160 Present State of Society, [FEB. 



lives of this same property, or rather the same property converted for the 

 convenience of traffic into a circulating medium ? Again, it may be in- 

 quired, what became of the real cash of the banker when he was enabled 

 to supply its place as a means of accommodation by his one-pound 

 notes ? He would not for his own profit keep it in his coffers, or for 

 his credit invest it in land. He bought stock, or in other words, he lent 

 it to the State, and thus his one-pound notes represented the credit of 

 government. Are the vilifiers of the system prepared to depreciate a 

 circulation based upon such a foundation ? Are the securities of go- 

 vernment filthy rags ? We hope not. But to come to the effects of the 

 system. It enabled the country bankers to extend accommodation to 

 the tradesman, or in other words, to provide him with capital for the 

 purposes of his business. It stocked the farm of the agriculturist, the 

 profits of which supported his family in respectable circumstances, paid 

 his rent and taxes, and enabled him to increase the number and the 

 wages of his labourers. His stock was driven to market when it was 

 fat, and not, as at present, only when the rent-day was near, whatever 

 its condition. His corn came to market in season, and was sold at a 

 profit ; not sacrificed as at present for need, or to suit the scheme of 

 some gambling speculation in foreign grain. His poor lands were 

 brought into cultivation, and yearly increased in productiveness, because 

 he could afford, out of his surplus income, to pay for labour and to buy 

 manure. But the prosperity of one class of men was not selfish in its 

 effects it spread through the community at large a grateful and salu- 

 tary influence. The shopkeeper was first benefited, the mechanic, the law- 

 yer alas ! even the lawyer, for prosperity is pugnacious and lastly, the 

 manufacturer and the merchant. The revenue came in for its share of 

 good fortune, and the condition of the country, internally and externally, 

 wore an appearance far, very far different from its present desolation. 



We cannot view without alarm the tendency of our present commer- 

 cial policy. The great error of the system is its absorbing spirit, which 

 directs and concentrates all its operations to the aggrandizement of one 

 class of the community and only one. The commercial genius of the 

 people is all employed in the same direction ; the strength of the state 

 built upon the prosperity of one mighty interest ; and even the internal 

 peace of the country, placed in the power of .that interest ! We admit 

 that our manufacturers deserved the support of the legislature ; because 

 they employ capital and labourers, and increased the aggregate wealth of 

 the community. But we do not think it wise or safe that the entire re- 

 sources of the country should be forced into one branch of industry ; 

 and that one, so susceptible of derangement so utterly dependant for 

 its prosperity upon uncontrollable circumstances ! 



Yet such is the effect of our present policy. The amount of capital 

 and of labour employed in manufactures, is daily increasing ; and every 

 protection enjoyed by the other branches of industry swept away, as 

 soon as it interferes with the supposed interest of the manufacturers. As 

 the different classes employed in other branches of industry sink into 

 poverty and contempt, the number of our manufacturing population is 

 swelled to overflowing ; and a natural consequence the remuneration 

 for labour decreases. The consumption of the home market, owing to 

 the rapid spread of pauperization amongst the great consuming classes, 

 is becoming less every year ; and, compared with the immense produc- 

 tion of the country, is utterly inadequate to draw off the increasing sup- 



