The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-08 00:00:00

BULLION.

On the motion of Mr. HANKEY the following was
ordered :—Return of the amount of bullion purchased and
sold by the Bank of England, distinguishing gold from
silver, and bar gold from foreign gold coin, in each month
from 31st Dec., 1859, to 31st Dec., 1860; also the excess of
payments to or of receipts from the public, of British gold
coin; and also the amount received from the Mint during
the same period (in continuation of Parliamentary paper,
I No. 86, of session 1860).
REDUCTION IN THE DOCKYARDS.
Sir F. SMITH asked the Secretary to the Admiralty
whether a considerable redaction in the number of ship-
wrights and other workmen in her Majesty's dockyards
had taken place since the close of the last session of Par-
liament, or is now contemplated ; and if so, whether it was
in consequence of any intention to substitute iron for
wooden ships of war, or to employ private builders more
,extensively than heretofore.
Lord C. PAGET said that no reduction to any extent
had yet taken place, but it was contemplated to reduce a
certain number of men employed in the dockyards next
month. Such reduction was in consequence of the
substitution alluded to.
RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.
In reply to Mr. BZNTINCX,
Mr. M. GIBSON said that the facilities afforded by
railway companies to the railway inspectors to obtain
every information in reference to railway accidents rendered
unnecessary the recommendation of the committee last year
with respect to issuing commissions of inquiry. It was
not intended to introduce any bill to interfere with the free
action of railway companies. The inspectors had reported
on the railway accidents that had occurred since the pro-
rogation of Parliament, and their report would be laid
before both houses.

TRADE MARKS.
In reply to Mr. BASS,
Mr. M. GIBSON said that two bills had been prepared
on this subject, and would be introduced in a fortnight.
THE QUEEN'S SPEECH.
The Royal speech was considered, and the usual order
for supply was agreed to.
BANK OF ENGLAND (CONSOLIDATED FUND)
ACT.

The house having resolved itself into a committee on this
"subject,
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said he
rose for the purpose of moving resolutions on a subject of
considerable importance but they were not of a nature to
call forth any expression of the judgment of the house on
the most important parts of the plan that he should have
to Pro Pose. They were not resolutions containing the main
propositions of that plan, but resolutions required by the
house as a necessary preliminary to allow him to submit
that plan to the house. He should move two resolutions
for the purpose of altering the mode in which up to the
present time tho Bank of England received payments from
the State on account of its management of the national
debt, and likewise the mode in which the Bank of Eng-
land made certain allowances to the State, first of all on
account of exemption from stamp duty upon its notes, and
secondly on account of the profit which it was estimated
the Bank of England derived from the issue of bank notes.
The mode in which that matter was regulated up to the
presont time was as follows :—The act of 1808 assigned to
the Bank of England, without any specified limitation of
time, a certain rate of remuneration for its trouble and cost
in managing the public debt. The actlof 1844, introduced
by Sir R. Peel, fixed the amount which the Bank of Eng-
land was bound to pay for its exemption from stamp duty
on bank notes. The amount was fixed under a certain rule
by which the bank was to pay upon the full amount of the
profits on its notes issued, and then it provided that the
sums due on these several accounts should be deducted from
the remuneration-payable to the bank on account of its
management of the public debt. That rule in the act of 1844
would be perfectly eomformable with the mode of dealing
with the public revenue in use at the time; according to
which it was common, if the public convenience was served
thereby, to make large deductions from the public revenue
before it was brought to account in the exchequer. The
only question on which he asked the committee to give a
vote that night was this, that they should apply to those
transactions the principle established by the act of 1854
namely, this, that the allowance the bank made to the
e3tate in respect of certain privileges, should be paid directly
to the state, and so constitute part of the public revenue.
On the other hand, the charge against the state in regard to
the cost of the management of the public debt should be
likewise charged upon the consolidated fund, and which the
bank should receive in gross, instead of receiving as it now
did the residue of that charge. It was, therefore, a very
wimple matter. With respect, however, to the subject of
certain communications between the Bank and the Govern-
ment, the committee would be, probably, more or less aware
they had embraced other changes. Those changes he
thought would be more conveniently discussed when the
bill which he hoped to introduce would be before the house,
particularly as that bill would be very simple in its terms,
and carry on the face of it, in a great degree, its own expla-
nation. He had only just presented to the house, in obe-
dience to its orders, certain papers which he thought would
make any further explanation unnecessary at that hour on
his part. He might, however, state, in a very few words,
what the general effect of the arrangement would be. There
were four points over and above the changes which he
would ask the committee to sanction by direct resolution as
to the method of settling the accounts. The four points
were these. In the first place, he proposed to substitute a
specific period or term of years during which, on the one
hand, the public, and, on the other, the Bank, should be
habil.; to pay and receive respectively a fixed rate of remune-
ration for managing the national debt, in lieu of inserting
•ll'.at in an Act of Parliament with a specified limit of time.
In the second place, it was proposed to change the basis on
which terminable annuities were now reckoned for the pur-
pose of determining the remuneration to the Bank for
the management of the national debt. They were now
inckonel at 25 years' purchase, hereafter they would be
reckoned at 15 years' purchase when granted by Parliament
for a term exceeding 1.5 years, and 10 years when granted
/or that term or a less term than that. He proposed, also, to
alter. the rate of remuneration, and that course was the
point to which the attention of the house and the com-
mittee would be principally directed. He would not enter
then into a statement of the present or proposed rates, which
*he thought hon. gentlemen would gather for themselves
from the papers now before them. The remuneration now
received by the Bank for managing, he thought, £736,000,000
of th.e public
debt was about £250,000 a year, and the new
rata would be as near as possible £200,000. The difference
ttf £50,000 would be a saving effected on the part of the
public ; and lastly, in agreeing to reduce the rate of remu.

iteration the Bank of England had likewise undertaken. to
render increased service to the public—for they proposed
both to give new facilities for payment of the public divi

dends at their branches in the -country to those persons
who may wish to receive them, and likewise they proposed
greatly to shorten, if they could not altogether abolish,
those periods which were known as the period' of " shut-
ting," the sh,rtening of which would, he believed, afford a
♦ery material increase of facility and convenience in all

transactions connected with the funds. He did not at pre

sent antieirtte in any manner an expression of opinion from
the ,-n,'-o')era of the committee upon this subject. They
would, he hoped, understand that if the papers had only
lint been preAeuted to them it was in fact because the docu

reents necess try for that information were only completed
that morning, when a meeiing of the proprietors of the.
Bank of England was held for the purpose of considering
that arrangement. But although he asked for no expres-
sion of opinion, and although the resolutions he proposed
involved no approach to an expression of opinion, yet he
certainly should not think it right to address the house,
even at that Preliminary stage of the subject, without ex-
pressing his hope that it would be thought that all things
considered this would be a fair and equitable arrangement,
and above all his strong sense of the cordial and con-
dilatory manner in which the whole communications
connect with it have been conducted by the autho-
rities tithe Bank, and the wise and enlightened spirit
which they approached the consideration of the ques-
tions, which would have
far more difficult if they
had been approached in a spirit more narrow and with a less
appreciation of the public interest. With that explanation '
he should place in the hands of the chairman the two reso-
lutions relative to the method of account with the Bank of
.England.

The following resolutions were then agreed
" That it is the opinion of this committee that any
ems
which are or may he by law payable to the Governor
Campany of the Bank of England, on alcount of the charge
for management of the unredeemed public debt, shall hence-
forward be pail without deduction out of the Consolidated
Fund of the United Kingdom."
"That it is the opinion of this committee that the pay-
ments now made by the Governor and Company of the Bank
of England, as prescribed by the Act of the 7th and Bth of
Vie., cap. 32, by way of declitotion from the charges of