The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-03 00:00:00

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bingo; it would be for their lordehipeincessmittee to inquire
into this point, and then to determine whether and how for
it would be advisable to modify the mower'. He was quite
satisfied that the inquiry, if granted, would have the mat
awful results. He had not interned from anything that fell
en a former night from the noble lord opposite (Stanley) 1
who was ons tittle framers of the act of 1841, that he desired
to foster this child of lie longer than should be fair and un-
eaten' with public expediency. He (Lord Lansdowne) had
only to add that perhaps he might have himself preferred
the postponement of the inquiry until a period when, the
il
wisis having mauled, men's minds had become more ava-
ed on the subject; but u it was considered desirable to
proceed with the committee at once, he would beg to mom
that a select committee be appointed to inquire into the
causes of the recent commercial distress, and how far it has
been effected by the laws for regulating the issue of bank
notes payable on demand.
Lord STANLEY said there were portions of the noble
marquis's speech in which he quite concurred, and he quite
concurred, further, in the proposition that, as a committee of
the House of Commons was about to inquire into this very
large and complicated question, it was fatal; that •cona-
mittee et their lordships should simultaneously prosecute the
stuns ilai.ry. But he must at the same time express his de-
dried *mos that this was not the sole course which her
Majesty's goverament were in duty bound to pursue. (Hear,
bear.) Among the causes put prominentle, forward for the
meetiog of parliament at this very unusual period was one
that went home to the feelings of every man—the intensity,
namely, of that commercial distress which he could not, with
the noble marquis, call recent—(bear, bear)—but which, in
the mare accurate buiguag.e of her Majesty's speech
he must deli te "the distress which has for some
time pre ' among the commercial classes of this
country?' (Hear, hear.) This was a cause which
not only justified but rendered absolutely essential
the immediate calling together of parliament; and most cer-
tainly sot one of their lordatipe however great the personal
inconvenience he might derive &in being summoned to his
place in parliament at this premature period, but would
estimate this inconvenience at a hair's weight—if he found
that the mumbling of parliament brought with it some pal-
liative dour existing commercial sufferings. (Hear.) Under
with eimisasteaces, then, what at lent might have bee. ex-
pected at the hands of government? If this distress—the
intensity of which. let him remark, the noble marquis had
rather ander than over stated—(hear, hear)—were the
cause why parliament was thus early mumbled, then be
would contend that the members of both houses had a right
to expect that government should be prepared to come tor-
ward, not with a remedy, for that was beyond the power of
legislation, but with some proposition for palliating
the distress. (Hear, hear.) How stood the case? After
sitting fourteen days they were at length told by the noble
marquis that, with reference to the cause of the distress, he
was at present
.prepared with no observations ; that, as to any
remedy or palliative of the distress, neither be nor his col-
leagues had any suggestion to make ; that they asked the
berme to grant them a committee of inquiry for their guid-
ance ; end that as to opinions of their own they had none
to offer—("Hear, hear," from Earl Grey.) For the noble
marquis distinctly told their lordships that as to the influence
of the Bank Charter Act of 1844 upon the commercial
distress of the country he would expend, and had, indeed,
formed no opinion.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE—Not as to its influence
upon the distress of the past three or four menthe.
Lord STANLEY—Why it was precisely that distress of
the last three or four months that bad c.lled parliament
together at this unusually early period, and which
formed the immediate occasion for the inquiry now sought.
For himself, he (Lord Stanley) should be sorry to have it
understood as his opinion that the principle of the Bank
Charter Act of 1844 had been productive of the rend die- I
trem. He had no desire to shrink from say no.
sponebility attaching to him as a member of that govern-
ment under whose administration that measure became law.
and he would at the same time remind the noble ream*
that several members of the present government, sadirons
them prominently the present Chancellor of the Exchwiser,
then acting as chairman of the committee on banks of last,, cor-
dially concurred in the principle of the measure. (Emu.) But
consistently with en entire adherence to the principle of the
act of 1844, as to the accuracy of which principle inquiry had
been exhausted, it was open to him to assent to en inquiry
whether the restrictions imposed by the act were unwise in
theonelres or calculated in any way to fetter the discretion
of the Bank in the exercise of its functions. This was the
point, and the sole point, to which, as ho conceived, the
attention of the committee would be directed, in reference''
to the influence of the Bank Charter of 1844 upon the late
crisis. The question would be whether, with a adios in
their coffer+, and the expectation of further supplies towing
in from abroad, the Bank directors were not injuriously re-
stricted by the act of 1944 from affording accommodation to
commerce. (Hear, hear.) Upon this point the noble mar-
quis professed himself unproaded with an opinion, though
the letter of Oct. 25 to the Bank directors would seem to I
indicate an opinion, and a pretty decided opinion, to have
been formed on the subject by the government. (Hear, I
bear.) The course directed by that letter, and which might
well have been adopted earlier—(hear, bear)—was a distinct
violation, a distinct condemnation, of the act of 1844, in that
feature of it which had been most insisted upon, but
which the government had thus declared could not,
in their judgment, be maintained in operation under all cir-
cumstances. The act of the government, in fact, had re-
moved the very keystone of that beautifully symmetrical
bridge to which Mr. Rakes Currie, in the debate on the
measure, had likened it. He had said just now that hon.
gentlemen bad underrated the amount of commercial dis-
tress, and that he thought their earlier interference would
have prevented much difficulty. He held is hie hand a list
of mercantile houses which bad actually become insolvent
between July and November. The number amounted to
106. From the list was excluded all houses which bed en-
tered into private compositions with creditors—all Wives
on the Stock Exchange, which had been very numerous--
all houses what accounts:were not ectually under inspection
—and that included one firm whose liabilities:amounted to
millions : it also excluded all foreign honer., and it omitted
as insignificant ell houses whose liabilities did not amount to
20,0001. Now what were the results ?
In July there were 2 failures amounting to £210,000.
August „ IG .. 2,369,000.
September „ 26 w 6,529,000.
October „ 35 6,840,000.
In all, from July to the periol at which her Mejesty's
government thought fit to interfere, there had been failures
of 79 houses involving liabilities to the amount of 15,969,0001.
(Hear, hear.) Now, ho concurred with t'...e noble marquis,
that it was impossible for any legislature or for any govern-
ment to have prevented the distresses which had occurred
from failures of agricultural products, or from tub specula-
tion, but it was impossible hut that among the great houses
which had fallen from July to November there must have
been some which a more timely interference would have
saved, and which being' saved themselves might have
Ir.vented the ruin of many others dependent upon them.
(Hear.) !He had stated the' liabilities of those which had
died. That was but a small part, however, of the distress
which the panic had occasioned. Their lordships knew
the loss of those which had gone, but they knew nothing of
the losses of houses that still stood, the extent of whose diffi-
culties made it in many cases doubtful from day to day
whether they could carry on their business, though it wee
certain that whether they carried it on or no, so immense a
contrection of all their transactions must take place as greatly
to cripple any of the firms with which they had connexion.
And here he must observe that her Majesty's government
thought right upon the present occasion to use the word
"recent," as applicable to the commercial distress. Now,
the use of that word implied that the distress had passed by,
and though the Bank of England might he in a better con-
dittos than it was, yet so far from the distress having passed
by, he should be glad to find himself mistaken in his appre-
hension that the worst and severest pressure was yet to come.
As yet Shp, had no accounts from India of a date subsequent
to the snivel of the news of the great metropolitan failures ;
and if he was to believe all the accounts he heard, three
months would not elapse without accounts front Cskratta of
great embarrassments and disasters occasioned by the receiptof the intelligence. From this time to January, too, the
merchant, of London and of Yeadiester would be receiving
back from ltdia bills drawn upset the houses in England
that had failed. The effects of the pie, moreover, had as
yet scarcely reached the mar nonebent, the retail trades-
man, and still less the laborer dispendont oa throe whoa
capital was now so rim* dellailiel. It was hie /ear that
they would suethal a higeprepeatim of these Snows out of
employment, in whisk ease groat end tainsabsi distress wee
to be !carted. The whim mangate had mid that the inquiry
into which be invited them is enter would be a narrow one.
Narrow ! what, when all theme paints were to be inquired
into ; when the saltkint was the ethet of the recent com-
mercial paaio—the part whirl the Bank Charter
Act had had in bringing it about—the influences
of railway speculation and of aye:trading the
conduct of the bank—the results of a free-
trade policy! Narrow ! Why, if this inquiry was narrow,
he should wish to know what the noble marquis would con-
sider extensive ? So far from the inquiry bff taarnew, it
was his opinion that, however long the eride might lest,
however protracted it might still prove, yet that It wield be
over long before this onandnee would be is a peaks to
snake a report or events ear a entigeetkm. Rem the tone
of the noble marrde, faidead, ho wry almost led to inhr that
as far es the goverment wen concerned the of the
committee would be a wry entimprtant one. would
state that they had been sorry to hear of of the
Side
the distress and of its wide-weal rantilleathme, but that
nothing, in their opinion, world bare prevented the indic-
tion of a bad harvest or the ill OM, of over-emdleg, and
that as for the act of 1844, aoldai bid his perm& Nab*
it. That appeared, as hr se the geveroment west, to be
likely to be the result of their usemittee of inquiry. One
word before he sat down as to a matterrequiring explanation.
The noble marquis had said, in thecourse of the evening, thee
no legislation could make up for the loss in the supply of the
agricultural produce of the country, which had lei to the
necemity of importing foreign. corn. He (Lord Stanley)
declined in that opinion. An importation of foreign corn
to the value of 33 millions, for the purpose of making geed
the supply which had failed us in oar own production, was
a loss of national capital which could not fail to cause no
great embarrassment. But the noble marquis misunderstood
him, if he supposed that he (Lord Stanley) attributed to
free trade the large importation in corn which had taken
place during the last two years. On the contrary, he had
mid that whether they had tree trade or not the importation
mast have taken place ; but the argument he maintained
was this, that whereas these who advocated free trade pro-
dded from the importation a large export of manufactures
sad eonniquent snit national prosperity, he maintained
iket *ON Wynn bed arisen without reference to free trade.
The liege amide mkt that parliament could not guard
=Ohio dimil of speculation. He (Lord Stanley)
that;speak of corn, let him ask by whose
eel and t wit ing
it that the rpeculation in earn
orus trateedgerirtmentlis her Majesty's government, be most
.4; were not clear. They held oat to our merchants and shi
ownershat, let them adigsb gii the WCfia_ through,the d
_aaea
not Bad tons nosegla for the pod* Of Sillnid rr
that lf