government, to put a stop to the regular circulation of the country, and to substitute for it a forced paper currency, not convertible into gold, on demand [hear, hear!].

If then, Sir, I have shewn, that there is no practical difficulty in removing so much of our paper circulation as is contemplated by the present resolution-and if, on the other hand, it would appear that a positive benefit would be derived from doing so I would ask of those who oppose the measure, to point out what good can be derived from the continuance of the issue of such paper? I would even ask them, whether its continuance is so perfectly harmless as to call for no interposition? Is there nothing, Sir, independent of the swelling of prices, and the raising the value of commodities-is there, I would ask, no practical reason, which comes home to every breast, to call for an alteration in the system. Are there no opinions in the country in favour of those who support this proposition? Is there no district in the empire, into which these small notes are not permitted to enter-no province in which the use of them is entirely unknown? Do not gentlemen know, that a project for the issue of one-pound notes was unsuccessfully tried, some time ago, at Manchester? It is sufficient for me only to mention the names of Lloyd and Heywood-to which I could, if necessary, add others of equal weight and respectability-to convince every one who hears me, that the objection to the enterprise could not have had its foundation in any distrust of its authors. Nevertheless, Sir, as soon as an attempt was made to carry the speculation into effect, a public meeting was held at Manchester, at which the Boroughreeve presided; and, so loud and so general was the disapprobation of the projected measure-so violent was the hostility to the introduction of an element, without which some gentlemen seem to suppose the ordinary business of the country cannot go on-that the enterprise was, of necessity, abandoned [hear, hear!].

Are gentlemen aware, Sir, that a circle drawn round the great trading town where the above resolution was come to, would embrace a population of about two millions of souls; and that a similar circle drawn round the metropolis, would include an equal population, amongst whom the circulation of small notes is unknown?

And, do they reflect, that here are four millions of Englishmen, who know not practically what a one-pound note is? And yet, Sir, we are gravely told that without this species of circulating medium, not only is prosperity unattainable, but the very fabric of society is in danger of being dissolved [hear, hear!].

But, Sir, is there no other incentive to the adoption of the measure now proposed by my right hon. friend? Is it not known, that, not many weeks back, in consequence of the failure of the banks, a deputation waited upon his majesty's government, from the neighbourhood of one of the dock.yards, and represented that they had not the means of paying the workmen their wages? All the banks in the neighbourhood had failed; and, such was the state of things, that not a bank note was to be procured. Is a state of things like this to be suffered to continue? Is it not a mischief, the possible recurrence of which, it is the duty of government to prevent? I trust that nearly all that was frail and feeble amongst the country banks is already gone. But though I am persuaded that the confidence which I place in such of them as have stood the shock is not ill-founded, does not the example of the past render it incumbent on us now that the opportunity is afforded us, to fix on a more solid basis, the circulation of the country?

But, Sir, it is vain to think of introducing gold, amidst the overwhelming spread of small paper circulation. So long, Sir, as that circulation shall continue, so long will the gold, of necessity, disappear. The small paper chokes up all the ordinary channels of circulation, so that the gold, though issued from the Bank, cannot flow into them, but is returned back to the source from which it came. We are accused of wishing to confine the circulation to the precious metals; but, in this respect, our views have been greatly misunderstood. Gold may be adopted as medium of circulation, without trenching upon the use of the paper currency of a higher designation, or coming into collision with that article which furnishes the means of so large a proportion of mercantile dealings; namely, bills of exchange. Such paper you may pile mountains high, and those mountains will stand, provided their basis be irrigated with gold [hear, hear!].

But some hon. gentlemen have expressed their surprise, that the same indivi

duals who have raised such an outery 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 paper that 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 unaccount. able 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

Z

* Sir J. Wrottesley.

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.

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

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