se a ell 
1826.] Letier on Affairs in general. 419 
tion with every other commodity ; and he who possesses it is entitled 
to make the best market of it that he can. Now this’propositiun is 
quite unfounded in fact; for money is not “ like’ any other ‘commo- 
dity;” but, on the contrary, differs most curiously and essentially from 
every other commodity. It is not (as we are told day after day), like 
« cloth for a coat,” or “ silk for a handkerchief ;” because he who wants 
these things will wazt for them, if the terms be very unreasonable on 
which he is to purchase them. But for money, when he wants it, five 
times in six, he cannot—or, what is practically the same thing—he will 
not—wait. 
‘Money can stand in the same relative condition with no commo 
dity,; except it were a commodity which should be an absolute 
and indispensable necessary of life; and by a wonderful felicity in 
the arrangement of human affairs, there is scarcely any absolute neces- 
sary of life which is not so perishable in its quality, as to give the 
seller a common interest in its ready disposal with the buyer. The 
baker, who has baked his shop full of loaves, must sell them within 
twenty-four hours, or their value is materially decreased: The butcher 
who has filled his shop full of meat, must sell it within two days, or it 
becomes wnsaleable altogether. Even if we take a broader view of the 
subject than this—apart from those considerations which depend upon 
forms of existing or casual detail. Corn wastes in weight, and loses in 
quality, by warehouseing. Moreover, it eats up money in room-rent, 
for it is a bulky, as well as a perishable article. Cattle, againj every 
day that they live, after they are once in a state fit for the market, ‘are 
eating up so much of the profit which should eventually be gained upon 
them. There is xo commodity, of which the need of him who wants it 
is likely to be vitally pressing, which can be held back with so much con- 
venience by him who has it as money. The only approach to the same 
power which the capitalist would have without the usury laws, is in the 
power which the /and-owners now hold by the aid of the corn laws. 
And—here is the proof that such a power cannot continue to be 
borne. The landlords must not have their own prices—the corn laws: are 
the first curse that we shall get rid of. Wo), 
So, now to return to the “ Hackney coachmen,” who are most mer- 
cilessly dealt with !—being restrained, not only in the use which they 
shall make of their coaches, but also of their tongues.—( Not but that 
these economists, I believe, would persuade us, every one of them, that 
they have seen the suntake “ coach,” and could distinguish the colour 
of his horses !)—But Mr. Alderman Wood made a perquisition the other 
day into the quantity of liberty which hackney-coachmen had left to 
them; and I think that the public, as well as the parties themselves, 
ought to be advertised of the result. The worthy Alderman carried 
the conductor of No. 1135 to Bow-street, upon a charge of having 
driven furiously against himself, and some other gentlemen, in the street ; 
calling them “ tailors,” &c. very impudently, and desiring them to « get 
out of the way.” Upon inquiry into which, it turned out that the Jehu 
in question could not be punished for his mis-doings, as the Act of Par- 
liament against hackney-coachmen’s insolence only applied to the vitupe- 
ration of their “ fares.” ~ * A word to the whips is enough.” Kyrie 
~ Miracles are not quite hopeless even in the year 1826. The Morn- 
ing Post of this day (12th of September) contains the following extra- 
ordinary notice of a *« removal.”—*« The plot of ground allotted for the 
. 3 H 2 
, 
aTet 
