§ SIR H. DRUMMOND WOLFFasked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether his attention has been called to the report of a meeting of the Bank of England, held on the 16th March, in 270 the course of which the Governor is stated to have said—
The Bank was in perfect accord with the Government, and had never experienced any want of courtesy. So far from the raising of the £4,000,000 for the purchase of the Suez Canal Shares from an independent source being a slight, it was otherwise; for had the Government come to the Bank, the money could not have been advanced, as there was an old 'Loans Act' passed in the reign of William and Mary which specially prohibited the Bank lending the money to the Government. The same Act also provided that if a loan were granted the Governor should be liable to three times the amount, and anyone giving information of the fact should be entitled to one-third of the sum so lent;"—and, whether the statement of the Law made by the Governor is correct?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER, in reply, said, he had not seen in the newspapers the report of the remarks referred to, but he had no reason to doubt that they were perfectly accurate. He was not authorized to say what the law might be on the point; but he had no doubt that the Governor knew it, and was perfectly right in what he said.
§ Mr. EVELYN ASHLEYsaid, that in consequence of the reply just given, he would ask the right hon. Gentleman to-morrow whether the Loan Act in question or any other Act would have prohibited the Bank of England from purchasing the Suez Canal Shares and holding them for the Government?