the wants of the lower classes. All experience, it was urged,
proved that this restoration of a metallic currency could not be
effected so long as small notes were allowed to be circulated; a
permanent state of cash-payments could never exist by their side. It was
argued, that if crown notes and half-crown notes were issued, crowns and
half-crowns would disappear; and that if the one pound notes continued
to circulate, sovereigns would become rarities. There never was a gold
circulation in the country except in Lancashire, where no country notes
existed; and when, in the year 1822 and 1823, the Bank of England was
anxious to supply the country with gold, the sovereigns sent down by
one mail-coach returned with the next. Great sacrifices had been made
to effect the introduction of even the partial metallic currency now in
existence; and these sacrifices had been made in vain: the currency
of the country could never be placed, on a solid basis unless country
bankers were prohibited from issuing notes, excepting such as were of a
considerably higher denomination than the current coin, so as to save it
from the paper currency. The principle of the measure therefore could
be resisted only by those who held that the pecuniary relations of the
country were best secured by proscribing a metallic currency. But its
necessary effect would be to give solidity to the banks themselves,
by compelling them to maintain a portion of their circulation in gold,
instead of worthless paper; and thus, even where a failure took place,
extensive misery, which such an occurrence produced among the lower
classes, would no longer return. The security of the poorer classes in
such cases lay in the absence of small paper. Let the Bank of England
retain in its hands as much gold as might be necessary for the ordinary
operations of commerce, for such demands as the exigencies of government
might require, or to adjust an unfavourable state of foreign exchanges;
let every country bank be governed by the same rules, and compelled
to keep an amount of gold proportioned to its operations; and a
sensitiveness to occurrences likely to cause a pressure on the country
banks would be created, which would tend to the security of the whole
kingdom; the issues would be kept within bounds, and gold would be kept
in the kingdom. The expulsion of small notes, it was stated, could not
operate injuriously to the country bankers. The number of country banks
was about eig