The Sun.
London, England, 1822-07-17 00:00:00

least of them arose from the want of adequate circulation of
currency to give effect to the industry of the country; and the
people of 'lreland were unable to pay either tithes or taxes:—
He thought these causes fairly produced the consequences
which he now deplored ; if there were other causes, Ministers
were bound to state them. Unless they could bring them-selves
to admit.the cause of the evil to be an undue contraction of the
currency, in vain would they hope to obtain relief. If by re-
turning, as they ;lad done, to the old standard, and confining it
to gold alone, they had produced the evil, why not retrace their •,
steps, and remove that cause of all their difficulties ? Let them
make one more change--let them divide she loss and the gain,
and substitute another standard better suited to the capacity of
the country as it now existed, not as it did 25 years ago. There
were two points _to consider :—lst, Could the Bank resume
cash-payments? anti then could the people bear that sudden
change ? The Committee of 'lBl5 ought to haVe ascertained
that the people could bear the weight of taxation under the
pressure of the projected change, as well as how the Bank
coffers stood. Unfortunately they confined themselves to the
latter one, and from thence flowed all the evils Which bore down
the agricultural interests at the presentinoment. Landed Gel
tlemen, of thousands a year, a few years ago, were now, with-
out any imprudence of their own, unable to obtain as many hun-
dreds : the yeomen under them became in a proportionate de,.
gree affected by the.sad change. This measure, if carried, then,
to its full length, would go
.to the confiscation of the whole
landed interests of the country. As to the supposed in-
justice of a revision of the standard to the public' cre-
ditors, he denied that any such result could follow.—
It was perfectly clear that upon one great branch of the
community, encouraged by the legislature to invest—great pro-
perty in hind, ruin had been inflicted ; it was, however, any
thing but clear, that thasame ill consequences would befal any
other class by a revision of the standard of the currency. At
all events, be would deny that any part had a higher claim
upon the state than one estimated upon the value of the cur-
rency at the time he had advanced his money to the state ; those
who certainly lent their money before the Bank restriction act
passed, might indeed draw a distinction between their cases and
those of later public creditors. True, the Government gave
them a pledge that their stock should be held liable to3a large
Sinking Fund, which no longer existed.' He then entered into
several calculations showing the comparative amount of taxes
during the last years of the'var, and said, that step by step the
Government had disqualified the country_ from either retaining
an adequate Sinking Fund, or meeting the new circumstances
of the standard of Mr. Peel's Bill, winch, instead of being an
act of justice, or a boon, was one of injustice and oppresilen.—
With what grace, then, could they talk of the inviolability of
faith which they were ready to maintain with the public credi-
tor, when they had already, by their 'arrangement respecting
the Sinking Fund, taken from him the redeeming security
which they had pledged themselves to uphold ? He would im-
press the 'House (the Noble Lord continued) most strongly
with the necessity of a thorough inquiry into the state of the
country. If Parliament separated without devising some mea-
sure of relief, the people would be left almost in a situation of
despair. It needed but one or two seasons more under The
present system, and every thing valuable possessed by the land-
owners and by the agriculturists would pass into the hands of
other persons. The Noble Lord sat down by declaring that he
saw no remedy for the existing grievance short of Parliament
retracing its steps, and giving an increased 'measure of currency

to the country. -
The Earl of LIVERPOOL had never looked at the Till
before the House as likely to give any extensive relief in the
present state of the country but as far as it went, its operation,
'he thought, would be useful. It was too much the fashion with
thpie who speculated upon the condition of the landed interest
.to attribute all it's distress to some one peculiar cause. Some
traced the evil to an over production ; others ascribed it to the
resumption of. cash payments : but he (Lord Liverpool) denied
that the distress had arisen out of any one cause. flit cash
payment acthad, perhaps, assisted to produce it; but not even
assisted, in any very material degree. The fact was, that the
distress arose out of no one cause alone, but olit of a great variety
of causes operating combination--causes which themselves
arose out, of a change in the course of circumstances and events,
surpassing any transition which had happened. within the me-
mory of man. It was impossible to compare the change which
had necessarily followed the termination of the late war, with
that whichhad ensued upon any former contest in which Eng-
land had been engaged. Such a crisis, he. verily believed, could
not be Paralleled,. unless it were in that irruption of the barba-
rians- which had led to the overthrow of the.RomanEmpire. The
Noble Lord went on to deny having treated the question of
over-production in the way in which the Noble Earl (Car-
narvOn) had described him as treating it. All he had ever
meant or said was this-that the high- prides of the war
had forced lands into. cultivation from which crops could
not be raised, but at an expence exceeding their value. Had
the-Noble Earl never heard of the rise of rents during the
war ?. he know that from papers upon the table of the
House it appeared that the rents of England during the late
War had doubled themselves—nay, according to the best au-
thorities,. had nearly trebled themselves ? Had such been the
case during the contest with Amenca ? Ott the contrary, rents
had remained stationary, or in some instances had. fallen.
'When land Was forced into Cultivation at rents or .20s. an acre,

which in ordinary circumstances was not worth 55., what was
it thatanust naturally follow upon a reduction of the then un-
naturally high market prices ? That was the realsover,produc- .
tion—the production at a cost far greater than the value of the
thing produced. Every man knew, who attended to cultiva-
tion, that some land would produce four quarters of wheat per
acre at a less charge than other land would produce two. But
it was not the over-production of this country which produced
any thing like the present amount of agricultural depression.
Let the House look at the importations from Ireland. From
the year 1119 to the present moment; excepting a small supply
of oats, no foreign grain had come into this country. Since
England had been an importing nation, such a thing perhaps
had not occurred before. But the fact was, that the importa-
tions from Ireland had more than filled up the gap. It had
been one of his (Lord Liverpool's) inducements to the passing
of the Corn Bill, that it would cause England to be supplied
from- Ireland, instead of from foreign Europe. And when.
Gentleinen looked at the state of the provision markets in
England, let' them make allowance for the absence or Go-
vernment as a purchaser. Why, .the expenditure of Go-
vernment in those markets during the war had exceeded the
sum of 2,000,0001. a year. What must naturally be the
effect of such a call being withdrawn ? It was a remedy which
he (Lord Liverpool) was far from wishing to see in operation ;
but he knew, and he declared it plainly, that the only imme-
diate remedy for agricultural distress would be found in a large
increase of the public expenditure. If Government should
be so absurd as to involve itself in some contest which would
cost 10,000,0001., the effect would be instantaneous upon the
state of the markets, and agricultural distress would be heard
of no more. Far was it from him to desire to see such a remedy
in action, for he knew very well how the operation must end.
The evil day would come at last, and it only grew the more
terrible the longer it was put off. The apparent intent of the
Noble' Earl (Carnarvon) was to make an alteration in the stand-
ard of the country. But why not state the wish opefily? 'Why,
under an assumed name, veil the thing which was really to be
done ? The wish was to make a partial national bankruptcy.
Whether the point was accomplished bylowering the interest
of the national debt, or by changing the value of the currency
in which that interest was paid, came to the same thing—there
was the breaking of the national faith. Now he (Lord Liver-
pool) disliked the plan of altering the currency—it looked' like
an evasion ; and if the failure were necessary, he would really
prefer to avow it, and to meet it openly. Adam Smith treated
the insolvency of a nation as the same thing with that of a
.pri-
vate individual ; the best thing, .he said, in either case, is to
avow the fact too, and deal with the creditors without subter-
fuge or concealment. Let the House remember that the
loans had been contracted for under an engagement to re-
store the ancient Standard of the country at the termination of
the war. To lower it was to deprive the fundholder of his due,
and to do it in a less honest way than by at once reducing
the interest of the debt. But he saw no reason in the world for
resorting to either of those measures. It was generally the for-
tune of (every interest to suffer in its turn. The commercial
and funded interest had' suffered at one time ; the landed in-
terest was suffering now. It was the duty of`Parliainent to
preserve the balance as far as possible ; and he admitted, that
if *ere was a difference existing, that hair ought to be thrown
into the scale of the agricultural interest. But Government
must look at the state of the country altogether. :Was there any
diminution apparent in the wealth of, the country ? There was
a change, and a very inconvenient one, in the situation of 'pro-
perty,. but was there of wealth any actual diminution ? He
said that there was,not. The state of the revenue, the increase
in the consumption of all the common ,articles of life, proved the
fact. Coffee, sugar, all the necessaries of life, were increasing
in consumption from day to day. Then, if upon the whole the