1831.] Power and Prospects of the. Country. 165 



The small-note system, in its first institution, was one of wise and mer- 

 ciful policy. The capital of the country, by the immense expenditure 

 and consequent taxation of a long and expensive war, had been drawn 

 away from its usual free circulation into the hands of comparatively a 

 few individuals. The mass of the people were impoverished ; and even 

 those who were still possessed of wealth, were suffering from its inade- 

 quate representation by a circulating medium. The commerce of the 

 country was crippled in all its operations, and the evil was one which 

 time would increase instead of diminishing. Under these circumstances 

 the measure was first introduced, and it was and is notorious, that with- 

 out such a measure the prosecution of the war to its successful issue, and 

 even the preservation of the internal peace of the country, was utterly 

 impossible. Here, then, the policy of Sir Robert Peel's measure becomes 

 a question of facts rather than of reasoning. We put out of view the 

 general policy of such a measure as applied under more favourable cir- 

 cumstances, and restrict ourselves to the inquiry of its suitableness of 

 its justice at the present moment, and under existing circumstances. 

 Is the country now more favourably situated than at the period when 

 first the one-pound-note system was introduced at the period when it 

 was declared to be not only a measure of necessity but of justice of 

 mercy ? We apprehend not. The same circumstances are operating 

 now to drain the channels of wealth into the coffers of the state, and into 

 the pockets of the few, perchance the undeserving. We have still the 

 same funded debt, and the interest of that debt must still be paid as 

 it has ever been paid by the great consuming classes of the community, 

 not the capitalists. We have still the same standing army to support, and we 

 shall still have the same to support, till by the blessing of God or thehang- 

 man the arch agitator O'Connell can agitate no more. It is mere absur- 

 dity to say, that government has replaced the one-pound-notes by a safe 

 and plentiful gold currency. There is, doubtless, sufficient gold in the 

 country to pay the taxes to pay wages to buy food and clothing : 

 but how is it to be had ? We must labour for it pawn mortgage- 

 sell : but an honest man, with nothing to give in exchange but industry, 

 ability, or an unsullied reputation, can get marvellous little of it. He 

 must have thews and sinews, or he must starve! This is certainly the 

 way of the world, and we are too old in its ways to complain unneces- 

 sarily : but we do think that when a government has given a boon to its 

 people to enable them to lend more freely to its necessities, that boon ought 

 not in justice to be taken away till the loan be repaid ! 



But how did this much vituperated system work in reality for we 

 are not to be for ever blinded by the gloss of knaves and fools where 

 and what are the secrets of its mystic power for good or evil ? It 

 merely replaced the wealth, drawn from the pockets of the people by 

 the exigencies of the war, by a circulating medium as safe, as good 

 yes, as good and as efficient for the purposes of the community, as that 

 which it was meant to represent and which it did represent. It has 

 been much the fashion to declaim against the issues of the bankers as 

 " filthy rags," " paper promises/' and other witty devices of the same 

 class, but, saving the exceeding wisdom of these declaimers, we cannot 

 see that they merited any such cognomina. It cannot be supposed that 

 the bankers circulated these fictions we allow the name without some 

 value received, some exchange of bills or securities; and if such were 

 the case, did not the issues of the banker, de facto, become representa- 



