inciples into a commercial policy. He
remarked.--"If the embarrassment were confined to any one branch of
our commerce, for instance, to the silk trade, then an argument might be
raised, and, without any great violence to facts, the distress might be
attributed to our new commercial policy. But when it is observed that
not only silk, but wool, cotton, and linen are equally affected, it is
in vain to deny that the nature of the facts rebut the assertion of
any connexion between the present distress and the principles of free
trade." The chancellor of the exchequer maintained that many of the
difficulties arose beyond the control of government, although he allowed
that some were within its reach, and that their influence might at least
be modified. The principal of these, he said, were the great increase of
the issues of the country banks, and the weak foundation on which many
of these establishments stood in point of capital. Mr. Hume denied this
hypothesis, and maintained that the true causes of the distress were
to be found in the pressure of taxation, and the lavish expenditure
of government. The whole empire, he said, presented one scene of
extravagant misrule, from the gold lace and absurd paraphernalia of
military decoration of the guards up to the mismanagement of the Burmese
war: it was a farce, he added, to attribute the distress to the banking
system. Other members defended the country banks from the imputations
cast upon them; and Mr. Baring passed a high eulogy on the conduct of
the directors of the Bank of England in this crisis. He remarked that
it was impossible for any public body, for any set of men, to have acted
with more honour, promptitude, or good sense, than the Bank evinced upon
that emergency. Although it was not till the 10th that the propositions
for proscribing the small notes and enlarging bank partnerships were
formally brought forward, yet they were incidentally up to that period
the subject of discussion. The views of different members on the
subject, however, will be better seen in the debates which ensued when
the measure was proposed.

MEASURES PROPOSED FOR RELIEVING COMMERCIAL DISTRESS.

On the 10th of February the whole house having resolved itself into
a committee on the Bank charter bill, the chancellor of the exchequer
brought forward the proposition for prohibiting the circulation of small
notes. In doing so he said that though fluctuations were inseparable
from trade, in d