The Sun.
London, England, 1830-03-09 00:00:00

SPIPT-i OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The French Chamber of Deputies, as appears by
the account of its proceedings in the Paris Papers 0!
Thersday, Friday, and Saturday, has determined its
organization, and probably decided its physiognomy
for the session. In England all the officers of Par- •
liament remain during the interval between the ses-
sions, if there is no dissolution ; and, except in the
case of the death or resignation of the Speaker, th(
House of Commons immediately proceed; to busi-
ness, on the first day of its meeting, as if it had only
adjourned the previous evening. In France, on th
contrary, a great many formalities have to be ob-
served, and a considerable number of arrangements
effected, before the business of the nation can com-
mence. Candidates for the offices of President,
Vice-president, and Secretaries, have to be elected ;
the Chamber must be divided into bureaux, or com-
mittees, for that and other purposes; and out of de
five candidates presented to him, the King must se-
lect a President for the year. Thus, before the bu-
siness of the session begins, or before any proposi-
tion is submitted to the Chamber by the Crown,
the division of interests and the strength of parties
may be ascertained by the very manner of constitut-
ing the assembly. In the present year, when the
Legislature has met under such particular excite-
ment, and when it was of so much consequence for
the Ministry to obtain a numerical ascendancy irr the
preliminary proceedings, the Constitutionalists have
again obtained the victory. On Wednesday (the
flag after the Royal Speech) the Chamber of De-
puties was divided, for the convenienee of business,
into nine committees or bureaux, each of which
chose its Chairman or President, and Secretary ;
and nothing probably can evince mere decidedly the
spirit of the majority than the character of these
honorary office-bearers. With cute exception, they
are all either Liberals or members of the late
Ministry, as the following list will show :—Of
the first bureau, M. Augustin Perrier is President,
its Secretary being Count de Preissec te—of the
third bureau, M. Lafitte, the banker, is Presi-
dent, and M. Koratrv, one of the proprietors
of the Courier Francais, Secretary; of the 4th,
the President is General Lafayette, and the Secre-
tary M. Grea;—of the sth, M. de Martignac, the
ex-Minister, is President, and M. de Belleyme, the
ex-Prefect of Police, Secretary ;—at the head of
the 6th is M. Rover-Collard, the late President of
the Chamber; while M. Bourdeau, the late Keeper
of the Seals, is its Secretary ;—; he 7th has M.
Cassaignolles for its President, and the liberal Pro-
fessor of History, M. Guizot, for its Secretary;—
Baron Louis is the President of the Bth, and M.
de Saint Crier', the ex-Mitiister of Trade, of the
Oth, with secretaries equally liberal. After a con-
etitution- of the Bureaux like that above described,
it wax not difficult to foresee from what party the
candidates for the Presidency would he selected.
Accordingly, the Chamber met on Thursday to
choose the list of five, out of which the King has
to elect the President. The number of members
present amounted to 361, out of whom 225 gave
their suffrages for M. Royer Collard; 190 for
M. Caasimtr Perrier; and, on a second scrutiny,
189 for M. Delalot. None of the other
candidates having obtained the absolute majo-
rity of the votes present, the ballot for
the two remaining names was postponed till
Friday, when M. Agier and General Sebastiani
were elected to complete the list. As the King
generally takes the name at the head of the list pre-
sented to him, there is scarcely any doubt that M.
Royer Collard will again occupy the presidential
chair, which he has so satisfactorily filled for the two
last sessions;- but even though he should be passed
over, the Chamber is sure to have a constitutional
President selected from the opponents of the Mi-
nistry; for, of the remaining four candidates, two
(namely, General Sebastiani end M. Cassirnir Per-
rier) belong decidedly to the left side, and the other
two (M. Agier and M. Delalot) to the Constitu-
tional Royalists. The Vice-President was not
elected on Friday, because none of the candidates
had an absolute majority of the Chamber; but on
Saturday M. Dupin, the Liberal Paris barrister, was
placed at the head of the list. -Thus, if the anti-
ministerial mode in which the Chamber is consti-
tuted is to be taken as a test of its disposition to
oppose the Ministry, there is little chance that the
Government and the Legislature can long act in
',meson. The first display of temper or trial of
strength between the parties will take place on the
address in answer to the Royal speech. Though
the Ministry have used every precaution, in framing
it, to exclude topics calculated to provoke discussion
er to`occasion dissent, it seems to be thought that
they have not succeeded. The settlement of Greece
and the projected expedition to Algiers tire not
exempt from criticism ; and the entire omis-
sion of every allusion to the departmental or
communal laws promised last session, may of
itself lay the foundation for an amendment, the
language of which will probably be exasperated by
the stinging defiance at the end of the Royal Speech.
Accordingly, all of the Ministerial journals anticipate
a hostile address; and one of them, the Drapean
Blanc, begins to call aloud for the dissolution of the
Chamber, without considering the consequences of
such a measure. At any other time, or under any
other Ministry, the expedition to Algiers might have
become a title to popularity with a gallant nation,
jealous of its honour, and proud of its military re-
nown. To chastioe the insolence of a barbarous
Corsair, who places his turban above the crown of
Kinge,--whoexacts the payment of tribute from
Christians on the highway of nations,—who con-
siders the Mediterranean as a kind of lake within
his domain,—and who exercises upon it the
infamous trade of a robber and a slave-dealer,—is
an enterprise, the successful accomplishment of
which might well be purchased at the expence of
considerable sacrifices. It was therefore to be sup-
posed that the Government of Charles X. might
calculate on the sympathies of his own people, as
Ise scents to expect those of Europe, in a crusade of
civilization against barbarism, and of freedom against
slavery. From the character of the Ministry, how-
ever, the project has been received with coldness by
one part of the nation, and will be opposed with %eel
by another. But if the necessary supplies aro not
refused by the Chamber, and Prince ['olignac suc-
ceeds in an undeitaking where St. Louis, Charles
the Fifth, and the Grande Monarque failed, he may
reckon his power as secure for many years.—Times.
We are astonished that a man who, like Mr
Hume, has been in Ind;a, and knows what an Eng-
lish Court is, could even for a moment identify, as
be did last night, the, proceedings of the Court of
Bombay with. the protection of the natives from op-
pression. As to Mr. O'Connell, who succeeded biro,
he evidently knows nothing at all of India. • From
the establishment of the Supreme,Coures, they haie
been Objects of terror and alarm to the natives of
India. Mr. Bankes said truly, that in the case. al-
luded to, the issuing habeas corpus to a man who
was not a British subject, and did not reside within
their jurisdiction, was a violation of the compact
entered into with the people, and that the Govern-
ment were against the Judges solely because the
Judges were against the people. See the picture
which Mr.• Mill, in his " History of British India,'
draws of the sufferings of the people from the ope-
rations of the Supreme Court at Calcutta. " The
evils," he observes, " not of apprehension merely,
hut of actual suffering to which the Supreme Court
exposed them, were deplorable. They were dragged
from their families and affairs, with the frequent cer-
tainty of leaving them to disorder and ruin, any diF-
tance, even as great as five hundred miles, either to
give bail at Calcutta—a thing which, if they were
strangers, and the sum more than trifling, it was
next to impossible they should have in their pottier
—or be consigned to prison for. all the many months
which the delays of English judicature might inter-
pose between this calamitous stage, and the final ter- •
mination of the suit."—Morning Chronicle.
Lord Althorp iast night, on presenting two peti-
tions from the county of Norfolk, " expressed a hope
that, from the early period of the Session at e 'ltch
the Audati wee anuouneed, it'svas intendee to pro-

Mse some considerable reduction of taxation. Thu 1
neatest possible reduction ought to be effec!ed ccn-
-;stent with the public service, and he hoped that
would be done. 11, had no desire to see the pre-
.ent Ministry removed ; he had no wish to corn(
nto office himself; but it was his duty, and ore
, prom which nothing could induce him to deviate, to
press upon the advisers of the Crown, and upoe-
Parliament, the absolute necessity of effecting further
eduction,, and that to a large amount." His Lord-
-hip on this occasion spoke, we believe, the senti-
ments of the Division of the House of Commons of
which he is generally considered the head ; a most
respectable and highly honourable body of men, who
wish well to their country, and disdain to embroil
themselves in the petty warfare of faction. The
nation gives his Lordship, and those who share his
views, full credit for a sincere desire to effect, if pos-
sible, a relief from the overwhelming taxation which
)resses on it. What is more, the nation gives to the
men now in power credit for a disposition to reduce
expenditure as far as they can. But we wish we could
share Lord Althorp's hope, that any considerable re-
duction of taxation will be effected by Ministers, how-
ever desirous the hitter might be to retrench. It is
not so much because Ministers personally differ from
Lord Aithorp as to the benefit which would accrue
from reduction, or as to the possibility of a great
reduction, as because there are comparatively so few
men in Pailiament who dare to think with his Lord-
.6ip, that Ministers are compelled to refuse a con-
siderable reduction. The root of the evil is in Par-
liament—Parliament must be moved : and the force
necessary to move it is found in the overwhelming
taxation necessary to support the extravagant ex-
pend:ture for the establishments of the country at
home and abroad. Sir 11. Parnell may demonstrate
the practicability of reduction; but can he demon-
strate how Ministers can move Parliament with less
money ? Mr. Hume may show in detail, night after
night, the extravagance of the Estimates ; but the
ti4er does not cling more desperately to its prey,
than the House to every item. Liberal speeches
are to be had in abundance from all sides; but
whenever there is money in the case, the vote will
be found to speak volumes. Last night, for
instance, Mr. iltime objected to the garrisons
which were kept up merely for sinecures. Sir Henry
Hardinge admitted that they were military sinecures;
but there were not above seventy of them. But
why one ? There should be no sinecures, civil or
military. The services of military men ought to be
paid according to fixed rates. Again, on the ques-
tion. for granting 720,859/. for the half-pay and
military allowances to reduced and retired officers,
Mr. Hume " complained that there had been no
reduction in the charge for half-pay, while in the
French army the whole of the vast number of
officers who had been on helf-pay at the conclusion
of the war had been worked off." Sir H. liar-
dinge observed, that "in 1815 the number of
officers on full and half-pey was 18,405, and now
there was only 14,910, making a reduction of 3,595
since the peace. As large reductions had been made
as possible, though they were not perceptible by
many of the casualties on the half-pay l'st having
been absorbed by placing people on it from half-
pay." It is not an easy matter to understand how,
in fifteen years, there should only have been a falling
in of 38,000/. in this branch of expenditure, without
supposing much jobbing. If the French have worked
off, as Mr. Hume termed it, the vast number of offi-
cers who had been on half-pay at the conclusion of
the war, this affords a presumption that those who
administer the affairs of France are exposed to a more
efficient check on the part of the representatives
of the nation, than any check to which our
public men are exposed. When we hear Honour-
able Members sneering at the representative sys-
tems of Americo and France, we cannot help think-
ing it would not be amiss if they asked themselves,
what is the great, object for which a netion wishes
to be represented in a Parliament ? There may be
more fustian and bombast in Congress than in the
English Parliament, and the French Chamber of
Deputies may not always be a model for discretion
and good order; but though we have often heard a
comparison instituted in these respects, it is quite
beside the purpose. The question is not whether
this or that mode of representation would give the
ablest men, but which is best calculated to protect
the pockets of the people. We have no doubt that
even in point of abilities an English Parliament
would be greatly improved by Reform—but that
is not the quc;tion. No one who has paid the
least attention to the proceedings of the French
Chamber of Deputies and the American Congress
can have the least doubt that they are trusty
guardians of the money of the people; while no
men will say the English Parliament, as at present
constituted, is, er without reform ever can be. We
see, too, a constant improvement taking place in the
composition of the Chamber of Deputies—in its
character of guardian of the public purse. When we
see these things, and know by how small a portion
of the people of France the Deputies are returned,
we cannot help thinking that our neighbours owe
much more to their ballot at elections than many
Han. Members are willing to allow. We cannot
help thinking that those who object to the ballot, as
likely to create hypocrisy, are something like those
who should object to the offering of rewards as being
calculated to produce treachery. The security of
the public is, however, the great object ; and not
the security of the powerful man who wishes to
compel his fellow-citizens to vote against their con-
science, or the security of those who lire by plunder.
On this point, however, we have received a masterly
communication from a respected Correspondent,
which we shall here lay before our readers. It com-
pletely exhausts the question :

To the EDITOR of the MORNING CHRONICLE

read with much interest in your Paper of
yesterday the Debate on Mr. O'Conneli's preposition for
taking the Votes at East Retford by Ballot. Had you
Reported that Debate at greater length, I would fain per-
suade myself that the speeches of those who opposed the
Motion would have appeared not so wholly destitute of
sense or reason as I read them in your columns. Your
Reporter must surely :have libelled Honourable Members
when he announced them as rising only to proclaim their
antipathies, and as scouting, in language at once so vehe-
ment and so unmeaning, a remedy fur some of the grossest
abases connected with the Elective Franchise.
Mr. Western detests voting by ballot as "not Eng-
lish," as " cowardly and double dealing." Mr. George
Lamb cannot tolerate the idea of voters "sneaking up to
the hustings" to give their votes in secret. What ! Pro-
vide a means of evasion for the coward ! Enable a man
to promise his vote to one candidate, and to bestow it upon
another ! Not to be endured.
It seems to escape these 'gentlemen, in their zeal for
discrediting and exposing all cowards, that even accord-
ing to their own supposition, the same voters, who would
act like cowards under the system of secret voting, are
already acting like cowards under the present system of
open voting. They who now vote viva voce for candi-
date A, from genuine preference, would of course con-
tinue to v,te for him under the ballot. They are not
cowards either in the one case or in the other. It is
only those who now vote for A, while their hearts and
convictions are for B, whom the introduction of the
ballot would convert into " sneaks and cowards," by
empowering them to do that secretly which they are
afraid to do openly. But does not the very statement
of the fact imply that these are the voters who at present
disguise and belie their conscientious convictions, from
the fear of injury at the hands of a patron? If such
voters would he cowards under the secret system of vot-
ing, it is only because they are already cowards under the
open system ; and were I to concede that the ballot would
open the door to cowardice in one way, I should yet con-
tend that it would put an end to exactly as much cowardice
in another. _ .

......
But it is a manifest misemployment . of an obnoxious
term to characterise secret voting as " cowardly"—a prac-
tice uniform among all Clubs of English Gentlemen, and
adopted both in France and in the United States. When
there are two modes of effecting the same end—the one
safe and easy, the other fraught with injury and danger—
it is not timidity, but wisdom, to choose the former.—
U,(l* open voting, the honest voter must make up his
mind to serious loss, perhaps even to ruin ; and none but
men of uncommon firmness and high principle can give an
honest vote. ..This is whit, I presume, Gentlemen mean
when they talk about open voting as " suitable to English
spirit and manliness"' that such a degree of courage, un-
known in France and America, is to be found only in

nut bite fact notoriously proves thit it is as rare
here as any where eke. Out of one hundred et:tes, you
;et ninety-nine over-awed, seduced, or silenced, and one
honest martyr. Substitute the b :11ot, and 3,11 have one
-.undred conscientious votes, without danger to any one._
You make the ninety-nine act honestly, though you cannot
nake them firm and high-principled.
Again—Gentlemen are pleased to denounce the ballot
is a mask for hypocrisy and fraud. The reply here is the
tame as in the former ease. Those who would be hvpo-
..rites under the s:,stem of secret voting, are at this nwment
hypocrites under open voting. Their genuine preference
is for one candidate, their vote for another. Under secret
voting, they might possibly be induced (though I shall
presently show that even this would be r.: re) to prsfess in
words a preference for the worse candidate ; but at any
rate, their votes would follow their convictions in favour
of the better. Which of these two acts of hypocrisy is
the more pernicious? That in which the voter may be
compeled to make false professions, but is sure to give an
honest vote; or that in which he gives a dist:tallest vote,
and is very likely to make false professions besides ?
maintain that the latter is, beyond all comparison, the wore
mischievous of the two. What the people want is good
legislators; certain electors are entrusted with the sacred
duty of recommending such ; and if these electors employ
their votes not to return, but to drive away the fittest
candidate, they are guilty not only of the violation of their
special trust, but of the greatest injury which they can
possibly- commit against every individual in the British do-
:ninions. The evil of fal-e professions, followed by a
sincere vote, is a trifle compared to the evil of a perverted
vote alone.

What misleads some really well-meaning objectors to the
ballot is the insecurity which they anticipate from it as to
the observance of peomises. An elector who has promised
his vote in favour of a candidate ought not (they think) to
have the means of evading his promise with impunity.
But how, if he cannot fulfil the promise without commit-
tin a greater evil than his violation of it would be? Let
us apply the reasoning to the case of some other trust. I
am trustee to an insolvent estate, or treasurer to a public
institution. A superior, on whom I am greatly dependant,
awl whose displeasure it would be ruin to me to provoke,
apprises me that he has sent in a fraudulent cliim upon
the funds under my administration, and insists upon my
admitting it. Were I a man of thorough virtue and
firmness, I should scout the idea with indignation ; but
by the supposition this is not the case. My princip'es are
overborne by the fear of ruin, and I promise to second his
guilty designs. Here, then, commences the difficulty.—
Am I to fulfil this wrongful promise, to the grievous in-
jury of those who trust me with their property? Or if
there be any means whereby I can refrain from seconding
the des'gn, without suffering my superior to know how I
have acted, will it not be the least evil that I should leave
the promise unperformed, and stick to my duty as trustee ?
I believe there are few who would not prescribe to me the
latter alternative, and who will not readily admit that a
promise which cannot he fulfilled without violating duty to
third parties, ought not to be fulfilled at all. It is one
wrong act to make such a promise ; hut it is a second, and
a still greater, to execute it. 'By holding out the means of
evading it with impunity, you divert a min from the
.se-
cond act of guilt, without offering any new motive to the
commission of the first.

The whole moral harm—the conflict of obligations—
arises, it is eel lent, out of the original exaction of the pro-
mise. It is an unwarrantable artifice, employed to seduce
or deter the elector from the due exercise of his trust.
The great object, therefore, with those who would make
elections as little as possible subservient to immorality,
ought to be to prevent such promises from being given;
and there is no way of preventing them from being given,
except by diminishing the motive for asking them. This
motive will be at its minimum, if the system of voting be
such as to make promise no security for performance; and
the ballot, therefore, instead of familiarising people with
the evasion_ of their engagements, would obviate almost
wholly a class of criminal engag-ments which in their
very essence imply the breach of a momentous trust. You
strengthen the respect for promises in general, by ex-
tinguishing all such as you are obliged to tell a man that
he ought not to fulfil.
By the vehement 1 ingunge of lion. Gentlemen one
might imagine that elections by open voting were a school
of morality. Yet electioneering tricks and manoeuvres
have passed into an absolute byeword; and the gross ina-
morality generated by the present system is to be traced
not only in the conduct of the election itself, but in the
discussions respecting elections, whenever the subject is
broached. The sole ends for which an elective system is
desirable—the attainment of good legislators, and of a se-
curity for their continuing good--is altogether banished
out of sight. The character of the elector, as a trustee for
the people, and the people for whom he is a trustee, are
utterly forgotten. Were not the habit of putting the peo-
ple out of the question so incurably rooted, the obvious
truth, that fidelity cannot be expected where the trustee
has every thing to lose by being faithful, and every thing
to gain by being otherwise, could not be thus overlooked
or controverted. If, out of each pair of candidates, the
Government were to choose their man, and fine every
elector who voted for his opponent, gentlemen could not
shut their eyes either to the efficacy or to the injustice of
this bias. Yet the motives against honest voting are just
as constant, and just as overwhelming, under the present
system, as they would be then. One cannot doubt that
the exiled tenants under the Duke of Newcastle's Govern-
ment at Newark would cheerfully have ransomed them-
selves by a moderate fine.
G ABINIUS.

Match 7, 1930.—[Morning Chronicle.]
Not long since, as we lately mentioned, a man
who had been convicted of sheep-stealing at the
Old Bailey had his judgment respired because the
animal he had stolen turned out to be a ewe sheep,
but was not called a ewe in the indictment ; and
last week anothor of these marauders was actually
acquitted at the Berkshire Assizes because the
animal was a lamb, while in the indictment it was
described only as a sheep. If this be not solemn
trifling we knoW not what is. Acts are passed to
simplify the criminal law, but which only make them
more complex and absurd, we see no use in people
being paid to prepare such Acts of Parliament, or
in the time of the Legislature being taken up in
discussing them. The drawers-up of Acts of Par-
liament, by the bye, have lately hit upon an expe-
dient for explaining their own verbiage, which forms
the best satire and commentary in the world upon
much of its absurdity. It is by framing what they
call an " interpretation cause," in which they pro-
fess to give the extended meaning which certain
words are meant to convey. Now that a law,
more especially a criminal law, which may affect
the life, the liberty, or property of every man,
should require a glossary to explain the meaning
of its commonest terms, is as absurd, upon the
face of it, as it would be for an apothecary to send
round a dictionary to his patients with every phial
and pill-box. Laws should be clear and intelligible
to the meanest capacity , yet few men, of even
the best sense and education, can now-a-days,
take up an Act of Parliament with the
least chance of unravelling its real meaning.
A. dextrous obscurity generally runs through the
whole; and a good per centage upon law-making
falls to the lot of the opinion-givers, who have to
unravel the labyrinth of uncertainty in which
most of the fruits of modern legislation are involved.
Need this be so ? Certainly not. But the truth is,
we are the most law-ridden nation upon earth, and
the trade in useless and obscure verbosity is allowed
to supersede the plain and obvious use of common
language Ind common sense. There are some
standing Committees in the House of Commons—
many of which have duties which are more matters
of form than substance. If a Common-sense Com-
mittee were appointed, whose.duty it should be to
see that the language of proposed laws was plain
and intelligible before they became such, a great
boon would be afforded to those who are, on the
one hand, to execute, or, on the other, to he bffee7ed
by them.—Morning Herald.

The calendar for this (Spring) Assizes contains
only the comparatively trifling lumber of 69 cases for trial.
It must be a source of gratification to those who have the
interest of the county at heart, that the generality of these
are devoid of any thing like atrocity..—. Limerick Evening
Post.

Herrings are caught at present in such abun-
dance io the Frith of Forth, that seven and eight of them
may be bought at Kirkaidy for H. : a matter of no small
importance to the poor weavers, whose visits to the
fleshers' .hops are necessarily "few and far betweer."—
Ar Advertiser.

DISTRESS OF THE COUNTRY-REDUC-
TION OF TAXATION,
CU it RENcY—EQ UITABLE ADJUSTMENT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE GLASGOW CHRONICLE.

SIR,—It is agreed upon by all who are acquainted
with the kubject, that the resumption, by Mr. Peel's
Bill of 1819, of the lost standard of value, enhanced
the value of the currency at least 25 per cent.—and
that to this measure principally may be attributed
the general distress felt by the landed proprietor—
the farmer—the merchant—the manufacturer—and
the whole operative classes of the community. The
landholder and the monied interest, and others whose
annual receipts were fixed during the depreciation,
alone exempted front the general calamity—nay,
these have benefited nearly in proportion as the
others have been injured.
I am well aware of the absoltre nere'sity that
existed for a return to a metallic standard, and wish
to be completely understood as in no way approving,
far less advocating, a small paper currency, issued
under any circumstances—on the contrary, I am
convinced that a return in any shape to such a cur-
rency, issued in such an amount as to raise prices,
would occasion, and that speedily, a similar or
greater catastrophe than that of 1825-6—or end in
Bank Restriction as in 1797. Rather• than run the
risk of either probabilities, were it necessary, I
would prefer that the Government, by Act of Par-
liament, or by Order in Council, would at once de-
clare that the Sovereign should circulate at 265. Bd.,
and be received as such in payment of taxes, and a
new coinage issued containing 15s. worth of gold to
the sovereign ; that is, thinning the present coinage
one-fourth.

I observe that some of the English Members of
Parliament have an idea, that the general pressure
is felt less in Scotland than in England, anti this
they attribute to the one-pound notes not being
withdrawn, and I have no doubt but that many
bankers in England, and some in Scotland, having
an interest in paper money, foster the delusion. Are
prices of grain, or stock, or commodities in general,
higher here than in the south ? Are wages of
labour higher ? I answer they are not. The truth
is, Scotland is a poorer country. She has long
suffered, and still suffers in even a greater degree
than England, but from the length of suffering has
been more accustomed to it, and this may in some
degree account for less noise being made about it.
It is possible, that the landlords in Scotland may of
late have been receiving their rents better than their
brethren in England, owing to the very inadequate
provision made for the poor in the one country as
compared with the other, and this may also apply in
even a greater degree to Ireland,—but alas! at
what an amount of misery may not such a distinction
have been obtained ?
Although, then, a return to a metallic standard
and currency became indispensably necessary, it is
much to be regretted that the old standard of 3/.
17s. 10fd. per oz. for gold was adopted i►► preference
to a standard of similar value to about the average
depreciation of the paper; had such variation been
trifling in amount, or had the effects of such a mea-
sure extended to no more than three per cent., as
erroneously held out and believed in by Mr. Ricardo,
and acted on by both Houses of Parliament in 1819,
the resumption of the. ancient standard, even with-
out an equitable rectification of contracts, wrold
have been productive of comparative little injury—
but as it has turned out, ale evils that have followed
are tremendous, and ought yet to be dimished.
The petition of the county of Norfolk (Mr. Cob-
bett's) of 3d January, 1823, contained by far the
most honest and strictly equitable proposition, that
has yet appeared, calculated to answer the object in
view, and to remedy the error (for error it was both
as to intent and effect) of the Act of 1819,—seven
years, however, having elapsed since that petition
was adopted, many of the advantages that might
have been derived from acting on it at that time are
lessened.

Were the fundholdcrs to be in part sacrificed at
the altar of national distress, and taxes repealed to
an amount equal to what was kept off them, the na-
tion to that extent would be benefitted, but this
alone would not remedy the evil, on account of the
innumerable mortgage., and other fixed monied in-
cumbrances of the landed interest, all increased by
the Act of 1819, and which in annual amount may
be taken at as great, if not greater, than the annual
dividends payable on account of the funded debt.
Without any alteration in our present currency,
far less without the slightest intention of at all tam-
pering with it in any shape, it may be advis-
able to consider in what way the landed and farm-
ing interest, and the nation at large, may be re-
lieved honourably from a considerable portion of the
evils that afflict them. A great error has been com-
mitted by Parliament, and it is surely reasonable to
expect that, having the power, the disposition will
not be wanting to rectify the evil now so apparent,
and universally admitted—
" There was a man in Thessally,
And he was wondrous wise;
He jump'd into a quickset hedge,
And scritch'd out both his eyes.
And when he saw his eyes were out,
With all his might and main
He jurnp'd into another hedge,
And scratch'd them in again."
It was at the time of, or immediately subsequent to,
the Bank Restriction in 1797, that the depreciation
of the paper currency became apparent; it is there-
fore but just that all money engagements, leases,
&C., contracted previous to that time, should be held
sacred. Mr. Ainslie, in his travels, has proved that
the fundholder, and, of course, all other annuitants,
have been remunerated by the enhanced value of the
currency from what they sustained of loss, whilst it
was depreciated.
It is understood that comparatively only a small
proportion of the 800 millions of debt is in a state
of transference. The same remark will be found to
apply to mortgages on land, payments arising from
family contracts, &c. It may be assumed that the
dividends payable to the public creditor amount to
twenty-eight millions of pounds per annum, and that
the fixed annual payments arising from mortgage,
feu-duties, leases, wills, contracts, and family settle-
ments, amount to as large a sum, viz. other 28 mil-
lions, making a total of 56 millions per aria= of
fix'td engagements, and representing a capital of
1200 to 1600 millions, which presses on the nation
as a millstone, in consequence of the resumption of
the old standard of value, by the act .of 1819, in
place of adopting a depreciated standard, on the faith
of which nearly all such engagement., public and
private, were contracted. Of the funded debt,-from
80 to 100 millions, may be supposed as in a state of
transference, arising from sales of stock, jobbing in
the funds, and operations on account of bankers;
and as to mortgages on land, and transference of
contracts, an equal amount of 80 to 100 millions
may of late years have changed hands.
In order, then, to grant a just and practical relief
to the public at large paying taxes, and also to re•
lieve the landed interest and others, including far-
mers, from the unjust demands now made on them,
which has been, and still is, attended with such
ruinous effects, an equitable and practicable adjust-
ment is.here proposed, and which is not only due to
the debtor, but also fair and honourable to the credi-
tor, national and private.
Ist. That all contracts, public and private, with
the exceptions following, should be held sacred and
inviolable.

2d. That contracts arising from the public Iliad!,
or otherwise previous to 31st Dec. 1797, the year
of the Bank Restriction, be held sacred, and to be
liquidated only in terms of the contract.
3d. Contracts entered into, arising out of mort-
gage, leases, wills, &c., at, or subsequent to Ist Ja-
nuary, 1829, to be also held sacred, and this to app7y
to all property in the funds sold or transferred sub-
sequent to that date.

4th. That the present holders of funded property,
mortgages, and others in whose favour fixed pay-
ments are made, and who have by purchase, bequest,
or transference, acquired right to such stock, or pro-
perty between the years 1798 and J 28, both inclu-
sive, shall be paid by the nation, or by the private

debtors, conformably with the following scale. The
transfer hooks to l)' proof as to funded property.
The redaction of the atitittal payment arising from
interest of money; leaseg, and all other contracts to
be adjusted according to the scale, and the principal
sum to be a' the sam' ratio :-
1797.... .20s. 01. 1814 15s. Od.
1798 19.. 61. 1815 15, 0,1
1799 I9s Od. ISIS I ss. 0;1.
ISOO 18s. Oil. 1817 15s 041.
1901
I'3o- 17s. 6,1. 1819 15s. 0;1.
1803 17s. Od. 1820 15s. 61.
19044......165. 6d. , 1921 16. 0;1.
1805 16s. Od. 162', 16.. 6;1.
1305......155. 6d. 1893 174. 041.
1807 I ss. Od. 1821. 17s 61.
1808 lss. Od. 1825 194 Od.
1809 15s. Od. 1826 18s 641.
1810 15s. Od. 1827 I 9s. Od.
1811 15s. Od. 18.28 19=. 6;1.
1810 15s 041. 1829 90s Od.
1813 15s. Od. 1830 20. Od.

For example, all proprietors of stock in the
Three per Cents, who acquired stock from 1808 to
1819, inclusive, such stock not having been trans•
ferred subsequently to 1819, would now have to be
paid at the rate of 2/. ss. per cent. in place of 3/.,
while such as acquired stock in 1824, and not since
sold or transferred, would be paid at the rate of
21. 12s. 6d. per cent. per annum. In the same way
money lent on land from 1808 till 1819 inclusive,
might be discharged at the rate of 7.5/. per cent., or
if lent in 1824, at 871. 10s., and the interest p:►y-
able to be in proportion to the reduction of the
principal. Existing contracts of all descriptions to
be similarly adjusted, and this to be applied to all
salaries and Government pay, and taxes to be re-
duced accordingly. _ .

The relief that should thus be afforded to the
country by so large a reduction of the taxes (and
in poor rates which would follow) would in a great
degree compensate the monied interest from any
nominal reduction of income, besides the additional
security that would be extended to all funded pro-
perty. Considering all circumstances, especially
that an Order in Council in 1797 led to the ern,
why, if necessary, might not another Order in
Council be now passed to carry the object into effect
immediately, following it up by an Act of Parlia-
ment ?—I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,

Glasgow, Mach 1, 1830.