The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-04-10 00:00:00

AFRICAN COMP 1N Y.

On the motion or Mr. liot:LuruN the Mouse went
into a Committee on the .Ifrican Company Bill.
Mr. BENNET objected to the chase for giving
compensation to the Officers of the C3inpany. The
pr letice of giving competi3Oiott hail become nose so
g.eneral, that it ought to lie opl• Ist d.
Mr. 601.1.111-ItN 'kremlid the proposed compen-
itatioo, maitraining that, according .0 every priitc;ric
of jitstice, IndlYull4ll t ghoul I not be allooeil to suffer
by arran:;eitients made for the public wt.' ice,especialiy
where a great saving would result to the public fruili
inch arratigement•, which would be the case in the
present instance
Mr. III:31F, maintained it Wag lint the wish of hi.
lion. Friend that these individuate go without
compensation, but that to whiii he 11.1.1 objec;e.l w..s
the giving of llot eminent a discretionary power to
cutnpensate lie wisheil the pensions granted
to be brought before the Muse. Ilis objections to the
clause, as it st I, wi re such, that he intended to di-
Oar the House on it.

GORDON did not approve of the coarse taken
by his lion. Friend, which went to molt the rlause for
compensating the o,svers of the African Company,
without proposing any other mode of remunerating
rthem.—e` No no. from Mr, Ilmut ata_Mr. limpsea.)
—lf his Hon.irientis only wished to obtain a cheek
upon Ministers, he had no objection to the course they
were taking.
Mr. uorulunx offered some farther explana-
tions of the clause, and said, it was not proposed that
the compensation sh Auld extend to those who bad but
receirly !roue out to the coast of Africa.
After some remarks from Mr. lit ME and Mr.
Mr. RENNET moved, that an addition should be
tux.le to the clanse, declaring that the allowance now
pr posed slyialti not he considered to be finally anti
ronelusivi lv granted till the subject had been
brought again under the consideration of Par-
li.ttrent.--1 Isis am-mimeo was agreed to.
.1 he remainder of !lie Bill was gone through nit!),
and a el 'use hating been agreed to, placiesZ the
p•irts now in the possession of the African Company,
Rioter the .:toie laws as Sierra Leone, the noose re-
stunerl, and the Iteprt was ordered to be received to-
morrow.

BANK CASH PAYMENTS.
The CILINCELIAIR of the EXCIIEW:EII. moved
.he reading of the order of the day for the House
resolving itself into a committee upon the flank Cash
Payments lii l ; which toeing read, the Right lion.
Gentleman mos ad that the Speaker do now leave the
Chair.
Mr. BARING rose to offer an amendment.
original intention was to move that it be an instruc-
tion to this Committee to re-consider the former Act of
1619, in order to see whether some provision could nut
be made to lessen the existing evils under which the
public interests laboured. But that mode of moving,
by way of an instruction, he afterwards thought to he
a very inefficient one in the the first place ; and se-
condly, such an instruction might seem to iutply an
opinion on the part of the House, as to this sul•jeet,
before it was examined : therefore he had route to the
conclusion, that the most proper mode of all would be
to move for the appointment of a Select Committee to
reconsider the whole sobject. The in are be considered
this question, the more he felt it to be one not only of
the utmost importance, but as " 111 E" one in which
were involved all the distresses experienced by the
country and their remelt-.—(Heat.) Not only was he
anxious to record on the j writals of the Mose his
sense of the necessity of adopting a measure such as
that he should propose; but, if he found any encou-
ragement, he should certainly divide the {louse upon it
They all felt, no doubt, that the country dial at present
stand in a very extraordinary situation. Af:er the ter.
animation of a costly anal protracted war, and the in•
.
rervenuon of so re years of peace, it was indeed very
strange that without any given aalequatr cause de-
rangement still existed, anal so extensively, that no
class of society scarcely had escaped it. 'lbis evil,
whatever were its character, and more particularly a:
regarded the agriculturists,seetned to be one for which
no sort of 1./needy could be found : because, on the
one hand, there were those agriculturists demanding,
as the only possible means of subsisting them, prices
which they had no prospects of obtaining ; and. on
the other hand, the other classes of the commonity,
who affirmed that if the agriculturists did obtain
those prices, the interest of all the other classes conloi
not warily.. This was a condition Of things which
made it necessary fur the House to see whether there
was not ssaute:lti.ag bad and diseased at the very runt
anal eviller of the existing system of finance—a *vs

FawSwat. PEWS.

tens which thus produced evils, for which so remedy
could be come at. His opinion was that these evils,
alarming as they were, were occasioned by the al-
teration in oar currency.—(Load cries of heat, hear.)
—On a former occasion, he certainly had bad the
misfortune to differ from his Hon. Friend (Mr. Ricardo)
as to the extent of the alteration which bad been expe-
rienced in the value of money. His Hon. Friend
seemed to estim.tte it, taking the average of commo-
dities and the price of labour in general, at from 5/.
to a per cent., and not more. Now in his (Hr.
airing's) view, it was infinitely greater. He rated it
at not less than from 25/. to 33/. per cent. In some

instances lie should say that it had risen. to a third,
and even 501. per cent. To say what bad Iwo the
difference in the valae of money between the period of
its greatest depreciation and the present time, was a
difficulty flirt he coal not hope immediately to cone
to a very satisfactory solution of. But very few per-
sons nould consider, he thought, with his Hon. Friend

(.Ir. Ricardo) that it had been only 5/. or 61. per
cent; and for his own part, he thuu.;ht that if it were
not of double or treble the amount at the least, he
should now be taking up the time of the House very
uselresly indeed, hr talking about the matt. r at all.—
But being unfortunately, too firmly cot.♦ +iced of the
contrary pus•tion, u hat lie wished to per,tiaile the
llimse to do in this l'A.O was to appoint a Select Cum-