The National Register. — London, England, 1811-05-12 00:00:00

, %eft gold in sufficient quantity if the restriction were removed, proved too nuich if it proved any thing. It might be tt ue that . gold was enhanced in price all over the workl, as had been . e stated; but if that were the case, yet we were to consider whe ther the increase had not taken place in . a • greater ratio. in • cur own; and if we found alit it was dearer here by twenty ; per cent. than paper it was te•r duty not to permit it stilt, fur e'tLer to increase. The arguments we would Advance against a change would .otherwise be every day gaining an addition of • strength, and if it were allowed the evil must be considered as : altogether irretrievable. It was for the consideration of Parlia .' ment whother they would maintain a standard, or whether, in • order to keep up pricte at home, she would suffer an unlimited augmentation of the circulating medium.. There was no pros pectof peace, that therefore was not an event to which we should look as the termination of en evil which had ro necessary con nexion with it. We should set about the work ittimediattly ; it should be prosecutedwith caution and temper, but also with eer nest ness. Was it acting like persons possessed of common sense to leave every thine to chance, and not stretch fort li a hand to preserve ourselves from the ruin that seemed to approach us? As far as law was connected with the question, he wild rather have left it to the management of persons more capal:le than himself ; but there was one circumstance so obvious as to strike the least observant—how far were the penalties to extend by which we were to curb a traffic so difficult to be detected It was likely to become every day an object of greater temptation, so long as the gaius were slight. The penalty might he in an equal proportion, but paper niii . ;ht and wfiuld under the preientsystem he so depreciated , that individuals possessing property of a certain description could preserve themselves from ruin only by resor ting to it, and it was dreadful to contemplate the extent, of punishment to which it might be necessary to have recourse. He could not, with sufficient earnestness, exhort the House to embark in this work while it was yet time., If he might borrow an illustration used by Mr. Burke, on a similar occasion, 4 ' if light were not admitted throu,th appropriate apertures into an edifice, it would force its way through clinks and crevices." The House adjourned at tiet.e-PASI ON E. TUESDAY, MAY 7. BULLION. Mr. VANSITTAILT could • not help considering the Bullion Resort as 'me of the boldest experiments on public simplicity I that had ever been attempted. His Honourable and Learned Friend, the Chairman of the Bullion Committee, had no sooner pointed out the great and tremendous evils, which, according to him, existed in the present system, than he proposed tt post pone what be had before described as the remedy. for those evil:. He (Mr. Vaniittart) could account for this inconsiit ency only on one principle, namely, that his Honourable and Learned H-lend (for the goodn ess of whose intentions he enter-. tained the highest respect), and the - Committee began to tremble at the precipice to which they found they had at length arrived. It was not so much to the principles of his Honourable Friend's Resnlutions that hi objected, as to the application of it. In the principle, he,. in many instances, concurred With him, but in the styptic:al h,. totally differed from hint. His Honourable Friend reasoned a great deal. on the supposed change in the star: and of value. NO*, with regard to the standar(' of value, he would ask his Honourable Friend in what way he would rcciiicile his own proposition to the real state of the case ? The Resblutton proposed by his Honourable Friend was, "'I hat the only money which could be le.gally-tendered 'in Great Within for any sun above twelve pence lit the , 'whole, was made either of gold'or silver, and that the weight, standard, and denomina tion. at. which any such money Was antithrlled to pass current( was fixed under Ms hlajtsty's pr tragative according to law." What *eight was fixecVasuhe standard.ibr silver money ? For debts above 251. silver money could not be tendered but by weight: But was it not'obvlous'that 999 payments out of ICkto were .of stints wader 25i. And whets: was the standard . ? if a sum of - more l° be paid, and 'it should be paid in. new eroAMs or half crowns - , they would weigh one p6und, seven puny. weights ; if Pi new shillings, one pound, two penny-*eights; if in new sixpences, one pound, one-penny-weight. It•thusapa rt•arett that a sum of 2SI. might be paid in silver currency. weighing oily five pouncls, five pynny-weights; but if only six pence svere to be addtd--that was, if the sum of 951. and six. pence wore to be puid,sthen the paynmit being to betriadtbY weight arotw, the eitiantity 01 - 411ver in:ceseaty at the present mo ment, would h eight pounds, within eight penny-weielits. He did not conceive that he was bound , either to uelmit or *tb deny that the ii?,tes of the Bail: were, wtiat they never tratlbean, ti o f of which the val , as• cstitnated by 'the he never kirom that a currentNalne ; was desimus'also to ---1-tite • 4.4 '414 Flo, ~.a,,....yy I 1, ilk., . . depreciation of Bank notes; whether as considered compara. tively'_with • coin, or by the general excess of the currency ? He had, thought that theßullionCommittee would have specified the latter as the kind of depreciation which, in their opinion, Bank notes had experienced. It was impossible to doubt that for do-. mcstic purposes notes were equivalent to coin. It was well known that a tender of Bank notes was not a legal teecier, and that although it exempted from arrest the person by whom the tender was made, yet that he was compelehle by law to pay in Had a single instance occurred in which such a tender had been refused, and payment iu coin been compelled ? When the ()Winery paper•currency sunk below the coin it represented, then an effect was produced on foreign exchanges; but the de precitition which arose, not from that circumstance, but from an excess of currency in general, did not affect the foreign ex• changes, but by its effect on the state of trade. The high prices which that excess caused, produced a diminution of exports, and an increase of imports. An ultimate change in the foreign ex changes might thus be occasioned ; but as long as the increased price of goods did not diminish the demand for them, that in-. creased price, so far from being injurious, would be advautageous to the exchange. The Rt. Hon. Gent. then proceeded to discuss the causes of the present state of things, and concluded by re citing to the Committee a string of Resolutions which it was his intention to move, if those brought forward by his Honourable and Learned Friend should be negatived. - Mr. Hu s Kiss° N, in a very long and able speech, defended the Report of the Committee, and contended the paper currency was depreciated from excess. Lord CASTLEREAGH vindicated the policy of the Bank Re striction Act, and thought some of the members of the Bullion Committee had " retroceeded" from what they had in the first instance advanced. Mr. MORR Is explained certain points of law with respect to Ptper and Cash payments.—Adjourned at Two o'clocit. mim•iMmie WEDNESDAY, MAT S. BULLION COMMITTEE. Mr. PARNELL denied that the Bullion Committee had made any retrocession from what they had at any time 2.lvanced, as had been stated on a preceding day by a Noble Lord, and thought the opinion of the Bullion Committee was a correct opinion. Sir T.'Tua . roN declared himself against all the propositions before the Committee. He wanted 00 abstract propositions upon such a subject. Nit. MANNING said it was his most anxious wish that the Bank should return to the old system ; but it was alio his firm opinion', :bat such an experiment should not be risked during the war. Mr. A. BARINC; admitt ...e depreciation paper. Mr. SHARP felt it incumbent on him, as a member of the Bullion Committee, to excuse himself and the Committee from the general accusation of a retrocession from the opinions con tained 'in the Report. • Mr. PERCEVAL begged to be by no means understood that he -considered the question • could be discussed without a distinct referenCe to the present circumstances of the country, and hi had, therefore, felt great astonishment at the manner in which an HonourAble Friend• of his had divested it of all such reference. *He Coneeived that the proposition of those who advocated the Bullion Report was, that the currency of the country Was depreciated; that that depreciation was attributable to the excess of piper ; and that the - evils resulting was so great as to make it incumbent on Parliament to take immediate mea ' sures for. averting it, which measure must 'be the reduction of thequaritity of paper in circulation. On the other hand it was contended that the supporters of the Report advanctd no proof of the excess of the general circulation of the country, nor any proof of the depredation (in any sense in which they under. stonclthevord) of that currency. What they substituted for direct . atidleiittmate proofs, was capable Of being explained by other Circumstances which the Bullion Committee had certainly notlept Anita out of sight hi their Report, but on which they had just "Ibtichod, ai td then affected to consider them as unini . portant. Throe had then no proof given 'of our existing excess of currency. Orthis term " excess," as well as of some other terms, it was necessary to know the precise meaning in tended to be affixed to it. Excess beyond what? His inter pret/it-ton was, that there had been no excess beyond what he • conceived absolutely necessary for the circulation of theeea:th and revenues of the country. No proof had been advanced ~ ,f an existing excess of circulation beyond the circulation, which existed at the 'period of the suspension of cash payments at the Bank, yet if that increase was not beyond what the extended Commerce and augmented revenues since that period re aired, then iClaras no excess. (Hair, hear, hear.) His Hon. friend tiear - hihyseerned to conceive that there was an exiting excess • 'herritl''stilitet would have been the 4tate of the curromy had ed - th of Bank medinni of curroncy of which the value w: standard of the silver coin. For his part, I Hank notes had 4041414140.114. They hid value give z‘ ..itc : ,. s • C 1• t. He lanow,. it '' rY.."' ' 1". r - t -.. • 4P- , 0 up/ .;, 11$ +1" • \ ~ CO , ' I4IP"- :_. e . ; 'if:, • t: • • )„. 4 ‘ . .. _ • - ... ..... , . O • -jt i