141 

 THE BANK CHARTER. 



A PAMPHLET,* in opposition to the renewal of the charter of the 

 Bank of England, has made its appearance from the pen of that en- 

 lightened financier Sir H. Parnell. In its skilful arrangement, diligent 

 research, and clear exposition of a subject too long enveloped in the 

 mazes of mysterious fraud, we conceive that Sir Henry has added a 

 most valuable contribution to our stock of knowledge upon this all- 

 important subject, and aimed a well-directed and powerful blow at this 

 expiring monster of monopoly. 



In the first division of his pamphlet Sir Henry divides his remarks in 

 the following order : " Power of the Bank over the currency over 

 trade over the funds and over the government." His second chapter 

 consists of " Its abuse of power over the currency, as exemplified in the 

 cases of 1783, 1793, and 1797-" The next, and most important, treats of 

 the depreciation in the paper of the Bank, as in the cases of 1816, 1818, 

 1825. Then follows a refutation of the objections to the Scottish system 

 of banking ; and a reply, altogether unmerited, in our opinion, from a 

 statesman of the eminence of Sir H. Parnell, to the " Historical Sketch 

 of the Bank of England," 



We conceive that there now exists no man of ordinary capacity who 

 has not seen, in the events of the last few fatal years, the direful conse- 

 quences of the monopoly in the trade in money enjoyed by those twenty- 

 four individuals who govern this country, under the name, style, and 

 title of Directors of the Bank of England. It is now happily clear to 

 the most ordinary mind, that all our sudden changes from prosperity to 

 poverty, from security to alarm, and from comfort to misery, pauperism 

 and crime, have been produced by the capricious, unjust, and arbitrary 

 issues of the Bank of England. Our statesmen, indeed, the Castle- 

 reaghs, Vansittarts, and Peels, those jugglers who have too long dis- 

 graced the political stage, have usually blinked the nation with their 

 unintelligible jargon about a transition from a state of war to a state of 

 peace, and over-trading, over-production, and over-population, and every 

 other cause excepting the true one an over-production of monopolizing 

 tyrants. Now we rejoice, however, that a better day has arrived the 

 spell is dissolved men see the true source of their calamity they per- 

 ceive the hand that has laid waste the commerce, manufactures, and 

 agriculture of this country ; and we trust that at the voice of public ex- 

 ecration, the tyrannical power of the Bank of England is about to be 

 crushed for ever. Let any man who remains doubtful that the various 

 panics and scenes of commercial desolation which have occurred in this 

 country since 1794, have been owing to the mismanagement of the 

 issues of the Bank of England, peruse the statements in the pamphlet 

 before us, of the notes in circulation and their rapid withdrawal at the 

 various periods of distress. Thus the year 1797 was a season of distress 

 hitherto unexampled in this country, where the power of the Bank had 

 not yet attained to its overwhelming weight, and we find the account as 

 follows : 



Notes in circulation, February, 1794 .10,963,000 



1795 13,452,000 



August, 1 796 8,888,000 



* A plain statement of the power of the Bank of England, and the use it has 

 made of it, with a refutation of the objections to the Scotch System of Banking, 

 &c. &c. By the Right Hon. Sir H. Parnell, Bart. 



