The Sun.
London, England, 1833-06-29 00:00:00

subjects connected with the ronowal of the Charter-Im'
not inquired at all into the b irgain made with the Bank—
had not inquired into the mode of dealing with country
hankers ; and, therefore, he was of opinion that they were
not then ready to discuss the question. He thought it
would have been proper to postpone this question, had
the Government, in the first instance, resolved to do it ;
but as it hail been discussed, and as the resolutions bad
been proposed. he thought it ought to be settled at once,
for otherwise they might shake the confidence of the
country. Certainly the essential puts of this question
ought now to be settled. The immediate question they
had now to decide was, whether the first resolution
should be agreed to. That resolution was, " That it was
the opinion of this Committee that the Bank Charter
should be renewed." On that subject he believed
that the opinion of all the witnesses had been in favour
of the renewal. Their universal opinion was that the
Bank was a useful institution, had been honourably
conducted, and that it would be injurious to the public•
to establish any other bank of issue in the neighbourhood
of the metropolis. The Hon. Baronet, the Member for
Dundee, who had attempted to make out the reverse of
that proposition, had entirely failed in doing so. So far,
then, it seemed that the first resolution was established.
He had a few observations to make on'the second resolu-
tion, on which the Right Hon. Baronet, the Member ft r
Tamworth, had made a speech, which had produced,
like most of his speeches, a great impression on the
House. He himself must say, that he thought it was a
Judicious proceeding to make Bank paper a legal tender in
the country, and in the country banks. He had long
thought that a measure of that sort would be benefi•
cial. It was not that he thought it possible to bring
paper altogether into competition with specie, hut it
was because he euts.rtained a strong suspicion that such
a measure would have the effect of placing the currency
on a safer foundation, and maintaining the par value li
of the coin. It would, in fact, be only doing that by
law, which was now done by individuals, for their pri-
vate convenience. At this time, though a man was liable
to pay his debts in gold, Le did, in fact, pay them by a
check, yet no one thought that that custom was injurious
to the safety of public credit; although the check was,
in the first instance, paid in paper, and that paper
circulated before it was converted into gold. The
great object, indeed, of this country was to preserve,
in its paper currency, a power of quick convertibility
into gold. He saw no possible danger, but great benefit,
from such a measure. If there was a general panic, and all
the public concurred in making a run for gold, injury to
the public must, under the present state of cnrrency, ne-
cessarily arise; for there was no state of currency that
could stand such a shock. But that case—the case of a
political panic—was of rare occurrence. In the case of a
commercial panic, the state of things was totally altered,
and there were ten of the latter for one of the former.
It was against the latter, therefore, that they ought chiefly
to attempt to provide ; for the former was pretty well
beyond their power. With respect to a commercial panic,
one example was worth fifty arguments. In that of 1823,
the panic arose—not from any unfortunate state of foreign
exchanges with reference to this country, but from a want
of confidence in the bankers of the country ; and the run
was upon the Bank of England, but not for gold ; for
the run was put an end to by payments in Bank paper.
It seemed to him, therefore, that the second resolution
might be with propriety adopted; and he could not, there-
fore, hesitate in declaring his concurrence with it. With
respect to the bargain made by the Government with the
Bank, it was said by some gentlemen that the interests of
the country had been sacrificed. If that were so, the
Bank could hardly make a sufficient compensation ; but
it was not, He must admit that he thought the
Bank had had a little the advantage of the Noble
Lord on this occasion, or rather that the Noble
Lord hail not made all that he could in the bargain.
With respect to that part of the Noble Lord's resolutions
which related to the country bankers, he wished the Noble
Lord to consider whether he could not put it off till the
next session. That part of the resolutions formed no part
of the agreement with the Bank of England ; and the
Noble Lord might consider whether it was not possible
for Iron to pass the rest of the resolutions, and postpone
that part of the plan to another time. He, himself, had
always been rather favourable to joint stock companies;
but if these branch banks were to drive out the smaller
banks, he should think that the consequences of such
measure were greatly to be dreaded. The meter banks
gave accommodatioa which great establishments could not
do—they wept into petty details with the farmers and
smaller traders in their neighbourhood in a manner which
the larger banks could not possibly do—and they acted in
that way much to the benefit of the country. He should
also propose to the Noble Lord to adopt the following al-
teration in the wording of the resolution. As it now
stood, it declared " That it is the opinion of this Com-
mittee, provided the Bank of England shall be hound by
law to discharge its notes in gold." Why the Bank was
I bound by law so to discharge their notes ; and the words
ought to be "so long as the Bank shall continue to dis-
charge its liabilities." He should only now add that he
should prefer the resolution, if the payment were to be
confined to London.

Sir F. BURDETT should give his assent to the first
and second resolutions. The Hon. Baronet, who had
attempted to show that the principle of free trade ought
to be applied to this system, had failed in the object -,f his
argument. He was friendly to what he tr,ight te••m a
relaxation of the currency, if that could be effected, as he
thought it could, without danger to the public. lie
thought it might be effected in the present instance.

Mr. HUME said, that after an expression in the speech
of the Hon. Baronet opposite, he could not remain siltnt,
more especially when he rem ,mbered the vote the) had
lately given against the depreciation of the currency. The
Hon. Baronet talked of " a relaxation of the currency."
Why, what was a relaxation of the currency but a depre-
ciation of the currency ? If that was to be the effect of
these resolutions he should oppose them. He agreed with
the arguments of the Right Hon. Baronet below him, and
believed that the result of the whole plan would be to
produce a depreciated currency. Yet what had the Noble
Lord said on that subject not long since ? Why, that a
currency ought not to be maintained but on the principle
of perfect convertibility. If that principle was not main-
tained—ii we were to have a depreciated currency, we
should he descending the ladder again. He believed that
the bargain the Governrc;rit had made with the Bank was
improvident for the public, and looking at that, and look-
ing at the fact that the Bank-notes were only to be con
vertible in London, he could not consent to adopt the
Noble Lord's resolutions. He should certainly vote for
postponing the consideration of the resolutions to another
Session.

Colonel TORRENS and Lord ALTIIORP mutually ex-
plained as to the sums quoted by the former from the
Appendix, with a view to prove a diminished circu-
lation.

The Committee then divided, when there appeared—
For the Amendment EZ
Against it
Majority

On re-entering the gallery, we found Lord ALTHORP
addressing the House, but the noise of strangers taking
their seats rendered his Lordship inaudible.

Mr. P. SCROPE protested against the original resolu-
tion, but his speech was drowned 14 loud cries of " ()ora-
tion !" " Bah !" " Divide !" " Adjourn !" " Oh, oh !"
yawns, and what appeared to us to be an imitation of the
crowing of a cock.
Mr. O'DWYER rose, and declared that he was a mem-
ber of the Political Unions so much abused in that House,
but in no Political Union bad he witnessed such uproar
as he had just heard.—(" Oh, oh," and confusion.) This
was a question which deeply affected the interests of the
empire, and it was monstrous that Hon. Members should
come down to this House apparently with a determination
not to listen to what was said, and to drown everything
iA uproar.—(Confusion, and imitation of a cock crowing
repeated.) He cated not for these interruptions, but he
must say such a question ought to be debated at least with
decency.—(Hear.)
The CHAIRMAN said, the question was,that he should
repot progress and ask leave to sit again.

. _
Lord ALTHORP objected to adjourning before passing
the resolution. This was certainly a question deserving
serious consideration ; but after the House had been so
long addressed on the subject as it had been, it was not
surprising that it should exhibit some symptoms of im-
patience.
After a somewhat desultory conversation, the resolution
was then agreed to, and the Chairman reported progress,
and obtained leave to sit again.