Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

was none. He found that the additional expence of naval ftores, which certainly was confiderably increafed in time of war, is ftated as having rendered the balance of commerce less favourable to the country. But it ought to have been mentioned on the other fide of the account, that this very circumftance increased the excefs of our exports over our imports. The fhock which public credit had sustained on the prefent occafion was compared to the state of the country in 1783, when a fimilar fhock was felt, occafioned by the extenfion of commerce, immediately upon the return of peace. But he would afk, whether the country was in the fame circumftances now, that it was then, and whether a calamity befalling us in time of war, could be ascribed to the fame caufe with a difficulty fpringing from the conclufion of a peace? Befides mifreprefentation and perverfion of facts, he had afferted, that in the paper annexed to the report, there was concealment of material parts of the evidence, and here he begged to put one fimple queftion to their Lordships---If they had defired their Committee to lay before them a fummary of the evidence, as it occurred in the courfe of their inquiry? Perhaps in ftrictnefs they might have expected a fummary of every part of that evidence; but, if they excufed the omiffion of any part, would it be the most material and important? In the fummary, however, now before them, he was furprised to find the moft material parts of the evidence entirely omitted, namely, the correfpondence which took place between the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Directors of the Bank, upon the danger which would refult from his perfevering in making remittances to foreign powers, and their continuing to make advances to Government. To the evidence upon this fubject the authors of the fummary merely refer, without attempting to give the fubftance of it. It would have been difficult indeed to have given a fummary of thefe conferences and this correfpondence; for, faid the Noble Duke, it is impoffible to expunge one fentence they contain, without expunging a charge against the Minifter. It was to this part of the report, however, to which he begged leave to call the particular attention of the Houfe, as it was upon this branch of it that he meant to found his refolutions.

In the fummary of the Report Mr. Ellifon is represented as afcribing the ftoppage of the Newcastle Banks to a local alarm, fimilar, as ftated by that Gentleman, to that in 1793. Now, it was to be obferved, that Mr. Ellifon, on his evidence (as appears in page 88 of the Report) represented the alarm of 1793 as originating in the ftoppage of the Banks, or that if the prefent alarm was fimilar to that of 1793, it was the effect and not the caufe of the fhock that Public Credit had fuftained.

No. 36.

8 G

In

In his Grace's opinion, that fhock had been produced, not by alarms but by a combination of different caufes, many of which had existed for fome time back. Upon this part of the subject he regretted that fome Papers, containing statements of the quantity of Cash in the Bank at different periods, which were laid before the Committee, had not been published in their Res port. Upon the question of the propriety of publifhing them after what had happened, he was clearly of opinion that the greater publicity there was given to the affairs of the Bank the better, for wherever there was concealment there would be fufpicion. In the prefent circumftances he regretted not having these Papers, the more because he could have fhewn from them the statements contained in the Reports to have been falfe. In the Report the Cash of the Bank was faid to have been higher in June than in March, and the greatest drain was reprefented to have taken place in March and June. But if thefe Papers had been before the Houfe, he would have had no difficulty in fhewing them that a very ferious drain commenced as early as June, 1795; though the Committee did not state it as commencing till September, in that year.

How they made out their ftatement, he knew not. His Grace next adverted to the evidence of Mr. Thornton and Mr. Boyd. He had nothing to say against the credit of thefe Gentlemen, but without calling in queftion their veracity, he might be permitted to doubt the truth of their fpeculative opinions, the more fo, as he found that they doubted the truth of them them. felves. He found Mr. Boyd dealing in opinions, which certainly were not new, which were much in vogue in France at the be ginning of the Revolution, and which at that time were reprobated by the King's Minifters as leading to inevitable ruin. The fubftance of Mr. Boyd's, and Mr. Thornton's opinions were, that the difficulties which the commercial world had experienced, and the shock which public credit had fuftained, arose from the Bank not extending their difcounts. To the theories of thefe Gentlemen he opposed the fentiments of Mr. Adam Smith. Here he again, however, had to complain of the authors of the Report for endeavouring to mislead. One would naturally conclude, from the Report, that the facts it contained related to the state of the country at the time the Order of Council was iffued; it was naturally to be expected, and there was nothing upon the face of the Report to excite a suspicion that it was otherways. He thought it his duty to ftate, however, that the facts there recorded, related not to the time at which the Order of Council was iffued; but to the period at which the witnesses were examined. The reduction of the Paper in circulation amounted to only one-eighth from the quantity afloat in 1795.

But,

But, even fuppofing that the decrease had been greater, he could not perceive how a decrease of Notes could produce a decrease of Cafh, though he could eafily perceive that a decrease of Cath might produce a decrease of Notes. Mr. Thornton faid, that it was the fame thing to the mercantile world whether advances were made by the Bank to the Merchants or to Government; and that it was only from a fuperficial view of things that the Merchants formed a different conclufion. His Grace, for one, was willing to partake in the error of the Merchants; for if he wanted Money to carry on his trade, he conceived it would be very little comfort to him to be told that the Bank were about to lend a million to Government. He found alfo that these Gentlemen contradicted their own opinion in what they afterwards advanced respecting the unwillingness of private Bankers to difcount the Bills of individuals when Money was at a high rate of intereft. He found alfo, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if ever he had been a convert to their opinion, had now abandoned it, fince he was for repaying the Bank the advances which they had made to Government, with a view, no doubt, to relieve it from its prefent difficulties. This measure was an acknowledgment that the repayment of thefe advances at an earlier period would have averted the calamities which have recently befallen it; for it was not to be fuppofed that any measure could retrieve it when ruined, which would not have faved it from ruin if adopted in time.

The Noble Duke next adverted to a paffage in the Report, in which he faid an infinuation, founded upon the fpeculative opinions of Mr. Boyd and Mr. Thornton, had been bafely attempted to be thrown upon the conduct of the Bank Directors; an infinuation which he did not believe to have been in the rough fketch of the Report, but which had crept into it in its more polished form. Having repelled this foul infinuation, he called the attention of their Lordships to a paper drawn up by Mr. Winthrop, a Bank Director, containing much found fenfe, and upon which, it was certainly infinitely more creditable to act, than the airy theory of iffuing notes to an indefinite extent, which would have been productive of ten-fold greater evils than those which before exifted. The only other part of the Report which remained for him to notice, was that toward the conclufion, refpecting alarm; fo convinced were the Committee, that the neceffity which produced the Order of Council, had nothing to do with alarm as its caufe, that they never mention it to the conclufion of the Report. Indeed it would not have been perfectly confonant with the theory which runs through that Report, to have afcribed the evil to alarm as its caufe, for however much an ill-grounded alarm might tend to remove

8 G 2

cafh

cash from circulation, it could not narrow the circulation of Bank Notes, which the theorifts defcribed as the only evil in existence.

The Noble Duke then proceeded to ftate the fubftance of the refolutions which he meant to propofe, founded upon the correfpondence which had taken place between the Bank Directors and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the tendency of which on the part of the Bank, was to procure repayment of the advances made by them to Government, and the danger which might refult to the Bank from Government perfifting in its demand for new advances, without difcharging any part of its paft arrears; and on the part of the Chancellor of the Exchequer to procure new advances from the Bank, by holding out to them promises of repayment which were no fooner made than violated. His Grace went through the different parts of this correfpondence, commenting with much ability upon the refolutions of the Bank Directors, and the anfwers made to them by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He particularly adverted to the refolution of the Court of Directors of the 11th of February, 1796, and Mr. Pitt's anfwer to it of that date, in which he pofitively promises neither to make any further loan or advance to the Emperor, without previously confulting the Bank, while, at that very moment, he was fending money abroad for the fervice of his Imperial Majefty, without the authority of Parliament. On the 30th of July a refolution was paffed by the Court of Directors, reminding the Chancellor of the Exchequer of his former and repeated promife to reduce their advances as speedily as poffible, and determining for the future to refufe payment of all Treasury Bills beyond the fum of 500,000l. though that was about the time fixed for the meeting of Parliament, the Minister perfifted in concealing from the public the real ftate of their finances. And when Parliament was convened, instead of plainly communicating to the Legislature the pecuniary embarraffments of the country, he put into the mouth of his Majesty an expreffion of fatisfaction that the temporary embarrafiments which have been felt, were no longer in existence, and that the extent and folidity of the refources of the nation had triumphed over all difficulties to which, for a period, they had been fubjected.

It was curious alfo to remark the excufes which were made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the violation of his engagement; he firft forgets his promife, then thofe under him do not obey his orders; a third time he is obliged to go to Cambridge, and laft of all the Bank gave him too fhort notice, With respect to the conduct of the Bank Directors, his Grace thought them culpable in not coming to Parliament, and laying

before

before the Legiflature the means which the Chancellor of the Exchequer took to procure money from them. They had done every thing, however, which, according to their conceptions, they could do with propriety. It remained, he faid, for their Lordships to decide whether they fhould pafs a cenfure upon the unprincipled and corrupt conduct of Minifters, or whether they fhould attempt, (and a vain and frivolous attempt he affured them it would be,) to fcreen them from the juft condemnation. which awaited them. If they did not fhew that a weak and incapable Administration, who, after violating every principle of rectitude, and outraging the rights of the people, could not efcape the juft punishment of their crimes, by holding out the rewards of corruption as a bribe for the purchase of indemnity, they would be participating in their guilt, and would eventually fhare in their difgrace. If they paffed a vote of cenfure upon the ruinous and deftructive plans which they had been pursuing, the fupport which they had hitherto given them might be imputed to error; but if they perfifted in lending fupport in defiance of the plaineft proofs of criminality, error would be no longer recurred to as a plea of defence. He called upon them to fhew the country and the world, whether they had one spark of Britifh fpirit in their bofoms; whether they were virtuous enough to acknowledge their faults, and brave enough to fhake off the fetters of corruption. He invoked them to fhew that they had their children and their pofterity in their contemplation, and that they were not regardless of every thing beyond the passing hour. He was aware that he might be accuted of overstepping the bounds of moderation; but when he reflected on the character of the prefent Adminiftration, thofe defpoilers of our fortunes! thofe oppreffors of the poor! thofe plunderers of the rich! when he faw fome of the greatest and most powerful individuals in the kingdom become the defpicable agents, or venal partisans of a corrupt and defperate faction, he could not boaft cold-blooded patience---he had no claim to apathy. If they thought that they could reftrain public opinion by chains and fetters, they were milerably mistaken. They might attempt to ftop the current of the tide, but he warned them that a boifterous wind might arife which would drive it beyond its banks, and deluge all around. They were called upon by the imperious voice of awful and threatening events to rouse from their fupineness, to awake from their torpid ftate of lethargy. He trusted that there was none in that House who diftrusted the loyalty of the people of this country, but he reminded them that Englishmen were born to be free and must be free. If the Government therefore wifhed to preserve its authority, it must be by reigning, not over the will, but in the hearts of the nation.--

« ZurückWeiter »