The Sun.
London, England, 1822-06-13 00:00:00

PRICE SEyENPENCE,

every 1001. was reduced to 70/., which caused a depreciation of.
only 30 per cent. The Hon. Member concluded by saying
that he could not understand how his Hon: Friend (Mr. Gur.:
Rey), after objecting to the motion because it gave no security
against recurring to the measure of 1797, couldiat the same
time vote for causing an alteration in the currency.( The Hong
Member then sat down amid universal cheering;:having de,
dared his intention to vote against the motion.)
Mr. H. GURNEY explained. .
Mr. PEIRSE spoke in defence of the conduit of the Bank.
They had not imported gold so much as they had'aveiled them=
selves of the importations of foreign merchants., The Bank had
considerably benefitted the country by circulating between
nine and ten millions of sovereigns. In the year 1813, the gold
was at a high price in consequence of the deniand occasioned
by our foreign wars, but at the termination of the' war it had
become plentiful. The Bank, however, never' cotild forte its
issues; and he ventured to say that the Bank note was never
depreciated as referred to the price of gold. The term depie4.-
dation had been misapplied. The opinions of the Hon. Meme
ber were not to be the rule for the conduct of the Bank ; though
no doubt the Hon. Member was attached to his own plan for
paying in bullion. Indeed the proposed lumps .of gold hod
been called Ricardos.—(A laugh.)
Sir F. BURDETT thought his Hon. Friend
.the Member
for Essex (Mr. Western) was entitled to great 'praise for 'the
part he had acted in bringing forward this motion: His own
mind was made up on the subject, and that being the case, his
Hon. Friend was called upon to act as he had done,in spite of
all the obstacles that might be thrown in his wey,'9letlie dfficule
ties of the task. Looking at the exertions hp had made, 'his
deed, under difficulties which presented thernseliteK to impede
his progress in the course he had resolved to pu'riue ; lie Of-
fered an instance of the truth of the ancient seying—orenia
vincit anzor patrice, in the total disregard he had manifested of
difficulty in doing what he felt to be, under all' circumstances,
his duty. With that feeling of the conduct of his Honourable
Friend, he did think he had to complain of the Honourable
Member for Portarlington in the course of observation he had.
pursued, which seemed to him to hint a sort of disapproba-
tion of that conduct. He stated his apprehen;ions that this
motion would produce a heated state of the public mind, and
altogether spoke of it in a way very unlike his usual candour,
and very like the uncandid mode practised by persons
sitting in another part of that House. He confessed he was
the more surprised at this in this Hon. Member, who, being a
friend to free discussion, ought better to have appreciated the
value of his Hon. Friend's manly conduct, in openly, in the
face of all opposition, stating his firm conviction on any par-
ticular subject. The only way to meet his Hon. Friend was
to shew that he was wrong in attributing the causes of that disc
tress in the count y which they all saw, and which he had as-
scribed to the cause he had stated. The honourable Member
(Mr. Ricardo) had gone into long details on the prices of corn,
but it appeared to him that he had omitted to draw from those
details the only conclusion which ought to have been drawn
from them. If it were not the alteration of the currency which
had produced the evils complained of, then it must be some
other cause, and none of the cases he had quoted- relative to
corn would account for the circumstances of the country. The
Hon. Member impressed upon them the great distinction be-
twixt the depreciation and the value of money ; but to come to
a full understanding with him he would put a case. He con-
ceived that if one-fifth of the circulating medium of a country
were withdrawn, the effect would be to decrease the whole in-
come of the productive classes 1-4th. Then supposing the gross
produce of the agriculture, manufactures, and commerce of a
country to be, what he considered that of this country might
be, six hundred millions, the withdrawal of one-third of the
circulating medium, would be, not to affect the price, but a
loss upon all the productive classes of two hundred millions.
The mere matter of the money being lost was nothing ; but
here were those classes, with a loss of one-third of the means,
called upon to pay all burthens and debts contracted and
levied during a period of great depreciation.—(Hear !)—ln
his opinion, it must be productive of great destruction to the
country to continue such a state of things. It was their duty
then to look at this with eyes of policy as well as justice. But
upon both grounds he called upon them to redeem the coun-
try from that pressure, which unaided, it could not do itself.
With respect to the justice of the case, he need Oiely observe
that every public expence, and every private contract, was
made in a depreciated currency, and without. . any expec-
tation of the change made in the standard.- Much was
said about the - immorality of altering the standard ; but
those who had already done this could not ,now plead
such an excuse. A parallel hed been deeeen betwixt
these times and the period of King William ;. but never
were times more dissimilar. At that time there were four mil-
lions of good lawful money in circulation, and all went on till
the depreciated money was discovered. And when this took
place, the Government of King William instead of 'protecting
this bad currency, passed laws to punish the fraud. Besides
this, they called in the currency, and took on 4,emaelves a new
coinage, and received the, clipped coinage- in allenayments to
the Treasury. Was there any thing like this inefhe present
day ? On. this subject, the famous dispute between Mr.
Lowndes and Mr. Locke took .place ; the former :Contending
that silver had fallen in price ; and the latter, that it was the
standard currency, and not the silver that was depreciated.
Mr. Locke's opinion was, that it would be most unjust to
alter the standard ; but we had done this twice. 'Mr. Locke
contended, that both debtor and creditor should, pay in the
same currency. The Hon. Member for Portarlington wanted
at one time to make the pound •14s. in value ; aid that was
what his Honourable Friend (Mr. Western) wanted to esta-
blish ; for that was about the value of the pound in depre-
ciated currency. Such being the situation of the country,
then, called upon to perform its contracts, entered upon in a
currency of altogether a different value, the •question was,
whether it was not imperative upon that House, to institute
some inquiry, or adopt some means of providing a remedy.
The difficulty, he admitted, was great, and where to look
for a remedy he knew not. (Hear, hear, froni the Mini-
sterial Benchss.) Ile thought those Hon. Gentleinen who
were so ready with their " hears," ought to-consider that
the evils complained of were brought about by them, anti that
they ought to have considered, before they introduced the
measure of 1819, what were likely to be the effects of it. He
did not accuse the Right Hon. Secretary (Mr. Secretary Peel)
with the evils produced by the Bill of 1819. He admitted that
he was as innocent as the lamb devoured by the wolf, of what
had been done before the bringing in of -this Bill;ewhich now
operated the evils under which the country was suffering. One
of the great evils of the time of -King-William was, • that men
had to go to market with a double currency, and not knowing
the value of their money, But then several lews'were passed
against those who were engaged in the making of bad motley,
and nothing like Bank. Restriction Acts. The remarkable
contrast betwixt the Government of this time and Kier Wil-
liam's, was in the temporizing system of raising money, heed-
less of the consequences, and alike careless of the means, pur-
sued by the present Government. He hoped, therefore, they
would draw no countenance from that period. With respect
to the motion of his Hon. Friend, he was not bound to assent
to any one proposition of his until he heard the opinions of the
wisest men on the question. But he contended -that he had.
acted most boldly, and most usefully in bringing the question
forward. He did not see how the House cotild separate, after
a great deal of useless debate, without any result upon the
most important evil at present afflicting the country.. Some
time ago it was the answer of the Noble Marquis opposite to
the cry of distress that was raised, that it was owing to a tran-
sition from war to peace. That was all very well at the time.
The Country Gentlemen received it as sound doctrine, and he
did not mean to say that lie blamed them for so doing. It
was natural to look up to those who were at the head of airs
with some degree of confidence, and perhaps it was very
fortunate that there was not a disposition to make sudden
changes. In this apology he, of coulee, did not include
those whose confidence was gained by gifts---a sort of com-
modity Said to blind wise men. With that natural and gene-
rous confidence he thought the Noble Marquis .had taken
greater liberties than any other person ever did ; for he so fre-
quently brought forward measures without consideration,
which he was himself the first to abandon..
,But the country
Gentlemen began to be undeceived when they found that this
transition occupied a period of -severe or' eight years. At one
time distress was attributed to the importation of foreign corn,
and a Corn Bill, to remedy that, was. introdnced: But that
would not do, and for the obvious reason, 'that it was rat
agricultural distress' alone that prevailed, but' she distress
of all the productive parts of the comm'tinity.—(lltare. hear !)
It was absurd to suppose that the manufacturers coro be in a
flourishing state, and the agriculturists. Seikering.. ,Pne class
was employed in raising what the other iiianufactdred, and
returned to it again. The restriction upon the importation of
foreign corn would be discovered to be a most unwise mea-
sure, and the Country Gentlemen would at last understand
that a free corn trade was most consistent with their best inte-