difcuffion, and to the charges which had been made against the Chancellor of the Exchequer.. As to the effect of the advances to the Emperor, it appeared from the evidence contained in the Report, that the Bank had at different times made application to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, ftating the danger which they apprehended from the continuance of foreign remittances. Of thefe a direct answer was given to the two first, ftating, in reply to their inquiries concerning any Imperial Loan, that no Imperial Loan should be brought forward. To the third application, which mentioned both Loan and Advances, the anfwer contained information that there was to be no Loan, but it never was to be confidered as implying an engagement beyond what it expreffed. Certainly no fuch engagement was thought to be incurred by the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself. Mr. Raikes and others did not understand this to be an engagement to make no advances. Confequently there was no room for the charge of breach of faith which was urged upon this point. The Noble Duke was inaccurate in the facts which he ftated as the confequences of this measure. No Bills drawn for thefe advances were received till July, yet, the rate of exchange from October that year, till March following, rofe very confiderably in our favour. Mr. Giles too admitted, in his evidence, that the advances, conducted as they were, could not produce any material effect. The great queftion however is, did the Loan and Advances to the Emperor produce the effect of difabling the Bank to continue its money payments? Compare the fums fent to the Continent this war, with the fums fent thither in the four last years of the War, ending 1763. It appeared from the Report, that 14,918,000l. had been remitted to the Continent this war; during the period alluded to, there were 15 millions. Could this country afford to do this thirty years ago, and in its prefent fituation could the effects of the fame measure be fo difaftrous? Were we lefs able now to fuftain fuch a charge! On the contrary, from the state of the exports and imports, and every other criterion. of profperity, there was no reafon to believe, that a remittance to double the amount which had taken place during this war, could, in the increased wealth and commerce, and increasing balance of trade in our favour, have been attended with such effects. It was proved, that the balance of trade was for the last four years at an average of ten millions a year. The whole remittances out of the country had been thirty-two millions, the whole balance for the fame four years of the war had been fortytwo millions. Was it poffible then, that the ftoppage of the Bank could be afcribed to the effect of the Imperial remittances? To employ the enemy's armies abroad for the fecurity of this country, had ever been confidered our true policy by the greatest

8 H 2

Minifters

Ministers who had guided the affairs of this country. Lord Go dolphin, Mr. Pelham, and the immortal father of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Earl of Chatham. In thefe views he thought the prefent Minifter could have no apprehenfion of a well founded charge againft him on the fcore of the Continental war; and for their Lordships to acquit him of the charge now brought against him, did not require that they fhould be bound by the fhackles of corruption, but that they should impartially exercife their own judgment.

With regard to the effect of the advances by the Bank to Government, he had to obferve in the first place that a very confiderable fum had been stated as advances by the Bank which in fact did not belong to them, but was the amount of unclaimed dividends, which had been taken for the public fervice. But the advances to Government were by no means unprecedented in their amount. In the year 1780, they were 10,900,000l. fomewhat higher than in 1797; in the year 1793 they were only an hundred thousand pounds lefs. The Bank too must be able to make advances in proportion to the general profperity of commerce and extent of wealth. Our commerce, however, was nearly double what it was in 1782 and 1783; was it poflible, then, that this advance could produce effects fo ferious as to fufpend the Money payments of the Bank? Or, in circumstances now so much more favourable, had the Chancellor of the Exchequer any reafon to dread the effects that took place? A great part of the caufe to which the ftoppage and the distress was to be afcribed he imputed to the increased demand for difcounts arifing from a part of the law which he thought required to be altered. It was the Act 12th of Queen Anne, which was thought to prohibit difcounts done at more than 5 per cent. The confequences were obvious. In time of peace, when Money could be obtained for less than 5 per cent. people were willing to lay out their capital in difcounts. In time of embarraflment, however, more could be made by other speculations, and in thefe fuch capitals were then employed. This neceflarily occafioned a great demand for difcounts, and when 12 per cent. could be made of the Money which could be raised by discounts at 5 per cent. the temptation to raise it in this manner could easily be conceived. He had converfed with the late Lord Mansfield upon this fubject, who entirely dif approved the law of the 12th of Queen Anne. Indeed he faw no reason why Money, like every other commodity, should not be allowed to find its own level and its own price. At Hamburgh he had been informed the advantages of open and unrestrained tranfactions upon this head were greatly felt. To the bad effect of the limitation upon the head of ufury in this country

country, he was inclined to afcribe the fituation in which the Bank had been placed, and the depreciation which Government fecurities experienced.

His Lordihip adduced many arguments to fhew, that the ftoppage of Ca. at the Bank might be attributed to the ftoppage of the Country Banks, more than to the Foreign Remittances. The failure, he obferved, of the Country Banks, by annihilating the mals of Paper circulated by them, reduced the quantity of Circulating Medium, and confequently had the fame efect as withdrawing the fame quantity of Specie would have done. His Lordship adduced precedent to illuftrate this point. In the year 1754, there were a great number of Bankruptcies which affected this country; and that, not from any difafters in this country, but from the relations which Commerce had all through Europe, for in that inftance the failures occafioning the mifchief began in Holland, and more particularly at Hamburgh. There was another time alfo, when much the fame mitchief was dreaded; he meant upon the failure of the Ayr Bank: at that time, he well remembered, that he was engaged in feveral confultations upon the fubject of the mifchief apprehended from the failure: in the year 1787, fimilar mischief was dreaded from the like caufes. It was alio remarkable that two of these precedents, now ftated, happened in the time of profound peace, when the circumftances of the preffure of the expences of a war could not have the leaft influence. By an examination of the Report of the Committee, it would also appear, that the Commerce of the Kingdom had been in a progreffive state of improvement even during a period of war, and ftating it the loweft, it had increafed one eight; this was the fame in effect as though the capital had been decreased an eighth : for as the relation was between the capital and the trade, the increafing the one had the fame effect as the decreafing the other, as either equally broke the proportion. The commerce then being increased, it bore hard upon the old capital, and contributed a fhare in embarraffing the circulating medium. For thefe reafons his Lordship declared himfelf of opinion that the refolutions propofed by the Noble Duke were not fuch as the House ought to fupport, and therefore he fhould move the previous question.

The Earl of Kinnoul declared that he thought the Noble Earl who preceded him in the debate had fo fully anfwered the Noble Duke, that little could be added to his forcible arguments; but he could not be content on the prefent occafion to give a filent In his opinion, much of the mifchief that had of late befallen us, had originated from our unexampled profperity, which had induced a spirit of enterprize and fpeculation unknown

to

to former times. This fpirit had much prevailed, and had increafed daily fince the period of the laft Peace in the year 1783. And when by any fudden accident thofe fpeculations were detroyed, it produced a momentary ftagnation, and effects such as we beheld. To know the exact fituation of a country, it was not merely neceffary to know its prefent fituation, but alfo to compare it with what it formerly was. His Lordship then entered into the detail of the Yorkshire Manufactories for Cloths, by which it appeared, that the trade had been in a progreffive ftate of increafe for the laft twenty-leven years. His Lordship then alluded to the Country Banks, the failure of which, he thought, was the grand caufe of the Bank ftopping pay

ment.

The Earl of Guildford faid, that though he had but lately turned his thoughts to this fubject, he found himself obliged to controvert fome of the opinions of a perfon of the Noble Earl's talents, knowledge and experience upon queftions of this nature, and the opinions of a gentleman of fuch high refpectability and character as Mr. Thornton; and of another gentleman, likewife of great respectability, but whofe fpeculations, if he was rightly informed, had not always proved well-founded. Before entering on the queftion, he would fay a word as to the Act of Council itself. Whatever might be the neceffity of continuing the Order in Council, he doubted the neceffity of originally iffuing it. He thought that the Bank might have been enabled to go on, or if obliged at laft to ftop, it would have been better that it had been fhown to the public, that its ftoppage arofe from its own want of cash, inftead of its being proved that this event arose from the wants of the Government. The Bank themselves had exprefly declared that they were of opinion that the Imperial Loan had produced the fcarcity of their cafh, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer had no reafon to diftruft their authority. The advances had affected the rate of Exchange, and from experience of the paft, there was every reafon to apprehend the bad effects of fuch drains. The Bank had repeatedly demanded of Government repayment of their advances. It was one of the resources to which they trufted for extricating them from their embarraflment, and they had been deceived by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Had his promifes been kept, they would have been enabled to go on. The advances on Exchequer Bills was moft objected to, and when the wife regulations of our ancestors, by which the advances of the Bank were reftrained, were repealed by a furreptitious clause in a Loan Bill, the evil became more apparent. That the Loan and advances to the Emperor, and advances to Government were the

caufes

caufes of the ftoppage of the Bank, could fcarcely be doubted. It had been faid by a great man (Mr. Burke) that the votes of Parliament were contrary to their opinions. He hoped they would refcue themfelves from this imputation, and fhew that their votes were regulated by their opinions. It was impoffible to doubt the caufe of the cataftrophe of the Bank. They fhould confider whether they could avoid a decifion by fupporting the previous queftion. This was a time when party prejudice and partiality fhould be facrificed to their own dignity, and to the public intereft.

Lord Auckland faid, that advances by the Bank to Government were fo far from being improvident in their nature, that when they did not interfere with the accommodations to be given to commerce they were beneficial. He commented upon different parts of the evidence, from which he concluded, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had not broke his faith with the Bank on the fubject of the advances to the Emperor, and that it was the object of the Bank to fecure themfelves without any regard to the general preffure of public fervice. With regard to the expence of the war, it might be brought forward as a general fubject of clamour for party purpofes. Such, however, he did not impute to the Noble Duke. These expences had been thought neceffary, had been voted, and had been well applied. The drain which had taken place in confequence of the war, could not have produced the ftoppage of the Bank. Exchanges had risen in our favour, and fhown that our commerce was fuperior to it. There was more money now in the country than at the begining of the war. The Bank was the only acceffable hoard, and to this every one came. By the balance of trade, money must come in; and the drain this year was lefs by five millions than in former years, and from the circumstances of the war would continue fo.

The Duke of Leeds congratulated the Houfe upon the flattering ftate that had been given of the country by a Noble Earl who had fpoken fecond in the debate. He declared himself to be a fimple individual, connected with no party: he had the good of his country at heart, and would fupport those who were beft calculated to promote that good. He hoped that measures would be taken to relieve the nation from its prefent difficulties for that it was in great difficulties all muft admit. His Grace concluded by lamenting that the fubject fhould be treated in a way fomething fimilar to that of fpecial pleading.

The Duke of Athol animadverted upon the concluding part of the Duke of Bedford's fpeech, which his Grace, he was fure, would in his cooler moments be forry for. He had afked whether there was a fpark of fpirit in the country? Yes, there

was