The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-26 00:00:00

BANK NOTES ISSUE BILL.

A proposal of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to recom-
mit the Bank Notes Issue Bill led to some discussion in
which Mr. Cobbold, Mr. Heygate, Mr. Greaves, Mr. Clay,
Mr. Hubbard, Mr. Hadfield, and other members took part.
Colonel EDWARDS remarked that, if the bill passed
in its then shape, it would inflict serious consequences
upon the trade of the country, and that a more dangerous
measure, so far as the provincial banking interests were
concerned, had never been concocted on the Treasury
bench. In brief, it was a wholesale confiscation of bank-
ing property, and ho recommended that it should be with-
drawn.

Ultimately, however, the bill was recommitted, when
Mr. COBBOLD moved to omit a portion of the Bth
clause, and insert words to the effect that the Lords
Commissioners of the Treasury might, on and at any
time after the Ist January, 1879, by notice in the Lon-
don Gazette, declare that, unless Parliament otherwise de-
termined, at the expiration of one year from the date of
the notice all issues of banks in respect of which a per-
centage might be payable under the act should cease,
and that such issues should cease accordingly.
Mr. AYRT ON opposed the amendment, and character-
ised as monstrous the claim set up by the country bankers
to make indefinite the term during which their power of
issue should continue ; and called upon the committee
not to assent to the entangling language of the clause
proposed by Mr. Cobbold.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER objected to
the new clause as altogether out of character, because it
was proposed for the express purpose of introducing utter
vagueness and uncertainty into the provisions of the bill,
and would practically have the effect of rather implying on
the part of Parliament a belief or an intention that the
private issues under the act might be continued as a
monopoly. The words were innocent enough in them-
selves, but the spirit and aim with which they were pro-
posed rendered them inadmissable.

After some discussion the amendment was withdrawn,
and on the motion of the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
the following words were inserted in the preamble, further
to define the objects of the bill :—"And to fix by law a
time whereat the present statutory right of issue on the
part of bankers obtaining such exemption shall determine,
in order that either their issues may become subject to the
enactments of the Bank Act of 1844 hereinafter mentioned
in respect to lapsed issues of bank-notes, or that Parlia-
ment may make further provision concerning them as it
shall think fit upon grounds of public policy."
The bill was then passed through committee.
FIRE BRIGADE (METROPOLIS) BILL.

Mr. T. G. BARING moved the second reading of the I
Fire Brigade (Metropolis) Bill, and explained that at pre-
sent the fire brigade was supported by the Insurance Cora-
panics, but was found to be wholly insufficient to meet the
growing wants of the metropolis. Moreover, these com-
panies were not disposed any longer to maintain the exist-
ing establishment. It was, therefore, proposed by the bill
to transfer the service to the Metropolitan Board of Works,
and that the funds for its maintenance on an extended and
improved form, amounting to about £50,000 a year, should
be raised by a rate of a halfpenny in the pound on the
assessable property within metropolitan limits, a contribu-
tion of £lO,OOO by the State, and a percentage upon the
value of insurances effected with the companies. It was
further
_ proposed that the establishment should be increased
by the addition of three new floating engines, and addi-
tional
James's palace,
at Woolwich, Greenwich, Temple Bar, St.
Buckingham Palace, the British Museum,
and Chelsea. Powe-r was also given to the Boardof Works,
as the rateable value of property increased and the half-
Penny rate brought in a larger sum, and as insurances
augmented the companies' share of the expenses would
increase, to purchase the
ffire-escapes of the Royal Society
for the Protection of l
Sir W. JOLLIF apprroonl„Fdire.
of the general scope and
object of the bill, but entertariignedsom e doubts with regard
to the mode in which the bade was
hereafter ma-
naged. It seemed to him that the ',°b
ill
wouldrelieve the
thriving insurance companies at the expense
of the rate-
payers;and that the Board of Works
was hardly the best
machinery for managing the tire brigade of the
year as
Mr. BLACKBURN thought that £lO,OOO a
contribution of the State for the protection of Go
lut et
offices and public buildings was excessive, and c,
—g-gested
that these structures should beassessed in thesame manner
as other property.
Observations were also made by Mr. Ayrton, Mr. Vance,
Mr. R. Mills, Mr. Alderman Rose, and Mr. Locke.
Mr. PEACOCKE would have preferred seeing the bri-
gade placed under the metropolitan police rather than the
Board of Works, which did not possess the public con-
fidence.
Mr. HANKY, as chairman of the select committee upon
whose recommendations the bill was founded, said he at
once entertained the same opinions as that just expressed,
but
upon farther reflection he had come to a different con-
clusion.
The bill was read a second time.