better times; they paid their rents and taxes, not out of their profits, but out of their capital; and the result was, that they were all completely ruined. But of the present body of farmers, there are very few indeed who possess any reserve of capital to which, in a season of distress, they can have recourse; and, therefore, an artificial rise in the value of money makes itself felt with extraordinary severity. It must not be assumed, that because we recommend a return to a paper circulating medium, we wish for the re-establishment of an uncertain and fluctuating standard of value; we concur in all that has been said and written respecting the injustice and insecurity of a paper circulation unchecked by a metallic regulator of its value. But although we freely recognise the indispensable necessity of having an invariable standard of value, we are not therefore bound to admit either the expediency or the justice of a metallic circulating medium. It forms, indeed, by no means the least singular feature in the discussions which have recently taken place respecting the monetary system of this country, that those who pretend to advocate an invariable currency, should have been the very men who prevailed upon the Legislature to sanction the alteration in the value of the circulating medium, which, in its consequences, is, at this moment, so severely felt by the public: those who, within the last ten years, have already tampered with the currency in two memorable instances, (making each time an addition of 25 per cent to the real value of the actual circulating medium,) have now the unparalleled hardihood to turn round and exclaim against the impolicy and injustice of any farther tampering with the currency. They urge that the suppression of the small note circulation having been already carried into effect, it would be unwise and impolitic to disturb a regulation which has been in practical operation for about nine months, although its practical effect has been to add at least 25 per cent to the real weight of all fixed money engagements. Such an argument for maintaining our monetary system on its present footing amounts to a bold declaration, that, because for the last nine months we have committed on all debtors an unjust act of spoliation, amounting to 25 per cent, or perhaps more, on the sum-total of the claims upon them, we must, for the sake of avoiding the imputation of vacillation and inconsistency, persevere in the wrong course on which we have entered, rather than review our measures, and retrace our steps. It is, in fact, an open avowal, that having given all creditors a legal claim to exact from their debtors an increase of at least one-fourth on the real amount of the pecuniary stipulations subsisting between them, we should turn a deaf ear to the petitions of the latter when they complain of the ruinous effects which have resulted from this change. But surely common sense and common honesty imperiously require, that if, through oversight and inadvertency, the Legislature have been led to sanction regulations by which one class of the community is enriched at the expense of another class, by that means unjustly impoverished, it should, rather than persist in their error, hasten to remedy, as far as lies in its power, the evil which it has produced. Every principle of equity and good faith requires, that if we cannot make a full compensasation to the debtor for the loss which the increased value of the circulating medium has already inflicted upon him; if we cannot restore to him that of which he has been already plundered, we should at least relieve him from the longer endurance of this injustice. It appears unquestionably a most extravagant reason to allege, that because for the last nine months the agricultural classes have been forced, by an unjust alteration of our monetary system to pay the taxgatherer and moneylender 25 per cent more than they had really promised to these claimants respectively, they should, for the sake of consistency, be compelled to endure permanently this addition to all their pecuniary obligations. We are, above all things, desirous to see the currency of this country placed permanently upon a fixed and secure basis; but for this purpose it is not necessary to prevent the circulation of pound notes issued by Banks of known solvency, and convertible into cash at the will of the hold er; we wish to see faith kept with creditors both public and private; to secure to them the repayment of all their claims in a circulating medium fully equivalent to that in which their capital was lent; but we must strenuously contend against the monstrous iniquity of allowing them to enforce the liquidation of their claims in a currency which an act of the Legislature has artificially raised one-fourth in real value. Upon the whole, we do most earnestly call upon the country to unite with one voice in forcing upon the attention of Government the recon sideration of our monetary system; it is beyond all calculation the most important question which can engage the deliberations of the Legislature; and not a moment should be lost by those who wish to rescue the producing classes from the ruin which stares them in the face. Petitions should, without a moment's delay, be got up in every district, pressing upon the attention of Parliament the unjust and ruinous addition which the late change in the currency has made to the weight of all fixed money payments. No more, alas! I rhyme of fancied pains, And leave to younger bards-my stock of flow'rs. But plain strong Sense, whose rough but honest part Or mourn with Bowles in Bremhill's cloister'd shades? Oh, happier time, Long, long ago, Religion, heavenly maid! And see! she stops, in ecstasy sublime, How warm he prayed for heaven's directing nod; Oh! while his watering eyes are turn'd above, To shew the exile's charms, the saint's grimace? Changes more sad, our wondering eyes engage, What deeds were his that call'd for such reward, Fit meed of learning deep and labours hard? His learning?-let him nurse and guard it well, Scorn'd by the good and pitied by the wise, As Crookshanks' self could paint or fancy feign, Hark! to the long-drawn hymn! The nasal drawl And not more wash'd from filthiness than sin. The enraptured prayer comes next-a long half hour The mob grows calm;-the few vile parsons there While Independents bend their list'ning ear Oh for a Mawworm's tongue and Judas' heart To tell the force with which his Lordship prays, Deserting thus the cause he vow'd to guard, Well may the Church to watch and arm begin, Lo! at a wink from Minister or peer Oh, wise and apron'd, wigg'd and sinless tribe! Hard is the fate that girdles thousands in, Whose clouded Faith, which nought can quite destroy, Whose mastering sins obscure each brighter hour, Whose soaring pride would urge him to be great; Whose empty dulness dooms him to be small! Raised by the same chaste Dame to equal height, Woe on the logic that can teach the quill That proves a Jesuit black, then, quick as light, A weak, dull man, exceeding Dogb'ery's rule, Oft 'mongst our friends, one sillier than the rest, But let not fools alone usurp the scene; Like mean deserters, is his influence borne, No powerful aids from may they seek,— 2 A The act that proved him faithless, made him weak. VOL. XXVII. NO. CLXIII. |