
 sis reduced it to eighteen shillings per tod ; which 
 is a lower price than that kind of wool has ever 
 been sold at, since the year 1793. After the 
 Bank Restriction Act, when our currency had 
 become depreciated in a degree far beyond all 
 precedent, the price of Lincoln Wool ranged 
 between thirty and forty shillings per tod ; or 
 about four times the sum obtained for it, during 
 the American War. But in the year 1814, it 
 sold at fifty-six shillings per tod, or two shillings 
 per pound : in 1818, at forty-six shilling per tod : 
 in 1825, at forty- two shillings per tod. It is now 
 reduced, again, to twenty-one shillings per tod, 
 or nine-pence per pound : and the reduction to 
 that comparatively low price has taken place 
 during two years of increased consumption of 
 that particular commodity.* 
 
 * No mau, aiming only at truth, would refer to the fluc- 
 tuations in the prices of any particular commodity, merely 
 because those fluctuations tended to confirm the position 
 which he was trying to establish : and no considerate man 
 would select a commodity, in preference to all others, for 
 the purpose of illustration, without mature deliberation. 
 The great desideratum in these discussions is, to find a 
 commodity which undergoes no great change in the quan- 
 tity of it annually produced and consumed. And if such 
 a commodity can be found, produced on the British Islands,
 
 15 
 
 All, who remember the state of the coun- 
 try in the time of the American War, speak of 
 
 and no where else ; and if it be wrought up wholly in this 
 kingdom; that commodity will, in a very peculiar and 
 admirable manner, serve to illustrate the effect of an 
 increase or diminution of the currency of this country, 
 upon prices. 
 
 It has always appeared to the writer of this petition, 
 that the commodities, usually taken for this purpose, 
 are altogether inadequate and unsatisfactory; and a 
 reliance upon them is likely, at times, to lead to the most 
 fallacious conclusions. For example; if there be no 
 great change, from year to year, in the consumption 
 of Wheat, the amount of Wheat produced may be greatly 
 affected by extended and improved tillage, or by the 
 seasons. Respecting those commodities that form the 
 basis of our principal manufactures, the prices of 
 the productions of the Mines (being uninfluenced by 
 seasons) would, on the whole, serve as a better cri- 
 terion of the state of the currency, than the prices of most 
 of those productions which are wrought up into fabrics of 
 the Loom : but these mineral productions are liable to be 
 greatly affected by the application or withdrawal of capital 
 in machinery, and by foreign competition. Greater ob- 
 jections, however, exist, against taking the prices of almost 
 all those raw materials that are imported from foreign coun- 
 tries, from which the manufactures of the Loom are pro- 
 duced, as being indicative, by themselves, of the state of 
 the currency. If the quantity of Cotton-wool annually 
 consumed were to remain the same, for a succession of 
 years, the quantity annually produced undergoes such
 
 16 
 
 that as being the most remarkable period of diffi- 
 culty and depression, that was experienced in 
 
 extraordinary fluctuations, that that circumstance, alone, 
 might, within a few years, render the price, either so high 
 as twenty pence, or so low as twenty farthings, per 
 pound. Flax and Hemp are liable to somewhat similar 
 objections, from fluctuations in their produce. Silk, io 
 regard to the circumstance of the uniformity of the quan- 
 tity annually, or in a given number of years, produced, 
 is, perhaps, less objectionable than any of the foregoing : 
 but the goods made from it are articles of pure luxury ; 
 and that circumstance renders Silk, of itself, unfit for the 
 purpose. — Any of the before-mentioned commodities are, 
 taken alone, bad for our purpose : but, of all the raw 
 materials wrought up into the productions of the Loom, 
 Sheep's Wool is the best, because its production is 
 less under the influence of the seasons than that of any 
 of the other, and a considerable series of years must 
 elapse before any signal change takes place in the quan- 
 tity of it annually produced. That kind of Sheep's Wool 
 which is used in the Cloth-manufacture, being partly foreign 
 and partly domestic produce, and subject to the effect of 
 foreign competition, is, nevertheless, in some measure, 
 liable to objections similar to those above stated. 
 
 There can be no doubt, that a candid, analytical, and 
 comprehensive examination of the prices of all commodi- 
 ties, taken on the whole, and of all the circumstances 
 which influence those prices, would lead any impartial 
 inquirer to just conclusions respecting the slate of the 
 currency : but, for the want of some one commodity to 
 refer to, as an almost infallible criterion, men, like Mr.
 
 17 
 
 England, during the eighteenth century. The 
 unexampled stagnation in trade and commerce 
 
 Tooke, of ingenious minds, who employ themselves in phi- 
 sophical discussions, with the tact, dexterity, and spirit, 
 of the special pleader, endeavour to mislead the judgments 
 of their willing auditors, by selecting and working up 
 partial evidence, to support their case. The mischief 
 produced by this practice, in the measures of the Legisla- 
 ture, is indescribable. How common it is, at this moment, 
 to hear men assert, that the changes in the currency can 
 have no such effect as is ascribed to them, because the 
 prices of Butcher's-meat are high : whereas, men who 
 are well acquainted with the country, know, that, owing 
 to the inconsiderate measures respecting the Bankers, 
 and other obvious causes, the requisite capital has been 
 withdrawn from the graziers, and the supply of animal 
 food has, consequently, been much diminished. 
 
 There is no other article of domestic produce so fit as 
 Sheep's Wool, even if we take all kinds of that commodity 
 in the aggregate, to refer to, for the purpose of ascertain- 
 ing the state of the cui'rency. It appears, from the valu- 
 able information on the subject of Wool, which was col- 
 lected by the House of Lords, and which is transferred 
 into Mr. Marshall's admirable Statistical Tables, — " that 
 the annual growth of Wool in the United Kingdom ex- 
 ceeds 160,000,000 of pounds. This quantity of Wool on 
 an average of the twenty years ending with 1818, averaged 
 about twenty-one pence per pound, yielding an aggregate 
 Money-produce o^ fourteen millions of pounds sterling per 
 annum ; but which, on an average of the last three years, 
 has not produced more than nine-pence per pound, or a
 
 18 
 
 was attributed to the war. It was not the war 
 that caused it ; but it was screwing up a relax- 
 
 total aanuai amount of only six millions of pounds sterling, 
 being a reduction of fifty -seve7i per cent" 
 
 Sheep's Wool is, for the reasons before stated, well 
 adapted to show the value of the circulating medium : 
 and we see, from the above quotation, that the average 
 price, during the last three years, taking all kinds to- 
 gether, has been fifty-seven per cent, lower than the 
 average price of the same commodity, daring the eighteen 
 years, of varying depreciation in the currency, ending 
 with 1818. But one particular kind of Wool has been 
 taken in the petition, because, although the reduction in 
 the price of that particular kind, during the last three 
 years, has been less than fifty-seven per cent., yet the Long- 
 stapled Combing-vvool, which is produced in the pasturage 
 districts of the British Islands, appears to be singularly free 
 from almost all the foregoing objections. And the price of 
 this Wool, for fifty or sixty years past, affords us an 
 indication, which, if it be not absolutely correct at all 
 times, is the most unerring guide which could be taken, 
 singly, to shew the state of the currency. 
 
 This Wool is produced in large quantities, in the British 
 Islands ; and it may be said, that, until the reign of his 
 present Majesty, it was never produced in any other part 
 of the world. A small quantity, of a very inferior quality, 
 has, indeed, been produced in Holland ; but the whole 
 world never yielded so much as to be equal to one-fourth 
 part of the quantity annually produced in an English 
 County. In some of those years when our currency was 
 greatly depreciated, and the price of Combing-wool was
 
 19 
 
 ed standard of value : and this process being in 
 operation at the commencement of a war, and 
 
 very high, small shipments of this inferior Combing-wool 
 were brought from Holland ; but, in no year, has there 
 been a quantity imported, and used in substitution of that 
 of our own growth, equal to one-thousandth part of the 
 quantity annually produced in the British Islands. 
 
 In regard to the quantity produced, therefore, this 
 commodity is almost wholly uninfluenced by foreign im- 
 portation, or foreign competition: and it is less liable to 
 great changes, in all the circumstances of quantity and 
 quality, than almost all other productions. Then, in 
 regard to the consumption of it: — The manufactures pro- 
 duced from it, being worn by men and women in all con- 
 ditions of life, at home and abroad ; being used for fur- 
 niture, in carpets, moreen-curtains, &c. ; the price of Long- 
 combing-wool is, on the whole, less, than that of all other 
 commodities, subject to great changes, arising from the 
 consumption being suddenly increased or diminished by 
 fashion or caprice. 
 
 Long-stapled Combing-wool must be regarded as one of 
 the principal raw materials used in manufacture, because it 
 may be said that a population exceeding three hundred 
 thousand souls, living in the towns, and in the vicinity of the 
 towns, of Bradford, Keighley, Halifax, in Yorkshire; 
 Leicester, and Norwich ; is principally, almost wholly, 
 dependent on a regular supply of it : While the same 
 material forms either the warp or the weft of most 
 of the productions of the Loom, made at Kiddermin- 
 ster, — in the populous district of Rossendale, — at Kendal, 
 Kilmarnock, Dublin; and, partially, at Huddersfield,
 
 20 
 
 during its early stages, so greatly aftected the 
 resources of the State, and the financial power 
 
 Leeds, Aberdeen, Paisley, and many other parts of the 
 kingdom. It may safely be said, that nearly a million of 
 people depend, in great measure, upon the supply of 
 Long-combing-wool^ for the support of their industry. 
 
 All the knowledge appertaining to this production, as 
 well as to the manufactures depending on it, being of a 
 technical character, its peculiar fitness for the purpose 
 for which it is used in the petition, is not generally known 
 to economical writers. Its remarkable adaptation for this 
 purpose, however, appears evident: — And Lincoln Wool 
 was selected, because Lincoln Wool, from its quantity and 
 quality, is the general regulator of the prices of all other 
 kinds or qualities of Long-stapled Combing-wool, ?iS Bowed- 
 Georgia Cotton is the article which is the regulator of the 
 prices of all other kinds or qualities of Cotton-wool. 
 
 Although, for the reasons assigned in this note, Lincoln 
 Wool is the best commodity, taken singly, which could 
 be selected to shew the variation in the value of the 
 currency, during the last fifty or sixty years; it does not 
 follow, that it will remain so for fifty years to come. 
 Some time ago, Mr. Joseph Burgess, of Grooby Lodge, 
 near Leicester, brother to the petitioner, sold, to a 
 broker in London, one hundred breeding long-wooUed 
 sheep, selected on account of the properties of their wool. 
 After he had procured an English shepherd to attend the 
 flock, and the sheep had been delivered, he was surprised 
 to learn that his customer was the King of the Netherlands : 
 Under whose royal eye, the shepherd is spreading important 
 knowledge of our rural affairs, and the sheep are pros-
 
 m 
 
 of the country, that the Minister was constrained 
 to raise money by making the most improvident 
 
 pering' and fructifying. Tiie paslure-lands of Holland 
 are nearly as well adapted to the production of Long- 
 stapled-wGol as the marsh-lands of Lincoln, provided a 
 corresponding attention be given to its culture to that 
 which exists in England : Much depends upon the 
 culture of the wool. The design of this patriotic king, 
 of extending the cultivation of this commodity, may be 
 good, or it may be bad, for England : (The petitioner is, 
 for special reasons, inclined to think it will be good.) 
 But, when we reflect, that, sixty years ago, not a pound 
 of Fine-wool was brought from Germany into this country; 
 that, now, twenty millions of pounds of German-wool 
 are, on the average, imported, every year, into England ; — 
 that this extraordinary result is owing, entirely, to the 
 circumstance of a public-spirited Saxon importing, about 
 fifty years since, a few Fine-wooUed sheep from Spain, 
 to breed from; — the purchase of a hundred of our Long- 
 woolled sheep, by the King of the Netherlands, for a 
 similar object, cannot be regarded as an unimportant 
 incident : — The importation of Fine-wool has, on account 
 of the co-existence of our monstrous Currency-laws, abso- 
 lutely ruined our South-Dowu-flock-farmers. 
 
 It is alleged, by well-informed persons, that the Go- 
 vernments of the Continent are paying more attention to 
 matters of this nature, and to the changes in the practical 
 affairs of the people over whom they rule, than the 
 Government of England. The petitioner has, however, 
 no means of verifying this, by a comprehensive investiga- 
 tion. It is obvious that our public men are never 
 
 B
 
 32 
 
 and extravagant bargains ; — bargains, which 
 laid the foundation of the fortunes of many of 
 those who are now the wealthiest men in the 
 community. It deprived the Executive Govern- 
 ment of its requisite energy. It hmited the 
 scale of military operations; — caused the war 
 to be prosecuted with inadequate means: and 
 it, ultimately, compelled the Minister to bring it 
 to a dishonorable termination. This great cause, 
 the raising of a depreciated standard, which is 
 so imperfectly understood, — so comprehensive 
 in its range, and so portentous in its effects,— 
 led to many other important results. It per- 
 fectly accounts for the almost treasonable su- 
 pineness of the Minister of that day, in looking 
 on events with indifference, which have led to 
 consequences, that have already filled Europe 
 
 suflGcienlly aware of the changes going on in our 
 internal concerns, until those changes have been many 
 years in progress, — when, perhaps, their great importance 
 may have rendered them fit subjects for some favoured 
 lecturer to bring under the notice of our legislators. If 
 less time were devoted to those exhibitions of intellectual 
 gladiatorship, in which we all take so deep and dangerous 
 an interest ; and more time, to considering the effects of 
 such changes as are, in this age of the world, constantly 
 taking place in active and enterprising communities ; we 
 might be both wiser and happier.
 
 23 
 
 with apprehension, — perplexed and embarras- 
 sed the Government of England ; and which have 
 greatly endangered the finest possessions of the 
 British Crown. The partition of Poland took 
 place in the year 1772 or 1773: and the Rus- 
 sian Czarina extended her power over Turkey 
 and Persia, in the period we are contemplating. 
 Before taking into consideration the next 
 most remarkable depreciation of the cur- 
 rency, and its consequences, it will be requisite 
 to advert to two important circumstances, in 
 which the period subsequent to the year 1800 
 differs from the two former periods referred to : 
 — The first is, that since the last reformation of 
 the currency, which took place between the 
 years 1772 and 1778, the National Debt has 
 been more than quadrupled : And the second is, 
 that the Private Banking system, with the prac- 
 tice of circulating the credit of individual Ban- 
 kers and traders as currency, has grown into 
 general use, and become extended. In the 
 year 1773, there was no bank at those populous 
 seats of our staple manufactures, Leeds and 
 Sheffield ; and but one or two Country Banks, in 
 that immense district of England lying between 
 Hull and Bristol. Many scores of banks were 
 established, and in extensive business, in the 
 
 B 2
 
 24 
 
 same district, previous to the year 1810. These 
 circumstances present considerations of the 
 utmost import, to be attended to, in enacting 
 laws, or enforcing measures, intended to re- 
 gulate the currency. 
 
 In regard to the ^rs^ of these circumstances, 
 — it having been shown that the attempt to re- 
 store the standard deprived men of one-half of 
 the value of their stock, when the currency was 
 infinitely less depreciated than it has been in 
 our time, it is manifest that the Government, 
 being now the great overwhelming creditor of 
 the public, cannot continue to exact the same 
 amount of taxes from its debtors, after it has 
 enforced laws which deprive those debtors of 
 more than one-half of the value of their stock 
 in trade. Hence, if the Standard be raised to 
 double its value, the Taxes must be reduced to 
 one-half their amount. 
 
 And in regard to the second, the Private Bank 
 system : 
 
 The Country Bank system appears to be 
 so little understood, — it has been exposed to 
 such gross misrepresentation ; and it is, at the 
 same time, of such great and surpassing im- 
 portance in considering this Question; that it 
 cannot be passed with a single remark. Up
 
 ^ 
 
 to the reign of George III., the practice of re- 
 ceiving money from the affluent, on use, or for 
 safety, and lending it, on security, to the indus- 
 trious or necessitous, was performed — in cities, 
 chiefly by goldsmiths, — in the country, chiefly 
 by scriveners and wealthy traders. Out of the 
 scriveners and wealthy traders, arose a class of 
 men, called Country Bankers. These brought 
 the practice of borrowing and lending (which 
 had, before, been conducted privately, as mo- 
 ney borrowed and lent on mortgage, or between 
 friends, is now) — to a regulated system, rest- 
 ing upon known public rules. Their business 
 depending wholly upon confidence, — confidence 
 in their integrity, judgment, and prudence, on 
 the part of the lenders; and confidence in the 
 unvarying nature of their power and inclination 
 to conduct their business by known and un- 
 changing regulations, on the part of the bor- 
 rowers; — these Bankers became, by virtue of 
 their functions, the most important class of men, 
 who live by traffic, in the community. Al- 
 though the importance of their functions be not 
 obvious to the vulgar apprehension, yet Coun- 
 try Banks, being the channels through which 
 passes, without interruption and restraint, the 
 surplus money of the rich and inert, to the ac-
 
 26 
 
 live and productive classes, are as necessary to 
 the welfare of society in its present state, as 
 the conduits, which convey water to a million of 
 people in a great city, are to the health of the 
 inhabitants. In both cases, to destroy part, 
 and injure the whole, must be attended with 
 malignant consequences. 
 
 It would be vain to attempt, to describe the 
 consequences that have flowed from the ex- 
 tension of the Banking-system, or to convey an 
 adequate idea of the importance of Bankers to 
 the internal economy of the country. — If an 
 intelligent foreigner were conducted through 
 the country-parts of Great Britain, the fences 
 and the hedge-rows would show him a more 
 curious and perfect division and appropriation of 
 the land, for the uses of agriculture, than could 
 be found in any other country. He would see, 
 that, owing to that peculiar division of the land, 
 the practice of farming was most skilful ; that 
 the objects cultivated were in greater variety, 
 and more prizable in quality, than could be 
 found, upon similar land, in any other country in 
 the world. He would perceive, how the economy 
 of raising the corn, with the economy of rear- 
 ing and feeding the cattle by means of newly- 
 introduced green crops for winter sustenance,
 
 27 
 
 combined, in the most admirable manner, for 
 the great end, of increasing the produce, and 
 multiplying productions. On investigating the 
 cause of this, he would find that it was main- 
 ly owing to the existence of a class of men, 
 which can be found, possessed of the same 
 functions and influence, in no other State in the 
 world : — men, on whose credit and integrity the 
 rich have as much reliance as they have on the 
 most formal titles; and who are, therefore, the 
 established receivers of the surplus capital of 
 the country. From their reservoirs, called 
 Banks, the Country Bankers deal out capital to 
 the public, according to its wants ; applying it 
 in the most prompt and easy manner, on their 
 own responsibility, to the uses of industry, free 
 from encumbering legal technicalities, or usuri- 
 ous charges. The public having the power to 
 take in, or to take out, daily or weekly, small 
 sums of money bearing interest, that waste, 
 which attends the borrowing or lending of mo- 
 ney upon any other system, is prevented. By the 
 confidence established in the mind of the man 
 of capital, that his money in the hands of the 
 Banker was secure, — that it would be lent judi- 
 ciously, and would be returned to him on the 
 shortest notice; all tedious and expensive forms
 
 28 
 
 were superseded : and the Country Banker be- 
 came an inestimable agent for inspiring " trust 
 and belief;'' wbicli, Lord Bacon says, are " the 
 most principal instruments of action/' This 
 " trust and belief" cemented together the inter- 
 ests, of the men of floating property, of the owners 
 of the soil, of the cultivators, of the merchants, 
 and of the artificers. The end of his professional 
 occupation, is to inspire " trust and belief/' 
 His skill leads him to select the meritorious man 
 of industry, whom he supplies with capital. No 
 other man could do this, because the Banker's 
 office is the sole market, where capital in money is 
 bought and sold, — the only centre of money-ex- 
 change. It is in this way, that capital, appli- 
 ed in the most prompt and efficacious manner, 
 has enabled the cultivator to increase the pro- 
 duce of the soil, and augment the revenue of 
 the landlord. To adopt measures for " extin- 
 guishing" this class of men, because of the 
 errors of some of its members, would be a po- 
 licy like that of destroying the whole body of 
 surgeons, because some of them had maimed 
 their patients instead of curing them. 
 
 Your Humble Petitioner has alluded to the 
 division of the land by hedge-rows, because 
 these form the most obvious and striking cha-
 
 29 
 
 racteristics of the whole surface of the country! 
 In these, and the stock within them, the wealth 
 employed in agriculture may be seen. And this 
 is an effect, which, in a great measure, result- 
 ed from the establishment of Country Banks. 
 There were but few Country Banks in England, 
 before the reign of George III. The number 
 of acres enclosed by virtue of acts of Parlia- 
 ment, during the first sixty years of the eigh- 
 teenth century, was less than 350,000. Dur- 
 ing the reign of Geo. III., the number of acres 
 enclosed was more than 6,600,000. And, owing 
 to the same cause, viz. the application of capi- 
 tal by the agency of Country Bankers, the gross 
 produce, of the whole surface of the old culti- 
 vated parts of the Island, was, in the increased 
 numbers and improved quality of the live stock, 
 and in crops, nearly doubled in the reign of his 
 late Majesty. 
 
 Your Humble Petitioner has dwelt longer 
 on the character and importance of the Country 
 Bankers, because the ignorance or misconcep- 
 tion that has existed respecting them, in the 
 minds of men possessed of great political pow- 
 er and influence, is the most prolifii; source of 
 the evils of which he complains; because mis- 
 conception is still leading men to false conclu-
 
 30 
 
 sions respecting them ; and because he thought 
 some general description of their functions in- 
 dispensably necessary to his case, before he al- 
 luded to the next most remarkable period of 
 depreciation of the currency, which took place 
 between the years 1790 and 1810. 
 
 That surprising inventions in the arts, and 
 extraordinary discoveries in the sciences, con- 
 nected with the pursuits of industry in all de- 
 partments of production, were made known, 
 developed, and applied, rapidly, after the form- 
 er period referred to, viz. subsequent to the 
 year 177<5. These generated enterprise in un- 
 dertakings; and the energies of industry were 
 simultaneously fostered and stimulated, by the 
 prompt and easy application of capital by means 
 of the Country Banking system, and by the 
 credit of Bankers and traders being made to 
 pass freely, as currency, in all parts of the 
 kingdom. These causes tended to depreciate 
 the currency: but the extraordinary drain for 
 cash, at the Bank of England, during the year 
 1783; and the great failures which took place 
 about the year 1787, owing to the abortive spe- 
 culations which grew out of the commercial trea- 
 ty with France; checked the rapid progress of 
 the depreciation of the paper-currency of Eng-
 
 land. These, together with the signal shock 
 which all paper-credit received, from the de- 
 struction of the paper-currency of France, and 
 the great and remarkable failures which took 
 place amongst the Private Bankers of England, 
 in the year 1793, are the circumstances which 
 prevented the depreciation of the currency from 
 being made perfectly manifest, in the inability 
 of the Bank of England to continue its payments 
 in cash. The Bank continued its operations, at 
 intervals under much restriction and difficulty, 
 throughout the years 1795 and 1796. And, if 
 there had been no war, that Establishment could 
 not have continued to pay in cash, in gold at the 
 existing standard, beyond the year 1797 or 1798, 
 without producing another commercial con- 
 vulsion similar to that which occurred in 1793. 
 The greatly-extended traffic — the rapidly-in- 
 creasing wealth — the multiplied dealings, in 
 quickened succession, — which created a neces- 
 sary increase in the paper-currency ; — these are 
 the circumstances which caused Cash-payments 
 to be Suspended at the Bank of England in 1797? 
 nature having forbidden that there should be a 
 corresponding increase in the quantity of gold. 
 It is in evidence, that there was less gold in the 
 Bank, in October, 1783, than in the week im-
 
 32 
 
 mediately preceding the Restriction upon Pay- 
 ments at the Bank, in February, 1797- The 
 shock to general credit, which the stoppage at 
 the Bank of England at first occasioned, and 
 the consequent decrease in credit-currency, en- 
 abled the Directors, before the close of the year 
 in which they suspended payments in cash, to 
 announce to the Minister their ability and will- 
 ingness to resume their payments. The de- 
 mands of the Government upon the Bank, for 
 war purposes, did accelerate the catastrophe a 
 little ; but that was one of the minor and secon- 
 dary causes of the Suspension of Cash-payments 
 at the Bank of England. By the potent mea- 
 sure of Suspending Cash-payments at the 
 Bank, and giving, after the effect of the 
 first shock had subsided, to credit unrestrained 
 bounds, a commercial convulsion, which must 
 have occurred previous to the year 1800, was put 
 off: and this convulsion, consequently, did not 
 occur until the year 1810 ; which was the year 
 of a crisis, more extensive and disastrous in com- 
 mercial ruin, than any recorded in the history 
 of this country. 
 
 That your Humble Petitioner has endeavour- 
 ed to point to some of the causes of deprecia- 
 tion in the circulating medium, in order that
 
 33 
 
 the judgment may be led to a just appreciation 
 of its magnitude. When attempts to restore 
 the currency were made at the two former pe- 
 riods referred to, silvei^ was the actual standard, 
 and the amount of paper-money was unimpor- 
 tant : — If, under these favourable circumstances, 
 the measure caused such depression in the va- 
 lue of property, and such injurious effects in the 
 affairs of the Government, how extensive must 
 be the ruin, how aggravated the misery, and 
 how disastrous the political consequences to the 
 State, which an attempt to rectify it by a gold 
 standard must bring, after twenty years of un- 
 precedented stimulation ! — a period, during 
 which the amount of circulating medium, issu- 
 ed by new and enterprising classes of Bankers, 
 merchants, and traders, in all parts of the king- 
 dom, had no other limit than the will of the is- 
 suers. If, on the last occasion referred to, of 
 restoring a depreciated currency, when there 
 were hardly any Country Banks, and but little 
 paper-money; and when silver was the actual 
 standard; the attempt brought prices down ru- 
 inously low, and kept the energies of the coun- 
 try prostrate for eight or ten years; what rea- 
 sonable expectation of success can attend a si- 
 milar attempt to restore the currency, when the
 
 34 
 
 degree of the excess of paper-money shall have 
 been made evident, and the consequent depre- 
 ciation illustrated ?— 
 
 The period from the year 1808 to 1814, is 
 taken to exemplify the state of the currency 
 when it was most depreciated. In the year 1810, 
 it was given in evidence, to a Committee of your 
 Honourable House, by a gentleman who had had 
 more practical experience, and possessed more 
 knowledge of the working of the currency which 
 prevailed at that period, than any other man 
 in the country, — that the bills-of-exchange, and 
 checks, paid daily at the " Clearing' in Lom- 
 bard-street, amounted, on the average, to five 
 millions of pounds sterling. All bills and checks 
 received and paid, by the Bank of England, 
 — by those Private Bankers who do not send to 
 the Clearing-house, for their receipts and pay- 
 ments, — by all traders who transact their own 
 money-affairs, without the agency of a Bank- 
 er ; and all local bills and checks, paid by Bank- 
 ers and traders in the country ; are not included 
 in this estimate of five millions. What portion 
 of the Clearing-house receipts and payments 
 might be in London checks, is not shown : but, 
 setting that portion against the total amount of 
 the receipts and payments, in bills, of all the
 
 35 
 
 above excepted parties who have no concern 
 with the Clearing-house, it cannot be unfair, in 
 its bearing on the case, to take five niilhons as 
 the sum paid daily, in England, in bills-of-ex- 
 change. These bills were drawn at various 
 dates : — By Country Bankers, generally at two 
 months : — by merchants and traders, at two, 
 three, four, six, eight, or ten months ; according 
 to agreement, or the practice which prevailed in 
 the respective trades. The acknowledged par of 
 the currency, in Lancashire, — where as great an 
 amount of bills was drawn, as in half the king- 
 dom besides, — was a bill at three months' date, 
 drawn either by Bankers, or by merchants and 
 traders. Taking the average length of the date 
 of bills at 80 days, and multiplying 80 by 
 5,000,000, — the amount of bills assumed, as 
 above, to be paid daily, — it would leave a total 
 amount of four hundred millions of currency, 
 in bills-of-exchange. That this is much below 
 the actual sum, there can be no reasonable 
 doubt. And, without going into further details, 
 this statement might be left as a sufficiently 
 near approximation to the truth. It is borne out 
 by the actual knowledge which your Humble 
 Petitioner has obtained, personally. He could 
 name two merchants, who, together, kept up,
 
 36 
 
 for years, an amount of bills, circulating with 
 their names, exceeding three millions. He 
 could name many Bankers, who have, several- 
 ly, at times, had in their bill-drawers, three, 
 four, and five, millions of this kind of curren- 
 cy. And he could name a provincial town, 
 in which the debts of a number of persons, 
 fewer than twenty, amounted, when they 
 failed within the six years referred to, to 
 upwards of eight millions sterling: this im- 
 mense sum being all, or nearly all, in the cur- 
 rency of bills-of-exchange. Bills of this kind 
 formed almost the sole currency in representing 
 the transfer of commodities from hand to hand, 
 in the gross, in all the commercial, manufac- 
 turing, and densely peopled districts in this 
 kingdom. While this was the state of the 
 matter in regard to bills, the currencies of the 
 Bank of England, and Country Bankers' notes, 
 which do not now amount to thirty-five mil- 
 lions, were, together, at that period, about 
 sixty millions. Nor was it, alone, in the paper 
 of the larger denominations, that this state of 
 excess was manifested. Such was the scarcity 
 of gold and silver, that opulent Bankers were 
 obliged, for a time, to issue notes for the frac- 
 tional parts of a pound sterling. This was the
 
 37 
 
 state of things, when it was seriously proposed 
 to restore cash-payments at the exclusive high 
 gold standard ! They, who could be induced 
 to recommend a return to the old gold standard 
 of value, and could be induced to propose the 
 legal tender to be enforced in that scarce metal, 
 by any evidence afforded them in the market 
 price of gold, could know nothing of the causes 
 which govern prices in public markets. By the 
 Bank Restriction, the supply of gold was virtu- 
 ally increased ; nearly all that had been used for 
 currency, in this kingdom, being thrown upon the 
 market : By the Bank Restriction, — gold being 
 no longer wanted at the King's Mint, at the 
 Bank of England, or by the British public,— 
 five out of six parts of all the customers for gold 
 were annihilated. In these circumstances — 
 the supply prodigiously increased, the demand 
 nearly destroyed, — the market so stagnant that 
 years pass away, without the price of gold being 
 marked in the " prices current ;" — that any le- 
 gislator should be found to refer to the price of 
 gold, as any criterion, whatever, of the degree 
 of the depreciation of the currency, will appear 
 to posterity most wonderful and unaccountable. 
 The least thought bestowed upon the man- 
 ner in which currency is created and made 
 
 c
 
 38 
 
 to circulate, would show the impossibility of 
 ascertaining its extent or magnitude, and, con- 
 sequently, of determining the degree of its de- 
 preciation. In this kingdom, there are four 
 parties who issue currency : Viz. The King, 
 whose power, so long as it is confined to coin, 
 is circumscribed by the scarcity of the metals : 
 The Bank of England, whose notes have been 
 confined to the metropolis, and to the Private 
 Bankers : The Country Banker, whose influence 
 is limited to a particular circle, and the amount 
 of whose notes is regulated upon system, ac- 
 cording to the state of the country : And the 
 Public, who issue far more than all the others 
 put together, and who have no rule, whatever, 
 to guide them, but their own convenience. The 
 whole currency of the country may be the 
 highest in amount, at a point of time when the 
 Bank of England notes are not the highest : 
 The Bank of England notes may be the highest 
 in amount, when the entire currency of the 
 country has been reduced one-fourth part ; as 
 was the case at the close of the year 1825. In 
 the year 1810 there was a sudden augmenta- 
 tion of the notes of the Bank of England to the 
 amount of four millions, when the whole cur- 
 rency of the kingdom had been reduced, proba-
 
 39 
 
 bly, a hundred millions. In these circumstances, 
 what can prevent occasional excess? What 
 can prevent the constant recurrence of depre- 
 ciation, through the medium which the public 
 exercises without limit or control ? Every body 
 did think, but nobody now thinks, that the 
 legal tender being in the precious metals — that 
 would be a bar against excess. Now, it is 
 hoped that the Suppression of Small-notes will 
 produce that result. This will be proved to be 
 another fallacy. The utmost effect that has 
 yet been accomplished by the regulation, was the 
 causing of a worse kind of paper-currency to 
 be substituted for a better ; and while the in- 
 jurious change was going on, to cause, also, a 
 great diminution in the whole amount of paper- 
 currency circulating. 
 
 If small-notes be suppressed in districts 
 where small-notes are essential to the conveni- 
 ence of the public, gold will not supply their 
 functions ; but checks on Bankers, on provision- 
 shops, or tallies of some kind, will be used in 
 their stead. Thus the poor will be deprived of 
 the free agency which they enjoyed, when they 
 could lay out their one-pound-notes at any 
 shops they pleased ; and horrible oppression will 
 ensue. If unjust laws spread ruin amongst the 
 
 c 2
 
 40 
 
 trading classes, the Country Banker dare not 
 give a bill at two months to a draper, on the 
 faith of receiving the amount back from the 
 succeeding two months' receipts of the draper, 
 because the whole of those receipts may be 
 wanted for rents and taxes : and the wholesale 
 dealer will be compelled to take the acceptance 
 of the shopkeeper, instead of the Banker's bill. 
 The shopkeeper, finding the power that he thus 
 derives, of discharging his obligations without 
 the agency of a banker, most convenient for a 
 while, will issue his bills unlimited by the pru- 
 dence, forethought, and circumspection, which 
 the experience of the Banker imposed upon 
 him. In this way, currency of the worst kinds 
 may be multiplied. 
 
 That, if these views of the character of the 
 circulating medium of this country be correct, 
 it appears to the mind of your Humble Peti- 
 tioner, that there has been no adequate inves- 
 tigation into its condition, which is likely to 
 lead to wise measures for its regulation. All 
 the Parliamentary inquiries, on the subject, 
 have been directed to the concerns and opera- 
 tions of those parties that exercised the least 
 influence in bringing on a state of things which ^ 
 demanded investigation and rectification. The
 
 41 
 
 issues and proceedings of the Directors of the 
 Bank of England, and those of the Country 
 Bankers, have been the only matters considered 
 to be worthy of much attention. The former 
 have been censured for grasping at profit, by 
 the excessive amount of their paper-circulation ; 
 and the latter have been blamed for the en- 
 couragement which they afforded to improvi- 
 dent speculation, by forcing the issues of their 
 notes. Neither of these charges is true, in its 
 general application. Neither the Bank Direc- 
 tors, nor the Country Bankers, can be justly 
 charged with originating, or greatly aggrava- 
 ting, an evil, which had arisen out of uncontrol- 
 able circumstances, or had been induced by 
 the necessities and conduct of the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 That, if the most disastrous consequences 
 have resulted from misapprehension respecting 
 the nature and extent of the currency which 
 prevails in England, mischief, which will be 
 productive of great evil, has been done in 
 recent years, by misapprehending the character 
 of the Banking-systems which prevail in this 
 country. The Banking and Currency systems 
 of England, regarded in their combined ope- 
 ration, form, together, a machine of mighty
 
 42 
 
 energy ; — most powerful and most delicate, in 
 the parts of its construction, — most comprehen- 
 sive and most minute, in its uses and applica- 
 tion. The system of Banking and Currency 
 practised by Country Bankers, is that part of 
 the machinery most liable to be damaged by 
 the unskilful handling of those who are utterly 
 ignorant of its construction and movements. 
 The Country Bankers, unlike the Directors of 
 the Bank of England, having no immediate 
 connection with the Government, have con- 
 ducted their affairs with a firm reliance on the 
 justice and protection of the King's Ministers 
 and the Parliament : and as their system con- 
 sists wholly, on a knowledge of the most essential 
 affairs of men of property, — on the skilful sub- 
 division and application of accumulated masses 
 of capital ; and as it is tlie only Bariking-si/stem 
 connected with the active and productive classes 
 of the people ; to break it up, in the present 
 state of society and of the Body-Politic, would 
 be like breaking up roads, destroying markets, 
 and interfering with the established means of 
 commercial intercourse. Hence, the vast mis- 
 chief which results from measures which 
 appear to men who pass their time in the me- 
 tropolis, and who know nothing of the economy
 
 43 
 
 of the country, calculated to produce no such 
 effect. The establishment of Branch Banks, — 
 of Joint-stock Banks, — are measures of this 
 character : and they are wholly abortive to the 
 projectors. 
 
 That, to your Humble Petitioner, it also ap- 
 pears, that similar error prevails in the applica- 
 tion of the general principles which have been 
 brought to bear upon this Question. — It has 
 been said, that we cannot have an abundant 
 currency and high prices in England, without 
 injuring our commercial relations with other 
 countries. This is not true, as every day's ex- 
 perience testifies. The currency of a State is 
 merely a conventional sign of value, within that 
 State : It is only an instrument of numeration, 
 amongst those who traffic. The pound, in Eng- 
 land, at one time meant a pound weight of 
 pure silver: and the pound, in France, atone 
 time also meant the same. Now, one means a 
 twenty-fourth part of the other : and yet this 
 difference presented no impediment to an in- 
 tercourse between the countries, as was abun- 
 dantly manifested after the commercial treaty 
 which was made in the year 1786. — Again, 
 Small-notes were suppressed, and Bankers were 
 obstructed in the exercise of their functions.
 
 44 
 
 because they tended to induce the evil of over- 
 production. Whatever may, at intervals, be 
 the case with individuals, in a State there can 
 be no over-production. Production is the ele- 
 ment of commerce, — the means by which a 
 nation becomes possessed of all things valued 
 in civilized communities. But, if multiplied 
 productions were proved to be an evil to a 
 State, the means resorted to have no tendency 
 to lessen it ; — except in regard to the produc- 
 tions of the land. Now, it is universally ad- 
 mitted that the produce of the soil ought to be 
 increased : That increase can take place in no 
 other way than by the application of capital 
 by the cultivators. This application of capital 
 the farmers could have made, if no injury had 
 been inflicted upon Bankers, through whose 
 agency they obtained capital when it was ne- 
 cessary. Their processes of production being 
 slow, and their returns distant, and individually 
 small in amount, they cannot resort to bills, when 
 Bankers withhold accommodation, as other 
 classes of the community can. Here, therefore, 
 where the measure was not intended to operate, 
 it has a most injurious operation. But in regard 
 to manufactures, — so long as a manufacturer can 
 pay his labourers at a provision-shop, and can
 
 45 
 
 pay for his raw materials, and the provisions 
 which his workmen consume, in his own bills, 
 he will continue to produce ; and his operations 
 will at times be conducted more wildly and 
 irregularly, because the measures of the Legis- 
 lature have cut him off from an intercourse 
 with his Banker, whose prudential advice and 
 experience tended to check and regulate his 
 proceedings. Those, alone, who have attended 
 to the curious and little understood mode in 
 which the different kinds of currency work in 
 this country, are acquainted with this principle : 
 but, if its truth needed confirmation, present as 
 well as past experience affords it. The bill- 
 system of traders exists in tenfold force in the 
 cotton and silk trades, in the district of which 
 Manchester is the centre of traffic, and in the 
 district of which Glasgow is the centre. The 
 bill-currency is, in these districts, not only car- 
 ried to excess by traders ; but it is less under 
 the control of the resident Private Bankers, 
 than in any other part of the kingdom : conse- 
 quently, we find that over-production, in these 
 districts, is the greatest. While, at Leeds, 
 Sheffield, and the Potteries, — where the Country 
 Bank system is in full force, and exercises great 
 control over the circulation of private credit, —
 
 46 
 
 there is, comparatively, but little complaint of 
 over-production. Actual knowledge of the 
 state of other trades would also tend to confirm 
 this. 
 
 That, if the measures of the Legislature have 
 produced no such eifects, as were contemplated, 
 by their enactment, they have produced other 
 most injurious consequences, besides those al- 
 ready adverted to. Although they are wholly 
 without power to impede production, in those 
 departments where it was alleged production 
 was going on with destructive rapidity, they 
 exercise a prodigious influence in checking 
 consumption. So long as plenty of money 
 circulates freely amongst labourers and the 
 inferior classes of society, all goes on well. 
 It makes a great difference to the prosperity 
 of the Country, whether a given sum — take, 
 for example, ten thousand pounds — be dis- 
 tributed amongst ten thousand workmen, and 
 spent by them ; or be sent to London, and 
 absorbed by the creditors of the State. In 
 the one case, — it gives power to consume, to 
 those who are sure to use it in consuming ; and 
 stimulates demand, through all the channels of 
 circulation : In the other case, — it may be placed 
 on security, for re-accumulation, by some great
 
 47 
 
 capitalist, in a manner wholly unconnected with 
 tlie interests of England ; or be spent abroad, 
 by the rich absentees. The measures of the 
 Government, by lowering the prices of stock 
 without a corresponding diminution in the 
 amount of the taxes, take from the productive 
 classes, who employ their capital-stock in 
 re-production, an unjust and ruinous portion. 
 From this capital-stock, alone, they acquire the 
 power to consume : and they are thus deprived 
 of the power of spending the same proportion 
 of their money in commodities, as they were 
 able to spend before these measures were in 
 operation. There is no blame to the man who 
 pays his workmen in provisions, — he is com- 
 pelled to do this, by the mistaken and erroneous 
 measures of the Government, or abandon his 
 pursuits ; — and no law can stop the practice. 
 But, when workmen are supplied with necessa- 
 ries at the provision-shop of their master, they 
 are rarely fed and clothed by a very bountiful 
 hand. In this way, consumption is checked 
 and diminished. 
 
 That it appears, moreover, to your Humble 
 Petitioner, that all the injurious effects, which 
 we have experienced for fourteen years past, 
 result from the principle being altogether
 
 48 
 
 wrong, out of which the measures grew; 
 and that, if this great error be longer per- 
 severed in, it must, in its progress and termi- 
 nation, produce unparalleled misery and ruin. 
 Whenever the standard of value has been 
 depreciated for a series of years, strict justice 
 demands that it should be adjusted precisely 
 at the existing degree of depreciation ; but, 
 as that may not be practicable or expedient, 
 all the efforts of the Government should be 
 directed to the preventing of its being raised 
 rapidly or ruinously. That the most anxious 
 attention should be devoted to counteract the 
 oppressive effects of raising the standard, is 
 evident from all experience ; but it is not solely 
 because experience shows its expediency, — 
 principle, also, enforces the necessity. In raising 
 the standard, the industrious classes suffer,— 
 men, who are paying rent for capital employed 
 in re-production, or who have stock of their 
 own so engaged. — And, as surely as night follows 
 day, the suffering will be thrown upon the least 
 powerful, the labourers. — The annuitant, and 
 all who live on fixed incomes, sustain loss 
 when money becomes depreciated ; but their 
 loss does not, in one case out of a hundred, 
 seriously abridge the sum of their comforts,—
 
 in a majority of cases, the depreciation only 
 diminishes the amount that would be annually 
 saved. Accumulation may be checked amongst 
 the indolent, because the means of accumula- 
 tion are not taken from the wages of labour. In 
 the one case, it affects, in a slight degree, the 
 rich and inert, who are less than one-tenth part 
 of the whole : And in the other, it seriously 
 and permanently damages the enterprising and 
 industrious, and the great mass of the commu- 
 nity. Hence, we witnessed that, during the 
 period of depreciation, there was scarcely a 
 murmur heard from persons of fixed income : on 
 the contrary, when, in the year 1819j measures 
 for restoring the gold standard were in progress, 
 a petition was presented from the City of 
 London, the strong hold of the annuitants, 
 against the policy; and it was delivered to 
 your Honourable House, and supported with 
 great zeal and ability, by one who is believed 
 to be the largest permanent creditor of the 
 State in the kingdom. While, before we had 
 advanced three steps out of ten, towards con- 
 summating the policy of restoring the standard, 
 such were the cries of distress from all parts 
 of the kingdom, that the Minister was con- 
 strained to take off the pressure, in order to
 
 50 
 
 save the country. Unhappily, however, this 
 important rule of action has been altogether 
 disregarded in the Parliamentary proceedings 
 respecting the Currency. Rich annuitants, 
 bullion-dealers, men who reside in great cities, 
 — whose currency being in bills, checks, and 
 Bank-notes, is the same as it was, — whose 
 means of borrowing and lending have under- 
 gone no unfavourable change, — have alone been 
 consulted.* All the measures recommended, 
 and all the laws enforced, have had a tendency 
 precisely the opposite of that which this im- 
 portant principle, of attending to the interests 
 of the productive classes, would suggest. The 
 Country Bankers have had to encounter the 
 most injurious obstructions ; and we have had 
 a high gold standard, instead of a standard of 
 silver, imposed upon us. 
 
 If we had thirty millions of gold currency 
 before the Revolutionary-war, we ought, in order 
 to preserve the relative proportions of gold and 
 other species of currency, to have more than 
 ninety millions now ; because, the annual divi- 
 dends paid to the public creditor have increased 
 more than threefold ; and, the productions of 
 
 * See Lists of the Coramiltees, pp. 76, 77.
 
 51 
 
 the mines and manufactures, — the transactions 
 in trade and commerce, — have been more than 
 quadrupled, during the last forty years. 
 
 Looking at the increased commerce, and 
 the altered circumstances, of the world, and at 
 the peculiar state of this country, gold could 
 not be resorted to, as a just and proper standard, 
 unless the annual produce of gold had been 
 greatly increased. Now, according to the tes- 
 timony of all travellers and men of science, the 
 annual produce of gold, so far from being 
 increased, is much less than it was forty years 
 ago ; while, on the other hand, the consumption 
 of gold in manufacture is prodigiously increased. 
 Precise information cannot be obtained on this 
 subject; but, from inquiry, your Humble Peti- 
 tioner is of opinion, that so much more gold is 
 now wrought up, annually, into articles of use 
 or ornament, than there was formerly, that 
 the consumption of gold, in every year, greatly 
 exceeds the amount of that metal annually 
 produced.* 
 
 But it is not merely because the restoring of 
 the gold standard is unjust, that the policy of 
 
 * See Appendix, No. 2.
 
 52 
 
 enforcing that exclusive standard is bad ; — other 
 considerations render it a measure of great 
 poUtical danger. From the vast accumulation of 
 capital, and the prodigious increase of credit and 
 power, now possessed by individual exchange- 
 merchants,bullion-dealers, and loan-contractors, 
 any two or three of these wealthy persons could, 
 by combining their efforts, buy up one-third or 
 one-half of all the gold in the kingdom ; and 
 could keep it out of circulation for many months, 
 until they had accomplished their own purposes. 
 Thus, destructive derangement of the circulation 
 could, at any time, be effected, whenever the 
 state of circumstances favoured that particular 
 object. Would it be wise, would it be safe, to 
 leave the circulating medium of this country 
 thus exposed ? The persons, who have power 
 to produce such a derangement, may be opulent 
 foreigners ; in whom centre the capital and re- 
 sources of many of the wealthiest bankers and 
 merchants of Europe : they may, at the same 
 time, be the agents of some foreign potentates : 
 and thus they may be impelled to such a pro- 
 ceeding as we are contemplating, either by the 
 expectation of gain as speculative merchants, or 
 by a desire to promote the policy of some rival 
 State.
 
 53 
 
 These inconveniences or dangers would be 
 greatly diminished, by making the legal tender 
 in silver, as well as in gold : and it would tend 
 to lessen the injustice which is now in operation. 
 If silver were made the legal tender to any 
 amount, even at the present standard, the prices 
 of commodities would be raised twenty per cent., 
 or would be prevented from falling to that ex- 
 tent, by this regulation alone. No monopolist 
 could exercise much influence upon a commo- 
 dity like silver, which is in universal use all 
 over the civilized world, and exists every where 
 in great quantity. Gold would be forced back 
 upon the market, and the supply would exceed 
 the demand ; — paper-currency would be gene- 
 rally preferred to coin ; — and paper and metal 
 currency would be depreciated together ; and 
 the prices of commodities would be raised in 
 the same manner, although not in the same 
 degree, as they were during the war. On the 
 other hand, the liability to which the issuers of 
 paper-money would be subject, of having de- 
 mands upon them enforced in the precious 
 metals, would, if the Banking-systems were 
 preserved and strengthened, be a sufficient 
 check against such excessive issues of paper- 
 currency, as we experienced during the war. 
 
 D
 
 54 
 
 If we reflect on the greatly increased variety 
 of things produced and consumed in the British 
 Dominions, and on the multiphed quantities of 
 all things to be transferred from hand to hand 
 by the measure of money, we shall see, that, if that 
 measure be reduced to the exclusive gold stand- 
 ard, the prices of commodities must be lower than 
 they have been for fifty years past; because gold 
 has not increased in any manner corresponding 
 to the increase in the variety and quantity of 
 commodities. By enforcing the exclusive gold 
 standard, and the destruction of paper-currency, 
 prices of commodities must be much lower than 
 they are in France. In France paper-money 
 is increasing : Several bankers, in that country, 
 now issue notes for twenty francs : The notes of 
 the Bank of France are current all over France, 
 for a sum less than two guineas of English 
 money. Again, in America there are notes so 
 low as one dollar : and, although, in the great 
 mercantile cities, payments in coin are sometimes 
 enforced, as they are in London, for the purpose 
 of export ; yet, in those parts of the United 
 States which do not border on the Atlantic, and, 
 generally speaking, throughout all the States, 
 the people are so well satisfied with the paper 
 currency of their Banks, that there exists a
 
 55 
 
 practical restriction on cash-payments, which is 
 more strictly observed than it is in Scotland. In 
 these countries silver being the legal tender- 
 that circumstance operates, in some degree, as a 
 restriction on the demands for cash. Our rivals, 
 therefore, appear to be fully aware of the value 
 of a power, which we would relinquish or anni- 
 hilate. 
 
 From the foregoing statement, it would ap- 
 pear : — 
 
 1'** That the present is a period of unexam- 
 pled distress ; which, if not relieved, will spee- 
 dily bring on fatal consequences to the State, 
 and permanent degradation and misery to the 
 People : 
 
 2""^' That this distress is occasioned hy the 
 remedies applied to rectify a depreciated and 
 deranged currency: 
 
 3"^* That former attempts to adjust the stand- 
 ard, when the current money had become de- 
 preciated, created great embarrassment, and 
 produced extensive ruin : That the last attempt 
 gave a character of imbecility to the Govern- 
 ment of the country, for eight or ten years, — 
 enervated, for that time, the energies of the 
 people, — and caused the honour of the nation 
 to be tarnished ; although the depreciation 
 
 D 2
 
 56 
 
 was then, as compared with the depreciation 
 of the present period, utterly insignificant : 
 
 4'^* That, as the circumstances which caused 
 this difference, and led to the excess, and the 
 extraordinary depreciation, in these days, should 
 be thoroughly known and justly appreciated, a 
 detailed description of these circumstances has 
 been given : 
 
 5'^' That this detailed description makes it 
 manifest, that the measures resorted to, for the 
 correction of an evil, were bad, because the 
 knowledge which directed the public inquiries 
 was extremely imperfect, and the principles 
 which suggested the remedies were altogether 
 erroneous : 
 
 6'"'' That the character of the object intended 
 to be attained by the measures, is wholly mis- 
 understood : And that, if its character were 
 rightly comprehended, the measures have no 
 tendency to remove the alleged evils : but that 
 their tendency is to induce other evils, of a dan- 
 gerous and malignant character : 
 
 7""* That perseverance, in the attempt to en- 
 force an exclusive and high gold standard, 
 would bring the prices of commodities lower 
 than they are in France ; — would ruin all debtors, 
 renters of land, and almost all who have to
 
 57 
 
 discharge fixed encumbrances : That the adop- 
 tion of that standard is impracticable. 
 
 If your Humble Petitioner be not deceived 
 in thinking that this summary faithfully repre- 
 sents the state of the case, the conclusion to 
 which it obviously leads is inevitable ; viz. — that 
 the measures for regulating the currency, which 
 the Government is now attempting to enforce, 
 must be abandoned ; and all paper-money must 
 be allowed to circulate in the same unrestricted 
 manner as it did in the year 1823. 
 
 If the State, which receives an annual amount, 
 in taxes, that exceeds fifty millions sterling, 
 prescribe in what kind of money those taxes 
 shall be paid ; and if the law declare what shall 
 be the standard of value, and what shall consti- 
 tute a legal tender; no further restraint ought to 
 be imposed. No limitation, beyond this, can, at 
 any time, be attempted without danger ; nor (if 
 unaccompanied by a large reduction of the 
 interest of the National Debt, and the public 
 burdens,) can it be enforced without oppression. 
 By giving to the people the power of issuing 
 currency, the country has been raised to great- 
 ness: By withdrawing that power, the energies 
 of the country must be unnaturally bound up 
 and compressed, and they may be destroyed.
 
 58 
 
 Let the people, therefore, manage their own 
 currency, — to derive all the benefits of good 
 management, and to suffer all the penalties of 
 bad management, — so long as the State can re- 
 ceive the taxes in the money which the Go- 
 vernment likes best. It is as impracticable to 
 regulate the quantity and the amount of the 
 currency, as it is to determine the number of 
 ships that shall sail on the sea, or the number 
 of carriages that shall move on the roads. If 
 all currency were prohibited, but that which 
 circulates by the King^s authority, there would 
 immediately arise a currency of account ; and 
 letters and entries in books of account, amongst 
 bankers, merchants, and traders, would become 
 the circulating medium. 
 
 Your Humble Petitioner is aware, that the 
 wild excesses of the ruling powers in France 
 tended to bring paper-money into great dis- 
 credit : and he is also aware, that Price, and 
 Paine, and Home Tooke, and Cobbett, — all men 
 who have treated this subject with great know- 
 ledge and ability, — have expressed unfavourable 
 opinions respecting the utility, and permanent 
 duration, of a paper-currency ; but their opi- 
 nions of this matter are likely to have been 
 influenced by the strong political bias of their
 
 o9 
 
 minds.* A careful examination of the writings 
 of Locke, and Hume, and Smith, — of the whole 
 conduct of Pitt, — and of the practice of Scot- 
 land, — would, on the other hand, tend to esta- 
 blish the opinion which your Humble Petitioner 
 entertains. As far as their writings and ex- 
 amples can be brought to bear on the present 
 case, they clearly prove, that, when the currency 
 of a country has become imperceptibly depre- 
 ciated ; and when the people have acquiesced 
 in the altered value of the currency, for a term 
 of years exceeding the generation of man ; and 
 have formed, as in our case, with unanimous 
 consent and perfect satisfaction, innumerable 
 obligations, public and private, resting on the 
 basis of a depreciated currency ; it is unjust, 
 impolitic, and impracticable, to attempt to raise 
 the standard, without, at the same time, alter- 
 ing, in a corresponding manner, all existing 
 money-obligations. This being, in our condi- 
 tion, impossible, the standard should be regu- 
 lated according to the actual existing value of 
 the currency, and the state of those obligations. 
 That, if this be done with great circumspection 
 and judgement, the prosperity of the country 
 
 * Sco Appendix, No. 3.
 
 60 
 
 may proceed without interruption ; the paper- 
 currency may, by just and wise regulations, be 
 rendered permanent and useful ; and the re- 
 sources and power of the State may remain, for 
 ages, unimpaired. And your Humble Petitioner 
 believes this to be the just view of the case, 
 because, on the last occasion of raising a de- 
 preciated standard, when the annual taxes 
 were not one-fourth of their present amount, 
 the attempt kept the country in a feeble and 
 prostrate condition for many years, and emas- 
 culated the character of the Government of 
 that day ; and because similar attempts have 
 now been making for fifteen years past, without 
 any salutary effect. During this period of fif- 
 teen years, the attempt has always produced 
 misery in our domestic condition, and danger 
 in our foreign relations : It caused the agricul- 
 tural distresses of 1816 and 1821 ; and it was 
 the main, almost the sole, cause of the hostile 
 American Tariff.* We have never advanced, 
 
 * Important as the subject is, it would be absurd to com- 
 press, into the form of a note, a detailed and ample 
 statement of the facts and reasons, which would prove, 
 that the attempt to enforce our measures for restoring a 
 high gold standard had caused the hostile American Tariff. 
 In August, 1828, the petitioner published some obser-
 
 61 
 
 and we are not now advanced, more than three 
 steps out of ten, towards a consummation of 
 
 vations intended to establish this point. These observa- 
 tions were seen by a very intelligent American, who has, 
 for many years, performed the Consulate duties in one of 
 our principal towns, whence a greater amount of goods 
 is annually sent to the United Slates than from any other 
 town in the British Dominions. This gentleman said that 
 the case stated in that publication was the only rational 
 manner of accounting for the New Tariff: and he took 
 several copies, to send to his correspondents in America, 
 to shew that this matter was not wholly misconceived by 
 every man in England. The following sketch contains 
 some of the heads which were put forward in those obser- 
 vations. 
 
 " The unexampled Money-power of England produced 
 the New Tariff of the United States." 
 
 Mr. Peel's Bill lowered prices in England, and threw 
 our manufacturers into diflBculties : To extricate them- 
 selves from those difficulties, during a period of stagnant 
 demand in England, they consigned goods to America, 
 getting advances, in money, for one-half of the value of 
 the shipments : These goods arrived when the markets 
 on the Atlantic side of the Country were full, and when 
 the power of the dealers, to purchase, had been paralyzed 
 by the contraction of the issues of the American Bankers, 
 and by their lessening their accommodation to the Ameri- 
 can Storekeepers : These Banking-changes were rendered 
 necessary by the ruinous state of the exchanges (pro- 
 duced, also, by Mr. Peel's Bill) causing the American 
 Banks to be drained of silver, to be remitted to England.
 
 62 
 
 that erroneous and fatal policy. To advance 
 further in the present course, would plunge the 
 
 In these circumstances, the American merchants, who 
 had advanced their money upon English manufactures, 
 finding it impracticable to sell those goods in the Atlantic 
 States, sent large quantities of them west of the Alle- 
 gany Mountains, where they were sold at any prices 
 tJiat could be obtained ; draining those States of all the 
 little coin they possessed, and destroying the humble 
 Storekeepers, who had, up to that time, been supplied 
 from the Dry -good-stores in New York. The business 
 of supplying the Western States with English manufac- 
 tures had previously been carried on by large Storekeepers 
 in New York and Philadelphia, and not by such American 
 merchants, in England, as made advances to our raacufac- 
 turers. It was conducted upon a regular system of twelve 
 months' credit, — the acts, of paying for the goods pur- 
 chased in the previous year, and of laying in a fresh supply, 
 being done at one and the same time. But, when we 
 forced into those States supplies of cheap ready-money- 
 goods, all regular customary transactions with credit-goods, 
 between the Western Storekeepers and the Dealers in the 
 Eastern States, were at once stopped. This swept 
 into ruin the inhabitants of whole streets of merchants 
 connected with England, who could get no returns from 
 their old debtors in the AVest. 
 
 The Western States of the Republic, being drained, in 
 this manner, of nearly all their clipped, quartered, and 
 debased coin, by the potent and terrific Money-fiat of 
 England, some very remarkable effects were the conse- 
 quence in those States. It interfered so dreadfully, with 
 the customary and established exchanges of conveniences.
 
 63 
 
 country into indescribable misery ; induce a 
 kind of servile war, in the farming districts ; pro- 
 
 and the power to pay for labour, that patches of corn, of 
 fifteen or twenty acres, cultivated with immense labour 
 and expense, were never cut ; but were left to rot upon 
 the ground. And — another curious and instructive proof 
 of the power of our great Currency-machinery — our Money- 
 regulations, in this their distant operation, caused two or 
 more of the States' Legislatures to pass *' Stay-laws" 
 which empowered debtors to put off the payment of their 
 just and acknowledged debts, three, four, and five years, 
 according to the amount of the sum claimed. 
 
 These terrible effects of our incomprehensible proceed- 
 ings produced results, upon the affairs, generally, of all 
 the American Banks, corresponding to those which we 
 know were experienced by the Bank of the United States, 
 and which were set forth in its public proceedings : 
 
 " At a meeting of the President and Directors of the 
 Bank of the United States, July 22, 1821, a semi-annual 
 dividend of one-and-a-7ialf jier cent.^' was resolved upon. 
 And, that this was full as much as they ought to have 
 resolved upon, is pretty plain from the proceedings at the 
 same meeting, which showed that the bad debts amounted 
 to 3,550,000 dollars, and the " amount of interest over- 
 due, and suspended debts, to 200,000 dollars." 
 
 On the supposition, that the whole of the Bankers of 
 the United States would possess as much influence with 
 their Government, as is possessed at the Treasury, in this 
 country, by two or three men connected with the City, no 
 one can wonder that hostile Tariffs are resorted to, to 
 lessen the power which we have, of deranging their inter-
 
 64 
 
 dace riot and tumult, in the mining and manu- 
 facturing parts of the country ; and end, in 
 anarchy and confusion. 
 
 nal traffic. Whether the Congress understood the matter 
 better than the English Parliament, does not appear. 
 The following extract is taken from the *' Report of the 
 Committee of Ways and Means, upon the subject of the 
 Revenue," made to the House of Representatives, 
 February 6, 1821. 
 
 ** The Tariff of 1816 " Cprodiiced hy the contraction of 
 our currency in 1815 !) *' was expected to operate a loss 
 to the Revenue, by giving what was considered, at the 
 time, sufficient encouragement to the manufactures of the 
 country. A variety of causes, arising out of excessive 
 and ruinous importations, and the time required for 
 diverting one channel of commerce or supplies into 
 another, has, until lately, prevented the effect from being 
 materially felt." 
 
 It is manifest that the high value of our currency, in 
 1820 and 1821, produced the foregoing effects. But, if 
 Lord Londonderry had lived to prevent a return to the 
 same fatal policy, in 1826, as that which raised the value 
 of the currency at the former period, our commerce with 
 the United States would never have been fettered by such 
 prohibitory regulations as those to which we have subjected 
 it. After our Currency-measures of 1826 had again raised 
 the standard of value, the principle of self-defence ren- 
 dered it imperative upon the American Government to 
 adopt those regulations. 
 
 It is known that, at one time, the new President of the 
 United States was unfavourable lo the enacting of the
 
 65 
 
 The law, which compels payments to be 
 made in gold, at the high standard, is a recent 
 law : it has never been looked at, by the bulk 
 of the people, as a living principle, in actual 
 operation. They have used their own currency, 
 which forms their own standard. A law, to be 
 a just law, should be a law for every year, and 
 every day ; easy and practicable in its opera- 
 tion, at all times ; consistently with public pros- 
 perity. But this law has been, in great mea- 
 sure, a dead letter, — except in a period of alarm. 
 Then it was resorted to, and it proved wholly 
 ineffectual. Its operation was suddenly check- 
 ed by an issue of small-notes : otherwise that 
 tremendous machinery would have been broken 
 
 last Tariff-law ; and it is believed by many well-informed 
 persons, that his disposition is, at the present time, to 
 ralax the severity of its Provisions. It is impossible to 
 pronounce what policy may result from the influence of 
 the Planters in the Southern States ; but, seeing that tlie 
 effect of the Suppression of Small-notes, in England, has, 
 by raising the standard higher than ever, already 
 caused many of the American Banks to stop payment, 
 it is not to be expected, that any alteration will 
 take place, favourable to an increased intercourse with 
 England, — so long as that intercourse leads to such 
 dreadful consequences.
 
 66 
 
 to pieces, which the law was passed to adjust 
 and regulate. 
 
 To the judgement of your Humble Petitioner, 
 it appears that a perseverance in the present 
 policy is utterly impracticable. It has no 
 tendency to maintain the circulating medium, 
 and the commercial affairs of the country, in a 
 steady and satisfactory condition. Commer- 
 cial convulsions were as frequent, and, rela- 
 tively, as extensive in their effects, previous to 
 the year 1797? as they have been since that 
 period. Your Humble Petitioner has, however, 
 too deep an impression on his mind, of the 
 fatal consequences that may succeed to legis- 
 lative measures, founded on imperfect informa- 
 tion or erroneous opinions, on this momentous 
 subject, to allow him to feel that any mode of 
 regulating the currency of this country can be 
 all at once suggested, which will not require 
 alteration and improvement. He presumes, 
 therefore, to recommend the following regula- 
 tions to the consideration of your Honourable 
 House, solely on the grounds, that they are more 
 consistent, than any hitherto adopted, with the 
 existing circumstances of the country ; that 
 they will instantly relieve an unsupportable 
 pressure, — mitigate intolerable distress ; and
 
 Gf 
 
 that, when they have undergone that alteration, 
 which time, knowledge, and experience, may 
 suggest, they may form the basis of a perma- 
 nent and satisfactory arrangement : 
 
 1st. To render Silver a legal tender to any 
 amount, at the present standard of that metal ; 
 and to make the Gold standard correspond to 
 that of Silver. 
 
 2d. To make the Notes and Bills of Exchange 
 of the Bank of England a legal tender, for all 
 sums, (except under the value of five pounds,) 
 from all incorporated and licensed Bankers 
 in the United Kingdom — And, as this regula- 
 tion will confer a great privilege on the Bank 
 of England, the Directors should, for this ad- 
 vantage, and to identity their interests with 
 those of the Country Bankers, relinquish and 
 for ever forego all Banking Establishments, ex- 
 cept in London — 
 
 3d. To allow the issuing and re-issuing of 
 all Promissory Notes of the value of twenty 
 shillings, and above that sum, by the Bank of 
 England, and all licensed Bankers : but, that 
 all such licensed Bankers be compelled to give 
 security for all notes which they issue, under 
 the value of five pounds ; such security to 
 be either landed property, Government-security,
 
 68 
 
 or such personal bonds as are given by the Re- 
 ceivers of Taxes ; or that it be a security resting 
 on the regulation of a tax. 
 
 And your Humble Petitioner, there- 
 fore, PRAYS, that your Ho.nourable 
 House will be pleased to institute 
 a thorough investigation into the 
 state of the currency, in order to 
 ascertain the effect of the laws 
 which have been passed to regulate 
 it, on the character and prosperity 
 of the people. 
 
 And your Humble Petitioner will ever pray. 
 HENRY BURGESS. 
 
 London, June 1, 1829.
 
 REFLECTIONS. 
 
 After the Ministers had determined that there should 
 be no investigation into the stale of the country, by 
 means of a Parliamentary Committee, it was not expected 
 that any circumstance — especially one so unimportant as 
 the presenting of this Petition — should alter their deter- 
 mination. Nevertheless, it is the duty of every maa 
 who can throw any light upon the important subject of 
 the Currency, to take every fit occasion for endeavouring 
 to dissipate the prevailing error. This he is bound to do, 
 because it is possible that the exertions of the most hum- 
 ble individuals may contribute to check the wide-spreading 
 ruin, which is produced by the measures of the Govern- 
 ment, which originate in error. 
 
 Thus actuated,— and having, at the same time, a deep 
 personal interest in the issue of the Question, — in the year 
 1819 the Petitioner begged a gentleman, who was in 
 familiar intercourse with the Cabinet Ministers, to repre- 
 sent to one of those Ministers, that he, the Petitioner, 
 desired to be examined by the Committee of which Mr. 
 Peel was the Chairman, on the subject of the internal 
 
 E
 
 70 
 
 circalation of the country, and on the probable effect of 
 the contemplated measures upon the productive classes 
 of the community. The answer, given to this application, 
 was, that the Committee had resolved not to go into that 
 part of the subject ; or not to go into any further inves- 
 tigation respecting it. 
 
 Although the Petitioner has, since 1819, from close 
 observation and unprejudiced inquiry, had occasion to 
 correct his opinions respecting the effects of the working 
 of particular parts of the great machinery of circulation; 
 he has never changed his opinion in regard to the fatal 
 consequences of Mr. Peel's Bill of 1819 : And he now 
 perceives that we are approximating to a period, when, 
 if the law be enforced with unmitigated severity, those 
 consequences will be of a terrific character. He is, 
 therefore, resolved to publish, in the form of a pamphlet, 
 the Petition, on this subject, recently presented by Sir 
 Francis Burdett, to the House of Commons, with that 
 presented in the Session of 1828, by Earl Grey, to the 
 House of Lords ; together with the observations which 
 were made in each House of Parliament, on the occasions. 
 — The productive part of the community, being shut out 
 from delivering their sentiments to the Committees of 
 1810 and 1819, have no other resource than the Press, by 
 which they can make their opinions known to the Govern- 
 ment and the Country. 
 
 In the year 1826 the Petitioner published a pamphlet, 
 addressed to the " Right Honourable G. Canning," 
 which, he believes, contains the first ample and satisfac- 
 tory account of the character and functions of that great 
 portion of the circulating medium, consisting of Biils-of- 
 exchange. He does not know whether Mr. Canning ever 
 read this pamphlet ; but he knows that that Right
 
 71 
 
 Honourable person intimated bis determination to do so ; 
 and he knows, also, that, a few months after that intima- 
 tion had been communicated to the Petitioner, Mr. Can- 
 ning used this remarkable expression, — *' the more I 
 look into the subject of the currency, the more I am 
 horrified;'' — an expression which plainly imported that his 
 previous views had been very limited and imperfect. 
 Neither can he be certain that the author of the able 
 article in the Quarterly Review for April, 1829, had 
 seen this pamphlet; but he says that every important 
 observation contained in that article, (except one,) may be 
 found in " the Letter to Canning," above alluded to ; 
 and that the very words employed for illustrating the sub- 
 ject, in some instances, are almost identical with those in 
 this pamphlet, published in 1826. He does not refer to 
 this as a matter of complaint, nor because he is sarcas- 
 tically designated in that article, " the alarmist of Lom- 
 bard-street ;" but to intimate that the deliberate opinion, 
 given in the succeeding paragraph, may be worthy of con- 
 sideration. 
 
 It is manifest to all who actually witness the working 
 of the present Currency-laws, and the influence of mea- 
 sures flowing from the same source as those laws, that the 
 policy, out of which they spring, results from false in- 
 formation. It is as clear that the Government is pro- 
 ceeding with false guides, as it is, that a general in a 
 strange country, after being led on, entrapped, and taken, 
 by his antagonist, had proceeded on information insidiously 
 furnished him by the enemy, or given him by persons who 
 were wholly ignorant of that which they pretended to 
 know. 
 
 As no candid man can deny that there never was a 
 period in the history of this country, when public men 
 
 e2
 
 /' 
 
 were more free from llie influence of corrupt motives, and 
 more anxious to do that which was for the best interests 
 of the country, it becomes necessary to support so grave 
 an allegation as this, by something like proof. The alle- 
 gation is : — That a matter, which more deeply affects the 
 people of this realm, in their property, their character, 
 their happiness, and prosperity, than all the matters that 
 can possibly come before the Court of Chancery during a 
 thousand years ; — a matter, which required the philosophi- 
 cal mind of a Bacon, — the analytical powers of a Locke, — 
 the comprehensive survey of a Blackstone, — and the 
 anxious circumspection of an Eldon ; — has been uncon- 
 sciously decided, in the most confident manner, upon 
 partial information and ex-parte evidence : That grievous 
 injustice has been thereby inflicted : and that, if unre- 
 versed, unexampled misery must be the ultimate result of 
 such a decision. 
 
 When resolving on any measure for raising the value of 
 money, it is necessary to consider, not only its general 
 effect, but, also, its particular bearing upon difl^erent 
 classes : and, if it be found that the pressure will be 
 greater upon some classes than upon others, justice de- 
 mands that persons, from amongst those classes, should 
 especially be sought and examined, that the case may be 
 fully understood, and decided on, upon ample and sufficient 
 evidence. And care should be taken, that the evidence of 
 persons who may derive great advantage from the change 
 be not overrated. 
 
 With this rule in our minds, we shall soon perceive, by 
 briefly examining the sources whence the Committees of 
 Parliament derived their evidence, that it is scarcely pos- 
 sible that any other decision should take place, than one 
 which inflicts grievous present injuries upon the people, 
 
 I
 
 73 
 
 and which leaves, in operation, a principle oi" injustice, 
 that must permanently be productive of malignant conse- 
 quences. 
 
 It may lend to perspicuity, if we divide the persons 
 who gave evidence to the two Parliamentary Committees 
 into three classes : — 
 
 First, — Cambists, bullion-brokers, exchange-merchants, 
 and men who derive their principal inconjc 
 from the Public Funds. 
 Second, — Bankers, brokers, commission-merchants, — men 
 whose chief profit, in business, is derived 
 from commissions charged upon the transfer of 
 capital from hand to hand, without being 
 deeply affected, themselves, by the rise or 
 the fall in prices of commodities. 
 Third, — Men connected with the purely productive classes. 
 Now, in regard to \he first class: — 
 There was scarcely any market for gold bullion, in this 
 country, during many years of the late war : while gold 
 coin was but little seen, as a part of our circulating 
 medium. By enacting a law to enforce cash-payments in 
 a gold standard, the best and the most extensive market 
 for the precious metals was immediately created. There- 
 fore, though it was proper to take the evidence of cam- 
 bists, bullion-brokers, and men much concerned with 
 Foreign Exchanges ; yet, as these persons were deeply 
 interested in raising up a market for themselves, their 
 evidence should have been received in the same manner 
 as an upright judge would receive similar evidence in a 
 court of justice. It should have been rebutted by other 
 evidence, from witnesses who had an opposite interest. 
 The same observation applies to all persons whoso chief 
 income is derived irum Government-securities ; because
 
 74 
 
 they must be enriched by any measure which reduces the 
 prices of commodities, without a corresponding reduction 
 in the amount of their annual dividends. 
 
 And, respecting the second class : — 
 
 If a London banker, or broker, or commission-mer- 
 chant, derive an income of ten thousand pounds a year, 
 by transferring capital, in raonej'^, or in goods, from one 
 hand to another, for his distant correspondents, — charging 
 a small commission-profit upon each transfer, for his 
 labour, — he has no direct interest, which can be injured 
 by a fall in the prices of commodities : while persons of 
 this description, having no necessity for employing their 
 own property in productive industry, invest, in nine cases 
 out of ten, their individual capital in the Public Funds ; 
 and have, consequently, an interest which, in great mea- 
 sure, is the same as that of persons in the^r*^ class. 
 
 But, in regard to the third class, — the matter is alto- 
 gether different: — 
 
 Bankers, brokers, and commission-merchants, — all men 
 who derive income for the labour or attention which they 
 bestow upon the property and concerns of others, — have 
 but little direct interest in changes in the value of the 
 currency. When the standard is raised, they are placed, 
 at the least, one degree from its ruinous effects : and, by 
 great wariness and skill, they may wholly escape from 
 danger, in regard to the loss of their own capital stock. 
 But, if a man, instead of gaining an income by this sort 
 of brokerage or agency, gain, for example, £1,000 a 
 year, by employing £10,000 in some process which re- 
 quires him to keep that sum invested in the materials 
 which he works up or deals in ; that man is immediately 
 affected by changes in the currency : And, the slower 
 the process by which he prepares his commodities for
 
 75 
 
 market, the more direct and speedy will be his loss ot" 
 capital or ruin. His £10,000, in stock, may consist^ — one 
 half, of his own property, — the other half, of borrowed 
 capital : in that case, a fall of only 30 per cent., with 
 prices continuing depressed at that reduction, will promptly 
 and inevitably ruin him, because his scale of expenses, 
 which profit alone could sustain, cannot be suddenly re- 
 duced in a corresponding manner. On examination, it 
 will be found that people, whose capital is employed in 
 almost all the ancient and permanent internal sources of 
 wealth, — in agriculture and manufactures, — are precisely 
 in this condition. — Persons engaged in the cotton-manufac- 
 ture may be less influenced by the change than others, be- 
 cause the process by which the fabric is prepared for sale is 
 more quickly performed. The cotton-manufacture, however, 
 is not one of our ancient sources of wealth: it has risen 
 into importance during the last sixty years : And, although 
 some statesmen and economists appear to regard it as the 
 heart of our manufacturing system, there are circumstan- 
 ces connected with it, which afford reasonable ground for 
 apprehending that its advantages are ephemeral, and its 
 present importance delusive. — All the ancient sources of 
 the nation's wealth, and those which are intrinsically the 
 most valuable, are in a state to be deeply and perma- 
 nently injured, by the altered value of money, and the 
 changes in the Banking- affairs of the country. Conse- 
 quently, from this third class, — men connected with the 
 purely productive classes, — the information should have 
 been particular and comprehensive, before the hazardous 
 experiment of raising the value of the currency was 
 resolved upon. 
 
 If the measures of the Legislature had proceeded under 
 the guidance of these just and indispensable principles, 
 no man could then have said, that those measures stand pre-
 
 76 
 
 eminent amongst judicial proceedings, as an example of 
 partiality and injustice. 
 
 There have been, during the present century, only two 
 formal investigations (if that term can be applied to inqui- 
 ries so conducted) into the general state of the currency ; 
 viz. That which was undertaken by the Bullion-committee 
 of 1810 ; and that, by the Secret-committee of 1819, over 
 ■which Mr. Peel presided. The following is a list of the 
 witnesses examined on these occasions, with the character 
 of their occupations ; which character is taken from the 
 account rendered to the Committee by the witnesses 
 themselves, or from notorious circumstances. The num- 
 bers prefixed to their names mark which of the three 
 classes of witnesses they, respectively, belong to. 
 
 Witnesses examined hy the 
 Secret Committee of 
 1819, on the Expediency 
 of the Bank resuming 
 Cash-Payments. 
 
 2 George Dorrien, Esq. Merchant, 
 
 Governor of the Bank of England. 
 
 2 Charles Pole, Esq. Merchant, 
 
 Deputy-Governor of the Bank 
 
 of England. 
 2 Jeremiah Harm an, Esq. Mer- 
 
 chant, a Bank Director, 
 2 William Haldimand, Esq. Bler- 
 
 chant, a Bank Director. 
 
 1 Wm. Ward, Esq. Cambist and 
 Mediterranean Merchant, a 
 Bank Director. 
 
 2 Samuel Thornton, Esq. Merchant, 
 a Bank Director. 
 
 2 John Irving, Esq. M.P. General 
 
 Merchant. 
 2 John Gladstone, Esq. West and 
 
 East India Merchant. 
 
 Witnesses examined hy the 
 Bullion Committee of 
 1810. 
 
 1 Aaron Asher Goldsmid, Esq. 
 Bullion-broker. 
 
 1 S. T. Binns, Esq. Dealer in Bid- 
 lion. 
 
 1 Wm. Merle, Esq. Gold Refiner, 
 
 and London Banker. 
 
 2 Charles Lyne, Esq. Portugal 
 
 Merchant. 
 2 Thomas Hughan, Esq. M.P. 
 
 West India Merchant. 
 1 John Lewis Greffulhe, Esq. 
 
 Continental Merchant. 
 
 1 Mr. , ContinentalMerchant. 
 
 2 John Whitmore, Esq. Merchant, 
 
 Governor of the Bank. 
 
 1 Abraham Goldsmid, Esq. Bler- 
 
 chant, dealing in Exchanges. 
 
 2 Wm. Cecil Chambers, Esq. Ge- 
 neral Merchant. 
 
 2 James Wm. Morrison, Esq. De- 
 puly Master of the Mint.
 
 77 
 
 2 Samuel Williams, Esq. American 
 Merchant. 
 
 1 John Allen, Esq. a gentleman ac- 
 
 quainted with the produce of the 
 Mines of Spanish and Portu- 
 guese America. 
 
 2 Ebenezer Gilchrist, Esq. Mana- 
 
 ger of a Chartered Bank in 
 Scotland. 
 
 2 Thomas Thompson, Esq. M.P. 
 Banker, at Hull. 
 
 2 Robert Bingley, Esq. Assay Mas- 
 ter of the 3Iint. 
 
 1 Dr. Kelly, Cambist. 
 
 2 John Pearse, Esq. Merchant, 
 
 Deputy Governor of the Bank. 
 
 2 Thomas Richardson, Esq. Lon- 
 don Bill-broker. 
 
 2 Wm. Coningham, Esq. His evi- 
 dence relates to the Exchanges 
 between Dublin and London. 
 
 1 Sir Francis Baring, Bart. London 
 
 Merchant. 
 
 2 Edward Wakefield, Esq. His 
 
 evidence relates to the Currency 
 of Ireland. 
 
 2 Wm. Irving, Esq. Inspector Ge- 
 neral of Expoi-ts and Lnports. 
 
 2 V. Stuckey, Esq. Country Banker, 
 with an Office in the Treasury, 
 and Secretary to Mr. Huskisson. 
 
 2 John Henton Tritton, Esq. Lon- 
 don Banker. 
 
 2 Jeremiah Havmau, Esq. Mer- 
 chant, a Bank Director. 
 
 1 Mr. John Humble, Clerk in the 
 Bullion Office in the Bank of 
 England. 
 
 1 Charles Grant, Esq. M.P. East 
 
 India Director. 
 
 2 William Thomas, London Bill- 
 
 broker, and Inspector of the 
 Clearing House. 
 
 1 S. C, Holland, Esq. Partner with 
 
 Baring U7id Co. London Mer- 
 chants. 
 
 2 Thomas Tooke, Esq. Partner with 
 
 Thornton and Co. Russia Mer- 
 chants. 
 
 1 David Ricardo, Esq. Member of 
 the Stock Exchange, and Loan- 
 contractor. 
 
 1 Hieronimus Burmester, Esq. Spa- 
 nish and Portugal Blerchant. 
 
 1 N.M.Rothschild, Esq. iixc/iawg-c 
 
 and Bullion Merchant, Foreign 
 Banker, and Loan-contractor. 
 
 2 Lewis Loyd, Esq. London Banker. 
 2 Samuel Gurney, Esq. London 
 
 Bill-broker. 
 1 Alex. Baring, Esq. M.P. London 
 Merchant. 
 
 1 I. L. Goldsmid, Esq. Bullion- 
 
 broker. 
 
 2 E. Gilchrist, Esq. Manager of a 
 
 Chartered Bank in Scotland. 
 2 John Smith, Esq. M.P. London 
 
 Banker. 
 1 Robert Mushet, Esq. First Clerk 
 
 to the Master of the Mint. 
 
 1 John Ward, Esq. General Mer- 
 
 chant, engaged in ForeignLoans. 
 
 2 Vincent Stuckey, Esq. Country 
 
 Banker, Secretary to Mr. Hus- 
 kisson. 
 
 2 Hudson Gurney, Esq. Country 
 Banker, at Norwich. 
 
 2 Thomas Smith, Esq, London Ac- 
 countant.
 
 78 
 
 It appears from the foregoing list, that, — 
 
 Of the first class of witnesses, who might have a di- 
 rect powerful interest in the issue which the views of the 
 Committees have greatly promoted, there were TWENTY 
 witnesses examined : — 
 
 Of the second class, who, as men engaged in traffic, 
 had very little immediate concern in the issue ; and who, 
 as capitalists, might have an interest similar to that of 
 those in the first class ; there were THIRTY-THREE 
 witnesses examined : — 
 
 Of the Third class, or men connected with the purely 
 productive classes, — men, who must inevitably be deeply 
 affected by the measure, and who might be essentially and 
 permanently injured, in their circumstances, character, 
 and condition in life, by its operation,— there was NOT 
 ONE witness examined.* 
 
 * A judgement may be formed of the vital importance, in the issue, 
 of the characters of these witnesses, from the following declaration, 
 made by Mr. Peel, when he introduced his celebrated Bill :— 
 
 " In turning his mind to this question, he had attended much to the 
 evidence given before the Committee; by that evidence he had been 
 guided in a great degree. lie did not mean the evidence of mere 
 theoretical men, but of men of practice and acquainted with the 
 nature of the commerce of the country ; and from that evidence he 
 drew the conclusion, that we ought to return as soon as possible to the 
 ancient and permanent standard of value."— Jfansart/'s Debates. 
 
 While it is admitted, that the opinions of the merchants, and 
 brokers, and bankers, whose opinions, alone, have swayed the public 
 councils, may have been perfectly sincere; it is, at the same time, 
 undeniable, that their interest may have been promoted by the mea- 
 sures of the BuUionista. The petitioner declares, that he never met 
 with an inteUigent person, acquainted with the concerns of the produc- 
 tive classes, who did not agree with him in ascribing the distresses of 
 the country to the altered value of the currency. The evidence 
 taken by the Agricultural-committee of 1821 flows in this channel, 
 from the witnesses, in many cases when it was not expected 
 or sought for. The evidence of Mr. Wakefield, a land-ngent, is
 
 79 
 
 Sach was the manner of conducting a judicial proceed- 
 ing — the most important that was ever presented, for 
 deliberation, to the minds of men ! Looking at these 
 lists, it will be difficult for an impartial historian not to 
 conclude that this must have resulted from design ; yet 
 we know that, however erroneous and misdirected might 
 be their proceedings, the intention of the members of the 
 Committees was to benefit the community. 
 
 It is known that some of these witnesses, whose names 
 appear in the first and second classes, — actuated by a 
 benevolent and disinterested spirit, and rendered saga- 
 cious and prudent by experience, — did give such cau- 
 tionary evidence, as ought to have withheld the Commit- 
 tees from any decision, without a thorough and impartial 
 investigation into the merits of the case,— without exer- 
 cising the most circumspect and deliberate judgement, 
 respecting the consequences of their decision. But this 
 circumstance only aggravates the charge of inconsiderate- 
 ness : A charge, the truth of which must be brought home 
 to the conviction of all reasonable men, when they reflect 
 that such a thorough and impartial investigation was 
 
 conclusive, upon this point : and it is remarkable, that this gentle- 
 man states his strong conviction on the subject, notwithstanding the 
 prejudices which he had adopted againsi the body of Country Bankers, 
 on account of some failures, with the disasterous effects of which he 
 had become acquainted. The following are two answers extracted 
 from his valuable evidence : 
 
 " The rise in prices (up to the year 1813) was gradual, and, with the 
 majority of persojis, I believe imperceptible ; and every body was acting as 
 if no bad times were ever to take place," 
 
 " Up to the year 1813, one man might buy his estate dearer than 
 another; but none appeared to be too dear, for they might always be 
 sold, a year or two after, for a higher price than had been given for 
 them." — Evidence taken by the Agricultural-committee, 1821.
 
 80 
 
 granted lo the people of Scotland, and that, in that case, 
 the Committees of both Houses of Parliament arrived at a 
 conclusion, precisely the opposite of that upon which this 
 animadversion is made. — 
 
 Whenever Theoretic Philosophy is brought to effect im- 
 portant changes in the practical concerns of life, without 
 the guidance of experience, it is altogether a matter of 
 chance whether good or evil be the consequence.— 
 
 The foregoing brief and imperfect analysis of the cha- 
 racter of the proceedings of the two Committees of Par- 
 liament, which have influenced the ex-parte judgements 
 against the people, appears, now, more than ever, neces- 
 sary, when, from the speeches in Parliament, it is become 
 evident that the present Ministers derive all their know- 
 ledge, on the important subjects of Currency and Banks, 
 from exactly the same classes of persons as those lo 
 which their predecessors resorted. 
 
 Before proceeding to take a brief notice of the present 
 opinions of the Government, as far as they have been 
 made known, it may be right to place in view the heads 
 of the case contained in the foregoing Petition. It is 
 therein urged : — That, with incidental and unimportant 
 checks in its progress, the currency of the country was in 
 a course of depreciation, from the year 1780 to the year 
 1814. That this depreciation was accompanied with a 
 constantly increasing amount of paper-money; a constant 
 multiplication and increase of the means for adapting 
 capital — real and representative — to the uses of industry, 
 at home, and to the extension of commerce, abroad. 
 That these combined forces — depreciation, multiplication 
 of Banks, and increase of credit and paper-money — 
 stimulated, to such a degree, all departments of industry.
 
 81 
 
 that the effect was something like what the effect would 
 be, of newly discovered and important powers for the 
 creation of wealth being suddenly and exclusively given 
 to England. From the rapid consequent accumulation of 
 wealth, the King's ministers drew, those resources, which 
 enabled them finally to terminate, in a triumphant manner, 
 a war of unexampled expense and duration. Great as 
 were the resources which the Government drew from the 
 people, so greatly augmented, at the same time, were the 
 means of accumulation, that private wealth increased with 
 a more rapid progression than the public revenue. The 
 rents of farms and buildings were doubled, trebled, and 
 quadrupled : all charges for living and personal expendi- 
 ture were increased in a corresponding manner : and all 
 settlements and family arrangements were made in relation 
 to the new state of things. The cost of all durable means 
 and instruments, for the creation and diffusion of produc- 
 tions, — such as mills, ships, warehouses, docks, roads, 
 canals ; and the capital that gives value to mines and 
 colonial plantations ; was augmented in a similar manner. 
 
 (Hoio extraordinary and unexatiijjled, in degree, should 
 he the caution, the circumspection, and the wisdom, of those 
 men, ivho undei'taJce to deal with and adjust the concerns 
 of the country, in such novel and extraordinary circum- 
 stances.) 
 
 The tide of our affairs, which, with temporary and 
 partial checks and obstructions, flowed in a prosperous 
 direction, from the year 1780 to the year 1814, — bearing, 
 in its course, the principles of creation, of life, of power, — 
 was, at the latter period, suddenly changed ; and, with 
 partial checks and obstructions, also, in its backward 
 course, it has been flowing (but not with so much ra- 
 pidity) in a contrary direction, — bearing with it, the prin- 
 ciples of destruction, of inanition, of weakness.
 
 82 
 
 It is necessary to impress these circumstances forcibly 
 on the mind, in order that some effects, which appear to 
 men in power inexplicable, may be more clearly compre- 
 hended. 
 
 It is urged by the Petitioner, — That, owing to the 
 indiscreet measures of the Government respecting the 
 currency, prices of commodities are become so ruinously 
 low, that capital and industry yield no profit. That the 
 resources of the country are rapidly declining. Tliat 
 rents and taxes are paid, in great measure, out of stock; 
 and not out of profits. That, consequently, much capital, in 
 the hands of the cultivators of the soil, and in the hands 
 of those men who employ it in the ancient sources of pro- 
 duction, is either undergoing destruction, or is withdrawn 
 from those sources. That, if the causes, which have pro- 
 duced this destruction or removal of capital, remain in 
 unchecked operation, they must inevitably lead to fatal 
 consequences ; because, however powerfully men may be 
 impelled, for a time, into such a course of action as that 
 which induces them to unite capital with industry, by the 
 hope of obtaining a livelihood, and the expectation of 
 change in the character of the times, the day is not 
 distant, when repeated failures and disappointments will 
 prevent all men from placing capital in so much risk. 
 Then, will all persons, engaged in the internal traffic of 
 the country, feel an augmented pressure from the effect 
 of those causes which have been operating such injurious 
 consequences for fifteen years. — During this period of fif- 
 teen years, there have been far greater numbers of farmers, 
 millers, cornfactors,woolstaplers, fellmongers,and tanners, 
 ruined, than had been ruined, in the same classes, during 
 the previous thirty years : And their failures have been ac- 
 companied with this remarkable distinction, so pregnant 
 with instruction, — that, amongst those ruined since 1814,
 
 83 
 
 many of them were men of industrious habits and prudent 
 character ; while, in the thirty years previous to the year 
 1814, few men were ruined in the same classes, except 
 the indolent or i7nj)rudent. — That France, especially, and 
 other rival States, are rapidly rising in wealth and power, 
 while England is declining. And, finally, Tliat a continued 
 progress, in the same ruinous career, cannot be contem- 
 plated, by any man who desires to preserve the prosperity 
 and the institutions of his country, without awful appre- 
 hension. 
 
 To this statement it may be answered, as appears from 
 the speeches of the two leading Ministers of the Crown, 
 delivered on the recent occasions when the Birmingham 
 Petition was presented to the respective Houses of Par- 
 liament, in substance as follows : — 
 
 First, — That the National Debt was not principally con- 
 tracted in a depreciated currency ; and, therefore, 
 that the restoration of the value of the currency 
 had but little to do with the distress of the country. 
 Second, — That there is a greater amount of Bauk-of- 
 England notes and sovereigns in circulation^ now, 
 than at any former period ; and that the circulating 
 medium is, at present, greater than it ever was. 
 Third, — That the people acquired extravagant habits, 
 during the war, which must now be laid aside ; and 
 they must return to quiet and sober habits. 
 Fourth, — That persons, who really possess or deserve 
 credit can still borrow money with perfect facility. 
 Fifth, — That persons, who lent their money to the Govern- 
 ment, did so upon a Parliamentary guarantee, that 
 Cash-payments, at the old standard, should be 
 restored at the end of the war. 
 Sixth, — That the country cannot be in a very bad state, 
 because the consumption of exciseable articles
 
 84 
 
 (which is the best criterion of the satisfactory con- 
 dition of the middle and lower classes of the people) 
 is not diminished. 
 Seventh, — That the measures of Government, respecting 
 the currency, could uothave the effectof diminishing 
 the capital of the country, or of rendering its trade 
 profitless, because persons would not continue, for 
 years, to carry on a trade which consumed their 
 capital ; and because the yearly rental, from land 
 and manufacturing establishments, in the county 
 of Lancaster, had increased £1,000,000 sterling, 
 between the years 1815 and 1829. 
 There was another topic urged, — viz. the destruction 
 of capital in loans to Foreign Governments, — which, as far 
 as it goes, is a good reason; but it is, altogether, of a 
 particular and insufficient character: and, besides, we 
 are, at the same time, told that we have an ample amount 
 of capital, for all the purposes of reproduction and legiti- 
 mate traffic ; therefore, according to this reasoning, that can 
 have but little to do with the generally-prevailing distress 
 amongst the productive classes of the people. To these 
 seven reasons, which are urged in answer to our case, it 
 may be replied : — 
 
 To the first, — If the real practical view of the deprecia- 
 tion of the currency, taken by the Petitioner, be correct, 
 this conclusion, which is deduced from Mr. Mushet's Ta- 
 bles, is proved to be groundless : because it is shewn in the 
 Petition, that a depreciation was going on progressively, 
 with temporary and unimportant checks in its course, from 
 the year 1780, when the National Debt did not amount to 
 one hundred and eighty millions, until the year 1814, when 
 the National Debt was the greatest. This is obviously a 
 matter not capable of mathematical proof, or its clear and 
 undeniable truth might be demonstrated, and all men
 
 85 
 
 would come to just conclusions respecting the history and 
 bearings of the depreciation. Nothing, but a practical 
 acquaintance with the operations of important commercial 
 changes, can enable an unprejudiced inquirer to arrive 
 at the truth. This knowledge has carried perfect con- 
 viction to the mind of the Petitioner: but, seeing how the 
 understanding of the most enlightened might be misled 
 and bewildered, by the mystery of the depreciation; 
 knowing that it requires a particular kind of experience, 
 to render a man able clearly to apprehend all its bear- 
 ings and changes ; he has rested his case mainly upon 
 other grounds ; which, if they be valid, disentangle it, 
 altogether, from the mystification of the degree of the 
 depreciation, at different periods. — Those grounds are : 
 That, from some cause, prices continued to advance with 
 the increase of the taxes. That a progressive advance in 
 prices afforded remuneration for the employment of 
 capital and labour. That increased taxation, therefore, 
 did not, on the whole, impoverish the productive classes 
 — the public burdens being sustained by means of profits, 
 leaving stock to accumulate in the hands of the pro- 
 ducers. That rents and taxes were fixed at a high 
 standard, by means of high prices ; but they were still 
 fixed in such a manner, up to the year 1814, as left the 
 power of accumulating capital in the hands of the pro- 
 ductive classes. This resulted solely from high prices. 
 Sheep's wool — of which the number of pounds weight 
 produced, annually, in the British Islands, exceeds the 
 number of pounds weight of cotton-wool annually manu- 
 factured, — has been lower, by fifty-seven per cent., in the 
 last three years, than it was, on the average, during the 
 eighteen years ending with 1818. — But, when high prices 
 begin to decline, — the power of accumulating capital is 
 first destroyed ; — next passes away the power of sustaining 
 
 F
 
 66 
 
 capital, without deterioration, in skilful and expensive 
 tillage, and in the means and instruments of production : — 
 then, rents and taxes are paid wholly out of capital ; 
 farms are inadequately stocked ; barns and rick-yards are 
 emptied before the proper time ; and cattle are prema- 
 turely slaughtered : — And, finally, the country is plunged 
 into general, palpable, and universally acknowledged, ruin. 
 At what precise degree, in this adverse course, we may, at 
 any date of time, have arrived, no man can say. That 
 we have been rapidly descending, since the year 1820, is 
 undeniable : and that, although the operation of those 
 malignant causes, which propelled us in this adverse 
 career, was checked by the policy of Lord Londonderry, 
 in the year 1822, — checked in such a manner as to sus- 
 pend their operation for three years ; — yet, that the same 
 causes have been gradually receiving an accession of 
 force, since the year 1825, which has been much aug- 
 mented in the present year. 
 
 If this statement be true, what concern have we with 
 the ingenious puzzle contained in Mr. Mushet's Tables 1 
 it is only another mode of reviving Mr. Ricardo's fallacy 
 of the price of gold being the criterion of depreciation. 
 The allegation is, — that, up to the year 1814, the pro- 
 ductive classes could pay rents and taxes without injuring 
 their capital ; — that, since that year, their capability to 
 pay those engagements has declined ; and that rents and 
 taxes are now paid, principally, out of stock. This is 
 the serious and important view of the case, for the consi- 
 deration of a patriotic statesman. 
 
 To the second, — If Bank-of-England notes and sovereigns 
 formed the principal part of our currency, shewing that 
 the circulation of these was unprecedently great would 
 be conclusive : but, as the issues of the Bank of England, 
 and the King's coin, together, have never, since the year
 
 87 
 
 1790, formed the principal part of our currency, the 
 point to consider is — in what state are all the other kinds 
 of the circulating- medium? Bank-of-England notes, and 
 the King's coin, may be further increased, and the cur- 
 rency may, at the same time, be so contracted, as to cause 
 prices to decline from diminished circulation. 
 
 To the third, — The habits of the people in great towns, — 
 where rents and taxes are principally spent, — have become 
 extravagant; and, in them, speculations are always gene- 
 rated and fostered : but no change has taken place in the 
 habits of the producing classes, but what is more than 
 compensated by their increased skill, and improved 
 economy, in creating national wealth. 
 
 To the fourth, — No doubt, such men as Messrs. Baring, 
 
 Rothschild, Tooke, the Bank-directors, and the counec- 
 
 tions of these gentlemen, can borrow money with facility ; 
 
 and so can the great merchants and manufacturers in the 
 
 country: But a due consideration, given to the principle 
 
 on which the practice of lending to the productive classes 
 
 rests, will shew that the practice of lending, generally, 
 
 to those classes, must wholly cease. — Capital is lent to a 
 
 producer, because the lender believes that, by the union 
 
 of capital, skill, and industry, the borrower will make it 
 
 fructify. But, experience having latterly shewn to the 
 
 lender, that the producer's own capital is sacrificed to pay 
 
 rent and taxes, he will not place his property in jeopardy ; 
 
 and, therefore, prefers lending Mr. Baring money, at an 
 
 interest of three per cent, per annum, to lending the same 
 
 to a producer, at five per cent, per annum. We, first, — by 
 
 lowering prices, — swamp the field, in which capital has 
 
 heretofore been made to fructify ; and we, then, — by our 
 
 measures against the Country Bankers, — greatly injure the 
 
 instruments, by which capital would be again promptly 
 
 f2
 
 88 
 
 applied if the pestilential waters should be drawn ofl". 
 The present state of husbandry, and the diminished 
 quantity of live-stock held by English farmers, are, to 
 the mind of the Petitioner, awful exemplifications of the 
 great change which the " Experiment" has already 
 effected. 
 
 To the fifth, — It is now universally admitted, that the en- 
 lightened members of our Legislature, when they passed a 
 law, in the year 1819, on the basis, that it could not have 
 the effect of lowering the prices of commodities more than 
 five per cent., were wholly ignorant of the state of the 
 case. Many of the persons who lent their money were, 
 themselves, Legislators ; and nearly all of them were in 
 the same class of life as Legislators. But the payers of 
 the taxes, and not the receivers, were the most concerned 
 in the matter ; and to them, therefore, the state of the law 
 ought to have been made clear, conspicuous, and familiar. 
 To give this principle of Guarantee the semblance of 
 justice, it must be shewn — that every farmer, when he 
 entered upon a farm, — every trafficker, when he made a 
 bargain, — every labourer, when he settled in an occupa- 
 tion, — was as familiar with the state of the law, as with 
 the use of his limbs. A Government, that could stimulate 
 a laborious, confiding, and generous people, to labour and 
 produce, — to give forth, for a time, much of the fruits of 
 their labour, as willing offerings for the protection of that 
 portion of the produce of their lab(>ur which they retained : 
 A Government, which should allow the value of a man's 
 stock to increase from fifty to a hundred, on purpose that 
 it might levy taxes to carry on expensive wars,— that it 
 might increase the salaries of public servants — multiply 
 offices — and make enormous grants of public money, to 
 princes, warriors, and statesmen ; and should then pass 
 a law to reduce the value of that man's stock to fiftv,
 
 89 
 
 leaving those taxes, salaries, and grants, unreduced ; 
 would be a Government of the most horrible tyranny. A 
 Parliamentary guarantee ! — For what? For something of 
 the nature of which, it is now confessed, Parliament 
 itself was entirely ignorant. At a time when the burden 
 of the taxes was increasing to its greatest amount, the 
 King's Taxing-minister prevailed upon the Parliament to 
 resolve— that a Bank-of-England One-pouud-note, and 
 a Shilling, were equal, in value, to a legal golden Guinea ! 
 This deceived the people : they willingly paid such taxes, 
 as were then demanded, — in such money, as was then re- 
 ceived, — by the tax-gatherer ; because experience told them 
 that they could do so, and still have some profit for their 
 labour and capital. This was the just basis of the agree- 
 ment between the Government and the people. And, if we 
 could suppose it possible that the Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer was, knowingly, guilty of the deception, in stating 
 the value of Paper and Gold to be equal; and that Parlia- 
 ment, designedly, concurred therein ; then, upon that 
 immutable principle which pervades all proceedings in 
 Law and Equity, — viz. that engagements bottomed in fraud 
 are null, — the compact, between the Parliament and the 
 People, for the payment of the taxes in gold money, would 
 be, ipso facto, dissolved. 
 
 To the sixth, — Seeing that the sole question, for the con- 
 sideration of statesmen, should be — whether taxes are paid 
 out of accumulated capital, or out of the profits of stock, — 
 it seems strange, that the consumption of exciseable articles 
 should be so much relied on, as an indication of the con- 
 dition of the people. Notwithstanding the high authori- 
 ties that have relied upon it, it is, at all times, evidence 
 of a vague character ; and never can be resorted to, by a 
 prudent reasoner, without great circumspection, and care- 
 ful examination of the particular circumstances relating to
 
 90 
 
 it. Take, for illustration, as one of these particular cir- 
 cumstances, the consumption of Tea : — an article so re- 
 cently introduced that it is not yet spread into general use 
 in the remote parts of England, Scotland, Wales, and 
 Ireland. Tea is, also, without any reduction in the duty, 
 now sold to the consumer, more than twenty-five per cent, 
 lower than it was a few years ago ; which tends to increase 
 the consumption. 
 
 In present circumstances, the consumption of exciseable 
 articles is, in a peculiar and remarkable manner, fallacious 
 and deceptive evidence. Suppose any commodity, con- 
 sumed by the lower and middle classes of society, to be 
 
 sold, in times of high prices, at 20, 
 
 which was then composed — 
 
 of capital and labour 12 parts, 
 
 of tax 8 parts, 
 
 20; 
 and suppose the same commodity to be 
 
 sold, in times of low prices, at 13, 
 
 which was then composed — 
 
 of capital and labour 5 parts, 
 
 of tax 8 parts. 
 
 13. 
 
 It is plain that the amount paid, for excisable articles 
 consumed, may be less by one-third ; and the quantity 
 consumed, and the tax, remain the same. 
 
 Instances might be cited, where the tax remains undimi- 
 nished, and the loss of capital is greater than is here stated. 
 If the taxes collected from the producers are as high in 
 amount as ever, when their stock, with which they pay 
 the taxes, is reduced from twelve to Jive, this argument, 
 derived from the state of the Excise-revenue, if rightly
 
 91 
 
 analyzed, would only go to prove, that the producers and 
 men of capital had been ruined, in order that the demo- 
 ralized inhabitants of great towns might consume more 
 tobacco and gin; — the exciseman's wife drink more tea, — 
 the brokers' clerks have French wines on a holiday. If 
 this conclusion be not valid, then there can be no truth in 
 that rule laid down by all Chancellors of the Exchequer, 
 viz. that lowering the price of a commodity, by diminishing 
 the tax, extends the consumption of it. The productive 
 classes, connected with the land, are not great consumers 
 of exciseable articles. The receivers of the taxes, and 
 persons connected with the distributive portion of the 
 trading community, as contradistinguished from the purely 
 productive portion, are the principal, regular, consumers of 
 exciseable articles. These, when the prices of those 
 articles are greatly reduced, have an increased power to 
 consume. — In these circumstances, any reduction in the 
 consumption must take place amongst the productive 
 classes : And, if that reduction were sufficient to make 
 any sensible impression on the Excise-revenue, it would 
 be, if continued, a most alarming symptom. It would be 
 a most unequivocal indication of the growing incapacity of 
 the producing classes, to pay the taxes : It would show 
 that the Revenue could not be collected much longer. It 
 would, when clearly seen, bring the price of Three-per- 
 Cent. Consols down to sixty, if the public had not an habi- 
 tual reliance upon the Government, that some measure 
 would be brought forward for relieving the pressure, as 
 was done, in the year 1822, under the guidance of Lord 
 Londonderry. 
 
 To the seventh, — So far from there being any general 
 satisfactory increase in the capital applied to the uses of 
 industry, there is a great and an alarming decrease in the
 
 92 
 
 capital employed in agriculture : and it is diminishing in 
 other important sources of production. The increased 
 capital in buildings and machinery, in the county of 
 Lancaster, is an effect which as clearly resulted from the 
 prosperity of 1818 and 1824-5, as the new buildings of 
 Kensington and St. Mary-le-bone, which can now be 
 purchased at one half of their original cost. — Two years of 
 profitable trade, in a manufacturing district, will cause 
 new buildings to be erected, and to be filled with machinery, 
 that may be worked, for ten or twelve succeeding years, 
 without profit : The buildings, all the time, will be assessable 
 to the rates ; and will appear like new capital, applied to 
 a profitable purpose. A man, who has embarked capital 
 in any pursuit, — except such as are connected with the 
 mere distribution of commodities, the transfer from hand 
 to hand, without any essential change in their properties, — 
 will generally cling to his establishments, while credit 
 affords him the power to do so : First, because experience 
 shows him, that, by preserving all things in a state of 
 order during an adverse period, he may possibly, by prompt 
 sagacity, turn a favourable change so much to his own 
 advantage as to restore his lost capital; and, secondly, 
 because, for a man to relinquish new buildings and costly 
 machinery is, to consent voluntarily to be struck down 
 from his condition in life, and to deprive himself of a 
 chance of recovering his station. — The case of Lancashire 
 is wholly unworthy of attention ; because, before the recent 
 valuation, there never was any attempt made, for a just 
 estimate of the real property of Lancashire — except of that 
 portion of it em])loyedin agriculture. Now, on examining 
 the return referred to, we find, that, in that county, ivhich 
 contains a dense and rapidly -increasing population, to 
 consume the products of agriculture, the capital employed
 
 93 
 
 in agriculture has, according to this return, declined iu 
 
 the last fourteen years. For example : — 
 
 In Lonsdale Hundred, the yearly value, in 
 
 1829, was £282,365. 
 
 In 1815, it was 278,156. 
 
 Total Increase 4,209. 
 
 But, deducting from the last valuation the 
 excess in the towns of Lancaster and Ulver- 
 stone, where the cotton-trade has partially 
 extended since 1815, amounting, altogether, 
 to £6242, there is a diminution, in this Hun- 
 dred, of 2,033, 
 
 notwithstanding the increase of factories in the 
 Hundred, in several other towns, and in many 
 isolated situations. 
 
 In Amonderness Hundred, the yearly value, in 
 1829, was 294,995. 
 
 In 1815, it was 258,092. 
 
 Total Increase 36,903. 
 
 But there is, in 1829, an excess in the manu- 
 facturing town of Preston, only, amounting 
 to £46,048 : taking this sum out, there is a 
 
 diminution of 9,145 
 
 in this Hundred, notwithstanding the increase of 
 factories in other places besides Preston. 
 Leyland Hundred, likewise, deducting from the yearly 
 value the excess in 1829, of £4835, over that of 1815, 
 which took place in the single manufacturing town of 
 Chorley, would leave a diminution, in this Hundred, of 
 £3588; viz. from £171,074 in 1815, to £167,486 iu 
 1829.
 
 94 
 
 The foregoing are all the Hundreds of Lancashire, 
 which are principally agricultural. The Increase in the 
 remaining Hundreds, of Blackburn, Salford, and West 
 Derby; including the towns, of Blackburn, — of Manchester, 
 Ashton, Rochdale, Bolton, — of Liverpool, Warrington, 
 &c. ; amounts to £1,066;376. But, seeing (as is shewn 
 above) that this increase, like the new untenanted buildings 
 around the Metropolis, may all result from that disease of 
 speculation which the Currency-measures have been enacted 
 to remedy or prevent, it cannot, in fairness, be taken to 
 support his case, by the distinguished Author of those 
 measures. It is always dangerous to rely upon evidence 
 of this kind, without first passing it through that sort of 
 ordeal, which may be derived from technical, local, or 
 particular knowledge. In the present instance, although 
 it was used triumphantly, and notwithstanding it has since 
 been emphatically quoted as conclusive, it is herein shown 
 to be altogether inapplicable to the case. 
 
 From the writings of some of our economists, one might 
 conclude that Lancashire were a newly-discovered country, 
 abounding in exhaustless mines of wealth. They would 
 have us look at England and the Cotton-trade, as an old 
 Spaniard looked at Spain and the Indies, Great mischief 
 may result from over-estimating any new source of wealth. 
 Spain, by directing her capital to the Mines, and neglecting 
 her internal condition, enriched individuals, and beggared 
 the nation : So we, by overvaluing the Cotton-trade, and 
 neglecting agriculture and other sources of production, 
 may witness princely individual fortunes, while innume- 
 rable farmers and little traders living scattered about the 
 country may be beggared or annihilated. If the evidence 
 of capital appUed, since 1815, to the purpose of produc- 
 tion, in Lancashire, were as satisfactory, as it is delusive
 
 95 
 
 and unsatisfactory ; any general conclusion, drawn from it, 
 would be dangerous, because (owing to the changes re- 
 specting Currency and Banks) it is accompanied with a very 
 great diminution of capital, in the older and more perma- 
 nent sources of wealth. 
 
 To that very numerous class of politicians, who say, — ■ 
 Let things alone ; if we go on, all will come right ; — who 
 find it less hazardous to their undisturbed reputation for pru- 
 dence, to fall in with a current opinion, than to apply their 
 minds to investigate an intricate and diflScult subject ; the 
 only answer is, — That it is impossible to go on : That, if we 
 could close our minds against the terrible and unexampled 
 injustice of proceeding, the attempt to go on, with taxes, 
 rents, and engagements, undiminished, would drive all 
 moveable capital from the country, and destroy the pro- 
 ductiveness of that which remained. That, although, by a 
 cruel and unprecedented rigour in the collection, taxes 
 might be paid for a time, the destruction of capital would 
 soon stop the power of collecting the taxes, and the public 
 dividends would be unpaid. That, if this state of things did 
 not speedily take place, it would be prevented only by an 
 increased emission of paper of one kind or another : and 
 then gold would leave the country ; and then apprehension, 
 hoarding of gold, panic, and ruin, would succeed. That 
 we may go on, as we have gone on since the year 1815, in 
 these alternations of speculative prosperity and real adver- 
 sity, growing weaker and weaker as we proceed : but that 
 the System can terminate in nothing but wide-spread 
 misery amongst the people, the destruction of our Financial- 
 system, and national degradation. 
 
 The ten years, which succeeded the first American War, 
 were remarkably favourable to the developement and
 
 96 
 
 extension of the productive powers of the country ; and, 
 consequently, Mr. Pitt acquired, in those ten years, all 
 the glory which belongs to a Minister who restores dilapi- 
 dated finances. The resources of the country were, also, 
 unimpaired, and were capable of great increase and exten- 
 sion, at the termination of the contest with Napoleon. If 
 wisdom had guided the councils of the statesmen, at that 
 period, the duty, of restoring our finances, and of placing 
 the country in a state of permanent prosperity, — the 
 Government in a condition of unassailable power, — might 
 have been easily performed. Now, unhappily, a progress 
 of fourteen years, in an erroneous policy, has deeply 
 injured our resources : and, during that period, other 
 States have been gaining strength and augmenting capital, 
 which will affect us in our future competition with them, in 
 a career of industrious rivalry. But such remarkable effects 
 having been produced in other countries, by our measures 
 for effecting changes in the currency, is a circumstance, 
 which, of itself, renders manifest our commercial power 
 and ascendency ; and affords ground for hope, to such as 
 the Petitioner, who, seeing the impending evil, are still 
 aware that a timely change in our policy may restore us 
 to comparative health, vigour, and prosperity. 
 
 The just arrangement of the currency is the measure 
 which can, alone, afford a chance of the Free-trade System 
 (which now seems to form a part of the permanent policy 
 of the State) remaining any thing but a system of absurdity 
 and injustice. Time, however, is now become of great 
 importance in settling this momentous Question, as well as 
 principle; and every succeeding year increases the difficulty 
 of rectification.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 Lord Lauderdale, in an able work, intituled ** Depre- 
 ciation of the Paper Currency of Great Britain 
 Proved," published in the year 1812, introduced, both 
 in the text and in the notes, some valuable information 
 respecting the state of the currency, and the prices of 
 commodities, in the years 1695 and 1696. The 
 following extracts are selected from that work : — 
 
 " Yet a rapid rise in the price of our commodities and of guineas, 
 which at that time" (1695) "circulated as commodities; — a 
 great reduction in the rate of interest ; — a wonderful augmentation 
 in the value of government securities; — and a still more rapid rise 
 in the value of Bank Stock, are all features, which as well as an 
 advance in the price of gold, — and an increase of the unfavourable 
 rate of exchange with foreign countries, distinguished the pecu- 
 niary history of the short space betwixt the establishment of the 
 Bank of England, and the 4th of May, 1696, after which, under 
 the enactment of the 7th of William and Mary, cap. 1. sect. 5, 
 it became the interest of individuals to return the surplus of notes 
 in circulation for that standard coin in which even their taxes could 
 alone be paid. 
 
 " It does not indeed appear, either in the discussion that took 
 place on the bill for remedying the ill state of the coin of the king- 
 dom, or on any other occasion during the session of parliament 
 which terminated in the end of April, 1696, that the probable 
 effects of this sudden transition from the clipped money to coin of 
 the standard value— on the price of commodities,— on the state
 
 98 
 
 of the bank circulation,— and on public credit, was at all an- 
 ticipated. 
 
 " The science of bankini^ was then in its infancy; neither the 
 benefits to be derived from paper properly regulated, nor the mis- 
 chiefs attending the abuse of it, had become matter of history. 
 The Bank of England itself had not been established for two 
 whole years ; and, from the circumstance of the times, it had 
 never felt the consequences of that check which naturally arises 
 out of the necessity of paying on demand in coin equivalent in 
 value to denomination of the note. 
 ***** * • 
 
 " There exists, perhaps, no record of circumstances that afibrd 
 a more instructive lesson on the sound principles by which paper 
 currency ought to be regulated, than what is to be collected from 
 the economical history of this period. The Bank, within the 
 short space of one year, saw their notes anxiously sought after, 
 even at a small premium, when depreciated by excess, — and 
 afterwards reduced by discredit, from their being obliged to delay 
 cash payments, into a state in which they could with difficulty be 
 circulated,^ even at twenty per cent, discount. 
 
 " Yet, if we believe cotemporary writers, who are only the 
 more deserving of credit, from their having been unconscious of 
 the inference authorised by the facts they have detailed ; the notes 
 of the Bank of England, when, in 1696, they were at a discount 
 of twenty per cent, in comparison of standard coin, were actually 
 more valuable, in reference to commodities, than when issued in 
 superabundance they were sought after at a premium. 
 
 " At the former period, we know that wool sold at the enormous 
 price of thirty-six shillings a tod : at the latter period, it was 
 reduced to twenty shiUings. In 1695, therefore, when the Bank 
 of England notes were said to be at a premium, a tod of wool 
 could not be had under one pound sixteen shillings ; that is, for 
 less than one Bank-note and four-fifths of a Bank-note ; whilst, 
 in 1696, a tod of the same wool, though the Bank-note was only 
 worth sixteen shillings, could be procured for twenty shillings, that 
 is, for one Bank-note and one quarter of a Bank-note. 
 
 " But the case of wool is only selected to explain and illustrate 
 what more or less took place in relation to the value of all commo- 
 dities, as estimated in Bank-notes, at these several periods. In 
 truth, the price of every article was in like manner increased in 
 1695: — for we are distinctly told, that when guineas, the value of 
 which was not then fixed by law, had advanced to thirty shillings,
 
 99 
 
 all commodities had proportionally sustained a more formidable 
 rise. Without, however, pushing things to an extreme, let us 
 suppose that the rise in the value of guineas, which then circulated 
 as commodities, only equalled that which took place with respect 
 to all other commodities ; it is, even on this supposition, evident 
 that it must have required one twenty-shilling note, and one half 
 of a note, when notes in 1695 were in such abundance and so 
 much sought after, to purchase that quantity of commodity which 
 could be acquired in 1696, when, in reference to cash, they were 
 at a discount of twenty per cent, for one note and three-eighths of 
 a note. For, at the former period, it must have required one note 
 and one half of a note to acquire a guinea, then of value thirty 
 shillings. At the latter period, the note, though at twenty per 
 cent, discount, being still worth sixteen shillings, one note, together 
 with six shillings, which is three-eighths of sixteen shillings, made 
 up twenty-two shillings, the value of a guinea, 
 ****** • 
 
 " It is impossible, however, even for the wildest theorist amongst 
 our modern practical men, to dispute that Bank-notes were of more 
 value, in reference to tin, to lead, to manufactures, and to edibles,* 
 when a given quantity of any of these articles could, in the sum- 
 mer of 1696, be obtained for one note and three-eighths of a note, 
 than when the same quantity cost, in 1695, one note and one-half 
 
 * " On looking over the tables of the price of wheat and malt in 
 the Windsor market, as printed in the Tracts on the Corn-Trade ; 
 in Dr. Smith's Treatise on the Wealth of Nations ; and in many 
 other publications, notwithstanding what Mr. Lowndes has reported, 
 on the value of (what he calls) edibles, it appears that wheat was 
 lower in value in 1695 than 1696, though this was not the case with 
 malt: grain, however, is an article that fluctuates so much in its 
 value from year to year, that no inference can be drawn from the 
 price it bears concerning the value of circulating medium, unless 
 accompanied with accurate details on the comparative fertility of 
 the seasons. Indeed, the impossibility of drawing any conclusion 
 from the price of wheat relative to the value of paper currency, 
 becomes evident from what passed in the province of New York ; 
 for when, in the year 1738 and 1739, it was by no one disputed, 
 that a rise in the value of silver marked the extent of the depre- 
 ciation of paper in circulation, it is recorded, in the discourse con- 
 cerning the currency of the British Plantations, that wheat sold at 
 eighteen shillings a bushel in paper, when silver was only twenty- 
 seven shillings an ounce, and that, though, in the latter year, silver 
 advanced to twenty-nine shillings an ounce, wheat sold at ten shil- 
 lings a bushel."
 
 100 
 
 of a note } anil it is still more impossible to contend that Bank- 
 notes had not risen in value, in comparison of wool, when one 
 note and a fourth of a note purchased a tod of that commodity, 
 which could not be obtained in 1695 for less than one note and 
 four- fifths of a note. 
 
 " Important as these details must appear, there is yet further 
 instruction to be derived from what occurred at this, of all others, 
 the period of our history the most fertile of information on the sub- 
 ject of paper currency." 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 Tlie supply of the precious raelals, from the mines, 
 has not kept pace with the advancing state of the world 
 in population, civilization, wealth, and luxury. The 
 multiplied use of paper-money has prevented this being 
 shown, in the diminished prices of commodities in all 
 countries. — Paper-money, however, is not now in- 
 creasing in any of the great mercantile communities of 
 the world, except in that of France. It bears, at the 
 present time, in the United States of America, a 
 greater proportion to the whole currency of the coun- 
 try, than it ever bore in England, except for five or six 
 years ; but its quantity is not now augmenting. The 
 increasing caution and circumspection of the principal 
 American Banks will, for some time, prevent any rela- 
 tive increase in the quantity of paper-money in the 
 United States. — This is the thing to be most consi- 
 dered, in estimating the probable changes in the value 
 of commodities caused by the state of the circulating 
 medium, viz. the state of credit, and the amount of 
 paper-currency, in the principal mercantile communi- 
 ties of the world : The supply of precious metals, from
 
 101 
 
 the mines, is a most important part of the cousideralion ; 
 but it is secondary to this: 
 
 The amount of paper-money has undergone a con- 
 siderable diminution in England : it is lessened, in some 
 degree, in America: it is increasing, gradually and 
 slowly, in France: it is not undergoing much change in 
 other States of Europe : In some of the great mercan- 
 tile cities of Europe, the amount of paper-money has 
 sensibly decreased. Precision cannot be attained upon 
 subjects of this nature; but the Petitioner believes, that, 
 since the year 1825, there has taken place a diminution 
 of several hundred millions of pounds sterling, in the 
 paper-currency of the world : he believes this to be 
 the cause of the distress which prevails in several 
 other mercantile States, as well as in Great Britain ; 
 and he believes, moreover, that this general dis- 
 tress is owing to the erroneous opinions, respecting 
 Banks and Currency, adopted — not by the ministers, 
 alone, — but by almost all the statesmen of England. 
 England is the centre of the money-exchanges of 
 the world. Here rests the power of giving, to the 
 currency of most other commercial Stales, the quality 
 of activity, or that of inactivity. We have the power 
 of increasing or diminishing the quantity of currency 
 in other States, where coiu and paper circulate together, 
 as far as regards their paper-money. And, having the 
 power to cause the current coin of such State to be 
 quickened or retarded in its circulation, no great 
 change can take place in our own currency, without a 
 corresponding change, of a less remarkable character, 
 taking place in other States : 
 
 In the United States, notes for the fractional part 
 of a dollar are not so generally circulated as they were, 
 and the paper-currency is altogether more under the 
 control of experienced and scientific Bankers than it 
 was. The paper-currency of that country was in a 
 
 G
 
 102 
 
 more depreciated condition, soon after the last war with 
 England terminated, than at any time during- the pre- 
 sent century. And, as notes of the value of one dol- 
 lar are still in common circulation, the Americans are 
 proceeding- to rectify their currency by wise and prac- 
 ticable means, viz. by improvements in the practice 
 of Banking, arising out of the experience of the 
 people themselves : 
 
 In France, there has been no distress, except in 
 some of the large manufacturing- towns : and that dis- 
 tress appears, to the Petitioner, clearly referrable to the 
 general cause above alluded to. 
 
 If, however, the state of the paper-currency in the 
 world should be the primary consideration, in deciding- 
 upon the effects of important changes in our laws and 
 proceedings respecting the currency ; the state of the 
 supply and consumption of the precious metals forms, 
 also, a most essential part of the inquiry. And this 
 part, like the former, is involved in great obscurity 
 and uncertainty. 
 
 From the accounts of travellers and men of science, 
 there appears to be no reason to doubt that the annual 
 supply of the precious metals is diminished ; while the 
 great increase in the consumption of them, in manu- 
 factures, is a point that can admit of no dispute. Dr. 
 Smith rates the annual consumption of gold and silver 
 in Birmingham, at the value of fifty thousand pounds 
 sterling ; and he then makes the following* remarkable 
 observation : — 
 
 " The whole annual consumption of gold and silver, therefore, 
 in all the different countries of the world where those metals are 
 used, may, perhaps, be nearly equal to the whole annual produce. 
 The remainder may be no more than sufficient to supply the in- 
 creasing demand of all thriving countries. It may have fallen so 
 far short of this demand, as somewhat to raise the price of these 
 metals in the European market."
 
 The Petitioner, from inquiry, believes it to be a 
 matter capable of direct proof, that the annual con- 
 sumption of these metals, in Birmingham, now exceeds 
 six times the amount assumed by Dr. Smith : and 
 there has, also, been a great increase in their consump- 
 tion, at SiiefBeld, London, Paris, Geneva, and many 
 other places. When Dr. Smith wrote, it is probable 
 that not more than three or four of the principal hotels 
 in London used such an utensil, for the table, as a 
 silver fork : Now, silver forks are common in every 
 tavern and hotel in Loudon, resorted to by persons in a 
 condition of life not below that of commercial riders. 
 There has, also, been a great increase in other articles 
 made from gold and silver. Hence, we find silver- 
 smith's shops in every principal street of Loudon : and 
 it is believed that more gold and silver plate can be 
 found in one shop on Ludgate-hill, than could be found, 
 seventy years ago, in all the shops in the City of Lon- 
 don. Gold watches and gold seals are, now, as common 
 amongst all the dapper, smart-dressing inhabitants, 
 male and female, of all our manufacturing and com- 
 mercial Towns, as they were, when Dr. Smith wrote his 
 celebrated book, amongst the Magistrates and Lieute- 
 nants of Counties. 
 
 Seeing that the supply of the precious metals has 
 decreased, and that the consumption has prodigiously 
 increased. Cash-payments, in gold at the old standard, 
 cannot be enforced, (accompanied by the contraction 
 of any considerable portion of the paper-currency,) 
 without unexampled injustice. If this measure, which 
 unavailing efforts have been making, for fourteen years 
 past, to bring into practical operation, can be so en- 
 forced, without intolerable injustice, it will prove that 
 Dr. Smith is (as shewn in the above quotation) the 
 wildest of all speculative writers. If, however. Dr. 
 Smith were now alive, the Petitioner ventures to give 
 an opinion, that there would prevail, generally, on this 
 
 G 2
 
 104 
 
 subject, more circumspection and caution, and less 
 confidence and precipitation. — The present Currency- 
 laws received their complement only last year: we 
 have never, until the last six months, made any de- 
 cided advance towards a full completion of this policy, 
 without immediately retrograding ; and this, in the 
 sequel, will be our course again. — The BuUionists have 
 succeeded in carrying the Government with them to 
 the present time, but events will, ere long, it is 
 believed, set aside the influence of their councils. 
 The following extract from an esteemed work of the 
 present day will, with the above extract from the 
 " Wealth of Nations," serve to shew what different 
 views may be taken of this important matter, from 
 such as those to which Mr. Ricardo or Mr. Tooke 
 would give their sanction. This work is written by 
 Mr. Joseph Lowe, — a gentleman well known in the 
 literary circles of London, and who has occupied, for 
 some years, the situation of Secretary to one of the 
 Mining Companies. 
 
 " Annual Consumption of Gold and Silver, for Plate, Orna- 
 mental Ma7iufacture, and Furniture. — Calculations of this nature 
 have hitherto been founded on returns from towns which, like 
 Geneva, were remarkable for the manufacture of watches, or, 
 like Paris and Birmingham, fur gilding, trinkets, and other orna- 
 mental fabrics. At present, however, we are inclined to draw 
 our inferences from a wider field, — from a calculation of the pro- 
 bable amount of individual income founded on the public burdens 
 of this and other countries. If we return to our property tax 
 returns during the war, and make allowance, on the one hand, for 
 the reduction of income ; on the other, for the increase of numbers 
 that have since taken place, we shall find reason to estimate the 
 number of 
 Families in England, Scotland, and Wales, possessing £ 
 
 ^200 a year and upwards, at 100,000 
 
 And taking our island as representing, in point of such 
 incomes, a fourth of the civilized world, we add for 
 the latter, that is, for the rest of Europe and the 
 United States of America 300,000 
 
 Together 400,000
 
 lOo 
 
 Families wiiose incomes are between ^60 
 and ^'200, a year, amount, in Great Bri- 
 tain, to nearly 400,000 
 
 Add, for tlie rest of Europe and the 
 
 United States of America 1,200,000 
 
 Together 1,000,000 
 
 Now a consumption, on the part of the former class, 
 at the conjectural average of ^t 10 a family annually, 
 would give £ 4,000,000 
 
 The same for the second class, at the rate of some- 
 what less than £2 : 10 . per family 3,000,000 
 
 Add, for the consumption of the lower orders in 
 
 watches, ear-rings, buckles, &c 1,000,000 
 
 Total <i 8,000,000 
 
 These large sums include loss by accident and wear; 
 but as a considerable amount of old plate or old 
 manufacture is annually melted and wrought np, we 
 deduct, as not forming a demand on the mines 2,000,000 
 
 Remainder, being the conjectural amount of specie 
 from the mines aimually required for plate and orna- 
 mental manufacture or furniture ^6,000,000" 
 
 On this extract, the Petitioner has only to remark, 
 that six millions sterling- is taken by Mr. Lowe as '' the 
 conjectural amount of specie from the mines annually 
 required for plate and ornamental manufacture :" and 
 that Dr. Smith estimates the whole produce of gold 
 and silver in the world at about six millions sterling 
 a year. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 Any allenlive and unprejudiced observer of the cir- 
 cumstances of this age, who will patiently trace effects
 
 10(> 
 
 to adequalo causes, must perceive, that, during the 
 reign of his late Majesty, there took place, in this 
 country, so extraordinary a developement and ex- 
 tension of two great and important kinds of power 
 in commercial philosophy, as to warrant this descrip- 
 tion : — that they were two vast and untried sources of 
 power, with whose properties and influence all rulers 
 were entirely ignorant; entrusted to the Government of 
 England ; — the first example of the kind, in the history 
 of nations. I mean, — first, the Banking-system and 
 Paper-credit, — secondly, the amazing results of experi- 
 niental science, the most remarkable instance of which 
 is the Steam-Engine. Law's great scheme — suddenly 
 created, and suddenly destroyed — had nothingin itanalo- 
 gous to our minute and perfect Banking-system — which 
 became adapted, by slow degrees, to the wants of the 
 people. And, although the unfolding of both these ex- 
 traordinary forces, in this country, may be traced to the 
 previous century, — the one, in the establishment of the 
 Bank of England, and the circulation of the notes of 
 London goldsmiths ; and the other, in the writings of 
 the Marquess of Worcester ; — yet, (owing, partly, to the 
 failure of the Mississipi Scheme, and the disasters 
 which resulted from the South-Sea Bubble; and, partly, 
 to the caution which prevailed in men's minds, on ac- 
 count of a disputed succession to the throne;) they re- 
 mained without extension and full developement, until 
 the reign of George III. In the late King's reign, they 
 were extended and matured. These extraordinary 
 forces gave such an impetus to the creation of wealth, 
 and produced such changes in political affairs, that it 
 was as essential that their properties should be under- 
 stood by the Government, as it was that the properties of 
 gunpowder should be understood by the warriors who 
 first availed themselves of its use. It is, however, 
 now manifest, that we have had no Minister, who ap-
 
 107 
 
 plied his mind, diligently, lo Ihe obU^ining of a full and 
 perfect comprehensioaof these novel and extraordinary 
 powers. They have been in extended operation for 
 about fifty years, and have been used by the Govern- 
 ment as sources of great national strength, without 
 their qualities and influences being understood by 
 public men. 
 
 Mr. Cobbett said that the establishment of mail- 
 coaches was the glory of Mr. Pitt's sway. That esta- 
 blishment is a beautiful example of science and art ap- 
 plied to the use of men in civilized life, in one of their 
 most interesting concerns. Ilis, however, but one branch, 
 — and a very insignificant branch, — that, like roads and 
 canals, issued from these two great sources of wealth 
 and iuiprovcment, which, in the year 1784, had begun 
 to produce their stimulating effects. To the same 
 cause must be ascribed the fact, that the state of the 
 whole internal communications of England was, a few 
 years ago, a century in advance of those of the Con- 
 tinent of Europe. 
 
 The present Earl of Liverpool, who has shewn a 
 capacity for comprehending and appreciating these 
 matters not inferior to that of his late distinguished 
 brother, said that the " brightest glory" of Mr. Pitt's pub- 
 lic character was derived from his restoring our financial 
 strength, after the injuries and dilapidations caused by 
 the American War. But it was the Bankers, and Paper- 
 money, — and steam-engines, and improved husbandry, 
 — that poured strength into Mr. Pitt's Administration, 
 and enabled him to repair our finances : A kind of 
 strength, which, with skilful management in regard to 
 Bankers and Paper-money, would have enabled him 
 to pay off nearly the whole of the then-existing Debt 
 within six years from 1793, if we had liad peace in- 
 stead of war. 
 
 Mr. Pitt applied, and made extraordinary ut;c of,
 
 108 
 
 the power which he derived from these novel and re- 
 markable sources of political strength. And, although 
 it is manifest that be did not fully comprehend their 
 nature, there can be no doubt, that, if he had lived and 
 been in Office at the termination of the war, he would 
 have adjusted the currency, and the burdens of the 
 country, in an equitable manner ; leaving these great 
 sources of strength in unimpaired efficiency. If this 
 had been done, the finances of the country might, at 
 the present time, have been in a better state than that 
 in which they were, in the year 1792. What a contrast 
 to our present condition ! 
 
 Mr. Pitt gave his familiar but earnest attention to 
 men from all classes of life, if they were capable of 
 giving him information on interesting and important 
 matters. The Ministers, since his day, have given the 
 same kind of attention to none but bullion and ex- 
 change merchants of London, Bank-directors, and 
 the merchants and manufacturers of Lancashire. If 
 he had been alive, he would have investigated the com- 
 plicated Question of the Currency, thoroughly, by seek- 
 ing evidence from all classes, (as was done recently, in 
 the case of Scotland,) before he had rushed into a 
 course of experimental legislation, which might bring 
 the country into unexampled difficulty and danger. 
 
 If this great Minister did not fully understand the 
 nature of these two sources of power, Lord Liverpool 
 and Mr. Canning were still further from appreciating, 
 justly, their influence. — From all the contemporaries 
 of these distinguished men. Lord Grey should be se- 
 lected as the statesman who has taken the most en- 
 larged and perspicuous views of this important subject. 
 It is curious to observe, that this is probably owing to 
 his Lordship's intercourse with the sensible men 
 amongst the productive classes in Northumberland : 
 he docs not receive impressions exclusively from Lon- 
 
 I
 
 109 
 
 don-men. But, however correct Lord Grey's opinions 
 may be, it would, now, be vain to expect that his 
 Lordship would take a leading part in such measures 
 as would be requisite to set the matter right. Those 
 measures could not be undertaken, without a certain 
 boldness and resoluteness of character, which, we fear, 
 belongs not to a man who is retiring from public life, 
 with a very high and uncommon reputation for pru- 
 dence, integrity, and wisdom. He might gain additional 
 glory, but ten years of error, since Mr. Peel's Bill was 
 passed, have increased the risk. — Mr. Brougham's mind 
 is a vast store-house, crammed with learning of all 
 kinds ; but he is too much occupied in taking in, and 
 delivering out, knowledge, to allow him time to inves- 
 tigate, with candour and patience, the new combina- 
 tion of circumstances, which demand the deliberation 
 and judgment of the statesmen of this day. — The time of 
 the King's Ministers is so entirely taken up, in prepara- 
 tions for the Parliamentary campaigns, and in requisite 
 relaxation from their labours, that we cannot expect 
 that they will relinquish their prejudices, give up their 
 consistency, and investigate and judge with impar- 
 tiality. — Where, then, must we look for justice and 
 protection? We must trust that a powerful Country 
 Party will arise, to protect our rights. 
 
 It is, however, remarkable, that, not only have states- 
 men, but the most acute and philosophical writers have in 
 like manner, wholly misapprehended the nature and 
 efiects of these new and extraordinary sources of 
 political power. The following extracts, taken from a 
 work ivritten hy Dr. Price in the year 1775, in the 
 very centre of that interesting period which is selected 
 by the Petitioner for the purpose of illustrating this 
 subject, will shew how powerfully his staid and mathe- 
 matical mind was wrought upon, by the changes which 
 were then taking place in the state of the circulating
 
 110 
 
 medium. Dr. Price, with so contracted a view of the 
 character of these new sources of power, would, at that 
 period, have little notion, that, so rapid would .be the 
 individual accumulations of wealth, so stable the credit 
 of the Government, that, at the end of fifty years from 
 the time when he penned these glooray sentences, the 
 little obscure society at Black Friars, which he raised 
 and fostered, would be in the possession of ten millions 
 of property, eight-tenths of which would be invested 
 in Government-securities with the perfect confidence 
 and approbation of its proprietors. 
 
 " At the Revolution, the specie of the kingdom amounted, ac- 
 cording to Devenant's account, to eighteen millions and a half. 
 From the Accession to the year 177'2, there were coined at the 
 Mint near twenty-nine millions of gold ; and in ten years only of 
 this time, or from January, 1759, to January, 1769, there were 
 coined eight millions and a half. But it has appeared lately, that 
 the gold specie now left in the kingdom is no more than about twelve 
 millions and a half. Not so much as half a million of silver specie 
 has been coined these sixty years ; and it cannot be supposed that 
 the quantity of it now in circulation exceeds two or three millions. 
 The whole specie of the kingdom, therefore, is, probably, at this 
 time, about fourteen or fifteen millions. Of this, several millions 
 must be hoarded at the Bank. — Our circulating specie, therefore, 
 appears to be greatly decreased ; — but our wealth, or the quantity 
 of money in the kingdom, is greatly increased. This is paper to a 
 vast amount, issued in almost every corner of the kingdom, and 
 particularly by the Bank of England. While this paper maintains 
 its credit, it answers all the purposes of specie, and is, in all 
 respects, the same with money. 
 
 " Specie represents some real value in goods or commodities. On 
 the contrary, paper represents immediately nothing but specie. It is 
 a promise or obligation, which the emitter brings himself (mder to 
 pay a given sum in coin ; and it owes its currency to the credit of the 
 emitter, or to an opinion that he is able to make good his engage- 
 ment; and that the sum specified may be received upon being de- 
 manded. Paper, therefore, represents coin, and coin represents real 
 value : that is, the one is a sign of wealth, the other is the sign of 
 that sign. But farther: — Coin is a universal sign of wealth, and 
 will procure it every where. It will bear any ahum, and stand any
 
 Ill 
 
 shock. Oil the contrary, paper, owing its currency to opinion, has 
 only a local and imaginary value. It can stand no shock. It is 
 destroyed by the approach of danger, or even the suspicion of 
 danger. 
 
 • *«*»» • 
 
 * * * " The specie of this kingdom is inconsider- 
 able, compared with the amount of the paper circulating in it. 
 
 "This is generally believed ; and, therefore, it is natural to inquire 
 how its currency is supported. — The answer is easy. It is supported 
 in the same manner with all other bubbles. Were all to demand 
 specie in exchange for their notes, payment could not be made : 
 but, at the same time that this is known, every one trusts that no 
 alarm, producing such a demand, will happen, while he holds the 
 paper he is possessed of; and that, if it should happen, he would 
 stand a chance fur being first paid, and this makes him easy. But, 
 let any events happen which threaten danger, and every one will 
 become diffident. A run will take place, and a bankruptcy 
 follow. 
 
 " This is an account of what has often happened in private cre- 
 dit. — And it is, also, an account of what will (if no change of mea- 
 sures take place) happen, some time or other, in public credit. 
 The description I have given of our paper-circulation implies, that 
 nothing can be more delicate or hazardous. It is an immense 
 fabric, with its head in the clouds, that is continually trembling 
 with every adverse blast and every fluctuation of trade : and which, 
 " like the baseless fabric of a vision, may in a moment vanish, 
 and leave no wreck behind." The destruction of a few books at 
 the Bank, — an improvement in the art of forgery, — the landing of 
 a body of French troops on our coast, — insurrections threatening a 
 Revolution in Government,— or any events that should produce a 
 general panic, however groundless, would at once annihilate it, and 
 leave us without any other medium of traffic than quantity of specie, 
 scarcely equal in amount to the money now drawn from the public 
 by the taxes. It would, therefore, become impossible to pay the 
 taxes. The revenue would fail ; near a hundred and forty millions 
 of property would be destroyed ; the whole frame of Government 
 would fall to pieces ; and a state of nature would take place. What 
 a dreadful situation ! 
 
 *' These are subjects on which I should have chosen to be silent, 
 did I not think it necessary, that this country should be apprized 
 and warned of the danger which threatens it. This danger is 
 created chiefly by the National Debt. High taxes are necessary to 
 support a great Public Debt, and a largp supply of cash is nccessaiT
 
 112 
 
 to support liigli taxes. This cash we owe to our paper, and in pro- 
 portion to our paper must be the productiveness of our taxes. — 
 King William's wars drained the kingdom of its specie. This sunk 
 the revenue, and distressed Government. In 1C94 the Bank 
 was established, and the kingdom was provided with a substitute 
 for specie. The taxes became productive again, the revenue rose, 
 and Government was relieved.— Ever since that period, our paper 
 and taxes have been increasing together, and supporting one 
 another; and one reason, undoubtedly, of the late increase in the 
 productiveness of our taxes has been the increase of our paper. 
 
 '* Were there no public debt, there would be no occasion for 
 half the present taxes. Our paper-circulation might be reduced ; 
 the balance of trade would turn in our favour; specie would flow 
 in upon us; the quantity of property destroyed by a failure of our 
 paper-credit (should it in such circumstances happen) would be a 
 hundred and forty millions less; and, therefore, the shock attend- 
 ing it would be tolerable. But, in the jjresent state of things, 
 whenever any calamity or panic shall produce such a failure, the 
 shock attending it will be intolerable. May Heaven soon raise up 
 for us some great statesman ; who shall see these things and enter 
 into effectual measures, if not now too late, for extricating and 
 preserving us I 
 
 " Public Banks are, undoubtedly, attended with great con- 
 veniences ; but they also do great harm ; and, if their emissions are 
 not restrained, and conducted with great wisdom, they may prove 
 the most pernicious of all institutions, not only by substituting 
 fictitious for real wealth, — by increasing luxury, — by raising the 
 prices of provisions, — by concealing an unfavourable balance of 
 trade, — and by rendering a kingdom incapable of bearing any inter- 
 nal tumults or external attacks, without the danger of a dreadful 
 convulsion ; but, particularly, by becoming instruments in the hands 
 of ministers of state, to increase their influence, to lessen their de- 
 pendence on the people, and to keep up a delusive show of public 
 prosperity, when, perhaps, ruin may be near. There is, in truth, 
 nothing that a government may not do with such a mine at its com- 
 mand as a public bank, while it can maintain its credit; nor, there- 
 fore, is there any thing more likely to be improperly and dangerously 
 used. — But to return to what may be more applicable to our own 
 state at present. 
 
 " Among the causes that may produce a failure of paper-credit, 
 there are two which it may be necessary particularly to consider. — 
 The first is " An unfavourable balance of trade." This, in propor- 
 tion to the degree in which it takes place, must turn the course of
 
 113 
 
 foreign exchange against us, raise the price of bullion, and carry 
 oft' our specie. 
 
 " The danger to which this would expose us is obvious ; and it 
 has been nauch increased by the new coinage of the gold specie 
 %vhich began in 1773. Before this coinage, the greatest part of our 
 gold coin being light, but the same in currency as if it had been 
 heavy, always remained in the kingdom. * * * 
 
 " For many years before 1773, the price of gold in bullion had 
 been from two to three per cent, higher than in coin. This was a 
 temptation to melt down and export the coin, which could not be 
 resisted. Hence arose a demand for it on the Bank ; and, conse- 
 quently, the necessity of purchasing bullion, at a loss, for a new 
 coinage. But the more coin the Bank procured in this way, the lower 
 its price became in comparison with that of bullion, and the faster 
 it vanished ; and, consequently, the more necessary it became to 
 coin again, and the greater loss fell upon the Bank. — Had things 
 continued much longer in this train, the consequences might have 
 proved very serious. I am by no means sufficiently informed to be 
 able to assign the causes which have produced the change that hap- 
 pened in 1773. But, without doubt, the state of things that took 
 place before that year must be expected to return. The fluctua- 
 tion of trade, in its best state, renders this unavoidable. 
 
 " The second event, ruinous to our paper-circulation, is a defi- 
 ciency in the revenue. As a failure of our paper would destroy 
 the revenue, so a failure of the revenue, or any considerable dimi- 
 nution of it, would destroy our paper. The Bank is the support 
 of our paper ; and the support of the Bank is the credit of Go- 
 vernment. 
 * * * * * ♦ « 
 
 " Had we continued in a state of profound peace, it could not 
 have admitted of any diminution. What, then, must follow, when 
 the most profitable branches of our trade are destroyed ; when the 
 empire is all but lost ; when an addition of many millions is made 
 to the public debt ; and when, at the same time, perhaps, some 
 millions are taken away from the revenue? — I shudder at the pros- 
 pect. — A kingdom, on an edge so perilous, should think of nothing 
 but a retreat !" 
 
 These passages from the writiugs of Price, as well 
 as the following, written hy Home Tooke in the year 
 1795, — the beginning of the next period of great inte-
 
 114 
 
 rest, referred to by the Petitioner, for illustrating the 
 changes in our currency, — will show that there is no 
 great novelty in the predictions of some of the most 
 powerful and popular writers of the present day. The 
 able authors of the age of William III. and Queen Anne 
 left but little to be said, in regard to principles, re- 
 specting such money as had been used in this country 
 up to their time : and the most useful occupation for 
 writers of this day is, to explain the changes in the 
 different kinds of the circulating medium resorted to, 
 and in the working of the currency ; to point out their 
 effects ; and to suggest expedients for rectifying the 
 circulating medium, to adapt it to the novel and extra- 
 ordinary circumstances of the present times. There is 
 nothing original in Mr. Cobbett's writings on this sub- 
 ject, except his happy, forcible, and familiar manner 
 of illustrating it. His great merit, as a political writer, 
 lies in the powerful advocacy which he has unremit- 
 tingly devoted to the rights of the poor, — at a time, when 
 some of the principles of a political science, which is 
 in a new and unsettled state, have been brought into 
 operation, to the great prejudice of the labouring- 
 classes; — at a time, when there is great danger of 
 those principles being applied without due considera- 
 tion, by men who are destitute of experience in the 
 practical concerns of life. The sincerity of Mr. Cob- 
 bett's opinions, respecting our paper-money, may be 
 estimated by his describing the United States, where 
 paper-money abounds far more than in any part of 
 Great Britain, as the paradise of labourers and men 
 of industry. 
 
 The coincidence of Mr. Cobbett's sentiments, with 
 those expressed by Mr. H. Tooke, in the following 
 passages, thirty-four years ago, is remarkable. 
 
 " Two propositions written by nature, and tlierefore as incon- 
 trovertible as any in Euclid, are. First, that whoever does not
 
 115 
 
 labour for his own living, let him possess and expend as much 
 money as he may, is, for the common necessaries of life, only a 
 pensioner on the industry of others. Second, that those who do 
 labour for their own living, are originally, and by the laws of 
 nature, the only independent people in the world. Then here we 
 must again ask, how is it that the most idle are many of them 
 the richest and most independent, whilst the most laborious, are 
 the poorest and most servile? These phenomena are principally 
 produced by abusing that artificial blessing, money. By letting 
 artifice triumph over, instead of aiding, nature. 
 
 " In order to find how this, in reference to the abuse of money, 
 has been effected, we must consider, that, whatever decreases the 
 quantity of circulating money in a state, decreases, in the same pro- 
 portion, the price of purchasable commodities in that state. So, 
 that, were the quantity of money reduced one-half, supposing 
 the quantity of goods to remain the same, the price of goods 
 would be thereby reduced one-half too. This, I apprehend, is easy 
 to concieve; because, if you have this year only half as much 
 money as you had last, and still have the same quantity of goods 
 to purchase, you are under the necessity of giving only half the 
 price you did last year, for the best of all possible reasons— 
 because you have no more to give. Now, upon the very same 
 principle, should any thing increase, should the price of pur- 
 chasable commodities increase too? If we have double the 
 circulating cash, we give double the price for what we purchase. 
 
 «* Now we all know, that, for about the last century, the price 
 of commodities has been gradually increasing; which, according 
 to the above rule, necessarily implies the gradual increase of our 
 money : and how can this be the case, when almost every person 
 we meet is complaining of the want of money? 
 
 " A truth, essential to the understanding of this apparent mystery, 
 is, that, though what we call money is coined metal, yet, whatever 
 is used as money, though it be in reality only paper, has, by that 
 use, all the effects of money, and, in fact, is money. 
 
 " Now let us turn our eye but for one minute, and we see how 
 busily employed are the Exchequer, the Exchange, Trading Com- 
 panies, Money Corporations, Contractors, Private Bankers, Private 
 Traders, &c. 8cc. in coining and inundating the kingdom with a 
 money, which did not originate in industry, and, therefore, like all 
 othe'- money, is not natural property, and which never cost them any 
 thing, though they exact interest, and bring others in debtors for it, — 
 I mean paper credit. I say, if we give this the slightest considera- 
 tion, and recollect that this has all been fabricated within little
 
 IIG 
 
 more tliaii a century, and is still coiuiiuicd, and keeps gradually, 
 or, perhaps, I iniglit say, rapidly increasing, we sliall immediately 
 perceive the reason of tlie gradual increase in the price of our 
 purchasable commodities, especially of the necessaries of life, 
 which has at length risen to such a pitch as almost to create an 
 absolute famine amongst those very people who are originally and 
 naturally the possessors, because the producers, of every thing. 
 We thus see that it is the abuse of money, that supernatural 
 fountain of property, which first caused those unnatural sights, 
 the slavishly-laborious starving of want, and the idle living in 
 luxury. Do we not here, too, find the cause of (of which we all 
 feel the bad effects,) monopoly, scarcity of money, abbreviations 
 of liberty, frequency of foreign wars, &c. &c.? 
 
 " Our sinking fund is a bubble. I wonder people can sink their 
 judgement so as to be gulled by it. For (to repeat it) these debts 
 can only be paid by new taxes. These taxes, we have before 
 seen, must be paid out of labour ; and how is it possible that 
 labourers, after supplying the real and superfluous wants of them- 
 selves, and all other persons in the kingdom, can pay this debt.' 
 Labourers are already put to the full stretch ; and they have no 
 banking-house, no intoxicating, artificial, supernatural brewery of 
 property, or they might repay, in paper, a debt which is con- 
 tracted in paper. When, therefore, they pay debts, they are 
 obliged to dip their pitcher into the old and natural fountain of 
 property, — bodily labour, and this is already taxed too high. 
 
 • * • « Tell the candidates,"— C^/je ere o/" a Ge- 
 
 nera/ Election,) — " in opposition to the assertions of some in the 
 present Parliament, we are not happy, — we are poor,— we detest 
 wars, and we know that they and their dire effects frequently arise 
 in this country, merely from the facility with which the Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer raises a sham money, which alone can enable 
 him to engage or persevere in them, contrary to the wishes and 
 interests of the public ; and that you expect, from your future 
 representatives, that these evils be redressed, and their repetition 
 provided against. Let this ring, I say, be so loud and universal, 
 that it may be impossible to avoid its echo, even in the House of 
 Commons and St. James's." 
 
 Mr. Home Tooke proceeds, in a subsequent passage, 
 to describe his notion of the mode by which an " Equit-
 
 117 
 
 able Adjustmenr may be accomplishecl, when the Na- 
 tional Debt sliall be dissolved : this project, be it 
 remembered, was put forth thirty-four years ago, viz. 
 two years before the Bank Restriction Act was passed. 
 
 " How are those little annuitants, who live entirely upon the 
 interest of their capital, which is sunk in the funds, (a very proper 
 expressit)n,) to be provided for? These ought not to starve. What 
 a viilanous system this is! which is so artfully contrived, that 
 injustice must be the consequence of either persevering or relin- 
 quishing it ! — But, in order to come as near strict justice, between 
 the debtor and creditor, as possible, let every debt whose annuity 
 on the 1st day of January, 1796, amounted to from tifty to a 
 hundred pounds a year, remain as a debt upon the public, and the 
 interest of it be regularly paid, or else let the capital be paid off. 
 This, except in particular instances, would secure every person 
 dependent upon the funds a comfortable, though not a luxurious, 
 living. Let a committee be appointed by Government to 
 examine into, and, under their control, to redress particular 
 cases of hardship. Then set at liberty from its viilanous op- 
 pressions, labourers, and all those in the lower and middle stages 
 of society, that is, the majority of the nation : — and I say, set all 
 these at liberty, from the cruel, vile, and destructive consequences 
 of the national debt, by declaring all the rest of it utterly null and 
 void. After this is done, let the injuries which have already been 
 the consequence of this debt, of this most shameful and viilanous 
 abuse of mowey, though not forgot, yet let them be forgiven, and 
 the breaches, in a friendly and peaceable way, made up. — This 
 would redound to the interest and credit, as well as it would be 
 the duty of the sufferers; and these are, both in number and 
 value, the majority of the nation, which, in fact, is the nation 
 itself." 
 
 These extracts shew that, on the one hand, abstract 
 political writers are incompetent to judge, with accu- 
 racy, concerning the effects of our Currency and Finan- 
 cial systems : While, on the other hand, it is evident 
 that the practical men to whom Mr. Pitt mainly, and, 
 perhaps, too exclusively, resorted for information, did 
 not sufficiently warn him of the contingent difficulties 
 which might ultimately result from the policy pursued 
 by his Administration. 
 
 H
 
 118 
 
 Tl is, to tlie last degree, important, that the characters 
 of these new and extraordinary sources of power, which 
 will inevitably produce momentous results, should be 
 understood in all their bearings, and duly appreciated, 
 by men in authority. The necessity for this was not 
 so imperative, until after the period of Mr. Pitt's 
 death ; because, for the first thirty years of their exer- 
 cise, no other State participated with Great Britain in 
 the advantages to be derived from them. Now, these 
 novel and extraordinary forces are as well understood, 
 and are in as perfect and as extended operation, rela- 
 tively, in America as in England ; and France is making- 
 rapid progress towards placing herself in similar circum- 
 stances. The day is not distant, when we shall possess 
 no exclusive advantage from these sources of political 
 power. It is, therefore, no longer a matter of doubt 
 or speculation, what must he our fate, if our progress 
 be continued in error. Pertinacity in error must 
 inevitably lead to the most fatal consequences. 
 
 If the prices of stock remain ruinously low for a 
 series of years, accompanied by undiminished taxation, 
 the effect, in regard to the owners and occupiers of 
 land, will be this:— ^r^f, that capital in money, 
 which, fifteen years ago, was deposited in banks, or 
 lent to neighbours, will be annihilated : secondly, 
 the change will cause land to be cultivated with less 
 skill, and to be stocked and cropped in a bad and 
 imperfect manner: thirdly, it will reduce, prodi- 
 giously, the rent of land, and will utterly destroy the 
 rent of all land of inferior quality, cultivated by the 
 poorer class of farmers: and, lastly, the Revenue 
 will decline, suddenly and greatly. Supposing the po- 
 licy of the Government to remain without any change, 
 it will be seen, at Midsummer, 1830, that we are 
 making rapid progress in the third of these stages. 
 The magnitude of the Debt renders England less capa-
 
 119 
 
 ble of making such experiments, than France or 
 America. As the case at present stands, we shall be 
 losing strength and power at the same time that our 
 most formidable rivals will be advancing in prosperity 
 and acquiring greatness; — and advancing by those same 
 means, which we have availed ourselves of, to carry 
 on wars of unexampled expense, and to impose an 
 unprecedented amount of taxes upon the people, with- 
 out comprehending their nature and effects.
 
 The capital and portentous error which was 
 committed by the Legislature, concerning the 
 Currency, in the Proceedings of 1810, and in 
 the Act of 1819, being a matter which must soon 
 undergo a full and ample examination, it is im- 
 portant for those, who timely perceived its 
 bearings, and appreciated some of its dreadful 
 consequences, to make it manifest, on their part, 
 that the evil ought not, in any measure, to be as- 
 cribed to their supineness or negligence. In the 
 year 1819, the Petitioner first sought an opportu- 
 nity to explain his views to the Committee of 
 Parliament, then sitting, to investigate the subject 
 previous to the passing of Mr. Peel's Bill. He 
 is not aware of having neglected any subsequent 
 fit occasion for endeavouring to make the actual 
 state of the case known to those who are pos- j 
 sessed of political power. To shew his unre- 
 mitting attention in this matter, is the motive 
 which induces him to publish the following 
 Petition to the House of Lords, which was pre- 
 sented, by Earl Grey, on the first of July, 1828. 
 This Petition was, at the time, treated with 
 neglect by Official Men ; but the " gloomy anti- 
 cipations,'' contained in it, have, unhappily, too 
 soon received an avt^fiil verification.
 
 120 
 
 To THE Right Honourable the Lords 
 Spiritual and Temporal in Parlia- 
 ment ASSEMBLED, 
 
 The Humble Petition of Henry 
 Burgess, of No. 81, Lombard- 
 street, in the City of London, 
 
 Sheweth, 
 
 That your Humble Petitioner is a person whose 
 forefathers have, for centuries, lived in a con- 
 dition of great comfort and respectability, by the 
 cultivating of the soil ; and that, from long in- 
 tercourse with the active people of property in 
 the country parts of England, he has had very 
 uncommon opportunities of observing the habits, 
 ascertainino' the wants, and examinino- the sources 
 of the prosperity, and the causes of the adver- 
 sity, of farmers, graziers, manufacturers, and 
 those persons who raise, mature, and trade in, 
 the productions of England. 
 
 That these persons constitute the great central 
 body of the productive classes of the community, 
 on whom essentially depend, the employment of 
 the labourers, the morals of the people, and the 
 well-being of society : to ascertain their con- 
 dition, therefore, is to know whether happiness 
 or misery is spread over the land. 
 
 That the men, who raise, manufacture, or 
 traffic in, the productions of our own soil, are 
 greatly affected by changes in our systems ni'
 
 122 
 
 Banking and Currency; because all men, now 
 living in active life, have resorted to that system 
 of Banking which prevails, and used that kind 
 of Currency which circulates, in the country- 
 parts of England, and, practically, they have 
 known no other than these systems. 
 
 That, although, amongst persons whose pro- 
 perty is engaged in commerce and the pursuits 
 of industry, those, who occupy stations below 
 the wealthiest class, constitute, in the aggregate, 
 the heart of our Social System, not one person 
 among the secondary class of traders, and not 
 one English farmer, has been consulted respecting 
 the effect of changes in our Currency. 
 
 That, in consequence of knowledge, upon 
 this important subject, not having been sought 
 where, alone, it can be accurately obtained, errors 
 have been committed, which have caused dread- 
 ful injustice and indescribable calamity: and, as 
 your Humble Petitioner believes that similar errors 
 will again be committed, from the same cause, it 
 is necessary to advert, very briefly, to the origin 
 of so serious an evil. Instead of looking at the 
 practical operation, in the country, of the systems 
 of Banking and Currency which have grown up 
 since his late Majesty ascended the throne, and 
 examining their multifarious, minute, and com- 
 prehensive uses, we have been directed to the 
 doctrines, regarding Money, of men who lived in 
 the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ; to pe- j
 
 123 
 
 riods — when not a single Bank existed, tlirougliout 
 England, amongst the productive classes of the 
 community, — when no paper-m.oneyhad been sub- 
 stituted for the coin of the realm, — and when not a 
 pound of the National Debt had been contracted. 
 In Inquiries respecting the Currency, to be guided 
 by the same considerations, when the National 
 Debt is Eight Hundred Millions, and the Cur- 
 rency (coin, Bankers' notes, and mercantile paper) 
 is Three Hundred Millions, as those which pre- 
 vailed, when there was no Debt, and the Currency 
 was Six Millions, is like regulating the transit df 
 commodities, upon roads, wheels, and canals, by 
 the same rules as those which prevailed, when 
 pack-horses conveyed goods from town to town, 
 and sledges from street to street. If we turn, 
 from examining the principles which have di- 
 rected the Parliamentary Inquiries into the State 
 of the Currency, to the manner in which those 
 Inquiries have been conducted, corresponding- 
 errors are manifest. Instead of evidence beinof 
 gathered from farmers, graziers, internal traders, 
 miners, manufacturers, land-surveyors, stock- 
 valuers, and intelligent Country Bankers, the case 
 has been decided on the evidence of exchange- 
 brokers, dealers in bullion, and foreign mer- 
 chants.* Regarding that portion of the com- 
 
 * See Lists of the Committees, pp. 72, 73.
 
 124 
 
 nuinity, wliicli comprises the whole of the pro- 
 ductive classes of the people, as consisting of 
 two parts, — one part being all those who are 
 engaged in raising the productions of the country, 
 and the other part being all those who are engaged 
 in distributing productions, — there are two cir- 
 cumstances, of vital importance to be attended to, 
 and which should never be lost sight of, in all 
 Inquiries on the Currency. The First is — that all 
 great Speculations and Bubbles are generated in 
 cities, with the Distributors ; and not in the country, 
 with the Producers : and the Second is — that all 
 changes in the Currency, which Government and 
 the Parliament have contemplated or enforced, 
 deeply and permanently aifect those who are 
 raising the productions, while they have little 
 influence, comparatively, on those who are distri- 
 buting productions ; and hence arises the inca- 
 pacity of the latter, to describe the workings of 
 those changes. What do the people of London 
 and Liverpool know of the multifarious uses and 
 influences, of the currency which prevails, and of 
 the Banking-system which operates, in the country- 
 parts of England ? Just as much as the venders 
 of bread, in London, know of the husbandry of 
 Norfolk. A London Loan-and-Money-dealer, a 
 man of distinguished talents and great attain- 
 ments, was selected to lay down the principles 
 on which changes in our Currency would be 
 most readily and beneficially effected. This gen-
 
 125 
 
 tleman said — tliat Gold, of the ancient standard, 
 might be substituted for Paper, — and that the 
 change in the value of property, which would be 
 caused by the operation of the Act of the 59th 
 of his late Majesty, would not exceed four 
 pounds in the hundred, — and that it would be 
 carried into effect so easily, that we should look 
 back, with wonder, at our own apprehensions 
 respecting the consequences of the change. It is 
 now universally acknowledged, that the change 
 in the value of property, caused by that Act, 
 exceeds twenty-five pounds in the hundred ; 
 and that indescribable difficulties, losses, and 
 miseries, flowed from the attempt to carry it into 
 execution. If this distinguished man, in whom 
 concentred all knowledge which City-merchants 
 ever possess on the Currency, — if the ablest man 
 in that class of commercial men of whom know- 
 ledge was sought on this subject, committed so 
 great an error ; will it be just, will it be safe, to 
 subject us to other laws, passed under the influ- 
 ence of fallacies derived from precisely the same 
 source ? The principle on which Inquiries have 
 been conducted, on this important subject, with 
 respect to England, having been such as related 
 to different states of society, and the manner of 
 conducting them having rendered the full and 
 .■^rfect developement of truth impossible, the 
 example of the effect of a contrary course of 
 proceeding is, alone, wanted, ,to make the case 
 
 \-
 
 U6 
 
 replete with matter which must cause, in all 
 rcfiecting minds, the most serious apprehensions 
 of the consequences of perseverance in the present 
 course. This example we have in the case of 
 Scotland. To the people of that country, an 
 ample investigation of the effect of their systems 
 of Banking and Currency was granted: — men 
 from all the productive classes, living between 
 the Orkneys and the Tweed, were examined. 
 The evidence which they submitted convinced 
 his Majesty's Ministers, that their contemplated 
 measure, respecting the Currency of Scotland, 
 was full of danger ; and they abandoned it. 
 
 That your Humble Petitioner, however, rests 
 not his appeal for the consideration of your 
 Right Honourable House, solely on the foregoing 
 reasons. Much experience, and extensive inquiry, 
 on this subject, have convinced him, that the facts 
 of the case, on which the Law of 1 826 is justified, 
 and on which a new Law is recommended, are 
 not accurately known, and the consequences that 
 will result from the operation of these Laws are 
 not duly appreciated. If it be supposed, that 
 the Act for the Suppression of the Small-notes 
 of Country Bankers, and the contemplated Act 
 for the exclusion of Scotch and Irish Notes from 
 England, will, together, effectually regulate the 
 Currency; and that they will accomplish this 
 purpose, without, in any serious manner, ob- 
 structing the energies of productive industry; the
 
 127 
 
 supposition is monstrously absurd. If tlie point 
 had been proved, that it was urgently expedient 
 to contract the Issues of Paper, — a point of deep 
 interest, because, on it, hang the considerations 
 of, the Revenue, the Interest of the Debt, the 
 payment of the public servants, rents, and en- 
 gagements; — but, if this point had been esta- 
 blished by investigation, the contraction of the 
 Paper should take place in towns, amongst the 
 speculative merchants, where it is in redundancy; 
 and not in the country, where it is in alarming 
 deficiency. The small-notes are the most useful 
 of all currency, because, if secured by the 
 Bankers, the labourers derive greater conve- 
 nience from them, and sustain less loss by using 
 them, than by using any other currency: and 
 they have no influence, whatever, on great specu- 
 lations. Your Humble Petitioner is convinced, 
 that the amount of small-notes, now circulating 
 in England, exceeds five millions ; but he regards 
 the amount as a matter of trifling importance, 
 compared with the effect of the measure upon 
 Credit, and its influence upon all Banking- ope- 
 rations, in the mining, manufacturing, and agri- 
 cultural parts of the country. The entire Sup- 
 pression of Small-notes, by contracting the 
 accommodation which the Bankers give to their 
 customers, will cause much capital to be with- 
 drawn from the productive classes, where it is 
 already greatly deficient. The pressure of the
 
 128 
 
 measure will fall, not generally and equally, but 
 partially ; and it must be sustained by that par- 
 ticular portion of the community which has the 
 least power to bear it. It will impose new diffi- 
 culties, upon farmers, graziers, and miners, and 
 those manufacturers who are employed in our 
 more ancient, fixed, and staple manufactures. 
 Within the last week your Humble Petitioner 
 has conversed with three Country Bankers, con- 
 nected with those classes who will be particu- 
 larly affected by this measure. One, a Banker 
 of old standing, of great wealth, and of acknow- 
 ledged prudence and circumspection; and who 
 issues no small-notes ; told him, that the injurious 
 effect of the measure, in his neighbourhood, would 
 be so extensive, that he should call in One Hun- 
 dred Thousand Pounds of his advances to the 
 public, — an amount, which is a portion of the 
 sum which he has, for thirty years, employed in 
 lending to men engaged in the pursuits of in- 
 dustry, in his vicinity. Another Banker, who 
 lives three hundred miles from the former, said, 
 that, though the Bankers in his neighbourhood 
 were solvent, and possessed property, the entire 
 Suppression of Small-notes would, by cutting- 
 down the amount of their business, close one 
 half of the Banks in the district wherein he re- 
 sides. And a third, who lives nearly four hun- 
 dred miles from the last named, had more gloomy 
 apprehensions of the consequences than the
 
 129 
 
 others. These were all men of wealth, of 
 superior intelligence, remarkable for their cir- 
 cumspection and foresight. Your Humble Peti- 
 tioner hopes these gentlemen over-rate the dis- 
 astrous effects, — he thinks the measure is not 
 fraught with so much danger; but it should be 
 considered, at the same time, that it is possible 
 for the evil to be much greater than either he or 
 they apprehend. It would be useless to dwell 
 on the consideration, that these are the mere 
 opinions of three Bankers. The whole business 
 of a Banker rests on opinion. It has no other 
 foundation. The business of a Banker is not, 
 now, like that of the goldsmiths of former days, — 
 the weighing of metals, and the exchanging of 
 one piece for another. It consists, (on the side 
 of lending out his money ;) — first, in the estima- 
 ting of all those general circumstances, that would 
 warrant him, at any particular period, in giving 
 or extending Credit, to a greater number of 
 people, or to a greater amount in the same 
 number ; or which compel him to lessen, in the 
 number, or in the amount, his Credit-advances; — 
 secondly, in balancing individual Credits, under 
 the influence of the first rule. As all depends, 
 therefore, upon the state of opinion in the Banker, 
 and on his gauge for regulating individual Credit, 
 the main question, to be considered in this matter, 
 is, — not, simply the effect of withdrawing three, 
 four, or five millions of the Currency ; but, — the
 
 130 
 
 effect upon the minds of Bankers, and the conse- 
 quences to the connexions of Bankers. If six 
 hundred Bankers are influenced, at the same time, 
 by the opinion, that increased prudence and 
 caution are requisite ; and, actuated by that sen- 
 timent, each withdraws from the whole of his 
 customers only ^15,000 of lent money; it will 
 cause Nine Millions to be drawn, at once, from the 
 producers in England, — and that, at a time when 
 they have less Credit, less pecuniary resource, 
 than they have had, at any moment, during the 
 last thirty years. 
 
 That your Humble Petitioner knows many 
 Country Bankers, who employ large sums of 
 money, amongst the distributors of commodities 
 in London, at an interest of two-and-a-half per 
 cent., which they could lend, at an interest of 
 five per cent., to the producers in the country, 
 to the great benefit of the borrowers, and with 
 perfect security. But, as the distributors can 
 pledge a bill, to insure the punctual and speedy 
 re-payment of the loan ; and, as the producers 
 could return it only at some undefined period, 
 when the processes of production had been gone 
 through, and the commodity which the loan 
 created had become marketable ; the cautious 
 Banker feels constrained to accept the lower 
 interest, that he may be, at all times, prepared 
 for the changes in our Money-affairs which the 
 Government may introduce. The increased dif-
 
 131 
 
 Acuities in borrowing money, which those persons 
 now experience, who can prepare their produc- 
 tions for sale only after long-continued processes, 
 and who cannot pledge bills for loans, has 
 caused all stocks of commodities to be greatly 
 reduced. This is the principal cause of our 
 store of corn being, according to the able In- 
 spector of Corn Returns, one-ninth part of the 
 quantity which we possessed at the harvest of 
 1816. It affects the cultivators of the land first, 
 and then those who are employed in the old and 
 staple manufactures. " The merchant," says Mr. 
 Locke, " feels it last: when a nation is running 
 to decay and ruin, the merchant and monied 
 man, do what ye can, will be sure to starve 
 last." These remarkable words, so pregnant with 
 warning against reposing an easy confidence in 
 old merchants of commodities, ought, in these 
 days, when merchants are become chiefly dealers 
 in loans, bullion, and exchanges, to inspire dis- 
 trustful wariness, in receiving the evidence, and 
 adopting the opinions, of commercial men from 
 the City, unsupported by the evidence and opi- 
 nions of men from the country. The former may 
 become rich, as the latter become poor. The 
 Revenue may, for some years, be kept up, by levy- 
 ing on the stores and profits of the producers : 
 but the time will come, when such levying will, 
 in all departments of industry as well as in that 
 of Land, so injure and exhaust the producers, that
 
 132 
 
 productions will not be raised in sufficient quan- 
 tity; and the best portion of the People, the 
 strength of the Commonwealth, will be reduced 
 to decrepitude: 
 
 That your Humble Petitioner, speaking- his 
 individual sentiments, but knowing, well, the 
 wants, habits, and opinions, of that portion of 
 the people, implores your Right Honourable 
 House, to cause a full and impartial Investigation 
 to be made, into the present State of Banking and 
 the Circulating Medium, (like tliat which was 
 granted to the people of Scotland,) before the 
 Law of 1826, respecting the Currency, — a Law 
 of serious import to the industrious people who 
 live in the country-parts of England, — come into 
 full operation. The case has been adjudged, on 
 the evidence of persons who have interests dif- 
 ferent and distinct from those of the productive 
 classes of the people. Measures, which deeply 
 affect the well-being of the man, who delves in 
 the earth for minerals, who cultivates the fields 
 and rears the cattle, who works with the wheel, 
 or in the loom, or on the anvil, have been en- 
 forced upon ex-yarte statements ; those state- 
 ments coming, in the main, from bullion-brokers 
 and exchange-merchants, — men who, at the best, 
 are utterly ignorant of the country, and who may 
 have interests opposed to those of the best part 
 of the People of England.
 
 133 
 
 That your Humble Petitioner, there- 
 fore, PRAYS, THAT YOUR RiGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 House will be pleased to cause a Full 
 Investigation to be made, into the State 
 OF THE Currency, and its effects upon 
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE PRODUCTIVE CLASSES 
 OF THE COMMUNITY. 
 
 HENRY BURGESS. 
 
 London, June 30, 1828.
 
 134 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM THE MIRROR OF PAR- 
 LIAMENT, ON THE PRESENTATION OF 
 THE PRECEDING PETITIONS. 
 
 HOUSE OF LORDS, 
 
 Tuesday, July 1st, 1828. 
 
 EARL GREY. 
 
 My Lords, — I have been requested by a gentleman 
 of the name of Henry Burgess, residing at No. 81, Lom- 
 bard-street, to present to your Lordships a Petition, 
 which, both on account of the character of the Peti- 
 tioner, and his intimate acquaintance with the subject to 
 which the Petition has reference, I beg leave to recom- 
 mend to your Lordships' notice, as deserving your most 
 serious attention and consideration. My Lords, the Peti- 
 tioner states, from his knowledge of the subject, that he 
 apprehends great injury to the interests of the community 
 at large, if the measure now in progress for putting an end 
 to the circulation of small notes under the value of £5, 
 which, I believe, under the law which passed, not very 
 long ago, will take place in the month of April next, shall 
 be carried into effect. My Lords, the Petitioner states, 
 in support of that opinion, reasonings and facts, which I 
 w ill not at present attempt to detail to your Lordships, and 
 for which I beg to refer your Lordships to the Petition
 
 135 
 
 itself. There is, however, one circumstance, and one only, 
 which I will mention to your Lordships, namely this, the 
 Petitioner states, on data which appear entitled to much 
 consideration, that the amount of small notes now in circu- 
 lation has been much underrated : in fact, that it amounts to 
 more than double the sum which was stated when the mea- 
 sure to which I have alluded was under consideration ; and 
 the Petitioner also states, that the withdrawal of these 
 notes from circulation will have a most grievous ejQfect on 
 the general prices and currency of the country, much beyond 
 the amount of notes so withdrawn; inasmuch as a prudent 
 regard to their own safety will necessarily compel all 
 bankers to contract the advances by which they now so 
 greatly assist the active industry of the country. The 
 Petitioner, therefore, contends, that the circulating medium 
 of the country will be contracted by the withdrawal of all 
 notes under £5, in a much greater proportion than the 
 amount of notes of that description, which will be thus 
 withdrawn ; and which amount, he states — and he appears 
 to have reasonable data on which he has founded that 
 opinion — to be considerably more than £5,000,000; that 
 is, more than double the amount which was stated to be 
 in circulation when the matter was under discussion in 
 another place. 
 
 I confess, my Lords, this is a subject which I always 
 approach with considerable hesitation : I do not pretend 
 to possess any extensive knowledge of the subject, and 
 am sensible of my own deficiency in this respect, there- 
 fore it is that I am not inclined on this, or on any other 
 occasion, to enter into any of those theories which have 
 already given rise to so many discussions and disputes, 
 and which are surrounded by practical diflSculties of so 
 extensive a nature. My Lords, I have seen so many 
 delusive practical dissertations on the theories which have 
 been most earnestly recommended, that I am induced to 
 think distrust and caution are the better habit for your 
 
 I 2
 
 13() 
 
 Lordships to exercise on this subject, rather tlian that of 
 placing an implicit confidence in these theorists, who press 
 for your adoption doctrines, which, however plausible in 
 themselves, or however sound the principles on which 
 they are founded, are often found when carried into eft'ect 
 — so limited is human foresight, so imperfect is human 
 wisdom — to disappoint the expectations which had been 
 raised upon them. Your Lordships will not fail to recol- 
 lect, that, in the year 1819, when the bill which has since 
 been known by the name of Mr. Peel's Act, was under 
 discussion, Mr. Ricardo, — a name which I mention only 
 for the purpose of honouring, for a more amiable man, or 
 one possessed of more knowledge of the subject, or of 
 more ability or integrity, did not exist, — Mr. Ricardo con- 
 fidently stated, that the value of all property would not 
 be affected in a proportion exceeding from four to five per 
 cent. ; and that, after the passing of that Bill, we should 
 look back with astonishment at the ease with which we 
 had surmounted the difficulties which had been supposed 
 to lie in our way. This, my Lords, was the opinion 
 which was stated by Mr. Ricardo. There was, also, 
 another opinion, which, some time before, had been in- 
 sisted on by another individual, whose authority 1 do 
 not hold in the same respect as that of Mr. Ricardo, 
 though he possessed sufficient influence to induce the 
 House of Commons to come to a resolution, which now 
 stands an admitted and recorded falsehood on their Jour- 
 nals, that a one pound note and a shilling were equal in 
 value to a guinea. But, my Lords, what was the fact, — 
 the admitted and indisputable fact? Why, that, at that 
 very period. Bank-notes had depreciated to the amount of 
 twenty-five or thirty per cent. 1 believe that is a propo- 
 sition which will not now be disputed. ] heard it admit- 
 ted, nay, contended for, by a noble Earl v/hose absence 
 we all lament; and tiiis circumstance is no slight proof of 
 the little dependence which is to be placed on theoretical
 
 137 
 
 opinions, however confidently they may be ent'oiced, even 
 by persons best acquainted with the subject. 
 
 My Lords, I will redeem ray pledge ; I will not incur 
 the risk of wasting the time of your Lordships, by stating 
 my own crude opinions upon a question which, I have 
 before acknowledged, I do not sufficiently understand ; but 
 it does appear to me, that the whole of the evils under 
 which the country at present labour, with respect to the 
 currency, are to be derived from the fallacious, unjust, 
 and impolitic measure of the Bank Restriction Act of 
 1797. 1 did all I could to oppose that measure ; and, 
 from an inquiry, which took place before the Bank Com- 
 mittee, at which I attended, I was satisfied that no evil 
 could be incurred, not even by the stoppage of payment 
 by the Bank, which could be at all put in competition 
 with the certain evils that would result from that restric- 
 tion. It did appear to me, and it has been fully exempli- 
 fied by the result, that an inconvertible paper currency 
 must inevitably become depreciated, and when once that 
 depreciation had taken place, the danger and difficulty of 
 returning to a metallic currency on the original standard 
 would be almost insurmountable. The Bank Restriction 
 violated the principles which constitute the foundation ot 
 all public credit, and created a change in the value of all 
 property, contrary to all justice. The paper-currency 
 became depreciated, and the attempt to restore a metallic 
 currency on its original standard was attended by another 
 act of injustice no less crying, by which the value of all 
 contracts, all obligations, whether as respected the public 
 debt or private engagements, all family settlements, all 
 money contracts of every description were increased one- 
 fourth. But the evil does not stop here ; the amount of 
 taxes paid by the country, at the present moment, is also 
 much increased, being, in fact, in consequence of the altera- 
 tion of the currency, of a larger amount in real value, 
 thanvvHb paid during the most expensive peiiod of the wai.
 
 138 
 
 III the years 1815 or 1816, it would, perhaps, have 
 been more politic and just to endeavour to return to a 
 metallic currency, fixed on a standard suited to the actual 
 depreciation : but what would have been just at that period, 
 now that the state of things has been materially changed, 
 and new contracts and obligations have been formed, since 
 the restoration of cash-payments, according to the ancient 
 standard, might bear a very different character. I am 
 fully aware of all the difficulty of this subject ; the whole 
 of which, and all the pecuniary distress under which the 
 people of this country have laboured, — and under which 
 they still continue to labour, — the depression of property, 
 the fluctuation of prices, — improperly and erroneously at- 
 tributed to the corn-laws, — are, in my opinion, to be attri- 
 buted to two measures: — first, that signal act of injustice 
 by which inconvertible paper was made the currency of 
 the country ; and, secondly, that measure which was 
 adopted to restore the currency to its former standard, at 
 the expense of making such an alteration in the value of 
 every description of property whatever. My Lords, I am 
 aware that it is much more easy to point out the difficulty 
 and the danger, than it is to propose a remedy, I feel all 
 this, and confess that I have no remedy to propose — but, 
 at the same time, I believe, with the Petitioner, that the 
 evils are in progress, and that if the law is carried into 
 full effect, they will proceed to a much greater extent 
 than is at present generally imagined. I beg leave, there- 
 fore, again to call the attention of your Lordships to the 
 Petition. It is exceedingly well drawn up, showing the 
 knowledge and information of the Petitioner, and is well 
 deserving the consideration of your Lordships. 
 
 Upon the grounds I have stated, I think there is some- 
 thing very reasonable in the request of the Petitioner, which 
 is, "That your Humble Petitioner, speaking his individual 
 sentiments, but knowing, well, the wants, habits, and opi- 
 nions, of that portion of the people, implores your Right
 
 139 
 
 Honourable House, to cause a full and iinpailial Investiga- 
 tion to be made, into the present State of Banking and tlie 
 Circulating Medium, (like that which was granted to the 
 people of Scotland,) before the Law of 1826, respecting the 
 Currency, — a Law of serious import to the industrious people 
 who live in the country-parts of England, — come into full 
 operation. The case has been adjudged, on the evidence 
 of persons who have interests different and distinct from 
 those of the productive classes of the people. Measures, 
 which deeply affect the well-being of the man, who delves 
 in the earth for minerals, who cultivates the fields and 
 rears the cattle, who works with the wheel, or in the loom, 
 or on the anvil, have been enforced upon tx-parte state- 
 ments ; those statements coming, in the main, from bullion 
 brokers and exchange-merchants, — men who, at the best, 
 are utterly ignorant of the country, and who may have 
 interests opposed to those of the best part of the People of 
 England. 
 
 " That your humble Petitioner, therefore, prays, that 
 your llight Honourable House will be pleased to cause a 
 full Investigation to be made, into the State of the Cur- 
 rency, and its effects upon the condition of the productive 
 classes of the community." Such an inquiry, my Lords, 
 was granted to the Scotch bankers ; and though the 
 English Bankers have not had their notes in circulation so 
 long as the Scotch, yet their small notes have been suffi- 
 ciently long in circulation to entitle them to some inquiry, 
 if a means can be found to allow them to continue to cir- 
 culate their notes convertible into gold, and to avoid those 
 evils which, I am ready to admit, have arisen from 
 Bankers pushing their credit to excess. I have already 
 said, that I have no remedy to propose ; but a suggestion 
 has been thrown out in another place, from a quarter 
 which must always command my most favourable atten- 
 tion, for allowing the notes under £5, to cuiiliiiuein circu^ 
 latiun at their present amount, taking security against theii
 
 140 
 
 exceeding that amount. That plan might be allowed to go 
 on until the year 1833, when the Bank-Charter will expire, 
 and would aftord your Lordships time and opportunity 
 to apply yourselves carefully to the whole question of the 
 currency, in order that the wisdom of this and the other 
 House of Parliament may devise some means for lessen- 
 ing, if not preventing, the distress which at present it is 
 apprehended will be incurred, and for placing the circula- 
 tion on a safe and a permanent footing. My Lords, I will 
 not say more, but recommend the Petition to the serious 
 consideration of your Lordships. 
 
 EARL STANHOPE. 
 
 My Lords, — It was not my intention, on the present 
 occasion, to have offered any observations to your Lord- 
 ships ; but, after what has fallen from the Noble Earl 
 who has just addressed the House, I cannot refrain, 
 with the permission of your Lordships, from making a few 
 remarks upon this important subject. And I am induced 
 to do so, because I difler from some of the principles laid 
 down by that Noble Earl, and at once declare, that, what- 
 ever evils may have arisen from the passing of the measure 
 of 1797, I shall at all times be prepared to defend and 
 justify that measure, as a measure that was necessary for 
 the support of the arduous struggle in which we were then 
 engaged ; — that the result .of that contest, in which the 
 honour and glory of the country were involved, could not 
 have been arrived at but for that measure ; and that, but 
 for its adoption, a national bankruptcy must have ensued. 
 I differ, also, from my noble friend in thinking that the 
 currency of this country ought to be convertible into gold ; 
 and I hope to be able to shew, on -the best evidence, that 
 silver ought to be the sole legal tender in this country. 
 With respect to Mr. Ricardo, not having known that 
 gentleman personally, it is impossible for mc to speak, as
 
 141 
 
 the Noble Earl has done, of his private worth; — all I can 
 say of him is, that I considered him as one of the leaders of 
 that band of political economists, who were unfortunately 
 let loose to wage war on their country ; — a war more 
 destructive, and more diflScult to resist, than any that has 
 been encountered by the Noble Duke, now at the head of 
 His Majesty's Government, in any or all of his glorious 
 campaigns. The present measures have been adopted on 
 ex-parte statements ; they were, as is stated in the Peti- 
 tion, — and I deeply regret the Petition was not read at 
 length, for a more able or admirable document of the 
 kind I think I have never perused ; — adopted on the sug- 
 gestion of London bankers, exchange-brokers, bullion- 
 merchants, and others, parties interested in the question. 
 I should like to know, if you are to ask those persons, 
 who have so lent their capital, as to the propriety of a 
 measure which shall have the effect of increasing the value 
 of that which they have so lent, what answer you can 
 expect, — but that it would be advantageous to the country ; 
 and why ? Because, my Lords, however unjust it might 
 prove to the country at large, it would be beneficial to 
 themselves. I would ask, was it felt what was due to 
 the suff'erings of the people of this country, labouring under 
 the weight of such an enormous debt, when you adopted 
 such a principle as that complained of? — a principle which 
 I can only describe as involving the climax of all injustice, 
 by making the people pay in gold those taxes which I 
 agree with my noble friend have so largely increased in 
 value as compared with the price of gold ; — but which are 
 increased, in a still greater ratio, as compared with the 
 price of corn or other commodities. There is one part of 
 the Petition to which I regret my noble friend did not 
 allude, and that is, to the avowed declarations on this 
 subject, of persons of great capital, and who have, there- 
 fore, a great interest in this question. 
 
 My Lords, what is the opinion of one of the Country
 
 142 
 
 Bankers ? Tlic Petition states, " that a banker of great 
 wealth, and of acknowledged prudence and circumspec- 
 tion ; and who issues no small-notes ; told the Petitioner, 
 that the injurious effect of the measure, in his neighbour- 
 hood, would be so extensive, that he should call in 
 £100,000 of his advances to the public, — an amount, which 
 is a portion of the sum which he has, for thirty years, em- 
 ployed in lending to men engaged in the pursuits of in- 
 dustry, in his vicinity." What, my Lords, is the opinion 
 of another Country Banker, *' in no way connected with, 
 and living at a distance of three hundred miles from, the 
 former 1" He states, "that, though the Bankers in his 
 neighbourhood are solvent, and possess property, the en- 
 tire Suppression of Small-notes would, by cutting down 
 the amount of their business, close one-half of the Banks 
 in the district wherein he resides." One word more, my 
 Lords, as to what has been said by my noble friend of the 
 great injustice of the Bank Restriction Act of 17i>7, 
 and the depreciation of Bank Paper. At that period we 
 were embarked in a war, the expenses of which had in- 
 volved the country in a debt that was most grievous and 
 oppressive to the people of this country, and it is perfectly 
 obvious, that by lowering the value of money you les- 
 sened the weight of that taxation, as well as of all bonds 
 and obligations ; and it is well known that under that sys- 
 tem the country flourished. The object of this other 
 measure was, to raise the value of money, and, by that 
 circumstance, to make more onerous and oppressive the 
 already grievous taxation under which the people of this 
 country labour ; and to commit an act of fraud, violence, 
 and injustice, by giving to the creditor an amount in value 
 which he never lent, and which, therefore, he is not en- 
 titled to receive. 
 
 Your Lordships will recollect that when that measure 
 was adpoted — I allude to the Bill of 15319, known by the 
 uauie of Mr. Peel's Bill — I denominated it an edict of
 
 143 
 
 confiscation ; and the consequences of that Bill were bur- 
 densome and intolerable to the people, and brought great 
 and alarming distress on the country. The same doctrines 
 have been followed up since that period, by the political 
 economists, and a heap of interested speculators, under 
 whose influence the Act of 1826 was obtained, which re- 
 newed that distress ; and if their views are to be permitted 
 still to influence and direct our operations in free trade, I 
 am fully satisfied that, ere long, they will disorganize the 
 country. So deeply, my Lords, am I impressed with the 
 importance of this subject, that I shall, early next session, 
 submit a motion to your Lordships for the appointment of 
 a Select Committee, to inquire fully into this important 
 question, both as it regards the state of the currency, and 
 the eff*ects which have arisen from its alteration. Whether 
 the attendance of your Lordships will be numerous or not, 
 at that period of the year, I shall offer no opinion ; but I 
 feel confident — and experience tends to confirm me in my 
 opinion, — that, to bring forward such a motion near the 
 end of the session, would not only be not eflfective, but 
 would be wholly inoperative. 
 
 THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 My Lords, — It is not my intention to discuss the 
 subject on the present occasion, considering that, on 
 the day after to-morrow there will be a fair oppor- 
 tunity of doing so, upon the motion for the second 
 reading of the Scotch Promissory Notes Bill. But, 
 my Lords, I cannot help saying one word, in answer to 
 my noble friend- The measure which will come under 
 the consideration of the House, on Thursday next, is the 
 complement of the measure adopted in 1826. It is a 
 measure which a Committee of this House and a Commit- 
 tee of the other House of Parliament have declared to be 
 necessary, in order to carry into completion the measure
 
 144 
 
 which was then adopted. It may be very possible lliul it 
 is not a proper one. But that is a question which will 
 more properly come under consideration when my noble 
 friend brings forward his motion next year; or in the 
 Committee for which he has given notice to move. In 
 the mean time the King's servants consider it their duty to 
 present to Parliament this measure, in order to carry 
 into completion that of 1826— which was certainly dictated 
 by sound policy, looking to the period at which it was 
 adopted ; and by no means founded on mere abstract 
 principles. I will go further, and say, that I have every 
 reason to believe that there are means at present of carrying 
 it fully into execution; and, moreover, that the circulation 
 of the country will not be by any means diminished by 
 reason of its operations. 
 
 EARL STANHOPE. 
 
 I am fully aware that the Bill referred to by the 
 noble Duke is confined to the notes of Scotland and 
 Ireland ; but I must beg to say, with all my objection 
 to free trade, I would wish to exist to see it a certain 
 extent, as respects the circulation of notes. It has been 
 said that the measure of restriction will prove beneficial to 
 the manufacturing classes of the community ; but I would 
 desire to draw the attention of your Lordships to a Peti- 
 tion which I had the honour to present, some time since, 
 from Malton, in Yorkshire, in which the Petitioners state 
 that they had rather be subject to occasional losses from 
 the failure of Country Banks, than to the endless ruin 
 which their discontinuance would entail upon them. 
 
 VISCOUNT GODERICH. 
 
 My Lords, — It is extremely difficult to discuss satis- 
 factorily the question which has been incidentally in-
 
 145 
 
 troduced; not, indeed, on account of the mode in which 
 the noble Earl has presented the petition, for nothing 
 coukl be more reasonable than the manner in which he 
 explained its contents, and expressed his own sentiments 
 on the subject. But it is hardly possible to agitate ques- 
 tions of this kind, without raising other observations, in 
 which there is mixed up much of something like personality, 
 while motives are ascribed to individuals which never 
 actuated them. I certainly think it very disagreeable to 
 get up and disclaim these imputations, amounting even to 
 a cold-bloodedness against certain persons. I certainly 
 consider the present an unfavourable opportunity of entering 
 into general topics ; but I quite concur in what has been 
 stated by the noble Duke opposite, that the measure of 
 1826, instead of being the result of abstract theories, or 
 of a desire for an opportunity of changing something, was 
 the result of practical grievances, and was intended to 
 remedy those grievances ; and its whole principle was to 
 bring back the currency of the country to the condition in 
 which it stood prior to the measure of 1797, which, how- 
 ever it might have been called for by the particular circum- 
 stances of that time, I am more inclined to look at it in 
 the light in which the noble Earl on my right (Earl Grey) 
 views it, than in the light in which the noble Earl who has 
 just spoken, sees it. That act was undoubtedly attended 
 by consequences of the most serious kind ; and no measures 
 for the restoration of the currency would have been neces- 
 sary, had they not been called for by its derangements 
 consequent upon that act. 
 
 THE EARL OF CARNARVON. 
 
 My Lords, — I agree with the noble Viscount that 
 the measure of 182(> was introduced with the intention 
 of providing a remedy against <he occurrence of such 
 evils as took place in 1R2.'>; but to that extent alone.
 
 146 
 
 It was introduced at a moment of apprehension and 
 alarm ; and it was introduced without one instant 
 beuig given to an investigation of the subject. At the 
 time it was originally proposed, I stated, in my place, 
 what I take the liberty of repeating now, — namely, that it 
 would provide no remedy whatever against the recurrence 
 of those evils with which we have been already afflicted ; 
 but that it would tend, and does tend, to contract the cir- 
 culation, not in those quarters, where great speculations 
 arise, — not in those parts of the circulation which contri- 
 bute to excessive speculations, — which lead to convulsions 
 such as existed long before small notes were known ; but 
 it contracts the circulation in those parts which are neces- 
 sary to support the agriculture of the country ; which are 
 necessary to the employment of the labouring portion of 
 our population ; and the measure, therefore, will be found 
 to increase the pauperism, and diminish the revenue of the 
 country. When it was first under discussion I deprecated 
 it; I called loudly and repeatedly for inquiry, though I 
 failed in my efforts to obtain it. But Scotland and Ireland 
 succeeded better : for against them the same fatal measure 
 was contemplated ; the same intention of providing this 
 remedy against such evils as we had experienced, included 
 both Scotland and Ireland; they, however, obtained an 
 inquiry, and your Lordships well know what was the 
 result. In the Report of the Committee of your Lordships 
 appointed to investigate the subject, it was recommended 
 that the circulation of those countries should remain in the 
 state in which it then was. I have no doubt, if a similar 
 inquiry had been instituted with regard to the circulation 
 of England, that you must have come to the same conclu- 
 sion. 1 beg to remind those of your Lordships who were 
 present, when I addressed the House on the occasion to 
 which I referred, that I then stated, that the measure of 
 1819, I mean Mr. Peel's Bill, together with the measures 
 that preceded that Bill, and which were preparatory to it, 
 
 I
 
 147 
 
 had put an end to Mr. Pitt's sinking fund ; and that the 
 Bill you were about to pass would put an end to your own. 
 I would now ask your Lordships were is your sinking fund 
 of £5,000,000 a year 1 Has it not disappeared with the 
 one-pound notes 1 Shall I not say, then, that we are more 
 than ever called upon to be on our guard? 
 
 I will not detain your Lordships at any length now, 
 because the debate of Thursday, — one which I hope will 
 be attended by your Lordships, and one to which I hope 
 you will devote that attention which the question imperi- 
 ously demands, — will afford a better opportunity of going 
 into the subject; at the same time, I must be allowed to 
 observe that this extraordinary Bill, which we shall have 
 to discuss on Thursday next, is a mere supplement to the 
 measure of 1826, — it is an addition, without a motive, to 
 that statute-book, which is already so much overcharged. 
 It will now be a crime for any farmer who shall take his 
 produce to a Scotch fair, and receive for it the legal cur- 
 rency of that country, to bring it home, and spend it in 
 purchasing the common necessaries of life. I trust that 
 when the noble Duke opposite opens his Bill, he will be 
 prepared to show, — and, in asking this of him, I do not 
 ask any great deal, — that some one individual, residing on 
 the frontiers of Scotland, has been injured to the amount 
 of one farthing by Scotch notes being allowed to find their 
 way into this country ; or that some one individual, residing 
 on that frontier, is likely to be benefited to the amount of a 
 farthing by the passing of the Bill. If he cannot show 
 this, then I say, that such a wanton addition to the penal 
 code was never seen, and it is the most monstrous, as well 
 as most absurd measure that has ever been brought before 
 your Lordships. It will be quite time enough for me to go 
 into this question, when it comes regularly before the 
 House ; at present, therefore, I will say no more than this, 
 that we have a greater duty to perform, than merely to say 
 that this measure ought to be passed, because it is a sup-
 
 148 
 
 plement or complement to some former measure; it ought 
 not to be passed, unless it can be shown to be a measure 
 of great expediency, for our penal laws cannot be multi- 
 plied without great evil attending the multiplication. But 
 it appears, that this Bill comprehends a most extraordinary 
 dispensing power. It contains a clause which gives the 
 Treasury the power of either enforcing or remitting to the 
 penalty which may be imposed by the Bill. Now, if this 
 means any thing, it must mean that there is a doubt as to 
 the beneficial operation of the Bill, — that it is supposed it 
 may turn out to be more productive of oppression than of 
 good. — Having said thus much, I have only to recommend 
 that you will reconsider the state of the currency, — submit 
 to real investigation all its multiplied concerns, — and con- 
 template the propriety of giving relief in another way. I 
 should like a silver standard to be tried. Do not dismiss 
 it, by saying that the quantity of silver in the coffers of the 
 Bank proves that there is no demand for silver. It ought 
 to be made a legal tender. It is possible there is no de- 
 mand ; for, as long as only a small quantity of silver is a 
 legal tender, of course there will be very little demand for 
 it. There is an apprehension of Scotch notes forcing their 
 way into England; in my opinion, this importation shows 
 that there is a want of a cheaper and more abundant circu- 
 lation in the country. I trust that the question will be con- 
 sidered with a view to the prosperity of the country. I 
 recommend the Petition to your Lordships' attention, as 
 one that is, at least, a most able performance, and that 
 does great credit to the person who has written it. 
 The Petition was ordered to lie on the table.
 
 149 
 
 HOUSE OF COMMONS, 
 
 Tuesday, June 2d, 1829. 
 
 SIR FRANCIS BURDETT. 
 
 1 have a petition to present ou a very interesting 
 subject, on which it may be necessary to detain the 
 House for a few minutes. It is from a gentleman of 
 the name of Burgess, who,, on more than one occa- 
 sion, has shown himself extremely well-informed on the 
 subject to which his petition relates. It is of a general 
 character, and it prays the House to investigate the state 
 of the country, in order to ascertain whether the distress 
 has not been occasioned, as he thinks, (and as I very 
 much agree with him,) by an inconsiderate, hasty, and 
 improvident return to a gold standard, after every thing 
 ijad been settled on the basis of a paper-currency. It 
 seems to me that it is impossible for the House not to take 
 one of the subjects of which the petitioner treats into con- 
 sideration again : no vote of this House, — no declaration 
 of opinion by any man, or set of men, can avert the con- 
 sequences which the petitioner anticipates, and which, 
 from day to day, will be more severely felt. 
 
 In 1819 the House voted that the country should return 
 to a gold currency ; but, in point of fact, it has never been 
 able to do it. If honourable members reflect a little, they 
 will see, that in proportion as attempts have been made, 
 at different times, to return to a gold standard, the country 
 has been thrown into a state of difficulty and distress : on 
 three or four occasions the attempt has been made, and en 
 
 K
 
 150 
 
 every occasion Governinont has been obliged to relax. In 
 tins thirst of gold we seem to have been about as wise as 
 Midas, who wished every thing he touched to turn to gold, 
 and the result was that he was in danger of starvation. 
 Unless the whole question be reconsidered, and some 
 strong measures taken to correct the evils of the [)rescnt 
 system, our distresses will be daily and hourly augmented. 
 It has been said, and said from high authority, in another 
 place, that it is a great mistake to think that the debt of 
 this country, or the greater part of it, was contracted in a 
 depreciated currency. According to this statement, we 
 must conclude that there was no Bank-restriction from the 
 year 1797 to the year 1815. Moreover, it was stated, by 
 the same authority, that the distresses of the country were 
 in no way owing to the alterations of, or tampering with, 
 the currency. Singularly enough it was said, at the same 
 time, and by the same noble person, that all the sources 
 of industry, all the springs of industry, all the productive 
 powers of the country, are in full vigour, and that there is 
 no failure in any of its real sources of wealth. In this 
 opinion I entirely coincide ; but I entirely dissent from the 
 illogical conclusion, that the only alteration made by the 
 Legislature, connected with the commercial and nianufac- 
 tuiing interests of the country, had nothing at all to do 
 with producing the existing distresses. Those who argue 
 in this way may attribute our condition to what they call 
 overtrading, speculation, and what they call the stimulus 
 of the war, but they never can agree to assign it to the 
 true and only cause. There is no other cause which 
 aftects the whole of the interests of the country, and all 
 equally — which circulates through them like the vital 
 blood ; and, like the nerves of the human frame, you can- 
 not touch one part without its vibrating through all the 
 others. This canse will account (not for the impoverish- 
 ment of the country, because the country is not impove- 
 rished), but for our present state, and, if the system bo
 
 151 
 
 persevered in, it will produce still further and more galling 
 distress. Whether the productive powers of the country 
 will be able to bear this experiment, for it is nothing but 
 an experiment, cannot, perhaps, be fully ascertained at 
 the present moment : whether we should persevere or re- 
 trace our progress is a matter for inquiry : perhaps we are, 
 as Macbeth says — 
 
 " Stepp'd on so far, that, should I wade no more. 
 Returning were as tedious as go o'er :" 
 
 and on the other hand, it may turn out that we have no 
 choice, and that we cannot proceed, and must return. 
 The petition is very ably and argumentatively drawn up, 
 and though I do not enter into the details, they demand 
 the attention of every member. The prayer is, that in 
 another Session the Act of 1819 shall again be taken into 
 consideration, and in that prayer I entirely concur. I only 
 regret that a matter of such great importance, like many 
 others, should be postponed, not for three calends, as is 
 the usual course, but until another year. At the same 
 time I freely admit, that the great subject with which we 
 have been engaged was one of the highest that could oc- 
 cupy our time, I beg leave to bring up the petition. 
 The petition was brought up, and read. 
 
 SIR MATTHEW WHITE RIDLEY. 
 
 I perfectly agree in the prayer of the petition, which 
 relates to a subject which I consider of the utmost 
 importance. I believe that the distresses of the country 
 have at least been enhanced by the hasty and unjust 
 measure of 1819. It was more calculated to meet the 
 then existing prejudices than the real necessities of 
 the country. Some odium was thrown on the Govern- 
 ment of that day, and they threw the load upon the
 
 152 
 
 .sliouldtis ot' those who were not able to defend tbera- 
 selves. The periiuiiiciit interests ot the country were thus 
 sacrificed tor temporary convenience. 1 trust most fer- 
 vently that my predictions on this subject may be falsified; 
 but 1 apprehend that, very early in the next Session, the 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer will find a great defalcation 
 in the revenue. We now pay taxes in gold, which were 
 formerly paid in a depreciated currency, and it is, there- 
 fore, impossible that we should continue to pay at the 
 same rate as at present. I freely admit that it requires 
 deep and grate consideration whether it be expedient to 
 renew the circulation of one-pound notes : the mischief is 
 already done, and 1 doubt whether it would not be greater 
 injustice to return to the old system than to continue the 
 new one in this respect. I trust that the subject will be 
 brought under consideration early in the next Session. 
 
 The petition was laid upon the table. 
 
 THE liND. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 MARCHANT, PKINTER, INGRAM-COUKT.
 
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