The National Register.
London, England, 1811-07-21 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL I

the Law, but he was assured it would soon be banished from
commerce. "I hough he did not mean to propose any measttre
himself, yet he expressed a wish that no more notes should
be issued by the Bank until the Bill was either rejected or
passed.
Mr. HERBERT contended against the extraordinary manner
in which tt.e Bill !has introduced, and the manner in which it
was pushed on by his Majesty's Ministers : the measure itself
was like.a phenomena in politics, and he had heard it called a
measure waich the Ministers deemed necessary to the salvation
of the Governnhnt. He was sorry there should be occasion to
constitute a compulsory law, which might overthrow the Con-
sti-ution. Besides, it had been intimated to them by Ministers,
that were the proposed measure rejected, they would find need
to constitute p :per-money a legal tender of the realm. The
Right Hon. Gentleman (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) then
before him, hal argued on a former day, that the two prices
were net in existence until they were created by my Lord King.
Nothing more fair and patriotic had ever been proposed. Its
object was to bring the e H into the public mace, creating
thereby a necessity for enacting of some measure of public uti-
lity. it was a doctrine quite inadmissible that a twenty shil-
ling Bank-note and a shilling were equal in value to a guinea;
every person knew the cost of a guinea, and the consideration
of that told them paper was depreciated. Such were the mea-
sures adopted by the French in their paper system, and we were
only proceeding a little more slowly in the same career. How,
might he ask of hls Majesty's Ministers, did they intend to hin-
der guineas from being sold to private banks ? they Would find
it difficult to prevent such clandestine commerce, and he be-
lieved that the Bill would do no more than hindtr, not amend
the eviis which had been complained of.
Mr. CALCRAFT contended against the comparison which the
Hon. Gentleman (Mr. liettert) h.,d nude bctwh n the Bank
assigNals of France and the notes of fugland ; :0,000,000 of
the former were issued, where there existed little national cre-
dit. The currency issued by toe Bank of Britain amounted
only to 23,000,0001. proceeding from a Government secure in the
public faith. How could the Hon. Gentleman ittelul.;e
in such wild comparison ? It only showed how blind men might
make themselves by argument.

Mr. BROUGHAM believed that his Hon. Friend (Mr. Calcraft)
had considerably departed from his object, by treating the pre-
sent measure as a fresh political subject. The Bill appeared to
him, in its present shape, to be utterly incapable of assisting
the country, and was only fit for creating mischief; it would
assist debtors to cheat their creditors, but would be of no ser-
vice to the people. By express enactment of the Bill, guineas
were allowed to be transported into Ireland. The real value of
gold might there he received, and transmitted back to the re-
ceivers in Britain ; and even were these clauses omitted, the
evils would not be remedied: Her did not approve of the man-
ner In which Lord King's intimation had been treated. No re-
lief was offered by the Bill on that nor on any other description
of creditors. Suppose that a judgment was passed in last ter m
yet unacted on, the creditors might seize the persons of their
debtors, until they were paid ip goki, in paper, or in goods.
He hoped better things from the known ci:aracter ef the Judges.
Ile hoped they never would be found willing to stoop to the
base association of which they were exempted to become mem-
bers. No, the framers of this preposterous Bill would never
trust for support to a Court bf Law or a Court of Equity. The
former would not meet their views, and the latter dare not.
To what then must they have recourse ? Why, to a farther le-
gislative provision, by which Batik-notes shall become a legal
tender. He must confess that he felt a curiosity to observe
what sensation would be created by doing away the Bank Re-
striction, in that respectable corporation ; they now talked big
upon the subject, expressed much uneasiress at the risk to
which their credit was exposed, by frequent dlscesslers on a
subject in which they were in no degree interested.—dischargii g
their obligations in paper, as they did solely for the belle& of
the community, without the smallest add.tional emolument
acereieg to themselves, or wish that it should. Honourable
souls ! they wished to resume cash payments. Cruel, cruel
Minister, who could leave so sincere and fervent a desire un-
gratified. He would recommend, so long as it did remain un-
gratified, what next to its attainment, he was sure must please
them, and that was that the surplus, or at least what the people,
no doubt, unreasonably, imagined to be the surplus of their fair
profits, should be held in trust till the removal of the Restric-
tion, when a dividend might be made, upon its being ascer-
tained that they had not been levied upon the Public by virtue
of that suspected engine. He yet hoped the awful examples
before their eyes, would deter the Right Hon. Gentleman and
his colleagues from the adoption of so destructive a system ;
but if they were determined to rank among the most foolish
and headstrong of mankind, he could only say, that he au-
gured HI for the fate of the country, and the tenor of the new

ISTER.

reign, which was marked in its comraeneement by so unhappy
a policy.
Mr. MILNE was of opinion that the Hon. Gentleman had
int i oduced notch irrelevant matter into his speech. The Hon.
.Gcntlemau (Mr. Milne) then went on to show the extreme
unfairness of Lord King's notice and conduct: and this posi-
tion he illustrated by asking how that Noble Lord had been
paying for salt, coals, candles, &c. Had he not been paying
for these things in the said klepreciated currency? With this
depreciated currency had he net paid for tht se things, and he
had not proved to any one that the hank paper which he prof-
fered bad been refused in any one instance to his detriment; but
though he paid in this depreciated currency, yet he now
stepped forward and toll his tenants that he could receive their
rents in gold only, he knowing that it would be impossible to
comply with his apse di.rit, except at an immense, at an almost
ruinous loss. But a law ought to be made to compel those
who required payment in gold, also to pay in gold. Fhe evil
of such a proceeding would then correct itself. The Bill, as
far as it went, he approved; but in his opinion it did not go far
enough.
Sir THOMAS TURTON, differing from most other speakers,
thought the Noble Lord (King) should have been left alone, and
that the Legislature should not have interfered with his finan-
cial reveries; lie would then soon have desisted; or he would
have lost his tenants; and the Noble Lord could no more do
without tenants than they could without lindlords, and he
would soon have been brought to a sense of his own impru-
dence.

Lord FOLIZT.F.TONE entered into a spirited defence of the
motive 3 which had guided Lori Icing jn the course he had put-.
sued. Ile contended that he had only acted in conformity with
the laws of his country, and observed that the tenant could not
complain of oppression, ielemuch as he had the opportunity of
raising the price of his cemmodity comnunsurate with the addi-
tion made to his re et. llc cteu,hiered the Dank is a state of
insolvency, from the ver7 temmerit it ctea,ei its caeh payments,
and considered the assertion of the search', of grAd in they
country wholly unfoundtal, itlestrating his argument by instant:4
ing the traffic which had been carrying forward, aed the facility
with which gold could yet be procured for an adequate pre-
mium. in France, when the assigrt4t disappeared, gold returned;
and, he had no doubt, when the Bank of Fnglaud notes were
withdrawn the same effect would be experienced. Before he
concluded, his Lordship took leave to relate an anecdote of the
Noble Lord (Stanhope), the original ptomoter of this notable
13:;L—Some years ago when the precious Metals were in general
circulation, a practige preveiaal of clipping and sweating e,uiticas,
by which their intrinsic value was much redueed The Noble
Lord, who had tiways a remarkable talent fur mechanics and
chymical experiments, thoaght he had discovered a sovereign
remedy for this nefarious practice, a,41 with this nostrum the
Noble Lord waited on Mr. Pitt, and having explained the nature
and effect of this wonderful discovery, he persuaded Mr. Pitt to
let him try the experiment, and got admission to the mint for
that purpose; here lie employed a person belonging to the mint
to make this guinea, which was not to be easily melted, and
could not be clieptd et sweated. The work was perft rmed
perfectly to the Noble Lord's secisfaction—" 0l" says his i ,ord-
ship, " this will do—thi.4 do—this is the very thing;" but,
unfortunately, the men let the guinea slip from his linger upon
a stone staircase, and it fell in pieces. The Noble Lord's Bill
was much like his guinea; it might be adopted to some pur-
poses, but could never aiaaver the purpose for which it was
intended. Upon the whole, 1-e consideredlins Bill as an ex post
facto law, productive of mte.h evil, totally insulticient to its ,
ob-
ject and more detrimental than beneficial towards remedying
the evil it proposed to redress.
Lord CasTeemenon wax impressed with the necessity of the
Bill, and therefore gave it his warm support.
Mr. MARRYATT said, that this Bill was not only the most
extraordinary in itself, but attended with the most extraordi-
neey circumstances; his Majesty's Minister:, by supporting
this 'WI, had recanted all their former doctrines, and thereby
admitted the tleprccution of Bank-paper. He considered.
this measure as wholly inadequate to the purpose, and con-
ceived that nothing but retracting their etepe, by restraining
the Bank issues, and restoring cash payments, could remedy the
evil.
Mr. JOHN SMITH supported the Bill on the grounds of expe-
diency.
The CHANCriLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in a mist able and
animated speech, combated the ai gtiments against /he measures
and urged its expedirecy in impressive terms.
Mr. FIERNEY would not have acted as Lord King bad done,
had he heen in his place, yet he citing not but reprobate the
manner in which that Nobleman was attempted to be hunted
down. The Right Honourable Gentleman, who was mu.
perated at his refusal to connect lanist-11 with his Administra-
tion, would low nu opportuuity to hunt him down.--(Grief'