ready to admit, thathe had proposed a bad and an unfair bargain for the public. He trusted, however, that no gentleman would seriously maintain, that the public had any claim to the whole of those profits which arose from the industry, the hazard, and the management of the Directors of the Bank. Mr. Ewer concluded with saying, that he thought the present proposition a beneficial bargain to the public, and the terms of it, he was convinced, were the best that the Bank could possibly accede to.

In the sequel, the conditions were approved of, and ratified by Parliament.* [21 Geo. 3. c. 60.]

On September the 23d, 1781, at a meeting of the Proprietors of Bank Stock, it was determined to raise their Dividends from five and a half, to six per cent.; and also to make an addition of 8 per cent. to their capital stock, by four instalments, to be completed on the 15th of February, 1782, by which the capital of the Bank was increased from 10,780,000l. to 11,642,4007.

* The repayment of the 2,000,000l. was postponed by two subsequent statutes.

On March 19th, 1788, a general Court of the Proprietors of the Bank of England, declared the ensuing dividends upon their capital Stock to be at the rate of seven per cent. per annum.

By 31 Geo. 3. c. 25. § 5. (and also by 23 Geo. 3. c. 49). Bank Notes and Bills were exempted from the duties charged on Bills of Exchange and Promissory Notes, by the annual payment of 12,000l. to the Exchequer.

In 1791, the Dividends due upon the Public Funds which lay unclaimed in the Bank of England, had accumulated to 660,000l. There can be no doubt that the sum which a creditor neglects to call for should remain with the debtor, and by no means with his agent or banker; and therefore Mr. Pitt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, proposed, that 500,0001. of that dormant money should be applied to the public service. The plan was opposed by the Directors of the Bank, as dangerous to public credit, and the matter was compromised by the acceptance for the national account of that sum, as a loan from the Bank without interest. There was a further condition, that a balance of the

1

public money, not less than 600,000. (reckoning this loan of 500,000l. as part of it) should at all times remain in the hands of the Bank, and that the annual allowance to the Bank for the management of the public debt, should continue at the rate of 4501. for every million of capital. [31 Geo. 3. c. 33.]

The Government of Ireland made loans in the years 1794 and 1795, with an option to the subscribers to receive their dividends, or transfer their stock in London; and the Bank of England agreed to undertake the management of the payments and transfers of such part of them as should be payable in London. This agreement was sanctioned by Parliament. [35 Geo. 3. c. 66]

On the 31st of December, 1795, the following Resolutions of the Court of Directors, respecting discounts, was passed.

"At a Court of Directors at the Bank, on. Thursday 31st December, 1795.

"That the following notice be stuck up in the Discount Office:

"Bank of England, 31st of Dec. 1795. "Pursuant to an Order of the Court of Directors, Notice is hereby given,

"That no Bills will be taken in for discount at this office, after 12 o'clock at noon, or Notes after 12 o'clock on Wednesday.

That in future, whenever the Bills sent in for discount, shall on any day amount to a larger sum than it shall be resolved to discount on that day, a pro rata proportion of such bills in each parcel as are not otherwise objectionable, will be returned to the person sending in the same, without regard to the respectability of the party sending in the Bills, or the solidity of the Bills themselves.

"The same regulation will be observed as to Notes.

"ROBERT BEST,

"Assistant Secretary."*

By the 37th Geo. 3. c. 28. all notes issued by the Bank after March 2d, 1797, for sums under five pounds, were declared valid. We shall now pass over matters of • Vide Report of the Lords Committee of Secrecy.-Ordered to be printed, 28th of April, 1797.

minor regulation, and proceed to the circumstances which led to the restriction of the Bank payments in specie, on the 27th February, 1797, introducing, as we advance, the examinations of Mr. Abraham Newland before the Lords Committee, in whose replies, a luminous view is given of the concerns of the Bank, and the pecuniary matters connected with it, at that critical period.

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On the 8th of October, 1795, the price of bullion had been raised to four guineas per ounce, when our gold coin was at 31. 17s. 10, for the same weight. It is evident, from this comparative state of bullion and coin, that the gold currency of the country would be exported to an alarming extent. The causes of this advance in bullion, were the expensive operations of the war, the loans to the emperor of Germany, subsidies to foreign princes, and payments in bullion to foreigners for the freights and cargoes of neutral ships captured. In December, 1794, the Directors of the Bank had been repeatedly expressing to the Chancellor of the Exchequer their uneasiness on account of the magnitude of the sums drawn from the Bank for the service of government, and anx