The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-04 00:00:00

BATE.

On the motion of Lord J. RUSSELL, the order of the
day for resuming the adjourned debate on commercial
distress having been read,
The Marquis of GRANBY said he much feared that
the speech which had been delivered the other night by
the Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Exchequer on
opening the question now under the consideration of the
House would not give confidence to the commercial
classes of this country. He feared that the hopes which
the Right Hon. Baronet's letter of the 25th October had
created would be blighted by that speech. There had
existed some glimmerings of hope from the letter, but
when the Right Hon. Baronet at the end of his speech
proposed a Committee of Inquiry—a Committee which
necessarily would be composed of most discordant
elements—all hope had been dissipated. From the
manner in which the Right Honourable Baronet
had spoken of the Bank Charter Act of 1844,
it might be supposed that that statute had been
in existence for half a century, and that it had
proved itself a most successful measure. But what
was the fact ? That measure was born in 1844 amidst
the warnings of the mercantile community and the
bankers of London ; it had lived for three short years ;
it had been adopted by the present Government, and yet
in 1847 the Chancellor of the Exchequer had been
obliged to depose his adopted child. It was impossible
to give a greater proof of the mischievous operation of
that Act than was afforded by the fact that though re-
laxed, its relaxation had not increased the circulation of
notes in the country. The Right Hon. Baoonet had
said that he did not attribute the commercial distress of
the country to the Act of 1844, but to the want of ca-
pital arising from the investments made for the immense
extension of railways, and for the purchase of foreign
corn during the period of scarcity and famine. He
(the Marquis of Granby), however, did not believe that
any portion of the capital invested in railways, a great
part of which was expended in the payment of wages,
was either lost or taken away from the circulation of
the country, and therefore that argument failed. With
respect to the importation of foreign corn, he denied
that the Noble Lord near him (Lord G. Bentinck) or
any of the party to which he (the Marquis of Granby)
had the honour to belong, had used any expression to
warrant the assertion that they had regretted that the
corn had been so imported. What they had said was,
that if the corn laws had not been repealed very nearly
the same amount of foreign corn would have entered the
ports of this country. The prognostications as to the
result of the repeal of the corn-laws by the supporters
of that measure had wholly failed. Did not America
now take the gold of this country and refuse her manu-
factured goods in exchange for their corn, and she was
not increasing her manufactures at home, so that no
man can believe she ever will again look to the supply
of manufactured goods from this country? Hence one
cause of distress. Another was the adoption of free
trade, which had ruined merchants at home and the
planters of the West Indies, without reducing the price
of commodities or improving the condition of the labour-
ing classes, as had been promised. He believed the idea
of over-issues was entirely chimerical; like everything
else, the supply of bank notes would accommodate itself
to the demand. As to convertibility, that was never
heard of from 1819 to 1844. Wherever a metallic
currency was in use there were hoards of gold which
supplied occasional drains ; and in this respect our
situation was totally different. As to the boasted
eight millions in the coffers of the Bank, it would
be just as reasonable, in a time of famine, to point
to a store of some eight million quarters of wheat,
and rely on that for the supply of a famishing
people. Endeavours to increase the quantity of gold in
the Bank were certainly laudable; but it ought to be in-
creased for the purpose of being made available; and
al• eig with that, the paper circulation ought to be in-
creased. In his opinion the experiment of free trade had
signally failed, owing to this country, fettered with
taxation, being placed in competition with the lightly
taxed countries of the continent. We had offered to
take whatever foreign nations brought us without stipu-
lating for a countervailing advantage. No dispassionate
man could anticipate other than failure from such an
expedient. Let those who had supported free-trade
measures join in entreating Government to free the
country from the incubus new pressing upon it; not to
be content with instituting a protracted and useless in-
quiry, but to give some immediate relief to our embar-
rassed merchants and manufacturers. Let Ministers
remember that though failures to the amount of fifteen
or sixteen millions had occurred, this was as nothing
compared to the amount of actual loss inflicted on the
country by the restrictions on our currency. The
worst was not past; he was told that out of seventy
East India and China houses not seventeen would sur-
vive. What a vast amount of disaster and loss would
this involve. He hoped the Noble Lord at the head of
the Government would not confine himself to the confi-
dent reliance which he had declared himself to entertain
in the energies and resolution of the commerce of the
country, but that he would do something to aid those
energies and to invigorate that resolution.—(Hear.)
He, for oue, would not consent to this Committee, or to
the postponement of all remedial measures, until they
made their report. Ho trusted something would be
done to relieve the country from the incubus of the
Act of 1844.--(Hear.)
Mr. F. BARING said the amendment had been in.
troduced with much talent and clearness; but had the
Hon. Mover (Mr. Wilson) had a little more experience
of Committees, he would have known that it was not
practically possible to limit their inquiries by formal
instructions.—(Hear, hear.) He believed that the very
same mode of inquiry would take place, whether under
the motion of the Right Hon. the Chancellor of the Ex
chequer, or under that of the Hon. Member for West-
bury.—(Hear, hear.) Therefore, the discussion on that
amendment was of very little practical importance.
He should prefer the larger reference, because,
if the subject were entered into, ho should like the
fullest and most ample inquiry.—(Hear, hear.) He
could wish that the letter of the Government to the
Bank had been more specifically referred to the Com-
mittee. When Government took upon themselves to
suspend the operation of an Act of Parliament, the more
difficult such a suspension was rendered and the more
inquiry that took place about it the better. He said
this not as objecting to the course pursued by Govern-
ment. He had listened with the greatest attention to
the clear and able statement of his Right Hon. Friend
the Chancellor of the Exchequer; and, with the greatest
reluctance, had felt himself compelled to approve of the
course pursued. He deeply lamented its necessity, but,
under all the circumstances, his Right Hon. Friend had
had to choose between, on the one hand, a strict ad-
herence to the Act, and on the other, a state of danger
and difficulty which it required more rashness than cou-
rage to encounter.—(Hear, hear.) He did not regret
that they had given the authority, but that they bad
been compelled to do it, and he thought they had
given it at the proper time.—(Hear, hear.) He wished
it to be clearly understood that he threw aside all party
feelings, if any such could be supposed to be enter-
tainedon such a question ; and he must say that the
two men of all others whom he should have
thought the least likely to be affrighted by light dan-
gers, and to adhere to the law if possible, were his Noble
and his Right Hon. Friends by whom the authority
had been given.—(Hear, hear.) When they gave way,
he felt assured that it was not a light danger or a small
matter which had compelled them to take on themselves
this heavy responsibility. But this giving way had had
a great effect on the laws regulating our monetary trans-
actions. The suspension of the Bill of 1.44, when it
yeas tried for the first time, had greatly affected the
confidence placed in it.—(Hear.) Confidence had been
restored in the money market; but it was a harder task
to restore confidence in our monetary laws.—(Hear.)
Unconnected as he was with either the Ministry or the
Opposition, he had endeavoured to watch the working of
the Bill of 1844—not only without reference to either
side of the House, but as much as possible without re-
ference to his own opinion, and discharging from his
mind any predisposition which he might have had either
for or against the Bill. In supporting this Bill, he
had anticipated from it three distinct advantages.
The first—which had been very much neglected in
this discussion—was that by the restrictions laid
upon private banks their over-issues would be checked,
whereby they had formerly either produced an evil
effect, or counteracted those proper precautions which
the Bank was anxious to take in times of difficulty. In
that part of the Bill his expectations had been entirely
fulfilled.—(Hear.) Those who had most strongly at-
tacked the restrictive clauses of the Bill in April last
had admitted that that part of the Bill had worked well,
and expressed a wish that it should be retained.—(Hear,
hear.) Some said that speculation had been as rife
under the Bill as ever it was before. But it was post
unreasonable to expect any operation of this kind from b
the Bill; and such expectation was only countenanqeil y.
it
a few sentences in the course of the discussions upBll ,
good and evil.
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over— (Hear.) We had had plenty of