EXCHEQUER LOAN FUND. (Hansard, 28 February 1853)

§ The CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER

said, that the question which had been put by the hon. Gentleman divided itself into two parts; the latter part of which, perhaps, he had better answer first. It was, "whether any portion of the 633,000l. which, by a return from these Commissioners, appears to be the amount of interest on, and repayment of, loans estimated as likely to accrue in 1852, will be applied to the liquidation of the public debt in the event of a diminution or cessation of such loans?" And the former part was, "what course the Government proposed to pursue generally on the subject of loans under the Exchequer Loan Fund Act?" In the first place, with regard to the application of the sum of 633,000Z., and of all the repayments of the Exchequer Loan Fund, as they might come in, the application of those sums was already provided for by Statute, and would go forward, independently of any intervention of that House, in the regular course. There was likewise a provision by Statute for the issue, subject to the discretion of the Government, of the sum of 75,000l. per quarter for the purposes of the Exchequer Loan Fund; and the idea upon which that sum was fixed was that it would balance the average repayments. The provision made, therefore, by law at present was this: that there was power to issue 300,000l. annually in four quarterly payments of 75,000l. each, for the purpose of new advances to be made by the Exchequer Loan Fund Commissioners; and there was also a provision for carrying the repayments of the Commissioners as they came into the account of Ways and Means for the year. The repayments were going on without any intervention on the part of the Government. But at the close of the last quarter, on examining the state of the account, it appeared that the coming demands on the fund were not likely to 736 absorb the whole amount standing to its credit, and consequently he thought it his duty to stop the payment of the sum of 75,000l., which would have been carried to the credit of the fund for the last quarter. That was the only step of any kind that had been taken since he came into office with regard to the actual distribution of the fund. With regard to the general question, as to what course the Government proposed to take on the subject of the Exchequer Loan Fund, the course which he had pursued was this. It did not appear to him that the papers on the table of the House contained information sufficiently full and distinct to enable the House to form a satisfactory and final judgment on the expediency of continuing the system of the Exchequer Loan Fund; or, on the other hand, of abolishing it, as was proposed by the right hon. Gentleman opposite (Mr. Disraeli). The House was aware that the Exchequer Loan Fund Commission had been in the habit of discharging by one and the same machinery very different functions. It had been, firstly, in the habit of making loans on its own discretion exclusively, after inquiry into the merits of the applications submitted; and, secondly, it had also been used by Parliament as an organ for issuing money under compulsion for purposes which had been called loans, but which had rather been in the nature of gifts obtained under false pretences. It had likewise been in the habit of issuing money in various modes intermediate between those two, sometimes under positive order from the Treasury, and sometimes upon the recommendation of the Treasury. And, again, it had been in the habit of issuing money from special funds appropriated for particular purposes. Now, what he had desired to be done, and what he hoped soon would be accomplished, was this: that all the transactions under each of those heads should be carefully separated the one from the other; that a balance sheet should be prepared under each of those heads, in order that they might have the means of seeing what the Commissioners had done, whether as the organ of Parliament, or as the servants of the Treasury, or whether upon their own free discretion, or in any other capacity; and when they had obtained those returns, they would be able to see exactly the results of the transactions of the Exchequer Loan Fund up to the present time under each head. Then, he hoped the hon. Gentleman would 737 agree with him that Parliament and the Government would be in a condition to form a judgment upon the question whether it was expedient that the system of loans by the Exchequer Loan Fund Commissioners should or should not be continued.