extremely base silver coinage which was privately fabricated in great quantities, all of which evils could only be cured by the restoration of the Exchanges to their true state, and the issue of a genuine silver coinage

29. The Committee contented themselves with declaring, in the most emphatic terms, that the Bank of Ireland ought to regulate its issues by the state of the Exchanges, but it did not discuss the new theory propounded, that the Paper Currency should be regulated by the mercantile Bills of Exchange offered for discount. No one who has paid any attention to the principles of the subject, and carefully considered the facts produced before the Committee, can fail to acquiesce in their judgment, and we cannot fail to remark that none of the professional witnesses, i.e., the directors of the Bank of Ireland, or the other Bankers examined, had attained the smallest glimpse of the principles which governed their own business, and by which they should have directed their policy. Its true principles were clearly seen and announced solely by the extra-professional witnesses, and laid down by the statesmen who formed the Committee. We may suppose that fear of giving offence to their customers, and so diminishing their business and profits, may have somewhat dimmed their perception

30. As it was evident that as long as the different Currencies between the countries continued, there must be an Exchange from the want of a common medium of payment, the Committee strongly recommended that the moneys of circulation and account should be assimilated, and that Bank of Ireland notes should be payable in Bank of England paper, and that the Bank of Ireland should establish a fund at their credit in London for that purpose, and that all bills should be payable at a fixed date, which measures had been found to reduce the Scotch Exchanges to par, and maintain them so ever since the year 1763, through all the political and commercial convulsions of the period

31. The presentation of this report does not seem to have excited any discussion in the House till many years afterwards. In 1809 Mr. Parnell moved that the Currencies of England and

Ireland should be assimilated in accordance with the recommendation of the Committee, which was rejected without a division. The Report does not seem to have been printed for public circulation till 1826; but it was probably communicated to the Bank, and produced some effect upon their policy. A fact was stated by Mr. Foster in the House that in the months of May, June, and July, 1804, the directors diminished their issues from three to two millions and a half, and the Exchange rose; in August they increased them again, and the Exchange fell. The Chancellor of the Exchequer (Addington) declared that it was a perversion of terms to infer that the depreciation of paper had any real effect on the Exchange. The excessive issue of paper might produce a depreciation, but each country had a different circulating medium, and the depreciation of either could only have a nominal effect on the course of Exchange. Mr. Addington wholly overlooked the fact that payments were made in Bank of Ireland paper, and the course of Exchange referred to that paper. If payments had been made in silver coin of full weight, then it would have been true that the Exchange would not have been disturbed by the depreciation of the paper. But the course of Exchange always relates to the medium in which the payment is actually made, and a depreciation of that medium necessarily causes an adverse state, in whatever state the other parts of the Currency may be, which are not the medium of payment. Of this we have seen a conspicuous instance in 1696, when the restoration of the silver coinage immediately rectified the Exchange, although Bank paper continued to be depreciated long afterwards. Mr. Fox, with premature exultation, said that he was glad to hear that the Chancellor of the Exchequer allowed that an excessive issue caused a depreciation, and that the House was never again to hear the fantastical opinion that the paper was not depreciated, but the value of gold raised. Had Mr. Fox been able to look forward only six years he would have found that this fantastical opinion not only re-appeared, but was maintained with more stubbornness and pertinacity than ever

32. Such was the occasion of the first declaration by a Parliamentary Committee, of the principle that the issues of the

Bank should be regulated by the Foreign Exchanges; a Committee, comprehending almost all the great names of the different parties of all opinions. As it was not then the custom to publish the lists of the divisions in committees, we are not able to say whether they were unanimous on the subject; but, from the exceedingly strong and decisive language of the Report we may fairly infer that the opinion of the Committee was equally strong and decided, and that if any minority differed from the resolutions of the majority, it must have been a very small one

33. We have not much to detain us in the few following years. In 1804 the scarcity of the silver coinage was so severely felt, that the Bank issued 5s. dollars to supply the want, of which 1,419,481 were put into circulation. In 1806 the loan of three millions, which was the consideration for the renewal of the Charter in 1800, became due; but the Bank was persuaded to renew it at 3 per cent. per annum until six months after the ratification of peace. In 1807 a Committee was appointed to inquire into the various branches of the public expenditure, and, amongst others, into the payments made into the Bank of England. In the second report are some interesting details respecting the connection between the Bank and the Government

34. At this period political circumstances occurred, which led to a great derangement of the British currency, and of which we may be allowed to give a short summary- "For ten years (before 1805) Prussia had flattered herself that, by keeping aloof, she would avoid the storm, that she would succeed in turning the desperate strife between France and Austria to her own benefit, by enlarging her territory and augmenting her consideration in the North of Germany, and, hitherto, success had in a surprising manner attended her steps. At once all her prospect vanished, and it became apparent, even to her own Ministers, that this vacillating policy was ultimately to be as dangerous as it had already been discreditable." The state of universal contempt into which Prussia had fallen, precisely similar to that which she did in the Crimean War from an analogous course of conduct, was at last too strong even for her, and just then the

Emperor Alexander arrived at Berlin, and, by his influence, a secret treaty was signed on the 3rd November by the two States, to curb the ascendency of France in Europe. Prussia bound herself, in the event of Napoleon not agreeing to certain conditions to be offered him, to declare war against him on the 15th December, and the King bound himself by the most solemn oaths to adhere to his engagements. After considerable delay, the Prussian Minister started for the head quarters of the French Emperor on the 28th. Napoleon, who was then manoeuvring in preparation for the Battle of Austerlitz, but who was perfectly aware of the nature of Haugwitz's mission, put off receiving him for a short time, and sent him to Vienna. On the 2nd December, Napoleon destroyed the Russian and Austrian armies in the great Battle of Austerlitz, before the eyes of their respective sovereigns, and the Prussian Minister immediately rushed off to congratulate Napoleon on his successes! and to propose to him a treaty of Alliance by which Prussia was to seize all the continental dominions which belonged to her ally the King of England. This treaty was signed with Napoleon on the 15th December, the very day on which Prussia had agreed to declare war against him. In the following March, Prussia, under the compulsion of Napoleon, issued a decree, prohibiting British merchandise from entering any port in the Prussian dominions, thus cutting off a principal source of the supply of corn to Great Britain

35. Swift and sure was the retribution that fell upon Prussia for her matchless meanness and perfidy in 1805. Napoleon was perfectly informed of the object of Haugwitz's mission to him. "You have come," said he, "to present your master's compliments on a victory, but fortune has changed the address of the letter;" and, though he was too anxious to forward a measure which would consign her to public infamy, and embroil her with Great Britain, he did not, nevertheless, for one instant from that time, pause in his determination to destroy her at the first opportunity. "From the moment the treaty was signed, Napoleon did more than hate Prussia, he conceived for that power the most profound contempt." He proceeded to treat her with the most unmeasured arrogance, and, after a series of aggravated insults, that perfidious power was astonished to discover that Napoleon was

secretly treating with Great Britain for the restitution of Hanover to its lawful sovereign. Negotiations for peace had been going on for some considerable time between France, England, and Russia, which led to nothing. The popular ferment in Prussia had been increasing for a long time from her disgraceful position becoming more notorious and galling every day, and the Government, with a rashness, violence, and imprudence only to be surpassed by its perfidy, sent a haughty summons to Napoleon to evacuate Germany. This insane insult reached Paris on the 1st October, when Napoleon was already far on his way to Berlin, and on the 14th, Prussia met her well deserved doom at the twin battles of Jena and Auerstadt. Napoleon visited the tomb of Frederick the Great on the anniversary of the day on which, on the same spot, the King of Prussia had bound himself by solemn oaths to the Emperor Alexander

36. Soon after Napoleon arrived at Berlin he issued the Berlin decree against British commerce, on the 21st November. This decree was soon afterwards met by a retaliatory order in Council on the part of Great Britain, and during the course of 1807, a series of decrees were issued both by England and France, each endeavouring to outdo the other in violence, ferocity, absurdity and illegality, the result of which was, however, to exclude the British flag from every port of Europe, except Sweden. This state of hostility, the avowed object of which was the destruction of British commerce, led to a short supply, and an apprehended scarcity of every article of European production required as raw materials for our manufactures. The natural consequence was a boundless spirit of speculation in these articles; and, under the influence of this speculation, the prices of all the products of Russia, and the East of Europe, rose to double and triple the ordinary figure. At the same period Spain was occupied by the French, and similar speculations tripled and quadrupled the price of Spanish wool. France, too, was supreme in Italy; and the produce of that country, chiefly consisting in silk, rose in a similar proportion. Nor had our own conduct been less ruinous in other respects. The vindictive nature of the orders in Council had proved so destructive to the rights of neutrals, that a rupture with America was imminent, which