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 goodness of whose intentions he enter-.
tained the highest respect), and the -Committeebegan 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
of 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

that currency been conAned to gold, or to paper immediately
convertible into gold. Let the Cornelittee, consider after the
...drain of wealth which many. years
..of war must occasion, what
- would be the state of circulation in a Collat.-Yin which no paPer
was issued to supply the defidieeey.. Unquestionably, if things
could have gone on in th's; country without such a supply, the
existing circulation would hi4e: been niuch less. than it was
the present moment. But if, for doineitic "purposes, -we had
_ occasion for a circulation as large as the existing circulation, he
then could eat allow, situated the country was' in other
:respects, that the circulation ougit't to be diminished. • 'ln hit
opinion, however, any attempt to reduce the circulation, and
still more to..reduce it below what it was in 1797, would be
productive of the greatest practiCal inconveniences. The ad-
ventages of a large circulation were the means which it afforded
of ievigoratnet agriculture, .commerce, and manufactures.
would suppose a country, possessing a circulation of 60 millions,
all in cotte to enter into a war, that this war should continue for
. four years, and that 'the expenditure of beyind the ba-
lance of foreign trade should be ten millionssannuallY • the cir-
culation would this be reduced to twenty He Would
, suppose that during the four year an issue of paper was made
,to the amount of ten millions. The 'country would therefike
possess at tile end of the four years war, a circulation (composed
of 20 millions of coin and ten milions of paper) of 30 millions
instead of 69, as at the commencement. it is evident that but
for the issue of paper ibis country Would have possessed but
20 millions of circulation. ACcording to the interpretation of
the term ". excess," therefore; by his Hunontable Friend, this •
supposed coteitry would have an excess of ten millions. his
Honourable Friend s notion, therefore; of an men, was rot
always that it was an increase, but was compatible with the
fact of a considaralne decrease of circulation, even to a moiety.
(Hear, hear, hear.) He certainly had not the lekst doubt, that if
paper had n.,t been issued, the currency of the country would
not have barn so :Jrge as it was. In that interim tatioe ut term,
therefore, there was an excess of circulation, though more gold
had been taken out of the circulation since the year 1797 than
paper had been intro uced into it. This he really believed was
the fact. The proposition came to this—whether, in the exist-
ing state of affairs having proceeded for four or live years in a
course generally considered as essential to the security and in-
dependence of the country, nantely„the carrying on of the wir
by a foreign expendeure to a very considerable amount, it was
advisable to supply the domestic deficiency in circulation, which
that expenditure must occasion, by papei currency. This ayes
a plain question et policy. Nothing could be more clear to
his understanding than that if the foreign expenditure were
deemed necessary, ells domestic currency must be considered
inseparable froe it; for where our foreign commerce was so
circuin,crihed, and we had not the opportunity, as in ordinary
circumstances, of bringing hack the 'wealth which we expended,
the only way to provide the means for a future re-purcha-e of
the coin that ,now quitted us, was by giving a vigour to our
agriculture arid' commerce, to which an increased internal cir-
culation alone was competent.---(Hear, hear!)-11 this were
called an excess, he would say that it was an excess without'
which we could not carry on the great contest in which we
were engaged, as we had hithtrto done. Were the Committee
prepared to say that the evil of not having the balaace of ex-
change nicely adjusted was so tremeodous as to make it neces-
sary. Great God I—to snake it necessary at the present mo-
ment to withdraw from the contest which the country was so
gloriously maintaining Hear, hear, near ! J—The k-lon. Gen-
tleman who had last spoken, had done the Committee the fa-
. erour of giving them a tine opportunity of contemplating what
the situation of Great Britain might have been, compared with,
what it actua:ly was. He had characterized the conduct which'
this country had pursued as absurd and timorous. He had Call- •
ea.! upon the Committee to look at Hamburgh ; to look ut Hol-
land. Happy Hamburgh! happy Holland! They, it scented,
• had not had the cowardice to imitate the example of Great Bri-
tain. " Sir," exclaimed the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
without any titre don of denying that our present siteation is
one which demands the most serious consideration, I Lave no-
• hesitation in declaring, notwithstanding the imputation of cow.
ardice on the mauner in which the finances of the country have
been conducted, that I prefer that situation to the situation in
which the prowess of Hamburgh and of Holland have placed
them."—( Loud cries of Agar .1 hear
_Trani all purls of the House.).
Su much for the question of excess; now for the question. of
*predation. Some, he conceived, by the term e deprecia-
tion," meant that the wholly currency of' the country was depre-
ciated, gold and paper equally. This opinion had the sanction
of high authorities. By the advocates of. the Bullion Report the
term was not so applied. They thought paper depreciated below
. coin. There was a strange contusion in the Report, in the rc.a-
soning upon which thicopiiiim professed to be founded, 1 he
different members of their syllogism were unconnected with
each other ; and beginning in their premises with a reference to

. -
coin,they applied their con\alasioti exclusively so bullion (a hiee4).
If Gentlemen meant metely to maintain the self evitint Crittft
that, abstractedly speaking, an ounce of gold was worth an
otihce of goTtia he for one would haie no diftculty in age eeieg
with them ; but if they meant to say that gold neither ecqaired
norlost any thing in value, when it was staiaii;ed as coin. in
comparison with gold in bullion, was an assertion to winch .he
could by no means accede. What .vas the extent of the dif-
ference, or under what circumstances it might be increased or
dindoisbed, was another questrora; bat that there was a dif.
ference between gold in coin and gold in bullion, was a poiet
upon which he could hardly think it possible to entertain a
doubt, as long as the present systeni of our coinage la*s re-
mained in force. it might be argued; that that system was a
bad one, aid that it ought to be change f. Some Geutleman
had Advanced that opinion in effect, it' not in tem*. Tney
thought that it would be wise and politic to srettidve all the
1• pediments which the laws at present' threw iu the, way of the
exportation of our coin: .1f the Legislature were to adopt that
oeinion, and to repeal all the laws now exiStirg upon the sub-
' jeer, and if the guinea were to circulate ahroall precisely for the
Same value that it did at home, in that case, and in that case
only, would the proposition he true, that there was no elfference
between gold in coin and gold in buldun. I:int the question, es
it appeared to him, could only be properly decided by taking the
facts as they did really exist, and not as some Gentlemen might
think they ought to exist. Now what were the real facts of the
t case ? Thia country was under the necessity, from the nature
of the war in which it wateengaged, to carry on extenslve mill-
' tary operations abroad ; and those military operations required
tha: a considerable quantity uf gold should be sent out of the
country. By the law, as it now. stood, gold in coin could nut
be applied to this purpose, because it prohibited, under severe
penalties, the sending it abroad. . If then gold must he employed,
and you could- not send it in coin, it Is/Hawed of course that
you must send it in the shape or bullion. This circumstance
created an increased demand for bullion, and therefore gave it a
higher value titan gold in colts. Was it then true. that gold in
bars and gold in coin was of the same value ? His Hon. Friend
• (Mr. Hu'kisson) certainly had advanced that opinion, and
seemed to think that gold was natural motley, and of thee same
value in whatever shale; but the• fact was, that coin was not
-of the same value abroad as bullion, because it could not be
exported ; and. bullion was not of the same value at home as
coin,
thatbecause it was not a legal tender. H. therefore cunteed.
there was no proof before the Committee that the peeper
of the Bank of England o a deoeeaiated in the sense in Winds
he understCail and had explained that -term ; ili-at is t+4 say,
that the Bank note bore the same, relative:value po a guinea ;
that 3t always did, fur sill the purposes far which a guinea was
legally appicable. All that had been said about the superior
value of a light guinea to a heavy one, had in fact no bearing
' upon the real question It a kuitiest from the deficiency of
weight was put completely out of circulation, ft lost its charac-
ter of coin, and thereby became, bullion ; and thendor the rte.
son he bad just stated, it, would acquire an additinal
Much had .born said about the word " standard," and some
Gentlemen on the other side had displayed a strong desire to
be facetious unon.the übjcct. If be were asked what he on-
'. derstuod by that. word, be should say, that he del not consider
gild as a standard, or silver riga,a sninclaral,.biit he underatoed
gold and silver bound down by law to a
.particular and relative
value with each other., If the kapuse were called open to reeurd
a solemn statement of the law• of the country, they ought, un-
• doubtedly, to tikes care that.,i,hat statement was accurate.-
- Now the assertion in thefitst Reeolaition was not strictly true ; it
aaserted,' that the eonly4rfoliey that- could ba tendered in
Great Britain elm* ether value of twelve pence must be
gold or silver; steel-theta/a' amount at which it was to pass cur-
rent was us lit fixed by the Kiiees prerpnative. ...14ais was not
the law becanse silver.te the amount. of 1251,0vas ikgal tender,
though it was not: ot' Atandaid weight., Xventletriete bad talked
about scales avhich regulated the silverond gall noire. But with
regard to silver,. there • was no law
:which eaidosliat a shilling
should not be current when it was under the atipadard weight;
on-the contrary,- up to the, extent of 24. ~Th.e •eeil important
question for Parliament. to determitie, was tins; what,. under all
the circumstances of. the, case, would. 4 btawien and politic for
them to dot ..The. case of the French bank, aea TOrmer period,
bad been referred to. In that case, tee Bank had.itivolved itself
in difficulties from an over.issise of paper ; the.riirectors dimi-
nished the quantity of their paper, and the COneequence was,
that the credit of. the Bank was restored; and it was also said
that the diminution of. the paier had hadi, an effect upon the
exchange. - of the statement might be tram, but
he
who. h DD;.•
to
had

ras

TtiF, 1!•14:NONAL. REGISTE

change. The latter part of the statement might be tale, but
very nAtch doubted-it.. The i-Lon. (;ent, who had adverted
this Bank admistedithat though the narrowing its circulation
A removed ifs .cliMcultie*, yetr.,it ,proilatced very great emhar-
ssmentsiamong tho coat uV - ~' -
._.* ..,44410"settuuntlity. But
the- wiciadrawins. Of .t .• • 111' : • ,r- •.• • . aik girculation in
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• '- • •-•P oVg.'l6Nr. •,.. .1' • -,
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