THE distress under which the agricultural classes labour at this moment, is fully as intense as that which overwhelmed them at the close of the last war; and it appears to us to proceed precisely from the same caus-a revolution in o ur monetary system. To all practical purposes, the change then made in the standard of our currency, raised the exchangeable value of the pound sterling one fourth; and, consequently, added 25 per cent to all subsisting pecuniary engagements.

This put it in the power of one class of the community-the class of creditors-the inactive capitalists of the country, to take from another class the class of debtors-the active producers, one fourth more than they had any moral right to exact. But at that time the producing classes, who formed the great body of debtors, instead of demanding to be relieved from the wrong which, under the sanction of law, had been inflicted upon them by their creditors, were prevailed upon to overlook the true cause of their distress, and content themselves merely with obtaining protection against foreign competition in the home market: they obtained, to a certain extent, what they demanded; but this remedy not reaching the seat of distress under which they laboured, they were necessarily all ruined. The revolution of 1819 was the adoption of a metallic standard, weighing one fourth more than was represented by the paper pound sterling, for which it was substituted. But the economists, not satisfied with what was done in 1819, have effected a second revolution in the currency of this country, by substituting a metallic for a paper circulating medium. Judging of the present revolution by its practical effects-which, after all, is the only basis on which men of common sense will undertake to form a judgment; its results, if not arrested in time, will prove as fatal to the community as the consequences which flowed from the change in 1819: we shall again be doomed to witness the undue enrichment of one class of subjects at the expense of another, and a repetition of the heart-rending social changes which followed the

VOL. XXVII. NO. CLXIII.

repeal of the Bank Restriction Act. The crisis has already begun, and if the agricultural classes do not rouse themselves without a moment's delay, the destruction of the whole body is as certain and inevitable as that which was drawn down upon the heads of the same classes by the changes of 1819.

We observe that an attempt is made at this moment to divert their attention from the real source of their distress. Instead of looking steadily and unanimously at the source of the evil-the alteration of our monetary system-the suppression of the one-pound note circulation-they are taught by persons who pretend to be their friends, to rest their hopes of relief in the repeal of taxes, and more especially of the malt and beer tax. Now, we beg to state, that we abominate this tax as much as any of those who appear most urgent for its repeal; we would hail that minister as a true lover of his country, who would remove this tax upon the wholesome juice of " John Barleycorn"-the national and genuine beverage of Britons, and impose a much higher rate of duty upon the base and demoralizing, and mind-destroying compounds, which are swallowed by gallons in those sinks of filthy and profligate iniquity -the gin shops. That the government of a Christian land-that the government of any land, should tolerate-nay, should deliberately encourage, the orgies and abominations of those places, for the sake of increasing the revenue-should thus pander to the profligacy of the popuface for the sake of profit, is indeed a lamentable circumstance-and that the community at large should acquiese in this fiscal iniquity, and by that means become at least radically participators in it, is still more lamentable. Where is that active and zealous party, who compass sea and land to free the African from his bodily bondage, while this iniquity is being perpetrated at their own doors? But although we feel every desire to see this obnoxious tax repealed, and that upon spirituous liquors of every name and quality raised, we caution the agriculturists against being deluded

into the belief, that this measure, however valuable in itself, would afford them the relief which they must have, or perish. What they have to complain of, is the unjust addition which, by interfering with the circulating medium, the legislature has again made to the value of money. This has put it a second time into the power of their creditors to exact from them much more than they really contracted to pay; and the effect of this measure will be their ruin, while all creditors, all annuitants, mortgagees, and money-lenders, will be inordinately and unjust ly enriched. Surely this race of fund-holders and other capitalists had advantages enough conferred upon them in 1819; at that period their claims were virtually increased in value one-fourth. This transferred into their hands an enormous mass of the whole property of the country: but this it seems is not enough; and, like the leech, their constant cry is, More! more! and if the economists be not instantly stopped in their career, another harvest equally rich, is now destined for the moneyed interest. Another generation of the cultivators of the soil, of the productive capitalists, are to be sacrificed-not to the just claims, but to the insatiable cupidity, of the money-jobbers. That any minister of the British crown should really intend to commit an act which would in its effects prove no less impolitic in its consequences, than it is unjust in principle, is a fact which we cannot believe. The whole of this mischief -the whole of the misery which our recent monetary changes have inflicted upon the producing classes, has been entirely owing to their own supineness and inactivity. On former occasions, they stood indolently by, while the measures for plundering them were being arranged; and in the present emergency, they seem inclined to pursue a similar line of policy: upon them the bitter and dear-bought warning of experience appears to have been thrown away. They see the wave approaching; but instead of attempting to escape, they fold their arms, and helplessly await their coming fate. If we thought it would be attended with any effect-if we thought that any warning would excite them to protect their property from invasion, and their families from

ruin, we would again impress upon their minds a fact, which we presume their painful experience has made already but too familiar to themthat the suppression of the onepound note circulation reduced the price of agricultural produce at least one-fourth, and by that means has added 25 per cent to all the fixed money-payments due from the agricultural classes, is a fact which cannot be disputed: 25 per cent upon the whole net revenue of the country is thus taken from the produ cing classes, and transferred, without compensation or consideration, into the pockets of the money-capitalists-of mortgagees, money-lenders, annuitants, placemen, and pensioners.

We would also caution the agricultural classes against being seduced by the scribes and underlings of the Treasury, into the belief that the depression of their produce is merely temporary: they may rest assured, that it will prove as permanent as the cause by which it is produced: had it arisen from any circumstance of temporary endurance, the fall in the price of farming produce, which now threatens to ruin the whole race of cultivators, might, of course, be expected to disappear with the cessation of the cause from which it proceeds. But the alteration which has been recently made in our monetary system, the substitution of a metallic for a paper circulating medium, is not a cause that will cease of itself,-as long as it continues, the effect resulting from it will also endure. Above all things, therefore, let the agricultural classes beware of listening to the sophistries and delusions of the Treasury scribes, is both the business and interest of these underlings to deceive them: it is their business to puff their pay-masters and employers: this is the vocation for which they are hired and retained; and not to perform it would, on their part, be a dereliction of duty. But it is also, in a more especial manner, their interest to uphold every measure which enhances the exchangeable value of money; every measure which adds to the value of the legal pound sterling, makes virtually a proportionate addition to the incomes of all that numerous class of individuals, who receive salaries from the public Treasury. A change

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