THE CONDITION AND PROSPECTS OF THE AGRICULTURAL CLASSES. THE distress under which the agricultural classes labour at this moment, is fully as intense as that which overwhelmed them at the close of the last war; and it appears to us to proceed precisely from the same causa revolution in o ur monetary system. To all practical purposes, the change then made in the standard of our currency,raised the exchangeable value of the pound sterling one fourth; and, consequently, added 25 per cent to all subsisting pecuniary engagements. This put it in the power of one class of the community-the class of creditors-the inactive capitalists of the country, to take from another class the class of debtors—the active producers, one fourth more than they had any moral right to exact. But at that time the producing classes, who formed the great body of debtors, instead of demanding to be relieved from the wrong which, under the sanction of law, had been inflicted upon them by their creditors, were prevailed upon to overlook the true cause of their distress, and content themselves merely with obtaining protection against foreign competition in the home market: they obtained, to a certain extent, what they demanded; but this remedy not reaching the seat of distress under which they laboured, they were necessarily all ruined. The revolution of 1819 was the adoption of a metallic standard, weighing one fourth more than was represented by the paper pound sterling, for which it was substituted. But the economists, not satisfied with what was done in 1819, have effected a second revolution in the currency of this country, by substituting a metallic for a paper circulating medium. Judging of the present revolution by its practical effects-which, after all, is the only basis on which men of common sense will undertake to form a judgment; its results, if not arrested in time, will prove as fatal to the community as the consequences which flowed from the change in 1819: we shall again be doomed to witness the undue enrichment of one class of subjects at the expense of another, and a repetition of the heart-rending social changes which followed the VOL. XXVII. NO. CLXIII. repeal of the Bank Restriction Act. The crisis has already begun, and if the agricultural classes do not rouse themselves without a moment's delay, the destruction of the whole body is as certain and inevitable as that which was drawn down upon the heads of the same classes by the changes of 1819. We observe that an attempt is made at this moment to divert their attention from the real source of their distress. Instead of looking steadily and unanimously at the source of the evil-the alteration of our monetary system-the suppression of the one-pound note circulation-they are taught by persons who pretend to be their friends, to rest their hopes of relief in the repeal of taxes, and more especially of the malt and beer tax. Now, we beg to state, that we abominate this tax as much as any of those who appear most urgent for its repeal; we would hail that minister as a true lover of his country, who would remove this tax upon the wholesome juice of "John Barleycorn"-the national and genuine beverage of Britons, and impose a much higher rate of duty upon the base and demoralizing, and mind-destroying compounds, which are swallowed by gallons in those sinks of filthy and profligate iniquity -the gin shops. That the government of a Christian land-that the government of any land, should tolerate-nay, should deliberately encourage, the orgies and abominations of those places, for the sake of increasing the revenue-should thus pander to the profligacy of the populace for the sake of profit, is indeed a lamentable circumstance-and that the community at large should acquiese in this fiscal iniquity, and by that means become at least radically participators in it, is still more lamentable. Where is that active and zealous party, who compass sea and land to free the African from his bodily bondage, while this iniquity is being perpetrated at their own doors? But although we feel every desire to see this obnoxious tax repealed, and that upon spirituous liquors of every name and quality raised, we caution the agriculturists against being deluded Z into the belief, that this measure, however valuable in itself, would afford them the relief which they must have, or perish. What they have to complain of, is the unjust addition which, by interfering with the circulating medium, the legislature has again made to the value of money. This has put it a second time into the power of their creditors to exact from them much more than they really contracted to pay; and the effect of this measure will be their ruin, while all creditors, all annuitants, mortgagees, and money-lenders, will be inordinately and unjust ly enriched. Surely this race of fund-holders and other capitalists had advantages enough conferred upon them in 1819; at that period their claims were virtually increased in value one-fourth. This transferred into their hands an enormous mass of the whole property of the country: but this it seems is not enough; and, like the leech, their constant cry is, More! more! and if the economists be not instantly stopped in their career, another harvest equally rich, is now destined for the moneyed interest. Another generation of the cultivators of the soil, of the productive capitalists, are to be sacrificed-not to the just claims, but to the insatiable cupidity, of the money-jobbers. That any minister of the British crown should really intend to commit an act which would in its effects prove no less impolitic in its consequences, than it is unjust in principle, is a fact which we cannot believe. The whole of this mischief -the whole of the misery which our recent monetary changes have inflicted upon the producing classes, has been entirely owing to their own supineness and inactivity. On former occasions, they stood indolently by, while the measures for plundering them were being arranged; and in the present emergency, they seem inclined to pursue a similar line of policy upon them the bitter and dear-bought warning of experience appears to have been thrown away. They see the wave approaching; but instead of attempting to escape, they fold their arms, and helplessly await their coming fate. If we thought it would be attended with any effect-if we thought that any warning would excite them to protect their property from invasion, and their families from ruin, we would again impress upon their minds a fact, which we presume their painful experience has made already but too familiar to themthat the suppression of the onepound note circulation reduced the price of agricultural produce at least one-fourth, and by that means has added 25 per cent to all the fixed money-payments due from the agricultural classes, is a fact which cannot be disputed: 25 per cent upon the whole net revenue of the country is thus taken from the producing classes, and transferred, without compensation or consideration, into the pockets of the money-capitalists-of mortgagees, money-lenders, annuitants, placemen, and pensioners. We would also caution the agricultural classes against being seduced by the scribes and underlings of the Treasury, into the belief that the depression of their produce is merely temporary: they may rest assured, that it will prove as permanent as the cause by which it is produced: had it arisen from any circumstance of temporary endurance, the fall in the price of farming produce, which now threatens to ruin the whole race of, cultivators, might, of course, be expected to disappear with the cessation of the cause from which it proceeds. But the alteration which has been recently made in our monetary system, the substitution of a metallic for a paper circulating medium, is not a cause that will cease of itself, as long as it continues, the effect resulting from it will also endure. Above all things, therefore, let the agricultural classes beware of listening to the sophistries and delusions of the Treasury scribes. is both the business and interest of these underlings to deceive them: it is their business to puff their pay-masters and employers: this is the voca tion for which they are hired and retained; and not to perform it would, on their part, be a dereliction of duty. But it is also, in a more especial manner, their interest to uphold every measure which enhances the exchangeable value of money; every measure which adds to the value of the legal pound sterling, makes virtually a proportionate addition to the incomes of all that numerous class of individuals, who receive salaries from the public Treasury. A change It in the currency, which effects a reduction of 25 per cent in the price of agricultural produce, practically raises a salary or a pension of L.4000 to L.5000, or of L.400 to L.500 per annum; and by that means transfers just so much from the leathern sack of the innocent farmer into the silken purse of the Treasury pensioner. Can it, therefore, excite wonder, that changes which tell thus against the public, and in favour of men in of fice-which, while they plunder the hard-working and unsuspicious cultivator, enrich the whole body of Government retainers and money-jobbers, should find eulogists, patrons, and defenders? We have an especial purpose in entering into this detail of the body, strength, and number, of the partisans who are interested in upholding the present currency. We do it, in the first place, with the view of shewing the agriculturists the number and quality of the forces with which they will have to contend; for we are still inclined to hope, that the magnitude of the difficulty to be overcome, far from causing them to quail before it, will only serve to call forth the full display and application of their energy. If we could succeed in stimu lating them to put forth in protect ing their property from unjust invasion but one quarter of their real strength, we should entertain little apprehension about the result. The reconsideration of the whole question of the currency, and the establishment of a paper circulating medium upon a sound metallic basis, would be the certain consequence, We also feel perfectly confident, that the Master of the Cabinet is not illinclined to such a modification of our monetary system, or rather to a return to that system in which all the present engagements of the country, both public and private, were contracted. The suppression of the one-pound note circulation is no measure of his: to the support of this unjust and injurious contraction of the circulating medium, he is not, as far as our recollection of his declared opinions carries us, in any way pledged; and if any of his colleagues should happen to stand so committed, should consider himself bound, by a regard for consistency, to ruin another race of British farmers, let him save the country from this evil, and retire. The services of one man, although that man were even a minister of state, would not, in our humble judgment, counteract the consequence of ruining once more the whole body of the cultivators of the soil. But, on the supposition that his Majesty's Prime Minister sees the ill effects of the change which has recently taken place in the currency, and feels disposed to remedy them, still it is indispensable that the agricultural classes should instantly bestir themselves, should, without the loss of a single week, step boldly and generally forward to demand redress: this will at once place him in a commanding position, and enable him to accomplish what he already desires, and afford them relief. If the agriculturists neglect to approach their representatives with the boldness of British freemen, and the importunity of injured subjects, the Head of his Majesty's Treasury, although wellinclined to their cause, cannot, powerful as he is, make any move in their favour. He is surrounded on all hands by legions of official persons; by swarms of importunate loancontractors, money-lenders, and coldblooded theorists, whom he cannot put to flight without assistance; this assistance he expects to receive at the hands of the agriculturists. This assistance it behoves them, if they would escape the ruin which otherwise must overtake them, promptly and simultaneously to give him, It is the interest of the locusts by whom he is beset to make money dear, and by that means increase the remuneration which the public is called upon to pay for their services: Let the agriculturists, by the decision and unanimity of their measures, enable the Prime Minister to tell this greedy and insatiable swarm, that he can no longer sanction an unjust exactionthat he can no longer support them in expecting that obligations contracted in a paper currency should be liquidated in a metallic circulating medium, which virtually adds 25 per cent to their amount. Let the agriculturists, therefore, but prove true to their own interests, let them but shew themselves the determined defenders of their own property, and we can promise them a complete redress of the intolerable injustice under which they now labour. If, however, they think pro per to fall asleep over their wrongs, if they neglect or delay to press their grievances upon the attention of Parliament, their ruin will prove as complete as it must be inevitable. Every man who holds land on lease; every man who has an estate encumbered with mortgages, or annuities, must lay his account in losing the whole of his property; nothing will be left for him but to submit decently to his fate, and resign his patrimony into the hands of mortgagees and money-lenders. The real points to be considered, are, the justice, the expediency, and the practicability, of the measure which we now recommend. Is it just that any measure should be adopted by the Legislature which would be attended with the effect of reducing the exchangeable value of the present pound sterling? We certainly are of opinion, that on every principle of equity, Government would not only be justified, but that it is imperatively called upon to carry such a measure into effect. Every government owes, and every just go vernment will yield, an equal degree of protection to all its subjects-to debtors as well as creditors. It is equally the duty of the Legislative power to protect the debtor from being crushed by an undue extension of the claims of the creditor, as to secure to the creditor himself the faithful liquidation of his just demands. Now, it is well known, that all the subsisting engagements of this country, have been entered into in a paper currency; and experience has proved, that the forcible substitution of a circulating medium, wholly metallic, for this paper currency, has very materially increased the exchangeable value of the pound sterling; in other words, it has raised the value of money, and lowered the price of commodities. Hence, a pound sterling of the present period, will purchase one-fourth more of every article of consumption than it would have commanded in exchange before the suppression of the onepound note circulation; and the farmer or other person, who is under a legal engagement to pay a certain number of pounds sterling, either as rent, or the interest of a mortgage or debt, is thus virtually called upon for 25 per cent more than he contracted to pay; and an injury, amounting to five shillings in the pound, is by this means inflicted upon him, in order to benefit another party, who has not the shadow of a title to such an advantage. Some persons may perhaps be disposed to dispute the fact, that the rise in the value of the pound sterling is to be ascribed to the suppres sion of the small note circulation. On this point we can only argue from analogy; we know that when an extra demand is created for a commodity, of which the supply either remains stationary, or does not keep pace with the extra call for it, an increase will, and must inevitably take place in its price or exchangeable value. The same principles which apply to other commodities, will, we apprehend, be found to operate upon the exchangeable value of gold. Until the suppression of the paper pound note, there was in this country scarcely any demand for gold as a circulating medium: but the moment the bill for suppression of that species of currency began to operate, a new demand was created for gold to be coined into current money. The amount of this new demand, when compared with the quantity of that metal previously sold in the English market, is very considerable; it probably amounts to at least a hundred to one: that is to say, for every pound weight of gold which before the suppression of the one-pound note circulation, was sold in the bullion market, at least one hundred pounds weight are now required to supply the wants of the country to be coined into money. While a great addition has been thus made to the demand for gold as a commodity, no corresponding addition has been made to the existing supply by the importation of more gold from the American mines: for many years (indeed ever since the commencement of the South American disturbances) these mines have ceased to be worked. It may therefore be assumed, that for the last twelve or fifteen years no addition has been made to the stock of gold existing, either in the shape of bullion or coined money, in the whole of the European market, or indeed of the whole world: hence the supply of gold required to form the new cir culating medium of this country has been drawn not from the mines, but from the stock of that metal already circulating, either as bullion or coin in other countries. On this account, it is manifest that a great and unavoidable increase has taken place in the exchangeable value of gold, not only here, but also all over the continent of Europe. This new demand for the precious metals, for the purpose of being coined into current money, has occasioned a great influx of gold and silver into this country; and as the gap produced by this quantity attracted hither has not been filled up by a fresh supply from the American or any other mines, it is clear that the real or exchangeable value of these metals has been raised not only in England but also everywhere else. And this opinion is amply corroborated by the experience of mercantile men at all acquainted with the present state of continental markets. It is well known that since the recent changes in our monetary system have revived in this country the demand for the precious metals, in order to be coined into money, gold and silver have become dearer, and command a greater quantity of commodities in exchange in other countries. This alteration in the exchangeable value of these metals is known to have produced considerable derangements and distress among other nations as well as our own; though they have been felt here more severely than elsewhere, because the money transactions of the British dominions are incalculably more numerous and important than those of any other country on the face of the globe. Now we do not by any means contend that this high price of gold is an evil in itself; it cannot signify what the exchangeable value of the circulating medium may intrinsically be, provided it maintain an uniform and invariable rate; it is then only that it can without inconvenience serve as a medium of exchange; but any sudden alteration either in the demand for or supply of the precious metals, must necessarily alter their value relatively to other commodities, and in consequence create embarrassment and distress. The vast bulk of pecuniary obligations entered into in this country, are formed and designed to take place prospectively; and any sudden rise or fall in the value of the circulating medium, as exchanged for commodities, must occasion a degree of injury proportioned to the amount of the whole mass of engagements on which it operates. This is precisely our case at the present moment. The recent change in our monetary system having very greatly increased the demand for gold, has enhanced its exchangeable value at least 25 per cent; and all persons who have any fixed money contracts to fulfil, find, that although the demands upon them remain nominally the same, a real addition of 25 per cent has been made to their obligations. This will very clearly account for the intense distress which now pervades every district of this kingdom. The legislature has once more armed the creditors of the state, as well as of private individuals, with a legal power to add 25 per cent to their just claims upon the whole body of debtors. The oppression and iniquity of such a measure are so palpable and manifest, that we need not dwell on them. We therefore think, that upon every principle of equity, as well as honesty, Parliament should, at its next meeting, not lose one moment before it seriously sets about remedying the mischief which this measure has already effected. We would, with all humility, take the liberty of putting that august assembly in mind of the real extent of its constitutional power over the currency of the realm. The constitution of this country vests in the crown the power of regulating our circulating medium. This prerogative was conferred upon the Sovereign for the advantage of his subjects: its exercise served to protect the public against being defrauded by base coin. The royal impress was a warranty, that each piece of money circulating as a medium of exchange, was of legal weight and standard fineness. But although the Sovereign was thus invested with the right of coining money, and even of delegating the exercise of this right to subjects in whom he might be dis posed to repose such confidence, neither he nor his delegates possessed any just right either to alter the quantity or debase the quality of the metal which a piece of current mo |