curred, when a new loan was contracted for, previous to the discharge of the payments upon the one preceding, and that great inconvenience would arife from fuch a loan being at market before the dividends on the fcrip were paid off. Further, that when, in negotiating the laft loan, they propofed paying the last dividend on the 1ft of February 1796, he had objected to it on the probability that a new loan might be wanted before the laft fcrip was paid. They had therefore concluded that he would not negotiate another loan previous to the former being paid off. The governor of the bank had confirmed the reafonings of the contractors; and he could not, confiftently with public faith, without their confent, contract for a new loan. He was therefore bound either to wait for the expiration of the laft payment, or fo to act, that the former contractors might not find themfelves aggrieved. The delay, he thought, would be highly prejudicial. Taking, however, the alternative not to forego a fair competition, and that the terms of the loan fhould be just and wife, the former contractors were willing to enter into a competition of offers, on condition they fhould have an option to take the loan at one half per cent. lefs advantageous to the public than the lowest terms offered by any other contractor; and this half per cent. amounted to 90,000l. Fearing that this might prevent bid. ding, and to fave the public from any difadvantage, he had taken precautions, before he confented to Even this qualified competition. Mr. Boyd was willing to take the loan on fuch terms as he should award, on the event of Mr. Mor gan's refufal to govern the terms by the prefent price of flock; and on

Mr. Morgan's refufal, he had fixed them as advantageoufly for the country as could be established with a view to policy and public credit, He had flated to the contractors, that an unfunded navy debt of five millions was likely to enfue in the next year, and referved the free option and difcretion of this country to enable the emperor to raise a fum for carrying on the war, This aniounting perhaps to three millions, added to the navy debt, made the poffibility of raifing eight millions in the enfuing year. Under thefe circumftances, Mr. Boyd accepted the following terms:

120 in the 3 per cent. confols.

25 in the 3 per cent. reduced. And 6s. 6d. in the long annuities. The whole amount for 1001. 1041. 5s. 3d.

In the laft loan the difcount was 21. 5s. in this it would be 5s. more, arifing from the difference of payment on the 3d and 30th of this month. The loan of the former year had, he faid, been agreed to be favourable for the country; the terms of the loan this year were a quarter per cent. more favourable. Though larger by one half than the loans in the American war, which were at from 51. to 6. intereft, this was at little more than four and a half. It would not fuffer in comparifon with loans in time of peace, On comparing it with the loan in 1789 for the Spanish armament, it appeared to have been made on better terms. When he confidered that the new taxes kept pace with the fums at which they were eftimated, and were fully adequate for the purposes intended, and the numberlefs circumftances which proved the rifing credit of the country, and her full ability to carry on the arduous contest in which he was engaged, he felt his

heart

heart dilate with pride and fatis faction!

condition. This was in February; yet the May following another loan was entered into for the emperor, when the fhares of 12,000,000l. were at difcount. That loan was the best ever made for this country and it was therefore reasonable that thofe who had fuffered on a former occafion fhould have had the right of preemption. A pre-engagement with the prefent contractors did not hold good in all its connections. Mr. Boyd had it again, with a different lift of individuals. No fubferiber to the former loan had afferted a claim to the prefent, for which there was a very good reafon, fince that was worth from 12 to 14 per cent. confequently they could have been no lofers. After fuch advantages, Mr. Smith thought it very unreasonable that they fhould have the pre-emption, to the exclufion of those who had loft by a

Mr. W. Smith thought the point for difcuffion refpecting the loan was, whether there were fufficient grounds for the exifting contract, and whether the terms were fuch as the house ought to fanction. He was inftructed by the petitioners against Mr. Pitt in the prefent instance, to state, that on the night preceding the 26th of November, when the contract with Mr. Boyd was figned, that gentleman's memorial had not been prefented: it therefore appeared, that, had every thing on all fides been fairly and liberally intended, the night before figning the contract would not have been the time for the first plea of the memorial, when notice had been given of an open competition ten days before, and a circular letter was written by the fecretary of ftate, in which a general invitation was given, without any mention of preference. The grounds for preference in Mr. Boyd's memorial were, that he had a leafe of the monied interest for one year, or at leaft, to the payment of the laft loan of 1795, which was computed to amount to 5,000,000l. and might be greatly injured by the intervention of another contract. This fatement he was in fome measure prepared to deny, and could prove, that only 1,400,000l. remained in the market. Mr. Smith proceeded to contend that there was nearly as much money loft by the prefent negotiation on one part, as the 477,000l. if it could have been loft, would have been on the other. If any preference were due, it was to Mr. Morgan, who, three years ago, had made a loan of 12,000,000l. when he objected to another loan, till all the shares were difpofed of; and the loan was made on that

former loan, and to the great difadvantage of the public. To call the terms offered a competition, was, he thought, a mere abufe of words. Had it been rejected by Mr. Boyd, that rejection would have proved its want of value; and any man who had taken it, with the addition of 10 fhillings per cent. would have proved himself an ideot. The public mind was fo much made up that Mr. Boyd was to have the loan, that bets were publicly offered upon it. Contrary to the common practice in making loans, Mr. Smith afferted that this had been concluded with uncommon precipitation; and Mr. Morgan had heard of it on 'change, when he conceived the matter was still under deliberation. The money borrowed might, he contended, have been had at two per cent. lefs; of which he was ready to produce proof at the bar of the house. Four hundred thoufand pounds

F4

might,

might, he faid, have been faved to the public. The shadow of competition had only produced mifchief, occafioned by the minifter not waiting for the propofal of Mr. Boyd, but offering terms to him, and throwing him in fix per cent. when he might have had the money on better terms for the public. This was a fact unneceffary to prove. He knew, he faid, that this had not been tranfacted without confultation, but thought a confultation with the governor or deputy governor of the bank ex tremely improper, as they were officially entitled to a confiderable fare of the loan, and could not be ftated as perfectly difinterefted in the bargain. To fanction the loan, tended, he faid, to prevent all future competition; and concluded a very able fpeech by moving, that, after the first refolution for gianting 18,000,000l. to his majefty, fhould be agreed to, the chairman fhould report progrefs, in order that when the houfe was fumed, he might move for an inquiry refpecting the loan, His propofal was, however, thrown out by a majority of 237 against 27.

On reading the refolution for allowing the fubfcribers to the loan 6s. 6d. long annuities, Mr. Huffey noved an amendment, that, inftead of fix, the word four fhould be inferted; which, after fame debate, was negatived without a divifion.

The business of the loan, how ever, after being repeatedly adverted to and cenfured by Mr. Fox and feveral members of oppofition in the houfe, was again formally brought forward by Mr. Smith on the 15th of December, in a motion for a committe of inquiry on this fubject. He particularly wished this, that buyers of a loan fhould know, that, in cafe of an extrava

gant bargain, it would be fubject to revifion. The defence made by the chancellor of the exchequer, though he was pledged not to bring a new loan into the market till the laft inftalment on the last year's was filled up, was, he thought, extraordinary. The pledge had en tirely escaped the chancellor's memory, and refted wholly on the governor of the bank. It was he who had announced a competition, and it was upon his recollection of a precious pledge, that the competition had been laid afide. If fuch a pledge really existed, the minister ought to have advifed with the house before he wantonly threw away 180,000l, of the public mo, ney. A fmaller loan might have been contracted for, till the former inftalments were paid up. Mr. Morgan had, he thought, fuffered perfonal injuftice. The intereft, he obferved, was faid to be 41. 135, 6d. and it was therefore boafted that the bargain was good. Mr. Smith, however, entered into a calculation, to fhew that in fact the intereft amounted to 41. 175. 6d. and that this difference upon fuch a capital was immenfe. The bargain for the loan, he proceeded to remark, was concluded juft thirteen days before a message arrived to that houfe from his majefty. This meffage informed them, that the crifis which was depending at the commencement of the feffion had led to fuch an order of things in France, as would induce his majefty to meet any negotiation on their part for peace, with an carnest defire to give it the fulleft effect. Mr. Smith could not fee any cir cumftances affecting the relative fituation of that country to this, that rendered particularly expedient a meffage which had certainly had a very favourable operation

проп

The inquiry was readily agreed to by Mr. Pitt, who vindicated the governors of the bank from having had any fhare in the tranfaction of the loan, except being witnesses to it. With refpect to the obfervation of Mr. Smith, that the greater part of those who compofed the lift of Boyd and Co. were excluded from a large portion of their fubfcription, when it was known that fo confiderable a bonus was attached to the loan, he averred, that neither in this nor any other loan did he know the manner in which it was diftributed. The queftion for confideration, he obferved, was, whether, under all the circumftances in which the loan was made, it was an improvident bargain. If a better loan could have been made, he muft fubmit to cenfure; but the guilt to be imputed to him was not to be governed by the fum which the contractors might profit by the loan, but upon circumftances antecedent to the prefent period. At the moment of contracting for the loan, gentlemen confidered the whole fum which from a fortunate concurrence had ultimately come to the fubfcribers, as fo much money abfolutely taken from the public; but the utmost loss to them was the difference between the terms upon which the loan might have been had, and thofe which had been made. In all loans, fubfcribers had been allowed to have 5 per cent. but the whole profit to the fubfcribers, according to the arguments adduced, was to be confidered as a lofs to the public. Mr. Morgan had neither informed him of any thing refpecting an imperial loan, nor of the ftate of the navy debt. Let it, however, be fuppofed that the terms of Mr. Morgan, as they had been fince ftated, had been agreed to; this would not amount to any thing like the fupply

upon the loan, which, within three days after the conclufion of the bargain, bore a profit to the fubfcribers of no less than 250,000l. a profit little lefs than all the loans during the American war had brought to the contractors, though lord North was often reprobated for extravagance, and even in one Inftance convicted of corruption, The average intereft of lord North's loans did not exceed 4 per cent. those of the prefent chancellor, in a period of much greater profperity, were no less than 54. In the courfe of four years, fifty-one millions had been borrowed; and if the loan of eleven millions formerly contracted for by Mr. Morgan was thrown out of the account, the intereft paid by the country would be found to amount to 7 per cent. This loan was, he contended, ftill more reprehenfible from the fituation of the country. Exclufive of this loan of eighteen millions, the pational debt amounted to 388 millions; the annual intereft of this debt to 10,640,000l. During the jaft nine years, a fum of about 15 millions 3 per cents. had been paid off, but 98 millions had been added. Since the year 1791, though the ways and means had been stated to exceed the expenditure, the deficiency in that year was 430,000l. in 1792 ftill more; in 1793 800,000l. and in the prefent year it amounted to a very large fum indeed. Add to this, that fince the year 1784 five millions of taxes annually had been laid on. Should then any of the means of our profperity fail, where would the taxes be found to pay fuch an enormous accumulation of debt? More money, he contended, was thrown away by the loan, than faved by the reduction in the expenditure of the public offices.

of

of the public lofs which was faid to be sustained. After the meffage had been brought forward, many circumstances had occurred, both in the fituation of this country and of Europe, which were not then known either by them or him. The offer of gentlemen who now inveighed fo much against him was not 10 or 12 per cent. but two fhillings upon the long annuities. The whole effects of the loan, he contended, proved that the credit of the country was greater than in former loans; and it was reafonable at the time it was made to conjecture, that bringing 18 millions to market would have an immediate effect to the amount of 2 per cent. With respect to the meffage from his majesty being brought forward at fuch a time as must be advantageous to the loan, it was a fpecific event, arifing from the fentiments conveyed from the throne at the opening of the feffion: he thought it of great public importance that it fhould come at the time it did. How far it operated on the price of tock, he fhould not attempt to determine: but he could by no means agree that it conveyed a fenfe of an immediate peace. The rife in the funds did not, he contended, proceed from the meffage, but from the progrefs of the Auftrian arms, the difference which had taken place in the affairs of Europe, the rapidly increafing diftreis of the enemy from the almoft extinguished state of their refources, and the great change in the minds of the people.

The reason why better terms than two fhillings upon the long annuity were not offered, was ftated by Mr. Fox to arife from the houfe not having been acquainted with his majesty's meffage one hour before. The minifter had laid great firefs on a fortnight's experience of

the affairs of France. Had any thing happened which the minister had not faid he had long foreseen? and was it not his general topic in favour of carrying on the war? If fo, was it not criminal to avail himfelf of fuch a meffage at fuch a time? If (Mr. Fox faid) he underttood the meffage, it was, that his majefty would negotiate when there appeared on the part of the French a reasonable difpofition for peace; and that then he would give fuch a difpofition the fpeedieft effect. The minifter had conveyed an idea that he did not foresee the neceflity of the meflage on the 25th November, when the loan was agreed for: how was that reconcilable with the fentiment delivered from the throne on the 29th October? as he said that the meffage was only to follow up what was then expreffed on the government of France. If he then forefaw the fituation of the enemy, did he not foresee it equally when he made the loan? The minifter, therefore, ought either to have brought forward the meffage fooner, or have deferred the loan till the meffage had been produced. The minifter faid, he thought it important to convey the informa tion at that time to the house,- alluding to Mr. Grey's intended motion for a negotiation for peace, the notice for which had been given long previous to the 25th November, and was poftponed at the defire of the minifter, who wifhed previously to bring on the budget. The operations of the Auftrians upon the Rhine, and the diftreffes of the French, were well known before the loan was contracted; and the effect of this was trifling upon the funds; but the effect of the meffage was great and inftantane ous. The minifter had faid, no-`

body