42] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



prietors of the Bank of England to 

 10/. per cent, during the operation 

 of the bill ; his object being to 

 give the bank an interest in the 

 recommencement of payments in 

 specie. It was negatived without 

 a division. Mr. Taylor proposed 

 a clause to compel the bank to 

 employ the surplus of profit above 

 10/. per cent, in the purchase of 

 bullion, which was also negatived ; 

 and the same fortune attended Mr. 

 Johnstone's proposed clause to 

 ^ limit the issue of bank-notes. 



The Chancellor of the Exche- 

 quer proposed the amendment of 

 taking away from the landlord the 

 right of ejectment after a tender of 

 bank-notes in payment of rent by 

 the tenant. This was warmly op- 

 posed by Messrs. Horner, Brough- 

 am, and others, as depriving the 

 landlord of his only remaining re- 

 medy, and making bank-notes, to 

 all intents and purposes, a legal 

 tender. It was defended on the 

 other side, as containing nothing 

 new in principle, and passed with- 

 out a division. The bill was or- 

 dered for a third reading, and it 

 met with no further opposition in 

 the House of Commons. 



On the order for the second 

 reading of this bill in the House 

 of Lords, April 28th, a discussion 

 took place, in which the argu- 

 ments against a compulsory paper 

 currency were recapitulated by tiie 

 opposers, and were replied to by- 

 ministers and their supporters, 

 who contended for the necessity 

 of the proposed measures. No 

 division occurred in its passage 

 through the house, but a strong 

 protest against the third reading, 

 signed by Lords Lauderdale and 

 Rosslyn, was entered on the 

 Journals. 



It is unnecessary toobserre more 

 on this bill, than that by its 

 amendments it in effect accom- 

 plished that purpose of rendering 

 Bank of England notes legal ten- 

 der, to which the bill of the pre- 

 ceding year had made such an 

 approximation ; and that by disal- 

 lowing any limitation of that com- 

 pany in the issue of its notes, and 

 unrestricted power of coining sil- 

 ver tokens of less than their nomi- 

 nal value, the whole circulating 

 medium of the country is placed 

 in its hands. That in the present 

 state of things such a measure was 

 the wisest policy, may be true ; 

 but it must be acknowledged that 

 such a state has never before oc- 

 curred in English history. 



Among the parliamentary dis- 

 cussions of this session, one of the 

 most remarkable related to the 

 different attempts under the Re- 

 gency, now freed from its restric- 

 tions, to form a new or a strength- 

 ened administration. There had 

 been made public in the month of 

 February a letter from the Prince 

 Regent to his brother the Duke of 

 York, expressing a wish that at 

 this ♦' new aera" his government 

 might be strengthened by the ac- 

 cession of some of those persons 

 with whom the early habits of his 

 public life had been formed, and 

 desiring that this wish might be 

 communicated to Lords Grey and 

 Grenville ; and also the letter of 

 reply from those lords, in which 

 they state the impossibility of their 

 uniting with the present adminis- 

 tration, on account of differences 

 of opinion concerning the most 

 important political measures. (See 

 State papers). 



On March 19th, Lord Boring- 

 don rose in the House of Lords, . ' 



for ', 



1 



