THE CURRENCY DUEL. 395 



in the folly which has ruined their predecessors, and if the opinion of 

 Lord Althorpe continue to prevail, " that it is now too late to retreat," 

 we fear that it requires no great political sagacity to foretell, that not 

 only will the Whigs themselves retreat, but kings, lords, bishops, and 

 boroughmongers, will all retreat together. 



To retrace our steps is now the only remaining method of escape 

 from the labyrinth of troubles and darkness into which we have entered 

 since the panic of 1825. A single breath; one act of parliament, giving 

 back the right of the bankers to issue one and two pound notes, accord- 

 ing to the wants of their respective districts, and upon the credit of their 

 own estates, would instantly let loose the pent-up waters of plenty, and 

 spread peace, prosperity, and joy throughout this now miserable land. 

 For the business of banking is the well-spring and the fountain of our 

 trade ; obstructions to the free circulation of paper are felt throughout 

 all the subdivisions of the commercial machinery of the nation ; and a 

 stream of water is not more required for the revolutions of the wheel of 

 a mill than an issue of paper-money for the revolving transactions of 

 this great commercial nation. The vulgar clamour against bankers and 

 a paper circulation is in reality absurd and senseless in the very utmost 

 degree ; for the invention of the system of banking has produced all our 

 national power, prosperity, and glory ; and it is not in the nature of 

 human affairs that any system, how convenient soever, should arrive at 

 perfection, or be free from partial disadvantage. But we hold that the 

 banking interest has ever been found comparatively far more solid and 

 upon a better foundation than any other trade whatever, the number of 

 bankers who have failed bearing no comparison to the number of cotton 

 spinners, iron masters, and silk manufacturers; nor is the aggregate 

 amount of loss by the insolvency of bankers a hundredth part of the 

 loss sustained by the bankruptcy of other traders in the various subdivi- 

 sions of our great commercial system. The failure of a bank in a com- 

 mercial town is only an occurrence of a century ; nor is it then usual 

 that an operative should be holder of more than one or two bank-notes, 

 the earnings of the labour of a week ; but the failure of a rich manufac- 

 turer may throw a thousand families for months upon the parish. Bank- 

 notes are the credit of the banker : his estate and mansion are always 

 open to inspection ; and no man is compelled to receive the notes of a 

 banker, more than to give credit to a corn- dealer or a draper, whose 

 habits, expenditure, or capital are deemed unworthy of his confidence. 

 The self-preservation and self-interest of the banker will regulate the 

 amount of his issues within the bounds of prudence ; and in the event 

 of mismanagement and bankruptcy, it is rare that the banker is not pos- 

 sessed of an estate producing a dividend superior to that usual from an 

 insolvent manufacturer ; yet the pretence of protecting the labourer in 

 the enjoyment of his wages in solid gold, was the most prominent 

 reason advanced for the suppression of a paper circulation, and wisely 

 it has proved a protection indeed, by which to secure him from the loss 

 of a few shillings in the course of an entire century, we have doomed 

 him to the horrors of perpetual poverty, nakedness, and hunger, with 

 pining children, an early death, and a parish grave. We hold, then, 

 that the suppression of the small paper circulation was an act of the 

 foulest tyranny, and a violation of the common rights of human inter- 

 course and barter. A law prohibiting the banker from issuing less 

 than five pound notes, is not less tyrannical than a prohibition to the 



