The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-04-12 00:00:00

per share for a time to be hereafter named, and subse-
quently at the rate of £2. 10s. per cent. ; that, after 1891►
they should be redeemable; and, lastly, that these bonds
should not exceed £30,009,000 in amount. The bonds
would be exchangeable with exchequer bills, from which
he anticipated paying the reduced rate of interest. Exche-
quer bonds might be sold by government, and the pro-
ceeds invested in the purchase of stock, for the purpose of
cancelling it ; and there were various reasons for expecting
that these would prove a popular security. The next
point was the voluntary conversion of the three per cent.
stock at any time between the passing of the act and the
10th of October next to exchange them into exchequer
bonds at par, or into a new 3} per cent. stock, at the rate
of £B2 10s. of the latter for every £lOO of the former,
which would give a permanent income of £2 17s. 9d.,
instead of £3 ; or it would be open to them to take, for
every £lOO stock, £llO of a 2 per cent. stock guaranteed
for forty years. But it was intended to limit the extent of
this option. The objection to the last alternative was that,
in order to reduce the annual charge of the debt, the
capital or principal would be increased ; but Mr. Glad-
stone argued that, taking the creation of this stock in con-
junction with that of the 3 per cent. stock, posterity
would suffer no disadvantage. On the contrary, posterity
would enjoy a reduction of the annual charge for the debt.
By the original draft of the resolutions it was left to the
option of all the holders of the great three per cent. stocks
to exchange into the new 21 per cent. stock. This might
have entailed an increase of the nominal capital of the
debt to the extent of £50,000,000, and he did not think
the risk of so large an increase should be incurred., It
was intended, therefore, to limit the amount of three per
cent. stock to be commuted to £30,000,000, according to
priority, the holders of three per cent. stock having stills
however, the option of exchanging it for 3i per cents. or
exchequer bonds. The utmost nominal addition that
could be made to the capital of the national debt wottld
consequently be something more than £3,000,000.—
In the course of the discussion which ensued, Mr.
Alderman THOMPSON said he had never heard so bold Er
proposition for the reduction of the national debt. He'
approved of parts of the scheme; but he thought it ought
not to be further proceeded with until the house had had
time to consider the resolutions.—Sir F. KELLY thought
that the three proposals for the• conversion of the three
per cent. stock amounted to nothing at all.—Mr. WiLsorr
argued that the whole thing took the shape of an annuity,
as the holder could only demand payment of his stock at
the end of forty years ; while the government alone could
propose the repayment at any intermediate period.—Mr,.
DISRAEL3 complained of the alterations which the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer had made that day in his scheme,
which now only dealt with thirty millions, instead of five
hundred millions of the three per cents: The whole ob-
ject of the resolution was to invest a two- and a, half per
cent. stock. The plan did not propose to do msch, and
he believed it would do less than it proposed; and he
must say that a vast amount of ingenuity had been wasted
upon a measure of very limited utility. The resolations
were then agreed' to.
THE SIX-MILE BRIDGE AFFAIR.—A resolution rn-yved.
by Lord A. VANE, to the effect that the exposition Other
law set forth by Mr. Justice Perrin, in his charge to The
grand jury of the county of Clare, with reference to the
duties of soldiero-employed in the suppression•of riots,. is
at variance with the opinions of former judges,• opposed
to rules of milita:•'y act and civil forces, and antagonistim
to the principles and orders of the Mutiny .-I\ct, and the•
Queen's regulation ; and that it is the opinion of• this
house that the conduit of the soldiers employed• at the•
Six-mile Bridge wao- thoroughly justifiable, and necessi-
tated by the position they were placed in, was; after'
smne discussion. withtlrawn.