The Express.
London, England, 1847-05-11 00:00:00

7'!=IPP

*end= desirable to 'Herd Om miry opportunity of pay-
big No as might best wit Wok earrimiensa He proposed
V. oiler them a farther lemineement by giving au option
either of motet heirs June ilk an which they would
receive interest at the vein of II per seat per wuam, or be-
fore the 10th of September, an which they would receive in-
tenet at the rate of 4 per amt. His resektioa wool. run—
that every contributor to the loan al sit =WIWI* made
during the presentees, y who shall pay_ If inetelments to
the Bank of Englander. embalm Jame iloilollieslisared In-
terest by wayof diermot et the este of d gprsrant. per mono,
and every contriMiter who sham his Inrlehnmr deer the
18th of June, and on or Mire theleth of SopCsaber, shall
be allowed interest, by way et dieswant, at tie gets of 4me
tent. per annum, such interest to be esmeted freoa the lay
cc which such payment shall be Mae. The right bar
demon aincluded by putting his remistion in the of
the chairman.
. . . .

The resolution having been pat,
Mr. H(ME said, he saw no objection if dr government
wanted money, to the mode now proposed of obtaining it.
How far, however, the Chancellor of the Exchequer had ex.
plained the muses of the present pressure was another matter.
lie seemed to think the custom of placing money at call in
the hands of bill brokers was one cameo( it. That, how-
ever, if he (Mr. Hume) were a banker, was the course he
should uniformly adopt with all balances in his hands,
in order to be able to have the greatest control over
them. With regard, too, to discount and re-discount—why,
what bad that to do with the currency of the country 1 (Hear,
hear.) He (Mr. Hume) had expected the Chancellor of the
Exchequer would have reviewed the bill of 1844 with a view
to see what effects it had, and had not realized. (Hear,
hear.) He expected that he would have offered some ex-
planation of the extraordinary pressure that had occurred,
drawn front the present limitatioa upon the currency of the
nation. The right hoe. geutlemaa had not done so ; he had
not at all given them his views upon that subject. Nuw,
whether fourteen millions of paper was a sufficient sum
to be issued by a bank of issue was a question he
should not disease. Many were disposed to say
that in times of prosperity it was sufficient. It
was impossible for any one to form a just opinion of the
conduct of the Bank for the last two or three months with-
out looking at the nature of their securities, and he did not
therefore join in the censure which some had expressed. He
would appeal to thee.' who had supported the mamma the
right hon. baron, t (Sir R. Peel) whether they had not done
No under the impression that any such pressure as that
which now pined would be prevented by it t (Hear, hear.)
The right bon. baronet did not state that he thought the
Bank of England should make advances on deficiency billy
He (Mr. Hume) believed the understanding to have been
that all transactions of that kind were to cease, unless, and
until the Bank, having their coffers full, thought fit to
accommodate their beet customer, the public. (Hear, hear.)
He approved of the first step taken with respect to the Beak.
but he objected to their being afterwards placed in a different
position ill relation to the government from other beakers.
The government ought not to have been allowed to have any
connection whatever with the Bonk of England ; the first
duty of a government being to pay all just demands upon it,
without looking to say bank for unstaring. Except its supe-
rior value, and the greater difficult , therefore, of obtaining
it, there was nothing to distinguish gold from tea or coffee.
It was the want of free trade in bank* theirs which had
subjected the country to so much pressure.
Mr. MASTERMAN said he did not rise to object to the
proposition of the right hon. gentleman ; but he certainly
did not anticipate that it would afford that relief which he
seemed to expect, or do anything to alleviate the uncomfort-
able feeling which existed in the money market. (Hear.)
It was well known in that house that he (Mr. Masterman)
was one of the few who had predicted that the right hon.
baronet tea member for Tamworth would find that his bill
was not available at all peritth. The alarm recently created
Arnie, he felt quite satisfied, from the improper arrangements
made by the right hon. gentleman the Chancellor of the
Exchequer. (Hear, bear.) His (Mr. Muterman's) opinion
was, that it au impossible for the Bank of England, under
the present act, to work in such a way that they could come
forward at quarterly periods to advance two or three millions
on deficiency bills, sod at the same time do justice to the
commercial community. If an assurance went forth to the
public that ouch a demand as this was not to be made upon
the Bank in future, that assurance would do more,
he believed, to alleviate the present distress than
any thing else that could be devised. Now he
would like to make a small addition to the motion
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Wishing information
to go forth to the country that if the government should
went any assistance for the next quartedydividend, it would
be provided in a different swum, he propmad to make the
following addition to the meden:
The samooltise, however ere of gibs Out Waft mould tend
so ma\ lo ram the mittimbto has nary modomnplyst as an
anomie boa Ur Camommemr Ibm risat Sot be TO to
Paramoont tor puma W arab Ito ark of MOM to mat mit
drams to to way vololot Its Or et lam hey oat
of atm tom amPullnent at Yr burl at dr bantdog
mai. swill ailliMile 19 repay of the pee, rawaratd2t
rorosty, mod the lamsideada role to bm NOM to all future advano• ha the
Maiof di
W. BROWN bed no doubt in his own mind
that a remedy for the prommot praetors might be applied,
and he would bilged, was At that mo-
ment there were about iovereigts in
circulation in this country might be with-
drawn from circulation, and lb neeneethetituted for them,
a portion of the gold being bruited in securities, and .he
remainder deposited in the Beak. He ventured to throw
out this suggestion Although he had no amendment to propose.
Mr. NEW DEGATE said the right hon. baronet's (Sr R.
Peel's) bill had been called" a fair weather measure," and the
experience which they bad of its working justified that de•
scription. He contended that the right hon. but., the member
fir Tun worth, hod been en meow in describing the gold stan-
dees' as dating back to the time of Queen Elizabeth, whereas
it only dated beck to the year 1774, the standard of Eliza-
beth being a silver payment. He considered that the past
legislatiou of the house on monetary matters had done much
to enhance the financial difficulties of this country. He
believed that the effects of the measure of 1819 had by no
means ceased to operate. Before the introduction of the pre-
sent system, none of these financial difficulties had been
heard of—tone of these panics which had marked the last
20 yean—none of those great fluctuations in our currency,
which defeated all the calculations of honest and intelligent
enterprise.
Mr. FORBES said that free trade was now general, and
he did not see why it should not be applied to money as well
as to any other article.
_ _ _ _

Mr. FINCH said he had always been of opinion that a re-
stricted paper currency was the best adapted to the wants of
this kingdom.
Lord G. BENTINCE said it appeared to him that the
proposition just made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer
TM a very helpless expedient for easing the money market.
(Hear, hear.) It might save the government, but it would
go but little way towards affording the commercial interests
of the country the assistance they so much required. (Hear.)
The right hon. gentleman proposed to discount his own
loan, but was there ansubstantial reams for supposing that
the contractors would he desirous of the discount, seeing that
seven and eight per cent. were given for discount of the best
paper in Liverpool, Manchester, and London, which had
only sixty days to ran? He (Lord George Bentinck)
confessed that he did not believe the temporary
expedient of the government would be succesafuL He
feared that, after all, the assistance of the Bank of England

would be required before the payment of the next divend..
(Hem, hear.) He had hoped to bear from the right hon.
gentleman that government bad some more substantial ex-
pedient in contemplation for easing the trade and commerce
of the kingdom. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had
told the house that things were getting easier in the money-
market. He recollected when, on a former evening, the
right hon. gentleman came duwa and told them that the
worst was pawed, and that things were getting better.
(Hear, hear.) He, for one, could not see that any great im-
provement had taken place. (Hear, hear.) It was
true that there had been the repayment of the
loan front France, and that,
.together with the money
rsc.ived for corn re-exported, might have brought back some
gold ; but when they reflected that the price of wheat had
that day risen to 120 s. the quarter, and moreover that the
stocks on hand were unusually low ; that the general im-
ports of last year had fallen off as compared into the pre-
vious year to the extent of ten milliono--(' Exports")—the
imports taken at the officio' value, whilst the imports of food
had been enormously greater than on say former occasion
he for one did not see that there was any reason to hope for
an ebb in the tide of bullion without some legislative inter-
ference. (Hear, hear.) With respect to cotton it sp-
lay the ofildal returns that the importation of
C red
year, as compered with the previous year, had been but
thirteen millions sterling against twenty-three millions, snak-
ing a falling off of one-third in the article of cotton alone.
Yet, whilst the cotton received was ono-third lees in quan-
tity, they had it on the authority of American writers, that
the money paid for the reduced quantity bad exceeded that
paid for the larger quantity imported in 1846. Therefore it
appeared to him, that whist the gdo of wheat indicated
that they must import very kap - kr whisk they
would have to pay a very WO palm, they, hay* no stocks
to exchange, even at • dopetonallid am seine sad 1826,
would have very littlechaans of bekehrg back the gold which
was so rapidly leaving the anotry. Their only chance then
under the present law would be "'keep what was called the
bank screw on. The first oilseed this would be a rise in the
price of money mid the libagunt of bills, when the orders for
corn, provincial amileselen mast be curtailed; and he must say
that, m the peasant bare date of the oorn market, with the
peebability of • late harvest, with the stocks of the farmers
&Wind tarathad out, and their granaries empty it became •
very leliOUll alladderation whether it was safe for the coun-
try, is se flies as the supply of toed was concerned, to continue
seek memseres foe bringing back the gold. (Hear, hear).
His right hon. friend had said that the noble lord at
the head of the government had adopted the only
efficient course by giving notice of his intention
Ito continue the suspension of all duties on cern. Why,
under the old sliding scale, there would have been no duty
1 at all. (Hear, hear.) But the right hon. gentleman had
also said that things had come better from America. It
was true that the exchange had fallen back to 105 t—par,
being between 108 and 109, the exchange was still against
us ; bat the reason for its being a little better at this mo-
ment was that the winter having broken up late in the
United States the corn would not juries at the seaboard
until tke middle of the present month. He had heard that
day from Liverpool that so overwhelmed was the American
freight market by the arrival of ships from this
country that it wee hardly pordble to a cargo.
In New York freights which had been 21s.trePtliCeburel had
come down to ts. 64., and even at the moment of writing
another fleet of British ships was entering the bay.
The reason of the fall of freight was that the stocks
at the seaboard ware exhausted, and therefore there would be
for some time a cessation in cur outgoings for corn • but in pro-
portion as the evilmosusut was postponed, soheaps,' r e h - led
would the prim of corn rise,
_and at last we absiddkass
export a larger amount of haulm, although perhaps at a
later period of the year. The sum ergament applied to en

at sr deeldllitiens of jaliyisises. One of the misfor-
tunes b used ma lr by the famine was, that all
the slope W boss destroyed- He bad mesa
• mesa Mat in Cork market, Is
what was obi Mr TYt ninon is October and November,
15,000 Oat pct bed bees sold against 3,000 in the season et
1865, nig VAIIY 111111. Area Out he gathered that the
myopia ea awl, et berm Ma Ireland was very bed. Of
this also, then, we should require a supply from abroad, and
at higher prices. It was not the fault of the traders or ma-
anfecturen that they were in this difficulty. They could
see be accused, as in 1624 and 1625, of over-speculation.
Sleeks of every kind, with the exmptiou of tea, bad never
boa so low, and therefore they could not turn on the mer-
&mate with • charge of over-speculation. Neither could the
mainefeetemers be aroused of having persevered too lung in
workiagtheir stills full time. Already, he regretted to say, that
out of 1,161 mills, 728 WWII workiNgolkort time. Consequently,
100,000 workpuple were working short time, and 23,0k1
totally unemployed, (Hear, hear.) Unless they did some-
Wag to ease the money market, they must have the greatest
passible distress in the country. The stocks, by the sale of
which it wee hoped the gold would be brought back, had I
never been so bare, and, therefore, there would be little use
in temporary expedients. As mosey became dear, trade
would contract its operations, and, in addition to the manu-
facturing operatives, they would soon have the railway
labourers and the miners of Staffordshire out of employ-
ment. Neither could the difficulty be laid at the door of the
Bank of England, they had not been over-trading any more
than the merchants. On the passing of their charter, the
right hon. baronet the member for Tamwerth contemplated
that their circulation must rise to 28 re 30 millions, sod in-
timated that the general circulation, in prosperous times,
would be 24 millions. Now, the Bank of England had never
exceeded 21,400,0001., so that it would be hard to
charge against the directors • management of its
affairs different from what the prepuces of its
charter had indicated and intended. What, then,
was our present position? While the Bank coffers
were crammed with silver and gold to the amount of
9,200,0001., the Bank was, under the restriction of the Bank
Charter Act, almost on the point of stopping payment ; and,
at this moment, houses of the highest credit in the kingdom
—men who could pay 80s. or 90s. in the pound, were in such&
position that, unless something was done to set credit free,
and, consequently, money free, four weeks would not
elapse before they would be obliged to stop payment
also. Such was the position we were in at this moment,
with an unmixed standard of gold, that he was informed,
on the very highest authority, that a great house in the eity(i
with 60,0001. worth of silver bullion in its hands, was not
able to raise money upon it. Could anything be more
ridiculous ? (Hear.) Could anything be more monstrous
than that • man should be in danger of being unable to pay his
way, though in possession of 60.0001. of silver which was the
money of all countries in the world except England, and he
believed Portugal. We were in such • position that the
whole export and import trade, as had been stated in the de-
bate of that evening by the honourable member for Lanca-
shire, might be suddenly brought to a dead lock for want of
money, when the credit of our merchants and manufacturers
was as good as it had been at any period—when the credit
of the Bank of England was indisputable—and when the
had 9,200,0001. of bullion in her coffer,, but which the Bank
Charter Act of 1844 forbade her to touch. (Hear.) Was not
the reasonable, the common sense course, undereuch circum-
stances, to get out of the difficulty by removing those re-
strictions on credit which were now starving and destroying
the trade and industry of the country ? He said starving the
trade; he might add, and which would, if they continued,
starve the people also ; for if his argument was worth any-
thing, the withdrawal of credit would soon render it neces-
sary to withdraw the orders for grain and other provi-
sions from America; the effect, therefore, of leaving things
as they were, would be, that three months would not elapse
before this great country would find itself without sufficient
Mid to feed its people— (hear, hear)—though there was
ample food in the world, and which might be made available
for the wants of this country, if they would but remove the
fetters in which they had bound the credit of the country.
If this, then, was the obstacle in the way of our trade—if it
was clear, as he contended it was, that free trade and a re-
stricted currency could Lot work in common, for Ood's sake,
and in the name of humanity, let them be quick in repealing
this obnoxious measure. (Hear, hear.) Mr. O'Connell said
ones in the course of the present winter that " rapidity of
action was the emetics of humanity as well as of political
sagacity." That was in regard to supplying the Irish people
with food. He (Lord G. Bent mck ) agreed with Mr. O'Connell
in that sentiment, end he called upon the government to take
warning by the fatal consequences which had followed their
want of timely interference In Ireland, and have recourse at
once not to temporising measures, but rapidity of action, for
in rapidity of action now win to be found the rune° of
humanity, as welt as of political sagacity. (Hear.) Let,
however, the trade of the country once receive a fatal check,
and it was impossible to say where it would stop. Now all
was apprehension—but in a few weeks that apprehension
might be changed to certainty. (Cheers.) lie bad been
informed that in Lancashire one great house, whose solvency
was beyond suspicion, was now in that position that unless
something was immediately done to bring credit into opera-
tion, it must stop payment, and that in the credit of that
host.. was involved that of no less than 30 other firms, all of
which must fell with it, (Hese, bear.) And when once
bankruptcies went on in this way, the whole credit of the
country would fall like • pack of cards. He called
upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the
noble lord (J. Russell), to consider the great interest of the
trade of this country, end to recollect that that interest was
not limited to cotton speculators or to promoters of railways.
Those whose operations were conducted in the safest and
steadiest =neer, and who had confined themselves to the
most legitimate course of trading, were all equally affected.
Those who traded with the East Indies. like those whose
trade was with America or the West Indies, all would, unless
tome immediate steps were taken bthe government, be
immersed in one common ruin. (Hear, hear.) They had
tried the measure, and they had discovered that they could
not have free trade—they could not encourage unusual im-
ports, net only of corn and provisions, but of foreign sugar,
and foreign manufactures—of hemp and of tallow, without
paying for them in gold. The advocates of free trade pro-
mised that foreign countries would take our manufac-
tures in return for their produce. (Hear, hear.) God
grant it might be so but the time had not
yet arrived which showed any strong indication of such a
result. (Hear.) He feared, on the contrary, that all the
indications that could be gathered from the late elections in
the United States led to the belief that that tariff from which
they derived at this moment 27-30ths of their whole revenue,
would not be relaxed, but would rather be made more strin-
gent. (Hear, hear.) The fact that she now received more
gold from England in exchange for the present reduced sup-
plies of cotton than she formerly did for the full supp:ies,
and that English gold was at this moment paying the ex-
penses of the Mexican war, would be thought no very great
encouragement to the United States to adopt the course
which had already brought England to the verge of a crisis
(" Hear, hear," from the Opposition.) Then, with regard
to Russia, which • few years ago they were told could not go
to war for want of money and could not move without the
aid of the Baring" and the Rothschild', seeing the present
position of the free nations, and that Russia had been obliged
to bring her gold to maintain the falling credit of western
Europe, there was, he thought, but little prospect of any
speedy change in the commercial policy of that power. Then,
es
t• Prussia, which they had been told was already shaken,
so far from reducing she had actually raised her tariff on all
the cotton, linen, and woollen manufactures of this country.
With these facts before them, any expectation that wo
ahoud recover our gold by the operation of any speedy change
in the commercial policy of those countries from which we
obtained the great bulk of our imports, appeared to
him to be based on a very "lender foundation. He hoped,
therefore, that the present government would be in-
duced to follow the example of former ministers,
and now that they found trade and commerce unable
to move under the pressure of monetary restrictions, that
they would come forward as Mr. Pitt had done, and as Lord
Liverpool had done, not only to remove those mischievous
restrictions which limited the action of the Bank, but with
an advance of Exchequer-bills, and so set the trade of the
country at liberty.—(Hear, bear.) They had now tried the
Bank Charter Bill, and they bad found it harmless while it
came not into operation. (' Hem," and a laugh.) But when
• period of difficulty arose they found it would not work
unless it was relaxed. The right hon. baronet (Sir R. Peel)
had told them that no affection he might have for the act of
1844 as its author, would induce him to maintain it if it
should be proved that it worked ill for the country. The
right hon. baronet must now be convinced that it had not
beet aresessful in one of its objects—that of preventing
great spocuLation. Admitted that these speculations
had taken this course of employing the money at
home—yet so far as the spirit of speculation was
concerned it bad never run so wild as in 1845. Now ano-
ther change had come round—bad harvests, a short cotton
crop, and short crops of hemp and other production., had
succeeded • period of prosperity, and it was quite clear, that
so far as the act Wheeled such a state of things, it was only to
operate in the most dangerous manner. (Hear, hear.) And
when it was recollected that every sovereign taken out of the
country was not only withdrawn, but earned a bank note at
its back, and that we were approaching to the verge when
silver would no longer be efficient under the Charter Act to
represent notes, it was • matter for mature consideration
whether the wiser course would not be at once to suspend
that act. (Hear, hear.) The Bank, he believed, might cir-
culate upon Its silver, provided such circulation did net ex-
ceed one-fourth of that justified by- the whole amount of
its bullion. The gold in the Bank now amounted to
7,120,0001., the silver to 1,429,1341., leaving only a margin
of 350,8671. of gold over and above that which could be re-
presented by Slyer; sad after 350,0001. more gold should
be withdrawn, not only must bank notes to that amount be
withdraw& also, but silver must cease to represent the basis
of note circulation. And should the gold be reduced to
4,000.0001, out of the 1,429,1341. of silver, only 1,000,0001
would be available for the issue of notes. In 1793, when the
trade of the country was in difficulties, Mr. Pitt gave new ,
life to it by coming forward with a demand for 5,000,0001.
of exchequer hills; and during the war, similar measures were
resorted to at various times for the same purpose. In 1816,
when no fewer then 2,060 bankruptcies took place, govern-
ment came forward with a proposition for postponing the
hour for returning te cash payments, by removing the
restrictions on currency, and prosperity was instantly re-
stored. When. however, the bill of 1819 passed, the coun-
try experienced a renewal of the same distress, but out of
that difficulty also it had been raised by the issue of 11. and
21. notes. So in 1826 and 1826, when Mr. liuskisson said
we were within twenty-four hours of bankruptcy—the Bank
of England happily discovered& million of 11. notes, which
served the purpose of restoring credit and giving a new im-
petus to trade. For though the bank note was not available
for payment of foreign miscounts, it was fully recognised and
trusted in this country. And at this moment a supply of
bank-notes would set at liberty a great portion of the
30,000,0001. or 40,000,0001. of sovereigns, which, accord-
ing to the hon, gentleman opposite, were at this moment
en the country. lie was speaking of credit, and the