their outstanding engagements. The means of answering these engagements in that way formed the difficuity of the Bank. He had no difficulty in affenting to what the Minifter ftated upon that fubject, as far as payment was to be made to Government. When he faw the public papers, he found an Order of Council iffued by Government to refrain the payment of Specie, and the Bank obedient to that order; but he did not fee one word of the affairs of the Bank, nor did he fee that the Directors of the Bank had made it their own measure. He feared from this that there was too great a connexion between Government and the Bank of England, and that it was the intention of Government to compel the Bank of England not only to pay the Warrants of Bank Dividends in Bank Notes, but the Warrants issued for the payment of the intereft of the National Debt alfo. But when he came to reflect upon an Order in Council, and on the obedience which he faw the Bank difpofed to pay to that Order, the subject became alarming. He did not fay that the conduct of the Bank brought on the neceffity, but the thing itfelf appeared to him to be alarming, for the Bank fay they will pay Government in Bank Notes, and that Warrants on Dividends fhall be paid in like manner. The Warrants on Dividends were the intereft of the National Debt. He was not now going to anticipate the measure which Parliament fhould adopt upon this fubject, nor to difcufs it at length; but Parliament having passed an Act binding the Bank to pay the Warrants on Dividends not in Bank Notes, but in Money, this became a very alarming propofition, and very worthy at least of the ferious attention of the Houfe. Thefe obfervations, he knew, did not apply to Bank Stock; but they applied to the payment of Dividends on other Stock. He did not now prefs for any explanation upon this topic, but he felt the importance of it to a great degree, for the propofition was certainly novel, unprecedented, and fuch as the Houfe fhould not form an opinion upon hastily.

Having faid this, he had only to add, that he fhould endeavour to inform himself as well as he could on the fubject, and bear the whole of it in his mind, and he advifed every man in that House, and every thinking man in this country, to do the fame thing, for it appeared to him to be of extreme importance, of extreme danger, and might lead to the moft dreadful ill confequences to every individual in this country, and might put an end altogether to its exiftence as a powerful nation. The House would do nothing useful on this fubject if it did not inftitute an enquiry into the whole of the circumftances that have led us to this dreadful fituation.

Mr. Alderman Combe, wifhed to be informed whether it was the intention of the Honourable Gentleman that Bank Notes

were

were to be taken only by the receivers of the Revenue, or that they were to become a legal tender in all money tranfactions?

The Chancellor of the Exchequer faid, that in the first instance he meant only to propofe that they fhould be taken on the part of the public; that after the enquiry of the Committee into the circumftances of the Bank, the Legislature would be enabled to judge whether the remedy to the extent at prefent fupposed was fufficient.

Mr. Alderman Combe asked, whether it was his opinion that this remedy would be reforted to in the end?

The Chancellor of the Exchequer faid, he had no opinion upon the fubject.

Mr. Fox afked, if he disclaimed the opinion?

The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied, that he faid nothing about it at all.

His Majefty's Meffage was then ordered to be taken into confideration the next day.

The Order in Council was ordered to be taken into confideration at the fame time.

REMITTANCES TO THE EMPEROR.

Mr. Sheridan did not rife to purfue any obfervations upon the appointment of a Select Committee, becaufe he rejoiced at the delay, inafinuch as it afforded an opportunity to Gentlemen to proceed with more deliberation, though he certainly was furprised to find a queftion of fuch urgency put off for a fingle day; but when he looked at the Order of Council, he thought it rather the opinion of Government, that it was necessary to reftrain payments in Specie, than an opinion of the Bank; and he thought that the Directors of the Bank were thereby required to conform thereto. It was in confequence of that opinion, therefore, that he doubted whether fuch an Order of Council was legal or conftitutional; and he was furprised to find that no Motion had been made for Indemnity. He did expect that fome explanation would have been given on this point, or that fome measure would have been propofed to justify that order, and exonerate his Majefty's Minifters from the burden they had undertaken. But he had liftened attentively, and did not hear a tittle to that purport. He had been told, that this measure had produced the happieft effects upon the Funds already, and that the Stocks had rifen in confequence of it. The fallacy of that was easy to be difcovered; it was natural to fuppofe the Stocks would rife, from the certainty that the Bank was not to iffue any more Specie, and if that was the reafon the Stocks had rifen, it was of a nature more alarming than confolatory. Although the House might have agreed to put off the difcuffion of

4 L 2

this

this fubject till the next day, yet he was fatisfied, after reading the paper to which he had alluded, that the Houfe could not, confiftent with its duty to the public, confent to the delay of a fingle hour. He faid, he felt himself impelled by his duty to his Conftituents, and to his Country, to trouble the Houfe with a Motion; and it was one upon which he most certainly should take the opinion of the Houfe. He faid he fhould abftain from thofe expreffions of refentment and indignation which he might be induced to employ against the Right Honourable Gentleman, in confequence of contemplating the fituation into which he had at length plunged the country. From any harsh expreffion he would abitain, as far as it was poffible; but he could not avoid remarking, that there was upon this occafion the fame kind of policy, the fame delufion, which had upon all former occafions characterifed his financial conduct. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had ftated that the Bank was fufficient to dif charge every demand, and that it poffeffed an abundance; befides, if fuch were the cafe, and if he had ftated that from the information of that great body of men who compofed the Corporation, he could not fee what neceffity there was for the Bank to have the additional fecurity of the National Faith. The Bank was not in the fituation of a Corporate Body applying to Government for affiftance, it was a Corporation capable of anfwering all demands upon it, but were told by Government that it fhould do no fuch thing. He fhould have thought if it was really true that there had been fuch a run on the Bank, that no more payment could have been made in gold, that the Directors would have come and stated their fituation to Parliament, and afked for redrefs? Whether the deficiency had been attributable to their own mifmanagement, or to the nature of their arrangements with Government,orby both thefe circumftances concurring? Whether it was owing to the quantity of money fent abroad? In either of which circumftances the propofition fhould have come from the Bank to Parliament, ftating that it laboured under a temporary diftrefs, and defiring afliftance; but inftead of that, what was the mode of proceeding? It feemed that the Government, by its fingle Proclamation, could put the whole cafh of the kingdom in a ftate of requifition. It was precifely the fame as if Government had faftened on individuals, faying, that the exigencies of the times required it. He maintained there was nothing in the fituation of the Bank of England that gave Government the right of calling all the money of the country into requifition. If Government were to demand a certain fum of money from every man, because he was poffeffed of property to a certain amount, or rented an eftate of a particular value, the exigency of the occafion might, perhaps, juftify it, but there

could

could be no juftification of the measure purfued as to the Bank. It was ufing compulfion towards the Bank, with respect to money, which was not their own, but was in fact the property of the people. It was natural to confider what the exigency could be that required this meafure; there could be no exigency with refpect to the Bank, all it had to do was to pay its own creditors. He could not think there were fome exigencies of the Government that had produced this extraordinary measure. It was the obftinate perfeverance of the Right Honourable Gentleman, in exporting the Coin of this Country for Foreign Subfidies, notwithstanding the awful warnings and the dangers that threatened him for doing fo, which had been the caule of this calamity. What the criminality of the pilot was, might be made the fubject of future enquiry.

From this obfervation, the Houfe would naturally fee that the propofition he had to make was for the purpofe of rendering it impoffible for the Minifter to fend any more Specie out of the country. The Motion he faid he would read: his imagination. could not anticipate any objection, unless it proceeded from the Right Honourable Gentleman himfelf. His Motion was-"That it is the opinion of this Houfe, that no further expor"tation of Specie or Gold fhould take place for the use of the "Emperor, or any other Foreign Power, until the fenfe of "Parliament fhall have been taken on the fubject, upon a full "review of the causes of the prefent exigencies of the public." He wished to know what were the exigencies of Government; for his part, he could think of no other, except that of preventing the Minifter from fending more Gold out of the kingdom; but it might be faid, that preventing him from doing fo by a law, would imply a want of confidence in his difcretion, and a fufpicion that he would ftill continue to fend money abroad. The Secret Loan of money to Foreign Powers was what he had already been convicted of, and the offence that he had once been guilty of he might again repeat. It was therefore incumbent on the House, if poffible, to prevent him, and not fuffer him to proceed folely on measures of which he conftituted himself the only judge. After he had been convicted of affording Loans to Foreign Princes, at a time when he was forewarned of the confequences--after hazarding thofe confequences, and boasting that the public credit had recovered from the fhock he gave it---after pluming himself on the addrefs with which he filched the money out of the kingdom, for the use of the Emperor, and after the praife which he claimed for his dexterity, to find the fortunes of the country at fo low an ebb, would the Houfe repofe confidence in him again? Could they prefume to do it? No! It behoved them immediately to pass a law by which he should not dare to

da

do it whether he would or no. With refpect to its being faid that he would not do it at the hazard of public credit, what dependance could be placed upon him on that account, after his late boafts that the public credit was recovered, that we were likely to arrive at a fituation of profperity and fecurity, that no detriment was done to public credit? What reliance was to be placed on a man, who, after fuch affertions, had brought the Houfe to this day's difcuffion? What was it but an infult to the Houfe to propofe confidence in fuch a Minister, and become refponfible for his acts. It might be urged that withdrawing confidence from the Minifter, might be attended with a breach of faith of this Government towards the Emperor; but, on the other hand, was not the faith of the Bank pledged to the Public? The moment the Minifter called on the Bank to forfeit its faith with the Public, to talk of faith with the Emperor was an infult to common fenfe. The Right Honourable Gentleman to be fure would labour under the difcredit of not keeping his word; but it was much better that he should break his word, than that he fhould keep it at the rifk of a general bankruptcy. It might alfo be faid that the confequences of his breaking his word would be, that we fhould experience great inconveniences in carrying on the war; but when we were placed in a fituation where our choice was between two calamitous dilemmas, in that cafe all we had to do was, to chufe the leaft. He appealed to the House whether any advantage, to be derived by the alliance of the Emperor, could be a compenfation for the chance of aggravating our prefent circumstances. If the House, however, thought fit to continue its confidence, he fhould, and he was perfuaded the country would, confider them as accomplices in its ruin.

The Motion was put and feconded.

Mr. Nicolls was of opinion, that the Houfe had every reafon to think the Minifter had put the money in a state of requifition, with a view to fend it abroad. The Minifter had been asked a queftion by an Honourable Gentleman, which he had not thought proper to anfwer. The queftion was, whether a Bank Note was to be a legal payment between individual and individual? It was an act of atrocious infolence in his Majefty's Minifters, and in the Chancellor of the Exchequer particularly, not to answer whether this country fhall or fhall not to-morrow commit an Act of Infolvency. He had heard the Chancellor of the Exchequer talk of his confiding Majority, but he afferted it would be a difgraceful circumstance indeed if he should again be able to boast of a confiding Majority. If fuch measures were to be adopted, and he ftill had a Majority, it would be fuch a Majority as the country would have reafon to

curfe.