The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-31 00:00:00

import, at heaTy sacrifices, the bullion required to reple-
nish its exhausted coffers.
Of all 41:' *duce, and manufactures consirrned in
foreign countries, the greatest portion is sent abriat by
British capitalists. Nearly the whole of our exportxto
India and China, at lease seven-eighths of the amount
shipped to South A erica, and a third of the Ix-
ports to the ContinOof Europe, with:the rhole Of our
colonial trade, are forwarded by British merchants.
From thirty to forty militOns of British capital is pro-
bably employed in the foreign commerce of the country.
The amounts of British capital thus enumerated are
as follows : _ _ _

Etinployed in the production of the five
great articles of cotton, woollen, silk,
linen, and hardware
In the wholesale and retail distribution

of ditto
In the whole of the foreign counmeree of

25,000,000

the country

35,000,000

£160,000,000

Without embracing the less prominent branches of
our domestic manufactures, including the trade in Is
thousand articles of daily consumption, and omitting
the traffic in agricultural productions, all of which were
moic or less affected by the revulsion of pric4ii ; refe
ranee has here been made to a capital of 160 millions:,
upon which we may trace a tangible loss,' railing from
23 to 50 per cent. by the depreciation of value in the
spring and summer of 1837. This saorifiee of forty
millions, at the least, and which constitutes a-fraction
on y of the losses simultaneously sustained by the entire'
co mercial world was incurred in order that the Bank
of i 41and might regain possession of six or seven mil.
liolis at specie, which it had previously fOreed out Of the
cotintry-by the undue expansion of:the currency.
f(t.bas4en shown that the Bank \ne.itloner found it-
self ,in raaife position, than it recorotn et-I. in 1838, a
systeni of 'expansion, and exported part :0e5,12 stuck of
gold. Prices of the great staples before- enits,,ritted
consequent)advanced during the year 11368 ,an "art
of-the year 1 8 3,p,?' , until, as we have seen; the rent:
policy was resumed, the motion of the screw was re-,
versed, and, dosoiti' to the present moment, prices have
again fallen,
~ .ns.,"if to 30 per cent.; thus inflicting
upon ttie Ore. i, <.',' r,. :.tr in ' iintr anufactar
Inficreit'i-lept ''''.' • ; -'i'' .?•-: ..,-.' . - - • .--.sw.s,
By these forced expansions and contractions of the
currency, during the last three years, some of the most
prudent and wealthy of our merchants and manufactu-
rers have incurred that ruin which, in a more wholesome
and natural state of the circulating medium, could befal
only the reckless adventurer or gambler. Under such
a state of things as has been described, calculations
tinsel upon the most enlarged experience, afraid no se-
curity against loss and failure. The trader learns th.e
fate of his undertaking, not in the markets of the world,
as influenced by the law of supply and demand, but in
the acts of twenty-six irresponsible individuals conduct-
ing a joint-stock banking association in the City of
London.
But the heavy pecuniary losses incurred by our capi-
talists constitute a minor evil wnen compared with the
moral and social injuries inflicted upon the labouring
classes by the fluctuations in the currency. The Board
have directed their best attention to this part of the
subject ; the effects produced upon the condition of
the great mass of the people, by the operations of the
Bank of England, having hitherto been almost entirely
overlooked.
The late panic, by causing a diminution of our exports
in 1837, as compared with the previous year, to the
extent of ten millions, and by curtailing proportionally
the amount of our home trade, was accompanied by a
corresponding cessation of the demand for labour. In
the spring and summer of that year, vast numbers of
the working classes, in all the large towns, were suddenly
deprived of employment, and thrown upon their own
feeble resources for the subsistence of Lheir families.
Their first resort would naturally be to their own re-
served funds ; and, in examining the reports of the va-
rious Srvings' Banks in the manufacturing districts
it has been found, in Manchester, Leede, Birmingham,
Sheffield, Stockport, Huddersfield, Blackburn, Boltoo,
and every other place to which the Board have directed,
their inquiries, that, although the labouring classes form
but a small proportion of the depositors, the amount of
money drawn from those institutions in 1837 exceeded
considerably the sums lodged with them in that year.
The next and only resource of the working classes, when
deprived of employment, is the parochial poor fund.
But in directing inquiries into the amount of paijsh re-
lief afforded in 1837, as compared with the prev;ous
years, the Board found that the adoption of the Nevi
Poor-law Act, about that time, and the consequent or-
ganization of parishes into unions, prevented them from
instituting such comparisons. In the Report of the Poor-
law Commissioners, dated 17th July, 1837, are, how-
ever, recorded some statements of facts which exhibit in
a strong light the nature of the evil. The Commis-
sioners begin by stating that they were deterred from
making an earlier Report, because of " the sudden change
which took place in the manufacturing districts by tLe
cessation of the usual employment, which made them
desirous of presenting such information as they might be
I able to collect as to the working of the system under
the adverse circumstances to which it became so suddenly
exposed."
The Report states, that in " the greater part of the
important manufacturing counties of Stafford, Notting-
ham, and Leicester, a cessation in time demand for la-
bour took place in 1837, more sudden in :ts approach,
and more extensive in its operations, than has been
known on any previous occasion. In many places,
owing to the insuflicieocy of the workhouse accom-
modation, they were obliged to suspend the order pro-
hibiting out-of-door relief to the able-bodied."
In Nottingham, " after providing for nearly 700 per-
sons in the workhouse, a subscription of 4,0001. was en-
tered into by the principal inhabitants of the town ; and
the unemployed operatives were set to work in con-
structing a road through some property belonging to the
Corporation."
The Report contains similar accounts of the state of
the working classes in Coventry, Foleshill, Nuneaton,
Mansfield, and other places ; appended is a Report from
Dr. Kay, upon the condition of the Spitalfields wearers,
in which he states, that " out of 4,000 looms, one-third
are altogether disused, and that certain of the remaining
looms are only partially employed." And Mr. Mug-
geridge, the emigration agent, in a similar Report from
Manchester, dated July, 1837, says :—" The entire
trade of the district was all at once paralysed, and dis-
trust suspended for a season althost all commercial ope-