The sales by shopkeepers in these towns have not, during three years, been a third of their average amount. All the witnesses examined before the Lords' committee on the public distress, describe this panic of autumn 1847 as infinitely exceeding in duration and severity anything previously experienced; and the state of matters, and the intensity of the shock given to public credit, may be judged of by the following entries as to the state of the Bank of England in June 1845 and October 1847, when the law was suspended:—
June 1845.
| Issue Department. | Banking Department. | |||
| Date. | Notes Issued. | Gold and Silver Bullion. | Notes in Reserve. | Gold and Silver Coin. |
| June 7 | £29,732,000 | £15,732,000 | £9,382,000 | £779,000 |
| — 14 | 29,917,000 | 15,917,000 | 9,854,000 | 696,000 |
| — 21 | 30,051,000 | 16,051,000 | 9,837,000 | 587,000 |
| — 28 | 30,047,000 | 16,047,000 | 9,717,000 | 554,000 |
October 1847.
| Issue Department. | Banking Department. | |||
| Date. | Notes Issued. | Gold and Silver Bullion. | Notes in Reserve. | Gold and Silver Coin. |
| Oct. 2 | £22,121,000 | £8,121,000 | £3,409,000 | £443,000 |
| — 9 | 21,961,000 | 7,961,000 | 3,321,000 | 447,000 |
| — 16 | 21,989,000 | 7,989,000 | 2,630,000 | 441,000 |
| — 23 | 21,865,000 | 7,865,000 | 1,547,000 | 447,000 |
| — 30 | 22,009,000 | 8,009,000 | 1,176,000 | 429,000 |
Commercial Crisis, 2d edition, 132-133.
Thus, such was the severity of the panic, and the contraction of the currency, consequent on the monetary laws and the operation of free trade in grain, that the nation was all but rendered bankrupt, and half its traders unquestionably were so, when there were still eight millions of sovereigns in the issue department of the bank which could not be touched, while the reserve of notes in the banking department had sunk from nearly £10,000,000, in 1845, to £1,100,000!
So portentous a state of things, fraught as it necessarily was with utter ruin to a great part of the best interests in the empire, was certainly not contemplated by the commercial classes, when they embarked in the crusade of free trade against the productive interests. It might have been long of coming on, and certainly would never have set in with half the severity which actually occurred, had it not been that, not content with the project of forcing down prices by means of the unrestricted admission of foreign produce, they at the same time sought to augment their own fortunes by restricting the currency. It was the double project, beyond all question, which proved their ruin. They began and flattered themselves they would play out successfully the game of "beggar my neighbour," but by pushing their measures too far, it turned into one of "beggar ourselves." It was the double strain of free trade and a fettered currency which brought such embarrassment on the commercial classes, as it was the double strain of the Spanish and Russian wars which proved the destruction of Napoleon. It would appear to be a general law of nature, that great measures of injustice cannot be carried into execution, either by communities or single men, without vindicating the justice of the Divine administration, by bringing down upon themselves the very ruin which they have designed for others.