Star.
London, England, 1830-02-26 00:00:00

tainly I am under no obligation to be the first to offer any remarks
in opposition to this Committee, as that would rather be expected
to be the part of some member of the Government. If I had con-
sulted my own ease, I should have abstained from the coma which
I am pursuing ; but if, before the house entered on the considers.
tion of this measure, I felt considerable doubt u to the propriety
of concurring in the proposition of the Noble Earl, I must confess
that the speech we have Just heard has most materially confirmed
that. resolution. I must confess, also, that I did not at all expect
that the Noble Earl would have confined himself on this occasion
Ito the description of a state of things which no one can attempt to
deny-(hear, hear,)—l mean the general distress which prevails
in the country, and the duty which lies on your Lordships
to do the best in your power to alleviate and relieve that distress.—
(hear, hear.) I expected that he would have proceeded to state
something as to the causes which, in his view, had produced that
distress, and something of the notions which he entertains as to
the practibility of its remedy.—(bear, hear.) Ido not say that it
was incumbent on any individual to submit to your lordships a spe.
cific remedy ; but when the noble earl has proposed a course of pro-
ceedings so inconvenient in itself, and so inadequate to effect that
discuaion—superficial as the noble earl makes it out to be—l think
that, before we consent to such an inquiry, we have a right to know
what it is we are about to inquire about. In the course of his
speech, the noble earl has taken occasion to treat with contempt the
principle of select committees, and has particularly noticed one
which is now sitting.
Earl STANHOPE.—I beg pardon. T
particularly said, that for
such
ightan inquiry as that into the affairs of India, a select committee
m do.
Viscount GODERIC : Just so; but then the noble earl pro-
ceeded to describe the proceedings of such a committee in a some-
what contemptuous style ; and though he has complained that the
conduct of this house is not such as to command the respect of the
country, I must say that the noble earl's own description is not cal-
culated to raise us in the estimation of the public. It, however,
Strikes me that it would be easy to describe the proceedings of a
committee of the whole house in terms as ludicrous as those
which have fallen from the noble earl with respect to a select
committee. (Hem, hear.) It has not been my fortune, since I have
been a member of this house, to attend a committee of the whole
house on any important subset • but do not the King's mi.
nisters sit,in a committee of the ;hole house ? Are not the follow.
era of government on the same benches, then, which they always
occupy ? In short, I have heard no objection &Ashen a select cont.
mittee which may not,be urged with ten times the force against the
plan proposed by the noble earl. Surely, then, no imputation of
want of feeling is to be brought against any one for objecting to the
mode of proceeding proposed by the noble earl. According to my
view of the case, it has one remarkable objection. He tells you that
a select committee would go into minuteness of detail, out that a
committee of the whole house would only look at the general re:
sult. But if the people of England are to be satisfied with such
a superficial inquiry, little do we understand either of their inte.
rests or their feelings. (Hear, hear.) When the noble earl says
that if we refuse this inquiry, the people of England will conclude
that we reject their prayer, and that we have shut our eyes, our
ears, and our hearts to their sufferings. I say that such is an unjust
imputation ; and I shall endeavour, before I alt down, to show that
although 1 dissent from many of the noble earl's doctrines on this
subject, 1 do not believe that the parliament is incapable of effect-
ing a direct and immediate relief to the people, and of laying a
foundation of great and permanent good to the interest of the
country. In saying this, lam not arrogating to myself the merit of
any new discovery or plan ; but I think that I may be able to
point out a mode by which immediate relief could be afforded and a
foundation laid for great permanent advantages hereafter. I am
willing to admit that my views on this subject may be wrong, and
that I may be too sanguine in what I am looking forward to ;
but at least I have a right to claim for myself and for Parlia-
ment an exemption from that censure and reproach which the
noble Earl has cast upon us ; aid I am ready to place myself
at the bar, not only of this house, but of the country, for an
squittal to the charge of having been neglectful of the interests
of the country. I admit that the distress of the country is ge.
weal; I admits that it is more severe in some respects than at any
former period (hear, hear !); hod when I reflect on one circum.
stance to which the Noble Earl his alluded—the exemplary pa.
tience and resignation with which the people have borne this.—
I know not what feelings can have possession of a nun's
mind, if he does not feel it to be a duty.—outweighing and transcen.
dant to all others—to apply his best and most earnest energies to
their relief. But there are considerations out of which there may
arise the possibility of applying some degree of alleviation to this.
And first as to its causes. It is not my intention to fatigue your
lordships by entering into any learned diammadons on the infinite
variety of causes which may have tended to cripple the industry of
the country, and to have indicted poverty and wretchedness on its
people. There are some of them, no doubt, beyond the reach, as
die speech from the throne expressed it, of legislative interference.
(Hear' hear.) This country, !for the last twenty-five years, has
been in q moat singularly artificial state; and indeed every
'country, during the same period, has been more or less in
the sante state. It was totally impossible, therefore, when that
artificial state ceased, that all the interests of the country should not
partake of the revulsion which was the consequence; and I believe
that this country, having been affected more than any other by those
artificial circumstances, has felt this revulsion the most severely.—
, One of the consequences thus produced was, that the country na
longer enjoyed those high prices, of which so many appeared to be
enamoured, and which appeared to be in great favour with the noble
earl. But, besides this, there were two other causes—the state of
the currency, and the state of the taxation; and I cannot but think
that it is possible for parliament to apply—not perhaps an in.
stantaneous—but at all events amataial relief. First, then,
as to the currency. Though I never entertained a doubt that the
safety of the country depended on the restoration of the metallic cur.
rency. I never for a moment concealed flora myself that such a
course would be accompanied with great pressure upon the people.
1 always looked upon it as chasing the lesser evil rather than the
greater. But there are some circumstances connected with the
currency which ought to lead us to conclude that it is not yet
in the state in which it ought to be. I allude to the state of
the currency, exclusive of the paper of the Bank of Engin&
The noble duke, the other night, stated that the amount of
the currency now in circulation was equal to what it had been at
any .former period. it may or may not be so. But it ap-
' pears to me to be difficult to come at any positive conclusion
on the subject. But, at all events, I think that this maths does
not depend on the actual quantity of the circulation, but on a great
variety of other considerations owingto a change in which the circa-
, lotion, which was at one time too little, may at another time be too
much. In the statement on the currency made by the noble duke
the other night, I think he counted one portion of it twice over ;
I that is to sty, I think, when he mentioned twenty-eight millions of
I gold, he did not apprehend that a certain portion of that must be in
the coffers of the Bank of England.
- -

The Duke of WELLINGTON : My statement of the amount
was independeat of what was retained by the bank.
Viscount tiODERICH-1 am glad to hear that: for at then
have to give the Bank credit for a more judicious management.
than I otherwise think they would have deserved. But, setting aside
that part of the question, 1 think that the currency is not only in-
sufficient, but that it is unnecessarily low—(hear), and that It
might be made higher without the slightest danger to the country—
(hear). I know no criterion by which we are so well to judge of
the proper amount of the circulation as by the state of our foreign
eichanges. Poe the last 18 months those foreign exchanges
bate been highly in favour of this country, and till the
Ontrencp shell be below 'par, it appears to me that the cur.
racy cannot be too full. The maxim we should adopt on this
had ought to be, to keep it, ‘, without o'erflowing, full."
and I thick that it is desirable to have in this country as lar it a
supply as way be consistent with this principle. The view which I
take of the distresses of the country leads me, I costae, to the *pi-
nion Met those distresses are :in part to be attributed to the imper-
fect system of banking which prevails out of the metropolis. In my
judgment, the issues of the country bankers are not regulated by
those principles which are likely to prove advantagems to themselves
or beneficial to the country. When times of difficulty arrive, the
issuers of the country papa immediately take alarm, and contract
their circulation with a timidity unfounded and ruinous; and when
die peuepeets of the commercial world' undergo_ a change, they
immediately begin to issue oa a scale so extended, well deserving
to be described as raph. If lam asked what remedy I would
recommend for this evil, it is this —give increased facility to
the establiehment of banks. It must, of couree, be in the recol.
lection of your lordships, that after the panic in the year 1826
a panic. the grounds of which were much exaggerated, and the
effects not fairly represented—l say, my lords, that after that
panic, the 4WO measures of his Majesty's gone. went—w.th
which I was then connected—proposed to parliament were, firs'.
an curlier suppression of the one pound notes than had been
Mrby law ; the second was en act for flats ing the for-
of new banks, under the regulations and principles of
joint stock companies. Previous to that dine the law had
tastrieted the number of partners engaged in private banking
concerns to six.; but Lord Liverpool,-who had well considered the
subjtct, and who, above most men, was well qualified to furni:a
. sound judgment upon questions of that nature, and the decision
at which he arrived was to recommend to your Lordship', u it
was mine to recommend to the other House of Parliamere, a bill
for facilitating the establishment of Country Banks upun the
principle of Joint Stock Companies. The measure was nrch•
eerily imperfect. and for the simple ,rsasoo, that we e,.uld not
induce the Bank of England to rela their rivileges to the titt•
pee ,that was necessary for giving a fair opportunity for trial
which I
to the plan proposed by iovernment at the period to
advert. dace then we have been brought within three yeah of
the period when the Bak Charter will expire. Now, theutdi
nothing can be further from my mind than pretending