Cobbett's radical "Two Penny Register," rivalled the London "Times" in
power. In Parliament the leaders of the radical opposition grew ever more
importunate. Not until the end of the year did matters mend. The most
comforting sign of better times was a partial resumption of specie payments
by the Bank of England, followed shortly by the opening of the first
Savings Bank in London. Other memorable events of the year were the
acquisition of the famous Elgin marbles from the Parthenon in Athens,
celebrated in Keats's sonnet "On Seeing the Elgin Marbles," and the
publication of Shelley's long poem "Alastor," and Leigh Hunt's "Story of
Rimini." A diplomatic setback pregnant with future trouble was the
dismissal of Lord Amherst, the British Ambassador at Pekin, for refusing to
kow-tow to the Emperor of China.

[Sidenote: Depression in America]

[Sidenote: Financial relief measures]

[Sidenote: Tariff _vs._ Free Trade]

[Sidenote: Changes in New England]

In America the depression of commerce and industry resulting from the war
with England continued unabated. To relieve the situation, the Secretary of
the Treasury, A.J. Dallas, proposed as a measure of relief the chartering
of a new national bank with increased capital and enlarged powers and the
readjustment of the tariff by the imposition of higher duties. The bank was
chartered for twenty-one years with a capital of $35,000,000, a portion of
the stock to be owned by the government and the institution to have in its
management five government directors in a board of twenty-five. The tariff
policy of Madison was sustained by the Southern party and opposed by the
Federalists, especially in New England. Thus it became more a question of
sectional interests than of abstract political economy. The capital of New
England was invested in shipping, so that the exclusion of articles of
foreign production was bound to injure, by a high tariff, New England's
carrying trade. On its part, the South sought to establish a home market
for its cotton--almost the only staple of the Gulf States. Efforts were
made to encourage the domestic manufacture of those coarse fabrics which
were indispensable in a slave-holding region. The question thus grew into a
struggle between slave labor and free trade. The free-trade party was led
by Daniel Webster, and the tariff party by Calhoun. During the first year
of the new tariff the value of foreign imports fell off about thirty-two
per cent. In the