he
argued, to suppose that silver had been the standard of this country
throughout the last century. It had only been a legal tender by weight,
but then it had become so depreciated, that, practically, there was
no such thing as tender by weight, while by law the tender in coin was
limited to twenty-five pounds; so that it was clear that in 1798 silver
could not be the standard. He concluded by saying, that if a regulation
could be made that a creditor should be obliged to take half his debt in
one standard, at the will of the debtor, and that the debtor should
not be obliged to pay more than half in one, and half in the other, it
might, perhaps, be practicable to have the two; but he did not see how,
otherwise, the two could exist together.

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS--BILL FOR REPEALING THE DUTY ON BEER, ETC.

On the 15th of March the chancellor of the exchequer produced his annual
exposition of the finances, and of the financial measures to be
adopted in raising the expenditure of the present year. His statements
presented no remarkable features except the repeal of the beer, cider,
and leather duties. By this measure ministers desired to show their
wish of alleviating the pressure of taxation on the lower classes. With
reference to the extent of the repeal, the chancellor of the exchequer
said, that "the amount of the three duties which I thus propose to
repeal will be, on freer, L3,000,000, on leather from L340,000 to
L350,000, and on cider, L25,000. These reductions will give direct
relief to the people, amounting, at least, to L3,400,000., and will give
them relief indirectly to a further amount; so that in fact the
whole relief cannot be estimated at less than L5,000,000 a year." The
remission of duty on beer was proposed to take place on the 10th of
October following, and the reason given for such delay was, that the
repeal should take place conjointly with an opening of the trade, when
the time arrived for renewing the licences of public-houses. There can
be no doubt that the measure proceeded from excellent motives; but it
is certain that by encouraging the increase of public-houses to an
indefinite extent, immorality and crime had been introduced into every
nook and corner of the land. The picture which the poet Cowper drew of
the evils of public-houses in his day have been increased a hundredfold
by such a measure so that it is literally true, that,

"Pass where'er we may, through city or through to