the price of all commodities, including, of course, gold and silver, and bills of exchange; for the true definition of a bill of exchange was, "an assignment to one country of so much of the bullion of another, as was represented by that bill." The reverse had, however, been recently asserted; and he here read a passage from a pamphlet lately published, entitled "On the approaching Crisis,” which, he said, was written by a warm and able opponent of the Bullion Report, but who seemed of late to have altered his opinion. It was true, that the state of the country was now widely different from that in which it stood at the time that report was framed. We were no longer at war, and it was consequently unnecessary to keep in the Bank a superabundant supply of specie; and he admitted, that the only ground on which a renewed suspension of cash payments could be justified was, that the contraction of the paper circulation, which would be its result, would produce a general and a weighty pressure. Such a contraction would immediately force the exchanges above par, and induce remittances of specie from abroad. This had been the case in 1816, when the failure of one-fourth of the country banks, and the diminution of the paper of the rest to one-half, had alone been sufficient to work an alteration in the exchanges.

A paper circulation had always a tendency to increase itself; because it was the interest of those by whom it was issued that it should increase; and the main difficulty of returning to cash payments arose from this very circumstance. The system which this country had been pursuing was now of more than twenty years duration, and the issue of paper had been almost annually enlarged during that period. The proper time for the resumption of cash payments was, when the exchanges were either at or above par; and if the Bank had been prepared with gold, and the act had not prohibited it, he should have been glad to have seen a gold currency restored last year; for he was

convinced that the demand would not have been great, as no man would have doubted the solidity of the Bank, nor would the wish have been general to have changed a convenient for an inconvenient circulation. He doubted even whether more gold specie would then have been required for the purpose, than had lately been uselessly issued.

The state of affairs was now widely different. Unfortunately, the exchanges were so much against us, as to alter the whole complexion of the case. When the Government of France was about to raise a loan of thirty millions, when Prussia had just completed one in this country, of which a very large proportion had been transmitted in specie, and when all foreign loans, more or less, were obtained from the capital of Great Britain, was this a wise time to compel the Bank to resume cash payments ?

It had been asked, what difference existed between a loan to a foreign Government, and the effects of the usual desire displayed by many persons to seek a larger interest for their money in foreign countries? To his mind, there was a material difference; because it appeared from experience, and from the very necessity of contracting their loans in this country, that foreign Governments had not succeeded in inducing our capitalists to transfer their money into the foreign funds, and that, without such a supply of British capital, those Governments were wholly incapable of performing any extensive financial operation.

It had been stated, that Mr. Boyd had given in evidence before the Committee, that he transmitted but a very inconsiderable portion of the Austrian loan in specie; and it had been thence argued, that a foreign loan was not calculated to produce any great effect upon the price of bullion. But it would be difficult to speak with accuracy of the actual amount of specie transmitted in any one loan. Gentlemen were not correct when they asserted, that loans were generally transmitted in the shape of merchandize.

The fact was, they were usually transmitted in bills of exchange-which, he was ready to admit, might have been purchased with merchandize-but should the result of this commercial operation leave a balance against the country, that balance must eventually be paid in gold and silver.

In 1797, there had been a considerable failure of the country banks. It was, in fact, a period of panic, and a consequent drain took place upon the specie left in the coffers of the Bank; but the exchanges were greatly in favour of this country; upon Hamburgh it was as high as thirty-six, and a considerable profit was therefore afforded on the importation of bullion. But the failure of the country banks, the panic, and the drain, led to the suspension of cash payments by the Bank of England. He had therefore been astonished to hear the honourable and learned gentleman assert, that the suspension of cash payments in 1797 arose from the excessive advances made by the Bank to the minister of that day. The late Mr. Henry Thornton, a man of great practical knowledge, as well as of deep insight into the principles of finance, had, in his evidence before the Lords' Committee, attributed the distress which occurred at that period to the great diminution of the paper issues of the Bank; and even Mr. Giles, whose authority had been so triumphantly appealed to on the opposite side, had given it as his opinion, that had it not been for the restriction, the Bank would have still further contracted its circulation.

With respect to the immediate resumption of cash payments, such a step appeared to him incompatible with the existing state of affairs, nor did he think that the House could interfere with the internal regulations of the Bank, for determining on the best means towards attaining that object. In this respect, he feared that they were placed very much in the hands of the Bank of England. He meant to say that, beyond declaring the time at which cash

payments should be resumed, Parliament could not undertake to legislate on the subject. It was impossible to dispute it. He defied the ingenuity of the gentlemen on the other side to propose any satisfactory regulations, as to the mode in which cash payments should be resumed. That must be left wholly to the Bank Directors. Their character, however, would be at stake; and they would, no doubt, be anxious to be relieved, as soon as possible, from the pressing inquiries, now made day after day, into the state of their affairs.

He would not go into any numerical calculation as to the amount of the issues of the Bank; because he did not consider that amount any criterion of excess, which was, in fact, only to be looked for in the convertibility of paper into cash at the pleasure of the holder. For the general principle of currency was this-that the quantity of metallic money should be as small as possible, and the quantity of convertible paper as large as possible. Great mistakes had got abroad on the subject; and he could not by any means join in the praise which had been bestowed upon a pamphlet quoted by his right honourable friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He alluded to that of Mr. Weston; for the very title of it supposed an absurdity. It was called "Letters on the Means of increasing the Circulation of the country." Now, no circulation could be sound and safe, unless it was precisely such as would exist, if the currency was all metallic. He thought that all the advances made by the Bank to the Government ought to be repaid before the resumption of cash payments. These advances must, in the first place, limit the means of the Bank to procure gold. The facility of acquiring it must depend upon the rate of the exchanges. These should be carefully watched by the Bank, and the amount of their issues cautiously and gradually reduced to a state similar to the circulation in other countries.

With respect to what had fallen from the honourable gentleman, in regard to the difference between the gold and silver currency, he had forgotten, that silver was no longer a standard of value, and that a person carrying it to the Mint could no longer procure coin for it, at the rate inserted in the Mint minute. This made an important distinction in the present instance, from the state of affairs in the reign of Charles II., when a slight alteration in the relative value of the gold and silver coinage, caused the disappearance or restoration of either, as they happened alternately and respectively to be effected. The Government now retained the power of regulating the exact amount of the silver coinage, and of preventing it from exceeding whatever was considered necessary for the mere purposes of exchange.

The right honourable gentleman then adverted to the effect produced in this country, and indeed throughout the continent of Europe, by the facility enjoyed by Great Britain of extending her paper currency. It might be compared to that which had arisen from the discovery of the mines of America; for, by increasing the circulating medium over the world, to the extent of forty millions, it had proportionably increased the means of barter, and given a stimulus to industry.

In proportion, however, as the Bank of England had found it necessary to purchase gold on the continent, to meet its engagements in this country, the circulating medium of the continent had been diminished; and as the continental states did not enjoy the credit which we possessed, and were, in consequence, debarred from increasing their paper currency, the result was discernible in the great deterioration of property which had taken place abroad, during the last two years. Indeed, he had no hesitation in saying, that much of the distress which prevailed upon the continent, was fairly attributable to the large purchases of bullion by the Bank of England.