HOUSE OF LORDS. PRESSURE OF THE MONEY MARKET.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 226, 29 September 1847, Page 3

HOUSE OF LORDS. PRESSURE OF THE MONEY MARKET.

' • [From the Times, April" 29. J Lord Brougham said, he wished to ask his noble friend (the Marquis of Lansdowne) a question with reference to the pressure on the money market, and to the state of the manufacturing districts, where the manufacturers, although they had large orders from America lying by them, could not make up those orders by reason of the difficulty of obtaining accommodations in the present state of the moneymarket ; and his question was, whether the Government had turned its attention, with reference to these circumstances, to any measure for relaxing temporarily — only temporarily, of course — the act which passed in 1844 for regulating the Bank of England? He only wished to know, not what were the precise intentions of the Government, but whether they me?nt to bring forward any measure on the subject. The Marquis of Lansdowne said, that the pressure which he was afraid he must admit existed in the manufacturing districts had been under the anxious consideration of the Government ; but he was not prepared to say that any measure on tn~e subject to which the noble and learned lord had referred was in contemplation. Lord Ashburton was understood to say that it would show their lordships the extent of the pressure on the money market if he stated that yesterday bills having to them the names of men of the highest credit were discounted at 12 and- 13 per cent. Lord Monteagle was not astonished that this subject had been brought before the House; he was rather astonished that it had not sooner been brought under the attention of the House. It was a subject which it was impossible to discuss incidentally, but, though it was not such a subject as could be so discussed, he must take the liberty of saying that even in an incidental conversation upon it their lordships must point their attention to more topics than one. There were three considerations involved. One was, what was the character of the measure referred to by his noble and learned friend ; another, how that measure had been carried into effect. He was not expressing any opinion upon that head, when he «aid that a law might be right, but might be wrongly administered, and on the other hand a measure might be wrong, but from the way it was carried into execution might lead to right results. A further consideration must be taken into account at the present time ; he meant the Mate of trade and commerce just at this juncture, when, without any great demand for nay other at tide, there had been an un-

exampled demand for a larger amount of cereal produce for the people of this country than had ever been known in the annals of British commerce. All these three questions ought to be taken into consideration. With respect to the petition that had just been presented by his noble and learned friend, he (Lord Monteagle) considered it most important with respect to the Bill that stood for that evening, because the petitioners did not conceive that the Bill would afford them the slightest relief from the grievance of which they complained.