treat from service was not always volun- his opinion) deprived the crown of that a still stronger circumstance existed: there were individuals who had been deprived by the act of last session, of the expectation of emoluments to which they had a title under two former acts of parliament. By the act of the 49th of the King, c. 36, and by an act passed only two weeks before the act of last session, founded on the Report of the Finance Committee, the crown was empowered to act of last session had passed with the general approbation of the country; and it was not to be disturbed, because a claim was made for two or three individuals, who, he had shewn, had not suffered by it so extensively as many others. Besides, the supporters of the Bill asserted, that all they wanted was to put these gentlemen in the situation in which they were before the act of last session. Now that was im possible. To agree to the proposed Bill, would be to give to the claims of the fo reign ministers a sanction which they never before enjoyed. The Chancellor of the Exchequer contended, that whatever might be the merits of the Bill before the House, it would not afford such a dangerous precedent as was apprehended by his hon. friend. With respect to the operation of the act of last session, on those individuals who had expectances on the fund of Old Stores, he did not believe that the previous practice of government had been such as to induce any of those individuals to imagine, that they had a claim on that fund (3 A) it was his intention to institute some proseeding on the subject. He did not wish to dwell on the peculiar hardship of the case; but he could not help observing, that this man, who had no friends, had been selected as the subject of a prosecu tion for that which almost every banker and principal tradesman had been guilty of for years. He had been convicted on an old act of parliament made in the reign of Edward 6. He could have wished to have entered more at large into the subject, and to have argued on the nature of the provisions of that act, to ascertain if they were sufficiently comprehensive to reach such a case. He repeated, it was his intention to give notice, that if the case was not likely to be argued in the ensuing term, he should make a specific motion on the subject, not merely with a view to the hardship of the case, but in order to propose an alteration of the law, or perhaps a repeal of the act under which Mr. De Yonge had been convicted. to a greater extent than that which remained after the passing of the act. And as to the Excise Officers, of whom his hop. friend said, that the act of last session had deprived them of expectant rights vested in them by two former acts, the fact was, that in some respects the claims were increased by the last act; for it was provided by it that, after a certain age, not three fourths merely, but the whole of his salary should be allowed to an officer. It was obvious also that the number, who had the slightest shadow of justice for complaint, must be confined to those who entered as clerks in that department of the public service during the short period, a twelvemonth, between the passing of the first of the acts alluded to by his honourable friend, and the passing of the act founded on the Report of the Finance Committee. Nothing could be more clear than that those who had entered the service before that period were not at all entitled to complain of disappointed expec The Attorney General thought those who had heard the noble lord must be led to imagine that some improper delay had taken place. When the question was put to him by the noble lord some time ago, The Bill was then read a third time and the courts were not sitting. It being subpassed. term beingended when the question was put, and the next not begun when the subject was again brought forward. He was not aware the prosecution had been dropped, and expected the point reserved would be argued in the ensuing term. While on his legs, the House would perhaps allow him to reply to a charge preferred against him some time before by the noble lord, for dropping a prosecution against a Mr. Collier for printing a libel. He had now the satisfaction of saying-satisfaction for himself, as it enabled him to repel the charge-that he had heard the next day, that Mr. Collier had been tried at Lancashire and convicted. sequent to the last term, he had then replied, that the case remained to be argued, CASE OF DE YONGE FOR SELLING GUI- and that he was ready to argue it when NEAS.] On the order of the day being called upon. He wished it to be observed, read for the House resolving itself into a that it was impossible for it to have been Committee of Supply, argued between that time and this, there havLord Folkestone rose. He wished, being been no opportunity since; the one fore the House resolved itself into the Committee, to call their attention to a subject which had already been mention ed by him once or twice in the course of the session, but on which he had received no satisfactory information. He alluded to the case of a person convicted some time ago of selling guineas-a Mr. De Yonge. This circumstance took place during the last session of parliament. The question, however, had not been finally decided upon; a point being reserved to be argued in the Exchequer Chambers. Early in the present session, he had inquired of the Attorney General whether any further proceedings were likely to take place? To this the Attorney General had replied, that he was ready to argue the case whenever called upon by the judges to do so: but as he had not been so called upon, he wished now to give notice, that if the point was not decided in the course of the ensuing term, Lord Folkestone observed that the statement of the learned gent. was irrelevant; and was proceeding to offer some further remarks, when The Chancellor of the Exchequer spoke to order. He was surprised to hear the noble lord complain that the statement of his learned friend was irrelevant, when the Lord Folkestone insisted that his con- The Speaker remarked that the noble lord had a right to ask a question, but not to make a second speech. i A motion was then made, That the Estimates of the Store-keeper-General's department should be referred to the Committee of Supply. On the question being put, Lord Folkestone said he had a right now to say what the right hon. gent. had refused to let him say before on the former question. The Speaker requested the noble lord to sit down. It was not regular for a member so to rise. The House was to decide, whether or not its laws should be neglected. Mr. Whitbread thought it was not the law of the House, it at least had been the practice, as he had instanced on one or two occasions. He gave it as his opinion, that the noble lord was entitled to such an indulgence from the practice of the House. He meant no disrespect to the Speaker, but left it to him and to the House to decide. REPORT OF THE BULLION COMMITTEE.] Mr. Horner stated, that having understood that his hon. and learned friend (Mr. Abercromby) had given a notice in his absence of his intention on that day to fix the period and declare the mode in which he proposed to bring forward this discussion, he now rose to state what appeared to him to be the most expedient course of proceeding. In the first place, as to the mode, it had been his earlier intention to move for leave to bring in a bill for the repeal of the Bank Restriction Act. He found since, on consulting with some gentlemen, to whose experience of par liamentary business he was bound to pay the greatest deference, that the most advisable mode would be to submit some previous Resolutions, expressive of the general opinion of the House on the question at issue, and which Resolutions might lay a foundation for a subsequent and more conclusive series of measures. He apprehended that this would be done in the best manner in a committee of the whole House; and if the right hon. gent, opposite should entertain a similar opinion, he was desirous of making it immediately an order of the day, that the House should go into a committee for this purpose on Monday the 29th of April. If there should be any objection to this suggestion. he begged that he might now be considered The Speaker replied, the rule of the as giving a general notice on the subject House was one thing; its indulgence ano. of his intention to bring on the discussion ther. If it was their pleasure, they very soon after the recess. As to the could then indulge the noble lord. In consideration of time, he was extremely some instances such indulgence might sorry that a delay of such duration had be more inconvenient than at others. taken place; but he trusted that when the nature of the business in which parliament at its first assembling, had been engaged, was remembered; and the necessity he was under of attending his professional avocations in the country, he should stand acquitted of blame.-Indeed he could not help thinking that the interval which had thus been suffered to elapse would be far from proving productive of any injurious consequences to the discussion. It had been alledged, that the causes of the present condition of our paper curThe Attorney General assured the noble rency were quite of a temporary nature, and lord, that if, on a former occasion, heit might therefore be well to allow the force (lord F.) had corrected the misapprehension on his part, he (the Attorney General) would not have brought forward the subject on the present occasion; but as he did not correct him when he mentioned the circumstance before, he had no idea that he had misunderstood the noble lord. 7 The Attorney General would be very sorry the noble lord should be refused an opportunity of replying to any thing he had said. Lord Folkestone did not intend to detain the House. The Attorney General had said, that he had charged him with having dropped the prosecution instituted against Mr. Collier, and had seemed to triumph over him on the occasion. The noble lord denied ever having preferred such a charge. of this argument to be fairly tried. He had hoped for an opportunity of introducing the question on some day before the recess, but as the present was certainly too late an hour, and there was no clear day before the holidays, he would propose, if the course he had suggested was approved, to move "That the Report of the Bullion Committee be referred to a Committee of the whole House on Monday the 29th of April." Mr. Rose observed, that he felt no objection to the mode proposed by the hon. gent. considering, as he did, that the question ought to be discussed in a Committee; but, at the same time, he must remark, that in his opinion, there had been a great and unnecessary delay in bringing forward this motion. He knew that it would not have been regular in any member of the House to take the matter out of the hands of the hon. and learned member, who had acted as chairman of the Bullion Committee. Parliament had however, been sitting between nine and ten weeks, and this was the first intimation which the learned gent. had given of bring ing that Report under consideration. He had, indeed, before given notice of a specific motion, but this he had thought proper to abandon. The Report had been published five months before the session of parliament, and two more had since passed, during all, which time it had excited a deep interest, and had been the subject of very general discussion, and at length the hon. and learned gent. had named a distant day, which would likewise most probably be an inconvenient one, and one on which a full attendance could hardly be expected. Mr. Horner trusted that he should be excused in rising a second time, when it was for the purpose of vindicating himself from imputations, the application of which, if just, he should greatly deplore. Was he really deserving of blame for not bringing on such a discussion at so late an hour as ten o'clock at night? (No, no, from the Treasury Bench !)-If such an accusation was disclaimed, was it meant to insinuate that he was not prepared for the consideration of the question on an earlier day, than that which he had nam ed? He assured the right hon. gent. that he was perfectly ready to enter on the discussion either on Monday next, or even that night, if it should be deemed desirable by the House. As to the general charge of delay, how did it apply? The Report was published in August, and parliament assembled under peculiar circumstances some time before Christmas. When those circumstances were recollected he did not believe that any hon. member could candidly attribute to him any unnecessary wilful procrastination. The right hon. gent. had indeed himself moved, at a con. siderably subsequent period, for the production of several voluminous accounts, which he considered necessary to the elu cidation of the question. He (Mr. Horner) had, in consequence of those motions, required some time properly to understand the nature and bearings of those accounts, at least to divine what possible connection they had with the object in view. He had not had it in his power to be in town at an earlier period, and his wish in now naming the 29th of April, was that the order should be some time on the book, in order that the House should have full notice, and come properly prepared for the discussion. He appealed, therefore, to the candour of the House, and to its justice, he would not say to its indulgence, which a other times he might have had occasion to claim, whether the right hon. gentleman's censure was not unfounded. Did the right hon. gent. believe that any such material alteration had taken place, or that the question presented itself in so new a shape and so different from that which it had first assumed, as to inspire him with any additional confidence or sentiment of triumph? Did he indeed believe that recent circum stances had so changed the state of the question, as to induce on his part or on that of his hon. friends any desire to recede from their former opinions? Was the late proceeding of the Bank calculated to procure from him a surrender of his sentiments, or to persuade him to shrink from the discussion? The impatience of the right hon. gent. might easily be traced to an apprehension that other and similar proceedings were about to follow, which would perhaps be much facilitated by previously dispatching the Report of the Bullion Committee. It would have been convenient, too, perhaps, if that discussion could have been terminated prior to the late operation of the Bank. Satisfied he was that upon the event of that discussion depended the recurrence of si milar proceedings, and the consequent increase of all the mischief and calamity involved in it. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that he should not object to the course proposed by the hon. and learned gent. He thought that it might be useful that some interval should take place between the notice for the discussion, and the discussion itself. He had, however, experienced a very strong sentiment of regret at the length of the delay in bringing the 4 Report under parliamentary consideration, ver, was just, it was manifest that a depre ciation had taken place, and this depreciation could only arise from an excess in the issues of the Bank. The directors had, however, denied the possibility of any such excess, because their advances were made only on good bills or sufficient mer cantile securities. This was the opi nion on which those gentlemen contended, that there could not be any excess in the circulation of their notes, so long as they ad hered to this regulation. It was therefore necessary, he conceived, under these circumstances, that the Hause should be fure nished with an account of the actual amount of the Discounts of the Bank, in order fairly to try the justness of their own principle. It was most important that the great principle by which the affairs of such a corporation as the Bank of Eng land were conducted, should be thoroughly examined. If the bistory of all the Banks of discount of which he bad beard, shewed that they had all occasionally carried their discounts too far, and that this was the great danger to which such establishments were exposed, even when under the obligation of paying in specie, it was surely justifiable in him to assume the possibi Mr. Tierney observed, that his hon. friend had been most nucandidly and unjustly accused of wishing to delay the discussion. The right hon. gent. was certainly in more haste; he appeared to be very anxious for the argument, but to feel little care as to its being understood. He knew not syhether this arose from his confidence in numbers, but the right hon, gent. who so strongly condemned the Report, should have objected to the appointment of the Committee, who had only obeyed the orders of the House in probing the matter to the bottom. The right hon. gent. seem ed to think that when this House had got rid of the Report, no matter how, public opinion would be perfectly settled. He questioned much whether the mere authority of the House would have the effect of setting the question at rest. He must how-lity of the Bank of England having fallen ever, do the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the justice to say, that he had not supported his right hon. friend (Mr. Rose) in his attack on the hon. chairman of the Bullion Committee. But he was quite as sanguine in bis anticipations of success, and ap. peared to be clated at the prospect of this tremendous discussion, and a glorious yictory on the 29th of April. The right hon. gent. had certainly not been inactive in circulating his own opinions on the subject, or in his endeavours to counteract the impression which the Report of the Committee might have made. Before he sat down he could not avoid saying, that the House and the country were greatly indebted to his hon. and learned friend (Mr. Horner) for the unremitting attention he had paid to a subject which, in its importance to the interests of this country, exoceded any which his parliamentary experience brought to his recollection. The motion was then agreed to. COMMERCIAL DISCOUNTS OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND. Mr. Huskisson observed, that if the principle assumed in the Report of the Bullion Committee, namely, that the depreciation of our currency must be tried by the relative value of gold and sil into the same error, under the circum If |