The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-16 00:00:00

TIIURSDAY EVENiIkiTG,

Bentinck) thought that they were not capable of form-
ing an impartial judgment that he objected to the
constitution of the present Committee. Ile did not know
whether his Right Hon. Friend the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, or the Noble Lord at the head of the Go-
vernment, had pledged the Government to stand or fall
by the Bank Charter Act, but the House knew very well
that her Majesty's Government were pretty well dis-
posed to do so. True it was that the Noble Lord con-
sented at last to break through the bulwarks of that
Act, but how unwilling was he to take that step I It
was not till houses had failed to the extent of fifteen
million pounds, that the Noble Lord could be induced to
give way. The Noble Lord was first of all called upon
by a deputation from Liverpool—and while he was upon
this subject he might beg leave to state, though the
statement was not exactly in the due order of succession,
the reasons which had induced him to propose the name
of the Hon. Member for South Lancashire, instead of
that of the Hon. and Learned Member for Liverpool.
He thought that, as the Committee stood at present,
there was no representative of the cotton manufacturing
interest. The Hon. and Learned Member for Liverpool
could not be considered as the representative of the cot-
ton interest, and though there was no man more im-
pressed than himself with the opinion that Liverpool
ought to be represented in the Committee, still he thonght
he might be allowed to doubt whether the Hon. and
Learned Member for Liverpool did entirely repreient
the feeling of Ireland upon this subject. He really
thought that he was doing the Hon. and Learned Mem-
ber no unkindness in proposing his exclusion. He was
sure that the Hon. and Learned Gentleman felt himself
placed' in the greatest difficulty. There he was, a mem-
ber of the late Government, bound hard and fast to the
opinions of his leader. What would be the situation of
the Hon. and Learned Gentleman in the Committee?
Liverpool held one opinion, and the Hon. and Learned
Gentleman had expressed another opinion of a totally
different character. From the position in which he was
placed he must, therefore, find great difficulty in choos-
ing between God and Mammon.—(Hear, hear, and
laughter.) He (Lord G. Bentinck) did not wish to lead
the Hon. and Learned Gentleman into temptation, and
therefore he wished bim to be excluded from the Com-
mittee. As far as he could learn what the proceedings
of the deputation were, the Hon. and Learned Gen-
tleman, though he was dragged up to attend the
meetings, acted only as master of the ceremonies, and
did the ornamental part—(A laugh)—while the Hon.
Member for South Lancashire did the useful and work-
ing part of that deputation. He was therefore justified
in saying that, so far as regarded the commercial
interests of Liverpool, the merchants of that town had
selected Mr. W. Brown, their county Member, in pre-
ference to the Hon. and Learned Gentleman, to repre-
sent to the Government the true causes of the com-
mercial distress. He was sure that the Hon. and
Learned Gentleman would feel that he (Lord G. Ben-
tinck) meant no disrespect or discourtesy to him or to
the Right Hon. Gentleman the President of the Board
of Trade in proposing the exclusion of their names. Let
the House look at the constitution of this Committee.
When they found on the Committee a Prime Minister,
and ex-Prime Minister, three Chancellors and ex-Chan-
cellors of the Exchequer, and an ex-Secretary of State
for the Home Department—men who had sat on these
Committees before, and were accustomed to extract evi-
dence—he could not help thinking that other Members
of the House, who had not this advantage, would be a
very bad match for gentlemen of such high talents and
so much experience, banded together as one man against
them. Therefore, even if the numbers had been equal
on paper, he could not but feel that the Honourable
and Learned Member for Liverpool ought not
to be added to the Ministerial phalanx, while
the Opposition party was represented by only
one ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer. The re-
mainder of the House were represented only by an ex-
Cabinet Minister, and therefore he must say they would
be most unequally matched in quality, even if not very
much overmatched in quantity. But there was another
view to take of this matter. He found upon the Com-
mittee six gentlemen who were said, the other night, to
be Peelites, and there were eleven strong Whigs. The
Committee, therefore, as then constituted, would have
17 Members, all, generally speaking, of one view of
things ' • and in that number he did not include the Hon.
Member for Montrose, because he understood that that
Hon. Gentleman did not intend to sit upon the Com-
mittee, which he much regretted, althougk he did not
concur in all the views of the Hon. Gentleman. He had
explained the grounds upon which he thought the cotton
interests of Lancashire and the commercial interests of
Liverpool would be better represented by the Hon. Mem-
ber for Lancashire, who differed from him as far as pos-
sible in opinion ; and here he begged to call the atten-
tion of the House to this circumstance, that in the names
he had proposed he had named but one gentleman
who held the same opinions with himself, and
who usually acted as he did.—(Hear, hear.)
But he now came to the case of Scotland. The Right
Hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of the Exchequer said
that he had named the Hon. Member for Perthshire.
He (Lord G. Bentinck) had already complained that in
the Members the Right Hon. Gentleman had named he
bad taken care, amongst those who were held to be
impartial, to name gentlemen who had not taken a very
strong part in politics. He thought he might include
amongst those the Hon. Member for Perthshire. Now,
as the opinion of the Right Hon. Baronet the Member
for Tamworth did not coincide with the general opinion
of Scotland on this subject, he thought it right to say
that the feelings of Scotland were but very weakly re-
presented by the Hon. Member for Perthshire. That
Hon. Gentleman also was the representative of a char-
tered bank, which was already possessed of a certain
degree of monopoly, and his feelings, therefore, were
rather in opposition to the general feelings of the people
of Scotland. He came now to the city of London, and,
without consulting the Hon. Gentleman himself, he had
ventured to put the name of the Hon. Member for the
city of London (Mr. Pattison) upon the Committee.
Everybody in that House must feel that there was no
man who was better informed upon the interests and
busiuess of the city of London than that Honourable
Gentleman.—(Hear, hear.) But there was another
reason why that Hon. Gentleman should be upon the
Committee, and that was, that the Bank of England was
upon its defence.—(Hear, hear.) As the Committee
was then constituted, the Bank of England was re-
presented by one Member only. They had had very
strong reason to feel how necessary it was, in order that
the Bank might be properly defended in the Committee,
to have some gentleman upon the Committee who was
himself actually conversant with the transactions be-
tween the Government and the Bank of England.—
(Hear.) But for the Hon. Member for the city of Lon-
don they would have been led to suppose that there had
been an entire agreement between the Government and
the Bank of England, as regarded the division of the
profits of the usury.—(Hear.) The other members of
the Committee would have taken, as a matter of course,
the statement of the Right lion. Gentleman the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, and none on the Committee
askany questions upon this
therefore, was it that, for the
would
subject. have
How thought onuegc he
at
at or y
defence of the Bank of England, which both the present
and the late Government concurred in making the scape-
goat on this occasion, imposing upon it the blame of a
great portion of the recent distress, that that body, as
well as the commercial interests of the city of London,
should be properly represented—(Hear)—and when he
said the commercial interests of the city of London, he
had a right to speak,- because they had reason to
imagine that it was the banking an commercial inte-
rests of London that had at the last moment prevailed
upon the, Government to take off this very restric-
tion.—(Hear, hear.) When the Honourable and
Learned Member for Liverpool and his deputation went
up to the Noble Lord at the head of the Government and
the Chancellor of the Exchequer, they were distinctly
told, " There is no hope for you."—(llear, hear.) Then
came another deputation, from Birmingham, headed by
the Hon. Member for that borough and his Hon. Friend
the Member for Warwickshire. True, the Government
were not quite so obdurate on that occasion. The Noble
Lord did not say then, " There is no hope for you;"
but the Noble Lord gave a sort of willynilly answer—
(A laugh)—" I do not say I will, and I do not say I will
not."—(Hear, and a laugh.) But still the Government
did not relent until Saturday, when the bankers and
merchants of London waited upon the Noble Lord, whom
he believed they found unaccompanied and unprotected
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. His chaperone
was away; and then the suit offered to him by the
bankers and merchants was something more successful.
His Noble Friend at the head of the Government, imi-
tating the example of Donna Julia in her resistance to
the advances of Don Juan, at last conceded:—
"A little still she strove, and much repented,
And whisp'ring I will ne'er consent,' consented."
And so was it with the bankers and merchants of
London, who at length prevailed upon the Noble Lord
to take off that restriction. But they had the authority
of the Chancellor of the Exchequer that no sooner was
that restriction taken off than it acted as a charm. Tho
Chancellor of the Exchequer had told the House that he
consulted all sorts of persons, and one and all said,
" Pray do something for us; pray take care of us; only
say you will do so; only look at us, and cast the light of
your Whig
countenance upon us, and all will be right
with us "—(A laugh)—and he said that at last he felt he
should not have done his duty unless he had submitted
and removed the restrictions. That was done, and in-
stantly tens of thousands of bank-notes came out of tens
of thousands of tin boxes; and there was an end of the
panic. They found then it was the city of London
which at last succeeded in obtaining the removal of the
restriction, which restored confidence and did away with
thatthe ptahneicc.ityof He asked, therefore, whether it was right
London
Committee,
unrepre-
sented upon this
that he proposed to insert the name of Mr. Paulson in-
s h o
andul should b
ite
wasaltogether
for
tha
that
reason
stead of that of Sir W. Clay. He honoured the ability, the
independence, and straightforward course in Parliament
of that Hon. Baronet, but he felt that the Hon. Baronet
was so bound hand and foot by the book he had written,
that he was not in a condition fairly to exercise his
judgment in the Committee on this subject. There was
only onesother name to which he had to refer, and that
was the name of his Hon. Friend the Member for
Oxfordshire. He had, for the reasons he had already
stated, proposed to exclude the name of Mr. Ricardo.
That lion. Gentleman, was also a stockbroker,
and it was not necessary to represent that interest on the
Committee. He did not, moreover, consider that in-
terest as one that could be regarded as a national in-
terest in the country. The lion. Gentleman had, he
might say, almost an hereditary right to strong opinions
on the subject of the currency. It would never be
erased from the recollection of the country that it was
owing to the opinion given by the father of the Hon.
Gentleman—an opinion afterwards acknowledged to be
mistaken—that the change which was made in 1819 took
place. He had therefore proposed, instead of the name
of Mr. Ricardo, to insert the name of Mr. Henley, as one
of those who were opposed to the principle of the Bank
Charter
name
of
Act of
Mr. H
1844. a t
i. H
Fore thee did think, samerieeak, thatsonhewhen a
proposed
the
great question was discussed, as to how far the Bank