The Sun.
London, England, 1831-10-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It appeals now pretty evident that we were correct in
stating, last week, that his Majesty had a strong objec-
tion to creating more Peers with a view to carrying the
Reform Bill. We think his Majesty is right, and we have
no doubt the public, upon a little reflection, will concur
with us in thinking that the country has got quite enough
of hereditary legislators already. Whether it be possible
to give too great a price for Reform, as gold itself may be
bought too dear, we cannot take upon us to say ; we only
know that until wisdom and worth can be transmitted by
descent, along with titles and dignities, the public ought
to weigh well the consequences of any great augmentation
to the numbers of that class, whose children inherit the
privilege of making laws for the people of England, without
finding it necessary to have any of the qualities requisite for
the task of legislation. If the people are resolved on having
a full and efficient measure of Reform, of which there
can be no doubt, and if they persevere in the peaceable
but energetic, demand of what is so just and reasonable,
t' ey cannot fail to surmount every obstacle that stands in
the way of its attainment. If they are only true to them-
selves, there is no power within the realm that can long
withhold from them what the Constitution has declared to
be their right. The Ministers are pledged to as efficient
a measure of Reform as that which has been lost by the
decision of the hereditary portion of the Legislature. But
the people, who have been so often disappointed in their
hopes of Reform, from the deceitful dawn of the yourg
patriotism of William Pitt to the present day, must not
trust to pledges and promises only ; they must watch not
only the movements in the enemy's camp, but the pro-
ceedings of those whom they have put forward as the
champions of their cause. There are some men in the
present Ministry who are not, and cannot, from all the
previous habits and associations of their lives, be cor-
dially interested for the success of any adequate plan
of Reform. Besides, the Cabinet, in many matters, both
or foreign and domestic policy, have abandoned the prin-
ciples which they advocated when out of office. In va-
rious instances their want of intelligence and firmness has
disappointed the public expectation; but, as long as they
support an adequate and satisfactory measure of Reform,
the country will support them. Great as the impatience
of the public is for the realization of their hopes on this
subject, we have no doubt that they will afford a fair and
reasonable time to Ministers to mature those further pro-
ceedings which the loss of the Bill in the House of Lords
make it incumbent on them to adopt. But unnecessary
delay they will not, and ought not to brook; and
if Ministers intend, as Earl Grey is said to have inti-
mated,. to prorogue Parliament until after the Christmas
holidays, there will be, in our opinion, unneces-
sary, and, perhaps, dangerous delay in regard to the
settlement of a question nn which the destinies of
the empire are now suspended. We should think
that a month's prorogation is as much as can be required
for all honest purposes ; and Ministers should bear in mind
that the business of this great country is nearly at a stand-
still in consequence of the state of suspense and uncer-
tainty in which the question of Reform remains. We
confess that the hints which have been thrown out in cer-
tain quarters, about the propriety of meeting the majo-
rity of the House of Lords half-way, are calculated to
excite suspicion ;—but a half-and-half demolition of the
rotten borough, or a half-and-half restoration of the elec-
tive franchise to the middle classes of the community, or
a half-and-half recognition of the principle that " the
people of England cannot be taxed but by their own con-
sent," will not do ;—the country will not now be satisfied
with a political Reform of the nature of Sir Robert Peel's
law Reforms. There must be no compromise between
public right and aristocratic usurpation.—MorningHerahl.
There is nothing in history so monstrous as the actual
condition of this country. The King, the who'e people,
with an immense majority of their representatives, and
added to them a portion of the House of Peers, (which,
with reference both to public character and to landed pos-
sessions, may well be regarded as more than half of that
noble House,) have pronounced their universal desire for
the correction of a system of flagrant abuses in the Govern•
went,—a system whereby all the sound and standard
maxims of the Constitution, providing, on behalf of the
people of England, a substantial controul over the expendi-
ture of their owe money, and over the direction of the na-
tional policy, have been for ages trampled on and set at de-
fiance. King, Commons, Nation, and (at least morally
and financially speaking) a moiety of the Peers themselves,
have pronounced that they must be emancipated from the
hateful yoke ofloo boroughs,—the yoke, in fact, of a foreign
usurpation, strange to English law, and abhorrent to
the spirit of liberty. Why, then, has not the salutary
change been effected, and what is the obstacle? The law
has not passed ! Because there was an obstacle, consisting
of forty-one individuals in the House of Lords, who de-
clared that the voice of King, Commons, and Nation, did
not deserve to be listened to by them, and, therefore, that
the foreign usurpation, both of purse and power, so
deeply and unanimously complained of by the whole king-
dom, should be uninterruptedly continued. Now this,
we assert, is the monstrous feature in the state of Eng-
land. She is not a conquered country,—she is not kept
down by one-and-forty Barons, lay and spiritual, with
100,000 armed vassals at their hack,—she has no such or-
dinary and excusable plea for her subjugation, since the
whole majority of the Peers could not get we verily be-
lieve, 500 men to fight for them. But there she lies, face
to the earth, with the feet of these two score nobles press-
ing on her ! Is it not utterly unheard of, that so much in-
trinsic power should suffer itself to be paralysed by such
small means ? Some days ago we were told that the people
cared nothing about the matter. Now, incredible as it
may seem, it is the boast of boroughmongers that their:
security is not in the indifference of the people, but in
their impotence ; that within the last week the mob has
done its worst ; and that since it is ascertained that no
snore Peers are to be created ! the Tories have but to
stand out courageously, and the day will be their own.
We eould hardly believe our senses when the above say-
ings of the boroughmongering party were reported to us.
Who has told them that no more Peers will be created ?
Who has so libelled the nerve, energy, and integrity of the
reforming Government, as to charge them with a reluctance
to take the plainest and most obvious means of satisfy-
ing the wants of the nation, and accomplishing their
own high and sworn duty ? We, on the contrary, are well
convinced that if a new creation of Peers be really needed,
the Gazette will in due time announce them; and at all
events that Ministers, having a full knowledge of the se-
veral facts and bearings of the case before them, will by
one expedient or another secure to the British nation the
successful passage of the Bill through both Houses of Par-
liament. " The passage of the Bill!" Yes ; the full,
complete, unimpaired Bill of Reform, perfect in its ache-
du!ea A and B,—perfect in the breadth and popularity of
its eternal qualifications—freed, perhaps, from that odious
and tyrannical clause which enables landlords to hold the
sword of Damocles suspended over the heads of their te-
nants-at-will, by giving them an irresistible interest in
the coercion of the tenant's vote,—au evil to be corrected
by no other means than the ballot. The new Bill
should be likewise released from that incubus the sub-
jection of half counties to overgrown oligarchs,—a blemish
on the face of the Bill only less offens►ve than that intro-
duced by Lord Chandos, whose estates are saoetly occupied
by vassal tenants, liable to expulaion at no more than six
menthe notice. With these amendments in the frawe of
the Bill, as sent up finally by the House of Commons, it
will, we trust, be presented once more to Parliament;
and by the Lords, more enlightened as to the determina-
tion of the country, and better taught as to the possible
results of a rejection to their own future interests and
safety, we doubt not it will be this time passed. Touch-
ing the gossip that appears in print, professing to establish,
on misreported expressions of Lord Grey, an alarm for the
identity of the new Bill with the old one, ;n all its most
essential provisions, there never was a more pure obsur-
dity circulated. Lord Grey Las two characteristics oa
which the nation may rely. lie is, first, a man of truth ;
and next a man of understanding, and knows how to
discriminate between infamy and honour. A mea,ure
of less decided reformation than that which has already
been before the country, will never be introduced by
Lord Grey. Then as to the duration of the interval be-
fore Parliament meets again, for a " long prorogation" is
another fancy of the boroughmongers. A lerog proro-
gation, that is, until after Christmas, would lead the
people to imagine a lukwarmness in Ministers, which we
know does not exist, but for which those who know them
not ought to be spared any ground or pretext for suspicion.
Accidents are things of which the Tories know the market
value well, and all their perverse and even scandalous delay
Lave been calculated to let in the " chapter of acki-
dents" upon the political arena. This danger ought to be

well appreciated by the Whigs, and therefore the pro-
rogation sLould endure'enlolonger than would suffice to
r of
e-establish the strength gentlemen worn down by
long, laborious, and unceasing
toil for
four months. To
deny to Ministers, or indeed to their
cessary rest for recruiting nature, wourgpbonents, the ne-
e equally in-
human and impolitic. On the other hand,
to
ceroslonagrthed
public agitation and incur the risk of mischances
L'lrtt home, which even a few unnecessary weeks might
—.....,,5t t
,„„fr ice, would be of inconceivable mischief. If Ministers
I, rr.,, ,_ -$x the prorogation for one whole month (on no ac-
fr. ..,/, ;‘„l:l,*stntilbould the delay be longer), every good purpose may
igitilie nilie4;lintl many bad ones avoided. In the mean time,
nc*,, -,, if lippfs' a publk " indifference" be wanting, Lord
(
'‘,.

Wharncliffe, we apprehend, is in a situation to supply
them to his Lordship's friends. We refer our readers to a
letter which has been transmitted to the Noble Lord—not
from any half-dozen of Bond•street shopkeepers, but from
his own regiment of West Riding cavalry,—telling his
Lordship flatly to resign his command, and go about his
business, as the members of that numerous and spirited
body will no longer serve under a chief, whose sentiments
are diametrically opposite to theirs, and to those of the
country generally, upon the great question of Reform.--
Times.

The Lord Chancellor, in the House of Lords, on Satur-
day, after alluding to some unfounded charges made against
him on the subject of the Bankruptcy Court Bill, adverted
to " another gross misrepresentation to which be said he
had been subjected in regard to the Reform Bill, He saw
it again stated, that there was a decided difference between
him and his Noble Friend at the head of the Administra-
tion, in regard to a material part of the Reform Bill, and
this was founded upon a garbled statement of what he had
really said when speaking on that Bill. lie had on that
occasion distinctly stated, that there was not the slightest
difference between himself and his Noble Friend on the
subject—that there was not, nor ever had been, any diffe-
rence between them. This declaration, however, had been
omitted in the statement attributed to him ; and he ob-
served, that his statement, so garbled, had been, quoted and
commented on. He again declared that there was not a
shadow of difference between him and his Noble Friend on
that great and important measure." This explanation
will at once satisfy the people that the inferences which
have been drawn from Lord Brougham's speech, of a dif-
ference of opinion between him and Lord Grey on material
provisions of the Reform Bill, are without foundation.
The object of Lord Brougham, we have no doubt, was to
furnish those Lords who might be averse to the uniform
rent qualification with a motive for going into the Com-
mittee. We cannot help thinking, however, that it is
dangerous, even when arguing by way of supposition to
meet a particular class of opponents, to appear to make
light of what the people deem a very serious matter. With
respect to what passed between Earl Grey and the de-
puties of the parishes on Wednesday night, the statement
in the Chronicle of Saturday has, we know, been pro-
nounced, by most of the gentlemen present, substan-
tially correct. We are assured, however, that the
statement conveys an impression of Earl Grey's opi-
nions with regard to Reform, very different from what
it was his wish to have conveyed. What occurred dur-
ing a long interview could not, of course, be all com-
pressed in a few lines, and it is not worth while disputing
about one phrase or another. We can easily conceive
that his Lordship, in speaking of a conciliatory Bill of a
nature to obtain the suffrages of a majority of the Lords,
might attach a very different meaning to these words, from
the impression they left on the minds of the deputies. His
Lordship never had an idea of conciliating by abandoning
any of the leading principles of Lord John Russell's Bill,
while the deputies might suppose that the majority never
would he conciliated by any Bill which did not abandon
some of those principles. General terms are always liable
to be misunderstood. As this is, however, a point re-
specting which the people are naturally jealous in the ex-
treme, it is of importance that it should be known that
it never was intended by Ministers that they should pro-
pose or support any measure, we will not say not quite
as efficient as the last (for, as Mr. Cobbett observes, quite
as efficient is an ambiguous expression), but which is
not in all the leading principles the same as the Bill
of Lord John Russell. With respect to the prorogation,
we still hope and trust that it will be for the shortest
possible period. We will not repeat the arguments we
have already urged on the subject. We have the ut-
most confidence in Ministers, and are satisfied that they
would not stay one moment in office, if they were not
convinced of their ability to carry the Bill. They have,
too, independently of integrity and honour, a strong per-
sonal interest in success; for they would be the first vic-
tims to the vengeance of the Anti-Reformers. Still the
public are full of apprehension. The meetings in various
parts of the country, and more particularly in Scotland,
have expressed the strongest opinions on the danger of
delay. Thus, for instance, in the resolutions adopted at a
meeting of merchants, manufacturers, and other inha-
bitants of Paisley, on the 11th inst. it is said—
" 4th. That notwithstanding the address lately forwarded from
this town to his Majesty, humbly and earnestly requesting him
to exercise his Royal Prerogative, by creating Peers, for the pur-
pose of securing the passing of the Reform Bill, thismeeting deem
it their imperious duty again to entreat his Majesty to employ his
Royal and constitutional powers for the attainment of this great
object.
" sth. That this meeting are fully convinced that the opposi-
tion made to the Reform Bill has already proved highly detri-
mental to the financial and commercial interests of the country ;
and that, should its passing be delayed much longer, public con-
fidence will be shaken so severely as to preclude every rational
hope of escaping a period of unexampled national distress."
At the Greenock meeting, on the same day, a petition
to the King was adopted, of which the following is an ex-
tract
We humbly desire to assure your Majesty that the defeat of
the Reform Bill in the House of Lords kas excited in us, in com-
mon with the great bulk of your Majesty's loyal subjects, feelings
of dismay and alarm. We had cherished a hope that a measure
recommended by your Majesty, adopted by a large majority in
the Commons House of Parliament, and supported by the co--
dial unanimity of a free and intelligent people, would have met
with a far different reception than that which has unfortunately
befallen it in the House of Peers. But it is gratifying to reflect,
that though the public and commercial credit of the country, the
maintenance of peace and good order, and the preservation of the
political institutions of the Empire, have, by the conduct of a
majority of that Right Honourable House, been placed in the
most imminent hazard, there is a power vested in your Majesty
by the glorious Constitution of our beloved country, from the
exercise of which the fearful excitement which prevails may be
allayed ; the just and inalienable rights of your people, still so
pertinaciously and unjustly withheld, recovered ; and their affec-
tion for your illustrious House, and the stability of the Throne,
and the Government of the nation, maintained."
The same strong language is held at the Dumbarton
meeting ;--
" The honest, public-spirited inhabitants of these towns," says
the Glasgow Chronicle," are too well acquainted with the subject
to require prompting from without; and too high-minded to sus.
pend the very expression of their sentiments on the no very cha-
ritable supposition that the cause which they serve may by some
state juggle be doomed for a season to official neglect. Had ad-
dresses like these, instead of idle and useless petitions to the
House of Lords, been generally adopted when the Bill passed
the House of Commons, it would in a few days have been law.
Now every one is satisfied that there is no other peaceful course.
Either there must be a creation of Peers, or all the valuable
portion of the Bill must be given up. If Reform be not carried
in the quiet, laudable way provided for by the Constitution, it
will not be carried at all, or carried only by a revolution. Any
attempt to mutilate the Bill, and reduce it to the taste of the
boroughmongers, would be resented, if possible, by more vehe-
mence than its total loss ; for it would be considered as merely
turning over the chains of the boroughmongers, in order that
the weak links might be repaired, and the fastenings rivetted."
—Morning Chronicle.
The opposition made to the Chancellor's Bankrupt Bill
in the House of Commons is very much the same, both
in its nature and in the character of persons most active
against the measure, as the resistance offered to the passing
of the Reform Bill, and by which its progress was so long
delayed. It is pretty nearly the old battle over again—
the spirit of improvement, reason, justice, and economy,
striving as before against a system fruitful of prodigality,
patronage, and iniquity. The object of the Reform Bill
is to put down all these mischiefs in the gross; the Bank-
rupt Bill is levelled against one in particular, exercising a
most pernicious influence over that department of our ju-
dicial institutions which is more especially dear and vital
to us as a commercial people. The antagonist prin-
ciples being thus clear and unequivocal, it is strange that
any real lovers of justice should be so infatuated as, for
any minor objections to the proposed extensive measure of
improvement, to play the game of the enemies of all refor-
mation, political and legal alike, by throwing obstacles in
the way of the Bill; when, if it shall pass into a law, as
we 4onfidenfly expect, any imperfections in its operation
can be rer,xli4 cured at a future day. In these times the
great point and difficulty is to establish the principle of Re-
formation ; to put down the established system of pa-
tronage and peculation ; to enforce the dominion of reason
and justice ; and to compel the application of such tests to
our iiaatioitions. As the first thing to be done, ere we
attempt any improvement in the material world, is to
clear the ground, so, ;n respect of Reforms in our social
state, our earliest efforts must b directed against existing
ZbAises and prejudices. When free from those incum-
branees, " with a clear stage and no favour,' it will be
an easy matter t appoint and regulate a tribunal which
shall prove itself adequate to the due administration of the
Bankrupt Law. There is one gentleman who took part
in the debate on Friday upon the Bankrupt Pill; whom we
are boned to absolve from the imputation of party feelin,
which attisejies upon so many of the opponents of the Bill ;
we mean Mr. Pollthitc., thg Member for Huntingdon ; who,
with all the authority of his extensive practice in bank-
ruptay (a practice second, we should suppose, to no man's)
confers upon Lis opinion, bore the most decisive tezt4nony
to the merits of the new Bill, and to the vices of the sys-
tem it proposes to supersede, jinhappily he laboured under
an indisposition which prevented his being fully heard, but
he did say enough to produce a very marked And useful
influence upon the House. Mr. Pollock's sentiments are
shared by all the Ziombers of the Common Law Bar in the
House; the value proper to be attributed to their judg-
mea, as compared with that of Cir Charles Wetherell,
and his cadets of the Chancery Bar, it Reeds µo very in-
timate acquaintanco with the profession to estimate. --
Morning Chronicle.
The Bishops..-the Bishops—_the Bishops, is the word in
every one's mouth ; and who can wonder that it should ?
lch.haerytertrof Englishiedto
fel
freedom
.they only delayed, the new
that, after such an unrighteo'us aproceeding, anth ey
pos-
sess the confidence of the l e ? We have no enmity
to the Chureb,—we have people theycan think
v no eurnity to the Bishops ; but

we cannot help telling them, that they have dealt a deadly I
blow, not only at their own influence, but at the security
of the Church as a Church establishment. The following
are only a few of the proofs of this assertion, and we sub-
mit them to their consideration as a warning
We, the undersigned, feeling the utmost disgust at the con-
duct of the Bishops in voting against the measure of Reform,
(with the exception of the two who voted in its favour), hereby
fully declare, that whensoever any of the said Bishops may be
called upon to minister amongst any of us, we will show our dis-
approbation of their conduct by withholding our persons and
families from attending; also use what influence we may possess
with others. And we hereby also declare our disapproval of the
Bishop of London in not voting either way, and fully believe
that he that is not for us is against us; we also having been
taught to believe these spiritual advisers to be the Ministers of
I'eace, now fully declare it our opinion that they are no longer
worthy our confidence as such."
" Signed by a number of householders, &c."

" To the People of England `.—Pay no snore tithes !—no more
Church-rates! without compulsion ; but, in God's name, do not
withhold payment of the tax es ; rather contribute an extra mite,
if necessary, to support the King and his Ministers in this fear-
ful emergency.
" Mark your detestation of the haughty, heartless, and over-
grown hierarchy, by absenting yourselves and families from your
parish churches! Let the proud and pampered followers of the
" meek and lowly Jesus" preach to empty benches!
" Remember, it was the Bishops who caused the Bill to be re-
jected! If they had voted on the right side,' (as the Lord
Chancellor has it), there would have been a majority for the
second reading!
" Be determined that the Bishops shall no longer have seats in
the House of Lords! that there shall be no Parson Magistrates!
In tine, that the priesthood collectively shall never again inter-
fere with your secular concerns!
" Respect them as zealous and faithful Ministers of religion,—
: pay them liberally, but call for an equalization of Church Pro-
, perty ! so that the drones shall no longer fatten on unchristian
luxuries, while the working clergy are worse olftlian the journey-
men mechanics !"

" Britons, beware!—Peace, Order, and Reform! or Riot, De-
feat, and Corruption! Choose for yourselves !—The faction op-
posed to you and your rights desire nothing so much, as to see
you breaking out into open acts of violence, and refusing to pay
taxes; because you would then drive your best friends, 1•arl
Grey, Lords Brougham, Althorp, Russell, &c. to resign, and to
give place to those who live by corruption, and who would rule
by oppression. Englishmen, disappoint them!! Be peaceable;
respect the laws; pay the taxes ; support the King and his Mi-
nisters ! and all will yet he well. You will obtain your rights ;
triumph over the boroughmongers ; and be free as the air vou
breathe!! The motto of your enemies is Disturbance, Divi-
sion, Destruction.' Let yours be Union, Peace, Victory.'—
God save the King."—Morning Advertiser.

REFORM AND THE IRON TRADE.

(From the Morning Chronicle.)

The most critical, urgent, and unanswerahla reasons
for a shott prorogation of Parliament, and an immediate
settlement of the one vital and agitating question of the
Reform of the representation, are the depressed and threat-
ening state of trade and agriculture. A constant and con-
tinuous fall of prices has annihilated profits, and must ne-
cessarily have extinguished much active capital. In the
meanwhile the burthens of the productive classes—the
King's taxes, the county and parish taxes, Corn Laws, aud
the various costs of production—have been maintained.
The state of Europe, torn with political convulsions, and
prostrate under the rage of a devastating epidemic disease,
has contributed to aggravate a depression which ca❑ no
longer be concealed or denied. The colonial interests are
involved in similar distress. Incendiarism again stalks
abroad ; and at such a period Ministers are said to con-
template a prorogation of three months ! We speak ad-
visedly when we thus characterise the crisis. Contro-
versy on the subject of the causes will not alter the fact of
effects. We will take, for instance, the iron trade, now
the second great staple manufacture of the kingdom.
The following astounding representation of the state of
this great national manufacture is now before us, having
been printed aud privately circulated by the trade
At a meeting of the Staffordshire iron trade, held at
Dudley, the 4th of October, 1831, Michael Grazebrook, Esq.

in the'Chair,
" It was resolved, that this meeting cannot but regard with
considerable anxiety and apprehension the present appalling
and long-continued depression in the prices of iron, and which
they attribute, mainly, to the injurious operation of the existing
laws relating to the currency.
" That the following memorial of the iron and coal trade be
presented to Earl Grey, by a deputation, and that a copy thereof
be sent to the Chairman of the Welch trade, requesting the
concurrence and co-operation of the gentlemen of that district

in its prayer :
" Memorial to the Right lion. Earl Grey, First Lord of his
Majesty's Treasury.
We, the undersigned iron masters and coal masters, of
the Staffordshire iron and coal district, think it our duty re-
spectfully to represent to his Majesty's Government the f0110v,..

ing facts :
" • 1. That for the last five years, ever since what is called
the panic of 1825, we have found, with very slight intermis-
sions, a continually increasing depression to the prices of the
products of industry, and more particularly in those of pig iron
and:bar iron, which have fallen, respectively, from upwards of
81. per ton, to under 3/. per ton, and from 151. per ton, to under
5/. per ton.
" ' 2. Against this alarming and long continued depression,
we have used every possible effort Jo our power to make head.
We have practised all manner of economy, and have had recourse
to every possible improvement in the working of our mines and
manufactories. Our workmen's wages have, in many instances,
been greatly reduced, and such reduction has been attended with,
and effected by, very great suffering and distress :—but the roy-
alties, rents, contracts, and other engagements, under which we
hold our respective works and mines, have scarcely been reduced
at all, nor can we get them effectually reduced, because the law
enforces their payment in full.;
' 3. The prices of the products of our industry having thus
fallen within the range of the fixed charges and expences which
the law compels us to discharge, the just and necessary profits of
our respective trades have ceased to exist ; and, in many cases, a
positive loss attends them.
" 4. Under these circumstances, we have Ong hesitated in
determining what line of conduct our interests and our duties re-
quire us to adopt :—lf we should abandon our respective trades,
our large and expensive outlays in machinery and erections must
be sacrificed, at an enormous loss to ourselves, and our honest
and meritorious workmen must be thrown in thousands upon
parishes, already too much impoverished by their present
burthens, to support them :—and, if we should continue our re-
spective:trades, we see nothing but the prospect of increasing
distress, and certain ruin to all around us.
" 5. In our humble opinion,the great cause which has been
mainly instrumental in prbducing this depression and distress in
our respective trades, and among the productive classes of the
country generally, is the attempt to render the rents, taxes, my_alties,
alties, and the other various engagements and obligations ofi the
country, convertible, by law, into gold, at 3/. 17s. 10yd. per oz.
This low and antiquated price of the metallic standard of value
is no longer capable of effecting a just and equitable distribution
of our products between the producer and the consumer ; it ren.
ders incompatible the permanent existence of remunerative
prices, without such a reduction of taxation as we cannot hope
to see effected in time to afford us any relief—and it thus tends,
ultimately and surely, to destroy the industry and the peace and
happiness of the country.
" 6. That until the establishment of a circulating medium
of a character better suited to the various and complicated de-
mands of society, and to the increased transactions and popu-
lation of the country, and more competent to effect an inter-
change, and preserve a remunerating level of prices in the pro-
ducts of industry, generally ; we can see no prospect of any per-
manent restoration of the prosperity of our trades, or of the
country being able to escape the most frightful sufferings and
convulsions.
"' We, therefore, most respectfully, but very earnestly, re-
quest the early attention of his Majesty's Government to these
great facts and considerations, and, we trust, they will recommend
to Parliament the speedy establishment of some just, adequate,
and efficient currency, which may properly support the trade and
commerce of the country, and preserve such a remunerating
level of prices, as may ensure to the employers of labour the fair
and reasonable profits of their capital and industry, as well as the
means of paying the just and necessary wages to their workmen.
" Michael Grazebrook, Chairman of the Staffordshire Iron
Trade, Netherton Iron Works ; W. and I. S. Sparrow and Co.,
Bilston Iron Works ; W. H. Sparrow, Lane-end, ditto; Bishtons
and Underhill, Parkfield ditto ; Jones, Barker, and Co., Coseley
ditto and Blama Iron Works ; Walker and Yates, Gospel Oak
ditto ; Chillington Coal and Iron Company, Chillington ditto;
Parkes and Co., Capponfields ditto ; Thomas Timmins and Co.,
Wolverhampton Furnaces ; John H. Bate, Eagle ditto ; William
Hunt and Sons Brades Iron and Steel Works • T. and H. Price,
Bilston Brook Iron Works ; James Bottesley,'Wednesbury New
Field Colliery ; Haim and Horton, Cophall ditto ; Hood and
Hains, Ocker-hill ditto ; J. Halford, Wednesbury Lyne ditto ; G.
Parker, Oldbury ditto; Fereday, Bradley Iron Works; John
Dawes :mil Sons, Itromford ditto; 1). and J. Horton,Ebenezer Col-
liery ; William Izon, Wesibromwich and Briefly Hill Colliery ;
W. and J. Firmstone, Ley's Coal and Iron Works ; D. and G.
Horton, ley and Russell's Hall Coal and Iron Works; William
Banks, Wordesley Colliery ; Thomas Banks, Ettingshall Iron
Works ; William Mathews, Broadwaters Furnaces ; William
Ward, Priest Fields Coal and Iron Works ; Josh. and David
Smith and Co., Great Bridge Colliery Samuel Bill, Gold's
Hill ditto ; Bill, Weston, and Riley, Hill Top ditto ; James
Batson, Great Bridge Iron Works; John Bagnall and Sons,
Gold's Hill ditto ; John Bagnall and Sons, Ityder's Green and
Greet's Green Collieries ; Lloyd's, Foster, and Co., Wednes-
bury Old Park Furnaces ; Samuel Dawes, Ilush Farm Colliery ;
Thomas Hood and Co., New Church ditto ; Hood and Haines,
Round's Green ditto} G. and E. Thorneycroft, Shrubbery Iron
Works ; George Parker, Dudley Port Furnaces ; Thomas Wes-
ton (Executors of the late) Small Heath Colliery; Bill, Jones,
and Bill, Dunkirk New Colliery ; Wadley and Page, Smethwick
Iron Works; M. Hill and Son, Tipton Green Iron Works ; E.
Creswell, ditto, ditto ; the Birmingham Coal Company, per T.
Horton, Secretary, Toll-End Furnaces and Iron Works ;
Wheelcy and Co., Brettell-lane and Bromley Coal and Iron
Works ; J. Cox, Common Side Colliery ' • Joseph and David
Smith, Eight Locks ditto ; Bills and Mills, Darlaston Green
Iron Works ; Henry Nock and Sons, Grange Colliery ; Jonah
Jeavons and Co., Tividale ditto • Edward Crockett, Deepdale
Furnaces ; Nock and Co., Round's Green Colliery. "
We are thus particular in citing the whole of this ex-
traordinary statement, with the highly respectable names
attached to it, and which unquestionably vouch for the ac-
curacy of its facts, because we know that it is often ex-
tremely convenient to say that memorials are " got up"
and preferred from party or private views. But here is a
solemn document, signed by nearly three fourths of the
Staffordshire iron trade (and we are informed subsequently
by nearly all the Shropshire iron masters), with repre-
sentations of prices and make, which cannot be fictitious.
The above signatures alone comprehend the firms of up-
words of sixty blast furnaces, making from 3,000 to
3,500 tons of p:g iron per week, and giving employment
and support to many large- families—all, be it observed, irn-
hued with the strongest opinions on Reform, and bitter
hatred of the borouglimongers—attributing to the ma-
chination; of the oligarchy the great causes of alter-
nate seasons of distress, and the felonious alterations of
currency during the last fifty years, In the Stafford-
shire iron district it is computed that there are about
1 qs furnaces. Of these, perhaps, a dozen are in ruins
or unserviceable ; 59 were out of blast (" blown out,
in technical phrasoiogy) in February, 1830 ; 41 in July,
1830 ; and 40 of the 128 are now out, leaving about 79
now in blast. The average make of a Staffordshire fur-
nace is about fifty tons per week. So much for the jargon
of over-production. A few facts from the trade--from
those practically conversant with and interested in our
staple manufactures, are worth a saris of theories
and

treatises. We shall not be suspectsd, with our well known
opinions, of depreciating the inquiries or labours of eco-
nomists ; but it would be well if theoretical writers would
inform themselves more correctly of the data on which
they venture bold assertions and baseless positions. We
will not here enter on a discussion of the alleged or various
causes of the serious depression of prices, which, it ap.
pears, has not even yet reached its minimum. Nor is this
cruel depreciation of value confined to the raw articles of
iron, wool, cotton, lead, and other staple commodities. It
pervades all their various manufacture and manipulations.
An intelligent merchant of Birmingham some weeks
compiled the following curious table :

`r', aa g" ,7; =2, cg •• gs
Pqr
,r'g;
E§=2- m,.
,2 „7.%710::
g 25.23 g
**
:: n
rT K
.E...-.:(l,occ=c,acc:acc2mo=.=ooooo
TTIRTRTUVITMUIM
:61=.2wEWEI-M-r4.2
f-11,;. ....,....,95,-,"2
;;33 3 3-3
5

7117,Rwiipp11T,17,717,:mg.
~, •1 """ op" n
Fg 2E22,W1-28'8,98.4
" 3"3

since

tDou,c4=Cam.-,maccup4ot.Dt3r:coonc,aot;R
7,?,FITFO,O:FitWiTaO:OI7IITM
p— ay c;' g' o
m ai avel ti c‘,;r4
Die,N74.NORIP4'..RO
;';.l3'; 3"3 ;".

Our retail shops, in the prices of almost any other
commodities, exhibit the same extraordinary depreciation.
We are confident that the annals of no country on the face
of the earth present such a picture of fluctuating price.
Capital must have been melted, as the snow and icy gla-
ciers waste from the mountain top under the stammer sun ;
profit must have been annihilated ; labour starved under
such commercial revolutions. " Peace" and " machinery"
may have had their effects ; it may, perhaps, be difficult
to say accurately the exact proportion, but the revolutions
of the currency, the juggling tricks of chartered banks in
adulterous connection (like the Church) with the State,
have bad their part. The boroughmongers have too long
monopolized the plunder and direction of the country; the
middle and productive classes are now determined to go-
vern themselves. We are seriously impressed with the
fearful state of trade and commerce. We know that the
Reform question, unsettled, operates as a paralysis on the
wholesale as well as on the retail departments. We heard ou
Saturday an eminent merchant state, that if Parliament was
prorogued till Christmas, he should countermand numerous
orders he had given out; and we are also correctly informed,
that payments are most reluctantly made by persons of
high credit and habit, while public matters retnaim thus
unsettled and in turmoil. We confess we look with dis-
may and alarm on the prospects of the winter. We trust
that Ministers will set at defiance all party intrigues and
Machiavelism as a mode of carrying the Reform Bill. Let
them bear in mind the penetrating wisdom and remarks
of Bacon :—" The matter of seditions is of two kinds :
much poverty, and much discontentment. It is certain,
so many overthrown estates, so many votes for troubles.
Lucan noteth well the state of Rome before the civil war :

." Ilinc usura vorax, rapidumque in tempore fcenus,
Hinc concussa fides, et multi, utile bellum.'
" This same multis utile bellum is an assured and infallible
sign of a state disposed to seditions and troubles. And
if this poverty and broken estate in the better sort be
joined with a want and necessity in the mean people, the
danger is imminent and great. For the rebellions of the
belly are the worst."