The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-21 00:00:00

THE CURRENCY.

TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR CHARLES WOOD
BART., CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUEI:
&c. &c.

Pro bono public° Primum mobile.

Sir,—The currency question, of all others, appezr-
ing to be one of absorbing interest at the pres, it
moment in the commercial world, I have ventured co
embody my views upon this grave subject in the fL !-
lowing communication, which I respectfully subm I
to your consideration, believing in the quaint phrase
" there is something rotten in the state of Denmark
when great complaints are made from the Lulu's
End to John o'Groat's, and reverberated throught ;Li
the empire by the metropolitan and country press.
The monetary system of this country has for tl..e
last half century been a subject rife with discusg.)o.
A paper currency, and a metallic one, has each h,..3
its advocates; and Sir Robert Peel's Act of I&,I9, a7,(t
its rider of 1844, have each been approved and con-
demned in turn.

In fact, however preferable a metallic medium
may be for its stability and soundness, it is, and
must be, rejected by the commercial world for its
restrictiveness and incapability of accomplishing their
demand.

A metallic currency is alone applicable to a very
limited sphere of operation, and to attempt to confine
within the influence of such a narrow gauge the trans-
actions which extend over all parts of the world is a
peposterous idea.

- Burns complains in bitterness that he was con-
demned

" To that hardest task of man alive,
To make three guineas do the work offive."
Yet Sir Robert Peel, by his currency measure,
seems to erect himself into a champion for what all
other men, whose opinions for solidity and rationality
have never been questioned, would call an utter
"impossibility;" he presumes to make sixteen millions
of gold in the Bank do the work of one hundred mil-
lions, as if a model engine could perform the work of
an operative engine of one hundred horse power; in
other words, he wants the metallic currency of the
country to be adequate to our international or com-
mercial, together with our reciprocal or domestic
engagements, and the machinery which he provides
for the object is, in fact, not a metallic currency at
all, but a paper currency, assumed to be based on
gold alone, i. e., that neither the Bank of England,
nor any other bank in England, is authorised to issue
a 51. note, unless it is prepared at all times to give
five sovereigns in exchange for that same note on de-
mand, or pay it in gold at the fixed rate of 31. 17s.
100. per oz., which the Bank probably is compelled
to buy at four pounds per oz., owing to the foreign
exchanges being against us.
Now the value of all the gold coin in the country
is estimated at forty or fifty millions, and consequently
the currency, whether in paper or coin, or in both
together, cannot exceed that amount; and it has
already been calculated that the whole of the specie,
gold and silver coin, in circulation throughout Europe
is insufficient for the trade and commerce of Britain
alone, including her vast colonies. How then can
her own limited possession of specie be sufficient for
her requirements ? By what contrivance or inge-
nuity can the few millions held by the Bank of Eng-
land and the private banks of the country be made to
accommodate or supply the wants of an increased and
continually increasing trade, together with an annual
accumulating wealth, estimated at thirty millions ?
Few people imagine the perpetual consumption
of the material of gold in the conversion to articles of
use and ornament in the manufacture of
_articles of
jewellery.
Some idea of the extent of our commercial transac-
tions may be formed from the fact, that at the clear-
ing-house of the bankers' of London it appears they
amount to the enormous sum of 1,200,000,0001. per
annum, and even this is said not to include more than
one-fifth of the whole.

How, one may well ask, can commerce of such
magnitude be represented or conducted by the
bullion of the Bank ? We may here observe that
until the year 1792 there was but little paper money
current in this country. Up to that period there was
virtually a metallic medium, but it must not be lost
sight of, the rental of the land was very low, and all
kind of provisions were very cheap indeed at that
period, since which almost every commodity is en-
hanced in price to three times its former value, and
the relit of land is quadrupled, and taxes awfully
augmented, with tithes and poor-rates in proportion.
The introduction of paper money was occasioned
through the deficiency of the coin of the realm for
legitimate use ; and it has been constantly bolstered
up ever since--by the Government permitting the
usurpation of the Sovereign's prerogative, in tolerat-
ing bankers to coin, manufacture, and circulate bank
notes, which the public accepted as money upon the
faith and supposition that the issuers of them were
possessed of and could pay the amount in one descrip-

tion or other of properly:
The evils which have resulted from this vicious and
pernicious system have been too often, and too severely,
felt to need more than the slightest reference to them ;
and it was to repair and prevent these crying evils
that Sir Robert reel projected his never-to-be-for-
gotten metallic currency measure, the inadequacy and
futility of which we have already pointed out.

From facts so palpable, it is evident that some
substitute must be adopted for the employment of
specie—and no substitute, of better capacity and
facility, for such end than paper has at any time been
suggested. It is a fact (never disputed by any one),
at the panic in 1825, the Bank of England must have
suspended cash payments, had not one of their cashier-
clerks accidentally found a box of one-pound notes,
which he luckily tendered to the public over the
counter in lieu of sovereigns ; this manoeuvre had the
desired effect at a period of the greatest distrust ever
known in this country.
In preference, however, to our Bank of England
or local notes, I would recommend to the Govern-
ment and Parliament to introduce a new circulating
medium, to be called a national note, bearing the
Sovereign's impress, like coin, and give the same value
and security to it as if it were gold ; and, for this
purpose, I would further recommend the Government
to convert 1-16th of the inanimate national debt into
a floating currency of this description, and distribute
it proportionably among the fundholders, in so much
payment of their respective claims. By this means
the tax-paying community would save about two
millions of dividends annually, besides laying the
foundation and commencement of the reduction of
the great debt.
It is not necessary to explain in detail here all
the advantages the nation would derive by the adop-
tion of such a safe and expanding circulating medium.
Suffice it to say, my plan provides that every fund-
holder, who will have to receive (in redemption) for a
sixteenth part of his Government stock less than 201.,
should be paid in five-pound national notes, and to
gradually ascend to notes of the value of LOON., to
be paid to parties, as they might deem necessary for
their own convenience—for instance, a fundholder
owning 20,0001. would receive his sixteenth (1,2501.)
in a thousand-pound national note, and the residue in
smaller notes. By following this:rule as fair a propor-
tion of large and small notes could be circulated as
would be requisite.
A national note based upon my principle would
very soon have the effect of limiting, if not destroying
gambling at the Stock Exchange ; for there would I e
little fluctuation in the price of stock after the is' ue of
a permanent unchangeable national note as a circu-
lating medium, which is the main-spring to com-
merce, the life and soul, the very vitality of every
civilised nation ; it may be likened to the blood in the
human frame.

No question, our country is rich enough in re-
sources, and we have an abundance of common 1;,(,d,
and all the commodities in superfluities that add
enjoyment to life; but the industrious community is
really in want of a safe and sufficiently expansive
currency, adequate for every legitimate purpose, ast a
transit symbol to represent all descriptions of property
—and without such a medium Great Britain iii urjt
totter, if not fall.
What
bwe-osutoldwbethe othocuginhntiaonfdtl:f Gonove-eronfmtehnet,fiitfiesit
were tot
ignorant alike, y
ships in the Broiftisi‘hienracvaytour
chart,
arltrdansmd
the who;
nv‘a.lls-
- we have witnessed six gentlemen
.uring the last eighteen years, 'Oho were
onuert'sofeonniinpea:sd
intrusted by Government with the sole control of our
circulating medium for the body politic, incapable of
even managing their own private business as merchants
without being made bankrupts. Do not these facts
demonstrate that it is high time for the Bank of
England to be relieved, and released from all restric-
tions, and from the government of incapable persons,
and to be left solely to its own prudence and ability
with respect to issues on discount, like all other
private banking establishments. I ought not to omit
to mention that silver should be made a legal tender
for all sums under five pounds, and it must be borne
in mind, the holder of my proposed national note is a
bona fide national creditor to the extent of the value
of the note, which it carries upon the face of it. the
same as if the individual held the same in amount as a
fractional part of the funded debt. Fiat justitia runt
crlum.

I have the honour to remain, Sir,
Your very faithful serrant,
W. GI LC WHISKER
Pollesham, Doriet, 15th Sept., 1847.

DINNER TO MR. LEIGH lILINT.—In celebration
of the recent grar.t from the Crown of a pension to this
genth;man—distinguished as a poet, critic, , and
man—the members 'Of the Museum Club, in Nortl..um-
..
berland-street, entertainedlifna at :inner on Wednebday
evening, which, although not strictly a public celebra-
tion, deserves record as a spontaneous and well-earned
tribute to personal worth and pre-eminent literary
ability. We arc assured and can well believe that the
impression of the evening was of the most delightful and
satisfactory kind.— .Sunday Paper.