of part of their charter, that "the grant no relief, and had referred the merchants to the Bank, who had it in their power to advance money on the security of goods, a resource which, he said, no merchant could adopt without bringing a stain upon his credit. He vindicated the merchants from the aspersions which had been cast upon them, as having produced the present calamities by their own imprudence, and a fondness for speculation, reckless of consequences. With the ephemeral schemes of the preceding year, the merchants, as a body, had had no more connection than other people, and, in many cases, much less. It was notorious that these bubbles had been the creation of a few scheming attor nies, and idle and needy speculators; not of the real merchants of London, who now, from mere inability to convert their securities into money, were trembling on the brink of ruin; and these bubbles had been as keenly pursued in St. James's street, as they ever could be in the alleys of the city. Even the imprudent speculator was often a man worth saving, if not on his own account, at least on account of others with whom he was connected in agricultural, commercial, or monied interest. The merchants, in general, were far from deserving to be harshly told, " some of you have over-traded; some of you have speculated rashly; therefore the whole body must be content to suffer, and suffer on, till every thing finds its own level." He was not pleading the cause of gambling share-holders, but of a class of individuals, who, from the general want of confidence that prevailed, and particularly among the banking part of the community, were suffering under a pressure which could not easily be described, but whose sufferings, if not relieved, would describe themselves in a way which the House would not be able to misunderstand. All that was required was an issue of Exchequer bills-a measure which on former occasions had been often adopted, to relieve temporary, but general embarrassments, and which, on no occasion, had either failed in its object, or been productive of inconvenience to the government. He gave notice that on the 28th he would move that the petition should be referred to a select committee. A long discussion followed, in which the same views were taken, and the same sentiments expressed, by almost every member who spoke; and Mr. Canning and the chancellor of the Exchequer found themselves deserted even by some of their firmest adherents. The strongest position taken against them assuredly was, not so much the threatening appearance of the mercantile horizon, which no man could deny, as the fact that the particular preventive measure urged upon their attention was one of tried efficacy, justified by the sanction of great names, and one which the country had been too much accustomed to regard as a never-failing resource in evil times. Many, who had the evil before their eyes, would have allowed it to take its way, if it had been necessary to search for a remedy; but when they saw at hand what they believed to be a known specific, they readily joined in the wish that it should forthwith be administered, that they might escape, with all speed, from a painful spectacle. But, although ministers did not enter at large into the question, which would more properly be discussed on the motion for appoints was ing the committee, they did not shrink from firmly announcing the principles on which they had acted in refusing the various applications which had been made them, and on which they were determined still to oppose them. Convinced that the proposed measure erroneous in principle, and mischievous in practice, tending to produce, even by its temporary efficacy, a future recurrence of the same evil, and an improvident trust in the constant interference of government, when other and safer cures could be applied, they refused to accede to that, as a popular expedient, which their knowledge informed them was not necessary, and which their deliberate judgment taught them to reject as in itself prejudicial to the interests of the community. "For The most provoking, the most unmanly, the most unjustifiable weapons of their adversaries, were the insinuations thrown out that the resistance of government proceeded from cold-blooded insensibility to the misery which prevailed, and the danger which threatened. myself," said Mr. Canning, “and my colleagues, I totally disdain to answer such imputations. I impute to no man who now hears me, that he is so insensible; but for others to impute to those upon whom every day and every night care and anxiety are brought by the consideration of these distresses, in addition to the common sympathy in which they share as men, is to impute to them not only a want of feeling, but a want of sense that would unfit them not merely for the situations they fill in the government of the country, but to appear here, in the midst of those among whom they have the honour to sit." The unanimity, however, with which all parties seemed to urge the necessity of providing some measure of relief for the mercantile interest, rendered it impossible for government not to lend its aid to any arrangement which did not require its immediate interference. Although determined to resist the issue of new Exchequer bills, even upon securities, lord Liverpool had already stated, in the House of Lords, that, if the Bank would go into the market, and purchase a vertain amount of Exchequer bills, government would keep them harmless to the extent of two miThe effect of these purchiases would be to bring forth ar equal quantity of currency, unc thus remove the age of morcantik movements which mir aut want it that puren hat. Z this however, the Ima wontcut consent unit.seenun mul as myiling as minis Tamu mvarv tensivas y m examina metterens Bur we r m vai Vison presenti de ore jezizon, get ami dat in Vel me as nunan user ID 1 kiot 2mnize, de fra i nu de apene, vunai ai mesing rities, which occasioned the era, but the inability to convert that wealth into money. Many a mer chant had his cellars and warehouses filled with merchandise, which, in ordinary circumstaDJES, would have justitied him in thinking himself a rich man; and yet, from the universal distrust whach prevailed, and the complete pros tration of almost every branch of traffic, he found himself unature to meet his ordinary engagements. The arrangement made with the Bank was, that the Bank should make advances to private individuals upon the deposit of goods, merchanelize, and other securities; but the whole sum to be advanced TH exceed three maits Commissioners were apputed to CAT the EPELgument in exeCDtim u the pranga wameru distans: the gloom began to dis i nadcore to retic ? de ties for assistme var für from being so 3nerms is might have been c3ei fm dhe kulness and mumiy of the res for relief: and. a sme herrerizal status. ae ufics of the massULTATS vas most a sneeze. La truck. where he reiging mastorame s xnx de merriic mereSTS, want a comrience, such in expepersuadai government, "hat i was fient lestrors, in a great moss. Becessary to have recourse to some is soon is it is turn, the reasons expedient, uni convinced he Bank, which made it necessary tu nike i that it would be prvient zo zmtil. The knowledge that a ply, as far as they could, with hemblic fund exists realy a livince wishes of governmen, Bestes noney to those who can turniİL This powerful voice of the *7. deputatione had arrived in Lomion Tom Fiverpool, Food, Glasgow, and alloy important manoba biring and trading dianicis, all calling upun pero crument to give it and n Tije i polioying the dying substantial deposits, meises a simi imus; and when one bry ar oniidence into private inihas led the way in rusting tichrated for prudence and secon weghbours, others are gradually mmmged to flow in the same path, imi return to távir ordinary sources of gun. The information that government had come to an arrangement with the Bank having been communicated to the House of Commons, before the motion for referring the City petition to a committee had been made, that motion was withdrawn by Mr. Wilson; but both on this, and on some other occasions, the merits of the plan which had been adopted, and the superior efficacy and expediency of an issue of Exchequer bills directly by government, were discussed at great length. The general voice had, beyond doubt, been in favour of the latter measure, and it was supported by the authority of precedent and experience; yet the reasons why ministers rejected it, and preferred the interference of the Bank, rested on sound policy. It was bad, they said, in principle, because government was going out of its sphere when it intermeddled, in a pecuniary view, with the commercial interests of the country, and became a liberal banker, as it were, or a generous, and not very inquisitive, lender. To hold itself forth, likewise, as ready, on the occurrence of any general embarrassment, to pour forth its funds for the behoof of the involved trader, was, in reality, to offer a premium to improvidence, and seduce individuals to rely more on the relief which they might obtain from government, than on their own friends, their own prudence, or their own exertions. When the agricultural interests were suffering under a similar pressure, they made a similar demand: it was refused, not from any difficulty in the execution, but from objection to the principle; and if it were now granted under a commercial pressure, how could it ever again be denied? The very fact that the Bank charter empowered that body to make advances in the way which was now proposed, proved that it had been foreseen that circumstances might arise, in which it would be proper and desirable to exercise that power, and on the Bank would depend all the efficacy even of an issue of Exchequer bills. The commissioners for superintending that issue might direct the funds placed at their disposal in the way best calculated to relieve the public; but this would be of no avail, if the Bank refused to cash the securities which the applicants received. If the Bank refused them, it was not to be expected that any other banker would accept them; and if nobody took them in, then, besides having failed to increase the quantity of circulating medium, they would add to the already over-stocked market of Exchequer bills-fall to a discount-be received at a premium by the Treasury-and thus necessarily render the revenue of the country less capable of meeting the demands upon it. The question would be different, if relief could be afforded in no other way; but the Bank itself, a mercantile establishment, was able and ready to do all that was necessary to be done to assist mercantile men, and would do it far better than it could be done by the government of the country. To the objection, that, in advances made by government commissioners, the transaction itself, and the necessary inquiries attending it, were conducted with a degree of secrecy most desirable to the continued credit of the merchant, while the arrangement which had been adopted would expose his affairs and his difficulties to the gaze of the whole body of Bank ་ of rule, to be applied in every derangement of commercial relations. But, in truth, former instances did not apply to the case which now existed; for, in all former instances, excepting perhaps one, the derangement had arisen, not as at present, from the course of trade itself, be it good or be it bad, but from the positive influence of political events, during periods of actual war, and had arisen, moreover, under the reign of the restriction on cash payments. But there was a great difference between the adoption of such a measure, when growing out of a political crisis, and the application of it to the relief of commercial distress, when the latter had no connection with any political emergency. Even the instance of 1793, to which the opponents of the present arrangement SO constantly referred, was, in a great degree, inapplicable. The difference between it and 1826 was this, that, whatever might have been the primary causes of the distresses which prevailed in 1793, the breaking out of the war had a great and decided influence in aggravating and prolonging them. There was then a great fluctuation of affairs, and much distress, arising, however, not from private speculations, which the nature of trade itself would cure, but from public events which had produced the most serious consequences on the mercantile world. That was a derangement which was the consequence of public events, and gave the sufferers a claim on the government for relief; but the present pressure had been created by no public events, nor could such a claim properly exist in the eleventh year of profound peace. If we had advanced to the agricultural directors, and their commissioners |