able gentleman had thought proper, in the middle of his speech, to require of him a brief and summary opinion upon this most grave and intricate subject, in order that he might have, in the concluding part of it, an opportunity to comment upon it at length. No gentleman, he must contend, had a right to expect an answer from him in such a way, even if he had not felt it necessary for him to deliver his opinion upon the subject somewhat more at length.

He was aware, in offering himself to the Committee, that it would be incumbent on him to revert to opinions which had been already much discussed; and he could not revert to them without recurring, at the same time, to details which he feared would appear dry and uninteresting to the Committee. It was, however, necessary for him to recur to those opinions and arguments, in answer to the speech which had just been delivered;-a speech which, as he thought, struck at the foundation of all the financial and commercial principles established in the world.

The right honourable gentleman had said, that the Bullion Committee had made one of the boldest experiments that had ever been tried on public credit, and that they had brought the country to the very brink of a precipice. Now, as for the part which he was to bear in such a charge, he must say, that when the motion was first made in that House, for the appointment of a Committee to consider of the high price of Bullion and the state of the circulating medium, and of the exchanges, he was not in the House, nor even in town: but when he had been appointed a member of that Committee, it then became his duty to give his utmost attention to the consideration of the subject. When the motion was made in the House, for the appointment of that Committee, there was no sort of opposition to it; and when the Committee was appointed, it be

came their duty to investigate the subject with care, and to report to the House their conscientious opinions on the matters referred to them. As to the consequences, then, which were said to have resulted from the publication of that Report, those individuals, surely, were not answerable, who had only conscientiously discharged a duty that was imposed upon them, and had come to the best conclusions which they were able to do, from the evidence before them. He thought it was hardly fair to characterize their honest discharge of the duty which the House had imposed upon them, as a bold experiment on public credit, or as driving the country to the brink of a precipice.

But, in point of fact, it was not the Report of the Bullion Committee which originated the discussion. The discussion had commenced out of doors long before that Committee was appointed; and out of doors the discussion would have been continued, even if the attention of the House had never been drawn to the consideration of it. Under these circumstances, then, it was, he must contend, highly desirable that the question should be regularly taken up by Parliament; and he was perfectly convinced, that there could be no subject more proper, or more worthy of discussion in Parliament, than the state of the coin and currency of the realm.

In former periods, reports upon such subjects had not only been prepared under the direction, but published and circulated by the authority, of Parliament. In the year 1696, when the coin was debased, the Lords of the Trea sury called on Mr. Lowndes, their secretary, for a report respecting the state of the circulating medium of the country. That report was printed at the King's press, and circulated all over the country, and every one was invited to the consideration of it. Ministers, at that time, thought it much better to remedy the existing evil, than

to accept of the fallacious advantages which were then held forth as derivable from its continuance. The consequence was, that those principles were fully and effectually refuted, which were now again attempted to be maintained, but which he hoped again to overturn before he sat down; and an effectual remedy was provided for the serious evil of which the country had, at that time, to complain.

With respect, then, to the legal coin of the realm-he should now confidently call upon any gentleman who heard him, to deny, if he could, that the only legal tender in this country was gold and silver, of a stated fineness, and containing a certain quantity of the precious metals, to be ascertained by weight. This was the standard, and unfluctuating measure, of all other commodities. If it were admitted, that the legal tender was regulated by these two principles, then it followed, that the coin of the realm must consist of bullion of a certain fineness, and was only perfect as it contained a certain weight. He would ask, if it had not always been a prime object of policy with the monarchs and legislators of former times, to preserve their coin undeteriorated in fineness, and not below the standard in weight?

When they talked of prices current, it was necessary to know what was meant by the word price. Price meant nothing but the relation which the value of commodities bore to the standard. The weight of coin had, in all former times, in a great degree, determined the value of money, as well in this as in other countries. If proofs of this were wanted, he referred the sceptic to a regulation made in the reign of Henry the Third, determining the proportion which a quartern loaf should bear to the weight of certain coins. And this furnished one of many proofs, that the names of coins were given with a reference to their weight, in gold or silver. Thus, the pound sterling in this country,

and the livre in France, were originally equal to a pound weight of silver; and our penny-weight also was equivalent in weight to one pennyworth of silver.

He was astonished that the right honourable gentleman should seem to conceive, that the shilling was a coin which had no regular standard. Weights had been made, and were kept at the Mint, which were the standard weight of a shilling, as the legal coin of the country. The right honourable gentleman appeared not even to be aware of the provisions made, upon this head, in modern acts of parliament. The law of the land was so explicit on the subject, that he could not repress his astonishment when he heard the right honourable gentleman assert, that the coin called a shilling passed current, without any reference to its weight. Could it be possible, that the right honourable gentleman was ignorant of the existence of the act of the fourteenth of his present Majesty, intituled, "an Act for regulating the weights to be made use of for determining the value of gold and silver coins," the first provision of which act set forth, what the weight should be for trying "certain pieces of gold coin called guineas, and certain pieces of silver coin called shillings?" It was only with reference to their weight that these pieces were to be taken as money. Were they, then, to be told, that the deteriorated worn out thing called a shilling-but which he would only call a counter-could legally pass current, without any reference to its weight?

Another provision in the act of the fourteenth of the present king was, that silver coin was not a legal tender, for any sum exceeding twenty-five pounds, except by tale or weight, after the rate of 5s. 2d. the ounce. With regard to the gold coin, by a proclamation of the sixteenth of his present Majesty, it was ordered, that guineas, being the grand medium in which payments were made, should

cease to be a legal tender, if, by any circumstance, they became so deteriorated as not to weigh 5 dwts. 8 grains. The Privy Council had it, at that time, in contemplation, to allow them to pass current, although they weighed less, on a scale of diminished value, according to their weight.

It had been often said, that all money was merchandize; but it might be more convenient to make all merchandize money. The price of any one thing could only be determined by a reference to some other commodity, which, by common consent or established law, was fixed as a standard. This was a position which he must fully allow and admitthat any commodity might, in that way, answer the purpose of money and become money. The precious metals, however, had many decided advantages in this respect over all other commodities. He would not admit that they acquired their value entirely from any convention or agreement; but he thought they came into the situation in which they now stood from possessing intrinsic value. They were money before they were coined. He admitted that they so far partook of the nature of other commodities, that the abundance or scarcity of them must increase or diminish their value.-As to what was called price-if there were no paper currency, it would be merely the comparison of other commodities with gold and silver, considered as commodities. When the price of either gold or silver was talked of separately, it could only mean with reference to the other precious metal.

It appeared to him, that it was not possible that there could be any real excess in a currency of gold and silver; and that nothing could be more absurd than to state a precise numerical amount of money which would be proper for the circulation of any given country. If the gold and silver were less abundant, a certain quantity of it would go farther, in exchange for other commodities; but if it were