The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-03-14 00:00:00

Elie Ltherpool 'tanbarb.

TUESDAY

MORNING, MARCH 14, 1843

steamer from New York, which arrived

here on Saturday, brings us the following letter, in
which there are suggestions that cannot fail to be
of use to the Parliamentary Committee on the
Currency. The letter is addressed to the Currency
Correspondent of the New York Express :

New York, 23d February, 1818.

" SIR,—As an old 'Money' Reformer I have had infi-
nite pleasure in reading your masterly articles in the
Express, on the currency, and more especially from see-

g that you have avoided the fatal error of allowing the
neral principle of `Money' to be confounded with the
subject of Banking, which is a question rather of circum-
stance or locality than of principle. Sometime ago I took

the liberty of sending you, through Mr. Brooks, a rough
sketch of what I think should be done in England in
Money.' Permit me now to remark that I trust my
views entirely agree with yours, and that you will persist
in not entering into the subject of whether the Banking
in the United States is right or wrong. If we carry our
principle this country will be infinitely more prosperous
under the worst system of Banking than it could possibly
be under the best if the humbug of Gold is perpetuated.
Gold I have always viewed as a cannibal, that creates
confidence only to destroy it. The prejudice however is
in favor of Gold (as at least the lesser evil) is so invete-
rate that I don't think MONEY REFORM' will ever be
carried, except we profess our willingness to retain gold
as the SECURITY OF THE CURRENCY, and confine our
objections to its being the MEASURE or VALUE. On the
grounds that the change of the value of Gold robs the
labouring man, thus—the produce of a man's labour
brings in France—(ln a foreign country the price got is
not dictated by the cost of the article.)-105 cents, of
which 100 goes to the industry of the United States, and
5 cents to the capitalist or man of money in U.S.—but
money becomes dearer through the export of Gold from
U.S.—and the man of money demands a proportion of
10 or 15 or 20 cents of the 105. Now this he is enabled
to do through your having adopted the principle of Sir
Robert Peel's Bill of 1819, by which a bank note is made
exactly in relation to gold, as a dock warrant is to indigo
—the scarcity of the article raises the value of the war-
rant, and the same enhancement occurs to the bank note,
although to blind the people it is not allowed to express
itself directly, but only indirectly through capitalists'
money' fetching more interest and commanding more
commodities and labour when gold gets scarce through

exportation.
" What money' reformers want, as I understand, is
that the whole industry and property of this country be
removed beyond the changes on gold which are brought
about by foreign influence. We want to show the absur-
dity of every kind of industry and property being made
unsaleable and worth half nothing (as was lately the case
in England), because of the importation of double the
quantity of foreign labour we can pay for by our home in-
dustry. It is enough that our home industry be interfered
with by the competition of foreign labour, without having
the whole currency and also banking or confidence of the
country demolished by the mode of paying for that foreign
labour. If gold must be paid (as of course it must for our im-
portations), let us arrange that its exportation shall not di-
minish the home trade. Gold must be put in the same
category as all other commodities, and permitted to rise
and fall according to the laws of supply and demand. It
were preeminently absurd to attempt to retain a standard
of value in a country whose imports exceed its exports,
except such a one as would represent a gradual reduction,
as the country's industry and property would of course be
more and more impoverished, the more the country out-
lived its income. But even if there could be any doubt
as to the above, it must be self evident, that gold would,
go to no greater premium than the extent of the exporta-
tion of the article, or, in other words, the extent of Fo-
reign Exchanges are against us ; and that when the fo-
reign exchanges are at par, notes a LEGAL TENDER, and
gold would be the same value. We cannot prevent gold
appreciating. It does so now—and at present its doing
so to that extent depreciates all other property and
labour—a state of things so utter ridiculous that it
will not stand long in America. Quite in consistency
with these opinions, I AM AN ADVOCATE FOR SIR. R.
PEEL'S RESTRICTIONS ON BANKING; and I see that
the recent Currency Committee in England will come
to nothing, because the QUESTION RAISED will be
Sir R. Peel's restrictions on banking,' instead of
the simple question of PRINCIPLE, THE CURRENCY,'
or MONEY, to speak more correctly. I have long seen
what you seem to see clearly, that we may have a NOTE
that will not depreciate in reference to gold, any more
than any other property. For instance, you might take
property in New York to the value of a hundred millions,
and issue bonds thereon to twenty millions. Those bonds
would surely be as good as, or better (more saleable),
than any other property in the city. But, as I have said,
the prejudice in favour of gold is so inveterate, that to
get a change commenced from wrong to right principles I
would consent to arrange the national money so as to leave
the people their GOLDEN BAUBLE till they got tired of the
expense of it. Without interfering with the present legal
tender, I would add thereto, say, TWENTY MILLIONS OF

PAPER, THE RECEIPTS OR EVIDENCES OF THE DEPOSIT
OF GOLD TO THAT VALUE, in a new department of the
treasury at Washington (or of the proposed mint at New
York), allowing the Government to increase the issue of
notes to the extent there is an export of gold, or in other
words to the extent the 20,000,000 of gold rises in value in
the market, decreasing the circulation of PAPER THE EVI-
DENCE OF DEPOSIT to the extent the gold falls in value;
or, in other words, the foreign exchanges got righted.
Thus, I feel satisfied, would THE INDUSTRY OF THE
'UNITED STATES BE SET FREE FROM FOREIGN INFLUENCE,
and it can be set free in no other way. This plan would
not affect the foreigner, for if gold, which he wanted, was
high, so would be the indigo or other articles he had im-
ported. The mere capitalist or ` MONEYED MAN' would
pay the proper tribute to the industry of the country, for
the dividends he would get on his stocks would buy less
labour, and thus, and thus alone, we shall be able to make
it the interest of the money market to encourage native
and discourage foreign labour in the markets of the United
States, because the more the latter took the place of the
former, the more gold and all other commodities would
rise as compared with money—(` money' I understand
to be a legal tender or ISSUE BY THE GOVERNMENT;
` currency,' properly speaking, is bank notes, or private
issues). I commenced to write a short note, but have
been insensibly led on, and for the length of this epistle I
have to offer many apologies.
Let me, in conclusion, remark, that of course on my
plan there would be no gain or interest accruing on the
twenty millions gold ; but neither would there be any
loss to the public. By and by the country would come to
see that a LARGE GAIN TO THE PUBLIC WOUld be made by
holding to the whole or part of the amount dividend

our obedient, humble servant,
ISAAC BUCHANAN."

The following is the PLAN OF CURRENCY FOR
ENGLAND alluded to in the foregoing letter :
" I would permit the Bank of England to issue fourteen
millions, the amount the public owe the Bank. These
notes would be payable in gold, silver, or in a NEW CLASS

t the market-price of gold and silver.)*
.ould compel the Bank never to hold less
than ten millions of specie, to the whole amount, or any
part of which, the Bank would have the power of issuing
',I tender because an evidence

AMOUNT

,SERE EVIDENCES OF THE DEPOSIT IN

S VAULTS OF GOLD OR SILVER, TO TRH

Then. I

of deposit

would be a leg

" the Bank m
the extent it pen

ht increase these legal-tender notes to
end arsarA., "

ow an extension of issues, and a consequent
trade to the extent the foreign exchange get
:aced by the increased price of gold.

WE do not believe that there can be a class of
more dangerous people, in those periods of popular
irritability which invariably follow great political or
social crises, than your small platform spouters and
their toadies of the less influential portion of the
press. Unnoted in their obscurity, so long as the
current of public opinion keeps within its legitimate
banks; unheard, so long as our busy world'main-
tains its ordinary and equable revolutions ; no
sooner does the slightest check throw these out of
balance, than we are compelled to witness the des-
perate contortions with which the process of infla-
tion is commenced by the allied nuisances, and to
listen to the penny-trumpet sounds with which they
strive to imitate the veritable thunder. What a
feverish and eager grappling for small grievances do
we witness on the part of both him of the tongue
and him of the goosequill ! What netting of paltry
minnows and gudgeons, to be palmed off upon us
for whales ! What fierce onslaughts against ima-
ginary oppressors, and desperate decapitation of
unoffending cabbages, make the very blood run
cold in the veins of wondering spectators. We
at times at such silly exhibitions. It is human.
however, we have too fre-
)lore them as productive of mischief
awer of their originators to check or
iild's freak—a spark applied to a few
loose straws—originates a conflagration which defies
the concentrated energies of men to quench.
was startled from its

)ler moments

expiate. A

go thi

.ty b an announcement from her Majesty's
bleWhig Ministry of their intention to im-

the Property ar

Britain
COMMIT

ry of Great

he indus'

n income tax ra

d to five per cent

.sed to the verge of ruin were
~.

modest

d to pay an increased tax upon profits
eased to realise, and incomes which
We were told that the

which they had c

they no 1-onge

enjoyed

national revenue, in Whig hands, and under the
operation of free trade measures, had fallen short,
millions sterling per annum,of the amount
to meet the national expenditure. Here
was a question surely for the grave and serious con-
sidera— ~ .

by thr

require(

,tion of loyal men of every shade of politieal
opipion. It was no less than a question whether
would submit to an impost of
acknowledged injustice, in order to maintain intact
the institutions of the country ; or insist upon re-
'tracing its recent policy, or, at all events, making
the attempt to render that impost.more equable in
its pressure, and at the same time nastitutinv

rigorous inquiry into onr general system of taxai
tion, and into the national expenditure. An influi
ential portion of the community approached th 4
question in this serious and business-like spirit'F
But not so some of the small spouters and jourt
nalists referred to. They viewed it only as a pe
upon which to hang as large a quantity of trash
declamation as it could be made to sustain. It wa
discovered that a portion of the additional expenf
diture to be provided for arose out of a small ini
crease of the naval and military estimates,—that
Government were about to do a little towards pro
viding for the better defence of the country; an
forthwith the opportunity was seized upon .to a r
fright the public with a notion of impending wart
In our own and other towns we had huge anti-wai
placards every where staring us in the face, in which
the aristocracy and the legislature were accused of
a design to enslave and to rob the people. We had
anti-war public meetings, at which some of our
weak-headed, yet amiable, townsmen, dribbled
forth as usual quakerlike sentimentalism from
the same platform, upon which chartism reassumed
its long dormant vitality, and railed in good set
phrase against every institution and order, which
stood in the way of the establishment of the "five
points." We had twaddling mercurial denunciations
of war budgets and other imaginary monstrosities.
And when the steam was just getting up, and
demagoguism was flying off into a crusade against
some windmill somewhere, but nobody knew where,
the news of the French revolution and the triumph
of mob power burst upon us like a thunder-clap.
The natural result has followed. The idle and
discontented frequenters of the resorts of frothy
declamations, whom our spouting and leader-in-
diting Solons, had stirred into activity, gave up
forthwith all thought of war budgets and other in-
ventions, and set to work to find for themselves a
few grievances a la Francais. Visions of barri-
cades, street fighting, the pillage of gunsmiths'
shops, and the accompanying pocket-picking floated
before the eyes of lazy prentices, prigs, and idlers
of all sorts ; and the realization is to be found in
the gutted shops, the smashed lamps and windows
of Glasgow and other towns, accompanied unfor-
tunately by a loss of several lives and innumerable
broken heads, whose owners, after the slight shake
which a policeman's truncheon is apt to give to a
man's brain, have quite as clear an idea now of
what they were brawling about as ever they had.
In the meantime quiet and timid neople are becom-
ing alarmed for the safety of their limbs and their
property; and magistrates, military, and police
throughout the country are harassed by double
duty and constant anxiety, whilst the vicious and
turbulent people to be found in every community
are on the look out for an opportunity to commit
outrage. i ,
_ _ .

We do not know how far the gentlemen, recently
so fluent in their denunciations against war budgets,
aristocracy, class-legislation, and other similar
topics, by which the vulgar ear is tickled, view
themselves as responsible for the new direction in
which their disciples have chosen, to move. We
trust, however, that, as some slight measure of
atonement for their admitted indiscretion in moving
the first straw, and commencing the warming up of
the popular feeling, which has at length caused it
to boil over, we shall see their names amongst the
list of special constables sworn in before his worship
the Mayor. It would be very hard, we admit, for
the eloquent Mr. - or the meek and pacific Mr.
- to have to break the head of Tom Nokes or
Paddy Doolan, who so lately cheered their platform
displays. But, alas ! inevitable necessity may com-
pel them ; and at the same time it may convey a
very salutary lesson as to what is a proper selection
of company for men to make, and the danger of
rubbing shoulders to-day with persons whose heads
you may to-morrow be called upon to break in the
Queen's name.

The debate on Friday night in the Commons on the
Government financial project, presents one or two points
worthy of special notice. We cannot help asking, with
Sir W. Molesworth, how is it that the estimates of the
present Government for the army, navy, and ordnance for

the coming year, (exclusive of the item for the Caffre war,)
exceed the average yearly expenditure of the five years of
Sir Robt. Peel's administration by no less than £3,268,000;
or, how is it that the actual expenditure for these services,
in the year ended January, 1848, exceeded that of the
year ended Jauuary, 1846, by £2,800,000.
We have spoken elsewhere of Mr. Cardwell's speech, on
this occasion,—a speech characterised by great business
talent, although the views of the hon. member do not
accord with ours. To one portion of the speech, hoiv-
ever, we have great pleasure in directing the attention of
the hon. member's constituents. Mr. Cardwell says
" With regard to the public expenditure, he was one of those
who confidently hoped that a great deal might be done in favor
of the depressed energies of the country by way of a reduction
of that expenditure."

Perhaps we are not very far wrong in taking this as an
all but official pledge from that section of the Conservative
party which, at no distant period, will have to direct the
affairs of the country ; and the more especially so when
we find it confirmed by the following declaration of a
member of that party so eminent as Mr. W. E. Glad-
stone. We quote the passage :
"Now I, for one, shall not speak slightingly of the subject of
reductions. I feel convinced, upon general principles, that a
great country like this ought, periodically, whether after tea
years or fifteen years, or what other reasonable term, to havs
searching and thorough revision of its public expenditure.
(Hear, hear.) It is now, I think, fifteen years, or rather mote,
since we have had such a revision ; it is thirteen years sii4ce
reduction ceased and the tide of increase of expenditure began
to turn to flood,' and I think it high time that we shogld
revise our expenditure; I say that quite independent of the
faet of the formidable increase in the cost of our army, noir,
and ordnance—the increase of nearly .7,000,040 since 1835 of
.e 4,500,000 since 1844, of .2,830,000 since 1845, of ..e1,638;(100
since 1846. These facts, I think, lay a very strong printil facie
case for a searching revision ; and, moreover, they lead to the
inference, that by a careful examination of details, without
diminishing your effective means—which I will not presume to
suppose you dare prudently diminish —you might effect a can-
siderable economy."

The most telling speech of the evening was that of Mr.
Disraeli : a speech full of the caustic eloquence of that
consummate parliamentary gladiator, yet at the same
time containing stubborn facts and statistics bearing upon
the question at issue which are well worthy to be pondered
over by the political economist and the statesman.

The debatrewas wound up by perhaps one of the only
members—Mr. W. E. Gladstone—to whom the house
could have been brought to listen and conducted back to
that patient attention which the subject demands, after
the excitement of Mr. Disraeli's splendid effort. That
Mr. Gladstone's speech was a most able one we need not
say. As a 'vindication of his colleague, Sir Robert Peel's
policy, it was perhaps one of the most successful which
has yet been delivered.

THE PROVIDENT CLERKS' MUTUAL BENEFII
ASSOCIATION.

The benefits of Life Assurance are daily becoming more
generally understood and appreciated, and experience is
giving rise to the formation of societies peculiarly adapted
to the professional pursuits of individuals. Amongst those
recently and more advancing in importance is the Provi-
dent Clerks' Benefit Association and Benevolent Fund—
a society formed on the most comprehensive scale—and
securing for a comparatively trivial contribution, a provi-
sion for age, an annuity for a family, or an endowment
for children. Indeed, the advantages are well described
by the agent, Mr. Lea, of Derby-buildings :
Mutual Life Assurance is perfectly devoid of everythingap-
proaching to speculation :—it is based on almost unerring data,
and he who avails himself of it has made a certain and positive
provision whenever death may take place. The tables of rates
of this department, which embrace every contingency to which
life is subject, are approved as safe by some of the first mathe-
maticians of the day ; but while they are safe, the assurers are
certain of reaping every advantage which the proper improve-
ment of their money can afford, as it is impossible that any
portion of it can ever be devoted to the payment of proprietary,
or any other purpose than the benefit of members. Such has
been the confidence placed in the association that nearly one
thousand members have been enrolled in this department, and
every day others are coming forward to join.

"fo the Benefit Department there is attached a 'Benevolent
Fund,' for the exclusive use of clerks, which now amounts to
.elO,BOO stock. This fund has been chiefly contributed by
principals, and it offers a means of making a provision for old
age, infirmity, or death of those clerks whose health or circum-
stances prevent their assuring their lives." •
We cannot do less than urge the necessity of all de-
pendent clerks joining this society.