Notwithstanding this untoward circumstance, there can be no doubt that
the condition of the agricultural classes will be sensibly benefited by
the rise of prices, and that the depression under which they have so
long suffered from the long-continued fall, will be in a great measure
arrested. Great and important political benefits will follow from this
change. The undue preponderance of the wealthy classes, and the
shopkeepers dependent on them, owing to legislation having doubled their
fortunes at the expense of the industrial, will be arrested. As it was
the scarcity of money, preponderance given to capital, and depression of
industry consequent on the monetary bill of 1819, which, beyond all
doubt, brought about the Reform Bill, and with it the sway of the
shopkeeping interest in the boroughs, which landed us in Free Trade and
all its consequences, agricultural, maritime, and colonial; so a series
of effects the very converse of all these may be anticipated from the
expansion of the currency which has flowed from the bounty of Nature. We
do not say that, in consequence of these changes, any man who now has a
vote either should or will lose it; but this we do say, that many men
and many places, which have now no voice in the Legislature, will be
duly represented. In particular, if the monopoly and preponderance of
home capital is broken up, and the interests of industry are duly
represented in Parliament, it will be impossible to withhold direct
seats in the Imperial Legislature from the Colonies, if Free-Trade
principles have not previously severed them from the British Empire.
Connected with this subject of the extension of our circulating medium
by the discoveries in California and Australia, is another not less
startling, and fraught with not less important consequences upon the
future destinies of the country. This is the prodigious increase of
EMIGRATION which has taken place since Free-Trade principles were
carried into practice by Sir Robert Peel in 1846. To show the vast
effects of that policy, it is only necessary to reflect on the subjoined
Table, showing the progress of emigration for six years before and after
Free Trade. By a curious coincidence, while by far the greatest part of
the immense increase is to be ascribed to the depression of domestic
industry by the contraction of the currency and influx of foreign
commodities, a certain portion of the great exodus in the last year is
to be ascribed to the newly discovered gold regions of the earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account