The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-04-10 00:00:00

motion would be, there-

fore, "That a Sri. tt Cl/111111i, tee be appointed to roe-
sider the provision% of the 59th of lieorge 111., chap.
19, and to rep .11 the it opinion to the (louse, whether
it would he cxredi-nt to make any alteration in such
act, so as to alle7iate the pressure which its operation
is producing, and is likely still to prlduce, o a the
various ',ran hes 4.f public intlitstry.--((leal.)—The
more he had co,i‘idercrl this subject, the more firmly
wa.: lie convioced thac the interest of Ote country it ou'A
not w ill:, that Ow circulation of the country wonit
not move, unless they did maturely and carefully re-
ronsider that imi.ortant act. 'Hie circutticances
that hall shown themselves in this case, ex-
hibilit:r the ni.ost decided symptoms of the
evil. w: ich were known to exist in our s)•t. In, hail been,
io the first place, tit • total ruin of a great class of pe. -
sous, who, tritstiag to the then value of money, an
not being aware (as in truth hardly a hundred persons,
perhaps, in all the country were aware) of the general
depreciation which was afterwards to take place :
and having on their side, moreover, the sanction of
Cott House, the opinion of Parliament, solemnly
pledgitte itself that there was and would he no
sue!' depreciation—'kear, hear,)--actint; on that ryi-
nion and that authority, this class of persoils now found
themselves totally ruined. There was then Limit of
ores4it, wild %ditties or billitinets tx;iting all over the
clown ; and the consequence was that, among that
extensive class, contracts had been entered into on e
side and on the other which were now become totally
inexecntable. lie (Mr. Baring) thonght it was totally
impossible to relieve, though it might lie the cause of
adding. to, the ex:sting distresses of the people, if they
did not carefully mike. the wit de 44 this measure. It
was :italic unnecessary fur hint here to allude more p t•-
tii.ularlY to those lonolens, or to menti n what the 4t4,.•
of things in England. generally, at present was. F. ry
gentleman who had been through any part of the
country must Inow that the small farmers and yr.,-
wanry in the country (a class of Femur. mo.•.t valitah'e
and most rrspr Ode ill a community, hut at the same
ti oh. the most likely to he duped on such questions as
th-se ; because, though vet), intelligent men in this
management of their own affairs, they were nut likely
to know any thing at t the currency) ;he would see
hundred-of these %trial' farmers and ye.tinanry br044,14t

to the ground by reason of having made purchaie•
under a state of value, as regarded the currenrv, re-
cognised as it oas by Parliament itself. Supposi 1:r
a yeoman had expended It:, all, a stun perhaps of
4,0011/. in buying land, the present depreciation of
prices left him in penury and &Lt. If lie (Mr. B
was to be told that there had been an over-trading -t
agriculture, as in almost every thing else, he shout I
say why the effects of such over-trading, in whateve.•
commodity, they (the House) could nor relieve. 8.11.
if this mischief hail been dune, in some sort, by th,.
House itself, it Was most material that the Him
should relieve the rafferers.—(llear, hear, hear.)--
What he hoped was, that no gentleman would
listen to any mere statement as to the amouut of de-
preciation; but be put it to every Hon. M-uulte:
whether from his oast daily experience, he could druht
of the extremely altered value of money ?And whether
any antberity ronl convince him that that arose fete!'
any other cause but the state of the currency ? His
Hon. Friend (Mr. Ricardo) said, " look at the vain--
of the precious metals." Ile (Mr. Baring) rather
said "look at the value of all the articles of life." It
that value was affected in merely one or two artieltt,
he was already aware, as it might be objected to him,
that there might be such a variation sometimes, to-
tally unconnected with the state of the currency ; hut
if he found that the value of all articles had moved in
the smite way, that was an unanswerable proof, and
the heat authority of an actual alteration in the value
of that standard according to which the purchases had
been mash.. Let them look at the variation of price),
then, which was t xemplitied, as he repeated, in all the
articles t.f life; and they would find that it was to the
extent of one-fourth, one third, and in many cases one
half. 'I al,e the price of corn, which was the great
grievances of the .aritter. Althatigh, as against the
punt: "wiling, it was itn,loubtrolly at a very low prier,
vet he would say taat the price of corn, compared With
that of auy other c 1111 l 'nudity, stool nut! pretty Dearly
where it did before this alteration in the value of rob-
'ley took place. With a quarter of corn, the same
quantity of sugar, leather, salt, gold, or any other ar-
ticle, could be procured by a person as. he could 'get
fur the save commodity some time ago. It was only
dear as compared with that standard by which the
price of all other commodities was regulatod.
burdens of the farmer, again, bad been crev.scl by ;lie
alteration in the nominal currency. There mighty
some gentknien who would say that all this was. V.