182] 
take away an essential part of the 
original motion, and render the 
others of little use. 
The duke of Norfolk strongly 
objected to a secret committee. 
If the bank were equal to all de- 
mands, it was for their honour 
that there should be no conceal- 
ment. Any thing-like secrecy 
would make a serious impression 
without doors. The duke of Graf- 
ton, too, was de cidedly against the 
secrecy of the committee, and also 
against any report by the committe, 
op the necessity of confirming and 
continuing the measure adopted in 
the minute of council. He would 
therefore support the amendment 
proposed by the duke of Bedford. 
The marquis of Lansdowne said, 
that noble lords would do him 
the justice to recollect, that not one 
session had pas sed over, since the 
year 1793, in. which he had not, 
to use a vulgar but strong ex- 
pression, Lored their lordships with 
his prophetic admonitions. His 
mind had been early impressed with 
a most sacred reverence for that 
most delicate and indefinite thing, 
called, public credit. A small pam- 
phiet, but a most able one, had 
been put into bis hands, and re- 
commended to his study : it was the 
production ofa great and distinguish- 
ed member of parliament and states- 
man (Harley, ear] of Oxford). This 
noble author illustrated the nature 
of pu lic credit, by saying, that it 
was to the people of Great Britain 
what the ’sonl of man was to bis 
body. It was pure’ soul; it was 
immaterial in itself; and yet it 
was that which gave to substance 
its functions. It was not tbe 
cause but the effect ; it fowed from 
the happy or,anization of all the 
parts of the material body. It was 
\ 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 
179%. 
not to be created ; it was.not to be 
forced : its precise seat in the bo- 
dy politic could not be ote ¥ers 
ed; it at once pervaded 0 ff and 
proceeded out of the whole. 
both gave and received its anima- 
tion and its existence, Jt was not 
property, forno branch of the. body 
could call it its own. It was not 
the king’s credit ; it was not the 
credit of parliament ; it was public 
credit. It was that thing which 
sprung from. the happy concoction 
of all the vital juices of the na~ 
tional frame, which proceeded from 
the nice distribution of our parts, 
and their mutual co-operation 5 
which gave to the national system 
a sy mpathetie connection, an union 
of action, a correspondence, and 
promptitude, which, in matter of 
finance, is known by the name of 
punctuality. This public credit 
was the soul of England; it was 
that which carried the nation to a 
height infinitely heyond its nume- 
rical power. It was our credit that’ 
set all the calculations of political 
arithmetic at defiance; it derided 
the celd. diffidence of those who 
judged of our means by the geo- 
graphical limits of the island, or 
the visible number of its people. 
Public credit did not even look to 
security as its basis ; it always con- 
nected security with punctuality. 
Many lords, with their 20,000Z, a ° 
year, would find it difficult to pro- 
cure the loan of 1 ,000/, on emer- 
gency, though they had perfect 
security to offer, when a neighbour 
ing tradesman, with a capital of, 
perhaps, only a few hundreds, 
would find the loan with facility. 
Why was this? It was the known 
punciuality of the one placed against 
the known want of punctuality in 
the other : it was beeause the lender 
knew, 
