Zf-
 
 (THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 JAMES DEACON HUME, 
 
 SECRETARY OF THE BOARD OF TRADE. 
 
 CHARLES BADHAM, M.A. 
 
 " He embraced at .a very early period the soundest principle* of commercial 
 policy. The history of the Board of Trade from the time of Mr. Huskisson to the 
 clow of Mr. Deacon Home's services at that Board may be considered as the history of 
 Mr. Deacon Home himself, for he was the life and soul of that department : and every 
 Hood measure which was adopted in rapid succession at that period, either received 
 his earnest support, or may be traced to his wise suggestion." 
 
 SIR JAXKS G&ABAM. 
 
 LONDON: 
 SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL. 
 
 1859.
 
 Right of Trantlation ii merved.
 
 " With a masculine understanding, and a stout and resolute heart, 
 he had application undissipated and unwearied. He took public 
 business, not as a duty which he was to fulfil, but as a pleasure he 
 was to enjoy; and he seemed to hare little delight except in what 
 in some way related to the public service." BURKE ox GEORGE 
 GRENVIU.E. 
 
 " It is my deliberate opinion that Mr. Deacon Hume's Consolida- 
 tion of the Laws of the Customs, in its original form, was a master- 
 piece of legislative skill. Writing on a subject with which he was 
 profoundly conversant, he succeeded in the invention of a legal style, 
 so clear, and so popular, that every one readily seized his meaning; 
 nor can I remember a single appeal to the Courts of Westminster 
 to ascertain it, so long us he continued in office." THE BIGHT How. 
 SIR JAMES STEPHEN. 
 
 " The publication of his Life will vindicate his better claim to a 
 great share in the introduction of an improved system of finance, and 
 to commercial intercourse- upon true principles, than that of many 
 others who are too generally thought to be exclusively entitled to 
 public gratitude for the reformation. He was the patient and 
 efficient investigator in the preliminary inquiries to the enactment 
 of our free trade code, and cleared the way for the success of those 
 who followed him, in completing the great work by legislation. "- 
 THE RICUT HON. EDWARD ELLICE.
 
 i. an 
 rv , 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 20, line 12, for " want" read ' wants." 
 
 Page 251, line 18, for "proportion" read " proposition." 
 
 Page 302, line 14, for " in its doctrines" read " its doctrines in.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 PREFACE , iz 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 Unacknowledged statesmen Birth, education, and early life of 
 James Deacon Hume I 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume consolidates the laws of the Customs He 
 becomes Joint Secretary of the Board of Trade Death of 
 Mr. Huskisson -21 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Fauntleroy Mr. Deacon Hume discovers his forgeries Remarks 
 of Sir Robert Peel 35 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Corn Laws and Currency Letters in the Morning Chronicle, in 
 1833, signed "H. B. T." 5.1 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Alteration in the laws relating to silk Mr. Deacon Hume ruits 
 the principal seats of manufacture Political opinions
 
 vi CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Evidence before a Select Committee of the Houae of 
 Commons Mr. Huskissun Manchester Chamber of Com- 
 merce Mr. Deacon Hume's statements respecting smuggling 
 canvassed in Parliament by the Earl of Derby . . .129 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 Education The Political Economy Club Agriculture 
 Currency Politics 157 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 Life Insurance The Atlas The Customs' Benevolent Fund . 179 
 
 CHAPTER VHI. 
 
 Duties on timber An essay by Mr. Deacon Hume on the same 
 subject, reprinted from the " British and Foreign Quarterly 
 Review" 198 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume retires from the Board of Trade Resides at 
 Reigate Sir Robert Peel's request often complied with 
 Mr. Hume succeeded by Mr. Macgregor The former 
 suggests the appointment of a Select Committee on the 
 Import Duties Mr. Macgregor His evidence Mr. Deacon 
 Hume's evidence Remarkable passages .... 238 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The evil effects of protecting duties upon morals and civilization 
 The London coffee-houses 270 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Notions on biography Mr. Disraeli quoted Sir Robert Peel's 
 sympathy with the creations of others His respect for 
 Mr. Deacon Hume's opinions on finance His influence
 
 CONTENTS. vii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Difficulties Exertions Mr. Hume's soheme for life insurance 
 for the working classes His usefulness His unostentatious 
 career His death Sir Robert Peel's allusion to it in Par- 
 liament 292 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 Parallel between Mr. Hume and Mr. Clarkson David Hume 
 His Political Discourses Forestalling and regrating 
 Remarks of Lord John Russell Free Trade doctrines of 
 English, not of French origin Mr. Hume's long-continued 
 exertions His caution Application of principles The Anti- 
 Corn Law League Mr. Cobden Sir Robert Peel's advances 
 The opposition he encountered Free trade, at first, not a 
 party question Sir Robert Peel's statement Mr. Gladstone 
 quoted Corn Laws repealed Benefits resulting Navigation 
 Laws repealed Reply to questions proposed in 1858 by the 
 French Minister of Agriculture and Commerce Burton's 
 Life of David Hume quoted Mr. Macgregor .... 299 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume's productions, oral and written He purposed 
 to collect and reprint them His intellectual powers 
 Interesting testimonies of Sir James Stephen, of Mr. Ewart, 
 Mr. J. B. Smith, Sir James Graham, Mr. Ellice, Mr. Cobden, 
 and Mr. Labouchere Mr. Hume's labours Influence 
 Personal character Habits Concluding remarks . . 330
 
 IT was not until this volume was printed that the Author met with the 
 following passage, referred to at the twenty-fourth page. " The task 
 (of consolidating the Customs' laws) was of great magnitude, but we 
 did not shrink from it. I am free to admit, that we never could have 
 succeeded in our undertaking without the assistance of a gentleman 
 in the service of the Customs, a gentleman of the most unwearied 
 diligence, and who is entitled, for his persevering exertions, and the 
 benefit he has conferred on the commercial world, to the lasting 
 gratitude of the country. In the performance of this duty we had 
 innumerable difficulties to encounter, and battles without end to 
 fight. And now, sir, in one little volume which I bold in my hand, 
 arc comprised all the laws at present in existence on the subject of 
 the management and the revenue of the Customs, of navigation, of 
 smuggling, of warehousing, and of our colonial trade, compressed in 
 so clear and yet so comprehensive a manner, that no man can 
 
 possibly mistake the meaning or the application." 
 
 Mr. Hume's volume " is the perfection of codification." HUSKIBSON.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE first page of this volume, if it be read with the 
 last, will sufficiently describe its object, as well as the 
 spirit in which it has been written. It records the 
 life of a remarkable man, whose days were devoted to 
 the public service, and who was, to no inconsiderable 
 extent, a benefactor to his country. 
 
 An endeavour to afford some insight into the life and 
 labours of those who are engaged in the important, 
 though subordinate official service of the State, has, 
 and it is saying much at the present day, somewhat 
 of novelty to recommend it. We have lives of the 
 unavoidably more conspicuous portion of public men ; 
 and not too many even of these. It is a fate to be 
 deprecated that any of the world's benefactors should 
 pass from the world with their histories unrecorded. 
 And yet this is not unfrequently the case. There is 
 no popular life of Watt, and an adequate biography of 
 Huskisson has yet to be accomplished. As far, how- 
 ever, as the last mentioned is concerned, there will be 
 a time for such a work. 
 
 This volume will necessarily indicate, incidentally,
 
 X . PREFACE. 
 
 the changes which have gradually taken place of late 
 years in our commercial policy. It will, the writer 
 hopes, not very imperfectly mark the steps which led 
 at last to the abandonment in principle, and to a very 
 considerable degree in practice, of the long tried experi- 
 ment of commercial restriction, for the annihilation of 
 which the subject of these pages toiled with noontide 
 energy for a period of fifty years. 
 
 Those who presuppose that the life of a political 
 economist must necessarily, except to a very limited 
 number of readers, be void of interest, will, it is believed 
 in this instance, find themselves mistaken. The suc- 
 ceeding pages may haply also be the means of inducing 
 some persons to look with more complacency than they 
 have hitherto done upon the science of political economy 
 a science the practical end and object of which is 
 to show how industry may be employed to the best 
 advantage, or how, with the least labour, and the least 
 waste of materials, the greatest amount of comfort and 
 enjoyment may be created for mankind. 
 
 So far from this being a subject for the few, it is 
 eminently a subject for the many; it is one which 
 now is, and ought to be, taught in schools, and of 
 which no one should be permitted to remain in igno- 
 rance.* When it is borne in mind how greatly not only 
 
 * The Committee of Council on Education have placed some very 
 useful elementary books on Political Economy upon their list for the 
 use of schools which are aided by Parliamentary grant.
 
 PREFACE. xi 
 
 the commercial prosperity, but the social and individual 
 comforts of the community are affected by a well or 
 ill-regulated tariff that its effects for good or for evil 
 are felt all the world over, it must be clear that the 
 subject is essentially a popular one, and worth any 
 amount of pains that may be bestowed upon it. " The 
 doctrines of political economy may admit of exceptions, 
 but never of refutation." * The remarks of a well-known 
 writer upon the subject are not much too strong where 
 he says, " the proper business of every man, and every 
 hour, is to know as much as he can of political economy. 
 This is the education which must enable him to keep 
 the benefit of his labours for himself.* It has, indeed, 
 been defined to be the science of preventing our betters 
 from defrauding us, which is sufficient to account for 
 its being eagerly pursued on the one hand, and vilified 
 on the other." 
 
 Coleridge, while he admitted that the great principles 
 of commerce require the interchange of commodities 
 to be free, allowed himself to speak disparagingly of 
 political economy as a science : and the language which 
 he employed has, unfortunately, found imitators in 
 influential quarters. To say that " the tendency of 
 modern political economy is to denationalize," and that 
 " it would dig up the charcoal foundations of the 
 Temple of Ephesus to burn as fuel for a steam engine," f 
 
 * Lord John RusaelL f " Table Talk," TO!, ii., p. 327.
 
 XII PREFACE. 
 
 is, undoubtedly, excellent as a caricature, and if ridicule 
 were the test of truth, it might be deemed conclusive. 
 Notwithstanding the dictum of a learned lawyer, who 
 is an authority in his profession, surely a collection of 
 truths ascertained by experiment, and upon which well- 
 informed men are generally agreed, must be considered 
 as a science. It may not be a perfect science, for much 
 probably " remains to be discovered by experience and 
 observation." It has been confidently maintained that 
 the study of it is the highest exercise of the human 
 mind, and that the exact sciences require by no means 
 so hard an effort. Let no one, however, on this account 
 be discouraged in its pursuit. Notwithstanding the 
 well-known lines of Pope, " a little knowledge," so far 
 from being " dangerous," is a great deal better than 
 none at all, upon this, as well as upon almost every 
 other, subject 
 
 And here the author cannot forbear expressing the 
 obligation which he conceives the great mass of English 
 readers lie under to Lord Brougham, for the admirable 
 and interesting lives of David Hume and Adam Smith 
 which he has given to the world. For inducements to 
 read the " Political Discourses " of the first-mentioned 
 writer, the earliest " refutation of the errors which had 
 so long prevailed in commercial policy, and the first 
 philosophical, as well as practical, exposition of those 
 sound principles which ought to be the guide of states-
 
 PREFACE. xiii 
 
 men in their arrangements, as well as of philosophers 
 in their speculations, upon this important subject," he 
 must refer to the biography itself. With respect to 
 Dr. Smith's "Wealth of Nations," he will at once 
 secure the thanks of the reader, if he has not already 
 met with the " Lives, " by inserting here Lord 
 Brougham's testimony to what he justly terms its 
 "prodigious merits." 
 
 " The ' Wealth of Nations ' combines both the sound 
 and enlightened views which had distinguished the 
 detached pieces of the French and Italian economists, 
 and, above all, of David Hume, with the great merit of 
 embracing the whole subject ; thus bringing the general 
 scope of the principles into view, illustrating all the 
 parts of the inquiry by their combined relations, and 
 confirming their soundness in each instance by their 
 application to the others. 
 
 " It is a lesser, but a very important merit, that the 
 style of the writing is truly admirable. There is not a 
 book of better English to be anywhere found. The 
 language is simple, clear, often homely, like the illus- 
 trations, not seldom idiomatic, always perfectly adapted 
 to the subject handled. Besides its other perfections, it 
 is one of the most entertaining of books. There is no 
 laying it down after you begin to read. You are drawn 
 on from page to page by the strong current of the 
 arguments, the manly sense of the remarks, the ful-
 
 XIV PREFACE. 
 
 ness and force of the illustrations, the thickly strewed 
 and happily selected facts. Nor can it ever escape 
 observation, that the facts, far from being a mere bede- 
 roll of details unconnected with principle and with each 
 other, derive all their interest from forming parts of a 
 whole, and reflecting the general views which they are 
 intended to exemplify or to support." 
 
 The only notice of a biographical character which 
 has appeared of Mr. Deacon Hume is an article com- 
 municated by his successor in office, the late Mr. J. 
 Macgregor, M.P. for Glasgow, to the columns of a 
 daily journal. It is a record somewhat brief and bare, 
 but accurate in its facts, and contains some very just 
 observations. The author has fully availed himself of 
 the contribution, and when he could do so with advan- 
 tage, verbatim et literatim. He has consulted all the 
 Parliamentary papers and Reports of Select Committees 
 he could discover, with which Mr. Deacon Hume 
 appeared to have had any concern. From these and 
 some may have escaped him as well as from the 
 debates in Parliament, he has derived much assistance. 
 To the late President of the Board of Trade, Lord 
 Stanley of Alderley, his best thanks are due for per- 
 mission to inspect such papers preserved in the archives 
 of that Board as could be produced without inconve- 
 nience to the public service, as also for the use of its 
 library. With respect to the archives, however, he
 
 PREFACE. XV 
 
 regrets to say that he found nothing which could be of 
 service to a biographer. 
 
 It is well known, as Mr. Macgregor observed in the 
 year 1844, that Mr. Huskisson "relied implicitly on 
 the knowledge, acuteness, judgment, and, above all, 
 the uncompromising honesty of Mr. Deacon Hume." 
 Nor did he omit to add, " And to Mr. Hume I certainly 
 owe the confirmation of those principles and that ambi- 
 tion to labour through all the difficulties, at my sole 
 expense, of collecting in Europe and America the 
 materials of my work on Commercial Statistics.** 
 
 The author has thought it right to make an especial 
 acknowledgment in the last chapter, for this volume 
 is not a family tribute or contribution.* The writer 
 has only attempted what, in the case of a public man, 
 any one is at liberty to undertake ; and with the 
 exception referred to, he is responsible for the work. 
 Its object is to set forth the public life, with portions 
 of the writings, of Mr. Deacon Hume, with a view of 
 affording, in a popular form, information upon economic 
 subjects which is greatly needed ; and, also, of doing 
 justice to the services of one " whose memory," as an 
 able judge recently remarked, " has not yet received 
 the place in the respect of the country which it 
 deserves." 
 
 The greatest care, as biographers rarely fail to plead, 
 * Page 331.
 
 XVI PREFACE. 
 
 cannot always prevent mistakes. The author trusts 
 that in the present instance they are few and unim- 
 portant, since he has given time and attention to the 
 subject. 
 
 To the Right Honourable Lord Monteagle, the 
 Right Honourable Lord John Russell, M. P., the 
 Right Honourable Sir James Graham, Bart, M. P., 
 the Right Honourable Sir James Stephen, K.C.B., 
 the Right Honourable Henry Labouchere, M.P., the 
 Right Honourable Edward Ellice, M.P., the Right 
 Honourable W. E. Gladstone, M.P., Sir Denis Le 
 Marchant, Bart., William Ewart, Esq., M.P., J. B. 
 Smith, Esq., M.P., Richard Cobden, Esq., A. G. Sta- 
 pleton, Esq., Thomas Doubleday, Esq., F. J. Hamel,Esq., 
 and G. Plank, Esq., he is also indebted, and desires to 
 express his thanks for very obliging communications, 
 which either contained information, or afforded hints 
 that were useful to him in his progress through the 
 work. 
 
 Sudbury, SuffbUt, December, 1858.
 
 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 UNACKNOWLEDGED STATESMEN BlRTH, EDUCATION, AND EARLY 
 LIFE OF JAMES DEACON HUME. 
 
 IT has been justly observed, that few persons have any 
 idea what obligations this country lies under to those 
 who may be termed her unacknowledged statesmen. 
 They sit in their separate apartments in Downing 
 Street, and Whitehall, the unseen sources of many a 
 splendid reputation. They, not unfrequently, both 
 suggest and prepare the particular measures, which are 
 submitted to Parliament every session, by the Govern- 
 ment, and it is to them that we are generally indebted 
 for those judicious and timely provisions, which relieve 
 the nation from some pressing distress, and lend e*clat 
 to the favourite of the hour. As the judges of the 
 land are largely assisted in the cases or causes which 
 come before them by the speeches of counsel, who have 
 been giving their attention to every point at issue, so 
 are Cabinets influenced, and Select Committees of the 
 
 n
 
 2 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 House of Commons instructed and guided, by the 
 advice and information which under-secretaries, espe- 
 cially if they should happen to be men of unusual 
 sagacity and intelligence, are capable of affording. 
 They also from time to time supply the Secretaries 
 of State and the Chancellors of the Exchequer, with 
 those telling facts which enable them, hi debate, to 
 silence opposition, and extricate Government from 
 embarrassing positions. It may, nevertheless, be 
 doubted whether even the most valuable of the indi- 
 viduals referred to ever had justice done to them, or 
 received their full reward. Their acquired powers of 
 official suggestion are admitted; but strictly, they 
 possess no real administrative power. They must not 
 seek a seat in Parliament, or mix themselves up with 
 the conflicts of party. Were they to do so, it would be 
 impossible for them to continue in office, as many have 
 done, from year to year, unaffected by the succession 
 of Governments. If at every change of administration 
 those who hold office in Downing Street were one and 
 all to depart, the question, " How is the Queen's 
 Government to be carried on?" would not only be 
 asked, but it would also have to be answered. 
 
 It may be thought that the foregoing remarks are 
 applicable only to persons who, though occupying a 
 respectable position, never expect to fill the responsible 
 office of secretary. But it is not so. With the excep- 
 tion of the former being less known to the public, the 
 observations are applicable to both. 
 
 James Deacon Hume was descended from an ancient
 
 HUMES OF MARCHMONT. 3 
 
 Border family, the Humes, or Homes, as it was occa- 
 sionally written, of Marchmont, whose arms he conse- 
 quently bore.* The practice of spelling Hume, the 
 great English historian of that name remarks, " is by 
 far the most ancient and most general till about the 
 Restoration, when it became common to spell Home 
 contrary to the pronunciation. The name is frequently 
 mentioned in Rymer's "Fcedera," and always spelt 
 
 Hume."t 
 
 Had the subject of these pages been of the elder 
 branch of his family, he would have had an immediate 
 claim to the dormant peerage above mentioned: a 
 circumstance which he never regarded, for, having no 
 son, but a large family of daughters, and a fortune 
 inadequate to the rank of an Earl, he would undoubtedly 
 have been deterred from preferring that claim. Nor 
 does the elder branch appear to have been more soli- 
 citous about it. There is, with very many, at the 
 present day, a disregard, real or affected, of ancient 
 lineage, for which it is not difficult to account. We 
 are disposed, however, to coincide in the remark of the 
 historian above-mentioned, where he says : " I am not 
 of the opinion of some, that these are matters altogether 
 to be slighted. I doubt that our morals have not much 
 
 * Vert, a lion rampant ar. Crest, a lion's head erased ar. Motto: 
 True to the end. " A Selection from the Papers of the Earls of 
 Marchmont, in the possession of Sir George Henry Rose, Bart., illus- 
 trative of Events from the year 1685 to 1750," in three volumes, 
 published by Murray, in 1831, in a work of considerable historical 
 interest. 
 
 f See a letter (date 1758) in Burton's "Life of David Hume."
 
 4 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 improved since we began to think riches the sole things 
 worth regarding."* 
 
 James Deacon, the son of James and Elizabeth Hume, 
 was born on the 28th of April, 1774, in the parish of 
 Newington in the County of Surrey. He had four 
 sisters. The youngest, who survives, married the late 
 Rev. Edward Smedley, M.A., Author of " Sketches 
 from Venetian History ,"f a " History of the Reformed 
 Religion in France,"^ and a "History of France from 
 the Final Partition of Charlemagne to the Peace of 
 Cambray," with many other well-known publications. 
 Before he had reached the period of middle age he 
 became incapacitated by bodily affliction for the active 
 duties of his profession, and devoted himself to literature 
 in its highest and worthiest pursuits. His second 
 daughter published some years since a volume of poems 
 entitled " Songs and Ballads from English History." 
 Not the least interesting is " Grizzel Hume," a poem 
 founded upon the following passage taken from the 
 Second Series of Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a Grand- 
 father.! The subject was very naturally one of personal 
 and family interest. 
 
 * David Hume came from another branch, the Humes, or Homes, 
 of Nine-wells, and so was descended from Earl Home. The arms of 
 Home of Nine-wells are curious. Vert, a lion rampant argent, within 
 a bordure or, charged with nine well*, or springs, barry, wavy, and 
 argent. 
 
 f Murray's Family Library. 
 
 J The Theological Library. Rivington. 
 
 The Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. 
 
 U The account is more fully given in " A Narrative of the Events 
 which occurred in the Enterprise of the Earl of Argyle, in 1685," by 
 Sir Patrick Hume.
 
 HIS FATHER. 5 
 
 " Sir Patrick Hume, of Polwarth, afterwards Lord 
 Marchmont, was one of the leaders of the Jerviswood 
 plot in the reign of Charles II. When this conspiracy 
 was discovered, Sir Patrick, having narrowly escaped 
 falling into the hands of those who were sent to arrest 
 him, concealed himself in a vault in the churchyard of 
 Polwarth, and remained there till his enemies had given 
 up seeking for him in that neighbourhood. During his 
 sojourn in this dark and melancholy lurking place, his 
 daughter Grizzel, a girl about eighteen years old, 
 conveyed provisions to him every night. She was 
 obliged to go forth alone, at midnight, for this purpose ; 
 and great must have been her anxiety during each of 
 these perilous expeditions ; for had chance discovered 
 her to any evil-disposed person, the secret of her 
 father's hiding place must inevitably have become 
 known, and there can be no doubt that he would have 
 shared the fate of the noble Baillie of Jerviswood, who, 
 having refused to purchase safety by becoming a witness 
 against Lord Russell, suffered death about tlu's time." 
 
 James Hume, after the birth of James Deacon, the 
 subject of this volume, was appointed Commissioner of 
 the Customs. But at the time to which we refer, he 
 was the deputy of a noble duke, who had a patent 
 place in that department He obtained the appointment 
 through the favour and influence of his uncle, Dr. 
 Hume, Bishop of Salisbury. The duke's place was 
 one of considerable value, arising from fees. The 
 salary of the deputy did not exceed 300J. a year. Mr. 
 Deacon Hume was greatly attached to his father, who
 
 6 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 was a man of very amiable character, as well as of 
 considerable ability. The Rev. Edward Smedley was 
 accustomed to speak of him as " without exception, the 
 best man and the most delightful companion he had 
 ever familiarly known." 
 
 When the Secretaryship of the Customs, worth at 
 that time above 2,000/. a year, became vacant, Mr. 
 Pitt, the Minister of the day, selected Mr. James 
 Hume to fill the office : a circumstance which surprised 
 and gratified him, for he had no patron, and it was 
 entirely unsolicited on liis part. This deserves to be 
 mentioned, as it is a sort of parallel to the manner in 
 which his son was afterwards advanced ; and a parallel 
 to which Mr. Deacon Hume himself very often referred. 
 He was fond of relating the following anecdote in con- 
 nection with his father's appointment. " When Mr. 
 Pitt gave him the place, he went to communicate the 
 
 intelligence to the Duke of . The latter, however, 
 
 instead of expressing pleasure that one who had served 
 him ably and faithfully for many years should have 
 met with such good fortune, only regarded the matter 
 as it affected himself; and he exhibited much dis- 
 satisfaction that his own interest had not been con- 
 sidered in the arrangement While Mr. James Hume 
 held the office first mentioned, his income being limited, 
 he removed to Bideford, a retired village in Devon- 
 shire. It was in this neighbourhood that his son's 
 career, in the seventh year of his age, was very near 
 being cut short Having to cross the long bridge over 
 the river Torridge on his way to school, and finding one
 
 WESTMINSTER SCHOOL. 7 
 
 day other boys loitering and amusing each other with 
 the various feats which they could perform, he, being 
 determined to outdo them all, climbed to the top of the 
 parapet, and then letting himself down on the outside, 
 hung by his hands over the water. Those who are 
 acquainted with the height of the bridge, and the 
 nature of the stream, will appreciate the danger of the 
 situation. It was one from which a boy could not, 
 by any possibility, extricate himself. When his little 
 hands were almost tired out, he was rescued, strange to 
 say, by a stout washerwoman, who not only saved his 
 life, but gave him at the same time a sound beating, 
 in order to teach him not to risk it again in such 
 perilous adventures. 
 
 At an early age he was sent to Westminster School, 
 where the boys of his family, both before and after his 
 time, have generally been educated, and have arrived, 
 in several instances, at some distinction.* He was 
 there during the successive head-masterships of Drs. 
 Smith and Vincent ; and of the latter he always spoke 
 in that tone of admiration with which he was regarded 
 by all his pupils. 
 
 Some old Westminsters will probably be gratified, as 
 well as the general reader, by the following portrait of the 
 Venerable Doctor, by the hand of Mr. Deacon Hume's 
 brother-in-law, the late Rev. Edward Smedley: 
 
 His nephews, the Rev. Charles Dodgson, the present Archdeacon 
 of Richmond, and Hassard Hume Dodgson, Esq., both from this 
 school, were elected students of Christchurch, Oxford. The first- 
 mentioned was a double first-class man in 1821, the hitter a first-class 
 man in 1825, and Dean Ireland's scholar in 1826.
 
 8 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 " How vividly and how faithfully can I summon to 
 my mind's eye that loved and venerated sage, to whom 
 I owe my first awakening to the value of letters ; and 
 consequently, all the happiness and consolation which 
 during life have flowed from their culture ! 
 
 ' ?XM yap a, \<u did at, KOVK oXXov /Sporwv.' 
 
 I see him, even now, gently rebuking a fault, with 
 benevolence, which the assumption of magisterial terrors 
 could not enable him wholly to conceal ; or else eagerly 
 catching at an opportunity to enlarge upon some 
 merit, so that his praises might vivify a hitherto torpid 
 emulation, and draw forth qualities which, without their 
 aid, might never have germinated. I see him, as he 
 used to pace to and fro, swinging himself upon the 
 boards which creaked beneath the pressure of his 
 ample-buckled shoes, while he rolled out a full-mouthed 
 volume of Atticism, or transposed into kindred English, 
 by his own copious diction and majesty of enunciation, 
 the seemingly untranslatable magnificence of some 
 ecstatic chorus; or yet, again, when kindling with a 
 deeper and more solemn energy, and in still loftier 
 tone, he brought to our knowledge, and to our affec- 
 tions, the things which pertain unto salvation ; threw 
 fresh light even upon the luminous evidences which it 
 was his favourite province to expound; fostered the 
 lambs committed to him, not as a hireling ; and dropped 
 within our hearts that good seed which, after many 
 days, has since ripened with numbers into the fulness 
 of harvest But, 
 
 Abiit senex ! periit senex amabilis !
 
 SCHOOL DAYS. 9 
 
 These are his own words in tribute to a predecessor. 
 Would that he could once more buckle on his mail, 
 and stand up against the Philistine who assaults our 
 camp." 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume was slow to admit that he had 
 profited much by his studies at school. Possibly, he 
 omitted to take into account that part of the educa- 
 tion of a public school which is often overlooked 
 namely, the education which boys, in this country, 
 give themselves; and this, as the late Sir Edward 
 Alderson,* no mean authority either on education or 
 on law, was accustomed, and very justly, to insist, is 
 a very important part of education. It is certain that 
 Mr. Hume was a bold, active, hardy boy, and, as he 
 constantly affirmed, an idle one. Sydney Smith used 
 to relate, with mischievous complacency, a youthful 
 encounter which he himself once had with his " amiable 
 schoolfellow," the late Archbishop of Canterbury,! com- 
 plaining that the future primate knocked him down 
 with a backgammon-board, for no greater offence than 
 his having beaten him in the game. Mr. Deacon 
 Hume used to tell, in a similar manner, of his hav- 
 ing fought and beaten the late Sir Watkins Williams 
 Wynne, who, though the bigger boy of the two, was 
 not so good a gladiator as his antagonist When he 
 first went to Westminster he was a home-boarder ; for 
 the last few years, however, he boarded at the house of 
 one of the dames ; and before he left school he was the 
 head boy of the house. In that situation he strongly 
 * Baron of the Exchequer. f Dr. Howley.
 
 10 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 displayed one of the leading qualities of his mind, 
 which always induced him to protect the weak against 
 the strong, and to exert himself vigorously to check 
 all sorts of bullying and tyranny. 
 
 The present Marquis of Lansdowne, and the late Sir 
 Francis Burdett, of whom he appears to have had 
 nothing remarkable to record, were among lu's contem- 
 poraries at school. Although he did not keep up the 
 connections which he formed at Westminster, it was 
 not from any want of interest in them, but from the 
 pressing nature of his occupations in after life. A 
 short time before his death, he was much gratified by 
 a visit from an old schoolfellow, whom he recognised 
 the moment he entered the room, though they had not 
 met from the time when they parted at Westminster, 
 upwards of forty years before. His pleasantest holidays 
 used to be spent at Bremhill, in Wiltshire, of which 
 place, his uncle, the Rev. Nathaniel Hume, one of the 
 canons of Salisbury, was vicar, and the bishop, his 
 near relative, was patron. 
 
 In the year 1791, at the age of sixteen, James 
 Deacon Hume was removed from Westminster to the 
 long room of the Custom House. At that time hard 
 drinking was a prevailing vice ; and boys upon leaving 
 school expected to participate in what they looked upon 
 as one of the privileges of manhood. J. D. Hume upon 
 his first entrance into life was no better than his gene- 
 ration. He was, however, speedily disgusted with the 
 practice; and having discovered how degrading and 
 destructive a habit it was, he made a resolution, and
 
 ENERGY OF CHARACTER. 11 
 
 he kept it throughout the days of his youth, never to 
 touch wine. Those who can remember the usages of 
 that period, will appreciate the firmness and strength of 
 mind which this resolution evinced. 
 
 At the time of which we are speaking, he was a 
 young man of great bodily activity, fond of field sports, 
 a bold rider, and of a high spirit. It was only by a 
 violent effort that he withdrew himself from hunting. 
 Energy was his leading characteristic through life, and 
 happily he transferred the quality to those more useful 
 duties with which his name became afterwards so 
 honourably associated. Upon one occasion, in the depth 
 of winter, being disappointed of the horse which was 
 to take him to the place where the hounds met, he rose 
 between three and four o'clock in the morning, and 
 walked in his top-boots a distance of twenty-three miles 
 into Hertfordshire ; and in the evening, after a day's 
 hunting, he offered for a trifling wager to walk back 
 again to London. As an instance of his personal 
 courage, it may be mentioned that several highway 
 robberies having been committed upon the Croydon 
 Road, he and another young man took a post-chaise, 
 and went in the night to Croydon, merely with the hope 
 of an adventure. But though disappointed of his chance 
 in this instance he met with it in another ; a short time 
 after, when he was going to Leatherhead in the night, 
 he was stopped and robbed by three lu'ghwaymen. He 
 behaved with the greatest coolness, and only begged 
 them to take care of their pistols, with which he said 
 they were quite as likely to hurt each other, as him.
 
 12 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 Seeing that he offered no resistance, they did as he 
 requested, put aside their arms and searched him at 
 leisure. In doing this, however, they tickled him so 
 extremely, that it was with the greatest difficulty he 
 could refrain from striking them. It was well that he 
 forbore : for one of them, on the same night, with the 
 muzzle of his pistol, knocked out the eye of a traveller, 
 who made a show of resistance. 
 
 Whether the somewhat daring adventurer discovered 
 in the days of his youth any predilection for political 
 economy, or for matters nearly allied to it, we are not 
 informed. But looking before and after, it is difficult 
 to suppose that in this case, as Wordsworth says, " the 
 boy " was not " father to the man." The fact that his 
 father's talents in the same direction attracted the notice 
 of Mr. Pitt, who knew more of political economy, 
 perhaps, than any statesman of his time,* who as a 
 financial Minister, was the first to introduce into our 
 commercial system, those principles of freedom which 
 have, of late years, been considerably developed ; this 
 fact, together with the future eminence of the subject of 
 these pages, leaves little room for doubt upon the point 
 At any rate it is certain that he embraced, at a very 
 
 * The author of a recent and very spirited "History oi England to 
 the Peace of Paris, 1856," Mr. C. D. Young, justly observes, "The 
 extent to which Mr. Pitt was in advance of his age may be further 
 seen, if we recollect that he was the first proposer of the great 
 measures of Parliamentary Reform, and of Roman Catholic Emancipa- 
 tion, which have only been carried within the recollection of the present 
 generation." No man, it has been correctly said, has suffered more 
 from being confounded with those who came after him than this great 
 Minister.
 
 OFFICIAL LIFE. 13 
 
 early period, the soundest views of commercial policy, 
 that he was an admirer of the political discourses of 
 David Hume, who might not very incorrectly, be called 
 his great ancestor, and of Dr. Adam Smith that he 
 obtained, while he was still young, speedy promotion 
 in the Custom House, and that he was soon raised to 
 an office of responsibility in a department, of which in 
 a few years, as afterwards of the Board of Trade, 
 he became the life and soul the faithful, intelligent, 
 intrepid, public servant. 
 
 There was a maxim which he often repeated, 
 namely, that if a man wishes to be advanced upon the 
 ground of merit, he must not content himself with 
 merely doing his duty : he must be ready at all times 
 to do more than his duty : to assist every one who 
 needs his assistance, and to extend as far as possible 
 the field of his usefulness. This he considered to be 
 a solid groundwork for official worth and reputation, 
 which was sure to be obtained by attention and perse- 
 vering industry in the public service. His feelings 
 with respect to the result of patient labour in every 
 walk of life appear to have been precisely what has 
 been so forcibly experienced by an old writer :* " Few 
 men know their own strength for want of trying it, and 
 upon that account think themselves really unable to do 
 many things which experience would convince them 
 they have more ability to effect than they have will to 
 attempt. It is idleness that creates impossibilities ; and 
 where men care not to do a thing, they shelter thera- 
 South.
 
 14 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 selves under a persuasion that it cannot be done. The 
 shortest and the surest way to prove a work possible is 
 strenuously to set about it : and no wonder if that proves 
 it possible, which for the most part makes it so." In 
 this spirit he acted : and it is difficult to believe that he 
 did not feel confident that it would, eventually, make 
 him something more than a valuable officer in the 
 department in which he was engaged. 
 
 He had now arrived at what often proves, though 
 probably it was not so in this instance, the turning point 
 of a man's life. He married, June 4, 1798, Frances 
 Elizabeth, daughter of Edward Whitehouse, Esq., of 
 Walworth, who had an appointment in the Custom 
 House, and was gentleman usher at the Court of St 
 James's ;* she was the widow of Charles Ashwell, Esq., 
 of the Island of Grenada. Mrs. Hume was a lady of 
 great beauty and dignity of demeanour, which her 
 somewhat unusual height in no way tended to diminish. 
 She was sometimes compared to Mrs. Siddons, whom in 
 feature, however, and in some respects even in person 
 she did not resemble. Her natural disposition was 
 
 The following anecdote may possibly be thought not too trifling 
 to be related. After the attempt made by Margaret Nicholson to 
 assassinate George I1L by stabbing him with a knife, addresses were 
 presented to the King, in congratulation upon his providential escape. 
 All who presented these addresses were knighted, and were ever after 
 jocosely spoken of as .the " Knights of the Blade." Mrs. Hume, who 
 was then a child, had heard a great deal about these formidable per- 
 sonages. One day, therefore, upon her father's taking her to St 
 James's, to see the company at a drawing-room, she became very 
 importunate ; and Mr. Whitehouse much amused the Marquis of 
 Hertford, by remarking, "My little girl is so exceedingly anxious that 
 I should show her tome of the Knights of the Blade."
 
 MARRIAGE. 15 
 
 especially indicated by an entire absence of selfishness, 
 and a remarkable consideration for others, especially 
 the young, to whom she felt much delight in giving 
 pleasure. At the time of her second marriage she was 
 not more than twenty-five years of age, and had two 
 daughters; Frances, who married George Pocock, Esq., 
 of Lincoln's Inn Fields, and Mary, the wife of William 
 Willimott, Esq., of Eltham, in the county of Kent. It 
 is related of the -first Lady Ellenborough* that so 
 great was her beauty, that if she only appeared to 
 water her flowers in the balcony of her house in 
 Bloomsbury Square, a crowd would immediately 
 assemble. Mrs. Hume, who always seemed to be 
 insensible of her own charms, could not appear in any 
 public assembly without being the observed of all 
 observers. 
 
 When, after the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, Louis 
 XVIII. was returning to France, he and the Duchess 
 of Angouleme passed a night at Great Stanmore, and 
 were met there on the following morning by the Prince 
 Regent, who was to convey them to London in the 
 state carriage. Before their departure the gentry of 
 the neighbourhood were admitted to a vie'w of the 
 royal party after the following manner: The illustrious 
 visitors being seated in the assembly-room, from the 
 open door, each lady and gentleman wearing a white 
 favour, or cockade, was permitted to have a momentary 
 view of them. When Mrs. Hume took her turn, the 
 Prince expressed his admiration in strong terms, adding 
 Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Chief Justices."
 
 16 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 to some one who was standing near him, " I think you 
 must bring her in." Whereupon Sir Benjamin, after- 
 wards Lord Bloomfield, approached, and asked Mrs. 
 Hume whether she would like to have a nearer view of 
 the Duchess ? Upon her assenting, Sir Benjamin offered 
 her his arm, and conducted her into the room : a mark of 
 distinction which was bestowed upon no other person. 
 She was at a loss to account for the attention which she 
 had received : and was accustomed to say she supposed 
 she was indebted for the compliment to her milliner, who 
 had sent her a larger favour than those which were worn 
 by the rest of the company, and that so she was made 
 to appear the most loyal of them. Many years elapsed 
 before the matter was explained. The late Lord 
 Bloomfield having afterwards become acquainted with 
 several members of her family, the circumstance was 
 brought to his recollection; and Mrs. Hume was 
 informed, and at last we believe convinced, that it 
 was to the Prince Regent she was indebted for the 
 distinction. 
 
 A few years after his marriage, Mr. Hume removed 
 from London to Pinner, near Harrow, where he farmed 
 upon a large scale. He was devotedly fond of agricul- 
 ture in all its branches, and often referred to his prac- 
 tical experience as a farmer, in illustration of his power- 
 ful reasonings in favour of free trade. But he never 
 suffered his agricultural pursuits to interfere with his 
 public duties. For several years he was accustomed to 
 ride up and down from London to Pinner, through all 
 the changes of the weather, leaving his house in the
 
 AGRICULTURAL PURSUITS. 17 
 
 depth of winter long before dawn, and returning after 
 dark. Unfortunately, he was at the height of his farm- 
 ing speculations just before the close of the Peninsular 
 War. At a great expense he had brought his land into 
 a high state of cultivation ; and then the peace suddenly 
 followed with its low prices, whereby he was a heavy 
 sufferer ; so much so, that in the year 1822, he thought 
 it prudent to relinquish his farming occupation, and to 
 break up a large establishment. He took a house for 
 three years, at St. Omer, to which he removed his 
 family, though official duties obliged him to reside 
 almost entirely in London. He crossed the channel, 
 however, as often as he could, and upon one occasion 
 twice before he succeeded in reaching the opposite 
 shore. On the 23rd of December, 1824, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Hume, and one of their children, having left Dover for 
 Calais, purposing to spend Christmas with the family 
 at St. Omer, they encountered a rough sea-passage, the 
 vessel losing one of its paddle-wheels. Darkness came 
 on, and upon arriving at Calais, instead of entering the 
 harbour, the steamer struck against the pier and went 
 out again to sea. For many hours they were fully aware 
 of their perilous condition. The storm continued, the 
 disabled steamer was beyond the captain's control, and 
 they were in great danger of being drifted upon the 
 Goodwin Sands. Famine was added to their other 
 miseries, no provision having of course been made for 
 what ought to have been only a two hours' passage. 
 About 8 o'clock the next morning they found themselves 
 off Ramsgate, and were only too thankful to be safe in 
 
 c
 
 18 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 any harbour, even though, with respect to their destina- 
 tion, they were further off than when they set out This 
 was not at all according to Mr. Hume's notions of pro- 
 gress ; but there was no help for it It so happened that 
 there was a French lady on board who had some time 
 previously become insane, in consequence of the sudden 
 death of her husband and two children ; and she was 
 constantly and piteously exclaiming that she could see 
 them. This poor lady took a great fancy to Mrs. Hume, 
 whose influence over her was immediate and complete ; 
 very much to the comfort and satisfaction of her atten- 
 dant, who was continually soliciting Mrs. Hume's inter- 
 ference, whenever she had occasion to control or to 
 pacify her. 
 
 It was a little before this time that Mr. Hume first 
 became known to the public beyond the walls of the 
 Custom-house. His situation often imposed upon him 
 the duty of writing reports upon subjects connected 
 therewith for the use of the Commissioners. One of 
 ^hese papers had been forwarded to Mr. Huskisson, 
 and related to a subject upon which he happened to be 
 seeking information. Struck, probably informed, by 
 the document, he begged to see the individual who had 
 written it ; and he, of course, had not long conversed 
 with Mr. Hume before he perceived his worth, how 
 much he had reflected upon, and how thoroughly 
 versed he was in every branch of political economy. 
 
 We may here mention that not long after Mr. Deacon 
 Hume became Controller of the Customs, he succeeded 
 in having a case relating to the duties of that office
 
 FORESTALLING AND REGRATING. 19 
 
 carried before the Court of Queen's Bench, contrary to 
 the opinions both of the Attorney-General and the 
 Solicitor-General of the day ; and Lord Ellenborough 
 adopted his view of the question, notwithstanding the 
 opinion of the law officers of the Crown. Lord Ellen- 
 borough was the Judge, who, as Lord Campbell ob- 
 serves in his "Lives,"* "gained great credit with all 
 sensible men from his conflict with Lord Kenyon about 
 forestalling and regrating. He had studied successfully 
 the principles of political economy, and he admirably 
 exposed the absurd doctrine that the magistrate can 
 beneficially interfere in the commerce of provisions ; 
 but he had the mortification to see his clients sentenced 
 to fine and imprisonment for the imaginary crime of 
 buying with a view to raise the price of the com- 
 modity.''! In those days, as the same biographer 
 elsewhere remarks, " the cry was as strong for pro- 
 tection against forestallers, as it has more recently 
 been for protection against foreign importation ; and so 
 general was the agitation, that corn-merchants were in 
 great danger of being torn to pieces by judge-led mobs. 
 I am ashamed to say that most of the puisne judges 
 participated in the hallucination of Lord Kenyon ; 
 insomuch that Sydney Smith thus wrote in his old 
 age 
 
 " ' The absurdity of attributing the high price of com 
 
 to the combination of farmers and the dealings of 
 
 middle-men, was the common nonsense talked in those 
 
 days of my youth. I remember when ten judges out 
 
 Vol. iii. 138. f R. c. Waddington, 1 East. 166.
 
 20 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 of the twelve laid down this doctrine in their charges 
 to the various grand juries on their circuits."* 
 
 And yet those were times when such words of 
 wisdom as the following had recently been uttered 
 by Burke : " The balance between consumption and 
 production makes price. Market is the meeting and 
 conference of the consumer and producer, when they 
 mutually discover each other's wants. Nobody has 
 observed with any reflection what market is, without 
 being astonished at the truth, the correctness, the 
 celerity, the general equity, with which the balance 
 of want is settled. They who wish the destruction of 
 that balance, and would fain by arbitrary regulation 
 decree, that defective production should not be com- 
 pensated by increased price, directly lay their axe to 
 the root of production itself."
 
 21 
 
 CHAPTER JL 
 
 MR. HUMZ CONSOLIDATES THE LAWS OF THE CUSTOMS He BECOMES 
 JOINT-SECRETARY OF THE BOARD OF TRADE DEATH OF MR. 
 HOSKISSOW. 
 
 " This chaos of legislation (the laws of the Customs) was com- 
 pressed by Mr. Hume into ten acts a sort of Code Napoleon." 
 STATLETON'S Life, of Canning. 
 
 THERE are few subjects which, for many years, have 
 attracted greater attention than proposals for the con- 
 solidation of the Statute Law. We are about to record 
 a memorable instance of success in a particular branch 
 of it 
 
 In the autumn of 1822, Mr. Deacon Hume first 
 entertained the vast idea of consolidating the Laws of 
 the Customs. Grave heads had often been shaken, 
 when the possibility of such a result was seriously 
 spoken of. Such demonstrations, however, produced 
 no effect upon the mind of Mr. Hume. At the close 
 of the year, with the sanction of the Lords of the 
 Treasury, he addressed himself to the work. Having, 
 as we have already mentioned, located his family at St. 
 Omer, he established himself in chambers in Parliament 
 Street, Westminster, a locality convenient for his pur- 
 pose. Here, his duties at the Custom House being 
 necessarily suspended, for the space of nearly three 
 
 -B3
 
 22 LITE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 years, night and day, he toiled at his almost super- 
 human undertaking. 
 
 Some notion may be formed of the Herculean nature 
 of the undertaking, when it is stated that the Customs 
 laws had accumulated from the reign of Edward I. 
 to the enormous amount of fifteen hundred statutes. 
 These statutes, often confused, often contradictory, 
 sometimes unintelligible, formed, previous to the year 
 1825, the intricate and labyrinthine chaos of our 
 Custom House Legislation. It required long and 
 patient study to ascertain where the provisions were 
 to be found which regulated the merchant and the 
 trader in the management of his affairs. They were 
 puzzled and harassed beyond measure. Into this con- 
 fused and disordered mass, Mr. Hume introduced 
 clearness, harmony, and regularity. He collated the 
 scattered enactments, and arranged the matter under 
 ten heads; the regulations respecting each of which 
 formed a separate Act. Within as small a number 
 as ten intelligible statutes, he contrived to preserve 
 all that was requisite. As Mr. Hamel, the present 
 Solicitor to the Customs, has observed, " it was justly 
 deemed a great triumph of industry and skill." If, 
 however, the reader would ascertain for himself the 
 extent and merit of what was achieved, he must 
 examine and contrast the Babel library of the Custom 
 House laws and regulations about thirty-five years 
 ago, with the single volume that contains Mr. Deacon 
 Hume's codification ; which, to quote the words of one 
 who privately printed some memorials of Mr. Huskisson
 
 LAWS OF THE CUSTOMS. 23 
 
 soon after his decease, " is so clear and comprehensive 
 that neither the meaning nor the application of those 
 laws can any longer be mistaken." 
 
 Mr. Hume, however, did not survey his completed 
 labours with entire complacency. He thought that the 
 great object had not been completely obtained ; he con- 
 tended that the simplification might have been carried 
 further that the reform had only commenced and in 
 his valuable evidence before the Import Duties Com- 
 mittee in 1840, he publicly communicated his views 
 in detail, strengthened by longer reflection, and more 
 matured experience.* 
 
 The laws of the Customs, as prepared by Mr. Deacon 
 Hume, the subjects of which were the law of naviga- 
 tion, the registering of vessels, the warehousing of 
 goods, the granting of bounties, the prevention of 
 smuggling,! *&& some provisions relating to the Isle 
 of Man, were introduced into Parliament in high 
 terms of commendation by Mr. Herries, at that time 
 one of the secretaries of the Treasury. They received 
 the Royal assent in the month of July, 1825. Mr. 
 Huskisson, probably from his deeming it a hopeless 
 undertaking, did not appear at the outset to be very 
 solicitous as to the result No one, however, more 
 sincerely felt and acknowledged its value, as soon as 
 it was accomplished. Mr. Hume, immediately after 
 the passing of the Acts, proceeded to prepare an edition 
 
 * A further codification was effected in 1845, by Mr. Walford, founded 
 on Mr. Hume's consolidation; and another by Mr. Hamel in 1853. 
 
 f This subject was entirely confided to Mr. Thackeray, and although 
 included in the volume, formed no part of Mr. Hume's labours. 
 
 - B4
 
 24 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 of them, with notes and indices. A member of the 
 House of Commons to whom this country is greatly 
 indebted,* informed the writer of this narrative that he 
 well remembers Mr. Huskisson holding up a copy of 
 it, and observing in terms of exultation, that a single 
 octavo volume contained the entire laws of the Customs. 
 Both in and out of Parliament he constantly referred 
 with the greatest satisfaction to the compilation and 
 enactment of this new fiscal code. And the friend of 
 Mr. Huskisson, already referred to, correctly remarks, 
 " A task of such magnitude and extraordinary labour 
 Mr. Huskisson frequently declared could never have 
 been achieved but by the unwearied diligence of 
 Mr. Deacon Hume, to whom the lasting gratitude of 
 the country is owing for his persevering exertions, 
 and for the essential benefit which he thus conferred 
 upon the commercial world." As has been already 
 intimated, not only were the laws of the Customs 
 consolidated, but some considerable changes were 
 effected at the same time in the laws themselves, " in 
 conformity with the spirit of those principles of com- 
 mercial intercourse on which the Government had 
 determined to act, while duties of importance were 
 considerably reduced, those on numerous minor articles 
 were lowered. During the war the rates of the 
 tariff had been so increased, for the single purpose 
 of revenue, that they had become for the most part 
 inapplicable to a state of peace, and required general 
 revision. This revision was regulated by the follow- 
 * Lord John Russell.
 
 LAWS OF THE CUSTOMS. 25 
 
 ing principles: First, those duties were reduced, the 
 heaviness of which tended to lessen rather than to 
 increase their total product. Secondly, the duties on 
 raw materials, and on various articles useful in manu- 
 factures, were lowered to little more than nominal sums. 
 Thirdly, protecting duties of extravagant amount were 
 reduced to that point, at which the consumer was fairly 
 entitled to relief, either by the increased industry of 
 the home manufacturer, or by access to the sources of 
 supply. And, lastly, the comforts and tastes of the 
 public, and the advantage of their retail suppliers, were 
 consulted by the removal of duties which prevented the 
 introduction, or most unnecessarily abridged the use, of 
 many articles without benefit to any parties whatever." 
 
 "By the system founded on these principles, there 
 has not only been distributed amongst a numerous 
 population a great increase of employment, but its 
 diffusion has been greater, in proportion, than its 
 increase. It is also very remarkable that those trades 
 which have been prominent in complaining of foreign 
 competition have neither suffered more in diminution 
 of profits, nor increased less in extent of business than 
 those which have been able to hold foreign competition 
 at defiance." 
 
 " Besides this consolidation of the Customs laws, an 
 Act was passed in the same year, whereby many com- 
 inercial advantages were conferred on the colonies 
 beyond those contained in Mr. Robinson's two Acts of 
 1822 ; Mr. Huskisson laying down as the fundamental 
 principle on which his alterations were founded a
 
 26 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 principle deduced from past experience with respect 
 both to Ireland and our Colonies that * so far as the 
 colonies themselves were concerned, their prosperity 
 was cramped and impeded by a system of exclusion and 
 monopoly; and that whatever tended to increase the 
 prosperity of the colonies could not fail, in the long run, 
 to advance, in an equal degree, the general interest 
 of the parent state.' By these Acts, not only articles of 
 first necessity, but goods of all descriptions, with very 
 few exceptions, were allowed to be imported from all 
 countries, either in British ships, or in the ships of the 
 country of their production; and the goods of the 
 colonies were allowed to be exported in any ships to 
 any foreign country whatever. The only part of the 
 colonial system which was persevered in was that which 
 excluded foreign ships from carrying goods from one 
 British place to another." 
 
 " The admission of foreign ships, however, was not 
 unconditional : it was made to depend upon reciprocal 
 or equivalent liberality towards our trade and navi- 
 gation on the part of the countries profiting by the 
 advantages of it ; but a power was given to the King 
 in Council to relax the rigour of the law, if occasion 
 should, in any particular cases, seem to require it. 
 The privileges of warehousing were extended to the 
 chief trading ports of the colonies; a measure which 
 was well adapted to promote the creation of entrepots 
 in those places, for the general barter trade of that 
 quarter of the globe."* 
 
 * Staplcton'g " Political Life of Canning," voL iii. 1831.
 
 LAWS OP THE CUSTOMS. 27 
 
 There are few persons who would not have shrunk 
 from so arduous an undertaking as that in which 
 Mr. Hume embarked; few, having commenced it, 
 would have had courage to persevere : but he was not 
 at all accustomed to say ' there is a lion in the path ;' 
 zeal impelled him; energy and unwearied exertion 
 enabled him to vanquish every difficulty. The work 
 entirely occupied him for a lengthened period, during 
 which he contracted the habit of working late at night, 
 or rather through the night until the morning : for he 
 seldom went to bed until four or five, a practice which 
 probably tended imperceptibly to injure his health, and 
 to shorten his days. Conscious, however, that he was 
 endowed with a constitution beyond that of most men, 
 he never spared himself. This mighty work, to which 
 the merchants of England owe the most solid benefits, 
 has never been estimated by the general public to the 
 extent which its merits deserve. But it is not difficult 
 to perceive that this lack of fame is mainly owing to 
 its extraordinary excellence. Had the consolidation 
 been effected by any but a master-hand, the confusion 
 which must have inevitably ensued would have caused 
 the country to ring with the complaints of its mer- 
 chants from one end of it to the other. But the ease 
 with which the great change was effected, and the 
 facilities that it afforded in the conduct of all mercantile 
 transactions were felt indeed with silent gratitude and 
 admiration by those who benefited by the alteration, 
 but it did not attract that general applause which 
 would assuredly have been the portion of a more
 
 28 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 splendid, but less solid performance. Excepting the 
 far less extended labours of the late Sir Robert Peel in 
 the consolidation of the criminal law, whereof the result 
 was, that a large number of statutes in whole or in part 
 were compressed into five, an achievement which will 
 probably always go by his name, there is no parallel, so 
 far as we know, to the labours of Mr. Deacon Hume ; 
 who, withal, had little or no assistance ; whereas Sir R. 
 Peel always expressed his obligations to Mr. Hobhouse, 
 who had been Under Secretary of State for the Home 
 Department, and to Mr. Gregson, whose aid, as he 
 never omitted to state, had been most material. 
 
 The Government, during the year in which the 
 Customs' Acts received the Royal assent, voted 6,OOOJ. 
 to Mr. Hume as a public acknowledgment of the 
 service he had rendered to the country. He was 
 most unfortunate, however, in his investment of this 
 money, for he never recovered it 
 
 The changes themselves were proposed and carried 
 through both Houses of Parliament without difficulty. 
 " It was not," as Mr. Stapleton justly remarked, " till 
 after the occurrence of the commercial crisis that they 
 met with the animadversion of the members of Par- 
 liament That crisis, as was unavoidable, produced 
 almost universal embarrassment, and as it so happened 
 that the change in our commercial system had not long 
 preceded the embarrassment; there were not wanting 
 individuals to connect the two together, and to describe 
 the one as the cause, and the other as the effect It 
 may, however, be safely asserted that they entirely
 
 BOARD OF TRADE. 29 
 
 failed in establishing this connection ; and the con- 
 vulsion in our commercial transactions in December, 
 1825, which has been known by the name of 
 'the panic' must be ascribed to other causes than 
 that of the liberal policy of the Administration; 
 which, far from producing, or even increasing the 
 disaster, has been proved, as clearly as argument can 
 prove it, to have tended not a little to its allevia- 
 tion."* 
 
 Though for three years subsequent to this period, 
 Mr. Hume's only office was at the Custom House, he 
 was frequently sent for to advise, or to afford in- 
 formation, at the Board of Trade, not only by Mr. 
 Huskisson, but by other eminent men who successively 
 presided over that department So necessary, indeed, 
 did his services become, that for some time before he 
 left the Custom House, a room was provided for him at 
 the Board of Trade ; till, under the Presidency of Mr., 
 afterwards Lord, Fitzgerald, no vacancy occurring in 
 the Secretaryship, for which he was designed, in the 
 year 1828, the office of Joint-Secretary was created. 
 Upon his accepting this appointment, he resigned the 
 office of Controller of the Customs, the duties of which 
 he had uninterruptedly discharged for a period of 
 thirty-eight years. 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume's removal from the Custom House 
 
 to the Board of Trade, it will be supposed, was much 
 
 approved by Mr. Huskisson, who probably suggested 
 
 it ; and it was fully appreciated by Mr. Hume. It was 
 
 * " Life of Canning," TO!, iii.
 
 30 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 an advantage to both : and the efficiency of the public 
 service was manifestly augmented. It would be an 
 interesting inquiry, did we possess all the information 
 which would be requisite for conducting it, to ascertain 
 how far Mr. Hume influenced, or led Mr. Huskisson, 
 whose mind, in many respects of a similar character, 
 was wanting in the boldness and intrepidity which were 
 the leading characteristics of the mind of Mr. Hume. 
 That many of Mr. Huskisson's measures, when he was 
 President, owed their origin or their efficacy in no 
 small degree to the suggestions of Mr. Hume has been 
 stated on the highest authority ; indeed, it is apparent 
 from papers and reports which have been printed, from 
 time to time, by order of Parliament. 
 
 Devoted to the public service, Mr. Hume thought 
 much less of his individual reputation than of the good 
 which he might be able to accomplish. While he 
 was at the Board of Trade, he would sit up night after 
 night writing papers upon a variety of subjects for the 
 use of the President or other individuals. Upon one 
 occasion, when Mr. Huskisson was carrying through the 
 House of Commons a bill relating to the silk trade, an 
 amendment was suggested which rendered alterations 
 throughout the whole of the bill necessary, and Mr. 
 Huskisson expressed a desire to have them the next 
 morning, without calculating, at the moment, the amount 
 of labour which they would impose. The bill, too, was 
 to be printed in its altered form. When Mr. Hus- 
 kisson addressed himself to the subject upon the follow- 
 ing day nearly the whole of it was ready ; but finding
 
 HUSKISSON. 31 
 
 some portion incomplete, he expressed his disappoint- 
 ment. Mr. Hume's excuse, if a good reason may be 
 so described, was, that he had undertaken the alteration 
 of the bill as soon as he received it that in order to 
 expedite the matter, he had been sitting through the 
 night at his table, with the printer's assistant at his side, 
 and that, in fact, he had been engaged upon ft ever 
 since without having retired to rest. Mr. Huskisson, of 
 course, felt the force of the reason, and expressed him- 
 self perfectly satisfied. 
 
 How often are the apparently best concerted arrange- 
 ments brought to nothing I The advantage which the 
 country might fairly be expected to reap from the 
 united labours of Mr. Huskisson and Mr. Hume at the 
 same Board, was unexpectedly dissipated by a rupture 
 between the former and the Duke of Wellington, which 
 led to Mr. Huskisson's exclusion from office; and all 
 hope of his return was cut off by his untimely death. 
 Mr. Hume was present upon that sad occasion. He 
 had travelled to Liverpool with a large party,* in- 
 cluding several members of the Government, in order 
 to witness the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester 
 Railway, on the 15th of September, 1830, and he shared 
 the grief which they all experienced when they saw the 
 engine crush him the engine which afterwards carried 
 his wounded body to Eccles at the rate of thirty-six 
 miles an hour a speed, which, a few moments before 
 
 * The Duke of Wellington was one. It was on this day that he 
 travelled for the first time upon a railway. As soon as the train was 
 fairly in motion, he made the soldierly and characteristic remark 
 This would be very effective for the conveyance of troops."
 
 32 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 had been pronounced impossible.* Mysterious decree 
 of Providence that England should be deprived of Hus- 
 kisson, not the most brilliant, but probably one of the 
 wisest, certainly one of the most progressive, statesmen 
 of his time, upon that day, which was to be the intro- 
 duction of a social and commercial revolution, second 
 only to that brought about by the discovery of printing, 
 whereby " the course of modern history was altered, 
 and the pulses of public life began to flow." 
 
 The regret which Mr. Deacon Hume, and those who 
 thought with him, felt for the loss of Mr. Huskisson, 
 apart from personal connection, was very great the 
 representative of the political economists had passed 
 away the parliamentary expositor of the principles of 
 commercial freedom, as far as those principles had been 
 developed, was no more and his death created a void 
 which was not to be presently supplied by any living 
 statesman. Like him, whose life it is the object of this 
 volume to portray, he had a natural talent for finance ; 
 and it had been cultivated with the most unwearied 
 application. " His information and research had pene- 
 trated into every corner of our financial and commercial 
 system." The knowledge of all other members of Par- 
 
 The engine was the " Rocket," the rough type of its myriad 
 successor!. " An Olympic engine-race came off at Rainhill, when 
 the ' Rocket' won, attaining during its trial trip a maximum velocity 
 of twenty- nine miles an hour, or about three times the speed that one 
 of the judges declared to be the limit of possibility. The shares of 
 the company rose ten per cent., for they were relieved from the pro- 
 posed expense for fixed engines and engine-houses ; and a social 
 revolution was predicted by discerning spirits. The 'Rocket' was 
 the morning star of the new era."
 
 HUSKISSON. LIVERPOOL. 33 
 
 liament upon questions of finance, as Lord Brougham 
 once went so far as to say, was as dust in the balance 
 when compared with his resources. His acquaintance 
 with the variously conflicting interests of the greatest 
 commercial empire in the world was perhaps un- 
 equalled. His life had been mainly devoted to the 
 study of one particular subject ; and he had justly 
 earned the character, which was not generally accorded 
 to him until many years after his decease, of being the 
 safest, as well as the most intelligent, of the financial 
 statesmen of his day. 
 
 If he was proud of anything, it was of being sought 
 out to represent the town of Liverpool in Parliament. 
 The growing prosperity of that town, he observed with 
 great satisfaction. " A prosperity," he would often 
 remark, " which was not to be ascribed to extensive 
 charters, or to privileged companies, but to the in- 
 dustry, the enterprise, and the good sense of indi- 
 viduals ; there being no town in the kingdom which 
 contributes so much in proportion to the revenue of the 
 State, or a town which requires so little of that revenue 
 to be expended upon it." When he considered, too, 
 that with a population of 150,000 persons Liverpool 
 was, and we believe is still, with a population of more 
 than double that amount, " without a barrack, a guard- 
 house, or a single company of soldiers, a mind like his 
 could not but silently inquire, whence arose this beau- 
 tiful order? or fail to discover the solution of the 
 question in the activity which seeks and receives 
 general employment, while in the lesson which this
 
 34 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 inculcates, he doubtless saw a fresh proof of the 
 necessity of giving expansion and growth to the in- 
 dustrial powers of the country. 
 
 Dreadful catastrophe which changed a day of public 
 rejoicing into one of national mourning for his loss! 
 Saddening consideration, that " out of half a million of 
 people assembled on such an occasion of festivity Death 
 should have stricken a foremost man of the world, and 
 left the rest unscathed 1 That of all that multitude 
 whom the morning of the 15th of September, 1830, 
 had poured forth to swell the triumph, at night, he only 
 should be missing!"
 
 35 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FAUXTLEROT MB. DEACON HUME DISCOVERS HIS FORGERIES 
 REMARKS or SIB ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 " We are easily shocked by crimes which appear at once in their 
 full magnitude; but the gradual growth of our wickedness, endeared 
 by interest, and palliated by all the artifices of self-deceit, gives us 
 time to form distinctions in our own favour; and reason, by degrees, 
 submits to absurdity, as the eye is in time accommodated to dark- 
 ness." DR. JOHNSON. 
 
 IN the autumn of the year 1824, the country was 
 startled by the discovery of a series of most extraordi- 
 nary forgeries ; amounting altogether to no less a sum 
 than 353,OOOZ. 
 
 The discovery originated with Mr. Deacon Hume. 
 Having had occasion to go to the Bank of England, 
 respecting the transfer of the property of a family of 
 eight orphan children, for whom with Mr. Fauntleroy 
 and Mr. Goodchild, he was a trustee, he found that his 
 name had been forged to a letter of attorney, for the 
 sale of 10,OOOZ., three per cent, annuities, and that the 
 stock had long since been sold out Alarmed at the 
 discovery, he addressed himself to Mr. Goodchild, and 
 as he more than suspected, so he found, his signature 
 also had been forged. 
 
 The circumstances of the case, which need not be
 
 36 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 more particularly noted, left no room for doubt as to 
 the criminal. They proceeded the same evening to the 
 police-office in Marlborough Street, and obtained from 
 Mr. Conant, the magistrate, a warrant against Mr. 
 Fauntleroy, of the firm of Marsh, Stracey, Faunt- 
 leroy, and Graham, in Berners Street. Mr. Conant 
 was astonished and distressed at the application, for he 
 was personally acquainted with Mr. Fauntleroy; but 
 upon the information of Mr. Hume and Mr. Good- 
 child, he granted a warrant for his apprehension. 
 That evening, Mr. Fauntleroy was from home. The 
 officers watched the house, but to no purpose, during 
 the night. The next morning, about ten o'clock, his 
 usual hour of business, he was seen to enter the bank. 
 Mr. Goodchild, in the absence of Mr. Hume, preceded 
 the officer in entering the bank, and was engaged in 
 conversation with Mr. Fauntleroy, in a small room, 
 when the officer entered, made known his name and 
 business, and at the same time produced his warrant. 
 Mr. Fauntleroy became dreadfully agitated and ex- 
 claimed, " Gracious Heaven ! cannot this business be 
 settled ? " The officer begged of him to make no noise, 
 but to walk out quietly for a few minutes, and they 
 would talk about a settlement. Mr. Fauntleroy then 
 signed a few blank cheques, with an unsteady hand, and 
 having given them to one of his clerks, told him he 
 was going out for a moment, and putting on his hat, 
 he walked on without observation by the side of the 
 officer, who immediately conducted him to the private 
 house of Mr. Conant. Mr. Fauntleroy now became
 
 FAUNTLEBOY'S COMMITTAL. 37 
 
 fully aware of the dreadful situation in which he stood. 
 He expressed a desire that the principal clerk in the 
 banking-house might be sent for, in order that he 
 might give some directions about the business of the 
 day. When, however, the clerk arrived, he merely 
 requested to see Mr. Graham, and Mr. Stracey, two 
 of the partners in the firm. 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume was then sworn and examined 
 to prove one act of forgery for 10,000, on the part 
 of the accused; and at the termination of the investi- 
 gation, which lasted several hours, the prisoner was 
 committed to the House of Correction in Coldbath 
 Fields, by virtue of the following warrant : 
 
 "Police-office, Marlborough Street, Sept. 10, 1824. 
 
 "Receive into your custody the body of Henry 
 Fauntleroy, charged on the oath of James Deacon 
 Hume, and others, before me, John Edmund Conant, 
 Esquire, one of His Majesty's Justices of the Peace, 
 acting in, and for the County of Middlesex, with 
 having feloniously forged and uttered as true, a cer- 
 tain instrument, with intent to defraud the Governor 
 and Company of the Bank of England, and others, of 
 the sum of 10,000, and him safely keep in your cus- 
 tody for re-examination before me. 
 
 "J. E. CONANT." 
 
 To the OoTernor of the House of Correction, 
 Coldbath Fields, or his Deputy." 
 
 The next morning Mr. Fauntleroy was brought to 
 Marlborough Street, for further examination. The de- 
 positions of the Rev. Mr. Hardinge, and Sir Richard
 
 38 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 Hardinge, relative to their signatures to a warrant of 
 attorney, for 3,500/,, having been received, and all the 
 witnesses bound over to prosecute, he was conveyed 
 back to the House of Correction. 
 
 Upon how slight a circumstance do matters of the 
 greatest moment often turn I Had the time not arrived 
 when the property of which Mr. Hume was a trustee 
 must be transferred, he would probably not have had 
 occasion to go to the Bank of England. The dividends 
 receivable at the banking-house in Berners Street would 
 have been paid as usual ; and though the stock had long 
 since been sold out, all would have appeared secure. It 
 seems singular that Mr. Fauntleroy did not duly esti- 
 mate so obvious a contingency, but it would appear either 
 that he did not, or that he was obliged to disregard it. 
 
 Little did Mr. Hume imagine on the morning of the 
 10th of September, that instead of going out of town in 
 the afternoon, as he had intended, to join Mrs. Hume at 
 Ramsgate, he would be detained by having to go to a 
 police-office to prefer a charge of forgery against a co- 
 trustee, a member of a well-known, and what was pre- 
 sumed to be a most respectable banking establishment 
 He did not reach Ramsgate until the following evening. 
 He looked jaded and worn, but he only remarked that 
 he had been detained in town unexpectedly by urgent 
 business. He joined the family at dinner, but in a few 
 minutes he said he did not feel well, and would with- 
 draw and lie down upon the sofa in the adjoining room. 
 Mrs. Hume, perceiving that there was something amiss, 
 followed him, when he made known to her the cause of
 
 FORGERIES. 39 
 
 his indisposition and the painful duty which had been 
 cast upon him. 
 
 Mr. Hume returned to town the following Monday, 
 but it was not until Friday, the 1st of October, that 
 Mr. Fauntleroy was again brought up. On that day 
 Mr. Forbes, solicitor, and Mr. Banner's chief clerk 
 attended on behalf of the prisoner. Mr. Freshfield 
 appeared on behalf of the Bank. After receiving the 
 depositions of Mr. Graham, Mr. Goodchild, and others, 
 relative to the powers-of-attorney for 46,000*. Three per 
 Cents., 17,500 Navy Five per Cents., 5,300*. Three per 
 Cent Consolidated Fund, and also those of the Misses 
 Young (sisters of Mrs. Fauntleroy), and others ; as to 
 warrants-of-attorney to dispose of 5,000*. Three per 
 Cent Consols, and to another 5,000*. Three per Cent 
 Consols, Mr. Freshfield said that he did not for the pre- 
 sent mean to go any further on the part of the prose- 
 cution, and the prisoner was remanded for a week. 
 
 While Mr. Fauntleroy was in Coldbath Fields Prison, 
 an article appeared in the Times, complaining that he 
 was not sufficiently secured; that he had a splendid 
 room which overlooked the hills of Hampstead and 
 Highgate, and that he was possessed of considerable 
 sums of money, which assertions were contradicted. 
 
 On the 20th of October, he was again brought to 
 Marlborough Street for a final hearing. He appeared 
 to have undergone a great change in health and spirits 
 during the short time that had elapsed since his last 
 examination; his countenance presented a somewhat 
 ghastly hue, and altogether there were signs of his
 
 40 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 having suffered intense mental anguish. During the 
 examination he seemed to be absorbed in thought, and 
 almost unconscious of what was going on. 
 
 Colonel Thomas Lyster, of Wexford, deposed relative 
 to a power-of-attorney for 6,644 13. 3d. Four per 
 Cent. Annuities, which he placed in the banking-house 
 of Marsh, Stracey, and Co., to receive the dividends, 
 but on the failure of that house he came to London, and 
 then ascertained that that money had been sold out. 
 James Tyson and others proved the transfer, which was 
 in the handwriting of the prisoner. 
 
 Mr. Freshfield next proceeded to the warrant-of- 
 attorney for 5001. Long Annuities, which had been 
 transferred by the prisoner without the consent of a 
 Mr. Griffiths. Several clerks proved the forgeries of 
 the various signatures. 
 
 This being the whole of the evidence intended to be 
 produced on the part of the prosecution, the witnesses 
 were bound over to prosecute at the next sessions at the 
 Old Bailey, and the prisoner was remanded to Newgate. 
 
 Almost immediately after his apprehension, he ex- 
 pressed to his friends his firm conviction that no defence 
 would avail him, and his anxious desire, by pleading 
 guilty, to spare himself the pain of being exposed for 
 hours to the gaze of a crowded court, and compelled to 
 hear the narrative of lu's delinquencies. He stated that 
 it would be more congenial to his feelings to adopt this 
 course, because the prosecutors' counsel would then be 
 compelled to fold up their briefs, and all further 
 publicity would be avoided. In compliance, however,
 
 FAUNTLEROY'S DEFENCE. 41 
 
 with the wishes of his friends, he placed himself in the 
 hands of legal advisers. His counsel were unanimously 
 of opinion that he had no prospect of escape, if the in- 
 dictments were framed, as they had reason to expect, 
 from the intelligence and caution of the Bench agents, 
 that they would be. They consequently declined to 
 advise Mr. Fauntleroy as to the course which he should 
 pursue, leaving him to be guided entirely by his own 
 feelings as to whether he would take his trial or plead 
 guilty. Nothing decisive was elicited from him until 
 the Wednesday preceding the trial, when he addressed 
 a letter to his solicitor, expressing his determination to 
 plead not guilty. 
 
 He was annoyed at seeing the injurious statements 
 which were daily propagated respecting him in the 
 public prints. He was also distressed at finding his 
 name frequently associated with that of the murderer 
 Thurtell. These attacks unsettled his resolves, and 
 induced him to put himself upon his trial, if it were 
 only to have the opportunity of answering the state- 
 ments which had been circulated to his disadvantage. 
 
 On the morning of the trial, October 30, Messrs. 
 Forbes, Mayhew, and Harmer waited upon the accused, 
 whom they found at breakfast. He appeared to be 
 composed, and produced a fair copy of his defence, into 
 which he had introduced some judicious alterations and 
 remarks. He read it over to them in a voice which 
 was almost cheerful, observing as he went on, that he 
 felt relieved by the hope of removing some part of the 
 opprobrium which had been unfeelingly and unspar-
 
 42 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 ingly cast upon his character. Having dressed him- 
 self in a suit of mourning, with a mien serious, but no 
 way dejected, he calmly awaited the summons of the 
 Court. 
 
 The presiding Judges were Mr. Justice Parke and 
 Mr. Baron Garrow. 
 
 The clerk of arraigns having read from the indict- 
 ments the several counts against the prisoner, who 
 pleaded " Not Guilty," a jury was duly empanelled and 
 sworn. The substance of the first indictment was, that 
 the prisoner had, on the 1st of June, 1815, forged a 
 certain deed, purporting to be under the hand and seal 
 of Frances Young, in the purpose of selling 5,OOOZ. 
 Three Per Cent. Stock, with intent to defraud the Bank 
 of England, and that he had uttered the same deed 
 with the like intent 
 
 Mr. Law, as junior counsel for the prosecution, 
 opened the pleadings. The Attorney-General upon 
 rising was greatly affected, and with difficulty sup- 
 pressed his emotion. In a criminal charge of this kind, 
 involving the life of the prisoner, his counsel were 
 precluded, as the law was at that time, from addressing 
 the jury on his behalf. The Attorney-General, as he 
 promised, confined himself strictly to the facts of the 
 case. The prisoner was to be tried on a single case in 
 the first indictment, without reference to any other. 
 He had been a partner in the banking-house of Marsh, 
 Stracey, and Co., a house which had been established 
 for thirty years, and in which the prisoner's father had 
 been a partner. During the lifetime of his father he
 
 FORGERIES. 43 
 
 had been a confidential clerk in another banking firm, 
 and had so acquired a complete practical knowledge of 
 banking. In the year 1807 the prisoner's father died : 
 and he succeeded him in the firm of Marsh and Co., in 
 which from his perfect knowledge of business he be- 
 came the active manager. In the year 1815, a lady, 
 named Frances Young, was a customer to the bank. 
 This lady resided at Chichester, and had at that time 
 a sum of 5,450/. standing in her name in the Three 
 Per Cent Consols. The prisoner was empowered to 
 receive dividends for Miss Young, but not to sell out 
 the stock. In the month of June, however, a power 
 to sell was applied for. The mode of proceeding in 
 such cases is, that an application be made to the Bank, 
 stating the name of the applicant, the name of the 
 person holding the stock, and the object of the power 
 of Attorney. It was usual to preserve the slips of 
 paper upon which those applications were set forth; 
 but in the present instance, the slips had been mislaid 
 or destroyed, so that it could not be precisely ascer- 
 tained by whom the application had been made. The 
 power to sell purported to be executed by Miss Young ; 
 and the signature of Frances Young to it was a forgery. 
 It also purported to have the names of two persons as 
 witnesses, who never signed their names to it, and who 
 never saw Miss Young execute it. The instrument 
 was filled up in words at full length, and they were all 
 in the handwriting of the prisoner. The names of the 
 witnesses, who were clerks in the house of Marsh 
 and Co., were also written by the prisoner. The in-
 
 44 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 strument thus purporting to have been fully executed 
 was lodged at the Bank. It was necessary that it 
 should remain there for the space of twenty-four hours, 
 in order to afford the Bank clerks an opportunity of 
 being assured that it was a genuine instrument When 
 a transfer of stock is to be made, the person who applies 
 for the power must attend to claim his right to act, and 
 sign his name. On the 31st of May, 1815, the power 
 in question was lodged at the Bank, and on the 1st of 
 June the prisoner came to the Bank, where he signed 
 his name to enable him to act upon that power. This, 
 however, was only a part of the case. There was 
 another document which disposed of the whole matter. 
 The prisoner was apprehended in his counting-house. 
 Upon that occasion he locked his desk with a key which 
 was attached to his watch. The key was taken from 
 him. The solicitor of the Bank afterwards went to 
 the counting-house to search for more papers. He 
 there found, in the prisoner's private desk, a key that 
 opened a tin case, which, unlike the rest, had no name 
 upon it In this case there were many papers: and 
 amongst others, a document, in which were the names 
 of several persons holding stock of the Bank, which 
 had been sold by the prisoner. Among them were 
 Frances Young, 5,000 ; Pelham, 20,000 ; with many 
 others, amounting to 170,000. All these memoranda 
 were in the handwriting of the prisoner. There was 
 also a memorandum to this effect " In order to keep 
 up the credit of the banking-house, I forged the powers 
 of attorney for selling out, and have sold out without
 
 DISCOVERIES. 45 
 
 the knowledge of my partners, and paid the dividends 
 upon the above sums to the parties. Signed Henry 
 Fauntleroy, Berners Street, May 7, 1816." There was 
 also another memorandum in the following words: 
 " The Bank first began to treat us ill by refusing our 
 acceptances, and thereby injuring our credit ; and they 
 shall smart for it." From that time until the discovery 
 took place by Mr. Deacon Hume, the prisoner continued 
 his fraudulent transactions, and to pay the dividends 
 upon the different stocks which he sold, but he omitted 
 to post them in his day-book.* A more extraordinary 
 proceeding altogether had never been brought to light. 
 
 The facts having been proved by the testimony of 
 many witnesses, and Mr. Fauntleroy having been asked 
 if he wished to say anything in his defence, he at once 
 proceeded to read, in an audible and feeling manner, a 
 statement which had been for the most part prepared 
 by himself. 
 
 The following paragraphs contain his account of the 
 affairs of the bank : 
 
 My father established the banking-house in 1792, 
 in conjunction with Mr. Marsh, and other gentlemen. 
 Some of the partners retired in 1794, about which time 
 a loss of 20,0001. was sustained. Here commenced the 
 
 * The resrular payment of the dividends on the enormous sums of 
 stock which he sold out involved an annual draught upon him of 
 about 1 6.000/. Added to this, it is ascertained that upon some sudden 
 occasions, during the war, and after, when called upon to produce 
 stock to which he was trustee, he was often compelled to purchase at 
 an enormous loss, in order to prevent the disclosures which at Last 
 took place.
 
 46 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 difficulties of the house. In 1796, Mr. Stracey and 
 another gentleman came into the firm, with little or no 
 augmentation of capital. 
 
 "In 1800 I became a clerk in the house, and continued 
 such six years ; and although during that time I 
 received no salary, the firm were so well satisfied with 
 my attention to the interest and welfare of the establish- 
 ment, that I was handsomely rewarded by them. In 
 1807 my father died; I succeeded him. I was then 
 only twenty-two years of age, and the entire weight of 
 an expensive but needy banking establishment at once 
 devolved upon me. I found it deeply involved in 
 advances to builders and others which had rendered 
 the system of discounting necessary, and which we 
 were obliged to continue in consequence of the scarcity 
 of money at that time, and the necessity of making 
 further advances to those persons to secure the sums 
 in which they stood indebted. 
 
 "In this perplexed state the house continued until 
 1810, when its embarrassments were greatly increased, 
 owing to the bankruptcies of Brickwood and others, 
 which brought upon it a sudden demand for no less 
 than 170,000, the greater part being for the amount 
 of bills which our house had accepted and discounted 
 for these parties since become bankrupts. 
 
 " About 1814, 1815, and 1816, from the speculations 
 with builders, brickmakers, &c., in which the house 
 was engaged, it was called upon to provide funds to 
 near 100,000/., to avert the losses which would other- 
 wise have visited it from those speculations.
 
 FAUNTLEROY'S STATEMENT. 47 
 
 "In 1819, the most responsible of our partners died, 
 and we were called upon to pay over the amount of 
 his capital, although the substantial resources of the 
 house were wholly inadequate to meet so large a 
 payment 
 
 " During these numerous and trying difficulties the 
 house was nearly without resources, and the whole 
 burden of management falling upon me, I was driven 
 to a state of distraction, in which I could meet with no 
 relief from my partners; and, almost broken-hearted, 
 I sought resources where I could, and so long as] they 
 were provided, and the credit of the house supported, 
 no inquiries were made, either as to the manner in 
 which they were procured, or as to the resources from 
 whence they were derived. 
 
 " In the midst of these calamities, not unknown to 
 Mr. Stracey, he quitted England, and continued in 
 France upon his own private business, for two years, 
 leaving me to struggle as well as I could with difficulties 
 almost insurmountable. 
 
 " Having thus exposed all the necessities of the 
 house, I declare that all moneys temporarily raised by 
 me, were applied, not in one instance for my own 
 separate purposes or expenses, but in every case they 
 were immediately placed to the credit of the house 
 in Berners Street, and applied to the payment of the 
 pressing demands upon it This fact does not rest 
 upon my assertion, as the transactions referred to are 
 entered in the books now in the possession of assignees, 
 and to which I have had no access since my appro-
 
 48 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 hension. These books, I understand, are now in court, 
 and will confirm the truth of my statement; and to 
 whatever account all the sums may be entered, whether 
 to that of stock, of Exchequer bills, or to my private 
 account, the whole went to the general funds of the 
 banking-house." 
 
 An experienced London banker was heard to observe 
 at the time, that there was not in the metropolis a man 
 whom he should prefer to Mr. Fauntleroy for a perfect 
 knowledge of banking. He was minutely acquainted 
 with every description of public securities both foreign 
 and domestic, and could tell their respective and rela- 
 tive values in an instant 
 
 Several witnesses were called at his trial to speak in 
 favour of Mr. Fauntleroy's character. Sir Charles 
 Forbes was of the number. There were some persons 
 who had known him for a quarter of a century. All 
 spoke highly of him. Mr. Justice Parke told the jury 
 that they might dismiss from their minds the charge 
 of forgery, because there was no proof of that crime 
 having been committed in the city of London, within 
 the sole jurisdiction of the jury. That, however, he 
 added, would not alter the prisoner's case, since utter- 
 ing was as criminal, which had been proved to have 
 occurred within its jurisdiction. A verdict of guilty 
 of uttering was returned. Sentence of death was 
 afterwards passed upon him, and carried into effect. 
 
 The enormity of the offence, in this instance, appeared 
 in no way to check the growing repugnance of the 
 public mind to the infliction of death in cases of for-
 
 PEEL ON FORGERY. 49 
 
 gery. There have been few instances, from all accounts, 
 in which more compassion prevailed for the offender, 
 few in which capital punishment excited more painful 
 feelings. The abolition of the forfeiture of life in cases 
 of forgery, robbery, and even arson, may be well, but 
 we cannot altogether agree with Sir Samuel Romilly, 
 that our laws at this period might be said to be written 
 in blood ; neither can we apply to ourselves the 
 words of Montaigne, whom he quotes, "II n'est si 
 homme de bien qu'il mette a 1'examen des loix toutes 
 ses actions et pense'es, qui ne soit pendable dix fois en 
 sa vie.*** 
 
 Sir Robert Peel, in a speech which he delivered, 
 May 24, 1830, in opposition to the amendment of Sir 
 James Mackintosh in favour of the abolition of the 
 penalty of death in cases of forgery, furnishes a very 
 striking and practical dissertation upon the crime of 
 forgery in connection with this lamentable history : 
 
 " I believe there can be little doubt that the extreme rigonr of the 
 law adopted in 1728 on the subject of forgery, was owing to the 
 alarms created by the extensive and somewhat extraordinary forgeries 
 of an individual, a full account of whose depredations will be found in 
 the state trials for the period It appears that this person, whose 
 name was Hale, committed a number of forgeries on a member of this 
 House, named Gibson. He forged one bill for 1,6007. , another for 400/., 
 and another for 700/., and one for 6,500/. At that time it was the 
 practice of a member in franking a letter to write his name with the 
 word ' Free ' in the corner, leaving the superscription to be filled up 
 in the writing of the person sending the letter. Hale, it appears- 
 procured a number of these franks, and having changed the words, 
 ' Free, R, Gibson,' into ' For R. Gibson,' he then filled up the blank as 
 a bill, and was thus able to commit the forgery with ease. I have 
 little doubt that the indignation and alarm produced by this forgery 
 were the principal causes of the enactment of these severe laws." 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL. 
 
 E
 
 50 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 " With respect to the crime itself there are many 
 reasons such as the magnitude of the gain which may 
 be acquired, the facility of committing the crime, the 
 difficulty of detection, and the temptation to commit 
 it, which mark it with peculiar characteristics, and 
 make it deserving of especial consideration. As an 
 illustration of the magnitude of the sums to be 
 obtained, I will refer to the case of Fauntleroy. The 
 Bank of England was answerable for forgeries com- 
 mitted by this individual through a series of years, and 
 actually paid a sum of 353,OOOZ. Looking at the tempta- 
 tion, I would observe, it comes across a man over- 
 whelmed with distress, who, by the mere presenting a 
 draft at a banker's, may be relieved from his difficulties, 
 and find himself suddenly in the midst of prosperity ; 
 and then, if he does not succeed, there is the diffi- 
 culty of detection. In this crime there are none of 
 those revolting circumstances which alarm mankind. 
 There is no confederacy necessary. The criminal 
 need not disclose his guilt to any particeps criminia; 
 there is, consequently, an extreme difficulty of detec- 
 tion ; the draft is paid by a banker's clerk, who may, 
 perhaps, be induced, in case of need, to cancel it or 
 to deliver it up. Then the signature may be so well 
 imitated that no precaution can detect the forgery at 
 the moment. No vigilance, therefore, can guard against 
 it: and when it is once committed there may be no 
 remedy. No receiver, too, is necessary, as in the case 
 of many other crimes; and the property, when once 
 obtained, cannot be made evidence against the criminal.
 
 PEEL ON FORGERY. 51 
 
 But even the crime itself may be committed by an 
 innocent man, and a man ignorant that he is committing 
 a crime. A man presents a draft at a banker's: it is 
 paid in the hurry of business, over a crowded desk ; 
 the person who presents it may not be the forger, but 
 some one whom he has employed. The real culprit 
 may escape, if the stake is large enough, to the 
 continent: he may leave the country; but even if he 
 do not do so, the difficulty of detection is very great. 
 It depends, obviously, upon a question of personal 
 identity. The clerk who pays the draft must, in the 
 first instance, recognize the man who presented it ; and 
 if he is only some ignorant and innocent agent, he must 
 find out and identify his employer. Thus it is a ques- 
 tion of double identity ; and that must be decided 
 before the guilt can be brought home to any person. 
 When I recollect, therefore, the magnitude of the gain 
 the great temptation the difficulty of the detection 
 that there are no confederates necessary and no 
 violence to alarm the people, as in burglary or murder 
 coupling all these circumstances with the large pro- 
 perties concerned, I think they invest the crime with a 
 peculiar and exclusive character which belongs to no 
 other species of crime against which the legislature has 
 to guard." 
 
 The name of Fauntleroy has long since taken its 
 place in the history of the time as that of the most 
 extensive, and in a bad sense, the most accomplished 
 forger on record. The leading facts and circumstances 
 connected with his criminalities are too numerous to
 
 52 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 find a place in that rapidly extending roll. Yet they 
 are facts and circumstances of important, as well as of 
 melancholy interest, and ought not to depend upon the 
 imperfect recollection of those who were men and 
 women at the time, but who are every day becoming 
 fewer and fewer. The sad history has been narrated 
 in these pages in a somewhat condensed form ; and, as 
 a beacon and as a warning, it ought to be had in ever- 
 lasting remembrance. There is probably no place in 
 which it could be more fitly recorded than in a volume 
 which relates the chief incidents and labours of the life 
 of one who became the detector of these criminalities.
 
 53 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CORN LAWS AND CURRENCY. 
 
 " Of all things an indiscreet tampering with the trade of provisions 
 is the most dangerous. My opinion is against an overdoing of any 
 sort of administration, and more especially against this most 
 momentous of all meddling on the part of authority, the meddling 
 with the subsistence of the people." BURKE. 
 
 MR. DEACON HUME'S career as an author commenced 
 in the year 1815 by the publication of an anonymous 
 pamphlet, which he used to say was not worthy of 
 being remembered. If he formed a correct estimate of 
 its merits it has met with its desert, for it is either 
 unknown, or not known to be his. The codification 
 of the laws of the customs, which has been already 
 noticed, was his next effort Before we proceed to 
 remark upon what seems to have been his third 
 publication, attention may be directed to the circum- 
 stance, that on the 7th of December, 1833, there 
 appeared in the Morning Chronicle the following notice 
 of a meeting at Manchester : 
 
 " RIGHTS OF INDUSTRY. 
 
 "We copy from Cobbett'a Register of this day the 
 following strange article, which bears the above title. 
 The matter appears to us in a very serious light ; but 
 at present we cannot offer any remarks upon the sub-
 
 54 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 ject The Manchester paper of this day will probably 
 notice it 
 
 " Princt't Tavern, Prince'* Street, Manchester, 
 " Monday, November 25, 1833. 
 
 " At a meeting called at the above time and place of 
 the working people of Manchester, and their friends, 
 after taking into their consideration 
 
 " That society in this country exhibits the strange 
 anomaly of one part of the people working beyond their 
 strength another part working at worn out and other 
 employments for very inadequate wages and another 
 part in a state of starvation for want of employment : 
 
 " That eight hours' daily labour is enough for any 
 human being, and under proper arrangements, sufficient 
 to afford an ample supply of food, raiment, and shelter, 
 or the necessaries and comforts of life, and that to the 
 remainder of his time every person is entitled for 
 education, recreation, and sleep : 
 
 " That the productive power of this country, aided 
 by machinery, is so great, and so rapidly increasing, as 
 from its misdirection to threaten danger to society by 
 a still further fall in wages, unless some measure be 
 adopted to reduce the hours of work, and to maintain 
 at least the present amount of wages." 
 " It was unanimously resolved, 
 
 " 1. That it is desirable that they who wish to see 
 society improved and confusion avoided, should en- 
 deavour to assist the working classes to obtain * for 
 eight hours' work the present full day's wages,' such 
 eight hours to be performed between the hours of six
 
 RIGHTS OF INDUSTRY. 55 
 
 in the morning and six in the evening; and that this 
 new regulation should commence on the first day of 
 March next. 
 
 " 2. That in order to carry the foregoing purposes 
 into effect, a society shall be formed, to be called ' The 
 Society for promoting National Regeneration.' 
 
 " 3. That persons be immediately appointed from 
 among the workmen to visit their fellow-workmen in 
 each trade, manufacture, and employment, in every 
 district of the kingdom, for the purpose of communi- 
 cating with them on the subject of the above resolutions, 
 and of inducing them to determine upon their adoption. 
 
 " 4. That persons be also appointed to visit the 
 master-manufacturers in each trade, in every district, 
 to explain and recommend to them the adoption of the 
 new regulation referred to in the first resolution. 
 
 " 5. That the persons appointed as above shall hold 
 a meeting on Tuesday evening, the 17th of December, 
 at eight o'clock, to report what has been done, and to 
 determine upon future proceedings. 
 
 " 6. That all persons engaged in gratuitous education 
 on Sundays and during the week days, be respectfully 
 invited to make arrangements for throwing open their 
 schoolrooms to the working classes for two hours a day 
 (say from one to three o'clock, or from six to eight, 
 or any other two hours more convenient), from the 
 1st of March next, and that all well-disposed persons 
 be invited to assist in promoting their education when 
 time for such purpose has been secured to them. 
 
 " 7. That subscriptions be now entered into in aid
 
 66 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 of the fund to be raised by the working classes for 
 the execution of their part of the proposed under- 
 taking. 
 
 " 8. That another and distinct subscription be also 
 entered into for defraying the expenses of the persons 
 appointed to visit the master-manufacturers, and for 
 other general purposes. 
 
 " 9. That the workmen and their friends use their 
 utmost efforts to obtain further subscriptions, and that 
 all well-disposed females be respectfully requested 
 cordially to co-operate in this undertaking. 
 
 " 10. That a committee of workmen and their friends 
 be now formed,* with power to add to their number, 
 and to appoint a secretary and treasurer for the Man- 
 chester district of the society, described in the second 
 resolution. 
 
 "11. That this committee be instructed to procure 
 as soon as possible a convenient office in Manchester, 
 which shall be called " The Office of the Society for 
 National Regeneration." f 
 
 " 12. That circulars reporting the proceedings of this 
 meeting be immediately printed, and sent to the masters 
 in every trade in the United Kingdom. 
 
 * The following is a lilt of the committee: John Fielden, Esq., 
 M.P., Joshua Milne, Esq.; George Condy, Esq.; Messrs. John Travis 
 jun., J. W. Hodgetts, George Marshall, William Clegg, Joshua 
 Fielden, Thomas Fielden, John Doherty, George Higginbottom, James 
 Turner, Win. Taylor, Philip Grant, John Wyatt, George Scott, John 
 Scott, Joseph Scott, Henry Greaves, John Brodie, Wm. Wills, and 
 Robert Owen, Esq. 
 
 f The office of the society is No. 48, Pall-mall, corner of King- 
 street.
 
 RIGHTS OF INDUSTRY. 57 
 
 " 13. That such masters as may be disposed to adopt 
 the proposed regulation for reducing the hours of work, 
 and paying the same wages, are hereby respectfully 
 invited to signify their consent by letter (post paid), 
 addressed to the office of the society in Manchester. 
 
 " 14. That the catechism now read, entitled " The 
 Catechism of the Society for Promoting National 
 Regeneration," be adopted. 
 
 " 15. That Messrs. Oastler, Wood, Bull, Sadler, and 
 others, be urgently requested to desist from soliciting 
 Parliament for a ten hours' bill, and use their utmost 
 exertions in aid of the measures now adopted to carry 
 into effect, on the 1st of March next, the regulation 
 of ' eight hours' work for the present full day's wages.' 
 
 " 16. That the thanks of the meeting are hereby 
 given to the aforesaid gentlemen, for their long-con- 
 tinued invaluable services in the cause of the oppressed 
 of the working classes, and especially in the cause 
 of the children and young persons employed in fac- 
 tories. 
 
 " 17. That Mr. Owen be requested to establish 
 committees of the society for national regeneration in 
 every place or district which he may visit, especially 
 in the Potteries, Birmingham, Worcester, Gloucester, 
 Leicester, Derby, and London ; and that he be also 
 requested to report to the office of the society at 
 Manchester the names of such individuals as will 
 assist in the present undertaking. 
 
 " 18. That in the first week in January next, the 
 working men in every district throughout Great Britain
 
 58 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 and Ireland shall make application to their employers 
 for their concurrence in the adoption of the regulation 
 of ' eight hours' work for the present full day's wages,' 
 to commence on the 1st day of March next 
 
 " 19. That this meeting earnestly appeal to their 
 fellow-men in France, Germany, and the other countries 
 of Europe, and on the continent of America, for their 
 support and co-operation in this effort to improve the 
 condition of the labourer in all parts of the world. 
 
 " JOSHUA MILNE, Chairman." 
 
 These proceedings induced Mr. Hume to address 
 a number of letters to the editor of the Morning 
 Chronicle, which were not only published, but supported 
 by leading articles, in the columns of that journal. 
 They attracted great attention at the time, and they 
 have never been forgotten. The Quarterly Review, in 
 an article on the Corn Laws,* after expressing great 
 alarm at the language of the Times upon the subject, 
 observed, "The same cry is the uniform burden of 
 innumerable articles upon this subject in the Morning 
 Chronicle. Its active correspondent, H. B. T., has just 
 published his letters in a separate form, and he is 
 known to be a gentleman holding an important office 
 under Government, namely, Mr. Hume, of the Board 
 of Trade." 
 
 These letters which have become scarce, and have 
 been sought after in vain by several leading statesmen 
 of the present day, contain within a limited compass, 
 
 No. 101. June, 1834.
 
 CURRENCY. 59 
 
 admirable arguments, and characteristic illustrations 
 upon the subject of the corn laws and currency, and of 
 the rights of industry. They will ever be valued by 
 all who can relish clearness of perception, and cogency 
 of argument, expressed in a style well calculated to 
 convey both. Notwithstanding all that had been said 
 and written on the currency question, he placed it in a 
 new light. Admitting in their fullest extent the prin- 
 ciples of Mr. Huskisson, and the other bullionists, he 
 pounces upon an important oversight in the application 
 of their principles. The banks, he observed, were 
 urged to contract their issues ; but during the period of 
 the Berlin and Milan decrees, the prices of all goods 
 exportable from this country to the Continent, were so 
 much higher on the Continent than here, that there 
 would have been an immense profit in exporting them ; 
 and nothing but physical impossibility prevented their 
 entrance into the Continent. Lord Overstone and a 
 more competent judge it would be difficult to mention 
 recently expressed his high opinion of the sagacity, and 
 the enlightened views which characterised these letters. 
 While Mr. Disraeli considers the part which relates to 
 the currency as the ablest of Mr. Deacon Hume's pro- 
 ductions. So decided an advocate for protective duties 
 could not be expected to say more. 
 
 The title which the Author prefixed to the letters 
 in their more permanent form is, " Letters on the Corn 
 Laws, and on the Rights of the Working Classes ; show- 
 ing the injustice, and also the impolicy of empowering 
 those among a people who have obtained the proprietary
 
 60 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 possession of the lands of a country, to increase, arti- 
 ficially, the money value of their exclusive estates, by 
 means of arbitrary charges made on the rest of the 
 people for the necessaries of life." And to this he 
 added the following introductory remarks. 
 
 " These letters have already appeared in the Morning 
 Chronicle, in the precise words in which they are now 
 re-printed. The first of the number, for they are not 
 a series, was the produce of a sudden thought suggested 
 by the circumstance to which it refers. Those that 
 follow bespeak the manner of their growth, and evince, 
 too, in that growth, the danger of launching an exten- 
 sive topic. If the effort of an humble individual like 
 myself could turn into a legitimate course the struggles 
 which the working classes are making in search as I 
 would say, rather than in defence or in assertion of 
 their rights, I should highly value my success. There 
 is really nothing wanting to complete all the attainable 
 comforts of which their situations are susceptible except 
 the free exercise of their rights : and if they could be 
 brought to claim that freedom with half the zeal and 
 energy with which they follow phantoms, or invade the 
 freedom of others, they would soon experience the 
 advantage of coming before the tribunal of public 
 opinion with a good cause. 
 
 " The plain and strong truths with which these letters 
 might arm them, whenever they should be disposed to 
 employ such weapons, must escape from view and pass 
 out of remembrance, if they have no other depository 
 than the fugitive columns of a newspaper : and perhaps
 
 THE "H. B. T." LETTERS. 61 
 
 the same fate may await them in these pages ; but I am 
 urged to afford them this second chance. If I had not 
 believed that I could place before the public, in new 
 and useful lights, some of those important subjects 
 which have so much agitated the country at various 
 times, and which are still far from being at rest, neither 
 those columns nor these pages would have been encum- 
 bered with those thoughts ; and every reader will allow 
 that I could have had none of that temptation to write 
 which often leads men who are masters of composition 
 to exercise their pens, while they have really no new 
 matter to communicate. I shall be disappointed if such 
 pens be not employed in giving force to the propositions 
 with which, in homely strain, these letters may supply 
 them. Both writers and speakers may here find 
 materials which they may turn to much better account 
 than I have. 
 
 " The subject is left in an incomplete state, but none 
 of the leading features are wanting. If hereafter it 
 should appear necessary to follow out to their more 
 perfect conclusions any of the propositions which the 
 letters contain, the columns of the Morning Chronicle 
 will be again open to me. I am indebted to the editor 
 of that paper not only for the space he has afforded me, 
 but also for many accompanying leading articles, hi 
 which he has proved what I have above intimated 
 that my propositions will gain strength in other hands. 
 
 " The idea that it is either just or politic to ' protect ' 
 land, while by ' protection ' is meant the taxing of the 
 great body of the people who have no land, for the
 
 62 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 private emolument of the small number who hold 
 against the rest, in exclusive proprietary right, the 
 whole superficies of their common country, is so 
 erroneous, that its prevalence would excite the greatest 
 wonder if the history of the human mind did not give 
 ample proof, that fallacies can be established and long 
 maintained by the mere effrontery of continual assertion. 
 The idea, also, that a country can possibly be benefitted 
 by propping up with extraneous funds any losing trade, 
 and every trade which requires support is a losing one 
 to the country, involves an error equally surprising, 
 and in most respects of a similar description. But the 
 climax of fallacies is that which proceeds upon the 
 assumption that * taxation ' is a reason for ' protection.' 
 What would be said of the head of a house who 
 increased his allowances to some of the favourite 
 members of his family, only because his estate had 
 become involved in debts ? All these errors have here 
 been pretty closely sifted ; they are to be traced to the 
 want of a just conception in men's minds of the aggre- 
 gate character of a * public.' 
 
 " No man can take a comprehensive view of the 
 affairs of England without embracing the subject of 
 currency. I have not been able to keep clear of it ; 
 and it has been long evident to me that the habit, 
 useless if not dangerous, of constantly referring to the 
 high price of gold during the last five or six years of 
 the war, either as accounting for our difficulties or as 
 pointing to a desperate remedy for them, tended at 
 least to divert the minds of the people from the con-
 
 THE " H. B. T." LETTERS. 63 
 
 sideration of measures which might be beneficial. I 
 have endeavoured to show, that the doctrines of the 
 bullionists of that era, infallible as they are in all the 
 cases assumed, and in the illustrations assumed of them 
 by their expounders, are amenable to physical impos- 
 sibilities, and were therefore, quite inapplicable to the 
 events of the times in which those persons wrote, but 
 upon which they were most strangely silent" 
 
 RIGHTS OF THE WORKING CLASSES. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 To the Editor of the MORNING CHRONICLE. 
 
 SIB, December 13, 1833. 
 
 In your paper of December the 7th, under the above title, 
 you give from Cobbett an account of a meeting at Manchester, 
 held on the 25th of November, and convened for the purpose of 
 forming a society, of a most extensive description, for the benefit 
 of the working classes. This society, it appears, is to be named 
 the " Society for Promoting National Regeneration," and the 
 nature of the regeneration proposed is, an alleviation of the 
 severity of the labour, with which alone, even the most successful 
 portion of the working classes are now enabled to obtain the 
 necessaries and comforts of life ; while the other portions waste 
 their existence in toil and privations, or in idleness and want. 
 
 At this meeting, a string of resolutions, nineteen in number, 
 professed to be founded on three premised axioms, were passed, 
 for the purpose of originating such a society ; and upon those 
 axioms, from which the views and expectations of the parties are 
 to be learned, I propose to offer a few observations. 
 
 And, first, with reference generally to the " rights of industry," 
 I will state my opinion, that the object propounded in these 
 axioms is laudable, though not so for the reasons they contain. 
 I think, too, that the object is attainable, though not so by the 
 means intended to be used. The parties have a good cause, which 
 they are ruining from want of judgment in the management of 
 it They are seeking that which is justly their right ; but, by a 
 strange perversion, they are not seeking it as a right they have
 
 64 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 not even attempted to show a right. They are, in my honest 
 opinion, pressed down by grievous wrongs, and yet they have not 
 attempted to point out a single wrong. The grievances they 
 complain of may be, for aught they show, the uncontrollable 
 effect of natural causes, and they may be upbraiding Heaven 
 when they profess only to censure man. 
 
 The state of society described in the first of these axioms is not 
 necessarily the "anomaly"* which the propounders of it, without 
 proof or explanation, pronounce it to be; but still it is very 
 anomalous, and I have long thought it so, upon ground* which I 
 will presently state. 
 
 In their second axiom they assert that " eight hours' daily labour 
 is sufficient to provide an ample supply of food, raiment, and 
 shelter, or the necessaries and comforts of life." It is evident that 
 this, which professes to be an estimate, is founded upon no calcu- 
 lation whatever ; and I suspect that the propounders of the axiom 
 believe that the success of the measure depends solely upon the 
 unanimity of the workmen in resolving, at all hazards, right or 
 wrong, to work no more than the time proposed. 
 
 I am sure that no man can, before the trial, tell exactly what 
 quantity of human labour may be sufficient, supposing that no 
 labour were wasted, and that every man were left at liberty to 
 enjoy the fruits of his labour. But although I would not pretend 
 to give a specific estimate, as these parties have done, it is never- 
 theless manifest to my mind, that much less human labour than 
 is now bestowed would, in the case of the economy and liberty 
 here supposed, be sufficient for the purposes desired. But this 
 liberty, which is the only means by which this object can be 
 attained by which wasteful labour may be avoided,! and the 
 fruits of judicious labour dispensed this liberty they have not 
 
 * If the writer of this axiom would either place himself in some 
 country which is in a far less advanced state than England, or place 
 himself back a century or two in England itself, he would see that the 
 evils he speaks of may be the natural effect of the actual condition of 
 a people. 
 
 f If it were possible to make a calculation of the quantity of human 
 labour that is wasted positively thrown away in consequence of 
 different countries striving to produce commodities for which they 
 have not the best facilities, the mind of man would turn with disgust 
 from the contemplation of protective systems.
 
 "GOOD WAGES AND LITTLE WORK." 65 
 
 even demanded, neither have they so much as hinted at the 
 privation of it under which they suffer. Surely they are not, all 
 the while, hankering each after his own petty and fallacious share 
 of the supposed advantages of our present wretched system; and 
 yet, I am sorry to say, I can extract nothing from their scheme 
 except a cry of " good wages and little work." 
 
 The third axiom evinces the utter misconception of the matter 
 at issue, which pervades the minds of the propounders. What 
 does their scheme propose ? Is it not " an ample supply of all 
 necessary and comfortable commodities, the produce of human 
 labour, in return for little human labour ? " And yet they point 
 to " productive power," and " the aid which machinery gives to 
 that power," as the impediment to their obtaining that supply, 
 except by the exertion of much human labour. There is ground 
 for suspecting some of these parties of a selfishness lurking at the 
 bottom of tbe scheme, a want of intention to render the proposed 
 benefit universal. A cry of "high wages and little work," 
 accompanied by a complaint against " productive power," implies 
 that some must still work hard for poor remuneration. And this 
 suspicion is a little increased by the consideration of another error 
 in this axiom, which is, that they shift their demand for the 
 " necessaries and comforts of life " to a demand for a certain rate 
 of wages as a minimum, that is to say, " the present rate of wage s 
 at least." So that, if it shall turn out that in consequence of their 
 working less, and of a check to " productive power," the prices of 
 commodities, from scarcity, shall rise, their wages are to rise in 
 proportion. These incongruities are pointed out only as a friendly 
 warning, with a view to direct the Society in a right course, and 
 not to deter them from proceeding. 
 
 It is impossible to say what wages would be effective for the 
 object in view, either in the case of its being pursued in the 
 manner I would recommend, or in the manner obviously contem- 
 plated by the promoters of the Society. Neither the exact 
 quantity of labour nor tbe exact exchangeable value of labour 
 for labour, expressed in money, can be told beforehand; it is 
 enough to be confident, as we well may be, that an increased 
 quantity of the necessaries and comforts of life is obtainable for a 
 reduced quantity of human labour. The Society must change 
 their line of tactics: they must distinctly exhibit, and simply 
 demand their rights; and, those once obtained, the particular 
 
 F
 
 66 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUMK. 
 
 benefits sought for will so surely follow, that they will be within 
 the reach of every discreet and industrious man. I t m>t that they 
 will cheerfully assent to the exclusion of the idle and dissolute. 
 
 What is the great desideratum ? It is abundance upon easy 
 terms. What are the sources of abundance P They are rich 
 soils favourable climates skill in cultivation, and facility of 
 conveyance, in respect of the products of land, whether they be 
 food of man, or of animals for the service of man, or be the 
 materials of manufactures. And in respect of other commodities, 
 the sources of abundance are raw materials, derived from the 
 most productive places skill in converting those materials into 
 the articles wanted machinery for saving human labour in the 
 process, and strength for setting that machinery in motion, drawn 
 by science from some power of nature that never wearies. These 
 are the sources from which abundance is to be obtained by the 
 least possible exertion of human labour. If we refuse to apply 
 to these sources, with what pretence can we complain of want ? 
 If we resolve to employ labour to waste, with what pretence can 
 we complain of toil ? 
 
 The extent to which, in the last half-century, mankind have 
 acquired a knowledge of the means of rendering these sources 
 available is very great. The inventions and improvements of 
 machinery, and of its moving powers, are too notorious to need 
 more than to be mentioned ; but, to the minds of many persons, 
 those in agriculture may not be equally palpable. I shall, there- 
 fore, just say, that the extensive introduction of the turnip and 
 the clover, and the invention of hollow-draining, have been, in 
 husbandry, scarcely less operative than machinery and steam have 
 been in manufactures. By means of these two esculents, vast 
 tracts of light land, which were formerly deemed of insignificant 
 value, have not only produced abundance of food for animals, but 
 have also been thrown into a course of crops by which they have 
 been qualified for the growth of corn ; and by the invention of 
 the hollow drain, a very great quantity of good lands, which could 
 not before be cultivated on account of their springs and under- 
 waters, have been reclaimed from a state of useless swamp. If, 
 in consequence of bringing two very extensive descriptions of land 
 into productive cultivation, which had previously been unpro- 
 ductive, another description, the " stiff clays," have become lew 
 profitable than before, we must bear in mind that similar vicissi-
 
 EFFECTS OF RESTRICTION. 67 
 
 tudes have occurred in other interests. It is probable, no doubt, 
 that some lands, which can be worked only with extreme labour, 
 must now be appropriated to permanent crops of some description ; 
 for the progress of the country cannot be arrested for the sake of 
 attempting to prevent this consequence of improvements in agri- 
 culture. Such an attempt would amount to an open avowal, that 
 the public shall derive no benefit from such improvements. AVhat, 
 indeed, could we do ? Would we prohibit turnips and clover, or 
 give a bounty for cultivating " stiff clays ? M or would we raise the 
 price of corn grown upon all lands, the fortunate as well as the 
 unfortunate, until it can be profitably grown on those which alone 
 are in difficulty ? 
 
 Putting aside, therefore, the lands unfit, under present circum- 
 stances, for corn, as we would discard old machinery, I repeat, that 
 in agriculture, as well as in manufactures, there has been a great 
 access of productive power in the last half-century.* Had this 
 not been the case, it would have been the extreme of folly to have 
 talked of obtaining " an ample supply of necessaries and comforts 
 for a small amount of labour." 
 
 The Society invite " their fellow-men in France, Germany, and 
 the other countries of Europe, to give their support and co- 
 operation." My scheme embraces them also; it is not even 
 practicable without them ; nor, indeed, without my " fellow-men " 
 in Asia, and Africa, and America too. Abundance is my end> 
 mutual consumption is my means. I must have the world for my 
 workshop, and the world for my customer. Let any man compute 
 the productive powers of the world in the present state of know- 
 ledge, and then refuse, if he can, to rely on the sources of 
 abundance; let him reflect on the appalling extent of human 
 wants unsatisfied, and then doubt, if he can, the efficacy of 
 consumption. There is scarcely a civilized spot in the globe in 
 which the now impoverished labourer cannot produce, in excess 
 of his own wants, some peculiar commodity with which he could 
 
 * In comparing the prices of corn of the present times with the 
 prices of former times, we must make the same allowance for improTe- 
 menta in agriculture as we do for improvements in machinery with 
 respect to manufactures. In such comparisons, the progressive 
 depreciation of the value of money is one consideration ; but we are 
 apt to forget that the progress of art is another, which is to be placed 
 in the opposite scale.
 
 68 LIFE OF J. DFJS.CON HUMK. 
 
 provide himself with those other commodities he so greatly needs, 
 if his right of exchange were not denied by the interposition of 
 some arbitrary power. Mutual supply by means of such exchange 
 is the scheme, and it is the law of nature, loudly proclaimed by 
 the diversities of climate, soil, and capacities, it is a manifest 
 design of a beneficent Providence for the benefit of the human 
 race. But what is the law of man ? an impious prohibition of 
 the law of God. I figure to myself the family of a Manchester 
 or Birmingham workman, contemplating on a Saturday night the 
 true exchangeable value of their week's work ; and computing 
 how much food, as well as other commodities, it would supply 
 them with, under the free operation of the scheme of Providence 
 and of the law of Nature. I also figure to myself the family of 
 the Polish husbandman longing to doff their miserable dresses of 
 sheep-skin, and to exchange their corn for fabrics of the spindle 
 and the loom. A greater offence can hardly be committed than to 
 obstruct the mutual dealings of such parties, except it can be 
 justified as a necessary national sacrifice. I stoutly deny the 
 nationality of the object : the restraint is nothing less than a 
 taking of the necessaries of life from those who have nothing to 
 spare, in order to increase the luxuries of those whose command of 
 them would bear reduction supposing, but by no means admitting, 
 that any reduction would ensue. 
 
 I cannot find room here to establish this proposition before 
 those to whom it may not be sufficiently self-evident; upon 
 another occasion, if necessary, I may perhaps do so, but at 
 present, assuming the admission of the truth that there is no 
 national ground for any protection to our home productions 
 beyond that which may incidentally arise out of duties imposed 
 for the sake of revenue I earnestly advise the members of the 
 proposed Society, if it be eventually formed, to apply themselves 
 with singleness of purpose to all fitting efforts for obtaining their 
 right to the fruits of their labour : a right which no man can be 
 said to enjoy, unless he be at liberty to make the most advan- 
 tageous exchange he can of the product of his own labour for that 
 of the labour of others. Let them pursue this course, and, if 
 they succeed, the agricultural and landed interests will be among 
 the first to acknowledge the merits of the " Society for Promoting 
 National Regeneration." 
 
 I am, Sir, your humble servant, 
 
 II. B. T.
 
 THE TWO INTERESTS. 69 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 To the Editor of the MORNING CHROMCLE. 
 SIB, 30th December, 1833. 
 
 I thank you for the insertion of my former letter in your 
 paper of the 18th instant, and also for the excellent leading article 
 with which, at the same time, you supported the object of it. If 
 you can again afford me a little space in your columns, I will 
 endeavour, more pointedly than before, to show to the members 
 of the " National Regeneration Society," that their distresses con- 
 sist in their being compelled, by natural causes, to seek a foreign 
 market as sellers of the goods they produce, while they are prevented 
 by artificial causes, from going into that market as buyers of the 
 goods which they want. 
 
 Few people are aware of the relative positions in which our 
 manufacturing interest and our landed interest are practically 
 placed towards each other, by reason of the different proportions 
 which the gross quantities of their respective productions bear to 
 the consumption of the country; and consequently few persons 
 perceive the degree in which this natural inequality of advantages 
 is aggravated by the interposition of a law which throws its weight 
 to the side which already preponderates. If any interference 
 between these two interests could be justified, a far better case 
 could be made out in favour of a bounty to increase the impor- 
 tation of corn, than of a duty to restrain it. 
 
 My first position is, that the agriculturists have, under any cir- 
 cumstances, the enviable advantage of always selling their goods 
 at home in a market insufficiently supplied. 
 
 My second position is, that the manufacturer when he sells any 
 of his goods at home, always sells them in a glutted market. 
 These are facts which can be readily ascertained by referring to 
 the accounts of imports and exports. 
 
 The average annual quantity of foreign corn, chiefly wheat, 
 imported into England during the last seven years, was very 
 nearly two million quarters; besides which, we imported large 
 quantities of seeds, and of butter and cheese. One-third, at least, 
 of all the tallow we use comes from abroad ; and we import vege- 
 table oils as a substitute for tallow in making soap, and fish oils as 
 its substitute in lieu of candles. This account might be conside- 
 rably extended, without including any product which is not 
 suitable to our soil and climate ; but it is sufficient for the purpose
 
 70 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUMK. 
 
 of showing that the agriculturist has the advantage of a home 
 market, in which the demand is much greater than the supply. 
 
 The amount in real (not official) value of British manufactures 
 exported in each of the last two years, was rather more than 
 36,000,0001., and nearly the whole of this sum is constituted of 
 labour. Cotton wool, fine sheep's wool, flax, and dyeing drugs, 
 are the chief of those raw materials of our exports, which we do 
 not produce ; the metals and the coals are in our own mines, till 
 labour extracts them. Making, therefore, ample abatement for 
 foreign materials, the quantity of surplus labour in the country, 
 that which seeks a foreign market may be roundly estimated at 
 thirty millions sterling a year. The home market of the manu- 
 facturer, therefore, is always a glutted market. 
 
 These are the relative positions of the two interests ; and I beg 
 the " Society" to mark the 'practical effect of these two positions 
 upon their mutual dealings first, as buyers respectively, the one 
 from the other ; and next, as sellers respectively, the one to the 
 other. For the sake of perspicuity, I must be allowed here, to 
 use a little personification, and to concentrate, in the proceedings 
 of two imaginary individuals, the course of transactions which do 
 actually take place between the two masses. A landowner and a 
 manufacturer are the parties. Wheat may be the representative 
 of agricultural produce, and cottons the representative of manu- 
 factures. 
 
 The landowner has one hundred quarters of wheat to sell, the 
 whole of which, and more, is wanted by the manufacturer. The 
 manufacturer has two hundred pieces of cotton to sell, half only of 
 which is wanted by the landowner. As the quantity of the one is 
 deficient, and the quantity of the other is excessive in their mutual 
 home market, the prices of both must be governed by the foreign 
 market, the influence of which upon them will be manifested by 
 inverse consequences, the case of the one being the reverse of 
 that of the other. The question between them shall be tried 
 under the assumption of a state of free-trade to both. 
 
 When the landowner is seller, he is enabled, in fixing the price 
 on his wheat, to add to the amount of the foreign price, all the 
 expense which must be incurred by bringing wheat from abroad. 
 He stands firm in the market, and says to the manufacturer, reject 
 my wheat if it please you to do so, and go a thousand miles by 
 water and by land to fetch the cheap wheat you speak of.
 
 AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURE. 71 
 
 But when the landowner changes his position, and becomes the 
 buyer of the manufacturer's cottons, he reverses his calculation, 
 and he deducts from the price which they would fetch in the 
 foreign market, all the expenses of sending them thither. Nor is 
 his language less changed, though it is equally peremptory. He 
 now says to the manufacturer, there is my offer, leave it if you 
 like, and carry your cottons half round the world, in quest of 
 that better price which you say will be given for them in other 
 countries. 
 
 Whether as buyer of the wheat, or as seller of the cottons, the 
 manufacturer submits to this dictation of the landowner ; for it is 
 he, and not the landowner, who is, in both cases, subject to the 
 control of the foreign prices ; and the result is, that he gives one 
 hundred pieces of cottons for fifty quarters of wheat. But this is 
 only half the story; and the picture here drawn gives a very 
 inadequate representation of the natural advantages which the 
 landowner has over the manufacturer, and of the consequent 
 injustice of increasing that advantage by artificial means. 
 
 We have seen that the first use which the landowner makes of 
 his power over the manufacturer is, to supply himself with home 
 commodities to his heart's content, in exchange for a moderate 
 quantity of his corn. He has got, for instance, one hundred pieces 
 of cottons, for fifty of his one hundred quarters of wheat ; and 
 now, feeling himself still rich with fifty quarters more at his com- 
 mand, a desire comes over him for the enjoyment of foreign 
 luxuries also ; and he is anxious, therefore, to make his remaining 
 stock of wheat available for the procuring of them. But when 
 he contemplates the sending of his wheat to foreign market, he is 
 quickly struck with the reflection that, if he does so, be must not 
 only submit to take the foreign price for it, but he must also 
 deduct from that price the charges of exportation, instead of 
 adding the charges of importation, as he had done in the case of 
 the first fifty quarters. After some deliberation upon the course 
 he should pursue, he comes to the following conclusion : I remem- 
 ber, he says, that the manufacturer of whom I bought my hundred 
 pieces of cotton, had another hundred for which he could not find 
 a purchaser, and well know he was sorely in want of more wheat 
 than the fifty quarters I have sold to him. I will e'en carry to 
 him the residue of my wheat, and offer it for the residue of his 
 cottons ; in his double distress, with glut on the one side, and dcfi-
 
 72 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 ciency on the other, he will gladly come into my terms ; and then 
 I shall get possession of a description of goods which I can use, as 
 an advantageous medium for the acquirement of the foreign com- 
 modities I am so desirous of obtaining. 
 
 This is the true working of sale and purchase in a home market, 
 where different local commodities are produced in very unequal 
 quantities; and it might have been thought that the fortunate 
 party would have been contented with his natural advantage. But 
 the English agriculturists, like their fabled prototype, to whom 
 Jupiter gave the treacherous power of regulating his own weather, 
 had, as unluckily for themselves and the country, the power of 
 regulating their own corn laws; and, not being able to look for- 
 ward beyond half-a-dozen Mondays in Mark Lane, they sought 
 to increase their advantage by imposing duties and restraints on 
 the importation of foreign corn. And although the scheme has 
 signally failed to assure to them the prices they expected, or even 
 the prices they would have had, if they had wisely suffered com- 
 merce to take the lead, it has, nevertheless, enabled them to ex- 
 change small quantities of their corn for large quantities of home 
 manufactures, which they employ partly for their immediate con- 
 sumption, and partly to exchange again for foreign commodities, 
 in the manner which has been described. So complete a case of 
 Sic vos rum, vobit was, perhaps, never reduced to actual practice 
 upon so large a scale in an enlightened country; and I think that 
 the members of the "Society" must clearly see, how truly it 
 accounts for the great quantity of labour they are compelled to 
 perform, and the privations they nevertheless suffer, while, to all 
 outward appearance they are surrounded by the elements of plenty 
 obtainable upon easy terms. 
 
 I am quite sure that many a high-minded land proprietor, if he 
 could be brought to perceive the relative positions in which the 
 agricultural and manufacturing interests are placed, would be the 
 first to denounce the system as the most abominable piece of subtle 
 and refined oppression he has ever met with. Yet so it is ; the 
 manufacturer stands over those very goods which are destined for 
 a foreign market, which he knows will go to a foreign market, and' 
 for which foreign goods will assuredly be received in return ; and 
 yet he is not permitted to send them to the foreign market on his 
 own account, nor to receive in return for them the description 
 of foreign goods he wants for himself The landowner is both
 
 AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURE. 73 
 
 exporter and importer; for the operation of the Corn Acts is, to 
 give him a right of pre-emption of our manufactures at an 
 enormous price. 
 
 I have examined this proposition with an honest intention to 
 abandon it if it be wrong ; but I cannot find in it a failing point. 
 It is true that, of agricultural produce, we chiefly import wheat, 
 but that is only because wheat is the most concentrated form in 
 which a given quantity of agricultural produce can be imported, 
 and the price of it has its influence over all other produce of the 
 land. It is also true that our exports consist chiefly of cottons 
 and hardware ; but the prices at which they can be disposed of 
 abroad, must necessarily govern the prices of our other manu- 
 factures. The magnitude of the exports proves that their influence 
 over the whole industry of the country must be overpowering. 
 While the Corn Act lasts, the landed interest must have the power 
 of dictating prices, both as seller and as buyer. The only way to 
 effect the " national regeneration " which the society desires is, to 
 place all sellers and all buyers upon an equal footing. 
 
 If I should be permitted to trespass again upon your paper, I 
 will avail myself of your indulgence in an endeavour to convince 
 the landed interest that they have mistaken their policy quite as 
 much as they have mistaken their rights. 
 
 I am, Sir, your humble servant, 
 H. B. T. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 To the Editor of the MORNING CIIRONICLK. 
 SIR, January 10, 1834. 
 
 The reception which you have given to my two former 
 letters has convinced me, not only that you take the same view 
 that I do of the true interests of the working classes, but also that 
 you are willing to afford me opportunities of advocating their 
 cause in my own way. It is apparent to you, as it is to me, that 
 the working classes have only to obtain the restoration of their 
 natural rights, " the rights of industry," the liberty of exchanging, 
 in the moat advantageous manner they can, the product* of their own 
 labour for those of the labour of others, and they will gain all they 
 seek. By the simple exercise of those rights, under the free play, 
 in all other respects, of the ordinary rules, habits, and maxims of 
 civilized society ; without asking favour of one body of men, or
 
 74 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 attempting to force their purposes upon another ; without any 
 combination, except that insensible self-combination of all the 
 parts of national association which takes place when their affini- 
 ties are left to their natural action by the simple exercise, I say, 
 of the indisputable rights of industry, the working classes will 
 obtain that full measure of the " necessaries and comforts of life," 
 which it appropriate to the existing state of the science*, iu agricul- 
 ture and mechanics ; and they will also acquire a direct interest in 
 every fresh addition to those sciences ; because each advance and 
 improvement will enable them to employ the increased means of 
 production, either to the purposes of more leisure, or to the pur- 
 poses of more emolument, according to their respective desires. 
 When industry shall have recovered its rights, all jealousies be- 
 tween the rich and poor all invidious distinctions between the 
 productive and the non-productive all cant about the useful and 
 the useless will cease ; and in their place will be revived the 
 older and better sentiment of the sacredness of property, and of 
 respect for superiors. Let property withdraw itself into its proper 
 limits, and relinquish all its usurpations ; and let there be nothing 
 factitious in superiority of station, and we shall see physical power 
 and moral power always harmonizing with each other. If the 
 working classes shall be thought to have lost any portion of their 
 accustomed respect for the rights of property, it is solely in conse- 
 quence of the unintelligible difficulties in which they find them- 
 selves placed by the attacks which property makes upon the 
 rights of industry. Their understandings are perplexed and mys- 
 tified by their situation ; and, as the blows they receive are inflicted 
 by property, they are almost led to attribute to it an inherent evil 
 quality. But the property of one man cannot, under equal laws, 
 operate any injury to another. It can be no injury to me that a 
 particular man is owner of a particular part of my country as his 
 exclusive estate, provided he be contented with it for its true 
 worth, and leave me in quiet possession of any property which I 
 may happen to own. But if he tell me, that hit property is of so 
 peculiar a nature that it entitles him to take from me some of 
 mine, in order to make his the more valuable ; and, above all, if 
 my property consist solely in my labour, then there may be some 
 risk that I may be seduced into an opinion, that property is a sort 
 of noxious matter, and a nuisance which I may fairly endeavour 
 to abate.
 
 RIGHTS OF PROPERTY. 75 
 
 There is nothing in Mr. Owen's scheme of society which is not 
 of the very essence of society, in its national form. He proposes 
 that a large body of people shall agree together to employ them- 
 selves in the manner which shall produce the greatest quantity of 
 ease and comfort for them all. The people of this country would 
 spontaneously fall into the very division of employments which 
 would produce this consequence if they were left to themselves. 
 It is only because the pictured results of Mr. Owen's plan are the 
 proper results of a well-constituted society as a nation, and there- 
 fore natural to the imagination, that it has attracted any attention. 
 There is a consciousness of the perfection to which common society 
 might be brought, if all men would perform their respective parts ; 
 and the mind dwells with pleasure on the descriptions of new 
 arrangements that are to produce a degree of happiness which it feels 
 ought not to be unattainable. The wild schemes, which are occa- 
 sionally proposed for removing the evils of society, are generated 
 by that wildest of all, by which those very evils are produced 
 the officious legislative management of men's affairs in their 
 private, and not their public capacities. It is by such a system, 
 and by that alone, that industry is deprived of its rights. It is 
 not by such a system that the rights of property are maintained ; 
 perhaps they are endangered by it. 
 
 I have indulged in these general observations out of the great 
 anxiety I feel that the " Society for Promoting National Regene- 
 ration" should have a just conception of that true "regeneration" 
 which the simple reduction to practice of sound principles of 
 trade must produce. It is necessary thus to keep before them the 
 end and object of these letters ; but the manner in which that 
 object will chiefly be pursued will be, by bringing out into promi- 
 nent view some of those strong features of the question at issue, 
 which, as it appears to me, have been much overlooked in all the 
 discussions upon it. 
 
 There are parts of the subject of taxation which stand in the 
 obscurity alluded to, although bearing strongly upon the question 
 of protection. The magnitude of the National Debt, and the 
 necessity it creates of raising a large revenue by taxes, is con- 
 stantly assigned as the principal reason, and often as the only 
 reason, for our protective system. By none more than the landed 
 interest is this plea advanced ; and as the various trades, which 
 continue to call for protection to themselves, often declare that
 
 76 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 they do so solely because of the protection conceded to agriculture ) 
 the subject may be examined with reference to land alone. 
 
 The plea of the Corn Act is, the great amount of the taxes 
 levied for the purpose of paying interest on the loans raised during 
 the late war to defray the expenses of it ; for it is not pretended 
 that the debt, as it stood before the war, would furnish any ground 
 for such a plea. Why, under any circumstances whatever, the 
 landed interest is not to pay any part of these taxes, or to be in- 
 demnified for what they do pay, I am wholly at a loss to 
 conjecture; but when the real circumstances of the case come 
 to be investigated, it will be found, that if it can be fair for any 
 interest of the country to be invested with a power of indemnify- 
 ing itself for its own portion of that burden, by making surcharges 
 upon another interest, then, I say, that the trading interest would 
 be entitled to throw their share of the burden upon the land ; and 
 I am not afraid of establishing this proposition, supposing that such 
 a species of favouritism could be allowed. 
 
 The efforts made, and the adroitness employed by every branch 
 of trade to throw off from itself the burden of any tax affecting its 
 transactions, are the subject of common observation; and provided 
 that none be armed against their neighbours with any law for that 
 purpose, the various parties may be left to adjust the matter 
 among themselves as they can. But, even in the absence of any 
 such law, there is one most important interest in this country, on 
 whose back some of the burden, beyond its own share, after it has 
 been shifted from shoulder to shoulder a dozen deep, must ulti- 
 mately fall, and there rest. / allude to our export manufacturer*. 
 
 This country, as compared with any other in the world, is a 
 rich, high-priced country. The parties, therefore, who raise, or 
 make the commodities, which are wholly consumed at home, may 
 measure their respective exactions by the scale of English prices;* 
 but they who make the surplus which must be exported, are 
 forced to conform to the scale of foreign prices. When, therefore, 
 the burden has reached these parties, it will remain upon them as 
 the last in the rank, having none beyond them upon whom they 
 can throw it. But, although they cannot throw on the foreigner 
 
 * These parties, at all events, think so, which is enough for the 
 present argument ; but they will find themselves mistaken in the 
 lung run.
 
 THE CORN LAWS. 77 
 
 any portion of that burden, they can receive from him the support 
 and succour which will enable them to bear it, if they are not pre- 
 cluded from doing so by any arbitrary restraint such as that 
 which they suffer under the Corn Act. Thus it appears, that in 
 the absence even of all protection to agriculture, the landed 
 interest have not only the advantages pointed out in my last 
 letter, as sellers of their own goods, and as buyers of the goods of 
 others, but they have also the advantage of being able to shift 
 from themselves a large part of the burden of the taxes which 
 they appear to bear. Unless, therefore, it can be broadly pro- 
 pounded as a principle, that the landed interest, like the old 
 privileged classes in France, whom they would do well to re- 
 member, ought to be relieved from the fiscal burdens of the State, 
 it will be impossible to maintain that the National Debt can be a 
 plea for the Corn Act. 
 
 And here I must explain the peculiar difficulty which I expe- 
 perience in discussing this great subject. I consider the Corn Act 
 to be the most signal failure that can be found in the domestic 
 history of the country ; because 1 do not entertain a doubt, that if 
 the ports had been thrown open at the end of the war for the 
 admission of corn, free of duty, or at a moderate duty only, for the 
 sake only of revenue, the prosperity of our trade would have been 
 such as to have secured to the farmers a much better price for 
 their produ:e than they are now obtaining. To say, therefore, as 
 I distinctly do, that the Corn Act raises the price of agricultural 
 produce sufficiently to indemnify the landed interest for all the 
 taxes which fall, in the first instance, either upon their trade or 
 upon their personal consumption, sounds like a contradictory asser- 
 tion. But, still, such is the case ; because, taking the trade in its 
 present depressed and limited state, and taking the prices of agri- 
 cultural produce at what they would be without a Corn Bill, 
 if trade still remained in that state, the Corn Bill adds to those 
 prices a sum which, in the aggregate, is more than equal to all the 
 State taxes paid in any shape by the landed interest In saying this, 
 1 say DO more than they say themselves ; the protection they cling 
 to reaches them only in the form of increased prices of corn and 
 meat ; and as we may almost despair of their discovering that they 
 might have those prices, and better too, without protection, it is 
 necessary to try the justice of their claims upon their own show- 
 ing, lest we fail of convincing them of their impolicy.
 
 78 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 Upon the commonest principles of justice, and even supposing 
 that there had been nothing peculiar to the case of the landed 
 interest in the circumstances under which the National Debt accu- 
 mulated during the late war, they can have no claim to be ex- 
 onerated from the payment of their share of the interest of it, by 
 means of a law which should enable them to make heavy sur- 
 charges upon the other branches of the community. Upon a little 
 examination, however, properly directed to the true points of the 
 question, it will be seen that the landed interest is the very last 
 in the country which should object to bear its portion of that 
 burden. 
 
 My proposition is this : The expenses of the State during the 
 war were enormously increased by a contemporaneous enhance- 
 ment of the prices of all agricultural produce ; the loans raised to 
 defray those expenses were proportionately the larger ; and in the 
 expenditure of those loans, a very great part of them passed into 
 the pockets of the landed interest in the shape of extraordinary 
 profits. 
 
 I shall conclude that the two first branches of this proposition 
 will need no proof. Neither can it be doubted that a large portion 
 of the loans was paid away in extraordinary prices for corn, meat, 
 timber, &c., or that the general expenditure of the Government, as 
 well as that of every individual in the country, was greatly in- 
 creased by the high prices of agricultural produce. The only 
 question therefore is, whether those prices gave extraordinary 
 profits to the landed interest; or, in other words, whether the 
 cause of those high prices lay in the cost of production, or in 
 some incidental extraneous circumstances. 
 
 The war broke out in 1793 and in 1792 we had exported a 
 considerable quantity of com the average price of wheat being 
 then under 44*. per quarter. The war, therefore, began upon low 
 prices and a surplus produce; and as the era of peace had closed 
 with a year of exportation, we have pretty good proof that, pre- 
 viously to the war, British and foreign prices could not have 
 widely differed from each other. In a short time afterwards 
 importation upon a large scale commenced, accompanied by a 
 great rise of prices, and by every other indication, that a demand 
 had sprung up which our home agriculture was totally unable to 
 satisfy. That this demand was real and permanent is proved by 
 the quantities imported during a long series of years ; that it was an
 
 "WAR PRICES." 79 
 
 efficient demand is proved by the prices given ; that it was caused 
 by an increased consumption and not by any falling off of our 
 home produce, is proved by the whole history of our agriculture 
 during the war, which gives one continued account of agricultural 
 success and proclaimed improvements. 
 
 With a demand so urgent, and with a power of purchasing so 
 effectual, the consumption price of the corn derived from abroad 
 would depend solely upon the amount of the charges of importa- 
 tion which were to be added to the foreign cost. By reason of 
 circumstances peculiar to the late war, as distinguished from all 
 former wars, those charges were rendered particularly heavy ; and 
 as there could not, of course, be two prices for the same commodity 
 in one market, the amount of those charges was added to the 
 natural price of English corn, although not one shilling of them 
 was incurred upon it. 
 
 This was the sole cause of the " war prices" of our agricultural 
 produce ; and when we consider that upon the strength of those 
 prices rents were doubled, and in many cases trebled, while the 
 affluent circumstances of the tenantry was the subject of general 
 remark, I think that we need have little difficulty in deciding, that 
 the cause of those prices was wholly independent of the cost of 
 production, and that they did confer on the landed interest an 
 enormous amount of extraordinary that is, of unusual and un- 
 earned profits. If any further proof of the true cause of the high 
 prices of British corn during the war were wanting, it might be 
 found in the fact, that the i'all in those prices which took place 
 immediately after the war, was accurately measured by the reduc- 
 tion of the charges of importation ; and what is very remarkable, 
 and must throw some doubt over the opinion that the high prices 
 were materially attributable to the depreciation of our currency, is, 
 that as the price of foreign corn fell, and with it the price of 
 British corn, the prices of all our manufactures and colonial pro- 
 duce, although we held of them enormous stocks, greatly rose, and 
 together with them, the value of our paper currency rose also, in 
 the face of an increased issue to a considerable amount. These arc 
 undisputed facts. I cannot here undertake to reason upon them, 
 but I think it is so necessary to divest the corn question of all the 
 false colouring under which it has been constantly presented to 
 public view, that, if you will permit me, I will at another time 
 endeavour to show, that however much embarrassed other interests
 
 80 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUMK. 
 
 might have been by the high price of gold in the last years of the 
 war, the effect of that price was beneficial to the landed interest ; 
 it worked for them, while it was working against all the other 
 interests of the country. 
 
 I have now delivered in my " Bill of Charges' 1 against the 
 landed interest, upon account of the National Debt ; and I debit 
 them with some hundred millions. They have had the money. 
 Had they taken care of it, it would have been better for the 
 country as well as for themselves ; for, by their extravagant ex- 
 penditure as income of such immense sums, which were more 
 properly of the nature of principal, they unwholesomcly increased 
 the whole scale of our transactions, both public and private ; and 
 they raised the interest of money against the State by a constant 
 dispersion of capital, after it had actually collected itself in their 
 hands. The great body of landowners ought, at this day, to be 
 the principal stockholders. The two terms should be almost 
 synonymous ; and instead of the word " mortgage" being the echo 
 of the word " land," the possession of an estate of " five thousand 
 a year" should imply the accompaniment of " fifty thousand con- 
 sols." All mortgages ought, certainly, to have been paid off 
 during the " war prices ;" but, instead of seizing so fair and tin- 
 looked for an opportunity of clearing their estates, the landowners 
 exhibited their enlarged rentals only as security for more advances ; 
 and they became competitors with the State in the money market 
 as borrowers, when they ought to have entered it as the principal 
 lenders, 
 
 I am, Sir, your humble servant, 
 
 II. B. T. 
 
 LBTTBB IV. 
 
 To the Editor of the MORNING CHRONICLE. 
 Si>, 16/A January, 1834. 
 
 The more particular purpose of my last letter was to show 
 that the landed interest was the very last interest in the country 
 which should pretend to found a claim to protection upon the 
 magnitude of the National Debt. I then proved, first, that it was 
 their inability to supply the country sufficiently with agricultural 
 produce during the war that caused the debt to become so large, 
 aud next, that the excess so created went into their pockets, in the
 
 THE LANDED INTEREST. 81 
 
 shape of extraordinary and unearned profits upon the quantity of 
 agricultural produce which they did supply. In following out 
 this subject, I was naturally led to the confines of the bullion 
 question in which the landed interest discover fresh grounds for 
 relieving themselves from the public burdens ; and towards the 
 close of the letter I asserted that the high price of gold, during 
 the last years of the war, worked for the landed interest, while it 
 was working against every other interest in the country. I now 
 propose to prove the validity of this assertion. 
 
 The subject is peculiarly relevant, not only because of the nature 
 of its facts, but also because of the conduct of the landed interest 
 themselves, and of the general tenor of the observations upon it, 
 which we have been occasionally hearing from them ever since the 
 war was over and the time of borrowing had ceased. There is no 
 distinguishable body of the people from whom, so much as from 
 the landed interest, has proceeded a strain of insinuations dan- 
 gerous to the public creditor, and injurious to the national faith. 
 Language, not merely pointing to resistance, but even of oppro- 
 brium and contempt has been used by them towards the fund- 
 holder, who, though he haa escaped their direct plunder, has not 
 escaped their abuse. When the failure of the first extravagant 
 Corn Act became apparent, was not the sponge plainly hinted at 
 as the next remedy ? Did we not hear it said, in absolute allusion 
 to insolvency, that "the country was not to be expected to perform 
 impossibilities?" Were we not also frequently asked, whether 
 the old families of the kingdom were to sit quiet until a parcel of 
 sordid, upstart money-lenders should push them from their pater- 
 nal seats? And next, when the honourable feeling of the country 
 revolted at such suggestions, what were then their selfish schemes? 
 Who so strenuous as the landed interest to force upon us a base 
 currency, in order that they might pay both the fund-holder and 
 their own mortgagee in false money? While such sentiments 
 co-exist with political power, the country is hardly safe. The 
 French nation, after a long and patient second trial of their old 
 dynasty, drove them at length from the throne, solely because they 
 proved to the last to be irreclaimable pretenders to divine right. 
 Had the French family and their personal adherents been faithful 
 to the conditions of their return, and renounced in their hearts M 
 well as in their words, pretensions wholly disowned by the people 
 who received them, Charles the Tenth would now have been 
 
 O
 
 82 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 reigning a popular monarch over satisfied subjects ; the King of 
 the Netherlands would have still had an undivided kingdom under 
 his sway, and Poland would have remained quiet under institu- 
 tions which, whatever might be the theoretical objections to them, 
 were working much practical good towards a population deficient 
 in the art* of industry and commerce. These are serious lessons, 
 and it is always useful to practise the mind in conceiving what 
 different turn affairs would have taken, under the supposition of 
 the reversal of some event of powerful influence which has 
 occurred. It certainly seems plain that all the political mischief 
 we have witnessed in the last three years may be traced to that 
 single folly in the French family, in perpetually harbouring hopes, 
 and betraying desires and intentions of re-establishing, by the 
 first opportunity, the principle of divine right; and if our aris- 
 tocracy think that in virtue of some analogous hereditary claims, 
 as lords of the soil, they are to perpetuate their families and their 
 patrimonies by any other means than by their own prudent 
 management of their estates, according to their intrinsic values, 
 they may some day be repudiated for sentiments equally incon- 
 sistent with the natural rights, and the common sense of mankind. 
 They have the good fortune of being placed among a people 
 strongly attached to them by disposition and by habit, and who 
 are sensible of the advantages, while they delight in the splendour 
 of a high and hereditary nobility; and, therefore, if disagree- 
 ment ensue, there can be no doubt as to the side on which the 
 fault, as well as the chief sufferings must lie. But the people 
 delight in the splendour of their nobility, only in the contem- 
 plation that it is maintained by the intrinsic resources of their 
 own broad possessions. If the people, rich or poor, are made to 
 support that splendour from their own means, they must cease to 
 respect it. 
 
 The National Debt is set forth as the reason for a corn act, 
 upon two separate grounds. First, its quantity alone is advanced 
 as a ground for protection ; this I have already dealt with. Next, 
 its quality the nature of its composition, is objected to ; and into 
 this I am about to inquire. 
 
 It is charged against the monied interest by the landed inte- 
 rest, that the fundholder lent only depreciated bank-notes, and 
 that, therefore, he has not any just claim to be repaid in sterling 
 money. This argument is chiefly founded upqn the very high
 
 THE HEREDITARY NOBILITY. 83 
 
 price of gold, computed in bank-notes, which prevailed during the 
 last five or six years of the war ; and my answer to it, for them 
 at least, is, that that higher price of gold was, to them, a fertile 
 source of extraordinary profits, such as must form, in their case, 
 an ample set-off against the evil consequences they point out. 
 The subject lies in a small compass. It has been shown that the 
 price of English corn was raised during the war, pari passu, with 
 the expenses attending the importation of foreign corn. Now 
 one of the most material ingredients of those expenses was the 
 high price of gold. If we examine the question with the illus- 
 trative aids of assumed sums, in figures, the amount will stand 
 somewhat in the following manner : The depreciation of the 
 currency may be taken at twenty-five per cent.; the finance 
 minister, therefore, must be supposed to have raised a loan of 
 twenty-five millons, when twenty millions would otherwise have 
 been sufficient for him. But then, if this additional five millions 
 went, as I contend it did, directly into the pockets of the landed 
 interest, without any equivalent consideration from them, they 
 received their indemnification for the excess ; the account upon the 
 score of depreciation, was settled with them at the time, and they 
 can have no after claim upon that ground. The question then 
 is, whether this five millions did go into their pockets in the 
 manner I have stated. 
 
 Every merchant remembers the great difficulty which, at the 
 time referred to, attended the remittance of funds to the Continent 
 to pay for our imports ; and that, to exorbitant freights and heavy 
 insurances, which, under the circumstances of the intercourse, 
 were well earned by the parties who received them, there was to 
 be added the loss on the foreign exchanges ; or, in other words, 
 the difference between the Mint price and the market price of 
 gold, in making up the amount of charges on foreign corn. But 
 although in respect of English corn which was already at home, 
 there was of course no freight, no insurance, no remittance, still 
 all the charges upon foreign corn under those heads, including the 
 difference between the Mint price and the market price of gold, 
 were simultaneously added to every quarter of English corn, as 
 fully and specifically, shilling for shilling, as if the identical quarter 
 had formed part of the cargo of the " Vrow Wilhelmina, Jansen, 
 master, from Dantzick." 
 
 Let the market prices of gold from 1797 to 1815 be examined,
 
 84 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 and account be made out of the suras by which the respective 
 loans, received in bank-notes, were greater than they would have 
 been if received in gold ; and then compare, year by year, the 
 ascertained excess of those loans with an equal per-ceutnge in- 
 crease upon the prices of all the agricultural produce of the 
 country computed in gold. If a debtor and creditor account of 
 this nature were made out, the landed interest would be charge- 
 able with a heavy balance, because it will be found that the prices 
 of agricultural produce, even when computed in gold, were enor- 
 mously high. By an irresistible operation of commerce, it must 
 have occurred, that the necessity we were under of importing 
 large quantities of foreign corn, which could not be obtained without 
 indemnifying the foreign seller for any depreciation in our cur- 
 rency ; that is to say, for any difference between the market and 
 the Mint price of gold with us, would enable the home-grower to 
 demand the same indemnification for himself. When one foreign 
 hand was held out to receive the computed sum, twenty English 
 hands were thrust forward at the same time, with the same demand, 
 and the same sum was put into each of them. 
 
 The immense importance to us of the single fact, that the 
 national agriculture proved to be inadequate to the feeding of the 
 people during the war, has never been properly adverted to ; and 
 consequently the true character and operation of that fact has 
 escaped observation. Strange to say, a case of absolute want and 
 palpable distress was mistaken for prosperity. To a portion of 
 the people, no doubt, it brought great prosperity, but to the nation 
 it was a positive loss, the amount of which is now represented in the 
 form of perhaps a full fourth of our present National Debt. To 
 the makers of gunpowder, the manufacturers of muskets and 
 cannons, and to the holders of saltpetre or naval stores, the 
 breaking out of a war is the legitimate promise of a new harvest 
 of profits ; but not so to the farmer. The prices of the peculiar 
 material of war may naturally rise with the occurrence of war, 
 but the general food of a people need not rise also,* unless, indeed, 
 their country should become the seat of hostilities. 
 
 If we were to trace the occurrences of the war, and test them 
 by the supposition that the agricultural produce of the country, 
 
 * In the American war the value of land was very much 
 depresMd.
 
 THE LANDED INTEREST. 85 
 
 which was abundant up to the commencement of it, had continued 
 to be equal to the demand, or nearly so, we should see that some 
 of the greatest difficulties of our situation would have been 
 avoided, or much alleviated. By nothing was the country more 
 embarrassed than by the necessity we were under of placing large 
 funds on the Continent, both for state and for commercial purposes, 
 during the war, and particularly in the last five or six years of it, 
 when our merchants were prevented, by the Berlin and Milan 
 decrees, from rendering their merchandise as it always ought, 
 alone, to be the medium of remittance; and it will easily be 
 comprehended how greatly their difficulties must have been 
 increased by the additional necessity of making remittances in 
 payment for foreign corn. 
 
 The landed interest cannot suppose that I am upbraiding them 
 with this deficiency of their produce, or that I insinuate blame to 
 them for accepting enormous profits which, from such causes, 
 incidentally fell into their hands. But I charge them with 
 ridiculous arrogance, for boasting that they mainly assisted in 
 carrying the country through the war; and with the basest 
 ingratitude for turning round upon the country in the manner 
 they did as soon as it was over. If the true nature of the case 
 had been understood at the time, nothing would have been more 
 just than to have restored, or rather preserved, in some degree 
 the proper balance between the different interests of the country, 
 by the imposition of a very heavy tax upon land. Any charge 
 that was clearly less than the unusual portion of the expenses of 
 importation on foreign corn would have been easily borne without 
 the least derangement of our agriculture. The only effect would 
 have been to have prevented a most uncalled-for increase of rents. 
 The country might, with great propriety, have held this language 
 to the agriculturists : The calamities of war, and the difficulties 
 under which the nation is labouring, have an incidental tendency 
 to throw great and most unnecessary profits, at the public cost, 
 into your hands ; it is, therefore, only an act of justice to the 
 public to call upon you to restore some of those profits to the 
 nation, for the purposes of that state of warfare which is the 
 sole cause and source of them. Nothing of this kind was 
 attempted, nor is any sort of restitution desired ; but when the 
 benefited party complains, the losing party may well desire an 
 investigation of the accounts between them. It is the particular
 
 86 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 purpose of these letters to examine these accounts, in order that 
 the relative situations of the several great interests of the country 
 the agricultural, the trading, and the moneyed interests may 
 be thoroughly understood. 
 
 I am confident that I cannot be wrong in saying, that the 
 agriculturists were indemnified, in the price of their produce, for 
 every shilling by which the National Debt was increased in 
 consequence of the difference between the Mint price and the 
 market price of gold, and that therefore they, of all people, 
 should be the last to object to bearing their share of the common 
 taxation out of which the interest of the debt is paid. Nor was 
 this advantage confined to the landed interest, although few others 
 had the opportunity of enjoying it ; but every trade which raised 
 or manufactured an article, of which the home supply was so 
 much below the demand that the consumers were obliged to have 
 recourse to importation, was enabled to add to the price of that 
 article all the extraordinary charges of freight and insurance, as 
 well as the loss in purchasing gold for remittance, which were 
 necessarily incurred in bringing the like description of goods 
 from abroad. 
 
 The difficulties which the merchants were under in making 
 foreign payments were peculiar to the description of warfare we 
 were carrying on. It was not that they were deficient in export- 
 able commodities suitable to the purposes of remittance, both in 
 quality and in price, but solely that they could not obtain admis- 
 sion for their goods into the continental ports, by reason of 
 impediments of a warlike, and not of a commercial nature. 
 
 This, however, is a different subject, worthy, perhaps, of more 
 consideration than has been bestowed upon it in any of the 
 discussions upon our currency. I am not now investigating the 
 cause of the high price of gold during the war, but the effect of 
 it upon the prices of our own agricultural produce ; and I trust I 
 have shown, that in those prices the landed interest were amply 
 indemnified for all the increase which may have been made to the 
 National Debt in consequence of the difference between the Mint 
 price and the market price of gold. They were indemnified in 
 the most direct and perfect manner that can be imagined ; they 
 received the money itself, and more than the money. The rate 
 of the indemnification was exact ; and the sufficiency of the 
 aggregate amount of it will never be doubted by any man who
 
 AGRICULTURISTS INDEMNIFIED. 87 
 
 will ask himself the question, whether one-fifth of all our agri- 
 cultural production was not, as prices at that time were, repre- 
 sented by a much larger sum than the amount of one-fifth of the 
 contemporaneous loan P 
 
 But this is not all there is another point of view in which the 
 picture is to be seen, where it will disclose fresh advantages 
 enjoyed by the landed interest at the period of our greatest 
 difficulties, not only exclusively, but derived directly though 
 incidentally, still positively derived out of the very misfortunes 
 which those difficulties brought upon other interests. 
 
 The foreign adventurer came here with a cargo of corn, for 
 which he considered himself amply remunerated by the clear 
 intrinsic sum of 800/., that is to say, for example, 500/. for the 
 shipping price at Dantzic, and 3001. to cover freight and insurance 
 to London. He demanded, however, and did receive, bank-notes 
 to the amount of 1,000/., which he converted into 800/. in gold, 
 and with that gold be returned to his own country. This he did, 
 not because he could not, with even 8002. in bank-notes, have 
 purchased colonial produce and English manufactures, which 
 would have made him a richer man when he got back than be 
 would be with his gold, but simply and solely because he knew 
 that he would be prevented, by military force, from intro- 
 ducing those goods into the Continent. Not only, therefore, 
 did the 2001. additional money vanish from him in consequence 
 of his returns being confined to gold, but, when he got home, he 
 was forced to give for such goods five times as much in gold as 
 he could have purchased them for, when he was here, in bank- 
 notes. 
 
 Now we are to observe, that it was precisely because the 
 foreigner was placed in this situation that the English agricul- 
 turist received 1,0001. for the like quantity of his corn: let us 
 then see bow he was circumstanced in his expenditure of that 
 sum. I appeal again to the recollections of our merchants, 
 whether our warehouses were not, at thp time in question, 
 groaning with sugar and coffee, and all manner of our own 
 colonial produce, as well as with foreign tropical productions, 
 remitted as payments to some unfortunate exporters of British 
 manufactures ? and, also, whether those manufactures were not 
 held here in immense quantities, for want of their natural 
 markets, and at prices ruinous beyond measure to the makers
 
 88 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 and holders of them. Every man who had any acquaintance 
 with our commercial affairs in the last five or six years of the 
 war, knows well that such was the case. Into so depressed a 
 market, therefore, for all such commodities did the English agri- 
 culturist go as a purchaser, supplied with funds extravagantly 
 enlarged, not only incidentally while that market happened to be 
 so low, but positively rendered large by the very cause which 
 made it so low. 
 
 An idea, and a most mistaken one it is, very generally prevails, 
 that during the high price of gold all commodities were dear ; 
 but the mercantile and manufacturing interests knew, but too 
 well, that nothing scarcely was dear at that time, with reference 
 to the cost of production, except agricultural produce, and those 
 other commodities which, if imported, were imported solely for 
 consumption ; and also, t hat the cause of that dearness lay in the 
 expenses of importation and the loss in remitting money to the 
 Continent occasioned by the impediments to exportation. If we 
 set aside the medium of money, whether in paper or in gold, and 
 measure the prices of our manufactures and colonial produce by 
 the quantity of agricultural produce for which they could be 
 exchanged at that time, we shall see, that the degree in which 
 the landed interest revelled, both in the distresses and because of 
 the distresses of the manufacturing, colonial, and commercial 
 interests all except the shipping interest was so great, that it 
 is now a matter worthy of astonishment how the country was 
 able to support the burden of the war and the burden of the 
 land at the same time. . 
 
 Still I say and repeat, that these are no grounds of complaint 
 or reproach against the landed interest, nor would they be 
 adverted to, except as curious historical and statistical facts, 
 exhibiting the vicissitudes of good and bad fortune to different 
 classes of society, if, when the war was over, and the cause of 
 such derangements had ceased, the fortunate class had been 
 contented with what had passed, and had not refused to loosen 
 their grasp, and let go their hold of the unfortunate classes. The 
 various schemes and expedients to which the landed interest have 
 resorted, or endeavoured to resort, in order to avoid bearing any 
 share of the public burden which the war has left upon the 
 country, render it absolutely necessary that their pretensions to 
 exemption should be sifted to the bottom. Perhaps they have
 
 CURRENCY. 89 
 
 never comprehended their real position perhaps, when they do 
 comprehend it, they will relent and be just. 
 
 I am, sir, your humble servant, 
 
 H. B. T. 
 
 LETTBE V. 
 
 To the Editor of the MOBNING CHRONICLE. 
 SIK. January 25, 1834. 
 
 The working classes, who are the great body of the people, 
 are, because they are the great body, more interested in the esta- 
 blishment of sound principles, upon extensive subjects, than the 
 other, and far less numerous, portion of society can be. The dis- 
 tinction between the two classes, with reference to the several 
 effects upon them of good or bad general systems, is somewhat like 
 that which exists between the extensive productions of the field 
 and the limited productions of the garden with reference to the 
 influence of the weather ; the first are openly exposed to the effects 
 of the prevailing season, while the latter may be sheltered in a 
 variety of ways. So long as the faults in the political economy of 
 a great nation are confined to trifling objects, they are like the 
 little indiscretions of diet committed by persons of strong con- 
 stitution, they do harm, no doubt, though it passes by unheeded. 
 But when an extensive subject like that of corn, or like that of 
 currency, to which I am about to advert, is wrongly treated, the 
 evil consequences will break out ; and then the great body of the 
 people the working classes will be the chief sufferers. My 
 friends of the " Society for Promoting National Regeneration " 
 must not think that I am forgetting their cause, while I am only 
 trying an " issue out of Court," upon which much of their cause 
 depends. They have escaped great peril in the attempts which 
 have been made to debase our currency ; but although those 
 attempts have hitherto failed, through an opposition highly 
 creditable to the honour of our country, still we must remember 
 that the project was not rejected upon any disproof of the grounds 
 upon which it was proposed, and that the fact of a former deprecia- 
 tion seems now to be admitted on all sides. If the validity of that 
 admission is to remain an undisputed record, future assaults, made 
 in times of pecuniary pressure, may prove too strong for our 
 virtue ; and I shall, therefore, offer in this letter, the suggestion of
 
 90 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 some doubts upon the subject, which may, perhaps, be thought 
 worthy of serious consideration. 
 
 The proposition in my last letter did not depend upon the hypo- 
 thesis of depreciation. I was not content there to assume the fact, 
 or even to admit its truth; all I had to prove was, that the landed 
 interest were fully indemnified for the difference between the 
 market price and the Mint price of gold, let the cause of that 
 difference be what it may. I shall now examine the question of 
 depreciation itself. 
 
 In order that we may bring the question at issue before us in as 
 plain and succinct a manner as possible, a few matters must be 
 premised, a few definitions settled, and a few admissions agreed 
 upon. But first, I must make a declaration of faith. I am a true 
 disciple of the school of currency, of which Mr. Hu*kison may be 
 the leader ;* I swear by the principles of his celebrated work, and 
 I pledge myself to advance no theory, to employ no doctrine, 
 except such as it was the object of his labours to establish. We 
 shall differ only upon facts. The principles of the writers who 
 opposed him in the heat of the controversy I totally reject. It is 
 not, however, for the s ike only of making this declaration that I 
 draw attention to that treatise ; I do it chiefly for the advantage 
 of the brevity and distinctness with which I may be able to place 
 in a prominent point of view the proposition I hope to establish, if 
 I lay its foundation upon the details of a work which has long 
 been before the public, and from which the public may be said to 
 have chiefly drawn the opinions upon currency they now uni- 
 versally entertain. Mr. Huskisson's pamphlet was published 
 shortly after the delivery of the Bullion Report of June, 1810. 
 He had been a member of the committee by whom that report was 
 made, and he wrote with the avowed purpose of supporting its 
 doctrines with a sort of supplement of details, such as could not 
 well be introduced into the parliamentary document. 
 
 Let us, then, consider what the doctrine of depreciation is, 
 according to these authorities. 
 
 Depreciation of a local currency is an effect of which a re- 
 dundant quantity of circulating medium is the cause. The test of 
 
 I would here include Mr. Ricardo and Mr. Mushett; they will be 
 sufficient representatives of a code of doctrines which they assisted in 
 advocating with great skill.
 
 HUSKISSON. THE BULLIONISTS. 91 
 
 the redundancy, and the measure of it, are to be found in the 
 course of mercantile transactions with foreigners. 
 
 When a local currency is redundant, it causes the prices of com- 
 modities, in the country where it occurs, to be raised above their 
 proper level with relation to other countries. 
 
 The general level of prices in the world is determined by the 
 total stock of the precious metals. The proper level in each par- 
 ticular country depends upon the proportionate share of that 
 stock, which it is able to command, by means of its relative power 
 of producing, cheaply and abundantly, commodities which are 
 desirable in other countries. 
 
 Although the total stock of the precious metals governs the 
 prices of commodities, so that those prices are always reckoned or 
 expressed in the precious metals ; still, that stock may be econo- 
 mized, and, in effect, expanded, either by means of direct barter, as 
 in some cases; or, as in other cases, by trust ings and transferable 
 credits, so managed as to be indirectly equivalent to barter since 
 by such methods of dealings, men are enabled to pass commodities 
 from one to another, to a very great amount, without the inter- 
 vention of the precious metals. These transferable credits have 
 come in time to assume the form of " bank-notes," actually per- 
 sonating the very metals themselves, and performing the functions 
 of coins in the country in which they circulate ; and their operation 
 upon prices is the same aa that of an increase of the stock of the 
 precious metals. 
 
 But as bank-notes are always local, if they be anywhere issued 
 in undue quantity, the prices of commodities in the country where 
 they circulate will be raised above their proper level ; that is, 
 above the level at which they ought to be in that country, in due 
 relation to the prices in other countries, with reference to its own 
 power of commanding a supply of precious metals, by means of 
 its surplus productions, suitable, in description and price, to the 
 markets of other countries. 
 
 A country having such an excess of circulating medium loses its 
 command over the precious metals, for the purposes of commerce, 
 by the same means as it obtains other articles of merchandise 
 namely, by paying for it an advanced price proportioned to the 
 redundancy of its local currency ; and the price so given is the 
 measure of the depreciation. 
 
 This is a sufficient exposition of the principle of currency and
 
 92 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 of the first cause of depreciation, and it is perfectly consistent with 
 the doctrines of the bullionists. We now come to the practical 
 operations, or secondary causes; and in describing them, the bul- 
 lionists again shall be my guide. 
 
 When the prices of all commodities have been raised in a par- 
 ticular country by a redundant quantity of circulating medium, its 
 markets become attractive to foreigners as sellers, but repulsive to 
 them as buyers; and importers return home* with gold instead of 
 goods, because they can purchase no goods in that country at a 
 price for which they will be reimbursed in their own country. If 
 the issuing bank could continue to pay its notes on demand, these 
 importers would continue to derive a most profitable trade ; but, 
 as this is impossible, we will at once suppose what was our own 
 case that the paper currency is not convertible into coin ; and 
 then the two following consequences will shortly ensue: first, the 
 stock of gold in the market will be sensibly reduced ; and next, 
 the stock of those goods which are produced for the export trade 
 will accumulate. In a little time after this the price of gold will 
 have risen so much as to destroy the profits apparently gained on 
 the sale of the foreign goods; and then a third consequence will 
 follow namely, that there will be a considerable check to im- 
 portation. 
 
 This is a state of things which cannot be permanent. Trade 
 never stagnates long, and some part of such a combination must in 
 time give way. The manner in which the struggle will end, will 
 determine the extent of the depreciation, by fixing the terms on 
 which the foreigner will be willing, once more, to carry on com- 
 mercial dealings with the country. Either the distress, which the 
 holder of exportable goods begins to feel from the want of a sale, 
 will make him disposed to lower his prices ; or, the want of im- 
 jMirtablr goods will make the customer ready to give the foreigner 
 ft better price for them than he did before ; or, a few goods being 
 imported, gold will be less in demand for returns, and will become 
 cheaper ; and thus, the jiarty who is wrong yielding in the con- 
 test, the true relative values, computed in the local currency, of 
 imports, of exports, and of gold, will be ascertained ; commerce 
 will resume its functions upon an agreed basis, and goods, once 
 more, will go in return for goods, let the ascertained amount of 
 depreciation be what it may. The foreigner cares nothing for the 
 depreciation of your paper, provided you allow him the proper
 
 PRACTICAL OPERATIONS. 93 
 
 discount. If you give him five-and-twenty per cent, more than 
 he wants for his goods, he will give you five-and-twenty per cent. 
 for your goods more than he considers them worth. But if you 
 ask him twenty-six per cent, he will leave them, and will buy 
 gold at twenty-five per cent, instead. In this way the value of 
 the local paper currency comes in time to be measured, side by 
 side, with the intrinsic metal currencies of the rest of the world ; 
 and the degree of the depreciation is proclaimed in the public 
 market price of gold. 
 
 The moving cause of this result may be stated in a very short 
 axiom, which is this that if you depreciate your currency by an 
 excess of circulating medium, the foreigner will give a preference 
 to your gold over your goods, up to the rate of the depreciation. 
 It is not a preference to gold over paper, for, were it so, he would 
 barter his own goods for gold when they came in ; but every 
 merchant sells his goods, first, in the currency of the country he 
 carries them to ; and then he considers what he shall buy with 
 that currency to take back with him. This forces him to deter- 
 mine whether he shall buy gold or goods ; and the terms upon 
 which he prefers one to the other evinces his estimation of the 
 currency in which he had sold his goods. A mercantile preference 
 can have but one guide, and that is, a comparison between the 
 respective prices of different articles at the place where they are 
 to be bought, with reference to their respective prices at the place 
 where they are to be sold. This is the preference intended in the 
 axiom ; and I request the reader's attention to it, because it is the 
 key to the question of depreciation, and we shall have much use 
 tor it in the sequel. It is this description of preference which was 
 intended by Mr. Huskisson and all the bullionists. 
 
 Before I proceed to give to the foregoing observations that 
 application, for the sake of which they have been made, I shall 
 take a short retrospect of the period during* the suspension of cash 
 payments, in order that the extent of the subject matter, as well 
 as the question at issue upon it. may be well understood. 
 
 The Order in Council, directing the suspension of cash pay- 
 ments, was issued in February, 1797. No immediate rise, how- 
 ever, in the price of gold succeeded that order ; and in 1799, the 
 Bank had so completely recovered itself from the effects of those 
 State measures which had, indeed, alone brought it into difficulty, 
 that they not only then proposed to resume their payments, but
 
 94 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 solicited permission to do so. Mr. Pitt, however, conceiving that 
 the country might be called upon to make extraordinary efforts 
 against the enemy, in which a command of the specie might prove 
 useful, resolved to continue the suspension upon ]x>litical grounds ; 
 and it must be acknowledged that the country was willing to leave 
 the management of its circulating medium to the discretion of the 
 Bank. In 1800, the market-price of gold rose about three or four 
 per cent, above the Mint price; but this was mainly caused by the 
 " great scarcity " consequent ii|>on the bad harvest of the previous 
 year, which led to extensive and unusual importations of corn, at 
 very high prices, and requiring extraordinary remittances to 
 foreign countries. In 1801, the exchanges righted themselves 
 again, and little more was thought on the subject till about the 
 beginning of the year 1809. They say that from 1806 till about 
 the close of 1808, the price was 4l. the ounce, or about 2 per 
 cent, above the Mint price; that it then began to rise rapidly, 
 until it l>ecaine about 1 5$ per cent, above the standard ; and there 
 it continued up to the time of their report. We know that there 
 was, afterwards, a considerable further rise, the excess being at 
 times even above 30 per cent. ; but the average, from the close of 
 1808 to the close of 1814 may be fairly taken at 25 per cent. 
 In the autumn of 1814, the exchanges rose with great rapidity; 
 and notwithstanding the fresh breaking out of the war, which 
 caused a relapse for a short time,* they recovered so effectually 
 soon after the final peace, that by the middle of 1816 the exchange 
 upon Paris was a quarter per cent, in favour of London. The 
 fresh armaments all over Europe, which the return of Napoleon 
 to France gave occasion to, must have caused a most urgent 
 demand for gold for the supply of the various military chests ; 
 and, added to the general dismay of the time, may well account 
 for the relapse in price which occurred in 1815. But the progress 
 which had been made before the end of 1814 in levelling the ex- 
 change, followed by the consummation in the middle of 1816, 
 notwithstanding such a powerful interruption, is sufficient to 
 show, that if that interruption had not occurred, the level would, 
 in all probability, have been effected a full year sooner. For these 
 
 Upon the mere news of Napoleon's escape from Elba the 
 exchanges fell ten per cent, in one day. This could be nothing but 
 mercantile speculation, excited by a recollection of what had been the 
 state of things so recently before.
 
 CIRCULATING MEDIUM. 95 
 
 reasons I divide the term of the suspension into the three follow* 
 ing periods : 
 
 The first period embraces about twelve years viz., from 
 February, 1797, to the close of 1808. During this time the 
 market-price of gold was above the Mint price, on the average 
 rather less than 2 per cent. ; and, when all the circumstances of 
 that period are considered, particularly the great occasion which 
 Government had for placing funds in foreign countries, the public 
 will not quarrel much with the Bank for that small excess. 
 Indeed, it never would have been seriously thought of, if it had 
 not been for the great subsequent rise ; but the subject is usually 
 argued, as if gold had been exceedingly dear all through the term 
 of the suspension. 
 
 The second period in the division is one of six years, from the 
 end of 1808 to the end of 1814, during which time the excess of 
 the market-price over Mint price may be computed on the 
 average, at 25 per cent. 
 
 The third period is that from the end of 1814 to the resumption 
 of cash payments, with which I have not any intention of med- 
 dling, although I may illustrate my views of the general question 
 by reference to some of its features. 
 
 I now return to the discussion of that question, with reference 
 to the price of gold from the close of 1808 to the close of 1814. I 
 should, however, here remark, that the Bullion Report of 1810, 
 and Mr. Huskisson's pamphlet which followed soon after, as well 
 as the works of the other writers alluded to, must be deemed, not- 
 withstanding their earlier dates, to be applicable to the whole of 
 this period ; because the members of the Committee and all other 
 bullionists always gave them that subsequent application. 
 
 I have now faithfully stated the doctrines of the bullionists, in 
 which I entirely agree, and I have truly related their explanation 
 of the manner in which an excessive issue of paper terminates in 
 a high price of gold, firmly believing that the effect which they 
 predicate will always follow the cause which they deprecate. We 
 have now to apply that explanation to the facts of the period we 
 are about to examine, in order to see whether such a cause had 
 then any existence. Let us then recur to our test. Was the price 
 of gold raised above the Mint price, in consequence of a preference 
 given by foreigners to gold over our goods ? In other words, did 
 the foreign merchants at that time, find that the prices of the
 
 96 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 goods we produced for exportation, or acquired in the way of our 
 natural trade for exportation, were raised so much above their 
 value abroad, that they thought it more to their interest to sacrifice 
 twenty-five per cent, upon the bank-notes they had received for 
 their imports in purchasing gold, than to lay out those notes in 
 purchasing cottons, hardware, sugar, or coffee? This is a question 
 of fact ; and unless it can be answered in the affirmative, the 
 charge of depreciation brought against our currency must fall to 
 the ground, and a verdict of acquittal be entered up ; for certainly 
 there is not a single " count " in the indictment, as it has been 
 framed by the authorities I have spoken of, that can be substan- 
 tiated, if the proof of high prices of goods should fail. 
 
 What was the language of advice, and of injunction too. which 
 Mr. Huskisson distinctly addressed to the Bank of England in his 
 treatise, when he meant to give to the proceedings of the directors 
 a practical application of his doctrines ? " Reduce your issues," he 
 said to them, " you will thereby lower the prices of our goods, 
 which will then be once more the chief, or even only medium of 
 remittance to foreign countries, as they ought to be, not only to 
 pay for foreign goods, but also for the recovery of the gold, which 
 the redundance of your notes has driven out of the country. By 
 your excessive issues you have so raised the price of the goods 
 which we ought to export, that the foreigners are compelled to 
 leave them behind and take away the gold." This was the pur- 
 port of the language of Mr. Huskisson, addressed to the directors 
 of the Bank of England ; and such language, added to the whole 
 tenor of the reasoning in his work, as well as to that of the 
 reasoning of all able men, who took the same side of the bullion 
 question that he did, can leave no room to doubt, that proof of a 
 high price of goods, as well as a high price of gold, computed in a 
 local currency, is necessary in order to establish a charge of depre- 
 ciation against that currency. " Cash suspension " alone is clearly 
 not enough, because, during suspension, the Bank might, from a 
 morbid caution, so stint the circulation as that, for purposes of 
 occasional convenience, a premium in gold should be given for 
 notes; and again, if we should suppose that clipping, melting, 
 and exportation, could really be prevented by a law, an intrinsic 
 metallic currency might be so improvidcntly extended, that un- 
 coined gold might be considerably above the Mint price in gold 
 standard money, and even although there were no notes in cir-
 
 THE "CONTINENTAL SYSTEM." 97 
 
 culation. It is only by supposing extreme cases of this nature 
 that principles can be tried. 
 
 It may be observed, that no statistical tables or accounts have 
 been introduced into these letters. There has been no need for 
 them, because I have founded all my positions upon great leading 
 facts, which are notorious to the public. 
 
 The fact I am now about to bring to the recollection of the 
 reader is of this description. I mean the ruinously low prices of 
 our manufactures, and of our.'colonial productions, under the opera- 
 tion, against England, of the " Continental System," during the 
 six last years of the war. Prices are high or low by comparison ; 
 but then it is material to consider what are the proper objects of 
 comparison, according to the purpose of the inquiry. For our 
 present purpose we are to compare the English prices with the 
 contemporaneous foreign prices ;* and in doing so, we need not 
 aim at any great accuracy, because the foreign prices of all those 
 descriptions of goods, which we held in the greatest abundance, 
 were so much above the English prices, that if we were to take them 
 at only half the amount, the excess would still be enough to have 
 given the exporter an enormous profit, over and above what he 
 got in taking gold, even if he could have bought gold with his 
 bank-notes at the Mint price. I mean to assert, that the prices of 
 sugar and coffee, for instance, on the Continent, computed in gold, 
 were four or five times higher than their prices in England, com- 
 puted in bank-notes. I am speaking of the times of the " Berlin 
 and Milan Decrees," and the British " Orders in Council ;" of the 
 times of the " License System," and of the " Blockade System," 
 of the times in which the French chemists discovered sugar 
 in beet-root, and a substitute for coifee in chicory ; and wheu 
 the English grazier tried experiments upon fattening oxen 
 with treacle and molasses of the times when we took pos- 
 session of the island of Heligoland, in order to form there a 
 depot of goods to facilitate, if possible, the smuggling of them 
 into the north of Europe ; and when the lighter descriptions of 
 British manufactures found their way into Germany through 
 Turkey. It will be remembered that the French decrees declared 
 on one hand, that no vessel should enter a Continental port if she 
 came from England, or even had touched at England. On the 
 
 * No mistake can be greater than that of comparing the prices of 
 thoae times with subsequent prices. 
 
 II
 
 98 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 other hand, our Orders in Council declared that no ship should go 
 to the Continent unless she came from England. Whatever might 
 be the military merit of this mode of retaliation, its commercial 
 effect against ourselves was most pernicious. Our fleets had com- 
 plete possession of the seas at that time, and they compelled every 
 ship they met to make for a British port. The consequence was, 
 that almost all the merchandise of the world accumulated in our 
 warehouses, where they became impounded, except when some 
 small quantity was released by a French license, for which the 
 merchants at Hamburgh or Amsterdam had, perhajMi, given 
 Napoleon such a sum as forty or fifty thousand pounds. They 
 must have been strange merchants, according to the bullionists, 
 to have paid so large a sum for liberty to carry a cargo of goods 
 from a dear market to a cheap one. What was the ostensible 
 alternative to the merchant ? Literally this either to buy 
 coffee at 6rf. a pound in bank-notes, and send it to a place where 
 it would instantly sell at 3. or 4s. a pound in gold, or to buy gold 
 with bank-notes at 51. an ounce, and send it to a place where it 
 would be received at 31. 17*. 10^7. an ounce. A man might as 
 well pretend to deny all Bonaparte's victories, or even that there 
 was such a person, as attempt to deny that such was the state of 
 our intercourse with the Continent during the reign of the decrees. 
 It is too absurd, of course, to say literally and distinctly, that the 
 gold was remitted instead of the coffee, as a preferable mercantile 
 operation ; and yet, if it was not so, under some explanation 
 which I am wholly unable to conjecture, what becomes of Mr. 
 Huskisson's advice to the Bank, to draw in a number of their 
 notes in order to reduce the price of coffee to the sum at which it 
 would be a preferable remittance to gold P I have never been able 
 to extract out of all the writings of the bullionists but one descrip- 
 tion of reasoning which could even seem to approximate to the 
 shadow of an answer to this objection. I will state it, and expose 
 ita futility. They begin with showing that all the human laws 
 that ever were made have proved ineffectual in preventing the 
 precious metals finding their way nut of the country which debases 
 its circulating medium ; or into the country which contracts its 
 circulating medium, in even a small degree, within the amount 
 which is consistent with the preservation of its Intrinsic value. 
 This is perfectly true; and in proof of it, it would be easy to show 
 that the natural tide of the precious metals did really set in strong
 
 THE "CONTINENTAL SYSTEM." 99 
 
 upon England through the whole of the time in question. There 
 was not a space on the globe at which we could gain access with 
 some goods, as a valuable consideration, from whence the gold and 
 silver did not spontaneously flow to us; and there was not a country 
 in the world in which so large a quantity of desirable goods could be 
 obtained, in return for an ounce of gold, as in England. But the 
 error which those good people have fallen into, is this they are 
 thinking of the facility of smuggling gold, and forget the diffi- 
 culty of smuggling goods. The gold, of course, will not come, if 
 the goods cannot go ; and that the goods could not go, at the time 
 in question, is sufficiently proved by their current market prices on 
 the different sides of the Channel.* The impediment was, the 
 resistance of bayonets and cannons ; and the efficacy of the impe- 
 diment is undeniable. I remember well to have heard it fre- 
 quently said of Bonaparte, at the time when all this was going on, 
 that he was constantly examining the English price current, in 
 order to ascertain whether, and with what degree of success, his 
 decrees were enforced by his own troops, and obeyed by his allies. 
 So long as he saw that gold was dear and coffee was cheap in 
 England, he was satisfied that his " Continental System " worked 
 well. The English could see nothing in those documents but proof 
 that the Bank was shamefully extending the issue of its notes. 
 
 It is a most extraordinary thing that the people of England 
 should have so strangely mystified themselves on the subject, as to 
 have imbibed a general impression, that all things were dear 
 during the time that gold was dear,; for there never was a greater 
 mistake, and yet no man speaks ten sentences upon the " currency 
 question," without talking of the high "war prices," as applicable 
 to all commodities. Some descriptions of goods were, certainly, 
 exceedingly dear ; but then, others were most oppressively cheap ; 
 and the characteristic line to be drawn between them will be 
 found to be a very curious one, when we come to examine the 
 distinction with reference to the question at issue. The dear goods 
 were those which we raised or imported, or partly raised and 
 partly imported for consumption only, and of which, so far from 
 having any surplus, we scarcely obtained enough for our own 
 
 * If 60,000 tons of coffee, held here unyaleable at 6rf. the pound, 
 while coffee was 4* or 5*. the pound on the Continent, is not evidence 
 that the impediment was more than all the subtlety of mercantile 
 men could overcome, it is in vain to look for proof of such a fact.
 
 100 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 demand. The cheap goods were those which we made at home, 
 or brought from our colonies, in quantities beyond our con- 
 sumption. The cause of the dcarness of the first class lay in the 
 difficulties and consequent charges under which alone the defi- 
 cient quantities could be procured. The cause of the cheapness 
 of the second class lay in the impediments to our gaining admis- 
 sion for the surplus quantities in the countries of their proper 
 markets. The false idea of universal dcarness being thus dis- 
 pelled, by reference to these facts, I would ask, which of the two 
 classes of goods, according to the above division, is the one whose 
 prices bear most on the currency question ? I have a right to 
 receive from every bullionist the answer, that the value of the 
 circulating medium is to be tested by the prices of the exportable 
 commodities, more than by the prices of the importable commo- 
 modities. The mere fact of the great cheapness of the former speci- 
 fically contradicts the charge of depreciation; while the clearness 
 of the latter in no way alone implies depreciation. Then arise two 
 other questions : First, has not the dearness of the importable 
 goods been clearly accounted for, upon the common principles of 
 supply and demand '** And next, can the cheapness of the ex- 
 portable goods be accounted for consistently with an assertion, 
 that the currency was depreciated at the same time ? There is one 
 more point to be cleared up, and that is in respect of the quantity 
 of exportable goods debarred exportation ; because it is necessary 
 to consider, whether the quantity was sufficient to have produced 
 a great effect upon the price of gold, under the supposition that 
 the impediment to exportation had been removed. My solu- 
 tion of this problem shall be distinctly adapted to the purpose of 
 the inquiry. I am confident that the stock of goods which we 
 held waiting a foreign market, over and above the quantities of 
 them which we should want to retain for the home consumption, 
 amounted in valuef to a sum equal to the whole quantity of gold 
 coin necessary for the ordinary circulation of the country, when 
 the Bank is paying its notes on demand. And in this valuation I 
 do not take the extravagant prices at which, during the prohibitory 
 system on the Continent, the scanty supplies, occasionally let in, 
 
 The cause of the high price of corn, and other agricultural pro- 
 duce, was fully pointed out in the third letter. 
 
 f The value of the coffee alone, at a moderate price, in open market, 
 would have given u upwards of six million* sterling.
 
 DEPRECIATION. 101 
 
 under French licenses, were then selling; but only the prices 
 which at those times might have been expected in an ordinary 
 state of commercial intercourse with an enemy's country, such as 
 has been usual in other times of war. 
 
 The proposition which I would establish is, that although de- 
 preciation must produce a high price of gold, a high price of gold 
 is no proof of depreciation, unless accompanied also by a high price 
 of goods. It is the price of goods which rises first, and the price of 
 gold rises afterwards, only because the price of goods had risen, 
 and the foreigner is therefore willing to give a high price for gold, 
 rather than give a still higher price for goods. A low price of 
 goods that is, greatly below that for which they will sell abroad 
 is utterly inconsistent with, and contradictory of, a charge of 
 depreciation ; and therefore, if, when the prices of goods are low, 
 the price of gold should happen to be high, we must seek another 
 cause than depreciation for the high price of gold. Never was 
 effect deduced from its cause more clearly, than that both the low 
 price of goods and the high price of gold are deducible from the 
 French decrees and the British Orders in Council ; and yet the 
 bullionists so completely abstracted themselves from every existing 
 fact, that they inferred depreciation, at once, from the high price 
 of gold. It is true that they assert that goods were dear, and that 
 the high price of gold did receive the confirmation of a high price 
 of goods. But they took the wrong goods they took corn and 
 other agricultural produce they took hemp, timber, barilla they 
 took the very goods for which we had to give the gold, instead of 
 the goods which ought to have been taken instead of the gold, and 
 in return for which alone we can obtain gold itself. The only 
 goods which can affect a question of currency in any country, are 
 those which it naturally and habitually exports. In France it 
 would be wine; in Russia, tallow; in Virginia, tobacco; in Norway, 
 deals, and in England, calicos, hardware, sugar, and coffee. The 
 price of agricultural produce, here, had no more to do with the 
 subject than the price of admission to a theatre at Paris. And 
 yet one of the modes of accounting for the strange misconceptions 
 into which the bullionists fell, notwithstanding the light of their 
 excellent principles which they had for their guide, is, that they 
 assumed a general rise of prices from the clearness of agricultural 
 produce ; a fresh proof, by the by, of the mischievous predomi- 
 nance of a land bias upon every question.
 
 102 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 Another mode of accounting for the prevalence of the error I 
 have exposed, is the course pursued by the Bank during the bul- 
 lion controversy, and the line of argument adopted by their lite- 
 rary advocates. These parties entered the field of theoretical 
 discussion, and attempted to overthrow the sound doctrines of Mr. 
 Homer, Mr. Huskisson, Mr. Ricardo, and the rest of the true 
 school ; their object was, to establish principles of currency upon 
 which a cash suspension might be defended at all times. If they 
 had applied themselves to the task of proving the inapplicability 
 of those doctrines to the extraordinary facts of the then present 
 times, and had said, " Look at the prices of the British exportable 
 goods, and our immense stocks of them these are the represen- 
 tatives of our absent coins ; with them the coins can be recovered 
 whenever the interruption created by brute force shall cease." If 
 they had said this, the unwelcome answer to them might have 
 been, " Very well, we will keep our eye on those prices, and on 
 those stocks, so long as that interruption lasts; but, remember, 
 that as soon as the interruption is over, your cash suspension is 
 over also ; and, therefore, be upon your guard, and take care that 
 when the time comes, these stocks shall really be exchanged for 
 the coins." But the bullionists should not have waited for the 
 Bank to commence this dialogue, they should have given the 
 injunction themselves ; and most happy would it have been for 
 this country if they had done so : for then the finest opportunity 
 in the world for retracing a step false in its nature, but right 
 under the circumstances would not have been lost. The bul- 
 lionists should themselves have pointed to the stocks of exportable 
 goods, their immense magnitude, and their miserable prices, com- 
 pared with their prices in their proper market abroad, and they 
 fhould have said "In this we admit an exception to our rule; 
 here is a force in operation which suspends the applicability of our 
 doctrine.' 1 Happy, I repeat, it would have been for the country 
 if they had done this, because then, the true cause of the high 
 price of gold being acknowledged, the period of its natural cessa- 
 tion would have been assuredly fixed upon as the period also of the 
 cash suspension. Had that period been so fixed on, and resolutely 
 adhered to as it would certainly have been if the caw had been 
 understood we should have recovered our gold with increased 
 prices of the goods which we sent out in order to bring the gold 
 back. But the bullionists were thinking of nothing but triumph-
 
 CASH PAYMENTS. 103 
 
 ing with their principles over their antagonists, by whom those prin- 
 ciples were most al>surdly attacked ; and the Bank was caring for 
 nothing but continuing the cash suspension as long as they could ; 
 and therefore, not defending themselves from unjustifiable assaults 
 by pleading a justification which was of a terminable character. 
 
 This letter has been extended much beyond the limits within 
 which I hoped to confine it; but I cannot conclude it without 
 endeavouring to fix on the mind of the readers the proposition I 
 have advanced in the last paragraph, viz. : that we could have 
 resumed cash payments within a short time after the termination 
 of the Continental system, war or no war, with more ease than at 
 any much later period. The means of acquiring gold are, the 
 possession of such goods to give in return for it, as the parties 
 having the gold are desirous of receiving. The Continent 
 never could be more bare of all tropical productions, and of 
 British manufactures, than it was rendered by the privations 
 which that system inflicted on it. Neither could any other state 
 of commerce whatever give occasion to so large a collection of 
 such goods in this country, as had at the same time, and by 
 operation of the same causes, been then forced into it, and there 
 impounded. The people of a country which has lost its coins, by 
 the high prices of its exportable goods, in consequence of an exces- 
 sive issue of paper money, can only recover the precious metals by 
 such a contraction of its currency as shall greatly reduce those 
 prices. They must exactly retrace their steps ; they must make 
 their markets attractive to buyers, and repulsive to sellers, except 
 the sellers of the precious metals ; they must make it profitable 
 to a foreign merchant, who wants the goods of a third country, to 
 bring his gold first to them, and with it to purchase their goods, 
 as the cheapest medium for obtaining from that country the goods 
 he wants. Men who talk so composedly as they do of our alleged 
 depreciation can have no conception of the misery which this 
 country would have had to go through, if we really had lost our 
 gold from that cause. The real fact is, that the prices of all our 
 exportable commodities rose from fifty to a hundred per cent, 
 during the time when the chief part of our gold was spontaneously 
 coming in; and when we might most easily have secured the 
 whole, if the Bank had given only a slight appreciation to our 
 currency at the time. I*et us reverse this case, and imagine that, 
 instead of the prices of our goods rising, as I have stated, they had
 
 104 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 fallen considerably below what they had been and they most 
 have done so if they had been depreciation prices and then we 
 shall have some conception of the distress which must have per- 
 vaded this country while it was undergoing such severe discipline. 
 Let us, on the other hand, imagine that the Bank had seized the 
 opportunity I speak of, for preparing speedily for the resumption 
 of cash payments ; and, by an effort, which would then have been 
 a very easy one, for the work was almost done to their hands, had 
 consummated that work ; and then let us reflect on the number of 
 troubles, and the mass of errors and misconceptions we should 
 have escaped. The question of previous depreciation is not 
 affected by the fault of the Bank in not taking the proper time 
 for replacing the metallic currency. It is enough to prove, that 
 there was a time when it could have been done, not only with the 
 facility I have described, but also with the accompaniment of cir- 
 cumstances the very reverse of those which must attend a recovery 
 after depreciation. If any man doubt the fact, that the price of all 
 our exportable commodities was very high in the year 1814,.! will 
 refer him to the amusing annual statements which poor Alderman 
 Waithman used to make in the House, for the purpose of showing 
 the liberality, or the folly, or something but nobody could tell 
 what of our exporters, in supplying foreigners with our goods so 
 much more cheaply than we used to do. He always pitched upon 
 1814 as his dear period. 
 
 But this extraordinary rise of the prices of our exportable goods 
 at the time referred to, is as little considered in discussions on 
 currency, as their previous low prices ; and to what must we attri- 
 bute such remarkable neglect of so strong a feature of that ques- 
 tion ? To corn corn, again ! Land, land and for ever. The 
 price of corn, which proved nothing, fell, and therefore the prices 
 of our manufactures and colonial produce, which alone affected the 
 question, are to go for nothing ; although the first fell only because 
 the expenses of importation were reduced, and the second rose 
 only because foreign ports were opened for their reception. 
 
 I cannot tell, sir, whether I have shaken, in any degree, the 
 decision which has been so universally passed upon the currency 
 question ; but of this I am sure, that if our currency was depre- 
 ciated during the last six years of the war, the principles of 
 currency, upon which the charge of depreciation is to be founded, 
 have not yet been propounded to the public.
 
 THE BANK. 105 
 
 I defend the Bank up to the end of the war. Their conduct 
 since, till lately, has been full of faults, and full of blunders- 
 Their attempt to infuse gold into the circulation by paying it 
 away in driblets, till they had wasted six millions of their trea- 
 sure ; and, again, their quietly consenting to cash payments, and 
 withdrawing their own small notes, while the country bankers 
 were left at liberty to issue as many as they pleased ; the omission 
 of the Bank to insist upon the revival of the whole of our original 
 monetary system, if the part which immediately affected them was 
 to be revived ; these, and many more matters, prove that there 
 was a time when the Bank did not understand their business. 
 But they understand it now ; they have had the lessons of costly 
 experience, and there is ample reason to be satisfied with their 
 present management. 
 
 As to the suspension of cash payments, it might have been 
 justifiable for a short time in 1797, because the Minister had 
 brought the Bank to a stand-still before they were aware of their 
 situation, and some time was necessary for them to recover a 
 proper stock of metals and coin. This being done, the suspension 
 was indefensible, in my opinion, until the continental system 
 came into operation. If, during the operation of that system, 
 we had resolved to keep a metallic currency, our circulating 
 medium must have been contracted * to a degree which no man at 
 present contemplates. If sixpence in metal could not be attracted 
 into the country for a pound of coffee, which would ensure the 
 holder of it three or four shillings in France or Holland, I do not 
 
 * We must either hare given up the use of a bank, and been 
 content to see the price of a fat ox brought down to 10.., or we must 
 have given up the Orders in Council. I consider that our pecuniary 
 difficulty lay in the Orders in Council, and not in the French decrees-, 
 and I go so far as to say, that if we had not retaliated, I would not 
 have admitted the decrees to have justified the cash suspension. The 
 stoppage of the direct channel of remittance by the enemy was 
 not a sufficient excuse ; but when we ourselves stopped all indirect 
 and circuitous channels, and thereby brought also the American 
 embargo upon us, it is most preposterous to talk coolly of tho 
 never-failing efficacy of mercantile expedients; or rather, not even 
 to deem such a state of things worthy of mention, in treatises upon 
 currency, intended for the ue of the very times in which such things 
 occurred.
 
 106 LEFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 see how a bank could issue a single note more than it could pay in 
 specie at the same moment. 
 
 I am, sir, your humble servant, 
 
 H. B. T. 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. If any bullionist should condescend to notice this 
 letter, with a view to its refutation, I hope that he will keep close 
 to the point. He must apply his reasoning to the fact that all 
 exportable articles were, in this country, far cheaper, computed 
 even in Bank notes, than they were in the countries of their proper 
 markets in gold. The reverse of this fact has hitherto been 
 assumed by all the writers who have insisted on the depreciation 
 of our currency. In the works of Mr. Huskisson, Mr. llicardo, 
 and Mr. Mushett, there is not to be found the slightest trace of 
 any impediment to commerce. Future historians may very fairly 
 endeavour to prove, by arguments drawn from their total silence 
 on the " continental system,' 1 and their constant assumption of free 
 agency in the merchants, that the Berlin and Milan Decrees and 
 the British Orders in Council were fabulous traditions. 
 
 I have been desired, since this letter appeared, to re-peruse the 
 Appendix to Mr. Kicardo's pamphlet, which he wrote in answer 
 to an article in the " Edinburgh Review," upon the previous 
 edition of the pamphlet itself. It is long since I looked into any 
 of these treatises, and I turned with haste to this Appendix, 
 imagining that I should have found something which I had 
 formerly overlooked ; but far from it the Appendix, like all the 
 rest, proceeds wholly on the assumption, that " coffee, sugar, &c. M 
 were cheaper, in France than in England. I will give a quotation 
 from the Appendix, as a specimen of remarks and illustrations 
 which might be selected from the writings of the bullionists, suffi- 
 cient to nil a volume. 
 
 " The only proof which we can possess of the relative cheap- 
 nen of money in two places, is by comparing it with commo- 
 dities. Commodities measure the value of money in the same 
 manner as money measures the value of commodities. If these 
 commodities will purchase more money in England than in 
 France, we may justly say that money is cheaper in England, and 
 that it is exported to find its level, not to destroy it. After 
 comparing the value of coffee, sugar, ivory, indigo, and all other 
 exportable commodities, in the two markets, if I persist in sending
 
 RICARDO. 107 
 
 money, what further proof can be required of money being 
 actually the cheapest of all these commodities in the English 
 market, in relation to the foreign markets, and, therefore, the 
 most profitable to be exported ? What further evidence is neces- 
 sary of the relative redundance and cheapness of money between 
 France and England, than that, in France, it will purchase more 
 corn, more indigo, more coffee, more sugar, more of every export- 
 able commodity than in England." I suppose Mr. Ricardo con- 
 sidered everything that could be put into a ship an exportable 
 commodity, or he would not have jumbled corn into this latter 
 list ; but the reader will remember that I have applied the word 
 " exportable " to those commodities which a country produces 
 habitually beyond its consumption, as contradistinguished from 
 what we may denominate its consumable commodities. Certain 
 manufactures and colonial produce are our " exportable" commo- 
 dities ; and my position is, that so long as we possess them in 
 great abundance beyond our consumption, and the prices of them 
 are very greatly below their prices in other countries, the pheno- 
 menon of a high price of gold does not prove the assertion that the 
 currency is depreciated ; nor is the coincidence of a high price of 
 corn, which may be the effect of famine, a sufficient corroboration 
 of that assertion. So much for the classification of commodities : 
 but Mr. Ricardo did not attempt to say that the high price of 
 gold proved depreciation, notwithstatuling the low prices of all our 
 exportable commodities ; he assumed that these prices were higher 
 here than in France. He imagines the peaceful merchant in his 
 counting-house, with no other weapon than his pen, nor ammu- 
 nition than his ink, coolly calculating and finding that gold will 
 be a more advantageous remittance to France than coffee or sugar, 
 because, consulting the prices-current, he sees that " money will 
 purchase more coffee and more sugar in France than in England." 
 Now we know that this assumption was not merely untrue, in 
 anything like the ordinary degree in which prices vary, but that 
 it was extravagantly, ridiculously untrue : for that coffee and 
 sugar were 500 cr 600 per cent, dearer in France in gold and 
 silver than they were in England in bank-notes, and that for four 
 or five years together. It is quite in vain to say that the depre- 
 ciation of the currency is proved by such writings as this ; and it 
 will be found, that the reasonings of all the bullionists are based 
 upon the same false assumption, accompanied at the same time
 
 108 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 with a total want of the discrimination necessary to be made 
 between those commodities, which are properly the exportable 
 commodities of the country, and those which it could- only 
 produce or import to satisfy its own wants. 
 
 If, therefore, I repeat, any bullionist should condescend to 
 notice my exposition of this subject, I hope that he will under- 
 take, this time, to prove that the high price of gold did not 
 require the corroboration of a high price of goods in order to 
 prove that the local currency was depreciated ; but that the price 
 of the gold was proof alone, even notwithstanding the miserably 
 low prices and the enormous stocks of our exportable commo- 
 dities. 
 
 It is, of course, too late for such diffuse reasoncrs to fall back 
 upon the truism, which the simple price of the standard metal 
 affords. If the whole question lay in the price of gold, it could 
 have been answered in three words, and there would have been no 
 need of three hundred pages of elaborate argument. 
 
 A patient tells hi* physician that he has a pain in his side ; the 
 physician immediately pronounces that the disease is in the liver, 
 and then, with great volubility, describes a variety of symptoms 
 connected with the origin and progress of such a disease, and 
 which symptoms he also assumes the patient to be suffering under. 
 The patient, as soon as he can obtain a hearing, assures the 
 physician he has not one of those secondary symptoms ; on the 
 contrary, he has some symptoms directly opposite to those 
 described. " I don't care for that," says the physician ; " you 
 have a pain in your side, and that 's enough to prove to me that 
 your liver is diseased, whether you have the other symptoms or 
 not." The patient would be very likely to say, " I have no doubt 
 that the man who, in addition to a pain in his side, has all those 
 other symptoms you describe, has a diseased li ver, but I shall take 
 other advice before I submit myself to the remedies which you 
 prescribe." The truth is, that if we search an inch beyond the 
 main fact of a high price of gold, we find that all the subordinate 
 facts run counter to the doctrine of depreciation, as its progress 
 and workings have hitherto been expounded. 
 
 It is very excellent to furnish the world with sound abstract 
 treatises on currency ; but the public have a particular case before 
 them, and they want information expressly upon that case. Under 
 circumstances so extraordinary as not to have their parallel in the
 
 THE QUESTION. 109 
 
 history of human affairs, we agreed, at a particular period, to 
 dispense with a metallic currency, and to adopt a substituted 
 circulating medium. Now what the country wants to know i>, 
 whether in that interval of time the substituted currency fairly 
 performed the duties of its absent principal ; they want to know 
 whether the prices of goods at that tune were unduly raised by 
 an abuse of the substituted currency, in order that they may 
 know whether the difficulties under which they labour now, 
 twenty years afterwards, in consequence of low prices, are attribu- 
 table to a fall of them from an improper elevation ? They do not 
 want to know how much the true levtl of prices would have been 
 deranged on the side of depression, if, under such circumstances 
 as we were placet] in. with nearly the whole world combined in a 
 conspiracy to deprive us of the use of the precious metals, 
 we had resolved to employ a metallic currency they want 
 a rule for judging, by means of which, setting aside the 
 extraordinary influences on both sides, they may be able to 
 estimate the fitness of the prices, according to the ordinary 
 operation of supply and demand according to the quantity 
 of the precious metals in existence, and according to the share 
 of those metals to which, upon mercantile principles, we were 
 entitled. 
 
 In the quotation I have given from Mr. Ricardo, he says, and 
 says most truly, "The only proof which we can possess of the 
 relative cheapness of money in two places, is by comparing it 
 with commodities in those two places." Our money at that lime 
 was wholly paper, unchecked by gold as its test or regulator ; it 
 was, therefore, peculiarly fit to be tested by the prices of com- 
 modities in countries where money was subjected to the ordeal 
 of the precious metals. 
 
 Now I mean to assert that, from this trial of its value, our 
 currency of that day will come out triumphant. It is a positive 
 fact, that England was the cheapest country in the world during 
 the time when gold was twenty-five per cent, and upwards above 
 the Mint price. I am told, that if I admit the possibility of dis- 
 turbance by physical force, I deny the theory of money. Then 
 the surgeon who recognises the power of the tourniquet, denies the 
 theory of the circulation of the blood.
 
 110 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 I i I i i i; VI. 
 
 To the Editor of the MORNING CHRONICLE. 
 
 Sin. January 31, 1834. 
 
 When men use the proverb, that "honesty is the best 
 policy," they are not contemplating that highest policy of which 
 no reasoning mind ever doubts, but they mean to intimate that 
 those persons who always forbear to seize the opportunities of in- 
 cidental power for pushing their interest beyond their rights, will 
 generally find, in the end, that they have adopted the most politic, as 
 well as the most honest, course in the management of their worldly 
 affairs. But parties who suffer present evil from the conduct of 
 those who have not philosophy enough to trust to this maxim in 
 doubtful cases, or who want the virtue to act justly without it in 
 all cases, are not bound to defer their rights- before the claims of 
 dishonesty until they can make out a clear case of impolicy also, 
 to the satisfaction of those by whom their rights are invaded. I 
 have in several places sufficiently intimated my opinion, that the 
 land interest have greatly misconceived their policy ; but whether 
 I bring them round to this opinion or not, I shall equally call 
 upon them to desist from acts of injustice. " The Rights of 
 Industry" do not depend upon my proving, even to impartial 
 minds, that our agriculture would have been hi a much more 
 prosperous condition than it is, if there had never been a Corn 
 Bill ; much less do they depend upon my making converts of the 
 landed interests themselves to such a view of their case. In 
 "skimming the papers" on a club-table, within these few days, I 
 fell upon a letter from some very angry gentleman of Land, in 
 which he says, in a mighty high tone, " Prove to us that the price 
 of corn will rise, as a consequence of free admission, and we will 
 be very ready to give up our Corn Act." In another place, he 
 says, " that the man must be an incomparable coxcomb who would 
 pretend to predict what the price of com would be after the repeal 
 of that act," forgetting that the Corn BUI itself was founded upon 
 predictions of this nature. Such an effusion might have been 
 suffered to pass quietly, if we did not know that this gentleman 
 is only an impatient spokesman of the sentiments of his class ; 
 and, therefore, whether I venture or not, under the peril of this 
 denunciation, to make the forbidden estimate, I have at least the 
 boldness to tell him, that the price, whatever it would be without a
 
 TITHES. POOR LAWS. Ill 
 
 Corn Act, is all that he or his friends who possess land can, as 
 honest men, demand of those who have none. 
 
 It is absolutely necessary to discharge the subject of all the false 
 chums of the landed interest, before either the question of their 
 particular policy, or the question of the general policy of the 
 nation, can be advantageously discussed. I have, in former letters, 
 disposed of those claims which are founded upon burdens created 
 by the long and arduous war which terminated about twenty 
 years ago. The National Debt, I trust, will no more be pleaded 
 by the landed interest as the justification of a Corn Bill, either upon 
 the ground of its magnitude or that of its composition ; and it may 
 be hoped that, even in other quarters, the composition of the debt 
 will be thought a little better of than it has been. I now propose 
 to offer a few observations upon the claims which the landed 
 interest found upon their liability to tithes, to poor-rates, &c., and 
 to taxation in general. 
 
 Of tithes, it may be enough to say that they existed long before 
 that most abstruse and highly theoretical maxim in political eco- 
 nomy, called " protection," was invented by " practical men ;" and 
 they have always existed, as a positive charge upon land, un- 
 qualified by any right conferred on the owners of land to re- 
 imburse themselves from the moneys of the rest of the community; 
 except so far as such a charge may, by the operation of trade, 
 under some circumstances, infuse itself into the prices of the pro- 
 ductions of land. If, after one-tenth part of the produce of a field 
 ha* been taken for the tithe, a law is to provide that the value of 
 the nine other parts shall be increased by one-ninth, the owner 
 of the field pays no tithe at all ; and I believe that no man will 
 say that it never was intended that the burden of tithe should be 
 borne by the landowner. A Corn Bill, granted for the purpose 
 of relieving the land from tithes, is a deliberate transfer of a charge 
 from one party, who is liable to pay it, to another, who is under 
 no such liability ; and nothing but an increase of population, which 
 has added greatly to the value of the remaining nine parts of the 
 produce of the field, could have enabled the owner of it to execute 
 a device for making the people pay him also for the tenth part, 
 which never was his property. 
 
 The poor-laws are of older date than the importation of corn; 
 they existed through a long term of exportation, when the owners 
 of land neither had, nor could have had, any protection upon the
 
 112 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 ground of the charges they incurred in supporting their poor. The 
 circumstance of our having passed from the condition of an ex- 
 porting to that of an importing country, can give them no right to 
 be re-imbursed those charges by the trading part of the community, 
 although it supplies them with the machinery for enforcing such a 
 claim ; and, indeed, if we reflect upon the number of idle persons 
 who were supported by the great landowners out of the produce of 
 their estates, before commerce and refinement had altered the 
 habits of society, by converting squires into gentlemen, and boors 
 into artisans, the poor-rates would appear to be little else than a 
 substitute for the former practice, tardily adopted after an interval 
 of great disorder, under which the landowners were the greatest 
 sufferers. There is nothing in the first institution of the poor- 
 law, nor in the early practice under it, upon which the landed in- 
 terest can found a prescriptive or traditional right, to throw upon 
 the rest of the community directly or indirectly, by any device 
 or contrivance whatever the charge they incur in maintaining the 
 surplus part of the population of their respective parishes. The 
 demand of an additional price for the produce of their lands upon 
 the ground of that charge, amounts to a claim for personal ex- 
 emption ; and if we follow out the proposition contained in such 
 a claim, it will be found to run into the most extravagant con- 
 clusions. 
 
 Suppose the labouring population of an agricultural parish, 
 which had brought all its lands into complete cultivation, to have 
 been at any given time so exactly measured to the work to be per- 
 formed in it, that none but the sick and infirm should require 
 relief. In a few years this happy adaptation of hands to work 
 would inevitably be deranged by the natural increase of popu- 
 lation ; unless the portion which constituted the surplus could be 
 absorbed in the various occupations of other parts of the country. 
 The facilities for effecting their migration must depend very much 
 upon the prosperous condition of the manufacturing part of the 
 people; and their ability to support this agricultural surplus would 
 be evinced only by their ability to employ them. But suppose 
 that from some cause of distress such, for instance, as being 
 forced to pay a high price for corn, while their foreign competitors 
 were able to obtain corn at a low price, the manufacturers were 
 unable to find employment for this agricultural surplus of people 
 in their works, would it not be an extraordinary proceeding to
 
 POOR RATES. 113 
 
 t 
 
 require them to remit money to the respective parishes oF those 
 people for the purpose of supporting them there in idleness? And 
 yet a law which enhances to the manufacturers the price of corn, 
 upon the ground of the poor-rates paid by farmers, amounts to 
 nothing short of such a requisition. 
 
 Nor can the manufacturers see any end to such demands, except 
 in ruin to themselves and the farmers too ; fur, let us imagine that 
 in a pariah in Sussex, the work and the work-people had twenty 
 years ago been balanced in a manner just mentioned, and that the 
 lands in it produced at that time for the market, after feeding its 
 inhabitants, a thousand quarters of wheat, which sold at sixty 
 shillings the quarter ; but that now the population had become so 
 much increased, that the quantity left for market was only eight 
 hundred quarters, and that the farmers, therefore, demanded 
 seventy-five shillings the quarter. If their demands were ac- 
 quiesced in uixm that ground, the disposable quantity, at the end 
 of the next twenty years, might be only six hundred quarters, and 
 the price must be 5 the quarter ; and thus, in process of time, 
 the whole produce of the parish would come to be consumed upon 
 its own lands, were it not that such false systems must explode 
 before these extremities are arrived at, or even very closely 
 approached. 
 
 According to the Agricultural Report of last session, there is a 
 considerable extent of land in Sussex which is very expensive in 
 the cultivation, and which yields scarcely three sacks of wheat to 
 the acre. Such land must require the labour of many hands ; but 
 yet we are told that there is not sufficient employment, in the 
 several parishes, for their respective populations. 
 
 In these places, the case we have been supposing would soon 
 be realised, if the farmers are to throw the burden of their poor 
 upon Birmingham and Manchester ; and the owners of such lands 
 would do well to consider, whether they are not manoeuvring for 
 the filling of workhouses in their own parishes, which they may 
 find that they must support, instead of factories in the manufac- 
 turing districts. But in what light are we to view the significant 
 lamentation poured out over these barren soils by the Committee 
 and their witnesses ? Can they possibly mean to intimate that the 
 people of this country are to be fed upon a scale of supply, 
 measured by the produce of land which yields but three sacks of 
 wheat to on acre, in return for expensive cultivation ? Can they 
 
 I
 
 114 LIFE OF J. DEACON I1OIE. 
 
 i 
 
 really harbour an inclination, to smite the country, as it were, 
 with such a degree of virtual sterility? 
 
 The highway-rates are a description of charge which naturally 
 attaches to the superficies of a country. The various roads are in 
 the ratio of that superficies, and the more numerous they are, and 
 the better their condition, the greater is the advantage of those 
 persons who own or occupy the surface of the country over 
 which they pass. But the receipts of tolls form the great fund of 
 the main highways of the kingdom, and from this source lines 
 of communication have been made, by which the value of land, in 
 numerous and extensive district", has been greatly enhanced. 
 The chief ground upon which the landed interest demand rc- 
 imbursement of such charges is, that they are not borne by their 
 foreign competitors. If this be so in regard to highways, I can 
 only say that their foreign competitors have the worst of the 
 bargain. If an addition can be made to the price of corn upon the 
 ground of the highway rates, it must be upon the principle that 
 it is a charge which ought not to fall upon land ; and how such a 
 principle is to be maintained I cannot conceive. 
 
 The couuty-rates are another grievance complained of; but the 
 occupiers of land, and the dwellers in rural situations, are the 
 parties most interested in the purposes for which those rates arc 
 chiefly expended. I can see no ground upon which the landed 
 interest should throw their portion of these expenses upon the 
 other members of the community ; but this they will do if the 
 price of corn is artificially raised upon the ground of the county- 
 rates. 
 
 But the landed interest do not confine their claim of indemnifi- 
 cation to those taxes or rates which attach immediately to their 
 lands ; they intimate in no doubtful expressions, that they must be 
 supplied with the means of bearing their share of the general 
 taxation of the country. Heavy duties have, of late years, been 
 imposed on horses, carriages, servants, wine, and other articles of 
 their use and consumption, and they conceive that their liability to 
 these duties constitutes a right in them to require that tluir in- 
 comes shall be proportionally raised. Their incomes are the rents 
 of land, and as rents cannot be increased except the prices of agri- 
 cultural produce be increased, they have brought themselves to 
 believe that they are entitled to compel the public, by the aid of a 
 law, to pay higher prices for bread and meat, in order that they
 
 HIGHWAY AND COUNTY RATES. 115 
 
 may compete, as I suppose, with foreign landlords in keeping horses 
 and carriages, and using other luxuries. It must be admitted that 
 very strange ideas are entertained generally of taxes. They are 
 recognised by every man, as a burden, and yet every man thinks 
 he is ill-used the moment he feels the slightest sensation of the 
 burden on his own shoulders. The common remedy in these days 
 is to call for a repeal ; but the landed interest only demand re- 
 imbursement. Give us plenty of rent, they say, and we will not 
 complain of taxes. 
 
 There is but one construction to be put upon this conduct it 
 amounts to a plain arowal that the landed interest are, in effect, 
 to pay no taxes. A demand of increased price of corn upon the 
 ground of taxes is a demand of an exemption from taxation. 
 Nothing but an open market for the consumer can enable him to 
 compel the producer to pay his own taxes. 
 
 If this country choose, in the midst of all its pecuniary diffi- 
 culties, to indulge in acts of profuse liberality to particular classes 
 in the country, let it do so with its eyes open, and, at least, let the 
 objects of its generosity confess their obligations. Every sum paid 
 under legal compulsion, for a commodity beyond its natural price 
 in open market, is a positive tax upon the consumer of that com- 
 modity, whether it go into the national purse or into a private 
 pocket. We are under the necessity of raising a large revenue, 
 and it has become a matter of great difficulty to fix on subjects 
 through the medium of which the power of the population to hear 
 taxes should be advantageously exerted in the production of the 
 required amount This power is expended in vain with reference 
 to the national purposes, in the degree in which it is made to exert 
 itself for the purposes of private interest ; and when the public 
 collector romes with his demand, he finds that power almost ex- 
 hausted by the previous demands of private collectors. The tax- 
 p iving power is limited of course ; but if the whole of it were 
 exerted for the State, the receipts of the revenue would overflow, 
 and relief from the more injurious taxes would be easily granted. 
 
 The heavy burden of public taxes under which the country 
 labours, is supposed, by many persons, to constitute the very 
 reason why it should be burdened with private taxes ; an idea 
 which is so strange that one hardly knows how to deal with it. The 
 proposition, which is supposed to lie conclusive to this purpose, is, 
 that in a country which is so heavily taxed alluding to general
 
 1 1 6 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 taxation, not a specific tax, which may be and always is counter- 
 vailed ctrtain trades the cultivation of barren land, for instance 
 cannot be supported, unless the public be compelled to purchase 
 its productions at arbitrary prices. Now, it appears to me, that 
 the true form of the proposition would be, that a country which 
 has already such heavy and necessary burdens upon it, cannot 
 afford, and ought not be expected, to take upon itself other and 
 unnecessary burdens. If we had very few or very lijiht public 
 taxes, then, indeed, we might give way to whims of generosity, 
 and agree to pay taxes for the sake of supporting private indi- 
 viduals in losing trades. But when we hear it often questioned 
 whether it will be possible to keep the revenue up sufficiently to 
 satisfy the public creditor, it is most outrageous to plead such a 
 difficulty as a reason for paying over immense sums, raised upon 
 the people, to parties who are no creditors at all, and who have 
 not a shadow of claim upon the general funds and resources of the 
 country. It is said that these sums are s|>ent in the country so 
 also, I say, are pensions and sinecures ; but a tradesman has only 
 small thanks to the man who lays out in his shop the money he 
 had first taken out of his pocket. The public may rely upon it, 
 that the cause of all our fiscal difficulties lies in the protective 
 system. The people cannot pay public taxes and private taxes too. 
 But the evil does not stop here ; because a protected trade is, of 
 course, a losing trade, or it would not want protection ; so that the 
 means of paying taxes are crippled into the bargain. Those means 
 must be in profitable and not in losing trades. 
 
 The particular amount of taxes which are paid by those parties 
 who are supported in carrying on losing trades by contributions 
 from the rest of the people, forms an insignificant sum compared 
 with the amount which would flow with ease from the country at 
 large if none but profitable trades were pursued. Analyze the 
 farming accounts of that land which yields only three sacks of 
 wheat to an acre, in return for great labour of horse and man, and 
 ascertain how much that land contributes to the State by its own 
 productive powers, after deducting what is first contributed towards 
 its cultivation out of the sources of employments which really are 
 profitable; and then it will be seen in what manner the taxes* 
 which are paid by the thriving part of the people, are intercepted 
 in their way to the National Treasury, and the difficulty we have 
 in raising a sufficient revenue will be understood. I wish, with all
 
 RIGHTS OF THE LANDED INTEREST. 117 
 
 my heart, that the lands of the kingdom were of a quality to yield, 
 by their intrinsic value, the rents out of which the owners are 
 paying their taxes to the State ; then, indeed, their contributions 
 would be valuable, because they would be made without impairing 
 the powers of other people to pay their taxes also ; then might our 
 agriculture boast of being the " foundation of all our prosperity ;" 
 but it is the greatest delusion imaginable to suppose that the ex- 
 penditure of the higher orders is beneficial to the revenue, or to 
 the interest of the country, if the means of it be not drawn from 
 the sources of real and unfactitious property. 
 
 It appears to be perfectly clear that the rights and immunities 
 to which the landed interest lay claim are of a description which 
 cannot be contingent upon any property whatever. There is no 
 intelligible principle upon which the owner of an estate can be 
 held to possess more than that estate. In the earliest and rudest 
 states of society mere accidental pre-occupation was a title to land, 
 which time afterwards sanctioned. In later times, grants from the 
 ruling powers constituted the original right, and the priority of 
 the right to'grant claimed by every State, is familiarly shown in 
 the conduct of the European governments respecting the lands in 
 their colonies. The common assent which mankind taken in 
 their most collective character as possessors of the earth have 
 given to the appropriation of spots of land to particular indi- 
 viduals, as their exclusive properties, is founded upon the con- 
 viction that they would be better supplied with food from the 
 land, through the interested exertions of those individuals, than 
 they would be through the combined efforts of the community in 
 its corporate capacity. The human race were not bound to concur 
 in partial seizures and distributions of the surface of the earth- 
 except under the expectation of universal bent-lit ; and had this 
 expectation been disappointed, we may rest assured, that the 
 system would not have descended to our times within many gene- 
 rations. In the beginning, the quantity of land compared with the 
 number of inhabitants, precluded almost the idea of value, much 
 more the contemplation of a monopoly ; and we know, beyond a 
 doubt, that no right of monopoly is contained in the grants of land 
 made by any State. How strange a proposal it would be for settlers 
 in Canada, when they are taking their grants of wilderness at two 
 or three shillings an acre, to desire the insertion of a clause in the 
 grants which should be the foundation of a Corn JJill a thousand
 
 118 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 years hence ; in case the population should by that time be such 
 as to require more food than all Canada could then produce ; and 
 when, perhaps, their descendants would be receiving, as annual 
 rents, ten times the amount of the purchase prices, computed at the 
 same relative value of money. 
 
 It cannot be pretended that in any case whatever the original 
 grantee acquired with his land a right of taxing his fellow-subjects 
 for his own personal benefit ; the land, and nothing but the land, 
 wus granted to him : his successor can have no more. 
 
 In the name of the working classes, and in defence of the rights 
 of industry, and in behalf of every man who has no land, 1 call 
 upon the landed interest to be contented with their estates is that 
 an unreasonable demand ? 
 
 I am, Sir, your humble servant, 
 
 II. B. T. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 To the Editor of the MORNING CHRONICLE. 
 SIR, February 12, 1834. 
 
 We are now in condition to consider the " policy" of the 
 Corn Law. The respective "rights" of the conflicting parties 
 the landed interest, and the trading interest have been pretty 
 fully discussed. The "rights of industry" are found to consist, 
 in the liberty of the workman to exchange, in their best market, 
 the fruits of his labour, for those necessaries and comforts of life 
 of which he has need. The rights of the landowner consist, in 
 the exclusive proprietary possession of a particular portion of the 
 superficies of our common country, upon which no man may take 
 any part, without first paying to him the sum for which he agrees 
 to exchange it. But it is the very essence of human laws, that all 
 private right should be held subject to limitations for the public 
 good ; and the question therefore is, whether the public good 
 requires that the exercise of either of these rights should be sub- 
 jected to any description of restraint ? No reason has, as yet, been 
 assigned, or pretended, for imposing any restraint upon the land- 
 owner ; the free exercise of his rights are supposed to be perfectly 
 consistent with the general welfare ; and he is left in the unlimited 
 enjoyment of them. But not so the workman ; restraint is im- 
 posed on the exercise of his rights, and it is for those who impose
 
 THE LANDOWNERS. 119 
 
 that restraint to show the national necessity for guch a measure. 
 There can be no doubt that the original right of a workman to the 
 fruits of his labour is of a character far superior to that of the 
 right which any particular man can have to any particular portion 
 of the earth. The right of the workman is founded in nature, 
 the right of the landowner is conventional. 
 
 The restriction which is imposed on the rights of the workmen 
 by the Corn Law has not even the outward show of being in- 
 tended for the public good ; and it is in vain to tell the landowner 
 that the burden of the proof, that it is so intended, lies on him ; 
 because we see him, on every occasion, claiming the benefit of it 
 as his peculiar right. It is his own case which he perpetually 
 pleads, and it is upon the merits of the case which he thinks 
 he makes out, that he demands an extra twopence of every poor 
 man for his loaf. Nothing can exceed the indignation or resent- 
 ment with which thorough-going landlords treat every man who 
 hesitates to admit the justice of their demand ; and we occasionally 
 see some of them, of the first rank, travelling to county meetings 
 in splendid equipages to enforce their claim to those twopences. 
 In your paper, sir, of the 6th instant, there is a report of such a 
 meeting in the county of Suffolk, at which a noble lord felt himself 
 entitled to say, that " A cry for an alteration in the Corn Laws 
 proceeded from a base, democratic spirit in the country that 
 wanted cheap bread for its fellows, no matter what injury the 
 agriculturists sustained." I can assure that noble lord, that I 
 have not, in my sentiments or inclinations, a particle of that de- 
 mocracy which he thinks is the sole enemy of his rental. So far 
 from it. that what remains to me of my animal strength should be 
 exerted, if necessity arose for it, in the defence of his aristocratic 
 privileges and of his proprietary rights. But I would remind 
 him, at the same time, that his indignation is warmed up by feel- 
 ings of a direct, personal, pecuniary interest; while it does happen, 
 as he must know, that among those who would advocate a greater 
 freedom in the trade of corn are to be numbered many men of 
 great virtue, talents, and attainments ; aye, and some, too, of 
 deep interest in landed property. Look at Lord Grenville's pro- 
 test was he a base democrat ? As to the affected care of this 
 Suffolk nobleman for the " agriculturists" it is sad meanness. 
 Why, sir, the Agricultural Report rings, from one end to the 
 other, with evidence of the heartless depredations of the landlords
 
 120 LITE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 upon the capital of the farmers. The agriculturist, my good lord, 
 ia in no danger except from bis landlord. It is the deduction of 
 the " lion's share " from the gross produce, which impoverishes 
 the farmer ; and these lamentations over him are only the growl 
 of the lion while making the division. The trade jof farming, as a 
 trade, is invulnerable by competition in an importing country ; and 
 if it is not a trade, what is it is it an office ? The sole cause of 
 the farmer's difficulty lies in an ill-conceived, impotent corn law ; 
 and in the obstinate confidence with which the owners of their 
 farms have relied on its efficacy in fixing their rents. But, my 
 good lord, you have got your corn law, and you have got your 
 distress too what do you say to that? If " Democracy" is only 
 to be starved down, and if bread is to be made dear for that pur- 
 pose, what steps will "Aristocracy" take, when bread is cheap, in 
 spite of all the corn bills it can devise and pass ? IIow low is the 
 country to be brought before the landed interest will admit that 
 their scheme works downwards instead of upwards? 
 
 I must not quit this part of the subject without stating, that 
 although the ill-judged words I have been commenting on were 
 uttered by a particular nobleman, I use them only in the most 
 abstract sense, and without attaching to them any idea of an indi- 
 vidual person. 
 
 It would be trifling with the subject not to consider the landed 
 interest as demanding the exclusion of foreign corn, for the sake 
 of their own private benefit ; and, except that they assert that 
 their luxuries and enjoyments are the only alembic through which 
 the industry of the country can be converted into prosperity and 
 wealth, I do not know that they even attempt to state a public 
 ground as the basis of their particular pretensions. If they be 
 right in their views, they have certainly a pleasant duty to perform, 
 and they might, at least, go about it with a little better humour. 
 Hut has it never occurred to them that they might enlist many 
 recruits into this service, which they so voluntarily undertake to 
 perform alone 't that pensioners and sinecurist* might be multi- 
 plied, and that the salaries of all placemen might be doubled ? 
 It would make no difference to the public whether the taxes which 
 they would have to pay for this purpose, went first through the 
 Exchequer, or went directly into the pockets of the parties, as the 
 bread-tax does; and we may be quite sure that these recruits 
 would not be backward in luxurious expenditure. But perhaps
 
 AGRICULTURE OUTGROWN BY TRADE. 121 
 
 we ought to admit that the trial is too much for human nature. 
 Few men can argue against a proposition which goes to prove that 
 they benefit their country and become patriots by keeping two 
 carriages instead of one, and by drinking claret instead of port. 
 
 In all this, however, the landed interest have only fallen into a 
 most common mistake ; they have seen trade and agriculture in- 
 crease together, and being misled by coincidences, which pride and 
 avarice prevented them from comprehending, they have mistaken 
 the effect for the cause. We have long passed that point up to 
 which the prosperity of a country is based upon its land. Our trade 
 has outgrown our agriculture, because it has led to an increase of 
 population which the land can neither profitably employ nor 
 plentifully feed. What it is to have a redundant population the 
 landed interest well know, and the more trade is cramped the 
 more redundant will a given population prove to their cost. I 
 know they think that there is a circle of employment to be found 
 in the HOME TBADE, in which the same internal elements of pro- 
 sperity may be perpetually revolved and improved that as mouths 
 increased in number bread would get dearer, rents would rise, 
 expenditure enlarge, home trade flourish, and the power of the 
 people to pay for the bread increase with its price. The particular 
 trades which act as purveyors to the luxuries of the rich cordially 
 believe in this view of national prosperity , and the country shop- 
 keepers, who during the " war prices " felt the influence of them 
 in an unusual expenditure of the farmers' families, pant for the 
 return of dear bread, and imagine that a price, created by Act of 
 Parliament, is the same thing as a price created by actual circum- 
 stances. 
 
 Home trade and agriculture may, indeed, run a round of the 
 nature described, while a country is passing from the practice of 
 exporting corn to the practice of exporting manufactures ; but 
 then the increase in the price of corn will be a natural effect, 
 partly of an increase in the home demand of corn for the con- 
 sumption of the export manufacturers, and partly of a propor- 
 tionate relief from dependence on the more remote foreign markets 
 for the sale of the surplus quantity. When this surplus is absorbed 
 by a general increase of population, and the import trade is kept 
 at its usual amount, by means of payments made with manu- 
 factures instead of corn, the two branches of industry may be 
 considered as balanced; but with this advantage to the side of
 
 122 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 corn, that it henceforth saves the charges of exportation. But if 
 the increase of population should not comprise a new body of 
 manufacturers, capable of supplying commodities for the foreign 
 market, besides having mouths enough to consume all the home- 
 grown corn ; then, not only would the import trade be lost, but the 
 home trade and the agricultural would languish together, and the 
 country would become little else than one great poor-house. 
 
 On the other band, if the additional population consist chiefly 
 of manufacturers, \vh<> produce commodities suitable to foreign 
 markets, and the export of those commodities materially exceed 
 in quantity the corn which had formerly been exported in return 
 for the imports the case of the country is thenceforth entirely 
 changed, and its future prosperity will be based upon trade, and 
 not upon land ; and no imaginable measure can be so injurious to 
 land as that which may impede the progress of trade. 
 
 It happens very unfortunately that the chief part of this 
 transition in our case took place during the war; because the 
 contemporaneous effects of the war, which was totally unlike all 
 other wars, were so mixed with both the causes and the effects of 
 the transition, that the public have never been able to separate 
 them ; and the consequence is, that the most fatal mistakes have 
 been made in the appropriating and consorting of causes and 
 effects relative to the events of that period. It was about the 
 time when the improvements in machinery and steam-power were 
 making their greatest strides, that the then vain-glorious, military 
 France thought proper to despise trade, and to deride us as a 
 " nation of shopkeepers ; " and this affected contempt for trade, 
 accompanied by a positive neglect of it, when added to the 
 impediments to the progress of trade, which war of almost any 
 description, still more a war of a revolutionary character, must 
 have interposed on the Continent, gave to us the possession, as it 
 were, of a patent for manufactures against all the world. The 
 " nation of shopkeepers" had the undisturbed enjoyment of this 
 patent for full fifteen years ; and until Napoleon, who at last saw 
 the effects of the folly of the French, had recourse to his conti- 
 nental system, which he ushered in with the well-known decla- 
 ration, that he wanted only "ships, colonies, and commerce." 
 These two quaint expressions were, perhaps, of more portentous 
 import to the affairs of man than any other words that ever were 
 uttered on the authority of man. They designate respectively
 
 " SHIPS, COLONIES, AND COMMERCE." 123 
 
 two eras of most extraordinary consequences ; and although most 
 men still look back upon them with astonishment, and with a 
 vague consciousness that they were of a wonderful character, still 
 no one attempts to consider seriously or distinctly what that 
 character was. 
 
 The first era was marked by the most extraordinary advances in 
 opulence that ever occurred in any country. The trade of the 
 world, taken as a whole, was, no doubt, lessened by the war ; but 
 we had nearly all of it ; and as the causes by which we obtained 
 such an enormous share were of a nature to make it also a mono- 
 poly of trade, the profits of it were extremely large. Here then 
 arose, at one and the same time, two very powerful causes of 
 increased consumption of agricultural produce, and both decidedly 
 of a temporary nature the one wholly so, the other so in a great 
 degree. The first was the war, bringing with it a lavish use of 
 such produce in the military and naval services ; the second was 
 an entirely new demand for such produce, by reason of the extra- 
 ordinary start which, partly in consequence of the war. and partly 
 in consequence of the freshness of the inventions referred to, our 
 manufacturing industry then took of all the world. 
 
 The enormous profits which these circumstances threw into the 
 hands of the landed interest, and the effect of these profits in 
 swelling the gross amount of the national (Hit, have been pointed 
 out in a former letter ; but the means which the contemporaneous 
 increase of general commerce afforded to the country for bearing 
 the burdens which were then brought upon it by the war, and by 
 the extravagant prices of agricultural produce, were not then 
 taken into consideration either as an explanation of the past, or 
 as a lesson and a powerful lesson it furnishes for the future. 
 That commerce was supported chiefly by profits drawn from 
 foreigners for exported articles, which, for the reasons before- 
 roentiontd, we were then able to produce at less than what had 
 been the previous cost, either to them or to ourselves : and this 
 very power, upon the remnant of which alone we now subsist, was, 
 happily, in its greatest vigour in the hour of our greatest need. 
 But, besides this, our " national shopkeeping " propensities so long 
 as we were left to indulge in them without the interference of 
 rival;), and had also, as was then the case, the whole ocean almost 
 to ourselves led us into a very extensive and lucrative traffic in 
 foreign commodities. Nearly all tiie colonies of Europe were at
 
 124 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 the same time in our actual possession; and so great was our 
 command over foreigner*, for prices which should cover all 
 charge*, that we shipped to the colonies even the high-priced corn 
 of England. 
 
 Through the whole of this period the landed interest believed, 
 and they still helieve, that their great profits constituted the 
 national prosperity, which then enabled the country to furnish the 
 loans as they were wanted although they spent all their money 
 themselves as fast as they got it and also to supply the sums 
 raised in the current year by taxes, although the public was all 
 the while piying to them, in extraordinary and un-earned profits, 
 four times as much as the taxes they contributed. 
 
 These are some of the grievous mistakes which the landed 
 interest blinded, as I am justified in saying, by pride and cupidity 
 committed in those days, and which, unfortunately, they have 
 never rectified since. And the tearful problem, affecting the 
 salvation of the country, which remains to be solved is, whether 
 they will discover and correct their errors in good time and 
 there is not much time to be lost or will obdurately wait till 
 facts past question will dispel the mist from their eyes, and they 
 wake, as it were, from a delusive dream, only to survey and to 
 lament, in useless penitence, the mischiefs they shall have brought 
 on themselves and all around them. 
 
 1 have in this letter only broken ground on the policy of the 
 Corn Laws ; and my inclination is to follow out, to their legitimate 
 conclusions, the points of that subject which have been barely 
 propounded. But your columns, sir, can afford me but little 
 space during the sitting of Parliament ; and it happens, too, that 
 my own avocations press upon me at the same time. Delay, also, 
 is rendered of k-s importance by a late ministerial declaration. 
 Nevertheless, I shall not lose sight of the subject my feelings 
 upon it will not suffer me to do so and I may, perhaps, seek a 
 future opportunity of impressing upon the lanued interest the 
 great and important truth, that they never did, nor ever will, 
 experience prosperity by any other means than the secondary 
 effects of our foreign commerce. 
 
 I am, sir, your humble servant, 
 
 H. B. T. 
 
 CONCLUSION. It is manifest that the landed interest have
 
 FOREIGN COMMERCE. 125 
 
 mistaken the means and sources of their prosperity. At the end 
 of nearly twenty years of trial of their own nostrum, accom- 
 panied by an immense reduction of taxes in the second year of 
 abundant harvests with a protection, amounting to a total prohi- 
 bition of foreign corn, and at a time when other interests are, at 
 least, without immediate cause of complaint, the distress of agri- 
 culture is such that it is proclaimed from the Throne and 
 reiterated in both Houses of Parliament. The landed interest 
 have either aimed at more than is attainable, or, in their impa- 
 tience, they have sought their object by wrong methods, i believe 
 the error td be of the latter description. A country like this 
 cannot be isolated from the rest of the world ; it cannot take an 
 arbitrary level at its own choosing : it has never done so ; and the 
 condition, aimed at by the corn law since the peace, is totally new 
 in practice. A country requiring foreign markets fur its surplus 
 industry, to the great extent that England does, can no more 
 assume a station inconsistent with the relations of commerce than 
 it can create a peculiar atmosphere for itself. In the case of the 
 precious metals we have seen how vain it is to attempt a fictitious 
 local standard it is only not quite so difficult to fix an artificial 
 local price for corn. Commerce is the unrelenting rectifier of 
 either error ; and the only difference in the operation is, that in 
 the one case the correction is rapid and palpable, and in the other 
 it is slow and lingering, and not readily perceptible to common 
 observation. The foreign price and the British price have a 
 natural tendency to assimilation, whether direct mixture be per- 
 mitted or not. The influence of the foreign price is felt through 
 the medium of the exports ; it comes back upon the British price 
 in the form of low returns for those exports. The only question 
 is, at what level shall they meet? The landed interest are 
 manoeuvring for the lowest level that can be apprehended in any 
 case. Their plan depresses the price abroad, and the home price 
 must be drawn downwards the more. If they would take courage 
 and consent at once to direct mixture they would elevate the 
 foreign price, and thereby arrest the downward progress of their 
 own prices. 
 
 Those of the landed interest who are not so besotted as to 
 despise foreign trade, seek to extricate themselves from the 
 dilemma ol their position by professing unlimited confidence in 
 the superior faculties of British industry, and the greater energies
 
 126 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 of the British workman. I l>eg them to follow out this view of 
 the question. Suppose it to be true, as they say, that one Man- 
 chester factory- man is equal to two foreigners, are those superior 
 powers their property or his? Have they a right to make him 
 earn- douhlc weight for their emolument ? Are we to treat a superior 
 breed of men as we would treat a superior breed of horses ? But 
 are not the labourers in agriculture of the same breed ? We 
 know they are ; and it is also known, that the fanner as well as 
 the manufacturer obtains a greater produce from a given quantity 
 of bone and muscle in England, than in any foreign country 
 whatever. 
 
 But the landed interest are afraid that we shall become dependant 
 upon foreign countries for food. Let them, I say again, follow out 
 also this proposition; to what conclusion does it lead them? 
 Simply this, and no other that the population must be kept 
 down by starvation. This is treating the high-bred Manchester 
 workman rather worse than the high-bred horse. However 
 severely the horse may be matched by his unfeeling master, he is 
 sure to have all the iiivigoratioti that the most heartening food 
 can give him. But suppose it to be the policy of the nation to 
 check the increase of the people by the dearness of their food- 
 would that be a reason for giving the additional part of the price 
 to the producers? Most certainly not. The instrument used for 
 the purpose should be an excise tax, the produce of which should 
 increase the public revenue for the general benefit. 
 
 And yet, notwithstanding the strength of my case, I will agree 
 to a compromise. The whole difficulty of the subject lies in a 
 misappropriation of the soil of the country caused, in the first 
 instance, by the high war prices, and imprudently kept up since 
 the war, under the fallacious promises of the corn laws. We have 
 lately purchased Negro emancipation let us now make a similar, 
 and a far easier, effort to purchase Corn emancipation. If about 
 a million acres of our strong arable lands were laid down in (or 
 for) grass, the quantity of corn withdrawn from the market would 
 be such, that the foreign supply would not be able to distress the 
 good lands. The scheme of our agriculture is absolutely defective 
 from the want of a greater breadth of inferior grass land : the 
 graziers, notwithstanding the richness of their pastures, and the 
 high price of meat, complain much of low profit, from the want 
 of lean stock at reasonable prices.
 
 THE COMPROMISE. 127 
 
 The outline of the plan is to impose a duty of 10*. the quarter 
 on every species of corn ; to be reduced by Is. a year for five 
 successive years, until it settled at 5s. the quarter. The produce 
 of this duty might be a fund to be applied in bounties to those 
 landowners who should lay land down to grass, under covenauts 
 not to break it up again within twenty years, without returning 
 the bounty and the interest upon it. There might also be given 
 to the parishes in which this conversion of land took place, and in 
 proportion to the quantity converted, some of the money to assist 
 a part of their labourers to emigrate, if they should be disposed 
 to do so. 
 
 That there is no way out of our difficulty, except by giving up 
 the arable cultivation of a large breadth of our worst laud, 1 am 
 most confident. The only question is whether the consummation 
 shall be brought about in a sure and beneficial manner, by a 
 legislative measure, or left to the slow operation ot distress. The 
 corn farmers are like trees too closely planted none flourish until 
 a sufficient number of the weakest have died off. The measure I 
 suggest is like that of the woodman, who thins them out at an 
 early state of their growth. 
 
 I propose the same duty upon oats, barley, &c., as upon wheat, 
 because a greater encouragement to the spring corns would lead 
 to a more wholesome and more ameliorating system of husbandry. 
 I am not at all afraid of the difficulty of the details for the work- 
 ing of the measure I have here suggested. 
 
 27th February, 1834. H. B. T. 
 
 These letters attracted the attention of, amongst others, 
 Sir Benjamin Hawes, who thought not only that they 
 bore internal evidence of being the compositions of 
 Mr. Hume, but that they displayed such an amount 
 of sound political economy, combined with a practical 
 acquaintance, equally large, with all the details of trade 
 and commerce, that he was the only person who could 
 have written them. To Sir Benjamin Hawes it was 
 entirely owing that these letters were republished ; for 
 no sooner had Mr. Hume admitted that he was the
 
 128 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 author, than he urged the reprinting of them in the 
 form of a pamphlet. 
 
 It was not without difficulty that Mr. Hume was 
 persuaded to commit them a second time to the press. 
 He thought few persons would read them except in 
 the columns of a newspaper. The publication, however, 
 was most successful, and a second edition was speedily 
 called for. 
 
 In the early and more moderate days of the Anti- 
 Corn Law League, the energetic directors of its move- 
 ments published copious extracts from those letters in 
 the form of a tract, whiclrthey circulated through the 
 country we might literally say by the ton.
 
 129 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ALTERATION iv THE LAWS RELATING TO SILK MR. DEACON HUME 
 VISITS THE PRINCIPAL SEATS OF MANUFACTURE POLITICAL 
 OPINIONS EVIDENCE BEFORE A SELECT COMMITTEE OF THK 
 HOCSB OP COMMONS MR. HUSKISSON MANCHESTER CHAMBER 
 OF COMMERCE MR. DEACON HUME'S STATEMENTS RESPECTING 
 SMUGGLING CANVASSED IN PARLIAMENT BY THE EARL OF DERBY. 
 
 " It is to the increasing wealth of the manufacturing population 
 and the progress of industry, and not to artificial regulations for 
 creating high prices, that this country must look, not only for relief 
 from her burthens, but for the power of making fresh exertions, 
 whenever her situation may demand them. It is not in the power of 
 any artificial measures to give that real relief to agriculture, or to any 
 other mode of occupation, which can only fiow from the increasing 
 activity and increasing industry of the people." HUSKISSON. 
 
 IT has been correctly observed, that " the manufacture 
 of silk is singularly characteristic of the industry of 
 France and England, showing the addiction of the one 
 to luxury, of the other to utility. Of all the views 
 which can be taken of this subject, this is the most 
 interesting and the grandest Profit and loss may 
 captivate the merchant's mind ; the financier, the states- 
 man, may consider labour as a mine of national wealth, 
 and some ministers will hold it to be a source of 
 taxation ; but philosophy, which comprises these and 
 every other view, which presides over them all, will 
 never be satisfied by any inquiry wliich is not at once 
 
 K
 
 130 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 the most minute and the most comprehensive. Industry 
 should be turned every side ; it ought to be considered 
 by men of every vocation : its most enlarged and noble 
 properties relate to the intellectual history of human 
 beings. This is the aspect by which it will unite at 
 once the views of the merchant, of the statesman, and 
 of the minister ; for in tracing up their respective idols 
 to a common origin, they will find that the only source 
 of private profit, of public wealth, the only taxable 
 commodity, is mind. Philosophy, too, not only directs 
 the present researches, and the future prospects of men, 
 it is the great preserver of all that we have acquired, 
 and embalms the memory of all that we know. The 
 art which has deposited its principles in the archives 
 of philosophy will never perish." 
 
 Though silk goods have been made in England from 
 the time of Edward III., it is only within the last 
 thirty years that the silk manufacture can be said to 
 have been firmly established in this country. Its 
 progress was long impeded by a system of duties and 
 restrictions intended to benefit the manufacturer. " That 
 useful competition," said Mr. Huskisson, in 1824, "which 
 gives life to invention, which fosters ingenuity, and, 
 in manufacturing concerns, promotes a desire to produce 
 the article in the most economical form, has been 
 extinguished. The system of prohibitory duties has 
 had the effect, to the shame of England be it spoken, 
 of leaving us far behind our neighbours in this branch 
 of industry. We have witnessed that chilling and 
 benumbing effect which is always sure to be felt when
 
 THE ACT OF 1824. 131 
 
 no genius is called into action, and when we are 
 rendered indifferent to exertion by the indolent security 
 of a prohibitory system. If the same system had been 
 continued with respect to cotton manufacture, it would 
 at this moment be as subordinate in amount to the 
 woollen as it is junior in its introduction into this 
 country." But such a state of things was not to be 
 for ever. In the year 1824, the system underwent an 
 important change. Mr. Deacon Hume was much 
 engaged at this period in the preparation of legislative 
 measures relating to the silk trade. He drew the bill, 
 by which the system of prohibiting the importation of 
 foreign manufactured goods was prospectively repealed, 
 and a scale of duties adopted, under which such goods 
 might be imported. The duty of 5s. 6d. a pound upon 
 raw silk, and 14. 8d. upon thrown silk, was reduced ; 
 on the former to 3rf., on the latter to 7. 6cL a pound.* 
 He also framed the table of duties for the Act of 1826. 
 Had he been able to follow his own convictions entirely, 
 instead of those of his superiors in office, the measures 
 referred to would, in some degree, have been different, 
 and the duties would have been further decreased. 
 
 During the years 1830 and 1831, the subject again 
 engaged the attention of Parliament, and at the close 
 of the latter, Mr. Hume undertook, at the desire of the 
 Government, a tour of observation through some of 
 the principal seats of manufacture, which he thus notices 
 in a letter to a friend. 
 
 * These rates were afterwards further reduced that on raw silk 
 to It/., and that on thrown silk to 3. G</. a pound.
 
 132 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 " I have just been rehearsing an air cushion, which 
 is to bear my person some long journeys through the 
 manufacturing districts. On Monday I set oft', making 
 Birmingham my first point. You will easily conceive 
 that I have much to do in preparing for such a tour, as 
 well as in leaving matters behind me in as good a state 
 as I can. The object is, not only to acquire, for present 
 use, as much knowledge as may be had of the state of 
 manufactures, but also, if possible, to lay the foundation 
 for obtaining such knowledge at all times. 
 
 " The silk and glove trades are, like all others, in 
 bad plight ; the cause is the corn law. Manchester is 
 not, comparatively, in a bad state. As to amendment, 
 * things must be worse before they are better.' When 
 they will be better dej>ends upon how bad they must be 
 before the landed interest discover that they are going 
 upon a wrong tack, and literally working against them- 
 selves. 
 
 " I some time ago read the article which is to surprise 
 the present Lord Londonderry with the news, that his 
 brother and Mr. Canning were identified. I shall be 
 glad to see the answer. Mr. George Villiers is in 
 Paris, and one of a joint commission discussing the 
 commercial relations of the two countries, I despatched 
 to him yesterday three sheets of notions, which I hope 
 may be useful to him." 
 
 Mr. Hume proceeded from Birmingham to Coventry, 
 Manchester, Salford, Stockport, Glasgow, and some 
 other places engaged in the silk manufacture, including 
 the district of Spitalfields. During this tour, which
 
 . 'TOUR THROUGH MANUFACTURING TOWNS. 133 
 
 occupied him nearly six weeks, he wrote some interest- 
 ing letters to Mrs. Hume connected with the subject 
 of his mission. 
 
 Silk in fact was an article to which, not unnaturally, 
 he very frequently referred when he found himself at 
 the head of his family circle, consisting of young ladies. 
 Sometimes he would indulge in a disquisition upon this 
 topic, and its extensive bearings, and would provoke a 
 laugh, of which he was fond, by remarking as he con- 
 cluded, " And all this about ladies' dresses." Or, in a 
 somewhat graver mood, he would say, " You may smile, 
 but you have little conception of the breadth of this 
 subject, and of the anxietj which this single article of 
 your dress occasions the Government of this country." 
 A manufacture, he might have added, which was so 
 much valued by Roman ladies, and so much satirized 
 by the Latin poets, because it had the double advantage, 
 as they deemed it for the days of hoops and crinoline 
 were not yet of covering the body, and yet of showing 
 the form ; a manufacture which, it has been also said, 
 though it was unknown in England at the beginning of 
 the thirteenth century, has long since descended from 
 the highest to the lowest rank of society, and is now to 
 be found in almost every shape, even in the wardrobe 
 of the peasant 
 
 Though in politics Mr. Deacon Hume was a Whig, 
 yet he was not addicted to party : and would sometimes 
 maintain that he was of no party. He thought for 
 himself. But though he took no active share in its con- 
 flicts, it will not be supposed that he was an uninterested
 
 134 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 spectator of political events. He was, of course, in 
 favour of the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. 
 As a member of the Church of England, he maintained 
 without fear of the Pope, the Christian duty of granting 
 the claims of the Roman Catholics. He contended for 
 it, as was natural to him, upon the ground of right. 
 So far was he from regarding the Act of 1829 as an 
 inroad upon the constitution, like Dr. Arnold, he viewed 
 it " as a fulfilment of it :" that is to say, " if by the 
 Constitution be meant a system for the Government of 
 the Commonwealth upon the principles of liberty and 
 justice." He was a reformer in the true sense of the 
 word. And herein he differed from Mr. Huskisson, 
 who, as he stated in the outset of his speech on the East 
 Retford Disfranchisement Bill, had " a settled aversion 
 to every system of what is called Parliamentary re- 
 forms," and who only voted for the disfranchisement of 
 that borough, and to give two representatives to Birm- 
 ingham, upon the principle maintained by Burke, that 
 " early reforms are amicable arrangements with a 
 friendly power ; late reforms, capitulations with a con- 
 quered enemy;" and because the rejection of the 
 proposal would " pave the way for a measure so fatal 
 in its consequences as a general Parliamentary reform." 
 Mr. Deacon Hume, while he entirely agreed with Mr. 
 Huskisson in the vote which he gave upon the East 
 Retford question, with bolder views, and greater foresight, 
 contended that so far from its being fatal, a general 
 measure of Parliamentary reform was to be desired ; 
 that it might not only be granted with perfect security,
 
 A REFORMER. 135 
 
 but that it would be in itself a source of safety. He 
 consequently hailed the Reform Act of 1831 with much 
 satisfaction. 
 
 The following extracts from letters written about this 
 time to a friend, chiefly with reference to import duties, 
 currency, and reform, will be read with interest. The 
 treaty with Brazil, alluded to in the first, he speaks of 
 elsewhere, as a " substantive treaty, but smelling 
 strongly of the Portuguese connection." 
 
 " Board of Trade, 2nd December, 1829. 
 
 ** I send you an extract from, and a comment upon, the Brazil 
 Treaty. Have you read Mr. Western's letter ? * I have been ex- 
 pecting that the tactics of the landed interest, would lead them to 
 currency. It is the most plausible cry they can set up, to divert 
 attention from the cheapness of corn abroad. I mean to look, 
 more narrowly than I have yet done, into the arguments of the 
 letter, and to be prepared with some answer to them ; for I con- 
 eider the production as a feeler, put out in good time, prepara- 
 tory to the battle which must before long be fought." 
 
 " IGth November, 1830. 
 
 " It would be many years before India could increase the growth 
 of sugar to the extent of the produce of the West Indies ; two 
 cwts. of which is equal in strength to those of the Indian. But if 
 India were now growing ten times our consumption, it would be at 
 a very great price, by reason of the freight. Sugar is now brought 
 from India at what is called dead weight. The general cargoes arc 
 light goods ; and the ships being very large, they require a con- 
 siderable quantity of heavy goods to stow in the bottom. To the 
 extent of this room, as dead weight, the sugar is carried for a very 
 low freight. Whenever this quantity should be materially ex- 
 ceeded, the freight would rise enormously ; for then, ships must 
 be sent out in ballast to bring the sugar, which is the case now, to 
 the West Indies, and I leave you to conceive what the cost would 
 be in the one case compared with the other." 
 
 M.P. for Essex, a terwards Lord Western.
 
 136 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 11 16/A November. 
 
 I had fully intended to call upon you to-morrow about two, 
 and perhaps I may still be able to do so. But, ' whereas doubts 
 have arisen,' in consequence of Mr. Herries having appointed me 
 to be with him nearly at that time. We are up to our eyes in 
 colonial intercourse. The deed is done in America, as you see, and 
 we must come out immediately with our measures, which are to 
 determine the footing upon which the trade is to be carried on." 
 
 " Board of Trade, 6th January, 1830. 
 
 " I have lately bad upon my hands a great deal of business in 
 my own private affairs, and we have been far from idle at the 
 Board of Trade. The consequence is, that I have not done 4 Corn.' 
 Another cause of postponement is, that I have been doing ' Bullion ;' 
 and that in a way, as it appears to me, to introduce corn the 
 better. I am intent upon giving in my entire paper before the 
 session. But you are to understand that I am professing (that is, 
 to Lord A., for I have said nothing about it to Mr. T., who ' writes 
 himself), to lay before him, in a condensed form, all the lucubra- 
 tions which have fallen still-born before his predecessors. 
 
 " I long to know your ideas, again, on political matters. We 
 seem quieter, but I believe that it is only in expectation of satis- 
 factory measures. If disappointment come, the storm will only be 
 the more violent. I am told that the old party is reckoning upon 
 forcing their way in again. Personally, I have no objection ; 
 neither would I object to their system, if I thought it manageable. 
 But my firm belief is, that the resistance of popular wishes, which 
 would be the basis of their measures, must lead to revolution." 
 
 ' My visit to the manufacturing districts took place in an 
 era full of extraneous difficulties, and yet trade made, by its own 
 energies, a good head against them. It will have a new and 
 vigorous spring before long, just in time to give eclat to the 
 reform, unless the torch be set to that train of continental com- 
 bustibles which has its source and origin in France. No man's 
 opinion, in these days, is worth anything, except it be hypotheti- 
 cally given with reference to the possibility of great and un- 
 governable events. Cholera, French Revolution, Belgium, Poland, 
 Reform, Brazil, Mexico, &c., &c. : all working against the trade
 
 POLITICS. 137 
 
 of this country. And yet the people employed in the factories 
 have all along been earning a fair livelihood. Our difficulties are 
 with the unemployed : it is therefore that we want more work, 
 and to obtain it we must take corn. I am satisfied as to our 
 power to consume an enormous quantity beyond our growth. 
 Such a fact answers the arguments of tLe agriculturists by fixing 
 upon them a grievous responsibility. As to the Reform Bill, I do 
 not expect that you will give up your old notions until a few 
 elections have proved to you, that good Houses of Commons can be 
 formed under its provisions. I think the aristocracy, as a body, is 
 well taken care of. They must, some of them, behave a little 
 better but I do not see any harm in that. How wretchedly have 
 the ultras managed their case ! Give me a definition of wisdom 
 in the conduct of our affairs, and try by the test of it, the in- 
 tellect of the ultra lord. If mischief should ever ensue, it will be 
 the fruit of their conduct, and not the necessary consequence of 
 the reform." 
 
 " Russell Square, Idth Octobtr, 1831. 
 
 ** Aly former letter was an acknowledgment of yours and not an 
 answer to it. I thank you for ' going off' on the subject of the 
 bill. You remind me that you are an irreclaimable auti-reformer. 
 This saves observations in detail, and such discussions must gene- 
 ralize as much as possible. For many years I have, almost 
 intuitively, applied a touchstone to all public questions, which 
 leads one, as I think, to the most useful consideration of them. I 
 ask myself, what is the line of the working, that is, the natural 
 tendency of the matter at issue ? A sound answer to this question 
 gives the policy of the proceedings upon it. The Duke thought 
 that the true policy lay in unbending resistance. I believe no one 
 doubts now that a very little yielding on his part would have 
 satisfied the subject for a considerable period. The Lords, much 
 worse than the Duke, because after experience, dismiss the bill 
 with insult; and what is the consequence? Only that every man 
 is now a reformer of some sort. Looking at what I believe to be 
 the ' tendency,' I see nothing but evil in delay. I fear that the 
 term* of to-day will never be mended by those of to-morrow. In 
 some cases time works for you ; in some it works against you. The 
 Tories ought to have taken the country at its word. They are 
 now off the bargain, and, when they come to treat again, will have
 
 138 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 no reason to complain if the price be raised instead of being 
 reduced. The House of Commons would never have objected to 
 the Lords making some amendments, and the people were in 
 humour to admit that they were entitled to a voice in the framing 
 of the law but a total rejection, an actual spurning of a four 
 months' hard work of the Commons is a course of proceeding 
 which, I fear, will never be forgotten. I look to ultimate conse- 
 quences. It was not necessary for the Lords to give proof of their 
 power, and it was unwise to select an opportunity for doing so 
 which must raise the revolutionary question in millions of minds 
 whether it be not a dangerous power, and one necessary to be 
 curbed ? The Lords have said in plain terms, that the people 
 never were represented and never shall be. Must not this make 
 a question between the Lords and the people, which may only be 
 settled by a trial of strength ? 
 
 What I fear is this. Ministers will modify the Bill to save the 
 credit of the Tories, in case they should be disposed to give way. 
 The " efficiency," however, being preserved, it will be lost again, 
 and ministers will go out. Now I will suppose that tranquillity 
 is preserved ; but the new minister will be unable to get on with 
 the present Parliament, and a new election follows. 'I hen comes 
 the tug of war. The next House of Commons will be far worse 
 than the present, and away goes the new administration. Whigs, 
 with a still stronger infusion of liberals, will come in, and a fierce 
 political struggle between the two houses will ensue. The radicals 
 will be encouraged the moderates disgusted, and a bill, ten times 
 worse than the present, will be passed, just in time to save a 
 revolution. 
 
 The conduct of the press is a part of the tendency ; and there- 
 fore scolding is useless. I do not see how Lord Grey can do other 
 than stand or fall by his measure, and if so, he must either have 
 resigned or made the declaration he did. 
 
 Early in the year 1832 another motion was made in 
 the House of Commons upon the subject of silk. And 
 on the 1st of March a select committee was appointed 
 to "examine into the state of the silk trade, and to 
 inquire what effects have been produced by the changes
 
 EVIDENCE ON THE SILK TRADE. 139 
 
 in the law relating to it since the year 1824 : and 
 whether any, and what legislative measures, compatible 
 with the general interest of the country, may be advis- 
 able, in order to promote it, or to check smuggling in 
 silk manufactures: and to report their observations 
 thereupon to the House."* 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume, was the first witness called. He 
 was informed that his attendance was required in order 
 that the committee might learn from him the changes 
 which had taken place in the laws relating to silk, and 
 also to supply certain Custom House accounts which he 
 would be able to furnish. He then proceeded to state 
 that he had been employed in 1824 in preparing the Act 
 of Parliament of that year, that he drew the bill, and had 
 framed the tables of duties on the Act of 1826. That 
 the intention of the Act of 1824 was to substitute a 
 protecting duty of 30 per cent, in lieu of total prohibi- 
 tion. Two years had been given before the Act came 
 into operation, during which period " the trade " 
 became of opinion that an ad valorem duty would be 
 ineffectual. They suggested rates of duty by weight ; 
 and that they should be computed so as to afford thirty 
 per cent., as nearly as such rates would admit, and it 
 was upon that principle, and in consequence of the 
 
 * The committee consisted of Earl Grosvenor, Mr. H. L. Bulwer, 
 Mr. Poulett Thomson, Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Alderman Venables, 
 Mr. Courtenay, Mr. G. Bankea, Mr. Hume, Mr. Alexander Paring, 
 Sir H. Parnell, Mr. Frankland Lewis, Mr. Powell Buxton, Sir M. 
 Stew art, Mr. Strutt, Mr. Heywood, Mr. Stewart Mackenzie, Mr. E. 
 Stewart, Mr. Shield, Lord Dudley Stuart, Mr. A. Sandford, Mr. 
 James Morrison.
 
 140 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 change of opinion in the trade, that the tables of 1826 
 were prepared, before importation commenced. The 
 table of 1829 was not framed like the former. There 
 was a modification ; twenty-five per cent, was adopted 
 in some cases, and even more than thirty per cent, in 
 others. But, excepting one article, he was of opinion 
 that the table of 1829 compared with 1826, increased 
 rather than reduced the protection. Upon being asked, 
 whether, since the modification was applied to different 
 qualities of goods, the duty was intended to be more or 
 less than 30 per cent, on an average, he replied, that he 
 did not feel the application of an average ; since the 
 duty on one article did not average with the duty on 
 another, for each paid of itself. The rate in 1829 was 
 meant to give 25 per cent, on plain goods. The officers 
 were allowed, at their sole option, to take an ad valorem 
 duty instead of the rate ; but there was no instance in 
 which they had a right to demand more than 30 per 
 cent, if they required the goods to be entered at value. 
 In 1826 there was no choice; there were some goods 
 that could not be rated, but there was no choice except 
 in instances of millinery, or things of that sort. In 
 1829 there were alterations in the rating of many of 
 the articles, and in some there was none. The plain 
 silk which had been 15. a tt>., was reduced to 11*. the 
 It). ; 1 5. was understood to be 30 per cent, in the 
 former case, but in the latter, Us. was understood to 
 give only 25 per cent. ; then there came the figured 
 satin goods ; they were reduced, but still they were 
 meant to give 30 per cent. ; others were left at the
 
 EVIDENCE ON THE SILK TRADE. 141 
 
 original duties with the knowledge that they gave more 
 than 30 per cent. So that in fact, there were three 
 divisions of silk goods; some, where the principle of 
 30 per cent was adhered to, others, where it was taken 
 at 25 per cent, which is a reduction, and others for 
 which certain duties were assessed amounting to more 
 than 30 per cent But these last were not alterations. 
 Though he drew both the schedules of 1826 and 1829, 
 his instructions were very different upon each occasion. 
 In 1826, 30 per cent, was to be strictly adhered to. In 
 1829 it was agreed that there should be no universal 
 rule. It was in fact a matter of discussion during the 
 entire period that he was engaged in drawing up the 
 tables. In the first case there was a universal rule, in 
 the other there was constant discussion without a fixed 
 rule. He was of opinion that the table of 1829 practi- 
 cally increased the protection as compared with that of 
 1826, except on one article. Upon being asked if in 
 the table of 1829 the duty was fixed at the minimum 
 cost of smuggling ? Mr. Hume replied, that such was 
 the intention of the Government of that day : it was 
 believed that the articles on which they left the higher 
 duties unreduced were less likely to be exposed to 
 smuggling than those on which they had reduced the 
 duties. The silk trade thought a great deal more than. 
 30 per cent necessary. There might be various 
 opinions as to the stopping of smuggling, but he 
 believed that when the temptation was great it was 
 very difficult to put an end to it In 1826 he had 
 entertained a hope upon the subject as to the 30 per
 
 142 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 cent., that it could be collected ; but smuggling, like 
 everything else, had been lowered] in price. The 
 protecting duty of 30 per cent did not operate in the 
 way the Government anticipated. It was imposed to 
 prevent smuggling; but smuggling went on. So far 
 as smuggling was concerned, prohibition was more 
 effectual than a protecting duty. He thought the 
 smuggling of an article that cannot be legally possessed 
 within the country at all, might be more effectually 
 guarded against than that of one which is admissible, 
 however high the duty; a more rigid rule might be 
 adopted, and the severity of the law be applied with 
 greater decision, so as to make it more effectual. 
 French manufactured goods, however, were less dis- 
 tinguishable, he believed, than formerly, and if that 
 were the case, the success of detection would of 
 course l?e lessened. Though smuggling had, he be- 
 lieved, increased of late years, it had been by means of 
 packages of various assortments ; from all the informa- 
 tion he had been able to obtain, his opinion was, that 
 plain silks by themselves were not much smuggled. 
 Smuggling in the sense in which it is understood to be 
 important, occurred chiefly, he understood, in inferior 
 gauzes. That 25 per cent might not lead to occasional 
 smuggling of plain silks, by themselves, he did not 
 mean to deny. It was a near race between smuggling 
 and regular entry, and the mixture of some high-dutied 
 gauzes would decide the question in favour of smuggling. 
 He had been asked whether he considered that there 
 was a disposition generally in the trade, supposing they
 
 EVIDENCE ON THE SILK TRADE. 143 
 
 had the option, to pay five per cent, more on the goods 
 to the revenue than they would save themselves to that 
 amount by smuggling ? He thought that they would : 
 the regular importer could give his order, and could 
 have it executed immediately ; he knew when his goods 
 would arrive : and he must also allow something for 
 a man's wishing to comply with the laws of his country. 
 These considerations put together were probably suffi- 
 cient to induce men rather to give, say 25 per cent, in 
 duty for goods than to smuggle them at 20. It might 
 be possible always to keep the duty rather above the 
 cost of smuggling, buc he was not prepared to say that 
 25 per cent., or any other percentage would be the 
 proper sum. He wished to be understood as speaking 
 from the impression which his mind had received in 
 consequence of those inquiries which, in his situation, it 
 was his duty to be perpetually making. The price of 
 smuggling was variously stated, and whatever it was 
 then it might become lower. 
 
 As to the question whether the change in the law 
 had had the effect of stimulating exportation, it had 
 amoved the impediment from inferior articles; the 
 result of which was, that the fine Italian silks were 
 made into superior goods for the use of this country, 
 and that the East India silks were made into inferior 
 articles which suit the export trade. The law, he 
 considered, had done good ; the home silk being dearer 
 by reason of the duty on foreign silk : the exporter 
 required the drawback for the one as well as for the 
 other. It was beneficial to the consumer or worker
 
 144 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 of fine silk in this country. There were no parties to 
 whom the drawback was injurious, unless it was to the 
 throwsters of Italian raw silk. He did not conceive 
 that any fine silk goods whatever were exported ; there 
 was no export, or very little, of goods made from the 
 Italian thrown silk, or from British thrown silk of a 
 similar quality. The duty was a direct evil to those 
 who work up the description of thrown silks liable to 
 it ; the drawback was an indirect alleviation of it, and 
 was a direct benefit to those who work up a different 
 description of thrown silks for exportation. With the 
 duty continued, the drawback, he thought, must work 
 beneficially upon the whole trade. 
 
 Such, though much abridged, yet in his own words, 
 was Mr. Hume's evidence. The change from total 
 prohibition to moderated protection, little as it might 
 avail in preventing smuggling, was nevertheless an 
 important step in a right direction. The Act of 1824, 
 which substituted a protecting duty of 30 per cent, in 
 lieu of total prohibition, will accordingly be remem- 
 bered. And though it fell short of Mr. Hume's con- 
 victions as to what ought to have been done, even 
 at that time, he never regretted that he had so large 
 a share in what was effected. As is well known, it 
 produced the utmost disquietude amongst the majority 
 of manufacturers, who contended that they could not 
 possibly meet the competition which it was destined to 
 produce. That their mills would be worthless, and that 
 both the employed and the employer would be ruined. 
 No terms were deemed too harsh or severe to be applied
 
 GOOD RESULTS. 145 
 
 to Mr. Huskisson, who was also subjected to the 
 heaviest obloquy from his opponents in Parliament. 
 Upon one occasion, he said, " I have been assailed and 
 distressed by appeals to my feelings, calling upon me 
 to commune with my conscience and my God, and to 
 say whether I am under no visitation of compunction 
 and remorse. That man must have a heart of stone 
 who can witness without sympathy and pain the distress 
 which now exists among our manufacturers. I hope 
 I am not wanting in the duties and feelings of a man. 
 I have also a duty to perform as a minister, to trace 
 the causes of the present calamities, and to prevent, if 
 possible, their recurrence."* 
 
 Who the true philanthropists really were, was soon 
 made manifest ; and, also, who were the false prophets. 
 The improvement was gradual, and it was permanent. 
 The poor rates were not burdened. We were able to 
 compete with foreigners. 
 
 In the ten years preceding 1824, the qiiantity of raw 
 and thrown silk used by our manufacturers amounted 
 to 18,823,1 17lbs., being an average of 1,882,311 Ibs. 
 per annum ; that in the ten years immediately fol- 
 lowing the change of system, the quantity used was 
 36,780,009 Ibs., or 3,678,001 Ibs. per annum, being 
 an increase over the average of the former period of 
 95 per cent ; and that, in the sixteen years ending 
 with 1849, the consumption was 66,376,645 Ibs., or 
 4,148,540 Ibs. per annum, being an increase of 120 
 
 * Sir Robert Peel, it may be remembered, applied these words to 
 his own case in thu year lb 46. 
 
 L
 
 146 LITE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 per cent upon the quantity used under the restrictive 
 system. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the great increase in the quantity 
 of silk employed in our looms, the quantity of thrown 
 silk imported has not at all augmented during the last 
 sixty; but, on the contrary, has sensibly diminished. 
 The spur of competition has driven forward the manu- 
 facture in both its branches. Improved machinery has 
 been introduced into our throwing-mills, the effect of 
 which has been to lessen most materially the cost of the 
 process ; and, by the adoption and improvement of the 
 machinery of Jacquard, our weavers are now enabled 
 to produce fancy goods, the quality of which is, with 
 few exceptions of little importance, fully equal, and, 
 as regards some sorts, superior to the quality of goods 
 made in France, although the cost of production is not 
 yet reduced to the level of that country."* 
 
 Previous to the year 1824, the silk manufacture 
 was substantially limited to two places. Soon after, to 
 adopt the words of Mr. Hume, " While Spitalfields and 
 Coventry were protesting that without assistance against 
 foreigners, they could carry on their trade no longer, 
 Manchester quietly stepped in and took it out of their 
 hands." f Not only did the silk trade extend itself to 
 Manchester, but it established itself at Norwich, Paisley, 
 Macclesfield, Derby, Leigh, Sudbury, and other places. 
 Subsequent to this period, owing to foreign compe- 
 
 * Porter's "Progress of the Nation." 
 
 t An Essay bj Mr. Deacon Hume on the Corn Laws, in the fourth 
 number of the ' British and Foreign Review."
 
 EXTENSION OF THE SILK TRADE. 147 
 
 tition, and to improved processes of manufacture in 
 this country, the price of the article has been greatly 
 reduced ; so that the use of silk, which was formerly 
 entirely confined to the higher classes, has been extended 
 to every class of the community. The trade is not 
 subject to so many fluctuations, and the employment 
 of those who are engaged in the manufacture is not 
 liable to so many alterations. 
 
 The Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and the 
 manufacturers of that town, viewed the subject in a 
 different light to that in which it presented itself to the 
 generality of the English of like occupation. Resolutions 
 of approval were passed in the year 1825 by the above- 
 mentioned Chamber, and in 1839 it again expressed 
 its opinion in the following terms : " That this meeting 
 regards the present as the proper occasion for reiterating 
 its adherence to the opinion so often declared by this 
 Chamber, that the prosperity, peace, and happiness of the 
 people of this and other nations can be alone promoted 
 by the adoption of those just principles of trade, which 
 shall secure to all the right of a free interchange of 
 tlu-ir respective productions ; and this meeting, on 
 behalf of the great community whose interests it repre- 
 sents, feels especially called upon to declare its dis- 
 approbation of all those restrictive laws which, whether 
 intended for the protection of the manufacturing or 
 agricultural classes, must, in so far as they are operative, 
 be injurious to the rest of the nation, unjust to the 
 world at large, and in direct hostility to the beneficent 
 designs of Providence."
 
 148 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 The Select Committee of J832, having sat fifty-two 
 days and examined nearly ninety witnesses, whose 
 evidence, when printed, occupied 1,050 folio pages, 
 expressed their regret to the House, on the 2nd of 
 August, that they were unable to make any general 
 or full report on the several matters submitted to their 
 consideration ; but the various interests involved, and 
 the extent of the subjects brought before them, as well 
 as the great number of witnesses they had to examine, 
 and the knowledge that many others still remained to 
 be examined, compelled them, at so late a period of the 
 session, only to lay the evidence before the House. 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume's most mature testimony upon 
 the subject of protective duties with reference to the 
 silk trade, was given before a Parliamentary Committee 
 in the year 1840. He had then retired frcm public 
 life, and with the experience of fifty years passed in 
 the Custom House and the Board of Trade, he gave 
 evidence as a private person, and without the reserve 
 which must often attach to an official position. The 
 Report, which contains his evidence on the import 
 duties, will be more completely brought before the 
 notice of the reader in a future page. The portion, and 
 it is short, which refers to the silk trade, may be more 
 usefully introduced here, and with little abridgment. 
 
 The Chairman.* The Committee are anxious to know your 
 opinion of the effect of protecting duties and how far they ought 
 to be continued or might be removed with reference to the exist- 
 ing commerce of the country. 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume. I think it might be desirable to classify 
 
 * Joseph Hume, Esq., M.P.
 
 SELECT COMMITTEE EVIDENCE. 149 
 
 goods with reference to degrees of protection, and the degrees of 
 importance of that protection to the public or to individuals. With 
 regard to the effect on the commerce of the country, I should say, 
 that in a general and national view, the effect of removing the 
 protecting duties must be very l>eneficial ; at the same time, some 
 partial interests must be sufferers under the change. 
 
 Then is it your opinion, that generally speaking, all pro- 
 tective duties should be removed, and that it would be the con- 
 sideration which of them might be exceptions only to that rule? 
 I conceive that no general measure could be more beneficial 
 to the country than a removal of all protections, prohibitions, 
 and restrictions. I cannot conceive that a country exporting 
 forty millions' worth of its industry in the year can effectually 
 and beneficially for any length of time protect any partial in- 
 terest whatever. If the protection is effectual, it can only be 
 so in consequence of the prosperity of the country arising from 
 other means; but if once the country should cease to be pro- 
 sperous, in consequence of being unable to find markets abroad 
 for this enormous amount of exportation, then the parties 
 making those goods that had before been exported would apply 
 themselves to the manufacture of the protected articles, and 
 thus bring them down to their own level very quickly. Spital- 
 fields was invaded by Manchester before it was by Lyons. During 
 the late war, and for a number of years, while the cotton trade was 
 entirely or nearly our own, there was little attempt to make silk 
 goods in our provincial manufacturing towns, and Spitalfields had 
 the trade nearly to itself. But the first distresses, of Spitalfieldsi 
 after the war closed, arose from home competition, and not from 
 the importation of foreign goods. 
 
 Then one effect of every protecting duty is to direct labour 
 to that particular branch, which the natural state of the com- 
 merce of the country does not allow of P The first tendency is 
 certainly such, and it is not counteracted so long as other trades 
 which have no protection are still flourishing, and therefore are 
 content with their success. 
 
 But you are aware that in Spitalfields there have been for a long 
 time great alternations of prosperity and distress: do you consider 
 that this distress was produced in either case by the foreign manu- 
 facturers, or by the home manufacturers in Manchester or else- 
 where ? During the period of total prohibition, and before Man-
 
 150 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 cheater adopted the manufacture, the periods of distress must 
 have arisen from changes of demand in a confined market. I 
 do not conceive that the quantity smuggled in at that time could 
 have had any real effect upon the trade. High forced prices, 
 subject to caprice of fashion, must always keep a trade in peril 
 of reverses. 
 
 Then what do you mean by stating that Spitalfields was invaded 
 by Manchester ? Manchester devoted itself to the manufacture of 
 silk goods as soon as the cotton trade began to fail them in some 
 degree, and the profits of the manufacturers in Spitalfields were 
 reduced. There was an interval of very considerable distress in 
 the cotton manufacture between the high prices of the late war 
 and the settling down of the trade to its own level, and then 
 Manchester began to think of the silk trade. 
 
 Mr. VUliers. The people of Spitalfields had as much interest 
 in being protected against Manchester as against Lyons ? Certainly. 
 
 And the principle of protecting them is the same in both 
 cases? Yes: and you cannot support the manufacture of Spital- 
 fields in its former state, unless you protect them against home 
 competition as well as foreign. 
 
 The purpose of protecting is, to support an existing interest 
 that cannot support itself? Yes : it is of no use unless the trade 
 is naturally a losing trade. 
 
 And it cannot support itself when the community can get the 
 article cheaper elsewhere? Certainly not, if the protection is 
 wanted. 
 
 Then it is always at the expense of the consumer that the 
 protection is imposed ? I think that is manifest. 
 
 You have always considered it to have that effect P I have 
 always considered that the increase of price, in consequence of 
 protection, amounted to a tax. If I am made to pay 1. 6d. by 
 law for an article which, in the absence of that law, 1 could buy 
 for a shilling ; I consider the sixpence a tax, and I pay it with 
 regret, because it does not go to the revenue of the country ; 
 and therefore, I do not, in return, share the benefit of that pay- 
 ment as a contribution to the revenue. I must be taxed a second 
 time for the State. 
 
 The Chairman. Then it is your opinion that every protection 
 of a commodity operates as a tax to the community at large ? 
 Decidedly.
 
 SELECT COMMITTEE EVIDENCE. 151 
 
 Mr. Villiers. And, further, as a misdirection of capital and 
 labour? Yes: it is tempting parties to embark in a trade by 
 factitious support, which, in the end, may prove a fallacious one. 
 1 have often wondered how any rulers could consent to incur the 
 responsibility of such a policy. 
 
 The Chairman. Do not all such protective duties and monopolies 
 occasion very considerable fluctuations in that particular branch, 
 from time to time ? I think that every trade which is thrown out 
 of its natural course by protection, is more subject to fluctuations 
 than those which are left to their natural operation. 
 
 j\Ir. Tuffnell. Then you cannot conceive any circumstances 
 under which a protective duty can confer a permanent and general 
 benefit upon the community? I think not. While it operates 
 in favour of the party intended to be protected, it is a tax upon 
 the community, and there is always the risk of its not being able 
 to support itself by its own natural strength ; and the protection 
 may some day fail of keeping it up. The real question at issue 
 is, do we propose to serve the nation, or to serve particular 
 individuals 
 
 The Chairman. Does not every protection in some degree 
 lessen the efforts of the party protected, to meet his competitors 
 in the market? In my opinion, from all I have noticed and heard, 
 it has, in a most peculiar degree, that operation upon the human 
 mind. It is rather before my own positive recollection ; but in 
 conversations long ago, with older men, hi the woollen trade, I 
 have learnt, that at the time of Mr. Pitt's commercial treaty with 
 France, the great import which came upon us was the French 
 broad-cloths. Previous to that, our own ordinary cloths were 
 entirely protected by the prohibition of the other. They were 
 of an uniform and very inferior character. In the. first instance, 
 the French cloths had a very great sale in this country ; the habit 
 was always to order a coat of French cloth, and no tailor thought 
 of making out a bill without putting the words " coat of French 
 cloth:" and my informant assured me that that habit of so 
 charging lasted many years after there was scarcely a piece of 
 French cloth brought into the country. The manufacturers of 
 this country, feeling the stimulus of a competition, soon set them- 
 selves seriously to work to see whether they could not make cloth 
 as good as the French, and the result has been that, up to a cer- 
 tain point, short of some very exquisite productions, such as are
 
 152 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUMi:. 
 
 hardly ever required, the English make cloths better for the price 
 than the French do, and consequently they have retained the trade 
 to themselves. 
 
 Do they continue to export to a very great extent? They 
 export to a great extent, and the degree to which they export 
 into markets where the French can meet them without any advan- 
 tage of protection from the laws of this country is evidence that 
 they have completely attained perfection in their trade. 
 
 Are you able to state to what degree the effects of that com- 
 petition took place in the silk trade after Mr. Huskisson admitted 
 silks at reduced duties ? The immediate effect was very similar 
 to that in the case of the broad-cloths. Within two or three years, 
 to the best of my recollection, the importations of the raw silk 
 into this country were more than doubled, which is tolerable 
 evidence of the increase of the manufacture. 
 
 Mr. Chapman. Did that circumstance arise from the fashion of 
 wearing silk coming into general use at that particular period P 
 I think it did ; but that was brought on by the greater cheapness 
 and excellence of the commodity. It also led to the adoption of 
 improved machinery in this country, and particularly in the busi- 
 ness of throwing silk. 
 
 In the month of June, in the year 1846, in which the 
 corn laws were repealed, Lord Dalhousie, following in 
 the wake of that course of commercial legislation which 
 had been commenced twenty years before, introduced, 
 on the part of the Government, a measure entitled the 
 Customs' Duties Bill. In doing so, he stated that the 
 Government did not propose the measure as one which 
 departed altogether and at once from protection. They 
 desired to remove from articles of food all duties what- 
 soever; while upon articles which were not of first 
 necessity, but which still entered largely into the con- 
 sumption of our population, they were desirous of 
 reducing duties, as far as consideration of revenue
 
 CUSTOMS' DUTIES DEBATE. 153 
 
 would permit Referring to the article of silk, he 
 remarked that the duty was said to be 30 per cent 
 universally ; but that, in point of fact, it ranged from 
 that to about 250 per cent The Government there- 
 fore proposed to put a fixed duty of 15 per cent, from 
 which they expected an increase of importation, to the 
 prevention of illicit trade, and a great increase of 
 revenue. This gave rise to a debate, which, on the 
 23rd of June, turned very considerably upon a state- 
 ment purporting to have been given in the evidence of 
 Mr. Deacon Hume on the silk trade in the year 1832. 
 Lord Stanley,* in opposing the motion, said that " a 
 very high authority, Mr. Deacon Hume, had told them 
 in 1832, that unless they imposed a higher duty than 
 25 L per cent, ad valorem, they need not be appre- 
 hensive of smuggling." 
 
 The Earl of Dalhousie, assuming that Lord Stanley's 
 statement was correct, replied, that when his noble 
 friend said, on the authority of Mr. Deacon Hume, that 
 a duty of 25 per cent, would meet the case of the 
 smuggler, of course he could not venture to impugn so 
 high an authority, as applied to former times. But it 
 was no longer the case. It was as notorious as the sun 
 in the heavens, that there was no article whatever of 
 foreign produce which could not, for an insurance of 
 20 per cent, be guaranteed to be delivered in London 
 on the most respectable references to the best bankers." 
 
 Lord Stanley "was obliged to his noble friend for the 
 reference he had just made, because it led him to state 
 Now Earl of Derby.
 
 154 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 how Mr. Deacon Hume went on with his argument. 
 He admitted all that the noble lord had said : but 
 Mr. Hume went on to say, that the risk of loss on the 
 part of the smuggler was so much greater, that it was 
 always worth the while of the merchant to pay 25 per 
 cent to the Government rather than 20 per cent to the 
 smuggler, so that if the duties were reduced to 25 per 
 cent, the revenue would reap nearly the whole of the 
 benefit. That was the continuation of the argument of 
 Mr. Deacon Hume." 
 
 Earl Fitzwilliam said he thought " Mr. Deacon 
 Hume could never have said anything so extravagant 
 as that the same amount of percentage would put 
 down the smuggler in every kind of trade in light 
 and easily concealed goods, as in heavy and bulky 
 articles." 
 
 Before the debate closed, Lord Stanley added, " that 
 since the Earl of Dalhousie had spoken, he had referred 
 to the evidence of Mr. Deacon Hume, and he found 
 that he had fixed an average of 25 to 30 per cent, as 
 the amount of duty which might fairly be imposed 
 without the risk of encouraging smuggling. In 1832 
 Mr. Deacon Hume gave his opinion on the subject 
 of silk, and he stated that as the maximum for pro- 
 tection and the minimum for smuggling. Therefore, 
 so far as Mr. Deacon Hume might be considered as an 
 authority, there was no ground for the reduction of the 
 duty, which, according to his calculation, should be 
 from 30 to 35 per cent" 
 
 Without saying that there is no foundation for what
 
 CUSTOMS' DUTIES DEBATE. 155 
 
 Lord Stanley asserted, it is perfectly clear that had he 
 read the evidence which he consulted more carefully, 
 he would not have hazarded without reserve the state- 
 ment which he did ; and that greater care would have 
 enabled him to see that so far from asserting that 
 unless a higher duty than 35 per cent., ad valorem, was 
 imposed, they need not be apprehensive of smuggling, 
 Mr. Hume expressly says, " It was hoped by the Go- 
 vernment, in 1825, that 30 per cent would be the 
 minimum of smuggling." Again, that " while 30 per 
 cent, was imposed smuggling took place, though the 
 alterations were made to prevent it." Again, that " there 
 may be various opinions as to stopping smuggling ; but 
 he believed when the temptation was great, it was very 
 difficult to put an end to it." And lastly, though he 
 conceives " it may be possible " to keep the duty " rather 
 above the cost of smuggling," he emphatically adds, 
 " but I am not prepared to say that 25 per cent., or any 
 other percentage, would be the proper sum. The price 
 of smuggling is variously stated, and whatever it is 
 now, it may become lower." 
 
 Sir John Bowring was examined after Mr. Deacon 
 Hume in the year 1832. He expressed a decided 
 opinion that a protecting duty of 20 per cent would 
 destroy a considerable portion of the smuggling trade ; 
 that anything beyond 20 per cent would infallibly 
 cause it to go on. " I consider," he added, " protection 
 to be wholly illusory. I think the silk manufacture of 
 this country would ultimately be increased, by the 
 abolition of it, to an enormous degree. I apply to the
 
 156 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 manufacture of silk that which applies to every other. 
 So far as my experience goes, wherever ignorance and 
 inferiority have remained unprotected, intelligence and 
 superiority have taken their place." 
 
 Had the life of Mr. Hume been spared three years 
 beyond its allotted term, he would have seen, in the 
 year 1845, the duties on the importation of silk wholly 
 repealed ; and a considerable abatement effected in the 
 rates of duty upon foreign goods, in the year after. 
 The day when the remaining impediment to the pro- 
 gress of the silk manufacture, the protecting duty of 15 
 per cent upon foreign productions shall be removed, 
 cannot, assuredly, be very remote.
 
 157 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 EDUCATION TUB POLITICAL ECOXOMT CLUB AGRICULTURE 
 CURRENCY 1'oi.incs. 
 
 A FRIEND to education in every way to schools, libra- 
 ries, and mechanics' institutions, Mr. Deacon Hume was 
 associated with the earliest advocates of popular in- 
 struction, and sympathised strongly with the establish- 
 ment by Lord Brougham and others, of the Society for 
 the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. Upon retiring from 
 public life, he aided when he resided at Reigate, both 
 by his influence and by his purse, the benevolent efforts 
 of a gentleman,* whose zeal for the moral and intel- 
 lectual improvement of his neighbours has been as un- 
 tiring as it has been beneficial. 
 
 With politicians, as such, even during his residence 
 in town, Mr. Hume associated but little. The society 
 in which he had most interest, was that of political 
 economists. In the year 1821, he assisted Mr. Thomas 
 Tooke, F.R.S., who contributed largely to the formation 
 of the Statistical Society, in establishing the Political 
 
 * Tliomas Martin, Esq., Fellow of the English College of Surgeons.
 
 158 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 Economy Club. Through a long series of years, we 
 believe, he was never absent from its meetings, which 
 were held on the first Thursdays of the months of 
 December, February, April, May, June, and July, at 
 the Freemasons' Tavern, until the year 1852,* where 
 the members, after the manner of Englishmen, dined 
 together, and a lengthened discussion ensued. At these 
 reunions he met Professors Senior and Macculloch, 
 Mr. Jones Loyd, now Lord Overstone, Mr. Ricardo, 
 Mr. Villiers, Sir H. Parnell, Colonel Torrens, Sir John 
 Bowring, Mr. Macgregor, and many others. For a 
 long period, while most of the members were contend- 
 ing for a fixed duty on foreign corn, Mr. Hume was 
 strenuously advocating the absence of any duty. Mr. 
 Cobden, never a member of this club, was present upon 
 one occasion, or the reader would not have to thank 
 
 * Tliis Club is still flourishing. Its meetings, since 1852, have 
 been held at the Thatched House Tavern, St. James's. The follow - 
 i-ig is a list of its members for the year 1857 : Lord Ashburton, W. J. 
 Blake, Esq.; Sir G. W. Bramwell, E. P. Cameron, Esq.; Edwin Chad- 
 wick, Esq.; Sir William Clay, Bart.; W. Coulson, Esq.; J. W. Cowell, 
 Esq.; G. J. Graham, Esq.; Thomas Hankcy, Esq., M.P.; Sir B. Hawes, 
 K.C.B.; J. G. Hubbard, Esq.; Kirkman Hodgson, Esq., the Right 
 Hon. R. Lowe, M.P.; the Kight Hon. Holt Mackenzie; Herman 
 Merivale, Esq.; John S. Mill, Esq.; W. Newmarch, Esq.; G. W. 
 Norman, Esq.; Lord Overstone; Samson Ricardo, Esq., M.P.; J. L. 
 Ricardo, Esq., M.P.; the Right Hon. Sir John Rorailly. W. N. Senior, 
 Etq.; Lord Be! per. W.T.Thornton, Esq.; T. Tooke, Esq., F.R.S.; 
 hi* Excellency M. Van de Weyer; the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers, M.P.; 
 H. Warburton, Esq., W. W. Whitmore, Esq., M.P.; W. A. Wil- 
 kinson, Esq.; J. E. Cairncs, Esq.; Rowland Hill, Esq.; Earl Gran- 
 vine, the Earl of Clarendon, the Archbishop of Dublin, Earl Grey, 
 the Marquis uf Lansduwne, Lord Montcagle, the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, Charles Neate, Esq., M.P. The last eight are honorary 
 members.
 
 MR. COBDEN. 159 
 
 him for the following very characteristic and graphic 
 sketch : 
 
 " I remember hearing Mr. Deacon Hume speak at 
 the * Political Economy Club' in favour of the total 
 repeal of the corn laws ; and when his chief opponent 
 was Mr. Macculloch, the author of the * Commercial 
 Dictionary.' There was a general opposition to his 
 views among the company present, who seemed to 
 delight in trying to mystify a simple matter and to 
 puzzle one another. But I was charmed at the bold- 
 ness with which that meek-looking man contended for 
 the full measure of truth and justice. * Gentlemen 
 landowners,' said he, 'you have your landed estates, 
 they are secured to you by law, you may fence them 
 round and exclude all intruders, why are not you con- 
 tent with the possession of your property, why do you 
 attempt to invade the proj>erty of the labourer by inter- 
 fering with his right to exchange the produce of his 
 <>\vn toil for the corn of other lands ?'* 
 
 The establishment of this club, which we believe 
 approached nearly enough to Dr. Johnson's definition,! 
 was productive of considerable service. The informa- 
 tion which was imparted, and the collision of kindred 
 minds, resulted in the gradual advancement of political 
 science, and in the multiplication of its disciples. In- 
 deed there is nothing more certain in the modern 
 history of finance, than that it is upon the conclusions 
 deduced by legislators from the received doctrines of 
 some of the above-mentioned individuals, and a few 
 
 * An assembly of good fellows, meeting under certain conditions.
 
 160 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 others, that the important changes made of late years in 
 our commercial system, have been founded. Mr. Tooke, 
 die author of the " History of Prices,"* was also the 
 author of the petition presented by the London mer- 
 chants in favour of free-trade in 1820; a remarkable 
 document, every principle of which has since been 
 made the groundwork of legislation. There was no 
 economist of the time with whom Mr. Humo was more 
 constantly associated. Dissimilar in many respects, 
 both were distinguished for patience and intrepidity in 
 the pursuit after truth, as well as for the promotion of 
 it, by their most zealous and active example, f 
 
 The following fragment of a sketch of the character 
 and policy of a distinguished statesman is worthy of 
 being preserved. It was written about the year 1829. 
 
 "Ma. CANKIWO. During a term of many years, and while the 
 country was placed in situations of great difficulty and peril not 
 less by the open assaults of foreign enemies, than by the efforts of 
 traitors and internal foes, while Jacobinism raged, and that party, 
 which, professing liberal policy and assuming the character of 
 constitutional opponents of ministers, had acquired considerable 
 influence over the public mind, allowed itself to be allied with the 
 leaden of Jacobinism, George Canning was the most distinguished 
 defender of everything that was aristocratical, legitimate, and 
 established, in Church and State. He held no terms with the 
 enemies of the constitution ; and he refused to distinguish from 
 such enemies, those who in struggling only, as it may be hoped, 
 for ministerial office and power, had failed so to distinguish thcm- 
 telvei. 
 
 * In MX Yolumes, 8vo. 
 
 f Mr. Tooke died at his residence in Spring Gardens, on the 26th 
 of February, 1958, in the 85th year of his age. To the last moment 
 of his existence, it is said, there was no interval during which the 
 clearness and serenity of mind, so remarkable in him, was beclouded.
 
 CANNING. 161 
 
 "Through the whole of this era he exposed himself to the charge 
 of ultra-toryism, and extreme illiberality of political sentiments ; 
 patricians crowded round him and applauded him; plebeians hated 
 and assailed him ; the country was in danger of a preponderance 
 of the popular interest ; and, pending such danger, he saw it to be 
 policy to conceal from public knowledge how much the genuine 
 sentiments of his mind, and the feelings of his heart, were opposed 
 to tyranny how much he believed that the true interest of a great 
 and noble aristocracy was to be promoted by the granting of free 
 institutions to the people. 
 
 "At length the happy day arrived when he could safely suffer his 
 sentiments to be known, and, safely too, indulge the hope of seeing 
 them prevail. He then, turning to the great and noble, addressed 
 them in the language of congratulation for their triumph, and of 
 warning against a renewal of similar scenes of danger. He showed 
 to them those errors of government, which had led the minds of 
 the people into a belief that the rulers ana the ruled were in a 
 necessary state of natural enmity. He taught them by the example 
 of France, that when oppression had excited one people to rebel- 
 lion, the anarchy which arose from it was dangerous to their freer 
 neighbours ; and he expected to be supported by them in his 
 laudable endeavours to render the world secure by making it 
 bappy. 
 
 " But he knew not his auditors. His mind, candid as it was pene- 
 trating, judged rightly of human nature in the mass, but erred in 
 its estimate of the sophisticated few. He had propounded doc- 
 trines which were unpalatable; and, hi the hour of trial, he found 
 himself among enemies, when be believed himself to be surrounded 
 by friends. 
 
 " There was a hero, to the strength of whose arm he owed the 
 glorious opportunity of benefiting his species which he thought 
 he had attained. He looked to that hero, that he should have 
 joined him in a cause, which, by making his victories serviceable 
 to all mankind, should carry down his' fame with double splendour 
 to the latest posterity. But, alas ! he found that hero enlisted 
 against him, in the ranks of low and little minds ; he had to learn 
 the mortifying lesson, that genius in the field had no necessary 
 connection with the more valuable quality of philosophy in the 
 closet." 
 
 It is obvious from the foregoing that Mr. Hume 
 
 If
 
 162 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 thought highly of Mr. Canning, and still more so of 
 his policy. In one of his letters, he remarks, " It is 
 impossible to overrate the benefits to mankind which 
 might result from the proper comprehension of a scheme 
 of policy, the honest practice of which must reverse 
 many of the events which are in progress. It is in 
 vain for any man, now, to write essays, the produce of 
 his own mind, although they should inculcate doctrine 
 in perfect unison with the sentiments of the great 
 master. Such productions would want the stamp of 
 authority." .... Yet " a superficial consideration 
 of the changes in men since his death, might lead to 
 a conclusion adverse, rather than favourable, to his 
 character." 
 
 The limits of this volume will not admit of the 
 insertion of the article contributed by Mr. Hume, in 
 the year 1836, to the third number of the British and 
 Foreign Review, on the Corn Laws. We will, however, 
 present the reader with the following passages : 
 
 " ENGLAND INDUSTRIALLY AJTEB THB WAB. At the termina- 
 tion of the war, the industrial peculiarity of England among the 
 nations was that of a decided bias to manufacturing and commer- 
 cial pursuits ; while the industry of the Continent had a marked 
 inclination to agriculture. Such, indeed, was the character of the 
 long war by which the peace had been preceded, that it could not 
 fail to produce these distinguished peculiarities. A most serious 
 question was then propounded to the statesman whether he should 
 take the actual position of the country and the world, as the basis 
 of his future measures, or whether he should undertake to create 
 for himself a totally new basis, in order that he might have a foun- 
 dation for measures, schemed in his own brain, but for which the 
 existing order of things was wholly unfitted. 
 
 The war had given us the command of the seas, and thus our
 
 ENGLAND APTER THE WAR. 163 
 
 commercial superiority was established ; and it so happened that, 
 during the war, the chief of those inventions in machinery, and of 
 those discoveries in science which have wrought revolutions in the 
 condition of man, were either brought by us first into use, or were 
 by us matured. England had, by these means, acquired a greater 
 command over the precious metals than any other nation ; because 
 she was thereby enabled to send forth into the general markets of 
 the world, a greater value in her manufactures, in proportion to the 
 quantity of human labour expended upon them, than any other 
 nation could send. This power is the foundation of all riches ; and 
 since it exerts itself in commanding the larger share of the quan- 
 tity of precious metals extant in the world, it has a direct tendency 
 to raise the rents of land in the country by which it is possessed. 
 Whatever excuses may be made for the errors of our statesmen, in 
 not seeing at once, and in the happy moment for a right decision, 
 that they had then in their hands, self-created, a foundation for 
 their future proceedings, far preferable to anything which their 
 vain and fanciful devices could produce, no excuse can now be 
 offered for that wilful blindness, Vhich sees no remedy for the 
 evils of its own making, except in their noxious repetition. 
 
 " In the progress of the twenty years, which have been gradu- 
 ally exposing the grand mistake made at the close of the war, 
 the landed interest, from time to time, condescended to argue a 
 little with those enlightened men, who endeavoured to make them 
 comprehend the error of their course ; but now, when to every 
 rational mind the question has received a complete decision, they 
 content themselves with sneering at, or crying down, every man 
 who considerately points out to them those sure and undeviatiug 
 laws of human affairs, which never fail in the end to punish 
 all nations which despise their dictates. To say the least of it, 
 this is a disgraceful course ; and when we think on the names of 
 the many prominent men among us their stations in lite, and 
 their necessary education who seek to confound the voice of 
 wisdom, by calling up the vociferous cheers of thoughtless audi- 
 tories, with the words 'philosophers' and ' theorists,' used as cant 
 terms, irreverently intended to imply ignorance and absurdity in 
 men of science we blush for the upper ranks of our national 
 society. 
 
 " Two-and-twenty years of habitual hostility had rendered the 
 business of war a sort of second nature to the country, by calling
 
 164 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 into exercise many branches of industry peculiar to that state, and 
 which could not but fall into disuse upon the return of peace. 
 The transition was necessarily a painful one even under the most 
 skilful management ; and the ' revulsion,' as it was then tunned, by 
 which that transition was attended was, to a great extent, un- 
 avoidable and irremediable, except by the lapse of time. But 
 though many of the employments of war were inapplicable to 
 a state of peace, there was nothing in the respective natures of 
 agriculture and commerce to render one, more than the other, unfit 
 to meet the change. They were both equally peaceful employ- 
 ments : why, then, while we were suffering under unavoidable 
 change in some matters, while change in se constituted our pecu- 
 liar grievance of the time, why, at that time, seek to make 
 forcible change in other matters, and thus aggravate the evil 
 which was of a temporary nature, by superadding another evil, 
 to which no definite limit can be assigned ? 
 
 u As if war of some kind with the rest of the world was our 
 natural element, we no sooner terminated that of the sword with 
 one country, that we declared the war of commerce with all the 
 rest. And by what peculiar class amongst us we ask, was this 
 deed done ? By the landed interest, is the answer. And who, 
 now, at the end of these twenty years, is the complaining party P 
 Again, we answer, the landed interest." 
 
 A< .KK n.Tt RAI. PROGRESS. We admit that no improvements 
 in husbandry can be expected to keep pace with many of those in 
 manufacture. But still, we cannot but believe that the labours of 
 the farmer, upon the various qualities of the soil, are far more 
 productive than they were a few years before the war ; and unless 
 the landowners have, for the last forty years, been indulging in 
 mere idle boasts, great advances have, during that period, been 
 made in the science of agriculture. The numerous agricultural 
 societies, long established in various parts of the kingdom, by the 
 union of which their present great central association is formed, 
 all had for their objects the encouragement of ingenuity and 
 skill in the devising and bringing to perfection of new methods 
 and new implements, and also the extensive diffusion of the know- 
 ledge of such discoveries. Was the promise to ' make two blades 
 of grass grow where only one grew before,' a gross delusion on 
 the public expectation ? w
 
 AGRICULTUBAL PROGRESS. 165 
 
 44 THE FARMERS 1 BURDENS. We must suggest the substitution 
 of the more comprehensive words cost of production for the word 
 4 burden ' And in speaking of the cost of production, every charge 
 between the grower and the consumer must be taken into the ac- 
 count. The charge of conveyance from the one to the other is one 
 of those which have been materially reduced ; and, connected with 
 that charge, is also the state of the allocation of the people. Not 
 only has one universal system of road-making rendered all parts 
 of England mutually accessible to each other, but the accidents of 
 localities, and the attraction of manufacturers, have caused the 
 people to be far more equally distributed than formerly. The 
 dense, and chiefly new population of our manufacturing districts, 
 is placed in a position, flanked on three sides, by England, Scot- 
 land, and Ireland. The mouths have met the corn half-way, and 
 that half-way is traversed with increased facility. The apparent 
 lowness of the present price of corn, is, in a great measure, to be 
 accounted for by an equalization of prices thus brought about ; 
 and this proposition would be made very apparent, if we had the 
 means of striking a present and a former average, taking, in both 
 cases, the prices at the barn-door. Particular lands, favourably 
 situated under the old system, must have now to contend with an 
 enlarged domestic competition. The Middlesex hay-farmers have 
 long felt the effects of the Paddington Canal, and of the 
 macadamized roads round London, which have occasioned the 
 bulky commodities of hay and straw to be brought from a more 
 extended circle. There are mere illustrations of trifling instances ; 
 but the great cases of Miproved distribution are those of Ireland 
 and of Scotland of steam navigation of canals, and of railways 
 all of which, even now, may be considered as only in an incipient 
 state. A ready distribution of pruning produce has led to an 
 equalization of its prices ; and the productions of many extensive 
 districts, formerly of little value, now partake of the average 
 which is the result. 
 
 " These are effects upon property in land, which the landowners 
 cannot resist or control. The United Kingdom will be, and must 
 be, treated as a whole; and it is in the ordinary nature of thing* 
 to suppose, and to expect, that if, in their new predicament, all the 
 lots of land are thrown into one general mass of equality, upon the 
 redrawing many that before were prizes will turn out blinks ; and 
 many of the old blanks will be new prizes. For this great and still
 
 166 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 progressing change, the landed interest must prepare themselves. 
 They may demand protection against foreigners with what con- 
 fidence they please; but protection against Ireland and against 
 Scotland against bogs reclaimed and marshes drained pro- 
 tection against domestic improvement against the progress of 
 science, and the industry of their fellcw-countrymen they can 
 never have at the hands of a British Parliament. The price 
 always to be considered is the price of the three kingdoms, under 
 every possible advance in the art of life ; and we must insist, that 
 the mere fact before us, that the average in the chief markets 
 of England is now five or six shillings lower than it was before 
 the war, constitutes no proof that the people of England cannot 
 be supplied from the lands of Great Britain and Ireland with 
 wheat at the present price, yielding a fair trading profit to a 
 sufficient number of producers in the cultivation of a sufficient 
 quantity of our national soil." 
 
 " LOCAL CHARGES UPOW LAND. Every possible improvement in 
 details ought, no doubt, to be made in their collection and admini- 
 stration ; and such ameliorations are in progress. The tithes will 
 be commuted, and the barbarism of a charge upon grots produce 
 will soon become, like its rude origin, matter of history only : and 
 we may anticipate, also, that an assimilation of some sort will, 
 before long, place Ireland, in respect of an unemployed pauper 
 population, more nearly than she now is, upon a footing with 
 England. But let not the sanguine agriculturist believe that the 
 pecuniary advantages of these measures will settle themselves 
 quietly into his pocket. When the cultivator of the soil is unre- 
 strained in his spirited improvements, as he often now is, by the 
 deadening calculation, that if his invested hundred pounds increase 
 only by ten pounds, an ample return in any other case, he will 
 clone the account with no more than ninety-nine pounds in his 
 pocket it may be expected, that much increased capital will be 
 expended upon our lands, and that much increase of produce, to 
 supply our markets the more abundantly, and therefore the more 
 cheaply, will be the result. And again, when under a system of 
 poor laws in Ireland, human beings are no longer found to be 
 contending for small plots of land to preserve existence; and 
 when the estates in that country can therefore be allotted into 
 suitable farms, and the people can be divided 'into masters and
 
 LOCAL CHARGES. RENTS. 167 
 
 workmen, it may be expected, that the system of good and 
 business-like husbandry, which then will assuredly supersede the 
 present miserable practices, must tend to increase the productions 
 of that naturally fertile island, in a degree far exceeding that 
 degree in which its home consumption will be at the same time 
 enlarged. That that consumption will, to the gratification of 
 every humane mind, be much enlarged by such changes of condi- 
 tion cannot be doubted. It is also to be believed that fewer 
 starving Irish will then cross the channel for employment, in 
 competition with English labourers. These two anticipations of 
 our landed interest in England will be specifically realized, when, 
 by the operation of a poor law, Ireland shall be no longer per- 
 mitted to export human food, while her population are dying with 
 famine. But the English landlords will be disappointed of those 
 pecuniary advantages to themselves, for the sake of which they 
 urge the adoption of the measure." 
 
 M RESTS. Rents are private contracts in which the public has 
 no voice, unless appealed to by the parties themselves. That the 
 rents need not be reduced in the ratio of the reduction of the 
 price of corn is perfectly clear, if the other costs of production 
 have, as we believe they have, been reduced in a still greater 
 degree. Land is the raw material of corn, and its value computed 
 in rent must, like the value of other raw materials, be governed 
 by the state of supply and demand. The improvements in 
 husbandry and the increased facilities of conveyance which have 
 been already noticed are equivalent to the new acquisition of a 
 larger surface of fertile lands, which, in proportion to their 
 quantity and quality, tend to diminish in various degrees the 
 ground of rent for the better parts of the older possessions, and 
 to destroy that of the worst. It cannot now be said that we 
 throw our inferior soils out of cultivation, by admitting the 
 produce of the rich soils of foreign countries ; the cuckoo-note 
 of this old and once constant cry is completely silenced. The 
 operative cause is in our own richer or more tractable soils, which, 
 under the application of greater skill, are increasing in produc- 
 tiveness at even a faster rate than the population increases to 
 consume its produce. Some partial inconvenience may be suffered 
 in such a case, but it is without remedy. What owner of a poor 
 oil will have the front to propose, in these days, that the cultiva-
 
 168 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 tion of certain lands, or the use of certain systems at home, shall 
 be prohibited ? We say pointedly, in these days, for the attempt, 
 if made, would not be without a precedent ; the owners of the 
 old meadows in England once petitioned for the prohibition of the 
 artificial grasses." 
 
 Mr. Hume was acquainted with the science of agri- 
 culture as well as with the principles of trade, and he 
 exacted great advances in both. But he never ven- 
 tured, we suspect, to foretell that in the year 1858, so 
 vast a stride would be compassed as has been announced 
 to the world in the following passage respecting the 
 general application of steam to agricultural purposes. 
 After pointing to many successful instances, the Times 
 practically remarks : 
 
 "Cultivators of the intractable weald of Kent and 
 Sussex, of the London, Oxford, and lias clays, need not 
 now suffer enormous losses of capital in the wearing 
 out of horses and poor returns of cropping on the land, 
 unsurpassed in native richness, but hitherto locked 
 against our defective mechanics: and 600J. to 8001. 
 outlay, though it may equal a year's rent, will be well 
 invested in steam-tilling apparatus. Proprietors who 
 would augment their estates without stretching the 
 area, namely, by deepening the staple : extensive occu- 
 piers under secure tenure, who have capital at command 
 when profit is at stake : and men who would make 
 a business of ploughing as well as threshing for hire 
 will be purchasers of the more costly and powerful 
 machinery. While smaller farmers can adapt a plough 
 or scarifier to their present portable engine for a sum
 
 AGRICULTURE. STEAM-TILLAGE. 169 
 
 varying from 200/. to 300/. only the price of some six 
 or eight cart-horses. 
 
 " It is not merely the British agriculturist that will 
 be profited. Already the steam-plough is started in 
 Cuba ; the sugar-growers want it in Jamaica and 
 Demerara where the blacks won't work ; and, indeed, 
 the West Indies first agitated the question, experi- 
 ments having been made ten or twenty years ago with 
 especial view to their requirements. Australia, New 
 Zealand, and other dear labour colonies are not slow 
 to seize upon mechanical improvements; and Canada 
 and the States are ready for any discovery that can 
 expedite production and lessen field labour. Our 
 continental friends, too, from their large purchases of 
 engines, reapers, and labour-saving tools, are awake 
 to the merits of steam-power in husbandry, while their 
 peasants are being draughted to the idle camp. We 
 congratulate the English farmer on the opening of a 
 new era in mechanical agriculture. The steam-engine 
 feeding, after clothing and furnishing a nation, will 
 form a grand chapter in our industrial history; and 
 the ' sons of the soil,' no longer driven to pauperism 
 or emigration, may with the busy town operatives bless 
 the good genius of James Watt." 
 
 The first of the following letters was written to a 
 correspondent upon receiving some copies of a pamphlet 
 on Currency. The latter portion refers to a question 
 which Mr. Hume had recently proposed for discussion 
 at the Political Economy Club. " Is it rightly said, 
 as stated by Mr. Hicardo, that 'commodities measure
 
 170 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 money, as money measures commodities' ? And, if so, 
 is not a high price of commodities as well as a high 
 price of gold on a local currency necessary to complete 
 the proof of depreciation ?" 
 
 "Board of Trade, IQth Jan., 1836. 
 
 44 The Clubbists to whom I sent the letter are Senior, Tooke, 
 Blake, Jones Loyd, McCulloch, and Torrens. If I had made a 
 seventh it would hare been Parnell. Mr. Tooke called to say 
 that he had received such a present and that he contemplated 
 writing to you to say, among other things, that Mr. Blake, the 
 above-named, had written a pamphlet on Exchanges, in which he 
 had drawn such an argument as yours from the low prices of 
 exportable articles. Mr. Tooke is now re-writing his work upon 
 * high and low prices,' and as he professes to record the facts of 
 the times under these heads, he says that he shall show, more 
 prominently than he did before, the state of the circumstances 
 which you have made your present particular topic. 
 
 " We have had no meeting of the Club since the letter appeared, 
 hut on the first Thursday in next month I shall expect to hear 
 something about it. 
 
 44 I remember now that Mr. Blake did write a very clever 
 treatise on Exchanges, in which he undertook to show that their 
 depression might be brought about by the operation of circum- 
 stances distinct from depression. He was, unfortunately for me, 
 not at the Club the night my question was argued . but I have 
 learnt that had he been there I should have had his support. 
 Colonel Torrens was a good deal shaken : Jones Loyd was with 
 roe : Tooke could not forgive certain issues of bank-notes, I think, 
 about 1809: but Senior and McCulloch fired point-blank shots 
 against all qualifications of a high price of gold. 
 
 Mr. Tooke does not think that the Club is to be considered as 
 unanimous upon the point. I am aware of this ; but I knew and 
 felt that, in effect, the sense of the Club was against me." 
 
 "Eltham, 4th October, 1836. 
 
 44 1 have carried your letter in my pocket ever since I received 
 it, and with the never-ceasing intention of taking a good oppor- 
 tunity of returning an ample answer. Such opportunities have 
 of late lxen very rare. Not because I have been unusually
 
 CURRENCY. LANDOWNERS. 171 
 
 engaged in official business, but from a want of my ordinary 
 appliances. Painters and paperers have turned me out of house 
 and home : and thus I am deprived of that fund of time, upon 
 which I have been accustomed to draw so largely when most 
 other people were in bed. Besides, I have taken once more to the 
 saddle, and many spare hours have been employed in proving its 
 superiority over blue pill. And I have proved it, for I am better 
 in health than I have been for many years past. My colleague, 
 Mr. Le Marchant, has only now completed his recovery from a 
 violent bilious fever; and in consequence of his unavoidable 
 absence, all my holidays have been comprised in two Saturdays 
 until this day, when I superadded a Friday ; and in the night of 
 which I am here at Eltham, the only person up, endeavouring to 
 execute my long-intended purpose. Seeing no hope of a furlough, 
 I have located my family here, and contented myself with riding 
 up and down, as often as I could, until winter, or wintry weather, 
 drives us home again. Here you have my apology, my history, 
 and my bulletin ; and now for a few words upon some of the 
 topics of youf letter. Your remarks upon the * tone ' of the 
 H. B. T. letters coincides with my own opinion. Had I been 
 writing for a pamphlet at first, instead of a newspaper, and 
 without the most distant idea of further publication, the tone 
 would certainly have been softened down. When the idea of 
 reprinting arose, and that certainly not with me, I had an incli- 
 nation to re-write the whole, and give it as the substance of the 
 letters. But there was no time for such a course, and I could 
 only add such prefatory remarks as should preserve an account 
 of the origin, as some apology for the tone. Were I to think it 
 worth while to undertake such a task even now, I would not 
 suffer my corrections to be more than those of style and expres- 
 sion. Nothing should tie abated of my indignation at the manner 
 in which the owners of the lauds of the country testify their 
 affronting notices, that, in some way or other, they have a pro- 
 prietary right in the people also. If we only make a fair distinc- 
 tion between the state of public opinion and intelligence in the 
 feudal times and of that opinion in thoe later days, it appears to 
 me that a corn law now is quite as tyrannical as feudalism was 
 then. To usurp a power of the pocket in the present state of 
 civilization, is as arbitrary as it was to claim the person in a 
 barbarous age. This ground I should take without the slightest
 
 172 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME 
 
 reservation, or the appearance of yielding an inch of it : but in 
 my defensive position I might stand more erect upon it, and 
 preserve rather a sterner countenance than I did in the fugitive 
 letters. But, believe me, I have no thought of undertaking such 
 a task. Everything of the kind is utterly useless : time and the 
 progress of knowledge in the body of the people can alone work 
 remedies in these cases. A period of severe scarcity may perhaps 
 come in to hasten the cure.* 
 
 u With regard to the letter on the bullion question, can anything 
 be more manifest than the occasional inaccessibility of the public 
 mind upon some subjects? I have 'tried it on' upon the Political 
 Economy Club, and I then found, that I gained only a few converts ; 
 but McCulloch, nnd Senior, and Parnell, et hoc genus omne, al- 
 though not one of them said a single word which could reconcile 
 a low price of exportable goods with a high price of gold, as 
 evidence of a depreciated currency, still they ended where they 
 began, and claimed the whole price of gold during the period 
 referred to, as the measure of the alleged depreciation. 
 
 " The only use of the argument is, to stop the mouths of the 
 agriculturists, who are clamouring for an alteration in the standard ; 
 and yet the political economists the greatest enemies to such a 
 proceeding will not avail themselves of the weapon offered to 
 their hand. There is no chance of rendering the proposition 
 useful, unless these persons come in with their adhesions, and assist 
 to enforce it upon the public mind. 
 
 "You ask my opinion on the present condition of the circu- 
 lating medium. I have been watching it closely for some months, 
 and am compelled to say that I expect an increase of the present 
 difficulties. The pinch has not yet come, and the Bank will have 
 to give several more turns to the screw, before it will be tight 
 enough to force away the redundance. The joint-stock banks, 
 chiefly, have done the mischief; but the Bank is greatly to blame 
 in not having foreseen, that if it did not draw in, the two together 
 would produce excess. The Bank must be content to see a portion 
 of their business pass into the hands of joint stocks. 
 
 It is surprising to what an extent a great fundamental error on 
 
 * This prediction was fulfilled in the year 1846, when the failure 
 of the potato crop in Ireland and the deficient harvest caused the 
 abolition of the Corn Laws.
 
 CURRENCY. POLITICS. 173 
 
 this subject prevails. Men think it sufficient that the hanking 
 establishments should he solvent ; they imagine that the only 
 thing to fear is, lest failures should occur, and the holders of notea 
 should not be paid. This is mistaking solvency for currency; as 
 if the rich might innocently convert their properties into circu- 
 lating medium. The greater the confidence in the banks, the 
 greater is the liability to the mischief; private security here 
 becomes public evil. I believe that the security of creditors at 
 this time is unusually good, for the debtors have acted with great 
 prudence with relation to their private affairs ; but there will be 
 great losses, although there may be few bankrupts. 
 
 a We occasionally see in the ' City Articles ' accounts of * im- 
 provement ' ' money less scarce,' and the like. These are bad 
 indications. The complaint is plethora, and the bloated face is not 
 a sign of convalescence. The permanent remedies are, a smaller 
 unfunded debt, and a reduced issue of bank-notes. It will require 
 a watchful eye, and a steady hand, to bring about the re-adjust- 
 ment. T think that .. portion of the cost will fall upon the Chan- 
 cellor of the Exchequer, and that all will not fall upon the Bank. 
 
 u Politics are at this time a disagreeable topic to a man who is of 
 no party. I see such great faults in my old friends the Tories, that 
 I cannot travel by their side. I have heard it said, that Peel is 
 ready to bid very high in the auction of liberalism if any opening 
 should occur. This may be good tactics lor a party man, and all 
 fair, for what I know; but my idea is, that the Tories should have 
 been liberal a little sooner or, rather, a great deal sooner ; and 
 when I compare what they are ready to do, with what they have 
 refused, my mind recoils at the terms in which they continue to 
 abuse the Whigs. I say this may be all very right and fair with 
 partie*, but a common man like myself, with one plain subject 
 before him, cannot chime in with such modes of proceeding. I 
 cannot take up a new station with every move. The Tories have 
 fully recognised the necessity of progress ; and they deem to me 
 to keep always one or two steps behind the Whigs, only for the 
 sake of a point of distinction for a grand quarrel.* Step by step 
 
 * The friend to whom this letter was addressed, replied, with some 
 effect, to this particular accusation, " I do not think you are quite fair 
 to the Conservatives (Tone* are gone). Surely, it is too hanl to say 
 that ' they keep one or two steps behind the Whigs, only for the aake 
 of a point of distinction, for a ground of quarrel.' Do you think
 
 174 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 
 
 it has been so hitherto ; and, mark me. step by step it will be so 
 hereafter. 
 
 But my fears for the country in the end, are removed. I see 
 that the people may be trusted. If there had been any foun- 
 dation for the former alarm at granting any thing, how should 
 there be a reaction ? The truth is that every concession has satis- 
 fied a stratum of discontent, and made an addition to the mass 
 who cry ' hold enough.' My idea is, that the increase of conser- 
 vatism arises from a contentment at what has been done, and not 
 out of alarm at the move which may follow." 
 
 " 9th November. 
 
 "But you think more of foreign affairs. Spain is indeed a 
 failure ; and if Lord Palmerston ought to have known that Louis 
 Philippe is the most cold-blooded traitor that ever lived, he will 
 have hard work in showing an excuse for having entered into a 
 league with such a man. It may run the Ministers hard, particu- 
 larly as they are likely to have several other great and distressing 
 difficulties upon their hands, such as often prove too much for any 
 Administration. Much has transpired within the last three weeks, 
 which may create apprehensions of a high price of provisions, and 
 of slack employment; there are even indications of a hard winter; 
 and the opposition papers are already laying their plans for attri- 
 buting the distress which the lower orders may suffer, to the new 
 Poor Law, although nothing is more certain than that it had the 
 hearty concurrence of the Tories. But all this would be no bed of 
 roses to succeed to. Peel did not himself choose his time before ; 
 I doubt whether he would like such a time as I am imagining : 
 although he would have the benefit of hope of relief in his favour, 
 while the blame of the cause would be thrown upon his prede- 
 
 that when Lord Stanley separated from his hereditary party, and 
 from his personal friends, and resigned his office, he did so for the 
 sake of a point of distinction, and a ground of quarrel ? Lord 
 Stanley had every personal motive which could actuate a public man 
 to get rid of every point of distinction and ground of quarrel. He 
 was the first man of his own party, when Lord Grey, then upwards 
 of seventy-three, retired. He could only be the second in the party 
 to which he was about to unite. But regardless of ambition, so vital 
 did he think the distinction to be, that, to satisfy his conscience, he 
 flung to the winds all other less honest considerations."
 
 FOREIGN AFFAIRS. CURRENCY. 175 
 
 oeMora. How often shall we change before we get an Admini- 
 stration strong enough to disregard Radicals and Ultra-Tories ? 
 That is the great question after all." 
 
 " Board of Trade, 18th November, 1836. 
 
 " If I recollect rightly, a wish is somewhere expressed in the 
 H. B. T. letters, that they might become materials for other years. 
 You are heartily welcome to realise that wish for me. Keep in 
 mind that the bullionists commence with simply saying, 'gold is 
 gold, and gold cannot be dear in gold, &c. :' that when gold seems 
 to be dear, it is only that goods and money are cheap. But the 
 Homers, Huskissons, Ricardos, &c., think that this appears too 
 much in the light of an arbitrary dogma for the understandings of 
 men in general, and therefore, in order to establish its truth, they 
 aet themselves to work to write books to show the how and the 
 why of the case. I will venture to say, that through the whole of 
 these books there shall not be found a sentence, which, if touching 
 on the point, does not go to establish the dearness of goods, as 
 the main test of depreciation. 
 
 " A tyro, therefore, having learnt his lesson from these instruc- 
 tors, sets to work to try a particular case by the tests given him ; 
 and he finds the result the very opposite of that which he was 
 taught to expect. 
 
 M The best foundation, consequently, for further remarks seems 
 to be a complete establishment of the in variableness of this doctrine 
 in the words of these writers." * * 
 
 " Agricultural Bank of Ireland the run has been too hard for 
 it. 1 think I see the fate of the last holds of the noxious one- 
 pound notes. The fall in our corn markets may be attributed to 
 the anticipated difficulties of the holders of corn in Ireland. They 
 must occasion a temporary glut. This is a bad consequence, because 
 it will give the Americans a power of pre-emption in Kurope. 
 Great, very great evils are upon the cards. I hope that the oppo- 
 sition will not calculate too nicely the ' degree of misfortune ' to* 
 which Wilberforce once pointed, as just sufficient to turn out a 
 Minister. They may not quite hit the mark.* 1 
 
 " 15, Rustell Square, 20th June, 1837. 
 
 " If the Americans stick to their rule, that every bank shall be 
 limited in its amount of paper issue, and that limit be as narrow as
 
 176 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 it is considered to be, I do not think that much specie will l>e got 
 from them. But mark what a different cash suspension this is 
 from what the Attwoodites desire. Therefore, if the example of 
 America he- referred to, we should point to this distinction ; and 
 also to the bargain that the banks are to pay no dividends till 
 they pay cash again. 
 
 " The present peculiar shape of the currency question I take to 
 be this. We have unconsciously expended our circulating medium, 
 for a year or two back, just in the way which those who think 
 with us approve, and would do openly. But we are now brought 
 up quick, with a sharp curb, because the Bank must pay in cash. 
 That party, therefore, thinks that the merit of their plan is 
 proved ; for that we have only to add suspension, and the pro- 
 sperity would be permanent. 
 
 " The other party say, that the utter rottenness of that plan is 
 completely proved by the shock to which the partial trial of it ha* 
 subjected us ; and that the attempt to continue the ' prosperity^ 
 by a bank suspension would either, and most probably, fail at 
 once, through the anticipated fears of its ultimate consequences on 
 the part of thinking people ; or, it would go on, until the bubble 
 burst from IN own weakness, and ruin of the most appalling 
 nature would involve the nation and its people in both public and 
 private bankruptcy. 
 
 " Prices would keep rising, step by step, and from season to 
 season, till the dullest and the boldest would begin to suspect, 
 that such magnificent accounts could never be settled according to 
 their nominal terms: a distrust of the bank-notes would com- 
 meuce, their depreciation would be evidenced too clearly by the 
 exchanges and the price of gold ; and, every man beginning to 
 secure his own retreat, the most dreadful panic conceivable would 
 ensue. 
 
 " This would arise from the immense difference between a tem- 
 porary suspension, like that in the war, and a suspension which 
 was, avowedly, to be permanent. In the Jirxt case, the public 
 had always land in sight, and they waited for the order to cast 
 anchor : in the tecond, they would soon begin to think that they 
 were sailing in a boundless ocean without a rudder, a pilot, or a 
 plumb-line to inform them of their depth ; and they could not 
 long endure such painful feelings. It is the most mistaken idea in 
 the world to suppose that the public mind would quietly acquiesce
 
 CURRENCY. 177 
 
 in a permanent bank suspension : and if it would not, why then, 
 4 Peel's Bill' is not the cause of that state of things which the 
 Att.Toods consider to be an unnecessary contraction of our 
 prosperous movements. Suppose that, instead of passing Peel's 
 Bill, its opponents had succeeded in passing an Act which was to 
 make the suspension permanent, and that the public had placed 
 full confidence, at first, in the successful operation of such a 
 measure, then all that I have been describing would have 
 occurred long ago ; and we should, at this time, be many, many 
 steps behind the position of prosperity in which we now stand. 
 
 " You see my main point is that the public could not have 
 confidence in paper which was never to be brought to the test ; 
 and we know full well that nothing upon the public feeling in 
 that respect has been tried. 
 
 44 As to the question of a silver standard, and the repeal of the 
 law against exporting coins, these relate only to small per- 
 centages ; and although the Attwoods raise them in despair, they 
 are wholly inconsistent with, and inadequate to, the objects and 
 ends which they profess to intend and to aim at." 
 
 The first sentence in the following letter refers to 
 a tour through Wales, and some of the adjacent 
 counties, which Mr. Hume undertook in company with 
 a friend early in the autumn of 1837. 
 
 "Board of Trade, Whitehall, 12dl 0c/ M 1837. 
 
 " I have lately returned from the most extended trip I have 
 ever made, and it was then only that I got possession of your 
 letter. I am well satisfied with your currency observations at the 
 election, and now the more so as you said nothing about lowering 
 the standard. 
 
 " The relations between the precious metals and transferable 
 objects are undergoing a change. The tendency is to a lowering 
 of prices ; and this furnishes the great temptation to excessive 
 banking : but it is not a sufficient reason for departing from the 
 sanctity of an unalterable metallic measure. Men and things are 
 outgrowing gold and silver, but the effect is too slow materially to 
 injure any one generation ; and it must be borne as the minor 
 evil. Notwithstanding all the errors which have been committed 
 in banking, it does not follow that it may not be even extended 
 
 N
 
 178 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 without a renewal of them. Many countries have, as yet, scarcely 
 availed themselves of the system; and, in proportion as they 
 adopt it, they will release a quantity of metal. The idea that one 
 scale of prices is more proper than another is a great mistake : the 
 mischief lies in sudden changes, and these will never be produced 
 by fluctuations in the general supply of the metals. Gold cannot 
 keep pace with the steam-engine, as we multiply commodities by 
 machinery they must individually represent less money. The 
 idea of an arbitrary price for corn is at the root of all the mis- 
 conceptions which distract the senses of the community. 
 
 "The increased produce of the British dominions must be 
 something most enormous, when we reflect that we are luxuriously 
 feeding a doubled population : need we wonder, then, that the 
 specific price of each quarter cannot be maintained ? or, indeed, 
 can any good reason be given for expecting that it should, any 
 more than that every piece of calico should be as dear as 
 formerly ? " 
 
 The following questions were proposed by Mr. Hume 
 for discussion at the Political Economy Club, besides 
 the one which has been already alluded to.* Of ques- 
 tions proposed before the year 1835, there appears to 
 be no available record. 
 
 " March 5, 1835. Ought a compulsory provision against desti- 
 tution to exist wherever there is exclusive property in land P " 
 
 "December 1, 1836. What are the causes and probable conse- 
 quences of the present pressure on the money market?" 
 
 "February 10, 1839. Are there any sufficient reasons for any 
 duty on foreign corn ? " 
 
 Of the arguments made use of in the discussion of 
 these questions we have no information. 
 
 * Page 169.
 
 179 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LITE INSURANCE THB ATLAB THE CDBTOMS* BENEVOLENT FUND, 
 
 "An institution which improves the condition and respectability of 
 public servants as a class, and relieves their anxiety for their dependent 
 families, most qualify them the better for their official situations, and 
 therefore confer advantages also upon the public service." Treasury 
 Minute on the Benevolent Fund. 
 
 MB. DEACON HUME was a great advocate of life in- 
 surance. He was associated with several individuals 
 in establishing the " Atlas," one of the oldest and most 
 considerable of these institutions, and which owed its 
 success in no trifling degree to his exertions. He con- 
 tinued to be Deputy Chairman to the time of his death. 
 This volume would be incomplete if it did not give 
 some account of the rise and progress of a kindred 
 association, the Customs' Benevolent Fund. The project 
 originated, in 1816, with Mr. Charles Ogilvy, at that 
 time a clerk in the long room at the Custom House. 
 But, as the Report of the Directors in 1856 states, 
 '.' it was worked out and brought to maturity entirely 
 by the ability and influence of Mr. J. Deacon Hume, 
 for many years, from the commencement of the insti- 
 tution, President of the Fund." No one could have been 
 found more able to introduce and carry out the scheme.
 
 180 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 As a preliminary step to its introduction, a meeting 
 of officers and clerks of the Customs was held on the 
 25th of April, 1816, Mr. Deacon Hume in the chair. 
 The object and nature of the scheme were then fully 
 explained, and the meeting having approved of its 
 principles, appointed seven officers of the Customs as 
 a " Temporary Committee of Formation,** to prepare a 
 plan of the contemplated institution for the considera- 
 tion of a further general meeting. The Committee was 
 also instructed to invite the co-operation of other public 
 departments as the projectors desired and hoped, "that 
 they should be able to lay the foundation of an institu- 
 tion which, at some future day, would be found to 
 embrace within the range of its protection the widows 
 and children of almost every officer of the Civil 
 Service." 
 
 With this view the Committee, in the first instance, 
 addressed letters to the secretaries of the Excise Office, 
 of the Stamp Office, of the Post Office, and of the Tax 
 Office, but no answers were received. A letter was 
 also addressed to the Secretary of the Board of Customs 
 in Scotland, and that department declined to join. The 
 notion of extending it to other public offices was aban- 
 doned. Believing, however, that the department of 
 the Customs alone was sufficiently numerous in itself to 
 form an association, the Committee determined to esta- 
 blish a fund, to be confined to the Customs alone. 
 
 Having agreed upon the outline and general prin- 
 ciples upon which the projected institution should be 
 governed, and having obtained the approval of a
 
 CUSTOMS' BENEVOLENT FUND. 181 
 
 meeting of officers and clerks of the Customs, with the 
 consent of the Board, the Committee submitted the 
 scheme for the approbation and sanction of the "Lords 
 of the Treasury in a memorial dated the 24th May, 
 1816. It was stated in this memorial, amongst other 
 things, " That the anxiety of your memorialists for a 
 local institution of this nature within their own depart- 
 ment is chiefly felt in behalf of the interest and welfare 
 of persons of small incomes who may need the prudence 
 and decision necessary to induce them to insure their 
 lives with any of the public companies already esta- 
 blished." Their lordships had several conferences with 
 the Committee, and after the project had been carefully 
 and fully expounded to them, signified officially their 
 consent to it in a letter to the Committee, dated the 
 20th June, 1816. And with the sanction and encourage- 
 ment of their lordships, the Act of Parliament esta- 
 blishing the Fund was passed, and is dated the 22nd of 
 June, 1816. The Act embodies two peculiar features, 
 -.vith which the scheme originally commenced. First, 
 the certainty and permanency of the provision for the 
 claimants. Secondly, the poundage charge of one 
 penny upon salaries. It was expected that by the aid 
 and influence of this auxiliary fund, although small, 
 the benefits of the institution would ultimately be 
 diffused generally throughout the department, and it 
 could scarcely exist without it The certainty and 
 permanency of the provision is secured by the llth 
 section of the Act, which treats the produce of the 
 insurance as an " alimentary provision " for widows and
 
 182 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 other claimants, and bars the right of creditors thereon. 
 It gives die form of a reversionary settlement, and this 
 settlement, in the case of the widow, makes it secure 
 and permanent even against the debts or control of any 
 future husband. It is a settlement under the force of 
 an Act of Parliament for her sole benefit for life, pay- 
 able to her upon her own receipt only. 
 
 But, in connection with the security the Act affords to 
 the insurance, the application of the insurance itself is, 
 at the same tune, limited for the sole benefit of widows, 
 children, relatives, and, under the admission of the 
 directors, of special nominees of subscribers. It could 
 not be expected that, jointly with the protection, sub- 
 scribers should also have an "unlimited** power to 
 dispose of their insurances as they would in public 
 assurance offices ; and, although the Fund was to be 
 raised on the principles of life assurance, yet this 
 protection, and the very limited power of appointment 
 possessed by the subscribers, materially distinguish it 
 from other assurance offices. But Mr. Hume, who was 
 a correct as well as a close observer of the human 
 mind, knew well that this limitation would require 
 substantial advantages to counteract it advantages 
 which would sooner or later be apparent And it was 
 chiefly with this view that the poundage was insisted 
 upon. Its design was to impart such aid and support 
 to the fund as would counteract all adverse inclinations, 
 from whatever cause arising, by securing to it a marked 
 preference over common assurance societies. Poundage 
 obviously increased the value of insurances, and these
 
 LIFE INSURANCE. 183 
 
 values went on increasing periodically at the awards of 
 profit until, in course of time, their accumulations would 
 so strikingly manifest the substantial advantages of the 
 fund as to make persons anxious to join the association, 
 and so secure the complete success of the scheme. 
 
 Great stress was laid by the Committee of Forma- 
 tion on the question of poundage, and in obtaining the 
 grant. To adopt the language of Mr. Hume in one of 
 his early reports, " The question propounded to the 
 Lords of the Treasury was in substance this whether 
 the fathers of those young men, whom they might be 
 pleased thereafter to appoint to situations in the 
 Customs, would be expected to hold those situations 
 to be of less value to their sons, on account of so 
 trifling a deduction from the salary as one penny in 
 the pound, considering the use to which that penny was 
 to be applied. Or would their lordships hold their 
 patronage to be less valuable by reason of such a 
 deduction for such an application." 
 
 " Their lordships deliberated upon the proposition ; 
 they discovered no objection ; and they signified their 
 compliance." Mr. Hume, in his report, continued, 
 " As most persons were appointed to public offices early 
 in life, celibacy was not anticipated, nor were bachelors 
 always without dependent relatives; and the very 
 trifling deduction of one penny in the pound from the 
 salaries of such persons was not considered by the 
 Lords of the Treasury to constitute a larger payment 
 than the chance of having occasion to avail themselves 
 of the Fund might be deemed to be worth."
 
 184 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 A report of the Directors in 1837, written by Mr. 
 Hume in return to a Treasury reference on a contem- 
 plated Excise Fund, leads to the conclusion that the 
 formation of the Customs' Fund mainly depended upon 
 the consent of the Lords of the Treasury to the grant of 
 poundage. Speaking of poundage, the report goes on 
 to say : " We have reason to believe that, if this 
 poundage had not been granted, the persons by whom 
 the project of the Fund was first promoted would not 
 have proceeded with their endeavours to bring it to 
 maturity." 
 
 Apart from the more solid advantages which the 
 Fund may have derived from poundage, the experience 
 of the last forty years has shown that more persons 
 were induced to effect insurances on their lives from 
 the payment of poundage than from any other cause. 
 To some it is a quarterly admonition that they have a 
 duty to perform which, if longer neglected, might con- 
 sign their families to want and penury. To others it 
 leads to inquiry, and they find, from actual facts and 
 results presented to them from the records and expe- 
 rience of the office, that the Fund opens to them a mode 
 of securing a provision for their families best suited in 
 all respects to their means. And all arrive at the 
 important fact, that the contribution of poundage ulti- 
 mately returns, increased in value, to the widows 
 and families alone of the members of the Association. 
 Many, who, having been in the service at the establish- 
 ment of the Fund, and, under the provisions of the Act 
 of Parliament, declined to accede to the contribution of
 
 POUNDAGE. 185 
 
 poundage, upon witnessing the projects and develop- 
 ment of the Institution, have consented to pay a heavy 
 settled entrance fee, in order to qualify themselves to 
 become members. 
 
 The Fund always contained a provision enabling the 
 directors, with the approval of a meeting of subscribers, 
 to make benevolent grants to the destitute widows and 
 families or dependent relatives of deceased contributors 
 of poundage, who had failed to effect insurances in the 
 Fund for their benefit With the concurrence of sub- 
 scribers the directors do not confine themselves to the 
 strict letter of the rules by making absolute destitution 
 the sole ground for the relief, but have acted upon a 
 liberal interpretation of the rules for benevolent grants, 
 and been guided by the necessities of each case. 
 
 Besides the poundage, the Fund derives another 
 valuable source of income from the Bill of Entry 
 Office, which has been annexed to the Fund almost 
 from its commencement. It was that which Mr. Hume 
 had in his mind, when he stated in his report which 
 accompanied the first code of rules, that, " It is by no 
 means improbable that out of the multifarious concerns 
 of so extensive a department as the Customs, some 
 sources of adventitious assistance may hereafter present 
 themselves ; and confident may the members of the 
 Institution be, that every fair proposal to promote its 
 success will be kindly entertained by the Lords of the 
 Treasury, to whose paternal care alone the Institution 
 owes its existence." 
 
 The application of the Bill of Entry Office, as will be
 
 186 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 seen by the following condensed account of evidence 
 given before a Parliamentary Committee, was not 
 originally suggested by Mr. Hume, but the sanction 
 and approval of the Lords of the Treasury to the 
 measure were obtained chiefly through his influence. 
 
 CUSTOM HOUSE BILL OF ENTKY. 
 
 At one of the meetings of the Select Committee on 
 " Sinecure Offices within the United Kingdom," which 
 made its Report on the 24th of July, 1834, Mr. Hume 
 was examined with reference to the " Custom House 
 Benevolent Fund." The subject arose out of an in- 
 quiry made by Mr. Ewart, at that time member for 
 Liverpool, respecting the appropriation of the profits of a 
 journal called the " Customs' Bill of Entry," which had 
 long been prepared and sold under a patent right vested 
 in particular individuals. Mr. Frankland Lewis, M.P., 
 stated in evidence to the Committee that the office came 
 into his family, he believed, by purchase of a Sir An- 
 drew King, about the year 1720. That during the 
 time that he held it, it was worth 1,OOOJ. per annum on 
 an average; but that about the year 1811, it suited his 
 family arrangements to transfer it to his mother, and 
 that it was held in trust for her use and benefit, by her 
 brother-in-law, Robert Nicholas, Esq., chairman of the 
 Board of Excise, and that she duly received the net 
 proceeds. From 1811 he ceased to have any control 
 over, or interest in, the publication. In 1817, the 
 Directors of the "Custom House Benevolent Fund" 
 applied to him personally to know who the persons
 
 BILL OF ENTRY. 187 
 
 were with whom they could negociate for a transfer to 
 them of the patent itself, and the duties connected with 
 it He referred them to Mr. Nicholas, with whom they 
 negociated. An agreement was entered into, the ulti- 
 mate effect of which was the transfer to the Directors 
 of the Custom House Fund, of the rights, duties, privi- 
 leges, and emoluments arising from the patent.* The 
 agreement involved the expediency of a surrender of 
 the existing patent, and a new patent was granted by 
 the Treasury for the purpose of enabling the agreement 
 to be carried into effect, it being distinctly understood 
 by the Treasury that the agreement was a beneficial 
 one to the public service. The publication itself was of 
 great use to the commercial world. The application of 
 the money, according to the rules of the Custom House 
 Benevolent Fund, is a public benefit, inasmuch as it is 
 part payment to the persons engaged in the Custom 
 House ; for if they derive considerable emoluments from 
 the Benevolent Fund over and above the money they 
 subscribe to it, out of the money arising from the sale of 
 this publication,t they are thereby placed in a situation 
 to require less in the nature of retired allowance or 
 provision for widows, than they would require if no such 
 advantage were held out to them when they entered 
 the service of the Customs. The office of clerk of the 
 Bills of Entry is in some points under the control of the 
 
 * For the sum of 28,0007., calculated upon the probability of the 
 patent being perpetually renewed. 
 
 t Mr. Flank, Secretary to the Customs' Benevolent Fund, stated in 
 evidence that the entire emoluments accruing to the Customs from 
 the privilege of preparing the Bills of Entry, was about 11, IKK)/, a year.
 
 188 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 Lords of the Treasury ; it was especially required to be 
 so placed by Mr. Pitt, on the renewal of the patent in 
 the year 1789. Many times during the late war it was 
 held to be injurious to commerce, particularly when 
 Bonaparte's decrees and the Orders in Council were in 
 force, that the ports from which and to which particular 
 articles were imported and exported should be published, 
 and directions were sent from the Treasury not to print 
 the name of any port in possession of the French troops ; 
 the entries were made in blank : the merchants of the 
 City of London knew enough of the real state of com- 
 merce to understand where the goods came from, and 
 whither they went; but as that was not so distinctly 
 understood on the other side of the water, the ships 
 were not condemned when they returned, say to the 
 port of Hamburgh or the port of Flushing, or any port 
 in the possession of the enemy, after an illegal voyage, 
 although they would have been confiscated if it had 
 been known when such a ship returned, that she had 
 loaded her cargo in Great Britain instead of the foreign 
 neutral port, from which she had nominally and ficti- 
 tiously cleared out. On many occasions during the 
 war directions were sent from the Treasury to omit 
 altogether entries of the export of warlike stores. 
 
 Mr. Frankland Lewis concluded his evidence by 
 stating that, in his opinion, if the Bills of Entry publi- 
 cation was to be correct and valuable, the clerks of the 
 Customs must be interested generally in the support of 
 it, and it would then be put on a footing by which the 
 public would be essentially benefited.
 
 EVIDENCE OF F. LEWIS. 189 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume, who was next examined, said, that 
 previous to his leaving the Custom House in the year 
 1828, he rendered all the assistance of which his advice 
 and influence were capable, in putting an end to many 
 infractions of the patent which had been alluded to, by 
 the clerks in the Custom House, but that he did not 
 work in any way in the matter. Mr. Ogilvy, a clerk 
 in the long room, a person of very great talent, who 
 projected the Custom-house Fund (and also suggested 
 the idea of acquiring the exercise of this patent for the 
 benefit of the Fund), had the management. It was 
 given to him in 1817, and he held it to the time of his 
 death, in 1832. So much reliance was placed on his 
 management of the matter, that one-half of the emolu- 
 ments which the Customs derived was assigned him for 
 his trouble. At the time when the agreement was 
 entered into with Mr. Frank land Lewis, a great change 
 and improvement certainly took place, and consequently 
 there was considerable increase in the revenue derived 
 from it Before that period the Bills of Entry were 
 prepared in such a manner as could afford very little 
 information to purchasers, and certainly none that could 
 be depended upon. The first step taken by the direc- 
 tors of the Fund to give confidence to the publication, 
 was to disturb a practice which had prevailed in the 
 different offices at the Custom House of taking a fee 
 from any merchant who wished to have the publication 
 of his entry suppressed, which had been an every day 
 practice. It ceased immediately and completely. He 
 did not mean to say the clerks of the Custom House, as
 
 190 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 clerks of the Custom House, suppressed the entries : it 
 was done by the clerk of the Custom House who was 
 employed by the patentee. He employed one or more 
 of the clerks in the long room as his agents, to collect 
 the information, and that clerk kept the particular 
 entry out of the publication, for which he received a 
 fee from the merchant The chief clerk's selecting 
 clerks in the long room to be his agents, was an Inci- 
 dental circumstance, he need not have done so; he 
 might have sent clerks of his own. The clerks sup- 
 pressed any entry for which the merchant paid half-a- 
 crown. He had seen it done a thousand times. The 
 Commissioners, as he believed, not being called upon, 
 never gave themselves any concern upon the subject 
 He imagined that the patentee was not aware of the 
 practice. What the merchant paid for was, that any 
 particular entry in the Custom House books should be 
 suppressed in the official Bill of Entry. And the new 
 practice occasioned much emotion in the trade, there 
 being many parties having different objects. There 
 were as many merchants at first who wished for a 
 continuance of the former practice as those who felt 
 the increased value of the document by reason of its 
 discontinuance, but the desire of improving the docu- 
 ment in the end prevailed. Persons who used the Bill 
 of Entry were, he conceived, aware of the liability of 
 omission, for probably all had on different occasions 
 availed themselves of it If there could be any persons 
 who used it and were unacquainted with the practices 
 alluded to they would be deceived. The omissions
 
 EVIDENCE OF J. D. HUME. 191 
 
 would not have the effect of vitiating the accuracy of 
 the official returns compiled for Parliament, for the 
 accounts were wholly distinct When first the omis- 
 sion of entries was refused, it was complained of by 
 many merchants; the question, in the form of com- 
 plaint, was brought before the Commissioners of Cus- 
 toms by several persons, about the year 1817, and after 
 much discussion between the superior officers and the 
 trade, it was agreed that particular merchants might 
 be allowed to postpone the publication of their outward 
 entries for, he believed, a fortnight : the object of sup- 
 pression, without eventually injuring the aggregate 
 account in the publication, being sufficiently attained 
 by the delay, a payment was made: but though it 
 was heavy, the produce was exceedingly small to the 
 Custom House fund. It was enforced solely with a 
 view of checking the practice without totally forbidding 
 it It was rather a fine than a fee, and the amount was 
 carried to the credit of the Benevolent Fund. Formerly 
 the patentee's clerk received the fee for his own use. 
 The Bill of Entry was published daily in London. The 
 Custom House Benevolent Fund was instituted in the 
 year 1817. He should say that it would be imprac- 
 ticable to admit competition respecting the publication 
 of the Bills of Entry. It would be inadmissable with 
 reference to the business of the Custom House. The 
 admitting various persons to consult the books could 
 not be borne. As to the suggestion that an officer of 
 the establishment, acting under the authority and re- 
 sponsibility of the Commissioners, should make the
 
 192 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 requisite publications correctly, the public being charged 
 for such expense as might be incurred for the same, 
 with equal accuracy as was then done by the Benevo- 
 lent Fund, it might be practicable, but there would 
 be much difficulty in attaching the responsibility with 
 regard to the correctness. The present publishers, 
 with no direct responsibility, had every stimulus to 
 make the account as perfect as practicable. He did 
 not believe that any publication similar to the Bill of 
 Entry was given officially in any country. If he should 
 be asked why there should be more difficulty in pub- 
 lishing the returns with accuracy than there is in 
 keeping the many accounts of the Custom House, he 
 would reply, that the clerk has ample time for checking 
 and correcting. His previous answer was with refe- 
 rence to responsibility for the accuracy of the accounts. 
 With regard to the despatch necessary to publish in the 
 morning the business of the preceding day, which is 
 such as must subject the account to much risk of 
 inaccuracy, and might involve the officer employed 
 in serious responsibility without affecting the correct- 
 ness of any errors that might be material to the trade, 
 he wished to distinguish between the accuracy for 
 which a public officer would be responsible, and that 
 for which a common publisher would be answerable, 
 having at risk only his own emolument, and aiming at 
 the degree of accuracy which would be necessary for 
 his interest and the credit of his paper. He did not 
 say that an individual not belonging to the establish- 
 ment, and publishing the Bill of Entry, would not do
 
 BILL OF ENTRY. LIVERPOOL. 193 
 
 the duty with more accuracy than if he were a public 
 servant, and were adequately paid for it, though he 
 might believe so. He spoke of responsibility. The 
 present returns, however, were as accurate as the 
 most diligent clerks could make them ; and the 
 merchants had a reasonable confidence in them. Dif- 
 ferent merchants have different objects: it is im- 
 possible to adapt a publication so as to suit every 
 man's views. He was asked whether omissions for 
 want of room had not occasionally occurred in the list ? 
 The increase of business at the port of Liverpool had 
 taken the Bill of Entry by surprise, and occasionally 
 the paper had been incapable of holding all the names 
 of the ships of the day, but the principle of the pub- 
 lication had rendered this a matter of no serious im- 
 portance to the trade, because the number of ships 
 entered out, and the number of ships clearing out, 
 every day was always given ; consequently, the number 
 remaining on the books, as published in the bill of the 
 preceding day, always enabled a broker or other in- 
 terested person to see, by retrospect of that bill, whether 
 the ship of which he wanted information, still remained 
 on those books. No complaint had been made respect- 
 ing the omission to any official quarter. Mr. Frankland 
 Lewis considered the patent to be given up in the year 
 1817 for the benefit of the public service, and he (Mr. 
 Hume), was asked whether he agreed with him in that 
 opinion ? He would answer that the improvements in 
 the publication were a benefit to trade, and that it was 
 a public service : he thought that the advantage de- 
 
 o
 
 194 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 rived by the widows and orphans of the servants of the 
 public, by so easy a mode, might justly be considered 
 as a public service also. Mr. Frankland Lewis had 
 mentioned that the retired allowance was affected by it, 
 and he (Mr. Hume) was asked whether that was cor- 
 rect ? In one sense it was. The plan of the subscription 
 or premium by the officers and clerks to the Customs' 
 Fund is, that it shall terminate at a certain period 
 before the end of life; and consequently, when that 
 time arrives at which an officer upon superannuation is 
 suffering more reduction of his income, his premium to 
 the Customs' Fund falls in, which makes the super- 
 annuation more easy. He had understood the Treasury 
 to conceive that the public patronage received advan- 
 tage from this mode of assisting officers, in making 
 some provision for their widows and children. The 
 circumstance of the party contributing to this Fund is 
 not specifically taken into consideration in the case of 
 superannuation. There are two separate publications, 
 the " Bill of Entry," and the " Trade List" The " Bill 
 of Entry" is simply the daily account of the entries 
 of ships and merchandise at the Custom House ; the 
 " Trade List" gives once a week a compendious state- 
 ment of those accounts, together with the usual matter 
 of the Price Current. The " Trade List," on the face 
 of it, is no more than an ordinary Price Current, as 
 the Prices Current are in the habit of copying and 
 compiling information from the Bills of Entry ; but the 
 " Trade List," which is in fact a Price Current, has the 
 advantage under the rights of the patent, of publishing
 
 "TRADE LIST." TRINITY HOUSE. 195 
 
 that description of information in that compiled form, 
 more early than the other Prices Current, who must 
 copy it from the Bills of Entry. There are Bills of 
 Entry (A) and (B). The first relates to goods entered 
 inwards and outwards; the second, to ships entered 
 outwards. The bills having undergone a total change 
 and corresponding improvement in the year 1817, the 
 price was increased. The question of price was, he 
 believed, never brought before the Commissioners of 
 Customs. When the patent was transferred to the 
 Custom House Fund, an attempt was made by some 
 parties to publish a document in competition with the 
 Custom House Bill of Entry; but this issuing of in- 
 formation by manuscript to the trade was suppressed. 
 It was an infringement of the patent. Anything may 
 be copied from the "Bill of Entry." The "Trade 
 List" is a losing concern; but it is thought as well 
 to have it as part of the set of publications. It appeared 
 in the returns that the sum of 2,349 J. 16s. 8d., exclusive 
 of the amount received, was received the previous year 
 for fees of suppression or furnishing separate manuscript 
 information and details, exclusive of that in the printed 
 papers. Every sum, in whatever way received, is 
 carried to the general account of the Customs' Bene- 
 volent Fund, after the payment of rent to the patentee. 
 Trinity House had, for a series of years, been obliged 
 to pay 1501. a year for being furnished with a list of 
 entries and departures of ships. It is an account pre- 
 pared in a different shape to the Bill of Entries, and 
 made to suit the particular vpurposes of Trinity House.
 
 196 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUilK. 
 
 Considering the peculiar and additional labour it occa- 
 sions, Trinity House willingly agrees to make the 
 payment as a compensation for the clerical labour. 
 The patent rights are considered in the payment The 
 whole is a matter of agreement between the parties. 
 
 The Select Committee presented their report to the 
 House on the 26th of February. It was long and 
 interesting. The paragraph which expressed their 
 opinion upon the above-mentioned subject of inquiry, 
 is in the following words : 
 
 " Your Committee have taken some evidence upon 
 the subject of the Customs' Bill of Entry, which has 
 long been prepared and sold, under a patent right 
 vested in specific individuals. The commencement of 
 that patent is of ancient date, but it seems to have been 
 renewed from time to time in favour of the heirs or 
 relatives, or assigns of the original patentee ; and the 
 last renewal dates in the year 1817, extending the privi- 
 lege for thirty-one years, of which eighteen are still 
 unexpired. The actual compilation of the ' Bill of 
 Entry,' as it is sold to the public, is now exclusively 
 performed by certain authorized officers of the Customs, 
 who pay over out of the proceeds received from the 
 sale, a fixed annuity of 2,0002. per annum to the 
 patentee, according to a specific agreement entered into 
 between them. The patentee does not interfere at all 
 in the preparation of the document Your Committee 
 fully recognise the necessity of confining the right of 
 inspecting the Custom House books, out of which the 
 * Bill of Entry ' is extracted, to some official and autho-
 
 TESTIMONIAL TO MR. HUME. 197 
 
 rized party ; but they trust that the patent, which is 
 now running, will on no account be renewed ; the 
 emoluments of the Patentee being unconnected with 
 any benefit to the public, and enhancing unduly the 
 sale price of the * Bill of Entry,' which appears to be 
 exceedingly large. Your Committee recommend the 
 subject to the consideration of the Treasury, in hopes 
 that they may so exercise their control as to lighten 
 this burden upon the mercantile world." 
 
 The Bill of Entry Office has now subsisted by patent 
 under the Great Seal for nearly two centuries. In the 
 year 1846 the directors obtained a renewal of the 
 patent under which it is exercised. And although Mr. 
 Hume did not live to see it, " I am sure," says one,* 
 who was associated with him at the Custom House, 
 " he would have rejoiced, both as regards the mercantile 
 public and the Customs' Fund, for to both it was cer- 
 tainly beneficial."! 
 
 Upon Mr. Hume's removal from the Custom House 
 to the Board of Trade, he was presented with a silver 
 epergne and plateau as a testimony to the services which 
 he had rendered to this last-mentioned Institution. 
 
 G. Plank, Esq. 
 
 f The Directors of the Customs' Fund, in their Report, published 
 in 1856, observe, that "they ha re especially kept the subscription 
 price of the several printed Bills of Entry, as well as the charges for 
 information in manuscript, at such rates as would, after paying 
 reasonable charges of management, leave only a moderate surplus to 
 be carried in aid of the Fund. The surplus of the whole of the ports 
 of the United Kingdom for the year 1855, was only 4,l'j7/. 13*. 4</."
 
 198 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DCTIES OK TIMBER. 
 
 " I beg to remind the house of the memorable dictum of Mr. 
 Deacon Hume we have abundance of untaxed coal, abundance of 
 untaxed iron, we only want abundance of untaxed wood, in order to 
 be provided cheaply with the three great primary raw materials of 
 employment and of necessary consumption." SIK ROBERT PEEL, 
 1842. 
 
 " THE full merits of this very important question," says 
 the author of the " Progress of the Nation,"* " may 
 be learned by consulting the evidence given before the 
 Select Committee of 1835, and also from an article in the 
 fourth number of the ' British and Foreign Quarterly 
 Review,' written by one of the most intelligent wit- 
 nesses examined on the occasion." That witness, as 
 will be anticipated, was the subject of this volume. 
 There was but one other article, Mr. Hume was accus- 
 tomed to say, to which he would sooner give perfect 
 freedom from duty than wood. Next to food and 
 clothing, he ranked the materials of human habitations. 
 Timber is not indigenous in England. Our woods and 
 forests fail to produce it in necessary abundance, and 
 we are to a great degree dependent upon foreign 
 countries for the amount which we require. The 
 
 G. B. Porter, Esq., F.R.S.
 
 AN ESSAY. 199 
 
 subject had been often discussed in Parliament ; but on 
 the 1st of June, 1835, another Select Committee was 
 appointed to take into consideration the duties upon 
 this article, and to report their observations to the 
 House. The Committee met for the first time upon 
 the llth of the same month. Mr. Deacon Hume was 
 the first witness examined. The limits of this volume, 
 no less than the nature of the work, prevent our giving 
 even an analysis of his valuable evidence. The follow- 
 ing essay, in which the subject is treated in a very 
 interesting manner, and with reference also to the 
 entire body of evidence adduced before the Select 
 Committee, was intended to find its way into quarters 
 where blue-books are unread and commonly unknown. 
 The privacy of the article without a name enabled the 
 author to quote, as unostentatiously as he could desire, 
 passages from his own evidence,* in support of his 
 views. The essay is one of the ablest, as well as one of 
 the most valuable, of his productions. 
 
 TIMBER DUTIES THE COLONIES, f 
 
 WE are about to examine a most grievous instance of the 
 protective or bounty system. The Report of a Committee of 
 the House of Commons has, once more, brought under the 
 notice of the public, the colonial monopoly of the timber 
 trade : and it will be our endeavour, with the aid of that 
 Report, to analyze, dissect, and expound the character and 
 
 * These passages we shall indicate by the initials J. D. H. 
 
 f Report from the Select Committee on Timber Duties, together 
 with the minutes of evidence, ordered by the House of Commons to 
 be printed llth of August, 1835.
 
 200 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 operation of that monopoly, in such manner as shall qualify 
 our readers to form for themselves a clear and just opinion 
 upon its merits. 
 
 In order to do this with the more effect, our course will be, 
 first : to give a description of the peculiar features of this 
 monopoly, by which it is distinguishable from all others, and 
 to exhibit an account of the cost of it to the country : and 
 next : to investigate, separately, the cases of the two great 
 parties or interests the colonists and the ship-owners for 
 whose emolument this country is called upon to make those 
 sacrifices of its revenue, of its commerce, and of its neces- 
 saries and comfort, which we shall describe. 
 
 The advocates of every case of bounty, or of protective 
 duty which is only bounty in another form always profess 
 to intend the public good. They stoutly disavow, as in 
 decency they must, all attempt to serve particular parties at 
 the expense of the country; and they insist, that whatever 
 that apparent expense may be, which is the first consequence 
 of the bounty, it is money which will soon be amply repaid 
 through the secondary beneficial effects of the scheme. They 
 assure us, that if the fostering hand of the State be extended to 
 support the particular object of industry, in its infant efforts, 
 either for origination or extension, it will afterwards go alone, 
 and will thenceforth become and permanently remain, one of 
 the staple, profitable employments of the country. As a cau- 
 tion to these eager caterers of national prosperity, it is not 
 too much to demand of them the admission, that, in calling 
 for such assistance to some new, or hitherto unsuccessful, 
 occupation, they may, possibly, be mistaken in this prospect 
 of its quality that it may happen that it shall prove to be 
 not so well adapted as they imagine, to the local or personal 
 faculties of the country and that, even under the assumption 
 that their confidence in our ability to attain to the excellence 
 they promise in the favourite trade to be well founded, they 
 might still be desired to leave the industrious part of the 
 community to determine for themselves the best sources of
 
 PECULIAB FEATURES. 201 
 
 profitable employment, and, what is of nearly equal import- 
 ance, the best times for engaging in them. 
 
 Still it must be admitted, that in almost all the cases of 
 bounty, or protection, the prospect of ultimate self-support, 
 insisted upon by their first promoters, has been rationally 
 probable, or at least possible. There may, no doubt, be cases 
 wherein the forced application of skill and industry may prove 
 to be competent to the task of removing or overcoming, in 
 time, the original causes of the higher cost : but there must 
 also be cases in which the cause of that higher cost is of such 
 a nature that it can never cease to operate. 
 
 If, with this distinction kept in mind, we examine the 
 protection of the " Timber Duties," it will stand exposed to 
 view before us, the most overbearing, the most wasteful, the 
 most useless, and the most hopeless of any that has ever been 
 extended to any branch of industry. A plantation of sugar, 
 in Jamaica, enjoys a physical equality with a rival plantation 
 in Cuba. A farm in Essex has even a physical advantage over 
 a farm in Poland. The spindle of the silk throwster and the 
 shuttle of the weaver will obey the laws of rotatory or pro- 
 jectile force in England as well as in Italy or in France. But 
 no power of man, no lapse of time, can equalise, for our use, 
 the position of a forest on the Ottawa with that of a forest in 
 Norway or Sweden. 
 
 When the protecting duty was first imposed, in 1810, upon 
 European timber, there was not the pretence, or even the 
 affectation of the pretence, of the commencement of a trade 
 calculated to be permanent, and holding out the prospect of 
 ultimate benefit as the compensation for a temporary sacrifice. 
 It was not even considered to be a temporary sacrifice, but an 
 immediate benefit. The mischief intended to be cured, was 
 the matter which possessed the quality of temporariness. It 
 was an expedient adopted under the pressure of a present 
 difficulty, arising out of the peculiar occurrences of a state of 
 war ; and the encouraging of ships to go to Canada for timber, 
 when it could not be got in the Baltic, was as much a war
 
 202 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 measure as the charter of a fleet of transports to carry out or 
 bring home a body of troops. All that was temporary about 
 the measure, was its immediate utility; all that was prospec- 
 tive, pointed to its discontinuance. In short, its necessity was 
 one of those evils of war, for the removal of which, men pray 
 for the return of peace ; and the arbitrary continuance of the 
 evil without the necessity, after peace, for so many years, is 
 an act of great cruelty on the suffering people, and not a whit 
 more irrational than it would have been, to have gone on 
 hiring transports, and sending them round the world, though 
 they had no troops to carry. 
 
 In the years 1820 and 1821, committees of both the Lords 
 and the Commons reported that no pledge for permanence or 
 long duration was held out; and it was truly said by a 
 witness (Q. 18) before the late committee, " that the country 
 was not to be doomed to dear timber for ever, because of the 
 4 Copenhagen expedition.' " * 
 
 The great grievance of this monopoly is, the heavy cost of 
 it upon the pockets of the people, without the compensating 
 result of a commensurate increase of the revenue. The pre- 
 sent duty upon a load of timber imported from the north of 
 Europe is 21. 1 5. Orf. At the commencement of the war it 
 was only 65. Sd. This is an enormous increase of tax upon 
 an article of first necessity: but as the whole amount of this 
 sum, as far as it is received, goes to the national exchequer, 
 and, pro tanto, precludes the necessity of some other tax, the 
 consumer may be brought to pay it with cheerfulness. The 
 justice, however, of this high duty assumes a very doubtful 
 character in his mind, when he finds that if he purchase, 
 of course at the same price, a load of timber imported from 
 Canada, only 10. of his money, instead of 55*., which he 
 equally pays, goes to the public revenue ; and that the 45*. is 
 nothing else than a perquisite he is compelled to give to 
 certain individuals. He naturally inquires how it can be, that 
 those individuals can establish such a right over his money : 
 * J. D. H.
 
 THE GREAT GRIEVANCE. 203 
 
 and is so far from finding in the origin of the charge any 
 trace of such a right, that he discovers in its history the fact, 
 that his benefit as a consumer under temporary difficulties, 
 and not the benefit of the producer, was intended by the 
 mature. 
 
 Q. 132. "Are you not aware, from your official know- 
 ledge and experience, that the legislature, up to the present 
 period, has always considered this great question as not merely 
 a question of revenue, but as a mixed question, in which the 
 revenue of the country, the colonial policy of the country, and 
 the navigation of the country, have formed important 
 ingredients?" " I conceive there are few subjects on which the 
 policy of the country has undergone more change than in 
 regard to timber ; the old policy, which I have before adverted 
 to, was that of supplying the country with timber at the lowest 
 possible rate, and having only a nominal duty upon it. Then 
 the Revenue System was brought in, and all the duties imposed 
 were decidedly for purposes of revenue. Then at another 
 period the obtaining a supply of timber for consumption was 
 allowed to supersede every other consideration ; and, now, 
 the measure intended for that purpose only, is turned against 
 the consumer, whom alone it was meant to serve, and converted 
 into a protective system for shipping and colonies, unnatural 
 to both." * 
 
 The same witness is then asked (Q. 133), whether, in 1820 
 and 1821, it was not treated as a mixed question of revenue, 
 colonial policy, and shipping ? and he admits that it was so : 
 but he also points out, that the committees of those years 
 expected, from the measure they proposed, and which was 
 adopted, a very different appropriation, to those three interests, 
 of the benefits of the timber trade than that which has 
 occurred. According to their intentions the revenue and the 
 Baltic trade should have had larger shares. 
 
 The protecting duty had been 65s. ; but still those com- 
 mittees, who treated the magnitude of the colonial imports as 
 * J. D. H.
 
 204 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 an evil, attributed what they deemed excess, partly to some 
 temporary circumstances, and not entirely to the magnitude 
 of the protection. In recommending a reduction of the pro- 
 tection to 455., while they expected the cessation of those 
 circumstances to co-operate with the reduction, they evinced 
 a belief, and a hope, that the north of Europe would, in 
 future, participate much more largely in the trade than it had 
 done; and that the revenue would be proportionately bene- 
 fited. Indeed, every man who has any knowledge of the 
 proceedings on the subject at that time must be aware, that 
 the attention of Parliament and the public was then drawn to 
 it, chiefly by the fact of the improper division of the trade, 
 and the excessive portion of it which had been forcibly trans- 
 ferred from the old channel to the new one. Since it has 
 been proved that the remedy thus applied has not only failed 
 to correct the acknowledged evil, but has even suffered a great 
 extension of it, the case is clear, that, even upon the principle 
 of the measures then adopted, a new rule of division is called 
 for. The reduction now prepared will still leave a protection 
 of 80s. the load. 
 
 We now come to consider the cost to the public of this 
 bounty-fed monopoly. At page 396 of the Report, Appen- 
 dix X., is an analytical account of all the imports for the 
 year 1833, which may be made the basis of calculations and 
 estimates of various descriptions. From this it appears, that 
 the quantity of firwood, computed in cubic contents, was, in 
 that year, rather more than one million of loads. The great 
 articles, fir-timber and deals, constituted 946,000 loads : and 
 of these, 893,000 came from Europe, and 553,000 from the 
 colonies. The actual revenue received upon the first and 
 smaller quantity was a trifle more than 900 ,OOOJ.; that from 
 the second and larger quantity was not quite 230,000/. The 
 duty upon the log from Europe is 55s. the load, on that 
 from the colonies it is 105.; and these sums were intended to 
 be the basis of the duties on the deals also. In consequence, 
 however, of an imperfection of the law, the deals are paying on
 
 COST TO THE PUBLIC. 205 
 
 an average full 12*. the load less than is paid on the log; but 
 as it is proposed by the committee, that this anomaly shall be 
 corrected, we shall adopt those duties in our estimates as the 
 effectual charges. It turns out also, that the imports, and 
 particularly those from the colonies, were in 1834 much 
 greater than those of 1833. We shall, therefore, also as 
 a truer measure of the trade, proceed upon the assumption 
 that we receive 400,000 loads of fir-timber and deals from 
 Europe, and 600,000 loads from the colonies. The account 
 would then stand thus: 
 
 400,000 loads, at 55s. 1,100,000 
 
 600,000 loads, at 10* 300,000 
 
 1,400,000 
 1,000,000 loads, at 55* 2,750,000 
 
 So that the loss to the revenue on the colonial timber is 
 1,350,000/., or very nearly equal to the whole sum collected. 
 This is the primd facie view of the calculation. It may be 
 very true, as is asserted, that if we had only one uniform 
 duty on timber from all parts, our drafts upon the nearer 
 continental forests might have been so heavy as to have raised 
 the prices there against us, and thereby have checked the 
 consumption, and have prevented such a realization of revenue. 
 But the controversy does not presuppose, nor is there the 
 slightest probability, that an indiscriminating duty would 
 have been fixed at anything like so high a rate as 55*., so 
 that we might have secured our present amount of revenue 
 under a rate of duty, which would have given the supply at 
 a much lower price to the consumer than at present. One 
 half the present high duty, if charged only on the present 
 quantity, would give the present produce ; and, therefore, the 
 public pay, either in monopoly price, as distinguished from 
 genuine commercial price, or in loss of revenue, the other 
 half. This estimate applies to fir-timber and deals only ; but 
 if we include the duties on other descriptions of wood, and
 
 206 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 also the high protecting duty on foreign staves, we are con- 
 fident that we do not make an extravagant estimate of a 
 round sum, when we say, that the country pays, in one way 
 or the other, a million and a half a year, as the price of its 
 present scheme of " wood duties." 
 
 In all considerations of high prices to the consumer, we 
 must bear in mind the great distinction which exists between 
 high monopoly price, high duty price (meaning duty for pro- 
 ductive revenue), and high commercial price ; and we ought 
 particularly to do so here, because there is one line of argu- 
 ment in favour of the high duty on the European timber, 
 much resorted to by the colonial and shipping party, which 
 totally disregards this distinction; and, in doing so, betrays 
 an extraordinary degree of either commercial ignorance, or 
 uncommercial feeling. 
 
 The basis of this argument is, a desire, at whatever cost to 
 ourselves, to deprive the foreign producer of his fair price; 
 and it is vauntingly pressed into notice for the purpose of 
 boasting that our present system has the merit of enabling 
 us to buy our timber the cheaper on the Continent. Nobody 
 can doubt that a high duty on an article, levied in a country 
 where it would otherwise be largely consumed, must tend to 
 lower the price of it at its source. But what a strange inco- 
 herent mixture of conflicting purposes, as well as contending 
 parties, have we here. A high duty is imposed by one party, 
 for the sole sake of its restrictive effect ; and when the other 
 party complains of the consequent high cost, he is answered 
 by being told, that the operation of the duty is to keep down 
 the price. The rejoinder is, that if the reduction of price be 
 effective, the restriction is weakened ; and if it be not effective, 
 it is a nullity. 
 
 This is the most curious, see-saw argument we ever heard. 
 A rational desire to render an article cheap, would imply a 
 desire to obtain it, for its use, in abundance; but the mode 
 employed for making Baltic timber cheap, is that of laying 
 impediments in the way of the purchaser a notable device
 
 COMMERCIAL CUNNING. 207 
 
 truly 1 The advantage of cheapness is to the consumer; 
 therefore, to make the commodity cheap, prevent him from 
 getting at it. Impound the goods in some almost inaccessible 
 situation, till you have rendered its local value next to 
 nothing, and then congratulate the persons who want it, 
 upon its very low price 1 
 
 This exquisite piece of commercial cunning seems to have 
 been a favourite topic with some of the members of the Com- 
 mittee. Accordingly we find them in various parts of the 
 evidence, pushing their examinations in a line calculated to 
 elicit the merits of so delectable a scheme and contrivance. 
 
 Q. 8837. " In your opinion, does not the existing arrange- 
 ment of the duties on timber have the effect of keeping the 
 British market supplied with every description of timber, 
 European and Colonial, that is required by the public, and 
 at moderate prices ? " " It does give the public that supply, 
 and at moderate prices." 
 
 Q. 3840. " What do you mean by moderate prices ?" 
 " I think, looking at the immensely increased consumption of 
 this country, prices must be deemed exceedingly moderate." 
 
 Q. 3844. " You call those moderate prices when we are 
 obliged to pay 50 per cent, more in price, and 100 per cent, 
 more in freight?" "Our consumption of colonial timber has 
 so much increased, that it might have been expected that 
 prices would be much higher than they are."* 
 
 To several questions on the same subject, a different wit- 
 ness answers in the following manner: 
 
 Q. 58. " I think that the plan would raise the price of 
 European timber abroad, insomuch that I should reckon on 
 some loss of revenue from the reduction of consumption of 
 European timber, and a commensurate revival of the colonial 
 supply at the lesser duty." " I think that the price would be 
 raised, and absorb part of the remitted duty. But the con- 
 sumer need not care, because his foreign competitor would 
 have to pay that price also." "I do not think that high 
 * Mr. James Dowie.
 
 208 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 prices affect this country, unless it be high relative prices ; all 
 we want is, that others shall not buy cheaper than we do ; unless 
 the greater price goes to the revenue, which must be provided 
 for." " We see that our consumption has much more than 
 doubled against an increase of duty from 6. Sd. to 55." 
 " If our old system had continued, I look upon it that timber 
 would, by this time, have been an exceedingly dear article in 
 Europe; and the colonies would have been secure of their 
 market." " We should have better timber for our money, 
 and the price would be raised to foreigners. We ought 
 never to have a cheap place behind us." " I do not appre- 
 hend that foreign price would be made the cause of change: 
 the wood ought to have its marketable value; and I do 
 not consider that we should, in legislating, seek to bear down 
 the marketable value; we should leave that to its natural 
 course. We want only the right of going to the cheapest 
 market."* 
 
 The first of these two witnesses stated himself to be " a 
 merchant engaged in the Canada trade ; " and he, no doubt, 
 thinks that the people of England pay him " very moderate 
 prices" for Canada timber. We are very ready to agree 
 with him that, under a duty of 55s. the load, on timber from 
 it*j proper sources, the country might have been oppressed by 
 much higher prices than they have been for that necessary 
 article. But we are not at all disposed to take, as our present 
 measure of the fitness of prices, those opinions to which the 
 state of things some yean ago gave rise. We reject all com- 
 parisons between present prices and past prices, and will look 
 only to localities of price. The only proper comparisons, are 
 those which are made between present prices here and present 
 prices elsewhere; and no man shall tell us, that any price is 
 " moderate" here, which is higher than it is in any other place, 
 beyond that degree which is referable to the expense of 
 bringing the article from that place, and to such duty upon 
 it as is paid wholly to the revenue, in aid of the public 
 J. D. II.
 
 EMIGRANTS. 209 
 
 finances of the State. Out of these limits, moderation of 
 price, if there be moderation, is moderation of plunder. 
 
 There are two interests for whose benefit chiefly, and in 
 whose name almost wholly, the British people are called upon 
 to make the great sacrifices which we have been describing. 
 These are the colonists and the ship-owners ; and we shall, 
 therefore, enter into as full an examination of their respective 
 cases as our limits will permit. By the term colonists, the 
 public mean emigrants; by the term emigrants, they mean 
 settlers; and by the term settlers, they mean agricultural 
 settlers. What they do not mean by either term is, the great 
 capitalists ; and, above all, the great merchants. It is very 
 important that these distinctions should be well kept up ; for 
 the truth is, that a deception is being practised upon the kind 
 feelings of the people by parties who, conscious that their own 
 pretensions would not be attended to, artfully thrust the cause 
 of the poor emigrant settlers into the front of the battle, while, 
 in the assumed character of philanthropists, they follow behind, 
 and silently gather all the spoils. 
 
 The emigrants who wish to become agricultural settlers 
 may be divided into three classes. First, our own small 
 farmers or country-bred people, who, despairing of the means 
 of supporting their families in comfort by their occupations in 
 this country, gather together their little capitals, intending to 
 settle themselves upon farms of their own in the new world : 
 next, our industrious labourers, who, by unabated toil and 
 painful abstinence from the comforts of life, are enabled to 
 start, with their modicums of savings, for the same object, in 
 a humbler degree : and last, the poor and almost destitute 
 ablebodied men, just contriving perhaps chiefly by charitable 
 aid to clear their passage out. The first of these become at 
 once capital fanners. The second are able also to sit down 
 upon their allotments; some wholly, others only partly mas- 
 ters of their own time and labour, according to the various 
 degrees of the strength of their little purses. The last must 
 be content to work entirely for the first class for a few years, 
 
 p
 
 210 LIFE OF J DEACON HUME. 
 
 during which it is in their power to make in the colony 
 that purse, which they were unable to carry with them from 
 home. 
 
 The most interesting view taken by the people of England 
 of emigration to our northern colonies, is that which exhibits 
 the cases of these classes of persons ; and, accordingly great 
 pains are taken to represent the timber trade as an important 
 auxiliary to the agricultural pursuits. Farming and lumber- 
 ing are declared to be occupations which unite and alternate 
 most conveniently and advantageously with each other. 
 
 One of the most common errors upon this subject, into which 
 the people are apt to fall, from want of specific information, is 
 that which supposes the settler to find, in the export of tim- 
 ber to this country, a ready market for the trees growing upon 
 his own piece of the wilderness. The wood upon it is spoken 
 of as a sort of first crop to him, the proceeds of which are to 
 cover the expenses of clearing the land, and preparing it for 
 the crops which are to follow. 
 
 " Q. 94. Is it not a fact that the timber, being the first 
 produce of the soil in a waste or natural state, is the first 
 object to which the settler looks for reimbursement from 
 his immediate labour?" " I understand certainly not; very 
 little timber comes from the grounds taken possession of by 
 the settlers." * 
 
 Nature has refused the settler this piece of good fortune, 
 having decreed that the districts which alone are worth the 
 care of the cultivator, are those in which the pine is rarely 
 seen. It may be safely asserted, that not one fir-tree in five 
 hundred imported into England is cut from the land of a 
 settler. 
 
 But the advocates of the trade, when beaten from this 
 ground, still cling to the interesting case of the poor emigrant 
 settler, and make it furnish a second string to their bow. They 
 will admit, when compelled, that the farming settler has no 
 
 * J. D. H.
 
 FARMING AND LUMBERING. 211 
 
 saleable wood on his own land, or perhaps even in his own 
 district ; but then they will say, that there is abundance in 
 other parts, upon which he may advantageously employ him- 
 self, insisting, as they do, that he stands in actual need of other 
 employment than that which his land affords ; and asserting, 
 that the business of lumbering supplies him most opportunely 
 with that employment, as a peculiarly apposite auxiliary to 
 the business of farming. 
 
 This description of the case of the agricultural settler is as 
 unfounded as the former. Not only is the wood he finds upon 
 his land valueless in the market but also he, of all the 
 farmers in the world, is the last to want employment off his 
 own farm. 
 
 The well known difficulty of finding winter work in this 
 country for a portion of the agricultural labourers gives a 
 plausibility to the assertion, that such is the case in Canada 
 and New Brunswick. But it is not so : it is in truth the 
 very reverse; for the peculiarity of the situation of the settler 
 on his lot of land in our northern colonies, is, that he has more 
 work proper to the winter than to the summer. This will be 
 readily perceived, when his case is understood. 
 
 Having, at the approach of winter, built his log-house, 
 made his domestic arrangements, and set himself down upon 
 his hundred acres of primeval forest, he commences the 
 clearance of one, two, or three acres of it, according to the 
 strength of himself and family, or of the means he has of 
 commanding the labour of others. The first process is to cut 
 the trees down at about two feet from the ground, or higher 
 if the snow is deep, leaving the stumps and the roots to be 
 stocked up some years afterwards, when their decayed state 
 will render the work more easy, and his leisure will be 
 greater. Having selected and set apart such of the felled 
 wood as may be required for his own use, he places the rest 
 in large piles and burns them, and spreads the ashes over the 
 ground in the spring, early enough for the sowing of his 
 corn, the setting of his potatoes, and the putting in of a few
 
 212 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 garden seeds, particularly those of the great favourite, the 
 pumpkin. 
 
 The trees being of the deciduous kind, and the ground 
 having been at all times covered with them, there is a surface 
 soil so deep, of light vegetable matter, and, for the most part, 
 so clear of weeds and bushes, that the seed is easily raked in 
 by hand, and without the previous process of ploughing, or 
 the aid of draught cattle. Generally a second corn crop, and 
 often a third, is obtained by manual labour ; but, if the means 
 of such assistance be at hand, the ground is routed up a 
 little, with a sort of plough, drawn by an ox, in the parts least 
 interrupted by the stumps of the trees. With the last of these 
 corn crops grass seeds are sown, and the piece is kept for hay 
 or pasture, while the stumps and roots of the trees are becom- 
 ing decayed, so as to be easily removed. Every winter gives 
 its fresh piece of cleared ground for corn ; and, as the pieces of 
 grass accumulate, there is in a few years a breadth of land 
 laid down, sufficient for summer's pasture and winter's fodder. 
 Then comes the cow, and the pig, and the poultry ; and our 
 settler is finding his comforts increasing about him, and sees 
 his looked-for independence established. 
 
 There is something in this system peculiarly advantageous 
 to a labourer, who has acquired the means of supporting 
 himself till he has harvested his first crop. He can go on for 
 many years, without the necessity of draught cattle: his 
 new clearing is, as it were, his fallow of the year, not hit 
 crop of trees, as erroneously supposed, or falsely asserted; 
 and his crops of corn and grass, follow in regular succession, 
 as a course of crops succeed a real fallow in the cultivation of 
 old land. 
 
 When he has cleared as much land as suits his plans, he 
 has the same ground to go over again, for the removal of the 
 stumps, and for bringing into tillage his earliest pieces of 
 grass. These, to be sure, are not employments for the dead 
 of winter, but he must now have been for some years settled 
 on his farm, and have become far too independent elsewhere,
 
 AGRICULTURAL SETTLER. LUMBERER. 213 
 
 to engage in any work so arduous, and so destructive of 
 domestic life, as that of the lumberer. If his original stock 
 of money be too small to enable him, in the first year or two, 
 to devote all his labour to his own land, he works in part on 
 the lands of more fortunate neighbours, and submits, with the 
 patience that poverty prescribes, to postpone a little the inde- 
 pendence which the perfecting of his farm is eventually to 
 secure him. 
 
 No two avocations can be more incongruous than that of 
 the agricultural settler and of the lumberer. By far the 
 greatest part of the timber for exportation is cut in forests, 
 many hundred miles up the great rivers, and far from the 
 agricultural districts ; and the farming man, who attaches 
 himself to a gang of lumberers, must totally leave his home 
 for many months. And what will he return to where will 
 be his fresh piece of clearing of what use to him, as a 
 fanner, will be his spring and summer, after a winter so 
 spent? 
 
 Here then we have dispelled two delusions. We have 
 shown that the agricultural settler is not a seller of timber 
 from his own land : and that he not only does not need the 
 timber trade, as an auxiliary employment, but that it is 
 utterly incompatible with, and destructive of, his proper 
 employment, as a farmer. If these two simple truths could 
 be made generally known, very many persons, who are in- 
 duced to advocate the timber monopoly, would be detached 
 from its cause. 
 
 We have thus far described these settlers rather as what 
 they all should be, than what, in all cases, they are. Our 
 description of them would be true, almost without exception, 
 were it not for the baneful temptations to which they are 
 exposed, by the presence of an adventitious trade thrust upon 
 their country by the force of extravagant bounties received 
 by very different parties. 
 
 Of the three classes of settlers we have been describing, 
 the first that of the farmers in good circumstances is the
 
 214 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 one which has to lament the most pitiable, if not the most 
 numerous of its victims to the timber trade. These are the 
 persons whom the great mercantile houses in the trade have 
 raised into the position of the middle men, the necessary 
 instruments of their speculations. When we look around us 
 at home, and see with what eagerness, in this old and expe- 
 rienced country, replete with multifarious avocations, numbers 
 are induced to engage in newly-projected adventures, can we 
 wonder that the exhibition of the English tariff of wood 
 duties to the simple settlers in our North American colonies, 
 and the offer of a loan of money, should enable the great 
 speculators, alluded to above, to inspire many a thriving 
 farmer with the belief that he saw in those duties the 
 prospect and promise of his future fortune. The relations 
 of these little farmers to the great merchants may be very 
 well illustrated, by referring to those between the little pub- 
 licans and the great brewers in this metropolis, where the 
 brewer gave credit, the merchant lent money, and each equally 
 protected himself by securities, taking priority over all other 
 claimants. The Canadian farmer, adding to the merchant's 
 tempting loan all his own savings, and availing himself of 
 all the credit he possessed in the country to increase his 
 effective capital, erected his saw-mill, hired his gang of 
 lumberers, took his share of the treacherous contracts, and 
 embarked himself, his family, and hfs fate in the timber trade. 
 Foreclosures of mortgages and sales of farms have attended 
 the usual windings-up of the affairs of these misguided men. 
 The great and prior creditor becomes possessed of the real 
 property upon easy terms ; and, like his prototype the great 
 brewer, soon finds a fresh adventurer ready to perform, for a 
 few years, the part of his reckless predecessor. All these 
 sufferers have now before their eyes the evidence of their 
 error, in the continuing prosperity of such of their friends 
 and neighbours as had not yielded to the same temptation. 
 Will the good people of England, we ask, consent to be heavily 
 taxed on one of the first necessaries of life, for the sake of
 
 TI1E LUMBERER. 215 
 
 producing such consequences as these to the parties whom 
 they mean to serve ? Will they sacrifice their own money, 
 and immolate these people, to the moloch of a few great firms 
 of mercantile houses in the colonies ? 
 
 The lower and labouring classes of the settlers and emigrants 
 are, in their station, equally drawn from good into evil, by 
 the allurements of the timber trade, the curse of their elected 
 country. We have already shown that the man who can 
 support himself, even in part, while he works, though only in 
 part, upon his own ground, destroys all his best prospects, if 
 he leaves that ground to join the gangs of lumberers. And 
 the man who crosses the Atlantic with nothing but his 
 " stalwart limbs " had far better fix himself in an agricul- 
 tural district, or go upon some of the public works, than 
 betake himself to lumbering. We were once told by the late 
 Colonel By, of the Engineers, who made the Rideau canal, that 
 many of his men saved enough, out of the earnings of one 
 year's work, to settle them in their little farms : and that no 
 man, who was intent upon the object, failed to effect it in 
 two years. The habits acquired in lumbering tend to the 
 squandering rather than the saving of money, and unfit even 
 the careful individual for the monotony of a fixed residence, 
 and a steady local employment. But the man who accumulates 
 his little capital while working for a farmer, acquires, at the 
 same time, both the habits and the practical knowledge which 
 are to make that capital of double value to him. 
 
 It will here be asked, if all go to farming, who are to be 
 the customers for the corn, and other produce ? We feel that 
 this is a serious question, and shall enter upon it presently : 
 but, following up the train of observations we are upon, we 
 shall examine it now only with reference to the supposition, 
 that if the colonial timber trade should be materially reduced, 
 there might be a want of employment in the colonies for that 
 portion of our own labouring people who are destitute here, 
 solely because they are in excess ; and who are therefore 
 assisted to emigrate with the view of reducing our population
 
 216 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 down to the home-employment point. For the sake of argu- 
 ment, we will concede that emigration is the outlet foi clearing 
 our workhouses at home. But then we shall ask do we not 
 mean thereby to get the paupers off our hands ? Do we not 
 expect that we are removing them from a place where they 
 are supported without work because there is no demand for 
 their labour, to a place where their labour is wanted, and will 
 support them ? Certainly it is under this impression that 
 efforts are made to assist able-bodied paupers to emigrate to 
 Canada ; and the well-meaning part of the community are 
 induced to join the interested advocates of our system of 
 timber duties. 
 
 But what would these well-intentioned persons say, if they 
 found that, so far from the country's getting the surplus 
 labourers off its hands, we are only moving the workhouse 
 from England to the Ottawa ; and remitting thither, or wasting, 
 for the keeping up of that workhouse, ten times as much 
 money as it would have cost us at home. Taking this case 
 by itself, and it is a distinct question, it is a very plain case. 
 The country gives a bounty of 45s. for every load of timber 
 imported from Canada ; if then our expatriated labourers find 
 work in Canada, only because that bounty is given, the person 
 who votes for the continuance of that bounty, only for the 
 sake of those labourers, is making the worst bargain that ever 
 was heard of. lie cannot fail to perceive that an exceedingly 
 small portion of the 45s. falls to those labourers, and that, 
 consequently, by keeping them at home he would save the 
 difference. There never was so absurd an idea as that which 
 supposes that our pauper emigrants are off our charge, while 
 we are sending them to parts at which natural employments, 
 furnishing their own returns, cannot be found for them ; but 
 where, in the want of such employments, we are creating arti- 
 ficial employments for them at very heavy cost to ourselves. 
 
 We now come to the inquiry which a little above we post- 
 poned namely, what must be the state of a country where 
 all are growers of corn, and where there is no adventitious
 
 A SERIOUS QUESTION. 217 
 
 employment supporting a superadded population, to be, as 
 to corn, consumers only ? This, with respect to our North 
 American colonies is, we have said, a serious question ; unless 
 their facilities for growing corn be such as to secure them 
 an advantageous market in exportation. If they have that 
 market, the question is satisfactorily answered. If they have 
 it not, and at the same time they can find no other article for 
 exportation, then, indeed, although they may preserve exist- 
 ence, it will be a very uncomfortable existence, because, under 
 such an hypothesis, they cannot command the products of 
 other countries, except only in the most limited degree. A 
 people so circumstanced would, from necessity, force a sale 
 abroad of some small quantity of their corn, which, though 
 they stinted themselves of food by so doing, they would 
 consent, nevertheless, to exchange for a small quantity of 
 those other necessaries of life which they could not make for 
 themselves, and without which they would hardly live. 
 
 Now this is just the predicament in which it is asserted by 
 the advocates of the timber trade, that the colonies would be, 
 if this country should not consent to continue paying those 
 large bounties on their timber, by the force of which alone 
 they are said to be furnished with an exportable article in 
 return for European manufactures. But this case, no doubt, 
 is greatly over-stated. 
 
 In the first place, we do not believe that the climate and 
 soil both or either are so unfavourable to agriculture as 
 that the labour of a man, for that is the hypothesis, will 
 barely produce his own food. The history of the colonies is 
 opposed to such a supposition. The Canadians were making 
 great progress long before the year 1810, and before a timber 
 trade to England was thought of ; and yet the place of their 
 location in Lower Canada is by no means to be compared, in 
 respect of climate, or even soil, with the more recent settle- 
 ments in Upper Canada. Every man really acquainted with 
 that part of the world knows, that the soil and climate of 
 British North America, from the settlements on the north-west
 
 218 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 side of the St. Lawrence, and along the Ottawa, westward, to 
 Lake Huron ; and southward, to the Lakes Erie and Ontario ; 
 and again, to the American frontier of New Brunswick, as 
 far as the river St. Croix, will, with common cultivation, yield 
 and ripen, in great perfection, and in full quantity, all the 
 corn, vegetables, and fruits, grown in England, and even some 
 others, especially Indian corn. In such a country, with land, 
 the fee-simple of which would be a very low rent for it in 
 England, and where trifling taxes cover all the public expense 
 of the state where there are no tithes, no poor-rates how 
 can there be a difficulty to the production of a quantity of 
 corn beyond the consumption of the producers, giving some, 
 surplus to exchange for some supply of those manufactures, 
 which are, of course, produced cheaper and better in the old 
 countries of Europe. 
 
 We must here dwell for a moment, to remind our readers 
 that there is no intention of annihilating this timber trade ; 
 but only to reduce a small portion of the immoderate bounty 
 by which it has been driven to a most unwholesome state of 
 excess. Again, it must be remembered that there is such a 
 place as the British West Indies, which, although a little 
 nearer the United States than Canada, is, unlike England, 
 much farther off from the Baltic. 
 
 It was stated in the evidence that one-half of the timber 
 trade of the colonies is for the British market; one-fourth for 
 the West India market, and one-fourth for their own use. If, 
 therefore, the British trade should be reduced by one-fourth, 
 by throwing out a quantity of rubbish, the whole of their 
 favourite occupation would only be lessened by one-eighth. 
 The recommendation of the committee to reduce the duty on 
 European wood from 55s. to 40s. the load, will apply only to 
 the log, which is about one-fourth of the whole quantity, as 
 the deals are, in fact, paying only about 42s. the load, and they 
 constitute the other three-fourths. The average duty col- 
 lected on European deals and timber together, is found to be 
 45s. 10c/. ; so that if both be charged 40s. the protection,
 
 NEW BRUNSWICK. 219 
 
 which now gives the colonies three-fifths of our wood trade, 
 will be reduced by only the trifling difference of 5s. lOd. ; 
 and if this view of the average be rejected, then the answer 
 is, that the protection to the deals, the most important branch, 
 is scarcely touched. 
 
 But those who object to any change declare, that even a 
 small reduction of the protective duty will go far to exclude 
 the timber from this market, and that the colonies really have 
 no other article of export ; just as Newfoundland has none but 
 fish. Then we will try the question upon this issue, and see 
 whether, admitting the fact, it is proper that the British 
 peeple should pay a million and a half a year, in order that 
 the inhabitants of some distant, inhospitable, unproductive 
 soil and climate, may be able to export wood or stone, or 
 some such wild gift of nature, to the amount of, perhaps, a 
 hundred thousand pounds, for the purchase of foreign commo- 
 dities. We allow here a very large sum as the clear gain of 
 the colonies necessary to enable the agricultural settler to 
 obtain foreign supplies ; because, in this estimate, the gains of 
 every man, besides the settler, constitute a charge to be 
 deducted from the gross amount. 
 
 A member of the committee seems to have taken some 
 trouble to show that the province of New Brunswick was in 
 this state of worthlessness. 
 
 Q. 96. " Is it not, in fact, almost the only trade carried 
 on by the provinces of New Brunswick with the mother 
 country ?" " I imagine it must be, for I know they import 
 their flour and pork from the United States, which shows 
 how much they neglect agriculture." 
 
 Q. 106. "What other means do the colonists of New 
 Brunswick possess of making returns to this country for the 
 manufactures sent them but the lumber trade ?" " I presume 
 that they contemplate agriculture." 
 
 Q. 107. "You mean prospectively ?" " The emigrants are 
 supposed to go there to settle for agricultural purposes. To 
 the fresh men it is prospective : but those who preceded them
 
 220 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 might by this time have produced corn enough for their home 
 market; but they are still fed by the United States." * * 
 
 Q. 108. "You have stated, from your knowledge, that 
 they import their corn at present; do they now possess any 
 other means for making returns to this country for the manu- 
 factured goods sent them but the timber trade ? " " I am 
 not aware, except ashes, perhaps, and not even that in New 
 Brunswick." 
 
 Q. 109. " The export trade in New Brunswick is confined 
 at present to the export of timber to this country: it it not?" 
 " I fear that is but too true; but considering that the trade is 
 supported by the protection of 45s a load, and that not, 
 perhaps, more than 2s. of that 45s. goes to the settler as the 
 value of the tree, and that out of the 2s. he has to buy his 
 flour of the United States, his share of the manufactures, 
 which are the returns for the timber to New Brunswick, 
 must be very small."* 
 
 Q. 110. " What, in your opinion, would be its effect on 
 the support of the emigrant population going there, in the 
 present incipient state of agriculture ?" " It would prevent his 
 being diverted from agriculture, which ought not at this day 
 to be incipient in New Brunswick. We should hardly pay 
 45s. a load on our timber to put a man in New Brunswick in 
 the way of living upon American corn with 2s. of it."f 
 
 Had the object of this member of the committee been to 
 have exhibited our connection with New Brunswick as alto- 
 gether ruinous, and had he intended to have followed up his 
 exposure of its character with a proposal for abandoning the 
 colony, he could not have chosen a better course than that 
 which he pursued, for the purpose of laying the foundation of 
 such a proposal. 
 
 Now this is the very point to which we are coming, and 
 
 we do unhesitatingly assert, that if the accounts given of this 
 
 timber trade by its advocates are true, so far are those 
 
 accounts from furnishing reasons for continuing it by means 
 
 J. D. H. f J. D. H.
 
 NEW BRUNSWICK. 221 
 
 of the present enormous bounty, that they must lead every 
 rational man to turn round and declare that our only course 
 is to make the best retreat out of it that we can; and to 
 begin immediately to take measures for its early and final 
 abandonment. 
 
 As the tempting bait of a " market for our manufactures " 
 is thrown out in the examination we have been quoting, 
 we must give a few extracts from the evidence of another 
 witness, evidently of different sentiments from the last quoted, 
 on this subject of protection, and of mutual trade. 
 
 Q. 2886. " At what do you estimate the protection given 
 to British manufactures ?" " It varies from 1\ to 30 per cent." 
 
 Q. 2387. " What do you call the shipping price of the 
 principal export of New Brunswick; namely, yellow piece 
 timber ?" " About 20s." 
 
 Q. 2388. "The protection given in respect of duty to 
 American timber is 45s., is it not?" " It is." 
 
 Q. 2389. "That is 225 per cent., is it not?" As it is 
 computed in the question now put, certainly." 
 
 Q. 2390. " You think that 225 per cent, protection upon 
 colonial timber is only a fair equivalent for the 7 to 30 per 
 cent, protection upon British manufactures ?" " I do." 
 
 Q. 2391. " Will you explain how you arrive at that con- 
 clusion ?" " I conceive that neither 30 per cent, nor 225 per 
 cent, is of any value in the present case, as far as numbers 
 are concerned, for there is no magic in 30 or 225, but that 
 the object is to get an adequate protection such a protection 
 as will ensure the two countries dealing with each other. 
 . . . . What is required in justice to both parties is 
 an adequate protection." * 
 
 Being afterwards pressed hard-up with the question, whether 
 he would give 500 per cent, he fairly states, that the right 
 sum is that which is enough. In another part (Q. 2256), 
 we find this gentleman stating, with great delight, that the 
 
 * Henry Bliss, Esq.
 
 222 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 lumberers will " give so high as 10/. a ton for hay." Hear 
 that, O ye landed interest ! and when you have occasion to 
 build, or to repair buildings, with timber paying 55s. a load 
 duty instead of 6. 8t/., as it did before the war, bear in mind, 
 that in paying that enormous tax, you are enabling a brother 
 farmer in Canada to get 101. a ton for his hay ; and, perhaps, 
 this brother farmer is some man, for whose passage you had 
 once burdened your poor rates, in order to avoid the future 
 cost of maintaining him as an able-bodied pauper at home ! 
 
 At another time this gentleman is asked how it should 
 happen that a saw-mill, which in Norway would cost only 
 40/., is valued in New Brunswick at 1,OOOJ.? "Oh," says 
 he, " you forget the value of the water-power." Only think, 
 what a water-power in a wilderness must be worth, for sawing 
 deals for a bounty of 45s. the load ! And he is not the only 
 witness who has let us into this secret of the manner of esti- 
 mating the capital in saw-mills. Well might Mr. Montgomery 
 Martin give two millions as the valuation, as intimated in one 
 of the questions on this subject (Q. 92), if he included the 
 value of the natural waterfalls. We wonder at how much 
 per horse-power he appraises the " goodwill " of a river in 
 North America. Oh ! for a Rennie or a Telford, to compute us 
 the value of the Falls of the Niagara. Manchester, Leeds, and 
 Glasgow, are you sleeping, that you do not secure the moving 
 powers of the Niagara, while they are yet to be had, and 
 before your coals begin to fail ? 
 
 But besides their extravagant accounts of the saw-mills, we 
 have from some of the witnesses the most lively and graphic 
 representations of the scenes of business, and bustle, and 
 active employment, on the rivers, and in the timber coves, 
 and at the quays, and in the shipping ports and towns 
 adjacent, as the consequences of our timber duties. And so 
 much the worse, say we who have to pay for it all. But how 
 can it be otherwise ? Six hundred thousand loads of wood 
 cannot be got together, and hewed and squared into logs, or 
 sawed into boards, for shipment, without the employment of
 
 NEWMARKET AND QUEBEC. 223 
 
 many hands, and those hands acting subordinately to a 
 variety of masters in different branches of the business. To 
 an ordinary observer, there would be no difference between 
 the cheerful active industry of the well-paid people he would 
 see about him, in the shipping season, at Quebec, and those 
 whom, at some other occasion, he had witnessed at one 
 of our own thriving ports or manufacturing towns. But 
 under all this seeming similarity, how immense the difference 
 between the two cases, just the difference between spending 
 money and getting money. Both excellent in their way, 
 provided the distinction be kept in view: but to mistake 
 spending for getting, would soon make bankrupt of the trade 
 which had not the public pocket to draw upon. We can find 
 plenty of examples of prodigal expenditure very profitable to 
 the persons employed, without crossing the Atlantic to seek 
 for them. Let us, for instance, match Newmarket in the 
 Easter meeting against Quebec in the shipping season. In 
 the place of hewers and sawyers, and raftsmen and lumberers, 
 we have only to suppose trainers, and jockeys, and ostlers, 
 and innkeepers ; the timber coves and wharfs, are the training 
 stables and the hotels ; and the shipping may be represented 
 by stage-coaches and post-chaises-and-four in abundance. 
 In the case of Newmarket, all is acknowledged expenditure, 
 but with the pleasures of the race in return. If the people of 
 England are amateur timber-cutters in imagination, well and 
 good they, then, have their return like the visitors to New- 
 market, but not else ; and of this our readers may rest assured, 
 that if the country did not possess that redundant opulence, 
 out of which such places as Newmarket, Brighton, and many 
 more are supported, it could not amuse itself with gentleman 
 saw-mills and timber coves in Canada. Away, then, with all 
 this fulsome description of the business and activity produced 
 by this ruinous occupation in the colonies ; and say at once, 
 that they are out poor-houses to England, whose able-bodied 
 paupers are there " digging holes one day to fill them up the 
 next," in order to keep them from idleness here. We wish
 
 224 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 that the practice were a little closer to the analogy than it is ; 
 for instead of" filling up the hole again" we incur an additional 
 expense in uselessly carting the earth to a great distance. 
 Let us suppose the timber felled, rafted down, hewed or 
 sawed, and on the wharf ready for shipment, with all the 
 charges for these operations cleared and paid and then, 
 instead of sending ships to bring it away, the most economical 
 thing we could do would be, to burn it on the spot, and send 
 the workmen back to prepare another quantity, to make 
 another bonfire the next season. And we might propose the 
 same end at home for the ships half of which, before they are 
 fitted out for the voyage, are hardly worth the bounty on the 
 cargoes they will bring back; and their crews are really 
 wanted for the Navy. 
 
 In the foregoing examination of the case of the colonists, 
 and particularly of the agricultural settler, we have carefully 
 avoided to blend the case of the ship-owners, whose charges 
 for freight form no part of the colonist's profit, but are a 
 burden upon him. We will not allow the colonist to plead 
 the case of the ship-owner, except incidentally, when desiring 
 for his own sake an increase of his bounty, in order to enable 
 him to pay the heavy freight of his timber, without which 
 he will not be able to forward it to our market. The magni- 
 tude of those freights is his grievance, and it would perhaps 
 alleviate that grievance, if he were allowed to employ foreign 
 ships as well as British ships. It is very true that, as the 
 matter stands, the two parties find it their interest to com- 
 bine, in the present matter, for the sake of the common plun- 
 der of a third party ; but remove the object of that plunder, 
 and the two interests are natural enemies ; the supplier of the 
 distant article of merchandise must, on the one hand, desire 
 the cheapest possible freight for it; and, on the other hand, 
 the ship-owner must be anxious to procure, on the best possi- 
 ble terms, every commodity which is necessary to his par- 
 ticular trade; he will go any distance, with pleasure, to fetch 
 timber for other people at a remunerating freight ; but when
 
 THE SHIP-OWNERS. 225 
 
 he wants timber for himself, he will wish to have the liberty 
 of going to the nearest place for it. 
 
 The third party, the plunder of whom reconciles these two 
 naturally conflicting parties, is the general consumer of tim- 
 ber ; to him, the extra freight of the longer voyage is sheer 
 waste ; and the question is, whether it is not waste to the 
 country also. We think that it is an expenditure decidedly 
 wasteful to the nation, and such as cannot be justified upon 
 any trading or commercial principles : we utterly repudiate 
 the political economy which pretends to show the national 
 advantage of giving two pounds to a fellow subject, instead 
 of one pound to a foreigner, for the same article or service. 
 The man who actually pockets the additional pound is the 
 only fellow-subject who is personally benefited; the country 
 loses by the transaction; particular profits to individuals 
 may come readily enough out of waste, but national profit 
 never. 
 
 But there are exertions and expenditures, the proper returns 
 for which are not pecuniary profits. The loss of time and 
 money attending the regulations of quarantine, subtract 
 much from the profits of some commercial adventures, and 
 raise the prices of the merchandise ; but they yield benefits, 
 in the health of the people, which are deemed to be ample 
 equivalents for the cost. The necessity of their charge is 
 deemed a grievance, and no one ever thought of proposing 
 to put all ships under quarantine as a lucrative proceeding, 
 because the money was spent in the country. In like 
 manner it may possibly be the fact, that the naval strength 
 of the country should require a large portion of our mercan- 
 tile marine to be employed in some peculiar trades, although 
 upon wasteful voyages, which bring great mercantile loss 
 upon the public. But we deny that this plea is available for 
 the defence of the Canada timber trade ; we totally repudiate 
 the belief, that the legitimate profitable trades of this great 
 commercial country are not adequate to all the purposes Jar 
 
 Q
 
 226 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 which the navy of the state seeks its resources in a mercantile 
 marine. 
 
 According to the representations constantly made by the 
 ship-owners, the peculiar value or utility of the timber trade 
 to them is, its fitness, as far as it goes, for the reception of 
 their old and degraded ships: and so much do they treat it, 
 on this account, as the most important branch of their busi- 
 ness, that all persons who, during the last fourteen or fifteen 
 years, have had their attention drawn to the proceedings of 
 the shipping interest, are well aware of the curious fact, that 
 every complaint of that body let it begin at what branch of 
 the question it may always winds up with the cuckoo song 
 of the timber trade, and its insufficiency, of late years, to find 
 employment for the cast ships of their other trades. 
 
 There can be no doubt that it is a beneficial thing to 
 possess a trade in which our merchant vessels may be able 
 to earn a few freights between the time when they have 
 ceased to be fit "to carry dry cargoes," and the time of their 
 being broken up. Nobody will deny this : but then it is one 
 thing to have such a trade falling naturally to us, and another 
 to create such a trade by force, and at the cost of five times 
 its value. The freest possible admission of its importance 
 does not justify the purchase of it at a most excessive price ; 
 much less, after that price has been given, will it justify the 
 discontent at its quantity, so clamorously and indecently put 
 forth by the ship-owners. The true questions at issue are 
 first, whether there is not a very large quantity of this trade ; 
 second, whether the present quantity does not greatly exceed 
 that of former times; and, third, whether, if it prove that that 
 quantity has been enormously increased, and yet is insuffi- 
 cient for its present purposes, the cause of the defect does 
 not lie in the false measures of the ship-owners, and in 
 their mismanagement of their business in some matters which 
 operate upon the case, and at the same time rest entirely 
 with themselves.
 
 THE SHIP-OWNERS. 227 
 
 Previous to the war, and for the greater part of it, our 
 import of fir wood, in various forms, may be taken at about 
 400,000 loads a year. It is now much more than 1,000,000 
 loads. At the former period, the whole came from the north 
 of Europe, and about half the carriage, or 200,000 loads, was 
 in British ships. The European trade stands now much in 
 the same position, both as to extent, and as to participation 
 of carriage ; and the additional 600,000 loads come from the 
 colonies. Now, it is admitted on all hands, that one voyage 
 to America is equivalent to two to the Baltic ; so that, in esti- 
 mating the quantity of the timber trade with reference to the 
 carrying trade, the ship-owners of the present day have 
 1,400,000 loads that is 600,000 colonial wood counted twice 
 and 200,000 European where their predecessors had only 
 the hist mentioned 200,000. Here, then, is an increase in 
 the proportion of fourteen to two. Our general shipping and 
 carrying trade has not increased in this proportion, nor any- 
 thing in the remotest degree approaching to it. Deducting 
 the timber at both periods, the other trades have not been 
 doubled, so that we have of the timber trade a quantity equal 
 to fourteen, where four would have preserved the accustomed 
 proportion. That is to say if the timber trade was for- 
 merly to the general trade as one to five, it is now as seven 
 to ten. 
 
 It has been observed above, that the peculiar value of the 
 timber carrying trade consisted in its fitness for the employ- 
 ment of ships after they had become disqualified for the 
 carrying of superior descriptions of goods ; the question there- 
 fore, why such a superior trade, which has been only doubled, 
 cannot find a sufficient receptacle for its cast ships in such an 
 inferior trade, which has increased sevenfold, leads imme- 
 diately to the further question why does that superior trade 
 cast so many ships ? 
 
 Two remedial measures lately, and far too tardily, adopted, 
 furnish from their histories the best answers to this question. 
 We allude first to the Act of 1834, for correcting the former
 
 228 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 erroneous mode of measuring ships for their tonnage ; and 
 next to the new and improved system established at "Lloyd's" 
 for registering the qualification of the merchant vessels, as the 
 guide to the underwriters by which they may determine the 
 premium of insurance in every case. 
 
 The old rule of admeasurement would give the true tonnage 
 of a well-proportioned ship, by taking some only of the dimen- 
 sions necessary to the computation, and assuming the other 
 dimensions from them. It was, consequently, in the power 
 of the builder to falsify these assumptions, by contracting the 
 ship as much as he chose in the parts which were to be 
 measured, and extending her in the other parts ; and he had 
 a great temptation to adopt this course, because the measured 
 tonnage, and not the real capacity of the ship, is the ground 
 of charge for all duties and port dues. The symmetry of the 
 ship, and all those good properties which depend upon cor- 
 rectness of form, were thus destroyed ; and it will be readily 
 conceived, that such a ship must be less able to contend with 
 the dangers of the seas than a well-formed ship, and must, 
 consequently, be subjected to a premature old age. 
 
 About fifteen years ago, a commission of scientific men was 
 appointed, to determine on a mode of measurement which 
 should get at the actual capacity of the ship, let her form be 
 what it may. Such a plan was accordingly suggested in their 
 report ; and Mr. Huskisson did all that lay in his power to 
 induce the ship-owners to consent to its adoption. He intro- 
 duced it into a bill, then in the House of Commons, for the 
 registering of British ships ; but he had not the nerve to 
 persevere under the clamour which was raised against it, and 
 he withdrew the clause. The violence of the opposition came 
 from the owners of the worst-built ships. In the session of 
 1834, Mr. Poulett Thomson was enabled to carry through 
 Parliament the Act to which we have alluded : but the long 
 postponement of this remedy of great and glaring evils was 
 the act of the ship-owners themselves. 
 
 There is no doubt that the bad symmetry of our merchant
 
 MODES OF MEASUREMENT. 229 
 
 vessels is one of the faults of our naval architecture, which 
 make it impossible for our ships to retain for many years 
 their station in the superior classes. The other cause of 
 degradation, to which we have already referred, is of much 
 more powerful operation. To some of our readers the plan 
 and principle of "Lloyd's Registry" are familiar: to others, 
 the very term will be unknown, and therefore we shall make 
 them acquainted with the subject, which we have, as yet, 
 only introduced, by saying that it is a registry of the 
 qualification of merchant ships kept at Lloyd's Coffee-house, 
 the great mart of marine insurance, as the guide to the 
 underwriters. 
 
 In this registry the vessels are marshalled in certain classes 
 under certain established symbolical designations such as 
 A. 1. E. 1., and other combinations of letters and numbers; 
 and the premiums of insurance applicable to different vessels, 
 engaged in the same season upon the same voyage, vary in 
 their amount according to the classes in which they are 
 respectively registered. The ship in a lower class must yield 
 to the merchant, out of the freight on his goods, the excess of 
 premium to which he is thus subjected; and this reduction is, 
 in many cases, so destructive of all profit as to exclude the 
 lower classes from the superior branches of trade. 
 
 The information intended to be given by this registry 
 is of the merits of the ship the quality of her build the 
 state of her repairs, and all other points of her condition by 
 which a judgment may be formed of the greater or less 
 degree of average probability, that she will arrive at the end 
 of her voyage. To furnish such information an accurate 
 knowledge of the existing state of the ship is necessary ; and 
 as this can only be obtained by frequent surveys, a body of 
 able, confidential, and well-paid officers are requisite for that 
 service. It is not enough to say, that the shipowners have, 
 till lately, refused to incur the expense of such an establish- 
 ment ; expense was not the only objection ; for its formation 
 was also retarded by the opposition of parties among them,
 
 230 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 who, as is the case in all trades, had found a method of 
 working the mischief to their own peculiar advantage. In 
 defect of such actual knowledge, the registrar proceeded upon 
 certain assumptions ; and, according as the circumstances and 
 history of the ship furnished the criterions for those assump- 
 tions, she was placed in a higher or in a lower class. The 
 chief criterion was age ; and for the purpose of keeping on 
 the safe side, a very low age was adopted. The rule was in- 
 exorable ; and, at the end of the term assigned, the good sound 
 ship was as certainly degraded as the ship whose timbers 
 would hardly hold together till her allotted time had expired. 
 The first consequence of such a rule was, that men built ships 
 as they would build houses upon short ground leases ; and the 
 reason for not incurring the cost of substantial repairs, as the 
 term wore away, was as strong in the one case as in the other. 
 Besides, ships so built are less susceptible of beneficial repairs 
 than they would have been if the builders, at the time of 
 their original construction, had acted under a different expec- 
 tation. 
 
 Through the operation of such a system as this, the upper 
 classes of ships were perpetually overflowing, in rapid suc- 
 cession, into the classes below them ; and creating an excess 
 of the lowest grade, which could obtain no relief from the 
 glut except in the yards of the ship-breaker. The demand 
 for first-class ships for the superior trades was not lessened by 
 these absurd reductions of their particular numbers ; and thus 
 a large quantity of new-built ships, not wanted in the aggre- 
 gate, was annually forced into existence by the necessity of 
 supplying that demand. 
 
 The number of ships built since the war, computed in 
 tonnage, form a total very nearly equal to our whole mer- 
 cantile marine at this day, unduly enlarged as it is by the 
 system we are discussing. Yet it must have happened, from 
 the nature of the war, that the peace commenced with a 
 surplus. Assisted by a decreement which requires a total re- 
 novation in about twenty yean, it is clear that nothing but a
 
 SHIP-BUILDING. 231 
 
 little patiencs and forbearance on the part of the trade is ever 
 wanting, 1 to let the undue number die off, and thus to remove 
 the evils of an incidental excess. By their own miserable 
 management, however, this forbearance from building fresh 
 ships was rendered impossible ; the "prudential check" could 
 not be applied ; and the trade was kept in a perpetual state of 
 hopeless redundance, which even its " vice and misery " could 
 not keep down. The " timber bounty " has been to the alms- 
 begging shipowners what the " allowance system " was to far 
 more pardonable paupers, and the analogy is as strong in the 
 remedy as in the evil. An efficient " Lloyd's Registry " is at 
 last established, and we have the most sanguine expectations 
 of its beneficial consequences. 
 
 It was observed by one of the witnesses before the Com- 
 mittee, (Q. 129) "We possess iron and coals, and we have 
 not got wood ; our case would be complete with the three. 
 We act towards wood as France acts towards iron" * To 
 whom, we ask, is the possession of wood of more importance 
 than the shipping interest? Here, then, is another part of their 
 noxious scheme of self-aggrandisement, at the expense of the 
 best interests of the country, and even re-acting against them- 
 selves in no small degree. They compare in their minds the 
 one benefit of good and cheap timber to themselves, with the 
 other benefit to themselves of a long carriage of bad and dear 
 timber ; and they submit to the evil of building bad ships at 
 a great price, instead of good ones at a low price, rather than 
 take their fair chance, with the country at large, in the benefits 
 of a full development of its natural energies. 
 
 Now let us for a moment suppose that we had, after the 
 necessity of the deviation had ceased, reverted to our older 
 policy, of giving the country foreign timber upon the best 
 terms, in addition to its indigenous productions of coal and 
 iron; that our rule for taking the tonnage of vessels had 
 never held out a temptation to spoil their form ; and, also, 
 that the manner of conducting marine insurance had been 
 J. D. II.
 
 232 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 such, as to induce every man first to employ the best materials 
 and the best workmanship in the building of his vessel ; and 
 afterwards, to preserve her condition as long as he could, by 
 means of the most effectual repairs. Let us, we say, set these 
 considerations on one side of the question ; and, on the other, 
 the postponement, till it was wanted, of the colonial wood- 
 trade. It is clear that the shipowners, for their own good 
 alone, have taken the worst course of the two. They have 
 certainly, by that which they have pursued, greatly enhanced 
 the difficulties of competing with their foreign rivals in other 
 trades. The waste of shipping must throw a heavy loss on 
 some party ; and in whatever degree the shipowners are 
 exposed to foreign competition they are, in that degree, 
 baulked of their design that it should fall on the people. The 
 magnitude of this waste must enhance the cost of insurance, 
 and thus fall back upon the shipowners; while the excessive 
 quantity of ships annually built, must greatly encourage 
 competition among themselves. 
 
 Increased as the difficulty in competing with foreigners is 
 by their own bad system, still the quantity of the carrying 
 trade, in which they are exposed to it, is comparatively 
 small. The coasting trade is entirely their own. In the 
 colonial trade, and in all voyages between British port and 
 British port, in almost all parts of the world, there is no 
 foreign interference ; and a very large portion of our trade 
 with foreigners, is with countries having no shipping, and 
 from which the ships of other foreign countries are excluded. 
 The Norway trade (which, on account of the shortness of the 
 voyages, is not of much value) the British ships never had to 
 any extent. They have all along stood their ground well 
 with the Swedes ; and the Prussians, after a hard struggle, 
 are beginning to yield. The shipping of Prussia is on the 
 decline. The Russian ships have never stood any chance 
 against the British ; and the Dutch have had the Jolly to 
 throw the trade with Holland into our hands. There is no 
 pretence that we cannot keep pace with the French, the
 
 COMPETITION WITH FOREIGNERS. 233 
 
 Portuguese, and the Spaniards, upon equal terms in short, 
 there is no branch of our commerce, except that with the 
 United States of America, which either, is not important, or 
 which is not almost wholly possessed by our own shipping. 
 Give but the British ship-owners fair play, only " save them 
 from themselves," and nothing but that species of cupidity, 
 which cannot bear to see a single farthing pass by its own 
 clutches, would be able to suggest even the semblance of a 
 complaint. 
 
 The general account which we have been just giving of the 
 field of employment for merchant shipping even under the 
 operation of the system of reciprocity to which the shipowners 
 choose to attribute grievances of their own creating of this, 
 we say, mighty field of employment may be the basis and 
 introduction to the few remarks which we can find space for on 
 that part of the subject of navigation which concerns our 
 naval superiority. 
 
 Mr. Huskisson did not volunteer the reciprocity system : he 
 would willingly have left other countries to have slept on, in 
 their former supineness to our navigation laws, had they been 
 disposed to do so. When he held out the hand of equal 
 privileges, he did it in order to avoid what he saw was 
 approaching a state of universal intercourse, the most hostile 
 imaginable to commerce. Nothing, hardly, can be more anti- 
 commercial than restriction in navigation. The basis of 
 commerce is the diversity of productions in different places : 
 this creates the necessity of moving those productions, in order 
 that they may be universally enjoyed; and the first desidera- 
 tum of commerce, which undertakes their distribution, is the 
 facility of the removal. 
 
 Navigation, therefore, is subservient to commerce; and 
 clear and strong should be the grounds of that institution, 
 which should be allowed to reverse these relations. The 
 necessity to us of a certain quantity of mercantile marine is 
 fully admitted; and the question is have we not enough 
 of it?
 
 234 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 Mr. Iluskisson, to the honour of his great name, has led 
 behind him ample proof that he well considered the subject of 
 reciprocity with reference to the adequacy of the degree of 
 maritime strength which would be retained for the country 
 under the operation of a system which he saw so much occa- 
 sion to introduce: and his disinterested and statesman-like 
 opinion upon that subject ought to prevail with the public 
 over all the clamour which a body of interested traders may 
 choose to raise against his measures. He explicitly stated to 
 Parliament the grounds of his proceedings. He exhibited a 
 comparison between the present peace establishment of our 
 navy and its condition at the breaking out of any of our 
 wars ; he compared the present navies of the other nations of 
 the world with former foreign navies at those epochs: and he 
 brought out the gratifying fact, that our superiority is far 
 more decided than it used to be. He then showed that, 
 exclusive of any trade we might hope to acquire by carrying on 
 a war of duties with the rest of the world, the present quantity 
 of our mercantile marine was far beyond what it had been 
 in those former times, when it was fostered by any direct 
 assistance from the state. In short, he convinced the House 
 that "navigation" was satisfied, and that " commerce" could 
 be safely re-admitted to claim its rights. Where is the dis- 
 interested man who, upon trading principles, would sacrifice 
 commerce to navigation ? 
 
 Let us put one more question. Suppose that for some 
 reason the protective portion of the timber duty were levied 
 on buildings, and collected, half yearly, from door to door; 
 and that the produce were distributed in bounties to the ship- 
 owners and colonists. With what temper would a sum, quite 
 equal to the late house tax, be so paid for such a purpose ? 
 The mode of collection and distribution does not alter the 
 case; and yet people, who almost rebelled against the house 
 tax, seem to court the charge of the timber tax 1 
 
 In the foregoing pages Mr. Hume barely alludes to
 
 HUSKISSON'S PLAN REJECTED. 235 
 
 that part of his evidence in which, upon being asked 
 whether he thought it possible, without inconvenience, 
 to afford the shipping interest a similar advantage to 
 what was afforded to mines with respect to having 
 timber free of duty, he replied : 
 
 " When Mr. Huskisson was President of the Board of Trade 
 he was very anxious to make an arrangement by which the 
 ship-owners might have a drawback of the duties on timber 
 used in ship-building. I pointed out to him that the duty 
 on timber, bricks, and everything else, was taken off, when the 
 materials were used for the building of churches. I thought 
 we might give the shipping interest a similar advantage, and 
 that the ships might be surveyed at proper stages of their 
 building by proper persons, who would ascertain the quantity 
 that had been made use of. But the shipowners rejected the 
 proposal. They said it would be a means of building ships 
 in future much cheaper than their own had been built, and 
 that it would be a bounty to the building of more ships. It 
 was then observed that the national interest was usually urged 
 in favour of the shipping interest, and with it the *maritime 
 strength of the country: but the parties seemed to think that 
 it would be very hard to lower the value of their present ships 
 for a future object of that nature, particularly when that 
 property had been already lowered as much as it had been at 
 that time." 
 
 Mr. Home's reply to the question "Do you think 
 there would be no practical difficulty in effecting your 
 proposal?" was as remarkable as it was characteristic : 
 "My opinion is, there is no difficulty which is not 
 surmountable if the object should be deemed of sufficient 
 importance.** 
 
 In October, 1843, the duties on foreign timber were
 
 236 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 reduced 25. per load, and 32*. per load on foreign 
 deals, and to It. per load on timber, 2. per load on 
 deals, the produce of British possessions. Further 
 modifications of the foreign timber were adopted in 
 1846, so that in the following year unsawn wood was 
 admitted at 20., and deals and battens at 26. per load : 
 which rates were further reduced respectively in 1848 
 to 15. and 20*. 
 
 "In every civilized country," said Mr. Porter, a 
 disciple of the same school, in the year 1850, " timber is 
 an article of consumption of the very first necessity, 
 and where, as in this country, the supply is insufficient,* 
 its importation should be rendered as free as possible. 
 If, through the necessities of the Government, it should 
 be found necessary to tax this, which may be called one 
 of the chief raw materials of manufacture, without 
 which, in fact, scarcely any other manufacture could be 
 carried n, it would be somo consolation to know that 
 the tax answered its legitimate purpose, and perhaps 
 stood in the place of some other equally objectionable 
 import Owing, however, to the discriminating duties 
 
 * " Besides those countries to which we have hitherto alluded, there 
 are districts to be explored into which the woodman's axe has never 
 jet penetrated, with a Tiew to the supply of Western Europe, 
 whence we may draw supplies for ages to come of a quality equal to 
 everything that can be wished, and adapted to purposes which it is 
 now difficult to satisfy. From the forests of Albania, as well as those 
 of Circassia, and all the coasts of the Black Sea and the banks of 
 the Danube, we may if political, and still more, if fiscal obstacles 
 are removed draw inexhaustible supplies of the finest wood, including 
 oak of the largest size, and at prices more advantageous than any 
 other countries have offered, at least in modern times." PORTER'S 
 Progrui of the Nation, 1850.
 
 IMPORTATION OUGHT TO BE FREE. 237 
 
 in favour of the timber of our northern colonies, a sum 
 at least equal to the amount that now finds its way 
 under this head into the Exchequer is lost to the public, 
 its only use being to afford employment to a number of 
 old and worn-out ships, which it would be more advan- 
 tageous to the country to buy, and then break up and 
 sell their materials for fuel, than it would be to continue 
 the present modified system."
 
 238 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 MR. DEACON HUME RETIRES FROM THE BOARD OF TRADE RESIDES 
 AT REIOATE SIR ROBERT PEEL'S REQUEST OFTEN COMPLIED 
 WITH MR. HUME is SUCCEEDED BT MR. MACOREOOK THE 
 
 FORMER SUGGESTS THE APPOINTMENT OF A SELECT COMMITTEE 
 
 on THE IMPORT DUTIES MR. MACOREOOR His EVIDENCE MB. 
 DEACON HUME'S EVIDENCE REMARKABLE PASSAGES. 
 
 " All the world haa heard that Mr. Deacon Hume's evidence before 
 the Import Duties Committee in 1840, had great weight with all the 
 leading men of all parties." LORD JOHN RUSSELL. 
 
 THERE is a measure in all things, and in nothing is it 
 more necessary than in the exactions which are made 
 upon the time and attention of public men. Few minds 
 can bear a heavy strain for a lengthened period with 
 impunity. And even in the excepted cases, the season 
 of repose ought not to be too long delayed. 
 
 In the year 1840, though his health was not appa- 
 rently much impaired, Mr. Deacon Hume retired from 
 the Board of Trade. He also left Putney, where, after 
 a ten years' residence in Russell Square, he had lived for 
 two years, and took up his abode at Reigate, one of the 
 most salubrious and most beautiful localities in England. 
 A pension of 1,500/. a year was granted him by the 
 Government, in consideration of his long and valuable
 
 RETIRES FROM BOARD OF TRADE. 239 
 
 services. Sir Robert Peel, the Prime Minister of the 
 day, took occasion to express regret at his retirement, 
 and at the same time a hope that he would not object 
 to repair occasionally to town, if he should be requested 
 to do so, and afford the Government the benefit of 
 his counsel and experience. This was no parting com- 
 pliment. Sir Robert Peel's official intercourse with 
 Mr. Hume had extended over a period of thirty years ; to 
 him that great Minister was almost entirely indebted for 
 the correct knowledge he had acquired of the true prin- 
 ciples of commerce and of international trade. He espe- 
 cially lamented Mr. HumeV relinquishment of office at 
 the particular period at which it occurred. We will not 
 say, as some of the Prime Minister's classical opponents 
 might not unnaturally have said, that he knew that 
 the country had been ploughed, and the dragon's teeth 
 sown, and that heads and armed hands were about to 
 rise out of the ground, but the proceedings of the Anti- 
 Corn Law League forewarned him that trying times 
 were at hand, and that it would be in Mr. Hume's 
 power to render important service to the Government 
 The request was repeatedly made, and it was con- 
 stantly complied with. His journeys from Reigate to 
 Whitehall, or to Downing Street, continued to be 
 neither few nor far between to the time of his death, 
 which to many, since he was not very far advanced in 
 years, appeared to be distant 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume was succeeded at the Board of 
 Trade by a gentleman with whom he was acquainted, 
 and who, he was glad to hear, was appointed to be his
 
 240 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 successor Mr. John Macgregor, afterwards member 
 for Glasgow. He has been described by one competent 
 to form an impartial estimate of his character, as " an 
 intelligent and amiable man, of no common mind, of 
 extraordinary powers of application, and devoted to 
 the subject of political economy."* During Lord Mel- 
 bourne's administration, the same authority states, and 
 it was pretty generally known, that he had been 
 engaged on commercial missions to Germany, Austria, 
 Paris, and Naples. And the writer referred to has 
 expressed his belief that his missions were " generally 
 well performed that they advanced sound principles of 
 political economy, and that, upon the whole, the product 
 was worth the cost to the Exchequer." 
 
 Although Mr. Deacon Hume had much to occupy 
 
 * He first became known as an author by the publication, in 1832, 
 of two OCUTO volumes, entitled " British America," published by 
 Blackwood and Cadell. This work reached a second and improved 
 edition in the following year. It was not only, at the period, highly 
 interesting, but it abounded in facts and statistics, and it displayed a 
 large comprehension of our future colonial interests. In 1835 he 
 published " My Note Book," dedicated to his friend Sismondi. It was 
 chiefly a personal narrative of bis tours on the Continent. In 1847 
 he published two crown octavo volumes, historical and statistical, 
 on " The Progress of America, from the discovery by Columbus 
 to the year 1846," comprising three thousand pages. Four similar 
 volumes, entitled " Commercial Statistics." In 1852 he published 
 " The History of the British Empire, from the Accession of James I.," 
 2 vols. 8vo. Earlier in life, in the Canadas, he had prepared 
 reports on North American emigration, on the Newfoundland 
 fisheries, and on similar Transatlantic subjects; and to his home 
 productions may be added twenty-two Reports on Foreign Tariffs 
 and Trade, presented to Parliament by Royal command; numerous 
 pamphlets on subjects of the day, and an extent of private and 
 statistical correspondence at home and abroad almost incredible.
 
 IMPORT DUTIES COMMITTEE. 241 
 
 his mind at the time that he quitted office, he had in no 
 degree become indifferent with regard to the success of 
 the great object for the accomplishment of which he 
 had toiled for so many years, through every variety of 
 circumstance, in the hope, sometimes delusive, rarely 
 strong, that he should live to witness the event, which, 
 so far as commercial relations are concerned, he believed 
 would prove the harbinger of bright and happy days 
 for England and the world. As a last, and, as it 
 proved, a crowning effort, he took an opportunity of 
 suggesting to an experienced and influential member 
 of Parliament of the same name, to whom, how- 
 ever, he was not allied, or even intimately known, 
 Mr. Joseph Hume, the expediency of moving for a 
 Select Committee to inquire into the several duties 
 levied on imports into the United Kingdom, intimating 
 at the same time that he would be able to give 
 important evidence if he were examined. This sug- 
 gestion was energetically seconded by Mr. Macgregor. 
 They thought that it would be for the public interest 
 if those who were, or who had been in office at the 
 Board of Trade, could be transferred for a short time 
 from their homes, or from their private offices in 
 Whitehall, into a committee room of the House of 
 Commons, for then, not only would their evidence be 
 given publicly, but it would be ordered to be printed, 
 and circulated through the country. Mr. Joseph Hume 
 was much too sensible of the great results which might 
 be expected from such a course, not to give it due 
 consideration ; for even if it should fall short of what 
 
 R
 
 242 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume and Mr. Macgregor expected from 
 it the overthrow of protection he knew that it would 
 still do considerable service. No one was more sensible 
 than the veteran member for Montrose, whose attention 
 to Parliamentary business had probably never been 
 equalled, of the utility of Committees of Parliament, as 
 well as of Commissions under the Great Seal. He had 
 had more opportunities than any other person of observ- 
 ing the good which they effect upon the whole, " not," 
 as it has been excellently said, " more directly and 
 positively, than indirectly, by giving opportunities for 
 ascertaining and publishing the views of well-informed 
 men ; by forcibly attracting public attention to different 
 objects of legislation, and by diffusing correct opinions." 
 Such inquiries are made before the public, and the 
 results are laid before the public in a permanent form. 
 " The evidence," in part at least, " is drawn indifferently 
 from the bosom of the public, and not from witnesses 
 schooled by the Government : the witnesses who pre- 
 sent themselves are most frequently the best informed 
 part of the community. Their constitution is founded, 
 as it were, on a general appeal to the public, who are 
 called on to come forward and say what they know. 
 The nation thus steps into the Houses of Parliament 
 in a new shape, and with a new voice ; it legislates by 
 a new delegation, of which the members and peers are 
 only the mouthpieces the scribes of reports and bills. 
 The laws springing out of such inquiries have an 
 unspeakable advantage over those concocted by the 
 unaided legislature; they are publicly canvassed and
 
 PARLIAMENTARY COMMITTEES. 243 
 
 sanctioned before passing; they are ordained as it 
 were out of doors, before they are ordained within. 
 There is a virtue in open procedure and evidence, not 
 only for the discovery of facts, but for giving confidence 
 out of doors, that the best and fairest means are used 
 for the disclosure of truth, which enters into the habi- 
 tual convictions of the English people. This prin- 
 ciple redeems half the vices of the law, and ensures its 
 observance and execution. A hundred and seventy 
 years ago, Colbert could call the weavers and looking- 
 glass makers into his cabinet, examine them as he 
 pleased, and draw up what ordinances he pleased; for 
 there was no public opinion, or rather, no public in 
 France. Men were formerly governed by absolute 
 will, which neither heeded nor vouchsafed to explain 
 the motives of its conduct : but rulers are now-a-days 
 compelled to fortify their acts by evidence, or the 
 show of evidence. The public will have its why 
 and its wherefore, and governments must give their 
 reasons." 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume evidently had reasons, which he 
 probably did not make known, for being sanguine with 
 respect to the appointment of a select committee. The 
 only doubt wliich Mr. Joseph Hume entertained, was, 
 whether the government, which was powerful, and still 
 supporting the protective system, could be induced to 
 grant it. He, however, resolved to see what he could 
 do , and having obtained consent, observed exultingly to 
 his friends, that " the battle of free-trade was about to 
 be icon." He was confident that such an overwhelming
 
 244 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 weight of testimony in favour of commercial freedom 
 would be adduced, as neither Parliament nor the country 
 would be able to gainsay or resist. 
 
 On the 5th of May, 1840, a Select Committee was 
 appointed " to inquire into the several duties levied on 
 imports into the United Kingdom : how far those duties 
 are for protection to similar articles, the produce and 
 manufacture of this country or of the British possessions 
 abroad, or whether the duties are for the purposes of 
 revenue alone." 
 
 This celebrated Committee, which the advocates of 
 protection considered to be somewhat one-sided in its 
 composition, consisted of Mr. Joseph Hume (chairman), 
 Mr. Tuffnell, Mr. W. J. Blake, Mr. Ewart, Mr. 
 Thornely, Mr. W. Williams, Mr. Villiers, Sir George 
 Clerk, Mr. W. Duncombe, Mr. Ormsby Gore, Sir 
 George Sinclair, Mr. Labouchere, Sir Charles Douglas, 
 Mr. Aaron Chapman, and Sir Henry Parnell. The 
 " power to send for persons, papers, and records'* ran- 
 sacked the Board of Trade, and let loose the tongues 
 of the Joint Secretaries, and also of the late Secretary. 
 The witnesses who were examined, as an able writer 
 justly remarked,* were, " many of them, persons of the 
 highest authority upon the subject which was under in- 
 vestigation ; three of them eminently so, from their 
 connection with the Board of Trade, namely, Mr. 
 Deacon Hume, Mr. Macgregor, and Mr. J. R. Porter." 
 Mr. Macgregor, the new Secretary, was, of course, the 
 first witness summoned. His examination exclusively 
 M Edinburgh Review," No. cxlvi
 
 Mr. MACGREGOR'S EVIDENCE. 245 
 
 occupied the entire first two days, and portions of the 
 third and fourth. " It has been the fashion," says an 
 authority before quoted, to state, " that he lied through 
 his testimony. The imputation is untrue. His dog- 
 made confidence of opinion, with an occasional reckless 
 statement, gave indeed a colour to this accusation, but 
 the resource of his opponents was unfairly to discredit 
 his important evidence ; and, the protectionists not pro- 
 ducing any counter-evidence, this slander was their 
 only alternative. But any dispassionate reader will 
 now give credit to the general and valuable evidence of 
 Mr. Macgregor. Further, he was confirmed by the 
 more reliable evidence of Mr. Deacon Hume, and of 
 Mr. Porter, to say nothing of the corroborative tes- 
 timony of some of our most eminent city and provincial 
 merchants and manufacturers."* Sir John J. Guest, 
 Bart, M.P., Mr. Hanley, and Sir John Bowring were 
 examined, amongst others, and their testimony, espe- 
 cially that of the latter, who had been employed by the 
 Government in various commercial missions to France, 
 Belgium, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and to the East, 
 was as interesting as it was valuable. It is, however, 
 with the evidence of Mr. Deacon Hume that we are 
 more immediately concerned. It is due to his past 
 labours, productive as they were of great results, that it 
 should be noticed at some length ; not only on account 
 of its intrinsic value, abounding as it does with pro- 
 found sentiments, applicable to all time, and because 
 the report which contains it, never very accessible to 
 The Times, AprU 27, 1857.
 
 246 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 general readers, is now rarely to be met with ; but also 
 because it is in every way characteristic of the person 
 and because it is interesting to observe, how remarkably 
 his opinions, not to say predictions, have in most in- 
 stances been verified, since the principles of free-trade 
 have been adopted by the legislature of this country. 
 As, however, his evidence occupies thirty-four printed 
 folio pages, it cannot, in its original form, conveniently 
 be made available for this volume. Select passages, 
 complete in themselves, are all that can be given. And 
 when it is borne in mind that they were spoken upon 
 the moment, and in answer to questions proposed by 
 members of the House of Commons, conversant with 
 the subject (the questions which elicited the remarks 
 will be guessed at by the reader without difficulty), 
 few will fail to be struck with the accuracy and con- 
 densation with which the thoughts are expressed, and 
 the information is imparted. 
 
 PROTECTIVE DUTIES OBSTRUCTIVE. 
 
 " Every branch of our industry which has been protected by 
 high duties has made less progress than it would have done if 
 foreign articles of the same kind had been admitted. The 
 removal of protection might end in extinguishing some trades, 
 or particular branches of trade. It is very easy, in the 
 poorest country, to draw a little circle round a small body 
 of people, and to pamper and support them with emoluments 
 and profits, which they can hardly be said to earn them- 
 selves, and which are a heavy tax upon other people : but 
 where protection has been grossly misapplied, the trade would 
 be given up."
 
 PROTECTIVE DUTIES. 247 
 
 FREE-TRADE MUST ULTIMATELY PREVAIL IN ALL COUNTRIES. 
 
 " If we were to give up our protective system altogether, I 
 think it would be impossible for other countries to retain theirs 
 much longer. 
 
 " There is a difficulty in com paring one description of goods 
 which one country makes with a totally different description 
 made in another ; and equal terms can hardly be made ; but 
 I feel confident if we were entirely to discontinue our system 
 of protection, in a very little time it be would a race with 
 other countries which would be first, or rather, which should 
 avoid to be the last, to come in for the benefits of that trade 
 which we would then open." 
 
 HIGH TAXATION NO PLEA FOR PROTECTION. 
 
 " It is a plea with some interests that their protection 
 should be continued because they are so highly taxed, or pay 
 so highly for the necessaries of life, that they cannot compete 
 with their foreign rivals; I think it, however, not only 
 groundless, but that the opposite is the true proposition. A 
 highly taxed people cannot afford to give protection : an 
 individual whose necessary expenses are great cannot be 
 generous." 
 
 THE AMOUNT OF COTTON EXPORTED A PROOF OF THE FUTOJTT 
 OF PROTECTION. 
 
 " I consider that the amount of our cotton export is a 
 perfect proof that protection is futile and useless. I would 
 remove the duty, if it were only for the sake of holding out 
 an example to the world. The duty of ten per cent, upon 
 foreign cotton is as useless to our cotton manufactures as our 
 duty of two pounds a ton is to our coal trade."
 
 248 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 FREE-TRADE APPLICABLE TO ALL OUR COMMERCIAL 
 TRANSACTIONS. 
 
 " I would apply the principles of free-trade generally to the 
 commercial transactions of this country. I would make our 
 laws according to that I deemed best, which would certainly 
 be to give the freest possible introduction to the goods of 
 other nations into our country, and I should leave others to 
 take advantage of it or not, as they thought fit. There can 
 be no doubt that if we imported from any country any con- 
 siderable quantity of goods, and the manufactures of that 
 country were protected, the producers of those goods which 
 we took would very soon find the great difficulty they had 
 in getting their returns; and, instead of our soliciting the 
 governments of those countries to admit our goods, our 
 advocates for that admission would be in the country itself; 
 they would arise from the exporters of the goods which we 
 received." 
 
 THE TRADE IN METALS. 
 
 " If there is any trade in this country which we ought to see 
 put upon its sound footing, and which ought to be able to 
 stand its own ground, it is the trade in metals. If, in conse- 
 quence of the discovery of mines abroad, in peculiar situations, 
 any of those metals can for a time be brought cheaper into 
 this country, and of course into others, than they can be 
 raised in some of the inferior mines here, we ought to admit 
 them, and take care that we preserve our trade in metals. 
 We should admit the raw material, let it come from whence 
 it will, always remembering, that we cannot equally exclude 
 that material from the manufactories of our foreign rivals." 
 
 COMMERCIAL MATTERS BEST SETTLED BY OURSELVES. 
 
 " I think we should settle our commerce better by our- 
 selves than by attempting to make arrangements with other
 
 FREE TRADE. 249 
 
 countries. We make proposals : they do not agree to them. 
 We afterwards feel a repugnance to do that which we ought 
 perhaps in the first instance to have done of our own accord ; 
 and I go upon the principle, that it is impossible for us to 
 import too much ; that we may be quite sure that the export 
 will follow in some form or other, and that the making of 
 the articles to be exported will be an employment infinitely 
 more beneficial to this country than that which may be thus 
 superseded. 
 
 " I think it is unwise to do that on stipulation, upon certain 
 terms, which upon any terms it would be better for us to do 
 ourselves. My chief objections to treating are, first, the risk 
 of refusal, and the repugnance to act after refusal ; and next, 
 that in the case of compliance, the people of the other country 
 think that their government have been duped into a bad 
 bargain." 
 
 FOOD THE LAST THING THAT SHOULD BE TAXED. 
 
 " If I were compelled to choose, food is the last thing upon 
 which I would attempt to place any protection. It is very 
 clear, that this country stands in need of a vast deal of agri- 
 cultural produce beyond its production, which is not to be 
 measured merely by the quantity of corn which we occa- 
 sionally import, because we habitually import very largely 
 of those articles that are the produce of land and suited to be 
 raised in this country, besides corn, and which shows that 
 the power of supply is very much strained. Although we 
 view it chiefly in the article of corn, we import a very large 
 quantity of other commodities, commonly and habitually, 
 such as are the produce of our own soil, or fit to be so ; and 
 this proves clearly that we want more than we can produce. 
 The exclusion of supply in such a case is cruel privation." 
 
 PROTECTIVE DUTIES A DIRECT TAX UPON THE PEOPLE. 
 
 " Protective duties are a direct tax upon the community. I 
 cannot analyse the charge which I pay in any other way, than
 
 250 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 that part of it is the price of the commodity, and part is a 
 duty, though it goes out of my private pocket into another 
 private pocket, instead of into that of the public. I am asked 
 whether it adds to the wealth of the country, or whether it 
 checks the general industry which is applied in our manu- 
 factures ? I think it cannot add to the wealth of the country, 
 because it is clear that we consume commodities at a greater 
 price than the necessary price; and, consequently, we waste 
 labour and capital in the production, and waste can never 
 ultimately do good, at least to a nation, although some indi- 
 viduals may thrive upon it." 
 
 COMMERCE AND MANUFACTURE THE SOURCES OF OUR WEALTH. 
 
 "The wealth of England is caused and maintained by her 
 commercial and manufacturing industry. I mean in contra- 
 distinction to the produce of the soil. It is only necessary to 
 look round the world, and see what countries there are of 
 much richer soil, that are in a state of comparative poverty, 
 and also to look back to our own history, of no long period, 
 to see that with the same quantity of hind we have now, we 
 were a poor country, compared with what we are now ; 
 therefore, having always had the land, but not the trade, I 
 conceive that the increase of our riches arises from the trade, 
 and not from the land. It can be traced to no other source. 
 The only difference that I can see in the present state of the 
 country, and the country a century ago, is, that by commerce 
 and manufactures we have acquired riches, and raised up a 
 population which is not only able to consume, but also able 
 to pay good prices for the produce of our land. If the same 
 population had been raised by other means they would have 
 been a burden to the land instead of an advantage.* 1 
 
 WHAT IT is THAT TENDS TO UNDERMINE THEM. 
 
 Erery limitation in the importation of food, and every rise in 
 the price of food, tends to undermine the manufactures of the
 
 TENDENCY OF OUR CAPITAL. 251 
 
 country, upon which we depend. I conceive that it must be 
 so, because we place ourselves at the risk of being surpassed 
 by the manufactures in other countries; and as soon as it 
 happens, if ever the day should arrive, that we should be put 
 to a severe trial as to our manufacturing power, I can hardly 
 doubt that the prosperity of this country will recede much 
 faster than it has gone forward." 
 
 HIGH TAXATION NO ARGUMENT AGAINST A REPEAL OF THE 
 COBN LAWS. 
 
 " I have often heard it stated, that the people of England, being 
 higher taxed than that of any other country, would be unable, 
 as regards the price of food, to compete with other countries if 
 the corn laws were repealed. I have always been surprised 
 at the argument, because it appears to me that the very cir- 
 cumstance of our being so highly taxed for the good of the 
 State, is a reason why we should not be taxed between our- 
 selves. It is the greatest fallacy I can conceive; it is the 
 very opposite of the true proportion." 
 
 THE TENDENCY OP OUR CAPITAL TO LEAVE THIS COUNTBT. 
 
 " There is a tendency in our capital to leave this country and 
 establish itself on the Continent. What the people on the 
 Continent want most is, large capital. They are every year 
 obtaining very considerable capital as well as artisans from 
 this country, and even master manufacturers. 
 
 " The direct tendency of the present system is to drive a 
 large amount of capital to those countries which are engaged 
 in rivalry with us. I wonder that the trading part of the 
 community have not taken this view of the matter earlier: I 
 can only account for it upon this supposition, that the most 
 influential and the most advanced have believed and felt con- 
 fident that the shifting of the trade was a matter of slow 
 operation, and that it would last their time. I think that this 
 makes the great difference between the former eupineness of
 
 252 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 our manufacturers upon the subject of the corn laws, and 
 their recent activity upon that subject. The day of trial is 
 not now so distant, in the view of the present parties, as it 
 was in that of their predecessors, or even of themselves some 
 years ago. By the protective system, we not only check the 
 collection of the revenue immediately, but we are also under- 
 mining our resources. I cannot help often looking at the 
 consequences with considerable alarm. I think the country 
 cannot stand such a system as this for a long period. I have 
 not a doubt that if there were no protective duties the 
 revenue would flow in with a very great increase, and with 
 great ease, owing to the increase of population, and the 
 greater ability of men to pay the state taxes, being relieved 
 from paying taxes to individuals. If the protective system 
 were entirely removed, the effect would be to produce a large 
 population, and a well employed population. The tendency 
 of the corn laws, and other protective duties, is to throw the 
 people out of work, and to diminish their employment. But 
 even taking the population as it is, and its property as it is, if 
 they were relieved from that additional price on the goods 
 which we pay on account of their being protected, the people 
 of this country would be able, and would, in effect, in the 
 expenditure of their incomes, pay a larger proportion to the 
 revenue." 
 
 PROTECTIVE DUTIES A TAX, PUT IT AS WE WILL. 
 
 " It matters little to the consumer whether he pays so much 
 more for his food as a tax to the revenue, or whether he pays 
 so much more for his food as a tax for protection. The 
 enhanced price, from whatever cause, is the same. Suppose 
 that instead of protecting land by a duty on foreign corn, the 
 country were left to get corn at the cheapest rate, and then 
 that a revenue was raised for the express purpose of being 
 applied to the support of the land. It would be too palpable. 
 It could not be borne. But I conceive the effect of the
 
 PROTECTIVE DUTIES A TAX. 253 
 
 present system upon the consumer to be the same. It would 
 be better, perhaps cheaper, to pay directly than indirectly, 
 because trade would then be free. Suppose a tax was imposed 
 upon flour ground at the mill, every person would pay it, and 
 it would pay a large revenue according to the rate. It would 
 be less noxious to the people and to trade than the present 
 protecting duty. It is quite possible that a large revenue 
 might be collected by that means, and the public pay a less 
 price than they do now. It would be only a charge, and not 
 also an impediment to trade." 
 
 " I think a tolerable calculation may be made of the increased 
 amount of taxation which the community pay in consequence 
 of the increased price of wheat and butchers' meat, which is 
 occasioned by the monopoly which is now held by land. It 
 it generally calculated that each person, upon the average, 
 consumes a quarter of wheat a year. Assuming, then, the 
 amount of duty that this wheat paid, or the price enhanced 
 by protection, whatever that is, as far as bread goes, to be 
 ten shillings, it would be that amount upon the whole popu- 
 lation. Then you could hardly say less than, perhaps, double 
 that for butchers' meat and other matters : or that if we were 
 to say that the corn is enhanced by ten shillings a quarter, 
 there would be that ten shillings, and twenty shillings more, 
 as the increase of the price of meat and other agricultural 
 productions, including hay and oats for horses, barley for 
 beer, as well as butter and cheese. That would be 
 36,000,000/. a year, and the public are in fact paying that 
 as effectually out of their pockets as if it went to the revenue, 
 in the form of direct taxes : and having paid the private 
 taxes, they are the less able to pay the public taxes. And 
 the effect of that is to cripple and limit the industry of the 
 country. The great evil lies in this branch of the matter. 
 It is not so calculable, but if the public could have the trade 
 which I believe they would have if all these protections were
 
 254 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 removed, I think they could pay thirty shillings a head easily 
 compared with what they can do now.*' 
 
 " The burden of the protective system generally, I should 
 say, exceeds the whole amount of the taxation which is paid 
 to the state, taking the cost and the evil consequences together, 
 if that evil were equally subject to computation. It is the 
 case with many duties, such as some of the excise duties, 
 which are more injurious in their regulations than they are 
 in the sum which is taken from the people, though you can- 
 not estimate the injurious effect. I conceive the actual 
 money paid, and the evil effect computed in money, would 
 be more than the entire revenue of the country. If a mode 
 could be adopted, and the alternative were whether we should 
 continue the protection or compensate some partial injury, 
 which might be inflicted upon some existing interests in the 
 change, I should not hesitate a moment to say give the 
 compensation. I have often seen duties kept up because of 
 the injury which the removal of them would occasion to 
 particular interests, when a comparatively small sum would 
 have compensated the parties. One of our greatest faults is 
 that we will not pay the price of extrication from former 
 errors. 
 
 " We cannot estimate the number of parties that may 
 have an interest at a future day ; you cannot settle with 
 the present too soon. As population increases more parties 
 will be drawn into that branch of trade. Take the case of 
 the timber duties, which are kept up under the plea of pro- 
 tecting the shipping interest, and, in some degree, the colonies. 
 I am asked how the change could be introduced, and how I 
 would arrange for compensating the parties interested. The 
 class of ships considered to be most benefited by the timber 
 duties are the old ships, which it is said would be of no 
 value if that trade were abolished, and that is because their 
 number is too great for the other branches of inferior trade
 
 COMPENSATION. 255 
 
 alone. But, if at the end of the Canada timber season, and 
 before any expense is incurred upon the ships in fitting out 
 for another voyage, all those that are in the least fit for better 
 trades were to be valued, the entire sum would not be equal 
 to the amount of duty that would be gained in the next 
 season by a judicious alteration of the duties. We might, 
 therefore, buy up these ships for breaking up, so as effectually 
 to compensate all the parties who conceive that they would 
 be injured by losing that particular trade for that class of 
 ships, and the remaining ships would find ample employment 
 for all that they could want in other trades. The amount of 
 one year's loss given at once as a compensation would save 
 the losses of all subsequent years. This would satisfy the 
 shipowners; and as to the Canadians, only give them free- 
 trade and they will gladly give it to you in return. 
 
 " There might be some difficulties in effecting the purpose 
 in certain cases with reference to certain other protected 
 interests; but I am quite sure that the cheapest thing the 
 country could do would be to compensate them at once, and 
 put an end to the bad system which will otherwise put an end 
 to itself some day or other, and the prosperity of the country 
 with it." 
 
 At the close of Mr. Deacon Hume's examination 
 before the Import Duties Committee, on the 16th of 
 July, he was requested by the chairman to prepare a 
 list of articles subject to protective duties on impor- 
 tation, and to express his opinion as to how far they 
 ought to be continued, or might be removed, with 
 reference to the existing commerce of the country. On 
 the 20th he produced his list ; taking occasion, at the 
 same time to observe, that in effecting the change from 
 a system of duties for protection, to one of revenue 
 alone, the proceedings should be gradual ; and that the
 
 256 LITE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 duties should be reduced, in the first instance, upon 
 those manufactures which are least exposed to foreign 
 competition. 
 
 Upon this principle he divided the several manu- 
 factures into three distinct classes. " Not," as he said, 
 " with the strictest regularity, but because the degree of 
 importance, in the different cases, differs very consi- 
 derably. I put in the first doss those to which I 
 conceive the greatest importance must be attached as 
 regards protection, and also taking into view the 
 revenue which the articles, many of them, produce. 
 Keeping in mind the same purpose, I arrange the 
 second class, and the third upon the same principle." 
 
 CLASS I. 
 
 Corn; Malt (prohibited); Silks; Linens; Woollens; Hats; 
 Felt, &c.; Watches; Paper; Plate; Carriages; Cottons; 
 Copper; Tin; Fish and Fish Oil; Whalebone; Beef and 
 Pork, salted; Butcher's Meat (prohibited); Cattle (ditto); 
 Sheep (ditto); Swine (ditto); Hardware; Glass; China; 
 Earthenware; Cordage; Brandy; Geneva; Sugar; Coffee; 
 Bum. 
 
 CLASS H. 
 
 Lace; Shawls; Gauze and Thread; Gloves; Straw Hats 
 and Bonnets ; Straw Plaiting ; Shoes and Boots ; Embroidery 
 and Needlework; Buttons; Jewelry; Turnery; Musical 
 Instruments; Picture Frames; Telescopes; Wire; Leather; 
 Parchment; Mill-board; Casks; Twine; Whipcord; Corks 
 (made); Hides and Skins; Oak Bark; Oak Timber; Seeds; 
 Butter; Cheese; Starch; Tallow; Soap; Candles; Vinegar; 
 Hops; Beer; Cider; Meal; Mustard; Essential Oils; Oil of 
 Turpentine; Rosin; Turpentine; Tar; Pitch.
 
 PROTECTIVE DUTIES. 257 
 
 CLASS III. 
 
 Lead; Spelter; Manganese Ore; Stone; Gypsum; Alum; 
 Alkali; Barilla; Black-lead; Copperas; Smalts; Brass Pow- 
 der; Camphor, refined; Tinfoil; Chalk; Crayons; Ashes; 
 Tobacco Pipes; Bricks; Tiles; Clinkers; Hones; Whet- 
 stones; Hams; Tongues; Bacon; Lard; Eggs; Sausages; 
 Bladders; Pickles; Wax; Honey; Onions; Potatoes; Hay; 
 Grease; Glue; Pearl Barley; Arrowroot; Nuta; Truffles; 
 Flower Roots ; Basket Rods ; Bullrushes ; Quills ; Pens ; 
 Feathers ; Camomile Flowers ; Lavender Flowers ; Ma- 
 caroni ; Rice ; Chip Hats ; Baskets ; Mats and Matting ; 
 Vellum. 
 
 Upon being asked whether it was from his experience 
 at the Board of Trade that he had learnt that great 
 importance is attached to these duties by particular 
 interests, he replied in the affirmative ; and that in 
 proportion to that importance he had endeavoured to 
 class them in different ranks. He added, " I would 
 rather say that I have classed them in regard to the 
 difficulty which might attend any change of system. 
 I think the opposition to the removal would be the 
 greatest in the first class. The struggle would, perhaps, 
 be somewhat less in the second; while, in reference 
 to the third, the duties might be removed with very 
 little difficulty or objection. I do not contemplate the 
 removal of the protection upon the articles in the first 
 class, unless as part of a general system, and then I 
 think very few British interests would be affected at all 
 by such a compendious change, and scarcely any mate- 
 rially. The whole should be done simultaneously, if it 
 were done with respect to those goods which I have put 
 
 s
 
 258 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 in the first class. I can imagine that yon might begin 
 at the other end, and remove the protection in the 
 third class, and so upwards, to the second, without any 
 material effect ; but upon the principle upon which those 
 which are in the first class have been placed there by me, 
 I should say that they were either the last to be done, 
 or only in consequence of a total change of system." 
 
 Having laid before the reader the three classes of 
 articles, subject on importation to protective duties, as 
 they were laid before the Import Duties Committee by 
 Mr. Deacon Hume, with his explanatory and suggestive 
 observations, we will again proceed to give his views 
 and opinions upon some important points in his own 
 words, and, as before, under distinct heads. 
 
 SOME POSSIBLE RESULTS OF CHANGE FROM PROTECTIVE DUTIES 
 TO FREE TRADE. 
 
 " I am far from supposing that a change from protection to 
 a totally free system would not make many changes in the 
 employment of the industry of this country, and it is possible 
 that that change might lead to the relinquishing of some 
 branches of the silk, and even of cotton, manufactures. But 
 with the reliance that I have upon the effect of a general 
 system of free trade, I cannot bring my mind to believe that 
 we should not make stockings or manufacture silk very 
 largely in this country if all protection were removed, pro- 
 vided that the system were general, so that the expense of 
 living of the labourers in those cases which the several ques- 
 tions have so particularly pointed at, should be reduced to 
 the natural amount That must certainly be understood to 
 mean that the corn trade should be free, that meat, that every 
 article of consumption, should for the future be free; and 
 were that the case, no change being made in the revenue, I
 
 ENGLAND A CHEAP COUNTRY TO LIVE IN. 259 
 
 can scarcely believe that the natural effect would not be to raise 
 the product of the revenue a fourth, or perhaps a third greater 
 than it is, without laying on a single additional duty ; and in 
 that case we clearly see how easy it would be to relieve 
 those parties who are now much pressed by competition from 
 those taxes which were considered to oppress them to the 
 greatest degree, and to place them on a fairer footing with 
 the foreign competitors than they now are. I believe the 
 necessity of protection is occasioned almost entirely by pro- 
 tection itself." 
 
 ENGLAND MIGHT BE A CHEAP COUNTRY TO LIVE IN. 
 
 " With our great command of trade, our navigation, our 
 capital, and our geographical position, if trade in this country 
 were perfectly free, and we were enabled to obtain in the 
 cheapest markets, upon even terms, all the commodities we 
 want, I can see no reason why this should not be one of the 
 cheapest countries to live in that any civilized populous 
 country can be. There are many matters in which density of 
 population leads to cheapness." 
 
 A FIXED DUTY. 
 
 " I am against a small fixed duty on corn. My opinion is 
 that there is no ground for any duty. The only ground I can 
 perceive, is to countervail charges in the production of corn. 
 I know that there are a great many charges which the landed 
 interest conceive to lie peculiarly upon them, and to fall upon 
 their productions ; but as far as I have been able to investi- 
 gate those charges, I think they have services in return for 
 them, and they do not go to the public revenue : they are of 
 a local nature, and I think the farmers are so much better off*, 
 and so much more enabled to raise the commodity with 
 advantage by reason of those local charges, since they have 
 facilities in return equal to the payment; and I firmly be- 
 lieve that any country that has not the system of raising
 
 260 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 funds for the purposes for which those local funds are raised, 
 would be aft a great disadvantage in the production of agri- 
 cultural produce." 
 
 MISAPPROPRIATION OF THE SOIL. 
 
 " One of the great evils of our agriculture is the misappro- 
 priation of the soil. I believe there is a great deal too large a 
 proportion of land under the plough, and too small a portion 
 under grass. The difficulty of raising lean stock in this 
 country for the purpose of fattening is so great, that it is the 
 chief cause of the high price of meat; and I am persuaded 
 that if a very large breadth of that arable land which can 
 scarcely be cultivated to advantage were turned back to grass, 
 the effect would be to reduce the quantity of corn produced 
 in this country so much, as to make it impossible for the 
 foreigner to fill the vacuum at a low price, and that the 
 general result would be, that it would produce a lower price 
 of meat, there being a power of increased consumption in the 
 present state of the country in the article of meat that is 
 almost immeasurable. When we reflect upon the extremely 
 small portion of meat eaten every day by the most robust 
 labourers in the country, who are of course by far the most 
 numerous portion of the population, if we were only to 
 suppose them to have every day a fair moderate meal of 
 meat, the increased demand for meat, and for inferior meat, 
 for cattle not fatted to the highest degree, such as would be 
 suitable to the produce of land of inferior qualities, would be 
 so great, that there would be no want of employment for any 
 land that we possess within our boundaries." 
 
 THE CHANGE FROM ARABLE TO PASTURE. 
 
 " I think the corn laws have tended to the breaking up of 
 land which had better have remained grass. As to waste 
 lands there can be no doubt that the demand for produce has
 
 MISAPPROPRIATION OF THE SOIL. 261 
 
 led to the breaking up of commons, and so far it is well ; but 
 it by no means follows that it should be kept permanently 
 under the plough when there is a much greater demand for 
 grass. With regard to the effect of the protection on our 
 corn, that can hardly be said to have been the cause of the 
 breaking up of so much land, because I believe it is within 
 the knowledge of most people that the era in which the lands 
 were chiefly broken up was during the period of the war, and 
 that corn was being imported without any restraint whatever 
 through the whole of that period. I believe that many 
 persons have since repented that they have broken up their 
 lands. The breaking up of waste land is a process that one 
 would always wish to see going on: the very idea of land 
 lying waste is repugnant to one's feelings, as long as it can 
 be applied to any use, but that is a very different thing from 
 having in cultivation a disproportion of arable. The induce- 
 ment to break up waste lands would not be directly the 
 protection, but the price, and whatever was the cause of a 
 high price would lead to the cultivation of the waste lands, 
 whether it were a state of war, the increase of population, or 
 anything else: as long as there was a good price for the 
 produce of land, persons possessing or having a right to those 
 waste lands would bring them into cultivation." 
 
 THE PRICE OF LAND IN ENGLAND. 
 
 "Looking to the increase of the population which has doubled 
 in the last half-century, one does not know how to limit the 
 price of land in this country, provided through no bad policy 
 the increase of that population and its prosperity be not 
 checked. No one knows precisely how the matter stands; 
 but as far as the little information I have upon the subject 
 goes, I believe that an exhibition of the rent rolls of different 
 parts of the country for the last half-century would lay before 
 the public eye one of the most astounding accounts that was 
 ever witnessed."
 
 262 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 THE IMPETUS GIVEN TO TRADE SHORTLY BEFORE THE YEAR 1800. 
 
 "The start in manufactures which took place towards the 
 end of the last century was the cause of the increase in the 
 price of land. The war led in the first instance to what 
 may be said to be a wasteful consumption of food ; a large 
 portion of the people who were subsisting at home with the 
 greatest economy, were converted into soldiers and sailors, 
 and were supported at the public expense; but the great 
 peculiarity of that period was the commencement of the great 
 increase of our manufactures ; the bringing to perfection Mr. 
 Arkwright's system, the introduction of steam power, and the 
 vast improvement in machinery: we were the first to adopt 
 those improvements, and from the circumstance of the rest of 
 the world being so much more disadvantageously placed in 
 the war of that time, they were then unable to follow us, 
 but time and peace have altered the case very much, and we 
 cannot expect to reap the same benefits after a certain period 
 from any new discovery, however great it may be, that we 
 did in the earlier stages. The cause of the increase in the 
 value of land was the start in manufactures ; but we kept the 
 start the longer by reason of the war. Decrease in the value 
 of land will only occur from the decline of manufactures in 
 this country. That is the only matter to which I look with 
 any apprehension as regards the prosperity of this country." 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF MANUFACTURE. 
 
 " At the present time an extraordinary progress is being 
 made in different branches of manufacture in Germany, and 
 other parts of the Continent, where, a few years ago, the manu- 
 factories were producing comparatively very small quantities. 
 This is a subject o great uneasiness to my mind. I think I 
 see a change taking place, and that we may find ourselves 
 mistaken in supposing that we can always retain the trade, 
 which, having commenced with great advantages in the first 
 instance, we were in the earlier stages allowed to carry on to
 
 THE PROGRESS OF MANUFACTURE. 263 
 
 a great extent. But it is because I fear this, because I see 
 the power of competition rising abroad, because I expect 
 these countries will some day drive us out of the foreign 
 market, and thus deprive us of our means of exportation, that 
 I am so anxious to remove what I think are the impediments 
 to an equal power of competition on our part with those 
 foreign countries. By impediments I mean the expense of 
 living in this country, and the charges upon that living. 
 And also the checking of commercial intercourse with other 
 countries by the protective system, which prevents our manu- 
 facturers from obtaining their best returns for the goods they 
 can export. The progress in manufactures which is observ- 
 able abroad is such, that unless we take some strong measures 
 for the purpose of putting our population upon a natural 
 footing, and therefore upon nearly the same footing with 
 their competitors, I look forward with apprehension to the 
 trade of this country suffering considerably : that is a reason 
 for taking off all protections, and it is a very different opera- 
 tion from that which would go to the imposing of protecting 
 duties for the express purpose of reimbursing particular 
 interests for the taxes which they pay in ordinary con- 
 sumption. The foreign manufacturers have shown that they 
 can make the goods; it requires time to enable them to make 
 enough to supplant us." 
 
 PROTECTIVE DUTIES SHOULD BE REMOVED ENTIRELY. 
 
 " The protective system ought to be removed entirely, and 
 not partially. One of the greatest burdens upon our indus- 
 try is this system. If you were to leave it in ninety-nine 
 articles, and take it off in the hundredth, the party having 
 it taken off in the hundredth would be aggrieved. The pro- 
 tection on corn here affects the cost of produce even in 
 Jamaica. 
 
 I am strongly of opinion that all our colonies would be 
 able to compete with the world, and to become exceedingly
 
 264 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 prosperous, if they had free-trade offered to them ; and, 
 having granted that boon to them, I think it would be wholly 
 unnecessary to support them by any protection. Of course 
 they must be colonies placed in all respects upon an equal 
 footing with those countries which produce similar commodi- 
 ties. I cannot conceive, that having thirty years ago abolished 
 the slave trade, and now abolished slavery itself, that any 
 question of free trade can arise between Jamaica and Cuba ; 
 Cuba, its abundance of rich soil, not only having the advan- 
 tage of employing slaves, whatever that may be, but noto- 
 riously importing the enormous amount of 40,000 or 50,000 
 slaves every year ; having in fact the slave trade and slavery, 
 ;ind as the laws of this country have deprived the planter in 
 Jamaica of that means of raising his produce, I conceive 
 that this is a question, like several others, that are entirely 
 taken out of the category of free trade. I think, also, upon 
 the subject of the health of the country, the quarantine laws 
 and regulations, whatever impediments they may throw in 
 the way of trade, assuming that it is only by those regu- 
 lations we avoid the plague (however doubtful that may be) 
 still, as long as those measures are employed, that is not a 
 question for free trade. These are therefore the cases of 
 national defence, the health of the country and free labour, 
 involving matters of security and morality, which are taken 
 out of the class of free-trade, because they are by the law 
 interfered with, for purposes independent of trade." 
 
 PROTECTION IN TROPICAL COLONIES. 
 
 " The protecting duties in our tropical colonies are not 
 intended for the benefit of any local interests, but are 
 adverse to all. But with regard to such commodities as 
 sugar and coffee, I think the Government of this country 
 must, before long, make up its mind to that measure of 
 protection they will give to our producing colonies, with 
 reference, under all circumstances, to a fair consideration for
 
 THE TROPICAL COLONIES. 265 
 
 the supply of the country with those commodities, by a 
 suitable reduction of the present difference of duty, which 
 is only a prohibition under another name. If it should 
 prove that our own colonies cannot supply this country, in a 
 fair degree, according to the reasonable expectations of the 
 country, then the Government and the public must make up 
 their minds as to the distinction they will make between the 
 productions of slave labour and free labour : what they may 
 be, it is not for me to imagine, but certainly a sum far below 
 the duty which now exists." 
 
 IMPERIAL DUTIES IN THE COLONIES. 
 
 " It is a great mistake our having ever imposed imperial 
 duties in the colonies. I conceive that no money ought to be 
 raised there for revenue by the authority of this country ; 
 and that under a proper supervision from the Government at 
 home, they ought to be allowed to tax themselves, for their 
 fiscal purposes." 
 
 PROTECTION TO BRITISH SHIPPING. 
 
 " I conceive that British shipping, if relieved from all those 
 disadvantages which I attribute to our protective system, 
 would be able to compete with most parts of the globe. I 
 see no reason why British shipping should not have increased 
 in proportion to the increase of the trade unless they are 
 checked by the great charge of outfit, by the duty upon 
 foreign timber, and the consequent high price of English 
 timber in this country, and the high price of provisions. I 
 think that if the British shipping interest were relieved from 
 all impediments of this description, and simply required to 
 build their ships here, and to take a due proportion of British 
 sailors, and left to all their best means of building and fitting 
 out, they would be able to compete in general trade with any 
 country in the world : and certainly with any country capable 
 of becoming a naval power, which is all we should care about.
 
 266 LIFE OF J. DFACON HUME. 
 
 " In the building of ships, the expense of timber must be a 
 very great consideration : and the price is enhanced by the 
 high duties. There is a duty of fifty-five shillings a load on 
 foreign oak ; that must raise the price in a great measure, if 
 not entirely, by fifty-five for every load of oak that is cut in 
 this country. The shipowner cannot build so cheap in con- 
 sequence of this high price of oak : I can remember that 
 some fifteen years ago, by the direction of Mr. Iluskisson, I 
 proposed to the shipowners, as from him, that a drawback 
 should be given upon foreign timber used in the building of 
 ships, in the same manner as the duty is given back for the 
 building of churches, and it was presumed, that with that 
 example before us, surveys might be made of the ships before 
 their frames were entirely closed up, and the amount ascer- 
 tained, but it was objected to by the shipowners of that day. 
 It was offered to them as far as the offer could be made by a 
 minister, that this boon should be granted to them ; but they 
 objected to it, because, they said, it would lead to the building 
 of much cheaper ships afterwards, and that that would be an 
 injury to the shipowners, with their present shipping." 
 
 PACKAGES RESTRICTED TO PREVENT SMCGGUKQ. 
 
 " The system of restricting packages for the importation of 
 high-dutied goods under the belief that it prevented smuggling, 
 is very old, and was some years ago carried to a far greater 
 extent than it is now. It has lately been very much relieved, 
 but still there are many regulations which I think might be 
 relaxed still further, and greater liberty given. For such 
 commodities as spirits and tobacco, when a lugger runs her 
 cargo upon the beach the people come down in scores, with 
 slings contrived on purpose, like harness, to carry off casks, 
 and run up the cliff, and those casks are very soon carried 
 out of sight ; therefore, in those commodities, to fix the 
 packages at such a size that one man shall be unable to carry 
 them off, may perhaps, be still advisable, but the packages at
 
 SCHEME OF THE TARIFF. 267 
 
 present demanded are far beyond that, and I see no reason for 
 that excess of size or weight." 
 
 THE SCHEME OF THE TARIFF. 
 
 " A very great amendment might be made in what I would 
 term the scheme of the tariff, I think that a very large 
 number of commodities might be placed together at some 
 exceedingly low and nominal duty, without any injury to the 
 revenue, and with great benefit to the parties importing them, 
 because it would relieve them in many instances from the 
 necessity of warehousing. I think that for the like purpose a 
 reduction of duties might also be made on more productive 
 articles, without much loss ; but if it should be held that the 
 revenue could not bear the loss, an exceedingly small increase, 
 and which could hardly be objected to upon a few great 
 articles, would very easily make up the sum. If, for instance, 
 you require 200,OOOJ. or 300,OOOJ. a year in the customs 
 duties, with a view of accomplishing a more perfect scheme of 
 collection, and that that sum could not be spared, it is very 
 readily seen how easily that might be raised by a half-penny 
 a pound upon tea, a penny a gallon upon wine ; a few trifling 
 charges of that kind upon some of the great articles, would 
 give the money which would be requisite." 
 
 THE REVENUE WOULD KOT BE INJURED BT THE REMOVAL OF 
 PROTECTIVE DUTIES. 
 
 " I am not aware of any case in which the revenue would be 
 injured by removing the protective duty. Even diminishing 
 the protection on timber would improve the revenue. I should 
 say so with respect to sugar. You would have a large influx 
 of sugar. There would be a reduction in price, but still a 
 larger quantity of sugar would come in and pay duty. If, for 
 instance, the protecting duty of three guineas the hundred- 
 weight on foreign Muscovado sugar, were reduced so as to be
 
 268 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 only 20*. above the duty on plantation sugar, I should not be 
 surprised to see the produce of the sugar duties increased by 
 a million of money." 
 
 Those who were acquainted with Mr. Deacon Hume, 
 and aware of the earnestness and sincerity of purpose 
 which always distinguished him, were not surprised at 
 the remarkable boldness with which he gave expression 
 to his convictions before the Committee; hostile as 
 those opinions were to the supposed interests of the 
 existing Government ; the effective manner in which 
 he denounced the fallacies of reciprocity; and main- 
 tained the great principle that a wise nation ought to 
 reform its own tariff, unfetter its own trade, without 
 inquiring whether other countries would, or would not 
 enter upon the same course of liberality. As a distin- 
 guished member of the House of Commons recently 
 remarked to the writer of these pages, " he gave 
 utterance to his opinions before that committee, with a 
 firm adherence to principles which were then so much 
 in advance of the time, that his great practical know- 
 ledge, and the ability with which he maintained his 
 views, alone saved him from the charge of Utopianism." 
 When the question was put to him, " Would you 
 remove our own protection without any foreign country 
 removing theirs?" his reply was, " Most certainly, and 
 without even asking them. I dislike all treating except- 
 ing upon navigation. I would take what I wanted, and 
 leave them to find the value of our custom." Such 
 was his mode of dealing with these subjects such was 
 the terseness of his diction. His motto might have
 
 TESTIMONIES TO HIS EVIDENCE. 269 
 
 been, " Fac recte, nil time;" for the love of right, and 
 the unfaltering avowal of right, he was equally deserv- 
 ing of honour. 
 
 The writer is acquainted with two persons only, who 
 heard his oral testimony before the Import Duties 
 Committee : one, a valuable and intelligent member of 
 it, Mr. Ewart, now member for Dumfries, whose opinion 
 will be given in a future page ; the other a banker of 
 liberal opinions, who having paid some attention to the 
 subject of free-trade, had settled down into a decided 
 protectionist. There are few persons, as his most inti- 
 mate friends affirm, whom after he had formed a decided 
 opinion upon any subject it would be more difficult to 
 bring over to a contrary conviction. But it was effected 
 in this instance ; and being convinced, he had the moral 
 courage to confess, that he " could not withstand the 
 evidence of Deacon Hume," who, he said, and continues 
 to say, made him a free-trader.
 
 270 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE EVIL EFFECTS OF PROTECTING DUTIES UPON MORALS AND 
 CIVILIZATION. 
 
 THE LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES. 
 
 "FoB the sake of its moral benefit, I know of no 
 achievement," said Dr. Chalmers, "more urgently 
 desirable than that of a free corn trade. There is not 
 a more fertile topic of clamour and burning discontent 
 all over the land: and were it only effectually set at 
 rest, I am aware of nothing which might serve more to 
 sweeten the breath of British society." No observation 
 could possibly have been more just. But the remark 
 would have been equally correct, if it had been applied 
 to more limited interests. 
 
 It was a part of Mr. Deacon Hume's suggestion, and 
 it was adopted, that after the Board of Trade authori- 
 ties, and some leading merchants in London, Liverpool, 
 and other towns, had been examined, some individuals 
 of a very different class of life should be called in, 
 and questioned as to the moral effects of high duties in 
 the articles of coffee, tea, and sugar. The examination 
 of five keepers of the modern coffee-houses,* afforded a 
 
 * Mr. William Hare, Colonial Coffee-house, 78, Lombard- street; 
 Mr. James Pamphilon, 3 and 4, Sherrard-street, Hay market; Mr.
 
 LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES. 271 
 
 curious and interesting aspect of the progress of the 
 new taste which had within a few years grown up 
 among the middle and lower orders for drinking coffee 
 instead of beer and spirits; proving to all, who were 
 open to conviction, how extremely desirable it would be 
 to make good the immense deficiency in the proper 
 supply of coffee by our colonies. It appeared that 
 there were not more than twelve of these coffee-shops 
 in London twenty-five years previous to that date 
 (1840): but that there were then 1,800: that they 
 were increasing at the rate of 100 a year; that the 
 price per cup of coffee is Id. to 3d. ; and that one of 
 the keepers, who charged ld. a cup, had from 1,500 
 to 1,800 persons daily at his house. The witnesses, one 
 and all, complained bitterly of the pressure of the high 
 prices of coffee and sugar on their trade; they said 
 that, if they continued, they should be obliged to raise 
 the price of the first-mentioned article, and so take a 
 step which would have a very bad effect in checking 
 the habit of drinking coffee in preference to beer and 
 spirits. They affirmed on the other hand, that if the 
 duties were lowered, the consumption of coffee would 
 soon be five times greater than it was then, and that 
 this was no extravagant anticipation a political writer 
 contended was shown by the fact, that in Ireland coffee 
 was being sold in the place of whisky in the public 
 houses of the districts which were under Father 
 
 J. B. Humphreys, Crown Coffee-house, 41, High Holborn ; Mr. 
 Letchford, British Coffee-house, 37, High-street, Bloomsbuiy ; 
 Mr. Rogers, Angel Coffee-house, St Clements.
 
 272 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 Matthew's influence. But as the evidence of these 
 individuals is short, and as interesting as it is 
 instructive, we shall best conduce to the benefit of 
 general readers, thousands of whom never see even the 
 outside of a blue-book, by quoting it with very little 
 abbreviation. 
 
 " Mr. William Hare, Mr. James Pamphilon, Mr. J. B. 
 Humphreys, Mr. Thomas Letchford, and Mr. James 
 Rogers, called in and examined. 
 
 Mr. Ewart. " You are all keepers of coffee-houses in 
 London ? " (Mr. Hare.) " We are." 
 
 " Is coffee alone consumed, or principally, in your houses?" 
 (Mr. Hare.) " Principally coffee and tea." 
 
 " Have the number of coffee-houses in London increased 
 much of late years ? " (Mr. Humphreys.) " Very materially : 
 the annual increase has been nearly 100 per annum." 
 
 " Do you recollect the time when there were scarcely any 
 coffee-houses in London ? " " Yes : when I was a young man 
 there were not above ten or twelve coffee-houses in London ; 
 about twenty-five years ago. There are now, I think, from 
 1,600 to 1,800. I should think the average increase in the 
 last six years has been about 100 per annum." 
 
 " Has the charge for coffee to the consumer been reduced 
 in consequence of this competition ?" " Very materially. 
 About twenty-five years ago there was scarcely a house in 
 London where you could get any coffee under 6cf. a cup, or 
 3d. a cup: there are now coffee-houses open at from Id. up 
 to 3d. There are many houses where the charge is Id. 
 where they have from 700 to 800 persons a day. There is 
 Mr. Pamphilon, who charges l^d. a cup ; and he has from 
 1,500 to 1,600 persons a day." 
 
 (To Mr. Pamphilon.) " What is the class of persons that
 
 LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES. 273 
 
 frequent your house ? " " We have all classes. I have 
 three rooms ; and the more respectable classes are in the best 
 rooms. We have a great many foreigners." 
 
 " What are the hours of opening and of closing coffee- 
 houses ? " " The hours are from four to eleven at night : I 
 open at half-past five and shut up at half-past ten in the 
 evening." 
 
 " Do you take in a great number of newspapers and 
 periodicals?" " Yes : I take in forty-three London daily papers. 
 I have five or six copies of some of them. I have eight copies 
 of the Morning Chronicle." 
 
 (Chairman.) " Is that solely for the use of those who come 
 in to take coffee ? " " Yes: the man who pays \\d. for a cup 
 of coffee can read everything I have there." 
 
 " How long is he allowed to remain ? " " An hour, or 
 longer, if he chooses. We take in seven country papers, six 
 foreign papers, twenty-four magazines, four quarterly reviews, 
 and eleven weekly periodicals ; and any customer who comes 
 in and has a cup of coffee, for which he pays 1|'/., can 
 read anything we have." 
 
 (Mr. Villiers.) " Is it owing to the lowness of price that 
 you have so many customers ? " " It is owing partly to the 
 attraction of the newspapers and periodicals." 
 
 (Mr. Ewart) " Is it not owing, in part, to the change in 
 the habits of society, that the people are more inclined to 
 consume coffee, and sober beverages of that description, than 
 they used to be ? " " Yes : they used to have nothing to go 
 to but a public house." 
 
 (Mr. ViUitrs.) " You observe an increasing taste for 
 coffee ? " " Yes : and that has increased with the reduction 
 of price." 
 
 " You do not sell spirits at all ? " " Not at all ; and we do 
 not even cook a chop or a steak." 
 
 (Chairman.) " Have you found the desire to read the news- 
 papers increase ? " " Yet." 
 
 " What kind of people are they that chiefly frequent your 
 
 T
 
 274 LIFE OF J. DEACON HOME. 
 
 house ? " " We have a few hackney coachmen ; we have 
 post lads from Regent-street, and we have mechanics of all 
 classes. In the best room we have occasionally foreign cou- 
 riers and some gentlemen that live in the neighbourhood. 
 The majority are artizans." 
 
 (Mr. Ewari). " There are some coffee-houses entirely de- 
 voted to workmen, are there not ? " " Yes, where the price 
 is rather lower, mechanics and labourers." 
 
 " Are there many other coffee-houses in London which 
 take a great number of periodicals, besides yours ?" " A 
 great many." (Mr. Humphreys.} " The amount I used to pay 
 for newspapers, prior to the reduction of the duty, was 400/. 
 a year for newspapers, magazines, and the cost of binding 
 the back numbers for the use of my customers." 
 
 " No inebriety can possibly occur in your house ? " " No : 
 and I never heard an indecent expression. I have never 
 seen a drunken man in my house, with two exceptions, ever 
 since I have been in Holborn." 
 
 " You cannot sell any intoxicating beverage ? " " We are 
 seldom asked for it : we found that it would interfere with the 
 habits of gentlemen who frequent our house for the purpose of 
 taking coffee." 
 
 (Mr. Villiers). " It is the particular beverage that you sell 
 which is the great attraction to the persons that come to your 
 house ? " " Yes. I have upon the average 400 to 450 
 persons daily ; they are mostly lawyers' clerks and com- 
 mercial men ; some of them are managing clerks, many 
 solicitors, and gentlemen who take coffee in the middle of 
 the day, in preference to a more stimulating drink. I have 
 often asked myself the question, where all that number of 
 persons could possibly have got their refreshment prior to 
 opening my house. There were taverns in the neighbour- 
 hood, but no coffee-house, nor anything which afforded 
 accommodation of the nature I now give them ; I found that a 
 place of business like mine was so sought for by the public, 
 that shortly after I opened it, I was obliged to increase my
 
 LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES. 275 
 
 premises in every way that I could ; and at the present 
 moment, besides a great number of newspapers every day, I 
 am compelled to take in the highest class of periodicals. We 
 have eight or nine quarterly publications, averaging from 
 four to six shillings, and we are constantly asked for every 
 new work that comes out. There is an increasing taste for a 
 better class of reading. When I first went into business 
 many of my customers were content with the lower priced 
 periodicals ; but I find, as time progresses, that the taste is 
 improving, and they look out now for a better class of 
 literature." 
 
 (Mr. VilUers). " Do you know whether there are any shops 
 which the very lowest class of society resort to for coffee ? " 
 " Mr. Letchford keeps a coffee-house in St. Giles's." 
 
 (Chairman to Mr. Letchford). "How long have you kept 
 that house ? " " Seven years." 
 
 " What has been the increase in the number of persons 
 frequenting it ? " " I suppose I have from 700 to 900 a-day 
 frequenting my house." 
 
 " Are they chiefly Irish ? " No. A hard-working class 
 of people." 
 
 (Mr. Villiers). " To whom the cost of refreshment would 
 be an object? ""Yes." 
 
 (Chairman). "What do you charge per cup?" "My 
 front room is Id. ,my back room is 1J</., and my upstairs 
 is 3d." 
 
 " How many would each room hold ? " " My front shop 
 will hold about forty-six." 
 
 " Do you supply them with bread ? " " Yes." 
 
 " They are constantly coming ? " " Constantly." 
 
 " Men and women ? " " No women." 
 
 " Does a man come and get his breakfast ? " " Yes. He 
 comes in the morning at four o'clock, and has a cup of coffee, 
 a thin slice of bread and butter, and for that he pays 1 Jd. ; 
 and then again at eight for his breakfast, he has a cup of 
 coffee, a penny loaf and a pennyworth of butter, which is 3d.,
 
 276 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 and at dinner-time, instead of going to a public house, at 
 one o'clock, he comes in again, and has his coffee and his 
 bread, and brings his own meat. I do not cook for any one." 
 
 (Chairman). " Do you sell any beer ? " " No." 
 
 " Do you sell any tea ? " " Yes." 
 
 " What is the proportion of tea that you use to coffee?" 
 (Mr. Humphreys') " About one third." 
 
 " What do you charge for a cup of tea ? " " The trade 
 generally, where they sell coffee at l$d. a cup, charge 2d. 
 for tea." 
 
 (Mr. Villiers). "Is there any sugar with the tea and 
 coffee?" "Yes." 
 
 (Mr. Ewart). " You have petitioned for a reduction of the 
 duties on sugar and coffee ? " " (Mr. Hare). " We have." 
 
 ( Chairman). " Have the prices of coffee lately increased, 
 and has that induced you to raise your prices ?" " They have 
 very much increased : 35 per cent." 
 
 " Has there within the last month been an increase in the 
 general charge for coffee in coffee houses ? " " It commences 
 this very day." 
 
 " Has there been any meeting lately of the coffee-house 
 keepers, with a view of raising the charge for coffee ? " 
 " Yes ; last week." 
 
 " What was the result ? " " The result was, that it was 
 unanimously agreed upon at a public meeting, that the trade 
 could no longer afford, from the increased price of coffee and 
 sugar, to serve the lower classes at a penny a cup, and there- 
 fore that they must, if they did not alter the price, shut up 
 their houses; and therefore, the lower priced coffee-house 
 keepers solicited a meeting of the trade generally, to see if 
 they could not agree to raising the price, otherwise, the pro- 
 bability is, that during the next month a great number of 
 houses will be compelled to close." 
 
 " What price do you pay for the coffee you use ? " " The 
 average price would be about 2s. a pound. When I first 
 commenced business, the coffees that I bought for 480. in
 
 LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES. 277 
 
 bond per cwt., I now pay for the same marks about llOa. 
 to 120." 
 
 "Do you buy your coffees in bond? " " I do. Many of 
 the largest consumers do." 
 
 " Then the price of coffee at present is more than double 
 what it was when you commenced business ? " " It is. So 
 much so that my business, in fuct, the whole of my profits 
 have been taken away by the increase in price of the raw 
 material." 
 
 " Then the present high price must press heavily on that 
 class who have hitherto frequented your houses ? " " That 
 is not the only class on which it presses ; it presses severely 
 on the tradesmen who have kept the houses open, because, it 
 being a free trade, we have been competing with others to 
 supply the public at the lowest possible price, and at the 
 sacrifice of our pecuniary interest. In my own instance, 
 being desirous of keeping away opposition, I have kept on 
 my business at the same prices, and furnished the same 
 article, and the consequence has been, that instead of making 
 300/. or 400/. a year, I have been barely clearing my ex- 
 penses. Unless there is a fall in the price of coffee, I must 
 lessen the number of the publications I take in. No trades- 
 man would continue in such a slavish business as ours for a 
 number of years without the prospect of realizing something 
 for himself. " 
 
 (Mr. Ewarf). " Would it be a great benefit to the working 
 class to have coffee cheaper than it is ? " "I think the working 
 classes are not fairly dealt with. When we are desirous 
 of opening houses for the accommodation of the working 
 classes, we ought to be put upon as good a footing as the 
 publican. A poor man can go to the public house and get 
 his pint of porter for \\d., which he is compelled to take 
 standing, and we can afford to make him a cup of coffee for 
 2d., but, in addition to that, we give him the use of those 
 papers and books to read, and, in my opinion, that has had the 
 effect of materially improving his conduct generally in society."
 
 278 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 "Would a reduction of the duties on coffee and on 
 sugar be a great and important advantage to the classes that 
 resort to your house?" "Most material: and in a moral 
 point of view, as well as with regard to their pecuniary 
 means. My observations apply to sugar as well as coffee." 
 
 " What do you now pay for sugar compared with what 
 you paid for the same kind a few years ago? " " The loaf 
 sugar that I used to buy at 72s., I am now paying 114s. for; 
 the moist sugar for which I used to pay 52s., I am now 
 paying 84s. to 86s. ; and we are informed that the price will 
 be higher?" 
 
 " Did the great increase in these coffee shops take place 
 after the reduction of the duty on coffee?" "Principally. 
 I should wish to observe, that it would be a sad thing that a 
 large class of tradesmen, who are calculated to do a great 
 deal of good among the working classes, should be compelled 
 to shut up their houses, or to increase their prices. If they 
 increase their prices, it will limit their accommodation of the 
 poor man. It is a great consideration for the poor man. It 
 is a great consideration for the poor man, in many neigh- 
 bourhoods, whether he has to pay Id. or IJe?. for a cup 
 of coffee. Now he can have a cup for Id., and a loaf of 
 bread and some butter for 2d. more; and he has a warm 
 room to sit in during the whole of the day. Many of them 
 would be driven back to the public houses. 
 
 (Mr. Villiers). Are you interested in getting all the pro- 
 visions you supply the public with at as low a rate as 
 possible ? " " Yes. I believe we may trace the teetotal 
 societies, and those societies that advocate temperance for 
 working men, entirely to the establishment of coffee-houses, 
 because a few years ago it used to be almost a matter of 
 ridicule amongst working men to drink coffee: now they are 
 held up to emulate each other." 
 
 (Chairman). " Are any meetings of temperance societies held 
 in your coffee-houses?" " Yes, always in coffee-houses." 
 
 " Are the meetings of any of the trade societies held in
 
 LONDON COFFEE-HOUSES. 279 
 
 coffee-houses ? " " Not many." (Mr. Pamphilon). " There 
 have been one or two societies established in coffee-houses 
 for mechanics." (Mr. Rogers). "There are also several 
 benefit clubs held in coffee-houses." 
 
 14 Then those societies, which formerly met in public houses, 
 are now gradually resorting to coffee-houses ? " " They are, 
 particularly at the east end of the town." (Mr. Pamphilon). 
 "I believe that not one-third of my customers ever go into a 
 public house at all. We have an immense trade in the 
 middle of the day." (Mr. Humphreys). " I wish to state that 
 latterly the coffee-houses have been compelled to sell meat, 
 ready-cooked meat; people were so desirous of having their 
 meals in houses of this description, that they have come and 
 had their dinner there, as well as their tea and breakfast." 
 (Mr. Pamphilon). " We often have a hundred people dining 
 in the middle of the day off cold ham, and meat, and coffee." 
 
 41 What you have now stated applies to the whole 1,600 or 
 1,700 ?" " Yes ; we have one gentleman here who keeps a 
 house of the highest class, and another who keeps a lowest 
 priced house, and mine is a medium price." (Mr. Hare). 
 44 Mine is a first-class house ; they prefer cpming to my house 
 for a chop or steak, but they invariably take coffee with 
 it. Bankers' clerks, and persons of that description, find that 
 coffee is refreshing ; and, besides, they find they can do their 
 business much better after it than if they took malt liquor." 
 
 (Mr. Ewarf). " Can you state whether coffee-houses have 
 increased in the provincial towns?" "They have, but not 
 to the same extent: but they are increasing generally over 
 the country." (Mr. Pamphilon). " In country places, where- 
 ever a person lodges, they cook his victuals, and do everything 
 for him." 
 
 (Sir Charles Douglas). " From what time do you date the 
 commencement of this trade ? " (Mr. Hare.) " When I first 
 took the house which I have now, which was nine years ago, 
 we did not cook anything : it has come upon me impercep- 
 tibly : many of my customers said, ' We do not like to go to
 
 280 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 a tavern ; if you will oblige us with a chop in the middle of 
 the day we should be very glad : ' in that way it has gradually 
 gone on: but the commencement was not more than six or 
 seven years ago." (Mr. Humphreys.) " I now sell about three 
 cwts. of cold ham and meat every week, I was first compelled 
 to sell it by persons going to a cook-shop, and buying their 
 meat and bringing it in, and asking me for a plate, and 
 I found it a matter of some little trouble without any 
 profit; it occurred to me that I might as well cook; and I 
 have myself now, in consequence of that, a business the 
 whole of the day. A number of gentlemen come in and 
 have a plate of beef for 4d., a cup of coffee for 2d., and a loaf 
 of bread: and for 6d. or Id. they have, what is for them, 
 a good breakfast. In fact, a gentleman may come to my 
 house and have as good a breakfast for 8d. as he can have in 
 any hotel for 
 
 The Manchester Chamber of Commerce observed in 
 their report, in 1841, that the enormous amount levied 
 upon the community, by being obliged to pay for their 
 sugar, coffee, timber, and corn, higher prices than the 
 same articles may be purchased at in the markets of the 
 world, almost exceeded belief. 
 
 The Committee on the Import Duties, which sat only 
 ten days, shortly after made a report, which "sealed 
 the fate of our superannuated tariff." It endorsed the 
 statement of Mr. Deacon Hume, at the commencement 
 of his evidence, respecting the complication and in- 
 equality of the table of duties, by reporting that " the 
 tariff of the United Kingdom presents neither congruity 
 nor unity of purpose; no general principles seem to 
 have been applied." That the tariff often "aimed at 
 incompatible ends." Duties were sometimes meant to
 
 IMPORT DUTIES COMMITTEE. 281 
 
 be " both productive of revenue and for protective 
 objects, which are frequently inconsistent with each 
 other; hence they sometimes operate to the complete 
 exclusion of foreign produce, and in so far no revenue 
 can of course be received; and sometimes, when the 
 duty is inordinately high, the amount of revenue 
 becomes in consequence trifling. They do not make 
 the receipt of revenue the main consideration, but 
 allow that primary object of fiscal regulations to be 
 thwarted by an attempt to protect a great variety of 
 particular interests, at the expense of the revenue, and 
 of the commercial intercourse with other countries." 
 They also reported the tariff as having been made 
 " subordinate to many small producing interests at 
 home, by the sacrifice of revenue in order to support 
 their interests." That the principle of preference by 
 the various discriminatory duties was largely applied to 
 the produce of our colonies, colonial interests being 
 favoured at the expense of the mother country. The 
 evidence which had been given respecting the articles 
 of sugar and coffee was pointed at as conclusive as 
 examples of the operation of these prohibitive duties. 
 It was added that the monopoly granted to British 
 colonial sugars had so enormously raised the prices 
 in our market, that they had lately come into con- 
 sumption though charged with a duty of 63. per cwt., 
 while our plantation sugars paid only 6. The Com- 
 mittee expressed their belief that the effect of prohibitory 
 duties, while they were wholly unproductive to the 
 revenue, is to impose an indirect tax on the consumer,
 
 282 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 often equal to the entire difference of price between the 
 British article and the foreign article, which the prohi- 
 bition excludes. That on articles of food alone, the 
 amount taken from the consumer exceeds the amount of 
 all the other taxes which are levied by the Government. 
 That the sacrifices of the community are not limited by 
 the loss of revenue, but are accompanied by injurious 
 effects upon wages and capital ; diminishing greatly the 
 productive powers of the country, and limiting our active 
 trading relations. 
 
 Similar was the testimony respecting protective 
 duties, imposing upon the consumer a tax equal to the 
 amount of the duties levied upon the foreign article, while 
 it also increases the price of all the competing home- 
 produced articles to the same amount as the duty ; but 
 the increased price does not go to the treasury, but to the 
 protected manufacturer. That these high protective 
 duties check importation, are unproductive to the 
 revenue; while profit to the trader, benefit to the 
 consumer, and the fiscal interests of the country, are 
 all sacrificed by heavy import duties impeding the 
 interchange of commodities with other nations. 
 
 After animadverting upon the evil effects of the 
 protective system on manufacture and labour, the 
 Committee gave expression to the following important 
 admission : 
 
 " Several witnesses have expressed the utmost willingness 
 to surrender any protection they have from the tariff, and 
 disclaim any benefit resulting from that protection; and in 
 investigating the subject as to the amount of duties levied on 
 the plea of protection to British manufactures, your committee
 
 IMPORT DUTIES COMMITTEE. 283 
 
 have to report that the amount does not exceed half a million 
 sterling: and some of the manufacturers, who are supposed 
 to be most interested in retaining those duties, are quite 
 willing they should be abolished, for the purpose of intro- 
 ducing a more liberal system into our commercial policy." 
 
 The report closed with the following recommenda- 
 tion: 
 
 "The committee have thought themselves warranted in 
 reporting their strong conviction of the necessity of an imme- 
 diate change in the import duties of the kingdom: and should 
 Parliament sanction the views which your Committee enter- 
 tain upon these most important matters: they are persuaded 
 that by imposts on a small number of those articles which 
 are now most productive, the amount of each impost being 
 carefully considered with a view to the greatest consumption 
 of the article, and thereby the greatest receipt to the customs, 
 no loss would occur to the revenue, but, on the contrary, 
 a considerable augmentation might be confidently anticipated. 
 
 " The simplification they recommend would not only vastly 
 facilitate the transactions of commerce, and thereby benefit 
 the revenue, but would at the same time greatly diminish the 
 cost of collection, remove multitudinous sources of complaint 
 and vexation, and give an example to the world at large, 
 which, emanating from a community distinguished above all 
 others for its capital, its enterprise, its intelligence, and the 
 extent of its trading relations, could not but produce the 
 happiest effects ; and consolidate the great interests of peace and 
 commerce, by associating them intimately and permanently 
 with the prosperity of the whole family of nations." 
 
 The report, with the evidence upon which it was 
 founded, was no sooner printed than, as Mr. Deacon 
 Hume and his friends observed with the greatest interest, 
 it attracted attention. In one instance the entire subject 
 was earnestly recommended to the consideration of
 
 284 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 another select committee, of which Sir Robert Peel, Sir 
 James Graham, Lord Sandon, and Mr. Herries should 
 be members. It was urged that the reform of the 
 poor-laws was a more difficult task than the reform of 
 the customs duties, but that the main difficulties were 
 overcome by submitting it to the investigation and 
 judgment of the leading men of both parties. The 
 like result it was argued would be attained with regard 
 to the so strongly called-for reform of our economical 
 legislation. Though this advice, and the quarter from 
 which it came, was influential, it was passed by 
 unheeded. The blue-book in the meanwhile was effect- 
 ing great things. It had attracted the notice of other 
 countries. Sir John Bowring, with much satisfaction, 
 announced in Parliament that it had been translated 
 into Spanish. It became the text-book of our legis- 
 lators, and no inconsiderable number of the members of 
 both houses of Parliament fairly went to school upon 
 it. It was the subject of constant observation and dis- 
 cussion in the columns of the leading reviews, as well as 
 of the ordinary public journals. The author of an able 
 article in the Examiner, on the 22nd of January, 1842, 
 having noticed the desire which had been expressed by 
 a political writer for some such evidence as the blue- 
 book which we have been noticing affords, remarked, 
 " he may gratify his desire by perusing the Report of 
 the Import Duties Committee, and the Committee on 
 East India Produce of last year. He may usefully 
 employ himself in considering the Reformed Tariff of 
 Mr. Macgregor, the present Secretary of the Board of
 
 IMPORTANT TESTIMONIES. 285 
 
 Trade. He .will not fail to study also, we trust, the 
 very able evidence of, unhappily now the late, Mr. 
 Deacon Hume, whose long life of official labour appears 
 thus to have well closed in bequeathing a legacy of 
 enlightened principles to his country the result alike 
 of great experience, and of a mind as upright as it was 
 clear and powerful." 
 
 Although Sir Robert Peel still resisted the motions 
 which were made by the advocates of free-trade, it was 
 observed that the report and the evidence had made an 
 impression upon him. He had previously admitted that 
 the statement that the condition of the labourer had been 
 rendered worse by the operation of the corn law was "a 
 most important one; " and he had "no hesitation in say- 
 ing, that unless the existence of the corn law could be 
 shown to be consistent, not only with the prosperity of 
 agriculture and the maintenance of the general interests 
 of the country, but also, and especially, with the im- 
 provement of the condition of the labouring class, it 
 was practically at an end." From time to time he 
 continued to make admissions which rendered the Pro- 
 tectionists visibly uneasy, though they did not openly 
 acknowledge it, and the abolitionists proportionally 
 sanguine with respect to the issue. From the year 
 1840 to 1846 he continued to quote frequently from the 
 Report, and especially from the evidence of Mr. Hume. 
 On the 9th of February, 1842, we find him saying in 
 his speech on the corn laws 
 
 " Taking next the consumption of wheat, I find that Mr. 
 Deacon Hume states the consumption of this country, to be
 
 286 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 one quarter of wheat for each person. Dr. Bowring calculates 
 that 24,000,000 of inhabitants of Great Britain consume 
 45,000,000 quarters of all kinds of grain. I beg the House 
 to recollect, that I take the estimate of two gentlemen pos- 
 sessed of ample means of information, and entertaining views 
 upon this question which free their testimony from all 
 suspicion. Mr. Deacon Hume made our consumption one 
 quarter of wheat per head. The honourable gentleman (Dr. 
 Bowring) allows nearly two quarters of grain to each indi- 
 vidual. In the Prussian states, he says ; 14,000,000 of 
 inhabitants consume 13,000,000 quarters of grain, being less 
 than one quarter to each person. Again, while Mr. Deacon 
 Hume allows one quarter of grain which he assigns to each 
 individual in Prussia, three fourths at least consists of rye. 
 Throughout the Prussian States, the consumption of rye and 
 wheat, he says, is in the proportion of from three and four to 
 one. In 124 towns of the leagues, he estimates the con- 
 sumption per head at 65 Ibs. of wheat, and 241 Ibs. of rye ; 
 that is to say, each individual consumes very little more than 
 one bushel of wheat, instead of one quarter. In England, the 
 honourable gentleman states the consumption of tea at 1 Ib. 
 per head annually ; in the Prussian States salt, he says, is 
 
 16 Ibs. in Prussia, and 22 Ibs. in England My 
 
 argument goes to show, that it is not fair to appeal to the 
 diminished price of food in other countries as proving increased 
 comfort in the people in proportion as the article is low 
 priced." 
 
 It was not, however, until nearly two years after the 
 Report of the Import Duties Committee had been 
 printed, that it bore fruit, in the shape of a substantial 
 measure, On the 10th of May, 1842, Sir Robert Peel, 
 in a very characteristic speech, introduced his scheme 
 for a revision of the tariff, and for a very extensive alter- 
 ation of the Customs' Acts. The proposals which it
 
 SIR R. PEEL REVISES THE TARIFF. 287 
 
 embodied, with the exception of the article of corn, 
 which the Minister, through four subsequent years, 
 held to be an exception to the general rule, were, as 
 far as they went, very nearly what Mr. Deacon Hurne 
 had recommended. He disclaimed on his own part, 
 and on the part of the Government, any undue credit 
 for the proposals which he was about to submit, remind- 
 ing the House of the labours of the Committee on 
 Importations, the valuable evidence it had collected, 
 the degree of attention which had consequently been 
 drawn to the state of the tariff and importation duties, 
 recorded his opinion that it had established a consider- 
 able claim upon public gratitude. The object of his 
 own measure, he continued, would be to simplify the 
 existing law. It was generally admitted that it was 
 in many respects obscure and inconsistent, that there 
 were duties applicable to particular articles which were 
 irreconcilable with principle. He thought that a great 
 part of the anomalies and inconsistencies arose from the 
 practice of an indiscriminate duty being applied to 
 various articles. His object would be to remove all 
 absolute prohibitions upon the import of foreign articles, 
 and to reduce duties which were too high to admit of 
 fair competition with domestic produce. His object 
 was to make the duties such that they might be really 
 levied and assist the revenue. The duty on the raw 
 materials used for manufactures in this country was 
 not to exceed five per cent. On articles partially 
 manufactured the duty was to be about twelve per cent, 
 and on complete manufactures not above twenty per
 
 288 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 cent. Oxen, sheep, and other agricultural produce, 
 which had previously been prohibited, were to be 
 admitted at a moderate rate of duty it amounted, for 
 instance, to fifteen shillings for each cow, and three 
 shillings for each sheep. A great number of articles 
 were enumerated, the duties upon which were, in some 
 instances, to be lowered 100 per cent Amongst the 
 articles which he dealt with, were clover and grass 
 seeds, onions, foreign woods, especially mahogany; 
 iron, lead, and copper ; spermaceti, train, and bladder 
 oil ; dye-stuff and drugs ; foreign meat, rice, straw- 
 plait, and other articles. Upon approaching the sub- 
 ject of a reduction of duty on timber he observed 
 
 " The more I consider this subject, the more firmly I hold 
 the opinion that we are about to confer an important benefit 
 on the consumer, by the relinquishment of a certain amount 
 a very great amount I admit, of revenue. Here I may be 
 allowed to support my views by a dictum of Mr. Deacon 
 Hume, who observed ' We have abundance of untaxed coal ; 
 abundance of untaxed iron; we only want abuudance of 
 untaxed wood, in order to be provided cheaply with the three 
 great primary raw materials of employment and industry.' 
 That was the opinion, shortly expressed, of Mr. Deacon Hume, 
 with respect to the great advantages of a reduction of duty on 
 this article. I am afraid we cannot confer on the consumer 
 the benefit of untaxed wood ; I wish we could ; but a total 
 reduction of duty would be, I think, unwise. To admit an 
 unlimited competition with the colonies in an article of so 
 much importance to them, would be a course open to grave 
 objection. But the arrangement ultimately to import colonial 
 timber free from duty, will keep in check any demand which 
 might be made upon you, in the event of your being disposed 
 to afford additional facilities for the importation of Baltic 
 timber."
 
 THE NEW TARIFF. 289 
 
 The new tariff produced considerable discontent, 
 especially amongst the landowners. The free-traders, 
 who viewed the measure as a step in the right direction, 
 endeavoured to get the duties on articles from foreign 
 countries reduced to a level with those which were 
 brought from the colonies. The protectionists regarded 
 the measure as an abandonment of their interests. 
 
 On the fifth night's debate upon the distress of the 
 country, Lord Howick's motion, the premier replied to 
 a part of Mr. Cobden's speech in the following terms : 
 
 " ' But,' says the honourable gentleman, ' you reduce the 
 price of timber when there are no factories to build ; ' as if 
 there were nothing else in the world but factories. I do not 
 undervalue the importance of factories ; but to say that when 
 bridges, houses, and various other buildings, are always to be 
 constructed or repaired, no advantage is derived in the great 
 reduction of the price of timber, simply because no additional 
 cotton mills are required, is an argument which only indicates 
 that the honourable gentleman's notions of commercial pro- 
 sperity, and the happiness of the nation, all centre in the 
 erection of cotton mills throughout the country. I think I 
 can establish the importance of the alteration, by the words 
 of Mr. Deacon Hume, for there was no one article to which 
 he attached greater importance than timber. He said, ' You 
 have coal and iron cheap ; make timber cheap too, and you 
 have the three great elements of commercial prosperity.' " 
 
 Again, on the 17th June, 1844, on the order of the 
 day being read, for the House to resolve itself into 
 Committee on the Sugar Duties Bill, after stating that 
 he had always been of opinion that the ordinary con- 
 siderations which determine matters of financial and 
 commercial policy do not apply to the particular article 
 
 U
 
 290 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 of sugar, there occurs the most pointed testimony of 
 all to the subject of this volume. 
 
 " Whether the views we still entertain upon this subject 
 be well founded or not, at least they are consistent views- 
 views which we held, which we avowed, and acted upon 
 when we were opposed to the right honourable gentleman.* 
 They appeared to receive a sanction also from the very high 
 authority of one whose name I have never mentioned without 
 accompanying it with professions of respect for his opinions 
 on all matters of finance, I mean Mr. Deacon Hume. That 
 gentleman was the advocate of the removal of the restrictions 
 on the trade in corn, and he was the decided opponent of the 
 protective system : he was the authority of all others who has 
 given the most express and positive opinions, deriving great 
 weight from his official situation and connection with the 
 Government in favour of unrestricted commerce and the 
 abolition of protection. Mr. Hume himself excepted this 
 article of sugar and the slave trade from the ordinary prin- 
 ciples which should govern the commercial regulations. 
 He said, 'I cannot conceive after having thirty years ago 
 abolished the slave trade, and after having abolished slavery 
 itself, that any question of free-trade can arise respecting 
 Cuba with her abundance of rich soil not only having the 
 advantage of a population of slaves, but notoriously importing 
 the enormous amount of 40,000 to 60,000 slaves annually, 
 having in fact the slave-trade and slavery. When the law 
 has deprived the planter of the means of raising his produce, 
 I consider the question as altogether taken out of the category 
 of free-trade.' Those were the opinions of Mr. Deacon Hume, 
 delivered so recently as the year 1840. He was the advocate 
 of the abolition of all restrictions. Her Majesty's Govern- 
 ment entertain the same opinion. They think, that to expose 
 the British planter, who has neither the advantage, if it be 
 an advantage, of slavery, nor still less of the slave-trade, to the 
 
 Mr, Laboucherc, President of the Board of Trade.
 
 THE NEW TARIFF. 291 
 
 necessity of competing with Brazil and Cuba, spots the most 
 favoured by nature for the production of sugar the parts of 
 the world containing probably the most of rich and virgin 
 soil, and with a climate peculiarly adapted to the production 
 of sugar: we entertain Mr. Hume's opinion that if you 
 prohibit the slave-trade and abolish slavery, it requires 
 the most mature consideration before you subject the British 
 planter to competition with countries possessed of such 
 facilities for increased production." 
 
 In the Session of 1845, further reductions in the 
 revenue duties were effected. The tax upon sugar was 
 lessened; but still there was a higher duty on the 
 produce of foreign countries than on that of our own 
 colonies, which dissatisfied the free-traders. The duty 
 on glass was entirely repealed, and the exciseman 
 banished, so far as that article of manufacture was 
 concerned. The duty on 430 different imported articles 
 on which the duties were trifling, bringing little to the 
 revenue, while they were very troublesome to officers 
 and merchants in the collection, were repealed by a 
 single act
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 NOTIONS ON BIOORAPHT MR. DISRAELI QUOTED SIR R. PEEL'S 
 
 SYMPATHY WITH TI1E CREATIONS OF OTHERS HlS RESPECT FOB 
 
 MR. DEACON HUME'S OPINIONS OK FINANCE His INFLUENCE 
 
 ' DIFFICULTIES EXERTIONS MR. HUME'S SCHEME FOR LIFE 
 
 INSURANCE FOR THE WORKING CLASSES His USEFULNESS 
 
 HlS UNOSTENTATIOUS CAREER HlS DEATH SlR ROBERT PEEL'S 
 ALLUSION TO IT IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 " Multis ille bonia flebilis occidit." HOR. 
 
 " OUR notions," says an able writer, " upon the subject 
 of biography, may be extravagant ; but if an individual 
 is really of consequence enough to have his life and 
 character recorded for public remembrance, we have 
 always been of opinion that the public ought to be 
 made acquainted with all the inward springs and rela- 
 tions of his character. How did the world and the man's 
 life, from his particular position, modify him from with- 
 out; how did he modify these from within? With 
 what endeavours and what efficiency rule over them ? 
 With what resistance and what sufferings sink under 
 them? In a word, what and how produced, was his 
 effect upon society? He who should answer these 
 questions in regard to any individual would, we be- 
 lieve, furnish a model of perfection in biography." We
 
 HIS INFLUENCE. 293 
 
 have from the outset endeavoured, at least, to profit by 
 these suggestive observations, and we shall continue to 
 do so, though our success may be very imperfect 
 
 The passages which were quoted in the foregoing 
 chapter from the debates in Parliament, clearly show 
 how highly Sir Robert Peel and few statesmen ever 
 measured men so accurately estimated Mr. Deacon 
 Hume's opinions upon matters of finance, as well as 
 the influence which he was exercising over the mind of 
 the Minister. 
 
 Mr. Disraeli has remarked in his life of Lord George 
 Bentinck, that Sir Robert Peel " had a dangerous sym- 
 pathy with the creations of others." That " there was 
 always some person representing some theory or system 
 exercising an influence over him." That " in his 
 sallet days, it was Mr. Homer or Sir Samuel Romilly ; 
 in later, and more important periods, it was the Duke 
 of Wellington, the King of the French, Mr. Jones Loyd, 
 some others, and finally Mr. Cobden." If Mr. Disraeli 
 had been obliged to name the persons whom he included 
 in the words " some others," the writer has little doubt, 
 though he has no authority for saying it, that he would 
 have mentioned the subject of these pages. 
 
 We have already remarked that Sir Robert Peel, in 
 theory, was always a free-trader, though cautious, pro- 
 bably from feeling that he was not free to act, so long 
 as he continued to be the leader of the Tory party ; 
 but there was the gradual deepening of his convictions 
 brought about by his habit of proceeding to act only 
 upon actual and matured facts, which demanded for
 
 294 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 each great process, consideration, time, and unceasing 
 physical exertion. 
 
 Although Mr. Deacon Hume had now retired from 
 the duties of office into private life, he had retained his 
 disposition, as occasion required, to be useful to his 
 country. He was consequently rarely unoccupied, and 
 too often he was occupied unduly. Forty-nine years 
 of public service did not enable him, as many may have 
 supposed, to retire to a life of leisure, much less to a 
 life of ease. He had to contend with difficulties and 
 anxieties. His agricultural speculations had, owing to 
 circumstances over which he had no control, been very 
 disadvantageous ; and the responsibilities in which the 
 laws of partnership sometimes entangle even the most 
 prudent, at one time threatened to involve him in 
 serious embarrassment A railway company with 
 which he was concerned, was suddenly paralyzed, 
 mainly by the failure of a bank ; and such it was then 
 discovered were the terms of the company's Act, that 
 any one of the shareholders was liable to make good 
 the loss which the failure of the bank occasioned. How- 
 ever, as it often happens, when individuals endowed 
 with minds of a vigorous order, are suddenly thrown 
 into difficulty, they instantly begin to act for themselves 
 with a resolution which appears like a new faculty. So 
 it was in the present instance. Mr. Hume at once 
 applied himself with energy, albeit not without inter- 
 vals of apprehension and despondency, to redeem a 
 concern the prospects of which were exceedingly 
 gloomy. Nor was he unsuccessful. An Act of Par-
 
 LIFE INSURANCE FOB TIIE POOR. 295 
 
 liament was at length obtained by which the liability 
 was distributed ; and so greatly did his exertions change 
 the character of affairs, that not only was his own 
 property, but the property of others, secured from 
 threatened ruin. For years, it is true, it ceased to pay 
 a dividend; but this state of things terminated in course 
 of time ; and had his life been spared, he would have 
 witnessed its growing prosperity. 
 
 We have already mentioned the importance which 
 Mr. Hume attached to life assurance, and that he might 
 be considered as one of the founders of the "Atlas," 
 and of the " Customs Benevolent Fund." It should be 
 also mentioned, that he often expressed a desire that 
 some scheme of life insurance, or rather, against the 
 privations of age, should be introduced for the working 
 classes under the sanction of Government He thought 
 that this might be effected in connection with the poor 
 law unions. His plan was, that the young and middle- 
 aged should contribute in such a manner, that as years 
 advanced the payments should diminish, so that they 
 should cease altogether at a certain age. That at a 
 more remote period the funds should be a source of 
 benefit to the subscriber, who, when he had arrived at 
 an age when he could no longer work, should be entitled 
 to a maximum allowance. Those useful institutions 
 called Penny Banks, though they would, in one respect, 
 have very inadequately fulfilled the conceptions of Mr. 
 Hume, were not established until several years after his 
 death. We may add, that he strongly objected to the 
 practice of Friendly Societies meeting at public houses ;
 
 296 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 and when he resided at Pinner, he carried out his views 
 by making it a fundamental law of a friendly society 
 which he established there, that it never should meet at 
 a public house. 
 
 It would be impossible at this period of time to 
 ascertain how many plans for the public good he either 
 originated, or was mainly instrumental in carrying into 
 effect ; or the amount of influence which he exercised 
 over the minds of others in matters of lesser, as well as 
 in those of greater moment. The labour which he 
 underwent, and the good that he did, so far from being 
 paraded upon platforms, was effected in the most unos- 
 tentatious manner. While life remained, his calm, yet 
 active mind, 
 
 " Nor made a pause, nor felt a void." 
 
 That time, however, which comes to all, and often, as 
 in his case, with little or no warning of its approach, was 
 at hand, and an end was to be put to all his labours. 
 
 On Wednesday the 12th of January, 1842, at Great 
 Doods House, Reigate, in the sixty-ninth year of his 
 age, after an illness of some weeks, from which nothing 
 serious had been apprehended until the previous Monday, 
 when he was seized with stupor of an apoplectic cha- 
 racter from wlu'ch he never aroused, Mr. Deacon Hume 
 was removed by death to the deep regret of his family 
 and friends, as well as of a wide circle of public men. 
 His decease was not remotely attributable to over-exer- 
 tion and anxiety, the after effects of a mind over-taxed. 
 Dr. Gordon, in compliance with a special intimation,
 
 HIS DEATH. 297 
 
 immediately left town for Reigate, but all the hope 
 which he could hold out, was comprised in the not very 
 encouraging words, " He may possibly recover." His 
 death was noticed by several of the leading public 
 journals, in terms which were as just, as they were 
 gratifying to all who knew him. The remark, however, 
 of Dr. Johnson, in one of his " Lives," ought ever to be 
 borne in mind, for in no instance is it inapplicable. " We 
 have little reason to boast of our knowledge, when we, 
 after all, only gaze and wonder at the surface of things. 
 When the most arrogant philosopher knows not how a 
 grain of corn is generated, or why a stone falls to the 
 ground I But were our knowledge far greater than it 
 is, let us yet remember that goodness, not knowledge, 
 is the happiness of man I The day will come it will 
 come quickly when it shall profit us more to have 
 subdued one proud thought, than to have numbered the 
 host of heaven I " 
 
 Sir Robert Peel at the meeting of Parliament, took 
 an opportunity of alluding to the death of Mr. Hume in 
 a very feeling manner, speaking of his decease as " a 
 loss which he was sure the House would sincerely 
 deplore." * It could not be said of him, " Turn occidit, 
 cum lugere facilius rempublicam posset, si viverct, 
 qua in juvare," that he died at a time when it would 
 have been more easy for him to feel sorrow for his 
 country than to do it service if he had lived ; for what 
 a conspicuous and important part might he yet have 
 played ! But it was not to be. 
 
 February 9, 1842.
 
 298 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 His remains were interred in a vault near the north- 
 east corner of Reigate churchyard ; the funeral, as he 
 certainly would have desired, and such instances we are 
 happy to witness are constantly becoming more frequent 
 and in the highest stations, was " without ostentation or 
 parade of any kind." * Man, " whose breath is in his 
 nostrils," and who, as Sir Thomas Browne expresses it, 
 " is made out of an extract of the earth," whatever may 
 have been his condition during life, or however dis- 
 tinguished, ought to be neither " splendid in ashes," nor 
 " pompous in the grave." 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume had twelve children, of whom 
 eight daughters lived to be women : Charlotte, deceased, 
 who married the late Whitlock Nicholl, Esq., M.D., 
 of Charles Street, Berkeley Square, London ; Caroline, 
 who married Hassard Hume Dodgson, Esq., M.A. ; 
 Isabella, who married Lieutenant-Colonel Poole, Native 
 Bombay Cavalry; Anna, who married the late Rev. 
 C. David Badham, M.D., Oxon., formerly Ratcliffe 
 Travelling Fellow; Ellen, who married the Rev. 
 Charles Badham, M.A., Vicar of All Saints, Sudbury, 
 Suffolk. Three daughters remain unmarried. Mrs. 
 Hume survived her husband several years. She died 
 at East Bergholt in Suffolk, on the 31st of May 1854, 
 in the eighty-first year of her age. 
 
 The wishes which were expressed by Queen Adelaide, and Sir 
 Robert Peel, whose words we have quoted, have been very influential 
 in all classes of society. We entirely agree with those who were 
 of opinion that had there been less parade and less upholstery exhi- 
 bited in the funeral of the Duke of Wellington it would have accorded 
 better with the spirit of Christianity, as well as with the simplicity 
 of character which distinguished him.
 
 299 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 PARALLEL BETWEEN MR. HUME AND MB. CLARKSON DAVID 
 HUME, HIS POLITICAL DISCOURSES FORESTALLING AND RE- 
 GRATING REMARKS OP LORD Jons BDSSELL FREE-TRADE 
 DOCTRINES OF ENGLISH NOT OF FRENCH ORIGIN MR. HCKE'S 
 LONG-CONTINUED EXERTIONS HlS CAUTION APPLICATION OF 
 PRINCIPLES TUB ANTI-CORN LAW LEAGUE MB. COBDES 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL'S ADVANCES THE OPPOSITION HE ENCOUN- 
 TERED FREE -TRADE, AT FIRST, NOT A PARTY QUESTION SIR 
 ROBERT PEEL'S STATEMENT MR. GLADSTONE QUOTED CORN 
 LAWS REPEALED BENEFITS RESULTING NAVIGATION LAWS 
 REPEALED BURTON'S LIFE OF DAVID HUME QUOTED MR. 
 MACGREGOR. 
 
 " The time shall come when free as seas or wind, 
 Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind, 
 Whole nations enter with each swelling tide; 
 And seas but join the regions they divide: 
 Earth's distant ends our glory shall behold, 
 And the new world launch forth to seek the old." 
 
 POPE. 
 
 THE only discouragement which the writer has met 
 with in the composition of this biography, was conveyed 
 in the remark, that the name of the subject of it is 
 almost exclusively associated with a bygone topic, and 
 that people are apt to kick down the ladder after they 
 have reached the top. He felt, however, that he ought 
 not to take ingratitude for granted. With reference to
 
 300 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 bygone subjects, what is all history but a record of past 
 transactions and events? And who is there, possessing 
 an ordinary measure of intelligence, that does not deem 
 it an interesting and instructive employment, after he 
 has reached the goal, to review the past, to recount the 
 toils of combat, and the labours of the way ? 
 
 The writer has been accustomed to contend, that Mr. 
 Deacon Hume stood very much in the same relation to 
 Mr. Huskisson, upon the subject of free trade, that Mr. 
 Thomas Clarkson did to Mr. Wilberforce with respect 
 to the slave trade. Neither Mr. Wilberforce nor 
 Mr. Clarkson, it is true, were ever in office, whereas 
 both Mr. Huskisson and Mr. Hume were officially con- 
 nected with successive governments. But, whatever 
 may be the degree of correctness in the parallel, no 
 well-informed economist entertains a doubt, that Mr. 
 Deacon Hume's exertions largely contributed to that 
 great change of opinion respecting commercial matters, 
 which finally enabled the advocates of free-trade to 
 effect so much. That the British African slave-trade 
 owed its fall, in a great measure, to the exertions of 
 Mr. Clarkson, is now matter of history. If, however, he 
 had not laboured as he did, it is pretty clear, looking at 
 the state of public opinion since, that what was accom- 
 plished in 1807, could not have been resisted for many 
 years. Clarkson was never supported by more than a 
 section of the press ; whereas, had the attention which 
 the slave-trade with difficulty attracted, been delayed 
 for a season, the press would have been nearly unani- 
 mous. " We have lately purchased Negro Emancipation,
 
 RESISTANCE TO REFORMS. 301 
 
 let us make a similar, and far easier, effort to purchase 
 Corn Emancipation," was the frequent remark of Mr. 
 Deacon Hume. " But what great legislative improve- 
 ment has not been met by fierce opposition and numerous 
 predictions of mischief? It was not without repeated 
 struggles that Mr. Wilberforce was enabled to secure 
 even the admission of Christian missionaries into British 
 India. The slave-trade was obstinately defended. For 
 many years the apprehensions of West Indian planters 
 and merchants riveted the fetters of the slave ; and, 
 even to this day, the fears excited by Roman Catholic 
 Emancipation, and by the Reform Act, have not wholly 
 subsided."* If other great improvements have given 
 rise to visionary alarms, who will be surprised to find 
 that the change respecting the corn-laws has proved 
 visionary also? "If, in other processes of industry, 
 competition, though strongly deprecated, has proved 
 advantageous, it may surely also be serviceable in the 
 production of corn, and lead generally to a more 
 scientific and productive cultivation of the land," A 
 far higher authority has remarked, that "a depreciation 
 in the price of corn may be counterpoised by increased 
 production, consequent upon the improved management 
 of farms, and the employment of additional labour. The 
 history of monopoly shows, that it acts as a discourage- 
 ment to improvement, and the farmer is not an exception 
 to the general rule ; it tends to make him rest contented 
 with a slovenly system of cultivation, because it is 
 
 The Hon. and Rer. Baptwt W. Noel'i "Plea for the Poor, and 
 abolition of the Corn Law."
 
 302 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 cheap, under the belief that the diminished quantity of 
 produce consequent thereon, will be compensated by 
 increased price.** 
 
 Possibly there may be persons who would hesitate in 
 attributing the revolution, which, 'within a few years, 
 has taken place with reference to the system of pro- 
 hibitory and protective duties, either to the influence of 
 Mr. Deacon Hume, or to any single individual. The 
 subject of these pages, the writer is aware, has in some 
 instances, been spoken of as one of the authors of the 
 doctrine of free-trade, which is obviously incorrect 
 Had it been said that he was one of its earliest advocates 
 that he, more than any other person, practically 
 applied in its doctrines originating free trade measures, 
 the statement would in no degree have exceeded the 
 truth. David Hume, the author of the " Political 
 Discourses," and of the "History of England," "was 
 beyond all doubt the author of the modern doctrines 
 which now rule the world of science, which are to a 
 great extent the guide of practical statesmen, and are 
 only prevented from being applied in their fullest extent 
 to the affairs of nations, by the clashing of interests and 
 the ignorant prejudices of certain powerful classes ; for 
 no one deserving the name of legislator, pretends to 
 doubt the soundness of the theory, although many hold 
 that the errors of our predecessors require a slow 
 recourse to right principle in conducting the practical 
 business of the world." * 
 
 Lord Brougham's Lires of Men of Letters, page 176: in which 
 the following remark* also occur. " Dr. Smith's celebrated work, with
 
 FORESTALLING AND REGRATTNG. 303 
 
 The time has not long since gone by when the laws 
 against forestalling and regrating* existed, the popuJar 
 fear respecting which Adam Smith remarked, "could 
 only be compared to the popular terrors and suspicions of 
 witchcraft. w f Those laws, of the very existence of which, 
 but for the Statute Book, some doubt might be enter- 
 tained, were once deemed the pillars of our commercial 
 prosperity. Until the year 1772, it was penal to buy 
 any standing crops, or purchase corn for the purpose of 
 selling it again at the market; no one could purchase 
 it before it came to market ; there was to be no middle 
 man. And incorrigible offenders were to be put in the 
 pillory, or imprisoned during the king's pleasure. The 
 object, as Lord Brougham once said, was that the 
 tenant-farmer should come to market and sell his corn 
 cheap to the people. The statute book was directly 
 opposed to that admirable law of society which metes 
 out sustenance to the people in proportion to the supply 
 of the year by the intervention of the corn-dealer. All 
 was of a piece with the story of the " wicked bakers," 
 who, as the Duke of Rutland in the year 1610 main- 
 tained, were always raising the price of bread. Lord John 
 Russell contended upon one occasion with considerable 
 humour, that the case of the protectionist advocates was 
 contained in the antique letter above mentioned, and 
 
 all its great merits, is less of a regular system than the detached Essays 
 of Hume. The originality of the latter'a opinions is wholly undeniable: 
 they were published full fourteen years before the ' Wealth of 
 Nations.' " 
 
 5 & 6 Edward VI. c. 14. 
 
 f Wealth of Nations,' roL ii. p. 412.
 
 304 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 it was clear they had not, even in the year 1846, 
 abandoned the argument ; for the House had been told 
 that potatoes in Yorkshire were two shillings a bushel, 
 but that wicked potato factors in London would not 
 sell them so cheaply; and that Yorkshiremen, who 
 were thought to be quicksighted, though they possessed 
 them in abundance, did not send them to market where 
 they could get ten times the price they obtained in the 
 country." A more absurd idea, as most men are now 
 persuaded, was never seriously entertained, and Mr. 
 Deacon Hume, who had a keen sense of the ridiculous, 
 treated such arguments in a similar vein. He was also 
 often accustomed to remark how unreasonable it was 
 to defend the corn-laws by appeals to antiquity and the 
 wisdom of our ancestors, the worst authority to appeal 
 to in commercial legislation. With the changes, he 
 would say, which are constantly taking place in manu- 
 factures, in wealth, in the means of communication, and 
 with the increase of population, what can be more idle 
 than to talk of going back to the reign of Edward IV? 
 If Mr. Hume had been living in the year 1846, he 
 would have seen, without surprise, how completely 
 even the eloquence of the Earl of Derby failed to 
 maintain the position.* The former did not require to 
 
 That eloquence was never more powerfully exerted than on the 
 night of the 25th of May, 1846. On that occasion, too, the noble 
 Earl, almost in the spirit of an antiquarian, quoted from the " Paaton 
 Letters" a passage, written at the period to which we have referred, 
 by Dame Margaret Paston to her son Sir John, stating that malt was 
 very dear, that wheat was &. 6d. a quarter, that the King had pro- 
 hibited the exportation of wheat; and ending with the remark, "I 
 fear we shall have a right strange world."
 
 CORN LAWS AN EXPERIMENT. 305 
 
 be told that the corn laws were an experiment, and 
 that the natural condition of commerce was a state 
 of freedom. He knew that not until the landed interest 
 became all powerful in Parliament was the idea of pro- 
 tection acted upon ; and that when it was introduced 
 it was with the avowed object of keeping up the rent 
 of the land. That not only did the act of the twelfth 
 year of the reign of Charles II. impose duties upon the 
 importation of corn, but that the act which was passed 
 in the fifteenth year of the same reign increased these 
 duties. That the system of bounties also upon exporta- 
 tion in the reign of William and Mary, perpetrated great 
 injustice, since, not only was the price of food increased, 
 but a tax was laid upon the people for the advantage 
 of the landowners. Under this system, exportation 
 naturally took place to a very great extent As much 
 as seven millions of money were paid in the shape of 
 bounties, and upwards of 2,000,000 quarters of wheat 
 were exported. Owing, probably, to an increase of 
 population, in 1750 exportation began to decrease, and 
 from that period it went on constantly diminishing until 
 this became an importing country, and such it had con- 
 tinued, and increasingly so, ever since. Nevertheless, it 
 was not until the year 1771 that, since the first introduc- 
 tion of corn laws, there was any free-trade in this king- 
 dom. It is a remarkable historical circumstance that 
 from the year 1773 to 1815, with the exception of a 
 few brief intervals, the importation of corn was virtually 
 free. As instructive a coincidence is that which Dr. 
 Adam Smith points out, when, without marking the 
 
 x
 
 306 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 cause, he mentions this period as a time when there 
 was a great start in our commercial prosperity. Since 
 that period all our legislation, with the exception of the 
 Corn Bills of 1815 and 1828, tended towards a free- 
 trade in our commercial relations. 
 
 The progress of unrestricted commercial policy was 
 not unnaturally of slow growth. The doctrines of 
 free-trade, as Mr. Horner once remarked, " instead 
 of being, as some alleged, mere plagiarisms from 
 those of the French economists, were the original 
 growth of our own country, from which they were 
 borrowed by the economists of France.*** The first 
 principles, as enunciated by the great English historian, 
 extended and combined by Dr. Adam Smith, were 
 matured in the recesses of many minds, among the 
 foremost that of Mr. Deacon Hume, who was ever ener- 
 getically urging their application to a boundless range 
 of subjects, many of which were advocated in Parlia- 
 ment, with a seasonable amount of caution, by Mr. 
 Huskisson, when there were very few who agreed 
 with him. It may be doubted whether he saw his way 
 so clearly through the subject as Mr. Deacon Hume. 
 Mr. Huskisson's principles were more limited in their 
 application. It is true that the country, during his time, 
 would not have borne more than he advocated. Mr. 
 Deacon Hume was in advance of his chief, and very 
 considerably of his age. Influential as was his official 
 position, it was obviously not without its drawbacks. 
 The Secretary must, of course, be altogether subordinate 
 
 * Memoirs of Francis Horner, vol. ii. p. 404.
 
 HIS UNTIRING EFFORTS. 307 
 
 to the President, and to the Government ; and however 
 much he may desire it, his own views cannot prevail, 
 unless he is able to produce, in the all-responsible 
 quarter, a complete conviction of their truth. And 
 this, under adverse circumstances, could rarely be 
 effected. Mr. Hume had accepted office upon the 
 understanding that it was financial rather than political, 
 and that it would be unaffected by any change of 
 ministry. He was fortunate, upon the whole, as 
 regards the Presidents under whom he successively 
 served; but the Governments, beginning with the 
 Duke of Wellington's, in 1828, were unmistakeably 
 hostile. He, however, never ceased to enforce his 
 views privately upon those who were in authority, and 
 with what interest he watched any opening for so 
 doing will be seen in the following extract from a 
 letter to a friend, written soon after Lord Grey had 
 succeeded to power : 
 
 " I am under an engagement to Lord Auckland to draw 
 up, in something of a connected form, the various lucubrations 
 which I have wasted upon his predecessors. Corn is among 
 them ; and I can tell you, if I have not done so before, that 
 I have never concealed my opinion from my masters on that 
 subject. The present occupiers of these places are entitled to 
 hear what I have to say upon the corn question, before I 
 adopt a different channel ; but if they shrug the shoulder, 
 and say, ' we cannot touch corn/ and they have almost said 
 so, then another channel must be chosen. 
 
 " As to Lord Grey's speech, I do not think that it will be 
 much in the way, if good intentions are entertained. He 
 says he ' has not nerves to try the fearful experiment of free- 
 trude in corn.' Very well : but his nerves may be braced,
 
 308 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 and his fears may be removed. I think that the putting it upon 
 such an issue is not setting the question in a hopeless form. 
 
 " Your colleague has prepared me to expect that Sir James 
 Graham will desire me to explain my views on the corn 
 question to him. I shall certainly not mince the matter if he 
 does. Such a convert would be a host. I almost think that 
 you might have used the cream of what I have to say, 
 perhaps more appropriately to Mr. Canning, than what you 
 took on currency. 
 
 " Surely Lord Al thorp is right with us. ' His heart is as 
 my heart:' and, if so, his calibre will not be of much im- 
 portance. His character for honesty of intention will enable 
 him to be very useful. The difficult thing will be to convince 
 the farmers and agricultural labourers that they are not about 
 to be sacrificed." 
 
 Whenever also he had an opportunity of expressing 
 his opinion publicly, which, from the nature of his office, 
 was a rare occurrence, he never failed to give utterance 
 to it in decided terms* This, in fact, has been shown 
 by the extracts we have already given from his evi- 
 dence before Parliamentary committees; and in some 
 instances he expressed himself as having desired to go 
 beyond what Mr. Huskisson had proposed. " Mr. 
 Huskisson's object," he observed upon one of these 
 occasions, " was to open our ports for new commodities, 
 with the intention of placing rated dudes upon any 
 goods which might be brought in in large quantities, 
 and might be deemed worthy of being named in the 
 tariff; but it appears to me that he did not, upon that 
 principle, lower the duties of either class sufficiently ; and 
 M the importation of any commodities, without an ade- 
 quate duty, could soon be stopped by imposing a just
 
 OPPOSED TO ANT DUTY ON FOOD. 309 
 
 duty upon them, the risk is trifling, and the advantage 
 would be on the side of extremely low duties in the first 
 instance. I should say one per cent" 
 
 And so with respect to duties which were for pro- 
 tection and not for revenue. To any duty upon foreign 
 corn he was always firmly opposed. He was accus- 
 tomed to say, " If I were compelled to choose, food is 
 the last thing upon which I would attempt to place any 
 protection." Whereas Mr. Huskisson, like Sir Robert 
 Peel, advocated a sliding scale of duties through by far 
 the greater portion of his career.* Indeed, it was not 
 until 1830, the year of his death, that that statesman 
 distinctly expressed his opinion, that the corn laws 
 were in themselves a burden and a restraint upon 
 manufacturing and commercial industry, and that they 
 ought to be abolished. 
 
 The supporters of unrestricted commerce from this 
 time began visibly to gain ground ; and a few years 
 after a further sign of progress was apparent. An able 
 writer upon this subject has stated, that Mr. Hume's 
 letters in the Morning Chronicle, which, as we have 
 already observed, were reprinted in the year 1824, 
 
 * The object of the sliding scale was neither more nor less than to 
 lay a heavy doty on grain when it was cheap, and a light duty when 
 it was dear, in order that it might not prevent importation in periods 
 of scarcity. Thus, whenever the price of wheat was above 73*. a 
 quarter in this country, the duty on foreign wheat was only a 
 shilling; but when it fell below 61*. a quarter, then the duty was to 
 be 25*. &d.; and was to increase a shilling with every shilling that the 
 price decreased. The effect of this was, that unless there was a 
 scarcity at home, foreign wheat could not be bought for less than 86*. 
 a quarter, or 10*. 9d. a bushel
 
 310 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 powerfully contributed to the movement which com- 
 menced about that time. While, however, no man had 
 greater confidence in sound principles though he was 
 for carrying the doctrines of free trade as far as any 
 man he always contended that the change from pro- 
 tection to the absence of restriction should be effected 
 gradually, though simultaneously, so as to inflict the 
 least possible injury to existing interests. Deeply con- 
 vinced of the truth of the doctrines of free trade, his 
 official experience had taught him that to an old com- 
 mercial country like Great Britain, it would not be 
 safe to apply these principles without the greatest 
 caution ; and while he never lost sight of them in the 
 course which he recommended, he always earnestly 
 protested against their unmitigated application. 
 
 The time, however, was at hand when the masses 
 were to be appealed to, and throughout the land. On 
 the evening of the defeat of Mr. Villiers' motion,* " that 
 evidence should be heard at the bar of the House on 
 the subject of the Corn Laws, and their unfavourable 
 effect upon the industry and prosperity of the country," 
 there was present as a listener in the gallery, one who 
 had come to town with a deputation for the purpose of 
 aiding the cause of repeal, and whose spirit upon that 
 occasion appears to have been stirred within him.f 
 Immediately there arose from the seats of manufacturing 
 industry, energetic and eloquent orators contending for 
 immediate and complete emancipation. Mr. Cobden, 
 who was soon after elected member for Stockport, and 
 * 19th February, 1839. f Mr. Cobden.
 
 CAUTIOUS APPLICATION OF PRINCIPLES. 311 
 
 subsequently for the West Riding of Yorkshire, whose 
 exertions Sir Robert Peel some years afterwards so 
 pointedly acknowledged, was the most conspicuous as 
 well as the most effective of the popular advocates. 
 His energy was untiring, his style of oratory admirably 
 suited to his subject, as well as to the larger portion of 
 the assembly which he sought to influence. Some of 
 his best efforts, which the writer happened to hear, 
 reminded him of the effective use that may be made 
 of a powerful hammer, when it is employed in perpe- 
 tually hitting the same nail upon the head. Upon the 
 subject of free trade in corn, as he has since remarked, 
 " from the very earliest struggles of the League we 
 were accustomed to quote Mr. Deacon Hume as one of 
 the best authorities in favour of our views." 
 
 The measures relating to silk in 1824 and 1826, as 
 well as to sugar, the earliest results brought about by 
 the free trade doctrine, were much thought of at the 
 time. But these were trifles when compared with the 
 repeal of the duties upon foreign corn. This measure, 
 for which the country in the year 1846 was scarcely 
 prepared, was finally forced on, partly by the failure of 
 the potato crop in Ireland, and partly by the conviction 
 of Sir Robert Peel and his friends, that the foreign trade 
 of this country had become necessary for the support of 
 an increasing population, and that the only way in 
 which it was possible to bring about an increase in 
 foreign trade, was to admit the raw produce of 
 foreigners, chiefly corn, in which alone they could pay 
 for our manufactured goods. In what way the writings
 
 312 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 and representations of the subject of these pages im- 
 pressed these convictions upon influential minds has 
 been made apparent from the debates in Parliament, in 
 which he is so frequently cited as an authority. Sir 
 Robert Peel, especially, as we have seen, was accus- 
 tomed to quote him, and to render ample justice to his 
 opinions, we will not say before he was himself convinced 
 of their truth, but long before he could bring himself to 
 propound, without reserve, the commercial principles 
 which Mr. Deacon Hume for so many years energeti- 
 cally and unceasingly advocated. 
 
 It has been said, that when men of mark arise they 
 have a mission to accomplish, and that they do not dis- 
 appear until it is fulfilled. It seemed good to the All- 
 wise Disposer of events, that as soon as Mr. Deacon 
 Hume had, through the labours of nearly fifty years, 
 largely contributed to prepare the way for commercial 
 freedom, he should be withdrawn. No one had toiled so 
 effectually for the removal of protective duties, as he of 
 whom now it could only be said that his work was done. 
 For several previous years he must have been confident 
 that the triumph of the opinions which he had advocated, 
 could not be far distant. In the abstract, the question 
 had long been settled, and a very narrow induction was 
 necessary by way of experimental confirmation, when 
 the abstract conclusion was in accordance with the 
 practical. He had witnessed withal, the gloomy winters 
 of 1841 and 1842, winters, which the Prime Minister 
 subsequently declared, could "never be effaced from 
 his memory." It was impossible to hear, or to read
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL'S POSITION. 313 
 
 the speeches with which Sir Robert Peel introduced his 
 measures and not perceive what he must do, and what he 
 probably saw that he must do, if he remained in office, 
 though he cared little for office. Abolitionists marked, 
 when he introduced his bill for a relaxation of the tariff, 
 his distinct avowal of the doctrine, in which all political 
 economists are agreed, that we ought to buy in the 
 cheapest market and sell in the dearest ; which, as has 
 been said, means neither more nor less, than that we 
 ought to take the article which we have in the greatest 
 abundance, and obtain from others that of which they 
 have most to spare, thereby affording to mankind the 
 means of enjoying the most complete supply of every 
 earthly good, and in so doing carrying out, to the 
 fullest extent, the Christian principle of doing to all 
 men as we would they should do unto us. 
 
 It was curious, as was remarked at the time, " to see 
 Sir Robert Peel, and many others equally well-read, 
 alluding, as if it were some profound modern economical 
 discovery, to a maxim so trite as to have existed at the 
 time when Carthage flourished as a great commercial 
 state." * But from that hour, as the author just quoted 
 remarks, " the minister's position was virtually changed," 
 
 * By Mr. Doubleday, the well-known financial writer; who also 
 recordf the anecdote of a Carthaginian cynic, who, determining to 
 reprove his fellow citizens for their cupidity and prostration before 
 the love of pelf, proclaimed, that if they would meet him, he would 
 rereal to every man his secret thoughts. This proclamation having 
 naturally drawn together a large crowd, the bitter old wag dismissed 
 them with one sentence, " You are all thinking how to buy in the 
 cheapest, and sell in the dearest market."
 
 314 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 and he was henceforth understood by all the advocates 
 of free trade to be a disciple. Nor was it to be wondered 
 at For though he spoke of corn and of sugar as excep- 
 tions to a general rule, and fortified himself respecting 
 the latter with a quotation from Mr. Deacon Hume, he 
 avoided stating the grounds of the exception, while he 
 admitted the truth of the doctrine of the movement 
 school. Month after month questions were put to him 
 implying that from the principles he propounded, the 
 abolitionists were confident that he was about to abolish 
 the corn laws ; and they repeated the question whether 
 or not he intended to do so ? It was a trying period for 
 both sides of the House. They were obliged, however, 
 to bide hia time, and to be content with the answer 
 which he invariably vouchsafed, namely, that he had no 
 present intention of repealing those laws ; but that he 
 did " not regard the corn question as one upon which 
 a minister, who was responsible for the welfare of the 
 nation, ought to pledge himself once for all." 
 
 There can be no doubt that the conversion of Sir 
 Robert Peel from protection to free-trade, if indeed he 
 was not always a free-trader, was the result of a very 
 firm conviction. But it was at any rate neither so 
 sudden, nor so recent, as some persons still appear to 
 suppose. He might latterly have been influenced by 
 proceedings out of doors. The deficiency of the harvest, 
 the failure of the potato crop in Ireland, had alarmed 
 him. His own act of 1842 he never affected to regard 
 as a settlement of the question. There was no course 
 open to him but a reconsideration of the subject. When,
 
 PARTY. 315 
 
 therefore, the sliding scale, so far from being a scale 
 which was to provide for years of scarcity, as regularly 
 and exactly as it was to provide for years of abundance, 
 was, on the contrary, in the first year of difficulty, 
 found, as Lord John Russell said, to be " a sliding scale 
 which would not slide," the time for a final settlement 
 had manifestly arrived. 
 
 There were, however, difficulties in the way which 
 it required considerable decision and energy to sur- 
 mount 
 
 It is not altogether peculiar to this country that 
 almost every subject, however remote in itself from 
 party associations, sooner or later becomes identified 
 with a political party. The absurdity of this fact is 
 sometimes manifested in a remarkable manner. David 
 Hume, as we have already mentioned, was the author 
 of the doctrine of free-trade, and he was a Tory. 
 Dr. Johnson, whose Toryism is equally well known, we 
 are told by his biographer, upon hearing Sir Thomas 
 Robinson talking of the evils of importation from 
 Ireland, exclaimed, " Sir Thomas, you talk the language 
 of a savage ; what, sir, would you prevent any people 
 from feeding themselves, if by any honest means they 
 can do it ? " Indeed, up to the period of the passing of 
 the Reform Act, the principles of free-trade were never 
 considered as the inheritance of any political party. 
 Mr. Huskisson was a member of a Tory government 
 When he brought forward his measures many of those 
 who sat upon his own side of the House were opposed 
 to him: many who sat opposite to him assisted his
 
 316 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 efforts. Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell were 
 amongst his adherents; a fact which had not been 
 prominently noticed until the latter, in reply to the cry 
 which had been raised by the Conservatives against the 
 Ministers in 1846, for not upholding protection, said, 
 " You choose as your leader the present first Minister 
 of the Crown, one who was in office with Mr. Huskisson, 
 who was always a great promoter of Mr. Huskisson's 
 measures, who acted, it is true, with reserve, but always 
 advocated and promoted free-trade: and the right 
 honourable baronet was known in principle to be 
 opposed to the system of protection." Sir Robert Peel, 
 too happy to confirm the statement, said, "As the 
 noble lord has observed, I acted with Mr. Huskisson 
 in 1822, 1825, and 1826 in revising the commercial 
 system, and applying to that system the principle of 
 free-trade. In the year 1842, after my accession to 
 office, I proposed a revision of the Corn Laws. Why 
 was the removal of the prohibition upon the importation 
 of foreign meat and foreign cattle assented to ? That 
 removal was completely at variance with any assurance 
 that the protection of agriculture which existed in the 
 year 1840 and 1841 should be retained. Yet that 
 removal was voted by very large majorities in Par- 
 liament. After the passing of the Corn Bill of 1842, 
 I repeatedly declined to give any assurance that there 
 should be no further change. These things are upon 
 record. It was impossible for me, consistently with 
 my convictions, to have said less." Nothing could 
 have been more in accordance with the policy of Mr.
 
 PEEL AND HUSKISSON. 317 
 
 Huskisson. His principles found their practical issue 
 in moderating duties, and introducing a tendency to 
 free-trade as Parliament and the country were able to 
 bear it He dealt, in short, with the necessities of the 
 times. Sir Robert Peel pursued a similar course with 
 cautious, some will have it, with stealthy steps. But 
 so little was this question a party matter, that even 
 upon so comparatively recent an occasion as the recon- 
 struction of the Tories under the new appellation of 
 Conservatives, after the passing of the Act of 1831, 
 by which the representation was so greatly changed, 
 a restrictive policy was never insisted upon as a test ; it 
 was a question which had never entered within the 
 domain of party. 
 
 The establishment, however, of the Anti-Corn-Law 
 Association, first suggested at a dinner given to Dr. 
 Bowring, at Manchester, in the year 1838, and which, 
 soon after its formation, was translated into a " League," 
 tended greatly to give the subject of free-trade, though 
 most unnecessarily, a party complexion. The persons 
 who composed it were chiefly radicals. The Whigs 
 (and Mr. Deacon Hume had always been of their faith, 
 though he went beyond them as to the extent to which 
 he would apply his financial principles) were, for the 
 most part, the advocates of a fixed duty. It was not 
 surprising that almost simultaneously with Sir Robert 
 Peel's abandonment of the sliding scale for free-trade, 
 Lord John Russell should have abandoned the doctrine 
 of a fixed duty, a fixed injustice as it was sometimes 
 called, with the same result But the former had by
 
 318 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 far the greatest difficulty with which to contend. Know- 
 ing himself to be at the head of a powerful party, and 
 a large majority of the House of Commons, who, more- 
 over, generally felt strongly in favour of protective 
 duties, he took the only honourable course which was 
 open to him, he resigned. The Queen sent for Lord 
 John Russell; but although he was aware that he 
 should have the support of Sir Robert Peel in endea- 
 vouring to carry free-trade measures, he felt himself 
 unequal to the task. Sir Robert Peel was speedily 
 recalled. His position, since his resignation, having by 
 that act become greatly altered, he ceased to be the 
 leader of a political party. He had to choose, not as 
 he had done so often out of " three," but between two, 
 " courses." He found himself in a situation in which 
 public duty pointed one way, and fidelity to party 
 attachment another. Great as was the sacrifice he had 
 to make, so far as his private feelings were concerned, 
 painful as was the severance from political associates 
 which it involved, he resolved to stand by his country. 
 He had nothing in a political point of view to gain ; on 
 the contrary, he had much to lose, by the course which 
 he followed. 
 
 What to most persons would have appeared the most 
 useful and appropriate close to the public career of 
 Mr. Deacon Hume, would have been, what he probably 
 never seriously contemplated, but what was frequently 
 demanded in some quarters,* a seat in the House of 
 
 * Especially in the "Westminster Review," at the general election 
 in 1836 and afterwards.
 
 A SEAT IN PARLIAMENT. 319 
 
 Commons. No one during the years 1845 and 1846 
 could have spoken upon what had become the absorbing 
 question of the day with so much information, or with 
 greater authority ; to say nothing of the intense satis- 
 faction with which he would have seen the former 
 leader of the Conservative party stand up in his place, 
 and state as the first minister of the Crown, that in 
 conformity with the recommendation contained in 
 Her Majesty's Speech from the Throne, advised by 
 her responsible servants, he was " about to proceed 
 on the assumption adopted in the speech, that the 
 repeal of prohibitory, and the relaxation of protective 
 duties is in itself a wise principle that protective 
 duties, abstractedly, and on principle, were open to 
 objection that the policy of maintaining them might 
 be defended, but that there must be shown to be special 
 considerations, either of public policy or of justice, to 
 vindicate the maintenance of them."* 
 
 There were, and there are, those who, as Mr. Glad- 
 stone said not long after, " would, as it were, revenge 
 upon commerce itself the wrong done to higher pursuits 
 
 * The members of the An ti -Corn-Law League at once resolved 
 that no efforts on their part should be wanting. They announced 
 that a fund of a quarter of a million would be collected by them, if 
 necessary, for the furtherance of their object, and at one meeting in 
 Manchester 60,000/. were subscribed. Large sums continued to come 
 in. A great Free Trade Bazaar was held in London for the sale of 
 objects of art and manufacture contributed for the benefit of the 
 cause. It was held in Covent Garden Theatre, which was made to 
 resemble a vast Gothic hall, and was filled with an endless variety of 
 the most magnificent objects of British ingenuity and skill. It was 
 visited by upwards of one hundred thousand persons; and the amount 
 received from the sale of the articles was more than 25,000/.
 
 320 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 and ends by the money-worshipping spirit of the age." 
 " Wealth," he truly added, " is the heaviest curse to those 
 who idolize either it or the pleasures which it purchases ; 
 and the pursuit of it is often one of the subtlest snares 
 by which the path of a human being is beset But in 
 this view, wealth, and commerce as the means of wealth, 
 are like knowledge, or talent, or health, or any other 
 earthly endowment. Yet each of them has its place in 
 the natural that is, in the providential order of the 
 world. Let us not exalt them above their own region, 
 but neither let us deny their prerogatives within it. 
 The diversity of the productions of different regions is 
 the primeval law which sanctions their exchange. 
 
 " Nonne vides, cruceos ut Tmolus odores, 
 India mitt it ebur, moiles sua thura Sabaei? " * 
 
 Had Mr. Deacon Hume lived to see the session of 
 the year 1846, he could scarcely have failed to have 
 been gratified by the still more frequent allusions which 
 were made to himself, as an authority of ultimate 
 appeal upon this question. For while the Ministers 
 and the abolitionists generally quoted largely his statis- 
 tics, his opinions, and his arguments, not a few of the 
 protectionists, Lord George Bentinck and Mr. Disraeli 
 amongst the foremost, referred to the first mentioned 
 almost as constantly, and with a respect which they 
 did not extend to Mr. Macgregor. 
 
 Such feelings, however, as those to which we have 
 
 alluded would have been transient compared with the 
 
 delight with which Mr. Hume would have hailed the 
 
 Remarks upon "Recent Commercial Legislation." Murray, 1845.
 
 MODERATION OF THE GOVERNMENT. 321 
 
 advent of commercial deliverance, and observed the 
 wisdom and moderation which characterised the speeches 
 of the Prime Minister and the members of the Govern- 
 ment generally in both Houses of Parliament. For 
 there was a careful abstinence, so tempting at such 
 a tune, from exciting extravagant expectations. No 
 delusions, borrowed from a powerful and popular asso- 
 ciation out of doors, so far as the Government were 
 concerned, were imported into the discussion, unless 
 it were to mitigate their force or to expose their folly. 
 The Minister forbore ascribing to the existing law, 
 " famine, disease, and death." He expressly stated 
 his conviction that no very decided diminution in the 
 price of wheat would follow upon the abolition of the 
 duty. It is just to add that a large portion of the liberal 
 party, including Lord Brougham and Mr. Roebuck, 
 gave expression to similar sentiments. " I do not 
 mean," said the former, on the 25th of May, 1846, 
 " that there will be no diminution of prices, though 
 Lord Spencer held that opinion; my expectation is, 
 that there will be a moderate reduction after the 
 passing of this bill, from which bill I expect very great 
 advantage to the country." 
 
 When the question was asked, what benefit was to 
 result, it was generally replied, the introduction of a 
 sound principle, which, while it relieves Government 
 from the responsibility of having to regulate, in periods 
 of scarcity, the supply of food, insures, by natural laws, 
 in ample amount, the cheapest and the best of every 
 kind. That the effect would be, not so much to lower 
 
 T
 
 322 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 the price of corn in this country, as to raise the price 
 on the continent of Europe, thereby equalizing the 
 demand here and abroad, and giving security to the 
 people of England, even in years of deficiency, against 
 any sudden or extravagant rise in price. That the 
 abolition of protective duties would afford the people 
 an opportunity of gradually improving their condition, 
 of increasing the market for the productions of English 
 manufacturing skill and industry ; that by multiplying 
 the sources of supply, the great national advantage 
 of the change would insure greater steadiness of price ; 
 that while at present we were at the mercy of the vicis- 
 situdes of a single spot, the proposed law would enable 
 us to go all over the globe for a supply ; that if Europe 
 should have a deficient harvest Providence might 
 vouchsafe a bountiful one to America ; that if the 
 harvest of America should fail, Australia might be able 
 to make up what was wanting ; and that the moneys, 
 and rate of fluctuation, would diminish as the field 
 from which they derived a supply should be extended. 
 Withal, that there would be certainty in the value of 
 land, which would of itself compensate for many disad- 
 vantages ; that, in addition to that certainty, the land- 
 owners would have peaceful enjoyment; instead of 
 jealousy on the part of their poorer neighbours they 
 would experience their good-will, without any abate- 
 ment of hereditary respect. 
 
 It was said, and with equal truth, that nations advan- 
 tageously trading with each other, are bound in heavy 
 recognizances to keep the peace; that the current of
 
 RESULTS OF FREE TRADE. 323 
 
 trade once suffered to run free, would deepen its 
 channels and extend its ramifications; that its vivi- 
 fying power would be felt by every member of the 
 community ; and that the surest foundations, humanly 
 speaking, for the peace of the world, would be found 
 to be commerce, extending its benefits to the great masses 
 of the human race. 
 
 Such were the sentiments of the best informed of the 
 abolitionists in Parliament upon this question, such was 
 the tenor and substance of the discourse and conference 
 of their adherents out of doors. 
 
 The history of what may be termed the restoration 
 of free trade has yet to be written ; and it will be more 
 satisfactorily written ten years hence than now.* The 
 change, however, has for twelve years been tried, and 
 the predictions of the most sanguine are being fulfilled. 
 Trade is gradually extending itself, and the remaining 
 impediments to the complete development of the prin- 
 ciples of commercial freedom, will, in due season, 
 undoubtedly be removed. 
 
 The Navigation Laws, dating from the Common- 
 wealth, and " regarded by successive generations as 
 monuments of human wisdom," experienced the fate of 
 the Corn Laws more speedily than the most sanguine 
 could possibly have expected. Since the first of 
 January, 1850, our merchants have been enabled to 
 " convey their property in the ships of any country to 
 and from any part of the world, as well as to buy their 
 
 At the Free Trade Congress at Brussels, Mr. Chad wick did 
 ample justice to the services of Mr. Deacon Hume.
 
 324 LITE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 ships wherever they are to be had best and cheapest." 
 The result is found to be compatible with the prosperity 
 of the mercantile navy, and to be productive of advan- 
 tage to the commercial interests of the world ;* while 
 the abolition of the laws which restricted the supply of 
 human food has not only filled our markets and extin- 
 guished sedition, but, taking the average of years, has 
 left farmers better off than ever. 
 
 Notwithstanding her recent retrograde movement 
 there can be little doubt as to the course which France 
 will ultimately follow. The French Minister of Agri- 
 culture and Commerce has put forth the following 
 interesting questions to English agriculturists : 
 
 1. Whether the breadth of land devoted to the 
 growth of grain has been increased or diminished since 
 the abolition of protecting duties ? Should the arable 
 acreage have diminished, whether the actual produce 
 may not have been increased through the improvements 
 in drainage and tillage? 
 
 "Amongst the results of this measure," Mr. Porter has observed, 
 " not the least valuable is this, that it has served to convince foreign 
 Governments that our previous commercial reforms were adopted by 
 us in good faith, and in full confidence in their wisdom. The Dutch, 
 against whose naval power our navigation law was originally and 
 chiefly directed, hastened to place their system in agreement with 
 our own, and other less formidable rivals have promptly followed 
 their example. The Navigation Law of the United States was 
 adopted simply aa a measure of retaliation against this country, and 
 has naturally and necessarily conformed itself to our change of 
 system. Other States, which had not adopted our rule of restriction 
 against foreign shipping, have been led by our recent legislation on 
 the subject to forego the intention they had plainly intimated of 
 following that rule, and thus, a most undoubted injury to our 
 shipping interest has been averted."
 
 QUESTIONS FROM FRANCE ANSWERED. 325 
 
 2. What has been the effect of the repeal of the 
 Corn Laws on English agriculture ? Has the produce 
 of the soil experienced an increase or diminution ? Has 
 the rent of land risen or fallen? Has the income of 
 those who cultivate their own land improved or dimi- 
 nished ? Has the selling price of land become better or 
 worse? 
 
 3. What has been the influence of recent legislation 
 on the consumption of bread and meat in England ? 
 
 To these questions Mr. Hewitt Davis, a well-known 
 agriculturist and land agent, has replied in the following 
 words : 
 
 1. There is no question that the breadth of land in 
 cultivation has been increased since the abolition of 
 protecting duties. In this period a great deal of com- 
 mon and waste land has been enclosed, and, as agri- 
 culture has improved, the larger returns from tillage 
 and the growth of roots and artificial pastures alter- 
 nately with corn, have led to the breaking up and con. 
 version into arable of a large extent of the poorer 
 pastures. At the same time, the average produce of 
 arable land has been largely increased through the 
 improvements in drainage and tillage. In 1857 larger 
 crops of wheat were grown than were ever known ; six 
 quarters per acre were not uncommon, and as much as 
 eight and even nine quarters were said to have been 
 grown in parts of Kent, a return which is still thought 
 fabulous over the greater part of England. By draining, 
 clay soils have been made available for the growth of 
 roots and winter cropping, and large returns of cattle-
 
 326 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 food have been gained from land which formerly was kept 
 in pasture, or, if in arable, lay fallow one year in four. 
 
 2. The effect of the repeal of the Corn Laws has been to 
 enforce improvements on both landowners and tenants. 
 Landlords have been anxious to enable their tenants 
 to raise corn more cheaply, and have been improving 
 their lands and buildings, and giving a freer use of 
 their farms ; and fanners have sought relief in higher 
 cultivation, a better practice, and the introduction of 
 improved implements and machinery ; and there is no 
 doubt that in this way the production of the soil has 
 been largely increased, at the same time that cultiva- 
 tion has been carried on at less expense. In this 
 period, in many instances, the farmers have been made 
 to pay higher rents, and the income of those cultivating 
 their own farms must have been benefited. In the 
 last five years the sale price of land has considerably 
 advanced, for not only has the rent of land increased, 
 but also the number of years' purchase given for it. 
 
 3. The changes in this period have increased the 
 labourers' consumption of bread and meat, for the addi- 
 tional employment found them on the land, and the 
 general improvement of the country, have secured them 
 more constant employment and higher wages." 
 
 To adopt the eloquent language of the biographer of 
 the greatest of the name, " In no long time a hundred 
 years will have elapsed from the day when David Hume 
 told the world what the legislature of this country is 
 now declaring, that national exclusiveness in trade was 
 as foolish as it was wicked ; that no nation could profit
 
 MR. MACGREGOR. 327 
 
 by stopping the natural flood of commerce between 
 itself and the rest of the world; that commercial 
 restrictions deprive the nations of the earth of that free 
 communication and exchange, which the author of the 
 world has intended, by giving them soils, climates, and 
 geniuses so different from each other, and that like the 
 healthy circulation of the blood in living bodies, free- 
 trade is the vital principle by which the nations of the 
 earth are to become united in one harmonious whole."* 
 
 We must not close this chapter without remarking 
 that though during the progress of the Corn Bill through 
 Parliament, and for some years after, Mr. Macgregor 
 continued Secretary at the Board of Trade, the success 
 of the measure, and the active part which he bore in it, 
 proved too much for the weaker part of his character. 
 It is true Mr. Deacon Hume had regarded his appoint- 
 ment with satisfaction. He was better aware probably 
 than any one else of his abilities, his vast information, 
 his powers of application, and his zeal in the cause of 
 commercial emancipation. He could not have failed to 
 observe, that vanity was the sin which most easily beset 
 him; though he could never have contemplated that 
 it would rise to such a height, and conduct to such 
 lamentable results, as was eventually the case. But as 
 Burke severely, but justly says, " though in a small 
 degree, and conversant in little things, vanity is of little 
 moment, when full grown, it is the worst of vices, and 
 the occasional mimic of them all. It makes the whole 
 man false. It leaves nothing sincere or trustworthy 
 * Burton's Life of David Hume, vol. ii.
 
 328 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 about him. His best qualities are poisoned and per- 
 verted by it, and operate exactly as the worst" This 
 passion, Mr. Macgregor latterly in no way endeavoured 
 to control. It was consequently ever upon the increase, 
 until at last it leavened thoroughly the whole man. 
 Mr. Hume did not live long enough to see him two 
 years in office, and his death in 1842 caused him, 
 happily, to remain for ever ignorant of what would 
 have deeply pained him. 
 
 The climax of Mr. Macgregor's self-esteem, we are 
 told, " led him to resign his office of Secretary, with its 
 salary of 1,500J. a year, from a delusive persuasion 
 that he was about to become a member of Lord John 
 Russell's new Cabinet." Having deliberately prepared 
 the way he became a candidate for the city of Glasgow 
 in July, 1847, opposing the old liberal members, Mr. 
 Oswald and Mr. John Dennistoun. Unfortunately for 
 himself, as the writer above quoted has remarked, he 
 headed the poll. 
 
 " Upon the subject of the Royal British Bank, which 
 he established, Mr. Macgregor would take no counsel, 
 or if he promised to abide by any friendly advice, he 
 was sure to relapse to his own opinion of his entire 
 self-sufficiency. He was more a nominal than a real 
 manager. He had resigned the chair three years 
 previous to its recent bankruptcy, but the disclosures 
 as to the mismanagement of the institution, and his 
 own unsecured debt to the shareholders, overwhelmed 
 a shattered body and a wounded spirit" 
 
 A curious note has been pointed out in the first 
 volume of his "Note Book," published in 1835, detailing
 
 MR. MACGREGOR. 329 
 
 the ruin of the old bank of Amsterdam, instituted in 
 1689, as a bank of deposit, "broken by an inconvenient 
 mode of transferring sums from the account of one 
 individual to another," and by the directors secretly 
 lending and "locking up" 10,000,000 florins to the 
 provinces of Holland and Friesland, " notwithstanding 
 its original constitution bound the directors to have 
 bullion in their coffers equal to the amount of its 
 liabilities." This old story, it has been suggested, 
 " might have saved Mr. Macgregor from much mis- 
 conduct of the Royal British Bank. But theory and 
 practice are different matters."* 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to add, after what has been 
 said, that Mr. Macgregor's character contrasted un- 
 favourably in many important respects with that of his 
 predecessor. He was succeeded in office by Mr. Porter, 
 a man of inferior calibre to either, though a most useful 
 and upright person, earnest in his convictions, as well 
 as able and clear-headed in the transaction of public 
 business. We have seen it stated that Mr. Porter, " by 
 his skilful compilations, monopolized the fame, much of 
 which belonged to Mr. Deacon Hume." The remark is 
 undoubtedly correct; but it might have been said as 
 justly of Mr. Macgregor as of his successor. Merit like 
 that of Mr. Deacon Hume is not the less palpable 
 because its complete recognition is the growth of time. 
 On the contrary, that is the most enduring which is 
 tardy in its development 
 
 * The Times. Mr. Macgregor died at Boulogne on the 23rd of 
 April, 1857.
 
 330 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 MR. DEACON HUME'S PRODUCTIONS, ORAL AND WRITTEN His 
 INTELLECTUAL POWERS INTERESTING TESTIMONIES His 
 LABOURS INFLUENCE PERSONAL CHARACTER CONCLUDING 
 REMARKS. 
 
 " His conversation was pithy, and he wrote much in little room : 
 but some of these labours of his never saw the light. Many persons 
 that privately did converse with him, lighted their candles at his." 
 CLARKE ON CARTER, 1662. 
 
 MB. DEACON HUME'S merits as a writer will perhaps 
 be sufficiently apparent from what the reader has met 
 with in this volume. He wrote more than his friends 
 are aware of. He was an occasional contributor to 
 some of the daily and weekly journals, as well as to 
 a quarterly periodical. He wrote an article in the 
 Times on the subject of the Prussian commercial system, 
 in answer to one which was commonly attributed to 
 Baron Brunow, the Prussian Minister at our court 
 His letters to friends, or public individuals who sought 
 his opinion, sometimes amounted to short treatises. He 
 was the author of a great variety of papers not intended 
 for publication ; many of which, doubtless, might be 
 published, not only without inconvenience, but with 
 advantage. Upon his retirement from office he put 
 many of his manuscripts into the hands of a gentleman 
 who begged the loan of them, believing that they might
 
 INTELLECTUAL POWERS. 331 
 
 aid him in the public service. Upon the decease of the 
 individual referred to, who was not careful of papers, 
 they could not be discovered.* From his published 
 writings, and his evidence before Parliamentary com- 
 mittees, the extent of Mr. Hume's ability and informa- 
 tion upon subjects of finance, and the solidity of his 
 judgment, may be correctly estimated. 
 
 " A short time before his death," writes Mr. Cobden, 
 " I wrote to him and advised him to collect and reprint 
 his writings and his evidence before Parliamentary Com- 
 mittees. In his reply, written by one of his daughters,f 
 for he was then suffering from an affection of the arm, 
 he seemed disposed to comply with my request; but 
 death put an end to his valuable and honourable 
 career." 
 
 The intellectual powers of Mr. Hume were consider- 
 able. His mind was remarkably perspicacious. It 
 was also vigorous, original, creative. His language was 
 distinguished by a condensation strikingly novel, while 
 his illustrations were singularly felicitous and charac- 
 teristic. To subjects which appeared to be common- 
 place he gave a charm, and brought new thoughts into 
 regions which seemed to be exhausted. It is seldom 
 that so much accuracy and pithiness of reasoning have 
 
 * Six volumes of printed papers and pamphlets upon subjects 
 connected with Political Economy, collected by this gentleman, 
 came into the possession of the author of this biography soon after 
 his death. 
 
 f The wife of the author, to whom he is largely indebted for 
 information respecting the personal history of her father, that 
 portion of it especially which is contained in the first and last 
 chapters.
 
 332 UFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 been combined with so much variety of expression. In 
 the archives of the Board of Trade are to be found 
 productions of his, out of which a course of practical 
 political economy, applied to a boundless range of 
 subjects, might be extracted. The limited scope of the 
 present volume would not permit the author to avail 
 himself of them. No writer, or speaker, probably ever 
 conveyed his meaning in fewer words ; while the lucid- 
 ness of his conceptions gave transparency to all the 
 topics which he handled. As has been said of Paley, 
 "knowledge, however abstruse, by passing tlirough 
 his mind, became plain common sense, stamped with 
 the characters which ensured its currency in the 
 world."* What is even more remarkable, without 
 being a lawyer, he succeeded in the invention of a 
 legal style, to which, since it is unequalled, the atten- 
 tion of future consolidators of the Statute Law ought 
 to be directed. 
 
 The following passages from a communication from 
 the Right Honourable Sir James Stephen, would have 
 found a place in the second chapter of this volume, 
 had the author been so fortunate as to have received 
 it earlier. While it confirms all that has been advanced 
 in that chapter, it goes beyond it in some very im- 
 portant respects. 
 
 " Mr. Deacon Hume and I were, during several 
 
 years, contemporary members of the Board of Trade. 
 
 But as Counsel to that Board I had nothing to do with 
 
 his great work, the consolidation of the laws of the 
 
 * Bishop Turton.
 
 SIB JAMES STEPHEN. 333 
 
 Customs. He wrote every word of the code, which 
 ought to have borne his name, locked up day and 
 night, as he often told me, in lodgings which he took 
 for the purpose in Westminster, where even his wife 
 and children were scarcely ever admitted.* After a 
 self-imprisonment of many months in- that cell, he came 
 out of it with a manuscript, which, when printed, filled 
 a small octavo volume, and which might have been 
 compressed into a pocket duodecimo. It contained all 
 the kernel of that branch of the law which, till then, 
 had been spread over the whole of the statutes at large, 
 or printed collectively in the form of a quarto, containing 
 as much letter-press as any two volumes of the Ency- 
 clopoedia Britannica. Mr. Hume's digest was passed 
 into a law by Parliament, as he told me, without the 
 change of a word ; and I do not believe that among all 
 the Acts in the Statute Book any could be mentioned 
 which so completely exhausted, and so luminously 
 arranged so vast a subject within so very narrow a 
 compass of words. It was then, and is still, my 
 deliberate opinion that, in its original form, it was a 
 masterpiece of legislative skill, and that, paradoxical as 
 it may sound, his unacquaintance with the phraseology 
 and the technicalities of the law was of the greatest 
 possible use to him in accomplishing his work. Writing 
 on a subject with which he was profoundly conversant, 
 he succeeded in the invention of a legal style so con- 
 cise, so clear, and so popular, that every one readily 
 seized his meaning ; nor can I remember a single appeal 
 Hi* family were residing at St. Omer. See p. 21.
 
 334 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 to the courts at Westminster to ascertain it, so long 
 as he continued in office. It was through a vast 
 labyrinth of details that Mr. Hume gradually worked 
 his way to the most comprehensive principles; and he 
 therefore held them with a firmness, and explained and 
 acted upon them with a facility peculiar to himself. 
 He and Mr. Huskisson were the earliest promulgators 
 amongst us, for practical and definite purposes, of truths, 
 by the rhetorical promulgation of which some of their 
 disciples have earned so much celebrity." 
 
 His knowledge, though not abstruse, was extensive 
 and accurate ; and he was always eager to make further 
 acquisitions. " He wasted very little of the portion of 
 life conceded to him, and was constantly improving 
 himself in the masculine pursuits of the philosophy of 
 legislation, of political economy, of the constitutional 
 history of the country, and of the history and changes 
 of ancient and modern Europe." When his acquaint- 
 ance with a subject became sufficient to justify the 
 formation of a decided opinion, no man could more 
 speedily arrive at a correct decision. ' Looking before 
 and after,' he had an admirable judgment, with a 
 thorough knowledge of the true principles of legislation 
 and of trade, perfect integrity, singular disinterested- 
 ness, with a public spirit and a patriotism that entitled 
 him to the approbation, not only of his own country, 
 but of the civilized world. 
 
 In his own particular department his knowledge was 
 so extensive and accurate, that he was referred to with 
 confidence, and his views were generally adopted with-
 
 INTERESTING TESTIMONIES. 335 
 
 out hesitation. " What struck me most," observes 
 
 Mr. Ewart,* " was his extreme acuteness and clearness. 
 
 His mind was one in which were combined the rarely 
 
 united qualities of large general views, and of minute 
 
 yet lucid distinctions in detail a union of the legal 
 
 and philosophic mind." " I had not the privilege," says 
 
 another competent judge,| "of an intimate acquaintance 
 
 with Mr. Hume, only having had opportunities of 
 
 seeing him occasionally when I visited London. As 
 
 president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, I 
 
 went to town upon one occasion with a deputation, and 
 
 we met Mr. Deacon Hume and Mr. Porter at Mr. Mac- 
 
 gregor's. Many members of the House of Commons, 
 
 and other advocates of free trade, came in during the 
 
 evening, and there were animated discussions upon the 
 
 question which had become one of great interest. 
 
 Mr. Hume, my colleagues, and myself, withdrew to a 
 
 corner of the room, and so absorbed were we with his 
 
 interesting conversation, that we unconsciously sat there 
 
 until two o'clock in the morning; all the company 
 
 having retired except ourselves. Mr. Hume exhibited 
 
 in his manners a charming simplicity of character, 
 
 mingled with a quiet but unflinching maintenance of 
 
 his opinions, which impressed me with the feeling that 
 
 they were the result of deep inquiry and conviction. 
 
 I doubt not that he effected more than most other men 
 
 in influencing the minds of those statesmen with whom 
 
 he came in contact, and not seldom by his quiet and 
 
 playful exposure of monopolist fallacies." 
 
 * M.P. for Dumfries f J. B. Smith, Esq., M.P. for Stockport.
 
 336 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 No one was more free from vanity. Regardless of 
 observation, he pursued an unostentatious career. The 
 public good was his peculiar care, and he laboured 
 silently, for the most part, but unceasingly, after it 
 He was fond of saying that all class interests had 
 abundance of people to protect them, but there was no 
 one to protect the interest of the general public, of 
 which, while he was at the Board of Trade, he con- 
 sidered himself to be the representative in his official 
 capacity. When he was asked by a member of the 
 Select Committee on Imports, who sought to perplex 
 him in his evidence, " Upon what principle he would 
 recommend a general change of the system in levying 
 the import duties upon articles by the introduction of 
 which at a less duty the manufactures of this country 
 would be seriously affected," he boldly and charac- 
 teristically replied, " Upon the principle of general 
 national benefit The question is, whether we mean 
 to serve the nation, or whether we mean to serve par- 
 ticular individuals ; I speak, whether from habit, from 
 my own turn of mind, or from official circumstances, 
 in behalf of the nation, or of the country at large." 
 
 As Controller of the Customs, before he was promoted 
 to the last office which he held, he was the confidential 
 adviser of the Board of Trade. His was the moving 
 genius which, unseen, pointed out and directed the 
 valuable improvements which have of late years been 
 made in every part of our commercial system. Over 
 each succeeding President of the Board of Trade the 
 master-mind of Mr. Hume obtained a salutary influence:
 
 HIS EARLY LABOURS. 337 
 
 and his great talents were devoted with the purest 
 patriotism and the most unselfish views, to the promo- 
 tion of the best interests of the country. In every step 
 which has been taken for the last half century in the 
 path of commercial emancipation in every tendency 
 towards a more enlightened policy his influence is to 
 be traced; and had his powers of action equalled his 
 perception of truth could he, in other words, have 
 given effect to his own convictions at an earlier period, 
 far different, long since, would have been the state of 
 our trading relations and the situation of our manufac- 
 turing industry. In short, as Sir James Graham has 
 truly said, " the history of the Board of Trade, from 
 the time of Mr. Huskisson to the close of Mr. Deacon 
 Hume's services at that Board, may be considered as 
 the history of Mr. Deacon Hume himself ; for he was 
 the life and soul of that department ; and every good 
 measure which was adopted in rapid succession at that 
 period, either received his earnest support, or may be 
 traced to his wise suggestion." 
 
 Another high authority * has stated, and no one will 
 attempt to controvert it, that a just record of the life 
 and labours of the subject of this volume " will vindi- 
 cate his better claim to a great share in the introduction 
 of an improved system of finance, and to commercial 
 intercourse upon true principles, than that of many 
 others who are too generally thought to be exclusively 
 entitled to public gratitude for the reformation. He 
 was the patient and efficient investigator in the prelimi- 
 * The Right Honourable Edward Ellice, M.P. 
 
 7,
 
 338 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 nary inquiries to the enactment of our free-trade code, 
 and cleared the way for the success of those who 
 followed him in completing the great work by legis- 
 lation." 
 
 The following testimony, from the pen of Mr. Cobden, 
 serves to show, in a very interesting manner, how 
 thoroughly he appreciated Mr. Hume's services, and 
 how entirely he agrees with the remark of Mr. Bright, 
 expressed with reference to a Life of him, that " it would 
 be neither right nor just, that his services should be 
 forgotten." 
 
 "Mr. Deacon Hume had reached a venerable age 
 before I entered the public arena, and when the full 
 triumph of the principles for which he and I laboured 
 was achieved, he had passed away. The only instances 
 in which he appeared, to my knowledge, before Par- 
 liamentary committees, though I have no doubt his 
 evidence was sought on other occasions, was on the 
 state of the silk trade, and on the timber and the import 
 duties. But he laboured in private circles to impress 
 his views upon those who could influence the policy of 
 the country ; and he did so with such modesty, and so 
 much disinterestedness, that the world will never know 
 how much it is indebted to him for the progress of 
 those sound principles which, though now so fashionable, 
 were then so much discountenanced in all political 
 combinations. I remember often quoting a dictum of 
 his which gained much force from his authority that 
 * a better case could be made out for giving a bounty 
 on the importation than for levying a custom-house tax
 
 INTERESTING TESTIMONIES. 339 
 
 on foreign corn.' Nobody, however, can appreciate the 
 merit of his course who does not recollect how adverse 
 he was at that time to the convictions and supposed 
 interests of the governing classes of this country. He 
 was far in advance of every class." 
 
 " I was connected with Mr. Deacon Hume," says a 
 late Secretary to the Colonies,* " for many years at the 
 Board of Trade, and I shall always remember him with 
 gratitude and affection ; I believe that this country 
 never possessed a more devoted and single-minded 
 public servant, and that no man did more to promote 
 the success of enlightened principles in our commercial 
 legislation." 
 
 It would be easy to multiply testimonies, brief indeed, 
 for the most part, but such as would equally redound to 
 the honour of Mr. Hume, from Lord Overstone, Lord 
 Monteagle, the Right Hon. Holt Mackenzie, Sir Ben- 
 jamin Hawes, G. Paulett Scrope, Esq., and many more, 
 but enough has been already adduced. It is saddening 
 to reflect how many who would have been delighted to 
 speak of him have either retired in a good old age from 
 the labours of public life, or are already numbered with 
 the dead ; amongst these it may be sufficient to mention 
 the late Lord Sydenham, and the present Earl of Ripon, 
 than whom no persons more highly esteemed and 
 respected him, or more constantly sought his counsel. 
 
 Mr. Hume's character was thoroughly English a 
 quality which commended it strongly to general esteem. 
 His uniform good sense, a faculty which it has been con- 
 The Right Honourable H. Labouchere, M.P.
 
 340 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 tended is less common than genius, which he also pos- 
 sessed, no one could fail to observe; and it was in excel- 
 lent keeping with the evenly-balanced theoretical and 
 practical bearing of his mind. Perfectly aware that the 
 surest approach to truth is by reason and argument, he 
 was, nevertheless, prone "to catch the nearest way," 
 simply because it is the most direct, whether he was 
 investigating some abstract questions of political economy, 
 or of constitutional or international law. These were 
 ' the title deeds to public confidence* produced by 
 Mr. Hume, and recognised by those statesmen with 
 whom he was daily brought into contact. 
 
 He was fond of labour. What Burke said of George 
 Grenville was true of Deacon Hume : " with a mascu- 
 line understanding, a resolute heart, and an application 
 nndissipated and unwearied, he took public business not 
 only as a duty which he was to fulfil, but as a pleasure 
 he was to enjoy ; and he seemed to have little delight 
 except in what in some way related to the public 
 service." He was at the Board of Trade daily before 
 twelve, and he seldom left it until six o'clock. It was 
 not much before that hour that Lord Sydenham, and 
 the Earl of Ripon, successively Presidents of the Board 
 of Trade, the latter especially, were accustomed to talk 
 over financial matters before going to the House. There 
 were other members of Parliament, also addicted to 
 finance, who sought opportunities for similar conver- 
 sations ; and as Lord Panmure has correctly remarked, 
 many a feather was plucked from his plumage, and 
 sported by others, without any acknowledgment of the
 
 SOCIAL LIFE. 341 
 
 source from whence they were derived.** These con- 
 ferences were at length so protracted that he was 
 obliged to intimate that they interfered with his punc- 
 tually joining his family at dinner at seven o'clock. As 
 he walked to, so he walked from, the Board of Trade 
 to his residence in Russell Square, and Mrs. Hume was 
 requested, on no account, to wait if he should fail to 
 arrive at the expected time. He passed his evenings 
 within his domestic circle, and if he was not fatigued, 
 as was often the case latterly, he joined cheerfully in 
 conversation, forgetful alike of the events, or of the 
 labours of the day. Sometimes, and it was almost a 
 habit, he would walk up and down the room for half an 
 hour, with his hands lodged in the recesses of his 
 pockets, talking as he walked, and pausing now and 
 then, in order to express himself more deliberately. 
 But when the hour of retiring arrived, and his family 
 had one and all disappeared, unfortunately, as has been 
 already mentioned, he was not accustomed to do like- 
 wise; for he indulged in the injurious practice of 
 devoting an undue portion of the night to reading and 
 writing, or to matters connected with official duties. 
 And as he who would rise early must go to bed betimes, 
 it will not be anticipated that he was, in the usual sense 
 of the words, very frequently ' up with the lark.' 
 
 He was an instructive companion. No one upon 
 leaving his company could with justice remark, as 
 Dr. Johnson once did, " We have had some talk, but 
 no convertation, there has been nothing discussed." 
 His information was considerable, and he was as intent
 
 342 LIFE OF J. DEACON HOIE. 
 
 upon augmenting his own store, as upon contributing 
 to the public stock of it. His conversation was varied 
 and animated, abounding with lively repartee, humour, 
 and ready wit; oftentimes there was a sportiveness, 
 almost akin to mischief, in his humour. In the difficult 
 art of telling a story he particularly excelled. Avoiding 
 the least approach to any premature merriment, every 
 particular was related in terms the most concise and 
 picturesque ; and when he came to the point, there was 
 invariably a twinkle in his eye, imparting an effect 
 which no words could equal. For music he had no 
 taste ; he might be said to be almost insensible to its 
 charms. He would occasionally, though rarely, lay 
 aside the pursuit of the " Severer Science," and unbend 
 his mind over a novel of Sir Walter Scott, whose pro- 
 ductions, in common with mankind, he thoroughly 
 appreciated; but he could never be tempted to waste 
 his time upon the ephemeral productions, or fashionable 
 fictions of the day ; and he would often express his 
 surprise that his colleagues, men of vigorous under- 
 standing, who were triflers in no respect, could not 
 only read, but apparently devour, such productions, 
 and recommend them to his notice. While we par- 
 ticipate in the surprise of Mr. Hume, it is certain that 
 there were no greater readers of this class of literature 
 than Mr. Canning, Lord Melbourne, and some other 
 eminent persons that might be mentioned. If Mr. Hume 
 was found relaxing over what has been described as 
 Mill, Macculloch, Senior, and Horner, dramatised that 
 is to say, one of Miss Martineau's tales illustrative of
 
 MISS MABTINEAU PENSIONS. 343 
 
 political economy he would smile and add, archly 
 enough, " Yes; 7 read them for the story" Though we 
 believe he was never heard to say so, we doubt not 
 he regretted that an authoress who had so remark- 
 able a talent for rendering agreeable what is generally 
 esteemed the unattractive, and in some of its parts 
 not very feminine, subject of political economy, should 
 have impaired her usefulness by a constant inculcation 
 of the most democratic opinions ; for in all but her anti- 
 Malthusian doctrines she was a sort of female Godwin. 
 Those, however, who regarded her productions in some 
 respects with little favour, have generally been ready 
 to admit the praiseworthy intention and benevolent 
 spirit in which they were written, as well as the varied 
 knowledge of nature and society, the acute discrimina- 
 tion of character, and remarkable power of entering 
 into, and describing the feelings of the poorer classes, 
 which many of her narratives evince. It was not, 
 therefore, a matter of very great surprise that a Con- 
 servative Government should deem her literary exertions 
 worthy of a public reward : and that during the year 
 in which Mr. Deacon Hume received a pension, a small 
 one should have been offered to her, which she declined 
 to accept nevertheless, upon the plea, which was a 
 pledge of her integrity, that she considered herself 
 in the light of a political writer, and that the offer 
 did " not proceed from the people, but from the Go- 
 vernment, which did not represent the people." 
 
 Mr. Deacon Hume was extensively consulted by 
 persons who needed advice under difficult circuin-
 
 344 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 stances ; and he was always ready to afford them the 
 benefit of his counsel. If any married man repaired 
 to him respecting pecuniary embarrassment, he would 
 inquire whether his wife was aware of his position ? 
 If the reply was in the negative he would answer, 
 " Then I must have nothing to say to you." We much 
 doubt, however, whether he was one of those who 
 would, under any circumstances have confessed with 
 Sir Samuel Romilly, " there is nothing by which I have 
 through life profited more than by the just observations, 
 the good opinions, the sincere and gentle encouragement 
 of amiable and sensible women : " for the temperament 
 of the men was very different, and, with all his benevo- 
 lence, it must be admitted that the " sterner stuff" was 
 not altogether omitted in his composition. 
 
 Those who were connected with him by the ties of 
 relationship, when in his presence, were not altogether 
 free from, what for the want of a more appropriate 
 word we must call, a feeling of fear. In arguing with 
 tlu- less informed too, he was sometimes impatient of 
 contradiction; and for incapacity he was not perhaps 
 accustomed to make the largest allowance. With 
 honest prejudice he could patiently do battle ; ' smile 
 when opposed and be gentle after triumph.' 
 
 " It would in many respects have been advantageous 
 to me," writes one who was a well-known member of 
 Parliament, " if my public engagements had not with 
 other hindrances precluded more frequent communica- 
 tion with one whose intellectual qualities and experience 
 were so well calculated to inform and interest. In
 
 EVERY DAY LIFE. 345 
 
 addition to interviews, too few I regret to say, at his 
 own house, we had occasionally short but agreeable 
 conversations when we met on the Queen's highway, 
 in the course of rides mutually undertaken for the good 
 of our personal constitutions, while thinking upon the 
 larger subject of the constitution of Great Britain. 
 Having been placed in circumstances as early as Mr. 
 Robinson's Corn Bill of 1817 to write upon the subject, 
 I took up the principle of protective duties not taxation 
 for revenue, and the distinction formed matter of con- 
 versation with my friend, in which he condescended 
 to deal kindly with my prejudices." 
 
 Mr. Hume was endowed with the faculty of method 
 in an uncommon degree, and his administrative powers 
 were very considerable. Precise in dealing with the 
 every-day affairs of life, he did not disdain to insist 
 upon the every-day maxim, " there is a right way of 
 doing everything." 
 
 " I had the pleasure of knowing him," writes another 
 who survives, " for nearly fifty years, and during 
 most of that period rather intimately. All who knew 
 Mr. Hume esteemed and loved him. He was at least 
 half a century ahead of his time." . 
 
 His generosity was susceptible, and it was delicate. 
 Those who knew him were almost afraid to appeal to 
 his benevolence, it was, in proportion to his means, 
 so uncalculating and liberal. The writer has heard 
 an instance related upon the best authority, in which 
 death having suddenly deprived a wife and family not 
 only of its head, but of the means of subsistence,
 
 346 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 Mr. Hume and his family proved benefactors indeed. 
 The widow has been heard to relate how, when in the 
 earliest days of her sorrow, and feeling that she had 
 no sort of claim upon Mr. Hume, she set out one 
 morning from the neighbourhood of St. Paul's for 
 Russell Square, and at last summoned up courage 
 to lift the knocker of the door. She would dwell 
 upon the kind manner in which he received her, and 
 how immediately all fear of giving offence was dis- 
 missed how he expressed his deep regret for the loss 
 she had sustained, and the respect he had always 
 entertained for the deceased, who was in business in 
 the city how he gave her a handsome donation, pro- 
 mising to repeat it, and also to do what he could for 
 her and hers. Never was a promise more completely 
 fufilled. The family were for years assisted by Mr. and 
 Mrs. Hume, and some of their daughters, in every 
 possible way ; and in due time they had the satisfaction 
 of seeing one or more of them occupying good situations, 
 and a son become eminent in one of the highest depart- 
 ments of art. 
 
 To pecuniary applications in the way of loan he did 
 not often accede, mindful of the old proverb, perhaps, 
 or for reasons of his own. But he never made them 
 excuses for refusing assistance in a time of need. " I 
 do not lend" he would say ; " but I will give you with 
 pleasure." And the sum would often prove a quarter, 
 perhaps half, of the amount which had been requested. 
 It will not be supposed that he was ever heedless or 
 indiscriminate in his bounty. Nor will it be necessary
 
 HIS BENEVOLENCE. 347 
 
 to add that he was fully alive to all the evils of men- 
 dicity as a trade. He was less frequently imposed 
 upon than the generality of mankind. It was always 
 the merits, never the apparent magnitude or specious 
 aspect of a case, that prevailed with him. For instance, 
 when his daily walks commenced to the Board of Trade, 
 and he passed the crossing a little below Northumber- 
 land House, he was, of course, accosted, in common 
 with all other foot passengers, by the assiduous 
 "sweeper," and his outstretched hat. Mr. Hume 
 perceiving at once the obvious industry, as well as the 
 utility of the occupation, one morning took the man 
 aside, bade him make no more applications to him, 
 telling him at the same time that as he passed daily 
 he would give him sixpence every week ; and the 
 pension was continued during the entire period of his 
 connection with the Board of Trade. Upon his retire- 
 ment, it appears he omitted to give his diligent friend 
 any intimation that his walks in that direction were 
 drawing to a close ; and for a long time the old man 
 was at a loss to guess what had become of him. After 
 this period Mr. Hume very rarely passed by that way 
 on foot Once, however, he happened to do so, and 
 was immediately recognised by his old friend, whom he 
 once more relieved ; and was infinitely diverted as he 
 walked away, to hear the strange exclamations of 
 surprise and gratitude which broke from the lips of the 
 old man. 
 
 There were cases, however, and cases which are too 
 often relieved by the benevolent, to which, being
 
 348 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 satisfied of their frequently fabulous character and evil 
 tendency, he uniformly turned a deaf ear. Amongst 
 these may be mentioned a touching petition respecting a 
 deceased cow or a dead donkey. 
 
 His friendships were sincere, and they were firm. 
 To a friend who had written to him upon quitting office, 
 he replies, " I am much gratified by your letter, knowing 
 well how much intimacies, and even friendships, are the 
 creatures of circumstances that they generally arise 
 out of accidental facilities, and mostly decline after that 
 sustenance is withdrawn, I had felt much regret at the 
 separation which your relinquishment of office would 
 necessarily occasion between us." 
 
 The mental quality which at school disposed him to 
 protect the weak against the strong, and to exert 
 himself against the oppressor, continued with him 
 through life. It was respecting a case of this nature 
 which came under his notice, that he said, " If it were 
 a question devoid of pecuniary consequences, I could 
 hardly suppress my indignation sufficiently to let such a 
 gross falsification pass for currency; but to suffer the 
 wolf at the spring to triumph in the argument over the 
 lamb, when the lamb is, in consequence, to be devoured, 
 is more than mortal heart can bear." It will be readily 
 believed that though he was less known to the world in 
 general than most of those who have reached the 
 eminence to which he attained, but of which he never 
 appeared to be conscious, he was an object of the 
 sincerest respect and regard with all who enjoyed the 
 privilege of an intimate acquaintance with him.
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTER. 349 
 
 He had an aversion to sitting for his likeness; no 
 portrait of him consequently exists. In person he was 
 of about the middle stature ; his features were strongly 
 marked; his forehead high and intellectual; his eye 
 singularly expressive ; it might be said to be a light 
 hazel, but the colour it was not easy to define, so 
 constantly did it vary with each particular expression. 
 His voice was pleasing, of small compass indeed, but 
 well suited to conversation, in which he largely indulged ; 
 there was a keen sense of the ludicrous, and he had a 
 merry laugh. His gait was uncommon : it was rapid 
 and firm, indicative at once of decision and precision. 
 He was slightly, though very slightly, old fashioned in 
 his attire, which increased rather than lessened his 
 gentlemanly appearance. Like his schoolfellow, the late 
 Sir Francis Burdett, he continued to wear top-boots 
 until they became singular. There was, in short, an 
 individuality about him which no one could fail to 
 observe. Even his knock at the door was like that of 
 no other person; it was instantly recognised by his 
 family or friends. No one could converse with him, 
 even for a few minutes, and not perceive that he was an 
 extraordinary man. Whether he was engaged in public 
 matters, or in the ordinary affairs of his own establish- 
 ment, whether he was at home or abroad, everything 
 which he did bore the stamp of his character, which 
 displayed energy, distinctness of purpose, ' strenuousness 
 without bustle,' unwearied application, and devotion to 
 public interests.
 
 350 LIFE OF J. DEACON HUME. 
 
 It has ever been deemed a worthy undertaking to 
 draw latent merit from obscurity, and to place the long 
 withheld meed of distinction upon the time-worn brow. 
 The present attempt, however, is scarcely of this kind. 
 The subject of this memoir was never obscure ; he has 
 been for some years removed from the world, and his 
 merits were acknowledged by the leading statesmen of 
 his day, who alone had opportunities, if such were fully 
 granted to any, of duly estimating his services. The 
 object of the foregoing sketch has been, to a consider- 
 able degree, to supply, not to those only who are 
 engaged in the labours of official life, but for the 
 benefit and information of the general public, with 
 whom his mind so feelingly sympathised, and his heart 
 so strongly beat in unison, a detailed account of the 
 chief events of a life, which was lavishly spent in its 
 service, and whose energies were never more power- 
 fully or more industriously exerted than when they 
 were most hidden from the public view. The author 
 more than doubts whether Mr. Deacon Hume ever 
 silently applied to himself, much less gave expression 
 to sentiments at all similar to those which were 
 uttered by one whose labours in the cause of com- 
 mercial freedom, though late, were most effectual ; " It 
 may be I shall leave a name sometimes remembered 
 with expressions of good will in the abodes of those 
 whose lot it is to labour and to earn their daily bread 
 by the sweat of their brow, when they shall recruit 
 their exhausted strength with abundant and untaxed
 
 CONCLUSION. 351 
 
 food, the sweeter because it is no longer leavened by 
 a sense of injustice."* 
 
 All that the preceding passage can convey is applicable, 
 however, to both instances; and the just expectations 
 which were awakened in the breast of "the greatest 
 member of Parliament that ever existed," might, with 
 equal propriety, have found a place in the mind of the 
 less conspicuous, but more consistent, the, at least, 
 equally laborious, and not less patriotic, individual, 
 whose important services to his country are recorded 
 in this volume. If the author has at all succeeded in 
 asserting the claims of Mr. Deacon Hume to public 
 gratitude, claims which, from the unhappy system 
 that prevails with regard to the real workmen in our 
 Government establishments, have been hitherto imper- 
 fectly recognised, and which, but for such a record, 
 would soon be unknown to one person in a thousand, 
 he will never regret that, while passing subjects of 
 abiding interest in review, diligently, faithfully, con- 
 scientiously, he attempted to raise a slight memorial to 
 his fame. The memories of such men should be dear 
 to the people of this country, who, when once they 
 are made aware of the debt they owe, are rarely slow 
 to do justice, or to evince their gratitude. 
 
 * Sir Robert Peel's speech on quitting office, June 29, 1846. 
 
 THE END.
 
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