We crave the pardon of our English readers if, in the first instance, we
place this point more exclusively in a national view. It is quite true,
and we are fully alive to the fact, that, thanks to the crotchet of Sir
Robert Peel, England and Scotland are now placed in exactly the same
monetary difficulties, and we are not without hope that, on that
account, our united efforts to get rid of the nightmare which is
stifling us both, may prove more effectual than if either country were
struggling singly for liberation. But it must not be forgotten that with
us the experiment has been recently made. We are still most vividly
alive to the advantages of a system which we ourselves founded, upon
principles of mutual support among all classes of the community--under
which we have risen and thriven--and which has not been sacrificed on
account of any alleged fault or deficiency in its working, or from any
intelligible motives of public policy, but simply to gratify the whim
and feed the vanity of a minister who considers himself wiser than a
nation, and who never can be happy without change. A monetary crisis and
a panic are new things to us; for we have hitherto been accustomed to
associate public distress with low wages, low prices, and a want of
demand for products. But we find ourselves now for the first time in
this position, that with higher wages than are the average, more demand
for labour than can well be supplied, and more orders on the hands of
our manufacturers than can well be executed, we are yet brought to an
absolute stand-still for want of money. We go to our bankers with
security which is both unquestioned and unquestionable, and we proffer
it in security for that which, according to our old ideas, we think that
we are absolutely entitled to have on such terms--for money, the
life-blood of a commercial community; and we are told that it cannot be
given to us! And when we inquire the reasons for such refusal, we are
told that the banks cannot afford to increase their circulation; since,
under the new system, they are compelled to stock their own coffers with
gold for every single note which they issue beyond a given point--and
gold to be had must be paid for.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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