THE BANK CHARTER. 



529 



not aware that more tea can be procured in China, or more corn in 

 Russia, because the gold and silver which are offered in exchange are 

 marked with the physiognomy of King William the Fourth. The weight 

 and qualities of the coins, and not the pleasure of possessing the picture of 

 King William, are the inducements with the Russians and Chinese ; and 

 even at home, we opine that as much cloth or porter could be bought 

 with the same quantity of silver or gold, though marked with the head 

 of Henry Drummond or Thomas Attwood, or without any mark at all, 

 in the shape of bullion, as with the coin of King William the Fourth. 

 When, therefore, we see no advantage in the coin of the realm, over the 

 coin of Henry Drummond, but, on the contrary, the payment of a 

 salary and perquisites amounting to the sum of 12,000/. a year to the 

 Master of the mint, and a total expenditure of more than 100,000/. a 

 year for the business of striking the picture of King William on our 

 money, we entertain considerable doubts about the expediency and 

 justice of a continuation of this "public power." 



But whatever may be advanced upon the ground of ancient usage and 

 settled convenience with regard to the royal prerogative of coining 

 silver and gold money, assuredly the same arguments do not apply to 

 the question of a free and unlimited paper circulation. In the immense 

 and universally diffused and complicated commercial transactions of this 

 great nation, it is not in the power of tyranny and folly to restrain us 

 from the use of paper-money, and indeed the extension of the currency 

 is the gravamen of the present discussions upon our monetary system, 

 the renewal of the Charter of the Bank of England, or the substitution 

 of a National Bank, being in comparison no more than the chaff of this 

 great question. For without an extension of our circulating medium, 

 no prosperity, contentment, or political tranquillity can ever return to 

 the people of this country ; and our false legislation upon the subject of 

 banking has brought forth more commercial loss, embarrassment, and 

 ruin, and more misery, malice, and disaffection amongst the masses of 

 our industrious population, than can now be remedied without the de- 

 molition of our aristocratical institutions, or perhaps the downfall of the 

 monarchy itself. For thousands and tens of thousands of our people 

 owe their existence to that extension of our commerce which has been 

 founded upon a paper circulation ; and the removal of that paper is the 

 lingering death-warrant of one half the population of the British empire. 

 For the bankers are now the supporters of our entire commercial sys- 

 tem ; whilst the operation of the one pound note restriction act is the 

 virtual destruction .of the business of the banker, for transactions in gold 

 and silver afford no profit to the provincial dealers in money, and a small 

 paper circulation is at once the credit of the banker, and his only means 

 for a profitable distribution of his capital ; therefore the unjust and 

 tyrannical restrictions upon the bankers in the issuing of a small paper 

 circulation, has contracted almost to nothing the accommodations of the 

 country bankers ; and the operation of this most cruel measure has re- 

 duced to ruin and the workhouse whole thousands of our industrious 

 manufacturers, merchants, and farmers, and threatens indeed the entire 

 annihilation of the middle classes of this country. Thus a universal de- 

 rangement of the whole commerce of the world is the result of this 

 ministerial intermeddling with the trade in money, ; and it is an arro- 

 gant assumption of power, that one insignificant man, like Sir Robert 

 Peel, should presume to superintend and regulate the commercial trans- 

 M. M. No. 83. 2 N 



