GENERAL HISTORY. 



[71 



for this service. He (the Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer) had for 

 a time been very doubtful whe-. 

 ther tliis was a charge which 

 ought to be borne equally by 

 England and Ireland, or whether 

 it was one which ovight to fall on 

 Great Britain only. Ultimately 

 he had, however, considered, that 

 as the whole of the silver now in 

 circulation had been issued long 

 before the Union, the greater 

 part of it indeed at least a cen- 

 tury, it was just that it should 

 fall on Great Britain, and on no 

 other part of the empire. It was 

 not easy {o say how much would 

 be sufficient to meet the charge 

 for the new coinage ; but he pro- 

 posed to take the sum of 500,0001. 

 which he apprehended would suf- 

 fice for so much at least of the 

 charge as was likely to be incur- 

 red within the present year. 

 None of that silver which was at 

 present in circulation was intend- 

 ed to be received in exchange for 



that to be hereafter issued, which 

 did not bear some appearance of 

 having come from the mint ; and 

 this, as it would not include a 

 very large proportion of the pre- 

 sent currency, could not create a 

 great expense, and at all events, 

 a considerable time must elapse 

 before the airangements in con- 

 templation could be carried into 

 effect. The next charge was on 

 account of a sum of 1,500,0001. 

 in exchequer bills held by the 

 Bank. These had been originally 

 issued for an advance made by 

 the Bank in 1800. The sum then 

 advanced amounted to 3,000,0001. 

 of which one half had been repaid 

 during the peace of Amiens, and 

 the remainder, amounting to a 

 million and a half, which had 

 ever since been annually renewed 

 in exchequer bills, still remained 

 to be made good. The separate 

 charges were altogether as fol- 

 lows : — 



SEPARATE CH.\RGES. 



Loyalty 5 per Cents. . . . ^.217,680 

 Debentures and Interest 



thereon 807,085 



Coinage 500,000 



Exchequer Bills held by 



Bank 1,500,000 



Interest and SinliingFund 



on Exchequer Bills . . . 2,260,000 



5,284,76b 



Deduct Irith proportion of 



Joint Charge 2,957.656 30,424,951 



Ditto, Civil List and Con- 

 solidated Fund 188,000 



: 3,145,656 



£.27,279,295 



To 



