40] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1816. 



pressed a strong objection to it, 

 but he had taken it liouie, not 

 thinking tliat the bill would come 

 on that j.ight ; anil that lie was 

 afterwards surprised ut its intro- 

 duction in the pieamble. He said, 

 he complained of the words be- 

 cause they gave an ex puile view 

 of the question. If the advan- 

 tage wliich the Bank derived from 

 the i)ublic were to be insertet! in 

 the preamble of the bill, it was 

 but fair also to insert the advan- 

 tages which the public derived 

 fronr the Bank. 



Mr. Poii.ioubi/ c-.illetl upon every 

 member in the House vvho vvas of 

 no i)art\', to observe whether he 

 was not right in liis assertion, that 

 the Ch.aneeilor of the Exchequer 

 was not a match for the Bank of 

 England ? When, after having 

 agreed to a preamble of his own 

 bill, he consulted with the gover- 

 nor and directors, and proposed 

 to expunge a part of it at their 

 pleas\ne, must it not be admitted 

 that they governeil and directed 

 the Chancellor, and endeavoured 

 to extend their authority to pai- 

 liament itself r He hoped the 

 House of Commons would not 

 degrade itself by agreeing to an 

 amendment vnider such dictation. 



Mr. Baring, in defence of the 

 amendment, said that the inten- 

 tion of the words proposed by the 

 hon. gentleman, (Mr. Grenfell) 

 was to insert in tiie bill the sub- 

 stance of the opinior.s entertained 

 by him, who, in his extreme zeal 

 on the subject, had made so ex- 

 aggerated a statement of the ac- 

 counts l)et\veenthe public and the 

 Ban];. 



After other members had ar- 

 gued for and against the insertion 

 of the clause, and the Chancellor 



had acknowledged that he had 

 agreed to it only on the under- 

 standing that it was not dis- 

 agreeable to the governor of tiie 

 Bank of England, the House dL- 

 vided, when the numbers were. 

 For the amendment lib". Against 

 it T>6 : Majority O'O. 



The words were then erased, 

 and the bill passed. 



On April .'Sih, the motion for 

 the second reading of tiie Bank 

 Loan bill being made in the 

 House of Lords, Lord Grenville 

 rose, and in an eloquent speech 

 expressed his entire dissatisfaction 

 with the bargain whieh the mi- 

 nisters had concluded with the 

 Bank. He referred with high en- 

 comium to }ilr. Cirenfell's speech 

 lately published on the subject, 

 and entered Into a detail of cir- 

 cumstances connected with his 

 own negociation with the Bank. 



His lordship was replied to by 

 the Earl of Liverpool, who was 

 followed on the other side by the 

 Marqnis of Lansdown and the Earl 

 of Lauderdale. 



The bill wais then read a second 

 time. It appears to have passed 

 the House witliout further dis- 

 cussion. 



The subject of the restriction 

 of the Bank from making pay- 

 ments in money, had been brought 

 before parliament almost yearly 

 since the act had passed for that 

 piu'pose ; and the public expecta- 

 tion of a return to th.e former sys- 

 tem had been disappointed as often 

 as ciicumstances had excited it. 

 The general jjcace had rendered 

 this hope more sanguine ; and it 

 could not but occasion surprize as 

 well as disappointment, to learn 

 that the ministers had determined 

 upon a new and considerable pro- 

 traction 



