upon this-to consider what had occurred in former times. The year 1783 was a period of great commercial embarrass had now shown, that of the capital of the The Bank was all but stopping payment, in consequence of its dealings with government; and yet, all that the government then owed was only seven millions. In the year 1797, another period of distress, the Bank attributed to its transactions with the government the necessity under which it laboured of applying for a suspension of cash payments. However that statement might once have been disputed, he believed there was nobody who would now deny it. The government undoubtedly did cause that suspension. It had been anticipated for some time previously to its occurrence; but the coup-de-grace was given to it by that Austrian loan which they had recently seen brought to so pitiful a termination. He did not mean to say that, with such a war as that in which the country was engaged in 1797, the country could have avoided coming, sooner or later, either to that suspension of cash payments or to a peace. No such thing. What he meant to say was this-that that result was hastened by the manner in which the government had locked up all the available resources of the Bank. And yet, with all this experience before it, the government still persisted in its former objectionable measures: though, in the years 1783 and 1797, when the Bank was obliged to play the pranks it had done, it had not been mixed up with it to any thing like the sum of twenty-four millions. One of the first measures which, he thought, the government ought to adopt. to make the Bank efficient to the public, was to set it at ease in this respect, and to give it elbow-room, if he might use such an expression, for its future operations. He considered that such a step would be advisable as a permanent measure; but he was well aware, that it could not give immediate relief to the evils which at present sat heavy on the country. He had heard it suggested in some quarters, that the issuing of a quantity of Exchequer-bills would be of great effect in mitigating the existing distress; but it was his opinion, that such a measure would inflict more unsparing ruin on the community, than any which had yet been inflicted upon it. Sure he was, that the funding of those bills would aggravate the present evil, and spread alarm and confusion in every direction. The Bank, as it was managed at present, was the heart delivered Europe from the thraldom of of all the circulation of the country; and Napoleon. The rest of our military force it was evident that if that circulation was consisted of the natives of other countries, not perfect, a derangement must ensue in and principally of Germans. The powers all its subordinate functions. The de- of Austria, Russia, and Prussia, were all rangement which existed at present in all successively put in motion by our money. the relations of commerce, had arisen The great arm of our country-its power, from the unsteady conduct of the Bank its influence, its consideration-was in its acting suddenly upon the country bankers, Treasury. Those, therefore, who had left and had been much assisted in its oper- the country in such a state, that it would ations by the mania for wild speculation be impossible for it to avail itself suddenly which had spread over the country like a of that arm of its strength, had acted as whirlwind, of which nobody knew whence absurdly as it was possible for any set of it came or whither it was going. For he men to act, who arrogated to themselves would say, that, unsatisfactory as the state the name and character of statesmen.of the circulation was, it never could have The hon. member remarked, that before given rise to such evils as now pressed the House came to the conclusion, that upon the country, if it had not been at- the present system of banking was intended with such an unprecedented ex- efficient, and did not work well to the cess of speculation.-The hon. member community, it ought to see it act in the then proceeded to argue, that, indepenunfettered command of all its resources, dently of the danger to which the Bank and not with those resources choked up was necessarily exposed by the choking as they were at present by the proceedings up of its resources, there was a political of government. He said, first of all, that evil arising out of it which it was the they ought to relieve the Bank from its grossest folly, on the part of government, present difficulties, and then, when that to tolerate. In the time of peace the ob- was done, make it understand, that it ject of a wise government was, to have its ought always to be ready with four, five, monied institutions, like the ships of war six, or even eight millions for the service at Portsmouth, ready for a start on a mo- of the country. It was his opinion, that ment's notice. Now, from a Bank which if the first lord of the Treasury had rehad twenty-four millions of its capital cently sent to the Bank, and, after informchoked up in the support of silly conceitsing the directors that Treasury-bills were and idle devices, the government had taken away the means of a start; if such a start became necessary. In such a contingency the government would find, to its detriment and disgrace, that it had not only choked up the resources, but paralyzed the powers of the Bank. If they supposed, that because they had got a return of all the ships of the line at Portsmouth being in a sea-worthy condition, they were therefore in a situation to go suddenly to war, they would find, when it was too late, that they were mistaken, and that the state to which their impolitic measures had reduced the Bank, had deprived them of the means of carrying it on. The power of this country was well known to be in its Treasury. It was far beyond any thing to which its military force entitled it to aspire: it rested not upon its bayonets, but upon its money. The last contest in which it was engaged was decided entirely by its money. Forty or fifty thousand men were the largest army of Englishmen which were ever upon the continent, under the command of that great and illustrious captain, who had at a considerable discount, had desired them to buy up from four to eight millions of Exchequer-bills, it would not have been in the power of the Bank to have acceded to his request. He believed, that if the Bank had been unincumbered with the government, it would have been relieved from the difficulty, or, as some called it, the liberality of making the issues it lately had done. If it had possessed more elbow-room to turn itself about in, it would have come forward with alacrity to assist the public; and thus the difficulties which had recently occurred would have been obviated. Three-fourths of those difficulties arose entirely from panic; a fourth of them might, perhaps, have arisen from actual distress. Like people in a theatre, who sometimes crushed one another to death, in the alarm occasioned by imaginary and not by real dangers, the members of the community had hurried one another into distress and bankruptcy, by the violent efforts they had individually made to avoid them. The Bank, it ought to be recollected, was the banker of the government. In private life, any individual who wanted a temporary pecuniary aid, applied to his banker for it, and in general his banker allowed him to have it. The government, like a private individual, might often be in want of similar assistance, and should always be able to procure it, without leaving the Bank an opportunity of saying, "We cannot give it you without choking up our resources, and becoming less independent of you than we ought to be," especially in a time of peace, and with the three per cents at 94 and 95. His own private opinion was, that the Bank, if it were relieved from its difficulties, would be fully able to discharge all the functions for which it was intended, and would soon relieve the country from the panic which now prevailed, as to its sufficiency to maintain the currency. If the Bank were conducted upon proper principles if it would not drive such hard bargains, and would be content with less profits than it sought to obtain at present-if it would be satisfied with a profit of five instead of eight per cent and if, when its charter expired, it would adopt some prudent and liberal measure to limit the emoluments upon its capital, he was convinced that the system would soon stand upon a better footing than it did now, and that some preventive would be found against the recurrence of such evils as had lately befallen the country. He was well aware, that ever since the resumption of cash payments, doubts had existed in the minds of very respectable persons, as to whether there was a capacity in the country to maintain invariably such payments. He was well aware, that many persons apprehended that the pressure of our national debt, of our taxation, and of various other circumstances, would render the continuance of such a system impossible; but, for his own part, he had never participated, neither did he participate now, in those apprehensions. He thought that if the Bank were properly administered, it would be capable of giving full and permanent effect to such a system; but, at the same time, he must in candour confess, that he should like to see the Bank rendered more perfect than it now was. If any bank could be formed upon such principles as would give greater security to the Bank of England, not only in respect of securing the commercial interests of the country, which had recently been in considerable jeopardy, but also in respect of advancing its political interests abroad, he, for one, should be very glad of it. The desideratum for such a bank was, to erect it on a wider basis. It might be done, when the charter of the Bank expired, either by extending its capital, or by raising rival banks; for which there were not wanting several specious projects. He should listen with great attention to any thing upon that subject; because, though he thought that the present system might be made efficient, if it were fairly and honourably carried into effect without any tricks, contrivances, or paltry meannesses, still he was free to confess, that he should have no objection to improve and strengthen it. The first plan which he had heard mentioned was to erect a second bank. Now, if the erection of any establishment in rivalry to the Bank of England was meditated in the metropolis, he must say, that he knew of no plan on which it could be erected without augmenting the present confusion. If they had one bank in the east and another in the west, it would bring the country into confusion, in a shorter time than any other measure which could be possibly devised. One bank would be jealous and fearful of the other, and would take every opportunity of acting against it. Neither the public nor the banks themselves would know precisely what they were about. At present, the Bank of England was perfectly acquainted with the nature of its transactions: it knew the risk which it ran, and the responsibility which it incurred; but, if a rival bank were established by its side, the competition would create confusion, and in the eagerness for profit, the recollection of its liabilities would be lost. He conceived that no arrangement of that kind could be made with perfect safety. But, if they strengthened the old establishment by widening its basis and extending its capital, he was of opinion that they would confer a very substantial benefit upon the community. He had been in hopes, that the right hon. gentleman opposite was going to usher in that evening some plan, better than any which had hitherto been devised; but, a speech of greater promise and of less performance he had never heard in the whole course of his parliamentary experience. The object of the right hon. gentleman's measure was contained in the simple annunciation, that the Bank had agreed to concede that part of its privileges by which any banking establishment was prevented from consisting of more than six members. He must tell the right hon. gen. tender. He was not going to state any novelty upon this subject. Silver was a legal tender in every country but our own; and in point of law, up to a very late period, it was even a legal tender here, when of a fixed fineness. The proportions having been ill regulated in this country, it became the interest of the debtor to pay in gold rather than in silver, and thus a practical tender of gold was established among us. We had now had it so long, that we had almost forgot how we came by it; but, what he had stated was matter of history, and not of speculation. The question, when it was determined in that house at the time of the Bullion committee, was determined too much in accordance with the views of philosophers and theorists, who looked to a fanciful perfection in the standard of value, and lost sight of a consideration which they ought always to have had before them; namely, not to establish a more imperfect, in their anxiety to establish a more perfect standard. If one point was better established than another, it was this tleman in the outset, that he had made | committee. It was one of extreme imhis own answer to his own scheme, portance to all banking establishments, though perhaps he did not think so, and contained a principle, which, if adoptquite conclusive against it. For, though ed, would put them out of all apprehenat present the members of a banking sion of such danger as they had recently establishment might consist of as many as incurred: he meant the propriety of six persons, it appeared that only twenty-making silver as well as gold a legal six out of the seven hundred banks which now existed had availed themselves of that privilege. For his own part, he saw nothing magical in the number six; and if six persons could not now be found, except in a few instances, who were willing to trust themselves together in banking establishments, he did not conceive it very likely that more than six persons would be found anxious to associate themselves together for such purposes, when the privilege of doing so was given them by law. If any country gentlemen should avail themselves of that privilege, he should say that it was the greatest act of folly they could possibly commit. If the right hon. gentleman had allowed persons to combine together on condition of depositing their capital, and of limiting their responsibility to that capital, he would have found plenty of individuals ready to engage in such associations. Landed gentlemen would put down their five, their ten, or their twenty thousand pounds, as might be convenient; and banks would then be formed all over the country on the very best principles. He that the perfection of a standard con. saw no objections at present to such a sisted in its invariableness. Gentlemen >system; but, if it were sifted as it ought might say, "If that be so, how can the to be, it was probable that some objections standard boast of its invariableness, when might be discovered. He thought, how-it consists of two different metals, and ever, that they would be of a trivial nature, when, to the general mutability of each, and would be more than counterbalanced is added the mutability between gold and by the advantages to which such a system silver? Surely, instead of diminishing, such would give rise. He was sure that by a plan will increase the variableness of adopting it, solid establishments would be the standard." Now, if he could show created all over the country, in which that by admitting the two, the currency, prudent men with families would be very as distinguished from the standard of value, willing to connect themselves. They would, in point of fact, be rendered less might be created on the principle of variable, they would have a less variable a joint-stock company. In that case, standard to measure all commodities by. he would make it incumbent on all In the first place, the Bank of England, persons who joined it to make a public if it had the power to pay in silver, would record of their capital, and to balance be able to get it out of every country in their books once a year. Then, if any the world. Gold, on the continent, was partner owed any thing to the bank, and an article of merchandise, whereas silver touched his capital, he should be made was not so, and was always to be procured. liable for all the debts of the establish- If a man had a bill of exchange upon ment a regulation of which he could not Hamburgh, Amsterdam, or Paris, he complain, as he would not be involved in might get either gold or silver for it; but them without his own direct participation. if he got silver, and with that was obliged -There was another point on which he to buy gold, it was evident that by wished to express his sentiments to the rendering gold scarce, he would create a VOL. XIV. P difficulty in procuring it. He contended, harmony, and where there was seldom that in proportion to the facilities afforded more than a variation of 10 centimes to the Bank of England for making between them. They sometimes differed tenders, would be its power to assist its from 10 to 10; but he was told that customers. He had no doubt that if they now, for the first time since the establishcould get at a knowledge of the opera- ment of the gold and silver currency, the tions of the Bank, it would appear that difference had increased 14 per cent in the Bank had sent silver to the continent consequence of the demands of the Bank to procure gold. Now, if the Bank had for gold; and that, in consequence of been possessed of the power to pay in our wish to have this beautiful and phisilver, it would have had no occasion to losophical standard, the price of it had resort to any such measure. The evil of risen in every country of Europe. Against a single standard was clearly preceptible. this variation of ten centimes, he would The Bank, obliged to pay in a metal place the variation of 20 or 80 per cent which was not the currency of any other which existed in the value of commodities country, but a matter of merchandise, in England, and even in that of the pound was liable to be speculated against in sterling. He contended, that this vaevery direction; and nothing would be riableness in the standard cramped the easier than for a person with very inferior measures of the Bank, but in a tone of capital to stop the Bank from getting voice which was occasionally so low that even a single ounce of gold. It might be it did not reach the gallery.-After said, perhaps, that the present system had apologizing for the length at which be worked well in former times. He denied had trespassed on the attention of the it. The country did not go on well with House in explanation of his views of the it. We were obliged to terminate the expediency of adopting a double standard American war, because, if we had con- of silver and gold, he proceeded to state tinued it, the Bank must have stopped the manner in which he would carry it its payments in gold. When the French into execution. Some persons imagined, war came, it was of such a nature that we that there would be considerable difficulty could not stop it, because the French in establishing this double currency; but would not make peace. The Bank in he knew others, on whose judgment he consequence suspended its payments in could rely with confidence, who thought cash, and the country went on with the that it could be established with ease and war. The system, therefore, did not safety, and that it was absolutely neceswork any better for us in former times, sary to relieve the country from its prethan it did at present. The whole history sent difficulties. His plan was to leave of the past proved it beyond dispute. the smaller silver coins in circulation, He did not like to say all that he knew as the half-crowns, the shillings, and sixupon the subject; but, if he was rightly pences; to call in the crown-pieces, which informed, much of the present difficulties at present were little used, and could of the country depended upon other well be spared from the general circulacountries and upon other powers. The tion; to recoin them, and to make the country was now in a state of embarrass-crown-piece a legal tender to any amount, ment, in which it would not have been not taking it at the present value of silver, placed, if it had possessed the same metallic standard with every other country in the world. Its present difficulties arose from its taking a metallic standard which no other country took. Why was this country the only sufferer? Because the variableness of our standard depended on the variableness of a currency of paper and gold mixed; whereas the variableness of the standard in other countries depended on a currency of silver and gold mixed; and it had always been found that paper and gold mixed were more variable than silver and gold mixed. Take, for instance, the case of France, where gold and silver lived together in perfect for that would be depreciated, and he should be sorry to propose any depreciation in the standard. The proportion of gold to silver was in England 15 to 1, and in France 15 to 1; but he trusted that by making both legal tenders, they would approach nearer together, and that the disproportion between them would ere long cease to be so great as it was at present. He was quite sure that the smaller coins which he should leave in circulation, would not be injurious to the success of his plan. It might, perhaps, be objected, that with ten sixpences of the current coin he could buy twelve of the present standard, and that |