duals who have raised such an outcry against the smaller species of bank notes, should declare themselves in favour of notes of a higher denomination. Now, Sir, the only surprise is, that there should have been any surprise at all [a laugh]. Sir, the one-pound note possesses qualities which the larger notes do not. The larger notes, indeed, like the smaller, are so many promises to pay the equivalent in metal but it is in the one-pound notes, that these promises are daily put to the test. When the labourer, or mechanic, presents a one-pound note, and finds that, instead of gold, nothing is to be had in exchange for it, but another piece of paper like itself what is the consequence? A want of confidence grows up amongst the lower orders-through whom-and from them to their superiors-that want of confidence spreads with increased rapidity-involving in it the destruction of commercial credit, and depriving thereby the working classes of the present means of subsistence.

In the one-pound note there is this marked difference from the larger paperthat it is the representative of the sovereign-the express "image and superscription of Cæsar." The king coins not bills of exchange, nor large notes, but sovereigns. The inability to get a sovereign for that which professes exactly to represent it, and to be equivalent to it, is a more sensible disappointment and breach of faith than an exchange of paper for paper; and it is a disappointment and breach of faith which falls directly on the poor. The coiner of the one-pound note, if he does not exercise the prerogative of the Crown, fabricates a manufacture which takes the place of the king's coin. The resolution of my right hon. friend, should it receive the sanction of the House, will go to correct this evil. I am convinced, that the legislature cannot do an equal quantity of good, in any other way, with so little sacrifice, and with so slight an effort.

It is impossible, Sir, to have attended to the course of the present discussion, without discovering, that the opponents of the measure are divided into two classes. One class-and that, I am afraid, by far the larger of the two-while they openly profess to have no other object but to procure delay, and to have the measure postponed to a fitter time, really mean quite another thing; and are desirous to choke-to use a word which has been more

than once employed in the course of the debate-the measure altogether; this professed object of gaining time is neither more nor less than a cover for a rooted, fundamental, unsparing, and unextinguishable objection to the circulation of any other currency, than that which prevailed during the war.

There are others-and these constitute the second class-who really seem to think, that to gain time is itself an object of importance; and, at the head of this class, is the able and enlightened member for Taunton; who, however unaccountable his present views may appear, is imbued with as just and correct a general notion of what sound circulating medium should be, as any of the supporters of my right hon. friend's proposition. Some of this class are of opinion, that there is something peculiarly unfavourable in the time that has been chosen for carrying my right hon. friend's proposition into effect. Now, Sir, I contend, that the present time is the very best that could be fixed upon. If any of those who object to the present time mean to say, that the thing should have been done long ago, I agree with them. But, in justice to his majesty's government, I must be permitted to say, that in 1822 they were foiled in a similar attempt. Had not the bill then brought in to extend the circulation of small notes for two years been altered in this House, and the period of ten years substituted for their original design, for that of two, I believe that England would now have been in the state of prosperity from which she has momentarily fallen; and I am convinced we should not, at this moment, have had imposed upon us the necessity of devising means for the preventing the recurrence of calamities similar to those which we now experience.

Let the past be a lesson to us for the future, and having once erred so fatally by postponement, and feeling as we do the ill effects of it, let us seize the present time as the most appropriate for an effort to restore the circulating medium to its proper, sound, and healthy condition.

As to those who, under the mask of delay, are fondly looking to a perpetual, unlimited, unregulated circulation of paper, I beg them to recollect how the law, with respect to the currency, at present stands. The existing law will, at the furthest, put their favourite one-pound notes to death, in the year 1833. That is

bonâ fide, sticklers for time, merely to gain an opportunity for preparation, on the part of the country bankers-will they, or will any one of them, undertake to answer, that the interval given them with a view to preparation will be so used? On the contrary, Sir, may it not, I ask, if granted, be employed, not in such preparation, but in taking steps to prevent the possibility of a recurrence to cash payments?

the remotest period to which their existence can be protracted, under the provisions already made by parliament. That extinction, let gentlemen remember, will be coincident with the expiration of the charter of the Bank of England. Will any gentleman tell me, that that would be a convenient time for the withdrawing at once of these small notes; or, if not, for again discussing and disposing of a question of such vital importance? I presume that no one will assert, that it would be particularly convenient to make the expiration of the Bank charter, and the withdrawal of the one-pound notes contemporaneous. I take for granted that the stoutest advocate for delay is not prepared, at least at the present moment, to extend the circulation of the small paper of the country bankers to a later period than that to which the Bank charter is limited-that, indeed, would be to meet the question boldly, and to call for a circulation of perpetual paper unadulterated with gold.

All that is proposed by my right hon. friend is, to get rid of this system four years sooner than was contemplated by the act of 1822, as it passed this House, but not by the bill as brought in by the government. The abundant space of three years is still to be allowed, for carrying into effect the alteration: not one of the many gentlemen who wish for a little more delay-only a little more delay-in passing the measure, have attempted to assign any reason for the precise period of further delay which he has required. The hon. member for Taunton thinks that one year of grace would be necessary; while, on the other hand, another hon. member is of opinion, that even a month's delay would be sufficient.

Sir, I confess I object alike to both these suggestions, and cannot approve of any delay, because I am convinced that no matter what the assurances, or pledges, or explanations may be, with which it is accompanied-out of doors delay will be considered as a defeat of the proposition of my right hon. friend. Such, assuredly, will be the construction put upon it, by that party in the country, whose interests induce them to look to the indefinite prolongation of the circulation of the one and two pound notes.

But, Sir, supposing the advocates of delay to deny my conclusion, supposing those hon. gentlemen to be, really and VOL. XIV.

The hon. baronet* opposite seems, by his manner, to admit the justice of my suspicion. And, indeed, he has too open and ingenuous a countenance to indicate any thing except what is really passing in his mind. I am almost tempted to ask my hon. friend, whether he has not heard of schemes in preparation for the defeat of this measure, which would, if put into execution, render it idle to resume the discussion of this question in a year, aye, or a month from the time at which we are now speaking.

Let us see, Sir, what encouragement we have to concur in the line of conduct recommended by the advocates for delay. For years and years his majesty's ministers have been assailed, with representations, urging the propriety of throwing open our commercial system. We were called on, session after session, by enlightened members on the other side of the House, to make our trade free as the air, to enlarge it by opening it to all the winds of heaven, to extend it to the very ends of the earth. This, Sir, we were called upon to do; and, I am willing to admit, in perfect rectitude of intention, by men generally holding political opinions different from our own.

Sir, we have attempted to free the trade of the country from those restrictions which cramped and encumbered it; and to establish an enlarged system of commercial policy, more consonant with the spirit of the age, and with the demands of our situation. In adopting the regulations necessary for the carrying such a system into effect, we found, that if there was any one branch of our trade which, more than another, called for revision, it was the silk manufacture of this country: and, acting upon this conviction, and aided by the honest, honourable, and effectual assistance of those who had previously, from time to time, preached

similar doctrine, we succeeded in carrying their opinions and our own into effect.

What was the course taken by the opponents of that measure. After the entire defeat of their opposition to it, what did they do? They asked for time, to enable those who were engaged in the silk trade to prepare for the altered system. Sir, the time was given. And how was that time employed? In preparing for the opening of the ports? In taking steps to adapt the silk trade to the state of things that was about to arise out of the new law? No such thing, but, in raising every possible obstacle to the operation of that law-in doing every thing that human ingenuity could devise, to make the new arrangement, which comes into effect in July next, impracticable. Has there been, Sir, any gradual alteration adopted in the mode of manufacturing and trading in that article, calculated to meet, and to give effect to, the proposed regulations? No. Was employment gradually reduced in extent, or the importation of the raw material lessened? Neither. The market has become glutted with a redundancy of manufactures, sufficient in itself to have occasioned the existing distress in that branch of our trade; and by the increased importation of the raw material (which, in the last year alone, was more than doubled) the distress has been still further increased. And, after all this, an outcry is now raised upon those very difficulties which have been thus wilfully and purposely contrived, and a fresh appeal is founded upon them for a still further prolongation of the restrictive system [hear, hear!].

Is this any encouragement to us to comply with the call for delay in the present instance? On the contrary, with such an example before our eyes, to grant a further delay would, in this case, be to fall twice into the same error; in fact, to stultify our own measure, and to render it impossible, when the time shall arrive, to carry it into effect.

I hope, Sir, it is entirely unnecessary for me, or for any member of his majesty's government, or for any member of an English parliament, at this time, to avow the sorrow and anxiety which every feel ing man must experience, at the commercial and financial distress which prevails to so large an extent throughout the country. Indeed, I am bound to confess, that, much as I differ in opinion with several hon. gentlemen who have taken part in

the present discussion, there has been, nearly on all hands, a prudent and generous avoidance of such topics and expressions, as might, if introduced into debate in this House, have been made use of out of doors, whether mistakenly or mischievously, to enhance the difficul ties of parliament, to embarrass the ministers of the Crown, and to aggravate and inflame the national distress. The question has been fairly argued on its own merits, and with an honourable abstinence from every thing that could have had a tend ency to create unnecessary irritation. It cannot be necessary for an assembly of Englishmen to declare, that they feel for the distresses of persons, with whom every individual of that assembly must, necessarily, be more or less intimately connected, or acquainted: and far less, to make a protestation of their sympathy with the privations and sufferings endured by the more humble, but not less valuable, class of our fellow subjects, upon whose labours, and upon whose comfort and happiness, the well-being of society depends. It is with regard to those humbler classes of the community that I think this measure, important as it is to all, of the most immediate importance.

I am not so absurd as to assert, that the proposed alteration of our currency will directly put an end to those commercial embarrassments, which have mainly arisen out of the unwholesome and preternatural extension of commercial speculation; but this, Sir, I do say distinctly, that I believe it will tend materially to prevent the recurrence of that distress, which, beginning with the higher, is sure to find its way, sooner or later, to the lower classes of society.

Sir, it was the wish of the most favourite monarch of France, that he might live to see the day when the condition of his subjects would be so far improved, that every peasant in his realm should have a fowl in his pot on a Sunday: and sure I am that if this resolution of my right hon. friend should be acceded to, it will at least do this much for the peasant and artisan of England-that it will ensure to every man at the end of his week's toil, that he shall carry home, as the earnings of his week's toil, not a piece of, perhaps, worthless paper, but a portion of the precious metals in his pocket [loud cheers].

Mr. Pearse defended the conduct of the Bank of England, and complained

that justice had not been done either to the motives or interests of that establishment. The public had been taught, as it seemed to him, to form a very erroneous estimate of the profits of the Bank; which had been by no means so large as some hon. members had insinuated. Allusion had been made to the subject of the dead weight, and to the loans upon mortgage. The fact was, that public establishments could not always act as they pleased. Both those undertakings had been reluctant measures on the part of the Bank. For the first, when it was found that the plan could not be carried into effect without their assistance, sanctioned as it was by parliament, they were anxious to give their aid towards putting it in execution, if possible. Then it was said, that the Bank might have disposed of a part of this incumbrance; but so, let it be recollected, might the government have funded part of their Exchequer bills, and they had not done so. If there was any fault, one side had as much of it to answer for as the other. Large balances of the public money, it was said, had lain in their hands, and by these they had profited largely; but, it was not remembered that they had also lent the public a large sum for eight or ten years, without interest. Of the profits which the Bank was charged to have made during the war, he could undertake to show, that the greater portion had reverted to the public. The charter held by the Bank too had been held up as an exceeding grievance. All he would say was, that if the terms of that charter were to be materially changed, he should think it a very unfortunate thing for the country. All he wanted from the charter was, that it should secure the Bank from having a rival establishment set up in London. He would explain why. If there were two rival Banks in London, the contest would immediately be, which should get the greatest quantity of paper out. Responsibility would be quite out of the question. Let the House regulate the privileges of the Bank by its charter as they would; but let them guard against having a competition between two establishments in London. He would now notice the extraordinary change which had lately occurred in the circumstances of the country. He felt quite certain, that neither the circulation of country bank notes, nor the issues of the Bank of England, had in any degree worth mentioning contributed to it. England

was a country in which every thing like mercantile speculation was sure to be pushed to the utmost. Only open a new field for effort of any description, and the effort was sure to be made. The fact was, that it was by bills of exchange, and not by any country notes or bank issues, that the enormous capital used during the late speculations had been provided. He believed he could address himself to one banker who was a member of that House, and who, at one time, held in his possession from three to four millions' worth of merchants acceptances, which he had discounted. That which had been called abundance and surplus of capital, had, in fact, been abundance and surplus of paper; not country or London Bank notes, but bills of exchange-some good, some indifferent, and some very bad indeed. This had given rise to overtrading, and that had essentially produced all our difficulties. When one banking-house in London stopped, more than forty country banks suspended payment. Other banks followed: this produced a panic: the panic once commenced, confidence was gone; and as it was impossible to restore confidence, the country still remained in a state of dismay.

Mr. Baring said, it was not his intention to take up a great deal of the time of the House, nor would he, in fact, have troubled hon. members at all, but that he intended to propose an amendment, in order to bring the question at once to a decision; because he was quite convinced that discussion from day to day, whatever might be its result, would have the certain effect of aggravating the difficulties under which all interests at present were labouring. What the country wanted mainly was, that the question should be set at rest. Let the decision of parliament be taken and made known, and interests would endeavour to accommodate themselves to it; but, if the House was to go into a committee, and argue the subject at length, so long as that discussion lasted, the country would be kept upon the rack. Therefore, under such circumstances, he felt it his duty to take the sense of the House at once upon the proposed measure. He felt most strongly that it was an ill-advised measure, and would add to the distresses of the country, but that, whether carried or rejected, the sooner it was dismissed the better. What he meant to embody in his amendment, was an opinion, common, he believed, to

all the opponents of the proposed measure; namely, that the state of the country at the present moment was an unfit one for making experiments. As far as he was concerned, if the House supported ministers against him upon this division, he would consider the issue as decisive, and give no further opposition to the measure; which, if it was to pass, he desired should pass as speedily as possible. Before dividing, however, he thought it his duty to say a few words, and would in the first place desire to call the attention of the House to the very peculiar situation in which the country stood. No man who had known the country, however long, and its commercial affairs, had ever, he would venture to assert, beheld so entire an absence of confidence as existed at the present moment. For, though a very clever speech, like that of the right hon. foreign secretary, delivered in the House of Commons, might conciliate and give confidence to those who heard it; yet, to the country at large (who did not hear it) that confidence would not extend; and the practical necessity which many people would find, notwithstanding that speech, of paying up immediately all sums that were due from them, would tend greatly to interfere with their otherwise sense of the right hon. gentleman's flattering and conciliatory view. Let it be recollected that, in spite of all eloquent speeches, the House stood in this situation-the men of business in it, from one end to the other, told the right hon. gentleman to beware. He did not believe there was one banker or merchant in the House, on whatever side he might be accustomed to vote, who would venture to say, that he thought this measure could be carried without injury to the country. The hon. member for Midhurst (Mr. John Smith) was the only individual who had come near the mark; and he had gone no further than to say that, upon the whole, he should be inclined to vote for the measure. On the other side of the House there was great strength in the way of talent-great reinforcements from the Temple, and from Lincoln's-inn-great force of those who studied from books, and held practical men in contempt-but no other man of business had supported the measure but the hon. member for Midhurst; and all he had said was, that, upon the whole, he should be inclined to vote for the measure. And, moreover, with all the brilliant eloquence of the right

hon. secretary, who was a great orator, a profound statesman, and possessed a hundred other qualities calculated to persuade and to attract admiration, that right hon. gentleman would not feel offended if he said that, upon a point like the present, he would prefer taking the opinion of the right hon. gentleman on his right hand, the president of the Board of Trade. The right hon. secretary seemed to him to stand pretty much in the situation in which lord Chesterfield expressed himself once to have been placed. "Some plain man," said his lordship, "from a corner, made a long heavy discourse upon the matter, which he understood very well; but he mumbled and stammered so that nobody cared to listen to him. I then got up, and without knowing any thing of the subject at all, made a most brilliant and dashing speech upon it, and, on concluding carried every thing before me." Let the House, however, resist the effect of this kind of fascination, as far as they could do so, and look at the question coolly. What he said was-do not lose sight of what should be done eventually; do not forget what it will be wise to bring our currency to; but first soothe the country and quiet it, and then come, if you will, with your experiments, which, however ingenuous they may be, must, if passed at the present moment, be brought about at the expense of very considerable suffering. The chief difference, in fact, between him and the hon. gentlemen opposite was, as to the question of time; and upon that question, he did think the men of business in the House were better qualified to judge than the abstract reasoners. The one-pound notes, which there was this hasty anxiety to get rid of, had a great deal laid upon them for which they were no way bound to answer. The country bank notes were charged as having caused, or aided, the late unreasonable and visionary speculations. Why, the fact was, that the bubbles, every one of them, were town made. It was the country booby, who was the dupe of the London sharper. London, Manchester, Liverpool-these were the spots in which the vile schemes for speculation had been invented places in which no country one-pound bank notes at all existed. If the notes had nothing but the speculations to answer for, he would venture to say that they stood entirely clear. In the same way, with reference to what had been said of the offence against the pre