London
22d March 1833
Dear Mr F.
I recommend you to get a new register to the grate in the little drawingroom for the present one closes so imperfectly that when there is no fire in it, & a fire in the room above, the room is almost always full of smoke and quite uninhabitable.
The account of the Steam Carriage <1> which I sent you almost exceeds credibility; a mile in a minute & ten seconds passe ce qu’il est permis de croire. <2>
I am sorry you are the advocate of a metallic currency <3> uncontrolled by any fixed standard. A great error lies at the bottom of most reasonings that one hears on this subject, namely that gold is a substance invariable in value, and therefore fitted to measure the value of other things – So far from that, it is very variable, & has varied much and very injuriously of late years – In fact its value varies like that of Iron Copper or any other metal, tho’ not so much. (Indeed it would be strange if it did not) Only imagine for an instance if Iron were the circulating medium (as in ancient Sparta) what tremendous fluctuations there would be in the Currency – Another hallucination is to suppose the evil is accomplished & therefore it were best to say no more about it, but this is assumed without the least foundation, for it is much more likely that the causes which have enhanced the value of gold will continue to do so, which will cause a still increasing fall in the prices of all other articles & finish the ruin of all who are subject to fixed money payments. – Kit <4> was locked out on Thursday just as he reached the door of the H. of C. <5> He was going to vote with Atwood <6> <sic> as well as myself.
Had Althorp <7> said he would himself appoint a Committee (pledged to no theoretical views) to examine the question dispassionately we should all have been satisfied, but he said his mind was made up & we had nothing therefore for it but to vote against him or follow blindly a leader who we <illegible deletion> think is going towards a precipice.
Yours
Henry
Notes:
1. See Doc. No: 02657.
2. Exceeds what one is allowed to believe.
3. See Doc. No: 02661.
4. Christopher Rice Mansel Talbot (1803–1890), immensely wealthy landowner, mathematician & politician; WHFT’s Welsh cousin.
5. House of Commons.
6. Thomas Attwood (1783–1856), radical MP, banker & manufacturer.
7. John Charles Spencer, Viscount Althorp, 3rd Earl of Spencer (1782–1845), politician.