The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-11-02 00:00:00

POLITICAL. MISCELLANY.

Rumours are afloat in London of a partial change of
ministers before long.
• MEETING 'OF PARLIAMENT.— Parliament ha 3 been
summoned to meet for the dispatch of business on the
18th of November, when, it is understood, after the for-
malities which usher in a new house, ministers will imme-
diately ask a legislative sanction for their new measure.—
The Times.

The Times admits that some of the effects of the late
legislation are at present not a matter of boast. It says
—" We do not say it is a matter for congratulation that
our securities should pass into the hands of foreigners.
It is by no means pleasant to consider that by our mis-
fortunes or our follies so large a portion of our public and
private dividends is likoly to go abroad. Nor do we con-
template with much satisfaction the prospect of our own
market being disturbed by foreign ,fluctuations. The
pressure is already relieved, and will be further relieved
by the suspension of railway works, and a general con-
traction of mercantile engagements." A turn out of
work of some thousands, on the approach of winter, only
hands them over to the Unions—and food without work !

THE MONETARY LAWS.—We copy the following ex-
tract from a letter of Mr. Muntz, M.P., to the Times,
—one of the practical working men in the " Home Trade ":
—" It appears fearful odds to be opposed by the Times,
the government, the philosophers, Sir R. Peel, and the
money holders ; but no odds are important when one is
acting in accordance with the principles of nature. It is
only a question of time, and success is inevitably certain.
Whether the £3 17s. 104 d. standard is partially got rid of
by a heavy property tax in exchange for indirect taxa-
tion, or by any other insidious plan, it must and will be
got rid of. The other classes will not allow the money
class to monopolise all their property; and, in spite of all
opposition, the nation *ill at last confess that the practical
men of Birmingham were long before the rest of the peo-
ple in discovering that the great cause of the distress and
misery of the last thirty-five years was attributable to an
ignorant, vicious, and unjust legislation upon the monetary
system of the empire. The pressure is now great, but it
is nothing to what we shall yet feel, although possibly it
may be temporarily postponed ; but the present money
laws will not be carried into full effect until the value of
land, the value of landed produce, and the value of labour
connected with them, are reduced to the level of 1785.
Then, when farmers are ruining, mortgagees foreclosing,
land uncultivated, and both agricultural and mechanical
labourers unemployed, with the tax collector clearing
away all the existing profits, you may rejoice in your
healthy standard of £3 17s. 104 d. But Mr. Muntz does
not expose and remonstrate against that which is wrong,
without submitting that which he conceives to be practical
and just, and concludes as follows :—" The first and indis-
pensable step is a suspension of cash payments, whilst the
subject is debated and arranged. The second, an entire
separation between the Bank of England and the govern-
ment. The third, taking out of the hands of the bank the
management of the circulation of the country, and giving
it to a National Bank, managed by commissioners ap-
pointed by, and responsible to, parliament, which bank
should issue notes which should be a legal tender, and in
which all other banks should pay their notes on demand.
The fourth, empowering such commissioners to issue their
notes very gradually, to such extent as should eventually
false all prices which have fallen, and with them gold and
silver, until silver was 7s. 6d. per ounce, which would
keep wheat at an average price of 7s. 6d. per bushel, and
all other prices in due ratio. And when such price of
7s. 6d. should have been obtained, the National Bank
should at all times receive silver at 7s. 6d. against their
notes, and pay the notes on demand in silver at 7s. 6d.
per ounce."