Lowe on the State of England. 
those employed on luxuries? They may” 
be said: to'form a reserve:of’ capital and 
labour. applicable to’ the increase of sub- 
sistence, ma case of imperious necessity. 
40 As ‘society advances, and ‘apart of 
the lower orders participate in'the com- 
fort, ofthe middle classes, food’ forms 
progressively a less considerable propor- 
tion of their expenditure. (Ina popula- 
tion like:that of Ireland, the chief part of 
France, and the poorer'counties of Eng- 
land, food. constitutes, as already men- 
tioned, about 70 per cent. of the total 
family charge; but in our more popu- 
lous rural districts, in our larger villages, 
and in our towns: generally, the propor- 
tion is. probably below) 60 per cent. 
What does ‘this ‘imply, but the possession 
of greater wealth, the power, on the oc- 
currence of a searcity and rise of price, 
of obtaining subsistence by purchase; in 
other words, of importing it from abroad? 
Hence, the less severe pressure of high 
ices of food on a population, such as 
that of “Holland and England, than on 
one devoid, in a manner, of exchange- 
able: commodities, such as the peasantry 
of Poland, Russia, or the inland districts 
ofthe Highlands of Scotland. 
‘CIRCULATION OF BANK PAPER. 
- Our ‘countrymen, accustomed during 
more! than haif'a century to the use of 
bank: notes, -have ‘observed, with some 
surprise, that»a currency so cheap, and 
- apparently so easy of introduction, should 
-as yet be ‘hardly known on the conti- 
nent.» The bank of France, though of 
undoubted stability has found it practi- 
éable to establish branches in a few only 
of the» provincial. towns: several, con- 
taining a :population of 40,000 and up- 
wards, are still without such branches: 
and there isnot a private bank of circu- 
lation in the-whole country: The causes 
are; the distrust excited: by the recollec- 
tion of the assignats, the want of confi- 
dence in government, the absence of 
eommercial enterprize, as well as of the 
habits! of care and arrangement, which 
are indispensable to success ‘in a line of 
itself lessoprofitable than ‘is: commonly 
imagined.) Holland, with all her commer- 
cial improvements, has never adopted the 
bank-note system, while in Austria, Rus- 
sia; and Sweden, the pzper circulated’ is 
aforeed government currency, not con- 
vertible into cash. + 
' The obstacles to the circulation of 
bank paper on the continent, would pro- 
bably have’ yielded to the effects of peace 
and augmented trade: but they appear 
to have received:of late years, a confirm- 
ation:in the increased facility of forgery ; 
629 
and it would thus be vain to calculate on 
the extended use of bank paper, or on 
any effect likely to arise from it in regard 
to the value of the precious metals. 
INJURIOUS EFFECT OF FLUCTUATION. 
Money, as Dr. Smith remarks, is‘ an 
unexceptionable . measure of value in 
buying and selling ; -and it is, in general, 
a safe measure in-a contract from year to 
year; but, in a contract of long duration, 
the case is far otherwise. How great was 
its depreciation during the war, and not- 
withstanding the ‘various disadvantages 
attendant on landed property, how gene- 
ral was the preference given to it in the 
case of a provision for a young family, 
for erand-children or for any remote ob- 
ject. Is it not in the unfortunate ten- 
dency of money property to fluctuate, 
rather than in‘any distrust of the stability 
of the public funds, that we are to look 
for the cause ‘of stock sellmg: for’ six, 
seven, or eight years’ purchase Jess than 
land? Then, as to land itself, and the 
mode of letting it, can we trace among 
the various objections to long’ leases any 
so powerful as the uncertainty of the 
value of money? © Lastly, amidst all the 
difficulties in the question of a commu- 
tation for tithe, what operates so directly 
to prevent the church from acceding to 
a fixed money income, from reducing to 
a determinate form, that which, in its 
present unsettled state, leaves open so 
wide a field for contention ? 
TITHE. 
The great, and at present well founded, 
objection of the clergy to a ‘permanent 
commutation of tithe, isa dread; not of 
the faith of parliament, but of the uncer- 
tain value of money: remove. that ap- 
prehension, and you give them substan- 
tial motives to prefer a fixed sum, whe- 
ther’ they look to the interest of them- 
selves or their successors. In the’protes- 
tant church of Holland, they have an 'ex- 
ample of stipends paid during more than 
two centuries, by magistrates’ or by 
government, without any derogation 
from the respectability of those who re- 
ceived them: and if: in France,’ the 
amount of clerical income be’ too stall 
to be dwelt on when we are treating of a 
Protestant establishment, the regularity 
of its payment during twenty’ years, 
under’ circumstances’ of great fihancial 
embarrassment, is’ calculated’ to’ lessen 
one material ground of apprehension. 
Under our present system, thé church 
is intitled’ to an increase of révenue in 
ey ail ate to the increase’ of produce, 
ut such, we may’safely take for granted, 
would form no part of its*demand under 
a different 
