STATE PAPERS, 



475 



that the low state of the continen- 

 tal exchanges; that this excess is 

 to be ascribed to the want of a 

 sufficient check and control in the 

 issues of paper from the Bank of 

 England ; and originally to the 

 suspension of cash paynrsents, which 

 removed the natural and true con- 

 trol. For upon a general view of 

 the subject, your committee are of 

 opiniou that no safe, certain, and 

 constantly adequate provision 

 against an excess of paper cur- 

 rency, either occasional or perma- 

 nent, can be found, except in the 

 convertibility of all such paper into 

 specie. Your committee cannot, 

 therefore, but see reason to regret, 

 that the suspension of cash pay- 

 ments which, in tiie most favour- 

 able light in which it can be view- 

 ed, was only a temporary measure, 

 has been continued so long ; and 

 particularly, that by the manner 

 in which tlie present continuing 

 act is framed, the character should 

 have been given to it of a perfect 

 war measure. 



' Your committee conceive that 

 it would be superfluous to point 

 out, in detail, the disadvantages 

 which must result to the countrj', 

 from any such general excess of 

 currency as lowers its relative 

 value. The eflPect of such an 

 augmentation of prices upon all 

 money transactions for time ; the 

 unavoidable injury suffered by 

 annuitants, and by creditors of 

 every description, both private 

 and public; the unintended ad- 

 vantage gained by government 

 and all other debtors ; are conse- 

 quences too obvious to require 

 proof, and too repugnant to jus- 

 tice to be left without remedy. By 

 far the most important portion of 

 this effect appears to your commit- 

 ^e to be that which is communi- 



cated to the Wages of common 

 country labour, the rate of which 

 it is well known, adapts itself more 

 slowly to the changes which hap- 

 pen in the value of money, than the 

 price of any otherspecies of labour 

 or commodity. And it is enough 

 for your committee to allude to 

 some classes of the public servants, 

 whose pay, if once raised in conse- 

 quence of a depreciation of money, 

 cannot so conveniently be reduced 

 again to its former rate, even after 

 money shall have recovered its 

 value. The future progress of 

 these inconveniences and evils, if 

 not checked, must, at no great dis- 

 tance of time, work a practical 

 conviction upon the minds of all 

 those who may still doubt their 

 existence ; but even if their pro- 

 gressive increase were less pro- 

 bable than it appears to your 

 committee, they cannot help ex- 

 pressing an opinion, that the in- 

 tegrity and honour of parliament 

 are concerned not to authorise, 

 longer than is required by impe- 

 rious necessity, the continuance in 

 this great commercial country of a 

 system of circulation in which that 

 natural check or control is absent 

 which maintains the value of 

 money, and, by the permanency 

 of that common standard of value, 

 secures the substantial justice and 

 faith of monied contracts and obli- 

 gations between man and man. 



Your committee moreover beg 

 leave to advert to the temptation 

 to resort to a depreciation even of 

 the value of the gold coin by an 

 alteration of the standard to which 

 parliamentitself might besubjected 

 by a great and long continued ex- 

 cess of paper. This has been the 

 resource of many governments 

 under such circumstances, and is 

 the obvious and most easy remedy 



