Report of the Select Committee, &c. 
and spreads snaresfor the subject, we 
invoke wisdom, |My eyes are conti- 
nually turned towards her; but alas, 
her rays never reach me but through 
the medium of a thousand clouds, 
which are sometimes dissipated, how- 
ever and that too, by g storm. 
This solitude shall serve ag the tem- 
ple of pleasure. What do I say! A 
father, a husband, a citizen, and a 
man of letters. I have a multitude of 
duties to fulfil: my life is no longer 
my own. Adieu, thou; my dear gar- 
den! The love of my country, calls 
me to the capital; but preserve all 
thy pleasures, that they may dissipate 
my new chagrins, and save my vViriue 
from shipwreck, amidst future afflic- 
tions. 
ec 
Abstract of the Report of the Select Cam. 
miltee, onthe High Price of Gold Bul. 
lian. 
Coniznued from our last 
p. 294. 
The restriction of cash-payments, as 
has already been shewn, having ren- 
dered the same preventive policy no 
Jonger necessary to the Bank, has re- 
moved that check upon its issueswhich 
was the public security against an ex- 
cess. When the Bank directors were 
no longer exposed to the iaconveni- 
ence of adrain upon them, for gold, 
they naturally feit that they had no 
such inconvenience to guard against 
by a more restrained system of dis- 
Magazine, 
counts and advances; aud it was. very 
Ratural for them to pursue as before 
(but without that sort of guard apd 
Jimitation which was now. become 
unnecessary to their own security) the 
same liberal ang prudent systom ot 
conmercial advauecs from which the 
prosperiiy of their ows establishment 
nad resulted, as well asin a great de- 
gree the commercigl prosperity of the 
whole country. {£ was natural for 
the Bank Girectors to believe, that 
nothing but bengfit could accrue to 
the public at large, while they saw 
the growth of Bank protits eg hand 
in hand with the 
granted fg the merchauts. It was 
hardly to be expected of the direc- 
tors of (he Bank, that they should be 
fully aware of the consequences that 
might resuit from their pursuing, 
atier the suspeusion of cash payments, 
the same sysiem which they had fezad 
asaie one before. To watch ihe ope- 
ration of so new a law, and to pro- 
Wide against the lejary wich might 
accomnmodations - 
rae! 
result from it to the public interests, 
was the province, not so much of the 
Bank as of the legislature ; and, in the 
epinion of your committee, there is 
no room to regret that this house 
has not taken earlier notice of all the 
consequences of thatlaw, 
By tar the most important of those 
consequences is, thai while the con- 
yertibility into specie ne longer exists 
asa check toan over issue of paper, 
the Bank directors have not per- 
ceived that the removal of that check 
rendered it possible that such an ex- 
cess might be issued by the discount 
of perfectly rood bills. So far from 
perceiving this, your committee have 
shewn that they maintain the contrary 
doctrine with the utmost confidence, 
however it may be qualified oscasi- 
onally by some of their expressions. 
That this doctrine is a very fallacious 
one, your committee cannot enter- 
taina doubt. The fallacy, upon which 
it is founded, lies in not distinguishing 
between aa advance of capital to 
merchauts, and an addition of supply 
of currency to the general mass af 
circulating medium. If the advance 
af capital only is considered, as made 
to those who are ready to employ it 
in judicious, and productive under. 
takings, it is evident there need be 
no @ther limit to the total amount of 
advances than what the means of the 
lender, and his prudence in the selec- 
tion pf borrowers may impose. But, 
in the present situation of the Bank, 
intrasted as it is with the functions 
of supplying the public with that pa- 
per currency which farms tke basis 
of our circulation, and at the same 
time nol subjected to the liability of 
converting the paper into specie, every 
advance which it makes of capital to 
ihe merchants in the shape of dis- 
count, becomes an addition also te 
ihe mass of circulating medium. In 
the first instance, when the advance 
ig made by notes paid in discount of 
a bill, it is undoubtedly so much ca- 
pital, sa much power of making pur- 
chases, placed in the hands of the 
merchant who receives the netes: and 
if thoge hands are safe, the operation 
is so far, and in this its first. step, 
useful aad productive to the public. 
But gs spon as ihe portion of. cir- 
culating medians, in whieh the advance 
wag thus made, performs in the hands 
of him to whem it was advanced this 
its first operation as.capital, a scon 
as the poles are exchanged by him 
lor 
