§ Mr. EVELYN ASHLEYasked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether the Bank of England would have been prohibited by the Loans Act of William and Mary, or by any other Act, from purchasing the Suez Canal Shares, and holding them for the Government, as was done by the firm of Messrs. N. M. Rothschild and Co.?
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER,in reply, said, he was not aware that the Bank of England would have been prohibited by an Act of Parliament from purchasing the Suez Canal shares. He was informed, however, that there was a clause in their Charter which prohibited them from trading, and that, in the opinion of their legal adviser, they would have been restrained by that clause from, purchasing the shares in question.