The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-05-03 00:00:00

EQUITABLE ADJUSTMENT.

On the nth of this month LORD FOLKESTONE is to
make a motion for the appointment of a Committee upon
this subject. In the meanwhile, LORD STANHOPE has
incidentally brought the matter forward in the House of
Lords, upon presenting the Petition of Mr. CHARLES
ANDREW Tuomsoar, which was presented to the House
of Commons by LORD FOLKESTONE in the Month of
March. This speech of LORD STAN HOPE is worthy of
tl'e greatest attention from the public. Here his Lord-
ship challenges those, who have abused the proposition
for an equitable adjustment. He challenges them out
into the field of argument : and be very justly reproves
them for their abuse of that which they cannot con-
trovert. Here his Lordship shews what has been
done in Austria; what was formerly done in Scotland;
what was done in England in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth ; and, he very justly concludes, that real revo-
lotion must take place, unless this adjustment be adopted.
His Lordship laments that the attention of the Parlia-
ment should be drawn off by the French and Spa-
Maeda. The fact is, however, that it has been much
more drawn off, by the rise in the price ofgraix. which
by the stock-jobbing press, and by a full ninety-nine
hundredths of the people, who join their faith upon
that share of the press, is looked upon as a complete
proof that the change in the value of the currency has
had nothing nt all to do with the lowering of prices!
The following article, from one of the stock jobbing
papers, may serve as a specimen of the means by which
the public are deluded.

" To the best of our remembrance, Mr. Peel's Bill comes
" into full operation today ; if we are not mistaken, Mr.
" robhett said in his Register, that he would submit to be
" broiled on a gridiron if it ewer took effect. Peel's Bill,
" must be repealed,' said Mr. Cobhett ; but then that prog-
" nostication was accompanied, we believe, with some ifs ;
" what the nature of those Ifs were, re cannot exactly call
" to mind.-IC.B. Our Mark-lane correspondent of yester-
" day. states that the very hest Wheat was as high as 06s.
" the quarter, or Se 6d. the b,uhcl, which is an advance be-
" yond Mr. Cobbett's prognostications of more than 100
" per cent. Our Mark-lane correspondent adds, in a pri-
" rate communication to us, that some Quakers, who all
" along believed the very opposite of what Mr. Cobbett
" promulgated through the memos of his Registers, have
" made some remarkably lucky speculations in Grain and
" Flour."

In the first place, part of the interest of the debt has
been :pinged off, give what name they will to the five
per cent. transaction. So that, the Bill does not go into
full extent, according to the terms of the prophecy.
Then again, the Bill put au end to all small notes of the
Bank of England; it put an end to all these small notes
on the first of this month of May. This part of the Bill
has been repealed; for an Act has hien passed to enable
the Bank of England to issue small notes for ten yaws
longer. So that the Stock-Jobber is mistaken as to a
falsified prophecy ; certainly, at this moment, if there
were no small Bank of England notes, there would be
universal confusion. Those notes are out to the amount
of millions. They still form a large part of the cue-
rency ; and though they be not now a legal tender ; the
public do not know that ; and will not know it for a con-
siderable length of time.—Any man may now go to a
Country Banker and demand gold in exchange for the
Country Banker's notes; but a hundredth part of the
people do not yet know this; and there must be some-
thing to alarm them a little, before they will know it.—
But, the great subject of exultation is, that there has
been a hushe4 of wheat sold for eight and sispenre, when
I foretold it would be below four shillings after the first
of May.—The stock•jobbing press takes care to for-
get that I always took care to pot in the seconds:
6' on an average of Seasons: barring the untoward
Seasons." And who does not know that the Farmer
may be worse off with wheat at Bs. 6d. than with wheat
at 4s. ? If he has only one bushel of wheat instead of
two and a half, is he not injured by the rise of price oc-
casioned by his scanty crop. The long and severe win-
ter; toe destruction of the turnip crop; the devouring
of hay and corn, instead of turnips and grass the very
backward spring; the most untoward season ; all taken
together ; the appearance (till within these few days) of
such backwardness in the wheat as to make a late has
vest inevitable; all these things would, ten years ago,
'have made the wheat from twenty to five-and•twenty
and thirty shillings a bushel. Add to this an enormous
speculation, in wheat particularly, in consequence of an
war. That expectation is a great deal
was : but hope does a great deal. The

expectation of
fainter than it 1
•