The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-05-27 00:00:00

tic, countries might admit the application of the same principles;
but Lord Liverpool seemed to blow hot on one side and cold on the
mber. The Report (which was fairly drawn up, and to which he
ho no objection) was nothing else than a manitesto of paper against
rad. All who read it would disagree with Mhiistera ; and it
befoee nest Session, produce more pamphlets than he ever I
viihed would again. (Laughter.) The temper and opinion of the
"tatty be changed by that Report ; and while Ministers
vet rating far gold, they were preparing return to paper. ( Hear.)
Ile knew that many wise and temperate men disagreed with him
reveling his preference of gold. lie did not pretend to touch
reeding on this subject. Ile had resisted many new financial pro.
frets; but he recollected that the country had Nourished with a
paper circulation exchangeable into gold ; hut he believed at the
same that, that coin. and paper representing coin, could not exist
medic?. It was by such a piper circulation *hit they had auc-
ceeded in Scotland, in driving away gold altogether ; the natural
realingotmonied men and speculators in favour of high prices, and
the certainty that they would be raised by a paper circulation, would
lead to the removal of the metallic currency. Such difficulties
would arise in the next two years as would cause, not the animila.
tion of Scotland to England, but of England to Scotland. The
English bankers might my, why did you vote to bring my bank
lam shame, and to Injure me and my family, when you
were not actuated by any principles, at is evident by the
exclusion of Scotland front the operation of those measures ? If
an event were to take plate, (which he deprecated) he meant a war,
would it not be a sad refection that the best years because the last
of the peace, had been spent, not in putting the currency on a sound
footing, hut in Increasing" its derangement. We exposed ourselves to
the contempt of foreigners; for he had no doubt that foreigners were
better acquainted with the principles of finstice than we. France
had a circulation of gold coin ; there was nothing doubtful or in.
secure in such a medium; and the accounts of the Hank of Franks
were every quarter submitted to the country. The system by which
Altniaters were regulated he could not comprehend. The period I
would come, when, unless they found gold enough to fill the place
of the paper withdrawn front circulation, they would come into the
fallowing difficultly.% all at once t—They must either let the law
en;rire inlet, and thus reduce the currency, or they must enlarge
the time, or they must retrace their steps, and teseetablish the
Ile had another circulation; greater difficulties than those had never occurred.
other reason for wishing to call the attention of the !louse
I
to that rettots; because It was the lest act of' measure projected a ith
sti.z view ot setting the currener on • solid footin business Liver-
pol, he was sorry to soy, had engaged in a which
its did not understand, nor was his ignorance so excusable as
it might be in other individuate. Illitilsten had the opportunity
of sending far the best au Montle*, and consulting them. It Will mated
by 11.4fil GiTerpot#,ln his communications with the Bank,that branch
banks from the Bank of England were approved of by Government.
From that 'day lb this, however, Government and the Bank had
never come to an understanding; the time was passed in squabbling,
and he knew that angry words had passed. Lord Liverpool ought
to have entity understood his plan, and to have fi..rnly persisted in
it. He liked a, Minister of that desorption. (Hear.) Bet the end
of all was, that the'Rebk agreed to establish one branch bank at
Gloucester. With teepect to the enlargement of the number of
partners, there were hut few banks in England to which an addition
of new per:ners would prove advaniagenus. Joint-stock coin.
panics were proposed, in order to put this country on the same
footing as Scotland ; but the (louse would hardly believe that, by
that Bill, it was impossible to establish a joint-stock company.
By that Bill it was not allowed to draw on London for any RUT
less than 6W. The letter of the Bill utterly precluded the piosihi-
lhe of carrying on the banking business. But the Bill. it might
be said, was one which could be evaded, and the beat commentary
on it would be to thole how to evade it. The only end, then, of
the grand system of putting the currency on a sure footing. wax,
that Small notes were to be put down in England in the
year itrzi: in Scotland they were to be left; and in Ireland
neither one nor the other coarse was to be adopted. He heard
that it was recommended, with retreet to Ireland, to abolish
Immediately those notes called tractional—that is. notes for 23e.
or 355., and to suppress afterward* the other small notes, so that
In a few years Ireland might return to a wholesome metallic
currency. Why was not Scotland also to return to a wholesome
metallic currency'? This was the state in which the question of
currency was left at the end of the Session. He begged leave to
justify himself for giving his assistance to the original' measure; he
felt that he was wrong. Ministers had been convinced with respect
to Scotland, and had altered their course; they ought to have been
convinced before; there would not, in that ease, have been the
Report, which was calculated to do mischief; but they went into a
Committee like a kind of sucking innocent% (laughter), in orde• to
obtain information. He could have brought to the inquiry many
English bankers, quite as respectable as those from Scotland ; but
the demerits of tit: English bankers were most unjustifiably as-
sumed. It was impossible to make any motion, but he took that
opportunity of lamenting that they should make AO miserable an
appearance at the end of the Session. Ile erott!el conclude, there
fore, with remarking, that although he wished as ninth good to
lord Liverpool as to any man. from his private worth, he could not
help wishing, for the country's sake, that he had either better
nerves or less raslinese.
31r. Pr. El. observed, that It was a most extrtortlitiery proceed-
gto comment on a Report which was not yet known. The Com.
mote, had laboured till a very late period, and had formed their
judgment on the maturest consideration • and lie trusted the !louse
would suspend their judgments until they had an opportunity of
examining the evidence. Ile never saw a Committee more deter-
mined to do their duty. The lion. Member said that Government
acted in opposition to their declarations, but he denied that:
wheu did Government declare that it was essential to their meat.
sure to extend it to Scotland 2 The effect of this measure would be
to restore things to the very situation in which they stood previous
to 171$—.the flourishing period to which the lion. Gentleman had
alluded. From 1777 to 1797 this country had a metallic air.
culation and during the sante period, indeed from the be-
ginning of the 18th century, Scotland had a paper circula.
t din, concurrently whit a metallic circulation in thin country.
It had been calculated by Dr. Adam Smith, that there
might be a gold currency of 600,0001. in that country hut
that had since disappeared. A Committee, of which :11r. Horner
wits member, had been appointed in 1815, to consider the sate of
the currency. which Committee advised the resumption of cash
payments. Another Committee was appointed in 1810 for a similar
purpose; but neither of these Committees, in their reports, reenin.
mended the extension of a metallic currency to Scotland, although
that country had not escaped the attention of those Committees.
With respect to the expressions used by Lord Liverpool. in his
cottespondenee with the Bank, he (Mr. Peel) would draw from
them an inference opposite to that drawn by the Honourable (len-
tierran. Lord Liverpool said, •• We have a further proof of the
troth of what has been advanced in the experience of Scotland.
which has escaped all the convulsions which have occurred in the
money market of England for the last 35 years ; though Scotland,
during the whole of the time, had a circulation of one pound notes.
The issue of small note., though it be an aggravation, cannot there-
fore be the sole er even the main cause of the evil in England."
There was nothing in these expressions indicating that it was an
essential object to extend the metallic circulation to Scotland.
As far back as the year 1818 hod I,iverpool had stated that there
was something unfound in the cyst • af the country banks. an .1 51r.
Vansittart (tbe then Chancellor of the Exchequer) proposed a dis-
tinct measure, for the purpose of applying a remedy to the evil. ,
When Lord Liverpool first projected that measure, the Right Ho-
nourable Gentleman turned round upon him, and said that not even
Mr. Pitt, when in the zmith of his p,wer, would have propcsrd
such a measure without first instituting an inquiry. If he wanted
arguments to justify the course which had. in the present instance,
been adopted by alinieters, he would have found them in the
speech of the Right Hon. Gentleman upon the occasion to which
he had alluded; and yet WOW, when Lord Liverpool proposed
an inquiry of his own nerved, the Right Honourable Gentleman
exclaimed that he ought to have at once produced a measure
at the table of the House. Wheeze.) He (31-r. Peel) would con-
tend, that in proposing a metallic circulation there was nothing in-
consistent with the practice of the country during the past century,
not was there any thing in such a proposition inconsistent with the
declarations made by his Majesty's Government at the commence-
ment of the Session. He would ask the House whether the teams.
fnendations contained in the Report were not warranted by the eel-
deuce? The Right lion. Gentleman said that that evidence
should not have been published; but he (Mr. Peel) could not help
the opinions of these geode:nen who had been examined : the Re.
eon bad been fairly drawn up, and, in his opinion, in a committee
ete.atituted as they were, greater inconvenience would have resulted
Imo expunging any portion of the evidence then could arise from
Presenting it complete upon the table of the House. It was the
tiro time Chet the circulation of Scotland was submitted to a corn.
thittee fairly constituted, and for his own part he went into that
committee firmly persuaded or the necessity of assimilating the
currency of both countries ; and as a matter of general reasoning'
t!.t re could be no question of the solidity of thpt opinion. It had
been represented to hint %kat the Committee was not fairly census
rated; that Scotland was not therein sufficiently represented. Ile
agreed to the reasonableness of the objection. and when the propel-
tom was made by the .Member for Malunbury (Mr. Forbes), the
lepbcr fur Aberdeen was added to the Commiree. In that Commit-

ire he so far changed Ilia opinion, that he felt, as stated in the Re-
port. that under existing circumstances it would not be prudent to
recommend a change in the law as related to the currency of Scotland. 1
The Repot. however said, that the Committee deemed it right to state
that their judgment was formed from the past cirenmatances of the
circulation of that coir.try, and that it was possible that upon new
titeumstanen arising they might be imlue.:d to alter that opinion.
Tilst they were justified in coating to such • conclusion he was
Pretowed to contend ; for than wait in Scotland an almost universal
tiding favourable to the continuance of the wesent system. lie
mold easily conceive that it might be advantageous to Scotland,
4r4Paraleularly to the banken of that country, to keep up a paper
eurtency ; but he was not influenced by the prevalence of any
particular opinion which might reign In that country. lie be-
-I:,•ved that the [louse of Commons was better able to form an col-
;non than people out of doors, and therefore if he deemed the
impression, howtver t eneral it might be, erroneous. he was pre-
Pa' to (Woo it. (Herr, law, bear.) Ile regretted that the
t"
Ownmittee had not hart sufficient lime to extend their examinations ;
but still eleven gentlemtn from Scotland, who had been examined,
wets decidedly favourable to tine present system, which had been
one hundred yin's in open; am anterior to the year 17'4.
Scotland naturally asked, why disturb a system which we have
never complained of, and which does not interfere with your own ?"
In England the individuals concerned in country hanks were gene-
rally highly respectable, but it was necessary to remove the detects
of the system. in order that the whole body might not be impli.
cased in the delinquencies of a few persons. As a class they were,
in instances, highly serviceable to the eountry, and as re-
ap:eat many
as any other portion of the community; but it was in
rain to disgui-e the fact that the system was ro,ofully imperket—
the conduct (K. some individuals had rendered that fact but too