CHAPTER XXXVI.
GEORGE IV. 1826—1827
Meeting of Parliament..... Measures proposed for relieving commercial Distress..... Bill to enable private Banks to have an unlimited Number of Partners, &c..... Appointment of a Committee on Emigration..... Modification of the Corn- Laws..... Debates on Free trade..... Financial Statements..... Bill to prevent Bribery at Elections..... Parliamentary Reform..... Alteration of the criminal Code..... Case of Mr. Kenriek..... State of the Colonies..... Motion for amending the Representation of Edinburgh, &c...... Resolution for the Regulation of private Committees..... Motion to disjoin the Presidency of the Board of Trade from the Treasurership of the Navy...... Motion to hold Parliament occasionally in Dublin and Edinburgh..... Restoration of forfeited Scotch Peerages..... Catholic Emancipation, &c..... India Jury Bill, &e...... Naturalization Act, &c...... Prorogation and Dissolution of Parliament..... General Election..... The Burmese War..... Meeting of the New Parliament..... Motion for a select Committee on Joint Stock Companies, &c..... King’s Message respecting the Conduct of Spain, &e...... Resolutions against Bribery at Elections.
MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
A.D. 1826
Parliament reassembled on the 2nd of February, when the speech was again delivered by commission. Its principal topic was the depression of manufactures and commerce which still existed. The commissioners remarked:—“We are commanded by his majesty to inform you that his majesty has seen with regret the embarrassment which has occurred in the pecuniary transactions of the country since the close of the last session of parliament. This embarrassment did not arise from any political events, either at home or abroad. It was not produced by any unexpected demand upon the public resources, nor by the apprehension of any interruption to the general tranquillity. Some of the causes to which this evil must be attributed lie without the reach of direct parliamentary interposition; nor can security against the recurrence of them be found, unless in the experience of the sufferings which they have occasioned. But to a certain portion of this evil, correctives, at least, if not actual remedies, may be applied; and his majesty relies upon your wisdom to devise such measures as may tend to protect both private and public interests against the like sudden and violent fluctuations, by placing on a more firm foundation the currency and circulating credit of the country.” The commissioners further stated that they had his majesty’s commands to lay before parliament copies of conventions, founded on the acts relative to trade and commerce passed last session, which had been concluded with France, and the Hanseatic towns of Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburg. They concluded by stating that his majesty’s attention had been directed to certain measures recommended in the last session of parliament for the improvement of Ireland, and that his majesty had the satisfaction of acquainting the peers and members assembled, that the industry of that part of the United Kingdom was in the course of a gradual and general advancement; an advancement mainly attributable to the tranquillity which now prevailed in that country. The addresses in both houses passed without any serious opposition, although much discussion took place on every topic on which the speech touched, and on some to which it made no allusion. In the upper house Lord King, after ascribing the pecuniary embarrassments to over-issues of paper money by the Bank of England, attacked the corn-laws, and urged the necessity of a complete alteration in them. He moved an amendment to the address, pledging the house to revise the corn-laws in this session; but this proposal was resisted as too precipitate, and the amendment was negatived without a division. The principal object of Lord King, however, and of other peers who spoke on the occasion, was to elicit from the minister some general description of the measures alluded to in the speech, as likely to be proposed for the purpose of preventing future pecuniary embarrassments. Lord Liverpool, in gratifying them, attributed the embarrassments to the mad spirit of speculation which had existed for the last two years; a spirit doubly mischievous, because it had affected the issues of the country banks to such a degree that they had increased in a far higher proportion than those of the Bank of England. He showed that in the course of the last two years the issues of the country banks had increased from four to eight millions. The correctives government intended to apply were to prohibit the circulation, after a certain period, of notes under £2, whether issued by the Bank of England, or by any private banker; to increase the stability of private banks by enabling them to augment their capital; and to repeal that clause in the charter of the Bank of England which rendered it unlawful for any private banking establishment to consist of more than six partners. In the commons, on the occasion of the debate on the address, Mr. Brougham stated that he believed that the distress now existing proceeded from causes much more complicated than those to which the speech ascribed to it. He believed it to be universal; and he took occasion to combat the opinion of those who derived it from the late introduction of more liberal principles into a commercial policy. He remarked.—“If the embarrassment were confined to any one branch of our commerce, for instance, to the silk trade, then an argument might be raised, and, without any great violence to facts, the distress might be attributed to our new commercial policy. But when it is observed that not only silk, but wool, cotton, and linen are equally affected, it is in vain to deny that the nature of the facts rebut the assertion of any connexion between the present distress and the principles of free trade.” The chancellor of the exchequer maintained that many of the difficulties arose beyond the control of government, although he allowed that some were within its reach, and that their influence might at least be modified. The principal of these, he said, were the great increase of the issues of the country banks, and the weak foundation on which many of these establishments stood in point of capital. Mr. Hume denied this hypothesis, and maintained that the true causes of the distress were to be found in the pressure of taxation, and the lavish expenditure of government. The whole empire, he said, presented one scene of extravagant misrule, from the gold lace and absurd paraphernalia of military decoration of the guards up to the mismanagement of the Burmese war: it was a farce, he added, to attribute the distress to the banking system. Other members defended the country banks from the imputations cast upon them; and Mr. Baring passed a high eulogy on the conduct of the directors of the Bank of England in this crisis. He remarked that it was impossible for any public body, for any set of men, to have acted with more honour, promptitude, or good sense, than the Bank evinced upon that emergency. Although it was not till the 10th that the propositions for proscribing the small notes and enlarging bank partnerships were formally brought forward, yet they were incidentally up to that period the subject of discussion. The views of different members on the subject, however, will be better seen in the debates which ensued when the measure was proposed.