The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-21 00:00:00

NC; EDI TI

I that Bank 'with'n the metropolitan circle. Sao
thou ght that the nterval between the present perio r
and the possib'e revision of the arrangements witj
' fair Bank of England might be advantageouslh
I employed is ; settling the general prinCiples of
;s,ln•king. Now, certainly this Bill was only means
to be ternprary. It had been opposed by var:ou,
Members ; first by the Hon, Member for • Kilkenny
arguments of
pttl irlmieoeneuepf eacttsiilhhpdoaeloietinsHhwhetl
who held that banking should be entirely free, and that
se,
the competition would sufficiently prevent any evils.
oaehh
ioewi
dwes
ahe:dsnui
hoefl
sepds, guiltyehinibd:eafeeedwerproposed e
t 0 o
argue
rai
ut goer ei
anacttf,aw‘,oaosrut erageoaffittntseet
byea
perfectly
theew Int Hon.hige rt
olkwle.erme abidebbeer:..ob
rye Theatnye
decision it might come to. The discussion on the Bill
had, however, subsequently assumed quite another cha-
racter, and instead of discussing any abstract principles
of revenue they were called on to discus; the particular
bearing of private interests, and the House and the Go-
vernment were called on to reject the Bill on grounds
pecn4arly Irish. They were told that the people of ;
Ireland were adverse to the principles of the Bill, and
that it was unjust and imprudent to press it. He (the
Chancellor of the Exchequer) had endeavoured so far
as he could, and he hoped without offence to the oppo-
nents of the Bill, to meet the objections that had been
urged, and he said as a matter of history, noi of com-
plaint, that he had been met not by argument and rea-
son, but by the most pertinacious opposition, purely for
the purpose of delay, and with the intention to de!e it the
Bill, and preclude the possibility of its being entestainod
by the House. He should refer to a few facts and
dates for the purpose of showing the nature of
the opposition he had met with. LThe Right . Hon.
Gentleman here went over the various divisions that
had taken place in the progress of the Bill, and ob-
served that it was not a fair opposition, but a mechani-
cal opposition, so that, if the Bill was the best in the
whole world, five or six Members of that House, if
they thought fit, might arrest its progress. In short,
acting upon the same system, if the Queen of Portugal
could return four Members to that Louse, the progress
of the Portuguese Slave Bill might be effectually
stopped—a system which, if resorted to very often, was
calculated to bring into jeopardy the Cong.:lotion of
that country. He had often known the system of ad-
journment being resorted to for the purpose of prevent-
ing measures being brought forward after twelve o'clocts
at night ; but he never knew, except in the present and
another instance—that of the Hon. Member for Brid-
port—the same system resorted to for the purpose of
defeating a legislative measure. It was alleged that
the majorities in favour of the Bill had been obtained
by the aid of persons holding official situations under
the Government, and that the independent expression
of the opinion of Parliament had been overborne by
them ; but he denied that, and a glance at the names
composing those majorities would show that even with-
out
the official gentlemen who had voted, the result
would have been the same. The Bill which he had
introduced gave additional powers
,to the Private
and Joint-stock Banks of Ireland, who complained that
in consequence of the monopoly of the Bank of Ireland,
they were limited in the means of carrying on their
business. The Bill proposed to give these parties the
privilege of banking in Dublin, free from all restriction
save that of issuing promissory notes. .That power was
conferred then not only in the metropolis, but it was also
competent to any parties to establish similar banks in
Drogheda, Dundalk, Carlow, or any other provincial town.
Thei uterests of Joint-stock Banks were not neglected
in the Bill. Their houses of business were legalized,
and also the power of retiring their own notes. Various
other useful branches of banking were extended to
them in the metropolitan districts, and especially that
of drawing and accepting bills at not less than ten days'
date, and for sums of not less than 10/. To England
it held out the advantage of reducing the charge of
managing the national debt, by the sum of 23,000/. per
annum, and provided for the funding of 900,000/. of
Exchequer hills which the B ink held, on terms extremely
ad‘antageous to the public. Now, it was fairly admitted
last night that no expectation could be held out that
the course of opposition to that Bill would be aban-
doned. If it were the mere question of a Bill in which
the Government only was concerned, and one which
would not affect large branches of their commercial
and monetary transactions, the objection of bringing
it on at a late period of the Session might
have had some weight, for the Government had been 7;
rather reproached for its disposition to yield to remon-
strance. But in the present case it was to be Consi-
dered whether it was just or expedient that they should
give way under the peculiar circumstances in which they •'
were placed. In the first place, the arrangement entered
into with the Bank of Ireland was to be considered, and
it would be most unfair to take any course without
giving the Bank an opportunity of being fairly heard.
Besides they had to consider what would be the effect
of yielding to mechanical opposition such as the Bill had
met with, and that involved consequences seriously
affecting the future well-beiog of Parliament itself, and
made the question still more embarrassing.—(Hear,
hear.) What, then, was the course it behoved' them
to take ? To move for a Call of the House, as sug-
gested by the Hon. Member fur Wicklow ; but hide.:
pendently of the inconvenience of protracting.the Ses-
sion, and recalling Members who had gone home or to
the Continent, in the expectation that the business of
the Session had terminated, he doubted whether they
could obtain a fair proportion of the 658 Members to
attend, and even if they did, whether they would not have
still to contend with the very same species of opposition
—that the inconvenience to all parties would be
fruitless, and that they would be at the end of
that period placed just where they were now.
Under these circumstances he had communicated
with the Bank of Ireland, and in justice to that
body, of whom they had heard so much evil, and charges
without end, poured out authoritatively upon it, he must
say that the conduct of that body, so far as ho had been
enabled to judge of it, was the most disinteretted-and
public spirited he had ever met with. They were of
course aware of the opposition to the Bill, and felt if it
was persevered in, it could not become law. To appeal
to the House for an alteration of its own orders and re-
gulations was impossible, and he (the Chancellor of the
Exchequer) felt that it was of importance that that
power of adjournment should be preserved by the mino-
rity, but if it was desirable to maintain it they should
not prostitute it to a bad use—(Cheers from both sides
of the House)—and if he had appealed to tne House to
al-.er its present mode of procedure, he felt he should
have been laying himself open to much more s'.-rious
charges than any that had yet been brought against
him, and the arguments which had been urged against
the late period of the Session, and the merits of the
Bill, would have been augmented a thousand fold.
Therefore any appeal to the House would not only
have been fruitless, but would not have been made
by him, because he felt that such a course would be
objectionable and indefensible. The question then was
what course of proceeding was to be adopted, and he
would ask Hon. Members who opposed the Bill what
end was gained by that opposition's If the monopoly of
the Bank of Ireland was objected to, did the re-
jection of the present Bill free them from it ? If
they wished to favour the establishment of Joint-
stock banks the withdrawal of the Bill favour them?.
The Bill, so far as it went, limited the monopoly of the
fla3avonukroefd of Ithreelaens(tiabhllislsienvieenntaanimd poops ar
an
tti p. a icuol: an rts4
oacnkd
Banks. The effect of withholding the Bill, if nothing
more was done, entailed a charge of 23,000/. a year on
the country. It would, however, be for the public
there and in Ireland to decide, when they had reasoned
calmly and dispassionately on the subject, whether the
Opposition or himself were right or wrong.—(Hear,
hear.) lie should be perfectly ready to abide by the
decision of the commercial world of Ireland, and by the.
calm, and prudent, and reflecting people of that country
whether it would not have been best for the public that
the Bill bad been allowed to proceed. One difficulty
remained, and if it had not been surmounted, it would
have placed impassable obstacles in the way of any ar-
rangement. There was a sum of 900,000!. which the
Bank of Ireland held, and which it was one of the ob-
jects of the Bill to fund. Undoubtedly it would have
been productive of the greatest embarassment to appeal
to the money market, in order to discharge these bills.
The bank of Ireland had it hi its power to throw ob-
stacles in the way, as consequent upon the acts of those
who opposed the Bill, which the priblic might have felt
and suffered from. It was only for the Bank to say
that Parliament had entered into an engagement
with them, which should be rigidly fulfilled.
spiritiTii The e d Bankwhich
fron of
urging,
entitled
g lreland,l
nyti
claim
etivami
mh t
ooar
commendation,tgiieen:reroows i, y an
whichb
apdtbt
would
re-
frained
embarrass the public, and had proposed to fund 900,000/.
of Exchequer Bills not at the Government price, but at
that which lied been proposed by the Bank of England.
Under all the circumstances of the case, reluctantly—
very much against his own wish and inclination, if he
bad to fight the battle single-handed—he would have
endeavoured to fight it to the last moment that he was
capable of maintaining his position ; but he had to look
at the waste of the public time—he had to consult the
convenience of those around him—he should th.erefore
one vear.—
rangetnents with the Bink of Ireland for
i
the full
propose to bring in a Bill to continue the existing ar
(Hear, hear.) He made that in."("iti°•ntsbyfullest
tssent of the Bank of Ireland—without
its
that House
con-
currence he would not have stood.n phut they cor-
to make such a proposinoro
proposition, convinced
dialiy assented to the.
their
cause was jug.
as they were that th
theld stand the test of exatnina-
upon
asked rwini_eisei•ptilei.sen he took thewhichare
satisfied that they must be triumphant 1
tion. He was
next Session.
supportedfel t
confident
tli e Bill
t hwaruteu
in the contest, he would answer that he believed it
would be unavailing—that it would cause much un-.
necessary labour—it would cause a great waste of
time, and would render the question wool) -more in-
tricate than it now was, without in any way advancing_
it. He did it with very great regret, hut he knew no
other course that was open to him to follow. He
t,.ould propose to go into Committee on the 13111 pro