f the recent failures at three millions and a half,
the effect of the scheme in contemplation would be to cause a still
further deficiency, and reduce it to about ten millions, with which
it was impossible to carry on the trade of the country. It was further
argued that although a respite of three years was ostensibly granted to
the small notes, yet the adoption of the resolution would be tantamount
to driving them out of circulation at once, inasmuch as every banker
who entertained a due regard for his credit would be compelled to take
measures for withdrawing his notes as quickly as possible. They had been
issued, it was said, in reliance on the stability of the system, and on
the faith of acts of parliament, which ought to be as inviolate as the
charter of the Bank; and if these sources were now called in, the course
of industry in various channels must be stopped. How, it was asked, was
the gap made in the circulation of the country to be filled up? At the
termination of the war there existed a strong desire to return to a
metallic currency; and during the first years of peace there was a great
facility of obtaining specie; but it was not so at the present time. No
country could obtain it without giving its value in commodities. At the
end of the war, our manufactures, still in their prime, commanded
every market, and enabled us to obtain our gold: but at present the
manufactures of the continent and America were springing up all around
us, and every year we were more and more excluded from foreign markets.
The inability to dispose of our commodities was, in fact, it was stated,
one of the most aggravated features of the existing distress. In such
circumstances, therefore, it was urged, that it would be most unwise to
adopt a measure, which besides injuring an individual class, would tend
to increase public calamity. The resolution was supported by Messrs.
Huskisson, Peel, and Canning, who denied that to ascribe much of the
distress which had prevailed to the issues of the country banks, was
to attack the character of the country bankers, or that anything had
occurred to justify the extreme sensibility which had been manifested on
their behalf. With regard to the measure itself, they stated it was not
intended so much a remedy for existing evils, as a preventative against
their future recurrence, by bringing the currency, to a certain extent,
to be a metallic one, and especially that portion of it which alone
supplied