VOL. XX. No. 3.]

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY 20, 1811.

[Price 18.

"I maintain, that all Europe is contemplating the payment in specie at the Bank as the criterion " of the credit of the country. If the Bank continue to issue paper without controul, the Country Banks " will do the same. They will pour out their notes upon us without mercy; and we are now BEGIN"NING A COURSE OF ASSIGNATS.............Loud cries of Order! Order! Question! Question! "Question! from every part of the House.”—MR, ROBSON'S Speech, in the Honourable House, 2nd April, 1802.

"By these WISE and provident measures (the measures relating to the Bank Stoppage) all the apprehensions that were entertained are vanished: the credit of the Bank is as high, both at home " and abroad, as it ever was; and, not the slightest inconvenience possible is, or has been, experienced " from its not paying in cash."- -OLD GEORGE ROSE. Brief Examination of the Finances, pubfished first in 1799, and republished in 1806.

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of the Honourable House; that he was hooted out of countenance, and, you may see in the history of that day's proceedings, that he was obliged to sit down and to What was the folly he was guilty of? Why, hold his tongue. And yet, what did he say? foretelling precisely what has now come he recommended upon the occasion here to pass. And, I beg you to observe, that referred to a controul as to the quantity of paper to be issued by the Bank, a measure now recommended by the whole of one party in the Honourable House and by part of the other party; and, though I am not one of those who think that it would have been possible to save the paper by the means of any such controul; still, the proposition is now put forward as the only one that can restore the paper to its former value. Yet did the members of the Honourable House boot Mr. ROBSON down; they coughed and laughed and hallooed him off his legs. Ah! but those times were very different from the present. The enemies of truth were then strong. They had not as yet seen the guinea at a premium, and the bank note at a discount. Faith! they have a great deal more to see yet: what they have to see they can scarcely guess at. Much good may it do them. They hooted down Mr. Robson; they had their own way; and, therefore, let them not complain when the days of their humiliation shall arrive.

The second motto calls to our minds the means that were, and that, all along, have been made use of to deceive the people as to the finances in general, and especially as to the state of the paper-money, in which work this GEORGE ROSE as borne a principal part. He was, for many years, Secretary of the Treasury under PITT, by whose authority this publication was made

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Well said, Old GEORGE ROSE! This was the sort of language by which the nation

in the name of Rose. In short, he has " of which to a successful issue is to been a great actor in the drama, which is secure us in the enjoyment of every nanow drawing to a close; and he is one of "tional advantage, and to protect us from the men, of whose past conduct it will," the infliction of every national calamity. hereafter, be necessary, absolutely neces- "The imperious and awful necessity of sary, to give the history. "Not the slightest" the present crisis unavoidably subjects "inconvenience." No, not to George Rose," us to heavy burdens. It has been said perhaps; but, could the rest of the nation "that they ought to be considered as a say so? Could they say so, out of whose " SALVAGE for the remaining part of our taxes George Rose was getting about ten " property. In the consideration of prothousand pounds a year? But, there is ano- perty, to which it was applied, the figure ther passage in this same publication of" is sufficiently striking; but, in other reGEORGE ROSE, to which I must beg leave "spects, the metaphor, though just, is into solicit your attention, of which it is well" adequate. What Tariff shall settle the worthy. "difference between national independance " and inexorable tyranny? between personal "There is a time for all things," and " liberty and requisitions, prisons, and murnow is the time for reminding the people" der? between the BLESSED COMof England of the means by which they "FORTS OF RELIGION and the gloomy have been deluded. It was in vain to en- "despair of Atheism?" deavour to open their eyes before; but, now, perhaps, they may be induced to make use of their senses. The following is a specimen of the means employed to was led on in the former war. The cant delude them, at once to wheedie and to scare does, indeed, no longer take. It has not them into a quiet surrender of their money. the powers that it possessed ten years ago; I beg you to read it with attention; and but, still there is cant in the nation, and you will, I hope, be ashamed at having we ought to be constantly upon our guard been deceived by lies and hypocrisy so against it." Between the blessed comforts glaring. "As the amount of the debt, which" of religion and the gloomy despair of "will be incurred, in this and every sub-" Atheism" Why this, Gentlemen? What sequent year of the war, will be so re- had the blessed comforts of religion to do "duced by the application of the money with the matter? How, if any of you bad "coming in from the tax on income (after had the spirit to put the question to him; "ten millions shall have been raised for how were the blessed comforts of religion "the service of each current year), as that to be taken from you by the French Repub"the permanent debt, which will be left licans? How were those blessed comforts "as an addition to the antecedent one, to be secured to you by a bloody war "will not exceed the annual amount of against those republicans? In short, what "the whole produce of the sinking fund. had religion or atheism to do with the "This is A TRUTH so important, that it matter? What an impudent thing to tell "cannot be too often or in too many you, that, if you did not part freely with "shapes exhibited for the satisfaction of our your money, you would be plunged into "country, for the conviction of our enemics, the gloomy despair of atheism! What an "and for the information of Europe. If impudent thing was this! But, let us see "France has built hopes (founded on ig- what GEORGE ROSE really meant, when he "norant or visionary calculations), on the was talking about the blessed comforts of re"expected overthrow of our financial sys-ligion and the salvage upon your property. "tem, and has trusted to the failure of our "resources, she may now perceive what "means, after so many years of this ardu"ous struggle, Great Britain still possesses "for maintaining it. It would be a slan"der to the sense and virtue of the people, "to suppose an abatement of that spirit which "has enabled government to call forth those The prosperous state of the "empire which affords the power, fur"nishes all the motive, for continuing "the contest; a contest, the support

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"resources.

He says "salvage upon OUR property;' but, we shall soon see what sort of salvage he paid. You were to pay salvage, but he did not tell you to whom. He did not tell the " thinking people," that he himself was one of the great receivers and pocketers of the said salvage. Yet, at the time when he wrote he and his sons were, and they now are, in the receipt annually of public money to the following amount:

OLD GEORGE ROSE, as Treasurer of the Navy..............

£. 4,321

why should not we do this? Why should not we, in our present state, inquire who have, if any persons have, gained by this increase of debt; or, in other words, whether there be any persons, who have been receiving, for the last twenty or thirty years (we may stop there,) large sums of money out of the loans, which loans have added to the Debt? Why, in short, should not we look with this sort of eye into our affairs? The nation, this "most thinking "nation," seems here again to be deluded. The public were getting into motion: it was impossible to keep them quite quiet any longer but, it was easy to throw them off upon a wrong scent; and, for this purpose, the halloo against LORD KING was set up. But, "steady" men of England! "Solid" men of England! Thinking, "most thinking people" of England! Do not, thus, to the last, expose yourselves to the ridicule and contempt of the world! Let me beseech you not to be dupes and gulls to the last moment!

have taken any part of the money to themselves or given it away, that opens to us a most interesting view of the matter.

Well, then, in looking over the account books of the nation for the last twenty or thirty years, I find several large sums paid to OLD GEORGE ROSE and his sons, and I find, too, that the far greater part of it has been paid them for sinecure offices, that is to say nothing-to-do-Offices. I put these sums together, I calculate the interest upon them, and I find them, together with the interest, amount to 323,000l. or thereabouts. So! say I, here I have, then, discovered the cause, in part, of this embarrassment in our affairs. If this money had not been given to the ROSES, the nation would not, of course, have been so much in Debt, the Dividends upon the interest of the Debt would not have been so large, the Bank Company need not have made so much paper to pay the Dividends with, the run upon the Bank would not have taken place so soon, the stoppage of cash payments would not have been called for at so early a period, the depreciation would not have come on so fast, the gold would have been longer in arriving at a premium, and LORD KING would not as yet, at least, have given the notice, which has led to the Bill now before parliament.

What, considering us as rational men; considering us as intellectual beings; considering us as creatures having souls in our bodies; considering us as something superior to the beasts that perish: considering ourselves in this light, what, I ask, have we to do with the manner in which LORD KING, one of the land-owners, wishes to settle with his tenants for their rent? I shall be asked, perhaps, what signifies Let him, in the name of common sense, 323,000l. when the Debt amounts to manage his affairs in any way that he 800,000,000l. My answer is, that millions likes best; and let us endeavour to re- are composed of ones; and that no sums trieve our affairs. With this laudable de- are so large as those which grow out of termination in our minds, and being con- many small ones. But, is this a small sum? vinced that all our embarrassments arise Look at it! It is a 2,500th part of the whole from our Debts, let us look back into our of the National Debt. Think of that! I books for the last twenty or thirty years, may have made an error in my estimate; and see how we have got rid of our money. the Roses may not have had this income We have always had a large income, and yet for so long a time; and I may have comour AGENT, for the time being, has been bor-mitted an error in computing the amount rowing money for us. This may possibly have been necessary; but, at least, let us not act the part of careless men in common life, who, in spite of circumstances enough to awaken suspicion in credulity itself, still confide in a plundering sharper. Let us look into our books; let us look back into our old accounts, and see what our AGENTS, in succession, have done with our money. Our income they have expended, they have made prodigious loans in our name, and have charged us with interest upon them: let us see, then, to whom and for what they have paid away all this money; for, if we should find, that they

of the interest; but, if I am right, as I think I am, under the mark instead of over the mark, then have these persons, this one family, and, indeed, one member of it chiefly, received, from the nation, in principal and interest, a 2,500th part of the whole of the National Debt even at this day in existence.

Here we are upon the TRUE SCENT, Gentlemen; and, I am quite satisfied, that all the hallooing and hooting and doubling and luring in the world will never, in the end, prevent us from having success in the chace. A 2,500th part of the whole Debt

mind; but, of the Debt created within the last twenty or thirty years, it will make about 1-800th part. So that, if my calculations be correct, George Rose and his Son (without including the value of the reversionary grant or of the Envoy's pension) have, during the last twenty or thirty years, received, in principal and interest, a sum of money from the people equal to a 1,800th part of all that portion of the National Debt, which has been created during the last thirty years!

made Atheists by the French Republicans, this claim is good. Those who could be made believe that must be of so stupid and so base a nature as to make them wholly unworthy of the attention of him, whose object is happy and free; because such people must have been fashioned by nature to be slaves. What a degrading idea! Pay money to prevent myself from being made an Atheist! Pay taxes; suffer in silence my estate to be taken from me piece-meal, and sit quiet while I am told, that this is necessary in order that the French may not take from me" the BLESSED COMFORTS of religion!" Talk of credulity, indeed! Talk of the pilgrims who used to go and make their offerings at the shrine of Thomas à Becket! Talk of the Priest-craft and gullibility of three centuries back! I defy any man to produce me, from the annals of superstition, from any of the records of human credulity or human cowardice, any thing which to the character of man is so degrading as this.

When sinecures and pensions have been talked of, you have observed certain persons set up an affected, horse laugh, as if the amount was a mere trifle, a thing to laugh at; but, you see, Gentlemen, that these are not trifles; that they are things worth looking into; and there are few persons, I believe, who have ever had to do with embarrassed pecuniary affairs, who will not think with me, that the sooner we look into these things the better. For, if we were, for instance, to find out, in searching the Nation's old accounts, 1,800 persons, each of whom has received of the Yet, this was the sort of language made public money, in the last thirty years, a use of by the partizans of Pitt, during the sum in amount equal to that received by whole course of the Anti-jacobin war. GEORGE ROSE, then the thing is made There were many tricks played off; but clear at once. There is no more diffi- the grand, the master trick, the never failculty. We, at once, see the cause of the ing fraud, was the alarm at the danger of increase of the national Debt; or, at least, seeing atheism introduced instead of the we see the means that might have been Christian Religion; the " gloomy despair employed to prevent such increase, and," of Atheism," says GEORGE ROSE, instead of course, to prevent the stoppage of the Bank cash payments, and the consequent depreciation of the paper-money.

I shall be told, may be, by some persons, that I forget the services which GEORGE ROSE has rendered to the country. That is a point upon which men may differ in opinion; but, then, that claim has been satisfied by the Salaries as Secretary of the Treasury and Treasurer of the Navy; so that, at any rate, there are more than six tenths of the whole sum to be kept to the sinecure amount; and, as I said before, there may have been many and large emoluments of which I have, and can have, no knowledge. There is, indeed, the other claim, mentioned in the early part of this letter, namely, the preserving to us, the "most thinking people in the world," the "BLESSED COMFORTS of religion;" and, really, I must confess, that, against those who thought that paying taxes and creating national Debts were necessary to prevent them from being

of " the BLESSED COMFORTS of reli"gion!" What would I give to have seen GEORGE just at the moment of his finishing that sentence! I should like to have watched his looks, and, if possible, to have heard his soliloquy ! "BLESSED COM"FORTS of religion!" He seems totally to have forgotten the ten thousand pound a year; but, I trust, that the time is not far distant, when that and all other matters of the kind will be well and scrupulously attended to.

Upon a future occasion, Gentlemen, I intend entering more at large into an enquiry as to what has become of the money borrowed during the last twenty or thirty years; but, this I must defer till another opportunity. In my next I intend closing this series of letters, when I shall have seen the discussions upon the Bill, now before the Parliament, brought to an end. That will be a natural point for me and you, Gentlemen, to rest at, until something new and important shall arise, and that that wil