The Express.
London, England, 1847-10-06 00:00:00

BIRMINGHAM.

Tho meeting in Birmingham on Monday night to
take this subject into consideration (es adverted to in yester-
day's Express) was continued, and the discussion upon the
resolutions lasted until ten o'clock.
.

The CIEAIIIMAN (Mr. Alderman Weston) said that the
question was one of great importance, affecting as it did all
pens engaged in trade and commerce. The present crisis
sufficiently showed that our monetary system wasinsufficient
to meet the requirements of the growing -
Mg trade—growing wealth, and growing

Of the

country
Mr. T. C. SALT, a large manufacturer, seconded the reso-
lutions which had been submitted to the meeting by Mr.
Harlow, who is understood to have written some of the
articles which have appeared under the signature of
o Gemini." In the coarse of his speech Mr. Salt said that
the time had arrived when an effort must be made to do
aney a ith the perpetual fluctuations between the value of
paper and gold. He insisted that whenever and in whatever
country such a monetary syttcm as ours had been attempted
to be carried out it had invariably been attended with dis.
aster. That the exporting of gold for food in present eir-
cumatences was ruin to us; but that deeply and seriously as'
the injury was felt., nothing was likely to enlighten the
public but the application of the seourge;, that so far as
the public was concerned, there never was an instance when '
that scourge was more richly deserved, and never one where,
he feared, it would be more severely applied.
Mr. N awoaoare, M.P., said he attended on that occasion
at great personal inconvenience; but having the honour to
represent ',portion of that great mercantile community in
parliament, which had, for a long course of years shown its
disapprobation of our monetary system, he had felt himself
hound to attend for the purpose of explaining his views in
the present crisis. In his opinion tho circumstannes of the '
time were each as to call for the deep attention of the govern-
ment and the interference of the legislature ; and although
he might differ with some amongst them as to the remedy,
he screed as to the source of the evil. Ho held
it, therefore, to be the duty as well as the in-
terest of every person engaged in commerce in the
country to urge upon the government the necessity of in-
quiry. Since the present monetary system had been in
operation there had been a constant recurrence of these'
panics they had not yet forgotten those of 1825, of '36, of
'49, and now they had another in 1847. Any man who
looked at these rationally, unless he was confirmed beyond
hope of retractation in his attachment to some blind theory,
must be satisfied that some change was necessary. He (Mr.
Newdcgate) had objected to the bill of 1844, and, carrying
out his objection, he proposed in committee a resolution
nhich had been agreed to by a committee of private bankers,
the effect of which would have been to have prevented so
arbitrary and unreasonable an enactment as that of
limiting the issue of notes of the Bank of England
to fourteen millions. Instead of that, he submitted
that the Bank should have the power to issue upon security
to the amount of twenty-two millions, which was the average
of what the Bank had issued for 23 years under the old lye.
tens. It would be of some service to the country if the Bank
had such a power of extending its issues at that moment : it
would be sufficient to pay for all the corn the country had
required. They saw by the returns of the Bank that she had
lost seven millions of bullion ; now, it had been intimated by
Mr. Baring,gn the House of Commons, that bythe (alluvia
the potato crap and the bad harvest, his country had lost
sixteen =MMus, or that our importations to one half that
amount had been paid in bullion. At the very time
that we were in a difficulty consequent upon this
failure in the productions of the earth, the mone
Cary system, in the shape of the bills of 1819 and 1844,
came upon us sad crushed us. We were labouring under
currency laws like an iron rod, forged for nothing but to
mortgage all the trading interests of the country to the
foreigner, for the sake of tying us down to the exchanges.
And what came not there for this ? None, as he believed,
but the intention to bring us down to a condition which
should make us dependent solely on the condition of the
exchanges. If we were solely au exporting country—if our
whole resources—if our whole trade—if our whole depen-
dence were on a foreign trade, it might be necessary to legis-
late accordingly. But he had no intention of under-
raining our foreign trade when he said that it was
but as one. third compared with two-thirds of our com-
mercial relations. But was the... country unencum-

Lend fla-Tt not great liabilities ? And was it
not in such circumstances absurd to tie us down to some
crude system when we had such complicated and peculiar
circumstances to deal with, such materials, and such em-
barrassments? Let them look at the circumstances which
had recently taken place. They were 'offering from the
effects of • monetary panic unexampled almost in in severity.
The people of Newcastle addressed the Chancellor of the
Exchequer on the subject ; they said, we are not suffering,
it is true, to the extant they are in some parts of the country,
but we are apprehensive that the effect' of it will reach us,
and that we shall become involved accordingly. And what
maid the minister? Why, he answers, that he believes the
evil to he beyond the reach of any minister, or legislature, or
human interference to remedy. "It is true," he said, " that
you have lost a certain amount of capital; but I hope
the distress will pass away ; at all events, I do not see how
by any parliamentary interference it can be mitigated." Why
to his (Mr. Newdegate'si mind a more hopeful man than the
present Chanccl'or of the Exchequer was never heard of.
(Hear.) In the month of April they had a great pressure,
and, according to Sir Charles Wood, it was only a passing
cloud. Deputation after deputation waited upon him—the
pernicious operations of the bill of 1814 were pointed out,
but the Chancellor sang only one song, " the pressure
would pass away." So unnried indeed was this response
that the right hon. gentleman obtained the sobriquet of
" Sir Confident Wood." (Laughter.) What was the
operation of our present system in the circumstances
in which the had lice n placed by the failure
of the crops of last year.' TIT• that no provi-
sion being made for the hole causeu • in Llt:
the importation of food, we must first starve half tie
people, and then see half the commercial interest of the
country ruined. The special requirements of the past
year, inclusive of the railway calls, would amount to about
fifty millions. Our loan for three successive years of the
war was not leas than that sum, and that was a loan, too, for
an expenditure virtually barren and unproductive. Such,
however, was the effect of our monetary system, that conse-
quent oa the extraordinary requirement of the sum he had
named, notwithstanding that a large portion of it was ex-
pended on the domestic concerns of the country, we were re-
duced to a state of the most frightful commercial
distress. With all our increased riches and wealth, it
turned out that we were governed by a law which
deprived us of the capital wherewith to meet the exigencies
of one failing harvest. All this misery, too, was for the sake
of an adherence to Sir Robert Peel's theory of • gold standard
at nominally a fined price. That right hon. baronet had
thought fit to say in the course of the late session, that
"gold was capital, and in that respect it differed from in-
convertible paper." Such was the absurd theory of the