The Statesman.
London, England, 1818-05-02 00:00:00

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that ow tbisAseetsioyr ther,ver„,.
s4l; smtwt words, eistl tte
leg this' foreign leans ‘ltitek-
were left out.—(4l
s hive . beau c.onvoited.- as rm.._
transaction ; they bad longoliuce admitted they were
ready to pay in cash. 'This was the effect of the
-Right .honourable: Gentleman's clashing with she
Bank Directors. .If they had been asked, had they
~bern.consulted on.the subject little foreign loans? be
should say, they had tiqt, 1,14( as far escould be discover-
ed from the faces of theselsEiturn gentry, they were
ready to admit they wfrop, cpmpeteut.to resume cash
payments on the sth ,of .ply. He was glad to bee an
Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Baring) in the House, who no
doubt could give some important information on this
subject, as tio doubt he had been consulted on the
subject of the foreign leans, or else he never would
have agreed to them.
,Bur he could not help think.
log the Bank Directors were all the time laughing at
the Right Hon. Gentleman ; and it would be the
more extraordinary, if, under. such circumstances,
the Hoose should vote for that Bight lion. Gentle-
man's proposition. Ile was disposed to suspect, the
only obstacle to the paymentie .010 woullt he at la.t
found in the Act of the Legislature knirly. %Vial
respect to the foreign lout!, it had been argued by
the Right Honourable Gentleman that certain moor-
chants hivilig resolved to lend large sums of money
to the French Government, and gold had risen
in
price in consequence, it became isecessary to wend
the provisions for securing the precious metals in the
.country. Though he should endeavour to abstain
from abstrote points, he must advert to one propo-
sition as of great importance ; he meant to ask, if
it were disputed, that en issue of paper currency
did nut affect the price of gold?—(Hear, keart)—
How far then might the increased issues of the Bank
affect the excess of gold beyond the Mint price,
ought to be a'questioti of mature consideration.—
Notwithstanding all that had been said, the Back
was well known to he in possession of a greater pro.
portion of. gold and silver than ever it •had been be-
fore. The difference between gold and silver was
now nominally as fifteen to one, but in currency, es
fourteen to one ; until, however, silver was st ss. 6d.
per ounce, there could be no seniorege thereon, and
it would become a subject of exportation. The ex-
cess of gold above the Mint price was 4s. but It
might be ascertained,. from indisputable sources,
that a large proportion' of this excess did not arise
from foreign loans. It would be no subject of alarm
to this country if the merchants should feel disposed
to purchase to a large amount its the French foods.
—The operation of a loan, or of a disposition to
purchase in the French funds, would be nearly,
if not altogether, the same. The object of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer had, as he had told
the House, been effected by his late arrangements
in raising the stock, and diminishing the rate of in-
terest, and this, of itself, might be a sufficient in.
ducement to the English stock-holder to avail him-
self of the rise of his stock to purchase advantage...
ously in the French funds. But when was this syse
tem of puttii.g off the payment in cash to end ?
Perhaps next year there would ne other foreign loans—
what security would there be then for our resumption
of cash payments ? He could not help adverting to
the difference of our mode of raising money, and
Unit of the Government of France. In this coon.
try, we first borrowed the money, and the Perlis.
meat provided for the interest. In France, the Mi-
nister obtained from the Legislature a certain nem.
her of rentes, or had placed at his disposal, as it
were, a perpetual annuity of 50,0001. a year, and
he was peomitted to avail himself of the most
favourable opportunity to get the money when he
arid the aspect of the money market. If this
arrangement were fairly and conscientiously fol-
lowed, he should prefer it to our own. It was a
remarkable result, that, as far as the stocks could
be taken as evidence on the -want of a paper circu-
lation, every thing in France was in a prosperous
slate, whilst they were considered in a state of ex-
treme distress ; whereas in England, ',liege all hail
their minds full of nothing but our prosperity,
there was a general inundaiion of paper and the
stocks I.lling. The amount of the loan for the ser.
vice of France was thirty millions altogether. Of all
this what might be supposed to he the probable
amount of what might be sent out of this country ?
Large sums, no doubt, would be sent out of many
countries in Europe, to induce a confidence in the
French Funds. From what had escaped from the
Duke de Richelieu, the French Finance Minister, it
was not improbable a claimant on the French Fonds
might obtain payment in French Stock. Thus
Prussian or English claimant might obtain a reim-
bursement in Stock, everagirog the 5 i.er Cents., as
was their custom, at 78. By this mode it was pos.
sible to invest in the French Funds, and yet this
country be a gainer every way. Might not also the
greater part of these loans be remitted in goods, bear.
log a profit to Government and the mercantile in-
terest at the same time? But should the loans even
go all in gold abroad, would it not return in the br.
Binary channels of trade in a short time, except, in-
deed, as the Right lion. Gentleman seemed to think,
there was something in our soil, shores, or climate,
hostile to that metal, which made it always willing
to elude our grasp? But the time was come when
the veil would be taken away, and the true impedi-
ment be shown to our resuming cash payments. In-
deed, most persons saw through the thin device al-
ready. He would ask, once fur all, was it hotter
that England should lose her character for good faith,
or that the Bank should give up some part of its
enormous profits —( Hear, hear.!)—That Company
had now 10 millions of money in their coffers. The
profit upon its being hoarded op, did not exceed a
asilliou perhaps, and the Bank had received not less
than 21 millions from the runts on its transactions
with the Public. ThesP, certainly, were abstruse
points, and not to *re understood except by calm dis.
passionate enquiry, and lie had, therefore, always
thought them unlit sufijects for a popular assembly,
constituted like that !louse. lle hoped sufficient had
already been submitted to the !louse to induce it to
go into an enquiry of a more grave and appropriate
nature. If tile result should prove to he the resump-
tion of cash payment, much good would be done ; if
the contrary, he was persuaded the House and Pub.
lic would derive such a knowledge of the transac-
tions of the Bunk with the Puliat —such an blight

The Bank Di;

-

of the
national.
',het the flek
only hoped
)n Chi' eubjc

Twbethef_tbe
ler abetter ;period. If. the Bout
this Proposition, he would. tell tin
that was, that the Bank never woul
all—(Haut, hear !)—and the same
troduced.every successive year, as
in which opinion he was the more
what the Right Ilonourable Gent
once• to his much lamented friend
1814, who, when he wished the pt.(
to two years to be reduced to one,
Right 'Honourable Gentleman,
ewer:—`r If the Bill states than
cash payments is to take place in two years, him,
likeearnest ; but if it states the resumption to one,
year, no one will believe us." Now let the Hoitrae,
beware, for they were called upon to sanction that
which it had been said from high authority nobody
would ever belies-namely, that the resumption
would take place in one.----( Bear! and laughter !)
lie would ask, what more favourable opportunity
could occur for this desirable renovation than the
I present ? Might there not be still larger, foreign
loans neat )ear, or the following years to he pro.
aided for ? lie felt also the great impropriety of that"
vacillation in all the late financial arrangements, so
that nothing was ever known till the last hour.—
: Hence we were on the lst of May called on to vote
for a continuation of the Restriction which was to es.
Ore on the sth of July. He deprecated the horror
and alarm which appeared to seize some persons'
minds on mentioning the resumption of cash pay-
ments as likely to occur. Some had said how should
they ever be able to get their rents paid, or main-
tain themselves in their rank in life ? The change
must Come sooner or later. If it did not come
now, it would never come. It was the darling ob-
ject of the Right Houoorable Gentleman to prop op
and sustain this system of gambling on the viml in.
terests of the nation, and keep up the circulation of
a paper currency, as on it depended the success of
all his financial calculations and prognostication S—
. criterion of the circulating medium was at an
end; Bank paper was no louger convertible into
cash, nor likely again to be so. The Bank Direc-
tors thought they had found out a medium of arrange-
ment between the true sterling currency, dependant
on property, and the false or substituted one, and-
imagined they never could make a false step as tong
as they cashed good bills of merchants, and gave the
same nominal value for them in paper. When this
was objected to by some. on the Opposition side of
the House, unless it were checked, these Gentlemen
cried out, " We never have experienced any ill ef-
fects or difficulty in our affairs arising out of it."—
There was a good reason why, it was replied :" the
check has been operating all along, for wheat you
had issued too great a proport' of your own paper-
money, it occasioned a reaction, and was brought
into the Bank and returned en your hands." Thus
these wise heads could not imagine bow it was, but
that so it was, like that Honourable Gentleman,
who, when the difference between prose and verse
had been obligingly explairoql to him, expressed great
astonishment at his having been for so many years
talking in prose, and never having known the fact
before.—(Lnughing.)—The riper currency in cir-
culation in the half-year ending the s'h of January,
1817. (weeded that in the same quarter in 1816,
2,500.0001. whilst there was a cot responding issue
of country bank paper. For obvious reasons, might
not these increasing issues account, in a great de-
gree, for the flourishing stale of the financial or.
rarigements of the Right Honourable Gentleman ?
The Bank, however, recollecting that the best part
of valour was discretion, would, no doubt, pocket
the profits, whatever might be the result.—(Hear,
hear !)—But he should show that the Right Honour.
able Gentleman bad violated even his own criterion
of the proper estimate of the currencies. He had
laid it down, that the circulation should bear a jest
proportion to the trade, expenditure, and revenue
of a country. 'rhea, on the comparison of the
years rowing on the sth of January, 1816 and 1817
—in 1816, the revenue amounted to 57,000,0001.
the Budget to 25,000,0001., and the exports to
82,000.0001. ; whilst, in 1817, the revenue amount-
ed only to 47,000,0001. the Budget to '22,000,0001.
and the exports to 72.000,0001. If, therefore,
there were deducted from the excess of the exports
and imports, the decrease of the revenue, it w 04,0
he fair to infer there would be required a less circu-
lation by 7,200,0001. in the latter year. The next
step would be to compare this statement with
the Batik-woes in circulation in the corresponding
years—in 1816, they amounted to 26,500,0001.—
in 1817, to 28,500,0001, making an increase of
2,000,0001., although affairs were represented in
so promising a state. Thia should also he coupled
with an increased issue of country bank-notes in
1817, amounting to 21,C00.0001., whilst that of
1816 was confessedly low. Thus throwing into rip.
culation some additional millions of various descrip-
tions of Bank paper, whilst the necessity for it had
to all appearances diminished. On the subject of
country banks, the Bill relative to which had been
postponed by the Right floisourable Gentleman, all
he would say was this, that the measure was most
unjustifiable—for he could not conceive any justi-
fication of that policy which went to prevent a man's
exercising his credit in his own way. The Govern-
ment had a perfect right, for reasons of state, to say
that no man should issue notes of 11. and 21.; but
they had no right to say, that, when there was the
power to issue, on the controul and responsibility of
the individuals, they should interpose awl call for a
double security. It was said that the Public sus-
tained dreadful losses from the failure of country
banks—that 200 out of 700 of them had failed ; bur
be tne loss thus arising what k may, it ought not to
be calculated as a total loss, for in many instances
large available sums remained for the indemnification
of tie Public. As to the licences, it was notorious
that any man who wanted one could get it, and in
many instances the same establishment bed
for the purpose of taking up and circulating their
stoles in various local directions. But his main abjec-
tion was to the principle of Ibis Country Banks' Bill,
for it went to recognize a 11. and 21. paper circuit.
Lion) without reference to the vial question) whe-

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ref country paper—for they will naturally say,44u hlr
igthould we take this trouble and pains to put profit,
'sect' as it may he, in the hands of country bankers,
*bile we hate the means of keeping it, by a similar
system, in our pockets ?"—[Dear, hear!)—[lieri
the Chancellor of the Exchequer shook his head ]-r
The Right lion. Gentleman shakes his heed, but be
had two ways of shaking it— one was when 14
thought be could silence an opponent by shaking it;
and another when he despaired of being able to
carry a favourite measure.—L Lauglder.l• It Masi,
vain to declaim in that House about the &opt of
loans and country banks. The only way of realty'
getting at the question was by going into a COM.
mittee ; there, and there alone, the whole subject
could meet with due and effective consideration, by
the application of intelligent and business-like minds,
fairly selected. As matters stood, there was a great
and well-founded alarm at the financial state of the
country. lie would not go so far as to say, that all
the dangers which were stated by some persons would
immediately arise if the Bank Restriction Act wete
to continue —but he would say, that the dangers
were incalculable, if the Bank did not, by
steady and gradual reduction of their paper issue,
pave the way for a speedy resumption of cash pay.
meets. A Committee could recommend and enforce
this necessity, as well as point out the most efficacious
means of carrying the arrangement into effect, and
making the shock less than it otherwise must be if
matters were permitted to go on in their regular
course. Oo the project which had been mentioned,
of reducing the 5 per cents. to the three and a half,
all he would say was this, that it would be uufaie
and disgraceful to the country, inasmuch as it would
be creating, by artificial means, a financial chino
which could not bear the light.—(The Chancellor of
the Exchequer swited.)—The Right lion. Gentleman
may smile, but no other person in the House does
at this notable expedient.—(llear, hear !)—Nothing
was more partial and unequal than the preliminary
step to carry this point. Within six months the 31.er
cents. were raised from 25 to 30 par cent. The gainer
by this was, of course, the large capitalist ; for the
great body of the holders could not touch this profit
—many of them, for instance, held as trustees fora
certain period, and could not, by selling cut ire the
spur of the niutnent, avail themselves of this rise; and
they may be going on under the idea of having, leek
years hence, an increase of capital, though in the in-
terim, perhaps, the bubble may hurst.—(llear!)—in
vain would the Right Hon. Gentleman say, that
this systden diffused wealth through the country, that
it enabled roads to be made, and opened a facility for
tbelandholdei to b ,rrow trolley whenever pleased.
All tied; was very tine—but unless the Right lion.
Gentleman meant to say that the day of payment was
never to come, this was the situation in which the
borrower must ultimately stand, namely, that he
would have to pay at the rate of 151. for every 101.
he was in this manner enabled to raise.—[/lear,
hear!]—The whole system was contrary to the
wholesome view which every English merchant took
of the management of his own affairs—it was con-
trary to the sound principle on which every agricul-
turalist acted—it was contrary to' the fair dealing of
every Englishman—it was a system which he most
abjure, unless it were clearly laid down to him that
he had no other alternative.—(Hear!)—For the
Batik Restriction Act they had uniformly heard thi
plea of necessil : let that necessity be clearly and oil
fair grounds established in the Committee, and theft
there would be an end to the case. The great evil of
all was, that the character of the country was at
stake—(fiear!)—Look to Europe. Did not every
other country take a close and decisive view of its
finances after the pressure and vicissitudes of the
war ? and was England to be the only country in the
world which was to take no step to review or rege'
late her financial system?—[Hear!]—This subject
struck him so forcibly, that he could not refrain from
saying, if, after three pears of peace, the House
agreed to the Right Honourable Gentleman's propo-
sition, they ought to be prepared to agree to any
thing. He spoke with less restraint on this ques-
tion, because it could not be construed into one of
private or of interested feeling—it touched the general
honour and credit of the country, and not the interest
of any particular individual in that House—it might
indeed excite a smile on the face of the Right Ho-
nourable Gentleman, but he trusted it could Wile
nothing but serious reflection in the mind of every
other man in the country.—[Hear, hear, hear!]-'
if the House meant to encourage gambling of all
kindr, and the most fluctuating and uncertain Ili*
cissitedes in the public funds, then they ought to
pass this bill ; if, on the contrary, they mra"t to
perform their (Inty t' the Public, Ciey would, ill
the first instance, call for a Committee. It was their
duly ds*, in a crate of peace (for such was the rest-
-106. state a Giro), to prepare for a time of war ; and
on this point Is.' would most explicitly declare, theg
if war found this country with a debt undiminish•
ed, and cash payments unresumed, there was so
end 4111 that boor and on that day to the Britbk
empire.--(Loud cries of Heart)—The misfertoof/
was that the inadetplate steps now taken went to plo•
volte, if not to encourage this hour, and to show that
the crow ry was 'timid to meet it.--(llear, hear 0.--
But the. Noble Lord opposite (Lord Castlereagh) Weir
oo a former occasion, very profuse in his high float*
ste!ements of the situation of this country as COI"
pared with any other in Europe. England, lie ssitio
was the land flowing isith milk and honey, whole
every mon could sit down under his own arne
France was humbied and uterpowered. But let the

'l'l-JE S'FA'EFSMAN.
- f•rbs
pr,ernbtehjh.thp intn,.qtra trade,anti finances
rysimh styptf, ba4:b4it toith the .utmost no
tlyhe'pretetrs, dne Ifs n
_fn.cattend th
the.Aieriteit. tratollets, Ash paythikarts.• he or
I—The Bank Directors satisfactory Information on

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.1) A/ i. 1 i ')fir, . ) ....k
.
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!..cnonify, a' Wield ,:tiner the Bank', sto pay in specie or not.—(Hear,
.onikisg ~,—,-11e bear, hear!)---Ikten as til the circul i 1
I
thsegissnuehit)h.s.eltd s Go.
ibtl ti'vecilie etulie
Bast lion ruralise trntim, eihnet
fiparspetpr,oitnhe
: ; I 'ltt i:tness,
rject, and ascertain the Chancellor of t &chequer has assuMed that
inn/mid:fair tailor 'the state of the coun ry will nut admit of the substi.
use did not agree to tution of a metallic currency in the pito, of these
hem his mind—and 'IMPS. Now how does it happen that in France the
mild resume Aim at whole rirculition is kept nitin metallic currpncy ? k;
ne Bill would be in- might, herhaps, be necessary to adopt a different corm.
s a matter of course; in this country ; but all he asked was that this decsion should be strained after due investigation before,
k
a Commit tee.—[llear, hear!]— Then, as to the sa...
s,ritelocmonefinrmhaeddttfartoeudr
.nd Mr. Horner, in cond point, the Government securities—the Inuit,
iroposed fiestriction country banker was to have a stamp, it was to bed. •
P, received from the come to all intents and purposes Government paper
this memorable an- whether it seas issued at Exeter, or at Downing..
it our resumption of j street. The result must inevitably be, that the Gni
1 two veers, it: ooks Lverittnent will take loin their own hands the issue: