178 Riverst [FEB. 



barrier to conquests, the scene of warfare, or the object of treaties ; the 

 novelist would see only the grey ruins of the baronial castles that frown 

 upon its heights, and would recollect only the feuds of feudal times, and 

 the legends that tell the achievements of chivalry, or the triumphs of 

 love : while the lover of nature would see but a rich assemblage of 

 images ; a blending of nature with art ; woods, rocks, and cataracts ; 

 and the noble stream gliding away, beautiful, if even it bore upon its 

 bosom no token of industry and interesting, even if a battle had never 

 been fought upon its banks or if its time-worn castles had never been 

 built for any other purpose than to adorn the landscape. 



THE CURRENCY AND THE BANK OF ENGLAND. 



BELIEVING that the question of the currency -though now almost 

 buried in oblivion is yet the one important subject for the consideration 

 of all who view with dismay the calamitous condition of the country, we 

 propose, in the following remarks, to turn aside from the warring ranks 

 of Reform, to exhibit the fatal consequences of that unj ust, unnecessary, 

 and violent alteration in our circulating medium which has brought on 

 the present melancholy stagnation of our trade ; from which has resulted 

 the hunger, nakedness, and disaffection of the working classes ; with 

 all that train of ills, the hourly accumulating weight of which now 

 threatens to hurl this monarchy to the ground. 



To exhibit a full view of the present condition of our affairs, we must 

 return and re-examine the track which we have travelled since the days 

 of " Prosperity Robinson ;" that short gleam of sunshine in the wilder- 

 ness of war, when all was joy through the tents of Israel, and the nation, 

 like an overloaded camel, appeared to have arrived at last at a well, and 

 a green spot. Suddenly the scene was overcast again, and the panic 

 ensued. We propose, then, to shew that this panic was produced by 

 bad legislation ; that the subsequent one pound note act though in- 

 tended as a remedy was an aggravation of that great national calamity, 

 and that, if it be not now speedily repealed, that favourite and never- 

 failing political recourse, " the hand of Providence," can alone save this 

 country from universal ruin, despair, and civil war. 



This glorious and beautiful scene, exhibited by the country during 

 the administration of Robinson, has been called a prosperity of paper ; 

 and so it certainly was, for a prosperity of paper is a prosperity of 

 national credit. It was a prosperity of flourishing manufactures, agri- 

 culture, and foreign trade; it was a prosperity of improving towns, 

 roads, and public institutions ; it was a prosperity of increasing wages, 

 blankets, and household furniture, and of decreasing crime and poor 

 rate. Suddenly all these blessings were swept away by that tyrant of 

 the commercial world the Bank of England ; for the panic was oc- 

 casioned by a most capricious, unjust, and arbitrary contraction of its 

 issues, when our most substantial merchants, manufacturers, and pro- 

 vincial bankers, were suddenly and treacherously consigned to beggary 

 and oblivion. But, notwithstanding the heavy blow thus inflicted on 

 the nation by the overgrown power of the Bank of England, our trade 

 would soon have revived again, owing to the vast accumulation of 

 capital and stamina made during even that short period of prosperity in 



