in these points the Committee think they should have exceeded the limits of their duty, if they had ventured at the present period even to form, much more if they had submitted to Parliament, any final or decisive opinion. Whether the whole of our circulation and currency shall thenceforth be replaced either entirely on its ancient footing, or with what degree of alteration, particularly in respect of the smaller notes, the issue of which was formerly prohibited; whether the payments of the Bank shall be made at their option in bullion or in coin; or those payments continuing to be made in bullion only, the Mint shall be open to the public for coining such bullion into gold coin, with or without a seignorage or brassage; or whether, with a view to realise to the country a profit equal to the whole value of the gold employed as dead capital for the purpose of circulation, an endeavour shall be made to confine the whole of our currency (except for the small payments now made in silver) to paper only, but to paper regulated by convertibility into bullion-these, with the numerous details connected with and dependent on them, are points, upon which the House will find much useful information in various parts of the Evidence contained in the Minutes, and upon which the Committee are satisfied that a better judgment than can be formed at present, will be derived from the experience of the operation of the plan immediately in question. With respect to the decision to be taken as to the future circulation of the smaller notes, the Committee are fully sensible that all views of expediency or profit in this respect must be combined with another most important consideration, that of the comparative facility with which such paper, or the coins for which it is substituted, may respectively be counterfeited. This point is essential to the success of any measure on this subject, and it is of great weight in the opinion of the Committee, as connected with the comparative degree of temptation or encouragement, which any of these systems may afford to crime, and the consequent necessity of frequent and severe punishment. Under these impressions the Committee have endeavoured with much anxiety to obtain information as to the progress and probable results of the enquiries which have lately been made, under the authority of His Majesty's Commission, into the means of preventing or rendering much more difficult than at present, the forgery of Bank paper. They have learnt that these results are not sufficiently matured to be brought with this view in a complete shape under the consideration of Parli ament; but they find that the very able persons whose attention has been so beneficially employed in the examination of this subject, entertain sanguine expectations that the principles which they have adopted for this purpose will, in their application, provide, if not a complete, at least a much more effective check than has been provided by any means yet adopted for the security of the Bank and of the Public. In so far as the Committee has felt itself competent to judge of the probable operation of those principles, they fully partake in this hope; and it is much strengthened by learning, from the testimony of the Governor of the Bank of Ireland, that the application even of a part of those principles has been found there in a very great degree, effectual for that purpose. There is another point to which the Committee think it of great importance that Parliament should advert. The large amount and nature of the advances made by the Bank for the public service, have been stated, on different occasions, as opposing considerable obstacles to the measures which would otherwise have been adopted by the Bank; and the plan now recommended essentially depends upon a previous reduction of them. But the inconvenience of this mode of habitually providing for the public exigencies, to so great an extent, is not merely temporary. It involves principles of considerable moment, with reference to the relation in which Government and the Bank are thereby placed towards each other. This system is not however of recent date. It had been acted upon to a large extent, for a long period of years before the first restriction upon the Bank. The amount of the advances appears to have subsequently increased with the succeeding embarrassments of the public service, and the extraordinary exertions of the concluding years of the last war naturally produced an unprecedented extention of them. A considerable reduction of these advances has since been effected, and a still further diminution of them is recommended in this Report. It will be for the wisdom of Parliament to determine, whether in order to guard against the unobserved recurrence of this practice, some permanent regulation ought not to be established, extending the very narrow restraint, under which the Bank was originally placed in this respect; but imposing some new principle of limitation, so as on the one hand to allow the Bank such a free use of its capital, as might enable it, (as it appears to have done previously to the Bank restriction) to invest either the whole or some limited proportion thereof if not demanded for commercial discounts, in the purchase of government securities, and on the other to prevent it from engaging in such purVOL. XV. NO. XXVIII. 2 L Pam. chases for the accommodation of Government, when its own convenience or interest did not require them, or from entering into any engagement, express or implied, which shall prevent its bringing those securities freely into the market. It is obvious, that in imposing any new principle of limitation, exception must be made for cases of great emergency, to be stated to Parliament and provided for by its express authority. Whatever may be the decision of Parliament upon all or any of the measures now in contemplation, the Committee think it will be desirable to repeal the laws which prohibit the melting and exportation of the coin, and which enact that all bullion intended for exportation shall be sworn to consist of foreign gold or silver. The policy of these laws has long been held by the best writers on the subject to be at least dubious. From the nature of the article, so portable and so easily concealed, they could hardly be expected to be efficacious, and experience has abundantly proved their inefficacy. Notwithstanding the existence of these laws, the whole, or nearly the whole of the gold coin of this kingdom, amounting, probably, to between 20 and 30 millions, has entirely disappeared, and scarcely a remnant now remains of the sovereigns which were issued in the year 1817. The prohibition, indeed, adds something to the difficulty, and consequently to the expense of exportation and may therefore be supposed to operate, in some degree, as a seignorage upon our coin-but it is a seignorage perpetually varying, according to the greater or lesser facilities for smuggling which may at different moments exist, and affording therefore an uncertain, and in point of fact, an inadequate protection. The means also, by which this protection is afforded are highly objectionable, there being no possibility of distinguishing between bullion produced by the melting of foreign or of English coin. The only security is that of an oath; and the law, therefore, has no other operation than to offer a great, and, as experience proves, a successful temptation to perjury. Even upon our ancient system of coinage, in which the value of the metal in coin is equal to that of the metal in bullion, and the whole expense of the coinage falls upon the public, it may be doubted whether the prohibition does not increase rather than diminish that expense; although the latter was probably one of the chief objects which the law had in view. As our coin is now either melted previously to exportation, or melted in the country to which it is exported, because it is not there known or current, when it returns, it returns in the shape of bullion, and, if the Mint is open, and the price such as to make it worth coining, it is carried to the Mint and coined at the public expense. Whereas, if our coin were legally exportable, it would probably return into this country as coin, whenever the state of the exchanges rendered it a more profitable remittance than bills or merchandise. No country in Europe has maintained so large a metallic currency as France, without any prohibition upon the melting, the export, or the sale of the coin. The Committee cannot conclude their Report without adverting to the opinions which have been expressed, and very fully explained by some of the witnesses, that the present regulations of the Mint for the coinage of silver must of themselves occasion a perpetual drain of gold from this country, and thereby oppose an insurmountable obstacle to the resumption of metallic payments by the Bank at the ancient standard of value. These opinions have been directly and strongly controverted by other witnesses. The Committee more particularly refer to the evidence of Mr. Page and Mr. Fletcher on one side, and Mr. Mushett on the other; and to a paper received from the Master of His Majesty's Mint: but much important information on this part of the subject may likewise be collected from the testimony of others, whose sentiments and authority upon such matters must be of great weight. The Committee being fully sensible, that if the opinions of the two first witnesses be well founded, any attempt to remove the restriction upon the Bank must prove ineffectual, unless the Mint regulations for the coinage of silver were first altered, according to the principle upon which that opinion appears to be founded, have given this part of the subject full consideration; and they think it their duty to state, that they see no grounds to apprehend that the present Mint regulations respecting the Silver coinage, so long as such Silver Coin shall not be a legal tender beyond the amount of forty shillings, and the Mint shall not be open to the public for the coinage of that metal, will oppose any obstacle to the successful execution of the plan, which they have ventured to recommend. The House will find in various parts of the Evidence, and in the Appendix, a great mass of valuable information, illustrating not only those points which the Committee have dwelt upon in their Report, but also many other points of considerable importance, to which they did not think it necessary to advert. They have judged it best to confine themselves as much as possible to a practical view of the question referred to them by the House, and to rest the proposal which they have brought forward upon grounds which might re |