The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-23 00:00:00

PEEL'S BILL.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Ste,—A letter headed " 11Ir. Ferrand and Mr. Cobden,"
and signed " One that wishes the cat to be let out of the bag,"
which appeared in your paper of the 19th, I will, with your
leave, say a word or two on, if it be only to assert,—first,
that I agree with him in toto ; and that, twelve years ago,
I published a short letter on the same subject, which I send
you herewith, hoping you will allow it to be inserted in your
columns. At the time it was so well thought of, that a gen-
tleman begged of me to allow him to print it on; which he
did by thousands.
Allow me to say I am, however, neither " Tory nor Con,
servative," like your correspondent, but exactly the con-
trary ; nevertheless, " will yield to no man (not even him)
in an honest and hearty desire," to use his own words, " to pro-
mote the happiness of the poor, the farmers, and (I may add,
too) the manufacturers." I am also persuaded, like him, that
we should never have heard of either " League" or "
Anti-
League," and Mr. Cobden might have remained quiet in his
mill, printing off daffy-down-dillys and dandelions on his
calicos, had that ruinous blunder, that deed of plunder,
called " Peel's Bill," never been passed and become the law
of the land. But Sir Robert is your " Conservative's pilot
that is to weather the storm," his " serpent in the wilder-
ness," which he may gaze on, but without healing him !
Therefore, to save him, or themselves, they must shake him
off; for there is but one road to safety—they must go back
by the way they came, to secure themselves from bank-
ruptcy and ruin.
Look at the Baronet all this while ; his fortune in the Funds
stands at its nominal amount, while ours is dropping into
annihilation. The lower we go, the higher he stands;- but I
suppose we must " grin and abide it"—all I know is this,
that " the Bill" has ruined the masses who are topay the
taxes. Not, however, to be too prolix,'l here give you the
letter I promised above, and am your obedient servant,
Wolseley, Feb. 21, 1844. C. WOLSELEI.
" TO THE EDITOR OF THE BIRMINGHAM JOURNAL.
"Sir,—l have sent the following letter to the Editor of the
Morning Herald :
" Sir,—l have just been reading an article in the Birming-
ham Journal of the 31st of December' last, takenfrom your
paper, on the subject of the Currency, and the folly and ini-
quity of what is called Peel's Bil V The folly and wicked-
ness of which, no man with two grains of common sense can
be ignorant. When that famous Bill passed into a law, I bad
a mortgage on my estate of 4,300/., the interest of which, at
5 per cent., had been paid for years, at the expense of about
360 bushels of wheat. How many bushels, I pray, was I
obliged to furnish, at the bare thoughts alone of 'that Bill
coming into effect, two years even before it became a law,
when wheat dropped to ss. 6d., and that we were within
48 hours of Barter?' Why, Sir, if my calculation is correct,
not far short of eight hundred. If the Bill' had had
hocus pocus enough in it to hive made my acres
grow as large again as they had been, and that double
the quantity of 'corn would. have • grown on them, I
should have had not much reason for complaining, but un-
fortunately they remained •in state quo—or 4,840 square
yards, and so they remain to this day. But, Sir, to come to
the object of my letter, that of 'corroborating the statement
of your correspondent as to the assertion of the late Sir Ro-
bert Peel, the father of our eminent statesman, Nebo by-the-
by, it is said, when young offered him at the shrine of his
country r as a curse or a blesein'g, I shall lesiVe those to say
who are now perishing with hunger liitthe-acts of his Minis-
terial blunders. I. know a 'gentleman, to, ,whom his father
said, after having deplored the obitinacy 'of his son—' Why,
Sir, he is going to add 500,0001. to my property by the Bill
in question 1' - No wonder then, that having built a ' castle
in the air,' he is now building a snore' substantial one at
Drayton Manor, near Tamworth ! !--I. am, Sir, your obe-
dient servant, " C: WOLSELEY.
" Wolseley-bridge, Jan. 10, 1832."

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