mmmmmw^^^^ 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 332,

 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 CONSIDERATIONS 
 
 ADDRESSED TO ALL CLASSES, 
 ON THE 
 
 NECESSITY & EQUITY OF A NATIONAL 
 BANKING & ANNUITY SYSTEM, 
 
 SHEWING 
 
 ITS VAST ADVANTAGES AS A SOURCE OP INDEPENDENT PECUNIARY 
 RELIEF, BOTH IMMEDIATE AND PERMANENT, 
 
 TO THE COMMUNITY; 
 AND OF IMMENSE VOLUNTARY REVENUE 
 
 TO THE STATE ; 
 
 CONTAINING ALSO 
 SOME HINTS ON THE MEANS OF IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE 
 
 IRISH PEASANTRY. 
 
 
 Je me plains a vous de vous menics 
 J'y ai bien moins d'interet que vous. 
 
 Abjuring a' intentions evil, 
 
 I quat my pen. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY S<MITH. ELDER AND CO. 65, CORNHILL ; A. AV. 
 MACLEAN, REGISTER STREET, EDINBURGH ; AND A. BROWN 
 AND CO. ABERDEEN. 
 
 1831.
 
 TO HIS GRACE 
 THE DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH AND QUEENSBERRY, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF 
 
 €ftt ^totti^ft l^quitaMt '^^^uv^nct ^acitt^ ; 
 
 SIR CHARLES FORBES, Baronet, M.P. 
 
 PRESIDENT OF 
 
 Zftt ^nvopt^n ^ttwttttg CumjiffiTg^ 
 
 THE FOLLOWING PAGES 
 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED WITH 
 
 THEIR PERMISSION.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT 
 TO THE FIRST EDITION. 
 
 In August last, the author was persuaded by a friend that his 
 views on this subject were of sufficient importance to be commu- 
 nicated to Government. Accordingly some hints were selected 
 and printed, copies of which were transmitted to the respective 
 members of the late Cabinet, with accompanying letters, — to His 
 (jrace the Dvke of Wellixgton, the Right Honourable Sir 
 Robert Peel, and to the then Chancellor of Exchequer, which 
 were all severally acknowledged j after which the remaining co- 
 pies were distributed to the influential persons in town. The 
 excerpts chiefly referred to the Annuity branch of the project, 
 from a mistaken apprehension that any published strictures on 
 banking might be viewed with a jaundiced eye, and might excite 
 some ebullition *, but a more mature consideration of the subject 
 has convinced the author that his fears were groundless. More- 
 over, as the ideas and experience on which the scheme became 
 engrossed might never occur to another, he recently ventured to 
 transmit the extended manuscript to the present Administration, 
 whose acknowledgements being equally favourable with those of 
 their predecessors, he has now the less hesitation to submit it to 
 the public consideration, more especially as men of all parties and 
 acknowledged talents have since perused the manuscript, and ap- 
 proved of the scheme. To elegance of composition the Essayist 
 lays no claim. 
 
 EDINBOnOH, 7 
 
 September If, 1831. $ 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 27 For " such a provincial," read " such an official" 
 
 29 For " one fourth part beyond," read " tlic other fourth of" 
 
 34. For " foregoing pamphlet," read " foregoing pamphleteer"
 
 ESSAY. 
 
 JIjVER since the Christian era, when tlie divine precepts, ac- 
 companied with the Divine Spirit, became diffused over the 
 world, a regenerating power has been at work ameliorating 
 the temporal happiness of mankind ; and although princi- 
 palities and powers, governing the superstitions and darkness 
 which enveloped the earth, have opposed its operations, yet 
 the philanthropist can look back already with admiration at 
 the incessant and triumphant efforts by which tiiese principles 
 of divine origin have gradually been incorporated as funda- 
 mental institutes in the constitutions and laws of all civilized 
 nations and communities of men ; and he may certainly rely 
 that what has already been obtained is so consonant to reason, 
 and so obviously valuable, that it shall continue to issue in 
 still greater degree. 
 
 Various were the devices which the pious and the power- 
 ful pursued with the strongest feeling of benevolence in the 
 last 1800 years, and such as swelled the armies of the cru- 
 sades of bygone times ; and the fair hands which wove the 
 sash, and prepared the habiliments of the Christian soldier 
 of those dfys, would, in ours, have been the foremost in every 
 charitable deed. They would have hailed every new sug- 
 gestion which might reasonably be considered as conducing 
 
 A
 
 2 
 
 to the welfare of their fellow-creatures, more especially if it 
 concerned the happiness of their native land. The variety 
 and munificence of the many endowments which the long 
 internal peace of our country has preserved in full operation 
 to the present time, bespeak the liberality, the patriotism, 
 and the faith, of these hallowed benefactions. It will be per- 
 ceptible, however, to the meanest intellect, that if a tythe of 
 this vast benevolence had been reduced to system, much of 
 the actual misery which still afflicts mankind, would have 
 long ago disappeared. Witness what great good the pa- 
 rochial school system has effected in Scotland. Particular 
 benefits have been variously contributed to the common fund 
 of man's enjoyments, the merit of their discovery being more 
 frequently the effect of accident, or rather of the Divine 
 Providence, than any results of the investigations of reason 
 in man, — the most casual ideas of the human mind producing 
 consequences the most momentous on the destiny of multi- 
 tudes. Hence, in every land, it is at once the duty, and 
 should be the pleasure, of those exalted personages who oc- 
 cupy stations of public trust in any realm, to seize every 
 such fleeting thought, to analyze its merits, and, if suitable, 
 to apply it for the benefit of the community. 
 
 Political events have hitherto had far less effect in promot- 
 ing the internal good of the country, than the calm operation 
 of those associations which have had for their object the 
 promotion of the arts and sciences to the purposes of society. 
 Under their auspices, we sometimes behold individuals, whose 
 rank or condition have brought them in juxta-position with 
 the faults and defects of the civil law, exerting their talents 
 to amend it ; and others, who by some cause have had their 
 ideas directed to the study of physiology, by their prelections 
 throwing out valuable views of education, and many who are 
 constantly devising methods for promoting the health and 
 personal comforts of the rich and poor ; and the least reflec- 
 tion should teach us, independently of the injunctions of the
 
 Christian law altogetlier, tliat it is our interest to do good to 
 our neighbour. 
 
 The acquisitions of philosophy, and the proper use of 
 science, or of any attainment either of intelligence or rank, 
 is to accomplish good therewith ; for even whatsoever the 
 most vicious covet, can yield no satisfaction when it is not 
 shared with some, however unworthy or otherwise they may 
 be. The best cultivated estate, surrounded by an unculti- 
 vated neighbourhood, is far less valuable than a similar one 
 situated in a country where every estate is equally well. Nor 
 is the residence of a few rich inhabitants in a city wliere the 
 population are generally ignorant and poor, comparable to a 
 residence in one where the lowliest inhabitant has some means 
 of comfort to boast of. We have been led to make these 
 previous observations, because the practice is too much at va- 
 riance with the acknowledged principle, that all orders and 
 interests in the state should receive that reciprocal support 
 which the peculiarities of their condition stand in need of. 
 
 With these reflections, and contemplating, the present and 
 future condition of the different ranks of society in Britain, 
 as far as that can be inferred from the nature of things, and 
 the current of present circumstances ; as bearing down the 
 labouring classes into a state of wretchedness, from which 
 they can have no very clear prospect of emerging, or their 
 posterity, notwithstanding the multiplicity of specific institu- 
 tions hitherto established of a benevolent nature, unless by 
 the blessing of him who before now has effected the greatest 
 good from causes apparently the most trivial, we shall be led 
 to the adoption of a system of relief, by which their tendency 
 to poverty, and all its evils, may be arrested. Such a gene- 
 ral system of relief is still wanting, and is our interest to pro- 
 vide. In the absence of such a plan, the best institutions of 
 society are incomplete and insecure. 
 
 Therefore it is proposed to show, that such an efficient 
 system is both practicable, and unquestionable in its results.
 
 Nor is tliere any limit to the advancement of the population 
 in knowledge and happiness, so long as the principles of the 
 Christian law are made the rule of the law of nations, how- 
 ever much these high results may be retarded by existing 
 prejudices. 
 
 In order to apply the requisite remedy for the poor, let us 
 first consider their condition, or rather the circumstances 
 which call for its operation, and then describe the principle, 
 and the manner of applying it ; and as our country has al- 
 ways proved a pattern to the civilised world, let us hope that 
 this principle, when adopted and in operation among our- 
 selves, may become one of vniiversal utility and application. 
 Without premising any new or uni-eceived hypothesis, we 
 proceed to state, that the present destitute condition of the 
 labouring and manufacturing classes, both in England and 
 Scotland, and Ireland also, but particularly in England, has 
 been repeatedly attributed to the former unsound state of the 
 banking system there, and to the unlimited and capricious 
 circulation of 20s. bank notes, which were generally made 
 payable in London, at a vast distance from the seat of the 
 bank ; so that, in the event of a run on the establishment, 
 the poor, who were the last to learn the discredit thereof, and 
 for whose use chiefly 20s. notes are required for wages, &c., 
 were the most unable to devise a conjunct measure of speedy 
 relief, and were usually the severest sufferers in all cases of 
 insolvency. The little which they had in hand, or had de- 
 posited, was therefore in such cases, commonly lost ; the up- 
 per classes, on the contrary, being by the nature of their 
 transactions, sooner able to discover the condition of the 
 house, provided a remedy when that was practicable. More- 
 over, the system of banking, as practised, savours greatly of 
 monopoly in favour of certain classes ; and it will not follow 
 that because an establishment is of unquestionable stabilityj 
 that it therefore must be the best in principle.
 
 The guarantee and liability of the share-holders, forms the 
 security which the public have for their valuable deposits ; 
 and under mistake, this responsibility has been weakened, 
 rather than strengthened, by tlie law which confers on them 
 as well as others, who assume the business of bill-brokers, a 
 power of ranking on every indorser until they are repaid. 
 As yet, no bank has been established on principles wholly of 
 a public nature, although it were easy to show to demonstra- 
 tion, that the circulating medium of the Empire might be so 
 constituted, as to afford the greatest imaginable benefit and 
 facility, to the attainment of every proper accommodation, 
 with perfect security in the pursuit, and result, of genuine 
 commerce or trade, and at the same time to rescue the cur- 
 rency from that appearance of private interest or joint stock- 
 property which attaches to it ; and while it could be so uni- 
 versal in its parts as to include every corner of the Empire, 
 it could also be so secure in its mode, as to place the cur- 
 rency entirely under the public, and their circumstances leav- 
 ing no room whatsoever to dread at any after time, its mis- 
 application, either its excessive abundance, or its excessive 
 scarcity. In short, to render it subsidiary to all men's wants 
 and wishes, according to their deserts, and as accessible as 
 the high ways of a country, on the lowest compensating fee 
 or toll. Now however, it has too much similitude to private 
 path-ways, diverging to suit the convenience of certain pro- 
 prietors, along which, the public are Avhimsically permitted 
 to move, but by which they may neither abide, or carry on 
 business, unless it be the will of the proprietors. 
 
 At present, the capital of every bank throughout the coun- 
 try at large, consists of a deposited fund, and of a represen- 
 tative capital, in bank note paper, which may be termed in- 
 ventive. The one being usually the collected savings of the 
 industrious lower orders, and generally appertaining to per- 
 sons in such a rank of society as could not avail themselves, 
 or their connexions, of the advantages of bank credit, like tlie
 
 6 
 
 persons above them in rank, (it does not consist with the 
 practice at least,) notwithstanding that the only real deposit- 
 fund of these banks belongs exclusively almost to the hum- 
 bler classes, it therefore affords the means of speculation and 
 adventure to those above them, and progresses to the injury 
 of the classes to which it properly belongs, as may be easily 
 demonstrated. Unlike all other public companies, the bank- 
 ing establishments have never giv|n any participation of pro- 
 fits on deposits, except the interest which they allow; although 
 it is a fact that some of these establishments have divided bo- 
 nuses among their proprietary, of 45 and 50 per cent., or 95 
 per cent., within a period of 15 months, besides affording 
 their shareholders interest on their stock regularly, of four or 
 five per cent, per annum half-yearly. On whatever ground 
 they lay claim to public consideration, it is obvious that their 
 public utilility, and their control of the currency, have been 
 subjects of animadversion in the prospectuses of every new 
 establishment of the sort which have arisen of late. 
 
 But why should the currency of a nation be the offspring 
 of private associations, or controlable by private companies, 
 however deservedly popular ? It is no argument for the con- 
 tinuance of the present mode of banking, to the exclusion of 
 another, of a better description, that some of the present bank- 
 ing companies conduct their business on fixed principles of 
 the utmost safety to themselves and the public, of which no 
 one will doubt. But banking is, of all pursuits, that which 
 should be laid open to all ranks ; a common convenience, for 
 which the charge should never exceed what would be requi- 
 site to defray its incidental expense. Whatever other esta- 
 blishments there may exist, no State can advance beyond a 
 certain point of improvement, without such an establishment 
 appended to the other institutions of the Government, where- 
 by the circulating medium should be uncontrolled by any 
 private influence, and be rendered as a medium, less osten- 
 sibly the instrument of gain to a particular class, but rather
 
 affording to the small capitalist, in a degree, the like facilities 
 of benefiting his connexions, which are now only available, 
 by the comparatively rich. Then, and not till then, will all 
 that a well disposed community can desire, have been put in 
 requisition for their mutual improvement. The whole bene- 
 fit should be given to the public of such an establishment, 
 leaving private associations to the patronage of their peculiar 
 connexions, and on this principle, the currency would control 
 itself. 
 
 As the motives Avhich have led to this Essay require 
 merely that the necessity for, and the equity of a General 
 District Bank System should be demonstrated, Ave shall 
 merely point out that banking institutions which laid claim, 
 in their outset, to public approval on the basis of public 
 benefit, and which have occupied the ground in particular 
 parts, and which, at some of their agencies, have obtained 
 deposit-funds exceeding a million of pounds, behoved to have 
 taken up their station in the less along with the greater ; 
 and that they did not, implies that the pecuniary gain to 
 their proprietary formed the chief purpose with them. The 
 subsequent occupation of the neglected positions is also a 
 manifest proof of the requirements of the country ; so say 
 the prospectuses ; it is likewise a proof that gain may yet be 
 expected from it. We have seen Avhat proportion these gains 
 bear to the benefit conferred by the banks, and it may be 
 questioned if, under all the circumstances, the accommoda- 
 tion from the banks could have possibly been less. The in- 
 junctions attached to all bank pass-books to be operative in 
 circulating their notes, demonstrates the importance of the 
 gain derivable therefrom. There being no other public 
 system of banking, it follows that the disposal of the immense 
 deposited funds of the kingdom becomes in a degree subject 
 to tlie Hmited range of intelligent directors, whose greatest 
 knowledge cannot grasp the information necessary for tlie 
 accommodation of a numerous pct)ple ; and hence the im-
 
 9 
 
 perious necessity they are under of retaining such large 
 amounts in the public stocks, which a combination between 
 a few of the leading establishments can at any time affect. 
 By a temporary suspension of discounts, such an amount 
 of returned bills might be occasioned, as would compel in- 
 dividual merchants to effect sales in Consols or Exchequer 
 bills, so as to occasion a fall of two or three per cent. ; and a 
 purchase to some extent, at that rate, by the banks, would 
 afford a gain sufficient of itself, as a profit on so much de- 
 posit bank money, as to serve, without any further move- 
 ment of the said sum, for the space of a twelvemonth. Such 
 suspensions of discount have taken place to the great an- 
 noyance of the public, which, if for the mere purpose above 
 stated, in absence of foreign causes of vibration, was both 
 objectionable and blameable ; and, if for the purpose of 
 weeding the garden of commerce, betokened both indifference 
 and want of skill, and too often destroyed the tender plant, 
 in the confusion of what housewives call a thorough clean- 
 ing ; whereas, had a constant vigilance been exercised, the 
 weeds would never have appeared to injure those plants for 
 which the garden was designed, to nurture and multiply 
 them. It has been known that persons who have retained 
 about <£*20, wherewith to make an appearance, have never 
 been refused discounts, although only the .^20 was drawn 
 from one bank, and the same day replaced in another, to be 
 the following day redrawn ; and individuals practising a 
 system of discount have been known to be deeply in debt, 
 and still acceptable as cautioners in cash-accounts — nay, even 
 to more than thirty of them at the same time, and the cau- 
 tioner not worth one farthing. In proof of what we have 
 advanced, we need only refer to the following extract from 
 the private correspondence in the Edinburgh Observer of 
 10th December 1830 : — " London, Tuesday night, {"Jth.) 
 The tendency of the quotations of nearly the whole of the 
 public securities, both English and foreign, has been up-
 
 9 
 
 wards to-day, it being ascertained that the public continue to 
 clear small amounts of stock off the market. It seems to be 
 understood that the northern banks, which, it will be re- 
 membered, purchased so extensively a month since, fully 
 anticipating a further rise, are resolved not to part with their 
 stock under a profit of at least two per cent, on the quota- 
 tions at Avhich they were supplied, the principal amounts at 
 prices ranging between 83 and 84i. The purchases to which 
 we refer have been to the amount of some millions sterling. 
 The great body of dealers, of course, attach much importance 
 to all fresh transactions entered upon by the agent employed 
 by the northern banks, whose influence at the present mo- 
 ment is paramount to all others." 
 
 Relying on the responsibility of the bank proprietors, the 
 lower orders lay up their savings there, not so much for the 
 interest now afforded, as from a sense of the security which 
 the strong room affords, and a persuasion that they will get 
 their own again when they require it. 
 
 When once a bank is fairly established, it requires nothing 
 more than a fictions representative capital to carry on with. 
 Trusting to a portion of the public depositing a part of their 
 funds, the shareholders have only to constitute their shares, 
 as it were, by paying the portion of a moiety thereon ; and 
 of that portion or moiety the proprietors can avail themselves, 
 by operating on their cash-accounts to a certain extent of 
 credit. The profits of banking in this way are now better 
 understood, in as much as this representative part of their 
 capital, circulating for 13| years at five per cent, profit, be- 
 comes substantially of value to a real capital for the partners. 
 Thus the commission agent and wholesale merchant see that 
 banking is, by usage, far more safe and profitable than their 
 own ordinary calling — both the security and the profit being 
 double, to what either of them were accustomed to get, or 
 can get. Nothing is more easy than for a fraternity of per- 
 sons, who consider themselves of sufficient respectability or
 
 10 
 
 rank, to succeed in establishing a bank. They set about it, 
 and they and their immediate connexions supply the means 
 of speculation to themselves from it. The parties thus ac- 
 commodated extend their business ; and, for instance, one is 
 a land-owner, a farmer, or a manufacturer ; he pvirposes to 
 employ twelve additional men ; and the evil is, that the choice 
 does not fall at first on the best workmen, or on the most 
 worthy of the applicants, but on those who will engage for 
 the least wages. Mark the consequences. Perhaps the pro- 
 fligate wretch, without a farthing for his next meal, may be 
 preferred, and is often preferred, to the virtuous man, who, 
 with a fund of a few shillings, and a large family, higgles 
 about a sixpence per week beyond what the employer is dis- 
 posed to allow ; and there can be no comparison between the 
 value of it to the one and the other. This man, of course, is 
 rejected, until, his little fund being exhausted, and his family 
 starving, he is forced, while again applying for employment, 
 to tender his services for less than those already employed ; 
 or he may require to have uncommon extraordinary merit 
 before he is engaged. Besides, there is reason to believe that 
 this reduction of wages compels the most careful to labour 
 much beyond the prescribed hours, if, by so doing, they 
 can secure to their families the same income which they 
 were accustomed to receive. We were wont to look on 
 machinery as aiding in the great work of human comfort. 
 Here we see two distinct causes abridging and counteracting 
 the very pvirpose of that very mechanical power which these 
 persons apply, and superintend, and circumscribing the use- 
 fulness and the effects of that very machinery. It is no un- 
 visual occurrence to see the steady labourer sinking under 
 this double degree of exertion ; and it is neither a fit or be- 
 coming apology for any one to answer, " Never mind, he 
 only makes room for another." His very virtues entail a load 
 of calamity behind him ; he preferred the lawful gratification 
 of his desires to the demoralizing effects of sensuality, and
 
 11 
 
 h^ dies a martyr in the cause, and his helpless widow is still 
 more helpless, with a numerous infant family, Avhom she 
 cannot leave one moment by themselves unguarded. It is 
 thus that the most worthless among the poor are made the 
 instruments of destroying the comforts of their neighbours, 
 the primary cause being the cupidity of those above them. 
 The labourer, after the longest period of incessant toil, is so 
 dependent as to be subject to all his employer's reverses of 
 fortune, without any corresponding benefit by his success. 
 He is the first to experience the effect of his imprudent spe- 
 culations, and the last to participate in his restoration to 
 credit, or to solvency and business. It may be long after the 
 bankrupt's affairs have been wound up, ere the labourers find 
 tile mere employment they had before ; and during all the 
 dull interval of cheerless idleness, their only solace is a scanty 
 pittance from the parish funds, or from the hands of their 
 fellow labourers who may be in employ. 
 
 Oh ! it is saddening to think on the condition of the free- 
 born British labourer, how often he has gone forth in the morn- 
 ing in search of employment, able and willing to work, and how 
 often he has returned disappointed to his hungry family ! We 
 will not picture their mutual Avoe. The mere enumeration of 
 such cases would occupy whole volumes. So long as a dense 
 population exists in Britain, it Avere mockery to argue that 
 increase of trade can ever again raise the price of labour 
 to a proper rate, with the continuance of our present mone- 
 tary system. Yet our population is less than that of the an- 
 cient states of equal extent, or of the principalities of Europe 
 in the middle ages. An inquiry into their monetary practice 
 (for system they had none) would show, that notwithstand- 
 ing the tyranny under which they lived, they were enabled 
 to prosper wonderfully by the individuality of every one in 
 his pursuit of traffic and labour. Doubtless there is no law 
 which prohibits tlie working classes in Britain from esta- 
 blishing a system of banking for their own benefit ; but there
 
 u 
 
 are almost insuperable hinderances to its efficiency and pro- 
 priety, inseparable from its very nature, which can only be 
 obviated, and must be obviated, by having it made a state 
 measure. There is no country wherein real liberty is ap- 
 parently so much maintained as in ours. A large majority 
 of the higher orders in the kingdom have displayed an anxie- 
 ty, that its genuine spirit should descend throughout the 
 lowest of the community. Perhaps, therefore, our anoma- 
 lous condition, as respects the happiness of the labouring 
 people, is peculiar to the stage of improvement we have ar- 
 rived at ; and that whensoever the lower classes perceive the 
 great benefit of co-operation, as exemplified in the practice 
 of those above them, a similar co-operation on their part to 
 suit themselves, may enable us to make a farther move in the 
 career of improvement. And hence, it is one great end of all 
 good government, to bring the principles of moral science to 
 be taught to all the people in the most intelligible form, by 
 an elementary system of national education.* Man must be 
 first taught to know and respect himself properly, before he 
 can be a fit judge of his own interest, and of his relations to 
 the community of which he happens to form a part ; and 
 freedom of trade must be sufficiently comprehended, or its 
 reciprocity will be but a name — the ends will be incommen- 
 surate — a term to signify knavishness on the one part, and 
 simplicity on the other. Had there existed among the abo- 
 riginal American tribes a law debarring the exchange of their 
 valuable furs for any sort of spirituous liquors, yea, totally 
 exclviding all such commodities as were not of vital conse- 
 quence to their advancement in civilization, history would 
 have lauded the principle as worthy of the human mind to 
 
 •A report has lately gone the round of the various newspapers, that a petition, 
 numerously signed by the most respectable Bengalees resident in and around 
 Calcutta, has been forwarded to Britain, to be forthwith laid before Parliament, 
 praying for permission to resume, unmolested, the customs of infanticide and 
 siUtecism,
 
 13 
 
 conceive. Let it not, liowever, be understood as though we 
 pleaded exclusive principles, but only a judiciousdiscriminative 
 principle leading to reciprocity, in accordance with the gene- 
 ral interest of all parties, which we conceive to be the true 
 object for every government to attain. It is in the nature of 
 our controlling banking associations to bring the interests of 
 the land-owners, and the rest of the community, into subjec- 
 tion to the boards of directors of these powerful companies, 
 which are, of necessity, composed of persons resident in the 
 metropolis, and seemingly having little direct interest in the 
 corn-grower's success — retired mercantile men, with whom 
 lowness of price is a desideratum, and it does not require the 
 gift of prophecy to discern that the controlling influence of 
 the banks is interwoven with their constitution, and that the 
 smallest reform in Parliament* will give a preponderance to 
 City influence, and may be followed by an alteration in the 
 corn laws, under an impression that they form the mal aria of 
 our land. Let us hope it may not be entirely regardless of the 
 protecting scale now in use, but so necessary for our northern 
 latitude, if we are to remain a great and powerful people ; and 
 assuredly a falling tenantry are not the persons whom the local 
 agents of these umpires of the currency will then be able to 
 support. Below a certain level they will not fall, but that 
 level will be too low to correspond with the other national in- 
 terests. The home grower will then have but one alterna- 
 tive — either to accept of the corn-factor's terms, or quit the 
 
 " Although it was scarcely possible to produce any strictures on such a sub- 
 ject as the foregoing, without making some allusions to the politics of the day, the 
 author considers the allusion so slight, that those who may read this Essay will 
 not surely presuppose that his opinion on reform is contrary to what is so gene- 
 rally entertained. Nevertheless he cannot avoid expressing a fear lest the main 
 cause of distress, and its remedy, should after all be mistaken ; and if it should, 
 every day longer that distress and abject poverty continue, and such assistance as 
 he has advocated is withheld, the aristocracy will be unjustly charged with the 
 blame ; and not only so, but the influential classes will be unwittingly support- 
 ing those who will, in such a case, maintain that republican principles are the 
 genuine specific, after every other reasonable concession has failed.
 
 14 
 
 cultivation of the soil altogether. We shall revert to this 
 point at a subsequent part of this Essay. 
 
 Without such a check on the currency as is in these pages 
 suggested, no species of government can remedy the evils 
 complained of; and Avhat the writer deprecates must other- 
 wise naturally follow — namely, that, sooner or later, the Exe- 
 cutive would depend on the will of the numerous banking as- 
 sociations which might ultimately arise ;* and the individuals 
 who should venture into trade, with whatever capital, under 
 such circumstances, but refusing to become associated in the 
 fortunes of any bank, and should push their traffic, as they 
 ought, to the utmost limit of their means, would run as much 
 danger of being unaided and shipwrecked in the first storm, 
 as the mariner who would make Goodwin sands his place of 
 anchorage. But, accompanied with such a national system 
 as is here developed, banking associations on the Scotch prin- 
 ciple wovdd be likened to the precious metals in which they 
 deal — freed of every impurity, most desirable and useful. 
 
 Allow us here to give another extract from the same 
 paper already quoted, merely to show that the vox popu- 
 li of towns will keep in abeyance the agricultural interest ; 
 because, throughout the best part of our island, the far- 
 mers have their attention so engrossed by the variableness 
 of the climate, that state affairs are, of necessity, left to 
 be observed and discussed by in-door politicians. The far- 
 mers will long endure what may hereafter be their lot, 
 and perhaps never discover the root of the evil. They are 
 too remote to be scanned by the every day observation of 
 the bank directors ; and the local agent is too much obliged 
 to consider matters in a measure, to be able either to report 
 
 • Since this Essay was written, a fact in point occurred in a county town in 
 Scotland, at the late election of a member for the Forfar district of burghs. The 
 local agent of one of the metropolitan banks was reported to have discontinued 
 or cancelled the cash credit of a gentleman who declined to vote as the bank 
 agent desired ; and some pointed remarks on the political influence which the 
 banks might exercise, were made more recently by a highly respectable merchant 
 at a public meeting held in Leith respecting Parliamentary reform.
 
 15 
 
 as to any special course, which the directors should pursue, or 
 to attempt it himself, perhaps a small improvement of the pre- 
 sent system, would be the institution of local boards of directors 
 where practicable. "At a recent meeting of the inhabitants of 
 Haddington, held for the purpose of petitioning for Parliamen- 
 tary reform, the propriety of extending the elective franchise 
 to the agricultural tenantry of the county was agitated, when 
 some individuals connected with the county urged the im- 
 propriety of investing farmers with such a privilege, more 
 especially when they did not wish to possess it. We do not 
 think such a wish is by any means general. The principle 
 of extending the elective franchise to the agricultural tenantry 
 was not called in question at the meeting, and the abuses 
 that would result from its exercise were entirely conjectural. 
 Humbled as East Lothian farmers are, we had no conception 
 till this meeting, that they were deemed, by members of their 
 own body, either so dependent, or so demoralized, as to be 
 incapable of exercising a function possessed by the cobblers 
 of many a petty town in Cornwall. Since the agricultural 
 tenantry seem insensible of their political situation, it was 
 truly kind in the inhabitants of Haddington to interest them- 
 selves in the matter." Quotations of far higher authority 
 and comprehensiveness might be adduced, to show that when- 
 soever any of the various interests of which a conununity is 
 composed have acquired an influence disproportioned to the 
 others, their turgid agency needs the application of a timely 
 antidote, before the corporate frame experiences much of the 
 disorganization which would otherwise unquestionably fol- 
 low. Besides, what advantage shall we have in the end, 
 though we continue to labour incessantly, night and day, to 
 supply manufactured goods to the whole world, if wc do so 
 at too low a price, and underrate our agriculture, whicli, 
 AVITH ALL THE PROTECTION IT HAS OCT, has still nuicli before 
 it to accomplish. Every one conversant with rural affairs 
 must know how much prejudice exists among a large class of 
 Scotch, Irish, and English farmers ; and tliat it has required
 
 16 
 
 the utmost persuasion and inducement to forsake these, after 
 the clearest demonstration of their absurdity and hinderance 
 of improvement ; so that the views of political economists, 
 however just, must be followed sparingly. A low-rented 
 estate is not always a stimulant to exertion with the tenants, 
 neither is a falling market. The upshot of low rents, low 
 prices, and low wages, would certainly neither be accom- 
 panied, or followed by affluence ; but rather idleness, indol- 
 ence and discomfort, and among the first interests of any 
 State, is the proper and impartial communication of the 
 means of emulation to all, for valuable purposes. On, we 
 must go ! else a fearful dereliction \vill ensue, but the right 
 regulation of this single principle, will be found to pave the 
 way for the preservation and promotion of every other. 
 
 A change, may we say improvement in the practice of 
 banking, or in the nature of the currency, like unto what we 
 shall now introduce to your notice, is therefore indispensable 
 as a salutary check under any circumstances, and because 
 that, without it, the tendency of great manufactories as well 
 as of banking associations, is hurtful to the working classes. 
 Nevertheless, the application of machinery to the production 
 of commodities which were heretofore manufactured, is high- 
 ly laudable ; but it is this very cause which affords the 
 strongest argument for the proposal now to be made. It 
 would seem as if this application of mechanics were about to 
 introduce a period of quietude and repose to man, or a transu- 
 dation of the first penal enactment. The vast quantities of 
 goods which the use of mechanics enables the ti-ader to prepare 
 within a certain time, enables him also to calculate precisely 
 the cost of their production, and to accept of the very lowest 
 shade of profit on the capital embarked with him ; and if his 
 sales or transactions were equally safe, or conducted according 
 to fixed unfailing principles, he might speedily amass a fortune; 
 but the thousand-and-one accidents which mar the best laid 
 plans, and which Omnipresence alone can ascertain, are ever 
 likely to intercept his gains, and ruin his concern. It is dif-
 
 17 
 
 ficult to say whether such a deprecation be most ruinous to 
 master or man. And here let us remaik, that the recom- 
 mendation of the last Parliamentary Committee on the state 
 of the labouring classes is objectionable, as we shall in 
 the sequel point out. The proprietors of great manufactories 
 have no interest in the people beyond their mere labour ; nor 
 are they bound to have, and although many of the great firms 
 in England have been at the expense of chaplains to admini- 
 ster spiritual instruction to their work-people, we should be- 
 ware of the exercise of such functions. Government has put 
 an end to the suttleries annexed to gi'eat factories, which 
 were established ostensibly for the people's good, but were a 
 source of evil ; and more must be done to prevent the poor 
 labourers being deprived of all substantial freedom. Cer- 
 tainly they are free to engage and depart — subject to be cast 
 off at a moment, to find a home, and food and raiment, where 
 they best can. Perhaps it were better to be corporeally the 
 property of a rich manufacturer, than be doomed to irreme- 
 diable labour without due compensation. The swarthy labourer 
 of the Isles of the Sun has his happy home, to whichever 
 estate he belongs ; and tlie most bankrupt condition of his 
 master is no cause of inquietude to him. His wife and picka- 
 ninnies are cherished and well fed, and, out of self-interest, 
 are rarely sold off the island. They lie down in comfort ; 
 their repose is sweet, and they have the means of becoming 
 Christians and communicants. — What then is the remedy ! 
 
 Having endeavoured to show tliat some alteration in the 
 nature of the currency is necessary, we now beg to describe 
 the view we have of the remedy proposed by us, which is of 
 a twofold nature, — the one part being prospective in its 
 effects, but paramount in value. The other, whicli is almost 
 of equal importance, being, however, rather immediate in its 
 consequences, we shall endeavour briefly to describe first. 
 
 The Savings Banks, which have proved what the poor can 
 realize,nolwithstandingthemany(Hsadvantages tiiey lie under, 
 
 B
 
 18 
 
 may be regarded as experiments only ; they have not been 
 generally promoted, except in places where the patriotism of 
 enlightened individuals has bestowed attention on their for- 
 mation ; nor are they rendered so equitable and suitable as 
 they ought to be, considering the nature of the other bank- 
 ing establishments of the country. It should not be forgot- 
 ten, however, that the Edinburgh Savings Bank was one of 
 the first, and owed its existence almost solely to the fostering 
 hand of Lord Medwyn. Those in England have realized 
 sixteen millions of capital. 
 
 It appears by the amount of Savings Banks furnished by 
 Mr Pratt, that the preference given to them by the public 
 over Benefit Societies is very great. A Loan Society, which 
 might more properly have been styled the Loan Bank, has 
 existed in London for some years, under the management of 
 Mr Longly of his Majesty's Exchequer, which has eifected a 
 world of good upon very slender means, to which many very 
 respectable people have been indebted for their emancipation 
 from embarrassing situations ; and to the reports of which, the 
 author refers with proud satisfaction as a near approxima- 
 tion to his plan, with complete success, and in operation with- 
 out his knowledge, and which he might still have been in ig- 
 norance of, but for the philanthropy of one who favoured him 
 with a perusal of some of the Society's early reports. 
 
 If a system of District or Parish Banks were therefore 
 established throughout the land, where the labourer might 
 not only deposit his savings, but where the needy might apply 
 for and obtain small loans, the greatest good would accrue,both 
 to the lower orders, and to the revenue of the State. The 
 rule might be made, that loans of a limited amount of entire 
 pounds, and for fixed periods, thereby facilitating the calcula- 
 tions of interest, should be afforded on the security of two 
 holders of deposit receipts, each of the value of the sum to 
 be lent, and permission for each of the sureties to draw re- 
 spectively one-half of their deposits, should they require
 
 19 
 
 it, and tlie other half upon the repayment of the sum bor- 
 rowed. The poor exercise among themselves a great deal 
 of charity proportioned to their means, and there is no- 
 thing so much wanted among them as the diffusion of money 
 for the furtherance of their limited designs. Even per- 
 sons in a higher walk of life will, in ninety-nine cases out 
 of an hundred, give their security where they will not give 
 their money, or disturb the appropriation of it, if they can 
 possibly help it. By this plan, the funds of the industrious 
 labourer may remain invested at interest, and two of them 
 can command the use of an additional capital for a neighbour 
 whom they may wish to oblige, and a poor man's friends or 
 neighbours are the best judges of the propriety of any little 
 speculation he may be induced to try. The Government 
 will find that it is of as much consequence to provide a sys- 
 tem of banking in every way adapted to the lower classes, as a 
 correct translation of the Bible, or a uniformity of weights 
 and measures. Hitherto the lower classes have had no alter- 
 native than to resort to the pawnbrokers, and it is an alter- 
 native the more distressing in proportion to their other afflic- 
 tions. To show the advantage of small loans to the poor, the 
 following instances may suffice : — A sum of £9 was lent to a 
 jx>or man with a large family, with which he purchased a 
 cow for jOS, and expended the other on wood, and in erect- 
 ing a byre. The cow was grazed, with the other cattle of the 
 villagers, in the lawn of a neighbouring mansion-house from 
 May to November, the charge was defrayed by the price ob- 
 tained from a farmer for the cow''s dung, the same also 
 compensated for winter feeding. The calf and butter were 
 sent to market, the jirice of the cow has been repaid, and 
 she is now the poor man's property. A similar sum was 
 lent to a jxTson who held a situation in a public com])any 
 now dissolved. This man's wish was to rent a small park 
 in the vicinity of the city, which he obtained ; lu,' pro- 
 ceedc<l to plough it, and then, by digging and jiortioning 
 it out as a kitchen garden, he was enabled the first year
 
 20 
 
 to realize a saving of ii'SO, and of about .£*100 the second 
 year. These two instances show how much the agricultural 
 poor may be benefited ; and innumerable instances might be 
 given of manufacturing labourers who have prospered when 
 the hand of patronage has been stretched to their relief. 
 This we may at once conceive perfectly, when we reflect for 
 a little on the multifarious handicraft occupations which are 
 carried on with little or no capital, and which make up so 
 largely to the wants of society, from the awl-blade-maker to 
 the constructor of steam-engines. The sumum bonum of the 
 whole is, that the entire conununity by similar means is ad- 
 vanced in general prosperity ; out of the variety of individu- 
 al prosperity, the greatness of the nation has its well springs. 
 We shall only instance one additional case : — A poor man 
 named Cawthorne, residing in Gravel Lane, Shadwell, who 
 has a wife and family of six small children, and who has been 
 for sometime partly supported by the parish, was advised, on 
 the day of the dissolution of Parliament, to manufacture illu- 
 mination candlesticks, as rejoicings would most certainly take 
 place in commemoration of the step adopted by his Majesty. 
 The poor fellow, who is a tinker, acted upon this advice, and, 
 with the assistance of his better half and his children, made 
 upwards of 6000 small candle-sticks by the Wednesday morn- 
 ing following, the whole of which he disposed of at one Is. 
 per dozen, for the purpose of affixing candles to be placed in 
 the windows of houses to be illuminated. The cost of the 
 material, bought by a friend, was only £4<, and the poor 
 man thus realised a net profit of more than £21, by his six 
 days' work, which has, he says, " set him upon his legs again," 
 and, from the depths of poverty, and a casual dependence on the 
 parish, rendered him comfortable, and has also enabled him to 
 purchase a few goods, and set up a small shop in the hardware 
 line. He could have sold double the number of candle-sticks 
 had they been made. — London Paper, 10th May, 1831. The 
 great factories deserve admiration ; but if the state of tilings
 
 21 
 
 is such, that a part of the very capital which they are con- 
 ducted with, is the credit from the banker of a portion of the 
 accumulated deposited savings of the lower classes, who de- 
 prive themselves of many comforts to keep these little funds 
 unbroken, that these may be a resource against poverty and 
 dependency in time of old age, common justice repuires that 
 tlie enlightened statesman should direct his energies to a 
 method whereby these minute savings should not be diverted 
 into great channels, to the sterility or injury of the very class 
 who have the best right to be benefited thereby, with their 
 appropriation. If money, which is the abstract of past la- 
 bour and speculation, is gotten in loan or deposited with cer- 
 tain persons for a trifling consideration, and if that same 
 money yields the parties in possession of its use, 95 per cent 
 in the same period, in which they have the use of it from its 
 owners for 2 per cent. Surely these owners of the money 
 had far better be advised to apply it in a more profitable 
 way to themselves and their friends. To Avhat expense is the 
 small depositor put to, from the reduction of wages among 
 his kindred and friends ! He cannot see his cousin and fa- 
 mily starve ; but he assists in every possible way, before he 
 has recourse to draw on the principal of his little deposit- 
 fund. The banker has of late protested that he does not 
 want it. Where else can the humble man place it ? Why 
 have not a system of Parish Banks been established long ago ? 
 The ramification of every new bank into the most obscure 
 corners, shows that they are called for ; and that, to be at 
 once general, they should have existed as we suggest. They 
 are of as much consequence as the Post Establishment to the 
 coimtry, and can l)e made to yield a revenue far beyond it to 
 tlie State, and to form a source of transcendent benefit and 
 relief to the whole community, but to the labouring classes 
 especially. If it were for the greater facility and safety of 
 correspondence that tlie administratif)n took the jjostagc 
 under its own conlroul, mucli more ni;iv it in ivcry view
 
 22 
 
 of the mattc'i-, take the keeping of the pubhc property, and 
 especially the public'^s deposits, into safe custody ; why have 
 regard to the least valuable, and suffer the most precious 
 part to continue liable to fluctuation or waste. "While so 
 many gratifying sources of revenue have remained entombed, 
 we have had recourse to the most disagreeable shifts to sus- 
 tain the national credit, and the expense of Government. 
 Soap, candles, light, dogs, shop-boys, &c. &c. have all con- 
 tributed to it. The convenience of a National Parish Bank 
 system would be much appreciated by the lower orders. In 
 remote places, a person who means to deposit a few pounds 
 has to take a day off his or her labour to accomplish it, and 
 it is effected at the expense of time and money. It may be, 
 that though a branch bank is in his vicinity, he may have 
 objections respecting it ; and while waiting the opportunity 
 of going to his favourite bank, interest is lost, and tempta- 
 tions to lend or spend a part of the money may beset him. 
 In the latter case, were he merely to become his neighbour's 
 surety in the way herein proposed, it would be less serious, 
 because he would have the advice and approval of a second 
 party to aid his own resolve. 
 
 Let us observe, however, the effect of the Parish Bank sys- 
 tem, in one aspect, as a source of direct gain to the state. 
 Suppose that only a million of pounds were to be deposited 
 throughout the empire, (and it is only about the sum de- 
 posited at one of the country agencies of one of the Scotch 
 Metropolitan Banks) ; if the State allows three per cent, for 
 the said million, and lends J*500,000 thereof at five per cent, 
 it is plain that the other .£'500,000 will be at the service of the 
 State for one-half per cent. ; and yet the design of reducing 
 the interest of the public debt lately to three per cent, was 
 considered a most momentous and hazardous undertaking to 
 the illustrious statesman who carried the measure. It may 
 be moderately estimated that one hundred millions of pounds 
 would shortly be deposited in this way throughout England
 
 23 
 
 and Scotland. The number of counties being eighty-seven, 
 on an average of a million each, the interest of this great 
 sum would be three millions per annum. Should fifty mil- 
 lions come to be re-lent at five per cent., the State would 
 thus have the use of the otlier fifty millions for one per cent., 
 (that is including one-half per cent, for management, but 
 exclusive of the charge of management, for only .£'500,000) ; 
 and should the Government deem it proper to issue a Parish 
 Bank note paper, on the principle laid down in this Essay, 
 in that case the three millions of interest would not only be 
 saved, but the two and a half millions for the loans, being a 
 revenue of five and a half millions per annum, or a saving to 
 such extent. If to this were added the Annuity Scheme, 
 (which forms the second part of this Essay,) the income from 
 both would probably be ten and a half millions. Nor would 
 the Banking Associations suffer thereby ; on the contrary, 
 their gains from discounts and exchanges Avould be greatly 
 multiplied ; they might certainly be getting quit of a part 
 of their deposit funds, which they profess they do not know 
 how to employ ; and at any rate their interests should never 
 be allowed to stand in the way of the public advantage. 
 The system would afford the best guarantee which the pub- 
 lic could desire for its own security, and that of tlicse esta- 
 blishments. It may be termed the Pendulum of National 
 Credit. Tlie more that the plan is maturely considered, the 
 more will it appear to be conducive to the prosperity of the 
 other banking establishments of the country. The Govern- 
 ment drafts would still be negotiated through their channel, 
 or its remittances. Indeed the impulse to business would be 
 felt by all, and the j}alsied affection which has so long be- 
 numbed the coinitry would disappear. There is no doubt 
 that the poor woidd avail themselves of the Ibrcsiiid scheme, 
 if established ; and the consequences would be, that for one 
 individual whose genius and nerve have hitherto borne him 
 uj) out of the labyrinth of his low estate to become an onia-
 
 24 
 
 ment to his country and to the world, there would be a mul- 
 titude of such ; and reason assures us, that under such a 
 monetary system as this, neither the utmost stretch of me- 
 chanical ingenuity applied to the purposes of man, nor the 
 dispensation of the means of improvement placed within the 
 reach of every individual, could, for any length of time, have 
 detracted from the prosperity of any class of persons whoso- 
 ever, and least of all from that of the labouring classes. The 
 adage, which says, " If wishes were horses, beggars would 
 ride," will never debar us from recommending this scheme. 
 How many fortunate men are there who can afford to 
 display the greatest ostentation, and yet prefer an unob- 
 trusive deportment ! If any should profess a dread of 
 arrogant assumption on the part of the lower classes when 
 their comforts are increased, it may be shrewdly suspect- 
 ed that such apprehensions arise from a conviction of not 
 deserving that deference which is claimed. An objection has 
 been made to the propriety of the banks allowing any cash- 
 credits, more with a pretence to make it appear that loans of 
 any sort are objectionable, and especially to scout the idea of 
 them to the lower orders, which may be answered thus : — 
 That if the objection be good for any thing, we must admit 
 that all banking whatsoever is improper, or that it is as pro- 
 per as to lend an umbrella on a rainy day. If we place 
 a robust man, without any means whatever, in the midst 
 of the Canadian forests he may perish, but only sup- 
 ply him for a time with instruments to clear his ground, 
 and we make him independent. If we place another on the 
 shore of Labradore, with nothing to aid him to render his 
 condition tolerable, we are morally certain he will perish, 
 but if we supply him with a few fish-hooks, lines, and a 
 tinder-box, we mav secure his existence and promote his 
 fortune ; let us try to do at home then what suits so well a- 
 abroad. 
 
 There are thousands of circumstances in which such loans are 
 indispensable; and although a poor man may not always be
 
 25 
 
 punctual in repaying what may be lent him by a man of wealth, 
 yet tlie case is materially changed when a person of his own rank 
 becomes his lender or surety. This is precisely the rule ob- 
 served in Mr Longly's Loan Society, the parties applying find 
 persons to guarantee the loan, and so soon as one loan is re- 
 paid, the principal is again ready to be relent ; thus by 
 the small sum of .^500 in 1823, about of'12000 was lent, and 
 not one case of default is stated as having occurred through- 
 out the year ; if the loan required is excessive, the sureties 
 are numerically increased. All wise men say that the Scotch 
 Banks, and others like them, create capital ; and Parish 
 Banks would also create capital ultimately among the labour- 
 ing classes, and keep it among them ; so that this is the most 
 effectual way of relieving the country, and stopping in the 
 shortest time the cry of distress, and the cry for innovation. 
 But let any one point out, if possible, a better expedient, 
 which shall interfere so little with existing institutions. 
 
 In estimating the amount of good to the labouring poor 
 from such a plan, we should not confine our views of it 
 simply to the amount which may be borrowed, but to the 
 multiplied transpositions it would undergo after it had passed 
 from the hands of the original borrower. There can be no 
 doubt, that if the impulse were once given, such a renova- 
 tion would succeed in Britain, as would give her people for 
 ever the pre-eminence among the nations ; and if any second- 
 ary cause, more than another, will have any effect in bringing 
 about the millennial age, it will be the adoption, among all 
 Christian nations, of a system of finance similar to what this 
 Essay briefly points out. We have only yet reached the 
 outskirts of that civilization which is our natural destiny on 
 eartli. Our men of science have only yet penetrated the true 
 nature of things; they have only yet produced models of 
 their discoveries, and the community will copy what is of 
 value until knowledge covers the earth. This was the de- 
 clared persuasion of that eminent philosoplicr Diigald Stewart.
 
 26 
 
 In a word, our Divine Creator has so ordained the arrange- 
 ment of the universe, that man's chief interest here below is 
 the gradual promotion of general principles of expediency, 
 the reverse of exclusive, and which withal leave genius unre- 
 stricted, and to its own deserts. These principles, properly 
 understood, are, in short, the whole duty of man, — never at 
 variance with rectitude, exemplified and maintained by the 
 Saviour of mankind, and his Apostles after him. It is unde- 
 niable, that if a system of Parish Banks had been established 
 many years ago, this country would have been in a very dif- 
 ferent state from what it is now ; and if the Government had 
 restricted the paper currency of private banks to d£'5 notes and 
 upwards, and had thereupon issued a pound note paper curren- 
 cy for the use of Parish Banks, regulated on the simple princi- 
 ple of being no more than the amount of the deposit-fund, it 
 never could have been depreciated ; and the whole deposits 
 of the poorer classes would have been preserved to them, 
 and the gain to the State incalculably great. In fact, the 
 whole amount could not have been better applied than in sub- 
 stituting it for a part of the national debt, which amount would 
 have cost the country but one half per cent. By this and 
 the second part of our scheme, a national revenue and fund 
 could be obtained, and both be perpetually increasing, and 
 enlarging by degrees the comforts of our fellow men, and 
 dissipating in a short period every direct tax, even though 
 the expenditure of the State should never undergo any di- 
 minution ; and it is to the former unsound, exclusive, and 
 variable nature of the currency, that all the misery which af- 
 fects the south of England, and her manufacturing districts, 
 is said to be charged ; and siach a system as we have now 
 suggested is, we are confident, the most perfect, just, and 
 ductile currency that by any possibility could be adopted — 
 ever suiting itself to the wants and exigencies of the people 
 — never too profuse, and never too contracted — but in all 
 places distributed according to the wants of all. By the
 
 27 
 
 simplest contrivance imaginable, the chance of forgery on a 
 Parish Bank paper currency, or any bank paper, could be 
 prevented, and the robbery of any Bank rendered useless ;* 
 and there is no alternative but either to promote this scheme 
 at once, or submit to support a debased population, who, 
 seeing only a poor prospect of bettering their condition, will 
 sink into hopeless idleness and dissoluteness of character. But 
 if a small paper currency is incompatible for the Government 
 to issue, by all means establish the Parish Banks, and let 
 the paper currency, where it warrantably exists, be employed 
 by the managers of the Parish Banks. 
 
 One great advantage of such a measure if carried into 
 effect, would be the entire disregard of the precious metals 
 as specie ; and so confident are we of its success, that by 
 and by we could not wish better for our most valued friends, 
 than that they should purchase up all the bonds of those 
 States, which had borrowed so largely of British money, as- 
 sured that the sclieme would be copied by all nations, and 
 that the result would be the speedy redemption of all their 
 
 ■ Without prematurely disclosing this idea, we may licre offer to assort that a 
 more systematic mode of publishing the Government Gazette would tend greatly 
 to the detection and hinderance of crime, and of robbery especially, and give the 
 nation generally a juster perception of the measures of the Government, and 
 neutralize the calumnies and misrepresentations of the factious, the most violent 
 of whom cannot object to this, as they affect to admit the empire of reason. M'e 
 would propose a Daily Gazette in London, containing, besides tlie usual matter, 
 a concise account of passing occurrences, and a candid report of Parliamentary 
 debates ; to be reprinted in every county town of the United Kingdom twice a 
 week ; to contain also ordinary advertisements, at the current charge of other 
 newspapers ; the direction of such county Gazettes to be ofllred, in the lirst in- 
 stance, to such of the proprietors of the country newspapers as would be desirous 
 thereof, and deserving of such appointments. There was a time when no Ga- 
 zette existed ; and the time is come when it is absolutely neccs.sary to improve 
 its principle. Tlierc are few indeed who ever sec it ; the proprietors and editors 
 of Metropolitan Papers, who would iiavc liic prospect of becomiiig iho publishers 
 of such a Provincial Gazette, would be induced to a tone of candour and extel- 
 leucc
 
 28 
 
 just debts ; and failing its adoption by the Administration, 
 we could not propose any plan to the consideration of private 
 philanthropy, or private pecuniary speculation, at once com- 
 bining both the most ample public good, as well as profit 
 to the public spirited persons who would set it in operation 
 as this. 
 
 As the chief call for such a bank is the amelioration of the 
 condition of the lower classes, and as it requires no subscrip- 
 tions in shape of shares, but merely that those in the public 
 confidence should become its trustees ; it is hoped a due per- 
 ception of its nature will be more fully explained, by a plan 
 of its constitution, in the shape of " Articles for the Con- 
 stitution of a Public Bank, whereby the lower orders and 
 middle classes may obtain loans for the encouragement of 
 private industry, by the diffusion of a part of the immense 
 capital, which it is possible for them to acumulate, as is de- 
 monstrated by the amount of stock in the Savings Banks.*" 
 That this stock does not afford a tithe of the advantage 
 which a capital, a tithe of its amount, is susceptible of im- 
 parting by circulation, is quite clear ; and while the foun- 
 ders of savings banks have here stopped short, no one has ven- 
 tured on a plan whereby the industrious poor may derive 
 the benefit of small loans, but in place of this they are, in 
 times of want, congregated in masses, to labour upon 
 works, and in ways by no accounts congenial to them, and 
 no sooner is the labour terminated, than their misery and 
 wants recur, and all the while the most efficient, the most 
 natural, and proper means of relief, are wholly overlooked, 
 the capacity of aiding themselves. Of the reception of the 
 scheme as a government undertaking, there is no doubt, and 
 of the stability of the design, any one may judge by the fol- 
 lowing proposal for the establishment of a Regent Deposit 
 and Loan Bank. 
 
 1. The constitution of the Bank will be the reception of the 
 smallest sunijfrom lOs.and upwards, whicli shall be held for the
 
 29 
 
 depositors at interest, and the relending of the capital according 
 to tlie following rules. No fractional parts of farthings to 
 be calculated on giving or receiving interest. 
 
 2. Until the utility of the Bank be placed conspicuously 
 before an approving public, and beyond the possibility of 
 doubt, the rate of interest to be allowed shall differ 2 per 
 cent, from the rate of discount to be charged upon advances ; 
 consequently the Bank will only at first allow 3 per cent, 
 upon deposits, and the charge Avill be 5 per cent, upon loans, 
 
 3. All persons having deposits in the Bank, will be at 
 liberty to demand advances being made to whomsoever they 
 recommend ; such advances may be to the extent of two- 
 thirds of the amount of the foresaid depositor's fund, which 
 shall be held in security for said advance, in all cases to the 
 extent of one-third part exceeding the said advance ; in spe- 
 cial cases, three-foiu'ths may be lent, and the lien in such 
 cases shall extend to «BBB-iourth part lan^rad the depositor's 
 fund, at the period of effecting the transaction only. 
 
 4. A specified time shall be stated for the duration of each 
 loan, and in every case where that term is exceeded, it shall 
 be in the option of the trustees either to renew the loan, or 
 to place the debt to the debit of the surety's fund, thus re- 
 paying the Bank, and transferring the claim to the surety. 
 
 5. All the indisposible capital shall be invested in govern- 
 ment securities, and in no other unless unanimously approv- 
 ed of by the whole trustees. 
 
 6. The trustees shall not intermeddle witli any description 
 of commodities on account of the Bank, but shall confine 
 their transactions to money and money stock. 
 
 7. The surplus gains of the Bank shall be set aside to 
 form a fund, wherewith to aftbrd discounts and loans to any 
 parties, with whom the trustees may deem it prudent to deal 
 on security. 
 
 8. The discounts and loans referred to in the preceding 
 article, are never to exceed the surplus fund of profits, thus
 
 30 
 
 giiarranteeing both the perfect utility and stability of the 
 Bank. 
 
 9. As the amassing of gain to itself, is not the object con- 
 templated by this Bank, but the prosperity of the public, 
 the trustees will dispense with a paper medium of its own, 
 and unless very urgent reasons may appear ultimately to in- 
 duce the trustees to alter this design, they will continue to 
 exercise their discretion in using the notes of whatsoever pri- 
 vate banks as may be warranted to them throughout the 
 country. 
 
 10. As it cannot be denied, however, that the object con- 
 templated by this Bank, will be best accomplished by a paper 
 circulation of its own ; this step will be kept in view by the 
 trustees in all parts of the country where the circulating 
 medium is inadequate to answer their purpose, and if its own 
 medium be introduced, due deference shall be shewn for such 
 private bank associations as continue to carry on business in 
 the neighboiu'ing district through means of a well regulated 
 local circulation. 
 
 11. Whensoever the situation of the Bank shall render it 
 safe to lower the rate of interest charged upon its loans, 
 and to increase the rate of interest allowed for deposits, the 
 smallest possible difference between the two rates to cover 
 the expense of the concern shall form a leading feature of the 
 establishment. 
 
 12. The trustees shall be chosen yearly, in the manner 
 afterwards to be declared, and they shall have the power of 
 framing by-laws for the government of the establishment, 
 and to purchase and infeft themselves on account of the Bank 
 in heritable premises, for conducting the said business of the 
 Bank, and to extend the said business of the Bank to any 
 part of Great Britain and Ireland. Letters of credit and bills 
 of exchange, together with all departments of bank business, 
 to be carried on under the preceding limitation. 
 
 Such is the plan proposed for the promotion of individual
 
 31 
 
 industry, by the application of a part of the vast capital which 
 the lower classes have proved they can realize. 
 
 The next object is, to shew the stability of the principle, 
 and the return likely to accrue from it, considered either as 
 a private or public undertaking. 
 
 If the Bank should realize four millions of deposit-money, 
 and grants 3 per cent, interest thereon, viz. - - odSOjOOO 
 And if two millions be relent at 5 per cent., the 
 
 interest receivable for which will be - - - - 100,000 
 
 20,000 
 The other two millions being left to be funded, in 
 Government stock, yielding at the present cur- 
 rent price, 3| per cent., the return would be - 7^5^00 
 
 Shewing a gross surplus profit of _ _ - _ - i?50,000 
 
 And were the whole capital to remain inert, the 
 
 half per cent, would leave a surplus of - - - <i?20,000 
 
 Out of Avhich the charge of the establishment would fall to 
 be defrayed, which shovdd never exceed i per cent, on the 
 deposits. 
 
 Very clever and efficient agents could be found through- 
 out all parts of the country, in the persons of the young and 
 respectable law practitioners, who would gladly take charge 
 of the most remote places, and for very little compensation. 
 They would rejoice at the opening up of a new field of duty, 
 so very different in its nature from their present disagreeable 
 alternative of idleness or chicanery. 
 
 There is nothing in the law of Savings Banks, as relates 
 to Scotland at least, to prevent a transference of their funds 
 to such an improved establishment as this, and thus, at the 
 outset, to give it a large amount of business. But, as re- 
 spects both England and Ireland, an act of Parliament would 
 be requisite.
 
 52 
 
 It is to be expected, that after the establishment of such a 
 Bank, every one, howev^er mean, would be sure of obtaining 
 that ])roportion of support wliich those best acquainted with 
 him considered he deserved ; and those calamities, which 
 have so long borne down the poor, would speedily disappear. 
 
 The manner of banking in London can never make any 
 difference in the native principles of the banking trade, as a 
 late pamphleteer Avould have his readers to imagine ; on the 
 contrary, we infer and maintain, that what may obtain in one 
 metropolis may be as suitable for another. And if one body 
 of directors be held up to public commendation, it is possible 
 enough for another body to deserve equal approval. 
 
 We will be excused a little digression here, to shew the 
 fallacy of this author's reasoning. Beyond a few tabular facts, 
 his pamphlet has nothing to recommend it. He destroys the 
 splendid fabric which his work is intended to prop. He 
 shews it up as quite usurious in its dealings with the public ; 
 he disapproves, in one part, of over-issues, and in the next, 
 proposes that in place of restricting the issues, that a rate 
 beyond what the law allows should be charged, in preference 
 to a restriction of the issues to those best able to bear the 
 brunt of it, — that any rate of discount is preferable to stint- 
 ing the powerful, but that the weak in resources may be scat- 
 tered to the winds, he involves the utility of the Bank of 
 England, which his pamphlet is meant to support. He 
 imputes the inconveniency attendant on the transferences 
 of the public funds to a wrong cause, and concludes, that 
 they became discredited in 1825 and 1826, whereas the Bank 
 monopoly was the occasion of their depreciation. He gives 
 utterance to the crudest opinions, that bank associations in 
 the metropolis would not act in concert, and he seems not to 
 know that concert is the soul of all banking, — that every 
 establishment holds a check-cord on its opponents ; and, vice 
 versa, what he advances in page 48 is of a piece with what 
 he states in page 41, and he entirely overlooks the profit on
 
 33 
 
 the paper representative circulation altogether. If his theory 
 were established, That all persons carrying on the business of 
 banking, should be compelled to give security for their issues, 
 nobody would be so mad as to become bankers, and the law 
 would be both arbitrary and undefinable. The distinction 
 in degree, and the affinity of certain circumstances to what 
 may, if overstepped, be of the greatest public evil, or public 
 benefit, is so difficult to comprehend, and is so blended both 
 in the public and private concerns of life, that their effects 
 are only at first imperceptibly[discovered; by imperceptible 
 stages they become prominent, and they frequently grow so 
 stupendous as to counteract their original intent; or the force 
 of circumstances of a new order, render the former means, 
 inadequate longer to answer their primary purpose, the Bank 
 of England is not the only establishment which should give 
 place to the public exigencies, and which will be the greater, 
 by such modifications as will suit the condition of society at 
 its present start. 
 
 Whatever be the alterations in the law relative to banking, 
 one thing is clear, that the great edifice referred to, has con- 
 ducted the business of the national debt with such regula- 
 rity and precision, that almost any recompense is preferable 
 to the risk of disordering it in other hands ; and so long as 
 that debt remains, the management thereof should be con- 
 tinued in the same establishment. To speak metaphorically, 
 the Bank of England should be regarded by the public in 
 the same sense that a family should consider the well-being 
 of a relative who had been tlicir trustee during the long pe- 
 riod of their minority ; and seeing that the members of the 
 family, under his careful management and example, are now 
 competent to begin business on their own accoiuit, it is still 
 necessary to request this tried friend to continue his control 
 of the family estate, until the mortgages are all paid uj). 
 
 While we concede to this writer, that the doctrine of free 
 trade ought not to be so violently pushed, as to endanger 
 
 C
 
 34 
 
 those immense interests, which the supineness of our forefa- 
 thers suffered to reach their present elevation. We firmly 
 dissent from his hasty inference, that *' the opening up of 
 " the banking business in London, would give to ignorance, 
 " craft and rapacity, the ascendency over skill, integrity and 
 " liberality.'" Had he been anxious to sap the foundations 
 of the glorious fabric which his pamphlet is intended to up- 
 hold, he could not have used language more fitting to his 
 purpose. We rejoice that although the Bank of England 
 may possibly be no longer the only establishment through 
 whose portals the streams of commercial energy may flow, to 
 refresh and nourish this mighty people : yet, that it shall 
 long be considered and respected as the first dispensary of 
 wealth to the nations. 
 
 In treating of the evil of a fall in the exchange on Lon- 
 don, the foregoing pamphlet is unintelligible to our capacity. 
 Let us for once take his own words for our illustration, and 
 try to bring some light out of his darkness. After treating of 
 the great evil to be apprehended by an over issue of any par- 
 ticular baiik, in page 53, he tells us, that the risk of having 
 their paper refused, or speedily returned on their hands, will 
 produce extreme caution ; but upon turning the leaf to page 
 54, he very innocently throttles the whole drift of his pam- 
 phlet, by saying,* " What we have now stated is completely 
 decisive as to this part of the question, namely, as to the 
 propriety of maintaining the Bank of England monopoly." 
 It is quite well known, that all Banks issuing a paper medi- 
 um in the same city, must have a mutual and similar rate of 
 exchange, else the greatest hold they have of public confi- 
 dence becomes shaken ; and although they have a mutual 
 check upon each other in the exchanges which take place in 
 regard to their notes, be it daily or weekly, still this check 
 is not so complete, but that one of them may do a vast deal 
 more business than the others ; and so long as this prefer- 
 
 * Historical Sketch of the Bar.'t of England.
 
 35 
 
 ehce of the public is not caused by that particular bank 
 breaking in upon the common rules which mutually subsist 
 between it and the others, they can have no cause of jealousy ; 
 but if it were caused by an infringement of those rules, then 
 the other banks might reasonably decline taking its drafts 
 for the balances of its notes in their favour, at these ex- 
 changes, and thus destroy it at once, however solvent it were. 
 But this control of each other is noways connected with their 
 control of the circulation ; the whole of them may resolve to 
 diminish or to extend it at will, and the balances of their mu- 
 tual exchanges may be the same, although the amount of 
 notes exchanged were <£20 only, or 6P2,000,000. 
 
 It appears to us, that the principles of exchange, both fo- 
 reign and domestic, have been founded entirely on motives 
 of private advantage ; and there has never existed a cause so 
 fraught Avith mischief to individuals and to communities, 
 as the capricious condition of the public currency of States, 
 and the variations in the rate of exchange between different 
 countries ; and in place of any approximation being attempt- 
 ed or steadily kept in view, the most grotesque variation ex- 
 ists, both in the money terms and intigers, and in the purity 
 of the metals which form their coinages ; they are of unequal 
 appearance, unequal size, and of unequal purity, when tlie 
 weight or appearance corresponds, thus requiring no small 
 degree of algebraical attainment to compreliend their relative 
 measure of value. If this racking of the mind were the ob- 
 ject to be attained by the confusion of a simple principle, it 
 were perliaps excusable ; but while it is only of advantage at 
 times to tlie intriguer, in exchange, the bulk of mankind are 
 daily liable to be cheated,and stultified by such a state of things. 
 Yet nothing could be more convenient for Holland and Prus- 
 sia, for instance, or any other of the adjacent nations, than to 
 assimilate their coinages in purity and appearance to each 
 other. Mankind are much more arbitrarily dealt witli, by 
 the present incongruous condition of this subject, than by 
 any one general modification of it. Generation after genera- 
 tion of commercial people have to endure all the inconveni-
 
 36 
 
 ences of tlie existing variety. But men are not born with 
 such a precocity of intellect ; they have to learn, and to guard 
 against, the varying values, which every terrestrial substance 
 in the commerce of the globe is likely to assume at any parti- 
 cular spot, within any specific time. 
 
 To secure against much of this inconvenience, nay to per- 
 fect and fix the rate of exchange, is in the power of the 
 British administration within its own empire, by the joint 
 means of its consular, commissariat, and packet establish- 
 ments ; that this will be attended to there is no doubt, be- 
 cause it is a first duty of any executive. Neither the prin- 
 ciples, by which the currency and exchange ought to be go- 
 verned, should be left for a field of private speculation, any 
 more than that every man should be allowed to place the 
 personal liberty of his neighbour under restraint, when he 
 can conveniently do it to suit his own ends. 
 
 The same law which regvilates the principles on which all 
 property is made to appertain to the right possessors, has 
 never recognised that property, in a state of transference, as 
 liable to capricious charges for such transferences, the rate of 
 charge has been always under salutary restraint in Britain, 
 in such a state it is not considered a legitimate subject of 
 speculation, being itself the essence of past speculation and 
 labour ; the causes of the speculations in foreign exchanges 
 can be proved to have as little to do with the quantity and 
 amount of merchandise, interchanged between certain places, 
 as the tides of ocean have with the boiling of a kettle, but 
 interested persons will have the public to believe the ex- 
 change vacillates according to the amount of commerce or of 
 interchanges. It is sufficient at present to say we can disprove 
 this. 
 
 The state of the world is favourable to the establishment 
 of a company in London, which would require but a very 
 moderate capital for the purpose of producing the most de- 
 sirable firmness in the foreign Exchanges, having its agents 
 spread over all parts of the globe after the example of
 
 37 
 
 Lloyds, and having a fixed scale of charges for its drafts ; 
 the profit of such a company could not but be far more 
 certain than that of most others, the only obstacle would be 
 the difficvdty of choosing responsible parties as its foreign 
 correspondents, but it is conceived that many foreign houses, 
 of first rate respectability, would gladly find guarantee, and 
 be happy to become agents for such a company. In places 
 whereon no letters of credit or drafts would be made or sought, 
 and indeed, as respects most places, direct remittances in 
 specie should be made to balance accounts ; and failing the 
 regular transmission, in any one instance, without the clearest 
 proof of continued probity on the part of the agent, he could 
 be very speedily superceded, and the worst would be an 
 average defalcation ; and the greater regularity of the chief 
 agencies would make up for the want of opportunity for mak- 
 ing remittances so statedly by those in places more remote, or 
 of less consequence, those should be subordinate to the chief 
 agencies ; and interchanges between them would greatly con- 
 tribute to remove this disadvantage, that is on the supposi- 
 tion of the company, from the very first, establishing its 
 agencies so very generally. 
 
 For example, the merchants in Halifax, Nova Scotia, or 
 at Marnham, South America, prefer the drafts of this great 
 company to those of private parties, and the agent has 
 received specie for several drafts in course of the month. 
 The parties can have no earlier or safer course of remitting, 
 which does not equally offer itself to the agent. He re- 
 mits the specie which is insured, and it arrives with equal ce- 
 lerity to the bills. They, on the contrary, are addressed to 
 various parts of the country, the receivers keep them a few 
 days, or, as soon as possible, take them to the nearest bank, 
 which if a branch bank, does not perhaps correspond every 
 day with the head office, which again permits probably a 
 day to intervene (it may depend on the post) ere it tnmsnn'ts 
 the dralt to London for acceptance. The company have, by 
 this time, got the specie to hand, and admitting tiiat the
 
 38 
 
 drafts were at half the usual date, on the supposition that 
 the slender means of the company required them to be in 
 possession of the identical specie for which the draft was pro- 
 cured, there is little question that they would be placed in 
 possession ere the maturing date expired. There is scarcely 
 a more laudable commercial proposition than this that could 
 be offered for the public to embrace. 
 
 If the institution of such a company served no other pur- 
 pose than a security against the evils which attend the bank- 
 ruptcy of private concerns, which carry on the foresaid branch 
 of commerce in a limited way, its establishment ought not 
 to be for a moment delayed or deferred. By the failure of 
 such a house as we have mentioned, an enormous train of 
 misfortune may be the consequence of the non-payment of a 
 single draft ; it is iaconceivable what an amount of evil has 
 been encountered in this way both at home and abroad. 
 There is no question that the formation of such a company as 
 this suggested, would raise the value of all colonial produce 
 in time, by the removal, in a great measure, of the necessity 
 for forced sales of commodities sent home to meet engage- 
 ments, which the high rate of exchange prevents being settled 
 otherwise. Moreover, such a company Avould long uphold 
 our national, commercial, and manufacturing supremacy. 
 
 The second part of our proposition relates to an annuity 
 system. We conceive it might easily be rendered effectual 
 for all male persons, at least upon attaining the age of twenty, 
 to begin a course of seven years payment of 40s. premium 
 per annum, to constitute the root of an annuity deferred to 
 the decline of life, or which, if convenient, might be antici- 
 pated by fewer or single payments ; and where the parties 
 chanced to be very poor, quarterly payments might be taken, 
 as some of the private Institutions do. How far it would be 
 advisable, in the outset of such a system, to make the whole 
 population above the age of twenty, according to their re- 
 spective ages, subject to these payments, might be question- 
 able ; but of this, we are certain, that the scheme would be a
 
 39 
 
 very popular one, and, after its original institution, the num- 
 ber of annual payers would not exceed a seventh part of the 
 \vhole male population ; and if the army or navy had these 
 proportions collected from their pay, the difficulty of manage- 
 ment would not be in any degree equal to what might at first 
 appear. Besides the popularity of the measure, the number 
 of wealthy persons who would at once disburse the statutory 
 amount, leaves the matter one of very easy fulfilment. The 
 amount should be limited to such a svim as would not be con- 
 sidered an infringement on the rights of creditors, and should 
 be unattachable ; and if the Legislature sanctions entails, a 
 measure of this nature may well be sanctioned, which cannot 
 but eventually deliver the country from pauperism and poor"'s 
 rates, and all their train of evils. 
 
 It might be rendered imperative to complete the deposits 
 previous to marriage, and in this case many anticipations of 
 the rule would ensue. Of course, any continued payment 
 beyond what the law required, would be so much to the 
 benefit of the party making it. Females should also be in- 
 cluded, but only voluntarily. It is computed that 40s., 
 payable for seven years, would, from the age of twenty, at 
 five per cent, compound interest per annum, produce 6^112 
 at sixty-five, or, by the annuity-tables of any of the private 
 Assurance Companies which make the accumulation of stock 
 an object, entitle, at sixty-five, to an annuity of L.14.* 
 
 The accumulated sum might either be paid to the party 
 to whom it belonged, under particular circumstances, at an 
 earlier period of life, if approved by the district committee 
 of management for the time being, (who, by the way, should 
 consist of heritors of tlie parish or district,) or, without re- 
 spect of creditors, to his or her lawful heirs, or as an annuity 
 for the remainder of life, or for a limited period, to the wi- 
 dow and children of a defunct ; and thus many a widowed 
 
 • The yearly expense of maintaining and cloatliing lliu inniHlc» of tit Cuth< 
 belts poor house ib L,7 ; 7 : 8 each, the number of I'troons 500.
 
 40 
 
 mother would be greatly aided in rearing her young family. 
 It might not be suitable to admit much variety in the amount 
 of the annuities ; but, for very poor people, in some cases 
 half the visual sum might answer, or the foundation of a £6 or 
 ^10 annuity be held as a fulfilment of the statute. The pre- 
 sumption is, there would be few defaulters. But, to aid this 
 truly patriotic plan, it is to be hoped and expected that local 
 associations would arise to assist the meanest of the people 
 who worthily deserved assistance. If the ten millions which 
 are annually expended on poor's rates were to be made a 
 double assessment for once, and the additional assessment laid 
 out at compound interest, in twenty years hence pauperism 
 would not exist as it does now ; and if only the funds of the 
 British and Foreign Bible Society could be annually equalled, 
 relief to half the premiums required from 100,000 poor per- 
 sons could be made up. Such relief or assistance would go 
 far to secure against the defalcation of the very lowest of the 
 people. But when we consider the question as a provision or 
 no provision for old age, the relations of all persons would 
 zealously subscribe the necessary amount : any other suppo- 
 sition is quite unnatural. 
 
 It is also to be hoped that many donations from persons 
 who might be fortunate in the world would be presented to 
 their native parishes for this purpose. Besides, it may be 
 presumed, that, by making all classes subject to the statute 
 proposed, many of the wealthy would never claim the benefit 
 of the measure, and thus create a fund for either ultimately 
 diminishing the rate, or increasing the amount of annuities ; 
 or for defraying the cost of annuities to paupers, if there 
 should then be such beings in the country ; or for maniacs, &c. 
 
 Among the many advantages and recommendations of this 
 twofold scheme of Parish Banks and Annuities, may be 
 stated the transition from a state of heavy taxation and poor's 
 rates to a state of comparative ease and universal plenty, 
 and the loyalty which would be diff 'used throughout the em-
 
 41 
 
 pire ; for what parent, or what son or daughter, would hence- 
 forth whisper the breath of sedition against that constitution, 
 under which they were sure of wearing out an old age of in- 
 dependence and peace ? 
 
 A vast accumulation of money would be thrown at the 
 disposal of the Treasury, which would go on increasing so 
 long; as the constitution endured. We annex some calcula- 
 tions to show the revenue from the Annuity Scheme alone, 
 which would amount to a stock of about two hundred mil- 
 lions in twenty years, and every successive year''s collection 
 defraying the annuities, leaving the accumulated stock of 
 the first 25 or 30 years to be applied in extinction of the 
 dead weight. It is not necessary here to enter into a de- 
 tail of the mode of management : Suffice it to say, that the 
 machinery of the conjoined scheme, might simply consist of 
 one officer at least in each parish, under the control of the 
 heritors ; the parish office to be in communication with dis- 
 trict or county offices, as a security against accidents, fire, 
 &c. ; and finally, these under a Board of Commissioners in 
 London ; all the parish bank notes and receipts for premi- 
 ums to be engraved with the name of the parish and county 
 in a conspicuous style ; exchanges between adjoining parishes 
 to be effected on the last day of every week, and between 
 counties contiguous, once a month or oftener if necessary, for 
 the notes ; and the first lawful day of each week at least to 
 be appropriated to the business both of the bank and of tlie 
 annuities ; and one office for small contiguous Burgage pa- 
 rishes might suit ; the receipts for the various premiums to 
 be produced, if possible, upon all applications, and to be cer- 
 tified to the District Office, and thence to tlie Board of Con- 
 trol, previous to receiving the benefit. When we consider 
 that the object is an individual who must have existed many 
 years to the knowledge of his parish, he could not pass him- 
 self for what lie was not. It would be hartlly j)()ssibk' to 
 commit a fraud on the officers of the establishment ; and the
 
 42 
 
 chief difficulty or hazard would be, lest a fraud should be at- 
 tempted within the management. As for the changes of do- 
 micile, these would be easily attended to. The casualties of 
 the whole population of the Empire are already under record 
 in various ways and forms, and their arrangement is a matter 
 of every day simple government, without any difficulty. Self- 
 interest would instruct as to this. Even those who expatri- 
 ated themselves would claim the benefit of the measure ; so 
 that the system, as we have already said, is one of easy ful- 
 filment. It is to the establishment of a twofold system such 
 as this, that the wise, the good, and the influential throughout 
 the land, should draw the public attention. 
 
 A great public measure, of a general nature such as this, 
 is the only effectual mode of bringing permanent relief to the 
 labouring population. The establishment of Benefit Societies, 
 as recommended at the great manufactories, can never be- 
 come general or popular ; they are rather perniciovis ; they 
 fix down the labourer to one locality, which he might find 
 not to suit him, and difficult to get away from, though a bet- 
 ter were in his view ; and they would affiard a pretext to his 
 employer, if so disposed, for still further reducing the rate 
 of wages. The funds of such societies, however small com- 
 paratively, might be held up as a plea against any after legis- 
 lative measure in favour of the working classes. Nay, these 
 funds might be applied by the people themselves towards un- 
 constitutional ends. But such a consequence would never re- 
 sult from a Parish Bank system, on a principle like the one 
 now discussed. Besides, it bears such an impress of moral 
 excellence about it, that it forbids any such suspicion of per- 
 versity ; and public misrule would have proceeded to a great 
 height indeed, before it could destroy the confidence of a 
 whole nation, and occasion the withdrawal of their funds. 
 However, this would not be so easy as some persons might 
 dread. Not even the prospect of invasion could effect a ge-
 
 48 
 
 neral run on it. Not even foreign domination could destroy 
 the credit of the principle. 
 
 Before concluding our brief observations on this interesting 
 topic, " The amelioration of the condition of the people," we 
 may be permitted to avail ourselves of the only opportunity 
 which propriety may admonish us to assume, of expressing 
 a few general sentiments relative to the peasantry of Ireland, 
 and the means for their temporal improvement, oiir remarks 
 will universally apply. 
 
 If the observations we set out with in our third page, be 
 admitted as correct, then it must be a muddiling policy 
 which has any underplot to serve, by qualifying the practice 
 or appearance of certain usages, at the cost of a nation'^s hap- 
 piness. We grant it should be considered an established 
 truth, that although the seeds of improvement are sown, the 
 fruit of such improvement must be in part secured, before 
 any conservative policy can be withdrawn. Consequently, 
 however, it is clear, that the ground being a valuable soil, 
 the seed should have a fair chance of taking root, and of be- 
 ing nurtured after the most approved mode, and as the har- 
 vest is progressively made good, the materials of the old in- 
 closures, ought not to obstruct the new disposition of things, 
 but the overseers should take care to remove these by degrees, 
 and to prevent these materials becoming cumberous, to ap- 
 ply or appropriate them to such useful purposes as they 
 may be best adapted for, until all issued in beauty to the eye, 
 and gladness to the heart. 
 
 Tiiese premises being assented to, the next consideration 
 is the best mode of culture, and here we must drop metaphori- 
 cal terms, to be plain and explicit. 
 
 The Irish agricultural poor are the objects of our solicitude, 
 and the plan we propose is simple and completely to the 
 winning post in our own opinion. Let the Irish landlords, 
 the government, and the aristocracy weigh it well. The 
 peasantry arc of a social temperament, and their ha[)pincss
 
 44 
 
 consists best in villages and hamlets of moderate and varying 
 size. Wewouldleave the system of social life where we find it, 
 and merely point to one or two leading inducements to cause 
 an alteration of its style, and in place of the introduction of 
 a system of poor laws, and the erection of parish work- 
 houses, we would proceed to remedy the evil in the follow- 
 ing way : — 
 
 We think that every landlord who would undertake to 
 ereet comfortable dwellings on his estate to accommodate the 
 number of families who might previously have comprised 
 each hamlet upon it, in place of those worthless hovels which 
 at present encumber the land, and according to such a plan 
 or plans as should be approved of by a commission, ought to 
 have the means of so doing extended to him either by the 
 government, or by the Banks in Ireland, upon him granting 
 security over the said dwelling houses when constructed, 
 which should be either sold or let by the landlord at a rate 
 not exceeding 7 per cent on the original cost. We are aware 
 that in many of the villages throughout Scotland, houses of 
 two stories or floors, with independent gables, slated roofs, 
 cowsheds, and walled gardens, the houses consisting of at 
 least four apartments, well plastered walls, besides closets ; 
 the door-ways and window sills of hewn stone ; have been ob- 
 jects of speculation to masons and carpenters in the country, 
 who perhaps have laboured a year or two acquiring the trade 
 as journeymen in the metropolis, such houses being common- 
 ly sold at about d^'SO to £60, and drawing a rent of about 
 i?10 annually, the clay biggens and cumberous thatched 
 roofs, are every where giving place to them. 
 
 But where so much remains to be done in this respect as 
 in Ireland, it could be effected at far less cost, and in a man- 
 ner far more complete than any which the individual means 
 of the labouring population in Scotland has for an example 
 to boast of. 
 
 The village carpenter, smith, and schoolmaster, would re-
 
 45 
 
 quire entire houses of tlie description we have stated, tlie 
 ground floor would be occupied as the workshop, and these 
 worthies would the soonest become the proprietors of the 
 houses they inhabited, it would be a point of honest ambi- 
 tion to them, and we opine that tlie land owners would dis- 
 pose of feus, but with the exception of the parties stated, and 
 the village tavern-keeper, which last profession many land- 
 owners limit ; we find that such houses as we have described 
 contain two families, having each at least two apartments 
 and a number of small closets, &c. Estimating the cost of 
 building and finishing at i?50, the rent of each family would 
 only be £1 : 15s. at 7 per cent. We know also, that in the 
 course of the transformations, which are still taking place in 
 Scotland, many parts of which did resemble Ireland in this 
 respect, it is effected without any interval of idleness or want 
 to the rustic population, and that on the contrary, they re- 
 ceive very good wages for quarrying and cartaging to\vards 
 those very improvements while they are in progress. The 
 small cottar by the sale of his little stock of farm implements 
 has possession of a sum wherewith he now regularly attends 
 the roup of his landlord's or steward's crop, and he finds his 
 condition to be no less independent than before, and far more 
 peaceful. In those parts of Ireland where population and 
 poverty prevail, they will continue to prevail until it is 
 counted beggarly to live in the manner the peasantry now do. 
 We believe the landlords can in a very short space remove 
 its load, and convert these very circumstances into others of 
 material and lasting advantage to themselves and to tlie people, 
 by introducing along with the preceding, the custom under 
 their own stewards, or tenants, (or even middlemen,) of sell- 
 ing the growing crops in small lots to the peasantry, instead 
 of letting to them the land in patches, and allowing every 
 one to take his own way in rearing any sort of produce. We 
 recommend the adoption of this plan to all Irish landlords 
 and farmers, and we conjure them to cause it to be explained
 
 46 
 
 at an early season to the peasantry, and before tlie crops call 
 have attained their most pristine appearance, we are confi- 
 dent the people would regard the progress of the vegetation 
 with as much interest as the owner himself, and the most sa- 
 tisfactory good will would pervade every portion of those dis- 
 tricts which are now the scene of insubordination and terror, 
 and the landlord or farmer who by his superior capital had 
 prepared the earth for producing the most abundant returns, 
 by a system of husbandry which was impossible otherwise for 
 the peasantry to introduce, would receive the praise they so 
 justly deserved. By this method the tithes could be more 
 easily collected than by any other plan, and in all the routine 
 of agricultural labour, the villagers would find hired employ- 
 ment except in the season of harvest, when most of them would 
 reap on their own accovmt, and the farmer would be bound to 
 give the aid of his carts and horses to the ingathering. 
 
 Wheresoever this practice has been introduced, it has been 
 attended with the most beneficial results to all parties, a price 
 has been obtained for the crop equal to, and often beyond, 
 what the farmer could get for it in the public market, after 
 he had incurred the trouble and expense of harvesting, pre- 
 paration, and conveyance ; and it will be perfectly clear to 
 any intelligent agriculturist, that this method of maintaining 
 the price of our own native produce, and, at the same time, 
 benefiting the peasantry, is the most satisfactory that can be 
 desired, the fodder will be consumed within the precincts of 
 the estate, and abundance of good manure can be had in re- 
 turn for a part of the price of crop, the poor will be kept in 
 occupation, and this occupation they will have at the most 
 interesting season, on their own account. The advantages 
 to them will consist in the greater quantity which they will 
 realize when compared to the stinted measure and the higher 
 price of the retail dealers. In the saving of harvesting, in 
 the saving of transportation, in the saving of the corn-factor's 
 and the small dealers' profits. Thus they will find their
 
 47 
 
 slender means rendered doubly efficient, and their comforts 
 doubled, with half the money which would otherwise be ne- 
 cessary to purchase but half the same quantity of the neces- 
 saries of life, and this too, with no greater toil than they 
 have now to put forth to enable them to receive such a sum of 
 wages as cannot purchase from the retail dealer a portion of 
 the comforts of common life in any degree equivalent to the 
 quantity which they can procure by the preceding method. 
 
 The practice we have stated is the only one which can 
 enable the agriculturist to maintain any thing like compen- 
 sating prices, and it is the only one which can put the means of 
 supporting the prices in the power of the people, for whom 
 all cultivation is carried on. And if the rural population are 
 driven to the necessity of deriving their necessaries by pur- 
 chase from the village chandler, and he becomes familiar 
 with the mode of drawing his supplies from the stores of 
 foreign produce, we question if ever after, any measure could 
 sustain the cultivation of our home produce at a remunerat- 
 ing price, and also the credit of the country. It is never in 
 traffic with the soil that the interest of landlord or of tenant 
 consists, but in its productiveness and the obtainment of a 
 price. We trust it will not be esteemed unnecessary for us 
 to have said so much upon it, the plan is familiar to us, as 
 Avell as the subject. 
 
 It is, however, lamentable to hear it maintained that tiiere 
 can be no measure of relief devised, as if the advancement of 
 the lower orders should occasion a diminution of the respect 
 hitherto paid to higli rank and station, or a decline of any 
 practice, either in jurisprudence or physic. Such notions, if 
 they do exist at all, are gross errors. Had ever the progress 
 of knowledge such an effect ? There would rather ensue a 
 greater tenacity of right, with less of the gross acrimony of 
 olden times ; in short, the same respect for noble birtli, and 
 the same amount of practice, both in law and ])hysic, with 
 better ])ayment, and far less trouble in accpiiring it.
 
 48 
 
 The system of relief now suggested in these pages might 
 supersede the recommendation of a late Parliamentary report 
 on the state of the labouring classes. It has this pre-emi- 
 nence of purpose to that report, that it promises to effect a 
 certain provision in the best period of every man's life, and 
 of a definite amount, out of every man's own exertions, 
 which no adverse circumstances can impair ; whereas the re- 
 commendation in the report carries on the face of it many ob- 
 jections.* It is only where men are congregated in masses 
 that societies will be formed, and the foreman of most of these 
 great manufactories will, from various motives, be the most 
 likely to fill the situation of treasurer ; consequently, being 
 a person in the confidence of the proprietor of the establish- 
 ment, the fund will be controllable in some degree by his in- 
 fluence ; and probably the institution of such societies would 
 be most frequently or generally promoted at such factories 
 as were of least stability, to aid the pecuniary views and ne- 
 cessities of the employer. Innumerable instances would 
 arise, where vexatious arrestments, and difficulties would be 
 put in the way of repayment ; and when a member meant to 
 remove, it might neither be convenient, nor perhaps possible, 
 for him to continue one of the same society ; and the portion 
 of savings which might be fixed for contribution, would re- 
 quire to undergo continual fluctuation with the rise and fall 
 of wages, and would indeed be impossible to fix, so as to suit 
 any number of persons. Societies also would operate as a 
 bar to the freedom of action among the workmen, and the 
 consequences of a power to draw on the fund at any period 
 would induce a practice of satisfying inordinate wants, upon 
 the credit thereof, at the dearest rate ; and whilst they de- 
 
 • On Sunday the 16th January, one of the stewards to the Spinners' Society 
 held in Manchester, absconded with about L.75, being the amount of the district 
 subscription towards assisting the turn-out spinners of Ashton and the neigh- 
 bourhood.
 
 4^ 
 
 luded themselves with the semblance of forethought, they 
 would, on the other hand, be exposed to the temptation of 
 incurring debt. We speak here of manufacturing labourers 
 who have the most scanty pay — a state of debt to such being, 
 of all others, the most to be dreaded on grounds of moral 
 principle. The huckster most in favour with the treasurer of 
 the society would alone have the chance of paymentj or the 
 best chance ; and the reverse of a state of relief to the poor 
 labourer or the country would, in all probability, be the con- 
 sequence of such societies. That they have availed little is 
 too manifest, from their insignificance compared with the 
 Savings Banks, both as respects the number of them and 
 their relative resources throvighout the whole Empire. 
 
 Finallv, if the price of labour be at all times regulated 
 only according to the cost of maintenance, and that it is 
 little else appears evident ; and consequently, if the young 
 and vigorous can only earn so much as shall barely support 
 themselves, the necessity of a legislative enactment, compell- 
 ing a provision for the decline of life, is admissible on the 
 first principles of the common law. Yet it is not presumed 
 that any part of the funds which might be deposited under 
 such a system as the one herein stated, should be render- 
 ed sacred, except the precise sum to constitute the root of 
 an annuity, which should not exceed the ordinary amount 
 of labourer's wages ; and the same law which authorizes 
 entails, could in equity certainly authorize this. But all ex- 
 tra payments to accoimt of any party should be left liable 
 to attachments in the ordinary course. 
 
 Surely no Legist M-ill affirm that we have made much 
 progress in civilization or ethical science, while some such 
 principle as this remains imapplied. It is the consciousness 
 of the necessity, for a provision against the recurring wants 
 of our corporeal existence, and the variety of tlic means 
 adopted for this purpose, wiiich distinguishes civilized man 
 from his less civilized brethren of the wilderness. And shall 
 
 D
 
 50 
 
 it be allowed, that we cannot exceed our present attainments, 
 or that a peaceful independence for the aged among us, 
 founded on a principle of this nature, havtr^g the inculcation 
 of industry in early life for its basis, shall be any longer de- 
 layed or omitted. 
 
 Can there be a more unnatural or revolting sight, than that 
 of the aged female tottering from house to house, imploring 
 charity, or sustaining her existence by the collection of bones 
 and rags from amidst the offals cast upon the dung hill. 
 Or him whose decripitude and misfortunes have made a 
 homeless and miserable mendicant, after surviving the dan- 
 gers and disasters of fourscore years. To say that this 
 state of society should exist, in any christian land, lest an 
 assurance of support in old age might beget a disposition 
 to premature indolence, is to say what is neither true in 
 theory or in the experience of history. The early habit 
 of frugality which the foregoing conservative principle 
 would manifessedly generate, and the subsequent necessity 
 for diligence to which it withal abandons every one, capable 
 thereof, will sufficiently satisfy every theoretical objection, 
 and it is highly preposterous to infer, that because the 
 pagan nations of antiquity were said to owe their decay 
 and final overthrow, to their own voluptiousness, (and not 
 to that of their rulers,) and that the modern declension 
 in the state of Spain, was the effect of the discovery of 
 South America, and the insatiable lust for the precious me- 
 tals found in it, and not the inaptitude of Spanish laws 
 and institutions for the preservation of personal rights, and 
 the comfortable maintenance of the lowest of the people, 
 would be saying what is wholly, or in a great measure un- 
 true ; a clo?er discrimination of history will lead to a very 
 opposite conclusion. 
 
 What we propose is alike suitable to man in every clime, 
 and under whatever form of government ; and whilst it is 
 calculated to fill the coffers of the most avaricious potentate,
 
 51 
 
 it also imparts the utmost degree of sublunary security and 
 peace, which the friends of humanity can desire or hope for. 
 It sets the seal upon vicious conduct, and exalts the deserv- 
 ing, by sure degrees, to the summit which their talents fit 
 them to occupy. 
 
 We contest its claims to the particular consideration of 
 every person. We maintain, that it forms the foundation of 
 all universal improvement ; and whatever lacrymation phi- 
 lanthropists may have heretofore shed over the failure of 
 THEIR fond expectations, must have sprung from mistaking 
 the end for the means, — the means by which to accomplish 
 the end, an error and a stumbling block with the best of the 
 set ; and many also, who have obtained the denomination of 
 public men, are so hurried with the variety of schemes brouglit 
 before them, that they proceed to form an opinion without 
 fully digesting any plan ; and which, if erroneous, or but 
 partially propitious, becomes the most difficult of all obsta- 
 cles to remove by any subsequent line of argument. Such 
 has been our lot to experience, in following the wishes of 
 others, urging us to present this conjunct plan to the ci-iti- 
 cism of those in the public confidence. One has highly ap- 
 proved of the banking scheme, but has objections to the an- 
 nuity branch ; while another doubts the utility of the bank, 
 but lauds the design for a national annuity system. And the 
 grand point d'appui is still controverted. 
 
 Among the objections we have cncoimtercd in the front 
 ranks of philanthropy, is the following : — That so long as 
 the character of the lower orders is not upraised by educa- 
 tion, &c. it will be impossible to make them rich ; and thus 
 taking the exceptions as the general sway, they denounce, as 
 impracticable, what has been accomplished already to a de- 
 gree, with less perfect princijiles than the scheme now pro- 
 posed ; which is actually a schooling of the senses ; anti per- 
 haps these very well-meaning objectors spend their resources 
 for nought iij)on some favourite partitive jirojcct, which
 
 52 
 
 is no sooner left to find its own way, when its promoter has 
 been numbered with the dead, than it falls likewise to obli- 
 vion, with all the little world of effort which had been put 
 forth in its prosecution. Individual charity we desire fully 
 to appreciate ; but as for any considerable effect it can have 
 on the condition of a nation, we need look for none. 
 
 Another objection which would require a longer digression 
 fo confute, than the succinct form of this essay will allow, is, 
 " That the labourers being the producers will enjoy the pro- 
 duce of their industry on their own terms, and that the ma- 
 terial of wealth is never wanting to those who can make a pro- 
 fitable use of it " The first part of this objection is an ano- 
 maly in our opinion ,• it is one which is maintained by the 
 advocates for free trade, of which most philanthropists seem 
 to be disciples, or they favour the system from sympathy 
 merely ; and in support of the objection, and the system 
 which it is akin to, the rapid advance of the United States 
 was wont to be rung in the public ear, as an apt illustration 
 of the theory, until the American reviewers bad the magna- 
 nimity to withdraw the mask, or rather the delusion, and to 
 disclaim the presumption in toto ; and in a late number of 
 the North American Review, which contained an article on 
 the American system,* imputed the progress of their coun- 
 try to an entirely opposite cause, shewing that their commer- 
 cial laws were both restrictive, and judiciously protective in 
 their design, and that owing to the reverse of the principles 
 imputed to them, both their producers and labourers enjoyed 
 a much larger share of the products of industry, (though not 
 quite on their own terms) than could otherwise have fallen to 
 
 * The Review of the American system is the most perspicuous article on 
 commerce we ever read. It was handed to us after we had completed our Me- 
 moranda for a second edition of this Essay j and we were greatly surprised at 
 the confirmation it afforded us of every one of our propositions, nevertheless, we 
 differ in some degree from the first series of his assertions. Whatever may be 
 the issue of our appeal to the public, (and there is no room for delay), we are 
 glad of having unconsciotisly preserved ourselves from all charge of plagiarism.
 
 53 
 
 them. We were always of opinion, that very few persons in 
 this country had any conceptionof thevastness of the intercourse 
 carried on along the coast of North America, and as little 
 perhaps of its foreign trade. 
 
 These objections to our scheme are inconsistently and un- 
 naturally made, forgetful that our country has been entirely 
 allocated for ages, besides being insular, exposed on all sides 
 to a stormy sea, and subjected to all the irregularities of 
 climate consequent on its situation, that no where is there 
 physically and morally such a necessity for a protective sys- 
 tem in its widest acceptation. Our latitude is to the north- 
 ward of all Canada, a covuitry every year becoming more and 
 more salubrious, and four or five degrees beyond the norther- 
 most boundary of the United States. And the southernmost 
 part of Kngland is about two degrees north of the nearest 
 portion of all those states, which are styled the corn coun- 
 tries of Europe, which we were compelled so long to subsi- 
 dize in defence of what we then considered genviine freedom, 
 whatever may be now thought to the contrary. And it is 
 palpable, had we stood aloof altogether from the prolonged 
 struggle, no man of sound judgment will deny, than after the 
 subj ugation of the continental states under one or two crowns, 
 a most fearful period of desolation might have<rome over the 
 British Isles, and we would have stood a worse chance of 
 preserving the gem of imion and liberty which we have re- 
 tained at the price of our national debt, an expense which 
 might have been incurred notwithstanding, by a different line 
 of }X)licy, in a deadly struggle against greater physical odds 
 u}>on our own shores, in opposing an organized and united 
 continent, which we never permitted. 
 
 The preservation of oiu* internal tran(|uility lias encouraged 
 the adaptation of a much greater degree of invention to every 
 department of our trade than any other people can boast 
 of, and this has hitherto kept us a head of all rivahy, in 
 spite of the excessive charge which we are ncces.sitated to
 
 54 
 
 levy upon every commodity more or less. But our supre- 
 macy, in this respect, cannot be expected to continue to the 
 same extent as at present. Not that a diminution of com- 
 merce will be occasioned by an adherence to a wise restric- 
 tive code, far less will it be upheld by any system of free 
 trade, but because those of our own people, as well as others, 
 who are in pursuit of that wealth which is considered re- 
 quisite to the fullest participation in such enjoyments as our 
 invaluable institutions afford, instead of prosecuting these 
 means in the less economical manner at home, where the ex- 
 pense of maintaining those very institutions interposes, they 
 carry with them to more virgin lands the arts, together with 
 the capital which effect the obtainment of wealth. Conse- 
 quently such manufactures as are of primitive necessity to all 
 newly settled and rising states become domesticated there, 
 and are successively followed by such as contribute to a more 
 and more refined society, and at length the interchanges with 
 such countries become limited to such commodities as are of 
 extraneous growth and derivation, although the intercourse 
 may increase. Comparing therefore our condition with 
 that of the United States, or any other territory within 
 whose ample bound the product of every terrestrial sub- 
 stance peculiar to it is almost inexhaustible. We will find 
 that while the principles, which regulate men's actions, re- 
 main self interested, and while our national burden is un- 
 diminished, we must maintain a restrictive system of recipro- 
 city as regards foreign nations, because competition with 
 those realms, which produce the same commodities, whether 
 raw or manufactured, under less shackled or unfavourable 
 conditions than we do, must be maintained only in two ways, 
 by giving every possible scope to the legal prosecution of 
 commerce by ovir own subjects, and by placing a decent re- 
 striction, where we have a right to do it, in support of our 
 native interests, otherwise our bread and our butter will be 
 taken away without adequate compensation. Or if the de-
 
 56 
 
 mand is kept up in consequence of the rapid progress of 
 other countries, in tiie use of the requisites of civilized life, 
 beyond what can be supplied by that portion of their native 
 population devoted to the various arts in request, still the 
 degree of gain to us will be reduced through the competition 
 of only one rival to the lowest point, our rival, from a differ- 
 ence of circumstance being better able to afford it ; and so 
 long as it remains a law of our condition, that the advantage 
 lies on the side of the master and not on that of the servant, 
 for who ever would undertake a work on which the expense 
 would appear to surpass the profit and gratification, so long 
 must the labourer submit to the terms of his employer, and 
 when the average do not, whether the matter relates to our 
 domestic or our foreign concerns, our manufactories must 
 either be suspended, or the expected profit must be such as 
 to exceed the previous rate, and compensate for the increase 
 of wages, which will be very improbable. 
 
 Mr Shuttleworth, at a public meeting held in Manchester, 
 in February 1830, stated the same sentiments : " Profits, 
 " therefore, exactly following the previous course of wages, 
 *< are gradually declining, and, to my mind, there is not there- 
 " motest probability of their redemption, while the public 
 " burdens continue of their present magnitude." Conse- 
 quently our labouring population are reduced, in the first 
 place, to eat the bread of penury, and every other class to 
 circumscribe their usual allowances. Freedom is one bless- 
 ing, and education is another, and the effect of both should 
 naturally render a community independent, efficient, and 
 powerful ; and the abstraction of a number from any particu- 
 lar employment becomes the less felt, there will always be 
 less difficulty in replacing them than under a rude state of 
 society ; and though half the population of Britain were at 
 the present permitted to emigrate, the remaining half could 
 not obtain a rate of wages scarcely exceeding what is now paid 
 to them by the farmer and manufacturer. Both labour itself,
 
 ^1^. 
 
 and the articles which form the result of labour, would not 
 only spontaneously answer to the call for them, but the same 
 facility suppresses the tendency to an advance of price, and 
 may become hurtful if suddenly and equally extended to 
 aliens. 
 
 It may be said that only the working classes require to emi- 
 grate ; let it be so, they will individually be no worse, but if 
 the necessity does exist, there must be a leveling case which we 
 have sought to discover, and we have proposed a healthy re- 
 novating prescription. 
 
 The very agitation of the proposition to emigrate, betokens 
 k belief that the poor are on the increase to an alarming degree, 
 if however, in place of correcting the cause, the effect be but 
 partially removed, the state will be weakened for no good 
 purpose, the wealthy part of the public may dispense with the 
 use of many commodities for a time, which they are now accus- 
 tomed to use, especially if they should find any inconvenience 
 in procuring them, or if the prices should possibly be got up 
 from an insufficiency of hands, or any cause to produce this 
 effect. Not so, however, with the essentials to human subsist- 
 ence, a diminution in the demand for bread, or an inclination 
 to a diminution in price, will more certainly be followed by a 
 diminution of the supply, a great part of these being of a pe- 
 rishable nature, and more especially if our dependence is to be 
 on a foreign supply in any given measure, and therefore the 
 consequence would be, that the detraction of a certain number 
 of bullocks and loaves of bread, and of a certain amount of news- 
 papers, furniture, jewellery, or apparelling, to a similar value, 
 would not again be replaced by the same quantity of each at 
 the same prices, there not being the same or nearly an equal 
 necessity for the reproduction of each, nor would there be so 
 much desire for a substitution of so much of the latter as of 
 the former; it is probable the bread and beef would be 
 enhanced in price, and that the other commodities would 
 be cheaper than before ; as the generality of people are not
 
 57 
 
 extravagant, we admit, it is not until they discover the ex- 
 treme difficulty of once more disposing of their manufac- 
 tures, that they see any propriety of dispensing with a portion 
 of their daily bread, the same demand for bread may continue 
 for a time at least, after the ability to pay is taken away. 
 This course of argument might lead some to infer, that the 
 agriculturists, consequently, are the last to feel the pressure of 
 adverse circumstances, and that they need, therefore, no pro- 
 tection ; but is not the continual hazard they incur from the 
 imcertain climate enough of itself to weigh down all their ad- 
 vantages ? 
 
 " Is not their climate foggy raw and dull. 
 
 On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale. 
 
 Killing their fruit with frowns ?" Henry V. 
 
 It must be remembered, however, we are comparing the effect 
 which would be produced by such a cause as would at once 
 materially diminish the consunipt of the country, or lower the 
 profit on bread ; from which it would be seen that emigration 
 was not the corrective for the evils now borne by the British 
 labourer, the deadening influence of depopulation would be 
 felt as a pestilence, because no farmer would care to cultivate 
 stock in a remote part of the country which he must convey 
 to a distance, and after all be superceded, and undersold by 
 an arrival from the Netherlands by steam. Any sudden sub- 
 version of the corn duties would produce woeful effects both 
 on our manufactures and agriculture. We entreat the patience 
 of our readers for a little, while we attempt to shew how the 
 protection of our native agriculture is most intimately allied 
 to the prosperity of our population and manufactures. 
 
 If we take a view of man in his most primitive state of 
 advancement, we shall find that he who has possession of the 
 readiest means of gaining a livelihood, will get his price for 
 admitting another to share in that means, either in vassalage, 
 or in exchange for a bauble, if the second party have it, 
 but consider which of them is most likely to possess such a
 
 58 
 
 bauble, and the smallest degree of knowledge will enable a 
 more civilized person to reject the desirable but useless trinket, 
 and to prefer the more suitable compensation of a relief from 
 his own bodily toil, by employing the labour of another for a 
 certain portion of the necessaries which possession of the means 
 enables him to obtain, whether that be by his bow, or fish-hooks, 
 but unless he considers it to be for his advantage, he will con- 
 fine the use of his means within himself, and, in a state of society 
 like ours, a diminution in wages, or an abridgement of profit, 
 caused by competition, or by any circumstance, would seriously 
 reduce the indulgencies of the common people, and the amount 
 of manufactured goods ultimately required by the agri- 
 culturist and landowner, and the whole body of opulent 
 persons throughout the kingdom, who are successively por- 
 tioners of the soil, and contributors, in no light degree, 
 through a multiplicity of channels, towards affording employ- 
 ment to those beneath them, and making up the greater part 
 of the revenue of the Government, for we have long been of 
 opinion, that much of the conveniences to be found in the 
 remotest parts of the land, have originally been constrained 
 into use by the praiseworthy importunities of commercial tra- 
 vellers, to whom this country stands more indebted for its 
 high measure of refinement than is commonly supposed. 
 
 Out of 230 distinct trades carried on in Birmingham, there 
 are only 121 which have any relation to the customary indul- 
 gencies of the labouring classes, 221 are applicable, more or 
 less, to the common wants of the higher and middle classes ; 2 
 only have reference to the highest possible rank exclusively ; 
 and 9 out of 230 are exclusively required for the peculiar 
 wants of the labouring classes, and form part of the 121 al- 
 ready stated. 
 
 The statement of the amount drawn from the Savings Banks 
 in 1826, is a sufficient demonstration, that the labouring 
 classes are dependent, and proves the fallacy of the assertion, 
 that they are secure of reaping the reward of their industry on 
 their own terms. We think the case is the reverse, and that
 
 59 
 
 nowhere are they regarded witli equal interest to the mere 
 machine which is kept up at the lowest working cost, and the 
 case must for ever be so, whilst the right of property is re- 
 spected, it is the natural consequence of the acquisition of 
 property. But Ave hope we have shewn, that the practice of 
 borrowing among themselves, and the proper use of their own 
 capital, would bring them up more to an independence of the 
 circumstances of the times, and of the influence of free trade 
 upon wages. Our argument w^as, if the funds of the working 
 classes when lent out to their superiors, enabled the borrowers 
 to realise larger gains than they shared with the ow^ners of the 
 capital operated upon. It is, to say the least of it, a laudable 
 endeavour to open the eyes of the philanthropist and legisla- 
 tor, to the self-denying and penui'iovis tendency of the present 
 system to the lower classes, that either a more liberal one may 
 come in its room, or that the present banking companies would 
 act upon the new suggestion. 
 
 The following extract is from an able Essay on the Cur- 
 rency, published in the Leeds Intelligencer of the 3d of Febru- 
 ary. The quotation is corroborative of our argument : — 
 
 " The solution of the problem of our national difficulties 
 is, I contend, to be sought for here. The working currency 
 of the country is annihilated ; — the labour of the people is 
 fettered by a metallic medium ; — the value of property is re- 
 duced one-half; — the amount of the national debt remains 
 the same, and instead of keeping up the value of property, 
 and promoting, by every expedient, the productive industry 
 of the people, that we might bear our fiscal burdens, and 
 gradually redeem our debt, the great aim and object of our 
 statesmen have been to reduce our prices to the level of our 
 continental neighbours — for no earthly benefit, but that we 
 might have inert masses of gold in our coffers, and undersell 
 all the world with our manufactures, whilst all the world is 
 naturally opposed to us, every slate being desirous to employ
 
 60 
 
 their native population by manufacturing at home, so that 
 the cheaper we sell, the heavier they tax. Thus our cheap 
 goods, while they impoverish this country, are indeed a gold 
 mine for the exchequers of other states. Meanwhile the in- 
 ternal prosperity of our own country retrogrades and lan- 
 guishes ; the superior importance of our native markets, for 
 our native labour, is underrated and despised. Thus Eng- 
 land, whose native energies no difficulties once could para- 
 lyze — whose vigorous spirit the world in arms could not 
 subdue, — is now insanely destroying herself with the subtile 
 poison of a pernicious and ruinous financial and commercial 
 policy." 
 
 If our system had been in use since the formation of Sav- 
 ings Banks, or which is the same thing in a public view, had 
 the sums redrawn, been rather given out in loan, the value 
 of 4 per cent, on the redrawings, would have been saved to 
 the country, and added to the enjoyments of the labouring 
 classes, the productive powers of the parties requiring the 
 partial aid, would have added an accession of that rate, in 
 place of the species of embargo which is now laid on their 
 industry, when truly exercised on their own accoimt ; com- 
 pelling a retrogression in contrast with the facilities afforded 
 to the upper classes. How much this restriction of the labour- 
 ing classes, and Savings Bank Depositors, to their bona fide 
 stock, has contributed to the amount of distress borne by that 
 portion of the community, we shall not speculate about. We 
 are fully aware of the evil which unwarrantable speculations 
 give rise to, but if, in place of resorting to actual drawings, to 
 the amount of 10 millions, as it is said, were extracted 
 from all the banks in 1826. Had the principle we have endea- 
 voured to establish been in operation, the capital of the parties 
 we allude to, would have been improved L. 400,000 that year, 
 in place of a part of the stock having been consumed. Sup- 
 pose a number of persons have a L.IOOO in a bank, that on
 
 61 
 
 tlie aggregate, they require L.500 for some purpose, if this be 
 drawn out merely, the other L.500 yields but L.20 interest, 
 at 4 per cent ; but j^rhaps, by their little speculations to- 
 gether, the L.500 taken out produced a gross profit of L.IOO. 
 Accordingly, the funds stand at the year's end, L.H20. But 
 if, in place of drawing any of the capital, and the L.IOOO 
 remains at 4 per cent, interest, and say L.500 is borrowed 
 from the bank, the case is, for example, as follows, — 
 Capital, L.IOOO, at 4 per cent, is - L.40 
 A credit of L.500 lent at 5 per cent, yields 25 discount. 
 The party makes a clear gain of - ^5 
 
 or of £^ 00 gross gain. 
 The invested capital is - - - 1000 
 
 So that the stock of the class we speak of 
 
 is made _ _ _ _ - i?1140 at the year's 
 
 end. The actual gain to the Government, as a measure 
 of its own, we have stated at another part. The illustra- 
 tion by which we have attempted to prove our hypothesis, 
 reminds us of a common error in regard to discount, exposed 
 in the preface to Evans"* Tables. We trust the cause of so 
 much distress as is found to exist among us, Avill no longer be 
 so wantonly laid to thecharge of the corn laws, or cast upon those 
 who are so entirely free of blame as the agriculturists arc. 
 Their returns are too problematical, for the corn laws being 
 ever an encouragement to the cultivation of such poor land, as 
 cannot be depended on for an average crop at all seasons ; the 
 country people are so exceedingly backward in husbandry 
 speculations, that a part of the best land in the most fertile 
 counties of Great Britain, we are warranted in declaring, is not, 
 and never has been applied to its most profitable use, and the 
 finest demesnes are as often diverted to such ]>urposes as please 
 the taste of the proprietors, without any regard to the augmen- 
 tation of rental. The strath or district which is in tilla<reiu
 
 6^ 
 
 one generation, may be in pasturage the next. We could 
 mention places in Kent which in the face of a falling mai'ket 
 were extremely improved. We might mention Northumber- 
 land at the very environs of Newcastle. The improvements in 
 East Lothian and Mid Lothian, the barren sea beach convert- 
 ed at no expense into the most fertile meadows, yielding great 
 rents which gave none previously. We might make mention 
 of Aberdeenshire,* where the waving corn has superceded the 
 useless heath, and the swelling hills are so transfigured by farm 
 steadings, that a person of our acquaintance could not distin- 
 guish his native place after a 10 years absence ; throughout 
 many parts of the country it has been found, that in place of 
 the worst land being now only redeemable, some of the finest 
 portions are or were within these few years in a state of nature, 
 and we could cite the converse of this. Still, it may be said, 
 the protective duties are a clog to indolence, but the case will 
 ever be as we describe it, profit will never conti-oul the rich land 
 owner, in the appropriation of his fields and estates. That it is 
 not universally the ruling principle, is quite evident, and why 
 should it ? Again, it may be said, the public should not be 
 made to depend vipon the capricious disposition of the land- 
 ed interest, for a supply of food. Such an assertion, if express- 
 ed, would be overstrained and unsupported by facts. When 
 
 " A gentleman to whom this MS was read, declared that if the Aherdeenshire 
 folks had been as fastidious about the nature of soil as the people of Berwickshire, 
 the county would have been this day the poorest in Scotland. 
 
 Every attentive observer who visits Pentland Hills once only in three or four 
 years, must be struck with the progressive, and it may be said, rapid change in 
 their appearance. Year after year, acre after acre is brought into cultivation, the 
 dark and useless furze and heath are rapidly disappearing, and guessing from the 
 progress of cultivation in that quarter within these few years, and from the exer- 
 tions made this Spring, there are good grounds to conclude that they are at 
 school who will live to see the yellow harvest wave on every rood except where 
 the steepness of the precipieces set bounds to human perseverance and skill.— 
 Scotsman, April, 1831.
 
 68 
 
 were we ever wholly dependent on them, the very disinte- 
 restedness of the whim, we have noticed, betokens an ab- 
 sence of contumacious avarice, which the free introduc- 
 tion of foreign corn would make us feel in another quar- 
 ter, and which would place this valuable portion of the 
 community in a worse position as respects equity, than 
 the claimants for free trade ever stood, or should wish to stand 
 themselves, and would impose upon the home grower, a per- 
 petual invariable species of culture, to his utter ruin, without 
 the chance of exei'cising the privilege of free agency. The 
 degree of dependence upon our own cultivation which the po- 
 pulation are subject to, is merely of such a nature as to give us 
 the option in the foreign market, and frees us of the alternative 
 in a great measure. Although, however, we were in such a 
 pass as to make it a question, whether we should depend on 
 the tender mercies of our own agriculturists, or on foreigners, 
 for a specific amount of supply, surely it would never be a 
 sane predicament for a people to come into by their own de- 
 liberate doing. 
 
 We would never wish to see such poor land forced into cul- 
 tivation, as could not produce an average crop, but what is too 
 often cried down as poor land, is probably miscalled poor. 
 Who has not witnessed the change, which the perseverance of 
 an industrious tenant has produced to his own advantage and 
 to his landlord's ; where perhaps a former tenant lived in po- 
 verty and starvation, under a much less rent. Thorns and 
 thistles the best of land is doomed to bear, and in the sweet of 
 his brow shall man only eradicate them and eat bread. 
 
 But even although the corn laws may stimulate the industry 
 of the British farmers, at a somewhat higher cost to the public, 
 which fancied pettling we discredit, or why dont f/iei/ all 
 prosper at this late date, still we think it but fair to allow Is. 
 for a loaf of bread of British cultivation, than to give lOd. for 
 a loaf made of wheat, raised in Germany, and probably brought 
 here in a foreign vessel. The British farmer as well as his
 
 64 
 
 landlord, take every article they need of Britisli manufacture, 
 at a price which includes the duty, and out of which the in- 
 terest of the national debt, and the expense of Government 
 must be defrayed ; and he never objected to the manufacturer 
 getting the highest possible price at home or abroad, nor did 
 he ever object to a drawback on his exported wares ; but the 
 foreigner will not do so, the duty must be taken off, and he tells 
 us besides, that he can be supplied elsewhere, if we do not make 
 our prices to suit him. Accordingly, the goods he buys, and 
 has been buying from us all along for many years past* 
 have not paid their cost, which of course makes ovir own 
 mutual burdens the heavier, for upholding our national 
 credit: But the British yeoman seeks no commodity of 
 foreign manufacture, if he can get it of native composition. 
 On the contrary, the foreigner neither helps to keep our roads 
 and canals in order, or in short to give any aid whatsoever even 
 indirectly, to sustain the civilization of our land. 
 
 It is more than probable, that an impartial free trade, by 
 which we mean the admission of all sorts of foreign goods 
 on the same advalorum duty, would be only advantageous 
 to the higher and richer classes, to the total ruin of our 
 domestic manufactures, and of the whole body of the la- 
 bouring people. Steel, iron, glass, paper, japaraied goods, 
 silks, laces, bread, &c. would be of foreign make, and very 
 little cheaper in the beginning, and much more costly in 
 the end, after the original trifling difference of price had 
 destroyed our native energies and working order. If the 
 momentum of our manufactures were to give way by any 
 cause, or be interrupted for the shortest period, we would 
 probably never recover the ascendency. We confess, we 
 never view those immense piles of machinery, erected through- 
 out the west of England, and in the west of Scotland, without 
 feeling an emotion of dread, lest a spark of civil commotion 
 lighted up for a few short weeks or months, might deprive
 
 65 
 
 us of the practical skill which the peace of ages has concen- 
 trated within these manufactories. And like the rushing 
 torrent which rises and falls again in a single day, hut not 
 until it has divided, or entirely diverted its former course. 
 
 The connexion anciently subsisting between the agricul- 
 turists and the established church, almost to a man, is much 
 greater and more intimate still than partakes with any other 
 class in Britain ; and this, we think, brings them in for an 
 undue share of that vituperation which has been heaped 
 from time to time upon the establishment, and the aristo- 
 cracy generally. But the most legitimate friend, and stea- 
 diest customer whom the manufacturer has, is the farmer ; 
 and it appears to us, that largely to reduce the duty on 
 foreign corn, is not the method of maintaining the great 
 and general interests of the nation. All who depend on 
 the income of acquired property, feel the deep depression 
 of that property in common with their fellow subjects ; and 
 they would be the first to avail themselves of the oppor- 
 tunity to purchase at the cheapest mart ; the quality of 
 the most useful things is preposterously less regarded than 
 the price, with the exception of some things which contri- 
 bute to the personal vanity of a few. But many an ar- 
 ticle of fairer competition than bread, of primary use by 
 the rich and poor, articles too on which there is no limi- 
 tation, are as costly now as they were when wages were 
 double the present rate. Since we first gave way to the clamour 
 for free trade, wages have fallen 60 per cent. ; in 1828 about 15 
 per cent. ; in 1829 to 35 per cent. ; in 1830 they had 
 fallen below 60 per cent, with a prospect of farther de- 
 pression.* 
 
 • Tlie diurnal press gives the following latientable account of the state of trade 
 in :\Ianchcster, at the present moment, 28tli April 1831. " Three or four fail- 
 ures have taken place here this week, to the amount of, from L.20,000 to L.30,000 
 
 £
 
 66 
 
 The free trade system inay Jbe benign in theory. Yet 
 its hasty adoption in all its parts, will occasion a wide 
 spread ruin ; and while the consequences remain, it may, 
 as a principle, be rescinded in a day. The discriminative sys- 
 tem can only the more gradually and securely produce the 
 same anticipated results with a free trade system, and equal- 
 ly efficacious as those wholesome restraints and measures 
 which the well-being of society acknowledges, associates and 
 combines with true liberty, there never was a rigorously 
 observed exclusive principle acted upon in this realm ; 
 and as a proof that the restrictive principle is not charge- 
 able with any part of our commercial embarrassments, 
 it is merely necessary to observe, they were almost un- 
 known while it was adhered to. The more we reflect 
 on the free system, we feel it has too much classifi- 
 cation in it, to our mind, and which, if carried to its 
 full extent, would leave the British Isles to the apt pur- 
 pose of a depot for macadamized granite to the rest of 
 the world. 
 
 The banking system recommended by vis, is restrictive 
 in the right sense of the term, in as much as it puts an 
 extinguisher upon every hazard to which bank capital is 
 liable; and the annuity system in like manner, by the se- 
 lection of an early period of life and a provisionary rate. 
 We are sorry to have considered it necessary to furnish 
 so lengthy a discussion in support and justification of our 
 opinions. 
 
 We totally disclaim all intention of giving umbrage 
 to any class of persons ; and if our ideas be founded on 
 practical principles, we will be sufficiently satisfied with the 
 
 each ; and one or two minor firms will follow in their train. Coarse goods are 
 falling in price, and fine goods must likewise fall, as there is a want of demand. 
 The silk trade has suffered very much this spring, and much money has been 
 lost by the manufacturers in this line, from many of them being obliged to sell 
 at less than cost."
 
 67 
 
 approval of those persons to whom they are communicat- 
 ed. Should, however, any stronger arguments be requir- 
 ed, demonstrative of the utility of a Government Na- 
 tional Parish Bank system, we are prepared to impart 
 them. This subject is the first to which the advocates for 
 free trade, and the enemies of monopoly, should have di- 
 rected their attention, and comes much nearer every man^s 
 interest than the question respecting the tea trade, or any 
 other. We are persuaded that the independent manvifacturers 
 would zealously promote any good practical system, such as 
 the foregoing, which might relieve them from the opprobrium 
 of a suspicion to pervert the means of their work-people by 
 countenancing societies. Strong language is often necessary 
 to advocate the best of causes ; therefore we will be 
 excused for asserting, with all becoming deference to the 
 benevolent individuals who have founded Savings Banks, 
 wliich merely receive the deposits of the poor on interest, 
 that, in comparison with the scheme now proposed, they ap- 
 pear as the lie plus nlira of plans (disguised even to their 
 promoters) for cozening John and Janet to appropriate theii* 
 last disposable sliilling to swell the tide of metropolitan 
 money-jobbing ; and as Janet and John must both agree 
 before they resolve to re-draw it, consequently it will remain 
 there a space. Hear its brief history ; it was put into the 
 bank, and the bank lent it to the factory, which took in 
 more hands, and the old hands had to take the low wages of 
 the new comers, or quit ; the factory speedily made more 
 goods than they could sell ; so William and Susan were 
 turned off with the rest, and it is thought wages will still be 
 less by the time they are taken on again ; the draper wants 
 WilHe to buy a new coat, as things arc cheap, which, poor 
 lad ! he has much need of; but then Willie has no money at 
 all ; when wages were good, it was easier for him and SuSan 
 to save a sliilling ! than to save a halfpenny now. " I wish 
 (says Janet) they had been compelled to be somewhat provi-
 
 68 
 
 dent when times were good ; they must go to the workhouse, 
 I fear, in the long run ; I would lend them some of my money, 
 were it only to buy and sell herrings ; but then the Squire 
 tells me, if every body did the like, the factories would not 
 go on ; I shall wait and expect to hear of some better plan." 
 Whatever may be now thought of our scheme, we feel assured 
 that it will not be repudiated thirty years hence ; nor Avill 
 mankind then believe that a civilized Christian nation should 
 have rejected it because of its magnitude, while a neighbour- 
 ing people gave an example of the ease wherewith a National 
 Guard of four millions of men could be organized and up- 
 held. Should, however, our ideas be acted upon, the world 
 will have cause to be glad that the pecuniary state of Britain 
 was ever such as to have called the system into effect. 
 
 The following calculations, illustrative of the amount of 
 the annual premiums, with the interest annually added thereto 
 at five per cent., will afford some conception of the importance 
 of such a measure to the Government ; and as all the floating 
 capital of the greater number of public companies is occasion- 
 ally invested in the Government funds, there would be every 
 propriety in substituting the capital of such a National In- 
 stitution as that now suggested, in the room of so much of 
 the present national debt, because, as has been said, the ac- 
 cumulated stock for the first 20 or 25 years would sustain 
 itself; that is to say, the principle of the Institution would 
 freely sustain it, and. likewise do more good to the public 
 at large than any other proposition that could by any possi- 
 bility be conceived. 
 
 The annexed result is exclusive of the charge of manage- 
 ment. It will be observed, that the first eight years are un- 
 equal, in consequence of the accessions of the successive classes 
 of adults. If the whole population be twenty-three millions, 
 the males between 20 and 27 will always exceed one and a 
 half millions, and, with females, Avould certainly give five 
 millions of pounds in premiums per annum.
 
 69 
 
 Another table, which was prepared by us, sliewing the 
 effect of the conjoined scheme of Parish Banks and Annuities 
 in dissipating the national debt, and assuming five millions as 
 the clear annual produce of each part thereof, and for the 
 convenience of the calculations at 5 per cent, interest, ex- 
 hibited a product of ^835049737 : 3 . 1| at the end of the 
 thirty-second year, besides all other wayside consequences, 
 and without taking into account the progressive relief from 
 taxation which would accompany the measure, or the applica- 
 tion of the surplus revenue which it would create, in still more 
 rapidly redeeming the public debt. 
 
 Let no one dread a want of employment for capital, 
 Who will set bounds to the adornment and improvement of 
 our land ?
 
 70 
 
 Progbessive View of the projected Annuity Funds for Thirty- 
 five years, of which Five MiUions per annum, at five per cent, 
 form the basis. 
 
 1st Year. 
 
 L.5000000 
 
 
 
 
 
 18th Year. 
 
 Next Prem. 
 
 5000000 
 
 
 
 
 
 Premiums, 
 
 Interest 
 
 250000 
 
 
 
 
 
 Interest. 
 
 1-7 of next 
 
 
 
 
 
 Glass. 
 
 714286 
 
 14 
 
 'M 
 
 19 th Year 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 2d Year. 
 
 L U'9G4285 
 
 14 
 
 *'4 
 
 Fremiums. 
 
 5. 100000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 IntcrL'st. 
 
 548214 
 
 5 
 
 8\ 
 
 20th Year, 
 
 2-7- 
 
 142f57l 
 
 8 
 
 H 
 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 3d Year. 
 
 L 17941071 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 Premiums. 
 
 5000000 
 
 
 
 
 
 21st Year. 
 
 Interest, 
 
 897053 
 
 11 
 
 5 
 
 Premiums 
 
 3-7. 
 
 2142857 
 
 2 
 
 9| 
 
 Interest. 
 
 4th Year. 
 
 L 25980082 
 
 2 
 
 83 
 
 22d Year. 
 
 Premiums, 
 
 50.0000 
 
 
 
 
 
 Premiums. 
 
 Interest. 
 
 1299049 
 
 2 
 
 H 
 
 Interest. 
 
 4-7. 
 
 2857142 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 23d Year. 
 Premiums. 
 
 5th Year. 
 
 L.35I37174 
 
 I 
 
 11 
 
 Premiums. 
 
 5000000 
 
 
 
 
 
 Interest, 
 
 Interest. 
 
 1756808 
 
 15 
 
 I 
 
 
 5 7- 
 
 3571428 
 
 11 
 
 4i 
 
 24th Year, 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 6th Year. 
 
 L.454f.5461 
 
 8 
 
 4i 
 
 Premiums. 
 
 5000000 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Interest. 
 
 2277273 
 
 i 
 
 5 
 
 25th Year. 
 
 6-7. 
 
 4285714 
 
 5 
 
 n 
 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 7th Year. 
 
 L 57028448 
 
 15 
 
 43 
 
 
 Premiums. 
 
 5000000 
 
 
 
 
 
 26th Year. 
 
 Interest. 
 
 2831422 
 
 8 
 
 9 
 
 Premiums. 
 
 7-7. 
 
 5000000 
 
 
 
 
 
 Interest. 
 
 8 th Year + 
 
 L69S70871 
 
 4 
 
 H 
 
 27th Year. 
 
 Premiums. 
 
 5000000 
 
 
 
 
 
 Premiums. 
 
 Interest. 
 
 3493993 
 
 11 
 
 2^ 
 
 Interest. 
 
 9th Year. 
 
 L.78373864 
 
 15 
 
 4 
 
 28th Year. 
 
 Premiums 
 
 5000000 
 
 
 
 
 
 Premiums. 
 
 Interest. 
 
 3918093 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 Interest. 
 
 10th Year, 
 
 L 87292558 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 29th Year. 
 
 Premiums. 
 
 5000000 
 
 
 
 
 
 Premiums. 
 
 Interest. 
 
 4364027 
 
 18 
 
 
 
 Interest 
 
 Xj.171425273 15 lOf 
 5000000 
 8571263 13 94 
 
 L 184996537 9 Sf 
 
 5000000 
 
 9249826 1 7 Oi 
 
 L 199246364 7 13 
 
 5000000 
 
 9962318 4 4. 
 
 L 214208682 
 
 5000000 
 
 10710434 
 
 11 
 
 2 
 
 61 
 
 
 
 63 
 
 L 2299191 16 
 
 5000000 
 
 11495955 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 16 
 
 
 
 H 
 
 L.246415072 
 
 5000000 
 
 12320753 
 
 10 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 83 
 
 
 
 6i 
 
 L,263735826 
 
 5000000 
 
 13186791 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 3 
 
 13 
 
 L 281922617 
 
 5000000 
 
 14096130 
 
 9 
 
 
 
 17 
 
 43 
 
 
 L 291018748 
 
 5000000 
 
 14550937 
 
 6 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 4 
 
 L.3 10569685 
 
 5000000 
 
 15528484 
 
 15 
 
 
 5 
 
 2 
 
 9 
 
 L.33 1098 170 
 
 5000000 
 
 16554908 
 
 
 
 
 
 10 
 
 11 
 
 
 L 352653078 10 11* 
 5000000 
 17632053 18 f;i 
 
 Here the income becomes steady, by the throwing off of the original class.
 
 71 
 
 Uth Year. 
 Premiums. 
 Interest, 
 
 12th Year. 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 13th Year. 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 14th Year. 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 15th Year. 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 1 6 th Year. 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 17th Year. 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 L. 96657 185 18 1 
 5000000 
 4832854 5 lOf 
 
 L.10G490040 
 5000000 
 5204502 
 
 3 
 
 
 
 
 111 
 
 
 oi 
 
 L. 116694542 
 5000000 
 5834727 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 
 2i 
 
 L. 131520209 
 5000000 
 C5764G3 
 
 6 
 
 
 7 
 
 
 3^ 
 
 L 143105732 
 5000000 
 7155286 
 
 13 
 
 
 
 12 
 
 7i 
 
 
 
 8 
 
 L.155261019 6 
 6000000 
 77C3050 19 
 
 3i 
 
 
 H 
 
 L. 168024070 5 7i 
 5000000 
 8401203 10 34 
 
 30 Ih \ ear. 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 31st Year, 
 Premiums. 
 
 Interest. 
 
 32d. Year. 
 Premiums. 
 
 Interest. 
 
 3:$d. Year. 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 34 th Year. 
 Premiums. 
 Interest. 
 
 35 th Year. 
 
 L 3752H5732 9 t» 
 5000000 
 18764286 12 5^ 
 
 L. 3990500 19 1 Hi 
 5000000 
 19952500 19 1 
 
 L. 424002520 1 0^ 
 5000000 
 21200126 
 
 L.450202646 1 0^ 
 5000000 
 22510132 C Oi 
 
 L.4777I2778 7 1 
 
 5000000 
 
 23885638 18 4 
 
 L. 5065984 17 5 5
 
 PRIKTEn BY JAMES COLSTON, 
 
 EAST KOBE STREET, HANOVER STREET, 
 
 EDINBURGH.

 
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