476 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



to the evil in question. But it is 

 unnecessary to dwell ontliebreacli 

 of public faith and dereliction of a 

 primarj'dutyofgovernment, which 

 wouldmanifestly be implied in pre- 

 ferring the reduction of the coin 

 down to the standard of the paper, 

 to the restoration of tlie paper to 

 the legal standard of tlie coin. 



Yourcommittee, therefore, iiav- 

 ing very anxiously and deliberately 

 considered thissubject, report itto 

 the House as their opinion, that 

 the system of the circulating me- 

 dium of this country ought to be 

 brought back, with as much speed 

 as is compatible witli a wise and 

 necessary caution, to the original 

 principle of cash payments at the 

 option of theholderof bank paper. 

 Your committee have under- 

 stood that remedies, or palliatives, 

 of a different nature, have been 

 projected; such as, a compulsory 

 limitation of the amount of bank 

 advances and discounts, during 

 the continuance of the suspension; 

 or, a compulsory limitation during 

 the same period, of the rate of 

 bank profits and dividends, by 

 carrying the surplus of profits 

 above that rate to the public ac- 

 count. But, in the judgment of 

 your committee, such indirect 

 schemes, for palliating the possible 

 evils resulting from the suspension 

 of cash payments, would prove 

 wholly inadequate for that pur- 

 pose, because the necessary pro- 

 portion could never be adjusted, 

 and if once fixed, might aggravate 

 very much the inconveniences of 

 a temporary pressure ; and even if 

 their efficacy could be made to 

 appear, they would be objection- 

 able as a most hurtful and im- 

 proper interference with the rights 

 of commercial property. 



According to the best judgment 



your committee has been enabled 

 to form, no sufficient remedy for 

 the present, or security for the fu- 

 ture, can be pointed out, except 

 the repeal of the law which sus- 

 pends the cash payments of the 

 Bank of England. 



In effecting so important a 

 change, your committee are of 

 opinion that some difficulties must 

 be encountered, and thaithere are 

 some contingent dangers to the 

 bank, against which it ought most 

 carefullyand strongly to be guard- 

 ded. But all those may be effec- 

 tually provided for, by entrusting 

 to the discretion of the bank itself 

 thecharge of conducting andcom- 

 pleting the operation, and by al- 

 lowing to the bank so ample a pe- 

 riod of time for conductmg it, as 

 Avill be more than sufficient to ef- 

 fectits completion. To the discre- 

 tion, experience, and integrity of 

 the directors of the bank, your 

 committee believe that parliament 

 may safely entrust the charge of 

 effecting that which parliament 

 may in its wisdom determine upon 

 as necessary to be effected ; and 

 that the directors of that great in- 

 stitution, far from making them- 

 selves a party with those who have 

 a temporary interest in spreading 

 alarm, will take a much longer 

 view of the permanent interests of 

 the bank, as indissolubly blended 

 with those of the public. Tlie par- 

 ticular mode of gradually effecting 

 the resumption of cash payments 

 ought thei'efore, in the opinion of 

 your committee, to be left in a 

 great measure to the discretion of 

 the bank, and parliament ought to 

 do little more than to fix, defini- 

 tively, the time at which cash pay- 

 mentsare to become asbefore com- 

 pulsory. The periodallowedought - 

 to be ample, in order that the bank 



