pressure and much distress in future. I tleman the Member for Tamworth for the do not believe that any measure proposed course which he has taken on this occaon the part of the Government, or adopted sion. It is perfectly consistent with that by this House, would be so safe as allowing which he took three months ago, when I the Act of 1844 to have its legitimate ope- introduced a measure of a somewhat simiration. This is the first occasion on which lar character to the notice of this House. it has been brought into actual operation, The right hon. Gentleman has not exagfor, the amount of reserve fund in the gerated the difficulties in the state of the Bank having greatly diminished, so that money market now, as compared with that there was some danger of that reserve fund which existed when I had the honour to being entirely exhausted, it has led to mea- introduce a scheme of this description. sures of precaution. I believe those mea- The right hon. Gentleman might have addsures of precaution were necessary. I think ed that, in the interim between the pethe Directors of the Bank will in future riod when this House rejected that meahave the means of watching the operation sure, and the present, Austria has raised a of this measure, and of either adopting loan of 80,000,000 of florins for the pursuch stringency, or giving such relaxation, pose of constructing railways in her emas they may deem useful or necessary. pire; and this, of course, must be to a cerAlthough a currency founded upon bullion tain extent a drain upon our money maris a currency which may be accompanied ket. But, Sir, it is because I look upon by inconvenience in times of commercial the call for money to be employed in propressure, I do consider that it is the safest ductive works in this country as having and best currency this country can adopt; a very different bearing on the finances and I believe there is no measure we can of the country, and a very different beartake that will be so safe or so wise as to ing on the money market, from that which declare that we will not alleviate the pres- is sent out of the country to purchase the sure at the present moment, with a certain produce of other countries, that I think prospect of making it more severe here- we may, without imprudence, advance after. 620,000l., and that we may do so without its being felt as any additional pressure on the money market. It must be clear to any reflecting man, that every sovereign that goes out of this country must operate in a pressure of at least ten-fold, if not twenty-fold, degree, more than the sovereign which is borrowed to be expended in this country. I believe it is commonly reckoned that 51. bank-notes, upon an average, are turned over thirteen times at least in the course of a year; and if this be so, a sovereign, at all events, must be turned over much oftener than that. The sovereign we send out of the country to purchase corn or sugar, or any other commodity, the produce of foreign countries, cannot return, and does not, in fact, return for twelve months, at the least, and during that time visits no English pocket. Let any one follow in his own mind the course of a sovereign which is sent to America-when shall we get that sovereign back? Certainly not for a year at least. Well, Sir, if I am right in these views-and I believe they are those generally entertained by reflecting men-I am justified in saying that a loan of 620,000l., to be employed in Ireland, would create no greater pressure on the money market-would diminish the circulation of money at home no more

MR. HUME, amidst marks of impatience, said, he differed from the opinions which were expressed by the noble Lord at the head of the Government, and the right hon. Baronet the Member for Tamworth, both of whom appeared to him to blame the Bank directors as being the cause of the present state of things. When the right hon. Baronet the Member for Tamworth introduced the Bill of 1844, he said he thought that 14,000,000 of bullion would be sufficient for the currency of the country; but he did not think so, and he stated his opinion at the time. He did not see how the Bank directors could be blamed for the present state of things, for if they had only done what they were empowered to do by the Act of 1844, he ought not to blame them; and it appeared from the public accounts of issues and securities that they were not deserving of that blame. The hon. Gentleman read, in the midst of the expressed impatience of the House, a series of figures tending to show that the Bank of England had not issued more notes than it was authorized; and contended that it was, consequently, not to blame for the monetary crisis which had occurred.

LORD G. BENTINCK: Sir, I am sure no one can complain of the right hon. Gen

course which we took; for surely there is some difference in a scheme by which 8,000,000l. is advanced by this country for relief works, only 4,000,000l. of which is asked to be paid back-if ever that is paid-and a plan by which the whole loan is to be repaid, with interest; for let it be remembered, the Chancellor of the Exchequer argues in favour of this measure

that the money he asks for will be certainly paid back, whilst only one half, he tells you, of the money advanced on relief works is sought to be reclaimed, and the other half only doubtfully promised. Why, Sir, that was just my argument three months ago. I said the 4,000,000l. I asked for were not to be added, but to be deducted from that 8,000,000l. which the Government are expending upon useless works. I said the difference between the loan which I ask for, and that which the Government were granting to Ireland was, that whereas the one would in effect cost England nothing, and would permanently advance the welfare of both countries, the Government loan was to be distributed in a manner that would confer no lasting service on Ireland, and was only to be partly repaid. But I must say, if we are to compare the two measures, the present does inflict a great hardship upon the counties of Mayo, of Sligo, and Galway; and as I see the hon. and learned Gentleman the Solicitor General for Ireland in his place the Member for Gal way-I wish to ask him what must be the feelings of the county of Galway upon this subject? Complaining of the hardship, he might well say to the noble

than a thirteenth part of that sum, were
it sent abroad to purchase the produce of
foreign countries. But, inasmuch as the
right hon. Gentleman the Chancellor of
the Exchequer is justified in the course
he is taking, so was I justified in the
course which I proposed to take. The
principle is the same; and myself and
my Friends who sit near me accordingly
propose to support the proposal of Her
Majesty's Ministers. And though we may
think the Government have taken but the
fag-end of the greater measure which I
had the honour of bringing forward, still
the principle is the same; and I agree
with the right hon. Gentleman (Sir R.
Peel) and the Member for the University
of Cambridge (Mr. Goulburn) that all other
railways in Ireland, after this concession,
ought to be placed on the same footing,
and that they are entitled to ask for,
and to receive, a loan from the Govern-
ment. We have got the sharp end of
the wedge in, and we shall do our best
hereafter to drive it home as best we may.
This is, after all, sound and just policy
it is for the permanent advantage of Ire-
land-it is, in fact, the only measure which
has been proposed this Session which is
calculated permanently to improve the con-
dition of that country; and therefore, Sir,
it has my cordial support. I am not
swayed by the information communicated
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that
he has abandoned his Waste Lands Bill,
although I am inclined to think with the
right hon. Gentleman the Member for the
University of Cambridge, that this is but
an after-thought, resolved upon in the
course of this evening; for if it be other-Lord-
wise, then we have been rather cavalierly
treated, and there has been a great want
of frankness among the different Members
of Her Majesty's Cabinet. None of us
can help seeing what is published in those
daily publications which we all read; and
I noticed in the papers of this morning
that the noble President of the Council (the
Marquess of Lansdowne) very much in-
duced the other House of Parliament to
assent to the seconding reading of the
Irish Poor Law Bill without a division,
by the declaration last night only that
Her Majesty's Ministers had other mea-
sures which would assist in working out
that Bill; and amongst them (so it is
ascribed to the noble Marquess) was one
for the reclamation of waste lands. Well,
Sir, at all events, my Friends must be
now considered as fully justified in the

"Nor would I have it long observed,
That one mouse cats while t'other's starved."

This is the case with the county Gal-
way. It would have been very dif-
ferent under my proposition. I wonder
where the hon. Member for Mayo is (Mr.
D. Browne), who rejected my measure be-
cause he feared that, if he did not, he
would lose the Waste Lands Bill. I won-
der where he is now, and what his feelings
will be when he finds that he, the Member
for Mayo, as well as the Member for Gal-
way, and the Member for Roscommon,
too, in thus grasping at the shadow of a
Waste Lands Improvement Bill, they have
lost the substance which three months ago
we offered them, of a railway through the
counties of Galway, Mayo, Roscommon,
and Sligo. There is another reason why
I regret that now, instead of three months

66

did we then get over our difficulties ?
Why, by a fresh issue of notes.
And as
to 1825, I well remember and I think
the right hon. Gentleman (Sir R. Peel)
was one of them-that the Cabinet Coun-
cil of Lord Liverpool's Adminstration sat
in Fife House till twelve o'clock at night,
while the directors of the Bank of Eng-
land were at the same time sitting in their
bank parlour, debating what was to be
done-it was the crisis when Mr. Huskis-
son said the country was within twenty-
four hours of barter.
And how did you

ago, this measure should have been adopted by Her Majesty's Ministers, and that is, because during that time we have been spending at the rate of a million a month upon useless works, the half of which will never be paid to the people of this country. I won't detain the House longer; but I feel bound to notice the observations of my right hon. Friend, who has thrown blame upon the Bank of England for its conduct during the present crisis, and has ascribed to that establishment the greater part of the present monetary crisis. It is said corporations have no souls." I do not know whether they have souls or not; but, if corporations have no souls, I am sure Cabinets have no hearts; for never was such ingratitude as that the Bank of England should now be condemned by the Ministers of the Crown for conduct, mainly to be attributed to the difficulties under which she was placed through her desire to accommodate the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Let me ask, if the Bank of England had put the screw on sooner--if she had put the screw on before Christmas or January last, at a time when she had 13,000,000l. of bullion in her cellars, and 7,000,000l. more of reserve what would then have been the price of his Exchequer-bills; or, more than that, what would have been the price at which he would have raised his loan of eight millions? But the Bank, by post-ceeded at eight and forty hours notice in poning the evil hour of putting the screw on the money market, also postponed the hour of distress to the trade of this country; and after my right hon. Friend has thus seduced the old lady in Threadneedlestreet, and had his wicked will of her, it is a little too bad immediately to turn round upon her, kick her out of bed, and turn her out of doors:

"In common justice, Sir, there's no man

That makes the whore, but keeps the woman.' I must say a few words as to the Bank charter, and as to its pressure upon the trade of this country. We have heard much with regard to its operation; and the right hon. Baronet the Member for Tamworth has given us his opinion that it will save us from seeing such scenes of pain and suffering as were witnessed in 1819. Why, those scenes of pain and suffering did not occur from the over-issues of the Bank, but from their contraction; in short, from that change in the currency by whichunawares, I believe, to those who passed the measure-25 per cent was added to the debts and taxes of the country. How

get out of your difficulties then? Was it by contracting the issues of the Bank of England? Far from it. There were not at that time two millions of sovereigns in the Bank; yet confidence was restored, and trade revived, by the issue of little short of eight millions of notes, one million at least of these being one-pound notes. Therefore, to say that there is no security for trade except in the Bank Charter Bill, is, I think, a great fallacy; and such a statement is the more extraordinary, because the right hon. Gentleman having been obliged lately to come and ask the Bank of England to lend him the sum of three millions, that he might meet the dividends, the Bank of England, in consequence of this law, was placed in this predicament, that if she had not suc

borrowing two millions sterling, the dividends would not have been paid. That is my reason for doubting the efficacy of this Bank Charter Bill, and for disputing that it can be any more right that the Bank of England should be tied down beforehand to a particular amount of issues under such various circumstances, than it would be right to pass a law obliging ships at all times, and in all weathers, to carry either studding-sails or tri-sails. It seems to me that by this law, we are placed in this extraordinary position, that though trade is in danger of being destroyed for want of the assistance of the Bank, whilst the Bank is most anxious and willing to give trade that assistance, she is shackled by the operation of this inconvenient law. It is just as though when one strong man were standing on the bank of a river, in which another was drowning, the law were to step in and bind the willing and ready arms of him on the bank to make it impossible to save the other who was drowning. I will conclude by saying, that I altogether deny the efficacy and object of the policy of this system.

TELLERS.

Hill, Lord M.
Tufnell, H.

List of the NoEs.

Drummond, H. H.

Duckworth, Sir J. T. B.
Duke, Sir J.

Macaulay, rt. hon. T. B. Duncan, Viset.