The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-05 00:00:00

A MEETING of the SOCIETY for the EMAN-
.
CIPATIONT of INDUSTRY was held at Exeter Hall on
Tuesday, July 1, ANDREW SPOTTISWOODE, Esq., in the Chair,
at which the following resolutions were moved and carried:—

llesolved,—First—That this Society C;;;;Zefraitr from expressing
its surprise and disappointment at the very unsatisfactory resolutions
introduced by Lord John Russell in the House of Commons on the
26th of May, for the professed purpose of ameliorating the condition
of the working classes of the United Kingdom, and of correcting the
alarming evil for which his Lordship did not account, that while
" the .rich are growing richer, the poor are growing poorer ;"—and
this meeting considers that no professions of sympathy for the dis-
tressed condition of the labouring classes can avail anything, or be
satisfactory to the country at large, so long as those classes are
compelled to provide for a heavy taxation on articles of consumption
in a money artificially made scarce—a regulation which confers an
undue and unnatural advantage upon capital over industry.
Second,—That it is the opinion of this Society that the state of
actual destitution and suffering under which It is acknowledged the
labouring classes in this kingdom are now so largely suffering, in
the midst of superabundant wealth, and the inexhaustible means of
producing that wealth, is not owing to any fault of their own, nor
to any express dispensation of Providence, but is attributable to in-
judicious legislation, of which the most striking example is the per-
nicious currency law of 1819—a measure which Sir James Graham
truly and emphatically denounced as a " delusion and a fraud."
Third,—That the object of the currency law of 1819 and of the
monetary measures of 1844 and 1845 is to reduce the prices of pro-
' duction to the level of gold prices, while the object of eorn-
laws, and of all protective laws, is to raise prices above the level
of gold, in order to compensate for heavy taxation ; and thus the one
object is incortilistent with, and contradictory to, the other.—That it
is the intention of the Legislature, in levying taxes on.commodities,
to secure that those taxes should be paid by the consumers generally
in a rise of prices; but the effect of the monetary measures before re-
ferred to is to prevent a rise of prices, and thus to defeat that inten-
tion.—That by these means a grievous wrong Is inflicted on the pro-
ducing classes, the effects of which are observable in the wide-spread
pauperism described by Sir James Graham as already amounting in
England to full one-tenth of the population, and in the alarming de-
pression of the prices of agricultural produce in consequence of which
the wages of the labourer are reduced to their present low and insuffi-
cient rate.

Fourth,—That this Society contends that the high scale of indirect
taxation in this country demands a corresponding scale of prices both
of labour and of the produce of labour ; and that such scale of prices
is incompatible with the present low fixed price of gold, which has
the effect, not only of throwing upon the producers the burden of
that taxation which ought to be paid by the consumers, but of perni-
ciously restricting the circulating medium of the country, by making
it dependent on the quantity of gold in the Bank of England.
Fifth,—That if gold were allowed to find its market price in the
currency of the country, like all other commodities, and in obedience
to the law of supply and demand, prices in the home trade would
rise to a remunerating level, without affecting the prices of our
foreign trade, which are now, and always must be, regulated by the
market price of gold. That competition would prevent home prices
from rising in such a circulating medium beyond the level that indi-
rect taxation justified ; a level below which it is as unjust to the pro-
ducer as it is dangerous to the public ereditor to reduce them.—That
the Government money (or Exchequer-bills) now issued for taxes in
a shape and in amounts exclusively useful to the monied class, should
be issued in amounts convenient for all classes—namely, in notes of
one pound and upwards; that these notes being necessarily confined
within the amount of annual taxation, would be founded on and re-
present that property which the Government annually draws from
the people in taxes, and would form the legal-tender money of the
nation.—That labour would then receive its fair and reasonable re-
ward, while the commerce and industry of the country would be freed
from their present unnecessary and injurious dependence upon
foreign exchanges.
Sixth,—That this Society views with horror the monstrous doc-
trine attributed to Sir Robert Peel in the debate on Mr. Villiers's
motion upon the 10th of June, that the increasing impoverishment
of the industrious classes is without remedy; that "great wealth
being found side by side with great poverty" is "inseparable from
civilisation, and that civilisation in itself increases the tendency in
a country towards them,"—a doctrine which would consign a large
portion of our countrymen to irremediable poverty. That this
Society is prepared to prove before a Committee of either House of
Parliament that such a social anomaly is mainly attributable to mis-
taken views of the nature and uses of money, and of the laws
governing the distribution of wealth ; and they cannot but ascribe it
to the deepest and most deplorable delusion, that in the recent dis-
cussions on the subject of the Corn-laws and Banking, the National
Debt and Taxation, which form essential elements in both questions,
have been studiously excluded.
Seventh,—That petitions, representing the substance of the reso-
utions of this meeting, and praying for legislative Inquiry into the
effect of currency on prices, and en the wages of labour, be now
prepared and signed by the Chairman of the Society, and be presented
to the House. of Lords and the House of Commons ; and that the
Provisional Committee formed for the convening of this meeting be
requested to place the petitions In suitable hands for presentation and
support.