of specie to Vienna; while Ministers and their friends
gave out that it resulted from the fears of invasion, and the desire of
depositors everywhere to withdraw their money and place it in hiding.
Privately, however, Pitt confessed to Auckland that the export of gold
brought matters to a climax.

The amount of specie in the Bank of England, which was nearly L8,000,000
in 1795, fell to L1,272,000 in February 1797. In reality the Bank was
solvent, but it could not have realized its securities; and on several
occasions the Directors warned Pitt that any further withdrawals of
specie would bring on a crisis.[450] The final cause of alarm was a loan
of L1,500,000 to the Irish Government, the first occasion on which any
large sum was raised for that Administration.[451] On 25th and 26th
February, then, crowds rushed to withdraw money from the Bank into which
eleven weeks before they thronged in order to procure shares in the
Loyalty Loan. So serious was the crisis that Ministers decided to
intervene. On Sunday the 26th a meeting was held of the Privy Council,
which issued an Order in Council empowering the Directors to refuse
payments in cash until Parliament gave further orders on the
subject.[452]

For a few hours there was the prospect of a general collapse; and as
the Bank issued no notes for less than L5, though Sinclair and others
had advised the issue of L3 and L2 notes, small traders were threatened
with a recurrence to barter. Fortunately on 27th February the Directors
published a reassuring statement, and the Lord Mayor presided at an
influential meeting on the same day, which decided to accept banknotes
as legal tender for any amount. Thus a crash was averted. But Fox,
Sheridan, and the Opposition ably accused Pitt of leading his own
country to the brink of bankruptcy, even while he proclaimed the
imminent insolvency of France. They thundered against the export of gold
to the Emperor, and demanded a searching inquiry into the high-handed
dealings of the Minister with the Bank and with national finance. "We
have too long had a confiding House of Commons," exclaimed Fox; "I want
now an inquiring House of Commons." Despite Pitt's poor defence of his
loans to the Emperor, the Government carried the day by 244 votes to 86
(28th February); but the unwonted size of the minority was a sharp
warning to curtail loans and subsidies. Apart from a small loan to
Portugal in 1798, nothing of note was done to help Continental Sta