THE CURRENCY DUEL. 397 



been equally apparent ; for the United States of America, notwith- 

 standing the falsities of Mr. Cobbett upon this subject, have derived 

 almost all their prosperity and power from the freedom of the trade in 

 money. Speaking upon this subject at Birmingham,, Mr. Cobbett remarks, 

 " that Mr. Attwood has appealed to America, so should he. Mr. Att- 

 wood has said, that there the banks can make what money they choose. 

 That is a slight mistake, for no bank can exist in America without a 

 charter. Why was it so ? Because, as in the recent transactions with 

 regard to the charter of the Bank of the United States, it has been 

 deemed improvident to renew that establishment, for the President knew 

 that paper money makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer. After 

 such truths would the people of Birmingham have paper money among 

 them ? He pledged himself to the truth of the facts he had mentioned." 

 Now we who happen to have recently travelled in the United States, 

 pledge ourselves, on the contrary, to the entire falsehood " of the facts 

 he had mentioned." First, it is not true that no bank can exist in the 

 United States without a charter, for every city in the Union contains 

 innumerable private bankers ; witness the instance of Mr. Stephen 

 Gerard, the celebrated banker of Philadelphia, who has recently be- 

 queathed a fortune of five millions of dollars to the public institutions of 

 Pennsylvania. Though there are also many chartered banks in the 

 country, it does not follow that all banks are obliged to be chartered, 

 any more than in this country. The existence of the Bank of England, 

 and many other incorporated joint-stock companies, is a proof that there 

 are not private banking houses in every provincial town. Nor has the 

 refusal of the President to sanction the renewal of the charter of the 

 Bank of the United States, the most remote connexion with the question 

 of a paper circulation ; for the reasoning of the President is directed to 

 the existence of the Bank as a monopoly of the trade in money, and the 

 renewal of the charter is opposed by the people upon principles similar 

 to those upon which we oppose the renewal of the charter of the Bank 

 of England. There exists no limitation whatever to the issuing of paper 

 money in the United States, for the entire circulation of the country is 

 composed of paper in a country drained of its specie by the disadvan- 

 tageous nature of the trade to Great Britain and China. Dollars, half 

 dollars, and quarters of dollars in paper are the universal circulation of 

 the country ; and the traveller may journey for hundreds of miles in 

 the western states without receiving or paying a single dollar in specie. 

 The notes even of insolvent banks continue to pass current. Millions of 

 dollars are regularly circulating of the notes of banks which have gone 

 down many years since ; and we ourselves have received and paid the 

 notes of the Farmers' and Mechanics' Bank of Cincinnati after the 

 establishment was closed, and the place converted into the shop of an 

 ironmonger. When we witnessed the wonders effected in that city, 

 where a particle of gold and silver is never seen in the transactions of 

 business, yet all is prosperity in a place containing a population of 

 seventy thousand souls, with streets, churches, markets, and public in- 

 stitutions vying with the proudest of the cities of Europe, we saw the 

 entire needlessness of the precious metals in the business of the world, 

 and the blindness of our own government, which obstinately chains 

 down the energies of this country; whilst our transatlantic brethren, 

 uninfluenced by this golden folly, are advancing with gigantic strides to 

 a rapid supereminence among the nations of the world. 



