The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-21 00:00:00

THE CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY.

ANOTHER ACCOUNT.
We regret to announce the death of Mr. James Cop
pock, of Cleveland-row, St. James's. Mr. Coppock was
a week ago in the apparent enjoyment of his usual strong
and vigorous health. On Tuesday he returned home to
his residence slightly indisposed. This indisposition
rapidly increased, and, baffling all the skill of Sir Henry
Holland and his ordinary medical attendant, carried Mr.
Coppock off on Saturday evening, in the 59th year of
his age.
Death clears all scores. Our nominal relation to Mr.
Coppock, while in life, was that of antagonism to his
electioneering devices. But in speaking of the dead
allowance Must be made for the influence of circum-
stances. He was a remarkable man. Self-taught aid
reliant, energetic, intelligent andJearless, he care d out
for himself his own position in life. To his political
friends and party he was a most devoted and faithful
adherent and agent ; he was free from the slightest taint
of vindictiveness or ill-will to his opponents ; perfectly
reliable in all his professional engagements and under-
takings ; frank, hearty, and kind in his habits ; and, in
spite of an off-hand and unrefined manner, in all personal
sensitive.
matters exceedingly His political opinions
were of an advanced kind, and no man more earnestly
desired the removal of all defects, as well as the exten-
sion of our electoral system, the bad features of which he
understood so thoroughly,
Mr. Coppock had achieved a considerable position and
practice in his profession of solicitor, when his services
were sought for the liberal party, and it was probably
at no little sacrifice of fortune, as well as comfort, that
he devoted himself more
particularly to electioneering
business ; for in its conduct no one, however wealthy,
had ever to complain of his charges, and many a candi-
date and member not blessed wi..11 riches bad to repay
him mere in thanks than in money for a zeal which the
prospect of want of remuneration never diminished, and
for laborious exertions which rose with the necessities of
the case.
Great men and small placed unreserved confidence in
only was their confidence never
ci or exhibited. His fami.
representation was universal and
minute ; his diagnosis of the constituencies was exact
;he had estimated to
Mlaibarru.isteCydow,piiptthowctkahs: annedvenro
Englishtp
arreapdree
he knew their liberality and illiberality,
the candidates who would and who would
a nicety their purity
ansaannowddt spiaumrtieatpcutigshtleiaetnmyc,e; could tell the sum they ought to cost,
and the sum they ought not to cost, pointed out the
local agents to be employed and those to be avoided.
And on all those and a hundred other points, his infor-
mation, advice, and counsel were at the perfectly
gratuitous service and disposition of his party.
And then when the election bad been lost or won
when a petition was presented, the Committee struck,
and the last strife and struggle came on, calm, cool,
good tempered and self-possessed, unencumbered himself
with piles of paper, and reducing his briefs to the very
smallest size, Mr. Coppock was a very model of a par-
liamentary agent in electioneering difficulties and Par-
liamentary danger- The greater the stress of weather
the more collected he became ; when the storm raged
loudest it never disturbed Mr. Cqpock. Not
overloading his counsel with materials, he was always
ready himself at their elbow with the information
that was wanted, and in the agonies of a case be never
worried his advocate by his anxieties. In these struggles
his clients placed the most unreserved reliance on his
fidelity. When, in mortification of defeat, they occa-
sionally felt disappointment, they could always recog•
nise the party fidelity which animated all Mr. Coppock's
proceedings. Yqt he was not an unscrupulous agent;
and the opposition knew that his word once given was
always redeemed.
Mr. Coppock, it must be confessed, had faults and
defects ; he loved a contest, and was too pugnacious ;
when once in a struggle he loved to win it. This fault,
atrihneeceo that when Mr. Coppock was
dc justly condemned. it must,
i recollected country on manyt w them by means the party was
a seat for his party.
no doubt,
r,
however,,
of,
f gained
first called into political practice and for the suceeding
ten years, the passions of parties were exasperated, their
struggles vehement, and every Occa-
sionally,
was desperately
fought; and few men rise out of tLe habits they
acquire
in the more active and stirring scenes of life. Of late
years Mr. Coppock would have served his friends better,

(Prom the Derbyshire Oourier.)
The condition of the country is becoming such that it
appears uncertain whether some step will not have to be
taken by Government to relieve it, even before Parlia-
ment re-assembles.
The Times report from Manchester states :
" Manufacturers say they de not recollect a more
through stagnation of trade, for, though on an average
the entire production of the district does not exceed one
half the quantity usually produced, stocks are rapidly
accumulating. No amount of concession in price—and
in some cases offers are made at extraordinarily low
rates--seems to produce purchases. There is no doubt
that the difficulty in discounting the paper drawn
against shipments is the main cause of the small business
done for India."
In South Staffordshire, " the iron trade is greatly
depressed, and the suspension, failure, or reduction of
time of many of the large works of the district creates
considerable distress. Seven failures are announced.
The thin-coal colliers have generally received notice for
a reduction of wages."
In Birmingham " the various manufacturers are gene-
rally inactive."
In Nottingham, "short time, and in many cases per-
fect cessation from employment, is still acted upon in
many of the factories and workshops, and great numbers
of wales and females are cut of employment."
In Leicester, " great numbers of operatives are either
partially or wholly unemployed."
to Kidderminster, " the manufacturers are all work•
ing short time, and with some it is understood that when
the present orders are completed they will stop altoge-
ther, so that the weavers have a dark prospect before

them for Christmae,"
In Leeds, " there has bean no advance on the slight
improvement last reported in the woollen trade of this
town and district." Short-time working prevails.
In Halifax, "a good deal of short-time working."
In Bradford "there has certainly been no improve-
ment in business, but rather an increase of (;loom."
The depression in the manufacturing districts is rapidly
making itself felt in the decline of agricultural produce.
The farmers will find the gains of their industry, obtained
during the few prosperous years now passed away,
rapidly escaping from their grasp into that of the
usurers and panic-mongers. Another symptom of ex-
tending distress is the unusually amount of money with-
drawn from the Bank by the Savings' Banks from all
parte of the country. The depreciation of all kinds of
commodities, with few exceptions, may be taken at 30
per cent. Mr. Disraeli estimates the failures of 1857 as
involving liabilities of 45,000,000/. sterling, those in the
panic of 1847 being 17,000,0001.
Under such circumstances Parliament breaks up with-
out doiag anything whatever to provide a remedy for
this accumulation of evil. Even the proposition to allow
the Bank to reduce the rate of discount, without depriv-
ing itself of the advantages of the suspension, was
rejected. Having passed their paltry Indemnity Bill,
Parliament and the Ministers of the day leave the
country to sink or swim as it may.
But the Parliament and Ministers are not left without
warning. Even the Currency Frankenstein, Lord
Overstone, tells the Lords that " there are serious and
formidable difficulties hanging over this country, and in
warnieg the house he desired to call their earnest
attention to them."
The blow has indeed already fallen. Already has ruin
overtaken many of the oldest and most honourable of
our merchant princes. The country may be told that
many of those who have failed were speculators. But
when the list of failures is collected it will appear to the
most unprejudiced that by far the greater part of the
failures have been men of honour, rempectaeility, and
abundant resources, the victims of Peel's monetary sys-
tem, not of their own improvidence. The depreciation of
all commodities, which Peel's Bills were especially con-
structed to bring about, whenever bullion left the coun-
try, is closing our manufactories, and reducing hundreds
of thousands of the working classes to a state of pri-
vation and distress, which, as their resources are ex-
hausted will advance to positive destitution, and it star-
vation
be prevented, it will be only by the process of
pauperising the smaller description °frau-payers.
How great is the importance at any time of national
calamity of having competent men at the head of affairs.
In 1793, when great commercial distress existed, Mr.
Pitt laid before the house in the clearest and most states-
manlike manner the causes of the distress. He showed
how a deficiency of the circulating medium had caused a
depreciation of commodities, and how merchants and
manufacturers, with largo stocks of goods, were failing
or reduced to great difficulties by the impossibility of
obtaining currency on their trade. But be did more than
state the evil, he proposed a practical and immediate
remedy. We refer our readers to the Annual Register,
for 1793 (page 133), which gives a brief account of the
circumstances under which Mr. Pitt directed the issue of
5,000,0001. of Exchequer Bills, " to aid the commercial
credit of the coantry." The drain of bullion afterwards
led Mr. Pitt, in 1797, to suspend cash payments by the
Bank (a measure more decided, though similar in prin-
ciple, than the one to which we now refer), which saved
the national honour and the national credit.
But the country in 1857 has no Mr. Pitt. We have a
Chancellor of the Exchequer, now totally inadequate to
meet the exigencies of the times. One who talks about
" the derangement of capital and credit" having pro-
duced the monetary crisis, without being capable of dis-
cerning, as Mr. Pitt did in 1793, that "this " derange-
ment of capital and credit" is produced by the derange-
ment of currency; and who cannot be made to comprehend
what is apparent to any person of ordinary understand-
ing, that if you contract the circulating medium with
the declared intention (as Peel's Bills of 1819 and 1844
do declare it) of lowering the prices of all commodities,
you inevitably produce a "derangement of capital and
credit." And if, as in the present case, the contraction
of the currency be great, rapid, and continued, you pro•
duce a fearful and ruinous monetary crisis, which shakes
the very foundation of society.
All these things are hidden from the view of Sir G. C.
Lewis, and therefore he consumed the last night of the
session in unimportant and trivial matters of detail re-
specting the Bank of England management. He did
indeed attempt to enliven the dullness of his shallow and
feeble exposition by inviting the ridicule of the house
towards the evidence of a witness before the select com-
mittee (Mr. Twells), who has learned wisdom by experi-
ence, and who has both a sound, practical, and theoreti-
cal knowledge of monetary science. Every one knows
that the first hundred men you meet with in Fleet-street
are not more ignorant on the subject of currency than
the majority of the members of the House of Commons.
Sir G. C. Lewis certainly played a paltry part as a
Cabinet Minister in garbling the evidence, given in all
good faith and with no political object, by a gentleman
of character and experience, before a committee of the
house. Does Sir G. C. Lewis expect witnesses to state
their opinions on an important question, without reserve,
if they are to be perverted and misrepresented in the
house afterwards by the chairman of the committee ?
But we do not, as currency reformers, value Sir G. C.
Lewis' opinion sufficiently to esteem it of any conse-
quence what he might think or say about the currency.
The evidence referred to is before the country ; and as
long as the question of currency is agitated,—and that
will be as long as the absurd and unjust system estab-
lished by Peel remains in force—so long will the princi-
ples which Mr. Twells advocates of a sound system of
legal tender paper money obtain the attention of think-
ing men. We have no doubt of the ultimate triumph of
currency reform.
The exhibition made by the Chancellor of the Exche•
quer in the house was indeed a most painful ono. The
country is now passing through a monetary crisis of an-
exampled severity ; the law which regulates currency of
this nation has, for the second time, been ignominiously
suspended in its time of trial ; the ruin and distress
caused' by even the attempt to preserve the great prin-
ciple of the system are appalling. There stood on Friday
week last, Sir G. C. Lewis, the impersonation of re-
spectable incapacity. The finance minister had not a
word to say as to what ought to be done in this crisis.
Evidently quite ignorant on the subject, quite unable
to propose any remedy for existing evils ; afraid to move
lest he should make a wrong move, he is content to
leave the country to the chapter of accidents rather
than take the responsibility of proposing or doing any
thing !
But we warn this feeble and incapable Minister, who
is unhappily for his country in a position which he is
quite unequal to fill, that the fate of the nation is hang-
ing in suspense. Let a few millions of gold now go out,
let the rate of discount keep up, and the currency be
further tampered with, and the monetary crisis will be-
come a political and social crisis.
Lord Overstone knows the working of his own per.