! : 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 B6T5 
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 ^A 
 
 SALVA FIDE. 
 
 A 
 
 LETTER ON THE CURRENCY, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 NECESSITY OF A NEW STANDARD, 
 
 AS OPPOSED TO 
 
 THE RUINOUS PRINCIPLES OF WHAT IS CALLED 
 MR. PEEL'S BILL. 
 
 Bciug ill part, a reply to a pamphlet just pnblislied, entitled " An Examination of the 
 Currency Question, and of the Project for altering the Standanl of Value ; by the 
 Author of a Dissertation upon the State of the Currency, in the Quarterly Review, 
 for April 1822, and now Reprinted in 1830." 
 
 INFORM THE PEOPLE, BUT NOT INFLAME THEM ! 
 
 REV. RICHARD CRUTTWELL, LL.B. 
 
 RECTOR OF SPEXHALL, SUFFOLK. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 HATCHARI) AND SON, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1830.
 
 CHARLES WOOD AND SON, PRINTERS, 
 
 Poppin's Court, Fleet Street.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT, 
 
 The publication of this Letter arose ac- 
 cidentally out of the circumstance of the 
 Author's sending a short communication 
 to a learned and distinguished Peer — 
 apprising him of the fact, that within the 
 last thirty years several of the continental 
 governments have actually adopted the very 
 principle here contended for, as indispensa- 
 ble to the salvation of England! — of 
 raising the metallic standard, in a far 
 greater degree even than that which his 
 own plan embraces — namely, 50 per cent. 
 That is, " Austria with one pound sterling 
 of standard silver now discharges Si. 5s. 
 sterling of paper debt and taxation : 
 Russia with one pound sterling of silver dis- 
 charges 4/. sterling of paper debt and
 
 IV 
 
 taxation : Sweden, by a late act of the 
 legislature, discharges with one pound 
 sterling of silver 2/. 10s. sterling of paper 
 debt and taxation ; and Denmark also 
 the same : the measure having, in no in- 
 stance whatever, produced mischief or 
 inconvenience of any kind. Whereas 
 England alone, which has contracted more 
 debt and taxation in paper money than 
 any other country in the world, has 
 abolished the legal tender '' (rather, madly 
 attempted it) " in which the debt and taxa- 
 tion were contracted, and has now been 
 engaged, for fourteen years together, in 
 efforts to substantiate the payment of 
 her paper debt and taxation in ancient 
 gold coins, without making any allowance 
 whatever for the unavoidable depreciation 
 of her " paper money:'' thence legalizing the 
 double weight of all her taxes and bur- 
 thens — the sole primary "cause'' of all 
 the misery and ruin that now exist. The 
 author's proposal, in the present case, 
 being to raise the metallic standard 50 per
 
 cent. ; thereby reduciug taxation in pre- 
 cisely that ratio — " salva fide," to the 
 public creditor. 
 
 To this communication, so made, I re- 
 ceived in substance the following reply : 
 
 " Sir ; 
 
 " The remedy you propose 
 would certainly he a relief — but a relief 
 purchased at the expense of justice and 
 good faith. The examples of other coun- 
 tries which you produce have long been 
 notorious. Every government but Eng- 
 land has had recourse to the same expe- 
 dient to extricate itself from financial diffi- 
 culties. It was, and still is, the proud dis- 
 tinction of this country to have maintained 
 the standard of its currency against all 
 clamour and all temptation. 
 
 "It is true that money borrowed in 
 a depreciated currency may honestly be 
 repaid in the same currency. But it is 
 not honest to repay other creditors whose 
 money was lent in sterling value, after the
 
 VI 
 
 deprecinted rate, because you are unable 
 to discriminate between the two classes of 
 creditors. In this Ues the whole of the 
 question between us. Those whom you 
 can prove to be creditors of the first class 
 you may pay in the coin they lent. But 
 the others would be doubly aggrieved — 
 for during the depreciated currency they 
 were compelled to take their interest in 
 that debased coin — and if they are now 
 required to take back their principal after 
 the same reckoning, they are subject to 
 an outrageous spoliation. 
 
 " It may be said by government, I have 
 no means of distinguishing. Very true. 
 But that difficulty cannot acquit you of the 
 moral obligation to pay your debts which 
 are bo7ia Jicle transactions on the part of the 
 creditor, trusting to the honour and inte- 
 grity of his own government. 
 
 " You will recollect, moreover, that the 
 government always denied this depreciation, 
 and even made the attempt to prove it by 
 exchanging paper against gold, penal.
 
 Vll 
 
 " The difficulties which follow from a 
 resumption of the genuine currency are 
 not greater than I expected. I always 
 thought the ministers mistaken when they 
 so readily passed what is called PeeYs 
 bill — that they under-rated the real depre- 
 ciation — misled by Ricardo's authority. 
 
 " When I say the old public creditor 
 would be defrauded by lowering the 
 standard, I ought to add that not only he, 
 but every private creditor who lent his 
 money before the depreciation would also 
 be injured by authorizing the repayment 
 of it, in the debased standard. All cm- 
 nuitants of that date, would in like manner 
 be defrauded. In short, if the lowered 
 standard is made applicable to any con- 
 tracts besides those entered into durinii 
 the depreciation, direct injustice and 
 wrong is committed. 
 
 " Mr. Western, and all the writers whom 
 I have read on this subject, invariably 
 take up the question at the time of the de- 
 preciated currency — and speak of that as 
 the natural, original, and legitimate state
 
 vm 
 
 of things — whereas that state itself was 
 the unnatural, vicious, unjust state of 
 things — a state which was always declared 
 to be temporary only — always to be aban- 
 doned at the first opportunity — at any 
 rate, within six months after the termina- 
 tion of the war. 
 
 *' The restoration of the true standard was 
 always promised — and year after year was 
 fixed for the completion of the promise. 
 Now that it is done, how can men, with 
 any pretensions to reason or consistency, 
 rail at it as an innovation., as tampering with 
 the currency ? As well might you say 
 that after a long suspension of the habeas 
 corpus act, such as the safety of the state 
 was thought to require, a return to the 
 ancient law would be tainpering with the 
 constitution. 
 
 '* I have been more prolix than I in- 
 tended — for the question is in reality a 
 short and simple one. If you have any 
 solution of the difficulty salva fide, you 
 will indeed render a great public 
 
 SERVICE BY MAKING IT KNOWN."
 
 LETJ^ER ON 11IE CURRENCY. 
 
 My Lord ; 
 
 It is with great diffidence 
 and respect that 1 here venture to reply to your 
 Lordship's letter. And, first, as to the notion 
 long entertained and often expressed both in 
 and out of Parliament, that '* it was, and still 
 is, the proud distinction of this country to have 
 maintained its standard" — the standard of its 
 currency, " against all clamour and all tempta- 
 tion " By the former part of which 1 under- 
 stand your Lordship to mean, and in that sense 
 1 fully coincide with the position, that no ope?i, 
 no avowed alteration of the standard has been 
 made since the time of Elizabeth, somewhere 
 between 1558 and l603, during a long period 
 of more than two hundred years: with excep- 
 tion, indeed, to a trifling alteration made only 
 a very few years ago, when the number of shil- 
 lings coined from a pound sterling of standard
 
 silver, became further increased from sixty-two 
 to sixty-six, at which number they now remain. 
 
 But, my Lord, before we can be said to have 
 arrived at any sound or safe conclusion, whereby 
 to judge accurately of the policy of that mea- 
 sure upon which we happen to be at issue, 1 
 apprehend it will be quite essential to know — 
 first, that a change virtually might he made in 
 the standard of any country, ivithout such open 
 and avowed recognition of the fact; and, se- 
 condly, that such a change virtually has been 
 made in this country, during the last thirty 
 years — l)eing sanctioned and promoted by the 
 community generally, with full concurrence of 
 the legislature, and highly warranted by the pe- 
 culiar circumstances under which it was effected, 
 as completely and effectually to all the conse- 
 quences of a currency so changed, as would 
 have been the case, had our metallic standard 
 (in respect of contracts of all descriptions) been 
 openly raised^ by proclamation or otherwise, at 
 and after the rate of 50 per cent. And even in 
 the third paragraph of your Lordship's letter I 
 find this very same truth partially admitted, in 
 the remark, that "those creditors" (speaking 
 of a particular class only) " who were compelled 
 to take their interest in a debased coin" — depre- 
 ciated paper, " were they now compelled to take 
 
 I
 
 3 
 
 their principal after tlic same reckoning, would be 
 douhly aggrieved and subject to outrageous spo- 
 liation J" 
 
 I am also next to sbow, that which it were 
 no less essential to be ap])rized of — that although 
 by such alteration of the standard, all " fixed" 
 annuitants (fundowners or otherwise) might un- 
 doubtedly be much inconvenienced, and were in 
 truth loivered and sunk by it from the rank and 
 scale of society in which they had previously 
 stood ; they were yet, notwithstanding, there- 
 from no way unfairly dealt by, on the part of 
 government ; or, in other words, that no injus- 
 tice — no breach of faith, jiublic or private, was 
 at any time committed under the circumstance 
 in question. 
 
 And, here, in dissent from the assertion that 
 our " standard of currency has been main- 
 tained" — exce})t, under the fallacy before ad- 
 mitted to exist ; I say, then, an alteration might 
 be made — has been made — most beneficially and 
 without injustice — and that it could not avoid 
 being made, in this country, prior to the return 
 of peace in 1814, equal to raising the standard 
 — or, as it is more commonly called, depreciat- 
 ing the currency (either term being justly ap- 
 plicable, as spoken of gold or of paper), by at 
 least the full rate of 50 jier cent. In support of 
 
 B 2
 
 these diftlrent positions, I argue tluis — assuming 
 the point as previously granted, that " all taxes 
 upon commodities ought fairly to rest in equal 
 and due ])roportion — not on producers onli/, but 
 on all consumers (whether ])roducers or other- 
 wise) without any exception.'''' If, then, in any 
 country a given quantity of produce — property 
 of any kind, under one set of circumstances (the 
 absence of heavy taxes from long expensive 
 wars) may be represented by so much gold — say, 
 a thousand sovereigns at their present acknow- 
 ledged standard of legal weight and fineness ; 
 but if, under another set of circumstances (the 
 existence of heavy taxes from long expensive 
 wars — causing — requiring — and justifying '^ dou- 
 ble" prices), the same quantity of produce, as 
 must thence inevitably happen in a greater or 
 less degree, be now represented by twice the 
 amount of currency — say, a thousand sovereigns 
 acting in cimcert with and addition to another 
 thousand " signs" — as of paper pound-notes, 
 both sovereigns and notes being held in public 
 estimation — by force of law or in conformity 
 with popular and often blind caprice, to be re- 
 spectively of the same specific value; thus still 
 retaining the old denomination of a certain stan- 
 dard, long after its true reality had clearly 
 ceased to exist : it will hence I think naturally 
 
 li
 
 Tollow, ihat a similar effect takes place, both as 
 respects prices and contracts (affecting all an- 
 nuities proportionally, without partial reference 
 to any anterior period of their formation), to 
 that which would have hap})ened, from so rais- 
 ing the metallic standard as that two thousand 
 half sovereigns — supposing the use of paper as 
 an adjunct of circulation had never been resorted 
 to, were made to occupy the place — discharging 
 the duty of — such sovereigns and such notes, 
 under circumstances of heavy taxation so necessa- 
 rill/ causing the alteration referred to. But, there 
 is here again this peculiar " fallacy" requiring to 
 be exposed: — that while, by the ordinary mode 
 of speaking, we are accustomed to call this a 
 "depreciation" or abasement of the coin, it 
 amounts in reality to an " appreciation" or in- 
 creased value thereof — except in so far as we 
 j)erversely confound it with " depreciated" pa- 
 j)er ; and thus deny the alteration of the stan- 
 dard, both as respects one and the other : al- 
 though we here discover, that two thousand 
 half sovereigns — supposing the total absence of 
 paper, must of necessity (caeteris jiaribus) be so 
 made to represent 1,000/. sterling value in real 
 property with another 1,000/. paper amount in 
 taxes, at one and the same time. But to say — 
 upon the " boasted" principle of Mr. Feel's bill,
 
 6 
 
 that such two thousand half sovereigns (or their 
 nominal "signs" — paper) representing property 
 oi such an intrinsic value — taxed equal to its own 
 amount, can any hoiv, by force of law or other- 
 wise, be rendered convertible into two thousand 
 whole sovereig7is — without, indeed, the sacrifice 
 of at least another equal amount of property, or 
 its value in sterling gold ; involves an absurdity, 
 equally to that of insisting — that gold could 
 really he created — arbitrarily — at any time — 
 merely as the law directs — to an indefinite ex- 
 tent — according as the principle of national tax- 
 ation, with its corresponding amount of neces- 
 sary and virtual depreciation, might be inde- 
 finitely extended. 
 
 And now, to carry the argument one single 
 step further — if, in the total absence of gold (as, 
 from whatever cause arising, we know it to have 
 been the case under a formation of by far the 
 very largest portion of all our war debts, taxes, 
 prices and contracts), two thousand paper signs 
 only, pound notes, instead of two thousand half 
 sovereigns or one thousand sovereigns and one 
 thousand notes, were made to represent the same 
 given quantity of produce — admitted yazr/i/ to 
 be of double price by reason of such war taxes 
 and burthens charged additionally thereupon, 
 and which same given quantity of produce hud
 
 originally been represented by one thousand of 
 whole sovereigns only : — Can it, my Lord, in 
 this stage of the argnment, for a single moment 
 be contended, in prejudice of my own proposed 
 remedy for our public grievances and wrongs 
 (the effect oi national oversight quite as much as 
 of ministerial oversight) ; either that the cur- 
 rency from taxes, and taxes only, had not he- 
 come necessarily and beneficially and legiti- 
 mately, and by every seller's own just act of 
 enhancing his commodity sold, equally to the 
 tax charged upon it ; that such currency, I 
 say, was not depreciated 50 per cent, at the close 
 of the war in 1814? or that, although ^.re^ 
 incomes (all annuities) were more or less af- 
 fected by it, admitting the rates of such depre- 
 ciation to be ever constantly varying — still, that 
 any individual annuitant whatever had there- 
 from the slightest right to complain ? such de- 
 preciation of his income, whether great or small, 
 bespeaking nothing more than his own due 
 share of legal assessment in taxes y paid in com- 
 mon with " all consumers," to the daily current 
 expenses of government — whether for carrying 
 on of war, or for any other legal purpose. And 
 this fallacy here exposed (or rather string of 
 fallacies), constitutes the sole ground for the 
 present prevailing popular belief, that fund-
 
 8 
 
 owners were ttn/usilj/ affected by the foregoing 
 process of depreciation, in the higli rate of 
 prices — caused by necessary and equal (and, in 
 the preceding view of the case, voluntary) taxa- 
 tion, so falling upon all commodities — and of 
 course incomes, during the war ; as also, that " in- 
 justice" would now agam be infiicted upon fund- 
 owners and other annuitants, by so " raising" 
 the metallic standard as would " instantly re- 
 duce" all taxes and other burthens 50 per cent. 
 For, whether you double In value your metallic 
 standard or nominally reduce in value your 
 paper standard one half, you in point of fact 
 accomplish the same thing — a " virtual relief 
 from " all burthens," by the rate of 50 per cent. 
 The only difference, then, between annuitants 
 and other contributors to the exigencies of the 
 State, will lie simply in this — that taxes, charged 
 on consumption to owners of fixed incomes, 
 there remain ; whereas other persons who are 
 both " producers" as well as " consumers," have 
 and ought to have, under a wholesome state of 
 currency adapting its depreciation to the amount 
 of taxes imposed, a power which " non-pro- 
 ducers" (annuitants merely) neither do nor can 
 possess, of charging an addition of price corre- 
 sponding with the amount of tax so charged 
 upon all commodities whatever they have to sell.
 
 So that it", as I trust it will be found, 1 have 
 here tnlly succeeded in unravelling the mystery 
 — ill a manner the most clear and satisfactory, 
 of that supposed " difficulty" of depreciating 
 the currency — '' salva fide" to the public cre- 
 ditor, under the former supposed circumstances 
 of war and heavy taxation — a difficulty here- 
 tofore most honourahly though erroneously 
 thought to exist ; it next follows, mutatis 
 mutandis — a contrary eft'ect to that of " depre- 
 ciation" having since spontaneously taken place, 
 that no such supposed " difficulty" can hence- 
 forward be fairly apprehended to exist — " salva 
 fide," as before stated — from the mere act of 
 so reducing the standard, and therewith taxa- 
 tion, 50 per cent. And this course of reasoning 
 I think, will also serve to show the utter ground- 
 lessness of another feeling sometimes expressed 
 — namely, that an amount of currency con- 
 stituting " excess" in the circulating medium, 
 did exist during the war ; a perfect fallacy, 
 which never could have found a place in reason- 
 able minds, had not the whole theory of money 
 at all times been little understood : as also, that 
 returning to a temporary paper circulation (at 
 least, till the great question of depreciation as 
 regarded taxes, had been previously adjusted — 
 with a view to their reduction one-half), could
 
 10 
 
 possibly again occasion, what has been so erro- 
 neously dreaded by many of our most en- 
 lightened statesmen — an " iinlimited issue," as 
 it is called, " inundating the country with arti- 
 ficial prices, in a boundless circulation of paper 
 money." Surely, in the use of such unguarded 
 expressions, we entirely overlook two most im- 
 portant considerations: 1st, a necessity (before 
 proved to exist) for such a wholesome and " ex- 
 tended" amount of currency, sufficient both to 
 constitute the mere naked gold-price of com- 
 modities (untaxed), together with the nominal or 
 taxed-price of such commodities acting in addi- 
 tion to the former, and thus occasioning what 
 has been considered and often condemned, as the 
 "excess" before mentioned: and, 2dly, that in 
 the very nature of things themselves, by a reduc- 
 tion of all taxes and burthens 50 per cent, in 
 the manner here proposed of raising (not depre- 
 ciating) the standard of our coins, the principle 
 of " free trade" then safely resting on a uni- 
 formly lotv scale of national prices, a constant 
 restraint would be seen to operate, to the entire 
 prevention of any thing like an " excess" in the 
 amount of currency so existing ; which, by then 
 representing " gold values" (or nearly so) as 
 well of taxes as prices, could never exceed in 
 nominal (or paper) amount, the sterling value of
 
 11 
 
 things which they would tlien so nearly lejjie- 
 sent. 
 
 It is besides, my Lord, most important to bear 
 in mind, that the late re-action of the principle 
 (in " contracting" the currency spontaneously 
 i. e. before Mr. Peel's bill was passed, or even 
 thought of — and in which respect I differ al- 
 most entirely with most gentlemen who advocate 
 generally the principle of " raising the standard," 
 in a greater or less degree), caused — from the 
 close of the war in 1814, English money, whe- 
 ther gold or paper, to have been constantly as- 
 suming, year by yeAr, a still more and more 
 highly increased value ; so that, in all our debtor- 
 transactions, annuitants are now receiving from 
 the proceeds of national industry, derivable from 
 taxes — then virtually " doubled," forty instead 
 of twenty shillings sterling to the pound — 
 double equivalents, in short, as to all kinds of 
 produce : and further, that this evil did not pri- 
 marily originate (any more than the depreciation 
 before spoken of) in any one specific act of the 
 government, in the manner it often has been, 
 and still is, most unfairly (as I conceive) at- 
 tempted to be ascribed to the sole enactment 
 and operation of Mr. Peel's bill. This " unjust" 
 accusation, I have always most unequivocally 
 denied; though strongly opposed on other
 
 12 
 
 grounds, to the mischievous policy ot that un- 
 fortunate law : legalizing, as it did, injustice in 
 the first place ; and, in a great degree, tending 
 to perpetuate those very evils it was professedly 
 meant to remedy ; wliolly defeating, likewise, 
 the intended good effect of the corn-bill passed 
 in 1815, as one mode — however imj)erfect and 
 injurious in other respects, of iveakcning the 
 burthen of taxes by increasing the general facili- 
 ties of improving the circulation, to the extent 
 of representing both taxes and prices, according 
 to the proportion that each bears to the other. 
 
 In further elucidation of this same principle, 
 1 am here induced to take an extract from the 
 speech of the nohle Marquis Lansdown, in the 
 House of Lords, on the 4th of February instant, 
 1830 (reported in the Morning Herald of the 
 5th), in which his Lordship is made to say — 
 " It appeared to him (Lord Lansdown) that the 
 speech which had been addressed to their Lord- 
 ships, was to induce them to fall into one of the 
 greatest evils which could await the country, 
 namely, an unlimited paper currency ; for when 
 mention was made of an extension of the paper 
 currency, he knew of no extension which was not 
 in danger of amounting to an unlimited issue. 
 He knew of no medium between them." With 
 great respect to this distinguished nobleman, I
 
 13 
 
 would here suggest to his loidshi)) ; first, that it 
 the country is to have " rehef " througli remune- 
 rating prices (as they are justly called), in any 
 way, those prices can as yet only be obtained 
 through the medium jof an extended^ and that, a 
 paper circulation : secondly, that if such paper 
 circulation is really to represent gold of a certain 
 standard, or to be wholly superseded by gold, 
 it can yet only be effected by giving to our 
 present metallic standard a "double" value: 
 otherwise, to call the standard of " remunerat- 
 ing" ])rices (say, the corn bill of 1S15) a gold 
 standard of J'ull value, were equal in absur- 
 dity to saying, that wheat at 80*. a quarter (so 
 artificiallii produced, in respect of English 
 taxes) is intrinsically worth 4/. in sterling gold, 
 in those un-taxed countries where wheat is well 
 known, and admitted to be worth at the 
 very most, not more than 2/., or just half the 
 amount only at which taxes require it should be 
 in this : thirdly we know, that if 4/. in taxes 
 are to continue to be paid from only 2/. sterling 
 in price, a dead loss falls, has fallen, and will 
 continue so to do, upon all Engliiih " producers," 
 as well of 7nost other articles as of wheat like- 
 wise, equal to one half of all taxes, taken at 
 their present amount of sixty millions sterling 
 a-year ; and so in the same proportion (or nearly
 
 14 
 
 so) of most other kinds of burthens : and 
 fourthly, that while by raising the standard 
 twice the present amount of currency will thence 
 flow into circulation, to meet and relieve the said 
 wants and necessities of the country ; still, as 
 that currency by reducing all burthens half 
 would virtually represent low gold prices in this 
 country, compared with others then and now 
 (all our present restrictive duties being in like 
 manner reduced half), the principle of ' free 
 trade" which would be thus safely established — 
 would, as above stated, destroy the possibility of 
 any such " unHmited " issue of paper as that 
 to which the noble Marquis adverts, in the 
 speech above quoted, with such evident and 
 avowed marks of fear, ap])rehension, and dis- 
 trust. Take one other example here, for the 
 like purpose of illustration; — tea hears in this 
 country an ad valorem duty of 100/. per cent. : 
 — shall it be here said, the amount of currency 
 ought only to be lOO/. to represent tea — costing 
 that sum un-taxed, with another lOO/. in taxes 
 charged additionally thereupon ? So, again, 
 of tobacco — the cost-price being 3d. a pound, 
 the taxed-price 4*. The foregoing deduction, 
 I think, must needs invariably follow — as re- 
 spects all English taxed commodities ; proving 
 the gross absurdity of that inveterate hostility to
 
 15 
 
 the use of paper, country banks, &c. so strikingly 
 evinced by Mr. Cobbett *, and most of liis 
 
 * It has long been a favourite and uncontradicted assertion 
 of Cobbett's — that the clergy, in this respect, have an interest 
 distinct from, and opposed to, that of the public. He himself 
 is well aware of the utter baseness and falsehood of the posi- 
 tion he lays down. The " landowners and clergy (he says) 
 are all strenuous for promoting the alteration of the standard ;'' 
 and again — " there are large owners of church property, and 
 the clergyman might take his tithe in kind if so disposed. To 
 such interests how great would be the difference if the value 
 of money were lowered.'''' Why, if the value of money xcere 
 lowered (as he calls it) — liow could the clergy be affected by 
 it, differently from other people ? If I receive a composition 
 now of 5«. an acre, I should then still receive 5s. whether such 
 shillings were light or heavy ones. If, again, I take my tithe 
 in kind, that " kind" would be influenced in my case, as in the 
 case of all other persons, by the " market price" of produce 
 — whether nominally high or low. I say the baseness of 
 these false insinuations — were other proofs wanting, show 
 the utter profligacy as well as meanness of his vindictive 
 character and disposition. So, a short time ago, speaking 
 of farmers, he calls them — "greedy, mean, bloated, con- 
 ceited, insolent and hard-hearted bull-frogs ; and I might 
 have added (he goes on to say), whom God has destined to 
 fall under the joint efforts of the Hero of Waterloo, and of 
 William Cobbett.'''' One prominent feature in his proposal to 
 " relieve " the farmers — for he can as readily propose plans 
 of relief as he can invoke ruin indiscriminately upon them, was 
 immediately to disband the army. Now he knows, that in most 
 parishes of England the greatest difficulty of employing labourers 
 everywhere exists, who are therefore living a burthen quite in-
 
 mimerons and enchanted followers ; all whost' 
 wild theories and blind prejudices, in this re- 
 spect (it cannot be disproved), have in the 
 strongest degree tended to increase and aggra- 
 vate the country's sufferings; let the tolly 
 and mischief of his proceedings be glossed over, 
 palliated and applauded, by whom and in what- 
 ever shape and terms of fancy that they may. 
 
 The " distinction," too, which doubtless at 
 first sight appears to lie in favour of annuitants 
 of the j^r^^ class — "old' annuitants, as con- 
 tra-distinguished from those of a more recent 
 date — under the progress of increasing depre- 
 ciation, loses its entire force, I believe, viewing 
 the case thus : — A, becomes a fund-owner (say) 
 in the year 178O, the war breaking out in 1/92 
 or 179^' ^^ the first year of the war his income 
 suffers further diminution of value equal to 
 
 tolerable upon the rates ; and, consequently, if 50 or 100,000 
 men (now living on the general taxes) were disbanded and sent 
 home, t/iej/ in like manner must constitute an additional 
 burthen — falling exclusivelj/ upon the occupying-farmers. 
 Indeed, in almost every one of his projects — and God knows 
 he has had his share of them, examined with ever so little 
 critical accuracy, they are eaBily#esolved into the same kind 
 of miserable ignorance of the subject upon which he treats ; 
 invariably mixed-up with the most barefaced and unblushing 
 falsehoods, together with a fair compound of the blackest 
 malignity that ever disgraced and polluted a human breast.
 
 17 
 
 the amount of new taxes imposed, affecting the 
 vahie of all money — now somewhat increased 
 — and necessarily so, in quantity ; and thereby 
 causing what is considered the " sin " of depre- 
 ciation. The following year, more taxes being 
 required, the process continues and the effect 
 increases : year after year, the same thing goes 
 on — till, towards the close of the war in 1814 
 all taxes being doubled (it may be supposed), 
 all prices are doubled in like manner; the quan- 
 tity of money being likewise doubled, fixed 
 incomes being thereby diminished in sterling 
 value accordingly. Now, upon this very simple 
 ground it is — and most simple, when it thus 
 comes to be analized simply — that all our 
 notions, errors, and recriminatory accusations 
 are founded — of " breach of faith" — of wrong, 
 robbery, and fraud, on the part of " government" 
 and of private individuals ; as, also, of the 
 very common and still prevailing error of the 
 present day — both of the currency having been 
 in "excess," and of its again being likely in 
 future to become so — supposing we abandon the 
 principles of Mr. Peel's Bill, out of which so 
 large a portion of our present aggravated 
 sufferings must fairly be admitted to have arisen. 
 But I ask — where is the proof — or any thing 
 like a proof, that such an "excess" did ever a/ 
 
 c
 
 18 
 
 any time exist ? Was the country any thing 
 bnt prosperous in the highest degree, under the 
 existence of that healthy state of circulation, now 
 supposed to constitute ^' excess ? " Where, again, 
 is " breach of faith " to be found — under the 
 operation of the principle I am here contending 
 to establish? If tea be taxed a hundred per 
 cent., or tobacco be taxed fifteen hundred per 
 cent., or if the expense of growing bread in- 
 crease under the same process of depreciation, 
 in a proportion of from forty to eighty shillings 
 the quarter of wheat ; it may be questioned, 
 indeed, on the score of national policy, whether 
 tea should be taxed so much — or tobacco so 
 much. But, if all taxes, conspiring to enhance 
 the expenses of cultivating bread-corn, require 
 the price of 80^. instead of 40*. to induce the 
 farmer to grow wheat at all, no one surely has 
 a " right " to condemn the farmer for demand- 
 ing a price commensurate with his increased 
 expenses of cultivation ; no one surely has a 
 " right " to condemn the " system " (the govern- 
 ment system of currency), by which that price 
 were alone attainable ; and still less than all, 
 has any one the slightest " right " to claim an 
 exclusive exemption in favour of "old" fund- 
 owners, by reason of their being now, in com- 
 mon with all " consumers," subject to the ope-
 
 19 
 
 ration of taxes so enhancing prices, and (by 
 just and necessary consequences) depreciating 
 money, and thereby diminishing one half the 
 sterling vahie of his — her — or their — former 
 un-taxed and therefore un- diminished incomes. 
 I ask then, again, upon what other plausible 
 pretence it has ever been attempted to be main- 
 tained — that " fundowners oi any date, or other 
 *' annuitants" of any class or description, have been 
 " injured " — '' wronged " — and '' defrauded ? '* 
 or, that " excess " in the amount of currency, 
 at any time existed — except, upon admission of 
 the several Jallacies which (I think) I have 
 here most successfully exposed ? And, as to 
 any " distinction " required to be made between 
 the fancied different classes of '^ annuitants " — 
 constituting, as it would do — if well-founded, 
 a most insuperable bar to the adoption of 
 this or any other similar plan of "relief;" 
 it may be well here at once to say — it has 
 no existence whatever, either upon moral or 
 legal grounds — unless, in contradiction of what 
 goes before, it can safely be affirmed, that such 
 annuitants are " entitled " to exemption both 
 against the operation of all " taxes," during war 
 — as likewise to an exclusive protection ivom the 
 intended operation of the " corn bill," during 
 peace — enacted for the necessary protection of 
 
 c 2
 
 20 
 
 English corn growers (however otherwise un- 
 sound in principle), against the ruinous and 
 destructive consequences of an untaxed, foreign, 
 most unequal and unfair competition. And 
 even if we admit (as asserted) that some verbal 
 expectation or promise was held forth, to 
 "return to ^old-payments after a given time ;" 
 still, the pledge was virtually and justly de- 
 parted from — by every subsequent tax necessa- 
 rily imposed — by the rejection of Lord King's 
 petition, to be allowed to exact gold coin from 
 bis own tenantry — and, again, by that same 
 law, the corn bill of 1815, the obvious tendency 
 of which being, and justly so far, to re-depre- 
 ciate all incomes 50 per cent. But, who ever 
 condemned the corn bill upon the principle here 
 laid down ? No ! the complaint of such law 
 rested justly on its ineffickncy, as regarded the 
 question between corn growers and annuitant- 
 consumers ; to the latter of whom it served as a 
 stimulus to promote emigration, and thereby to 
 evade its force ; as, with respect to certain of 
 our /?^««/v/ac^wHwo•-j)roducers — who were not, 
 7ior perhaps could be, equally protected, it worked 
 manifest injustice, by cutting off in a great 
 degree their custom with foreigners, at the very 
 same time that it compelled thetii to purchase 
 bread at home, at a forced, unnatural, and (to
 
 21 
 
 them) most unjust — extravagant — and almost 
 starvation-price. This, however, as regarded 
 annuitants of every class, was never construed 
 as amounting to any thing like "breach of faith," 
 on the part of government ; neither could an 
 extension of the currency — whether by depre- 
 ciated paper or a more minute division of the 
 precious metals {raising the standard, as it is 
 called) lead to any such inference in future, as 
 the one which has so often been aimed to be 
 affixed to it. Besides which, I question how 
 far any law (supposing it to have been such) can 
 justly be held valid — ab initio, even if it should 
 subsequently happen, from wholly unforeseen 
 causes, the fulfilment of its principles " en- 
 danger" the safety of the whole state. — Salus 
 
 POPULI, SUPREMA LeX ! 
 
 There is also another mode of unfair attack 
 upon Government, which I am here bound to 
 notice — it is this : we first condemn the de- 
 parture from the old standard (so called), by 
 enacting the Bank Restriction Bill in 1797} as 
 amounting or leading to a " breach of faith," in 
 the first instance — manifestly a great error ; and, 
 then, say to Ministers — '^ you ought now to 
 abandon your new standard, which " has 
 wrought so much injury and injustice to the 
 country." These words are very nearly, both in
 
 22 
 
 substance and sj)int, the leading characteristic 
 of the first Birmingham petition some two or 
 three years ago. That is, they first charge 
 Government with doing an unjust act, by caus- 
 ing the depreciation of money during the war ; 
 and now, when money has spontaneously re- 
 sumed its former value (most unjustly and ruin- 
 ously , as I have previously shown, by reason of 
 our present enormous debt and taxation), they 
 add — " it is your bounden duty to do the same 
 thing — depreciate money, a second time," 
 Doubtless, I conceive, it is the bounden duty of 
 Government to do so ; but precisely on the op- 
 posite ground to that upon which the foregoing 
 petition rests. Indeed, no Government could 
 feel warranted, for a single moment, in listen- 
 ing to a proposal — resting on such an argument. 
 If the first accusation were well-founded — as I 
 have before manifestly proved it not to have 
 been, it would be quite sufficient to discourage 
 any Minister who regarded his own consistency 
 and the real credit and interests of his country, 
 from receiving a proposal so introduced — coupled 
 with and bottomed on a former charge of " dis- 
 honesty," with implied " breach of faith" to the 
 public-creditor. Either a change of value in the 
 currency was a breach of faith before, and vv^ould 
 be so again by reducing taxation in the manner
 
 23 
 
 here proposed— in which case, Government are 
 fully justified in acting as they are acting; and, 
 consequently, our murmurs against taxes are 
 both unfounded and unjust : or otherwise, if (as I 
 trust the contrary has been here fully shown) the 
 former '' depreciation" of money was no breach 
 OF FAITH ; the argument still returns upon us, 
 that no breach of faith could now happen from 
 again changing the standard, so as virtually 
 to reduce all taxes and burthens by the rate of 
 50 per cent. It thus often happens that a 
 good and just cause suffers material injury, from 
 being advocated on false grounds at the outset — 
 being here urged upon Ministers for adoption, 
 upon principles of avowed "injustice;'* avowed 
 even by the same persons, who are sometimes 
 most loud and clamorous in behalf of the very 
 measure which they themselves both so discou- 
 rage and recommend almost in one and the 
 same breath. The subject being so long disre- 
 garded and refused attention to, may (I think) 
 fairly be ascribed to these causes, in a very high 
 degree ; as likewise to another, which is this : — 
 there has been, and still is, an exceeding want 
 of friendly and public " co-operation," among 
 those persons who have made the subject of 
 the currency their peculiar study ; of this my 
 recent lectures are a striking proof Ten years
 
 24 
 
 ago, too, I proposed the formation of an As- 
 sociation, to be called — "The United Agri- 
 cultural, Commercial, and Financial Association 
 of Great Britain ! its object being — to elicit truth 
 on this great and difficult public question — to 
 devise and co-operate in all such measures as 
 might be judged beneficial for our mutual inter- 
 ests — and to promote, as far as possible, the 
 comfort and happiness of the Industrious Poor." 
 The proposal (I think) was unwisely rejected by 
 those to whom it was submitted ; and, from that 
 day to the present — the true cause of our diffi- 
 culties being still woefully misunderstood, the si- 
 tuation of the country, in all respects, has been 
 certainly growing worse and worse ; and will so 
 continue to retrograde — in wealth, prosperity, 
 and happiness, so long as the same destructive 
 measures be suffered to remain in operation. 
 But, had the subject been then taken up with 
 proper feelings, and supported by the right sort 
 of persons (instead of indulging violent antipa- 
 thies and strong recriminatory accusations — 
 sometimes false and always ill-timed), there can 
 hardly be a shadow of a doubt — the whole coun- 
 try would soon have found itself in a far differ- 
 ent and far more enviable situation to that in 
 which it at present stands : a situation, in which 
 millions of the poorer classes are actually bor-
 
 25 
 
 deling upon starvation, with a most general in- 
 security and unproductiveness (as to profit) of 
 property and industry of every kind. The thing 
 was DUE to government! who required, on such 
 a subject, public support and sanction for their 
 measures ; and which such a necessary and 
 popular proceeding (however unusual and im- 
 proper in ordinary cases) would, in the present 
 instance, been almost sure to have afforded 
 them. Still — great as our danger is, let us not 
 despair ! There is a merciful and just God 
 above, who determines the fates of empires and 
 of men ; and there is (I trust) in England, an 
 abundance of good feeling, good sense, and 
 right intentions — which, however misled at pre- 
 sent, require little more (we hope) than to re- 
 ceive a proper and just impetus — from the hands 
 of Government, quickly to extricate us from all 
 our difficulties. There must, however, be a 
 ready and willing exercise of kindly and indulg- 
 ent feelings, on all sides ; in respect of a great 
 national " oversight" in which most of us 
 have largely participated. We require unity 
 of action as well as unity of design and unity 
 of principle ; justice, inflexible, undeviating, i?/i- 
 partial justice, being the broad foundation of 
 every future proceeding. The public " press," 
 too, till very lately, has almost uniformly ex-
 
 26 
 
 erted itself to " blink the question" — witness es- 
 j)ecial]y the venal, unmannerly, and ignorant 
 "Times" — ignorant, as to every sound princi- 
 ple of currency ; discouraging, in every possible 
 way, all fair, dispassionate, and wholesome in- 
 quiry respecting it. For myself, I can here 
 only further repeat — with great res^pect, that 
 provided my labours should be judged worthy 
 of public attention — in being publicly useful, 
 they may at any time be commanded by the 
 Public, in any possible way. To judge from re- 
 cent declarations made by his Grace the Duke 
 of Wellington, there cannot be a moment's 
 question of the greatest want of information, 
 still existing in the minds of Ministers — both as 
 to facts and principles, in regard to many things 
 of the highest moment connected with the bear- 
 ings of the currency-question. 
 
 But, even supposing any thing like the sha- 
 dow of a plea existed, justifying an opinion — 
 that such annuitants really suffered " injustice" 
 from a depreciated-currency, the strict contrary 
 to which, being here I think clearly demon- 
 strated ; still, I should say, for other reasons 
 again, it could furnish no solid objection for 
 with-holding the *' relief" here claimed for the 
 suffering classes (and which your Lordship's 
 candid liberality admits would be a " relief"),
 
 27 
 
 against the wide-spreading injury and injustice 
 which they now so lamentably endure. For 
 having before shown, that while a " depre- 
 ciated" currency diminished the iveight of taxes, 
 by facilitating the means of paying them — work- 
 ing no injustice, at the same time, to " an- 
 nuitants" who were chiefly affected by it, how- 
 ever inconvenient the operation may have been ; 
 it will hence, I apprehend, clearly result — an 
 opposite effect having now taken place, by a 
 " contraction " of the currency (long unsus- 
 pected and denied, even in Parliament) — aug- 
 menting its value, however, so that taxes and 
 all other burthens, to '^ debtors," are thence 
 become virtually doubled; but without any of the 
 justifying circumstances, as respected " credi- 
 tors" in the former case ; that the most manifest 
 and crying " injustice" is here committed, from 
 allowing taxes to continue to be paid, in a cur- 
 rency so " appreciated" — gold of the old 
 standard; let the subject be placed in what- 
 ever light in which it can any how be viewed. 
 In the former case, the presumed "loss" — in 
 whatever degree existing, attached wholly and 
 duly to the unproductive classes ; leaving the 
 funds and resources of national industry and 
 wealth both unimpaired and uninjured, and 
 in the high test degree flourishing ; so long 
 as that same depreciated currency con-
 
 28 
 
 tinned to circulate, unshackled and unimpeded 
 iji doing so by coining suddenly, from the peace, 
 into collision with the gold (and comparatively 
 undepreciated) standards of other European 
 countries : whereas now, from the increased 
 value of money — doubling taxes and burthens, 
 it goes completely to the contrary effect of rest- 
 ing exclusively on productive industry a/ul capi- 
 tal, starving the one and exhausting the other ; 
 tending of consequence, at no very distant 
 period if suffered to continue its destructive ope- 
 ration (looking to the dreadful results now 
 working before our eyes !) to involve all classes 
 — " unproductive" as well as *' productive," in 
 one common vortex of total and inextinguishable 
 ruin. No ! 1 feel fully persuaded in my own 
 mind, these errors and ungrounded fears being 
 hence clearly refuted and subdued, that the 
 firmness — integrity — and pure benevolence of 
 the British government, will not again ungra- 
 ciously and hastily reject, as visionary and pre- 
 suming (on the part of him who offers it), a 
 proposal — grown out of the most unwearied 
 study and reflection given to the subject; a pro- 
 posal, here admitted by one highly competent 
 and experienced judge to be fully adequate to 
 meet the case required ; but will speedily apply 
 that efficient "remedy," for removing our pre- 
 sent unparalled sufferings, privations, and diflfi-
 
 29 
 
 cnlties ; against all ignorant and vulgar cla- 
 mour; founded — on low abuse — on wicked, 
 unprincipled, and purely mischievous, opposi- 
 tion * ! 
 
 By the kind of remedy here proposed, how- 
 
 * Referring once more to the remark of the very amiable 
 and enlightened nobleman before referred to — the IMarquis of 
 Lansdown, 1 shall 1 trust be respectfully allowed to say — 
 that, inasmuch as 200/. in currency instead of 100/. will be 
 here seen requisite to represent tea taxed 100 per cent. ; 
 and 4s. in currency to represent tobacco worth only 3d., 
 and now taxed 3s. 9d to the pound ; and 4/. in currency to 
 represent wheat, requiring artificially a double price — its 
 gold price un-taxed, at most, not exceeding forty instead of 
 eighty .'shillings sterling the quarter : so, our aggregate 
 amount of currency will in like manner require to be aug- 
 mented, equal to that of enabling the whole community to 
 provide in taxes 60,000,000/. a year — added to what Avould 
 otherwise be the gold price (or rather value) of commodities, 
 labour, &c. supposing such taxes, in the first instance, had 
 never been imposed. This, too, it were palpably clear from 
 the reasoning going before, can never he obtained in the pre- 
 sent standard ; nor yet in any way, except by the aid oi paper 
 — representing gold values often shillings instead of twenty 
 shillings sterling to the pound. We should then get a safe 
 paper currency, bottomed upon gold values ; which is all, upon 
 the score of security and usefulness, the most fastidious need 
 require. I apprehend (beyond this) nothing like " excess," 
 ever did or ever can take place. 
 
 His Grace the Duke of Wellington's notion of the present 
 amount of currency being amply sufficient for all necessary 
 purposes, betrays (1 must be allowed to say) a thorough want 
 of knowledge of the subject ; though by no means greater,
 
 30 
 
 ever, there would in reality he much less sacri- 
 fice of sterling value required — even to " an- 
 nuitants" themselves, than might at first sight 
 seem to appear : since, in whatever proportion 
 incomes were reduced by it (say half), taxes and 
 other burthens being equally reduced by it, such 
 incomes would actually acquire an increased value 
 in the one case (by such diminution of bur- 
 thens), nearly corresponding to their nominal 
 reduction in the other. Indeed, the only res- 
 pect (so far as I am able to discover) in which 
 they would not be so benefited, may be seen in 
 the circumstances of such reduction of taxes and 
 all other burthens upon property, so reducing 
 prices (for the moment) — increasing, likewise, 
 from the relatively increased amount of currency 
 the means of purchasing both to foreign and 
 home consumers of our several commodities, as 
 shortly to lessen considerably the present ruinous 
 "glut" on hand; and thence speedily to im- 
 prove (as it needs must do) the low demand for 
 marketable industry, quickly taking up again 
 
 than the difficulties of such subject might well explain — taken 
 in connection with his former habits of thinking and acting, 
 with his utter aversion from entertaining all discussion 
 respecting it, together with that constant distraction of mind 
 by dilFerent objects unceasingly obtruding themselves on per- 
 sons filling, with his Grace's assiduity, the highest and most 
 responsible public official situations.
 
 31 
 
 great numbers of our now superfluous (unfairly 
 rendered so) and unemployed hands : so that, in 
 numberless instances^ the existing rate of wages 
 remaining only nominally the same — shall, in 
 every such instance, become therefrom 7'elativeli/ 
 and greatly improved. By thus raising, then, 
 the poor labourer and struggling artisan from 
 their present woeful depression to that heightened 
 state of comparatively improved comfort and in- 
 dependence, to which I here most earnestly 
 though respectfully contend they are both 
 legally and morally entitled ; and which would 
 inevitably follow from such greatly increased 
 demand for labour, with a corresponding 
 great diminution of all his pre-eiisting burthens 
 at the same time : this, I say, may so Jar be 
 thought to constitute a *^ disadvantage" to the 
 public creditor (or rather all annuitants) ; whose 
 unduly increased means of enjoyment, would 
 doubtless, as respects such relative improvement 
 among the " productive classes — the poorer 
 ones especially, be somewhat affected in the oppo- 
 site ratio. But to object to this, upon any of 
 the grounds which J have herein been consider- 
 ing and explaining, would, as it appears to me, 
 be as much as to say — '' all modes of relieving 
 the Poor from their present dreadful state of suf- 
 fering, were below the nation's consideration, 
 for a moment;" or, in other words, that "in-
 
 32 
 
 justice is preferable to justice — legislation a 
 mockery — and mercy a crime." 
 
 Neither can it easily have escaped your Lord- 
 ship's penetration, that a similarly beneficial ef- 
 fect will generally result to the whole of our 
 social relations at home; the '^unemployed" will 
 obtain relief, through that relief which their 
 emplo2/ers (all the higher classes — not exclu- 
 sively annuitants) would first receive — from an 
 improved, more stable, and expanded circula- 
 tion. It must however be here further con- 
 tended, in establishing a *' new standard," that 
 the Jirst step requisite would be a temporary 
 (though immediate) renewal of the " Bank Re- 
 striction Act;" as well on every account of law, 
 justice, sound policy, and a humane and mer- 
 ciful desire of abating the dreadful suffering 
 that exists among the poorer classes in parti- 
 cular: as also, in the state of almost universal 
 ignorance that still pervades the country, both 
 as to the subject and remedy to be applied, in 
 order to guard effectually and with due precau- 
 tion, against what might otherwise very possibly 
 take place — the dreadful consequences of a most 
 extensive and destructive " panic :" a previous as- 
 surance being unequivocally given, on the part 
 of Government (to the very utmost extent the 
 case would admit of — guarding against all at- 
 tempts at fraud), of full " indemnity" being
 
 33 
 
 given to merchants trading abroad — in all hand 
 Jide transactions pending at the time, from its 
 eflfect upon the "exchanges" momentarily to be 
 expected. In every other case than the one so 
 contemplated — where the direct operation of 
 the principle did not immediately produce the 
 desired adjustment, all things would very spee- 
 dily accommodate themselves to the new standard, 
 as the future basis and safeguard of every pecu- 
 niary contract and of every trading and com- 
 mercial transaction. 
 
 Regretting, as I sincerely do, that the subject 
 — at least in the foregoing view of it, has not 
 lotig since fallen into abler and more influential 
 hands than my own, to do it ample justice ; 
 I have the honour to be, 
 With very high respect. 
 My Lord, 
 Your Lordship's most obedient humble Servant. 
 RICHARD CRUTTWELL. 
 
 In writing the foregoing letter, I have endea- 
 voured to defend Ministers (as I ever will do) 
 against the injustice of " exclusive" accusations, 
 which I know lie equally against the ignorance,
 
 34 
 
 prejudice, and selfishness of the whole commu- 
 nity. On the mere score of personal civility 
 and attention to my own persevering labours, I 
 am as little indebted in (Jtie quarter as I am in 
 another. But from facts and declarations which 
 I have very recently observed, I am here bold 
 to say — that if any person refuses to sanction a 
 proposal, for bringing this great subject, in con- 
 nection with the whole of our present distresses, 
 under the immediate and close investigation of 
 Parliament — for one, I sincerely hope, in ac- 
 knowledgment of the " curse " such conduct 
 will assuredly bring upon the country, that the 
 time is drawing near for that individual to 
 LOSE HIS HEAD!! Unintentional oversight 
 may be readily excused ; but blindly and obsti- 
 nately to persist in a course of injury and wrong, 
 against the clearest lights of conviction and 
 truth, betrays a reckless criminality of proceed- 
 ing wholly and for ever without excuse. 
 
 Of the currency-question — Mr. D. W. Har- 
 vey, M. P. for Colchester, at a late Essex county 
 meeting is reported to have had the singular 
 wisdom to declare — that "it was all a farce." 
 
 R. C. 
 
 CHARLES WOOD AND SON, PRINTERS, 
 Poppin's Court, Fleet Street.
 
 ■J^ERSITY OF »-LlN01b-UHbANA 
 
 3 0112 062406894