§ MR. R. W. CRAWFORDdesired to put a question to the Secretary of State for India, which through some inadvertence had not been placed upon the Notice Paper, respecting proposals that may have been made by the Government of India, and the course that the Home Government are prepared to recommend, for the issue of promissory notes payable upon demand in that country. He also wished to inquire whether the right hon. Gentleman will be willing to produce any despatch containing the terms of the arrangement, which is one of great importance to commercial interests?
§ SIR CHARLES WOODreplied that proposals had some time in the summer been forwarded by the Government of India for establishing a note circulation in that country; but they expressed some doubt as to the expediency of introducing it at that time when the public mind was in a feverish state on financial subjects. This despatch arrived soon after he became Secretary of State for India, and at that time it was in contemplation to send out Mr. Wilson as Financial Councillor to that country. An answer was accordingly returned to the effect that the Government thought it desirable that such a measure should be introduced after full consideration, and after the arrival of Mr. Wilson, who from his thorough acquaintance with the subject, and from his experience of all which had taken place in this country respecting the circulation of notes, was likely to bring a considerable stock of English knowledge and experience to the aid of the Indian Government, who, well acquainted as they were with the circumstances of that country, had not much practical acquaintance with the issue of notes. Before Mr. Wilson left England he (Sir Charles Wood) held communications with Mr. Wilson, with several Members of the Council, and with the Governor and Deputy-Governor of the Bank of England, and the general outlines of a scheme were arranged. Since Mr. Wilson's arrival in India he had communicated with the Governor-General and with many of the ablest officers of the Government, with commercial men both English and Natives, and with others on the subject, and he had sent home a very able Minute em- 1704 bodying the results of their consultation. The document, however, was not in the shape of a despatch, because it had not been considered by the Members of the Council of Calcutta, to which place Mr. Wilson was to have returned about the middle of last month, and he then proposed to introduce a Bill for the purpose of establishing a note circulation in India. An answer to the Minute was now before the Indian Council, and as soon as it had passed, he (Sir Charles Wood) should lose no time in laying all the papers on the table. No precise amount of notes to be issued had been determined upon; but the object of the Government was to establish in India a circulation issued by Government, on the same footing as the notes of this country were issued by the Issue Department of the Bank of England. They would be altogether independent of any bank already in operation, and totally disjoined from any banking operation whatever.