The abundance of money at...
The abundance of money at this time, and the want of useful objects on which it may be expcnded-or rather, we should say, the want of disposition to search for useful ob- jects-leads very much to the abuse of that powerfutl instru- ment, and to the employment of it to purposes actually in- jurious to the country. Mr. CANNING might well censure the facility with wlhich loans are or might be made on the British Exchange for the most atrocious purposes of des- potism, provided only, good security could be given. But the mischief begins really nearer home; and it might in justice be complained, not only that money would be sup- plied from henice for the most criminal foreign purposes on the slightest hope of gain, but that it is al!o employed here in objects essentially injurious to the community at large. Every paper teems with new projects-projects, be it ob- served, not for extending our commerce, for perfecting our manufactures, or improving our agriculture, from which the nation would (lerive bencfit-but projects, the ten- dency of whichl is to nourish a species of internal warfare, wherein, as one portion of British subjects cannot gain but by the ruin of another, the State will derive no advantage. There is at present a rage for Docks and Dock Companies. Now, if the extension of docks would multiply the number of vessels ceming to them, we should say, by all means aug- inent your docks. But has it ever occurred that a home- ward-bound vessel wanted room in a secure (lock ? The public will have observed in the papers, various accounts of the new St. Catherine Docks. We believe that in the for- mation of these, there is both much private misery inflicted, and also, if we are rightly informeed, the needless desecra- tion of a sacred place. But these are not the views in which we are at present disposed to consider the sub- ject. On the first mention of the Docks, the dlock- shares of other companies sunk. Here, therefore, is British capital making war upon Britishlcapital-British subjects destroying eaclh other, and the State is no gainer. Nothing whatever is produtced by this conflict ; not a blade of grass, nor a bale of goo(ds. Mr. CANNING regretted that Government had no means of preventing British capitalists from supporting the cause of foreign despotism, from the hope of interest: but we think that Government might control the domestic mischief which we here point out. One class of His Miajesty's subj lcts is as (lear to him as another ; and when any project is on foot of such a charac- ter that its success would be a mere transfer of property without augmentation, those who have their capital already investtd should be protected, botlh from a feeling of hu- manity and a sense of justice; and the new adventurers shouldl be atdvised, and that strongly too, to seek out other channels for the employment of tileir wealth. Thus would the State benefit, both by the security of the old possessors and the spirit of enterprise infused into the rising adventurers.