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

j I "
• andeiladent - 1016 U 4be

aaa—ef
-.upon tdsh groat Stag as teat
sis seithed4l
llhomrnel, bow degrading is the situation of
the blietweellsaurt A man must be a labourer, himself,
*ad hounst wander from door to door, soliciting hie
worm" "to gi'e 'him leers to toil." From
fP door, " die fellow worm" mum spurn him like a
lirtath Mune leper;" before he can feel that deadly de-
ity:Onion, that *-ttielsness of the hurt," that merle: 68-
.km, which handrrds ot thousands of honest labourers
now fiefs, and which all of theta must shortly feel, if this
nellielteyetan is petsevered in I Let Übe thews is me,
Siyileis the labourers are not injeredity this system; let
isitit shows to me that they are not cruelly iajared..bues-
filed, and degraded, and that hundreds of thous&
them must not ultimately die of henget before it eau
potfibly be comlleted, I will never say another
a urd against it. For I boon that the labourers settler.
people, 1 only tegard the landowners, the farmers, the
merchants, and the manufacturers as or acs of the pee-
pie's welfare. lf, therefore, the confiscation of their
esmtes and capitals will serve the permanent interests
al the pimple, for God's sake let the confute/tilos goon.
In tdi countries. and in all ages, these claims of men
Imre been the natural friends of the people, and it has
hemeekrotigh their prosperity alone, that the 1 apple have
bells entitled to exist. The • feandations of nature are
now elmaged I suppose; for we live in a time of it enders§
when every thing monstrous and unnatural is breaght
Wrwards and asserted; and tinder this state of things, I
suppose ere are now to believe, that the interests of the
people are changed; and that they will find a refuge from
the extortions of their natural protectors, under the
etreltering friendship of the sting, the drone, the locust,
and the Harpy!! Lit this wonder of all wonders be
proved, Sir, sod I sill contend no more on behalf of the
feeple. I will leave them to their new fried*, and if
they do find shelter sod protection from this imitators'
union, it will beall that idesire to ire.
• The same observations which hold good reepecting are
contracts of rent, and the contract* of wages, will also
Loktgood with regard to cearly all other contracts ex-
, Wing In the nation. They are all of them in A great de-
gree, yet formed upon the war prices, or fouWiled upon
the war habits and calculations. The pay of the soldier*
has net yet been rsduced to the metallic level, hoe have
the missies of the Civil List, and of the Government de-
pendents iq general. Ail these were doubled In tin pa-
per mirrettry, and have now again to be reduced to the
metallic level, however great any be the injury and the
daneet of Itch reduction. I pointed this out ib my ,
letter in your journal of January 7, and I chewed that
" to reestablish the old standard in society, and to ta
" commodate the dimensions and relations of society to
" that standard, would he like taking the heart out of
" the bosom of every human being in England!" Is
not this evidently the fact ? Does not every wan in sue-
cession feel lacerated and injured, when every man is
his turn; is compelled to submit to that reduction in his
psafils, wee% rents, pay, salaries, or dividends, which
the reeduration of the ancient standard of value, neces-
sarily, though slowly involves? The farmers, the mer-
ch nits and the manufacturers first lose their prots, to
which they have a better'elaim and a jester right, than
the landowner has to his dividends. They then lose
their capitals, for the protection of which the faith of
the maims is more strongly pledged than futile protec-
ten of those of the fundoo ner. When these reef con-
tracts were first violated, then the wages and the inde-
pendence of the labourers begin to fail; thee the rears of
the landowners are neseetliesserifiee, and last bet surest,
t'epey. salaries,andtlitidends of the governinent creditors,
and Depehdents are forted to tiadergo, at least, an equal
reduction I Why should net all this merry and this con-
fusion be prevented by gnarly retreat I The dividends
od principal of the National Debt have scardely yet
base touchedNlits tenths of the private mortgages
sod hoed debts are yet unpaid; and Rarer can be paid
in the ancient standard, neither by the confiscation of the
estates sad property upon which they are contracted, Dor
by the imprisonment or esik-of the parties who owe
tbrin, and who are doomed to be first *spindled out of '
their properties, and then to be called" Fraudulent
1116 tors" by the very men who 'have sichedled them!!
be other tenth, of such debts luta either ,broken up the
debtors who have discharged it, or it has been paid in
Suits; mouop, to which the present holdiers are not eini-
tied. -Why should these energies* tad multitudinous
obligations be compelled to be-discharged in safest mo-
sey, which first sacrifices the Mortgager to tho Mortga-
gee. and then delivers op the Mortgagee a victim to the
Grand Morigeger,untit this latter is rtself crushed under
the ruins of its own making?
One half of the tradesmen's bills are Vet founded upon
Co war prices; and the (niter ball of the tradesmen
',nose prices have already been reduced, would experi-
ence more benefit from the rise of prices on their stocks,
and from tit e.geseral prosperity of their trades, then they
experience injury from being obliged to receive
payment of their credits in the money to which alone
tl:cy see entitled. We are still ()Wised to pay the same
toms of money; or nearly the same, for a carriage, a pair
of shoes, a hat, or a Lawyer's fee, as we paid during the
war, which is full double what we ought.to pay. Where
is the injustice of protecting those classes of men by a
timely retreat, from the injury and degradation, through
which clone the reduction of their contracts, and of
those of their workmen and dependents can possibly be
vied?of

tic effected a retreat In 1817, without injury or injus-
tice, as Iwe heard no complaiot of either. Qn the con-
ey-sty, we sawed the coantry from the extreme misery, and
the appioachiag anarchy, which afflicted it in the Spring
at that year, and in 1816; and we gave security to the
reVeivers of all fixed charges, who at that period felt their
jot party seriously endangered. We hail then had three
yews of.redueing prices and: icoreasing misery. We
leteoe.now Willem:. years of reducing prices and increas-
iv misery. Surely one year can make no great differ-
',Kee ft the persons who had made contract: in 1814, 15,
and 16, did not complalnof the eiuhtion of those contracts
ishen the prices and prosperity of the war Were restored in
11414, why should the persons who have mule contracts in
Wl9, 18ith 21 and 22, conp lain of the a iolatiun of their con"-
'fore now again restore the prises and prosperity
of the War? The question is absurd. The prices of the
war. were all that the receivers of fixed charges, were en-
tit:cal to in 1818; and they are all that they are en-
titled to now. They uill not be injured by the restora-
tion of those prices, because their fired charge: will he
stored:wed aid secure in their tall monied amounts ;
whereas if they persevere in enforcing the payment of
lhosefized charges in the prices which existed before the
war, it is (lithe certain thatin many cases their security
sriil fail, and in all cases their tentracts and fired
cbsiger will be seriously reJuced. It is true it was nut
by a due ct reduction of the metallic standard that ue TV&
4reared in ib47 ; but by forcing oat additional issues of
pap Ts in rim Hank purchases of the national debt: and
-by: continuing the suspension of the metallic standard,
tuid tlieteby foreleg a continued depreciation upon gOid
it,elt. ht e thus oh•ainell, fur a time, high prices
.of propery and latour, and low prices of bullion;
land it it is thought ao ireportant object to bring
ah;et this sn.itnaly again, we may readily accom-
:Osila itibr a certain period, by restoring the paper aye-
tern for a ye -r or two, in order to give to the admirers of
the vety slam profit from the holding or pm.-
chase of bullion, as all other men would derive from the
Loidiag or pnrchate of property and labour.
It is extraordinary that men should still be found, who
refer to the priers at bullion during the war, as furniais7
tug a standard whereby to judge of the depreciation of
e currency. They know that bullion less no standard
Arial the soar, and yet they *molder it as a standard:

They know that'it wit ilimphterahlard dealt \
was •thrown entirely opt of asat and dammed, and met of
ill the thoughts, habitsiod calculations of nod.;
yet they p.retend to camdder tint it still furnished a
standard in the ram manner as it does now, when lel
its powers, uses, and applhietioas are ea the point of
being restored to it. They know that during the war
bullion was made by letieire enactments a mere drew
that It was only used, seen' or known by a few Birming-
ham Olden and platen; and that even these men fill-
nished so little demand for it, that intervals of two and
three years frequently occurred, without a single trans-
action being quoted in the Prices Cu ! And yet,
Gentlemen who know all threettity perfectly well, still
persist in referring to the prices of-bullion, as furnishing
a standard, whereby to minim the depreciation of the I
currency during the war :1 Mr. Holdimand, whose
knowledge upon the subject cannot be doubted, expressly
slates In his evidence before ASS House of Emmons,
that luring the war the bullion markets were so exceed-
ingly limited, that a single hundred Mounted pounds
laid out in those markets would at any time roue the
prices of bullion 2 per cent.!! And yet the Legislators'
has been taught to believe, that TIITT MILLIONS sTERL.
ING could be laid oat in those markets, ani that goon
THOUSAND MILLIONS STERLING Of prOpCrey could be
made convertible ST.LAW into bullion, without raisin;
the prices or the value of bullion more than 3 per mt.!!
I shall go mad if 1 dwell upon this part of the subject
any longer, and therefore your readers must excuse gm:
1 have besides discussed it sufficiently upon former occa-
sione.
To return then-to contractsforated since 1819, 1 think
I must have satisfied your readers, that vary few of each
*contract:would be injarionly affected, by &jostling' equit-
alsk arrangement of the currency; and that it would be
easy to guard against any possible injustice of this kind,
in most caser, by allowing the privilege of an optional
release to both parties for a given period.
In reducing the metallic standard to a just and equit-
able and practicable level, we shall secure to all men the
full sums of money
.which they are entitled to, without
the possitiltty of their losing any thing either in princi-
pal or interest; and at the same SAM these Una of
money thus rendered secure to every one, the same va-
lue, the same quantities of commodities and labour, to
whirh the habits and calculations of the present genera-
tion have been accustomed. And it mast not be forgot-
ten that it is the pwantities of money which men rook
to,‘ in the estimation of their rights and values, nod not
to the weight or magnitude of the instrumen's, of which
their money is composed. Men do not want one hail of
the full sums which are due to them, in order totenabie
them to pay hell their debts and fixed charges, and
leave theut to be ruined by the other half But they
want the whole of their jest credits in order to enable
them to repay the whole of their just debits. Even the
Fundhelders would prefer 1001: in "forte monnoie ;"
and since they mast have one of those, why not give
them the former ? The great body of the people are
debtors. At least nine men in ten, are bound by some
kind of legal monied obligations, and they are probably
oe She average, About as mach creditors on the one
band as they are debtors en the other; and it is in this
way that they are at present engaged in tearing each
ether in pieces! If, therefore, we make a pound sterling
contain a ton of silver instead of art ounce, we do no
good to the people oaten we can severe to them, full as
msg. tons of silver as they now receive ounces, which is of
course out of the question. It is not the weight of bold-
on, bat thspesetr of legal tender which men want in
their money. They wain the fall sums of money which
their property or their investments have cost them, in
order to enable them to break open the prison doors
whielagatifine them or to resist the distraiwte and Mo.
rice warrants, which threaten them. They *ant IOU!.
to enable their' to look Mob ereditort in tlenelsoe, and
discharge all their just debts in fish, like Consist men, its
the same money, and the same value in which these debts
wens contracted; sad not Any polueds,in order to Liable
their creditors first to rod.) them of their property, and
then to rob them of their character and liberty, aid then
to-drive them into a jail like fraudulent debtors! ! This
Is sot what the people want. lt is what the plunderers
and the swindlers of the people want. The people want
only the money, which will pay the swum taxes, the
same tithes, the same debts and expencee, and mime
to theta the same value, the same quantities if thecae-
farts and necessaries of life, to which their habits and
eskulatior.s have been accustomed ; and if their money
will secure to them these great purposes, they care not
it rusk. whether 4/. or four thousand pounds are coined
out of the ounce of gold ! All this is a mere question of
the national convenience, amt. ought to be regulated ac-
cordingly. if the coining of 41. or 61. or 81. out of the
ounce of gold, will preserve the present obligations
and realons of society on the same footing upon
which they have been formed and built ny in that
very degree ought the coinage to be carried into effect.
But the men who brave fastened their fangs in the
nation's throat, have disregarded all considerations
of this kind. In their blind eagerness to exact
the "letter of their Bond," as they call it, they have
disregarded its spirit; they have forgotten the jeratice,
the reason, the humanity of the contract. With Jewish
cruelty, they have torn away their " Pound of Flesh,"
—aye, and they have drawn the Blood, that " is not
in the Bond !"
And after all, they will not succeed. They have un-
dertaken an object which, in the language of Air. Cob.
bett, " they can no snore accomplish than they can
" pluck the sun from the sky,"—or again, to use hie
language to the best of my recollection, ad which I
believe to he nothing snore than the frightful truth, they
have attempted a sin asure of such a mortal character,
that " Two millions of human beings must literally
" die of hunger before it can possibly be conk
pleted !"
Why then, I again ask, should we not retreat ? Why
should we madly persevere as I expressed it in my
sera to Lord Liverpool in 11±19, " lit a rugged read,
" whose course is tilled with difficulties and distresseh.
" and whose gaol is death?"
Would retreat retard reform? I believe it would.—
But are we to persevere in such gigantic robberies, in or-
der to precipitate Reform through the miseries of an
agonized people ? If so, we have only to persevere for
a year or two longer, and we shall have liejiiro with a
vengiance! We have only to wait a little longer, and
we may be quite. sore that either the disposition to ad-
vance English Capital upon Foreign Loans and Securi-
ties will cease; or the paper currency will give • way un-
der the double t'urthen of the Paper Debts ; or the
enormous expenditure of the Landed and Funded Inter-
ests, will be reduced in the course of nature. In either
of these eases, the mechanics and labourers will again
be throws, upon their country, as they were in 1816 ; end
then will he nu yetnnat.ry to cot them down. The y,o-
inanry will he as peat Radicals as themselves ; and its
SUED a state of things as this, it kill be strange, indeed,
if we do not oh a n Reform to our heart's content!
doubt the policy of buying Reit, rns at so dear a rate.-
1 doubt the policy of throwing the orlio'e country into
misery and anarchy, in order to precipitate an early Re-
form. 1 would first arrest the present calamities, end
prevent the fame. Aid then, if the nation wishes for
Reform, 1 wuuld hive it. " For a nation to be free, it
" is via:lent that she wills it." If she dues not will
it, she does not deserve it.
But it has keen said that a pledge was given; and
that the Deposkurs in Socials Banks, would be de-
frauded by a retreat. These solojectis 1 purpose to treat
of in my next letter. They amount to nothing.
1 am, Sir,
Itoer obedient humble servant,
THO3IAS ATWOOD,