The Statesman.
London, England, 1809-12-21 00:00:00

• I •I• •••
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. . ,
Givrt.itma*—You cannot be iffaarant of the
distress under which the retail traders of this Me.
trOpolii how labour: many of them are under
the necessity of refoslog to, serve their customers,
because they cannot give them change fur one.
pound notes. . This Is in evil which cannot be al.
lowed to exist long; it is in your power to give re-
lief, and it Is both your slut, and your interest to
apply the remedy. I will assign my re suns for
both parts of this assertion. I say it is your duly;
and *ltneier recollects the circumstances which
led to the present state of our circulmitie medium,
*ill concur with me in this opinion. From the
commencement of the war, in 1793, Mr. Pitt gave
subsidies to Continental Princes with a most lavish
hand. Much of the public money was also ex.
retitled in the maintenance of the army, employed
on the Continent, under the command of the
Duke of York. The bad harvest of 1793 occa.
sioned a farther extraordinary demand of money
for the purchase of corn from foreign countries.
While we were in this situation, Mr. Pitt, in 1796,
most unwisely permitted Austria to negotiate a loan
in this country for 7 millions sterling. Th, , various
articles occasioned a demand of money oil us from
foreign nations, beyond what we were able to
pay by the balance of trade. This necessarily
occasioned au export of our gold. The Bank
Directors saw this, and remonstrated wills Mr.
Pitt on the pernicious consequences of his my*.

sures ; but although they made these renion-
strances—although they knew the calamitous con.
sequences which must follow, they basely yielded
themselves to assist his projects, and in a manner
wholly inconsistent with those purposes fur which
the Bank of £ngla.id was established : they be-
fall, the negotiators of accommodation paper,
under the name of liamburgh Bills. Another
circumstance concurred to increase the distress,
arising from the narrowstuindetiness of the Bank
Directors. A coinage of two millions five-huts.
deed thousand pounds a.year is necessary to
keep our gold coin to its usual amount. As
the price of uncuined gold (coinage alloy) is
usually below that of coined gold, the Bank
of England generally gains by coining ; hut
the export of gold having at shit time run.
dered the price of uncoined gold higher than
that of coined gold, the Bank of England lest
by coining. Had the Bank Directors of that day
pusseucd the expanded minds of Statesmen, they
would have seen that the occasion called fur an
extraordinary coinage, and they would have sub.
misted to the temporary loss ; but being actuated
only by the narrow-minded views of Traders,
they diminished their coinage, and instead of coin.
ing two millions five hundred thousand pounds a.
year, they coined in the years 1795 and 1790,
only five hundred thousand pounds a-year. From
this circumstance, while the gold coin in circulation
was become less from the unusual export, it wu
also diminished from this unusual omission to coin.
In ibis situation Mr. Pitt announced to the Public,
that the Bank could not pay its notes with euh.
To protect the Minister from censure, the Bank
Directors submitted to be held forth as culprits;
they were authorised to issue Otte Pound Notes,
and to refuse payment in cash, both to their own
creditors and the public creditors for any sea 6114-
ceeding One Pound. When this arrangement
took place, most certainly it was understood that
they were to give cask fur a twenty shillings
note ; for, if the twenty shillings note could
nut be turned into cash, it was worth nothing;
and Parliament might as well at once have de-
clared that the Bank should be exempted from
paying both their nun and the public creditors.
To assist the circulation these one pound notes,
a new gold coin of seven shillings pieces was
issued from the mint, and the Bank was authorized,
by prod maiion, to stamp dollars, intrinsically
worth four and threepence, and issue them
first for four and ninepene..., and afterwards for
five shillings. I believe, that huth these Pro.
clamations were confirmed by Parliament, but
most reraiitly these dollars were only issued
as tokens, for which the Bank engaged to
pay the sums above-mentioned, of four shillings
and nine.pence, or five shillings, in English
unu-
ney. Various circumstances have, in the present
year, occasioned the export of the gold which re-
attained with us ; I will nut, at present, detail
those circumstances—l may, perhaps, at a future
day. The Bank Directors, perceiving that while
a guinea was worth thirty shillings at Amsterdam,
it was impossible to prevent the export of gold ;
that even their seven-shillings pieces, though col.
lected with more difficulty, would yet be exported;
and that they lost by every ounce of gold they
emitted, have almost entirely relinquished the issue
of seven-shillings pieces : the consequence has
been the situation of the retail dealers,which !have
above described. Now, Gentlemen, is this ho-
nest ? is this consistent with that implied engage.
ment which you made with the public when the
Bank Restriction Bill was passed, viz. that
you would pay your one-pound notes with
cash ? Is it etinsistent with your express engage-
went', when you were allowed to stamp &Olin,
and issue them as toi.eas at tee per Cent. above
their value ? Is it a generous return to that public
which pardoned your delinquency in 1797 ? The
Bank Restriction Bill was passed to relieve you
from distress, not as a source of peak to you.—
But you hate considered it solely as the means of
profit ; wholly forgetful of the public interests.
When the Rank stopped payment on the 26th
February, 1797, Bank Stuck was selling at 120.
The other day it was es/ling at ts 6. This on a
capital of ten millions four hundred thousand
pounds, was an ietrease of the vales a your pro.
petty to the eateat of sixteen millions six hum.
dyed and forty thousand poonds. To this welly be
added, the value of the different bonuses, which
you hate distribsited to the Proprietors. Adding
all this tortillas?, do I exaggerate, when I say,
that the 'impiety of the Dank has been increased
fall sweaty millions by the Bank Restriction
Dill? The &orate issue of Batik notes) an.
tecedently to the Bank Restriction Bill did
net exceed eleven millions, You nvw Wee
twenty maltase. Moroi; a gall iv the &et ei


rCIJ oad 4fty, ilrausead -pestle st44lli
from the interest of thspe notes.. Ti t F may be
added the gain of,,the flank from . thu number
,of
these ngtes wrich are lost: for tho luss of cne-
pounduoics must bo much greater in preprrtion
than this Lou of notes Rf a hav danominatian.
Before the Bank acstrivron 11,1,Y0u ssereun-
der th• necessity of keeping a 4%114 stock of about
six millions iu gold to answer the demands of /our
creditors, if your notes were hrio4lit is,. Have
you kept this dead stock to the Amount of sit
millions, since the Rtitriction Bill ? If you save
acted honestly towards the public, you ought to
have kept a dead stuck in Kohl larger thin what
you kept before the Bank Restriction Bill, in the
proportion that your notes now in circulation
bear to the notes which you formerly issued ; that
is Wray, in the proportion of 20 to 11. fieveyos
done this? Or, to put the question to yon
more explicitly, have you kept any dead stock
If you have been actuated by the mere spirit of
Traders, you have kept little, or none : for the
Bank Restriction Bill relieved you from theorem.
pity of giring cash for any notes which exceeded
twenty shillings, aid you appear now to be dis.
posed to free yourselves (ruin the paymont iu cash
even of these twenty-shillings notes. If you are
willing to give twenty shillings in British coin fete
every twenty-shillings note which is brought. to
you, proclaim it to the public, and the difficul.
ties of the retail trader will be at an end. If you
saaltriso, we will give the Bill-fielder four stamped
d;..soy answer is, that zoo have been au.
thesis:it to issue those stamped dallirs only as to.
kens, and that you have bound yourselves to give
British coin fur those dollars whenever they are
brought to you. Examine, Gentlemen, these rea-
sons, and then say, whether I have expressed my.
self too strongly, when I have said, that it is
your duty to issue British money sufficient to
keep your one-pound notes in circulation. I have
heard that you have a wish to issue Ten Shillings
Bank notes. God forbid, that such a measure
should ever be attempted. I have the most sanguine
hopes that such an attempt would be surcessfully
resisted, but the very attempt itself would ruin
you. I have confined myself to those arguments
which might point out to you your duty. I could
ladduce arguments especially strung, to skew that
it is your intereet, as well as your duty, to issue
British coin for the circulation of your one pound
notes ; but for the present I restrain myself. The
Bank of England is but a china shop, and cudgel.
playing in a china-shop is unsafe.

VEIANIUS.

To Ore EDITOR of TIIIT STATESMAN.

SlR—Your indefatigable exertions in favour of
the rights of the Public, deserve the best thanks
of that Public; you have mine, and I now, fur the
first time, take up my pen to give you, my ideas
upon what is called the settlement of the dispute
with rho Covent Garden Managers. Upon read.
ing that report of the proceedings at the Crown and
Anchor Tavern, and the Resolutions they sought
for and agreed to, by Mr. Kemble on behalf of
himself and the other Properietore, I cannot pos-
sibly conceive how any evittniderstanding could
have arisen—the Propositions. were as clear sie a
beam of light—There may he a breach of treaty, or
a Punica Fides, but there can be no misunderstand.
ing. The public have. lam proud' to tee, per.
formed their put in the most noble, generous, and
humane manner; and remembering the passage in
Shakespeare, that " In peace there's nothing so
becomes a man as modest stilness and humility,"—
,
wilVe instantly acted upon that precept. But far
different has been the conduct of the Proprietors.
I will not point at Mr. Kemble any more than the
others. I will not single him out from the ag.
gregate body, as bas been done too much
already, but I will say, that the Proprietors
are endeavouring, by every meats in their power,
to evade the most material part or that compact. 4
The Private Boxes and the secret entrance to
those Boxes, arc the greatest grievances that have,
ur that can exist in a place of public entertainment,
conducted under Goveriment authority. The
insult upon the people at large from this parti-
tioning off to the rich, the privileged, and the
prolii4ate, nu exclusive aceontroollAtion, cannot
be tolerated in. a country where the people claim
equal advantages, from the authority of their Go-
vernment. The infraction of the treaty for the
retention of the entire slip:, is for the purpose
of presersng, as 'I suppose, the superb private en-
tratice,by far the greatest evil and insult to the res pec-
able part of the audience, than even the occupition
of rho Private Boxes. It is therefore for the pur-
pose of fixing the attention of time public upon
this object, that I now address you. If the en.
tire slips are retained, they will &ford a back-
stairs entrance...and what have the public then
gained fur 6 nights bard labium...fur buieg beaten
...imprisassed illegally...calasmslaisd—and for the
violinist attempt made to wrest from them the home:
menial rights of the, audience, fils, the purpose
of setting a few wealthy, haughty, and for this
attempt at distinction, despicable
above the rest of that society in which they lite?
It is now a very important question for the pub.
tic to ask—What have they guard by their
efforts P—lt cunaot he to the interest of
the Proprietors that these Private Boxes should
be rotaised in the Theatre, fur the public will pay
ihms more fur them, when thrown open.—No;
die motive is a mentemptiblit bending to poser
and reek—iiso Proprietors arc the glosbotors
apiest the poirlic, for these moral Private
fiee.ineeir—l wish them to consists? the light
iboy stand in as men, and as moral , mote,
and if they have any virtue* any shame, or any
charatlet to lose, t‘s think seriously on the sob.
ject ; and to remember the celebrated speech of
Nolseyi an often in some of their mouths,
which I will endeavour to paraphrase, aed apply
it to themselves
Had they bet bered the PO*
With bag the seal they owed the oemotroil an
'They would set base to warn saeb etapei
Nor ash forgtessess is es am mdems.
• T. X.

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