THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 532 
 
 E><375 
 v. 25 
 
 ECONOMICS
 
 
 ■-. ■■■ mr 
 
 ■
 
 PETITION 
 
 / 
 
 HIS MAJESTY THE KING, 
 
 CURRENCY, OR STANDARD OF VALUE, 
 
 Connected — with Taxation — the Corn-laws — Free Trade — Existing Sufferings 
 among Manufacturing-Operatives — Trading Embarrassments generally — 
 Scarcity of Money — Low Prices — Great Injustice to Bankers — Risks and 
 Inconveniences occasioned to Bankers, from the present Monetary-System — 
 the Corn-Bill and Peel's Bill, collision of and violent counteraction between 
 them — Cobbett's Ignorance, False Statements, Ferocious Brutality, &c. 
 
 BY THE REV. RICHARD CRUTTWELL, 
 
 RECTOR OF SPEXHALL, SUFFOLK, 
 AMD AUTHOR OF VARIOUS PUBLICATIONS ON THE SAME SUBJECT. 
 
 HALESWORTH : PRINTED BY T. TIPPELL. 
 HATCHARD AND SON, BOOKSELLERS, PICCADILLY 
 
 1827.
 
 
 ^i^A 
 
 THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. 
 
 The humble Petition of Richard Cruttwell, 
 Clerk, Bachelor of Civil Law, and Rector of 
 Spexhall, in the County of Suffolk — 
 
 SHEWETH : 
 
 X hat your Majesty's petitioner having devoted up- 
 wards of ten years to a minute, critical, and impar- 
 tial investigation of the State of the Currency, as 
 closely connected with most of the embarrassments 
 — public and private — agricultural as well as com- 
 mercial, with which the country has been, and still 
 continues to be, afflicted ; and after having, in the 
 mean time, repeatedly but in vain endeavoured, in 
 the most earnest and respectful manner, to submit 
 the result of his patient and persevering labours to 
 the proper official authorities, by whom ( he regrets 
 to say ) they have been uniformly treated with the 
 most cold and offensive disdain ; he at length feels 
 himself both in Loyalty and Christian Duty called 
 upon, to offer to your Majesty's gracious considera- 
 tion, the following representations: the whole of 
 which, he pledges himself to be able to verify by the 
 clearest and most satisfactory reasons. 
 
 First — That at the close of the late war, the cur- 
 rency of England — measuring all contracts (all 
 burthens ) was, from the actual and unavoidable 
 "-^circumstances of the country, in a state of just and 
 2l necessary " depreciation," at and after the rate of 5Q 
 ^ per cent. 
 
 ~Xt 
 
 m
 
 Second — That principally by the spontaneous 
 and uncontrollable influence of the principle of 
 Free Trade — our intercourse being re-opened with 
 the continent, such currency very soon acquired a 
 virtual increase of value, at the rate of about 33^ 
 per cent : thereby deranging and unsettling every 
 subsisting contract, so that the whole solid and sub- 
 stantial wealth of the kingdom immediately became 
 subject — in respect of all persons having money-de- 
 mands upon the same, whatever was the nature, 
 amount, or description of such demands, to a posi- 
 tive loss of real and productive value, equal to the 
 said rate of 33^ per cent. 
 
 Third — That viewing money in its true and legi- 
 timate character, as the " sign " or representative of 
 property — designed, by the concurrent consent and 
 agreement as well of nations as individuals, to act 
 as the general " standard" or measure of value of all 
 descriptions of property, whether in tale or in bulk 
 or in weight, usually under the expressed or implied 
 guarantee and protection of Government ; it there- 
 upon became the bounden duty of Ministers, to de- 
 vise some speedy and effectual remedy for the above 
 so outrageously crying and destructive an evil. 
 
 Fourth — That notwithstanding, for a long time, 
 the most positive denial was verbally given to the 
 existence of such fact — namely, the M depreciation" 
 of English money, and which, for many reasons, 
 could not and ought not but to have so existed ; the 
 Government of this country did, with as much con- 
 venient speed as may be, practically recognize and 
 legislatively adopt the above principle, of applying a 
 " remedy " for the same : that is, they enacted a corn- 
 bill, which (if fully operative, in raising the price of 
 wheat to 80s. a quarter — barring its injurious ten-
 
 3 
 
 dency in many other respects, especially as regards 
 manufactures designed for exportation) would have 
 gone the beneficial length of bringing back the cur- 
 rency (increasing its nominal quantity) to some- 
 where about its previous rate of depreciation — re- 
 ducing burthens accordingly, and thence affording a 
 great degree of partial relief; though still leaving 
 it's mischief quite unabated, as concerns that im- 
 portant branch of our manufacturing community 
 engaged in fabricating wares meant to be exported. 
 Fifth — That for many reasons, however, which 
 might easily be assigned, your Majesty's petitioner 
 was at that time deeply impressed with a conviction, 
 that such anticipated relief could not be permanent- 
 ly obtained, through the proposed channel of a corn- 
 bill — not even to the " agricultural " classes them- 
 selves, apparently most interested in its adoption ; 
 in which opinion, he is fully borne out by the fact — 
 after eleven years' woeful experience, with the ruin 
 of thousands and tens of thousands of most useful 
 and industrious individuals, that instead of securing 
 a permanent price of 80s. a-quarter, the average 
 price of wheat — exclusive of all intermediate disad- 
 vantages of a money-standard constantly " fluctu- 
 ating " in value, is found not to have exceeded Fifty- 
 Seven Shillings and Sixpence : thus occasioning, or 
 at least leaving without remedy, a defalcation in the 
 former amount of our current-circulation — as com- 
 pared with burthens resting upon property, equal 
 to twenty-two millions and a half deducted from 
 eighty millions ; being a loss yearly of rather more 
 than ^£28 per cent, from the real intrinsic value of 
 landed and most other kinds of property — subject 
 to money-charges and deductions of whatever de- 
 scription : such loss however, first chief! v affixing 
 
 b2
 
 itself to those useful and industrious capitalists — our 
 more scientific and enterprising Jhrmers ; thence de- 
 pressing trade, with the value and demand for ma- 
 nual labour, in an equal degree. 
 
 Sixth — That your Majesty's petitioner did, at 
 that time (in the year 1815), and repeatedly has 
 done so since, endeavour in the most earnest and 
 respectful manner to remonstrate with certain of 
 your Majesty's Ministers, with a view to apprize 
 them of the nature and extent of the evil against 
 which they had to contend ; as likewise to guard 
 them against the exceeding risk (or rather, certainty 
 of mischief) they were about to incur, by attempting 
 to check so vast an evil as the one above-described, 
 upon the principle of again forcing-up prices artifi- 
 cially, to meet our then amount of war-burthens ; in- 
 stead of so reducing the nominal or paper-money 
 standard as would have brought down, at the same 
 instant, all those burthens upon property of every de- 
 scription (debts, rents, taxes, rates, wages, &c.) all 
 equally alike, to any assumed low standard of price — 
 say 40a*. the quarter of wheat, as measured in ster- 
 ling-gold : which, while it would have restored the 
 lost equilibrium in the respective and relative values 
 of all incomes by a true gold-standard of property, 
 would thus have given all our merchants and manu- 
 facturers a decided command of competition in eve- 
 ry market of the world, by reducing all the prices of 
 our exportable manufactured goods (at the same 
 time, without affecting " profit ") at least 50 per cent : 
 ensuring to English corn-growers the same rate of 
 profit from wheat at forty shillings a-quarter, as 
 eighty shillings would now afford — burthens remain- 
 ing as they are : fixing the currency on a solid and 
 sterling- basis of gold-values — completely refuting
 
 the idle and weak and mischievous prognostications 
 of those, who deny the compatibility and ultimate 
 security of a paper-circulation — not, at the very in- 
 stant possibly, "convertible into gold" — since, if 
 paper (the aggregate amount of circulation) were 
 placed, as in this case it would be, on the stability 
 and real gold-value of property, it would, to all use- 
 ful intents and purposes, be of equal value with 
 gold itself — indeed, far more so (both in point of 
 cheapness and utility) as a common medium of com- 
 mercial-interchange, under our own just and effec- 
 tive government (barring its present unlucky over- 
 sight), unquestionably conferring the freest and best 
 institutions of any country in the world: likewise 
 giving to the whole of our home-trade new elasti- 
 city and vigour, from the facilities which land-own- 
 ers and their numerous dependants would thence 
 obtain, of expending as heretofore for the benefit of 
 trade generally ; the wise order of a merciful Pro- 
 vidence being such, that our various wants and con- 
 veniences should be mutual and correlative, in pro- 
 moting industry and comfort and contentment (such 
 order, not being unnaturally checked by the incau- 
 tious precipitancy of some few narrow-minded head- 
 strong individuals) throughout the whole range and 
 extent of civil society; thus combining and consoli- 
 dating all the advantages of Free-Trade on the one 
 hand, and all the advantages of a Corn-Restriction 
 on the other ; those who so anxiously encourage the 
 former system being quite unaware, that unless ac- 
 companied with such adjustment of the money-stand- 
 ard — reducing all burthens half, it would have the 
 effect of lessening prices, of diminishing the circula- 
 tion, and thereby of augmenting those burthens pro- 
 portionably ; amounting, in fact, to a revolutionary
 
 f> 
 
 confiscation, by slow degrees, of the entire produc- 
 tive wealth and property of the kingdom ; (all our 
 advocates for " free trade," strangely overlooking * 
 this greatly essential and most undeniable truth): 
 while it would also effectually have guarded all other 
 (the monled) classes, from the remotest possibility 
 of harm: previously to reduce burthens one-half 
 (opening the ports down to the price of 40s. the quar- 
 ter of wheat) being, to money-incomes expended at 
 home, the same thing as a doubling of prices artifi- 
 cially would amount to; the justness of which prin- 
 ciple (reducing burthens one-half — to double prices 
 and to reduce burthens being, in effect, the same 
 thing) stands clearly recognized and admitted by the 
 very spirit of the corn-bill ; though, in reality, it 
 would be more than tantamount to the very utmost 
 
 * I remember being very forcibly struck with an observation 
 made by a most intelligent London merchant ( Mr. Alderman 
 Waithman), at a meeting about a year ago at the City of London 
 Tavern, convened for the purpose of petitioning Parliament for a 
 " revision," in real truth — a " repeal " of the obnoxious corn-laws. 
 The worthy alderman expressed himself nearly thus: he should be 
 glad to know, upon what principle the restrictive-price on the im- 
 portation of foreign corn was extended — first, in 1804 "from 54s. 
 to 66s. and again in 1815, to 80s. a quarter? " Doubtless ( it might 
 have been answered), because of the rapid and enormous increase 
 of our national-burthens during the whole of that period : such 
 burthens causing a "depreciation" of our money- standard 50 per 
 cent. — the difference between 40s. the average gold-price of Eu- 
 rope, and the war-price of England measured in our own depreci- 
 ated paper. Let it not, however, be inferred from this, that I am 
 myself an advocate for the " restrictive " system ; which I hold to 
 be detestable, as most ruinous and destructive to our export-trade, 
 being one-fifth of the whole trade of England — nay, highly injuri- 
 ous to agriculture itself. All that I here mean to say, is this — let us 
 have "free trade," by all means ; but not, without an "adjustment 
 of the money-standard." If you do ( Mr. Alderman Waithman), 
 you will effectually ruin your own trade — in silks, cottons and linens.
 
 relief the " landed-interest " could derive, from the 
 most rigorous system of restriction they might wish 
 for, under the mistaken policy of the Corn -Laws. 
 
 Seventh — That taking our present amount of 
 Taxation at sixty millions a year, admitting also — 
 what cannot be denied, that a reduction in the price 
 of farm-produce at the rate of <^28 per cent, has of 
 necessity led to a reduction in the price of manu- 
 factured goods likewise — first in an equal, subse- 
 quently in a much greater degree; since the trader 
 could not receive from the agriculturist, more than 
 prices — compared with burthens, fairly allowed the 
 latter to expend: it follows, that the loss, may it please 
 your Majesty, first attaching to the farmer would 
 quickly communicate itself to at least four-fifths* 
 of our traders and manufacturers, leaving their 
 burthens likewise relatively increased — in respect of 
 taxes only, at and after the rate of £28 per cent. 
 So that, if we suppose, what would most probably 
 (nay, inevitably) take place, that all our manufac- 
 turers would naturally strive to relieve their embar- 
 rassments — so seen to be produced, by increasing the 
 amount of their productions accordingly (so many 
 more goods, and so many more days' manual labour, 
 now requiring to be sold, to make-up for the " defi- 
 ciency " in the amount of the circulation) we readily 
 account — not only, for that excessive increase of " ma- 
 chinery," against which it is not uncommon to hear 
 the most severe ~\- and uncharitable censures ; but 
 also, for a very large portion of that " forced" trade 
 
 * The proportion, which our foreign or export trade bears to the 
 whole trade of the country, being usually considered as about one 
 to four. 
 
 f I lately heard a highly respectable and humane person say, 
 that he thought "the manufacturers richly merited all their suffer-
 
 8 
 
 —upon the glut of goods, thus unnaturally forced 
 into being (the supply thence greatly exceeding the 
 demand); and of those often wild and unprofitable 
 " speculations," in many ways — all obviously result- 
 ing from such contractive action upon the currency, 
 produced in the manner and working to the extent, 
 which I am here comprehensively endeavouring to 
 describe. For, by calculating the defalcation of 
 our currency, by a fall of prices — for eleven years 
 together, at <£28 per cent, being at the rate of 
 ^22,500,000 a year, compared with taxes alone, we 
 demonstrate a total loss to the industry of the coun- 
 try — and that, from inadequacy of relief meant to 
 be afforded by the corn-bill, equal to 22 § millions 
 multiplied by eleven : giving Two Hundred and 
 Forty Millions Five Hundred Thousand Pounds, in 
 explanation of that enormous mass of bankruptcy, 
 ruin, distress, pining-wretchedness and discontent — 
 nay, of almost positive starvation amongst the ope- 
 rative classes, which, in manufacturing districts es- 
 pecially, presses, at this very moment, upon swarms 
 of your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal subjects ; 
 and, more or less so, in almost every corner of your 
 Majesty's dominions.* Indeed, taking into account 
 
 ings, by reason of their mad extension of machinery, so over-in- 
 creasing goods beyond their ordinary demand." There are few 
 persons who do not make the same mistake, of invariably confound- 
 ing cause with effect. 
 
 * Since the above was written, I have received a printed circular 
 from the "London Committee for Relief of Distressed Manufactu- 
 rers, " containing extracts from forty different letters transmitted 
 from various parts of the country, and all describing such a picture 
 of wretchedness, misery, want and privation, as I believe never be- 
 fore existed under this or any other established government, in the 
 history of the known world. Much credit is, no doubt, due to the 
 laudable endeavours of kind and benevolent individuals, wishing to
 
 9 
 
 the further effect of such diminished amount of our 
 circulating-medium or currency, by attempting to 
 
 alleviate human suffering, existing under such a variety of compli- 
 cated and terrific forms. But, most respectfully and earnestly 
 would I wish to impress it on the minds of the excellent Commit- 
 tee, that very little (if any) positive good can, in a national point 
 of view, be effected through such means as they are here most hu- 
 manely and honorably striving to promote. The sufferings of these 
 poor manufacturers arise, in the first place, from a greatly lessened 
 demand for the fabrics and wares which they have been severally 
 accustomed to produce. Now, supposing the generality of man- 
 kind to expend their incomes, from whose contributions the Com- 
 mittee might hope to furnish a temporary and, at best, scanty re- 
 lief ; then, I should greatly incline to believe, that the good produ- 
 ced by it, beyond the very moment, on the one hand, is certainly 
 counteracted by a corresponding mischief produced by it on the 
 other. If, for example, a person ordinarily expends a hundred a- 
 year, a great part of such sum, passing through a variety of hands 
 (all more or less benefited by its use), sooner or later, finds its way 
 into all the different channels of productive industry, in the pur- 
 chase of such and such wares, as suit the use and convenience of 
 consumers generally. If, on the other hand, that person subscribes 
 ten pounds out of such hundred towards assisting the funds of the 
 Committee, it is clear he can afterwards expend only ninety to go in 
 purchase of such wares, instead of a hundred as he would have 
 done in the former case. It therefore appears to me, to amount (at 
 best) to nothing more than a mere question of comparative useful- 
 ness — as to which of the two acts, of so purchasing or so giving 
 (both, indeed, may be called giving — giving for a return of labour, or 
 giving for no return of labour) were likely to prove most beneficial ? 
 But if, from whatever cause arising, such hundred pounds of in- 
 come had previously been reduced to fifty — or rather, to put the 
 matter in a still stronger light, if the incomes of two-thirds of all 
 the consumers in England (the currency being contracted in that 
 proportion) are reduced £28 per cent, and that, for eleven years 
 together ; it will be easy to conceive, that an effect precisely similar 
 to the one seen above will inevitably take place, and go on increasing, 
 year by year, so long as the main operative cause shall continue to 
 exist : there will necessarily be a diminished and further diminishing 
 demand for all these manufactured wares, by the fabrication of 
 which so many thousand families used to be comfortably and use- 
 fully supported. Now this, I say, is the very circumstance producing 
 the evil so much and so deservedly to be deplored — and, if possible,
 
 10 
 
 restore the old and virtually long-exploded metallic- 
 standard upon the basis of our subsequently depre- 
 ciated paper-standard, measuring all burthens — 
 
 requiring to be speedily and effectually relieved. But, what are fifty 
 or a hundred thousand pounds so subscribed to do, in making up for 
 the deficiency of perhaps five times as many millions ? I say, to this 
 latter relief, are such poor entitled — upon every sound principleof re- 
 ligion of law and of equity — of Right, not Favour ! There are two 
 ways by which a person's calculations, on any given subject — may, 
 by experience which seldom errs, be proved to have been either 
 correct or otherwise. Thus, if one says — " If you do so and so, 
 such and such mischiefs will follow ; " and, so and so being done, 
 such and such mischiefs take place accordingly ; then, the inference 
 is not unreasonable, that such person's calculations are founded on 
 some true principle : and, not less true, because the generality of 
 men pay little or no attention to what he says. Again, if a person 
 cautions another against doing such a thing, and recommends rather 
 the doing of some other thing, as a means of preventing mischief 
 — that second thing being done, and such mischief not taking 
 place, would also furnish a strong presumption, that such advice so 
 taken, was actually sound and wholesome advice. In the year 1815, 
 I first began to write on the subject of agricultural distress : the 
 manufacturers were then still in a state, highly flourishing. I then 
 ascertained by patient and indefatigable reflection, what in parlia- 
 ment has never once been mentioned till within the last year or two, 
 that a '* contraction " of the currency was then going on, to a most 
 enormous and ruinous extent. I also said, " if you do not do so 
 " and so — bring down your burthens accordingly, by altering the 
 " standard of your money to suit these new and unexpected cir- 
 " cumstances, you will lead to such a train of mischievous and 
 " horribly destructive consequences, as will go well-nigh towards 
 " starving a great part of your labouring — and especially, your ma- 
 " nufacturing population." Is this prognostication realized, or is it 
 not? Instead of "altering" the currency to meet the evil, we 
 "fixed" the currency to confirm the evil. Here lies the great mis- 
 take. Some of my earliest Tracts are re-inserted in my Treatise 
 on the Currency, published two years ago. Those who are disposed 
 to look into them, may judge of the general accuracy of my rea- 
 sonings, by comparing them with facts which now appal every 
 feeling and reflecting mind. Those writings were first ridiculed, and 
 afterwards neglected. Let England look — nor is that all ! with sor- 
 row, shame, and remorse, to the present wretched and deplorable 
 state of her manufacturing poor.
 
 11 
 
 applying the foregoing principle to all private trans- 
 actions (rents, mortgages, settlements under wills, 
 &c.) it can hardly be conceived, that a less amount 
 of mischief will thereupon likewise have accrued : 
 and consequently, during the short period of only 
 eleven years — the evil being still in full, active, pro- 
 gressive and even augmented operation, the amount, 
 at this time, of real capital thus forcibly expelled 
 from all the various channels of productive industry 
 (acting, indeed, with more intensity on some indivi- 
 duals than others) falls very little short of Five Hun- 
 dred Millions ; through, as it were, a sort of regu- 
 lar course of parliamentary and legal confiscation. 
 
 Eighth — That your Majesty's petitioner, having 
 now for near twelve years together, vainly endea- 
 voured to direct the minds of Ministers to a due 
 regard of the above tremendous facts — of which, 
 may it please your Majesty, there is every reason 
 for supposing, they have never yet allowed themselves 
 to be more than most imperfectly and inadequately 
 informed ; did next earnestly seek, with no better 
 success, to apprize them of the exceeding hazard 
 they were about to run — when in 1819, a Bill was 
 brought into Parliament, under the avowed sanction 
 and approval of Ministers, for the purpose of enforc- 
 ing gold-payments, at the par of c£3 : 17 : 10j to the 
 ounce of gold ; such law being fully to take effect, 
 after a given time, through some very insignificant 
 and trifling gradations : Ministers thus shewing 
 themselves wholly unconscious — that by the corn-bill 
 enacted in 1815, they had, by giving countenance 
 to that same law, at least tacitly renounced such 
 "gold-standard" — had virtually acknowledged the 
 u depreciation" of paper (measuring all debts), by 
 the rate of 50 per cent. — nay more, had so far sue-
 
 12 
 
 ceeded in restoring and bringing-back such currency 
 (paper) to its former state of just depreciation, in 
 respect of debts, rents, taxes, and so forth — so far 
 (only) as the price of 57s. 6d. the quarter of wheat 
 (by the imperfect operation of the corn-bill) did, not- 
 withstanding, exceed the supposed average continen- 
 tal gold-price — say 40s ; and which, but for such 
 corn-bill and such burthens, it may fairly be pro- 
 nounced, our own wheat would not have averaged — 
 nor indeed require to have averaged, upon the propo- 
 sal of reducing burthens 50 per cent. And further, I 
 would dutifully call your Majesty's royal attention 
 to the fact — that, a few years ago, when Lord King 
 moved the House of Lords to deny (in effect) the 
 principle of the " depreciation " of money, propos- 
 ing (if I mistake not) to compel his own tenantry 
 to pay their Rents in coins of the old gold-standard, 
 their Lordships with great judgment and wisdom re- 
 fused to sanction the proposal: thereby plainly recog- 
 nizing the truth — that, even then, to restore the old 
 and virtually long-exploded gold-standard, would 
 be both useless and unsafe ; and, since which time, 
 the objection applies much more strongly, by reason 
 of the great increase of burthens subsequently im- 
 posed. There is, however, this one thing to be great- 
 ly wondered at and regretted, on the part of their 
 Lordships — their having tacitly rescinded the former 
 resolution, by giving sanction to the enactment of 
 Mr. Peel's bill : thereby, most unintentionally (I 
 would humbly presume) doubling the weight of 
 " their own " burthens, at the expence of the general 
 industry and productive wealth of the country. 
 
 Ninth — That by this last enactment of Mr. Peel's 
 bill, in 1819 — not only were the foregoing evils per- 
 petuated, and in a manner set upon the footing and
 
 13 
 
 basis of law — thus enacting two laws, the corn-bill 
 and Peel's bill, in open collision and direct counter- 
 action one of the other ; but a foundation was like- 
 wise laid, for a vast increase and augmentation there- 
 of: that law, by its most unjust and cruel severity, 
 as affecting " Bankers," having a powerful tendency 
 to cause a still further contraction of the currency, 
 to an exceedingly injurious and fatal extent. As, for 
 example: twenty millions of quarters of wheat (in- 
 cluding other things equivalent to wheat), are sup- 
 posed about equal to one year's English consump- 
 tion ; this, under the full operation of the corn-bill 
 passed in 1815 — at 80*. a quarter, would call 
 into action eighty millions of currency — rendered 
 available, if at all existing, chiefly through the be- 
 neficial aid afforded by country-bank-notes ; and 
 which would thence have gone in discharge of eighty 
 millions of burthens, promoting accordingly the 
 employment of a very large proportion of our labour- 
 ing population — at present, vastly short of work. 
 Your Majesty will have seen, however, a deficiency 
 of such currency produced, equal to twenty-two 
 millions and a half yearly, upon an average of price 
 for eleven years together. But calculating the ave- 
 rage foreign gold-price of wheat, at not more than 
 40*. a quarter — even supposing the whole year's con- 
 sumption of English wheat to be sold to foreigners 
 (not wanting it) , and paid for in sterling-gold — which 
 must be the case, to give full effect to the intended 
 operation of Mr. Peel's bill, though at the moral 
 certainty of starving half the population ; still, such 
 twenty millions of quarters of wheat — waiving all 
 insuperable difficulties in the way of so procuring 
 gold and afterwards in retaining it, could yet no how 
 be supposed to command more than forty millions of
 
 14 
 
 such gold, to meet eighty millions of paper-obliga- 
 tions — so first proposed to be created, from the anti- 
 cipated operation of a corn-bill. In fact, a twentieth 
 part of such gold required, may it please your Ma- 
 jesty, could not possibly be procured. Notwithstand- 
 ing which, however, as the law now stands — under 
 the existence of Mr. Peel's bill, bankers are liable 
 to answer the whole amount of their notes — issued, 
 your Majesty will graciously please to observe, if at 
 all existing, under the implied faith of a former act 
 of parliament — the afore-mentioned corn-bill, in a 
 gold-medium, here forcibly and by law rendered of 
 at least twice their former intrinsic value : and 
 that, in effect, were such law to become rigidly en- 
 forced — in direct " violation " of the spirit of the 
 corn-bill, not only to the inevitable ruin of every 
 banker in England — compelled (were the thing pos- 
 sible) to pay four sovereigns, upon a creation of pa- 
 per signs intrinsically worth only two sovereigns — 
 the real gold-price of wheat ; to the total annihilation 
 (for a time, at least) of all money and credit from 
 circulation — a specimen of which, indeed, was seen 
 last year, during only the short season of " panic ;" 
 but leading, moreover, to a complete subversion of 
 every thing like property and justice and law and re- 
 ligion, in the kingdom : breaking down the security 
 of every landed-estate — ruining landlords and far- 
 mers and merchants and traders, by wholesale ; and 
 thence driving the poorer classes, may it please your 
 Majesty, as their last sad alternative from starvation, 
 to commit the most lawless and atrocious crimes : 
 the duty of the people and the existence of the peo- 
 ple, thus resting on the " infraction" or " evasion " 
 of a most solemn deliberative act of your Majesty's 
 government! Your Majesty will graciously conde-
 
 15 
 
 sccnd to believe, that this delineation is not over- 
 charged: such would be the absolutely inevitable re- 
 sult of that most dangerous, iniquitous, and cruellnw 
 — Peel's bill (barring always the intention of those 
 who framed it), were it not for the wise (uncon- 
 scious) forbearance of the many, to the timid igno- 
 rance of the blind and infatuated few. And yet (to 
 shew your Majesty how utterly this great subject 
 has been neglected or misapprehended by Ministers 
 — or rather, not by Ministers only but generally the 
 wJiole country), no longer ago than last February, 
 did the Right Honorable Mr. Secretary Canning 
 come down to the House of Commons, making 
 this querulous and puerile report — That " accounts 
 " have reached His Majesty's Ministers from many 
 " parts of the country, that many of the country- 
 " bankers, in violation of the good faith which per- 
 " sons in their situation ought to keep with the pub- 
 " lie, and in complete forgetfulness or perhaps ig- 
 " norance of their own interests, have begun to act 
 " upon the principle of a sudden contraction of the 
 " currency." calling that, may it please your Majes- 
 ty, a "sudden" contraction, which has now been in 
 slow, progressive operation — subject, indeed, to ma- 
 ny intermediate alternations of high and low prices 
 (there being nothing\\ke a "fixed money-standard," 
 during the whole of that time) nearly for a period 
 of twelve years together. But even granting that 
 " Bankers " did, at that time particularly, shew a 
 desire to contract or draw-in their issues (the charge 
 against them, being sometimes that of " contract- 
 ing," at others of "forcing" their issues, unduly — 
 the utter senselessness of one being fully equal to 
 that of the other : ) How, may it please your Ma- 
 jesty, were they possibly to act otherwise ? They were
 
 16 
 
 first inveigled (led) into a belief — blindly relying on 
 the letter of a law, professing to be able to create 
 an eighty-shilling price on a quarter of wheat (the 
 principle applying equally to other things as well 
 as to wheat), the intrinsic gold-value of which would 
 not exceed forty shillings : they had next been 
 thrown under the operation of another law, which 
 virtually said — ' If you have incautiously confided 
 in the operation of a corn-bill ' — a solemn Act of 
 Parliament ! ( so attempting artificially to double 
 c prices — thereby, depreciating money so much ; you 
 c shall now rue the Jolly of doing so, in being made 
 c liable to pay, for every two sovereigns' worth of your 
 ' own paper — representing wheat, four sovereigns ' 
 c worth of sterling and solid gold ! ' And this, may it 
 please your Majesty, is the true and unquestionable 
 footing, on which all the property of all the Bank- 
 ers and all the property of all the people of England 
 now stands — in respect of taxes and other fixed bur- 
 thens, by the possible operation of Mr. Peel's bill ; 
 according as ignorance or timidity or avarice or ca- 
 price — goaded by revolutionary malignity,* might 
 (at any moment) happen to strike the public mind, 
 in working destruction to bankers as well as to the 
 community. The safety of England, may it please 
 your Majesty — England, which has conquered and 
 may again conquer and dictate virtuous laws to the 
 world, is the safety (under the possible operation of 
 
 * Will the public have forgotten the behaviour of a certain indi- 
 vidual, which took place at Norwich last year ? The good effect of 
 " rook-killing" was then too fresh, to leave much relish for any re- 
 petition of the same kind of sport. The despicable mountebank 
 and his titled fool, retired amidst the scorn and execration of every 
 person possessing a scale of intellect any thing above that of a 
 woman standing at her wash- tub.
 
 Mr. Peel's bill) of a man sleeping- on the edge of a 
 smoking volcano. In one respect, it is well for En- 
 glishmen, that they have cdvendyjelt the scorching 1 
 close beneath their feet : a momentary explosion 
 might otherwise up-root the throne, burying that 
 and the constitution in one smouldering- mass of 
 ruin. 'Tis true, Bankers did then, for the first time, 
 " begin " to open their eyes to the full extent of the 
 danger both to themselves and the country. They 
 saw, that unless they did cautiously recede from the 
 error into which Ministers had led them and the 
 country, their own ruin was inevitable — or, at least, 
 highly possible ; they saw, that unless they refrained 
 from so receding- altogether — still giving- some tri- 
 fling effect to the " beneficial " operation of the corn- 
 bill, the sufferings of the country would almost infi- 
 nitely increase. They did therefore, in part, what 
 all other persons placed " in their situations " would 
 have been fully justified in doing 1 , seek their own 
 necessary safety : acting, at the same time, the part 
 of wise and honorable and just and patriotic men 
 — I speak of the Bank of England, as well as of all 
 other Bankers ; doing the very utmost which the 
 law still left them the power of doing, in preventing- 
 any further aggravation of those recent evils — 
 through wounds first inflicted on themselves, not at 
 all occasioned by their " ignorance," by their " for- 
 getfulness," by their "breach of faith," — by their 
 "contraction of the currency" — further, than as 
 having been (in common with thousands and tens 
 of thousands besides themselves) innocent and un- 
 suspecting victims of two contradictory and oppos- 
 ing Acts of Parliament — virtually pronouncing, that 
 in the act of making and fulfilling contracts, forty 
 shillings and eighty shillings are one and the same 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 specific sum. They even further saw, may it graci- 
 ously please your Majesty, that having been so de- 
 ceived and deluded by the errors and perverse obsti- 
 nacy of Ministers, those very Ministers were the 
 most violently unjust to calumniate and accuse them, 
 at the very instant of " panic," when the measures 
 they were themselves pursuing, absolutely caused the 
 evil of which they then complained. If the cruelty 
 of conduct such as this, towards men of upright 
 and strictly honorable feelings, to whose beneficial 
 services the country has stood and ever must stand 
 (to stand at all !) most deeply indebted — men, sore- 
 ly smarting from errors, in which Mr. Canning at 
 least bore a part : If, may it please your Majesty, 
 any sort of palliation or excuse could be assigned for 
 it ; it would be that nameless something, which 
 prompted a Minister of Mr. Canning's pre-eminent 
 abilities, to declare exultingly to the country, only a 
 very short time before — actually, when nothing was 
 effected in the way of " relief" — nothing done, be- 
 yond a bare confirmation of all the evils before de- 
 scribed — that " the Currency-Question was set at 
 rest for ever ! " So, when on a very recent occasion 
 (the 21st of November last), His Grace the Duke of 
 Buckingham, alluding to the distresses of the coun- 
 try, gave it as his opinion in the House of Lords, 
 that " nothing had led to those distresses but the 
 " state of the currency," being convinced that " to 
 " that alone were their Lordships to look for the 
 " real cause of the evil ;" the Earl of Liverpool, 
 * blinking ' the subject altogether, barely contented 
 himself with this vague reply — that, " with respect 
 " to the Currency, he differed entirely in opinion 
 *' with his Grace the Duke of Buckingham." Also 
 last year, when a " deputation " was appointed to
 
 19 
 
 wait on Mr Peel, from a large manufacturing- town 
 (Frome) in Somersetshire, representing to him the 
 " very depressed state of their trade," and " praying 
 for relief " — that Right Honourable Gentleman's re- 
 ply amounted simply to this : that he was " quite 
 " suprized to hear of any distress, among manufac- 
 " turers in the west of England ;" and holding out 
 to them, accordingly, " no sort of hope beyond that 
 " which time and patience might afford." Now, may 
 it please your Majesty, had Mr. Peel wisely conde- 
 scended to listen to the intimations of real friends, 
 he would " long ago " have learned that which he 
 does not yet appear to have discovered, from the re- 
 flections of his own mind — the obviously mischievous 
 tendency of his own ill-advised Bill : from which 
 he could not but have known, that "distress" must 
 exist, as well " among manufacturers in the West of 
 England" as at Manchester, at Bolton, at Stock- 
 port — and, more or less so, in all other places. For, 
 there is a defect and a rottenness in our present cur- 
 rency-system, to which it will be well for Mr. Peel, 
 with all his talent and high integrity, to be able to 
 write himself — " harmless," in the severe scrutiny 
 the country is yet entitled to expect at his hands. 
 Mr. Huskisson's unhappy inconsistency is also no 
 less remarkable: having at one period, under cir- 
 cumstances precisely similar, shown himself a stre- 
 nuous advocate of the " restrictive " system — at ano- 
 ther of that of " free-trade ;"* in both cases, leaving 
 
 * Since the restriction has been taken from the importation of 
 foreign wool, it has been stated, that during a given period, the 
 quantity imported has increased from four millions to forty millions 
 of pounds — or, ten-fold. The consequence of this, to our wool- 
 growers (whose " rents" are not at all considered by the new re- 
 gulation), staplers, Scc.has been ruinous in the extreme ; affording 
 
 c 2
 
 20 
 
 wholly untouched that ' key-string ' of discord— a vi- 
 tiated, unjust^ and ever-fluctuating money-standard., 
 
 nothing like an adequate compensation to our clothiers — whose 
 trade remains dreadfully depressed, by reason of the contractive ac- 
 tion upon the currency, which continues increasing rather than 
 otherwise, rendering all " returns " in trade generally, languid and 
 dull in a proportionate degree. So also, in the silk-trade. By tak- 
 ing off the restriction on foreign silks imported, I have been told, 
 a piece of Bandana India-Handkerchiefs may be purchased at the 
 Company's sales, for about seventeen or eighteen shillings. A Spi- 
 tal-fields manufacturer cannot afford — paying his work-people a 
 corn-bill-price for labour, a piece of English-made goods of equal 
 quality, for less than fifty-six or fifty-seven shillings. See then, the 
 effect of this new half-system of "free-trade" upon our own mas- 
 ter-manufacturers, throwsters, &c. and upon all their numerous de- 
 pendants. And such, or even still worse, would be the effect of 
 opening the corn-trade, unaccompanied with that change in the 
 money-standard which should reduce rents and all other burthens, 
 in a just and equitable proportion. ' But, what then ? ' say our blind 
 advocates for indiscriminate free-trade ; ' Are we never to have the 
 benefit of a more enlarged and liberal policy ? ' Yes, most assured- 
 ly we are : but not before that period arrives, when, by a " regula- 
 tion of the money-standard," all burthens as well as prices shall be 
 equally reduced. The contrary, indeed — which we are now pursu- 
 ing, has only this effect — of giving a decidedly increased and most 
 unjust advantage to all money-incomes (beyond what they unduly 
 possessed before), to the consequent ruin and starvation of our tra- 
 ding-capitalists, their mechanics, and artizans. Let us have " free- 
 trade," I fully repeat : but let all parties " start fair ;" if Mr. Hus- 
 kisson so pleases. Do not, however, affect liberality — or rather, 
 act with our eyes blind-folded, towards one class only — the compa- 
 ratively idle and inactive capitalists ; to the inevitable impoverish- 
 ment and literal starvation of the active and industrious ones. 
 
 fpf* The " miscreant " — Cobbett, who seldom meddles with a 
 thing unless it be for purposes of mischief, pretends to say, that he 
 has fully demonstrated the injustice and impracticability of what 
 he calls "The-Little-Shilling " project. I will merely assert, by the 
 way, that he has never yet adduced a single reason in support of his 
 assertion, worth one farthing ; and further, that all his pretended 
 deductions, are derived from false and unfounded premises of his 
 own creating — absolutely known by himself, to be scandalously false 
 and unfounded ; and which he, further knew, could by no possibility
 
 21 
 
 whose every alternate breathing wafts equal destruc- 
 tion to agriculture and to commerce — thus c pitted/ 
 in complete hostile and invidious array, one against 
 another. In the House of Commons too, early in 
 the late Session, when one honourable member (Sir 
 Thomas Lethbridge), referring to the depressed state 
 of agriculture, happened to mention the word " cur- 
 rency," he was at the instant tartly interrupted by 
 Mr. Hume — declaring his " surprize," that that 
 word should " find admission into " a speech on the 
 subject of agricultural distress;" challenging all 
 present, to describe " any sort of analogy or connec- 
 " tion that subsisted between the two subjects." 
 Whereas, that same gentleman (Mr. Hume), so 
 lately as last November — 1826, appeals, of his own 
 free and voluntary accord, to the indisputable fact — 
 of their close and inseparable connection, as one chief 
 cause of the suffering with which the country was 
 afflicted. May it please your Majesty, the same 
 inconsistency — the same blindness — the same kind of 
 supine reluctance to receive and investigate the truth, 
 almost invariably displays itself, whenever your pe- 
 titioner has endeavoured to call attention from par- 
 liament-men, to a subject so vitally interesting as 
 the present, not more to their own true interests 
 than to those of the country at large. In the in- 
 stance of one county-member (conspicuous as an 
 " agricultural " member), after candidly acknow- 
 ledging that " he did not understand the Currency," 
 yet afterwards he most disingenuously declared — 
 
 have any other effect, than that of greatly aggravating (if attended 
 to) the country's embarrassments and sufferings. Beasts of prey, 
 snuff greedily the smell of carrion ! Of this, we shall see somewhat 
 more — hereafter.
 
 22 
 
 with reference to this particular branch of the sub- 
 ject, applied to trade and manufactures equally with 
 agriculture — that "he wished the word, political- 
 " economy, had never been heard of" Nay, a certain 
 peer (who must be nameless) adverting to the same 
 thing, had the indelicate and unfeeling- hardihood to 
 declare an opinion — the indecent terms of which, I 
 dare not allow myself to repeat to your Majesty ; 
 but which clearly bespoke his total apathy and in- 
 difference hereupon. And this, may it please your 
 Majesty, is the conduct of a nobleman, constitution- 
 ally vested with rank and local authority, that ren- 
 dered his duty imperative to take respectful cogni- 
 zance of a subject (as this is) most important and 
 interesting — to the best prospects of the country — 
 to the right anc? secure upholding of your Majesty's 
 crown and dignity — to the due preservation of your 
 sacred person, in the hearts of a grateful and loyal 
 people. And yet, I myself heard this very noble- 
 man once declare — speaking of the national dis- 
 tresses, that he thought " the Currency was the occa- 
 " sion of every mischief." Neither are these over- 
 sights, and errors, and inconsistencies, confined to 
 high rank and distinguished birth : though among 
 the middling and humbler classes, I have seldom 
 found that density of feeling so usually to be re- 
 gretted in others, considered in the light of well- 
 educated men ; a thing, not altogether perhaps, over- 
 difficult to account for. If a "public meeting" is 
 called in the country, to "vote a petition to parlia- 
 ment to grant protection to agriculture ; " a person 
 wishing to show the tendency of our currency-re- 
 gulations to defeat, at the very outset, " the prayer 
 of such petition," he is instantly interrupted by 
 some one or two persons — it would seem (but for their
 
 23 
 
 known candour and high respectability), dreading" 
 the light of truth on a subject, of which — 'tis no 
 discredit to gentlemen to say, from having never 
 considered it, they literally know nothing. If a 
 meeting in London is called, to " vote against such 
 protection " being granted to agriculture — the evil 
 tendency of the Currency being still the same (mer- 
 chants and bankers and traders and landowners 
 and occupiers, for the most part, being all equally 
 in the dark — as to the true bearings of the point at 
 issue) a person so attempting to speak is, as before, 
 quickly put to silence : the ignorant brutality of 
 some impatient and unfeeling' dolt, breaking-out sud- 
 denly into a violent " horse-laugh." If a right reve- 
 rend prelate happens to be applied to, in behalf of 
 millions of only half-employed — half-famished poor, 
 his Lordship, (it is probable) is either laudably su- 
 perintending the serving-out of peas-soup, to his 
 own hungry parishioners ; or else, deeply engaged in 
 determining with exactitude, the true colour of a 
 'cameleon:' so that, your petitioner's request, to 
 have a "short interview," lies wholly beyond the 
 power of his Lordship to grant. Is a learned pro- 
 fessor of our great University spoken to, one has 
 the chance of being instantly posed with the 
 " weight " of such questions and observations as 
 these : 'Are you quite certain, that you have taken 
 ' the correct definition of Rent ? You assume, as 
 i an axiom, that " taxation was the cause of the high 
 ' (war) price of corn ! " now, here is a writer (Mr. 
 c Tooke) who ascribes it — much more probably, to a 
 i constant run of deficient harvests, for a period of 
 'more than thirty years together.' (The Earl of 
 Liverpool had previously ascribed the distresses of 
 agriculture, to an astonishing increase in the amount
 
 24 
 
 of production.) Does he next propose to himself 
 the giving 'lectures' on the subject gratuitously in 
 London, he is again foiled, in consequence of the 
 expence so greatly exceeding his means ; being ask- 
 ed ten-guineas a-day, in the part he considered the 
 most centrical and convenient, for the use of a lec- 
 ture-room : one honorable " member" cautiously re- 
 minding him, that he might get a few hearers "from 
 among the followers of Cobbett," and " other per- 
 sons of that description." Is your Majesty's peti- 
 tioner desirous of addressing the country, through 
 one of the more enlightened and liberal London 
 prints — those best of all possible " public-instruc- 
 tors;" a document — but for its length, purporting 
 to be a petition to the House of Commons (that ho- 
 norable house, so it has been said, not receiving any 
 petition that exceeds just three inches, three quar- 
 ters and a sixteenth long, by two and a half wide), 
 is forwarded to the Editor, under an express condi- 
 tion either of its being inserted or returned to the 
 writer. Finding neither condition fulfilled, after a 
 lapse of some months, he insists upon seeing the 
 editor, to enquire about the fate of his document : 
 when, to his great surprize, he learns from such edi- 
 tor's own mouth — that, as respects his petition and 
 the subject of it, he knows just as much as — and no 
 more, than — a man who had lived all his days in the 
 moon. Rather wondering at this the more, such 
 paper giving free insertion to Mr. Cobbett's famous 
 "Norfolk" harangue — himself being the very "pink 
 of perfection " of all best possible public-instruc- 
 tors ; which favour, that same gentleman takes the 
 very earliest opportunity to acknowledge — in lan- 
 guage of suitable liberality, respect, and obligation. 
 Does your Majesty's petitioner forward a short peti-
 
 25 
 
 tion to the House of Commons — merely praying 
 "■ to be heard by a Committee," confiding- such peti- 
 tion to the care of a friend on whose candour and 
 zeal he felt strongly disposed to rely (and which, in 
 fact, actually took place immediately before the very 
 last adjournment) ; to his utter tribulation and dis- 
 may, he neither hears a word upon the subject of its 
 presentment, nor good bad or indifferent in any other 
 respect. He cannot therefore but dwell, with some 
 sense of hardship, on this part of his case, in ad- 
 dressing himself to your Majesty : being (as he 
 humbly conceives) under a most unjust and inju- 
 rious sentence of "expulsion," against sitting within 
 the walls of that honorable house — it might happen, 
 by the side of the afore-mentioned " best possible " 
 public-instructor ; for no better reason, that he has 
 ever heard (since the days of overbearing encroach- 
 ment by the pope of Rome), than that the laws of 
 man and the laws of God are without any " connec- 
 tion " or " dependence " upon each other. Now, 
 knowing experimentally , may it please your Majesty, 
 these facts to be true, your petitioner sees great al- 
 lowance to be made, in behalf of persons placed in 
 high official situations ; the multifarious constancy 
 of whose public duties, in no small degree preclude 
 them, from the possibility of unravelling (them- 
 selves) all the intricate ramifications of this doubt- 
 less very complex and deep-rooted subject. What- 
 ever, regret, therefore, I may have felt — whatever 
 chagrin, disappointment, and even petulancel may 
 occasionally have heretofore evinced (seeing my pre- 
 dictions every day verified, by the ruin of numbers of 
 the most meritorious individuals — having besides, 
 lived quite long enough to learn, that "fraud" and 
 "insolvency" — in banking-concerns at least, are terms
 
 26 
 
 not necessarily synonymous) ; however gradually I 
 may have felt myself relax, in those feelings of per- 
 sonal respect and confidence I once strongly enter- 
 tained towards certain Ministers, from finding every 
 friendly access to them hermetically -sealed against 
 me ; your Majesty graciously recollecting, the nature 
 and magnitude of the suit I had to offer : my com- 
 plaint to your Majesty, does not rest on the ground 
 of their being, in the first place, mistaken — as all 
 mankind are ever liable to be mistaken, on matters 
 far less perplexing and difficult than the Currency- 
 Question ; but (taking the late Lord Castlereagh's 
 declaration to that effect), I do hereby solemnly pro- 
 test against their conduct — as partial, unjust, preci- 
 pitate, unwarrantable, unstatesmanlike, in the high- 
 est degree injurious to the best interests of all classes 
 of your Majesty's most dutiful, industrious, and 
 loyal subjects ; resting the justness of my proceed- 
 ing on your Majesty's royal aid and protection, in 
 having so exclusively " pinned their faith " on the 
 judgment and opinion of the late Mr. Ricardo : 
 a man — deeply versed, as he confessedly was, in all 
 minor matters of calculation and detail, and being 
 withal a most skilful, experienced, and upright Bri- 
 tish merchant. But besides, may it please your 
 Majesty, the possibility of any mans being liable to 
 err, there happened to be, in this case, one most es- 
 pecial reason, why Mr. Ricardo's opinion — touch- 
 ing the " depreciation " (or rather, in his view, 
 (t wow-depreciation ") of money, should have been re- 
 ceived with extreme caution — not to say, wholly with 
 mistrust : he himself being, when the Bank-Cash- 
 Resumption-Bill was undergoing the very warmest 
 stage of its discussion, one of the greatest " money- 
 holders " and heaviest " mortgagees " then existing
 
 27 
 
 in the Kingdom ; and consequently had — it may be, 
 quite unconsciously to himself, the strongest interest 
 that any man well could have — against the whole 
 nation, to foster and keep alive that most ruinous and 
 mistaken notion, which virtually gave him a double 
 hold on every estate where his money happened to be 
 vested, conveying to him a most unequal and usu- 
 rious value on all his securities, though still resting 
 on the u letter" and even " semblance " of law. 
 Mr. Ricardo's opinion was good and worth receiv- 
 ing, so far as it went — in support of Ms own views, 
 and of one particular interest : but it looked only 
 to one of two sides of a vastly important and 
 great national question ; was at best mere ex-parte 
 opinion, from a prejudiced and interested individual ; 
 and therefore ought to have been resisted by counter- 
 evidence, from whatever quarter it could be obtain- 
 ed ; as the only safe and legitimate means, of fully 
 exonorating Ministers from that awful and tremen- 
 dous weight of personal responsibility — with which, 
 by their temerity, they now stand loaded to the coun- 
 try. I solemnly pledge myself to your Majesty, 
 that I have repeatedly solicited audiences — of the 
 Earl of Liverpool — of Lord Bexley, when chancel- 
 lor of the exchequer — of Mr. Peel, before the pass- 
 ing of that ill-judged and ill-fated law, bearing the 
 stamp of his own name — and subsequently of Mr. 
 Robinson, present chancellor of the exchequer: 
 to the latter of whom, a year ago, I addressed 
 a very copious and explicit communication and de- 
 tail of important facts — to which (so far as that 
 same right honorable gentleman is concerned) I 
 have never, from that day to this, received one sin- 
 gle word either of acknowledgement or reply : a cir- 
 cumstance, I certainly the more exceedingly re-
 
 28 
 
 gret, because I had there taken very considerable 
 pains, to point out to him the defects which seve- 
 rally attached to each of the two systems — "free 
 trade " on the one hand, and a " corn-restriction " 
 on the other ; describing- the mode of operation, by 
 which the then existing " panic " was produced, and 
 the means by which it might have been prevented ; 
 offering some useful suggestions, as to the "relief" 
 to be afforded to our East and West India posses- 
 sions, by an equilization of the prices of those co- 
 lonies necessarily with those of other countries 
 (South-America, for example) upon the general 
 principle, of reducing all burthens "one half;" 
 proposing a rectification of the money-standard, 
 which should have blended and reconciled all " con- 
 flicting " interests ; further suggesting, a complete 
 mode of indemnity to merchants trading abroad — 
 from adopting the foregoing plan, against every dis- 
 advantage, in regard to the " exchanges" and to 
 " goods in transitu : " leaving, in fact, one only dif- 
 ficulty {trifling in itself) on the hands of Ministers — 
 that of devising penalties, for the moment strong 
 enough to serve for the prevention of fraud. 
 
 Tenth — For the reasons herein stated — knowing 
 too well, may it please your Majesty, the reluctance 
 of mankind in general — and more especially of pub- 
 lic men, freely to entertain a question, the first 
 mooting of which — in the present aggravated state 
 of the country's sufferings, can hardly be "expected" 
 to reflect much credit on the candour and judgment 
 of particular individuals, however greatly their pu- 
 rity of intention and motive may stand clear and 
 unimpeachable in the public eye : contemplating, 
 m oreover, the dreadful state of anxious privation 
 to which a very large portion of our most valuable
 
 29 
 
 mechanics and artisans are reduced, by the clashing" 
 collision of two opposite and conflicting- laws, con- 
 stantly ivorking against and defeating each other — 
 those poor people, being broken and dispirited, 
 both in body and mind, by the seeming destitution 
 and hopelessness of all present as well as future 
 prospects : witnessing also, the unchecked career — 
 the vile attempts that are hourly making, by at 
 least one most unprincipled and audacious "incen- 
 diary," to inflame and exasperate all the various 
 ranks of society, by turns, furiously and wantonly 
 against each other ; inculcating principles of the 
 most barbarous and revolutionary tendency ; inso- 
 lently pretending to something like ' oracular ' ac- 
 quaintance with a subject, of which — as to funda- 
 mental truths, not a person is there more egre- 
 giously and shamefully ignorant ; nay more, who 
 by reason of such " ignorance," or some " other 
 fault" by no means so easily pardoned, has actually 
 done more than any individual breathing to propa- 
 gate the very delusion, from which the greatest ag- 
 gravation of the country's sufferings has proceeded ; 
 affecting, with hollow duplicity, to deprecate and 
 pity those sufferings, at the same time ; whose very 
 chief merit, as a public writer, consists in the faci- 
 lity, which he undoubtedly possesses, of so distorting 
 facts — generally, by concealing" or with-holding the 
 most important part of a truth, to which he is desir- 
 ous of giving a false and deceitful colouring, often 
 with no better view than to excite feelings of impla- 
 cable and unjust hatred, as well against your Ma- 
 jesty's person and government oftentimes, as against 
 individuals and bodies of individuals, who might 
 otherwise live in mutual amity and usefulness, one 
 amongst another : and these declarations, may it
 
 please your Majesty, I pledge myself fully able to 
 prove, before the whole country, as to that certain 
 unprincipled and wicked individual ; hoping shortly 
 to see the day, when the wisdom of Parliament will 
 be fully able to devise effectual means to check and 
 severely punish such wanton and profligate " abuse " 
 of that great palladium of our liberties — the sober 
 "freedom," not a basely malignant prostitution, "of 
 the Press ! " For these reasons, may it please your 
 Majesty, to take into your gracious consideration, 
 the various important contents of this Petition : in 
 order to their being quickly referred to the exami- 
 nation of so many of your Majesty's most wise, dis- 
 creet, diligent, candid, and dispassionate Counsel- 
 lors, as may be fully qualified to report to your 
 Majesty duly thereon. Your petitioner earnestly 
 beseeching your Majesty, to give no countenance or 
 sanction whatsoever, to any discussion or enquiry 
 proposed to be instituted — either with reference to 
 the " corn-laws," or the subject of " free-trade ;" un- 
 til the state of the Currency — that "key-stone" of 
 both and of every thing, shall have undergone the 
 most thorough and complete investigation, in every 
 one of its extensive and minute ramifications. And 
 most especially would your petitioner call your Ma- 
 jesty's attention to the fact — of there being no pos- 
 sible means left, of easing the country for a moment, 
 from its present/'e^ereof and hide-bound condition — 
 as to the necessary fulfilment of all money-obli- 
 gations, short of an immediate suspension of the 
 "Bank-Cash-Resumption-Bill ;" without which, dis- 
 cussion itself would be hardly safe : thereby neutra- 
 lizing the mischief of Mr. Peel's Bill — c enforcing 
 gold-payments upon the present standard ;' compel- 
 ling (in effect) the whole community to pay taxes 

 
 31 
 
 and other burthens , by a rate much nearer forty 
 than twenty shillings to the pound. In proof of the 
 correctness of which remark, I need only remind 
 your Majesty of the almost instantaneous " relief" 
 which the country derived last year, on permission 
 being* given to the Bank of England to re-issue their 
 small (1 and 2-pound) notes. Indeed, I believe I 
 could appeal to all the most reflecting- and intelli- 
 gent Bankers and Merchants of London, in corro- 
 boration of the remark — that, had that seasonable 
 concession been with-held only a very few days 
 longer, its effect would have been that of ruining 
 half the trade at least of that great commercial city ; 
 leading to consequences all-over England, such as 
 it would be more easy to conceive than agreeable to 
 describe: the stubborn reluctance of Ministers, to 
 grant even this trifling boon, being too well known 
 to require any observation at present. 
 
 Eleventh. — Your Majesty's petitioner, with your 
 royal leave, would humbly offer himself- — having 
 had no earthly object in view, beyond that of pro- 
 moting the country's welfare and prosperity, to esta- 
 blish every position included in this petition, on prin- 
 ciples of the clearest and most substantial equity : 
 without, at the same time, essentially deviating from 
 the views of those, who respectively advocate the 
 system of a "corn-restriction" or that of "free- 
 trade ; " neither, in reality, dissenting from those, 
 who contend for a currency, if not purely "metal- 
 lic " — the absurdity of which seems now to be pretty 
 generally acknowledged, at least bottomed on the 
 solid basis of the intrinsic "gold value" of real 
 property ; evidently embracing the enlightened and 
 statesmanlike notion of His Grace the Duke of 
 Buckingham (constantly reprobated, by the igno-
 
 S2 
 
 rant and unprincipled writer ,before alluded to)— 
 rendering " paper-money and metallic-money of 
 the same specific value." For your Majesty will 
 graciously condescend to observe, that the prin- 
 ciple here contended for, and by some fancied to 
 be so innovating — " reducing the present stand- 
 ard," by a further subdivision of the precious metals, 
 which cannot increase their quantity beyond a certain 
 limited ratio — much within the price which our own 
 goods will sell for, or are worth, in foreign markets; 
 rests on the plain and absolute ' expediency ' of 
 meeting the constantly growing necessities and wants 
 of the community : first, by reason of improved agri- 
 culture and a greatly extended commerce ; second, 
 by reason of a rapidly increasing population; third, 
 by reason of our numerous foreign possessions and 
 garrisons abroad, requiring a very large portion of 
 the use of the precious metals, not therefore circu- 
 lating at home ; fourth, by reason of the prevailing 
 custom of using silver and gold and silver-plated- 
 goods, both in the way of utility and ornament, 
 causing a very considerable consumption and rapid 
 waste of such articles ;• fifth, from the great flow of 
 emigration, to — the continent — United States — 
 South America — Canada, and other places ; sixth, 
 because, in our commercial relations with other 
 countries, a comparatively very small part of our 
 manufactures is paid for in bullion ; seventh, by 
 reason (more than all) of our vast accumulation of 
 public debt, entering into the nature of all private 
 contracts — the whole, by the lengthened operation 
 
 * Mr. Attwood relates, that he knows in Birmingham persons 
 who, for years past, have been this way in the regular habit of 
 melting as many as from 1000 to 1500 sovereigns weekly.
 
 33 
 
 of the late war, becoming gradually reduced and 
 not unjustly — as to the intrinsic value of paper (up 
 to the return of peace), at and after the rate of 50 
 per cent : and which principle ( exclusive of what 
 has been already said, in regard to the present corn- 
 bill — affecting- prices) of so i reducing the money- 
 standard,' in conformity with such wants and ne- 
 cessities of the people — resting, as it does, on 
 grounds of the most perfect " equity," though often 
 perversely ascribed to gross violations of " public 
 faith" on the part of existing governments (the di- 
 rect reverse, however, as in our own case, being much 
 more likely to be the truth), has been constantly re- 
 cognized and acted upon, may it please your Majes- 
 ty, by the Government of this country, at different 
 periods — seldom, with the same degree of urgency 
 that now exists, from the conquest — in 1066, down 
 to the present time : a pound of standard-silver, in 
 the reign of William the First, coined only into 
 twenty shillings — being, at present, coined into six- 
 ty-six : the proposal now being, for the foregoing 
 reasons, to increase the number still further — 
 namely, to a hundred and thirty-two shillings (the 
 gold-standard being, of course, equally reduced) ; 
 even as the corn-bill of 1815, would aim to increase 
 the number of " ideal " shillings from 40 to 80, on 
 the quarter of wheat : the effect of which would be, 
 without injury (meaning injustice) to any one, to re- 
 duce all taxes (all burthens and prices together-s- 
 taking their war-average) just fifty per cent. For 
 it was before shewn, both from the " depreciation " of 
 money during the war (seen in the rate of war-prices), 
 and since recognized by the corn-bill — aiming 
 again to double prices, that our present standard 
 ought, in strict justice and sound policy, to be so re- 
 duced by the rate of 50 per cent. Mankind in ge- 
 
 D
 
 34 
 
 neral, may it please your Majesty, or rather the very 
 few who have ever turned their thoughts at all to 
 the imperfect consideration of this great subject — 
 rendered far more interesting and important, from 
 the peculiar circumstances which have marked the 
 history of this country during the last century, 
 have almost invariably (as it appears to me) mis- 
 taken the value of money, as the " sign' 5 of property, 
 for the uses of money — standing in a double capacity, 
 of acting both as a sign of " debt " as well as of " cre- 
 dit : " most persons — in their own case, assigning to 
 it only the latter of these two characters ; thereby, 
 not unfrequently, resembling the dog in the fable — 
 'catching the shadow by the sure loss of the sub- 
 ' stance.' 
 
 Lastly — Your Majesty's petitioner utterly dis- 
 claims all arrogant pretension to superior sagacity 
 and forethought — otherwise, than what may be sup- 
 posed derivable in matters of great and undoubted 
 intricacy, from habits of intense study, favoured by 
 advantages of almost impenetrable seclusion. He 
 is now happy in being able to conclude his Petition, 
 with at least one consolatory and comfortable re- 
 flection : May it please your Majesty, the case with 
 our " sufferers," is not without hope ! To correct 
 faults, however, we must first show a "conscious- 
 ness" of having committed them. Even when in- 
 tentionally injured, the English are ofteu a forgiv- 
 ing — as they always are, a brave and generous peo- 
 ple. Now, so general — so universal, has been the 
 "oversight" complained of; that, in the act of re- 
 tracing and correcting our steps — scarcely a shadow 
 of pretence does there exist, for the venting of an- 
 gry and vindictive feelings. In this, then, consists 
 the safety of your Majesty's Ministers ! They may 
 truly say to all " rancorous " enemies, if any such
 
 35 
 
 there are — " If We have been wrong, so have You 
 equally." Let them only do this — openly — candidly 
 — and with an honorable grace, placing their entire 
 confidence in the good sense — good feeling — and 
 sound discrimination of the people ; and They, I will 
 venture say, in the midst even of their very keenest 
 sufferings — cheered by a ray of reviving hope, and 
 believing Ministers intentions to have been good, 
 will readily overlook and forget ail that is past. 
 On this ground, I would further say, they will nei- 
 ther want friends able nor willing to extricate them- 
 selves and the country, out of every difficulty and 
 every danger as well present as future. But, may 
 it please your Majesty, the people's eyes are gradu- 
 ally opening to the Truth, and to a just sense of 
 their own errors as well as to those of their rulers. 
 Neither apathy nor evasion on the part of Minis- 
 ters, will any longer avail. If, unhappily, they 
 prove themselves determined to persist in their 
 recent infatuated course — still, to hold their blind 
 notions of dreaming " prosperity," in the midst of 
 bankruptcies more numerous and sufferings infi- 
 nitely greater than were ever before known — talk 
 of preserving " public faith," by the breach of every 
 thing like " private faith " and even of common ho- 
 nesty, between man and man ; the effect of our viti- 
 ated money-standard being equal to that of derang- 
 ing and unsettling all the smaller "weights" and 
 " measures " meant to regulate the daily transactions 
 of this most extensively trading nation — strive at the 
 fulfilling of known and clearly proved impossibili- 
 ties — pursue the same route of absolute and palpable 
 contradictions — continue the existence of two laws 
 (the corn-bill and Peel's bill) no less in defiance and 
 counteraction of each other, than would be the at- 
 tempt to cause fire and ice to burn both together — 
 
 d2
 
 36 
 
 nay, let them go on imposing on your Majesty's 
 princely generous and humane disposition, as men 
 with the best intentions must do, themselves being 
 mistaken — still turn a deaf and hardened ear, to calls 
 of insulted justice — forget the bitter mockeries that 
 have been offered, to the shrill cries of patient, of 
 
 deep-wounded, humanity : if, may it please your 
 
 Majesty, such should prove to be their determina- 
 tion (I look to certain ministers only, to whose de- 
 partment the subject more especially belongs) — 
 their own " fate " being then readily foreseen; I (for 
 one) would be the last person breathing to lift a fin- 
 ger in their defence, having before cautioned them 
 and warned them, times without number. I conjure 
 them, then, by the duty which they owe your Ma- 
 jesty — in behalf of thousands and tens of thou- 
 sands who (without any scarcity) are now want- 
 ing bread, to admit and honestly act upon that ad- 
 mission ; or otherwise, to your Majesty's clear and 
 satisfied conviction, to disprove (to the whole coun- 
 try) the assertion, which I here again solemnly and 
 distinctly repeat ; That ' all the fund-owners of 
 * England- — all your Majesty's sea and land-forces* 
 
 * I find an expression, quoted by a gentleman whom I am proud 
 to call my friend (Mr. Attwood of Birmingham), from a speech of 
 Mr. Tierney's ; which I consider highly judicious, and most indis- 
 putably true : " The besetting vice (observes Mr. T.) of this coun- 
 " try, is the love of high prices } it were absurd, however, to ex- 
 *< pect — that under the present metallic-standard, we can preserve 
 ** generally any higher level of prices than our neighbours, the 
 " French." To this remark, Mr. Attwood puts the following 
 question : " How will you get down the soldiers' pay, to this level ; 
 " Mr. Tierney ?" Doubtless, I should say, were the question put 
 otherwise than in jest — ' By simply informing the army, in the first 
 ' place, that it will now require — twice as many days' labour, twice as 
 ' much cloth, cotton, hemp, hardware, earthenware, &c. to make-up 
 ' in taxes any given amount of a soldier's or sailor's pay, as it would 
 ' have done when that pay was last augmented, or even at the re-
 
 37 
 
 * — all civil officers and pensioners of the crown — 
 f all fixed-annuitants (public and private) without 
 
 * any exception, by the recent change produced in 
 
 * the value of money, are most unjustly receiving-, 
 ' from the proceeds of property and labour, nearly 
 ' double (in some cases, much more than double) of 
 ' what they are both morally as well as legally enti- 
 ' tied to receive :' this, may it please your Majesty, 
 being the sole (though latent) cause of all past evils, 
 and of that dreadful state of piteous destitution to 
 which our virtuous and industrious poor are re- 
 duced, in many — perhaps in most, if not all, the 
 
 ' turn of peace ; and from which, all our labourers at home, are more 
 
 * or less in a state bordering upon starvation? If that reason would 
 not satisfy — then, (as a punishmentj I would send every man to his 
 own home, to share the benefit here proposed to be conferred " on his 
 starving wife and family." My friend will be assured by me, that 
 in encouraging 1 a moment's doubt, as to what would be the conduct 
 or feelings of a British soldier or sailor, in this respect, a person 
 knows nothing of the " intrinsic " qualities of which those brave 
 people are composed. Cobbett — that " hater" of standing armies, 
 would even dare the Government to adopt a measure (as he well 
 knows it to be) of crying expediency and consummate equity, for 
 " fear " of exciting resistance in such a quarter. Are we then really 
 living under a military-despotism ? Rather, let it be understood, 
 for fear — of falsifying to the letter, the whole of his " prophecies ;" 
 which he has been daring enough to utter (as he himself says), with- 
 Utile intermission — unchecked and unrefuted (in words), for the last 
 " four or five and twenty years." It would be a perfect death-blow 
 to him and his writings, to retract from the present ruinous system 
 of gold-payments — the true cause of all our sufferings, public as 
 well as private -. wherefore, he will be — sure to oppose — sure to vilify 
 — sure to condemn, the project (the " Little-Shilling-Project "), 
 with all the rancour and malignant exultation at those sufferings,, 
 with which his diabolical spirit has already shewn him to be most 
 amply possessed. [See pages 487 and following of my Treatise on 
 the Currency (Hatchard, 1S24 — 5.) for a true delineation of this 
 " miscreant's " conduct, in regard to the failure of some most res- 
 pectable Banks both in Cornwall and Worcestershire, which hap- 
 pened about that time.]
 
 38 
 
 " manufacturing " districts ; and very greatly so, 
 amongst the labouring classes, throughout all parts 
 of England. And in respect of which evil, may it 
 please your Majesty, all the best directed efforts of 
 " private charity " can comparatively effect nothing, 
 in the way of affording temporary — much less of 
 permanent and effectual, relief. Whereas, to reduce 
 the money-standard 50 per cent. — thereby reducing 
 every existing tax (and all other burthens and prices, 
 taking their war-average) precisely " one-half," 
 would be equal to giving amongst the poor (Irish 
 as well as English) twenty-two millions and a half 
 yearly, in private charity ; with the important dif- 
 ference, however — instead of being given reluctantly 
 and most unequally as " private charity," of being 
 publicly restored as a just, long-suspended, and 
 most indubitable, " right :" having this further ad- 
 vantage also attending it, of opening a demand for 
 labour, with increased comfort accordingly, amongst 
 all other industrious classes, nearly double in amount 
 to the whole of that sum. Ministers, however, must 
 not now flatter themselves, that any part of the cre- 
 dit of this heavenly relief, can or will be ascribed to 
 Them, in the slightest degree. By your Majesty's 
 forbearing " indulgence," it may come through them, 
 but it will now never come from them. The flow 
 of mercy, in this case, can only proceed from the 
 spring and fountain of mercy. The Almighty gra- 
 ciously delegates to your Majesty, this sole act of 
 dispensing the order of his providential will and de- 
 sign, of restoring to your faithful people happiness 
 and prosperity, in return for the 'meritorious' pa- 
 tience with which their severe privations have been 
 thus far endured : so that henceforward, shall mil- 
 lions noiv living and tens of millions yet to come,
 
 39 
 
 unite in grateful mention, of the heavenly favoured- 
 name of your Majesty ■ — " King GEORGE, the 
 Fourth." 
 
 May it please your Majesty, in the course of this 
 Petition, I have occasionally introduced to your 
 Majesty's notice an individual, alike — despicable as 
 a writer — despicable as to talent, wilfully and con- 
 stantly perverted — despicable, as to every just and 
 honorable feeling — despicable, if not desperate, both 
 as to character and fortune. In doing- this, I am 
 well aware (without explanation) that I may be sus- 
 pected of a want of good taste at least, if not of 
 due decorum. May I therefore dutifully remark to 
 your Majesty, that in the month of March last, a 
 meeting was held at the City of Norwich, for the pur- 
 pose of celebrating, as it was called " a preliminary " 
 feast of the gridiron." May it please your Majesty, 
 at that time, and in that one city, no fewer than Fif- 
 teen Thousand poor manufacturers were (as such) 
 wholly unemployed: casuallysubsisting — partly from 
 the poor-rates — partly, from any little menial or un- 
 toward job, at which they could get a momentary lift 
 from total idleness (the poor are often scandalized, 
 with " being- fond of idleness ;" nothing, may it please 
 your Majesty, was ever more untrue !) — and partly 
 from funds generously subscribed and judiciously 
 eked-out (as necessary), with a sparing and frugal 
 hand. I am shocked to say, in the list of English 
 baronetage, a name was found — 
 
 To grace the founder and partake the feast. 
 
 Dinner being ended, the toast first given, was this : — 
 " the Debt, our best and firmest friend." Sir Tho- 
 mas Beevor proposed " the health of Mr. Cobbett ;" 
 drank, with three times three. A speech, follows 
 the compliment ; upon which, among many other
 
 40 
 
 observations, are these which follow — " First, allow 
 " me to congratulate you, on the present state of 
 " things." Fifteen thousand poor people destitute 
 of work, and literally bordering on a state of star- 
 vation : a fine subject, doubtless — in presence of a 
 Norfolk baronet, of humane and patriotic " congra- 
 tulation " to the city of Norwich ; congratulation, 
 of William Cobbett ! Then ensues a relation of 
 this same speaker's having gone to the Bank of 
 Messrs. Gurney and Co. (than whom, may it please 
 your Majesty, a more honorable and safe and useful 
 set of men, do not preside at any banking-establish- 
 ment within your Majesty's dominions), for the pur- 
 pose " of demanding gold for a ten-pound note." 
 In this act, there was no breach of law — the law 
 gives full authority for what he did ; nor, as it hap- 
 pened, did there follow from it, any " interruption " 
 of the public peace. But there was That, at least, in 
 the speaker's own relation of the circumstance, which 
 (in my view) had greatly the appearance of what law- 
 yers sometimes call " malice-propense " — a deeply 
 premeditated " attempt," at mischief) ; as likewise, 
 of a known, deliberate, most unblushing falsehood in 
 the mode of its execution. The meeting are told, 
 that bankers " by law are bound to pay in gold : " 
 a declaration more strictly true, could not have been 
 uttered. But what had this same individual before 
 said, on occasion of the " failure " of some Cornish 
 or Worcestershire banks, and the dreadful effects of 
 ruin, distress, and destitution, consequent there- 
 upon ? May it please your Majesty, he had said 
 this (and truly said it), that " there was not " gold in 
 " the country-banks, to answer a hundredth part of 
 "'their notes ;" and next, he says — " the moment a 
 " general demand comes upon them for gold, they 
 " break ; and the consequences are those which he
 
 41 
 
 " had just then before described:" being such, in the 
 same writer's own words, that, " many families, who 
 " in former years being 1 accustomed to the comforts 
 " of life, are now reduced to that state of utter des- 
 " titution, to be compelled to subsist even upon an 
 " insufficient quantity of the coarsest fare ! " A fine 
 topic, surely, for popular congratulation. Can there, 
 however, be one moment's doubt, upon the mind of 
 any reasonable person breathing — that such " de- 
 mand for gold," in connection with observations and 
 remarks which then followed at the meeting, had 
 for its object, in the City of Norwich and extensive 
 district adjacent, an amusing repetition of those 
 same scenes of " utter destitution " and " suffer- 
 ing," which he knew had shortly before occurred, in 
 the counties above referred to ? The falsehood, I 
 would charge upon this same individual, lies (some- 
 what artfully concealed) in the following representa- 
 tion : he speaks of a i^lO-note, for which he had 
 just demanded and received payment in sovereigns. 
 He says — " this note was dated the 26th of May 
 " 1818 — so that it was out eight years, or would be 
 " the 26th of next May. At all events, it was out 
 " long enough to bring in a profit of c£4 : 13 r 2 to 
 " Messrs. Gurney, the amount of interest and com- 
 " pound-interest on £\Q. for that number of years :" 
 — shewing, may it please your Majesty, great and 
 very laudable accuracy, in the mode of stating and 
 observing dates ; as likewise, in the computation of 
 simple as well as compound-interest. In the first 
 place, he asserts or strongly insinuates, what he 
 could by no means prove — that the note " was out," 
 the whole of the eight years : the contrary, being 
 infinitely more probable — that it was in such bank- 
 ers ' own drawers, part (perhaps, the greater part) 
 of that time. In this, then, (knowing well the cha-
 
 42 
 
 racter of the individual) there is much the appear- 
 ance of a wickedly deliberate falsehood ; for no 
 earthly conceivable purpose, than that of stimulat- 
 ing dislike and mistrust against that most useful 
 and respectable establishment : to heighten, if pos- 
 sible, the then existing sufferings of Norwich, as 
 most assuredly it would have done (taking the effect 
 intended), in a great — nay, almost incalculable, de- 
 gree. But, his very own argument — though not 
 in a way to be generally perceived, immediately /«/- 
 sifies his own assertion. If bankers (as he here says) 
 are "bound to pay their notes in gold" — and it 
 would come to the same thing, were they bound to 
 pay in equal values, though without an atom of gold 
 
 being used in the transaction if bankers are 
 
 bound, to pay their notes on " demand " — to be able 
 to do so, they must be prepared to do so ; and con- 
 sequently, if — upon this man's first assertion, they 
 had gained £4 : 13:2 interest and compound-inte- 
 rest, upon a note eight years in circulation ; being 
 required — upon his second assertion, to be always 
 prepared (bound in law) to answer such note on de- 
 mand — such being the inevitable conclusion from 
 his own (false) premises ; then, they must needs 
 " lose " upon the money so kept in their own drawers, 
 for such needful purpose, in a degree proportioned 
 to the sum "gained" by the circulation of their 
 own £\0 note. May it please your Majesty, I have 
 merely followed-out the above line of argument, to 
 shew the utter worthlessness of this profligate's opi- 
 nions — smooth and plausible as they often are, when 
 examined fairly by the test of sound and logical 
 reasoning. At the same time, it will not escape 
 your Majesty's notice — How extremely hard to an 
 individual " banker," and how severe and mortify- 
 ing to a wide and populous district, to lie under the
 
 43 
 
 legal possibility of having the regular fulfilment of 
 all their extensive and important pecuniary trans- 
 actions broken-in upon and even ruinously endan- 
 gered, by the phrensied malignity of one such exe- 
 crable villain, who could thus (knowingly) volun- 
 teer his u diabolical " services for so base and wick- 
 ed a purpose. He afterwards speaks out, somewhat 
 more plainly. Referring to Mr. Peel's bill, he says 
 — " Provided Ministers persevere in their bill — bear 
 "it in mind, prices will assuredly fall — landlord's 
 "will be ruined — their estates will go — the fund- 
 " owners will get possession of them — they will be 
 "able to get no rent — every farthing which they re- 
 " ceive in rent, will be taken away." I do not dis- 
 pute the likelihood of things coming nearly to this ; 
 under a continuance of the present system, I think 
 it highly probable — indeed, for reasons going before, 
 scarcely possible but, that they soonmust do so: but 
 who besides a very demon, would wish to drive things 
 to this extremity ? Who, but William Cobbett, 
 would uniformly resist every proposal calculated to 
 avert the general misery, which he " knows " likely 
 to result from omitting the timely application of 
 the only one efficient remedy — of which, he also 
 " knows," the case to be susceptible ? Why did he not 
 go a step further, than the mere mention of the ruin of 
 landlords? Why not say , when this ruin takes place,all 
 those numerous classes who now live from landlords 
 and their immediate dependants, who used to con- 
 sume crapes and shawls and ribbons and muslins 
 and taffetas, and to employ servants — men-servants 
 and maid-servants, labourers, &c. will be then com- 
 pelled to do without such articles and such servants ; 
 who must, consequently, be thereupon reduced to 
 that same state of "utter destitution," as in Corn- 
 wall, to want even "a sufficiency of the very com-
 
 44 
 
 monest and meanest fare ? May it please your Ma- 
 jesty, if (unlike himself) he had said This — speaking 
 " the truth, the whole truth, and nothing- but the 
 truth ; " the very stones would have leaped from the 
 streets of Norwich — to bring his " blushing honors " 
 to the dust — to the very dust : the starving people 
 of Norwich, would have seen their man; they would 
 have found him, in his true and proper colours ; his 
 martyred ambition would never have suffered him to 
 leave the precincts of that venerable city; his na- 
 tive dung-hill would have been his grave ! He next 
 dares the government, to " touch the debt." — Touch 
 not, his darling " friend ! " He affects (only affects) 
 to examine the proposal for "lowering" the stand- 
 ard — for reducing that very debt, which he had just 
 before said (and said truly), if paid in the present 
 standard, would "ruin every landlord" — as he might 
 have said, and well knew, it would — every other 
 class of individuals (fund-owners, and all) who hap- 
 pened at that time, to be existing in the country. 
 " See, says he, the villainy of such proposal — to pay 
 " every fund-owner ten shillings for every pound 
 " which he is entitled to receive? What, then, has 
 been the drift of his boasted writings on these sub- 
 jects, during the last " five and twenty years ?" For 
 what, have our " embryo-peers " been subscribing 
 their money, to procure this "worthy" a seat in the 
 House of Commons ? — the " electors of Preston," 
 to their honour be it spoken, spurning both the 
 " bribe" and the " briber," to boot ! Doubtless, 
 to plead in defence of that system — which, with 
 "voice-prophetic," he pretends to have foretold, 
 would " rob landlords of their estates ;" himself 
 wanting common instinctive prudence that should 
 have taught him to preserve his own ! " Kings," 
 says he, "in former times, would sometimes clip
 
 45 
 
 " the coin — take off a portion of it — and some- 
 " times debase it by inferior metal." — History, may 
 it please your Majesty, reminds one of these events. 
 " There is no writer," he goes on to say, " who does 
 K not treat them as dishonest — as villainously dis- 
 honest and unjust." But, in proof of this " disho- 
 nesty," he mentions no one writer who speaks of that 
 King, who after "paying in clipped or debased coin, 
 refused to " receive it again " in payment of the pub- 
 lic imposts. — This would have rendered such an act 
 " dishonest," which it might not otherwise have been. 
 So, had my proposal been to induce your Majesty, to 
 pay all out-goings of the State in "ten shillings to the 
 pound," and afterwards to continue exacting in taxes 
 " twenty shillings as before ;" then, it would well 
 have merited the opprobium which this flagitious 
 scribbler thus pretends to cast upon it. But this he 
 well knew was neither the intention, nor could be 
 the effect, of the proposal he thus wantonly — thus 
 mischievously, dares to reprobate. He next, turning 
 round upon the clergy, with " evil eye askance," be- 
 speaks the same love of false and treacherous deal- 
 ing. " In the case of the parson," says he, " while 
 " other things are reduced — his income would not 
 " be reduced at all ; for he takes care to have pay- 
 " ment in kind. There is one tenth of the produce 
 " for him to take away, equally under all systems 
 "and variations of currency." But what that is, " in 
 the parson's case," which would prevent a reduction 
 in the price of his " produce," more than in that of 
 his neighbour's, this wicked trafficker in falsehood 
 has not thought proper to state. In truth, may it 
 please your Majesty, the case is this : we have here 
 a man — William Cobbett, by name, utterly regard- 
 less of rank, station, character ; having himself no- 
 thing of the kind, either to lose or gain : and being
 
 46 
 
 withal equally regardless, whether of truth or false- 
 hood ; he writes to the passions — and commonly 
 to the worst and lowest passions, which degrade hu- 
 man nature. I fear, it must be confessed, that he 
 but too well knows the secret passages to the hearts 
 of men. 
 
 I have thus endeavoured to furnish your Ma- 
 jesty with something like a true picture of the man, 
 at whose coarse and brutal ribaldry, the whole par- 
 liament of England has stood for years past, and 
 still does stand perfectly — aghast ! of that wretch- 
 ed — despicable — wicked M tool," to whom your Ma- 
 jesty's Ministers, in evil hour, lent themselves — as 
 their " practical " associate, to carry the provisions 
 of Mr. Peel's bill into full, active, and destructive 
 operation. I therefore trust your Majesty will gra- 
 ciously believe, that the sooner the unseemly u com- 
 pact" is widely broken and dissolved — the more 
 surely will it redound to their honour and safety — 
 the more conduce to the satisfaction of your Ma- 
 jesty's benign and compassionate disposition — the 
 more contribute to the chance, of the people's 
 returning happiness and prosperity — the more 
 strengthen and completely consolidate the great- 
 ness and security of the United Kingdom. 
 
 In regard, may it please your Majesty, to other 
 individuals referred to in the course of this Petition, 
 I bear no personal ill-will to any one of them. I 
 have been often mortified, at observing the lukewarm 
 indifference of many, from whom I hoped, and felt 
 that I had a right to expect, better things. But, on 
 these accounts, I will never refuse to meet any man ; 
 to enter upon a close discussion of all the various 
 points requiring examination, with temper and that 
 respect for others' feelings, which I have not always 
 experienced towards my own. English " country-
 
 47 
 
 gentlemen " must not remain satisfied with their 
 present lamentable " ignorance " of these important 
 truths : they must read, think, and reflect for them- 
 selves ; at the same time, not holding in utter con- 
 tempt the labours of those who have more fortu- 
 nately preceded them in patient industry and en- 
 quiries crowned with complete success. They may 
 look carefully at the character, which the same Wil- 
 liam Cobbett has drawn of them — I do not say, accu- 
 rately drawn of them ; and such, as he has address- 
 ed to all the discontented sufferers of the Kingdom, 
 — not usually the best fitted to discriminate be- 
 tween truth and falsehood ; but whose words are 
 these : " They are (English country-gentlemen) I 
 " sincerely believe, the most cruel, the most unfeel- 
 " ing, the most brutally insolent ; but I know , I can 
 " prove, I can safely take my oath, that they are the 
 " most base of all the creatures that God ever suffered 
 " to disgrace the human shape." A man who could 
 write in this style, would not have made an unsuit- 
 able actor for the bloody " orgies," which have had 
 their day, in a country and period not far remote 
 from those in which we ourselves are placed. I will 
 merely take from the miscreant's writings, one or 
 two other short quotations : — " There are the hor- 
 " rible loads of taxation, which must be removed, 
 " or merchants and traders and manufacturers must 
 " all be beggars : they are all now sacrificed to the 
 " cormorant rapacity of the land-owners and bene- 
 " need clergy." At another time — " The fnnd- 
 " owners are getting away their " (the land-owner's) 
 " estates, by means of the gold and silver taxes''' 
 The law says, that they "(the fund-owners)" shall 
 be paid in gold and silver ; and Mr. Western wants 
 to " alter the law, which he shall not do if I can 
 " help it? May it please your Majesty, base and
 
 48 
 
 wicked, false, and palpable — as to the writer's mis- 
 chievous designs, is all this ; there is not, either in 
 the House of Lords or Commons, one single " Eng- 
 lish Gentleman " who (as yet) knows how to answer 
 him, in a way most fitting and suitable to expose 
 the cloven-foot that lies, in some degree, concealed 
 beneath his cloak. Is there no silent apartment to 
 be found, where, in deep repentant sorrow, he might 
 reflect on the cruel tortures he has himself inflicted 
 on many a virtuous mind — at that moment, of all 
 others, when he knew them broken, pressed to the 
 very earth, by some most unmerited, unforeseen, and 
 accidental cause of misfortune? If, within the high 
 
 and melancholy walls of , he might there 
 
 receive " angelic " instruction and consolation, from 
 one — whose amiable, upright, and peace-making 
 " sect," he has unceasingly insulted with those bru- 
 tal and ferocious ' epithets,' which, for the credit of 
 human nature, one might hope could only have been 
 engendered, within the very heart of a "fiend." I 
 would therefore, in your Majesty's presence, respect- 
 fully remind the whole country — especially the rea- 
 ders and admirers of Cobbett, that during the pre- 
 valency of the " paper-system " in its most flourish- 
 ing state of existence, when it is only necessary 
 to appeal to all the industrious classes — farmers, 
 traders and labourers, in proof of every man's actual 
 and growing prosperity then, compared with now — 
 before the peace, compared with since the peace ; 
 his abuse of that system, was the most unceasing 
 and unmeasured : whereas, on the contrary, by 
 attempting to shorten the duration of that system 
 — substituting gold-payments in lieu of paper-ones, 
 which gold-payments he has never ceased to call 
 for, to insist upon, to enforce practically — so far as 
 his pernicious counsel and influence can be suppos-
 
 49 
 
 fed to extend ; by how much his theory has been 
 reduced to practice, precisely by so much has the 
 success of every man's industry been found to re- 
 trograde ; his comforts, with those of his wife and 
 children, sensibly falling off, in an equal degree. 
 As, therefore, it is a duty which every man owes the 
 public, to endeavour to abate a public nuisance 
 which greatly offends and incommodes the public ; 
 so I have laboured (I trust, your Majesty will be- 
 lieve) with becoming earnestness and severity, to 
 abate the ' nuisance' of such a writer, as — William 
 Cobbett. May it graciously please your Majesty, 
 with this only unhappy exception, although I have 
 thought it necessary to include a large number 
 under one general sweeping clause of ' blame' — ex- 
 ceptions to the common " over-sight," being so few 
 as scarcely to amount to an ' exception ;' yet, it 
 has not been for the pleasure of blaming any indi- 
 vidual particularly : but rather, that — by diffusing 
 such blame as widely as possible — it might, being so 
 diffused, fall the lighter upon all. 
 
 And this, may it please your Majesty, as purport- 
 ing so to be, with all possible respect and becom- 
 ing humility — and in heartfelt condolence with your 
 Majesty, at the recent great public loss which the 
 nation has sustained, is the Petition of your Majes- 
 ty's most devoted, most dutiful, and loyal subject 
 and friend, the undersigned — 
 
 RICHARD CRUTTWELL. 
 
 January 22, 1827. 
 
 HALESWORTH, PRINTF.D BY T. TIPPELL,