House Of Commons.

subject , for advances might be made in the interim , and the remedy might be delayed until the disease became incurable .- It would be as . dangerous to neglect applying to a drowned person the remedy prescribed by tlie Humane Society until the decision of the Coroner's Inquest respecting his death . , The financial concerns of this country were at present in a state of suspended animation , from which it was highly necessary every means should be instantly applied to recover them , without waiting for a decision whether it was accidental death , or wilful murder by persons too well known ( looking towards the Treasury Bench . ) It apremonstrate

peared , that , from-the year 1794 . , ! le Directors had not ceased to against the demands made upon them by his Majesty ' s Minister ; and it was proved that they strongly remonstrated against advancing unlimited sums upon Treasury bills , and that they protested against the proceedings of the Chancellor of Ihe Exchequer on that principle . N If it appeared that the Ministernever kept his word with them in any one , installed whatever- —if it appeared that the Direciors cautioned him against the destructive consequences that must result from a prosecution "of his plans , and that the stoppage of the Bank did not lie at their

doors ; if all these circumstances should appear , the Directors would stand excused from all blame , whatever criminally might attach to the Chancellor of the Exchequer . So early as the 3 d of December , [ 795 , the Directory entered into a resolution , that after a minute , investigation of their circuni ' siances , they hid the most cogent reasons to apprehend that very fata ! consequences would ensm , if the Minister continued to draw upon them for cash in the manner he had hitherto done , and that a representation of their opinion be made to the Chancellor of the ExchequerOn the 14 th of February 1796 a Committee waited upon

, , , the Minister at the Treasury , to give their advice against tlie policy or expediency ofa new loan to the Emperor , The answer of tlie Chancellor of the Exchequer was , that from particular reasons , he declined any measure of Ihe sort for the present ; but that if he found it necessaiy to have recourse to it at any future time , he should not fail to inform them of liis intention . On the 17 th of February , 1796 , the Court of Directors solemnly protested against any such measure

being at all adopted ; the ansvver of the Minister to which was , that no new loan should take place ; and that he did not see the necessit of the resolution entered into on that subject by the Directors , which he conceived to have been adopted in a mom- 'ut of alarm . Notwithstanding this answer of the Minister , by which he appeared to be offended at the idea of the Directors supposing him to have , anv such measure in agitation , he was , in the very same moment , in the act of sending remittances to the Emperor , not only in defiance of the advice and resolution of the Bank , but even without the consent of Parliament . So that , although

he gave the Bank what amounted to a positive assurance that no further advance * should be made without a communication upon the subject being made to them , he most grossly violated his promise , and , without the consent of the Bank , or the knowledge of that . House , actually advanced the sum of one million and a half for the service of his Imperial Majesty . If he was not misinformed , the remonstrances of the Directors continued to be made till the end of July , when they presented a remonstrance still more forcible upon the subject of the danger wi ' th . which they were threatenedthe circumstances attending which should have made

, tlie Minister shudder and blush at the time when he represented the situatioii of our finances to that House as flourishing and prosperous . This happened in July ; and yet , on the 6 th of October , the day on which the present session commenced , he put into the mouth of his Majesty , that the finances of the country were in the most nourishing state , and equal to any exertion that might be deemed necessary . When the Minister put this erroneous expression into his Majesty ' s mouth , he had the most ample means of informing himself to the contrary , and must havh been persuaded of its falsity . The result of his perseverance was the

Order of Council , which had produced the stoppage of the Bank ; and therefore there could be no doubt that the remonstrances of the Bank were founded in fact . The Council , however , without enquiring into the cause of the stoppage , determined that it was in consequence of unfounded alarms . But would any Gentleman pretend to argue that this was the fact ? Would it not , on the contrary , be » llowed , that it was produced from the causes which hail previously been ex-