HC Deb 23 February 1826 vol 14 cc696-8
Colonel Johnson

presented a petition from William Cobbett, expressing great alarm at the power given by the Promissory Notes bill to the Bank of England to issue small notes for a certain period, and stating that it would prevent the return to a metallic currency, unless its operations should be counteracted by other clauses. The petition also stated some instances of hardship, in consequence of the country bankers refusing to pay their notes in coin, and prayed that such bankers might be rendered liable to a distress for payment at the instance of a magistrate, upon twenty-four hours' notice. This was the only part of the petition in which he did not agree, as he thought the time too short, and that three or four days ought to be allowed. He himself knew an instance of a person, who having got possession of some Birmingham bank notes, presented them there for payment in gold. He was answered, that the notes were payable in London, and that at the place of issuing them they would only be paid in Bank of England paper. He trusted that a clause would be inserted in the bill to prevent the recurrence of those difficulties; for unless some such summary mode of enforcing payment were adopted, instead of leaving the parties to the ordinary course of law, they never could have gold in general circulation.

The petition was read as follows:— The Petition of William Cobbett, of Kensington, in the county of Middlesex, most humbly shows,

"1. That your Petitioner sees, with great alarm, that the bill now before your honourable House has had introduced into it a clause to enable the Bank of England to make small notes for a considerable time yet to come; that this power in the Bank of England would, as your petitioner believes, effectually prevent a return to a gold and silver currency, and would, in effect, be a legal tender, in all parts distant from London, unless prevented by other clauses in the said bill.

"2. That your petitioner has been most credibly informed, and that he believes the facts, that a man presented, on Saturday last, to a great country bank at Norwich, one hundred and thirty pounds in the notes of that bank; that he demanded gold for the same, and that he was peremptorily refused payment in any thing except Bank of England notes; that, on the same day, the same man made a similar application to another country bank in the same city; that he not only met here with a similar refusal, but that the bankers threatened to put him in charge of a constable, if he remained and persisted in his demand; and that if your honourable House will permit him, your humble petitioner doubts not that he shall be able to produce proof of these facts at the bar of your honourable House.

"3. Your humble petitioner prays your honourable House to be pleased to reflect, that it has been solely by means of this species offender, that the country bankers have been able to shut gold out of general circulation; that, as long as they can venture to refuse gold under pretence of paying in Bank of England notes, there can be no gold circulation, and no diminution of the country small notes, because, when it is merely one sort of paper for another, people in the country will, in most cases, prefer the country notes, however much they may suspect their goodness; and that thus, with a very small supply of Bank of England small notes, the country bankers may wholly defeat the laudable design to give the people once more a circulating gold and silver money.

"4. That, in order to prevent such imposition upon the people, and also to prevent those dreadful consequences that must finally result from the continued issue and re-issue of small country notes, your humble petitioner, with great deference and profound respect, begs leave to be permitted to suggest to your honourable House, that it may be enacted in the said bill, and he humbly prays your honourable House to enact, that, in case any country banker shall, under pretence of a tender in Bank of England notes, refuse the legal coin in payment of his own notes, the said banker shall, at the end of twenty-four hours, be liable to a distress, issuing from a justice of the peace, for enforcing immediate payment in coin, and that he shall, moreover, be liable to a penalty for such illegal refusal; or, your petitioner most humbly prays, that your honourable House will be pleased to adopt such other remedy for this great evil as to the wisdom of your honourable House may seem most meet. And your petitioner will ever most humbly pray.

"Feb. 21, 1826. WM, COBBETT."

Mr. Hume

called the attention of the chancellor of the Exchequer particularly to this petition, since it afforded a practical proof of the necessity of the clause which he had proposed the other night, to compel the country bankers, by summary process, to pay in gold; for, unless some such provision was introduced, the excess of paper issues would be as great as ever. The bankers ought undoubtedly to lodge proper security for their notes; and it was not in the least unfair, that, upon three or four days notice, they should be compellible, by summary process, to pay them in, gold on the spot.

Ordered to lie on the table, and be printed.