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the annual produce of all the gold and silver mines in the world.* Supposing it absorbed from the circulations of other countries. But how is that to be done? To attempt to purchase it with more notes would be foolish enough; and to think of obtaining it by the balance of trade is nearly as ridiculous and impracticable. Indeed it must be clear, from what we have said, that were it possible, by any magical operation, so far to lessen the circulation of other countries, it would be ruinous to what remains of foreign trade. It must aggravate the difficulties under which trade now labours, by increasing the disproportion betwixt the prices of commodities in this and neighbouring states.

We shall now leave the Bank Restriction Act. But before we conclude we will make one more remark. The hirelings of abuse represent the present contest betwixt reform and corruption, as a contest betwixt property and no-property; betwixt those who have something and those who have nothing to lose. Stupid as this calumny is, it is gulped down by half the wealthy fools in England, and they really believe, that Reform only means a general plunder of the rich. The base slaves who prey upon the fears of these imbeciles, know well the falsity of the allegation. They know it is not a struggle betwixt property and no-property, but betwixt starvation and prodigality; betwixt right and usurpation; betwixt a government of law and a government of military violence; betwixt the happiness of a whole community and a plundering Oligarchy. But we would ask those panders

* Mr. Allen, in his examination before the Bullion Committee, in 1810, gave in a statement, extracted from Brongniant, of the quantity of gold and silver yearly added to the commerce of Europe. His statement is as follows:-

Dollars.

Value of gold and silver brought annually into circulation..45,762,803
Of this sum, from the Old World.....

from the New World.

5,049,408 ..40,713,395

Of the produce of the New World, Spanish America 36,096,736

From this statement appears, that

Portuguese America 4,439,040

1. The produce of gold from the New World is to its produce from the Old,
as 3,5 to 1.

2. The produce of silver from the New World is to its produce from the Old,

as 12 to 1.

3. The total annual produce of silver is to the total annual produce of gold,

as 52 to 1.

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of abuse what respect they have shown for property in the Bank Restriction Act? Was that not an attack upon property? Was it not a violation of property to force thirty millions of paper into circulation, which they knew neither could nor ever would be repaid? which they knew must soon or late reduce thousands of persons to beggary, and their imaginary wealth vanish in the hands of its holders like thin air.

Intimately connected with the Restriction Act are the BANK HANGINGS. We should wish to lay before the reader, in a small compass, the most important facts connected with this sanguinary history. More blood has been shed to uphold the Paper System than to preserve life from the attacks of the murderer and assassin. The deprivation of property by the Restriction Act, and the sacrifice of life by the Forgery Laws, render the history of the Bank a record of blood and violence, only to be paralleled in the atrocities of the Spaniards in the conquest of the New World. These ferocious monsters hunted their victims with real blood hounds; while the sordid dealers in paper, in the use of spies and informers, have employed animals whose thirst for blood appears to have been hardly less rapacious and insatiable.

More than FOUR HUNDRED VICTIMS have been sacrificed to the Moloch of Paper credit. This stream of blood only began to flow at the period of the Stoppage. One crime prepared the way for another; and the attack upon property by the Restriction Act, prepared the way for an attack upon life. There were scarcely any executions for forgery prior to the suspension of Cash Payments, in 1797. From 1783 to 1797, there were only four prosecutions for forgery by the Bank of England. In the equal period from 1797 to 1811, they had swelled to the enormous number of 469. They multiplied more than a hundred fold. The following authentic document contains the whole history of this dreadful tragedy, and is the Bank's own calendar of the blood they have shed.

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AN ACCOUNT of the Number of Persons prosecuted for Forging Notes of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, and for knowingly uttering or possessing such Forged Notes, knowing them to be Forged, since the Suspension of Cash Payments by the Bank, in February 1797, to the 25th February 1818; distinguishing the Years, and the Number Convicted and Acquitted:

Thus we see that 313 persons, in the last twenty-one years of compulsory paper-money, have suffered death for counterfeiting Bank-notes. In the eight years preceding the suspension of cash-payments, there was not a single prosecution for forgery; but in the eight years which followed that swindling transaction, there were no fewer than one hundred and forty-six capital

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executions for that offence! Of the four persons prosecuted for forgery by the Bank in the fourteen years before the suspension, two were executed in the year 1784; one in the year 1788; and the fourth tried and acquitted in 1789.

These facts are all taken from returns made by the Bank to the House of Commons. We may safely infer then, that more than THREE HUNDRED of our fellow-creatures have been ignominiously slaughtered, solely from the Restriction-law. Before that event, scarcely a person was ever prosecuted for forgery; but after that time, twelve, twenty-nine, and more than thirty human beings were the regular annual sacrifice to the paper Moloch. But the Bank executions will appear still more horrible, when contrasted with the following account of the number of sufferers for other offences :—

An Account of the Number of Persons Convicted and Executed for Forgery, and other Offences, in England and Wales, from 1805 to 1818, inclusive:

From this statement, it is seen, that more persons have been executed for forgery than murder. We observe also, with what relentless ferocity offences against the Bank have been punished. Of 1874 burglars convicted, only about one in nine was executed; and of horse-stealers the proportion was still smaller; only about one in ten. Of 1119 convicted of larceny, the proportion suffering death is only about one in sixty-six. Of robberies, one in seven was thought sufficient; and for the crime of sheep-stealing, one in twenty. Of 761 convicted of house-breaking, the penalty of death was only inflicted upon about one in forty-four. But when we come to the

* Of this number of 207, no fewer than 176 were the victims of Bank prosequtions.

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crime of forgery, justice seems to have been administered on a new principle. Of 501 persons convicted of that offence, two hundred and one, or nearly ONE-HALF were executed. Why should this crime be punished with such unequal severity? In what does its atrocity consist? It does not destroy life; and it can hardly be said to endanger real property. But it may be said it destroys confidence, and thus aims a dangerous blow at commerce. This argument sounds well from the supporters of an inconvertible papermoney. It sounds well from the authors of the Restriction Act. Was not that measure a blow at commercial confidence? Was it not aiming a deadly blow at commerce, to force an immense mass of paper into circulation, to double prices? But it is in vain, to expect consistency or reason in these .men. With them, imitating Bank-notes is an atrocious offence, not because it endangers commercial credit, or property, or the persons of individuals, -but because it endangers the borough system. Their maxim is simply this, and it extends equally through the state, the church, and the bench: whatever endangers the outworks of corruption is bad, and whatever tends to their support is good.

Nothing can be more horrible than the obstinacy with which the Bank persevered in its bloody career. It will be seen from our statement, that every year brought an increase of victims, and the gallows was fairly gorged with the dreadful sacrifice. Yet they persisted in their sanguinary course, without remorse or abatement. Their appetite seemed to increase, and their thirst for blood rather sharpened than satiated by indulgence. We can imagine nothing more damnable than the Bank's own statement of their executions. In 1801, thirty-two unfortunate individuals were ignominiously sacrificed. In 1802, exactly the same number. It surely now was time to pause. It was time to think of some remedy. The waste of life was clearly useless. Even tigers would have been appalled at such carnage. But the Bank seemed insensible. They went on hanging and transporting for sixteen In 1816, their victims had swelled to 104. In 1817, to 127! years more. During all this time, we heard of no attempt to prevent the imitation of their notes. In the engraving, the printing, and signing of their notes, temptations were rather multiplied than diminished. The object appeared to be punishment rather than prevention. We may talk of the excesses of the French revolution, and of the guillotine butcheries of Robespierre, but do they afford a parallel to the Bank hangings, performed under a government of social order, and which boasts that the Christian religion is a part of its law and constitution?