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relief to be afforded by their removal, was stated at 255,7681., being within a few thousand pounds of what he had described as necessary.

His lordship concluded with detailing certain prospective regulations which would be necessary for upholding the proper splendour of the crown. The principal topic in this part of the detail was the necessity of a new officer, who should act as the representative of the treasury in the superintendance of the whole civil list expenditure; who should have all facility of communicating with the different departments, and of calling the officers before him and inspecting their accounts; and who should thus be ena bled to controul extravagance in every point, and to make proper representations to the treasury whenever he should see occasion. His lordship proposed, that the salary annexed to this office should be 1500l.

through both Houses by a large majority.

The same charges made by the opposition against the civil list, were, on various occasions during the session, brought against various other departments of the public expence. One of the most conspicuous of these occasions was that on which Mr Tierney brought forward his motion with regard to the offices of the seeretaries of state, According to the view given by this member, the old establishment of two secretaries of state had been, increased by the addition of a third in the year 1794, solely on account of the war; and that having ceased, the officer created on account of it should, he alleged, be immediately discontinued. In reply to these observations, Mr Golbourn and Mr Addington stated, that the immense additional labour which had, within the last 20 years, become necessary in the management of our colonies, had alone been more than enough to justify the creation of an additional secretary.

On the 6th of the month, Mr Tierney entered into a long and detailed examination of the various accounts The personal and bitter recriminasubmitted to the House by the ministers, in order to guide their judgment tions lavished by the two parties against The each other upon this occasion need not respecting the civil list bill. charges of extravagance and profu- be embodied in the annals of the time. sion which he brought against almost The increase which has obviously taevery department of these, were an- ken place in our population and in our swered, chiefly by statements of detail, power, seems to afford some presumpby Lord Castlereagh and the Chan- tion, that the labours of another great cellor of the Exchequer. Upon the state officer might not be unnecessary. whole, it would seem that the attacks We believe that, in the midst of all made on the personal expenditure of the zeal of their debates, no charge of the Regent were by no means merited idleness was brought against any of by the late conduct of that prince; the persons actually filling any of these that his situation, as it was one with high and responsible situations. From out precedent, so it might have occa- the statement given by Mr Addingsioned some expences (such as build-ton, it would appear, that even the ing, &c.) a little out of the ordinary course, but that, on the whole, he had been endeavouring, and that successfully, to suit his expence to the situation of the country. In the end, the bill of Lord Castlereagh was carried

toils of professional men, active and eager in their professions, admit of greater intervals of repose, and demand, during their continuance, a less intense application, than the exertions of the persons filling these high official

2

situations, which, in our country, are never adequately rewarded, except by the honour of worthily discharging them. The House rejected the motion of Mr Tierney by a large majority. A similar attack was made by Mr Methuen upon certain regulations, whereby the salaries of the secretaries and clerks of the admiralty had been kept up at the rate of war salaries after the conclusion of the war. Lord Castlereagh alleged, that when the peace with America was concluded, the period of reduction might have been supposed to be arrived, but that the subsequent re-appearance of Buonaparte had demanded new hostilities, and new labours on the part of the officers in question, and had consequently rendered the continuance of their salaries at the war rate not only reasonable but indispensable. At a subsequent period of the session, however, it was declared by Mr Warrender, that there was no intention on the part of government of moving for any permament continuance of the salaries of the admiralty secretaries at the rate allowed during the war.

Another debate of a similar character occurred on the 7th of May, when Lord Althrope made a motion on the subject of the increase of, or diminution of, the salaries of public of ficers. His lordship mentioned, that this important subject was in the hands of a committee appointed by the trea sury, but that he was of opinion that no progress had been made by them in removing the grounds of public discontent, and that, therefore, the matter would be better in the hands of a committee of the whole House. The Chancellor of the Exchequer entered into a long detail of facts, with a view to prove that the charge against ministers was unfounded, and that the matter was already in excellent hands.

The motion was lost by a majority of 43.

Several important financial debates occurred this session, in consequence of the public transactions with the Bank, the nature of which, and the alleged grounds of suspicion concerning them, were in some measure explained in our last volume.* It will be recollected, that Mr Grenfell and Mr Mellish moved two counter sets of resolutions, stating their respective views concerning the state of the public transactions with the Bank, and that the House agreed to take up the discussion of both upon the same occasion.

The production of the accounts ordered towards the close of last session had not, in any measure, altered the opinion then expressed by Mr Grenfell respecting the unequal nature of the transactions with this immense corporation. On the 14th of March he made a long and most elaborate speech, which terminated in a recapitulation of the advantages gained to the Bank, and of the corresponding loss to the public, arising out of the possession by the Bank of the public balances since 1806, assuming the ag gregate amount during the whole of this period to have been about eleven millions and a half. According to this statement, in 1806, the Bank advanced a loan of three millions to the public, at three per cent., which reduced the aggregate amount of the deposits from eleven millions and a half to eight millions and a half,

The interest on eight millions and a half, is, per

annum.......

To which add interest on the loan of three mil lions........

Together.....

* See Edinburgh Annual Register for 1815, Part I. p. 23. et seq.

£425,000

90,000 515,000

From 1806, then, to 1808, the Bank held a public treasure, amounting to eight millions and a half, and made a profit thereon; or the public lost there. on an interest of money at the rate of 515,000l. per annum.

In 1808, the Bank advanced another loan of three millions, which reduced the deposits in their hands from eight millions and a half to five millions and a half.

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£275,000

$65,000

From 1808 then, to 1814, the Bank held a treasure belonging to the public of five millions and a half, and made a profit, or the public lost in interest of money thereon, at the rate of 365,000l. per annum.

to any gentleman by his private banker, they should therefore be paid at the same rate. Were it possible that any competition should occur as to the management of the public business, he was satisfied that any respectable banking-house in London would willingly undertake to do what the Bank of England does, for 25,000l. per annum, thus making a saving of nearly half a million to the public.

In addition to the immense gains derived by the Bank from the interest of the public balances, another great branch of their profits arises from the allowance possessed by them for ma90,000 naging the national debt. This allowance had been fixed by Sir Robert Walpole, in 1726, at 360l. per million, an allowance, as Mr Grenfell believed, perhaps not too much at the commencement of the business; but the subsequent immense increase in the amount of the national debt had by no means, he alleged, been attended with any thing like a corresponding increase of trouble to the Bank; on the contrary, the profits derived to them at a time when the debt exceeded ten hundred millions, must have been far beyond the contemplation of those who lived when it did not exceed two hundred millions, while a very small increase of establishment would be sufficient for managing the additional business occasioned by it. From motives unintelligible to the government, however, Mr Pitt had, in 1791, allowed the Bank 450/. instead of 360l. per million. This allowance had, in consequence of the labours of the finance committee of 1797, been reduced by Mr Percival in 1808 to 340l. per million, at which sum it now stood, but below which he had no doubt it ought to be still very far reduced. Various other items were enumerated by Mr Grenfell, in each and all of which he was of opinion an undue advantage was taken of the public by the monopoli

In 1814, the loan of 1806 was discharged, and the amount replaced in the possession of the Bank, by which the aggregate amount of deposits was again raised from five millions and a half to eight millions and a half. The interest on this is, per annum, 425,000l. "From 1814, then," said Mr Gren "fell, to the 5th April, 1816, the Bank will have held a public treasure of eight millions and a half, and we shall have been paying to the Bank at the rate of 425,000l. per annum, for taking care of it."

In return for this large annual sum of 425,000, it is fair, continued he, that we should enquire what services are rendered to the public by the Bank.. From every enquiry that he had been able to make, it appeared to him to be demonstrable, that the services rendered by the Bank to the public were exactly of the nature of those rendered

sing corporation of the Bank. Al. though he did not mean to propose at present any direct interference with that branch of the Bank's profits, there was one other item of its gains too important to be overlooked by the Bank itself in making its demands against the House in recovering them, -this was the profits gained by the Bank in consequence of the immense increase in the circulation of their paper, occasioned by the Bank Restric. tion Act, an increase giving rise, as he calculated it, to no less than an addition of 80,000l. to the gross annual profits of the Bank,

The conclusion of his speech was, that instead of borrowing six millions from the Bank at four per cent., we ought, in consideration of the extravagant profits lately made by them, to "borrow that sum," (if the word borrow could be properly applied on the occasion,) at no interest at all. The motion was, "That a select committee be appointed to enquire into the engagements now subsisting between the public and the Bank of England, and to consider the advantages derived by the Bank from its transactions with the public, with a view to the adoption of such future arrangements as may be consistent with those principles of good faith and equity which ought to prevail in all transactions between the public and the Bank of England."

On the representation of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that a more proper opportunity for considering these subjects would occur when in due course the Bauk restriction bill of the season should be brought before the House, Mr Grenfell's motion was lost. When that bill was read for the third time, accordingly, Mr Grenfell, whose indefatigable and disinterested exertions entitle him to the thanks of the public, again renewed his attack on the style of the transactions between the Bank and the public. The Chan

cellor of the Exchequer defended the equity of these transactions, and represented Mr Grenfell as having been carried into many, no doubt unintentional, over estimates of the profits gained by the corporation. A clause was, however, introduced into the preamble of the bill, as the Chancellor supposed, not against the consent of the Bank directors, which ran thus ;—" Whereas the Bank of England are possessed of certain sums of the public money, arising from balances of several public accounts, and are willing to advance," &c. But on its being discovered that through some accident the opinion of the directors respecting this clause had been mistaken, and after a debate in which Mr Baring and some other of the first bankers maintained the equity of the dealings of the Bank, the clause was withdrawn, and the bill passed in its original state by a majority of 116 to 56.

The subject of the Bank Restriction Act, above alluded to, was afterwards more directly brought before parliament by Mr Horner. The arguments and statements which that gentleman used, were in no ways different from those which he had already employed, and of which we have in a former volume given an account. The motion which he made on the present occasion was lost; but the Chancellor of the Exchequer expressly stated, that he had no intention of rendering the act perpetual; that steps had already been taken for preparing gradually the restoration of cash payments. and that at the end of two years he had no doubt they would be entirely resumed. An act for extending the Restriction Act till July the 5th, 1818, was accordingly passed.

The only other important matters of a financial nature which this year occupied the attention of parliament, were the consolidation of the English and Irish Exchequers, a measure, the

wisdom of which had been rendered abundantly perceptible by the experience of the years which had elapsed since the political union of the two countries; and the passing of an act

for a new silver coinage, a measure which had in like manner been loudly called for by all classes of the community.

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