SECOND READING. (Hansard, 18 July 1882)

§ SIR JOHN LUBBOCK
said, he did not rise to oppose the second reading of the Bill; but there was one point in regard to the measure upon which he should like to have the opinion of the Government. This was, strictly speaking, an Ionian bank. Of that there was no doubt whatever, and there could be no objection to the provisions of its Charter so long as it carried on the business of banking; but hitherto these Charters had been renewed from time to time in order to give the Government an opportunity of reconsidering the terms on which they were granted. It was quite true, as he had said, that this was an Ionian bank; but it was also true that banks of this character did business in England as well as elsewhere, and if their Charters were indefinitely renewed a principle would be introduced which would be very prejudicial to the public interests. He did not intend to oppose the second reading; but he asked for some undertaking that the Charters of these banks should be subject to the pleasure of Her Majesty's Government, so that they might be considered from time to time if the necessity arose. His reason for making this request was that the Charter of the Greek Bank had been renewed for a period of 25 years.

§ MR. COURTNEY
said, the hon. Member for the City of London (Mr. R. N. Fowler), who had charge of the Bill, was not in his place to explain the Bill, and therefore it might be better to postpone the consideration of it until Thursday, when the questions which had been raised by the hon. Member for the University of London (Sir John Lubbock) could be answered. The Government were quite alive to the importance of the point which had been raised by the hon. Baronet.

§ SIR HENRY HOLLAND
wished to call the attention of the Secretary to the Treasury to the fact that this very bank was included in the Bill brought in in 1879—the Chartered Colonial Banks Bill. That Bill, one of the objects of which was to allow Charters to be con- 889 tinued permanently, was withdrawn. If this Bill was to be allowed to pass, he should like to know the grounds for the change of opinion since 1879, seeing that this was one of the scheduled banks in the Bill of that year. He desired to know whether there were any special circumstances which distinguished this bank from the others in the Schedule?