§ MR. COBB (Warwick, S.E., Rugby)asked Mr. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Whether he is aware that Messrs. Greenway, the bankers of Warwick and Leamington, possessed by law the right of issuing notes to the extent of £30,504; and that a large number of persons who held their notes when the bank stopped payment will incur a heavy loss; whether his attention has been called to the Report of the Official Receiver in Bankruptcy, from which it appears that the whole capital of the bank in 1862 was only £898, and that the bankrupts had been carrying on business for many years after they knew that they were insolvent, and using the monies of their depositors for purposes of personal expenditure and speculation; and, whether, having regard to these statements and to the fact that last week another private bank with the right of issuing notes stopped payment, he will consider the desirability of amending the law next Session, with a view of instituting an official and efficient audit of the accounts of all banks having the monopoly of issuing notes, so as to protect the public against similar losses in the future.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER (Mr. GOSCHEN) (St. George's, Hanover Square)My attention has been called to the failures of two banks issuing notes. I am not prepared to deny the desirableness of considering the position of banks sharing in the monopoly of issuing notes; but I doubt whether that consideration will take the direction of instituting an official audit of the accounts of such banks.