8 



might distribute commodities might enable men to exchange 

 the productions of their industry, to buy and sell, to pay rents, 

 taxes, and debts in a word, to discharge, as the Bank Notes 

 did discharge, all the functions of money (hear). Every sov- 

 ereign we have in this country we have bought with our goods. 

 So it was then ; while the Paper Money was circulating at 

 home, our merchants were exchanging their goods for other 

 commodities, and gold and silver among other things, abroad ; 

 and this gold and silver were sold to Government, and with it 

 our troops were paid, and foreign powers subsidized (hear). 

 Under this system the country nourished, in spite of War and 

 all its attendant evils. I say " in spite of War." For I adopt 

 the opinion of a man who has been a warrior from his youth 

 up the Duke of Wellington in calling war " the greatest 

 of all evils" (loud cheers). Morally, socially, and politically, 

 War is the most dreadful scourge which Providence has per- 

 mitted to visit the earth (renewed cheering). This country 

 felt, and felt severely at times, the evils of war. The closing 

 of ports and markets by French influence was an evil. The 

 seizure of ten millions of property belonging to British mer- 

 chants in the Baltic ports, caused much distress. The refusal 

 of the Americans to take our goods of which 7,000,000. 

 annually were sold in the States inflicted much suffering on 

 our manufacturing districts. Still, we spent much in war 

 we lent large sums to Government we paid heavy taxes 

 and the nation progressed and prospered (hear). The reason 

 of this was, that aa adequate and abundant circulating me- 

 dium was provided. In 1797, the Bank Notes in circulation 

 were 8,601,964. ; in 1807, the circulation was 16,724,368. 

 or nearly double ; in 1814, it was 28,291,832. or more 

 than three times as much as in 1797 (hear). With this increase 

 in money, prices rose. The Committee of the House of Com- 

 mons reported in 1815, that the price of wheat in this country, 

 on an average of 5 years, had never exceeded 50s. a quarter. 

 But the average price of wheat from 1794 to 1820 was 87s. 

 lOd. a qr. and from 1809 to 1820, 98s. 9d. a qr. And observe 

 there was NO PROTECTION then (hear, hear). We were then 

 a corn importing country, and land was constantly being 

 brought into cultivation. Porter states that, from 1797 to 

 1816, no less than 17/9 Inclosure Bills passed. We had also 

 fewer mouths to feed. The population of Great Britain, ac- 

 cording to Mr. McCulloch was in 1801, 10, 943,000-- while 



