Star.
London, England, 1811-04-26 00:00:00

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PARLIAMENTARr pit,ocEzDrArcs.
HOUSE.OLF LORDS, APRIL 25.
the Bishop of CLONFERT took the oaths and his seat.
Mr. Eters tw ea, Clerk to the Privy Council, presented some
Papers ordered by the House, and Mr.PRARCE, from the Admi-
ralty, Papers directed by Act of Parliament.—Ordered to lie on
the Table.
The London Drtcb Bill, and several Local and Private Bills,
were brought up from the Commons by Mr. JADORtLL Gene-
ral FeRGUSSON, Mr. BLACRRURN, Lord FRANCIS &BORN>,
Mr. VANSITTART. Mr. BASTARD, and other Members, and
read a first time.
A Message was also brought up from the House of Commons
by Mr. CALCRA v T and other Members, desiring their Lordships
Iwould permit Lord Keith to attend the Saint Nicholas Harbour
Committee ; to which it was replied, that the House would send
an answer by Messengers of their own.

INSOLVENT DEBTORS.
On the motion of Lord REDESDALE, the committee on the
Insolvent Debtors Bill was postponed till Thursday next.
Adjourned till to-morrow (this day).

•11.•••=•••

I

HOUSE OF COMMONS. .
Sir Haw DA LITMPLE HAMILTON tOOk the oaths and his seat
for Ayrshire. He was introduced to the Houle by Sir John Cox
Hippieley and General Fergusson.
Mr. Fawagota presented at the Bar an Account of the num;
bee of Licences granted during the year 1810 for the importation
of grad front foreign parts.
A Messar fryni.the Lords aequaimed the House that their
Lordsbips had agreed to the Foreign Ministers' Salaries Bill, the .
Dublin Roads Bill; and several private Bills of lnclosures, &c.
without any amendments.
Mr. W. POLE moved for leave to bring in a Bill to prevent
•the Marriage of Lunatics in Ireland.—Granted.
The Report of the Committee of Ways and Means relative to
the Irish Loan was brought up, and a bill ordered in conformity
therewith.
The forth.' consideration of the Report of the Parish Appren-
tice Bill, which stood for to-morrow, was postponed to Wednes-
day the Sth of May.
Mr. HOWARD postponed to Wednesday, the Bth of May,
his motion respecting the exemption of Foreigners front the Pro-
perty Tax.
Mr. FOSTER brought up, by order of the House, an account
of the Appropriation of the Board of First Fruits in Ireland,from
the Ist of May, 1801, to the Ist of May, 1811.
Mr. LIISHINGTON brought up the Report of the Expiring
Laws Bill.
Mr. WHARTON obtained leave to bring in a Bill for the
Abolition and Regulation of certain °Sees in the Customs.
STAGE COAC/I ESTABLISHMENTS OF IRELAND.
Mr. BERNARD, in a concise speech, presented a Petition
from the Queen's County, Ireland, praying that the Sill now se:,
fore the House, for repealing an Act of the last Session, which •
placed the Stage Coach Establishments of Ireland upon the same
footing as in this country, should not pass into a law. The ob-
ject of the Bill in question, he oleerved, wag to subject Public
Carriages t, double the tolls payable by Private Carriages, and
limiting the number of outside passengers to be conveyed by them
to three.
Mr. PARNEI.I. presented Petitions to a similar effect from
the Towns of Maryborough, Montrath, Abbeyleef, Mountmelic,
&c. as did
The Hon. Mr. PRETTIE, front Roscrea, Ncnagh, and other
places in the County of Tipperary.
EXCHEQUER BILLS. •
Mr. MARRYATT trusted that very few observa.
tions would be necessary to satisfy the House of the,
'expediency of granting the information for which he
was about to move. There were already before the
House official documents which showed that the
amouat of Bank-notes in circulation for the four
years preceding the Bank restriction, varied from 11
millions to 13 millions ; and that at the period imme-
diately preceding. the restriction, they amounted to ,
£8,640,x; and that the amount of their issue last
January amounted to between '23 and 21 millions.-4
It was needless to comment upon the mischievous
effects of an excessive paper currency, not convertible
I into specie : the consequences have already been felt
in an unprecedented' difference between the Mint price
and the market price of Bullion, and in an equally
unprecedented depreciation in the ratkof our Foreign
Exchange. The Bank, however, contended, that the
amount of their notes in circulation was no proof of
their excessive issue ; that that amount had no connec-
tion with the price of bullion, or the rate of foreign ex-
change ; and that therefore all- these effects must be
traced to other causes : indeed, on a late occasion,
the Deputy Governor of the Bank, rather ungratefully,
beenconsideriohow indulgent his Majesty's Ministers
have eirerto the excessive issue of bank notes, ra-
ther ungratefully recriminated on them, and imputed
the two latter of those evils to an unfavourable balance
of trade and payments occasioned by the excessive
issue of licences. He so far agreed with that Hon.
Gentleman in thinking with him, that the excessive
issue of licences had much of these evils Co answer
for ; and he conscientiously believed, that a short Bill,
containing a similar claw, and enacting that the
room in which the Lords of Trade and Plantations
held their sittings should be locked up, and the key
laid upon the table of that House--(a Laugh)—con-
taining also a similar clause respecting the apartments
in which the Bank Directors carried on their manu-
factory of notes. He conscientiously believed that
such a Bill, by preventing the excessive issue both of
notes and licences, would be one of the most useful
acts that could pass that House—but leaving his Ma-,
jesty's Ministers and the Bank Directors to settle be-1
tweets themselves the precise quota of blame which
each ought to bear, he should pass on to observe, that
the 'first great evil to which he had allude-J. namely,
the rapid advance in the price of all commodities, was
the indisputable effect of the vast increase of a circu•
lating medium not convertible into specie, and amply
justified hint in bringing forward that or any mo-
tion which, by elucidating the conduct of the Bank
Directors, could have a tendency to check the evil
itself. To deny the amount of notes in circulation
r was impossible—but the point on which the Bank
rested their justification was, that they did not force
a single note into circulation. This was the evidence
given by both the Deputy Governor and Governor
of the Bank ; it had been repeated in all the various
I pamphlets advocating the interests of the Dank ; it
had been again urged by the present Deputy Gover-
, nor (Mr. Manning) in the late debate respecting Bank
Discounts; but he would ask, how did that apply to
' the motion then before them ? He asserted, without
fear of contradiction, that since one great branch of
the business of the Bank of England had fallen off,
he meant their mercantile discounts (owing to the un-
fortunate failure of so many of their best customers
in that line), they had very much extended another
branch of their business in the purchase of Exchequer.
Bills in the open market. Would it be contended,
that in issuing notes for these purposes, they did not
force their notes into circulation ? Not a note mord,
was in circulation than the actual wants of the coups
try require. Whose wants called upon them to makel
these issues of their notes ? What but their own i*
cesrities, or rather their determination not to let theirl
profits diminish' as long as ever the Bank restriction
remained in force ? This practice appeared to hint


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dbdeclared
to be highly ercepticinable on various accounts • in
incorporation to be the discounting of bills and the
buying and selling of bullion and foreign coin. This
act, however, not only directed what the Bank should
do, but prohibited what it should not do ;• and, • web.
a just jealousy guarded against any connection be-
tween the Bank and the Government. This Act, the
fifth of William 'and Mary, enacted, " thatihey shall
not purchase any land or revenue belonging to Cie
Crown, or advance or lend to their M tjesties, the
heirs or successors, any sum or sum; of money, by
way of loan or subscription, on any part of the ne
venue, other than any part on which a credit or loan
is, or shall be granted by Parliament." Mr. Pitt
however, found it convenient to form a closer cop.
nection with the Bank than that Act allowed, sad he
accordingly brought in a bill, the S3d George 111.
authorising them to make advances on Treasury Bills
—but there was a clause introduced by Mr Fox, pro-
hibiting them from advancing; this clause s.tys.-
44 that they shall not advance more than R00,0")0
on Exchequer Bills, by way of loan or advance tor,
or on account of the public service, except to an
amount not exceeding ‘600,000, on the'credit of as
issue of Exchequer Bills then about to be rhade."—
The Bank, he admitted, did not vi elate the letter, but
they evidently evaded the spirit of the act, for though
they did not advance beyond the stipulated anoint
by way of loan to the Government, yet, their pur-
chasing of the Brokers, who negociate Ahem on ac-
count cf Government, came indirectly to the Lime
thing. This practice was also an unjust interference
with the capital of individuals—it obliged every mu t
who was in the habit of vesting his capital in Exche-
quer-bills, to employ keg, less advantage than they
otherwise could do. Individuals could only act wth a
real capital, either inherited front their ancest, es, or see
quired by their own industry. But the Bank lt,ntric-
lion Act gave the Bank the power cf acting sutra en
artificial capital, without any limits, and without any
expense but that of settingthe paper-mill to work Was
this a just and fair competition ? This practice was
also injurious to the public at large, for the price of
every commodity was raised by the excessive issues of
paper thus forced into circulation; and thus every in-
dividual, in every thing he eats, drinks, wears, or
consumes, was obliged to contribute to the extrava-
gant aggrandisement of this already overgrown Cor-
poration. This practice too prevented the adoption
of a system much more advantageous both to indivi.
duals and the State. No doubt could be entertainel
that the public would prefer Government paper bear-
ing interest to Bank paper bearing no interest, pro.
vided the same facilities were given to loath. If Ei•
chequer Bills were issued from £lO to £5O, bearing
only S per cent. interest, and exempted from the pro-
perty tax, to avoid those complex cakulasions which
now attend the transfer of them, they would circulate
with the same facility as Bank notes now do, nery
Man would then receive interest upon them for the
time they remained in his possession, and thus Go-
vernment and individuals would divide that profit
which was now engrossed by the Butlc of England.
He was aware th it the Chancellor of the Exchequer
was disposed to I iok on this practice with A, venial
eye, as it enabled that Right Hon. Gentleman to
come down to the House with B )urishing statements
of the low rate of interest at which he has been form.
nate enough to raise large sums of money for the pun.
lie service by means of. Exchequer Bills, and the ex-
cessive issue of the Beak. 'But this issue, by ad-
vancing the ;mice of evey commodity, swelled the
nominal amount of our imports and exports, and of
our revenue, and in considering them in this rint of
view, we stw them through a false medium, as chil-
dren see pictures in a ranee-show, through a magni-
fying-glass--and like them too we were only delighted
in proportion as we were deceived; fur the truth was,
that our expenditure increases in a still greater pro-
porrion. It was justly and acutely observed by the
Honourable Member for Southwark, that a few years
ago our revenue and our expenditure met within two
millions, but now they were much further distant,
and the longer the present system was continued, the
more that distance would increase—perhaps the AU•
thority of a Right Hon. Baronet who has been favour-
ing the public with his lucubrations on this subject,
might have some weight with the Chancellor of the
Exchequer—that Right Hon. Baronet quoted from
another Honourable Baronet, where he said, that the
Minister who wasted to borrow money should con-
trive to render the circulating medium as abundant as
possible. He (Mr. olarryatt) admitted that this doc-
trine tended to raise the value of the price of the funds
as well as that of the Exchequer Bills, but it was not
to be forgneen that whatever was not just in its prie-
ciple could not be lasting in its duration, and that if
the public found Government securities thus tampered
with, their confidence in them must fail, and their con-
sequent 'depreciation be productive of the most serious
mischiefs. Hitherto there had been generally too good
an uw-lerstaseding between the Bane and the Minister,
they agree to support his measures, and he will not iu•
quire into their profits; indeed, wherevci chc cac. hvi
been otherwise, the Minister had been obliged to give
way. It appeared in the Report of the Lords Com-
mittee of Secrecy, in the year 1797, on the Order of
Council relating to the Bank, that the Directors ab-
solutely extorted from Mr. Pitt a promise not to enter
into any treaty with any Foreign Power, Prince, or Po-
tentate, without first consulting with them, the Dircc-
tors —he might say extorted, because they gave hen
to understand, that they would not pay his Tre.eury
Bills unless he complied. Thus insisting to be privy
to the most important State Secrets, and claiming a
right to controul the most important State Measures.
Mr. Pitt, however, was obliged to submit. Did the
present Ministers boast firmer nerves than Mr. Pitt l
or was the power of the Bank diminished sin e that
period ? The Bank Restriction Act gave them the
power of raising capital to any extent by the mere ope-
ration of the paper.mill ; and thereby supplied them
not only with the fulcrum, but the ground to stand
upon ; it realized to them the wish of Archimedes, and
gave them that pie with whica, htce to stand upon, M
said, he could undertake to raise the world. Mr. ie
ryatt then, atter recapitulating the punts which lie
had contended for, coecluded by stating that his wish
I was to see the legitimate Government of the country
restored to its proper independence.; to do that, the
wealth add power of the Bank must be brooght within
reasonable limits. • The araottnt of the txcheqeet 0
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