1 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 332 
 V.20
 
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 55(ri»:^lfr?I 
 
 Return this book on or before the 
 Latest Date stamped below. 
 
 University of Illinois Library 
 
 . t . 1 ^M. 1 V. 
 
 '-/ 
 
 L161— H41 
 
 lAnm^-'
 
 
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 rVvi'^'T' 
 
 
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 /)e^. '^y'C^i^^Ac.eKj^ 
 
 ADMINISTRATION 
 
 THE AFFAIRS 
 
 GREAT B R I T A 1 1^, &c.
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PK.INTKD BY IHOJIAS DAVISON WHITSHllARS.
 
 \y 
 
 ADMINISTRATION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE AFFAIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN, 
 
 IRELAND, 
 
 AND 
 
 THEIR DEPENDENCIES, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF THE YEAR 1823. 
 STATED AND EXPLAINED 
 
 UNDER THE HEADS OF 
 
 FINANCE, NATIONAL RESOURCES, 
 
 FOREIGN RELATIONS, COLONIES, TRADE, 
 
 AND DOMESTIC ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 FOURTH EDITION. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTI^D FOR JOHN HATCH ARD AND SON, 
 187, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1823. 
 
 V
 
 ADMINISTRATION, 
 
 Sfc. Sfc, 
 
 The time is approaching in which the main 
 branches of our administration, financial, fo- 
 reign, domestic, and colonial, must severally 
 pass under the ordinary annual review of Par- 
 liament. To arrive at a just estimate of any 
 one of these subjects requires a closer and 
 nearer examination of the public documents, 
 and ofiicial statements, than can be afforded at 
 the time and place of their discussion. To 
 assist in forming the public judgment upon 
 these' subjects ; to produce, explain, and ar- 
 range these documents, is the purport of the 
 following observations. It is, therefore, pro- 
 posed to take a review of the actual state of 
 afiairs from January, 1822, to the year now 
 commenced. 
 
 In investigating the mass of materials and 
 facts, which must necessarily compose such an 
 examination, it will be immediately seen, that 
 the established order of public business affords 
 the most suitable method for developing a sub-
 
 6 
 
 ject matter so extensive and various. It is our 
 purpose, therefore, to follow this order. 
 
 Under the head of Finance, the year 1822 has 
 been distingidshed by some memorable mea- 
 sures which will be discussed in their due order. 
 For the first time, perhaps, the public have ac- 
 knowledged the peculiar system of Lord Liver- 
 pool and the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 
 active and effectual operation ; and have seen 
 those practical results which no one had pre- 
 viously anticipated. They have seen taxes re- 
 duced, in one year, to the amount of nearly four 
 millions ; whilst the service of the country has 
 been effectually administered through all the 
 departments, and public credit maintained and 
 strengthened by an actual surplus fund of five 
 millions. 
 
 Under the head of our National Resources, 
 the reader will learn, with unqualified pleasure, 
 that all the springs of our public wealth are entire 
 and unimpaired; that our foreign commerce is 
 administering the most abundant supply to our 
 internal trade and manufactures ; whilst all 
 sources are pouring forth, in a bounteous stream, 
 their several contributions to the public re- 
 venue. 
 
 The review of our Foreign Relations, and 
 of our Colonial Administration, will follow the 
 statement of our national resources, and will
 
 enforce, it is presumed, the same conclusion. 
 In common with every intelHgent mind, his 
 Majesty's ministers camiot but be strongly im- 
 pressed with the most essential value, not to 
 say paramount necessity, of the existing* general 
 peace of Europe ; and with their own obligations 
 not to be wanting in every effort to preserve it, 
 by maintaining its securities. They are, doubt- 
 less, of opinion, that these securities consist in 
 that state of actual possession by the several 
 European powers, which was settled by the 
 treaties of Vienna. But they cannot, at the 
 same time, hesitate to admit, that every inde- 
 pendent power has a right to consult for the 
 exigencies of its own self-defence, and to de- 
 cide the question of its own danger. 
 
 The remaining portion of the subject matter 
 of these pages will necessarily fall under the 
 head of Domestic Administration ; under which 
 it is proposed to take a brief review of those 
 measures, which have been adopted for the pur- 
 pose of assisting and promoting the agricultural, 
 commercial, shipping, manufacturing, and ge- 
 neral interests of the country. 
 
 As a statement, already necessarily long, 
 would have been rendered too voluminous for 
 general use by the annexation of all the docu- 
 ments employed at full length, tables and pa- 
 pers have been omitted. Enough, however, is
 
 8: 
 
 given, in all cases, to justify the conclusion to 
 which the reader is invited. Some of the ac- 
 counts have not been made up, and, of course, 
 have not been published beyond the last quarter. 
 Many of the accounts, as in the Customs and 
 Excise, are only monthly and weekly computa- 
 tions from this period. But it is presumed, that 
 all these documents (whatever be their nature) 
 will be found to be used only according to their 
 just character; and that the completion of the 
 accounts, and their official production, at the 
 usual period of the year now running, will 
 sufficiently bear out every statement made upon 
 their basis. 
 
 The general object of these observations is, 
 to appeal to the good sense and the good feel- 
 ings of the people of England, and to how the 
 claim of his Majesty's ministers to that degree 
 of public confidence and co-operation, which, 
 by assisting to maintain order and tranquillity, 
 and by repressing all impediments, merely vex- 
 atious, must eminently advance and facilitate 
 the public service.
 
 9 
 
 FINANCE. 
 
 It is certainly not too much to remark upon 
 this branch of our subject, that we are living 
 in times, in which a particular state of circum- 
 stances gives an unusual importance to the 
 financial administration of the kingdom. In 
 an ordinary state of things, it is not much to 
 the honour of any government, and certainly 
 not of a monarchy, to give not only the first 
 place, but almost the sole attention, to its 
 pecuniary administration. It has accordingly 
 been well said by the first of all political writers, 
 that as the principle of a monarchy is honour, 
 and that of a mixed government, like England, 
 a love of the constitution, there must be a 
 speedy end of such governments, where the 
 honour of the one form, and the patriotism of 
 the other, are supplanted by the mere spirit of 
 saving or acquiring. A nation of traders will 
 not long tolerate the constitutional predomi- 
 nance of a nobility, upon which all monarchies 
 must rest ; and a nation of mere calculators 
 and economists will be speculating upon some 
 cheaper form of government than a mixed sy- 
 stem. But if there be much truth in these ge- 
 neral principles, so much so indeed, as to sug- 
 
 B
 
 10 
 
 gest it as a point of prudence to our nobility 
 and country gentlemen, how far they may be 
 consulting their own interests in making com- 
 mon cause with the economists of the age, in 
 an effort to reduce all the establishments of the 
 country; it is equally certain, that there may be 
 a condition in public affairs, which will justly 
 give a temporary superiority to the financial 
 administration. Such, perhaps, is the condition 
 of Great Britain at the present time, where a 
 long course of war has greatly added to the 
 public debt, and where the same cause has, in 
 appearance at least, affected the productiveness 
 of one of the main funds of our national re- 
 sources. 
 
 IvCt it be granted, therefore, that our econo- 
 mical administration was never of more import- 
 ance than at the present period. But let it be 
 equally granted, as a necessary consequence, 
 that the nation owes a proportionate acknow- 
 ledgment to his Majesty's ministers, if it shall 
 be made to appear, upon a brief view of their 
 measures, that they have administered the 
 finances of the empire with a proper regard to 
 the relief of the people, and to the safety of the 
 state; to present economy on the one part, and, 
 on the other, to the due security of that large, 
 that immense portion of individual property, 
 which is collected and distributed amongst in-
 
 n 
 
 numerable holders, in the vast mass of our Na- 
 tional Debt. 
 
 Upon a general review of the history of the 
 year now ended, it appears that the financial 
 measures of the year 1822 were chiefly six in 
 number. 1. The reduction of the public ex- 
 penditure, from the estimate of the former year, 
 by two millions. 2. The establishment and 
 maintenance of the Sinking Fund to the amount 
 of five millions. 3. The reduction of one hun- 
 dred and fifty-five millions, five per cents, into 
 four per cents. 4. The conversion of the five 
 millions annual naval and military pensions into 
 an annuity of <;62,80(),000 for forty-five years. 
 5. The application of the .£3,300,000, saved by 
 the operation of these measures, to the remis- 
 sion of annual taxes. And lastly, the measures 
 in aid of the currency of the country. 
 
 The first of these points will be best ex- 
 plained by a few previous observations upon 
 what may be regarded as the characteristic 
 of the Finance System of the present admini- 
 stration. 
 
 This system if defined, or rather described, 
 by its effects, may be stated briefly to consist 
 of two objects; the first, to abstain, as much 
 as possible (under the actual burthens of the 
 country), from all loans and new taxes, and to 
 
 B 2
 
 12 
 
 meet the expenditure of the year by the actual 
 money income. And as this object necessarily 
 comprehends the application of the greater por- 
 tion of the old Sinking Fund to the current 
 expense of the year, to augment what might 
 remain of this fund into a new effective sinking, 
 or rather surplus fund, of five millions ; and 
 with this surplus, always maintained, and, in 
 all probability, greatly augmented by gradual 
 reductions of the expenditure, and a progres- 
 sive increase of the revenue, to operate from 
 time to time on the money market, in buying 
 up, exchanging and reducing the public stocks, 
 so as to reduce the capital debt from a higher 
 to a lower denomination. Secondly, after this 
 sinking fund shall have attained to the amount 
 of one per cent, upon the capital of the Na- 
 tional Debt, to apply its annual surplus to the 
 gradual remission of such of our taxes as press 
 most heavily upon the landed or commercial 
 interests of the country. 
 
 When the ministry of Lord Grenville and 
 Mr. Fox succeeded that of Mr. Pitt and Lord 
 Sidmouth, the system of Finance of that admi- 
 nistration was to raise as much as possible of 
 the total expenditure within the year, and to 
 make up the deficiency by annual loans. This 
 of course could only be effected by heavy an-
 
 13 
 
 nual taxes; to supply, in the first place, the 
 portion of the expenditure not afforded by the 
 loans, and secondly, to pay the interest of the 
 loans. Accordingly, during that administra- 
 tion, some of the present taxes (it is not said 
 with any purpose of offence or censure) were 
 from year to year imposed upon the public. 
 The property tax was greatly increased ; and 
 as the amount so raised was still insufficient, 
 several other imposts were applied, or rather 
 attempted, which excited general discontent. 
 The proposal to tax private brewing was de- 
 feated by an unanimous popular voice, and to 
 say no more upon the proposed tax upon pig 
 iron, it was withdrawn under a necessity equally 
 strong. There were some circumstances, how- 
 ever, peculiar to those times, which assisted 
 this system of Finance, and gave it a longer 
 duration than, under any other state of things, 
 it could have possessed. The coalition of 
 parties, so long opposed to each other, had re- 
 duced, or nearly extinguished, the strength of 
 opposition in parliament. The novelty of a 
 Whig administration, with Mr. Fox at its head, 
 had a powerful influence on the popular mind; 
 whilst the great naval victories of that period, 
 and that of Trafalgar in particular, united 
 public opinion in favour of the existing admi-
 
 14 
 
 nistration. Add to this, a condition of in- 
 creasing trade and commerce under the effect 
 of foreign capital settling in England, and add, 
 moreover, a state of prices and profits which, 
 from the effect of the vast sums successively, 
 from year to year, thrown into the market by 
 the government expenditure, was now augment- 
 ing rapidly in every branch of industry, and in 
 every employment of money. But, favourable 
 as were these circumstances to induce the 
 public to submit to extraordinary sacrifices, 
 and to encourage the ministers to make extra- 
 ordinary efforts, the burthen was becoming so 
 intolerable, and a concurrent public voice was 
 so loudly and so generally raised against this 
 system, that the proposed new taxes were de- 
 feated almost as soon as introduced. 
 
 Such was the state of things at the period 
 when this administration retired. Indeed, as 
 respects a great division of this ministry, the 
 particular friends of Mr. Fox, and of his prin- 
 ciples, it is not too much to assert, that their 
 retirement was at least as popular as had been 
 their entry into office. Without any purpose 
 of speaking uncivilly of this party, it may at 
 least be said, that they were men quos omnes 
 imperio dignissimos existimdr'antf donee impe- 
 rdssent.
 
 15 
 
 The administration of Mr. Perceval suc- 
 ceeded — very far be it from the writer of these 
 observations to mention with any disrespect a 
 name to which he feels himself attached from 
 closer considerations than those of public life, 
 — a name, moreover, eminently distinguished 
 by every private virtue, and by sincere and un- 
 wearied efforts in the public service. But Mr. 
 Perceval entered into office immediately from 
 the active business and warm contention of the 
 bar, and he assuredly carried with him much 
 of the habits and feelings of his profession. — 
 He saw the state of the country, and parti- 
 cularly the finance department, in too sanguine 
 a point of view. — He felt that it was his pro- 
 fessional duty to defend the existing state of 
 things, and he defended it with the talents, and, 
 — let it be added without offence, — witli the tem- 
 perament of a lawyer. Feeling conscientiously 
 and strongly, he still further warmed himself 
 with his own efforts ; and becoming more dazzled 
 and more enaenoured with his subject, in pro- 
 portion as he rendered it his own, he assuredly 
 coloured too highly ; but as regarded himself, 
 his opinions, convictions, and feelings, were 
 perfectly sincere, and he acted upon them. 
 Against tlie experience of what he had seen in 
 the cabinet to which he succeeded, lie perse-
 
 16 
 
 vered in the system of the preceding ministry. 
 He added the war timber duties, and several 
 other taxes, which only survived him, because 
 they had created a necessity of continuing 
 themselves ; and because it is totally a different 
 question whether a tax should be at first im- 
 posed, and whether, after having been imposed, 
 and having created a form of business and deal- 
 ing peculiar to itself, it should be repealed. 
 But Mr. Perceval lived long enough to perceive 
 his error J and it is due to his memory to add, 
 that he intended to rectify it. 
 
 The effect of this system, thus introduced 
 by one ministry, and continued by another, 
 was daily becoming more obvious, and ex- 
 hibited itself in a clamour against the amount 
 and inutility of the Sinking Fund — the use and 
 policy of which had before been an admitted 
 principle with all parties. 
 
 It was under this state of things, and this 
 condition of public opinion, that his Majesty's 
 present ministers entered into office. It was 
 under these circumstances, that the present 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer found it neces- 
 sary to depart from the former system, and, 
 in deference to a just public opinion, and in- 
 deed from the obvious necessity of the case, to 
 consider the actual amount of the existing
 
 17 
 
 Sinking Fund, and to recognise the claims of 
 the public to some immediate relief in return 
 for long sacrifices. He could not but perceive 
 that the money market was becoming inun- 
 dated with the public securities, and that every 
 new loan was successively made upon less fa- 
 vourable terms. He could not but perceive 
 that the value of the currency of the country 
 was becoming deranged by the vast amounts 
 yearly added under the operation of loans ; 
 and that prices were, nominally, rising in a 
 degree, which at that period bore very hardly 
 upon fixed incomes, and menaced the future 
 condition of the country still more materially. 
 
 It was, therefore, under this experience of 
 the present, and this just apprehension for the 
 future (an apprehension too justly verified), that 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer adopted what 
 may be regarded as his new system of finance, 
 namely i to meet the expenditure of the year by 
 the actual money income, without the aid of loans 
 or new taxes ; but to maintain the Sinking Fund 
 atfve millions, and with that amount, increased 
 by gradual reductions in the expenditure, and by 
 the progressive productiveness of the sources of 
 revenue, to operate, from time to time, in the 
 money market ; in buying up, exchangi?ig, and 
 reducing the public stocks, so as to 7^educe the 
 capital debt from a higher to a lower denomination. 
 
 In order to execute this system in its detail,
 
 18 
 
 it became the daily object of the Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer to give a constant attention to 
 the following main points : 
 
 First, to the maintenance at all events of the 
 Sinking Fund at five millions. 
 
 Secondly, to the application of the savings 
 arising from a progressive increase in the re- 
 venue, (and from every possible reduction) to 
 advance, in the first instance, the amount of 
 this Sinking Fund to <£7,50O,0O0, so as to ren- 
 der it equivalent to one per cent, on the sum 
 total of the National Debt. 
 
 Thirdly, to apply any probable surplus dur- 
 ing these operations, and the certain surplus at 
 the end of a very short period, to the buying 
 up of the public stocks, so as to reduce them 
 to a lower rate of interest, and thereby to 
 enable himself to remit taxes to their amount. 
 
 Fourthly, (as the advance of the Sinking 
 Fund to the amount of c£7,500,0O0, however 
 desirable, was certainly not necessary in the 
 same degree with its maintenance at five mil- 
 lions) to consult, from time to time, the actual 
 burthen of particular taxes, and in the event of 
 such taxes becoming more than ordinarily op- 
 pressive, under a peculiar state of things, to 
 apply part of the surplus of the year to the 
 remission of such taxes, in preference to the 
 application of such surplus to advance the 
 Sinking Fund from <£5,000,000 to ct7,50O,000.
 
 19 
 
 Such being the finance system, — upon which, 
 after a most assiduous and laborious attention 
 to the actual condition of the country, his 
 Majesty's ministers had resolved to act, — they 
 saw with the greatest satisfaction, on the com- 
 mencement of the session of Parliament in 
 February, 1822, that the execution of some re- 
 trenchment in the detail of affairs, and the con- 
 solidation of some branches of service, had 
 enabled them to meet Parliament with a re- 
 duction of the estimates to the amount of 
 ^2,000,000. 
 
 It is not the purpose of the present ob- 
 servations to retrace figures, the general result 
 of which, if not the detail, is within the memory 
 of every intelligent reader. It will be sufficient 
 upon this head of retrenchments, to recal to the 
 memory of the reader, that under the four 
 heads of army, navy, ordnance, and miscel- 
 laneous, the estimates for the year 1822 ex- 
 hibited a reduction of two millions below the 
 estimates of the preceding year 1821. If to 
 this saving of two millions, as compared with 
 the estimates of 1821, be added the further 
 saving of c£l,GOO,000, which was effected in 
 the year 1821, it will be seen that the ex- 
 penditure of the current year, as compared 
 with 1820, was reduced in fact by c£3,528,000;
 
 20 
 
 the estimates for 1820 being .£19,673,000, and 
 those for 1822 being J16, 145,000. In the Re- 
 port of the Finance Committee, for the year 
 1817, the future annual expenditure of the 
 country, for army and navy, ordnance and 
 miscellaneous, was estimated at <;£ 17,300,000. 
 But the actual estimates for these four branches 
 for the year just ended (1822) amounted only 
 to ,^16,248,346, being a saving of Jl,101,654 
 beyond the estimate of that committee. 
 
 It is but just, however, to his Majesty's 
 ministers, that the public should always retain 
 in their mind two main points as regards this 
 amount of reduction. The first is, that this 
 reduction of two millions, if properly con- 
 sidered, was to be regarded as made upon an 
 annual expenditure of thirteen millions, and not 
 of eighteen millions. The true state of the 
 question is this — the estimates for the pre- 
 ceding year 1821, were indeed in round figures 
 eighteen millions ; but if we deduct from this 
 sum, as we manifestly ought, the five millions 
 naval and military pensions, the clear cost of the 
 annual establishment will appear to be thirteen 
 millions only. The two millions' reduction was 
 therefore made on an annual current expendi- 
 ture not exceeding thirteen millions ; or, in 
 other words, the amount of reduction for the
 
 21 
 
 year 1 822 almost equalled one-sixth, or sixteen 
 per cent., of the annual ordinary expenditure of 
 the year. 
 
 The second point is, that, in justice to his 
 Majesty's ministers, it ought not to be for- 
 gotten, how heavily a dead expense of the 
 amount of five millions, and of whatever is paid 
 in commutation of it, must press upon the ordi- 
 nary resources of the year; and how much it is 
 a matter of common candour to make a due 
 separation of what is paid upon this account, 
 from our ordinary annual expenditure ; and to 
 bear this in mind, upon all occasions of com- 
 paring the expenditure of the present and of 
 former periods. In the year 1792, that golden 
 era, to which all the economists of the present 
 day so fondly resort, as the standard for our 
 future establishment, the annual amount of the 
 naval, military, and retired pensions, in short 
 the same head of service which now amounts 
 to five millions, did not exceed, in that year, 
 £650y0O0y so unequal is the pressure of the two 
 periods, and so large is the amount of that por- 
 tion of our annual expenditure, which, however 
 it may be paid, admits of no reduction but in 
 the form of commutation. 
 
 The second finance measure of the year was 
 the attaiment (in point of fact) of a Sinking 
 Fund to the amount of five millions. It is
 
 22 
 
 scarcely necessary to repeat, except for order, 
 that the Finance Committee in 1819 came to a 
 resolution, that a Sinking Fund of this amount 
 was necessary for the due security of the public 
 creditor, and for the maintenance of the credit 
 and solidity of the public funds. From this 
 period to the present, it has been the constant 
 effort of his Majesty's ministers to accomplish 
 such a surplus of the income of the year above 
 the expenditure. Upon the meeting of Parlia- 
 ment in February last, it was, therefore, much 
 to their satisfaction, that they were enabled to 
 produce an account, which beyond all denial 
 or controversy, most clearly, and for the first 
 time, exhibited a surplus to this amount. Their 
 progress in this effort for three years may be 
 very briefly stated. 
 
 Comparison of Income and Expenditure. 
 
 Year ended 5th January, 1821. 
 Income .... 54,542,958 
 
 Expenditure .... 53,095,877 
 
 Surplus of income over expenditure . . of J 5447,580 
 
 Year ended 5th January, 1822. 
 Income .... 55,997,592 
 
 Expenditure .... 53,325,915 
 
 Surplus of income over expenditure . .£2,671,676
 
 Year that will end 5th January, 1823. 
 
 Estimated income . . . 55,228,592 
 
 Estimated expenditure (including c£350,OOO extra 
 
 expenditure on account of the Irish rebellion) 49,968,364 
 
 Surplus for Sinking Fund . . ^5,260,246 
 
 When such have been the efforts and such 
 the success of his Majesty's ministers, in ac- 
 compHshing a Sinking Fund to this amount, it 
 was surely not too much for them to expect the 
 unanimous approbation of the Parliament and 
 the public. If the labours of any Committee 
 have, in any period, been above all suspicion, 
 and indeed free from all actual charge of party 
 feelings or influence, it was the Finance Com- 
 mittee in 1819. Upon their report being made, 
 and duly considered by the House of Commons, 
 the House came to an almost unanimous vote, 
 by which they adopted the Sinking Fund re- 
 commended by the Committee ; and, by a neces- 
 sary implication, bound his Majesty's ministers 
 to give it an effective execution. When mini- 
 sters, through a period of the greatest difficulty, 
 had given it this execution, and had accom- 
 plished this clear surplus of five millions, was it 
 too much to expect the hearty concurrence of 
 all parties in approving and maintaining this 
 measure ?
 
 24 
 
 But we live in times in which every thing is 
 again to be called into contest and dispute. 
 Accordingly, a class of writers has arisen, 
 which now denies altogether, for the first time, 
 the utility of the Sinking Fund, and holds it 
 forth as a financial delusion upon the parlia- 
 ment and country. Perhaps in this case, as in 
 most others, the controversy has been produced 
 from the opposite parties affixing different sig- 
 nifications to the same terms. The objections, 
 therefore, may be best answered, by setting 
 down in clear and brief words, what his Ma- 
 jesty's ministers regard to be the true nature 
 and use of the Sinking Fund. 
 
 Briefly, therefore, they consider the Sinking 
 Fund to be eminently useful in the following 
 three points of view : 
 
 1. As a surplus fund, for giving to his Ma- 
 jesty's ministers (through the commissioners 
 for the redemption of the National Debt) a due 
 weight and control in the money market, and, 
 more particularly, for upholding the credit of 
 Government under any casual deficiency of the 
 revenue, arising from the fluctuation in the 
 produce of the taxes. 
 
 2. As a fund, to be employed according to the 
 occasions of the money market, and, especially, 
 in reducing the interest of the National Debt 
 to the common level of a three per cent, stock.
 
 25 
 
 3. As an accumulation of treasure, and of 
 disposable income, for any emergency of the 
 state. 
 
 As a surplus fund for the first object, it is 
 scarcely necessary to refer to any other argu- 
 ment than to facts within the knowledge of all 
 of us during late years. Without such a fund, 
 and the means it affords the ministers to go 
 from time to time into the money-market, and, 
 according to the occasion, to make large sales 
 and purchases, the price of Stocks would not 
 only be at the mercy of all the artifices of spe- 
 culation, but might be most mischievously 
 reduced by the effect of public panic, or by 
 sudden occurrences of real or apparent im- 
 portance, at home or abroad. The possession 
 of this Fund renders the government the greatest 
 proprietor of capital; and, by necessary conse- 
 quence, gives it, through the commissioners for 
 the redemption of the National Debt, a due 
 and most useful predominance on the vStock 
 Exchange. A Sinking Fund of five millions, 
 and the capital stock equivalent to it, about 
 170 millions, calculated in three per cents.; — 
 the possession of a stock to this amount renders 
 the government of the country, for all practical 
 purposes, a proprietor of more than one-sixth 
 portion of tiie wliole dividends paid to the 
 national creditor, and of more than a fifth 
 
 c
 
 26 
 
 portion of the capital stock. It is surely unne- 
 cessary to argue, that a share to this amount 
 must give ministers a most salutary weight and 
 consideration on the Stock Exchange, and must 
 practically enable the commissioners to rectify 
 any mischievous and fraudulent dealing in the 
 public securities. It is nothing to object to the 
 importance of this latter object, that ministers 
 and the country have little concern with the 
 fluctuations of the money-market, and that it is 
 a matter of buying and selling, and commercial 
 dealing, which may safely be left to the pro- 
 prietors. This is surely' not a just view of 
 the obligations of government. It is equally 
 the interest and duty of every government to 
 prevent extensive frauds, and to arrest at once 
 the progress of a mischief, which, as at the 
 period of Law's scheme in France, and of the 
 South Sea bubble in England, might eventually 
 impair or overthrow half the fortunes in the 
 kingdom. 
 
 But if it be necessary that government should 
 possess this Fund in order to prevent all frauds 
 and combinations in the money-market, it is 
 still more expedient to reserve such a surplus 
 in aid of any deficiency in the revenue. With- 
 out a surplus, the credit of government would 
 frequently be shaken by events in no degree 
 within its own control. Upon a review of
 
 27 
 
 the public accounts, for a series of years, it will 
 appear that the revenue, from the occasion of 
 unfavourable seasons alone, has fluctuated so 
 much as ten per cent. In 1817, the decline 
 from the former years actually reached this 
 lowest point. In proportion, therefore, to this 
 interval of fluctuation, does it become the duty 
 of government to provide a surplus. Nor would 
 a bare surplus be sufficient. Unless the surplus 
 be considerable in good years, there would be 
 an actual deficiency in unfavourable years. Add 
 to this, that without this manifest sufficiency of 
 the revenue upon all occasions, it would be 
 in vain to expect, upon favourable terms, any 
 extensive accommodation in a future war. No 
 one would willingly lend to a debtor, whom he 
 believes to possess only just sufficient to satisfy 
 the required obligation, and whom any sudden 
 event might deprive of the ability to fulfil his 
 contract. The known possession of a surplus 
 is a kind of collateral security for the debt. 
 There can be no peril, whilst the surplus is 
 visible and accessible. But withdraw the sur- 
 plus, and substitute a bare sufficiency, and the 
 next step is, not to use a more ominous v/ord, 
 embarrassment and distress. Whilst there is a 
 SinkingFund, or surplus income of five millions, 
 the public books of the country are, as it were, 
 
 c 2
 
 28 
 
 always open to exhibit the public ability beyond 
 all doubt and suspicion. 
 
 As regards the second point, the application 
 of this Fund in reducing, from time to time, 
 the interest of the National Debt till it shall 
 attain the common level of a three per cent, 
 stock, it would be almost sufficient to refer to 
 the memorable measure within the year now 
 ended. By this single operation, the public 
 have seen a saving of nearly a million and a 
 half, annual interest, accomplished by the con- 
 version of the five per cents, into four per cents. 
 This saving was effected by the operation of a 
 reduction of one per cent, upon a capital of 
 155 millions, such being the amount of the 
 five per cent, stock at the time. It is evident, 
 therefore, as a mere fact of arithmetic, that 
 a second operation of the same kind, and upon 
 the same (or nearly equal) capital, in its new 
 form, when the occasion will admit, and the 
 engagement of the government to the holders of 
 the new stock shall allow, will produce a further 
 saving of another million and a half upon this 
 stock. Again, the capital of the old four per 
 cent, stock amounts to 75,000,0001. A similar 
 operation upon this stock, a reduction, for 
 example, to three and a half per cent, in the 
 first instance, and, after a due interval, to three
 
 29 
 
 per cent., would produce, in the first instance, 
 a saving of nearly 350,0001.; and in the second 
 case, of nearly 700,0001. Here, therefore, 
 within a very short period, would be an annual 
 saving of ^,lOO,OOOLj an amount equal almost 
 to the produce of the assessed taxes on windows, 
 and exceeding half of the present amount of the 
 malt-tax, — of course, putting government into 
 the condition of reducing these taxes, or, ac- 
 cording to the occasion of the times, of reducing 
 or remitting other taxes to the same amount. 
 
 If this head of our subject required any 
 further argument, it might be sufficient to direct 
 the attention of the reader to the actual state 
 of the public stocks, under the effects of this 
 general system. In 1816, the price of the 
 three per cents, was generally at 62. InlSl?, 
 the same stock rose to 74. In 1822, at the 
 period at which these observations are made, 
 the price of the same stock is 81. Now, as a 
 hundred pounds share in each produces only 
 the same annual dividend of three per cent., 
 the rise can be attributed to no other cause but 
 to an established confidence in the character 
 and security of government; and of course to 
 an efi:ectual approbation, on the part of the 
 public, of the general system of finance adopted 
 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The pur- 
 chase of a dividend of three pounds annually,
 
 30 
 
 for eighty-one pounds, is at the rate of twenty 
 seven years' purchase ; a rate of purchase, which, 
 at the present moment, exceeds the price of 
 land. The price of land, unquestionably the 
 highest and best of all securities, has seldom, 
 in the best times, exceeded thirty years' pur- 
 chase. Thirty years* purchase, therefore, may 
 be regarded as the natural price of the highest 
 degree of security. Now, it is the uninter- 
 mitted effort, and the confident expectation of 
 his Majesty's ministers, that under the present 
 regulations of finance, and more particularly 
 under a faithful adherence to the system of the 
 Sinking Fund, as now established, the price of 
 the three per cents, will not only reach this 
 amount, but will so much exceed it, as pro- 
 portionately to raise the price of the higher 
 denomination of stock to a point, which will at 
 once render it most advantageous to govern- 
 ment to pay them off, and will enable the mini- 
 sters to reduce the whole of the National Debt 
 to the common level of a three per cent, stock. 
 Should ministers be enabled to accomplish 
 this object, by the steady concurrence of the 
 parliament and the people, in maintaining the 
 Sinking Fund upon the system now established, 
 it will not be too much to say, that the effects 
 will be far, very far, greater than what can be 
 anticipated by a bare calculation a priorL
 
 31 
 
 It is a mistaken notion of the economists of 
 the present day, that the security of the capital 
 lent, or, as in the case of purchase, of the money 
 expended in the acquisition of any article, is 
 the only main circumstance in the contempla- 
 tion of buyers and lenders. The facility of 
 transfer, and the opportunity of an instant con- 
 version, according to occasions, is a circum- 
 stance of nearly equal importance with the 
 security itself. Now, if we follow the conse- 
 quences of this principle, we shall understand 
 that there is no reason whatever why the 
 price of the public securities should not far 
 exceed the price even of land. In the first 
 circumstance in the contemplation of lenders, 
 or purchasers, the security of the money lent, 
 or of the article bought, nothing indeed can 
 exceed land. The purchaser has possession of 
 the thing itself, and can have nothing better. 
 But in the second circumstance, the convenience 
 of transfer and instant conversion, the National 
 Stocks, under a due condition of public credit, 
 have a manifest superiority over land itself; and 
 therefore, under a high state of public character, 
 and under an intelligent administration of the 
 finances of the country, the price of such stock, 
 in purchase, may very well exceed the price of 
 land. It is not our object to push this argument
 
 32 
 
 to any artificial length; it is sufficient to open 
 it to the mind of the intelligent reader. 
 
 When it is considered how much floating 
 capital exists in the country, bearing no interest 
 whatever, the security of deposit, and the 
 facility of instant resumption, being sufficient 
 inducement with the depositors, it is a neces- 
 sary deduction, that the price of the Public 
 Stocks may very far exceed their present limits. 
 
 As to the third use of this Sinking Fund, as 
 affording an accumulation of treasure in any 
 sudden emergency of the State, experience has 
 here likewise established the justice of this ob- 
 servation. Had it not been for the accumulation 
 of the old Sinking Fund, during the war, it 
 would have been impracticable for the present 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer to have acted upon 
 the system of finance now established. It would 
 have been impossible to have remitted the 
 property-tax on the termination of the war. It 
 would have been impossible to have discontinued 
 the ruinous system of raising the supplies of the 
 year by loans. It would have been impossible, 
 in a word, to have reduced the malt, salt, agri- 
 cultural horse, und leather taxes, and to have 
 abated so much of the expenditure of the year 
 as was required by the particular pressure of 
 the times.
 
 The capital of the Sinking Fund is, in fact, a 
 mass of treasure always at the call of govern- 
 ment upon real or distressing emergencies. In 
 this point of view, it puts the minister above 
 the condition of lying at the mercy of the 
 money-market, when any great crisis, such as a 
 sudden foreign war, or other events more easily 
 to be conceived than decorously mentioned, 
 shall require a prompt application of vast re- 
 sources and consequent expense. 
 
 But let us look to the objections which have 
 been made in fact to this fund, which, to state 
 them as briefly and perspicuously as possible, are 
 collected in the pamphlet of Dr. Hamilton, or 
 are immediately deducible from his argument. 
 
 The first of these objections is, that we have 
 been borrowing with one hand, and paying with 
 the other ; and by the maintenance of this fund 
 have added as much to our debt in the character 
 of borrowers, as we professed to be paying off 
 in the way of redemption. 
 
 Secondly, that at least we are only raising so 
 much more taxes than the state requires; the 
 alleged surplus, whether of five or fifteen 
 millions, being, in fact, an excess of taxation not 
 called for by our ordinary expenditure, and 
 which therefore ought not to be raised. 
 
 Thirdly, that there can be no surplus whilst 
 government has such an unfunded debt in the
 
 34 
 
 market. Pay off' the many millions of Exche- 
 quer Bills ; then spesk of a surplus. 
 
 Fourthly, that this fund has never, in point 
 of fact, reduced any thing of the actual weight 
 and burthen of the National Debt. 
 
 As regards the first of these objections, and 
 which is more peculiarly Dr. Hamilton's argu- 
 ment, it is manifest, upon the very face of it, 
 that it applies only to the character of a Sinking 
 Fund during war. In a period of war, when a 
 loan is made for 20 or 30 millions, and 15 or 
 l6 millions only are the general produce of the 
 Sinking Fund, it is evident, upon the very face of 
 the transaction, that we here certainly borrow 
 more by five or ten millions, in the way of loan, 
 than we can pay off'by the operation of the Sink- 
 ing Fund of 15 or 16 millions. If, instead of 
 employing the 15 millions' Sinking Fund as a 
 fund of redemption, we employed it to meet the 
 expenditure of the year, it is manifest that the 
 war loan would be proportionably so much less 
 in amount. It is therefore with some plausi- 
 bility that the Sinking Fund, as regards its 
 operation in a period of war, is characterised as 
 a system of borrowing with one hand, that we 
 may have a fund for paying off* with the other. 
 But in a period of peace, and under present 
 circumstances, when no loans are made, it is 
 manifest that this objection can in no degree
 
 35 
 
 apply. What, in fact, is the character of the 
 present surplus ? Is it not so much raised above 
 the actual expenditure and actual wants of the 
 year ? Is it not, in every respect, a clear surplus 
 of revenue over expenditure? It is true that 
 the present Sinking Fund of five millions is 
 small when compared with the amount of the 
 Old Sinking Fund, as established by Mr. Pitt. A 
 Sinking Fund of 17 millions would have enabled 
 us to extinguish rapidly the Public Debt, and 
 to have performed great financial operations. 
 But the sacrifice would have been intolerable. 
 The Old Sinking Fund, though nominally 
 greater, was never so effectual as the present ; 
 for it must always be borne in mind, that 
 however great the nominal amount of a Sinking 
 Fund, the only part really available is the sur- 
 plus of income beyond expenditure. 
 
 To bring it nearer to the understanding, by 
 comparing it with a transaction of private life, 
 is it not as if a great landed proprietor were to 
 procure from the rents of his estate one-tenth 
 above the amount of his annual expenditure and 
 his annual obligations, and to deposit this sur- 
 plus tenth in the hands of a careful steward, 
 to accumulate for the diminution of his mort- 
 gages, or to be immediately ready for his need 
 in cases of great emergency ? Is not this the 
 just character of the Surplus Fund of the
 
 36 
 
 present period ? And does the first objection 
 apply in any degree to a fund of this de- 
 scription ? 
 
 As respects the second objection, it is cer- 
 tainly so much raised in taxes beyond the 
 occasions of the year, and therefore, if con- 
 sidered absolutely, is so much proportionably 
 added to the annual burthens. But the question 
 is, whether its advantages be not worth this 
 cost ? In other words, whether it be most politic 
 to remit such a surplus, when it is found to 
 exist, by taking off taxes to the amount, or to 
 retain it as a Sinking Fund ? The answer to 
 this question would be contained in the repeti- 
 tion of all the points above urged. As to the 
 necessity of this surplus for maintaining public 
 credit, for meeting occasional deficiencies, and 
 for giving government a due and salutary 
 influence in the money market; these are the 
 arguments for the utility of tRe fund, and for 
 the consequent importance of retaining it. The 
 argument, on the other hand, is contained in 
 the amount of the actual pressure upon the 
 people by the operation of the taxes, or rather 
 of that portion of the taxes by which this five 
 millions is raised. The answer to the question, 
 and the result of the whole argument, is in the 
 conclusion which must arise from the com- 
 parison of the great benefit of the Sinking Fund,
 
 37 
 
 on the one hand, and the actual evil of this 
 pressure on the other. Now what, in fact, are the 
 taxes, which were imposed in 1819 to raise the 
 greater proportion of this fund ? What is that 
 portion of these taxes which now remains ? It 
 consists of small additional taxes upon pepper, 
 tobacco, tea, British spirits, &c. Has it not, in 
 fact, been most justly observed, by a political 
 writer, " that in the imposition of four out of 
 five of these new taxes, the Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer made such a selection of the subject- 
 matter upon which they were imposed, that the 
 burthen of them is in practice so insensibly felt, 
 that not one person out of five hundred can 
 enumerate the subjects taxed ? Indeed, so con- 
 siderately, and with such just selection, were 
 these new taxes imposed, that, up to the present 
 period, they are paid by the consumer, and 
 almost by the dealer, without the consciousness 
 of any increase." Nor is it true, in point of 
 fact, that the present surplus fund of 5 millions 
 is composed only, or even in greater part, of new 
 taxes; thatistosay, of the taxes imposedinl819. 
 In the late Sessions of Parliament, one million 
 and a half of these taxes was at once taken off, 
 by which the annual produce of the new taxes 
 in question was reduced to a sum very little 
 exceeding 1,600,000 pounds. Again, if three 
 millions of new taxes were imposed in 1819, for 
 the purpose, at that time, of effecting such
 
 38 
 
 surplus, is it not notorious that nearly four 
 millions have been since repealed ? Such is the 
 true state of the question, that the present 
 Sinking Fund is composed only of taxes ex- 
 pressly enacted for the purpose. First, if such 
 were the fact, it would still be prudent to raise 
 a fund of such importance, at a much greater 
 annual cost. Secondly, the allegation is not 
 true ; the real state of the question being, that 
 more taxes have been taken off than were im- 
 posed in 1819; and that the present SinkingFund 
 is composed, in part, of a general surplus of 
 taxes, and in part of reductions in the public 
 expenditure. Nor should it be forgotten, upon 
 this view of the question, that the much-ap- 
 plauded Sinking Fund of Mr. Pitt, in I786, 
 began, not with a surplus, but with the im- 
 position of jg800,000 of new taxes ; an increase 
 of the public burthen very much exceeding, in 
 its proportion, the amount of taxes imposed for 
 the present Sinking Fund in 1819. 
 
 The third objection is, that there can be 
 no surplus whilst Government have so large 
 an unfunded debt; in other words, so many 
 millions of Exchequer Bills in the market — an 
 objection almost as solid as it would be to urge, 
 that Government could have no income whilst 
 it owed the national creditor any thing. Is it 
 not notorious to any one accustomed to financial
 
 inquiries, that the interest upon this debt is 
 aheady charged in the Ways and Means of the 
 year; and is thus provided for by that general 
 revenue, of which the Sinking Fund in question 
 is a surplus ? It is a sophism therefore to say, 
 that the capital of these Exchequer Bills is to 
 be set off against the Sinking Fund. For cer- 
 tain purposes, and as far as respects this point 
 of the question, a portion of this capital is to 
 be considered as part of the funded debt (or 
 rather of debt to be funded), to the extinction of 
 which the Sinking Fund applies. The interest 
 of these bills is, indeed, part of the ordinary 
 expenditure of the year, and if this interest 
 amounted to the same sum with the Sinking 
 Fund, it would be a good objection, that we 
 borrowed as much as we professed to save. But 
 it is contrary to all candour and fairness to con- 
 sider the capital of these bills in this point of 
 view, and more particularly, when so great a 
 portion of this capital consists of merely floating 
 bills, which, being issued only for current oc- 
 casions, in anticipation of the receipt of taxes, 
 and in aid of public works, are from time to 
 time recalled and liquidated. 
 
 The Exchequer Bills in the market are the 
 paper and currency of government at a very 
 low interest, and which are no less a convenience
 
 40 
 
 to the public than to government itself. They 
 serve the purpose of investing capital for a 
 limited time, and, as regards the public, are 
 infinitely more convenient than the stocks for 
 daily transfer, or for deposits for short periods. 
 Their credit with the public may be well 
 measured by their rate in the market, and by 
 the constant premium which they command. 
 To remove these bills too hastily, and to fund 
 them, would be to extinguish so much current 
 and circulating capital, and to increase the 
 distress of the times. The greatest advantage 
 accrued by the loan of Exchequer Bills to the 
 commercial classes in 1817; not one farthing 
 of W'hich was lost to the public ; and by the 
 late act, authorising the issue of bills to the 
 extent of 2,000,0001., for public works, equal 
 benefits are likely to accrue. If it be conceded 
 for a moment, as is strongly contended by 
 some of the opponents of ministers, that the 
 greater portion of the distress of agriculture is 
 to be attributed to the diminution of money, it 
 must be admitted, on the other hand, by these 
 gentlemen, that a too hasty recall of Exchequer 
 Bills, and a refusal to issue more, would only 
 aggravate this calamity of the times. In com- 
 mon consistency, these gentlemen, at least, and 
 the agriculturists whose interests they advocate,
 
 41 
 
 cannot agree with the proposition of a certain 
 financial speaker, that the country is suffering 
 under the enormous issue of these bills. 
 
 The fourth objection is, that the Sinking 
 Fund has in truth produced no beneficial ope- 
 ration, and has redeemed, in fact, no portion of 
 the National Debt. 
 
 As this is a question of fact, it is best 
 answered by the production of a fact ; and for 
 this purpose, we refer at once to the account 
 produced by the Commissioners, and published 
 in pursuance of the act of the 53 Geo. III. To 
 state the result of this paper briefly, it may be suf- 
 ficient to observe, that, on the5th of July last, the 
 Capital Stock in the hands of the Commissioners 
 was .£455, 487,430 ; that the interest, or yearly 
 dividend thereupon, amounted to the sum of 
 j61 3,774,667. Now the total amount of the 
 public funded debt of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 in perpetual redeemable annuities, created by 
 several acts, prior to the 38 Geo. III. (and by 
 that act,) and likewise by the 39 Geo. III., 
 amounted to .£416,583,447, and the interest, 
 or dividend upon this debt, was .£13,512,713. 
 Making a rest, therefore, at the above period, 
 the accounts will yield a balance in the hands of 
 the commissioners of an excess of ,£38, 900,000 
 capital stock redeemed ; together with an ex- 
 cess of annual charge by £261,953. Thus the 
 
 D
 
 42 
 
 state itself is more than one third proprietor 
 of the whole national debt of the empire. The 
 capital of the funded debt of the united 
 kingdom was, on the 1st of January last, 766 
 millions. The amount of dividends paid to the 
 public for this portion of unredeemed debt is 
 29,609,0001. The annual interest altogether 
 paid to the commissioners of the Sinking Fund 
 is, in round figures, 15,800,0001. In such pro- 
 portion therefore, is the state itself proprietor, 
 as it may be called, of its own debt. Such a 
 stock of actual treasure does it possess ; and by 
 such means (whether called a Sinking Fund, a 
 surplus, or by any other term, expressing a vast 
 sum raised for a long succession of years, and 
 not exhausted in current expenditure) is the 
 public credit of the state so established, not only 
 through this vast empire, but through the whole 
 expanse of the commercial world, that the 
 written and printed obligations of the Govern- 
 ment of Great Britain are current at a par with 
 the precious metals ; and in the exchange of any 
 foreign country command a price very much 
 superior to their ownrespective public securities. 
 By these means, and these only, is a paper bill 
 of the Government of this country, called an 
 Exchequer Bill, of higher value than a sum 
 of the same denomination in the coin of the 
 country. And by the same means does it hap- 
 pen, that in the competition of land and funds.
 
 43 
 
 the unquestioned .predominance in the market 
 is with the latter. In the language of the law 
 of England, the highest known security is in 
 real property. In the language of the law 
 merchant, and in the current acceptance of the 
 public mercantile market of the world, the 
 highest security is that of the King and Parlia- 
 ment of Great Britain. In a word, the Sinking 
 Fund, when considered in its proper point of 
 view, is less the security of the public creditor, 
 than the estate, the property, the fund in re- 
 serve for great perils and worthy occasions, of 
 the government of this vast empire : and, dis- 
 missing every party feeling, and speaking and 
 writing as Englishmen only, we should think 
 very meanly of any minister, who, truckling to 
 the base and paltry ceconomical spirit of the 
 day, should consent to disarm the Government 
 of its best defence against a foreign enemy, and 
 its most effectual reliance in the unforeseen 
 difficulties of human affairs. 
 
 As the reduction of two millions in the esti- 
 mates of 1822, the actual accomplishment, 
 in point of fact, of a Sinking Fund of five mil- 
 lions, and the reduction of one hundred and 
 fifty-five millions five per cents, into four, 
 were the first three finance measures in the 
 year ended; the fourth, in order and importance, 
 was the conversion of five millions naval and 
 
 D 2
 
 44 
 
 military pensions into an annuity of less annual 
 amount, but greater duration; namely, into an 
 annuity of 2,800,000, for forty-five years. 
 
 The reduction of the five per cents, into four 
 per cents, had enabled the ministers to reduce 
 the malt tax, and, by this measure, to contribute 
 nearly a million and a half to the immediate 
 relief of agricultural distress. An opinion, 
 however, still remained, that the sufferings of 
 the landed interests required a greater sacrifice 
 of national revenue, and that much of this suf- 
 fering was to be imputed to excessive taxation. 
 The ministers, for themselves, were decidedly 
 convinced that this latter opinion was in every 
 respect erroneous, but the sufferings of the 
 landed interest were so indisputable, and the 
 opinions imputing this suffering to taxation were 
 so general among the country gentlemen, that 
 the ministers considered it expedient to concede 
 even to a popular error. Under these general 
 feelings, when a further sacrifice of revenue was 
 demanded beyond the malt tax, his Majesty's 
 ministers deemed it their duty to review the 
 entire mass of our national expenditure, and 
 most laboriously to examine whether any further 
 reduction could be effected. This inquiry 
 suggested the measure of converting what is 
 now familiarly called The Five Millions Dead 
 CJiarge into an annuity of less amount, but
 
 45 
 
 longer duration. This measure, like all others 
 of the same character, appears sufficiently simple 
 now that it is generally understood and seen in 
 actual operation, and was received by all parties 
 with unanimous approbation. It was a measure, 
 in fact, equally striking for the importance of 
 its present benefit, as for its simplicity. Nothing 
 of the kind had assuredly occurred to any of 
 the opponents of his Majesty's ministers; for 
 though their talents might possibly be admitted 
 in the imposition of public burthens, the nation 
 has yet to learn the abilities of these gentlemen, 
 in conciliating the security of the public cre- 
 ditor with the relief of the people in a period 
 of particular pressure. The public have yet to 
 learn, that either at the period of their official 
 power, or at any time since, these gentlemen or 
 their younger elev^s, who have since fallen into 
 their ranks, have ever suggested any one prac- 
 tical measure for the relief of the people, or 
 have ever designated any one mode, by which 
 this object could be effected, without tearing up 
 the roots of public credit. 
 
 It has been before mentioned, that this head 
 of charge did not exceed, in J 702, 650,0001.; 
 whilst in 1822, it exceeded five milUons. It has 
 also been stated, that the production of this 
 charge in the estimates of the year gave a fal- 
 lacious colour to the expenditure of govern-
 
 46 
 
 ment. The effect, therefore, of the new mea- 
 sure, in commutation of this charge, was, that 
 it afforded ministers the opportunity of rectify- 
 ing the public judgment, and of placing this 
 portion of our expenditure upon its proper 
 grounds. It will hereafter be regarded in its 
 proper point of view ; as a debt incurred, and 
 not a provision, in ordinary, for the current 
 service of the year ; as a portion, properly 
 speaking, of our unfunded debt, contracted 
 during the war, and for the services of the war; 
 and due, upon every ground of good faith, and 
 public gratitude, to those who have so well de- 
 served of their country. 
 
 The next Finance measure of the year was 
 the application of 3,300,0001. (thus saved by 
 the reduction of the five per cents, into four 
 per cents., and the commutation of the Dead 
 Charge into fixed annuities), to the remission 
 of annual taxes, and of those particular taxes 
 which, under the peculiar circumstances of the 
 period, were selected by ministers. 
 
 As it is not our purpose to investigate mea- 
 sures already explained by the discussions in 
 the House, it may be sufficient to observe, that 
 his Majesty's ministers were controlled, in this 
 selection, by their feeling for the distress of the 
 landed interest. If this feeling had not inter- 
 vened, it cannot be concealed that their own
 
 47 
 
 choice would have led them to the remission of 
 another description of taxes. Their own ex- 
 perience has taught them the truth of the prin- 
 ciple, that the money remitted in the repeal of 
 a direct tax goes entirely to the consumer, and 
 is therefore so much immodified relief conceded 
 to the public; whilst the amount of an indirect 
 tax, repealed, is absorbed in a very great pro- 
 portion by the dealers; who, availing themselves 
 of the confusion of the tax with the price, remit 
 very tardily any part of it, and never the whole. 
 In the discussion of these measures, in both 
 Houses of Parliament, it was the constant 
 language of his Majesty's ministers, and their 
 friends, that the sufferings of the landed interest 
 could in no way be imputed to excessive taxa- 
 tion, and, of course, that they would be relieved 
 in a very small degree by the reduction of the 
 salt, malt, and leather tax. In answer to the 
 observations of Mr. Brougham and other leaders 
 of the opposition, that the tax upon malt had 
 affected the annual consumption, they proved 
 to the House, by the official documents of the 
 Excise, that whilst the consumption of malt for 
 the year ending 1819 was only 2i2,346,'259 
 bushels, and the consumption for the year 1820 
 was 24,535,155, the annual consumption for 
 the year 1821 was 28,697,057 bushels; and so 
 far, in point of fact, was the tax upon malt from
 
 48 
 
 affecting the quantity consumed, that it ap- 
 peared from these records, that less malt had 
 been consumed in those years in which it had 
 been least charged with taxation. With these 
 facts always present to their attention, it neces- 
 sarily follows, that ministers could not concur 
 in the expectation, that the remission of these 
 taxes would contribute much relief to the agri- 
 cultural distress. They saw very little reason 
 to anticipate such an increased demand for 
 barley as would operate favourably upon the 
 general stock of corn. They did not, indeed, 
 doubt the justness of the general principle, that 
 consumption is, in an ordinary state of things, 
 always assisted by a reduction of price; and 
 that as the necessary effect of a tax imposed is 
 to raise prices, so the natural result of a tax 
 repealed is to reduce them. But they foresaw 
 that the actual reduction in price would be too 
 immaterial to admit to any extent the appli- 
 cation of this principle, and that the tax itself 
 was not so disproportionate to the means of the 
 consumers, as to diminish the demand for an 
 article become almost a necesary of life. 
 
 The price of barley has, in fact, increased, 
 but whether this increase is to be imputed to 
 the operation of the reduced tax, or whether 
 to the same state of circumstances under which 
 the consumption of the country is increasing,
 
 49 
 
 is matter of very reasonable doubt. So much 
 is certain; that when the accounts of the 
 monthly produce of malt were last taken, before 
 the repeal of the tax in question, the average of 
 the monthly quantity was at the rate of 30,000,000 
 bushels of malt for the year just expired. The 
 accounts for the present year are not made up 
 at the time of writing these observations, but 
 there is every reason to believe that the con- 
 sumption will not exceed this estimate. The 
 necessary inference is, that the removal of the 
 tax has very inconsiderably assisted the de- 
 mand for barley, and that the actual increase 
 of consumption may more justly be attributed 
 to the general energy of the country, and to 
 the renewed spring of all our national resources. 
 The same observations will apply to the repeal 
 of the leather tax, and salt tax. The latter 
 indeed is likely to have a more extensive opera- 
 tion, and to comprehend the rehef of other 
 interests besides those of agriculture. His 
 Majesty's ministers, however, have still to 
 lament, that to repeal a tax, when clamorously 
 demanded, is not the way to appease discontent, 
 and silence complaint. 
 
 In the motion of Mr. Brougham on the 
 distressed state of the country at the com- 
 mencement of the last Sessions, it was not 
 obscurely hinted by that learned gentleman.
 
 50 
 
 that a state, of things might arise, requiring or 
 compelling some compromise with the national 
 creditor. " If one measure of reduction would 
 not relieve the pressure upon the landed 
 interest, recourse must be had to another ; and 
 from thence to another; and from thence to 
 another, &c. And if all reductions were found 
 insufficient, the country must prepare for other 
 measures, for measures only to be justified by 
 a paramount unreasoning necessity." There 
 were at this time two propositions before the 
 House for affording the required relief to the 
 agricultural interests ; one, that the five mil- 
 lions of the Sinking Fund should be applied for 
 the service of the year, or that taxes should 
 be remitted to the amount : the other proposition, 
 or at least strong intimation, was contained in 
 the above speech of Mr. Brougham, by which 
 be so intelligibly asserted, that his vote, and 
 the authority of his name and reputation, might, 
 in all probability, not be wanted, to the sup- 
 port of a motion for an eventual reduction of 
 the dividends. When his Majesty's ministers, 
 adhering to the Sinking Fund, rejected the 
 measures of Mr. Brougham, we find that gentle- 
 man voting with the member for York for a 
 sweeping reduction of 20 millions of taxes. 
 But the expectation of the more moderate and 
 deliberating portion of the House never con-
 
 51 
 
 templated the possibility of a greater reduction 
 than to the amount of five millions. The late 
 remission of taxes by his Majesty's ministers, 
 effected by the two means above stated, ascends 
 nearly to four millions ; an amount not far 
 short of what the judicious and temperate part 
 of the House of Commons rather hoped than 
 expected might be reduced in the annual 
 expenditure. The chief grounds upon which 
 the opponents of ministers contended for almost 
 indefinite reductions were, that money had so 
 risen in value since the peace, and had been so 
 depreciated during the war, that fifty millions 
 of the existing currency were equivalent in 
 value, and in weight of burthen, to seventy-five 
 millions during the war. This was the argu- 
 ment urged with most confidence and fre- 
 quency. It is true, that the immediate friends 
 of Mr. Brougham, and particularly those gentle- 
 men of his own party who are reputed to be 
 most conversant in all questions of political 
 economy, corrected the assertion of such an 
 amount of depreciation, and by this correc- 
 tion wholly overthrew the argument upon 
 which he sought such a remission of taxes. 
 The ministers, indeed, found it unnecessary to 
 answer Mr. Brougham, as his intemperate and 
 injudicious assertions were so effectually rec- 
 tified by one of the leaders of his own party.
 
 52 
 
 But if we admit for a moment, against all 
 common sense, and against the acknowledg- 
 ment of Mr. Brougham's own party, the 
 existence of such a state of depreciation, the 
 actual amount of the taxes remitted during the 
 war will still exceed this alleged alteration in 
 the value of the currency. During the war, 
 the taxes amounted to about seventy millions 
 annually : since the peace, taking the late re- 
 mission of taxes into account, they have been 
 reduced little short of one-third of their whole 
 amount; a reduction far exceeding any alleged 
 depreciation in the value of money. Though 
 this statement has been so often made, and so 
 often verified, the negative to it, or what is 
 tantamount to the negative, a train of argu- 
 ment having no other basis than in the assump- 
 tion of the negative, has been so often, against 
 all common candour, repeated, that it becomes 
 necessary again to fix the attention of the public 
 upon this unquestionable fact. The amount of 
 taxes which have now been reduced, since the 
 conclusion of the war, exceeds twenty millions*. 
 But before we quit this part of our subject, 
 there is one question, to which (without enter- 
 ing too much into detail) it may be likewise ne 
 cessary to recall the attention of the reader; 
 namely, to the mode and degree in which taxes 
 can affect the agricultural capital of the country, 
 * See Appendix to Lord Liverpool's speech.
 
 5a 
 
 and, therein, to the real state of the question, 
 how far the distressed state of agriculture (much 
 as it is to be lamented) affects the total mass of 
 our national resources. 
 
 In order to determine this question with any 
 exactness, it is necessary to look with some 
 particularity, but with due brevity, upon the 
 character of our taxation generally; what are 
 the main taxes composing our national revenue, 
 and what is the possible operation of that 
 portion of them which attaches upon the land. 
 
 The common language in which the argument 
 of the landholder is expressed is, that we (the 
 landed interest) have to pay, in 1823, three 
 times the amount in taxation which existed in 
 1792, and with diminished means; that this 
 pressure of taxation upon the land is the oc- 
 casion of agricultural distress, and so greatly 
 aggravates the cost of producing corn as to 
 render hopeless a remunerating price. 
 
 It is perfectly true, that the country in 1823 
 has to pay about three times the amount of 
 taxes which existed in 1792; but it should be 
 borne in mind that the country in general has 
 to pay this threefold amount, and the landed 
 interest, or rather the land, a very inconsiderable 
 proportion of it; — a proportion, in the ratio 
 only of the number and consumption of land- 
 lords and farmers to the number and consump-
 
 54 
 
 tion of the other classes of the community. If 
 the country, moreover, have to pay this in- 
 creased taxation since the year 1792, it has to 
 pay it from a capital enormously increased. 
 One fact alone establishes the proof of this pro- 
 position. In the first place, as to the com- 
 merce of the country. The just measure 
 of the circulating mercantile capital of the 
 kingdom is necessarily in the amount of exports 
 and imports. Now the average of three years' 
 exports in 1789 was between twelve and thirteen 
 millions. But the average of three years' exports 
 ending in 1822 is forty millions. The average 
 of imports for three years, ending in 1789, was 
 seventeen millions. The average of imports for 
 three years, ending 1821, is thirty-six millions. 
 The total of mercantile capital circulating in 
 imports and exports was, in 1789, twenty-nine 
 millions. The same total in 1822 is seventy- 
 six millions. As to the capital circulating in 
 the internal trade of the country, it will not ad- 
 mit a doubt that it has increased in the same 
 proportion, as might be established, if necessary, 
 by the returns of the Excise. In the agricul- 
 tural capital itself, will it be contended that the 
 actual rental of the kingdom, even under the 
 present depression of agriculture, and the conse- 
 quent reduction of rents, does not exceed, by at 
 least one third, the rental of 1792?
 
 55 
 
 To hear the unquaHfied language of the 
 farmers and their advocates, we should be in- 
 duced to conclude that the whole amount of 
 this multiplication of taxes fell upon the land- 
 lord and farmer only; that the landlord and 
 farmer had to pay the whole of the fifty-five 
 millions raised for the payment of the interest 
 of the National Debt, and the public ex- 
 penditure ; and that the sum of the threefold 
 increased taxation, from the year 1792 to the 
 present time, fell upon the land. But is it ne- 
 cessary to observe that almost the whole of our 
 national burthens is raised under six heads of 
 revenue; the customs, excise, stamps, post-of- 
 fice, assessed taxes, and land tax; one head 
 only of which, and that the least in amount (the 
 land tax) directly affects the landed interest. 
 Is it necessary to remind the landed proprietor 
 that the ten annual millions of the customs, the 
 six millions of the stamps, the million and a 
 half of the post-office, the seven millions and a 
 half of the assessed taxes, a total amount of 
 twenty-five millions, can, by no possibility, 
 affect the land-owners in any other way than 
 individually as consumers; and, having this 
 character, can in no degree whatever directly 
 operate in increasing the cost of raising agri- 
 cultural produce. Is it necessary to add, that, 
 even of this twenty-five millions, the ten millions
 
 56 
 
 of the Customs, the six millions of the Stamps, 
 the million and half of the Post-office, nearly 
 half a million of miscellaneons taxes, and the 
 200,0001. of tlie Lottery; that is to say, more 
 than eighteen millions out of the twenty-five 
 can affect the farmers in the most inconsiderable 
 degree. From the remaining seven millions 
 and a half, paid under the head of assessed 
 taxes, deduct the three-fourths of the amount, 
 which, according to the most usual estimate, 
 appears to be paid by the other classes of 
 the community, and the remaining fourth 
 (1,900,0001. out of 7,500,0001.) will be the 
 portion of the assessed taxes paid by the land- 
 lord and farmer, and that only as persons using 
 the subject matter of the tax in question. Thus, 
 under this large portion of the national taxation 
 (customs, stamps, post-office, assessed taxes, 
 land taxes, and miscellaneous), making a total 
 of twenty-five millions, the 1,400,0001. of the 
 land tax, and the 1,900,0001. assessed taxes, 
 making together a sum of 3,300,000). (about one 
 eighth of the whole) is the portion of the landed 
 interest; the 1,800,0001., moreover, being paid 
 by them as consumers, or users, and in no 
 degree as a direct tax upon the land. The re- 
 maining 30,000,0001., which, together with the 
 above sources of revenue, compose the national 
 income, is principally raised by the Excise. But,
 
 57 
 
 how does the comparative contribution of the 
 landed interest stand under this head? The 
 list of articles paying the excise, according to 
 the official enumeration and distribution, com- 
 prehends twenty-five heads; and the total pro- 
 duce of the twenty-five, in the year 1822, 
 exceeded 28,000,0001. Of these twenty-five 
 articles, the only taxes which, in any degree, 
 can be said peculiarly to affect the land, are 
 four; namely, malt, hops, beer, and British 
 spirits; the total amount of which is about eight 
 millions; all of them indirect taxes, the removal 
 o£ which could by no possibility transfer to the 
 farmer and landlord one twentieth part of what 
 the government would lose ; and which, in 
 every possible view of them, are taxes upon 
 consumption, and not produce. To say all in 
 a word ; of the fifty-five millions now raised 
 annually in taxation, about ten millions, or one 
 fifth only, has any possible connexion with 
 the land as to its subject matter; and, in all 
 the articles of that tenth (excepting only the 
 l,4O0,00Ol. of the land tax), the agricultural 
 produce concerned is the occasion only, and 
 not the subject matter of the tax; or, in other 
 words, the tax is on the consumption and the 
 consumer. 
 
 The sixth and last class of finance measures
 
 58 
 
 for the late year were in aid of the currency, 
 which may be stated, in substance, to be. 
 
 First, The New Act for continuing the issue 
 of small notes by country banks, until the year 
 1833. 
 
 Secondly, for empowering the institution of 
 joint stock banks. 
 
 Thirdly, the issue of two millions of Ex- 
 chequer bills for public works. 
 
 Fourthly, the throwing into our current cir- 
 culation the 2,600,0001. paid to the dissentient 
 holders of five per cent, stock. 
 
 Fifthly, the lowering of the general rate of the 
 interest of money, by procuring the Bank of 
 England to discount at four per cent. 
 
 Amongst the popular errors (for such they 
 must certainly be called) which prevailed in the 
 last session of Parliament, the most obstinate, 
 undoubtedly, was, that the low prices in agricul- 
 ture, and even in manufactures, were to be im- 
 puted to the violent reduction in the quantity 
 of currency under the operation of Mr. Peel's 
 bill. Though public opinion has been in a 
 great degree rectified on this subject, so much 
 of error still remains, that it becomes necessary 
 to give this question a brief consideration ; 
 more particularly as the argument has now be- 
 come so well illustrated by actual experience.
 
 59 
 
 The argument of those who assert this great 
 reduction in the currency of the country, and 
 impute it solely to the violent operation of Mr. 
 PeePs bill, may be best and most briefly stated, 
 in the actual terms employed by one of the most 
 intelligent, but most wrong-headed, of our po- 
 pular writers. That the number of dealings in 
 the kingdom, from year to year, is generally of 
 the same amount; that money is the medium 
 or counter of these dealings; and that, if the 
 same number of dealings be distributed through 
 a diminished number of money pieces, a less 
 portion of these money pieces will fall to the 
 share of any single dealing. For example, if 
 the annual dealings of a country amounted to 
 fifty millions, and the money in circulation to a 
 hundred million of pieces; is it not manifest 
 that two pieces would here fall to the share of 
 each dealing? But reduce these one hundred 
 million pieces of money to fifty millions of 
 pieces, and is it not equally manifest that one 
 piece, instead of two, would only fall to the 
 share of any single dealing ? 
 
 This was originally the argument of Locke; 
 but is used by him as applicable to a very dif- 
 ferent state of things. From Mr. Locke it 
 passed to Hume, and thence to Paine, who 
 both have employed it nearly in the same terms 
 above stated. It will be best understood, how- 
 
 E 2
 
 60 
 
 ever, by ascending to the far superior authority 
 from which it originated. Mr. Locke's argu- 
 ment, in substance, is, that the dealings and 
 currency of the country should be co-extensive 
 with each other, and should never be forcibly 
 enlarged, or violently contracted. His illus- 
 tration, indeed, is not made with his usual 
 taste and perspicuity. The currency of a 
 country, he says, should be sufficiently ex- 
 tensive to cover the whole surface of its deal- 
 ings. In a due relative state of the money and 
 dealings of a country, the quantity of money 
 will exactly comprehend the quantity of deal- 
 ings. " The blanket should cover all those 
 who seek warmth and shelter beneath it. Re- 
 duce the size of this blanket, and all those who 
 lie outermost will become cold and naked, and 
 will be pulling and stretching in order to get 
 their share. Enlarge the blanket, and every 
 one will have more for his share, and will pro- 
 portionately set less value upon his accommo- 
 dation. It is the same with the money and 
 currency of the kingdom. Reduce the quan- 
 tity, and every one will be pulling and stretching 
 for his share in his own dealings, and the con- 
 sequence will be, a great rise in the value of 
 money. Increase the quantity, and every one 
 will have more than enough, and the value of 
 money will fall in the same proportion."
 
 61 
 
 Such is the original form of the argument in 
 the mouths of those who allege the vast dimi- 
 nution of our currency, and impute to this 
 cause the reduction of prices. But if we admit 
 the principle itself, which is not true without 
 qualification, the argument, as now used, is 
 wrong both in its premises and conclusion. It 
 is indisputably certain that the currency of the 
 country has not been reduced in any thing like 
 the degree asserted by these writers. But, 
 admitting the fact of this reduction, there is no 
 necessary consequence between such reduction 
 and the depression of prices. Suppose, for 
 example, that the number of dealings, and the 
 quantity of money in circulation, had been con- 
 currently reduced ; may not the same relation 
 as hitherto still exist between the number of 
 dealings and the number of money pieces? 
 For example, suppose that, when the number 
 of money-pieces had been reduced from one 
 hundred millions to fifty millions, the number of 
 dealings had at the same time been reduced 
 from fifty millions to twenty-five millions? 
 Fifty million of money pieces, distributed 
 through twenty-five millions of dealings, would 
 give the same proportion, namely, two money 
 pieces to each dealing, with one hundred mil- 
 lion of money pieces distributed amongst fifty 
 millions of dealings. Here, therefore, is the
 
 62 
 
 first error of the argument; which totally 
 destroys the whole of its force as applied to 
 present circumstances. The argument assumes 
 two facts s one of them manifestly false, and the 
 other most questionable. The false assumption 
 is, that the number of dealings, that is to say, 
 that the degree of war monopoly, of internal 
 trade, and government expenditure, remains 
 the same now as during the years 1813, 1814, 
 and 1815; and therefore, in the terms of the 
 argument, that the same number of dealings is 
 to be distributed through a greatly reduced 
 currency. The questionable fact is, and most 
 questionable it is, whether the currency have 
 been reduced in any thing like the degree 
 alleged by these writers. 
 
 The difference between the argument of 
 Locke, and the argument of those gentlemen 
 who follow the opinions above stated, will 
 appear upon the mere face of their statement. 
 The argument of Mr. Locke is this : If the 
 number of dealings remain the same, and the 
 number of the money pieces (currency) of a 
 country be diminished, the value of money 
 must be proportionably raised; inasmuch as 
 a less number of money pieces has to be distri- 
 buted amongst the same number of dealings ; 
 and, of course, a less portion of money must 
 fall to the share of any single dealing. This
 
 63 
 
 argument is unquestionably true, because it 
 makes the conclusion depend upon the pre^ 
 mises ; concluding only that the value of money 
 will be raised, if, whilst the quantity of money 
 be reduced, the number of dealings remain the 
 same. But the argument, which we are now 
 trying, is this : As the number of dealings re- 
 main the same, and as the number of money 
 pieces has been diminished, the value of money 
 has been proportionately raised, and, of course, 
 the price of all commodities has been pro- 
 portionately diminished. This conclusion is 
 unquestionably false, because it proceeds upon 
 false premises ; assuming, as it does, that the 
 dealings, that is to say, the general mass of 
 expenditure remains the same; and making this 
 assumption, moreover, in the face of three 
 undeniable facts. The first, that the annual 
 expenditure of government has been reduced 
 by at least 30 millions, which of course is no 
 longer diffused as the wages of labour, the 
 profits of capital, and the means of employing 
 large bodies of men through the community. 
 The second, that the manifest overstock of 
 every market has effected a general reduction 
 of prices from abundance only, and that this re- 
 duction, taking an average through the princi- 
 pal manufactures (to say nothing of agriculture), 
 exceeds certainlv one-third. The third, that our
 
 64 
 
 war monopoly, and particularly our employment 
 as a depot and general emporium for foreign 
 trade and capital, have ceased with the war, 
 and, consequently, that this portion has been 
 subtracted from our general dealings. In a 
 word, the true state of this part of the question 
 appears briefly to be, that if the quantity of 
 currency have been diminished, it has been so 
 diminished in no greater proportion than may 
 be satisfactorily accounted for by the reduced 
 expenditure of government, — by the withdraw- 
 ing of that monopoly of general trade which 
 necessarily ceased with the war, and by the 
 actual reduction of prices from the effect of 
 abundance of goods, and not the scarcity of 
 money. 
 
 The fallacy of the assertion of these gentle- 
 men is chiefly in this point. Whilst it is notorious 
 that the price of commodities may be reduced 
 from two causes, — the abundance of goods in 
 the market, or a forcible reduction of currency, 
 — they assume that such reduction can be effect- 
 ed by one cause only, and they allege this cause 
 to be the forcible contraction of the quantity 
 of money. Whilst it is manifest to all but them- 
 selves, that such a superabundance of goods 
 does nota actually exist as may obviously ac- 
 count for such a reduction, both in agriculture 
 ;g,nd manufactures, these gentlemen wilfully
 
 65 
 
 shutting their eyes against this manifest fact, 
 perversely resort to the assumption of a cause, 
 the existence of which is not borne out by any 
 appearances, and which is uniformly denied by 
 all practical men. The proposition of Mr. 
 Western, and of the writers who concur with 
 him, is, in substance, that there is a scarcity 
 oi' money for the real transactions of life 
 and business, and that corn is cheap, not be- 
 cause corn is plentiful, but because money 
 has risen ; that the country banks have reduced 
 their paper, and withdrawn their discounts, not 
 because the farmers have no longer a security 
 to give for accommodation, but because the}'^ 
 (the country bankers) have no longer any money 
 to lend ; because, in a word, under the opera- 
 tion of iVIr. Peel's bill, they may be called upon 
 to pay their paper in gold, whilst gold is not to 
 be procured, even by men of substance, and for 
 real value. Now, is it necessary to give any 
 other answer to such a proposition than by 
 reference to any practical man in the money 
 market of the metropolis? Ask of such a man, 
 whether gold be wanted for the real purposes of 
 life and business ; whether it be wanted by the 
 Bank of England ; or whether it would be 
 wanted for the country banks, in exchange for 
 due value and security ; and the answer would 
 be, that gold never more abounded than at the
 
 present period, and is to be had in any quantity, 
 and at a moment's notice, by all mercantile 
 bodies, and individuals of credit and substance ; 
 that there is actually no call for gold in ex- 
 change for notes ; and that in consequence, 
 (so far at least as regards the present period,) 
 there is no thought of reducing paper issues, 
 from the apprehension of experiencing any diffi- 
 culty of payment in coin. 
 
 There appears, indeed, this singular incon- 
 sistency in the conduct and language of these 
 gentlemen. Whilst so many of them have made 
 such repeated complaints of the economists, 
 and of the bearing of their principles and 
 doctrines upon the agricultural question, they 
 adopt the most obscure and questionable portion 
 of these principles. If they had not confounded 
 their own plain, but solid understandings, by 
 the adoption of such topics, they would under- 
 stand, as well as their fathers, that prices depend 
 more upon the markets than upon acts of parlia- 
 ment. They would understand, that scarcity 
 of money in any particular class might arise 
 from two causes ; first, because the class in 
 question had little or nothing to give in ex- 
 change for money ; and, secondly, because the 
 money itself was not in existence. If, with this 
 principle in their minds, they looked round on 
 the actual state of things, they would not
 
 67 
 
 require to be told from which of these causes 
 the present reduced prices in agriculture pro- 
 ceeded. 
 
 If these gentlemen had duly considered the 
 actual condition of the corn-market, with re- 
 ference to demand and supply, one would have 
 thought it impossible that the origin of the low 
 price of their produce could escape their ob- 
 servation. Let them, for a moment, fix their 
 attention upon this summary. In 1819, there 
 arrived in the port of London, for sale, 300,416 
 quarters of corn. In 1820, the supply advanced 
 to 400,000. In 1821, to 500,000. For 1822, 
 the accounts have not been made up j but judg- 
 ing from the weekly supply, we are warranted 
 in stating the excess, above the last year, to 
 be 50,000 quarters. The supply at the great 
 country markets, more especially in the south 
 and north-eastern districts, has been upon the 
 same progressive scale of increase. Surely this 
 sufficiently shows the low prices to be occasioned 
 by abundance and glut: — Without having re- 
 course to the fallacious arguments of a cur- 
 rency, violently contracted and reduced, this 
 short summary of the markets must sufficiently 
 explain to every candid and practical man, 
 why wheat should average seventy-three shil- 
 lings per quarter in 1819; sixty-five shillings 
 in 1820; forty-five in 1821; and should be
 
 68 
 
 further reduced to forty shillings in the present 
 year. 
 
 But it is not true in fact that the currency 
 of the country has been reduced in any thing 
 like the amount stated. The currency, as com- 
 posed of paper and gold, is not at the present 
 moment more than four or five per cent, less than 
 at the highest period of the Bank issues. The 
 greatest amount of bank notes circulated at any 
 time was in the month of August, 1817. At 
 that period they reached the enormous sum of 
 30,920,3601. In August in the following year, 
 they were reduced as low as S6,650,6lOl.: and 
 in the month of March, 1819, these issues were 
 further contracted to 24,610,6801. 
 
 It is needless to recal to the reader, by way 
 of a passing observation, that at the time when 
 the Bank issues were 30,920,36ol., the country 
 was labouring under the severest distress. The 
 revenue had declined nearly ten per cent., and 
 every branch of our trade and manufactures 
 was in a state of depression and embarrassment. 
 With respect to that part of our currency 
 which consisted of country bank notes, the cir- 
 culation during the years 1817, 1818, and 1819, 
 varied considerably. In the report made by 
 the House of Lords, in 18 ig, on the resumption 
 of cash payments, an estimate was made of the 
 issue of country bankers, and as far as any accu-
 
 69 
 
 rate knowledge could be obtained, the result of 
 the inquiry into the state of the issue of country 
 banks stands thus: — For the year 1814, the 
 issue of country bank notes was 'i2,709,000l. and 
 the issue of the Bank of England was 26,901,0001. 
 For the year 1815, the country issue was nine- 
 teen millions, which, combined with the issues 
 of the Bank of England, produced an aggregate 
 of 45,897,0001. For the year 18l6, the issue 
 of the countrybanks was reduced to 15,096,0001. 
 making, with the bank issues, an aggregate of 
 41,670,0001. In 1817, the combined issue 
 of these two sources of circulation very little 
 exceeded forty-four millions. In the following 
 year they advanced to 47,727,0001. In the year 
 1819, the accounts of which (as to the country 
 banks) are not so accurate, the joint issues, 
 upon the fairest estimate, cannot be taken 
 higher than forty-five millions and a half. These 
 calculations are founded upon the documents 
 from the Stamp-office, as to which great uncer- 
 tainty will always prevail. But the result of 
 this estimate will be, that the circulating 
 medium of England, so far as it consists of notes 
 of the Bank of England, and of country bank 
 notes, between 1810 and 1819 (both years in- 
 clusive), has varied from about forty-two mil- 
 lions to above forty-eight millions j that it was 
 highest in 1S14, and lowest in 1816.
 
 70 
 
 With respect to the amount of circulating 
 medium necessary to carry on the transactions 
 of the country (whatever may be the com- 
 position of such circulating medium), it is 
 almost impossible to form any judgment. 
 
 The great increase of the dealings of this 
 country in every part of its home trade and 
 agriculture; the rise in its exports and imports, 
 from fifty-one millions, on the average of three 
 years preceding 1797, to eighty millions on the 
 average of the three last years ; the increase of 
 the charge of the National Debt from thirteen 
 millions and a half, in 1797, to forty-four mil- 
 lions in 1822; and the amount of taxes advanced 
 from sixteen to fifty-five millions, might be ex- 
 pected to require a much larger increase of cir- 
 culating medium. It is, however, manifest, 
 that such amount does not necessarily bear any 
 specific proportion to the extent of our foreign 
 and domestic trade, or to the increased demands 
 of the revenue. An active state of commerce, 
 and a well established credit, w^hich invariably 
 occasion a greater rapidity of circulation, will 
 enable the same quantity of circulating medium 
 to carry on a more extensive amount of trans- 
 actions ; and the infinite modifications of credit 
 to which such a state of things gives birth, 
 added to the great improvements in commercial 
 transfer, and the arrangement of banking busi-
 
 71 
 
 ness, must necessarily produce the same results. 
 There must obviously, also, be a great differ- 
 ence in the required amount of a currency con- 
 sisting of paper only, and a currency consisting 
 partly of paper, and a large proportion of gold. 
 It is to these circumstances (co-operating, pos- 
 sibly, with others) that we may perhaps attribute 
 the sufficiency of the circulating medium actu- 
 ally existing, to perform functions to so much 
 larger an amount, than were performed by the 
 circulating medium in 1 797, which was not many 
 millions less than at present. ^ 
 
 In order to arrive at a due estimate of our 
 present mixed currency, a few observations are 
 here necessary as to the gold coin in circulation 
 before the bank restriction. Taking the amount 
 at five millions below the estimate made by the 
 late Earl of Liverpool (an estimate admitted on 
 all hands to have been excessive), the gold coin 
 in circulation before 1797 would be twenty-five 
 millions*. Add to this, the notes of the Bank 
 of England (ten millions and a half), which was 
 the extent of their issue previous to the year 
 1797; add, likewise, the country notes, in- 
 cluding Scotland, amounting to seven millions; 
 and the result will be, that the aggregate circu- 
 
 * Mr. Rose, in a pamphlet published some years since, 
 took a higher estimate ; but the error of his calculation is 
 generally admitted.
 
 72 
 
 lation of gold coin, and paper conjointly, before 
 the year 1/97, was 42,500,0001.; giving a dif- 
 ference between the highest paper circulation of 
 the Bank of England, and also of the country 
 bank notes, of five millions and a half. But 
 taking the mean average of circulation, which 
 we have above stated to have varied between 
 forty-two and forty-eight millions, and the dif- 
 ference will be two millions and a half. 
 
 Having thus established, from premises as 
 accurate as can be obtained, the circulation 
 of the country when consisting of gold and 
 paper, before the restriction, and when com- 
 posed almost wholly of paper, after the restric- 
 tion, if we look at the state of our currency, as 
 it now exists, we shall find it not very consider- 
 ably diminished in amount from what it was at 
 the highest period. In this view of the question, 
 our first inquiry must be into the state of our 
 gold coinage, which is intended to fill up the 
 void of our paper issues* 
 
 Prom the year 1817, to the 3 1st of October 
 in the year now passed, the amount of gold coin, 
 actually coined, and thrown into circulation, 
 is as follows : In the year 1817, there was coined 
 4,275,3371. In 1818, 2,862,3731. In 1819, 
 3,5741. In 1820, 949,5 161. In 1821,9,520,7581. 
 In 182^2, 4,796,0871. ; making a total of nearly 
 22,500,0001. The silver money coined during
 
 73 
 
 the same period (including the year I8I6) 
 amounts to little less than seven millions and a 
 half; thus giving to the country, in gold and 
 silver money, the enormous sum of thirty mil- 
 lions; being a coinage, within the short space 
 of five years, of an amount bearing no incon- 
 siderable proportion to the whole of the coinage 
 from the year 176O (the year of the accession 
 of his late Majesty) to the period of the Bank 
 restriction. To this coinage is to be added a 
 large amount of gold and silver bullion, accu- 
 mulated in the Mint, beyond the public de- 
 mand. To which we must likewise add the 
 treasure in the possession of the Bank before 
 the new coinage, and not brought into the 
 Mint for re-coinage; and the guineas coined 
 in the year 1813, not comprehended in the 
 above accounts. 
 
 If such be the state of our metallic currency, 
 or at least of its possible means of circulation, 
 let us now take a view of the actual condition 
 of our paper currency as far as it can be ascer- 
 tained. 
 
 Since the Bank of England have paid their 
 notes in gold, their paper issues have fluctuated 
 between sixteen and twenty millions. In Fe- 
 bruary, 1822, the actual issues of the Bank wore 
 nineteen millions in paper, and eight millions in
 
 74 
 
 gold*. The directors, though they had reduced 
 their paper issues, had, in fact, increased their 
 issues, as composed of paper and gold, which, 
 at the time of passing Mr. Peel's bill, did not 
 exceed twenty-five millions. It is well known 
 that the amount of the Bank issues is regulated 
 by the demands of trade and commerce, and it 
 is satisfactory to leain that these issues are 
 increasing at the present time. Two circum- 
 stances have concurred to produce this increase; 
 first, the public notice issued by the Bank, that, 
 instead of confining their discounts, as hereto- 
 fore, to bills of two months only, they would 
 hereafter discount bills at three months; and, 
 further, that they would transmit to the dif- 
 ferent provinces any sum of money not less 
 than 3,0001., free of all expense of transmission. 
 Secondly, the late resolution of the directors to 
 discount at four per cent. 
 
 By referring to the account of paper issues 
 by the Bank, as transmitted weekly to the Privy 
 Council, it will be found, that the average for 
 the year now ended exceeds eighteen millions 
 in paper. It is equally certain, though not 
 
 * In the debate on the currency in the House of Commons, 
 on the 13th of June last, it was stated by one of the Directors, 
 that the Bank had issued between ten and eleven millions of 
 sovereigns. Since that period, and the reduction of the rate 
 of discount to four per cent, their issues have been greatly in- 
 creased.
 
 75 
 
 included in the same returns, that their gold 
 issues have fluctuated between eight and nine 
 millions. Thus the average issues of the year 
 just ended, as composed of gold and paper, may 
 be fairly stated at twenty-seven millions; that 
 is to say, an excess of two millions beyond their 
 actual amount at the time when Mr. Peel's bill 
 was passed. 
 
 The amount of country bank paper it is more 
 difficult to ascertain. Undoubtedly, it has been 
 very much affected by the low price of agricul- 
 tural produce. The landlord and farmer, un- 
 happily, have had more occasion to borrow, but 
 less security to offer. But there is no reason to 
 believe that these issues have fallen off more than 
 one-third. In the large manufacturing districts 
 of Yorkshire, Gloucestershire, and Somerset- 
 shire, during the last summer and autumn, they 
 have been on the increase. In the agricultural 
 districts, on the contrary, from causes too 
 obvious to detail, they have suffered a con- 
 siderable diminution. It is very difficult to 
 form a correct estimate of this portion of our 
 currency. The Stamp-office accounts furnish 
 the only clue, and were adopted by the com- 
 mittees of the Lords and Commons, in 1819, as 
 the best and safest guides. The following ac- 
 counts, therefore, will throw some liglit upon 
 this portion of our circulation. For our present 
 
 r *i
 
 76 
 
 purpose (an estimate of comparative issues) 
 they are sufficiently exact. 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 An Account of the number of Country Bankers' Notes stamped 
 in each year, from the lOtk of October ^ 1816, io the lOth of 
 October, 1818. 
 
 Notes not exceeding J!l. Is. 
 
 1816 
 
 2,181,938 
 
 1817 
 
 2,953,920 
 
 1818 
 
 3,875,715 
 
 9,011,573 
 
 Average of the three years'^ 
 previous to the passing > 3,037>l91 
 
 of Mr. Peel's Bni. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 An Account of the number of Country Bankers' Notes stamped 
 in each year, from the 10th of October, 1818, to the lOth of 
 October, 1821. 
 
 Notes not exceeding ^1. is. 
 
 1819 . . 2,160,293 
 
 1820 . . 1,612,614 
 
 1821 . . 2,031,287 
 
 5,804,194 
 
 Average of the three years "| 
 
 after the passing of Mr, > 1,934',731 
 Peel's Bill. J 
 
 It is not necessary to follow these estimates 
 through the several classes of notes issued by 
 country bankers for sums exceeding one pound
 
 one. The accounts are already upon the table 
 of the House of Commons ; and the comparative 
 issue through all descriptions of their paper 
 will be found pretty nearly to correspond ; that 
 is to say, comparing and averaging the several 
 denominations of their paper, they have expe- 
 rienced a diminution of about one-third of their 
 ordinary circulation previous to the passing of 
 Mr. PeePs bill. 
 
 In the report of the Lords' Committee, in 
 1819, the following estimate is made of the 
 issues of country banks (comprehending the 
 aggregate value of their notes), founded upon 
 the Stamp-office accounts above given : 
 
 1816 . . £15,096,000 
 
 1817 . . 15,898,000 
 
 1818 . . 20,507,000 
 
 51,501,000 
 
 Average for the three"* 
 
 years before Mr. \ . 17,167,000 
 Peel's Bill. j 
 
 If we adopt the same mode of computation, 
 but without fatiguing the reader with a detail 
 of figures, the issue of the country banks, for 
 thethreeyears subsequent to Mr. Peel*sBill, will 
 appear, upon an average, to be about one-third 
 less than the amount stated by the Lords* Com- 
 mittee. In other words, the average issue of 
 the country banks, for the three years ending 
 10th October, 1821, calculated upon the basis
 
 of the Stamp-office accounts, and adopting the 
 same mode of estimate as the Lords' Com- 
 mittee, will be 1 1,444,6671. To this, of course, 
 must be added some small portion of gold coin 
 circulated with their paper. 
 
 To the above issues we must add the circu- 
 lation in the flourishing cotton districts of Lan- 
 cashire and Cheshire, of Liverpool, Manchester, 
 and the great towns in the north-west of Eng- 
 land, where the circulation is estimated at be- 
 tween three and four millions, kept in a constant 
 state of interchange and motion, and where the 
 wages of labour, and sums under five pounds, 
 are invariably paid in gold and silver. If we 
 likewise add to this the average circulation of 
 unstamped small notes issued by the three 
 chartered banks of Scotland, which are not 
 included in the Stamp-office accounts, and which 
 appear, by papers returned to Parliament, to 
 have undergone little change, the result will 
 present an average of forty-three millions, as the 
 present actual state of our existing currency; 
 which will allow for ten millions of gold coin 
 existing either in private hoards, or in the 
 coffers of the bank, being called in, in exchange 
 for their small notes. 
 
 Now, if we compare this with the highest state 
 of our circulation in the year 1814, which was 
 then about forty-eight millions, it will be found
 
 79 
 
 that the reduction which has actually taken 
 place is about ten per cent. ; but if compared 
 with the mean average, above stated to be 
 forty-five millions, it will be found that the 
 reduction very little exceeds four per cent. 
 
 Upon these principles, his Majesty's ministers 
 were decidedly of opinion, that the general de- 
 cline of prices was to be imputed, in a very in- 
 considerable degree, to the diminution of the 
 quantity of the currency. They were still 
 more firmly persuaded, that if the currency 
 were in fact reduced in a small proportion, by 
 the cessation of some minor branches of our 
 commerce, (namely, the supply of colonial pro- 
 duce to the continent during the war,) and was 
 certainly still further diminished by the with- 
 drawing of the government expenditure, — that 
 such diminution was, in the smallest possible 
 degree, to be imputed to the operation of Mr. 
 Peel's bill. When they looked to the state of 
 facts, they saw enough to account for the 
 former high prices, and the present deprecia- 
 tion. During the period of high prices, they 
 saw the two ordinary causes of such prices in 
 manifest operation, and to a great extent ; a 
 vast amount of public expenditure, very great 
 in each year, and still further aggravated in 
 every successive year by the addition of a new 
 mass to the former : and, secondly, an immense
 
 80 
 
 demand, a large waste, and in many articles of 
 supply, the possession of a monopoly and a 
 closed market. In the twenty-three years of 
 the war, they saw that eight hundred millions of 
 money, and all of this an extraordinary expen- 
 diture, had been poured into the general market 
 of the community; and had of course nursed 
 and supplied with means a vast stock of con- 
 sumers ; enabling so many more to consume, and 
 all to consume more largely. They saw that, 
 after the annihilation of the French, Spanish, 
 and Dutch navies, and the transfer of Dutch 
 capital and trade to England, arising upon the 
 revolution in Holland, we possessed the exclu- 
 sive supply of the continent of Europe with 
 colonial produce ; and, in a great degree, the 
 exclusive possession of many other branches of 
 commerce, hitherto peculiarly belonging to the 
 French, Spanish, and Dutch emigrant firms. 
 In these circumstances of British trade, his 
 Majesty's ministers, as practical men, saw quite 
 enough to account for high prices during war. 
 And as the operation of these causes sufficiently 
 explains the high prices of the war, their cessa- 
 tion in like manner is equally satisfactory as to 
 their depreciation in peace. In agriculture, 
 manufactures, in every branch of industry and 
 the employment of capital, the basis of supply 
 had been enlarged so as to become co-extensive
 
 81 
 
 with the annual demand. This enlarged basis 
 remained, when the demand had become con- 
 tracted. The necessary consequence was an 
 overstocked market, and a general reduction of 
 prices, from the effect of abundance only. Next 
 followed, in order, the reduction of the war 
 expenditure to a peace establishment, and a 
 consequent withdrawing of those large means 
 of purchase, which were hitherto diffused 
 through every class of the community. 
 
 A third, and an equally efficient cause, was, 
 perhaps, in the funding, or the fixing in dead 
 capital, of that large portion of circulating 
 money, which the capitalists during the war 
 had been in the habit of lending to govern- 
 ment, and which government had distributed 
 amongst contractors, ship-builders, naval yards, 
 and manufacturers of arms and clothins:. In all 
 these causes, and others equally obvious, but 
 unnecessary to mention, his Majesty's ministers 
 saw sufficient to explain both the high prices of 
 war, and the reduced prices of peace, without 
 any reference to the operation of Mr. Peel's bill. 
 
 But whatever might be the operation of Mr. 
 Peel's bill, his Majesty's ministers could not 
 avoid seeing, that the currency of the kingdom, 
 and particularly in the provinces, under the long 
 period of the suspension of cash payments, had 
 assumed a new character. As a currency of
 
 B2 
 
 small denomination had become necessary, and 
 the supply of it had been in some degree inter- 
 cepted by the comparative disuse of gold coin, 
 the country banks had very early found it 
 requisite to compose the greater part of their 
 issues of one pound, or guinea notes. Perhaps 
 four parts out of five of the total capital of 
 country banks was issued in notes of this deno- 
 mination. A law to call in these notes, and to 
 prohibit their future issue, would have been 
 equivalent to the prohibition of such banks, 
 and would for a long interval have most mate- 
 rially affected the circulation of some of the 
 manufacturing counties. 
 
 It was with this object that ministers resorted 
 to the first measure in aid of the currency ; the 
 new act for continuing the issue of small notes 
 for ten years. It was not the object of this act, 
 as absurdly stated by popular writers, to admi- 
 nister an indirect counteraction to the effect of 
 Mr. Peel's bill. Ministers did not act with this 
 inconsistency of indirectly counteracting by 
 one act of parliament, what they directly up- 
 held by another. One object was to relieve 
 a particular class of men from a peculiar hard- 
 ship arising from the long period of the cash- 
 suspension. The other object of the measure 
 was to aid the circulation, which unquestionably 
 would have been checked, if it had been com-
 
 83 
 
 pulsory upon country bankers, as under the 
 act of parliament at that time existing, to pro- 
 vide for the payment of all their small notes 
 within two years. So little, indeed, was it the 
 purpose of ministers to intermeddle with the 
 effect of Mr. Peel's bill, that though it was 
 proposed to add to this measure that the 
 country bankers should not be required to pay 
 their notes in coin, and though ministers had 
 at first yielded to this modification, they imme- 
 diately withdrew it, as soon as they saw that 
 such a concession was distorted into a charge of 
 their intending to intermeddle with cash pay- 
 ments. Upon this subject his Majesty's mini- 
 sters were unanimously of opinion, that the 
 public faith, as well as the public good, required 
 the resumption of cash-payments; and that the 
 paper cufrency of the kingdom would never be 
 fixed upon a safe and solid basis, until this 
 natural control against excessive issues should 
 be fully and unequivocally restored. 
 
 The next measure in aid of the same pur- 
 pose was the institution of joint stock banks. 
 The object of this measure was two-fold ; first, 
 to aid the circulation ; secondly, to provide 
 gradually for its better security. In the present 
 state of our knowledge, it can no longer admit 
 a discussion that paper money is absolutely 
 necessary to maintain the commerce of the
 
 84 
 
 country. It is, therefore, a political object to 
 encourage and maintain it. But from the very 
 nature of such money, and from the possible 
 remoteness of those who receive it from those 
 who issue it it is necessarily attended with one 
 peculiar evil ; that it is often issued upon 
 fictitious capital, and is not represented by a 
 corresponding value in the property of the 
 banker. Hence the great facility of frauds to 
 a large amount, and a wide extent of mischief 
 and diminution of public confidence through 
 large classes. Under such circumstances, if it 
 be the duty of government to encourage paper 
 money upon the consideration of its utility to 
 trade and commerce, it is equally its duty to 
 oppose some check to the peculiar facility which 
 it affords to large and mischievous frauds. Now, 
 there appear to be but two practical Aiodes for 
 applying this check : The first is, by requiring 
 some deposit or security of stock or land, which 
 might, to a certain degree at least, indemnify 
 the public. The second, by gradually insti- 
 tuting or encouraging such societies and com- 
 panies, as approach nearer to the character 
 of our own chartered Bank. Ministers have 
 often attempted to effect this purpose in the 
 former mode, but have hitherto found in- 
 superable obstacles. Why interfere, it has 
 been demanded, with one branch of trade
 
 85 
 
 more than another ? Why not leave the 
 public to their own prudence and precaution ? 
 Why intercept the very means of our profits, by 
 requiring the deposit of that capital, upon the 
 active employment of which we alone make it? 
 Though these questions admit of an easy 
 answer, the numerous individuals concerned are 
 more easily silenced than satisfied. Hence, 
 under the failure of the first mode, his Majesty's 
 ministers have been induced to resort to the 
 second. Such was the principle of this measure. 
 The third proceeding in aid of the same 
 general purpose was the recommendation of 
 ministers to the Bank to reduce its rate of 
 discount. It is unnecessary to say much in 
 explanation of this subject. When the Bank 
 required of government the payment of the 
 ten millions of debt preparatory to the re- 
 sumption of cash payments, the directors 
 accompanied this demand with a kind of 
 promise and engagement, that if the currency 
 of the country should be in any degree affected 
 by that measure, the Bank would assist it by 
 discounting for the public at a lower rate of 
 interest. In the beginning of the late session 
 of parliament, his Majesty's ministers deemed 
 that the state of the money market, and the 
 notorious abundance of bullion, rendered it 
 imperative upon the Bank to justify this expecta-
 
 tion. They did not hesitate to express this 
 opinion, and the Bank directors at length acted 
 upon it. All these measures originated from 
 the same principle. The ministers did not 
 indeed believe that the currency of the country 
 had been reduced in the degree asserted ; they 
 did not believe that the portion of reduction, 
 which had actually occurred, was to be imputed 
 to Mr. Peel's bill. But they do not require to 
 be informed, that a brisk and active circulation 
 is necessary to the well being and life of trade and 
 industry; and under this conviction, they have 
 never remitted their efforts to maintain and 
 augment our general currency. Nor is there 
 any inconsistency between this class of mea- 
 sures and the object of Mr. Peel's bill. The 
 object of Mr. Peel's bill is not to reduce the 
 currency, but to give it security, and to establish 
 it on a firm basis. The object of all the above mea- 
 sures was to augment the currency, but always 
 with a reference to cash payments. The small 
 notes, thejoint stock banks, and the enlarged dis- 
 counts, being still left subject to all the enact- 
 ments of Mr. Peel's bill. So false and uncandid is 
 the assertion, that ministers are acting indirectly 
 and unjustly with the public, and are undoing, 
 by one set of measures, what they had previously 
 estabhshed by another. They assist and encou- 
 rage the increase of the currency, because such
 
 87 
 
 increase invigorates trade and industry. They 
 passed Mr. Peel's bill, and they abide by it, be- 
 cause, whatever be the amount of the currency, 
 it was necessary to restore it to its original 
 basis, and to the best and only security against 
 a dangerous excess of issue, — convertibility into 
 bullion. 
 
 The fourth measure for the accomplishment of 
 the same object is the commission for lending 
 two millions of Exchequer Bills for public 
 works. It is unnecessary to go into any detail 
 upon this subject. Its utility, indeed neces- 
 sity, are universally acknowledged. It is noto- 
 rious to every observer, that the reduction 
 of the public expenditure has thrown vast 
 bodies of labouring men out of employment, and 
 that agriculture and manufactures, in their 
 actual condition, are unable to receive and 
 absorb such an augmentation. The aid and en- 
 couragement of public works is the only obvious 
 mode of relief within the power of government. 
 It is in the power of the government to lend, 
 where it cannot give ; and to lend upon a less 
 interest than can be taken by private indivi- 
 duals; because, being able to borrow at less, by 
 means of its own superior credit, it can lend at 
 the same without loss. This is the general prin- 
 ciple of government loans. They can be made 
 at less interest, in larger sums, and with longer
 
 88 
 
 intervals for the repayment. Such are the circum- 
 stances which constitute their use to capitalists. 
 
 As to the mode of loan and the effect of it, it 
 is scarcely necessary to add, that a loan by 
 Exchequer Bills is, in every respect, equivalent 
 to a circulation of their amount in the actual 
 currency of the country. Such bills are imme- 
 diately convertible into money by sale in the 
 market ; and the actual price which they bear, 
 according to their denomination, proves the 
 facility with which this conversion may be made. 
 Such bills, in fact, whether for 5001. or 50001., 
 or of whatever amount, are but the promissory 
 notes of government; current in everyplace, 
 andexchangeable in the instant in every banking 
 house. An issue, therefore, to the amount of 
 two millions, is, in fact, two millions added to 
 the floating currency of the country ; the bills 
 being bought, and discounted by capitalists, and 
 the amount employed as floating capital by the 
 principals concerned in public works. Tlie 
 issue in question, therefore, manifestly accom- 
 plishes two objects ; that of employing large 
 bodies of unoccupied labourers, and of aiding 
 the circulating capital of the country. 
 
 The fifth measure, which, in point of fact, 
 has also concurred to assist the circulation of 
 the country, was the payment of the dis- 
 sentient proprietors of the five per cent, stock.
 
 89 
 
 It will not admit a doubt, that these proprietors 
 would have preferred another mode of payment, 
 and that many of them withheld their consent 
 under an expectation of some offer of this na- 
 ture. But ministers were resolved to execute 
 their first proffer to the letter, and the dis- 
 sentients have been accordingly paid off by an 
 advance made by the Bank. 
 
 Such have been the finance measures for the 
 year now ended; and such their objects. The 
 great purpose of ministers in all of them was, 
 to afford the country the required relief by the 
 remission of taxes, without impairing the public 
 credit by diminishing the Sinking Fund ; and, 
 as to the measures in aid of the currency, to 
 maintain, and, if possible, to augment, the cir- 
 culating capital of the country, without coun- 
 teracting the operation of Mr. Peel's Bill. So 
 far as is consistent with the operation of this 
 bill, namely, the resumption of cash payments, 
 it has been the uniform desire, and the daily 
 effort of ministers, to augment the currency; 
 being as well persuaded as their opponents, that 
 the real wealth of a kingdom is not in its trea- 
 sure, but in its circulation, — is not in its dead 
 funds, but in its active, moving, and diffusive 
 capital. But at all times, and never more 
 than at the present, they are fixed and im- 
 movable in their opinion, that the return to 
 
 c;
 
 90 
 
 cash payments is necessary to the solidity both 
 of public and private wealth, and that this 
 resumption is now the first and main object. 
 As they never acknowledged the depreciation 
 of the money of the kingdom (to the extent 
 asserted) during the war, they equally deny the 
 present corresponding proposition, that since 
 the peace, and the operation of Mr. Peel's bill, 
 there has occurred a proportionate rise of thirty 
 or forty per cent, in tlie value of money. They 
 can nowhere see any proofs of this proposition, 
 but think they can recognize, through every 
 branch of trade and industry, direct proofs of 
 the contrary. If money be compared with 
 commodities, the same sum will now unques- 
 tionably command a greater portion than during 
 the war. But as this effect may indifferently 
 follow from two causes, the cheapness of goods, 
 or the dearness of money, the mere fact itself 
 is conclusive neither way. It either leaves the 
 argument in every respect where it was, or 
 rather transfers the inquirer to the next point 
 in the inquiry j that is, whether this cheapness 
 of goods must necessarily be referred to the 
 dearness of money, or may not be more na- 
 turally explained by the obvious superabundance 
 of every commodity in every market. Mini- 
 sters aredecidedly of the latter opinion, and they 
 are confirmed in this conviction, by finding that
 
 91 
 
 all practical men entertain the same sentiments. 
 They are further confirmed in this persuasion, 
 and more particularly as regards agricultural 
 produce, by seeing the same effect, in operation, 
 in every kingdom in Europe; and that, in every 
 country, there exists the same cause, excessive 
 supply, to account for the same effect. They 
 do not doubt that some reduction has occurred 
 in the quantity of circulating money, but they 
 think that such reduction is sufficiently ex- 
 plained by the cessation of the war expenditure; 
 and as the dealings of the kingdom, and the 
 money of the kingdom, have been concurrently 
 reduced, they see no necessary consequence 
 why there should be any increase in the value 
 of money, upon the ground of its quantity 
 having been thus rendered insufficient. At 
 the same time, knowing and feeling the value of 
 a plentiful circulation of money, whilst such 
 money is fixed upon a proper basis, they have 
 never been wanting in the effort to encourage 
 and maintain the circulation, and to lend the 
 government credit towards the employment of 
 labour, and in the advance of capital for all 
 reasonable speculations of a public character. 
 
 Having now concluded the first part of our 
 subject, a review of the financial measm-es of 
 the year, and of the system upon which they 
 were adopted, we proceed to the examination of 
 
 G 'i
 
 92 
 
 what remains upon this branch of our inquiry, 
 namely, a review of the integrity of all our 
 national resources, and of their actual condition 
 at the present period, and of the expectation 
 which they justify for the future. 
 
 In considering the actual condition of the 
 resources of the country, the most obvious order 
 appears to be, to take the funds of production. 
 The heads of these funds are the commerce, 
 navigation, manufactures, the internal trade, 
 and (so far as respects the interest of the 
 revenue, and as affording proof that the general 
 means of consuming are unimpaired) the na- 
 tional consumption. A very brief and general 
 viewof our national resources, in these their main 
 channels, will afford the most satisfactory answer 
 to the inquiry under consideration.
 
 93 
 
 NATIONAL RESOURCES. 
 
 At the head of our national resources it is 
 usual to place our foreign trade and commerce. 
 When we carry our attention to the general 
 mass of imports and exports, we see that they 
 admit of a two-fold division. They may be 
 conveniently distributed either according to the 
 importance of the articles, or according to the 
 order of the countries. If we follow the first 
 method, our imports may be stated to consist 
 of three main classes ; first, the raw materials of 
 our manufactures : second, the materials of our 
 foreign trade : and third, imported articles for 
 our daily consumption. If we follow the order 
 of countries ; the main heads of our commerce 
 will be, our trade with Russia and the north of 
 Europe ; with Germany, including Prussia and 
 Holland ; with France ; with Spain ; with Por- 
 tugal, including the Brazils j with the East 
 Indies, and China ; and places eastward of the 
 Cape of Good Hope ; with the United States ; 
 and lastly, with the British West Indies and 
 North American colonies. Whichever of these 
 methods we shall adopt, the general result will 
 be found to be the same. It will appear beyond
 
 94 
 
 all question, that the general and particular 
 commerce of the country has very greatly 
 augmented, and is in that condition of monthly 
 and annual increase which promises highly 
 for the national prosperity. The increase of 
 commerce is necessarily the increase of national 
 wealth, and is attended with that energy and 
 spirit of circulation, which administers funds 
 to labour, and to productive industry of all 
 classes. They know but little of the true 
 nature, and of the necessary effects of trade and 
 commerce, who consider their condition to be 
 matters of indifference to all but merchants. 
 It is only by an active commerce that the circu- 
 lation of money can be maintained and aug- 
 mented, and such an extended demand for 
 agricultural produce created as must neces- 
 sarily raise its price. It is in vain to possess a 
 large and increasing population, unless such 
 population be supplied with the means of pur- 
 chase. But the mass of the people can only be 
 so supplied by an augmented demand for their 
 labour, under a flourishing state of commerce. 
 The prosperous condition of commerce is, there- 
 fore, of equal importance to the landed interest 
 as to the mercantile class ; and constitutes, in 
 faci;, the best hopes of farmers and landlords, 
 under the actual depreciation of their produce. 
 The annual increase of our population would
 
 95 
 
 soon consume the annual produce of the soil, 
 if all could be plentifully fed. But it is only 
 through an active commerce, that our mass of 
 labourers, now yearly increasing with our popu- 
 lation, can be supplied with the means of con- 
 suming. The more commerce, the more call for 
 labour; the larger employment of labourers, the 
 more demand upon the market for food, and 
 that kind of demand which alone raises the 
 market; namely, the demand of those who can 
 pay for what they require. Without such means 
 of payment, it is not an inconsistent circum- 
 stance, and is in fact verified in a neighbouring 
 country, that there may exist at once too many 
 mouths, and too much food; an excess of popu- 
 lation, and an excess of produce. The popula- 
 tion may be excessive as regards the demand 
 for labour, and the produce may be excessive as 
 respects the means of the purchasers. Of so 
 much consequence is the condition of our trade 
 and commerce to all classes of society, and to 
 no class more especially than to landlords and 
 farmers. 
 
 Another observation before we proceed to the 
 examination in detail of our actual commercial 
 condition. Whilst some writers affect to under- 
 value our commerce, and to represent it as 
 totally insignificant in comparison with our 
 agriculture, others appear to fall into a contrary
 
 96 
 
 error, and whilst they justly regard our com- 
 merce to be the support of our home market, 
 they impute all the distress of the times to the 
 decline of our foreign trade. According to 
 these persons, our distress arises in great part 
 from the diminution of our commerce by the 
 loss of our war monopoly, and the resumption 
 by foreign nations of those branches of trade 
 and manufacture, which, during a period of war, 
 and the hostile occupation of their soil, passed 
 into the possession of this country. 
 
 Let us briefly examine the justice of this 
 complaint. This is a question of figures, and 
 may therefore be very simply exhibited. 
 
 The statement, as collected from the reports 
 printed by order of parliament, is as follows: 
 
 Total exports from Great Britain, computed 
 according to the official standard of the Custom 
 House. 
 
 Average of the nine years of the first war, ^ 
 
 namely, from the beginning of l/QS to > £30,760,000 
 1802 ^ 
 
 Average of the second ten years, from 1803 
 to 1812, both inclusive; omitting 1813, 
 the records of which were destroyed by "^ ^42,145,000 
 fire, and considering 1802 as a year of l 
 peace ....../ 
 
 Now, if we compare these returns of the state 
 of our exports, during the war, with the seven 
 years of peace, of which the returns have been
 
 97 
 
 made to parliament, we shall find a considerable 
 increase since 1814. 
 
 Average of the total Exports from Great | 
 
 Britain, computed officially, for seven > ^53,922,000 
 years, l8l5 to 1822 . . ' • J 
 
 In both points of view, therefore, our foreign 
 commerce is found to have been no less prosper- 
 ous in peace than in war. It cannot be dis- 
 puted, indeed, that, in peace, we have lost some 
 branches of trade which we possessed in 
 war ; the emporium, for example, and deposit 
 trade for foreign colonial produce. Doubtless 
 many parts of Germany and Russia now supply 
 themselves with raw and manufactured articles, 
 which, during the period of hostility, they took 
 almost wholly from Great Britain. This is true, 
 and cannot be questioned. But it is equally 
 indisputable, that our general trade has received 
 such an augmentation, as very far to exceed 
 any deficit thus occasioned ; and, according to 
 the accounts above stated from the official 
 reports, to render the total amount of our com- 
 merce in peace greater by nearly one fourth 
 tiian our commerce during the war. 
 
 To proceed, however, to our more immediate 
 subject. Our principal imports consist neces- 
 sarily of the raw materials of our manufactures, 
 — flax, hemp, wool, raw and thrown silk, and 
 cottoji. Now, through all these imports, the
 
 98 
 
 year 182^ (just closed) exhibits a most large 
 increase. In the year ending January 1821, the 
 official value of raw flax, the material of our 
 linen manufacture, was 763,4781. In the year 
 ending January 1822, the value of the same 
 exceeded 1,013,1471. In the accounts which 
 will be made up to the 5th of January 1823, 
 it will, according to all appearance, reach 
 the sum of 1,250,0001. 
 
 In raw silk, the amount of the import in 
 1820 was, in official value, 621,3841. In the 
 year ending January 1822, the value of the 
 same article was 935,0001. In the year ending 
 January 1823, it will exceed 1,000,0001. In 
 thrown silk, the official value in 1820 was 
 345,1751. In 1821, it advanced to 398,5471. In 
 1822, the official value of the same was 406,8071. 
 In cotton wool, the value of our import for 
 the year 1821 reached nearly to 5,000,0001. In 
 January 1 822, there was a slight decline from this 
 sum, owing to the excessive import of the pre- 
 ceding year. But in the year ending January 
 J 823, the official amount of the same import will 
 probably exceed 5,000,0001. In sheep's wool, 
 the finer kinds of which are so extensively used 
 in our woollen manufactures, the value of the 
 import for 1821 was 375,4941. In 1822, it rose 
 to 671,7541. When the accounts for January 
 1823 shall be made up, we do not hesitate to pro-
 
 99 
 
 nounce, that a very considerable increase, even 
 upon the amount of the last year, will be found 
 to have taken place. The importations from 
 Saxony and Spain into the ports of London and 
 Bristol, during the late summer and autumn, 
 have been unusually large, and the activity in 
 every branch of our woollen manufactures has 
 been without a parallel. 
 
 In colonial imports, the accounts are equally 
 promising. In 1821, the official value of our 
 import of sugar was 5,552,7681. For 1822, the 
 official value of the same was 5,738,7371. In 
 1821 the official value of our rum imported was 
 617,2451. In 1822, the official value of the 
 same was 620,48 ll. In 1820 the official value 
 of tea was 2,375,0001. In 1821, it rose to 
 3,014,0001. In 1822 its official value was 
 3,073,1101. 
 
 Such is the general state of our imports. 
 The condition of our exports will be found 
 equally promising. As the principal articles of 
 our imports consist in the raw materials of our 
 manufactures, so our principal exports are com- 
 posed of those raw materials worked up, or, in 
 other words, of our manufactures. Our great 
 staple manufactures are, cotton (composed of 
 cotton manufactured goods, and cotton twist 
 and yarn), woollen, linen, silk, hardware and 
 cutlery ; iron and steel, and our brass and
 
 100 
 
 copper manufactures. To which may be added 
 our glass and earthenware, and British refined 
 sugar. All these branches, without exception, 
 exhibit a most promising condition. In 1820, 
 the value of our cotton manufactures exported 
 was, in round figures, 16,600,0001. In 1821, 
 the value of the same was 20,500,0001. In 1822 
 their official value is 21,639,0001, an increase of 
 3,000,0001. above their amount in 18X6, and of 
 one million above their amount for the preced- 
 ing year. Upon this subject two points should 
 always be borne in mind ; first, that the value 
 of our cotton exports exceeds one half of the total 
 amount of our exports of British manufactures ; 
 the second, that the average value of our cot- 
 ton exports, during the war, never advanced be- 
 yond 1 8,000,0001. Their present estimate, there- 
 fore, exceeds, by nearly one fourth, their value 
 during the period of hostilities. So much for 
 the truth of the assertion that our general com- 
 merce has suffered by the peace. 
 
 The value of our woollen manufactures ex- 
 ported is equally increased. In 1821, the official 
 value of our woollen manufactures exported was 
 4,300,0001. In 1822, the value of the same 
 export was raised to 5,500,0001. j an increase 
 of nearly l,200,00Ol, or of one fourth in the 
 whole quantity. In 1820, the official value of 
 our linen manufactures exported was 1,547,0001.
 
 101 
 
 In 1821, the official value of the same was 
 1,935,0001. In 1822, the official value of the 
 same was raised to 2,300,0001. In 1821, the 
 value of our silk exports was 118,0001. In 
 1822, the value of the same was 136,0001. Our 
 iron and steel exports exhibit an appearance 
 equally favorable. In 1820, their amount was 
 960,0001. In 1821, it increased to 1,025,0001. 
 In 1822, it rose to 1,059,0001. Our glass and 
 earthenware, our brass and copper manufac- 
 tures, and many minor articles, exhibit the same 
 degree' of increase above preceding years. In 
 
 1820, the total official value of British manu- 
 factures exported was 32,923,0001. In 1821 
 the total was 37,818,0001. In 1822 the amount 
 was 40, iP'tjOOOl. In one further article (not to 
 enter into a tedious detail), refined sugar, the 
 value of our export in 1820 was 1,400,0001. ; in 
 
 1821, 1,800,0001.; and in 1822, 1,700,0001. 
 So much as to the general state of our exports. 
 
 If we follow the order of countries, the actual 
 condition of our commerce will lead us to two 
 important conclusions. The first, that the de- 
 mand for English manufactures is every where 
 increasing; and, secondly, that this demand is 
 founded in circumstances which defy the com- 
 petition of foreign manufacturers. 
 
 In 1820, the official value of Russian imports 
 into Great Britain was 2,483,0001. In 1821
 
 102 
 
 the official value of the same was 2,500,0001.* 
 In 1820 the value of British manufactures ex- 
 ported to Russia was 1,600,OOOL In 1821, the 
 value of the same was 2,500,0001. In 1820 the 
 value of our imports from the United States was 
 2,600,0001. In 1821 the value of the same im- 
 ports was 3,600,0001. In 1821 the value of our 
 exports to the United States was 3,800,0001. 
 In the year, just ended, the value of the same 
 exports, according to the American accounts, 
 will very considerably exceed 5,000,0001. 
 
 In the official American accounts published at 
 Washington, in the autumn of the year 182'2, 
 the total value of American imports is stated 
 to be 62,585,724 dollars, of which nearly 
 30,000,000 are imported from Great Britain and 
 her colonies. Upwards of twenty -five millions are 
 stated to be imported from Great Britain and 
 Scotland, including Gibraltar; whilst the total 
 of American imports from France, and all her 
 
 * Upon this branch of our inquiry we have taken the 
 year 1821, and not the year 1822. Our trade, indeed, was 
 greater, throughout, in the latter year than in the former ; 
 but the accounts for the year 1821, as respects the present 
 question, have been laid upon the table of the House of 
 Commons. All question, therefore, as to their accuracy is 
 precluded, which might not be the case, if, in order to show 
 a greater increase of trade, we should publish the accounts 
 for the year 1822 ; which have not yet been officially laid 
 before the House in the form and distribution here stated.
 
 103 
 
 colonies and dependencies, amounts only to 
 5,900,581 dollars. In 1820, the value of our 
 imports from Germany, including in that de- 
 scription Prussia, Holland, Flanders, and Ger- 
 many (politically so called), was 1,951,7.531. 
 In 1821 the official value of the same exceeded 
 2,015,0001. In 1820, the official value of our ex- 
 ports to Germany was 6,9.57,4901. In 1821, 
 the value of the same exports was 9,1414,5631. 
 being an increase in the export of British manu- 
 factures of more than 2,000,0001. In 1820, our 
 imports from the East Indies and China were in 
 official value 7,537,0001. In 1821, the official 
 value of the same was 7,562,0001. In 1820, the 
 official value of our manufactures exported to 
 the East Indies and China was 1,998,0001. In 
 1821, the official value ofthe same was 2,978,0001. 
 In 1820, our imports from the Brazils amounted 
 to 952,0001. In 1 82 1 , to 1,294,0001. In 1 820, 
 the export of British manufactures to the Brazils 
 was 1,864,(1001. In 1 821, the value of the same 
 exports was 2,232,0001. 
 
 It would be a tedious enumeration to carry 
 this comparison through the several king- 
 doms of Europe and Asia to which we trade; 
 suffice it to say, that our commerce with 
 all of them exhibits the same condition of 
 increase, and justifies a solid expectation, 
 that the augmented degree of our exports
 
 104 
 
 and manufactures will gradually afford a re- 
 medy to the distress of the landed interest. 
 We must not, however, omit the prosperous 
 condition of our trade with the Spanish and 
 other colonies (not including the Brazils) on 
 the Continent of America. In 1820, the ex- 
 port of British manufactures to these colonies 
 was of the value of 408,7451. only. In 1821, 
 it more than doubled that amount; being 
 885,9861. When the accounts shall be made 
 up for the year ending January 5, 1825, a very 
 considerable increase will be found in the latter 
 amount. 
 
 Our Navigation, which is the just measure of 
 our commerce, and which necessarily follows its 
 increase or diminution, is in the same state of 
 national prosperity; and if the demands of the 
 transpoit service in war enlarged the supply to 
 an extent beyond the ordinary market of peace, 
 our commerce, now swelling beyond the ave- 
 rage of the war, is gradually not only taking 
 up the excess, but is encouraging an annual 
 increase in vessels built. 
 
 The basis of our navigation necessarily par- 
 took, during war, of the character of the war 
 itself; and as that war was the most various in 
 which the country was ever engaged, and com- 
 prehended operations over the largest extent 
 of sea and land, the basis of our commercial
 
 105 
 
 marine was proportionably enlarged. The sup- 
 ply of our armies in Spain and Portugal, of our 
 garrisons in all the West India islands, of our 
 fleet in the Mediterranean and Atlantic seas, 
 and latterly, of a large naval and military force 
 in our British American possessions, necessarily 
 extended the basis of the transport service, 
 and encouraged a description of ship building 
 which was peculiarly adapted for that employ- 
 ment. Hence an unquestionably great demand 
 for tonnage during the war, and hence a de- 
 scription of ship building which was required 
 only for the purposes of war, and mainly adapted 
 for such service. But in despite even of these 
 circumstances, and the stoppage of the importa- 
 tion of foreign corn (the trade in which, pre- 
 vious to the year 1819, kept many of our smaller 
 vessels in constant employment), the average 
 tonnage of peace still exceeds the tonnage dur- 
 ing the war. Of vessels annually buiit, the 
 average of the three last years of the war was 
 seven hundred and sixty vessels. The average 
 of the years 1820, 1821, and 1822 is nearly 
 nine hundred. Of the total tonnage of vessels 
 registered, the average, during the most flou- 
 rishing period of the war, was 2,400,000 tons ; 
 the average of 1819, 1820, and 1821 approaches 
 to 2,600,000 tons. The average outward ton- 
 nage of vessels was during the war 1,700,000 
 
 H
 
 106 
 
 tons; the same average for 1820, 1821, and 
 1 822 is 2,200,000 tons. The average of inward 
 tonnage was during the war about 1,800,000; 
 the same average during the years 1820, 1821, 
 and 1822 exceeds 2,300,000 tons. When so 
 many cliannels of foreign supply, and, more 
 particularly, when the large demand of the 
 Transport Board by the termination of hostilities 
 and of foreign corn importation by the late acts, 
 have been cut off; when so many sources of 
 demand are closed upon our shipping, is it not 
 a subject of very reasonable surprise that Bri- 
 tish tonnage has still occupied so large an 
 amount? Is it not a proof of the soundness of 
 all our resources, and of the energy of British 
 commerce and navigation, that the demand has 
 frequently grown up with the supply, as the 
 supply follows the demand ; and that the com- 
 merce of peace has not only filled up its own 
 channels, but has overflowed so as to occupy 
 and employ even the peculiar means of war? 
 Even in the port of London, the trade of which 
 has been represented as peculiarly depressed, 
 the average amount of vessels, inwards and out- 
 wards, entering and departing from that port, 
 very far exceeds the same average during the 
 war. Duringthe years 1813, 1814, and 1815 the 
 vessels entered inwards were in number about 
 15,450, whilst the vessels outwards averaged
 
 107 
 
 7,350 : during the years of the peace, the 
 average of vessels inwards has much exceeded 
 16,000, and the average of vessels outwards has 
 reached the extraordinary number of 8,500. 
 No better evidence can be given of the in- 
 creasing prosperity and trade of the city of 
 London (and of the port of London) than what 
 was published last year by the committee of 
 foreign trade and commerce. 
 
 If such be the state of our commerce and 
 navigation, of our tonnage, and our exports and 
 imports, tlie internal trade of the country ex- 
 hibits an aspect still more satisfactory. The 
 principal subject matter of internal trade is 
 necessarily in our five staple manufactures, 
 woollen, cotton, linen, silk, hardware, and 
 cutlery in all its branches. The increase in the 
 export of all these articles is the best criterion 
 of the prosperity of our internal trade. If an 
 appeal be made to any one conversant with the 
 manufacturing districts, whether there be not 
 an astonishing activity and improvement per- 
 vading every branch of our manufactures, the 
 answer from every mouth will be, that our ma- 
 nufactures of all kinds have never been in a 
 more flourishing state; that if the rate of profits, 
 and, in some degree, of wages, has diminished, 
 the condition of the capitalist and of his work- 
 men has equally become improved by a more
 
 108 
 
 steady and regular demand. Under the effect 
 of a reduced price, both the domestic and 
 foreign consumption has been greatly aug- 
 mented. The community is more abundantly 
 supplied with every article of necessity, conve- 
 nience, and elegance. The capitalist obtains a 
 regular and certain profit ; small upon single 
 articles, but fully equal, as regards the returns 
 of his whole capital, to the general average of 
 profit amongst fair traders. Meanwhile the 
 labouring class procures, if not the monopoly 
 price of wages, that just and reasonable rate 
 which belongs to a branch of industry gradu- 
 ally, but certainly, rising. Hence not only do 
 we see ease, comfort, and content amongst our 
 manufacturing population, but in some manu- 
 factures, and particularly in silk, we may re- 
 cognise that spirit of enterprise and excited 
 adventure, the tendency of which will shortly 
 be to give us a predominance in that very 
 branch of commerce which has hitherto been 
 the exclusive property of the south of Europe. 
 In woollens, the report from those districts 
 where this manufacture is principally carried 
 on is founded upon the most certain docu- 
 ments ; by which it appears, that the quantity 
 of cloth manufactured during the last year ex- 
 ceeds the quantity of any preceding year. — 
 During the quarter, which closed in October
 
 109 
 
 last, particularly in the district of the West 
 Riding of Yorkshire, the number of yards ma- 
 nufiictured exceeded whatever has been hitherto 
 known within the memory of man. 
 
 It is, perhaps, no unreasonable argument, in 
 support of the superiority of our woollen ma- 
 nufactures over every foreign competitor, to 
 appeal to a neutral and indifferent customer ; 
 to the consumption of a market where there is 
 assuredly no prejudice in favour of Great Bri- 
 tain, and which is open upon equal terras of 
 competition to every dealer. It has often been 
 asserted that France and Saxony were about to 
 wrest from us our manufacture of the finer cloths 
 and woollens, and to supplant us in foreign mar- 
 kets. — What is the fact ? we have it not upon 
 our own statements, but upon the financial re- 
 cords of the United States, published for the 
 year 1822, that the value of the imports of British 
 woollen manufactures into those districts, for 
 the previous year, amounted to between nine 
 and ten millions of dollars, whilst the value of 
 the entire imports from France did not much 
 exceed four millions ; three-fourths of which im- 
 ports consisted of the natural produce of the 
 climate of France (her wines and brandies, &c.) 
 and one-fourth only of her manufactured arti- 
 cles. In a word, whilst the exports of Great 
 Britain to America of ^e7zer«/ manufactures, for
 
 110 
 
 the year 1822, exceeded four millions sterling, 
 the export of French manufactures of lace, silk, 
 woollen, cottons, &c. did not exceed 250,0001. ; 
 about one-sixteenth of the value of British com- 
 modities. It is, perhaps, not easier to give a 
 more conclusive answer to such of our mer- 
 chants and manufacturers, who cry out for pro- 
 hibitions and high duties, and who have op- 
 posed the Warehousing Bill with such unrea- 
 sonable jealousy, than by adducing this example 
 of the incontestable superiority of British ma- 
 nufactures. We have here the unsuspected 
 admission of a rival power in our favour, that, 
 with the exception of the gifts of climate and 
 natural produce, no country whatever can con- 
 tend with Great Britain in manufacturing in- 
 dustry and skill. 
 
 If such be the state of our woollen manufac- 
 tures, the condition of our cottons is no less 
 satisfactory. The markets of China, India, and 
 South America have been thrown open to this 
 beautiful fabric, destined, no less from the light- 
 ness of its texture, than from its capacity of 
 being wrought to a firmness and solidity equal- 
 ling wool in warmth, to become the universal 
 clothing of the world. We have already spoken 
 of the exports of this manufacture, and proved, 
 by the official documents, such an annual in- 
 crease, as establishes beyond all doubt our vast
 
 Ill 
 
 comparative superiority in the European and 
 American markets, and, it may be added, even 
 in the markets of India and China. The in- 
 ternal consumption is, in its proportion, equally 
 increasing. The cotton wool imported, and 
 wrought up in our manufacturing districts dur- 
 ing the last year (so far as we can judge from 
 the Liverpool and Glasgow accounts hitherto 
 made up), appears to be more by one-fifth than 
 the quantity imported and manufactured during 
 the year 1821. 
 
 When it is remembered how important the 
 woollen manufacture has been regarded in all 
 ages of the monarchy, and how many acts of 
 parliament have been passed in every reign, 
 from Edward the First, for its encouragement 
 and protection, it becomes a necessary in- 
 ference, that our cotton manufacture, which, 
 as one of our staples, is scarcely older than the 
 commencement of the reign of liis late majesty, 
 is entitled to the first degree of consideration 
 both by the government and people of Great 
 Britain. It is eminently entitled to attention 
 in two points of view. First, that the raw ma- 
 terial of the manufacture is not the produce 
 of the country, nor is it to be procured, to the 
 extent required, from the colonies or depend- 
 encies of our empire ; and yet, in despite of this 
 natural obstacle, it has become the principal of
 
 112 
 
 our manufactures. When the value of our 
 woollen exports did not exceed seven or eight 
 hundred thousand pounds, and the value of the 
 whole manufacture, both for home and foreign 
 supply, did not exceed five millions, as in the 
 reigns of George the First and Second, the 
 statesmen and public writers of that period 
 were accustomed to hail this staple as the main 
 support of the commerce and manufactures of 
 the kingdom. What would have been the in- 
 credulity of these writers, and of Sir William 
 Temple amongst them, if it had been predicted 
 that, within seventy or eighty years, cotton, an 
 article at that time less used than silk, at the pre- 
 sent period would exceed this produce by a ten- 
 fold amount ; that whilst the export of our wool- 
 len manufactures would, within that period, rise 
 to an annual value of six millions, our cotton 
 manufactures, in the same period, would exceed 
 twenty millions annually; that is to say, more 
 than three-fold the amount of our woollens. 
 
 The second point under which this manu- 
 facture deserves the most attentive considera- 
 tion is, that it is now conducted amongst us 
 with such an advantage of capital and ma- 
 chinery as to defy all foreign competition ; 
 and, what is of most importance, to counteract 
 the irregular price of food and labour amongst 
 us. It has been the frequent subject of appre-
 
 113 
 
 liension of late years, that the future effect 
 of the Corn Laws, and of the mode of living 
 amongst our labourers of all classes, will gra- 
 dually so augment the price of labour, and, by 
 a necessary consequence, that of manufactures, 
 as to exclude us from foreign supply. But hap- 
 pily this effect is more than counteracted by our 
 immense superiority in machinery and capital; 
 under the effect of which, the produce of the 
 smallest portion of human industry is so in- 
 finitely multiplied, as to render the cost of 
 labour, as compared with the produce, almost 
 wholly insignificant. If it be objected that 
 the same instruments are within the reach of 
 foreigners, we reply, that such capital and ma- 
 chinery are not tho creatures of a day. 
 
 The advance of the silk trade exceeds every 
 example of the progress of manufactures in 
 ancient and modern times. In the earlier state 
 of this trade, it had to contend, under the 
 greatest disadvantages, with the same manu- 
 facture in France. The vicinity of Italy, and 
 the domestic growth of the raw material in 
 France itself, weie such predominant advan- 
 tages in favour of the French artisan, as to 
 confine the sale of English silks entirely within 
 the British dominions, and to remove every 
 hope of sharing with France in the European 
 and foreign market. Fortunately for the best
 
 114 
 
 interests of the British empire, the gradual im- 
 provement of our territories in the East Indies 
 has introduced a new state of things, under 
 which the former disadvantages, as regard 
 the supply of the raw material, have entirely 
 disappeared. The quantity, and, what is of 
 equal importance, the quality of East India 
 silk, now almost equals, in every respect, the 
 silk of Italy ; and the soil and climate of the 
 East Indies appear, by actual experience, to be 
 so favourable to this produce, that the supply 
 of the British manufacturer may be at all times 
 increased according to the demand. 
 
 In the year 1770, the annual supply of raw 
 silk from India did not reach one hundred 
 thousand pounds. In 1780, it did not exceed 
 two hundred thousand pounds. In 1800, it 
 was three hundred thousand pounds, and a 
 small excess. In 1820, the amount of raw silk 
 imported from India exceeded one million 
 pounds. If we add to this amount, one hun- 
 dred and fifty thousand pounds, which is now 
 our average importation from China, and about 
 five hundred and fifty thousand pounds, which 
 we annually import from foreign Europe, the 
 total annual consumption of our silk manu- 
 factures will appear to be about two million 
 pounds. According to the average of the last 
 three years, the consumption has been two mil-
 
 115 
 
 lion one hundred thousand pounds. In the year 
 1820, taken by itself, the amount of raw silk, 
 consumed, exceeded two million five hundred 
 thousand pounds. Now, according to Mon- 
 sieur Chaptal, the annual consumption of the 
 French manufactures, in the year 1812, was 
 not more than nine hundred and eighty-seven 
 thousand pounds. According to the evidence 
 of one of the witnesses before the Lords' Com- 
 mittee upon this subject, the annual value of 
 our silk manufactures was stated to be ten mil- 
 lions ; which, with the exception of a very 
 small proportion for foreign markets, was con- 
 sumed at home. The opening of the Indian 
 trade, and the general spirit of traffic which is 
 now directed towards the several islands in the 
 Eastern Archipelago, where silk is principally 
 cultivated, will doubtless give a new impulse to 
 this manufacture, and be productive of great 
 reciprocal advantages to Great Britain and her 
 Indian dominions. Tlie price of Italian silk is 
 undoubtedly higher than Bengal silk ; but as it 
 is stated that only one crop of silk is annually 
 produced in Italy, whilst from two to three are 
 produced within the same period in India, it is 
 to be expected that when larger capitals shall 
 be invested in this trade, and the supply be 
 better regulated, the Indian silk, of equal 
 (juality with the Italian, will bear a still lower
 
 116 
 
 price in the market. If in some of the lighter 
 and more delicate fabrics, if in the brightness 
 of colour, and durability of dye, we are ex- 
 celled (as it must be admitted we still are) by 
 the French manufacturer, our piece goods, and 
 all those mixed fabrics, of which silk is the 
 basis, are beyond all rivalry in the several mar- 
 kets of the world. The English manufacturer 
 is not only conquering the French artisan, but, 
 what is more difficult, he is now subduing the 
 national taste and prejudice in favour of the fo- 
 reign fabrics. The evidence before the House of 
 Lords, upon the condition of this manufacture, 
 affords a remarkable instance of the obstinacy 
 of prejudice, and of the difficulty with which 
 received notions are gradually displaced. Of 
 the silks, professing to be smuggled, nine-tenths 
 are proved to be of British manufacture, brought 
 from Spitalfields, and not from the looms of 
 Lyons or Marseilles. 
 
 The next species of manufacture, in order 
 and importance, is our linen ; a manufacture, 
 which, under some singular circumstances for 
 many years past, appears not to have obtained 
 its natural extent, but which, of Lite, has ad- 
 vanced in common with the other produce of our 
 industry. It is scarcely necessary to observe 
 that this manufacture belongs almost exclusively 
 to Ireland ; and it is, perhaps, to this circum-
 
 117 
 
 stance (it is said without offence, and not 
 without a feeling of deep regret), that its very 
 slow comparative advance must be imputed. 
 In England, the astonishing progress of our 
 manufactures belongs unquestionably to our 
 three characteristic advantages — the extent of 
 our capital ; the costliness and abundance of 
 our machinery ; and our steady, as well as 
 active industry. In all these circumstances the 
 population of Ireland is unquestionably inferior. 
 It is no reflection upon the national character 
 of this brave and generous people, and it is 
 assuredly not intended as one, that their wealth 
 is not adequate to an equal competition in capital 
 and machinery. It is perhaps owing to the 
 same cause, that their national industry, being 
 iess called forth, and less cherished and excited 
 by the liberal wages of large establishments, is 
 more characterised by its activity in the com- 
 mencement of labour, than by a steady and 
 assiduous application through its progress. It 
 is not to be doubted, however, but that the 
 manufacture of her peculiar staple is now 
 extending in Ireland. The export of linen 
 from Ireland, for 182^^ exceeded, by nearly 
 one million sterling, the export of the year 
 1820 ; and, by nearly half a million, the exports 
 of the year 1821. It is to be lamented, how- 
 ever, that the foreign exports of linen from
 
 118 
 
 Ireland are still less than belong to the excellence 
 of the manufacture, and to the circumstance 
 that it is one of the staples (indeed, almost the 
 only staple) of that kingdom. A considerable 
 improvement, doubtless, took place during the 
 last year ; and the opening of the South Ame- 
 rican market holds forth a promise of great 
 augmentation, if the capital engaged in this 
 manufacture be rightly directed. It will 
 scarcely be believed, that of the aggregate 
 amount of linen exported from Ireland for the 
 year 1822, Great Britain took, partly for her 
 own consumption, and partly for exportation, 
 in the proportion of 2,800,250/. to 240,769/.— 
 The latter sum is the total amount of the ex- 
 port of this staple manufacture by Ireland 
 herself, to all parts of the world, exclusive of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 Our next manufacture in order is our hard- 
 ware, cutlery, and iron, wrought and un- 
 wrought. The state of these manufactures can 
 only be estimated by the general condition of 
 the trade, as we see it, and the amount of our 
 exports. Of these we have already spoken ; 
 and during the last year, and what has elapsed 
 of the present, they have been all upon the 
 increase. Perhaps no article suffered more 
 under the transition from war to peace. It is 
 satisfactory, therefore, to observe these manu-
 
 119 
 
 factures recovering, not only their former 
 amount, but so far passing beyond it, as to 
 prove an astonishing energy, as w^ell in do- 
 mestic consumption as in foreign demand. If 
 our exports of cotton yarn, now^ averaging two 
 millions yearly, have nursed a rival to this 
 manufacture in the Netherlands and Germany j 
 if, as respects silks, we are just gaining the 
 vantage ground, and have still to contend with 
 France and Saxony in our finer fabrics of wool ; 
 it must be admitted, beyond all question, that 
 in hardware and cutlery we are above the 
 danger of rivalry. We have, as respects this 
 fabric, the mineral amongst ourselves. We 
 have those local advantages of fuel, which are 
 possessed, in the same degree, by no foreign 
 nation ; and in the hands, bodies, and skill of 
 our labourers, we have that union of nervous 
 strength, with that capacity of steady, assiduous, 
 and long-continued labour, which, for centuries 
 to come, must render us the first of industrious 
 nations. 
 
 We see the market of this manufacture en- 
 larging daily ; and there is every reason to 
 believe that the iiome consumption, which it 
 is difficult to estimate (as not being the subject 
 of any tax or financial regulation) is rapidly 
 upon the increase. The Birmingham and 
 Sheffield em[)loyment has been uniform and
 
 120 
 
 steady, and the wages in this manufacture 
 have not (as in those of cotton and wool) sub- 
 mitted to any material reduction. 
 
 With respect to iron one observation be- 
 comes necessary. The decrease in the price 
 of this commodity is undoubtedly great ; but 
 the cause is too obvious to dwell upon. The 
 great dealer, the Ordnance of ourselves and 
 our allies, is no longer in the market, and the 
 sword is here succeeded by the plough-share. 
 
 A policy, little approved amongst themselves, 
 and yielded only to the popular clamour of the 
 day, has interrupted the supply of the French 
 with British iron ; but, notwithstanding the 
 stoppage of this channel, the export is still in- 
 creasing. We possess, almost exclusively, the 
 Mediterranean market ; and such is the vigour 
 and activity of this trade, that, even under this 
 deduction of the French supply, we have little 
 doubt, when the accounts of the present year 
 (1823) shall be made up, but that our export 
 of iron will be found equal to any preceding 
 year. 
 
 If such be the state of our manufactures and 
 of our internal trade, of which such manufac- 
 tures are the main subject-matter, our con- 
 sumption amongst ourselves of all the articles 
 of daily use appears to be equally active and 
 flourishing. The increasing consumption oC
 
 121 
 
 malt may be already traced in the present state 
 of the barley market, as the price of this pro- 
 duce manifestly exceeds its ordinary proportion 
 to the price of wheat. Perhaps none of the 
 necessaries of life has fluctuated, within certain 
 limits, more than this species of produce, as 
 regards the quantity annually consumed. In 
 some years it has very considerably increased, 
 in despite of a large additional tax ; and in 
 other years, when such additional tax has been 
 removed, it has unaccountably diminished. 
 Perhaps, if our limits would admit of an ex- 
 amination of the cause of this irregularity, we 
 should find it sufficiently explained by the 
 prices of wheat in the years preceding the 
 diminution or augmentation of the quantity of 
 malt. A price of wheat, comparatively higher 
 than the price of barley at the same period, has 
 probably encouraged a larger growth of barley 
 for the following year j hence has ensued a 
 lower price, and, by necessary consequences, 
 a larger demand. The event has thus disap- 
 pointed the expectation of the growers ; and 
 in the following year they have possibly cor- 
 rected the error by an excess the other way. 
 
 But whatever may have been the cause of the 
 irregular consumption of two or three years 
 out of a period of ten years or more, it appears 
 that the annual demand is now increasing. 
 
 I
 
 V2'2 
 
 When the accounts for the present quarter shall 
 be made up, the quantity for the year will be 
 little short of thirty millions of bushels. It 
 should be borne in mind upon this subject, that 
 if this quantity do not altogether correspond 
 with a calculation made upon the increase of 
 our population, a very sufficient cause may be 
 found in the character of that portion of the 
 community wherein our population has been 
 augmented. It is notorious that our population 
 has been augmented chiefly amongst the manu- 
 facturing classes. But it is well known amongst 
 those acquainted with the habits of manu- 
 facturing districts, that the labourers in these 
 establishments consume malt-liquors less plen- 
 tifully than labourers and mechanics, properly 
 so called. The use of tea has, in such districts, 
 supplanted, in a very great degree, the con- 
 sumption of malt, and less malt is used because 
 tea has become more general. 
 
 The consumption of this article, at once the 
 necessary and luxury of all classes of the people, 
 as to its progress and extent, is truly surprising. 
 Within the last thirty years, the duty upon this 
 commodity has advanced from 131. per cent, to 
 100/. per cent. ; but it has increased with a 
 continually increasing duty, and the con- 
 sumption is even now improving. Ahnost 
 every new quarter furnishes an increase upon the
 
 123 
 
 preceding quarter. The mean consumption of 
 the two years 18^20, and 1821, was 22,46l,592lbs. 
 The consumption of the Last year exceeds 
 twenty-three millions. 
 
 The increased consumption of sugar is ren- 
 dered beyond all question, both from the in- 
 creased payments to the customs and from the 
 augmented import. In the year 182S, the value 
 imported was nearly 200,000/. more than in 
 the year 1821, and in nearly equal excess above 
 the preceding year. The gross receipts of the 
 customs on this article, to January of the year 
 just ended, exceeded 5,162,000/. being a con- 
 siderable excess above the year 1821. In 1817, 
 our importation of sugar did not exceed three 
 millions and a half. In 1822, it increased to 
 four millions. When the accounts shall be 
 made up to the 5th of January 1823, an increase 
 will be found on this latter amount. 
 
 It is nothing of an objection to the import- 
 ance of an increase in these two main articles 
 of our domestic consumption, that they are of 
 foreign and not domestic growth. It is still an 
 increase in our commerce ; and is therefore at- 
 tended with an increased profit to the merchant, 
 and with the active employment, and diffusive 
 circulation, of larger capitals. But it is needless 
 to observe, that the wealth of a country consists 
 less in its treasure than in its circulation. 
 
 I 2
 
 124 
 
 Whatever, therefore, contributes to circulate 
 capital, and to diffuse the wages of labour 
 through larger classes and more numerous in- 
 dividuals, tends proportionately, by affording 
 means to greater numbers, to improve the con- 
 dition of the people. By increasing the number 
 of customers, and enabling so many to con- 
 sume more abundantly, it necessarily augments 
 the demand in every market, and more par- 
 ticularly in the market of all those articles 
 which are the necessaries of life to all conditions. 
 It is in this manner that the increase of com- 
 merce administers aid to agriculture, and that 
 the prosperity of the landlord and farmer is 
 sure to follow, and in no long interval, the 
 prosperity of our foreign and domestic trade. 
 
 It would be tedious to follow our internal 
 consumption through all the articles of which 
 it consists. Suffice it to say, that the annual 
 produce of all of them to the revenue establishes 
 the same result. If some luxuries, such as 
 w^ine, &c., have suffered a diminution, it will 
 not admit an argument but that this defect 
 is infinitely compensated by the increased 
 comforts of the great body of the community. 
 In no country in the world is the whole popu- 
 lation so well clothed, so well lodged, and, let 
 it be added, so well fed, both as regards the 
 description of food, and the quantity. Let a
 
 125 
 
 contract for the yearly supply of our lai-ger 
 poor-houses be read over to an intelligent 
 foreigner, and he will be heard to express a 
 lively surprise that it contains such a pro- 
 portion of meat, butter and cheese; and such a 
 sedulous provision that each of these articles 
 should be of the best quality of its kind. Let 
 an appeal be made to our country gentlemen, 
 and let the question be put to them, whether in 
 the poor-houses of their several districts tea, 
 &c. be not provided for the women. This 
 observation is not made in any grudging spirit. 
 It is to the honour of a Christian country, and 
 it is the duty of a wealthy community, that its 
 poor should be thus liberally supplied; and if 
 some check could be interposed to imprudent 
 and ruinous marriages, we are not amongst 
 those who would abolish, or approach to the 
 abolition, of the actual system of our poor 
 laws. When the landed interest however com- 
 plain that six or seven millions annually are 
 now expended for the maintenance of the poor, 
 they should remember how large a proportion 
 of this sum is paid by large towns and manu- 
 facturing districts. 
 
 If it could be expected that the reader would 
 go through a mass of financial statements with- 
 out weariness, it might be easy, by instituting 
 a comparison through the long details of our
 
 126 
 
 domestic consumption, between the year now 
 closed (1822), and the preceding year 1821, to 
 exhibit an increase under all those heads and 
 articles which peculiarly belong to our internal 
 trade and intercourse. Not only in the great 
 branches of revenue, the Customs and Excise, 
 but in our stamp duties ; the rise in which can 
 only be ascribed to the activity and number of 
 our domestic dealings and interchanges: — In the 
 Assessed Taxes, not upon houses and windows 
 alone, the increase of which meets the eye of 
 every observer in our large cities and manu- 
 facturing towns, but also in the minor articles 
 of luxury ; in servants, carriages, armorial 
 bearings, game certificates, &c. : In the post 
 horse and stage coach duties, which measure 
 the degree of intercourse between the different 
 parts of the country : under all these heads, 
 the official reports of finance lead to the same 
 conclusion, that the resources of the internal 
 trade of the country, and the integrity of our 
 means of consumption, are not only unimpaired, 
 but are existing in increased energy. 
 
 In respect indeed to those articles of con- 
 sumption which more peculiarly belong to the 
 middle and lower classes of society ; in tobacco 
 and snuff, in beer, in candles, in soap, in British 
 and foreign spirits, in tea and in sugar (of 
 which last we have already spoken), the im-
 
 127 
 
 provement is progressive with every quarter. 
 But in order to confirm this proposition, and 
 before we conclude this division of the subject, 
 it may be necessary to take a brief review of 
 the revenue of the year just closed. 
 
 At the commencement of the last sessions, 
 his Majesty's ministers were enabled to meet 
 Parliament with an increase of above 1,000,000/. 
 revenue (calculated up to the 5th of January 
 18^22) over the revenue of the preceding year. 
 It may perhaps not be unimportant to observe, 
 that the revenue of the year 1821 exhibited 
 almost as large increase over the revenue of 
 the year 1820. But having stated the revenue 
 up to the 5th of January 1822, let us now mark 
 its progress to the close of the year. The first 
 quarter of the year 1822 ended, of course, April 
 5th. In this quarter, upon a comparison with 
 the corresponding quarter of the year 1821, 
 the increase was upward of four hundred thou- 
 sand pounds. In the Customs, the increase 
 was nearly 200,000/. ; nor was this improvement 
 to be placed to the account of any sudden 
 and fluctuating state of circumstances. Every 
 quarter of the last year had exhibited a similar 
 result. In the Excise, the sure test of domestic 
 consumption, and whicii speaks too plainly 
 and palpably for artifice and deception, after 
 deducting the decrease on a few articles, the
 
 128 
 
 improvement was very little short of 150,000/. 
 In the stamps, the increase was 1 14,547/. on the 
 quarter. 
 
 In the succeeding quarter, ending July 5th, 
 the same progressive improvement was visible, 
 although the repeal of taxes began now to 
 operate upon the amount of our income. 
 Allowing for these deductions, the increase in 
 all the great sources of revenue was very con- 
 siderable. In the Customs, the activity and 
 enlargement of our foreign commerce were 
 visible in improving receipts. In the Excise, 
 allowing for the reduction of the malt tax, and 
 some arrangements of the Exchequer which 
 postponed the payment of the duty on hops, 
 an increase had taken place upon all articles of 
 general consumption and use. In the Stamp- 
 duties, the augmentation was more than 100,000/. 
 In the Land-tax, there was an increase of 
 133,000/. In the miscellaneous, of nearly 30,000/. 
 The assessed taxes indeed were diminished by 
 a very large amount, but this had been occa- 
 sioned by the repeal of the husbandry horse-tax. 
 As compared with the corresponding quarter 
 of 1821, the reader will be at first struck with 
 a diminution to the amount of 35,000/.; but if 
 he will bear in mind, that taxes had been actu- 
 ally repealed, whose produce for the quarter 
 would have been 450,000/., he will see that the
 
 129 
 
 increase upon the general income exceeded 
 400,000/. Upon the whole year the improve- 
 ment indeed was prodigious. It amounted to 
 the sum of 1,600,000/., as compared with the 
 produce of the previous year ending at a 
 corresponding period. Had no diminution of 
 taxes taken place, the increase would have ex- 
 ceeded two millions; an augmentation, upon 
 taxes of fixed amounts, without parallel in the 
 history of finance within the same period of 
 time. 
 
 In the October quarter, as compared with 
 the corresponding quarter of 1821, the decrease 
 of payments into the Exchequer was upwards 
 of 800,000/. It will be recollected that this 
 quarter in the preceding year had been un- 
 usually productive ; and the increase had been 
 attributed, with some reason, to an effort of 
 expenditure, peculiarly excited and strained 
 beyond its ordinary scope by the festival of 
 his Majesty's coronation. But assuming the 
 income of the October quarter for 1821 to 
 have been an unforced and natural produce, if 
 we compare it with the October quarter of the 
 year 1823, and make allowance for duties (ac- 
 tually remitted), and for those (which are in 
 the course of repeal), we shall have ample 
 reason to congratulate the public on a thriving 
 and prosperous state of the revenue.
 
 130 
 
 In this quarter, the remission of taxes pro- 
 duced a most considerable effect j but the dimi- 
 nution extended no further than to those duties 
 which had actually become the subject of 
 mitigation or repeal. There was an increase 
 upon all the more considerable branches of 
 revenue which ministers had left untouched. 
 In the Customs, indeed, notwithstanding the 
 repeal of the tonnage duty (45,000/.), the 
 increase was 97,000/. And if those branches 
 of the Excise (which were affected by actual 
 decrease from diminished duties) be deducted 
 from the total produce, there will appear upon 
 the remaining articles an advance of upwards 
 of 300,000/. If the reader could spare time for 
 the examination and comparison of details, it 
 would be easy to satisfy him, that, upon the 
 articles not affected by the reduction of taxes, 
 an increase had taken place to the amount of 
 460,000/. In tea, for example, the increase was 
 311,136/. In tobacco and snuff, 133,614/. And 
 in foreign and British spirits (we had rather it 
 had occurred in any other articles) the aug- 
 mentation exceeded half a million. 
 
 At the time of writing these observations, 
 the quarter ending January 5th, 1823, is not 
 made up. Our purpose does not require us to 
 anticipate it ; but the result will not disappoint 
 the public.
 
 131 
 
 In reviewing the actual state of our internal 
 resources, it would be unjust to omit one cha- 
 racteristic of the present times, which is no less 
 a mark of increasing prosperity than of a spirit 
 of independence and economy, the fruits of 
 which will be found, in no distant period, to 
 exhibit themselves in the exaltation of our na- 
 tional character, and in the improvement of the 
 general condition of the people, — we advert to 
 the system of Saving Banks. — Whatever tends 
 to the accumulation of property and of capital, 
 in however small a portion, fosters the spirit of 
 independence, and lays the ground-work of na- 
 tional riches and strength. The Saving Banks 
 are the funds of the lower orders, and the energy 
 and steadiness with which they advance is no 
 less creditable to their industry than to their 
 moral sentiments. Within the year 1821, a sum 
 of 1,300,0001. was lodged in these depositaries. 
 The accounts of the commissioners for the re- 
 demption of the national debt (in whose names 
 the stock belonging to the Saving Banks is in- 
 vested) have not been made up for the year 
 1822; but, beyond all doubt, a very consider- 
 able increase has taken place. — The amount of 
 interest paid or credited to the Saving Banks for 
 the year 1822 amounted to 176,50.51. j and upon 
 the 5th January last there was standing in the
 
 132 
 
 name of the commissioners, on account of the 
 Saving Banks, for England only, the prodigious 
 sum of five millions, eight hundred, and seventy- 
 seven thousand pounds, accumulated within the 
 short period of four years.
 
 133 
 
 COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION, 
 
 This head of our subject is now rendered of 
 the first consideration by the growing import- 
 ance of our colonies. In the ancient system of 
 governments, colonies were considered only as 
 the relief of an excessive population. In mo- 
 dern governments, they at once afford relief to 
 population, and new stores and markets for 
 commercial demand and supply. When the 
 present United States were separated from the 
 dominion of this country by the events of the 
 American war, there was a general opinion 
 amongst the most intelligent writers of that 
 period, that British commerce had received a 
 shock from which it would with difficulty, if 
 by any means, recover. —Forty years have not 
 passed away since the peace which concluded 
 this war; and, within that interval, the small 
 remains of our former American dominion, and 
 that portion of it which was then least pro- 
 mising, have made such an astonishing progress 
 in wealth and cultivation, as to take annually 
 from England a greater quantity of our do- 
 mestic growth and manufactures than was 
 taken by the wliole thirteen provinces of Ame- 
 rica before the war of 177-5. In a |)amphlct
 
 134 
 
 published by Mr. Burke at that period he states 
 the total vahie of American imports to be about 
 one million sterling; and the total value of Bri- 
 tish produce and manufactures, exported from 
 Great Britain to the American provinces, to be 
 from 1,200,000/. to 1,500,000/. Now in the 
 year 1819 (we might, if necessary, take a more 
 favourable year) the value of our produce and 
 manufactures exported to the four British Ame- 
 rican provinces. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, 
 Newfoundland, and the Canadas, amounted to 
 1,320,000/.— In 1820, the value of the sam.e 
 exports was 1,548,000/. If we were to include 
 the West India islands in this calculation, as 
 they appear to be partially included in the esti- 
 mate of Mr. Burke, the amount of exports to 
 British America and the West Indies was, in 
 the year 1819, 6,800,000/. ; and the amount of 
 imports from the same provinces and islands 
 was, at the like period, within a very small 
 sum of 9,000,000/. 
 
 Such is the increasing value and prosperous 
 condition of our colonies, and so short-sighted 
 is the wisdom and discretion of those persons, 
 who, for the purpose of highly colouring some 
 particular branch of the subject, institute an 
 invidious comparison between our general com- 
 merce, our colonial trade, and our agriculture. 
 In their different degrees they all contribute to
 
 135 
 
 compose a general fund of wealth; which, being 
 distributed through every class of the commu- 
 nity, diffuses the profits of capital and the 
 wages of industry amongst every order of the 
 people. If any branch of our commerce could 
 be struck off, or even materially diminished, 
 the effect would be almost immediately felt in 
 the reduced value and price of land. — Whence 
 is it, for example, that Ireland, as seen by a too 
 recent experience, at once abounds in popula- 
 tion, and in an excessive produce of her soil ? — 
 Whence is it, that we have seen in that king- 
 dom such a distressing necessity for food in her 
 towns and villages, and such a narrow and in- 
 sufficient demand in her overflowing markets ? 
 — It is, simply, because the price of food is not 
 raised by population merely, but by a popula- 
 tion able to pay for it. — Reduce our commerce, 
 reduce our manufactures, and there necessarily 
 follows a proportionate reduction in the number 
 and means of those who were heretofore in a 
 condition to consume plentifully. It is true, 
 that, under the effect of the poor laws, our poor 
 must be fed at all times; but it is one thing to 
 be fed by parishes, and another by purchase 
 from their own means. 
 
 But to proceed to a more particular inquiry 
 into our colonial administration. Upon a ge- 
 neral view of this part of our subject, it will
 
 136 
 
 appear to afford a convenient distribution into 
 three heads. 1. West Indies, British and fo- 
 reign, and our new poHcy with respect to them 
 by the repeal, or rather the new modelling of 
 our navigation laws. 2. British America ; and 
 particularly the Canadas, and the new mea- 
 sures for the improvement and consolidation of 
 their government. 3. The East Indies, and 
 the minor colonies, the Cape of Good Hope, 
 New South Wales, Isle of France, &c. 
 
 Under the first of these heads it is scarcely 
 necessary to repeat, that some important acts 
 were passed during the last sessions for the 
 relief of the West India trade, in general ; not 
 only with the United States of America, but 
 with foreign Europe. According to the ori- 
 ginal colonial system, as instituted and admi- 
 nistered by all European nations, and by us in 
 common with them, the trade of the colonies 
 of the mother country was in every respect a 
 monopoly. They could only sell to us and 
 buy from us. In the progress of commercial 
 knowledge it was at length understood, tliat 
 such a double monopoly was alike unfavourable 
 both to the colonies and the parent state ; that 
 it constrained the natural growth of these set- 
 tlements, and retarded, or rather entirely de- 
 stroyed that advance in wealth, population, 
 and commercial spirit, which is necessary to
 
 137 
 
 enable remote colonies to become important 
 dealers with the mother country. As regarded 
 the mother country herself, such a system was 
 seen to be equally erroneous. It gave her the 
 profits of a narrow monopoly instead of a large 
 and liberal trade. It gave her a high profit upon 
 the few transactions of a circumscribed traffic, 
 instead of a small gain upon the innumerable 
 quantity of dealings in a free and general com- 
 merce. This experience did not come in vain. 
 Accordingly all our Asiatic colonies have been 
 gradually liberated from this restrictive system, 
 and our legislature has availed itself of every 
 opportunity to deliver the commerce of the 
 country from this monopoly. 
 
 As the example was set in the East Indies, 
 it was soon extended by the government of 
 that period to the West India islands. By the 
 act of 1805, the free port system was consoli- 
 dated and enlarged, and ports opened in almost 
 all the islands to admit a supply of articles 
 from foreign colonies. In the year 1806, this 
 liberal system was further extended, and an 
 order of council was issued, permitting Ame- 
 rican vessels to bring into one or more of these 
 ports all the staple productions of the United 
 States, and to export, in return, all the produce 
 of the West Indies. This relaxation of our 
 ancient monopoly was confirmed immediately 
 
 K
 
 138 
 
 afterwards by several successive statutes. At 
 the same period an act was passed, by which 
 the colonies were permitted to send their pro- 
 duce direct to Europe, to any port south of 
 Cape Finisterre ; a privilege extended, by a 
 subsequent act, to Malta and Gibraltar ; ports, 
 "which it was meant to establish as dep6ts for 
 the Mediterranean trade, and as store-houses 
 for the supply of foreign Europe with colonial 
 produce. 
 
 Under the effect of these two classes of sta- 
 tutes, the ancient double colonial monopoly, that 
 o^ exclusively supplying the consumption of the 
 colonies from the mother country, and that of 
 exclusively receiving their produce by direct 
 importation into Great Britain, were effectu- 
 ally and most materially relaxed. By the free 
 port acts, the colonists were enabled both to 
 sell their produce to foreign countries, and to 
 receive from thence, in good part, their own 
 supplies. By the acts permitting colonial ex- 
 portation to Malta and Gibraltar, and the ports 
 of Europe, south of Cape Finisterre, the co- 
 lonists were enabled, in a very great degree, to 
 supply Europe with their own produce. 
 
 Both of these classes of statutes still con- 
 tained a limitation which, in great part, ren- 
 dered their provisions nearly nugatory. Under 
 the free port acts, the United States could take
 
 139 
 
 sugar and rum from the islands of Bermuda or 
 Bahama only, and not immediately from the 
 place of their growth and produce. The mer- 
 chants of these little islands were interposed as 
 intermediate dealers. The traffic was thus un- 
 necessarily clogged by the profits of a trader, 
 who, being at once a monopolist, and a small 
 and new capitalist, greatly aggravated the price 
 of the commodity. The planters of Jamaica, 
 Barbadoes, and the larger islands, thus lost 
 nearly all the benefits of the new system, the 
 price being so greatly raised as to induce the 
 Americans to seek their supply from Cuba, 
 Hayti, and the Caraccas. Under the second 
 class of statutes, permitting colonial exportation 
 to Malta and Gibraltar, and the ports of Eu- 
 rope south of Cape Finisterre, the supply of 
 foreign Europe was equally fettered with an 
 intermediate dealer. It was necessary to pay 
 the profit of this merchant, before our colonists 
 could send, or a foreign merchant could re- 
 ceive, the produce of the West Indies through 
 this channel. 
 
 Such was the state of the West India trade 
 till the spring of the current year, when two 
 acts were passed by the persevering industry 
 of the Board of Trade, by which this commerce 
 is now finally regulated, and is at length, (it 
 is trusted), most effectually relieved from its 
 
 K S>
 
 140 
 
 former difficulties. By one of these acts, tlie 
 system o/ free ports is extended to almost all 
 the West India islands, and the merchants of 
 the United States are thus enabled to obtain 
 colonial produce direct from the islands of its 
 growth, in their own ships, instead of receiving 
 it, as heretofore, imported in British vessels 
 only. By the other act, a direct exportation 
 is allowed from the colonies to foreign Europe, 
 and the necessity of an intermediate depot at 
 Malta or Gibraltar, or at some other port south 
 of Cape Finisterre, is abolished. Such, in a few 
 words, was the boon of government to the West 
 Indies during the last sessions. 
 
 As respects the second head of our colonial 
 administration, British America, it does not 
 belong to our subject to call the public atten- 
 tion, with any minuteness, to the new measures 
 for the better government of Canada. Suffice 
 it to say, that the late statute passed for this 
 purpose had two objects : the one, to reduce 
 the expense of the civil government; the other, 
 to secure a more effectual administration of the 
 laws, and a more simple and orderly progress of 
 public business. In attempting both these ob- 
 jects, his Majesty's ministers never forgot either 
 the obhgations of humanity or the principles 
 of a free government. If they have reduced 
 establishments, they have attended to the just
 
 141 
 
 claims of meritorious service upon a great and 
 generous nation. In considering what is due 
 to the public, they have not forgotten what is 
 due to the individual ; and whilst they have 
 sought economy, they have remembered not 
 only the justice, but the sound prudence, of 
 cherishing and rewarding a public spirit in a 
 public service. To degrade the public service, 
 as to its recompense, below the value of a 
 service of the same kind and degree in mer- 
 cantile and professional employments, is effec- 
 tually to degrade such servants in their own 
 estimation. Its necessary tendency is to banish 
 the principle of honourable feeling, and, by a 
 sure consequence, to have the public worse 
 served ; or, in other words, to have the least 
 restraint of principle where there is most force 
 of temptation. 
 
 As regards the simplification of the govern- 
 ment, and the new provisions for the conduct 
 of public business in these provinces, his Ma- 
 jesty's ministers have been careful not unneces- 
 sarily to offend public prejudice ; nor to force 
 those innovations upon the Canadians, which, 
 however adapted to the governnients of Europe., 
 are of very questionable utiHty amongst a people, 
 not prepared for their admission. It is easier to 
 pass a law for juries, than to find suitable jury- 
 men. It is easier to set down qualifications for
 
 142 
 
 freeholders, than to find freeholders qualified 
 in circumstances so different from our own. 
 Indeed it is pure pedantry to seek to force all 
 governments into a similitude with the govern- 
 ment of Great Britain. Accordingly his Ma- 
 jesty's ministers have made no attempt of the 
 kind. They have left as they found that harm- 
 less remainder of the old French laws, the 
 laws of seig7ieurage, because they find the old 
 Canadians to be invincibly attached to this 
 monument of their origin ; and because mini- 
 sters themselves could not but respect this 
 feeling. Observing these limits, it will not be 
 questioned that the new act for the govern- 
 ment of Canada is entitled to the gratitude of 
 the Canadians. 
 
 As respects the third head, the East Indies, 
 the very name opens a field of discussion at 
 once large and most important. His Majesty's 
 ministers have always paid the most anxious 
 attention to this vast member of our empire. 
 They do not require to be informed that it is 
 infinitely less productive to our commerce and 
 national wealth under its existing form of a 
 commercial monopoly than it might be ren- 
 dered by becoming incorporated in the general 
 body of the empire, so as to share in its capital, 
 and to participate in the freedom of its trade, ma- 
 nufactures, and consumption — But difficulties
 
 143 
 
 almost invincible encounter them at the first 
 step. The first, the peril of rashly meddling 
 with a subject of such magnitude and com- 
 plexity, and disturbing territorial, corporate, 
 and individual rights and property to an 
 immense amount j and, secondly, the existing 
 rights of the East India Company, and their 
 fair and just claims to receive an equivalent in 
 exchange for their own concessions. So far as 
 these diflSculties have allowed ministers the 
 power of acting, they have directed their mea- 
 sures towards the advancement of British com- 
 merce, and towards the relaxation, in fact, of 
 the Company's monopoly. At the renewal of 
 their charter in 1813, it was found expedient 
 to leave them in sole possession of the tea 
 trade, and not to endanger an extent of im- 
 portation, and a magnitude of revenue, held at 
 that time upon a tenure somewhat precarious. 
 It would have been unjust, and indeed it was 
 impossible at that period, to put the public 
 and government into entire possession of the 
 privileges and trade of the Company. It was 
 perhaps impossible to pay to the Company and 
 to individuals the vast sums which might ap- 
 pear, on calculation, to be their right upon 
 such resumption by government. It was ne- 
 cessary, therefore, to renew the charter ; and 
 if the charter were renewed, it would have
 
 144 
 
 been unjust, perhaps impracticable, to have 
 divested the Company of their China trade. 
 This trade was, therefore, left to them ex- 
 clusively ; but, on the other hand, they were 
 required to open the supply trade of India to 
 our general commerce. Perhaps the history of 
 the world does not afford another example so 
 striking of the benefit of free intercourse ; and 
 the benefit would still have been more promi- 
 nent, if the active enterprise of our traders had 
 not counteracted their profits, and depressed the 
 markets, in the first instance, by overstocking 
 them. But, under all disadvantages, the pro- 
 gress of this commerce has been such as to con- 
 firm the immense superiority of a free trade, and 
 still further to prove what may be effected by 
 the capital, enterprise, and activity of the Bri- 
 tish merchant. 
 
 This progress may be best exhibited by a 
 comparison of the former and present supply 
 of British manufactures to the continents and 
 islands of India. In cottons, the supply of 
 India in 1815, under the ancient system, that 
 is, of supply by the Company, was in value 
 109,480/. In 1821, the supply of the same 
 article, under the existing system of free trade, 
 was 850,881/. In 1822, the value of the sup- 
 ply was 1,120,325/.; that is, exceeding ten 
 times the amount of the former average supply.
 
 145 
 
 In 1815, the quantity of printed cottons ex- 
 ported from Great Britain into India was 
 604,800 yards. In 1821, the quantity of the 
 same export was 7,602,245 yards. In 1822, 
 the quantity was 9,979,866 yards. In plain 
 cottons the increase is equally astonishing. In 
 1815, the quantity of plain cottons exported 
 from Great Britain into India was 213,408 
 yards. In 1821, the quantity of the same Bri- 
 tish manufacture exported was 6,724,031 yards. 
 In 1822 the quantity was 9,940,736 yards. 
 
 In woollens, the difference of the climate, 
 and the consequent habits and wants of the 
 natives of India, oppose a natural obstacle to 
 the same degree of increase ; but in this article, 
 likewise, there has been an advance to the 
 amount of one-third. In 1815 the value of 
 our woollens exported to India was 1 ,084,434/. 
 In 1821 the value of the same export was 
 1,368,467/. In 1822 the value of our woollen 
 exports was 1,421,649/. In 1815 the value of 
 woollen cloths, the principal woollen exports, 
 was 434,689/. In 1822 the value of the same 
 export was 712,374/. 
 
 Under a just sense of the value of this free 
 trade, ministers have spared no efforts to en- 
 courage its progress, and to remove every ob- 
 stacle in its way. Accordingly, they gave an 
 immediate attention to the representations of
 
 146 
 
 the merchants of London, Liverpool, and the 
 out-ports, that the free commerce might be 
 greatly augmented if the limitation as to ton- 
 nage could be removed ; and if all ships, as 
 well those under three hundred and fifty tons 
 (which was the restriction of the charter) as 
 those above that measurement, could be em- 
 ployed in this traffic. They lost no time in 
 instituting an immediate negotiation with the 
 Company to remove this restriction ; and after 
 some difficulties, they succeeded in procuring 
 the recommendation of the Court of Directors 
 to the body of proprietors to make the required 
 concession. The body of proprietors, however, 
 availed themselves of this opportunity to re- 
 quire an equivalent for the relaxation of their 
 charter ; and they accordingly proposed, that in 
 return for this enlarged liberty of trade, the 
 privilege of British registered ships should be 
 extended to ships built in India ; and, secondly, 
 that the duties on East India sugars should be 
 reduced. It will be immediately seen that 
 both these concessions, whatever might be 
 their character in general policy, would have 
 affected, most materially and directly, the in- 
 terests of two great bodies of capitalists, the 
 British ship-owners, and the West India mer- 
 chants and planters. Here, therefore, ministers 
 had again to contend with what has always en-
 
 147 
 
 countered them in every effort to reduce com- 
 merce to just commercial principles, and to 
 extend the general freedom of trade. Every 
 merchant and trader was perfectly enlightened 
 where his own interest was concerned ; and on 
 all such occasions recognised, with wonderful 
 candour, the expediency and wisdom of free 
 commerce. But no sooner is it required of 
 each to qualify or surrender his own particular 
 privileges, than a thousand reasons are dis- 
 covered for continuinsc such favour to his 
 peculiar produce or manufacture. It unfor- 
 tunately happened in the present instance, that 
 neither of the great bodies concerned would 
 voluntarily afford the equivalent required at 
 their expense, and that in the actual state of 
 their trade the ministers could not propose it 
 to Parliament. Freight was undergoing the 
 reduction common to the market of all labour 
 and commodities. West India produce was at 
 the same period so abundant, and in conse- 
 quence so depreciated, that there was an urgent 
 application to government to resort to some 
 mode for lessening the supply and augmenting 
 the demand. Under these difficulties the ne- 
 gotiation was necessarily interrupted. We 
 employ the term negotiation, as the East India 
 Company possessed an unquestionable right to 
 adhere to the letter of the statute by which
 
 148 
 
 they hold their exclusive trade. In such cir- 
 cumstances, the government could only nego- 
 tiate J and whilst they sought a matter of grace, 
 they were compelled to admit the discussion of 
 the terms upon which the parties concerned 
 were willing to concede. 
 
 But though the negotiation has thus failed, 
 it is impossible but that his Majesty's ministers 
 must be strongly impressed with the importance 
 of the points in question to the best interests of 
 the empire. It is manifest upon the very face 
 of our annual revenue, that sugar, the corn of 
 the tropical world, and the staple produce of so 
 large a proportion of the British dominions, has 
 obtained such a degree of consumption and 
 demand, as to be second only in value and im- 
 portance to corn itself. According to the 
 finance accounts made up to the commence- 
 ment of the year 1822, before the reduction of 
 the malt tax, the gross actual receipt of the 
 Excise for all the malt duties in England was 
 four millions and a half. The gross actual re- 
 ceipts of the Customs for sugar only amounted 
 to five millions. With such a fact before their 
 attention, it is impossible to be insensible of the 
 value of an article which contributes so largely 
 to the revenue and commerce of the kingdom. 
 It is equally impossible not to apply, in ima- 
 gination at least, the principles of a free trade
 
 149 
 
 and an unrestrained cultivation to this produce, 
 and to deduce the obvious inference, that both 
 produce and consumption might be infinitely 
 extended under a more liberal system. It is 
 true, however, that human councils must be 
 taken less upon abstract and absolute reasoning, 
 than upon the positive state of things existing 
 in the time and place at which we are called 
 upon to decide. If the ground were clear be- 
 fore us, there could be no question of the com- 
 parative superiority of a free over a restricted 
 market. But where a particular state of 
 things, call it as you please, a system of abuse 
 or a system of error, has gradually and in- 
 sensibly grown up under less enlightened 
 times J and where, in consequence of such a 
 system, large capitals have become fixed, and 
 great and numerous interests embarked, it is 
 manifest that such interests become entitled, 
 even on the score of humanity and pru- 
 dence, to the most deliberate attention of go- 
 vernment. The question then is, not what it 
 is best to do absolutely; but what it is best 
 and possible to do under all the circumstances 
 of the case. In a word, we must look to the 
 cost of reform, as well as to the proposed good. 
 Where we can compromise, at a suitable sacri- 
 fice, we must do so. Where the subject matter,
 
 150 
 
 or the natural adherence of parties to their own 
 privileges, admits of no such compromise, we 
 must wait for expiring interests. Such are the 
 general principles upon which ministers have 
 proceeded, and will continue to proceed, in all 
 questions of this kind. Again, and again, let 
 it be repeated, and let it be acknowledged, that 
 they are thoroughly impressed with the truth of 
 the principle, that freedom of trade is alike ad- 
 vantageous to the best interests of the country, 
 and to the solid profit of the merchants, manu- 
 facturers, and growers. 
 
 One further remark before we conclude this 
 part of our subject. Upon the termination of 
 the last American war, our government, in pur- 
 suance of the above principles of free com- 
 merce, admitted the Americans to a direct 
 trade with our ports in the East Indies ; and 
 thereby fostered and cherished that mercantile 
 and adventurous spirit in our Indian settle- 
 ments, of which Great Britain is now reaping 
 the benefit in a demand for our manufactures 
 annually increasing. Our own traders have 
 become pardonably, but unreasonably, jealous 
 of this concession. It has thus been angrily 
 demanded in some of the publications of our 
 merchants, whether the Americans are to rob 
 us of the Indian trade as well as of the trade of
 
 151 
 
 China? and are to share in the market of India 
 as well as to possess exclusively the supply of 
 foreign Europe with the teas of Canton ? As 
 respects the first of these complaints, it is surely 
 unnecessary to repeat, that such a trade is only 
 conformable to that principle of free commerce 
 which all our mercantile classes profess to de- 
 sire. The increased cultivation of India must 
 proportionably augment her demands upon the 
 British market, and our merchants and manu- 
 facturers must reap the benefit. Whilst India 
 remained a close factory, her consumption was 
 that of a factory ; she begins now to consume 
 largely, because her supply is cheaper, and her 
 larger produce is encouraged. 
 
 As regards the second question, it is one of 
 those points upon which popular writers and 
 speakers have grossly deluded themselves and 
 the people. By the official American accounts, 
 published in the year just ended, it appears 
 that the trade of America with China does 
 not exceed 700,200/. English ; the exact Ame- 
 rican figures are 3,111,9<51 dollars. Now, the 
 value of the total imports from China to Eng- 
 land exceeds 3,600,000/., that is, about five 
 times the amount of the American trade with 
 that country. If we deduct from this 700,200/., 
 which is the value of the whole American im-
 
 152 
 
 ports, the probable proportion of her own con- 
 sumption in tea, how small must be the quan- 
 tity with which she supplies foreign Europe ! 
 Such are the errors of popular writers when 
 they approach these subjects without the proper 
 documents before them, and venture assertion 
 at random. So much, indeed, has been said 
 and written upon the comparative condition of 
 America and Great Britain in all branches of 
 foreign commerce ; and, under the general com- 
 plexity of the subject, and the difficulty of ac- 
 cess to the official documents, some of our 
 writers have ventured such extravagant and 
 unfounded assertions, that it becomes necessary 
 to put an immediate end to this error, by op- 
 posing the true statement to the conjectural 
 estimate. The reader will find in the follow- 
 ing tables, upon the authority of the papers 
 published by the order of Congress, the actual 
 state of American commerce for the year end- 
 ing March, 1822, which we have compared 
 with the actual state of British exports to the 
 same parts of the world.
 
 153 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 Comparative Table of British and American Exports to the 
 principal Ports and Places oj" Foreign Europe, for the Year 
 1821. 
 
 British £xpt)rt». 
 Foreign and Domestic. 
 
 £9,894,108 
 3,668,383 
 
 125,586 
 
 308,575 
 2,047,613 
 1,162,756 
 
 666,912 
 1,824,904 
 3,767,621 
 
 961,746 
 
 528,432 
 1,765,962 
 
 Germany 
 
 Russia 
 
 Sweden . 
 
 Denmark 
 
 Holland . 
 
 France 
 
 Spain 
 
 Portugal . 
 
 Italy 
 
 Turkey and the Levant 
 
 ]Malta 
 
 Gibraltar 
 
 American F.xporls, 
 Foreign and Domestic. 
 
 c£479,S22 
 
 191,501 
 
 48,865 
 
 118,373 
 
 831,196 
 
 1,468,925 
 
 149,222 
 
 33,253 
 
 247,425 
 
 148,523 
 
 See Italy 
 
 330,692 
 
 Totil 
 
 4,047,797 
 
 26,722,597 • 
 
 No. ^. 
 Comparative Table of British and American Exports to the 
 principal Ports and Places of the World, except Eur ope, for 
 the Year 1821. 
 
 British Exports of 
 
 American Exports of 
 
 Domestic and Foreign 
 
 Domestic and Foreign 
 
 Produce. 
 
 Produce. 
 
 East Indies and China . . £3,272,817 
 
 . «f 1,795,322 
 
 New Holland . . . 118,086 . 
 
 . . 16,066 
 
 Cape of Good Hope . . 256,464 . 
 
 . . 3,367 
 
 Other parts of Africa . 309,586 . 
 
 . . 28,50.5 
 
 British Colonies in North 7 , ^^^ „ , - 
 America \ ''^'6.316 . 
 
 . . 452,203 
 
 British West Indies . . 4,347,042 . 
 
 . . 59,647 
 
 Foreign West Indies . . 1,257,049 . 
 
 . . 2,526,004 
 
 The Brazils . . . 2,278,468 . 
 
 . . 310,896 
 
 Spanish and other Colo-^ 
 
 
 nies on the Continent > 917,916 . 
 
 . . 233,490 
 
 of America J 
 
 
 Total 14,433,744 
 
 . . 5,425,500 
 L
 
 154 
 
 It will be seen that this statement does not 
 include the trade between Great Britain and 
 the United States. In the first table, more- 
 over, the trade of Great Britain is stated exclu- 
 sive of the trade with Ireland. 
 
 In an examination of the second table, the 
 reader will doubtless be struck by the great 
 increase in the foreign carrying trade of Ame- 
 rica. The supply of Hayti, Cuba, and the 
 West Indies, Dutch, Swedish, and Spanish, 
 has now principally fallen into the possession 
 of the United States, Undoubtedly the sea 
 is open to both nations, and there is no dis- 
 position on the part of Great B.itain to ap- 
 propriate this highway of the world. But in 
 this carrying trade, thus thrown open to all, it 
 is the duty of Great Britain to use her best 
 efforts to participate. The acts of the last ses- 
 sion of Parliament, if not counteracted by an 
 unreasonable jealousy, will produce this effect. 
 But nothing can contribute more directly to 
 our participation in this commerce than the 
 admirable bill introduced into Parliament by 
 the Vice President of the Board of Trade — 
 The enlargement of the transitand warehousing 
 system, and the opening of the ports of this 
 country, so as to make them the depot and em- 
 porium of foreign merchandise of every kind j 
 the enabling our merchants to take assorted
 
 156 
 
 cargoes ; and to employ our ship-owners as the 
 carriers of foreign produce from British ports ; 
 must greatly extend our navigation and general 
 trade, and give us our just proportion of that 
 commerce with the foreign West Indies, which 
 is now so extensively possessed by America. 
 
 L 5
 
 166 
 
 FOREIGN RELATIONS. 
 
 It would be repeating matter already noto- 
 rious to enter into the reasons upon which the 
 system of Europe was settled by the treaty of 
 Vienna. If the settlement of that period was 
 not perfect upon every point, it was unques- 
 tionably the best that could be procured, under 
 the circumstances then existing, to preserve the 
 future peace of Europe. The Congress of Sove- 
 reigns, if it must be so called, grew, in fact, 
 out of the circumstances of that period. The 
 greater number of the European sovereigns had 
 personally accompanied their own armies into 
 France, and had assisted, and superintended! 
 the conclusion of those treaties at Paris, which 
 prepared the way for the final and more com- 
 plete settlement at Vienna. The community 
 of sentiment which at that time characterised 
 these illustrious personages, suggested the ob- 
 vious inference, that the same means might be 
 adopted to maintain the system which had so 
 happily been employed to put it together. 
 Such, in point of fact, was the origin of what 
 is now called the Congress of Sovereigns. Its 
 object is to maintain the system at that time
 
 157 
 
 established, but more particularly to preserve 
 the peace of the continent. Its principle, or 
 rather its means, may be stated in a sentence. 
 It is the maintenance of the general peace of 
 Europe by the personal amity of the sovereigns, 
 and by a system of mediation and amicable 
 discussion, which should, on the one side, re- 
 cognise the perfect independence of the several 
 states in their own internal concerns j and, 
 upon the other, should hold forth their com- 
 mon interest, and therein their common obliga- 
 tion, to consult the general policy of Europe in 
 all questions affecting the safety of the whole. 
 
 It is a most uncandid representation of the 
 character of this system to assert, that the 
 allied powers, and England amongst them, 
 have in this Congress formed a confederacy to 
 control the internal concerns of other states, 
 or to act the authoritative arbitrator in dissen- 
 sions between state and state, upon interests 
 belonging only to themselves. It is a still 
 more malicious and unjust assertion, that the 
 European sovereigns, and that England, in 
 conjunction with them, have bound themselves, 
 in this Congress, to guarantee to each other 
 the actual degree of monarchical power pos- 
 sessed by each over his own subjects. As re- 
 gards England, and as regards the other j)rinces, 
 the Congress is, in fact, nothing but an amicable
 
 158 
 
 conference of sovereigns upon their particular 
 and common interest ; it is a mere council of 
 discussion — but, in no degree, a league and 
 confederacy for the purposes of action. That 
 is to say, so far as Great Britain is concerned, 
 there exists no convention, either secret or 
 expressed, by which one member is bound to 
 support any particular object of the others, or 
 to give any conjoint effect to the vote of the 
 majority. To say all in a word, it is a mere 
 friendly conference, and in no degree a diet or 
 confederacy. There exists no article, express 
 or understood ; nothing in the nature of a re- 
 solution ; nothing of a general understanding, 
 nor admitted obligation, that one sovereign 
 should have the right to call upon another to 
 interfere in his own domestic administration, (if 
 at any time adverse to his interests and inclina- 
 tions,) or to demand the power of Congress to 
 suppress any merely civil contest between such 
 sovereign and his subjects. The Congress, as 
 such, and in the sense in which England con- 
 sents to become a member, and to be present 
 at its discussions, admits only such subjects as 
 palpably menace the general tranquillity of 
 Europe, and threaten to re-introduce, in their 
 dangerous excess, those principles of anarchy, 
 spoliation, and, let it be added, that systematic 
 regicide, that infatuated destruction of all re-
 
 159 
 
 ligious faith and establishment, which charac- 
 terised the French revolution. In a word, the 
 avowed and understood object of Congress is 
 assuredly to keep down and to suppress the all- 
 destroying spirit of French jacobinism ; for 
 why should not the name be used where it so 
 well expresses the thing ? and, secondly, to 
 maintain the peace of Europe by amicable me- 
 diation and discussion. 
 
 Such, in brief terms, is the nature of this 
 Congress ; a system of mediation and discus- 
 sion, and in no degree an offensive or defensive 
 alliance. When any question is introduced 
 into this conference, the first consideration is ; 
 Does it affect either of the objects of Congress ? 
 If it be palpably a Jacobinical insurrection, 
 for the purpose of expelling kings, nobles, 
 and the clergy, the next inquiry is, whether 
 it exists in such excess as to require the 
 common aid of Europe to put it down. If 
 it be a mere difference between two states, 
 it is manifestly matter of friendly mediation, 
 and such mediation is applied upon the same 
 principle as it would be applied if there 
 existed no Congress at all. The only difference 
 is, that both parties are present before the 
 friends of each, and are all present by them- 
 selves as well as by their ministers. If it be a 
 mere internal concern, which a sovereign in
 
 160 
 
 his discretion deems proper to introduce, it is 
 a subject only of friendly advice. 
 
 It was upon these principles that his Ma- 
 jesty's ministers may be presumed to have 
 regulated their own conduct in the part they 
 bore in an affair not yet terminated. The 
 contest between Spain and her subjects was 
 introduced in the late Congress at Verona. 
 Without the aid of any other facts upon this 
 subject than what events have rendered suf- 
 ficiently known, it manifestly appears, that 
 France claimed the consent of Europe in the 
 first place, and the common aid, if eventually 
 necessary, to suppress a revolution so directly 
 affecting the general objects of the Congress. 
 The ministers, representing the person of their 
 sovereign, insisted, and assuredly with a strong 
 appearance of truth, that this contest fell im- 
 mediately within the two objects of Congress — 
 That the Congress, as France understood it, 
 proposed two immediate ends ; the suppres- 
 sion in origin of all revolutionary and antisocial 
 principles, and the maintenance of the general 
 peace of Europe ; but that both these ob- 
 jects were alike endangered by the present 
 condition of Spain. That it was a Jacobinical 
 revolution. That if a Jacobinical revolution 
 had any distinctive characters, they were three. 
 A revolution is necessarily such, when it is
 
 161 
 
 effected by a military defection ; when it re- 
 strains and consequently endangers the person 
 of the king and his family ; and when it operates 
 in a system of irreligion and spoliation of the 
 church. But that all these characteristic di- 
 stinctions were manifest upon the face of the 
 Spanish revolution. The Spanish revolution 
 had notoriously commenced with the general 
 defection of the army from the sovereign. His 
 Catholic Majesty had no longer any control 
 over his own soldiers. The Spanish army was 
 no longer the army of Ferdinand, but of Min^ 
 and the Cortes. The restraint upon the person 
 of the king was equally notorious. He possesses 
 as little the choice of his ministers as the com- 
 mand of his army. He is compelled to sign 
 the warrants for the execution, or rather mur- 
 der, of his most faithful and zealous adherents. 
 It is notorious to all Europe that his Catholic 
 Majesty is but the nominal head of his own 
 kingdom. The Spanish princes were living in 
 a state of daily peril and anxiety for their lives 
 and fortunes. Is it possible that the example 
 of a rebellion so successful should not affect 
 the safety of the French crown? It had not 
 been without difficulty that the French go- 
 vernment had succeeded in repressing the re- 
 volutionary spirit in the capital and ))rovinces. 
 If the Spanish revolution should be permitted to
 
 162 
 
 complete and consolidate itself into some form 
 of government founded upon the principles of 
 anarchy, the example would extend beyond 
 France, and there would scarcely be force enough 
 in Europe to contend against a system of suc- 
 cessful and recognised Jacobinism. And what, 
 in fact, did France require ? — Her government 
 required nothing more than what belonged, as 
 matter of public right, to every independent 
 nation. The king believed the security of his 
 throne and the tranquillity of his people to be 
 brought into danger by the revolutionary prin- 
 ciples and practices of an adjacent power ; he 
 believed that the condition of Spain required 
 France to resort to the means of self-defence, 
 and he claimed a right to employ these means. 
 Austria and Naples afforded a case in point. — 
 If one of the powers of Congress had not as- 
 sented to the principle upon which the revo- 
 lutionary movements in Naples and Piedmont 
 were opposed by the common force of Europe, 
 the other sovereigns had come forward, with 
 alacrity, to assist Austria in a contest, the mag- 
 nitude of which she had overrated, though she 
 had certainly not undervalued the danger of 
 the principle. The king of France claimed 
 no right to interpose in the internal affairs of 
 another people, except where such affairs were 
 conducted upon principles which menaced the.
 
 163 
 
 safety of 'all other governments, and of France 
 in particular. Was it possible to deny, that in 
 such a state of things, and under such a degree 
 of danger, he possessed the right of declaring 
 war against Spain, and of forcibly putting down 
 an example which directly assailed his own 
 safety? It was certainly another question whe- 
 ther the sovereigns of Europe would co-operate 
 with their several armies in this effort. The 
 determination of this question must depend 
 upon the opinion entertained amongst those 
 sovereigns, how far their own safety was com- 
 patible with the success of such principles, and 
 how long the general peace might be supposed 
 to endure under the influence of such an ex- 
 ample. 
 
 Whatever might be the general truth of these 
 representations on the part of the French govern- 
 ment, and whatever respect might be due to the 
 immediate interests of F>ance, it was manifest 
 that her proposed appeal to arms would be at 
 once a great present evil, and, what was more 
 to be dreaded, might terminate in an extreme 
 and unforeseen issue. Possibly, therefore, the 
 representations of her ministers were answered 
 by the ministers, on the part of his Britannic 
 majesty, by admitting the general question of 
 right to act as an independent power, but 
 appealing to her wisdom and moderation. It
 
 164 
 
 was possibly admitted, that the objects of the 
 European conference, at that time assembled at 
 Verona, were unquestionably to maintain a 
 general peace by amicable discussion and me- 
 diation j and, in the event of any great common 
 danger from the resuscitation ofthe revolutionary 
 principle, to adopt common measures for the 
 general safety. But it was doubtless urged, at 
 the same time, that this latter object was mani- 
 festly limited by the necessity of respecting the 
 ancient and established principle of the inde- 
 pendence of nations. Where the internal pro- 
 ceedings of any government or people are 
 directly contrary to the common safety of Eu- 
 rope, it is the right and duty of every sovereign 
 to resort to means of self-defence, and to put 
 down such an active mischief by force of arms. 
 But, to justify such appeal, two things are 
 always necessary : the first, the existence of 
 such principles ; and secondly, their existence 
 in such a form, and in such a degree of strength, 
 as to constitute a necessity to appeal to arms. 
 It is only by such necessity, and under such a 
 case of self-defence, that one nation could be 
 justified in interfering in the internal concerns 
 of another. Without this limitation, the inde- 
 pendence of nations would be but a name ; and 
 another and most fertile source of future war 
 would be opened, to the destruction of every
 
 165 
 
 government in Europe. It was possibly acknow- 
 ledged that the Spanish Revolution had pro- 
 ceeded upon principles most strongly objection- 
 able, and had exhibited actions and incidents 
 justly alarming to every established govern- 
 ment. But was it not very questionable whe- 
 ther the danger were so extreme as was appre- 
 hended by the French government ? Was it not 
 rather the contest of two parties, than a Jaco- 
 binical revolution? His most Catholic Majesty 
 still possessed his personal liberty; his royal 
 authority was still acknowledged; and if his 
 prerogatives were abridged, and the exercise of 
 his royal rights controlled, it was certainly an 
 unhappy conjuncture in the internal affairs of 
 Spain, but assuredly it did not constitute a case 
 of general appeal to arms. It was not a case 
 of the kind contemplated by the Congress of 
 Sovereigns as falling within the objects of their 
 union. The European sovereigns had at present 
 two great objects : the first, to maintain the 
 general peace; and the second, not to provoke 
 a general exasperation amongst the subjects of 
 free states, by confirming an opinion, (now in- 
 dustriously cherished and spread) that the 
 Congress was, in fact, a confederacy of kings, 
 to prevent and put down all reforms on the 
 part of subjects, and to guarantee to every 
 sovereign his actual state of monarchical power.
 
 166 
 
 It was necessary to give an effectual ansvvef to 
 this malicious representation of the object of 
 the Congress of Sovereigns, and not to provoke 
 those associations, secret or public, in free 
 states, which would be infinitely more danger- 
 ous — because composed of more respectable 
 individuals — than the Jacobinical fraternities of 
 Spain and Italy. One object of Congress would 
 necessarily be interrupted by the proposed 
 appeal to arms on the part of France ; it would 
 be a termination, infacty of the existing general 
 peace of Europe. The risk was great, the suc- 
 cess uncertain, and the extent and consequences 
 wholly unforeseen. The war would assuredly 
 not end with the occupation of Madrid, whilst 
 Cadiz adhered to the party of the Cortes ; and 
 former experience had proved the almost im- 
 pregnable strength of Cadiz. The whole power 
 of France — and at a period when France could 
 unite with herself a great portion of Europe — 
 had been foiled before Cadiz j and with every 
 respect for the tried courage of the French 
 armies, it was scarcely questionable whether 
 the French government could justify itself, in 
 prudence, for a long enduring siege of this 
 fortress. The operations, therefore, would not 
 be confined to one campaign. With every wish 
 for the welfare of France ; with every desire 
 for the permanent security of her throne, and
 
 167 
 
 for her consolidation in public ordej- and tran- 
 quillity — it was impossible for the ministers of 
 his Britannic majesty to hold forth any promise 
 of co-operation in such a war. If France em- 
 barked in it, it must be, as respected England, 
 upon her own ground, and with all the eventual 
 risks of the contest. 
 
 Such, we presume to have been the language 
 of the English ministers upon the application of 
 France for the common aid of Europe in a war 
 with Spain. 
 
 It is impossible to deny the right of France, 
 as an independent nation, to enter upon such 
 war, if her government should deem it to be 
 matter of self-defence, and if the Spanish go- 
 vernment, de facto, should refuse such modifica- 
 tions as France may think alone compatible 
 with her safety. Our ministers, therefore, did 
 not deny the existence of the right; but they 
 questioned, and still must be allowed to ques- 
 tion, the existence of such right under the 
 actual state of France and Spain, and, indeed, of 
 Europe generally. They esteem the general 
 peace at too higli a value to interrupt it from 
 the apprehension of remote danger. They re- 
 cognise, at the same time, the ancient principle 
 of the independence of nations in their own 
 internal concerns ; and they deem this principle 
 to be so intimately connected with the security
 
 168 
 
 of the general peace, and the permanent in- 
 terests of mankind, that they are unwilling to 
 admit any other exception to it than a case of 
 necessity extreme in all its circumstances; that 
 is to say, unquestionable in its existence, for- 
 midable in its magnitude, and at once certain 
 and extensive in its operation. 
 
 A very few words will explain intelligibly 
 whatever we have further to add with regard to 
 our foreign relations. 
 
 As regards our relations with Russia, it is 
 impossible not to acknowledge our diplomatic 
 success with that country. Our negotiations 
 with St. Petersburgh and Constantinople have 
 unquestionably been the chief cause by which a 
 war has been prevented between Russia and the 
 Porte. It was impossible, indeed, not to par- 
 ticipate with Russia, and with every Christian 
 power, to a certain extent, in sympathy for the 
 Greeks; but it is equally impossible to give 
 such a predominance to feelings of mere charity 
 and generosity, as to suffer them to seduce us 
 from the higher obligations of prudence and 
 self-defence. The first and most important 
 interest of all the nations of Europe, and of 
 England in particular, is to maintain the existing 
 general peace, and, in pursuit of this object, 
 most anxiously to avoid all such changes, which, 
 by disturbing the present state of possession of
 
 169 
 
 the great European powers, may lessen the 
 security upon which the late treaties of peace 
 were founded. It might possibly be easier to 
 dismember Turkey than to distribute the dis- 
 membered provinces satisfactorily. We know 
 that the general peace is secure under the pre- 
 sent state of things. We possess it, and we 
 enjoy it. But it is impossible to perceive how 
 it would be affected by such a condition as might 
 follow a war between Russia and Turkey. Such 
 are the circumstances under which his Majesty's 
 ministers have shaped their policy with regard 
 to Russia and Turkey. On the one side, they 
 acknowledge and lament the unhappy state of 
 Greece ; on the other part, they cannot but 
 recognise the superiority of the two great in- 
 terests — that of maintaining, in fact, the general 
 peace of Europe, and of not calling forth any 
 new condition, the issue of which it might be 
 impossible to predict. Upon the comparative 
 value of these two objects his majesty's mini- 
 sters have taken their measures. Under the 
 dictates of a sound prudence, they have pre- 
 ferred the greater good, and have hitlicrto 
 succeeded in preserving a continental peace. 
 Under a just sense of the cruelties exercised in 
 the Grecian provinces, they have co-o])erated 
 with Russia, upon all occasions, in seeking a 
 security against a repetition of such outrages.
 
 170 
 
 Whilst, by the public law of Europe, his Ma- 
 jesty's ministers are compelled to recognise in 
 the Porte the great principle of the independ- 
 ence of nations, their ambassador has on all 
 occasions employed the language of a friendly 
 power, and availed himself both of the character 
 of his country, and of his own just personal 
 influence, to recommend such aline of conduct 
 on the part of the Sublime Porte as might be 
 conformable with the obligations of Russia, and 
 satisfy the fair expectations of Europe. 
 
 Upon this subject his Majesty's ministers 
 have been unfairly lectured by persons of 
 whose humanity and generosity they have been 
 accustomed to think more highly than of their 
 political sagacity and wisdom. They are very 
 desirous to take this branch of diplomacy out of 
 their hands, and to adopt a tone towards Turkey 
 which would not be tolerated by the Dey of 
 Algiers. To these gentlemen ministers might 
 doubtless reply, that they have not been wanting 
 in firmness and spirit. They have not confined 
 their diplomacy to mere efforts of mediation 
 between Russia and the Porte. They have 
 never for a moment lost sight of the character 
 of the Greek insurrection, nor have they remitted 
 their labours to assuage, if not to extinguish, 
 those atrocities, which have disgraced this con- 
 flict. But they cannot overlook the circum-
 
 171 
 
 stance that these cruelties have not been con- 
 fined to one side. They have seen, with deep 
 regret, that the first outrages (though more 
 than adequately — in truth, most barbarously 
 revenged) were committed, not by the Turks, 
 but by the Greeks of Scio. But England cannot 
 be expected to engage in a crusade for a much 
 better cause ; nor to take up arms for the pur- 
 pose of reforming the government of Turkey, 
 or obtaining a more impartial administration of 
 justice, either in Greece, Egypt, or Constan- 
 tinople. Such is the state of the case between 
 the Porte and Greece, on the one hand, and 
 Russia on the other. 
 
 Our general policy with Russia, independently 
 of this question, has been attended with no less 
 success. The two countries now trade upon 
 equal and friendly terms. We have not, indeed, 
 any commercial treaty with Russia ; neither 
 have we with France, Germany, nor the Ne- 
 therlands ; because, on the one part, we care- 
 fully avoid giving to our diplomacy the air of 
 pursuing merely commercial advantages ; and 
 because, on the other, the tenacious adherence 
 of our own merchants and manufacturers to their 
 exclusive privileges renders it nearly impossible 
 to solicit a greater freedom of trade from foreign 
 states. His Majesty's ministers, however, have 
 done all that belonged to them. By a statute 
 
 M 2
 
 172 
 
 t)f the late session of Parliament they have re- 
 scinded the eighth section of the Navigation 
 Act, by which the direct trade between Great- 
 Britain and Russia was fettered. The com- 
 merce between the countries has, in fact, been 
 much augmented under the recent encourage- 
 ment of his Majesty's government ; and if the 
 jealousy of our agriculturists would admit a 
 more liberal system in the importation of raw 
 produce, and particularly in tallow and hides, 
 there can be no question but that this aug- 
 mentation would become still more considerable. 
 It is only by selling largely that a nation is 
 enabled to buy largely. To be jealous of im- 
 ports, and solicitous only for exports, is to desire 
 a large market, and, at the same time, to grudge 
 iind withhold the means. 
 
 With Austria, and the German powers, the 
 same system of amity and confidence obtains. 
 We have seen their diets and their councils 
 impose heavy, almost prohibitory, duties upon 
 certain articles of English manufacture, and in 
 aid, as they allege, of the industry of their own 
 subjects. If we have seen these laws without 
 jealousy and remonstrance, it is because we 
 have looked to our own trade with these coun- 
 tries ; and, finding the value of our total Ex- 
 ports upwards of ten millions annually, have 
 found enough, in this state of things, to justify
 
 173 
 
 our confidence in the solid basis of our com- 
 merce. We see the revenue of several German 
 states derived from the transit duty on goods, 
 and the territorial imposts levied upon the sale of 
 commodities. They have thus a direct interest 
 in the increasing vent of British manufactures. 
 In the vast markets of Germany, as in those of 
 America, the different traders of the world meet 
 upon equal footing, and the British maiiufac- 
 turer can alone maintain his superiority by 
 lower prices and better goods. 
 
 AVith Prussia, with the Netherlands, and with 
 the northern powers of Europe, whilst the rela- 
 tions of national amity continue uninterrupted, 
 our commercial dealings are extending and im- 
 proving. Notwithstanding the almost total ex- 
 tinction of the corn and provision trade, our 
 commerce with most of those countries is in- 
 creasing. With Prussia, our trade has increased 
 one-third within the last four years. With 
 Holland and Flanders it continues more sta- 
 tionary. The Dutch and Netherlanders manu- 
 facture, like the French, for themselves, and 
 import colonial produce in their own ships. 
 With Sweden, our trade has been somewhat 
 affected by own domestic manufacture of iron, 
 and has declined on that account, as we no 
 longer take the staple production of that coun- 
 try. But with Norway and Denmark, since the
 
 174 
 
 repeal of the war timber duties, it is in a state 
 of most rapid advance. 
 
 With all parts of Europe we proceed upon 
 the same system. We desire no commercial 
 treaties, because such is the jealous spirit of our 
 own traders and manufacturers, that they would 
 not allow the equivalent concession upon which 
 such treaties can alone be founded. We arie 
 thus compelled to trade with them upon a 
 system of reciprocal duties ; and our commerce, 
 where most friendly, can only be maintained 
 upon the footing of our intercourse with the 
 most favoured nations. 
 
 If Portugal be an exception to this system, 
 upon the policy of the Methuen treaty, and 
 there be some ground of complaint, that, by the 
 late high duties upon woollen cloths, she has 
 been violating the spirit of that treaty, it must 
 be remembered that the trade of Portugal is not 
 properly comprehended within our European 
 system. In contradiction to the policy of Spain, 
 and the other colonial powers of Europe, Por- 
 tugal originally threw open the Brazils and 
 South America to British trade. This trade, 
 indeed, now stands upon another footing. It 
 is, perhaps, independent of the control of the 
 mother-country. It is now, perhaps (we are 
 speaking of the Brazils), a trade as free and 
 open as the trade with the Spanish American
 
 175 
 
 provinces. It no longer stands upon concession 
 and privilege. But we cannot, injustice, forget 
 the friendly hand that first unbarred the gate. 
 With Portugal, however, as far as regards com- 
 mercial dealings, we have some reason for dis- 
 content. The Methuen treaty now exists for her 
 exclusive advantage. The cottons and woollens 
 of Great-Britain will always command the same 
 superiority in the Brazilian market as in the 
 markets of the United States. If we take Por- 
 tuguese wines at lower duties than French 
 wines, it is so much conceded to Portugal. 
 Her colonial produce, sugar, coffee, tobacco, 
 &c. are admitted into British ports upon equal 
 rates with the colonial produce of foreign na- 
 tions. England, as a commercial country, has 
 no reason to desire any other basis of trade than 
 that of perfect equality and reciprocity. 
 
 With the United States, as we have already 
 shown, our commerce has greatly advanced ; and 
 our friendly relations with this power are not only 
 confirmed, but placed upon a more solid basis, 
 by our late system of navigation laws and the 
 relaxation of our colonial trade. This, we trust, 
 has closed a source of irritation and jealousy 
 which long existed between the two countries. 
 America has now that trade between the British 
 West-Indies and her own states which she so 
 long desired to })osscss. She may now carry
 
 176 
 
 provisions and lumber thither direct, in her own 
 vessels; and, without any circuitous navigation 
 to the Bermuda or Bahama Islands, may trade 
 directly with the West-Indies. This concession 
 is, doubtless, attended with hardship to some 
 of our minor colonies ; but a system of laws, 
 founded on the higher interests of national 
 policy, must not be weakened by too much 
 tenderness for minute and particular interests. 
 By the treaty of 1814 we opened to America 
 the ports of India. Calcutta, Madras, and 
 Bombay, were thus rendered as free to com- 
 mercial access as London, Liverpool, and Glas- 
 gow. We have now permitted her to trade 
 with our West-India colonies upon the same 
 equal and liberal footing. 
 
 Our relations with the South American pro- 
 vinces are equally favourable to the best in- 
 terests of British commerce and manufactures. 
 So far as the public law of Europe will allow, 
 his majesty's ministers have removed every im- 
 pediment to the progress of this intercourse. 
 It is almost needless to observe in addressing 
 ourselves to intelligent readers, that, by the 
 public law of Europe, one nation cannot re- 
 cognize the independence of the severed co- 
 lonies of another, unless one of two conditions 
 of circumstances should occur. Either the mo- 
 ther-country itself must have made some pre-
 
 177 
 
 liminaiy concession, which may authorize the 
 inference that the sovereign is about to admit, 
 in fact, the independence of the provinces con- 
 cerned ; or the colonial independence must be 
 so firmly established, and must be followed up 
 by such a system of regular government in 
 another form, as to render it matter of reason 
 and common sense, that all powers should re- 
 cognize, in terms, what so undeniably and so 
 palpably exists in Jact, It would be invi- 
 dious to argue too exactly the application of 
 this principle to the actual state of Spain and 
 her colonies. Suffice it to say, that so far is 
 Spain from having made any preliminary con- 
 cession, that the war upon her part is still con- 
 tinued. It is undeniable that nearly all her 
 South American states are independent, in fact j 
 but it can scarcely be asserted that they have 
 yet passed into any state of regular, established, 
 and permanent government. Under such cir- 
 cumstances ministers had no choice but to ad- 
 here to their system of strict neutrality. They 
 have done so in the most liberal construction of 
 the term. By the new navigation laws, a direct 
 trade is allowed between England and the South 
 American states. Tiiey are treated, in every 
 respect, as foreign friendly colonies. Ministers 
 have done every tiling in their power to assist 
 the British merchant and these colonies in their 
 mutual intercourse. Formerly, tlie trade be-
 
 178 
 
 tween South America and Great-Britain was 
 carried on under the general system of the na- 
 vigation act. By the late statutes, that trade is 
 permitted to be conducted either in ships of 
 their own build ; or, as they might want a com- 
 mercial marine, in ships owned by the citizens 
 of those provinces. To disembarrass and assist 
 this trade, we have deviated somewhat widely 
 from the letter and policy of the Navigation 
 Act. Whilst Portugal and the United States 
 are only permitted to import the produce of 
 America in vessels of the build of the country 
 of production, owned and navigated by their 
 own subjects ; his Majesty's ministers, yielding 
 to the necessities of the South American pro- 
 vinces, have been induced to extend the re- 
 laxation, and to legalize the flag of Old Spain in 
 this new traffic between her colonies and Great- 
 Britain. 
 
 Our commerce is already receiving the be- 
 nefit of this encouragement. These provinces 
 are annually becoming large markets for our 
 manufactures ; and if our own colonial policy 
 shall gradually open, so as to allow us to admit 
 their imports upon a more unrestricted footing, 
 there can be no doubt but that South America, 
 as a commercial dealer with Great-Britain, will 
 gradually rival the markets of the United States. 
 
 Such is the general state of our foreign re- 
 lations.
 
 179 
 
 DOMESTIC ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 The considerations under this head branch 
 out into many particulars not included in the 
 previous survey. 1. The actual state of the 
 country as to its internal administration. 2. 
 The estimates for the several branches of service 
 which may be required for the year 1823. 3. 
 The reductions in the government expenditure, 
 and the relief which may probably be afforded 
 to the public by a further remission 'of taxes. 
 4. The measures in progress for the consolida- 
 tion and improvement of our national resources, 
 and the melioration of the general condition of 
 the people. 
 
 Under the head of internal administration, 
 the state of Ireland demands the first con- 
 sideration. 
 
 It became necessary to renew the Insurrection 
 Act last session. Every untoward circumstance 
 concurred to aggravate the condition of Ire- 
 land : famine, and the relaxation of that more 
 active and vigorous state of police, at all times 
 necessary in a country, the peasantry of which 
 are so imperfectly civilised. The appointment 
 of the new government for Ireland thus com- 
 menced at an unfavourable period. Happily,
 
 180 
 
 however, the character of the outrages in Ire- 
 land was not political. They were stimulated by 
 poverty, and directed against property gene- 
 rally. Tithes and taxes were no more the 
 peculiar objects of the popular fury than rents. 
 Taxes, indeed, had little to do with the question. 
 The moving impulse was a dire famine, and the 
 immediate cause was thefailureof that produce 
 by which the peasantry are sustained. But, 
 whatever might be the cause, the effects were 
 dreadful, and it became necessary for govern- 
 ment to apply some remedy adequate to the 
 excess of the disorders. 
 
 The measures adopted with this purpose 
 were principally three. 
 
 1. A new Police system. 
 
 2. The bill to enable the clergy to lease their 
 tithes, in order to prevent the general vexation 
 of tithe suits, and to give the landlord the power 
 of taking a lease, and incorporating the tithe 
 with his rent. 
 
 3. The repeal of the hearth and window 
 duty. 
 
 The internal administration or police of Ire- 
 land had already been assimilated to that of 
 England. But the different state of the two 
 countries had always occasioned a very wide 
 difference in their several magistracies. The 
 primary administration of the law, in English
 
 181 
 
 -counties, is necessarily gratuitous, and indeed 
 derives all its value, and all its high character, 
 from this circumstance. But, to perform func- 
 tions of this nature, it is necessary that those to 
 whom they are committed should at once 
 possess a station and property, which may 
 remove them above all the ordinary temptation 
 to abuse, and should unite a degree of edu- 
 cation, knowledge, and even, in some kind, of 
 judiciary habits, which may enable them to 
 interpret the laws in the first instance, and to 
 apply them, in their summary jurisdiction, with- 
 out any gross or dangerous ignorance. In 
 England, a class of gentry so qualified has for 
 more than a century past existed in our most 
 remote counties. In England, therefore, there 
 has never been found any difficulty to supply our 
 country magistracy with suitable individuals. 
 But unhappily, Ireland is less advantageously 
 situated. I^et it be said without offence, be- 
 cause it is said in the spirit of truth and good- 
 will, that the great misfortune of Ireland is 
 in the absence of a resident gentry; — in the 
 want of those landholders, who, if resident 
 on their estates, would doubtless administer the 
 laws with the same intelligence, sympathy, and 
 local knowledge, which characterise the ma- 
 gistrates of England. It was impossible for 
 his Majesty's government to work without
 
 182 
 
 materials. They could, therefore, procure no 
 better magistracy than could be selected from a 
 country composed, in so great a part, of factors 
 and middle-men. Experience has proved that 
 such a magistracy is insufficient and unsafe, and 
 other measures were in consequence rendered 
 necessary. 
 
 Such is the origin of the new police system, 
 and of the measures which have accompanied it. 
 In a word, crimes, under an unfortunate state 
 of things in Ireland, had become so frequent, 
 and the criminals were supported by such 
 strong confederacies, that it became necessary 
 to apply a more vigorous principle than a 
 gratuitous and ordinary administration of law. 
 It was not, indeed, to be expected, that paro- 
 chial constables and headboroughs would incur 
 risks, which so many magistrates themselves 
 deemed it matter of personal prudence to avoid. 
 It became [necessary to pay a service attended 
 with so much labour and peril. The Con- 
 stabulary act is now producing beneficial effects. 
 So far as experience has yet gone, it has 
 been attended with the happiest fruits upon 
 innumerable points. Under the alacrity of the 
 officers appointed under it, the fire has been 
 suppressed almost the moment it burst forth. 
 
 The unexampled liberality of England, in 
 her recent subscription in aid of her fellow-
 
 183 
 
 subjects of Ireland, at once alleviated the 
 greater portion of their sufferings, and has 
 excited a friendly and grateful spirit, which 
 will go far towards restoring the public peace. 
 
 The Tithe Bill was another measure for the 
 same general purpose. Whilst it respected the 
 inalienable rights of the clergy, and recognised 
 the equal claims of the church and the land- 
 owner, this bill removed many impediments in 
 the way of an amicable composition for tithes 
 between landlords and rectors. It is mani- 
 festly one of those measures, the full effect of 
 which cannot be experienced until after some 
 interval. The Irish themselves hold it in high 
 value, and its present promise justifies their 
 confidence. 
 
 The repeal of the hearth and window duty 
 was a direct sacrifice on the part of his Majesty's 
 government in the same spirit of amity and 
 friendly feeling towards the Irish. If the 
 proper estimate of any measure of relief may be 
 sought in the value affixed to it by the parties 
 proposed to be relieved, this repeal may be 
 assumed to be a boon of the first importance. 
 In every town throughout the kingdom it was 
 received with the same unanimous joy. Such, 
 generally speaking, have been the particular 
 measures in aid of Ireland. 
 
 It is not our purpose to proceed, in minute
 
 184 
 
 detail, into an examination of the ordinary 
 administration of the Home Department. It 
 is impossible to look upon the general state of 
 the country without recognising three strong 
 features manifest upon its very surface j all 
 equally characteristic of a high condition of 
 public welfare, and of its progress and solidity. 
 At no period, within the last fifty years, have 
 public order and tranquillity more generally 
 existed. At no period has the immense reve- 
 nue of the country been collected with so little 
 pressure upon the people ; and at no period 
 have all classes of our population been so fully 
 employed. 
 
 When it is considered how vast a revenue is 
 raised from the population of the country, and 
 how great a portion of that revenue, not less, 
 for example, than twenty-eight millions, is not 
 taken upon commodities in mass, but is collected, 
 in the form of excise, upon numerous articles, 
 in innumerable places, and through innumerable 
 hands, it would be a reasonable expectation, a 
 priori, that the intervention of the law must be 
 very frequently applied to prevent frauds and 
 concealments ; but the fact is directly contrary 
 to this anticipation. In the course of five 
 years, from 1817 to 1822, the number of excise 
 prosecutions has diminished by nearly two- 
 thirds. In 1817, the number of these prose-
 
 185 
 
 ciitions was 46l ; in 1819, 220; and in 1821, 
 186. 
 
 The subject matter of the assessed taxes 
 does not afford the same means and temptation 
 for frauds and concealment. But a state of 
 universal distress, if such had existed, would 
 naturally have led to defaults by non-payments; 
 and, by virtue of a system necessarily acting 
 generally, such defaults must have been fol- 
 lowed up by a corresponding number of pro- 
 secutions. But the fact is here equally con- 
 trary to the malicious representations of some 
 of the popular writers. In the whole compass 
 of the United Kingdom there has been no 
 prosecution whatever for assessed taxes. If 
 the increase of the revenue had resulted from 
 any extraordinary rigour exercised in the col- 
 lection, such increase would have been equi- 
 vocal, as the indication of an augmented con- 
 sumption. But where such increase of the 
 revenue has concurred in point of time with the 
 diminution of law expenses and prosecutions, 
 it is an undeniable proof of the ability of the 
 country to sustain the present weight of tax- 
 ation. 
 
 With the exception, indeed, of the assessed 
 taxes, which unquestionably press with some 
 inequality upon the inhabitants of towns, and 
 which burthen it is the most anxious wish of his 
 
 N
 
 186 
 
 Majesty's ministers to alleviate, it is almost im- 
 possible to point out any tax which is either paid 
 with difficulty, or the rate of which affects the 
 welfare of the trade and manufacture concerned. 
 Itisunquestionably true,thattaxes upon traders, 
 whatever be their amount, necessarily fall upon 
 their productive capital ; and affect the trade 
 concerned in two modes ; the first, by requiring a 
 larger capital, and therein a greater expense to 
 carry on the trade or manufacture ; and, secondly, 
 in thus increasing the price of the article, they 
 abridge by a necessary consequence the con- 
 sumption. But it is equally manifest, that, by 
 a judicious selection, and from confining the 
 tax to a moderate rate, these necessary effects 
 of all taxes may not be greater in their degree, 
 than is well compensated by the value and 
 necessity of the amount of the tax to the state. 
 In all taxes, indeed, this is the true question 
 and principle. It is the common effect of them 
 all to produce the above consequences ; and 
 there could, therefore, be no taxes, if it were a 
 sufficient objection that they must raise the 
 price of commodities, and compel an increased 
 expense of production amongst dealers. The 
 only question, however, is, not whether any 
 tax produces such an effect, (for all taxes must 
 produce it in common) but whether it produces 
 it in so great a degree, as to interrupt the con-
 
 187 
 
 tinuance and fair progress of the trade, in the 
 dealing, or manufacture concerned, and thus to 
 produce more injury to the trader than benefit 
 to the pubHc revenue. Now, the test, in fact, 
 liow far any tax corresponds with this prin- 
 ciple is the actual condition of tlie article 
 taxed, and of the dealer and manufacturer. 
 Does the dealing or manufacture continue ? 
 Does the consumption gradually increase with 
 the wealth and population of the country? If 
 these questions can be answered in the affirm- 
 ative, it is manifest that the rate of the tax 
 affects neither the prosperity of the trader nor 
 the ease and comforts of the consumer. It is 
 manifest that the dealer is enabled to continue 
 his business with profit, and that the necessaries 
 and even comforts of life are still within the 
 means of the same class of consumers. 
 
 The next considerations under this head are 
 the estimates for the year just commenced. — 
 These estimates, in ordinary course, are to be 
 considered under the four heads of army, navy, 
 ordnance, and miscellaneous. The saving of 
 two millions in the estimates of the last year 
 was effected by a diminution of the supplies in 
 these four branches of service, and likewise by 
 reductions under certain heads of the civil ex- 
 penditure, of which it is not necessary to pass 
 into a detail. The late measure for the con- 
 
 N 2
 
 188 
 
 version of the dead charge into annuities for a 
 fixed duration will necessarily affect the total 
 amount of the estimates for the army, navy, 
 and ordnance for the present year. Beyond 
 these reductions, it is scarcely possible that 
 these services will admit of any considerable 
 retrenchment. It will be recollected that the 
 vote for the service of the navy for the last year 
 was 5,497,000/. ; being a difference in this branch 
 between the supply of the year 1821, of nearly 
 900,000/., and less by half a million than the 
 sum estimated by the Committee of Finance, of 
 1817, as the probable supply for the year 1822. 
 His Majesty's ministers, however, following up 
 the principles of economy, will perhaps be able 
 to effect some further reduction in this branch 
 of service. The policy of keeping it entire and 
 unimpaired must be obvious to all. In the 
 estimates of the last year, there was a charge 
 to the extent of 320,000/. for the out-pensioners 
 of Greenwich Hospital. This will not occur 
 as a separate item of expense, but will be in- 
 cluded in the navy estimates for the future ; 
 and according as the accounts will hereafter 
 be made up, and according to the supply which 
 will be taken for the navy, it may almost be 
 asserted, that the greatest portion of this 
 amount will in future be saved. 
 
 In order to render justice to this branch of
 
 189 
 
 our subject, it is necessary to direct our atten- 
 tion, not more to the actual saving, than to the 
 actual condition of the British navy under an 
 expenditure comparatively so reduced. In the 
 beginning of the first French war, it was a sub- 
 ject of frequent regret with Mr. Pitt that, 
 under the injudicious and precipitate retrench- 
 ment that followed the general peace, the frame- 
 work, as it were, of our army and navy had 
 been so neglected and abridged, that upon the 
 breaking out of the war in 1793 we had almost 
 every thing to create anew. It is well known 
 by the immediate friends of Mr. Pitt that he 
 imputed the langour of the first years of the 
 war to this cause. But this mischief cannot 
 again occur under the present state of the 
 British navy. We have whole fleets, as it were, 
 in dock and under cover, and ready to be 
 poured forth upon any immediate emergency. 
 We possess a navy three times greater than at 
 the commencement of the late war. It now 
 consists of ships of all classes and rates, and 
 built in such an improved mode, as at once 
 adds to our available force, and is conducive to 
 economy in building and maintaining them. 
 In a late French publication of well merited 
 reputation, it is justly stated, that our docks 
 and arsenals exhibit the very perfection of naval 
 architecture and engineering. In the daily and
 
 190 
 
 monthly work of" our arsenals, the order, the 
 method, and the practical economy in the saving 
 of time and money of a private yard or manufac- 
 tory, may be seen united with a degree of skill, 
 science, and perfection of machinery, which are 
 possessed by no private manufactory whatever. 
 Under such a system, we could pour forth such 
 a force upon the commencement of any future 
 war as would at once sweep the seas before it, 
 and destroy, or blockade in port, any hostile 
 fleets before they could increase to any effective 
 magnitude. In a word, if it be the character 
 of a just economy to procure the best article at 
 the cheapest rate ; to consider the end as the 
 first and main object, and to apply the principle 
 of saving to the means only, it is manifest that 
 the administration of our naval department is 
 entitled to this praise. 
 
 Before any proposal be made to reduce fur- 
 ther our naval establishment, let it be remem- 
 bered what is the actual present extent of our 
 empire, and what are now the interests requir- 
 ing protection. Let it be recollected, that it 
 belongs to British interests of the first conse- 
 quence to maintain a superiority in the Medi- 
 terranean 5 that in the East and West Indies a 
 certain naval force must always be ready for a 
 prompt and early application ; that we have to 
 defend the British mercantile flag, both in the
 
 191 
 
 Atlantic and Pacific oceans ; and that in an- 
 other part of our service, namely, the naval 
 service on the coast of Africa for preventing 
 the slave trade, there must be no intermission 
 of vigilance nor contraction of expense. 
 
 The next branch is the army. — The supply 
 for 1821 for this service was 8,736,092/. The 
 sum voted for the year 1822 was 7,748,346/.; 
 being a difference of nearly one million between 
 the supplies for the two years. On account of 
 the disturbed state of Ireland it became neces- 
 sary to propose an addition to our military sup- 
 plies of 350,000/.; and the long continuance 
 and extent of those disturbances have probably 
 obliged us to exceed this estimate. But there 
 is every reason to believe that this augmenta- 
 tion will not be required for the present year. 
 A saving, therefore, to this extent, and perhaps 
 (from an effectual system of economy pursued 
 in the subordinate parts of this service), the 
 retrenchment even of a more considerable sum 
 may be expected under this head. The re- 
 duction within the last year, in men alone, 
 amounted to upwards of 12,000. The mode 
 of this reduction is perhaps entitled to as much 
 attention as the amount. Three methods were 
 suggested : a reduction of regiments ; a reduc- 
 tion by men ; and a reduction by troops and
 
 192 
 
 companies in each regiment. Upon a due con- 
 sideration, the latter was adopted as most con- 
 sistent with economy. It left the army more 
 effective, and preserved the fair and equitable 
 principle of rotation, as applied to regiments 
 abroad. 
 
 In the ordnance last year, the sum actually 
 voted was 1,200,000/. which was a larger vote 
 by 105,000/. than the supply of the previous 
 year. But it must be remembered that this 
 was occasioned by a diminution in the pro- 
 ceeds of the sales of the old stores, lands, build- 
 ings, &c. In the year 1821, the credit taken 
 under this head was 232,000/. In the year 
 1822, it amounted to only 44,000/.; allowing 
 for this diminution, on the one hand, and taking 
 the increase of certain heads of disbursements 
 on the other, and the actual difference of the 
 ordnance expenditure between 1821 and 1822 
 was 83,000/. This saving was effected by 
 means of economy which cannot be again em- 
 ployed. Under this branch, therefore, the 
 public, we trust, will be satisfied if its amount 
 remain nearly stationary. 
 
 In the miscellaneous, the supply for 1821 
 was 1,893,336/. The same service for the last 
 year was 1,700,000/., making a difference of 
 nearly 200,000/. This is a branch of service
 
 193 
 
 always variable ; and it is impossible to specu- 
 late upon its rise or iall, before the accounts 
 for the year shall be completed. 
 
 Our next head of inquiry is into tlie extent 
 of the relief which will probably be afforded to 
 the public by a further remission of taxes. 
 
 If in investigations of this kind it is usual 
 to look forward to probable measures, and to 
 enter, as fiir as may be done with propriety, 
 into anticipations for the future, we must beg 
 leave to premise, that the question is one of 
 extreme delicacy ; and that what is now 
 offered is, in a great degree, conjectural. If 
 Parliament should resolve to maintain, with firm- 
 ness, the system so beneficially established in 
 the last sessions, it is not improbable, but that 
 from the reductions above stated, and the 
 increasing prosperity of the revenue, his Ma- 
 jesty's ministers may be enabled to afford a 
 further diminution of taxes of not less than 
 one million. Until the proper period shall 
 arrive, it would be indecorous to enter into 
 any consideration as to the mode of relief to 
 be adopted. But the one million to be re- 
 mitted may be expected to arise in the follow- 
 ing way. 
 
 Greenwich Hospital . , . £320,000 
 Extra charge for Ireland . . 350,000 
 
 Interest of five millions sinking fund 1 80,000 
 
 <f850,000
 
 194 
 
 In addition to this, the arrear to the Bank, 
 which amounted to 200,000/. in the expendi- 
 ture of last year, will not occur in the account 
 of the present year ; although a sum must be 
 paid to this body for interest on their advances 
 (as far as they have been made during the 
 year), for the public accommodation. — There is 
 likewise owing to the Bank, interest on the sum 
 of 2,600,000/., paid to the dissentient holders of 
 the five per cents in July last. 
 
 Some other saving in the detail of expendi- 
 ture, in the consolidation of boards, and re- 
 trenchments in the civil service, will probably 
 carry this amount beyond one million ; but it 
 must always be borne in mind, that his Ma- 
 jesty's ministers can propose such further 
 remission of taxes upon this ground only ; that 
 the Sinking Fund shall be left untouched, and 
 that, at all events, a surplus of five millions 
 shall be secured. His Majesty's ministers have 
 never concealed their own solicitous wish, that 
 the future Sinking Fund might be allowed to 
 accumulate at compound interest, and that its 
 profits might remain untouched, until the ag- 
 gregate of the fund, and the amount of its 
 operations, should reach a sum equivalent to 
 one per cent, upon the total of the national 
 debt. But though this be their own wish, they 
 have not so far adopted it, as to exclude them-
 
 195 
 
 selves from the application of the annual in- 
 terest of the surplus towards the public relief; 
 and, of course, they would be ready, if the 
 wishes of Parliament should be unequivocally 
 expressed upon this subject, to apply this pro- 
 portion of relief in remission of taxes ; or in 
 any other form which the pressure upon parti- 
 cular classes may require. They feel themselves 
 compelled to acknowledge, that what was 
 done for the landed interests, in particular, 
 during the last sessions, has given a kind of 
 claim to other classes to have their peculiar 
 interests considered in the next reduction of 
 taxation. If the cheapness of all the necessaries 
 of life compensates to these classes for the con- 
 tinuance of the assessed taxes in their present 
 amount, and thus renders their case less urgent 
 than that of the landholders, his Majesty's 
 ministers can never forget the distinction be- 
 tween taxes falling upon fixed property, and 
 taxes payable upon uncertain incomes j between 
 taxes falling upon the affluent classes, and 
 operating (however they may operate) only 
 as a reduction from rents and property, 
 actually existing ; and taxes falling generally 
 upon the whole community, and, occasion- 
 ally, upon the uncertain funds, and the in- 
 sufficient earnings, of the labouring and me- 
 chanical bodies. If a million, or in the progress 
 of two or three years, 2,000,000/. may be
 
 196 
 
 spared for the remission of further taxes, his 
 Majesty's ministers will, doubtless, feel it just 
 that this relief should be generally apportioned. 
 
 If this system should be continued for a 
 period of five or six years, his Majesty's mi- 
 nisters feel confident, that at the expiration of 
 that period, an annual relief to the extent of 
 three millions and a half, or four millions; that 
 is to say, to the extent of the assessed taxes 
 upon houses and windows may be afforded to 
 the public. Under this system, the reduction 
 of the four per cents into three per cents will 
 assuredly be practicable, and will afford to the 
 public an annual sum of not less than 7<50,000/. 
 Nor must it be forgotten that the Sinking 
 Fund continuing steadily to operate, during 
 the same period, will apply nearly thirty mil- 
 lions to the redemption of the public debt. 
 
 Surely the learned gentleman himself, who 
 was so much opposed to his Majesty's mini- 
 sters, upon the score of reduction, in the last 
 sessions of Parliament, will confess, that this 
 mode of bringing round the state of the country 
 to a capacity not only to resist, but to throw 
 off its pressure, is much more consistent with 
 its honour, its good faith, and its essential 
 interests, than his own proposition to absorb 
 the Sinking Fund, or his very intelligible hint 
 to reduce the interest on the dividends to the 
 public creditor. He might, perhaps, be in-
 
 197 
 
 duced to think it a preferable mode to the 
 commutation of tithes, to the diversion of ec- 
 clesiastical property to public necessities, or to 
 the lowering of our diplomacy to a state of 
 mendicancy which would impair our considera- 
 tion in the eyes of Europe, and reduce a British 
 ambassador to the level of an agent for a Scotch 
 factory. He may likewise (should his usual 
 candour not forsake him,) be inclined to think, 
 that savings of this kind, and of this amount, 
 are more beneficial to all classes of the com- 
 munity — though undoubtedly attended with 
 less triumph and gratification to his particular 
 party — than the five thousand pounds saved 
 to the Exchequer by the reduction of a joint 
 Postmaster, and the withdrawing of the two 
 Lords of the Admiralty. 
 
 Such is the general state of affairs under the 
 several heads in which we have undertaken to 
 examine them. In the Finance, it has been 
 made to appear that we have arrived at a state 
 of solidity and public credit never before ac- 
 complished. The operation of the last session 
 of Parliament upon the five per cents was a 
 measure almost unequalled in the history of our 
 finance. It shows at once the dominion of pub- 
 lic credit, and the practical effect of an unsullied 
 national faith. It shows what may be accom- 
 plished by a sagacious and vigilant attention to
 
 198 
 
 the public mterests in the money market, and 
 how important an auxiliary an elevated state of 
 public character is found to be in seasons of 
 difficulty and particular pressure. The con- 
 version of the annual five millions dead charge 
 into an annuity of less amount, but longer dura- 
 tion, is entitled to almost equal praise. It is a 
 measure as effectual in its result as simple in its 
 application. The several measures in aid of 
 the currency of the kingdom were equally con- 
 ducive to great public interests; and, whilst 
 they avoided any counteraction of the great 
 and most essential object of returning to cash 
 payment, they have assisted the trading and the 
 agricultural classes, by upholding the circulation, 
 so far as was consistent with this primary end. 
 
 The amount of savings, added to the produce 
 of the conversion of the five per cents into four 
 per cents, and of the five millions dead weight 
 into long annuities, unquestionably exceeded 
 every previous expectation. The application of 
 this amount in the relief of taxes was in cor- 
 respondence with the express wish of the ma- 
 jority of the House of Commons, and was, in 
 all respects, a most large and immediate sacri- 
 fice on the part of government to the urgent 
 necessities of the landholders. 
 
 The attainment of a surplus fund of five 
 millions is a still more important feature in the
 
 199 
 
 history of the year now closed. The original 
 sinking fund was established in 1786, but was 
 rendered nearly unavailing by the expenses of 
 the Russian armament, and the precautionary 
 measures in consequence of the state of France. 
 It was only in 1792, that a Sinking Fund, pro- 
 perly so called, could be said to come into 
 actual operation. In that year it was first 
 effectually created by the appropriation of one 
 per cent on every future loan. All loans con- 
 tracted between that period and 1798 contri- 
 buted in this proportion ; but, between 1798 
 and 1802, the necessities of the country com- 
 pelled us to depart from this rule. In 1802, we 
 reverted to this salutary system, and the two 
 funds — the original Sinking Fund of 1786, and 
 the war Sinking Fund of 1792, — were united. 
 But at that period the country was annually 
 raising immense loans, and the sinking fund, 
 however great, was, in fi\ct, merely nominal ; 
 there being no real surplus of income above 
 expenditure. The character of the present 
 sinking fund has, therefore, this obvious distinc- 
 tion, that it is not countervailed by any loans; 
 that it is not exhausted by any extraordinary 
 expenses ; that it is not anticipated in aid of 
 any taxes, or pledged for any by-gone obliga- 
 tions ; but is a clear surplus income, a nett 
 balance of revenue above expenditure, always in
 
 200 
 
 the hands of the government for the purposes 
 of the redemption of our debt; and not liable 
 (except under some most improbable exigency 
 and danger of the country,) to be diverted from 
 its real object. 
 
 Whilst such is the state of our finances, the 
 integrity of our national resources excites 
 unqualified pleasure. Our navigation, our 
 commerce, our internal trade, our manufac- 
 tures, and our revenue, all exhibit a condition, 
 equally gratifying for the present, and justifying 
 the most sanguine expectations for the future. 
 The average of our exports of British manufac- 
 tures exceeds the average of the most produc- 
 tive years of the war. If we have lost the 
 monopoly of some branches of foreign com- 
 merce, (the supply of colonial produce), our 
 loss has been more than compensated by an 
 augmentation in our own particular trade. Our 
 navigation maintains its relative superiority 
 over every other power. In this branch of 
 trade, as in every other, the profits are reduced. 
 But as the business is still conducted with 
 emolument, the interests of general commerce 
 unquestionably gain by the reduction. The 
 same conclusions, and the same observations, 
 are applicable to our internal trade and manu- 
 factures. Profits are lower than during the 
 war J but every trade and manufacture is in
 
 201 
 
 vigorous employ, and the community gains in a 
 greater proportion than dealers lose by a reduc- 
 tion in price. The public are benefited by the 
 abundant possession of all tlie articles of neces- 
 sity, comfort, and convenience. More are 
 enabled to buy, and all are enabled to buy more. 
 On the other hand, if the manufacturer no 
 longer possesses the high profit incidental to a 
 state of monopoly, the deficiency of such a rate 
 of profit is amply made up to him by the actual 
 solidity of its present condition ; and still 
 more, perhaps, by that gradual and certain in- 
 crease of his trade, which will ultimately afford 
 him a larger income, by small profits on extended 
 dealings, than by high prices under a monopoly. 
 It can never, indeed, be too strongly impressed 
 upon British traders of all classes, that in a mer- 
 cantile community, and with all the ports in the 
 world necessarily open, high prices do not con- 
 stitute the prosperous condition of commerce. 
 Trade and commerce are then, and then only, 
 in the highest degree of prosperity, when a low 
 rate of profit upon extended dealings enables 
 our merchants to go into the market of the 
 world against every competitor, and gives and 
 secures to them in every foreign country the 
 never-failing advantages of British capital, ma- 
 chinery, and skill. 
 
 It is unnecessary to recapitulate the flattering 
 
 o
 
 202 
 
 condition oC the present state of our revenue. 
 One feature alone should not be omitted. A 
 revenue of the amount of fifty-five millions 
 annually, that is to say, a revenue almost equal 
 to the total rental of the kingdom, is paid with- 
 out any rigour of law, and with so few prose- 
 cutions, that upon an order of the House of 
 Commons to make out the returns for the year 
 1821 of such prosecutions, the returning clerk, 
 under the head of assessed taxes, could find no 
 case whatever. — We pass over this part of our 
 subject with this circumstance. It speaks for 
 itself, and would only be weakened by any 
 comment. 
 
 Under the head of our colonies, our review, 
 though necessarily short, has passed through a 
 great variety of matter ; and it has been made 
 fully to appear, that his Majesty's ministers 
 have consulted, and so far as was in their 
 power, have most solicitously reconciled, the 
 general interests of free commerce with the 
 urgent necessities of the colonies. 
 
 Under the heads of navigation and foreign 
 trade, they have repealed many obsolete and 
 embarrassing laws, which were the source of 
 constant irritation and jealousy with other 
 powers, without any corresponding benefit to 
 our mercantile or shipping interests. Without 
 shaking the column of our maritime greatness,
 
 203 
 
 the navigation laws, they have repaired and 
 renewed it according to the new aspect of the 
 commercial world. They have relaxed and 
 opened tliese laws to comprehend new and 
 larger interests, and have extended their spirit 
 and efficacy, at the same time that they have 
 curtailed and abridged their more positive and 
 technical rules. 
 
 It does not belong to any indifference or 
 neglect of his Majesty's councils, that the 
 sphere of free trade, as regards our colonies, 
 has not been enlarged ; and that the East Indies, 
 in particular, have not been further opened to 
 the capital and enterprise of our merchants. So 
 far as regards general interests, ministers are 
 fully sensible of the vast value and importance of 
 the cultivation of sugar, the corn of the tropical 
 world. They are fully impressed with the be- 
 lief, that the consumption might be immensely 
 increased ; that eventually it might be pro- 
 duced by free labour ; and that the encourage- 
 ment of its culture on the great continent of 
 Hindostan would do more than a hundred acts 
 of parliament towards enriching and civilising 
 India, and rendering lier a large customer for 
 British manufactures, by affording her the means 
 of exchange and purchase. His Majesty's mi- 
 nisters, doubtless, see this prospect, but they see 
 it at a distance, and with so many intervening 
 obstacles, that, in common with every candid
 
 204 
 
 and intelligent mind, they hope more than they 
 expect. They cannot conceal from themselves, 
 that a vast capital is, in fact, employed and 
 fixed in the West India islands, and that every 
 consideration of prudence and humanity compels 
 them to respect such large existing interests. 
 But as this question must eventually be deter- 
 mined by a comparison between the interests 
 of the West Indies on the one side, and of 
 the British empire at large (as well as of the 
 East Indies on the other), they foresee that 
 a condition of things must arise, under which 
 the subordinate interests of the part must 
 yield to the greater interests of the common 
 welfare. 
 
 Under the head of our foreign relations, our 
 policy has been invariably directed towards the 
 preservation of the peace of Europe, and the 
 continuance of that equality and just distribu- 
 tion of power which were established by the 
 late treaties, and which conapose the only ade- 
 quate means by which the general peace can 
 be uphoiden. We have always refused and dis- 
 countenanced any interference in the private 
 concerns of independent states ; and have re- 
 quired proof of a very extreme condition of 
 things, before we could be induced to admit that 
 the internal excesses of one nation, and those 
 excesses proceeding upon principles unques- 
 tionably anarchical, can justify an appeal to the
 
 205 
 
 commonwealth of Europe, to abate the civil 
 disorders of a particular state as a general 
 nuisance. 
 
 In the disputes between Russia and the 
 Sublime Porte, we have sought at once to 
 maintain peace, and to procure tiiose guaran- 
 tees tor the future safety of the Greek pro- 
 vinces, which are consistent with the inde- 
 pendence of the Turkish government, and with 
 the indisputable rights of the sovereign over his 
 own subjects. The maintenance of general 
 peace is unquestiotiably the first and most im- 
 portant of all our interests ; but whilst we have 
 sought this object according to its paramount 
 consequence, we have not undervalued the 
 further obligations of generosity, compassion, 
 and Christian feelinp; towards a people of the 
 same common faith as ourselves. In the strug- 
 gles which have agitated Europe, both in the 
 East and the West, our policy has been cautious, 
 but manly, and decisive. We have been neutral, 
 but not indifferent ; impartial, but not in- 
 sensible. We have been desirous to see the 
 same free institutions, the same quickening 
 spirit of liberty and civil policy, flourishing 
 and spreading in every other country as well as 
 in Great-Britain ; being satisfied that the pro- 
 sperity, freedom, and the due station of the 
 several kingdoms and communities of P^nrope,
 
 206 
 
 can affect England witli no feelings of jealousy 
 or envv. 
 
 The eminent services and just influence of 
 an illustrious chief, at the late Congress of 
 Verona, will, perhaps, be more impartially ap- 
 preciated by posterity than by the present 
 generation. He has, possibly, repeated in 
 the cabinet and council what he had before 
 achieved by his sword. Possibly, it may be 
 owing to him, and to him almost only, that the 
 country, which his unconquerable valour, and 
 consummate prudence, have once already de- 
 fended, is saved from again becoming the thea- 
 tre of a warfare, upon which the late miseries 
 of Europe might be renewed. 
 
 Such is the state of our affairs under the 
 general heads in which it has been attempted 
 to examine them, and such are the prospects 
 with which we commence a new year. 
 
 Upon the general questions of domestic 
 policy which are likely to agitate parliament 
 in the ensuing sessions, it would be premature 
 to give an opinion. But even upon that stage, 
 however numerous the candidates, and however 
 brilliant the prizes, it is obvious, that public 
 opinion has intelligibly pronounced the prin- 
 ciples upon which they are to be awarded and 
 distributed. No party of men can justly hope 
 for the confidence of the people of England, to
 
 207 
 
 whom its honour and public faith are matters 
 of indifference. No persons can expect the 
 high trust and confidence of pubUc office, who 
 are accustomed to deride and undervalue the 
 obligations of the State. His Majesty could 
 scarcely be recommended to take those persons 
 into his councils, who are either lukewarm in 
 their affections to the establishments which 
 entrench and support his crown, or who, in 
 those cases in which they can express a public 
 opinion, treat them rather as objects by which 
 the people are cheated and deluded, than as 
 administering to their happiness and honour, 
 to their consolation in life, and their refuge in 
 death. Projector magna est eorum hisipientiay 
 qui imperium alio modo coirflatiim et alio conser- 
 vandum existimant. 
 
 FINIS.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PllINTHn BY THOMAS DAVISOK, WHITEFRIARS. 
 
 \

 
 mm 
 
 
 fi
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILUNOIS-URBftNA 
 
 3 0112 062406811