§ Mr. Lushington moved the second reading of this bill. He said it was not his intention to take the discussion now, but the chancellor of the Exchequer purposed moving some important instructions in the committee.
§ Mr. J. Smithwould not agree to suffer this bill to advance a single stage without offering it his opposition. A bill more absurd or ill-digested had never been introduced into that House. It was impossible it could pass in its present form.
§ Mr. Humeagreed with his hon. friend, that it was impossible the bill should pass 1259 without material amendment. If he allowed the second reading to take place without opposition, he should stand committed to the principle of the measure; to which he decidedly objected. The bill was a mere pretence to do something, when nothing was really meant to be done. He would pay the Bank of England any sum of money by way of compensation for the relinquishment of its monopoly, rather than give his consent to a measure so defective and delusive as the present. Nothing was, in point of fact, conceded to the public. As the regulations of the present bill would prevent country banks with an unlimited number of partners from issuing their draughts payable in London, they would necessarily be so cramped in their operations, that they might as well be established in Kamschatka, for any benefit they could render to the mercantile world. They would, in effect, be cut off from all communication with the metropolis.
§ Mr. Hudson Gurneysaid, that being favourable to the objects of the bill, he would not oppose the second reading; but it was obvious that it must undergo a total change in the committee, or be entirely inoperative; as, in its present shape, no parties could possibly act under its provisions. In fact, it was a mere copy of the Irish act of the last session, as garbled to meet the petty-fogging jealousies of the Bank of Ireland. It could not be conceived that such clauses could have originated with a great corporation like the Bank of England. These must necessarily be amended. To the principle of the measure, he repeated, he was entirely friendly.
§ The bill was then read a second time.