The Sun.
London, England, 1825-12-27 00:00:00

THE LONDON JOURNALS.

DAILY
Rziraets from the Morning Pvers,Dec.27, 1825.

[THE TIMES.]
If the combinations of country gentlemen to
keep up their rents, which have been forced to
the present standard by a rise of prices, pro-
duced in its tarn by an overflow of Bank-notes
thiltitigh the country-L-if, we say, these combitia-
tient, would leave things to their natural course,
ivimight be pronounced that the confusion which
vq.ehave recently witnessed in all pecuniary
tfairsactions would end in effecting an immense
Wait-benefit ; and t no distant day, credit, if
let alone, Will again become that which it used
to' be for our ancestors—the representative- of
solid property ; not, as it now too often the case,
aii:axpedient resorted to by mere adventurers
pursuing their own schemes at the risk of any
Ttikt?lwould trust them ; nor is it merely the mo-
APOlists in wheat who are capable of embroiling
tkitter •by their selfishness the inconveniences
.30tchliave lately been experienced, and which,
perhaps, are now in the act of transferring them-
" sehes 'from the class of bankers to those persons
engaged. in" merchandise, who used to be accom-
ritodated by them. Other descriptions of mono-
POWs, all who think they suffer from the change
in our commercial policy which has just been ac-
complished by the. Cabinet, may join their
strength to that of the land-owners, and combine
for a common purpose. The bond of union in that
CR9e will be, that the dealers in land shall press
upon Ministers the expediency of repealing or
qualifying. the recent measures for opening our
foreign trade ; while the manufacturing monopo-
-bits: in silk and other articles lend their lungs
and votes to their new allies, and obstruct
the reformation of the laws against importing
corn..-We-do not deny that in this manner some
mischief may be effected—much uncertainty of
commercial dealing—considerable fluctuation in
pricei—continued uneasiness and alarm as to the
nature of the system which is finally to be adopt-
ed. Such are the probable consequences of these
morcenary, though shallow, and, if Ministers be
firm, unsuccessful struggles, to push the interests
of individuals by the sacrifice of the national
welfare. We have supposed a case, which is not
altogether imaginary ; but, in fact, the success
of such a project, in the extent which the par-
ties to it would contemplate, is altogether impos-
sible. It is scarcely possible that Government
Should now re-impose the shackles from which
they have just liberated our commerce. Mr.
lictskisson would reject so puerile an inconsis-
tency, even if the great body of the British mer-
chants had not felt in practice the beneficial re-
sults of this amended policy. The only question,
therefore, of the two, on which a stand of any
importance seems feasible, is that of the prohibi-
tion of foreign corn. And here we shall take for
granted that the system of average, with its long
train of frauds and injuries, is to be prolonged by
the confederate land-owners, in defiance of the
Government and the nation. Even this, we
Can tell them, will but poorly serve their
purpose. If they wish to maintain the present
price of provisions, no corn law that ever was de-
vised will enable them to inflict much longer that
severe calamity upon their countrymen. To keep
iappriees at their present rate, the land-owners
must, as a, necessary auxiliary, superadd to their
corn law another law, perpetuating the excess
-of that paper which their friends, the country
bankers, have been issuing. They must continue
the system of one-pound notes ; they must pro-
vide for the necessary, if not the immediate, fruits
of an excess of paper, by an exclusion of the
'metallic currency and a renewal of the Bank re-
striction. It is physically out of the question
that the paper system throughout the country
should go on as it has for some time existed,
without producing, occasionally, just such con-
vulsions as a mixture of panic with more substan-
tial causes of embarrassment has brought upon all
dealers in paper, great and small, within the last
three weeks. Now the Bank of England can
hardly desire the recurrence of similar crisis;
Government must dislike them. Commercial
business disturbed, 'and the revenue in part sus-
pended, are fearful things for an English Admi-
nistration to encounter more than once. We
should be sorry, therefore, not to be secure that
his Maje,:ty's Government will take some steps
for guarding the people of England against evils
so sensibly felt, and so easily to be avoided.
There was not many years since, when the
country paper-coiuers were smashing by the
score, a good deal said about exacting secu-
city from such bankers : the plan was scouted.
What we should like better would be, a
virtual security : tie them up from issuing
their own paper—force them to pay in that
of the Bank of 'England, or in gold—and it
will follow, as the day the night, that only men
who are capable of so paying will attempt the
-business of bankers. But we return to what we
have already stated—Without allowing an un-
'lljniteci ei4uNtinn .of country paper, it will do
little for the landowners to leave them their' mo-
tanpoly of corn: The priCes must otherwise come
.down—not quite so low, perhaps, as with an open
trade, but too low to serve the projects of the
landlords. '._That, however, is not enough—the
nation must break up their monopoly altogether.
A protecting duty to the amount of the taxes
paid by land alone may be awarded in their
favour—even that is in derogation of general
principles, and of the manufacturing interests of
the country—but it carries a specific act of justice
on the face of it, and we hope would satisfy the
people. There are some other considerations
connected with the present or late crisis which
we must now reserve.