The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 1479: SUDDEN CONVENTION OF PARLIAMENT IN DECEMBER.

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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

SUDDEN CONVENTION OF PARLIAMENT IN DECEMBER.

The assembling of parliament in December was rendered necessary by the terrible monetary panic which, originating in New York, extended to the continent of Europe, and the British Isles. The rate of discount was raised by the Bank of England to 10 per cent. That corporation applied to the government to relax the restrictions of the Bank Act of 1844. This was adopted by the government, and the convention of parliament on the 3rd of December was mainly to pass an act of indemnity.

Commercial law reform, Jewish disabilities, church questions, and the Indian mutiny, occupied the attention of the house until the close of 1857.