VOL. XIX. No. 26.] LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1811. 769] [Price 18. [770 man thus to be ruined without any, even SUMMARY OF POLITICS. the smallest, fault of his own? Surely, MR. BINGHAM.— -Whatever appertains there ought to be some means of compento the safety and freedom of the people is sation discovered for injuries like this.proper to become a subject of remark Upon the swearing to the hand writing I under this general head of my work; and, cannot help making a few remarks, which certainly, nothing has, for a long while, may tend to put JURIES upon their occurred more deeply interesting than the guard against bold swearers of this sort.case of this gentleman, who, as being I have often taken one hand writing for thought guilty of having set his own house another, and where is the man who has on fire for fraudulent purposes, has, for not. But, I have, in my own experience, some time past, been an object of general such an instance of the uncertainty as to execration, which was the more bitter the identifying of hands writing, that I from the circumstance of his being a cannot refrain from mentioning it. Clergyman.--He was tried at HORSHAM, The reader will easily suppose, that my in Sussex, on Tuesday, the 26th instant, hand writing must be pretty well settled; upon two Bills of Indictment. The first for that it must be grown into a sort of characwriting a threatening letter to a farmer, tell-ter of its own, and that those who are in ing him that his corn and houses and cattle should be destroyed; and, the second, for burning his own house.--He has been found NOT GUILTY upon both; and, while we rejoice at this, it is the duty of those who have it in their power to endeavour to prevent other innocent persons from being persecuted in the like manner. -The foundation of the first charge was, that the threatening letter was picked up upon a road along which Mr. Bingham had just before passed. Two boys picked up; and one of them said, that he thought he saw it fly from Mr. Bingham's clothes. -No less than six people came to swear, and did swear, that they believed the hand writing to be his. He was, however, acquitted.- -For the other charge there appeared to be not the smallest shadow of proof; but, on the contrary, the strongest possible presumptive proof of the negative of the charge.The sufferings of this gentleman and his family are not to be described. If the malefactor, who expiates his crimes on the gallows, be, notwithstanding his guilt, an object of compassion, as he always will be with merciful minds, what is this gentleman? What ought our feelings to be for him? What ought we to feel for his wife and six children? I really know of no case so loudly calling for general commiseration, and, if it be required, of aid. Here is a stroke sufficient to ruin a man; and ought a it the habit of seeing it frequently would In | liberty and life of a man depend upon oaths as to similarity of hands writing. When MR. LEMAITRE, whose hard case has been so long before the public, was shown the address of a letter by the PRIVY COUNCIL, and asked whether that was his hand writing, he answered yes; but, when he came to see the contents of the letter, he said he never wrote it. This was looked upon as proof of his guilt. Yet, might not the same happen to me, if the address of a letter to an acquaintance of mine were written by my son?--I hope, that this case of MR. BINGHAM will be a warning to juries how they decide upon oaths as to hands writing, and that it will also be a warning to witnesses how they make such oaths. No man's life is safe if it is to be affected by such evidence; for, how many men are there, who can, in the course of a few days, learn to imitate, to the greatest perfection, any hand writing! In short, to admit of such evidence is to put every man's life in jeopardy, to expose him to the murderous machinations of spies, informers, and all the dark troop of villains, who trade in accusations and live upon human blood. The CHIEF BARON, who tried the Indictments against MR. BINGHAM, seems to have behaved with great humanity towards the injured prisoner, who, on his side, appears to have discovered great fortitude, and manliness of character, and to have been kindly and feelingly supported by his friends, as he ought to be by his neighbourhood and by the public at large. One point in the evidence against him, as to the threatening letter, was, that the water-mark in the paper corresponded with that of paper on which he had written to other people. Good God! What evidence is this? He proved, that the same sort of paper was commonly sold in the neighbourhood; but, suppose it had not? Even suppose that he used paper made for his use exclusively, how was he to answer that no servant of his would take away a sheet of his paper? And, in all likelihood, any villain, who would imitate his hand writing, would, even in such a case, take care to get at a sheet of his paper; while he himself, if he was about to write a threatening letter, would take special care to furnish himself with some other sort of paper.There is nothing more carefully to be guarded against than this slender sort of evidence, which, at best, amounts to grounds of mere suspicion. It is unworthy of the name of evidence, and men's lives ought not to be put in jeopardy upon it.There must be some very vile wretches in the neighbourhood of MR. BINGHAM, and it is to be hoped, that they will yet be discovered. The cause of this gentleman is that of every good man. It is the cause of innocence against false accusation; and, the gentlemen in Sussex will be shamefully wanting to themselves as well as to justice towards him, if they fail to show him all the countenance in their power, and, indeed, to compensate him amply and substantially for his wrongs. CORN AGAINST SUGAR.In my last NUMBER, at page 749, I inserted an account of the proceedings of the Corn gentlemen, who meet against Sugar at the St. Albans Tavern. In the present Number, at the end of this Summary, I insert certain Resolutions, passed by the Sugar gentlemen, met at the City of London Tavern, on Tuesday, the 26th instant. The fire from the East certainly overpowers that from the West; and, if the Corn gentlemen have most money, the Sugar gentlemen have decidedly most wit.These Sugar Resolutions contain so many distinct propositions, very well drawn up. They are clear in their meaning, and unless they can be controverted as to their premises, their conclusions are indubitable, All, therefore, that my lord SIDMOUTH and his worthy coadjutors, Mr. CURWEN and Sir JouN SINCLAIR, have to do, is, to refute the propositions. And, I would beseech them not to look upon this as unnecessary; for, they may be assured, that there are not in this whole kingdom, as many people as would make up a good large cardparty, who are disposed to believe a thing to be wrong merely because these three great men say that it is wrong.—I do not, for my part, see, why the duty upon Sugar should not be made so low as to enable people to use it for good purposes. It is nutritious and wholesome. Would it not be better to let people use the coarse, as they do molasses in America, as a sort of sauce to fat pork and bacon? Why not use it for the fatting of hogs? Better do that than let it rot in the warehouses and tax the people to lend money to its owners, who would want nothing lent to them, if you will let them sell their goods This colony work is, at last, come to a pretty pass. A farmer (for why should not that name be given to a Sugar as well as to a Corn grower) in Jamaica is thus situated. We compel him to buy all his household cause of the overstock of Sugar, is, that too much is raised, and that the West, India farmers should raise less.This is very true in one respect; but, observe, that, if they raise less, they will want less of your manufactures, less of the produce of England. And, I must be excused if L do not see that they raise too much, so long as I can point out the means of using their Sugar instead, of corn in England, while England is obliged to bring corn from the dominions of the enemy, and pay him an enormous duty upon it, and while he will take nothing but gold and silver in payment. -This is the fact that stares the corn gentlemen in the face. When, indeed, "our vallies shall be so filled with "corn" as to render it unnecessary to bring any from foreign countries; when our own fields grow enough food for our own eating; when Mr. CURWEN, whether from the stewing of straw, or, profiting from the hint of his India friend, extract ing "good food" for the people out of horse dung*; when he can say, "here, we have "corn enough for all your wants, and "there is no longer any need of importa"tion." When he can say this, we will hear what he has to say about shutting out sugar from the market; but, until then, he may be well assured, that, rally as often as he pleases, he will always get defeated in his opposition to the use of Sugar.If importation of Corn should be rendered unnecessary, as it will, in time, be, by the goods, tools, wearing apparel, and whatever else he cannot get in Jamaica, of US. We compel him to send TO US all that part of his produce which he does not expend at home (except a little occasionally exchanged with the Americans for wood and food); and, yet (oh, intolerable in justice and oppression!) we will not let him sell that produce to the people, when he has sent it to us!This is the short, but fair, state of his case.- -Why do we not let him carry his produce to other countries and get his goods and tools from those countries?"Oh! you traitor," exclaims some loyal land-owner! "would you " alienate Jamaica from the Mother coun"try?" Well, then, if you will not consent to this, why will you not let the Jamaica farmer come into the market with you? Mother! Pretty mother indeed! She is (or, at least, you would have her be) like too many other modern mothers, who perform the tffice with wonderful alacrity till the hour arrives for giving comfort and support to their offspring, when they cast them off to draw their nourishment from an alien breast. RousSEAU, in his work of matchless eloquence, says, she who refuses to her child that which nature has said shall be his birthright, has no claim to his affection or his daty she has no son; he has no mother. But, we are worse than these unnatural mothers, these mothers, on whose conduct the example even of the tygress is a reproach; we are (or these Corn gentlemen would have us be) worse than they; for, they do think it their duty to get a hireling mother (though almost necessarily an unnatural one) to supply their place; whereas we, not only do not furnish any substitute, but absolutely forbid our colonial offspring to find nourishment amongst strangers.These colonies are expensive" to us, and, therefore, we ought to derive all the benefit from them that they are capable of yielding. Very well; but, bear in mind, that it is our own choice that they are expensive to us. Bear in mind, that the colonists do not ask us to keep. them in our possession. If we will set them free, let them carry their produce, or send it, where they please, and buy their tools and clothes where they please, they will call upon us for no expences. We should not, therefore, blame them for that which arises out of our own choice. We compel them to remain subjects to us, and we cry out about the expence arising from it. It has been said, that the ." * "The general scarcity of grain which prevailed at that time induced many thousands to flock to the British "camp in search of food, and I daily. "witnessed, for weeks together, many "hundreds of all ages and sexes, coming "into the lines of our cavalry, and anxiously collecting and carrying away the excrement, as it fell from the horses; this they exposed for a few hours to the sun, "and by rubbing and sifting it, procured "a large supply of GOOD FOOD.". This Mr. CURWEN publishes in his " HINTS "ON AGRICULTURAL SUBJECTS," as part of an "Interesting Communication," sent him by a very intelligent officer, who had served long in India;" and a pretty hint it is for an English Landowner to publish. I wonder it had not led the inquisi tive mind of Mr. CURWEN to consider what degree of nutriment might have been. found for the poor in the milk of the cavalry.-Bones and broth always to g❤ together. -The instance of the diminution of the number of hands employed in fact, fall.- my correspondent, that I did not recommend, or mean to recommend, any additión whatever to be made to the salaries of the Judges, or of any body else. But, I must repeat, that, if any rise do take place, I am of opinion it must go all through, not omitting the pensioners; for, why should they be omitted? Why should any distinction be made? There are hundreds of officers' widows and children, whose cases must call for as much compassion as the case of any human beings. JUBILEE DOLLARS.In my last Number, at page 746, I suggested some doubts as to what might be necessary to be done, in consequence of the rise in the price of the Dollar, as to the salaries of persons in the employment and pay of the government, and, by way of illustration, I took the case of my Lords the Judges, who will -There was some remarks in the MORNnow receive the Dollar at 5s. 6d. instead ING CHRONICLE, upon the subject of these of 5s. as they did before. I suppose a Jubilee Dollars, which I will first insert, Judge to receive £. 4,000 a year; and if and offer some observations upon them; he receives this in Dollars at 5s. 6d. in- for the subject is of vital importance: it is stead of 5s. it is as clear as day light, that the Alpha and Omega of English politics: he will receive only £.3,600 instead of every thing, as to events, turns upon it.£4,000. And, as the Dollar rises, it is' "In the Report of the Bullion Committee quite manifest, that my Lord's salary will," is the following passage:-"Your Com 66.66 " to 66 "has done for some years past, and which it "seems resolved to persist in, while any "Gold or Silver remains in the country." ""mittee beg leave to advert to the "public Creditors must take them, or go temptation to resort to a depreciation" unpaid. The excuse for the augment""even of the value of the Gold Coin, by "ation of the nominal value of the Dol""an alteration of the Standard. This lars is, that Silver has risen in price. In "«has been the resource of many Go-" comparison with what has it risen? ""vernments, and is the obvious and "Silver, in comparison with Silver of the ""most easy remedy to the evil in ques- "same standard, cannot rise. It will not ""tion. But it is unnecessary to dwell" be pretended that Gold has risen, as in ""on the breach of public faith, and the " comparison with Silver, beyond the "" dereliction of a primary duty of Go-" usual difference. But, in comparison ""vernment, which would manifestly be" with Bank Paper, Silver has undoubt implied in preferring the reduction of "edly risen, or, in more accurate terms, "" the coin down to the standard of the "the Paper has depreciated. That fact "" paper, to the restoration of the paper was sufficiently demonstrated before, ""the legal standard of the coin.' "the comparison being made with Gold, "In this sentiment all the writers on the "which is the true and only standard, subject have agreed; nor will it proba- "But if that were wanted, the fact seems "bly be controverted by any honest and "to be put beyond all doubt by this ope "intelligent man. It might have been "ration of the Bank itself, and the pre"farther observed, that such a remedy "sent rate of depreciation fixed at very "could only have a temporary effect. nearly 20 per cent. How soon it may "We may call a piece of gold or silver "be at 50 per cent. no man can tell, while "what we please, or declare it shall pass" the Bank is permitted to follow the course it " among ourselves for any nominal sum; "but it will never pass abroad for more "than its intrinsic worth, and at home the "price of every article will quickly be "enhanced in proportion. When the "Bank first issued Dollars at the rate of "5s. little attention was paid to the principle. The convenience of increasing a good silver currency was felt, and the "declared obligation on the Bank to take "them back at the nominal value was re"lied on. The Bank has issued five or "six millions sterling in Dollars at that "rate since 1797, a small part of which "will never go back. the far greater part "having been melted or exported. The "profit derived to the Bank by this ope"ration, at the expence of the public, is "matter of easy calculation. But now "that the Bank has thought proper to in"crease the nominal value ten per cent. " and it has become evident that it may "go on to any amount, people begin to "open their eyes. Having the counte"nance of Government, what hinders the "Bank to operate on the Gold Coin in the "same way they have done on the Silver, "or to issue pieces of gold, intrinsically "worth 15s. to pass for Guineas. It is "vain to say the Dollars are not current "coin, while no person can refuse them, " or obtain the change of a 20s, note with"out taking them. That they have not "been made a legal tender, is just such a quibble as maintaining that Bank of "England Notes are not effectually such "a tender. As Mr. Giddy observes, the " " -Now, I shall not, I am quite sure, be suspected of any partiality towards the Old Lady in Threadneedle Street, whom I look upon as having been one of the great causes of all the mischiefs that have been brought upon the country; but, really, I do not understand these charges against the Bank. "While the Bank is "permitted to follow the course it has done "for some years past." Why, Mr. PERRY, how can the Bank help it? How can any body refuse to permit the Bank to go on as it does? It is an old saying, that one cannot have blood out of a flint stone; but, I will venture to say, that this truth is not more obvious than the truth, that you cannot make the Bank change its course, and that the Bank cannot change its course of itself. Resolved to persist!" Why, you may as well reproach my man Compton with resolving to have but one arm. The poor fellow had it shot off; and, is he to be accused of persisting, in having but one arm? Yet, is there, in my opinion, full as much injustice in charging the Bank with persisting in having papermoney instead of real money.but will I allow there to be no remedy then? That we will talk about, after I have heard the debate upon Mr. HORNER'S motion, which, I see, is confing on, that gentleman having sent up word to the Honourable House, that he means to come on with it in a short time. But, in the meanwhile, -Well, |