to neglect the just principles of banking. But if a bank consisted of, suppose two hundred partners, they would be tied down by rules which would not admit of these ruinous speculations, and their affairs would be conducted on the genuine principles of banking. He allowed that it would be a great improvement, if, under a proper system, chartered banks were established, with only a limited liability. It would, no doubt, induce many persons of great credit and fortune, to invest their money in shares of such banks. But the Bank objected to the extension of this limited liability, and had stipulated that the banks of Scotland and of Ireland should not possess this privilege. His hon. friend, the member for Taunton, had recommended the giving to England a metallic currency on a more extensive basis than could be obtained by the recall of the one and two pound notes. He agreed with his hon. friend, that it would be desirable that the currency should be rested on a firm and secure basis; for himself, he was bound to confess that he entirely differed from his late friend, Mr. Ricardo, as to the basis upon which the currency of the country ought safely and properly to rest; and he believed that if that gentleman, ingenious as he was, had been the sole director of the Bank of England, the country would, before this, have witnessed the stoppage of that establishment. He had paid much attention to the subject of currency generally, and he did think that Mr. Ricardo's view of the question had been a wrong one; and, while he was upon the subject, he might as well observe, that he should be glad to pursue, and would pursue, some further inquiry, perhaps before the Board over which he presided, into the best mode of improving the suggestion thrown out a few nights since by the hon. member for Taunton, and introducing, in some shape or other, silver as a legal tender, so as to give an additional security to the currency of the country. An hon. member had said, in rather sweeping terms, that for much of the late wild speculation which had been carrying on throughout the country, ministers were chiefly to blame. Now, the House would recollect when it was that the great bulk of these speculations first commenced. It was in the spring of last year. To refer, standing where he did, to what had been said by lord Liverpool in another place,

taken the trouble to refresh his memory as to the precise terms of what he had said himself. In February last-in the very commencement of those speculations he had used this particular expression in speaking of them; that the lottery was a safe adventure, compared with the mass of those in which persons were then engaging." Again, in the month of March, speaking of the speculations, he had distinctly declared it to be his opinion, that those who engaged in them would find themselves disappointed. Unfortunately, those to whom this advice had been addressed had disregarded all warning. They had rushed, in contempt of all caution, on to their own destruction. But, although it would be irregular in him to refer to the precise terms in which lord Liverpool had spoken upon the subject of those unfortunate speculations, yet he might say, the opinions delivered by that noble lord had neither been less unfavourable to them, nor less strongly expressed, than his own. So far from having adopted any measures calculated to foster or assist dealings of that hazardous character, he did most distinctly affirm, that government had done every thing in its power to discourage the speculations, and remove the infatuation.

Mr. R. Gordon begged to remind the House, that the right hon. gentleman, who now so fiercely attacked the one and two pound notes, had been, in the year 1822, a member of that very cabinet which came down to the House and introduced them. All parties then were making complaints, especially the agricultural interest. Persons were declaring that they could not pay their rent, their labourers, and their taxes; and then ministers had come down, and proposed, as a remedy for the evil, that very measure which they now desired to abrogate. He was charged with having got some new lights upon the subject. That was a mistake; it was the hon. gentleman opposite whose views had been changed. He had chosen to remain in a very small minority upon the question of passing Mr. Peel's bill; because he thought, as he thought still, that it would be impossible to pay in gold what had been borrowed in paper: and therefore he wished ministers to pause, and reconsider the steps which they were taking. He was glad to hear the right hon. gentleman speak in the terms in which he had expressed himself of country bankers;

but certainly, all those who sat near him had not treated that class of individuals quite so fairly. So far from the present distress having arisen from the issue of one and two pound notes by the country banks, he thought the country had derived very great relief from that issue. The observation which had been made about prerogative, seemed to him wholly unintelligible; for certainly, he could not perceive how the royal prerogative was a jot more endangered by a country banker's issuing a one-pound note than a fivepound note. He greatly regretted the measure which was to reduce the circulation of the country banks. After the failure of nearly eighty of those establishments had withdrawn a million and a half of notes from circulation, his firm opinion was, that any farther diminution would embarrass the country.

Mr. Canning said, that as the night was far advanced, and a number of gentlemen were understood to be still desirous of expressing their sentiments, he thought it would be most convenient that the question should be adjourned to Monday.

This motion being agreed to, the House adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Monday, February 13.

BANK CHARTER AND PROMISSORY NOTES ACTS.] The Chancellor of the Exchequer moved the order of the day for resuming the adjourned debate on the Bank Charter and Promissory Notes Acts. On the question being put, "That Mr. Speaker do now leave the Chair,"

Sir John Wrottesley rose. It was, he said, necessary, before he entered more at large into the reasons why he wished to take the sense of the House upon the Speaker's leaving the chair, to state why he had not taken this course at an earlier moment. Now, there was a rational objection to that course being taken on Friday last; for then, properly enough, several gentlemen were anxious to hear the statement of the chancellor of the Exchequer, but at this moment the case was materially altered. All those who thought, as he did from the outset, that the project of the right hon. gentleman was impolitic, were bound to take the earliest stand against it. All those who, after hearing that statement, thought the right hon. gentleman's plan to be fraught with danger, ought to take their stand

against it at the earliest opportunity which was afforded them. All those who thought that it would inevitably tend, not to remedy or to lessen, but greatly to increase all the existing evils, must also think with him in his view of the question. Upon all who entertained the opinions, of which he had given a summary, he now called for support, while he resisted the Speaker's leaving the chair on the present occasion [hear hear]. If he could presume to have another call upon the House, it would be, not to proceed further in this business without hearing and pondering deliberately upon the arguments which would be adduced against the motion; and in offering those which his own mind and experience suggested, he most anxiously begged their indulgence for a patient hearing. The House was, he had always found, willing to listen to those who advocated the interests of any great body of men who were likely to be affected by their legislative proceedings; and he had found them more attentive, when any individual of their body claimed their notice, when he was himself materially interested in the question at issue; and still more so, when circumstances transpired which affected, not only the hearts of respectable men, but their honour and integrity. With all the patience, kindness, and indulgence which the House could extend, he still felt that he had a task of great difficulty to perform. He was most deeply impressed with the importance of the subject, and with his incompetence to reward hon. gentlemen for their attention, by making it entertaining; and if they did not think fit to listen to his arguments, he should be under the necessity of giving up, in despair, the discharge of a duty, which he felt most anxious to perform. Never was there a question which better deserved the most laborious consideration; and never did he feel the sense of his own inability bear so heavily upon him. He was well aware that in the House, and, indeed, in the country, there existed great difference of opinion, whether this question ought or ought not to have been brought before the country. One of his majesty's ministers had claimed credit for placing the subject in the front of the king's Speech, and it had been urged by many, that discussion could not, at all events, have been avoided. He was not of that opinion. He did not say, that the topic ought not have been collaterally introduced. It might merely have been

mentioned, though not from the throne, and an expectation might have been added, that the evil would be best remedied by leaving it alone-by not intermeddling by legislation, but by leaving the case to the energy and good sense of the people of England. The effect would have been, that things, instead of getting rapidly worse, would have gradually mended; and it might have been hoped, that the existing melancholy situation of the country would have been altogether relieved, and the prevailing distressing embarrassments eventually been productive of great public good, though attended with much private calamity. Certainly, it might have been proper to mention this state of things incidentally; and if that mention had been made by some honourable gentleman unconnected with government, the consequences would not, perhaps, have been injurious. The mischief had been done by rendering it an authorised and official statement by the king's ministers. That letter, that cruel letter he might well call it, had issued from the Treasury; and if it had not been brought forward with so much formality, its genuineness might well have been doubted, or at all events it might have been thought that some clerk of the Treasury had delivered out the foul copy instead of the fair one. In such a composition, it was at least to be expected that the ordinary rules of grammar should have been attended to; but it was a production that would have disgraced even a school-boy, for the common concord between the verb and the nominative case was wholly disregarded. However, the production had never been disavowed, and for this reason principally he looked upon it as genuine. The charges it contained were important, and he must add, extremely unfounded and injurious. In the first place, it accused all the country bankers with having fostered, aided, and abetted, the rage for speculation; whereas it had been said on former occasions, and not denied, that they were the only persons who had not joined in these wild speculations. In fact, it was part of their business, by every possible means, to ascertain whether their customers were or were not speculators. The moment they found a man beginning to speculate, it was the duty, and the constant practice, of the country banker to warn him; and if he did not follow the advice given, the next step was either to

limit or to close his account. Therefore, the assertion of the letter was as unfounded as it was cruel; and indeed it might be looked upon as one of the harshest things that had ever been said of a respectable body of men. What was the fact upon this subject, as appeared upon undeniable evidence? Speculation began in a district of the kingdom where actually no local notes were circulated. The earliest speculation was in cotton in the towns of Manchester and Liverpool, where no part of the currency consisted of country bank notes. Where next did the wild spirit of speculation shew itself? Upon the Stock Exchange in the city of London. Would any body, then, venture to say, that the mad speculations of the last year were really owing to the excessive issues by country bankers? He sincerely believed that no set of men more sincerely lamented them, or more endeavoured to avoid them, by warning their customers constantly not to have any thing to do with them. "But," said the king's ministers, who brought forward this unfounded accusation, "it was we who warned the country against the consequences of mad speculation." Was it indeed? Where had they done so? He was prepared to show, that they were the parties to blame, for at least a part of those difficulties. It was in the latter end of the year 1824 that these speculations began to show themselves in their more striking colours; and it was then that doubts arose, whether it was not necessary to consider the application of the act, commonly called the Bubble act, to these proceedings. House knew that upon the explosion of the celebrated South Sea-scheme, the parliament of that day enacted a law, which, if put into full operation, would render it almost impossible for any man to embark in these wild schemes. In consequence of the severe penalties of this Bubble act, many years elapsed without the appearance of any of these delusive schemes. At last, in a time of scarcity, when the public thought the bakers and millers were taking advantage of the dearth, mills of a particular construction were set up by companies to grind grain, and to bake bread on a saving scale. A case arose out of these, he believed it was that of " the King against Webb and another," in which lord Ellenborough was called upon to revive the penalties of the Bubble act; but that high judicial personage declined doing so, and rather

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put a different construction upon the law than that which was previously understood to attach to it. Things stood in this shape till the year before last, when the lord chancellor maintained somewhat of a different opinion from lord Ellenborough, and dropped doctrines which differed from those which prevailed in Webb's case. Under these circumstances, what was more necessary than for the government to bring in a bill to declare what the law really was? The effect of this declaratory enactment would have been, if not to crush, at least to restrain, these wild speculations, and so to correct the system that tended to their establishment, as to expose the parties who engaged in them to the penalties which lord Ellenborough refrained from directing against them. The government, so far from doing this, in fact did just enough to prevent any body else from pursuing such an object; for the attorney-general gave notice of his intention to bring in a bill; the bill was brought in; it was laid upon the table; and neglected during the whole of the session; while the spirit of speculation was allowed to proceed undeterred, and to make dreadful ravages over the whole of the kingdom. God forbid, then, that ministers should be allowed to shift the blame, which ought to rest only upon them, to the shoulders of innocent country bankers. The next subject to which he wished to call the attention of the House was, the proposed repeal of that part of the Bank charter which, until the year 1833, authorized the issuing of small notes. On what terms had the Bank of England its charter, and on what authority was that privilege secured? The terms were, that they should be enabled to issue small notes, and the authority was the faith of parliament. What was the privilege of the country bankers respecting the same power, and how was it conferred? To issue small notes likewise, and upon the same faith of parliament. When would the Bank charter expire ? In the year 1833. When would the small country notes cease to be legally issuable? In 1833 also. The privileges of the Bank of England and the country banks being in this respect alike, and delegated equally upon the faith of parliament, how happened it that the Bank were still to have the power of issuing small notes, and the country banks none? See the injustice, the par

tiality, as well as the cruelty of this treatment of the country bankers! Had parliament, in the year 1822, repealed the privilege, as it was intimated that they meant to do, then the country bankers would have been prepared for that result. But this was not the course pursued. They were, on the contrary, entrapped: they were led into a scrape; and now the whole system thus formally and definitely sanctioned, was to be retraced and reversed without the smallest valid reason for the change. It was ridiculous to talk of giving them three years to alter their practice; for now that the stamping of their notes was refused, those at present in circulation were not calculated to last eighteen months; so that the country bankers must at once prepare to withdraw their small paper circulation, and make instant arrangements for cash payments. He supposed it would be contended, as indeed had already been the case, that the country banks had forfeited their claim for equal justice; that they had abused their power of circulating small notes, by their over-issues, and the excess to which they had carried it. Well, then, let the conduct of the Bank of England be examined, and the same test applied to that corporation. Had the latter never abused its power by over-issues? Could the chancellor of the Exchequer deny, that what with the government, and what with the Bank, the paper circulation of the country became at one time so depreciated, that the relative value of the guinea in gold and in paper, was as 27s. or 28s. to 21s. Why not then, if this were a valid ground for depriving a party of a charter, have broken up the Bank privilege? But, he denied the assertion that the country banks had over-issued; he knew that some persons entertained a different opinion, but he challenged them to the proof. The country notes in circulation in the year 1825 were double in amount those of 1822. Be it so; and he could tell the reason why. Almost all these small notes were employed in carrying on the provision trade; for general mercantile transactions were notoriously conducted through the medium of bills of exchange, the amount of which far exceeded that of all the small country notes in the kingdom. Then, if these notes represented, as they did, the value of these provisions, they must necessarily partake, in their amount, of the changes

in the price of the commodities for which they were exchanged. Look, then, to facts, and it would be found, that the price of corn in 1825 greatly exceeded the price of it in 1822. In some places it was double, and the value of cattle more than doubled, in the same period. This augmentation of value in commodities necessarily increased the amount of the notes in which they were to be paid. The country customer who wanted to buy a certain quantity of corn, or a certain number of cattle, on a market day, went to his local banker, and obtained the money which was necessary to make such purchases. The House would, how ever, see, that, for obvious reasons, money had since last July become scarce, and consequently the transactions of business had become more circumscribed. It became necessary, therefore, for public convenience, to lessen the number of five-pound notes in circulation, and to increase the issue of those of smaller amounts. -One point had been urged with considerable force; and it was certainly calculated to make an impression upon the public mind by appealing to the best feelings of our nature. It had been said, that, on the failure of a country bank, the utmost misery was brought upon the lower orders, who were thus deprived of their petty savings, hoarded up in the one and two pound notes of the firm which had failed. A most piteous case had been thus made out by the chancellor of the Exchequer, and assuredly those who did not feel for the sufferings of the poor, under such circumstances, deserved to be ranked among the basest of mankind. But, he begged to call the attention of the House to the fact, whether parliament had not, upon this subject, done every thing in the way of legislation that was necessary or even possible. First the labourer was not bound to take country notes; or if he had taken them, he had the power of immediately repairing to the counter of the firm, and of obtaining sovereigns in exchange. The value of a sovereign might be reduced to 18s. or even lower, and in that case the poor man could only obtain provisions to that amount, but he always was sure to obtain the full value of a country note. If he did not want to spend it, he could take it to the savings' bank, and invest it in government securities. fact, with all these cautions, even if a labourer took a country note, it was his own fault if he kept it in his possession

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more than twenty-four hours. Parliament, in fact, had done all it could to protect him, and it was little less than folly and weakness for the House to attempt to pass statutes to protect him against the consequences of his own heedlessness. But, the great difficulties which must attend the contemplated change in the system of paper-money were these:-The one-pound notes were (except in Lancashire) the great medium of payment for manufacturing labour throughout the kingdom. The country banker took the manufacturer's bill upon his correspondent in London or Bristol, or wherever else he dealt, and gave him his own notes in return, with which the manufacturer paid his workmen, who, as he had before said, obtained their necessary supplies at full value for this paper. Now, he did not mean to say that the business of the country could not be carried on without these small notes; but he was quite satisfied, that if they were withdrawn, a very different quantity of business would be. transacted. It should be remembered, that a great deal of the money drawn from the country, particularly in the shape of rents, was transmitted to the landlord in London, and spent during a large portion of the year in the metropolis: this operation must go on; but it was impossible that with it could be conducted the same extent of country business. And, if the latter could not be transacted on the same scale, then what became of the labouring poor who must be thrown out of employment? Was there no sympathy for the large classes who were dependent for support on manufacturing industry? What medium of circulation did they propose to substitute for that which would be withdrawn by the departure of these small notes? None, that he could understand. He had certainly heard a good deal of the improvement which was to arise in the banking system from these changes, and that in a short time jointstock companies would rise up in the country. He did not believe a word of it. They might probably have branch banks, from the Bank of England, in Lancashire: they might have them also in some of the manufacturing districts of the county of York; but, in any other of the manufacturing counties such establishments were not likely to appear, unless government granted a charter-(and this the Bank of England would take care to prevent)-or unless a parcel of adventurers