LON 
from the conduft of the bank of England, and their be¬ 
ing protefted by the legiflature from the neceffity of pay¬ 
ing their notes in fpecie. It had been alked, in a man¬ 
ner rather infulting, Had any body ventured to refufe bank¬ 
notes in payment ? He was the perfon who did think it 
advifeable in certain cafes to refufe bank-notes. The 
cafes in which he had refilled them at their nominal value 
were old contrails, and no other ; and, in fo doing, he 
would contend that he had not only acted legally (for of 
that there was no queftion), but according to every prin¬ 
ciple of equity. Could any thing be more equitable than 
that the payment fhould be made in.currency of the fame 
value as thatin which the bargain was made? He had 
endeavoured to afeertain what that value was, from com¬ 
paring the price of gold at the time that the contract was 
.made with its prefent price ; and his demand had been, ei¬ 
ther to be paid in lawful money of the realm, according 
to the contract, or in Portugal coin of the fame weight, 
or in fuch a fum in notes as would purchafe a quantity of 
gold equal in weight to that of the legal money cove¬ 
nanted ; and he could not fee where was the hr.rdlhip or 
opprelfion in this. All productions of the land had rifen 
in price according to the depreciation of the currency ; 
and therefore the tenants on old contracts could not com¬ 
plain of fuffering any lofs from the demand. To explain 
the nature of the fubjeft, he would fuppofe, that what 
was ufually referved for rent was about a fourth of the 
produce of the land ; and that, for the fake of convenience, 
this proportion was eltimated at a money-price. Was it 
equitable that the tenant fhould take advantage of all 
riles of price, in confeqr.ence of depreciation of the cur¬ 
rency, upon all the (hares he has ; and that the landlord 
fhould have upon his (hare neither the rife of price nor 
the legal money he bargained for ? It had been afl'erted 
that bank-notes were not depreciated, but that gold had 
rifen in value ; but this was not the cafe; for, if a man 
had at prefent any article of real value to exchange again ft 
gold, he might procure a greater quantity of gold for it 
'than at any former period ; and his lordfhip inftanced in 
the price of wheat, of which twelve or fourteen quarters 
would now buy a6 much gold as eighteen quarters would 
in the period from 1786 to 1797 ; fo that the farmer had 
been gaining conliderably by the change of times. He 
declared, that, regardlefs of the clamour that had been ex¬ 
cited againft him, he was determined to perfevere in what 
he conceived to be not only legal, bat juft and equitable. 
It now appeared, that, contrary to their declared inten¬ 
tion, the miniftry were determined to adopt the bill.— 
The earl of Liverpool faid, that, though he had at firft 
thought it would be better to leave the law as it ftood, 
yet, when he attended tq the principle of the meafure un- 
,der confideration, and particularly to the principles of 
thole who oppofed it, he began to feel that the remedy 
fhould be upheld ; and concluded with faying, that, con- 
fidering the confequences which might follow from the 
example which had been pointed out, it would be unwife 
to rejeft the bill. 
Earl Stanhope laid, that, when he came down to the 
houfe, he imagined that miniilers would throw out the 
bill; but the arguments of his noble friends (the oppofi- 
•tion) had made converts of them, a talk he could not ac- 
,complifh ; he had therefore to return them thanks, right 
and left. This humorous fally occafioned much laugh¬ 
ter ; and on the divilion there appeared, for the fecond 
reading 36, againft it 12. 
On the 4th of July, when the order Hood for going into 
a committee on the bill, the marquis of Lanfdowne rofe 
to Hate the necellity of confidering more fully the prin¬ 
ciples on which the bill proceeded. He advanced l'ome 
further objections againft making bank-notes a legal ten¬ 
der ; and intimated, that, if the bill were committed, he 
fhould at lea ft propofe a claufe to reftrift the bank from 
jffuing a greater number of notes than thole in circula¬ 
tion at the time ol its palling. 
Earl Stanhope faid that his noble friend mifconceived 
Vol. XIII. No. 904. 
BON. 253 
his bill if he thought there was any thing in it to make 
bank-note payments compulfory. There was a difference 
between the cafe of offering a man a bank-note, telling 
him. You fliall take it, whether you will or not ; and that 
of one choofing to take it, and at the fame time fetting 
his own value upon it. He defired it might be coniidered, 
that the public creditor was paid in bank-notes, to whom 
they were a legal tender; and where was the juftice of 
putting the landlord upon a different footing? He ex- 
preffea himfelf with much force refpefting the opprelfion 
of compelling payments in gold when it was not to be 
had without great lofs, and adduced other inftances of 
this practice. He concluded with faying that he (liould 
take no further charge of his bill, blit fit in the com¬ 
mittee from curiofity. “ I am (faid he) its father, but I 
will not undertake to be its nurle.” 
After feme other lords had delivered their fsijtiments, 
the houfe went into a committee on the bill. 4rhe earl 
of Liverpool, propofed a claufe for taking from landlords 
the fummary mode of diftrefs, if payment fliould be of^' 
fered in bank-notes ; which was agreed to. 
The report of the committee was received on the 5th, 
when the earl of Liverpool propofed fome verbal amend¬ 
ments, which were agreed to. A claufe was alfo added, 
that the bill fhould not extend to Ireland ; as in that 
country, previoufly to the reftriction on bank-payments, 
a difference had exifted between money and paper prices. 
On the 8th of July the bill palled the houfe of lords; 
and on the 9th, was introduced to the houfe of commons 
by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who ftated, as the 
foie reafon for its being adopted by the miniftry, that the 
con'd uft of the noble lord, who had required gold in pay¬ 
ment from lvis tenants, which they had thought not likely 
to be imitated, was openly defended, and even praifed as 
a patriotic aft by many perfons of great authority, who 
claimed for themfelves and their friends a monopoly of 
all the talents and public virtues in the nation. It was 
therefore become a meafure of neceflity ; for, though he 
did not mean to queftion the motives which had induced 
that noble lord to aft as he did, yet he could not con¬ 
ceive of any queftion which, if extended beyond the 
fphere of the concerns of the individual, could be attend¬ 
ed with more peril to the country at large.—The bill 
paffed on.the 19th of July; and, on the 24th, the longeft 
felfion of any parliament was terminated by a fpeech from 
the lord-chancellor. a„ 
At the commencement of the year 1S11, every Britift* 
eye was anxioufly turned to the capital of Portugal, in 
the vicinity of which lay two powerful armies, one await¬ 
ing every opportunity to attack, the other equally vigi¬ 
lant to defend. The allied army undtjr lord Wellington 
occupied the ftrong Sines of Torres Vedra.s, in front of 
which, at Cartaxo, the commander polled himfelf with 
the main body of Britilh. Marlhal Maffena had his head¬ 
quarters at Santarem, whilll his troops fpread along the 
Tagus and the Zezere, and his foragers fought fubfiftcnce 
as far as the borders of the Upper Beira. 
The two great armies were in very different circumftances 
with refpect to the facility of procuring neceffary fupplies. 
Lord Wellington had the capital behind him, with its 
noble port acceffible to all the velfels that the power and 
wealth of Great Britain could freight ; and how burden- 
fome foever the maintenance, not only of the troeps, but 
of a great portion of the population of the country, might 
be to the finances of England, the commander might reft 
affured that all his wants would be provided for. Maffena, 
on the other hand, was lying in an already-devaftated 
country, remote from all fources of regular fupply, anil 
obliged to the precarious aid of convoys for the tranfmif- 
fion of fuch fcanty coileftions of provilion as could be 
made in the l'urrounding diltrifts. Thefe difficulties at 
length compelled the French general, however reluctantly, 
to abandon bis boalted purpofe of planting his eagles on 
the walls of Lil'oon, and driving the Englilh into the fea; 
and, on the night of March the 5th, he quitted his Itrong 
3 T - camp 
