STATE PAPERS. 



463 



those individuals who have been 

 at the head of the affairs of the 

 bank. The opinions held by those 

 individuals are likely to have an 

 important practical influence ; and 

 appeared to ybur committee, 

 moreover, the best evidence of 

 what has constituted the actual 

 policy of that establishment in its 

 corporate capacity. 



Mr. Whitmore, the late govern- 

 or of the bank, expressly states, 

 " The bank never force a note in 

 circulation, and there will not 

 remain a note in circulation more 

 than the immediate wants of the 

 public require ; for no banker, I 

 presume, will keep a larger stock 

 of bank-notes by him than his 

 immediate payments require, as 

 he can at all times procure them." 

 The reason here assigned is more 

 particularly explained by Mr. 

 Whitmore, when he says, " The 

 bank-notes would revert to us if 

 there was a redundancy in circula- 

 tion, as no one would pay interest 

 for a bank-note that he did not 

 want to make use of." Mr. Whit- 

 more furtherstates, "Thecriterion 

 by which I judge of the exact 

 proportion to be maintained be- 

 tween the occasions of the public, 

 and the issues of the bank, is b}' 

 avoiding as much as possible to 

 discount what does not appear to 

 be legitimate mercantile paper." 

 And further, when a^ked, What 

 measure the court of directors has 

 • to judge by, whether the quantity 

 of bank-notes out in circulation is 

 at any time excessive ? Mr. Whit- 

 more states, that their measure 

 of the security or abundance of 

 bank-notes is certainly by the 

 greater or less application that is 

 made to them for the discount of 

 good paper. 



Mr, Pearse, late deputy-gover- 



nor, and now governor of the 

 bank, stated very distinctly his 

 concurrence in opinion with Mr. 

 Whitmore upon this particular 

 point. He referred " to the man- 

 ner in which bank-notes are issued, 

 resulting from the applications 

 made for discounts to supply the 

 necessary want of bank-notes, by 

 which their issue in amount is so 

 controlled, that it can never 

 amount to an excess." He con- 

 siders " the amount of the bank- 

 notes in circulation as being con- 

 trolled b)' the occasions of the 

 public, for internal purposes ;" and 

 that " from the manner in which 

 the issue of bank-notes is con- 

 trolled, the public will never call 

 for more than is absolutely neces- 

 sary for their wants." 



Another director of the bank, 

 Mr. Harman, being asked, If he 

 thought that the sum total of dis- 

 countsappliedfor, even though the 

 accommodation afforded should be 

 on the security of good bills to safe 

 persons, might be such as to pro- 

 duccsome excess inthequantity of 

 the bank issues, if fully complied 

 with? He answered, " I think if 

 we discount only for solid persons, 

 and such paper as is for real bona 

 fide transactions, we cannot mate- 

 rially err." And he afterwards 

 slates, that what he should consi- 

 der as the test of a superabun- 

 dance would be, " money being 

 more plentiful in the market." 



It is material to observe, that 

 both Mr. Whiimore and Mr. 

 Pearse state, that " the bank does 

 not comply with the whole demand 

 upon them for discounts, and that 

 they are never induced, by a view 

 to their own profit, to push their 

 issues beyond what they deem coil- 

 sistent with the public interest." 



Another very important part of 



