have done, if by degradation it should cease to contain the same portion of gold which it used to do; and the removal of the degradation in the one case, and of the depreciation in the other, would have the same effect in bringing the exchange to par, or whatever might be its real

state.

That this depreciation in Ireland arises almost entirely, if not solely, from an excess of paper, appears highly probable; and your Committee, in adverting to the issues of the Bank of Ireland, do not mean to decide whether the Directors of it might not have had strong reasons for their conduct; but they conceive it their duty to call the attention of the House to a matter of so much importance.

In March, 1797, when the restriction took place, their circulating paper amounted to between 600,000l. and 700,000l. and on the 1st of January, 1804, it was 2,986,9997.

From 1,000,000l. to 1,200,000l. of this

increased paper consisted of notes of 17. up to three guineas, which, together with a small part of the issue for larger sums, may be considered as chiefly occupying the place of the guineas withdrawn; so that, if the whole of their paper in circulation, in January last, be divided into five parts, one will appear necessary as having existed prior to the restriction; two are to be set down as occupying the place of the gold withdrawn; and no sufficient reasons have been given for the issue of the remaining two parts, or for the Bank not having diminished its paper, when exchange rose, in the same manner as they must have done in case the restriction act had not been in force. The issues of the Bank of England afford a very different view. They were, on the average of three months to 25th March, 1797, 10,431,700/. whereof 268,500l. were 27. and 17. notes; and they were, on the 25th of January, 1804, 17,761,000l. whereof 4,711,150l. were 27. and 17. notes.

But your Committee are far from saying, that local considerations, and different circumstances at the moment, might not have had a separate influence on the two Banks; they would only add, that exchange began to rise in 1799, and that the circulation of the paper of the Bank Ireland was, as Mr. Colville states, concomitant and extended with it; and that upon comparing the issues of the Bank of Ireland with the rates of exchange, a strong' presumption arises of the connexion between an increased issue and a high exchange.

For in

March, 1797, The paper of the Bank was

THE REMEDIES OF AN UNFAVORABLE

EXCHANGE.

THE great and effectual remedy to the high and fluctuating rates of the exchange, undoubtedly, would be the repeal of the restriction act, from whence, all the evils have flowed; the common circulating medium being thereby restored, the rise of exchange above par would be limitted to the expence of transporting specie; and paper, being convertible into gold, its depreciation would be prevented. The expence and difficulty to which the Bank of Ireland and private Banks might be exposed, in the event of the restriction being taken off, under the present circumstances of the exchange, form, however, a strong argument against the sudden adoption of such a measure.

No other reason arising from commercial motives has suggested itself to your Committee for its continuance in Ireland; more

especially if the real exchange be favorable; as they have already stated, that it must be in their opinion; but as its continuance may be connected with political considerations, the discussion of which would involve your committee in a very extended and tedious enquiry, they abstain from entering into the general expediency of removing or continuing the restriction at the present time, or in any conjecture' of the period when it may be expedient,

Such remedies, therefore, as may answer to give redress during its continuance, are 'next to be considered; and the great object of many of those which have been suggested, is the procuring a common circulating medium in the absence of guineas.

With this view, a consolidation of the two Banks of England and Ireland has been proposed, and supported with very plausible arguments by Mr. Burrowes; but its expediency seems rather problematical..

Other modes of obtaining a common