Bank, to determine and decide upon the course to be adopted.

Whatever reflections may have from time to time been cast upon the Bank, whatever invidious representations of its conduct may have been made, the cautious conduct it adopted, in so measuring the amount of Currency, as to make it adequate to the wants both of the Nation and of the Government, at the same time keeping it within reasonable bounds, when compared with what existed before the war, as is shown in the Lords' Reports, pages 10, 11, 12 and 13, the recent effort to return to a system of Cash Payments, which commenced with the fairest prospects (but which was afterwards frustrated by events that could not be foreseen nor controlled by the Bank;) are of themselves a sufficient refutation of all the obloquy, which has been so undeservedly heaped upon the Establishment.

The Directors of the Bank of England, in submitting these Considerations to His Majesty's Ministers, request that they may be allowed to assure them, that it is always their anxious desire, as far as depends upon them, to aid, by every consistent means, the measures of the Legislature, for furthering the prosperity of the Empire.

ROBERT BEST, Sec.

ON THE

TRADE TO CHINA,

&c. &c.

IT is proposed, in the following observations, to take a general view of the commerce of the Indian Archipelago, more especially among the native states who are not under the control of a foreign power; to consider in how far that commerce may be advantageous to this country, both in extending the consumption of our staple manufactures, and in the demand for the produce of those states in the China market; and at the same time to point out the insecurity of the present trade from Great Britain and British India to China, if timely measures of precaution be not taken to meet the progress of the Americans in China, and to guard against the system of exclusive authority which the Netherlands government are endeavouring to establish throughout the eastern seas. It is not that I expect to offer many new facts relative to the commerce of these countries; but probably a concise explanation of the circumstances already known, may place the subject in a more striking point of view than what it has been supposed to possess ; and as questions of the greatest national interest are often underrated or overlooked, merely because the scene of action is distant and not familiar, it becomes the duty of those who from local situation have been more accustomed to give their attention to such matters, to communicate frankly the result of their personal experience. With this view of the subject, I am anxious to point out the probable consequences of leaving a foreign nation to obtain the sole command of the eastern seas, and to control the trade and industry of the native population of those islands.

And this question is of no trivial importance; there is at the present moment an acknowledged want of field for the employ