The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-04 00:00:00

' sequence of the gross mismanagement which had oc-
curred in this department of the Government.—(Hear.)
Whilst, however, the public were willing that the :;
bona fide holders should be paid the amount which they
had advanced upon the bills, he thought they were at the
same time justified in insisting that the most scrutinising . '4
and searching investigation should. be instituted, as to the
manner in which those bills had been issued from the ;
Exchequer office or elsewhere.—(Hear, hear.) It was
not known where they came from, and the public wanted
to know from what office they came ; and if it was proved
to be the consequence of mismanagement on the part of
the Government that; those bills had been issued, from
all be heard, from different quarters, the public were
quite prepared that the bona fide holders should not suffer.
Now they had an illustration of what was meant 410, ;21
responsibility, a word often used in that House. Tiler :4
heard that this or that was done under the responsibility
of the Government. These bills had, it appeared, been ji
issued from the Exchequer-office, therefore it was under sf
the responsibility of the Government. He wanted to sf
know what that- responsibility was, and who were the
persons that would suffer. He was not desirous to in'
crease their mental suffering, but he did not like the
pockets of the people to suffer for their neglect. There-
fore, if. a course of neglect in the -Exchequer-office bad
caused this fraud, he was anxious to know the result of
the issue of these bills, and who would escape, and on
whom the responsibility would fall. He hoped in future
less respect would be paid to the declarations made i°
that House by the Government.
Mr. J. S. WORTLEY, who was at first inaudible in, -,;
the gallery, was understood to say that Government had
directed their attention to the mode in which these Ex"
chequer bills had been issued, and the nature of the ,;
fraud committed. He thought a few words were due
clue from his Right Hon. Friend,. in order to allay the
apprehensions of the public. He thought it would be
well if his Right Hon. Friend would explain the steps
taken in order to verify the authenticity of those bibs
which were actually in circulation. They knew per-
fectly well that certain steps had been taken, and he ap-
prehended it would give additional confidence, if it were „-
shown that means existed at the time, of establishing the
authenticity of the bills in circulation. It appeared to -
him that some notice should be taken of another subject,
which had exposed the Government to great obloquy-- .
he alluded to the proceedings in the late Exchequer bills
transactions, and the examination of the fictitious bills
(as we understood). No doubt his Right Hon. Friends
had given reasons, satisfactory to the House, -for taking ;:
the course they did; but they also kneW that considerable
blame was thrown on the Government by persons in Vs",
session. of the bills, and who felt themselves aggrieved
at the course pursued by the Government. He had 00
wish further to detain the House on the subject. Re
concurred in all the observations hitherto made, and 11
thought the course adopted by his Right Hon. Friona
was likely to produce satisfactory result's.
Sir R. PEEL rose to make one remark relative to what
had fallen from the Hon. Gentleman, the Member for
Finsbury. He said the public were quite prepared to
grant full compensation to the bona fide holders. lie
(Sir R. Peel) hoped the House would establish no
prin-
ciple whatever on the subject—(Hear, hear)—as it was
desirable that they should have a full and searching
quiry into all the circumstances on the subject.
principle ought to be established until they had all the
facts of the case before them. His Hon. Friend said that
the holders of Exchequer bills could be charged with
gross negligence; and he said, at the same time, that •
there might be cases where there might have been actual
criminality, and that the House ought to establish the
facts by making inquiries. The Hon. Member for Fiur
bary asked if the inquiry would be complete. He (6
R. Peel) apprehended, that the Commissioners appointed
would have full. power to protect the Crown, as well 6.9
guard the interests of individuals, and the power of call-
ing for persons' papers, and pecords, and of aster'
taming the exact facts of the matter.—(Hear.) He really
thought it would.not be expedient to enter into further
argument on the subject as to the manner in which
they could ascertain the bills to be genuine. Neither
was it necessary to go through the exact mode in whit',"
the inquiry would be performed. He believed the pow'
lie were quite satisfied that the investigation was 11.3
effectual one. He did hope that the House would studi-
ously avoid giving any opinion on the subject of ontl,
pensation ; that was a question that must come fee);
under their consideration at a future date ; he' thpugli,
they should also abstain from laying down any principle
till they were in possession of the whole of the facts.
Dr. BOWRING thought the' course that had been
pursued by the Government was much to be commended'*
and bsgged to express a hope that, the Commission
would sit immediately, and come to a decision as quickly
as possible,
Mr. E. TURNER wished to know what steps they
had been taking to ascertain what bills were forged an t
what not, because it might be—he did not say thtl
such was the case—that Rapallo had taken off great
-
quantities of those bills. He thought it most exped. l
that the Commission should come to their decision !e
soon as possible. That decision might be—though !It s
did not expect it—that the whole of the forged bills
should be paid ;-- and if such was the case, some HO
ought to be assigned in which parties should coule
in and claim payment after the Commission had come
to their decision.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER saidthat
.
in answer to the question of the Hon. Member for tilt,
West Riding of Yorkshire (Mr. Wortley), who wished
to know why forged bills, when presented at the Exche-,
quer were impounded, he could only state that it _N001,,1
thought most expedient not to let such a number of th
bills circulate amongst the public and create confusion s
,
and having been informed, by the best legal advice that
he could procure, that he was justified in impounding
those bills, he immediately gave directions to imponn
them all and retain them, but giving notice at the-sat9e,
time to the individuals who had possession of them, tilt'''.
if they required them for the purpose of prosecuting t"‘)
ends of justice, either prosecuting the individuals free()
whom they received them, or any other persons wn
might be liable to such prosecutions, they could have 'lc'
cess to those bills. The prcof of having given such or-
ders was, that several parties having taken out soil
of those bills for the purpose of obtaining the' ends °
justice, had, by their means, recovered their nwne",
from the party from whom they had received the bills,
and they afterwards returned them to the Exchequer
where they now were. With respect to the question
put by the Right Hon. Gentleman opposite, he seem? 1
entirely to have misunderstood the object of the B 1
proposed to be brought in. The Hon. Gentlenian sup"
posed that the Commissioners would recommaid
whole of the bills to be paid. Now payment of the
was not a question to be referred to the Commissioners'
They were to investigate the circumstances of the matte
and report the whole for the information of that Ham e
but the question of payment was by no means to con'e
under their consideration.
~„(1
Mr. BLEWITT said the Right Hon. Gentleman":o
not answered his question about the word forgers'
being inserted in the Right lion. Gentleman's motion. 5
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER wilj
perfectly satisfied that no bills were issued but forgc.
,
ones. When the Bill which he (the Chancellor of the }-;:v
chequer) proposed to lay on the table of that House eslr
in, if the Hon. Gentleman thought it necessary to make
any alteration in the matter to which he referred, then
could be no difficulty in making such alteration.
Sir R. H. INGLIS suggested that the word " issue
should be added before the word " receipt."
The SPEAKER having put the question,
Mr. BLEWITT gave notice that when the Right,
Hon. Gentleman's Bill was br,ught in he would n'o'd
the omission of the word " forged" before the u'llf
" Bills."
Mr. KEMBLE thought that he could state certain
facts which came to his knowledge,' which would she
that it would be much better that the word "repudiate'
should be inserted instead of the word " forged." ht
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER thou on
it would be the better way to postpone the discussil,he
these points at present. It was better that the title of ,
Bill should remain as it now stood. When it was intr°l
duced the matter could be discussed ; and afterward et
it seemed necessary, the title could be altered. But he
he did not wish to trespass on the time of the House'the
thought he could give good reasons to show why
word `'repudiated" was not the best term to be iaserte

Mr. :HAWES supported the suggestion.- ~v
not
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER dit:n
think that the adoption of the phrase alleged to be f°4el
bet
would be an improvement, for many real Bills migibtoa
alleged to be forged. Let him bring in the Bill, ho
t
they might consider the title afterwards. At preseenotovi
would adhere to his own title, but as soon as it Ivo.'
to be wrong he should willingly alter it. to be
The motion was agreed to, and Bill ordered
brought in.

RAILWAYS IN' IRELAND.
Mr. FRENCH rose to move the following resnl°l'llt-
tion :—" That this House do resolve Itself into a Celli-
teeorfetshe whole House, for the purpose of preparing.
dd s to her Majesty, praying that she would be far
a-
Acli
ciously pleased to recommend to Parliament, that to
measures shall be taken as may appear• most lik!lnYto,
secure to Ireland the advantages of railway conlin"
tion." He had more than once expressed his conviet,ii,
thatf unless the Government undertook the constille,:th!
o railways in Ireland, that country would remain w„.01
out those great advantages ; and the opinion of sievs-vos
eminent practical men, whom he had consulted, f•op,
that the Government ought to take up the ques%l
The question narrowed itself to this considerittw
Would they refuse to so large A portion of the enipii.t';
as Ireland the power of raising sufficient funds 'rico
own credit, to develope its resources by the introtiner,lot
of railroads? He would prove there was no hope eft of
having railways in Ireland, except the Government 101
fOrward to lend them assistance. Up to 1838 there
_e.
been no less than 112 private Acts passed for the °the
struction of railways in England and Wales ; 21 fit f r
construction of railways in Scotland ; and only ei,l7lllmil
the construction of railways in Ireland. But the
was not even so well off as might be imagined frosetfive
inspection of these figures ; for out of eight Bill 9 tit ;
had remained unacted on up to the present Inn,lnetseee
and while the whole of England and Scotland ban
miles
traversed by. railways, in Ireland, a line of seven .00
from Belfast to Lurgan, and another of six miles, r
11ise
had been
Dublin to Kableingstown,to a wccomplish. ere all that Whether eaterPloo
i
that the report of the Railway Commissioners hait, ti or
derrated the returns that were likely to be made` ere
capital invested in railways, or that capitalis through•
i
deterred from embarking in such speculations,
ignorance of the intentions of the Government, he Iv
ortu
not stop to inquire ; but he would take that opp the
of stating, that the returns of the profits on_re,t
Dublin and Kingstown railway, showed that an int`ed.
of. 8 per cent. had been realized on the capital invest by
He would now briefly consider what had been done
the late Government in relation to this sii.biect-• The
1836 they had issued the Railway
Commissioners were men of the highest character a„,(1..
the greatest scientific attainments. They were, Zr.
Drummond, Dr. Barlow, Sir John Burgoyne,
_ttAilutheir
Griffiths. On the 11th of March, 1837, they In'ed
cue
first report, which was very brief, but containe
Commission.an ,
of

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