The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-31 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL CURRENCY REFORMERS.

Whatever opinion may be formed of the specific re-
medy which Mr. Duncan and many who agree in the
main with him, propose for the evils of the present cur-
rency laws, there can be no doubt in the minds of im-
partial inquirers that great alterations in these laws are
required, and that most important improvements may
he made. We may appeal to the report of' the Com-
mittee of the House of Lords on the commercial distress
of 1847 as conclusive as to the necessity of a revision of
the present system. The Act of 1844, they reported, has
not prevented commercial excitement and depression, nor
checked improvident speculation, nor proved a security
against violent fluctuations in the value of money, nor
lessened the number and extent of commercial failures,
nor corrected railroad speculation, nor promoted the
power of obtaining banking accommodation on mode-
rate terms. Sir; Robert Peel himself considered this
document as so condemnatory of his monetary policy,
that he could not refrain from publicly expressing
his annoyance at its appearance. Nor was the opinion
of their Lordships' Committee arrived at without
extensive investigation and mature consideration.
The maps of evidence collected by them proves their di-
ligent attention to the object for which they were ap-
pointed, viz., the examination of the causes of the panic
of 1847. But were all the facts which could be adduced
in proof of the injurious tendency of the Act of 1844 to
be collected, they would fill blue books beyond all limit
of Parliamentary patience. ,The town of Liverpool might
itself furnish abundant testimony on this head. Let us
take that of Mr. Samuel Holme, who recently presided
at the Liverpool Currency meeting. He said—
" One of the greatest errors in the late Sir Robert
Peel's Bill was, that in periods of great depression it
made no distinction between a man whose credit was
good, and whose property at his banker's was undoubted
in real value—it made no distinction whatever, in case of
a panic, between a man who was trading on a borrowed
capital and another who was trading on his own capital.
He felt the effect of that very strongly in his own case,
in the year 1847. It so happened, that in that year he
had a great body of workmen employed on certain
railways which he had under contract. In that year,
during the panic, he was placed in this position, that,
with credit and property at command, far away more
than he wanted, it was impossible for the banks, in con-
sequence of the restricted currency at the time, to find
him either bullion or bank notes. Any security he could
have given them, but they could not obtain the money;
and ultimately it was with great difficulty that they were
able to pay their workmen, and then it was by Govern.
meat itself doing an illegal act which gave them relief;
.nd if this had not been done, he should have been com-
pelled to discharge several hundred men, not because he
nad not the means of paying them, but because the
bankers had not the means of giving it to him. Several
eminent merchants and tradesmen told him that they
were in the same position at that time, and if it had
continued a week longer—if the Government had not
been driven to do an illegal act—his workmen and the
workmen of several other firms, would have had to walk
about the streets. It was for the purpose of getting rid
of such a calamity as this that he hoped something
would be done to make an alteration in our present cur-
rency regulations."
We respectfully request the merchants of Liverpool to
ponder these facts. This statement is made by one
whom they know, a practical man of business. Mr.
Duncan labours under this disadvantage, that he is a
man of popular talent, that he is a scholar, that be is an
enthusiast in the cause of monetary reform, that he has
made great sacrifices for the opinions which he so ably
advocates ; and therefore many who most fully admit
his zeal and undoubted ability, speak of his views as
theoretical. Very wall. Hear, we say, what practical
men, of business habits, and whose interest is concerned,
say, about the existing monetary system. If eloquence
and disinterestedness are to cause a man's opinions to be
open to suspicion, discard these dangerous endowments,
and go to facts, and men of facts. And if on an appeal
to facts it should be proved that Peel's monetary sys-

tern is a m roster evil, which involves this country
periodically in distress and ruin, then we tell the
merchant princes of Liverpool that they have
a duty to perform, for the neglect of which no ex-
cuse can be invented. They have a duty to perform to
themselves and to their country. And they have, above
all, a duty which they owe to the most numerous and
most helpless class of their fellow-countrymen. Mr.
Holme tells you that if in 1847 Government had not il-
legally suspended the operation of Peel's Bill, his work-
men, 1,200 or 1,500 in number, must have been turned
out of employ. Mr. Holme, with ample means at com-
wasd, might have been ruined, but his workmen, with
,heir wives and families, would have been deprived of
their daily bread. A working man's labour alone stands
between him and destitution. The effects of a monetary
crisis, though first felt by rich bankers and merchants,
find their way to the habitation or the humblest of the
producing classes. A drain of gold from the Bank, less
legal tender attainable by the merchant, the manufac-
turer, the contractor, means less food, worse clothing,
worse lodging—or the lodging of the workhouse—for the
patient son of toil. The pour man knows least about the
currency-laws—he:feels their evil effects most. And, there-
wre, it is thAt we impress it as a duty on the rich and
powerful to endeavour to obtain a revision of these most
pernicious and unjust laws. It is vain to subscribe to
chari:iee, to build schools orhospitals, to devise means for
improving the condition of the working classes, while you.
allow a system which may one day cause thousands
workmen to be thrown destitute on the streets, to remain
in force. We moan sot to say theta reform of the monetary
system will remove all the evils which flesh is heir to.
With the best and wisest laws which man can frame,
vice and improvidence will still produce suffering.
Ignorance and want of judgment even, will still entail
distress on the. poor. And after all is done that can be
done, there is still much human woe which no human
wiedom or foresight can prevent or alleviate.
"flow small, of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure."
But we tire bound by every right principle to do all that
we can to remove the sufferings which bad laws cause,
and w cure the evils which admit of cure, by the enact-
ment of good ones. It is with such feelings that we call
upon the people of Liverpool not to be content with
talking about the currency question, but to do something
to endeavour to obtain redress for the greatest evil of
modern legislation. Redress will be obtained, sooner or
later. The nation is bound over by security to the
amount of eight hundred millions to revise the money
laws. Let no one dream that the currency question will
be " disposed of" while the debt remains. And there
are numbers of thinking men—and they are daily in-
creasing—who will persevere, under any circumstances,
in the attempt to rescue their country from the thral-
dom of the money power. We believe our principles
to be true, and most importantly true; and truth, we
never doubt, will prevail at last.—Derbyshire Courier.

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