164 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



to all this, internal trade was badly hampered 

 by the inadequacy of its market-place and 

 the condition of the roads, the principal 

 thoroughfare from the country to the harbour 

 being only seven feet wide. The States of 

 Guernsey found it impossible to levy fresh 

 taxes, beyond Is. a gallon for spirituous 

 liquors. How, then, were they to introduce 

 pressing reforms without incurring a large 

 debt which would be saddled upon the people 

 of Guernsey for ever afterwards ? 



It was the Bailiff, Daniel de Lisle Brock, 

 who seems to have been the inspired genius 

 of the scheme of issuing non-interest bearing 

 notes, and the states agreed to let the Market- 

 house be built, as it were, by paper, or shall 

 we say, by credit. 



Let me give the Bailiff's own words, in his 

 Billet dEtat of 1827: "An individual with 

 an income of £9000, who spends only half of 

 it, wishes to build a house at the cost of 

 £13,000. He therefore makes an arrange- 

 ment with his timber- merchant, his mason, 

 and his carpenter and others, to pay them 

 out of his savings, so that they shall receive a 

 part each year for five years. Can it be said 

 that he is contracting debts ? Will he not 



