474 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



Iiaving been paid thereupon in 

 stamps to the revenue, and proba- 

 bly for the reasons already stated, 

 no corresponding deposits of gold 

 or Bank of England notes being 

 deemed by the country banks ne- 

 cessary to support their additional 

 issues. These parlies therefore, 

 it may be fairly stated, have been 

 enabled under the protection of 

 the law, which virtually secures 

 them against such demands, to 

 create within the last year or 

 fifteen months, at a very trifling 

 qxpence, and in a manner almost 

 free from all present risk to their 

 respective credits as dealers in 

 paper money, issues of that article 

 to the amount of several millions, 

 operating, in the first instance 

 and in their hands, as capital for 

 their own benefit, and when used 

 as such by them, falling into and 

 in succession mixing itself with 

 the mass of circulation of which 

 the value in exchange for all other 

 commodities is gradually lowered 

 in proportion as that mass is aug- 

 mented. If your committee could 

 be of opinion that the wisdom of 

 parliament would not be directed 

 toapplya proper remedy to a state 

 of things sounnatural, and teeming, 

 if not corrected in time, with ulti- 

 mate consequences so prejudicial 

 to the public welfare, they would 

 not hesitate to declare an opinion, 

 that some mode ought to be de- 

 rived of enablingthe slateto parti- 

 cipate much more largely in the 

 profits accruing from the present 

 system ; but as this is by no means 

 thepolicythey wish to recommend, 

 they will conclude their observa- 

 tions on this part of the subject, by 

 observing, that in proportion as 

 they most fully agree with Dr. 

 Adam Smith, and all the most able 

 writers and statesmen of this coun. 



try, in considering a paper circula- 

 tion constantly convertible into 

 specie, as one of the greatest 

 practical improvements which can 

 be made in the political and do- 

 mestic economy of any state ; and 

 in viewing the establishment of 

 the country banks issuing such 

 paper as a most valuable and es- 

 sential branch of that improve- 

 ment in this kingdom ; in the same 

 proportion is your committee anx- 

 ious to revert, as speedily as 

 possible, to the former practice 

 and state of things in this respect; 

 convinced on the one hand, that 

 any thing like a permanent and 

 systematic departure from that 

 practice must ultimately lead to 

 results, which among other at- 

 tendant calamities, would be de- 

 structive of the system itself; and 

 on the other, that such an event 

 would be the more to be deprecat- 

 ed, as it is only in a country like 

 this, where good faith, both pub- 

 lic and private, is held so high, 

 and where, under the happy union 

 of liberty and law, property and 

 the securities of every description 

 by which it is represented are 

 equally protected against the en- 

 croachments of power and the vio- 

 lence of popular commotion, that 

 the advantages of this system, un- 

 accompanied with any of its dan- 

 gers, can be permanently enjoyed, 

 and carried to their fullest extent. 

 Upon a review of all the facts 

 and reasonings which have been 

 submitted to the consideration of 

 your committee in the course of 

 their inquiry, they have formed an 

 opinion, which they submit to the 

 House: — that there is at presentan 

 excess in the paper circulation of 

 this country, of which the most 

 unequivocal symptom is the very 

 high price of bullion, and next to 



