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nisters, by issuing the order of council, had taken a step which they would never be able to retrieve.

Mr. Bryan Edwards said, the house was now placed in this predicament, by the motion for the second reading of the bill, either that this stage of the bill should be postponed, that the order of council should be repealed, which would occasion a run upon the bank, or that the house should sanction an order of this nature before they were acquainted with the grounds upon which it was issued, which certainly would be in the highest degree unparliamentary. He was of opinion, that the second reading of the bill should be put off till the report of the secret committee was before the house.

Lord Hawkesbury reminded the bonourable gentleman and the house, that the committee alluded to had been first appointed to inquire into the necessity of continuing and confirming that order of council. The committee had accordingly made that inquiry, and reported to the house, that the order of council ought to be continued and confirmed; and since that, another inquiry had been refered to that committee, to know whether the privy council were justified in their proceedings at the time of the restriction, which was a consideration secondary to that of its continuance. But certainly the house might, with the greatest propriety, permit the bill to be read a second time, as the opinion delivered in the report of the former committee was, that the operation of the order of council ought to be continued, which undoubtedly could be best carried into effect under the authority of an act of parliament.

Mr. Grey rose chiefly to state to

He

the house some alarming, informa tion contained in a paper presented that day by Mr. Long, in consequence of a motion which was made by an honourable friend of his on a former day. It had also been moved some ime before, that ministers, in the present state of the country, ought to be prohibited from sending any further sums to the emperor. The answer of the chancellor of the exchequer on the latter occasion did not preclude him from issuing any part of the 500,000. which was put at his discretion by a vote of credit granted to him by parliament before Christmas. reminded the house, however, at what time this sum was voted; it was voted before Christmas, long before those calamities which had now overtaken us, long before the house of commons knew that the bank had stopped payment, and that the credit of the country was wounded in its most vital part. Had the house at that time been aware of the dangers with which they were threatened, he was convinced that they would not have given their assent to the measure of sending money out of the country. When this danger was realized, and when we were beset by a crowd of unexpected disasters, he did expect that ministers would have exercised the discretion vested in them for the relief, not for the further oppression, of the public. What was his surprise then, when on looking into the accounts which were that day presented, to find, that as late as Saturday last, a sum of 120,000/. was issued in exchequer bills, to be paid in specie, by the bank, to the agents of his imperial majesty. He hoped that the house would impose some restrictions upon those ministers, who became more desperate in promotion as the desperation of

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After a few observations by the chancellor of the exchequer, the bill was read a second time, and ordered to be committed to a committee of the whole house on Monday next.

The chancellor of the exchequer on the same day informed the commons that he had that morning had a meeting with some London bank ers, who had suggested to him some circumstances, which in his opinion would be material for the consideration of the house. These circumstances, however, were of such a nature as to render it necessary that they should hold a meeting among themselves. It was also necessary that they should have an opportunity of holding that meeting before the house went into a committee upon the bill. Under these circumstances, it appeared to him necessary that the house should not go into the committee that day, as he had intended. The committee was therefore postponed till the ensuing Wednesday.

and the immense speculations which had been occasioned by the extended commerce of the country. From the present state of affairs, bankers, in general, were reduced to a situation of the greatest difficulty and hazard. It was not his wish that notes should be made completely a legal tender, but only so far as the debt of the bank then extended, and, in his opinion, the bank ought to be restricted from issuing any more notes, except with the consent of two-thirds of the proprie

On that day (March 22) the house resolved itself into a committee, and the bill being read, paragraph by paragraph, on the clause granting an indemnity to the bank, Mr. Dent observed, that the scarcity of cash that then prevailed was partly real, and partly ideal. That scarcity had been produced by a variety of circumstances, the alarm of invasion, the melting down of guineas, the sending them abroad,

tors.

Mr. Fox commented on the circumstance of the bank having issued 50,000 guineas for the accommodation of private bankers. The measure might be right or wrong: but what he found fault with was the channel through which the accommodation was obtained. The bankers, instead of petitioning the bank, went and petitioned the chancellor of the exchequer, who interfered with the directors of the bank, and by his influence procured for them this supply What, said Mr. Fox, must be the consequence of private persons going to the minister, and making use of his influence to induce the bank to extend its credit where it had refused to extend it, and to substitute authority in place of confidence. It had been said from good authority, that because the bank was not liberal enough in its discounts, the merchants had recourse to the same channel, and that in consequence of another authoritative interference, these discounts had been extended. One of the reasons why he was against granting indemnity to the bank was, that if the state of things was what it had been represented, and if the persons who entered into the associations* which had been so much talked of, were

For receiving bank-notes instead of money, see Principal Occurrences.

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incere in their professions, no indemnity would be necessary. If these associations were extensive enough to protect the bank for the future, they might certainly be trusted as amply sufficient to protect it for the past. For these reasons he should vote against the present clause.

The chancellor of the exchequer replied to the arguments of Mr. Fox, and denied the influence of ministers with respect to the bank having accommodated private bankers with the sum of 50,000 guineas, and with respect to the discounting of bills.

Mr. Manning and Mr. Thornton, two bank-directors, assured Mr. Fox that the bank had acted entirely upon their own discretion.

Mr. Bastard strongly reprobated the influence which government had assumed over the affairs of the bank. With regard to the indemnity the house was called upon to pass, he did not know to what it was to apply. He had no doubt in his own mind of the culpability of the bankdirectors, and wished an inquiry into their conduct. Parliament ought to cut off entirely that connection which had been fatally established between government and the bank, from which a great part of the present calamity arose.

The question was then called for, and the clause carried without a division.

The second clause being read,

Mr. Fox said, that he intended to move for an exception to this clause with regard to dividend warrants. That the clause was meant to comprehend these could not be doubted; but if so, it should be more clearly and specifically expressed. As the house was not considering at present the propriety of creating a new circulating medium, but deliberating

upon a measure by which the public faith was broken with the public creditor, by refusing to pay him in cash; he gave notice that he should move, as an amendment to this clause, " that the bank should be prohibited from making any advances to government, by which the existing debt should be increased, during the continuance of the present act."

The chancellor of the exchequer objected to the introduction of any such clause. If the necessity of adopting the present measure arose from the present scarcity of cash in the bank, that circumstance was incompatible with tendering payments of the public dividends in cash. Mr. Pitt remarked, that the precise stipulation with the public creditor was to pay the public dividends at the bank. The sums issued from the exchequer to the bank, and the payment of sums due to government, were usually paid in bank-notes. Nor was it reasonable during the present temporary and national embarrassment, that the receivers of dividends should be the only persons exempted from the consequences which the pressure of the moment unavoidably occasioned.

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Mr. Fox replied, that the doctrine held by the right honourable gentleman was very alarming, as opened a way to the most dangerous fraud upon the public creditor. Necessity had compelled the government to defraud the public creditor, by offering him that which the law never had in contemplation when it secured to him 5 per cent. for his money. This was the fulfilment of the event predicted by Mr. Hume: when government was to lay its hands on the sums provided for the payment of the public creditor, the government, not

the

the bank, is the debtor, and the refusal of payment is the act, not of the bank, but of the govern

ment.

Sir William Pulteney allowed that such was the imperious necessity, that it was an answer for any thing which could happen. His principal objection to the bill then before the committee was, that it did not state at what time, or whether at any time, the bank was to resume its former practice of paying its notes in specie: nobody imagined that the bank was to be shut for ever as to the issuing of specie for paper, and that was the reason the paper was then so current; and therefore to continue that currency, a short period should be inserted in the bill; after which the bank should be allowed to pay in specie. The great thing to be considered was the limitation of time during which the bank was to be restrained from paying in money; but at present there was no time fixed, and all that appeared to refer to that subject was a clause at the end of the bill, which gave power to parliament to alter or amend it during the present session. The attorney-general conceived that its being left to the wisdom of parliament to alter the bill at any time in this session, was an answer to the objections of the honourable baronet. He contended that the parliament could not at that moment prudently fix the duration of the restriction upon the bank. He then proceeded to answer the obtections which Mr. Fox had made to the bill. The withholding of payment in specie, he said, was by no means so alarming as some had stated. He put the case to a private banker in whose hands his customers deposited money for the convenience of their own concerns; they

did so on the faith that he would always have a due proportion of cash in his possession to answer any drafts from day to day, they might draw upon him; but they knew very well that, if all his creditors were to come upon him at once, he could not have cash in possession sufficient to answer them all; for they all must know that the profits of his business must consist in laying out at interest and in advantageous commerce a great portion of their property deposited in his hands, in which consisted the profits of the banker. If gentlemen did not apply this observation to the case before them, he would venture to say, that they had not duly considered the subject then in discussion. If a banker was called upon by his customers to make good at once in specie the whole of their demands; what was he to do? he certainly could not satisfy them. He would say, "Here are my funds; look at the value of them; it is true they are not money, but they are convertible into money; you must have known, that if you all came upon me at once I could not pay you all in money." The creditors in such a case would say, if they were not obdurate and foolish, "It is not for your interest nor for ours to distress you; cash we know cannot be found immediately; we see your funds are quite sufficient to answer our claims, and therefore we will give you time." This, said the attorney-general, is precisely the case with respect to the bank.

Mr. Fox then made several observations upon the arguments made use of by the attorney-general, and urged further reasons in support of his own.

The chancellor of the exchequer next rose, and replied to the observations which had been made by sir W. Pulteney

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W. Pulteney and Mr. Fox, in nearly the same strain of reasoning which he had urged before.

The clause, with the amendments, was then adopted.

The house went into a further committee on the same bill on the 24th of March. When the clause which provided for the payment of the army and navy in specie came under discussion, Mr. Fox granted that their claims upon the public were great, but contended that the claims of the public creditor were at least equally so.

Mr. Whitbread saw a good reason why the navy should be paid in specie; but why the soldier should be paid in cash when the day labourer and working artificer were to be paid in paper, he could not comprehend, unless ministers preferred paying men with arms in their hands in order to call upon them to silence the murmurs of those who were unarmed.

After the chancellor of the exchequer had def nded the clause, it was agreed to without a division.

The clause limiting the duration of the bill being read, the chancellor of the exchequer proposed that the blank should be filled up with "the ensuing 24th of June."

Mr. Fox moved, "that the 1st of May be substituted for the 24th of June."

Mr. Sheridan thought it necessary that there should be a clause to prevent the bank ever again obeying such an order of council. He then made a fanciful allusion to the bank, as an elderly lady in the city of great credit and long standing, who had lately made a faux pas, which was not altogether inexcusable. She had unfortunately fallen into bad company, and contracted too great an intimacy and connection at the St. James's end of the

town. The young gentleman how ever, who had employed all his "arts of soft persuasion," to seduce this old lady, and so far shewn his designs, that by timely breaking off the connection there might be hopes of the old gentlewoman once more regaining her credit, and repairing her injured reputation. He then concluded with supporting the amendment of Mr. Fox. The house divided upon the amendment ayes 8, noes 218

Mr. Hobart, on the 27th of March, brought up the report of the committee on the bank bill, upon which the chancellor of the exchequer proposed a clause, providing that bank notes should be received in payment by the collectors in every branch of the revenue. He had another clause to propose, he said, of great importance.

The house having resolved itself into a committee, he brought forward his first clause, "That the collectors of the revenue, &c. shall receive in payment bank-notes, &c. That this clause shall be made part of this bill during the continuance of the, restriction on the bank not to issue cash, &c." Agreed to. The chancellor of the exchequer then proposed the other clause, the substance of which was, that if any man offered a bank-note in payment of a demand, that offer should do away the effect of a personal arrest in the first instance. The clause did not go the length of making bank-notes a legal tender, nor take away the power of the creditor to pursue, in course of legal process, means to obtain payment of his de mand in cash, but it hindered him from proceeding to an arrest in the first instance; it saved the holder of a bank-note from the inconvenience of giving bail to an action upon tendering the note. The con

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