BANK OF ENGLAND, AND PAPER MONEY.

"Bless'd paper credit, last and best supply,

Which gives corruption lighter wings to fly." POPE.

THIS Upas tree grows in the parish of St. Christopher, in the city of London; the grand curator was William III, (the Dutchman, or the Deliverer.) It was planted at the suggestion of William Patterson, in the grounds and gardens belonging to Sir John Houblon, who was the first governor. At the time

it was planted, few foresaw the curses it would entail on posterity as Cobbett observes, "it is not given to every one to perceive the evils of taking millions from the many, to give to the few." But its venomous blight is now felt in the very extreme nerves of every one, who has to live by his own honest labour; and never will there be an healthful state in the body politic, while it is permitted to occupy the eight acres it now covers. This desolating plant, does not, like the other useful trees of the forest, afford either shade, shelter, food, fuel, or raiment; its roots, and its branches, are perfect parasites, and send forth in every direction, blight, sickness, and desolation; nor is it like any of the beautiful trees of the conservatory, which if not to the taste of the owner can be so pruned and trained by a skilful Nurseryman, as to send forth delightful fruits, flowers, or rich perfumes, imparting a grace to the eye, the palate, or the nostrils of every beholder. This destroyer has so expanded itself, its grasping tendrils, its absorbing roots, its sucking branches, have so completely insinuated themselves into every part of the constitutional frame and fabric, both at home and abroad; that to root it out, puzzles every minister; for as Swift well observed, "money is neither whig nor tory." No minister dares either bark it, or chop it down, for he sees that in its fall, he, and his friends will most certainly, and the present dynasty on the throne, will be very likely to fall with its mighty crash. And yet as it has been historically described to have been "h-ll born, bishop begotten, and of Dutch descent," fall it will some day or other, overwhelming the present system in its ruins, and very probably causing a war of strife and opinion, in which the four quarters of the world may be for years again engaged.

However, to drop the figurative style, and notwithstanding the admonition of Lord Bacon, "He that follows truth too close to the heels, may have his brains kicked out." Let us come to its plain history, its overwhelming effects, demand its being exhibited to the reader in the cold, the dry, the rigid

language of the law; extracted from "the gathered wisdom of a thousand years.

This institution began 1694, in the reign of William and Mary, in the following manner: "An act for granting to their majesties, several rates and duties upon tonnage of ships and vessels, and upon beer, ale, and other liquors, for securing recompences and advantages in the said act mentioned, to such persons as shall voluntarily advance, toward carrying on the war against France, the sum of fifteen hundred thousand pounds." From this beginning, (their affairs being first carried on in Grocers' Hall,) small as it now seems, may be dated the present debt of more than £800,000,000, which is the cause of the present enormous amount of taxation to pay the interest, and the consequent misery attendant thereon, and the emigration of those that are capable to escape from it: who bid

"England adieu! the soil that brought me forth,

Adieu unkind! where skill is nothing worth."

At King William's death, the amount of the national debt (or general mortgage, as it was then very frankly and appropriately called,) had increased to £16,394,702. At the death of Queen Anne, his successor, wen-like, it had swelled to £52,145,363. This was the amount, when the Brunswick family succeeded to the throne.

This institution has subverted one of the crown's most important prerogatives, the coining of money; which agrees with the maxim of the Gospel, the superscription should be that of those who issue it. Indeed, without a uniformity in money, and also of the weights and measures, how can the social system move steadily along? But this institution necessarily introduced paper money, with all the evils of the numerous fluctuations attending it. The table No 3, page 326, shows that various monarchs had been treasonably guilty of mischievous tampering with the coinage, yet nothing in former reigns equal to what has since been done by paper money.

This institution covers an area of eight acres. The first architect was Sampson, who began it about 1736, but it has been much altered, embellished, and improved, by Soane; in every department, the greatest skill, talent, and art, have been called into requisition; there is a time-piece, showing the time simultaneously in sixteen rooms, the connexion is kept up with brass rods. So numerous are the clerks and other attendants, that during the last wars, when one pound notes were in circulation, (which, when once paid back, are never reissued,) they had a corps of volunteers, according to the muster-roll, numbering 1000 rank and file; they had not a very martial

appearance, being of all ages and sizes; the writer has seen them

"marching in a warlike posture,

As fit for battle, as for muster." HUDIBRAS.

During Lord George Gordon's no-popery riots, 1780, there was introduced a company of regular soldiers, to protect it from pillage, which has since been continued, and mount guard there every night.

This institution issued notes as low as ten pounds, in 1759; in 1797, one's and two's. The act for restricting them from paying in gold or silver coins, was passed the same year; they ceased (except in a partial instance, in 1821,) issuing one and two pound notes, in 1829: Peel's bill was passed in 1819.

There were very few country banks previous to the American war of independence; one began in Sheffield, 1749: there has never been any local bank notes in circulation in the populous manufacturing and commercial county of Lancaster.

The Bank of Scotland was instituted in 1659: the National Bank of Ireland, in 1784; in both these divisions of the united kingdom, there are now bank notes in circulation as low as one pound.

In vol. 1, page 39, I mentioned some of the London private banks, but not accurately. "The oldest is Stone, Martin & Co.; this represents the house of Sir Thomas Gresham, the sole founder and builder of the first royal exchange, 1566, in the reign of Elizabeth; he was the first English money contractor when the government wanted a loan, which he could accomplish with British capital. Child & Co's. bank was established, in 1663; the largest share of the profits goes to the countess of Jersey, as being the heiress to her maternal grandfather, Robert Child. Hoare's bank was established 1680. Snow & Co's. 1685." Gent. Mag.

None of the private London banks issue their own promissory notes, but they are for the most part agents for the country banks, and pay on demand the notes issued by them.

Henry VII. left a full, a rich exchequer; Henry VIII. left it in debt, as did his boy Edward VI., and Queen Mary, which Elizabeth paid off. Since which time, I believe, the English government has never been out of debt.

NATIONAL DEBT.-In the year 1827, the Rev. Sydney Smith, used the following excellent vein of bantering on Catholic emancipation; that ghost has been since laid, but the debt remains. As it applies with a little alteration to this subject, which as regards the greater danger of the two difficulties; the one being

no more in comparison than a mole hill is to a mountain; I here give it altered accordingly :

66

"We should like to argue this matter with a tory lord, whose members vote steadily against " violation of national faith. "I wonder that mere fear does not make you give up the" debt! "Do you mean to put this fine place in danger; the venison, the pheasants, the pictures, the cellars, the hothouses, the pinery and grapery? Should you like to see 6 or 7000 French or Americans landed in Ireland, and aided by an universal insurrection of the Catholics? Is it worth your while to run the risk of their success? How can a man of your carriages, and horses, and hounds, think of putting your high fortune in such a predicament, and cry out like a school boy, 'Oh, we shall beat them; we shall put the rascals down."" National Faith! "I admit to your lordship, is a very convenient cry, and has answered your end; but do not push the matter too far, to bring on civil war, for " National Faith "is a very foolish proceeding for a man who has, every dinner, two courses, and a remove. As you value your sideboards of plate; your broad ribbon; your pier glasses; your family pictures; if obsequious domestics, and large rooms, are dear to you; if you love ease and flattery, titles and coats of arms; if the labours of the French cooks, the dedications of the expecting poets, can move you; if you hope for a long life of side dishes; if you are not insensible to the periodical arrival of the turtle fleets," adjust the debt! "Do it for your ease, do it for your indolence, do it for your safety." Adjust," and eat ;" adjust," and drink; and preserve, what you can, of your rent-roll and family estate. If a foreign influence should ever be established in Ireland, how many hours would the Irish church, how many months would the English church, live after such an event? How much is any English title worth, any English family, or any English estate ? We are astonished that the brains of rich Englishmen do not fall down into their bellies in talking about the "national debt, " that they do not reason through the cardia and pilorus, that all the organs of digestion do not become intelligent. The descendants of the prudent nobleman in England may become beggars in a foreign land, from this disgraceful nonsense of" national faith, "fit only for the ancient females of a market town.

"What alarms us in the state of England, is, the uncertain basis on which property is placed, and the prodigious mass of hatred, and destructive misery, which the English government continues, by its obstinate usury, to accumulate eight hundred and forty millions sterling of debt, the revenue depending on the demand for the shoes, stockings, and breeches by Europe

and America; "and seven millions of Catholics, in a state of the greatest fury and exasperation. We" proceed, "as if we did not owe a shilling. We spend as if we had no disaffection. This by possibility may go on, but it is dangerous walking; the chance is, there will be a fall. No wise man should take such a course; all probabilities are against it. We are astonished that Lord Lowther, and Lord Hertford, shrewed and calculating tories, do not see that it is nine to one against such a game. It is not only the event of war that we fear in the military struggle with Ireland; but the expense of war, and the expense of the English government, are paving the way for future revolutions. The world never yet saw so extravagant a government as the government of England. Not only is economy not practised, but is despised, and the idea of it connected with disaffection and jacobinism. Every rock in the ocean, where a cormorant can perch, is covered with our troops; has a governor, deputy governor, store-keeper, and deputy store-keeper, and will soon have an archdeacon, and a bishop. Military colleges, with thirty-four professors, educating seventeen ensigns per annum, being half an ensign for each professor, with every species of nonsense, athletic, sartorial, and plumigerous. A just and necessary war costs this country about one hundred pounds a minute; whip cord, fifteen thousand pounds; red tape, seven thousand pounds; lace for drummers and fifers, nineteen thousand pounds; a pension to one man who has broken his head against the north pole; to another who has shattered his leg at the equator-subsidiaries to Prussia; secret service money to Thibet; an annuity to Lady Henry Somebody, and her seven daughters, the husband being shot at some place where we never ought to have had any soldiers at all, and the elder brother returning four members to parliament. Such a scene of extravagance, corruption, and expence, must paralyse the industry, and mar the fortune of the most industrious, spirited people that ever existed. Few men consider the historical view which will be taken of past events. The bubbles of last year, the fishing for half crowns in Vigo bay, the milk, muffin and crumpet companies; the apple, pear, and plum associations, the national gooseberry and current companies, will all be remembered as creatures of that partial madness to which society is occasionally exposed." Works of the Rev. Sydney Smith, 3 vols.

FUNDS.-Hume, in his " Political Essays," condemns with much earnestness paper credit, and points out the certain ruin to the state, in one way or other, from the funding system. The following extract from the "Rights of the Poor, and Christian Alms-giving Vindicated," by S. R. Bosanquet, 1841, is a view seldom noticed, self-evident and mischievous as the evil is :