pound sterling has reduced the English farmers, must fill every bosom not steeled against every sentiment of justice or humanity, with the deepest grief. They have already suffered a degree of distress of which those who are unacquainted with their condition, can form no conception. They have hitherto manfully and fearlessly struggled against the pressure which they feel. They have sacrificed all the superfluities, all the comforts, to which their station fairly entitled them; but notwithstanding all these enormous sacrifices-sacrifices which must make the most unfeeling heart bleed; the prospect before them is still more gloomy and alarming. If some alteration be not made in their condition, the distress which they now feel, must end in their irretrievable ruin.

I am grieved beyond measure to find them misled with respect to the cause of these difficulties, and turning all their hopes towards a measure which never can, under any circumstances, minister even、 the least alleviation of their present sufferings. Were the legislature to pass a law, to-morrow, prohibiting the importation of foreign corn'till a quarter of British wheat exchanged for a ton of gold, and employ an army of custom-house officers in carrying this regulation into full effect, it would afford them no relief, it could in no respect ameliorate their condition while they are compelled to satisfy the pecuniary claims upon them in a standard different from that in which their contracts were made.

Were the subject less distressing, one might be disposed to smile at the cause to which the agriculturist ascribes his difficulties. The British farmer might be represented as standing by his produce, collected into one heap, and the different individuals who have claims upon him coming to receive the portion of this produce to which they are respectively entitled: these claimants have enlarged the standard by which their demands are to be measured. But he seems perfectly unconscious of this fact; a pound with him is still a pound, although it be now equivalent to a pound and a quarter of the standard in which his contracts were made: they all, therefore, take out of the heap, by which he stands, one fourth more than he had agreed to give them, and the remainder of the produce left for his own share, which used to be a fair portion, he finds absolutely vanished. But, when this takes place, instead of telling these claimants upon his property that they use a standard, in measur ing what he owes them, differing from that in which he had contracted to pay, he turns round to a foreigner, who happens to be passing by, at the time, with a load of corn to be converted into cotton goods in Lancashire, and insists that he is the person who has robbed him. He insists that the remainder of the produce of his farm, which should fall to his share, has been lessened and reduced almost to nothing, not by the increased quantity which those,

who have fixed pecuniary claims upon him, take in consequence of an increase in the standard by which their demands are measured; but by the permission granted a foreigner, to carry over his land a load of corn and return the same way with a load of cotton : and with a degree of credulity and simplicity which is perfectly unaccountable, he believes that if the passage of this foreigner over his land were rigidly prohibited, his own portion of the produce of his farm would instantly swell to its original bulk, notwithstanding the increase in the quantity taken out of it by those who have demands upon him.

When he hired his farm, let it be assumed that he calculated the average produce as equal in value to 400 pounds of iron, on the standard of 16 ounces to the pound to his landlord he contracts to pay 100lb. as rent, and the taxes on this land may amount to 40lb.; in this case, there would remain to the occupier 400-140-260 pounds of iron, to meet the demands of the tithe owner, to pay the wages of the laborer, and to yield him a fair return for the capital employed in cultivating his farm. Suppose the legislature, yielding to the suggestions of a reformer of this standard of value, should enact that the pound should be increased, and fixed at 20 ounces instead of the 16, which it contained when the pecuniary claims on the tenant were arranged. The result of such an enactment would be, that the landlord and the tax-gatherer, still claiming the same number of pounds of this increased standard, would take from him 175 pounds instead of the 140 which he had calculated upon paying, and leave him to meet other claims only 400-175-225 pounds, instead of 260 which would have remained to him on the old standard. When payments are made in sterling gold, an alteration in the quantity or weight of this metal, which the pound contains, must produce precisely the same result. The agriculturists had contracted to make all their money payments in pounds sterling which were equivalent only to 96 grains of gold: by the operation of the bill passed in 1819, to regulate the currency, this value has been increased; and they are now compelled to make their payments in pounds sterling equivalent to 120 grains of the same metal.

I feel therefore the firmest conviction, that the alteration of the standard of the pound sterling, made in 1819, is the main cause and source of all the difficulties under which the agriculturists of this realm have, for some time, labored. They are difficulties which they must continue to feel, and which, if not removed, will absolutely crush them. They are difficulties which, if not by some means alleviated, must ruin, irretrievably, the industrious, the spirited and independent race of yeomanry, which has hitherto constituted the pride, the glory, and the safety of England. It is then an object of the VOL. XIX. Pam. NO. XXXVII.

greatest importance to make them understand from what quarter their danger arises, and if possible to point out the means which may afford the relief which they require; and thus save them, and through them the country at large, from the ruthless and irretrieva ble ruin which must otherwise overwhelm them.

There are two ways in which the relief which the agriculturists now pray for, and which they must obtain or be ruined, may be granted. The first mode in which this can be done, is by bringing back the value of the pound sterling to its standard during the period which intervened between the suspension of cash payments in 1797, and the removal of this restriction in 1819.--This is the standard on which all pecuniary engagements were formed, during that period. The second mode in which this relief may be granted them, is a reduction in the nominal amount of money payments equal to the difference which has been introduced into the standard value of the pound sterling. One of these plans, however reviled and opposed by those who are actuated by interest or prejudice, must be finally adopted-all other attempts to relieve the distresses of agriculture will prove as unavailing as the remon strance of King Canute against the encroachments of the sea. An alteration must either be made in the standard of value, or the nominal amount of all money payments must be reduced in pro, portion to the addition which has been made to this standard, This measure may be delayed till those who have engaged to make money payments are ruined-till the misery and distress, at présent felt by agriculturists, have at length become too grievous and in tolerable to be longer endured. But although the legislature may, for the present, turn its eyes from a subject which is by far the most important that ever claimed its attention, it must finally attend to it, and the measure here contemplated will be forced upon it by considerations of justice as well as necessity. As either one or the other of these two plans of relieving the farmer, must ultimately be adopted, it is desirable to ascertain, if possible, which of the two will afford this relief with the greatest facility, and produce, at the same time, the least inconvenience to the public at large.';

The question to be, therefore, discussed is whether it be most expedient that the pound sterling should be reduced to the standard in which almost all our present pecuniary engagements were entered into, or the present standard of our currency should be retained, and public as well as private creditors should, in consequence, be called upon to make a reduction in their demand proportioned to the increase which has taken place in the real value of the standard in which they are now paid.

The first of these plans-the restoration of the pound sterling to its real value when the present money contracts were entered into

appears to be the most practicable as well as the most equitable measure: as it will in its operation reach private as well as public stipulations for the payment of money. I should not, however, be surprised to find a party exclaiming against this proposal as a recommendation to adopt a fluctuating standard of value. But this proposal involves no such recommendation. There is not "one of Mr. Peel's constituents" who entertains a deeper sense than I do, of the evil, the inconvenience, and injustice, which must arise from the existence of a fluctuating and variable standard of value. I concur, most perfectly, in all that has been said of the insecurity and danger of a paper system-of a paper currency unchecked and unregulated by a metallic standard of value. But although fully sensible of the indispensable necessity of an invariable metallic standard, I shall attempt to show that the present standard is unjust in itself, and that it should be altered if, on reconsideration, it should be found the source from which the present derangement of all pecuniary contracts arises.

It forms by no means the least singular feature in the discussions to which the state of our currency has given rise, that they who advocate most warmly the necessity of adopting an invariable standard of value, should, in practice, have been the very men who have recommended, and prevailed upon the legislature to sanction, the alteration which has been made in the standard, and which, in its conse quences, is now felt so severely by the public. But these theorists, us well as the members of the committee which in 1819 recommended the repeal of the Bank Restriction Act, seem to have entirely miscon ceived the point to which their attention should have been principally directed. When recommending the restoration of a metallic standard, the object of their inquiries should have been to ascertain the value of the paper pound sterling, which it was intended this metallic standard should supersede. But, instead of prosecuting such an inquiry, they appear to have turned their chief attention to the expediency of resuming cash payments. Having decided that our standard of value should, for the future, be metallic, they seem to have considered it a matter of course that the weight of gold constituting a pound sterling, should be equal to the weight of the pound sterling before the suspension of cash payments in 1797..

Those who recommended the present regulation of our currency, appear to have argued in the following manner:-" Since paper, as a standard of value, must from its very nature be fluctuating and uncertain, it is expedient that a metallic standard should be established; and gold is, in many respects, the most convenient metal to constitute this standard:" so far, so good: to all this every one must readily accede; but mark the sequel Therefore," say they, "the pound sterling must weigh 120 grains of

gold." This is, unquestionably, the most extraordinary instance that I have ever met with, of reasoning "per saltum," or, what is vulgarly termed, " jumping at a conclusion." It is difficult to believe that such reasoning could for a moment be countenanced by any man; and it must certainly excite peculiar surprise, that it should have been sanctioned by economists, and acted upon by legislating committees and statesmen. The premises, upon which they argued, no more warranted them in drawing such a conclusion, than it justified them in inferring that the standard of the pound sterling should contain one pound weight of gold, because it was termed a "pound." It appears a monstrous solecism in reasoning to say, that "because the standard of value should for the future be metallic, it must be considered a matter of course, that the quantity of gold contained in the pound sterling, should be the same which it contained previously to the suspension of cash payments by the Bank. Reasons unquestionably may exist, why the pound sterling should contain this identical weight of gold; but surely the expediency of restoring a metallic standard of value cannot be considered as one of them. This is the fallacy which has misled "one of Mr. Peel's constituents," and the committee appointed in 1819, to investigate the state of our currency; and which prevailed upon the legislature to sanction the standard of value which they recommended. All the absurdity in argument, which has been advanced on this subject and what is much more to be lamented-all the mistakes which have been committed in practice, with regard to our currency, have arisen from confounding these two questions which are perfectly distinct. For, it must be instantly seen, that a resolution grounded on expediency, to return to a metallic standard is one thing-and that fixing the portion of this metal which shall constitute the standard weight of the pound sterling, is another question totally unconnected with the former.

It was not the object of a return to a metallic currency to increase the real value of the pound sterling, in which all contracts for the twenty preceding years had been made; its object was merely to prevent the fluctuation in its value, which might arise from the continuance of a paper currency, and the absence of a metallic standard by which the value of this paper might be ascer tained. Gold, fluctuating less in value than any other metal sufficiently abundant for the purposes of a circulating medium, was, no doubt, wisely selected as the metal which should constitute the standard of value. To avoid the fluctuating uncertainty to which the pound sterling, regulated on a paper standard, could not fail to be liable, it was highly expedient that a metallic standard should be adopted. But, because it was judged indispensably necessary that on account of its greater certainty, a metallic should