Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

possible to submit, the chancellor of the exchequer did, immediately after, without proposing any other terms, agree for the loan with Boyd and his party, although it was understood, by all the parties, that they were not to come to a final settlement on that day.

5. "That, by giving this preference to Boyd and his party, the chancellor of the exchequer did totally depart from the principle of free and open competition, after having, by a communication through the governor of the bank, only two days preceding, expressly invited persons to bid on that principle, and who had also previously made preparations for that purpose.

dazzling prospects of monied speculation. He mentioned, that some years since, when he was in Holland, several mercantile men had complained to him of the decline of their commerce, in consequence of the persons who had large capitals having taken their property out of trade, and turned their attention to speculations in money. Such speculations tended to enrich individuals, but to impoverish the country. They threw the small, profits of the many into the pockets of the few; those who had once tasted the sweets of such transactions, were af6. "That the preference, so given to Boyd terwards but little inclined to engage in and his party, was claimed by them on the the pursuits of commerce. They thought foundation of a supposed fact in the settleonly how they might still more improvement of the preceding loan for the service of the money they had gained in that way, exchequer and the said Boyd and his party; the year 1795, between the chancellor of the by continuing to employ it in the same channel. He should now move a string namely, that the contract was entered into 'under the condition, that no other public of resolutions of fact arising out of the 'loan for this country should be made, until Report. As they were very numerous 'the period fixed for the last payment of the and not very short, he would have them now read, and then leave it to the discretion of the House, whether they should immediately proceed to the discussion, or allow them first to be printed, and appoint a future day for their consideration. Mr. Smith then read the Resolutions, which are as follow:

loan then contracted for should have ' elapsed;' and on the allegation, that the negociation of a new loan at that time would be injurious to the said Boyd and his party.

7. "That it appears to this House, not only that the said Boyd has not any where condition was ever expressed in specific terms, contended or affirmed, that the preceding or reduced to any form; but that the contrary is implied in the arguments made use of by him in support of his claim, viz. that it was a right, which was founded in justice and the nature of things, recognized by constant

1. "That it apears to this House, that the principle of making Loans for the public service by free and open competition, uniformly professed by the chancellor of the exchequer, has been very generally recognized, as afford-practice and public opinion.' ing the fairest prospect of public advantage.

2. "That in all the communications relative to the formation of the late loan, which passed between the chancellor of the exchequer and the governor of the Bank of England, or any of the parties concerned, previous to the 24th of November last, the chancellor of the exchequer did invariably profess a resolution to adhere strictly to the principle of free and open competition.

3. "That on the 25th of November, 1795, the day appointed by the chancellor of the exchequer for a meeting of the several competitors for the loan, to settle the preliminaries thereof, and when they were all assembled, the chancellor of the exchequer, after a separate conference with Messrs. Boyd and his party, did propose to the other competitors, viz. Mellish and Morgan, to bid for the loan, " on condition that an option should be reserved to Boyd and his party, of taking the loan at such a price as should be equal in value to one half per cent., on the whole 'sum borrowed, above the highest offer of the 'competitors.'

4. That the said Mellish and Morgan, having refused to become competitors on a condition, to which they deemed it almost im

8. "That it does not appear to this House, that the chancellor of the exchequer has any where admitted the reality of such engagement or condition, having been made by him with the said Boyd and his party, but, on the contrary, that he did state to the parties assembled at his House on the 25th of November, that the circumstances had come but recently to his knowledge,' and that he did not admit any obligation to exist, although the said Boyd contends that his right was not only founded in justice and the nature of things, but recognized by constant practice and public opinion.

9." That it appears to this House, that no such condition is, in fact, either expressed or implied, in any of the papers laid before this House, in which the particulars of the contract for the said loan appear to have been fully adjusted and settled between the contracting parties.

10. That it appears to this House, that such a restriction is introduced into the memorandum of the contract for the loan for the service of the present year; and that no precedent is any where alleged for the introduction of a stipulation so new, and of which the consequences may be extremely important.

11. "That in the month of October 1795, the said Walter Boyd, esq., did state to the chancellor of the exchequer the right of the contractors to object to the negotiation of a new loan; that the chancellor of the exchequer did, on that occasion, say, that he would send for their party (viz. that of Boyd and Robarts) to hear what they had to say, before any competition should take place; but, that he seemed positively determined not to admit of their claim.

12. "That the said Boyd, in his addresses to the chancellor of the exchequer, on the subject of his supposed right to a preference over the other competitors supported that right by arguments drawn from his situation as a holder of scrip of the preceding loan and from the injury which he and the other contractors for that loan must inevitably suffer, as holders of that scrip, by the introduction of eighteen millions more into the market, while a large portion of the last year's scrip was still in hand; and that it does not appear that the said Boyd did ever allege, or pretend, to the chancellor of the exchequer, that he had an unalienable inherent right to a preference for the loan then depending, which belonged to him exclusively, as a contractor for the preceding loan, though he should have disposed of the whole of his share therein.

13. "That it appears to this House, that it is, generally, to the negotiation of a new loan before a certain period, to which the said Walter Boyd objects in all his communications with the chancellor of the exchequer; and that the principle of his objection to such negotiation applies equally, whether the deposit on such loan be appointed to take place shortly before or after the last payment on the preceding loan.

14. "That it appears to this House, that the value of the existing funds is affected in a far greater degree by the negotiation for a new loan, and the settlement of the terms thereof, than by the making the deposit on such loan after it is settled.

15. "That it appears to this House, that before all the payments were made on the loan for the service of the year 1794, the chancellor of the exchequer did negociate a new loan with the said Boyd and his party for the year 1795; and that, although consi- | derable sums of the loan for 1794 were then outstanding as floating scrip, though the funds were considerably affected by the transaction, and though the deposit was expected to be speedily called for, yet neither James Morgan, esq. nor any other of the contributors to the former loan either objected to the negotiation, or made any complaint on account of it.

16. "That it appears to this House, that, waiving all consideration of the interests of the contracting parties, cases may arise in which it might be highly prejudicial to the public service, if the chancellor of the exchequer should be precluded from entering into

[ocr errors]

a negotiation for a new loan, or from fixing the deposit to be made on such loan on some day previous to the last payment on the preceding one.

17." That it appears to this House, that, of the 24,076,5007. of additional capital, created by the loan for the service of the year 1795, there remained, on the 24th of November last, only 1,962,5321. of floating scrip; that is, which had not been converted into stock by the full payments having been made thereon.

18. "That it appears to this House, that of the loan raised in the year 1795, for the service of the Emperor, and guaranteed by his majesty, there remained, as floating scrip, on the 24th day of November last, the sum of 1,393,7341.; and that, therefore, even if the existence of the said Austrian scrip be allowed to create any impediment to the negotiation of a new loan, for the service of Great Britain (as seems to be asserted by the said Walter Boyd) yet the total amount of floating scrip on the 24th of November last, did not exceed 3,356,2961.

[ocr errors]

19. "That it does not appear to this House, that the house of Messrs. Boyd and Co. were possessed of more than 500,000l. of the said floating scrip.

20. That it does not appear to this House, that the said Walter Boyd took any steps to ascertain who were the holders of the said floating scrip at the time of the negotiation of the present loan, or to procure for them any indemnification for the injury which they might possibly suffer from the introduction of so large an additional quantity as 25,385,2501. of new capital into the market.

21. "That it appears to this House, that of the 18 millions sterling subscribed for the service of the year 1795, no more than 445,718/. remained unpaid on the 24th of November last.

22. "That it appears to this House to have been a matter of public notoriety, for some weeks previous to the 25th of November last, that Messrs. Mellish and Mr. James Morgan were making preparations to be competitors for the loan to be negociated for the service of the year 1796.

23. "That it appears to this House, that, under the circumstances of this notoriety, and notwithstanding his own engagement to Messrs. Boyd and Co. the chancellor of the exchequer did, even on the 23d of November, formally authorize the governor of the bank to announce to all the parties concerned, that the loan would certainly be disposed of by competition, without having sent for the party of Messrs. Boyd and Co. to discuss their claim.

24. "That it appears to this House, that the chancellor of the exchequer did not, in fact, ever send for the said Boyd and Co.; that the discussion of their claim with him did not take place at all, but on their own repeated application, and then not till the very

day before the competitors were to meet; and that till they were actually met, the parties of Morgan and Mellish were not apprized of any doubt existing in the mind of the chancellor of the exchequer on the admissibility of competition.

25. "That it appears to this House, that Messrs. Boyd and his party were very willing to leave the terms of the loan to be fixed by the chancellor of the exchequer, who did fix them accordingly.

26. "That it appears to this House, that the contractors for the loan of 1795 could not suffer any pecuniary loss by the introduction of a new loan before all the payments on the preceding loan were completed, otherwise than as holders of scrip, or shares therein; and that, on that principle, all the contributors to the loan of 1795 had as good a claim as the contractors to a preference for the succeeding loan, in proportion to the amount of the shares in the loan of 1795 then held by them respectively.

27. "That it appears to this House, that Mr. James Morgan, one of the persons intending to be competitors for the late loan, has given in evidence to the committee, that he would have offered, on the 25th of November, to have taken the said loan on the following terms: 120l. 3 per cent. consolidated annuities 257. 3 per cent reduced, and 3s. 6d. per annum of long annuity, for every 100/. subscribed, being a difference of 3s. per annum long annuity, or 499,500l. more advantageous to the public, than the terms made by the chancellor of the exchequer to the party of Boyd and Co.

28. "That it appears to this House, that the loan so finally and unexpectedly settled, on the said 25th of November, was not submitted to the consideration of this House until the 7th of December; and that the deposit was not required from the contributors until the 10th of December.

29. "That it appears to this House, that this interval of twelve days, between the settlement of the terms of the loan and the submitting it to the consideration of this House, very greatly exceeds any that has been known on such occasions; and that no advantage is likely to accrue to the public from an interval of such unprecedented length.

[ocr errors]

30. "That it appears to this House, that his majesty's gracious Message, containing a communication, that his majesty would be induced to meet any disposition for a negotiation, on the part of the enemy, with an earnest desire to give it the fullest and spee'diest effect,' was delivered to this House on Tuesday the 8th of December; and that in consequence of the intimation contained in the message, the value of the loan suddenly rose above 5 per cent., creating by that operation only, an additional profit on the whole loan of more than 900,000l. sterling.

31. "That it appears to this House that, if the settlement of the loan had been deferred

(as had been usual on former occasions) until a day or two before it was submitted to the consideration of this House, some communication to the parties of the probability of a message from his majesty, similar to that which was delivered, might have preceded the settlement; and that the public might then have had the full benefit of that advance in the public funds, which it was impossible not to foresee that such a message would produce, and which, in the present instance, actually amounted to a sum exceeding 900,000/ on the loan so recently contracted for.

32. "That it appears to this House, that the sum of 649,000l. of the 4 per cent. annuities, created in the year 1795, was in pledge at the Bank on the 24th of November last.

33. "That it appears to this House, that on the 3rd of November 1795, the commissioners appointed for the liquidating the national debt, did, for the first time, begin to purchase in the 4 per cent. consolidafed an

nuities.

34. "That it appears to this House, that, immediately on the purchases by the said commissioners being made in the 4 per cent. annuities, a very considerable advance took place in the price of the said annuities, the 3 per cent. annuities not rising in equal proportion.

35. "That it appears to this House, that, on the application of some of the parties concerned in the negotiation for the present loan, through the medium of the governor of the Bank, the chancellor of the exchequer did agree, that the whole of the new capital should be created in the 3 per cent. consolidated and reduced annuities, with a very small proportion of long annuities, to the total exclusion of the 4 per cents. and contrary to the general practice on former occasions, when sums of considerable magnitude have been raised.

36. "That it appears to this House, that, in the month of September, 1795, the said Walter Boyd did, at the request of the chancellor of the exchequer, undertake to advance money for the use of government to the amount of one million, for which he was to reimburse himself by bills to be drawn upon the lords commissioners of the treasury, to be accepted by them, and negociated at his own convenience; and that bills to the amount of 700,000l. were drawn in London on the commissioners of the treasury, in the name of Walter Boyd junior, bearing a fictitious date, at Hamburgh, several weeks preceding the time at which, with the privity of the chan cellor of the exchequer, they were really drawn in London; and that the said Walter Boyd, junr. is a gentleman not engaged in any house of business in Hamburgh.

37. "That it appears to this House, that, the said bills, though drawn in London, yet professing to be foreign, and not written on stamped paper, were of such a nature and description as the Bank of England would have refused to discount for any commercial house whatever, and such as it would have been in

jurious to the credit of any private house to have negociated.

38. "That it appears to this House, that the said Walter Boyd, esq. has declared that no part of his right to a preference, as a contractor for the new loan, was grounded on the transaction of the bills dated at Hamburgh, and circulated by him for the service of government; that he never had any expectation of that sort; and that he took no merit at all to himself in having consented to that operation.

39. "That it appears to this House, that no such declarations on the part of a contractor, palpably preferred, and immoderately benefited, by the gift of a loan of 18 millions sterling, on such terms, and accompanied with such arrangements, as to create a profit of 12 per cent. or 2,160,000l., before the first payment became due, can acquit thechancellor of the exchequer of having departed from the principle of free and open competition in favour of Walter Boyd, esq. in a manner incompatible with the interest of the public.

40. "That it appears to this House, that, in every part of the transaction of the late loan, the public interest has been sacrificed by the chancellor of the exchequer; and that the profits to the contributors, at the expense of the nation, have been so exorbitantly swelled, as to have risen, even before the deposit was made thereon, to an amount greatly exceeding the deposit itself, viz. on a loan of 18 millions to the enormous and incredible sum of 2,160,000l. sterling."

The question being put upon the first Resolution, the debate thereon was, with the approbation of both sides of the House, adjourned to the 26th.

Feb. 26th. The House having resumed the adjourned debate on the first Resolution, viz., "That it appears to this House, that the principle of making Loans for the public service by free and open competition, uniformly professed by the chancellor of the exchequer, has been very generally recognized, as affording the fairest prospect of public advantage." Mr. Sylvester Douglas hoped he had no occasion to make any apology for rising to express his sentiments on the present motion, as he had the honour to be named on the Select Committee, and had attended it regularly, and spared no pains in the diligent investigation of the subject concerning which the House had thought fit to direct an inquiry. At the close of that inquiry, it was a great satis faction to him to find that there was an unanimous concurrence of opinion between himself and all his colleagues of the committee who had thought proper to

be present on that day, "That on inspection of the lists, as well as from the examination of the parties, the committee saw no ground to suppose, that any interference took place on the part of any persons connected with government in the distribution of any part of the loan." He must also do the hon. gentleman who was chairman of the committee, and who had submitted that forty-fold system of resolutions to the House, of which the subject of the present motion formed the first, the justice to say, that he had been uniform in professing a sincere belief that nothing of undue, corrupt, or culpable motives had operated on the chancellor of the exchequer in the transaction of the loan, and that the highest degree of blame he had ever thought imputable to him was that of improvidence. The hon. gentleman professed that he had not the slightest suspicion that the loan had been employed by government as the instrument of corruption; yet in his very outset the other night, he thought fit to remark, what he was pleased to call, a most extraordinary coincidence, between the names of the gentlemen in the list of subscribers to the loan delivered to the Bank, and of those who attended the meeting of merchants, &c. held at Grocers'-hall where the measure of the two bills for the safety of his majesty's person, and against seditious meetings, was approved of. A minister, he said, would not in these days, be so weak or clumsy as to attempt the direct bribery of members of this House, by the distribution among them of paltry portions of scrip, but that it might be a stroke of refined and effectual corruption, to purchase the sanction of the great monied interest of the metropolis to his measures, especially during a war, by large allotments of the profit of a bargain, profuse in regard to the state in proportion as it was advantageous to them. Did the hon. gentleman really expect that the House would suppose him idle and absurd enough to occupy their time with stating these things, merely to point out a curious and accidental coincidence of circumstances totally unconnected and independent; or would it be doing justice to his understanding, not to conclude, whatever colour he might use, that he meant to imply that the loan was the cause, and the vote at Grocers'-hall the effect? Neither were his resolutions, and especially the two last, left inconsistent with his uniform professions concerning the chan

cellor of the exohequer. He tells us, that | tute, in their room, two others, expres. he never thought that any thing beyond sive of that justification and approbation the merc peccadillo of improvidence is of the chancellor of the exchequer's conimputable to that right hon. gentleman, duct, which the unwarranted attack upon and he concludes the resolution which he it has, in my mind, rendered necessary, desires the House to adopt, by pronounc- both for his sake, and that of the public. ing, that the public agent, the depository of the national faith and honour, the trustee and guardian of its financial concerns, "had, in every part of the transaction of the late loan, sacrificed the public interest, in favour of a contractor palpably preferred, and immoderately benefitted, by the gift of a loan of 18 millions, on such terms, and accompanied with such arrangements, as to create a profit of 2,160,000l." What a mockery must it appear to this House, to find such a proposition prefaced by such professions, and how vain must be the hon. gentleman's hope, if he thinks he can, in such a manner. "lenitate verbi rei acerbitatem mitigare."

Sir, although only, the first resolution is before the House, yet, as they have all been opened, stated, and printed, and form one chain of assertion, argument, or insinuation, leading to the conclusions in the two last, I hope I may take the liberty to answer them all together, and I shall begin by declaring, that I think every one of the hon. gentleman's 39 articles, [this being supposed to allude to Mr. Smith's religious persuasion as a Dissenter, produced a general laugh], which were framed for the sake of establishing the 40th, is either founded in misapprehension, suppression, partial statement, or perversion of the evidence contained in the Report, and mixed up with so much false argument, unfounded insinuation. and misapplication of principles, and, above all, so obviously offered to the House as the ground-work of a most unjust, and therefore, under the circumstances, a most dangerous accusation of one of its members, that I find it my duty to object to all of them, and to state, beforehand, that before 1 sit down, I shall move such an amendment on the first, as I think necessarily called for, in order at once to assert the principle contained in it, as now worded, and to vindicate the chancellor of the exchequer's departure from that principle in the present instance: and, if the House shall concur in this amendment, I shall propose to them to dispose of the $7 next resolutions by the previous question, and of the two last by a direct negative, in order to substi

The general heads on which the contract for the loan has been arraigned are, I think, as follows: That the chancellor of the exchequer has, by concluding with Messrs. Boyd and Co., done, a manifest and voluntary injury to other respectable individuals; to Mr. Morgan and his friends who have complained, and to Messrs. Mellish, who have not complained. That this injury has arisen by his departing unnecessarily from his own favourite principle of competition. That he affected to yield to groundless and idle claims of preference by Messrs. Boyd. That, in truth, he gave that preference as the reward for a great service rendered to him, as chancellor of the exchequer, by a large advance of money, under circumstances extremely censurable. That the terms of the loan were, in themselves, grossly advantageous to the contractor, and inju rious to the public, and were entered into at a time when there were other persons ready to have taken it at a much smaller profit. That the chancellor of the exchequer contrived to sink the value of the 3 per cent funds, by an unusual operation of the commissioners for the reduction of the national debt, and then gave nothing but 3 per cents for the loan (except 6s. 6d. long annuity), which was, in truth, a scheme to enhance the value of the loan to the contractor, at the expense of the public. That he postponed the delivery of the king's message concerning peace till after the bargain was concluded, and thereby occasioned an enormous advance in the funds, "which it was impossible not to foresee"-an advance whereof the public must have had the benefit, if the message had been delivered on an earlier, or the bargain concluded on a later day and at a time nearer to that on which the budget was opened, agreeably to general practice. From all these heads of charge the hon. member infers, what his speeches call "improvidence," and his resolutions translate "a sacrifice of the public interest" in order to benefit a favoured contractor and his friends, to the amount of 2,160,000l. out of the public pocket, and what other gentlemen have stated as such palpable corruption as must clearly appear, if the lists of the contractors, and

« ZurückWeiter »