196] ANNUAL SREGISTER, 
apon them’ but ‘the dread ‘of their 
teftisal might be productive of preat- 
exjeviL? 
V1I.That i: appears, that, during 
the ‘above periow. a’ ‘considerable 
portion of ‘the bank advanees was 
occasioned: by payments of bills of 
exchange drawn: on the ery 
from abroad. 
VAL.: Phat.it appears, tha t ithad 
sekdom beei tie custom of the bank 
of England; tovadvance, onithe ac- 
court ef such bills, mere than from 
20,0001. to 80,0007. and ‘that, even 
during the’ American’) war, such 
bills. never exceeded, at any one 
time, the sum of 150,000/. ; the 
wisdom of our ancestors having fore- 
seen; and.provided against the mis- 
chief of «similar advances, by a 
clause, inan act pascedin the fifth 
yéar of Wiiliamand Mary, by which 
the governor and company of the 
bank..of Engiand were. restrained 
fromadvancing any sums of money, 
other than on such funds on which 
acredit is granted by parliament. 
VILL. That it appears, that, from 
and -after the year 1793, at which 
time, an act of parliament passed, 
containing a clause, by which the 
directors. of the: bank are indemni- 
fied for the advances they had made 
out of the bills drawn from abread, 
and exempted in future from the 
penaliits of the said act-of William 
and Mary respecting such advances 
to government, the amount of trea- 
sury-bills paid at the bank con- 
tinued \progressively to. increase ; 
and that between the first of Jabu- 
ary, 1795, and the twen ty-fifih of 
February, 1797, sums, totheamount 
of upwards of 15,000,001. were, 
at different periods, advanced to 
government, upon, this head. 
IX. That it appears, that'the di- 
rectors of tbe bank did, at various 
1797. 
‘times, during the years 17°5, 1796, 
and 1797, apply to the chancellor 
of the exchequer for repayment of 
such advanees, and represented to 
him the ruinous consequences, to 
themselyes and to the public,’ of 
continuing the system of making 
treasury-bills payable at the bank ; 
and that they even declared, they 
conceived it to be “ an unconstitu- 
tional mode of raising money, and 
what. they were not agscioe by 
their charter to consent to.” 
X. ‘That it appears that the schiit! 
cellor of the exchequer did, at vari- 
ous times, in that period, undertake 
to reduce the advances on that head, 
within thesam of 500,0001. andlike- 
‘wise so to arrange his payments asto 
put an end to the account, but that 
nevertheless, the said promises never 
were kept by him, and that the ad-. 
vances on treasury-bills, on the 28th 
of \ebruary, 1797, amounted to 
1,619,041. 
XJ. ‘That it appears to this house, 
that foreign remittances to a much 
larger amount’. than 
known in the most expensive wars, 
in which this country has been in- 
volved, -have taken place since the 
year 1753. 
XII. ‘That the extent of such ré- 
mittances; occasioned, at so early a 
period as the end of the year 1794, 
and the beginning ofthe year 1795, 
great alarms inthe minds of the dis 
rectors, which they had at various 
periods communiczied to the chans 
cellor. of the exchequer, and that 
on the third of December, 1795, 
the court of directors, under the ap- 
prebension that it was intended to 
grant a farther loan to the emperor, 
came to a resolution, by which they 
declare their unaninious opinion, 
that, should such a loan take place, 
it would be ‘* most fatal in its con- 
sequences 
ever “were . 
