be put down, nor would we wish to see it pass away. All great
improvement is the fruit of speculation, upon which, indeed, commerce
itself is based. We have, therefore, no sympathy for that numerous
class of gentlemen who profess a pious horror for every venture of the
kind, who croak prophetical bankruptcies, and would disinherit their
sons without scruple, if by any accident they detected them in
dalliance with scrip. A worthier, but a more contracted, section of
the human race does not exist. They are the genuine descendants of the
Picts; and, had they lived in remoter days, would have been the first
to protest against the abolition of ochre as an ornament, or the
substitution of broadcloth for the untanned buffalo hide. The nation
must progress, and the true Conservative policy is to lay down a
proper plan for the steadiness and endurance of its march. The Roman
state was once saved by the judicious dispositions of a Fabius, and,
in our mind, Sir Robert Peel cannot do the public a greater service
than to imitate the example of the _Cunctator_. He has the power, and,
more than any living statesman, the practical ability, to grapple with
such a subject in all its details. That Parliament must do something,
is apparent to every reflecting man. The machinery of it cannot
dispose, as heretofore, of the superabundant material. It must devise
some method of regulation, and that method must be clear and decisive.
A question more important can hardly be conceived, and so with the
legislature we leave it.

FOOTNOTE:

[7] Since this article was sent to press, the Bank of England has
raised its rates of discount one-half per cent. Our prognostication,
therefore, has been verified sooner than we expected, and we are not
sorry to find that great establishment thus early indicating its
opinion that speculation has been pushed too far. We see no ground of
alarm in the rise, but rather a security for a more healthy and
moderate market.

* * * * *

_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne & Hughes, Paul's Work._

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume
62, Number 361, November, 1845., by Various

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