U.i^'%^ >> V * * > ' - i -' y -* x//T 9 _Z University of California Berkeley CEOGnATIIY DEPT. EARTH SCIENCES LIBRARY (ALFRED LORENTZ leUCHHANDLUNGi " li piD7ir :D LORENTZ I DLUNGu.AKnQUARIATl Ki d.VHDDDINTSIB -Ifll I COBBETT'S PAPER AGAINST GOLD: Containing the History and Mystery of the Bank of England, the Funds, the *Debt, the Sinking Fund, the Bank Stoppage, the lowering and the raising of the value o Paper- Money; and shewing, that Taxation, Pauperism, Poverty, Misery and Crimes have all increased, and ever must increase, with a Funding System. l.]_COBBETPS PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [Price Two-Pence. INTRODUCTION. B, tley, 6th February, 1 817. The time is now come, when every Irian ia this kingdom ought to make himself, it' possible, well acquainted -with all matters belonging to the Paper-Money System. It is that System, which has mainly contri buted towards our present miseries ; and, indeed, without that System those miseries never could have existed in any thing approaching towards their present degree. In all countries, where a Paper-Money, that is to say, a paper which could not, at any mo ment, be converted into Gold and Silver, has ever existed; in all coun tries, where this lias been the case, the consequence, first or last, has always been great and general misery, and, iu most such cases, such misery Las been productive of that confusion and bloodshed, which I most anxiously Jiope will be prevented, in tin's in stance, by timely measures of a just and conciliatory character anc 1 by the good sense, patience and fortitude of the people. To be able clearly to trace our mi- series to this grand cause, the Bank and the Paper-Money, it is necessary, that we inquire into the origin ot money, how it acts upon the a flairs o men, how prices depend upon its quantity, and how money itself is changed in its quantity and value- Next it is necessary, that we come at a clear idea of the origin of Paper- Money and of its introduction intp this country. Kext, we ought to see the origin of the Bank and its Paper ; to see how Loans have been made and how and by what means a Debt has been created. This compels us to go back and trace minute! v the Bank and the Debt from their fatal birth to the present time ; to show- how they arose both together, and how they have gone swelling moun tains high, side by side while taxes, pauperism, misery and, crimes have all gone on increasing in the same degree. We ought next to inquire, whether it be possible to hvsen ths Debt by that scheme, which has been called the Sinking Fund. Then we ought to enter into all the facts of that curious event, called the &auk-&&- striction, which was a 8tnpjwye of Cash-Payments at the -Bank, in vio lation of the Bank Charter and of the laws of debtor and creditor. This transaction ought now to be clearly by every man in .England. Priii tt-.r, Bream's Buildings, INTRODUCTION. sum of 1,000 pounds each; that the whole of this sentence has been exe cuted upon me, that I have been im prisoned the two years, have paid the thousand pounds TO THE KING, and have given the bail, Timothy Brown and Peter Walker, Esqrs. being iny sureties ; that the At torney General was Sir Vicary Gibbs, the Judge who sat at the trial, Lord Ellenborough, the four Judges who sat at passing sentence, EHenborough, Grose, Le Blanc, and Bailey; and that the jurors were, Thomas Rhodes of Hampstead Road, John Davis of Southampton-place, James Bills of Tottenham Court Road, John Richards of Bayswatcr, Tho- I mas Marsham of Baker Street, Ro bert Heathcote, of High Street, Marylebone, John Maud, of York Place, Marylebone; George Baxter, of Church Terrace, Pancras ; Tho mas Taylor, of Red Lion Square ; David I)eane of St. John Street; William Palmer, of Upper Street, Islington; Henry Favre, of Pall- Mall ; and that the Prime Ministers during the time were Spencer Perce val, until he was shot by John Bel- lingham, and after that Robert B. Jenkinson, Earl of Liverpool; that the prosecution and sentence took place in the reign of King George the Third, and that, he having be come insane during my imprisonment, the 1,000 pounds was paid to his son, the Prince Regent, in his behalf; that, during my imprisonment, 1 wrote and published 364 Essays and Letters upon political subjects ; that, the same time, I was visited [tffl by persons from 107 cities and towns, many of them as .1 M>rt of deputies from Societies or Clubs ; that, at the expiration of my imprisonment, on the 9th of July, 1812, a great dinner was given in London Ibr the purpose of receiving me, at which dinner up wards f GOO persons were present, and at which Sir Francis Buniett presided; that dinners and other pin- ties 'were held on the snme occasion in many other places in England; that, on my way home, I was re ceived at Alien, the iirst town in Hampshire, with the ringing of the Church bells ; that a respectable com pany met me and gave me a dinner 'it Winchester; that I was drawn from more than the distance of a mile into Botlryby the people; that, upon my arrival in the village, I found all the people assembled to re-* ceive me ; that I concluded the day by explaining to them the cause 01 my imprisonment, and by giving them clear notions respecting the flogging of the Local Milkia-men at EJy, anei respecting the employment of Ger man Troops; and, finally, which is more than a compensation for my losses and all my sufferings, I am in perfect health and strength, and, though I must, for the sake of six children, feel the diminution that has been made in my property (thinking it right in me to decline the offer of a subscription), I have tli consola tion to see growing up three son*, upon whose hearts, I trust, all these facts will be engraven. WM. COBBETT. Botlty, July IS, 1812. PAPER AGAINST GOLD. T)U III N(J tlic last session of par liament, a Committee, that is to sav, ten or twelve members, of tlic House of Commons, were appointed to in quire rnlo the cause of the high price of Gold Hnition., that is, (iold not coiu.nl; and to take into consideration the stale of the peculating medium, or money, of this country. This Com mittee have made a J'eport, as they call it; hut, it is a great book, that they have written, and have had print ed ; a hook much larger than the whole of the New- Testament. Of this Ucport I intend to enter into an Examination; and, as von have re cently felt, and are still feeling, sonic of the effects of Paper- Money, I think it may not he amiss, if, upon this occasion, L address myself to you. 1 have introduced mvself to von with out anv ceremonv ; hut, before we j);rt, we shall become well acquainted; and, I make no doubt, that you will understand the distinction between Puper- Monev and Gold-Money much too well for it to !>e in the power of any one ever again to deceive YOU; which understanding, will, in the time* now fast approaching, be of great utility to all those amongst you, who in iv have the means of laying up money, however small the quantity may be. The Committee above-mentioned, which, for brevity's sake, I call the liullion Committee, sent for several persons, whom they examined as wit LETTER I. Appointment of the Bullion Committee Main point* of the Report Proposition fW ti'o ank to pay in two Years To merit the appcllatiou of a Thinking; People, ue >uist shew that our Thinking produces Knowledge Go back into the History of 1'aper Money Definition of Money Increase of Paper What is the cause of this Increase: Orijrin fthe Bank of England How it came to pass that so much Paper Money ifot afloat Increase of Kank Notes wanted to pay the increase of the interest on tUe National i)eiu Progress in issuing Bank Notes from 20 to 1 Founds Suspj. rion aw ikened in 1797 wliich produced the Stoppage of Gold and Silver Payments at the B.iiik of iCnglaml nesses, touching the matter in ques tion. There was SIR FRANCIS BAR ING, for instance, the great loan- inokcr, and GOLDSMIDT, the rich ,Je\v, whose name you so often see in the news-papers, where he is stated to give grand dinners to princes and great men. The Evidence of these, and other money~dealers and mer chants, the Bullion Committee have had printed; and, upon this evidence, as well as upon the Report itself, we shall have to make some remarks. The result of the Committee's in quiries is, in substance, this ; that the hiyh price, of gold is occasioned by the low value of the paper-money; that the low value of the paper-money has been oecasioned (as, you know, the low value of apples is) by the great abundance of it ; that the MI fa wau J ^ 4-* / to lower the price of the yold is to raise the value of the paper-money, and that the only way to raise the value of the paper-jnortey is to make the quantity of it less than it now i>. Thus far, as you will clearly see, there was no conjuration required. The fact is, that, not only do these propositions contain well-known, and almost self-ei ident truths ; but, thdse truths have, during the last two or three years, and especially during the last year, been so frequently stated in print, that it was next to impossible that any person in England, able to read, should have been unacquainted with them. Hut, having arrived ait the conclusion, that, in order to raiat 3] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. the value of the paper-money, its quantity must be lessened; having come to- this point, the rest of the way was more difficult; for, the next object was, to point out the means of lessening the quantity of the paper- money ', and this is an object, which, in my opinion will never he effected, unless those means include the de struction of the whole mass. Not so, however, think the Gentle men of the Bullion Committee. They think, or, at least, they evidently wish to make others think, that it is possi ble to lessen the quantity of the paper- money, and to cause guineas to come back again and to pass from hand to liand as in former times ; they would fain have its believe, that this can be done without the total destruction of the paper-money ; and, indeed, they have actually recommended to the House of Commons to pass a Law to rause the Bank in Threadneedle Street, London, commonly called the Bank of .England, to pay its notes in real money, at the END OF TWO YEARS from this time. Two years is a pretty good lease for people to have of this sort. This Bank promises to pay on demand. It does this upon the lace of every "one of its notes ; and, therefore, as a remedy for the evil of want of gold, to propose, that this Bank should bcyin to pay in two years' time, is something, which I think, would not have been offered to the public in any age but this, and, even in this age, to any public except the 'public ii\ this country. The notes of the Bank qf England bear, upon the face of them, a promise that the Ban kers, or Bank Company, who issue the notes, will pay the notes upon demand. Now, what do we mean by paying a note? Certainly we do not mean, the giving of one note for anoth&r note. Yet, this is the sort of payment, that people get at the Bank of England; and this sort of pay ment the Bullion Committee does not pr.opose even to begin to put an end to in less than two years from this time. Gentlemen; we, the people of this country, have been persuaded to be lieve many things. We have been persuaded to believe ourselves to be " the most thinking people in Enrope;" but to what purpose do meu think, unless they arrive at useful knowledge by thinking? To what purpose do men think, if they are, after all their thinking, to be persuaded, that a, Bank, which has not paid its promissory notes in gold for thirteen years and a half, will be able to pay them in gold at the end of fifteen years and a half., the quantity of the notes having gone on regularly increasing? If men are to be persuaded to believe this, to what purpose do they think? But, before I proceed any further in my remarks upon the Report of the Bul lion Committee ; before I proceed to lay before you the exposures now made by the labours of this Com mittee ; the facts now become evident through this channel ; the tionfcssunis now made by these members ef the House of Commons : before I pro ceed to lay these before yon, and to remark upon the remedies, prcpf-red by the Committee, it \uil 'be Lei c-y.-ary for me to go back into the h infer;/ of the paper-money ; because, without doing this, I shall be talking to you of things, of which you will have no clear notion, and the reasonings, relating to which, you will, of course, not at all understand. It is a great misfor tune, that any portion of your time, should be spent in reading or think ing about matters of this kind ; but, such is our present situation in this country, that every man, who has a family to preserve from want, ought to endeavour to iKake himself ac quainted with the nature, and with the probable consequences, of the paper- money now afloat Mmsey, is the representative, or the token ot property, or things of value. The money, while used as. money, is of no other use ; and, therefore, a bit of lead or of wood or of leather, would be as good as gold or silver, to be used as money. But, if these materials, which are every where found in such abund- ance, were to be used as money, there 1ETTER 1. would be so much money made that there would be no end to.it; and, be- sid?s, the money made in one country would, however there enfened by law, have no value in any other ooun- try. For these reasons Gold and Silver, which are amongst the most scarce of things, have been, by all the nations that we know any thing of, need as money. \Vhile the money of nny country consists of nothing hut thrre ri"-.;rre metal?; while it c : . ; nothing but gold and silver, there is no ir r of its becoming too abundant; Lui ii the money of a country he made of lead, tin, wood, leiither, or p'-per; and if any one can make it, who may choose to make it, there needs no ex traordinary wisdom to foresee, that there will be a great abundance of "this sort of money, and that the gold and silver money, being, in feet, no longer of any use in such a state of things, will go, cither into the hoards of the prudent, or into the bags of those, who have the means of scud- ing or carrying them to those foreign countries where they are wanted, and where they will bring their value. That a state of things like that here spoken of, does now exist in this country, is notorious to all the AvorJd, But while we are all acquainted with the fact, and while many of us are most sensibly feeling Ifcfi effects, scarcely a man amongst us takes the trouble to inquire into the cause : yet, unless the cause be ascertained, how are we to apply, or to judge of a re- ! medy? We see" the country abound- ing with paper-money ; we see every j man's hand full of it ; we frequently talk of it as a strange thing, nwl a great evil; but never clo we inquire into the cau^e of it. There are few of you who cannot remember the time, when there was scarcely- ever seen a bank note among Tradesmen and Farmers. 1 can re member, when this was the case; and, when the Farmers in my country hard ly ever saw a bank note, except rhen :hey sold their heps at "VVcyhiil i'air. People, in those days, used 10 carry little bags to put their money in, in stead of tiie paste-b ; .ard or leather cases that they new carry. If you look back, and take a little tisne to think, you will trace the gradual in crease of paper-money, and the like decrease of gold and silver n-oney. At first there were no bank i-oles un der iM) pounds; next they came to 15 pounds; next to 10 pounds: at the beginning of the last \var, they came | io 5 pounds; and, betbie the end of i it, they came down to 2 and to 1 I pounds. How long it will be before j they come down to parts jrf a pound, I it would, perhaps, be difficult to say ; but in Kent, at least, there are country notes in circulation, Jk> an amount so low as that of seven"*&feillings. It is the cttw.se of this that is interesting to us ; the cause of this change in our money, and, in the prices of goods of all soils and of labour. All of you who ave forty years cf age can re member, when the price of the gallon loaf used to be about ten pence' or a ^hill.iy, instead of two shillings and sixpence or two shillings and ten pence, as it now is. These effects strike you. You talk of them every day; but the cause of them you sel dom, if ever, either tall; or think of : and it is to this cause that I am now endeavouring to draw your attention. You have, du.ing the last seven teen years, seen the quantity of paper money rapidly increase ; or in other words, you haye, day after day, seen less and less of gold and silver appear in payments, and, of cou: so more -and more of paper-money. But, it was not til! the year 1/1)7, that the paper- money began to increase so ve:-y fast. ft was then that the tiuo and one pound notes wore first nu;de by the Bank of England. It was then, in short, that paper-money became com pletely predominant. .But; you v, ill naturally ask me, *' what was the cause oi'thatf The caune was, that the Bu:-k of EiU'-laruk .topped -p(>'!/- iit'j its notes in gold tend x>t'no jood a judgment relative to the remedy now propcrsed ; namelv, that of the Bank of England's reviving its pay- ments in gold and silver. This is the remedy, which the Bullion Com mittee propose; and, you will say, a very good remedy it is ; a vory good remedy indeed; fpr people who have, for go long a time, not paid their notes in gold and silver, to begin to pay their notes in gold and silver, is averv good remedy; but, the thing to ascertain, is, can the, remedy be applied] This is the question for us to discuss. It re quired nobody to tell us, that payiny in, f) old and silver Mould bean effect ual reined v for the evils arising from not paying inyoltl and silver; but, it required much more than I have yet heard to convince me, that to pay again in gold and silver icas possible. The Chief object of our enquiries being this: Whether it be possible, witliout a total destruction of all the paper money, to restore gold and silver to circulation amonyst i($ ; this being the chief object of our enquiries, we should first ascertain hoic the (/old and silrer was driven out of circulation, and had its place supplied by a paper- money ; for, unless we get at a clear view of this, it will he next to impos sible for us to reason satisfactorily upon the means of bringing gold and silver back again into circulation. Some people suppose, that paper made a part of the currency, or common monev, of England. They seem to regard the Bank of England as being as old as the Church of Eng land, at least, and some of them ap pear to have full as much veneration for it. The truth is, however, that the Bank of England is a mere human institution, arising out of causns hnv- lir_c nothing miraculous, or superna tural, ubput thcpi; ;md that both the LETT ER I. [10 institution and the agents who carry it on, arc as mortal as any other tiling and any other men, in this or in any other country. THE HANK, as it is called, had its origin in the year 1094, th.it is, a hundred and sixteen years ago; and it arose thus: the then King, WILLIAM III, who hud come from Holland, had begun a war against France, and, wanting money to carry it on, an act was parsed (which act was the 20th of the 5th year of his reign) to invite people to make voluntary advances to the go vernment of the sum of 1,500,000 pounds, and for securing the pay ment of the interest, and also for se curing the re-payment of the princi pal, taxes were laid upon beer, ale, and other liquors. Upon" condition of 1,200 ,OOQ/. of this money being advanced, within a certain time, the subscribers to the loan were to be in corporated ; and, as the money was advanced in due time, the incorpora tion .took place, and the lenders of the money were formed into a,trading Company, called " THE GOVERNOR ' AND COMPANY OF THE BANK " OK ENGLAND." Out of this, and other sums borrowed by the govern ment in the way of mortgage upon the taxes, there grew up a thin'j; called the Stocks, or the Funds (of which we will speak hereafter); but the Hank Company remained under its primitive name, and as the debt of the nation increased, this Company increased in riches and in conse quence. Thus, you see, and it is well wor thy of your attention, the Bank had its rise in war and taxation. But, we must reserve reflections of this sort for other occasions, and go on with our inquiries how gold and silver have been driven out of circulation in this country, or, in other words, how it came te pass that so much paper- money got afloat. The Act of Parliament, which I have just referred to, points out the manner in which the Bank Company fhall carry on their trade, and Uic ar ticles in which they shall trade, al lowing them, amongst other things, to trade -in gold, silver, bills of ex change, and other things, under cer tain restrictions ; but, as to what are called bank notes, the Company was not empowered to issue any such, in any other way, or upon any other footing, than merely as promissory notes, for the amount of which, ia the coin of the country, they were liable to be sued and arrested. Uav- j ing, however, a greater credit than any other individuals, or company of individuals, the Bank Company is- sued notes to a greater amount; and, which was something new in England, they v\ere made payable, not to any particular person, or his order, and not at any particular time ; but to tho bearer, and on demand. These cha- rartrristics, which distinguished the promissory notes of the Bank of England from ail other promissory I notes gave the people greater confi dence in them ; and as the Bank Company were always ready to pay the notes in Gold and Silver, when presented for payment, the notes be came, in time, to be looked upon as being as good as gold and silver. Hence came our country sayings: | " Ax yowl as the Bank ;" " As solid " an the It anh ;" and the like. Yet, the Bank was, as we have seen, merely a company of mortal men, formed into an association of traders-; and their notes nothing more than written promises to pay the bearer so much money in gold or silver. \Ve used to have other sayings about the Bank, such as, '* As rich as 11 the Bank ;" " All the gold in, the " Ban/t;" and such like, always con veying a notion, that the Bank was a place, and a place, too, where there were groat heaps of money. As long 1 as the Company were ready and willing to pay, and did actually pay, their notes in gold and silver, to all those persons who wished to have gold and silver, it is clear that thcso opinions of the people, relative to the Hank, were not altogether unfoMudod; in PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [12 for, though no hit of paper, or ofanj illing which has no value in itself, can be, in fact, so good as a bit of gold; still, if it will, at any moment, whenever Iho holder pleases, bring him gold or^silver to the amount written upon it, it is very nearly as got d as gold and silver; and, at the time of which we arc speaking, this was the case with the promissory note;? of the Hank Company. But, it | must he ciidcnt, that though the Coin- 1 pauv were ready, at the trine now re- j ferred jo, to pay their notes in gold I and silver, they h:ul never in their! money-chests a s-ulHcicncy of gold and t silver, to pay off ail their notes, if' they had been presented all at once. ; This must bo evident to every man; ! because, if the Bank Company kept Jcvcked up as much gold and silver as \ their notes amounted to, they could i get nothing by issuing their notes, and ; might full as well have sent out their I gold and silver. A farmer, for in- \ siance, who is generally using a him- , w, called the NATIONAL DKBT, the interest upon which is annually paid out of the taxes raised upon the people. As this debt went on in creasing, the bank-notes went on in- creasing, as, indeed, it is evident they must, seeing that the interest of the Debt was, as it still is and must be, paid in bcnik-notes. 1 1 is not simply the quantity of bank-notes that arc put intoj:ircula- lion, which will excite alarm as to their solidity ; but, it is that quantity, i! is he great, compared with the qiian- ///// oj (fold and silver, seen in circu lation. If, as the bank-notes in creased, the circulating gold and silver bail increased in the same proportion; then, indeed, bank notes would still have retained their usual credit ; people would still have Lad the same confidence in them. But, this could not be. From the na ture of things it could not be. The cause of the increase of the bank notes, was, the increase of the interest upon the National Debt; and, as it grew out of an operation occasioned by poverty, it would have been 13] LETTER II. [14 strange indeed bad it been accom panied with a circumstance, which would have been an infallible indica tion of riches. Without, however, stopping here to inquire into the cause of the coin's not increasing with the increase of paper, sullice it to say, that such was the. fact. Year after year we saw more of bank-notes and less of gold and silver ; till, in time, such was the quantity o'i bank-notes required to meet the purposes of gold and silver in the payment of the interest of the still increasing Debt, and in the pay ment of the taxes, many otiier banks were opened, and they also issued t!wir promissory notes. The Bank Company's notes, which had never before been made for less sums than 10 pounds, v. ere, soon after the be ginning of PITT'S war, in 1793, is sued for Jive pounds, after which it was not to be supposed, that people rould have the same opinion of bank notes tiiat they formerly had. Every part of the people, except the very poorest of them, now, occasionally, ut least, possessed bank-notes, llents, salaries, yearly \vapcs, ail FUWS above five pounds, were now paid in bank notes; and, the government itself was now paid its faxes i& this same sort of eurroncv. In such a ?tate of things it was quite impossible that people should not begin to perceive, that, gold and silver was better than bank-notes; and that Ihe-v should not be more de sirous of possessing tlio former than the latter; and, the moment this is the case, the banking system must be gin to tremble ; lor, as the notes are payable to the bearer, and payable oo. demand, it is very certain, that no man, with such a preference in bis mind, will keep in his possession a bank-note, unless we can suppose a man so absurd as to keep a thhig, of the goodness of which he has a suspicion, while, for msrely opening his mouth or stretching forth his hand, he can exchange it for a thing of the sazuc nominal value, and of the goodness of which it is impossible for him or any one else to entertain any suspi cion. " Public Credit," as" it bus been ca]led, but, as it may more pro perly be called, " The credit of bank notes" has been emphatically de nominated, " -SUSPICION ASLERP." In the midst of events like those of 1798 and the years immediately suc ceeding ; in the midst of circBnl- stances like those above-mentioned, relating to the bank-notes, it was im possible that SUSPICION should sleep any longer. The putting forth of the 5 pound bank-note* appears to have rouzed it, and, in the month, of February, 1707, it became broad awake. The stoppage of payment oa the part of the Bank Company was tiie immediate v consequence ; but, a particular account of that important event, which totally changed the na ture of ail our money transactions, and. which will, in the end, produce, in all human probability, effVcts of the most serious nature, must be the subject of a future Letter. In the mean while I am, Your Friend, WM. COBBETT. State Prison, Ncu-^aic^ Thwsday f ZOih August, J810. LETTER II. What are tlie F. 5, 'begin* the Funding and Deb? .Sys'tm First fjoan-to Government- Nature of Funds aud Storks and National Dfbt Explanation of how " Money i^ p:ir in Uu 1 Fund*" lilns- fration in the ruse of Mc-ssr*. Muckv.orm and Company, and lint of F/i'irntr horn The Funds shown t(* be NO PLACE, nor any tiling of a mystical i.aiure. GENTLEMEN, HAVING- in the foregoing letter, Bank of England, and of its Notes, from tiuvr origin down to tfee tima taken a sketch of the History of the when that Bank slopped paying it* 151 PAPER AGAINST GOLD. b r ! ld and xileer t tlie next thing do, in our regular course of pro- .^, will be to inquire into, and ascertain, the cuww of that e- ; 'or it it; very evident, that without uscertaiHing this cause, we tiiaii not be able to come to any thing; )il^c ;t (SeQitfed opinion with regard to our m^in question, n,!ue}v,TYHF,7HKK THERK RE ANY PROBABILITY THAT TIIJ.S UAMv WILL BE AB1K TO RF<> 7 URN TO THKJR ^AYMKNTS IN **o&p AND RiLVF.R,in \vhich question every man of n -S from the highest to tfcefowe^t. js s* deeply interested. .Put, it is neccss'irv for us to stop a v. I lore we are, and not go on ;my jr with ur inquiries into the of the stoppage at the Hank of llngfand. until we have taken time to fcofi a little at the FT'NpS and the RATIONAL DEBT. These arc w-*rds which are frequentjv made u.se ?f; but, like maiiv other xiords, they ft>nii th^ Ifisji, perhiup?, IXN f;Tj^f tiie \v>nls ;j.re so very commonly >t^ed. As iu the instance o(' Shrove 'fiH'sday or Shrovetide, words which we all, from the oldest to the youni^st, make nse of; hut as to their waning, we content ourselves with stipposing (or appearing to j;>;])- fro^e), that th^y contain a connnand~ uuent for its to eat Fritters and Pan- takes, jiml to murder poor nnolTend- ing eoeks; v/hereas tliey mean, the Tuesday, or the time for griny to cnn-* jfes our .sin.s to r and to get absolution. J'rma tht Priests; to skrievv, being a wojrd eqiial in me-awin^ to confess, an'l *^rwe to confessed ; and the nse of them in the case here mentioned liivivimr been handed down to us from the 1 flays of our forefathers, when the C*t:hurtant diiferenc't* in the two rases; l^iut, while, in the former, the jK'Mersioit is alt^iwliyl with rm mis- ebief to. either inciividuuls, or to the nation, in the latter, it i^ attended with great misc!ii"f to hoth ; with the rnin and misery of many a thousand of widows and orphans, and \vitli M r oes unnumbered to tiie nation at large. Hut, if a right understanding of the meaning of these words be, in al! cases where words are irsetl, of some consequence, it, is of peculiar consequence here, where, as may hare Ifien gathered from the pre ceding letter, MP sh;i!l find the Funds, the , the fair and seiisibk* meaning of them, Jow, we sliaii presently see, in what degree this meaning belongs to what are commonly ca-llet) the Funds, or the Stnrh*. int> the wi.sin and progress tvf whk'h, WP are now going to inquire ; ai/d, an inquiry it is, M'orthy of the undivided atte-ntiori oferery trne Knglishrnan ; n after our ancestors, who had too mu'!i spirit to be dragooitcd >ut of their libertv and their property, had driven aw?\ king James the Second, and 1. -ul brought over the Vrmre o-f Orange, and made him king hi his stead, and h.id, at the same time,, taken measures for strip ping the family of Stuart of the crown for ever, and putting it u|Mm the heads of his present Majesty's family; soon after thiji Revolution, the existence f>f >'ind.s, Stocks, on^ a .National Debt be^an, under the auspices of that same Prince of Orangp, who- v as Rien become our King \\illiaiu 111. and who appi'-ars to have lo.t but very liu'c tuny in discovering the 17] LETTER II. [is cHo.clusjl way of obtaining money liroui the Knglish, without resorting, as the iStnuris had, to those means, the UFO of whM-li had, ever and anon, UO Families. , GENTLEMEN, A LONDON print, which is what is called a ministerial newspaper, and which I, in the discharge of my duty as a public writer, am compelled to read, but which, for the sake of your morals, I hope none of you ever see, has most harshly spoken of that part f our paper money, which is issued by the Bankers, whose shops are in the country. The writer of this print has described that paper, namely, the country bank notes, as te destructive " assiynats;" and, in another of his publications, he calls them " vile " rays ;" and then again " dirty rays." These hard words, besides that they are unbecoming in sober discussion, can do no good, and may do a great deal of harm, if they have any eH'ert at all upon the minds of the people ; and, therefore we will make a re mark or two upon their tendency, be fore we proceed with the topic-: men tioned at the close of the last letter. Assiynats was the name given to the French revolutionary paper-money, the distresses occasioned by which are fresh in the recollection of most people ; and, to gire the same name to our country bank-notes was, there fore, to proclaim, ns far as this writer was able to proclaim, that these notes biiny more, than nt:e half of all QHT very moral and even very liberal men. Amongst them, as amongst men of other trades, there are, doubtless, sh-arpers and even rogues, and, the trade itself may be one that exposes men to the tempt ation of becoming roguish; but it does not follow, that all the paper-money makers, or, that the paper-money makers in general, are men of dis honest views. It is therefore, not tmly illiberal, but unjust in 'the ex treme, to condemn the whole of the trade in a lump, to call their wares " destructive assignats, vile rags, dirty rags" and the like, whence it is, of course, intended that it should be un derstood, that all the issuers of them ought to be regarded as pests of so ciety and treated accordingly; when the truth is, as we shall presently see, the fault is not in individuals, but in the system. Having thus endeavoured to put you upon your guard against the ten dency of this very unjust representa tion of our country bankers, and their money, an endeavour, which, it appear ed to me, ought not to be delayed, we will now proceed with our subject, and, as was proposed, at the close of the last Letter, inquire into the progress of the Funds and Stocks; or, in more proper terms, into the INCREASE OF THE NATIONAL DEBT. We have before seen what is the nature of this debt : we have also seen how it began: we shall, by-and-by have to show the effects of it : but what we have to do, at present, is to inquire into, and ascertain, how it has gone on increasing, and what is now its amount. We shall next inquire into the schemes for lessening the Debt ; and then we shall distinguish what is called Redeemed from Un- W, MOLINEUX, Printer, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane. [26 redeemed debt; but, first of all, let us leave all other views of it aside, and confine our attention merely to the sums borrowed. We have before seen, that the money has been bor rowed in various ways, or under va rious denominations. In some cases the money borrowed was to yield the lender 3 per centum, that is to say 3 pounds interest, yearly, for every hundred pounds of principal. In some cases the lender was to receive 4 per centum ; in some cases 5 per centum ; and in some cases more. Hence come the denomination of 3 per cents and 4= per cents, and so forth. But, to the people, whd have to pay the interest, these distinctions are of no consequence at all, any more than it would be to either of us, whe ther our bakers' bills were made out upon brown paper or upon white. We shall see afterwards what we have to pay yearly in the shape of interest, which is the thing that touches us home; but, let us first see what the principal is, and how it has gone en increasing ; bearing in mind, that, as was shown in the foregoing Letter, page 17, the borrowing, and, of course, the Debt, began in the year 1692, in the reign of William the Third, and that the loan made in that year amounted to one millions of pounds. When QUEEN ANNE, who succeeded Wil liam, came to the throne, which was in the year 1701, the Debt was . . . 16,304,702 When GEORGE I. came to the throne in 1714, it was 54,145,363 When GEORGE!!, came to the throne, in 1727, it was 52,092,235 When GEORGE III. came to the throne, in 1760, it was . . 146,682,844 After the AMERICAN WAR, in 1784, it was 257,213,043* PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [23 At the latter END OF THE LAST WAR; that is to say, the first war against the French Re- volu tionis ts , andwhic h , for the sake of having a distinctive appella* tion, we will call the ANTI-JACOBIN WAR: at the end of that war, inl801,theDebtwas 579,931,447 At the PRESENT TIME; or rather, in January last: ..... 811,898,082 That is to say, eight hundred and eleven millions, eight hundred and ninety eight thousand, and eighty two ; nnd these mpounds, in English pounds, too ! There are, in the accounts, laid before the parliament (from whicji the last'mentioned sum is taken) some shillings and pence and even "FAR THINGS, in addition; but though these accountants have been so nice, we will not mind a few farthings. Part of this Debt is what is called funded and a part unfunded; part is called Irish Debt, part Emperor of Germany's Debt, and another part the Prince Regent of Portugal's. But interest upon the whole of it is payable in England; and that is all that we have to look after ; it being of no con sequence to us what the thing is call ed, so that we have to pay for it. So that we are taxed to pay the interest of it, what matters it to us what names the several parts of it may go by? I hope, that there is not, at this day, a, man amongst you, who is to be amus ed with empty sounds : I hope that your minds are not now-a-days, after all that you have seen, to be led away from the object before them by any repetition of mere names. So long as we are taxed to pay the interest upon the Jtebt> that man must .be ex ceedingly weak, who is to be made to believe, that it is of any consequence to any of us by what name that debt is called.* There is, besides the above, the I.MHA i but of that we will sneak smother time* Such, then, has been the progress of the National Debt ; and, it is well worthy f our attention, that it has in creased in an increasing proportion. It is now nearly six times as great as it was when the present king came to the throne ; and, which ought to be yvell attended to, more than two thirds of the whole of the debt has been con tracted in carrying on, against the French, that war, which, at its com mencement, was to succeed by means of ruining the Jitiances of France. When the ANTIJACOBIN 'WAR be gan, in 17,93, the Debt was, at the utmost 257,213043/. It is now 811,S98,0&2/. Such has, thus far, been the financial effect; such has been the effect as to money-matters, of the wars against the Jacobins. How many times were we told, that it re quired but one more campaign; one more ; only one. more vigorous cam paign, to put an end to the war ; to destroy, to annihilate, for ever, the resources of France. Alas*! those resources have not been destroyed. They have increased in a fearful de gree; while we have accumulated hundreds of millions of Debt in the attempt. How many writers have flattered us, from time to time, with the hope, nay, the certainty, (if we would but persevere) of triumphing over the French by the means of onr riches! To how many of these de ceivers have we been so foolish as to listen! It is this credulity, which has led to the present state of things; and, unless we shake it off at once, and resolve to look our dangers in the face, we shall, I greatly fear, expe rience that fate which our tlceeivers told us would be experienced by our enemy. PITT, it is well known, grew into favour with the nation in consequence of his promises and his plans to pay off the National Debt ; and, this same PITT, who found that Debt 257 millions, left it upwards of 600 millions, after having, for twenty years, had the full power of managing all the re-sources of the nation ; after having, for nearly the whole of that time, had the support of three fourths, 29] LETTER III. [SO if not more, of the Members of the House of Commons ; after having, of course, adopted whatever measures he thought proper, during the whole of that time. He found the Debt two hundred and fifty odd millions, and he left it six hundred arid fifty odd. Tbis was what was done for England by that PITT whose own private debts the people had to pay, besides the ex- pence of a monument to his memory ! Tin's is what every man in .England should bear constantly in mind. Having now seen ftuw the National Debt has increased, let us next see how the EXPEJNCES, of tke Na tion have increased; and, then take a look at the increase of the TAXES; for in order to be able to form a cor rect opinion upon the main points, touched upon by the Bullion Com mittee, we must have a full view, not only of the Debt but of the Expences and the Taxes of the nation. When QUEEN ANNE came to the throne, in 1701, the whole Expences of the year, including the interest on the Na tional Debt a- 11161111 ted to . 5,610,987 Peace When GEORGE I. camt; to the throne, in 1714 r and just after Queen Anne had been at war eleven years . 6 } 633,581 Peace When GEORGE II. came to the throne, in 1727, . . 5,441,248 Peace When GEORGE III. came to the throne in 1760 . . 24,456,940 War After the END OF THE AMERICAN W A Rand at the be ginning of PITT'S Administration, in 1784 . . . 21,657,609 Peace At the latter End of the last, or ANTI- JACOBIN WAR, in 1801, . . . 61,278,018 War For the last year, that is the year 1809, 82,027,288, 5.?. If d War. Now, without any thing more than this, let me ask any of you, to whom I address this Letter, whether you think it possible for the thing to go on in this way for any great length of time ? If the subject did not present so many considerations to make us serious, it would be quite impossible to reft ain from laughing at the scru pulousness that could \j\\tjive shillings and a penny three farthings at the end of a sum of millions that it al most makes one's head swim but to think of. Laughable, however, as we may think it, those who have such accounts made out, think it no laugh ing matter. It is, on the contrary, looked upon by them, perhaps, as no very unimportant part of the system. Upon looking at the above progress of the Expenditure, it is impossible to avoid being struck with the increase, during the present reign. The year 1760 was a time of war as well as the present ; but, as we see, a year of war then, cost only 24 millions; whereas a year of war now costs 82 millions. We see, too, that a year of war now costs 20 millions more than a year of war cost only ten years ago. What, then, will be tho cost if this war should continue many years longer, and if, as appeaiances threaten, the enemy should take such measures, and adopt such a change iu his mode of hostiiit} r , as to add greatly to the expensivcness of our defence? This is a very material consideration ; and, though it will hereafter be taken up, still I could not refrain from just tou-'/hiitg upon it in this place. Am I told, that our money is depreciated or fallen off in value; and that the "increase in our Expences is more nominal than real; that the increase is in name; merely in the figures, and not in the thing; for that a pound is net worth any thing like what a pound was worth when the king came to the throne? Am I tell tlrs? If I am 31] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [33 I say, thai v e are not yet come to the proper place for discussing matters of this sort; that v,e shall come to it all in good time; but, that, in the meanwhile, I may hope to hear no more abuse of our doctrines, from those, at least, who, in this wav, would reconcile our minds to the enormous increase in the Nation's yearly Expences. Having now taken a view of the in crease of the Debt, and also of the > early IZxptuces of the nation, let us now see how the Revenue, or Income, or, more properly speaking, the TAXES; that is to say, the money received from the people, in the course of the year, by the several sorts of Tax-gatherers; Irt us now see how the amount of these has gone on increasing. When QUEEN ANNE came to the throne, in 1701, the yearly a- mount of the "taxes was 4,212,358 "When GEORGE I. came to the throne in 1714, it was 6,762,643 When GEORGE II. came to the throne in 1727, it Mas - - - 6,522,540 When GEOUGE III. came to the throne in 1760, it was - - - 8,744,632 After the AMERICAN war, iu 1784, it was 13,300,921 At the close of the Anf.i- Jacobia war, in IbOl, it was 36,728,971 For the last year, that is 1809, it was - - - 70,240,226 It is quite useless to oiler any comments upon this. The figures speak too plainly for themselves to receive any assistance from words. As to the correctness of these state ments, there may, perhaps, be found some little inaccuracies in the copy ing of the figures, and in adding some of the sums together ; but, these must be very immaterial; and, indeed, none of the questions, which we have to discuss, can possibly be affected by any little error *of this sort. I say may, possibly, be attempted to lw raised out of circumstances, such a.- . have here mentioned. Thus, then, we have pretty fuirl? before us, a view of the increase oi 'the Debts, ihe Expences, and tho Taxes, of the nation; and a view it is quite sufficient to impress with seii'crs thoughts every man, who, c e regard for his country is not confined to mere professions. There are pe- sons, I know, who laugh at this. Thf-y may have reason to laugh; but ire have not. The pretence is, that taxes return again to those who pay them. Return 9 gain ! In what manner do they return 1 Can any of you per ceive the taxes that you pay coming back again to you ? All the intc r rested persons who have written upon taxation, have endeavoured to per- "stiade the people, that, to load them with taxes does them no harm at ail, though this is in direct opposition to t the language of every Speech that tl:e. King makes to the Parliament during every war; for, in every such Speech, he expresses his deep sorrow, that he is compelled to lay new burdens upon his people. The writers here alluded to, the greater part of whom live, or have a design to live, upon the taxes, always appear to consider the nation as being rich, and prosperous in a direct pro portion to the quantity of taxes, that is raised upon it; never seeming to take into their views of riches and p.o,-- perity the ease and comfort of the people who pay those taxes. The ?r :.- lion of these perrons seems to be, that, as there always will be mo; food raised and more 'goods made in the country than is- sufficient for those, who own, and who till the soil, an I who labour in other ways, that tbe surplus, or super-abundance, ought to fall to their share ; or, at least, that it ought to be taken away in tuxes, which produce a luxurious way of living, and luxury gives employment to the people; that is to say, that it sets them to work to earn their own money back ay ain. This is a mighty to] LETTER III. [34 The tendency of taxation is, to create a class of persons who do not Julv.mr; to take from those who do labour the produce of that lahotir, and to give it to those who do not la- hour. The produce taken away is, in this case, totally destroyed', but, ii it were expended, or consumed, amongst those who labour, it would produce something in its stead. There \v>uld he more, or better cloth; more or better houses; and these would be /nore generally- distributed; while the growth of vice, which idleness always engenders and fosters, would be prevented. 1C, by the gripe of taxation, every grain of the surplus produce of a country be taken from the lowest class of those who labour; they will have the means of bare existence left. Of course, their clothing and their dwellings will become miserable, their food bad, or in stinted quantity; that surplus produce which should go to the making of an addition to their moiil, and to the creating of things for their use, will be annihilated bv lllbse who do nothing knt cat. Sup pose, for instance, a community to consist of a farmer, four cottagers, a tavlor, a shoemaker, a smith, a carpenter, and a mason, and that the land produces enough for them all and HO more. Suppose this little community to be seized with a desire to imitate their betters, and to keep a sinecure placeman, giving him a tenth of their produce which they formerly ave to their shoemaker. The con sequence would be, that poor CRISPIN would die, ami they would go bare footed, with the consolation of reflect ing that they had brought themselves into this state irom the silly vanity of" keeping an idle man. But, suppose the land to yield enough food for all ten of them, and enough for two more besides. They have this, then, be sides what is absolutely necessary to supply their wants. They can spare enc of their men from the field, and have besides, food enough to keep him in some other situation. !Nov/, which is hest, to make him a second carpenter, who, in return for his food, would give them additional and per manent convenience and comfort in their dwellings ; or, to make him a sinecure placeman or a singer, in either of which places he would be an anuihilator of corn, at the same time, that in case of emergency, he would not be half so able to defend the community. Suppose two of the cultivators x became sinecure place men, then you kill the carpenter' or some one else, or what is more likely, all the labouring part of the com munity, that is to say, all but the sinecure placemen, live more mi serably, in dress, in dwellings, and in food. This reasoning applied toie?ts t applies equally well to mi/ttvns, the causes and e fleets being, in -he latter case, only a little more diillcult to trace. Such is the way in which taxes ope rate; the distinction between which operation and the operation of rents being this, that in the latter case, yon receive something of which you have the particular enjoyment, for what y give; and, in the former case you re ceive nothing. It is by no means to be understood, that there should be no persons to live without what is ge nerally called labour. Physicians, Parsons, Lawyers, and others of the higher callings t m life, do, in fact, la bour ; and it is right that there should be persons of great estate, and with out any profession at all ; but then, you will find, that these persons do not live upon the earnings of others: they all of them give something in return for what they receive. Those of the learned profession give the use of t/teir talents and skill ; and the land lord gives the use of his land or his houses. Nor ought we to look upon all" Taxes as so much of the fruit of our labour lost, or taken away without cause. Taxes are necessary in every community; and the man, whether he be statesman, soldier, or sailor, who is in the service of the community, gives his services in return ipr that portion of the taxes wliich'he receives. 35] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [36 We arc not talking against taxes in general; nor, indeed, will we stop here to inquire, whether our taxes, at their present amount, be necessary ; or, whether, by other counsels, they might, in great part, at least, have, been avoided. These are questions, which, for the present, we will wholly pass over, our object being to come at a correct opinion with regard to the effect of heavy taxation upon the people who have to support it, re serving for another opportunity our remarks and opinions as to the neces sity of such taxation in our particular case. By national prosperity the writers above alluded to mean something very different indeed from that which you and I, who have no desire to live upon the taxes, should call national prosperity. They look upon it, or, at. least, they would have us look upon it as being demonstrated in the increase of the number of chariots and of fine-dressed people in and about the purlieus of the court; whereas, reflection will not fail to teach us, that this is a demonstration of the increase of the taxes, and nothing more. Na tional prosperity shews it:-elf in very different ways : in the plentiful meal, the comfortable dwelling, the decent furniture aixl dress, the healthy and happy countenances, and the good mo rals of the labouring classes of the people. These are the ways in which national prosperity shows itself; and, what ever is not attended with these signs, is not national pro.-'nerit^y. Need I ask you, then, if heavy taxation be calculated to produce these effects ? Have our labourers a plentiful meal of food fit for man ? Do they taste meat once in a day? Are they de cently clothed ? Have they the means of obtaining firiijg ? Are they and their children healthy and happy ? I put these questions to you, Gentlemen, who have the means of knowing the facts, and who must, I ani afraid, answer them all in the negative. But, why need we here leave any thing to conjecture, Avhen we have the undeniable proof befor? us, in the accounts, laid before Parliament, of tiic amount of the Poor* Rates, at two different periods, ami, or course, at two different stages in our taxation; namely, in the year 1784, and in the year 1803? At the former period, the taxes of the year, as we have seen above, amounted to ,13,300,921; and then the Poor Rates amounted to .2,105,623. At the latter period, the taxes of the year (as will be seen from the Official Statement in Regis ter, Vol. IV. page 1471) amounted to 41,931,747 ; and the Poor Rates had then risen to 5,246,500. What must they, then, amount to at this day, when the year's taxes amount to up wards of 70 millions of pounds? Here, then, we have a pretty good proof, that taxation and pauperism go hand in hand. We have seen what was produced by the ANTIJACOBIN WAR. The taxes continued nearly the same from 1784 to 1793, the year in which PITT began that war ; so that, by the ANTIJACOBIN WAR alone the poor rates were augmented, miioniiiial ?:.ipuiit, from .2,105,623 to .5,246,506; at which we shall not be surpri/ed, if we apply to this case the principle above illustrated in the supposed community of ten men, where it is shown, that, by taking the produce of labour from the proprie tors of it, and giving it to those, who do not labour and who do not give the proprietors of such produce any thing in return, poverty, or, at least, a less degree of case and enjoyment, must be the consequence. The poor-rates alone are now equal in amount to the whole of the national expenditure, including the interest of the Debt, w^hen the late king came to the throne ; N and, the charges of ma naging the taxes ; that is to say, the wages, salaries, or allowances, to the Tax-Gatherers of various descriptions ; the bare charge which ' we pay on this account amounts to very little short of as much as tke wln'-le of the taxes amounted to when King William was crowned. This charge ; that is to say, what to the Tax-gatherers, in on? LETTER IV. shape or another, is stated in the account laid before Parliament for the last year, at .2,886,201, a sum equal to a year's wages 01 92,500 labourers at twelve shillings a week, which may, I suppose, be looked upon as the average wages of labourers, take all the kingdom through. Is this no evil? Are we to be persuad ed, that, to take the means of support ing 92,500 families, consisting, upon the usual computation (5 to a family), of 461 ,000 souls; that to take away the means of supporting all these, and giving those means to support others, whose business it is to tax the rest, instead of adding to the stock of the commcuiity by their labour; are we to be persuaded that this is, wo evft ; and that, too, though we see the poor rates grown from 2 millions to 5 millions in the space of 10 years ? Are we to be persuaded to believe this ? Verily, if we are, it is a great shame for us to pretend to laugh at the Ma- homedaas. Having now taken a view of the progress of the National Debt together with that of the National Expences and Taxes ; and having (by stepping a little aside for a moinent) seen some thing of their effect upon National prosperity, we will, in the next Let ter, agreeably to the intention before expressed, inquire into the schemes for arresting this fearful progress ; or, as they are generally denominated, plans for paying off, or reducing, the National Debt; a subject of very great importance, because, as we must now be satisfied, the bank notes have increased with the Debt, and, of course, the reducing of the Debt would,- if it were accomplished, tend to the reduction of the quantity of bank-notes, by the excess of which it is, as the Bullion Committee have de clared, that the gold coin has been driven from circulation. I am, Gentlemen, Your faithful Friend, WM. COBBETT. State Prison, Newgate, Tuesday, llth, Sfpt. 1810. LETTER IV. Scheme* for paying off tlie National Debt Former Sinking Funds Origin of Pitt* Grand Sinking Fund Changes made bv Pitt's sway in (he state of this Country Grand Sinking Fund Act Purposes of it The Commissioners and their manner of proceed- in {I How they would buy up Grizzle Greenhorn's share of the Debl What Redemp tion mean? Commissioners step into Grizzle's shoes "We still are u.xed for the Interest Evils of the Grand Sinking Fund* \V hat would be really ledeeming American mode of Redeeming Statement of the Increase of the Interest on the IDebt Clause in Pitt's Grand Sinking Fund Act for ceasing to pay Interest, in 1808, upon Stock bought up. GENTLEMEN, OUR next business is to inform ourselves correctly with respect to the Schemes-, which, at different times, have been on foot for PAY [NG OFF THE NATIONAL DEBT, and about which paying off we have, ail our lives long, heard so much. We have seen how the Debt has gone on increasing from its first exist ence to the present day; we have seen how the Expences of the nation and the Taxes of the nation have gone en increasing with the debt ; we have also seen that the increase of the Bank-Notes has kept pace with the rest, till those notes have, at last, driven the gold coin out of circulation. This last, is the evil, tor which the Bullion Committee have endeavoured to iiiid out a remedy, and suoii a remedy they appear to think that they have found, in an Act of Parliament, which they propose to be passed for causing the Bank Company to pay their promissory notes in gold and silver in two years' time. One of our principal objects, in this discus sion, is, to enable ourselves to form I correct opinion as to the practicability 39 1. PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [40 of this remedy, even at the end of two years; and, as we have, from what has already been shown, good reason to believe, that the quantity of '>ank notes, the excess of which h s Jriven the gold out of circulation, cannot be lessened unless the Debt be also diminished, ft is necessary for us to ascertain what has been don 3 or attempted, and what is likely to be clone, ii-i the way of causing such diminution. From very early stnges of the Debt; indeed, almost from the very begin ning of it, there were measures pro posed for paying it off, the idea of an everlasting Dpbt, and an ever lasting mortgage upon the nation's moans, feeing at first, something too frightful for our upright and sensible ancestors to bear. Propositions, and even provisions, were at different times accordingly made for paying ofT parts of the Debt, and some compara tively small sums were, in the early stages of the progress, actually paid off; the Debt bepame less, and less interest was, of course, paid upon it. Still, however, as new wars came on, new sums were borrowed; and, as lending money to the government was found to be a profitable trade ; as so many persons of influence found their advantage in the loaning transactions, the money was always easily enough raised. But, yet there continued to fee a talk ot paying off' the Debt; and, in time, a part of the yearly taxes were set aside for that purpose, which part of the taxes so set aside was called a SINKING FUND. These being words, which, as be longing to our present subject, are of vast importance, it is necessary for us to have a clear notion of their meaning. The word fund, as was before observed in Letter II. page 20, means a quantity of money put together for any purpose ; and, in the instance before us, the word Sinking appears to have been prefixed to the word Fund in order to characterize, or describe, the particular purpose, or use, of the taxes so set apart; namely, the purpose of sinking, or reducing, or diminishing, or lessening, the Debt. So that the Sinking Fund, of which we have all heard so much, and of which most of us have known so little, means, in other words, in Mords better to be understood, a Lessening Ftfttd ; and whether the thing has, in its operation, hitherto, answered to its name, we shall by- and-by see, if, indeed, we have not seen enough to satisfy us upon this poiut in the increasing of the Debt, as exhibited in the foregoing' Letter. The amount of taxes thus set apart, or, to use the words with which we must now grow familiar, the Sinking Funds, which were, time after time, established, were in many cases, applied to other purposes than that for which they were destined, or intended. Indeed, they seem, for many years, to have been very little better than purses made up at one' time and spent again at -another, with out answering any rational purpose at all; and, accordingly, the nation does not appear to have paid any great attention to them, or to have considered them as of any conse quence, until the year 1786, when the present GRAND SINKING FUND was established by PITT, who, but a little while before, had been made Prime Minister, and whose sys tem has continued to this day. Gentlemen, we are now entering upon a purt of our subject, which not only demands an uncommon por-* tion of your attention, but, into the discussion of which you will, I hope, carry such a spirit of impartiality as shall subdue all the prejudices of party and dissipate all the mists of ignorance which have therefrom ari sen. It is, even yet, impossible to mention the name of PITT, without exciting feelings that struggle hard against reason, and that, in some minds, overcome it. During his ad ministration, the nation was divided into two parties, so hostile to each other, that both were easily made subservient to his views; and, it is, with every man who really loves hi country, matter of deep regret, that 41] LETTER IV. [42 the same, or nearly the same, divi sions continue to the present day. It is not. for me, \vlio, at one time, really looked upon PJTT as the great est minister that England ever saw, to reproach others, who may still be as iy,iorant of tfte truth, as I was then, for their attachment to his memory, for their high opinion of the schemes of his inventing, and for the^r blind adoration of those schemes; but when they have, as I have, taken a lair and full view of all his measures ; when they have compared his deeds with his professions, his performances with his promises; when they have seen, that he adtled threefold to cur Taxes and our Expenditure, and that, notwithstanding this, the power and the territory of France were ex tended in proportion to the sacrifices he called upon us to make for what he called resisting her; y,hen they see, that the standard of national misery, the poor-rates, rose, during his sway, in almost a triple degree ; when they see, that the war at the outset of which he relied, in no small degree, for success upon the destruc tion of French asiign&tfy did, at the end of four years, cause the stoppage of gold and silver payments at the Bank of England, and that its prolon gation has led to a state of things, in which a public print devoted to the government, has described the largest class of English bank-notes as " de structive assiffnats ;" when they see this, and when they see, thai, the National Debt, which he himself called < : the best ally of France;" when they see, that that Debt, which he found at 200 ^millions and odd, he left at 600 millions and odd, while France, during his wars against her, had exchanged her assignats for gold, and had extended her territory and her sway to a degree which made that nation, whose power our fore fathers despised, an object of conti nual dread to Englfyid; when the former partizans of PITT see this, as they must, aye, and feel it too, will they still persist in asserting the wis- doui of his plans; and, above all, will they, when they see the Debt tripling in amount under his hands, still persist in asserting the efficacy of hii> Sinking Fvnd, ai^d, upon that bare assertion, reject all inquiry into either the nature or the effect of that cele brated scheme ? Let us hope, that, in *a country boasting of the thoughtfulness of its people, there can be but very few persons' so besotted as this; and, indeed, it is due to the country to say, that there do not appear to be tmy such left, excepting amongst those who live upon the taxes, and whoso perverseness arises not from their want of information. But, be this as it may, I am satined that you, my Friends and Neighbours, who, like me, have no int. rests separate from those of our country, will not, what ever may have been jour prejudices heretofore, wilfully shut yeur eyes against the 'truth ; and that you will accompany me in this inquiry with that great attention, which, as I be fore observed, the subject demands. Pitt's Sinking Fund was begun in the year 1786, by an Act of Parlia ment (being Chapter XXXI of the 2(>lh year of the reign of George Til.) entitled " An Act for vesting " certain sums in Commissioners, at " the end cf every Quarter of a Year, " to be by them applied to the Rcditc- " tionofthe National Debt." In virtue of this Act a certain part of the taxes was, in each year, to be paid to cer tain persons named in the Act, as Commissioners for managing the con cern ; and, these taxes, together with the accumulations upon them, have been, as formerly, called a Sinking Fund. It is no matter what was tK amount of the sum, or sums, of money, thus to be set apart out of the taxes, and to introduce particulars of that sort would only embarrass our view. Suffice it to know, that certain sums of money, being a part of the taxes, were set apart, and that, with this money, together with its growing interest, the Commissioners, appoint^ ed by the Sinking Fund Act, were, 43] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [44 at stated periods, and with certain limitations in their powers, to redeem the Debt as fast as they could, the word redeem having now come into fashion instead of the word pay off. It is of no consequence what were the periods, what were th days of the week or the times of the moon, when this work of redemption v/as to be performed. The effect is what we Lave to look after ; but, in order to hawi a clear view of even that, we must see the manner of doing the tiling, the manner of redeeming or paying off the Debt- for, without that, we shall be continually exposed to be bewildered and deceived ; and, indeed, we shall be quite unable to form any thing like a clear notion of what the, Sinking Fund really is. The Commissioners, with the money thus put under their care .and management, were to purchase up stock from individuals, which stock would then become the property of 'the nation. But, stay. We must go gently on here, or we lose our selves in a moment. We must, in deed, not proceed a step further, till we have gone back to Letter II, at pages 18, 19, and have taken another look, and refreshened our me mories as to what STOCK means. Having done so, and read on to the end of the first paragraph in page 19, we may proceed by repeating, that the Commissioners were to go to work with the money lodged in their hands, out of the taxes, and purchase up Stock. We have seen, in the pages just referred to, how Stc,ck is wade; we have seen how MUCK WORM lent his money to the govern ment ; we have seen how he got his name written in a book in return for his money ; we have scan that Stock is nothing that can be seen, heard, smelled, or touched; we have seen that it signifies the right of receiving interest upon money lent to the go vernment, which money has been long ago expended; we have seen the operation by which Muckworm became possessed of stock: and, lastly, we have seen our neighbour, FARMER GREENHORN, purchase two thousand pounds worth of Mucic- WOUM'S stock, which the former be queathed to his poor daughter GRIZZLE. Now, then, observe, the whole of the Stock, of which the National Debt is made up, is exactly the same sort of thing as this two thousand pounds worth of Slock, belonging to Grizzle Greenhorn. There is a book, in which a list of the names of all those persons is written, who have, like Grizzle, a right to draw interest from the government out of the taxes ; against each name in this list is placed the amount of the sum for which the person lias a right to draw interest. Some have a right to ({raw interest for more and some for less. And' these sums runke up what is called the National Debt. Of course, the Sinking Fund Commis sioners, in order to pay off the Na tional Debt, or any part of it, must purchase up Stock from individuals ; or, in oilier words, pay them off their share of the Debt. If, for instance, Grizzle Greenhorn has a mind to havener hvo thousand pounds to lay out upon land, or do any thing else with, she sells her stock, and, if it so happen, she may sell it to the Com missioners ; and thus, as they pay her for it with the nation's money, it is said, that, by this transaction, they have redeemed (by which I should mean paid off) two thousand pounds of the National Debt. Grizzle, who was the creditor, Iras got her money again ; she has no longer any right to draw interest for it; and of course, you would think, that these two thou sand pounds worth of debt were paid off, and that the nation, that we the people, had no longer any interest to pay upon it; you would naturally think, that we were no longer taxed to pay the interest upon this part of the Debt. Greatly, however, would von be deceived; cruelly deceived, if you did think so ; for, notwithstanding the Commissioners have redeemed these two thousand pounds, we hare 45] LETTER IV. [40 still to pay the interest of them every year ; we are still taxed for the money, wherewith to pay tins interest, just in the same way. as if the two thousand pounds worth of Debt It ad not been redeemed at a//, but still belonged to Grizzle Greenhorn! This is an odd way of redeeming ; an odd way of paying off; do you not think it is, Neighbours ? We have before seen, that the National Debt is a mortgage upon the taxes. It is constantly called so in conversation, and in writings upon the subject. But, should not either of you, who hap pened to have a mortgage upon your land or house, think it strange if, after you had redeemed a part of the mortgage j you had still to pay in terest upon the part redeemed as well as upon the part unredeemed? TO REDEEM, as applied to money engage merits, means to discharge, to set free by payment. This is the meaning of the word redeem, as ap plied to such matters. It sometimes means t rescue or to ransom, from captivity, from forfeiture, or from peril of any sort, by paying a price. But, in every sense, in which this word is used, it always implies the set-tin f/ free of the object on which it operates ; and, when applied to a mortgage, a bond, a note of hand, or a Debt of any sort, it . implies the paying of it off'. How, then, can the two thousand pounds worth of Debt, purchased from Grizzle Greenhorn, by our Sinking Fund Commissioners, be said to be redeemed by us, if we are still taxed to pay the interest upon it, and, of course, if it be not dis charged, and not set free? Nothing, at first sight appears more plausible, nothing more rea sonable, nothing more clear, than the mode above described] of re deeming the Debt by purchasing from the several individuals, who, like Grizzle Greenhorn, own the Stock or the Debt, their respective shares thereof. And, the operation is as simp ift as any thing can be. For, the Sinking Fund Commissioners, having, for instance, received two thousand pounds from the Tax- gatherers, in virtue of the Sinking Fund Act, go and purchase Grizzle'* stock ; they give her the two then- sand pounds; her right to draw in terest from us ceases ; her share of the Stock or Debt is redeemed or paid off; and her name is crossed out of the Book. Ah ; but, alas ! the, names of our Sinking Fund Commis sioners are written in the Book in stead, of hers ! Aye ; we have to pay the interest of the two thousand pounds to them instead of to her ; and our taxes on account of this which is called the redeemed part of the Debt, are just as great as they were before this curious work of redemption be gan. " Well then," you will say, " what " does this thing mean; and what " can it have been intended for?" Why, to speak candidly of the mat ter, though the thing was an inven tion of I J ITT, under whose sway s@ much mischief came upon this nation, I believe, that the thing was well meant. I believe that it was in tended to free the nation from its Debt, But, I am satisfied, that it has been productive of no small part of the evils, which England and which Europe have experienced since its invention ; for, by giving people renewed coniidence in the so lidity of the Funds or Stocks, it ren dered government borrowing more easy ; and, of lourse, it took from th> Minister that check to the making of wars arid the paying of foreign armies, for the want of which check tae Expences and Taxes and Debt of the country have been so fearfully augmented, to say nothing, at present, about the dreudful changes which those wars have made in our affairs both at home and abroad. To produce such eflecte was, how ever, certainly not the intention of the scheme. The intention was, that the Sinking Fui:d Commissioners, should, with the money put into their hands out of the taxes, purchase up Stock, er parts of the Debt, belong ing to individuals ; that the parts, & 47] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [48 purchased tip, should not cease to exist ; that they should be written in the Great Book under the name of the Commissioners; that the Com missioners should receive the interest *ipon them, instead of its being re ceived by individuals as before ; that this interest, as fast as it came into the hands of the Commissioners, should, like the money paid to them annually out of the taxes, be laid out in purchasing up more Stock fron; individuals ; and that the thing shoulr 1 ?>o on thus, till the last of the Stoci or Debt, got into the hands of Con niissioners ; when, of course, the go vernment might burn the Great Book, and the National Debt would be paid off. This scheme was very pretty upon paper; it made a fine figure in the newspapers and pamphlets of the day ; and looked quite solemn when embodied into an Act of Parliament. There was, to be sure, when people looked into the matter more closely, something rather whimsical in the idea of a nation's paying intnvst to itself: something very whimsical in a nation's GETTING MONEY by paying ifxclf interest upon its men Stock. Many persons thought so, at the time, and some said so ; but the formidable tables of figures made nut by court calculators, and the flowery and bold speeches of PITT, soon put all such persons out of coun tenance, and reduced them to silence ; or exposed them to the charge of fac tion and disaffection and disloyalty. The country, infatuated with its " Heaven-born Minister," became deaf to the dictates of common sense; and, with as much fondness as the mother hangs over her smiling babe, it cherished and fostered the fatal delusion. As the execution of the Sinking- Fund Act proceeded, more and more of the Stock, or parts of the Debt, became of course entered in the Great Book in the names of the Commis sioners. Hence arose a new deno mination in our national money ac counts; namely, the redeemed debt; that is, the parts ot the debt, as afore said purchased up by the Commis sioners, was now called the " redeem- " ed debt;" a phrase which contains a contradiction in itself. But, still it was unavoidable ; for, it was not paid off; it was bought up, but we had still, and have still, to pay intercut upon it ; and, therefore, it could not be said to be paid off; for, it would be folly too gross to pretend that we had paid off a debt or a mortgage, for which we were still paying interest. If, indeed, the parts of the debt, which were purchased up by the Commis- -^uors, Hud been, at once, done^away, and W3 had ceased to pay interest upon them, then those parts would have been really redeemed. If, for instance, Grizzle Greenhorn's two thousand pounds worth of Stock had been crossed out of the Great Book, and had not been inserted in it again under any other name, that two thou sand pounds worth of the debt would have been redeemed in reality. This is the way in which the Sinking Fund of the American States operates. They raise yearly a certain sum in taxes"; with that sum they purchase up part of their debt; and then that part of the debt censes to exist in any shape what over. The next year they raise a like sum in taxes, and again pur chase up parcels of the debt. And, thus they proceed, having every suc ceeding year, less and less interest to pay itpon their debt. This is real re demption : this is real paying off. But, the way in which we proceed bears no resemblance to it; nor has any tiling in common with it, except it b the name. Let us, before we proceed any fur ther, take a view of the increase of the interest that we, have to pay upon the debt. We have seen in Letter III. page 25, how the debt itself has gone on increasing. But, we have not yet taken a look at the increase of the INTEREST; though this is ve*> material, and, indeed, it is ihe only thing, belonging to the debt, worthy of our attention. The statement of the amount of the debt itself is of no 49] LETTER IV. [50 practical uss, except as it serves to illustrate, to render more clear, the part of the subject upon which we now are. For as we have seen, the Debt is nothing more than a right possessed by certain persons, called Stock-Holders, to draw interest from the nation ; or, io other vfrords, to take annually, or quarterly, part o;' the taxes raided upon the people at targe. Let us, therefore, take a look at the progress of this interest. When QUEEN ANNE came to the throne, in 1701, the annual in terest on the National Debt was . . . 1,310,942 When GEORGE I. came to the throne, in 1714 3,351,358 YThen GEORGE!!, came to the throne, in 1727 2,217,551 When GEORGE III. came to the tin-one, in JL760 4,840,821 Alter the AMERICAN WAR, in 1784, and just before the mak ing of Pitt's Sinking . Fund . . . . \ 9,669,435 At the latter end of the A NTI-JACOBIN WAR, in 1801 .... 21,778,018 For the LAST Y EAR, that is 1801) . . . . 32,870,608 There are included in this sum " char yes, for management ;" and, as we have before M en, there is some of the Debt (small portion;-) called the loans, or debts, of the Emperor of Germany, and of the Prince Regent of Portugal, which, it is possible, they may repay us; hut, this is, as it is called in the account laid before Par liament, during the last session, the " Total charge at account of Debt, " payable in Great .Britain." And, let me ask any sensible man, what consequence it can be to us, what the Debt is called; what consequence by what name the different sorts of it uiaj go, so that the interest upon it still goes on increasing, and so that we have to pay the whole of that interest out of the tas.es? When PITT'S Sinking Fund was established, there wcs a time fixed, when the interest should begin to b& dianniahed. I mean, a time was fixed, wiien tho people should no longer pay taxes to defrsj the interest upon the Stock, or parts of the Debt, wnicii should after that time be purchased up ' hy tite Commissioners, The time so- fixed was 1808, two years ago. The year was not named in the Act; but, it was known to a certainty ; because this ceasing to pay interest was to be gin, when the interest upon the Stock, or parts of the Debt, bought up.^to- gether with the sums paid to the Commissioners out of the taxes, should amount to a certain sum (four millions annually); and, as the sums to be paid to them were fixed, it was a mere question of arithmetic when the paying of interest would cea: e, agree- > ably to the terms of the Act; as e^ pressed in the XXth clause, as fol* lows : " And be it further enacted by " the authority aforesaid, that when-c " ever the whole sum annually leceiv- " able by the said Commissioners, in^ " eluding as well the quarterly sum " of two hundred and fifty thousand " pounds herein before directed to ba " issued from the exchequer, as the " several Annuities and Dividends of " Stock to be placed to the Account " of the said Commissioners in the " Books of the Governor and Conv- " pany of the Bank of England, by " virtue of this Act, shall amount in " the whole to FOUR MILLIONS AN- " NUALLY, the Dividends due on such " Part of the Principal or Capital " Stock as shall thtnce-fortk be paid " off by the said Commissioners, and" " the Monies payable en guch Ai.- " nuities for Lives or Years as may " afterwards cease and determine, "SHALL NO LONGER BE " ISSUED AT THE RECEIPT " OF HIS MAJESTY'S EXCHE- " UUER,butshailbeCO]SSIDEK- *' ED AS REDEEMED by Par- " liament, and shall remain to be dis- " posed of as Parliament shall direct.*' In what way it might have been sup posed, that Parliament, in its wis dom, would dispose of these parcels of 511 PAPER AGAINST GOLD [52 redeemed debt, I shall not, for my part presume to hazard a conjecture; but, as was before observed, it was easy (the sums being given) to ascer tain the time, when the provision iu this clause would begin to operate; and, that time was, the year 1808. There was another Act, passed seven years later, (1792), allotting more of the taxes to the same pur pose (Chapter 52 of the 32nd year of this king's reign) ; and still the same provision was made ; namely, that, when the produce of the Sinking Fund should amount to 4 millions annually, all the Stock, or parts of the Debt, that should be purchased up by the Commissioners after that time., SHOULD NO LONGER HAVE INTEREST PAID UPON IT OUT OF THE TAXES; but that t&eseparts of the Debt should (mark the words) " be considered AS KM- << DEEMED." And so they would. They really, in that case would have been redeemed ; but the word re deemed is now applied, even in the Accounts laid before Parliament, to f those parts of the Debt, bought up by ! the Commissioners, the dividend, or interest, on which parts, IS STILL ISSUED AT THE EXCHE QUER; that is to say, is still paid out of the taxes ! And all this goes on amongst " the thinking" people of En-land! But, what was done, in the lona; expected year 1808 ? What was done, when the year of promise came ? This is the most interesting part of this most curious history ; iut, as to bring to a close the whole of the discussion, relating to the Sinking Fund, would extend this letter to double its present length, I think it better to make the remaining part of it the subject of another Letter, beseeching you, in the meanwhile, to maKe up, by your patience in the perusal, for whatever want of clearness may be discovered in the writer. I remain, Gentlemen, Your faithful friend, Wm. COBBETT. State Prison, Nwcgatc, JTinrsday, September 14, 1810. LETTER V. I would inculcate one truth with prcnliar earnestness : namely, tfcal a Retolution is not the nt " cessary consequence of a National Bankruptcy. Pursuits of Literature. Digression respecting the use of Bank-Notes as a Political Support to the Government Mr. Addington's Notion of convincing Buonaparte by the means of a Tax Answer of the Moniteuv Advice given to Mr. Addington in the Register in 1803 Passage quoted from a Government News-paper describing Bank-Notes as necessary to the Existence of (he Government Same Doctrine promulgated by Mr. Paine in his Rights of Man . How different is this from what the World has been toi.d Effect of it to encourage the Enemy Resume the subject of the Sinktng Fund No Interest taken off in 1808 Addiugtou's Act of 1802 George Rose quoted to prove that it was clearly held forth to the Nation that Taxes would be repealed in consequence of the Sinking Fund P.S. Sir Joh/n Sinclair's Pamphlet. GENTLEMEN,, BEFORE we resume the discus sion, relating to Pitt's Grand Kinking Fund, which want of room obliged us to break off, at the close of the last letter, I think it may be useful to submit to you here an observation or two, calculated to obv.iate any un founded apprehensions that might otherwise be excited by the appa rently inevitable fate of the paper- money ; and this I deem the more necessary, as publications are daily appearing, from the pens of ignorant 53] LETTER V. [54 or interested persons, the evident ten dency, and, indeed, object, of which, is, * to persuade the public, that the existence of the government; that the existence of law and order ; that the safety to persons and property ; nay, that the continuance of the very breath in our nostrils, depend upon the credit of the Bank Notes. The author, from whose writings I have taken my motto to this present Number of my work, was, you see, of a- * r ery different opinion; and, I have quoted his sentiment upon the subject, because his work is well known to be of what is called the ANTI-JACOBIN kind, that is to say, a work the tendency of which is to prevent men like you from having any thing to say or to do, any more than your horses, in the affairs of government. This writer, who, how ever, might mean well, and who is certainly a very clever man, so far from supposing that the existence of the government depended upon the credit of bank-notes, is, you see, fixed in his opinion, and an opinion that he wishes " to in- " cwlcate with peculiar earnestness/' that a REVOLUTION, thereby mean ing a change in the form of govern ment, is not the necessary conse quence', even of a National Bank ruptcy ; that is to say, not only a total discredit of all th.e paper-money and especially the Bank of England Notes, but also an utter inability to pay, in any way whatever, the in terest upon the National Debt, or any part of it. This is my opinion also, as it al ways has been since I turned F-.IV at tention to the subject. At the begin ning of the present war, MR. AD-, DINGTON, who was then the Prime Minister, told the House of Com mons, that one of his principal objects in laying on the Property Tax and oilier war tuxes, was, " to convince " Buonaparte^ that it was hopeless for " him to contend with our finances" To which the MOXITEUR, or French government-newspaper ,replied : "Pay <( your bank notes in gold mid silver, " and then we will believe you, with- " out your going to war."* Whether the Minister made good his promise; whether he has con vinced Buonaparte, that, it was " //?- " less for him to contend with our "finances" you, Gentlemen, are as Hkely to be able to judge as any body that I know. I, for my part, "blamed the Minister for holding out such a motive for his taxing measures. 1 said to him: The true way of con vincing your enemy, that this war upon your finances will be useless, is to state explicitly to the world, that you are not at all afraid of the con sequences of what is called a national bankruptcy ; for, while you endea vour to make people lelieve, that such an event cannot possibly happen, they will certainly think that you re gard it, if it should happen, as irre trievable ruin and destruction; and, therefore, as you never can quite over come their apprehensions, the best way is to be silent upon the subject, or, to set' the terrific buy-bear at de- fiancc. To Buonaparte's exultation at our approaching bankruptcy the answer is always ready : France has been a bankrupt; France has not paid her paper-money in specie; yet France is not the weaker f0r that; France is, in spite of her ruined finances, in spite of the long pam phlets of Sir Francis D'lvernois and Mr. Rose, in spite of the longer speeches of Lord MorrJngton, Lord Auckland and Mr. Pitt, in spite of the innumerable columns of figures which these noblemen and gentlemen have drawn up in battle array against her ; in spite of all this, France is yet powerful, yea, much more powejful than she was before she experienced what is called a national bankruptcy. What ground, therefore, have the French to rejoice at our finances being about to undergo a similar ope ration ? Such were my sentiments and my reasoning upon this subject, seven * Register, Vol. III. page 918. Jr.ne, ISO* 55] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [56 years ago ; a time, when to pronounce the word depreciation-, as applied to bank-nctes, was sure to expose a man to charges ve: y little short of treatott, which charges were made by those \ cry persons, who have now declared ti;e greater half of our bank-notes to be ** destructive assiynats," and who have called them 1 *' vile and dirty rays" My opinion was, and it still is, that the total destruction of the puper- money would not cause any change injurious to this kingdom; and, in deed, I should have a most hearty contempt for the constitution and for the whole form and composition of our government, if I thought that their existence depended upon tiie credit of bank-notes. There are however, those who think just the reverse; and these are, too, writers, who appeal to be entirely devoted to the govern ment: one of \vhom goes so far as to say, that the government has no other trvst'ii'orthy support than that which it derives from the bank-notes. ' The " human mind," says he, " is sen- " sible only of the present good, or " evil, and has too little thought to " anticipate consequences, and if- it " icas not for the immediate personal " interest of a very large and informed " part of the community in the Nation- " al Debt, Patronage and Paper Cur- " rency, GOVERN M EN T CO CJLD "HAVE NO EXISTENCE,stand- " ing insulated on the pure basis of " duty, and remote national and res- " pective good. The conduct of Swe- "' den, America, Ireland, and the " Jacobins of England, in their par- " tiality for France, exemplify a want " of sense to execute the maxims of " EPICURUS: The paper currency " of Bonk Notes (there should be no " Country Bank) offers to Govern- " ment a most indestructible support, ' because IT MAKES THE DAI- " LY BREAD OF EVERY IN- " DIVIDUAL DEPEND SUB- "STANT1ALLY ON THE "SAFETY OF GOVERN- " MENT, whereas money, which " may be hoarded, separates the in- " dividual from the public safety. In " the present revolutionary state of " tuG world, I think our paper cur- " rencv a most miraculous mean ty " saicatioi}, and the man who would " propose the payment of Bank Notes " in .specie at any period, to separate 4< individual property from public I " safety, might as well propose the " burning of the Nacij to protect the " commerce of fhe world."* gentlemen, do you remember the* writings of PAIN K ? Do you remem- Js^f the Rights of Man for 'the wri ting of which the author was prose cuted by the then Attorney General who is now the "Lord Chancellor? Do you remember the f(igftf*of Man, the author of which was prosecuted, and, being absent, was outlawed; the publishers of which were prosecuted all over the kingdom; the circulating of which was forbidden by Procla mation; and, to counteract the princi ples of which ASSOCIATIONS were formed of the rich and the powerful ? Well, it was in ttis very work, that the doctrine here laid down by this government writer, was first started. PAINE said, that the existence of the government depended upon the existence of the bank-notes ; and that, the ques tion was not, how lony the British go vernment icovld stand ; but, how long the Funding System would last* PAINE'S mode of reasoning was, if I am correct in my recollection, as near ly as possible like that of this govern ment writer. He laid it down as an admitted fact, that the people (owing to causes that he stated) must be whclly indifferent about the fate of the government ; but, that, as so many of them were, either by holding Stocks or Bank-notes, interested in the fate of the government, they would, while the Stocks and Bank-notes last ed, continue to support the govern ment, whatever might be their feet" ings towards it. But, that, when, from whatever catsse, the Funding System should fail, not a soul would be found to l'*ft a finger, or, even to * MoRNfNC POST news-paper: 14th Sept. 1810. at &>tatumer0' Ifpald T ~. 3.]_COBBJiTT'S PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [Pi-ice Two-l'euye. 57] express a wish in lavotir of- the cxi?;l- ence of the government. Just the" same, or rather more, is now said by this government writer; a writer, one halt' of whose pages are filled with invectives against thosfc whom he calls the friends of the Em peror of France. But, how is it pos sible for arty thins; to be written morn agreeable to the Emperor Napoleon th;i:i what this writer has put forth? Until now the world has been told that we entertained a real love for our government;- that we were at tached to our constitution because it afforded such fine protection to our persons and our property; that we loved the constitution, because it in sured to us the enjoyment of liberty, and defended us against every spe cies of oppression; that we had made numerous sacrifices, and that we were ready to make as many more, nay, even *' to spend our last shilling and shed the last drop of our blood," Ibr the sake of these liberties and in defence of a king, whom we so dearly loved, and in gratitude for the bles sings enjoyed during whose reign, we held a Jubilee. Until NOW, this is what the world has been told. But NOW it is told, by this loyalty-pro fessing writer, that the only m:tive whence we support the government at all, is, to preserve the value of the Bank-notes that we hold ; tfcat, if it was not for the immediate personal interest of so many people in the Na tional Debt, and for patronage and paper currency, the Government could have no existence; that we support the government because without its existence, the bank-notes would fall, and because, by the number of bank notes, we are thus made to depend upon the safety of Government for our daily bread; and that, therefore, the man who would propose the pay ment of bank-notes in gold and silver at any period, might as well propose the burning of the Navy, or, fti other words, the giving up of the country to France. What, Gentlemen ! are we never, then, to see gold and silver again? (SB Every Minister; every. Member of Parliament; every one of those, who encle.ivoured to palliate the measure of protecting the Hank Company from paying their notes in Goh| and Silver; every one of them " la- " mented the necessity," as they called it, of the measure. But, NOW, be hold, we are told that it was a good thing ; and not only a goo'd thing, but that the government could not exist without it! Gentlemen, we call pur- selves a " thin/ting people;" but, be lieve me, that this is What would not have been said to any other civilized people upon earth. We might here easily show how- encouraging a prospect doctrines of this sort hold out to our enemy, and how strong an inducement to use all those means, whether in the way of attack or of menace, which are likely to destroy the credit of the paper- money, that being, if these doctrines be sound, the sure and certain w ay of destroying our government. But, another opportunity will offer for ob servations upon these matters ; and, it is now time that we return to our inquiry into the SINKING FUND. In the last Letter, page 50, hav ing stated the provisions,,, made in the ACTS of 1786 and 1792, for the nation's ceasing to pay interest upon the Stock that should be redeemed, or bought up by the Commissioners, after the year 1808; or, in other words, the nation's ceasing to pay taxes on account of the Stock, or piyrt of the Debt, which should be bought up after that time : having stated these provisions, we were proceeding to inquire What was done in the long" expected year, 1808 ? ' What was done when the year of promise camel Why, my Neighbours, nothing at all was done: just nothing at all in the way provided for. The nation ceased to pay no dividends of interest; and, of course, this work of redemp tion caused none of its taxes to be taken off. " Well," say you, " but i* " it possible, that, after such a solemn " proceeding; after the express and " positive declaration in two Act* of c PAPER AGAINST GOLD. " Parliament, that the dividends of! " interest should cease to be paid iii i " 1808 ; is it possible that, after " that, all the dividends did continue '? to be paid, just the same * if those " Acts had never been passed?" O, yes ! It is not only possible to be so, but itt'j so. All the dividends have continued to be paid ; and arc paid to thin day. The above-mentioned pro visions, in the Acts of 178(;> t and 1792 were repealed. The Parlia ment undid what it had before done. It did away the provisions, which it had made in 1786 and 1792. It passed another Act, which said that those provisions should not be carried into effect ; or, in other words, that which >vas law before was no Ion ga la w. This new Act was passed in the month of June, 1802, ADDINGTON, the successor and the friend of PITT, being then Minister. This Act (which is Chapter 71 of the 42d year of the reign of George III.) is en titled " An Act to amend and " RENDER MORE EFFEC- " TUAL two Acts passed in the t; twenty-sixth and thirty-second " years of the reign of his present " Majesty, for the reduction of the " National Debt." This Act, which was to render those two Acts more effectual, sets out by stating, that the aaid two Acts had been by experience found " to be attended with most be- " neficial consequences to the public " credit of the country;" and having made that declaration, it sets to work, and repeals the two provision* above- mentioned ; and, of course, when the year 1808 came, when the year of expectation arrived, wo dividends ceased to be paid, and interest upon the whole of the Debt was still paid, and is still paid to this day. Gentlemen, it is hardly to be be- Jieved, that any men, who, like PITT and his associates and supporters, had invented and caused to be passed, the two first mentioned Acts, could propose the last mentioned Act, that is to say, the Act of 1802. Not only, however, did -they propose it, but the AN T< II-JACOBIN writers 1 anglied in our faces and called us fools, if not levellers and jacobins, if we ventured to express any doubt at all of the wisdom and justice of any of these successive measures ; and, these writers stoutly denied, that it ever wan intended to take, off any of the taxes in 1808; and, of course, they maintained, that we, who felt disappointment, in this respect, \vere fools for our pains, and, indeed, they expressed themselves thus, that we " were " nature's fools" and not the fools of the Minister. Naver, surely, were any portion of mankind treated with such barefaced contempt as the people of England were, at the time referred to, by the venal writers of newspapers, pamph lets, magazines, *nd reviews, who, seeing the people terrified out of their senses, by alternate alarms within and without, seemed to think that he was the best man, who could show the greatest degree of scorn for their understanding and character. Had not this been their persuasion, would they have dared to tell us, that none but fools ever expected the Sinking. Fund to produce a repeal of Taxes,. when it must still remain in the me mory of every man, who was then at all conversant in political matters, that the repeal of taxes ; the lessening of the taxes ; the making of their bur l/tens less, was the promise held forth to the people by the supporters of PITT; nay, when it is notorious, that PITT owed the establishment of his tremendous power to the opinion which the people entertained, that he had discpvercd, and would put in practice, the means of reducing the load of their Taxes? This, as the great end of his schemes, was so nuich talked of; it .is so well known, that this was so distinctly stated in the speeches in parliament, and so many times repeated, that I am almost ashamed to trouble you with any proof of the fact; yet, considering that the point is of great importance, I will put the matter beyond all dis pute by a reference to a work on the 61] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [G2 increase of the Resources of the king dom, published in 1709, under the name of GEORGE ROSE, who was then a Secretary of the Treasury, and who is nmv Treasurer of the Navy and a Privy Counsellor, and who, in the execution of the work about to be cited, w;as, doubtless, assisted by PITT himself. Indeed, this must have been the case; or, at least, it must be believed, that nothing, upon such a subject, and under ttie name oi his official 'Secre tary, would be published without PITT'S previous approbation. In this work, which is entitled, " A " Brief Examination into the In- " crease of the Revenue Commerce, *' and Manufactures of Great Britain, " from 1792 to 1799;" in this work the hopeful effects of the Sinking Funds of 1786 and 1792 are pointed out, and the writer says : " By the " operation of these sinking funds, " without any farther intervention of " Parliament, the one existing before " the war, will attain its maximum " (4,000,000/. a year) most pro- " bably, in 1808, in no case later " than February 1811. As the di- " vidcnds due on such parts of the " old debt as shall be paid off after " the sinking fund shall have attained " its maximum, and the annuities lt which shall afterwards fall in, will "be at the disposal of Parliament, " the period of REPEALING 1 TA\ES annually, to an amount tl equal thereto, cannot be delayed " more than nine, ten, or elevenyears" Need I ask you, Gentlemen, whether you have heard of any re pealing of taxes ? Whether you have felt your load of taxation lightened ? Whether you pay less taxes, than you paid when this placeman wrote his book in 1799? No: These ques tions I need not put to you ; nor need I ask you what are your feelings towards- those, who fed you with hopes of a diminution of your 'bur dens ; nor need I, perhaps, say one more word upon the subje'ct of the Sinking Fund, not to have seen through which by this time would argue a much greater want of discern ment than I am disposed to attri bute to any part of my country men, and especially to you, whose discerning faculties have, as to mat ters of this sort, been, of late, pretty well sharpened by experience. Ne vertheless, with the hope of leaving no possibility of bewildering any body in future, with regard to the nature or effect of the Sinking Fund, I shall add some additional remarks; but, as these remarks will open to us quite new views of the matter, and Mill extend to some length, I shall postpone them to my next; and Ire- main, in the mean while, Your faithful Friend, WM. COBBETT. State Prison, Newgate, Monday, September 17, 1810. P. S. A. pamphlet, entitled, " OB- " SERVATIONS ON THE REPORT OF " THE BULLION COMMITTEE," ha* just been published by Sir JOHN SINCLAIR, who is, it seems, a mem ber of Parliament, and who is said to have been recently made a Privy Counsellor. So much of such gross ignorance, in so short a compass, I do not recollect to have met with in the course of my reading, except, perhaps, in the Morning Post news paper, or in the British Critic Re view. Such a publication would be wholly unworthy of serious notice, were it not pretty evidently the ve hicle of the sentiments and views of others. For this reason, some of its prominent absurdities will be no ticed, when I come to that part of my subject, to which they more par ticularly belong. In the mean time, in order to furnish the means of judging of this writer's depth of un derstanding, take the following spe- 4 cimen from a former work of his, and compare his theory with the practice now before our eyes. " The " PUBLIC DEBTS of a nation, not " only attract riches from abroad, " with a species of magnetic in- " fluence, but they also retain money " at home, which otherwise would be " exported, and which, if sent to " other countries., might p^ssiUjr b 63J LETTER VI. [G4 " attended with pernicious conse- " quences to the State, whose wealth " was carried out of it. If France, " for example, maintained its wars " by borrowing money, and England " raised all its within the year, " the necessary consequence would " be that all the loose and nnem- " ployed money of England, would " naturally be transmitted to France, " where it would be placed out to ad- " vantage." This i* quite sufficient. The next time that Sir JOHN thinks of writing upon matters of this sort, he will do well to go, previously, and take a lesson of Mrs. DE YONGE. She will \>e able to tell him for a cer tainty, whether National Debts have a tendency to keep money at home, to prevent it from being exported, and to bring money from abroad. She will also be able to give him a lesson upon depreciation, in a way, which, per haps, will make the thing compre hensible even to him. LETTER VI. ' It i* not altogether improbable, that, when the nation becomes heartily sick of Us Debts, arwl \ truelly op- " pressed by them, some darinjr projector m:iy arise with visionary schemes for their di.-ctmr,r and, as " public credit will begin, by that time, to he a little frail, the least touch will destroy it, and in'thi* inuii;iei " it will die of the Ductvr. But, it is more probable, that the breaeh of national faith will be the ru-ovary " effect of wars, defeats, misfortunes, and public calamities, or even, uerhau*, of victories aad conquests '' HUME on Public Credit. Sayine that a Man writes from a Prison is not a satisfactory Refutation of his Arguments -Proceed with the subject of the Sinking Fund A Hedged 'rounds of Addington's Act in 1802 The Time when it was to begin to yield ns Relief, to wit 45 Years Mr. Brand's Answer to an Argument of mine He denies that Interest is paid upon the Redeemed Stock Acts of Parliament and Public Accounts say the contrary Exami nation of the Example stated by Mr. Brand Great Error in regarding things as alike which are essentially dissimilar in their Properties Consequence of this Error shown in the supposed cate of Thrifty -Grand Fallacy in supposing that what we pay to sup- port th> Sinking Fund, would otherwise be of no use to us Conclusion of the subject of the Sinking Fund P. S. Mr. Randall Jacksoii's Speech at the Bank Company'* House, in Threadneedle Street. GENTLEMEN, IT was naturally to be expected, that those venal men, who for want ef industry to " labour with their " hands the thing that is good," and from a desire to live upon the labour of others, have chosen the occupation of writing, instead of obeying the voice of nature, which bade use the brush and not the pen, to blacken shoes and not paper ; it was naturally to be expected that those venal men, who gain their livelihood by serving the corrupt and by deceiving the .weak , and the number of whom, in this Town, is unfortunately, but too gretU ; it was naturally to be expected that this description of men weuld feel alarmed at the progress of these Let ters, which, by making honest and useful truths so familiar to the mind>" of the people, threatened literary ve nality with destruction. Accordingly these instruments of Corruption have shewn their anger and resentment against me ; but, the only answer they have offered to me is this : " that I " discharge my gun from a stone-bat- " tery ;" meaning that I write from a priso?t; therein giving the public a specimen of their wit as well as of their manliness. This is always the way; it is the const3iit practice of those;, who, while they are, from what ever motive, impelled to oppose a wri ter, want either the materials or the ability to shew that lie is wrong ; and, Gentlemen, you may lay it down 65] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [66 as a maxim, that when any publication is answered by abuse, and especially personal abuse, the author of such publication is right, or, at least, that his abusers want the ability to skew that he is wrong. Facts and reason ing, if erroneous, always admit of refutation : but, if correct, no one can refute them ; and, if erroneous, to re fute may still require some ability; whereas, to abuse the person from whom they have proceeded, is within the power of every one, a gift not denied to any creature capable of uttering articulate sounds or of making marks upon paper. The great cause, however, of abuse in such cases, is the weight of the truths, against which such abuse is opposed : for it is here as in common verbal disputes, he who has the truth, clearly on his side, is always seen to be in good temper, while his opponent scarcely ever fails to discover impatience and anger, and, in but too many cases, to give way to personal invective and false accusation; and, be you well assured, Gentlemen, that even the venal men, above-described, answer me by say ing that I write from a prison, onjy because they have no other answer to give. Leaving them in the full possession and unenvied enjoyment of all the advantage and of all the honour which such a mode of answering can give, let us proceed with our inquiry into the effects of the SINKING FUND, just casting our eye back first, and refreshing our memory as to the fore gone facts ; namely, that the Sinking- Fund Acts of PITT, which provided for the cutting off some part of the interest upon tbe Debt in 1808 ; that these provisions, which led the poor nation to hope for a taking off of part of its taxes in 1808 j that these pro visions, which, as we have Seen, were held forth to the believing people -of England, in the pamphlet of GEORGE RQSE, as tlj.e sure and undoubted pledge for the taking off of taxes in 1808, or thereabouts; that these provisions, in order to begin to taste the benefit of which, the people were to pay a million a year of additional taxes for twenty -two years; that these provisions ; yes, we must bear in mind, that these provisions, after the people hafl gone on hoping for sixteen years out of the twenty two : that these provisions, were, by ADDING- TON'S Act of 1802, repealed, done away, made of no more effect than if they never had been enacted by the Parliament. " Well," you will say, " but upon " what ground was this measure " adopted? What end was it pro- " posed to answer?" Oil! why it was to pay ofV the Debt, new as well as old; for, by this time, the Debt contracted since the existence of the Sinking Fund, was become greater than the one contracted before. It was to pay off the Debt, new as well as old, sooner than they would have, been paid off, if this new Act had not been passed. And it was said, in support of the measure, that it would be better for us (good God, what a " thinking" people we are !) not to have any of our taxes taken off in 1808 ; but to go on paying interest upon the whole of the Debt, as before, till our Sinking-Fund Commissioners had bought up the whole of the Stock, and that, then (Oh, then !) then, my boys, huzza! for, then we should be completely out of Debt. " Tkiiikiny people 1 * of England, when do you think that that then was to arrive ? V/hen do you think that it was supposed that our Commissio ners would have bought up the whole of the Stock existing when the new Act was passed : When do you think that the day, the happy day, the new day of promise \vas to come ? When do yen think we were, according to this" Act for rendering the Sinking Fund MORE EFFECTUAL ;" when, aye when do you think, that we were, according to this improved plan, to begin to feel the effects of it, in the lessening of our taxes ? How many years do you think we were to wait ; how many years to keep paying additional taxes for the purpose of paying off the Debt, before we began 67] LETTER VI. [68 to taste of any redemption of Taxes in consequence of it? Only FORTY 1FI V ! Forty Five years only had we to wait; and now we have only THIRTY NINE to waft, and to pay taxes all the time, over and above the interest upon the Debt; only thirty nine years hefore we shall cease to pay interest upon the whole of the Debt existing in 1802; about Jive eighths of the Debt, now existing. We have been waiting ever since the year 1786; we have been waiting for twenty four years ; we have been paying taxes all that time, over and above the interest of the Debt; we have, for twenty four years, been paying taxes for the purpose of pay ing off the Debt; and, now, at the end of these twenty four years, those of us who are alive have tlte consola tion to reflect, that we have only thirty nine years more tn wait and to pay these Kinking Fund taxes, before we shall begin to taste the fruit of all this patience and all these sacrifices, and that, at the blessed time here mentioned, some of our taxes will be taken off, unless another Act should be passed, between this time and that, for rendering the lasf made Act " MORE EFFEC- " TUAL." Gentlemen, need I say more? Cer tainly it is not necessary ; but, there are still some views to take of this matter, which having taken, we may defy all the world to puzzle us upon this subject again. We have seen, that we stilt pay interest upon the whole of the Debt ; we have seen, in Letter IV. p. 6JJ, that, since the Sinking Fund was es tablished, the' interest we pay has increased from nine millions and up wards to thirty-two millions and up wards; and, we humbly think, at least I do, that so long as I am com pelled to pay interest for a Debt, it is no matter to whom, or under what name, I pay it. This is an obvious truth. There is something ' so con summately ridiculous in the idea of a nation's getting money by paying in terest to itself upon its own stockj that the mind of every rational man natu rally rejects it. It is, really some thing little short of madness to sup pose, that a nation can increase its wealth ; increase its means of paying others ; that it can do this by paying interest to itself. When time is taken to reflect, no rational man will attempt to maintain a proposition so shock ingly absurd. I put the thing in this way in an Article, published by me in 1804,* and 1 requested the late REV. JOHN BRAND, who had writ ten a great deal upon the subject, .to look at the Article, and to tell me what sort of answer he could find to this part of it. He did so, and the following was his answer : " I have looked at your observa- " tions on the Sinking Fund ; and the " following is my answer to your " great argument; namely, "that the " " Debt said to be redeemed is an " " imaginary discharge, because IN- " " TEREST thereon continues to be " " paid:' -If the interest does " continue to be paid, the conclusion " is just ; and this is the fundamental " principle of much of what you have "said. It is, reduced, therefore, " to a question of fact, and I should " say the interest does not continue to " be paid. The same tax continues " to be levied, it is paid also away, " but it, is paid for another purpose; " it is yearly applied to the paying off "more principal; no part of it is " Q-ppKtd to the payment of interest. " Take an example in a private " concern, A has on his estate a " mortgage of .70,000 at 3 per cent. " which he has the liberty to pay off " as he pleases. He determines to " diminish his expenditure by .1,000 " a year, at the end of the year he " pays the interest .2,100, and part " of the principal <.1,000, his pay- " ment that year is .3,100, and this " sum he continues to pay annually " till the debt is annihilated; it is now reduced to .69,000; at the " end of tire second year there will " be due for interest .2,070, being REGUTVK, Vol. V. page PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [70 " 30 less than the year before ; when, " therefore, the second payment oi' " .3,100 is made, it will consist of " two parts, .1,030 for principal, " and .2,070 tor interest. -The " interest of the 1,000 paid off the " first year does not continue to be " paid in the second, and the .30 " interest of the part of the capital " redeemed or paid o// is now applied * to the payment of more fapitai " 8uch mortgager at the end of the " year has actually paid ofi' .1,000, '" of year two .2,030, and of year " three .3;060 18s. And that lie " continues to pay annually the same " sum on account of vlebt, that is, on " account of principal and interest " jointly, does not in the least aM'ect " this conclusion. Now, in the first place, you see, MR. BRAND takes up " a new posi tion" as most combatants do, when they are afraid to meet their antago nist. He is obliged to say, that we DO NOT continue to pay interest upon the part of the Debt, which is bought up, or, as it is called, redeem ed. Aye ! but, what say tbe Avts of Parliament? They s;u 3 that interest is continued to be paid thereon : they say, that, when any Stock, or parts wf the I,)ebt, are bought up, or redeem ed, by the Commissioners, " the di- " vidends thereon shall be reeured by " the said Commissioners," or by the Bank on their aeount. And, what is the language of the Accounts, laid before Pailiament? Why, in the account of .the nation's Expenditure of last year, there is the folluu in^ item : " INTEREST on Debt of Great Bri- " tain REDEEMED, .4,443,519." So that, either the Acts of Parliament and the Public Accounts make use of misnomers, or, 1 was right in cal ling it interest. Besides, how com pletely does this denial of MR. BRAND dissipate .all our fine dreams about the gains of the Sinking Fund ? Is it not the commonly received notion, that we gain money by this fund? Are we not continually told, by the venal writers of the day, about "what the Fund yields '( Were we not told by them, less than six weeks ago, that Liiis Fund had produced such and such sums ? And, what is meant by a Fund's yielding and producing, if you cast the notion of interest aside? In what other way is it to yield? In what other way can it produce an addition to its amount? Yet, on the other hand, it is impossible to adhere to this notion of interest, without tailing into the gross absurdity, before mentioned, of. supposing that the na tion can get nwney ; that it can in crease its means of paying others, by paying interest to itself, by becoming the lender of money to itself, by be coming itsou-n creditor; an absurdity, which, as we have seen, MR. BRAND ! dared not risk his reputation in at tempting to support. We now come to MR. BRAND'S " example in a private concern.** And here, Gentlemen, suffer me once more, and in a more pressing manner than before, to solicit your attention ; because we have now before us the ground work of all the sad delusion, which has so long existed and which does still exist, upon this subject. It is a natural propensity of the mind of man to assimilate things, v. hichhe wishes to understand, with things which he does understand. Hence the application of the terms mortgage, redemption, and others, to the Debt of the Nation. But, in this work of assimilation, or bringing thing* to a resemblance for the purposes of illustration, we ought to take the greatest care, not to make use of violence, not to regard as alike, things which are essentially different in their properties; for, if we do this, error must be the result, and I think, you will find, that this has been done by all those, who have reasoned like MR. BRAND; tkat is to say, the whole. ut those writers and speakers, who have held forth the Sinking Fund as likely to produce relief to the country. We know r , we daily see, that pri vate persons pay off encumbrances upon their estates; and, we know very w r ell and very familiarly, how fast the mo- 71] LETTER VI ? [72 iiey of private persons increases by being permitted to lie at compound interest. This very common portion of knowledge appears to have been quite enough for our Financiers, who had, therefore, nothing to do but to look into interest tables, where they would not fail to fiud y that a million a year set ajmrt, in 1786, would, at -compound interest, pay off the then existing Debt, in the space of sixty- years v lrom that time. They ask no more. This quite satisfies them. They have no doubts upon the sub ject ; and, accordingly, they set apart the minion a year; that is to say, they make a law for applying, as we have seen, a million a year of taxes, raised upon the nation, to the paying of the nation's Debts. But, where is the real similarity between this pro ceeding and the proceeding of the individual as supposed by Mr. Brand, Mr. M' Arthur, Mr. Pitt and others ; for they have all made use of the same sort of illustration ? Where is the si milarity in the cases ? MR. BRAND'S individual, to whom, for the Fake ofclearness, we will give tho name of THRIFTY, diminishes his expenditure, by a thousand a year; that is, he, instead of spending it upon beer, wine, bread, beef, and servants, pays it annually to GOLDHAIR, who has the mortgage upon his estate. Now, this you will clearly see, is to be a thousand, a year SAVED by THRIFTY ; and, besides this, he re solves to pay to GOLD HAIR (who has the mortgage on the estate, mind) as much more every year as will make each payment equal "to w r hat lie for merly paid on account of the interest of the whole debt. This is an odd sort of way to do the thing, but it is THRIFTY'S humour, and there can be no doubt, that, m time, iie will, thus, pay off his mortgage. But again, I ask, what similarity there is in the case of JHIUFTY raid the case of A NATION ? THRIFTY, wo are told; " deter- " mines to diminish his. expenditure" Can a K AT ION do this? THRIFTY knows to a certainty what nis income and what his expenditure will be ; the former \sjixed, and over the latter he has complete confront. Is this the case with a NATION ? Prudent THRIFTY does not, and indeed, the supposition will not let him contract a debt with SILVERLOCKS, while he is clearing off with GOLDHAIR. Is this the case with A NATION? But suppose, for argument's sake, that, as to ail these, there is, a perfect simila rity; still is there a point of dissimila rity, which nothing can remove. THRIFTY, we are told, SAVES a thousand pounds a year. Haw does the saving arise ? Why, he has less beer, wine, bread, beef, and servants than he had before. His saving, then, is made from the brewer, the wine- merchant, the baker, the butcher, and the footmen; or, rather, it is made from the public ; it is made from the nation ; it is made from a third party. But where is the NATION to find a third party from whom to make its saving ? But, what we are now going to view is the GRAND FALLACY. In this case of THRIFTY it is suppos ed, that he makes retrenchments from useless expences ; that " he determines " to diminish his expences by a thou- " sand a year," and that, what he WASTED before, what HE GO! 1 NOTHING BY THE USE OF BEFORE, he now applies to the paying off of his mortgage. . This is very rational, and very efficient it would be ; but, is this the case with A NATION ,? Would the money, which is collected from the people in taxes, for the purpose of supporting the Sinking Fund, be wasted, if not col lected from them ? Would it be squandered away by the several indi viduals who pay it, in the same man ner that THRIFTY'S thousand a year is supposed to have been wasted, before lie began the work of redemp tion ? Would it, in short, be of no advantage to them, if it were not taken away to be given to the Sinking Fund ? Oh, yes ! And it would pro duce a eempound interest, too, in the 73] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [74 hands of individuals, as well as in the bands of the Sinking Fund Commis sioners. What has the nation gained, then, by paying millions to Commis sioners, instead of keeping those mil lions in their own hands? SINCE THE YEAR 1786, THE NATION HAS PAID UPWARDS OJP 160 MILLIONS INTO THE HANDS .OF THE SINKING-FUND COM- MISSIONER8; that is to say, so much money has been collected from the people in taxes for the purpose of redeeming Debt; and, if this sum had been left in the people's hands, would it have been of no use to them? Would it not, at any rate, h&ve helped to prevent the Debt ; since that time, from being AUGMENTED IN THE SUM OF 600 MILLIONS. Let us give the thing one more turn, and then, it is, I think hard, if we may not safely quit it for ever. THRIFTY is supposed to take his thousand a year out of what he be fore wasted; out of his superfluities. But, does our Sinking Fund money; do the taxes that we pay towards the Sinking Fund, come oat of our su perfluities? Arid, why suppose that THRIFTY icasted any money before ? Why suppose that he had any money to u;aste? Is THRIFTY'S being in debt,' and having his estate encum bered; are these reasons sufficient for concluding, that he had it in his power to " determine to diminish his '" exp^iices ?" Are they not rather reasons sufficient for concluding, that Jje was in circumstances of distress ? Yes; and if, when we have come to that rational conclusion, we suppose him persuaded to believe, that he will get out of debt by borrowing from .SILVERLOCKS all the money that he pays off with GOLDHAIR, and load ing his estate with a new mortgage, with the addition of the cost of bonds and fees, then we shall have' before .our eyes " an example in a private " concern," pretty well calculated to illustrate the celebrated scheme, which we have now been discussing, and of which I now flatter myself that a single word more need never be uttered to any man of only com mon sense. I am, Gentlemen, Your faithful Friend, WM. COBBETT. State Priso,\, Neirgsfe, Thursday, 20IA Sept. 1810. P. S. - FRIDAY, 21st SEPT. I have just seen, in the Public Prints, a report of a Speech, said to have been delivered yesterday at the Bank Company's House, in Threadneedle- street, by Mr. RANDALL JACKSON. I shall not, as I said before, suffer any publications of the day to inter rupt the course of my discussion. Li my next LETTER, which will open the way to that memorable transac tion, the Stoppage of Gold and Silver payments at the Sank of England, I shall, in all likelihood, have occasion to notice Mr. Jackson's Speech, not so much on its own account, as be cause it appears to have been highly applauded by the people at the head of the Bank Company, for whom, perhaps, Mr. JACKSON, who, it seems is a lawyer, made it in the way of his profession. One word, however, I must beg leave to add upon the part of this Gentleman's speech, in which, as the reporter says, he alluded to me, as one who had exulted at the ap pearance of the Bullion Report, be cause that Report, corning from such hiyh authority, had put the stamp cf correctness on my opinions-. Never did I say this ; never did I think this. Never did I look upon the Bullion Committee as a high authority ; and, meanly indeed should I think of my self, if I thought any thing, that they could say or do, capable of adding the smallest weight to my opinions. No : what I exulted at was, that my principles and doctrines, as to paper- money, had, at last, produced practi cal effect, a proof of which was con tained in the Bullion Report; and that, it was now more likely than be fore, that such -measures would, iu time be adopted, as would he iikt'!< to secure the country from tin 75] LETTER VII. [76 tnral consequences of that over whelming CORRUPTION, and (hat want of love for the real Constitution, which I regarded as the fruit of the Paper-money System, and which, years ago, I proved, as I think, to | have proceeded, in great part, from j that poisonous and all-degrading root, j This was the cause of my exultation. I looked upon the Bullion Report as i tending to this great object; and, as I prefer the accomplishment of this object, as I look upon the happiness and honour of my country as of far greater value to me than any other worldly possession, I said, and 1 stiii say, that the Bullion Jteport has given me more pleasure than I should derive from being made the owner of the whole of Hampshire. As for any idea of a party nature, I shall, I am sure, ho believed \\hen I say, that. I did not care one straw to what party the Committee belonged. If I had a wish us to party it certainly would be, that no change of ministry should take place ; for, (without pre judice to the OUTS, who, I think, would do the thing full as well with a little more time) I am quite satisfied tli at the present men will do it as neatly and as quickly as any rea sonable man can expect. LETTER VII. REAL MONEY can hardly ever multiply too much in any country; because it will always, as IT iti- ' creases, be the certain iign of the increase of TRADE, of which it is ttie measure, and consequently " of the soundness and vijrour of the whole body. But this PAPER MONEY may, and does increase, " without anv increase of Trade; nay often when Trade greatly drclinns. FOR IT IS NOT THE MEA- " SURE OF THE TRADE OF ITS NATION, BUT OF THE NECESSITY OF ITS GOVERNMENT ; " and it is absurd, im*./ mint be ruinous, that the same cause which naturally exhausts the weulttt of a Na tion should likewise be the only productive cause of money." BURKE. Review of the Ground over which we have passed in the foregoing Letters Opening the Way into the History of the Bank's Stoppage in 171)7 Yague Notion about the In crease of Bank-Notes bein? a Sign of an Increase of Trade and Wealth and Pros- f perity This Notion examined Mr. Handle Jackson's Speech inveighing against those who have recommended that he and his Partners shall he compelled to Pay their Pro missory Notes in two Years His Notion that an Increase of Bank Notes naturally arises from ;ni Increase of Trade-~Abase heaped upon those who wish the Bank to pay its Notes Snch Persons called Riflers and accused of wishing to destroy tlie Credit of Old England An Increase of Promissory Notes is a Proof of an Increase of Debt Five Ways in which Bank-Notes get out into circulation Absurdity of supposing that n Increase of Promises-to-pay are a Sign of an Increase of the Means of Payinc N. ;. An Account of the Distresses arising from the Failure of the Banks at Salisbury and Shaftsbury. GENTLEMEN, IN the foregoing Letter, we closed the discussion relative to the Sinking Fund; and that brought us to a point, to a sort of stage-, or resting place, on our way, from which point it will be advantageous for us to take a brief review of the ground over which we have passed ; for, when the design of the writer is to serve the cause ef truth, and especially when I the truths he wishes to make ap- j parent, have been industriously en- i veloped in darkness; in such a case, every other quality in writing ought to yield to that of clearness. It was stated, at the out-set of our inquiries, that the Chief Object of them was, to ascertain, or, at least, to enable ourselves to form a decided opinion, " Whether it be possible, " without a total destruction of all 77] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [78 " the paper-money, to restore Gold " and Silver to circulation amongst " MS." In pursuit of this object, it became necessary for us to make some preliminary inquiries as to the cause of the Gold and Silver haviny gone out of circulation. The cause, the immediate cause, that is to say the cause which came close before the effect, was the in crease of the paper-money. This cause was evident to evory one ; but, then, it became us to inquire what had been the cause of that increase; otherwise our inquiries would have been as useless as would be those of a tanner, who, upon finding a score of his sheep dead, should content himself with ascertaining that they had been killed with a knife, without making any inquiry as to the person by whom the destructive instrument had been used. Common sense, therefore, dictated to us to inquire into the cause, or causes, of the in crease of the paper-money; and, iu order to come at a clear understand ing with respect to these causes, we were obliged to go bark to the inaus picious origin of the paper-money system, that fatal system, whence arose the National Debt, that Debt which even PITT himself, the great abettor of the system, called " the " best ally of France" During this retrospect, we have seen, that the Bank of England is merely a Company of trailers, whose charter arose out of a loan which they made to the Government, and that, at its institution, it never entered into the mind of man, that these traders were ever to be protected by law from paying, in the king's coin, their promissory notes,' as they have been from February 1797 to* the present day. We have seen, in proceeding to inquire into the cause of this non payment or stoppage, on the part of the Bank, in 1797, that the Bank notes have gone on increasing in quan tity, and that these notes, of which, for more than half a century, there wore none yndcr 20 pounds, appear ed, in the war of 1755, in the shape of 15 pounds and 10 pounds; and, during PITT'S war against the French revolution, which war he carried on, in part at least, for the avowed pur pose of destroying the finances of France, we have seen that they ap peared in the shape, first, of 5 pounds, and, at last, in the shape of 2 pounds and 1 pound. We have, in order the better to understand the history of the Bank Stoppage in 1797, and the better to estimate its consequences, taken a view of the Funds and Stocks and National Debt; we have seen how they arose; we have described their nature ; we have traced them in their dreadful progress; we have seen how the National Debt has gone on increasing, from the reign of Wil liam the Third to the present day; we have seen how exactly the in crease of the National Expenditure and the Taxes and the Poor Hates have kept |>dice wth the increase of the Debt; ami, in the three last Letters, we IMVC seen an ample de- vclopemcnt, a clear exposure, of the schemes for " redeeming" or " pay- " iny off," that Debt, and we have seen, that during the operation of those schemes of redemption, the Debt has gone on increasing, and, that the interest we pay upon the Debt, has, .since the Grand Scheme of PITT has been in force, been aug mented from 9 millions a year to 32 millions a year. This is what we have seen and what we have done. And having now, to use the sportsman's language, made good our ground, we may be gin to move forwards towards the in teresting history, of the stoppage of gold and silver payments at the Bank of England, in 1797. Our first step, in opening the way into this history, must be to obtain a clear notion with regard to the man ner, in which bank notes are issued, or put out into circulation among the people ; or, rather, with regard to the immediate causes of putting them out. For unless we have a clear uii- 79] LETTER VII, [80 derstunding upon this point, we shall liave but a confused idea of the more distant causes, of their increase. There, is, apparently, a vague, or indistinct, notion, floating in the minces of some men,' that the increase of the bank notes is an indication, or sign, of an increase of TRADE, of WEALTH, and of PROSPERITY, which, as you must have perceived, are, by such persons, always jumbled .and con founded together, for want of proper attention to the facts and principles, which we have stated and laid down iu Letter III, from page 23 to page 37. But, we must not suffer our- selves to fall into this confusion ; and, indeed, does not common sense reject the notion, that an increase of pro missory notes, which necessarily ar gues the want of tbe means, of the person, issuing them, to pay in specie; docs not common sense, does not the plain understanding of every plain man, reject, with scorn, the notion, that such an increase is a sign of in creasing wealth and prosperity iu the person, or body, or community, by whom the issue is made? Why does our neighbour NEKDY give a note of hand in payment of his rent or of his taylor's bill ? Why, because he has not the money in his pocket or his drawer. And, are we to be made to believe, that the circumstance of his not having money to pay what he owes is a proof of his wealth and pros perity ? We have been persuaded to believe many things; but, I think, that, at tin's day, we shall not be per suaded to believe this. At the time of the numerous bankruptcies, in 1703, just after PITT'S war broke out, PITT> asserted, that they were a sign of national prosperity, and was almost huzzaed for the assertion; but, we have Jiad time now to experience, time to feel, the worth of PITT'S assertions, predictions, plans, and measures; and, with the benefit of this lesson, we shall not, now, be so easily persuad ed, that bankruptcy is a sign of pros perity ; though, it must, I think, be allowed, that it is full as true a sign of discovered in the increase of promis sory notes, which increase i, and must be, always an infallible sign of a want, in a greater or a less degree, of the means to make payment in money. As to the increase of Trade, that, indeed, will demand, as we shall here after more fully sec, a certain in crease of circulating medium, or money, as must be evident to every man, who reflects, but for one moment, upon the subject; because, where there are ten purchases of a pound each to be made (supposing them to be made in the same space of time) twice as rnuoh money will be wanted as where there are only five purchases of a pound each to be made. But, the increase of trade, that is to say, the increase of purchases and sale's, or, in other words, the increase of MONEY'S WORTH things, though it is a very solid reason for the in crease of money, is no reason at all for the increase of promissory notes, and especially of promissory notes which will not bring money in, exchange for them. The man, who is in a great way of trade, gives more promissory notes than a man in a small way; but, he Uas proportionate means, and, at any rate, does not give notes with out possessing the value of them in* goods, or property of ?ome kind, in moneys-worth things ; and of course bis notes are convertible into money ; but, is this the case with the notes of the Bank ? Is this the case with the notes of any of our Banks ? Such a man stands in need of no law to pro tect him against the demands of the holder of his notes; but there is a law to protect the Bank of England against the demand of any holder ot its notes, who may wish to have gui neas in exchange for those notes. And, can the increase of such notes be regarded as a sign of the increase of trade? Yet this is a favourite fallacy with those, who either do not understand the matter, or who, while they do un derstand it, Avish to deceive the v, orld, and the people of this country in par- \ ro^pority as that which has now been j ticujar. This same fallacy was. put 81] PAPEH AGAINST GOLD. fortli with great assurance, at the House of the Bank in Thread needle- Street, London, no longer ago than last Friday, by the Gentlemen, a Mr. RANDALL JACKSON, mentioned in the Postscript to the last Letter, page 73, in a speech, the whole of which (together with the speeches of the GOVERNOR or THE BANK and of a Mr. PAYN, a Country Banker), as reported in the Morning Chronicle, of "Saturday last, will ho found in the APPENDIX, A, and which I beg leave to recommend to your attentive perusal. MR. JACKSON, who is, it would seem, a proprietor of Bank Stock; that is to say, one of the Bank Com pany ; that is to say, one of the per sons in whose name the Bank-notes are issued ; that is to say, one of the persons, who put forth the promissory notes of the Bank ; that is to say, one of the persons who derive a profit, who get rich, from the putting out of those notes; MR. JACKSON most Itmdiy inveighs against the Bullion Committee, and, indeed, pretty round ly abuses them ; pretty roundly abuses a Committee of the House of Com mons, for having recommended to the House to pass a law to oblige him and his partners to pay their notes agreeably to promise; and, this he does, you will observe, at the very time that he is railing against the re volutionists of France, for their level ling principles, and insinuating, that there are such levellers now at work in England ; all which may be very natural in MR. JACKSON;' for, who that is protected by law from the payment of his promissory notes, would wish that law to be repealed, and its place supplied by a law to compel him to pay ? It may be veiy natural for a gentlemen, so situated, to abuse the Committee; but, it would be very foolish in the people; very foolish in the holders of his notes; very foolish in 'his creditors, to join in such abuse. IJpon this part of his speech, however, we shall find a more suitable place for extending our re marks, and also Kxwr noticing what he said about the vast increase of Cotin- try Banks, without seeming to per ceive, that that increase has been owing solely to the law r which pro tected, and still protects, the Bank of England against the Gold and Silver demands of its creditors. Upon these parts of his speech, and upon his as sertions respecting a debt said to be due to the Bank from the public ; upon his statement of the causes of the Bank stoppage ; upon the wonder ful unanimity of all the speakers at this Meeting of the partners of the Bank Company, in declaring, that there would be NO GOOD in their paying of their promissory notes in Gold and Silver; upon all these to pics, and upon some others, brought forward at the Bank Company's Meeting, we shall' find, hereafter, a more suitable opportunity for making and applying our remarks, which, in deed, belong to other parts of our subject, and, therefore, we will, at; present, confine ourselves to the only topic, introduced into these speeches, which belong to the part -of our sub ject now immediately before us ; namely, the notion, that the increase of bank-notes naturally arises from an increase of trade. Since, however, 1 have- digressed so far, I take tlip liberty to continue on a little further for the purpose of noticing a paragraph, in a newspaper of this very morning (Monday, 24th Sept.), which imitates MR. JACKSON in abusing those, .who are desirous of seeing the Bank Company once more pay their promissory notes in Gold and Silver. " We are happy," says this writer, " to find, that tho opinion " we have more than once expressed " upon this subject is sanctioned by " the first authorities in the Comitry, " and that the mischievous idea of " throwing open the Bank immediate- " ly to be rifled by the engrossers and "exporters of guineas, is universality jvery man of extensive " dealings, he had to encounter the " bitterness of opposition and envy, " we never heard even from his most " active, rivals, any other than the " most favourable testimony to his " virtues. He died in the 53rd year " of his age. We understand that 305] LETTER IX. 1108 " that which preyed most acutely on " his feeling, and wrung from him many an agonizing exclamation, was the manner in which he had been treated by some persons who had been under the greatest obliga tions to him. He liad, for years, been a man the most looked up to in the monied market his com mand of money had been immense liis credit unbounded. This was a proud situation; but elevated as he was, it inspired him with nothing like hauteur or insolence he was still the same affable n\an, increasing in kindness, if possible, with his in creasing wealth*." The much greater part of this has not, I am satis fied, a particle of truth in it. Never was any thing more csicntatious than the acts of benevolence, as they are called, of this man^ who, as I ob served years ago, merely tossed back to the miserable part of us, in the shape of alms, the fractious of the pence, upon the immense sums of money that he got by his traffic in loans and bills and funds. The pub lic, if it has any memory all, must re member the accounts that w r ere given of his entertainments, at which even princes were present ; and at which, probably, as much was consumed in an evening as would have maintained the whole village of Morden for a year. Of these entertainments the most pompous accounts were pub lished in all the newspapers of the day ; and, from the manner of the publication, there can be but little doubt of its having been paid for. As to his having shewn his hospita- tality to men of all persuasions, that is precisely what a man does, who is more intent upon securing the favour of men in, power, than upon cultivat ing real friendship; and, indeed, I have, for my part, very little doubt, that the cost of the entertainments of GOLDSMIDT was always put down amongst the necessary out-goings of his trade. * MORNING POST Newspaper, Oct. l. Thus far, however, what I have stated may bewailed matter of opinion. What I am' now going to state is matter of fact, and of fact, too, th&t the people of England should have been made fully acquainted with long ago. I allude to this man's trans action with SIR JOI!N PETER in the funding of Exchequer Bills, and which transaction is related in a Report made by a COMMITTEE of the House of Commons, which was ordered to he printed on the 14th of May last, and which will be found at page 193 of the Appendix to Vol. XVII of the Parliamentary Debates. And here, Gentlemen, we shall have a view of something of no small interest to us as belonging to the Inquiries, in which we are engaged. In Letter VII, at page 85, men tion was, made of Exchequer Bills; and they were described as one sort of the promissory notes, issue$ by the government in payment of persons, to whom they owe money. They are like other promissory notes, with this difference, that they bear an interest of so much upon each hundred pounds every day, the rate of which interest varies according to circumstances. In short, an EXCHEQUER BIL, which derives its name from the place whence it issues, is like a bank-note, not convertible into money at the will of the holder, except that the bank note does not bear interest, and the Exchequer Bill does. You will ea.- iiy perceive, that these Exchequer Bills, while out, form a part of the National Debt. They belong to what is called Unfunded Debt ; and, they are some times paid off and taken up, as a pri vate person pays off and takes up his notes of hand. But, sometimes, the government, like the private per son, finds it inconvenient to pay off these bills ; and, in such cases, it funds them ; that is to say, it makes an advantageous offer to the holders of them to exchange them for Stock ; and when this is done, the amount of such Exchequer Bills is, of course, added to the great mass ojtfrc permanent Xctfona I 107] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [108 Debt ; which, as you will perceive, is a way of borrowing money that occa sions much less talk and noise than would be occasioned by a new loan. The loan, this year was for 14 millions ; hut, then, there were" Exchequer Bills funded to the amount of eight millions, so that the addition to the permanent or funded Debt, lias, in fact, in this one year, been 22 mil lions. I have just said, thr;t when the government finds it inconvenient to pay off and take up Exchequer Bills, it makes an advantageous offer to the holders of them, by which these holders are induced to give them up, and to take Funds or Stock, in lieu of them. The Bills are brought by the holders to a certain place, called the Exchequer Bill Oilice, where they are received, and where the voucher is given which procure the holder stock in exchange for them. Upon these occasions, there is. gene rally a great struggle of the Bill- holders to yet first into the office ; be cause when the quantity of Bills .to he funded have been presented and received, all the rest must, for the present, at any rate, still remain with the holders ; and, as there is an ad vantage in getting them funded, it is evident enough, that there must al ways be an anxious rivalship in pur suit of that object. Upon an occasion of this sort, in the month of March last, ABRAHAM GOLDSMIDT attended, amongst others, with a view of getting into the Ex chequer Bill ollice ; and, being una ble to get in at the common door, so early as some others, lie went to a passage leading to another part of the ofTice,wherehemetSiK JOHN PETER, one of the Paymasters, or persons who conduct the business of the oilice. " To this person, he delivered hu " pnekct-book, containing Exchequer ' Bills to the amount of 850,000 " pounds, and then went air ay. SlR " JOHN PF.TER carried in the book .A the bills ; and, in consequence " of this, GOLDSMIDT'S hills were* " funded ; while the bills of other " persons, M-ho had attended from " the earliest hour, and had got in " ,amongst the very first, and whose " bills were actually received, had " their bills returned without being " funded." It appears also, from the Report, that, upon a previous day, this GOLDSMIDT, with "a few ethers, had found out and used the means of getting into the Office before the door ivas opened to the public. The Com mittee state, that the same Paymaster, " SIR JOHN' PETER, according to an " arrangement previously made, did, " on the first day of funding, before " the doors were open to the public, " take into the oflice with him, Mr. " GOLDSMIDT. Mr. BUTTON, and "'Mr. GILLMAN, as appears from " the evidence of Mr. GHlnian and " Mr. Sutton. The other Paymaster " in attendance, MR. PLANTA, says " that he found those c/entlemen in " the Board Hot-mi upon his arrival " at the oilice ; that he knew it to he '* a great impropriety; that he ex- " pressed indignation at the proceed- " ing, and ordered the doD'rs to be " immediately thrown open to the " public. The names, however, of " the gentlemen so introduced stand f amongst the very first on the books " of that day" The Committee re probate these proceedings, as partial, unjust, and foul; and recommend means for preventing the like in future. Now, Gentlemen, this is quite enough to enable you to judge of the real character of GOLDSMIDT, whc is so extolled by our courtly news- writers, who have, doubtless, their /reasons for what they do ; you will, from these facts alone, facts which cannot be denied, be able to judge, \vbHher this man is deserving of the character, which, with so much in dustry, is given him; whether he, was that kind, benevolent, disinterested, generous, and noble-minded man, which he has been represented to be; 109] LETTER IX. [110 or, whether with all his outward show of liberality and generosity, he was, as to his essential practices, still a money-loving, a money-amassing Jew, and nothing more ; and if any addi tional proof of this were wanting, what need we but the simple fact of his having killed himself, because he was losiny a part of his immense wealth ; a truly Jew-like s motive for the commission of an act at which human nature shudders? Gentlemen, how much more to be respected and to be pitied are hun dreds and thousands of your indus trious and honest neighbours, who had their all snatched from them in a moment* and who, after a life of la bour and of abstinence, saw them selves deprived of the means of buy ing a dinner ; and that, too, observe, without any fault of theirs, without any greedy speculation, any desire on their part to gain by over-reaching their neighbours, or to possess any thing which was not the fair fruit of their labour ? What value are we to set upon the princely feasts of a man, who eould creep in at a back door to get the preference in funding Exche quer Bills ? What value are we to set upon friendship, such as lie would, doubtless, entertain for such men as SIR JOHN PETER? And, as to his charities; as to what he used to give to the miserable part of our country men, under the name of charities, it is ,very probable, that the whole of v/hat he bestowed in this way in the course of his life, did not amount to half so much as the sum that he' gained in consequence of his proceed ing above-noticed with SIR JOHN PETER. Gentlemen, the reasons why he has been so much praised by many of our news-writers would amuse you; and it would also entertain you to learn the real cause of the fine benevolent Jewish characters, which are to be found in some of our modern plays, if indeed, a. feeling of shame for your country did not over power your propensity to laugh at at these offerings of literary venality at the shrine of Mammon. But, having now bestowed quite as much time as it merited in remarks upon the character of the departed Jew, but which remarks were demanded by truth, we will now proceed to those matters, connected with his death, which are of much greater conse quence to us, and a clear understand ing of which will be found to be greatly useful in the course 'of the remainder of our Inquiries. Indeed, these matters not only relate to our subject, but they are strongly illus trative of some of the most important parts of it. The cause, of GOLDSMIDT'S com mitting the act of self-murder is stated as follows: " The cause of this rash " act it is not difficult to assign: " Mr. Golclsmidt was a joint con- " tractor for the late loan of 14 mil- " lions with the house of Sir Francis " Baring, and taking the largest pro- " bable range that he had dealt " amongst his friends one half of the " sum {Allotted to him, the loss sus- " taiued by the remainder, at the- rate "of 65/. per thousand, which was "the price of Thursday, v. as more " than any individual fortune could " lie expected to sustain. Ever since " the decline of Omnium from par, " Mr. Goldsmidt's spirits were pro- " gressively drooping; but when it " reached 5 and (j per cent, discount. " without the probability of recover- " ing, the unfortunate gentleman ap- " peared evidently restless in his clis- " position, and disordered in his " mind ; and, as we have reason to " believe, not finding that cheerful " assistance amongst his inonied " friends which he had experienced " in happier times, he was unable to " bear up against the pressure of his " misfortunes ; and hence was driven " to terminate a life which till then " had never been chequered by inis- " fortune. The moment intelligence " of the distressing event reached ths ill] PAPER AGAINST GOLD, [112 V tire city, which was about (lie period of the opening of tjie Stock Ex change, the Fun(js suddenly felt the effects, and the Three per Cent. Sco^'k fell in a few minutes from 66^ to 63 : Omnium declined from about (H to 10^- discount, and then remained steady at that price for some time."* What to do with all these cant words one hardly knows; but, taking along with us what we have before seen, we shall be able, with a little explanation, to understand them. In Letter II, page 18, and onwards, we saw something of the manner, in which Loans are made to the govern ment; but, we must here speak of the transaction a little more in parti culars.- The Loan-Maker bargains with the Minister to lend so many millions of money, upon condition of receiving so much Stock means, and we have seen what Stock remains. But, this Stock (as will be seen in Letter II, page 18,) is of several sorts : 4 per cents., 3 per cents., 'and soon. And the Loan-Maker gene rally agrees to take some of each sort. As soon as the Loan is made, he begins to sell his Stock, as we have seen, in page 20, to such people as our good neighbour, FARMER GREEN HORN ; but, when he sells it, all the sorts of it are put together, and hence it is called OMNIUM, that being a Latin word, meaning THE WHOLE TOGETHER, OF ALL TOGETHER. When the Omnium will sell for more than has been given for it, it is said to be at a premium; and when it will not sell for so much as has been given for it it is said to be at a discount, that word meaning, to count back, or to refund; so that, in these transac- sions, to sell at a premium means to gain by the sale, and to sell at a dis count means to lose by the sale; pre mium means gain, and discount means lots. TIMBS Newspaper, Sept. ?9 Applying this to what we have before seen, respecting the cause of the death of GOLDSMIDT, it will be perceived, that he was losing 6 per cent, or 6 pounds in the hundred, upon his part of so immense a tran* saction as that of a Loan of 14 millions. It is said, you will observe, that he and the BARINGS took the Loan between them; and it is sup posed, that a great part of his share remained unsold, at the time when the fall in the price took 1 place. Hi* loss, if the price did not mend, would, of course, be immense; and, it ap pears, that the thought of such a loss was more than his mind could bear ; which latter is by no mean? wonderful, seeing that his soul was set upon gain ; that all his views and notions of happiness centered in wealth. The lover, whose passion is too strong for his reason, destroys himself, be cause the object of that passion is dearer to him than life. GOLDS M IDT destroys himself, because wealth is dearer to him than life. And yet, we are to be told, of the princely mu nificence of this man! Never was there a nation so much insulted as this ! In most cases there is a considera ble gain made by LOAN-MAKERS, who have, indeed, in many cases, become so rich by .these transactions as to be enabled to surpass in ex- pences the gentry and the nobility of the kingdom, which, as we shall by- and-by see, is one of the great evils of the National Debt. How it has happened, that so great a loss has hitherto been experienced upon the present Loan, it would be very 'diffi cult, perhaps, for any one to tell. It lias been asserted, in the public prints, that there was a combination against the Loan-Makers ; but, this is perfect nonsense ; for, all Stocks fell at the same time ; and, what a fine state must that thing, called PUBLIC CREDIT, be in, if any combination of individuals can injure it? The progress of the fall in tlic price of Stocks, and particularly of 113] LETTER IX. [114 the Omnium, upon this occasion is very curious ; and, it will be of great use to us to take a look back into the public prints, and see the attempts there made to keep up the prices; attempts which come very fairly under the denomination of puffing. These attempts are worthy of the greatest attention ; for, trifling and even stupid as they appear, and as they are in themselves, they will, if I mistake not, be hereafter referred to as being amongst the most significant signs of the times. These attempts began with a para graph, inserted in all the daily news papers, stating the amount of the for tune of Sir FRANCIS BARING'S family, who, it will b^ recollected, were now become the part owners of the OMNIUM along with GOLDSMIDT. The paragraph, of the llth of Sep tember, was^as follows: " Yesterday ** morning, at one o'clock, died at his " house at Leigh, Sir Francis Baring, " bart. in his 74th year. He was " physically exhausted, but 'his mind 04 remained unsubdued by age or in- " firmity to the last breath. His bed " was surrounded by nine out of ten, " the number of his sons and daugh- " ters, all of whom he has lived to see " established in splendid independ- " enee. Three of his sons carry on " the great commercial house, and " which, by his superior talents and 4( integrity; he carried to so great a " height of respect and the other " two sons are returned from India " with fwtunesT His five daughters ' are all moat happily married, and " in addition to all this, it is supposed " lie has left freehold estates to the " amount of half a million. Such has ** been the result of the honourable " life of this English Merchant." On the 17th of September, the following was published : (< Stocks " experienced this morning a con- (t siderable depression : Omnium was " at 5 discount. The death of Sir *' Francis Baring is said to have been " the chief cause of it" On the 19th: "The sudden and " rapid decline of the Stocks merits, " it may be supposed, some notice* " Consols, which begun yesterday at " 66f, closed at 651; and Omnium " left Off at 6 discount. Various " causes were assigned for this effect " (a descent upon Heligoland, a sub- " sidy to Russia,) all equally impro- " bable. We can do no more at pre- " sent than state the fact, though ice " strongly suspect- that ice know the " came" On the 20th: "Stocks were better "this morning; and the attempts tv " continue the depression of the Funds " are likely to be defeated, -as they " ought to be." On the 22nd: "Yesterday being " a holiday, no business w r as pub* *' licly transacted in the Funds, but " several private bargains were made " at an advanced price. Consols " were done at 661 which is a material " rise. There is reason to hope that " a feV days will dispel the alarm " which was raised and propagated " beyond what any just cause could " warrant, by persons desirous offish- " ing in troubled waters; by certain " writers, eager to convert public con- " fusion to the promotion of their poli- " tical views , and by certain jobbers , " anxious to make it subservient to " their pecuniary interests. The er- " roneous idea so industriously cir- " culated by certain individuals that " there is a depreciation of the Sank- *' currency, has undoubtedly con- " tributed, in some degree with other " circumstances of pressure, to pro- " duce the late depression in the " funds. w Now, it must be observed, that these paragraphs were czrci'/ar; that is to say, they went through all tb-^ daily news-papers, or, at lea-sf, EC all of them, and for aught I know, to the contrary, through the weekly nows-papers too ; so that, there is not the smallest doubt of the puffing hav ing been carried on at the i of some interested party. 115] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [116 But, Gentlemen, what a stale, I again ask, must that thing 1 , called PUBLIC CREDIT, he in, if it ran be affected in this way? First SIR FRANCIS BARING'S death causes the Funds to fall, atod the foil in the Funds causes the death of GOLD- SMIDT, and then the death of GOLD- SMIDT causes the Funds to fall lower still ! What is all this talk about combinations ; about attempts to con tinue the depression ; about an alarm, beyond any just cause; about the Funds being depressed by persons desirous of iishing in troubled w l>y certain .writers eager for pu!;ik confusion; by certain jobbers anxious 1o promote their own interest ; by certain individuals who have insidi ously -circulated erroneous id-us about the depreciation of Bank-notes? What is all this talk? What does all tiiis mean? Is it come to this at last, that this PUBLIC CREDIT, which "was to defend us against all the war like operations of France ; is it come to this, that this PUBLIC OK ED IT, this defence of the country, is to be destroyed, or, at least, materially, affected, by the tricks 1 of money-Job bers, the opinions (and the erroneous opinions too) of political writers, or by the death of a Jew ? If this be the case, let those who have what, they call money in the Funds, let the GRIZ ZLE GREENHORNS, look to them selves. At the peace of Amiens, when we reminded PITT and his associates of the promise they had made us never to make peace without obtaining " indemnity for the past and security "for the future" and, when we proved to them, that, while they acknow ledged that they had obtained no in demnity for the past, they had left us more insecure tl^tn ever for the future. When we pointed out to them, the con sequences of their war, which had put into the hands of France so many countries, and so much of maritime means; and of their peace, which had left all these terrible means in her hands: when we pointed out this to them, what was their answer? Why .this: that, though France had acquired a great extent of terri tory, her acquisitions in point of strength did not surpass ours, which consisted of an immense mass of CA- ?ITAL, CREDIT, and CONFIDENCE; the changes upon which words were rung o|er and over again, till the speech became full as enlivening and instructive as a peal of the three bells of Botley Church. But, what be comes of these fine things, if the scribbling of a news -paper writer, or of a pamphleteer, or if the sudden death of a Jew, is capable of bo ma terially affecting them ? What, in that case, becomes of that Capital, Credit, and Confidence, .which were to counterbalance all the acquisitions of France, and were to prove a never- failing defence to England ? True said the adherents of PITT, Mho wished still to find something to say by way of apology for his ruinous measures; "true," said they, "France " has made conquests; she has gamed " sea-ports ; she has acquired and "now quietly possessess, the means " of rearing a navy ; but, look at the "immense CAPITAL of England; " look at her CREDIT ; look at the " CONFIDENCE which she possesses; " look at these pillars of national " strength." It was not easy to see, however long one looked, that these things were pillars of national strength; but, if they were ; if they were the pillars, upon which this nation was to depend, what are we to think of our situation, when we are told, as we are in the above-cited publications, r.$d, indeed, us we are told ever}' day, tl^iat the Fund:-, which are said to he the barometer of national CREDIT, can be, nwharp, been, and still ?*e, lowered in, th'r ir value bv such trifling tilings as the erroneous opinion of a writer on -po'itic! 5 , or the death of a Merchant or a Jev- ? If what we have been told about the importance of CREDIT be true ; if it be our defence against 1171 LETTER IX. tlie enemy, wliat must our .situation b>. if what we are -now told be true, namely, Uiat this CREDIT has been shaken by such contemptible means ? PITT and his associates told us, that CAPITAL. CREDIT, and CONFI DENCE, which is using three words instead of one, merely tor the- sake of the sound; they told us that these v ere the pillars of the nation ; and, as we have seen above, our news papers uo\v tell us. t!mt SIR FRAN CIS BARING and GOLDS MIDT were the pillars of our CRKDIT; so that, ;u last, we come to this comfortable t onclui>ion that. the defence and pre- ifion of the country depended iipwii SIR FRANCIS EARING and i)S. MIDT, one of whom has died iiiid the other shot himself within the last, three \\ ceks ! And this is the riled, is it, of the PITT system of what is csJk'ii Public Credit.' If what ve are now told be true, what security have we, that things will stop where they arc . ; What rea son have we to conclude, or to sup pose, that the same ciiu^es will nut continue to operate, 'till the whole of the Funds are annihilated; that is to say, until- nobody will give any thing at all for any sort of the 8 took '{ We are told, that the lull, which Las al ready taken, has, in part, been the consequence of combinations of indi viduals, which must mean, combina tions not to purchase ; and, who i* to j fnd an end to such combinations I \ \Viio is to preycnt the force of them from increasing ? . Then, again, \\ e are told,, that the fall has partly been produced by jobbers intent upon their own interests ; and, who, let me ask, is to alter the na ture of these jobbers;. who can say, or even guess, when these interested jobbers will be pleased to desist from their selfish and mischievous prac tices? 'If the causes of the fail be such as have, been stated to the pub lic in the above-cited -and other pub lications, vvliQ will preteiiji to say when or where, the fall will stop ? And, 1 should be very glad to hear any reason, why, if those alledged causes be founded in truth, the Fund* should not continue to fall, till they are not worth owning ; till it is not worth GRIZZLE GREENHORN'S while to have her name written in the Great Book. We here see, that these boastetl friends of their country; these men of such high-Hying loyalty; these, writers who accuse of Jacobinism all those who cannot believe, and wjio will not say, that the Paper-money is us good, if qot better, than Gold and Silver; we Here see, that these boast ed friends of their country , who ap parently, would eat Buonaparte ruv , if they could get at him ; \ve b"re see these outrageously-loyal writers pro- claiming to that same Uuouapartft what must delight him more than al most any thing tiiat he could li namely, that such is the stale of our public credit, sucli the state of our pecuniary resources, such the confi dence in our funds, such the confi dence in the security of our govern ment-bonds, that this confidence is shaken by a combination of jobbers, or the death of a Jew. How much abuse has been, at various times, leaped upon these, who have ex pressed theii; doubts as to the dura bility of the Paper-money system! Nay, the Bullion Committee them selves have been very grossly abused for their Report upon the subject ; by which Report, their opponents say, they have injured the credit of the country. They are charged with having 1 injured the credit of this coun try, because they have recommended that the Bank of England should pay its notes in Gold and Silver. What, then, are those men doing, who now assert, that a combination of indiri duals ; that the tricks of interested job bers ; that the erroneous opinions of political writers: what are the men doing, who. assert, that these things 119] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [120 arc capable of causing the govern ment securities to fall in value ; and, who scruple not to tell us, that the men, who were the pillars of the Public Funds,' arc dead? What are these writers doing; and how will they now be able to hold up their Leads and complain of the endea vours of others to destroy what they call public credit, which, if it admit of destruction by the means of the pen, must assuredly fall for ever un der the pens of these writers ? It what these writers say be true ; if the stocks are to be lowered in value by combinations of individuals, by the errors of writers, by the re ports of committees, or by the death of a Jew; if this be true, can it be thought, that people will long be dis posed to become proprietors of stock ? Can it be thought* that they will, like ur neighbour GREENHORN, put their money in the Funds ? Can it be ex pected, that fathers and mothers will make provision for their children, or their grand-children, by purchasing stock, liable to be lowered in value by such causes ? Nay, can it be ex pected, that any man in his senses, who is now the owner of stock, will not dispose of it as soon as possible, and at almost any rate ? For, is it possible to regard as safe property ; is it possible to regard as any pro perty at all, a thing the value of which may be lowered ten per cent, in the space of ten days, and, of course, which may be lowered to almost no thing ; is it possible to regard as any property at all, a thing the value of which may be thus reduced by the combinations of individuals, the trick ery of jobbers, the errors of political writers, or the death of a Jew, or of any other 'individual or number of individuals ? Is it possible to regard such a thing as property? Common I sense says, no ; and yet the statement (of these causes, a statement, which, | if it have any effect at all, must tend j to the discredit, and, indeed, to the de- j struction, of the Funds ; this state- I inent comes from the pens of those, who cry out JACOBIN against every man, who ventures, in however mo dest a ^ay, to express his doubts of the solidity of the Funding Sys tem. These v.-riters, in their eagerness to abuse those, to whom they impute the fall of the Funds, seem to have over looked the conclusions that would na turally be drawn from their premises, else they would have perceived what a dangerous thing it was to declare to our powerful and sharp-sighted enemy that a combination of indivi duals was capable of shaking our Funds. That enemy is, by these same writers, represented as being all-powerful by his intrigues in other countries ; and, is it too much to sup pose, that it might be possible for him to find the means of forming combinations against the Funds in England? If combinations of indi viduals can pull down the value of our Government securities, is it to be believed, that our enemy will not be disposed, and that he will not endea vour, to form such combinations ? And, if we are asked, where he will find individuals so base, have not these writers pointed -them out to him; or, at least, have they not told him, in terms that admit not of mis understanding, that there are such individuals in England, in London, and now actually at work ; and that these individuals have caused the Funds to fall, have caused the Go vernment securities to lose part of their value ? Let these writers, there fore, confess that these statements of theirs have pfocecded from error ; or, at Stationers' &alu LONDON : Printed by WM, MOUNEUX, bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane. N- 5.]-COBBETT'S PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [Price Two-Pence. 1213 at any rate, that they are -untrue; or let them for ever hold their tongue as to complaints against those, \vlio en tertain doubts of the solidity of the paper-money system. Here, Gentlemen, I should have concluded this already-too-Iong Let ter ; but, an article, which I find in the public prints of this morning (Tuesday, 2nd October) induces me- to add some observations upon the subject of the remedy or expedient, which has been more than hinted at. The article alluded to, is as follows : " The state of the Funds was a little " improved yesterday ; and as no " bad consequences beyond those of " the first shock had arisen from Mr. " Goldsmidt's death, it is hoped that " things will soon be restored to their " former level. The result of the " conferences of the leading Loan- " holders, with the Chancellor of the " Exchequer and the Lords of the Trca- " sury, on Saturday, has not yet been " made known. Mr. Goldsmidt's " house continues to discharge, with- ** out reserve or hesitation, all the de- " mands made on it. The account " at tlie Stock Exchange was not set- " tied nor declared yesterday, in con- " sequence of the attendance of Mr. " Nathan Solomons, Mr. Goldsmidt's " broker, at the funeral, which took " place, according to the Jewish rites, *' about noon yesterday. His feody " was placed by the side of that of " his brother Benjamin. Yesterday " morning early Mr. Perceval came " to town from his house at Ealing, " and soon after sent off letters to the " Governor and Deputy-Governor of " the Bank, Mr. Wish, the Chairman " of the Commissioners of Excise, the " Treasurer of the Ordnance, and a [122 " number of other official Gentlemen; " they all attended Mr. Perceval, and " he was with them during the whole " of the day." These conferences will not, I trust, as some persons appear to suppose, lead to any application of the public, money, that is to say, of the taxes, to the assisting, as it is called, of these Loan-holders. r i}he Loan-holders, or Loan-makers, have never been known to return to the people any part of the immense projits, which they, from time to time, have made upon their loaning transactions. We see, from one of the above-quoted passages, that SIR FRANCIS BARINC has gained enough to lay out half a million of money in freehold estates. Great part of this was, it is reasonable to suppose, gained by the many loaus to Govern ment, in which he has been at differ ent times concerned. Well, then, if these profits, these immense gains, be considered as fairly belonging to him, or his heirs and successors ; and, if we view the not less immense gains of GOLDSMIDT in the same light; if the gains be theirs, ought not the lossio be theirs also ? Upon any other prin ciple, what a sort of bargain would a government-loan be ? A bargain where all the chance of gain wou'd be on one side, and all the chance of loss on the other. If the loan-maker gained, well ; but, if he lost, the peo ple must make good his loss. Is this the way that dealings take place be tween man and man? Is there any one of you, Gentlemen, who woud sell a load of wheat to a miller, leav ing him the chance of gaining by it, and, if he happened to lose by it. would give him back again the aniouo of his loss ? Oh, no ! You would kee W. Moliaeux, Printer, B.-eRTn's Chancery LA 123] LETTER IX. [124 the whole of the price of your wheat, and leave the miller to console himself in counting his gains upon other oc casions. But, if contrary to my wish and expectation, " relief," as it is called, were to be given to those persons, in what way could it be done? The loan is made and ratified in virtue of an ACT OF PARLIAMENT. There can be no alteration made in the bar gain ; there can be no change in the terms of payment; there can be no abatement in the demands of the go vernment, without another ACT OF PARLIAMENT, previously passed. Those who made the loan must pay the 14 millions into the King's Exche quer, let what will be their loss upon the transaction^ unless indeed, the whole of their property, real and per sonal, be insufficient for the purpose ; and, in that case, the people have a right to expect, that the government will take care to hold back from the loan- makers, or to recover from them, so much of the new Stock as will not leave the loan-makers a farthing in the people's debt. During PITT'S Anti-jacobin War, which, as you will bear in mind, was to succeed by producing the dcstmc- tion of the paper-money in France ; during that war, which was to dimin ish the power of France, and to re store the Bourbons by the means of ruin to the French finances ; dur ing that famous war, which was to plunge, and which, as PITT told us, did plunge France ," into the very " gulph of Bankruptcy ;" during that renowned war, there was what was called a LOYALTY LOAN." People were invited in the name of loyalty, to come forward and lend their money to the government, for the purpose of carrying on the Anti- jacobin war with vigour ; and, at the same time, no,. very unintelligible hiats were given, in some of the public prints, that those who had it in their power to lend, and did not lend, upon this occasion, were deficient in point of loyalty, an imputation not very pleas ant at any time, and, at the time to which we are referring, singularly inconvenient. The LOYALTY LOAN was accomplished ; but, owing to some cause or other, it did not prove to be a profitable concern for the lenders ; and, as in the case of the present loan, as far as it has gone, the loan fell to a discount, and a loss was sus tained upon it. Such loss, one might have expected, would have been not only contentedly, but gladly sustained, as a sacrifice upon the altar of loyalty; and this, it was said by PITT, would have been thfc case, but that he and his associates in the ministry, did not think it wise to suffer loyalty so diain- terested to experience any loss. An act, therefore, was passed for making good to the lenders whatever they would otherwise liave lost by their ardent affection for their king and country, and loyalty was thus pre vented from costing them any thing. The case, however, of these loyal and devoted persons was somewhat different from that of the makers of the present loan. The Loyalty Lonn men Lad never gained any thing by loan-making. They had not got their half million's worths of freeholds and their palace-like mansions. They had made a bargain, and they ought, in my opinion, to have been held to that bargain ; because, if there had been a gain instead of a loss, they would have put that gain in their pocket, and would, doubtless, have looked upon it as doubly blessed, being the profits of trade and of loyally too; and further, because, thoy had put their names down upon a list, which was to hold them forth to the world as men ready to make sacrifices for their king and country, in contradis tinction to those, whose names were not put upon the list. But, still, though nothing, in my opinion, can ever fully reconcile to principles of justice, the compensating of these people for their losses by that loan, there u great difference between that, 125] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [126 case and the case of tlie present loau- makers or holders, who have no claim whatever to any compensation at all, or to any relief, or to the adoption of any measure, that shall cost the people one single shilling. If they lose by this loan, they have gained by other loans. If they cannot pay without the sale of their goods and chatties, why should not their goods and chatties be sold, as well as the goods and chat ties of those, who out of pure loyalty, have set up papers for the purpose of writing me down, and whose names I have never once mentioned, on whose papers 1 have never set my eves, and who have killed themselves in their foolish attempts to wound me? Why should jiol the "loan-makers, if tlioy cannot make good their bargain, have their t-oods and chatties, sold as well astho.se loya'ty writers? I m, how ever, reasoning here, against an un founded surmise; for, it appears from the above quoted publications, that the family of BARING is very rich and in perfect credit, and that the concerns of GOLDSMIDT are in a flourishing' way, seeing that his house is able to meet all the demands upon it, of every sort, without the least delay or hesi tation. This being the case, there can be no need of any interference on the part of the government) who will doubtless' see, that the bargain is ful filled agreeably to the "terms. i have now done with this acci dental occurrence, the notice of which, so much at length, forms" a Digression from the regular line of oiu; progress, by which, as we shall see by-and-by, will have afforded us practical know ledge, of great use in our future in quiries. I am, Gentlemen, Your faithful friend, COBBETT. State Prism, Newgate, Tuesday, 2nd October, 1810. LETTER X. ' They" (tl> French Revolutionist*) " forget that, in England, not one shilling of Paper Money of any 40 description i* received !>ut of choice; iht tne wholw has had its origin in cash, actually deposited ; and " that it is convertible., at pleasure, in an instant, and without the smallest loss, into cash again. Our " 1'aper'is of v;.luf in commerce, because in lau> it is of none. It is powerful on Change, because in West- " minster hall it i? impotent. In payment, of a debt of twenty shillim>s, a creditor may refute all the paper " of the Rank of Engtirn((, Nor i* there amonci us a single public security, of any quality or nature whatso- " ever, that z' enforced by authority. In fact it miirht be easily shen, that our paper wealth, instead of " lessening the rc;- was a war city of cash, atid an exuberance, of paper, a. subject of complaint in this "nation." burke. Reflections on the French Revolution. Written and published in 1790. " But, whatever momentary relief', or aid, the iUinisier and the Bank mi "lit expert from this low contrivance of " Five Pound Notes, it will increase the inability of the Bank to pay the Higher ffotcs, and hasten " the drstrucnon of all ; for, even the small taxes thai; u!=ed to be paid in money, will now be paid iu those "notes, and the Bank will soon find itself with scarcely any other money than what the hair powder- " guinea tax brings in." Paint! $ Decline and Fall oi" the Euglish System of Finance. Written and pub lished in March, J7Ofi. " When the situation of the Rank of Enplsuid was u; der the consideration of the two Houses of Parliament, " in the yenr 1707, it was my opinion, and tLat of many others, that the extent, to which the Paper-Cur " rency had l>een carried, was the Jlr^t MK! prim /pal, 'hough not tli<: sole rs, from time to time, been exposed, ia " supplying Ure cash, 'necessary t\>r the commerce of tLe kingdom." diaries 'Jenkinton. Earl vf Liverpool, Letter to the Kin^ , published in ib05. Horrid Passage from the Mornincr Post News-Paper Such are the Writers by whom the Paper-rVToriey System and its Pntrons are supported Such are the Answers that are given to these Letters Bank Ftipev asserted to be the only Sort of Currency cal culated to exert the Energies of an island Proceed in tracing the Increase of "Debt and Notes to that yrand Effect, the Bank Stoppage Table shewing the annual Increase of the Debt and Interest from 1793 to 17^7 Increase in the Number and Amount of Payments at the Bank demanded small Notes Hence came the Five Pound Notes Burke's Picture of the English Bank Paper Paine's Prediction Lord Liverpool the Historian of Pained Prophecy. 127] LETTER X. [128 GENTLEMEN, In returning to our subject, we must bear in mind, that,in Letter VIII, and in the foregoing Letter, we saw clearly, that bank-notes, as well as all other 'promissory notes, ought to be considered as representatives of .debt, while real money ought to be consi dered as the representative of property, or things of real value. At the close of Letter VIII, we saw how the in crease in the quantity of bank-notes had kept pace with the increase of the National Debt; and we proposed, when we should resume the subject, to trace this joint increase to that grand and memorable effect, THE STOPPAUE OF GOLD AND SILVER PAYMENTS AT THE BANK OF ENG-> LAND in 1797. But, before we enter upon this in teresting matter, will you give me leave again to give you a specimen of the way, in which my Letters are answered by the venal writers in London '?' To do this will not be without its utility, both now and hereafter. It will be useful to shew you what sort of writers those are, who are opposed to me; and, though it may not be so useful to posterity, it will, nevertheless, be of fome use, and will be very curious, for our children to see what manner of men those were, who wrote in favour of the Paper-money System. The passage I am about to lay before yeu was published in a news-paper, printed for the use of " The Fashiona- " ble World" under the date of the Cth of this month, and Its words are these. " To the People of the United " Kingdom. The detestable charac ters exposed lately in the pillory, may be considered the real repre sentatives of the Corsicau Tyrant and his Ministers, who boast of the monstrous vice which excites such " horrors in every British bosom, and " who, fearful of your valour, are " exerting every artifice to subvert ' your empire, betray your virtue, and " extirpate your people. COBBETT, " the oracle of the Jacobins, " the British Papers for speaking ill " of such infamous monsters, \\ hese " detestable practices must annihilate " every virtuous principle from the ' human breast ; and he tells the ' British People, in effect, that if 1 they are to be robbed by taxes and ' oppressed by power, it is of no con- ' sequence whether they are conquered ' by a French Vcre-street gang, or ' governed by a virtuous British Sv- 1 vereignandhisrexpcctablc Ministers. 1 Such is the profound reasoning of ' an apostate low-mindvd scribe, who ' is impelled by a savage passion ' revenge for Ministerial deserved ' contempt, and by foolish and base ' hopes of conciliation with the Cor- sica?i Monster, who often rewards, but never has been known to forgive. He publishes weekly an infernal Register, to excite mutiny in the ( ani^y and thcjleet, to seduce the ' loyalty of British subjects, to con- ( found the good sense of the yeomanry by low cunning and artful scphis- 1 try, and above all, to destroy Public ' credit and Bank Paper, as tht best ( bond of. individual and public secu- ' rity t and the only medium of cur- ' rency to suit and cxtrt the energies ' of an insular and commercial pecple. ' Such a man, whom reading and ' writing made a corporal, but whom 1 sense and reason will never make u ' politician or an honest patriot, may ' be the pi oper oraclt of a Vcre-strttt ' gang of regal French rujfians, but ' his councils of liberty, economv, " and reform, must be regarded as the " treacherous delusions of a French " spy, when offered to a free, virtuous " and happy nation."* Stick, Gentlemen, is the language of my opposers. Such is the sort of men who dislike me. Such are the answers that are given to my state ments and my reasoning upon a sober and most important subject of political economy. The abuse here heaped * Morning Post, Saturday, Oct. 6, 2810. 129] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [130 upon a person, whom our Commander in Portugal, in his public dispatches, recognizes as an " Emperor" and wjUo, in our courts of justice, has been recognized as a " Sovereign of '* France," to say nothing of our ne- gociations and treaties with him ; the abuse here heaped upon Napoleon, who is not only called a monster, but is distinctly charged with " boasting " of the monstrous vice," for being guilty of which several infamous wretches have lately stood in the pil lory in London, can, surely, not meet with the approbation of any man upon earth ; for, one would fain hope, that there is not another man like this Mxiter. Yet is it a serious considera tion for the country, that such an accusation should be thus boldly put forth in our public news-papers, and in a news-paper, too, which, from its uni form praises of the men at present in power, is called a ministerial news paper, and is, in general, looked upon as a sort of half official print. As far as concerns this particular article, every man in England will be ready to acquit the ministers; and, indeed, every one will readily believe that it must meet with their sincere reprobation. But, this may not be the opinion abroad ; and, I leave you o guess what an impression such a publication is calculated to give the World of our national character. There is one declaration here, about the paper-money, that I wish you to bear in mind ; namely that " bank- " paper is the best bond of individual " and public, security, and the only medium of currency to suit and " exert the energies of an insular and *' commercial people" So that, ac cording to this writer, the return of gold and silver would be no good at all, and we ought, indeed, to desire to get rid of it, if we had any; though, upon the trial of DE YONGE (of which we shall see more by-and-by), both the Attorney General and the Judge so decidedly declared the exportation of the coin to be a most mischievous practice; and though this writer him self, little more than two months ago, congratulated his readers upon the prospect of .seeing bank-paper de- stroyed, which paper he called, in his print of the 19th of July, " destruc- " tivc assianatsi" and afterwards, "vile " dirty rags-" aye, that very paper, which he now asserts to be " the best " bond of individual and public secu- " ritv , and the only medium of cur- " rency to suit and exert the energies "of an insular and commercial " people/' Let us now leave our opponents ; let us leave the paper-money system and its patrons to receive all the sup port that writings like the above can give, while we proceed in tracing the increase of the National Debt and that of the bank-notes to that grand and memorable effect, the stoppage of gold and silver-payments at the Bank of England in 1797*from which time our paper-money began, because it was then that the bank-notes ceased to be convertible into coin, and have remained in that state to this day. We have already seen, that, at the beginning of PITT'S war with tbe Re publicans of France in 1798, our National Debt amounted to about 250 millions, because it did not increase during the peace preceding that war. [ts amount, at the close of the Ameri can war, was 257 millions (See Letter [II. page 26), and the annual interest 3 aid upon it was 9 millions and about a half. The debt, and, of course, the nterest along ^ r ith it, decreased a little >efore the beginning of PITT'S Var against the Jacobins of France; so hat, when that war was begun, both Debt and Interest were somewhat less than at the conclusion of the American war. We will, however, take them at what they were at the last-mentioned >eriod ; and, in order the more clearly ;o shew the progress of the cause of he great increase of bank-notes, and finally, of the Stoppage of Gold and Silver-payments at the Bank, we will state the annual increase of the Debt 131] LETTER X. and Interest, from the beginning of the war to the year 1797, when the Stoppage took place, which statement [132 is not only very curious, but is of singularly great importance. DEBT. Before the? Anti- Jacobin war began (in 1793), the amount was 257,** 13 043 j.>ii-.Ki-,yi. 9 669 435 In that same year was added 6 250 000 oe )2 O 1Q Amount at the end of 170.3 263 463 043 q 9^2 47 In tlte year 1794 was added 1> 676 525 773 324 Amount at the end of 1794 279 139 567 j Q (Jy5 571 In the year 1 795 was added 25 609 8<>7 1 227 4 1 5 Amount at the end of 1795 304 749 464 1 1 92 986 In the year 1796 was added 4 I 3()3,6 ( >9 ] a 30 373 Amount at the end of 1796 346 053 1 63 13 773 3 C >9 In the year \7[)7 was added 67,087,668 3 '2 4 1 ,7 90 Amount at the end of 1797 413,140,831 17,01.5,149 Thus, then, we see, that the first four years and a half of PITT'S war with the Jacobins, or Republicans of France, nearly doubled the Debt and the Interest, or (which is the same tiling to .the people), the annual charge on account of Debt, which, together with interest, includes management and Sinking fund-allowance. Four years and a half of the Anti-jacobin war nearly Doubled these; and, ac cording to the principles we have before laid down, in Letters VII and VIII, the bank-notes would necessa rily increase in the same proportion as the Debt and Interest increased ; because, every quarter of a year, the dividends to be paid at the Bank, became greater and greater. Before the Anti- Jacobin war began, the dividends of a year, amounted, as we see above, to 9,669,435/. To ob viate all pettifogging cavil here, let me state, that this sum was not wholly dividends, or interest; but consisted, partly, of " charges for management" paid to the Bank of England; and jtlso of charges on " account of the " Sinking Fund." But, as was ob served before, (his is of no consequence to the people, who pay the taxes, out >f which the whole sum comes; and, I only make the distinction to avoid a cavilling charge of misrepresentation, or error. Wlien, therefore, we speak of the amount of the Interest of the National Debt, let it be understood, that we include these charges; and that, by the word Interest is meant the annual charge on account of the Debt. , To resume, then ; before the Anti- Jacobin war began, the dividends, or interest, of one year amounted, as we have seen, to 9,609,435 pounds; and before the nation got to the end of the fifth year of that war, a year's di vidends, or interest, amounted to 17,015,149 pounds ; not much short of double. The Bank, therefore, having nearly twice as much to pay yearly in interest of the Debt; having, to speak in round numbers, 17 millions to pay under this head, where it had but 9 millions to pay before the be ginning of PITT'S Anti-Jacohin war ; having twice as much to' issue on this great score as it had previous to the war, was, of course, compelled to in crease the quantity of its paper-pro mises, or the quantity of its Gold and Silver-coin ; because, as we have be fore seen (Letter VII. page 77), an increase in the number and amount of PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [134 payments must necessarily demand an increase of the money, or medium, in which those payments are made; and, why this increase, at the Bank of England, ,'would take place in paper- promises, and not in Gold and Silver- coin, we have seen in Letters VII and VI f I, where it was shewn that an increase of Debt must produce an in crease of paper-promises, or notes, when once a paper-system has begun. That the experience of the times, of .which we are now speaking, perfectly corresponded with the principles here stated, we shall now see by adverting a little to the manner, in which the payments of interest at the Bank were formerly made. It has before been observed, that, when the Nation,.)! Debt iirst began, the whole of the interest was paid in Gold and Silver, tiiere being then no such thing as bank-notes, and no suck thing as a Bank, in this country. It has also been observed, that, very shortly after the Debt came into exis tence, itpioduced its natural offspring, a Bank, which issued its promissory notes, and in which promissory notes the interest of the Debt was, in part, nt least, paid. At Jirst, it appears, that the Bank paid ait interest upon its notes, or bills ; but, this was soon left oil'; and, from that time, the bank notes, or bills, became part of the circulating medium of the country. When the Stock owners, or Public Creditors, as they are sqrnethnes called, went !<> tbn Bank- to receive their di* -kuiuls. or interest, they might hu^e either bank-notes, or Gold and Silver, according to their choice. Some persons chose the coin, and some the paper. But, as the Debt increased, and, of course, the amount of the dividends, or interest, it was evident, from what has already been said, that the Bank would possess a less and less quantity of Gold and Sil ver in proportion to the quantity of 'ts paper. And, further, the pay ments of interest having, as we have seen above, become nearly double i amount to whet they were in 1793, previous to the Anti-Jacobin war, it is natural to suppose, that there would ' be double the number of Stock-hol ders, and, of course double the number of payments to make. Therefore, as, at every payment, the receiver had his choice of paper or Gold and Sil ver-coin, there were double the num ber of chances against the Bank ; and, at any rate, as there were, as yet, no bank-notes of an amount less than TEN POUNDS, there must necessarily be, upon every payment an issue of Gold and Silver from the Bank, to the amount of every demand, or part of a demand, falling short of ten pounds. This the Bank could bear before the Anti-Jacobin war; but, when that war had nearly doubled the Debt, the Interest, and the number of the pay ments, on account of Interest ; when this increase had taken place, the Bank found it necessary, not only to augment the general quantity of its notes ; it found it necessary not only to add to the total amount of its notes ; that is to say, to put out a greater slim in notes, than it had out before the Anti-Jacobin war; but, it also found it necessary to put out some notes of a lower amount than it already had, in order to pay the parts of ten pounds, which we have just mentioned. Hence came the FIVE POUND NOTES. And, you will perceive, Gentlemen, that causes precisely si milar had formerly produced the FIF TEEN POUND .NOTES and the I\EN POUND NOTES ; namely, an increase of the National Debt, and, of course, an increase of the dividends, or in terest ; these being always paid at the Bank, after the establishment of the Bank Company. Here let us stop for a little and look back at the MOTTO, or, rather M OTTOS, to this Letter. In the FIRST, the passage from BURKE, we have a picture of English Bank Paper previous to the war; aye, to that very war, which that very 135] "LETTER X. [136 picture and others in the same publi cation greatly tended to produce, and were, without, I believe, any bad mo tive, intended to produce. Look well at that picture, Gentlemen. Look at he triumphant contrast there exhi bited between the money of England arid that of France, which latter country had then a paper-money. And, when you have viewed that pic ture in all its parts ; when you have fully examined the contrast ; then turn j our eyes to what is now exhibited to the world: then see what English Bank Paper now is, and what in this regard is the state of France, where alf the paper-money has, long ago, been destroyed, and where there is no currency but that of Gold and Silver- coin, part of which coin consists of English Guinea?, those guineas the ab sence of which all men of sense and of public-spirit so sorely lament, and the practicability of causing the re- . turn of which is, as you will bear in mind, the chief object of our Inqui ries. In the SECOND motto, the passage from PAINE, (the mortal antagonist of Burke as to every thing else) we have an opinion as to the consequences of the Bank having made 5 pound- note?. We have a prediction as to the inability which it M ill produce in the Bank to pay its higher notes. This prediction was, it appears, written in March 179G, and it was published in England, in or about, the month of June of that year ; which was, as we shall see by-an(Uby, only about nine months before the stoppnge of gold and silver-pay jn cnts at the Sank ac tually took place. In the THIRD motto, the passage from the late LORD LIVERPOOL, we have the opinion, not only of the writer himself, who upon such a matter, is no very mean authority, but, as he asserts, of many others (doubt less, persons of distinction, as to rank, at least); we have an opinion, thus sanctioned, that the increase of the paper-currency was ihejirst and prin cipal cause of the Stoppage of Gold and Silver-payments at the Bank; and which opinion .perfectly cor responds with that of PAINE, there being this distinction in the merits of the two writers, that Lord Liverpool only recorded what PAINE had fore told: the former was the historian, the latter the prophet ; and, it is not a little curious, that Lord Liverpool, a clerk in whose office had written under a feigned name, a sham life of PAINE, shoul^l become the recorder of the trutli of PAINE'S predictions, and that too in " a Letter to the King" in whose name the very work containing the predictions had been prosecuted as A LIBEL. Here are three writers, all of whom of great understanding and experience, and the two former of abilities scarcely ever surpassed in any age or country, all opposed to each other as to every other question ; each one hating the other two, and each one hating the other one : yet all agreeing as harmo niously as their bones would now agree, if they happened to be tumbled together ; all agreeing as to these prin ciples respecting paper-money. Having now traced the increase of the Debt down to the putting forth of the 5 pound bank-notes, we will rest here, and resume the subject in our next. I am, Gentlemen. Your faithful friend, WM. COBBETT. State 6th , Monday , l10. 137] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. LETTER XL d-nofe* will circulate chiefly amonj; llttlf. shopkeeper*, butchers, bakers, market people. " renter* oi small houses, lodgers, Sec. All the high departments of commerce, and the affluent stations of ' life were already overstocked. s Smith expresses it, vith the bank notes. No place remained open " wlverein to crow(l an additisnal quantity ot bank-not^s but among the class of people I have jnst men- " tjoned, and. the means of *io nq this <>ould be bfst rffV-cred by coining five pound-notes. V>ut no nrw " supplies of money can, us WHS said before, now arrive at tl e Bank, as nil i he t;ixcs "will be paid in " paper. What, then, would be th& consequence, -were the Public Creditors to demand payment of their " Dividends in Cash, or demand Cash for the biik-uotos in which the Dividends are paid ; a circumstance " always liable to happen." Pm#. Decline and Fall of tt.e English System of Finance. Published iu " 179^: I should st<--p here, but there is a subject of so great importance, and so nearly connrctr-d with the Coins " of ynur Majesty'* realm, that t should not discharge my duty if I left it wholly unnoticed ; I meau what '* is HOW called Paper currency '. which is carried to so great an extent, that it is become hij>h!y incouve- " niei tto your Majesty's subjects, and may prove, in itt consequences, if no remedy is applied, dangerous " to the credit of the kingdom. It is certain, that tn^ smaller Notes of the, B*nk of England, and those " issued by country-Bank f-rs, have supplanted the Gold Coins, usurped their functions, and driven a ereat " part of tliern ot of circulation : in some parts of Great Britain, and especially in the. southern parts of Ireland, small Notes have been issued to supply the place of Siher Coius. of which here is certainly a " great deficiency." Charles Jenkinson, Earl if Liverpool,- Letter to the King. Published in 180. r >. Progress from Frvrc to ONE Pound Notes Suspicion begun soon after the FIVE Pound Notes Paine's Prediction as to People going to the Bank Lord Liverpool's Opinion agreeing with that of Mr- Paine History of the Bank Stoppage of Gold and Silver Payments Enormous increase of the Debt in 1797 Other cause Alarmists Meet ing* of Parliament in Oct. 17.- (>' Alarm of Invasion Arming Acts Mr- Fox's Opinion of the Alarm Exaggerated Representations of the VenarPrints French Fleet ap pears off the Coast of Ireland Effect of the Alarm begins to he felt at the Bank of England Ve.nal Prints change thtirTone all of a sudden, at.d accuse the Jacobins of exciting Alarm Run upon the Bank become* serious Increased by a Report of a French Fleet with Troops on board, being off Reachy Head Followed immediately by the landing of Tnte and his Raggamuffins in Wales Bank receives its finishing blow Vain attempts to check the Hnn-npon the Bank Order of Council issued- Disappointment of the Crowd at the Bank in Threadneedle Street. GENTLEMEN IN the foregoing Letter, we traced the Rational Debt, and the Interest thereon, in their progressive increase from the year 179-3 to 1797 inclusive, in which latter vear we shall find that the Stoppage ot Gold and Silver-pay ments, -at the Bank of England, took place. "We have seen, that, in the course of the aforementioned period, the amount of T)eht and Interest was nearly doubled ; ^ e have seen that j the Bank of England, had, of course, | nearly double the sum to pay in Dividends, or Interest ; we have seen Low this increase of payments at the Bank of England produced a new fa mily of noter-," so low in amount as FIVE POVNDS, there having been be fore the Anti-Jacobin War, no Bank Notes under TEN POUNDS; we shall soon see how the same still growing and ever-prolific cause brought forth, ' at last* a still more numerous and more diminutive litter ; and, when we have gone through the history of the Two and ONE Pound Xotes, we shall want scarcely any thing further to convince us, that, in such a state of thing.-, it was next to impossible for Gold and Silver to remain in circula- tioiu It was observed in Letter I, page (>, that when motes, so low in amount as FIVE POUNDS came to be issued; when rents, salaries, yearly wages, and almost ajl the taxes came to be paid in paper ; when this became the case, and when, of course, every part of the people, except the very poorest, possessed occasionally, bank-notes, it was impossible that men should not begin to think, that there was some difference between Gold and Silver and Bank-notes, and that they should not become more desirous to possess IW] LETTER XI. [14 the former than the latter. In other -words, ii was impossible, that men should not begin to liave some, suspi cion relative to the Bank-notes ; and, it is very clear, that the moment sch suspicion arise?, there is an end to &ny papT-money, which is convert ible into Gold and Silver at the will of the bearer, who will, of course, lose not an Instant in turning that of which he has a suspicion (however slight) into that of which it is impossible for any one to have a suspicion. Thus it happened in 1707, as PAINE, in his pamphlet, published only the year before, had foretold, in t, addressed himself directly to th Kiny, his opinions, though of no con sequence elsewhere, are worthy c some notice in this country, and ma possibly, in some minds, tend to pro j duce that conviction, which, in th j same minds, a stupid and incorrigibl | prejudice would have prevented fron bring produced by all the powers o HUME or PAINE. But, we must now return to tin Bank, and see how it happened tha the people -went to demand money ii payment of the notes in 1797. Tha it did happen we all know ; but, ther< are not a few of the people formin: the present population of the country who have forgotten, or, who have never known, the true history of tin Stoppage of Gold and Silver- payment at the Hank of England; yet, with out a knowledge of this history, anc a thorough knowledge of it too, w< cannot possibly pursue our inquiries to a satisfactory result. We have seen abundant arguments to prove, that paper-money, that pro missory paper of every sort, is the off spring and representative of Debt, that a National or Public Debt never can fail to bring forth bank-notes, or paper-promises of some sort or other ; that, of course, as the Debt increases and its Interest increases, there will be, and must be, an increase of the paper in which that interest is paid; and in the last "Letter, p. 131, we saw, in the Table of increase of the Debt* and Interest from the beginning of the Anti-Jacobin War to the year 17.97, we here saw, in practice, the c?ii?-r of the making of the FIVE POUND bank-notes. But, as we have since SCDK that measure was not suf ficient. We saw, at p. 134, that it was o avoid paying -in Gold and Si/rrr the sums, or part of sums, from T! N to FIVE pounds- which must have induced the .Bank to make and put out notes so low as FIVE POUNDS. if you look again at that Table, gen tlemen, you will sec how the increase Ul] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [142 went on ; you will see, that it was greater and greater every year. In the year 1793, the addition of the annual Interest was (speaking in round numbers) only 260 thousand pounds; but, in the year 1797, the addition was, 3J. millions; that is to say, a third part of as much us the whole amount of the Interest previous to the Anti- Jacobin war. Thus did this war of PITT against the Repub licans of France cost, in only one year, nearly as much, in addition to Debt, as the cost of the whole 01 the American War, the extravagant ex penditure of which had, till now, bt-en proverbial. There were, however, other causes it work, at the time of which we are now speaking ; causes operating upon the paper system from without; causes which must be here fully stated ; for, besides tiiat a knowledge of them is essential to our inquiry, it is demanded by justice towards those who opposed the ruinous measure of PITT, and who foretold their consequences ; and iiis demand is, in a peculiar manner, addressed to ME, who, from being so situated as to be unable to come at, 31* even suspect, the truth, while many , iircumstanees conspired to make me .{ike for truth that which was false, ivas not only one of the dupes of the vy< trm bul who, unintentionally, con- rributed according to the degree of ny talents, towards the extension of ;he circle of duplicity. Credit is a thing wholly dependent ipon opinion. The word itself, in- leed, has the same meaning as tlie vord belief. As long as men believe n the riches of any individual, or any company, so long he or they possess ill the advantages of riches. But, vhen once suspicion, is excited, no natter from what cause, the credit^ is haken: and a very little matter over- ets it. So long as the belief is im plicit, the person, towards whom it txists, goes on, not only with ail the Appearances, but with all the c.d van- ages of wealth ; though, at the same time, he be insolvent. But, if bis wealth be not solid; if he have merelv the appearance of wealth ; if he be unable to pay so much as he owes, or in other words, if he be insolvent, which means neither more nor less than unable to pay. "When an indi vidual is in this situation, he is .liable, at any moment, to have his insolvency exposed. Any accident, that excites alarm in the minds of his creditors, brings the whole upon him at once ; and he who might otherwise have gone on for years, is stopped in an instant. Thus it will happen to Companies of Traders as well as to individuals ; and thus it did happen to the Bank Company, at the time we are speaking of, and at which time an alarm of in vasion prevailed through the countrv. From the very out-set, of the war, the inventors and supporters of it had b: en, from time to time, propagating alarms of various sorts, by the means of \vhich alarms, whether they them selves believed in them or not, they were enabled to do things, which never had before been either known or heard of or dreamt of in England. Tlicrge III. Chapters 3, 4, 5 ; and 6. November 1796. When this measur was under discussion, MR. Fox, M: SHERIDAN, and others opposed : upon the ground of its not being nc cessary, and MR. Fox,, who called : a requisition, after the French mannei observed that, if it was necessary t our /safety, it was the conduct of th ministers and of the last parliamen who coniided in them, which hai brought us into that miserable situa tion, "a parliament," he said, " whic] " had done more to destroy ever " thing thai is dear to us, than ii " better days would have entered int " the mind of any Englishman t< " attempt, or to conceive; aparliamen " by M'hom the people had been drainei " so much, and from whom they ha< " had so little bent* lit; a parliamen " that had diminished the deares " rights of the people se shamelessly " and so wickedly; a parliament whosi " conduct it was that had given ris< " to this measure," MR. Fox added that he did not believe that invasioi would render any such measure ne cessary ; that the real resources of tht country consisted of the peopled attachment, to the constitution, anc that, therefore, the proper measure t< be adopted would be to allow them U possess the .spirit of that constitution Tbe minister and his partizans con tended, however, that there was rea] cause for alarm ; and PITT said, thai as to the constitution " it still, pos- " scssed that esteem and admiration " of the people, which would induce " them to defend it against the designs " of domestic foes, and the attempts oi " their foreign allies;' thus, according to his usual practice, proceeding upor the assumption, that there was a part) in the country in alliance, as to wishes, at least, with the enemy. While tl/ese measures were befort parliament, the venal part of the press was by no means inactive. Repre sentations the most exaggerated wert made use of in speaking of the tempei arid designs of the enemy, alwayi insinuating that the opponents of th< Minister were ready to join the enemj 145J PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [14G or, at least, wished him success. The French were exhibited as being quite prepared; and a descent wss held forth as something almost too horrible to be thought of. " This was useful for the purpose of making the Am- ing Acts go down ; but the alarmists did not seem to be aware of its cutting another way; and, least of all do they appear to have hnagined, that it would set people to thinking of what effect invasion might produce upon ban k notes. In the mean while, the negociations for peace were broken off by the month of December, which gave rise to new alarm* This was soon followed by the appearance of a French naval force, with troops on board, off the coast of Ireland; and, though its return back to France, without "at tempting a descent, might, one would think, have tended to quiet people's fears, it was, on the contrary, made the ground-work of a still more general and more vociferous alarm. There were now no bounds to the exagger ations of the venal prints. From the first week in January, (1797) to the third week in February, the people were kept in a state of irritation hardly to be conceived. Addresses to them, in all shapes and sizes, were published, calling upon them to arm and come forth at once, not waiting for the slow process of the Militia and Cavalry Acts. " Already," were we told, " the opposite coast was crowded with " hostile arms: forests of bayonets " glistened m the sun; despair and " horror were coming in the rear." It was next to impossible that this should not make people think of what was to become of them ; make them reflect a little as to what they were to do in case of invasion; and it required but very little reflection to convince them, that money, at all times useful, would, in such a case, be more useful than ever. Whence by a very na tural and easy transition, they would fee led to contemplate the possibility of real money being rather better than paper. That?* enough! There needs no more-! Away, in an instant, they go to th Bank, where the written promises tell them tire bearer shall be paid on demand. This effect of the alarm, an effect of which neither PITT nor any of his adherents seem ever to have had the smallest suspicion, and, indeed, when MR. Fox cautioned them against it, they effected to laugh at what he said; this effect of the alarm, raised and kept up by the minister and the. great Loaners and men of that de scription; this effect of the alarm began, it appears, to be sensibly felt, at the Bank of IJngland, imrnediatelv after the appearance of the French fleet off the coast of Ireland; and, as it after wards appeared, from official documents, the drain had become so great by the end of the third week in February, that the Directors saw the impossibility of going on, unless some thing could be done to put a stop, or, at least, greatly to check, the run upon them for cash. The people were, in short, now doing precisely what PAINE, only about ten or eleven months before, had advised them to do, and the consequence was precisely what he had predicted. It was now extremely curious to hear the language of the venal news papers, who had, for months before, btien endeavouring to excite alarm, and who abused MR. Fox and his party, called them Jacobins, and, sometimes, traitors, because they said that the alarm was false, and wa? invented for bad purposes. These very news-papers now took the other side. They not only themselves said, that the alarm was groundless; but they had the impudence, the unparal leled, the atrocious impudence, to accuse the Jacobins, as they called them, of having excited the alarm, for the purpose of injuring public credit/ This change of tone was begun on the 17th of February by those noto riously venal prints, those prints so far famed above all others in (lie amiala of venality ; the "TRUE BRITON" 147] LETTER XI. and the " SUN." The tiling was be gun in " An Address-to JOHN BULL/' iu which the " most tkinkiny people," who were still all in trying confusion to get on with the levies of additional famous landing of TATE and hi: handful of raggairmffios in WALES; appears toha\e given confidence ii bank-paper the finishing blow. All, as appears from the documents militia, and parish-men for the army and as we shall by-and-hy see, wa: and navy, and the provisional cavalry; consternation in Threadneedle-street the " most thinking people," while all ; The diminution of the gold heeaiiH hurry and bustle about this, were told ! greater and greater everv day. Ii by these shameless writers, who had almost called the people traitors for , not making greater 'haste to arm; the people were, by these same writers, now told, that alarm might be pushed too far ; that, if so puelied, it might j do us ''an injury equal to invasion; that every one must see, that the French icishcd to ruin our credit; that, of course, to shew an eagerness to sell out of the funds was to favour the designs of the enemy ; that it was, besides, the greatest nonsense in the world for people to suppose that their property was not safe in the Bank of England ; that no apprehension need be felt, and that the people who had money in the venal prints s crv on funds, wooden might safely walls of rely Old upon thr? England. Though, observe, the whole country vain did again:,! alarm. They had cried " wolf.'' till the people had believed them They had called uppn them to " strimi " forward in defence of the co?istitii- ' " tion" 'till they had convinced then it was time for every man to thinf a little about taking care of himself In vain did these venal writers no>\ call aloud against alarm; in vain die they s'vy, (24th February) that the Bead 1 y Head-report " avose from c " mistake in the signals; tlnat the re- " sources of the 7 country were iiiidi- " mimshed; that it was deg jading tc " suppose that we had not a sufficient "force to annihilate the enemy ; that " the panic IK as shameful, unmanly, " mean, and dastardly;' In vain did they assert (24th February), that " in- actually in movement, down to j " vasion war- more to be desired than the very beadles, in order to raise j " dreaded;" in vain did they exclaim: men for defence by land. " The evidence of facts" was before the people's eyes; The alarm was JJCUJJit- to be allayed by assertions like not Ihese. And, though the venal prints grew more and more positive in their assurances, that there was now no danger from invasion; though they (on the 21st of February) assured the people, that it was " an error to sup- " pose that the enemy was at our " gates," and that " a panic might do " infinite mischief to public credit," people still kept carrying their notes softly to Threadneedle-street , they kept on selling out of the Stocks : and, a report, on the day last-mentioned, of the appearance of a French fleet, with Tsoops on board, off BE ACHY HEAD*, immediately followed by the " Let us, for God's sake, not give " way to our fears so as tn injure " public credit." In vain did they (25th February) aver, " that the alarm " was groundless ; that they were sure "no attack was meditated; and that " they were convinced it never would " be." In vain did they again ex claim ; " for God's sake let riot the " gloomy despondency of a few men " in the city give a fatal blow to pub- " lie credit." In vain were all these efforts : SUS PICION, to use PAINE'S emphatical expression, wa&. no longer ASLEEP,, It was broad awake, and to stay its operations was impossible. To ex cite fears in the breasts of the people was a task to which the venal prints had been adequate; but to remove * " PORTSMOUTH, FEB. 20. An account " past ten, A.M. of several French transports, reached this place, this morning at half ' ' convoyed by armed ves&els, having bitn seen PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [15C those fears, or to impede the progress or their effects upon the mind, \vns too much for any human pow* r to accom plish. The rim upon the Bank conti nued to itxr&ise, until the day last mentioned, Saturday, November the 23th of February 1797, a day which will long be remembered, and \viiich will he amongst the most memorable in the annals of England, as being the last (hitherto at, least) on which the Bank of . England was; compelled, at the will of the bearer, to pay its pro missory notes in gold and silver, agreeably to the tenor of those notes ; until the evening of that day the run continued, but, on the next, though it was Sunday, an Order was issued from the PRIVY COUNCIL requiring the Directors of the Bank to fofbcai issuing any cask in payment, until the sense of Parliament could be taken upon the subject, which memorable instrument was in the following words*, to which I must beg of you, Gentle men, tot pay particular attention. ojf Beuchy Head. The intelligence came by tht' signal posts, and Admiral Mr P. Parker immediately on receiving it, or dered two ships of the line and five fri gates to slip their cables and proceed to sea. This squadron is now out of sight, and all the other ships are getting in rea diness. The sensation that this made in the City may be easily conceived. It spread a very general alarm; but it was soon contradicted. Letters, written as the oost was setting out, stated that the alarm had been occasioned by a mistaken signal, and that instead of a fleet of 300 French transports, it was no more than a signal that 3 priuiteers had been disco vered oft Beachy Head. Such, however, is the consequences of the state of alarm intv which Guv eminent has thrown lite country by the cry of a threatened Invasion." MOHNINO CHRONICLE, "2 Feb. 1797^ * " On Saturday the public mind received ike shock of a titu' alarm. An express ar rived from Lord Miiford, informing the King's Minister* that a body of French troop?, amoiiHjtinff to about I '200, h\d \iren landed aT~Fiskard out of the ships which we stated had approaeht-d the coa.t of Pembroke. Ministers took the faiiiest cpportimit) of announcing the tact to the Lord Mayor." MOUMNC. -:, tf; K-bniarv, 17-7. "\Ve shall, by-and-by, see whence it was tliat. " Mr. Chancellor of the " Exchequer" recerved his informa tion, and '.ivhat sort of information il was that Le did receive; but, for th present, wo will, in order to avoid making this Letter too lonir, contest ourselves with seeing what the Dank Company did in consequence of this Order not to pay their creditors ; this requisition not to pay their promissory notes when presented; this Order to forbear issuing cash in payment. The ruV had been very great oa the Saturday, and people would scarcely suspect, that the Sunday, especially by such a godly ministry a:; PITT'S was, would have been spent in labour of any sort. It would, however, naturally give people tint-; to think a little; it would afford them leisure to reflect on the consequence of being without a farthing of cash n> case of invasion. Accordingly, on thtf Monday morning, they appear to huv. been quite prepared for furnishi.!*;; * At the CMmcil Chamber, U'lriiehall, Fet. :-7, 179?. By the LORDS- of his MAJESTY'S Mc^t Honourable PRIVY COUNCIL. Present, The LOR:) CHANCEI.LOU (Rosslyn) I-ORD PflKSlHEVT DIKE of PORTLAND MAHQCJS COUNVVALLIS FARL SPF.NCEII EARL of LIVERPOOL (Charles Jenkinson) LORD GRBNVILLI Mr. CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQGEJ Upon the representation of the Chancellor rf the. Exchequer, stating that trom the re?u;'t of the information which he has received, H;I:; of the enquiries which it has been his dc/,-. to make respecting the effect of the demand for specie, that have been made the metropolis, in consequence of ill-fo ed (ir exaggerated alarms in different parts <.,t" the country, it appears that unless som measure is immediately taken, there may he reason to apprehend a want of a $!$- cunt supply of cash to nnstar the exigencies f the public swchf. It is the unanimous opinion of the .Hoard, that it i-* i!uti^i^Re>-ihly-*i->- s-ary,/wr the public twice, that the Directo- . of the Bank of F.ns;land should for'nar i-.- suing on Uwt snt'.' I d i 1 "" ui-oper nu'a*'^.f* adopt 151] LETTER XI. [152 themselves with real money, if it was to bn had at the Bank. Let us, how ever, as to this fact, take the words of the venal writers themselves. " Yes- " terday-morning," says the TRUE BRITON of Tuesday, the 28th of Fe bruary, " a great run seemed to have " been meditated upon the Bank, as " A CROWD OF PEOPLE AS- " SEMBLED THERE AS SOON " AS THE DOORS OPENED. " This design was HAPPILY de- "feated by a Resolution of the Privy " Council, transmitted to the Bank " Directors on Sunday, and, in con- " sequence, they had Hand-bilk ready , " for delivery, a copy of which, with " the Order of the Privy Council au- " ne^ed, ur readers will find, as an " Advertisement in the front of our " Paper.''* Such, Gentlemen, was the manner in which the Stoppage of Gold and Silver payments at the Bank of Eng land took place ; such was the manner of that event, which produced the evils, for which the Bullion Committee have proposed a remedy. Upon the Order of Council there is much to ob serve, before we proceed further ; but, having l a fcl before you a plain narra tive of the event, it will be best to re serve those observations, 'till my next, and, in the meanwhile, I remain, Gentlemen, Your sincere friend, WM. COBBETT. State Priinn, Ntirprate, Monday, October, 18 iO. for maintaining the means of circulation, and 9*ppftrtmg the public and ctnnmeiciat credit of the kingdom at this important conjunc ture ; and it is ordered, that a copy of this minute be transmitted to the Directors of the Bank of England, and they are hereby rtquirtd, on tiie grounds of the exigency of" the case, to conform thereto until the sense of Parliament can be taken as aforesaid. W. FAWKENER. , * " Bunk of England, Febi-uary 27, 1797. In consequence of an order of his Ma jesty's Privy Council notified to the Bank last night, a Copy of which is hereunto an nexedThe Governor, Deputy Governor, and Directors of the Hank of England think it their duty to inform the Proprietors of Bank Stock, as w:ll as the Public at large, that the general concern* of the Bunk are in the most effluent and prosperous situation, and such as to jintclude every doubt as to the security of its notes.---The Directors mean to continue their usual discounts for the accommoda tion of the Commercial Interest, paying the amount in Banknote*, and the Dividend War rant* will be paid in the same manner. FRANCU MARTIN, Secrehtry. (Bntettt at Stationers' LONDON : Printed by WM. MOLIMEUX, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lan*. 6.] COB BETT'S PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [Price Two-Pence. 153] [154 LETTER XIL Every "ietim of injustice and cruelty" fipealting of the French government) " & - *' The great object, however, is to opeu the Bank of England, and to enable it to carry oil its pecuniary " transactions to the extent which its resources will admit of, cu tht: solid principle of giving either c*sh or " paper at the option of the applicant. Until that is done, neither' public orprrcate credit, nor agritnt " ture, nor commerce, nor manufactories, nor the income of the nation, can go on prosperously^"*- -j Sir John Sinclair. Letter, published in 1797. Tlie Impression made upon the Country by the Stoppage of Gold and Silver Payments at the TJauk Ridiculous Situation of the Ministers in complaining of False Alarms Ja cobins now accused of causing the Run upon theBank -"Foolishness of this Accusation Mr. Wilberforce answered by Mr, Fox Now was the Time for Mr. Pitt's Adherents to leave him They had been warned by Mr. Fox and others King's Speech and Language of the Minister at the Opening of the Session during which the Stoppage took place If the Minister's Adherents had now quitted him it might have prevented the present Dangers Mr. Pitt's Humiliation in the House of Commons Questions put to him upon the subject of the Legal Tender, by Mr. Combe and Mr. Nicholls His Inability to determine on what Measures he should propose. GENTLEMEN, HAVING, agreeably to the inten tion expressed, traced the increase of the Debt and of the Bank-Notes down to that grand and memorable pfFect, the stoppage of Gold and Silver-pay ments at the Bank of England, our next object must naturally be to know what impression that event produced upon the nation, and what measures were adopted in consequence of it; in other words, to continue the history of the stoppage down to the time, when the evil of paper-money produced the forming of the Bullion Committee. The impression made upon the na tion in general was such as might have been exuected, after all the flattering W. MOLINEUX, Printer, Bream's Buihiinfcs/ accounts which had been giren of the national resources. The ORDER OF COUNCIL does, you will perceive, ascribe the event to " ill-founded and u exaggerated alarms, in different " parts of the country." But, sup posing this to have been the chief, and only cause, with what face could the ministers complain of these alarms; seeing that they themselves had done their utmost to excite them? They had not only proposed and carried through the Arming Bills, but they had been writing to me magistrates, in every part of the kingdom, calling upon them for internal preparations " while" (Morning Chronicle, 22nd February 1797) '* Contractors had F 155] LETTER XII. [150 '* put every town mto commotion by *-' inquiries as to the number of Ovens, " the quantity of gram, and the State " of the Provisions" Nay, the preamble of the Arming Acts itself proclaimed, that the measures were become necessary, " in order to pre- " vent, or repel, any attempt, which " the enemies of the country might " make to effect a descent upon the " kingdom." After all this it was, that the Privy Council spoke, in a sort of complaining tone, of " ill -founded and exaggerated alarms" ! When the matter came before Parliament, the Opposition did, cer tainly, not spare the Minister and his adherents, who had the confidence to hold the same tone as to the alarm ; and whose opinion of the minds of the people was such, that they scrupled not to repeat the assertions-" of the venal prints, and to ascribe the injury. (for they then acknowledged it to be an injury) which Public Credit had sustained to unfounded alarms, ex cited by the internal enemies of the country, which, in a contrary sense, some members were malicious enough to believe. GENERAL WALPOLE (m the Debate of the 1st of March) made an admirable exposure of them in this way, to which .no answer was "given, but that they were not always to feel alarm, because they had 'once felt it ; though the fact was that they were proclaiming alarm, with all their might, 'till the Bank, as it afterwards appeared, represented to them secretly, that the alarm, if continued, would take away all their cash. Mr. SHE RIDAN, in adverting to the speech of GENERAL WALPOLE, who had re marked upon MR. WINDHAM'S not having signed the Order of Council, said, " that he believed it proceeded " from the reflections it contained " agamst the alarmists," and he added, that " even amidst the wreck " of public credit, it was impossible 91 not to laugh at the juggling tricks " and miserable shifts to which ini- " nisters had recourse." The venal part of the press, now that it was impossible any longer to disguise the state of the credit of the Bank, began a regular new attack upon the Jacobins, whom it had be fore reviled for endeavouring to check the alarm, and whom it now accused of causing the alarm. The noto riously venal prints before-mentioned (TRUE BRITON and SUN), which had, to the last moment, abused the Jacobins for (as they, said) propaga ting the fake notion of the Bank not having gold to answer their notes. These prints, never equalled in vena lity, I believe, by anr prints in the world, the MORNING POST only ex- cepted, now abused those same un fortunate Jacobins for not acknowledg ing the necessity of the Order in Council. They (3rd March 171)7) again accused the Jacobins of having caused " a distrust of the Bank," and of having formed a design to ruin the credit of the country, in which " they " had so far succeeded, at least, as to " persuade the people, in some parts " of the country, that gold was pie- "ferable to Bank notes." Gentlemen, pause here for a mo ment, and contemplate tlie foolishness as well as the injustice of such obser vations as these. You will bear in mind, that the Jacobins, as they were called, were, by these same writers, constantly represented as men with out learning, without sense, without property, and, of course, without in fluence. How, then, were they to have the power of producing such an effect upon the minds of the nation ; and, upon the minds of those, too, who held the bank-notes and \vl\oowned the Stock? The Jacobins, as these venal prints had the incidence to call them, had not been able to persuade the people to check Mr. PITT in his ruinous career of war and expenditure; tlu-y had not been able to prevent any one of the measures of that Minister ; thev had not been able to persuade the people to do any one thing that they wished them to do, aud, at the very time we 157] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [158 are speaking of, they were out-voted, in the parliament, four to one. Yet, to these same Jacobins was now ascribed that run upon the Bank, which produced the Order in Coun cil ; which produced an order, issued by the king's Privy Council, to encou rage a Company of Merchants to re fuse illegally, to pay their promissory notes, when duly presented. The Ja- cohins, as they were still called with a degree of impudence not to he adequately described ; the Jacobins, who were represented as defeated and put down, and as being held in ab horrence by the people, were, never theless, at the same moment, repre sented as having such power over the mind of that same people, as to cause them to make a run upon tlie Bank, which was called " stabbing the coun- " try in its vitals." Mr. Fox, ia an- s\ver to Mr. WILBERI'ORCE, who (March 1, 1797) attributed " much of " the public calamity to the conduct " of the Opposition, and to the con- ' duct of those who had proceeded to " lengths which the Opposition would " not avow ; in answer to this MR. Fox said : " this reminds me of a " scene in Ben Johnson, where it ap- : " pears, that an Imposter had played " his tricks very successfully for a [t long time upon his dupes, and, " when he was detected, the dupes :< became very angry, not at the 1m- ' l poster, but at those who had de- ' tected him." Now \vas the time for those, who :iad been deluded into a support of Mr. PITT'S measures, to make a rank and manly acknowledgement of .heir error, and to join Mr. Fox in lenianding a change of system. They lad, when war was first contemplated, 'eeeiyed the most solemn assurances, li#t the -resources for vigorous prcpa- ation (at first preparation only was alked of) were ample, even from the xcess of the revenue; * thev had been, * " Gentlemen of the House of Coni- ; mons. Itis a arreat consolation to me to when, after the war had begun and had brought* at once, very disastrous effects as to pecuniary matters, told that those effects vrere completely re moved, and that the revenue was in a favourable state ; f they had been told, that the war could not be of long du ration; they had been told that the situation of France, in every respect, and especially in respect to her fi nances, was desperate beyond de scription; the French system had been repeatedly described to them as one that could not last above a few months, having in itself the seeds of inevitable destruction ; they had been assured, that all the powers of Europe would join us against France; they had been told, that, if there were no other cause of ruin to our enemy, that enemy must be ruined by the loss of all his colonies (which we had taken), and by the annihilation of his naval force, which seemed to have been nearly completed by the fourth year of the war; they had had, year after year, exhibited to them such pictures of the finances of France compared with those of England, as to make them believe that France must spee dily become bankrupt, while England was (and partly in consequence of the war) becoming, every day, more and more rich, that her commerce was daily increasing, and that her credit, which was always firmly established, was now built upon a rock ; they had, even in the King's Speech, made at the beginning of the session of which *' reflect, that you will find ample resources " for effectually defraying the expence of " vigorous preparations^ from the excess of " the actual revenue beyond the orden.iry ejr- * penrliture." KING'S SPEECH, ISth Dec. 179?. f " T feel too sensibly the repeated proofs " which I have received cf the affection of " my subjects not to lament the necessity "of any additional burthens. Itis, hovv- " ever, a great consolation to me, to observe "the favourable state of the Revenue, an'd " the complete success of the measure which wat ' last year adopted for rernoving the embun'tiss- u merits affecting commercial v credif."-- - - KING'S SPEECH, 10th January 1794. 159] LETTER XII. [160 we are now speaking, and during which the stoppage took place, at Ike beginning of that very t-essiou they had been told, in the King's Speech, of the SOLIDITY of the pecuniary resources ,of the country, * while the Minister and his adherents echoed back, the assertion. Upon this last occasion, which, Gentlemen, is wor thy of particular attention, the time being only four months before the Banl^-stoppage actually took place ; upon this occasion, SIR WILLIAM LOWTHER, who seconded the ad- dresSj and who is now a Lord, I be lieve, said " if we regarded our Ji- " nances, they were ABUNDANT " in the EXTREME, and such as " were adequate to any emergency " of the country." LORD MORPETH, son. of the earl of Carlisle, who moved the address to the king in an swer to his speech, said " As to " our internal situation, \ve have " witnessed it, for some time past, " with joy and exultation ; and have " reason to congratulate his Majesty " and the people at large, upon our " auspicious prospects in that re- " spect." And Mr. PITT himself said, " As to our resources, they fur- " nish, indeed, in a moment like the " present, a subject of peculiar cmi- " gratulation and well-grounded con- "Jidence. . Our ** resources remain as yet, untouched, " and we shall be abte to bring them " into action with a degree of concert " and effect, worthy of the character " of the British nation, and of the " cause in which they will be em- " ployed. These resources have in "them, NOTHING HOLLOW " OR DELUSIVE. They are the * ' It is a great satisfaction to me to ob- " serve, that, notwithstanding the tempo- " rary embarrassments, which have been " experienced, the state of the commerce, " mauufactures, and revenue of the country " proves the real extent and SOLIDITY " of ow resource*, and furnish you such " means as miust be equal to ant} exertioni * which the present crisis may require." KING'S SPEECH, 6th October 179 77tur.%, October 18, 1810. LETTER XIIL But it was urged that the Bank had temporary difficulties to encounter, and that it behoved them to adopt ' some moiih or grouting relief to that impoitant public boiiy. The House of Commons, however, knew " norl:in of this. No application WHS nmcte to them by the Band ; nor did it appear even that application " hd beeirniHdp for the Order in Council ; on the contrary, it appeared that this facetious Council, instead " of examining the Directors of the Bank, acted entirely upon the authority of the Chancellor of the. Ex- " ch qiu'i . N^y.'whsit added to hs surprize was, that not one of the Hank Directors who ho lndin<* two millions to Government, and they had &lso heard of " the dividends on Bank Stock increasing Was it not material to be informed therefore how they had come to stop payment at a time when thtir affairs seemed to be going on so prosperously ?'' MR. SHERIDAN. Speech Cth Feb. 1807- Mledgerl Ability of the Bank~Proceedings out of Doors for what is called Support of Public Credit Mansion House Meeting Brook AVatson Quarter Sessions Resolu tions Privy Council Resolutions Representations of the Venal Prints relative to these Resolutions Real Origin of the Mansion House Meeting Directors prevail upon Vlv. Pitt to have a private Meeting of Bankers at his House Plan of a public Meeting there laid- Peep behind the Curtain Meeting of the Bank Proprietors- Declaration of the Governors, Mr. Bosanquet and Mr. Thornton These Declarations compared w ith the private Minute of the Bank, expressing their Alarm for the Safety of the Mouse; and for calling upon Mr. Pitt to know when he would interfere 1675 LETTER XIII. [16S GENTLEMEN, WHEN we look at the boast, re- lejTjedto in the words of my Motto, and consider how many boasts of the game sort the Minister had uttered, and which he had continued in the hahit of uttering, down almost to the very hour of the Bank Stoppage, we cannot help wondering that he could no longer endure his existence. What, then, will be the astonishment of posterity, to hear him, in a few months after that event, speak of it and of the measures growing out of it, as the happy means* of safety to the country ; and what will be their shame to find, that he was still confided in and supported ? As we proceed with the history of the measures of remedy which Avere now adopted, we must not fail to pay particular attention to the opinions and doctrines, at this time expressed and kid down by the Minister and his adherents, especially by those of his adherents, who had a more immedi ate interest in the concerns of the Bank of England. We must take care to bear in mind what they then said as to the oriyin of the Order of Council for the Stoppage of (*old and Silver-payments at the Bank; what they said as to the nature and neces sity of the measure ; what they said as to the ability of the Bank to re sume its payments; and what they aid as to the time of such resumption. What they then said, as to all these points, we must take care to bear in mind ; because, we shall have to com- Eare it with what the same persons ave said since, and have to shew liow in this case, as well ag in so many others, the nation has been led on, by dtgrees, to acquiesce in what, if proposed to it all at once, would have made it shrink with affright, or fired it with indignation. Before the House of Commons met, the day after the Message and Order pf Council had been laid be fore it, that is to say, on the 28th of February 1797, the Anti-Jacobin adherents of the Minister had been hard at work out of doors. A meet ing had been called in the Mansion House of the City of London con sisting of Merchants, Bankers, and others, the Chairman b.-ing the Lord Mayor, whose name was BROOK WATSON, who then or very soon afterwards filled the lucrative office of Commissar)/ General to the Army, and who was, in a very few years after that, made a Baronet. The persons assembled upon this occasion pro claimed their resolution not to refuse bank-notes in payment of any sums due to them, and to use their utiuost endeavours to make all their payments in the same manner ; * which, as vou will perceive, Gentlemen, was neither more nor less than resolving, that they would do their utmost to keep up their own credit and consequence, and, in fact, to preserve themselves from instant ruin. Similar Resolutions were passed in the country, where the Quarter Sessions happening to be then taking place, the Resolutions were sent forth from the Bench, with, of course, some thing of a magisterial weight and * MANSION-HOUSE, LONDON. Fthruary 27, 1797. At a meeting of Mer chants, Bankers. &c. held here this day, to consider of the steps which it may be pro per to take, to prevent Embarrassments to Public Credit, from the effects of any ill- founded or exaggerated Alarms, and to sup port it with the utmost exertion* at the pre sent important conjuncture The LORD M^YORtn the Chair ; RESOLVED UNANI MOUS i/y, -That we, the undersigned, being highly sensible how necessary the preser vation of "Public Credit is at this time, do most readily hereby declare, that we will not refuse to receive Bank Notes in pay ment of any sum of money to be paid to us ; and we will use our utmost endeavours to ' make all our payments in the same manner. BHOOK W ATSON. The resolution lies for signing at the fol lowing places; LondonTavern,Bishopsgate- . c treet; Crown and Anchor Tavern, Sti and; St. Albaus Tavern, St. Alban's Street; Three-Crown Coffee- House, in Three-Crown j Coint, Borough ; and at Lloyd's Coffee- } house. PAPER AGAINST (SOLD. [170 authority, as will be seen in the in stance of the magistrates of Surrey, who, with Lards Grantlcy and Onslow at their head, appear to have led the way.* The Privy Council (pray read their names all over) had also a meet ing upon the subject, and it was quit?*, curious to see the Judges mid great pensioners, and even the Ministers themselves, not excepting the Lord High Treasurer, publishing their pro- nuses to receive and to pay bank-notes, and, as far as depended on them individually, to support the circulation of those notes.t These Meetings and their Resoluti ons famished the venal prints with the pretence for asserting, that the alarm was at an end; that the people had * SURREY". At the General Quarter Session of the Peace of our Sovereign Lord the Kin-;, holdcn at Saint Mary, Newing- ton, by adjournment, in and for the said County, on Thursday, the 2nd day of March 179?. We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, being; desirous to con tribute, as f 'ar as we can, to the support of the public and commercial credit of the kingdom, at this important crisis, do hereby agree and bind ourselves to receive tiie Notes of the Bank of England in all pay ments as Money, and to support, as far as depends on us individually, their circulation for the public benefit. Grantley, Edward Layton, Onslow and ersv(i. M. MAN- ?>JNC said, lie had examined into the pro ceedings of the House of Commons, in 1696, and found that there was not the smallest resemblance between that and the present measure. At that time the Dank had bt-en established for only two years, their Notes wt re at a discount all over the Kingdom, and the Silver-coinage was called in, cir cumstances which were totally ditferent from the present. Mr. BOSANQUET begged leave to tronble the Court with a very few words. He said that the Order in Council was to be considered entirely as a grtat state- measure^ which was not adopted at the in stance of those concerned in the direction of the Bank The Court of Directors, in the pre sent state of public affairs, had considered it to be their duty to keep the Minister of the Country informed respecting the situa tion of the Bank. For some time past there had boen an an unexampled ruin for specie upon the Bank, and this they communicated to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, ken: ing him to adopt what measures he might think proper. The consequence was. the Order in Coun cil, of the 26th of February, was issued. It would have been absurd in the Directors of the Bank to have resisted this Order, because the Minister must have been sup posed to be in possession of a great deal of information to which they had no access, and to be in the knowledge of circumstances of which they were not aware ; besides, that there was no knowing what might have been the consequences had the unusual drain for cash, which they had experienced, been continued for any length of time. They complied, therefore, with the Order of his Majesty's Council, understanding it to have been dictated by national policy, and meant to operate only for a short time. He had no hesitation in saying that the affairs of the Bank were in a state of the greatest affluence qf prosperity, that they had even a considerable surplus, and that he eatnestly hoped they would SOON BE PERMITTED to pay their Notes in cash in the same manner as they had formerly done. Mr. THORNTON wished it to be understood explicitly, that the Ovder in Council was not issued at the instance of the Bank Directors ; that their ac counts were not tendered to the Housf of Commons for examination, and that they neither asked nor wished for the "partnership and guarantee of Government. There being no other business before the Court, they ad journed to yesterday fortnight, when the dividends become due. 177] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [178 promissory notes, assemble together, and thank) aye, and publicly thank, their agents ibr having refused, ille gally, refused, payment of those notes ! Geatleruen, our venal prints may talk as they please ; they may re fer- us to what instances they choose; but any tiling equal to this, any such instance of cool assurance> I defy them to produce from the history of the world, or, even from the works of imagination. But, as yet, we have not seen these proceedings in their true colours. We have seen them in colours pretty strong ; but we have not seen them as they will appear when we have taken another look at the Bank-documents, which were afterwards laid before parliament, and which, as was before observed, never got out fairly to the knowledge of the people. We have seen these Bank Directors making public declarations, that they had no hand at all in the Stoppage ; that they did not apply for the Order in Council; that it was a measure of the govern- ment ; that it was a sz'aie-nieasure ; and that they earnestly hoped soon to be PERMITTED to resutue t/teir payments i/i cash. This is what they told the public on the 2nd of of March. And, it was not only at the Bank-meeting that this declara tion was made, it was repeatedly made in the House of Commons ; but, we will, at present, confine ourselves to what w as said by the Bank Direc tors themselves. Such, then, were their declarations on the 2nd of March. Now, then, let us see what they had been at in secret with the Minister, during the nine days before. On the 21st of February, they, observing, with great uneasiness, the large and constant de crease in their cash, held a particular consultation on the subject, and per ceiving that their cash was reduced to a certain sum, of which certain sum, be it observed, they do not state the amount, they came to a resolution to go to Mr, Pitt, and tell him " how "their cash was circumstanced, :; they did so, and Mr. Pitt observed, to them (and you will laugh heartily at the observation) " that the alarm of " invasion was now become muck " more general than he could tidftk " necessanf" they then pressed Mr. " Pitt to make some declaration in " parliament, upon this subject, " in " order to ease the public mind" This is a pretty specimen enough of the intercourse that existed between these parties, and will serve to ex plain the reason for many of the speeches that we have at different times heard.* MR. PITT, however, * Resolution of the Court of Directors, and Deputation's Interview with the Chancellor asc the pnblicmintL Mr. Pitt also mentioned, that he hoped the Committee would, in the piescnt situation of matters, think it neces sary to endear Mir at (Gaining u supply of gold Jrnm foreign countries, which the Governor told him they were considering about, and uliould do tcli m l they could therein. * Interview with, the C linnet llor of the Ex chequer, '-2%nd of February 1797. Messrs. Gold.smidt and Eliason attended the Com mittee this day, and were directed to give further orders to Hamburgh/or the purchase of gold; and were told that an application would Immediately be made to the minister to order a frigate or armed sloop to go to Hamburgh to take in such gold as might be bought, and also to desire that the restric tion on the ea; -tains of the packets, not to take any gold on board at Hamburgh for this country, mijjht betaken off. The Gover nor and Depdtv Governor waited on Mr. Pitt on this subject, who promised to apply- to the Admiralty for directions about send ing out a frigate or armed sloop; and that he would applN to the Postmaster General to give the oidrrs to ttse captains of the I tprdbgty. [180 " >vhich gave suck an alarm for the SAFETY OF TffJSHOUSJB^mark the words) that no time was lost in sending a deputation to Mr. PITT, to ask him how far 'they might venture to go on paying cash, and " when " HE would think it necessary to " INTERFERE/' Mr. PITT told them, that this was an affair of such importance, that he must be prepared with some resolution to bring forward in the Council: f t Inierrifia with the Chancellor of the Ex- clicqiter, 24Y/1 qf l-'tb-uiiry 1797. At a Com- mitlte of the whole Court held this day, it appeared that the loss of cash yesterday was above '.and that about were already drawn out this dny t whichgare mch mi alarm for THE SAFETY OF HIE HOUSE, that the Deputy Governor and Mr. Bosanquet were desired to wait on Mr. Pitt to mention to him these circumstances, and to ask him how far he thought the Bank might venture to go on paying cash, and when he would think it necessary TO IN-*" TERFERE before our cash was so reduced as might be detrimental to the immediate service of the State. Mr. Pitt said, this was a matter of great importance, and that he must be prepared with some resolutions to bring forward in the Council, for a Procla mation to stop the issue of cash from the Bank, and to give the security of parliament to the notes of the Bank. In consequence of which he should think it might be proper to appoint a Secret Committee of the House of Commons, to look into the state of the Bank-affairs ; which they assured him the Bank were well prepared for, and would produce to such a Committee. Mr. Pitt also observed that he should have no objec tion to propose to Parliament, in case of a Proclamation, to give parliamentary security for Bank-notes. The Governor and Deputy Governor .this day waited on Mr. Pitt, to mention to him, that it would in the present circumstances be highly requisite that some general meeting rtf the bankers and chief mer chants of Londoli should be held in order t briny on fn>nu: resolution for the support of the pubbc credit in this alarming crisis ; and they took the liberty to recommend to Mr, Pitt, to have a private mcti ing of some of the chief hamters at his house to-morrow, at three o'clock, in which the, plan for a more gene ral meeting on Tuesday or Wednesday next might be laid, in the propriety of which Mr. Pitt agreed, and said he would 5uwn.cn. a pnvious meeting for packets. Governor to the Committee. was communicated by the* ISU ' PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [182, Thus, you see, Gentlemen, the Stop page-measure clearly originated in ike representation of the, Bank Directors; arid, which is very well worthy of your marked attention, Mr. BOSAN- gUET was one of the persons depu ted to wait upon Mr. PITT on this last mentioned occasion. The shuffle of saying, that the Bank Directors were afraid that the drain might injure the " public service" is too paltry, in any view of the matter, to have any weight ; for, whose claim upon the Bank could be so good as that of the holders of the Promissory notes? And who were " the public" but the holders of these notes ? But, as if it had been resolved to leave no room even for this miserable attempt at excuse, the Minute of the Direc tors of the 24th of February ex pressly says, that it was " alarm for the safety of the HOUSE 1 ' that rent the deputation to ask for the in terference of Mr. Pitt; alarm for the sat'ety of the HOUSE, and not any motive at all connected with tlie public service or the public good. Having now pulled aside the cur tain; having laid the whole thing bare to your view; having placed the ap plication to Parliament in its true light; I shall, in my next, lay before you an account of the measures, which the Parliament adopted, and which have, under one pretence or another, been continued in force tu this day. In the meanwhile, I remain, Gentlemen, Your faithful Friend, WM. COBBETT. State Prison, Newgate, Thursday, October 25th J810. LETTER XIV. The question for the people to ask, and the only question, is this: whether die quantity of Krmk Tvotes. " payable ou demand, which the Bank has ijjued, be greater than the Bank CHU pay ofl in Gold uud ' Silver." Paine. The Measures adopted by Parliament, in consequence of the Bank Stoppage Names of the Bank Directors in 17J>7. King's Message Mr. Pitt's Motion for a Secret Com mittee Mr. Fox and other Members wished for an Inquiry into the Cause of the Stoppage Mr. Pitt's Motion carried by a great Majority List of the Minority Necessity of a Parliamentary Reform Manner of appointing the Secret Committee Names of the Committee Restricted Powers of the Committee Reports from the Committee Not a Word said about the Quantity of Gold and Silver in the Bank Mr. Paine's Assertion about the Inability of the Bank to pay in Gold and Silver No Attempt made to disprove this Assertion- Mr. Pitt's, Sir John Mitford's, and Lord Hawkesbury's Assertions- -Mr. Grey not satisfied with the Evidence produced before the Committee Mr. Sheridan's Answer to Lord Hawkesbury. GENTLEMEN, I HAVE now to beg your atten tion to a very important part of our subject; namely, the measures, which, by way of remedy, were adopted by the Parliament, in consequence of the run upon the Bank and the Stop page of Gold and Silver payments ttee, The Letter immediately preceding this put you in possession of a thorough knowledge of the way, in which the Bank Directors and the Minister had gone to work, in order to prepare the way for the Parliamentary Measures which were to follow. You were there placed behind the curtain; you saw all the actors in their natural 1831 LETTER XIV. H84 persons; * all the paints, patches cloaks and visors ; all the trap-doors pullies, pegs and wires. You no only saw the Resolving and Subscrib ing show acted, but you saw it got up you saw the Showman and all his people busy in making their prepara tions; and, after that, you were let in to the rehearsal. In Letter XII, at page 155, you have seen how the matter was first brought before the Parliament, on Monday the 27th of 'February 1797, in the form of a Message from the King ; t and, you have seen, that the Minister, the hitherto-bragging Minis ter, being upon that occasion pressed * Truth and Justice demand, that, as far as possible, the NAMES of all the persons who took an active part, upon this memo rable occasion, should be recorded. Par liament may yet revise the measures of that day ; and, then, the names of all the parties; immediately concerned, ought to be known, and must be known. From this opinion it is, that I insert liere the names of the per sons who" were the DIRECTORS of the Bank of England, at the time when the Stoppage took place, and amongst them we find our friend, BKOOK WATSON, who was, as we have seen, in the Chair at the Maasion- House Meeting. Thomas Raikes, Governor. Samuel Thornton, Deputy Gm'trnn > T. Boddington. Job Mathov. S. Bosanquet. .SjrK. Neave. Alex. Champion. Joseph N lift. Edward Dai ell. John Pearse. Thomas Dea. George Peters,- George Dnrricn. Charles Pole. N. Bogle French, John Pngi-t. Daniel Giles. James Reed. Jeremiah Harman. P. I. Thellusson. Thomas Lewis. Godfrey Thornton, Beeston Lon. Brook Watson. William Manning. John Wlutmoie. t GEORGE R. His Majesty thinks it proper to communi cate to the House of Commons, without delay, the measure adopted to obviate the effects which might be occasioned by the unusual demand of specie lately made from different parts of the country and the me tropolis. The petuliar nature and exigency of the case appeared to- require, in the first i instance, the measure contained ia the] by Mr. COMBE and others for an answer to the question as to wkat he meant to do, had no answer to gi/e. On the 27th PITT gave notice of a motion, to be made next day, for the appointment of a Committee to inquire into the ability of the Bank to pay the demands upon it; and also to inquire and make report as to the necessity of continuing of the measure adopted by the Council, that is to say, continuing the refusal of money-payments at the We shall have to speak more fully about this Committee by-and-by; but we must stop here a moment, and take a brief sketch of the debate that ensued upon PITT'S motion. Mr. Fox and those who were with him said, that they had no objection to the appointment of a Committee, pro vided it was appointed fairly; but, they insisted, that it would discover a shameful disregard of their duty, if the House moved an inch further without inquiring into the causes which produced that alledged neces sity, npon which the Order of Coun cil, sanctioning a violation of the law, wdsfou?ided. They said, here is the Order of Council which his Majesty has directed to be laid before the House. In recommending this important subject to the immediate and serious attention of the House of Commons, his Majesty relies with the utmost confidence on the experienced wisdom and firmness of his Parliament for raking such measures as may be best calcu- ato to meet any temporary pressure, and to cll forth, in the most effectual manner, the extensive resources of his kingdoms/in upport of their public and commercial credit, and in defence of their dearest in- erests. G. K. t " That a SECRET COMMITTEE, be ; appointed to ascertain the total amount t( of the out-standing demands on the Bank " -of England, and likewise of the funds *' for discharging the same ; anu that they " do also report their opinion of the neces- " >>ity of providing for the confiittuttwri arid " contintui'ice of the measures, taken in pursu- " ance of the minute of Council on the 26th " instant." CnterfU at Stationers' Printed by WM. Moi.TNrrx, 5, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane; Published by "VVM, K-- 7.] COBBETT'S PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [Price Two-Pence. 185] minister calling upon you still to con fide in him, in him, under whom the Bank has been compelled to stop pay ing its notes. Ought you not to in quire, first of all, into his measures? Ought you not to inquire into the causes, of the fatal and disgraceful he- ty of this Stoppage* Here is a minister, who has had a majority of your votes for years'; he has had your unlimited and blind confidence ; lie had the absolute command of all the resources of the nation ; he has done what he pleased for years past; he has within theme very few weeks, told you himself, and advised the King to tell you, in the most solemn manner, that your pecuniary affairs were in the most flourishing state, and rested upon the most solid foundation; and this same man now comes and tells you, tiiat necessity, that urgency, that something hail compelled him to issue an Order to sanction the Stoppage of Cask payments at the Bank, and to oblige the puhlic creditor, contrary to law, to receive his dividends in paper instead of the Gold and Silver coin, which the law gave him a. right to demand. This, said Mr. Fox and his/riends, is what this Minister now tells you ; and, will you not, before you proceed to inquire into the propriety of con- tinuiny'tiie Stoppage, inquire into the cause of the imperious necessity, which is said to have produced it? Will you attempt an expedient, will you attempt a remecty, without in quiring into the cause of the evil? Will you do that, which, even now, after all that you have seen and felt, shall prove to the world that your W. MOLINEUX, Printer, Bream's BuiUlicg*, Chanceiy Lane. [180 confidence is as blind as ever? " Have " any three months,, in the course of " this war," said Mr. Fox, " past " without the minister's proi&cing *' some new expedient? ana hare not " all his expedients proved err one " ons ? Year after year he has been " amusing us with predictions with " respect to France, which was now " on the verge and now in the gulf of " bankruptcy; the assignats and the " mandats could not possibly continue, " he said ; which was very true, but " while he was thus amusing us, he " led us to the very same verge, aye, " into the very same r.ulf. ' Mr. HOBHOUSE said, " that the assur- " ances of the minister wouM never " beat down this plain dictate of " common sense, that by Lis conduct " the Bank had been obliged to com- "rnit.an act of insolvency, by re- " fusing specie for its paper,' and, " therefore he wished for a full in-' " quiry into his conduct." Mr. SHERIDAN, in a most admirable speech, laid the whole matter open, completely exposed the motive of the proposed committee, and moved to Mr. Pitt's motion an amendment, in the following words, " That the Com- " mittee should inquire iiito the causes " which produced the Order in Coun- " cil." In spite, however, of these speeches ; in spite of all the arguments made use of on this side, and none of which met with even an attempt at aii answer from any one but Mr. PITT himself; in spite of all this, the House decided, by a majority of 244 to 88, against Mr. SHERIDAN'S amendment, that is to say r , againa' in- O 187] LETTER XIV. [188 quiring into the cause of the alledged necessity which induced the Privy Council to issue an order, sanctioning a refusal, on the part of the Bank, to pay their promissory notes in Gold and Silver. The men, who voted upon this occasion, should be known. We have only the names of the Mi nority recorded. Those you will keep in mind, Gentlemen, and, before we have finished the subject, we shall come at the names of the Majority; >r, at least, we can get the names of all the members besides the minority* Mr. Fox renewed the subject, on the 1st of March, by a motion for the appointment of a separate Committee '* to inquire into the causes, which " produced the Order in Council of " the 26th of February," for the Stoppage of cash payments at the Bank; and he was left in a similar Minority. Here it is, Gentlemen, that you see the real cause of all the calamities that have fallen upon our country, and of all the dangers that now threaten it, and these are dangers that will not be frowned out of counte nance, that will not be made to hide their head, at the sound of the voice of men in power; dangers that are not to be talked or voted away. You have seen these dangers creep on upon us by slow degrees, but you have seen their pace to be steady. They have never stopped. They keep gathering about us ; and he is a very foolish man, who expects any remedy, 'till the great cause of the evil be re moved; that is to say, until there shall take place a radical Reform of the Commons' House of Parliament, agreeably to the principles of the English Constitution, which Reform, to use the words of the Kent Petition, is now more than ever necessary to the safety of both the people and the throne. The motions for a full inquiry being rejected, the minister proceeded in his work of getting a SECRET COM MITTEE, who were to inquire into the affairs of the Bank, and to report their opinion relative to the necessity of continuing, by Act of Parliament List of the Minority, on Mr. Sheridan's Amendment, on the 28th of February 1797. Aub; ei , Sir J. Dolben, Si/ W. Baker,* J. . Dashwood, Sir H. M. Bampfylde, J. C. Denison, W. J. Barclay, G. .Dundas, C. Bastard, J. P. Fitzpatrick, General Beanclerk, C. Fletcher, Sir H. Biddulph, R. Foikes, Sir R. Baker, W. Fox, Right Hon. C. J. Bunbury, Sir C. Galway, Viscount Bird, W. W. Greene, J. Burdett, Sir F. Hare, J. Bouverie, Hon. E. Harrison, J. Brogden, J. Hobhouse, B. Burch, J. R. Hussey, W. Byng, J. Jefferys, N. Clarke, E. Jervoise, C. J. Coke, F. Keene, W. Combe, H. C. Kemp, T. Courtcnay, J. Knight, R. P. ' Crcwe, J. - Langston, J. Curwn, J. C. Langston, W. Gf. Copley, Sir L. Lemon, Sir W. Lloyd, J. M. Shum, G. C. Mi Her, Sir W. Shuckburgh, Sir G. Nicholls, J. Sinclair, Sir J. North, D. bmith, W. Northey, W. Spencer, Lord R. Pierse, H. Stanley, Lord Pa Ik, L. Sturt, C. Phillips, J. G. Tarleton, Geuel Plumer, W: Taylor, C. W. Pollen, G. A. Porter, G. Tyrwhitt, T. Towns end, Lord J. Pultcuey, Sir W. Tuftou, Hon. Hi Rawdon, Hon, J. Vane, Sir F. Rawdon, Hon. G. Vyner, R. Ridley, Sir M. Walwyn, J. Richardson, J. Walpole, Colonel Robson, R. B. Western, C. C. Kusicll, Lord J. Wilkins, W. Rnuell, Lord W \v~innington, Sir F. St. John, St. A. , Wycombe, Earl of Scudamore, J. Sheridan, R. B. TELLERS. diaries Grey and Samuel Wliitbread. 189] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [190 the refusal of coin at llie Bank. And now, Gentlemen, I beg you to ob serve well tile manner of appointing this Committee. It was to consist of fifteen members; every member of the House, who was present, might put fifteen names into a box ; and, when 'all the names were taken out, the fifteen persons whose names ap peared oftenest upon the tickets put in, were the Committee. Of course that side which had a majority of tickets to put in would choose the members of the Committee. The custom, indeed, is, upon such occa sions, to make out a List and send it round amongst the members, and of course, all those, who are on the side of the Minister, will take the Minis terial List; so that, in fact, whoever has a majority in the House, chooses tl+c Committee. Upon the particular occasion before us, Mi\ SHERIDAN, before the Report of who were the Committee was made to the House, read the names of them out loud in the House ; and, when the report came to be made, it appeared, that his List was perfectly correct* Indeed, lie had got hold of one of the Ministerial Lists, and of course, he could not be in error in this respect. But, even a Committee, thus form ed ; a Secret Committee chosen by the Minister's own party ; even tbis Com mittee were, Mr. PITT said (See Debates, 28th February) " by no " means called upon to push their in- ' quiries, into circumstances, the dis- ' closure of which would be attended " with temporary injury to the credit " of the country, and with permanent " embarrassment to the operations of "the Bank." Mr. PITT said, that his principal object in appointing such a Committee was to have it ascer tained, that the affairs of the Bank were in a prosperous state ; that the Bank had abundant means to answer all the demands upon it; and that, therefore, the holders of Bank Notes ought to look upon them as being equally good with gold and silver. Now, the way, and the only way, to produce this so-much- wished-for con viction was, one would have thought, to let the Committee ascertain that the quantity of Gold and Silver in the Bank was sufficient for paying off the Notes ; or, at any rate, was in a due proportion to the Notes^ But, so far from this being done, the Committee did not make any inquiries at all re lative to the quantity of Gold and Stiver in the Bank. They merely in quired into the state of the books at the Bank, setting their Bank-notes on one side and their Stock on the other side. The Bank said : We owe the holders the amount of our Notes, but the Government owes us still more; and not a word was said about Gold and Silver, though one would have thought, that this was the great, and imlcen, the only thing to.make inquiry about; especially as Mr. PAINE, in his pamphlet, published the year be fore, had made statements, whence he had drawn a conclusion, that the Bank, if put to the test, " had not " money to pay half a crown in the " pound." This was a charge, which, one would have thc.ught, it would be the grand object of the Minister and the Bank to do away. But, no such thing List of the Secret Committee. William Huuey; William Plumer ; Thomas Powys ; Thomas Gremille; William Wilberforce; John Blackburne ; Thomas Berney Brainp- ton ; Charles Bragge: Sir John Mitford (Solicitor General); William Wilberforce Bird ; John Faite ; Isaac Hawkins Browne > Sir John Scott (Attorney General) ; Johr William Anderson. The three first had, as will be seen by a reference to the List, voted with Mr. Fox for a full inquiry ; but all the rest belonged to the party of Mr. Pitt. 1911 LETTER XIV, [192 was even attempted, and the two Keports of the Committee,* did ac- accordingly not at all tend to the re storation of that sort of confidence, which would have enabled the Bank to open its doors to the applicants for Guineas. It was in vain that Mr. PITT told the House, that the reports of the Secret Committee were highly consoling; that the affairs of the Bank were in a most prosperous state ; that persons most conversant (alluding to the Mansion House Hesolvers) be lieved in the solidity of its means; that the public had nothing to do with the internal economy of the Bank; that it was sufficient for the public to * FIRST REPORT, March 3, 1797. The Committee appointed to examine and state the total amount of out-standing demands on the Bank of England, and likewise of the Funds for discharging the same; and to report the result thereof to the House, together with their opinion on the necessity of providing for the confirmation and con tinuance, for a time to be limited, of mea sures taken in pursuance of the minute of Council on the 26th of February last; and who are empowered to report their pro ceedings from time to time to the House ; have, pursuant to the order of the House, proceeded to examine into the several matters referred to their consideration, and have unanimously agreed upon the following Report, viz. Your Committee have ex amined the total amount of outstanding de mands on the Bank of England, and like wise of the Funds for discharging the same ; and think it their duty, without loss of time, to state those total amounts, and to report the result thereof to the House. Your Committee find, upon such examination, that the total amount of out-standing de- "inandson the Hank, on the 25th of February last (to which day the accounts could be completely made up) was ,. 1 3,770,390 ; and that the total amount of the Funds for discharging those demands (net including the permanent debt due from Government of . 1 \ ,686,800, which bears an interest of three percent.) \vas on the same 25th day of February last ,.17,597,280 ; and that the result is, that there was, on the 25th day of February last, a surplus of effects belonging to the Bank beyond the amount of their debts, amounting to the sum of ...3,826,890 exclusive of the above-mentioned permanent know, that the corporation was a rich corporation ; that the solidity of the Bank was asserted in the report of the Secret Committee then on the table ; that that report left no doubt upon the subject ; that it was an im portant consolation, that there were funds amply sufficient for the ultimate security of those who could not have their demands satisfied for a time ; and that as to what was due from the Government to the Bank, it rested upon the best passible security, be cause it rested upon the aggregate powers of (he country. (See Debates 9th March 1797). In vain did Lord Hawkesburv, in answer to Mr. Fox, dr^bt of o'-1 .1,636,800 due from Government. And your Committee farther represent, that since the 25th of February last considerable issues have been made by the Bank in bank notes, both upon Government securities and in discounting bills, the particulars of which could not immediately be made up; but as those issues appear to your Committee to have been made upon corresponding secu rities, taken with the usual care and atten tion, the actual balance in favour of the Bank did not appear to your Committee to have been thereby diminished. SECOND REPORT, Tuesday, 7th March. Mr. Brampston brought up the following Report : The Committee appointed to examine and state the total amount of outstanding d* m;;nds on the Bank of England, and like wise of the Funds for discharging the samr ; and to report the result thereof to the House, together with their opinion on the necessity of providing for the confirmation and continuance, for a time to be limite.d, of measures taken in purMiance of the Minute of Council on the 2mh of February- last ; and who were empowered to report their proceedings from time to time to the House ; have farther examined into the several matters referred to their considera tion; and have agreed to report to the House ; That, in their opinion, it is nect*~ sunj tu provide for the confirmation and conti- nuance, for time to be limited, of the measures taken in pursuance of the Order of Council on the 26th .of February last ; submitting to the wisdom of parliament to determine for what limited time it may be necessary that those measures should be continued. 193] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [194 deny that tlie term, Bankruptcy ap plied to the situation of the Bank or the Government. He said, what was very true, that the embarrassments of the Bank were imputed to the scar city or want of specie. But, in vain did he question the truth of this pro position; in vain did he say that a scarcity of guineas might rise from an increase of trade, and not from the the excess of paper; (Debate 9th Blareh 1797) in vain'did Sir John Mitford, then Solicitor General (same Debate) say that no man, however rich, would be able to stand a run; that it was unfair to call the stoppage a Bankruptcy ; that the Bank was solvent, although at this time unable to pay in cash; that the refusal to pay in cash could not be called a fraud, became the public knew that such an event. might happen; that the stoppage at the Bank w;:s like that which might be enforced by the door keepers of a theatre, upon a false alarm of lire, in order to prevent the people from rushing out all at once, to their destruction or injury; that if nothing had bee;]! done to put a stop to the ran upon the Bank, the Bank must have been t-?t?.l'y ruined ; that there were other public creditors besides the Stock-holders, the army and the navy ; thai tliey were as much public creditors as the holders of Bank-notes could be, and that they required payment in cash more so than any other description of men in this country. In vain was all this said. Mr. GREY (now Earl Grey), said that 'the evidence brought before the Com mittee had not satisiitfd him ; and the satis/action to the public was evi dently not greater ; for, if it had been satisfactory, or if the- report of the Secret ConuniM'^ had been satis factory, there could have been Jio oc casion whatever for continuing the power of the "Rank to. refuse payment in specie. This* ua told the:n by Mr. Fox and Mr. SHERIDAN, who asked : if the Bank be in so pros perous a situation as you say it is, why- do you wish to pass a law to protect them against the demands of the holders of their notes ? If the Bank be so rich as you say it is, what need has it of your assistance ?' Y~ou tell us, said Mr. SHERIDAN (alluding to the speech of Lord Hawkesbury) that paper " is not only a cleaner, neater, " and more portable medium to re- " present property ; but that it is the ' very essence of wealth itself, and " that the flourishing state of our " commerce is the cause of this in- " ability to produce specie to answer "demands upon the Bank of Eng- " land." See Debate of 9th March, where these observations are followed up by an inimitable instance of what is called by logicians the reductio ad absurdum. You tell us, said he, that the public are of your opinion, and that they reject our opinion; you tell us that the public are satisfied with thp report of the Committee ; you tell us that the public like Bank notes as well as guineas. But, with these assertions, upon your lips, you pass a law to pro tect the Bank against the demands of that public ; you pass a law to compel that public to receive paper at the Bank, instead of that gold, which you say tiiev like no better than that paper. The truth is, Gentlemen, the public, generally speaking, knew nothing at all about the transactions between the Government arid hc Bank ; they knew nothing at all about the trade or the property of the Bank ; they knew that they held promissory notes issued by the Bank, payable to the bearer on demand, and they looked upon these notes as being equally valuable with gold, because, until now, they could, at any time, carry them to the Bank, and receive gold in exrliansfe for them. Nothing, Tore., could have the smallest tendency to convince them of the- BO- lidity of the Bank, unless it, at the same time, Vndcd to convince them, that there wa'-'. gold in the Batik, suf ficient to answer the demands of 195] LETTER XV. [-196 those, who presented notes for pay ment, or who chose to demand gold in payment of their dividends, or in terest upon their Stock. And, not a particle of conviction, in this way, were the reports of the Secret Com mittee calculated to produce. jyir. SHERIDAN (see Debate 28th February 1797) said that he was " convinced that if the Bank was not " able to resume its payments imuie- " diately, he foresaw it never would " be able afterwards to defray its " outstanding engagements in cash." And the reason he gave was that the suspension of cash payments would produce the issue of a greater quan tity of paper. This reason was so manifest, that it was impossible that . the truth of it should not be felt, though owing to the pre judices of the times, there were few persons amongst the Merchants and Bankers, by whom it would bp acknowledged. The same was said, by Mr. NICHOLLS and Mr. HOUSE, in whose speeches, together with those of Mr. Fox and Mr. SHE RIDAN, will be found predictions of all the consequences, which have already flowed, and which are likely to flow from the stoppage of gold and silver payments at the Bank. We have now seen enough of the measures which were adopted as fore runners of the Acts of Parliament relating to the Bank Stoppage ; and, in my next Letter, I shall, I flatter myself, be able to present you with a complete, though a very concise,view of those Acts, with which every man in this country ought to be thoroughly acquainted. In the mean while, I remain, Gentlemen, Your faithful friend, W M COBBETT. State Prison, Newgate, Thursday^ 1st, 18)0. LETTER XV. " When the situation of the Bank of England was under the consideration of the tvro Houses of Parliament ' in the year 1797, it was my oi.inir.n aud that of many others, that the cj-ttnt to zt'ttich 1-o-per cur- " rency had been carried, a>v the fir rf at>d principal, thouch not the sole, cause of the many difficulties, " to Which that corporate body was then, and had of latfc years from time to time, been exposed, in supply- " ii 176 >80 Exchequer Bills 8,228,000 Lands and Tenements 65,000 Money lent to India Company. . . . 700,000 Stamps 1,510 Navy and Victualling Bills. 15,890 American Debentures 51,150 Petty Cash in House 5,320 Sundry articles 24,150 5 per Cent, annuities 795,800 5 per Cents 1797 1,000,000 Treasury bills paid for the Go vernment 1,512,270 Loan to Government 376,000 Bills discounted unpaid 88,120 Treasury and Exchequer fees .... 740 Interest due on different L3)aas advanced to Government 554,250 17,597,280 201] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. Now, .what is all this ? Why, it is,' with the exception of three of the items, a mere account of paper be tween the Government and the Bank, and in which the people, who held the bank notes, could have no interest whatever. The Bank held Exche quer Bills, and Navy and Victualling .Bills, and had lent money' (that is to say 'bank notes) to the East India Company and had five per cent, stock and Treasury Bills and had interest due upon loans ; all 'which might be very well for the Bank, but what was it to a man, who held a bank note and who could not get payment for it when he presented it to the Bank ? These line articles of credit were very good for the Bank Company ; but what good were they to 'SQUIRE GULL, who, being alarmed at the prospect of a Jacobin invasion, wished, in spite of his loyalty, to turn his bank notes into guineas ? What use were they to our neighbour GRIZZLE GREENHORN, who ROW wished, of course, to put by a few guineas, and who, of course, wished to receive her dividends in gold, to prevent her from doing which by law this very rcpoit was a preliminary step ? What con solation was Grizzle to draw from this account of debts due from the, Government to the Bank, especially when it was clear, that if the Govern ment ever paid the Bank, it, nmst pay it in bank notes, seeing that in bank notes the taxes were ijow paid? The three items to which the people would look, were those expressing on one side, the amount of the bank notes in circulation ; and, on the other, the amount of the cash, or coin, ar,d bul lion in the Bank Company's House, commonly called the Bank. Accord ing to the above statement these were on the 25th of February 1707, as follows : Amount of Bank Notes in circu lation i'.8,64U,2^0 Hills aiul Notes discounted, Cash and Bullion 4,176,060 Petty Cash in the House ;'..3i'() 4. lH i ,400 Difference -< ,4-Srt . .><) But, who is to say how much th Bills and Notes discounted amounted to? Who is to answer, that they did not make one half; who is to say, that they did not make nine tenths of the sum of /;4,17().080? Why was the amount of the cask and bullioti, huddled up in one sura along with the amount of Bills and Notes J fl ^count ed ! Why were things so different in their nature confounded together? if GRIZZLK GKEENUOKN wanted her hank note? payed at, the Bank, she would not take discounted bills in pay ment. What the nation wanted to pee, was, how much the Bank had oi' that sort ofthiiiy, in which banknotes could he payed ; how in*xli it had of that sort oi' thing, the value, of which no invasion or revolution would de stroy : how much it had of that sort of thing, in ^hich it bad promised to pay upon demand ihe bearers of its notes; how much, in short, it had of MONEY, and not of bills and notes discounted, with which the people hat? nothing at all to do, there being no man of common sense, who could care a straw 'about how much of its paper the Bank gave to others for their paper, so that he got guineas for his bank notes ; and, if lie could not get this, what consolation was it to him to know, that the Bank had lent but .little, of its paper to the mer chants ? As to the exact quantity of cask (md lullion in the .Bank, "when the Stoppage took place, Mr. ALLER- DYCE gives a table, . shewing the amount at stated periods, for several years, according to which Table, the total amount of the cash and bullion in the Bank, at the time of the Stop- 203] LETTER XV. 204 page, was .1,272,000. Aye, ONE MILLION, TWO HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-TWO THOU SAND POUNDS. He comes at this sum thus. The Bank of England have Numbers, to denote their quan tity of cask and bullion. When they submitted their accounts to Parli ament, in 1797, it was thought ne cessary to keep the amount of the cask and bullion a secret from Par liament and the public. They, there fore, only gave the Numbers tor dis tinct periods in several years, in or der to shew the proportionate increase or diminution of the cash and bullion. From these Numbers, however, a dis covery was, it is said, made, and the sum above-named, ascertained to be the amount of the cash and bullion in the Bank at the time of the Stoppage. But, upon this, I wish to place no reliance ; nor do I care, whether the statement above given, of cash and bullion and discounted bills be cor rect, or not. These are things of in ferior consequence compared with the great and well-known facts ; namely, that no proof was produced, or at tempted to be produced, that the Bank Company had gold or silver, or both together, sufficient to pay its promissory notes ; and that no ac count was rendered to the Parliament of the amount of the cash and bullion in the Bank. Mr. PAINE had, only the year be fore, said, in the words of my motto, that the quantity of cash in the Bank could never, on the evidence of cir cumstances, be so much as two mil lions, and most probably, not more than one million ; that, on this slen der twig, always liable to be broken, hung the whole funding system of four hundred millions, besides many mil lions in bank notes ; that the sum in the Bank was not sufficient to pay one fourth of only one year's interest of the National Debt, were the cre ditors to demand payment in cash, or to demand cash for the bank notes in which the interest is paid : a circum stance always liable to happen. Mr. PAINE founded this opinion upon a statement of Mr. EDEN (now Lord AUCKLAND) and Mr. CHALMERS, Clerk to the Board of Trade, who had given an account, or, rather an estimate, of the gold coin circulating in the kingdom ; and, it is truly smv prising to observe how near Mr. PAINE was to the exact truth as to this point, though at the time when his pamphlet was published, its cal culations and predictions were treated with scorn, and the work itself was ascribed to a malicious desire to cause the ruin of England ; just as if it were in the power of PAINE, or of any one else, to injure the credit of a nation ; or, as if any thing but the want, the real want of the gold and bullion could shake the faith of the public in such an establishment as that of the Bank. PAINE might have written 'till this time without persuad ing any one that a guinea was a thing not to be relied upon. He never would have written people out of their belief in the goodness of fjuineas. And, if the Bank had stood a run for only one week, he might have written his pen to the stump, but would not have shaken the people's confidence. Credit that has a solid foundation need fear no assaults. At the time, when this subject was under discussion in the House of Commons, the Minister was charged, by the Opposition, with having taken the Money from the Bank and sent it abroad in subsidies. Tin's was cer tainly a very great error, or, it was made use of for the purpose of annoy ing the Minister at the expence of truth. I am, however, disposed to attribute it to error ; for, it was urged in suck a manner, and by such per sons, as to obviate all suspicion of its being a mere party weapon. Mr. H'OBHOUSE (Debate 28th February 1797), said, that he suspected that the monev had been buried in (?er- [205 PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [206 many, and not by the people of Eng land, in dread o-f invasion. And Mr. HUSSEY said, that the Minister " had laid his rapacious hands upvn " the sums destined for the payment " of the public creditor. He knew " that the public creditors had been " refused their just demands. He " had witnessed the truth of this woe- " ful circumstance himself. He had " been told by a person who had ap- ft plied for payment, that, in payment " of a sum of twenty-three pounds, " three pounds in cash had been of- " fered, and the rest only in notes. " Such a melancholy day as this for <$ England he had hoped never to live " io see. Let the Chancellor of the " Exchequer pay the ten millions " Government owed the Sank, and " then it would be able to fulfil all its " engagements. It was not that the " Bank was unable to satisfy its cre- " ditors, but it was the continued de- ts mand of money to feed the czpencts il of t, its ruinous and disastrous war, " which rendered it unjust to those " who depended upon its credit." Mr. PITT, who seemed to have avoided this point with all his care, suid who, as I once heard Mr. WIND- HAM describe him, was so dextrous in the selection and use of words as to be able " to speak a {king's speech " oft-hand,'' could not remain longer silent under this attack. He had been told nearly the same by Mr. SHE RIDAN ; but he Deemed to be willing to take the chance of that being ascribed to party motives. When, however, he heard the same, seriously urged by Mr. HUSSEY, and saw that the notion was making its way amongst the public, and of course, that the whole of the calamity would be ascribed to him and his Anti-Jncobin \var, he could no longer refrain from declaring what was the nature of the property of the J3c.?:!t, and to avow, that the whole of its transactions with "Government, or nearly so> were trans actions of paper, a fact of which the ( country had, till that moment, been in compete ignorance. He said that Mr. HUSSEY was wholly in error to suppose that the Bank made advances to the Govern ment in specie ; he said, that the ad vances were made in notes, and paid in the same manner ; that, if the Go vernment were to raise money and pay the Bank, the Bank would not thereby be supplied with an additional auinea in cash ; that the taxes were not paid in specie, that loans were advanced without any expectation of re-payment in specie ; that the Bank never had it in contemplation that even r quarterl} dividend was to be paid in cash ; that the receipt of the revenue was in paper, and that the whole of Mr. HUSSEY 's observations were intirely founded in mistake. Mr. SHERIDAN, in answer to this, said, that the deficiency, or inability at the Bank arose not merely from the positive want of cash, but from i the disproportion between the quan- ' tity of cash and the quantity of paper ; and, of course, that, if their lent paper was returned to them, they would find themselves at liberty to ismc more of their specie. This would have been true in a state of things where the difference between the quantity of specie and the quantity of paper was less ; but, in the present case, it was too great for confidence to be restored, and, of course, for the Bank to return to its payments in cash. Mr. PITT'S answer was com plete. It was the plain truth, which he was obliged to bring out, in order to divide the blame with the Bank. He was told to borrow and to pay the Bank what he owed them. What good will that do, said he, when my loan will consist of Bank notes, and I must pay the Bank in those notes? He was told to raise the sum in taxes and so pay the Bank. What good will that do, said he, when my taxes will consist of Bank notes, and I must pay the Bank in those notes. The 207] LETTER XVI. [208 answer was complete towards his ad versaries in debate, and not less com plete as a demolislier of his own repu tation as a Minister of Finance. He now said precisely what Mr. PAINE had said the year before ; he now confirmed, with his own lips, what PAINE had been so abused~for saying.* He appears clearly to have perceived his dilemma; but, to extricate him from it was beyond the power even of Ins dexterity. He was obliged to ac knowledge, that the whole was become a system of paper, or, that he had taken the gold from the Bank, and, of the two evils he chose that, which would expose him to the least share of public odium. Tiiis view of the State of the Bank's Affairs has led me further than I ex pected ; but it was quite necessary as an introduction to that of the Acts of Parliament, which will be the subject of my next. I am, in the meanwhile, Gentlemen, Your faithful friend, WM. COBBETT. State Prison, Netrgate, Monday, November 5th, 1810. LETTER XVI. " It is admitted that a paper mrd'nro, under the form of bank notes or Government securities, is circulated " in France, England, and most other coin mn-cial couutiics; but nobody is compelled by law to receive "the payment of nny dfbt in such im.i.ey : hesice it is, that the p;iper of tiiose countries bears no " re'e.iiblaoce to ours, except in nr, but a fool or a knave will seldom acknowledge it . 209] PAPER- AGAINST GOLD. [210 ever bem* hereafter removed, except by a to till annihilation of the paper- money. Until the time at which the Bank Stoppage took place; until the 20th day of February 17,97, the Notes of the Rank Company were considered as good as real- money, because, if the holder chose it, he could, at any mo ment, demand a;id receive real mo ney in exchange for them. But, when the Bank, in the manner that we have seen, reiused payment upon demand, .lie nature of the notes \vas wholly changed. Tiiey were no longer equal in value to real insne-y; and nothing but a species of compulsion would, of course, induce the people to receive them in payment of any debt thereto fore contracted. New, then, came tlie pinch. Now C'ime forth the fact, that it was beyond all the powers of hypocrisy, tritk, and eonlusiivf verbosity any longer to disguise: forth came the fact, that Bank Notes were to be, in reality, j forced upon the people ; that the -man, | who had a debt due to him, must take ! them in payment, or if he refused them, be unabie to arrest his creditor: forth came the fact, aye, forth it came, iii'ter ail the railing against French ass-gnats; forth came the fact, that no man who held a Bunk note; that no imtn who held a note oi' that Com- pany of Traders, payable on demand, eorJ^. compel them to pav him, except in other suck notes. Forth came this fact, and yet those who had brought the finances of the country into such a state, were still kept in power; to their management were the nation's affairs still left: to their promises did the credulous and affrighted people still listen ; and of their measures has the nation ever since been feeling, and will, it is to be feared, long feel, the consequences. The Order of the Privy Council (8ee it in Letter XT, page 149) re quired the Bank Company to stop paying their notes in money. The words are " to forbear issuing any * cash in payment." I beseech you, Gentlemen, to consider well the na ture of this transaction. Look back at the origin of the Bank. Consider it, as it really was, a mere Company r of Traders. Then view the holders of the Notes, who w r ere so many legal creditors, so many persons having a just and legal claim to be paid upon demand. See all these creditors at once deprived of their legal rights of pay ment by an Order of the Privy Coun cil, of which the Minister himself was a member. See here a Company of Traders, having promissory notes out to the amount of many millions, re quired by the Privy Council " to " forbear" to pay off' the said notes; and above all things, obserre, and NEVER FORGET, that this order, or request, was made in consequence, as we have seen from the official do cument:;, of representations made by this Company of Traders themselves, who, as is stated in those documents (Letter XIII, page 172), made such representations in consequence of the drain upon their cash and of the alarm they therefore feit for the safety f-f their House. This was a -fine spectacle to be hold : it was a fine thing to be held forth to the world by a Minister, whose boastiiig about his financial resources and about his support of public credit had been incessant from the day he first vaulted into the saddle of power. *lf this could be done with regard to one Company of Traders, why not with regard to any other Company of Traders, or any other single Trader, in the kingdom? If the Privy Council, avowedly upon the representation of the Minister, were to protect this Company of Traders against the la wful, demands of their creditors ; what reason was there that other Traders, that other Debtors, should not be protected iu the same way, if they should " feel " alarm for the safety of their House '?" We must never lose sight of this fat, that the Order in Council arose from 211] LETTER XVI. [212 a representation of the Minister; that representation arose from one made to the Minister by the Bank Company , and this latter representation arose (See Letter XIII, p. 179) fro.n the drain of cash at the Bank, and from the alarm which the Bank Company felt for the safety of their House. tender, he knew not \vhat to answer; that he twisted and writhed in j,rcat apparent embarrassment of mind : but, that he knew not wh t to answer. We have also seen, that, before the House met the next day (28th of February 1797) the meetin/ at the Mansion- iiouse had taken place, having been, Tuis should be constantly kept in as we have seen, previously contrived, in private, with the Minister^ We have seen an account of the other Meetings through the country ; and we have seen, in Letter XIV, tie manner of forming the SECRET COM MITTEE, from whom came Reports (Letter XIV, p. 189), declaring the vew. We should never, for one ment, lose sight of the fact, that the whole of this measure of protection to the Bank had its origin in represen tations made by the Rank Company itself. And, if we keep this faot steadily in view, we danger at coming at elusion. Thus -far then, shall be in no a proper con- we have seen the transaction going no further than the Privy Council. We have seen it originate with the Bank Company, the demands of whose lawful creditors had given them alarm. . We have seen the B.mk Company calling upon the Minister to know when he would interfere. And, we have seen the Minister, after saying, on the 24th, that he would prepare a resolution (f Council, go to the Council, on tie 2fjth, and obtained the Resolution and Order that we have seen. Thus the Privy Council became a party to the transaction ; and we are now about to see how the Parliament put the finishing stroke to it by giving to the Order of Council the sanction of law ; we are now about to take a view of the Legislative Acts, by which, to use the expression of the late Lord Liver pool, paper-credit was exchanged for paper -currency , by which bank-notes were moulded into paper-money. In Letter XII, page 164, we have seen how the minister first introduced t the House of Commons the project of passing a law to san-ction the Order in Council ; that is to say, to sanction the refusal of the Bank Company to pay their promissory notes. We have seen, that, upon being asked by Mr. ALDERMAN COMBE, whether he me:mt to make tke bank-notes a legal affairs of the Bank to be n a most way, and that the Com pany were possessed of a great surplus of means. Thus prepared, and perceiving, by this time, that his adherents were re solved to sta :d by him (See Letter XIV, p. 194) the Minister, on tiie 9th of March, 1797, moved for leave to " bring in a bill to confirm and " continue the Order in Council of " the 26th of February, for a time to " be limited." This was the first motion towards making of the law for authorising the Bank to refuse to pay- its creditors their just demands ; that law, which has filled the kingdom with banks and with paper-money, and which, as we shall by-and-by see, has produced no small share of our present dangers and distress. But, before we proceed any further in the history of this ACT, which, you will bear in mind, is the Act, which the Bullion Committee have proposed to repeal in two years from this time ; before we proceed any further in the history of this Act, we must shortly notice two other Acts, which were passed before it, and which, though of inferior importance, were thejirst- born of the Bank Stoppage. The refusal of the Bank Company to pay their notes was, as every one must naturally suppose, productive of the consequence of driving all the sold coin out of circulation; for, 213] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. under such circumstances, the mo ment a guinea or a half guinea got into the hands of a person able to keep it, and not an ideot, it would remain very quiet in the chest of that person ; and, as the smallest notes then in cir culation, were notes for five pounds, the difficulty in making payments would necessarily be very great. The distress, arising from this cause, was so great, that on the 1st of March, it was resolved by the House of Com mons to bring in a bill to legalize the issuing of small, notes by private per sons ; and, on the same day a bill was read a second time for enabling the Bank of England to issue notes under Jive pounds. The reason for passing these Acts was this; there were in existence two Acts of Parliament, which prohibited the negotiating of promissory notes and otlier paper of an amount under five pounds. These Acts are, upon this occasion worthy of our particular attention; because they were passed upon the principle, that small paper promises were injurious to the com munity. The first of these Acts was p -ssed in the year 1775, and, as will be seen from the Title and Preamble, which I beg of you to read,* small * FIFTEENTH GEO. III. Chap. LI. An Act to restrain the uegociation of promis sory notes and inland bills of exchange under a limited sum, within that part of GreatBritain called England. Whereas va rious notes, bills of exchange, and draughts tor money, for very swill sums, have for some time past, been circulated or negociated in lien of cash, within that part of Great Bri tain called England ; to the great prejudice of trade and public credit : fyc. fyc. Be it, there fore, enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, by, and with the advice and con sent of the Lords Spiritual ailfd Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same. That all promissory or other notes, bills of exchange, or drafts, or undertakings, in writing, beaignegoeiable or transferable for the payment of any sum or sums of money, less' than the sum of twenty shillings in the whole, which shall be made or issued at any time from and after the twenty-fourth day of June, one thousand seven hundred anil seventy-fire, shall be, and the same are hereby declared to be, absolutely void and paper currency was, at that time, de clared by law to be of " great prcju- " dice to trade and public eredit. n There were in 1775, as we have al ready seen, no bank-notes for sums less than TEN POUNDS, and, it was then supposed, that smaller notes would be an injury. In two years after the above Act was passed the effect of it having been found geod, another Act was passed carrying the prohibition to any sum under five pounds. And, Gentlemen, I beg you to pay particular attention to the lan guage of these Acts. The first says, that the circulation of notes for very small sums, in lieu of cash, is to the great prejudice of trade and public credit; and, after the Parliament have had two years' experience of the ef fects of this Act, they pass another, in which, after declaring that the cf- focts of the former Act have been " very salutary" they extend the pro visions of it from the sum of twenty shillings to the sum of Jive pounds.f Thus, then, small paper currency was proved to have been an evil; it was proved, by experience, to have been injurious to trade and to public credit; and, therefore, while there were no bank notes for sums less than of no effect, any law, statute, usage, or custom to the contrary, therefore in any wise notwithstanding. t SEVENTEENTH, GEO. 111. Cap. XXX. An Act for further restraining the negocia- tion of promissory notes, and inland bills, of exchange, under a limited sum, within that part of Great Britain called England. Whereas by a certain Act of Parliament passed in the fifteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty (intituled an Act to restrain the negociation of promissory notes and inland bills of exchange under a limited sum, within that part of Great Britain called England, all negociable promissory or other notes, bills of exchange, or draughts, or undertakings in writing, for any sum of money leas thun the sum of twenty shillings in the whole, &c. &c. and whereas the said Act hath bven attended with ttry salutary effects, and in case the provisions therein contained were extended to a further sum, tlie good JM-- pt^e of the said Act would be further advanced. B it, therefore, enacted, &c. And the Act exjtends the prohibition to any sum wider five pounds. 215] LETTER XVI. [211 ten pounds, the law forbade that there should be any other circulating/ or ne gotiable notes, under live pound?. Tims, as to paper-currency, stood the law in 1797, when the Bank Stoppage took place ; and .as we have already seen, in the former part of this Letter, the. country was, in con sequence of. the Stoppage, thrown into tlie greatest distress for- the want of something to represent small sums. Ths manufacturers, and, im! sod, ail the journey men and labourers, throughout the kingdom, could not b" .paid in the usual manner. The coin had d'tsappvaredi'ds it naturally would the moir.^t a batik-note. M r owld not fetch its ' i: io:mt in guineas at the Bank;, and, the guineas and half guineas having; one out of sight, which they did instantly, there were no means of paying small sums. Therefore, the very lirdt tiling to be done, was to provide something to supply the place of the guineas and h>lf-<*uiiieas, and, indeed, the whole of the coin, except the ham me red -out shillings and sixpences, such as we now see current. For this purpose, it was necessary to pass an Act to repeal, or, at lra.-t, to suspend, the two Acts, of which we have just taken a view, and, ac cordingly a suspension Act was passed on the 10th of March 1797, the title and preamble of which Aet are here inserted as worthy of attention, and us matter for future remark.* This * THIRTY SEVENTH Geo. Ill, Chap. XXXII. An Act to suspend fisr a limited time, the operation of two Acts of the fifteenth and seventeenth years of the reign of his present Majesty for restraining the negotiation of promissory notes, and inland bills of ex change, ttnder a limited sum, within that part of Great Britain called England. whereas an Act of Parliament was past in the fifteenth year of the reign of his present Majesty, intituled an Act to restrain ihr negociation of promissory notes, and inland bills of exchange, under a limited sum, within thit part of Great Britain called England : And whereas another Act was Act, by which the suspension was tr be continued only till the first day o the then ensuing mouth of May; tha is to say, for forty days onlv, was, a; we shall by-and-by see, afterward: extended in its duration, and has con tinned in force till this clay. But, this was nothing wilhou giving a power of making small note: to tha Bank of England. The Ban' had dividends to pay ; and, of course all the sums, or parts of sums, un,d&: five pounds (there bc-iii:-.';, as TK.-J, i ; ; notes under that sum) t.hr-y vvi compelled to pay in cash, which v a what they did not ///;% and, in ia.oi what they were not,, perhaps, jdiie t; do. It was, therefore, necessary above all things, to ; <>;ive .them apowc of making- sm--ili notes. There was ; doubt whether the two Acts of tin 15th and 17th of George the Third above-mentioned, applied to b;irJ notes ; and, it, was thought by som< persons, that tlu i y did not so apply but, an Act of Parliament, the grca cure for jll doubts and difficulties was passed to remove this doubt; an< such was the haste, in doing this, tha the Act was passed en the 3rd* o March, though the lull was brought ii only on the %8tk of February. Tin Aet authorixecl tho Bank to issu notes for siimsimder five pounds; and accordingly, two and one pound note were immediately- issued.f Now, Gentlemen, I beg you t< stop here for a moment, and tuki passed in the seventeenth year of the reig of bis present Majesty, intituled, an Act fo farther restraining the negotiation of prc missory notes, and inland hills of exchang under a limited sum, uhhui that part ( Great Britain called England; and where? IT IS EXPEDIENT 'hat the said Acl should be suspended for a certain time, so far a the same may relate to any notes, draught: or undertaking* made payable on demand &c. &e. &e. The Art then suspends thos laws until the first day of May 1797. tTllIKTY-SFAENTIiGeo.IH.Cha]..XXVII An Act to remove doubts respecting Pr< OEnterefc at fctatfonets' Printed by W. MOLINEUX, 5, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane; Published by W. GOBBET Jnn. No. 8, Catherine Street, Strand ; and Retailed at No, 192, Strand. -COHBETT'S PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [Price 217] another look at the language of these Acts of parliament, these solemn de clarations of the Legislature. In the year 1775, they say, that the circu lation of small notes, iti lieu of cash, is of " great prejudice to trade and ' public credit." In 1777, they de clare, upon the evidence of two years of experience, that their having lessen ed the quantif*f of small notes had produced " very salutary effects." And in 1797, under the ministry of PITT, whose debts the public have paid, and for whom they are to pay for a monu ment ; aye, under the ministry of this man, the parliament were brought to declare, that to make small notes, that to do juftthe contrary of what the above two acts were intended to effect, V.T.S " expedi nt for the pub lie service, and " for the convenience of commerce" In 1775 and 1777 it was enacted, that small promissory notes, in lieu of cash, were " a great prejudice to " trade and public CREDIT." In 1797 it was enacted, that small pro* miesory notes, in lieu of cash, were " expedient for the public service and " for the convenience of commerce" Gentlemen, when you have paid due attention to this, you will iiardly want any thing more to enable you to an swer those, who have yet the folly or the impudence to attempt a defence of the ministry of PITT, who, as it has been well observed, in reply to one of his eulogists, found the country yold, and left it paper. But, the grand measure was yet to come. There was, as vet, no tew to sanction the deed of refusing to pay the bearers of the Bank's promissory notes. This was a thing that the peo ple had yet to receive at the hancU of inissorv N r otes of the Gov< mor and Company of the Hank of . Kr'jlarul, for payment of simis of money nndei fh.e pounds. -Where as it is expedient for tiM-puMic s. rvice, and for the convenience'^ commercial circulation, that the Governor and Company of the JBank of England should issue Promissory notes, pay- nble to bef.ivr, for sums of money under Ji^s ', t'irc. &c. W. Molineux, Printer, Bream's Build : ng, Clique-cry l.sae. [218 those, who had plunged them into the Anti-jacobin war, and who h:ul ii-J them with the hopes of beating France through her fiivmees. Yes, the neople of England, the " most thinking peo- " pie," had yet to swallow this ; they had yet to gulp this bolus from the hands of tho.se, who had buoyed them up for so many years, by comparisons of the jfaurishiiiff state of the English finances compared wilh those oi' France, which last nation they still believed to be, as PITT told them, was immediately taken, there might be reason to apprehend a want of sufficient sup ply of cash to answer the exigencies of the public service; it was declared to be the unanimous opinion of the board, that it was indispensably necessary for the public service, that, the directors of the Bank of England should forbear issuing any cash In payment, until the>ense of Parliament could be taken on that subject, and the proper measures adopted thereupon for maintaining the means uf circulation, aud supporting 1 the public and a 219] LETTER XVI. [220 When you have rea^d the Title and Preamble of this Act, you will ac company me in a bjief sketch of its provisions, which you will Ihid not only curious and interesting, as an object .of public attention, but useful ajso to each of you as individuals, who will heuce learn, how far you are compelled to receive payment in Bank-notes, and in what way your previous contracts have been aflected by this Act. The Preamble of the Act having repeated what was contained in the Order of Council, and having declared that to confirm and continue, the re fusal to pay in Gold and Silver, though such refusal was not warranted by law ; having acknowledged the ille gality of the things done, and declared the necessity of continuing to do them; having made this beginning, the Act next proceeds, SECTION I. to indem nify the Bank Directors, and all other persons for having done these illegal things; that is to say, to protect all such persons against y.ny appeal to the law> that any suffering party might be inclined to make. So that, whatever loss or hindrance or injury any man might have suffered from the non payment of the promissory notes of the Bank-Company, such sufferer was, by this Act, at once deprived of all legal means of obtaining redress. The Act next provides, iri.' .'SECTION II. that the Bank should b liable to DO prosecution for the non-payment of any of their notes, that they might be willing to exchange for other notes , and, tli at in case the Bank were sued by any one for the non-payment of their notes, they might apply to the Court to sfop proceedings in meh actions, who might stop them accord ingly, and without costs to the plaintiff commercial credit of the kingom at this im portant conjuncture , and it was ordered, that a copy of the said minute should be transmitted to the directors of the Bank of England^ and they were hereby required, on the grounds of the exigency of the case, to conform thereto until the sense of Parlia ment could be <isaid: And- j in any action brought against the Bank for non-payment of its notes, unless the Court should think the ac tion necessary. SECTION III. Per- mits the Bank to issue cash in pay ment of any sum under twenty shillings, or where less than twenty shillings should be a fractional part of a sum to be paid by the Bank. This was a very gracious permission! The same Section allows thein to issue cash for the service of the Army, the Navy, or the Ordnance, in pursuance of an order of the Privy Council. SECTION IV. Specifies that the Bank, during the restriction or stop page, shall not advance to the Govern ment any cash or notes exceeding in amount 600,000 pounds. SECTION V. Permits the Bank to repay cash to those persons that may choose to lodge cask in the Bank. But, the Section permits the Bank to repay in cash only three fourths of the amount of what shall be so lodged with them. SECTIONS VI. and VII. Permit the Bank to advance the sum of 125,000 pounds to the Bankers of London and Scotland. SECTION VIII. Treats of payments between private individuals, and it provides, that all payments which have been made, or which shall be made during the continuance of this Act, in Bank of England notes, shall be deemed payments in cash, if accepted as such. SECTION IX. Contains the great alteration made in. the law between debtor and creditor. We have seen, that by the 2nd Section, the Bank notes were made to be quite equal to cash in the case of all demands, made upon the Bank for payment of its. notes, which therefore, made the notes of the Bank, as far as related to debts due from the Bank, on account whereas, in pursuance of the minute, the said governor aud company of the Bank of England, have, since the said twenty-sixth day of February, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, forborne to issue cash in payments, except for purposes fur which the is-ue of cash was dcemfd unavoidable ; it is accessary that the Rctlricttyn in the said 2211 PAPER AGAINST GOLD. of its notes, a LEGAL TENDER, which words mean such money or currency as the law regards as good in the pay ment of debts. Guineas, for instance, are a LEGAL TENDER, because, the tender or offering of them in payment is sufficient to prevent any action or proceeding at law being entertained against the person, who may have offered them in payment, in quantity equal to the amount of the debt. But, Bank-notes were not made a legal tender, and they are not now a legal tender, between private individuals. If a man owe me money, I can still demand coin in payment ; and the only difference is, that I cannot, if my debtor tender me the amount of the debt in Bank of England notes, cause him to be arrested and held to special bail, as I might have done, if this Act had not been passed. This part of the Act every one should read, and, therefore, I have put the 9ih Section in a note,*, SECTION X. Provides minute, although not warranted by Law, should be confirmed, and should be continued for a limited time, by the authority of Par liament : Be it therefore enacted, &c. &c. &c. * SECTION IX. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That during- the' continuance of the restriction on payments by the said governor and company in cash, imposed by this Act, no person shall be held to special bail upon any process issuing out of any court, unless the affidavit which shall be made for that purpose accord ing to the provisions in the Act of the twelfth year of the reign of his late Majesty King George the First, for preventing fri volous and vexatious arrests, shall not only contain the several matters required by the faid Act, but also that no offer has been made to pay the sum of money in such affidavit mentioned, and therein sworn to, for the purpose of holding any person to spe cial bail, in notes of the said governor and company, expreed to be payable on 'de mand (fractional parts of the sum of twenty shillings only excepted ;) and if any process shall be issued against any person, upon which such perton might have been held to special bail before the passing of this Aet, and no affidavit shall be made as aforesaid, that no such offer of payment in notes of the governor and company had been made as aforesaid, such person shall not be arrested on such process, but proceedings shall be had against such persun in die sara manner M if that the collectors of the public re venue shall accept payment in Bank of England notes. " SECTION XI. Permits the Bank to issue cash, in certain cases, upon giving Five days' notice to the Speaker of the House of Commons. ' SECTIONS XII. and XIII. Provide for the continuance of the Act to (he 24th of June (a. duration of only jifty-tw'o days), and for the repealing or altering of it during the then present session of parliament. This, Gentlemen, is what is called the Bank-RESTlllCTiON Act, a very convenient phrase, calculated to convey the notion, that the Bank is able and willing to pay ; but, that it is not permitted to do it, I beg you to bear along with you the meaning of the word Restriction, which implies an act done by one party to prevent another party from doing what fie would do if not prevented. To restrict is to limit, or confine. I am restricted, no affidavit had been made for the purposes of holding such persons to special bail, under the provisions of the said Act of his said late Majesty King George the First ; and all pro visions in such Act, or in any other Act of Parliament, for preventing frivolous and vexatious arrests, shall be applied to the pro visions in this Act contained, so far as the same are capable of being so applied : Pro vided always, that if affidavit shall be made upon which any person or persons might have been held to special bail upon any such pro cess AS aforesaid, before the passing of this Act, and it shall be likewise sworn in such affidavit, that such offer of paymejit has beeji made as aforesaid, so thrtt the person or p Ar sons who might have been arrested and held, to special bail upon such process, if this Ac-t had not been made, cannot, by reason of such offer and of the provisions in this act contained, be so arrested and held to special bail, it shall be lawful for the court out of which such process shall issue, or for any judge of such court, in a summary way, to order the defendant or defendants in the action in which such process shall issue, and who might have so held to special bail as aforesaid, if this Act had not been made, to causo notes of the said governor and com pany, expressed to be payable on demand to the amount of the sum of money for which such person or persons might have been sa held to special bail, if this Act had not beei made, to b* deposited in such nuuuicr a- 223] LETTER XVI I. [224 for instance, from going out of New gate. I am here in a state of re striction. I should go home to my farm and my family, if it were not for this restriction ; and so " the most thinkvig people of Europe" think, of course, that the Bank Company would pay their notes in Gold and Silver, if they were not restricted in the same manner. But, of this we shall see more in the next Letter, when we come to speak of the duration of this restricting Act; and, in the mean while, I remain, Gentlemen, Your faithful friend, WM. COBBETT.' State Prison, Newgate, Monday, November 12, 1810. LETTER XVII. Noting out ;i law, declaring bauk-note? to be a leynl tender of parmpot. can relieve th bankers ani " the trading part cf^he community trorn tiie hardships to which th.-y are now liable; and yet, lite ' remedy must, in the end, be worse than the evil." Afr. llobhouse. Speech iu tlie House f " Commons, 27 di March, 17^7. The Legal Tender Gold is the only Legal Tender for any Sum above 25 Pounds Acts of the 14th and 39th of Geo. III. Mr. Huskisson's Remark upon the Legal Tender The Effects of a Legal Tender in Paper Illustrated by the Case of New Jersey- Act against Legal Tender in Paper, 4th Gco. Ijtl. chap. 34 Mr. Huskisson's Mis- statement as to the Motions entertained respecting the Legal Tender at the passing of the Act of 1797 Mr. SHERIDAN'S Prediction when the Act was moved for Sir F. Baring proposes to make t:ie Notes a Leg>tl Tender Mr. Pitt declines it for the present--- The Mansion House and other Meetings had, in some sort the effect of Law The Law as it now stands as to the Legal Tender of the Bank of England Notes- Country Bunkers may be compelled to pay their Notes in Gold. GENTLEMEN, BEFORE we proceed in our inquiries as to the DURATION of the Act, which was the subject of the fore going Letter, and hy which the Bank of England was protected against the cash demands of the holders of their promissory notes ; before we proceed in these inquiries, which will discover matter not a little curious in itself, and, very interesting as connected with what is now yoiny on ; before we thus proceed, I must beg your atten- such Court or Judges shall direct, to answer the demands cf the plaintiff or plaintiffs in mch action ; and if such deposit shall not be made within the time limited by such order, after such notice thereof as shall thereby he directed to be ghen, it shall be lawful, upon tion to a few more words upon tin- subject of the LEGAL TENDER. The truth is, that gold and gold only is a legal tender, in this king 1 dom, for any sum above 25 pounds , unless the silver be tendered in weight. This was settled bv an Act, passed in 1774 (14 Geo. 1 11. Chap. 42), which Act provided, that no tender in pay ment of money made in the Silver Coin exceeding the sum of 25 pounds, sJiould be deemed a legal tender for more than its value by weight, at the affidavit duly made and filed, that such tie- posit has not been made according to such oi'dei i to arrest such defendant or defendants, and hold him, her, or them to special bail, itt such and the* same manner as if the said Ac-chad not bevn made. PAPER AGAINST GOLD. rate of 5*. 2d. for each ounce of 'Silver. Tiiis Act continued in force fur two years, when it expired; but it v, as again revived in the year 1799, nml made perpetual. , Thus, you see, tLat even Silver coin was not, except in small sums, a legal tender, and is not a legal tender to this day. But, though the Bank of England notes were not by the Restriction, or Stoppage Act, made a legal tender, to nil intents and purposes, they were made so to a certain, extent; for, by the tender of them in lieu of money, any debtor could escape arrest and also escape the giving of special bail; and, as to the Bank of England, the Act not only protected it against the demands of its creditors ; that is, against the holders of its notes, but by the same Act, the Bank was to pay to the public, any thing due from the former to the latter, in its notes, and not to be compellable to pay in gold or Silver. This was going some way, at least, in making bank-notes a ley at tender, and this seems to have been overlooked by Mr, UUSKISSON, (a Gentleman of whom we shall have much to say by-and-by,) who in speak- Act of the 39th of the King remained unaltered ; or, that the Act of the 89th of the King did itself remain unaltered; which of these may be his meaning, I cannot positively say; but, of this I am sure, that, in all the three suppositions, it was quite unnecessary to express such meaning, seeing that the Act, which he so positively and carefully assures us was not altered by the Act of 1797, was not in exist ence at the time, and was not passed till two years afterwards. The mischievousuess of forcing paper-money upon a people are very well known. It has been most severely felt in all the countries where it has been resorted to, and ii has never failed, sooner or later, to anni hilate the whole of the paper, attempt ed so to be forced upon the people. This was the ca?.e in all the States of North America, every one of which has, first or last, had a public debt, a paper-money, a hyul tender in paper, and a state bankruptcy. The last of the States, I believe, that clung to a legal tender in paper, was NEW JER SEY ; and, the consequence Avas, that, even in the year 1792, when I first ing of the change created by the Act 1 went to the United States, that part of of 1797, in our money sv.-tcin, ob serves, that that Act did not repeal any of the former regulations relating to the coin, and that it did not alter the Act of the 39th of the King. " It " did not," says he, " alter in any " respect the existing state of the la\v, "' tither as to the weight or the fine- " ness of the trold coin ; or the Act of " the 39th of the King." I have quoted this Gentleman's own words, because I am not quite sure that I clearly understand them. Mr. IJrs- KISSON is a member of parliament, and a pensioner, and such people are apt to talk in a style that cohimon men cannot comprehend. Whether he means, here, that the weight and the fineness of the Act of the 39th of the King remained unaltered; or, that the existing state of the, law as to the the Union was still suffering from the disreputation brought on it by the legal tender, which, before it was put an end to, had not only produced a total stagnation of trade, and had brought ruin upon thousands of people, but it had begun to drive the people out of the State ; and, had it not been put an end to, the State would long ago, have been wholly depopulated. But we need not go abroad for any thing to convince us of the settled opinions of statesmen and politicians as to the effects of a legal tender in paper. We have only to look into our own Statute-Book, where we shall find the thing sufficiently repro bated, as in the Act passed in the year 1763, which declares such a tender to be discouraging and preju dicial to tjrade and commerce, and the 227] LETTER XVII. [223 cause of confusion in dealings and a lessening of credit, in the Provinces where it was in use; and, having de clared this; having laid down these as principles, the Act goes on to forbid the issuing of any more sue>< paper; it makes void all Acfc 61 Assembly thereafter passed to estab lish or keep up such tender; and U inflicts a fine of 1,000 pounds (with immediate dismission, and future inca pacity to fill any public office or place of .trust) on any Governor, who shall give his assent to such Act of Legal tender.* Mr. HUSKISSON, who was one of the Bullion Committee, of the labours of wlpch we shall soon see a good deal; Mr. HUSKISSON, who enjoys a large pension, paid out of the taxes raised upon the people, and who, therefore, ought to understand some thing of such matters ; this Mr. HUS KISSON (of whom I shall have to tell you a great deal before we have done) has just published a pamphlet, under the title of, " The Question concern- " ing the Depreciation of our Cur- " rency stated and examined;' 5 to the doing of which he was, it would seem, \ike ifcosa Matilda, reluctantly forced by the pressing partiality of friends. 'this Mr. Huskisson, in his pamphlet, which is, apparently, intended to justifj r his conduct as a member of the Bullion Committee, has said, that " if " it had been proposed, at once to " make bank-notes a legal tender a nd, M in direct terms, to enact, that every " man should thenceforward be obliged * FOURT YEAR, Geo. III. Chap. 34. An Act to prevent Pap.er liilis of Credit, here after to be issued in any of his Majesty's Colonies or Plantations, in America, from being declared to be a legal tender in Pay ments of Money ; and to prevent the legal tender of such bills as are now subsisting from being prolonged beyond the periods limited for calling in and sinking the same. Whereas great quantities of Paper Bills of Credit hav? been created and issued in his Majesty's Colonies or Plantations in America, by virtue of Acts, Orders, Reo- " to receive them as equivalent to the " gold coin of the realm, such a pro- " position would have excited universal " alarm, and would have forcibly " drawn the attention of the legisla- ' tare and the public to the nature of " our circulation and to the conse- " sequences of such an innovation. " But, certainly, nothing of the sort " was in. the contemplation of any " man wh.- n first the suspension-act " was passed." But, is this true, Mr. Huskisson? Your memory fails you, I hope ; for, not only was it in the contemplation of many persons; but several persons said, that, in ejfect, the bank-notes would become & legal tender, and that, they would, of course, depreciate. Gentlemen, it is at all times right, that the truth should be known, re specting the conduct and the cha racters of men in any- wise entrusted with the management of the public affairs; and, at this time, and espe cially as relating to this most im portant subject, it is right that no part of the truth should be hidden. With this conviction in my mind, I shall be rather minute in my references to what was said at the time when the Act of 1797, which protected the Bank against the demands of the note* holders, was under discussion. The bill, as was stated in my last, was moved for by Mr. PITT on the Oth of March ; and during the debate of that very day, Mr. Fox contended, that, if the bill passed, the property of the Stock-holder must, at once, be lutions, or Votes of Assembly, making and declaring snch Bills of Credit to be legal Tender in payments of Money. And whereas such Bills of Credit have greatly depreciated in their valve, by means whereof Debts hate been discharged with a much less Value than wu contracted for, to the great discouragement and prejudice of the Trade awl Commerce of his Majesty's Subjects, by occasioning Confusion in Dealings, attd lessening Credit in the said Colonies or Plantations : The Act proceeds as above described. 229] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. depreciated in value ; and, Mr. SHE RIDAN said, that *' he believed we *' should not bug be able, after the " inundation of paper to which Ihi? " system giwe birth, to stop them " from making bank-notes a legal "' tender, and tlien adieu to the ap- " pearance of specie at the Bank, " and 'soon afterwards to the real " value of the Bank note/ When the bijtl was under discussion on the 27th of March, Mr. PITT having said, that the clause, respecting the bar to arrests for debt, did not go the length of making Bank Notes a legal tender, nor to take away the power of the creditor to pursue the j debtor in the usual course of tow, in | order to obtain payment in easlu Sir FRANCIS BARING said, thai he saw no means of avoiding the evil to be apprehended by bankers and mer chants but that of making Bank Notes a legal tender; and Mr. DENT was for making Bank Nr-^s a kyalte&der daring the suspension of cash pay ments. Now, what did Mr. PITT say, in answer to this suggestion from his friends? 1U said, that 4< as to " making Bank Notes a legal tender, ** he thought, that, if it was possible, to *' meet the present difficulty without it, " it ought to be met without it; that, " upon a subject of so much difficulty " and uncertainty, 7*0 man could speak " with confidence; but, that es fang " as the circulation rested upon paper " taken by consent, he thought it " would not be adciseable to have it " taken by compulsion! 9 Upon this ground, the Act was passed; and, it is very clear, that one of the objects of the short duration of the first Act, which was passed for only 51 clays, was, to gee whether people were inclined to have recourse to the law to compel payments in cash for debts due from private individuals to other private individuals. Every means, as we have seen, had been taken to prevent this, A planned Meeting of Bankers and Merchants had been held, at the Mansion House in London, and its resolutions for taking and circulating Bank Notes had been issued under the sanction of the then LORD MAYOR. Similar resolutions had been issued from the several benches of Justices at the quarter sessions, in all the counties; and, indeed, ag these resolutions were Signed by the Clerks of the Peace, and had about them all the air of acts of authority, the effect upon the far mers and tradesmen in general was nearly the same as that of an Act of Parliament, making Bank Notes a legal tender. If these means had furled, however, there pan, I think, be very little doubt, that the measure of making Bunk Notes a legal tender would have been adopted; for, the only reason which Pitt offers, as ive see above, for not doing it at once, is, that the people Veined, at present^ to bu disposed to take the Bank Notes as cash vitkotet compvkinn; and,, he very clearly meant, that, if the people refused to consider them as cash,. compulsion must and would be re sorted to. And yet, after a!! this, and with these facts recorded in the Parlia mentary Preceedings of the time, Mr. HusKissoNywhowas actually in office under PITT or DUN DAS when the measure was discussed; with all tbis before his eyes, this Gentleman tells the public, that neither the making Bank Notes a legal tender nor any thing of the sort was in the contem plation oj any man at the time when ( the Act for the suspension of cash payments was passed ; and that anv proposition of the kind would have- excited universal alarm, and wouldl have forcibly drawn the attention &f the legislature and the public to th possible consequences of such an in novation ! Here, Gentlemen, we have an in stance either of the incorrectness^ j might say, the ignorance, or the V sincerity, of Mr, HuskissoB, who, ti 231] LETTER XVII. say the truth, temptations, as see, to draw a is not without his we shall by-and-by veil over the origin and the conduct of the originators of the measure of 'protecting the Bank against the demands of the note holders;, to do which it was absolutely necessary either to make Bank Notes a legal tender, or to do something that should answer the same purpose. To make them a legal tender by law, at once, would, indeed, have been a thing so shameful as not to be endured, in the face of the principles laid down by the Parliament, in the Act of the 4th year of Geo. III. above quoted. To pass a law making English Bunk ."Notes a legal tender, putting English Bank Notes upon a level with the co lonial paper mentioned in that Act; to make Bank Notes the degraded tiling there described, was what could not be thought of, until all the means of avoiding it had been tried; but, it is, nevertheless, very clear, that if the circulating; if the promulgating (with all the appearance of official autho rity) of the resolutions from the Man sion House and from the benches of county Justices; it is very clear, that it" these had failed in giving currency to the Bank Notes, these notes would have been made a legal tender in all %'.ises, and to all intents and purposes whatever. They are a leal tender frojo. the Bank itself. tender to the Stock-holder n pay ment of his dividends. No man can sue the Bank Company on account of their refusing to give him gold for any of their promissory nates of which lief may be the holder; iu>/ can any Stock holder sue the Bank Company on ac- count of a refusal to pay him the amount of his dividends in cash. They are certainly 'not a legal tender between rnan and man, any farther than as far as relates to the barring ef an arrest, and of the necessity of special bail. You cannot arrest, or demand special bail from the debtor, who tenders you the amount of your tiebt in Bank of England notes;* but -The pro a legal you may sue him in the other wav. The tender of Bank Notes secures the debtor from arrest and from being obliged to give special < i ail, in the first instance; but, it does not protect him against being /?#% compelled to pay in cash. If, for instance, GRIZZLE GREENHORN owes either of you a hundred pounds; or, which is better illustration, perhaps if you have in your hands a hundred and five pounds in amount of the notes of Messrs. FAPERKITE & Co. Country Bankers, and you have a mind to have gold for those notes, looking forward to a time when you may want them, and having a greater attachment to the king's picture than to the arms and crests of Papcrkite & Co. In such a case, you go to Paperkite with his notes, and demand payment of them, lie tenders you, as a matter of course, Bank of England notes to the amount of those f his own which you present for pay ment; but you, in, pursuance of your design to be possessed of a hundred of the King's pictures, demand yold, and stick to (hat demand. If he cannot, or will not, pay you in gold, you cannot arrest him or compel him to put in special bail, but, you can bring the ordinary action of debt against him, the decision of which is sure to be in your favour with the usual cost:*, and, while the action is going on, he is obliged to deposit the Bank of England notes in court, as the ground of being protected in the mean while against arrest and against the demand of special bail; and, if he does not make this deposit, you can even arrest him, as in any other case of refusal or inability to pay. Thus, Gentlemen, stands the law, with regard to the legality of a tender of Bank of England notes. The Tax- ;atherer cannot refuse them in pay ment of taxes; the Stockholder cannot refuse them in payment of his divi dends; and the note-holder cannot demand coin for them of the Bank Company or of any body else, of whom he has once received them ** 233] LETTER XVIII. [234 payment; ,but, any private individual may refuse them in payment of money due, to him from any body but the Bank Company; and, may proceed to recover payment in real money, in the \v ay above described. Jhiuking it desirable to keep this subject of the Ler/al Tender distinct fro?,, that of the Duration of the Act of 1797, and having necessarily a good deal to say upon the latter sub ject, and much interesting matter to develope, I shall not enter thereon till my next Letter; and, in the mean while, I remain, Gentlemen, Your faithful friend, WM. COBBETT. State Prison, Newgate, Mviday, November 9 If A, 1310. LETTER XVIII. loped c;tTjen would direct their most serious attention to thr subject. The bit! was of the utmost rnporfuite ; if a papei currency vere once established, how couUi it be got rid of? If gold and silver were once driven out of circulation, how were Inoy r-j be recovered ? The sure consequences of a paper urrency would \>e a debt so enormous, that it would never be removed. ' The. old debts and tlie new would anish topf-ther, and the funded property would :-:itik with them. A revolution in property might product revolution jir Government, and all those scenes of blood which had disgraced France." MR. 4ICI10LLS. Debate, 27th March 1797- On the Bank ReUrectiofi Bill. Duration of the Bank Stoppage or Restriction Act Recapitulation of the Dates of the principal Oerwences leading to the Act Apparent Reluctance with which the Bank Company submitted to the Restriction They now discover that they have no Objec tion to be restrained Mr. Huskisson says that the Duration could not have been foreseen The probable Reason of this Mr. Huskisson's Places and Pensions Such a Person ought to have foreseen these Consequences of the Act Others did forscc them. GENTLEMEN, WE now come to that subject which naturally connects the proceedings and measures of 1797, with the Report of the Bullion Committee, namely, the DURATION of the Act of 1797, that Act, which was made for the purpose of protecting the Bank Com pany against the legal demands of the holders of its promissory notrr, and which Act, as yon will not fail to bear in mind, arose out of an alarm felt by the Bank Company for the safety of their House. It is very material to keep constantly in view the progress which ended in the pass ing of this Act, which, as you will have already perceived, did* in fact, decide the fate of the paper-money in England'; and, therefore, I will here again place before you a recapitulation of the dates of the principal occur rences, February 21st, 1797,' the Di rectors of the Bank, " observed " with great uneasiness the large " and constant decrease in their 11 cash, 1 " a deputation of them went to the Minister (Pitt) to make him acquainted therewith ; and, as they attributed the run to the alarm of invasion, they begged of the Minister to say something in Parliament, " in " order to ease the public mind " upon that score." February 24th. At a meeting of the Directors, it appeared that the " loss of cash yesterday was " above and that about " * were already drawn * There were no sums inserted. The statement of sums was left in blank as it if here. 885] LETTER XVIIT. ** out this day, which gave suck > ** s likely to do, for the people of England. Mr. WILLIAM HUSKISSON, the author of th^ pamphlet mentioned in my last, owes what he has got not to any family connection, but soleh to his own personal exertions, having, in his early days, been, according to some, an Apothecary, and, according to others, a Banker. He did ^ot waste the precious days of his youth at schools and colleges, learning 'Latin and laziness. Like you and I, Gen tlemen, he owes nothing to pedagogues or to pedigree ; and though he does not belong to that class of men whom PAINE calls the Nobles of Nature- yet, were ^Nature to give titles, she would certainly dubb Mr. Huskisson a Knight. This gentleman ws in France at the breaking out of the ANTI JACOBIN war; that is to sa\ the war which begun in 1793, and which, as we have seen, produced such effects upon the bank-note sys tem. He appears, from a French pamphlet which I have in my posses sion, to have been a very ardent friend of the French revolution, at the out set, and, a speech of his, delivered in a club at Paris, upon funds and tythcs, it would do your hearts good to hear. From Paris, however, Mr. Huskissoii returned to England in 1793, having come away upon the recall of our am bassador, Lord Gowt.T, now Marquis of Stafford, to whom, it is said, he had been useful at 'Paris and who is said, in return to have recommended him to the notice of those two worthy associates in power, and never to-be- forgotten ministers, PITT and D'UN- DAS. They found him useful ; and, though his out-set was low, he found himself, at the end of less tiian seven years, an Lender Secretary of State, in the Colonial Department, and a Mem ber of Parliament. In the winter of 1801, when PITT and DUN DAS went out of olfice, Mr. HUSKISSOM followed them, but not without taking care to cast a look behind him ; and by the advice of Mr ADDINGTON, the successor of Mr. PITT, our author had conferred on him a PENSION, for life, to be paid out of the taxes raised on the people, to the amount of 1,200 a year; and afterwards, a pension, to be paid from the same source, was settled upon his PAPER AGAINST GOLD. wife, Mrs. ELIZA EMILY HUSKIS- SON, to the amount of 615 pounds a year ibr her life, to commence at her luisband's death. What a nice com fortable way this is. Gentlemen, to make provision for one's .wife and fa mily ! Mr. Hrsiussoi^s pension was to be suspended whenever he should be in possession of an ollice of the annual value of 2,000 a year, or upwards, and, when lie quitted such office, he was again to receive the pen sion. So that he made 'sure of 1 ,2001. a year for life, and of 615 pounds a year for the life of his wife, if she should out-live him. This shewed not only a very provident but a very affec tionate disposition. But, our author did not stop hvre ; for he obtained the Agentship of tho Island of Ceylon, ac knowledged by himself to be worth 700 pounds a year, and this he still held along with the office of Secretary of the Treasury which he got in 1804, and M r hich at 4,000 pounds a year salary, he held, with an interval of about fifteen months, 'till about Octo ber, 1809. So that, while in, office he got 4,700 pounds a year; anil while out of office, 1,900 pounds a year, 1,200 pounds of which he has for life, with a provision of 615 pounds a year for the life of his wife, if she should out-live him. Such, Gentlemen, is the history of the public life of the author of the pamphlet, of which I am about to speak. He is now one of the Mem bers of Parliament for Harwich ; he was one of the members of the BULLION COMMITTEE, and his pamphlet, the title of which was men tioned in my last Letter, has been published for the purpose of explain ing some parts and defending other parts of the famous and immortal lleport of that Committee. But as perfection is not to be ex pected in any thing human, this Re port omits to say any thing about the grounds of the continuance, or dura tion of the Cash Stopping, or Bank- restricting Act; and Mr. HUSK is SON ! seems to think it incumbent upon him to say some little matter upon that subject. He put himself in a ticklish predicament, when he took up his pen upon such a subject; for, \vc. have seen, that he was in office ; we have seen that he was in the receipt of -the public money from the year 1793 to the time when he became a. member of the Bullion Committee ; we have seen, that, from 1804 to the end nearly of 1809 (with the excep tion of about fifteen months) he was a Secretary of the Treasury, and it is perfectly notorious, that he was what was called the Minister PITT'S rigl it- hand man; that he hail, in fact, the chief actual management of the pecu niary alTaii-s of the Exchequer and Treasury ; that he was so closely in timate with Mr. PITT, that he was one of the few persons with him when he died ; and that he was one of the witnesses of his will and one of his creditors. A person thus situated ought to have had some knowledge of the finan cial affairs of the kingdom. A person thus situated ought to have known pretty well the nature and tendency of a measure like the Cash-Stopping, or Bank-restricting Act. A person, to whom the people of England pay 4,700 pounds a year while he is in oflice, und 1,900 a year when he is out of .office. A person, to whom, at the very least, we are to pay, out of the taxes, 1,200 pounds a year for his life, with a contingent 615 pounds a year for the life of his wife. Such a person, Gentlemen, ought to have a mind capable of extending its inqui ries and conclusions beyond the pre sent moment; and, in a case like that of the Stopping or Restricting Act, to be able to foresee the consequence;* that will result. In short, the man, be he who he may, that receives frOi^ the people such pay, ought, if his de partment be that of the Treasury, to be ashamed to plead ignorance as to any principle or point connected with the subject before us. 240] LETTER XVIII. [244 Yet, what docs Mr. HUSKISSON say as to the duration of the Stoppage, or Restriction Act? He is in a dilemma. To pass over the matter in silence, will not do, because he is .compelled to speak of the injuries arising from the long duration of the Act ; and, to censure the passing of the Act will not do, because it is so well known that he was in office when it was first passed, and aJso when it was twice or three times re newed. In this difficulty, he has re course to a plea, which he does not appear to conceive makes against himself. He wishes his reader to gather from what is said, that those who were the cause of the Act origi nally never could dream of its heing continued in force so long. He says, that that Act was, when first passed, *' considered and proposed, as an ex- " pedient that should be of short du- " ration, the course of the proceed.- *' ings of parliament abundantly indi- ' cates ; but, if, in the year 1797, it " had been foreseen), that this tempo- " rary expedient, would be attempted " to be converted into a system for an " indefinite number of years, and that, " under this system, in the year 1810, " every creditor, public or private, " subject or alien, to whom the law, ** as it then stood, and as it now " stands, had secured the payment of " a pound weight of standard gold for " every 46 14s. 6d. of his just de- " mand, would be obliged to accept, " infull satisfaction, about 10^ ounces, " or not more than seventeen shillings " in the pound; with a prospect of a " still further reduction in every sub- " sequent year: it is impossible to *' conceive that the attention andfetl- " ings of parliament would not have " been alive to all the individual in- " justice, and ultimate public cala- *' mities, incident to such a stute of *' things ; and that they would not " have provided for the termination of " the restriction, before it should have " wrought so much mischief, and laid " the foundation of so much confusion " in all the dealings and transactions " of the community.'^ Here are two questions : that of the dilation of the Act, and that of depreciation of the Bank notes. The latter will form the nibject of a sub sequent Letter. As to the former, Mr. Iluskigson would evidently have us believe, the continuation of the Act for any length of time was not foreseen, either by him, or by any *body else. HISTORY, TRUTH, JUS TICE; justice to the living and the dead; but especially to the dead, de mand the proof of the contrary ; de mand that, you, Gentlemen, and that the whole of the people of England should know, that if PITT and his colleagues ; that, if those to whom we have paid so many many thousands and hun dreds of pounds, in salaries, pensions, allowances, and fees; that, if they did not foresee the consequences of the Act of May 3, 1797, there were others, who did foresee tho.se consequences, though, unfortunately for the country, the parliament were deaf to their pre dictions, and still supported Mr. Pitt and his system. It w now more than THIRTEEN YEARS since this Act was passed, since this deed was done ; since the blow, under which credit is now staggering, was struck ; but, it is not only neces sary to justice towards individuals but to public safety to shew, who it was that did that deed, and who it was that had ende'avoured to prevent the measures which produced it and fore told its fatal consequences. It is now the practice of the PITT school, when they speak of the Stoppage, or Re striction Act, to speak of it as of a thing that nobody could help; as men speak of a flood, or thunder-storm, or any other calamity, in the causing or the preventing of which it is well known that mankind can have nothing to do. But, we must not, Gentlemen, suffer them thus to get off. They have had tlie sway in the country for the 243] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. '246 last ttcenty-six years, fifteen months exempted. They have followed their own plans. They have constantly in sisted that theirs were the wisest plans. They huve made people feel that it was full as safe to leave their plans unattacked. Well. We have now the result before us. P ITT and his admirers and adherents have pos sessed the places and the powers of the state for twenty-six yearn ; and we now see what are the consequences. Those who like the consequences ; those who think the present state of thiugs a goud one, will of course, be thankful that we have had such men in power ; but, those, who, like Mr, HUSKISSON, are able to discover some grounds for apprehension, must excuse me, if I point out those to whom we owe the danger; or, if, in the words of the old maxim, " I clap " the saddle upon the right horse." Tliis task must, however, be re served for my next ; and in the mean while, I remain, G intlemeu, Vour faithful friend, WX COBBETT, State Prison, Newgate, Thursday, Nowmbtr 2<>' 1810. LE1TER XIX, " Thin. tti measure of aoo 'payment originated with the persons bound to pay. 1 the House of Com-.MiHis, Jior. 2C', !?<)? Mr. ticrney't Sp*ech, ia The Reason for the Stoppage, or Restriction, Act Mr. Pitt and his Adherents re- prrent it as of short Duration Mr. Fox and others foretell that it will never b re pealedThe Dates of the several Renewals of the Act Pretence for the first Rene wal Resolution of the Hank Directors- Report of the Secret Committee Pretence for the second Renewal Exposure of tlvs }>y Mr. Hobhouse Miserable Answer of the Minister Mr. Tiemey's Exposure of the". whole Thing The Measure traced to the tnd of the last War. GENTLEMEN, THE task first to be performed, agreeably to the conclusion of my last letter, is, to point out to you, and I flat ter myself, to your children's chil dren, tho*e persons, who bore a dis tinguished part in the discussions of the Stoppage, or Restriction, Act; and, especially to show you, that that Act was not a thing that came like a flood or like thunder, as Mr. Kuskisson appears to wish us to believe ; and that its duration was a circumstance which yks not only foreseen but dis tinctly fort-told by several of those persons, who, by the party to which Mr. Huskisson belonged, were re presented as the enemies of their country. The Bill was, as we have seen, brought into the House of Com mons on the 9th of March, and be came a law on the 3rd of May. Be tween these days there were several debates upon tfce subject; and, you will now see, whether, as Mr. If us* KISSON would have the public believe, there was nobody that could foresee or dream of, this long continuation of the non-payment of cash at the Bank. Justice to the dead as well as to the living, as was before observed, de mands that the truth of this fact should be well known ; but, besides that, the knowledge of the truth here will be of great utility in the guiding of our judgment for the future. 1 shall, therefore, give the very words of the se veral speakers upon the subject, just as they stand in the Reports of the Parliamentary Debates of that time ; and, that any one may, when ho pleases, examine into the correctness of mv statements, I shall give the date of the- Debate from which I make my quotations. Mr. PITT and his adherents held a language of great confidence in the solvency, and even in the wealth of 247] LETT Ell XIX. [248 the Bank Company. You have seen, that the first Act of Stoppage, or, as it is called, of Restriction, was to last for onlyjifty-tiuo days, which, of itself, amounted to a declaration, that the Bank would he ahle to resume their payments in a short time ; and, during the debates upon the bill, in its seve ral stages, every thing was said, that could be thought of by the Minister and his adherents, to cause the public to believe, that the suspension of cash- payments would be very short indeed. In the debate of the 23rd of March, 'Mr. WILBKRFORCE said, that, " Gen- ** tlemen did not consider how much " of this distress arose from the very " nature of our commercial dealings. " The credit we gave was one year, " eighteen mouths, or two years, " while we paid at six months ; so that " in the progressive increase of trade "it was some time before the balance " flowed in. The bad effects were " passed, the good wen; yet to come." On the 24th of March, Mr. PITT said, that, " as to the exact period, he could " make no positive conjecture : for he " felt it difficult to say, whether " one mouth, or two, or three t would '" be better. But when lie reflected, " that it must require some time for " money to circulate buck from the te country to the Bank, and also to be ' refunded from abroad , and from all " the other sources, from which its " wealth may be derived, he could ." not entertain a firm hope that the " restoration of the Bank could be " other than gradual, he would, thcre- " fore, limit the operation of the pre- u 'sent clause to the 24th of June " 1797." On the 29th of March, Mr. LUBBOCK said, that " if 7*0 par ticular day was fixed, and th Bank " began to pay specie without such " notice, all would go on gradually " and smoothly; that he was eon- " vinced, with a very little assistance, " that the Bjiik might go on as usual " ^imediate'ly, and discount freely; " if 3,000,000 were added to their " capital, it would enable the Bunk to " discount to a much larger amount, " which would more than accommo- " dale the commercial world ; and he 11 would venture to be d d, if such a " sum would not be subscribed in " twenty-four hours ; this would put " all to* rights." On theSlst of March Mr, PITT said, " Leave the Bank and " them to exercise a discretion con- " cerning it, which, at all events, " could do no injury, and might, more " than probably would, lead to the at- " tainment of that which the right ho- " nourable gentleman himself seemed " so anxious for, namely, the rcstora- " tion of cash payments at the Bank." And, again, on the same day he said : " Probably then the cash in the Bank " on the 25th of February was no " yet diminished then if more "cash came in, it would gradually " enable the Bank to open again and " resume its operations by those slow " and successive steps which would " make a resumption ff/t'." On tho same day, Mr. SAMtfeL THORNTON, one of the Bank Directors, said, in speaking of the clause, which invites people to carry gold to deposit in the Bank, that, " on the whole he con- " sidered it as a most important mea- " sure, and that it would enable the " Bank to resume its usual gene- " ral payments long antcc: dent to the " period Jixed for its recovery." Thus, all of them spoke either of a. gradual or a speedy return to eash-payments ; and this last gentleman, a most firm ad herent of the Minister, and a Bank Director expressed his opinion, that the Bank would be able to pay even before the expiration of tiiejfifty-lwo days, for which the Act was made. (Enterefc at Stationers' $aff. Printed by \V. MOLI.VEUX, 5, Bream's Building;?, Chat-eery Lane; Fublishf-r] by W. COBBETT, Jun. No, 8, Catherine Street, Strand ; and Kvtailed at No. 192, Strand. /j-COBBETTS PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [Price Two-Pence. 249] Now, Gentlemen, hear the other side. You have heard the Minister PITT and his adherents. Now hear Mr. Fox and those who stood with him. But, above all things mark the words of Mr. Fox. Look at his pre dictions; and, I need not point out to you, how exactly they have been ac complished thus far, and how mani fest it is that the rest are in the way of speedy accomplishment. Mr. Fox is no more ; but his words will never die. The evils he foretold, and that he laboured to prevent, have all come upon us, or now menace us with horrid aspect. In the debate of the 7th of March, Mr. HOBHOUS'E said : " But we are " told that this bill is to exist for a " short time only. Has the right " honourable Chancellor of the Ex- " chequer considered what is likely " to take place when this bill shall ex- " pire ? Will not the holders of Bank '* of England notes, the very moment " that the suspension of payment in " specie is at an end, rush in large " bodies to the Bank and demand '* specie ? Having been once deluded, " will they ever expose themselves to " the risque of being deluded a seco7id " time ; having once lost the opportu- " nity of converting their notes into " specie by a sudden and unexpected '* Order of Council, will they ever " voluntarily become holders of such " notes again ? The least wound " given to public credit is not easily " healed ; public confidence once lost, " is not easily recovered." What Mr. NICHOLLS said, in the debate of the 22nd of March, we have seen in the Motto to Letter XVIII. In the same debate Mr. Fox said that, "He [250 " knew not what the duration of the " bill was intended to be, whether for " three weeks or for three or six " months ; but this he knew, that the " longer the duration, the greater our " difficulty would be ; and he must " be a sanguine man indeed, if he " thought the country would not be ' ruined in its credit, if this bill con- " tinued for six or eight months. " There were some persons who con- " fessed that this evil could not be " removed during the war: he agreed " with them ; but he doubted whether " it could be removed EVEN IN " PEACE, unless that desirable event " should take place very soon. Every " hour that it was delayed diminished ' our chance of removing the cala- ' mity. If we had not peace in the ' spring of 1797, what should we say ' in the autumn ? This was a question * which did not depend on the taking * of a town or a fortress. An enume- ' ration of many successes in that re- ' spect would be of no avail. This * was a time in which AVC should not * conceal any thing from the public. '* A new loan of several millions was ' speedily wanted, which certainly ' would not tend to improve the situa- ' tibn of paper credit. He could not ' bring himself to state the circum- ' stances of this country without the ' most painful anxiety. The House ' ought to consider that this country ' was now on the brink of a dreadful ' precipice, and that one false step ' might throw it into a gulph out of ' which it never could rise." In the same debate, in answer to a remark of Mr. PITT " that an increase of " Bank notes would hasten the period " of cash payments" Mr. Fox saicf, * MOLJNEUX, Printer, Bream'* Buildings Chancei y Lane, 51] LETTER XIX. tliat " to say that paper differed from the nature of every thing else, and , that it was valuable in proportion as it was plentiful, and not as it was 'rare; and that the abundance of * paper would incline people not to 1 hoard guineas, but would induce * them to carry them to the Bank, ' were propositions so inconsistent t with sound reasoning, that he wag ' ashamed of calling up principles so ' merely elementary, and which were * as clear a^ the simplest proposi- * tions of mathematics." In the same debate, Mr. SHERIDAN said, that " There would be wo end to the bill, " should it be carried into ellect. He " would repeat, therefore, what he * had said before, that it would be ' better to suspend the proceeding ' altogether, than to hazard the evils ' which its enactment, without the ' prospect of a limitation, would pro- < duce," Jn the same debate, Sir WILLIAM PULTENEY said: "Does " any man, in his senses, imagine, that if this stoppage of payment in " specie is to be of long duration, " that the merchant will not advance " the price of his foreign articles ? " This appears to me to be a great " evil ; and I have no idea of assenting " to any bill of this kind, unless the "duration be Jixed, and irrevocably " limited to a short period.'' In the debate of the 24th of March, the same gentleman, Sir WILLIAM PUL- TENEY, said, that " he was. of opinion " that the longer the period wag, the " heavier would our difficult ics grow. " It was useless to say, that cash " might jflouj back from the country " and from abroad; for, while we " were waiting for that reflux of " specie, our destruction must ensue; " it was impossible to rettore the " Bank by the balance of trade to " which the right honourable gentle- "man, Mr. PITT, alluded. The " theory was false, and nothing solid " could be expected from it. Three " weeks iiad already been given to " the Bank, and, he was willing to " grant it one month more; if, then, " it could not pay, wo must look for " some other remedy : for that now " proposed would be found of no " avail. We should be only compelled " to prolong the restriction from one period to another, till our paper met " the fate of the French aunty it ats." Such, Gentlemen, were thiVopinioiM expressed, upon this part of the- s\i-b- ject, when the cash-stopping biH was iirst before the Mouse of Commons. You see, then, that, while Mr. PITT and his adherents wore full of confi dence of the Bank being able to return to its payments in cash ; while they saw no danger at all from this mea sure ; while they thought that the in- itation contained in the Act for peo ple to bring money into the Bank Shop would again fill the Shop with real treasure ; while they, and espe cially Mr. WILBERFORCE, described the Stoppage of cash-payments rather as a skn of prosperity and riches than the contrary ; while they did not, as Mr. HITSKISSON says, dream of the Act being continued for a length of time; while their opinions, or, . at least, their declarations, were of this sort, the declarations on the other side of the House, the declarations of those whom this " most thinking" nation would not bclierc, the declara tions of those whom this " most think - " ing" nation Mere persuaded to look upon as its enemies and as the friends of France, were just the contrary. Mr. Fox and his party not only fore saw, but they foretold, what has since come to pass. They said, that, if the Act was once passed, it must go on; and they gave reasons, for their opinibn ; reasons that were not attempted to be overset by other reasons, and that were opposed by nothing but abuse or 'foul insinuation. Having, now, as far as relates to this point, done justice to the parties who took a part in the debates upon the occasion -referred to; having 253; PAPEll AGAINST GOLD. [254 shewn tliat Mr. HUSKISSON has not fairly represented the matter ; having shewn that Mr. PITT and his adhe rents either meant to deceive the na tion as to the ability and willingness of the Bunk to return to payments in cash, or were themselves ignorant of the natural consequences of the mea sure, and that they had either less sin cerity or less knowledge than their op ponents ; having placed this import ant part of the subject beyond the power of future misrepresentation, we will now trace this famous Act of Parliament through its several renew als, from its first passing to the pre sent day. In the whole, there have been Six Acts passed; the ^original Act, of which the several clauses are mentioned in Letter XVI, page 214, and Five Acts of Renewal. There are, in some of these Jive, trifling de viations from the original Act ; but, these are very unimportant. The great provisions about stopping cash- payments, about protecting the Bank Company against the demands of their creditors, and about the protection from arrests in individual cases, are all preserved, are now in full force, and, therefore, the alterations of no material consequence. - We have seen the title and preamble of the Act before, at page 215, and it will be best, before I offer you any observations upon the reasons, which at the different renewals, were stated in Justification of the measure, to furnish you with the dates of the six Acts, that you may, if your affairs should require it, and opportunity enable you to do it, refer to these Acts yourselves. THE FIRST was passed in the 37th year of the reign of George III, and is, of the Statutes of that year, Chap ter 45. The date, according to the common way of dating, is 1707, and 01* tlw 23d of .May. To continue in force to the 24th of June 1797 ; that is to say, for only Jiffy-two days. THE SECOND : 37 year George III, Chapter 91. That is, in 1797 ; and the day when the Act passed was the 22nd of June ; to continue in force 'till one month after the com mencement of the then next Session of Parliament ! Mark this. See what a leap was taken. But you will see a greater presently. THETHIRD : 38th year George III, Chapter I. That is, 1797; and the day when the Act was passed was the 30th of November; to continue in force 'till one month after the conclu sion of the then war by a cftjinitive treaty of peace ! Bravo ! See how it gains strength as it goes. " Give " them an inch, 'and they'll take an *' ell" says the old proverb. But, we have not yet seen the boldest leap. This Act, mind, was to protect the Bank 'till the end of the war ; and the reasons for that we shall see by- and-by. THE FOURTH (Peace ?rcrs now come, observe) : 42nd year George III, Chapter 42. That is, 1802 ; and the Act was passed on the JJOUi of April ; to continue in force (though peace u-as made) till the Isf of March, 1803. We shall by-and-by, see the reasons that \vere given for this. These reasons are the interesting matter. THE FIFTH (Peace still continu ing) : 43rd year George III, Chapter 18. That is, 1803 ; and the Act was passed on the 28th of February ; to continue in force till six icee.ks after the commencement of the then next Session of Parliament. This was the second renewal after the end of the war. The second renewal during peace. THE SIXTH (War was now begun again) : 44th year George III, Chap ter . That is, 1803; and the Act was passed on the 15th of December ; to continue in force till six MONTHS after a conclusion of a difimtive treaty . of peace! This last* Gentlemen, is the Act which is now in force. This is the Act, which now protects the Bank Company against the demands of the holders of their promissory notes.- This is the Act, which the BULLION / 2 255J LETTfeR XIX. COMMITTEE recommended to be re pealed in such a way that the Bank Company shall he compelled to pay again in cash hi two years from this time. You will now be so good as to recall to your minds, that the main question for us to determine is, whe ther, if such a law were passed, it is likely that it could be executed : in other w'ords ; whether ft be likely that the Bank Company will ever again be able to pay their notes in money. This is the main question for our determi nation, because upon that question hangs the whole paper system; and, In order the better to enable ourselres to determine that question, and also to complete the history of the Bank Company and the Bank Stoppage, or Restriction, as they call it, we must now take a view of the REASONS, which, at the several renewals of the Stoppage, or Restriction Act, were urged in justification of the measure. The FIRST Act was, as we have seen, proposed to the Parliament by the Minister, and defended by him and his adherents upon the ground of necessity. The drain of cash was said to have been sudden and unusual, arising from false alarms of invasion. The emergence was said to be tempo rary. The stoppage was acknowledged to be a great evil; but, it was main tained, that it was absolutely neces sary, as the only means of avoiding a greater evil. It was, particularly by the then Attorney-General (now Lord Eldon), and by the then Solicitor- General (now Lord Redesdale), urged, that the measure was necessary to the safety of the public creditor, or Stock holder ; because, if the run upon the Bank had not been cheeked by force of law, the Bank would have been totally ruined, and, of course, that the Stock-holder would have lost his all. But (and I beg you to mark it well) vhen the SECOND Act came under discussion, in June 1797, the Minister and his adherents began to hold a different sort of language, and to speak of the Act, not as the less of two evils, but rather as a measure adopted from choice and not from ne cessity. This Act, which was the^rsf act of renewal, had for its forerunner, a correspondence between the minister and the Bank Directors. His letter to them was dated on the twelfth of June, and their answer on the 13th. These letters having been prepared, he, the minister himself, moved, in the House of Commons, on the 15th of June, that the said letters should be laid before the House, which was done. And, what do you think, Gen tlemen, that these letters contained ? Why, the minister's letter told the Bank Directors, that he did not think that it was expedient, that they should begin again to pay in cash, at the time specified in the first Act of Par liament ; and they, very submissively, acquiesced in the minister's opinion/ Now, pray do not laugh, Gentlemen; for, you will find in the end, it is no laughing matter. These two Letters, and nothing in the world besides, were made the ground of a legislative proceeding.; made the ground, and the sole ground for continuing, for five months longer, an Act of Parliament, which protected the Bank Compary against the de mands of their numerous creditors, the holders of their notes. In the course of his speech, the Minister* the " heaven-born Minister," said, " that " he had the satisfaction to say, that " there was in the affairs of the Bank, with regard to the means of pay ment in cash, an improvement that was highly consoling, and that the apprehension of their not recovering their ability to pay in the accustomed manner had been greatly exagge rated, when the subject first came before the House." He said, in another part of his speech that " he was still anxious to come to the ter mination of the restriction ; and, al- thonech that could not be on the day appointed, yet it was a satisfaction to the public to find, that the incon venience of the measure was much i?57] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [258 " less than had been foretold ; and that, " indeed, the consequence of the mea- " sure had been the reverse of what " had been predicted by its oppo- " nents." Without more ado the bill was brought in, and was passed, as we have seen, in seven davs afterwards, with out any further debate about the mat ter. Four fifths of the House of Com mons were still at the back of the Mi nister ; he appears to have lost not a single vote in consequence of the state to which it was now manifest he had brought the aft'airs of the nation ; there were still th same majorities for him in the House, and there was still the *ame shouting for him at Lloyd's ; the majority of the nation, partly from folly, partly from fear, partly from the influence of the paper system, were still as loud in his praises as ever, and Mr. Fox, apparently \vearied with ex ertions which afforded no hope of suc cess, left the people to feel tiie effects of their infatuation. But, when the THIRD Act came to be passed, in November 1797, a little more preparation was necessary ; and it was also necessary to find out new reasons, a quite new doctrine, in justi fication of it; or, to acknowledge, at once that the Bank was .unable to pay. The refusal to pay their notes in cash had now lasted for nine months ; the alarm of invasion was over; and, it appeared difficult to con ceive any reason whatever for the con tinuation of the Stoppage, or Restric tion Act, other than that of the inabi lity of the Bank Company to pay their notes in money. Other reasons were, however, found out; but, by way of preparation another S EC RET COM MITTEE was now appointed in the House of Commons, which Committee were, as we shall see, the vehicle through which the new doctrines first made their way into that House. This Committee, by the hands of Mr. CHARLES BRAGGE (now Bragge Bathurst, and Member for Bristol), made their Report to the House on the 17th of November 1797; and, I will venture to say, that a more cu rious document never was produced in the world. Every syllable of it is worthy of your attention; and I beg of you to go careful.y through it before you proceed any further. The Report was, in part, grounded upon a Copy of a Resolution oj the Bank Directors, which had been passed some time be fore, and which was laid before this Committee of Secrecy. I shall insert this Resolution first; and I must again beseech you to read every word of both documents with attention ; for, you may be well assured, that the whole world never saw such docu ments before.* * Resolution of t lie Court of Directors of the Rank. At a Court of Directors, at the Bank, on Thursday the 26th October 1797. RhsoLVKD. That it is the opinion of this Court, That the Governor and Company of the Bank of England are enabled to issue specie, in any manner that may be deemed necessary for the accommodation of the public; and the Court have no hesitation to declare, that the affairs of tlu. Bank are in such a state, that it can with safety resume its as.aistomed functions, if the political circumstan~ ce$ of the country do not render it inexpedient r but the Directors deeming it foreign to their province to judge of these points, wish to SM&- mit to the wisdom qf Parliament, whether ag it has been ONCE JUDGED PROPER TO LAY A RESTRICTION on the pay. ments of the Bank in cash, it may, or may not, be prudent to continue the same. The Committee of Secrecy, appointed to enquire whether it may be expedient further to con tinue the Re$tnciion, contained in two Acts, made m the last Session of Parliament, re specting payments in Cash by the Bank; have enquired accordingly, and agreed upon the fol lowing Report ; viz. Your Committee have, in the first place, examined the total amount of out-standing demands on the Bank of England, and of the funds for discharging the same ; and find, from the examination of the Governor and Deputy Governor of the Bank, and the documents produced by them, that the total amount of out-standing demands on the Bank was, on the lith day of this instant November, \7 t $"i8 t 910l.; and that the total amount of the funds for discharging the same (without including the permanent debt PAPEE AGAINST GOLD. [200 This Report, this matchless, this immortal Report, having been laid before the House, having been submitted " to the Wisdom of Par- " liament," the" heaven-born Minister" rose to move, at once, without any time for printing the Report,, to bring in a bill to extend the duration of the Act of Stoppage, or Restriction, as it is called. He said, that he would, however, move for the printing of the Report, " in order that all the Mem- " bers might have the satisfaction of " informing themselves, in detail, of " statements so very pleasing and ini- "portant; those gentlemen, he said, ** who had now heard the report read, " would think with him that after the "full examination the subject had nn- " dergone in the Committee; after " the clear and decided opinion that " Committee had pronounced upon " it ; and after the distinct statement " not only of them but of the Bank " Directors; it would be unnecessary " to detain the business merely on " account of the printing ; and that r* " would be proper to proceed without " delay to the object of that Report; " and move for leave to bring in a bill due from Government, of 1 1,686,8002, which hears an .interest of throe per cent.) was, on the same day, 21,418,46'OJ. ; leaving a balance of surplus in favour of the Bank (exclusive of the above mentioned debt from Government) of ;4, 839, 550. your Committee next proceeded to ex amine the principal articles of which the above mentioned sum of 2i,4J8,460/., being the credit side of account, is made up, with a' view of ascertaining how far the Bank might be enabled to resume its accustomed payments in cash, in case the restriction at {TV. sent subsisting should be removed : and your Committee find, that the advances to Government have, on the one hand, been so much reduced, since the 25th of February )ast, as to amount, on the said 1 1th day of this instant November, to no more than the sum of 4,2Mt,MO/. while, OQ the other hand, the cash and bullion in the Hank hart; increased to un ctinimni more 'Umnfire times the value <>f that at which they stood on the name V^th of February last, and much abov-r that at which they have stood at any time since the begin ning of September 1795. YourCommitt.ee farther f;nd, that the course of exclinnge with Hamburgh is, at present, unas-mily fa- rm>nJ>lc to /A is country, and that, from the si tuation of our trade, there is good, reason to imagine it will so continue, unless political circumstances should occur to ailect it. Your Comnaitree next proceeded to examine- the Governor ;;ul Deputy Governor of the Bank, as to their opinion cf the incmiveuir.ice which may have arisen from the restriction imposed on the Hank from making pay ment in cash, and of the erpeditncy of conti nuing xuzh rc*tricli 263] LETTER XIV. [264 " tainly considered the restriction as " absolutely necessary."" These miserable reasons ; these most pititul pretences, Mr. TIERNEY exposed, in his speech of the 22d of November, in a manner so complete, that one is shocked at the thought of tlie House afterwards suffering the measure to proceed { one cannot help wondering, that tlie Minister was able to sit and hear him; and, it is impos sible to feel any compassion for the people who still supported and ex tolled him ; and who richly merit all that could, or can, befall them from that cause, they having supported him 'with their eyes open, and against tlie clearly and loudly expressed dictates of reason and truth. Mr. TIERNEY said : " that the enemy would aim a " blow at our credit and finances, all " would agree, for all modern wars " have been without exception car- " ried on upon that principle. Mo- " dern wars are made upon resources " rather than blood ; but was this the " way to prevent the enemy from suc- " ceeding? most whimsical expedient! tf In order to leave to the enemy no t( credit to attack, they destroy credit " themselves. But at last they speak " plainly, at last it comes out it will " distress the financial operations of " the country ; and then they delibe- " rately weigh and find that it will be " expedient to continue the restric- " tion with the reserve of partial is- " sues of cash at the discretion of the " Bank, and that it may be so conti- " nued with advantage Jo the nation, " and without injury to the credit of " the Bank. This was the result of " the examination of the Governor " and Deputy Governor of the Bank " of England. This was their advice. " This precious plan, which first ori- " ginated in the diabolical, but fer- " tile mind of that monster Itober- " spierre." Mr.TiERNEY, in this speech, which was one of the best made upon the occasion, and to which I do not pre tend to do full justice, then shewed how clear it was, ,that the Bank Com pany and the Minister went hand in hand through the whole of the trans action ; that their operations were in tended to screen one another ; that the Bank Company called upon the Mi nister for protection ; and the Minister made that the pretext for his propo sitions to Parliament. He observed that the principal reason for continu ing to protect the Bank from paying their notes, came from the Bank Di rectors themselves, who even before the meeting of Parliament had come to a resolution, that they were able to pay if the political circumstances of the country did. not render it inexpe dient, but that the stoppage of pay ments in cash having been ONCE judged proper, they submitted to the wisdom of Parliament, whether it would not be proper to continue the same. " Thus/' said Mr. TIERNEY, " the measure of nonpayment origin ated with the persons bound to pay ;" and who, from the language of the Act, the \vorld would believe were restrained against their will from pay ing. From the Report of the Secret Committee, you will have perceived, that the Bank Company of Traders, were the chief source of the Com mittee's information ; for the Commit tee say, that, having asked them what they meant by those " political cir- " cumstunces of the country," men tioned in their Resolution, the Bank people told them, that they alluded to the war in which the country was en gaged ? Upon this ; aye upon this ground, suggested by the Bank Com pany themselves, did the Committee report, that it would not be safe for that Company to pay its notes during tlie war ; and upon the same ground did the House of Commons come to a like determination. Gentlemen, were not these fects fresh in our memories ; were they not capable of proof by living witnesses; nay, were they not proved by the ex istence of the Act of Parliament, of PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [260 which we are speaking, would they, could they be believed ? Could they be believed to have taken place in any cation upon earth ; and, especially amongst a people, calling themselves " the most thinking people in the world T Thus have we traced down this Act of Stoppage, or Restriction, as it is called, to the end of the last war. We have seen that its continuation was at last justified upon the ground of its being dangerous for the Bank to re turn to money payments DURING THE WAR, And now we have to see what reasons were given for con tinuing the restriction, or refusal to pay, AFTER THE WAR WAS OVER. But, this, by no means the least interesting part of the subject, must be reserved for another Letter. In the mean .while, I remain, Gentlemen, Your faithful friend, WM. COBBE1 State Prison, ff#wgiv dvrixy the war. The * heaven-born man/' as we have seen in the last Letter, expressly stated, that the measure was a mere war mea sure, intended to meet the hostility of ontiny; '' to meet his efforts ci " dri-pf-ration" But, it did not follow, L" ?aid, that the non-payment of cah would continue during the whole, of the war; but merely while the enemy pursued the war in its, then ** present shape." 80 that, at all events, it was believed, or, it was intended to make this " most f /linking people in thn world" believe that the measure Would last only for the war at longest, and that when peace returned, they wanlri once more get guineas for their note*, and that these of them who had divi dends to receive, would receive them in gold if they chose, as they formerly used to do; and, this was one of the reasons why the nation so anxiously wished for peace. Well, in 1802, Peace came! L'ut, alas ! it bror^ht no guineas in pay ments at the Bank. It brought with it no golden payments to the Stock holder, & Public Creditor, as some people call him. Peace brought -no repeal of the Bank Stoppage, or II <* striction Act. On the contrary, it did, as we have seen at page 254, bring an extension of the duration of that Act from the 80th of April, 1802, to the first of March, 1803. And th;is it was that, the promise \*as kept. Thus it was that " the, most " thin kin y people -'in the world" saw their "heaven-born Minister's" doc trines verified. ISut, what was now \\\? pretence for continuing this Act? The Avar was over. The shoutings and the hon- firings and the boll-ringings for peace had taken place. Mr. ADDINGTOTV, the prime minister, and LOF.J> HAWKESRURY, the negotiator, had been praised in all manner of Avays for the " blessings ofprace." What, then, could l>e tlie pretence for' con tinuing the Stoppage Act? You shall hear, Gentiemen; lor it is iiv>pr)8sible to do justice to the reason except in the words of the Minister himself and of those who supported him. You must remember, Qentlernerf that just before the. peace was be(fith to be negotiated, the " heaven-born. and some others went out of office*, i and that Mr. HENIIY ADPINGTON, 2G9] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [270 now LOUD VISCOUNT SIDMOUTH, snccruk-d him, as prime minister. To hi* lot, therefore, it fell to propose the continuation of the Stoppage Act, in peace; but, you should bear in niiiiii, that this was, in fact., no change oj ministry ; it was merely a change of a very few of the men in power. Ail those who hud voted for PITT, continued to vote lor his saccessor, as did also Mr. PITT himself. So that, the continuation of the Stoppage Act is not to be ascribed, in anywise, to is change of man, the people still in power being tiie same people who supported ail the measures of the minister, PITT, and who, indeed, brought him back into power again in the year 1804. It was ou the 8th of April 1802, that the continuation was proposed by Mr. ADDINGTON ; but, notice of his intention having been before given, r. ROBSON, on the 2nd of April, moved for certain papers, shewing the nature of the affairs of the Bank, which was opposed by the Minister, ADDLNGTON, who, without more ado, moved the previous question upon it. Whereupon Mr. ROBSON said, tbat this was using him and those who thought with him very ill. Notice had been given, he said, by the mi nister, of his intention to bring in a bill to continue the Act, which pro tected the JBarik frojm paying in gold and silver, and, he wished to know how the affairs of the Bank stood, that he might be able judge whether he ought to consent to such a mea sure or not. " He maintained that " all Europe was contemplating the " payments of specie by the Bank , as " the criterion of the credit of the " Country. If the Bank cgntinued " to issue paper, country banks would " do the same without controul ; they " would issue their notes without te mercy.- It was, in his opinion, ' THE COMMENCEMENT OF A COURSE OF ASSIGNATS. (Order! order! and question! was " called from every part of the " Home?) The question being put, it was carried against Mr. ROBSON, without a division. He was not allowed to have the papers he wanted. It was unnecessary, lie was told; and, when he ventured to compare bank notes to assignats, lie was called to order. He was called to order for speaking irreverently of those notes, those pro missory notes, which were by law rendered not payable agreeably to promise, and which law it was now proposed to continue. Now we come to the Minister, Ad- dingion's reasons for continuing tliig A ct after ike end of the war ; and to those reasons we must pay particular attention. He prefaced his proposi tion, as his predecessor always usejd to do, by very high language about the ability of the Bank to pay in coin. He said, in the debate of the Oth of April, *'. I have the satisfaction of " boing convinced, that the measure " cannot furnish a pretence to the " most timid man in the House, to w suppose the Bank does nut possess " within itself the most ample means " of satisfying the full extent of the " demands ictiwh may be made upon " it, by the payment of its notes in " speeic" In the debate of the 2L$t of April , he said, that " on the soli- " dify of the Bank, he was entitled to " say and assume, there was now no " question, cither in that House or " elsewhere. On the DISPOSI- " TK)N of the Bank to make pay " nicnts in specie, he was also en- " titled to assume, nay he owed it to '- the Bank to' ASSERT, they had " manifested a readiness to do so. It " was, however, thought necessary to " continue this restriction for a " while" Having said this, he said, that it was, of course* quite unneces sary to enter into any inquiry as to the state of the Bank's affairs; and, accordingly, it only remained for him to state the grounds, upon which he 2H] LETTER XX [272 proposed the continuation of the mea sure. But, Gentlemen, pray bear in mind, that this Minister gave the country to understand, that the Bank Company hud, even at that time " manifested a readiness to make pay- " ments in specie" and this was now nearly nine years ago. Yet, Mr. HANDLE JACKSON now bestows something very much like abuse upon the Bullion Committee, because they recommend to the House to make the Bank Company begin to pay in specie in two years from this time. What should make the Bank Com pany angry with the Committee, it' it was true, that they wished to pay in money so long as eight years and nine months ago ? The grounds which the Minister, ALDINGTON, stated for the con tinuation were as follows. In the lebate of the 9th of April, he said : ' The grounds on which I shall rest ' the proposition I have to make to u the House are notorious ; and it " will be for the sober and dispas- " sionate reflection of the House, '' whether the measure I shall submit ".does not necessarily result from ' facts and circumstances too well ' known even to require a particular ' statement of them. It cannot be " necessary for me to inform the M House, that the rate of exchange " beeween this country and foreign " parts is disadvantageous to our- " selves It cannot be neces- " sary for me to prove, that while " the rate of exchange is disadvan- " tageous to w,s, an augmentation of " the circulating cash would create a " trade highly injurious to the in- " terest and commerce of this country. " It is well known, that for several " months past there has been a trade " carrying on in purchasing guineas " with a view to the exportation of " them. In addition to these ." reasons, the House will reflect upon " the inconvenience which would un- " avoidably result from letting loose " such a proportion of the coin of the " country as would be circulated by " taking oft' the restriction. I am not " aware of any inconvenience that " can possibly arise from continuing " it. We have had the satisfaction, " arising from the experience of three " or four years of difficulty? We have " had experience, that during such " period, the credit of the Bank has " undergone no diminution whatever. " Bank notes have maintained their " reputation, and have been every " where received cheerfully and rea- " dily Some Gentlemen are " desirous that the Bank should pay " in cash for notes of small denomi- " nation; but till there is a full and " abundant supply of cash by open- " ing the Bank entirely, it is ex- " tremely convenient to afford circu- " lation to .1 and .2 notes. By ' the payment of them in specie, a " general anxiety would be intro- " duced of obtaining cash at the Bank. " Notes of .1,000 and .500 would " be changed for notes of .1 and .2 " in order that th?y wight be immedi- " ately changed again for cash. If " a restraint was to be imposed with " respect to the number of notes of " small denomination, they would be " driven out of circulation altogether; " and there would be no small notes " but those issued by Banker?." There, Gentlemen, you have now before you the reasons why this Act was continued after the war. The Minister, Mr. PITT, told the nation, that it was necessary during the war, in order to prevent the enemy from executing his vow of destroying our credit; and the Minister, Adding- ton, told the nation, that it was ne cessary offer the war was over, be cause tht.rate of exchange was against us, because people were exporting guineas when they could lay hold of them, because to repeal the Act would let coin loose, because the experience of years had shewn that the stoppage of cash payments had done no harm lo the credit of the Bank whose notes were every where received cheerfully #73 PAPER AGAINST GOLD. L274 and readily, and finally, because (pray mark !) if a part of the notes were to be paid in specie, that would give rise to a general anxiety to obtain cash at the Bank, .and that people would i:hauge large notes into small ones, in order immediately to change these lat ter for cash. So, then, Mr. ADDINGTON, the people did, even in your time, like gold better than the notes ? Though you could not perceive, not you\, any inconvenience from the eonit- nuation of the Act ; though you had seen with satisfaction the experi ence of the years of suspension ; though the credit of the Bank had undergone no diminution whatever;" though the Bank notes had main tained their reputation and had been every where received cheerfully and readily : yet, notwithstanding all this, you object to make the small notes payable in gold, lest the holders of them should run to the Bank and get cash for them ; lest this taste for the sweets of gold should excite a general anxiety of obtaining cash at the Bank; and lest large notes should be changed into small ones for the purpose of again changing these latter into cash. But, why was this to be feared ? The Bank Directors were surely, the best judges of this ; and, you say, not only that they are able to pay; but that they have manifested a readiness to puy their notes in specie. Now, this being the case, what danger was there of a run upon the Bank; And, ifi there had been a run, what danger was there in tliat ; seeing that there were means amply sufficient to meet such run ? Mr. ROBSON, whom we have seen called to order for speaking so irre verently of Bank notes, opposed the bill in its subsequent stages : he point ed out the advantages which the Bank derived from the Act; he foretold what the Bullion Committee have now declared to have come to pass ; in short he did all that it was in his power to do to prevent the continu ation of a measure, which a Com mittee of that same House of Com mons have now declared to have pro duced such fearful consequences; and this Mr. ROBSON, did while Mr. HUSKISSON, who now tells us that 7io one foresaw the evil, not only suf fered the measure to pass in si lence, but was one of the majority of the Minister by whom the measure was proposed and put in execution. Well, but, after all, the Apt was to last only ten months ; only till the first of March 1803 ; it was only, as the Minister's brother, Mr. Hi LEY ADDINGTON, called it, " a temporary provision, 'till the effects of the peace should have begun to operate" Only tin's. Nothing more. Yet did they, when the 1st of March, 1803, came, renew the Act again. Again did they pass a law to protect the able-and- willing-to-pay Bank against the de mands of the note-holders! Again did they pass an Act, to continue in force till six weeks after the com mencement of the then next session of Parliament, the measure for pre venting payments in cash, though peace had been made a whole year, and though they said, that the Bank was able and ready to pay. Let us see, then, Gentlemen, what were the reasons given now. " The " most thinking people in the world,'* were, as we have seen, told the last time, that the Act of renewal was " a temporary provision, Hill the ef- " fects of peace should have begun to operate;" and, as peace had now lasted a whole year, what reason, what pretence, what excuse, what apology was now to be found ? This is what we ought to keep our eye upon. We know well, that they re newed the Act ; but, in order to be able to judge of what will be donein fu ture, we must take care to keep in view the reasons, which, at the different re newals, were given for the measure. When he came to propose the se cond renewal after the war was over, it must be ' confessed, that Mr. AD- LETTER XX. [27G DINGTON did appear to perceive 1hd light in which he stood, lie did appear sensible of his situation ; and, doubtless, this was amongst tile things, for which, .'is it was asserted by a pamphleteer soonafter\vards,Mr.PiTT was under obligations to his successor. It. was on the 7th of February , 180-5, that he moved for leave to bring: in this bill. He begun by saying " that " it was with the utmost reluctance " that he submitted the proposition to '* the House, but the reasons which " suggested it were too strong, and " and the necessity too urgent, to be " resisted ; that necessity, however, " he hoped., irould soon disappear; "and, he anxiously and impatiently " locfked forward to the day, whish " he trusted was not far removed, " when the Bank would be at liberty " to resume its payments in specie." The grounds for proposing this mea sure he stated to be, that the course of exchange was still against this conn t IT, ami, as the House " last " year, considered that a sufficient ar- " gument for the measure, he would " appeal to the candour and good ' sense of the House whether it would '* be expedient to. allow the restric- " tion to cease." He also said, " that a " sudden issue of cash from the Bank ." would produce a run upon the coun- " try banks, and a consequent run " upon the Bank of England, which " might be productive of most serious " consequences." He further observ ed " that the exchange being against " us had arisen from the circumstance " of scarcity of coin, which, of late " years had caused so mnch Bul- " lion to be sent out of the country, "and that it was obvious, that we " should wait the operations of a flou- *' rishing commerce to bring back " some proportion of this vast Amount " of Bullion, before we attempted to " permit the Bank to issue specie." The whole world never, in my opi nion, heard any thing like this before. Were it not upon record, in a man ner not to be disputed, it would not, it could not, be believed. Mr. TIEJK- . and Mr. Fox, spoke against the motion, and particularly wished for j an inquiry previous to the passing of I such a bill. Mr. Tierncy said " ac- : " cording to the report of the Com- ! " mittee of 1797, the proportion of " cash and Bullion in the Bank " amounted to ONE MILLION, " when the Order of Council was " issued; and some short time after- " wards this sum was increased to " SIX MILLIONS. Was it not " now a fit object of inquiry ; What '* had become of their six millions ? if " it was forthcoming to meet any ex- " igency ? and if it was, why should " the Bank Fiesitate to resume their " operation ? They could not be " afraid of a run upon them, for who " could now think of any material " advantage from boarding gold?" Nevertheless, the bill passed ; and thus was the Bank protected against demands upon them for cash, until !-;i\ weeks after the commencement of the then next Session of Parlia ment, which Session began in No vember 1803.* After what we have noiv seen, we can hardly expect to hear of any more reasons. It would, I think, have been utterly impossible to invent any pretext that Mr. AD DINGTON would have made use of; but, most fortu nately for him, before Parliament met, and of course, before the Act ex pired, WAli had begun again*. That was quite enough ; and. without any scruple, hesitation, or ceremony, the Minister brought in a bill to prolong the Stoppage, fcr Restriction, till the war should be over, and until six months after a definitive treaty of peace should be concluded. He said, that "though " doubts had been entertained as to * The whole of this debate is very iin- portanf, anc! also a subsequent one o? the llth of February, 1803. They will be fount! at full length, and very accurately given, in the POLITICAL KI&UTER, Vol. III. pages 1243 and 1347 277] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. 1278 " the propriety of the measure, during " a period of peaee. Under the im- " pression, therefore, that no doubts " existed on the subject, he should <; take it for granted that no objection " would be made, in the present in- " stance, to a renewal of the measure. tl It was satisfactory to know that the "credit of the Bank had remained e< firm and unshaken; during the past " experience of the measure, and that " its sufficiency to make good its en- <( gnycments, botk was, and is, unaf- "jf'ectcd by even the slightest sus- This w;v all. There was very little more said about the matter. All the an\;ief ytir.it he expressed upon the former occasion, for the happy day of cash-payments to come, was now for gotten ; or lie had got an entirely new view of the matter. There were some very interesting debates upon the sub ject, in the House of Lords, hi which LORD KING and LORD GRENVILLE took a part, and in which they shew ed, that they were duly impressed with the dangerous consequences of continuing this Act in force ;t but, what they said was of no avail. The Act was passed; it is, as you we 1 know, Gentlemen, in force to this day; and, the proposition of the Bullion Committee is, that it shall be in force, to its present extent, at least, only two years ionge When we take a review of "the reasons for the passing of this Act, at the several times at which it has been passed; when we see how those reasons have varied; when we see how many times the expectation of a return to cash-payments has been dis- * See Parliamentary Debates, Vol. 1, page 52. Where the reader will find Mr. ADDINGTON'S grave idea* re8pecting hoard ing money. t .See Parliamentary Debates, Vol. I, page I &l to 156. And page 304 to 319. These two debates are of great importance. There is scarcely any thing to be found in the Bullion Report, as touching the main points, which will not be found to have been said, upon this occasion, by one or the other of these two NoblenitD. appointed; but, especially when we Wk well into the part which the Bank Company themselves have borne in those transactions; when wo look at what passed between the Minister and the Bank Company previous to the Stoppage ; when we look behind the curtain and see the plan laid for a private Meeting of tho principal Bankers to settle upon the scheme for a general meeting; when* we after wards hear the Minister, in. Parlia ment, talking of that Meeting as of a thing in which he had had nothing to do, and citing it as a mark of the public confidence in the Bank Paper ; when we take this view, Gentlemen, it is not, I think, possible, that any of v* can ever again be deceived by prf**- fessions, promises, and outward appear ance, as far, at least, as relates to thu subject of Bank notes. I have now gone through the whole history of the Stoppage of money- payments at the Bank of England, which history, though it has, lientlt-- nit'ii, taken up a good deal of tmne, will, I trust, be found woli worth botU our time and our labour. Without a knowledge of tin's history, it is im possible for any one to form so correct an opinion, as to {he future t as he will be able to do with this history fairly imprinted on his mind. In this his tory he has before Mm the experience of thirteen years; and, from what has been, he will easily form his opinion as to what, under the operation of similar circumstances, is likely to hue-. We have, by toiling through this his tory, furnished ourselves with all tL knowledge (of any real here) possessed by the members of the Bullion Committee; and, perhaps, a little more; so that, we shall now enter into an examination of their production without any dread of dilfi- culty in the -progress, or of error in the conclusion. I am, Gentlemen^ Your faithful Friend, W M . COBB1OT. State Prison, Newgate, Monday, 10th December, IB 10. [279 LETTER XX} [280 LETTER XXI, Appointment of the Bullion Committee Names of the Members Quantity of Bank- Notes, compared with the Quantity of Real Money -Amount of Bank of England Notes in 17D7, and at this Time Number of Country Banks Probable Ampunt of their Notes Amount of Real Money in the Bank of England Probable Amount of Real Money in the Hands of the Country Bankers. GENTLEMEN, WE have now arrived at a point whence we can see to the end of our discussion. We have seen how the Bank and the Stocks and the Bank Notes arose ; we have seen that they ah* grew up with the National Debt and the Taxes; we have- seen, that, at last, the Bank Notes became so large in amount that they could no longer be paid in money at the Bank Shop in Threadneedle Street; we have seen the means that have, in the several stages, been resorted to, in order to protect the Bank Company against the demands of its creditors, the holders of its notes ; and we have had a pretty fair view of the conduct of all the parties concerned in these transactions. With the EVIL and with the causes of the Evil we are now well acquainted : it only remains for us to obtain as good information with respect to a REMEDY. To discover and point out a RE MEDY were the objects of the BUL LION COMMITTEE, of whom I must speak here a little more fully than I hitherto have done. ; This Committee, consisting of the members, whose names you will find below,* Mr. Homer Mr. Henry Thornton Mr. Sharp Mr. Huskissor. Mr. Tierney Mr. Grenfeil Mr. Davies Giddy Mr. Abercrombie Mr. Baring Mr. Foster Mr. Sheridan Lord Temple was, as I stated in Letter I, appointed by the House of Commons, during the last Session of Parliament, " to " inquire into the cause of the high " price of Gold Bullion, alid to take " into consideration the state of the " circulating medium, &c. f Jm~ tice). The question for the Court to decide is a mere question of law, arising, as it has been contended, out of the provisions of the 37 Geo. 3, c. 45. In fact we are called up- on to say whether it follows as a ne- cessary consequence from that Act, that a tender in bank-notes is equi- ralent to a tender in money ? It may be very true that individuals may be occasionally subjected to great inconveniences from the ope- ration of that Act; but are we there- fore to say that the Legislature has enacted that which the provisions of the Act do not wan*ant? If we were at liberty to refer to our own pri- vate knowledge of the language that was held in Parliament while this Act was pendhig, no doubt could be entertained upon the subject We kno\r that it was very much can- vassed at that time, Whether or not the Legislature ought to go the length of declaring bank-notes a good legal tender? If, therefore, it had been intended by the Legislature so to make them, that intention would have been expressed in such clear terms that no question coulo have arisen upon the subject. Indeed, it is expressly provided, in the 2nd section of the Act; that if the Go ver- 295] LETTER XXI t [296 nor and Company of the Bank of England shall be sued on any of their notes, or for an}' sum of mo ney, payment of which in their notes the party suing refuses to accept, they may apply to the Court in which such proceedings are insti tuted, to stay proceedings during such time as they are restricted from paying in cash. But with re spect to individuals it was not intend ed to prevent any creditor, who should be so disposed, from capti ously demanding a payment in mo ney, though such a creditor is de prived of the benefit of arresting his debtor. Thank God, few such cre ditors as the present Plaintiff have been found since the passing of the act ! But yet, whatever inconveni ences may arise, and to whatever length they may go, Parliament and not this Court must be applied to for a remedy. Inconvenience arising from the operation of an act of Par liament, can be no ground of argu ment in a Court of Law ; and even if it were, still I should entertain no doubt, that it was the intention of the Legislature to make bank-notes a legal payment only in certain cases by them expressed, and that in all other cases they should remain upon the same footing upon which they stood before the uct, except as to the exemption* from arrest, which they afford to the party tendering them in payment. The 8th. section of the act, which has been treated as nugatory in the argument, how ever it may enact nothing new , still appears to me pregnant with the in tentions of Parliament, and to speak loudly the resolution not to alter the character of bank-notes, but in those cases which are specially provided for. Without however referring to any of those specific clauses, and ar guing from them as to the intent of thf Legislature, T should be Nearly of opinion, that the present Plaintiff is MJ titled to our judgment in his fa vour, " Judge HEATH. I am of the same opinion. The question for us to decide is, whether a tender in bank-notes is a good legal tender ? Now the 37 Goo. 3, c. 45. appears to me to negative that question ; for the several provisions ot the act making them a good and legal tender in certain excepted cases, excludes the idea of their being so generally in cases not provided for by the act. It has been argued, however that the operation of the act will in many cases be very injurious, unless we determine it to be a necessary infer ence from the act that bank-notes were intended by the Legislature to be put upon the same footing as cash. But whatever inconvenien ces may arise, the Courts of Law cannot apply a remedy. I think, indeed, the Legislature acted wisely, having the recent example of France before their eyes, to avoid making bank-notes a legal tender; for in France we know that legislative pro visions of that kind in favour of paper currency only tended to de preciate the paper it was designed to protect, and were ultimately re pealed, as injurious in their nature. " Judga ROOKE. I am of the same opinion. " Judge CHAMBRE. This case ap pears to me almost too plain for argument. It has been thought that the Courts went a great way in holding a tender in bank-notes to be a good tender, if not objected to at the time. Certainly that was art innovation ; though perhaps a bene ficial one. But the act upon which the present question arises affords nothing but arguments against the inference attempted to be drawn by it. Surely the observation that in some respects the Legislature have put bank-notes on a more fa vourable footing than cash, leads to a conclusion directly contrary to that which it was intended to sup port. If the Legislature have not gone far eaough, it is for them t 297] PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [298 " not for us, to remedy the defect. " Indeed, by making bank-notes a " good tender in certain cases, speci- " fically provided for, they appear to " me to have negatived the construc- " tion we are now desired to put upon " the act." It will hardly be doubted, that I have copied this report with great care. I have, indeed, given every word of it ; but, for the satisfaction of my correspondents, to whom I am really obliged for their inquiries, I will add, that the report is taken from a ivell known law-book, entitled, " Bo- " sanquet's and Puller's Reports of " Cases argued and determined in the " Court of Common Pleas and Ex- " chequer Chamber and in the House " of Lords, from Michaelmas Term, " in the 40th year of the reign of " George III. (1799) to Michaelmas " Term, in the 42nd Year of the same reign (1801,) both inclusive." After reading this report, there can not remain, in the mind of any man, the smallest doubt upon this subject. Here is the fact, in practice as well as in theory, clearly established, that any holder of a Country bank-note, Eayable to bearer on demand, or the older of any such note, except of the Bank of England, may, at any time, when he pleases, demand payment of such note in the gold and silver coin issued from the King's mint, that coin being of iegal weight and fineness. And, if such payment be refused, upon deman^ the holder of such note may immediately proceed to sue for such payment, which, if the party sued has the means, he mt.-t finally pay in coin, together with full costs of suit.* And, indeed, if this was not the law, * The shilling damages, mentioned in th first part of the above Report, is merely the nominal damages, which it is the custom to lay, in cases where the object, as in this case, is to ascertain the question of right. Bat, the Plaintiff had his costs qf suit in this case, as every other plaintiff must have, who brings an action in a similar way, and on similar groundi. the Bank of England notes would be a legal tender to all intents and pur poses ; for, the issuers of these notes being protected by law against the holders of them, the holder of a Coun try Bank note would have no claim \ipon the Country Banker, or upon any body else, for coin. The man who chooses to take a Bank of Eng land note, does it knowing that he can not force any one to pay him its no minal amount in coin ; and, therefore if he choose to take it, he has no rea son to complain. Persons, who buy Stock, know that they are to be paid their interest in Bank of England notes; and, therefore, they have no reason to complain. But, if either of you sell your corn or your wool, and take a Country Bank note for it, that is to say, the promissory note of your neighbour, you expect to have the real worth of your corn, or your wool ; and, of course, you expect to be paid by your neighbour in the real money of the kingdom, which money, as I have now shewn you, you have a legal, as well as a moral, right to demand. Lest any one should raise a doubt upon the circumstance of Mr. GRIG- BY'S demand having been founded up on .a note given for guineas instead of pounds, I beg you to observe, that this circumstance was not even alluded to by either of the Judges, or by the Counsel who argued against Mr. GRIGBY. You will perceive, besides, that the Judges speak generally of all delfls, except tho^e only due from the Bank of England itself. The decision is founded upon the broad principle, that Bank of England notes may be refused in all cases, except only those wherein the Sank of England itself is the debtor, including the dividend!* upon the National Debt, and there the Bank is regarded as the debtor to the Stock-holder. It is also worthy of your observa tion, that, though the Chief Justice seemed to think, that it might become necessary to make the Bank of Eng land notes a legal tender in all cases LETTER XX 111. another of the Judges expressed him self as decidedly of opinion, that such a measure would be both unjust and impolitic; .ami, indeed, that it would ?ast, to imitate the mea- . of Iloirfi.spiERE, who compelled the people of France to take paper- jonfy upon pain of death. Ii' it should be asked., why other persons have not done as Mr. GRIGBY did, the answer is, that the people of this country, generally speaking, have really thought, that, by the Act of 1797, the Bank of England notes were made, to all intents and pur poses, a legal tender, and, of course, that, if a man refused to take them in payment, be had not the means of forcing 'the debtor to pay him in any other sort of thing. Nor is this ge nerally prevailing error to be much wondered at, seeing what were the means made use of at the time of the Bank Stoppage. When you reflect upon the famous meeting and resolu tions at the Mansion- House in Lon don, the secret history of which I have .tfiven you. WJien you reflect upon the effect of these RESOLUTIONS, issued under the signature of the LORD MAYOR; followed, as they immedi ately were by Resolutions, of a simi lar purport, from the PRIVY COUN CIL, -iiid from the, Justices assembled in Quarter Sessions, in the several counties. When you reflect on the official manner, and the authoritative air of all these promulgations, you will cease to wonder, that the Resolu tions to take and pay the paper of the Bank of England w r ere, by the mass of the people, regarded as having the force of law Now, however, you know the true value of those Resolutions ; you know what is, and what is not, the law, re lating to this important matter, in which every man of you is so deeply interested, and on your judgment and discretion with respect to which may depend the permanent welfare of your selves and your families, to assist in the advancement of which welfare has always been, and always will be, a principal object of the labours of Your faithful friend, W M . COBBETT. State Prison, Newgate, Monday, December 24 M, t810. LETTER XXIII. *Xt is in the tort tveiitjj years of the Funding Sjstera, that all the great iho^kt begin t cpertte," Paine, Events since the Date of the foregoing Letter Bank Notice about the Dollar Various Reports of the Effect of that Measure . Proposals in Parliament respecting the Bullion Report. GENTLEMEN, In reviving my correspondence with you, it will be necessary for me to re vert for a moment to the point, at which I broke off, which was at Letter XXII, in which, as you will recollect, it was shewn, for the satis faction of two correspondents in the country, that, any man, having country bank-notes in his possession, had (and he still has, of course) the power of compelling the drawer of such notes to pay him in yold or silver, the lawful coin of the realm. But, that Letter was a digression from the main track of our subject, 3011 which, at the close of Letter XXI, was leading us into the great question as to the depreciation, that is to say, fall, of the Bank of England notes ; a question, which has caused more discussion than any other that has been agitated for many years past, and which, I think, we may now look upon as completely decided, seeing that , while the dispute was going on, the Bank Company themselves have done an act which can, in the mind of no man out of a mad-house, leave the .smallest doubt upon the subject. Nevertheless, as I wish that this series of letters should contain the whole of what I have thought, and still think, relating to this interesting mutter ; I shall treat of the question here spoken of, after I have recorded the events, which have taken place since I last addressed you; and which events are important to a degree, that few persons, comparatively speaking, appear to imagine. When, on the 24th of December, I wrote my last Letter to you, I did expect, that the winter would not pass over our heads without some striking change as to the circulating currency of the country. It appeared to me, as I had, upon former occasions, told my readers, quite impossible, that things could go on much longer with out events that would strike the im pudent partizans of the paper system dumb, The guinea had, for some time, been a marketable commodity ; and under such circumstances, the paper will not continue much longer without being openly at a discount in all transactions. The coin of every denomination grew daily more and more scarce ; till at last, change for a pound note was with difficulty ob tained ; and, as these difficulties in creased, people, of course, felt an increased inclination to hoard the coin. As a remedy for this evil, the Bank Company issued a Notice, raising the Dollar (which was in circulation at the rate of 5s.) to 5*. 6d. and it was after- PAPER AGAINST GOLD [302 wards found, that this Notice had been issued with the advice and approba tion of the PRIVY COUNCIL, or, at least, of a Committee of the Privy Council, appointed to watch over the affairs of Coin.* This Notice, which was first published on the 18th of March, not only failed to produce the intended effect; but, it produced an effect precisely the opposite of that, which was intended by the Privy Counsellors and the Bank Directors. The few Dollars that were in circula- lation immediately disappeared, and the distress for change became so great, that people were obliged to take ten shillings worth or 15 shil lings worth of halfpence in changing a pound note, which halfpence were, for the most part, mere raps, not worth a tenth part of their nominal value. Many of the shop-keepers in Lon don, in order to procure the means of carrying on their business, notified, by bills put in their windows, that they v/ould receive the Dollar (the real value of which, is less than 4s. Gd.) at 5s. 9d. and some of them notified, that they would receive it at 6*. The same continues to be done now; and, that man must be blind indeed, who does not perceive, that two prices have to a certain extent, already taken place. The inconvenience arising from th want of money under a pound note was felt very severely by the Bankers, whose customers drawing upon them for any sums that they might happen to want, frequently, of course, drew for parts of a pound. These the Bankers were unable to supply ; and, on the 9th of April, a circular para graph appeared in the London news papers, exhorting people to draw for whole pounds. On the same day it was stated, that, in the shops, markets, * The Notice, and the Minute of these Privy Counsellors will be found in the A^oendix (C). 303] LETTER XXIII. [304 and public offices, people gave written acknowledgments for the pails of a pound, and left them thus unpaid. On the llth of April, Mr. MAN- Ni?vG, the Deputy Governor of the IBank, and who is also a Member of Parliament, informed the House, that, the Bank were about to issue a large quantity of Dollars ; and he ob served, that those persons who were hoarding; them, in the expectation that they would rise in price, would be disappointed. Some days before this (on the 4th of 4prilV the Bank thought it necessary to publish an ad vertisement, that the report of great quantities of their notes having been forged, and that the plates from which the saici notes had been taken, had been stolen, was wholly false; and, it seems, that this report was spread very widely through the country ; the object being to excite suspicion of the Bank of England notes, and thereby to insure a preference for the Country bank-notes. On the 19th of April, it was stated in the public prints, that a person had a promissory note disho noured because he could not produce to the person, who" had to receive the payment, the change of 18s. 3rf. On the 23rd of April a prisoner, con- lined for debt in the Marshalsea Prison, obtained his release, because his creditor in paying him his main tenance money, gave him a piece of foreign coin instead of a sixpence. On the same day, it was stated in the public prints, that at some of the public offices, change was not only refused, but that certain o'f the Clerks in those offices, were dealers in the article, and suppliedjhe bankers with nicer at 3 per cent*- On the same day, 23rd of April, JAMES KING, a Guard to a coach, was taken before the Lord Mayor, upon a charge of ' having bjpugkt guineas, and was held to ba#4 On the 26th of April, there was a paragraph, published in alj the London daily prints, stating, ^fhat the Chinese had just discovered that gold and silver were too abundant 1 with them, and, it was added, that they were going to send great quan- ties of it hither, some of which might be speedily expected. In the pub lic prints of the 27th, 29th and 30tli of April, it was stated, that ten thous and pounds in gold had been seized on board of a ship, about to carry it abroad. M any statements of this sort had appeared before, but this one was worthy of particular attention. Also that a riot, attended with acts of violence and killing, had taken place at Sampford, in consequence of the scarcity of change.*- A circular paragraph appeared at this time repro- - bating the practice of hoarding, and hinting that it would be proper to punish it as a crime. At the same time another circular paragraph ap peared advising people not to hoard the change, for that a new silver coinage was just coming out that would sink the value of the present coin. At the same time Mock bank-notes were circulated from the King's Bench and Fleet Prisons, by the means of which some unwary persons were cheated. An account of gold lawfully exported during one week was published at this time, from which it was manifest, that the gold and silver were going to France and her dominions as fast as possible. It was now announced that the Bank had issued more Dollars, and that .300 worth had been sent to each of the Banking Houses in London. Such, Gentlemen, were the symptoms of the effect of raising the nominal value of the dollar ; and on the 8th of May, it was stated in the public prints, that another seizure of guineas had been made on board a ship sent into Dover. The words of the statement were these : "Four thousand and " ffty more guineas have been found on board the ship sent into Dover last week, it is supposed she will be pulled to pieces, as her very iron ballast is hollou-ed to receive gold. She is called the New Union of London." They may pull her to '305 PAPER AGAINST GOLD, {306 pieces and burn her ; they may do what they like ^ith her; but, Gentle- meu, as long as this paper-money ex ists in England, he gold and silver will continue to go out of it in some way or other. The Government may be ingenious, and we know it is able o employ great numbers of artful men ; but, all their art put together ; tand all the powers of the government, not excepting the power of life and death, will never make gold and silver circulate at par with a depreciated paper. I have thus filled up the history of the time since I last addressed you. That time is hardly five months, and \et, what events are here! What a change is here, in so short a space of time ! And, canyon be made to be lieve, that the thing will stop where it is ? Is it possible that you can be persuaded to believe, that the Bank Notes will now, or will ever, revive ? The grand effort now, with all those who wish to deceive the people, and to profit from their credulity, is to per suade them, that it is not the Bank Note that has fallen; but, the geld and silver that have risen. This seems to be the last trick in the budget ; but, what I have to say upon this head I must reserve till I come to my intend ed Letter upon the subject of depre ciation. In the mean while we must see what has been passing in Parliament, relating to this matter ; so that, before we proceed upon the remainder of our inquiries, we may have the whole history of the paper-money before us, down to the very day when we shall come to our conclusion. In the fore going Letters, there will be found, I am convinced, the most complete his tory of our Paper Money that has ever yet appeared in print. We have there traced it from its very outset to the day when the people of Salisbury became, all in a moment, destitute of the means of getting a dinner. In this Letter its history has been brought *wn to last Saturday ; and all that we have now to do is to give, in as few words as possible, the history of the BULLION DEBATE, which, per haps, would be unnecessary for our present purposes ; but, this is a sub ject every fact belonging to which ought to be so recorded as to be capa ble of being hereafter referred to ; and ought, if possible, to be made known in every part of the world. The Report of the Bullion Com mittee, which was printed last year, was laid before the House of Com mons but a short time previous to its rising. It was ordered to be printed on the 8th of June, and 1 must say, that it gives me great pleasure to re flect, that it issued from the press on, the very day that I was sent to jail! I shall always remember this with satis faction. It will be a source of de light to me as long as I have breath in my body ; aye, and it will be borne in mind, too, long after the bank-notes and all, yea all, that thereon depend, shall have come to their true level ; their proper state. The time being so short, the House could not take the Report into con sideration, during the last Session; therefore, this part of the business was to be performed during this Session. The Chairman of the Com mittee, Mr. FRANCIS HORNER, was to propose some measure to be adopt ed in consequence of the Report ; but, he being a lawyer and a placeman at the same time; having to go the Western circuit and to manage the Nabob of Arcot's Debts, he, of course, could hardly find time for this Bullion affair. After many appoint ments and disappointments, however, he, at last, brought the matter for ward on Monday last, the 6th instant, when a Debate ensued, which lasted during four successive nights ; it being the custom in this Assembly to carry on the greater part of their works after it is dark. Previous, however, to this Debate Mr. HORNER had laid upon the table of the House a string of PROPOSE 307] LETTER XXIV. [308 TIONS, expressive of his opinions as to the state of the coin and paper- money Nof the country, and v also as to the remedy to be applied, la a few days after these had been before the house, Mr. NICHOLAS VANSITTART, j who took the other side of the ques- , tion, laid before the House a set of opposing PROPOSITIONS; which he soon afterwards followed by a set of Propositions being the former set amended ; and these were follow ed by another paper from Mr. HORNER, containing Propositions in the form of amendments upon his bro ther lawyer's Proposition?, both of the gentlemen being " learned friends." The* way being thus prepared, all the preliminary steps having been taken, the discussion was entered upon on the day before-mentioned, at the end of one year, two months, and fourteen days from the time that the Committee commenced its labours. I have began inserting this Debate, and I shall insert all the principal speeches before I have done; and I do it, because I wish to afford all my readers, and you, Gentlemen, in par ticular, an opportunity of perusing, at your leisure, what these persons have said upon this important subject; and, besides, my wish is to place these speeches where they may be, at all times, conveniently referred to, seeing that my conviction is, that events are now hastening on apace; events that will set all low cunning, all chicanery, all trick, at defiance; and that, of course, will put the opi nions, contained in these speeches, to the test. My conviction is, that the time is not far distant, when it will be impossible to deceive the people of England; when truth will reign; and, at that time, it will be of great advantage for us to know what have been the opinions of -men who have taken a part in these dis cussions, and to what point, whether good or evil, their endeavours have tended*. What we have to discuss is the question of depreciation, or fall, in the value of the Bank Notes; and, after that, the remedy proposed by Mr. HORNER and those who side with him. I shall, I trust, go to work in a way very different indeed from that of these gentlemen; and, when I have written my opinion, there the matter will rest, and the truth of our several opinions will be tried by Time, which tries all things. t remain, Gentlemen, Your friend, . COBBETT. State Prison, Newgate, Friday, May, \0th, 1811. AppendixD. LETTER XXIV. Sauce for the Goose is sauce for the Gander." Old Proverb. Injury to Commerce by Buonaparte-He is said to have caused the Gold to leave England -The Fault is with our Government-Oui Appeals to the French People absurd-Forged Bank Notes sent into Kent from France-Forged Ass.gnats De cision in the Court of King's Bench GENTLEMEN, to inquire, whether the Bank of Eng- WE have now to discuss the ques- land Notes have, or have not, depre- tion of Depreciation. We have now dated; that is to say, fallen in value. 309] PAPER AGAINST COLD. [310 After what we have seen in the former Letters, and particularly in that im mediately preceding, it is, indeed, nearly useless to put this question to any man of sense, and much more so to make it a subject of serious dis cussion. Nevertheless, it will be right so to do ; seeing that these Let ters are intended to treat of every part of this great subject, and to put upon record all the material facts and arguments appertaining to it. In the House of Commons, during the Debate on the Bullion Report and on the Resolutions thereon pro posed, by Mr. FRANCIS HORNER on the one side, arid Mr. NICHOLAS VANSITTART on the other, it was contended, by those who were for Mr. VANSITTART, that is to say, by the MINISTRY, and their adherents ; by this part of the House it was con tended, that the Bank paper had not depreciated, or fallen in value; and, being asked, how they then account ed for the fact, that a guinea was worth 26s. or 27s. they answered, that it was very time, that Gold and Silver had risen; but, that the Bank paper had not fallen. They were then asked, how, since they would insist upon it that it was a rise of Gold and Silver, it had come to pass at this time above all others. Allowing, for argument's sake, that it was a rise in the value of the guinea, they were asked how the value of the guinea came to rise. Their answer to this was, that it was owing chiefly to the injury done to our commerce by the extraordinary, the cruel, the sa vage measures of the inexorable tyrant Buonaparte, whom they designated by every appellation characteristic of a despot, and even a fiend, Gentlemen, we will stop here and make a few observations upon these charges against the Emperor of France ; for, it would be very foolish in us, who call ourselves " the most " thinking people in the world," to suffer ourselves to be amused with charges against Napoleon, when we should be considering of the real cause of the mischief thai is ncur come upon us, and of the greater mis chief that is still coming, and will come with most dreadful effect, unless we take timely measures for prevent ing that effect; this would be selling ourselves to laughter indeed, making ourselves an object for the contempt of Europe, not excepting the Dutch and those other nations, whom, v.iih empty insolence, our hireling writer* and others ailect to pity. We call upon tlie Bank for Gold and Silver in payment of their pro missory notes. They have no Gold or Silver to give us; or, at least, none do they give. They are protected by law against our demands. Some per sons propose to remove this impedi ment to our demands. The men in power and a great majority of the House of Commons say, uo ; and, they, in objecting to the proposition, say, that the Bank have not the gold and silver; that they cannot get if; and, that -it is, therefore, impossible in make them pay. This is a sorry an swer enough ; but, when we complain, we are told, that the fault is not witii the Government or with the Bank, and that it is woolly with Buonaparte, by the means of whose laws, edicts, and workings of one sort or another, the Gold and Silver have been dravn out of England. What should we think, Gentlemen, what should we " thinking people* think of a General, who was to writ* home word, that he had been beaten and routed and lost half his army ; but, that the fault was none of hip, and that it was wholly the fault of the enemy's General, who had adopt ed against him a series of extraordi nary, cruel, and savage measure,*? What should we thinking people stiy to such a geVieral? What would Mr. QUIN, the editor of the Traveler news-paper, in his sublime wntionv in the Common Council, sny to sucTi a general? Would he vote him thanks and a sword ? I do not say that he 311] LETTER XXIV. [312 would not; but, I think, that you will agree with me, that such a ge neral would, amongst most men, meet with but a cold reception; and, that h Mould be toW, tliat it was the business of the enemy to beat him, to rout him, to break him up, to ruin him; and that it was his business to prevent the enemy from so doing, and a] so to beat and break up and ruin the enemy. Just such, must, if we have a grain of sense left, be our answer to the ministers and their adherents, \Vhen they blame Buonaparte for having de prived us of our Gold and Silver. It was their business to prevent him from doing us this mischief. It was their . business to protect the country against the fatal effects of the enemy's mea sures; and, if they found themselves unequal to the task, they should have aaid SG; and* I warrant them, there would not have been wanting others to take the labour off their hands. These ministers and their predeces sors, for the last twenty years, have had the complete command of all the means, all the resources, of this king dom, of every sort. They have car ried all the measures that they pro posed. They have found out the way of putting down all opposition, or, at least, of rendering all opposition quite inefficient; and, therefore, to them, and to them alone, the nation is to look for responsibility for whatever mischiefs exist, or are likely to exist. If, indeed, all be well; if there be nothing to complain of; if the nation be in no danger; ft' there be no evil; then, they have nothing to be blamed for; but, if there be any thing in our situation, the existence of which we have cause to lament, to whom are we to look for responsibility but to them ? But, to take another view .of the matter, what, let me ask, has Napo leon done against our commerce our currency, for which he will not easily find a justification in our ex ample ? Have we neglected any means in our power to injure the commerce and the finances of France? Did not Pitt, from the very outset of the war against the French Jacobins and Levellers, call it a war of finance? And, were not all our efforts bent down towards the beating of France through her finances? This is noto riously the fact; and, as to her com merce, it must be well known to every one, that we risked a war with the American States for tha purpose of intercepting provisions in their way to the people of France, when they were menaced with famine. Was this fair and honourable warfare ? I shall be told that it was. I will not discuss the point. But, if it was so, what reason have we to complain now, when France prevents us, not from receiving corn from her dominions; but, merely from sending our products to those dominions. This is the ut most that Napoleon does, or that he can do; and, I put it, then, to any reasonable man, whether we have real cause of complaint. We may bo sorry for what Napoleon is doing; and we must be sorry for the indivi duals who suffer from his measures ; t, can we complain uf him for not receiving our goods now, when we recollect, that we would not suffer lie people of France to receive^ftmr rom America when we thought them n the midst of famine, and when we urther recollect, that we openly avowed the wish and the endeavour to prevent their receiving Jemtfs Bark, a drug so necessary, in many cases, to the preservation of life? This was fair in us, I shall be told. Very well. That I am not question ing; but, if this was fair; if a state of war tolerated this, have we, I ask LONDON (EntereB at Stationer*' -Printed by War, MOLINEUX, Bream's Building!, Chancery Lane. N-J1.]~ COBBETT'S PAPER AGAINST GOLD. [Price Two-Pence. 313] again, any reason to complain of him, any reason to call tyrant (as GEORGE ROSE did) because he \viil not now permit any part of his [314 collect our conduct at the outset of the war ; and for many years, during its continuance ? Ail our appeals, therefore, from Napoleon to the peo- people to receive goods which are pie of France are absurd ; and only our produce or our property ? Oli, no! We must expect that the people of France have the same sort of feelings that we have ; and, Gen tlemen, mark it well, I pray you, we intercepted the flour on its way to France long before Napoleon's name was known to us. We, or at least, our venal writers, now affect a vast deal of compassion tor the people of France. These writers appear to la- bespeak the desperateness of our si tuation. To return more closely to our sub ject ; it appears from the report of the Bullion Debate, that Lord CASTLE- RE AGH said, that the tyrant of the Continent had, thus far, been de feated in all his attempts against us ; that he at first attempted invasion, that he next endeavoured to excite rebellion, that he then assailed our commerce; and, that having failed hi ment that the French people are sub- , _. o jected to so terrible a despotism. | all these, he was now endeavouring to But, either the people of France hear ' ruin our currency. what our writers say, or they do not : if they do not hear it, then it cannot possibly produce any effect upon them ; and, if they do hear it, they cannot fail to call to mind, that we have been at war against them through all their forms of (/overnment ; and, that while they were under a repub lican form, or name t our hostility was much more decided and bitter than at this moment ; for, we then de clared war against the principles of their constitution; we declared that no relations of peace were to be main tained with them ; and, now that they are under a monarchy (for that means a government by the will of one per son), we affect to feel a great deal of pity for them ; we sigh to see them free; and call upon them, as loudly as our venal writers can, to rise against their tyrant. Had we begun war with them only when their revolution had worked itself into a monarchy, then, indeed, our appeals to them against their ruler might have bee of some avail ; but, how is it possible for them to believe, that we are now desirous of seeing them free, when they re- VT, MOUNEUX, Printer, Brun' BuildiGgs, Now, how far this statement Vas true, I shall not pretend to say ; and, indeed, except as to the last point, it is beside my purpose to make any remark upon what is reported to have been said by this Lord. That that part of the statement is true, there can, how ever, be little doubt ; for, it has been stated in the public prints, that there have been great quantities of forged Notes, purporting to be Notes of the Bank of England, sent into this coun try from France and Holland. This interesting fact has been very care fully kept out of the London daily pa pers; but the country papers have been less cautious, owing, I suppose, to their being at too great a distance from good advice and powerful argu ments. The following article, which I take from the OXFORD MERCURY of the 4th instant, will be quite suf ficient to explain the nature of what is going on in Kent. " We Are sorry to learn that a vast number of forged notes, purporting to be those of the Bank of England, are in cir culation, particularly on this coast, to an alarming exter\; we have 3151 I'APER AGAINST GOLD. [3LG " heard to the amount of 200,0007. " having been rvvcntly imported iitto this county from France and Hol- "' land, where it is said they are ma- " nufactured ! We know not to what " extent the evil may extend. Several " 51. 107. and even 201. of those notes " have already been detected; and " numerous I/, of the same description " are in circulation ; indeed, at Folk- " stone, and some other places, the " notes of the Bank of England are " almost generally refused in pay- " merit from this circumstance; and. " we hope some steps will he imme- " diately adopted to put a stop to " them. Two 5/. were recently passed " through the Dover Union Bank; "and a 201. note was remitted to " town by a respectable tradesman " in Dover, a few days since, which " Droved to be a forgery. We should " recommend every person to keep ' the number of the notes which pass " through their hand?, or have them " previously indorsed by the person "who passes them; we look upon " this to be a very necessary precau- " tion, as it is a matter of the most " serious consequence to tradespeople " in general ; for if the Bank of Eng- " land notes can be so readily imi- " tated, how easy must it be to forge " the Provincial Note^ of this and " other counties/' This is a war of finance with a ven geance ! But, even this I am not disposed to call an ynfair and dis honourable species of warfare. I am not disposed to call this a cheating, swindling, base and cowardly mode of attacking a nation : indeed, I should not dare to call it so, if I were dis posed to it, seeing that we did the same towards the French r:h:n they had a,papf . -moncip It is wcil known to us, frit, it ought also f bi; k' own to our children (some of whom ivill, I dare say, .ra.ad these *,ette'r<0: tl-n.t, in tlie year 17 91, f V Frenuh people made a revolution in theL ;i-ih- ment; that they chiwe rcprese: . to frame a new constitution f