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 ,\r 
 
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 LETTER 
 
 TO 
 
 /S 
 
 SIR ROBERT PEEL/MKr.^^vii*-! 
 
 ON TIIK 
 
 
 CAUSES OF THE SUCCESS OF THE Sq:^:\ 
 
 CLASSES : 
 
 ?Ty 
 
 BY "MILES; 
 
 AUTHOR OF A LETTER TO LORD JOHN RUSSELL, ON THE CAUSES 
 
 OF THE DISTRESS OF THE MANUFACTURING CLASSES OF 
 
 ENGLAND, WITH A PROPOSED REMEDY, BY CIVIS." 
 
 What (MTC the rights, what are the mights of the discontented classes in England at this epoch? 
 He were an lEdipus, and deliverer from sad social pestilence, who could resolve ui fully I These are 
 measurable questious ; on some of these any common mortal, did be but turn his eyes to them, might 
 throwsome light'— Chabtism, bt Tuomas Cabltli. 
 
 The subject'! iinrief comes through cohkissioics. 
 Which compel from eaeh the b Air-part of his 
 Substance. 
 
 This makes bold mouths, tongues ipit 
 Their duties out, and cold hearts freeie 
 Allegiance in them : nay, their curses now live whcr« 
 Their prayers did. 
 
 I would Sib Robbut would give 
 It quick consideration; for there is no 
 Primer l>u»inc»«. 
 
 Qotnif CATHA»iirs [three words changed 
 
 UonDon : 
 
 PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 
 BY J. KVE, 8, UNION PLACE, LOWER ROAD, ISLINGTON. 
 
 1842.
 
 P R E F A C E. 
 
 It is somewhat hard that a man cannot assume the title of 
 Citizen without being subject to the charge of literary piracy. 
 Yiekhng to the imjiortunities of my friends, I have dropt the name 
 of " Snooks," and after casting about for a name free from suspi- 
 cion, I have adopted that of " Miles." It is not at all likely that 
 any soldier should bother his head about finance, and I should 
 imagine that Radicalism is not one of their attributes. Surely I am 
 safe now from the charge of piracy ! 
 
 It may appear strange, that having addressed my first Letter to 
 the head of the Whig party, I should dedicate my second to a 
 Tory. I have two reasons for this ; — the first is,— that I have 
 always deprecated the support given by independent Englishmen 
 to either of the parties in the State, — " a plague on both your 
 Houses" has long been my motto ; — the second is, — that my 
 egotism induces me to suppose that Lord John snubbed nie in the 
 long speech he made in vindication of the Whig policy : vou may 
 recollect he concluded by saying, that every thing would go right 
 in spite of \\\q. predictions of narrow-minded men. Now, Sir, the 
 political economists teach us that every thing is brought to perfec- 
 tion by the subdivision of labour, and any one will admit that the 
 Almighty has denied to man universal genius. Let me cite as an 
 
 example Lord B . I wiU admit that he knows more on 
 
 most subjects than any man in England, and yet in what branch
 
 u 
 
 of knowledge has he not a superior ? The profession in which he 
 was brought up say he is no laioyer ; Whig and Tory say he is no 
 statesman; T sdiy he is no financier, or he never would have said 
 that the currency had nothing to do with the present distress. Is 
 he to be compared unto an Herschell, a Davy, a Watts, or an 
 Arkwright in their respective pursuits ? He is a sort of Jack of all 
 trades and master of none, unless it be of political economy, and 
 here I do not vvdsh to dispute the palm with him. Then what 
 becomes of Lord John's narrow mindedness } Is he ignorant 
 that where water is pent up into a narrow channel, it works one 
 for itself correspondingly deep, and that when it expands over a 
 large surface it stagnates ?
 
 ^-^-/SP^ 
 
 A LETTER. 
 
 To Sir Robert Peel, 
 
 In a Letter which I addressed to Lord John Russell, 
 at the opening of the last sessions of Parhament, on the causes of 
 the distress of the manufacturing classes, I took my text from 
 a vieasure in the office of an engineer ; I will now select a passage 
 from a conversation I had wath the proprietor, as a peg on w'hich 
 to hang my ideas, I had made the follo^^ing ohservation to him ; 
 — " I suppose, as in all other things, you find in your business a 
 great diiFerence betw^een theory and practice." " Yes," he replied, 
 " in the proportion of an ounce to a ton." I choose this for two 
 reasons : — the first being, that I cordially concur in its tiiith and 
 force ; and secondly, because it gives me an opportunity of ex- 
 plaining, that I was formerly as hot-headed a pohtical economist 
 as any one. Tlie sad lessons I have since learned in the working 
 of that branch of pohtical economy called capital, circulation, 
 cvuTency, money, induced me to write the Letter before alluded to. 
 In it I endeavoured to suppress my indignation at the ruin and 
 misery entailed on the unfortunate dupes of the system ; yet I 
 regret to say, that mildly as I have treated the paper-money- 
 makers, there are many very honest people who have read that 
 Letter, who express their opinion that it contains many truths, 
 vet they are sorry that the writer did not conceal his ire imder 
 more courteous language. Of this you may be assured, that 
 however uncivil the language of that or this Letter may be con- 
 sidered, there is no personal spleen or hatred to any individual to 
 be gratified by the use of it ; and I here, once for all, entreat it 
 may be attributed to its real cause — the ardent desire of the 
 Author that the people of this countiy may be released from the 
 most galling fetters that ever were imposed on any nation. 
 
 B 
 /
 
 Tlie subject matter of this Letter was suggested to me by the 
 debates in the last session of Parhament ; and first by an expres- 
 sion of yours on Wecbiesday, the 23d February — (it is given 
 nearly the same in all the morning papers, but I will quote from 
 the leading journal) — " That in an artificial state of society." 
 The whole debate was about England ; therefore, you must have 
 meant, that our social condition was artificial. Now, Sir, ask 
 yourself the question — wherein does this consist, unless in the 
 causes assigned in my Letter to Lord J. Russell ? And if this 
 be true, are you prepared to say, that the remedy therein pro- 
 posed is impracticable ? Yet you, and all those members of Par- 
 liament who have not the moral courage to look this (the only 
 practical remedy for the distress of the countiy) in the face, very 
 cooUy tell the sufferers that there is no remedy ! ! ! I do not ask 
 you to apply it if you are satisfied that it will not answer ; but 
 m this case I represent the opinions of hundreds of thousands ; 
 and you are bound to show (where you profess to have no remedy 
 of your own) that the only one proposed to you is o. false one. 
 
 Pray, Sir, (if it be beneath your dignity as Prime Minister,) 
 let one of your underhngs condescend to explode the trash of a 
 radical writer ; but I must tell you, that I have taken great pains 
 to place that Letter in the hands of those who, I thought, were 
 the most hkely to expose its fallacies. It may be beneath their 
 notice ; but certainly only one writer has attempted to refute it ; 
 and I place the substance of the correspondence in a note, that 
 you may judge how far he has succeeded.* 
 
 * A letter had been placed in my hands, written by one of Mr. Attwood's 
 disciples, criticising Civis, to which I replied. As my answer disposed of his 
 objections, I requested his permission to publish the correspondence as a 
 note, without any comment. He objected to this, on the ground that he 
 had written in haste, with no idea of publication, and had not kept any copy; 
 and further, on my sending him the correspondence, that he should be wri- 
 ting against an anonymous correspondent. I must, therefore, give the sub- 
 stance of it, so as not to indicate my opponent, pledging myself to insert 
 nothing which did not appear in it. 
 
 The first objection was, that " Civis does not explain what he considers to 
 be money. Now, I contend, that gold is capital. Gold dust is not money ; 
 it is only of the value of so much money." 
 
 My answer was, — Money is that something by which the value of all 
 other things is estimated. If a dealer offer me a hoi-se for £2Q, he knows 
 that with my j£'20 he can go down to Yorkshire and buy another horse equally 
 good as the one he sold mc, and retain some of my money in his pocket. 
 This is, supposing I had paid him in sovereigns; but if I had given him 
 20 rags, he might, find, when he got into Yorkshire, that tliey were worth 
 nothinp, — the banker who had issued them had stopped ; or he might find, 
 that the banker who had issued them, had set so many of them afloat, that he 
 could not buy so good a horse as he had sold, under jf 25.
 
 The Editor of the Morning Chronicle reviewed (on the 11th 
 of June) my Letter, conceiving that it was written by an old 
 
 Let Mr. imagine an old woman going into a shop to buy a yard of 
 
 calico, for wliich she pays 6d. ; but on returning home, she finds she has not 
 as much as she wajits ; \hal her i/ard 7neasure shows the shopman has only 
 given her 21 inches .' She iuiiiiciliately returns to the shop, calk the owner 
 a cheat, and cannot understand the meaning of his answer, " calico is dearer, 
 so that he can only sell 21 inclies for Gd. when he used to sell 3(> inches.' 
 Yet this is the same thing as if he had charged her t)d. for a yard (36 inches), 
 because money was cheaper. Or, supposing he had given her 48 inches 
 because money was dearer, she would have bought more than she wanted. 
 In either case, the old woman would never know what she was about : and 
 tlie same thing takes place, should the shopman's measure never alter, but 
 the price vary by the alteration of the quantity of money in circulation. 
 
 Nations, in emerging from barbarism, improved their currency from cowrie 
 shells to gold; because experience taught them, that there was nothing so 
 universal in its application, from its varying least in quantity. 
 
 Civis considers tliut as the best money standard of value which can be the 
 least tampered with. An expanding and contracting currency is just the 
 same thing as adding more alloy to a sovereign, and tailing it out again. 
 
 There has never been any serious change in the gold value of land, &c., 
 except at the time of llie discovery of the American mines ; but there has 
 been a constantly increasing nominal value of land, coextensive with the 
 quantity of paper money which any nation has been foolish enough to permit 
 a set of knaves to throw into circulation. Civis's position is, that the owner 
 of land derives no advantage from this increased price ; and that those who 
 get their living b)' making articles for foreign consumption, have an obstacle 
 put in their way by it ; labour being necessarily cheaj'^er in a country making 
 use of the least quantity of money. 
 
 1 shall not trouble you with my answer to his next objection, — " That 
 Civis does not discuss the subject of money with reference to all nations and 
 people." 
 
 He then states his dogma, that " value given for value is barter. A light 
 sovereign is not money, but a piece of metal. A coin of full weight is called 
 a piece of money ; but is only & piece of metal, worth as much as is ascribed 
 to it as a commoditj', and will not pass throughout the world but as 1 have 
 described." 
 
 To this I replied, that barterers, or traders, do not give value for value, 
 vithout some object. In Civis, page 34, the merchant who barters his coffee 
 ^vith the English and German mercliants, expects to make something of 
 another party or parties, to whom he sells their goods : the others expect to 
 do the same with his cotfee. The example was given to show that the 
 English, by making use of false money, or currency, were holding out a 
 premium to foreigners to compete with tiiem. 
 
 Mr. admits that a coin of full weight is called money, and will pass 
 
 for as much as is ascribed to it, as a commodity throughout the world. Does 
 Civis contend for more .' But then he would ask — does a bank note, or 
 1 O U, fulfil the same conditions ? Will they pass in barter at all times, 
 and in all places, like the piece of metal ? 
 
 He then goes on to contend, "that money is \iyx\^\^representative of value ; 
 and until Civis can prove that he is wrong, it is useless to discuss the policy
 
 correspondent of his. I immediately informed him of his mis- 
 take, of which he took notice on the 13th. . You will hei-ein per- 
 
 of issuing paper. He then asserts that Civis advocates a total abolition of 
 money." 
 
 PFear my answer to this : — 
 
 Civis cannot understand how a full-weight sovereign is only the repre- 
 sentative of value. If he give one for a hat, he has given value for value ; 
 hut if he had given a flimsij, called a £\ note, then, indeed, that description 
 of money is but the represeyitative of value. Civis advocates, certainly, the 
 total abolition of this description of money, under certain accompanying 
 conditions ; and he here repeats, without fear of being proved to be wrong, 
 that Enghind cannot permanently thrive until this abolition take place. 
 
 My opponent then argues, "that ant/ note or bill is money, because it is the 
 repi'csentative of value." 
 
 To this I say, that any note or hill, promising to pay so many ounces of 
 gold, quarters of corn, &c., is not money, but the shadow of the substance; 
 because, before the barter is completed, the bill has to be cashed, 
 
 I am restrained from giving my answer in full to his cliallcnge to refute 
 something he had printed : but the following forms a part of it, and is worth 
 your consideration. 
 
 But what is the cause of this superabundance of produce ? England docs 
 not manufacture for all the world ; then why does she not send it abroad ? 
 Simply because she cannot get as much innneij value in return for goods, as 
 will pay for the cost of production. Then comes the question, why cannot 
 she make goods at a price that will command a sale, or barter ? It is to this 
 question that Civis flatters himself he has given an answer. 
 
 Civis considers, that an advance in the price of gold is equivalent to a 
 certain quantity of gold passing in exchange, or barter, for a larger qxiantity 
 of other things; therefore, \\\q price of all other things would recede instead 
 of advance : and this is the one thing needful; fur then the produce of our 
 labour could be bartered with foreign nations. 
 
 lie then quotes my asseilion, " that it would be highly advantageous that 
 one sovereign should do the work now assigned to three ; asking me to apply 
 this case to a coal-mine and a gold-mine ; adding, if the coal is to he one- 
 third the cost, v/hy will it not equally apply to the gold ? what becomes 
 of the boasted standard of value ?" 
 
 In answer, Civis contends, that the coal is at an unnatural cost, owing to 
 the gold not representing its real value; it is debased by its forced alliance 
 with twice its amount of paper money ; their relative value (the coal and 
 gold), would be just the same then&s now. The standard of value would 
 be intact. All the elTorts of the paper-money men are directed to make the 
 
 gold and paper appear of the saine value. If Mr. 's project were 
 
 realized, of letting goldlind its market value, the rags must take Jlight, and 
 a national bankruptcy ensue. 
 
 Flc finally attacks my example of the effects of our barter ; and asks "why 
 I do not stick to barter ; and say, an Englishman goes to a foreign market, 
 with rice valued at 6d., and the German with rice valued at 3d., when they 
 will each purchase the same quantity of coffee ?" 
 
 My answer to this is, — Civis wrote his Latter with a view of showing that 
 our artificial money prices were the cause of our being competed with by 
 foreigners in our manufactures; he cannot therefore understand how sub-
 
 ceivc the reason of my substituting Snooks for Civis ; and here 
 let me observe, that I was so much tickled by the Canterbury 
 affair, that I determined, if ever I had occasion for a " nomme de 
 guerre," that it should be " Snooks." As my answer to the 
 Chronicle's remarks somewhat illustrates my opinions, I place it 
 in a note, because the Editor did not choose to insert it.* 
 
 stituting 7ice for manufactured goods would be a fairer statement of the 
 
 argument, unless Mr. can satisfy Civis that rice is an article of English 
 
 munttfactiire, Civis does not deny that nil trade is barter; but he asserts 
 that barter, through the agency of money, is as frequent as through goods ; and 
 consequently, that the nation which trades through the medium of a debased 
 currency, is trading to a disadvantage ; and he thinks the example he has 
 
 given is conclusive evidence. If Mr. will enlarge this case a little, he 
 
 will discern the action of it. Supposing the English and German merchants 
 to have bartered their goods and coffee to the extent of a million of money 
 (the realized price in the London market; ; the German takes a million of 
 gold out of the bank, with which he purchases at home two millions' worth 
 of goods, as valued with coffee; whilst the English merchant can only pur- 
 chase one million's worth : they both go to the coffee country to exchange 
 them. If this does not exceed the quantity of coffee which the grower has 
 to exchange, or if the quantit}' of their goods be not greater than the coffee 
 merchant can dispose of, the same advantage arises again to the German ; 
 or if they be in excess, the German can afford to give twice as many of his 
 goods in exchange as the Englishman, without incurring any loss. Civis 
 
 entreats Mr. to study his Letter. He feels confident that he would 
 
 have found an answer to all his queries, had he. done so. He is greatly dis- 
 tressed to find how small a proportion of the public have kept themselves 
 uncontaniinated by the cnide absurdities of the political economists. It is the 
 confounding the shadow with the substance, — the pretended representative of 
 — with the real value, that has given such currency to their doctrines. 
 
 To the above I received an answer, that " Mr. still contended that 
 
 money was a shadow, the representative of value, — mere numbers " — with one 
 or two other observations. Having written my reply on the back of Mr. — 's, 
 communication, and having sent them to him, 1 am unable to give any more 
 detailed account of it. 
 
 * To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle. 
 The notice you were pleased to take of my Letter to Lord John Russell, 
 in your paper of Saturday, could not fail of flattering my vanity, seeing that 
 you ascribed it to an old and able correspondent. 1 had anticipated such 
 reflections on it. Although an exceedingly hast)- and ill-digested production, 
 yet a frequent reperusal, and a strict watching of the debates in Parliament, 
 have only tended to strengthen the conviction in my mind, that I am right 
 in all my positions. I placed the pamphlet in Sir R. Peel's hands, on the 
 opening of the session, as well as in the Duke of Wellington's. I need 
 scarcely say, that Lord J. Russell had the first copy. I further distributed 
 100 copies among the leading liberal members of both Houses. 1 have the 
 vanity to believe that I trace the effects of the perusal of it, in the speeches 
 of Sir R. Peel, Lord J. Russell, Lords Brougham, Fitzwilliam, Ilowick; 
 and amongst other commoners, Messrs. Muutz, Cobdcn, and Wakley. But
 
 The next thing which I considered required an explanation, 
 was an expression of Mr. Escott's, — " A rich country must ever 
 be a dear country, and a poor country must ever be a cheap one. 
 It ever was and ever will be so." 
 
 The question here arises, what is meant by a rich country ? 
 If one in which a large accumulation of the precious metals, or of 
 paper money has taken place, w-hy, it is plain that more of them 
 will be exchanged for other articles, and prices will rise : yet this 
 is no proof of richness : a man can buy no more vnth his money 
 now than he could before, with less gold in the country^ It is true, 
 that an individual in the country, who acquires a large quantity 
 of gold, or paper, is richer ; he can buy more of other articles : — 
 but a country cannot grow rich by any accumulation of money 
 amongst themselves. 
 
 But a country can grow rich in another way. If the inhabit- 
 ants have been hard-working, industrious people, and have 
 acquired a large hoard of the products of labour, in the shape of 
 ships, warehouses, canals, railways, docks, &c., they possess ad- 
 vantages over other nations who have not these articles of com- 
 mercial greatness. But the accumulation of these things acts in 
 
 I must summarily notice one or two of your objections. You first state, that 
 the people do not wish for the reduction of the National Debt; to this I 
 answer, that it is because they have not yet fully discovered that it is the 
 cause of all their difficulties. If you will suppose it to be equally divided 
 amongst the heads of families fsay five millions) , any one with half a grain 
 of common sense, must immediately perceive, that it would be the interest of 
 every one that it should be done away with, whereby they would be saved the 
 expense of collecting money from each other, to be repaid to each other ; 
 but if the National Debt were in the hands of one-fifth of the population, 
 then these holders would only have to pay one-fifth in taxation; and the 
 remaining four-fifths of the population would be taxed foi the remaining 
 four-fifths of the interest of the debt, and receive nothing in return. I 
 firmly believe that the taking off the tax on corn, &c. would not be effective 
 unless they materially lowered prices; but lower prices are equivalent to 
 dearer mo7iey, or less circulation ; ergo, a National Debt of £'29,000,000 
 of annual interest (supposing prices to be reduced one-half), would be in- 
 creased, in its pressure upon industry, toi?58, 000,000 of annual interest. 
 
 But, Mr. Editor, I feel greatly obliged to you for noticing my Pamphlet. 
 I had no sordid motive in writing it ; any one is at liberty to reprint it ; and 
 I call on Lord Ashley, Joseph Sturge, Mrs. Fry, and all those who have the 
 ■welfare of the labouring classes at heart, to study it, and distribute it in every 
 hamlet of England. It is more calculated to benefit the poor than any 
 production I have yet seen addressed to the public ; and there is no stronger 
 proof of this than your remark, that it is not calculated to win its way 
 amongst the present issuers of paper. 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 SNOOKS.
 
 a directly opposite u-ay to the accumulation of money. It tends to 
 keep clown the cost of using these things, that there should be an 
 abundance ; and, consequently, to prevent other nations trying to 
 rival us in commercial pursuits : but the accumulation of money 
 enhances the cost, and gives a premium to foreigners to compete 
 with us; ergo, that nation which can, by the cheapest money 
 cost, accumulate the means of commerce, has a decided advantage 
 over the dear country. England, by allowing paper to pass for 
 money, places herself in this predicament. 
 
 liord Howick, on the 10th March, made the following obser- 
 vation: — "The only protection to which, in his mind, they were 
 entitled, was that protection which secured to every man the 
 enjoyment of the fruit of his honest industry, which would guard 
 him against being deprived by others, directly or indirectly, of the 
 produce of his labour." To him I addressed this note thereon : — 
 " But this doctrine appHes to wages, which are the poor man's 
 capital ; yet wages are only so much of iheproduct of labour, as the 
 masters consider barely sufficient to keep body and soul together. 
 When will our legislators take their case into consideration, and 
 secure to them a fair share of the product of their labour? I have 
 shewn in my letter to Lord John Russell, that supposing the taxation 
 removed, and the population the same, as well as the trade, that 
 six hours a day would earn the labourer his present bare subsist- 
 ence. I would therefore declare, that six hours a day be sufficient 
 to entitle the labourer to an adequate subsistence ; and that any 
 further labour should be paid for as extra time, at the same rate. 
 "Now, Sir, let me beseech you, and your brother liberals, to imi- 
 tate Sir R. Peel, and set about creating a new party, based on — 
 protection to the labour of the country. You must of necessity, 
 immediately enlist Lord Ashley and his followers. If you gentle- 
 men legislators find no difficulty in apportioning the quantity of 
 food, clothing, &c. &c. to the poor in the workhouses, jaUs, &c. ; 
 surely you could have no difficulty in deteniiining what quantity 
 of wages would purchase a minimum quantity of the necessaries of 
 life for the labouring population generally, for a minimum quan- 
 tity of time, to be reduced gradually from 12 to 6 hours a day, at 
 the same intervals as the national encumbrances wovdd be reduced 
 by my plan ; whereby they would only have to plead their own 
 rashness in running into precipitate marriages, if they were ob- 
 liged to lose this protection. You would thereby give the lie to 
 Sir Robert Peel's assertion — that there can be ?io legislation for 
 wages." 
 
 And when Mr. Charles Wood opened his mouth, I addressed
 
 8 
 
 this note to him : — " Sir, — To show how httle I attend to the pro- 
 ceedings in ParHament, I must inform you, that I was not aware, 
 until Sir Robert Peel alluded to the fact the other day, that you 
 were the Chairman of the Committee on Banking. I thereupon 
 determined to watch what you might have to say for yourself on 
 the subject of the new system of taxation introduced by Sir Ro- 
 bert Peel. I feel confident that you must have received a Letter, 
 which I addressed to Lord John Russell, on this momentous topic ; 
 and of which I personally delivered 100 copies to various mem- 
 bers of the Legislature, at the Clubs, in order that they might no 
 longer have an excuse for reiterating the usual twaddle about the 
 money-aifairs of the country. I am not about to analyze your 
 speech, but merely to pass some remarks on one word, ' Capital.' 
 You tell Sir R. Peel, that the imposition of an income-tax will 
 drive the capital out of the country. Now, let me entreat you to 
 reperuse the Letter I have alluded to, " on the Causes of the Dis- 
 tress of the Manufacturing Classes of England;" and you will there 
 find, that the first thing I enter upon, is to establish the fact, that 
 money and capital are different things; and if, after having read it 
 again, you do not agree with me, I must consider you too far gone 
 in political economy ever to understand the real interests of your 
 country : but, as a last attempt to enhghten you, I will now ask 
 you what you mean by capital leaving the country ? 
 
 "Do you mean to say, that the labouring classes, the source of 
 all the wealth of the country, will leave it ? If so, then you must be 
 wrong in opposing an income-tax, (I ofi'er no remarks on its un- 
 equal pressure); because the object of it is professed to be, to hghten 
 the taxes on industiy, and consequently enable them to hve. 
 Or do you, by capital, mean our 800 millions of national debt, or 
 33 millions of rags, or our warehouses, railways, docks, canals ? 
 If so, let me ask you, how the nation would suffer by the first two 
 things I have named being transported to Paris or Siberia.'' Are 
 our warehouses, railways, &c. &c. to be put upon trucks, and 
 wheeled over to America ; or are our canals to ' take up their beds 
 and walk' aci'oss the channel to Ostend } I reallv cannot imag^ine 
 any capital leaving us (by capital I understand the product of la- 
 bour), unless it be money, — that is, gold and silver; but of this we 
 have so little, that unless it were to buy wheat, I do not tliink the 
 Old Gentleman himself would be able to coax us out of it. Why, 
 the Bank of England have absolutely lately got rid of £ 7,000,000 
 of paper, to replace it by £ 3,000,000 of gold, as sho^vTi by the last 
 returns. 
 
 " Your relative. Lord Howick, gave the coup de grace to the poll-
 
 tical economists, in that part of his speech wherein he so well likens 
 the self-interests of traders to a well-regulated machine. Twenty 
 years ago, I was myself apolitical economist by reading: subsequent 
 practical experience has convinced me, that ' teaching your granny 
 to suck eggs' is a synonyme for political economy." 
 
 But before I proceed to assign the causes of the prosperity of 
 the non-productive classes, you will perhaps excuse my carrying 
 you back to the Letter alluded to, that I may illustrate it by such 
 examples as I find are necessary, from my having been imperfectly 
 understood by several parties. 
 
 The first thing I wish to call your attention to, is my definition 
 of money. Dr. Johnson says, in his Tour to the Hebrides, — 
 " Money and tcccilth have, by the use of commercial language, 
 been so long confounded, that they are commonly supposed to be 
 the same;" and in his foho Dictionaiy, he defines money to be 
 "metal stamped for commercial purposes." Now, here is good 
 Tory authority to support me; but I will remind you only of one 
 instance, from the Scriptures, of the antiquity of money : — " Then 
 Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore 
 every man's moHey into his sack." — Genesis, chap. 52, ver. 25: 
 and at verse 34, Joseph is made by his brethren to say, — " So will 
 I deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffic in the land." Surely 
 Joseph's brethren could not have found a shadow m their sacks ! 
 (Pray read again my first note, and the case of barter I give in 
 page 34 of Civis.) The manner in which our paper]money becomes 
 rea/ money to the foreigner, though not so to us, is worthy your 
 deepest consideration. It is a principle which has only sprung up 
 of late ; since, in fact, the continent have produced manufactures 
 to rival yours. Tlie above quotation also proves, that in those 
 primitive times, trade, or barter, was earned on by a substance, the 
 value of which was perfectly widerstood in a foreign country ; and 
 I think you will agree with me, that this substance could not have 
 been houses, land, a ship, or a railway ; for these could not have gone 
 into their sacks. 
 
 There is another view to be taken of monev, arisin": from the 
 confusion in men's minds (alluded to by Dr. Johnson); which is, 
 that money is sometimes said to be very cheap, from the fact that 
 at that time, it might be had at a low rate of interest ; or it is called 
 dear because of the high rate of interest : yet we see sometimes a 
 large amount of bank notes afloat, with a high rate of interest ; 
 and a smaller number, with a low rate. Six months since, as 
 much as 10 per cent, was given for money; twelve months since, 
 the rate was not higher, or so high. The quantity of money is not 
 
 c
 
 10 
 
 greater now than six months since ; and the rate has diminished 
 to 2 per cent. All this only proves that money is scarce or plenti- 
 ful, according as the interests of the Bank and sj}eculaiors are in 
 apogee or perigee. But the trne meaning of dearness and cheap- 
 ness of money (and with us it means paper), is how much will a 
 sovereign huy of any article here and abroad, that is, in Europe. 
 If a quarter of corn cost 30s. in France, and 60s. in England, 
 money is to that extent cheaper in England: for this reason, put- 
 ting aside the rent of the land in each countiy, all the other value 
 is the labour bestowed on the raising of corn : but the value of the 
 labourers' wages in each country, is just as little of the produce as 
 will keep body and soul united; the money value of which may be 
 estimated, in France, at 6d; and, in England, at Is. per diem: 
 ergo, as twice the amount of English money will only purchase a 
 bare subsistence in England, as compared with France, money 
 must be debased one half in England. 
 
 I wrote the above on the 5th September; on the morning of the 
 6th, I copied the following from the Morning Chronicle: — " Gross 
 amount of paper issued last year, £34,881,182; ditto this year, 
 £35,463,920." Yet the quantity of bullion in the bank had in- 
 creased in this time £4,769,000. There can be no clearer proof 
 than this of the falling off of the trade of the nation: for, on 
 every preceding occasion on which the Bank were so flush of cash, 
 they have been enabled to increase considerably the number of 
 rags afloat, and thereby set aU the world buying. It is certainly 
 true, that they have induced a speculation for a rise in the English 
 funds ; but this arises more fi-om the idea of the holders that they 
 have a more valuable bond than they had before the imposition of 
 the income-tax ; but there is something particularly ominous in the 
 fact, that the Foreign Stocks have almost all receded; on all pre- 
 vious occasions, a rise of \ per cent, in the English funds, has 
 produced 1 per cent, in the foreign. The price of manufactured 
 goods remains nearly unaltered, notwithstanding they had been 
 depressed 20 per cent., as shewn in Civis; and this proves that the 
 quantity of money measures the value of goods. Every effort has 
 been made to increase the circulation, both by forcing out notes, 
 and in lowering the rate of interest; yet, I have been informed, that 
 veiy recently, if not now, cotton has been within a farthing per 
 pound as cheap as it was in the panic of 1825. 
 
 I have been defamed. Sir, for calling the holders of the national 
 debt, drones, (page 5, Civis). Let me explain my self here. A man 
 who gives up his money for the use of the State, may be legiti- 
 mately entitled to be provided for by the State, in himself; his wife.
 
 11 
 
 and children. My objection is, that the descendants of this 
 man are /or ever to have the privilege; or that they should have 
 the right of selling this perpetual bond. I do not believe that the 
 Parliament of England contemplated, for a momoit, when they gave 
 the power to the minister, that it should remain as an unceasing 
 charge upon the nation. It was resei-ved for the political econo- 
 mists of the present day to consider its perpetuiti/ as a national 
 blessing, due, in the language of your Father, " from ourselves to 
 ourselves." 
 
 My drones may, perhaps, be the non-productive classes of the 
 political economists ; but until they publish a dictionary of their 
 technical terms, it is impossible for a man of common understand- 
 ing to know what they mean by any of them. I have been highly 
 amused, lately, by a correspondence in the Morning Post, between 
 " a Member of the Pitt Club" and " an Anti-free Trader." The 
 probabihty is that it is only a " sham fight," got up to mystify the 
 public ; but most of it turns upon who are consumers, and who 
 are producers ; and after several letters, they leave the subject just 
 where it was. But, in truth, there are two sorts of productive 
 consumers ; those who live upon their industry ; and those who 
 live upon the industry of the first-named, by virtue of the means 
 furnished by them : — two sorts of consuming producers ; — namely, 
 those who labour in the production ; and those who find the 
 means to set this labour in motion. Were the produce of labour 
 fairly divided between these parties, their interest would be 
 identical, and legislating for one would be for both. 
 
 But we have other parties in the state, who belong to neither 
 of these classes ; — those wIk) lent their money to the Government, 
 to lavish in foreign wars, and took an usurious bond, as I have 
 shewn in Civis, pages 26 & 27 ; those who, by issuing spurious 
 money, have got their fangs into almost every man's estate, real 
 or personal. 
 
 To tell me that a feUow, who cajoles every one he can to borrow 
 his credit money, (taking care to secure himself by mortgage, or 
 assignment of personal property, whereby the value of the real 
 money a man may have toiled a long life to realize, is depreciated, 
 and which credit money has no other earthly effect but to enhance 
 prices,) is a producer, is more than I can digest : he is a consumer 
 of the labour of the productive classes I have pointed out. 
 
 There are also all those beaux, we daily sec stepping out of their 
 carriages, cabs, street omnibuses, &c. into the Custom House, 
 Excise Office, Somerset House, &c. There are other classes I 
 shall name elsewhere. Now all these I call drones: for of all
 
 12 
 
 those I have just named, there is scarcely one who does u fair 
 day's work ; and if justice were done to the public, they would have 
 no occupation. 
 
 I will here state, that a gentleman who had read Civis, sent me 
 word that there was nothing new in my definition of money (I 
 never said there was); and as a proof, he sent me a pamphlet, 
 published nearly 50 years since. Now, Sir Robert, imagine my 
 
 horror in finding myself in the presence of Tom Paine ; a 
 
 man whom I had been taught it were unsafe for the strongest 
 minded men to hold converse with ; but, conceive my amazement, 
 at finding, that, not only were our ideas (on the subject of money) 
 in unison, but that so absolutely identical is our language, that, 
 except those who know that I am incapable of telling a falsehood, 
 I would not ask any one to believe that I was ignorant Paine had 
 written on the subject. I certainly had heard it asserted in Par- 
 hament, that Paine used to say " that paper was strength in the 
 beginning, and weakness in the end;" but I was ignorant from 
 which of his writings they had drawn the expression. I have 
 heard that he was considered a man of talent; and for this 
 reason his writings were decried as hkely to be influential : 
 and I can well believe, that if he had written nothing be- 
 yond this pamphlet, that, with a certain party in this country, 
 he would be considered a great rascal. Men who write for the 
 benefit of \X\e people, in checking oppression, must expect this; and 
 even the education of them has met with resistance in quarters 
 where nothing biit support ought to have been expected. No 
 man could object to the acquirement of knowledge in another, 
 unless his selfishness taught him, that he had something to lose by 
 it. Pray read it. Sir Robert, it only costs three-pence ; from this 
 cheap rate of publication, I suppose that it must have been pub- 
 lished by the society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. You 
 will find that I have given a few extracts, referred to as corro- 
 borative of Civis. 
 
 Permit me to illustrate my obsen-ations (page 1, Civis), on the 
 loss of English capital, by a quotation from T. Paine's Decline and 
 Fall of English Finance. " The same fate would have happened to 
 gold and silver, could gold and silver have been issued in the same 
 abundant manner that paper had been, and confined within the 
 country as paper money always is, by having no circulation out of 
 it; or, to speak on a larger scale, the same thing would have hap- 
 pened in the world, could the world be glutted with gold and sil- 
 ver, as America and France have been with paper." 
 
 At Page 2, in Civis, I have endeavoured to expose the folly of 
 considering land, &c. as money.
 
 13 
 
 Let us follow out this idea. We have 800 millions of national 
 debt, every holder of which fancies that he could convert his pro- 
 portion into money. The value of the land in England is estima- 
 ted at £ eveiy holder imagines it to be convertible into 
 money. The Railways of England, 80 millions, the holders fancy 
 are money. All houses, docks, ships, no owner doubts he could 
 convert into money. Yet, in the panic of 1825, it was ascertained 
 that the gross amount of money wanted, did not exceed 1 1 mil- 
 lions; but this ^;a/^ry sum upset every body, and every thing, and 
 brought the country to within 24 hours of barter. Now, Sir, reflect 
 on the mass of property which might be l)rought to bear at any 
 one moment against any quantity of gold which the Bank may have, 
 through the agency of the notes !!! 
 
 When the Duke of WeUington, and his administration, reduced 
 the 4 per cent. Stock one half per cent, of the annual interest, by 
 pretending that he would pay them off, the few holders who had 
 sense enough to demand their money (only amounting to 4 mil- 
 lions,) reaped the advantage of their firmness ; for they were en- 
 abled to reinvest their money on much better terms than those 
 who accepted the new Stock. Why was this ? The Bank had to 
 create the money to pay them off; — observe, only 4 millions; yet 
 we have it in evidence before the Committee, 1 832, that the cre- 
 ation of this insignificant sum upset the manoeuvres of the Bank, 
 and it was years before they recovered from this affair. 
 
 At page 4 (Civis), I endeavour to prove, that unless money be 
 created, no derangement takes place in prices by purchases and 
 sales. I have heard it asserted, aye, and by very knowing ones, 
 that bills of exchange are money ; and that the quantity of them 
 influences prices. This is certainly true, if money c«« be made to cash 
 these bills of exchange ; but if not, they cannot materially interfere 
 with prices. A imports a cargo of cotton, which B wants to manu- 
 facture ; B gives his bill for the value, say at six months ; but A has 
 to pay for the cargo. If he be a monied man, he does so from 
 his means; and puts B's bill into his till until it becomes due; 
 but if he be not a monied man, he either endorses B's bill to the 
 party to whom he is indebted for the cargo, or he discounts it with 
 a party who has money. In the meantime, B manufactures the 
 cotton, and sells it for ready money, or takes bills. He either 
 pays A with the money, or these bills ; or he gets some one who 
 has money to discount them. Let us call this party, C : — ergo, 
 C's money goes to B, who either pays the discounter, or A, as the 
 case may be. But A has previously paid the party from whom he 
 imported the cotton ; so that, m this transaction, the only thing
 
 14 
 
 that is gained, is time to make the payment in : but time is repre- 
 sented by interest, for wliich a payment is made ; therefore, bills of 
 exchange, per se, create no money. 
 
 Now for the other side of the pictm-e. A, the importer, takes 
 B's bills to a money-maker to be discounted : the money-maker 
 creates notes to discount the bills with : the difference in the price 
 which he buys his cotton at, and sells it to B, is so much more 
 money thrown into circulation : consequently A circulates his 
 profit on the transaction as money : he is worth so much more 
 money than he was. B, when he manufactures the cotton, dis- 
 counts the bills he receives in payment, with the money-maker ; 
 consequently B's profit on the transaction is so much more money 
 thrown into the circulation. Who can doubt that increased prices 
 must ensue from this } But if there had been no creation of 
 money in this affair, the thing w^ould have stood thus : — A's profit 
 would have increased his means in money, and enabled him to 
 drive a better trade : B's profit would act in the same way ; and 
 C, the discounter, would have reaped his share of the transaction 
 in the interest he would have made of his monev. After all, it is 
 C's money which pays the grower of the cotton, through the 
 agency of D, who has to receive pajonent of a countiyman of the 
 cotton-grower, for perhaps the identical cotton sent back to the 
 cotton-growing country, in the shape of printed calicoes : ergo, in 
 a natural state of things, the manufacturing countiy must have a 
 balance in money to receive, in all its transactions with other 
 nations ; because they give in exchange, articles on which more 
 labour has been employed, for that on which less has been be- 
 stowed, supposing the trade to be confined to these two countries : 
 hence, the manufacturing country must become immensely rich. 
 
 This is the abst^-act theory of the question ; but the reality is 
 very different. Where could the countiy w'hich only produces 
 the cotton, get the money to pay the difference in value between 
 the raw and manvfactured article from ? It is an impossibility, 
 consequently, to pay for the printed calicoes : they must transmit 
 such an increased quantity of the raw material as is equivalent to 
 the value of the manufactiu'ed cotton : hence, as all the raw ma- 
 terial, when manufactured, cannot be sent back to the countiy 
 from whence it came, it must find its way to some other country, 
 in exchange for money, or some other commodity. Should this 
 be wine, this wealth is dissipated, perhaps, at the Blackwall Tavera, 
 in one day. 
 
 At page 5 (Civis), I show how paper money is absorbed into 
 the circulation. It has been objected to this statement, " that the
 
 15 
 
 paper money has only displaced the gold previously in circulation ;" 
 but a careful rcperusal of the paragraph will show I am endea- 
 vouring to prove that, that which had not been considered as 
 money before, was (by the permission given to make paper money, 
 which was represented in the banker's coffers by the title-deeds of 
 estates, houses, &c. called securities), in fact, increasing the 
 quantity of circulating medium. There is no question that gold 
 was abstracted from circulation, and was replaced by paper ; but 
 only so much paper could have been circidated as represented the 
 gold, otherwise the paper would have been afloat without any thing 
 to represent it in the banker's till. No person can be fool enough 
 to suppose, that those who issued paper, to get gold into their 
 possession, could have done so from any other motive than to part 
 with the gold; for had they done so, they were issuing that which 
 must have cost them something (however little) to print, to get 
 that which was of no use to them, and of wliich they had the 
 chance of being robbed. It is this narrow view of the subject 
 which has engendered the idea of gold lying idle in the banker's 
 hands, and of which the knowing ones have made such use. 
 Now, it is obvious that if I went to a banker, and wanted an 
 advance of his notes, he woidd (if he required no better) at least 
 have my bill, or promise to pay, on demand ; and against his notes, 
 as debits, he would place my note of hand as credits, being num- 
 bered amongst his securities. 
 
 But I have had the modesty, in this example, to consider the 
 issues of paper money only to have doubled the circulation ; I can 
 form no reasonable estimate to what extent they had pushed it 
 during the late war. There can be no question that enormous 
 sums of the paper money have exploded since your bill of 1819, 
 and that i)rices have in consequence materially lowered ; but I have 
 the authority of Colonel Torrens, that the banking interest con- 
 sider they are safe if they can pay 4s. in the pound; and S. J. I^oyd 
 considers them as safe as a church if they can pay 6s. 8d., which 
 Cocker would say was trebling the circulation. It would be a 
 great treat to have a catalogue of all the different articles the 
 makers of paper money have taken as securities on which to issue 
 their rags. I have known wheat-stacks to be pawned to them, so 
 that even the food of the people has been converted into money. 
 But, Sir, for w^hat purpose ? Simply that the farmer might not 
 be obliged to sell; so that, by withholding his crops from the 
 market, the price was sure to rise ; and as he was very sliy of 
 raising his wages, the payment came out of the pockets of the 
 bulk of the population, amongst whom bread is the main article of 
 subsistence.
 
 16 
 
 Now, Sir, hearT. Paine on this subject : — " It will always hap- 
 pen, that the price of labour, or of the produce of labour, be that 
 produce what it may, will be in proportion to the quantity of 
 money in a country, admitting things to take their natural course. 
 Before the invention of the funding system, there was no other 
 money than gold and silver ; and as nature gives out those metals 
 with a sparing hand, and in regular annual quantities from the 
 mines, the several prices of things were proportioned to the quan- 
 tity of money at that time, and so nearly stationary as to vary but 
 httle in any fifty or sixty years of that period. 
 
 " When the funding system began, a substitute for gold and 
 silver began also. That substitute was paper; and the quantity 
 of it increased as the quantity of interest increased upon accumu- 
 lated loans. This appearance of a new and additional species of 
 money in the nation soon began to break the relative value which 
 money, and the things it will purchase, boi'e to each other before. 
 Every thing rose in price, but the rise at first was Httle and slow, 
 like the difference in units between the first t'wo numbers, 8 and 
 12, compared with the two last numbers, 90 and 135, in the table. 
 It was, however, sufficient to make itself considerably felt in a large 
 transaction. Wlien, therefore, government, by engaging in a new 
 war, required a new loan, it was obliged to make a higher loan 
 than the former loan, to balance the increased price to which 
 things had risen ; and as that new loan increased the quantity of 
 paper in proportion to the new quantity of interest, it carried the 
 price of things still higher than before. The next loan was again 
 higher, to balance that further increased price ; and all this in the 
 same manner, though not in the same degree, that every new 
 emission of continental money in America, or of assignats in 
 France, were greater than the preceding emission, to make head 
 against the advance of prices, till the combat could be maintained 
 no longer. Herein is founded the necessity of which I have just 
 spoken. That necessity proceeds with accelerating velocity, and 
 the ratio I have laid down is the measure of that acceleration ; or, 
 to speak the technical language of the subject, it is the measure 
 of the increasing depreciation of funded paper money, which it is 
 impossible to prevent, while the quantity of that money and of bank 
 notes continues to multiply. What else but this can account for the 
 difference between one war costing 21 milUons, and another war 
 costing 160 millions. 
 
 " It is said in England, that the value of paper keeps equal 
 with the value of gold and silver. But the case is not rightly 
 stated ; for the fact is, that the paper has pulled down the value of 
 gold and silver to a level with itself. Gold and silver will not
 
 17 
 
 purchase so mucli of any purcliascable article at this day as if no 
 paper had appeared, nor so much as it will in any country in 
 Europe where there is no paper. How long this hanging together 
 of money and paper w'ill continue makes a new case ; because it 
 daily exposes the system to sudden death, independent of the 
 natural death it would otherwise suffer." 
 
 Having shown in the same page (5 of Civis), that labour con- 
 stitutes value, I will now show how rents arise. Rent is usually 
 much misunderstood. Its strict definition is the saving of labour, 
 or that amount of the wages of labour which is saved to the far- 
 mer of land, from its proximity to the market where the produce 
 of land is to be sold. For example, if wc suppose two farms of 
 equal size and fertility, to be situated the one two miles and the 
 other one mile fi-om a town, it is obvious that one horse w^ould do 
 the work in half the time, or take two loads to the others one ; 
 consequently the labour saved would allow the one farmer to pay 
 more rent than the other. This is in fact the advantage which 
 the home grower of wheat would have over the foreign, were this 
 country in a natural state. 
 
 There is another element of rent, and that is the relative ferti- 
 hty of soils ; and this accounts for some land letting at £5 per 
 acre, and others at 5 shillings. Further, there is another compo- 
 nent of rent, — the interest of the money which the farmer \vould 
 have to pay for the land were he to purchase it instead of hiring. 
 Combining all these considerations, I cannot think that the rent of 
 land in this country is exorbitantly high, bearing in mind the quan- 
 tity of artificial money we are obliged to make use of. As far as 
 I am able to judge, the owner of 1000 acres of land on the con- 
 tinent of Europe, (supposing them to be of the same fertility as 
 1000 acres in England,) is as well off as the English landlord ; 
 that is, that his rent will procure him as many of the comforts 
 or luxuries of life as the Enghsh landlord's. 
 
 Now look to observations on the proportion of taxation as 
 compared with income at page 6 (Civis). Convinced of the truth 
 of this position, I cannot think that any attempt to lower prices in 
 this country can be beneficial until the encumbrances are removed. 
 Your tariff will either have this effect or not. If it have, then 
 £100 a year in taxes will be felt in proportion to the reduction of 
 prices and profits ; and if it have not this effect, then admitting 
 the products of other countries at reduced duties, will throw so 
 much profit into their hands, to the disadvantage of the home- 
 producer. Example ; — if a pair of boots cainiot be manufactured
 
 18 
 
 under 25s. in England, and can be exported fi'om France for 15^:., 
 the boot-trade must pass into the hands of the French. This is 
 no fiction. I have known parties who have their measures taken 
 in London, the boots are made in France, and sent over here, and 
 cost half the price of London ones, even with the duty ; therefore 
 reduction of duty is a bonus to the French. I perceive (May 11,) 
 you look to no higher protecting duties than 20 per cent. You 
 may be quite right, that such an amount of dutv is the only effec- 
 tual check to smuggling ; yet it does not prove that 20 jjer cent, 
 would protect the home-manufacturer : indeed, I feel convinced 
 that it will not. High protecting duties are undoubtedly a pre- 
 mium to smuggling, but the evil arises from the necessity of 
 haNm^ irrotecting duties at all. The real question is, can your 
 manufacturers or trades afford to work for lower prices .'' for lower 
 prices will cause less money to circulate, consequently all incomes 
 derived from trade and manufactures will be less in nominal amount. 
 This must enhance the proportion which each has to pay in taxes 
 to the State, seeing that they remain the same; ergo, a reduction 
 of prices, without a reduction of taxation, is inexpedient. 
 
 The Attwood school of political economists propound the doc- 
 trine of the more money the less the pressui-e of any previously ex- 
 isting money obligation, and there is no question of the abstract 
 truth of this position ; but if this be admitted, there is also its 
 converse, the less money the greater the pressure of previous 
 money obligations : hence the danger of attempting to lower 
 prices in this country, without providing for the extinction of 
 the debt. 
 
 It is highly amusing to see our legislators blundering on with 
 their free-trade notions : the same men giving the lie to their 
 assertions, by their eager advocacy of the right of pate7its ; — 
 twisting the law in every possible way to protect an invention to 
 an individual, which they are throwing away for the nation ; — 
 whole nights debating on the advantage of protecting a paltry 
 invention of a pattern in calico-printing, or the private interest in 
 a novel, and passing perhaps on the same evenmg, a law to allow 
 the exportation of our machineiy duty free ; — the great champion 
 of free trade, in a monopolist jmrliament, refusing to allow reform 
 in the Corporation of London, with all its privileges, crafts, and 
 mysteries ; and giving utterance to the doctrine, " buy cheap," 
 (no matter how or where,) and " sell dear." 
 
 Turn we now to the employment of our best workmen in 
 foreign factories (page 8, Civis) : and to my question, how can 
 dearness compete with cheapness ? and if you doubt of my having
 
 19 
 
 gatisfactorily accounted for the clearness of England, read Painc's 
 definition of dearness. — " I have just mentioned that paper, in 
 Engliind, has pulled doirn the value of gold and silver to a level 
 with itself ; and that this pulling down of gold and silver money 
 has created the appearance of paper money keeping up. The 
 same thing, and the same mistake, took place in America, and in 
 France, and continued for a considerable time after the com- 
 mencement of their system of paper ; and the actual depreciation 
 of money was hidden under that mistake. 
 
 " It was said in America, at that time, that every thing was 
 becoming dear; but gold and silver could then buy those dear 
 articles no cheaper than paper could ; and therefore it was not 
 called depreciation. The idea of dearness established itself for the 
 idea of depreciation. The same was the case in France. Though 
 every thing rose in price soon after assignats appeared, yet those 
 dear articles could be purchased no cheaper with gold and silver 
 than with paper, and it was only said that things were dear. The 
 same is still the language in England. They call it dearness. But 
 they will soon find that it is an actual depreciation, and that this 
 dei)reciation is the effect of the funding system ; which, by 
 crowding such a continually increasing mass of paper into circula- 
 tion, carries down the value of gold and silver with it. But gold 
 and silver will, in the long-run, revolt against depreciation, and 
 separate from the ^'alue of paper ; for the progress of all such 
 systems appears to be, that the paper will take the command in 
 the beginning, and gold and silver in the end." 
 
 I will now call your attention to pages 13 and 14 of Civis, and 
 then to the following extracts from a letter in the " Times" of 
 this day (October 1), signed " A Phiin Man." (The whole is 
 worthy of ])erusal). I think he must have read Civis ; but if not, 
 it is pleasant to be corroborated. 
 
 " Now the corn-trade of this country is in fact in the hands of 
 a large body of capitalists:" — and again, — " Cattle form an 
 article which none but a man of large capital can deal in success- 
 fully. At the very time when butcher's meat is high in Smithfield 
 market, it often happens that the grazier is selling his cattle at a 
 low rate." Again, — " The bald abstract dicta of the economists 
 are worth nothing when they come to be applied to the infinitely 
 varied and intricate ope7-ations of commerce and trade." 
 
 But, Sir, who are these capitalists who forestall and regrate all 
 the markets for food. The banker ? No, (at least but seldom ;) 
 but those men who, when they see there can be no glut, imme-
 
 20 
 
 diately manufacture bills, wliich they get discounted with money 
 that was not in existence before. But see how this favours their 
 operations. The money which they now throw into the circulation 
 has a natural tendency to increase prices, as well as to enable their 
 victims to buy of them at an advanced price. But when they 
 have bought, their interest is to force them to part with what they 
 have purchased, and having lent them the money to buy with, the 
 demand for repayment forces them to sell. 
 
 Considering Lord John Russell as a sort of abstract pohtician, 
 a book-learning statesman, and you as a regular old file, (any city 
 wag will explain to you the meaning of this term,) I do not feel 
 the same delicacy towards you. I shall therefore give you an 
 example on this subject, premising that, in every market, there is, 
 for the time being, a presiding genius, with his satellites, yclep'd 
 brokers. 
 
 In the year 1835, there was a great mania _/br speculating in 
 
 Spanish Bonds. The " genius loci" was old . He instantly 
 
 saw his game ; he began to buy with them. The price of this 
 article of commerce had ranged for some previous years from 8 to 
 12 per cent. He not only bought very largely, but lent unhmited 
 sums to every one who was inclined to speculate (through the 
 agency of his brokers). And here let me say, that there were but 
 few of this class who were but too happy to get a commission 
 
 from . Well, in the beginning of May, he succeeded 
 
 in pushing up the price to 71 or 72. Eveiy one said, that they 
 were sure to go to 85 or DO. When the account on the 15th 
 May came, all perceived that there was an enormous quantity of 
 stock afloat ; the rate of interest was ridiculously high, but all this 
 was attributed to the increased price absorbing so much more 
 
 money ; yet Mr, 's brokers lent all that was wanted, and the 
 
 settlement of the account passed off easily. As soon as it was 
 over, enormous amounts of stock were thrown on the market, 
 but the confidence of the speculators for the rise was not shaken. 
 
 The brokers still talked of a further rise ; but at last they gave 
 
 notice, that the scarcity of money was so great, that they should 
 not be able to continue their loans on the next account. The price 
 dropped to 50. The account came, and although the price was 
 nominally 50, attempts were made to sell stock at 40 ineffectually. 
 
 It was then discovered, that had not only sold all he held, 
 
 but large amounts in addition. The upshot was, that the account 
 could not be settled at all, and hundreds of families in previous 
 affluence were reduced to beggary.
 
 21 
 
 So cunningly was tliis affair manag-cd, that knew the bro- 
 kers to whom the dealers had to deliver stock ; and in order to 
 secure himself, he gave instructions to his brokers to deliver the 
 stock to those brokers, lest the dealers should not be able to pay 
 for it. It so happened, that I was in the office of a broker when 
 twenty thousand Spanish Stock was brought in by one of Mr. — 's 
 agents to be paid for ; when the broker very properly replied, I 
 have no stock to take of you. Sir ; I am quite prepared to pay the 
 
 dealer of whom I have to take it. There was one of Mr. 's 
 
 agents who behaved exceedingly honourably on this occasion. He 
 exhausted all his private means in lending 'money to those who 
 w'ere in distress, and I believe suffered materially from his hbera- 
 lity. I should be happy, if I dared, to record his name. 
 
 At pages 1 7 and 22 of Civis, I show that the Bank have no 
 means of purchasing gold. Only see how completely I am cor- 
 roborated by the following extract from Paine. " One of the 
 amusements that has kept up the farce of the funding system is, 
 that the interest is regularly paid. But as the interest is always 
 paid in bank-notes, and as bank-notes can alwavs be coined for 
 the purpose, this mode of payment proves nothing. The point of 
 proof is, can the Bank give cash for the bank-notes in which the 
 interest is paid ? If it cannot, and it is evident it cannot, some 
 milhons of bank-notes must go without ])ayment; and those hold- 
 ers of bank-notes who apply last will be worst off. When the 
 present quantity of cash in the Bank shall be paid away, it is next 
 to impossible to see how any new quantity is to arrive. None 
 will arrive from taxes ; for the taxes will all be paid in bank-notes : 
 and should the Government refuse bank-notes in payment of 
 taxes, the credit of bank-notes will be gone at once. No cash 
 will amvc from the business of discounting merchants' bills ; for 
 every merchant will pay off those bills in bank-notes, and 
 not in cash. There is therefore no means left for the Bank to 
 obtain a new supj)ly of cash, after the present quantity is paid 
 away." 
 
 I also endeavour to prove, (page 1 7, Civis,) that no fixed pro- 
 portion of gold can be kept. A friend, when he came to this part 
 of the Letter, observed, — " surely if the Bank had 10s. in the 
 pound in gold, and were obliged to keep that amount, they would 
 be safe." 1 j gave him the following case: — the Bank have 
 £20,000,000 of notes out, with £10,000,000 of gold: there 
 arises a demand for gold to the extent of £5,000,000 : to meet 
 this, 5,000,000 of notes are sent in, leaving £15,000,000 of notes
 
 22 
 
 and £5,000,000 of gold as the circulation. Here we have Gs. 8d. 
 in the pound, instead of 10s. ; and if it be obligatory on the Bank 
 to have 10s. in gold, they must withdraw 5,000,000 more notes 
 from the circulation ; so that a demand for bullion would create a 
 necessity to curtail the circulation to twice the extent of such de- 
 mand. I have shown in the preceding paragraph, that the goods 
 of the Bank will not purchase gold ; it is therefore plain that 
 any quantity of paper in circulation, above the amount of gold in the 
 Bank, cannot be witMrawn from circulation ; ergo, all that paper> 
 (which is credit,) enters fixedly into the price of commodities. 
 
 It has become the fashion lately, for the merchants to put their 
 sons into the Bank direction. This answers two pui-poses : they 
 personally avoid the imputation of playing with loaded dice, pos- 
 sessing at the same time the same information : and it suits the 
 old coves in the direction to have yoimg ones to manage. But> 
 if rumour speaks true, there has been some rare batthng lately 
 amongst them, on the subject of enlarging the currency. Sup- 
 posing some of them to hold large stocks of their respective 
 commodities, one might fancy that spreading the rags out far and 
 wide,' would give them a chance of getting out. 
 
 Now, read what I say about the Bank, at page 21, QW\& ; and 
 our lavish expenditure, at page 30, Ci\as ; and then read these 
 two extracts from Paine : — " How its duty to the public can in- 
 duce it to overstock that public with promissoiy bank-notes, which 
 it cannot pay, and thereby expose the individuals of that public to 
 ruin, is too paradoxical to be explained : for it is the credit wliich 
 individuals give to the Bank, by receiving and circulating its notes, 
 and not upon its own credit, or its own property, for it has none, 
 that the Bank sports. If, however, it be the duty of the Bank to 
 expose the pubUc to this hazard, it is at least equally the duty of 
 the individuals of that public, to get their money, and take care of 
 themselves ; and leave it to placemen, pensioners, government con- 
 tractors, Reeves's association, and the membets of both Houses of 
 Parliament, who have voted away the money at the nod of the 
 minister, to continue the credit if they can, and for which their 
 estates individually and collectively ought to answer, as far as they 
 will go. 
 
 " Insolvency always takes place before bankruptcy ; for bank- 
 ruptcy is nothing more than the publication of that insolvency. 
 In the affairs of an individual, it often happens that insolvency 
 exists several years before bankruptcy, and that the insolvency is 
 concealed and carried on till the individual is not able to pay one
 
 23 
 
 shilling in tlic pound. A government can ward off bankruptcy 
 Ioniser than an individual : but insolvency will inevitably produce 
 bankruptcy, whether in an individual or in a government. If, 
 then, the quantity of bank notes payable on demand, which the 
 Bank has issued, are greater than the Bank can pay off, the Bank 
 is insolvent ; and when that insolvency is declared, it is bankruptcy." 
 Having earned you through my recapitulation to page 25 Civis, 
 I beg of you. Sir. to send to your minister at Wasliington, to 
 procure all the American writings on this sul)ject. I would also 
 strongly urge you to read President Jackson's speeches. I much 
 regret having lost an American paper, accidentally sent to me. 
 It contained a long speech of a Mr. Taylor, of Ohio Senate, 
 wherein he fully shows that at least some Americans are aware 
 that the paper money has been the cause of their present deplorable 
 condition. 
 
 There is an omission in my statement of the national debt at 
 
 page 27 Civis, which I beg here to correct. I ought to have shown 
 
 that there is a part of the national debt which was not created on 
 
 these terms ; I mean the Navy Bills and Exchequer Bills : and 
 
 here I cannot help noticing the unfair way the holders of the Navy 
 
 5 per cents, have been treated. They who absolutely lent the 
 
 government £100, have had their interest reduced \\ percent; 
 
 while those who only lent about £60, receive the same rate. It 
 
 is said, the Government have a project of again reducing their 
 
 interest. This is a species of juggleiy that I sincerely hope may be 
 
 defeated ; and defeated it will be, if the holders are true to themselves, 
 
 and demand their money. If any one doubts the truth of this 
 
 remark, let him consult the report on the Bank Charter in 1832 ; 
 
 and he will discover, that on the last conversion, the demand for 
 
 about £4,000,000 of money nearly upset the Bank of England. 
 
 At page 32 of Civis, after the word consumer, I beg to add, I 
 have had this statement confirmed by a friend in the paper- staining 
 trade, since the tax has been taken off paper. But notwithstand- 
 ing this, there are three paper-stainers since the alteration in the 
 tax for one before; and instead of large fortunes being made in 
 the trade, I have no doubt many families will get a living. 
 
 I wish to point out, that Lord Monteagle, in the debates in the 
 Lords on 19th April, 1842, quotes the population returns to suit 
 his purpose, without including Ireland. I am aware that, for the 
 wiiole period, we had no correct returns of its population ; but 
 Potter in his work gives them for 1811 to 1831. Now I am in- 
 formed (for the British Almanack does not give the Census of
 
 24 
 
 Ireland for 1841. Why?) that there is no sensible increase in 
 the Irish population from 1831 to 41. If, therefore, we take the 
 
 population of the United Kingdom in 1821 — 31, and 1831 41, 
 
 the result shows a decrease in the increase, of one third for the last 
 ten years. Now I imagine that the full effect of productive causes 
 cannot take place in the space of ten years : it is for this rea- 
 son that I asserted that the population was hkely to recede. 
 
 The rate of increase in the population of the United Kingdom 
 can be the only sure guide ; because, although the last return for 
 Ireland may give no increase, yet it does not follow that Ireland 
 may not have contributed her share to the increase, and the re- 
 turns be falsified by the number of Irish who are employed in and 
 included in the returns of England. 
 
 Beheving, after much reading and reflection on the subject, that 
 the only law of population is that by which people undertake the 
 responsibility of marriage in the reasonable expectation of being 
 able to rear a family, and that this law acts most efficiently the 
 more intelligent and enlightened a nation becomes, it were a very 
 desirable thing to ascertain to what extent the well-known reck- 
 lessness of the Irish character, shown in nothing more forcibly than 
 in their improvident marriages, may have contributed to the appa- 
 rent increase of the Enghsh returns. My own impression is, that 
 the number of Irish now residing in England has been greatly on 
 the increase during the present century ; but when a nation is led 
 astray by fictitious prosperity, such as a rise in prices, created by 
 issues of paper money, the prudential motives are overcome. It 
 would be a great lesson if one could ascertain how many unfortu- 
 nate wretches were hurried into matrimony by Prosperity Robinson, 
 in 1824 and 5; but it is worthy of notice, that the population 
 was on the increase so long as the rags were on the increase ; and 
 since their decrease, the population has ceased to increase in the 
 same proportion. 
 
 There is only one further explanation of Civis, which I think 
 called for, and that is, my reasons for stating, (at page 35,) that 
 the National Bank notes should be a legal tender. There is no 
 part of the pamphlet I have stronger grounds for defending ; but 
 in this case " discretion is the better part of valour." I am quite 
 ready to pour them into your private ear; but "salis populi" pre- 
 vents my publishing them, lest the enemy should take advantage. 
 
 Now, Sir, let me beg of you to call a meeting of your agricul- 
 tural supporters, and read to them what I say (pages 6 and 10 of 
 Civis). I full well know that the paper money men have most of
 
 ■JO 
 
 tlicm in their clutches ; but then read to them my description of 
 the manner in wliich the rag merchants get them into their net 
 (Page 35, Civis); impress on their minds the advantage it woukl 
 be to tlicm to submit to any income-tax, in order that they may be 
 hberated from the confounded clamour of the Anti-coni-law 
 League, particularly as I have especially provided against the 
 paper lords seizing their estates (page 37, Civis); and as they have 
 the power to pass a corn-law, which (perhaps through the medium 
 of a revolution) wiU most assuredly some day be wrested from 
 them, surely they could carry out this most equitable adjustment of 
 their pecuniary obligations. 
 
 I have clearly shown that the money borrowed was a depreciated 
 one ; in fact, any landlord who has borrowed to the extent of 
 one-half the present estimated value of his estate, has really bor- 
 rowed more than its true value ; and I have little doubt that the 
 paper lords would be veiy glad to get quiet possession of them, 
 and give a release in full, shoidd they ever come to a gold 
 value (one-third of their estimated value). Show them that, as 
 they live upon the produce of the land, it can be of no consequence 
 to them what the nominal money value may be, seeing that their 
 proportion will purchase as many necessaries and comforts in 
 cither case ; but that a high price is an injury to those who, live by 
 selling the produce of their laboiir to a foreigner ; for even sup- 
 posing an Englishman could produce a yard of cotton at the same 
 price as a foreigner under existing circumstances, yet, if his ex- 
 pense in food were to be lowered, he would be benefited without 
 any injury to the landlord. Tell them that a man in debt is never 
 a free agent ; that an explosion of the rags to-morroxo woukl 
 legally pass their estates into the hands of those who arc wealthy 
 without having worked for their riches. Assure them that, by 
 adopting my plan, they would gradually free themselves ; and 
 exterminate as gradually these locusts of English industry. 
 
 1 have stated (page 26, Civis), that the National Debt, consti- 
 tuting three-fifths of the national expenditure, contributes in that 
 proportion to the distress of the v/orking-classes ; but the truth is, 
 that I much understate the fact. If you look to what I have said 
 in my Letter to Lord J. Russell (pages 9 and 10,) on the true 
 value of a sovereign, you will immediately perceive that two-thirds 
 of the remaining two-fifths of the national expenthturc might be 
 reduced, and leave every one employed by the Government as well 
 oft' as they are now ; that is, excepting those employed in col- 
 lecting the revenue, who would be exterminated, (bad cess to them 
 as paddy would say.) We should thus have to collect from the
 
 26 
 
 people only £6M6,666 (50,000,000 being taken as the income) ; 
 but. Sir Robert, the cunning of Whig and Tory has kept a very 
 important fact out of sight, namely, that it costs the country 
 £3,500,000 to collect tliis £50,000,000 ; so that, with the extinc- 
 tion of the National Debt, you might convert your Custom Houses, 
 Excise Office, and Somerset House into hospitals (not one of them 
 would be required for a lunatic asylum). The only revenue re- 
 quired would be your 3 per cent, income-tax, about £3,000,000, 
 and the cost of collecting your present one ; yet tliis again would 
 be diminished by the reduced expenditure, which I shall have occa- 
 sion to point out hereafter. But see what an advantage would 
 arise to the Tories herefrom. All that we Radicals, including the 
 WTiigs, have ever contended for, is, that " Representation should 
 he coextensive with taxation." See how vou would shut our 
 ' ' potatoe traps." Wliy, you would be able to have any sort of 
 Parliament you liked. We should have no objection to the Cabinet 
 choosing the peojjie's representatives. There is only one thing I 
 should veto, which at present foi-ms a clause in the People's Char- 
 ter, " paid members." 
 
 And now. Sir, let me do a bit of puff, and show what a clever 
 fellow I must be to have anticipated you (the genius of the land) 
 in proposing a property and income-tax as the best means of 
 alleviating our difficulties (see page 28, Civis); but then I proposed 
 it with the view of getting rid of taxation; but you only propose 
 it as a make- shift, to get over^ what you consider a temporar)' 
 pressure : but I take the hberty of telling you that it is not a 
 temporary pressure ; and I shall show you hereafter, that strict 
 economy would have made your revenue equal to your expenditure : 
 and I here tell you, I woidd not give a fig for any system of 
 finance that was not based upon the principle of repudiating the 
 system of anticipating the resources of genei-ations yet unborn. 
 
 I know that all our governments have been taught to believe, 
 that they would not be able to raise money when they wanted it, 
 upon terminable annuities. This is no doubt true, provided those 
 who wanted to lend were sure that by rejecting them they would 
 get perpetual ones. But if the sense of Parbament had once pro- 
 nounced them unjust, iniquitous, and unlavful, there would be no 
 want of money. Tliere is scarcely a builder in the countiy who 
 hesitates to invest his capital in building on leasehold ground ; and 
 many ^insurance comjnuiies take annuities in preference, when they 
 yield a very trifling increased rate of interest. 
 
 I will now refer you to page 31 of Civis, alias Snooks, and tell 
 you that you have begun to burn yom- candle at the wrong end.
 
 27 
 
 Read what I saj' there on intcnial taxation ; and then refer to 
 Hansard, for tlic report of your colleague's (the Earl of Ripon) 
 speech, and sec how he confirms me ; and if you fancy he does 
 not, explain to me what he means hy saying that the difficulty 
 which a Government finds, is in "taking off a tax" rather than in 
 putting one on. As well as I recollect, (for I have it not to refer 
 to,) no speech during the whole session was so well worth the tax- 
 payer's perusal as " Prosperity Robinson's." 
 
 Now read page 32 (Civis), and then take up your own report 
 on the " Fine Arts," (I mean as one of the Commissioners ;) and 
 at page 6, in the Appendix, you will find this sentence : — " The 
 experiment as regards private patronage seems to have been fairly 
 made, and the gradual change to reduced dimensions appears to 
 have been the consequence of the insufficient demand for large 
 works, arising in a great degree fi'om the limited size of English 
 dioelling -houses." Have I not shown you that Englishmen are 
 driven into small houses to avoid taxation. 
 
 I have resided in countries, the walls of the houses of which 
 were covered \\A\\\ fresco paintings, the rooms three times the size 
 and +ieight of English rooms, the inhabitants hving comfortably 
 upon one-third the income of an English gentleman. 
 
 You know nothing of your countrjTnen, if you fancy that they 
 would not prefer li\'ing in large houses ; but. Sir, the very bricks 
 of wliich their walls are built are taxed. But there are several 
 cases in that report, which confirm what I have stated ; the moral 
 to be drawn from them, I dare say never entered the heads of 
 those who di*ew it up. 
 
 Refer to page 29 of Civis, and read what I have to say on the 
 prices of this country. I have heard something of one of your 
 colleagues having written a book about Belgium, — how cheap* 
 &c. &c. thinsrs are done there. I think I have heard their rail- 
 roads cost about one-third the price of English ones ; but then put 
 on your considering-cap, and reflect that Belgium has dabbled more 
 m. paper money Xhdcn. any oihdY continental state lately; that they 
 have more failures there than any-where else (except America and 
 England) ; and then couple this with the fact, \\ydX prices are higher 
 in Belgium than elsewhere on the continent, and vet she is three 
 times as cheap, or, if you Uke it better, as cheap again as Eng- 
 land ! 
 
 Permit me now to refer you to my obsen-ations on emigration, 
 (page 33 Civis); and then again to pufF myself, by asking how 
 it was that we heard not a word this last session about emigration ! 
 
 I will finish my obsei-vations on my first effusion as a public writer.
 
 28 
 
 by requesting your attention to the works of Mr. rcppcrcorne on the 
 " Rights of Necessity," &c. &c. These were handed to me as con- 
 firmatory of my quotation from the Jewish laws. Had I the learn- 
 ing and ability displayed by that gentleman, I should have no fear 
 of being able to force on that course of reform, without which I 
 firmly beheve this nation cannot be saved. I would here beg you 
 to read the note, page 38, of Mr. Peppei-come's " Rights of Neces- 
 sity," as well as the note, page cxxxii., of his essay on the "Fer- 
 tility of the Holy Land," bearing in mind that he is a conservative ; 
 and then I will leave you to marvel how two people of such oppo- 
 site creeds can so much coincide in opinion as to the cause of our 
 distress. I have learnt this lesson from it, that honestly inchned 
 people, of whatever political creed, differ only as to the agency for 
 carrying forward ameliorations of our condition. 
 
 I will now proceed to illustrate the title of this Letter, and I 
 think you will perceive that I attribute the success of the non-pro- 
 ductive classes to the power acquired by the paper money. My 
 task will therefore be confined to expose the workings of the 
 system. 
 
 The paper banker must first find himself customers; and%jthis 
 is easily done. If you had not been born with a silver spoon in 
 your mouth, you must have learned, by your intercourse with 
 tradesmen, that the i-uling idea in their minds is, that if they had 
 a Uttle more capital, they should be sure to make their fortunes. 
 Old sayings have a prodigious influence for good and evil over 
 the minds of ignorant men, and "money gets money" is one 
 which it were in vain to deny. The banker meets Mr. A. — 
 Well, Mr. A, how goes business with you ? Oh, pretty well ! all 
 I want is a little more capital. Well, Mr. A, perhaps I can assist 
 you. The house you live in is your own, I think; — how much 
 would set you up ? £500, sir. Well, write me a letter, requesting 
 an advance on the title-deeds, and I v^ill let you have it ; but keep 
 it to yourself, or I shall be pestered to death to make advances. 
 A is all right now. In goes a splashing new shop-front ; — down 
 come the goods from the warehouses, — things that were never 
 wanted, or perhaps never will. A begins to think he shall never 
 want money again. His wife would like another maid to carry out 
 the baby. Expenses increase in every way. New wants are en- 
 gendered by the apparent ability of procuring them. The last 
 orders from the warehouseman have not gone off so well as he 
 expected; but a more fashional)le assortment may, particularly as the 
 dealer (seeing an appearance of prosperity) is not pressing for 
 payment, — is in no hurry at all, — (he has heard that the house
 
 29 
 
 belongs to the tradesman) — the more goods lie can stick into such 
 a customer the better. The £500 borrowed of the banker are at 
 last gone. Some payments must be made to the warehouseman ; — 
 but, no cash in the till. The banker is applied to for more 
 accommodation. How came you in difficulties? I am not in 
 difficulties, but I have a payment to make, and you know I cannot 
 get my money in. Very true ! very true ! but have you any 
 security to give me ? Not any ! Could you not draw a bill on 
 some one ? Your mother has plenty of money. Besides, before 
 the bill comes due, you w'ill be able to get in some cash. If you 
 explain this to her, I have no doubt she will accept the bill. I 
 shall then be most happy to discount it for you. 
 
 Need I follow this out. The same reckless expenditure goes 
 on. The banker will renew the bill as often as the old woman 
 will renew her signature ; until he considers her no longer safe. 
 The spendthrift tradesman is suddenly brought up by a refusal of 
 further accommodation : the mother is obhged to sell all to pay 
 it ; and perhaps half a dozen girls are thrown on the w^orld, to 
 earn 6d. a day at needlework ; and the banknipt tradesman 
 may. probably give liis ruined mother the shelter of his wretched 
 habitation ; the banker having sacked out of his credit perhaps 
 £1000, and made this poor fool the tool to set his rags afloat. 
 But see the efiect of this. This idiot's bankniptcy forces the sale 
 of his stock at any thing it will fetch ; and any tradesman, in the 
 same hne of business, in the same place, cannot get a fair profit 
 on his goods, and goes back in the world without any fault of his 
 own. But do not imagine that the case I have given is an imagi- 
 nary one. I tell you that there is scarcely a family in England 
 employed in trade, who cannot produce a case somewhat analo- 
 gous to this. Nor is it confined to trade. In whatever family 
 there is money, and dashing youths to spend it, the same thing 
 has occun-ed. But mark. Sir Robert ; — this ninny's mother, had 
 she been asked by the son to give up her o\vn and her daughters' 
 maintenance, to forward her son's notions of increased trade, 
 would instantly have refused. It is their ignorance of the conse- 
 quences, and being led on by not being called upon to find the 
 cash for the first acceptance, that leads them mto the money- 
 maker's net. 
 
 Let us now look at the action of the system on those employed 
 in agriculture. A farmer sends his com up to a quakcr factor at 
 Mark Lane. He gets a letter to tell him that it is not advisable 
 to sell his w'heat ; the price is sure to rise ; but if money is an 
 object to him, the factor has no objection to advance so much on
 
 30 
 
 h. Tliis advice is probably given because the factor is a holder 
 'himself ; and if this wheat were sold, it would have a tendency to 
 prevent his getting a higher price for his own ; or if the market 
 were over- stocked, it would tend to depress the price : or if this 
 factor were not himself a speculator, the probabihty is, that he is 
 factor to a spe«//ff^or, from whom perhaps he gets £100 com- 
 mission for eveiy £1 from his country client ; and he gives 
 the same advice, because it suits the purpose of his rich master. 
 However much the market rises, he still gets the advice, — dont 
 sell, the prices will be higher. At last the farmer sees by the 
 papers that the prices are falhng, and orders the sale. The factor 
 rei^hes, that the fall has only been occasioned by a few /orcec?5a?es, 
 but is sure to recover. In the mean time, the factor, or his mas- 
 ter, have got out, and some fine morning the farmer receives a 
 letter, that the factor is exceedingly sorry that the market has 
 taken an unexpected turn, that wheat is down 20s. a quarter, with 
 a prospect of a considerable further fall, the best thing he can do 
 is to sell at once. He gets his order accordingly ; and the farmer 
 finds, in a week or fortnight, that the wheat has risen to the price 
 it fell fi-om. Or if he is not advised to sell, the factor writes to 
 him that he is desperately pressed for money, and begs a repay- 
 ment of his advance, which he knows can only be done by 
 the sale of the wheat, and he gets the same advantage. 
 
 Now, Sir, I will tell you the result of some experience in these 
 matters ; — that in all the London markets, the sjuall fry of spe- 
 culators for a rise, are sure to sell at the loivest imce ; and if 
 they speculate for a fall, which is as easily done as for a rise> 
 they are as surc to have to buy back what they have sold at the 
 highest price. 
 
 But these things go too far for the knowing ones sometimes, 
 
 and we have a smash that astounds all London. Old used 
 
 to carry on the game so far as to lose his judgment. On the 
 evening of Lord Mayor's Day, 1830, he sold between 4 and 
 500,000 Consols at the lowest price they were done at; and an 
 anecdote is related of him, that his speculations so overcame his 
 reasoning powers, that he was found on the grass-plot of his 
 country-house, rolling himself over and over. On being asked 
 why he did so, he replied, — to roU some of those d — d Consols 
 out of me. Yet such is the impetus given by the credit money, 
 that (no man can have been a few years in any market in London 
 without obsen-ing fearful havoc and ruin) new votaries for fortune 
 arise as quickly as the old ones are swept off. These dealers, as 
 they are called, form a very large part of the London population.
 
 It would throw some light on the subject, if you were to get 
 a return of the inhabitants of the houses of the suburban villages, 
 and find what became of the preceding occupiers to the third and 
 fourth preceding occupants. One of the reasons assigned by the 
 clergy for so frequently calling for parochial charitable contributions, 
 is the constant change of the inhabitants. 
 
 It would take me a week to explain all I know as to how these 
 things are managed; and yet I believe 1 am, comparatively to some 
 j9eop/<?, a mere novice in the art of dealing: but. Sir, the greater 
 part of those factors, or brokers, or whatever else they may be 
 called, get a commission from both the buyer and seller. Our re- 
 hgion teaches us that no man can serve two masters. 
 
 Surely, Sir, you must see that the power of making or destroy- 
 ing money must enormously increase the power of action in these 
 cases; and if any particular sect, say the Quakers, for example, 
 had a facility, from one of their clan being at the head of the bill 
 discounting trade, of extending or contracting their business to 
 any extent, that they possess an influence that a good government 
 ought by every means in their power to put a stop to. Tliere is a 
 cattle-market also in London. Surely you want no more examples 
 of markets. 
 
 When you were Irish Secretary, I well remember the great 
 cause of the distress in Ireland was the middle men ; but I tell you 
 there never was a tithe of distress in the land of potatoes which at 
 present exists in old England from the same cause. So deeply 
 seated is the middlemanism, that one is obhged to employ an agent 
 to stock our cellar with coals ; that is, if you do not employ one, 
 you get your coals no cheaper ! How is this ? \Miy, the whole- 
 sale dealers find it their interest to support the middle men; be- 
 cause they know that they can dispose of any rubbish through 
 their agency. They know that the middleman gets the order fi-om 
 those who are desirous of sei-ving him; or, if they grumble, liis 
 answer is, that it is not his fault ; he has been deceived by the party 
 he bought the coals of. 
 
 But such is the state of trade in this country, that even the 
 middle men are calling out; and I really beheve that 10 years ago 
 you would have got three times the amount of income-tax out of 
 them as you will at present. But this "savoir vivre" is not con- 
 fined to the middle men. That ill-used race, the manufacturers, 
 are up to a thing or two. A few years since, Capt. 11. K — went 
 out as supercargo in one of his own ships. He discovered a 
 market for a particular description of manufactm-c. When he 
 returned, he ordered these goods and took every precaution to
 
 32 
 
 conceal the market they were intended for. They were promised 
 by a certain day. However, he was detained by the manufactu- 
 rers not having them ready for him. At last they were shipped ; 
 and he again went with them. To his great surprise, when he 
 got out, he found a ship-load of the identical articles had arrived 
 there a. fortnight before him. He lost his market, and had the satis- 
 faction to find that they had been sent out by the manufacturers 
 of whom he had ordered his. Who these manufacturers were I 
 dont know: the probability is that they were paper-money bankers 
 as well, or were connected with some flash-money men, or they 
 would not have found money so readily to forestall another man's 
 market. 
 
 I have said that, with strict economy, you need not have wanted 
 more revenue ; and as I dislike assertion without proof, I shall 
 proceed to justify. When you introduced your currency bill, you 
 and the political economists in the House said, it would not reduce 
 prices above 2 or 3 per cent. An error of Is. or 2s. will not ma- 
 terially affect my position ; but I take the gold value of a quarter 
 of corn at 20s. T. Paine, in the pamphlet I have quoted, consi- 
 ders that the paper money was depreciated 7 or 8 times. I think 
 he overrated it; but assuming 20s. as the gold value of a quarter 
 of com, it is clear that when, at the latter end of the war, corn 
 was at 120s. the quarter, that paper money must have been depre- 
 ciated 5 times; because it took 6 times as much paper to buy a 
 quarter in England as a sovereign would have purchased generally 
 on the continent. I have not the means of referring to the pre- 
 cise time, but I well recollect that public salaries, and even the pay 
 of the army (full and half) was increased in consequence of the 
 dearness of provisions. Well, Sir, in passing the corn laws after 
 the peace, you statesmen contended that 80s. was as low a price 
 as corn could be grown at in this country, notwithstanding the 
 necessary i-eduction in price attendant on peace. When you 
 brought forward your Currency Bill, this was the state of the 
 case. I take it then, that in 1819, the paper was depreciated 
 three times ; but you now say 60s., or something less, is a fair 
 price for corn, so that it is clear that the paper is still twice depre- 
 ciated. I am not finding fault with you for your erroneous esti- 
 mate of the efl:ect of your Currency Bill ; but I wish to call your 
 attention to the fact, that almost all your ])ublic servants are paid 
 the same salaries now as when wheat was at 1 20s. the quarter ; 
 and to ask you whether you could not most conscientiously reduce 
 the salaries of judges, officers of state, servants in public offices, 
 and the officers of the army and navy, in such proportions as
 
 33 
 
 would enable them to live as well as when they had to pay twice 
 as much for the principal articles of consumption ? Considering 
 that the candidates for commissions in both services are amongst 
 a class of society to whom the;;r/y can be no consideration, you 
 could have no difficulty in doing this ; and I think I should have 
 no difficulty in finding you candidates for all the other public 
 situations, fully as competent, who would do twice as much work 
 for one-half the remuneration. If there be anv truth in Cocker, 
 this would be getting the public work done for one-fourth the pre- 
 sent cost. 
 
 It is of no use to tell me that government servants ought to be 
 better paid than others, as an inducement to honesty. Have we 
 not seen frauds by government officers, far, far above pecuniary 
 want. Look at the exchequer bills' frauds ; — to the present inves- 
 tigation in the customs; — every body knows howthe commissariat 
 department enriched themselves during the last war ; it was a 
 thing well understood, that a commissariat clerk, in charge of a 
 brigade in the Peninsula, made his £10,000 in two years; — how 
 the ship-owners used to bribe the transport agents to pass ships 
 unfit to carry men, or let them lay in harbour for 1 2 months toge- 
 ther. One Saturday afternoon, during the last summer, a gen- 
 tleman went into Lloyd's Captains' Room, about half past 4. 
 There were, he says, not six people in it : it was, in fact, late for 
 any one to be there on Saturday. He was therefore suq)rised to 
 obsei-ve two of the largest ship-owners in London, sitting at a 
 table, picking their teeth at one another. Soon after, the waiter 
 came in, and posted a notice that the government wanted so many 
 tons of shipping, the tenders to be in by some early hour on the 
 Monday. Is not this a funny thing, that the two people who 
 could most readily find ships, should have happened accidentally 
 to have been so late in the City ? I related this singular coinci- 
 dence to a gentleman connected with shipping ; and he told me, 
 that many parties thought that no notice had been posted at all ; 
 but I could tell you something which came to my knowledge 
 accidentally, that might throw some light on this story, were I 
 fond of making mischief. 
 
 Then again. Sir, a practice has crept in since the peace, of what 
 I call perpetuating the retired list ; I mean, permitting a man on 
 the brink of the grave, to sell his commission in the army, and 
 allowing a young man to take his place : this is called purchasing 
 an unattached commission. I was once requested to find some 
 one to purchase one of these commissions ; but it so happened 
 that the seller died before a purchaser could be found. In rela-
 
 34 
 
 ting this case to a gentleman, he assured me that he had the pro- 
 bate of the will of an officer in his hands on the same day that he 
 saw him gazetted out, selling his commission. 
 
 I consider this a worse system than that which existed v/hen 
 the colonel would not eat his pap ; because then, a man might ar- 
 rive at a high rank in the army at an age when, if he had any 
 military ability, his mental and bodily energies were in full Angour ; 
 instances of generalship, when first called into play in old age, 
 are very rare; but the keeping up a large corps of unattached offi- 
 cers in time of peace, has a twofold disadvantage ; those who ar- 
 rive at the rank of general, do so at an advanced age, and without 
 acttial military service ; and secondly, because those officers who 
 have been serving with regiments are necessarily kept in subor- 
 dinate ranks. I know some little of this matter, and my firm 
 belief is, that the military service would be greatly benefited on 
 the breaking out of a war, if there were not a single general 
 (except colonels of regiments) or field officer in the service, but 
 those actually serving in the different corps. Many years of do- 
 mestic life destroy the energies of an officer, and I would rather 
 intrust the command of a brigade or division to a captain of infan- 
 try, who had had a good military education, than to any superior 
 officer who had been 20 years on the shelf. 
 
 Welhngton commanded an army within nine years of commanding 
 a regiment, and fifteen after he entered the service. Napoleon was 
 appointed lieutenant of artillery in 1785, and general of artillery 
 in 1794. Suwarrow was a lieutenant from 1743 to 1763; and 
 in 1768, commanded a division in Poland. Napoleon's generals 
 were almost all young men ; scarcely one of Wellington's were 
 under 50. All the former had h^itn constantly e7nploi/ed from their 
 first commission and scarcely one of the latter had seen an enemy 
 until they went to the Peninsula. 
 
 Another advantage would arise from this, that the slow promo- 
 tion of peace would be compensated by the rapidity of advance- 
 ment should a war break out : and your officers would have an 
 inducement to remain in the service. In the last brevet, of 75 
 lieut. colonels promoted, only 21 were on full ))ay, and 44 were un- 
 attached; and out of 66 majors, only 19 were attached to regiments, 
 and 44 unattached. 
 
 The best officers are men who have received a good education, 
 and have little but their rise in the service to look to. A gentle- 
 man of fine feelings must be galled and fretted out of the service 
 at seeing a parcel of dandies put over his head, because they have 
 money. Such has been on the increase all the peace ; in short, two- 
 thirds of the commissions have been purchased ; but will the but-
 
 35 
 
 tcrflies remain in the pcrvice should a war break out ? You will 
 say, this will create an opening for soldiers of fortune. No such 
 thing. Conimisi-ions will be, as they were last war, thrown back 
 into the gift of Members of Parliament, who will recommend those, 
 no matter how little fitted for the service, who can give them a 
 vote in (what I consider nearly as bad as a rotten one) a reformed 
 borough. No one should have a commission in the army in peace 
 who cannot pass such an examination as would qualify him to hed^' ^-i 
 quarter master general, adjutant general, chief of the engineers, 
 or commandant of the artillery. 
 
 I know little of the Nav)-, but I know several officers of 
 it who have not been employed all the peace, yet we have had 
 no lack of ships afloat : and in the public offices, one is constantly 
 hearing that so and so has been superannuated to make room for 
 so and so. But why should public sen-ants be pensioned off at all, 
 unless as a quietus, to make room for others ? Every other person 
 is obhged to provide for his old age, by saving from his income. 
 How could a Government better raise a portion of its revenue, 
 than by establishing a scale of deferred annuities for its public 
 servants, as well as the public generally, instead of savings' banks. 
 The merchants of London, whose clerks are notoriously the worst 
 paid scribes in the country, have had the cunning to get their 
 clerks to establish a Provident Institution ; surely, the sleek, pam- 
 pered government officials should be bound to do the same. 
 
 But there is a very simple means. Sir, of discovering the truth 
 or falsehood of all these statements. Let every superannuation be 
 gazetted, stating the age of the party, as well as of his successor ; 
 and in the sale of a commission, let the seller's and purchaser's 
 ages be also gazetted ; but I would much prefer doing away with 
 the purchase and sale of commissions. 
 
 Again, Sir, about the year 1823, when I^ord Palmerston was 
 Secretary at War, he was called on by the Government to state 
 what retrenchments could be made in the army. 
 
 It was said, at the time, that he recommended the abolition of 
 army agents; but that the interest of Greenwood and Cox with the 
 late Duke of York was such, that it was not carried into execution 
 (any military man of those days could tell you what that interest 
 was supposed to be) . A paymaster, who never deceived me, gave 
 it as his opinion, that there could not possibly be a more useless 
 branch of the service. He said, that the paymaster was obhged 
 to prepare monthly estimates of the pay of tlic regiment, that such 
 estimates were sent to the war office /or examination, and the war- 
 rant issued to pay the agent on whom the paymaster drew for the 
 money. Why could not the paymaster have drawn on the Treasur\-
 
 36 
 
 direct ? and if they be upheld on account of the colonels of regi- 
 ments, I must state it as my opinion, that it would be better for 
 the service, if the emoluments of the colonel for clothing, &c. &c« 
 were commuted for an increased allowance, and the agents dis- 
 missed. 
 
 The preceding remarks may have the appearance of digression. 
 My object was to show how extensive the class of drones is, and 
 what a fertile field you have before you for retrenchment. A mi- 
 nister who confesses that he can push the taxation of the labouring 
 classes no further, and who is execrated by a large proportion of 
 his supporters for imposing a property and income-tax, ought to 
 be greatly obliged to any one, even a Radical, who can point out 
 to him how he can lighten the public burthens : but never was 
 minister so favourably placed for carrying out reform as you are. 
 (I was one of those fools who fancied the Reform Bill would have 
 insured all this ; I had no conception that the substance was to be 
 withheld.) There are many honest men amongst the Conserva- 
 tives, who would back you in making your income-tax 1 per cent, 
 if you would show them, in your able way, that you were con- 
 ferring on them an ultimate benefit. The genuine Whig, having 
 opposed it, would feel bound to vote against you : but the Radi- 
 cals of all shades would be your supporters; and as you have 
 disclaimed any but patriotic motives, were you to fall by this mea- 
 sure, your name would be enrolled in the memory of generations 
 yet unborn. 
 
 Let us understand one another, — the shifting a tax from the 
 poor to the rich is only a partial relief ; at least one half the rich will 
 have it out of the poor some other way ; — for instance, I hear of 
 servants being discharged wholesale, to meet the income-tax. It is 
 notorious that many rich people will not keep carriages and servants, 
 because they are taxed. Last autumn I heard of a person having 
 a large fortune left him : he was anxious to keep a carriage for his 
 old lady ; he actually bought it ; but could not be induced to have 
 it home until after the bth April, to avoid the tax. Rely on the 
 knowledge of these matters acquired by one who has passed his 
 life amongst the people, that Lord Castlereagh's " ignorant im- 
 patience of taxation " has spread more and more, and is still 
 spreading amongst the plebeians ; in short, it clouds the mind of 
 all parties in the state ; — even those who live upon the taxes wish 
 you at the D — 1 for your income-tax. A])ply it as I have directed 
 you in this and in my Letter to Lord J, Russell, and you will be 
 backed in such a manner as you httle dream of. 
 
 Two davs after I wrote the above, I received a letter from an
 
 37 
 
 o\d friend, whom I had not heard from for years. I should state, 
 that he was ignorant of my havinj^ pubhslicd anything', and as 
 great a Radical as myself ; but having this advantage over me, 
 that he is as honest and upright a man as Sir R. Peel or Lord J. 
 Russell. He writes, " I have been much amused to hear the 
 wailings of some of the rich, who never cared how others were 
 taxed. Sir Robert is no longer the idol he was with them. If 
 the Commissioners conduct themselves with common decency, I shall 
 not care about paying it myself; and if the effect would have 
 been, that some mischievous duties on goods had been taken oflF, 
 I wish it had been ten per cent, instead of three" . — Now, Sir, I 
 forscc, that so far from your taking off the income-tax, that you 
 will be obliged to increase it ; but to make it palatable, you must 
 render it less oppressive, — " fair play is a jewel" in the estimation 
 of Englishmen. You must therefore lose no time in causing ter- 
 minable annuities to be assessed at their comparative worth with 
 perpetual, and income derived from trades and professions accord- 
 ing to the number of years' purchase the life (making the return) 
 is worth. 
 
 A minister whose measures are clearly for the pubhc benefit, 
 cannot be left in the lurch. You introduced them in face of a ma- 
 jority who were not prepared for them, yet from their justice they 
 dared not vote against you. Go on proposing just measures : — 
 the Conservatives cannot leave you ; the Whigs have learnt by this 
 time that " fiui* words butter no parsnips ;" they never can regain 
 power without a certainty of being bound to bring forward Radical 
 measures; — the "laissez faire " pohcy will not do in these times. 
 
 You sadly mistake the principles of Radicahsm if you imagine 
 that we have any sinister designs on the property of the landlords. 
 We well know that the land, under any circumstances, must be 
 held by some one ; and that that some one will have rent for the 
 use of it. It cannot matter to us then who are the owners. And 
 we also know, that uncertain titles to it would lead to constant hti- 
 gation and neglect of culture*. Nor do we think any hann could 
 arise, were the whole land of the country in i\iQ.hands of trusteesiorXhc 
 benefit of the poor. The objections we make are, that the possession 
 of the land should convey pohtical power; that the holders should be 
 exempted from the penalties of extravagance ; that the accumulation 
 of it in the hands of individuals, should enable them to exone- 
 rate themselves from the burthen borne by the rest of the com- 
 munity, by enabhng them to keep any minisrtiy in power who, by 
 
 *Krcry one knows tlic answer lie woiilil get, when enciuinng " who is the 
 owner of that dilapidated property?
 
 38 
 
 a lavish expenditure of the public money, create places and useless 
 employments for the cadets of their families. Their titles we envv 
 not (we know that some of the best friends of the people are to be 
 found amongst the old nobihty, and some of their bitterest ene- 
 mies amidst tbe parvenues); they are becoming so common from 
 being bestowed on every renegade, that we anticipate they will 
 shortly be held in the same estimation as that of an Italian prince. 
 Who does not think that Harry Brougham is lost in Lord Brougham'; 
 that the atmosphere of the House of Lords is not congenial to his 
 spirit ? The wisest thing you ever did. Sir, was to express your 
 determination of passing the days of your public life in the House 
 of Commons. 
 
 I have said that you have begun to burn your candle at the 
 wrong end ; in fact, your cuiTency bill was an instance of this. 
 You thereby increased the burthen of the taxation, (read the be- 
 ginning of page 6 in Civis.) Had you postponed the return to 
 gold payments, until the National Debt had been put in train for 
 extinction, you might have let the paper money take its swing. So 
 long as it was inconvertible, it would have facilitated that measure ; 
 but your now attempting to cheapen living, is cUminishing the 
 means of those who have to pay the taxes ; thereby increasing its 
 pressure on them, at the same time you are increasing the means 
 of the drones : to the extent you lower prices, you are gi\'ing an 
 increased value to the income of all those who live upon the 
 State ; and, in the same proportion, you diminish the profits of 
 those who have to pay the taxes. 
 
 There is another class of drones, and a veiy extensive one, who 
 prey upon the industry of the producers, wliich I had well nigh 
 overlooked, — I mean the directors and shareholders in life-assu- 
 rance and other companies. " Director of companies" is aprofession 
 of recent date. Let me relate an anecdote to the purpose : — a 
 Scotch unattached major called on me a short time since. I was 
 at a loss to conceive what self-interested motive was the cause of 
 my being thus honoured. After some recollections of by-gone 
 times, he informed me, that a fiicnd had appointed him director 
 
 of a life-assurance company, connected v;ith " ;" 
 
 (capital name, eh !) that he had been promised the directorship 
 of another company; that, in short, he intended to adopt the 
 profession ; and that if I knew any company in want of a director, 
 he was the man. But, to the subject : —if you have an hour to 
 spare any day, and will favour mc with your company, I will walk 
 you through the new streets in the neighbourhood of the Mansion 
 House. You will be perfectly astonished at the number of palaces
 
 39 
 
 owned by these gentry. I cannot be supposed to know how all 
 these get a living, but I will give you one case. 
 
 In the year 1824, I was induced by an advertisement, promising 
 me half the profits, to insure my life for £1000 in the Com- 
 pany*. It was stated, that they had a certain capital, of which 
 £10 was paid, and the profits were to be divided every seven years 
 equally between the assured and the shareholders (for some rea- 
 sons best known to themselves, the advertisements now put forth by 
 this company, only say that a proportion of the profits are 
 divided amongst the assured). When the first division came, a 
 small reversion was added to my pohcy ; but, to my great amaze- 
 ment, they declared, that the shares in the company were to be 
 considered as ha\dng £20 paid up, and that an annual interest of 
 £5 per cent, was to be paid upon these shares. When the second 
 septennial division came, £7 10s. more was added to the shares, 
 on which £5 per cent, was to be paid annually ; and a reversion 
 of about £1 per cent, per annum was added to my policy. But, 
 look. Sir. They tell me, on complaining, that they can only invest 
 my money at £3 per cent., and value my life by the Northampton 
 tables; and yet they divide £13 15s. per cent, on the money 
 actually paid by the shareholders. You are, perhaps, not ignorant 
 that the Northampton tables greatly under-rated the value of life 
 for the younger ages ; and if you were to go to this company, and 
 offer them a sum of money for an annuity on your life, they 
 would laugh at you if you said they must value your life by the 
 same tables they value mine. 
 
 But, Sir, this company have one of the best mathematicians in 
 London for their actuaiy. This gentleman published a set of 
 tables some years since, on matters connected with life-assurance, 
 in the preface of which he proved, that such is the real value of 
 life, connected with the power of rejecting diseased persons, that 
 40 years' experience of the largest company in London, proved 
 that for the majority of cases hkely to become insurers, that is, 
 under 40 years of age, that only o)ie died, when their tables of 
 premiums were calculated that two would die ; and even to hves 
 insuring at very advanced ages, the proportion was only at 
 5 to 7. 
 
 If you look to the Equitable Company, you will perceive that 
 the charging these enormous premiums has led to an enormous 
 increase of capital (the division of which I will not now enter upon); 
 and if on the other hand vou look to the London Life Assurance, 
 
 * I suppress tliis name under petticoat iufluencc.
 
 40 
 
 you will perceive that the premiums charged at entering have en- 
 abled them to reduce the future payment to about one-third . 
 
 Now, Sir, both these companies have no shareholders : but the 
 
 otfice said I was entitled to half the profits ; — how is it then, 
 
 that I am not half as well off in the as I should be in the 
 
 London Life ? I firmly believe that I am what in slang language 
 is called done. What remedy have I ? I am told, — but you should 
 
 have held shares in the ; then, if you were done with one 
 
 hand, you would get it back with the other ; but. Sir, who are the 
 parties that go to insure their lives ? (surely not those who have 
 money to invest in companies.) Are they not those who, not 
 having accumulated the means for rearing a family, are desirous 
 that an untimely end should not reduce their widows and children 
 to beggary ? and, still worse, are not a large amount of policies 
 effected as a security for money advanced to enable people to enter 
 into business ? Then, Sir, if this company do not strictly fulfil 
 the spirit of their original contract with the public, at whose ex- 
 pense are they accumulating capital, — is it not the fatherless, the 
 widow, and the debtor ? Who pays for their extravagant entertain- 
 ments at the Albion, Blackwall, and Greenwich ? But admitting 
 they have the law on their side, surely there can be no honesty in 
 a scale of premiums for life-assurance which enables the share- 
 holders of a company to double their capital in 7 years. It is 
 from this I call on you to rescue me and others. 
 
 I have no doubt their deed of settlement protects them in all 
 these things : — at all events I am not likely to dispute it ; for one 
 of the Judges in Equity was their standing counsel when it was 
 draAvn up. But I have no hesitation in saying, that had I fore- 
 seen that they intended every seven years to declare so much more 
 capital paid up, and to take 5 per cent, interest upon it ; and then 
 to calculate that I was only to have my money valued at 3 per cent- 
 
 increase, that I never would have taken out a policy in the , 
 
 But this is one of the swell companies ; Directors of the Bank of 
 England, East India Company, and private bankers condescending 
 to accept their £ a year. 
 
 How is it, then, it will be asked, that the , in these times 
 
 of competition, get business ? First, because all those who have 
 insured with them, before they discovered how little benefit they 
 were to derive from the company, cannot leave them; and the 
 public are let into their net by the extensive agency they have es- 
 tablished, which, in short, amounts to this, that the company 
 dispose of some of the insurers' money to pay a set o{ people who 
 have an interest in persuading others to insure in a company which
 
 41 
 
 does not hold out advantages in proportion to the high premiums 
 charged. 
 
 But why do I give you this case ? To show you that it is in 
 your power to render enormous service to almost every family con- 
 nected with business, by forcing those companies to act fairly to- 
 wards the public, or to take the matter into the hands of the 
 Government. Allow me to advise you to issue a commission of 
 examination into tlic affairs of the insurance companies, at the 
 same time establishing a Government insurance office, giving 
 power to every policy-holder in any life-insurance company to 
 transfer it to the Government office, the government assuming the 
 right to make the company pay over to the government office, 
 an equitable amount of their funds, as fairly belonging to such po- 
 licy ; that one half of such amount, over and above what the com- 
 pany had assigned to the policy, should belong to the holder, and 
 the other half to go to the Government as a reward for the protec- 
 tion afforded to the insured. I hold three pohcies, and I hereby 
 pledge myself to transfer them to the Government office ; and I 
 feel convinced the majority of policy-holders would do the same, 
 and that an enormous revenue would arise to the Government. 
 Before quitting this subject, allow me to suggest to you, that after 
 all, the true principle of life-assurance is protection against prema- 
 ture death ; therefore, when you have done this act of justice to 
 the present dupes, let your actuary prepare a table of decreasing 
 premiums and decreasing reversions. Let me give you a case : — 
 Suppose A, 20 years of age, about to get married and commence 
 business ; he has a reasonable expectation that it will yield him a 
 living, and something more, and that in 20 years he shall have ac- 
 cumulated sufficient to pass the remainder of his days in peace 
 and quietness : let us further assume that £1000 is the object of 
 his ambition : then the table wanted will be, what premium must 
 A pay eveiy year, to insure £1000 reversion for the first year, 
 £950 for the second, 900 for the third, and so on to the ultimate 
 extinction of both premium and reversion. This would meet the 
 wants of an enormous part of your population, and would be a 
 legitimate source of revenue. 
 
 But we have yet another class of drones, or rather v.-asps : I 
 mean that class of the legal profession, who live by inciting people 
 to commence Chancery suits. But why have they an interest in 
 this ? because they can assure their chcnts that they will be at no 
 expense ; that they shall be able to recover their expenses out of 
 the estate. Wliat family is there not subject to one of the daugh- 
 ters or grand- daughters marrying a vagabond, who, because he 
 
 G
 
 42 
 
 cannot get all lie wants out of the family, will api)ly to one of 
 these wasps to throw the property into Chancery ? Is it not a no- 
 torious fact, that so onerous and vexatious is the office of executor 
 or tnistee, that very few men can get even their most devoted 
 friends to undertake the office ? Can that be the perfection of 
 society, when men dare not fulfil one of the most sacred offices of 
 friendship, lest in so doing, their own children may be sub- 
 ject to seeing their patrimony absorbed by the lawyers ? 
 
 I had written out a case witliin my own knowledge, whereby a 
 small property, absolutely increased in value by the executors, was 
 three times threatened with Chancery. The third time the suit 
 was absolutely commenced, to obtain that which had been offered 
 to the parties before, and which they were glad to accept ; but 
 £200 was spent in law, without an answer to the bill being 
 put in. 
 
 I know that it has been said, that the expense of law-proceed- 
 ings has a tendency to prevent people being litigious ; but I have 
 the strongest conviction that nine-tenths of the popidation of 
 England submit to gross injustice, and that the other tenth prac- 
 tise it, because the majority are satisfied that, with justice on their 
 side, it were far better to put up with injustice than to seek it 
 through the law. 
 
 I sincerely wish the Duke of Wellington would complete the 
 parallel between himself and Napoleon, by giving us a Welling- 
 ton code of laws. Surely he could find some disinterested lawyers 
 to assist him in divesting the law of its " glorious uncertainties." 
 All the sound decisions in law and equity might be codified. The 
 practice of adopting the decision of any particular judge or jury 
 should be set aside, and any case of law or equity not strictly de- 
 fined by the code, should be left to the decision of a jury, without 
 such verdict becoming part and parcel of the law ; and when it was 
 ascertained that these decisions were of a sound nature, they 
 should, by legislative enactment, be incorporated into the code. 
 The law might and ought to be inteUigible to every man of edu- 
 cation ; and thus the ruinous nature of a law-proceeding to the 
 public would be averted, and a large class of parasites extermi- 
 nated, to the saving of the pockets, and the restoration of harmony 
 between man and man, in their monied relation to each other. 
 
 1 beheve the practice of Chancery, in forcing executors to invest 
 estates in the funds, to partake of the same species of state policy 
 as gave rise to the cstablislmient of savings' -banks ; namely, to 
 interest as large a proportion of the population as possible in 
 muintuining a system which is at the bottom of all the distress
 
 43 
 
 now felt by the country. I have a strong presentiment that the 
 savings'-lianks will upset the concern some clay. We have seen 
 the holders in tliem draining the bank of two miUions of gold in 
 a week. I have the authority of more than one gentleman who 
 have been concerned in the management of them, that when once 
 the poorer classes get it into their heads that their money is not 
 safe, no remonstrance is effectual in preventing their taking 
 it out. 
 
 Now, Sir, let me carry you back to 1839, and with httlc better 
 than 2 millions of gold in the Bank, I will ask you where you 
 would have been if the people had taken alarm at that time ? and 
 really it is a miracle that they did not. 
 
 Can that be a sound system of policy, which subjects a nation 
 to bankruptcy at the will of a few demagogues, who choose to fill 
 the minds of the poorer classes with alarm ? But, Sir, you have 
 37 millions in the savings'-banks ; now, suppose they wanted their 
 money (I will even give you the advantage that they would take 
 it in hank notes'), would you dare make them for them; — look again 
 to the reduction of the funds ; — look also to the fact, that the 
 forced issue of half a million more currency this year, has reduced 
 the interest of money on the best securities from 6 to 2 per cent. 
 But here is a funny fact for you to chew the cud upon ; there are 
 I know not how many joint-stock banks who hire the Bank of 
 England notes at 3 per cent. ; but money can be borrowed at 2, 
 according to the papers ; and yet, when these concerns have their 
 pubhc meetings, we see very flourishing statements of the pros- 
 perity of the concern, dividing so many per cent., as a half 
 years profits. How can these things be ? Save and except 
 the hfe-insurance companies, who cheat the public so prodigiously 
 that they grow rich in spite of their extravagant management, 
 it is notorious not one company in a hundred yields a rea- 
 sonable interest on their shares. Here is a business that requires 
 all the circumspection and care of a Lewis Loyd to make answer 
 (in these times), and yet they pay dividends far exceeding the 
 amount which a private banker would be glad to compound for. 
 How can these things be, again I ask ? Have the joint-stock 
 banks found the pliilosopher's stone ? 
 
 You must be confoundedly puzzled just now, Sir Robert. You 
 told us at the close of the sessions, that you might easily have 
 produced an artificial appearance of prosperity, by shoving out 
 more paper ; but I tell you, that it was out of your power. You 
 must first instil into the minds of the people a spirit of speculation 
 (as your chum Prosperity Robinson did in 1825), then they will
 
 44 
 
 come to you for the notes as fast as you choose to issue them ; but 
 such is your novel position, that all your coaxing will not do it. 
 The present generation have been so fleeced by speculation, that 
 the Old Gentleman could not induce them to'try their luck once 
 more. 
 
 There is no greater mistake amongst the political economists 
 than that the Bank can force out paper (unless by buying mercan- 
 tile goods, and even then not always); they have tried this game 
 this year, but unsuccessfully. It is a well ascertained fact, that 
 forced issues of paper by the Bank immediately return on them in 
 the shape of deposits ; for example, the Bank go into the Stock Mar- 
 ket to purchase ; those who sell do so not that they want the money, 
 but because the price offered tempts them ; the money therefore which 
 the Bank pays for the stock is not wanted, and necessarily becomes 
 deposit. The case is quite different where the pubhc take a fancy 
 for borrowing the rags to buy stock or goods ; for the purchases 
 being made at necessarily higher prices, the larger amount of notes 
 in circulation become absorbed into the price. We have here an 
 example in proof of Civis's position, that the prices are regulated 
 by the quantity of mo7iey. 
 
 What then becomes of the dictum of the Bank Committee, 
 that the Bank should allow itself to be acted on : is not this tanta- 
 mount to saying, that the Bank should encourage speculation ? 
 and this again upsets another of their dogmas, "that the private 
 interest of traders is identified with the pviblic interest, and may 
 be safely left to take its own course." Is not this as much as to 
 Bay, that the public cannot be injured by the Bank letting the 
 speculators have as much money as they please ? and here again 
 we upset them on another point : — it is evidently the interest of 
 the issuer of paper to get his dupes to take as much as they are 
 safe for, and yet they tell us that it is quite impossible for them to 
 do any thing which would injure the public, which would not in 
 the first instance inflict injury on themselves. 
 
 The working of all this is simply that the Bank gives facilities 
 to speculators by issuing their rags ; they then rob the public by 
 withdrawing their paper, and forcing the holders of goods at liigh 
 prices, to sell at low, the original authors of the rise having 
 quietly slipped out of the noose ,- certainly some few of them are 
 caught in their own trap, but in the main the public pay the piper. 
 This is the benefit they derive from an exjmnding and contracting 
 circulation. But I have pi-cvious]y shown tliat a sot of agents, or 
 crimps, are obliged to be employed to enable them to cajole the 
 community. Why, you can scarcely stand in one of the streets of
 
 45 
 
 London five minutes, without overhearing some one complaining 
 of having been victimized by one of the fraternity. Is it not 
 astonishing tliat men of some standing in society can be foimd to 
 sacrifice their fellow creatures for an eighth or fouilh per cent, 
 commission ? — what do I say, perhaps a sixteenth or thirty-second ? 
 but there are those who are above this dirty work ; such men 
 seldom give advice to buy or sell, consequently their customers 
 are few. Unfortunately for the public, they cannot understand 
 that it is quite impossible for a broker to know whether markets 
 will rise or fall; the chances then are 100 to 1, that when ad\'ice 
 is given, that the ad\nser has some interest in giving it. Oh that 
 you and I, Sir Robert, could recall Gay from the grave, just to 
 take a walk with him from Temple Bar to Aldgate Street, to wit- 
 ness liis astonishment at the increased number of his old street 
 acquaintance ! 
 
 But see what a monstrous absurdity is involved in your political 
 economy. If you succeed in inducing the people to employ the 
 money to buy with, it can only be to sell at higher prices, and yet 
 you defend your pohcy upon the grounds of producing Reaper 
 prices! ! ! Could I possibly want a better illustration of my doc- 
 trine that the more money a country employs so much the worse 
 for all parties except those ivho lend it. Pray store in your mind 
 T. Paine's definition of deamess. Had I kno^vn that such a mag- 
 nificent truth as this were in print, I should never have had the 
 courage to write to Lord J. RusseU ; the whole secret of our diffi- 
 culties Hes in it; the only remedy, I concientiously beheve, is 
 contained in " Civis." 
 
 And now. Sir, for an elucidation of my text. The theonj of 
 banking established in this country appears to be founded upon 
 a doctrine laid down by Adam Smith, namely; — " If bankers are 
 subjected to the obligation of an immediate and unconditional 
 payment of their notes in coin, on demand, as soon as presented, 
 their trade may with safety to the public be rendered in all other 
 respects perfectly free." 
 
 Now, Sir, turn to Civis, and read from page 1 2 to 20, particu- 
 larly page 17, and then tell me, on the honour of a gentleman, if 
 you can, that an ounce of practice is not worth a ton of theory. 
 I am perfectly amazed that any man can be spooney enough to 
 suppose that any set of men playing with other men's property 
 will not avail themselves of an opportunity of making large profits 
 for themselves, when there is only a chance that they may be 
 called to account before they have reahzed. I have met but with 
 a small proportion of people who having money at their command 
 
 /.
 
 46 
 
 could resist the temptation to speculate. It is only those who 
 have realized money by a long life of incessant toil, who know 
 how to make use of it. " Easy come, easy go, " is amply verified 
 in commercial life. 
 
 The number of commissions of bankruptcy against country 
 bankers from 1781 to 1830, was 407 ; but mark the progress with 
 the extension of the paper money; to 1790, 14; to 1800, 50; to 
 1810, 56 ; 1820, 141 ; 1830, 146. (Appendix to report of Bank 
 of England Charter, 1832). I stumbled upon this fact in looking 
 into it in the expectation of finding the Eton Tables of the average 
 price of wheat alluded to in " Corn and Currency," which has 
 just fallen into my hands. I have a great dislike to averages. I 
 have always found them inconclusive and deceptive (abstractedly 
 I prefer the sliding corn-law scale to a fixed duty ; but when com- 
 bined with averages, I feel confident that the Quakers will be too 
 much for you). The average temperature of the coldest month of 
 our chmate is above t\xQ freezing point. God help the poor nurse- 
 ryman who, having heard thisy«c^, should import a large quantity 
 of plants that would stand this degree of cold. 
 
 But having drawn your attention to the " man of the bright 
 swords' " publication, you will perhaps excuse my passing a remark 
 or two on it. I know that amongst statesmen, it is a gross piece 
 of vulgarity to try to nail one another to any opinion expressed a 
 year or two past, I shall therefore only allude to those which I 
 beUeve he holds now ; and here I will point to a strong confirma- 
 tion of my statements in pages 18 and 19 of " Com and Cun*ency," 
 namely, that prices are affected mainly by the quantity of money. 
 He there tells the landlords that they cannot keep up their rents 
 without plenty of rags, — clearly showing them that your Cun'ency 
 Bill, by restoring the paper money to the same state it was before 
 1792, must have the tendency of bringing down the price of wheat 
 to the same level it ranged at during the \&th century. But the 
 fallacy connected with this is, that Sir J. Graham and all the 
 political economists fancy that these were gold prices. I think I 
 have shown in Civis, that a paper currency, convertible nominally 
 into gold, is twice debased, that is, by the time one-third of it 
 (for 6s. 8d. in the pound is the highest quantity any political 
 economist would argue for) was demanded in money, the rest be- 
 comes tcorthless. 
 
 Supposing the average of wheat in England to be 60s. a quarter 
 since your Currency Bill, and 50s. during the 18th century, aU 
 which time we had a paper currency, it would be desirable to have 
 a tabic showing the average price of wheat in Europe during
 
 47 
 
 the ISthcentmy. I shall be much surprised if it docs not come 
 out within a fraction of one-third the English price. But gold 
 did not vary in price during the 18th century, or since 1819. 
 What then can be the cause of wheat being higher in England by 
 two-thirds, than on the Continent, but a debased cuiTency. But 
 why did not that take place in the 1 Sth centun,', which is now in 
 frequent operation to prove your currency debased, namely, an 
 importation of wheat, and an export of gold ? I can only attribute 
 it to the fact, that commercial intercourse was so restricted by re- 
 peated wars, and difficulty of transport, that the oppox-tunity of 
 selling 20s. wheat in England for 50s. did not often arise ; besides, 
 I think gold was prohibited from being exported ; at all events 
 they had no manufactures then to compete with us in. — But Sir 
 J. Graham quotes Adam Smith, Muchet, Horner, Locke, and 
 others to prove that an average price of wheat is the best test of a 
 sound or depreciated currency ; yet gold is currency in England 
 and on the Continent, how then is wheat at such different values ? 
 Is it not that in England gold is tied to paper, s.\\(\.free on the 
 Continent. Sir J. Graham is proved to be right in the fall in the 
 prices of wheat under your bill ; but if no paper money 
 existed, the price of wheat in England would be 20s. or there- 
 abouts. 
 
 Nov/, Sir, if you wish to save the commerce of your country 
 from ruin, lose not a moment in commencing to cany out this 
 desideratum. I shall be glad if you can find a safer or more just 
 method than the one pointed out in Civis. It is the knowledge of 
 this truth on the part of the Anti-corn-law League which causes 
 the landlords to tremble. Let them hesitate in backing you in 
 reducing the expenditure of the country to that point that we can 
 let a sovereign pass for its real value, and their estates must 
 assuredly pass into other hands. 
 
 Let us now see how matters woidd stand between the agricul- 
 tural and mercantile classes, were Civis's plan fidly carried out. 
 The former would ensure customers for all his produce, for no other 
 nation could supply the manufacturer so cheap ; and the latter 
 would sell as large an amount of his goods as possible in the home 
 market, and any surplus w'ould be sure, from its price, to find vent 
 in some foreign countiy. I would wish the latter class to bear in 
 mind that it is the rich of his oicn country that pay for such of his 
 goods as are sent abroad to exchange for luxuries such as wines. 
 
 Let us now stop to contemplate some of the consequences and 
 advantages which would accrue to the agriculturist from the value 
 of wheat being i-educed to 20s, per quarter; and first, I will sup-
 
 48 
 
 pose the cost of importation (the duty being removed) to be 10s. 
 per quarter. It is clear that no foreign wheat coidd be sold until 
 the home supply was disposed of ; at all events there would be a 
 bonus to the agriculturist of 10s : this, of course, would stimulate 
 improvements in farming, until the country could supply itseK 
 with wheat ; and I am one of those who think that two blades of 
 wheat might be made to grow where one does now ; but why are 
 they not grown now ? because the expense woixld be greater than 
 the value of the com grown, (there is also a reason arising from 
 the want of stimulus to improvement in agriculture, owing to the 
 political power of the landlords, obliging us to consume their pro- 
 duce at the price they choose to let us have it at.) But more labour 
 would be required to pi'oduce a double quantity of corn, con- 
 sequently the home demand for manufacture would be greatly 
 increased ; will any one contend that these are not the best 
 customers of the manufacturers ? 
 
 I would next observe, that Sir J. Graham considers that we 
 borrowed 15s. in the pound. This arises fi-om mixing up the fund- 
 ing of Navy Bills and Exchequer Bills with the 3 per cent, loans. 
 I have elsewhere noticed the injustice of attempting to reduce 
 further the interest of those who lent their money at a 
 lower rate, and leaving untouched those who received 9 per 
 cent. 
 
 You will find a strong corroboration of my assertions about the 
 salaries of pubhc officers in " Corn and Currency," pages G1 and 
 68 ; but how is it that an administration, of which he forms one, 
 can leave these salaries untouched. Not only is this the case, but 
 you have introduced a new tax, with its expense of collection, and 
 reduced other taxes, without shewing that the expense of collection 
 is diminished in proportion. But I must take leave of the " Bright 
 Sword," sincerely regretting that such a jolly Radical should ever 
 have turned his coat. Let me hope I am mistaken ; it may be 
 that you have seen the en-or of your ways, and are resolved to ful- 
 fil this noble idea of Sir James, " The right of jiropertrj itself is 
 instituted, not for the good of the few who possess wealth and honours, 
 but of the many tvho have them not. If the majority be deeply in- 
 jured, the public peace is in danger ; if the majority want food, 
 j)rivate j)roj)erty becomes a nuisance." — see page 73. 
 
 There is much to admire in this pamphlet, and I take great credit 
 to myself for having unwittingly reiterated many of his ideas. 
 Civis was written without referring to any book ; but I have since 
 had my attention drawn to several publications sent to me with a 
 view of proving I am wrong. I have met with no arguments in
 
 49 
 
 them that 1 could not confute ; but it may be as well to show upon 
 what blentlcr foundations some of them are built. 
 
 Mr, G. Paulet Scropc lias pubhshcd two i)amphlets, in which 
 lie tries to argue down the value of gold as a standard, by at- 
 tempting to prove its fluctuating value ; but he fails to show that 
 there is any thing else which fluctuates so little ; at all events, a 
 wet season, over-issues, undue contractions, over-trading, can 
 have no effect upon the quantity of gold. The falling- off in the 
 supply of the mines since 1810, was a circumstance known equally 
 well by all nations, and provided for accordingly ; and although it 
 may have had some slight effect in increasing the burtlien of a 
 previously contracted loan, and this only to the extent of its 
 amiual wear, yet this is an evil inseparable from human affairs. 
 There has been more mischief created in one month by the altera- 
 tion in the quantity of paper money, than ever occurred from the 
 increased or diminished supply of gold. His argument about the 
 increased facihties of producing goods altering their purchasable 
 value by gold is futile: every man who sets about doing this 
 knows the inevitable consequence, and he calculates that his in- 
 creased quantity of goods will leave him a better profit than the 
 lesser quantity ; but he never imagines for a moment that he can 
 sell his larger stock for the higher price. Now if we imagine 
 every producer of goods were to increase his article in the same 
 ratio, it is quite clear that in exchanging them directly, they would 
 have to give a proportionally increased quantity of each ; but if 
 the exchange were made through a third party holding gold, the 
 increased quantity of the one man's goods would be sold for the 
 same quantity of gold (about) as the lesser quantity ; but the gold 
 would buy a proportionally increased quantity of the other man's 
 goods, and leave the two producers in the same relative situations. 
 The advantage would be to the consumer, who, having occasion 
 only for a certain quantity of goods, would buy them for less gold. 
 This is what is called cheapness or plenty, and is the advantage 
 which science and skill bestow upon a nation without injury to 
 any one. 
 
 It is quite amusing to read (page 15 of Examination of the 
 Bank Charter Question) his (J. P. S.'s) virtuous indignation at 
 the altered state of pecimiary obhgations since 1810, and then to 
 see how he chuckles over the baffled landed aristocracy, by the 
 alteration in money value since the discovery of the American 
 mines. There must always be a losing and a gaining party in 
 every alteration of the value of money. Nothing has ever yet been 
 proposed which alters so little as gold, and nothing which pro- 
 
 H
 
 59 
 
 duces more violent fluctuations in value than paper. Corn would 
 be better than paper. What a glorious triumph does this page 
 afford to the Attwood school : who can doubt that plenty of rags 
 would elude the grasp and baffie the holders of the national debt P 
 
 But just the same thing took place in paper during the war, so 
 beautifully illustrated in Mr. Enderby's dialogue, by the increased 
 quantity of it ; and precisely the same effect is now taking place 
 by the decreasing quantity of paper, as took place in gold in 1810, 
 only on a more magnificent scale, — more " en prince." I wish 
 Mr. Scrope had manifested as much zeal against the paper as he 
 has done against poor gold (as I think unmeritedly). Any one 
 who reflects on his first chapter must perceive that he is in error ; 
 for he only proves a cessation of accumulation of gold, wherefrom 
 I infer a cessation of injury to those who, having a certain lien 
 on property, yearly found themselves incapable of living as well aa 
 when the obligation arose. If one ounce of gold had not been 
 produced since 1810, no one was injured by it ; and if gold were 
 safely stowed away in the coffers of all the banks of trading nations, 
 no evil would arise if one ounce more ivere never produced. 
 '- There is one thing quite clear, that whether it be produced or 
 Bot (unless in veiy excessive quantities, of which I have no dread), 
 there is no fear on your presenting a sovereign in exchange or 
 barter, that any one will say, I do not know whether it is worth 
 any thing or nothing, as too often happens to paper, and which is 
 precisely the state of American notes at this moment. 
 
 I think, Sir, you cannot fail to perceive that the political econo- 
 mists take what I call " a within the vortex view " of the affairs of 
 nations. Adam Smith's book is little more than an attempt to re- 
 duce to theory the practices of merchants and traders to forward 
 their individual interests ; and you must perceive that the very 
 falling into their pi'actices would induce them, from the number of 
 competitors, to strike into a new path to acquire wealth ; and if this 
 be true, which I firmly believe, how can we fix political economy as 
 a science. The thing wanted in trade is perfect freedom of action 
 under a certain law. How can this be acquired in a country which 
 makes a hundred acts of Parhament eveiy year, in some way 
 meddling with trade. But supposing our Legislature to cease 
 meddling, how can we, the heaviest taxed nation in the world, 
 compete with less taxed nations in the production of any particular 
 manufactured article ? You may sell coal and iron cheaper than 
 those countries which cannot produce them, but those countries 
 which have coal and iron will most assuredly sell them cheaper 
 than you can do. But these arc comparatively rmv materials.
 
 SI 
 
 ^lighh^ manufartiircd goods will as certainly pass from you as 
 nig'ht follows day; unless — you take a leaf out of Civis> and 
 unfetter our industry. 
 
 But I have somewhat \\7indered from what I was desirous of 
 stating as an illustration of " within the vortex." Hume, Scrope, 
 Enderby, Attwood, and others have all written on the period of 
 our commerce, when prices were rising, in other other words, when 
 money was decreasing in value. They have the appearance of being- 
 riglit, from the high prices carrying the last profit ; but this must 
 have an end ; for if Mr. Enderby succeeded in bringing gold 
 down to the present value of silver, just the same state of things 
 would arise as is depicted by Mr. Scrope as having happened by 
 the American mines ceasing to yield more gold in 1810. 
 
 Let me give you an example of my asseition (page 11, Civis), 
 that the witnesses had an interest in humbugging Lord Althorp. 
 A Mr. Hugh Watt has published a pamphlet on Scotch and 
 Enghsh Banking. He there relates an anecdote of yourself, as 
 Chairman of the Committee in 1826. He states (page 18) that 
 there was no gold in circulation in Scotland ; and that you 
 appeared rather surprised that the people did not apply for gold, 
 when the guinea was worth 25s. or 2Gs. Why did not this Scotch 
 banker clear up your surprise, and inform you that they dare not 
 do it ; — that the bond would instantly have been enforced against 
 the demander and his security ; that such a demand would have 
 raised three times the amazement amongst the Bank officials, as 
 " Oliver's asked for more" did amongst the workhouse authorities. 
 In the next paragraph, we get a proof that paper money raises 
 prices ; for he states that English manufacturers and merchants 
 would soon find out that the advantage is not confined to Scot- 
 land ; they would perceive a great diminution in the amount of 
 sales in Scotland. Dont you see. Sir, Xh^t prices would not be so 
 high ; therefore, their goods would not sell for so much ; for as 
 English paper is as good as gold to a foreigner, so long as there 
 is a sovereign in the Bank, so Scotch paper would be to the 
 English merchant convertible into English, so long as the Scotch 
 banks have an account in London. 
 
 There is another (The History and Principles of Banking), by 
 J. W. Gilbart. At page 117, this gentleman tells us that the 
 invested capital is " the inoney paid down by the partners for the 
 purpose of carrying on the business." Now, Sir, if this l)e money, 
 it will certainly carry on the business ; but if it be invested, it has 
 no more to do with the business than you or I have. In the next 
 sentence he says, the banking capital may be called the borrotced
 
 52 
 
 capital: he then si lows that there are three ways of raising this 
 borrowed capital ; namely, receiving other people's money, creating 
 7iotes, and drawing bills (which is only another way of borrowing 
 other people's money). He then gives us this marvellous infor- 
 mation, that if you or I lend him our money for nothing, and some 
 one will borrow it of him at 4 per cent., that he will make £4 of 
 e¥^ry hundred. He then tells us, that if you were to take his 
 I O U for £100, and promise to pay him 4 per cent., he shall at 
 the end of the year have made £4 by you. He then adds that 
 this is a fair representation of banking, and the way banking cap- 
 ital is created by means of deposits, notes, and bills. But here 
 is a profound truth for you, Sir : — " The profits of a banker are 
 generally in proportion to the amount of his banking or borrowed 
 capital." But mark what follows. If a banker employs only his 
 real or invested capital, it is impossible he should make any profits. 
 — now. Sir Robert, let me ask you whether this profound writer 
 on banking could have written this if he had read Civis before he 
 wrote (I really begin to upbraid myself for having so long with- 
 held it from the world). Here we have a writer telling us that he 
 invests his capital in money to carry on the business of banking, and 
 then informing us that he can make no profit by doing so. If these 
 bankers had invested their money in the Funds, they could have had 
 no money to commence banking. But we get at the secret of banking 
 from this gentleman. He is not satisfied with getting his 4 per 
 cent, for his money, but he must have another 8 per cent, for his 
 credit, in the shape of notes ; so that if he be worth £10,000, 
 and as prudent as S. I. Loyd would wish him to be, he makes 12 
 per cent, of his money. 
 
 But I have noticed this pamphlet more to expose a fallacy which 
 I find at page 119. He admits that the issuing of notes to the 
 amount of £50,000 will increase to that extent the amount of 
 money in the country ; and to show that this is not the only 
 cause of high prices, over-trading, and speculation, he wishes to 
 make out, that because an individual chooses to lend his money to 
 the banker, instead of lending it himself, that this has the same 
 cffbct as creating notes from what he is pleased to call the rapidity 
 of circulation. Now if there be any thing in rapidity of circulation, 
 and I believe there is, the eflect must be that less money will be 
 required to transact the same amount of business than where the 
 money circulated less rapidly ; the surplus, having no employ- 
 ment, would in all probabiUty be sent to some other country, 
 where it was more wanted — would the notes follow it .'' To make 
 a " particeps criminis" for the notes, he is obhgcd to assume that
 
 53 
 
 the £50,000 of deposits would have otherwise laid idle ; and vet 
 he tells us (at page 135), " no man will keep money lying idle in 
 his hand'^ if lie can obtain interest for it, and have it returned to 
 him on demand." 
 
 There is a pamphlet entitled " MetaUic Currency the cause of 
 the Money Crisis in England and America:" the simple meaning of 
 which is to my mind, that if the speculators had been allowed to 
 continue to promise to pay, they would be speculating on to this 
 moment. It requires no extraordinary mind to perceive, that the 
 oftcner the bills were renewed, the worse must have been the 
 result ; every body knows that there was an '' ad libitum" quan- 
 tity of American paper in the market, and if England had taken 
 20 millions more of it before it was discovered that the Americans 
 could not pay the interest on what they had already borroived, we 
 should have been 20 millions poorer than we are now. Is Mr. 
 Enderby aware how many thousands of English families are re- 
 duced to beggary by the insolvency of the United States } If 
 Mr. E. had included America with Russia and France in his obser- 
 vation in the last page of his pamphlet, he would probably have 
 discovered that it was not metallic currency, but the having bor- 
 rowed m,ore money than they could raise taxes to pay the interest of 
 that was the cause of the crisis. 
 
 But I have began with the end: I will now go back to the be- 
 ginning. He thei'e says — " Having then proved that no control 
 can regulate the vidue of gold" ! ! ! Any one knows what im- 
 portance Mc Culloch used to attach to the " sawcra oraw fawmes," 
 in his lectures ; yet this gentleman wants to persuade us that 
 mankind never took more gold out of the mines than was sufficient 
 to keep up the price (just as the Dutch used to throw spices into 
 the sea). He then contradicts himself with an if. " If then 
 there were discovered any improved method of working mines, so 
 that gold could be produced in as great quantities as silver." 
 But this little if'xt is which constitutes the value of gold; but mark 
 the logical reasoning of Mr. E. : it is upon this if that he proves 
 that gold cannot be controlled in value, and hence the foundation 
 of his pamphlet. 
 
 " There was a maid in Westmoreland, 
 Who built her house upon the sand ; 
 And when the tide began to flow, 
 Why then it laid her mansion low, low, low, low," 
 
 [last line over again.) Nursery Song. 
 
 This gentleman has since published another pamphlet, in which 
 
 he takes his text from some answers of old to questions 
 
 from the Committee of the Bank Charter. Now, Sir Robert, ask
 
 54 
 
 uny one of your city acquaintance whether they v/ould not con- 
 sider that it was 20 to 1 that (where his pocket was concerned) he 
 meant something very different from what he said. There is a 
 story current in the City, that some one very near and dear to 
 him became a defaulter on the Stock Exchange, by acting on what 
 he said ; and I have seen in print a story of an Israehte, who 
 having bought stock from his representations, went to complain to 
 him of the loss he had sustained, who got this answer, — "veil, you 
 bought stock, and I sold it to you." Mr. Enderby concludes one 
 of his pamphlets with the " iconderful doings" under the paper 
 regime ; the same picture might be drawn of American prosperity 
 some six years since ; the day of reckoning has come with them : 
 may the forethought and prudence of our rulers avert the same 
 finale from old England. 
 
 I will venture an observation on Mr. Joplin's 339 pages. He 
 wishes us to suppose (see pages 93 to 95) that £12,500,000 of 
 our notes being large, do not affect prices ; yet it is precisely these 
 large notes that go into the Bank to extract the gold, and when 
 the Bank buy Exchequer BiUs or Stock, nothing is seen but 
 £1000 notes, and it is these large notes by which the circulation 
 is expanded or contracted. But there is a Httle gem in his work, 
 which I must show in a good light, because it forcibly illustrates 
 my doctrine, — How can dearness compete with cheapness ? 
 
 At page 115 he says, — " Nothing can stop, as we shall have 
 occasion hereafter more fully to explain, the influx or reflux of 
 money between nations or districts trading with each other, but 
 such an equalization of the currency and prices as will bring their 
 transactions to a balance. Now, Sir, let me ask you a question 
 hereon. If prices are cent, per cent, higher in England than 
 most other countries with which she comes in competition in trade, 
 and if England makes use of a money which is only partially con- 
 vertible into gold, is she not at any moment subject to bank- 
 ruptcy ? 
 
 The next in order is an Historical Sketch of the Bank of Emr- 
 land, by J. R. McCulloch. I shall dismiss him with one quota- 
 tion from page 46 ; — " Without, therefore, giving the directors 
 credit for more than ordinary sagacity, we feel satisfied that, while 
 they are obliged to pay their notes on demand, nothing is to be 
 apprehended from their proceedings. A regard to themselves, 
 without looking to any thing higher, will keep them in the right 
 path. Do what they will, it is not in their power to benefit the 
 corporation, without at the same time benefiting the pubhc ; nor
 
 55 
 
 to injure the latter, without at the same time injuring the former." 
 Let us hear Mr. Scrope — " Some of them profess to beheve that 
 the interests of the Bank proprietors and of the pubhc are the 
 same, and can never come in coUision ; but this is manifestly false. 
 " When, indeed, were the interests of a body of traders, posses- 
 sing an extensive monopoly, coincident with those of the pubhc?" — 
 page 51 Ex Bank Charter. McCulloch gives a proof of the hon- 
 ourable conduct of the Bank directors, by quoting a passage in a 
 speech of John Smith's. Wc do not wish to deny the truth of his 
 assertion, but the reason he assigns, although suitable to the atmos- 
 phere of St. Stephen's, would, if uttered at a city dinner, have 
 " set the table in a roar." The most charitable construction I can 
 put upon this pamphlet, to save McCulloch's reputation as a finan- 
 cial writer is, that it is tlie effusion of the paid advocate. 
 
 Oh that I could nail the political economists to this pamphlet of 
 McCulloch's ; but they are as slippery as eels. One of them 
 attacked Civis, asserting that gold was not money, that bUls of 
 exchange were money. Civis proved that this was not true, that 
 a biU of exchange was only time given, and that the bill must be 
 cashed before the payment was made. Then he shifted his ground 
 again, and money became a shadow, the representative of value, 
 mere numbers. I was then obliged to drop him, as I shall now do 
 the whole tribe. 
 
 In considering the subject of this letter, a modification of my 
 proposal for paying off the National Debt has suggested itself to 
 my mind. You are aware that within the second period of ten 
 years, some 4,000,000 of temimable annuities will expire. I would 
 therefore propose, that the second tenth should be omitted, and 
 transferred to the last period, making that 20 per cent. But 
 considering that the 3^- per cents, have been unfairly dealt \vith 
 already, it might be desirable that these should be all transferred 
 to the last period ; that is, they should be changed into annuities 
 of 100 years, and my original proposition be confined to the 3 per 
 cent, stocks (including the South Sea). I believe further, that an 
 appeal to the patriotism of the holders of the National Debt, would 
 induce many to voluntarily convert their proportion into terminable 
 annuities, either as to time or number of lives they might feel an 
 interest in providing for. I would therefore advise you to give 
 them an opportunity of so doing, under a promise that a national 
 column, or trophy, should be erected, on which their names should 
 be inscribed, hi the order of the amount thus given up to the 
 nation.
 
 56 
 
 And now. Sir, for an elucidation of my motto, — 
 
 "What are the rights and what arc the mights of the discon- 
 tented classes in England at this epoch ?" 
 
 The rights are — a fair participation in the produce of their 
 labour. No small portion of your time ought to be addressed to 
 this subject. Such is the inherent spirit of justice in Englishmen, 
 that any thing tending to protect them will be sure to be sup- 
 ported by a large majority of even the present House of Com- 
 mons. I believe, after much reflection on the subject, that short- 
 ening the time they are obhged to work to earn their necessary 
 food, &c. is the first great step. This would be the most efi'ectual 
 way to protect their capital. Then might be instituted that, 
 which I fear is mere waste at present, a general national system 
 of education, the advantages and pleasures of which they would 
 have leisure to appreciate. Hard work one day, and cessation from 
 labour on the next, would not have the same effect. The time was 
 when the Spitalfields' weavers had leisure to cultivate their gardens 
 in the Hackney Road. Wherever practicable, the attaching a 
 garden to their cottages, would annihilate the gin palaces and 
 Chartism. I think it possible that some branches of our trade 
 would be lost by my proposal of short time, but they would be 
 well lost. Any business that will not yield a profit without such 
 incessant labour, would be well got rid of, even were the nation 
 at the expense of conveying the unemployed to a new country, 
 I fear also that, until the population of Ireland be raised in dignity, 
 you ^ight have some difficulty in carrying out this plan. Potato 
 wages must not be allowed to undersell that sustenance which the 
 English peasantry enjoyed until of late years. 
 
 The mights are the power of combination, either to cease work, 
 or to discontinue the use of taxed articles, either of which pro- 
 ceedings is inimical to the weU being of the country. There 
 never was a period that the middUng classes of England looked 
 on with so much sympathy, if not approval, as at the last out- 
 break ; and had not physical force Chartism mixed itself up with 
 it, it might not so easily have been put down. The signs of the 
 times most worthy a statesman's consideration are, the compara- 
 tive peaceableness of the people, and the consciousness of the 
 strength of their cause which this indicates. Earn for yourself. 
 Sir, that glorious motto, which is so unworthily attached to Pitt's 
 portrait in Windsor Castle, and you will have nothing to fear from 
 the labouring classes. 
 
 For my other motto, Sir, I have only to request you will imagine
 
 57 
 
 its sentiment to be addressed to you by our gracious Queen, firmly 
 believing tliat she is not l^eliiud anv previous queen in her wishes 
 for the welfare of her subjeets. 
 
 There we many classes of drones I have not named. Get some 
 clever statistical genius to analyze the income-tax returns, you 
 will there discover them ; and I think you will come to the con- 
 clusion, that having passed through the " golden age," the " iron 
 age," &c., we have at length attained the " parasitic age." .At 
 no period of the world's history were there so many people living 
 between the producer and consumer. You cannot fail to perceive 
 that, where there is a middle man, his interest is to make the pro- 
 ducer sell as cheap as he can, and the consumer buy as dear as he 
 can; and you will agree with me, that the^;«^?er money, hill system, 
 and double-commission agents are the most effective instruments 
 he could have to work with ; and as I find that Jews and Qua- 
 kers are the most prosperous people in these times, I infer that 
 their food is the poison of the productive classes. 
 
 Notliing will so effectually steady the supply and demand for 
 labour as returning to that state of cmTency which existed before 
 the Bank charter. No fear need be entertained that too many 
 factories will be xvoci up to follow any new branch of business. If 
 no bank, whether national, private, or joi7it stock, can have the 
 power of creating more money, they will have no inducement to 
 assist speculators in depriving an inventor of the just reward of 
 his ingenuity. It is the capital which oices 7io allegiance to the soil, 
 which is the bane of the industrious classes, by holding out the 
 false glare of fictitious wealth, by decoding them from steady 
 employment to the meretricious wages of an evanescent manufac- 
 ture. Would that these capitalists tcould take themselves off for 
 ever, and hajjpy would it have been for England if they had never 
 showed their faces in it. 
 
 I showed you in Civis that ])apcr money was of no service to 
 the productive classes, but indeed, an hindrance to the extension of 
 our trade. In this Letter I have been desirous of showing how 
 many families have been brought to ruin, that a few might be 
 aggrandized. I can Hken paper bankers to nothing so well as to 
 fishermen spreading their nets to catch fish, save that the former 
 are satisfied with one species, flats ; but unfortunately creduhty is 
 widely extended amongst mankind, and both men and fish are 
 entrapped by the ground being previously baited. You will ima- 
 gine that a considerably greater quantity of skill is required for 
 the nobler haul. 
 
 May I venture, before I conclude, to ask vou to condole with
 
 58 
 
 me under the following eircumstances. I have taken the pains to 
 wi-ite and publish a Letter, which in my conscience I believe to be 
 of as much importance to the welfare of my country as any I 
 ever read. I advertised it in all the London daily papers, (and 
 sent each of them a copy), as you may suppose at no trifling 
 expense. How many copies do you suppose have been sold of a 
 work bearing the express title for which the Atlas has offered 
 £100 rnrard P I have this day had the publisher's accovmt — just 
 Jive. But this is not all ; they will have a icritten anonymous essay. 
 Not above six people (all pledged to secrecy) know the author ; 
 and yet, because it is in print, I cannot compete for their prize, 
 although I feel sure I should win. 
 
 It appears to me that you have only one of two courses to 
 choose in regulating the money affairs of this country. Either 
 you must patronize the Attwood plan of inundating the country 
 with paper money, whereby you may render the pressure of the 
 national debt a flea-bite ; indeed, I can conceive that you might 
 drive the majority of the holders into the workhouse ; but this 
 must be accompanied by inconvertibility , and the starvation of all 
 that part of your population dependent upon your foreign trade : 
 or you must reduce your prices to a natural level, by a removal of 
 the unnatural pressure upon industry which I have clearly pointed 
 out in Civis. I fear that a reiteration of my opinion as to the best 
 course, would not weigh a feather in your determination ; but I 
 must caution you not to imagine you can leave things as they are. 
 
 In all probability, Sir, this is my last efixision as a public writer. 
 I have for many years anticipated your present condition ; but I 
 have had experience enough of the world to know that it is useless 
 to point to the coming storm whilst the wind is fair ; but I have 
 just shown you, that even when the sails were taken aback, only 
 five out of the largest crew that were ever embarked in the same 
 vessel, have shown any disposition to know what ought to be done 
 to save the ship from ivreck. You have in these Letters a very 
 imperfectly expressed result of some practical experience of the 
 matters on which thev treat, not unalloyed with personal suffering 
 from my practical ignorance in commencing business ; indeed, it 
 took me much time to comprehend the ramified machinery of the 
 paper-money transactions of this metropolis. I unhesitatingly 
 affiiTn that a mere theoretical writer is as ignorant as a sucking 
 babe as to how " these things are managed." 
 
 I am, for the reasons set forth in these pamphlets, an indubitable 
 Radical. I never did, and probably never shall, set any value on 
 a man except for his intrinsic worth. Wc arc the creatures of
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 IIIIIIIIP i|'M||i||'|ITi|TT"|| 
 
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 circumstances ; and had I been bom an aristocrat, I might have 
 had very diftercnt ideas. I ahvavs felt that I could stand strais^ht 
 in tlie presence of a great man ; — a larger proportion of my life has 
 been passed in the presence of mv fellow men than usually falls to 
 one's lot ; — there is not the mortal breathing whose eye I should 
 be afraid to meet. If, then, I choose to veil my features, it can- 
 not be from any fear of meeting the public gaze. I declare, in the 
 face of my country, that my motive in writing is the jmhJic good, 
 and I fancy that I give a proof of my sincerity in adopting a 
 feigned signature. 
 
 Now, Sir, let me apologize for the length of this Letter. You 
 will be aware that I am seeking less to inform you than to en- 
 lighten my countrymen as to the causes of their difficulties ; but 
 the benefit will be yours, provided you have sufficient pubhc vir- 
 tue to carry out the reform indicated in it. We are sick and tired 
 of party, and willing to support any minister who will work for 
 our benefit. Every man who reads this will therefore be your 
 supporter. I shall not again apologize for my lack of abiht}' in 
 writing, yet I fully feel that the cause I advocate must suffer ma- 
 terially from it. 
 
 I have the honour to be. 
 Sir, 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 MILES. 
 October 29, 184-2. 
 
 PosTCRiPT. — Pressure of business at the printer's has delayed 
 the publication of this Letter : in the meantime I have been much 
 gratified to observe, that some of tiie subjects touched upon have 
 been taken up by the press. Witness the admirable Letters of 
 the Times on the way the assurance companies swindle the pubUc 
 through the agencies ; the noble manner the whole press have
 
 60 
 
 pounced upon the pretended Chancery reforms ; — the leading- 
 article of the Examiner of Nov. 12th finds a response in the 
 Iri^ast of every nian ;- — see also the exposure of the piece-work 
 shirt-making ; — the Globe and Post have entered on a contro- 
 versy on the necessity of protecting the wages of labour by legis- 
 lative enactment ; — the Times has given us some usefid informa- 
 tion on the turning" every man's credit into money in Scotland : — 
 besides, the only legitimate argument that might have been raised 
 against the publication of this Letter at the present time, namely, 
 the embarrassment of our foreign affairs, lias been upset by the 
 settlement of the Affghan and Chinese wars. 
 
 December 8, 1842. 
 
 J. Eve, Prhilcr, 8, Union Place, Lower Road, Islington-