The Sun.
London, England, 1833-04-24 00:00:00

onsideration the situation he filled, to call upon the House
to pledge itself befer going i❑to a Committee of Inquiry.
not to lower the standard of value.

Colonel DAVIES thought his Noble Friend should first
of all accede to the Committee, and then call upon itp-
House to pledge itself not to lower the standard. Ile was
as much averse from lowering the standard as any man.
The order of the day was then read.
Mr. M. ATTWOOD was understood to express him-
self satisfied with the Noble Lord's explanation, as far as
he was personally concerned.
MONETARY SYSTEM—GENERAL DISTRESS_.
ADJOURNED DEBATE.

Sir HENRY WILLOUGHBY was happy to hear
that it was not regarded as dishonesty to support the mo-
tion, for he meant to support it. The real question before
the House was, whether it was expedient to inquire into
the monetary system of the country? The inquiry which
he advocated was not an inquiry merely respecting the
distress of the country, but an inquirywhether that distres•
arose from the monetary system of the country ; and those
who supported the motion for inquiry could not be
supposed, as a matter of necessity, to oppose the Govern-
ment in sodoing. The greatest discontent had, undoubtedly
arisen from the Government not having taken the subject
of the currency more seriously under consideration ; and it
was extremely desirable to ascertain whether some method
might not be devised for levying the taxes with greater
ease, and without causing so much distress to the people.
More attention ought to have been paid to the healthy
action of the Bank upo❑ the currency of the country. In
1810 that trading Company had avowed that it had made
over-issues in discounting good bills ; and in 1819 there
was a recorded re-olution of the Bank, that the exchanges
had nothing to do with the amount of their circu
lation. Fur his ewa part he thought, that inquiry at
least was necessary, and that great evil had arisen from not
inquiring previously. Tne want of such an inquiry was
the reason why the Legislature was justly charged with
every blunder respecting the currency that had taken
place from 1797 to 1819, during which period the issu-
ing of paper had been unlimited. In 1797 the first
attempt was made to make paper the general medium of
exchange ; and in 1819, after the country had become
habituated, and had adapted all its money transactions to
that system, they had determined to return to a metallic
currency, and to say that the ounce of gold should he
equivalent to N. 17s. lOid.—a measure by wh.ch every
debtor in the kingdom was defrauded. On looking over
the vast body of evidence collected by the Committee on
the Bank Charter, there was clear proof of the necessity
of inquiry. The events of 1825 also afforded very strong
arguments for examining to what extent paper money was
safe, in the encouragement of which it gave to employ-
ment. The great question now was, whether it was pos-
sible to maintain a metallic standard without detriment ?
Silver, as a standard, would afford agreater scope to paper
money, and would thus enable them to give to the cur-
rency that sort of expansion which was so exceedingly
desirable. The Hon. Member then proceeded to remark
upon the injustice which had been done to the landholders
by tha change in the currency. He would support the mo-
tion of the Hon. Member for Whitebaven (Mr.M.Attwood)
in so far as regarded an inquiry, but no further.
On Sir H. Willoughby sitting down several Members
stood up, among whom was Mr. Hume ; but Mr. Clay
first caught the eye of the Speaker.
Mr. CLAY said that he was happily precluded from
going into many of the topics con, ected with this subject
in consequence of some of the able statements that had
been made in the course of this debate, inure especially
m consequence of the able speeches of his Hon. Friend
the Member for the city of London, and of the Right
Hon. Gentleman the Vice Pi esident of the Beard of
Trade, which appeared to him to have completely dis-
posed of the ass. rtion that a great degree of distress had
been occasioned by the measures adopted with respect to
the currency. There was, however, an important point
which had not received in the course of this discussion
that attention which he thought it deserved. They
had heard a great deal of vague declamation, but nothing
in the shape of argument, from the Hon. Member who
had brought forward this motion, and from the Hon.
Member who supported it. These Hon. Members had
attempted to connect, without bringing forward anything
approaching to a logical proof of the accuracy of
the inference—they had attempted to connect the tiis-
tress, if any existed, with the return that bad taken
place to cash payments.—(Some cries of " Oh, oh.")
They who argued so roust assume that that measure had
produced a great contraction of the currency. The Hon.
Member, who was very indistinctly heard throughost the
whole of his speech, then proceeded to state that the re-
sumption of cash payments had not contracted the cur-
rency to the extent which bad been supposed ; but that
the utmost extent of the diminution had been but 4 per
cent. The distress of the country could not, therefore,
be ascribed with fairness to the measure of 1819 ; and it
would be the height of folly again to tamper with the
monetary standard of the country on the assumption that
by so doing distress would be relieved. He contended that
even in 1819 the circulation was larger than in any year
preceding 1818 ; and in proof of this assertion the
Hon. Member referred to a variety of documents re-
specting the periodical issues from the Bank of England
and the country banks, to the state of the exchanges
at the time, and, finally, to the evidence before the
Committee of Mr. Stokely Rothschild. These being
the facts, he coo tinued, what grounds could be
shown for entertaining the measure before the
House? There could be no doubt that the object of the
Hon. Member who bad brought this questio❑ forward was
the depreciation of the currency, and he expects d by that
means to raise prices. He, however, defied the Hon.
Alember to raise the prices of articles exported. We
might cheat our own countrymen, but we could not cheat
those who would pay no more than the value of the article
which they purchased, whatever might be the fictitious
price which it obtained in this country. Ile admitted
that several great interests of the country were affected by
distress at the present moment, but he thought that this
distress could be remedied without resorting to a breach
of national faith. The country possessed within itself
ample means of extricating itself from the temporary diffi-
culties in which it was placed, but he would not more
particularly refer to those means at the present moment.
With respect to a silver standard, he certainly had no ob-
jection to make silver a legal tender at the market price.
Mr. WHITMORE believed that no one would hereafter
more regret the results of his motion, if it unfortunately
succeeded, than the Hon. Gentleman who had proposed it.
He boldly declared that it was impossible, contrasting our
situation with all relations, to say otherwise than that the
country was advancing in prosperity. True, there was a
great deal of individual distress, and it was therefore the
duty of the Government to try every possible means of re-
lieving it : but he denied they could have any, the re-
motest chance of doing it by the means now proposed.
These things could only be done, in his opinion, by an in-
crease of trade—(Hear, hear)—by the destruction of all
monopolies—(Hear, hear)—and by giving the fullest ex-
tension to our commerce.—(Hear, hear, hear.) It was
true there were other great causes tending to the depression
of prices, but he denied that they were attributable to the
currency. On the point of the power of production, he
would venture to state, on the highest authority, that in
all quarters there was a decided increase. He would refer
to a letter—the author of which he was not exactly at
liberty to mention—which stated that the old mines were
as good as ever, and the new ones were excellent in their
produce. Their present produce was, per year—gold,
720,000 ; silver, 650,000. The mines of South Caro-
lina and of Mexico were very productive, and those of
Brazil had increased 300,0001. in value. He opposed the
motion in a very few words, because there was no occa-
sion fur his going at length into it.

Mr. FRIER-knew, from his own experience, that the
manufacturers were greatly distressed, and that they had
not the means of paying what would procure a sufficiency
of food for those employed by them. He granted that the
price of iron had risen, but certainly to nothing like
what could be called a remunerating price. Let them
account fur the factory system. Now would there be such
an outcry for the Factory Bill, if intense distress did not
prevail? One-half of the children of Manchester, let it
be recollected, were employed in these factories. Then as
to agriculture, were not the farmers distressed ? Were
not farms—were not parishes untenanted ? (Hear,
hear, and No, no.) Let them go to Thames-street,
the seat of foreign commerce—the mart of trade. See the
depression there. How would they account for that ?
(A laugh.) Well then, as this Right Hon. Secretary—
this one-eyed politician—this wonderful political eco-
nomist denied this distress, he called upon him fur the
proof of it. Or how would he prove
the prosperity ?
Was it because the servants of Government were well
and regularly paid—that his own salary was always forth.
coming—that they must take for granted the country was
well doing ? or that the army and navy did not suffer in
their emoluments—(A laugh)—that because those men
who did not, or those who would not fight, and still were
regularly paid, evils were not hourly accumulating?
Did
the fundholders prove the prosperity of the nation? They
were entitled to their debt--to every farthing of it.--
(Hear, hear.) But who were to pay it ?—(Loud
laughter.) He said the labourers ought to pay a debt to
the land which the land itself had incurred.—(Hear, hear,
and laughter.) They had exacted their bond—they bad
bad their " pound of flesh," and would suffer deservedly
for it. He wished to have inquiry, but be was no advo-
cate for a false and fictitious currency. Bat wbat cartd