Ur>IIVER3lTY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY , A LETTER TO THE • (BXiitov of t|&e (iiBtJinliuririi Wl^tM^ S^ournal, FROM MALACHI MALAGRdWTHER, Esq. ON THE PROPOSED CHANGE OF CURRENCF, AND OTHER LATE ALTERATIONS, AS THEY AFFECT, OR ARE INTENDED TO AFFECT, TH*; KINGDOM OF SCOTLAND, Ergro, Caledonia, nomen inane, Vale ! THIRD EDITION. EDINBURGH : ^rhtteti fejj ^amtfi Ballantguc anU Company, . FOR WILLIAM BLACKWOOD, EDINBURGH : AND T. CADELL, STRAND, LONDON. 1826. A LETTER ON THE PROPOSED CHANGE OF CURRENCY. OS TO THE EDITOR OF THE EDINBURGH WEEKLY JOURNAL. My dear Mr Journalist, I am by pedigree a discontented person, so that you may throw this letter into the fire, if you have any apprehensions of incurring the dis* pleasure of your superiors. I am, in fact, the lineal descendant of Sir Mungo Malagrowther, who makes a figure in the Fortunes of Nigel, and have retained a reasonable proportion of his ill luck, and, in consequence, of his ill temper. If, therefore, I should chance to appear too warm and poignant in my observations, you must im- pute it to the hasty and peevish humour which I derive from my ancestor. But, at the same 4 THK CUURENCY. time, it often happens that this disposition leads me to speak useful, though unpleasant truths, when more prudent men hold their tongues and eat their pudding. A lizard is an ugly and dis- gusting thing enough ; but, methinks, if a lizard were to run over my face and awaken me, which is said to be their custom when they observe a snake approach a sleeping person, I should nei- ther scorn his intimation, nor feel justifiable in crushing him to death, merely because he is a filthy little abridgement of a crocodile. There- fore, " for my love, I pray you, wrong me not." I am old, sir, poor, and peevish, and, therefore, I may be wrong ; but when I look back on the last fifteen or twenty years, and more especially on the last ten, I think I see my native country of Scotland, if it is yet to be called by a title so discriminative, falling, so far as its national, or rather, perhaps, I ought now to say its provin- cial, interests are concerned, daily into more ab- solute contempt. Our ancestors were a people of some consideration in the councils of the em- pire. So late as my own younger days, an Eng- lish minister would have paused, even in a favour- THE CUKRENCY. 5 ite measure, if a reclamation of national rights had been made by a Member for Scotland, sup- ported, as it uniformly then was, by the voice of her representatives and her people. Such amelio- rations in our peculiar system as were thought necessary, in order that North Britain might keep pace with her Sister in the advance of im- provement, were suggested by our own coun- trymen, persons well acquainted with our pecu- liar system of laws, (as different from those of England as from those of France,) and who knew exactly how to adapt the desired altera- tion to the principle of our legislative enact- ments, so that the whole machine might, as mechanics say, work well and easily. For a long time, this wholesome check upon innova- tion, which requires the assimilation of a pro- posed improvement with the general constitu- tion of the country to which it has been recom- mended, and which ensures that important point, by stipulating that the measure shall ori- ginate with those to whom the spirit of the constitution is familiar, has been, so far as Scot- land is concerned, considerably disused. Those 6 THE CURRENCY. who have stepped forward to re|)air the gra- dual failure of our constitutional system of law, have been persons that, howsoever qua- lified in other respects, have had little farther knowledge of its construction, than could be ac- quired by a hasty and partial survey, taken just before they commenced their labours. Scotland and her laws have been too often subjected to the alterations of any person who chose to found himself a reputation, by bringing in a bill to cure some defect which had never been felt in practice, but which was represented as a fright- ful bugbear to English statesmen, who, wisely and judiciously tenacious of the legal practice and principles received at home, are propor- tionally startled at the idea of any thing abroad which cannot be brought to assimilate with them. The English seem to have made a compro- mise with the active tendency to innovation, which is one great characteristic of the day. Wise and sagacious themselves, they are ner- vously jealous of innovations in their own laws — Nolumus leges AngUce miitaii, is written on the skirts of their judicial robes, as the most TttE CURRENCV. 7 sacred texts of Scripture were inscribed on the phylacteries of the Rabbis. The belief that the Common Law of England constitutes the Per- fection of human reason, is a maxim bound upon their foreheads. Law Monks they have been called in other respects, and like Monks they are devoted to their own Rule, and admit no question of its infallibility. There can be no doubt that their love of a system, which, if not perfect, has so much in it that is excellent, originates in the most praiseworthy feelings. Call it if you will the prejudice of education, it is still a prejudice honourable in itself, and use- ful to the public. I only find fault with it, be- cause, like the Friars in the Duenna monopoli- zing the bottle, these English Monks will not tolerate in their lay-brethren of the North the slightest pretence to a similar feeling. In England, therefore, no innovation can be proposed affecting the administration of justice, without being subjected to the strict inquiry of the Guardians of the Law, and afterwards resist- ed pertinaciously until time and the most mature and reiterated discussion shall have proved its 8 THE CURRENCY. utility, nay, its necessity. The old saying is still true in all its points — Touch but a cobweb in Westminster-Hall, and the old spider will come out in defence of it. This caution may sometimes postpone the adoption of useful amendments, but it operates to prevent all hasty and experimental innovations ; and it is surely better that existing evils should be endured for some time longer, than that violent remedies should be hastily adopted, the unforeseen and unprovided-for consequences of which are often so much more extensive than those which had been foreseen and reckoned upon. An ordinary mason can calculate upon the exact gap which will be made by the removal of a corner-stone in an old building ; but what architect, not in- timately acquainted with the whole edifice, can presume even to guess how much of the struc- ture is, or is not, to follow ? The English policy in this respect is a wise one, and we have only to wish they would not insist upon keeping it all to themselves. But those who are most devoted to their own reli- gion, have least sympathy for the feelings of dis- THE CUHRENCY. 9 senters ; and a spirit of proselytism has of late shown itself in England for extending the bene- fits of their system, in all its strength and weak- ness, to a country, which has been hitherto flourishing and contented under its own. They adopted the conclusion, that all English enact- ments are right ; but the system of municipal law in Scotland is not English, therefore it is wrong. Under sanction of this syllogism, our rulers have indulged and encouraged a spirit of experiment and innovation at our expense, which they resist obstinately when it is to be carried through at their own risk. For more than one half of last century, this was a practice not to be thought of. Scotland was during that period disaflfected, in bad hu- mour, armed too, and smarting under various irritating recollections. This is not the sort of patient for whom an experimental legislator chooses to prescribe. There was little chance of making Saunders take the patent pill by persua- sion—main force was a dangerous argument, and some thought claymores had edges. This period passed away, a happier one arri- 10 THE CUKRENCy. ved, and Scotland, no longer the object of ter- ror, or at least great uneasiness, to the Bri- tish Government, was left from the year 1750 under the guardianship of her own institutions, to win her silent way to national wealth and consequence. Contempt probably procured for her the freedom from interference, which had formerly been granted out of fear ; for the medical faculty are as slack in attending the garrets of paupers as the caverns of robbers. But neglected as she was, and perhaps because she was neglected, Scotland, reckoning her pro- gress during the space from the close of the American war to the present day, has increased her prosperity in a ratio more than five times greater than that of her more fortunate and richer sister. She is now worth the attention of the learned faculty, and God knows she has had plenty of it. She has been bled and purged, spring and fall, and talked into courses of physic, for which she had little occasion. She has been of late a sort of experimental farm, upon which every political student has been permitted to try his theory — a kind of common property, where THE CURRENCY. 11 every juvenile statesman has been encouraged to make his inroads, as in Morayland, where, an- ciently, according to the idea of the old High- landers, all men had a right to take their prey —a subject in a common dissecting-room, left to the scalpel of the junior students, with the de- grading inscription, — Fiat experimentum in corpore vili. I do not mean to dispute, sir, that much alter- ation was necessary in our laws, and that much benefit has followed many of the great changes which have taken place. I do not mean to de- precate a gradual approach to the English sys- tem, especially in commercial law. The Jiu*y Court, for example, was a fair experiment, in my opinion, cautiously introduced as such, and placed under such regulations as might best assimilate its forms with those of the existing Supreme Court. I beg therefore to be considered as not speaking of the alterations themselves, but of the apparent hostility towards our municipal insti- tutions, as repeatedly manifested in the course of late proceedings, tending to force and wrench them into a similarity with those of England. The opinions of our own lawyers, nay, of our 12 THE CUKRENCr. Judges, than whom wiser and more honourable men never held that high character, have been, if report speaks true, something too much ne- glected and controlled in the course of these im- portant changes, in which, methinks, they ought to have had a leading and primary voice. They have been almost avowedly egarded not as per- sons the best qualified to judge of proposed in- novations, but as prejudiced men, determined to oppose them right or wrong. The last public Commission was framed on the very principle, that if Scotch Lawyers were needs to be employ- ed, a sufficient number of these should consist of gentlemen, who, whatever their talents and re- spectability might be in other respects, had been too long estranged from the study of Scottish law, to retain any accurate recollection of an abstruse science,or any decided partiality for its technical forms. This was done avowedly for the purpose of evading the natural partiality of the Scottish Judges and practitioners to their own system ; that partiality, which the English themselves hold so sacred a feeling in their own Judges, and Coun- sel learned in the law. I am not, I repeat, com- plaining of the result of the Commissions, but THE CURRENCY. IS of the spirit in which the alterations were under- taken. Unquestionably much was done in brush- ing up and improving the old machinery of Scot- tish Law Courts, and in making it move more ra- pidly, though scarce, I think, more correctly than before. Dispatch has been much attended to. But it may be ultimately found, that the time- piece which runs fastest does not intimate the hour most accurately. At all events, the changes have been made and established — there let them rest. And had I, Malachi Malagrowther, the sole power to-morrow of doing so, I would not re- store the old forms of judicial proceedings ; be- cause I hold the constitution of Courts of Jus- tice too serious matters to be put back or forward at pleasure, like a boy's first watch, merely for experiment's sake. What I do complain of is the general spirit of slight and dislike manifested to our national es- tablishments, by those of the sister country who are so very zealous in defending their own ; and not less do I complain of their jealousy of the opinions of those who cannot but be much bet- ter acquainted than they, both with the merits and deficiencies of the system, which hasty and 14 THE CURRENCY. imperfectly informed judges have shown them- selves so anxious to revolutionize. There is no explanation to be given of this but one— namely, the entire conviction and belief of our English brethren, that the true Themis is worshipped in Westminster Hall, and that her adorers cannot be too zealous in her service ; while she, whose image an ingenious artist has depicted balancing herself upon a te-totum on the southern window of the Parliament House of Edinburgh, is a mere idol,— a Diana of Ephe- sus, — ^whom her votaries worship, either be- cause her shrine brings great gain to the crafts- men, or out of an ignorant and dotard super- stition, which induces them to prefer the old Scottish Mumpsimus to the Modern English Sumpsimus. Now, this is not fair construction in our friends, whose intentions in our behalf, we allow, are excellent, but who certainly are scarcely entitled to beg the question at issue without inquiry or discussion, or to treat us as the Spaniards treated the Indians, whom they massacred for worshipping the image of the Sun, while they themselves bowed down to that of the Virgin Mary. Even Queen Elizabeth THE CUHRENCY. 15 was contented with the evasive answer of Mel- ville, when hard pressed with the trying ques- tion, whether Queen Mary or she were the fair- est. We are willing, in the spirit of that an- swer, to say, that the Theniis of Westminster Hall is the best fitted to preside over the admi- nistration of the larger, and more fertile country of beef and pudding ; while she of the te-totum (placed in that precarious position, we presume, to express her instability, since these new lights were sti-uck out) claims a more limited but equally respectful homage, within her ancient jurisdiction — sua paupera regna — the Land of Cakes. If this compromise does not appease the ardour of our brethren for converting us to English forms and fashions, we must use the scriptural question, " Who hath required these things at your hands ?" The inquiries and result of another Commis- sion are too much to the purpose to be suppress- ed. The object was to investigate the conduct of the Revenue Boards in Ireland and Scotland. In the former, it is well known, great misma- nagement was discovered ; for Pat, poor fellow, had been playing the loon to a considerable ex- 19 16 THE CURRENCY. tent. In Scotland, 7iot a shadow of abuse pre»s vailed. You would have thought, Mr Journal- ist, that the Irish Boards would have been re- formed in some shape, and the Scotch establish- ments honourably acquitted, and suffered to con- tinue on the footing of independence which they had so long enjoyed, and of which they had proved themselves so worthy. Not so, sir. The Revenue Boards, in both countries, underwent exactly the same regulation, were deprived of their independent consequence, and placed un- der the superintendence of English control ; the innocent and the guilty being treated in every respect alike. Now, on the side of Scotland, this was like Trinculo losing his bottle in the pool — there was not only dishonour in the thing, but an infinite loss. I have heard two reasons suggested for this indiscriminating application of punishment to the innocent and to the culpable. In the first place, it was honestly confessed that Ireland would never have quietly submit- ted to the indignity offered to her, unless poor inoffensive Scotland had been included in the regulation. The Green Isle, it seems, was of THE CURUKNCY. 17 the mind of a celebrated lady of quality, who, being about to have a decayed tooth drawn, re- fused to submit to the operation till she had seen the dentist extract a sound and serviceable grind- er from the jaws of her waiting-woman — and her humour was to be gratified. The lady was a termagant dame — the wench a tame-spirited simpleton — the dentist an obliging operator — and the teeth of both were drawn accordingly. This gratification of his humoui's is gained by Pat's being up with the pike and shilelah on any or no occasion. God forbid Scotland should re- trograde towards such a state — much better that the Deil, as in Burns's song, danced away with the whole excisemen in the country. We do not want to hear her prate of her number of mil- lions of men, and her old military exploits. We had better remain in union with England, even at the risk of becoming a subordinate species of Northumberland, as far as national consequence is concerned, than remedy ourselves by even hinting the possibility of a rupture. But there is no harm in wishing Scotland to have just so much ill-nature, according to her own proverb, as may keep her good-nature from being abused ; so B 18 THE CUKRENCY. much national spirit as may determine her td stand by her own rights, conducting her asser- tion of them with every feeling of respect and amity tov/ards England. The other reason alleged for this equal dis- tribution oi 'piniislnnent^ as if it had been the influence of the common sun, or the general rain, to the just and the unjust, was one which is, extremely predominant at present with our Ministers — the necessity o/* uniformity in all such cases ; and the consideration what an awk- ward thing it would be to have a Board of Ex- cise or Customs remaining independent in the one country, solely because they had, without impeachment, discharged their duty ; while the same establishment was cashiered in another, for no better reason than that it had been mis- used. This reminds us of an incident, said to have befallen at the Castle of Glammis, when these venerable towers were inhabited by a certain old Earl of Strathmore, who was as great an admirer of uniformity as the Chancellor of the Exchequer could have desired. lie and his gar- dener directed all in the garden and pleasure- THE CURtlENCY. 19 grounds upon the ancient principle of exact cor- respondence between the different parts, so that each alley had its brother ; a principle which, renounced by gardeners, is now adopted by statesmen. It chanced once upon a time that a fellow was caught committing some petty theft, and, being taken in the manner, was sentenced by the Baillie MacWheeble of the jurisdiction to stand for a certain time in the baronial pil- lory, called thejoiigs, being a collar and chain, one of which contrivances was attached to each side of the portal of the great avenue which led to the castle. The thief was turned over accord- ingly to the gardener as ground-officer, to see the punishment duly inflicted. When the Thane ' of Glammis returned from his morning ride, he was surprised to find both sides of the gate-way accommodated each with a prisoner, like a pair of heraldic supporters chamecl and collared proper. He asked the gardener, whom he found watching the place of punishment, as his duty required, whether another delinquent had been detected ? " No, my Lord," said the gardener, in the tone of a man excellently well satisfied with himself, — " but I thought the single fellow looked very 20 THE CURnrXCY. awkward standing- on one side of the gate-way, so I gave half-a-crown to one of the labourers %o stand on the other side^r uniformifi/s sake" This is exactly a case in point, and probably the only one which can be found — with. this sole difference, that I do not hear that the Mem- bers of the Scottish Revenue Board got any boon for standing in the pillory with those of Ireland — for uniformity's sake. Lastly, sir, I come to this business of ex- tending the provisions of the Bill prohibiting the issue of notes under L.5 to Scotland, in six months after the period that the regulation shall be adopted in England. I am not about to enter upon the question which so much agitates speculative writers upon i-he wealth of nations, or attempt to discuss what proportion of the precioiis metals ought to be detained within a country ; what are the best means of keeping it there ; or to what extent the want of specie can be supplied by paper credit : 'I will not ask if a poor man can be made a rich one, by compelling him to buy a service of plate, instead of the delf ware which served his turn» These are questions I am not adequate to solve. THE CURRENCY. 21 But I beg leave to consider the question in a practical point of view, and to refer myself en- tirely to experience. ^ I assume, without much hazard of contradic- tion, that Banks have existed in Scotland for near one hundred and twenty years — that they have flourished, and the country has flourished with them — and that during the last fifty years particularly, provincial Banks, or branches of the principal established and chartered Banks, have gradually extended themselves in almost every Lowland district in Scotland ; that the notes, and especially the small notes, which they distribute, entirely supply the demand for a medium of currency ; and that the system has so completely expelled gold from the country of Scotland, that you never by any chance espy a guinea there, unless in the purse of an accidental stranger, or in the coffers of these Banks them- selves. This is granting the facts of the case as broadly as can be asked. It is not less unquestionable, that the conse- quence of this Banking system, as conducted in Scotland, has been attended with the greatest advantage to the country. The facility which it 22 THE CUHRENCY. has afforded to the industrious and enterprising agriculturist or manufacturer, as well as to the trustees of the public in executing national works, has coni'erted Scotland, from a poor, miserable, and barren country, into one, where, if Nature has done less. Art and Industry have done more, than in perhaps any country in Europe, Eng- land herself not excepted. Through means of the credit which this system has afforded, roads have been made, bridges built, and canals dug, opening up to reciprocal communication the most sequestered districts of the country— ma- nufactures have been established, unequalled in extent or success — wastes have been converted into productive farms — the productions of the earth for human use have been multiplied twen- tyfold, while the wealth of the rich, and the comforts of the poor, have been extended in the same proportion. And all this in a country where the rigour of the climate, and sterility of the soil, seem united to set improvement at de- fiance. Let those who remember Scotland forty years since, bear witness if I speak truth or falsehood. There is no doubt that this change has been THE cumiENcv. 23 produced by the facilities of procuring credit, which the Scottish Banks held forth, both by discounting bills, and by granting cash-accounts. Every undertaking of consequence, whether by the pubUc or by individuals, has been carried on by such means ; at least exceptions are ex- tremely rare. There is as little doubt that the Banks could not have furnished these necessary funds of cash, without enjoying the reciprocal advan- tage of their own. notes being circulated in con- sequence, and by means of the accommodation thus afforded. It is not to be expected that every undertaking which the system enabled speculators or adventurers to commence, should be well-judged, attentively carried on, or sue-, cessful in issue. Imprudence in some casCvS, mis- fortune in others, have had their usual quantity of victims. But in Scotland, as elsewhere, it has happened in many instances that improvements, which turned out ruinous to those who under- took them, have, notwithstanding, themselves ultimately produced the most beneficial advan- tages to the country, which derived in such in- stances an addition to its general prosperity, 24 THE CURUENCY. even from the undertakings which had proved destructive to the private fortune of the projec- tors. Not only did the Banks dispersed throughout Scotland afford the means of bringing the coun- try to an unexpected and almost marvellous de- gree of prosperity, but in no considerable in- stance, save one, have their own over-speculating undertakings been the means of interrupting that prosperity. The solitary exception was the un- dertaking called the Ayr Bank, rashly entered into by a large body of country gentlemen and others, unacquainted with commercial affairs, and who had moreover the misfortune not only to set out on false principles, but to get false rogues for their principal agents and managers. The fall of this Bank brought much calamity on the country ; but two things are remarkable in its history : First, that under its too prodigal, yet beneficial influence, a fine county (that of Ayr) was converted from a desert into a fertile land. 2dly, That, though at a distant interval, the Ayr Bank paid all its engagements, and the loss only fell on the original stockholders. The warn- ing was, however, a terrible one, and has been so well attended to in Scotland, that very few THE CUKRENCY. 25 attempts seem to have been afterwards made to establish Banks prematurely — that is, where the particular district was not in such an advanced state as to require the support of additional credit ; for in every such case, it was judicious- ly foreseen, the forcing a capital on the district could only lead to wild speculation, instead of supporting solid and promising undertakings. The character and condition of the persons pursuing the profession, ought to be noticed, however slightly The Bankers of Scotland have been, generally speaking, ^'oor/ men, in the mercantile phrase, showing, by the wealth of which they have died possessed, that their cre- dit was sound ; and good men also, many of them eminently so, in the more extensive and better sense of the word, manifesting, by the excellence of their character, the fairness of the means by which their riches were acquired. There may have been, among so numerous a body, men of a different character, fishers in troubled waters, capitalists who sought gain not by the encoui-agement of fair trade and ho- nest industry, but by affording temporary fuel to rashness or avarice. But the number of uj)- rjght traders in the profession has narrowed tlie 26 THE CURRENCY. means of mischief, which such Christian Shy- locks would otherwise have possessed. There was loss, there was discredit, in having recourse to such characters, when honest wants could be fairly supplied by upright men, and on liberal terms. Such reptiles have been confined in Scot- land to batten upon their proper prey of folly, and feast, like worms, on the corruption in which they are bred. Since the period of the Ayr Bank, now near half a century, I recollect very few instances of Banking Companies issuing notes, which have become insolvent. One, about thirty years since, was the Merchant Bank of Stirling, which never was in high credit, having been known almost at the time of its commencement by the ominous nick-name of Black in the West. An- other was within these ten years, the East- Lothian Banking Company, whose affairs had been very ill conducted by a villainous manager. In both cases, the notes were paid up in full. • In the latter case, they were taken up by one of the most respectable houses in Edinburgh ; so that all the current engagements were paid without the least check to the circulation of their notes, or inconvenience to poor or rich. THE CURRENCY. 27 who happened to have them in possession. The Union Bank of Falkirk also became insolvent within these fifteen years, but paid up its engage- ments without much loss to the creditors. Other cases there may have occurred not coming with- in my recollection ; but I think none which made any great sensation, or could at all affect the general confidence of the country in the stabi- lity of the system. None of these bankruptcies excited much attention, or, as we have seen, caused any considerable loss. In the present unhappy commercial distress, I have always heard and understood, that the Scottish Banks have done all in their power to alleviate the evils which came thickening on the country ; and far from acting illiberally, that they have come forward to support the tottering cre- dit of the commercial world with a frankness which augured the most perfect confidence in their own resources. We have heard of only one provincial Bank being even for a moment in the predicament of suspicion ; and of that copartnery the funds and credit were so well understood, that their correspondents in Edin- burgh, as in the case of the East Lothian Bank formerly mentioned, at once guaranteed the 28 THE CUUUENCY. payment of their notes, and saved the public even from momentary agitation, and individuals from the possibility of distress. I ask what must be the stability of a system of credit, of which such an universal earthquake could not displace or shake even the slightest individual portion i^ Thus stands the case in Scotland ; and it is clear, any restrictive enactment affecting the Banking system, or their mode of issuing notes, must be adopted in consequence of evils, opera- ting elsewhere perhaps, but certainly unknown in this country. In England, unfortunately, things have been very different, and the insolvency of many pro- vincial Banking Companies, of the most esta- blished reputation for stability, has greatly dis- tressed the country, and alarmed London itself, from the necessary re-action of their misfortunes upon their correspondents in the capital. I do not think, sir, that the advocate of Scot- land is called upon to go farther, in order to plead an exemption from any experiment which England may think proper to try to cure her own malady, than to say such malady does not exist in her jurisdiction. It is surely enough to plead, " Wc arc well, our pulse and complexion prove it — ^let those who are sick take pliysic." But the opinion of the English Ministers is widely different ; for, granting our premises, they deny our conclusion. The peculiar humour of a friend, whom I lost some years ago, is the only one I recollect, which jumps precisely with the reasoning of the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer. My friend was an old Scottish laird, a bachelor and a humourist — wealthy, convivial, and hospitable, and of course having always plenty of company about him. He had a regular custom of swallowing every night in the world one of Dr Anderson's pills, for which reasons may be readily imagined. But it is not so easy to account for his insisting on every one of his guests taking the same me- dicine ; and whether it was by way of patroni zing the medicine, which is in some sense a national receipt, or whether the mischievous old wag amused himself with anticipating the scenes of delicate embarrassment, which the dis- pensation sometimes produced in the course of the night, I really cannot even guess. What is equally strange, he pressed this request with a sort of eloquence, which succeeded with every guest. No man escaped, though there were few 30 THE CURREXCY. Avho did not make resistance. His powers of per- suasion would have been invaluable to a mini- ster of state. " What! not one Leetle Anderson y to oblige your friend, your host, your entertain- er ! He had taken one himself — he would take another, if you pleased — Surely what was good for his complaints must of course be beneficial to yours ?" It was in vain you pleaded your be- ing perfectly well, — your detesting the medicine, — ^your being certain it would not agree with you — none of the apologies were received as valid. You might be warm, pathetic or sulky, fretful or patient, grave or serious in testifying your re- pugnance, but you were equally a doomed man ; escape was impossible. Your host was in his turn eloquent, — authoritative, — facetious,^-ar- gumentative, — precatory, — pathetic, above all, pertinacious. No guest was known to escape the Leetle Anderson. The last time I experienced the laird's hospitality, there were present at the evening meal the following catalogue of guests : A Bond-street Dandy, of the most brilliant wa- ter, drawn thither by the temptation of grouse- shooting — a writer from the neighbouring bo- rougli, (the laird's Doer^ I believe,) — two coun- THE CUREEXCV. 31 try lairds, men of reserved and stift' habits — three sheep-farmers, as stiff-necked and stubborn as their own halter'd rams — and I, Malachi Ma- lagrowther, not facile or obvious to persuasion. There was also the Esculapius of the vicinity — one who gave, but elsewhere was never known to take medicine. All succumbed — each took, after various degrees of resistance according to his peculiar fashion, his own Leetle Anderson. The Doer took a brace. On the event I am silent. None had reason to congratulate himself on his complaisalice. The laird has slept with his an- cestors for some years, remembered sometimes with a smile on account of his humorous eccen- tricities, always with a sigh when his surviving friends and neighbours reflect on his kindliness and genuine beneficence. I have only to add, that I hope he has not bequeathed to the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, otherwise so highly gifted, his invincible powers of persuading folks to take medicine, which their constitutions do not require. Have I argued my case too high in supposing that the present intended legislative enactment is as inapplicable to Scotland, as a paii' of elabo- {J2 THK CURUENCY. rate knee-buckles would be to the dress of a kilted Highlander ? I think not. I understand Lord Liverpool and the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer distinctly to have ad- mitted the fact, that no distress whatever had originated in Scotland from the present issuing of small notes of the Bankers established there, whether provincial in the strict sense, or sent abroad by branches of the larger establishments settled in the metropolis. No proof can be de- sired better than the admission of the adver- sary. Nevertheless, we have been positively inform- ed by the newspapers that Ministers see no reason why any law adopted on this subject should not be imperative over all his Majesty's dominions, including Scotland, ^or uniformity's sake. In my opinion, they might as well make a law that the Scotsman, for uniformity's sake, should not eat oatmeal, because it is found to give Englishmen the heart-burn. If an ordinance prohibiting the oat-cake, can be accompanied with a regulation capable of being enforced, that in future, for uni- formity's sake, our moors and uplands shall hence- forth bear the purest wheat, I for one have no ob- is THE CURRENCY. 33 jection to the regulation. But till Ben-Nevis be level with Norfolkshire, though the natural wants of the two nations may be the same, the extent of these wants, natural or commei-cial, and the mode of supplying them, must be wide- .ly different, let the rule of uniformity be as ab- solute as it will. The nation which cannot raise wheat, must be allowed to eat oat-bread ; the nation which is too poor to retain a circulating medium of the precious metals, must be permit- ted to supply its place with paper credit ; other- uise, they must go without food, and without currency. If I were called on, Mr Journalist, I think I could give some reasons why the system of Banking which has been foimd well adapted for Scotland is not proper for England, and why there is no reason for inflicting upon us the intended remedy ; in other words, why this political balsam of Fierabras, which is to re- lieve Don Quixote, may have a great chance to poison Sancho. With this view, I will mention briefly some strong points of distinction affect- ing the comparative credit of the Banks in Eng- c 3i THE CURllEXCV. land and in Scotland ; and they seem such as to furnish, to one inexperienced in political econo- mics, (upon the transcendental doctrines of which so much stress is now laid,) very satisfactory reasons for the difference which is not denied to exist betwixt the effects of the same general sys- tem in different countries. In Scotland^ almost all Banking Companies consist of a considerable number of persons, many of them men of landed property, whose landed estates, with the burthens legally affect- ing them, may be learned from the records, for the expense of a few shillings ; so that all the world knows, or may know, the general basis on which their credit rests, arid the extent of real proper- ty, which, independent of their personal means, is responsible for their commercial engagements. In most Banking Establishments this fund of credit is considerable, in others immense ; espe- cially in those where the shares are numerous, and are held in small proportions, many of them by persons of landed estates, whose fortunes, however large, and however small their share of stock, must be all liable to the engagements of the Bank. In England, as I believe, the number of THE CUllUENCV. 35 the partners engaged in a Banking concern can- not exceed five ; and though of late years their landed property has been declared subject to be attached by their commercial creditors, yet no one can learn, without incalculable trouble, the real value of that land, or with what mortgages it is burthened. Thus, c THK CUUKENCY. In the celebrated case of Porteous, the Eng- lish legislature saw themselves compelled to de- sist from vindictive measures, on account of a gross offence committed in the Metropolis of Scotland. In that of the Roman Catholic bill, they yielded to the voice of the Scottish people, or rather of the vScottish mob, and declared the proposed alteration of the Law should not ex- tend to North Britain. The cases were different, in point of merit, though the Scots were suc- cessful in both. In the one, a boon of clemency was extorted; in the other, concession was an act of decided weakness. But ought the present administration of Great Britain to show less deference to our temperate and general remon- strance, on a matter concerning ourselves only, than their predecessors did to the passions, and even the ill-founded and unjust prejudices, of our ancestors ? ' Times, indeed, have changed since those days, and circumstances also. We are no longer a poor, that is, so very poor a country and people ; and as we have increased in wealth, we have be- come somewhat-poorer in spirit, and more loath to incur displeasure by contests upon mere eti- quette, or national prejudice. But we have some THE CURin:XC!Y. 47 grounds to plead for favour with England. AVe have borne our pecuniary impositions, during a long war, with a patience the more exemplary, as they lay heavier on us from our comparative want of means — our blood has flowed as freely as that of England or of Ireland — our lives and fortunes have been as unhesitatingly devoted to the defence of the empire — our loyalty as warm- ly and willingly displayed towards the person of our Sovereign. We have consented with sub- mission, if not with cheerfulness, to reductions and abolitions of public offices, required for the good of the state at large, but which must af- fect materially the condition, and even the re- spectability, of our over-burthened aristocracy. We have in every respect conducted ourselves as good and faithful subjects of the general Empire. We do not boast of these things as actual me- rits ; but they are at least duties discharged, and in an appeal to men of honour and of judgment, must entitle us to be heard with patience, and even deference, on the management of our own affairs, if we speak unanimously, lay aside party feeling, and use the voice of one leaf of the holy 11 ^ THE CURRENCY. Trefoil, — one distinct and component part of the United Kingdoms. Let no consideration deter us from pleading our own cause temperately but firmly, and we shall certainly receive a favourable audience. Even our acquisition of a little wealth, which might abate our courage on other occasions, should invigorate us to unanimous persever- ance at the present crisis, when the very source of our national prosperity is directly, though unwittingly, struck at. Our plaids are, I trust, not yet sunk into Jewish gaberdines, to be wan- tonly spit upon ; nor are we yet bound to " re- ceive the insult with a patient shi-ug." But ex- ertion is now demanded on other accounts than ^ those of mere honourable punctilio. Misers themselves will struggle in defence of their property, though tolerant of all aggressions by which that is not threatened. Avarice herself, however mean-spirited, will rouse to defend the wealth she possesses, and preserve the means of gaining more. Scotland is now called upon to rally in defence of the sources of her national im- provement, and the means of increasing it ; upon which, as none are so much concerned in the 14 THE CURllENCY. 49 subject, none can be such competent judges as Scotsmen themselves. I cannot believe so generous a people as the English, so wise an administration as the pre- sent, will disregard our humble remonstrances, merely because they are made in the form of peaceful entreaty, and not secundum perferm- dum ingenium Scotorum, with " durk and pistol at our belt." It would be a dangerous lesson to teach the empire at large, that threats can ex- tort what is not yielded to reasonable and re- spectful remonstrance. But this is not all. The principle of " uni- formity of laws," if not manfully withstood, may have other blessings in store for us. Suppose, that when finished with blistering Scotland while she is in perfect health, England should find time and courage to withdraw the veil from the deep cancer which is gnawing her own bowels, and make an attempt to stop the fatal progress of her poor-rates. Some system or other must be proposed in its place — a grinding one it must be, for it is not an evil to be cured by palliatives. Suppose the English, for uniformity's sake, insist D 50 THE CURRENCY. that Scotland, which is at present free from this foul and shameful disorder, should nevertheless be included in the severe treatment which the disease demands, how would the landholders of Scotland like to undergo the scalpel and cautery, merely because England requires to be scari- fied ? Or again ; — Supposing England should take a fancy to impart to us her sanguinary criminal code, which, too cruel to be carried into effect, gives every wretch that is condemned a chance of one to twelve that he shall not be executed, and so turns the law into a lottery — would this be an agreeable boon to North Britain ? Once more ; — ^What if the English ministers should feel disposed to extend to us their equi- table system of process respecting civil debt, which divides the advantages so admirably be- twixt debtor and creditor — That equal dispen- sation of justice, which provides that an im- prisoned debtor, if a rogue, may remain in un- disturbed possession of a great landed estate, and enjoy in a jail all the luxuries of Sardanapalus, while the wretch to whom he owes money is star- ving ; and that, to balance the matter, a creditor. ' THE CURRENCY. 51 if cruel, may detain a debtor in prison for a life- time, and make, as the established phrase goes, dice of his hones — ^Would this admirable recipro- city of privilege, indulged alternately to knaye and tyrant, please Saunders better than his own humane action of Cessio, and his equitable pro- cess of Adjudication ? I will not insist farther on such topics, for I dare say, that these apparent enormities in prin- ciple are, in England where they have operation, modified and corrected in practice by circumstan- ces unknown to me ; so that in passing judge- ment on them, I may myself fall into the error I deprecate, of judging of foreign laws without be- ing aware of all the premises. Neither do I mean that we should struggle with illiberality against any improvements which can be borrowed from English principle. I would only desire that such ameliorations were adopted, not merely because they are English, but because they are suited to be assimilated with the laws of Scot- land, and lead, in short, to her evident utility ; and this on the principle, that in transplanting a tree, little attention need be paid to the cha- racter of the climate and soil from which it is 52 THE CURRENCV. brought, although the greatest care must be taken that those of the situation to which it is transplanted are fitted to receive it. It would be no reason for planting mulberry-trees in Scotland, that they luxuriate in the south of England. There is sense in the old proverb, " Ilk land has its ain lauch." In the present case, it is impossible to believe the extension of these restrictions to Scotland can be for the evident utility of the country, which has prospered so long and so uniformly under directly the contrary system. It is very probable I may be deemed illiberal in all this reasoning ; but if to look for infor- mation to practical results, rather than to theo- retical principles, and to argue from the effect of the experience of a century, rather than the deductions of a modern hypothesis, be illibe- rality, I must sit down content with a censure, which will include wiser men than I. The phi- losophical tailors of Laputa, who wrought by mathematical calculation, had, no doubt, a su- preme contempt for those humble fashioners who went to work by measuring the person of their customer ; but Gulliver tells us, that the worst THE CURRENCY. 53 clothes he ever wore, were constructed upon ab- stract principles ; and truly I think we have seen some laws, and may see more, not much better adapted to existing circumstances, than the Captain's philosophical uniform to his ac- tual person. It is true, that every wise statesman keeps sound and general political principles in his eye, as the pilot looks upon his compass to discover his true course. But this true course cannot al- ways be followed out straight and diametrical- ly ; it must be altered from time to time, nay, sometimes apparently abandoned, on account of shoals, breakers, and headlands, not to mention contrary winds. The same obstacles occur to the course of the Statesman. The point at which he aims may be important, the principle on which he steers may be just ; yet the obstacles arising from rooted prejudices, from intempe- rate passions, from ancient practices, from a dif- ferent character of people, from varieties in cli- mate and soil, may cause a direct movement upon his ultimate object to be attended with distress to individuals, and loss to the community, which no good man would wish to occasion, and with 54 THE CUKKENCV. dangers which no wise man would voluntarily choose to encounter. Although I think the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer has been rather precipitate in the de- cided opinion which he is represented to have expressed on this occasion, I am far from enter- taining the slightest disrespect for the right ho- nourable Gentleman. " I hear as good excla- mation upon him as on any man in Messina, and though I am but a poor man, I am glad, to hear it." But a decided attachment to abstract prin- ciple, and to a spirit of generalizing, is — like a rash rider on a headstrong horse — very apt to run foul of local obstacles, which might hscve been avoided by a more deliberate career, where the nature of the ground had been previously considered. I make allowance for the temptation natural to an ingenious and active mind. There is a natu- ral pride in following out an universal and level- ling principle. It seems to augur genius, force of conception, and steadiness of purpose ; qualities which every legislator is desirous of being thought to possess. On the other hand, the study of local THE CUllRENCY. 55 advantages and impediments demands labour and inquiry, and is rewarded after all only with the cold and parsimonious praise due to humble industry. It is no less true, however, that mea- sures which go straight and direct to a great general object, without noticing intervening im- pediments, must often resemble the fierce pro- gress of the thunderbolt or the canon-ball, those dreadful agents, which, in rushing right to their point, care not what ruin they make by the way. The sounder and more moderate policy, accom- modating its measures to exterior circumstances, rather resembles the judicious course of a well- conducted highway, which, turning aside fre- quently from its direct course, " Winds round the corn-field and the hill of vines," and becomes devious, that it may respect pro- perty and avoid obstacles ; thus escaping even temporary evils, and serving the public no less in its more circuitous, than it would have done in its direct course. Can you tell me, sir, if this uniformity of civil institutions, which calls for such sacrifices, be at 56 THE CURIIENCY. all descended from, or related to, a doctrine nearly of the same name, called Conformity in religious doctrine, very fashionable about 150 years since, which undertook to unite the jarring creeds of the United Kingdom to one common standard, and excited a universal strife by the vain at- tempt, and a thousand fierce disputes, in which she " umpire sate, And by decision more embroil'd the fray ?" Should Uniformity have the same pedigree, Ma- lachi Malagrowther proclaims her " a hawk of a very bad nest." The universal opinion of a whole kingdom, founded upon a century's experience, ought not to be lightly considered as founded in ignorance and prejudice. I am something of an agricultu- rist ; and in travelling through the country, I have often had occasion to wonder that the in- habitants of particular districts had not adopted certain obvious improvements in cultivation. But, upon inquiry, I have usually found that appearances had deceived me, and that I had not reckoned on particular local circumstances. THE CURRENCY. ^ 57 which either prevented the execution of the sys- tem I should have theoretically recommended, or rendered some other more advantageous in the particular circumstances. I do not therefore resist theoretical innovation in general ; I only humbly desire it may not outrun the suggestions arising from the expe- rience of ages. I would have the necessity felt and acknowledged before old institutions are demolished — the evident iitiUty of every altera- tion demonstrated before it is adopted upon mere speculation. I submit our ancient system to the pruning-knife of the legislature, but would not willingly see our reformers employ a weapon, which, like the sword of Jack the Giant-Killer, cuts hejbre the point. It is always to be considered, that in human affairs, the very best imaginable result is seldom to be obtained, and that it is wise to content ourselves with the best which can be got. This principle speaks with a voice of thunder against violent innovation, for the sake of possible im- provement, where things are already well. We ought not to desire better bread than is made of E 58 THE CURRF;- . .- wheat. Our Scot %*«.-■' »^varns us to let weel hide ; and an . rj^jrid has heard of the uDtranslateable Italian epitaph upon the man, who died of taking physic to make him better, when he was already in health. I am, Mr Journalist, Yours, Malachi Malagrowtheii. POSTSCRIPT. Since writing these hasty thoughts, I hear it reported that we are to have an extension of our precarious reprieve, and that our six months are to be extended to six years. I would not have Scotland trust to this hollow truce. The mea- sure ought, like all others, to be canvassed on its merits, and frankly admitted or rejected ; it has been stirred, and ought to be decided. I request my countrymen not to be soothed into inactivity by that temporizing, and, I will say, unmanly vacillation. Government is pledged to nothing THE CURRENCY. 59 by taking an open course ; for if the bill, so far as applicable to Scotland, is at present absolute* \y laid aside, there can be no objection to their resuming it at any period, when, from change '3f circumstances, it may be advantageous to Scotland, and when, for what I know, it may be welcomed as a boon. But if held over our heads as a minatory measure, to take place within a certain period, what can the event be but to cripple and ulti- mately destroy the present system, on which a direct attack is found at present inexpedient ? Can the Bankers continue to conduct their pro- fession on the same secure footing, with an abro- gation of it in prospect ? Must it not cease to be what it has hitherto been — a business car- ried on both for their own profit, and for the ac- commodation of the country ? Instead of em- ploying their capital in the usual channels, must they not in self-defence employ it in forming others ? Will not the substantial and wealthy withdraw their funds from that species of com- merce ? And may not the place of these be mpplied by men of daring adventure, without 60 THE CUllRENCY. corresponding capital, who will take a chance ul wealth or ruin in the chances of the game ? If it is the absolute and irrevocable determi- nation that the bill is to be extended to us, the sooner the great penalty is inflicted the better ; for in politics and commerce, as in all the other affairs of life, absolute and certain evil is better than uncertainty and protracted suspense. £DINBUA6H : tiNTEC BY JAMES BALLANTYNE AND CO. A