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Article HOUSE OF COMMONS. ← Page 4 of 5 →
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House Of Commons.
There were two great interests concerned in if , those of the public , and those of the Bank proprietors . Some caution and delay were therefore necessary . The Bill , he understood , had not been submitted to the consideration of __ the Bank proprietors , who certainly were entitled to time for calling a meeting ! and laying their opinions before the House . He must object to the clausewhich granted an indemnity to the Bank , without assigning a reason for it ; atid also to the preedent of erecting the Privy . Council into a sort of Board of Coritroul oyer the cBank . the Order of Council
Mr . Hothouse objected to the Bill in Mo , considering as an act of robbery , the sanction of which would be an encouragement to the plunderer to renew his depredations . The Bank of England was the great wheel of our circulation—the life of our interior trade , and . the very soul of our foreign commerce : to arrest the progress of this wheel was to check every means of our prosperity . When this suspension should be taken off the Bank , would not all the holders of bills run in with them ? Would they ever incur the same risk again ? The Bank had met with great difficulties at its Erst institution , and had overcome df
them ; but he feared it would be long before it recovered the same degree respect it had lost . Mr . Bryan Edwards said , the House was in this predicament , tliey either must take off this suspension from the Bank ; or pass some new laws ; in the one case , there would , perhaps , be a Tun upon the Bank ; in the other , if they read this Bill . before receiving the Report of the Committee appointed to enquire into the causes of the suspension , they would act with too great precipitation , and too little respect for the forms df their proceedings . He was therefore against the second reading at present . Lord Hawkesbury stated , that the first Committee liad given their opinion
for confirming and continuing the Order ot Council . Mr . Grey concurred in the second reading of the Bill , but begged leave to state , that one of the accounts of the Exchequer Bills , now laid Upon the table , disclosed some very alarming information . When his Hon . Friend moved to prohibit farther advances to the Emperor , a soft of assurance was given that ' no further sums should be immediately issued to the Emperor . It appeared , how-, e '/ er , frdrh this-account , that no longer ago than the nth of March ; the Bank being then under a . stoppage of payment , Ministers had issued to the Agents of the ooolwhich could not be
Emperor Exchequer Bills to the amount of 12 o , . sum remitted from this country , except in gold and silver . He would admit , that this money was part of the 506 , 000 ! . which Parliament , before Christmas , authorised the Minister to pay the Emperor , if the whole of that sum . should be necessary ; but would they have authorized that payment , if they had foreseen the stopping of the Bank ? And ought not the Minister , under such circumstances , to have forborne from issuing the remainder of that sum ? Was not such a Minister still more desperate than even the desperate situation of the country ? Tbe House ,
he hoped , would restrain him ; " by a resolution , from this ( increasing waste of the public money , and not pursue thai system Of confidence , of which the country was . now feeling the dreadful effects . _ . . ' The Chancellor of the Exchequer would go ' no farther into the present discussion , which was unconnected with the question before the House , than to say , that he had not given such an assurance as was stated ; and to enquire whether the House would now retract the - permission they had before granted . That the payment of this 120 , obol . would be made in cash was not proved ; if the Course of Exchange continued to be- what it had been , the payment would not be made in cash ; aiid it was well known that the Exchequer Bills were payable at a
distant period . Mr . Tierney wished to know who bore the loss arising from the difference between the actual discount of these bills , which were from three to three and a half per cent , ahdthattheywereissue . dat , which was one quarter per cent . It was not a little alarming , that Ministers , by allowing even these five shillings per cent , should acknowledge the public paper to be at a discount , and this too for the purpose of sending money to the Emperor . Mr . Pitt replied , that the individuals to whom they hart been issued , for the use of the Emperor , had agreed to take them at no . greater discount than the ( juarter per cent , at which they were issued , VOX ,. IX , H
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
House Of Commons.
There were two great interests concerned in if , those of the public , and those of the Bank proprietors . Some caution and delay were therefore necessary . The Bill , he understood , had not been submitted to the consideration of __ the Bank proprietors , who certainly were entitled to time for calling a meeting ! and laying their opinions before the House . He must object to the clausewhich granted an indemnity to the Bank , without assigning a reason for it ; atid also to the preedent of erecting the Privy . Council into a sort of Board of Coritroul oyer the cBank . the Order of Council
Mr . Hothouse objected to the Bill in Mo , considering as an act of robbery , the sanction of which would be an encouragement to the plunderer to renew his depredations . The Bank of England was the great wheel of our circulation—the life of our interior trade , and . the very soul of our foreign commerce : to arrest the progress of this wheel was to check every means of our prosperity . When this suspension should be taken off the Bank , would not all the holders of bills run in with them ? Would they ever incur the same risk again ? The Bank had met with great difficulties at its Erst institution , and had overcome df
them ; but he feared it would be long before it recovered the same degree respect it had lost . Mr . Bryan Edwards said , the House was in this predicament , tliey either must take off this suspension from the Bank ; or pass some new laws ; in the one case , there would , perhaps , be a Tun upon the Bank ; in the other , if they read this Bill . before receiving the Report of the Committee appointed to enquire into the causes of the suspension , they would act with too great precipitation , and too little respect for the forms df their proceedings . He was therefore against the second reading at present . Lord Hawkesbury stated , that the first Committee liad given their opinion
for confirming and continuing the Order ot Council . Mr . Grey concurred in the second reading of the Bill , but begged leave to state , that one of the accounts of the Exchequer Bills , now laid Upon the table , disclosed some very alarming information . When his Hon . Friend moved to prohibit farther advances to the Emperor , a soft of assurance was given that ' no further sums should be immediately issued to the Emperor . It appeared , how-, e '/ er , frdrh this-account , that no longer ago than the nth of March ; the Bank being then under a . stoppage of payment , Ministers had issued to the Agents of the ooolwhich could not be
Emperor Exchequer Bills to the amount of 12 o , . sum remitted from this country , except in gold and silver . He would admit , that this money was part of the 506 , 000 ! . which Parliament , before Christmas , authorised the Minister to pay the Emperor , if the whole of that sum . should be necessary ; but would they have authorized that payment , if they had foreseen the stopping of the Bank ? And ought not the Minister , under such circumstances , to have forborne from issuing the remainder of that sum ? Was not such a Minister still more desperate than even the desperate situation of the country ? Tbe House ,
he hoped , would restrain him ; " by a resolution , from this ( increasing waste of the public money , and not pursue thai system Of confidence , of which the country was . now feeling the dreadful effects . _ . . ' The Chancellor of the Exchequer would go ' no farther into the present discussion , which was unconnected with the question before the House , than to say , that he had not given such an assurance as was stated ; and to enquire whether the House would now retract the - permission they had before granted . That the payment of this 120 , obol . would be made in cash was not proved ; if the Course of Exchange continued to be- what it had been , the payment would not be made in cash ; aiid it was well known that the Exchequer Bills were payable at a
distant period . Mr . Tierney wished to know who bore the loss arising from the difference between the actual discount of these bills , which were from three to three and a half per cent , ahdthattheywereissue . dat , which was one quarter per cent . It was not a little alarming , that Ministers , by allowing even these five shillings per cent , should acknowledge the public paper to be at a discount , and this too for the purpose of sending money to the Emperor . Mr . Pitt replied , that the individuals to whom they hart been issued , for the use of the Emperor , had agreed to take them at no . greater discount than the ( juarter per cent , at which they were issued , VOX ,. IX , H