The Sun.
London, England, 1822-06-17 00:00:00

of people, suffering under such unequal distribu-
tion of the goods of fortune, will tacitly acquiesce
in such evident injustice, and not raise their
voices and their hands too, if called upon, to re-
sist it with effect ? In a very short time, when
the evil becomes absolutely intolerable, will not
every individual suffering under such oppres-
sion, be justified in saying to his tax gatherer
when called upon, " this tax which you demand
was imposed under a depreciated paper currency,
and I cannot pay it in a metallic one. I could
not if I would, 1 would not if I could, take your
means of enforcement, for I must resist it to the
utmost, and will do so till all my remaining
slender means and all my physical powers are
exhausted. It is not my wish or intention to re-
sist the laws of my country, but it is not in this
instance in my power to obey them, nor is it in
justice that they should be enforced against me."
The legislature of a country may be termed om-
nipotent, but it cannot command impossibilities,
nor can that of a free community be quietly per.
mitted to enact unjust laws, and expect explicit
obedience to them. What dropt from me re-
specting a Reform in Parliament may require
explanation, and I most willingly and candidly
give it. To the constitution► of Parliament, as
ably and fairly explained by Mr. CANNING to
his constituents at Liverpool, I gave my willing
assent ; the virtual representation 9f all the im-
portant interests of a great community appeared
to me to have been satisfactorily secured by it ;
but when I see large and seemingly indifferent
majorities voting away the best, and by far the
most substantial interests of the nation, either
without any consideration at all or in base and
servile subservience to the will of l\iinisters, it
would be a dereliction of duty, particularly in a
County Member, not to change his tone and ex-
press his wishes for a more equal representation
of the Landed Interests, which are now over-
powered by the holders of 800 millions of funded
stock, in conjunction with the interested sup-
porters of men in power, too much wedded to
their own erroneous system to listen to the plain
dictates of common sense and common feeling on
the part of those who oppose them. Having sug-
gested in the former part of what I have offered
to the consideration of your Lordship and this
honourable House, that the mischiefs complained
of, though certainly in the highest degree
grievous, are yet in my humble opinion susceptible
of remedy, I feel it my duty, so far as my
poor abilities extend, to state those remedies in
ds concise a manner as the subject permits.—
In the first place then, my Lord, I would
repeal so much of Mr. PEEL's Bill as extends
to the compulsory meeting of every demand in
coin, and leave what remains of it as to bullion
in ingots. Every man possessed of paper to the
amount of 60 ounces of gold, thought would
rather that it should be one or two hundred,
should be entitled to carry that paper to the
Bank and receive its value in ingots, at the rate
of 31. 17s. 10-id per ounce, which lie might in-
stantly carry to the Mint and get coined into
Sovereigns or half sovereigns at his pleasure,
without further trouble or expense. This would
bottom all your paper on a permanent founda-
tion, never to be shaken or even depreciated to
the amount of a single shilling. Bank paper
would be just as valid, and find its value at
Paris, or Amsterdam, or Frankfort, or Leipsic,
or in Poland or Russia, equally as in London ;
nor could a traveller take with him a convenient
viaticum to whatever country his steps were di-
rected. Paper thus circumstanced would be
greatly preferable to that issued and current
heretofore, as that was not exchangeable for
gold, but simply rested on its own bottom, and
the security of national credit, which, however
substantial, was yet liable to depreciation, as we
found at one time a guinea was equal to 27 or
28 shillings, and tended to raise prices artificially
beyond their just appreciation, whereas this
would only tend to raise them moderately
and gradually by a greater influx of currency,
which the Bank and all private bankers would
be encouraged to issue, when the Bank of
England knew it would be only called upon for
ingots in certain large sums, and the private
bankers only for Bank paper for their own issu-
able notes, which latter would be greatly in-
creased were the stamps on paper thus valuable
taken off, which the revenue could very well
afford. The Bank of England, to prevent the
possibility of any run by the machinations of
opulent and unprincipled capitalists, might i❑
common prudence retain two or three millions of
gold in its coffers to meet all possible demands,
though I do not believe any demand for a tenth
or twentieth of that amount would be-ever called
for, such would be the greater accommodation to
individuals of paper thus bottomed on gold secu-
rity, to all the ingots or all the coin they could
possess. So much, my Lord, for the currency,
which I have reason to think would give general
satisfaction through the nation. To this add the
facility above spoken of to private bankers, by
taking off the duties on their issuable paper, and
the country at once, or at least in the course of a
very short period, would find, at least in my
humble opinion, all its pecuniary difficuities, so
far as currency was in question, at an end.
Now, my Lord, as to what regards the equally
important corn question. Shut your ports effec-
tually against all importation, or put a duty on
all imported grain anti provisions of whatever
description, as shall give the British cultivator a
decided advantage in his own markets over all
competition ; let not the labourers of France,
Germany, Poland, Russia, and other countries,
take the: bread out of the Mouths of our own,
nor under the specious pretext and high sound-
ing language of free trade; deprive agriculture of