The Sun.
London, England, 1819-05-22 00:00:00

17..

COMMUNICATION FROM THE RANK,

READ IN TER DEBAT!! OF LAST IciG;:T. '

" At a Court of Directors, at the Banki. on
Thursday, the 20th of May, 18)9.

" The Directors of the Bank. of England,
having taken into their most serious cousiderTi:ion
the Itepurts of the Secret Comrui[te,!s of the two
Houses of Parliament, iv-rowed to inquire into
the stare of the Bank of 'England with reference
to the expediency of the resumn‘ion of Cash Pay-
ments at the period now fixed, have thought it
their duty to lay before his Aiajesty's Nfioners,
as eatly as possible, their sentiments with regard
to the measures suggested by these Committees
for the approbation of Parliamen;.
the first place it appears, that in the view
of the Committees, the mehsure of the Bank re-
commenetng Cash Payments on ;he sth of July
ne*t,,ti,te_trricprescritred by the existing law,
*hid/. itnoaCr Leah le,* 50:41,-vve.”l-i be cut ir
inefficient, if not ruinous.' •

" Secondly, It appeA7s that the two Commit
tees have come to their cortrlnsgon at a oeriod
when the outstanding notes of the fiank c:"
Eng-
land do not much excued 25,000,0001. when the
price of gold is emu: 41. Is per ounce, an f when
there is great distress from the stagnation of
commerce, and the fall of prices of imported
articles.

" It must be obvious to his Majesty's
thar ar-long as such a state of things shall
last, or one in any degree similar, without either
considerable improvement on one side, or grow-
ing worse on the whet', the Wink, Acting as it
does at present, and keeping its issues nearly at
the present level, could not venture to return to
Cash Payments wick any probability of benefit to
the, Public, or safety to the Establishment.
" The two Committees of Parliament, appa-
rently actuated by this consideration, have ad-
vised that the Bank 511811 not open Payments its
Coin for a period of f‘ior yeats, but sh ;11 be
obliged from the 1-st of May, 1821, to discharge
their notes in standard gold bullion at the Mint
price, when demanded, in sums nor amounting to
less than 30 ounces. And as it appears to the
Committee expedient, that this return to pay.-
mews, at Mint price, should he maul gradually,
they propose, that on the first day of February
next the Bank should pay their notes in bullion,
if demanded, in sums not less than 60 ounces, at
the rate of 41. Is. per nonce; and from the Ist
of October, 1820, to the Ist of May following, at
31. 19s. 6d, an ounce.
" If the Directors of the Bank have a trite
'comprehension of the views of the Coromittees,
in Submitting this scheme to Parliament, '! !fey are
obliged to infer, that the object of the Coufmit-
tees is to secure, at every hazard, and under every
possible variation of ctrcumstanceS, the return
of payments in gold, at Mint pi ice, for Bank
notes, at the .expiiation of two yeacl, and that
this measure is so to he manaeO, that the Mint
price denominati,ms shall ever afterwards belpre-
served, leaving the market or exclia::::e price of
gold to be controuled by the Bank, Solely by, the
amount of their issues of notes. •

It further appears to the Directors, with re-
t.:ard to the final execution of this plan, and the
paywnt of Bank notes in gold, at ,Mot price,
that discretionary power is to be token away tint')
the Ballk, and that it is merely to regulate its
issues acid make purchases of gold,• so as to be
enohied to answer all possible demands whenever
its. treasury shall be again opened for the payment
of its notes.

Under these impressions the Directors of the
Bank think it right to observe to his Majesty's
that hein engaged to pay on de-
mand their notes in statutable coin, at the
Mint, price of 31. 17s. 10141. per
.ounce, they
0110 to be the last persons who should object
to any measure ealculated to effect that end ;
but as it is incumbent on . them to con-
sider the effect of any measure to he adopted, as
operating on the general issue of their notes, by
which all the private Banks arc regulated\ and of
which the whole currency, exclusive of. the notes
of private bankers, is composed, they feel them-
selves obliged, by the new situation in which they
have been placed by the Restriction Act of 1797,
to hear in mind not less their duties to the esta-
blishment over which they preside, than their du-
ties to the community at !al ge; whose interests.
in a pecuniary and commercial relation, have, in
a great degree, been. confided to their discretion.
" The Directors being thus obliged to extend
their views, and embrace the interests of the
whole community in their consideration of this
measure, cannot but feel a repugnance, hower:r
involtottary, to pledge themselves in ahln ;hat inn
of d system which, in their.cipinion, in ail its
great tendencies and operations, concerns the
country in general more than- the immediate in-
terests of the Bank alone.

" it is not certainly a part of the regular deity
of the Bank, under its original institution, to en-
ter info the,general views of policy by which this
great empire is to be governed in all its commer-
cial and pecuniary transactions, which exclusively
belong to the Administration, to Parliann'ut, and
to the Community at large ; nor is it the province
of the Bank to expound the principles by which
these views ought to be regulated. Its peculiar
and appropriate ditty it the management of the
concerns of the Banking Establishment, as con-
nected with the payment of the inteiest of the
National Debt, the lodgments consigned to its
care, and the ordinary advances it has been accus-
tomed to make to Government.
" But when the Directors are now to be called
upon in the new situation in which :ley are
placed by the Restriction Art, to procure a fund
for supporting the whole national currency, either