Retrospect of Domestic Literature—P olitics, &c. 
! ‘ 
To which is prefixed, a Life of the 
Author, by George Cuacmers, F.R.S. 
S.A. 
The life is founded on cerlain notes 
which Mr. King himself left in manu- 
script, and which are still extant in the 
Bodleian library at Oxford. 
“© The Question concerning the De- 
* preciation of our Currency stated and 
“examined by W. Husxrsson, ['sq. 
“OM. P.” Mr. Huskisson having taken 
a part in the discussion which preced- 
ed the Report of the Bullion Com- 
mittee has here given an explanation 
of his opinions respecting the deplo- 
rable state of our currency and circu- 
lation, and of the grounds on’ which 
those opinions were founded. 
To do justice to the merits of his 
pamphlet here would be impossible; we 
ean only bone to communicate a faint 
notion of the valuable facts and argu- 
menis which it coatains. 
In a preface of nineteen pages he 
animadverts on several of the attacks 
made on the Committee’s Report. 
In considering the main question, 
Mr. Huskisson sets out with some re- 
marks on. the various 
of ibe word ‘* money’’, and the differ- 
ent acceptations in which that werd 
is used in the ordinary transactions of 
life. He afterwards applies these ge- 
meral observations to the particular 
money of this country. He,assumes, 
as admitted, that in Great Britain, 
gold is the scale to which all prices are 
referred, and, since the S9th of the 
King, the only Lewan TENDER except 
for payments under 251. 
and law, 
*« 1. That a pound of gold, of our 
standard, is comed inte 44 guineas and 
a half, and that any person may, at 
the King’s mint, procure any quantity 
of gold to be so coined, free of any 
expence whatever ;' the officers of ibe 
mint being obliged to retara, ia coin, 
precisely the same quantity which 
may have been deposited with them, 
without making any charge for the 
conversion of it into money. 
“9dly, That by law, these guineas, 
which, when fresh from the mint weigh 
5 dwts. 9 grains, and thirty-nine eighty- 
ninths of a grain each, ceaseto be a 
“ legal Jender” if, by wear or otherwise 
they are reduced below 5 dwts. 8 grains, 
which is a diminution in their value of 
a small fraction more than one per cent. 
** Consequently the law of England 
before the year 1797, distinctly secur- 
ed to every man, that he should not be 
definitions. 
He likewise, 
assumes as ungueslionabic both in fact: 
compelled to take in satisfaction ofa 
legal debt, for every guinea of that 
debt, less than 5 dwts. § grains of gold 
of standard fineness ; and, as distinctly 
that he should not be obliged to re. 
ceive as the “ representative” of a gui- 
nea, Or a guinea’s worth; any article 
or thing which would not purchase or 
procure that quantity of gold. 
« Such was the state of our current 
coin before the year 1797.” At this 
period, in consequence of a demand 
upon the bank for gold, altogether un- 
usual, and arising from a combination 
of untoward circumstances and events, 
partly political and partly commercial, 
the directors of that institution felt 
themselves bound to stale tothe 
government the unprecedented diffcul- 
ties and embarrassments of their situa- 
tron. ‘ It is needless perhaps to add 
that an act was obtained for the tem- 
porary suspension of cash-payiments.”’ 
The nature of the change which this 
act created in the state of our circula- 
tion is ably explained Dy Mr. Huskis- 
son. 
‘<If it had been proposed, at once, 
(he says) tomake Bank Notes a ‘* le- 
gal. tender,” and indirect terms, to 
enact that every man should, thence- 
forward, be obliged to receive them as 
equivalent to the gold coin of ihe 
realin, without reference to the quan- 
tity of gold bullion which might be 
procured by.a bank note of any given 
“* denomination ;” such a propesition 
would have excited universal alarm, 
and would have forcibly drawn the 
attenlion of the legislature and the 
public to the real nature of our. cir- 
culation, and to the possible conse- 
quences of such an innovation. But 
certainly, nothing-ef the sort was in 
the contemplation of any man when 
the first suspension act was passed. 
Thatit was then considered and pro- 
posed, as an expedient which would 
be but of short: duration, the course 
of the proceedings in parliament abun- 
dantiy indicates. 
““ such being the original charac-- 
ter of the rneasure it is not extraordi- 
nary that in that crisis, parliament 
without much hesitation, and without 
any suspicion of the ultimate possible 
consequences, should have afturded a 
temporary protection from arrest to 
a debtor, who should have made a ten- 
der of payment in bank notes. Bat, 
if, in the year 1797, it had been fore- 
seen that this temporary expedient 
would be attempted to be converted 
into a system foran indefinite number 
’ YeRes; 
O71 . 
