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Mr. Robertson called the attention of the House to one or two facts connected with this subject. It was said, that 30 per cent was a protecting duty for our silks; but he knew that wrought silks could be introduced, both from India and from France, at such a rate as to compete with our manufacturers when putting the raw material into the loom. Would the House, then, allow ministers to persevere persevere in a system which would destroy a trade that the country had been nursing for ages? To compete with the French was impossible. They had a particular kind of silk which they never allowed to go forth but in a manufactured state. Let that silk be brought into our market, and it would be bought up at whatever price by our fashionables. These silks, once introduced, would drive our produce out of the market. Was the English manufacturer, with a load of debt hanging like a millstone round his neck, to be compelled to a competition with the French manufacturer, whose debt sat so lightly upon him that it was not felt as a burthen? Were they to tolerate such a proceeding? Let them call upon ministers to put this part of their new measures at rest. How else were they to get out of the difficulties and distresses under which the country laboured, unless by giving every stimulus to industry, which was at present at a stand. The labouring classes were without employment, and the means of procuring food or raiment; and yet ministers persisted in subjecting the manufacturers to the competition of cheaper markets.

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great hopes were entertained by them that the House would defend them agains the ruin which awaited them from the measures pursued by government. He had no great confidence in that source of relief, when he recollected how hi own objections to the measure had fared two years ago. But the public minc should be set at rest. The master silk weavers could not find employment fo their people until their own fate wa known. Whether right or wrong, the all said, that if French silk goods wer let in, there was no chance of selling single yard of English silk. He coule not approve of hearing them in a com mittee, because of the delay which woul follow. Nor did he hope, if the commit tee were allowed, that they would be abl to make out the case, that it was impos sible for the English manufacture of silk to bear the competition of a free trade The case which they had made out to him had left his mind without the shadow of a doubt. Still, the question ought to be set at rest by a bill. The conduct o government justified a suspicion, tha they would not scruple to take libertie with the law. The late order to preven the issuing of stamps from the Stamp office, was a direct violation of the exist ing law. He was anxious to get rid o the one and two pound notes, but h wished to see them abolished gradually and by legal means. He had to complai of a similar infraction with respect to th silk laws. A duty of 7s. 6d. a pound ha been laid upon thrown silk. He had sai at the time, that every penny of that pro tecting duty on thrown silk, must so fa sacrifice the interest of the manufacturer An order had lately gone down to state that it was the intention of government t reduce that duty 2s. 6d., or from that t 3s., as they found that 5s. was a sufficien protection for the throwsters; so com pletely ignorant were ministers of tha interest, concerning which they were s ready to advise enactments. As if th law and the parliament were as nothin compared with their own notions, the undertook to accept 5s. per lb. upon an article which was to have paid the stat 7s. 6d. per lb. This was a strong case and, like the other, might be justifiabl by circumstances. But if so, it was th bounden duty of ministers, to have state them to parliament, and sought protectio from the offended law in a bill of indem nity. The whole trade was unhinged

Mr. Baring presented a petition from Taunton, against the introduction of French silks, which, he said, deserved the serious consideration of the House. The subject, he hoped, would undergo discussion at an early period, seeing that hundreds of thousands of people anticipated ruin and starvation from the importation of foreign silks. . It was not now the time for him to go into that discussion; though it would be very desirable if the president of the Board of Trade could contrive to be in his place when petitions of this nature were sure to come on. He hoped to see the question set at rest. The conviction on his own mind was settled long ago. What he wished to see was, whether or no the House would support ministers in their desperate resolution. Great anxiety existed among the silk manufacturers, and

straits. What he wished was, to impress the minds of ministers with the necessity of speedily taking their case into consideration. The petitioners had requested him to remove an impression which had been made by the hon. baronet (sir T. Lethbridge), that they were satisfied with the corn laws. They had directed him to contradict that statement. Their impression, on the contrary, was, that the principle of free trade must be greatly injurious to the general interests, unless it were extended to corn.

chiefly supported by the warrant of the magistrate. This state of things could not last. What was to follow it? Clearly starvation. He called upon the landed and manufacturing interests to induce ministers to forego a plan which must ruin them all.

Sir T. Lethbridge said, that the hon. member for Taunton had mistaken his expressions, both as to time and meaning. It was not on a petition which he had presented, but in the course of the observations which were made on the report of the Address that he had stated that which he believed to be perfectly correct; namely, that the great body of the ma

charge of the duties of his office, and from which he had repaired to the House. He knew that this apology was inadequate to the occasion; but it was the best he had to offer. As to the order of the Treasury to lower the duty on thrown silk, it was a mistake to state that it was done without authority from parliament. The board of trade having satisfied themselves, that 5s. was a sufficient protection, they had directed so much of the duty to be taken, and that bonds should be given for the excess of 2s. 6d. per pound, should parliament not concur with the government. The House would see at once, that the whole of the duty was secured to the public, should parliament think proper to exact it, and that ministers had by no means assumed a dispensing power over it. He would not now go into the discussion of the deranged state of the trade and currency of the country. When the subject was brought forward in the regular and formal manner, he should be quite prepared to meet the objections to the regulations in the silk trade, and all the other alterations in the commercial system which parliament had adopted. The hon. gentleman himself had given his sanction to much of what had been done; and there certainly was nothing more desirable, than that this matter should be fully discussed in that House.

Mr. Davenport implored ministers to take the subject of the silk trade again into consideration. He gave them credit for their intentions; but the consequences of their measures were just such as, two years ago, he had predicted. Open the ports of England, he had said, to foreign silk, and the home manufacturer must be ruined. In his neighbourhood, thousands

the corn question than before. He had never taken upon him to say, that the manufacturers would have no complaints about the price of corn, however high; but only that, in the present state of the price of provisions, they did not complain of the Corn laws, but of the destruction of their trade. And, indeed, in their present condition, it would not be surprising if they were to complain of the price of provisions, however low. Yet, to be candid, he could not but look upon this alteration of the silk trade as an outwork to a similar alteration in the Corn laws, which, if not directly touched, was so by a side-wind, tending at no distant period to an open trade in corn. From the distress resulting to the manufacturers from this first attempt, the House might be called upon to consider of a similar alteration in the corn trade. He thought that, if the intentions of government bore that way, the more manly course would have been to begin with the corn trade. For his own part, he must oppose any proposition like that of a free trade of corn. As long as the national debt remained, no such thing could be listened to. The country could not support that competition and its present burthens together. He would be as glad as any to see low prices, but high prices there must be. The prices must be kept up by an import duty, amounting to an absolute prohibition, so long as the interest of the national debt was to be paid.

Mr. Ellice said, that the hon. baronet was certainly right in considering this measure as the outwork of an attack on the Corn laws. If the principle of freedom was to be applied to other trades, it ought to be applied to the trade in corn. facturers, a great uncertainty prevailed in the public mind upon that subject. He intended shortly to move to have all the petitions referred to a committee. Much useful light had already been thrown on this subject, and much more might be expected. It was the opinion of persons who had the best continental intelligence, that unless there was a great improvement in machinery, and a great reduction in the price of corn, they could not proceed with this bill, without throwing out of employment the great mass of people engaged in the trade. Whether that trade could be built up again, was another question; but the present ruinous effect was clearly contemplated. The bill had, notwithstanding, one good effect. It had induced the silk manufacturers to institute a full inquiry into the state of their trade, and the result was a conviction on their part, that the foreign competition would prove ruinous to the home manufacturer.

Mr. Baring said, he had never encouraged this particular measure respecting silk: on the contrary, he was almost the only person who had raised his voice against it from the outset. Still it was rather hard, he must admit, to throw the whole responsibility of the bill upon ministers, since it had passed through the House with almost unanimous approbation. He was old enough to know, that those measures were not always the best and wisest which received the readiest acquiescence of that House.

Mr. Huskisson said, he never intended to intimate that his hon. friend had supported this particular measure. All he meant to state was, that the opening of the colonial trade, and the removal of the duty on the raw material, had his hon. friend's approbation.

Ordered to lie on the table.

tions from government, to obtain information respecting the corn trade of those countries in Europe from which England imported grain. He had returned, after making all the necessary inquiries, and a very few days ago had put into his hands, a report of great extent. It contained 150 folio pages, together with a voluminous appendix. As yet he had been unable to read the report. As far as he knew of it, however, he had no reason to think that the gentleman had not obeyed his instructions; and if this should continue to be his opinion after a perusal of the report, he knew of nothing which ought to prevent its being laid before parliament.

BANK OF ENGLAND BALANCES, &c.] Mr. Grenfell said, that although the accounts for which he was about to move were generally granted without opposition, he hoped, under the particular circumstances of the times, that he should be allowed a brief explanation of his views as connected with them. The accounts referred first to the balances lodged by the government, for the public, in the Bank; and next, to the charges for the management of the public debt, and other services performed by the Bank for the public. It was, perhaps, in the recollection of those who now heard him, that when he had first called the attention of parliament to the affairs of the Bank, the production of these accounts was resisted, not only by that corporation, but by the then chancellor of the Exchequer. After, however, a two or three years perseverance in calling for them, the resistance gave way, and on every successive year that he had since called for them, they were yielded without a struggle. It was thought by many, that the publicity which had been given to the transactions between the government and the Bank had been productive of public good. And, when he considered the approaching period of the expiration of the charter-a charter which he hoped and trusted would expire-he thought that, as the question between the Bank and the public was about to terminate, he should be allowed to say a few words for perhaps the last time, on the state of their affairs. The first class of accounts which he now called for related to the deposits of public money lodged in the Bank for current use, in the same manner as any gentleman kept his cash account at his private banker's. He remembered that, at one time, the average amount of the public balance so placed for ten or twelve years amounted to no less a sum than eleven or twelve millions a year. Of late years this amount had, it was true, considerably decreased. In 1821, it was diminished to 3,900,000l. In 1822, to 4,200,000i. In 1823, to 5,200,000l. In 1824, to 7,200,000%. He was quite sure, that no practical man at all conversant with the value of these lodgments, would deny the advantage which they must confer upon the Bank; and he must repeat what he had often asserted, that the nature of the service performed by the Bank for the public, as compared with the profits accruing from the use of such large deposits, was so trifling, as hardly to admit of calculation in any proper settlement of these transactions. It was right to call the public attention to this circumstance; for when the period arrived of the expiration of the Bank charter, it would be for the government to consider what bargain it would renew for the transaction of the public business with the present Bank (for he thought it would still be preferable to deal with them); or whether a second bank on a large scale would agree to give the public a participation in the profits arising from the heavy balances in hand, and take such a sum as 10 or 20,000l. a year for the management of the national business. At all events, the public ought, whenever the bargain was again made, to receive a large participation in the profits derived from the use of so many millions of their own money. Let them consider how the public cash account stood at the Bank of England. The Bank had advanced 15,000,000l., the whole of its capital, to the public, at 3 per cent interest, and this large premium they were receiving for the year 1824, while they actually were holders of nearly seven millions and a half of the money of that same public. Surely there ought to be a balance of mutual profit struck, under circumstances like these. The next subject that he wished to refer to was the allowance made by the public to the Bank for the management of the public debt. The trouble of this management consisted in the daily transfer of Stock, and the payment of the annual dividends to the public. It was due to the Bank to say, that the whole of this business was invariably performed with promptitude, exactness,

and diligence; that, in fact, nothing could be better done; and there was only one complaint to be made respecting it, which was, that the price for the work was much too high. When the charter should expire, he hoped this matter would also be taken into consideration; indeed, on an equitable revision of this part of the bargain, the public ought to save 250,000l. The hon. member then concluded by moving for the said accounts.

Mr. Pearse said, he had no objection, on the part of the Bank, to the production of these accounts; but he would not, on the present occasion, go into the merits of the public bargain with the Bank, or the terms which ought to accompany the contingent respecting their charter. He hoped that important subject would in due time be gravely considered; not as it regarded the Bank itself, but as it would best serve the government and the country. They would at least come to the discussion with the full knowledge of the eminent services performed by the Bank for the public, when that corporation had stood in the gap, and effected what, upon emergencies, legislative interposition would have failed to accomplish. What the consequences to the public would be, if there were not such an establishment in existence in its chartered form, he would leave others to anticipate. As to the allowances to the Bank, it would be time enough to discuss their amount when the charter was under consideration; but really when the hon. gentleman thought proper to estimate the services performed by the Bank, he should not keep back the immense risks and losses which they incurred, in transacting the public business. On a late occasion they had lost by the forgeries of a single person above 250,000l., and this, too, in the execution of the public business, and so contrived by the individual, that although the strictest inquiry was made into the conduct of the Bank clerks, in no single instance could negligence or impropriety be attributed to any one of them for it. There were other losses of the same character continually happening, which must be taken into the scale of estimating the advantages derived by the Bank from its connexion with the pecuniary business of the public. He regretted the allusions to the charter, and that the existence of it should be imputed as a matter of grave accusation to government. He hoped when the proper time for discussion arrived, that gentlemen would not be governed by passion in their consideration of it, but be influenced by the principles of reason and sound sense.

Mr. Humehoped, that the time had come when all those exclusive charters were to be abolished, by which the community at large always suffered for the gain of a few. Full of faults as was the paper lately sent by the government to the Bank, he entirely concurred in that passage of it which put an end to the hope of a renewal of the Bank charter. As the word "lottery" was introduced in the accounts called for, he was anxious to know how it had happened that the pledge given by the government two or three years ago for the extinction of lotteries in that year had not been fulfilled? It seemed to him that these lotteries were to be carried on perpetually; two of them were still advertised. How had this happened? The Chancellor of the Exchequer replied, that on the subject of lotteries it was true, and he ought to take blame to himself that it was so, that when he had brought in his former bill, an adequate provision was not made for their speedier extinction. When he had moved the resolution in the year 1823, upon which the lottery bill was founded, he was not sufficiently aware of the mode in which these lotteries were practically conducted. It was never the custom, he had since ascertained, that they should be drawn in the same year, for the service of which they had been voted. The consequence was, that the lottery for one year spread over one or more future years, and hence arose the apparent inconsistency between the pledge he had given and the fact which the hon. member had stated, of the prolongation of these lotteries. There were now, however, only two of them remaining to be drawn, and these must be concluded within the present year, and he pledged himself that they should be the last.

Mr. Robertson condemned in the strongest terms the policy of government, in breaking down the old commercial system of the country, to make way for theoretical notions of a mischievous tendency. He alluded chiefly to the condition into which the silk trade had been thrown, and the manner in which government, whilst sweeping away other charters, were ready to set up a charter against that class of traders who deserved their

The motion was agreed to. Mr. Ellice gave notice that on Thursday next, he would move for an account of all the issues of gold coin at the Bank from July 1823 to the 1st of February 1826. In 1823, he believed the 11. and 21. notes had been entirely withdrawn from circulation, and he meant to show what portion of the amount had been supplied by specie, for the purpose of exposing the fallacy which prevailed respecting the real quantity of cash required for the circulation of the country. There was a great deal of gold coin, it should be always remembered, which remained in the hands of bankers, without being issued at all in the manner supposed. He should move for these returns, that the House might be in possession of all the information of which the subject was susceptible. On the present occasion, he begged to move for a return of Bank notes in circulation on the 1st and 15th of each month, for six months, to the 1st of February inclusive, and the same return of Bank post bills.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, whilo he had no objection to the production of these returns, because, under existing circumstances, he thought a case was made out to call for them, begged to enter his protest against such motions being considered as mere matters of course. Neither the Bank nor the government opposed the production of these returns; protesting, however, against their consent being taken as a matter of course.

Mr. Pearse thanked the right hon. gentleman for the manner in which he had delivered the consent of the Bank; for certainly this information ought not always to be given as a matter of right. Indeed so impressed were the Bank proprietors of the injury to the public interests which might follow these constant disclosures of the state of the Bank affairs, that they had by large majorities refused to grant them in general courts. The directors were ready to give every necessary information; though he renewed their protest against its being called for as a matter of course.

Mr. Monck condemned this mystery on the part of the Bank of England, and preferred publicity as by far the better course, both for the Bank and the country. They had the example of the Bank of France in favour of the public inspection of such accounts, and it ought to encourage similar publicity in this country. M