HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



129 



payments should be resumed by 

 the end of that period. 



" Although the details of the 

 best mode of returning to cash pay- 

 ments ought to be left to the dis- 

 cretion of the Bank of England, 

 asalreadystated, certain provisions 

 would be necessary under the au- 

 tiiority of parliament, both for the 

 convenience of the Bank itself and 

 for the security of the other bank- 

 ing establishments in this country 

 and in Ireland. 



" Your committee conceive it 

 may be convenient for the Bank to 

 be permitted to issue notes under 

 the value of 5^. for some little time 

 after it had resumed payments in 

 specie. 



" It will be convenient also for 

 the chartered banks of Ireland and 

 Scotland, and all the countrybanks, 

 that they should not be compelled 

 to pay in specie until some time 

 after the resumption of payments 

 in cash by the Bank of England ; 

 but that they should continue for a 

 short period upon their present 

 footing, of being liable to pay their 

 own notes on demand in Bank of 

 England paper." 



The substance of this report 

 was immediately circulated in the 

 newspapers, and a correct edition 

 of the whole was published on the 

 20th of September. The alarm 

 which tliis occasioned among the 

 bankers, and the merchants who 

 were accustomed to look to the 

 Bank for discounting their bills, 

 was followed by many failures in 

 mercantile houses in London, as 

 well as of some country banks. 



The fifth report of the commit- 

 tee on public expenditure pre- 

 sented to the House of Commons 



this session, exposes various in- 

 stances of default and delin- 

 quency, in the misapplication and 

 embezzlement of the public mo- 

 ney. The committee express their 

 opinion, that great temptation and 

 opportunity to the commission of 

 similar oft'ences are afforded by the 

 loose, inaccurate, and irregular 

 manner in which the accounts 

 were audited ; and proceed to in- 

 quire how those accounts might 

 be examined in a speedy, regular, 

 and effectual manner. The com- 

 mittee of inquiry commonly do 

 their duty well, and give not only 

 the most important information, 

 but propose the wisest measures 

 for the adoption of the legislature. 

 But they are for the most part suf- 

 fered to lie on the table as merely 

 so much dead letter : yet this is 

 not alwa3fs the case. On the 23rd 

 of May Mr. Calcraft moved, that 

 the twelfth report of the commis- 

 sioners of military inquiry be read. 

 Thisbeingdone,liestated,thatnot-^ 

 withstanding the act that hadpass- 

 cd torestrict thetreasurerof theord- 

 nance from drawing on the Bank, 

 unless for the public, Mr. Hunt, a 

 member of that House, the late 

 treasurer, had drawn on the Bank, 

 in the names of persons who were 

 connected with the ordnance, 

 10,000/. nearly the whole of v/hich 

 he owed to the public. He was 

 sorry to say, that many similar 

 occurrences had not been taken 

 notice of by the House. He 

 should mention only that of gen. 

 Delancey, who was indebted to 

 the public 100,000/. and yet pos- 

 sessed the rank and pay of a gene- 

 ral in the service.* By such 

 things the pubhc feelings were in- 



• See Vol. XLIX (1807) Hist. Eur. p. 

 Vol. LII. K 



101. 



