The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-12-07 00:00:00

HOUSE OF LORDS.--THURSDAY.

After some preliminary business, in the course of which
the Earl of HARDWICKE gave notice of his intention to
call attention to the national defences,
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE proposed that a select
committee should be appointed to inquire into the causes
of the recent commercial distress, and as to how far it
had been affected by the law regulating the issue of bank-
notes, payable on demand, and in doing so entered at
considerable length into the state of the country for some
period back. tor the last two years circumstances had
occurred to give an important lesson to the community as
regarded the failure of the produce of food, by which large
classes of the people had been affected, also with respect
to the effect produced by speculation carried to an extent
which the capital and circumstances of the country did
not justify. -The noble marquis then traced the features
connected with the late panic. A great pressure having
arisen which went on for some time, the Government at
length felt itself called upon to interfere, and when it did
so, not many days, or even hours, intervened before
public confidence, which had been suspended, was re-
stored, and the panic subsided. It was very possible that
twenty years would pass before such circumstances would
again occur, so as to render it necessary to interfere with
the stringent provisions of such a measure as Sir Robert
Peel's act. It was, however, for Parliament to determine
as to whether or not they should retain such a measure
in ol3erßtTioii.
After .some remarks from Lord Stanley, Earl GREY
indicafetl the course taken by the Government at con-
siderable length, on the grounds urged by.the'Marquis of
Lansdowne, and by Lord John Russell in the House of
Luminous on the second night of the session.

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Lord Brougham, the Duke of. Grafton, Lord Ashburton,
and the Earl of Eglinton all- -concurred, on different
grounds in the appointment of the committee, and the
motion was then agreed to.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—THURSDAY.
The adjourned debate on the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer's motion for a committee on the causes of the
commercial distress was resumed by Mr. UnomnAnT.
The hon. member contended that it was absurd to at-
tribute the commercial crisis to the importation of corn
or the expenditure -on railways ; it was from the money
laws we suffered, and the only remedy for the evils under
which we have laboured would be the abrogation of the
Bank Act. The fixed price of gold was the principal
cause of our monetary derangement. The hon. member
lashed the Free-traders' for their inconsistencies in de-
manding Free-trade in every thing but gold. The
Emperor of Russia.had; by the wise use of his treasures,
obtained a very dangerous influence over France and
England.
Mr. NEWDEGATE could not consent to leave the country
suffering under the infliction of the Bank Act, whilst the
proposed committee of inquiry would be labouring through
the intricate labyrinth of currency, usury, free trade, rail-
roads, and the numberless other subjects open to its in-
vestigation. •He maintained that some immediate legis-
lative measure was indispensable.
Mr. DRUMMOND thought Government and Sir Robert
Peel were gravely to blame for having given extravagant
encouragement to railway, undertakings. The honourable
member created much laughter by saying that, though
the city of London had returned the First Lord of the
Treasury, she had taken away the grace of the act by
coupling his lordship with a.Jew.
After a few remarks from the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer the debate was adjourned.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-FRIDAY.

The committee on the causes of commercial distress was
nominated by the Marquis of Lansdowne, and agreed to
without alteration.

The Duke of RICHMOND, in moving for some returns
respecting Ireland, expressed a hope that if the measures
now proposed by the Government for the purpose of pro-
tecting life and property in Ireland, should prove insuffi-
cient, her Majesty's Ministers would not hesitate to ask
for greater powers. If the most arbitrary powers should
be demanded he would not hesitate to confide them to the
present Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, resting perfectly as-
sured that in his hands those powers would never he
abused.

The Marquis of LANSDOWNE assured the noble duke
that the Government would not hesitate to ask for greater
powers should they find it requisite to do so, and he had
no doubt but Parliament would as readily grant them for
the attainment of so important an object as that of putting
an end to outrage in Ireland.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-FRIDAY.

On the motion of the CH ANC ELLOR of the EXCHEQUER,

The Railway Bills was, after considerable discussion,
passed through committee, some clauses being postponed
until the report, with a view to their alteration,
The adjourned debate on commercial distress was re-
sumed by
The Marquis of GRANBY, who expressed his fears that
the commercial classes of the country would derive little
comfort from the speech of the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer. The bill of 1844 was passed in direct opposition to
the opinions of all persons conversant with monetary
transactions. _

Mr. lIERRIES said, that when the committee should be
appointed it would be necessary to produce not only the
correspondence between the Bank of England and the go-
vernment, but also the reasons contained in a small paper
which caused government to authorise the suspension of
the act of 1844. These reasons were of the last import-
ance, and he was only surprised that the government had
not already stated them. Suppose government had not
authorised the bank to violate the law, how fearful must
be the consequences. The bank must have gone into the
market with a couple of millions of its securities; which
would have necessarily, in the state of the market, caused
a depression ruinous to thousands. The right honourable
gentleman (Mr. F. Baring) took no notice of this fact,
and yet this was an evil of the greatest magnitude, and in-
herent in the operation of the act of 1844. Something
should be done to lodge the power somewhere to prevent
the recurrence of such a state of things ; and although it
was, he believed, generally understood that some modifi-
cation will take place in the act of 1844, still it was neces-
sary, in order to quiet the public mind, that some inter-
mediate step should be taken to give the power he referred
to to some one, until parliament should have decided upon
the extent to which it thought it right to go in altering the
act of 1844. He had thought much of that act, and now
he felt confident that it was founded upon, in many re-
spects, an erroneous theory, and mischievous in its oper-
ation, more particularly in restricting the circulation of
the bank to fourteen millions.

Lord J. RUSSELL said that the opinions of the right
hon. gentleman were entitled to great weight, as well
from his constitutional as his financial knowledge; and
yet he hoped to lead the house to a very different conclu-
sion from that which the right hon. gentleman had arrived
at. He could not see the advantage of adopting any hasty
measure without inquiry, while an inquiry was going for-
ward, with a view to place our monetary system, if pos-
sible, on a sounder basis. In his opinion, the government
of 1844 succeeded in giving greater convertibility to the
bank-note, and had thus obviated many of the previous
evils which beset our monetary system. The noble lord
then proceeded to attribute the commercial distress to the
great importation of foreign corn and the great amount of
capital invested in railways. The difficulties thence aris-
inc, were increased by the anomalous position of the bank,
which had a double duty to perform—that of satisfying
the government that it attended properly to the interests
of the public, and that of, at the same time proving to
their vroprietors that they had commercially turned their
capital to.the best advantage. He must say the bank had
made great exertions to sustain the mercantile interests ;
they had, by great exertions, sustained one bank at New-
castle, which was endangeredby a panic created by the sus-
pension of another bank in the same town ; and fearful of
similar occurrences in other parts of the kingdom while
the bullion in the bank was so very low, he thought it
better to take the course which had been pursued, and
which he believed very few persons indeed had disapproved
of, though he admitted it was contrary to law. The noble
lord concluded by imploring the house to agree to the
committee, which he hoped would not adopt a hasty resolu-
tion without inquiring into the whole bearings of the
question.
Sir R. PEEL said that the Executive Government hav-
ing appealed to the house for a committee of inquiry on
the subject of commercial distress, on the ground that
they had no foundation for any legislative enactment
without such an inquiry, he thought there was no hon.
gentleman who would think it possible to resist that
appeal. He felt it requisite, however, to say that he
wished to devolve on no party whatever the responsibility
which attached to him for the course which he had pur-
sued in 1819, and in the subsequent years down to 1844, for
he would at once declare that he did not regret that course
(hear, hear). Still he must say it was not quite decorous
to hold an individual responsible for that which was
sanctioned by both houses of the legislature.-The bill of
1819 was proposed by him, it was true, but it was recom-
mended by two committees of the House of Commons
and not a single division took place against it. and in the
House of Lords it met with un nimous support. He
thought then, and he still thought, the restoration of the
standard of value a wise measure, and therefore sought
not to escape his own full measure of responsibility.
With respect to the measure of 1844, he was at that time
minister of the crown, and had to bring forward the mea-
sure for the renewal of the bank charter. 'I here had been
several committees on the subject of the currency, and
although no less than 14,000 questions had been asked
and answered, those committees had closed their labours
without recommending any practical measure to the house.
Under these circumstances, her Majesty's government
felt it necessary, deeming inquiry to be exhausted, to pro-
pose some practical measure on their own responsibility.
Ile was far from thinking that any man was to be bound
at any time by the opinions he might have formed in 1844;
but at the same time those honourable gentlemen who
had then agreed to the measure had now no right to offer
as an excuse that they had only followed in the steps, of
the government, without giving due consideration to the
provisions of the bill itself; he was rather of opinion that
the evil was more properly attributable to the instrument
by which the measure itself had to be carried into opera-
tion. He admitted that the bill had failed to prevent
panics, but it had succeeded in securing convertibility and
and in checking over speculation, which would otherwise
have followed the abuse of paper money. The fact was,
the country was now suffering from a diminution of its
capital and a contraction of its currency ; and those who
felt the pressure turned round upon and railed at the bill
of 1844, without which their sufferings would be ten times
greater. The right hon. baronet then referred to the
failures which had taken place, and the melancholy exhi-
bition of assets as compared with their liabilities, which
had appeared in the public papers, and asked if that was
the sort of commerce which it was desirable to sustain.
The man whose assets were £3,000, while his liabilities
were £50,000, might well cry out, " Oh, that infernal bill
of 1844 !" (Great laughter.) In fact, if the bill had the
effect of breaking up such houses, its operation was bene-
ficial to the public. The real evil was the dearth of capi-
tal, and an increased circulating medium would not have
the effect of adding to that capital, or of in any way miti-
gating the evil. Though railways would ultimately be a
source of great prosperity to the country, yet there could
be no doubt that the capital locked up in them added, at
the present moment, to the restriction of money and its
consequent difficulties. He approved of the course pur-
sued by the government, and thought they were right in
not issuing their letter to the bankat an earlier period than
that on which it was written. lie also thought they were
right in requiring the bank to demand a higher rate of
interest, as being a better course than leaving the matter
altogether in the discretion of the Bank. He for one was
not prepared to leave the monetary circulation of the
country, after the experience they had had of 1839 and
1826, to the uncontrolled discretion of the Bank (hear).
Mr. STEW ART then moved the adjournment of the de-
bate, amidst loud cries of " divide !"
The gallery was cleared for a division, and the adjourn-
ment was negatived by a majority of 257 to 45.
Mr. WILSON then withdrew his amendment, and the
original motion was agreed to without a division.