The Statesman.
London, England, 1819-05-13 00:00:00

TII E nA,v K.

SURSTARCE OF THE REPORT OF Tut ORM'
sitcom' coNestur*F Ott THE er4Vl Or rIT
s‘sk.betrit REtlAthscE rithlocrEtiteve
OF THE ItSAUMMON Of CA.411 PA YMEN
This Report en the state of the Bank, is more vo-
luminous than the Commons' Report en the muse
subjett, embracing, with the Appeneis, Which con-
tains the minutes of the evillest*, no lets then
folio pages. Fenailing a like coon?, it begins wills
• recapitulation of the laws *hid Imposed, tied have
continued the restriction upon Cash Payments by OH
Bank. It then refers In the notices issued ey thus
Bank in J y. 1817. to pay in cash all 11. and
21. notes, dated prior to Januery, 1316, and a second
notice la September, 1817, to pay in coals ell notes
dated before the Ist January in that year, with a
view to the complete resumption of Cosh Payette'',
even prior to the period then fired by Parliament,
viz. the Rib July. 1815. In the trench of April,
1817, the effect of the greet foreign loans rude its
that year began to be considerably felt, end between
that sad October in that jeer the etchings. took en
unfareerable turn. There @ppm, to have been no con.
dieted, droned torpid previously Ina tuber, 18174
The first issue of sovereigns in large quantities wee
in that month. There was a diminution in the de-
mand for them in she three succeeding months; het
in the month of February, IRIS, the issue of gold
increased till Anglin in the same year, aid the de.
end tiering this period is stated to have arisen de-
cidedly for the purpose of esportation. Isint•ith.
wending that the Bank hail wide a greet teilection
in the issue of notes ice the commencement of 1818,
wed that during the last three months of that year,
W inties of Country Banks have not increased the
peke of geld, and the state of the (=hinges, hews
drawn from the Bank a sem of 6,209,0001., and by
these drains their tr e y was considerably reduced,
end they were still liable to an additional deemed to
the smoent of several millions.
This unfavourable state of the redone, and of
the price of gold is atiriboted to different doses by
different persons easmined before the Committee.
By some, to an excess of the circulating medium of
the country; by others to the •ffect of the late regu-
lations of the Mint respecting thane+ silver coinage.
by which the proportions between the relative talon
of gold and silver are stated to have been so varied,
es
to hive occasioned the esportation of gold; by
others it is attributed to the continued operation of
foreign loans, to the temptation held nut by a high
rate of interest, to the investment of British capital
In foreign fends sod foreign speculation., and to he
large perchasesof cora from ahroad,a great proportion
of
which is paid for in advance, and must therefore,
In their opinion, have had a material effect upon the
balance of payments, and of course sport the ea-
changes, daring the year 1818.
The Committee then proceed to elmss their
opinion, that it would not be safe and practicable for
the Bank to resume Cash Payments on the sth July
nest, and that there is a necessity for farther post.
pnnemeat. They add that—
" It can hardly be necessary for the Committee to'
remark, that this opinion does not rest upon any
groend which can intimate the slightest doubt as to
the coedit or solidity of the Bank ; that body 'm-
aim at the present moment the means of dischstainit,
let of the trlessre actually in its coffers, every de-
mand which could hate been snide upon it for pay.
meet In cash in (meowed of the notirea referred
I to; and the only object of the measure which, at
the recommendation of the Committee of bulb Hriesei,
has been already adopted by Parliament, daring the
i coarse of the present Session, waste prevent the con.
tineence of a drain of the vitiating tressare and there-
by to facilitate tech operations as the Committee
! might feel it to be their duly In recommend, is pie-
! petition to a final removal of the restriction."
I 11 Of the ultimate sufficiency of the Bank no dpekt
I has been or can be entertained ; hut us Parliament
thought proper, at the period when it imposed the
first restriction upon the Bank, to direct an enquiry
into the actual state of its suits, and sea similar in.
junction is contained le the order by which this
Committee is appointed, they bare thought it their
duty to lay before the House the statement in the
Appendia ; by which it tippers, that, exclusive of
the debt from G rent, at three per cent. of
11.688.8001. and of the advance to Government it

three per cent. of 3,000,0001. making together
14,686,8001. the balance in f f the Binh, on
s comparison of Its debts and credits (including in the
former the Government balances in the heads of the
Dank), is 5,231,1931."
The Committee then proceed to develop the rea-
ions and motives for the plan is hieh they I .pose, • nil
t.trir Report concludes with the plan itself, in that
follnwing terms:—
These considerations have led the Committee to ex.
amine, with particular attention, a plan which has
been suggested to them, and which, as it will appear
by the evidence, is viewed in a eery favourable light
by many persons well qualified to fano • jedgeeot
upon such a sabiect.
The lending principle of this plan it to restore try
the country, by the speediest and safest means. a
metallic standard, as the revelator of its paper cur.
retie'', by permitting the Bank to pay its notes in
gold bullion, at the Mint price, instead of gold coin.
Various advantages appear to the Committee to at.
tend this plan, in preference to a simple resumption,
in the first instance, of Cash Payments by the Bank.
It establishes equally with Cash Payments, the prin-
eiple
and the salutary controul of a metallic stand.
ard,while it affords the brat prospect of avoiding or r!i.
lalnishing manyof t he inconvesiienset,w kith aryls, many
(Persons apprehended from that 4fit . It wino*
the Bank from the obligation of providing a quantity
of gniJ necessary to replace, in Me the Public
should prefer coin to paper, all the smaller notes, to
the amount probably of 15 or 16 millions. which are
wow circulated in London mod in the country ;
said, therefore, by relieving the bullion market from
this demand, R prevents that ingmeatation .f that
price of gold, which might be the coaseqoence of
large purchases of that article made in a short spat,
of
time, audit the pressers of a necessity ;niblicks*
Mid previously known. And it cootiostos to the
Bank, and, therefore, to the nation at large, all the
advantages to be derived from ties employment of a
Countryl:fup tt"li
isa el whetherkt os . t h
In the a it
ie. iboteeo at Bankas•i 1,1 "boi sr small 3
Epnitt allan:Wl in

01111 be, as it now is, empinyed in the sawn •torl
ettention of stericetter• and of commerce, whether
foreign or donsemir ; in the other, it would by OPT.' y
Sc
addition to the rind stork of the country, pro-
dosing neither profit nor advantage.
It ePriris probable also, that when the Bank I.
tenths li able to pay only in bulling, and that only In
eschnige for 'snips to a retrain smoirot„ it would he
chiefly subject to such detwaistle as might arise frnm
the
Mint price, and the consegund profit epee 'sports-
Ti, • d..aomudres• ltingfrnm this source, every
hank instil,* paper rtible into either of the pre.
nines metal., mess so sit times be liable ; and eaten
the market price of geld con be kept within certain
limits of deviation• beet the Mint price, either by
the rrdertino of the Wets of paper, or by Ilse effect
of • fiveerable balance of payments upon the es-
silence.. the whole system of banking must necessarily
fall 10 .he ground. It is no objection, therefore, to
this plan, that it don not provide against a possible
its tante*, which is, under such circumstance,.
en
isteripsnete attendant upon ell paper currency se
csossrsit,k; that is, upon all piper currency, which
I. 5010..', ham great and inconeemient variations.—
*The plan. I.nweter, contain, in itself, dying the
• hid rosy elapse before the market price of
geld f Its to the Mint price, a considerable guard
me against this danger, a guard which did not nisi
In Ile Poised Inn of nor currency. As it would be
Impessihle for any person to draw bullion frem the
Bush. incept in exchange for Bank cotes, no &mend
could i.e made open the Bank to any great event for
gold without occasioning • scarcity in 11w currency,
which wneld nod to nisi. the Woe of those notes,
sod to remove the temptation to present them in ex-
change for hellion. The same circumstance would
event, In check any demand, which might arise
from a sodden panic; and the rapidity of such de
rnard„ in which its chief danger consists, might be
somewhat diminished by the necessity of collecting
notes to that amount, In exchange for which pay
neat in bullion would be dementlable. And in what.
ever degree a disposition may have existed to hard
vile, there would probably he less disposition to de-
motid hellion from the Bank for that purpose.
The Committee, in recommending the principle of
this plan of resumption to the fsvnerable to the favour-
able consideration of the Boise, think it nevertheles.
their duty to alleges, oriel proviaions as have occurred to
them, by which, in their opinion, eithout weaken-
ing its efficacy, or impairing any of its advautages,
its operation would de facitiated and entered.
le the first suggestion of the loan, it was proposed
that the Bonk, open thermion! of the present re-
stririon, shoelid womediately pay its hellion at tie Mint
price, instead of pining in coin. The Committee
have laid before the House, in the former part Otitis
Report, the cnnsidnatiens which modem them in
think that is must be desirable upon the whole to al-
low a considerable interval of time before Ilse Bank
should he required to resume Cash Payments upon
lbe ancient system. These considerations would
operate in a greet, althisegh net an meal degree,
nylon the ton early adoption of the plats for billion
pat mews at the Mint price. The objection to Ilse
in.inirgation of the period in she former case was
chicfly skis—that the country would be left during
that pelletal, whatever it might be without, the cer.
tainty of any progress being made towards the re.
adoption of a metallic standard of valise. The inter.
position of hellion payments aff nds Mena of obtain.
log this security, which cannot be provided with
equal advantage under the simipe resumption of Cash
Pay merits. TI eresemptien of bolliou payments may,if
Earthmen. should think Proper, commence at se
earlier time, and at the present market price of gold.
s.ccessin petiods might, it thought necessary, be
flied, at which the rate of bullion payments should
be gradually lowered, until it should finally be
brought down to the Mint price. The lame princi.
pie of gradate's could not be applied to payments in
coils, without the great end obvious inconvenience
which most result from successive variations in its
circulating value.

The eject of this gradestecl scale would be, to re-
establish from the Grat commencement of its operation
the principle of a metallic standard. It would indeed
stet at once be a recurrence to the ancient slumlord ;
but an uppeciaimation would begradeally made towards
it, end at too disia nt period it would be attained. The ne-
cessity under which the Bank would be placed of re-
guls ing its proceedings with • view to the commence.
meet of bullion pajamas upon the a> item, would
give a security, p.ehaps unnecessary, bet satisfactorily
to the Public, that some prowess was actually making
tuwards the ultimata o►ject. As the Bank would at
she same time would be relieved from an early recur-
rent, to Cash Payment, upon the ancient system, it
would gain a longer interval for the gradual accumu-
lation •f its tremor.; any reduction of its issues,
which might be found necessary, might be gradually
made ; and all persons engaged in commerce would
aloe be enabled to accommodate their transaction, to
the new stale of our circulation.

it has been suggested that the Bank might have
the option of paying In billion or in coin ; bet the
Cnnituerittee are inclined to think, that even at the
time when this scale shill have reached the Mint
prier, the Bank should begin to pay in bellion only.
If t►ere Is any weight in the argument that one of
she great advantages of the proposed plan with the
modification si/Awed, is this, that it would render
IL safe foe the Bank to open with a mach smaller
amount of treasure than it might be thought seers.
miry for the resumption of Cash Payments upon the
ancient system, and therefore that it might begin its
operation at an earlier period, it is evident that, were
Ike Bank, from a preference to the socient system,
to determine to atoll itself st that period of the op.
lion between buitinn and Cash Payments by paying in
coin only, it mast, in consequence of such deterad.
notion, make mote rapid and more eitensis• per.
c!,ases al gold ire the interval, sod thereby impede
she grades' pregre4s of it. redaction to the Mint
prier, w kirk is the main object to be attained.
hole is also 'pother esil against which it would
he eapediewt to revolt a award, viz. the possibility
of in punitive reduction of the circulating medium
doting the operation of this plea. This might be
p►rvented by imposing open the Bank the obligation
I (siting tlrrir notes in caching. fur gold bellies (if
1.,(1..rJ In them) at filed prices, either taken enme.
'Net t.r.nw the Mins price, or, its the first instance,
444. t %LA LeJM the price at stitch the Bank ehoold