1824.] 



On M'Adamised Sqtiares and Streets. 



t«n limes Ihc amount I The proportion 

 is as 12 to 100 aj^aiiist the present age ; 

 anil is not this increase enough lor in- 

 dustry to pay? or, ralher, is it to 1)0 

 tolerated, that, under such ciiange in the 

 amount of capital, there has not hccii 

 enacted a simultaneous diminution in 

 the rate of Ic^al interest? If llie parlia- 

 ment disturb any liiin<? on this suhject, 

 and if it act wisely, it will, tinder these con- 

 siderations, no longer hesitate to reduce 

 tiie legal rate of interest to four per cent. 

 Such a desirable rc-aclion must result 

 from the subject being brought into dis- 

 cussion. 



The capitalist, at five per cent., 

 doubles his capital every fourteen years ; 

 and, in the present slate of trading atid 

 agricultural profits, there are few who, 

 on borrowing, can hope to effect more ; 

 iience all are labouring for (he capi- 

 talists. The low profits of foreign trade 

 in particular demand an acnonimoda- 

 lion in this res[)ec(; for, with a borrowed 

 capital, which contributes double to the 

 Ic.ndcr in fourteen years, and, owing to 

 expenses, doubles on the borrower in 

 twelve years, almost every exporting 

 establishment must be converging to- 

 wards insolvency. If more than four per 

 <;ent. is continued to be paid for capital, 

 we must cease to compete in foreign 

 markets; while, if five per cent, can ho 

 made without trade, no wise man will 

 embark in its risks. 



Some reason would attend the jiro- 

 posed repeal, if the legal interest were 

 fixed at an even five per cent., but such 

 is not the fact. Industry, credit, and 

 enterprise, are properly protected 

 against the sinister operation of capital 

 by prohibiting a greater concession than 

 five per cent. ; but, when capital is plen- 

 tiful, or at any time in the pleasure of 

 the capitalist, he must or may reduce it 

 to four, or three, or two, per cent. It is 

 merely a protecting law to secure im- 

 providence or necessity against rapacity; 

 and, if not found strong enough, its pro- 

 visions ought to bo extended. The 

 alteration of tin; law now proposed, is 

 conscipiently not destined to relieve tlie 

 jMiople of England ; but, if passed, 

 would exclusively benefit the capi- 

 talists. 



If the capitalist contend that lie can 

 make more of his money in other coun- 

 tries, let him try. The wealth of the 

 world would not How towards England 

 if such was the fact. He will, on such 

 trial, soon discover his false calculation. 

 His maximum of advantage is in Eng- 

 land, and results from thifi very law whitli 



201 



is the foundation of commercial credit, 

 and the soureoof all that jirivate enter- 

 prise which confers on capital certainty 

 of profit, and at the same lime renders 

 it available and desirable. Capital 

 would be of little use, were it either not 

 productive or not wanted; and both these 

 results take place in Britain, solely be- 

 cause the Usury Laws protect credit and 

 forster industry. 



I conceive that the legislattue is not 

 so infatuated as to continue to give 

 countenance to these zealots of a false 

 theory ; and, tlierefore, that our pros- 

 perity will not be endangered by their 

 manoeuvres ; but, if the Bill now pend- 

 ing should, by any compromise of jiarties 

 or principles, make progress in pnrlia- 

 nient, it will then behove the people, I'roni 

 the Land's End to the Orknejs, to ex- 

 press their sense of so disastrous HHd 

 pernicious a proposition. 



In the hope of drawing atlentinn to 

 the magnitude of the inteiests «hie!i are 

 at slake in this question, I have .submit- 

 ted to the irksome duty of thus ob- 

 truding my opinions on the public. 



Common Sense. 



March 8, 1824. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR, 



THE unmeasu^d praise bestowed 

 on the politic Mr. M'At'am, in 

 pp. 67 and 68 of your 392d Nundier, 

 ])roceeds on evident mistakes, since 

 " large roinid stones" have not, dining 

 n)any years past, been laid down in the 

 carriage-way ])avemcnt of any busy or 

 good streets in London, or in any of its 

 polite squares; but the round stones 

 alluded to have, on the contrary, been 

 i-emoved to give place to squared gra- 

 nite blocks of iTioderate sizi", so perfectly 

 answering every useful ])nrpose, that not 

 merely "the increased dnsi," but the 

 black and putrid mud, amongst loose 

 stones which cannot be swept, and great 

 expense of renewing the ground and 

 pulverised "M'Adams," will, in a very 

 few years, force the replacing of tho 

 granite pavement. 



By reference to the third volume of 

 "Agricultural .Survey of Derbyshire," 

 page 275, it will he seen, that the lalo 

 Joseph Wilkes's concave roads, hero 

 lauded, have long since been filled up, 

 and made convex, and the principle 

 foimd an absurd one; ; and front pages 

 250 to 260 it will be seen, that, very 

 long before Mr. M'Adam was heard of, 

 " Nature's principle of cohesion," by 

 fitting the lorni3 of uiateriaU, reduced 



in 



