Star.
London, England, 1819-05-22 00:00:00

iIOUSE OF LORDS, MAY 2i.
•
• Artei the jutilcial business of the day Was disioseti hi, Lord
'trammel; took. the oaths and his seat.
Their j,ordsliipFt then adjourned during pleasure; preparatory
to the important discussion of the evening; anil at about five
o'clock tite'Roule resumed.
A el:cadet:able number of private or local Bills were broloiht
tic( *oat the Commons by Lord %V. BENTZ:ICC, General gra-
cOnrks Mr. CAsTsrazoirr, Mr. Parc', and other Members, and
keeleeelll read the first tithe.
Several Accounts respecting the Import and Export of Gold
and Sneer-Bullion ; the Coinage, especially of Copper; and re-
specting the amount of Bullion exported to China, were pre-
sented at the Bat from the Allot Gffice and the Bast India
'louse, pursuant to recent orders of their Lordships, and ordered
to ba Printed..
Some 'conversation took place respecting the progress of the
Meatless Bill, in which the Barb of CAMIART9N,
sad Slistszassay, and the Loss Csovess.Loss.
.•. .
41It Ow AN

:for's second reading oat u d;
CITY PETITION.

Previous to the 05;d;roillie6ay being read for the
House to take into consideration the Report of the
Secret Committee on the affairs of the Bank, '
The Earl of LAUDERDALE rose, for the pur-
pose of presenting a Petition, signed by from four
to five hundred of the most respectable Bankers,
Merchants, and Traders of the City of London,
against the adoption of the plan seggested in the
Report of the Committee for the Resumption of
Cash Payments by the Bank of England. The Peti-
tioners apprehended that such a plan must, of neces-
sity, cause a precipitate and forced reduction in the
circulating medium of the country. It should not,
however, be understobd that these Petitioners prayed
that the existing system should be rendered perma-
nent, or that this
.country Should continue to main-
tain a paper currency without any of those checks
that rendered a paper currittcy valuable, but they'
petitioned against a plan which must in their mind,
and in his also, cause such a reduction in the circu-
lation as must operate to the disadvantage of the en-
tire community.—The Petition was then read as
follows :

" To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal,
Parliament assembled, the humble Petition of the under-
toted Merchants, Bankers, Traders, and Others, of the City of
don and its vicinity :
" Humbly Sheweth—That by an Act passed in the fifty-
eighth year of the reign of his present Majesty, reciting that an
Oct was passed in the forty-fourth year of his present Majesty's
reign, intituled;' An Act to continue, until six months after the
ratification of a definitive Treaty of Peace, the Restrictions con-
tained in several Acts made in the 37th, 38th, 49d, and 43d
years of the reign of his present Majesty, on Payments of Cash
by the Bank of England, which Act had by several subsequent
Acts been continued until the sth day of July, 1818, and re-
citing that unforeseen circumstances „which bad occurred since
the passing of the last of thv said Acts had rendered it expedient
that the said Restrictions should be further centinuet4 and tbst
another period should be fixed for thetarmissation thereof,' it le
. _
emeipeeet.,- -
furtjerr

, caninuidesiiithe sdidgrot Say Assa•
•41 That the sane &cantos* tielhatinfitetRy
that the said ReetTietions shoals! be W
the 38th year of the reign of his presetit Majesty, until the Sth
day of July, 1819, have not ceased to exist.
" That your Petitioners have reason to apprehend, that mea-
sures are in contemplation with reference to the Resumption of
Cash Payments by the Bank of England, which in the opinion
of your Petitioners will, as they humbly submit to your Lord-
ships, tend to a forced, precipitate, and highly injurious contrac-
tion of the circulating medium of the country.
" That the consequences of such contraction will, as your ps•
titioners humbly conceive, be to add to the burden of the Public
Debt; greatly to increase the pressure of the taxes; to levier the
valLe of all landed and commercial property; seriously to affect
both public and private credit; to embarrass and reduce all the
operations of Agriculture, Manufactures, and Commerce; and
to throw out of employment (as in the calamitous year 1811)
great proportion of the industrious and labouring classes of the
community.
" That your Petitioners are fortified in the opinion which they
have thus Mimbly submitted to your Lordships,by the distresses
experienced by the commercial, trading, manufacturing, and
agricultural interests ache kingdom, from the partial reduction
of the Bank issues, which it appears has recently taken place.
" That your Petitioners humbly bog leave to represent to your
Lordships, that they are fully convinced that neither the man-
ner roe the time which your Petitioners have reason to appre-
hend is Intended to be proposed for the 'Resumption of Cash
Payments, is suited to avoid the evils which they anticipate.
" Your Petitioners therefore most humbly pray your Lord-
ships to take the premises into your serious consideration, and
that the time, as at present fixed by law, for the termination of
the Restriction upon Payments of Cash by the Bank of England.
may be extended to a period which shall not tend to a forced and
precipitate contraction of the circulating medium of the country,
or to embarrass Trade, or to injure Public Credit, Agriculture,
Alanifactures, and Commerce, and that your Lordships will be
plea:Jed to grant such further or other relief in the premises as to
rine Lordships shall seem meet." ,
The Petition being read, the Noble Earl resumed,
and stated, he was instructed to say that the Peti-
tioners were, for the most part, connected with the
first mercantile houses in the City, and that the Pe-
tition would have been more numerously signed were
it not for some extraordinary circumstances that took
place at the General Meeting, at which this Petition
was prepared. Men of the names of Hunt and
Wooler, and others of their character, not, as their
Lordships were awate, of the most respectable class,
appeared at the Meeting, to further their own objects,
which he doubted not were to promote Confusion
as extensively as possible. It was their part, there-
fore to support the present plan—because, according
to their views of it, it was calculated to reduce thF
taxes, to detract from the efficiency of the Govern-
ment, to derange the trade and commerce of thee
country, and to deteriorate from the security of pro-
perty. Such a plan, therefore, would quite suit them
_(Hear, hear.)—liefore he tat down, he thought it
necessary to inquire of the Noble Earl opposite, whe•
Cher, within the last four-and-twenty hours, some
communication had not been made to the Prince Re-
gent's Ministers on the part of the Bank'of England,
expressive of the sentimeuts of that Body upon the pro-
posed plan which so materially affected their interests?
The Earl of LIVERPOOL observed he had no he:
citation in saying it w.Ls perfectly true he had thate
morning received a communication from the two
Gentlemen at the head of the Bank Direction, and
they had 'pat into his hands a paper expressive of
sentiments.of thy Court of Directors upon tke mea-
Stares Oaf 'yeait'cOneliieration. The paper was in
the gistnregir a ebniniunicatind made by them to his
Majesty'S principal Ministers. They were asked; on'