market price of bullion, it had operated as a premium on the exportation of silver coin. The market price of silver was then 14 oz. and ths, for one ounce of gold; whereas the Mint regulations made it 15 oz. and 4th, for one ounce of gold. The Report very justly went on to state, that this difference between the market price and the Mint regulations, held out a temptation to buy up silver coin with gold, for the purpose of exportation-an evil which the Report stated to require the interference of the legislature. The remedy was found in the restoration of the relative Mint value of silver as compared with gold, to the exact proportion which it bore in the market. The consequence was, that the exportation of bullion ceased, and the fall of one farthing in the value of Louis d'Ors at Paris, had had the effect of bringing that coin in abundance into this country. Unequal currencies, therefore, could not, he contended, exist at the same time; as the perfect part would speedily disappear, and the debased portion alone remain.

But then it was said, that to alter the system would be to encourage fraud and perjury. Why! they all knew that the laws on the subject were of no avail; and he thought the existence of the law at present in force, went to encourage fraud and perjury. The honourable gentleman then cited an Act of the year 1774, against clipping the coin of the realm, which spoke of the new coin as being constantly melted down; and he added, that the practice seemed likely to continue, while pieces of the same denomination were different in value, and those which were under weight were allowed to pass for as much as the others. He would ask, if this was not now the case?

It was, he said, ridiculous to suppose that any law could prevent the exportation of guineas, when by exporting them a profit of twenty-five per cent. could be obtained. To establish this fact more clearly, he would call the atten

tion of the House to the circumstance of the advancing the value, or rather-as to advance the value was impossible,― the making the dollar pass for 5s. 6d. instead of 5s. Its intrinsic value was 4s. 6d., and the advancing its denomination was indirectly raising the denomination of the coin of the realm. If ministers had raised the seven-shilling piece to nine shillings, it would have come near the true proportion to the present value of a guinea. And how was it, then, to be said to be the same aliquot part of a coin, which by law was worth only twenty-one shillings?

It would be urged, that any argument drawn from dollars could not hold; seeing that they were not the regular coin of the realm. They might not, indeed, be a legal tender; but was there any man who would hesitate to give notes for dollars? If a foreigner were to ask, what was the money of England? he would be answered, that a pound of silver was coined into sixty-two shillings, and a pound of gold into forty-four guineas and a half. If he were told, that the silver was to the gold as fifteen and a fraction to one, and that, in addition to the means taken by other nations to secure the value of their money, it need never be taken but by weight, the foreigner would say, that it was secured by as perfect a system as could be devised. But if, going a little further, he was told that a foreign piece worth 4s. 6d. passed in England for 58. 6d., he would say, "How can this bear a proper proportion to your shillings ?” There was but one answer, "Our silver coin is so degraded, that our shillings are not worth more than ninepence each ; and so they bear a fair proportion to the dollar." The foreigner would reply, "But how can your silver bear its proper proportion to your gold?" In answer to this he must be told, "All our gold has been sold; so we make use of a substitute, and that substitute bears a very good proportion to our ninepenny shillings."

Under the present circumstances, a premium was virtually offered by Government on exportation, as distinctly as if they offered a bounty of twenty-five per cent. on sending the gold out of the country. Four dollars were made equal to a guinea and a shilling; but the metallic value of a guinea was actually equal to the purchase of five dollars, and something more. Suppose a case: an English merchant is indebted five hundred pounds to a merchant in Amsterdam. His course is to purchase a bill of exchange, which will buy a hundred ounces of gold in Amsterdam. But some foreign Jew, one of those who are in the constant habit of exporting gold, encouraged to the practice of fraud and perjury by the very nature of the law, finding that for twenty-one shillings he can buy a guinea in London, sets about purchasing five hundred pounds' worth, and sends them off. That quantity of guineas will be equal to one hundred and thirty ounces of gold in Amsterdam; and after the hundred ounces are discharged, the thirty will remain in Holland, an actual premium as against this country. He would read to the Committee a few extracts from a correspondence between an individual at Paris and a person in the gold traffic in this country. The names of the parties he was not at liberty to mention. The letters to which he alluded stated, that the latter had succeeded in purchasing for his correspondent, at different times, the sums of ten thousand eight hundred and twentynine, and of five thousand guineas, which he had shipped; and that the charges were one-half per cent. for commission, and another half per cent. for guaranteeing the bills. The balance of trade could not possibly account for such a state of things.

In the reign of King William, about the year 1696, the real value of the guinea, compared to the debased silver currency of that period, was twenty-five or twenty-six shillings, but

the gold was permitted to pass at its intrinsic worth; and, notwithstanding the then unfavourable state of the exchanges, it never disappeared. The late Earl of Liverpool had observed in his publication, that if the gold coin at that period had not been suffered to pass at its sterling value, it would doubtless have been all melted down. And it was certainly well worthy of consideration, what might have been the financial difficulties of this country, at that period engaged in exertions scarcely less arduous than those of the present moment, and what might have been the fate of the liberties we now enjoyed, if this wise proceeding had not been adopted. He was, indeed, well aware how difficult it would be, if the gold and bank-note were admitted to an equal competition, for gentlemen to support any longer the assertion, that the paper was not depreciated. He well knew what would then become of that "current value" and "public estimation," by which the advocates of restriction endeavoured to support their argument-a current value and a public estimation which were, in fact, derived only from the rigorous prohibitions of penal enactments.

Was this, then, a proper state for the currency of the country to be in? Was it one in which it was the duty of parliament to suffer it to remain? The fact was undeniable, that guineas were sold in every street. The evidence of a respectable goldsmith proved that he had every day applications, relative to the sale and purchase of guineas. Yet still it was maintained by the right honourable gentleman, that paper was not depreciated in public estimation. If paper was sustained at all in public estimation, it must be by a support growing out of terror-by an estimation growing, at that moment, out of a pending judgment. If this were once settled, public estimation would soon shew what it really In every part of the country, there were already

was.

two prices. [Cries of No! no! from different parts of the House.] He had undoubted proof of the fact. He had in his pocket a printed letter, addressed to members of parliament, by a person intimately acquainted with these matters; and that letter stated, that two prices were prevalent in the country, and that the usual premium for guineas was half-a-crown. But, was it not undeniable, that in Ireland there were clauses in many of the leases, that payment for rent should be made in gold, and that guineas were bought at a premium for that purpose? Ard if so, must not the landlord make a difference in those leases and tenants ?

He would now repeat, and seriously repeat, the question which had been put by an honourable gentleman,* on a former evening,-Was there any real standard of payment? He did not mean the question ludicrously; but no hint of such a thing was given in any of the various pamphlets which had undertaken to answer the Report. The real question was, whether bank-notes, or coin, were to be considered as the standard? The Committee had a right to an answer upon this point. If gentlemen would have it, that bank-notes were the standard, they should say so, and describe the guinea as twenty-one fortieth parts of a two pound note: and if they did not think so, it was equally incumbent on them to avow the sentiment; for some understanding should be come to upon a point so essential to the true understanding of the question. In the variety of opinions, or, if he might be permitted to retort the expression, of "theories," resorted to upon this head, there were some gentlemen who wrapped it up in a sort of mysterious obscurity; who considered the standard as something not corporeal, and talked of abstract currency in a manner peculiarly congenial to their clear and lofty conceptions. But Mr. Henry Thornton.