The Sun.
London, England, 1802-03-09 00:00:00

SICK AND HURT OFFICE.

The CHANCELLOR bf the ExCHEZTER said,- that
being -on' his • legs, he hoped he-might be allowed,
he-,was aware it was not strietly regular;
to advert to what passel in that House on Thursday
evening. He intended to !lave noticed it can Friday,
but he did- not enter the House until a deVate had
conunenced on the. Anierican -Treaty He
hoped. it would he in the reeolleaierioT -the HOuse,
that an Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Roasos) stated;
that the. Government was insolvent, and that the
Government Acceptances had been refused payment
at the Public Offices. This general assertion, how-
ever,and these plural terms, it afterwards appeared,
were only applied to pie Office, and to one bill, for

-lIIt-WM 111"--T9 ,11— —No;
titled 'to say,. ;that- The Bon. Gentleman- had no•
. ground for the-assertion that he made, except in that
single instance. He. was not disposed to deny, but,
on the contrary; was ready to admit, that the bill-
alluded to was presented, and was not pAirl bait
such a circumstance was not _peculiar to the present
time, or such as the oldest .in the. Public Offices had.
never known
,befOre. He could assert,
.hoWever,
that there - never was a Single' instance, in which
the Treasnryvan3 /here the credit of :Government
resided, had been applied to _for money, or Where
money was wanted for the payment of a Bill of
-Exchange, •thai -the application was ditappointed,
There never waramitrstance, either, where it. was
inexpeaation-04,Inoney, should be wanted, or of
-its falling clue, or of bills being tendered, and the
money wanted'iiii6iilhem, in -which the money was
not instantly. advanced. It had -of late been the
,policy. of Government, .and he thought it a wise
policy, to prevent the inftrior Public Offices from
:becoming banking-shops, and to prevent them from
,accumulating large sums of money arany one time,
for reasons- which-he was sure would readily occur
to the House;
.but what he was solicitous should be
understood was; that in.no one instance could it be
stated, that money, being ever likely to be wanted,
as well as being actually wanted, -for Satisfying.
Bills•of .Exchange, had not been constantly ready
for such 'purposes, and the advance, if. necessary,.
aanally made. He did not mean -to say, that the,
.refusal of an acceptanCe..'waS to be applauded. in
an inferior Office ; but so far was it from being
a proof of that which the Hon. Gentleman alledged,
namely, the Insolvency on • the part of Govern-
ment,-. that it • was a proof of the reverse. It
shewed the
,stability of Government ; 'for if it
.was a siting that, had frequently happened, it
Must have been generally. known, and if gene-
'rally known that Government could not pay its
acceptances—these Bills-must have been at a dis-
• count. Upon that subjeft, however, he appealed
to every Merchant and to every Banker. in the
House, whether he would not:receive these Bills of
Government in preference to others, from a know-
ledge
.of the facility with which
_they were nego-
tiated, and the absolute certainty of their payment.
There was one other circumstance to which he was
rather unwilling to aliade,_ as the Hon. Gentleman
who made the assertion against Government, was
not in his place, but he thought it necessary—that
was, that payment had been refused to -a person in
indigent circumstances. All that he knew upon that
part of the Case was, that the Bill. was.. tendered by
one of the most opulent Bankers in the city, and
ire.. had no reason
,to believe otherwise than that
the Bill was the property of that opulent House—he
should be
.curious to. know whether the Bill was the
property of any other person ?

M;-. MARTIN said, that the smallness of the
stun did not: appear to him to be material, for he
apprehended, that if the Bill had been for a tenth
part of the sum, dr a hundred time m, the
answer would have been the sain,. bought
that Gentlemen on the other side .e dis-
played sometimes too much warmth )se on
his side, when they heard'. what disr", them ;
and that they had attacked the Hon. Memb r who
made the assertion with too much vivacity, as he
was treated as if he had uttered a notorious false-
hood.

The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER.—
" The attack came from the Hon. Member hire
self. Ido not chose to apply the word falsehbod,,
but the inaccuracy of the statement was from the
Hon. Gentleman himself, who chose to ,say that
the Government was insolvent, for which there was
not the shadow of A fou,ndation.—l wish now, Sir,
if I.may tle so permitted, to call on the. Hon. Ge n-
tleman who has just spoken, to. say whether he w is
or was not the- proprietor of the Bill in question ?"
Mr. MARTIN.--" I believe it was paid in.; ;t
our house in the usual course of business, by some._
body who has an -account with us, but I do not
know any thing,further of the_matter."
The CHANCELLOR of,the EXCHEQ,UER.— •
If the Hon. Gentlernart4nows nothing of the
matter, it- is not prolaablefilit other Hon: Member
knoWs
,any thing of the;:rnatter, since he acknow_
ledges to have received the whole of . his inform,.
tion from the Hon.-Member• who spoke last, . and"
who it appears knows nothing about it."
Here the conversation dropped.