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"The report exhibits the condition of the bank irretrievably ruined, and it is not probable that one dollar of its large circulation will ever be redeemed. The principal debtor to the bank is the late cashier, whose indebtedness the report shows to be 120,815 dollars 79 cents, and who is represented as destitute of property. Among the other assets of the bank are 82,000 dollars in its own stock, and 15,000 dollars in that of the Lafayette Bank-neither of which adds to its resources. The whole real estate of the bank is under attachment to the amount of 75,000 dollars, and has been since assigned to the government to recover the amount of deposits. The remaining assets of the bank are reported by the committee to be of little real value. The liabilities, including the capital stock, amount to 526,028 'dollars 24 cents. The bank has out 167,075 dollars in post-notes, and 142,345 dollars in bank-bills, and holds deposits to the amount of 144,440 dollars, not one dollar of which will probably ever be paid.”

Now, can you believe that the newspaper, called The Herald and Sentinel, that has afforded us all this information, is still an advocate for paper-money, and violently abuses every body that says a word in favour of gold and silver? This same editor would, the day before the breaking of these banks, have joined his prostituted fraternity in sending a statement into every house in the country of the wonderful stability of these same banks, and of the preference that ought to be given to their notes to the "hard-money system;" the horrid effects of which, he tells us, work so very bad in all countries where it is used. In this very number of his paper he heads an article as follows:

66 EFFECTS OF THE HARD-MONEY SYSTEM.

"POVERTY OF the Chinese LABOURERS.-In a letter from Charles Gutzlaff, the missionary, to Mr. P. Perit, of New York, dated Macao, December 18th, 1837, we find the following:

""Of the scanty livelihood upon which the poor classes, and we may say nine-tenths of the nation, are obliged to live, we can form no adequate idea. The wages are so low that a man who works from morning to evening, as hard as he can, gains, perhaps, ten cents, and with this he has to maintain his wife and children. Their suffering, therefore, are indescribable; but a Chinaman is at the same time armed against them by the obtuseness of his nerves." "

The poor classes of China, then, according to the missionary's account, are very badly off, the working man earning only ten cents per day! and with that he has to maintain his wife and children; but I take it for granted he has not to maintain any body else-if he had, the missionary would have informed us of it. Now, if he had lived in the happy

community of America, he would have earned, that is to say, if he could have got work at all, which thousands every now and then cannot do for months together,-but, if he could have found employment, he would have earned, perhaps, seventy-five cents, instead of ten cents!-a wonderful difference in his favour. But then he would have had his share to pay for the use of eight hundred millions of the gamblers' cards, valued by themselves at a dollar a-piece, and the interest, sometimes charged forty or fifty per cent. per annum ; besides, he would have been beset by the speculators, and a thousand of other thieves of a more petty description. Let these things be considered, and the poor American will not have much, if any, the best of it; especially when we allow for his nerves, which are so refined that he cannot live without food; and, according to the coroner's own statement, eleven cases of starvation happened within a few days, that same winter, and in the said city and county of Philadelphia, while the Chinaman is, happily for him, armed, it appears, against suffering from want, by obtuseness of nerves. Now, while the missionary and the editor were taking all this pains to make the cheated believe that," however bad their fate, somebody was worse," their fellow-citizens were huzzaing at the great meeting at the prospect held out to them of their soon having "public granaries," and becoming as happy as are the said Chinese.

I shall, in a letter addressed to the Chartists, further examine into the state of the poor of America, and show that which the missionary does not seem to know; but you, Sir, know that the nominal price of a man's labour is immaterial, and that it is the quantity of provisions, and so on, that he gets for his money, that enables us to judge of his good or his bad condition; and this the missionary never informed us of, so that he might as well have said nothing at all. If he had read his Testament, as he ought to have done, he would have known that Christ compared the kingdom of heaven to a man that agreed with his labourers at a penny a-day; but we do not infer, from their having but a penny a-day, that their sufferings were indescribable. We find, indeed, that it was a tolerably fair price, wheat being at a penny a-measure, and barley three measures for a penny; a measure being at that time, as I am informed, about a peck; but, be it what it would, we cannot believe that Christ likened the kingdom of heaven to a man that would grind the face of the poor.

For further information on self-government, I refer you to the Appendix, which contains documents from all parties, every one of which is as corrupt as it is possible for it to be; however, they tell truth. about each other, when it suits their purpose to do so. Still I am anxious to take every opportunity to affirm that I know there to be as

good men in the United States as any in the world-men who sincerely regret the political condition of their country, and would, if they could, alter and amend it. But such men are scattered, not numerous enough to form a successful party, and are without hope, knowing that immorality is too widely spread over their land, and that their national affairs are too firmly grasped by the hands of unprincipled men.

Subsequently to writing the preceding I have learnt, Sir, with very great regret, that you are a most strenuous advocate, both in Parliament and out, for introducing the American system of banking into these dominions. May the Almighty, in His great mercy, avert your pernicious and ruinous design! Your own character, Sir, both as a man and a banker, I have always heard spoken of in the highest terms of commendation-and I believe that you deserve such terms of commendation. I conclude, therefore, that you must have been, previously to reading my letter addressed to you, profoundly ignorant of what the American system of banking really is, or I am convinced you would never have advocated it, much less have endeavoured to introduce it into our everdear native country.

I am, Sir,

Most respectfully,

Your obedient servant,
THOMAS BROTHERS.

SIR,

ON THE WORKING of the GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED STATES;
CHARTERED PRIVILEGES.

To Thomas P. Cope, Esq.

Southam (England), June 1, 1839. Having been rummaging over a number of papers, for the purpose of coming at a few facts relating to the working of your Republican Government, I, among many other curious things, find a speech made by you in the place that you had the honour to fill, as a member of the Convention, for altering and amending the constitution of Pennsylvania. This speech, coming as it does from a man of your years and of your standing, but, above all, of your religion, which teaches you in all things to adhere to the truth,-coming from such a man, it would seem to be something upon which those who are anxiously searching for facts might with safety rely.

You inform us, that you have it in your power to furnish some useful information: the first part of which, it appears, you " derive from an ex

amination of the minutes of the board of directors of the Bank of North America," which you give as follows:

"Bank of North America, Aug. 6th, 1789. "Mr. Richard Bache moved, upon the recommendation of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, that this bank should now issue small tickets or notes, to supply the call of the public for change, during the present interruption to the circulation of copper coin; and presented a sheet of paper, of a very peculiar fabric, as most suitable for the purpose-of which paper the Doctor had only two reams, which he would spare the bank for this particular use.

"Whereupon the board resolved That Benjamin F. Bache print a number of tickets of the denomination of three-ninetieths of a dollar, equal to threepence specie, and also a number of tickets of the denomination of one-ninetieth of a dollar, equal to one penny specie."

The minutes of October 1, 1789, contain the copy of a letter from Thomas Willing, Esq., president of the bank, to Alexander Hamilton, secretary of the treasury, from which I have taken the following extract :

"We find, and daily experience convinces us, that there is much less risk of imposition by the counterfeiting of our paper than of the gold and silver now current in America, of which there are so many base pieces well made and current, that it is hardly possible for a person to receive it without loss, though ever so well informed. It is a truth, that we have destroyed, the last three years, to the full amount of twenty thousand dollars, offered to us in payment as gold and silver."

When I was a youth I read with great enthusiasm the biography of this Dr. Franklin, as written by himself; and, like thousands of others, had not the sense to comprehend anything belonging to his character but that of the great and good patriot. I have, however, for some time since, begun to discover that his true character was that of a subtle, designing politician, and your information fully confirms the fact. The world, I think, or at least I hope, is now beginning to come to its sober senses, and to be capable of judging as to what kind of characters they were that introduced the curses that now torment us, and that threaten with annihilation everything that has a tendency to bind mankind together.

What do we want more than your information to convince us that the people in mass are, and ever have been, too ignorant and unsuspecting to take care of themselves? When they all become "sovereigns" the helm is neglected, and they become the prey of the worst of all mankind. No sooner did day behold the republic of France than the Marats and Robespierres were, like vultures, hovering over the scene, and anticipating, in thought, the corruption they should in future be able to banquet upon. They, like Franklin and Paine, saw no way of obtaining their

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ends equal to that of issuing fraudulent paper-money, which those that had property naturally contended against; and, before it could be established, law after law became necessary, threatening even with death those that refused to receive it for their goods and in payment for all sorts of debts; and it was much the same, it appears, in America, for this father of the fraud acknowledges, in his "Life," that "the wealthy inhabitants were prejudiced against every sort of paper currency, for fear of its depreciation, of which there had been an instance in the province of New England, to the injury of its holders: they therefore strongly opposed this measure." Then he tells us that he wrote and published an anonymous pamphlet in favour of it, and that it was well received by the lower class of people, but it displeased the opulent, as it increased the clamour in favour of the " emission." "The friends I had acquired in the house," says he, "persuaded that I had done the country essential service on this occasion, rewarded me by giving me the printing of the bills. It was a lucrative employment, and proved a very seasonable help to me.'

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Then again he tells us that, after this, paper-money never experienced any considerable opposition. "But," he adds, "I am now convinced that there are limits beyond which paper-money would be prejudicial." This was after the "philosopher" had become rich by the craft, and was, like you, drawing near to the end of his career: if the vigour of his life had lasted for ever, then for ever he would have been found de vising schemes to cheat the unwary: for, to be plain, I cannot believe that any man who knows anything of the operations of irresponsible paper-money, and favours or encourages the same, can be any other than, in his very nature, a downright rogue; always, Sir, excepting, of course, that man that I am writing to, who, it seems, agrees with Franklin, that all men of property in early days set their faces against this fraud. It is well to bear this in mind, because, when the end of the new era" comes, and come it assuredly will before it be long, then it will be inquired strictly into by all sensible men, how and with what class of people did this curse originate.

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You inform us, and, before I forget, I return you my thanks for doing so, that, "when the Bank of England was chartered in 1694, the same cry of monopoly was urged against its creation. This cry was raised, not by the people, but by the proud barons, who foresaw, in the measure, an abridgment of their overwhelming power. They perceived that its tendency was to elevate the commoners in wealth and influence to a level with themselves. They were right." Did the proud barons really oppose this measure? Then whatever I have thought, or at any time said, against the proud barons, has been owing to my want of knowledge as to this fact, and their memories shall henceforth, by me, be held most

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