The Sun.
London, England, 1818-04-21 00:00:00

CURRENCY.-PAPER AND METALLIC.

The Order for sunitnouing their Lor(Fships being
read,

- The Earl of LAUDERDALE rose, in' pursuance
of bi 3 notice, to bring this important and com-
plicated subject under the corhideratlon of their
Lordships. The Noble Earl introduced his mo-
tion with a speech of great length [of which our
confined lithits restrict us to a very brief and ge-
neral outline]. His principal object was, he said,
to convince the House of the imperious necessity
of instituting An inquiry intoia complicated and.
extensive subject, in which the vital interests of
the country were materially involved. Without-a
close and sedulous inquiry, betore they concurred
in adopting any measure, which would tend to
enibarras it, and by its operation, under the
inauspicious 'circumstances of the country in
these respects, render its situation still worse.—
It seemed the intention of his Majesty's Govern-
ment to proppse certain regulations, with a view

to the paper currency, and avowedly with an
eventual reference to the resumption of cash
payments by the .Bank ; but he 'contended,
that Unlesi the. present Mint Regulations • were
materially altered, it would be found imp:racti=
cable fot the, Bank to resume or continue its pay-
ments in cash. They were especially called upon
,to investigate, with reference, were there As')
other motive, to a pending measure for further
continuing the restriction on the Bank ; they
should be satisfied as to the operation and effect cif
such a proposition, before their Lordships afford-
ed it their concurrence. The whole system adopt-
ed by Government of latter years wa's a depar•
lure from the ancient salutary system under which
this country had so long prospered, and had 'at-
tained it unrivalled height of :opulence and coin.
mercial superiority: The principal cause assigned
by Ministers for rendering the I:arther restriction
upon the Bank advisable was; be contended, no
adequate reason whatever. Even when the re-
striction' was originally imposed, though there
-were foreign loans, or advances in a course of pay-
ment from this country, such a cause was not as-'
signed., The specie sent out of the country for
that purpose was held to mike no sensible differ-
ence, as was proved by the testitnohy of the-Bank
Directors who were then examined. And faith',;,
it was held, that it loans were negociated r,ot
.01
the-countries in Europe, it would. not 'xhatist this
'country of its specie. It was n,:-,r• through. cash
alone such remittances Wert', furnished, but by
commodities ; also of Willa' latter description
every commercial mar. sent as great a proportioa
as he possibly
.could. It was impossible, he
thought, therefore,' that' any foreign loan now ne.
gOciating Could furnish an adequate cause for eon•
tinning the .Restriction upon the Bank ; neitter
did it even operate upon that Corporation as a pe--
coniary cause.; nor were the extents of its private
discounts a cause of prevention-; but the real
cause he coon :;erect to be the immense advances
made by the Bank to Government. They were
not in a progress -of diminishing their advances ;••
and he argued, from a reference to certain Sta.
titles, particularly the Act of %%Tinian) and Mary,
that it was illegal to make More advances than.
what 'were founded upon VQICS of Credit. To
such an amount had those advances increased, that
they were now, he:believed, more than double the
sum they were when the restriction was first laid

on. the tlvra aitvertea to the recent 'propos'ition of
calling upcn Country Bankers for Stock securitv
equal to tie 'issue of their small notes. On this
he c-Immynted in some detail, 'and scented to im-
p-ufo its tendency, as militating against that prin-
ciple uptn which all Bank notes were received-
-the geteral credit, or faith in the stability of the
cmcem and particularly as detracting from the
'credit of their respective firms as to their larger
-floret, while it went to favour the credit of the
Ba4k of England exclusively. As to the idea of
Stick Debentures, he regarded it as so extravttgatAt
ii itself, that it could not be seriously coun-
tenanced in any degree. Recurring then to the
state of the,currency, it was a point, his Lordship
contended, which perhaps more-.than any other
-called for a Parliamentary investigation. He
first dwelt upon the paper branch thereol, and
observed that there were now four descriptions
of-Paper.Curreuciec in circulation.; and. on refer-
ring to the Metallic Branch, it was, in its rela-
tions to the 'state of the exchanges., and the cur-
rent prices of the precious metals, equally worthy
of their Lordships' attention. In his view of this
!inn of the subject, he roust repeat what he had
advanced on a former occasion, that silver would
be pieferablc to gold as a standard coin. This
lie advanced as a general principle ; and with re-
tee ence To the immediate circumstances of the
country, the prices of metals, and the rate of the
xel,anges, the exportation of gold would be more
than that of silver. And it WAs proved
by time ealeuiatious of indivirluals the most-com-
petent, of Sir Isaac Newton,„in his day, that 21
shillings were intrinsically more valuable ' th-an-
otie gitioea, by fourirence ; and recently it WaS
.eaktlhted, tb4t twenty new shillings were more-
-valuable than the gold sovereign, by more 'than
tenpence. Ile then glanced at the Mint regula-
tions, which, he contended, operated impercepti-
-I,ly ; and would tend, if not altered, to iticapaci-
true the Bank from re4urning caSh-payments.
Rivets, therefore, should have considered, before
they•gnee a p!cOge as to their resumption at the
expiration of a year. After dwelling principally
on these pf,ints, in a considerable degree of de-
tail, blended with -much documentary reference,
and insisting, iA every view he had taken of the
subject, on the necessity old Parliamentary in-
quiry, the Noble Earl'eoneltided by moving,

. . .. _
'' That this Home do appoint a Committee to inquire into
and examine the present state of- the metallic and paper cur-
rency; and the Issues payalde to the Bank of England, and
report the same to the House."-

--The Earl of f.,11/Rli root. rose, and begged' the
indulgence of •the House while he offered a fe4
observations, which -he felt 'called for in cause.
queuce of some_ points which fell from the Noble
—Earl ; and he mnst be allowed 'to say, with all
• reasonable deference for the judgment and infar.
marion relative ..to a question upon Which the
Noble Earl had so much labour, he had
• never beard so muck dogmatising in a discussion
.. before. One princ:ple . down by the Noble
• 'Earl he cordially" concocted in, namely, that the
best system tor- the- circulation of ally country
was a system of paper currency, .which paper
should be liable. to-he paid in a metallic ore, if

called tor. tie agreed also, unit the more a Piper
currucy 'prevaded, the less tlicre wt.rtild be of a
cash circulation, He could, hOwever, assirre-the
Noble Lord (Landerd:de), u was_ well t 9
thOSt. Who !best knew hims that he was 015 atiXiollS
as any man could he for the resumption of cash.
payatetitS on the 'Fait of the Bank of:England,
And that it with the greatest repugnance lie
now recognised the..nectlssity of
.continuing the
rtitrictiow for some time longer. With respect
to what was said us to 'the prefetability of silver
to•gold as a• standard, or a measure of value, he
saw no reason to depart from the opinion which
Ire (Lord Liverpool) formerly advanced neon the
imint, which was decisively, that gold was pre-
frrable as a measure of value ; and it was known
that it was long so in point of fact before it came
to be sanctioned by law ; and, in all transactions,
gold was considered as the .stamiard coin and it
was not till, a long interval that it was enacted

silver should not be s legal tender beyond 25/.
lie diffned most essentially from the Noble Earl
, npon this point, and: be slremed him to be mis-
taken as to the reasoning deducible from .the

calculations- of Sir Isaac: Newton upon the
value of that metal. By -the law, also, gold, in
may be exchanged, on demand, for coin
at the- Mint, whereas such a privilege was not ex-
tended to the holders of silver. bullion. Gold was
certainly tnore liable to .be exported than silver,
because a substitute may be found for the former,
and nOne.could be found -for the latter. These,
together with the advantages always afforded to

gold by the -Mint regulations, we r?, he•thonght,
conclusive as to the point. ...The Noble Earl then
adverted to the impottant topic of the Paper Cir-
culation. On this he thought, taking the cities-
tion generally, it must be allowed that some re-,
gulations .were necessary with respect to the cir-

cnlation.ctf paper, and that something in the way
-of check .should 'he provided. This principle, he
thought, could not, be dispsited. As the law now
stood, no check whatever existed with respect to
the papercirculation, particularly with reference
to the issue of small pores., No win, iitt,t)eliev-
ed, . was very desirous of returning to,the.systew
Of a pure metallic con ency, to the exclusion of a
paper circulation, lie was decidedly of opitiion,
-that the issues of Country Batiks• regnireu some
.regulatiotr. .
Since the year '1814; out of 700
Country:Banlis then _existing, ,no fewer. than
200 have disappeared. More than oue-third
have been ..swept_, the face_ of the coun-
try and it was a, curious fact, that much of
the.distress which the
.country had at one, time
experienced .was.,- attributed to the extent to which
the Codutry,Bault system had been carried. Here,
then, was A great permanent evil, a thousand
times more :orotidahle than. the Batik Restriction.
The Bank, of England had been restrained by the
hand of. GoVernment, from political considera-
tions ; and without the interposition of, scone re-
gulation, things iitay. fall out so, ,tis,by inducing a
run upon the Country: Banks, it. -wout4nut-,only
those, but possibly cause. a. most. injurious
3!t111 ion the Bank of England itself, He .there
lore.thouglit the.neeessity of some limitation was
\lite case of Scotland. it was very
dil,i'e-rent, there not being, in fact, more than one
) what could properly he.called Private
hat_part of the island. The
bete, in con'segnence,

or!

ry Bad

ts(ab

it“:11t

rsitfamed ttimdst entire. The Itian o'f ing
the deposit of a certain amount of Stock, in the
way 'of security, was not liable to those objec-
tions urged-by the Noble Lord. Such is deposit,
he had- no' doubt; instead of tending to bring
down the credit of the higher country notes,
would, r.n the contrary, .tend to uphold -it.
They ktiew, • from- the information before the
frouse, the state of the currency with respect
to the small notes, and as such would re-
quire to be stamped, they could know the
qtrantiv in circulation from year to year, Such
a regulation as , he contemplated, would nut, only
-he beneficial to the credit of all, .hut, when tho 7
roughly considered, most be found essentially ne-
cessary. The real merits-of the present country
banking system may he • appreciated, front the
striking fact, that in perhaps the most populous,
ppulent; and 'commercial county in'Great iii: itain,
nasitely Lancaster, there existed not one single
Country Bank. All its transactions were carried
tin by means of Bank of England paper. There
was nothing in the foreign relations;or in the in-
ternal state of the country, thit could render the
'continuance of the measure of restriction', 'pro.;
spectively sOeskiug, necessary and the Bank was
Hot only willing, but had tntule preparations for
:the resumption of cash psymetits; and was, as far
as it was concerned, in a state to do sO:.. -With
tespect to the advances made by the Batik to Go-
vernment, he could assure the House that as far
as these might .apply they had.not" the iinputed
effect as to the power of. the Bank, and that the
Government were prepared yo 'repay these isclw,in-
' ces as far as the Bank" thought it expedient to re-
ceive them. They had no means of knowing, nor
had any controulos -to the em ployinent of the
vote funds of the Bank ; and. he differed front the
Noble Earl as to Isis inferenc6 drawn from the
state of the Exchequer, which depended upon causes
widely different from what he seemed to content.;
plate. Upon the whdle, from the immtdiately exist-
ing state of things, did not deem the present a
favourable moment for, the Tesumption of cash
payments, With reference to the
_pending ar,
rangentrists between France anti the Allies, and
which may shortly be -adjusted, a more favourable
opportunity may ere long he rationally expected
to arise, and when the thing may be ootie with
perfect safety. There could, be no differeoce,ot
opinion as to the necessity- of bringing the sub-
ject of the paper currency (ruder their considera-
tion, and inflecting it to some.regulations. With
respect to the motion itself, which was for the
appuitument of a Committee of Inquiry, he really
saw no good. purpose it could answer. Parlia-
ment, since-11m commencement 'of the Session;
may be regarded as in a
,state of progressive in-
quiry into the general subject. For his own part,
he cordially afforded to the Noble Earl every in-
formation he called for during. the .tiession,- and
the whole was now before the:House. He •there-
tore saw no ground .f or specific inquiry ; the pro-
mitscot parts of the sublect would 60011 come up
regularly before their Lordships its the shape of
distinct Bills, when a full opportunity discus-
sion would be afforded. Upon these ground 4 he
telt it his duty to offer a negative 'to (he Noble
Earl's rnotion.

The Marquis of LAN'SDOW-NE rose, and argue 4 at
leng.th "on the impropriety of their being
Called Uponi to continuo a war
of profound peace. The Noble .111,aquis went
most minutely into the subject of the Bank, fte,,
istrictioni which, he contended, was a most initt
'dons measure. Lie then adverted to the inelau..
Pchoiy scenes daily witnessed by the prosecutions
fir forgeries 01 1 the Bank, and recommended
strongly t he• propriety of some alteration in the
torin'-ot Notes, and concluded. by suppbrting the
:notion. .

The :Earl of IlAnitoivnY objected strongly to the
Motion, on the ground of its not Vein necessary ;
but at the same time concurred in the necessity of
some'iteps- beit* Taken to make for.dries on the
Bank more difficult. The Noble Lord next ad-
verted to the regulation of tountryßanks, which.
he obsersed, was a measure likely to be productive
of the most beneficial effecti, and concluded by
opposing the motion. _ _

SI'DMOUTEI concurred in the propriety
of doing every thing possible to prevent forget ies
on-:.the Bank, which he observed was a subject
which required close in‘eatigation. At the same
time he believed their Lordships and the country
were deceived as to Bank forgeries having increas-
ed since the Bank Restriction. He held in his
band a return which stated the number of prose-
cutions within certain periods before and after the
Restriction, from which it appeared there was not
any increase equal to what was supposed. In the
twenty-one years since the Restriction, there were
995 prosecutions for forgeries on Country Banks
and the Bank of England, while in the same
period there were 3099 Prosecutions for counter-
feiting the coin of the realm. This skewed that
the Restriction did not operate' as was supposed
to cause forgeries.

Lord LAUDERDALE replied at some length.
After witieh-the question was put, and negatived
without alliFision.—Adjourned.

HOUSE OF CO:OMONS.

A person from the Crown Odiee presented as Account or
the u•lmb.r of Pardons granted under the Great Seal fur the
last te•n years.

j,danson, frgrn the Office of the Secretary for Ireland,
presented Returns of. the Wol 'Keepers' Fees and Enthlu-
nrents, . •

.Mr. Hutchiusors presented, Necounts of- the number of So:
vereigns and Half Soveseiges coined during the last year;
and also of the of-Standard Gold during that period.
Mr. M. A. TAYLOR presented the Report of the Com.
mittee on the Mary-le-hone Petition, wbich was °slim-ed to
lie on the - • • '

, Colt:)nel GRANT presented a Pdition fr 011) Elgin against
the .Ic.otch'l.unatic Asylum Bill.

Sir E. Blf,YDGES'presented a Petition from the Inhabitants
of Gravesend, praying. a repeal altogether of the I)uttes on
Salt..—Ordered,to lie on the table,-and to he printed.
General THORNTON gave 'notice, that on Wednesday
'next he sliould.inove . for Accounts. of the different Parlia-
-meiltay Grants- to the British Museum for the last twelve
years, and the application•thereof. , •
Several Petitions were presented against the Ulverstone
Road Bill.

'Alder:imp WOOD, on presenting' a Petition-from the Ward
01Bishopsgate azainst the. Select Vestries and Pour Laws'
expressed his boor that the Rightifion. Gent leman who
had brought in these Bills winild except the City of London,
vs it was utterly impo.,sihlo that the 15arishes could exist un-
ler such rqzulfitio6,..---( )rdered to lie on the table.

Sir N. C.;ouurklußsT presented a Petition from the
Fli.;isegio!ders 441; Cork against the 'Window Duty.—Ordered
o lie t;n the txl,le,' "'

Sir J. SUA W presented a Petition from the Parish of M. Sc-

. •N
;I •
againA the Select Vestries and Poor Lawi.
Ordered to lii on the titt)l,

Mr. GURNEY .presented a Petition froth a Mr. Fisher,
against the claims of Eleven Copies of every Work by the
Universities, &c. • •
bird G. (WENDISTI presented a Petitiou.,from the Re-
tail Shopkeepers of Thetford. against '(as well as could be
heard) tke Shop-window or tVarelloose Tax.--Ordered to lie
on the table. . •

General HART presentetl-a Petition from- &Town in the
:County of Donegal, praying 41 modification of the Laws that
authorize Fines on illicit Distillatitwi.;,—lteail, and--ordered to
lie On the table. ,

Thu Huu. General then complained of a Return ordered
peremptorily On -the Roth of Jane last, respecting Fines on
illicit Distillation, not having yet bees, made. He descanted
on the.grierauces under which the people of that part of Ire-
land laboured from -those heavy tines.
Mr. ORDE alluded to the measure which was carried last
year on this subject by a eery small majority,: and ybsereed
that exactly the coniequencei which an HOU: 7GentleMan had
predicted had followed from it. J-Jel continued to remark
upon this subject, but the noise was .so great as, to prevent
hearing him.
Mr. SPEAKER wasiimlerstoOd to inform the Honourable
Member, that any Order of the last Sess,iiin must be revived in
the present, if it hid not been acted upon. .
Mr. PEEL said a few words lit eSplanation why the Acr
coup's lied not yet been presented.

. Mr. MARSH postponed his notice of- a.motion respecting
the,Delns of the Nabob Of Arcot till the 99t11.
Mr. BROUGHAM said lie held in his hand a Petition from
,the Inhaltitatitsof St- Leonard's, Shorediteb, against the Se-
lect -Vestries'. Bill, which They statrd to pOssess very grave ob-
jections. One of moat constaptenee, in his opinion, was the
appointment of "a permanent ehairman ; and also, that per,
son, sb inhl vote according to their property. If this pritrei,
p'iewere to be carried- in.one parish that lie cool& name. a.
sktigle Brewhottse would overwhelm all the other pr,merty.
There were aho many other grounds of ()Wain() against the
measure, which deservrd the deepest consideration...
. The Petition was brought nit, read, and ordered to 'tie on
the tAle,
Mr. Nor presented Accounts of the Arrears of
tile Property Tax.:--Ordered tu be referred to the Cbruniitttc
of, Wayvitiot Means.. :The same. Right`Hort. Gentleman also
presunted Accounts of the toromes of their Royal Highnesses-
,
the Dukes of Clarence, Ken, and -Cambridsu.—Ordered to
lie an the table. •

w.;GEB OF BATTLE.
The ATTMINEY—CiENEitAL was untlertood to givis n 4,
tice, that be would shortly move for leaveto brim.! in ,t
to repeal the ancient Law relative to the Wager of Battle.--•-
(Hear, bear !)