The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-16 00:00:00

bills of exchange have rushed into the vaqtllllll, in spite
of Tories and " Baronites." •
Talk about remunerating prices Labour in 1808
.was
not a bit too well paid, but the total transactions and
productions as to exports in 1833 being almost trebled,
were paid for by the same 'sum. Lukewarmness and
mediocrity reply to ill this, that we live in an artificial
society—that things find their level—and that if the •
artizan received a shilling for three times the e ork.
that shilling - would go three times as .far. This is
not true: The situation of a person who has a
shilling's worth, who is worth is shilling, is /torso good
as if he could get a shilling wken he chose. When
tradesmen complain that money is scarce, they speak both
naturally and philosophically, as I have shown above.
But the great hardship---one whieh,„l.listoriani will re-
fuse to believe, is, that the fixed ni:tmerary engagements
of 'Ais country in their inconceivAhly high amount,:.
are''changed in the same ratio. In round numbers tax-
AiLm is fifty millions
.annually. ; tepijof these millions
go to a peice-establishment army,. ten. only to the navy,
the State,, end the beloved Sovereign (who receives a
.much smaller proportion of her subjects' earnings than
any other Mouarch)—the remaining thirty millions go
tofundh.olders. Suppose the annual debt equivalent to
the exports of .1803 (which is true within five millions),
thLn, the same, fixed and fatal sum. of thirty millions
now„represents yery near three times as much wealth,
Afq4clti'ea--4,soY;faiF standard,;. three times the toil
*l.l7—:tliTAo.,tiraes the carli and, care—the wear and
teatig,tumd.and hody, and all this again multiplied by
Ault viitytnattve" co7etficient, the kss of hope which is
life=4dOlendi,mOdas, timendi non item.
But besides the Debt, there are the other taxes, all
bill and bOok debts' rents of house and land (except
the feW intelligent landlords who adopt the system
of. Inezzadria or metairie, that is, rents .ad valorem),

all these, measured by the excellent test of manu-
factured goods, are nearly trebled in pressure and in
cost since 1808. It is a well-known postulate" or
axiom, that if transactions and produce are increased,
fur instance doubled, and the total fund of currency in the

same district remains the same, any nominal sum as "ten
shillings" or " fifty pound " becomes equivalent to twice
as many goods as at the former period, all contracts are
disturbed, all rents, taxes, and what is worst, all debts—

impossible to be paid. If production remains the same,
and currency is halved, the same effect arises. The facts
above-mentioned as to the quantities and currency
prices of our exports, make the first of these proposi-
tions visible to the senses. The other case actually hap-
pened in America,-in 1836, the President Jackson de-
claring that he would punish and ruin the banks for
voting against him at his own election, eliminated their
notes from circulation by the famous specie order ; the
year before this piratical exploit the mass of English
exports to America,; equivalent to, our imports from
thence, was worth 78 minicar dollars, the year after 44
millions. In this case also, the converse of ours, any
fixed denomination of, money represented a vast deal
more goods before the change than after. If any Ame-
rican owed 44 dollars in 1636, he owed 78 in 1837. It
happens hourly that a debtor is absolved on paying 10s.
in the pound, but who ever heard of a creditor saying--
Pay me twice what you owe me ? John Bull pays his
debtr--and such a debt !—three times over.
To return to the case of America. Being obliged to
eke out their depreciated goods with gold, they looked
-as usual to England, and by means of the Corn trade,
primary source of all supercherie, found what they
wanted, the relative value of gold coins favouring the
business. Among the unpleasant popular sayings about
that craft is found a curious tradition—the famine ex-

petted never comes. Why? Because it is a forestaller's
famine ; yet about 1838 the directors were determined,
by what they called symptoms of bad harvest, say rather
by signals from forestallers, working on their sliding
scale, to lay in an extra stock of gold. Strange to say,
the famine never came, and it was thought " a good spe-
culation to send the gold to America," several Anglo
American merchant4then in great jeopardy, having been
made directors. This supply enabled America to balance
her own foreign trade with our dry money ; but we
were compelled to go to Paris and sue in forma pauperis
for a little gold. Formerly the bank affected to take
symptoms from the foreign exchanges, but of late years
entirely from Mark-lane. It may be assumed that when
the great exchange merchants or loan dealers place
themselves on the house list" they do so in order to.
have all the great disturbing forces with them. Some
have retrieved their affairs thus, but four governors have
been bankrupt. The magnitude of their private busi-
ness creates a duty of self-preservation, a sort of
state necessity incapable of remorse, they mystify the
public as to our contracted and perfidious currency.
the more rare money is, the more capricious its dis-
tribution, the better for them.
The two markets have this in common, that when
AiAtig.money or corn are much wanted, the profit.of with-
holding either till it is too late is immense. When
thomedium is contracted by a demand of, gold for ex-
..
portation, the bank - takes the opportunity of selling
securities and of refusing discounts to boot. SO when
the corn-dealers begin engrossing and regrating, they
also 'hire the Press, and also work the averages by fic-
titious sales. When they let go this triple cord, a
,glut
arises which falsifies all leases' .except the above niett-
tioned rents ad valorem. Remembering what is very
plain, that the consumption of bread cannot with the
best intentions be much diminished; if tea is dear, people
may. drink coffee—if indigo, they may dye other colours,
but corn can be replaced by no alternative. Also, the
popular mind is dreadfully busy on this point, more even
than on points of faith, both being questions of existence
here and hereafter. Also, a farmer is essentially a cal-
culator, and easily induced by rumours of improving
prices—heavy rain in Hertfordshire, thunder-storm in
July. authenticated by a newspaper high-mixed for his
peculiar taste, to keep his corn and take the chances.
All this puts the corn-trade on a strange footing.
Not longbefore the memorable correspondence—" Pri •
vate and confidential—dear Iluskisson—no mistake," the
Duke of Wellington in the House of Lords put up as
head and front that " the trade in bonded corn was one
of great importance from the capital risked." And what
is this capital ? Every body knows that men about town
invest their loose money as deposits on time bargains in
corn, assisting the merchants to raise prices till duty
falls, and selling the ill-gotten store before duty rises
again ; it is not impossible that a deputation of gentlemen
from the Miller and his Men had waited on his Grace
that morning. In the Money Market his presence was
still more unlucky for us. Colonel Napier, narrating the
Peninsular Campaign of 1812, says—" These statements
tore in pieces the Ministers' pitiful pretext of want
of specie : ' and Dr. Southey—" No money (gold of
course) had been had for three months : he shuddered
when he wrote home so often and in vain,—Garwood mil-
lies repetita." These large appropriations to the military
chest secured the -best information, but were distinctly
the cause of our present difficulties, as they led to that
phenomenon of depreciated paper, so ill-considered and
misunderstood. The conveyance of specie to such a
shameless extent vonld have ruined any country where
real credit, true confidence, fervid, combined industry
were less universal. The Ministers of that day under
military tuition, believed it would ruin trade and leave
the oligatchy without rivals ; so did Pitt and all the
Pittites ; but in reality it merely affected the nominal
exchanges, and inconvenienced •particular branches in a
degree hardly perceptible. Mr. Peel, in 1819, chose to
attribute the.agio or paper depreciation, not to military
chests all the world over, subsidized by credulous Eng-
land, but to a suspension of cash payments, nine years
before the commencement of depreciation ; like Mrs.
Thrale, who, when accused by Dr. Johnson of unfeeling
behaviour, said she had dropped a tear. " Yes, madam,"
said he, " but in the meantime you ate nine larks.'
The cash suspension of 1797 placed England in
the finest possible light. There was not much in the
real character of the French to justify the frenzy which
prevailed, nor much in Queen Charlotte, her Court and
family, excepting the l)ukes of Kent and Sussex, to
justify such enthusiastic confidence, but never did the
splendida belie act more wisely. The one. pound note
drove home the guinea. Mr. D'lsraeli, one of the
subtlest minds now living, declared that convertibility
was a question of foreign exchange only. The suspen-
sion of cash was the effect of political extravagance, and
never can be necessary unlosis for our sins a second Pitt
should arise; still, though brought to it by an absurdity,
f
it did us great positive good, by setting free the metals
for their only real use here— oreign exportation : but
the expense of campaigning and the waste of war, con-
veying the small quantity wanted for that purpose and for
fractional issues, produced some degree of inconvenience.
The depreciation, as we have•seen abOve' commenced
at least nine years. atter Cash 'suspension. Three years
after defTeciatten had ceased, when the Bank was 7ob-
taining any quantity of gold with perfect ease, Mr. Peel
made one of his great speeches. The currency
h was de-
ranged, therefore he could set it right , t
prosperity of
the war was fictitous, therefore it was. timeetd some-
thing. Never findingit necessary to examineohios lica
premises, provided his conclusion is in do et logical
he thought it " a fair object of • 11() .figurc!,
ambition for a public
man" to drive out the small notes which had fed and
clothed us, and carried us through •
the war, the thing
being plausible. at the moment, because Cobbett bad
written them down in the Register with at least as mu eh
knowledge and candour, the time chosen being the worst,
because the mines were not working, and other nations
had taken the same fancy into their heads. The attempt
was afterwards made in Scotland, but resisted in a most
determined way by Sir W. Scott, whose letters, under
the name of Malagrowther, 1826, are not the least excel-
lent part of his works.
Your valuable space will not allow any further obser-
vations. I remain, Sir, Bsc.
November, 1841.

ARGENT•

The. Rev. Sydney .Smith, on being told by a
friend that the weather had greatly improved since the
birth of a Prince, is said to have replied, " Yes, but I
supßose, instead of rain, it will new be all hail !"
EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE.—There
is now a nest of young rooks at Tehidy Park, and, it
may be, others in embryo. Our informant states that a
siinilaideenrrence has not taken place there, so late in
the season, for the last 25 years.—Cornwall Advertiser.
The merchants of nanchester are about. to take
steps to impress on the new Commission the advantage,
of extending the privilege of bonding to that and other
large inland towns. The Chairman of the Commission,
Lord. Granville Somerset, has, it is said, already ex-
pressed himself in favour of the claims of Manchester in
this respect.