The Sun.
London, England, 1839-07-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDA Y, JULY 27, 1839.

of the House. The Hon. Gentlemen had been pleased to
state, in alluding to the circumstances attending the panic
of 1836, that that state of things had been occasioned al-
together by the misconduct of the Bank of Ireland. He
had never contended that the conduct of the Bank of Ire-
land, in reducing the rate of discount, after the Bank of
England had raised it, was wise or proper, but it by no
means followed that the subsequent state of confusion in
the country was owing to this conduct on the part of the
Bank of Ireland. He would admit that there was on that'
occasion misconduct, or mistake, on the part of the Bank
of Ireland. But the Hon. Gentleman had said on a
former occasion, and had again repeated, that the Bank of
Ireland had been guilty of great misconduct, in being alto-
gether regardless of the state of the discount of the Bank
of England, and in proof that they were so, it had been stated
that they were ignorant on the subject. Now, if they would
look to the evidence of Mr. Wilson, they would find that the
Bank of Ireland was not altogether regardless of the state of
the discounts of the Bank of England, nor ignorant of their
operation; neither were they ignorant or regardless of the
rate of foreign exchanges; but in reply to questions put
by the Right Hon. Baronet, the Member for Taroworth,
who was a Member of that Committee, Mr. Wilson had
stated that they were not aware of the state of the American
securities at that time, nor of the manner in which those
securities had been affected, or had been instrumental in
producing the state of commercial distress. He believed
the Bank of Ireland regulated their affairs by considering,
first the rate of discount ; second, the state of the Foreign
exchanges, and thirdly, the amount of specie and security
in possession of the Bank of England. These were the
exponents to which they ought to direct their attention.
He did not know if it was the duty of the Bank of
England to acquaint the Bank of Ireland with the state of
their securities, but it was clearly the duty of the Bank of
Ireland to attend to these exponents, which the Legislature
had provided as guides to them in conducting their bank-
ing operations. He did not justify the conduct of the
Bank of Ireland on that occasion, and it was not for the sake
of the Bank of Ireland that he asked the House to adopt this
measure. He only asked support for it, in so far as it was
of importance to the public interest. He did not come for-
ward to propose this for the advantage of the Bank of Ire-
land. He knew little of any individuals connected with that
establishment, he had been connected with establishments
which were its rivals in trade, and therefore could not be
supposed to have any great fondness for or interest in sup-
porting the Bank of Ireland ; but he proposed this reso-
lution because he thought it was for the benefit of the
country. Those who thought with the Hon. Member for
Kilkenny that a free trade in banking would- be a public
benefit, all those who desired to desired to see every in-
dividual possessed of the power of embarking as a banker,
would very properly object to it; but gentlemen who did
not go to that length, although they might differ in opinion
as to the extent to which the principle might be carried,
should support it because their differences might be taken
into consideration when they got into Committee. The
Hon. Gentleman had adverted to the state of the law
respecting Bank of England notes being a legal tender
in Ireland ; and after mentioning the fact that Bank of
England notes are sometimes at a discount in Ireland,
had contended that this must be owing to some delin-
quency part of the Bank of Ireland. The fact
was
of Ireland bad nothing whatever to do with
it, enan on
and consequently
the
Bark
khe.could not be considered responsible.
Bank of England notes were only known in Dublin like
any other security. If the supply exeeded the demand
they were cheap and at a discount, and if they were few
in number and less than the demand then they fetched a
higher price and were at a premium, and the Bank of
England note like every other commercial security would
vary in value in the market. But the Bank of Ireland had
been accused of having acted unjustly by refusing these
notes---he wished to explain the state of the law on this
subject, When Lord Spencer introduced the Bank Charter
Act he introduced a clause making bank notes a legal
tender in any place except by the Bank themselves. It
was not the intention of Lord Spencer that this clause
should affect Ireland or Scotland. He had said as the
reason for making these notes a legal tender that they
might always be taken to the Bank of England and specie
obtained for them, and therefore that they might fairly be
made a legal tender in other parts of England. But this
argument was not applicable to Ireland. A person re-
ceiving a note at Dundalk could not step across the way
to the Bank of Ireland to get gold for it, but would be
obliged to cross the Channel. The same argument would
apply to Scotland; and it had never been the intention of
Lord Spencer that this law should be applied to those
countries, and for some time this was considered to be the
state of the law. But in 1834 a question arose as to
whether these notes were a legal tender in Ireland. The
opinions of the Hon. and Learned Gentleman, and of the
Attorney and Solicitor-Generals were in favour of their
being a legal tender. Other high legal authorities differed
from them, but as the Law Officers of the Crown had
given their opinion, the Government determined to abide
by it, and receive their notes in the collection of the reve-
nue. The Hon. Gentleman objected to this, and he con-
sidered that he was ,right in doing so, as he thought it
wrong to make paper a legal tender that was not imme-
diately convertible into gold, and it was his intention to en-
deavour to remedy this. It had been stated that the people
of Ireland had been taken by surprise by the proposal of
this measure at so late a period of the Session, that they
had no notice, and that the people of Ireland had made this
a subject of complaint, and the people of Drogheda had
been particularly mentioned. Now he held in his hand a
Drogheda paper, printed at Drogheda, from which he
would read a few extracts in answer to these charges. It
was an account of a meeting at Drogheda summoned to
meet a deputation which had been with him (the Chancel-
lor of the Exchequer) on this subject, and the members of
which attended the meeting to give an account of the pro-
ceedings. The Mayor, who had been a member of that
deputation, stated to the meeting that they had found the
Chancellor of the Exchequer assuming a tone different
from what they had expected, and that he was inclined to
yield more than they had at first expected.—(Hear.) He
(the Chancellor of the Exchequer) had on that occasion
explained to them his plan, which did not differ from the
one he was now about to propose—he had not given up
any part of it, but he had merely explained to them that he
intended to introduce certain improvements in Joint-
stock Banks, whereas they had before considered
that it was his intention to leave the subject.
They proceeded to state that they got so much from him,
theytgEhuenant
English
maintainedthichsemheyyh
gentlemen
eat
hdm uappliedb s alluded
et
Members.
their
dordteiHnothing
ffieen d hostiledifferent
Members
e doing
sei tini obi
ri
sn.ohfo
Pre
ahs
retlyoi a
mtgetheenn more
,sotar
state
t de;
b
were sorry to remark that nothing could exceed the igno-
rance on Irish affairs manifested by the most acute of the
ieraenyofetmhe.
toi d notha kw
supportedi wh e
thew twhether
Hn• m
ber for Kilkenny on this occasion. They then state that
they endeavoured to get hold of the Conservatives. They
had waited on Mr. Ellis, of Newry, who had waited on
Sir Robert Peel, and appointed a time to introduce them.
At the conclusion of the address there was this sentence—
" I will conclude by stating, the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer made this concession because he heard it whispered
we should muster a formidable opposition." He (the
Chancellor of the Exchequer) had made no concession at
all, but they said, according to the report, " We did not
make the concession, because in fact our leader, Mr.
Hume, who is opposed to every species of compromise,
would not let us, if even we were so inclined."—( Laugh-
ter.) That was the account they gave of their own pro-
ceedings. There was not one word of complaint of being
uninformed of the details of his plan, nor one word of ob-
jection to the plan as far as it went; but, on the contrary,
they claimed it as their own, and considered it was greatly
for their benefit. Mr. Canning, it was well known, had
said in that House, on a memorable occasion, " this is my
thunder," so these parties said, " this is our banking Bill."
He (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) contended this was
a measure which, while it would give relief to one party
would accommcdate all. He thanked the HCuse for having
indulged him in making this explanation, and begged to
state that Government did not wish to hurry the Bill
through the House, but would give every facility to Hon.
Gentlemen to state their objections to the measure.
Mr. O'CONNELL wished to make a few observations
in explanation. The Right Hon. Gentleman had alluded
to what he ( Mr. O'Connell) had said with reference to the
arrangement with the Bank of Ireland. He did not
shrink from one word he had said with respect to that, nor
had any thing that had fallen from the Right Hon. Gen-
tleman altered his opinion on that subject. He did not
suppose that any person could have fancied, when he had
talked of " a favoured few," that he meant they were
favoured by the Chancellor of Exchequer, and he thought
the Right Hon. Gentleman had made use of a great deal
of unnecessary dsclamation in that respect. He (Mr.
O'Connell) had t meant that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer had entered into any pecuniary arrangement
with the Bank, or had permitted any body to do so. He
had no such idea, but what he had said was, that Bank
Stock bad risen 3 per cent. in consequence of its having
been believed a compact had been entered into with the
Government. Then, again, he had not brought a charge
against the Bank of Ireland for allowing the notes of the
Bank of England to circulate at a discount ; on the contrary,
he had stated they had no means of regulating the currency.
If the Chancellor Of the Exchequer meant to continue the
privilege to the Bank of Ireland, why did he not throw on
it the burthen of making arrangements with the Bank of
England, or let the Bank of England have an agency
o
office in Dublin, so that there might not be that difference
in the circulation ? Then as to the report of the meeting
at Drogheda, which the Chancellor of the Exchequer had
) wished the
He had stated the conversation which took place between
the deputation and the Chancellor of the Exchequer at a
madeßight such
Honourable use of.
Gentlemanlie ( Mr.
joy O
offormer period. He believed that no deception was in-
tended by by the Right Hon. Gentleman, but the result
of it was necessarily a deception, because the public could
not understand why the Chancellor of the Exchequer
'Cn
it.n_el(l
Hear, hear. )
began with the deputation upon an hypothesis. And he
now asked the Right Hon. Gentleman what business he
had to do it? The Right Hon. Gentleman said, not
pledging himself to any thing, that suppose the limits of
the Bank of Ireland monopoly was limited within a circle
of 20 miles round Dublin, would there then be any
objection to the renewal of the Charter?—( Hear,
hear)—and said if the Right Hon. Gentleman reduced the
limits, so as to leave Drogheda and some other towns the
same privileges as Belfast and other places, there would
be no dissatisfaction. He ( Mr. O'Connell) was induced
to believe that to be the Chancellor of the Exchequer's
opinion, and that he did not pledge himself merely because
it had not then become a Cabinet measure. Ile
was deceived by that, and so here the people.---( Hear,
hear.) Almost the whole of the Deputation assented
of Ireland, and remained in that condition until three weeks
ago, when the Hon. Member for Drogheda stated that the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had told him the limits were
to remain at 50 miles.—( Hear, hear.)
Mr. RE DI NG TON said the impression on his mind
was exactly the same as that which was conveyed to the
mind of the Hon. and Learned Member for Dublin. When
the House met this year lie had no reason to suppose that
the opinion of the Chancellor of the Exchequer was
changed, and was extremely surprised when he heard of his
intention to bring forward dila measure, The Right Hon..
Gentleman had stated that the deputation went back to
.DrOgiteda, and made no objection;. That was entirely -a-
mistake, for one objection was that the Joint-stock Banks
would be at the mercy of the Bank of Ireland. With regard