UNIVERSITY OF 
 ILLINOIS LIERAF.Y^^^ 
 /J UKBANA'CHAV.P^AIGNi
 
 14/ 
 THIRD LETTER 
 
 TO THE 
 FROM 
 
 MALACHI MALAGROWTHER, Esq. 
 
 ON THE 
 
 PROPOSED CHANGE OF CURRENCY, 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER LATE ALTERATIONS, 
 
 AS THEV AFFECT, OR ARE INTENDED TO AFFECT, . 
 
 THE 
 
 KINGDOM OF SCOTLAND. 
 
 Macduff. Stands Scotland where it did 
 Basse. Alas ! poor country. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 EDINBURGH : 
 
 pHtitett ftj) %&,mt^ 3SaXIant$ne anU (jTomjianj), 
 
 FOR WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH : AND 
 
 T. CADELL, STRAND, LONDON. 
 
 1826.
 
 LETTER THIRD 
 
 PROPOSED CHANGE OF CURRENCY. 
 
 to the editor 
 of the edinburgh weekly journal. 
 
 Dear Mr Journalist, 
 
 This third set of Mr Baxter's last words is 
 rather a trial on your patience, considering how 
 much Balaam (speaking technically) I have 
 edged out of your valuable paper ; how 1 have 
 trodden on the toes of your Domestic Intelli- 
 gence, and pushed up to the wall even your Poli- 
 tical Debates, until you have almost lost your 
 honoured title of the Edinburgh Journal 
 in that of Malachi's Chronicle. 
 
 I returned from the Meeting of Inhabitants 
 on Friday last, sir, convoked for considering
 
 4 THE CURRENCY. 
 
 this question, with much feeling of gratification 
 from what I saw and heard ; but still a little 
 disappointed that no one appeared on the oppo- 
 site side, excepting one gentleman, ("self pull- 
 ing," as Captain Crowe says, " against the whole 
 ship's crew,") whose eloquence used no other 
 argument than by recommending implicit de- 
 ference to the wisdom of Ministers. I am a 
 pretty stanch Tory myself, but not up to this 
 point of humility. I never have nor will bar- 
 gain for an implicit surrender of my private 
 judgement in a national question of this sort. I 
 am but an unit, but of units the whole sum of 
 society is composed. On the present question, 
 had I been the born servant of Ministers, I 
 would have used to them the words of Corit- 
 wall's dependant, when he interferes to prevent 
 his master from treading out Gloster's eyes — 
 
 I have served you ever since I have been a child, 
 But better service have I never done you, 
 Than now to bid you Hold. 
 
 Or in a yet more spirited passage in the same 
 drama — 
 
 Be Kent unmannerly, 
 
 When Lear is mad.
 
 THE CURRENCY. 5 
 
 To return to the business. By the unani- 
 mity of the meeting, I lost an opportunity of 
 making a very smart extempore speech, which 
 I had sate up half the night for the purpose of 
 composing. To have so much eloquence die 
 within me unuttered, excited feelings like those 
 of Sancho, when, in the deserts of the Sierra 
 Morena, his good things rotted in his gizzard. 
 To console me, however, I found, on my return 
 to my lodgings in the Lawn-market, ray own 
 lucubrations blazing in the goodly form of two 
 responsible pamphlets. I seized on them as if 
 I had never seen them before, and recited the 
 more animated passages aloud, striding up and 
 down a room, in which, from its dimensions, 
 striding is not very convenient. I ended with 
 reading aloud the motto, which I designed in 
 the pride of my heart to prefix to my immortal 
 twins, when, side by side, under the same comely 
 cover, they shall travel down to posterity as a 
 crown octavo ; — 
 
 He set a bugle to his mouth, 
 
 And blew a blast sae shrill, 
 The trees in greenwood shook thereat, 
 
 Sae loud rang ilka hill.
 
 6 THE CURRENCY. 
 
 But while I mentally claimed for myself the 
 honour of alarming Scotland, from Coldstream 
 Bridge to the far Highlands, I was giving, 
 by the noise T made, far greater alarm to my 
 neighbour, Christopher Chrysal, who keeps the 
 small hardware and miscellaneous shop under 
 the turnpike stair. Now, sir, you must know 
 that Chrysal deals occasionally in broken tea- 
 spoons and stray sugar-tongs, dismantled lockets 
 and necklaces, (which have passed with more or 
 less formality from ladies to their waiting-maids,) 
 seals, out of which valets have knocked the 
 stones that the setting might be rendered avail- 
 able, and such other small gear, — nay, I once 
 saw an old silver coffee-pot in his possession. 
 On the score, therefore, of being connected with 
 the precious metals by his calling, neighbour 
 Chrysal has set himself up for a patron and pro- 
 tector of Gold and Silver, and a stout contender 
 for Bullion currency. With a half-crown in one 
 hand, and a twenty-shilling note in the other, 
 he will spout like a player over the two pictures 
 in Hamlet, and it is great to hear him address 
 them alternately — 
 
 This is the thing itself— Off, off, ye lendings !
 
 THE CURRENCY. 7 
 
 But with all the contempt he expressed for the 
 paper substitute, I have always seen that it steals 
 quietly back to the solitude of his little pocket- 
 book. Indeed, the barber says JSIr Chrysal has 
 other reasons for wishing a change of currency, 
 or a currency of change, in respect of his own 
 acceptances not being in these sharp times quite 
 so locomotive as usual — They love the desk of 
 the holder, sir, better than the counter of his 
 great Neighbours in Bank Street. You under- 
 stand me — but I hate scandal. 
 
 I had no sooner apologized to Christopher for 
 the disturbance I had occasioned, (which I did 
 with some shame of countenance,) than I polite- 
 ly offered him a copy of my pamphlet. He 
 thanked me, but added with a grin, (for you 
 know no man is a prophet in his own common 
 stair,) that he had nothing particular to wrap 
 up at present : " But in troth, Mr Malachi," 
 said he, " I looked over your pamphlet in the 
 reading-room, and I must tell you as a friend, 
 you have just made a fool of yourself, Mv JNIa- 
 lachi." " A fool !" replied I ; " when, how, 
 and in what manner ?" " Ye have set out, sir," 
 replied he, — for Chrysal is a kind of orator, and
 
 8 THE CURRENCY. 
 
 speaks as scholarly and wisely as his neighbours, 
 — " with assuming the principle, which you 
 should have proved. — You say, that in conse- 
 quence of restoring the healthful currency of the 
 precious metals, instead of keeping those ragged 
 scraps of paper, Scotland will experience a want 
 of the circulating medium, by which deprivation 
 her industry will be cramped, her manufactures 
 depressed, her fisheries destroyed, and so forth. 
 But you know nothing of the nature of the pre- 
 cious metals, and how should you ?" 
 
 " Why, not by dealing in old thimbles, bro- 
 ken buckles, and children's whistles, certainly, or 
 stolen sprecherie,'' said I ; " but speak out, man, 
 wherein do I evince ignorance of the nature of 
 the precious metals — tell me that ?" 
 
 " Why, Mr Malachi Malagrowther," said my 
 friend, in wrath, " I pronounce you ignorant of 
 the most ordinary principles of Political Econo- 
 my. In your unadvised tract there, you have 
 shown yourself as irritable as Balaam, and as ob- 
 stinate as his ass- Yow. are making yourself and 
 other people fidgetty about the want of gold, to 
 supply the place of that snuflP-paper of yours ; 
 now in this I repeat you are ignorant."
 
 THE CUllRENCY. 9 
 
 Here he raised his voice, as if speaking ex ca- 
 thedi'a. " Gold," continued he, " is a commodity 
 itself, though it be also the representative of other 
 commodities ; just as a Banker is a man, though 
 his business is to deal in money. Gold, there- 
 fore, like all other commodities, will flow to the 
 place where there is a demand for it. It will be 
 found, assure yourself, wherever it is most want- 
 ed ; just as, if you dig a well, water will perco- 
 late into it from all the neighbourhood. Twenty 
 years ago you could not have seen a cigar in 
 Edinburgh. Gillespie, the greatest snuff-mer- 
 chant of his day, would not have known what 
 you wanted had you asked him for one ; and 
 now the shop-windows of the dealers are full of 
 real Havannahs, — and why ? — because you see 
 every writer's apprentice with a cigar in his 
 mouth. It is the demand that makes the sup- 
 ply, and so it will be with the gold. The ba- 
 lance of free-trade, whether the commodity be 
 gold or grain, will go where the one finds mouths 
 to be fed, the other a currency to be supported. 
 What sent specie into the lagoons of Venice, 
 and into the swamps of Holland formerly, as 
 well as into the emporium of London now, while
 
 10 THE CURRENCY. 
 
 large cities, situated under a finer climate, and 
 in a more fertile country, were and are compa- 
 ratively destitute of the precious metals? — what, 
 save the tendency of commerce, like water, to 
 find its own just level, and to send all the com- 
 modities suhject to its influence, the precious 
 metals included, to the points where they are 
 most wanted ?" 
 
 Now, Mr Journalist, I am a man of a quick 
 temper, but somewhat of a slow wit ; and though 
 it struck me that there was something fallacious 
 in this argument, yet, bolstered out as it was by 
 his favourite metaphor, it sounded so plausible, 
 that the right answer did not at once occur to 
 me. Chrysal went on in triumph : " You speak 
 of your Fisheries and Kelp manufacture, and 
 such like, and seem to dread that they will be 
 all ruined for want of a circulating medium. 
 But, sir, one of two things must happen. Either, 
 FIRST, assuming that these branches of industry 
 are beneficial to the individuals, and make ad- 
 vantageous returns ; as such they will have the 
 usual power of attracting towards them the 
 specie necessary to carry them on, and of course 
 no change whatever will take place. Or, se-
 
 THE CURRENCY. 11 
 
 CONDLY, these fisheries, and so forth, produce 
 no adequate return for the labour expended on 
 them, and are therefore a compulsory species of 
 manufacture, like those establishments institu- 
 ted at the direct expense, and under the imme- 
 diate control of government, which we see fading 
 in despotic countries, or only deriving a sickly 
 existence by the expenditure of the Sovereign, 
 and not by their own natural vigour. In that 
 latter case," he pursued, " those fishing and 
 kelping operations are not productive — are use- 
 less to the country — and ought not to be car- 
 ried on an hour longer ; they only occasion the 
 mis-employment of so much capital, the loss 
 of so much labour. Leave your kelp-rocks to 
 the undisturbed possession of seals and mer- 
 maids, if there be any — you will buy harilla 
 cheaper in South America. Send your High- 
 land fishers to America and Botany Bay, where 
 they will find plenty of food, and let them leave 
 their present sterile residence in the utter and 
 undisturbed solitude for which Nature designed 
 it. Do not think you do any hardship in obey- 
 ing the universal law of nature, which leads 
 wants and supplies to draw to their just and
 
 12 THE CURllENCY. 
 
 proper level, and equalize each other ; which at- 
 tracts gold to those spots, and those only, where 
 it can be profitably employed, and induces man 
 to transport himself from the realms of famine 
 to those happier regions, where labour is light 
 and subsistence plentiful. 
 
 " Lastly," said the unconscionable Christo- 
 pher, " sweep out of your head, Mr Malachi, all 
 that absurd rubbish of ancient tradition and 
 history about national privileges — you might as 
 vrell be angry with the Provost who pulled down 
 the Lucken-booths. They do not belong to this 
 day, in which so many changes have taken place, 
 and so many more are to be expected. We look 
 for what is useful, sir, and to what is useful 
 only ; and our march towards utility is not to be 
 interrupted by reference to antiquated treaties, 
 or obsolete prejudices. So, while you sit flou- 
 rishing your claymore, Mr Malachi, on the top 
 of your Articles of Union, very like the figure 
 of a Highlander on the sign of a whisky-ofBce, 
 take care you are not served as the giant who 
 built his castle on the marvellous bean-stalk — 
 Truth comes like the old woman with the * cut- 
 tie-axe' — it costs but a swashing blow or two,
 
 THE CURRENCY. IS 
 
 and down comes Malachi and his whole system." 
 ■—So saying, exit Christopher, ovans. 
 
 There was such a boldness and plausibility 
 about the fellow, and such a confidence in the 
 arguments which he expressed so fluently, that 
 I felt a temporary confusion of ideas, and was 
 obliged to throw myself into what has been, for 
 many generations, the considering position of 
 the Malagrowther family : that is to say, I flung 
 myself back in our hereditary easy-chair, fixing 
 my eyes on the roof, but keeping them, at the 
 same time, half shut ; having my hands folded, 
 and twirling my thumbs slowly around each 
 other, a motion highly useful in unravelling and 
 evolving the somewhat tangled thread of the 
 ideas. Thus seated, in something short of two 
 hours I succeeded in clearing out the ravelled 
 skean, which evolved itself in as orderly a coil 
 before me as if it had been touched by the rod 
 of Prince Percinet, in the fairy tale, and I am 
 about to communicate the result. I must needs 
 own that my discoveries went so far as was like 
 to have involved you in an examination of the 
 general principles on which the doctrine of cur- 
 rency depends. But since, entre nous, we might
 
 14 THE CURRENCY. 
 
 get a little beyond our depth on the subject, I 
 have restrained myself within the limits of the 
 question, as practically applicable to Scotland. 
 
 My present business is to inquire how this 
 meditated change of circulation, supposing it 
 forcibly imposed on us, is to be accomplished — 
 by what magic art, in other words, our paper 
 is to be changed into gold, without some great 
 national distress, nay, convulsion, in transitu f 
 
 Myneighbour deems anxiety in this case quite 
 ridiculous. Gold, he says, is a commodity, and 
 whenever its presence becomes necessary, there 
 it will appear. Guineas, according to Christo- 
 pher, are like the fairy goblets in Parnell's tale, 
 
 tliat with a wish come nigh, 
 
 And with a wish retire. 
 
 I don't know how it may be in national neces- 
 sities, but I have some reason to think that 
 friend Chrysal has not, any more than I have 
 myself, found the maxim true, in so far as con- 
 cerns our personal experience. I heartily wish, 
 indeed, this comfortable doctrine extended to 
 individual cases, and that the greater occasion 
 a poor devil had for money, the more certain 
 he should be of his wants being supplied by the
 
 THE CURRENCY. 15 
 
 arrival of that obliging article, which is said to 
 come wherever it is wanted. Since Fortunatus's 
 time, the contrary has in general proved to be 
 the case, and I cannot deny it would be very con- 
 venient to us to have his system restored. 
 
 And yet there is some truth in what my neigh- 
 bour says ; for if a man is indispensably obliged 
 to have a sum of money, why he must make 
 every effort to raise it. Supposing I was in busi- 
 ness, and threatened with insolvency, I might 
 find myself under the necessity of getting cash 
 by selling property at an under rate, or procuring 
 loans at usurious interest on what I retained, 
 and in that ruinous manner I might raise money, 
 because still nearer ruin stared me in the face 
 if I did not. The question is, how long supplies 
 80 obtained could continue ? — Not an instant 
 longer than I have articles to sell or to pawn. 
 After this, my usual wants would be as press- 
 ing, but I might wish my heart out ere I found 
 a groat to relieve them — No fairy will leave a 
 silver penny ia my shoe. Now I fear it must 
 be by some such violent sacrifices, ^ those in 
 the case supposed, that Scotland must purchase
 
 16 THE CURRENCY. 
 
 and maintain her metallic currency, if her pre- 
 sent substitute is debarred. 
 
 Mr Chrysal's proposition should not then run, 
 that gold will come when it is most needed, but 
 should have been expressed thus, — that in coun- 
 tries where the presence of gold is rendered in- 
 dispensable, it must be obtained, whatever price 
 is given for it, while the means of paying such 
 a price remain. 
 
 He amuses himself, indeed, and puzzles his 
 hearers, by affirming that gold is like water, 
 and, like water when poured out, it will find its 
 level. — A metaphor is no argument in any in- 
 stance ; but I think I can contrive in the pre- 
 sent to turn my friend's own water-engine 
 against him. Scotland, sir, is not beneath the 
 level to which gold flows naturally. She is ahove 
 that level, and she may perish for want of it 
 ere she sees a guinea, without she, or the State 
 for her, be at the perpetual expense of main- 
 taining, by constant expenditure of a large per 
 centage, that metallic currency which has a na- 
 tural tendency to escape from a poor country 
 back to a rich one. Just so, a man might die of 
 thirst on the top of a Scottish hill, though a river
 
 THE CURRENCY. 17 
 
 or a lake lay at the base of it. Therefore, if we 
 insist upon the favourite comparison of gold to 
 water, we must conceive the possibility of the 
 golden Pactolus flowing up Glencroe in an oppo- 
 site direction to the natural element, which trots 
 down from the celebrated Rest and be Thankful. 
 If my friend would consult the clerk of the 
 Water Company, at his office in the Royal Ex- 
 change, he would explain the matter at once. 
 " Let me have," says Mr Chrysal, " a pipe of 
 water to my house." — " Certainly, sir ; it will 
 cost you forty shillings yearly." — " The devil it 
 will ! Why, surely the Lawnmarket is lower 
 than the Reservoir on the Castlehill ? It is the 
 nature of water to come to a level. What title 
 have you to charge me money, when the ele- 
 ment is only obeying the laws of Nature, and 
 descending to its level ?" — " Very true, sir," re- 
 plies the clerk; " but then it was no law of 
 Nature brought it to the reservoir, at a height 
 which was necessary to enable us to disperse 
 the supply over the city. On the contrary, it 
 was an exertion of Art in despite of Nature. It 
 was forced hither by much labour and ingenui- 
 ty. Lakes were formed, aqueducts constructed, 
 
 B
 
 18 THE CUKIIENCY. 
 
 rivers dammed up, pipes laid for many miles. 
 Without immense expense, the water could ne- 
 ver have been brought here ; and without your 
 paying a rateable charge, you cannot have the 
 benefit of it." 
 
 This is exactly the case with the gold cur- 
 rency. It must have a natural tendency to 
 centre in London, for the exchange is heavily 
 against Scotland. We have the whole public in- 
 come, four millions a-year, to remit thither. In- 
 dependent of that large and copious drain, we 
 have occasion to send to England the rents of 
 non-resident proprietors, and a thousand other 
 payments to make to Loudon, which must be 
 done in specie, or by bills payable in the metro- 
 polis. So that the circulation moves thither of 
 free will, like a horse led by the bridle ; while 
 Scotland's attempts to detain it, are like those of 
 a wild Highlandman catching his pony by the 
 tail. Or, to take a very old comparison, London 
 is like Aboulcasem's well, full of gold, gems, and 
 everything valuable. The rich contents are 
 drawn from it by operations resembling those 
 of a forcing-pump, which compel small portions 
 into the extreme corners of the kingdom ; but
 
 THE CURRENCY. 19 
 
 all these golden streamlets, when left to them- 
 selves, trickle back to the main reservoir. 
 
 My friend's idea of a voluntary, unsolicited, 
 and unbought supply of metallic currency, is 
 like the reasoning of old Merrythought, when, 
 with only a shilling in his pocket, he expresses 
 a resolution to continue a jovial course of life. 
 " But how wilt thou come by the means, 
 Charles ?" says his wife. " How ?" replied the 
 gay old gentleman, in a full reliance on his re- 
 sources, — " How ? — Why, how have I done 
 hitherto, these forty years ? — I never came into 
 my dining-room, but, at eleven and six o'clock, 
 I found excellent meat and drink on the table. 
 My clothes were never worn out, but next morn- 
 ing a tailor brought me a new suit, and, with- 
 out question, it will be so ever — use makes per- 
 fectness." The dramatist has rescued his jolly 
 epicurean out of the scrape before his slender 
 stock was exhausted ; but in what mode Scot- 
 land is to be relieved from the expense about to 
 be imposed on a coimtry, where industry and 
 skill can but play a saving game, at best, against 
 national disadvantages, is not so easy to ima- 
 gine.
 
 20 THE CUllllENCY. 
 
 What may be the expense of purchasing in 
 the outset, and maintaining in constant supply, 
 a million and a half of gold, I cannot pretend to 
 calculate, but something may be guessed from 
 the following items : — To begin, like Mrs Glass's 
 recipe for dressing a hare, ^rst catch your hare 
 — first buy your gold at whatever sacrifice of 
 loss of exchange ; then add to the price a reason- 
 able profit to those who are to advance the pur- 
 chase-money — next insure your specie against 
 water-thieves and land-thieves, peril of winds, 
 waves, and rocks, from the Mint to the wharf, 
 from the wharf to Leith, from Leith to Edin- 
 burgh, from Edinburgh to the most remote 
 parts of Scotland, unprotected by police of any 
 kind — the insurances can be no trifle ; besides, 
 that an accident or two, like the loss of the De- 
 light smack the other day, with L.4000 of specie 
 on board, will make a tolerably heavy addition 
 to other bills of charges, as the expense of car- 
 riages, guards, and so forth — then add the items 
 together, and compute the dead loss of interest 
 upon the whole sum. The whole may be mode- 
 rately calculated at an expense of more than 
 Jive per cent, a charge which must ultimate-
 
 THE CURRENCY. 21 
 
 \y be laid on the Scottish manufactures, agri- 
 cultural operations, fisheries, and other pub- 
 lic and private undertakings ; many of which 
 are not at present returning twelve or fifteen 
 per cent of profit at the uttermost. 
 
 My friend Chrysal's reasoning rested on this 
 great mistake, that he confounds the necessity 
 of our procuring gold under the operation of the 
 new system, and the supplies which that neces- 
 sity must necessarily oblige us to purchase, with 
 a voluntary determination of unbought treasures 
 running up-hill to find their level at Stornoway, 
 Tongue, or Oban. He imagines that the specie, 
 for which we have to pay a heavy consideration, 
 will come to our service volimtarily. I answer, 
 in one word, the gold will come, if purchased, 
 AND NOT OTHERWISE. The expense attending 
 the operation will be just a tax upon the parties 
 who pay it, with this difference, that it makes 
 no addition to the public revenue. Every sove- 
 reign we get, which passes of course for twenty 
 shillings, will, before it gets to the north of Scot- 
 land, have cost o?«^-and-twenty. Illustrations of 
 so plain a proposition are endless. Suppose Go- 
 vernment had imposed a stamp-duty upon any 
 commodity, and, whilst with some other cowl'd
 
 a2 THE CUUUENCy. 
 
 neighbours I am canvassing its effects, I ask, as 
 a party concerned, — " But how are we to come 
 by these stamps ? The branch of commerce to 
 which they apply is not able to bear the impost." 
 Up rises my friend Chrysal in reply — " Stamp- 
 ed paper," says he, " is a commodity ; and, like 
 all commodities, flows to the point where there 
 is a demand." True — but, unhappily, when the 
 stamp-paper is in bodily presence, I cannot have 
 a slip of it till I pay the impost ; and if my trade 
 <loes not enable me to do so, I must give it up, 
 or be a ruined man ! 
 
 The same consequences must attend the in- 
 creased expense of the circulation under tlie pro- 
 posed measure, as would apply to a tax in any 
 other form. The manufactures, public works, 
 and private speculations, which are making a 
 return, enabling them to defray the charge at- 
 tending the more expensive medium of circula- 
 tion, will struggle on as they can, with less pro- 
 fit by the direct amount, and more disadvan- 
 tages arising from the means of circulation be- 
 ing at the mercy of winds and waves, and sub- 
 jected to long and perilous transportation be- 
 fore the gold reaches them. Those, on the other 
 hand, whose trade makes more precarious re-
 
 THE CUnUF.NCY. 23 
 
 turns, will be no longer able to wait for bet- 
 ter times. They will give up all, and the conse- 
 quences to Scotland — and England also — omit- 
 ting all allusion to individual distress, will be a 
 black history. 
 
 I have already said, that the Fisheries and 
 Kelp shores, and improvements on the more 
 bleak and distant districts, will probably be the 
 first sufferers. And my neighbour replies, with 
 a sweeping argument, that enterprises which 
 cannot support themselves by their own exer- 
 tions, and natural returns of profit, ought not 
 to have the encouragement of Government — 
 that they are only vain schemes, in which la- 
 bour and expense are wasted without their 
 bringing the necessary return, and that the 
 force employed in keeping up these barren and 
 fruitless undertakings should, as soon as possi- 
 ble, be directed into a more productive channel. 
 If I urge, that, although these undertakings 
 may not, as yet, have made the full returns ex- 
 pected, yet they support many people, natives 
 of a country otherwise too poor to furnish the 
 means of livelihood to its inhabitants, — why, 
 the answer is equally ready. Let the High-
 
 24 THE CURRENCY. 
 
 lander emigrate, or be transported to Botany 
 Bay ; and supply his place with sheep, — goats, 
 — anything, — or nothing at all. 
 
 I do not mean to deny, sir, that there is ge- 
 neral truth in the maxims, which recommend 
 that a free trade be left to sustain itself by it& 
 own exertions ; deprecating the system of for- 
 cing commerce when its natural efforts were 
 not successful, and warning against planting 
 colonies in unhealthy or barren spots, where 
 the colonists must perish, or exist in a state of 
 miserable and precarious dependence on the 
 bounties of the mother country. To these po- 
 litical truths I subscribe cheerfully. — But an 
 old civilian used to tell me^Jraus latet in gene- 
 ralibus ; and no general maxim can be safely, 
 wisely, or justly applied, until it has been care- 
 fully considered how far it is controlled by the 
 peculiar circumstances of the case. The pre- 
 cepts of Religion herself, as expressed in the 
 holiest texts of Scripture, have been wrested 
 into sophistry — the soundest political principles 
 may, by the frigid subtleties of metaphysical 
 moonshine, be extended so as, in appearance, to 
 authorise aggressions on national rights, as well
 
 THE CURRENCV. 25 
 
 as on the dictates of sound wisdom and human- 
 ity. 
 
 I have more replies than one to my neigh- 
 bour's doctrines of Political Economy, (though 
 true in the abstract,) when I consider them as 
 applicable to the case in question. 
 
 In the first place, I deny that the Scottish 
 Fisheries are in the predicament to which the 
 maxim, quoted triumphantly by my friend 
 Chrysal, applies. I say that they are already 
 suppbrting themselves, and producing a mode- 
 rate but certain profit ; only that this profit is 
 as yet so moderate, that it certainly will not 
 bear an impost of probably five or six per cent 
 upon the gross capital employed ; and that, 
 therefore, it is the highest impolicy to smother, 
 by such a burthen, important national under- 
 takings, which are, without such new imposi- 
 tion, in a condition to maintain themselves. It 
 would be breaking the reed ere it had attained 
 its strength, and quenching the smoking flax 
 just when about to burst into flame. 
 
 Secondly, Admitting, from the great poverty 
 of the inhabitants, and other discouraging cir- 
 cumstances, that the Scottish fisheries have for
 
 26 THE CURRENCV. 
 
 a long time required the support of Govern- 
 ment, I still aver, that the expense attending 
 such support has been well and wisely disposed 
 of, — just as a landlord would act not generous- 
 ly only, but most prudently, in giving favour- 
 able terms of settlement to a tenant, who was 
 to improve his farm largely. An exotic shrub, 
 when first planted, must be watered and cared 
 for — a child requires tenderness and indulgence 
 till he has got through the sickly and helpless 
 years of infancy. A fishery or manufacture, 
 established in a wild country, and among a po- 
 pulation of indolent habits, unaccustomed to in- 
 dustry, and to the enjoyment of the profits de- 
 rived from it, will at the outset require assist- 
 ance from the State, till old habits are surmount- 
 ed, and difficulties overcome. There is some- 
 thing in the nature of the people, who have been 
 long depressed by poverty, resembling the qua- 
 lities of their own peat-earth. Left alone, it is 
 the most anti-septic and inert of Nature's pro- 
 ductions ; but when, according to the process of 
 compost invented by the late ingenious Lord 
 Meadowbank, this caput mortuum is intermixed 
 with a small portion of active manure, it heats.
 
 THK CUKRENCY. 27 
 
 ferments, changes its sluggish nature, and fer- 
 tilizes the whole country in the vicinity. No 
 agriculturist regards the expense of the pro- 
 portion of manure necessary to commence this 
 vivifying operation ; and neither will any wise 
 government regret the outlay of sums employed 
 in exciting the industry, improving the com- 
 forts, and amending the condition, of its inha- 
 bitants. In the present case. Government has 
 done this duty amply — The tree has taken root, 
 the child is rising fast to youth and manhood — 
 the establishments of the fisheries are in full 
 progress to triumphant success. The question 
 is not, if you are yet to continue yoiu' encou- 
 ragement — nor whether the public is to save 
 some expense by withdrawing it. In these 
 questions there would be a direct and palpable 
 motive, that of a saving to the State, which, so 
 far as it went, would be a real, if not an ade- 
 quate motive, for breaking up these establish- 
 ments. But the question at issue turns on this 
 very different point — whether, by a measure 
 obnoxious to Scotland, and in which England 
 cannot challenge an interest remote or direct, 
 you are to adopt an enactment so likely to
 
 28 THE CURRENCY. 
 
 create the ruin of these establishments, now 
 that they have ah*eady attained prosperity? 
 The wish of many of the wisest English pa- 
 triots has been accomplished — the barren and 
 desolate shores are compensated in that desola- 
 tion by the riches of the sea — foreigners are 
 driven from engrossing as formerly their wealth, 
 and selling to Britain herself, at advantage, the 
 produce of her own coasts. Thriving villages 
 are already found where there were scarcely to 
 be seen the most wretched hovels ; a population 
 lazy and indolent, because they had no motive 
 for exertion, have become, on finding the em- 
 ployment, and tasting the fruits of industry, 
 an enterprizing and hardy race of seamen, well 
 qualified to enrich their country in peace — to 
 defend her in time of war. All this is gain- 
 ed. Shall all be lost again, to render the sys- 
 tem of currency betwixt England and Scot- 
 land uniform ? all sacrificed to what I can call 
 little more than a political conundrum ? In my 
 opinion, the Dutchmen might as well cut the 
 dikes, and let the sea in upon the land their in- 
 dustry has gained from it. In the case of Hol- 
 land, she would at least save the money ex-
 
 THE CURRENCY. 29 
 
 peiided in maintaining her ramparts. In our 
 case, the state gains nothing and loses every- 
 thing. 
 
 Lastly, I would say a word in behalf of the 
 people of Scotland, merely as human beings, and 
 entitled to consideration as such. I will suppose 
 this alteration is recommended by some expected 
 advantages of great importance, but the natiu'e 
 of which are prudently concealed. I will sup- 
 pose, what is not easily understood, that in some 
 unintelligible manner England is to gain with 
 addition what Scotland is condemned to lose. 
 (The process, by the way, seems to resemble 
 that recommended by Moliere's quack, who pre- 
 scribes the putting out of one eye, that the other 
 may see further, and more acutely.) I will sup- 
 pose that our statesmen, by enforcing this mea- 
 sure, condemn to emigration, or transportation 
 — the punishment she inflicts on felons — the 
 inhabitants of distant and desert tracts, on the 
 mainland and in the Hebrides, to save her from 
 some expense, and because she thinks a country 
 so different from her own fertile valleys, cannot 
 be fit for human habitation. In that case, I 
 would say, Consider, first, the character of the
 
 30 THE CUURENCY. 
 
 population you are about to consign thus sum- 
 marily to the effects which must follow the de- 
 stroying their present means of livelihood. My 
 countrymen have their faults, and I am well 
 aware of them. But this I will say, that there 
 is more vice, more crime — nay, more real want 
 and misery, more degrading pauperism and ir- 
 remediable wretchedness, in the parish of Saint 
 Giles's alone, than in the whole Highlands and 
 pastoral districts of Scotland, or perhaps in all 
 Scotland together. Poor as the inhabitants are, 
 the wants of the Highlanders are limited to 
 their circumstances ; and they have enjoyments 
 which make amends, in their own way of reck- 
 oning, for deprivations which they do not great- 
 ly feel. Their land is to them a land of many 
 recollections. I will not dwell on that subject, 
 lest I be thought fantastic in harping on a tune 
 so obsolete. But every heart must feel some 
 sympathy when I say, they love their country, 
 rude as it is, because it holds the churches 
 where their fathers worshipped, and the church- 
 yards where their bones are laid. ' 
 
 This is not all. Mountainous countries in- 
 spire peculiarly strong attachments into the na-^
 
 THE CURRENCY. 31 
 
 lives, showing perhaps, if we argue up to the 
 Final Great Cause, that while it was the plea- 
 sure of God that men should exist in all parts 
 of the world, which His pleasure called into 
 being, the Beneficence of the Common Father 
 annexed circumstances of consolation, which 
 should compensate the mountaineers for want 
 of the fertility and fine climate enjoyed by the 
 inhabitants of the plain. Some philosophers, 
 looking to secondary causes, have referred the 
 sense of this local attachment amongst moun- 
 taineers to the influence of the sublime though 
 desolate scenery around them, as stamping the 
 idea of a peculiar country more deeply on their 
 bosoms. The chief cause seems to me to be, that 
 such tribes rarely change their dwellings, and 
 therefore become more wedded to their native 
 districts than are the inhabitants of those where 
 the population is frequently fluctuating. The 
 land is not only theirs ^low^ it pertained to a 
 long list of fathers before them ; and the cold- 
 est philosopher will regard what is called a fa- 
 mily estate with greater attachment than he 
 applies to a recent purchase. 
 
 But independent of this, the inhabitants of
 
 32 THE CURRENCY. 
 
 the wilder districts in Scotland have actually 
 some enjoyments, both moral and physical, 
 which compensate for the want of better subsist- 
 ence and more comfortable lodging. In a word, 
 they have more liberty than the inhabitants of 
 the richer soil. Englishmen will start at this as 
 a paradox; but it is very true notwithstand- 
 ing, that if one great privilege of liberty be the 
 power of going where a man pleases, the Scotch 
 peasant enjoys it much more than the English. 
 The pleasure of viewing " fair Nature's face," 
 and a great many other primitive enjoyments, 
 for which a better diet and lodging are but 
 indifferent substitutes, are more within the 
 power of the poor man in Scotland than in the 
 sister country. A Scottish gentleman, in the 
 wilder districts, is seldom severe in excluding 
 his poor neighbours from his grounds; and I 
 have known many that have voluntarily thrown 
 them open to all quiet and decent persons who 
 wish to enjoy them. The game of such liberal 
 proprietors, their plantations, their fences, and 
 all that is apt to suffer from intruders, have, I 
 have observed, been better protected than where
 
 THE CURRENCY. 33 
 
 severer measures of geueral seclusion were adop- 
 ted. Hand inexpertus loquor. 
 
 But in many districts, the part of the soil 
 which, with the utmost stretch of appropriation, 
 the first-boni of Egypt can set apart for his own 
 exclusive use, bears a small proportion indeed 
 to the uncultivated wastes. The step of the 
 mountaineer on his wild heath, solitary moun- 
 tain, and beside his far-spread lake, is more free 
 than that which is confined to a dusty turnpike, 
 and warned from casual deviation by advertise- 
 ments which menace the summary vindication 
 of the proprietor's monopoly of his extensive 
 park, by spring-guns or man-traps, or the more 
 protracted, yet scarce less formidable denun- 
 ciation, of what is often, and scarce unjustly 
 spelled, " j)ersecutio?i according to law." Above 
 all, the peasant lives and dies as his fathers did, 
 in the cot where he was born, without ever ex- 
 periencing the horrors of a work-house. This 
 may compensate for the want of much beef, 
 beer, and pudding, in those to whom habit has 
 not made this diet indispensable. 
 , It is to be hoped that experimental legislation 
 will pause ere consigning a race which is con- 
 c
 
 '34 THJi CUllKENCT. 
 
 tented with its situation to banishment, because 
 they only offer at present their hardy virtues 
 and industry to the stock of national prosperity, 
 instead of communicating largely to national 
 wealth. Even considered as absolute paupers, 
 they have some right to such slight support as 
 may be necessary to aid them in maintaining 
 themselves by their own industry. If the poor 
 elsewhere could be maintained without the de- 
 grading sense that they were receiving eleemo- 
 synary aid, it would be the better for them- 
 selves and their country. 
 
 I will admit, for argument's sake, that the 
 public funds which have established those fish- 
 ing stations might have been bestowed to better 
 advantage ; still, having been so expended, we 
 ought certainly not to be hasty in withdrawing 
 our support, even if we may judge that it was 
 incautiously granted at first. The philosopher, 
 in the fanciful Tale of Frankenstein, acted un- 
 wisely in creating the unnatural being to which 
 art enabled him to give life and motion ; but 
 when he had, like a second Prometheus, given 
 sensation and power of thought to the creation 
 of his skill and science, he had no title to desert
 
 THE CURRENCY. 35 
 
 the giant whom he had called into existence ; 
 and the story shows that no good came of his 
 being discontented with his own handy-work. 
 But I contend, that the establishments to which 
 I allude exhibit nothing save what may render 
 the founders and encouragers proud of the re- 
 sult of their patriotic labours. 
 
 I do therefore hope that the present content- 
 ed and rapidly improving condition of so many 
 fellow-creatures, will be considered as something 
 in the scale, when a measure shall be finally 
 weighed, which, in the opinion of all connected 
 with the north of Scotland, threatens to deprive 
 them of the means of livelihood. 
 
 On other national topics I have already said 
 enough. Those who look only at states and 
 ledgers, hold such feelings as arise upon points 
 of national honour, as valueless as a cypher 
 without a numeral prefixed. Right or wrong, 
 however, they still have an effect on the people 
 of Scotland, as all can bear witness who were 
 here when his Majesty honoured the capital of 
 his ancestors with his own presence. We would 
 not plead these too high neither, nor cling tena- 
 ciously by antiquated pretensions, which may
 
 Six THE CURIJENCV. 
 
 obstruct the general welfare of the empire ; but 
 we deprecate that sort of change which is made 
 for the mere sake of innovation. A proud na- 
 tion cannot endure such experiments when they 
 touch honour — a poor one cannot brook them 
 when attended with heavy loss. We are all 
 aware that many changes must of necessity be 
 — the political atmosphere is heavy and gloomy 
 with the symptoms of them, 
 
 " And coming events cast their shadows before." 
 
 These changes will be wrought in their time ; 
 but we trust they will not* be forced forward 
 suddenly, or uutil the public mind is prepared 
 for, and the circumstances of the country require 
 them. 
 
 Seasonable improvements are like the timely 
 and regular showers, which, falling softly and 
 silently upon the earth, when fittest to be re- 
 ceived, awaken its powers of fertility. Hasty 
 innovation is like the headlong hurricane, which 
 may indeed be ultimately followed by beneficial 
 consequences, but is, in its commencement and 
 immediate progress, attended by terror, tvimult, 
 and distress.
 
 THE CURllKNOV. .'?7 
 
 This is indeed a period when change of every 
 kind is boldly urged and ingeniously supported, 
 nay, finds support in its very singularity ; as 
 the wildest doctrines of enthusiasm have been 
 often pleaded with most eloquence, and adopted 
 with most zeal. One philosophei* will convert 
 the whole country into work-houses, just as 
 Commodore Trunnion would have arranged 
 each parish on the system of a man-of-war. 
 Another class has turned the system of Ethics 
 out of doors, and discovers on the exterior of 
 the scull, the passions of which we used to look 
 for the source within. One set of fanatics join 
 to dethrone the Deity, another to set up Prince 
 Hohenloe. The supporters of all find preachers, 
 hearers, and zealots, and would find martyrs if 
 persecuted. We are at such a speculative period 
 obliged to be cautious in adopting measures 
 which are supported only by speculative argu- 
 ment. Let men reason as ingeniously as they 
 will, and we will listen to them, amused if we 
 are not convinced. I have heard with great 
 pleasure an ingenious person lecture on phre- 
 nology, and have been much interested in his 
 process of reasoning. But should such a phi-
 
 38 THK CURUENCY. 
 
 losopher propose to saw off or file away any 
 of the bumps on my scull, by way of improving 
 the moral sense, I am afraid I should demur to 
 the motion. 
 
 I have read, I think in Lucian, of two archi- 
 tects, who contended before the people at Athens 
 which should be intrusted with the task of 
 erecting a temple. The first made a luminous 
 oration, showing that he was, in theory at least, 
 master of his art, and spoke with such glibness 
 in the hard terms of architecture, that the as- 
 sembly could scarce be prevailed on to listen to 
 his opponent, an old man of unpretending ap- 
 pearance, But when he obtained audience, he 
 said in a few words, " All that this young man 
 can talk of, 1 have done." The decision was 
 unanimously in favour of Experience against 
 Theory. This resembles exactly the question 
 now tried before us. 
 
 Here stands Theory, a scroll in her hand, full 
 of deep and mysterious combinations of figures, 
 the least failure in any one of which may alter 
 the result entirely, and which you must take on 
 trust, for who is capable to go through and 
 check them ? There lies before you a practical
 
 THE CURRENCY. 39 
 
 System, successful for upwards of a ceutiuy. 
 The one allures you with promises, as the say- 
 ing goes, of untold gold, — the other appeals to 
 the miracles already wrought in your behalf. 
 The one shows you provinces, the wealth of 
 which has been tripled under her management, 
 — the other a problem which has never been 
 practically solved. Here you have a pamphlet 
 — there a fishing town — here the long-continued 
 prosperity of a whole nation — and there the 
 opinion of a professor of Economics, that in such 
 circumstances she ought not by true principles to 
 have prospered at all. In short, good country- 
 men, if you are determined, like JSsop's dog, to 
 snap at the shadow and lose the substance, you 
 had never such a gratuitous opportunity of ex- 
 changing food and wealth for moonshine in the 
 water. 
 
 Adieu, sir. This is the last letter you will re- 
 ceive from, 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 Malachi Malagrowther. 
 
 Edinburgh : 
 Printed by James Ballantyne & Co.
 
 m 
 
 L"./ 
 
 ^.ueibA
 
 To the Gentlemen who were present at a Puhlic Meeting 
 held at Bakewell, on the 14:th of March, 1823 : — 
 
 Gentlemen, 
 
 The present crisis hears melancholy 
 testimony to the truth of the prediction contained in the 
 address which, three years ago, was printed and circulated 
 under your sanction. 
 
 It is the design of this pamphlet to shew that 
 the means at that time suggested, as a preservative from 
 the national distress then anticipated, would now, if 
 adopted, prove efficacious as a remedy. 
 
 To you. Gentlemen, and to all who feel solici- 
 tous to prevent or to alleviate the sufferings of our fellow 
 countrymen, these pages are respectfully inscribed^ by 
 
 Your faithful humble servant, 
 
 JAMES TAYLOR, 
 
 Bahewell, April '2Qth, 1826.