§ MR. THORNELYbegged to ask the Secretary of the Treasury whether, a Treaty of Peace having been signed at Paris, the Bonds required to be given at the Custom-houses on the exportation of iron and of certain other manufactured articles might not now be dispensed with? He also wished to know whether all bonds already given could not be cancelled?
§ MR. WILSONsaid, that though, as the hon. Gentleman and the House were aware, the signature of a treaty of peace did not, strictly speaking, put an end to a state of war, that proceeding being merely an undertaking that the war should be concluded conditionally on the ratification of the treaty, still the Government could not perceive that any useful object could be attained by continuing to require bonds on certain articles of exportation, including particularly machinery and certain descriptions of manufactured ironwork. To-morrow, therefore, it was intended to issue an order to the Commissioners of Customs not to require bonds on the shipment of these articles any longer. With regard to gunpowder, arms, and munitions of war, bonds would continue to be taken for the present, but he hoped it would only be for a few days longer. With regard to the cancelling of bonds which had been already given, it was obvious that that would be a most imprudent course to pursue, because it could not be known whether many persons might not have been shipping goods professedly for one part of the world, but which were in fact to have gone to the enemy in other parts of the world, and 565 the Government would insist on all bonds already entered into being continued until they should lapse in the usual manner.