,000,000, which they could not have
done out of a fund of L1,400,000, unless deposits and payments in,
to a considerable amount, had been made, the probability is that
the issue thus authorised will actually be made. The Governor and
Deputy-Governor of the bank represented that the communication,
in order to be effectual and to save from ruin firms which were in
imminent danger, ought to be made forthwith, so that they might be
enabled to announce it on the Stock Exchange before the closing of
business at four o'clock. Viscount Palmerston and Sir George Lewis
therefore signed at once, and gave to the Governor of the bank the
letter of which the accompanying paper is a copy, the pressure of the
matter not allowing time to take your Majesty's pleasure beforehand.

The state of things now is more urgent than that which existed in
1847, when the similar step was taken; at that time the Reserve Fund
was about L1,900,000, last night it was only L1,400,000; at that time
the bullion in the bank was above L8,000,000, it is now somewhat
less than L8,000,000; at that time things were mending, they are now
getting worse.

But however necessary this Measure has been considered, and however
useful it may be expected to be, it inevitably entails one very
inconvenient consequence. The Government have authorised the bank to
break the law, and whether the law shall actually be broken or not,
it would be highly unconstitutional for the Government not to take
the earliest opportunity of submitting the matter to the knowledge of
Parliament. This course was pursued in 1847. The letter from Lord John
Russell and Sir Charles Wood to the Governor of the bank was dated on
the 25th October, Parliament then stood prorogued in the usual way
to the 11th November, but a council was held on the 31st October, at
which your Majesty summoned Parliament to meet for the despatch of
business on the 18th November; and on that day the session was opened
in the usual way by a Speech from the Throne. It would be impossible
under present circumstances to put off till the beginning of February
a communication to Parliament of the step taken to-day.

Viscount Palmerston therefore would beg to submit for your Majesty's
approval that a Council might be held at Windsor on Monday next, and
that Parliament might then be summoned to meet in fourteen days. This
would bring Parliament together in the first days of December, and
after sitting ten days, or a fortnight, i