The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-15 00:00:00

THE CURRENCY.

In his speech on the subject of the New-Poor-law, Mr.
Cochrane fortified his positions by arguments boarowed.
from Sir James Graham's work on " Corn and Currency,"
The Right Hon. Baronet, in reply, sought to justify at
once his former opinions and his present course of action.
"I still hold," exclaimed the Home Secretary, " that the
Act of 1819 inflicted cruel injury on debtors, and
on the agricultural body ; but in such matters
time is everything ; and I am nst now prepared
to vote for a repeal of the currency law of
1819." Sir James Graham errs deeply in his conclusion
on this subject. In a matter like the money law of
1819, " time" is not " everything," nor will any lapse
of time deprive such a measure of its destructive in-
fluences. Within the last fifty years England has been
visitei with two currency revolutions. Of these, the
first was the suspension of cash payments in 1797; the
second was the resumption of cash paymentß in 181 g.
These two revolutions aimed at diametrically opposite
objects. The first involved a confiscation of a
portion of the property of creditors. The se',ond
involved a confiscation of a portion of the protv.?rty of
debtors and producers. Both the revolutions Ir. question
may be_ described as dishonest in their nature. kut
although equally dishonest, they have nr.,t been equally
destructive.
To rob creditors is, generally speaking, to rob the rich
of their superfluities. To rob debtors and producers is,
frequently, to doom these ciasses to the deepest misery.
There is another distinction between the chaxactlar of
the two operations. In robbing creditors, a Govesa)fient.
can impart completeness to its work. In robbing debtors
and producers, the process, if on a large scale, never can
be brought to a close.
The Act for the suspension of cash payments: may
have robbed creditors of one-third, or of one-hta, of the
money which they had lent. The money hitt] changed
hands, and the authority of the law absolvtid the debtor
front the necessity of paying the fall amount of the
money which he had borrowed. The debtor held in his
own hands the power of profittug by an unjust law.
The Act for the resumption of cash payments did not,
and could not, lead to such decisive issues. The money
law of 1819 has indeed added fifty per cent. to the
mass of debt existing at that time ; but the severitY,
and Injustice of that, law have not led to a settlement of
our public and private debts. The mass of debt has,
in other words, been ordered to be paid, at a fearfully
enhanced rate ; but the order has been obeyed, only to
the most inconsiderable extent.
What, in fact, does Sir James Graham mean, when
he declares that, " in a matter like the currency law of
1819, time is everything ?"
"Has the efflux of time, since 1819, paid the national
debt? Has the efflux of time, since 1819, paid the al-
most incalculable mass of private debt which exis.ted at
that period ? In reference to the operation of a meta,
sure like the suspension of ci4ls. payments, " time " is,
indeed, " everything," because, in such a case the
debtor has received and spent his creditor's money; but,
in reference to the operation of a measure like the cer-
rencylaw of 1819, " time" is nothing—for The creditor
class has not, except to an inconsiderable extent, been
able to realise the principal of that debt, which it has been
the pleasure of the Legislature so unjustly to augment.
• Leaving, however, the case of mere debtors and cre-
ditors, let us consider the case of producers—a class
whose interests are always identical with the interests of
debtors, Producers have an interest in the establish-
ment of high prices : so have debtors. The higher the
reward of industry, the more easy does it become to dis'-
charge debt.

• Ta'ice then, the case of producers. Can it be said
that with reference to their social position, the operation
of the currency law of 1819 is changed in its character
by " time ?" The currency law of 1819 destroyed
the relations of value which then subsiated betwein
Money and labour.. Has the lapse of time since
1819 restored those relations ? Has the currency law
of 1819—professing, as it did, to restore the Oandard or
value which existed before 1797—restored those rela-;
tons of value between labour and moneY, which lire
veiled before the introduction of the ACtr•for suspending
cash payments
To assume, as the bullionists do, that by the money
they restored the old standard of value
is
They merely re-adopted the old Mint
simply
polyf
albBslu9r, a.
price (:),t'aeld. They did not restore the old standard
of
value, inasmuch as they did not restore to labour the,
relative value which it possessed before 1797.--. Post.

, DISSENTERS' CHAPELS BlLL.—This Bill, which has
passed both Houses ofParliament, and was to have be6it brought up in the Lords on Monday last, for considera-
tion of the amendments introduced by the Commons,
was, as our readers may be aware, postponed till the; Thursday following. The reasons of such postponement
may not be known, and we therefore state them. On the
very elm ef the cozsideration of the amendments it
wane to the kne-wiolge of the Lord Chancellor that the
Bishop of London had been canvassing several of
the tired and infirm members of the House, ancl
had obtained their prudes, for the purpose of obtainipic
a majority against the Government, and enabling hi'ai to
carry his proposition for considering the amendments
" tbst day six months,' It is reported the Bienv had
obtained no !esa than seventy proxie, and if the mea-
sure h.:41 been brought forward, the Government would
'ilave been defeated, and bigotry and illiberality trium-
phant. However, Lord Lyndhurst is not the man to' be
humbugged, and therefore, ea discovering the plot he
postpened the measure fcv a ftw days, and has further
postponed it till Mtinda,y nex t.—Sunday Times.
• EARLY 114Avv.sv.—On Monday last Mr. Iligden
cut a fire o pl4co of oats off his Moulsoombe farms near this
latac%-...Ftriglitou Gazette. Part of a field of wheat in that
parish of Eglesheale, near Wadebridge, was Cut on the 29th
of June and on the l us" this month, Harvest might have
also been bee!,\ in the adjoining -parish of St. Breoelt, We
have hskild that Mi. Rowe, efi,amaile, in the former pariah,
iatentia to carry several:ouslicls of new wheat to Bodmir
market, on the 6f.,i4 inst. This is much earliw thdn for several
years pa§t.-‘, Wiltshire Independma,
ksparrow,--with a. bent ring of gold on one of its
legs, was shot at Fulford, near Taunton, on Wednesday last.
--Dorset (Amick