The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1818-05-27 00:00:00

•

nst the cnnntry bank,
unonuclee iiril
diesicatno oeulissfauclmen a ge;sviiive issue, the cruse.
of mach unparalleled . distress timuuo all . classes
or the oamonaltity, air existed two years ago.—
The evils arising
two veers ago, if from redeeming the pledge given
Not at this moment, at least much
il4
other
side was the sure
maner thin was by the Bill, were
rren
and
e funoblern
rxptr-
rimmed, of incoifteeniences already felt, and now
teiea utricn t 4
evils O
alea
about to be established beyond the control
of Parliament. The adoption of the measure
would expme the intensts of the country to
until,' and waves, till they world be at last tossed
on a shore where they would meet inevitable ship-
wreck. A more ruinous moisture had never been
submitted to the consideration of Parliament.
The Earl of HaattoWnY said, he should not
follow the Noble Lord, who had just sat dolma,
through his review of all the questions connected
with the one under coosioleration; it required more
knowledge on these various topics than he was pos.
seised of. lie must. however, in the outset, de-
clare, that the Noble Lord had begged every one
of the questions at ismer. But for that original re-
striction of cash payments, which that Noble Lord
condemned, neither would the country have eio-
in yed its past end present commercial prospe-
rity, nor have been enabled to give such effectual
resistance as she did, nor afford to other nations
such means of resistance as they had given to the
great enemy of tlw civilised worlol.—r lear.)--
Without the Act of 1737, it would have been Im-
possible for the country to go on a stogie year.—
The Noble Lord had asserted that the lowa
measure had been brought in ut the solicitations of
the Bank, desirous to pay their debts in a depre-
ciated currency : hut no such solicietion had they
manifested; it would be strange indeed they should,
strange they Mould desire to keep up a spitein
under which their motives were questioned, and their
conduct and character impeached. Neither did
the suspension of cash payments cause a de-
preciation in the paper currency : at no one
time since that event could it be truly said that
Bank paper was depreciated; besides, depreciation
was not a necessary consequence of an excessive
medium, admitting the latter to be fact, which yet
was assumed. How was it to he known that there
was an excess of medium The increased and in-
creasing wealth arid trade of the country required a
considerable addition of bite years, to the amount
of it in former times. Public opinion was the best
meatus of fixing a limit to the issues of the Mink,
and lie could not suppose the country at large to
have been so easy for • number of yens se to yield
five per cent. out of their property to the Bank.
The inconvenience of resuming cash payments too
soon, might be a recurrence *.o past evil'. The
solvency of the Bank of England was as lasting as
the constitution of the country. lie would now beg
leave to say a few words on the argument that the
Bill ought not to be sanctioned, from the extent of
the crime of forgery. It appeared from the papers
lon the table, that the executions for forgery during
the last 14 years had been, on an average, 13
,snottily—no very enormous number. Doling the
same period every other crime had increased to a
much greater extent than forgery ; and it was,
therefore, too much to attribute its increase solely
to the restriction on cash payments. He believed
the Bank had mode every preparation to meet the
change at the time prescribed by the former law.—
The argument of the Noble Lord, on the exporta-
tion of other commodities as well as gold, supposed
in the borrowing country tout only the inclination,
but the ability to purchase them ; allowing both
which, still the quantity of them exported could
scarcely be such as to affect, in nay considerable
degree, the exportation of gold. Any sum in
specie might be trumped away by the operation of
foreign loam. How had 30 or 40 millions of specie
disappeared from this country already ? He had
hem' told by a banker in Paris, in the year 1814,
that no less than six millions of English guineas
had been melted down at the mint there in the
space of six months. It would then, and then
only. be proper to take away the restriction. when
the facilities to a recurrence were such that no one
would perceive that the restriction had been taken
away. He thought the dangers of recurring to
cash payments, at the present critical moment,
much greater than any attendant on a continuance
in a system under which the country had flourished
so much, and would therefore support the motion.
The Marquis of LAwsnowx disapproved of the 8011,
amid still moreof the extruordinary principle on which
it professed to be fonuded, the operation of a foreign
loan. The Noble Earlehad assumed that all the ad-
vantages attending our Krim in the late war had
flowed from the suspension of cash payment—hut
they had left out of the Recount the duration and
extent of it, supported by the credit kept up by
that extraordinary system, the enormous expenses
of the country. and the rove in the price of all the
necessaries of life, occasioned by the same system.
The only alleged ground of the Bill hail been the
French lost, ; he did not think that in any circum-
stances that loan would be attended with the effects
apprehended from it. In their arguments the
Noble Earls had had taken for granted—first, that
all the remittances on account of the loan would be
made in gold; secondly, that the principal part of
them would be made from this country. He could
state from high authority, the declaration of one
of the contractors, th.tt the bed French loan had
drawn away a very email part of the circilla.
t.ion from this country—that it had taken most
from France itself, and the other nations of the
Continent. The history of Europe would form a
series of illustrations of the principle, that a sum
to he remitted from one country to another is always
remitted in the way most 'advantageous to the lender.
His Noble Friend had truly stated, that a French
Ivan was only a pretext on the present occasion; an
ordinary one among commercial transactions would
next year faintish another, and so on from year to
year. When he heard IS the public opinion Whig
the strongest means of influence ever the powers of
the Blank, he naturally asked how it had operated al-
ready. mid how their powers had been exercised under
it ? They had extended their i-sues, which amounted
to 10 millions in the year 1797, to 49 millions
in the last year. From this fact Ire could not ad-
mot the strength of that influence—more especially
when lie considered that in addition they were tin-
der the directions of en Act of Parliament to pre-
pare for rest tttt it ig cash payments in July nest.
The true olileitTe of the increase of immorality

• \llia, gob

•

-
j‘ ‘.\

by
tu this respect war, the iie.rearic of pin,ectiletns
the Bank, and, he believed, of coneictions. Wh•it
determined the value n( any medium war eoine fixed
standard ; but that • f the paper of the Batik of
Eugland was suffered by the (iiiverioneist to Otte-
t state at, and according to, the views of tlre Rink,
soil the state iif the currener was left at the mercy
of the Bank. The Noble Earl had stated, that
the Batik were lint deviromi of this inertsure.—
It might be Pii—but the fact toe was going to neaps
tiou would render it rather giostionahle. A large
body of Praprieture had eieged- it on the Batik, a. a
1114.3 More due to their credit, to mike an application
to lie Armed to return to cash pigmefite at tbe
tone oointed out by the Act of 1816—brit the D.-
rectors hail refused. 'll-.e true Diode of prepanitg
for the resueeptiou would hr, tint to draw stir !Trete
from the Continent, but to contract the issues.
He hoped the till would he reconsidered in ;m-
-other year. Meantime, he was compelled to tote
otairist the motion, though he would pinbelily
agree to the. Bill did it 'fledge the Bank to recur to
cash payments within six weeks after the next
meeting of Pal liament.
E BAIIIUR•T said, that the Bank had not
made any application to Government, either for or
against a resimipt of payments in cash, but t hey
were quite ready to pay in cash d eircuurp.tone.,
would permit it. Whatever might be said, gold
• was always exhorted in an unfavourable state of the
exchange, because its ex portattoo peoduced .4 larger
profit than that of any other ;article. lie felt cots.
tident that to sanction a return to a medium m toe
precious metals, would, 'miter existing circum-
stances, cause a great die ii i)) 'mon its the ciiculation,
and thereby consoler. the evils.
The Earl of LAUDERDALE combated the argil-
mem% of the First Lord of the Treasury (Earl of
Liverpool) and Of the President of the Cousivil
(Earl of Ilarrowby). The principles ou whirls the
latter Noble Earl had argued would serve as a
ground-Work for restriction for ever. When gold
got a rise, the Bank, with a view to resuming casts
payments. should have contracted their issues as
they did its the year 1797 ; whereao the papers pre-
sented spewed that they had raised their issues fur
the last six months two minim!, ou an average.
The true cause of the continualiou of the restrict-
tome was the advances made to Governsiwnt, and
the necessity of still recurring to them. When the
system of Finance had been proposed last year, he
hail predicted that a resumption of cash payments
this year would be iinpracticable. He would sit
I down perfectly convinced that the Bank could
not resume payments without adding a cer-
tain number of months to the established period
of restriction. lie would accordingly beg leave,
in the proper place, to propose a clause,
binding the Bank to a resumption of cash payments
within six weeks after Parliament would next
meet—stud a become!, the tendency of which would
he to provide that the Bank should reduce their
advances to the Goverumeot to what they were in
the year 1797 (previous to the original Restriction
Act), six weeks before the next meeting of Far-
'lament. There was a third, by which lie wished
to provide that the Batik should not resume cash
insymenta, till she prosirions of the stith Gro. 111.
were con/plied with.
Lord KING said, no fouudation had been laid
for the measure but the ipso dial's of Noble E•irls,
as to the operation of a French loan. He :led a
clause to propose in the Committee, prohibiting
the Bank Directors making any dividend of profits,
when gold should be above the mint price.
The Earl of LIVERPOOL replied, the same prin-
ciples could not ripply to any private bank as to
the Bank of Enigland, from the Act of the State it-
self appointing it a Batik of Eliglaild, and it only,
of such a nature and under such regulations. In
all the communications; lie had held with lwrsous
terested, they expressi•cf a desire to have the restric-
tion continned. He never yet saw the necessity of
the original restriction in the year 1797--and
lie brlieved the permanent continuation of the
system must injurious, not from any evils it had
yet occasioned, but from its liability to evils.—
They had seen commercial prosperity and commer-
cial adversity—they had seen agricultural prosperi-
ty and agricultural adversity—and yet, during all
theme chaftwes, they found that bttt a very slight al-
teration hadm been effected in the circulation of
Batik of England notes. lie could not admit, even
taking into consideration the private banks, that, at
any period, the paper curreiti•y of the country was
excessive. With respect to the frequeticy of fa-
gery, lie would only say, that it wits the duty of the
Government, and Of any great body like the Hank.
to use every means in their power to check the evil.
But, when it was said that this evil was greatly in-
creased by the adoption of a system of 'toper cur-
rency, they ought to take into consideration the
evils that would attend any other system. Troy
should look to the great extent to which coining
would be carried, if they had recourse to a metallic
currency—afid lie believed it would he found, that
very little difference in numbers could be disco-
vered, in two corresponding periods, beiween per-
sons convicted of coining and of forging Brink notes.
Lord Gaxxvti.t.P. seed; that it was well k iiiiii 1,
to every person who had exuriiined the state of the
country, within the last three years, that there was
an excessive issue of country votes—so much so,
that numberless persons were ruined by the f. ilale
of many of those binks—and ilitise bankers tv!.o
were able to pay, did so, by r..otractinl, a wear
degree, the issue of
their note.. TI", gave a la:-
lacious appearance of pro-prrny to the country.
when, in fact, it was in a state of distress.
The Earl of LIVERpooL explaketl.
Their Lordships then resulted tie nisrlvete into a
Committee on the 11.11.
.

Ihe Eatt of LAUDERDALE, Hn the
moved au amendment, the olieraiiim i.f
the Bill to " six weeks afttr the ~thing, of tilt next
iif Parliament."

Lard Ilot.t.AN 0 concurred in the propri,i'y f
the ninendniesit.

Thrir Lord Alps then divided—Miro these ap-
pealed—

Not Content*
Contents

Majority againat the AmcndmtM.... IS

Fitts), wtre tint afterwards aiimitied below
the 101 t, hut, w. nmlrr•l:uul, 100.101-
mtiiiki were pr,ipiista, aiiii negatived without a di-

The Bin tone throPg.ll tht Cconnittef•,