The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-26 00:00:00

2/1,1114

LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 26, 1845.

The House of Lords met at Five &Clock.
Lord COTTENHAM brought in the Ecclesiastical
Courts Bill, which was read a first time.

Lord BROUGHAM gave notice of a motion for a Com-
mittee to inquire into the operation of the Bankruptcy
Act of last Session. _ _

Several petitions were presented on the subject of the
Maynooth grant.
The Marquis of LONDONDERRY, in presenting some
of these petitions, took occasion to say, that if her Ma-
jesty visited Ireland, she would meet with more cor-
diality than had been shown her in any country she had
yet visited.
The Duke of WELLINGTON replied---" I will tell her
to-night."
After a few words from the Earl of SHREWSBURY,
The House adjourned.
The House of Commons met at Four o'clock.

Sir P. ECERTON moved that the Birkenhead, Man-
chester, and Cheshire Junction Railway may be per-
mitted to proceed. After a division the motion was ne-
gatived, the numbers being—For the motion, 66; against
it, 81 ; majority, 15.
Mr. GROCAN moved the second reading of the Agri-
cultural and Commercial Bank of Ireland Bill.

Mr. WArsoN opposed it. It was, however, carried by
a majority of eleven; the numbers being—Fur the second
reading, 65 ; against it, 58.

The House having resolved itself into Committee on the
subject of the Scotch and Irish banking,
Sir R. PEEL rose to give an outline of the measure
which the Government proposed to introduce on this
subject. He said that the House would bear in mind
that the subject of banking had occupied a considerable
portion of their attention last session, and that measures
of great importance for the regulation of banking in Eng-
land had been adopted. Th? Right Hon. Gentleman
then detailed at some length the measures which had
been adopted for regulating the issues of the Bank of
England and of Joint stock and Private Banks in this
country. Those measures had been sanctioned upon
the assumption that the standard of value in this country
was a certain quantity of gold, defined both in point of
weight and of fineness, and that a promissory note, un-
dertaking to pay so much, undertook neither more nor
less than to deliver to the holder a definite quantity of
gold of defined quality. The issuers of these notes were
in possession of a valuable privilege, and the House had
a perfect right to subject the issuers of that paper to
such regulations as might be necessary for the public
weal. It was also considered that there was
no guarantee for the permanent convertibility
of this paper currency, where competition in
banking was unrestricted, and, consequently no safe-
guard against derangement of the currency, and, there-
fore, the Legislature had imposed a limit on the issue of
promissory-notes. Now, as far as they could judge from
their limited experience, there was every reason to be
satisfied with the measure of last year. The restric-

tions then imposed had not in the least degree cramped
or fettered the enterprise of the country, nor bad
prices been unduly affected ; and if, during the
present fever of speculation, there had existed
an unlimited power of creating new banks of
issue, our monetary condition would have been less
satisfactory than it is at present. The banks had acted
fairly and honourably, discountenancing every attempt at
evading the law. These enactments, however, applied
exclusively to England in some respects ; but the Banks
of Ireland and Scotland, although they enjoyed the ad-
vantages of monopoly created by that measure, were not
subjected to any restriction in their issues, like the Eng-
lish banks. The question was, whether the law should
be extended to the whole of the United Kingdom ; and
the sooner that question was considered the better; and
if he thought the general principle could not be applied
beneficially to Ireland and Scotland, he would be the last

to propose it ; but he was convinced that the principle
might be beneficially applied to those countries. Ire-

land had what Scotland had not—a National Bank.
There were also laws of the Irish Parliament, regulating

joint.stock banks, which seemed to conflict with the
acts of the Imperial Parliament. The Government in-
tended, at a more leisure moment, to amend and conso-
lidate those laws. Nothing could be more liberal than
the manner in which the Bank of Ireland conducted its
business, but still its exclusive privileges were produc-

tive of great inconvenience ; - and the Bank D-
rectors had signified that, if the Joint-Stock banks
were placed under restrictions as to issues, they
should have no objection to their being permitted
to establish themselves in Dublin, and they had also
intimated their desire that there should be no form of
oath preventing Roman Catholics from becoming
Directors of the establishment, or from entering into
its service. He proposed to do away with this dis-
tinction, and to make the qualification for a Roman
Catholic cr for a Protestant the same. He proposed
that the Bank of Ireland should still continue the banker
of the Government, and that the rate of interest should
be the same for ten years to come. He proposed that
the Bank of Ireland should make the same weekly
return as was at present made by the Bank of Eng-
land, and thus the Banks of Ireland would be placed
on the same footing as those of England and Scotland.
Ha would leave to the Banks of Ireland and Scotland

the privilege which they at present possessed, of issuing
notes below the value of V., without any restriction as
to the proportion which the small notes were to bear to
notes of a higher value ; and leaving to them these pri-
vileges, he would apply to them the same prin-
elplea which had been applied to banks of
issue in this country. He would ascertain the
amount of issue of each Bank on averages
taken from 27th April last, thirteen lunar months, which
would regulate the circulation—to that amount they
might issue, as they did at present—all issues beyond
that must be upon the basis and security of gold. Ile
proposed that a return of the amount of notes issued
from each bank, on the last day of business in the week,
should be taken, for it would make a material difference
in the amount of Scottish circulation, whether they
took the daily averages of notes, or whether they
took the return on the last day of circulation.
'What he proposed, therefore, was, after having defined
the amount which each bank should issue for the future,
to require each bank to certify the amount of its weekly
issue—or rather the amount of its issue as it appeared on
the last day of the week. Thus, in Scotland, as in Ire-
land, they would take the period of four weeks, and de-

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