The Sun.
London, England, 1819-05-28 00:00:00

cureiy draw up the sluices which separate them; because the
water, when once separated hy force into the high level, will
lose its descending propensities, and fix itself by a new na-
ture in the high level to which it is forced. if then, what
the. Committee may effect by force can only be maintained by
force, let the public reflect that the measure they are about
to take is perpetual : if it is not perpetual, it is utterly sense-
less.

" Having stated a leading, unanswerable, and irremove-
t►hle objection to the plan of the Committee, ors account of
its being founded upon and administered by a system of force,
I shall submit some other objections of not less cogency.
" It is an unprecedented innovation. It is regulating the

currency—not by a fixed denomination of value given to legs
coin as at present—but by the varia)le price of gold bullion
which is a mere commodity. It is perpetual delusion, per.

petual vaedlation, under the mask of perpetual identity.
Gold may shift in price, as it does from day to day ; but t he
nominal price is, under this innovation, ever to be the same ,
because it i± to be kept at au uniform price, by varying the
amount of 'Currency. If gold rises, currency is to be dimi-
nished: if gold falls in price, currency is to be increased.
" The 2nd vice of this system is, that as the price of gold
depends ICS3 on the circumstances of the home market, than
sin those of the foreign market, this measure will make the
`quantity of our currency, and the accommodation of our
merchants, dependant not on their own wants and interests)
but on the wants and interests of foreigners.
" The 3rd vice is, that it limits the currency by the price
of one article alone, and nut by the wants of the nation, and
the amount of its income.

" 4th. That by forcing up the value of Bank Notes from
representing the Mint price to represent the market price of
gold, it alters the whole state of value throughout the Em-
pire in all its relations.

" Suppose the market price of gold 5 per cent. higher than
the Mint pi ice, which Bank Paper represents, what would be
the effect of such a measure ?

" 1. An addition in value of 40 millions to the capital of
the funded debt.

" s. An addition of 1,500,0001. a-year to the interest of
the debt.
" 3. An addition of 2,500,0001. a-year to the taxes.i
" 4. A change in the value of all contracts to the amount
of 3 per cent.
" 5. Throng!) the operation of our taxes upon prices,
there would,be no corresponding change in borne prices, nor
in the prices of our goods abroad, as their price would be
measured, as now, by Ike prices of Gold Bullion alone.
" No co yntiy ever founded its coin or currency upon the
market price of gold—but all nations have regulated their
currency by a fixed price or rate of value attached to the coin,
as has been the invariable practice of our ancestors. The
Plats of the Committee is an unprecedented innovation ; for
by it, though the market price of gold may be always called
by the Mint price denominations, the value of our current!),
being hereafter to be denoted by its quantity alone, it will be
in a state of perpetual fluctuation, in order to preserve the
delusion of market price.
" if this new plan be framed upon true scientific princi-
ples, it must act uniformly well under all circumstances,
and the pheuumetia, in all circumstances, will agree to the
theory.
" I find then from :792 to 1797, Gold was at Mint price,
Lot Bank Notes varied from about 8 millions to 13 millions.
Here then Gild admitted a variations of 5 millions in Bank
Notes, without being affected in price at all.
1 find Gold iu 1808 and 1803 was at 51. 55. an ounce, and
Bank Notes amounted to 16 or 17 millions.
" I then find that in 1817 and 1818, Gold was at 31.1 9s.
and 31. las. au ounce, and that the amount of Bank Notes
was about 27 millions; and. the Committee state, that unless
the Bank had acted injudiciously, the price of Gold would
have been at Mint price.
" Here then we hind that Gold may be at Mint price, when
only 8 millions of Notes arcin the market; and may be also
at Mint price when there are 27 millions of Notes in the
market; and also that Gold may be at 51. ss. an ounce, when
there are 17 millions of Notes in the market. _

" Thus, either 8 millions or 27 millions of Notes equally
produce 31. 17s. 10,1 d. an ounce; and 17 millions of Bank
Notes pioduce 51. Es. an ounce. Is it upon these phenomena
that the new theory has been constituted ? that the policy
nut only of our ancestors, but of all civilized states is to be
rejected? and are we to be placed under a novel system,
which is to he followed by perpetual fluctuations, without
any sensible criterion for forming those fluctuations, or any
possible scale for adjusting them ? Merely became some in-
genious gent leaven insist, that Gold is Gold, and that Gold is
the universal equivalent, we are to embrace this new theory
.in defiance of a set of phenomena which covers it with Con-
tradiction and ridicule. We are, it seems, to Ex the market
price of Gold, and to calculate from day to day the value of
the currency by the amount of its quantity; which 1 consi-
der just as ingenious an expedient as an invention for ascer-
taining the variations of the wind by fixing the weathercock!
" It I have shewn a few of the objections to what the Cum-
mitte.e have done, I may now proceed to observe on what
they have not dune.

In•the first place, they have not adverted to those bold
and unproved assertions with which the town has been pes-
tered, that our currency is depreciated, and depreciated by
excess of Issues.' Ishe Committee bliaks,t he subject, though
it refutes, those rash, assertions by a side-wind proof. The
amount of currency is now 25 millions : previous► to the Re-
striction Act the Committee state it at 40 millions.
" Nothing can be more ingenious than the crane-neck
turns of the Bullionists. First they build an argument
against our currency, because it is excessively great, and now
they erect another against it, because it is excessively small.
" Neither do I Gild that the Committee dwell very particu-
larly upon thie cause of the rise of prices, which 1 attribute to
taxation. In theory, prices will rise or fall in the ratio of the
asoonot of currency : as, then, our currency has been dimi-
nished one half, the prices of all articles ought, according to
theory, to have lowered one half; on tire contrary they are
doubled: to account for this contradiction to the laws of
theory in a quadrupled proportion, I can find no adequate or
efficient cause but inerciNed Taxation. And if sortie persons
doubt of the vast effect of taxation upon prices, 1 will illus-
trate my position that taxes generally increase prices in a
double ratio to the tax, by adducing the common article
of salt.

" When I was at Nantwieh about twenty years ago, the
price of salt at the pan was about Sid. a bushel. The duty
upon salt is 159. per bushel. What then should be the price ?
I asked this morning (the Bth May), at a retail shop in Castle-
street, the price of a bushel of salt of 561bs. and was inform-
ed it was forty shillings ! Such is the effect of taxation upon
price, since every one endeavours to shift the tax 'from him-
self upon the last consumer.
" Lot us suppose it were possible to tax Bullion itself, and
to leave other articles untaxed, and that we taxed Bullion
three times as high as the Continent : Bullion then would be
dearer in England than on the Continent by the amount of
the higher taxation, and of course would have a tendency to
go to the Continent, where being less taxed, it would be of
higher value. What dues it signify in general result whether
an equal tax raising prices ten per cent. he put upon all arti-
cles generally, without any tax upon Bullion; or a tax to ti e
same amount be put upon Bullion, taming off all taxes upon
all other articles.

•. It is known and felt by every man, that when taxes are
placed upon a great number of the leading articles of any
country, they affect the taxed articles in a particular ratio,
and all other articles in a general ratio. There is no pat ti-
cular tax on wheat, or oats, or hay, but their prices have been
doubled within these last twenty years.* Can we think that
Bullion alone will escape the general law
" It is,this effect of taxation upon price which.is the insur-
mountable obstacle to the plan of the Committee. We have
reduced circulation in vain already, and prices have doubled
upon us : let us reduce circulation more, prices will still in-
ct ease. And with a diminishing currency, and the same
amount in nominal quantity of taxes, they will' further in-
crease though production may diminish. If we are deceived
by our theories, let us make use of our senses; they, if we
are honest and docile, will never deceive us; but if we are de-
termined to hick against the pricks, sooner than abandon false
theories, I can only deprecate, for alas ! I cannot prevent the
consequences.
" Little as the Committee have noticed the effect of this
^measure upon prices, as little have they adverted to the effect
of their alewife upon taxes. Must they not admit that if
their scheme shall at any time raise the value of our curt ency
5 per cent. it will mile the value of our taxes 5 per cent. ;
and that such an elevation of price will operate as an addi-
tion of 2,500,0001. to the real pressure, though not to the [20.-
11)4)0 amount of the taxes Do they not know that the
lauded proprietors, being the last consumers, feel all
taxes in a double ratio to the active and acqUiring classes of
mankind; and that raising the value of taxes generally 5 per
Cent. will raise the value of the taxes paid by the landed
gentry 10 percent.? And is it not an object worth noticin4,
is it an object to be passed over in silence, that if their mea-
sure should increase the value of currency by its scarcity 5 per
cent. that the landed gentry 'will experience a rise in the
pressure of taxes of 10 per cent. although no persons but the

* Sir G. Sbuckburgh Evelyn's Tables of the Prices of the
Necessaries of Life, and i)epreciation of Motley for 800 years,
is a subject of interesting' reference. It may be found in the
Third Edition of Mr. Chalmers's Cvnsiderativns on Com-
Merce, &c.--44vItmut.