Star. — London, England, 1816-05-31 00:00:00

or— • 1 . L .. • • • f , ma • • ere eon atectiat with any dbe connected with ihe collection thi 449 %1 Ho conceived that • the Measures lately set /WIPP* afoot for the purpose of applying remedy to the io would tender Parl i amentary enquiry none some, • • Col "cessari• •• I WO ‘JD said, that when he attended the lot • • ustA • for t he county of Brecknocit, he found ssiO! • , t u; eat eonfusion, on account of the stop . "1 4 palls7,ls eankang-house. To add to their difficulties, an esuNw b ad been issued for 48000 . He had ap -4 kits Majesty's Ministers on the subject, from P he received every facility; but he found that 'sty's Government had nothing to do with ow e—. __ h r t he extent had been taken out at the at _ e bequer by a brotherrif the bankrupt. The bank. e was George North—the brother's name na rrjahn name was George North—the brother's name john N orth, a farmer of post hones; a brother ly's,' . m. 11 0.• o f George North struck the docket of the bl i kaa pter; and so the brother and brother-in-law se a n the other creditors at defiande. How this ; 1 14 1 1 he amended, be knew not ; but he hoped his m a jesty's Ministers would at all events call upon pb s North to pay up his debts to them.—(Leegk.) Oa "Settled thanks to the Honourable Member for sieWich for bringing forward the Motion. Ile ATTORNEY-GENERAL said, express di. ' arhid been given that Extents in Aid should aet he abused as they had in times past, but strictly c onfined to aiding the Crown itd recovering debts which could not otherwise be made good. All that ca util possibly be done with this view, was in the one of being done by the Exchequer. Mr. LOCKHART was not satisfied with the an. ro ws which had been given to the present complaint. He conceived a Parliamentary Inquiry was, in every sorely the most advisable vourse. Leta CAST.LEREAGH said,if he were satisfied that the lies were not all before the House. he should have so hesitation in agreeing to a Committee ; trot the faits of the case he conceived were sufficiently known. He conceived the most advisable course ' was for his Majesty's Law Servants to take the abuse into consideration, with the view of devising a re medy. His Majesty's Law Servants were not pre pared st present to say what would be the best re medy.—(Hear, hear, from the Opposition ride). —It oc curred w him that it would not be- convenient ep with draw the question from them; they .might find it convenient to come again before Parliament, if a Le.' gislative Provision should be dr.emed necessary. Mr. PONSONBY did not think the subject yet perfectly understood by any body. What objection (MU there be to a Parliamentary Inquiry Was it sny reflection on the Court of Exchequer ? NOthing was so injurious to Courts of Justice, as the idea that so examination of that House, if necessary, implied, arefiection on Courts of Justice. Would it not be better to have the examination in the first instance, than that they should wait till a remedy was detailed to them, of which they might not at last approve ? The Judges ought to be glad that Parliament at. tempted to remedy this abuse ; for if the remedy, should be found iasufficient, no blame would be thrown on the . ..fudges. Mr. WETHERELL objected to the Committee. The Court of Exchequer, as they had originally drawn up the regulations on this subject, had also power to revise therti. Mr. C. W. WYNN said, that it was evident that the EztentS in Aid had become grievous from the change of the circumstances of the country. A pro. cess which was not felt when the Sheriffs were almost the oaly Crown Accountants, became a serious evil when it was in the poser of every Distributor and Sib-disu 'biter, of Scamps to resort to it. As to a legislative remedy for the evil, the House could not adopt one till it knew the precise circumstalices- - and he doubted whether it was in the power of the Court of Exchequer to make the necessary inquiries. He should therefore vote foe the Committee, as the mea sure most suitable to the dignity of the House, in the tam of an abuse arising from the exercise of the Royal Prerogative. ( Hear. ) Mr. MAItRYAI.' said, that there were cases in which the Court of Exchequer could not remedy the eras arising from the Extents in Aid. He bad hap pened to be an Assignee of the property of a banking Louse in town, It hich had Tailed some years ago : this baaing-house had been connected with country banks, some of the partners of which had the good fortune to be debtors to. the King. The Country Brokers had issued Extents, so that the Assignees 'had been obliged to pay their debts in full, to the amount of £lOO,OOO, in consequence of which the other creditors had not received one shilling; (Hear, kede,) though perhaps in some of these cases, oily one of the partners was the King's eccodatant, all the others benefited by the Extents. Now, as this Ifiercus instance of the employment of Extents was thelated to be legal by a Court superior to the Court "'Exchequer—it would not be . in the power of the inferior Court, if they were-disposed, to remedy the if& No power but chat House could interfere, and bethought it their diity to do so, to prevent the abuse is favour of individuals, of a power intended for the benefit of. the Crown alone. ' Mr. COURTENAY said, the number of Eitents ihich the Solicitor-General said had been set aside, keyed the magnitude of the evil. A gommittee *as the place where the nature of it Would receive itketitioe, and where all suggestions on the subect 41 , ighi be best considered. He should, there fo re, vuPPort the motion. „Mr- P. !MORE was in flour of a Committee, sad begged to state a fact within his own knowledge. A Mr. Villiers had been appointed Distributor of B ,taMps for the County of Warwick, about the year 1793 ; be gave ample securities, and for a time went on well; two years afterwards he sold a freehold house for 41100 to a grocer, an honest Quaker, with ten or eleven childrets. A little time alter, the Distri butor's expenses were enlarged, and he began to be suipeceed, and, when an inquiry was made, it was found he had not teen called to account lot many Y ears ; he proved totally deficient, and was soon' lodged within the four walls of Coventiy gaol ; what *received the poor Quaker's money he was not in ;men to the Crown, but an extent issued, and the' house and all the property were seized :—this struck kith Mr. Moore) as a great cruelty ; he should„ 1411 eivre, vote for a Committee, and would bring the " I lea Quaker to give evidence if necessmy. Me- W. SMITH. shot Ply replied, and read an °Ake of Mr. Justice Abbott, in which be stated, that a; the law swot'. at prewar Extents' might b. . - tittat br thbiOrs b!jhe Cr e ofrp l to roclriew , merely their, private . debts, be; tlOllO 91 their Ai no means had been *tinted apt .6t,witich the, grfeitancenf th ese Ettenta.c4:tuld O th etwise be reuse. died, he should press Ms motion to a divisiou., • .:The Hhuse divided—For the Motion, 5 6— , Agaios, it; 85—Majority against the Motion, '9. When the gallery was reopened, we fouad,blr. 'PONSONBY moving lot all Rules of the Court of Es. chequer on the subject of Extents in Aid, which, on i division, was negatived, there being for the Mo tion, .55—Against it, 70. The consideration of the Alien Bill was postponed till to.roorrlw (this day). Mr. J. P. GRANT wished the House to remem ber that his Motion respecting :Finance stood for to morrow, and that he Would then enter into a very full statement. SILVER WORMY. The Order of the Day was then read for the House resolving itself into a Committee on the Message of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, respecting the issue of a new Silver Currency. Mr. W. POLE regretted that at that late hour he was obliged to address the Committee, but he trusted the importance of the question would be an apology for his taking up their time, and he pledged himself to be as concise as passible. That a new Silver Cur rency was absolutely called for he believed no person could doubt, and he was also confident that the Com mittee would concur with him in thinking the present to be a Most auspicious period for issuing that Cur rency. A hang and sanguinary war bad now been terminated; and the days of fence bad once more re visited our land. By the Bank Restriction Bill, which was limited to two years, Government had given that respectable body time to prepare, and indeed no per son present could doubt it was requisite cash pay ments should then be resumed. Our Silver Currency 'was at present very bad, and indeed it was impossible to decide on what principle it could be corrected, unless we considered, first, the present standard mea sure of value; and secondly, what that standard should be. At present he forebore entering into discussion on the pernicious consequences of having the two metals as a standard, aware that these conse quences had already been pretty severely felt'by the country. The first gold which was coined was in the reign of Edward the Third, and from that time downwards it became more common. Mr. Locke complained that the country had been bun by having two standards. In 1662, the guinea was 265. by the mint indenture, though it kept at 30s. in the market. n 1695, it was by Act of Parliament declared that it should not give more than 265. and in one month after its value was fixed at 21s. The coinage of seven millions in 1695 had nearly disappeared in 1717, and Sir Isaac Newton was applied to for suggesting • a plan to prevent the currency from leaving the coun try. That illustrious philosopher blamed the high rate of gold, which then was 21s. 6J. and proposed to fix the guinea at 21s. which was adopted by his Majesty, and a proclamation issued to that effect. During last century, only 4160,000 in silver was coined, and only 464,000 of that during his present Majesty's feign. After a minute detail of the vari ous circumstances attending the currency since 1774, the Right Honourable Gentleman observed, that he certainly thought, as gold now was the present stan dard, it should be kept at the same value in fineness and quantity. He disliked the idea of coining gold twenty shilling pieces, is leading to much contusion, on account of their neat value to guineas. There had been 464,000,000 of gold coined in this reign, but Goo only !mew what had become of it—( 4 laugh ). The pound troy was at present 625. He did not wish the fineness of our silver to be altered, because this would lead to the immediate ruin of the country. Let silver be made a legal tender to a certain extent, for example he should say to 425. it should only he reduced to such an extent as would prevent its quit. ling the country. For example, if the pound troy was reduced to sixty.six shillings, it would not de: base the coinage nay way, but would merely re. duce its weight. A good circulation - would thus be procured, better than it had been for many years. He was afraid he tired the Committee with this de tail, but it wets necessary to be somewhat minute.— He would now come to the most difficult and painful part of the inquiry, and he begged the further indulgence of the Committee. (Hear, hear.)—lt was impossible to know the exact amount of the present concoct of the country. In 180.5, the then Lord Liverpool had stated the circulation of the country to be Ar 2,700,090, and of that sum about £1,000,000 were in balf-crowns. This statement he (Mr. W. Pole) questioned very much, as scarcely a half-crown was now to be seen. In King William's time the whole amount of circulation wai 45,500,000, of which £4.000.000 was clipped money. Since 1811, the 'Mint has issued 43,400,000 in tokens. The cir culation at this moment -could not exceed two mil lions, and has deteriorated 30 per cent. With respect 'to the loss which Government would sustain upon the .coin to be called in, he thotight could not be less than SO per cent. The more rapid the operation was, .the heifer it would be. In the great coinage whiCh ,took place last century, thirty millions of piects were ' coined in eleven Months; which he considered a pro digious effort, When they remembered that a great proportion was in half crosena; and the defecti4e state of the machinery at that time. He had no doubt,' however,' that, dulesi any unelpected aecident should occur. they would be able to hate the new coinage a2,500,000y, consisting of sixty millions of pieces ( via. 84000,000 of shillings and 25,000,000 of six- - pences), in seven months from* the day that the Bill passed.' A great object would be to get the old money otit of circulation,' and the new into circula tion, with as little intervening delay as' possible. The ['ode at present proposed was tht following ; sides the legal coin, defaced and depreciated as it was, there was *a great quantity of base coin circulating, and they could hardly condemn persona for receiving and issuing it, when, if they had not done se, must have been' absolutely without any silver cur. rency at all. It would, however, be utterly impos sible for'the Government to do more than to receive,. under the most liberal construction, all coin, of what ever description, that could be at all considered as the legal coin of the realm. Where the effigy wan effaced, but it appeared from other examination that it was highly probable it had originallt issued from the Mint, that coin would be received.- -Without that linsitation,it would be impossible to ay what' the - eipease wdtild amount to. 1.14 was . , • • 11 " • 54130111141V0 • tittte Ova Nettled without re-, •• , that a vast n would aedessarily be suf. datiog the time thit,must elapse, before the issue of *new. coinage., an should have, been happy if it had been possible to avoid applying to. Parliament, and that they could have gone on silently In their preparations. without saying a word till they were ready with their new coinage. Bu under e.s isting circumstances that could not be done, foe as the law now stool, the Mint had no power.to issue silver coinage, and it . was necessary therefore to clear away those legal obstructiont. With a view to ob viate some of the difficulties which must arisnduring she interim, and which would chiefly bear upon the lower classes, whom they were most bound to protect, it had been suggested by an k/..m. Friend, to pass a law, pending the new coinage, to making shillings a legal tender to the extent of three shillings, and six pences a legal tender-to the extent of eighteen-pence. By that means, to which he saw no objection, the poorer part of the population would be secured from those embarrassments which would otherwise result from a general refusal of shillings and sixoences not having distinctly the Tower mark upon them. — The mode proposed to be adopted, in removing the old coin and introducing the new, was the following. In proportion as the coinage proceeded at the Mint, regulations would be made by the Government for loslging.in all the different great towns throughout the country, a sum of new money equal to what might be supposed to be in circulation there of the old. When the coinage was completed, a proclama tion might then be issued in all the towns, competent persons to exchange the old coin for the new, and thus in a few days, nearly the whole silver currency of the realm would be called in, without any interval during which the circulation would be suspended. He was quite sure, if they were to issue, as they coined it, the new cubs would be sweated and flatted down, and returned upon the Mint as old legal cur rency. It was originally intended to have appropri ated £500,000 of the new coinage to Ireland; but he rather thought that measure would not be necessary. The Bank Tokens of England and Ireland were 'ell' different. It was true, that' in Ireland they were thirty per cent. below the standard value, and that in England they were only twenty-one. But then, in Ireland, they were coined by order of the Govern ment, and actually received as *legal tenders in the payment.of taxes. It did not, therefore, appear ex pedient to interfere at all with that circulation, under its present circumstances. The Honourable Member then concluded by moving his Resolutions, observing that if they were agreed to, the Report might he re ceived to-morrow, he could bring in his Bill, and being printed, the consideration of it might lie over till after the holidays. The first Resolution being read, Mr. BARING rose for the purpose mote particu larly of adverting to one part of the speech of the Right Honourable Gentleman, in which he had lightly touched a point of much importance, viz. the as sumption that geld coin had, within the last seven teen years, become the standard of value. He en tered into some detail of the state of the currency abroad, and of the comparison between the quantity of gold and silver, cOntending that in England gold was dearer Om silver, and consequently of more difficult circulation by 4 pet cent. He argued from thence that a silver circulation could be more easily eilltablished than one'of gold, sinst that The resumption of 'Cash payments by the Bank could be more conve niently and expeditiously made in the former than in the latter. The number of guineas at present in the country would form but a slight objection to the change he proposed, of issuing twenty shilling gold pieces instead of the present guinea. Mr. PONSONBY suggested that the relative value of the copper currenzy must be affected by the proposed regulation with regard to the new silver coinage. Mr. HUSKISSON did not think any evil could arise from the improvement of the relative value of ' silver to copper. He was strongly of opinion that gold ought to be retained as . the general and legal nse4sure of value. Mr. HORNER, acquiescing io most of the prin., ciples he had heard laid down, could not help expres sing his doubts of theiuccess of this measure during the continuance of the Bank restriction, unless the Bank should adopt a different principle from that on which they had hitherto acted. He apprehended, in the other case, no precautions would prevent the new coin from being melted. There was another point be thought it necessary to advert to—as to the time when this measure was brought forward. It was a matter of great doubt with him whether, in the present temper and circumstances of the lower or ders, this was a favourable period for a new experi ment on their peace, or for imposing an additional hardship upon them. He would not press this con. sideration farther, but it was evident that the poorer classes, including the small shop-keepers, must be the principal sufferers. and he hoped this had notfailed to outset due attention on thi part of Government. Mr. D. GIDDY and Mr. BANKES both thought tl?es the improvement of our metallic currency, treated vi i i at dne precatitions, might produce general ad- 1 wrgotage. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER &seised, that his Majesty's Ministers had not been insensible to the delicacy of the measure under the present circumstances; but it was a measure not of choice, but of necessity. From the present cheapness of rilier, there were no other means pi preventing the codntry from being inundated with fabricated pieces,' the continuance of which must daily increase the evil, and multiply the disttess the lohger the re medy should be postponed. After a few words from Mr. GRENFELL and Mr. W. POLE, the Resolution was agreed to, and the report ordered to be received this day: The other Orders of the Day were then disposed , of, and the House adjourned at half-past one o'clock. they I Atom.—A letter from NetiiesdinipeMyine,. dated May IS, says, K We are cencerned to state,thst Nodose dkUrbances have broken out unatiegst the pitmen slid etiser workmen connected with the collieries upon the Wear Severn! hundreds of them are elf work, upon the ontissibk gyOutia of their present wages being insdeqeste to their support, while the price of bread-corn coo name sit very much higher than it has been. The pitmen, and other mhguhled workmen upon the Wear, however have, through the prompt And vigorous emotions of the Magistrates, aided by two troops of cavalry front Newcastle, been induced to return ti their Oink. We understand eight of the ringleaders were tubes into custody on Saturday. end committed to Durham g l / 4 101. NO disposition of joking them was at any time evinced I by the pitmen upon the Trish". ~. M, I THE EVENING STAIII; j,O no r 4 • FRIDAY, MAY 31, IPI6. • • • • - PRICI OF STOCKS Trits DAY• ATI WELVE O'CLOCK. Bank Stock Mt 4841—Long Ann. Reduced 6311—Cons. mo. 44i—for ace. 8511. . 4 tiff Cent. 7.0-5 per Ceps. slit—Bond* Is. Sts. It Onto. pay. 241 —Rack. gills Ss. (Ss. Is. pr. • • It was list night announced in the House of Peers. that Government mean to bring in a , Bill, in the coursc of next Session, to prevent, in the West Indies ' any violation of the, law for abolishing the Slave Trade. This measure will probably embrace the 'ldea of itr.gistering the Slaves, as has been suggettel by Mr. WILBERFORCE. No plan has yet been pro. voked which promises equal efficacy; nor . can any person interested in Slave property offer any sound. objection against it, as its penalties can only aiect transgressors of the law. • The, subject cf.& new Silver Coinage came before both Houses lastaiight. The pound Troy . of Silva, which formerly used tobe coined into 62 shillings, or • an equivalent number of other denominations, is now to be coined into 66 shillings. will make Cliti silver money defray the espence of its coinage, and tend to prevent its being melted down; nor can We see any reasonoble objection to this, as gold is in fa. tore to be the only standard measure of value. But, if we did not misunderstand the speakers, At is all intended to continue the inconvenient coin of a guinea, to be calculated as one pound one shilling, (or 21 shillings.) Gold may, and ought to be, de clared the standard value ; but it would equally well answer this purpose if the guinea were lowered hi weight, and circulated at 2Js. And as no guineas are now in circulation, a better time for introducing this obvious improvement never can present itself. The former Mint price of silver was ss. S(d. pee ounce, it will in future be ss. DJ. and the sum to be coined is about two millions and a half pounds stern ling. The Bank Tokens, which were issued at 6s. Bd. per ounce, are to continue current: About 5e2,700,000. of these are supposed to be still in circulation. This fact deserves particular notice; for none of the shil. Zings and sixpences now in circulation will be taken in by tale by_Government, but such as bear some traits of the Mint dye: that is, all the smooth money will only he taken at its weight ; and the holders most lose the difference. Tuis, to the lower orders, will occasion a most serious loss, and one which they can but ill afford to bear. In equity the Bank of Eng land, which has gained so many millions by the snb• stitution of paper, and of Wine toleat, at a weight so much below the Mint price, ought to bear the loss in calling in the old coinage.—At all events the holders, who had no choice left, who could not refuse to take smooth shiilings and sixpences, ought to be relieved from every loss, except such portion as would be borne by them collectively in the shape of taxes upended in making up the delciency. In this way the inconvenience to the public would be comparatively trifling, as the greater part of the ex pence would fall upon the affluent: but if ever:), pour labourer is to lose a tourtlipart of every stifling laid by to pay his rent, it will to many of We; occasion absolute ruin I Let us hope that this ,s4ll receive some farther consideration before the bosiness is fiioally settled. • 1 1 Respecting the gold coin, one fact was mentioned by •Mr. POLE which does not appear so wonderful to us as it did to him.. " %IN had coined £60.000,000 of gold, and GOD only knew what had become of it I" There is still a large portion bonded in this country, and a larger portion still was expirted during the war: but there is a mis!ake in the fact. Many of the 030,0M,000 were guineas re,:vinerl : some to bong them up again to their weight, and many, we believe, to give them the new shape of Jrven-rhillin 6 q The Bank, we doubt nut, could, if called upon, re move much of the wonder that has been expressed :es this topic. It by no means follows that because £€6O,OOO,(XX) has been struck off at the Mint in a given period, that that aminint of bullion has been actually thrown into circulation in the shape of coin. The fact is tar otherwise; and it might be useful, ox have it investigated, that Guvernment and the Public might know the truth. • The Park Papers, of Tuesday arrived to day, but their intelligence is unimportant. The private fetters SMIC that TALLEYRAND and FOUCHIL, or rather the remains of their party in the French Ministry, have been utterly routed from the King's Councils, and that Count lhacas returns to power. The French Papers furnish no hints of this. A Mail from Holland and Flanders arrived to. day. All the recent accounts from Belgium cotscur in stating, that . the French Army is cat tiered tu ue augmented by several new Regiments. We can scarcely credit this intelligence : the true policy of the BocuaoNs surely ought to be, to govern their 'Subjects without an Army. Another of the petty States Of Italy (Tuscany) has :nude a Treaty wish the DIY of Tuns, by which the trade of Leghorn will be secured from further depredations. Yesterday the Princess CHAU:OTT/ and Prince 'Conoutio had a grand party to dinner at Camelturd House. Among the company were the Quetta, thl I'rincesccs Et.ra.kuarri, hinny, and SoPetta at cum, the Dukes of YonK and GLoucurea, Etc.— The Prince and Princess had a party in the evening. Last night a new writ was moved for Liverpool—. Mr. CANNING having, since his return from his Embassy to Lisbon, been appointed to the piste of President of the Board of Contruul, vacant by the death of the Marquis of BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. CORN EXCHANGE, MAY 31. Our Wheat Trade cootinum eery heavy, the demand being trans, and a large quantity at market ; are nearly nonsi. nal, but purchases and.' be made from us. to is. per qr. loo'cr aan on Monday. Oats are full is 6d. per V. elseiptr, sad Lea./ sale at that reductiun. In Peas, Beans, and ()this- mamas, tt.st is no alteration. aIAITHFIELD !WARIEST, MAY si. beef 4s Od to is St! f Vssd 0.1 to I. 0: Mutton 4s cd to 5. Pm* 44 01 so 3, as Laub Os ud to •7s ud,