§ Mr. Protheroe, seeing an honourable Bank director in his place, wished to learn from him, whether it was the desire of the Bank, that the committee about to be appointed to inspect their affairs, should be a secret committee? He asked this question, because he felt that that committee, in order to be useful, ought to carry with it the confidence of the country; and he had great doubts whether that confidence would be given to a committee whose investigations were secret, unless it could be shown, at the same time, that disclosure would be attended with public danger.
§ Mr. Manningsaid, that he had not the honour of a seat there as a Bank director, but as a duly elected member of parliament. He therefore called for the protection of the House against such sudden interrogatories. He would, while he sat there, discharge, to the best of his ability, his duty as a member; but although, from courtesy, he might answer a question, he hoped it would not be forgotten, that he appeared there as a member of parliament, and did not take his seat as a director.
The Chancellor of the Exchequerobserved, that if the hon. member for Bristol would refer to the report of the secret committee which sat in 1797, to inquire into the affairs of the Bank, he would perceive that there was nothing in such a proceeding to preclude the House from a general consideration of the subject. He wished to take that opportunity of stating his intention to move, on Tuesday next, for a committee of secrecy, to inquire into the state of the Bank, with reference to the expediency of the resumption of cash payments at the time fixed by act of parliament, and into such other matters as might be connected therewith. It was pot usual to move in the first place that the committee should be one of secrecy, but he thought it due in candour to intimate, that he intended to propose that this should be its character.
§ Mr. Tierneydeclared, that his difficulty in understanding what course the right hon. gentleman really had it in contemp- 132 lation to pursue, was only increased by this statement of his intentions. The words in which he had just expressed the motion which he was to submit to the House, might mean the same thing in substance as those of his own, or they might mean something very different. His own motion might include the right hon. gentleman's question, and the right hon. gentleman might only think that the former was exceptionable as being too comprehensive. If he were desirous merely that some part of his (Mr. T.'s) proposition should be excluded, he begged that he would extend his candour so far as to say so, and it might happen that the same motion might embrace the objects of both, and the right hon. gentleman's be the better of the two. He wished likewise to know whether, if a committee of secrecy were assented to, it was to be chosen by ballot.
The Chancellor of the Exchequerreplied, that upon the best information which he had, as to the rules and practice of the House, committees of secrecy were always elected by ballot. With regard to the terms of his motion, the right hon. gentleman must recollect, that the one of which he had himself at first given notice was so vague in its expression, that he had found it necessary, subsequently, to correct it. If the right hon. gentleman meant nothing more than was included in the inquiry to which his (the chancellor of the exchequer's) motion would naturally lead, he could not perceive what objection he could have to adopt it.
§ Mr. Tierneyobserved, that in his construction of the right hon. gentleman's notice, he had learned nothing distinctly, except that the committee was to be secret, and to be chosen by ballot. Of this there was no doubt, and this was the limit of the information he had acquired of the nature of that inquiry which was to be proposed. The object of his own motion was to inquire openly, and generally, into the state of our currency, of the foreign exchanges, and the degree to which they were affected by the restriction of cash payments at the Bank. This inquiry he thought important, in order that the country should know what the system was upon which they were embarking, and proceed with its eyes open. If the right hon. gentleman thought him wrong in the manner of framing his motion, be wished him to say so; for he had 133 no desire to squabble about words, or trouble the House unnecessarily with a long debate. But it certainly appeared to him at present that the right hon. gentleman differed from him merely from the love of opposition, and a persuasion, he supposed, that nothing could be right which proceeded from that side of the House. Let the right hon. gentleman, therefore, state explicitly whether his inquiry embraced the same object which fee (Mr. Tierney) had now explained to be what he had in view, and if it were so, he would cheerfully withdraw his notice, leaving the right hon. gentleman the glory of carrying his point, and resting quite satisfied with the secret gratification of having obtained what he wanted.
The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid, the collateral matters referred to by the terms of his motion would certainly include the state of the currency, and other questions; but the first point of inquiry would be, the state of the affairs of the Bank, a topic not even mentioned in the words of the right hon. gentleman's notice.
§ Mr. Tierneywished to know whether the right hon. gentleman would be satisfied with a secret committee to inquire into the state of the Bank simply. For his own part, he had no doubt of its solvency; but he hoped that a secret committee was not deemed necessary for investigating the general policy or necessity of continuing the restriction.
The Chancellor of the Exchequerwas of opinion, that it would be more expedient that the whole inquiry should be submitted to one committee similar in its formation to that which gave general satisfaction to the country in the year 1797.
§ Mr. Tierneyreplied, that he should think he deserted his duty to the country, if after the right hon. gentleman's declaration, he did not take the sense of the Mouse on the question of referring this most important inquiry to a committee chosen by ballot, and whose report every man well knew would be nothing more than an echo of the right hon. gentleman's own opinion.