The Sun.
London, England, 1849-10-29 00:00:00

atellillit ..'77 Mt

I'NDON, MONDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1849.

In alluding, on Thursday, to the numerous agri-
cultural meetings held in various parts of the country,
and the feeling of despondency prevailing among
farmers, we indicated the nature of the remedy by
which the distress and difficulties, not only of the
agriculturi.ts, but of the industrious classes generally.
may be removed, and happiness and prosperity sub-
stituted. The great desideratum to be attained
is the establishment and maintenance of a circulation
sufficient to supply the wants of commerce and of
active industry—to provide proper representatives of
value, so as to facilitate the ordinary transactions
of mercantile men, and to enable every
person, able and willing to labour, to obtain remu-
nerative employment, to receive in fact " a fair
day's wages for a fair day's work." Under
the present unjust and impolitic system a considerable
portion of the " real floating capital of the country,"
that which is contained in the thews and sinews of the
labouring population, is suffered to remain idle and
unproductive. Its possessors are exposed to misery
and privations of the most melancholy description. In
place of earning their daily bread by the sweat of
their brows they are driven by thousands and tens of
thousands into the union workhouses, where they add
to the public burdens and encumbrances, in place of
being the great producers of national wealth.

These untoward results are altogether ascribable
to the undue "appreciation " in the value of money
that has been occasioned by the Act of 1819, and the
still more fatal measure of 1844, which has been by
many regarded as its necessary corollary and supple-
ment. Through the operation of these statutes the value
of the pound sterling has been affected to the extent of
at least 50 per cent. That important fact has been
fully admitted by the great champion of the bullionists
among the public press, and corroborated by the
present Chancellor of the Exchequer. It is therefore
manifest that a single sovereign at present commands
twice the quantity of the necessaries or comforts of
existence which had been conveyed by a pound note in
the average of transactions previous to the enactment
of these statutes, and it follows that the pressure
of all taxes, contracts, and engagements that
had been entered into have been increased
is a similar ratio. The burden of the
public debt, that incubus which weighs down the in-
dustry of the.nation, which paralyses our energies, and
cripples our powers, has been at least doubled.
Debtors are unable to meet the demands of their
creditors. The owners of estates can no longer keep
down the charges and encumbrances affecting their
properties, which were contracted under very different
circumstances, and tenants are wholly incapable of
liquidating rents undertaken at periods when agri-
cultural produce commanded more than double the
prices now to be'obtained. If it require 100. quar-
ters of corn to satisfy the claim of the landlord, where
50 would formally have been sufficient for that purpose,
it is clear that the farmer will have fifty quarters less
for other purposes, for the clothing and maintenance
of his family and for the employment of labour,
than he had calculated upon when he entered upon
his ho!ciing. He is therefore obliged to curtail his
orders to the traciesinea and bhOpkeeperS of the neigh-
bourhood, and to discharge many of his workmen.
The demand for manufactured articles, and for
labour, is thereby limited—the supply speedily
exceeds the demand, and prices of every kind are
deprec'ated ; farms are thrown upon the hands
of the proprietors, mills and factories are altogether
closed or put upon half time, the labourers
are driven to the workhouse, rents fall, the pressure