The National Register. — London, England, 1817-03-31 00:00:00

Dr Na. 477.—V0L. X. POLITICAL DISQUISITION. ON TUE PRESENT STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. Causes of the present Embarrassments—Parliamentary IkAnners—Poor Lams—lnjurious Efects of ihe Country Banking System—SlN ECU Iles—Lord _irdeu —Retrenchment—Our present Prospects. WE have recently had put into our hands a Pamph let on this subject, published by Murray, of Albe marle-street, written by some one (tor it is anonymous) so evidently well-informed, so clearly alive to the evils which we all deplore, so cogent in urgumentatiou, so lucid in the statement of facts, and, withal, so perspi cuous yet elegant in hi, diction, that we shall Lvote no inconsiderable portion of the present article to a carefid analysis of its co n tent s : ut the same time earnestly recommending to our reatlers a diligent perusal of the pamphlet itself; in which, if we are not greatly mis taken, we perceive many traces of the same pen which several years ago favoured us with some judicious " Re marks on Blackstone's Commentaries." This writer, after manfully acknowledging the ex istence and extent of our embarrassments, proceeds to state the most prominent causes of those difficulties. " The exigencies of war ereate an immense and almost incessant demand for manufactures of various descriptions. We have lived in an extraordinary crisis in a state of the world unknown in any former period of warfare. The continent of Europe, struggling with difficulties in every branch of its foreign commerce, spiritless, depressed, with out energy, and without reliance, carried on her principal trade with Great Britain, in whose power alone she could confide, and on whose integrity alone she could de. pond. British goods consequently forced their circuitous entrance into every foreign port. But peace necessarily put au end to advantages arising exclusively front the war; —tom maritime superiority became no longer available. Competitors thronged into those markets which had been monopolized by the British merchant. At home, the limi tation of demand for the supply of government was deeply felt. This sudden interruption to industry was experienced. not merely in those manuthetnres connected with the direct demands of war,—it was felt in every branch of trade; for. one extensive chain connects the whole : no branch can suffer alone. The sudden stagnation of demand threw vast numbers of inditstr' poor out of employ. The sudden and extensive reline' ion of the army and navy, and (Witte naval and military establishments, cast thousands on the world, without re sources. and ssithnut bread. The complicated embarrass tocrit ot commerce extended itself to the landed interest— es er dependent for their prosperity on each other." The seeming paradox arising from the assertion that though the consequences of war are injurious to the welfare of the country, yet that the present distresses arc ascribable to its termination, is solved in the most easy and satisfactory manner ; as is also the so phism, taken up by those who lay all the blame on the xvar, that if a transition from war to peace has been found injurious to the public weal, a recurrence to a state of war must restore us to wealth and happiness. " A man that, long accustomed to intemperance. should on a sudden abstain from all strong drink, may for a time, and moil his constitution has adapted itself to the change of living, undergo much real suffering,.—the absence of all -stimulus, occasioned by his return to sobriety, will be the cause of this depression and debility; but because we affirm this, we are not therefore prepared to contend that he ought to return again to a course of drunken:los as a restorative." Speaking of Parliamentary Reform, this sensible writer observes-- " The word reform presumes some amendment to he made. It well becomes us, however, to pause a little, and to inquire whether that which its clamorous advocates are pleased to term a parhanientaly reform, would be actually a rrforon: or whether the alterntiou which they propose to us under that seducing appellation, hr any thing more or less than to make parliament othrruisc thou what it is—ter the rest is clearly an Whir of experiment. " If my constitution be a little out of order, and some one ins.sts that I take his remedy. it could no doubt appear some. what foolish to decline it. What man having any ailment ould not desire to be-relieved? Very true; but I sin not grate sure that it is a remedy ; the nostrum may be so denomi• muted, but tais ottimous zeal in uoy behalf may be without cowirtigt ; the dose may increase the distemper, and this nu, ly tray entry me ofh. They must he forgiven, therefore, Mho have a little prudent distrust, and are not to be hurried •ray quite so fast by ',tele words and pretensioes. The hod:, telitle is s much noire per emus subject of experiment than itte body mamal. A hale and robust constitution may carry wa.througir eperat i i of a poisonous drench; but when seapities °tower nub established systems, under a sperioui Seel for what they :bay please to term reform, their rashness Ray Aito nal, Ur virittr+ Our Wm, Con6titution an 31a1331. MONDAY, MA: 31, 1817. Mr. Cobbett, and the other mock reformers, are very ably opposed ; and their ignorance, vanity, and restless ambition exposed in a masterly manner. Their vulgar and ungrateful abuse of the numerous charitable sub scriptions, &c. which have been set on foot for the re lief of the poor, receives a most severe but justly me rited castigation. It is said, and with great truth too,— " fie (ME. Cobbett) would have applied hin invective equally had no charitable mectiagg been held, awl he would have been far better pleased stilt his stiLject; he would not have scattered it, in that rase, will less profusion, but he might have done it with an intirflely better grace." On the subject of the Poor Laws, our author rca sons thus : " With regard to the poor and their maintenance, it is a subject is hid,, from its importance, should have long , ince made us think much more distinctly, and much more wisely than we appear to have done. Many are apt to consider food as differing from all other commodities, and that the means of procuring it ought to be within the reach of all, and they are therefore apt to look with rather a lenient eye upon any excesses committed with a view to reducing its price. It is not real compassion, but real ignorance that misleads us on this subject. But if the price of the necessaries of life is so high that the poor cannot obtain them, what is to be done? they cannot starve! If those who talk thus, mean it—and they do mean it—as a justification of the forcible means which are sometimes resorted to to bring corn to market or to lower its price, such persons are sadly' misinformed as to what it much behoves them to be acquainted `vita—the first principles of common justice and of private right. There is no great clan ger that in this country, even in the worst of times, any num ber will starve from absolute inability to subsist by their la bour. But let the necessities of the individual be what they may, we lay it down as an axiom, that no man has a right to be fed at the expense of any other 111411. The greater his dis tress, the stronger is his claim on the compassion of those who have the power to relieve him ; but his appeal is to haincitate, and to humanity alone. No opinion can be more mitomided or more pernicious than that either the communing as a body, or any part of it, is bouud to provide for those who cannot pro vide for them se lves. If this were so, flu, industrious would soon become the prey of the indolent ; the fences of the law, and order, and property, won Id be thrown down; unfavour. able seasons, the inflictions of Providence, would become the pretext for eve!) , sort of violence and every sort of outrage. A man may suffer severely from cold without the means of ob taining fuel, but this will not give him a right to supply him self from his neighbour's cellar ; he may be afflicted Ai pain and disease without the ability to procure medicine, but this will not confer ou him a right to demand gratuitously the medicines of the apothecary, or the advice of the phy sician." On the Country Banking System, the most fruitful source ofall others of our present commercial embarrass ments, we have the following cogent reasoning : " The excessive issues of paper money, occasioned by the establishment of country banks in almost every town in the kingdom, created every where an artificial property ; a pro perty not arising out of the profitable employment of pre existiug capital. The facility with which credit was proem-NI gave a prodigious loose to speculation. Paper money was augmented, Hot in proportion to what an increase of industry required for its wages, or an increase of commodities required for their circulation ; but, following the lead of avarice, it increased as the craziness of speculation increased. Hankers, issuing their own notes, were apt so strict iii investigating the validity of the security upon which those notes were lent, as they would have been had they patted with so much of their hard-earned money. They were themselves, many of them, up to the ears in speculation. All parties, borrowere and lenders, mortgagers and mortgagees, all were infected with the same gambling spirit. A mass of industry was for a time put in motion by this fictitious wealth. High wages lightened for a time the heart of the labourer ; high prices diminished the pressure of taaation. Agriculture partook of this re freshing stream; it ran into all her channels:--but at length the tide turned;—as avidity is often short-sighted. very ...Uri. OUb failnres, from time to time, attested the rashness and im prudence of the adventurers. Immense consignments to markets already glutted ; goods to an immense amomit lying unpacked in foreign ports from want of demand ; no remit tances to be obtained for such as procured a sale ; foreign honses, whose solvency had never been suspected, linable to fulfil their engagements; merchants of the largest property staggering undi:r the blows which assailed them from all quarters; the landed and commercial interests, intimately connected and hlerded with each other, involved in daily in creasing thraldom, and credit coovulsed in all parts of the k ingdom. Batik after bank stopped pay meat, failure followed after failure, discounts were 11 strieted, credit was paralysed, commerce, agriculture, mannfaet area, the revenue, all suti'm ed muter the s hock ; and tinder this shock they am suffering at this moment.--Other causes combined, no doubt, to 11(1111', , i the finances and resources of the country, but this cruise takes the lead." Our limits will not allow even an abstract of this writer's reasoning concerning tins present stag: of Our representative gy,tcin. There arc some points in which we, with great deference, bcg leave to differ from him ; but, upm the whole, his arguments nre highly correct. Spot Ling el N ures, it is justly obbtivved, that PRICE Sid " It is scarcely credible to what an extent of miscon ception, nut vulgar minds, minds much above the vulgar, are carried on this head. Government has by no mean. obtained that full credit which it ought, from the extent in which it has, from time to time, reduced its patronage, and lessened its intliamee, by the abolition of offices tu which no personal duty was annexed. The bulk of the people arc wholly imacimainted with the measures adopted to that end, wh.le the emissaries of sedition continue the ac customed outcry against the CIIIII'IIIOIIS sinecures' as loudly and with just as much violence, as if no such reduction had ever been effected." Some extracts are given from the Report of the Se lect Committez., ordered by the House of Commons to be printed, 20th June 1810, by which it appears, that the &wing in " offices to be reformed," in " offices to be abolished," in the " customs," &e. &c. amounts to no less a sum than 66,5851. But all this is carefully kept out of sight by the reffinners. " No sineein e is more publicly - and perpetually referred to than Lwit Ardyn's, as Register of the High Court of Admi ralty. It is of importance that the misconception on this subject, which has spread itself so widely, should be removed. It must he painful to an upright and honourable mind to be represented before the public as rapaciously retaining a most enormous sinecure, at a time when the exigencies of the country can so ill justify such a demand upon it. In the Re port from the Select Committee on sinecure offices, the gross receipt of this appointment is accurately stated at 33,1871.•; but besides that the deputies receive one third part of the profit for executing the office, all the officers and clerks on the establishment, the stationery, and every description of expense, is paid out of the receipt : these different deductions amount, as appears by the same report, to 23,7331.; thus re ducing the gross . teceipt of 33,4781. to a nett receipt, payable to Lord Arden, of 9,7151. Often as the emoluments of this office have been adverted to, in no one instance has this most material drawback upon it been cum hinted at. There is another important circumstance; no part whatever, either of this gross or nett receipt, is a burdien on the public. Lord Arden receives no salary or payment of any kind from govern. ment : his emoluments arise from fees for business done in the public reeistry by his deputies and clerks, and are paid by the suitors of the court, by foreigners as well as British sub jects. It is most singular, however, that while Lord Arden is indignantly pointed out as holding this immense revenue in his elaxing grasp, amidst the imperions demands for eco. nomy ; that, so far trout receiving any salary, his lordship is out of pocket by the appointment; it does not pay its cx. ;fences; its emoluments are certainly not loin. per annum; the whole value of the office is completely confined to a time of war. Ear] Camden's sinecure is also investigated in like manner ; but as that nobleman has so generously relin. quished it, we shall pass it over. In a note, page 85, et seq. the author very ably ex— poses the fillsehoods of a " certain lying pamphlet," which purports to give a correct list of sinecure offices, &e. and shews that a very large proportion of persons and offices, stated to be so many dead weights upon the public revenue, arc in fact no such thing ; the emolu. merits being, for the most part, paid by those persons who arc suitors at or benefited by the offices in flues• Con. " There is certainly considerable misconreption in the po pular estimate of the magnitude of Sillee life tiftk( i. Those who are acquainted with tliib head of expenditure onl)• through the oldrinitt; representations that are perpetually afloat upon it, o ill perhaps be surprizeil to learn, that the total sinecures in England, and our foreign settlements, exclusive of offices to be reformed and abolished, and including those in the law courtc, seated) . amount to 100,0001. per annum." The subject of retrenchment comes next under re. view ; and here the same clear discrimination is mani fest. We have no room, however, for any extracts on this heAd, and must content ourselves with the con. eluding paragraph of this excellent pamphlet, and with a repetition of our earnest recommendat,on of the book itself to the notice of our readers: " We have before made a successful stand against tronbleS of at much thicker east than any we have at prestdit to contend with. EMI now the giawen is breaking assay, and the how may be seen on the clouds. We have bet-de ua every thing that should inspire confidence, and mm b, very man la that should teach its wisdom. I.Doking upwards, howeser, to .be Soul cc of all Good, and acting as—while the ruglish chat ac ter stirs ises—w e ever shall net, with fit leafless of mind And thankfmtneks or heart, we rinll tierce want the nu an, either of m 11106 1 ,4 the resources of the coun t ry, or of aestorioe its prosperity." 3. N. • Extltr.ive of interest on money lying in his hands. An awkward notice upon one of the Come founts of the House of Commons, on Tuesday, much observation. The notice ran thus :—" ('o (21 . Irish Lunatics," intended to designate that ti. mittee appointed to enquire into the state of iu Ireland, held their sittings in that room. munit tee ', exfted , ' , i,, , 0t, , lnitnittee the Coin. Lunatic vsh,- ~. r it. , ,„,. • 4 )4 0 .,,v,,,,: : 2, T , v