66] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1818. 



and after October 1st the Bank 

 would be ready to pay cash for 

 their notes of every description, 

 dated prior to January 1st, 1817. 

 But the result of this experiment 

 was considerably diiferent from 

 that of the former. Payment in 

 cash was demanded to a large 

 amount ; not for the purpose of 

 internal circulation, but for that 

 of being remitted to foreign coun- 

 tries. It appeared from a return 

 made to the other House of Par- 

 liament, that the Bank issued 

 under their last notice a sum not 

 less than 2,600,000/., of which 

 hardly any part remained in cir- 

 culation in this country. 



He would now call the atten- 

 tion of the committee to the cir- 

 cumstances which had occasioned 

 the difference in the result of the 

 two experiments made by the 

 Bank, in order to show how un- 

 advisable it would be, under the 

 present circumstances, that the 

 Bank should resume cash pay- 

 ments. Of these circumstances 

 the first he would instance, was 

 the deficient harvest of 1816, 

 which was followed by an ordi- 

 nary one in 1817, the consequence 

 of which was, that the quantity 

 of corn which it became neces- 

 sary to import had taken a great 

 deal of specie from the country. 

 The second was, the sums dra%vn 

 out of the country by emigrants 

 from it. He held in his hand an 

 account of the number of persons 

 who had embarked at Dover for 

 the continent, and who had re- 

 turned from the continent to that 

 port, and it is to be observed that 

 Dover is so much the most con- 

 siderable port f^r embarking to 

 the continent, that all the emi- 

 gration from other ports may be 



considered as unimportant. It 

 appears then, that the whole 

 number of persons who, from the 

 year 1814? to the 24'th of February 

 last, had embarked at Dover for 

 the continent amounted to 90,230, 

 exclusive of aliens, m hose number 

 amounted to somewhat above 

 11,000. The number of English 

 who, during the same period, had 

 returned to Dover, amounted to 

 77,530. He did not mean to 

 deny that many persons might be 

 included twice in the return, but 

 that did not affect the conclusion 

 that might be drawn from it. The 

 difference between the two num- 

 bers he had stated was 12,700; 

 so that it might safely be affirmed 

 that the number of English abroad 

 did not exceed 13,000. If it 

 were assumed that these indivi- 

 duals expended on an average 

 200/. a year each, the account of 

 their annual expenditure would be 

 somewhat above two millions and 

 a half. But in addition to that, 

 the committee must take into 

 their account the large sum ex- 

 pended by our army abroad ; for 

 although the French government 

 provided for the support of the 

 troops, still it was notorious that 

 great private expense was in- 

 curred by the officers. 



There was another circumstance 

 of a very extraordinary nature 

 which materially contributed to 

 the change in the state of 

 things ; he alluded to transactions 

 which had taken place in the 

 course of the last two years, 

 namely, the negotiation in this 

 comitry of large loans for foreign 

 p wers. I n June 1 8 1 6 the French 

 government raised here six mil- 

 lions of francs of rentes, the sum 

 borrowed for which amounted to 



about 



