By no means. The increased trade of the country requires it. But would not Bank of England notes be a much better substitute? Perhaps, (said he,) they might; but the demand for their small notes has of late years increased so much, that they have been under the necessity of re-issuing them; and their concerns are already so extensive, I presume, they are not desi rous of more work. To degrade a respectable body of men, on account of the misfortunes or indiscretions of a few individuals, is vile. It is ungenerous. Then you imagine, (said I,) that provincial notes do not raise the markets, so as to oppress the poor? Why, sir, (he replied,) you might as well argue that our good roads raise the prices of food and raiment. What would you think of a man who should say, The multiplicity and fineness of our roads will ruin us! They facilitate trade -the farmer can carry his goods to market from remote places-he can give more rent-he raises the produce of his land-the markets advance--O! this nation will be ruined by the goodness of its roads! Besides, smooth roads tempt people from home-they set off in Binsy whirligigs, like Don Quixotte, in search of adventures, and drive like Jehu til they break their necks!" Just so our alarmnists cry out, "This provincial trash facilitates commerce-encourages the speculator-enables the farmer and forestaller to raise the market-they grow rich--they dash off in great style; till some of them, in a moment unlooked for, meet with a rugged place, over which they cannot steer, and down they fall!" But waving this nonsense: Did you ever know a poor man pay one farthing more for any necessary article of life, because of his offering in payment a provincial note? Would it not be thought a most impertinent question if any retail trades. man was to ask his customer," Pray, sir, what kind of stuff do you intend to pay me with?" No doubt some would reply, "Do you suspect me of putting off bad notes?" And, supposing a person should pay a trifle more for this reason, (though unknown to himself), would he not, on discovery, think this an imposition, and say, "I took the note as cash, and will pay it as such, or return it." I wonder that a respectable banker, in a late public speech, should make such a distinc. tion as he does betwixt what is called shabby and respectable notes. He wards off the charge (as to their raising the markets) from the latter, but leaves the poorer bankers to shift for themselves. Now, I contend, that a note issued by a house not worth 30,000l. no more contributes to advance the necessary articles of life, than a similar bit of paper issued by a firm worth 300,0001. As home-made money" rags," are not scarce articles in this district, I suppose, (said I,) that those of the London fabric will not be much in circulation? No, sir, the people here, in general, prefer the produce of their own country. The good people in Lancashire admire, like the cockneys, the old lady in Threadneedle-street; but, in this county, the men love her pretty-faced cousins far better, though not quite so wealthy. And the reason is obvious-Not one man in a hundred dares trust his own eyes when he sees one of these Londoners. He knows not whether it is really herself, or merely her shadow; or some base. born bantling, pretending alliance to Harry Hase, esq. and yet no more a-kin than you are; pretending to be what she is not; tempting him, by her good words and specious appearance, to take her, and be hanged. But the pretty creatures, born and bred in this our neighbourhood, he knows and loves. Their features are not easily counterfeited. Of all paper currency (he added), no doubt, Bank of England is the best; and the next to it, bills of exchange, because they can be negotiated to all parts, and the security increasing with the endorsers. Now let me ask you one question, Where one pound has been lost by country-notes, do you not suppose one hundred has been lost by bills of exchange? Yet it would be very old-wifish to say, "I have lost so much by bad bills, I'll take no more.' " Bills drawn by needy men, and by swindlers, are very numerous, and very troublesome, but this does not prove the system (so abused) is bad. Can you find a bank, where the establishment was meant to deceive the public? Their failures, in general, arise from their libe rality to those whom they considered their best friends and customers. The merchant sends too many goods to a bad market. At the year's end, the manofacturer must be paid-the merchant borrows of his banker, depositing the best security he can-fresh claims come no remittances-lie again flies to his bankers, who, to save a valuable house from from ruin, advance more than they ought. Instead of cargoes arriving, failures are announced. Bills as security, considered last week perfectly good, prove bad. Loss upon loss involves the merchant, the banker, the manufacturer, the shop-keeper, the journeyman, all in one chain of poverty and distress! I allow, (says he,) that bankers ought not to risk other people's property in trade, upor any account, nor assist blame-worthy speculators. But, (I remarked,) are not banks now too numerous? It may be so; but remember, (said he,) the greater their number, the greater the competition, and of course the public obtain better terms. Besides, the circulation of their notes becomes more confined, and the risk to the country proportionally diminished. As they muftiply, trade increases. It is asserted, upon very good authority, that when banks were first established in Glasgow, its trade was doubled in fifteen years! (Encycl. Perthensis.) We hear much, (he continued,) of the mischief which bankers have done, and it is odd, very odd, that no friend can open his mouth, or lift up his pen, to tell the good they have done. What must become of the country manufacturer when he receives a large bill from his agent, if he could not get it discounted into provincial notes? The Bank of England knows nothing of him. They cannot supply every body. He cannot pay wages with it. All his machinery must therefore stand still, and all his hands be turned off a-begging, unless he can get the needful at the neighbouring bank, to oil his wheels. Ask the people of any market-town, if they would not ra ther have a bank. Ask the retail trades. man how it fares with him. Formerly he kept his receipts accumulating till the manufacturer came, and after all, perhaps, fell short-went a-dunning-or borrowing, and of course, a-sorrowing, Or perhaps a dishonoured bill bounced in upon him, like a Philistine, with an arrest tagged to the tail of it. Where could he raise the good stuff, when nobody made any? The nakedness of his business was exposed. Now he can deposit his receipts at the bank, and receive four or five per cent. interest. He dreads neither manufacturer nor protest; he can at the "paper-office" be supplied in a minute. Nor is the plague of "I pro mise to pay," from all countries, to be compared with the bother he formerly had in weighing light guineas. In short, I am persuaded, that thousands of trades men who now are well thought of, owe their success chiefly to the country banks. Put Do you imagine, (says I,) that government are hostile to them, as report would fain persuade us? What! treat their good friends like a culprit! No; they know better than put hand-cuffs upon commerce. Do not they love those who pay them money? It is natural-it is grateful. Let us just calculate the good stuff these paper vendors consume. down 600 in Great Britain, and say each has 25,000!. a-travelling from house to house. For this privilege, every one pound pays four-pence, and every five pounds one shilling. Estimate the former at 5000l. and the latter at 20,000l. or 4000 at 1s. and we raise about 170,000l. and the larger of these must be repeated every three years. Besides, every new bank must take out for this purpose an annual license of 201. for themselves, and every agent. Is this money of no consequence to the revenue? But calculate again: reckon that 700 banks draw bills of exchange every day, upon an average, fifty, and as they are from one shilling and sixpence to ten shillings, place them all down as if drawn on three shilling stamps, and see what is the expence in one year, allowing fiftyfive holidays?-Auswer 1,627,500!.! Is this of no importance in the national expenditure? Kirby Londsdale, October 19, 1810. W. K.- L W. WHOEVER has the good of his country at heart, ought to remember, that it is not sumcient to be apprehensive of danger from foreign enemies and mal-contents at home; no less caution is requisite to watch the conduct of those to whom no suspicion can attach, but who, in the heat of their zeal to do some great good, may, through error of judgment, do some great evil. He only is worthy to be styled an able politician, who possesses foresight to dis cern both the immediate and the most remote consequences which may ensue frum from the plans he devises. Regular me dical men are aware, that by hastily healing a diseased limb, they may endanger the whole body; but an empiric will apply his nostrums to procure an apparent soundness at the hazard of the patient's life. As "the knowledge of the danger of letting off projects" is not sufficient to deter men, any more than the knowledge of the danger of playing with gunpowder prevents boys, from letting off squibs and crackers: the project has been let off: I therefore beg permission to point out the futility of the plan, and the unsoundness of the reasoning employed to support it. On the practicability of abolishing the poor's rates."-The subject bespeaks attention; all who feel the burden of them rejoice at such a discovery; they who never reflected on the state of the poor become inquisitive; even avarice finds it may step forward to promote the design of such benevolence without diminishing its hoards. In a description of certain persons nearly two thousand years ago, it was said, "they bind heavy burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers." Persons of such dispositions will perceive that, on Mr. Fosbrooke's plan, they may be generous, yet give nothing; lay claim to gratitude without deserving it; and prove the instruments of promoting human happiness, by depriving men of their rights, and the characteristic of their nature as intelligent beings. "The principle of legislation is to compel men to consult what is in fact their own good." It appears a curious coincidence, that the Rev. T. D. Fosbrooke's plan, and Buonaparte's decree respecting serwants, were communicated at the same time. The reverend gentleman and the French emperor, differ only as plants of the same species, reared in different soils; they determine for others wherein man's own good consists, and then act on the principle of legislation to compel them to consult it. It matters not by whom the proposed plan is brought forward; it is French policy in an English disguise: the object is delusive, the plausibility deceptive, and the means proposed, irrational and degrading. The present administration is remarkable for the number of lawyers which it is associated in offices of state. Should such good fortune fall to the learned pro fessions in rotation, and the sons of Esculapius become prime ministers, se. cretaries, &c. it may seriously be appre hended that on this favourite principle of legislation, the whole nation might be put on a spare diet. If the legislating doctors pronounce that one ounce and a half of meat, half a glass of wine, very little bread, and but a small measure of water, are, in legislative wisdom, for the people's own good: "the principle of legislation is to compel I should entertain them to consult it." no apprehensions under the present constitution of British government; but the word compel alarms me. What do we witness-a plan already brought forward to act on a system of tyrannic vic lence. If the subjects give an example of their disposition to arbitrary measures, the fabric of British liberty will be so undermined, that any lawless friend in the capacity of a premier, will be able to effect its overthrow. Admit all the advantages that can be allowed to benefit-clubs, (much depends on their regulations), the proposed di rection of the principle of legislation is to compel all those who might possibly become paupers to enter themselves as members of those associations: the proposition tends to introduce a vexatious interference with private conduct, subversive of that manly spirit of indepen dence which has exalted the name of Briton, and will ever prove the best safe guard against the invasion of a foreign enemy, or the usurpation of a domestic tyrant. The opulent landholder is to give notice, that is, to command his tenants to employ no one who has not enrolled himself in the benefit society. The manu facturer is to refuse employment to any workman who is not so registered. Day labourers, unmarried men, and servantmaids, are by the same detestable prin ciple, to be "compelled to seek their own good." Shallow policy! Who does not perceive that whilst men breathe the air of liberty, they will spurn at such a proposition? Suppose them to be dis missed from service, for instance, in Mr. Fosbrooke's own parish, they will be compelled to consult their own good, by removal to another: will he also legis late to compel them to leave their know ledge of the manufacture, &c. behind? Suppose the plan partially adopted, it would drive manufacturers, labourers, &c. c. to other parts of the country; and, if generally adopted, it would ultimately, by advancing the price of labour, fall on the consumer of manufactures and agricultural produce, and the employer of menial servants. The master, on John's refusal to belong to the society, is represented by Mr. Fosbrooke as declaring, "Then, I will not give you but so much." Whether the master speaks good or bad English, John understands him to mean, "I will give you but so much." Why not suppose another case, and that in the agreement for wages the servant shall say, "Remember that you insist on my entering the benefit-club, that you and your parish may be relieved from the burden of the poor's rates. I may not live to want any benefit-I may not be so poor as to solicit it-You are planning for your own security, and I expect, therefore, that you will pay this new property-tax, imposed on us who have no property, or give me higher wages that I may pay it myself." But what is the principal object for thus compelling men to consult their own good? Why neither more nor less than a plan, which, under a specious pretext of a benevolent concern for the welfare of the poor, aims to remove the burden of the rates from the owners and occupiers of houses and land; that is, the opulent part of society, to place it on the poor themselves. Our politician argues, that to "render wisdom and prudence compulsatory in them, (that is, the poor) by the authority of a master, is no hardship, unless it can be deemed one to convert a fool into a sensible man, or make a thoughtless fellow less injurious to society." Do we say that a clock possesses wisdom, because, by the mechanic's legis lation, it points the hour? Yet, as well might we ascribe wisdom to a piece of mechanism, as say that a fool is converted into a wise man by an act of compulsion, obliging him to place in the hands of others a sum of money, to provide for wants in sickness or in age. Wisdom is the result of an improvement of the intellectual powers; it is an acquired ability of judging rightly; but the automata parishioners can have no title to wisdom for moving merely as puppets at the command of their directors. and might therefore shine as voluntary benefactors to the box of the society: thus the opulent would, in fact, obtain greater advantages than the objects whom they pretend to serve. Had the committees of enquiry commenced their operations years before; had peculation of the public money been prevented, and good management in the expenditure been practiced; the poor would not have been so numerous. I shall not enlarge on the consequences of war: it has not operated to decrease their number. Parliament will, I hope, be better engaged than in seeking to escape Mr. Fosbrooke's censures. Apprehensive lest my remarks should occupy too large a portion of your publication, I hasten to conclude with deprecating a system of arrangement which will admit private individuals to acquire the authority of legislators, destroy the activity of the energies of the human mind, annihilate independency of spirit; and, having first prohibited a labouring man from becoming the owner of a cottage, lest he should mortgage or sell it, may, at the next step of legislation, exclude the industrious tradesman, on a small scale, from purchasing a freehold of forty shil lings a-year; and ultimately, the extension of this system of management, sacrifice the freedom of British subjects beneath the ponderosity of accidental, or ill-acquired, wealth or power. Ipswich, Nov. 14, 1810. BRITANICUL P. S. Mr. Fosbrooke mistakes the Qua kers' proceedings respecting their own poor: so far are they from abolishing the poor'srates, they rate themselves for the poor of their own society, whilst they are subjected to the legal rates for the maintenance of the poor members of other societies. To avoid the contrast between the reverend gentle farther prolixity, I desist from enlarging on man's assertion, that nothing but military discipline can reform the drunken or worthless character; and those old-fashioned opinions which encouraged a hope of success from teaching and preaching. Our projector appears fully persuaded in his own mind, that "the custom of sending such persons on board a tender, is the wisest that can be adopted," as if it were the best school for in culcating the doctrine, "Repent and bring forth fruits meet for repentance." The poor's-rates are heavy burdens; To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. and were this specious plan adopted, they who now pay annually large sums, SIR, would not be compelled to pay any thing, 10 the distressing accounts of the storm on the late memorable 10th of of November, received from other quarters, I beg permission to add a few particulars, which principally fell under my own observation. Just as the inhabitants of Surfeet, a village near Spalding in Lincolnshire, had retired to bed, they were alarmed by the information that the sea-banks were broken, and the sheep swimming in the pastures. Immediately the graziers exerted themselves with the greatest activity, and bore "the pelting of the pitiless storm," to rescue their distrest flocks, in waggons and carts. Several farmers and graziers have sustained very serious losses of cattle; and the greatest damage has been done to their winter stock of cale and turnips, as well as to the new-sown wheat, and fine grazing land. The Reservoir presents a melancholy scene of ruin the road gulled in various places; the sluice of the Vernatt's drain separated from the shore, and the salt water rushing in. Amongst numerous other losses, a barn and corn-stacks belonging to Mr. Wheat, near the new sea-bank, have been completely swept away. A great many sheep, the property of the same person, were drowned; and the cottage of his shepherd totally gutted by the tide, and the poor inhabitants compelled to wade to the house of their neighbour, Mr. Beasley, whose loss has been very extensive. But the most afflicting scene was at Fosdyke, from which place to Boston, it appeared one sheet of water, and both new and old banks were broken on every side. The inn was in the most imminent danger of being swept away, and the stables were demolished. Owing to the violence of the rain from above, and the fury of the waves from below, there was not a dry room in the house. In addition to the accumulated horrors of this Tuost tempestuous night, the poor sufferers who dwelt near the sea, were alarmed at intervals by the crash of the banks, which blew up with a loud noise resembling a clap of thunder. It was shocking to see the sheep lying dead; and the corn, hay, and household furniture, floating in every direction. 11 myself counted nearly forty drowned sheep in a field of about five acres. Mr. Birkett has been a great sufferer in the loss both of live and dead stock; and to complete the dreadful scene, he had been winnowing wheat, which stood deep in sacks, and near them lay the corpses of two women, one of them aged eighty years. What inuch added to the distress, (a day or two after the inundation, when the dry land began to be seen,) was to hear the mournful lowings of the bullocks, which, although part of every field was still flooded, in vain tried to quench their thirst, and could obtain no relief from their owners, who are themselves in the greatest want of that necessary article, fresh water. Upon the whole, it is supposed that about fifteen thousand valuable shoep, besides other cattle, have been lost; and upwards of twenty thousand acres of the richest land in the kingdom deeply flooded, from Wainfleet to the neighbourhood of Spalding. The losses also at sea have been immense. Not fewer than forty wrecks are thrown up along the Lincolnshire coast; and dead bodies of poor sailors are brought in with every tide. I could mention several other circumstances; but as I have, doubtless, been anticipated by former accounts, I will close my tale of woe with the consolatory reflection, that God has been merci ful to the old enclosures of Surfket, which were in the most perilous situation, from the apprehended blowing-up of the Glen sluice. This sluice was expected to give way every moment, but provi dentially weathered the late most tre mendous storm, which the memory of the oldest man living cannot parallel. "The waves of the sea are mighty, and rage horribly: but yet the Lord, who dwelleth on high, is mightier." SAMUEL ELSDALE. Surfleet, Nov. 19, 1810. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, BSERVING in your publication spune remarks upon the former existence of vineyards in this country, (of which I was from old authors aware), I should feel obliged to your correspondent for any hints which would enable me to ascertain what kind of grapes were for neily raised here: and also whether there is any published treatise on the management of the vine, agreeably to the plan followed in the wine countries, where they grow in the open air, trained to stakes, or otherwise. A CONSTANT READER. Yorkshire, Nov. 10, 1810. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazint. |