CHAP.

X.

1822.

of prices could not by possibility exceed 3 per cent.1* This subject accordingly engaged the repeated and anxious consideration of both Houses of Parliament; it was made 1 Ante, c. iv. the topic of repeated and luminous debates of the very $ 71, note. highest interest and importance, and it forced at length a change of the utmost moment in our monetary system, which for the next three years entirely changed our social condition, and induced another set of dangers the very reverse of those under which the nation for the three preceding years had been labouring.

129.

for the re

agricultural

This important debate was opened by Mr Brougham on the 8th February, who in a powerful speech demon- Measures strated the extreme distress of the agricultural class, in lief of the connection with the heavy load of poor-rates and local classes. taxes with which they were exclusively burdened. The motion he made for the consideration of the burdens peculiarly affecting agriculture was negatived by a majority of 212 to 108; but this was brought about only by Lord Londonderry, on the part of the Government, engaging to introduce some measures for the relief of that interest. On the 15th of the same month his lordship redeemed his pledge, by introducing the measures of relief proposed by Government, which were, the repeal of the annual malt-tax, which produced £1,000,000 a-year, and the advance of £4,000,000 in Exchequer bills to the landed proprietors on security of their crops, until the markets improved. In the course of his speech on this subject Lord Londonderry remarked, and satisfactorily proved, that no diminution of taxation to any practicable amount could afford any adequate relief to the agricultural classes; 2 and it was no wonder it was so, for the utmost Ann. Reg. extent of any such relief, supposing it conceded, could ioi. not have amounted to more than six or seven millions

PRICES OF WHEAT IN DECEMBER OF EACH YEAR, FROM 1818 TO 1822.

1822, 98,

X.

CHAP. yearly, whereas their difficulties arose from a depression in the value of their produce, which could not be estimated at less than sixty or seventy millions.

1822.

130.

Detailed measures

of Govern

ment for

the relief of the agri

culturists.

Lord Londonderry's plan was laid before Parliament, with the report of the committee on agricultural distress, which had been agreed to early in the session without opposition, and was replete with valuable information and suggestions. The leading resolutions proposed were, that whenever the average price of wheat shall be under 60s. a quarter, Government shall be authorised to issue £1,000,000 on Exchequer bills to the landed proprietors on the security of their crops; that importation of foreign corn should be permitted whenever the price of wheat shall be at and above 70s. a quarter; rye, pease or beans, 46s.; barley, 35s., and oats, 25s.: that a sliding-scale should be fixed, that for wheat being under 80s. a quarter, 12s.; above 80s. but under 85s., 5s.; and above 85s., only 1s. Greatly lower duties were proposed for colonial grain, with the wise design of promoting the cultivation and securing the fidelity of their dependencies. They 1 Ann. Reg. were as follows: For colonial grain—wheat at and above 59s., rye, &c., 39s., barley 30s., and oats 20s.; subject to certain moderate rates of duty.1 Mr Huskisson and Mr

1822, 98,

107.

* The committee reported that the prices of wheat for six weeks preceding 1st April 1822, the date of their report, had been—

"And that the quantity sold, both of wheat and oats, between 1st November and 1st March has, under these prices, very considerably exceeded any quantity sold in the preceding twenty years. That it is impossible to carry protection farther than monopoly, and this monopoly the British grower has possessed for more than three years, which is ever since February 1819, with the exception of the ill-timed and unnecessary importation of somewhat more than 700,000 quarters of oats, which took place during the summer of 1820. It must be considered farther, that this protection, in consequence of the increased value of our currency, and the present state of the corn market, combined with the prospect of an early harvest, may in all probability remain uninterrupted for a very considerable time to come."-Commons' Report on Agriculture, 1st April 1822; Annual Register, 1822, pp. 438, 441.

X.

1822.

Ricardo proposed other resolutions, which were, however, CHAP. negatived; and Lord Londonderry's resolutions, with the exception of the first, regarding the Exchequer bills, which was withdrawn, were agreed to by large majorities in both Houses, and passed into law.

131.

Mr Western

rency.

The great debate of the session, however, came on on 11th June, when Mr Western moved for the appointment Motion of of a committee to consider the effect of the act 59 Geo. on the curIII., c. 14 (the Bank Cash-Payments Bill), on the agri- J. culture, commerce, and manufactures of the United Kingdom. The motion was negatived, after a long debate, by a majority of 194 to 30. This debate was remarkable for one circumstance-Lord Londonderry spoke against the motion, with the whole Ministers, and Mr Brougham in support of it. It led, as all motions on the same subject have since done, to no practical result, as the House of Commons has constantly refused to entertain any change in the monetary policy adopted in 1819; but it is well worthy of remembrance, for it elicited two speeches, one from Mr Huskisson in support of that system, and one from Mr Attwood against it, both of which Ann. Reg. are models of clear and forcible reasoning, and which 121; Parl. contain all that ever has or ever can be said on that all- 878, 1027. important subject.1

1

1822, 108,

Deb. vii.

son's argu

support of

Mr Huskisson argued- "The change of prices which 132. has undoubtedly taken place is only in a very slight de- MrHuskis gree to be ascribed to the resumption of cash payments. ments in To that measure we were in duty bound, as well as policy, the existing for all contracts had been made under it. Even if it system. had been advisable not to revert to a sound currency, the irrevocable step has been taken, and the widest mischief would ensue from any attempt to undo what has been done. It is said on the other side, that it would be for the benefit of all classes that the value of money should be gradually diminished, and that of all other articles. raised. What is this but the system of jector, of Lowndes, and of many others?

Law the pro

But it is one

X.

CHAP. to which, it is to be hoped, this country will never lend its sanction. It is, in truth, the doctrine of debtors; and still more of those who, already being debtors, are desirous of becoming so in a still greater degree.

1822.

133.

"The foundation of the plan on the other side is, that Continued. the standard of value in every country should be that which is the staple article of the food of its inhabitants; and therefore wheat is fixed upon, as it is the staple article of the food of our people. At that rate, potatoes should be the standard in Ireland, rice in India, maize in Italy. To what endless confusion in the intercourse of nations would this lead! Who ever heard of a potato standard? It does not, in the slightest degree, obviate the objection, that you propose to make the currency, not of wheat, but of gold, as measured by that standard. How can a given weight of gold, of a certain fineness, and a certain denomination, which in this country is now the common measure of all commodities, be itself liable to be varied in weight, fineness, or denomination, according to the exchangeable value of any other commodity, without taking from gold the quality of being money, and transferring it to that other commodity? All that you do is, in fact, to make wheat the and gold currency, its representative, as paper now is of gold. But to say that one commodity shall be the currency, and another its standard, betrays a confusion of ideas, and is, in fact, little short of a contradiction in terms.

134.

Again, it is said we ought to measure the pressure Continued. of taxation by the price of corn; and we are reminded that, as in 1813, wheat was at 108s. 7d., and the taxes £74,674,000, 13,733,000 quarters of wheat were sufficient for their payment; while in the present year, the price being 45s., nearly double that amount of quarters are necessary to pay the reduced taxes of £54,000,000. But observe to what this system of measuring the weight of taxes by the price of wheat, or any other article save gold itself, would lead. The year 1817 was a prosperous

X.

1822.

year, for the taxes were reduced to £55,836,000, and CHAP. wheat having risen to 94s. 9d., it follows that 11,786,000 quarters were sufficient for the payment of its taxes. Was this actually the case? If distress, bordering upon famine if misery, bursting forth in insurrection, and all the other symptoms of wretchedness, discontent, and difficulty, are to be taken as symptoms of pressure upon the people, then is the year 1817 a year which no good man would ever wish to see the like again. On the other hand, the years 1815 and 1821, being the years of the severest pressure of taxation, according to this new mode of measuring its amount, are among the years when the labouring parts of the community have had least reason to complain of their situation.

135.

"The proposition now boldly made is for a depreciation of the standard of the currency. How strange must Concluded. be the condition of this country, if it can only prosper by a violation of national faith, and a subversion of private property; by a measure reprobated by all statesmen and all historians; the wretched and antiquated resource of barbarous ignorance and arbitrary power, and only known among civilised communities as the last mark of a nation's weakness and degradation! Would not such a measure be a deathblow to all public credit, and to all confidence in private dealings between men? If you once, in an age of intelligence and enlightenment, consent, under the pressure of temporary difficulty, to lower the standard, it will become a precedent which will immediately be resorted to on every future emergency or temporary pressure, the more readily as credit, and every other more valuable resource, on which the country has hitherto relied, will be at an end. If the House entertain such a proposition by vote, the country will be in alarm and confusion from one end of it to another. All pecuniary transactions will be at an end; all debtors called on for immediate payment; all holders of paper will instantly insist for coin; all holders of gold and