Spain will have the courage to withhold it, remains in the bosom of time; but judging from the example of her conduct towards the United States, when the latter demanded the liberation of Mr. Meade, one of their citizens, confined by the civil authority of Spain for a collusive compromise with one of their officers, we may doubt of her resolution to refuse it.

Coupled however with the suspension of the signature, the return of Don Onis, the negociator, to Spain, at this critical moment, furnishes some pretext for the opinion that it will not be completed; that Ministers, foreseeing the fatal consequences with which the cession was pregnant, had tried every thing that finesse and protraction could effect, hoping that England would rouse from her seeming torpor, and interdict the alienation of the Floridas to the Union.

If, however, Spain shall, at this period of the negociation, assume the language of independence, and hazard the experiment of a refusal, we cannot doubt but that she is animated by the promised support of a formidable alliance. In the mean time the re-opening of Congress in the United States will call for the explanation of the President upon this extraordinary and unexpected delay, the speculators in Florida lands (and they are numerous) will be clamorous for possession.

Influenced as the American Executive are by the tide of popular feeling, it is extremely doubtful whether they will be able to withstand the demands for the subjugation of a territory so highly important to their security and consequence. Nothing less than the fear of being involved with the powers of the European Continent will restrain them from seizing on the Floridas by force of arms. It is true that their financial and commercial difficulties are great and paralysing. Imitating the vices of our system, they have created a factitious capital through the agency of paper circulation. Obliged to return to a more wholesome currency, without the gradual operation of legislative restrictions, and unpossessed, like ourselves, of a proportionate metallic medium, they have felt the influence of the transition more severely than the people of England.

(WITH EXPLANATIONS,)

ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE SPEECHES

OF THE

RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF LIVERPOOL,

AND THE RIGHT HON. THE

CHANCELLOR OF THE EXCHEQUER;

SHOWING THE

RATES OF EXCHANGE

ON

Hamburgh,

COMPARED WITH

THE AMOUNT OF BANK NOTES,

AND

THE PRICE OF GOLD,

AND WITH

THE FOREIGN EXPENDITURE,

AND THE VALUE OF GRAIN IMPORTED

FROM THE YEAR 1793 TO 1819.

ORIGINAL.

LONDON:

A TABLE showing the Amount of Bank Notes, and the Prices of Gold, in January and July, in each Year, from 1792 to 1819, together with the Rates of Exchange on Hamburgh for the same period.

NOTE. The amount of Bank Notes is taken, for the first Sixteen Years, from an Appendix to the Speeches of the Right Hon. Nich. Vansittart, upon the Bullion Question, in 1811. That for the subsequent Years is extracted from the various Documents laid before Parliament. The Rates of Exchange and Prices of Gold from an Account returned to the House of Commons by the Mint, in and subsequently from the Annual Returns.

EXPLANATION OF THE TABLE

ON THE

AMOUNT OF BANK NOTES, &c.

Ir will be seen, that for 13 years previously to 1805, the price of gold was little affected by the amount of notes issued by the Bank, and that it remained constant at little more than 37. 17s. 6d., or 37. 18s. per ounce, although the amount so issued by the Bank varied from 9 to 17 millions. During the three succeeding years the price of gold rose as high as 51. 5s. per ounce, and, during the same time, the Bank issues never amounted to 17 millions; and when, up to 1811, the latter kept increasing up to upwards of 23 millions, it will be seen on the contrary, that the former kept gradually falling to about 41. 12s. per ounce. From that time till 1814, they both rose progressively, and it is only during this short period of 3 out of 27 years, that the price of gold appears to have risen uniformly with the increased issues of the Bank.

In considering the price of gold with relation to the Exchange on Hamburgh, it will be seen that, whilst, during the whole period from 1792 to 1805, the former remained steady, as already stated, at about 31. 17s. 6d. or 31. 18s. per ounce, the exchange was above par at intervals for about 8 years, having risen in 1794 to 36, and in 1798 to nearly 38, and was below par only between the years 1795 and 1797, and 1800 and 1803. Indeed, during the whole of the period from 1792 and 1805, the variation of the exchange appears not very satisfactorily to be explained,

either by the price of gold or by the amount of the Bank issues, excepting by the latter in the years 1801 and 1802, when the Bank Notes rose to 16 millions, and the Exchanges fell to 294.

It is true that from 1808 to 1812, the increased issues of the Bank should appear to have depressed the Exchange in a very regular degree, but from that time to 1817, they have both, with trifling exceptions, risen together, and have exhibited a curious anomaly, namely, that whilst the Bank Notes have amounted to nearly 27 millions, the Exchange has remained above par, as it was when the former amounted to only 9 millions, the price of Gold being at both periods under 47. per ounce.

From hence it should seem, that the variations in the Exchange, and in the price of gold, though generally considered as being greatly affected by each other, appear to have been for a considerable period of late years, rendered subservient to the more powerful influence arising from the increased issue of Bank Notes; and this may probably be explained, from the latter circumstance having afforded great assistance to mercantile transactions by the facility of discounts, which must, in proportion to the increase of external trade, have excited a corresponding credit and confidence abroad.