6 



farmer can bring to market must, from its nature, be 

 limited. But both manufacturer and agriculturist must 

 suffer: and the injury inflicted on each class will re-act 

 and increase the suffering of the other. Corn and cattle, 

 and every description of goods, will be brought to this 

 country, and gold or goods reduced in price to their gold 

 value will be taken away. 



Now what is the remedy for this state of things ? 



I. It is to alter the law respecting gold. The FIXED 



PRICE OF GOLD IS THE GREATEST EVIL OF THE EXISTING 

 SYSTEM. 



As long as the foreign merchant can demand payment 

 for what he sells to us in gold at a fixed price, he has an 

 unfair advantage in every bargain he makes. Let gold 

 rise and fall in price, according to the supply and demand 

 in the English market, and we shall then deal with the 

 foreigner on fair terms. It is only in this manner that a 

 highly taxed and deeply indebted country like ours, can 

 deal on equal terms with countries less highly taxed and 

 less burdened with debt. But the doing away with the 

 law which fixes the price of gold would have another most 

 important and beneficial effect. When any amount of 

 gold is withdrawn from the country, the Bank, to protect 

 itself, is immediately obliged to lessen its circulation of 

 notes so that when money is most wanted for the fair 

 and needful operations oi trade, then the Bank is forced 

 to diminish its issues to the utmost. The depression and 

 ruin occasioned by this course can hardly be estimated. 

 Mills are stopped -workmen by thousands are thrown 

 out of employment merchants who were rich, find 

 themselves beggars funds and shares are depreciated in 

 value every contract between man and man is violated 

 prices are pressed down to a ruinous level and the 

 whole country is thrown into disorder till by the sacrifice 

 of enormous quantities of our goods at any price that can 

 be got for them, and by a practical suspension of the Acts 

 of 1819 and 1844, a few millions of gold are brought 

 back into the country. All these evils, which were so 



