54] 
was the prosperity and opulence of 
this country, that it was able to 
command the immense loanin ques- 
tion, at no more than four anda 
half per cent. He also assigned the 
reason for his raising it without 
having recourse to his usual method 
of competition, which was, that 
the persons concerned in procuring 
' the last loan, had not yet received 
the latter instalments due to them 
upon it. He had, however, so far 
consulted the good of the public, 
that the interests to them would 
not prove more than four pounds 
five shillings and three pence in the 
hundred. 
‘This assertion gave birth toa long 
and tedious discussion, uninteresting 
to those who were unconcerned in 
the business itself, or who did not 
think themselves authorised to call 
him toa strict account for his pros 
ceedings in this matter. 
In reply to the elaborate justifica- 
tion of his conduct, made by Mr. 
Pitt on this critical occasion, the 
principal speakers in the opposition 
exerted themselves to refute his ar- 
guments and _ calculations, with un- 
common acuteness and fervour. 
They controverted his various posi- 
tions and inferences, and laboured 
with the utmost industry to establish 
their own. The point, at which 
they chiefly aimed, was to prove 
that he had acted erroneously, and 
even disingenuously, in putting the 
business of the loan into the hands 
of Mr. Boyd, to whom it had been 
given the preceding year, and that 
no substantial and valid reason sub- 
sisted for such a conduct, which they 
branded with many. odious epithets, 
and represented, in many of the cir- 
cumstances attending it, as unwar- 
rantable and corrupt. 
ANNUAL REGISTER, 1796. 
In the course of the fatiguing and 
acrimonious debates upon this sub- 
ject, severe animadversion was pas- 
sed by Mr. Fox upon the affair of 
the Hamburgh bills. They had, it 
seems, been drawn notreally in Lon- 
don, but fictitiously at the former 
place, by Mr. Boyd, to the amount 
of two millions fiye hundred thous ~ 
sand pounds, on treasury-bills, for 
the service of government. Mr. 
Fox established on this transaction, 
which he described as highly uncre- 
ditable, the preference and partiali- 
ty, which he represented as having 
manifestly been exercised by the mi+ 
nister in favour of that gentleman. 
After altercations, marked with 
much bitterness and animosity, the 
question was decided in favour of 
the minister, by a majority that 
passed a vote of entire approbation, 
relating to his conduct on the busi- 
ness of the loan; and, on the twen- 
ty-ninth of theensuing February, the 
affair of the Hamburgh bills was 
also approved of, by putting a ne- 
gative on the resolutions moved 
against them. I. 
The motives alleged in his justi- 
fication, by his friends and adhe- 
rents, were, the very difficult cir- 
cumstances that urged him to have 
recourse to the assistance of these 
bills, and the consequent. propriety 
of acknowledging so important a 
service. The public in general 
was duly sensible of the ministerial 
embarrassments respecting both these 
cases, and was willing to suspend 
its severity on the transactions them- 
selves, in consideration of the 
causes that produced them, and 
that left the minister a choice of 
difficulties, from which he found 
no readier a method to extricate 
himself. 
While 
