HC Deb 19 March 1807 vol 9 cc166-7
Lord H. Petty rose ,

pursuant to notice, to move for leave to bring in a bill to provide for the payment of the public revenues in Scotland into the banks of that country, for the purpose of being remitted to the bank of England. The principle of the measure had already obtained the sanction of the last parliament by the acts requiring the payment of the public money from the several departments of the excise, customs, post-office, &c. into the bank of England. The same principle would apply in the measure he now proposed, with some circumstances of local distinction, rendered necessary by there being two national banks in Scotland. The collectors of the revenue in that country would be required, by the bill he was about to propose, to make up their accounts on the last day of every month, and to transmit them, with the sums they should have on hand, to the receiver general of the land tax for Scotland, who was to deposit the money, half in the bank of Scotland, and the other half in the royal bank, from which banks it was to be remitted to the bank of England, whenever it should amount to 5000l., there to be kept with the other public monies received from the different departments of the revenue, according to the provisions of the acts of the last parliament. As the Scotch revenue was liable to certain occasional, and sometimes sudden, demands for particular services, provision was to be made for advances for those services, and when the receiver general should certify the occasion to the banks, that certificate would be a warrant to them to issue the money and to make a deduction to that amount from any sum on hand to the remitted to the bank of England. The banks of Scotland were to keep accounts of all monies thus received, and these accounts were to be liable to the inspection of the lord advocate for the time being. This bill, when it should have received the sanction of the legislature, as he hoped it would, would be the completion of the system he had the honour to introduce, and he had the satisfaction to think, that when it should have passed, the whole of the public money would be placed in a perfect state of security. He moved for leave to bring in a bill to regulate the payment of the revenues of Scotland into the banks of Scotland, in order to their being remitted to the bank of England.—After a few words from Mr. Rose, who coincided entirely in the propriety of the bill, leave was given to bring it in.

Back to