The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-02-18 00:00:00

• .
- • rei.iodaetteciNsk,
. . Fon Lanai. intd dials be grand fa-
ble the piece. But nvhile tat Faery Q!teesiele,
ram Glory in-the general intention,. she it also.
in the particular meani,g, a type of Queen Elan
beth, whoseslominion is the i'aery land. Arthur,
then, woos: Glory in his proper person ; and the
time of the fable is represented to be-that of the seal
-Cominencement of his history, partof which is here.
coried from Geoffrey of Monmouth. But- Queen
Elizabeth, or Gloriana, is likewise identified by
•circunutusces in: her seal bistory ; and the great
persons in her court are frequently ucluded to in the
charafters of the fairy or allegorical knights. And,
as if all this confusion were not sufficient to perplps
the under, Spenser had thought. proper.to reserve
till the twelfth or last book, the developentent of
the occasion which puts all his knights in motion;
And which; at seems, was to be an annual feast kept
by the Fairy Queene for twelve days; on each cf
which, in Loofwmity to the matmers of chivalry,
some distressed damsel, orphan, or other safferer
under injustice and oppression, appears as a •suitor
for aid, and receives from the Queen a champion.
.The reason g;vou by the poet for delaying this piece
of info.mation is, that he might imitate his epic
predecessors, at breaking -at once into the adion,
without the formality of an historical introduai(m.
But,to suffer the whole atrtion to elapse, before the
reader is made properly acquainted with the ac:( 7'
and. the cause in which they arc eug-42-,ed, is staL;:;
a violent sacrifice to a principle; -the justness of
which, even in a much more sober application, may
be iuesticaed. On commencing the.Faery Queene,
. it is now ixr_possible, without consulting the au-
thor's prefatory epistle, to conceive that it is to
have auy other subject than the adventures of the
Red-cross knight; onto form any notion concerning
the title of the poem, and the connection this ima-
, ginary Oven is to have with its persons and
cvents."

IMP.ERML PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.

THURSDAY, VER. 17.
BANK RESTRICTION BILL.
Lord PELHAM moved, that this Bill be read a
.first time.
The Lord CHANCELLOR read the title of the
Bill, and was proceeding to state the contents of it
from the hreviate, when
Lord ,ICING rose, and said, that the House
ought to be fully apprized of the contents of a Bill
of so much impertance, before they proceeded to
discuss it, and to be summoned when it was to be
read a second time.

i
I

The LORD CHANCELLOR said, he was about
to state the Contents of the Bill, when the noble
Lord interrupted him. His Lordship then went
through the breviate, and declared it to be the first
time of the Bill's being read.
Lord AUCKLAND rose to move, that an ac-
count of the amount of the notes of the Bank ci
England in circulation, on the Ist of June, the st
'of August, the Ist of 04tober, and the 1,.1.• of De-
cember, 180.9.,. and the Ist of February, MY>,
distinguishing the amount of those that are below the
value of five pounds, be laid bcfcre the House."
His Lordship said, that he did not wish the H' • .se
to consider him, when the Bill should be moved to
be read a second time, as pledged to speak to the
Paper for r.hich he had just moved ; but in case
any thing hostile should arise in the discus: ion on it,
he .might feel it necessary, or some other Noble
Lord rhig7lt feel it necess7.: y, .to refer to it, and
therefore it might be convenie4t that it should lie
upon the table.
The Question N%-7. put, and the Paper ordered.
Lord kirIVDON (Earl Moira) said, before the
House was called upon to read a Bill of so extraor-
dinary a nature as that which had been just read,
a second time, h 2 should erpea that the Noble Lord
who should feel it incumbent upon him to move the
second reading, would assign some strong and satis-
faaory rear.on for calling upon that [louse to lend
its sanction to a measure which, if unexplained, im-
reaened the credit of the country—implied an inabi-
lity of the Bank of England to discharge the de-
mands on them by prompt payment in current cash,
And cast a slur on the national commerce and pros-
perity. His Lordship said, there were t4to points
of view in which. this Lill presented it,elf to his
mind—the one, as a Bill introduced at the desire of
the Governor and Directors of the Bank ; the other,

as a measure of Government, adopted for some
special ttpose hitherto unexplained. It was more
citraordinary that so violent an attack on the pro-
perty of individuals should have been hart:dom.!
into Parliament, at a moment like the presf-nr, when
it was said we were in a state of prclound peace,
but when we were in fact under the most critical

I

virctrnistances, and co far from the peace being con-
tiderei as secure and permanent, every man who
twderbtood the nature of our situation, could act
ut expect tl:at we might be obliged on the sndtkn
to prepare for a new war. If this Bill was intro-
duced at the request of the Governor and •Direaots
.of the Bank, he had a right to ask what new change
is dell- affairs had happened since the Bill was first,
introduced in 1797, and so often renewed since, that
could induce them to depart from their uniform de-
claration, that they felt no .necessity for any such
westriction being imposed on them, and that they
potsessed full abillt7 to satisfy all the demands upon
them in vtirrent cal F If The Bill was the Bill of the
Bank:its:llf, it altogether unaccountable. Upon
'the fullest information that the Bank itself could
Tender, it must appear to be in a state of infinitely
greater prosperity than when they last stated their
accounts; it could not be otherwise, and for this plain

reason, because .it was undeniable, that our Com-
merce had incteased beyond every thing that the
-countryliad ever known, and wealth and prosperity
had ponredinto the kingdom, and ultimately lodged
.in the Rank, to an unexampled amount. Persuaded
most fully as he was, that the Bank was every way
able, and much more than in complete abiiity to
discharge all the demands on them, he thought it
highll, necessary that certnin papers explaining the
real sitatatiem of the Bank (whicl: he meant to move
fir) should to before the House, in order
that all Europe aniNq know, that the continuance of
of so harsh a nature, with regard to
• ate pmperty of individuals, • did not originate
in "kny insufficiency of assetson the part of the Bank
of .England -,to satisfy every passible run -upon
them. Ifirnets awe:mare of Government, Minis-
ters were bettrid to-explain why, under the 17121C0171
rnhitincreme of the carports and importsof the coun-
tr`f,--this couseqcient use •of the pruellice of the cus-
lib* the Pritsetaut *amotmt tf...tbe virplusof gie

-:r`

...._,

I Y
7
I
I.
I
I
t
S.
r