holding out to them a confidence which they could not inspire, or a redress which they never intended to grant. Was he to be de could not allow the present motion to he carried without expressing his strongest and most decided dissent. He knew how our ancestors conducted ballots for com- The earl of Fauconberg rose, mittees; but he knew that, as they and declared he never had witwere now managed, the committees nessed such an attack made upon were not fairly chosen. In the him, as that which their lordships. last committee there were no less had heard from the noble duke. than three cabinet ministers, and He had no hesitation to avow, that the other six were peers who had he put one of the lists complained uniformly voted with the ministers of into the balloting-glass, and he since the beginning of the war. gloried in it!!! When he said this, he did not nied the privilege of exercising his 1 mean to throw the smallest reflecown judgment and the right of tion on any individual member: free agency, because he differed in but he must be excused if he opinion with the noble duke relathought they were not the most tive to the conduct of ministers. proper persons for judging of the He was persuaded it was the first measures of ministers; for, suppos- object of ministers to extricate us ing they were bad, which they from our situation, and he hoped certainly might be, was it to be and trusted they would speedily sucexpected, that either they would ceed. But if noble lords came down be very rigorous in their inquiries, to the house day after day, and or severe in their censures? If endeavoured to persuade the peothere was any man who would de- ple they were ruined-if they fend the mode of choosing com- stated grievances that did not exist, mittees by ballot, let him look and magnified those that did, they into the glasses and see the lists certainly were doing serious injury they contained. One would think, to the country. Could any men at least, they would have been have more interest in the salvation written, to save the appearance, in of the country than ministers ? different hands; instead of that, Were they not bound by every tie, they might see twenty lists con- both as public men and indivitaining the same names, and all duals, to save their country. His written by the same hand. And lordship concluded by begging that of what were the lists composed? their lordships would all cordially of the cabinet ministers. What, unite their efforts for the preservaappoint men to be judges of their tion of their country; and if they own acts! Were not ministers did, he should not despair of sucashamed of such conduct? to appoint a committee to inquire into the causes of the country being reduced to this dreadful state; and by the very men who had been the authors of all its calamities? His grace concluded by a solemn invocation to the house not to add insult to injury, by mocking an oppressed and deluded people with cess. The earl of Guilford said, the noble earl had either misunderstood or misrepresented the noble duke, when he stated the observations that his grace had made as a reflection upon the persons who had named the committee, or those who had been chosen to be of it. His grace had not said any thing but but what he must coincide with relative to the committee. It was inconsistent to call it an impartial committee of inquiry, when the president of the council and the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster were chosen to examine and inquire into the conduct of the secretary of state-in short, every man of common sense must see that it was no inquiry. The ballot proposed by the noble duke was certainly for a purpose necessary for the country to know and be satisfied upon the causes of that exigency. He was confident the greatest cause of the present exigencies was the war, and the total want of economy in every department of government. These he thought were points that required and ought to be part of the inquiry gone into by the committee of that house. The inquiry proposed by the noble duke went to this plain question, upon which the house and the country had a right to a satisfactory answerwhether the embarrassed and alarming state of the country was owing to unavoidable misfortunes, or to the mismanagment and incapacity of ministers? Lord Grenville, in reply, observed, that the committee to be balloted for was not to inquire into their conduct, but into the situation of the bank of England. The noble earl had stated that our present exigencies ought to be ascribed to the misconduct of ministers. It would, however, be but fair to acknowledge that ministers have had to conduct a contest totally unparalleled in the annals of civilized society; that they were endeavouring to defend the country from those evils to which some of the countries of Europe were now a prey. His lordship called upon the house to consider the important objects that were at stake, and whenever any reverse of for tune happened, not to ascribe it to the misconduct of ministers, but the nature of the contest they had to maintain. The duke of Bedford made a short reply relative to the choosing of a committee, which he said ought not to be composed of the relations and friends of the minister. His grace concluded by saying, that, after four years' experience, he found it was of very little consequence what was said within those walls, except it was sanctioned by ministerial support. The duke of Norfolk afterwards moved, "That it be an instruction to the committee to inquire into and report on the amount of specie advanced by the bank to the lords commissioners of the treasury, since the 12th July, 1796." The duke of Montrose said a few words relative to the report. The duke of Bedford said, he had omitted one remark, namely, that, though members of a secret committee were bound not to divulge the proceedings of their inquiry, yet when called upon they were at liberty to assign the causes which had induced them to agree in the report made to the house.. On the 28th of April, the earl of Chatham brought up the report of the committee of secrecy, which was was laid on the table, and ordered to be printed. On the 3d of May following, the duke of Bedford said, he was not present when the report of the secret committee was laid before their lordships. He now took an opportunity of declaring his dissent from that report, and moved that their lordships be summoned on Friday se'nnight, to take it into consideration. He also gave notice that he would move some resolutions relative to the report. Their lordships were ordered to be summoned to attend on that day; but on the duke of Bedford's motion the subject was afterwards deferred to the 15th. Monday, May the 15th. The duke of Bedford rose to remind their lordships that they were summoned on this day to take into consideration the report of the secret committee which they had appointed to inquire into the causes that produced the necessity for issuing the order of the 26th of February last, prohibiting the bank from paying their notes in specie. After calling their attention to the matter stated in the report, he should submit certain resolutions founded upon the evidence it contained, which he hoped would meet with the concurrence of the principal part of the house. In what he had to advance, he should have Occasion frequently to allude personally to the chancellor of the exchequer; but though he should impute blame to him, he did not consider him as the only object of blame. When he first read the order of council ascribing the drain of cash from the bank, which render ed it necessary to prohibit the payment of their notes in specie, to an unfounded alarm of invasion, he much doubted the truth of the allegation. But when he found that a committee appointed by ballot to inquire into the causes which produced it, was composed not only of the zealous supporters of administration, but of members of that very cabinet upon whose conduct they were appointed to decide, his doubts were confirmed; and impressed with these sentiments he thought it his duty to move for another committee with more extended powers than the former, which was agreed to; but the committee, as before, was composed of their own supporters, with a due proportion of the members of the cabinet. His grace next adverted to the minister's answers to the remonstrances which were made to him in person by the directors of the bank. In page the 29th of the report, they found, from the evidence of Mr. Bosanquet, which was minuted in the bank-book, that the chancellor of the exchequer being asked; whether he be lieved that such minutes contained an accurate statement of what passed between the governor and deputygovernor and himself, answered he had no doubt but they did. His grace said he was disposed to doubt the matter contained in the order of council from the beginning; and these doubts were confirmed by the investigation of the committee. He referred to page 50 of the report, in which it is stated that Mr. Giles had made frequent representations in the capacity of governor of the bank, and also Mr. Raikes, all of which tended to prove the diminution of specie of the bank. He next called the attention of their lordships to a paper annexed to the report, entitled " A summary of the chief points which had occurred to the committee in the course of their inquiry." This paper abounded in gross misrepresentation of the truth, in shameful attempts to conceal what ought to be known to the house. In this summary it was contended, however, that the difficulties of the bank were owing in some degree to a scarcity of circulating medium. Hence it was denied that bills of exchange were applicable to the purpose of circulation. He referred to Mr. Thornton's evidence upon the subject in page 71 of the report, who states his opinion nearly as follows, I conceive that the number of bills of exchange, which may happen at any time to exist, bears no necessary proportion to the magnitude of the existing trade; although I conceive that the use of them in payment does bear a pretty regular proportion to the quantity of commerce. For instance, at Liverpool and Manchester all payments are made either in coin or bills of exchange." His grace said, if they bore a regular proportion to the quantity of commerce, he could hardly agree in the opinion advanced in the paper annexed to the report, that they were not a part of the circulation of the kingdom. He came now to a subject of a much more serious nature. As it was stated that this paper contained facts, but which were not warranted by the evidence given before the committee, nor introduced into the report, he was at a loss how to account for the gross mis-statement which he was about to mention. In page 252, they found that all the remit⚫tances made for the services of the war, into different distant parts during the last four years, amounted to 33,510,7791. distinguished from those expended in other parts during the said four years, including the imperial loan; and the ad vances made to the emperor amounted to 14,988,4221,; and lastly, that the sums paid for all sorts of military services on the continent, during the war ending in 1763, amounted to 20,626,9971. His grace remarked upon this statement, that if the authors of the report meant to compare the expenses of the present war on the continent with those of the war ending in 1763, the number of years ought to have been marked and then it would be found that there had been expended in four years of the present war almost twice as much as in eight years of the former. He begged their lordships to remark,, that, in the account of the continental expenses during the present war, the sums advanced to the emperor are said to be included. It appeared, however, that the account was accurate only by leaving out the word " including the imperial loan and the advances made to the emperor." These sums appeared in the title, but were excluded from the body of the account, so that there was an error in the total sum of 5,500,000. For an error gross, he knew not how to account; however, he would leave it to their lordships to decide whether the error originated in intention or ignorance but to one or the other it must be imputed. His grace next dwelt at some length on our exports and imports, upon which great stress had been laid by the committee. He reminded their lordships, that in the last years of the Ainerican war, the exports above the imports were averaged at 6,000,000l. He found that the additional expense of naval stores, which certainly was considerably increased in time of war, is stated as having rendered the balance of commerce less favourable; but this circum circumstance ought to have been mentioned on the other side of the account, as increasing our exports over our imports. In the summary before their lordships, he was surprized to find one material thing omitted, viz. the result of the correspondence which took place between the chancellor of the exchequer and the directors of the bank, relative to making remittances to foreign powers. His grace made several remarks on the representation of Mr. Ellison, in ascribing the stoppage of the Newcastle banks to a local alarm; but, in his opinion, that shock had been produced not by alarms, but by a combination of different causes. Upon this part of the subject, he regretted that some papers containing different statements of cash in the bank at different periods, which were laid before the committee, had not been published in the report, and more especially as he could have shewn from them, that the statements contained in the report were false. His grace next made some observations upon the evidence of Mr. Boyd and Mr. Thornton, whose opinions were, that the difficulties which the commercial world had experienced, and the shock which public credit had sustained, arose from the bank not extending their discounts; but to these theories he opposed the sentiments of Mr. Adam Smith. His grace next observed, that the reduction of the paper in circulation amounted to only one-eighth from the quantity afloat in 1795. But, supposing that the decrease had greater, he could not conceive how a decrease of notes could produce a decrease of cash; though he could easily perceive that a decrease of cash might produce a decrease of After making some obser been vations upon this subject, he proceeded to state the substance of the resolutions which he meant to propose, founded upon the correspondence which had taken place between the bank-directors and the chancellor of the exchequer. His grace went through the different parts of the correspondence, and adverted to the resolution of the court of directors, of the 11th of February, 1796, and Mr. Pitt's answer to it, in which he promises neither to make any further loan or advance to the emperor, without previously consulting the bank; while at the very moment he was sending money to his imperial majesty. After dwelling upon this subject for some length, his grace concluded in a very eloquent appeal to their lordships; reprobating the conduct of administration in the most severe and pointed language, whom he described as the despoilers of our fortunes! oppressors of the poor! and plunderers of the rich! He then moved the first of the following resolutions: 1. That it appears to this house that subsequent to the month of June, 1795, and during the year 1796, a great diminution was experienced in the specie of the bank of England. 2 That it appears to this house, that the governor and deputygovernor of the bank did at various times represent to the chancellor of the exchequer the danger to the bank from the diminution of its specie, particularly at the following periods: 11th of December, 1794; 10th of October, 1794; 23d of October, 1794; 18th of November, 1794; 3d December, 1794; 15th and 16th of January, 1796; 28th of January, 1796; 5th and 8th of February, 1796; 11th of February, 1797; Sth, |