Sitting of 2 February 1826

ADDRESS ON THE KING'S SPEECH AT THE OPENING OF THE SESSION.
The Speaker having reported the Speech of the Lords Commissioners, and read it to the House,
Mr. John Stuart Wortley(member for Bossiney) rose, for the purpose of moving an Address to his Majesty, in answer to the Speech which had just been read. In doing so, he was, he said, aware of the difficulty of the task which he had undertaken, from the circumstance of his being a young member, and this being the first time he had had the honour to address that assembly. It had been the duty of his predecessors, in the task which was now assigned him, to congratulate the country upon its flourishing condition. In the Speech which had been just read, he also found motive for congratulation; although the year which had passed over them had not been marked by some so pre-eminent advantages as former years had been. In adverting to the royal Speech, the first subject that arrested his attention was the formidable shock which the commercial credit had recently sustained. This was the topic that most strongly challenged the attention of the House; and they should come to the consideration of it boldly and manfully, with a view of removing it, or at least, checking its increase. And here due credit must be given to ministers for having introduced this important subject to the notice of parliament. They stated it with candour, and admitted it without

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evasion or reserve. For his own part, he saw no reason why they should act otherwise; for, in his conscience, he believed, that the distress was temporary, and that the worst had passed over. Similar commercial distress had prevailed in 179S and 1798; and there were some features of resemblance between those periods and the present. There were then, as now, numerous failures: there were then, as now, difficulties in discounting bills, and a variety of commercial embarrassments. At the former of those periods, the country was on the eve of a tremendous war, through which no person could clearly see his way. Again, in 1798, when a still greater commercial calamity prevailed, the country was surrounded by accumulated difficulties, the natural consequence of its continuance. An alarm of invasion also prevailed, and the difficulties which this alarm excited, were increased by embarrassments occasioned by large loans to continental powers which were about that period entered into. The causes in which the distress then originated were very different from those out of which the recent difficulties had arisen. Those of the former period might in some degree be charged on the government, who had entered into the war; but now, those in which they originated, were such as government could not control. The present distress might be considered temporary and transient. The former could not be so regarded, as it arose out of a war, of which it was impossible to calculate either the period of its termination or the amount of its cost. Now, there was no war—no alarm from foreign enemies—no apprehension from domestic insurrection. The causes were altogether different. At the commencement of the last year, there was a redundancy of capital, which induced the employment of it in speculative loans, and in extravagant schemes of remote and uncertain profit. This was the great and leading cause of the recent commercial embarrassment. Another cause was found in the circumstance of several of the foreign exchanges turning against this country. To these causes was to be added another, and a proximate one; namely, the failure of several of the country banks. All these were temporary causes, and a corrective might be found for them, in the abandonment of those wild and extravagant speculations in which they originated, and in otherwise counteracting them. With respect to the other part of
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the subject, that which related to the currency, from whatever cause the present state of the currency arose, it required some alteration, and strongly called for the interposition of parliament. In those periods of commercial distress to which he had before alluded, parliament did interfere, and interfered with effect: and, what parliament had done before so much to the public advantage, it might again do. A principal part of the distress had been owing to the apprehension of a deficiency of gold to meet the demand for it. This apprehension arose from a belief that gold was exported out of the country to meet those demands occasioned by those foreign loans and speculations to which he had alluded; and, the consequence was, that the country was deluged with a morbid paper circulation. The manner in which some of the country-bankers issued their notes loudly called for the attention of the House. It was, in his opinion, little else than a fraud to issue notes without having a security equal to the amount of the notes issued. It was not right that a business, on which the welfare of the country so greatly depended, should be undertaken by persons who had not the means of giving security to meet the demands for which they became responsible. The subject was one which was surrounded with great difficulties, and therefore demanded the nicest attention. Something had already been done with effect. What further ought to be done he would not undertake to say, but would leave it to his majesty's ministers to suggest what alterations, in the present state of our currency, it would be advisable to adopt. He could not refrain from expressing on this occasion, the great gratitude which the country owed to the Bank of England, for the manner in which they had come forward on the late crisis. By their conduct they had raised their already high reputation, and deserved to be raised in the confidence of the country. That he was correct in stating, that the present distress mainly originated in the spirit of extravagant speculation that lately raged, he would refer to a report of the committee of the House in 1811, which stated, among other causes of the distress that prevailed at that time, "that it was a result of the too great commerce which had been indulged in since the commencement of our intercourse with the new South American States."—In reviewing the causes in which the distress originated,

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he should net omit to notice the effect of the repeal of the Combination laws. The combination among the workmen which had reached so alarming an extent, had now happily subsided. In Bradford, their conduct had, for weeks, assumed a formidable appearance; but he was happy to learn that a better spirit now prevailed amongst them, and that these differences, throughout the country, had nearly all terminated in an amicable reconciliation. But, because these excesses, consequent on the change of our commercial policy, and of the repeal of the Combination laws had taken place, did he mean to condemn that policy, or to desire that the Combination laws should be repealed? By no means. The removal of restraints on uneducated minds was calculated to lead to violence: but, as the principles on which these restraints were removed were sound and good, the evil would be only temporary, whilst the advantages would be permanent. The commercial regulations which had been formed with foreign nations were most creditable to this country, and likely to confer great and general blessings. The treaty with France was calculated to give effect to those principles of trade and navigation which parliament had previously sanctioned. That convention, as well as the treaty of amity, between this country and Colombia, was equally creditable and beneficial; not so much for the stipulations it contained, as for the enlarged principles of policy in which it was conceived and executed. In the amicable relations subsisting between this country and the other free provinces of South America, no blame can be attached to England for the part she had acted in promoting these arrangements. It was now fifteen years since the first effort was made in South America, to throw off the authority of Spain. During all that period, Spain had an opportunity of entering into an amicable reconciliation with her colonies. She could not, therefore, now censure us for having preceded her in a recognition, from which such important benefits were to flow. Another topic of congratulation was, the successful mediation of a treaty between the crowns of Portugal and Brazil. With regard to the war in the Burmese empire, however its protracted duration might have disappointed the expectations of those who had not the means of judging as to the probability of speedy success, there was every reason to hope that it was
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drawing to a close. It was highly gratifying to find, in respect to the state of the public revenue, that although the last quarter had fallen short, the result of the whole year was highly satisfactory. He would now refer to a subject which never failed to excite the liveliest feelings in the House. He alluded to the state of Ireland. From every report received from that country, it was evident that she was disengaging herself from the evils under which she had laboured. Industry was diffusing itself throughout her provinces; and he need not state, that industry was the never-failing precursor of tranquillity. Reviewing, therefore, the general state of the empire, he did not hesitate to call upon the House for an address to the throne. He did not ask it in the spirit of servility; he claimed it, on the contrary, in a spirit of pure loyalty, and with reference to the satisfactory state of the country. The hon. member then moved,
"That an humble Address be presented to his Majesty, to return to his Majesty the thanks of this House for his Majesty's most gracious Speech, delivered this day by the Lords Commissioners:
"To assure his Majesty, that while we participate with his Majesty in the regret with which his Majesty has seen the embarrassment which has occurred in the pecuniary transactions of the country since the close of the last session of parliament, we derive some consolation from the reflection that this embarrassment has not arisen from any political events, either at home or abroad; from any sudden pressure on the public resources; or from the apprehension of any interruption to the general tranquillity:
"That, aware that the direct interposition of parliament cannot reach all the causes of this evil, against the recurrence of some of which security can only be found in the experience of the sufferings which they have occasioned, we shall proceed without delay to turn our attention to that portion of the evil which may be susceptible, of correctives at least, if not of effectual remedies, and to consider of such measures as may tend to protect both private and public interests against the like sudden and violent fluctuations, by placing on a more firm foundation the currency and circulating credit of the country:
"To express to his Majesty the satisfaction with which we learn that his Majesty continues to receive from his allies,

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and generally from all foreign princes and states, the strongest assurances of their friendly disposition towards his Majesty; and our just and grateful acknowledgment of his Majesty's continued endeavours to reconcile conflicting interests, and to recommend and cultivate peace both in the old world and in the new:
"That we recognize with the highest gratification the signal success of that wise and beneficent system of policy in the treaty concluded under his Majesty's mediation between the crowns of Portugal and Brazil, by which the relations of friendly intercourse, long interrupted, between two kindred nations, have been restored, and the independence of the Brazilian empire has been formally acknowledged:
"That we thank his Majesty for availing himself of every opportunity to give effect to the principles of trade and navigation, which have received the sanction of parliament, and to establish them, as far as possible, by engagements with foreign powers; and for having directed to be laid before us copies of a convention, framed upon these principles, which has recently been concluded between his Majesty and the king of France, and of a similar convention with the free Hanseatic cities of Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburgh, as well as of the treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, concluded between his Majesty and the republic of Colombia; and to assure his Majesty of our readiness to take into immediate consideration any measure which may be required for giving effect to the stipulations of this latter treaty:
"To assure his Majesty that much as we should have been gratified if the successes of the late campaign had led to a cessation of hostilities in India, we concur with his Majesty in doing justice to the bravery displayed in that campaign by the forces of his Majesty and of the East India company, and to the skill and perseverance of their commanders, and in earnestly hoping that a continuance of the same exertions may lead, at no distant period, to an honourable and satisfactory pacification:
"To acknowledge his Majesty's goodness in having turned his attention to the measures recommended by committees of this and of the other House of parliament during the last session for improving the condition of Ireland, and to express to his Majesty the cordial satisfac-
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tion with which we learn from his Majesty that the industry of that part of the United Kingdom is in a course of gradual and general advancement, an advancement mainly to be attributed to that state of tranquillity which now happy prevails throughout all the provinces of Ireland:
"To thank his Majesty for having directed the estimates of the year to be prepared and laid before us:
"To express the pleasure with which we heard that those estimates have been framed with an anxious desire to avoid every expenditure beyond what the necessary demands of the public service may require, and that the produce of the revenue in the last year has fully justified the expectations entertained at the commencement of it:
"To assure his Majesty, that we humbly concur with his Majesty in deeply lamenting the injurious effects which the late pecuniary crisis must have entailed upon many branches of the commerce and manufactures of the United Kingdom; but that we partake also of the confidence which his Majesty entertains, that the temporary check which commerce and manufactures may at this moment experience will, under the favour of divine Providence, neither impair the great sources of our wealth, nor impede the growth of national prosperity."
Mr. Greensaid, that, situated as England was, owing her great general prosperity to commerce and manufactures, and dependent, especially in time of peace, upon those sources for the high station which she maintained among the nations of the world, it would ill become the government of the country, if, when any danger threatened those manufactures, or temporary evil led to a convulsion in them, it failed to bring the subject in the fullest as well as in the most speedy way, before the consideration of parliament. The subject was one as to the importance of which there could be no second opinion. It was a subject which parliament would investigate, not merely as regarded circumstances of present or local distress, but taking it in a large and comprehensive point of view; considering the several effects likely, in various quarters, to result from it; and particularly the consequences which it might produce upon that general mercantile credit and confidence which were so essential to the success of all commercial speculation. In speaking of the

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duty which devolved upon parliament, to examine into the causes which might have led to the late commercial shocks, as also I to take such measures as it should deem fit lo prevent the recurrence of similar calamities, he felt that he could only hope to go again over the ground which had been so ably taken by the hon. mover; but, the subjects were of such paramount importance, that he should compromise his duty if he were wholly silent upon them in seconding the motion for the address. Looking first, then, at the subject of the late distresses, it was not unnatural for the recollection to go back to the events of the years 1793 and 1797; but, upon a slight examination, it would appear that the distress at those periods had taken place under circumstances widely different from those of the present day. The distress in the year 1793, it would be recollected, had arisen at the outset of a war; that of the present day, on the contrary, took place in a period of profound peace. We stood in an attitude of perfect peace; without the slightest apprehension of being involved in war; after a harvest, full and abundant; our commerce and our manufactures prosperous. But yet, with all this difference between the state of things at present, and the year 1793, there was one point of strong similarity. It would be remembered that both in the year 1792, as in the year now last past, the interest of money had been unusually low. In 1792 the manufactures of the country had been rapidly advancing; and the general prosperity was such as induced many individuals to trade beyond their capital. The country banks at that time had not the power of issuing small notes; but those which they were empowered to issue they had sent out to a vast and dangerous excess. The consequence was, that the country found itself glutted with paper. A slight apprehension produced immediate pressure upon those country bankers who were least able to sustain it; and the Stoppage of these pulled down others who were solvent, but who were not prepared to meet so sudden a demand. The failure of one man, of necessity, led to the failure of some other: there was a demand for cash far beyond the possible supply; and out of a mischief in many cases imaginary, real evil was created, until the most serious distress and difficulty was the result. Now, let the House observe have nearly this state of things in the year 1792 tallied with the state of things at the opening of
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the last session. Capital was so abundant, that the merest adventurer might go into the money-market; and let his scheme be the wildest that human fancy could suggest, he would find people lo support him in it. Then was it a matter of astonishment that if the bubble had burst, a void was left behind? or that, at the present moment, instead of a mass of capital, floating through the country, we had a scarcity of it f With this part of the general question, there was connected one point which he could not forbear from noticing —he meant the conduct of the Bank of England during the late troubles. That body was entitled to the thanks of the country at large, for the prompt and liberal manner in which it had rendered all the assistance in its power. The sudden issue of their small notes had been a measure called for by the sudden withdrawal of the local small notes from circulation, owing to the failure of so many provincial establishments. The House would also feel, that although during the last year there had been a vast imaginary capital floating in the country, at the present time the real and actual capital available was lessened in consequence of many bankers still keeping large sums of ready money by them, to meet any sudden emergency. Whatever might be done, however, to prevent, as far as possible, the recurrence of such convulsions as the country had just suffered under, parliament would recollect that it was one of its first duties to leave the freedom of trade untouched, as far as was consistent with the general safety. To avoid a temporary and an occasional evil, we were not to give up a constant and a lasting good. From time to time, under the best government, popular tumults would arise; but means might be found to prevent anarchy and mischief, without striking at the root of constitutional freedom; and remedies might be found for occasional commercial evils, without weakening that great system upon which the wealth and power of the nation depended. With the immediate nature of such remedies he would not then busy himself: but the House would recollect that the same remedies were not now applicable which were resorted to in 1793. The state of the country was widely different at the two periods. We were not now in a state of war; and government had not, as in the year 1793, called upon the Bank for a large portion of the gold

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in its possession —a measure which had led, and necessarily, to the Bank restriction. At present, whatever was the extent of the difficulty, no portion of it could be attributed to the conduct of government, or to its arrangements. This being a period of peace, too, in another sense it would not be inconsistent with the interests of the country to take the course which had been taken formerly. We had now leisure and opportunity to go into the system thoroughly; and it was no less the bounden duty than the policy of the House to do so. For himself, he thought it would be a great boon on the part of the Bank, if that body permitted the formation of joint-stock banking companies. The advantages likely to accrue from such a system, were too obvious to be dwelt upon. The vast property which would then be embarked in every banking establishment would be a sufficient security against the danger of over-issues. The business would be carried on by persons conversant with the true principles of the banking trade; and not, as now, by individuals often wholly ignorant of those principles, and who left the management of their establishment to needy adventurers, unprincipled speculators. Scotland already afforded us an example of the safety and convenience of this system. Scotland had a large paper currency; and felt neither difficulty nor apprehension. Although no man could feel more anxious than he did, to afford every possible facility to trade, yet it did seem to him that some restriction might be beneficially devised to keep within due limits the issues of the banks. As regarded the issue of local notes, there could be no doubt that some immediate measure was imperatively called for, parliament would grossly neglect its duty, if steps were not taken to relieve the country from apprehension of the recurrence of the evils which it had lately been suffering; if it permitted that which the poor man had acquired by his labour to be placed in jeopardy; or if it upheld a system under which the same man, without one fault or improvidence of his own, might one day be rich, and the next want the means of existence. It was needless, however, to detain the House with comments upon the performance of a duty, the necessity of which must be obvious; and he should therefore turn from the consideration of difficulties which could not be contemplated without regret, to a subject which afforded matter for
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unmixed congratulation. If there had been some distress felt during the last year in England, in Ireland there was every token of material improvement. The labours of parliament, during the last session, had been great upon this subject. The House had inquired not merely into general questions, but had gone assiduously into all the details and intricacies of her domestic economy. The situation of Ireland was now meliorating. The House was no longer called upon to pass Insurrection acts, or to pursue any coercive measures. Instead of steps to enforce the payment of tithes, a system was adopted of taking compositions; by which the settlement was rendered less irksome to the people. It was the desire of government to enter fairly and dispassionately into every subject immediately connected with the state of Ireland; and if the measures pursued had not produced all the good that bad been expected, it was the wish of ministers to enter into a full consideration of what would be most conducive to the best interests of Ireland. He felt the greatest satisfaction in witnessing the influx of manufactures into Ireland. Capital now began to overflow into that country—a desideratum from which so much benefit must infallibly arise to that country. We should find, in a short period, the immense effects of this influx of capital upon the Irish landholders. They would feel it to be their interest and pleasure, to establish themselves on their own estates; and Ireland, like England, would soon possess all the advantages of a resident gentry. With this prospect of a numerous population coming into active employ, and with foreign ports open to exchange the produce of their industry, it was impossible not to foresee a rapid improvement in the condition of that country. Neither could he suppress the expression of his satisfaction at the state in which this country stood with regard to the republics of South America. The conduct of Great Britain upon this point had been liberal and manly. The government had openly declared, that its recognition of the American states did not rest upon matters of opinion, but upon a simple question of fact. We had declared openly, that when the governments of those countries had fully established their independence, then, and not till then, would we acknowledge them as independent governments; and when that event did take place, we accordingly re-

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cognised them. We were not to be intimidated by any foreign powers, into the withholding or delaying our recognition; but, at the same time, we would not rush madly into a war, when we could obtain our object more effectually without it. We might undoubtedly feel a satisfaction at Liberty extending her blessings over those vast and hitherto ill-governed regions; but, at the same time, it did not behave us to be led away by individual feelings; it was necessary to act upon sound and general principles of justice and international law, as well as upon views of general policy. The results had justified the views which the government had taken upon the subject. We had secured the friendship of those states, by declaring that, although we should withhold our recognition of them until their independence should be unequivocal, we would resist the attempts of any other government that should endeavour to assist Spain in her efforts to re-establish her power over her colonies. The arguments which had been so often brought forward, that because Spain had interfered in the early part of our own war with our American colonies, we should therefore be justified in assisting her colonies against her, were arguments quite untenable. It was a principle of retaliation upon which no individual would guide himself in his private transactions, and upon which no Englishman who felt for the national character would wish to see his country guide her public conduct. He had now only to refer to the subject of Finance. The late shock which had been given to the commercial transactions of the country, had had their effect upon the revenue; but it was highly satisfactory to reflect, that, notwithstanding this unexpected event, the revenue for the year was, upon the whole, greater than what the chancellor of the Exchequer had anticipated. He trusted that the difficulties under which the country was at present labouring would be soon removed; and that our commerce would speedily receive all those benefits which could not fail to arise from the principles of free trade which government had adopted. Although the commerce of the country had undoubtedly flourished under the system of restrictions, he was convinced that but for them it would have advanced more rapidly and with less precarious results. He had little doubt but that, in the course of a short period, the other governments of Europe would see the advantages arising
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from the principles of free trade; and the evils of persevering in the contrary system. Seeing that our finances were likely to return to their flourishing condition; that our trade was likely to increase; that Ireland was prosperous; that South America was forming so great a mart for our united industry, and reflecting also upon the success and glory of our arms, in the only country in which they are engaged; under these circumstances could it be said that our prosperity had gone by, or that our grandeur was upon the decline? A passing gale may have stopped the tide of our prosperity; but as soon as the storm shall have gone over, Great Britain would again hold that preeminent station which she had hitherto held amongst nations; and the page of future history would record the present panic as the passing events of the day, which had produced no lasting mischief.
Mr. Broughamsaid, it was a subject of great regret, that ministers had departed from the old and established practice of delivering a copy of the king's Speech, for the information of members, a few days before they were called on to discuss it and to vote upon its contents. This want of courtesy on their part was attended with considerable inconvenience. Although there were not many definite propositions laid down in the Speech just delivered from the Throne, there were a variety of important matters touched upon in it, and the House were called upon to discuss and vote upon them, without half an hour's previous notice, or any means of making up their minds upon the subject. Members were thus called upon to accede to the address, which was foisted upon them by a side wind, and no option was afforded them but of either moving an adjournment, or of blindly voting for that into which they had no opportunity of inquiring. Although it was not his intention to move an adjournment, or even to oppose the present address, he thought it necessary to protest against its being inferred that he therefore acceded to its contents; on the contrary, he reserved to himself the future occasions that might arise for discussing the topics which it embraced, as fully as if he had not voted for it that evening. He could not help feeling, that the address would go to the public, as if there were a general concurrence of the House in the statements which it contained; whereas no such inference ought to be drawn from the circumstance

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of its passing without meeting with an expressed and formal opposition. The country would feel not a Utile surprised, when they found that the distress, which had been so severely and extensively felt, was treated in so slight a manner, and mentioned in terms totally inadequate to the extent and seventy of the evil. It was talked of as if it were something of a very temporary nature, and confined to partial and almost immaterial transactions; whereas it was well known to be general and severe, to have spread the greatest possible embarrassments throughout the most important branches of our industry, and to have entailed the greatest sufferings upon numerous classes of the people. Yet, notwithstanding the extent and variety of this distress—for that it did exist to a great extent it was impossible to deny—there was one topic in his Majesty's Speech of a most consoling nature, as it clearly proved, if an}' argument to prove such a fact were necessary, that they did not arise out of those sound and wise and liberal principles of commercial policy, which had recently been proposed by his Majesty's government, and which, he was happy to say, had received the sanction of parliament. If the distresses which at present prevailed were confined to one single branch of our trade; if, for instance, it were found to exist in our silk trade alone, it might afford some little argument though certainly not one upon which much stress could be laid, in favour of those who opposed themselves to the alterations recently made in that trade. But when it was found that our woollen, our cotton, our linen trade, and various other branches of our manufactures, were labouring under a similar depression, it was as vain to attempt the proof of the assertion on the one hand, that this distress was wholly attributable to our late commercial policy, as it was needless to contradict it on the other. He was aware that people speaking of this experiment, said, that, like others, it had been tried, and had failed. That assertion, however true of ether experiments, did not hold good with respect to this. True it was, that the experiment had been introduced; but it had not been tried. Time for its trial had not yet been afforded, and therefore it could not be said to have failed. If they reflected a little, they would find, that if any portion of the distress in the silk trade was attributable to the recent alterations, it was to be attributed to a
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consequence of those alterations with which the parties would be least likely to complain—he alluded to the fact, that upon the diminution of the duties, large sums were returned upon the stock on hand; a circumstance which, of itself, gave rise to considerable overtrading. When, men were suffering under great and pressing distress, it was a painful, a delicate, and a thankless undertaking, to tell them that a part of their distresses was attributable to themselves. But he felt himself called upon, in the discharge of his duty, to declare that much of the distress under which the silk trade, as well as the other branches of our manufactures, at present laboured, was to be attributed to over-trading. He would not go back to-what took place in 1793, or in 1797, in support of his argument, but would confine himself to a period more recent and more analogous to present times and existing circumstances. When, for instance, we had a new market opened to us in South America, speculation and enterprise became so great, that over trading to a great extent was the natural consequence. Again, when the peace of 1814 opened the trade of the continent to us, over-trading was carried to such an extent, that several of our merchants found it a profitable traffic to send to Holland, and there re-purchase and re-import our own manufactures. The markets of South America were equally glutted with our iron, crockery, and various other articles. This was the usual consequence of having a new market opened to us, and no persons could be blamed for the excess but the over-traders themselves. As well might it be argued, that we ought not to open a new market, or discover a new colony with which to trade, as that we were not to adopt sound, and wise, and. enlightened principles of commerce, because the one as well as the other might give rise to over-trading on the part of certain individuals. He trusted, that upon this subject, there would take place in that House no such difference of opinion as would lead o any unjust conclusions, or delusive expectations, out of doors. Upon this point as well as upon that which followed it, he most fully concurred with the hon. mover and seconder of the address. In adverting to the late commercial regulations, he might perhaps feel that it would have been better, had some little alteration been made in the mode of carrying certain measures into effect; but

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those measures having received the sanction of parliament, he felt that it would be exceedingly unfair now to turn round, and assert that they might have been carried into execution with more effect.— There were only two points more alluded to in the Speech from the Throne, upon which he felt it necessary to say a few words. And first, with respect to our currency. Now, he would put it to any thinking man, to recollect what must have been his opinions, when he last year heard of a great event which took place on the continent, and which was likely to affect, in a material degree, the future peace of Europe: he would ask him, whether the first great objects of his attention, in providing for the security of England, would not naturally be—the national debt, the currency, and the state of Ireland. The debt was, perhaps, not within their reach; but the currency was within their control; Ireland was within their control; and therefore he must feel that the latter must sooner or later come under the consideration of parliament. When he heard it stated, that Ireland had, for the last year and a-half, been not only tranquil, but progressively advancing in prosperity, he could not help expressing his sincere satisfaction at it; yet, on inquiry, he found that the tranquillity of Ireland was to be attributed to the expectations entertained by the people, that something would be done for them by parliament. He believed, in his heart, that the tranquillity of Ireland was mainly preserved by the steady attention with which they looked forward to the exertions of the House of Commons in their favour. To that House did they ardently and confidently look for relief; and, sincerely did he hope that, at a convenient time, they would not be allowed to look and hope in vain. If the people of Ireland were again (after a convenient time) allowed to look and hope in vain, in vain might England look to Ireland for unanimity and exertion, when both should be most required from her. He firmly believed that the peace of Ireland had been in a great degree preserved by the Catholic Association. As long as the Roman Catholics of Ireland remained firm and united amongst themselves—as long as they continued to yield ready obedience to the laws, however opposed to the means by which those laws had been enacted—so long had they a right to entertain a just and reasonable expectation, that they would obtain, from
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the justice of the legislature, an equal participation in those rights and privileges, from the enjoyment of which they had been for such a length of time debarred.—He had heard, with much pleasure, that part of his Majesty's Speech which had reference to our intercourse with South America. It was matter of pride and pleasure to reflect upon the glory achieved by the brave inhabitants of those republics—a set of men who, unaided, unsupported, had succeeded in establishing their independence and freeing themselves, at once and for ever, from the detestable yoke which had so long and so ignominiously galled them. Those states were now at peace; their independence was recognized, and we were on friendly terms with them. That those friendly relations might remain unbroken, and that we should soon have united to us, by treaties similar to that with Colombia, all the other great republics in that part of the new world, who had achieved their liberties, was his most ardent wish, as their independence must afford matter of pure and sincere delight to every friend of freedom.—There was another matter to which he wished to advert. He meant the treaty between Portugal and Brazil; in which the independence of the latter had been formally acknowledged by the former nation. He hoped that that treaty would not be ratified in its present form; containing, as it did, an article of foreign policy against which he must ever protest: he alluded to a clause by which each nation pledged itself to give up to the other—whom? All persons guilty of murder, forgery, and piracy? No; but all persons not found guilty, but accused of high treason, who should take refuge in the territory of the other. And who was to be the judge of the act which was to be designated high treason? Why, the accuser:—so that there was no escape. If either government wished to get hold of an obnoxious person, it was only to accuse him of high treason, and his business was done. Now, this undertaking would not only compel us to retain upon our Statue-book the alien law, which of all the laws which appeared upon it was one of the most dangerous and offensive; but it might also bind us to execute it against an individual who should be accused of the slightest political offence, or even only be politically obnoxious. For it would not lie with us to decide what did or did not constitute trea-

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son; and we might be made the instruments of inflicting punishment for that offence, although the charge should be as capricious, or as morally groundless, as some of those set up by our own Harry the eighth.—Much had been said upon the proceedings of the Bank of England during the late panic of the country. Without wishing to throw blame upon the conduct of that body, he could not help expressing his conviction, that an end must come to that system which exerted so powerful an influence at present, not only on the money market, but on the whole trade of the country. Some change ought to be effected, by which the interests of the whole empire, together with the fortunes of every family in it, should be drawn from the absolute control and direction of four and twenty men: be they bankers, or be they merchants, whether they were to be looked up to as a political corporation, or a powerful commercial company, it was too much to trust the whole property of the country to the absolute will or caprice of a few men, left in the exercise of a power which was constantly changing all the relations of that property—sometimes increasing their issues and raising its value, then as suddenly contracting them and leaving the commercial transactions in a state of corresponding embarrassment—now restricting their discounts, and now enlarging them—again restricting their issues, and lowering the rate of interest; and again suddenly enlarging their issues, and raising the rate of interest. Just such as they had lately witnessed were the fearful consequences of that system upon all the property of the country— such were the confusion and disorder which must continually prevail in all its concerns so long as the influence of that system was allowed to prevail. He meant not to say, that he distrusted the present Bank directors; but he distrusted, and should ever distrust, the wisdom of any set of men placed in their situation, and who, unless they possessed the gift of prophesy, could not be safely intrusted with powers such as those at present vested in the Bank of England, without check or control. Let the monopoly of the Bank of England be restricted, and let other companies have an opportunity of raising themselves up in opposition to them: then, and not till then, would the money market and the commercial transactions of the country be placed
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upon a steady and secure footing. He could gather from the King's Speech, that his Majesty's ministers intended to introduce some measure calculated to remedy the evils of the existing system; and therefore he should, for the present, abstain from entering more fully into the subject. He had only to add, that in not offering any opposition to the address, he was only actuated by the courtesy evinced by gentlemen around him, on that as well as on other occasions; reserving to himself the right of discussing every subject touched upon in it, when the proper occasions for doing so should present themselves.
Mr. Robertsonsaid, that the distress of the country, great as it was at present, was only in its commencement, unless vigorous measures were applied to its relief. It would be recollected that during the last session he had implored the House and the ministry to step forth and secure the country from the open and barefaced spoliation which it was suffering by the machinations of joint-stock companies, from one end to the other. He clearly predicted what had proved to be the actual consequences of those schemes. And if he had thus seen beforehand the multitude of evils which had since been realized, he thought he had given the House sufficient warrant for the correctness of his opinions to entitle him to some portion of their attention. He considered the present embarrassments as the unavoidable consequences of that policy which had directed the public counsels, and which was now often years' duration. Should the government persevere in it, the existing calamities would be more than a gradual approach to the crisis. The House was bound to step in, and rescue the manufacturing and landed interests from that ruin which awaited them. He spoke upon the deepest reflection and consideration; and as far as facts were concerned, he was guided by statements which had been laid upon their table. If those statements were valid, that which he had to offer must make a serious impression on the House. The present difficulties might pass away; but greater remained behind, unless an end were brought to that speculative and gambling system of commerce which had produced it. Before he went into the subject, he would read to the House a passage out of an excellent pamphlet written fifteen years ago by the present right hon. president

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of the Board of Trade. The subject of the passage was the balance of commerce, and he expected to be able to prove from it, that, without an essential alteration in our commercial policy, the greatest calamities would ensue. From this pamphlet he drew the following proposition—that the excess of the exports over the imports of a country is not a necessary inference of the prosperity of that country, or that the balance of trade was in its favour. It was only an indication that such a portion of the wealth of the country might be spared; it amounted, in the first instance, to no more than a proof of the capacity of the country to endure that expenditure and absence of surplus capital. It did not follow, according to the author, that that exported wealth or expenditure might not be beneficial to the country. Now, he (Mr. R.) was prepared to prove, that it was absolutely pernicious; that in the case of this country it was the direct cause of all the distress which prevailed. He took the excess of the exports over the imports, since the peace, at 189,000,000 l., for which no return had been made to this country to compensate the loss thus endured. And yet this was but a gradual advance to what must be expected from a perseverance in the same system. At the close of the war, and in the first year of the peace, the excess of exports above imports was only 13,000,000 l.: last year it was 24,000,000 l. Could any country live and thrive under this drawing away and transfer of its resources? They ought to think seriously of the means to prevent the destructive consequences of such a policy. When Mr. Pitt governed the country, this system had not begun its operations. The state of things was something like this:—From the peace with America to the French war, the excess of exports was about 600,000 l. a-year. This expenditure was readily accounted for by the pay of ambassadors, and other functionaries, together with the expense of establishments abroad: so that it would be readily shown that not a single pound sterling left the country, for which another pound, or a proper equivalent, did not come in. From 1797 to 1808, the excess in the same way of expenditure amounted altogether to about five millions and a half. In the continuation of the war, this expenditure continued to increase, but in a proportion which might be accounted for by the expense of extensive fleets, and the capture and occupation of garrisons abroad. The
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expenses of our armies in the Spanish war alone would account for more than ten millions of the excess. At the peace, and ever since, the system had changed to an excess of this expenditure, which was continually increasing, without bringing back to the country any adequate returns—until it had reached the enormous sum of 189,000,000 l. Let the House now allow him to show how this excess of 25,000,000 l. of foreign expenditure worked among the various classes and interests of the country, and how it brought detriment upon the lowest as well as the highest. There being clearly that surplus of capital, its natural employment would be the application of it to the wages of labour among the increasing population of the country. For if the capital left the country in larger proportions than before, and the population continued to increase, the supply of labour must soon far exceed the employment given by the capital remaining; the labourers must be depressed, and the country impoverished. On this account, he could not but deplore that pernicious and pestilent doctrine which had obtained, that capital from England spent on the continent, or capital from Ireland spent on the continent or in England, was equally useful as the same capital spent in Ireland or in England. True it was, that such excess of expenditure abroad might have the appearance of prosperity; but it was only a speculative prosperity, big with national impoverishment. The House might ask how the surplus wealth was to be kept in the country? The question was not difficult to answer. Give such capital protection, and then it will stay at home and create a real prosperity, by bettering the wages of labour, and increasing the productive powers of the national industry. An absolutely free trade would let in foreign commodities. What would be the effect? The home manufactures must be pressed down by the competition; and capital, instead of being employed in compensating our own labourers, would be drawn in greater and greater quantities abroad, to bring in those supplies of foreign industry. He considered the doctrine of absolute free trade, as applied to this country, as the most vicious principle which had ever been adopted by thinking men. He begged pardon of the House for thus addressing them; but his feelings upon the subject were strong, and he could not repress them; so grievous were the results which

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he anticipated from the adoption of that principle. The argument urged by the government in support of that system was, the usefulness of competition in restraining monopoly. Nothing could be so absurd. Competition with other countries was utterly impossible: circumstances were not the same; and unless circumstances were exactly equal, what competition could there be? There could be no competition, therefore, but that fair and proper competition which was sure to prevail beneficially for all among the subjects of the same country, striving with each other for superiority under the very same circumstances. No possible combination could there take place among them to the disadvantage of the country at large. Now, it was utterly impossible not to foresee the circumstances which might throw the advantage of foreign competition into the hands of France; and, once lost, it could never be recovered.—The hon. gentleman then called the attention of the House to a transaction which was utterly at variance with the principles of free trade, so loudly promulgated, though many members of that House, and some of the members of government were implicated. He must be excused for expressing his sense of it plainly. It appeared to him to be one of the vilest jobs which had been heard of among all the schemes with which the country had overflowed. He was sorry to use such expressions. No man thought better of the members of his majesty's government— no man gave his support to their measures generally with more cordial good-will— than he did. When the mad projects of the money-market and the commercial world were going forward in their destructive career, how often had he called upon the House to interpose! How often had he implored ministers to stand forward, and rescue the country from those pernicious delusions! Had the House done their duty, they would have broken up those complicated schemes which were brought out by companies upon companies. Now Jet the House remark the strange inconsistency of some of the advocates of free trade. Since they had last met, a charter Shad been granted by the Crown, similar to that upon which the monopoly of the East India company was originally found-Ed; by which charter the new company had been authorized to vest a million of money in an exclusive scheme for the growth of silk in Great Britain and Ire-
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land. The capital embarked was a million. The first capital of the East India company was no more than 72,000 l. At a subsequent period the company obtained leave to invest 700,000 l., upon which it was afterwards found necessary to raise no more than 50 per cent.; so that 350,000 l. was all that was paid in. Here was a million of money to be applied—a sum more than sufficient for three times the trade which this country would ever have to carry on in the growth and throwing of silk. The natural effect must be, that the company would ruin all minor competitors, and then raise their prices, to the inevitable injury, perhaps the destruction, of our silk manufactures. It grieved him to be obliged to give out the names of peers and hon. gentlemen who were implicated; but he could not refrain from doing his duty. The president was the marquis of Lansdown; vice-president, the earl of Liverpool. What would Mr. Pitt say, did he but know that his great disciple was to be found in such a list? [laughter.] Among the directors were, the right hon. W. Huskisson, Henry Brougham, Wilmot Horton, and Pascoe Grenfell, How different were the sentiments of the right hon. the president of the Board of Trade, as they appeared in his pamphlet, when commenting upon asimilar project adopted by the French government, to force the cultivation of cotton.' Such," said he, "is the detestable policy which sways some of the powers of Europe, that we are boastingly told of whole districts of otherwise fertile territory being forcibly destined to a particular cultivation, and of the French government raising, at a ruinous- expense, a little bad cotton. "How soon the right hon. gentleman forgot his own principle in favour of asimilar cultivation of a little bad silk!— while the produce of India was secured to the country on terms which made competion utterly impossible. Such was the inconsistency of the advocates of free trade, and of the government which had adopted their principles! Here was the most direct encouragement given to that disastrous scheming and speculation which had nearly convulsed the country. He disapproved of that part of the Speech which stated the pecuniary difficulties of the country to be without any remedy. The remedy was within the reach of the House. The remedy was, to keep the capital at home, encourage the productive industry, raise the demand for labour, and increase

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the internal trade of the country. The foreign trade was a thing utterly insignificant in amount and importance when compared with this. He had no interested motive in the view of the question which he had taken. Every word he had uttered was opposed to his own particular interests as a foreign merchant. He spoke according to his sincere conviction. The chief calamity of the country was, that the government dwelt so much on our foreign commerce. They seemed to see nothing else, and to be blind to all other relations. The interests of the foreign merchant might be in opposition to the others. It was his interest that the country should not grow its own corn, but that it should be imported from places of cheaper growth. He was sure to be benefited by free trade. But, when the landed and manufacturing interests were depressed by that freedom of trade, it must be injurious to the country at large. He could not bring himself to concur in the opinion, that the remedy for the existing evils were not within the reach of that House.
The Chancellor of the Exchequerconfessed that he did not clearly comprehend the drift of the arguments of the hon. member for Grampound; and felt utterly at a loss how to reply to them. The speech of his hon. friend appeared to contain some propositions of rather a startling nature; for if he understood him rightly, the effect of his argument tended directly not only to that consummation, which his hon. friend certainly desired, the extinction of our foreign commerce; but also to the extinction of all the advantages of our home industry. So, at least, did it appear to him. His argument was, that the greater part of the distresses of the country was to be attributed to excessive exports; and then again his greatest dread seemed to be from the operation of the principles of free trade, by excessive importations. How to reconcile such seeming contardictions, he must leave to the ingenious and speculative mind of his hon. friend. As to the crimes alleged against the government, at first he felt perfectly astounded—he could not conceive what he himself, or his right hon. friends had been about, to deserve the denunciation—he quite trembled at the terrible consequences which, were to follow. But lo, and behold! some distinguished members of his majesty's government had lent their names to a speculation, the most innocent that had ever
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been set on foot. He himself was not a member of the association; but, what harm could there be in it? It appeared to him, on the contrary, that the growth of silk in this country was a most desirable object, if it could be accomplished, and in no degree similar to the monopoly of the East India company. His right hon. friend, the president of the Board of Trade, had suffered his name to be inserted in the list of directors, not for purposes of profit, but as an honorary title; and then the hon. member for Grampound, taunting his right hon. friend with this alleged inconsistency with the principles of free trade which he had so successfully advocated, referred to some passages in a very able pamphlet written during the bullion controversy, and which pointed out the absurdity of the French government in endeavouring to force the cultivation of cotton, some indifferent coffee, and manufacturing beet root into sugar. But this silk company did not propose to force the growth of silk. There was-not a sentence in their charter to compel the honourable gentleman to grow 8 single mulberry on his estate. In what respect did an association for the voluntary cultivation of silk resemble a restrictive monopoly, or a compulsory appropriation of good corn lands to the production of cotton, coffee, and beet root? But, Buonaparte was absurd enough to pass a law, compelling his subjects to resort to miserable, futile, and ill-contrived attempts to produce the articles, which his own measures prevented him from obtaining in the regular and more natural way. Thus far in reply to the hon. gentleman's speech. And now, perhaps, the House would allow him to take that opportunity of explaining, in a general way, the views of his Majesty s government respecting the more important parts of the Speech from the throne. And here he would say, that the hon. and learned member for Winchelsea might have forborne from making one or two of his comments (and he was persuaded he would have done so), had he been sufficiently aware of the full contents of his Majesty's Speech. Undoubtedly the matters on which the hon. and learned gentleman had touched, were so important, as to be calculated to excite the strongest feelings of the country; and he owed his thanks to the hon. and learned gentleman for the moderate and candid tone in which he had explained his opinions upon many of these points. He was not, however.

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justified in imputing to ministers the charge of treating too lightly the heavy distresses which so unfortunately prevailed. This imputation might have been spared; for he could solemnly assure the House, that nothing was further from the feelings or intentions of the executive government, than to treat with any thing bordering upon levity, those distresses which the country had endured, was still enduring, and might continue, to a certain extent, to be afflicted with, notwithstanding the utmost extent of human aid and sympathy. He entreated parliament to believe, that nothing was further from the meaning of his majesty's advisers, when they suggested the insertion of that paragraph in the King's Speech, than to treat the matter lightly. Indeed, he knew not, what materials men could be made of, who could have so treated the sufferings of any large portion of their fellow-countrymen. He should have thought that the best proof of a contrary sentiment pervading the breasts of ministers, and that they did not behold with indifference the sufferings of large classes of the community, was to be found in the striking fact of their placing that topic in the very head and front of the royal Speech; thereby showing the country how strongly the king and his government felt the necessity of calling the immediate attention of parliament to the consideration of so painful a subject, if not to avert or mitigate its present evils, at least to prevent, so far as human wisdom could prevent, the recurrence of such disasters. When he talked, however, of such a precaution, it was in vain for any man who had observed the progress of the late events to deny, that, looking at the cause of the late shock in the pecuniary transactions of the people, there were no legislative precautions that could have averted the mischief. It was quite impossible to expect this virtue from public enactments, with the view of effectually controlling or directing the speculations of individuals in so great a commercial country as this, where such temptations were held out for enterprise—where so much skill and industry were displayed in the conduct of mercantile affairs. It was quite impossible to apply laws to govern the speculations of individuals in such a country as this, without doing far more mischief than good, by an attempt so inconsistent with the habits of Englishmen. There was, however, no ground for despondency, notwithstanding the present
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condition of the country. If they referred to the distresses which prevailed in 1816 and 1817, they would see how soon the country arose out of them in the following year. The extreme pressure in the one year was followed in the other by a rapid re-action of a contrary kind; and this was effected without any legislative measure, or violence of any kind, but from the very nature of the pressure itself; because they always found, that when circumstances for a while disabled any considerable portion of the people from indulging in their accustomed enjoyments, they eagerly seized the earliest opportunity their renewed means afforded, of an increased consumption of that of which they had been for a time deprived. They rushed, therefore, with a greater avidity to obtain what they desired to possess the moment it was brought within their grasp. It was, he thought, quite clear to any reflecting person, that the great proportion of all the public difficulties complained of, had arisen from causes out of the reach of human control; and he was perfectly satisfied, that the man who would legislate on the assumption, that all engaged in the foreign or domestic commerce, or the agriculture of this country, were necessarily persons of a prudent character, who would act upon sound views, and turn aside from visionary speculations, would find himself grievously disappointed when he beheld the effect of his system of legislative interference in concerns of private management. When he said this, he begged it at the same time to be understood, that undoubtedly there were cases in which it was competent for parliament to interpose, and in which it was decidedly useful to call for that interposition. And this distinction was particularly necessary to be laid down, in a country where its affairs were carried on with reference to a sound basis, and where it was impossible to avoid having a currency exposed to excess at one time, and depreciation at another. This was the case here, where the currency was so far of a mixed nature, as that the part of it consisting of paper greatly exceeded the amount in metallic coin. Under such circumstances, it was quite clear that the tendency of the paper portion of the circulating medium was to increase itself, and to effect this without reference to consequences; and singularly enough, the operation went on too, from causes which did not necessarily require that increase. This was precisely what

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had happened in this country, and partly as connected with the circulation of the country banks, the increase of which within the last three or four years had been of a most extraordinary description. Of the actual state of the circulation of the country banks, it was difficult to form an accurate estimate; and this difficulty was in itself a very great evil, because it left both the Bank of England and the government in comparative obscurity upon a matter which it was essential for them to know, and deprived them of the advantage of having recourse to a known fact, which would enable them to determine the criteria how far the circulation was in excess. Although, however, they could not determine the precise amount of the country banks' circulation, they had the means of approximating lo something like an estimate, by a reference to the amount of stamps issued within a given time to these bankers. It was usually considered that the average circulation of country bank paper lasted about three years—it might be more or less in particular cases, but the three years' average was mostly relied upon; and, therefore, if he multiplied each year's issue of stamps by three, he arrived at a probable test for the purpose of his argument. Judging in this manner, he found that, in the year 1820, the issue of country bank notes had been 3,493,901 l. In 1821, it was 4,438,548 l. And in the year 1825, it had got up to no less a sum than 8,755,000 l. During this progressive operation of the country banks, there was no excess of circulation apprehended, and the affairs of the country were generally in a rapidly increasing state of prosperity. But, nevertheless, the inevitable result of this operation must be, to produce a rise in prices, which naturally extended a spirit of speculation, where men struggled who should get most money for articles in demand.—But this was not all the evil which this system of circulation encompassed. A great deal of difficulty arose out of the present constitution of their banking system, and especially from that part of it which was composed of one pound notes, notes which, from the smallness of their amount, necessarily circulated among the poorer classes of society, upon whom they entailed the heaviest affliction when the time of revulsion and stoppage arrived. When one of these banks break, thousands upon thousands of poor people lose their all, and are visited with the most heart-
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rending affliction. A great deal was said of the spirit of trade excited by, and the consequent benefits resulting from the circulation supplied by these banks, but he would unhesitatingly ask, what advantage had been conferred on agriculture, on commerce, on the community at large, which could be put in competition with the ruin of its re-action at a moment of panic, and the wide-spreading evils which its sudden depreciation inflicted? What real or apparent benefit could compensate for the poverty and misery to which it consigned so large a portion of the working classes of the community, who possessed nothing for their labour or their sustenance, but the worthless piece of paper bearing the impress of the local bank? Who, with a heart to feel, could refrain from saying, that these evils did not far, very far, outweigh all the exaggerated advantages of the circulation of this mass of country paper?—Upon the fullest consideration which he had been able to give this part of the matter embraced in his Majesty's Speech, he had come to the conclusion, that it was indispensably necessary to apply an immediate remedy to that great source of public mischief. Of course, it would not be expected of him, at that moment, to go into the details of the measure by which he intended to accomplish this beneficial purpose. Undoubtedly, caution was necessary in the progress of the work. It was not always the most prudent course to rush headlong to an opposite extreme from that in which they had previously acted; yet he thought something must be done decisively and effectually, to prevent the recurrence of the evils so universally complained of. And when he reflected upon this state of things, it was to him a source of regret that in the arrangements respecting the currency provided by parliament in the year 1822, the original intention of causing the indulgence granted to the country bankers to issue small notes to cease in the year 1825, had been abandoned. He greatly regretted that any circumstances should, at the time he referred to, have induced government to abandon their first intention; but what had passed since had abundantly confirmed him in the opinion that they must now have recourse to a firm and decided measure, for the purpose of placing the currency of the country upon a durable basis. This, however, would not have the effect of preventing a recurrence of

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the evil, without another measure, which was equally important. He alluded to what had been appropriately termed the exclusive privileges of the Bank of England, as their charter now stood. It was impossible for any man who considered what was the extent of the public transactions of this great kingdom, and the measures inevitably necessary for carrying on the business of the nation and the government, not to see, that one single chartered banking company, however well constituted, was inadequate to execute all the functions of the state. The town business—that immediately on the spot— they could conduct, undoubtedly, in the present manner; but not so throughout the country, where the government had necessarily pecuniary affairs to transact, and where, from the necessity of the case, country banks had sprung up and taken a part of that business. That the Bank of England was at the outset perfectly sufficient for all purposes, he readily admitted; but the immense growth of the wants of the country for banking aid had become so extended, that the case was altered, and a change to meet this varied aspect must be brought about. Country banks had become necessary, in consequence of the exclusive privileges of the Bank of England and the outgrowing claims of the public. And, from these very circumstances, the country banks had been so constituted, that they were deprived of much of the solidity of what ought to belong to the banking system; in fact, the effect of the exclusive privileges had been, to permit elsewhere in the country, every species of banking plan to be in full operation, save what was of the most solid and beneficial character. This state of things required a more efficient remedy than any which had hitherto been applied. Indeed, for some time, it had not escaped the attentive consideration of his majesty's government. Two years ago they had commenced a negotiation with the directors of the Bank, to see how far the company could be induced to forego a portion of their exclusive privileges. Their charter, as at present constituted, would expire in the year 1833, and the Bank offered to consent to a relinquishment of certain privileges, provided the charter in its main duration was extended to the year 1843. They agreed to allow other chartered companies, within the present prohibited distance, at once, pro-
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vided the extension of the charter was conceded; that is, they were ready to give the public, instanter, the particular benefits which it could not otherwise acquire until 1833, provided the main operation of the charter would be allowed to survive till 1843. This, however, the government refused to call upon parliament to grant; but it pressed upon the Bank the greater advantage which the company would obtain in the administration of their own affairs, by the increased safety and security which would result from the adoption of the plan then under contemplation. The government had lately again pressed this matter upon the consideration of the Bank, and had submitted to the directors the benefit which both the company and the public would derive from its execution, accompanied, at the same time, with a direct and unequivocal assurance, that there was no intention of extending the present period of their chartered rights. And here he was bound to say, that the manner in which the Bank directors had met this proposition deserved the highest credit. It should always be remembered, that the conductors of such a corporation had difficulties to contend with which could not be felt by others who were not bound by the same interests, nor constituted in the same privileged manner. The directors had, however, acquiesced in the proposition made by his majesty's ministers, which they engaged immediately to submit to the consideration of a court of proprietors. The plan, if carried into effect, would place the banking system of this country upon the same footing as in Ireland, where companies were allowed to establish banks, with any number of partners, fifty miles from the capital. The same relative distance would be sixty-five miles in England; and at that distance it was proposed to establish banking companies with an unlimited number of partners. When he alluded to the reluctance of the Bank directors to abandon, all at once, rights which they felt were secured to them by charter, it was, he repeated, too much to complain of them for such hesitation. They were charged with the protection of the particular interests of the Bank; and though it was the object of the government, in their communications with the directors, to make it clear to them, that the rights they were charged to cherish would not be prejudiced by the concession required

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at their hands, still it was not to be wondered, that men held tenaciously to the maintenance of enjoyments exclusively intrusted to their protection. It did not follow, because these private interests persevered in wishing to retain their peculiar privileges, that therefore they were right in their judgment as to their value; on the contrary, he believed they were wrong in this respect, and was persuaded, as he had stated to the parties, that if the Bank surrendered at once the whole of its exclusive privileges they would profit rather than lose by the concession. Still, if they thought otherwise, nobody had a right to wrest from them a privilege, with which they were legally invested. This should not prevent him from doing justice to their motives; and he felt no hesitation in avowing, that throughout his intercourse with tile Bank of England, the directors had uniformly manifested the most anxious desire to promote the general interests of the country. He might occasionally differ from them upon points of general policy; but he had no right to find fault with their mode of managing the affairs intrusted to their guidance; and sure he was, that none would be found more ready than the Bank of England had been, to throw itself into the breach, when the country required a great effort. At the risk of their own interests, at the risk even of their own security, they had often gallantly come forward, and saved the country, by their timely aid, from evils of the greatest magnitude. With this experience of the value of the services performed by that great corporation, it would be monstrous injustice not to treat with fairness and proper consideration the opinions of such a body. They had now agreed to relinquish that part of their exclusive privileges which restricted the number of partners in banking concerns, and had refrained from requiring the condition of a ten years' extension of their charter, which, on the former occasion, they had declared to be a sine qua non of this concession. He had now stated in general terms the outline of his plan respecting the banking system. On a very early day he would submit a distinct proposition on the subject, when it could be fully discussed in all its parts. But he could not refrain, on the present occasion, from stating at once what were the general views of his majesty's government—what they felt to be the main causes of the existing diffi-
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culties of the country, and the measures best calculated to obviate their recurrence. There were two other points upon which he was desirous for a moment to dwell. And first he would advert to the produce of the revenue during the last year. Now, upon that point, the words of his Majesty's Speech were greatly below the mark; for the produce of the revenue had far exceeded his most sanguine expectations.—He had assumed, that the revenue of 1825 would have been less than that of 1824, by 600,000 l.; and he had besides remitted taxes to the same amount. His calculation, therefore, had been, that the revenue of 1825 would have been less than that of 1824', by 1,200,000 l; and yet the House was aware how much more beneficial the result had been. He had certainly, by no means contemplated the having to return any duty in that quarter, though the amount returned on what had been paid was no less than 1,050,0004 l; so that if that cause had not existed, the revenue of the year 1825 would have exceeded by one million that of the year 1824. But, in spite of all thee circumstances, still the revenue of 1825 had exceeded that of the preceding year by 250,000 l. He therefore trusted that the House would be satisfied that there was nothing of exaggeration in that part of his Majesty's Speech which alluded to the revenue of the country. He thanked the hon. and learned gentleman for the frank and uncompromising manner in which he had spoken out respecting commercial principles of great importance to the well-being of the country, and had declared that if the government remained true to the best interests of the community, they would not suffer themselves to be diverted from that system of policy in matters of commerce which was founded on the wisest principles. He entirely concurred with the hon. and learned gentleman, that the government would act with the greatest inconsistency if they abandoned those principles; and, speaking for himself, he would say, that to him it would be an eternal disgrace if he, in any way, were to depart from them. And though he and his colleagues were taunted by the hon. member for Gram-pound with having lost the countenance of some of their oldest friends, and cast for support upon their usual opponents at the other side of the House, still he would say that they were cheered by an

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honest and effective co-operation. Nor would the hon. member's taunt drive him to reject the assistance of hon. gentlemen opposite, who had the generosity and candour to give him their important aid in this branch of his policy, and who could have no motive for taking such a part, save an ardent and disinterested attachment to the true interests of the country. It was with the highest satisfaction that he saw the principal men of every sect and of every party ready to give him their support in this branch of the public policy, and that he carried with him in his steadfast adherence to it, the concurring opinions of all the best-informed, and he would add, if he were not himself one of its most zealous advocates, of all the wisest men in this or in any other country.
Mr. Ellicerose, he said, rather to advert to one serious omission in the Speech from the throne, than to follow the right hon. gentleman through the various topics on which he had addressed the House. But, before he did this, he must offer one or two observations on what had fallen from him respecting the currency, and the measures proposed to place it on a more satisfactory footing. He thought the greatest caution should be observed in extending the system of banking, without providing efficient checks against the abuses to which recent events had proved it so liable. The Scotch chartered banks were, in some respects, to be regarded with as much jealousy as the country banks in England. They had not been behind hand in giving encouragement to over trading and speculation, and their issues of paper had at least been on an equal scale, with those during the last two years in this country. Their present situation was probably as much to be ascribed to good fortune, as good management, and they might not have been found better prepared than their neighbours, if the recent panic had travelled northwards, and exposed them to the same severe trial. In future legislation on this subject, it would be well to advert to the expediency of encouraging the collection of large masses of capital in the hands of persons issuing local notes, for which interest was allowed to depositors. The banker must look in this case for a profit beyond the interest, and was tempted in prosperous times either to lock up his funds, or to embark them in hazardous speculations with that object. On any
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reverse he was unable to collect his means to pay demands upon him, and the whole, currency of his neighbourhood was exposed to derangement from his failure. He entirely approved of the determination to put an end to the small notes. It was evident they had banished all specie from circulation, and since parliament had decided on the resumption of cash payments, the currency of the country could never he on a secure footing, unless a certain amount of coin was maintained in circulation. He had been of this opinion on the passing of Mr. Peel's bill, and recent experience had added to his conviction on the subject. But, the particular object which induced him to rise was, to direct the attention of the House to the omission of all reference to the Corn Laws in his Majesty's Speech. Did ministers intend to allow them to remain on their present footing, with their boasted attachment to right principles and their determination to remove all restrictions from the trade of the country? Every branch of industry must be severely affected by the present measures of reform in the currency. Prices of other commodities would be materially depressed, and great stagnation consequently take place in all branches of our manufactures; and were the prices of all necessaries of life to be alone maintained by law to double the rate of every other country in the world? The House would very soon receive petitions from his constituents against the introduction of foreign manufactured silks under the act of 1824; and with what appearance of justice could they refuse to listen to their complaints, while the importation of corn was prohibited What better reason could be urged for a standard import price of corn, than of silk or any other commodity? It was madness to persevere with their experiments on the manufacturing interests of the country, unless they were prepared to go forward and supply the principles of free trade to the trade in corn, and he lamented to see by this omission in the Speech, the ruinous sacrifice of all right and just principles which ministers were willing to make to the prejudices on this subject, and the more powerful interest by which they were supported. But they must either proceed, or be prepared to retrace all their steps, and he hoped this question would be pressed on parliament by the strong and general voice of the country.
Mr. Humesaid, that the right hon., the chancellor of the Exchequer had carried them back to former years in the course of his speech, but had forgotten to point out what appeared to be the principal cause of all the distress about which he had occasion to speak. Without intending to disapprove of the speech of the right hon. gentleman, he must enter his protest against the praises which he had heaped upon the Bank of England. It appeared to him just as if an incendiary were to be praised, because, after he had kindled the flame, he endeavoured to put it out. If the Bank of England had known the true principles of banking, or if it had taken example by the events of 1793, it would never have allowed the course of exchange to remain for seven whole months against this country. He however hailed the proposition of the government as the commencement of better times, though he could not but regret that no bank was to be permitted within sixty-five miles of the metropolis; for if they were wanted any where, it was in London itself, in order that there might be something like competition to keep the Bank of England at bay. The right hon. gentleman had taken great credit to himself for the prescience with which he had pointed out the course of the revenue; but, in so doing, he had taken care not to go back to that period at which the government had been so lavish of their promises as to the reduction of taxation. Did the right hon. gentleman's speech, he would ask, hold out the smallest hopes of reduction in the military establishment of the country, which was tearing it to pieces? In the year 1793, when the country was at war, four millions and a half had been found sufficient to pay the military establishments at that time. And, what was the amount required at present? Something between nine and ten millions; and, at the very time that they were receiving assurances from his majesty of there being every prospect of a continuance of peace. In 1793, the whole taxation of the country did not exceed eighteen millions, while its parochial assessments were not more than two millions. What was the case at present? The taxation of the country amounted to the incredible sum of fifty-five millions, and the poor rates and parochial assessments to six or seven millions annually. In such a state of things it was mere fallacy to talk of relieving the distresses of the
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people by putting down one pound notes. The people could not be led astray from the contemplation of the real source of their sufferings, by such theories and absurd opinions. They would inquire, and see that wasteful expenditure of the public money, the profligate sinecures and unnecessary and overgrown establishments, were the evils to which all their hardships were attributable. It was in vain to speak of securing the property of the country by putting down one pound notes or by any regulations by which bankers would be prevented from issuing paper without its actual representative in money. Make banks as secure as you please, individuals placed at the head of them in the receipt of large profits would still indulge in wasteful and lavish expenses. Lightly come, lightly go. Men would squander money who could create it as they pleased. That was not what the country required, but a confidence in the administration— a reliance on those who directed its finances, that not a shilling would be called for which the public service did not require, and that every reduction compatible with its safety would be made. The right hon. gentleman had spoken at much length of the increase of country bank notes in the last year, above preceding years. He had stated, that the issue of 1820 was 3,400,000, the issue of 1821, 4,300,000; and the issue of 1825, 8,000,000. But, what inference could be drawn from that fact, when he admitted, at the same instant, that the issue of Bank of England paper, in the same year, was diminished seven millions? What more could be collected from the statement than this, that the superabundance of local notes supplied a vacuum created by the diminution of Bank of England paper? Thus, in whatever shape the subject appeared, whatever attempts were made to mislead the public mind by misrepresentation—the slightest inquiry tended to show, that these evils were partial and temporary, and that the true and deep-rooted source of all our distress and suffering was the extravagance of government, in continuing to maintain establishments oppressive and unnecessary, and in the wasteful expenditure of the treasures of the country. Let the House recollect the report of the finance committee at the close of that most expensive war in which the country had been so long engaged. That report stated the necessity of still keeping up a large establishment;

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but, at the same time, it held out a hope that there would be a gradual reduction of our expenditure, according as the continuance of peace should enable us to free ourselves from that military system, in which, in consequence of our connection with the continent, we had, unfortunately entangled ourselves. Than such a system nothing was more absurd. It was not our element. Every attempt to rival the powers of the continent in the maintenance of a large military force, was unnatural on the part of this country, and must always tend to our serious injury, if not to our utter destruction. Reverting, however, to the finance report, to which he had alluded, he observed, that the committee had, after great deliberation, held out a prospect of a gradual reduction of the taxation of the people. Bui, what had been the result? In 1817, the amount of the taxation on the people, including the expenses of collection, was 52,300,000 l/; in 1818 it was 53,979,000 l.; in 1819 it was 53,200,000 l; and so on until 1823, when it was 53,600,000 l; and in 1824, when it was 53,700,000 l. After ten years of peace, therefore, notwithstanding every hope of an amelioration of their condition had been held out to the people, no amelioration whatever had taken place; but as great an amount as ever was deducted from the produce of their industry. Was he not then justified in blaming his majesty's ministers for the unmeaning Speech which they had just heard? He was not fond of making invidious comparisons; but, let the House look at the speech of the president of the United States, and then let them look at the Speech which had been just delivered, and see what a perfect blank it exhibited. He wished his majesty's ministers would take a lesson from other states. He wished they would take a lesson even from some of the states of Germany. Bavaria had set a noble example last year, by the reduction of half its military establishment. It would be infinitely more honourable to his majesty's government to reduce the army, instead of maintaining it in its present extent, and with all that frippery and foppery by which it was so disadvantageously distinguished. While our manufacturers were starving, while a man with his wife and five or six children were unable to obtain more than seven shillings a week—the Guards were covered with gold lace, and with all the absurd paraphernalia of military decoration.
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There was scarcely a family of any distinction in the kingdom of which some individual was not enjoying either an army or a navy pension, while the great body of the population were suffering extreme distress. It was a farce to say that the misery which we had been lately experiencing was attributable to the country banks. The right hon. gentleman himself could not believe that such was the fact, although he knew that there were a number of good-natured gentlemen in that House always disposed to give credit to any statement that he might think proper to put forth. The poor at large ought not to be misled by any misstatements of that nature. He contended that there was in his Majesty's Speech not one word of what ought to have been there. Let the House recollect that on some frivolous pretence or another, our military establishment had been actually going on increasing for the last three years, until it had arrived at an amount which was altogether unwarranted by the circumstances of the country. He gave the right hon. secretary of state for Foreign Affairs great credit for the manner in which he was endeavouring to dissociate this country from her connection with the continent; although he had hoped that the right hon. gentleman would have gone even further than he had done. We ought to avail ourselves of all those advantages which were peculiarly our own, to break off" all our continental intimacies. It was evident we did not require a large military force for internal purposes. If it were maintained for the purpose of keeping down our own population, he would ask, if that was the best way of making them happy? Would it not be much better to render them contented, by the diminution of our expenditure, by the reduction of sinecures and pensions, and by reverting to the expenditure of 1793? As it was, he would take upon himself to prove, that in no year during the late war, not even in 1815, the year of our greatest expenditure, in which it amounted to 72,000,000, was the weight of taxation so heavy as now, if valued by that standard, by which alone it ought to be valued—gold. Much less gold was taken from the people in taxation, at the period to which he had just alluded, than had been taken from them during the last three or four years. He could not concur in thinking, that the predictions of ministers as to our increasing prosperity were realized. On the

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contrary, he thought that, unless something was done, and that speedily, in the way of reduction, our condition would become much worse. It was said, that our immense military establishments were rendered necessary by the extent of our colonies; but he denied that our colonies required such expensive establishments, if they were managed as they ought to be. Ireland, he supposed, was looked upon as a colony which called for a large military establishment. But, why should that be necessary? Why not put Ireland in that condition in which she could support herself? Those who treated her as a conquered country, must take the consequences; but he felt that a different system would not only have the effect of taking the burthen from England, but of making that island, what she had not hitherto been—productive of great advantage to us. The system pursued with respect to our foreign colonies was not lees extravagant. The people of England, under the present system of mis-management, were, year after year, called upon to pay large sums on account of most of our colonies, which were not repaid by any advantages to us. Vast sums were expended to keep pampered minions in power, over whose conduct no salutary check was exercised. Look at the Cape; look at every colony we possessed, and then say if they were not all burthens to the country. If he turned his eye to the eastward, he could not agree with what was stated in the Speech from the throne. In the King's Speech of his year, it was declared, that "the interruption of tranquillity in India had been occasioned by the unprovoked aggression and extravagant pretensions of the Burmese government, which had rendered hostile operations against that state unavoidable. "That, he asserted, was contrary to truth. The information which had been laid on the table showed that hostilities had been most unjustifiably commenced on our part. The consequence must naturally be, a great increase of the East India debt. And, let it be considered, that an increase of that debt was in fact an increase of the debt of the people of England. What had ministers put into his Majesty's mouth on this subject in the Speech under consideration?" His Majesty regrets that he has not to announce to you the termination of hostilities in India. But the operations of the last campaign, through the bravery of the forces of his
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Majesty, and of the East India company, and the skill and perseverance of their commanders, have been attended with uniform success, and his Majesty trusts that a continuance of the same exertions may lead at no distant period to an honourable and satisfactory pacification." This was inconsistent with fact. Undoubtedly, wherever a British soldier in India, or a native soldier in the service of the company, had met with the enemy, he had distinguished himself by his valour and good conduct. But, what had been the course of the war with the Burmese? Had our army met with the army of the enemy? Did the enemy wait the approach of our troops? Had they not uniformly retreated as we advanced? And a wise policy they had adopted in so doing. If all the other native chiefs in India had played the same game as the Burmese had been playing, the British government in India would have had little to boast of at the present moment. Our triumphs had been all of a negative character. They had been accompanied by a pestilence destructive of thousands. Eight thousand European troops had been carried to a spot ten times more deleterious than the marshes of Walcheren; a place wholly unfit for the momentary occupation of human beings. And, who was to blame for all this? His majesty's ministers, for having sent out to govern India a man wholly incompetent to that arduous situation; a man against whom all opinions—even, if he was rightly informed, the opinions of the directors of the East India company—were united. He had every reason to believe that the court of directors had no confidence whatever in lord Amherst's government. If what he had just stated was the fact, how inexcusable were his majesty's ministers in keeping in such a situation an individual who had proved himself so unqualified to the discharge of its duties ! By so doing they rendered themselves parties to lord Amherst's proceedings; and made themselves deeply responsible for the consequences. Whether it was attributable to the Board of Control, or to the court of directors of the East India company he knew not; but certain it was, that the British empire in India was in a state in which it had never before been.—'Upon the whole, he came to this conclusion, that, whatever measures might be adopted to alter or remodel the state of the currency—whatever measures might be

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proposed to prevent an injurious issue of paper by persons whose property was not adequately responsible for its value,—all would be unavailing, unless the country was relieved from eight or ten millions of taxes—a remission which, he would venture his life upon the assertion, might be accomplished with the utmost safety; leaving all the duties of government to be carried on with much greater ease and with much more public benefit, than they were under the present circumstances.
Mr. T. Wilsonsaid, he was a friend to the general principle of free trade, but that he thought the silk-trade, under present circumstances, ought to be made an exception; or at least that the principle should not be extended to that branch of our trade, while the monopoly of the corn trade was allowed to exist. He would! not press the subject at that moment;! but, at some future time he should feel it his duty to bring it under the consideration of the House, for he was quite convinced that unless some alteration was made in the corn laws, it was impossible that the silk-trade could go on under the existing regulations.
Mr. John Smithwas of opinion, that unless the chancellor of the Exchequer entered into a much more full explanation of his imperfect statement than he had given, the effect would be, to increase that panic and alarm, of the existence of which he must be fully aware. He entirely concurred with the right hon. gentleman, in most of his observations respecting the issue of small notes by private banks, and of the injury which had accrued there from in some instances; but, he must remind the right hon. gentleman, that the undefined manner in which he had alluded to the intention of allowing joint-stock company banks, with a greater number of partners, and with, of course, a very large capital, might have an effect injurious to many banks within sixty-five miles of the metropolis, unless he explained immediately the time when this proposition was to be carried into effect. Without such explanation his proposition might create an alarm, and produce a recurrence of the panic which they were all so anxious to prevent. He did hope, therefore, that before the close of this debate the right hon. gentleman would give some explanation on this point. He hoped that in any plan which might be adopted, no privileges would be given that would go to destroy the ancient establish-
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ments. He himself was a partner in one of a hundred years' standing, which, he would say, had conducted its affairs with character and respectability; but his own interest would never induce him to sanction the system of circulating one pound notes, which was inconsistent with the honesty and integrity of the country. The government should be careful not to do that which had been done in Scotland; namely, to banish every piece of gold out of the country. He threw out these remarks for the consideration of the chancellor of the Exchequer, who, he hoped, would distinctly state when, or where about, his plan was to come into operation, in order that establishments of character and credit might not be obliged to enter into competition with those powerful opponents, the joint-stock companies, without adequate notice. Unless he did so, he might be the cause of very serious alarm, and to an extent upon which he could not calculate. It was chiefly with the view of requesting this explanation, that he rose to address the House, but he could not sit down without adverting to that part of the Speech from the throne which alluded to the present state of Ireland. They had been told that his majesty had directed to have carried into effect the recommendation of certain committees, which had sat a year or two ago. He was glad to find that such was the intention of the government. Last year, and the year before, there was a committee of that House; and a more excellent and industrious committee never emanated from the House of Commons. The nakedness of Ireland was exposed, not only to the House, but to all England: all the subjects of complaint were examined, but not to the bottom. He wished to know whether that excellent committee were not to continue their labours? He was sure there was a part of the administration which felt the necessity of probing these circumstances to the bottom; and reasoning from the analogy of other committees, the necessity must be obvious. There was, for instance, the Commission of Education. He was persuaded the right hon. secretary (Mr. Peel), who had resided so long in Ireland, would never have tolerated the iniquitous practices and infamous jobbing, which the report of that commission disclosed, had he been aware of their existence. But, the fact was, the government of Ireland had not the power of going to the

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bottom of the inquiry, it must be done by a committee of that House. He presumed that every gentleman who heard him, had read the evidence of the committee of last year. The evidence was extremely long — the report exceedingly short. That committee ought to be renewed, if it were for nothing else than the benefit of an additional report. The inquiry ought to be pursued further; for, in his opinion, it had only been half done.
Mr. Crippsdefended the country banks from the imputations to which the had recently been so generally subjected. No one, he said, could judge fairly of their merits, except those who were interested in the subject. The failures that had taken place among them were principally owing to a want of knowledge on the part of those who had the management of the concern: the bankers who had a! common share of prudence, had experienced little difficulty in weathering the storm. He did not know that the existence of one pound notes was so great an evil as seemed to be imagined. On the contrary, he was: satisfied that their circulation had been! beneficial to the public. Whatever might be said of country banks, a great part of j the prosperity of the country was mainly attributable to the facilities and the indulgences which they had afforded. He was quite sure, that if the existing sys I tem were suddenly altered, or without great deliberation, an effect would be produced on the country which was not at all anticipated. In every part of England, and in the agricultural counties particularly, the country banks had, undoubtedly, lent a large part of their capital on mortgage. But, it by no means followed, that they had not obtained security. If, however, they were suddenly driven to call in all these loans, an alarm would be occasioned, the ultimate result of which no one could foresee. The debts due to them might be good debts; but, when the House saw, only six weeks ago, that any man who could not suddenly turn his parchments into gold was a ruined man, they might have some notion of the evil which a precipitate measure might generate. If left alone, eventually they might bring their affairs round; but if suddenly compelled to meet a parliamentary measure, such as that alluded to by the right hon. gentleman, they might be driven to dispose of their property to such disadvantage, as not to be able to pay ten shillings in the pound. He had thought
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it his duty to say thus much, in order that it might not go forth uncontradicted, that country banks had occasioned great evil, instead of having materially contributed to the prosperity of the country; and in the hope that, whatever system it might be thought advisable to propose, it would be proposed deliberately; and with a view to the whole of the banking establishments of the country.
Mr.Maberlysaid, he could not express an opinion upon the proposed measures without offering his meed of concurrence in all that had been said of the conduct of the Bank of England, during the late shock to which the public credit had been exposed. He was ready to admit, that in what had been said of that body, justice only had been done them; and even if the right hon. gentleman had gone further, he would have been warranted by the course which the Bank had pursued, in circumstances more trying and extraordinary than ever a commercial body was placed in before. To their energy and determination, although in opposition to their usual principles, was the salvation of the country to be attributed. But, whilst he gave them praise where they deserved it, he was bound to say, that their good intentions might have been more beneficially developed, if they had not crippled themselves by the dead weight on mortgages. This, however, was an abstract operation, and he should not now go into it. All he should say was, that he did not think the difficulties which the Bank had contributed so largely to alleviate were attributable exclusively to the misfortunes of the commercial world, or to the failure of the country banks; for sure he was, that they had been much aggravated by the measures of the right hon. gentleman and his colleagues in deluging the country with so large an issue of their promissory notes. The weight of thirty millions of Exchequer bills was calculated to produce a great languor in the money transactions of the country; and he was sure that, if the Bank of England had not gone into the Exchequer market, and taken up those bills, the panic would have been ten times more dreadful. Indeed, he doubted whether, if this had not taken place, the dividends due in October or January would have been paid. It would be a neglect of duty not to remind the country that it. was by the promptitude with which the Bank had come forward that the country was saved from

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the consequences which the Exchequer bills of the right lion, gentleman had prepared for it. He hoped the experience would not be lost upon the right hon. gentleman; for if by another glut of Exchequer bills commercial distress should again return, the same relief could not be calculated upon from the Bank; since, with the exchanges against us, they would be obliged rather to contract than enlarge their circulation, and the effect would be, to enhance instead of alleviating the difficulty. The dividends^ then could not be paid, and there would be no alternative but to make the Bank of England commit itself by an over-issue of paper; which would reduce its credit to the level of the country bankers; who, though they might have assets for the discharge of all their claims, were still reduced to the greatest distress, from an impossibility of raising money in London. He could appeal to an hon. director over the way for a corroboration of all that he was saying; if that hon. member felt himself at liberty to speak out.
Mr. Pearse,as one of the directors of that establishment, rose to defend the conduct which the Bank had pursued during the late crisis, and to deprecate the tone of triumph in which the right hon. gentleman had described the result of his late negotiations with that body. The advances which tile Bank had made upon stock, and also those which it had made upon mort-gages, had been made with a view of alleviating the embarrassments of the commercial and the agricultural interests, and not with any view of beating down the rate of interest of money. The Bank had acted with the utmost prudence and consideration in the whole of the late tremendous convulsion; and he thought that the House would agree with him, that the I public had never been brought into any scrape by its proceedings, or when it had got into a scrape by other means, had ever been unassisted by the Bank with the means of getting out of it. He had been connected with the Bank for the last forty years—a period as eventful as any in the annals of the world, and he would solemnly say, with all that experience before him, that he never saw the directors influenced by unworthy motives. In all questions that came before them, they considered the interest of the country as that which was paramount to all others, being well aware, that when that interest was secured,
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their own profits would follow as a matter of course.
Mr. Secretary Canningsaid, that although he had not expected that any difference of opinion would have been excited by the speech of his right hon. friend, still, as some strange misconception had arisen upon several of the topics contained in it, he was anxious to state to the House the manner in which he had himself understood them. The House had been addressed by two hon. members from different sides of the House, who had both evidently misconceived the meaning of his right hon. friend. The misconception of one of the hon. gentlemen was perhaps natural, and at any rate might be accounted for; but, how the misconception of the other had arisen, it was impossible for him to imagine. The hon. gentleman opposite seemed to apprehend that his right hon. friend had a plan for erecting joint-stock banking companies or corporations, which would swallow up all the existing establishments. Now, the plan of his right hon. friend went no further than to take off, with the consent of the Bank of England, a few years sooner than it would otherwise expire, a prohibition, of which the effect, by the concurrent opinion of all who had spoken upon the subject, was to make weakness, instead of strength, an inherent quality in the system of country banking. It required not the agency of his right hon. friend, that the evil which the hon. gentleman apprehended should take place in the year 1833; that there should then be no longer any privilege in the Bank of England to prevent more than six persons from becoming partners in the same banking concern; that that privilege should then cease with the existence of the Bank charter; and that such corporations and joint-stock companies as the hon. gentleman appeared so much to dread, should then rise up in all parts of the country. But, under what circumstances, he would ask the hon. gentleman, would that evil occur, supposing the present law to remain unaltered? On the one hand, the privilege of the Bank of England, which prevented the spreading of a wider basis for the transactions of country banks, would continue to exist till the year 1833; and, on the other, there was by law in the country banks an unlimited power to issue small notes up to precisely the same period. Now, if the undoing of the privilege of the Bank of England was so fraught with mischief as the hon. gentleman seemed to

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think, how would that mischief be aggravated, if it were to operate upon an unlimited and unrestricted issue of country bank-notes? His right hon. friend had two objects in view in the measure which he proposed. The first was, to accelerate the period in which the prohibition was to be removed, which, as he had before said, entailed weakness upon the country banks; and the second was, by limiting the issues of those banks, to make the new power given to them operate with less suddenness upon the existing establishments. Whether the consequence of withdrawing the privilege of the Bank of England would be that new banks would be created ail over the country, or that the ancient and long established ones would widen their foundations by coalescing with new partners, he could not pretend to decide positively at present. The hon. gentleman seemed to assume that the latter consequence would take place, but, as appeared to him, without sufficient reason. He could see no reason why, when the power of widening the basis of country banks was given, it should not operate to add a seventh, or an eighth, or even a tenth partner to the existing establishments, rather than to create new establishments all over the country, to rival and extinguish the old ones. Surely, every establishment would have the power, either by an accession of strength, or a consolidation of interests, to guard against the evil which the hon. gentleman appeared to apprehend. With respect to the idea of his right hon. friend pressing his measure unawares upon the country, he must say that nothing had fallen from him which indicated any such intention; and, if his right hon. friend had not dwelt more at large upon the details of his measure, it was, that it had been so often before parliament, or at least so long before the public, that it was only necessary to refer to it, to bring it to the minds of gentlemen who were at all acquainted with the subject.—There was another point which the hon. gentleman appeared to have overlooked in his view of the question. If it were an evil, it was one that the Bank could create at present on any day in the week; for it could create branch banks in all parts of the country; and if there was a necessity for a more solid system of banking, the alternative was, either that the Bank of England should establish branch banks throughout the country, or that power should be given to other parties to establish banks for them-
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selves. Now, if the establishment of either were likely to be ruinous to the existing establishments, which he denied, that ruin was equally inevitable, whichever side of the alternative was taken, whether the Bank of England was the agent for such branch establishments, or whether advantage was taken of the Bank of England withdrawing its privileges for the purpose of allowing others to establish banks, taking and absorbing the old banks, or coming into collision with them, if so it turned out; which he for one considered very unlikely. The country was in this situation, that one of these measures it must embrace—either it must permit the Bank of England to exercise its privilege of establishing branch banks all over the country—which would be equally fatal, if the competition of confidence and capital can be fatal, to the old establishments, with the creation of new banking corporations, —or, it must adopt the plan of his right hon. friend for taking advantage of the Bank of England's surrender of its privilege to establish new banks, on a wider basis, not so formidable as rivals as the Bank of England, nor possessing that quality of repulsion to existing establishments which it did—or, thirdly, the country must remain in its present situation, with a clear view of all the mischief resulting from its present insecure and insufficient system of banking. Between these three alternatives, if he might be permitted to use such a solecism, the House and the country had now to choose. As to the last of them, he believed that there would be no difference of opinion. The House seemed inclined to agree, that it was not that measure to which it would resort. As to the other two, it was clear that the latter—he meant that of incorporating more than six partners into each establishment—would, even on the principle avowed by the hon. gentleman himself, be more effectual for the purpose which it was intended to answer, would be established with the least shock, and would be best calculated to save the interest of existing establishments. It was impossible to discuss this subject without feeling it to be due to the Bank of England to say, in addition to the praises which had been bestowed on it with no niggard hand for its conduct in the administration of its affairs, that nothing became it more than the grace with which it had consented to strip itself of this part of its privileges. It was idle to say that the privilege was odious—it

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was idle to say that it was a monopoly: it might be both odious and a monopoly; still it was an inherent privilege of the establishment. By law they had it; and from the possession of it not even the boasted omnipotence of parliament could disturb them. It was an unfair view of human nature and of the principle of possession, to treat such a sacrifice with levity. Such a rare occurrence as the voluntary abandonment of a possession, which was not merely a grace or ornament, but was valuable as a source of profit, deserved the highest panegyric. The Bank of England might have kept it, because they had it—because the law had given it them—because no man could extort it from them. The Bank of England might have kept it in order to make a bargain with the public for some other consideration. The Bank of England might have kept it in order to prevent the rivalry of the country banks, which they might apprehend in those parts of England of which they had hitherto had the exclusive possession. They might have kept it without assigning any cause for so doing, except their own will; but they had yielded it up to the public for reasons which did them immortal honour. If they had yielded it unwillingly, their conduct was the more laudable; if willingly, still credit was their due, because they had studied the public interest first, and had seen that their own individual profit was ultimately involved in it. They had consented, for reasons with which the House had nothing to do, to a measure to which they had formerly refused their consent, unblameably he had no doubt. They had now done that which they had long been solicited to do; and having done it, his right hon. friend meant to draw from it an advantage—not unkindly, not ungenerously, not in a spirit of triumph over the Bank, as had been that evening suggested. He could assure the House that no such feeling existed in the breast of his right hon. friend, but that his right hon. friend was ready, upon all occasions, to render justice to the Bank, for the manner in which it had conducted this discussion, and also for the conclusion to which it had consented to bring it—An hon. gentleman who had spoken early in the debate, had made, among a variety of remarks, which he did not intend to notice at present, one which he could not allow to remain unnoticed. The hon. gentleman seemed
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to think, that ministers were extremely culpable for not discouraging the wild spirit of speculation which had contributed so much to the present distress, and that they were wanting in their duty, because, when the various schemes of last year were discussed, they did not attend in their places to give a detailed opposition to every one of them. Now, it appeared to him to be a convenient and seemly rule, that those whose duty it was, to attend to the public business of the country, should abstain from taking an active part in the consideration of any measure which merely affected individual interests. He would say for himself, that he had always endeavoured to act by that rule— that he had never given a vote on any private business since he had become a minister—and that he believed the same rule to have been followed by all his colleagues. It appeared to him, he repeated, that such was the safe and seemly rule of conduct; because, if he could reconcile it to his sense of duty to break through it in one instance, he might be induced to break through it in more; and a practice might thus grow up, from which many suspicions might arise, unjust and unfounded, as they would be at present, but still impossible to be entirely avoided. But, he would ask, had there been no warning given to the country on the part of ministers? Had there been no occasion, during the fever which existed last year in the public mind, in which the king's government had declared that they would not advance a farthing to the aid of any difficulties which might ensue from excessive speculation? He might now, as a matter of history, allude to what had occurred on a former occasion in another place. One of his majesty's ministers,—he meant his noble friend at the head of the Treasury—speaking as the organ of that department of the state, and also in his capacity as a member of the government, had taken an opportunity in March last, not many weeks after the commencement of the session, and before one single bill had passed, to hold out to all who were engaged in those speculations, that they were running wildly into them; that it was the essence of a free government not to interpose any legislative let or hindrance to the current of individual enterprise and industry; that those who entered wildly into extravagant speculations, did so upon their own risk and responsibility; and that it was

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the fixed resolution of his majesty's government not to extend any pecuniary assistance to the difficulties which were likely to arise out of them.* As far as the voice of government could be heard, it was heard through the country clearly and intelligibly, and the more clearly and the more intelligibly, because the declaration did not grow out of any measure in which the government took a part, but was fastened accidentally on a measure with which it had nothing to do, and was not therefore made to be treasured up for such a crisis as had now occurred, but to prevent its occurrence. Unfortunately, that warning had been disregarded: the difficulties which had been anticipated had subsequently arisen; and it was a little too hard that the government should now be taunted for a want of caution, on that very topic on which it had spoken so very explicitly. His majesty's ministers were aware that the present topic was that to which the minds of men were most intensely directed, and to which the consideration of parliament must naturally and inevitably be called, immediately after its assembling. There was no want of attention to that topic in the Speech which they had that night heard from the Throne. If the House measured it by its proportion to the whole Speech, hon. members would find that it occupied the greater part of it, and that it threw every other topic into the shade. It was felt by every member of the cabinet, that every person in the country was anxious to know how this great subject would be treated: and they had determined that the most manly mode of treating it would be, to treat it as the most urgent and important subject which parliament could have under its consideration.—He trusted it would be thought that he had now gone far enough in his observations upon this subject; because, if he went further, he must be carried into a wide field of observation, into which he had neither the inclination nor the power to enter at that moment. An hon. gentleman opposite, who had addressed them on the third bench, had left untouched no topic which had been agitated either during the last war or the present peace. [Mr. Hume observed, that he had not mentioned the last war.] If the hon. member had omitted to rip up the mea-
*See the Speech of the Earl of Liverpool vol. xii. p. 1194
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sures of the last war, he congratulated him upon it, as he would have the opportunity of coming back upon it on the first set speech he might make. But, as the hon. member would have a future opportunity, which he had no doubt he would embrace, of bringing all the subjects which he had that night mentioned regularly under their notice, he hoped he would not think him (Mr. Canning) disrespectful, if he passed by them at present without remark. The hon. member had told them, that the Speech of last year was contrary to the truth, and that the Speech of this year was inconsistent with fact. What nice metaphysical distinction there might be between "contrary to truth, "and "inconsistent with fact," he for one could not see. Perhaps the hon. member, as lord rector of a learned Scotch university, was gifted with acuter perception, and could enlighten the House upon this distinction without a difference. There were, however me propositions in the speech of the hen. member, upon which he should venture to retort the hon. member's own expressions. The hon. member said, that there had been no reduction of taxation since the war. This assertion he would venture to say was "contrary to the truth, "as all the world, with the exception of the hon. gentleman, knew that there had been a reduction of taxes to the amount of twenty-seven millions. The hon. member then proceeded to say, that although no reduction of taxation had taken place during the ten years since the war, the reductions during the last five years had been fewer than before; that was, in plain English, that they had been fewer than none. This assertion, therefore, he would venture to call "inconsistent with fact" [a laugh]. He took these assertions as fair specimens of the other topics in the hon. member's speech—topics, which he supposed were only mentioned by the hon. member, as preludes to future debates, on which, when they should arise, he would endeavour to set the hon. member as right with regard to his arguments, as he had now set him right with regard to his facts. One question had been asked him by an hon. and learned gentleman, to which he should take the present opportunity of giving an answer. The hon. and learned gentleman had asked him, whether the treaty between this country and Brazil had not been refused ratification? He entirely agreed with the hon.

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and learned gentleman as to the character of the stipulation to which he had made reference. Nothing could he more objectionable, or more impossible for his majesty's government to adopt. There were likewise other stipulations in that treaty to which he should be equally unwilling to give his assent. The fact was, that the treaty had been negociated without any instructions, and even contrary to the views which the English government entertained upon such subjects. Yet though it had been negociated without instructions, if it had been unexceptionable, it would have been ratified by this government; but objectionable as it now was, he had no hesitation in saying that it never had, and never would be ratified. He had only another observation to make before he concluded, and that was, that under the pressure now existing in the country, he could not think it advisable that the state of the Corn laws should be brought under consideration during the present session.
Mr. Calcraftcontended, that the distress under which the commercial world was now labouring had not been entirely occasioned by excessive speculation and over-trading. The government and the Bank, by contriving to beat down the rate of interest, had done far more mischief than the present system of country banks. "Why had nothing been said against the London banks? It was their stopping which had stopped the country banks, and the evil ought to be attributed to the right cause. He defended the country banks. From the great competition among them, it was mere matter of option whether a man took their notes or not. If he did not like them, he might take them to their banking-house and compel them to pay him in specie. What objection was there to this part of the system? Of the whole number of country banks, not one-tenth had stopped; and of those which had been compelled to suspend payment, many had paid, or would be enabled to pay all demands upon them. He would be the last man to allude unnecessarily to distresses which all must deplore; but when so much had been said respecting the failures of the banks, he might be permitted to remind the House that there had been other failures with which the country banks had no connexion, and which had been the occasion of infinitely greater distress, than all the country banks put together. The system which
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the Bank of England had adopted, of lending money on mortgages, and on the security of stock, was the beginning of the distress. When they found that, owing to the state of the money market, people could get money at so moderate a rate of interest, that the Bank could not make that profit by their notes to which they thought they were entitled, then it was that they placed themselves in competition with the other bankers who were lending money at a smaller discount. He did not wish to detract from the merit which was fairly due to the Bank, but he felt it his duty to animadvert thus freely upon what he took to be a principal cause of the existing distress.
The Chancellor of the Exchequersaid, that the hon. gentleman was mistaken if he imagined that he had recommended an issue of one pound notes as a remedy for the present distress. It would have been preposterous for him to do so; because he had already stated his belief, that the issue of one pound country bank notes had contributed to the existing evils; and this observation applied with equal force to the Bank of England.
Mr. Grenfellsaid, he felt it due to the Bank of England to say, that when the distress was at its height, the directors had come forward in the most liberal manner, and thrown themselves into the breach, to avert, as far as they could, the danger which threatened the country.
Mr. Baringsaid, that the chancellor of the Exchequer, in omitting to state at what time he intended to carry his measure into effect, had prevented the House from judging of its expediency. It would make a great difference whether it was to take effect within two years or within six months from this time. It could not be denied that the present state of the country was ominous. He had no hesitation in attributing that distress to the extent to which the circulation of paper money had been pushed about eighteen months ago, and for which the country banks, and, he was sorry to say, the Bank of England were answerable. He did not mean now to discuss at any length that responsibility; but as this was, in his opinion, the only part of the conduct of the Bank that was liable to animadversion, he thought it would be neither just nor prudent to withhold this observation. The Bank of England, by the facilities which they afforded, had been the authors of that dangerous redundancy of money, that

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gave rise to the wild speculations which some time ago abounded in every part of the country. The country banks had added to this redundancy in a much more mischievous manner. The Bank of England exercised a discretion as to the quantity of paper-money which it put out; but the very business of a country bank was to put out all the paper it could, and this, as every gentleman acquainted with country banks well knew, was their constant practice. On market-days they employed persons to go out, and not only to put out as much paper of their own as they could, but to withdraw from circulation all the paper of the Bank of England, and substitute for it their own. By these means the country was saturated with paper-money, and that redundancy produced, which had been the parent of the existing distress. And all this had been done without the least reference to the effect which it must naturally have upon the rate of exchanges, which, as persons acquainted with the nature of such things well knew, should be the regulation for the issues of paper-money. It would ill-become him to reflect with severity upon persons who had made adventurous speculations in commerce, because, if they were sins, he should perhaps have as much to answer for as any body; but, little as he was disposed to look too strictly at such hazardous undertakings, he must say, that neither in this, nor in any other country, had enterprises so rash and ridiculous entered the minds of men, as many of those which had been produced in London during the last year. It seemed as if all Bedlam had broken loose on the Royal Exchange. The same frantic spirit overran the country, and, like an epidemic disease, extended itself every where. He did not mean to say that this was not far beyond any such cause as the redundancy of money he had alluded to; but it was, nevertheless, true, that this fictitious surplus was the fuel by which the fire was fed. The greatest exertions were made by every body to get rid of their capital. The bankers in London, their agents in the country, and the customers of both, were actuated by the same universal desire to put out their money in whatever way they could. Then, all on a sudden, the very reverse of this system came into practice. A panic seized the public. Men would not part with their money on any terms, nor for any security, and the consequence was general distress. The
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extent to which that distress had reached was melancholy to the last degree. Persons of undoubted wealth and real capital were seen walking about the streets of London, not knowing whether they should be able to meet their engagements for the next day. It was impossible that any thing could be more liberal or sensible than the conduct of the Bank of England at this juncture; but the causes lay too deep to be removed by any thing that the Bank of England could do. Their assistance might, and did in a great measure, relieve the distress; but they could not cure it. The over-issue by the country banks was the main cause by which the distress had been so widely spread; and, as every body in the country was deeply concerned in the subject, he thought that the more this cause was investigated and explained, the more it would be likely to be remedied. If this crisis were allowed to pass without speaking the truth, it would be only laying the foundation for future evils. This feeling it was, that induced him to say what he had said respecting the Bank of England; and, while he bore testimony to the promptitude with which they did all in their power to alleviate the distress, he would censure them for the share which their conduct had had in producing it With respect to the remedy which was to be now applied, there must be in the first place great caution in the manner of its application. If his majesty's ministers should announce that they meant to draw in the powers of country bankers, every man who had capital invested in those banks would prepare for it by drawing out his capital, because he would not know how long he should be permitted to keep it on the same terms as at present. This made it also necessary that some further explanation should be given respecting the proposed measure. He did not mean to press for that explanation now; but he hoped that it would be afforded at some early opportunity. He had always considered the one-pound country bank notes as a great nuisance, and the cause of frequent distress. He thought that before the right hon. gentleman proceeded with the measure which he contemplated, he should be furnished with the exact amount to which the issues of these one-pound notes had arrived. This information would afford the greatest facility to parliament in dealing with so important a subject; and he would suggest, that a short bill should be passed

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calling upon bankers to make returns of the amount of all notes issued within the last three years. The reduction of these notes, necessary as it was, could not begin, until the present state of excitement had passed over. It would rather be wise in the parliament to afford to the country bankers every facility, as far as was prudent, in conducting their affairs. As a skilful surgeon, who was desirous of replacing a dislocated limb, would not apply his screws, however necessary that operation might be for the recovery of his patient, until the fever had passed, so in the present state of things, however desirable it might be that the system of issuing one-pound notes by the country bankers should be restrained, this was not the time in which this operation could be safely performed. The amount of those issues might be taken more or less correctly, at eighteen millions. These, it would be remembered, must be replaced by gold. It would not do to go to the Bank of England for notes to replace this sum; gold, and nothing but gold, could be substituted for it. He had heard frequent allusions made to the charter of the Bank of England, and to the terms on which it should be renewed, when the time should arrive for its renewal. He was of opinion that it was for the real benefit of the country that the highest legislative distinction should be given to the Bank, and that its dignity should at all events be kept up, investing it at the same time with only such power as might be thought safe; because it was evident, that it would be impossible, in the event of a war, to go on two campaigns without the assistance of the Bank; and, to make this assistance available, the means of the Bank must be considerably enlarged. The government could at no time take credit to itself for not having suspended the Bank payments, because this was to assume that it was at the option of government to do so. They could never either hasten or avoid that event. They might throw a cloak over it when it was about to fall, but they could do no more. The country must have some circulating medium. Nothing would induce the government to consent to paper being made that medium, 'but the failure of all the others; and this failure would be an inevitable act of bankruptcy. Whoever might be the chancellor of the Exchequer when that event should happen, must come down to the House with a long face, and, as
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the late Mr. Pitt did, say he was very sorry that the Bank had gone, but that the government and the currency of the country could not stand still. He hoped that we should long continue to live in peace; but he was not the less convinced that it would be impossible to get through two campaigns in a time of war, without this being the result—unless the Bank system should be built upon a much broader basis. Upon this subject he wished to draw the attention of the House to the marked difference between the individuals with whom that institution had to deal at the time of its commencement, and those who at present stood in the same relation to it. At the period he alluded to, the Bank stood like a sovereign surrounded by little dependencies; now, some of the persons who had dealings with it possessed of themselves capitals to an amount which then had never been heard of as being possessed by one man. Another alteration which he believed must of necessity be adopted, was to make the circulating medium here, as in other countries, silver as well as gold. Without this, the Bank even might be put in danger. There was a great quantity of silver sent to England from the Spanish colonies. This must now be sent over to France or Holland for the purpose of buying gold, which was then only an article of merchandize, subject to the same accidents as all other merchandize, sometimes to be obtained, and sometimes not, and which it was always in the power of speculators, if it should suit their purpose to prevent coming to this country at all. He did think, that, as to power, the Bank of England was a mere pigmy to what it was a few -years ago; and that something, therefore, ought to be done to renew and increase it. Unless, indeed, in this respect, and in regard to an improved standard, something of the kind he had mentioned were speedily adopted, they might all go to sleep, under the flattering impression that they had established something like a permanent currency; but some morning they would infallibly awake, and find that that season of alarming difficulty to which he had been adverting had at length really arrived He would say one word with respect to the proposition for establishing larger banks. Undoubtedly, the surrender of that part of the Bank charter, which was the present obstacle to their establishment, was very desirable, and would

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be a sacrifice which it would be the more creditable in the Bank to make, because men were never observed to part with power which they had long possessed, very willingly. But he confessed that he could not anticipate all the beneficial results which some hon. gentlemen seemed to expect from extending these banking partnerships. He, for one, did not imagine that country gentlemen would be fools enough to part with their money, in order that they might become the sleeping partners in such concerns. He trusted they would not be tempted to do any thing so ridiculous. He had seen too many instances of gentlemen who did not at all understand business engaging in it to their own prejudice, not to warn country gentlemen to beware how they allowed themselves to be persuaded to become country bankers. He had heard of the extraordinary faculty of some creatures sleeping with their eyes open. Such a quality should that man possess who became a dormant proprietor in any concern of importance. He should be a sleeping partner with his eyes open, to watch and scan the motions of those who were about him. If it was desirable to form banks in the great commercial towns, such as Manchester, Bristol, and York, which should be perfectly in possession of public confidence, it should be done either by the means of branch banks from the Bank of England—a plan which, however, from its interfering with the present provincial interests—might not prove very palatable—or they should, by an act of incorporation, allow a number of gentlemen to embark certain portions of their capital, say 10,000 l. in a joint banking company. That sum, from ten men, would be 100,000 l.; an amount, in his opinion, quite adequate to support the respectability of the ordinary run of such concerns. There were very few men of capital who would not, he apprehended, he induced, by the ordinary gains of such establishments, to become one of a company of such a kind as he had described; but no prudent man would or ought, after what had taken place in the last few months, risk his whole property by becoming a sleeping or acting partner in the ordinary mode. He was not prepared to say, that a rule, exempting the property of the individuals composing a company, from all liability beyond their subscribed capital, would be proper for the ordinary purposes of trade; but for banks, it was
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his fixed opinion, that, under all the circumstances, it would be found both to confer adequate respectability, and insure sufficient confidence. The object, however, which induced him to rise, was to warn ministers of the danger of tampering with that description of our public securities, and to implore them, in their consideration of the time for the adoption of their proposition, to reflect that security should be bestowed as soon as possible. One word as to the Silk trade. The right hon. gentleman had that night declared, that it was the firm determination of his majesty's ministers to adhere to the principles which had regulated their conduct with regard to that trade. That declaration had been received with considerable cheering; and be was not one of those who felt any disposition to find fault with the candour and firmness of that declaration, because he thought, that if such was the determination of government, the sooner it was known the better. The alterations which it had been deemed expedient by government to adopt in the trade, had undoubtedly produced a great deal of immediate misery. Those alterations he had given a decided opposition to on former occasions; and he was ready to acknowledge, not only that such opposition was overruled by a large majority of that House, but that he had found scarcely an individual to support him. He still remained firmly of opinion that France would beat us in this trade. Political economists said, "Very well; so much the better; if it be a trade that requires such large protections and indulgencies, the sooner it is got rid of, the better for the country." With gentlemen who reasoned in that way, he would not argue; for he could not look with indifference on the extinction of a long established manufacture, or on the inevitable misery of the many thousands which such a result would occasion. In alluding to that part of his Majesty's Speech which related to foreign affairs, he could not avoid expressing his unqualified admiration of the way in which the whole of the business of that department had been conducted; or abstain from giving utterance to his conviction, that however slow the right hon. Secretary might have been supposed in obeying the unanimous feeling of the country, with regard to the South American states of Portugal and Spain, still that the very slowness complained of had been the means of arriving at the

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surest possible conclusion. In the present artificial state of our circumstances, and when the right hon. gentleman (Mr. Huskisson) had been defeated in his views of reciprocal treaties with France and the continent, nothing could be more important to England, than the cultivation of our connections with the states of the New World; and nothing could be more conductive to that end, or more likely to give those relations permanence, than the firm, honourable, and candid declarations of the right hon. Secretary for Foreign Affairs. What he wished particularly to call to the attention of the House was, the treaty concluded between the Brazils and Portugal, under the mediation of this country; that treaty he took to be objectionable, in so far as that it was concluded between two contracting parties, separate at present, but likely at some period to become one; for, although there was an emperor in Brazil, and a king in Portugal, still there was no provision against the son succeeding his father upon the throne of Portugal. It appeared to him, therefore, that we had mixed ourselves up with an uncertain contingency, with a something which might, after all, be rendered nugatory by the amalgamation of the two contracting powers.
Mr. Huskissonsaid, that although he had listened to the observations of the hon. member for Taunton with all the attention so justly due to his profound commercial knowledge, and extensive experience, yet, as so many opportunities would occur for a better examination of the various topics touched upon in the course of his address on this occasion, he would not go further than to reiterate the determination expressed by his right hon. friend, of hot going into any details, until the House should be more fully in possession of the nature of the measures which it had been resolved at the present crisis to adopt. This much he might, however, say, that his right hon. friend would, at the earliest possible moment, submit his proposition for their consideration. The House would, he trusted, when any delay was complained of, recollect that it was only on the coming morning, when any plan of the House; adopted by the Bank directors, at the suggestion of his majesty's ministers, could be by them submitted to the approbation of the proprietors, whose trustees they were, and without whose sanction no measures could be resolved upon between government
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and the Bank. It was impossible, therefore, to lay any proposals before the House, until the directors had obtained that favourable decision from the proprietors, which was anticipated by them and the government. His right hon. friend had, however, stated very clearly that measures would be adopted, which, he trusted, would have the effect of preventing a recurrence of those disasters which had recently convulsed the commercial world. He agreed with his hon. friend, that no change of the currency was politic or safe that was not gradual; and that at a time when, if they hastily withdrew a large portion of the paper currency, they had not the means of supplying a substitute, such a principle was of still more consequence. It was not, therefore, the intention of his right hon. friend to propose the withdrawing of eighteen millions of paper from circulation, but only that portion of it which consisted of one and two pound notes, amounting to perhaps six or seven millions: but even with that amount it was his right hon. friend's intention to deal with caution and care; indeed, he proposed to allow those notes to wear themselves out, guarding, however, against the possibility of any fresh issues; a plan by which they would gradually disappear from circulation, without any sudden inconvenient limitation of the currency of the provincial towns. As to the period at which the change of the constitution of the country banks was to take place, by permission of the Bank of England, he did not see any great difficulty likely to arise from its happening in a short time. He, for one, did not understand that it was the intention of the Bank of England to establish great banking companies in districts of the country, but to allow any persons disposed to form a company of more than six partners to carry on the business of bankers within a certain distance of the metropolis. He could see no well-founded alarm, in the project of allowing any of the establishments which had held firm during the late pressure, to add an additional number of partners to the existing firm. In order, however, to give time to those most interested to look about them, it was thought desirable to specify a period, after the passing of the act, for the commencement of the new establishments. Six months, he thought would be sufficient to enable bankers to wind up their concerns in any old estab-

85
lishment, and to make their arrangements j for going into a new one. With regard to the services which had been rendered to the public by the Bank of England, there could only be one opinion. They had been important, liberal and seasonable; and, what was more, he firmly believed that, in saving others, the Bank had actually saved itself. One word more, upon a subject which had been described as a very alarming and astonishing circumstance: he meant the silk company. The truth was, that some time last year, a few persons, who thought that the cultivation of the mulberry tree and the propagation of the silk-worm might be successfully attempted in Ireland and the colonies, applied to government for its approbation of their plan. He (Mr. H.) had accordingly recommended a charter to be given to them; and after it had been granted, he was requested to become honorary president. It was at the same time asked both of him and of the noble earl at the head of the Treasury, what number of shares they should be willing to have at their disposal; a question to which both the noble lord and himself had replied, that what they had done was solely on the ground of public good, and that they neither expected nor wished to derive any private advantage from connecting themselves with the experiment.
Sir M. W. Ridleysuggested, that in order to carry into effect the intentions of government, a short bill should be passed to prevent new issues, as the one pound notes were not to be withdrawn till they were worn out. Many insinuations, he said, had been thrown out against the country bankers, which were as unfounded as they were unnecessary. That the country bankers had been the means of producing the commercial distress, he entirely denied. They had no power of over-issue; they were unable to raise a fictitious credit: they could not keep in circulation a single note longer than it was absolutely necessary. The Bank of England, when not required to pay in gold, could issue as many notes as they pleased; but the country bankers, who had always been obliged to pay in gold or Bank of England notes, were necessarily restrained from any over issue. The right hon. gentleman had made a calculation, as to the number of country notes in circulation. The best authority on that point was the Stamp office. He had estimated them at different periods at
86
three, five, and eight millions. The amount varied materially, as the public confidence was stronger or weaker in the Bank of England. When this confidence was diminished, then there was an increased circulation of country notes. As this confidence returned, the country notes gradually disappeared, and those of the Bank of England took their place. The great fault committed by the Bank of England was in taking upon itself the dead weight, and lending upon mortgages. If, instead of extending it had contracted its issues, the country would not be in its present state. The right hon. gentleman had said, that six months would afford sufficient time for the bankers to wind up their affairs. He was of opinion that the right hon. gentleman could not have meant this. Much had been said about the greater solidity of a banking establishment from the number of partners. For himself, he thought that that bank was the safest which had the fewest partners. Every man knew the state of his own affairs, but he could not be equally conversant with those of another person. With regard to the one-pound notes, it was possible that it might answer the purpose of a few bankers to put as many of them out as they could, and send them to markets and country towns, but this could only serve a temporary purpose. Every country banker who continued a forced circulation, would soon find himself in an unpleasant situation, if not in the list of bankrupts. It might appear wise in theory to contract the circulation of the one-pound notes, but if it were not carried in to execution with the greatest caution, the business of the country could not go on. It was a mistake to suppose that country bankers issued their notes solely with a view to profit. They issued them more with a view to the convenience of others.
Mr. Hudson Gurneysaid, he did not rise to object to any of the plans indicated by the chancellor of the Exchequer; but, he could not let the debate close, without remarking, that the right hon. gentleman, and all those who had followed him, utterly blinked the main question, which was intirely a question of prices. Mr. Gurney said, he had always disliked the bankers' circulation, and particularly detested their one pound notes. He had always been convinced, that it was their circulation, that was, their bidding against each other in credits, which had reduced the banking business to the minimum of

87
profit on the operations performed: and, if the right hon. gentleman could place the circulation of the country on a better footing, there was no class which would be so greatly benefitted as the bankers themselves. But how the proposed changes could be carried into effect, and golden sovereigns at 3l 17 s. 10½f. an ounce could be substituted for the present paper issues, was to him totally incomprehensible. The very endeavour to do it (for it never had been effected) occasioned all the pressure of 1821–2; and, under the existing mass of public and private engagement, if that substitution could be accomplished, it would occasion a greater and more general ruin, than had ever been witnessed in this or perhaps any other country.
Mr. Denmansaid, he did not mean to question the conduct of the Bank of England, nor the justice of the high eulogium passed upon it. The directors had a duty to perform towards the proprietors; but as far as the public were concerned, he did not conceive that they, more than any private bankers, were bound to consult the public interest. The interests of the proprietors alone they were bound to promote, when they did not interfere with the rights of others. The hon. member, as the organ of that powerful establishment, in giving the reason why it wished for a change in its charter, had thought fit to eulogise it, and said that every thing was right and proper. He had lauded their judgment, liberality, and promptitude. This reminded him of the epigram of Prior—
"To John I ow'd great obligation,
But John unluckily thought fit
To publish it to all the nation,
So John and I are more than quit."
The balance had been fairly struck; whatever good had been done by the Bank had been more than acknowledged. He did not agree with the right hon. gentleman opposite, that parliament could not interfere with the Bank. Nothing could be more simple than to limit their issues; nothing more easy. He admitted, that nothing could be more clear and satisfactory than the explanation of his measures by the right hon. gentleman; but he should not do his duty to his constituents, if he did not express his disappointment, that not a word had been said on the Corn laws. On this important subject not a word had been said by the king's ministers except that one right hon. gentleman had said, that they did not
88
mean to proceed with the subject this session. While the principles of free trade were acted upon with regard to those articles which administered to the comfort and luxury of the rich, was it dealing fairly with the poor man to withhold the same benefit from him, and to uphold the price of the chief article of his subsistence? This could not continue without bringing misery and desolation among thousands and hundreds of thousands. There was an amount of distress among the people, of which ministers were by no means aware. In a multitude of pursuits the best workman in full employment could not earn more than six, seven, or eight shillings a week. How was he to support and clothe himself and family out of this wretched pittance? Foreign manufactures were now allowed to compete with us in our markets at home, while we were shut out from the possibility of entering into competition with them abroad, by the high price which the landlords exacted from the poor man for his bread. Upon this subject they would assuredly hear much more in the course of the session. Delay would not lessen the urgency of its demands on the consideration of the House; for attention would, by and by, be forced to it by the cries of perishing thousands. He did not quarrel with the principle of a free trade; he only objected to its partial application. He did not blame ministers for repealing prohibitory laws; but, he contended that while a free trade was allowed in minor articles, it should be extended to the most important article of life, bread. There was another important part of the Speech which related to the circulating medium, and from which much of the present distress was stated to have arisen. In this he could not agree. He saw no difference between the issuing of one and two pound notes, and ten pound notes, so long as there was no compulsion to take them. The amount of the note made no difference, unless that, when the misfortune came, it fell upon those who were least able to bear it. From the view taken of it by some hon. members, the cause of the present distress appeared to be a subject of mystery, and the Speech from the throne did not account for the existence of the evil, nor did it point out a remedy. After telling them, that the country had been visited with a panic, it stated that there was nothing to account for it. There was no war, no great de-

89
mands on the resources of the country. Mo sudden desolation had swept its ravages over the land. These very circumstances, this apparent want of all cause for this distress, was, to him, most alarming. It was not, however, so difficult to account for it. That detestable measure, which released the Bank from the necessity of keeping its engagements, was the root of the evil. With those who, in 1819, attempted to apply a remedy for its removal, by a repeal of the Bank Restriction act, and a return to cash payments, he had agreed; but its utility had been destroyed, by adding at the same moment three millions to the burdens of the people. If, when that act. was repealed, a reduction instead of an increase of taxes had taken place, the remedy would have been effectual, and the country would not now have been overwhelmed with distress. The only remedy for the present evil was, the most rigid economy. He could not help sighing after every guinea which, wantoning, like the man in the fable, over their dreams of false prosperity, they had lavished upon every extravagant proposition submitted to them. He sighed after the grant to the duke of Cumberland, the increase of the judges' salaries, for which there was no necessity, the two millions given to build new churches, of which there was no want, and that at a time when taxation was weighing down the energies of the country. Permanent relief was to be obtained only by a reduction of taxes. Ministers must not be satisfied with reducing by little and little: they must remove the evil by a large and substantial reduction. The people said, and naturally, "if you, by imposing a large amount of taxes, raise the price of bread, we must go to the parish, and then you must support us." Government should recollect, that the security of property depended upon lowering the price of this necessary of life. When paupers increased, and parishes were largely burdened, the less secure did property become. He repeated, that the matter would not be allowed to sleep. Humble but earnest petitions would be presented to them, entreating them, that while laws are made to administer to the comforts of the rich, those should not be allowed to continue which visited the poor with ruin and beggary.
Mr. Alderman Woodsaid, he had a word to offer upon the sufferings of his constituents, than whom there were not a
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more industrious people in the empire. His majesty out of his generous feeling, had given them large relief; but, large as it was, it did not amount to the receipts of one week in a time of employmen. It was impossible that they could compete with the foreign manufacturer, while two-thirds of the value of the article consisted in labour. Repeal the Corn laws, give the country a free trade in that article, and put the labourer on an equal footing of taxation with other countries, and they would be able to meet all foreign competition.
The Address was then agreed to.

THE KING'S SPEECH ON OPENING THE SESSION.
This day the Session was opened by Commission. The place of Lord Chancellor Eldon was, in consequence of indisposition, supplied by lord Gifford. The other commissioners were the earls of Westmorland, Harrowby, and Shaftesbury. The deputy usher of the black rod having been ordered to require the attendance of the House of Commons, he withdrew. In a few minutes after, the Speaker, accompanied by a considerable number of members, having appeared at the bar, lord Gifford opened the session, with the following Speech to both Houses:—
"My Lords and Gentlemen,
"We are commanded by his Majesty to inform you, that his Majesty has seen with regret the embarrassment which has occurred in the pecuniary transactions of the country, since the close of the last session of parliament.
"This embarrassment did not arise from any political events, either at home or abroad: it was not produced by any unexpected demand upon the public resources; nor by the apprehension of any interruption to the general tranquillity.
"Some of the causes to which this evil must be attributed, lie without the reach of direct parliamentary interposition; nor can security against the recurrence of them be found, unless in the experience
2
of the sufferings which they have occasioned.
"But, to a certain portion of this evil, correctives at least, if not effectual remedies, may be applied; and his Majesty relies upon your wisdom to devise such measures as may tend to protect both private and public interests against the like sudden and violent fluctuations, by placing on a more firm foundation the Currency and circulating Credit of the country.
"His Majesty continues to receive from his Allies, and generally from all Foreign princes and states, the strongest assurances of their friendly disposition towards his Majesty. His Majesty, on his part, is constant and unwearied in his endeavours to reconcile conflicting interests, and to recommend and cultivate peace both in the Old world and in the New.
"His Majesty commands us to inform you, that, in pursuance of this policy, his Majesty's mediation has been successfully employed in the conclusion of a treaty between the crowns of Portugal and Brazil, by which the relations of friendly intercourse, long interrupted between two kindred nations, have been restored; and the independence of the Brazilian empire has been formally acknowledged.
"His Majesty loses no opportunity of giving effect to the principles of trade and navigation, which have received the sanction of Parliament, and of establishing

3
them as far as possible, by engagements with foreign powers.
"His Majesty has directed to be laid before you, a copy of a Convention, framed on these principles, which has recently been concluded between his Majesty and the king of France; and of a similar Convention, with the free Hanseatic cities of Lubec, Bremen, and Hamburgh.
"His Majesty has likewise directed to be laid before you a copy of a Treaty of Amity, Commerce, and Navigation, concluded between his Majesty and the Republic of Colombia, the ratifications of which have been exchanged since the close of the last Session. For the carrying into effect some of the stipulations of this treaty, his Majesty will have need of your assistance.
"His Majesty regrets that he has not to announce to you the termination of hostilities in India: but the operations of the last campaign, through the bravery of the forces of his Majesty, and of the East India Company, and the skill and per. severance of their commanders, have been attended with uniform success, and his Majesty trusts that a continuance of the name exertions may lead, at no distant period, to an honourable and satisfactory pacification.
"His Majesty's attention has been directed to the consideration of several measures, recommended in the last Session of Parliament, for improving the condition of Ireland.
"The industry of that part of the United Kingdom, his Majesty has the satisfaction of acquainting you, is in a course of gradual and general advancemhent—an advancement mainly to be attributed to that state of tranquillity which now happily prevails throughout all the provinces of Ireland.
"Gentlemen of the House of Commons.
"His Majesty has directed the estimates for the year to be prepared and laid before you.
"They have been framed with an anxious desire to avoid every Expenditure
4
beyond what the necessary demands of the public service may require.
"His Majesty has the satisfaction of informing you, that the produce of the Revenue, in the last year, has fully justified the expectations entertained at the commencement of it.
"My Lords and Gentlemen,
"His Majesty deeply laments the injurious effects which the late pecuniary crisis must have entailed upon many branches of the commerce and manufactures of the United Kingdom.
"But his Majesty confidently believes that the temporary check which commerce and manufactures may at this moment experience, will, under the blessing of Divine Providence, neither impair the great sources of our wealth, nor impede the growth of national prosperity."
The Commons then withdrew. After which, the Speech being again read by lord Gifford, and also by the Clerk at the table,
The Earl of Verulamrose, to move an address to his Majesty, in reply to his most gracious Speech. The noble earl observed, that the Speech from the throne explained to their lordships the political situation of the country, and that it was usual for those who rose for the purpose of proposing to their lordships an address in reply to the royal Speech, to notice the principal topics which it embraced. He did not intend, however, to go into minute details. On all material points, the state of the nation afforded sufficient grounds for congratulation. Whatever unfavourable circumstances he had to notice, were of a temporary nature. He had no series of national calamities to deplore, no protracted war to lament. In general, he had only to call their lordships' attention to the fortunate situation of the country: but it was not to be expected that there would be no disagreeable feature in the picture. "Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards;" and their lordships were aware that every state of things was liable to uncertainty and change. Accordingly, the first topic of the Speech, related to the late extraordinary and unexpected panic, which had occurred in the pecuniary transactions of the country. It was the more unexpected, because it had occurred at a moment when the

5
prosperity of the country appeared at its height, and when money abounded to an uncommon extent. This singular embarrassment had not, as was observed in the King's Speech, its origin in any political events. It seemed easy to obtain money for any purpose, and the most extravagant speculations were entered into. He believed it was the difficulty which capitalists experienced in obtaining an adequate interest for their money, which had led to the wild speculations which had taken place—speculations so wild, that it seemed as if the persons engaged in them were indifferent whether they should sink or swim. This over-speculation was the main cause of the distress which had been felt in the commercial world; but it was one which would cure itself, and which, therefore, ought not to be the object of parliamentary interposition. For the consideration of other circumstances connected with the late pecuniary embarrassments, opportunities would arise, and he was confident the evils were not irremediable. His Majesty stated, that he relied upon parliament for the adoption of measures calculated to protect the public against sudden and violent fluctuations; and he hoped their lordships would soon proceed to the consideration of the important subject. The way in which the panic had been met by merchants, bankers, and individuals of property, was a circumstance of great congratulation, and must induce their lordships to turn their attention to the great object recommended by his Majesty; namely, the placing the credit of the country on a more firm foundation. It was to be hoped that adventurers and speculators would take, warning from the past, and in future be guided by wisdom and moderation in their schemes. Their lordships would perceive from his Majesty's Speech that the termination of hostilities in India could not be announced. The war in that quarter of the world had been undertaken to maintain the national character. The military operations had hitherto been attended with success. The war had not for its object any extension of our empire in India; its only purpose was to obtain a secure and honourable peace. Their lordships would readily concur with him in congratulating his Majesty on another part of his Speech, which related to foreign affairs. He alluded to that part
6
in which his Majesty informed parliament, that he continued to receive from his allies, and generally from all foreign powers, assurances of a friendly disposition. The noble earl concluded by calling their lordships' attention to the last paragraph of his Majesty's Speech, which, he said, stated his own sentiments with respect to the late embarrassments, in the conviction it expressed, that the temporary check which our commerce and manufactures might at this moment experience would, under the blessing of Divine Providence, neither impair the great sources of our wealth, nor impede the growth of national prosperity. He then moved an Address, which was, as usual, an echo of the Speech from the throne.
Lord Sheffield,in rising to second the Address, said it was not necessary for him to trespass on their lordships' indulgence at any great length, after the able manner in which his noble friend had brought forward the motion. He must, however, beg leave to make a few observations. It appeared to him, that the late pecuniary distress had arisen out of the peace and prosperity of the country, which, by creating a great accumulation of capital, induced persons to speculate to excess. The distress, however, was by no means general, and he congratulated their lordships that in all the manufacturing districts the spirit of combination among the working classes had entirely disappeared, and they had now returned to their usual habits of peaceful industry. He also congratulated their lordships, that the agricultural interest had met with no material cheek by the recent difficulties. Among the topics contained in the Speech there were many on which he might congratulate their lordships in common with his noble friend. It was highly gratifying to find that Colombia had finally established her independence, and that we had entered into friendly relations with that state, as well as with others in the same hemisphere. As to the war in India, it was well known that the principles on which it was carried on were sanctioned by the highest authorities in this country. With respect to that part of the Speech which adverted to the improved state of Ireland, he rejoiced to find that the measures introduced last session had been found effectual in reference to the administration of justice, education, and general

7
improvement. The best proof of the efficacy of those measures was to be found in the tranquillity that now prevailed throughout every part of Ireland. Having thus briefly expressed his sentiments, he should sit down in the confident hope that their lordships would not hesitate to agree to the Address.
Lord Kingsaid, that the noble mover and seconder of the Address had both mentioned the present embarrassments, but he did not find that either of them had said a word on the causes which led to them. He would endeavour to supply the omission. The causes were, in some degree, to be attributed to the government; in a greater degree, to the country banks; and in a still greater degree to the Bank of England monopoly. He would tell their lordships how the government caused this mischief. It had prolonged the existence of the one and two pound notes. It had passed a law to allow of country banks issuing them. The measure permitting this was the measure of ministers. As far as the present evil arose from the bankers issuing such notes, to this degree it had been caused by his Majesty's government. There was also a strong tendency in the measures of ministers to reduce the rate of interest; and for this purpose, the one and two pound note bill had been passed. They had reduced the rate of interest on Exchequer bills, in order to promote a great future reduction of interest. Their conduct reminded him of the memorable speech of a memorable ex-chancellor of the Exchequer, in which that noble lord had stated, that it would be no benefit, if every individual, when he awoke in the morning, found a guinea in his pocket; but it would be a great benefit if he found the rate of interest reduced when he awoke. Such was the sentiment of the accredited organ of government, and ministers now seemed to think that it was no benefit that wealth should be spread abroad amongst all the people, but a great benefit that it should be collected into heaps. The ex-chancellor would be a proper organ for the projectors of last year, who removed the useless guinea out of the people's pocket, and supplied its place by receipts for stock or scrip for loans. He would recommend the people, as the proper use of such paper, to subscribe it to build a monument to this ex-chancellor of the Exchequer. He had said, that the Bank of England had contributed to the dis-
8
tress; and he did not know any period of distress for the last thirty or fifty years, in which the conduct of that establishment had not been injurious. Let their lordships look back, and they would find that the conduct of the Bank of England had, in every case, aggravated the distress by its conduct. It was a most faulty machine. It was impossible that a Bank so incorporated could do good. If their lordships were to set about erecting an establishment to do mischief, they would erect it on the very principles which governed that corporation; they would give it a monopoly, remove from it all fear of rivalry, and they would connect it with the government. The directors had no interest in the profit or loss of the concern; they had neither hopes nor fears for the result of their conduct; they had no interest in managing it well, but they had a strong interest in mismanaging it. The machine was altogether too vast to be well conducted; and this appeared to him one of the strongest reasons which could be urged for putting an end to the monopoly. The Bank, it might be supposed, had not produced the late crisis; but he contended that it was art and part in the whole. It had increased the issues of Bank notes at the beginning of last year. He did not say this on his own authority, but on the authority of the best-informed merchants in the city of London. Mr. Tooke had stated, in a book which well deserved their lordships' attention, that the issues of the Bank of England amounted, in April, 1823, to 17,750,473 l.; in April, 1824,19,011,575 l.; and in April, 1825, to 20,881,123 l. This was a very considerable increase, amounting, as stated by Mr. Tooke, in the year 1825, to an increase, in the Bank circulation, of three millions, as compared with the issue of 1823. He could not better express the effect this had had on the country than in the words of the author—" Speculative operations, embracing so many commodities of great importance, in point of amount, necessarily created a large mass of paper, and of transactions on" mere credit, thus adding to a circulation already swelled by the increase of country bank notes. Such were the circumstances under which the Bank of England issued, and for some months maintained in circulation, an increased amount of its notes. Although this increased issue by the Bank did not alone cause the great additional excite-

9
ment of the spirit of speculation which followed it, yet it gave a fresh and powerful stimulant to that spirit, and assisted in converting incipient delusion into absolute insanity." The noble earl opposite was willing, he believed, to control the conduct of the Bank, but he had found the Bank too strong for him. The noble earl also had been willing to prevent the issue of the one and two pound Bank notes, but he had found the country bankers and the country gentlemen too strong for him. They wanted these notes to keep up prices and encourage speculation. The noble earl was not strong enough for these gentlemen; and he was afraid he would not be strong enough to carry the measure which he had talked of last session for revising the Corn laws. The noble earl had then stated distinctly, that he meant, this session, to revise the Corn laws; and he should like to know if he really meant to do any thing on the subject of those laws? [The earl of Liverpool stated, across the table, that he would answer that question by and by]. He was afraid, from the looks of the noble earl, that nothing was to be done this session with the Corn laws. The noble earl was probably afraid of again meeting with such a signal defeat as he had met with last year on the Canada Corn bill. That defeat was a disgrace which could never be wiped out. The measure was a measure of government; it had passed the Commons, and was brought up to their lordships. Then came down a noble earl to oppose it. The noble earl opposite had implored him to allow it to pass for a year and a half. No; it could not be. For a year, then; and a year was granted to the government. This was the most disgraceful proceeding he had ever witnessed. Let their lordships only suppose a lord A, or a lord B, opposing a ministerial measure brought up from the other House, under the ministry of Mr. Pitt orlord Grenville; —the thing was impossible. It reminded him of Charles 2nd complaining to the Dutch ambassador, that his government was not treated with the same respect by the Dutch as that of Cromwell:—"Your majesty must recollect," replied the ambassador, "that Cromwell was a very different sort of a man." So, if the ministers were to remind noble lords of the way in which they conducted themselves towards Mr. Pitt or lord Grenville, the reply might be, "but you are very dif-
10
ferent sort of men." He feared the country could have no hopes of seeing any alteration in the Corn laws this session. If that were so, he was persuaded that nothing but discussion, repeated discussion, could produce any good; and he was resolved on every occasion to express his opinion on this most detestable law. It was the most gigantic job ever practised. It was difficult to say which was greatest, the unfeeling avarice which suggested it, or the bold impudence which stated that it was for the public good. It was the most enormous job ever heard of in the whole history of misrule. The West India job only made us pay more for our sugar. The East India job, when Leadenhall-street was in the fulness of its power, and monopolized all the trade beyond the Cape of Good Hope, without a rival, was in comparison nothing to the job of the Corn laws. Many references had of late been made to that branch of the legitimate house of Bourbon which ruled in Spain, and which had been held up as the most foolish of all God's vicegerents on earth; but what had they done equal in folly to our Corn laws? They had given to one man the monopoly of the trade of Buenos Ayres; they might have given to one city the monopoly of all the trade of Mexico and Peru, but the Spanish monarchs, who were held up as a sort of scare-crows to bad governments, and were of more use dead than living, had granted no monopoly half so monstrous or half so mischievous as the monopoly of food. This was a job of the landed interest; and he would repeat, that it was the most gigantic job to be found in the whole history of misrule. It was not possible the Corn laws should be continued. Both justice and policy required their repeal. He believed that to be the only assembly on the face of the earth in which it was necessary to prove the advantages of cheap food. Their lordships were sharp-sighted enough on some occasions, and had speedily perceived the necessity of a law to punish those who broke machines. But why were the breakers of machines to be put down? because machines saved labour. All our wealth, all our productive power, depended on the employment of machines; and if they were valuable, how was it that cheap food was an injury? If food was cheap, labour was cheap. But the Corn laws compelled us to have recourse

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to more labour to produce food. This must be the case while we were obliged to cultivate bad soils, when we might obtain food from good soils; and the Corn laws ought to be put down like machine breakers. It was stated by some that the difference of prices was so great upon the continent, as compared with this country, that ruin must be the consequence of allowing an unrestricted importation to take place. But he would deny the fact. If they could show him that there was a considerable difference in the prices, which he did not believe, then he would say, that in proportion as the landholder gained, the consumer lost, and that by persisting in restrictive measures, in order to keep up the price, they proclaimed their own avarice and injustice. Their lordships were all aware, that that celebrated voyager, Mr. Lemuel Gulliver, on giving an account of that august assembly to the king of Brogdignag, had told him that they were always occupied for the good of the country. Now if, instead of such an account he had informed him that they were always occupied in contriving to keep up the price of corn, then indeed his majesty's answer would have been a just one, when he observed, that we were the most contemptible race of little reptiles, and our rulers the most selfish and unjust. As to the prosperity of the country, he believed the one thing needful with respect to it was a revision of the Corn laws. Indeed, he felt the conviction of its necessity so strongly, that he felt himself bound to move an amendment, expressive of an opinion to that effect. His lordship, accordingly, concluded with an Amendment, pledging the House to take into consideration, at an early period, the propriety of revising the Corn laws, as the best means of securing the prosperity of the country.
Earl Grosvenorsaid, that although the subject was one of the utmost importance, still he was not at present prepared to go so far as his noble friend who spoke last. However desirable it might be to agitate the question at some future period, he could not at present support the amendment. His object in rising was, to say a few words in reference to the Speech from the throne. He must, however, premise, that he felt much regret that his Majesty was not able to attend in person, for the purpose of opening the session. He feared the circumstance
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arose from indisposition; if so, he should greatly regret it. It could not, however, have been very agreeable to his Majesty, to deliver a Speech, which necessarily made allusion to a state of things, not the most agreeable. It certainly was very different from those which they had been of late years in the habit of hearing. Enough, however, was held out to encourage hope, and there were some points touched upon with an expression of satisfaction. Indeed, there was generally upon such occasions too great a disposition to introduce topics of congratulation, in place of pointing out the real state of the country. Such a speech as that which their lordships had just heard from the throne, was much more creditable to ministers, than one of empty congratulation. There were some points in it to which he was desirous to advert. In the first place, his Majesty recommended that the circulating currency of the country should be placed on a more firm foundation. Now, he could not see how-it could be put on a more firm foundation than that on which, by law, it stood at present. They were thus led to believe, that some legislative measure was to be introduced on the subject, or something done towards relieving the present distresses. It would be highly satisfactory if they were made acquainted with the nature of the measures which ministers had in contemplation. There was another point to which he must advert. His Majesty informed them, that the revenue fully justified the expectations that were formed of it last session. This, as it appeared to him, required some explanation. All they knew at present was, that there was an actual deficiency of revenue in the present year, as compared with the last. How, then, was the passage in his Majesty's Speech to be explained? Perhaps ministers did not anticipate a larger revenue than that actually received, and would account for the deficiency by the duties that had been taken off last session; or perhaps, having foreseen the difficulties that had arisen in the money market, they, in consequence, calculated upon some deficiency in the revenue. He saw no other means in which the passage in the Speech could be explained. The impression on his mind, produced by all that had lately taken place, was, that to relieve the country from its difficulties, they must have recourse to that economical system which he had for so many

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years been ineffectually recommending. Whether the present embarrassments arose from over-trading, an over-issue of paper, or any other cause, he knew not; but of this there was no doubt, that the revenue had decreased. The same causes might recur again, and the same consequence follow. The only way of guarding against such an inconvenience was by a system of retrenchment and economy. By no other means could the country ever hope to see an efficient sinking fund. Had they commenced upon a principle of retrenchment ten years back, and acted upon it steadily, how different would the state of the country now be! Instead of a sinking fund of 5,000,000 l., it might have been eight, ten, or even twelve millions; and thus would not only a great part of the interest of the public debt have been got rid of, but a considerable part of the principal. There was not a single branch of their expenditure in which retrenchment should not have been introduced long ago; but the largest reductions should have been made in the standing army. There was no reason on earth, why the army should not have been greatly reduced, as had been the case on the termination of all former wars. This was also most important in a constitutional point of view. What was this large army wanted for? At one time, the cause assigned was the existence of a party called the radicals. But, did their lordships not recollect the events that took place at Manchester? There a more numerous body than had, perhaps, ever assembled upon any former occasion, met together. They created considerable alarm; but, formidable as they appeared, they were dispersed by a handful of yeomanry. Was not this a sufficient proof that the peace of the country might be preserved without such a large and unconstitutional army as the country was called upon to support? Had we husbanded our resources, how much better able should we now be to meet the expenses of the disastrous war in India. He did not know to whose counsels that war was to be attributed, but this he would say, that they had much to answer for, unless they could shew clearly, that it was founded on necessity and justice. Then, with regard to Ireland. Those had much to answer for who refused to concur in a measure which would have effectually secured the peace of that unhappy country, and rendered a large military force
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unnecessary. How was it possible, while the great bulk of the population were kept in their present state of exclusion, that there could be tranquillity or content? He rejoiced, however, at the prospect of any measures that might tend to better the condition of that country. But, nothing could be permanently advantageous, until the Catholics participated in all the constitutional privileges of their fellow subjects. This being once done, they might safely draw off the immense standing army which they now found it necessary to maintain for the purpose of overawing the people. Though not prepared to support the amendment of his noble friend, he had felt it his duty to throw out these few observations.
Lord Teynhamsaid, he should oppose the amendment. With respect to the Corn laws, it should be recollected that the country was at present in an artificial state; that we were subject to an enormous taxation; and that while such was the case, it was not to be expected that the grower of corn here could compete with the foreign grower upon any thing like equal terms. The agricultural interest had been always anxious to lighten the distresses of the other classes of the community. The difficulties of the present time did not arise from the corn laws, but were mainly to be attributed to that spirit of ruinous speculation which had unfortunately taken possession of the country. He did not see how the present military establishment could be reduced, consistently with the best interests of the country. He trusted that, in conformity with the suggestion thrown out in the Speech from the throne, such measures would be adopted as would prevent the recurrence of the difficulties which had lately been experienced in the money-market.
The Marquis of Lansdownsaid, he did not rise for the purpose of at present discussing the unfortunate topic which formed so prominent a part of the Speech from the throne, for it would be impossible for the House to enter upon that topic, without having received any information respecting the nature of the views and intentions of his Majesty's government. It was a subject upon which he could not say any thing, without saying a great deal; he would not, therefore, now attempt to inquire how far that measure would be obliged to receive re-consideration, which authorized the issuing of 1l. and2 l. notes;

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how far the present embarrassments were owing to that measure, to the other laws relating to banks, and to the monopoly of the Bank of England; or how far any of these causes had produced the evil now admitted to exist. All he meant to do at present was, to claim a complete reserve on the part of himself and of the House, as to their opinion respecting the possibility of the application of any corrective, or of that in particular which seemed to be contemplated by the king's government. He did not even wish to call on the noble earl opposite to state more particularly at present the nature of his proposed corrective, because he did not think that the address pledged the House to any thing upon that subject. The case was the same with respect to the Corn laws. Not that he did not think it would be incumbent on their lordships, and the members of the other House of parliament, to express their distinct opinion upon these subjects; but that they were not called on to do so in the absence of that information which he believed his majesty's government had been endeavouring to procure. The same observation applied to the state of the currency, as well as of prices in this country, because he believed it would be impossible to separate these questions from each other, and also from the question of free trade. Having said this, he trusted he had said enough to preclude himself, and he hoped others, from entering upon the discussion of these topics at present, leaving it to the noble earl, if so disposed, but not at all pressing him, to state more particularly the nature of his intentions upon the subject; and also whether he had any measure in view respecting the state of Ireland.
The Earl of Liverpoolsaid, that he did not feel himself warranted in intruding on the attention of the House for the purpose of entering into a discussion upon the several very important topics which naturally grew out of the Speech from the throne, and which undoubtedly involved questions of the greatest political interest. After the statement made by the noble marquis, be certainly did not conceive himself called upon to enter upon the consideration of those important points on the present occasion. At the same time he considered it necessary, with respect to a question of so much political interest, that he should use no reserve—not as to details, for it would be impossible to treat of them with effect at that moment—but
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as to the general nature of the measures which it might be the disposition of government to propose. He would therefore trouble their lordships with a very short statement. In the first place, however, he would call their attention to this circumstance, that the convulsions in the pecuniary transactions of the country were not unexpected by him or by other members of his majesty's government. Their lordships might recollect that in March last, he would not say he took, he created almost, an occasion of stating to their lordships what, sooner or later, would be the effect of the rash spirit of speculation which then existed in the country, and of giving notice, in a few words, to their lordships and the country, that if the consequences which he predicted did arise, the relief which had been applied on former occasions would not again be applied to meet the new evil. He had given that warning, in anticipation of what was to come. He had told those persons who, by rash speculation, might become involved in distress and ruin, that they must abide by the consequences of their own acts, and that they would have no right to expect from government and parliament that relief which had been afforded on some former occasions. A noble baron had adverted to what he conceived to be the causes of the recent events. When the proper opportunity arrived, he would not be disposed to avoid discussion on that point. There was one cause, however, so prominent and so great in magnitude, that even if he were disposed to allow that other circumstances might have acted in the way of aggravation, yet this cause was so complete in itself, that it was sufficient to account for all that had happened. Their lordships knew the general spirit of mad speculation which had prevailed in the country during the last two years, and they would at the same time recollect his having stated, on the occasion to which he had before referred, that that spirit was not confined to the metropolis alone, but was extending itself all over the country through the medium of the country banks. It must be evident that, from the peculiar nature of the circulation of country bank notes, it was extremely difficult to state precisely what was the amount of that circulation at any particular period. But there was a document which showed the progressive state of the country banks' circulation with sufficient accuracy to serve the purposes of general reasoning. All

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country bank notes required to be stamped; and therefore parliament had it in its power to call for a return of the number stamped for each banker. Now, it appeared from a return, which would be laid on their lordships' table, that in the years 1821, 1822, and 1823, the average number of notes stamped in each year was four millions and one or two hundred thousand. He spoke of their value, not of their numerical amount. The difference between particular years within that period, never amounted to more than one or two hundred thousand pounds—a difference which might easily be accounted for by incidental circumstances. In 1824, when the spirit of mad speculation to which he had referred first began to prevail, the amount of country bank notes increased to about 6,000,000 l.; and, in 1825, it increased to more than 8,000,000 l., being double what it was in 1821, 1822, and 1823. Was it not sufficient to state that fact to their lordships, to account completely for all the evil effects of over-trading and rash speculation upon the general interests of the country? He did not deny that, during the same period, there had been some increase of the Bank of England paper; but it bore no proportion whatever to the increase in the general circulation of the country banks. The noble lord who commenced the debate had accused ministers of having participated in causing the existing embarrassments, by endeavouring to lower the rate of interest. If ministers had introduced any forced measures which could operate to lower the rate of interest, such conduct would have been highly blameable; but he denied that ministers had done any thing of the kind. What were the facts? There was a rise in the price of public securities, and a lower rate of interest, the consequences of continued peace and the prosperous state of the country. Government would have been highly reproachable, if they had not taken advantage of those favourable circumstances, in order to reduce the burthens of the people. By the measures which they adopted, they had been able to take off 1,800,000 l. of taxes, and to reduce the interest of the national debt, in the first instance to the extent of 1,400,000 l. and subsequently of 150,000 l. a year.—He had very shortly stated these points, because he might have occasion hereafter to go more into detail, when it would be his duty to endeavour, in some degree, to point out a remedy for the present state
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of things. He agreed with that part of his Majesty's Speech which stated, that for the effects of over-trading, and rash speculation growing out of the prosperity of the country, no cure could be found in legislation, and that it was only to be found in individuals having a due sense of the danger and inconvenience to which they exposed themselves by such acts. But, he likewise concurred with the declaration in the royal Speech, that correctives and palliatives might and ought to be applied for the present distress. It was no fault of his noble friend near him (lord Bexley) nor of himself, that the measures which it was the intention of ministers to bring under the consideration of parliament had not been before adopted. He would give their lordships a short description of them. The measures which would be brought forward were not new. They had, on former occasions, been brought under consideration. From what causes they had failed, was a question which it was not necessary to discuss. It was sufficient for him to show, that they were not new ideas, drawn out for the first time by present circumstances. The putting of some check, in one way or other, on the issue of small notes, was a plan suggested by his noble friend. So likewise was an arrangement with the Bank of England, having for its object to alter the situation in which that establishment stood with the public. He had no difficulty in stating what it was intended to propose on the present occasion. Indeed, he thought it better that no uncertainty should prevail on the subject; for it frequently did more mischief than a full knowledge of the general purport of the measures which government meant to adopt. He had therefore no difficulty in stating, that one of the measures which government intended to submit for the consideration of parliament, was a regulation, by which one and two pound Bank-notes would be gradually withdrawn from circulation, and a metallic currency substituted for them. Another measure which government would propose had become of essential importance to the interests of the country. He did not mean to join in the reflection which the noble baron had cast upon the Bank of England; but he was perfectly satisfied—and he had entertained the conviction for years—that the country had grown too large, that its concerns had become too extensive, to allow of the exclusive privilege of the Bank of England.

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The privilege of the Bank might have been highly useful in the early period of our commercial transactions; but the country was now too large for any one such exclusive establishment. The Bank of England's privilege operated in a most extraordinary and, he thought, a most unfortunate manner for the country. Any small tradesman, a cheesemonger, a butcher, or a shoemaker, might open a country bank; but a set of persons with a fortune sufficient to carry on the concern with security were not permitted to do so. He was old enough to remember the time when there was scarcely such an institution as a country bank, except in great commercial towns, and when the transactions of the country were carried on in Bank of England notes, and money obtained from London. But now, when such a mode of conducting the transactions of the country was no longer practicable, it ought to be the policy of parliament to place all country banks on a solid foundation, and to amend a state of law which he would not say allowed of the establishment only of banks which were not solid, because he believed the greater proportion of the country banks were substantial, but which certainly prevented the establishment of those which, from the nature of their constitution, must be most solid. It was, however, necessary to deal with the existing charter of the Bank of England, which would not expire till 1833. But, if the Bank could be induced to give up so much of their exclusive privilege as related to country banks, and if they would accompany that surrender with a measure which would be desirable for their own sakes; namely, the establishment, in some parts of the country, of branches of their own institution—the effect on the general circulation of the country would, he thought, be most beneficial. Such was the general nature of the measure which government would feel it necessary to propose at the present moment. He had considered it better to make this general statement, than to leave the intentions of government involved in obscurity or doubt. He did not mean to say that there were no difficulties to be contended with. The whole question must be the subject of discussion hereafter. To enter upon that discussion at the present moment would be improper. With respect to the question put to him by the noble baron, on the subject of the Corn laws, he had no difficulty in repeating what
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he had stated last session; namely, that his opinion was, that sooner or later it would be highly desirable to revise the general system of the Corn laws. There were, however, a variety of circumstances to be taken into consideration. He had no difficulty in stating, that it was not his intention, nor that of any member of his majesty's government, to bring forward any proposition with regard to the general question during the present session. He saw no circumstances connected with the present situation of the country, which rendered it the imperative duty of government to bring that question under the immediate consideration of parliament. He had spoken particularly of the general question; because, a detached measure with respect to Canada corn, which was passed last year, and would expire in 1827, it might be necessary to re-consider in the course of the present or of the next session. Upon the point, whether it would be expedient to review that particular measure during the present session, he would reserve himself; but he wished it to be distinctly understood, that government did not consider it necessary to bring forward the general question during the present session. A noble lord had alluded to the absence of his Majesty. He was at a loss to imagine what could be the noble lord's object in introducing such a topic. He had, however, no objection to state, that his Majesty's absence was owing to indisposition alone.
The Earl of Carnarvondoubted whether the gradual withdrawal of the 1l. and 2l. Bank notes would have all the beneficial effect which the noble earl anticipated from the measure. He greatly feared that the prosperity of the country, during the last two or three years, had rested upon a fallacious foundation. He apprehended that the apparent prosperity had partly arisen from the measure which authorised the circulation of small notes. That measure had produced good in the first instance, and evil afterwards. He had never concurred with the opinion which many had entertained of the difficulties of the country having terminated with the resumption of cash payments. It was impossible to pay in gold a debt contracted in paper. He hoped that parliament would take the whole of the question into its consideration, and not confine its attention to particular branches. He supposed it was intended to place country banks generally on the same footing with

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those in the northern part of the island. Previous to the last war, the greatest portion of the currency of those banks was paper. Under that currency Scotland had flourished, and had not experienced those convulsions which this part of the country had felt under the restrictive system. It was therefore highly desirable that parliament should consider the question in all its parts, and establish a permanent system instead of constantly changing its measures. The Speech from the throne held forth the prospect of years of continued peace. He hoped that those years would be occupied in establishing the internal condition of the country on a permanent foundation. If any alteration was to be made in the currency, it had better be effected at once, than gradually. A graduated system was proposed in 1819, and their lordships knew that it had been productive of no benefit. The temporizing measures adopted with respect to the silk-manufacture, had greatly aggravated, if not entirely caused, the distress under which that trade was at present suffering. The introduction of foreign silks was postponed for two years; and the consequence was, that the manufacturers entered into extensive speculations, and over-stocked the market during the period allowed for the continuance of their monopoly. If they had been allowed only a few months to dispose of their stock on hand, the existing distress would not have prevailed.
The Earl of Lauderdalesaid, that from the time he had first thought upon the subject, he had always been of opinion that a paper currency, convertible into gold on demand, was that which was best adapted for the transaction of the business of a country. A currency of that decription at present existed in this country. He challenged any of their lordships to state an instance, since the resumption of cash payments, in which gold had not been given in exchange for paper when demanded. In his opinion it was not to the currency that it was necessary to look for the origin of the existing embarrassments. In the course of the last year there had been a demand on the capital and labour of the country, to the extent of 17,000,000 l. Let any man consider whether the country was capable of answering that demand. The distress which was caused at the commencement of the late war, by the raising of a loan of only four millions, was nearly as great as that which at present existed. Could the pre-
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sent state of the country, then, be matter of surprise, when a demand was made on its labour and capital to the amount of seventeen millions? The noble earl had read a statement of the increased issues of country bank-notes for the last year or two; but if he wished to account for the embarrassments of the country, he had better analyse the number and qualities of the Steam and Mining, and other joint-stock companies which had recently been formed, and the quantity of capital which had been sunk in these speculations. At all events, if it was intended to restrict the circulation of one and two pound notes, he hoped that such a restriction would not be extended to Scotland.
The Amendment was negatived, and the Address agreed to without a division.