§ The Marquess of Lansdownebegged leave, pursuant to the notice which he had given, to move for the appointment of a committee to consider the amount of interest now payable by law on promissory notes. In making this motion he did not think it was necessary for him to offer any arguments in relation to any opinion which he might have formed on the Usury Laws as they hitherto existed, or as they might be amended. All that he should do at present, was to call the attention of the House to the law as it existed at present. By the 4th of William 4th, upon certain representations from the Bank of England, promissory notes under six months' date were taken out of the Usury Laws, and by the 1st of Victoria that exemption was extended to all bills under twelve months' date. That Act would expire towards the end of 1840, but in that year an Act was passed to continue the experiment until the year 1843. It was expedient, therefore, to come to some decision before the commencement of the next year. The object of the inquiry which he proposed, was confined to the expediency of giving a certain latitude to the money market, by permitting certain bills to be charged with more than the old legal rate of interest. The noble Marquess concluded by moving for "a Select Committee on the subject of the interest payable on promissory notes and bills of exchange."
§ Lord Ashburtonsaid, that he had at present anything but a fixed opinion upon 181 this subject. He had received applications from various parties relative to the change which had been made in the Usury Laws. All the money brokers and money lenders thought it the greatest godsend which they could receive, whilst other parties viewed it quite in a different light. He confessed, that he should have preferred if his noble Friend could postpone the question for another year; for as yet they had not had any great experience of the change. He should say, that a committee in the year 1842 would do quite as well as a committee in the present year. He must also say, however, that he thought the notice of his noble Friend was rather too confined. He wished to see it extended to other securities, such as dock warrants, &c. He also wished to see it comprehend the question of the Usury Laws generally.
The Marquess of Lansdawnehe had no objection to the extension proposed by his noble Friend; he would, therefore, amend his motion so as to include the Usury Laws.
§ The motion, in its amended form, agreed to, committee nominated.