ÆäÀÌÁö À̹ÌÁö
PDF
ePub

planatory communications, that he understood Mr. Canning to be under the same impression, and that he learned from yourself, not more than two days after his conversation with Mr. Canning, that you were to sail for the United States within three weeks.Although it may not have been your intention to have given to this subject a posture which it would not have naturally assumed, yet such has been the tendency of some of your remarks, and particularly of the conclusion you have drawn from the two circumstances; 1st, That no trace of complaint from this Government against the disavowal appears on the records of the British mission, or was distinctly announced by me in our conferences, and 2nd, that from the official correspondence of Mr. Erskine with his Government, it appears that although he did not communicate in extenso his original instructions, he submitted to me the three conditions therein spe

countries, it is impossible to mistake the conversations of those Ministers for a discharge of such a debt. to the good faith and reasonable expectations of the United States. Besides that they were mere con⚫versations in a case requiring the precision and respect of a formal communication, it is certain that it was neither understood by Mr. Pinckney, nor intended by Mr. Canning, that those conversations were to be regarded. Mr. Pinckney is explicit on this point; and Mr. Caping himself, after declining to recapitulate in writing what he had verbally remarked, signified to Mr. Pinckney, in a letter dated May 27, that his observations on the subject would be more properly made through the successor of Mr. Erskine, who was about to proceed to the United States. With respect to the instructions on this point, given to Mr. Erskine, it might be sufficient to remark, that they were never carried into execution; but it may be ask-cified and received my observations on ed, whether it was a mark of friendly re- each.-If there be no trace of complaint spect to the United States to employ for against the disavowal in the archives of the such a purpose a Minister with whom his mission, it is because this Government Government had thought proper publicly could not have entered such complaint beto withdraw its confidence, and to the pe- fore the reasons for the disavowal had been culiar delicacy and embarrassment of explained, and especially as the explanawhose situation you have yourself referred, tions were justly and confidently expected as accounting for his not having executed through the new functionary. And as to the task imposed upon him.-I must here the supposed reserve on my part, on this repeat, what was suggested in my former subject in our several conferences, I did imaletter, that the successor of Mr. Erskine is gine, that my repeated intimations to you of the proper functionary for a proper expla- the necessity of satisfactory explanations, as nation. Nor can I perceive the force of to the disavowar, were sufficient indications your remark, that the delay incident to of the dissatisfaction of this Government your arrival in the United States rendered with respect in the disavowal itself.-The it more consistent with the friendly senti- stress you have laid on what you have been ments of his Majesty to press the other pleased to state as the substitution of the channels for communicating the motives terms finally agreed on, for the terms first for his disavowal. To your own re-consi- proposed, has excited no small degree of deration I appeal, which in the course most surprise. Certain it is, that your preConsonant to those friendly sentiments, was decessor did present for my consideration not the obvious one of employing the new the three conditions which now appear in organ. guarding at the same time against the printed document; that he was disany misconstruction of the delay, by apposed to urge them more than the nature prizing the American Government, through of two of them (both palpably inadmissiits Minister, of the cause of it. The suppo-ble, and one more than merely inadmissisition that the delay incident to your mis- ble) could permit, and that on finding his sion gave rise to the conversation of Mr. first proposals unsuccessful, the more reaCanning and Mr. Pinckney, is not recon-sonable terms comprised in the arrangecileable to the correspondence of the latter, which contains no such indication. On the contrary, it distinctly shows that he was apprized of the intention to replace Mr. Erskine by a successor, whom he regarded as the proper channel for the ex-ing?

ment respecting the Orders in Council were adopted. And what, Sir, is there in this to countenance the conclusion you have drawn in favour of the right of his Britannic Majesty to disavow the proceed(To be continued.)

LONDON :-Printed by T: C. HANSARD, Peterborough Court, Fleet - street; Published by R. BAGSHAW, Brydges-Street, Covent Garden :-Sold also by J. BUDD, Pall-Mall.

VOL. XVII. No. 2.] LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 1810.

831

[ocr errors]

SUMMARY OF POLITICS.

JACOBIN GUINEAS.

[Price 18.

[34

guinea, it really is high time for us to look about us pretty sharply, or, which would -The depreciation be the safer way, perhaps, to draw our of the paper-money, made in Thread-selves into our shells, there wait the com needle Street and in various other parts of ing of the storm, and let it rage on. What! the country, is a thing still denied by send a man to jail, under a charge of felony, some persons, though it is notorious, that for having made an exchange of guineas almost the whole of the metallic money against bank-notes, and taken the profit? has fled from the degrading society of that It never can be. I certainly do not bepaper, and though it is not less notorious, lieve this. Robespierre put people in that any piece of metallic money will sell prison, and some he put to death, because for more in paper-money, than its nominal they made a difference in their prices, amount.The fact of an existing traffic taking less, for the same weight of sugar in guineas and other pieces of gold coin for instance, in metallic money than they could not be doubted; but, in the follow- took in paper-money; and this, in effect, ing paragraph, taken from the Statesman is just the same thing as selling guineas of the 2nd instant, we have something for more than their nominal value. Robelike judicial proof of it. This proof is not, spierre made it a capital offence to shew however, what interests, me upon this oc- this preference for metallic money; but' casion. I am interested in the fate of the Robespierre did not, by that means, preman, who is here said to have been "fully vent the paper from depreciating, though "committed to take his trial," as a felon, he was quite successful in driving the for having sold some guineas at more than very semblance of metallic money out of twenty-one shillings each." On Satur- the country; and, if I could possibly beday, at the Mansion House, a Jew, of lieve the above statement to be correct, i "the name of DE YOUNGE, was charged by should have not the least hesitation in pre"the Solicitor of the Mint, under an act of dicting, that the Old Lady in Thread"Queen Elizabeth, with the offence of sell-needle Street and her numerous family all ing the current coin of the realm, called over the kingdom, must very soon give us "guineas, at a higher price than the current paper-money down to half-crowns, if not "value. By the statute in question, it is to half-pence. The Old Lady has al"declared, that any person who shall ways found abundant business for JACK extort, demand, or receive, for any of KETCH; but, if the paragraph above-cited "the current coin of the realm, more be correct, Mr. KETCH might set up his "than the legal current value thereof, carriage and have his villa as well as the "shall be esteemed guilty of felony. It best of them.But, it is hardly possible, appeared that the prisoner had sold 56 that the paragraph can be correct; for, guineas, for a sum amounting to about there is no such act of parliament as the "228. 6d. each, or 1s. 6d. for each one described in the paragraph. There is an guinea more than the legal price and act of Edward VI. and one of William III. "current value. Evidence being adduced against exchanging gold and silver money for "to prove this case, the prisoner was more than their value; but, for these of"fully committed to take his trial for the offences the penalty is trifling; a small pe"fence."I am persuaded, that there cuniary punishment merely. There is an must be some error in this statement; but, act of Queen Elizabeth, to be sure, touch it is not likely that it is wholly unfounded; ing money; but, unless by a straining o. and, if it be true only to the extent of a the meaning, unequalled in the annals of man's having been committed to jail for law, it is quite out of the question to having sold guineas at a price above twenty make this act apply to the case before one shillings each; if it be true only to us. - It is the act, Chapter I. of the this extent, it is of very serious importance; 18th year of that Queen's reign. In the and, if we are in danger of being sent to 5th year of her reign, an act had been jail for making as much as we can of a passed, making treason (not felony)" the

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

B

"offences of clipping, rounding, washing, "and filing, for wicked lucre or gain's "sake," any of the Monies or Coins of the Realm, or of the Monies or Coins of other countries, suffered to be current in the kingdom; in short, of any of the monies or coins legally current. In the 15th year of her reign, it being found, that some other method, or methods, not coming strictly under either of the descriptions in the former act; namely, of clipping, rounding, washing, or filing, had been discovered for diminishing the value of the current coins, another act was passed, leaving out the words clipping, rounding, washing, and filing, and inserting in their stead, the following general description: "6 any act, ways, or means, "whatsoever;" and then the prohibition ran thus: "Be it enacted, &c.-That, "if any person, &c. &c.-shall, for wicked "lucre or gain's sake, by any act, ways, or "means whatsoever, impair, diminish, fal"sify, scale, or lighten, the monies, or coins, of this realm, &c. &c. &c. he shall "suffer death, &c. &c."- Now, except one other act, passed in the 14th year of Queen Elizabeth, against counterfeiting foreign coin, the two acts above-mentioned, are the only acts, at all relating to money, that were passed in the reign of that Queen; so that, if it be true, that the Jew in question has really been committed under an act of Elizabeth, the ground of commitment must have been different from that stated in the paragraph.This act of the 18th of Queen Elizabeth makes it High treason to impair or diminish, by any act, ways, or means, the monies, or coins, of the kingdom. Well, then; let us see how this could possibly be twisted to apply to the act alledged against the Jew. Are Bank-notes monies? Because, if they are, to sell a guinea for twenty two shillings and sixpence of the said monies is certainly one way of impairing or diminish ing, the said monies, or the value of them, at least.. -But, then, what will become of the country bankers, who now exceed in numbers (counting all the partners, both pikes and gudgeons) the trampers employed in collecting the rags of which their money is made. You would send them all on board of ship, perhaps, or give them an opportunity of displaying their loyalty by enlisting into the West India Regiment. Aye; but, if the above paragraph be correct; if a man has actually been committed, as a felon, for having done an act tending to impair the bunk

notes, the country-bankers cannot hope to get off so lightly, seeing that they are no toriously guilty of an act of this sort as often as they set their money mills a going. However men may differ as to other points respecting the banking system, they all agree, that the greater the quantity of paper-money the less must be the real value, in proportion to the nominal value, of that money: in other words, that the paper monies which were in circulation yesterday, must have their value diminished by any grist of fresh ground monies put into circulation to-day. This is a proposition universally admitted. Indeed, it is almost self-evident. Hence it is, that the Oid Lady in Threadneedle Street, is continually complaining of her progeny, the country money-mills and shops, while every man, who views the matter in its true light, and who has the good of his country at heart, must sincerely rejoice at the rapid increase of those mills and shops; and, for my own part, I am convinced, that the time is not far distant, when we shall see the paper-money shops exceed in number the shops of the taylors and barbers united. "Ici l'on a des Assignats, dès cent francs jusqu'à un "sous;" that is to say: " Paper-money " to dispose of here from a hundred francs "to a single half-penny." I remember seeing these words over a shop-door at Calais, in 1792; and, indeed, notifications, of this sort, were, in all the seaport towns, or towns near the coast, as common as the notifications relative to "good wine" or "good brandy;" and the makers and venders of paper-money seemed sometimes to have been so hardpushed as to have coined up the, very shirts off their backs. Well! where was the harm of this? Their shirts, poor devils, made very good money. At last, indeed, you were obliged to give a hundred pounds, for a quartern loaf, or for a couple of rabbits; but, then, the shoemaker took care. to sell his shoes at five or six hundred pounds a-pair; so that, in the end, those who had sense enough to keep possession of things of real value, and merely to let the paper-money pass through their hands, sustained no loss, at the bursting of the bubble.

[ocr errors]

-To return from this digression: can any one imagine, that, upon the abovequoted statute of Elizabeth, our country money-makers are all liable to be tried for their lives? Yet, I scruple not to assert, that if, upon the statute of Elizabeth, a man be liable to be tried for his life for having

very shortly totally vanish out of circulaticn; for, the very fact, that such exchanges do take place, is a clear proof that the coin is worth more than its nominal

sold guineas at a rate which tends to diminish the value of the paper-money, every paper-money maker in the country is liable to be tried for his life.--Let, me, however, distinctly state, that it ap-value in paper-money; and, as every thing pears to me, that there must be an error in the paragraph quoted from the Statesman; because, all other reasons aside, the paragraph talks of felony, whereas the statute talks of treason! Mercy on us, if this were law, and if the law were put in force against all the money-makers in the country, why, the very air would be poisoned with the stink of their carcasses! I regard these money-grinders as a very useful description of persons; they are, in reality, doing more good than any other description of persons that I know of; they make little noise in their work, but their operations are sure; every inch they gain is heid; there is no back-sliding in the progress of their efforts; and, which is not the least amiable circumstance, they not only appear to be, but, in general, really are, wholly unconscious of the great good they are doing.What, then! would the STATESMAN, who is, genera ry, so just in his sentiments, condemn all this most populous and most useful class of active citizens to a trial for their lives? Forbid it justice! forbid it gratitude! He is labouring very hard, and very earnestly, in the cause of a reform of abuses and the extirpation of corruption; but, he is not labouring with half so much effect as they are. He is attacking the monster in front, while they, more wise than he, are labouring, and with a certainty of success, to take from that monster the very meat he feeds on. I should like to see, in the Statesman, an explanation of the above-quoted paragraph. It must be, in its description of the law, at least, erroneous; and I am quite at a loss to discover upon what law a commitment for selling of guineas could possibly take place, unless, indeed, the guineas were sold, or exchanged, for other coin; and then, as was before observed, the crime is not felony, but simply an offence, punishable by a pecuniary forfeiture. -If there be, however, contrary to my opinion and my conviction, any statute, upon which a man may be punished, in any way whatever, for taking a premium upon guineas, or gold or silver coin, when exchanged against papermoney; if there be any such statute, and if such statute be put in force, it requires but a very small portion of understanding to perceive, that coin of every sort must

will have its real worth, the coin will either go into a hoard, or out of the country, if it be prohibited from obtaining its real worth in circulation. A guinea may be in the, hands of a man, who may be unable to hoard, or to export, it; but, when out of that man's hands, it will not travel far. Probably the second or third person, into whose possession it may fall, may, from siinilar causes, be unable to hoard or export; but, the guinea is the last thing that the holder will part with; its progress from hand to hand thus becomes very slow; and the moment it comes into the hands of one who is able to hoard or export, away it goes from circulation entire. ly, because, if to sell it for its worth be a crime, it will answer the holder's purposes to hoard it, even if expertation were rendered impossible, seeing that at the rate of 18. 6 d. upon the guinea, the hoarder has nearly a year and a half's interest, at five per cent; and during that year and a-half, what are not the chances, that the guinea will become worth twice as much as it is worth now?

-Oh, no! There is no way now left of keeping the gold coin, still remaining in the country, from totally disappearing; no way but that of leaving every holder of such coin to sell it at any price that he can get for it.The country papermoney makers have, within the last two years only, doubled their number. The next year will, in all probability, double the present number. It will, at least, greatly augment it. There can be no doubt of that. Consequently, their money will continue to depreciate in an increased proportion. The depreciation must go on with an accelerated velocity. Oh! these paper-money makers are the men! What an abundance of money we shall have! Every man, of any substance, will make his own money. What a rich nation we shall be! There was a man, belonging to the Mother Shop, who, some years ago, wrote a pamphlet, entitled: "GUI"NEAS AN ENCUMBRANCE." Ought we not, then, to rejoice at our present situa tion, and our present more brilliant prospects? Of this encumbrance, at any rate, we are nearly rid; and, who knows but it may be followed by that of the " Na"tional Debt," as it is called?- -When

"

I see a new paper-money mill set a-going, | "The Morning Chronicle of canting, beI hail the event as an additional sign of "cause it termed the disgusting verbiage approaching good times; and, amongst "with which the divorce of BUONAPARTE all the absurd and ridiculous things that "from his Wife, was accompanied, a I have ever heard of, the preference, which "Solemn Mockery of a spiritual rite. It some people appear to entertain for the surely is not canting to respect the sacred manufactures of certain mills, appears to "institutions of religion; or to say, that me to be the most absurd and ridiculous. "when a despot means to act in defiance What signifies it what mill the money "of its most solemn ordinances, it is concomes from? What signifies it what it is "temptible to see him exhibit the farce of made of, or whose name is upon it, so "whining respect for that which he is at that it will pass out of your hand as "the moment grossly violating. There is soon as it comes into it? No man is, I "a paper on the subject, in the Examiner suppose, foolish enough ever to suffer it to "of yesterday, written with the peculiar remain with him twenty four hours; and, spirit of the Editor of that Journal, that being the case, what risk does he run? "which shews, that in all ages, and in all Success, then, say I, to the money-making" countries, divorce has been treated actrade! I do not mean figuratively, but "cording to the customs of the time and literally. The trade of making money; "place. It is no more applicable to the the mechanical operation of making mo- "question, to state a parallel between the ney, and the vending of that money; a "manner of divorce in America, and the trade, which is regularly working on "manner of divorce under the present towards all those effects, which every "constitution of France, than it would be real friend of his country wishes to see "to state a parallel between the age of produced, and which may yet make Eng- "Reason in that country, when the most land what she formerly was in the scale "perfect contempt for all religious forms of nations. "was the order of the day, and the age "of Pontifical authority, when even the

Under this

NAPOLEON'S PROJECTS. head, in my last Number, I quoted a pas sage from the Morning Chronicle, in which paper Napoleon's Divorce had been spoken of as a farce, as an insult to the people of France, as hypocritical, and as irreligious. Upon this I observed, that it was no farce; that there was no sham in it; that it was a real divorce, and for a great practical purpose. I also said, and, I should think, proved, that, so far from being an insult to the French nation, that natjon must necessarily feel itself flattered by the act. I said, that it could not, with propriety, be called hypocritical, seeing that not only was it done in the face of the world, but the motives were openly avowed and set forth, and that it was impossible not to believe, that the motives so set forth were the true motives. Upon the charge of irreligion, I expressed my fear, that the Morning Chronicle had given a little into cant, and, having referred to the practice of obtaining divorces in England and America, I asked, why a divorce bill might not also be obtained in France. As to the first three heads, the farce, the insult and the hypocrisy, the Morning Chronicle has made no reply; but, with respect to the irreligiousness of the act, he appears still to hold out, and complains, in the following manner, of having been accused of canting.. "MR. COBBETT accuses

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

Kings were forced to submit to the papal "bull, and the sacramental bond of mar"riage could only be dissolved by the " Vatican. What we alluded to, was the

66

respect which every crowned head ought "to pay to the institutions which conduce "to the religion, the morals, and the hap

[ocr errors]

piness of his people. And as canting is "in every instance a vicious and hurtful "exhibition of hypocrisy, so it is most " vicious and most hurtful when it is prac"tised in the highest place.-When Mr. "Cobbett asks us what we think of the

[ocr errors]

66

facility of divorce in England, though "it is foreign to the subject, we have no hesitation in saying that we consider it "as a great national calamity; and think "it no more a cure for the evil it pre" fesses to have in view, than we consider "a sum of damages to be a compensation "to any man of honour or delicacy for "the loss of the sweetest consolations of "life."Now, I cannot see, that this much mends the matter. To talk of "á

[ocr errors][merged small]
« ÀÌÀü°è¼Ó »